Rants

I don’t remember which snolf it was, but one of them started the now common use in our family of a sarcastic “No, Never!” in response to outrageous statements. So, of course, that was the first thing that popped into my head upon reading the headline Are Paulson and Bernanke Lying to Us?. The gist of the article:

A new report from financial consulting firm Celent argues that there is no credit crisis, and that the publicly available data from the Federal Reserve Bank directly contradicts the doom-and-gloom public statements made by its chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. ....

According to Celent, Bernanke and Paulson are either misleading us with their data or they are grossly overstating the credit situation in their quest to solve a specific set of problems within a small subset of the financial industry.

The juicy details of the article come between these opening and near-closing paragraphs, and it’s worth the time to peruse—for those who have the stomach for such subjects, that is.

And of course, the fact that there are only a handful of online media covering this story is pure coincidence. Surely it has no relation whatsoever to the ongoing saga of one Mr. Madoff, does it?

“No, Never!”

Just sat down to enjoy my coffee—a little late this morning after a very pleasant, but long day with family yesterday, but I figure I’ll say more about that at some point, preferably with pictures as well—and made the misnake of perusing the Reuters headlines. So ... I’m gonna vent a little so that the chocolates I’ll be starting in just a few minutes don’t have a bitter taste to them.

Preemption could be coming to pharmaceuticals. Supreme Court considers the reach of drug warning labels, reads the LA Times headline, which gives barely a hint of how profoundly things might change with the Robed Nazgul’s ruling.

Yes, I know (or I think I do) what you’re thinking: Sunni doesn’t run Windows, so why’s she going off on it again? There are two Windows machines in the house: one of the Snolf computers, which rarely goes online; and one of the teenagers runs it on his machine, because he’s deeply into gaming.

We got FAPped last Friday. We had been getting FAPped fairly regularly on Friday, so I asked everyone to check their machines to make sure auto-updates are really, truly disabled, and to check for other potential leaks. They all pooh-poohed me ... and so [you can see this coming, right?] I’m on deadline today ... and we’re FAPped again. And this time, probably because Lobo’s home, they did check—and it appears Mr. Windows has a virus or trojan, as 200M of something was uploaded in the wee hours of this morning (and yesterday morning).

Once I get my copy written, my plan was to try to catch up on my mounting email backlog ... that may or may not happen, as I don’t think I’ll have sufficient patience left for sitting and waiting while pages load agonizingly slowly. Sorry. Blame Windows and the careless teenager.

P.S. Now that the few kinks in my Kubuntu upgrade are behind me, my machine is probably the most solid one in the house—and that includes the three Macs that live here. The only problem I (rarely) have is Firefox freezing under heavy load—but I’m talking a seriously heavy load for that to happen. Pengy power FTW!

Okay, so lemme see if I can get this blog thingie off the ground... Grunt grunt groan push ...

You remember when you would replace all of that great alcohol that you stole from your parents' liquor bottles with water, carefully marking the side of the bottle first, so as to remember how much it took you to get wasted? Well, I don't either because I never could stand alcohol until I turned about 40 or so, and my parents didn't smoke pot, so I had to... well, I'm getting off track here.

That’s what I consider a more reality-oriented headline for the New York Times article, Congressional Leaders Stunned by Warnings. Some excerpts from throughout the article [links omitted, all emphasis mine]:

It was a room full of people who rarely hold their tongues. But as the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, laid out the potentially devastating ramifications of the financial crisis before congressional leaders on Thursday night, there was a stunned silence at first. ....

As Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, put it Friday morning on the ABC program “Good Morning America,” the congressional leaders were told “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.” ....

“What you heard last evening,” he added, “is one of those rare moments, certainly rare in my experience here, is Democrats and Republicans deciding we need to work together quickly.”

Although Mr. Schumer, Mr. Dodd and other participants declined to repeat precisely what they were told by Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Paulson, they said the two men described the financial system as effectively bound in a knot that was being pulled tighter and tighter by the day.

“You have the credit lines in America, which are the lifeblood of the economy, frozen.” Mr. Schumer said. “That hasn’t happened before. It’s a brave new world. You are in uncharted territory, but the one thing you do know is you can’t leave them frozen or the economy will just head south at a rapid rate.” ....

Lawmakers in both parties described the meeting in Ms. Pelosi’s office on Thursday night with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke as collaborative, and that they were prepared to put politics aside to address the needs of the American people. ....

But it was clear they continued to examine ways to make clear that the government was stepping up not just to help the major financial firms but also to protect the interests of American taxpayers and families by safeguarding their pensions and college savings, and by preventing any further drying up of consumer credit.

I would have hoped that part of that “stunned silence” included these bozos realizing—finally—that no group of individuals, no matter how bright nor how many degrees and pedigrees they bring to the table, can manage all the vast markets that comprise an economy. And really, can we even separate out “economies” that correspond to the imaginary lines on our maps in a meaningful way? With individuals and groups from all over the globe buying property and corporations in the USSA, and of course the importing and exporting that goes on constantly, and foreign investment/support in Treasury instruments and the FRN itself, where does the USSA economy end and another entity’s begin? But such a hope is always in vain, and thus it was revealed yet again that the hubris of the ruling class knows no bounds: more intervention will save us all!

