HERE'S Why People Support Donald Trump.

Not because of racism. But because neoliberal economics, corporate greed and neoconservative foreign policy threaten to put them and their kids into a permanent underclass, dependent on welfare and strung out on illicit drugs.

The The Guardian - Millions of Ordinary Americans Support Donald Trump. Here's Why by Frank Rich.

Behold, Ourobouros!

Sheila Bair announded the other day that the FDIC may borrow from the banks in order to meet its Deposit Insurance payout obligations that are expected to come down the pike. (No, not the Mass. Pike.) ;-)

Zero Hedge

Even as the FDIC is scrambling to find ways to replenish the practically empty Deposit Insurance Fund, one of its options, namely borrowing from the Treasury, may be a non-starter due to the eggregious monetization by its counterparty, the Federal Reserve, as both run up against the Federal debt ceiling. According
to Bloomberg:

"Any new government borrowing brings the outstanding U.S. government debt closer to the $12.1 trillion limit. Tapping the FDIC’s line of credit or borrowing through the Federal Financing Bank or from private banks also would have implications for the debt limit, Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said in an interview."

More from Bloomberg:

The FDIC board is set to meet next week to decide how to refill funds
depleted by 94 bank failures this year. The options include new assessments on
banks, tapping a $100 billion line of credit with the Treasury Department, or borrowing money from banks or debt markets.

People, I can't begin to tell you how seriously whacked this is! The FDIC borrows from banks to fulfill its deposit insurance obligations and they'll repay the banks by assessing... the same banks! The FDIC and the banking "system" would become like Ourobouros, eating its own tail!

And suppose there's a bank run, like on Citigroup, or on Bank of America? Then all the big banks are in danger of collapsing! And who would be paying out to make the depositors whole to a certain degree? Why, the FDIC!!! And where would the FDIC get the money to bail out the depositors at these banks? Why the big banks themselves!!!!! O -- Ourobouros will be munching way, way up its tail! Once it reaches its own anus... well, you know what'll happen next.

Dear Mr. President, Fire Geithner and Bernanke.

That's right, fire them. Then have your new Attorney General issue warrants for their arrest. For treason. Their policies of continuing the bailouts of the banks can only give aid and comfort to Russia, China and the Arab countries, all of who hate us.

Mish agrees.

Dear Mr. President, With All Due Respect...

Dear Mr. President, I read your New Era $3.6 Trillion Budget Proposal. I also listened to your
speech Tuesday night. You made a great campaign speech. However, the campaign is over. You won. And the reason you won is you offered hope as well as a promise
of change.

With all due respect Mr. President, Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke are
offering the same policies as President Bush and Secretary Paulson. Those
policies are to bail out banks regardless of cost to taxpayers. Mr. President,
it's hard enough to overlook Geithner's tax indiscretions. Mr. President, it is
harder still. if not impossible, to ignore the fact that neither Geithner nor
Bernanke saw this coming. [Ed-M: but they knew it's been here since the first collapse of an old institution last MArch: Bear Stearns.] Yet amazingly they are both cock sure of the solution. Even more amazing is the fact that solution changes every day.

With all due respect Mr. President, Geithner and Bernanke are a huge part
of the problem, and no part of the solution and the sooner you realize that the
better off this nation will be.

With all due respect Mr. President, your budget proposal is the same big
government spending as we saw under President Bush. The only difference is you
promised more spending and bigger government, while President Bush promised less
government and less spending and failed to deliver on either count.

With all due respect Mr. President, it is impossible to spend one's way out
of a problem, when the problem is reckless spending.

Citigroup Fading Fast

Source: CNN

Chart is self-explanatory. Rumour has it that the street is not confident that this gnomes' lair will be saved before it collapses completely into insolvency.

They Don't Call It Totalitarianism for Nothin,

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08/willie021309.html

Karl Marx was an annoying man with some brilliant thoughts, whose work was like a football that Vladimir Lenin ran with. If his words prove correct, and the first few tenets seem right on the mark, then what follows in the Untied States will be anything but continued freedom. Calling it socialism might be a stretch. He wrote in "Das Kapital" the words: "Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take on more and more expensive debt, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to the bankruptcy of all banks, which will have to be nationalized, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism."

Unfortunately, everywhere where the Communists tried to implement Communism, it ended up as pure fascism. Really.

