Thursday, January 29, 2015

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, January 29, 2015


Wow...! A friggin' WEEK...?!?!

IT'S BEEN A FRIGGIN' WEEK...?!?!

OK, kids... I'm back!

4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-wreck-of-the-monetary-hesperus/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mailing+List+AM+Wednesday

For 73 months running the Fed has lashed the money markets to the gross financial anomaly of ZIRP.

* ZERO INTEREST RATE POLICY...

Never before in the history of the world has any central bank or other monetary authority decreed that overnight money shall be indefinitely free to gamblers or that liquid savers should have their hard earned wealth chronically confiscated by negative returns after inflation and taxes. And, needless to say, never have savers and borrowers in a free market struck a bargain night after night after night at 0% for six years running, either.

* BIG SAVERS... BIG BORROWERS... OF, FOR, AND BY THE OLIGARCHS...

* FOLKS... NONE OF US HAS ANY CHOICE. (AND UNDERSTAND... NEITHER THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY REPRESENT "US." EACH HAS "IT'S" OLIGARCHS. INDEED, THEY COOPERATE TO PROP UP THEIR CORRUPT SELF-SERVING BARGAINS.)

Now comes another Fed meeting and announcement that our monetary overlords will be “patient” with zero cost money for several more meetings. Indeed, there are even hints that the era of ZIRP could extend beyond mid-summer—that is, for more than 80 months.

So an urgent question screams out. Don’t these obstinate zealots realize that zero cost overnight money has only one use, and that is to fund the carry trades of Wall Street gamblers?

* YES. YES THEY DO! THAT'S THE POINT! THIS IS THEIR GOAL!

* FOLKS... I'M GONNA LEAVE IT HERE... BUT I URGE YOU TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE!

William R. Barker said...

http://buchanan.org/blog/the-persians-are-coming-15516

“The Iranians are on the march,” warned John McCain Sunday.

(*ROLLING MY EYES*)

* WHY HAS MCCAIN NOT DIED YET...???

“Iran is building a new Persian Empire,” echoed Col. Ralph Peters.

(*SNORT FOLLOWED BY A SIGH*)

So alarmed is Speaker Boehner, he invited Bibi Netanyahu to come and challenge U.S. policy toward Iran from the same podium where the president delivered his State of the Union address.

* WOULDN'T IT BE NICE IF BOEHNER WAS HALF AS ALARMED BY THE ONGOING INVASION OF AMERICA VIA OUR POROUS SOUTHERN BORDER?

Bibi will make the case for new U.S. sanctions on Iran; sanctions that Obama has said he will veto as they would sabotage talks on Iran’s nuclear program and potentially put us on the road to war.

* FOR ONCE... GOOD FOR OBAMA...

Why are Bibi’s insights needed? Because, says Sen. Robert Menendez, the outgoing chairman of foreign relations, White House statements sound like “talking points from Tehran.” This beloved poodle of AIPAC is always a strong contender for best in show.

* BOEHNER AND MENENDEZ... GEEZUS...

* FOLKS... READ UP ON BOB MENENDEZ - THE GUY IS A PIECE OF HUMAN GARBAGE.

“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence … a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”

So warned our first and greatest president in his Farewell Address.

* NO, FOLKS... GEORGE WASHINGTON WASN'T A COMMIE...

(*SNORT*)

But this column is not about how Washington would weep at what has become of this Republic, nor a polemic against the corruption of a capital where the currency is campaign cash and national policy is the commodity bought and sold. The issue is whether Iran represents a threat to our security worth risking a war.

* NO.

* FOLKS... CHINA...! C*H*I*N*A...!!! (AND CHINA'S PROTÉGÉ NORTH KOREA!)

For that is where many, including Bibi, want us to go.

So... what about Iran’s drive to build a nuclear bomb?

Well, Israel has 100-300 atom bombs.

America has thousands.

Iran’s Muslim neighbor Pakistan has scores.

And Iran? She has no bomb.

Iran has never tested a nuclear device.

She has never produced weapons-grade uranium.

Iran's Fordow underground plant now has IAEA inspectors and its 20% enriched uranium is all being diluted.

Construction of the heavy-water reactor at Arak has been halted.

Half of Iran’s centrifuges are not operating.

There are International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and cameras blanketing Iran’s program.

(*TWIDDLING MY THUMBS*)

The U.S. intelligence community has twice said Iran has no nuclear bomb program.

(*STILL TWIDDLING*)

And the most recent finding, 2011, has never been reversed by the Director of National Intelligence.

* AND YET...

GOP Speaker of the House John Boehner seem to have concluded that new sanctions on Iran, even if it aborts negotiations and brings on a war with Iran, will be rewarded by the electorate in 2016.

Perhaps.

(*SIGH*)

But if this is where the GOP is heading, we’ll be getting off here.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/01/28/millennials_living_with_parents_we_just_can_t_leave_the_nest_apparently.html

Job creation may have picked up, but the Census Bureau reported today that the fraction of young adults between the ages of 25 and 34 living with their parents increased last year...

* SO MUCH FOR THE OBAMA RECOVERY...

...reaching 17.7% for men...

* BOYS... NOT MEN.

(*SMIRK*)

...and 11.7% for women.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2015/01/27/white-house-suggests-combating-deficit-spending/?awt_l=P557U&awt_m=3YCCoWs.raTM1Od

* THE HEADLINE:

White House Suggests Combating Deficit with More Spending

No, it’s true. This is not one of my satire pieces. That’s what they did, in a statement released this morning, and White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest even flagged the statement for reporters traveling with President Obama in Asia so they didn’t miss it.

The news was that the Congressional Budget Office released a report stating that the deficit had come down a little bit more, to the lowest point of the Obama presidency and to a place that is just below the average for the last 50 years.

Buhhhht . . . the average for the last 50 years is pretty bad and has resulted in our current $18 trillion in debt.

The estimate also doesn’t include a bunch of spending and tax cuts that routinely get “extended” by Congress, to the tune of more than $1 trillion over ten years.

(*SIGH*)

And the deficit is set to start rising again in just a couple of years, to heights rivaling the levels of the last recession. (And that’s all assuming we don’t have another recession.)

The White House acknowledges this, and suggests a "fix": CBO’s longer-term budget and economic projections confirm the need for Congress to act to strengthen our economy for the middle class while putting our debt and deficits on a sustainable trajectory, including by making the investments that will accelerate economic growth and generate good new jobs for our workers to fill.

"Investments..."

Get the joke?

"Investments" are what liberals call SPENDING.

That will cure the deficit. (And so I’m headed out right now to Dairy Queen to work on my diet.)