UPDATED: Cui Bono QE4? (The ‘Tools’ @ The Fed)

The title roughly translated: For whose benefit, Quantitative Easing # 4?

Incessant babbler Erin Burnett, host of CNN’s “Outfront,” is as thick as a brick. She directs the conversation concerning Ben Bernanke’s easy money monetary policies to whether history will prove Big Ben right; to outcome-based morality; to pure utilitarianism.

Burnett begins with the assumption that “Ben Bernanke’s Fed has injected [a mere] $2.3 trillion into our economy.” Actually, “$7.77 Trillion: That’s the amount of money the central bank, chaired by Ben S. Bernanke, ‘parceled out’ during ‘the bailout to America’s ‘Big Six,’ which, surely, also served to inflate the money supply by “inflating” America’s fascistic banking system.

Babbles Burnett:

…that $2.3 trillion has worked and he said this is why. It has created two million private sector jobs. Those jobs created as a direct result of his easy money. Well, that’s pretty interesting because that’s an interesting link between jobs and how much he spent because that is not a cheap cost per job. In fact, it is more than a cool million dollars per job, $1.2 million to be exact. So let’s just repeat that because it did take a second to digest it. That’s $1.2 million per job. So for those who are keeping track, we are not counting the president’s extra two trillion or so dollars in stimulus in that money, just the Fed’s money divided by the number of jobs. … History, though, may prove Ben Bernanke is completely right.

All STEPHEN MOORE of the WAR STREET JOURNAL managed to muster in reply:

I’m not so sure that’s such a good bargain. I’m not so sure. I’m not as rosy as you are about his performance, Ben Bernanke and the Fed’s performance. …

Is that an argument?

UPDATE (9/1): THE TOOLS @ THE FED. From National Journal’s economics desk comes the same nonchalance about the “tools” at the Fed’s disposal. Like the blabbering Burnett, the correspondent has not been put on earth to question the ethicacy of interest-rate manipulation and quantitative easing. She does, at least, provide some useful definitions of … the TOOLS:

With short-term interest rates at or near zero, the Fed has turned to unconventional means, such as purchases of government debt securities known as “quantitative easing” or QE. Many economists think the Fed could well undertake a third round of bond buying—QE3—by the end of the year. Some see a possibility of action at the next Fed meeting, but other economists say the Fed might be more likely to wait.

Romney: So Nice, So Wrong

Business, China, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Iran, Neoconservatism, Republicans, Trade

MSNBC was my first port of call, right after Mitt Romney completed his address to the 2012 Republican Convention. Romney’s sworn enemies would be the best gauges as to how well the speech resonated.

The cobra head at MSNBC—Rachel Maddow, Al Sharpton, Lawrence O’Donnell, Ed Schultz—all were remarkably mild in their reactions. Other than the hissing Chris Matthews, these people were partial to the man and his message.

O’Donnell: ‘It was an effective presentation’
Chuck Todd: ‘optimistic nostalgia’
Ed Schultz: a ‘pitch to women’
HuffPo: “Solid.” “Competent.” “Workmanlike.”
Chris Matthews, aka The Snake, was the only one to rightly condemn Romney’s “jingoistic language about war,” as “bad for the country.”

AND FOR THE WORLD!

Tomorrow these pundits will have returned to their default position. But, for now, they seemed to have finally seen that, while Romney’s political positions are horrid, he’s a lovely man. As incongruous as this may seem, it is nevertheless true.

I’ve seen enough of life to know a lovely man when I see one. Ann Romney, herself a delightful lady, is a lucky woman. Romney is a great provider, fabulously devoted to family and church, consistently generous and charitable to all those around him, and brilliant in all endeavors, academic and other.

Unlike those of Obama, Romney’s university transcripts will stand scrutiny.

Sadly, Romney is wrong on almost all issues of policy.

WRONG on China.
WRONG on Foreign policy.
WRONG on Iran.
WRONG on Russia.

So wrong about so much, yet such a lovely man. (And I did cheer, “Bain, Baby,” when he talked up free enterprise.)

“Repeal-and-replace statism” is what the Ryan-Romney ticket is about.

UPDATED: Mindless Response To Mine Massacre (In South Africa)

Crime, Democracy, Political Correctness, Propaganda, Race, Racism, South-Africa, The West

“Mindless Response To Mine Massacre” in South Africa is the current column, now on RT. Here’s an excerpt:

“… You’d have had to experience the onrush of a riled-up African crowd to comprehend the terror among these frightened, likely incompetent, cops entrusted with defending mine operators and other staff still at the site. The last would have endured hours, if not days, of menacing chanting, singing, stomping, all amplified through loudspeakers.

Likewise, the besieged police at Sharpeville [in 1960] would have been petrified, as the ‘unarmed’ mob brandishing pangas, spears and sticks, advanced on their isolated outpost and breached the station’s fence, at the eponymous African township.

In both instances, the cops—white and black, then and now, right or wrong—fought to stay alive.

The media mob has already cut some slack to the black cops who were assailed at Marikana by 3000 miners. The frightened, outnumbered fellows at Sharpeville, who confronted 5,000 to 7,000 frenzied protesters: They’ve been condemned for eternity.

Sharpeville’s ‘villains’ had also attempted to control the crowds with tear gas and batons before that fateful shooting.