Coming: Death to Bank of America and Citigroup

The stocks of bank of America and Citigroup have collapsed to below $5.00 a share - they are both penny stocks!

Charting Stocks Gone In 60 Days: Citi and Bank of America Won't Live to See May

Bank of America and Citigroup won’t live to see May. The two banks will be nationalized in the coming weeks, and we think that the announcement can come as
soon as tomorrow evening (Friday evenings are when major bank announcements and failures occur).


The US government has already committed half a trillion dollars to these two firms which is more than 10 times the amount it would cost to buy and control both companies. The market doesn’t believe that $500 billion is enough to save these companies.

Today both banks made fresh new lows with Citi closing at $2.51 and Bank of America closing at $3.93. The 1 year charts below show the short term price movements. You should understand that when a bank stock’s chart looks like
this, even a HEALTHY bank would be in trouble. Nobody wants their deposits tied
up in a company that trades at $2. The outflows of deposits from Bank of America
and Citi must be catastrophic.

And here are their stock price charts!

Source: Chartingstocks.net

The US Gov't will need a lot more than the $500Bn already spent to bail out these banks. Don't count on any bailout for any banks to get through Congress this time -- both Dems and Repubs are majorly pissed off at the banking gnomes who took their year-end bonuses out of the first TARP. When Obama and Geither go to Captiol Hill and tell them that the new TARP is must-pass, the Repubs plus some Dems will shoot it down, probably by filibuster!

I gots two credit cards from Bank of America, both with zero balance. When it goes under, I am sure those cards will be useless!!!!!

The Birds

Over at James Kunstler's "Clusterfuck Nation," someone posted an item about omens presented by flights of birds in ancient Rome, WRT inaugurations and getting major projects started.

Emerson taught that all words have their roots in nature. I was curious
what the roots, or etymology, are for the word "inauguration".

Here's what one online dictionary says: "1569, from Fr. inauguration
"installation, consecration," from L. inaugurationem (nom. inauguratio)
"consecration, installment under good omens," from inaugurare "take omens from
the flight of birds, consecrate or install when such omens are favorable," from
in- "on, in" + augurare "to act as an augur, predict" (see
augur/browse/augur)."I guess people used to inaugurate when the omens were
favorable from watching bird flights? Funny, last week we had a bird flight take
out an airplane in New York, causing it to crash in the Hudson River. Although
no one was killed, it was a very scarey and traumatic event. An omen?

If it's an omen of anything, it means that Pres. Barack H. Obama is the Gorbachev of the United States -- in other words, our last president as the country collapses.

Citi Pirates' Group

I just thought I'd make a commentary about the Citigroup Gnomes boarding the good ship United States (still piloted by Bush, Paulson and Brenenke) and making off with $25 bn additional plunder with promises to come back and plunder $306 bn more in the future to "cover their losses" from their bed derivatives bets so they won't get devoured by the Derivatives Beast.

For now, a cartoon.

Two Cartoons

The first one I thought of Chicken Little, who said to Henny Penny, Goosey Loosey and Foxy Loxy, "The sky is falling!" Well, a lot of left leaning people thought the sky was falling for eight long years are now cautiosly hoping that Obama will hold it up. Other people, too. As if one man can reverse all the consequences of the sins of the people in Washington, Wall Street, and the rest of Corporate America. Heh.

The second one was inspired by Elaine Meinel Supkis's many gnome drawings. Except this one looks like a portrait that hung on some gnome's wall!

My Take on Developing All That Oil by 2030

Given the current financial crisis, including the Derivatives unravelling, US Gov't inability to sell 92% of its T-bill offer on the 10th, and general Wall Street cock-up, here's my opinion that there will be sufficient financing or adequate capital to develop oil resources sufficient to attain the production flows predicted by the IEA 'til 2030:

Looks Like Peak Oil is History, or Imminent

Graph credit:

World Oil Production in IEA's Reference Scenario (IEA WEO 2008 Slide 8) Source: (pdf)

From The Wall Street Journal Blog

Peak Oil: Get Ready for the Oil-Supply Crunch, IEA Says

Lower oil prices these days are both a result of the economic slowdown and a possible cushion. But they could be a very mixed blessing. The Paris based International Energy Agency is worried about an oil supply crunch in coming years. It’s not due to geology—the IEA says the world has plenty of oil, in one form or another. But trying to match oil supplies to growing oil demand in coming years is a Herculean task made all the harder by cheapish crude prices which make oil companies think twice about new investments.

