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Showing posts with label 2012. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2012. Show all posts
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit):
"I would vote for a syphilitic camel over Barack Obama in 2012, so therefore I would even vote for Huckabee or Gingrich.
But I might try to talk the camel into running one more time..."
Ouch- doesn't say much for those two, does it. But at the same time I was just yesterday thinking along those very same lines... anybody but Obama:
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Friday, February 11, 2011
I had been chosen to be on the team to clean things up for the next occupant (no idea who that was). Boy, had the Obamas left a mess at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue! But it was a great feeling to clear out the junk and get things organized and decorated for the next President of the United States. I feel so energized this morning. Let's go get 'em in 2012. I want this dream to come true as quickly as possible.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Fiscal train-wreck racing round the bend...
Congressional Republicans gain the most seats in 40 years, and what we get is a trillion-dollar Porkulus II -The Sequel? At a total cost that again exceeds the entire cost of the Iraq war?
Discouragingly, Curt at Flopping Aces sees the package already a done-deal... with a weaker-than-circus-lemonade GOP throwing away recently hard-won political capital to bring us more spending, pork, and class warfare. You're excused if you naively thought all this is precisely what America just massively rejected... so did I.
As the GOP inexplicably caves to a weakened Obama/Reid, congressional Republicans are quick to stress that this sort of deal with the White House -which again exposes all previous pay-as-you-go platitudes from the President as flat-out lies- would never see the light of day after the first of the year.
And all parties are understandably keen to avert an immediate economic disaster by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire- which Art Laffer predicted would put us right-over the cliff somethime in 2011... but both tax cuts and a trainload of pork with zero offsets...?
Tellingly, the bond market is appalled- T-bills tanked hard yesterday, with the biggest sell-off in two years... worst since the Lehman Bros collapse. This horrendous month has seen borrowing costs soar for America, Europe, and Japan by more than 25%... you do the math on times-a-few-trillion to see just what that means- bond investors seem to have it sussed.
Small wonder then a growing number of serious people now speak of the previously-unthinkable: a comprehensive economic collapse in the United States of America.
Nouriel Roubini -who foresaw the 1990s emerging-economies debt crisis and earned much credibility by accurately predicting the occurrence and scale of the subprime debacle- sees weak US growth and NO will to tackle the deficit crisis until "the next administration". He also expects unemployment stuck at 9.5% for the foreseeable future.
But that's in the short-mid term... the spendthrift fiends running the US today are doing all they can to bring far-darker long-term predictions of a financial apocalypse to reality... via unrestrained hyperinflation leading to a dollar collapse.
Dr. Roubini himself warns of a "US fiscal train-wreck waiting to happen"- and he's not the only one:
Economists peddling dire warnings that the world's number one economy is on the brink of collapse, amid high rates of unemployment and a spiraling public deficit, are flourishing...
"The US has run out of bullets," Roubini told an economic forum in Italy earlier this month. "Any shock at this point can tip you back into recession."
But other economists, who have so far stayed out of the media limelight, are also proselytizing nightmarish visions of the future. Boston University professor Laurence Kotlikoff ... unveiled a doomsday scenario -- which many dismiss as pure fantasy -- of an economic clash between superpowers the United States and China, which holds more than 843 billion dollars of US Treasury bonds.
"A minor trade dispute between the United States and China could make some people think that other people are going to sell US treasury bonds," he wrote in the IMF's Finance and Development review. "That belief, coupled with major concern about inflation, could lead to a sell-off of government bonds that causes the public to withdraw their bank deposits and buy durable goods."
Kotlikoff warned such a move would spark a run on banks and money market funds as well as insurance companies as policy holders cash in their surrender values. "In a short period of time, the Federal Reserve would have to print trillions of dollars to cover its explicit and implicit guarantees. All that new money could produce strong inflation, perhaps hyperinflation," he said.
"There are other less apocalyptic, perhaps more plausible, but still quite unpleasant, scenarios that could result from multiple equilibria."
Check writing in the trillions is not a bondholder’s friend; it is in fact inflationary, and, if truth be told, somewhat of a Ponzi scheme. Public debt, actually, has always had a Ponzi-like characteristic.
Granted, the U.S. has, at times, paid down its national debt, but there was always the assumption that as long as creditors could be found to roll over existing loans – and buy new ones – the game could keep going forever.
Sovereign countries have always implicitly acknowledged that the existing debt would never be paid off because they would “grow” their way out of the apparent predicament, allowing future’s prosperity to continually pay for today’s finance.
Now, however, with growth in doubt, it seems that the Fed has taken Charles Ponzi one step further. Instead of simply paying for maturing debt with receipts from financial sector creditors – banks, insurance companies, surplus reserve nations and investment managers, to name the most significant – the Fed has joined the party itself.
Rather than orchestrating the game from on high, it has jumped into the pond with the other swimmers. One and one-half trillion in checks were written in 2009, and trillions more lie ahead. The Fed, in effect, is telling the markets not to worry about our fiscal deficits, it will be the buyer of first and perhaps last resort. There is no need – as with Charles Ponzi – to find an increasing amount of future gullibles, they will just write the check themselves.
I ask you: Has there ever been a Ponzi scheme so brazen? There has not.
What to expect subsequent to a US economic implosion/hyperinflation crisis? The Department of Defense has been preparing for civil unrest in the wake of a crisis for two years now...
"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities ... to defend basic domestic order and human security," the report said, in case of "unforeseen economic collapse," "pervasive public health emergencies," and "catastrophic natural and human disasters," among other possible crises.
