I decided to split off my postings of economic links from Jim's Thoughts, so that I can get that topic back to what it was intended to be, a place for me to post trading ideas and thoughts I had that I felt could be of interest to the readers.

This topic is where I will post links to various economic articles, for those that find them interesting. If you want to read (or post) articles about the unfolding debaucle, this is the place to look. If you are a short-term daytrader or swing trader and have zero interest in the economy, you can now just read Jim's Thoughts and not have to wade through this type of dicussion.

At best I think this material only has a direct effect on longer-term plays, the bigger swings that make up the major legs of the bull and bear markets. I follow this stuff for that reason, and because I want to have a handle on things, if that is even possible in this era of lies and deception, so that I can make decisions on life issues.

For example, as I posted in the commentary on the website and discussed with many people well in advance, this was something that wasn't hard to see coming. I saw many people who told me as late as Oct 2007 that 'this thing is about to 'break out' to the upside, and that Dow 20,000, and then much higher, was 'just around the corner' '. The type of articles I am posting discuss the type of information that helped me form the viewpoints I had back then.

If this is far from over, as I suspect, we are in a similar postion now as back then. With the rally that is unfolding right now the talk is the bull is back, the bottom is in, and we are set. I'm not so sure. So, I try to weigh up all the factors and not get too sucked in by the hype. To that end, I will post things here I find interesting.

More on the effect of the Benoncidal Chairsatan and starvation:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/ratigan-and-fleckenstein-explain-feds-role-recent-food-price-ignited-revolutions

I couldn't get the video to load on that page so I wound up clicking on it and going directly to the MSNBC page, after reading the commentary.

So, let's say I work all my life, and I have savings, and like a dumb a#%, they sit in cash. Want an example? Traders. Their trading accounts sit in cash. Now, if you are sitting on a $5,000 account, this still applies, of course, but it isn't as significant as if you've worked your whole life, are near retirement, and everything sits in cash or cash equivalents (i.e. isn't in the stock market or precious metals).

Just this week I found out there is a substantial increase in my electric bill (quite substantial), several increases in my phone bill, one of them, percentage-wise, outrageous, and a big jump in my garbage bill. The recycle component went up about 100%, and the net effect on the total bill of all the increases is about a 25% increase in the entire bill. This is just this week. I am seeing this now everywhere I look. We won't even talk about my medical insurance premiums.

Every store I go in is playing that 'smaller portion' game. What was 16 oz went to 15 oz, then 13 oz, then 11 oz, and is now 8.5 oz. For the same or slightly increasing prices. That's about a 100% increase, and that's been over the last say year or slightly longer. And the suckers just don't see it, or seem to care if they do see it. I won't even talk about the steady rise in gasoline prices.

This means that for the staples for me, food and energy, and insurance, my main expenses, I am seeing rate hikes from 25% to 100% in one shot. That means I have really lost in buying power with my current dollars, dollars that say took almost an entire lifetime to work and save up. A few years of this, and I'll have nothing.

They say there is no worry for inflation because it can't be passed on right now. Well, guess what, I'm seeing it passed on right now like crazy, everywhere. (Not to mention they keep begging China to revalue their currency, begging them daily, in essense saying please, please let us pay you more for stuff, we beg you, let us pay 25% more for everything at Wal-Mart, please... I sure hope they do that so I can lose that much more buying power.) So, real-world inflation is now here, in spades.

Now, if you just say you make so much trading you don't care that there is a hand out taking say 25% of your money every year (on top of how much for taxes?), well, I'm glad you are, right now, making that kind of money. For me, over time, I'm never making the kind of money that I can cover all the taxes, and another 25% or whatever subsidy for the banks and the elite, and expenses, and stay comfortably in business. A lifetime of work, stolen in a few years. Same as has been happening since 1913 when the Fed was created.

This, too, is all without 'hyperinflation'. This is just high inflation. But with high inflation, you can usually offset that somewhat by going into t-bills or bonds, and get a fairly good return. We have high inflation and essentially zero rate of return. Double whammy. The only 'return' is the stock market.

Yeah, I'm ready to plunge all my retirement money into a stock market that is all fluff, insanely overvalued, based on phony accounting and loose, digitallly created money, and is up around 100% in under two years. And subject to flash crashes and having the plug pulled. Yeah, that's a smart option for a person nearing retirement (or anyone, for that matter).

This is just one more way the non-elite and the country are being looted, right before our eyes, but if a garbage bill goes up $10 or $20 a month, no one thinks much of it, big deal, $10 isn't going to break me... Well, you do the math, and it is going to break you. If you think otherwise, you simply don't understand the numbers of what is going on. And that is what they are counting on.

Man, this pic is just too funny (in a sick way):

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5255/5442417330_db7e4b06a3_b.jpg

bad day

try this

www.youtube.com/user/fiercefreelancer

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/paul-farrell-fed-dictator-bernanke-needs-be-toppled


I created a new T-shirt that I printed off and like to wear around. It says:

Up until the collapse.

End the Fed.

Extreme sentiment:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/merrill-finds-money-manager-confidence-stocks-all-time-record-high

This is really scary stuff. I fall in line with the $1.6 quadrillion estimate. Imagine the aftermath of that implosion...

http://seekingalpha.com/article/251375-derivatives-the-real-reason-bernanke-funnels-trillions-into-wall-street-banks

I forgot, I do have another hero to go with Ron Paul and David Stockman, and that's Nigel Farage. Here's his latest:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-17/farage-unleashed-you-are-common-criminals