The biggest challenge will come between 2010 and 2015, the IEA says in its 2008 World Energy Outlook. For the next couple of years, the oil pipeline is well supplied. But that trails off after 2010. By 2015, the world needs to find an additional 7 million barrels per day of oil above and beyond the projects currently in the pipeline. And to get that oil to market those projects need to get started now. But now’s not a good time . . .

From The Oil Drum:

Unfortunately, recent market events, only indirectly related to oil, will now likely set July 2008 in stone as the date of maximum world oil production, despite the 'best-best case' scenario portrayed in the IEA report. Up against near double digit depletion rates and higher cost (lower energy gain) prospects, the oil industry now also faces a growing lack of confidence in the international financial system where near herculean investment is needed ($26 trillion = 37 times the recent controversial $700 billion bailout package in US), and credit, especially when the price of oil is well below the marginal cost of extraction (at 86mbpd) makes approving new projects, let along continuing existing production, problematic. Though not explicitly stated, one may infer that there is now increased risk that these investments will not be made.

And where are we going to get $26 Trillion to eke out a peak in 2030 when our economy is being killed by a credit crunch that itself is being caused by the just-barely-beginning-of-the-unwinding of over ONE QUADRILLION DOLLARS IN DERIVATIVES?!?! Even more so, when the price in oil is being hammered daily by the collapse of the commodities bubble, which so recently caused great inflation in consumables (food, fuel, etc)?

Looks to me we won't get peak oil in 2030, but much, much sooner due to lack of investment using credit (debt).

On Peak Oil

A long time ago, on a message board far, far away, I announced the existence of this blog with some fantasy route markers I asked the other board members to look at.



A certain John H. Weeks III asked this...



"That page makes a statement about 'peak oil.' No doubt that state will be reached someday. But you appear to state that it has already happened.



"If that is so, how do you reconcile the following two facts:



"1) the amount of proven oil reserves is at an all time high this year in 2008.



"2) the amount of proven oil reserves has been higher each decade than the decade before going back to 1890.



"These are both based on data from the American Society of Petroleum Engineers.



"If the amount of [proven] reserves keeps going up, and we are not even actively exploring many promising areas, then how can one state that peak oil is even in the near future, let alone happening now?"



What I said in reply didn't satisfy him...



'At The Oil Drum http://www.theoildrum.com one can find facts on discoveries and annual production rates. I have found there that discoveries each year are now less than the annual production. Doesn't sound like all-time highest proven reserves to me. The site also includes professional opinions by petroleum company geologists (nearly always cited in a mainstream media link) that Peak Oil is imminent!



'It has also been proven that the maximum amount discovered in any one year, globally, was in 1964. In the US that event was in the 1930s and peak oil production in the US was in 1971 and has declined ever since. The key is not the actual amount of proven reserves but the actual production! And since 2005, oil production has been on an irregular, bumpy plateau.



' "These are both based on data from the American Society of Petroleum Engineers."
'It would be nice of you to provide a link.



' "If the amount of [proven] reserves keeps going up, and we are not even actively exploring many promising areas, then how can one state that peak oil is even in the near future, let alone happening now?"



'Define "many promising areas." Sometimes these areas prove not to hold as much as promised, or have potential extraction costs that make exploitation uneconomical or even unfeasible, even with environmental regulations waived. Also, politics, equipment shortages and a credit crunch could pose difficulties in exploring those areas. Doesn't mean we shouldn't try.'
Well, this is what Mr. Weeks wrote back to me:



"Production rates are an artificial number that is based more on politics than anything else. The middle east could pump far more oil right now than what they do, but they don't because they want to keep prices high. It is the total amount of oil that we have discovered that is the key statistic here.



" 'It has also been proven that the maximum amount discovered in any one year, globally, was in 1964. In the US that event was in the 1930s and peak oil production in the US was in 1971 and has declined ever since. The key is not the actual amount of proven reserves but the actual production! And since 2005, oil production has been on an irregular, bumpy plateau.'



"As shown above, the is 180 degrees backwards. 2008 might top 1964 with the huge strike off the coast of Brazil.



" ' "These are both based on data from the American Society of Petroleum Engineers."



" 'It would be nice of you to provide a link.'



