March 12, 1947 (September 11th), marked a turning point in American history. It is not a Greek (Egyptian) crisis that we face, it is an American crisis. It is a crisis in the American spirit. Only the American people fully aroused and promptly acting can prevent disaster.President Truman (Obama/Bush/Clinton/Bush/Reagan/Carter/Ford/Nixon/LBJ), in the name of democracy and humanitarianism, proposed a military lend-lease program. He proposed a loan of $400,000,000 to Greece and Turkey as a down payment on an unlimited expenditure aimed at opposing Communist (terrorist) expansion. He proposed, in effect, that America police Russia’s (Al Queda) every border. There is no regime too reactionary for us provided it stands in Russia’s (Al Queda) expansionist path. There is no country too remote to serve as the scene of a contest which may widen until it becomes a world war.President Truman calls for action to combat a crisis. What is this crisis that necessitates Truman going to Capitol Hill as though a Pearl Harbor (September 11th) has suddenly hit us? How many more of these Pearl Harbors (September 11th) will there be? How can they be foreseen? What will they cost?

Now I highlighted, underlined and reread this paragraph three times:

I say that this policy is utterly futile. No people can be bought. America cannot afford to spend billions and billions of dollars for unproductive purposes. The world is hungry and insecure, and the peoples of all lands demand change. President Truman (Bush/Obama) cannot prevent change in the world any more than he can prevent the tide from coming in or the sun from setting. But once America stands for opposition to change, we are lost. America will become the most-hated nation in the world.

Two road diverged…And so it goes.

Mr. Market is sending signals to us. He is shouting the crony capitalism induced spending needs to stop!

Almost every page of every bill passed is a small fee on many that lines the pockets of a few. It is pure crap. It is pure crony capitalism (not to be confused with actual capitalism).Take the body scanners in the airports for instance.

openmarket.org: “The TSA full-body scanners are a particularly egregious case of this. George W. Bush’s former Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff has a personal financial stake in the production of full body scanners produced by Rapiscan Systems (a subsidiary of OSI Systems). Notably, the CEO of OSI Systems recently joined President Barack Obama on the recent trip to India. No doubt it was a great opportunity to convince Obama of the “necessity” of full-body scanners in the ironic battle to protect freedom.”

Ah yes, this is a change! A change from covert crony capitalism to overt crony capitalism.

I thought perhaps this is what the tea party was suppose to be about, but sadly I believe the message sent in November has been lost in the shuffle. Ron Paul seems to thinks so as well, as illustrated by his reluctance to join the tea party coalition.

Why not just bring the troops home instead of fighting illegal foreign wars? Why not empower our citizens to let them decide for themselves how to save money? Don’t we have the classic ant working all summer while grasshopper lounges issue here? Watch this story play out in Europe and next in the U.S.

The EU has empowered a few, at the expense of many, and has, ironically enough, done so in the name of freedom. Well that sham of an experiment is coming to an end, and trust me, it will end badly! Sadly, I must contend, that we will not get any real change until Mr. Market forces change upon us. Now we are seeing the slow death of freedom and democracy in front of our very eyes in the EU. Perhaps Mr. Market intends to deal a quick death blow that will allow an expedient restructuring, however I don’t see that as a likely outcome. There too many pockets being lined with cash. There are too many, with too much at stake, to allow real reform to occur.

Maybe we can avoid the type of pissed off nationalism that inevitably is channeled toward the “others” by governments and consequently avoid the outbreak of the ultimate destruction of liberty… aka wars.

House Democrats, led by Charlie Rangel, are setting a course to apply a 1% surtax on married couples making $350,000 or more; raising to 2% for those earning in excess of $500,000; and 3% for anybody with audacity to be pulling in more than a cool million (someone has t o pay for Obama’s $550 billion health plan.) We saw this ‘soak-the-rich’ strategy happen in Ontario in the early 1990′s and it let to (i) the brain drain (ii) capital flight; (iii) eroding productivity growth and lower standards of living and (iv) a currency depreciation.

But then again who carries about productivity? The scary part is that the soak the rich legislation will surely pass through the House in whatever form it comes. Politicians, they are Robin Hood’s of the USA, playing the ‘good guy’ in their own a fairy tale.

