What are you smoking???

polifrog

VDH

Conservatives should not listen to themselves and their ingenious rationalization about how things are “really” swinging their way, and instead accept that the presidency, the courts, and much of Congress are doing all they can, as quickly as they can, with enormous powers at their disposal, to change the fundamental nature of the United States — and so far are mostly winning. All of the above should mobilize conservatives in 2012 as never before and open their eyes to the resources and zealotry pledged against them: November is really a sort of last-ditch effort in a way prior elections were not.

Agreed





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Obama's $2 Trillion Depressionary Tax Hike ....

polifrog











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Rigged...

polifrog

Weekly Standard:

[...]

For simpler souls, it merely looks like the fix, as always, is in.

In Washington, to get it passed, you call it a "mandate" and insist that it is not a "tax."

Then, you walk the thing down the street and to make it legal, you call it a "tax" and not a "mandate."

Everybody is happy except for the voters who never wanted this thing in the first place

I couldn't agree more.

But I will add that if the Tea Party shows up in force and we get the government we demand ObamaCare will go down and the path ObamaCare has taken thus far will have been closed to progressives.

The potential for a massive win is still there.





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Day One. Job One. Repeal Obamacare...

polifrog










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Roberts' Scam ... Rationalizing Desire....

polifrog

'It is not a tax for the purpose of the Anti-Injunction Act, therefore we can hear this case then find that it is indeed a tax allowing congress to penalize you for not engaging in activities it deems you should.'

Scam.


Wouldn't it be nice if a court could contort terminology into not empowering government just once ... just once.



Byron York:

Maybe rational scrutiny isn't what is called for. If a person wants to do something badly enough, he'll come up with a reason for doing it. John Roberts, apparently, wanted to uphold Obamacare, even if it meant venturing deep into the forbidden land of the sophists.

Just once.






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The Tax Man....

polifrog



 



But he lies...




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Some Dissent...

polifrog

The Court today decides to save a statute Congress did not write. It rules that what the statute declares to be a requirement with a penalty is instead an option subject to a tax. And it changes the intentionally coercive sanction of a total cut-off of Medicaid funds to a supposedly noncoercive cut-off of only the incremental funds that the Act makes available.

The Court regards its strained statutory interpretation as judicial modesty. It is not. It amounts instead to a vast judicial overreaching. It creates a debilitated, inoperable version of health-care regulation that Congress did not enact and the public does not expect. It makes enactment of sensible health-care regulation more difficult, since Congress cannot start afresh but must take as its point of departure a jumble of now senseless provisions, provisions that certain interests favored under the Court’s new design will struggle to retain. And it leaves the public and the States to expend vast sums of money on requirements that may or may not survive the necessary congressional revision.

The Court’s disposition, invented and atextual as it is, does not even have the merit of avoiding constitutional difficulties. It creates them. The holding that the Individual Mandate is a tax raises a difficult constitutional question (what is a direct tax?) that the Court resolves with inadequate deliberation. And the judgment on the Medicaid Expansion issue ushers in new federalism concerns and places an unaccustomed strain upon the Union. Those States that decline the Medicaid Expansion must subsidize, by the federal tax dollars taken from their citizens, vast grants to the States that accept the Medicaid Expansion. If that destabilizing political dynamic, so antagonistic to a harmonious Union, is to be introduced at all, it should be by Congress, not by the Judiciary.

The values that should have determined our course to- day are caution, minimalism, and the understanding that the Federal Government is one of limited powers. But the Court’s ruling undermines those values at every turn. In the name of restraint, it overreaches. In the name of constitutional avoidance, it creates new constitutional questions. In the name of cooperative federalism, it undermines state sovereignty.

The Constitution, though it dates from the founding of the Republic, has powerful meaning and vital relevance to our own times. The constitutional protections that this case involves are protections of structure. Structural protections—notably, the restraints imposed by federalism and separation of powers—are less romantic and have less obvious a connection to personal freedom than the provisions of the Bill of Rights or the Civil War Amendments. Hence they tend to be undervalued or even forgotten by our citizens. It should be the responsibility of the Court to teach otherwise, to remind our people that the Framers considered structural protections of freedom the most important ones, for which reason they alone were embodied in the original Constitution and not left to later amendment. The fragmentation of power produced by the structure of our Government is central to liberty, and when we destroy it, we place liberty at peril. Today’s decision should have vindicated, should have taught, this truth; instead, our judgment today has disregarded it.