" It doesn't take too much effort on your part to google up that group. They are the source for oil statistics, just like NEMA is the standard for electrical codes and electrical safety.



" ' "If the amount of proven reserves keeps going up, and we are not even actively exploring many promising areas, then how can one state that peak oil is even in the near future, let alone happening now?" '



"We are not exploring at rates that we have in the past because we have such high proven reserves. We don't need to find more oil, we need to pump the oil that we already know about. Oil wells are expensive to drill and operate. You maximize your profits by using existing wells more rather than drilling new wells.



" 'Define "many promising areas." Sometimes those areas prove not to hold as much oil as promised, or have potential extraction costs that make exploitation uneconomical or even unfeasible, even with environmental regulations waived."
Well, let me just pick this reply apart for the vultures to eat...



"Production rates are an artifical number that is based more on politics than anything else. The middle east could pump far more oil right now than what they do, but they don't because they want to keep prices high. It is the total amount of oil that we have discovered that is the key statistic here."



No only do the Middle Eastern countries want to keep oil prices high (above $100.00) but they also want to keep some of their reserves that still remain for future generations so their kids won't be forced to go back to riding camels! Before I go onto discovery statistics, though, I have something else to say about production. Although politics does have a lot to do this, sometimes politics causes people to LIE about the real reason they are not pumping out as much as (we, Obama and Bush think) they could. In other words, the Middle Eastern countries could be hitting their geological limits! This unverified "fact" could be true: note the deceleration of the increase of oil production for the whole planet starting around 1998 (this can be readily observed by viewing annual production graphs that can be readily googled).



No on to discoveries: apparently there are two kinds of terms for "discoveries" in the petroleum geologist and engineering community -- definitely at least as defined by M. King Hubbert in his peak oil theses.



First: what I called discoveries, are known as "hits."



Second: "discoveries" as defined by Mr. Hubbert at least are the cumulative oil produced up to a given year plus the known amount of reserves remaining in the ground for that same year. (Oh, God, that definition makes my brain hurt!)



Production: well, that's obvious.



The source I shall be quoting (and graphs therefrom I shall post in due time) uses the annual statistics to obtain a final total of reserves and an approximate peak year for "hits," "discoveries" and "production." The source is: Beyond Oil, The View from Hubbert's Peak, by Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, publishers, 19 Union
Square West, New York, NY 10003. Available at your local bookstore (please patronize the mom 'n' pops) or Amazon dot com. Here goes.



Page 49:



"We can put together composite picture of the world oil situation by coaxing production, discoveries, and hits onto one graph. Here is the numerical scoreboard for the best-fitting lines:"



Production





Years where (annual production) / (square of cumulative production) is constant: 1983-2003
Constant "a" for 1983-2003 [aka (annual production) / (square of cumulative production): 0.059
Q[t] (estimated grand total of cumulative production for all of oil production history, past and future: 2.013 Trillion Barrels
Predicted year of Peak production: 2005
Percentage of Q[t} used up: 49%



Discoveries



Years where (annual discoveries) / (square of cumulative discoveries) is constant: 1976-2002
Constant "a" for 1983-2003 [aka (annual discoveries) / (square of cumulative discoveries): 0.072
Q[t] (estimated grand total of cumulative discoveries for all of oil production history, past and future: 2.013 Trillion Barrels
Predicted year of Peak discoveries: 1978
Percentage of Q[t} discovered: 82%



Hits



Years where (annual hits) / (square of cumulative hits) is constant: 1976-2002
Constant "a" for 1983-2003 [aka (annual hits) / (square of cumulative hits): 0.072
Q[t] (estimated grand total of cumulative hits for all of oil production history, past and future: 2.013 Trillion Barrels
Predicted year of Peak hits: 1964
Percentage of Q[t} hit: 94%



THESE LAST TWO SETS OF NUMBERS ARE NOT GOOD. For if the total amount of oil that we have discovered is the key statistic then we have ALREADY DISCOVERED 84% OF ALL THE OIL WE EVER WILL DISCOVER, and we ahve ALREADY HIT UPON 94% OF ALL THE OIL WE HAVE EVER HIT.



And here is the combined graph from page 50. Colored in to be more obvious.

What the key statistics are telling us is that we are so severely screwed. And the recent July 1008 of an all-time high (so far) of oil production shows us that politics have more to do oil production than anything else. Whether another all-time high can be achieved two or three decades from now remains to be seen.

