Gormless Geithner

Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Federal Reserve Bank, Federalism, Inflation

In June of 2009, US Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner drew loud laughter from amused Chinese students when he made ludicrous claims about American solvency. “Chinese assets are very safe,” he assured students at Peking University, who wanted to know how exposed China was, given that it was the biggest foreign owner of U.S. Treasury bonds.

The Europeans are not as good-natured about Geithner as these Chinese youngsters were. The US treasury secretary told “Europe’s leaders to stop bickering and take control of the debt crisis that has brought ‘catastrophic risk’ to financial markets.” (Via FT)

Pot. Kettle. Black was the retort of Maria Fekter, Austria’s finance minister:

“I found it peculiar that even though the Americans have significantly worse fundamental data than the eurozone, that they tell us what we should do and when we make a suggestion…” (FT)

It is natural for Geitner and the administration, who are undeterred in their “vulgar Keynesianism,” to worry about the healthy “ongoing conflict between governments and the central bank” in Europe. For one thing, Europe is being more fiscally prudent than the US; it is making us look even worse than we are. For another, the EU may be on the verge of decentralizing—or even dissolving. … The “Great Centralizers” in DC would not embrace that development.

Also obvious is the Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s fondness for Geitner’s “leverage plan” for the EU. That’s probably code for liquidity. Ireland is one of the EU’s “PIGS” states. Europe’s profligate states are Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. (And now Italy.)

The Real Atomic Bomb

Business, Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Founding Fathers, Inflation, Islam, Jihad, Pop-Culture, The Zeitgeist

“There is something horrible about to explode,” said Patrick Byrne, the CEO of O.Co, formerly Overstock.com.

AND IT’S NOT A JIHADI BOMB.

In fact, for special effects, insert here a series of Beavis and Butthead grunts to simulate the Jihad-obsessed. It is misguided to convince Americans, living in “The Age of the Idiot,” that the primitives who inhabit the Muslim world will eliminate the freest, most prosperous civilization, when it is American leadership—43 & 44, and all those Dems and Republicans who went before: They are the architects of American ruination.

If Islam poses a danger to our communities, it’s because of anti-private property laws mandated over the decades by the Traitor Class. These laws prohibit most forms of voluntary, peaceful dissociation and effective self-defense.

Patrick Byrne’s economic acumen comes from his Austrian thinking. He knows what’s upon us: Great Depression # 2. “Something very bad is coming. … We’re at the edge of a catastrophe,” he has warned. Byrne understands, as his philosophical ancestor Thomas Jefferson did, what unprecedented levels of public and private debt will do to a republic.

“We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.” Debt is the “fore horse for oppression and despotism,” after which “taxation will follow, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.”

So said Thomas Jefferson.

Below is the sage from O.Co (as well as “The Brothers Grunt” from MTV):

Grunt if you agree.

New Yorkers Are Onto The Leech-In-Chief

Barack Obama, Democrats, Economy, Elections, Israel, Judaism & Jews, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim

Liberals are denying that New York City’s 9th Congressional District is “a bellwether district.” Their perpetual propaganda cannot repeal reality. Uncontroversially (for a change), I contend, in my new WND.COM column, that “New Yorkers are onto the Leech-in-Chief”:

“Running against Barack Obama’s reckless fiscal policies (the building blocks for which were laid by Bush), a Republican, Catholic businessman has just beaten a Democratic, Jewish, pro-Israel, career politician in New York City’s 9th Congressional District, by 54 to 46 percent.

Bob Turner’s historic win over David Weprin, a first for Republicans since 1923, is reminiscent of Scott Brown’s victory over Martha Coakley in Massachusetts. Given the ethnic composition of the district—almost 40 percent Jewish—the media, however, is spinning the win as a referendum on Obama’s policies on Israel, not the economy.

Had the Democrat not outspent the Republican and outgunned him with the assistance of former president Bill Clinton and Gov. Andrew Cuomo; and had the Jewish voters under scrutiny not been primarily Orthodox, working class, and in opposition to gay marriage—CNN’s Errol Louis might have alluded to Jewish money and influence. Instead, the commentator confined himself to describing the votes cast for a fiscally and socially more conservative representative as ‘tribally’ motivated.”…

Read the rest of “New Yorkers are onto the Leech-in-Chief,” on WND.COM.

My new book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa,” is available from Amazon.

A newly formatted, splendid Kindle copy is also on sale.

UPDATE II: Jackie Kennedy: enchantress (Style & Substance)

Aesthetics, America, Art, Critique, Etiquette, History, Human Accomplishment, Music, The State

Jacqueline Kennedy’s dowdy daughter Caroline Kennedy has released “never-before-heard audio recordings of interviews conducted with the former first lady in 1964, shortly after her husband’s assassination,” together with a book, “Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life With John F. Kennedy.” We know Jackie Kennedy for her style, sophistication, sense of history, and love and knowledge of music and art. We now know something about her well-formulated opinions and astute observations, delivered in dulcet tones and exquisite English. (The other day I used “hermetically sealed,” which was common usage when I was, well, much younger. My husband wanted to know why I was using a term used in engineering!)

Discussions with the late historian Arthur Schlesinger reveal Jackie to be not only a dazzling conversationalist, but a forceful, if ever-so feminine personae.

Especially appreciated is Jacqueline Kennedy’s opinion about the sainted Martin Luther King (whose real worldview I discuss briefly—and unfavorably—in my book). All the more so given how irreverent she is in coming out and dissing a legend in the making. PC was not an issue back then. My book also quotes Kennedy on affirmative action: the man was conservative as few conservatives are today.

From a performance of Pablo Casals in the White House to Beyonce’s bump and grind: how far we’ve fallen. To be fair, Bush was also without class and culture.

UPDATE I (Sept. 16): STYLE & SUBSTANCE. Myron Pauli: Like many a libertarian, you refuse to address issues of culture. A comment such as mine, dealing with an impressive, classy lady—Jackie was certainly mistreated by her husband, but never responded like a tawdry tart, as is the custom nowadays—is reduced to the problem of statism. In a universe in which everything is reduced to the state, is there any place for observations about culture, human accomplishment, personality, etc?

I suggest to you that things would not be so bad if more women today had the class and classical education of a Jackie O. At the very least, women with a similar frame of reference would not feel so obsolete and voiceless.

UPDATE II: “Go, Jackie,” writes Lew Rockwell:

Funny how the media are trotting out Mrs. Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline, to try to smooth over her mother’s taped views: that LBJ was an integral part of the assassination plot (of course, but not mentioned in this article), that she didn’t admire Martin Luther King, FDR, or Churchill, that she rejected feminism, etc.