For the reasons here stated, we would find the Act in- valid in its entirety. We respectfully dissent.

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Mark Levin -- Absolutely Lawless...

polifrog








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The Citizens of America Have Been Had by Leviathan...

polifrog

• It is not a tax, it is a penalty  we were told by congress and the executive for political expedience.

• Okay, we take an unconstitutional penalty to the Supreme Court but are told it is a constitutional tax.

• Words are defined by Leviathan as whatever is politically  expedient. 

• Three branches working in concert to screw the citizenry.

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The Supreme Court Punts...

polifrog



The Supreme Court was presented with two arguments.  One was that ObamaCare was constitutional on the basis of the Commerce Clause and one that it was unconstitutional on the basis that the Commerce Clause does not cover coercion.

Of those two choices the Supreme Court found a third:  that fines are taxes even when exacted as a penalty. And as such that it is within the taxing authority of congress to implement ObamaCare.

The Supreme Court refused to hear the argument as presented and refused to find  in favor of an unlimited expansion of the Commerce Clause while also refusing to  overturn the Commerce Clause.

The court punted.

It is clear that legal shortcuts regarding law  are the exclusive province of progressives.  Conversely, the defense of individual liberty, it appears, has a single source: the individual citizen acting in concert.

ObamaCare is now back in the glove of the American voter.






it's on

We all Have Our Sources....

polifrog



Coffee and Markets will be broadcasting live audio of the ObamaCare SCOTUS decision.




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Portal Gun Fun...

polifrog










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Neoneocon is Nervous...

polifrog

Me too:

It's not about Obamacare, although that does matter to me. But whatever way the Court rules, the ultimate fate of Obamacare will be determined by the upcoming election. If the Democrats are victorious, Obamacare can be easily fixed to eliminate the individual mandate and call it a tax, if need be. If Republicans take control, the bill can be repealed or unfunded, even if SCOTUS decides to uphold its constitutionality tomorrow.

I'm far more concerned with the precedent the Court will set regarding the further expansion of the Commerce Clause. If the Court fails to declare a federal mandate of this type unconstitutional, that would be an enormous triumph for "progressives"---far beyond the momentary victory of the Court's upholding Obamacare.]

It is my hope that ObamaCare is a bridge too far regarding the ridiculous expansion of the Commerce Clause we have seen since Wickard v Fillburn  and that the court overturns Wickard v. Fillburn.  I doubt that will happen.  However, I would be pleased to see our currently open ended  Commerce Clause limited.







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Because All the World is a Stage...

polifrog




Black caucus to stage walkout during Holder contempt vote in House.


This hippie stuff is so stale...





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Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/06/27/3345637/deadline-looms-for-dnc-protest.html#storylink=cpy

Memoirs are Written by the busy for a Reason...

polifrog

Coyote Blog:

This is true for me, ymmv.

Time seems to pass much more quickly as one is experiencing it when one is busy.

However, looking backwards, time periods that were chock-full of activities tend to lengthen. A point in time a year ago seems further in the past in a busy year than a sparse year. Almost as if your mind assumes some average activity density, then applies this to remembered activities to estimate time passage.

I would add that when  not busy a sense of  panic sets it that only subsides when busy again..  I consider the panic to be the result of one's  time on Earth slipping uselessly by.

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Oil Production to Increase by 20% by 2020 - Prices Predicted to Crash...

polifrog




Malthuisans and Peak-Oilers --- Birds of a stupid feather ignore tech together.

phys.org

Contrary to some predictions that world oil production has peaked or will soon do so, Maugeri projects that output should grow from the current 93 million barrels per day to 110 million barrels per day by 2020, the biggest jump in any decade since the 1980s. What’s more, this increase represents less than 40 percent of the new oil production under development globally: more than 60 percent of the new production will likely reach the market after 2020.
...
His study attributes the expected growth in oil output largely to a combination of high oil prices and new technologies such as hydraulic fracturing that are opening up vast new areas and allowing extraction of “unconventional” oil such as tight oil, oil shale, tar sands and ultra-heavy oil. These increases are projected to be greatest in the United States, Canada, Venezuela and Brazil. Maugeri also predicts a major increase in Iraq’s oil output as it regains stability, which will add new production in the Persian Gulf region -- potentially destabilizing OPEC’s ability to manage output and prices.

