What an Utter Disgrace

From CNBC:

Hoffa, whose father, Jimmy Hoffa Sr., was one of the nation’s most famous labor leaders and disappeared in 1975 in Michigan, denounced Republican leaders in a speech to the protesters.

“Let me tell the governor and all those elected officials who vote for this shameful, divisive bill — there will be repercussions,” Hoffa said. “Some day soon, they will face the voters of Michigan and they will have to explain why they sided with the billionaires to back this destructive legislation.”

…

About 12,000 people converged on the Capitol to protest Tuesday’s vote. Michigan State Police Inspector Gene Adamczyk said the Capitol building was closed to visitors when it reached capacity of 2,200. An estimated 10,000 people demonstrated outside.

Protesters lined the railings of the inner rotunda of the Capitol in Lansing as the House began debate on the law that would prohibit unions from compelling workers to be members and pay dues.

12,000 people protesting because Michigan’s government had the audacity to undermine a monopoly run by fat cats.  This is Modern America: a land where Freedom isn’t just distained, it’s outright hated.  Ambition, strength, beauty, intelligence – all of them, ridiculed and scorned.

This 12,000 man army of Childish Rage and Slogans claims that it’s agin’ the rich, and fer’ the working man, but that’s just narcissist glamour painted over a shame-filled-soul.  Right to Work legislation is about freeing the working man from the tyranny of the Union Masters – if the Straw Boss wants to keep them paying his dues, he’s gonna have toearn it now.

Much like the School Vouchers debate, this legislation does nothing to attack the Unions or Public Schools; it simply removes their Divine Right to Monopoly.  Oh, how they hate it.

They claim that they’re against the rich, but I don’t see those 12,000 people standing outside of the Federal Reserve; I see their shifty glances moving sideways at their neighbours, at the young men coming of age, those who are willing to work hard for a fair wage, and have no interest in paying for a Union that does little more than support a parasite class.  A Union which creates a barrier to entry known as the $70/hour Market Distortion that the fat slobs in the United Auto Workers receive.  Oh, they hate the Rich Capitalist, alright – just as much as they hate the Entrepreneur, and the Young Go Getter – but the Value Transference Flim-Flammer?  The sly eye-ticks and the insincere smiles exuded by the investment bankers remind them of their coworkers and bosses; a sort of kinship there.  They recognize one another as the sort of men who’ll wallow in mud to cover up their own filthiness.

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Speaking of the Value Transference, it looks like we’re finally into QE4 (is anyone else reminded of George Bush’s Terror Alert Levels?).  Remember the $40 billion a month from September? (H/T to Save Capitalism)

Saying the economy continues to grow only at a “moderate” rate, the Federal Open Market Committee also launched a new, open-ended $45 billion a month bond-buying program to replace the bond-swap Operation Twist program that expires at year-end.

That will take its total “quantitative easing” asset purchases, of both Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, aimed at pushing down long-term rates to encourage investment, to $85 billion a month.

Again, let me emphasize: these fat sods are protesting a Governor who’s making a politically dangerous, and economically necessary decision, because of their short-sighted self-interest – but they don’t give two figs about the Federal Reserve handing over even more free money (un-godly sums of free money) to the Very Scumbags who destroyed the world economy in the first place.

Eighty-five billion a month,

Eighty-five billion a month,

Fiat pursued to the Zillionth,

Eighty-five billion a month!

Allow me to paint a picture for you; it’s very quick-and-dirty, and one-hundred percent fictional.

The Present

The banks are sitting on billions of dollars’ worth of property which is still over-valued at its pre-crash, bubble prices.  In a Free Market Economy, they’d be forced to lower these prices down to what the market can bear.  The under-water owners would declare bankruptcy, someone more fiscally responsible would buy up the properties, and the old owners would now be renters.  This is how Grasshoppers and Ants relate in a Sane and Just world.

Of course this Will Not be allowed to happen.  Instead the Fed will buy up these over-priced properties from the banks with their printing presses, and the newly-solvent banks invest their payday right back into the Federal Reserve.  The slosh of money cancels out the ledgers, but fails to appear in circulation, thus no hyper-inflation occurs.  An ocean of money is held at bay… for now.

The Future

The more I look into it, the more Peak Oil looks like a discredited theory (mathematically sound, just not representative of what’s actually happening).   Hydro-fracking and geo-imaging are opening of a wealth of new oil and natural gas throughout North America’s shale, and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) provides an over-seas shipping option, into markets where the going rate is 3x what we pay in North America.

2015: We see a rebalancing of the disequilibrium between natural gas and oil, a drop in energy prices by 50 to 60%, a massive economic boom triggered by the production and export of energy commodities, and –obviously– the secondary economic effects of cheap domestically energy.

The US becomes a wealthy, net-exporter again, as per Discredited Austrian Theory.

The Past:

Two years ago, December, 2010 – The Bernank finally gets cornered by 60 Minutes,  following two years of ‘recovery’ which had been anything but.  Public anger is growing, and faith in the USD is at an all-time low.  The Bernank barely makes it through the interview without breaking into tears.

Shortly before the interview…

“Listen, you little worm – the pieces are coming together, and all we need you to do is keep a lid on things until the shale oil comes online.  You will conduct this interview.  You will keep everything in the bag.  So long as those idiots keep buying into the Quantiative Easing, nobody’s going to make a run on the dollar.  Your only job is to keep them confused, and convinced that everything’s well in hand.  Oh, and one last thing – we know where you live, Benny.”

The Result

The whole goddamned continent is going to look like Calgary during boom times – rig pigs throwing stupid money at loose women, further social breakdown as people cross the continent in pursuit of the American Dream, violence and crime up, and massive importation of third-world-labour, depressing the wages in in the low-level jobs which ought to be employing our nations’ young.

Meanwhile that ocean of money begins to trickle back into the economy.

China’s in no position to protest the USD as reserve currency – they’re too reliant on our LNG to fund their war machine, a war machine driven by the excess of Little Emperor, and a massive gender imbalance.  Too many males – need to get rid of them somehow.  An attempt to rediscover the glory their civilization once held, in one of the bloodiest land wars in world history.

In the United States inflation starts to hit worrying levels, but the only economists speaking about it are Peter Schiff and Aaron Clarey; everyone else is distracted by the increase in wages, of consumer goods, of cheap fuel and easy jobs.  Some of them notice that their dollars aren’t going as far as they used to, but they write this off as part of the boom.

Power begins to consolidate amongst the few big winners and the policy makers who take their piece of the pie before they allow anyone else to do business.  Property has been consolidated; trade has been consolidated; entrepreneurship is harder and riskier than ever before.

The hordes cheer as Obama enters a third term: the Nobel Peace Prize winner and Economic Saviour, whom we must support if the Asian Massacre is ever going to come to an end.

Robotic drones patrol the skies.  The Internet is finally put under regulation.  Sex is rampant, and child-rearing rare.  The economy glows with the crass lighting of the Vegas Strip…

…and somewhere in the caverns under Gotham City, Bruce Wayne is training an army.

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My novel, As I Walk These Broken Roads

The Washington Time’s “Must read book of 2012.”