Mad Statists

A Social Phenomenon: Protests Erupt in Brazil

"A girl organized a protest, expecting a few hundred people to attend. Instead, there were tens of thousands, and then a million. It was like throwing a seed crystal into a super-saturated solution and causing crystallization throughout the whole body of liquid. It was like a wildfire spreading. This is what we so far have NOT seen occur in America. This is, however, what the authorities are preparing for. They know that the array of grievances of Americans is growing by the day, week, month and year. They know that they have not addressed these grievances, and they know that when the promises of government cannot be kept, these grievances are going to spill into the streets." Continue reading →

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David Galland: What the Hell Is Wrong with Obama?

"It sure seems like we are following the script set down by the neocons (Kristol, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Abrams, et al.) that years ago infiltrated the US military-political complex. This is the 'Might is right' crowd who believe in exercising US power proactively to knock down the dominos of all Middle Eastern countries Israel feels threatened by, with the end goal of remaking the Middle East as a region dominated by friendly democracies (or, in the case of Saudi Arabia, friendly dictatorships). Failing functioning democracies, turning the outcast countries into failed states that pose no real threat to US or Israeli interests." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDavid Galland: What the Hell Is Wrong with Obama?

Italy could need EU rescue within six months, warns Mediobanca privately

"Mediobanca, Italy’s second biggest bank, said its 'index of solvency risk' for Italy was already flashing warning signs as the worldwide bond rout continued into a second week, pushing up borrowing costs. The report warned that Italy will 'inevitably end up in an EU bail-out request' over the next six months, unless it can count on low borrowing costs and a broader recovery. Emphasising the gravity of the situation, it compared the crisis with when the country was blown out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 despite drastic austerity measures. Italy’s €2.1 trillion (£1.8 trillion) debt is the world’s third largest after the US and Japan." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingItaly could need EU rescue within six months, warns Mediobanca privately

Official figures reveal Ireland is back in a recession

"Ireland’s bailed-out economy slumped back into recession in the second half of last year, and continued to shrink in the first quarter of 2013, official figures showed on Thursday. GDP tumbled 1.0 percent in the third quarter of 2012 and by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter, meeting the definition of a recession, according to revised data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which added that the economy shrank 0.6 percent in the first quarter of this year." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOfficial figures reveal Ireland is back in a recession

By Global Standards, The US Education Bureaucracy Gets the Most Money With Mediocre Results

"America has a very costly and inefficient government school monopoly. The strongest piece of evidence is an amazing chart put together by a Cato colleague. It shows that education spending has skyrocketed while educational performance has stagnated. We’ve now surpassed Switzerland to become the biggest spenders on education. But we still get a crummy return on all that money that is spent. One reason the system is so expensive is that we squander so much money on bureaucratic overhead. But I guess we need all those paper pushers so we can stop little kids from engaging in terrorist behavior." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBy Global Standards, The US Education Bureaucracy Gets the Most Money With Mediocre Results

Homeland Security Is A Racket Twice Over

"Since the government has created the problem of terrorism while fraudulently denying that it has, and then in building up the DHS has fraudulently offered a non-solution to solve the problem of its own making, the DHS is a racket twice over. Actually, since the DHS's activities actively invade everyone's rights, it is a racket thrice over. None of us would have any expectation of systematic terrorism against Americans in America if there were not a U.S. empire that systematically intrudes in lands where it doesn't belong. Retaliations from these places take time, sometimes decades. The U.S. is breeding new terrorists all the time and in more and more places." Continue reading →

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UN Releases 2013 World Drug War Report

"I found this paragraph absolutely stunning: 'We have to admit that, globally, the demand for drugs has not been substantially reduced and that some challenges exist in the implementation of the drug control system, in the violence generated by trafficking in illicit drugs, in the fast evolving nature of new psychoactive substances, and in those national legislative measures which may result in a violation of human rights. The real issue is not to amend the Conventions, but to implement them according to their underlying spirit.' Read that again and realize the enormity of what he is saying." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUN Releases 2013 World Drug War Report

Fed Committee Member Warns Off ‘Feral Hogs’ in Markets

"Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve and a member of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, said in an interview with the Financial Times that while the big players in financial markets acted like 'feral hogs' by scenting any weakness in policy makers’ intent, he did not think anyone could break the US central bank. Commenting on the market turbulence that has followed Fed chair Ben Bernanke’s signal that the bank could begin tapering its $85bn monthly bond purchases before the end of this year, Fisher told the FT: 'My personal feeling is that you don’t walk up to a lion and flinch.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFed Committee Member Warns Off ‘Feral Hogs’ in Markets

How to Survive When Prices Double Every Day and a Half

"At a 2011 Casey Research Summit, I met and heard the firsthand accounts of three gentlemen from Zimbabwe, Argentina, and Yugoslavia, who had survived hyperinflation in their home countries. Although these may sound like exotic locales with foreign problems, their terrifying histories have a lesson to teach us. Hyperinflation is like fire. We all install smoke alarms, keep fire extinguishers handy, and buy insurance to protect our homes, but most of us will never fall victim to an unplanned fire. However, when a fire does ignite, it can be catastrophic – which is why prudent people simply plan ahead." Continue reading →

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‘How to Make Money Selling Drugs’

"'How to Make Money' is full of useful insights from people who know the drug trade well, including reformed dealers, ex-international smugglers, former cops, pundits, lawyers and government insiders. Interviewees include one-time dealer Freeway Ricky Ross, retired Baltimore cop-turned-activist Neill Franklin and rapper 50 Cent, who sold drugs as a 12-year-old orphan. The film’s emerging portrait of the drug war is of a relentless, historical cycle involving poverty, racism, addiction, corruption, political opportunism, local cops dependent on federal dollars, and a $50 billion, commercial prison industry profiting mightily by incarcerating lots of Americans." Continue reading →

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