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ObamaCare, Tea-Leaves and a Prediction...

polifrog





Of the tea-leaves available for reading regarding ObamaCare only one truly stands out. That would the the administration's initial impetuous response to the Supreme Court hearings this spring. It is hard for me to believe that the court's veil of secrecy is tight enough to keep the administration in the dark regarding ObamaCare. 

Obama's initial reaction to court questions:

 I’d just remind conservative commentators that for years what we’ve heard is the biggest problem on the bench is judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint — that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law.  Well, here’s a good example. And I’m pretty confident that this court will recognize that, and not take that step.

That initial attack on the court speaks for itself.

That the administration has been willing to invest in building the framework for sustained attacks on the court further supports the reading that ObamaCare is going down as unconstitutional tomorrow.

Obama Starts His Anti-Supreme Court Campaign: Road testing the theme for the Fall:

Barack Obama suggested that any decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn his landmark healthcare law would send the country “backwards” and that Americans did not want to “re-fight” the battle over healthcare.

It was the first sign that beyond the White House’s staunch defence of the Affordable Care Act Mr Obama is prepared to use the law as a rallying cry on the campaign trail. It is a risky strategy: about half the country remains opposed to the legislation, although most voters like the consumer protections that are guaranteed under the law.

ObamaCare is going down...






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Liberals know nothing of compromise....

polifrog


 Washington Examiner:

Newspapers across the country are either split about which side prevailed in yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on Arizona’s immigration law, or they are calling it a split decision. But there is one easy way to tell which side actually won: only one party rushed to the microphones to announce new legislation overturning the Court. [...]

I suppose that is one reading. The reality is that,  like Obama, liberals refuse compromise while talking a good game otherwise.

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A Global Swindle...

polifrog out

How Curiosity will Land on Mars Without Airbags...

polifrog



Seven minutes of terror as curiosity decelerates from 13,000 MPH to 0 MPH in an atmosphere that is thick enough to damage but too thin to slow the craft enough for landing.

This thing weighs like a ton  BTW.

No bouncing airbags here:





I liked the air bags, but this looks and feels like real Science Fiction from the movies..





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The Dispicable Krugman...

polifrog



The solution to a collapsing bubble that threatens Keynesian spending is not the creation of another bubble:

From solving the Dot Com Bomb with a housing bubble to solving the Housing crash with a Treasury bubble.

One wonders what the next bubble will be or if we will even have the choice the create another.





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Massive New CO2 Sinks Discovered Put Global Warming Models Out to Pasture...

polifrog




CO2, that gas ruled a poison by the EPA for regulation purposes,  is plant fertilizer. 

In fact, an increase in CO2 increases the amount of plant biomass on Earth.  Life is a CO2 sink and that should come as no surprise considering the amounts of CO2 found in fossil fuels and fossil fuels, as we all know, is decayed life. 

But plant biomass does not mean just trees on land, it also means plankton in our seas and massive amounts of that plankton have gone unnoticed until now.

Cranberratimes:

...

The scientists found huge and highly productive phytoplankton blooms that satellite sensors could not detect because they were hidden under Arctic Ocean ice, a phenomenon one said was akin to finding a rainforest in a desert. Their findings were published on June 7.

One of the blooms extended from the sea-ice edge about 100 kilometres into the ice pack. It was up to 70 metres deep in places. The phytoplankton under the sea-ice were extremely productive, doubling in number more than once a day. Blooms in open water grow at a much slower rate, doubling in two to three days.

The researchers estimated that phytoplankton production under the ice in parts of the Arctic Ocean could be up to 10 times higher than in the nearby open ocean. They believe that thinning Arctic sea-ice is allowing sunlight to reach waters underneath and that about a quarter of the Arctic Ocean now has conditions conducive to such blooms.

Does this mean that the global ecosystem has a self-righting mechanism and that as humans pump ever more CO2 into the atmosphere warming the atmosphere and sea, and melting ice, phytoplankton production will increase and absorb the surplus greenhouse gas?

The jury is still out.

" The jury is still out" .... not settled science.