Now, we hear that an Obama supported plan to erase that savings by giving all Federal workers four weeks paid time off after the birth or adoption of a child.  This plan will cost $140 million.  That you can even propose such a ridiculous idea at a time like this is so incredibly maddening and it’s no surprise that I have major issues with this plan.

My qualms center on three main points: 1) four weeks is too long; 2) the employee sacrifices nothing; 3) government has no money for the program.  Of course, the most devastating impact of this legislation may come from the potential it has to set a precedent for future action (in the private sector).

Granted, this is one of many additional expenditures created since the cost cutting news spectacle, but I thought it was illustrative to show just how quickly those savings could be erased.

Productivity, what a novel thought.

The unseen: What about the workers that are not part of the auto industry that did get laid off? What about the worker whose 401k is down 40% with no pension plan? What about the guy who saves and saves and saves, only to have the value of savings dwindle via inflation in order to pay for the bailout of the auto worker (I am sorry let’s be honest here, this is a bailout of a group of people that have political pull, not the saving of a so called iconic “American” industry)?  What about the capital resources that are redirected to the auto sector versus another, more viable sector? What about the effect on bond investors?

In a NYT op-ed piece James Glassman claims that this might  “Drive the bond market to ruin”. This is the what I call the “Obama Button”.  It’s like the reset button. What would happen if we pressed the reset button? Who knows right? All bets are off! If I am a bond investor I have to price in whether or not an industry will be “bailed out”.  While the immediate effect is saving a few hundred thousand jobs, the long term effect is that there will be more market volatility because we never no who is next to be part of our “bailout nation” or even how to price the possibility of a bailout. Will the bailout lead to the bonds being “made whole” like they were for Citigroup or will do I price in huge discount in case the government tries to super cede me in the capital structure (think Chrysler secured bondholders).

First and foremost is the acceptance of General Motors bankruptcy.  The American taypayer now has an 60 percent ‘equity’ investment in the company.  Sweeet.

Next, and perhaps the president needed to pad his May expenses a little bit, but his excessive ‘date’ to New York City cost the American taxpayer a pricey penny.  How many press and media members needed to follow this ‘event’?  One, two, ten, one plane full, how about two planes full.  Just accept it.

I couldn’t believe how lame McCain’s celebrity ads were when he ran them during the campaign, but perhaps he was onto something….

Any ideas for what we’re to accept next.

Gilbert lays out three reasons why currency investors are starting to doubt the US government, after all why ‘pick on’ the dollar as he says: “These include the state’s pressure on Bank of America Corp. to buy Merrill Lynch & Co.; the priority given to Chrysler LLC’s unions over the automaker’s secured creditors; and the freedom that some banks will regain to supersize executive bonuses by giving back part of the government money bolstering their balance sheets.”

It’s sad, but I revel in seeing stories like this on such a mainstream, if niche, media outlets.  Will Obama Time Magazine ever run something like this?  Probably not.  A likely op-ed in the New York Times?  Not if it unmasks Krugman for the hack that he is.

As an aside: let’s make it clear … dollar is dirt and treasuries are toast, those things ring true to me.  Adding that AAA is gone means nothing.  Gilbert mentions that even a downgrade to AA makes the USA’s creditworthiness “very strong” — something that is laughable.  Standards and Poor’s ratings are as worthless as the Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization and the Securities and Exchange Commission that props them up.

This mission is for Obama guys!

In case you missed it, there was some hulla balloo in downtown New York City Monday when the federal government sent Air Force One (along with its paparazzi) on a secret mission.  It seems like the secret mission included a photo op flyby of the Statue of Liberty.  The planes logically took a path most similar to the ones taken on 9/11.  Genius.

Like any good Austro-libertarian I asked myself if a private company, say XYZ Company, would have the hubris to complete such a mission.  In all honesty you know what, perhaps it would.  It’s impossible to know for sure.  One thing that we do know is that there would be immediate backlash from potential consumers of XYZ Company.  In other words, they would be accountable.  In this case, however, other than some trumped up anger from the president (and likely a fired employee), the government will go unscathed.  After all. what can we really do?

To top all of this off, the government spent $328k on this folly.  That should sicken each and every one of you.  As Federal Reserve inflates our money supply by the trillion, the same government still has the pretense to send Airforce One on this special mission.  Can’t say I’m surprised.