What do you say?

All the little items which makes One wish he was in a Nightmare instead. It is not as bad as it would imply, but only because We are spending our aggregated wealth on the facade of Good Living. Will We recover?–Of course we will, but what does it mean for the future? Nations are beginning the process of securing themselves from payment of the fantastic Royalty charges from Patents and Copyrights–the last refuge of the American economy. They probably will not be that successful in the Short-Run, but they are producing college graduates much faster and cheaper than We are getting trained personnel into key positions. The health care industry is burning itself out with excess Charges; probably less than one percent of American households could possibly pay for their own health care. I have one friend who gets only one Shot per month–at a rate of $2400+ per Shot. Americans have abandoned Production, and are no longer paying the Service industries a Living Wage. Everyone talks about Stocks, Hedge Funds, CDO Swaps, and Credit Card outrages; much like the late 1920s-- except for all the new Crap. It is a Warning Sign when all discussion is on failed new instruments; it meaning that We have taken a Wrong Turn.

I am no great fan of the Fed, but I would comment that the regional Fed banks have been more vital than the New York Fed or Washington in dealing with the Nuts and Bolts of Banking. It is probably why Congress has turned against them; they proving to be efficient operators in their own areas, while Congressmen and Senators are mainly in the employ of the Big Banks; the later wanting to operate in regional areas with the same freedom as on Wall Street. It is not really intelligent to allow the people who brought us the corrupt financial instruments of the last decade more freedom to operate in their own interest. The only real outcome of the current disaster may be the realization that Government is as bad as the Big Banks in the contest to survive the greed of the nefarious.

I will guide my Readers to this defense, though I would advise approaching it with a great deal of skepticism; something which should always be utilized when dealing with Government officialdom. It does not help my sense of well-being to know that the effects of the Great Depression did not really become bad until 1931. I need to be a little careful in this, as I wish to avoid a Charge of being a Fear-monger. Still, the later part of 1929 and the entirety of 1930 was a period of degrading elements throughout the American economy, leading to real hardships in 1931 as households became drained of financial assets. We are now told that Unemployment is unlikely to get better in the coming year, on which I agree. The Press Release sounds good, but one has to remember the rupture of Jobs has not turned around, though We are now watching dismissals based upon lack of Consumers Sales, rather than attempts to grab Profits which were elusive; by the way, those Profits were not really realized anyway. Rule of Thumb: Never believe the claims of a Corporate board, if there is an up-front declaration that they are going to hoard the Cash. It only means that they know bad times are coming, and are trying to get as much as they can out of it personally; under such circumstances, Stockholder loyalties are valued as not worthwhile, while division of the Cash cuts down on their own bonuses (think that their belief in long-term employment has diminished). It is not the case with this Press Release, where all hope to last at least as long as Obama. lgl