The question is, how? How does one save the taxpayers by stealing even more of their wealth and redistributing it? How does it help them when that process props up the very companies that misrepresented their goods, allowed applicants to lie about assets and then didn’t even bother to check out the lies in approving mortgage loans far beyond their ability to repay? Since when do such crappy businesses deserve to even stay in business, let alone to receive even more corporate welfare? Oh, right: since crony capitalism became synonymous with “free markets” and passed off as what underpins the USSA economy.

I have never claimed to be an economics whiz, but I know enough to realize that shuffling paper around does not inherently add value—yet that was precisely what drove much of the last growth cycle. I also understand that one cannot indefinitely create credit out of thin air; there will be a reckoning when the “assets” that back it are found to be insufficient. And thus, I think that a Mr. Wolfgang Münchau was spot on when he pegged the current crisis as one of solvency, not liquidity—way back in March, no less. People all around the world understand the basics of budgeting and running a household, and successfully resist the temptation to overextend themselves. It is not terribly complicated, except in the heads of central bankers who cannot resist pushing the buttons and pulling the levers; nor in the minds of the politicians who make contradictory promises out of both sides of their mouth without a thought as to who will bear the costs (or how they will be borne).

No matter what action they take, it hurts, because it limits the freedom that markets must have to operate properly. Letting companies that were imprudent and/or unethical fail is the swiftest course out of the mess that’s coming, but we can already see that is not the course the central bankers and politicians will choose. It will be more intervention, more pain, and a very protracted correction that will be far worse than marking everything to market now and clearing the debris. Ma and Pa Main Street do not have lobbyists on the Hill, you know; but the investment bankers, real estate brokers, and other “market sectors” all do.

To all the commentators and “analysts” who are now bemoaning the end of the free market in this country, I can only ask: Where the fuck have you been? There has been no systemic free market here, ever. Even whatever black markets exist are pressured by rules and regulations and their promised punishments in the mainstream marketplace.

What can we do to minimize the coming pain? Being in this country, that’s a very tough question, as we will not be able to avoid the dollar crash that is gathering momentum already. But we can minimize the damage by finding and creating agorist networks, and using them to step outside of the crashing mainstream economic system as much as possible. I’ve been meaning, for far too long now, to create a list of pro-freedom businesses and entrepreneurs; I’ll do my best to get something up before the weekend is out, even if it’s very rudimentary. If you have an agorist business and want to be included on the list, let me know. Other ideas are of course welcome in the comments.

Systems rise, and systems fall. Through it all, enterprising individuals can be amazingly resilient, in part because they stay outside the system and can see and act on trends more nimbly. That kind of activity is what’s needed now, both for enhanced survival and for teaching others what a true, freed market is. The faster we escape from the dog–chasing–its–own–tail pseudo-solutions offered by the federal government, banksters, and others of that ilk, the better.

I found a very interesting story a few days ago, covering how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac execs abused their political connections and hybrid private–government status to hide fraud and extend their reach. I tried to find the story late last night, but got a message that “the page has expired” instead. I tried the Washington Post web site, as the text suggested, but my detailed searching came up blank. Thinking that highly unusual, I checked around some more this morning, and found my suspicions confirmed. A number of bloggers had commented on the story or posted a link to it; his post is dated 9/14/08. A bit more digging revealed that the story still existed on the MSNBC server, in a mobile format. Lest it be memory-holed there too, I have copied the story in its entirety here, because it contains very important information (although coming too late to do much good regarding the players involved) and because it is outrageous that such a revealing article has apparently been deemed unsafe for USSA readers to see. Expect similar shenanigans as more institutions get bail– nationalized, and the economic crises and political charades continue.

The text behind the curtain is as captured from the mobile page, but without page breaks and the accompanying image.

Nice way to start the morning, eh? I hadn’t intended it to go this way, of course, but I shoulda known ... trying to update my system has never been straightforward.

After my last words on the R.P. diversion, I took a long break from LRC. The only exceptions had been Butler Shaffer, and one of the columnists who focused on health issues; but, as the latter recently leveled “intellectual” property violation charges against some excerpts posted in my area at The Boondocks, I’ve stopped reading him. Then—silly me—I heeded the urgings of several people and started browsing the blog, primarily because Butler Shaffer posts there. However, after reading several posts like these, I’m done with the entire site. It’s one thing to encounter nationalistic, grossly oversimplified perspectives in political and media propaganda, but to find it permeating an allegedly pro-freedom web site is too much for me.

Libertarians of all stripes love to talk about principles. Specifically, they like to talk about their principles. The Libertarian Party in the U.S. calls itself “the party of principle”. Yet among its leaders are some who have succumbed to politics as usual at a level equal to the Democrats and Republicans they love to scorn. Libertarians love to debate and pontificate about the Non-Aggression Principle. Yet many support a U.S. war against Iraq and the nebulous “war on terror” despite the inevitable civilian casualties and other catastrophic, NAP-violating consequences of each. Many libertarians think of themselves as being generally more principled than other people. That may be accurate on balance, but I’ve evidence suggesting that, at least on matters of keeping one’s word, libertarians are no better than the “dull normals” some of them enjoy sneering at.