" 'It has also been proven that the maximum amount discovered in any one year, globally, was in 1964. In the US that event was in the 1930s and peak oil production in the US was in 1971 and has declined ever since. The key is not the actual amount of proven reserves but the actual production! And since 2005, oil production has been on an irregular, bumpy plateau.'

"As shown above, the is 180 degrees backwards. 2008 might top 1964 with the huge strike off the coast of Brazil."

And as shown above, even if "the is 180 degrees backwards," we are still not out of the woods, and likely never will, so long as we, the world, remain oil-dependent. And the "huge strike off the coat of Brazil" wasn't that big to begin with. And the amount of reserves that hit was reported to contain was, from what I remember, reduced.

I will have choice words to say about 'proven reserves' a little further down in this post. But first...

" ' "These are both based on data from the American Society of Petroleum Engineers."

" 'It would be nice of you to provide a link.'

" It doesn't take too much effort on your part to google up that group. They are the source for oil statistics, just like NEMA is the standard for electrical codes and electrical safety."
Well I did google that group up, and guess what: it doesn't show up. Which probably means, it doesn't exist, PERIOD. HAHAHA. The closest relatives that do exist are the Society of Professional Engineers and the American Society of Petroleum Operation Engineers.

So I looked for petroleum statistics and guess what I found: Statistics on proven reserves by the USGS. Source: http://http://www.spe.org/spc-site/spe/spc/industry/reserves/OGR_Mapping_Final_Report.pdf Scroll down to page 21.

Quote: "Users should be aware of the 'reserves' terminology used in current USGS reports as illustrated in this chart based on results information in the USGS World Petroleum Assessment 2000."

The chart that follows:

World Excluding United States (conventional)
Oil - billion barrels
F95 F50 F05 Mean
1 - Cumulative Production 539
2 - Remaining Reserves 859
3 - Known Reserves (1+2) 1398
4 - Reserves Growth 192 612 1031 612
5 - Undiscovered 334 607 1107 649
6 - Future Volumes (2+5) 1508
7 - Future Grown Volumes (2+4+5) 2120
8 - Total Endowment (1+2+4+5) 2659

The USGS defines "reserves" as cumulative production plus remaining reserves that are still in ground. HAHAHA. These clowns actually include the amount that has already been extracted, shipped or piped, refined, shipped or piped again, SOLD, and BURNT or otherwise CONSUMED by the end user! If you or I went into a bank to get a loan, and the banker asks us how much savings we have, would we include the amount we have already withdrawn from our various savings accounts and SPENT? HAHAHA. Yet that is the logic the USGS uses here. No wonder the amount of "reserves" have been at an all time high this year in 2008, and have been higher each decade than the decade before going back to 1890!

If I include the amount of money I have spent since finishing college as 'wealth,' I, an ordinary middle-class citizen, would be fabulously wealthy!

And note how the USGS gets at the 'proven' numbers: by obtaining the mean, not by 95% probability (F95) of attainment! For clearly the future volumes will be dependent on politics and finance, assuming the Total Endowment is the amount that's already hit upon. If we are talking about future hits in this Endowment, then good luck with the hits, given the current credit crunch and geopolitical climate! HAHAHA.

So, let us get a more realistic set of numbers, given the current financial and political issues that are out and about:

World Excluding United States (conventional) (2000)
Oil - billion barrels
F95 F50 F05 Mean
1 - Cumulative Production 539
2 - Remaining Reserves 859
3 - Known Reserves (1+2) 1398
4 - Reserves Growth 192 612 1031 612
5 - Undiscovered 334 607 1107 649
6 - Future Volumes (2+5) 1192 1466 1966 1508
7 - Future Grown Volumes (2+4+5) 1385 2078 2997 2120
8 - Total Endowment (1+2+4+5) 1924 2617 3536 2659

And one can add to these numbers 228 billion barrels for Total Endowment per M. King Hubbert or 362 billion barrels per USGS for the United States to obtain global totals. So for Total Endowment, 95% probability, we get 1924 Gb plus (assumed) 228 Gb for a conservative planetary Total Endowment of 2.152 trillion barrels. Much closer to M. King Hubbert's estimated planetary Global Endowment than the USGS's mean of 3.021 trillion! THESE ARE NOT COMFORTING DATA, PEOPLE!