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Charlotte NC Labor Participation Rate Drops Plus Unemployment Rises from 9.1% to 9.5%

polifrog

What is worse than a rising unemployment rate? One that rises even when the labor force is shrinking.

That is called a Keynesian normal:

Unemployment in the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill metro region increased to 9.5 percent from 9.1 percent, just slightly above the statewide unemployment rate of 9.4 percent. Rates are not seasonally adjusted.

In Mecklenburg County, the unemployment rate increased to 9.6 percent, up 0.6 percent from April and down 1 percent since last year.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/06/22/3335052/charlotte-area-unemployment-up.html#storylink=cpy

And from the Charlotte Observer's print edition:

Compared to May 2011, unemployment rates have decreased in 88 counties. But compared to pre-recession levels, May’s jobless rates — as high as 16.9 percent in Scotland County — are still alarming, [John] Quinterno says.

In May 2008, the Charlotte metro region’s unemployment rate was 5.7 percent, he said — almost 4 percentage points lower than the latest figures.

“This recession has gone on so long, people have lost the perspective of what a healthy labor market looks like,” he said.

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Mike McIntyre (D-NC) Refuses to Endorse Obama

polifrog




N.C. Dem refuses to endorse Obama for president:

North Carolina Blue Dog Rep. Mike McIntyre (D., N.C.) refused to endorse President Obama, in an interview Saturday with WSFX in Wilmington:

ANCHOR: Rep. Mike McIntyre is staying clear of endorsing a presidential candidate for the November election. We asked Rep. McIntyre this afternoon if he was going to endorse a presidential candidate. He says his focus is on the congressional race, and not any other races. McIntyre says he is focusing his efforts on eastern North Carolina and making it better for the people who live and work in the state.

McINTYRE: We’ve always been steadfast in our work for Eastern North Carolina, and I’m grateful because we’ve had Republican and Democratic friends who’ve supported us because they know my heart is here, and it’s not about any party agenda or any other person’s agenda. Our focus is on the congressional race in Eastern North Carolina.

ANCHOR: Now, we’ve been asking McIntyre if he would endorse President Obama for reelection bid—he hasn’t answered that question.

The battleground state will host to the Democratic National Convention in September.

Wise Choice.  He will still lose his seat, though.





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Another Installment of Our UnAmerican President....

polifrog




Compare and contrast:

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi: “Jihad Is Our Path & Death in the Name of Allah Is Our Goal”:

and

White House congratulates Egypt's Morsi

UnAmerican.





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Weston Hills Recreation Area, Wyoming...

polifrog




RvDreams:

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Sunday Morning Smile Files...

polifrog

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Cargo Cult Science...

polifrog



Whole swaths of science have been co-opted by this sort of thinking.

Via EBL:






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Pernicious Persistent Pressure

polifrog





George Will:

WASHINGTON — There they go again. Like those who say climate change is an emergency too obvious and urgent to allow for debate, some proponents of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, aka the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), say arguments against it are nonexistent.

...

LOST, approval of which is supposedly somehow suddenly imperative, emerged from the mists of U.N. deliberations that began in the 1950s.

The UN has been pushing this thing since 1950? How does a democracy, with its shifting leadership and generall impatience, resist this sort of patient pressure?  Eventually the stars will align such that some portion of LOST becomes desirable enough that the less appealing portions may be digested or that the right group of leaders, however temporarily,  are find themselves in power long enough to pass it in the way of ObamaCare.


Really, how do we resist this sort of pernicious persistent pressure without at some point eliminating the source?




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Keynes' Pretty Theory - An Ugly Reality...

polifrog

I've called it the great spindown -- what results from living today off  future success ... should it materialize.

The US became a world power not through government investment (theft of private wealth accumulation), but government restraint.  It was through a long period of government restraint that we were able to spin-up a dynamic and wealthy private sector.  However, since the great depression we have been on a Keynesian path of largess today (as government feeds from the private sector's  future investment through taxes and selling debt), and eventual decline as the private sector is increasingly unable to invest in the future, followed by collapse when both lackluster growth and debt collide.

Governments do not grow nations, they kill them.

The Globe and Mail: 

The British government has run a budget surplus in only six of the 37 years since 1975. The American government has run a budget surplus in only five of the 52 years since 1960. The Canadian government has run a budget surplus in only 10 of the 46 years since 1966. As Hudson Institute scholar Christopher DeMuth asserts in a prescient paper, Debt and Democracy, Keynesian doctrine – surpluses in the good years, deficits in the bad – has morphed in the advanced democracies into perpetual stimulus.