Why not ask 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis what a tribe armed with indigenous weapons is capable of doing to a despised, helpless ‘Other’?

Ask the same of some 4000 white South Africans farmers, who once helped feed the continent.

Or, closer to home, let an all-American lass, Amy Elizabeth Biehl, tell you how furious her white skin and good intentions made an ‘unarmed’ crowd, back in Cape Town of 1993.

Silly me. Question those Tutsis—whose blood turned the Kigara River red—all you like, but they will not reply. For they were torn asunder or macheteed by their longtime Hutu neighbors.

Ask the late Ms. Biehl about her ordeal, but she too has been silenced—stabbed and stoned, by an ‘unarmed’ mob with murder on its mind.

As to the 4000 (and counting) Boers—they’re dead and buried too. Interred in the land they had farmed for centuries; culled like springbok on a hunting safari by the same, disarming, inadvertent enemies of peace and prosperity.

In a world awash in floating fiat currency, demand for platinum will remain consistent and predictably high, even as production plummets in one of platinum’s prime producers, South Africa.

That’s guaranteed.

The miners of Marikana told Time magazine that they would not return to work until their wages were doubled (poor productivity be damned). Any scab who stepped in to do ‘their’ jobs would be eliminated. Or so they promised.

And that’s one other thing you can take to the bank. …”

Read the rest of “Mindless Response To Mine Massacre.” It’s now on RT.

Also available from WND or from Amazon is the prophetic “Into The Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid.”

Read the editorial reviews.

If you’d like to feature this column, WND’s longest-standing, exclusive paleolibertarian column, in or on your publication (paper or pixels), contact ilana@ilanamercer.com.

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UPDATE (9/1/012): JD Hicks@Jdhickspi encapsulates the realities to which my column speaks (on Twitter):

“@IlanaMercer @RT_com Great perspective.most people have never experienced the existential,visceral threat of an agitated hostile mob.”

UPDATE II: The Helmet And Her Husband (Bain, Baby)

Elections, Republicans

The inseparable act that is Callista and Newt Gingrich stepped onto the stage, in Tampa, Florida, to deliver a tribute to Ronald Reagan, at the 2012 Republican National Convention. You’d have had to see it to believe it. Here are the duo’s rehearsed comments:

CALLISTA: Thank you for that warm welcome. What a wonderful tribute to President Reagan, and the spirit of the American people.

NEWT: It’s fantastic to see so many friends here: Friends from decades of service to the party, service in public life, and those who have helped us over the past few years. And we’re delighted that tonight we come together to once again renew the American spirit, and put real leadership back in the White House this November.

CALLISTA: The election of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will decisively move America to a better future. Remembering President Reagan reminds us that the choices we make matter, and this year is as important as the choice we made in 1980.

NEWT: Over three decades have passed since Ronald Reagan was first elected to the White House, yet the impact of his leadership is still evident today. While in office, President Reagan had three major goals: To restore the economy; To revive the American spirit; And to defeat totalitarianism, spreading democracy throughout the world.

CALLISTA: By remaining true to his convictions, through his belief in the American people, and with tremendous optimism, President Reagan achieved these goals.

NEWT: It’s striking how President Carter and President Obama both took our nation down a path that in four years weakened America’s confidence in itself, and our hope for a better future.

CALLISTA: Both weakened the respect for America abroad; Both increased government programs, filled with waste and inefficiency that failed to produce results; Both made promises they couldn’t keep … AND, as a consequence of ineffective policies, both were unable to revive our economy and create jobs.

NEWT: For example, both crippled American energy production when there were better ways to develop and use our abundant energy resources. … The Romney plan for North American energy independence is exactly the kind of bold, visionary leadership Reagan believed in, and it’s what we need now.

CALLISTA: The Reagan Presidency also teaches us that there is a better way to put Americans back to work, create millions of jobs, and help every American achieve success. The Reagan program of tax cuts, regulatory reform, and spending controls worked.

NEWT: Reagan’s belief in small business owners and entrepreneurs is a remarkable contrast with Obama’s class warfare rhetoric, massive deficits, and a passion for taxing those who create jobs. The Romney plan for a stronger middle class has deep roots in Reagan’s approach.

CALLISTA: Reagan’s commitment to reform welfare and to create a work-requirement was a major achievement when he was Governor of California. His pioneering work led to the historic welfare reform bill Congress and the President passed 30 years later. This bipartisan legislation reduced the size of government, made our country more competitive, and put millions of Americans back to work.

NEWT: Tragically, President Obama gutted this achievement. And, like Jimmy Carter, over four years he produced little effective legislation that brought the two parties together in the interest of the nation. Obama’s waiving of the work requirements in welfare reform is just one example of his direct repudiation of President Reagan’s values. Obama’s proud of what he’s done, and of his politically motivated partisanship, but he should be ashamed for putting politics before people.

CALLISTA: Governor Romney will return America to work, and to the principles that are at the core of President Reagan’s legacy. … This year the American people will once again have an important choice to make.

NEWT: Now each of us must commit ourselves in the tradition of Ronald Reagan to come together. President Reagan said, “There is no substitute for victory.” And this November, we cannot settle for anything less. … This is the most critical election of our lifetime. Each of us must do our part now to insure that America remains, in the tradition of President Reagan, a land of freedom, hope, and opportunity.

Thank you and God bless.