And Mr. Deffeyes shows that by data he is privy to that in 2005 the cumulative production (and consumption) was about 1 trillion barrels. Just less than half of 2.152 trillion. And peak oil is likely to happen when about half the oil endowment is consumed!

" ' "If the amount of proven reserves keeps going up, and we are not even actively exploring many promising areas, then how can one state that peak oil is even in the near future, let alone happening now?" '

"We are not exploring at rates that we have in the past because we have such high proven reserves. We don't need to find more oil, we need to pump the oil that we already know about. Oil wells are expensive to drill and operate. You maximize your profits by using existing wells more rather than drilling new wells.

" 'Define "many promising areas." Sometimes those areas prove not to hold as much oil as promised, or have potential extraction costs that make exploitation uneconomical or even unfeasible, even with environmental regulations waived."

Of these three paragraphs, the last is mine. The second appears to be Mr. Weeks' response to it.
We are also not exploring at rates that we have in the past because we have a shortage of exploratory drilling rigs - all such rigs are spoken for by exploration commitments for the next five years! And it is not likely that exploration will expand due to the credit crunch. And 'wildcat' wells will be few and far between, for not only being obviously expensive to drill and operate, they are also chancy. Even with the perquisite non-drilling exploration (seismic survey, remote sensing, etc.) that is likely to precede them -- even more so, now that that credit is so much tighter than ever since the Great Depression. So of course the oil producers are going to maximize their profits by using their present wells, as much as they can. That is stating the obvious.

Ubergnome von Bushreich

The actions of Treasury Sec. Hank Paulson demonstrates the powers "given" to him by the Bailout Bill, HB 1422 (do I have that right?). Particularly given the ultimatum he gave nine banksters a couple of weeks ago: "We WILL bail you guys out and you can't say no for an answer!," gives a lot of people pause as to what dictatorial powers this guy seems to "have" now. (Assuming a properly staffed Supreme Court that will interpret the Constitution, not legislate from the bench's right wing or its left, rules on the Bailout Bill)







Elaine Supkis http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/ gave me an idea:






She has a picture here, http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/money_matters/2008/10/elaine-meine-11.html of Nicolas Sarkozy with her own comments. So I have a similar picture now, given that Paulson has been given to raiding the Cave of Wealth and Death by issuing Treasuries against our future wealth so he can bailout and partially nationalize various banks.


Aqui:

Over One Quadrillion Dollars in Derivatives

That is greater than the value of all things on Earth.

The unravelling of these derivatives could eat up all wealth.

And the $700 billion bailout now before Congress will be a joke if this derivatives bubble were to suddenly burst.

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08/demeritt061608.html

The Bank of International Settlements recently reported that the amount of
outstanding derivatives has now reached the $1.14 quadrillion mark ($548
Trillion in listed credit derivatives plus $596 trillion in notional [or face
value] OTC derivatives)....

Derivatives, as you may know, are essentially unregulated, high-risk credit bets. Unlike the earnest farmer who might employ a futures contract to hedge the price of the beans he’s worked so hard to grow, many of today’s institutions use futures, forwards, options, swaps, swaptions, caps, collars and floors—any kind of leverage device they can cook up—to bet the hell out of virtually anything.

What drives derivatives, at their very roots (if you can somehow get back that far), are base assets that get leveraged to a demented degree. Martin Mayer writing for the Brookings Institute, said, “the receiver of the payments on these loans or securities has bought the securities for the duration of the swap on 95% margin, even though the law says nobody can buy securities without putting up half the price.”

Extrapolated, $1.14 quadrillion in assets “owned” on something like 95% margin has to be one of the scariest phenomena in economic history....

Eventually, shockingly, something will happen. Some bank will slip up, some mathematician will miscalculate or the Fed just won’t react fast enough, and the whole [$1.14] quadrillion derivative complex will come tumbling down around our feet. Only it might not be [$1.14] quadrillion by then. It might be a whole lot more.

Resplendent Rant!

