United States Heading towards a Depression?

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/14/markets/benner_freddie.fortune/index.htm

Excerpt

Looks like we're back to destroying the dollar with the bailout.

 

There's still downward pressure in the markets, apparent despite the latest and largest bailout proposals. I basically agree with you on Dow 10000, I was kind of thinking 9500 myself - this is only possible because of the extent of bailouts and dollar devaluations going on. So... Dow at 10k when gas is at $6, that would be like Dow 1,500 relative to what commodities were 6 years ago.

 

We need to stop the bailouts already!

If these companies made bad decisions that caused them to be in this mess then they should pay the consquences like any other business would!

 

Great article up at Mises today from Lew Rockwell.

Freddie, Fannie, and Curses on FDR

Intro

 

Jim Rogers is not a happy camper

This is awesome. More Jim Rogers video (link on the blog post). Watch the video. He absolutely tears EVERYONE a NEW HOLE!

 

Seriously, his bow tie is my cryptonite.

 

Asian markets are down significantly in overnight trading in reaction to the freddie/fannie bailout.

We've had one year of bailouts and there's no end in sight.

 

PPI YoY +9%
PPI MoM 1.8%
Empire Manuf -4.9
Adv Retail Sales +0.1% less Autos +0.8%

 

This is the outcome of destroing a sovegrin nation Iraq in the name of " weapons of mass destruction ".
World knows that it was a wrong blame on a peaceful nation.
Depression is the result of that only.

 

You think the U.S. economy is in this shithole because of the war with Iraq?

 

Ben Bernanke testified today that you're assed out.

 

By: Senator Jim Bunning


As Prepared For Delivery:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know we have a lot of ground to cover today, but I want to say a few things on the topic of this hearing and of the next.

First, on monetary policy, I am deeply concerned about what the Fed has done in the last year and in the last decade. Chairman Greenspan’s easy money the late nineties and then following the tech bust inflated the housing bubble and created the mess we are in today. Chairman Bernanke’s easy money in the last year has undermined the dollar and sent oil to new record highs every few days, and almost doubling since the rate cuts started. Inflation is here and it is hurting average Americans.

Second, the Fed is asking for more power. But the Fed has proven they can not be trusted with the power they have. They get it wrong, do not use it, or stretch it further than it was ever supposed to go. As I said a moment ago, their monetary policy is a leading cause of the mess we are in. As regulators, it took them until yesterday to use power we gave them in 1994 to regulate all mortgage lenders. And they stretched their authority to buy 29 billion dollars of Bear Stearns assets so J.P. Morgan could buy Bear at a steep discount.

Now the Fed wants to be the systemic risk regulator. But the Fed is the systemic risk. Giving the Fed more power is like giving the neighborhood kid who broke your window playing baseball in the street a bigger bat and thinking that will fix the problem. I am not going to go along with that and will use all my powers as a Senator to stop any new powers going to the Fed. Instead, we should give them less to do so they can do it right, either by taking away their monetary policy responsibility or by requiring them to focus only on inflation.

Third and finally, since I expect we will try to get right to questions in the next hearing, let me say a few words about the G.S.E. bailout plan. When I picked up my newspaper yesterday, I thought I woke up in France. But no, it turns out socialism is alive and well in America. The Treasury Secretary is asking for a blank check to buy as much Fannie and Freddie debt or equity as he wants. The Fed’s purchase of Bear Stearns’ assets was amateur socialism compared to this.

And for this unprecedented intervention in the markets what assurances do we get that it will not happen again? None. We are in the process of passing a stronger regulator for the G.S.E.s, and that is important, but it allows them to continue in the current form. If they really do fail, should we let them go back to what they were doing before?

I will close with this question Mr. Chairman. Given what the Fed and Treasury did with Bear Stearns, and given what we are talking about here today, I have to wonder what the next government intervention in private enterprise will be. More importantly, where does it stop?

---

Garrett (Representative from New Jersey) is also another Congressmen speaking out.

 

Oh lord, now Jim kills CNBC. The # of uncomfortable silences are priceless, especially when he tells the one anchor to get a new job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcIBFLSmVGA

Bless him.

 

I'd have to agree with his assertion that the bailout is a doubling of the debt in a "weekend".. Classic....

What is difficult to fathom though is how a company that is NOT in the sub-prime mortgage game got into trouble.... They are not even a primary lender.

If I ran my business they way half these banks did, I'd be long since out of business.

 

I love the band aid statement for the patient who has cancer

 

I'm watching, he's cracking me up. "I suggest you get the company's balance sheet and find someone who can explain it to you."

I think CNBC would love to stop inviting Jim if he wasn't always right on target.

 

They run the way they do because everyone expected the government to bail them out and cover losses. If you knew you would be bailed out, you would gamble like a drunken sailor too.

They are playing with your money, and there is nothing you can do about it.

@smatts, Bunning just earned himself a donation. Thanks for the post. People are waking up to the FED scam. Just in time.

 

They ran themselves like they were some hedge fund.