Europe shows us our Keynesian future.  It is one in which  government will attempt every financial maneuver possible in an effort to stave off its own Keynesian debt collapse ... until collapse occurs.

Keynesianism does not end well.
It is a pretty theory but an ugly reality.





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Northern California Coast...

polifrog




A polifrog pic:

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Walking the Moai...

polifrog








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If not Enforced What Value are Laws Created by the Legislature? What Value is the Legislature? What Value are the Citizens Who Elect that Legislature?

polifrog

Imperious Executive.....




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Wickard Vs Filburn to be Overturned by ObamaCare...

polifrog

Roscoe Filburn chose not to engage in commerce but the US Supreme Court found that not engaging in commerce affects  interstate commerce due to the fact that such a decision removes demand on an product traded between the states.  In this case wheat.

Their decision was one that allowed the government the power to force individuals to engage in commerce.

Wiki:

Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), was a United States Supreme Court decision that recognized the power of the federal government to regulate economic activity.

A farmer, Roscoe Filburn, was growing wheat for on-farm consumption. The U.S. government had established limits on wheat production based on acreage owned by a farmer, in order to drive up wheat prices during the Great Depression, and Filburn was growing more than the limits permitted. Filburn was ordered to destroy his crops and pay a fine, even though he was producing the excess wheat for his own use and had no intention of selling it.

The Supreme Court interpreted the United States Constitution's Commerce Clause under Article 1 Section 8, which permits the United States Congress "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes". The Court decided that Filburn's wheat growing activities reduced the amount of wheat he would buy for chicken feed on the open market, and because wheat was traded nationally, Filburn's production of more wheat than he was allotted was affecting interstate commerce. Thus, Filburn's production could be regulated by the federal government.

ObamaCare leans heavily on this false interpretation of the Commerce Clause, one made under  duress of the Great Depression.  Of course, the intent of the commerce clause was to promote, as much as possible, voluntary trade  among the states so as to make trade free flowing ... regular.  It was in that vein that the federal government was allowed the power to regulate trade --- to make trade  regular whether among the states or with other nations.

Is that what ObmaCare does?  Does ObamaCare promote free and voluntary trade or does it stifle trade in bureaucracy, fines, penalties and coercion? How is ObamaCare materially different from the barriers to trade that once promised our nation weakness? None.

It is likely that ObamaCare will be found unconstitutional, but ObamaCare's real impact will be more than political.  That real impact will be the direct  result of ObamaCare's overreach via its reliance on the Commerce Clause.

The Commerce Clause will be reigned in by overturning Wickard Vs Filburn...





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Bill Maher on Fast and Furious: Those 200 Dead Mexicans Would Have Died Anyway, So is it Really a Scandal?

polifrog




BILL MAHER:

Anyway, Darrell Issa says this is a giant scandal. I’ve heard on Fox News this week it’s worse than Watergate because 200 Mexicans have died. First of all, let me just say Republicans don’t care about dead Mexicans. “A,” and “B,” I think those 200 dead Mexicans would be dead even if we hadn’t sold them guns. They would have gotten the guns somewhere else. So is it really a scandal?

That's all he's got.  That's it.



With a freedom to say things far beyond what the administration can, if this is all Bill Maher can come up with there is no out for the administration on this. None.

And in terms of public opinion, it only gets worse...





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Microsoft Surface

polifrog

PC World:

The iPad is a tremendous device for working on the go, but it requires a lot of “duct tape and chewing gum”. You have to find apps and workarounds that let you be productive until you can get back to your “real” PC, and find ways to smoothly integrate and sync data between the two. But, with a Windows tablet you just use the same tools and software you always use.

Hmm.  I look forward to the reviews of folks who have actually touched a Surface...





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Lovelock Embraces Science and Shrugs off the Greens...

polifrog



I recall watching Lovelock on an episode of NOVA some 25 years ago in which he explained his Gaia theory.  Apparently it has since been partially discredited, but it is likely that that is because the Gaia theory  posited that the Earth was self regulating.  This meant that the required linear or geometric changes in global  temperature for Global Warming to occur could not happen, as such changes would  automatically be countered.  The Gaia theory was incompatible with global warming. For example: an increase of CO2 increases the amount of plant biomass which lowers CO2.  Although he drifted in the interim, it appears that at 90 some years old  he felt his legacy might be in jeopardy if he were to remain tied to the  extremist Green Movement.