To begin with Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan among countless other criminals. Once Goldman Sachs was threatened, Hank pulled out the big bazooka, aimed it at the American taxpayer and pulled the trigger. These glorified captains of free market capitalism took every bit of risk and moral hazard inherent in the unregulated derivative minefield and jammed them right up our ass. I think George Bush, Barney Frank and Chuck Shumer got a few calls from their "base", demanding protection of their mansions, villas, Bentley's and cocaine. The CONSEQUENCES for this economic rape? None. AIG's Willumstad walks away with $7 million among numerous others. Like I said, right up the ass. We are on the hook for these losses to the tune of a minimum $500 billion. Remember when they told us the genocide in Iraq would only cost $50 million? $10 billion a month, $555 billion to date. It boggles the mind. On top of socializing the consequences, these corporate fascists changed as many of the "rules of the game" as they felt necessary to prevent the further loss of their own capital. Stock shorting was suspended on a triple witching hour day, read: drop dead to hedge funds and their short traders. When you make us rich we love ya, nothing more than a convenient scapegoat when losses mount. The SEC (Socializing Economic Crashes) suspended a bunch of other RULES to grease the wheels that is creating the Dow surge and corporate warm and fuzzies this morning. The numbers being thrown around are astounding, numbers that don't matter anymore.If these "people" think that they will be able to live happily ever after destroying our lives they are mistaken. As millions of Americans are thrown under the bus, losing jobs, homes, life savings and begin to starve, our violent human nature will take over. This violence will be directed at the people responsible, regardless of the number of Blackwater type folks they handsomely pay to protect them. There have been many prior posts here referring to ammo purchases at WalMart ect. in preparation for TLE, presumably for hunting and self defense. I humbly suggest a significant portion of these ammo purchases will be used for revenge and the ultimate settling of accounts. When TLE eventually does come to pass, there will be no mistaking the true baser instincts of human beings. Here on this blog we discuss all of the possible effects of the crashing oil economy and how we will grow basil, transform front yards into gardens and barter for survival. The FBI estimates(1997 data) that there are over 200 million privately-owned firearms in the US, 12 guns for every man, woman, and child in the country, millions of rounds of ammo, back in 1997. We've stocked up a bit since then to a tune of 4.5 million guns a year. That's a minimum of 250 million weapons, including almost anything the military has in the hands of Joe Six Pack. When you look at America's history it is painfully obvious that when push comes to shove, we have absolutely no qualms about taking what we need to survive and bombing, shooting and killing anyone in the way. We have all referred generically to the fact "millions will suffer during TLE." A clearer, more concise description would be that we will first kill the people most responsible for our situation and then kill each other to survive, our history and human nature being what they are. It will take years and decades if ever, to reach the point where we are singing Kumbaya, churning butter, dancing in barns and living in the world JHK envisions in World made by Hand. The Treasury Sec. may have taken the first shot. The people, as they did in the American Revolution, will have the last. Catch ya later, there's a hunting sale at Big 5. Sorry folks, anyone who shops at WalMart REALLY doesn't give a fuck about this country. America's biggest corporation creates its wealth exactly like the rest of Wall Street. WalMart xternalizes and socializes their expenses and produces everything they sell on the backs of the poor and powerless. Period. When you shop at WalMart, you directly support the ass fucking we are taking at this very moment. Nuff said...

Posted by: djcrow22 September 19, 2008 at 12:54 PM

http://http//jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2008/09/a-ripe-moment/comments/page/15/#comments

General, President and now HURRICANE Dwight D. Eisenhower

Americans really liked Ike back in the 1950's but not as much as we embraced the Military Industrial Complex --- it enabled out Happy Motoring! lifestyle for far longer than it could have been sustained otherwise.

Well, he WARNED us of the MIC in his Farewell Address (1960-61). But did we listen and take heed? NoooOOOOOooooooo-o! So now he's back and he's sorely pissed and he's headed for HOUSTON: capital of the US oil industry!

http://www.drudgereport.com/

I don't agree with Matt Drudge's politics, but his link set can't be beat when it comes to Ba-a-a-a-ad tropical storms!

New "Entering America" Sign

This is a curious sign. Actually it's more black humor than anything else, ln light of China has over a trillion US$ of our debt. Plus a Foreign Exchange hoard of over two trillion US$. The scary part it, it might become reality someday! :-O Aye yi yi!!!

And who or what inspired me to make this sign? Elaine Meinel Supkis ( http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/), blogger on many subjects, with her numerous blogs that informs her readers that WE are BANKRUPT and that China, Russia, and other countries that don't particularly like us are the ones holding our foreign trade debt and a big chunk of our other debts!