Quote of the week
“But I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; If I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am responsible for everything I do.” – Robert Heinlein, The Moon is Harsh Mistress
The Establishment Is in Despair
by Gary North
“Austrian School economists and analysts who have warned that we are facing a Federal debt cataclysm have now received grudging confirmation from a most unlikely source: the Council on Foreign Relations.” more… [Highly recommended. Here's the CFR paper itself.]
Will 2010 Be as Critical as 1860?
by The Burning Platform
“We are approximately five years into The Fourth Turning Crisis. Every previous Fourth Turning had an economic dimension that eventually led to a do or die all out war. The mainstream linear thinkers see a recovery and a return to their concept of normality. They will be shocked and flabbergasted when they realize that this is only the beginning of a 20 year period of turmoil, chaos and war. It seems that some study of history would benefit the mainstream talking media heads pretending to know what is happening and political hacks in Washington D.C. who pretend to administer the affairs of state. The cycles of history are not identical, but the alignment of generations is always the same. The cycles are consistent because a long human life is always between 80 and 100 years. The previous Fourth Turnings in U.S. history were the American Revolution, the Civil War and the Great Depression/World War II. The descriptions are as follows:” more… [Food for thought.]
A Nude Awakening — TSA and Privacy
by Evan DeFilippis
“[T]he TSA continues to advocate a model of security based upon overreaction. Ineffectual peripheral threats relating to liquid explosives, shoe bombs or printer cartridges coincide with rapid changes to the terrorist alert level (as if the risk of terrorism increases after a failed plot!) and reactionary modifications to security protocol, resulting in the loss of millions in governmental revenue, inconvenience for passengers and the abatement of fundamental liberty.” more.. [This is rather short and worth the read.]
What’s So Great about Representative Government?
by Stephen Mauzy
“[D]emocracy is owned by no one. But neither is representative government. Both are marked by infantilized societies: time preference shortens, and current consumption trumps wealth-producing capital formation; hence, tax burdens increase, government debt swells, and inflation persists. Lower savings, legal uncertainty, moral relativism, entitlement, impulsiveness, and obesity are the corollary. The commentariat pensively asks why our government cannot save or plan. It simply can’t.” more…
Regulars
- Comics
- The Bain Report
- Two failed banks this week.
- Amazon Best Sellers: #1 Decision Points by George W. Bush; #2 Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand; #3 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney
- Failure Friday – if you’re missing this, then you’re missing the funniest link on the page.
Other News and Opinion and Other Stuff
- Five myths exposed by Wikileaks.
- Might Ireland go the way of Iceland and repudiate its debt?
- FCC proposal to regulate network “news” draws fire. As it should.
- Operation Payback – a group of hackers currently bent on doling out some punishment to those companies that openly thwarted WikiLeaks.
- United States Department of State helped Spain fight a U.S. treasure hunter.
- I am a stupid retard dot com
And now the numbers…
DOW Jones Industrials – 11,410.32 (+28.23/0.25%)
S&P 500 – 1,240.40 (+15.69/1.28%)
VIX – 17.61 (-0.40/-2.22%)
CSI 300 (China) – 3,161.977 (+3.821/0.12%)
BSE 500 (India) – 7,605.17 (-268.19/-3.41%)
MICEX (Russia) – 1,656.34 (+6.78/0.41%)
BOVESPA (Brazil) – 68,341.828 (-1,424.266/-2.04%)
Nikkei 225 (Japan) – 10,211.95 (+33.63/0.33%)
RICI (Commodities) – 3,701.13 (-9.02/-0.24%)
Gold/oz – 1,384.90 (-21.30/-1.51%)
Silver/oz – 28.605 (-0.666/-2.28%)
Copper/lb – 411.20 (+11.30/2.83%)
Oil/bbl (Brent) – 90.48 (-0.94/-1.03%)
Wheat/bu (CBT) – 775.50 (-3.50/-0.45%)
Corn/bu – 574.25 (+0.75/0.13%)
Rough Rice (CBOT) – 13.925 (-0.745/-5.08%)
EUR-USD – 1.3226 (-0.0189/-1.41%)
USD-JPY – 83.949 (+1.419/1.72%)
USD-HKD – 7.7734 (+0.0087/0.11%)
USD-BRL – 1.707 (+0.02/1.19%)
NZD-USD – 0.7483 (-0.0177/-2.31%)
3 Month Treasury – 0.12 (-0.01/-7.69%)
2 Year Treasury – 0.64 (+0.17/36.17%)
10 Year Treasury – 3.32 (+0.31/10.30%)
30 Year Treasury – 4.43 (+0.12/2.78%)
3 Month LIBOR – 0.30 (UNCHG)
U.S. Public Debt (official) – 13,846,494,847,569.90 (+5,528,608,516.70/0.04%)
Baltic Dry Index (BDIY:IND) – 2,095.00 (-73.00/-3.37%)
Alright, since I’m already late, I’m just going to say have a great weekend!