 

It takes a brave man to embrace science against the herd.

Toronto Sun:

As he [Lovelock] puts it, “so-called ‘sustainable development’ … is meaningless drivel … We rushed into renewable energy without any thought. The schemes are largely hopelessly inefficient and unpleasant. I personally can’t stand windmills at any price.”

There is much more at the link.





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A Shameless Press; A Shameful Ideological Bias...

polifrog


GunRunner via Bill Whittle:







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A National Live-in...

polifrog

And we're expected to  pity Greece.




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Bill Whittle - Rights and Commodities...

polifrog



The honorable not only recognize the difference between rights and commodities, but the negative consequences in conflating the two...





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Yeah, Gun Walker/Runner/Fast and Furious is Worse Than Watergate...

polifrog




Breitbart:

There are many elements that make Fast and Furious #WorseThanWatergate. Brian Terry's death and the deaths of 300+ Mexicans should be first on that list. Nobody died in Watergate. It was a botched burglary of Democrat campaign headquarters by Republican operatives. Then came the Richard Nixon cover-up. We have always been told the cover-up was worse (which it was), and it brought down a President. In Fast and Furious, both the operation and the attempted cover-up are scandalous. Holder has already lied many times to Congress, and now Barack Obama has become the first President to use Executive Privilege to keep secret documents he claims he has never seen. The media can't see the historic relevance here, because they don't want to see it. Blind by choice.

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Scott Walker -- Honey Badger

polfrog


Via GreensboroAggregator:






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A Win for Religion:

polifrog



State sea level calculation bill rewritten




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Gun Runner/Walker Went to the Top - Obama, Holder, Napolitano...

polifrog

The video says it all. Watch...


The Right Scoop:




Waiting for  executive privilege was wise...
Toast!

Update...



Via The Ulsterman Report by Ulsterman

Second, something just now breaking out is Holder walked back a Blame Bush statement he gave to Congress just last week. Fast and Furious was nothing like anything the Bush boys did. Bush era program was much smaller and had the full cooperation of the Mexican authorities. Holder lied when he attempted to link the two and now he is already trying to correct that testimony from one week ago. This kind of sloppy mistake is a clear sign he’s in big trouble and really feeling the heat. It’s also a signal to party leaders and the White House he is falling apart on this.

...

This follow up from WHI is now included in this original report:

Received in-house word regarding “scrambling” at the White House. Something has them very spooked. I hinted at this to you last week regarding the meeting that had staff coming out looking very concerned. The Grassley message had to have shook them up. Told Issa has been repeating comparisons to Watergate to staff and fellow House members. White House must be aware Issa and Co. might have something that could inflict a hell of a lot of damage.

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NBC -- Something happened today ... Holder, I think? Gota' look into it...

polifrog:


NBC -- Something happened today ... Holder, I think? Gota' look into it...

How about some Zo:













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Call Me Lazy...

polifrog




It is refreshing to see our youth razzing hippies....






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Doing Finer and Finer...

polifrog

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Why Not Believe the EU Regarding Their Own Credit...

polifrog







... Their stress test did a wonderful job of uncovering weak banks and allaying the fears of investors -- well, perhaps they only accomplished the latter by feigning at the former but, hey, when you're a Keynesian and you believe that debt is only money you owe yourself it's all good.


Coyote Blog:

Breaking news via  Zero Hedge

EU LAWMAKERS APPROVE AMENDMENT TO END USE OF CREDIT RATINGS

It is always amazing to me that so many people view the government as a reasonable fix for perceived failures in private accountability systems. Government officials are the worst about avoiding accountability.

Some of those Successor Currency investments sure are looking better...











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Smile File Lemons...

polifrog

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Latvian Success in Austerity...

polifrog



These folks are a little confused and are jumping the gun in their assessment of Latvian success.  Success requires more patience and arbitrarily labeling the finish line early is unfair.  And the idea that banks benefit from austerity more than they do from bailouts is shaky in the least.

