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Tag Archive | "Ben Bernanke"

Bricks in the wall

Thursday, June 30, 2011

143 Comments

The U.S. Department of Defense consumes 360,000 barrels of oil each day. Yet corporate Amerika wants you to conserve, no doubt to save the last drops for the military (to be used to secure more oil). We’re being fleeced, folks, and the fleecing continues unabated at all levels. Here’s a minor example of the fox [...]

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Reality bites

Sunday, May 15, 2011

136 Comments

The BRICS are making their move to shove aside the U.S. dollar (although their own troubles might interfere). The dollar dump is particularly timely in light of recent recognition that U.S. credit verges on junk status, and rates lower than Mexico and several other countries with relatively small industrial economies. And, as pointed out by [...]

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Partial understanding on planet Easter Island

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

117 Comments

The recent S&P downgrade of U.S. debt is yet another example of a circus sideshow in a nation filled with clowns sleepwalking off a cliff. Ben Bernanke, the master of ceremonies in the most ridiculous show on Earth, has come up with a new scheme to print money, hence plunge a financially bankrupt nation further [...]

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Like an elevator when the cable breaks

Sunday, April 17, 2011

82 Comments

According to Mark Twain, “civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.” It seems western civilization is just about done with the mindless multiplication of anything, much less unnecessary nonsense. It’s too late for a fast collapse of the industrial economy. According to every significant index, the U.S. hit its economic peak in 2000. We’ve [...]

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Demise of the dollar

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

109 Comments

The U.S. dollar continues its journey from Brobdingnagian to Lilliputian stature, and the latest trade report is a prelude to the dollar as microbe. The Prime Mover in this case is King Ben, who has the helicopter on track for a one-way trip to Zimbabwe with every American along for the ride. Death of the [...]

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Techno-optimism meets its match

Monday, November 15, 2010

68 Comments

According to the extremely conservative International Energy Agency (IEA), we’ve passed the world peak for conventional oil (in 2006, they say). In a stunning nod to reality, even the New York Times agrees. In a bizarre case of committee-style cognitive dissonance, the IEA follows up on the admission that peak oil has come and gone [...]

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King Ben

Friday, November 5, 2010

61 Comments

The authority of the U.S. federal government has eroded to the vanishing point. No longer do the three branches of government possess significant authority. Their collective ability to right the listing ship of empire has been negated by forces large and small. Whereas the president used to have considerable power, primarily through his position as [...]

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Empire of lies

Sunday, October 31, 2010

44 Comments

Benny and the Inkjets are tossing the money around, but it didn’t pump up the industrial economy the last time and QE2 will be no better, even if the next version is expectedly gihugic. He’s destroying the dollar in the process of printing fiat currency, but he cannot keep up with the ongoing economic contraction. [...]

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Economic and environmental consequences of expensive oil

Friday, July 16, 2010

17 Comments

What are the causes and consequences of expensive oil? The first question is posed in this article, and answered surprisingly well by a neoclassical economist. He understands the relationship between the price of oil and economic growth, and he hints at constrained supply while also expressing irrational exuberance about continued economic growth. As an economist, [...]

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Strike one … you’re out?

Monday, July 5, 2010

9 Comments

Bad Company’s Shooting Star blares over the PA system. Don’t you know, yeah, yeah The hour is late as the game enters the top of the ninth inning. The home team has held the Industrialists scoreless, and leads by a single run. If the Industrialists score, the home team will bring out the bats. Don’t [...]

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