For the past four years I’ve had the honor of working as a contract employee for a major pro-freedom organization. I call it an honor not because I was somehow singled out or had special qualifications for my job, but because of the kind of work I did. I helped spread ideas and information important to liberty to interested individuals worldwide.

In the post-9/11 economic climate, fundraising for this highly prominent organization became more of a challenge. Efforts to secure grants from new sources were stepped up, as were general calls for member donations to help keep the organization afloat. Many, many promises were made of forthcoming support—promises from so-called liberty supporters to an organization widely respected for its work advocating and teaching freedom.

In many cases, that support never arrived.

Somehow the CEO of the organization managed to keep it afloat through a series of financial crises, yet in the end that was not enough to keep the organization going. It has been shut down, in large part because of an ongoing financial crisis that could easily have been averted.

I’m not naïve enough to think that some management decisions couldn’t have been better, or cutbacks initiated sooner. Still, it comes down to this: people promised to support the organization, and failed to follow through. A follow-through rate of just 50% on promises of support would likely have been enough to keep the organization going.

These are among those same individuals who proclaim to stand steadfast on principle, who supposedly uphold honor and integrity as the highest human values. Among them are heads of other major organizations, whose funding hasn’t been as severely threatened, and foundations that reneged on agreements of support. From the luminaries of the libertarian movement to the so-called “little guys”, many said one thing and did another.

If anyone thinks I’m just bitter about losing my paycheck, those individuals are missing the point. I will find other means of supporting myself and my family. I hope to continue doing so in a way that advances freedom.

Because that’s what this comes down to: freedom and principles. I know that unexpected events can throw the best-intentioned person into a tailspin. I’m guilty of failing to keep promises myself. Even so, I try extremely hard to be as certain as I can be of my ability to keep a promise before I make it; and if I can’t keep the promise, I let the other party know, and we reach some alternate arrangement that’s satisfactory to all. I don’t think this organization had much communication of that sort, which would have allowed its CEO to make better contingency plans.

More than anything else, I love freedom. It is the driving force in my life. I needn’t remind anyone of the degree to which freedom is under assault worldwide. Particularly alarming is the attack in the U.S., from our own so-called leaders, who pass legislation like USA PATRIOT and Homeland Security which they’ve not even read, proclaiming those laws will help protect us, when all they really do is strip more of our freedoms away, ensnare us in ever-more life-sucking bureaucracy, and ultimately create a society of repression, intolerance, and fear that will rival—and likely surpass—the U.S.S.R.

The organization I’m writing of had been a beacon of freedom throughout all of this. Despite its budget problems that caused staffing to be cut and services scaled back, it had been breaking traffic records at most of its web sites. Worldwide, the flagship web site was highly known and well-respected. I’ve been to countless web pages upon which one of the few bits of English I’ve seen was its name.

And now that organization—one of the brightest beacons of freedom worldwide—has been snuffed. It died primarily because the people who claimed to value it—those self-proclaimed adherents to principles—never followed through on promises to send in a donation.

I hope you’ll excuse me for not buying into any claims that libertarians are more principled than anybody else for a long time.

A while back, I mused on a possible outcome of the economic situation in the USSA, in Lemonade for Voluntaryists?. And today, I discover that the lemonade is starting to flow.

This semi-rant has been building for some time, as I’ve wandered around the web and seen all manner of definitions and musings about what rights are and where they come from and how they should be identified, protected, enforced, etc. Fie to all, I say.

My, my, my. The bad news has been mounting fast for all the healthocrats protecting the USSA flock. Crows might become an endangered species soon. It could happen ... if all the nanny-ninnies were intellectually honest enough to admit that they’ve been wrong for decades.

Lobo and I undertook a recon mission a few days ago—we visited an upscale supermarket in the area, in hopes they’d have a larger selection of Asian goods than the other stores in the area. We were wrong on that, but were pleasantly surprised to find competitive prices on a few things (not enough to make regular stops there worthwhile, however).

I did find something in the dairy section that got my culinary coils all knotted up. Imagine this mashup: the epitome of 1970s-tech “convenience” foods, processed and packaged in a pressurized can for squirting, then consuming; and current organic food mania.

There’s been a lot of grouching lately about how Congress isn’t focusing on the “important things”, such as the the federal budget, the general economic slump in the USSA, and the wars it allowed the president to start. Given the mediocrity with which they’ve handled these issues—which are by and large the inevitable result of bloated state government—isn’t better that they focus their time on such ponderous matters as obstetric fistula, congratulating Israel for being around for 60 years, a national bicycling strategy, “celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother’s Day”, Frank Sinatra Day, steroid use in baseball, and spying in football? The way I see it, the more time they spend on such idiocies means there’s less time for the Congressmen to steal away our time and money. Alas and alack, however, one has gotten a grand idea for addressing the steep oil price increases of late.