Even so, even when couched in tongue-in-cheek delivery there is a kernel of truth.  Success and growth only comes from pain and Latvia's choice to avoid the burden of Keynesian debt is already reaping health and growth.

Enjoy:






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Successor Currency Protected Investments in Europe?

polifrog






Successor Currency protection indicates an incredible lack of faith in the current currency and they are now being offered in Europe. Much preceded the following but what follows concerned Successor Currency protected investments:

Via Bruce Krasting:

 [...]

The Bonds that have DM protection clauses are new to me. The following link is to a prospective of the securities issued by VW on June 12, 2012. (Link - PDF) The language regarding “Successor Currency” is here:

References herein to a "Specified Currency" shall include any successor currency provided for by the laws in force in the jurisdiction where the Specified Currency is issued or pursuant to intergovernmental agreement or treaty (a "Successor Currency") to the extent that payment in the predecessor currency is no longer a legal means of payment by the Issuer on the Notes.

A number of “DM protected” bonds have been issued in the last month. If someone has a full list, I would appreciate it. The timing of this issuance is interesting. I understand the bonds were lapped up by the market.

I’m tempted to short the EURUSD on this information. But FX markets are not at all predictable, and there is no assurance that things go in the way this article suggests. One thing that I am pretty sure of is that volatility in FX markets is going to take a very big leap.

This does not bode well for the euro, as paths to a future without are being forged.

When we see these offered here in the US ....



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Coffee And Markets - More Euro Socialist State Doom

polifrog



Coffee And Markets: With Spain on the Brink, Euro Troubles Continue:

Original audio source (CoffeeandMarkets061812.mp3)

Synopsis: The Greek election result is a shot of morphine to the market and Spain holds the EC hostage with the size of its debt bound crashing economy...




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Does What Happens Matter When History is Rewritten?

polifrog

FrontPage Magazine:

Obama’s presidency has failed miserably, but it has accomplished one thing: it has revealed for all to see the lethal pathologies of progressive ideology.

The worst economic recovery since World War II that Obama and the Democrats midwifed has exposed the failure of the notion that the government can create economic growth and wealth rather than merely expropriating it from the creative and productive, and that centralized planning and regulating by “experts” can more efficiently allocate resources than the free market does. But more important is the underlying idea of progressivism that Obama’s policies is predicated on: Perfect justice, prosperity, and equality are possible if enlightened elites are given the power to organize and run society according to “scientific” knowledge about human nature and behavior. For two centuries this hubristic idea has led to failure, misery, and murder on a vast scale, yet progressives continue to increase government power in order to create this impossible utopia. Obamacare is just the latest iteration of this frequently demonstrated fallacy that complex human behavior, which reflects the unpredictable free will of millions of unique individuals, can be organized, controlled and regimented in order to achieve some dream-world utopia. That progressives still cling to this exploded idea despite the evidence of history and a disintegrating E.U. shows just how reactionary and blinkered they are.

But the list of progressive fallacies exposed by Obama is much longer. He has laid bare the hypocrisies and failures of the race-based identity politics that

So what; they still write the history... out

Greece Chooses EU Technocratic Tyranny Over the Fear of the Undefined Potential...

polifrog

WSJ:

ATHENS—Greek voters broke months of political stalemate by narrowly endorsing pro-bailout forces in a momentous election, easing fears of an imminent rupture with the euro zone—for the moment.

 The people of Greece have lost what little liberty remained  to fear.




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Father's Day Smile File...

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Beau Biden: "I've never met a successful politician who didn't run again"

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Under the Dome:

Beau Biden, the son of the Democratic vice president, went "off script," as he called it, to fire a shot a Republican Mitt Romney but hit Gov. Bev Perdue at the same time.


At the N.C. Democratic Party's annual fundraising dinner, Biden mentioned that Romney didn't seek a second term as Massachusetts governor. "I've never met a successful politician who didn't run again," said Biden, the Delaware attorney general.

Must run in the family.
h/t GreensboroAggregator




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Liberalism Has Lost its way ...

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 totally lost its way:







So, did it feel like he was making it up on the fly?
I certainly hope he was...





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Rep. Brad Miller (NC-13) - Praises Coattails Perdue...

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Brad Miller had this to say of Bev Perdue:

Under the Dome:

"I wish every Democrat in the nation was as tough as Bev Perdue."

