Mad Statists

U.S. Keeps Nuclear First-Strike Option [2010]

"The Obama administration will release a new national nuclear-weapons strategy Tuesday that makes only modest changes to U.S. nuclear forces, leaving intact the longstanding U.S. threat to use nuclear weapons first, even against non-nuclear nations. But the new policy will narrow potential U.S. nuclear targets, and for the first time makes explicit the goal of making deterrence of a nuclear strike the 'sole objective' of U.S. nuclear weapons, a senior Obama administration official said Monday." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Keeps Nuclear First-Strike Option [2010]

School Offers Counseling for Students Troubled by Pastry-Gun Incident

"if your children are 'troubled' by another kid biting a pastry into something that looks sort of like a gun and waving said pastry around, you have already failed as a parent. The two-day suspension indicates that the school considered this a 'Level 3' violation, but exactly what part of the Code was in play is not clear. The letter suggests Josh disrupted the class, but the reference to 'inappropriate gestures' involving food can only mean he was also charged with a pastry-based-weapons violation." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSchool Offers Counseling for Students Troubled by Pastry-Gun Incident

Larger Spending Cuts Would Help the Economy

"The $825 billion stimulus program cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per job, even based on the administration's own inflated job estimates. Cash for Clunkers cost $3 billion merely to shift car sales forward a few months. The PPIP to buy toxic assets from the banks to speed lending generated just 3% of the $1 trillion that the program planners anticipated. And now? Mr. Obama proposes universal preschool ($25 billion per year), 'Fix it First' repairs to roads and bridges, plus an infrastructure bank ($50 billion), 'Project Rebuild,' refurbishing private properties in cities ($15 billion), endless green-energy subsidies, and a big hike in the minimum wage." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLarger Spending Cuts Would Help the Economy

America’s Great Depression Quote of the Week: A Visit with ‘Dr. Hoover’

"The recovery in the early 1920s is an example of an economy rapidly recovering as government spending and taxes were cut. Another example is 'The Austerity of 1946', which despite Keynesian economists’ predictions of doom and gloom, was in fact was a period of rapid return to relative prosperity following the massive reduction in government spending which followed the end WW II. Given how poorly the economy has fared following the ‘treatment’ proscribed by Dr. Bernanke and Dr. Obama isn’t it time to try a Dr. Rothbard’s natural cure?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmerica’s Great Depression Quote of the Week: A Visit with ‘Dr. Hoover’

Gentlemen, Start Your Presses

"Many have dubbed the last decade or so to be an era of easy money. As it turns out, that characterization may have been premature. Based on the new crop of central bankers who are primed to take control of the world's financial system, the age of truly easy money may be just getting started. Many expect that when Bernanke's term expires in January 2014, he will be succeeded by the dovish Yellen. But that's just the beginning. In short order, a host of serial money printers will take up the reins at the world's most important central banks." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGentlemen, Start Your Presses

Ireland is the poster-child of EMU cruelty and folly

"It has stabilized the colossal debts left from taking on the gambling losses of Anglo Irish Bank at EU behest, that is to say from shielding German, British, Dutch and Belgian lenders from systemic contagion at a critical moment. Deo volente, it will be the first of the EMU victim states to escape control of the EU-IMF Troika, though it will answer to inspectors for another 20 years and the yet unborn will be paying off the €67bn of Troika indenture until 2042. A mass exodus of 40,000 to 50,000 each year to the four corners of the Irish Diaspora have kept unemployment down to 14.1pc, 'What we need here in Ireland is a good dose of inflation,' confided one official." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIreland is the poster-child of EMU cruelty and folly

Fears of Return of Euro Crisis Plague Central Bankers and IMF

"Last year, the ECB supported ailing Greece for months, because the EU couldn't agree on a bailout package for so long. It recently looked the other way when the Irish central bank came to the aid of a bank, and the prohibition on directly funding public budgets was cunningly circumvented. If the ECB were now forced to help an Italian government that is unwilling to institute reforms, its credibility would be destroyed once and for all. Many central bankers are no longer willing to cooperate with the lawmakers behind Europe's rescue programs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFears of Return of Euro Crisis Plague Central Bankers and IMF

Bank of Japan governor nominee Kuroda sets out aggressive policy ideas

"The Japan government's nominee to be the next central bank governor outlined more forceful policy prescriptions on Monday to finally defeat deflation, saying he would not set any limits on the amount of cash the Bank of Japan pumps into the economy. Haruhiko Kuroda told lawmakers the BOJ's current policies were not powerful enough to boost inflation to 2 percent, a target he said the central bank should strive to achieve in two years. Kuroda suggested the most natural central bank stimulus for the economy would be through huge purchases of longer-dated government bonds. The BOJ should also consider kicking off its open-ended asset purchases early." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBank of Japan governor nominee Kuroda sets out aggressive policy ideas

Riot Alert: Look Out Argentina, South Africa, Turkey and India

"If history teaches us anything, it is that inflation usually ends in violence. The Johannesburg-based economic research house ETM Analytics (www.etmstrategy.com), which has a strong Austrian bias, puts out a monthly 'riot alert' based on the speed with which countries are debasing their currencies. It has been scarily accurate in predicting where trouble is most likely to erupt. For all the press acreage given to the political causes of violence in countries like Syria and Egypt, it is difficult to side-step the obvious common denominator: inflation. A 10% rise in food prices can transform a hungry man into an angry man." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRiot Alert: Look Out Argentina, South Africa, Turkey and India