Banking on incompetence and theft
By The Mogambo Guru
If you want to see how things are going to go after the elections, after the
politicians have stopped pandering to us with their phony smiles, stupid ideas
and alligator tears about "the poor" that they helped make poor, then let's
look at the Netherlands, where gasoline is selling for 1.61 euro per liter.
That works out at US$9.45 a gallon!!
A reader of UrbanSurvival.com notes, without even a hint of outrage, that out
of that $9.45, "70% goes to the government in taxes".
But bad as taxes are, a piece in the Wall Street Journal titled
You Can't Soak the Rich" by David Ransom shows that no matter what the top tax
rate is, total US federal tax revenue is always about 20% of GDP! Of course,
this is only federal income taxes, and the total tax rake-off by local, state
and federal agencies is roughly 50% of GDP.
The best news for the world is that Horst Kohler, former hotshot of the
International Monetary Fund and now German president, has revealed that damned
banks "have made huge mistakes", everything is ruined, and now we are going to
suffer a lot of economic pain, the degree of which has not ever been seen or
even contemplated in this country before, which makes it worse, much worse, a
lot worse, a hell of a lot worse than the Great Depression, which is a lot of
suffering that is nonetheless on top of the punishment of hearing The Mogambo
always laughing derisively and saying, "I told you so! Hahahaha! I told you so,
you morons!" and the only way to shut him up is to rudely tell him that he only
said what Ludwig von Mises and the whole Austrian school of economics said, and
if that doesn't shut him up, mention how that proves he never had an original
thought in his whole stupid life, and even though he is rich because he bought
gold as a defense of this banks-abetted-by-government explosion of fiat money
and leveraged financial crap, he didn't even think of that, either!
I am embarrassed to admit that there is nothing that The Mogambo ever said that
was remotely original, except for his unique corporate motto of "No refunds for
any reason, including incompetence and theft!", although I will point out that
you can make an argument that the corporate motto of "No refunds for any
reason, including incompetence and theft!" is not even original, as that is the
whole attitude of the banks in general and the Federal Reserve in particular.
What did the Fed and the banks steal? The purchasing power of your money, you
chump! How do I know this? Hahaha! Look at the raging inflation in the prices
of food and energy, you moron! Hahaha! Do you actually think that a dollar
seems to buy as much as it used to? Hahaha! Where did the purchasing power go?
The Fed stole it!
Another, more scientific way, but which does not involve laughing or making fun
of idiots who look at the fall in the dollar and are not stunned to
insensibility by the awful ramifications, is to look at the foreign-exchange
value of the US dollar index, which has dropped from about 120 in 2002 to about
72 now! Almost a 40% loss in six years! Almost half of your dollar's buying
power, gone!
Of course, lots of people loved it when inflation in the money supply was felt
in stocks that were rising, bonds that were rising, houses that were rising,
government tax revenues that were rising ("taken from those according to their
ability to pay") and government spending that was rising ("given to those
according to their needs"), but now that inflation is in the prices of food and
energy, they are all running about shouting "Oh, no! What shall we do? The
government must do something!"
Well, one thing to do would be to take a lousy split second to finally,
finally, finally understand that multiplying the money supply is never, never,
ever a good thing in the long run, and that is why the constitution of the
United States mandates, in Article 1, Section 10, that only silver and gold
shall be used as a tender in payment of debt, and that, in turn, is why I
consider everyone in Congress (except Ron Paul) since 1913 and every member of
the Supreme Court since 1934 to be dirtbag traitors, and when the Big Freaking
Bust (BFB) finally gets here and The Mogambo seizes complete supreme executive
power to rule the world with caprice and whim leavened with vengeance, then you
will know the full horror of letting the damned Congress (except Ron Paul) let
the damned Federal Reserve create so damned much money and credit, until we are
both screaming in outrage and spitting up blood from the terror.
Well, to be fair, the lesson of history is that economic crises are always
caused by the banks, the damned banks, the despicably corrupt, greedy and
dishonest banks, and only when the governments, the damned governments, the
despicably corrupt, greedy and dishonest governments allow banks to get a way
with it, which they have, and now we will suffer, just like all economies have
always suffered when their damned banks and their damned corrupt government
have destroyed the currency! The damnable banks! The damnable government!
Well, this is not about how Ben Franklin was right that a republic is doomed
when the voters find out that they get money from the government, but about
Horst Kohler correctly saying, "The only good thing about this crisis is that
it has made clear to any thinking, responsible person in the sector that
international financial markets have developed into a monster that must be put
back in its place."
What he didn't say was that while the Japanese have shown remarkable abilities
to fight monsters like Godzilla and Mothra, The Mogambo can do it at a cost
lower than hiring the entire Japanese military, even after supplying enough
power, porno and pizza to sustain his Manly Mogambo Effort (MME).
Richard Daughty is general partner and COO for Smith Consultant Group,
serving the financial and medical communities, and the editor of The Mogambo
Guru economic newsletter - an avocational exercise to heap disrespect on those
who desperately deserve it.
(Republished with permission from
The Daily Reckoning. Copyright 2008, The Daily Reckoning.)
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