It is good that Brad Miller too is on the way out of power.  Any man who says Perdue is tough is a man who has lost touch with reality.

Bev Perdue came to the governorship with the help of Obama's popularity but upon recognizing his waning popularity, and her own as well, chose not to run again.

In on coattails; out without.
No backbone.






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Grand Canyon ...

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A polifrog pic:

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That Charlotte NC Dem. National Convention Idea -- He Chose Poorly...

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Tampa Bay:

... Meanwhile, pundits have become increasingly skeptical about President Barack Obama's Tarheel State prospects. Just look at the trends: A Democratic governor, Beverly Perdue, so unpopular she opted not to seek a second term; Republicans taking control of the legislature for the first time in more than a century; a state Democratic Party in turmoil after its executive director resigned in a sexual harassment scandal and its beleaguered chairman refused calls to quit.

Not to mention John Edwards' former mistress, Charlotte resident Rielle Hunter, has a tell-all book coming out and presumably will be happy to chat with reporters in town for the big show. Or that Obama will accept the nomination Sept. 6 in the Bank of America Stadium, named after an institution that received a $45 billion bailout. 

Awkward...

More than awkward ... a decision made at a time when prospects were not so dim as they are today.  And  really, that's what is awkward.








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"Is it the right thing to do for American workers?"...

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President Obama, scheduled to give a statement on his latest power grab involving deportation waivers, was an hour late and was not going to take any questions.

He still got one.




Has this gotten more coverage than Gun Runner yet?




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Small Man Big Stage...

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In a World Where Your Every Political Move Comes Across as More Flailing...

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 .... a Flailing, Imperial  Pander to Hispanics is not the Answer:

 

The Obama administration announced Friday it will stop deporting illegal immigrants who come to the country at a young age.
...

The policy change will accomplish portions of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, legislation that has stalled in Congress amid Republican opposition.
...

“President Obama’s attempt to go around Congress and the American people is at best unwise and possibly illegal,” Graham said in a Tweet.

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Mocking Obama ...

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One hour later...



But can Obama mock himself?



He can! He can!











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Storm in the Midwest...

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Via NOAA:

That's quite a bloom.






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Obama Says Our Keynesian Recovery Will Take 10 Years...

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Daniel Halper :

President Obama, speaking this afternoon in Cleveland, seemed to celebrate the unemployment rate of 8.1 percent, and said it "typically take[s] countries up to ten years to recover from financial crises of this magnitude." 

Well, that is about how long the Great American Keynesian Depression lasted before the economy rebounded on the strength of reconstruction after WWII.  Europe perennially embraces Keynesianism and staggers at the best of times while  at the worst of times teases collapse. And Japan's 10 year  15 year 20 year Keynesian recession has yet to find prosperity.

I believe Obama is on the something here.





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The Failure of Liberalism That Underlies the Euro as Expressed in Word and Chart...

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American Thinker:

The plain and simple fact is that the euro's failure is about more, much more, than the euro. For it is not just the euro that is failing, but the entire liberal, elitist worldview that underlies it. That worldview, in a nutshell, is the notion that human nature is as malleable as a lump of clay and that any utopian society one can imagine can be created in the real world simply by writing it down on a piece of paper and voting for it.

It is that failed world view that can be seen contrasted between the more liberal European nations and the less liberal.  But that is often political.  That line of demarcation in economic terms invariably comes down to whether a nation has adopted Keynesian Economics or not.


Below we see the European nation graphed such that vertical movement represents surpluses and deficits while horizontally we see the debt load relative to GDP of the same nations.  (click expanded data for a larger view)





Notice Bulgaria's rapid shift to the left as it shed debt prior to the crash and how little it shifted back to the right during the crash.  Estonia and Luxemburg too eschewed debt both prior to and during the crash.  Each are now rebounding from the crash free of the burden of debt.


Contrast that with the more Keynesian nations of Europe.  Note that few rarely enjoy surpluses and when they do, Spain, Ireland, and the UK for example, do  so via a private sector expansion in debt that created the appearance of growth while eroding those nations ability to weather economic shock.


That faux-growth was good for the politicians at the time but bad for the nation later and worse for those that have attempted to credit their way to prosperity.

Keynes and liberalism have in all likelihood killed the euro.










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