No paucity of frightening implications in that... but others are being far more specific:
As you are now well aware Fannie and Freddie are going to punish people who have stopped paying their mortgages, who can pay them, and who are paying other bills instead. This leaves lenders with foreclosures and much more inventory than they ever imagined. This additional problem will bring on the double dip that Wall Street and Washington so fear. As a result of this and other failures we are about to experience the worst economic collapse since 1348.
The stock market is topping out readying itself for its most disastrous fall in history. The fall will be followed by years of depression, all of which has been deliberately created to bring the world economically and financially to its knees in an attempt to bring about world government by Illuminists.
...
There are always these lone voices in the wilderness, which at best – some 15% of the populace – listens too. You had better listen this time because it could well cost you not only your assets, but your life, especially when another war is being prepared for you to engage in.
Nothing is really as it seems to be and there are no coincidences. You are about to enter a world of chaos from which few will survive unscathed. A world of no banks, no public facilities, no food and rampaging gangs of desperate people. Unemployment of 50% and little law and order. Violence will be rife.
…
We are now entering the next to last phase of our journey. The wanton creation of wealth, inflation and perhaps hyperinflation, which will rob you of your assets. A stealth attack on what you have left by the people who control your government. Such monetary creation is the only way these people can keep the game going. They know it won’t last, but they proceed anyway.
For awhile they’ll keep the multitudes at bay with extended unemployment and food stamps, but that will fade in time for lack of financial control, as the system begins to break down. You already see all fiat currencies under fire, as is sovereign debt.
Can it get any worse? Of course it can, and it will. Implosion is the word everyone is going to discover and understand...
When it's all said and done -and we're trying to come up with new, creative recipes for K-rations in our bunkers- at least the TEA Party patriots will be able to look their children in the eye and say they tried to derail this country's wholly-unnecessary self-destruction.
What a crying shame... let's hope and pray we can find a way to avoid it:
Monday, October 4, 2010
Lessons of 2010: RUBIO -not Romney- Republicans in the Drivers' Seat for 2012
0 comments Posted by queen at 9:00 AM"Usually, a figure like Romney is the big shot
who arrives
in town to boost a little guy like Rubio.
This time, it's the other way round..."
With Marco Rubio pretty much running-away with it in Florida, all those with presidential ambitions on the Republican side are taking-note of the rapidly evolving political landscape in this country... and making hurried adjustments.
Two things have become apparent re. 2012: Better give us a small-government, Reaganite-conservative... the TEA Party movement will hold de facto veto power over the nomination.
And it won't necessarily be the next-guy-in-line this time, either... both these developments likely sound less than ideal to professional presidential candidate Mitt Romney- the father of RomneyCare does have some explaining to do.
Toby Harnden from The Telegraph (UK) was in Florida this weekend as Mitt was actually stumping for Marco Rubio's all-but-sealed Senate bid. But with GOP rising-star Rubio up 12 points over Orange Charlie, why was Romney even there... and who was more likely to benefit from the association?
America is now making a sharp turn to the right... and the next couple of years look to be quite different than the last:
Friday, September 24, 2010
The results of last weeks' Reaganite Republican/Pundit Press GOP Frontrunners Poll are in. Each reader was asked to chose the top five Republican candidates for the 2012 nomination, and our sample size of 1000+ votes provides a truly meaningful result... thanks to all who participated.
Clearly, the field is pretty wide-open at this point- 'Cuda won it comfortably, but with a three-way tie for second and the rest of the votes spread around the field... even Blago got 4 votes, hope they were just joking, lol. And surprisingly, Pawlenty and Jindal didn't make much of a showing, either...
1 Sarah Palin 17%
2 Jim DeMint 9%
2 Chris Cristie 9%
2 Mitt Romney 9%
5 John Bolton 6%
5 Haley Barbour 6%
7 Bobby Jindal 5%
7 Tim Pawlenty 5%
If you missed last weeks' point/counterpoint on
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Friday, September 17, 2010
The GOP's emerging 2012 frontrunners... take our poll
Included in my list below are the Intrade odds for each: the ultimate devil's advocate, as these are people who make a living guessing this stuff- and in a business not kind to fools. The Intrade number represents what a share costs for a chance at a $100 payout... so it's roughly the assigned % chance for the candidate winning the Republican nomination in 2012 according to their oddsmakers.
My new debate partner Aurelius at Pundit Press also has his five below, then tell us what you think... final results published next week. Here's my picks as of now, fwiw:
+ Natural political talent, huge charisma, tough, principled conservative, a real fighter, building a lot of support with her winning touch in the primaries
- Too good-looking by half, slightly silly accent, establishment GOP/MSM/entire Left out to destroy the poor gal... and Levi Johnston needs to get a job on a rig in Siberia
Intrade: 18.6
Sum: Hard to hold this one down... just like the powerful grassroots movement she's so closely allied with
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+ Highly competent manager, economic expert, previous runner-up, looks and acts presidential
- Too good-looking by half, dull on the stump, hiding/laying low while waiting his turn, mostly absent from today's battle for the future of the nation... disappointing, where's some courage and sense of urgency here? The tipping-point is now, not two years too late...
Intrade: 31.2
Sum: apparent front-runner to this point, and the establishment's dream candidate. For the rest of us, the father of RomneyCare has got some 'splainin to do... and we haven't heard a peep yet.
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+ social conservative, respected governor, no apparent skeletons
- Lacks charisma and national political base, has been tepid in support of TEA Party movement... 'Cuda left him in the dust
Intrade: 12.8
Sum: already running, basically
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+ Wiz-kid Reaganite with a resume/record of success that puts most others to shame, impressive manager in most ways, novel background
- still not 40 yrs old, pretty-much choked in his big national TV debut
Intrade: 4.6
Sum: I really like Bobby Jindal... for 2016-2020, though.
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John Bolton
+ Great strategic mind, true conservative -and patriot- all the way
- Pugnacious nature, honest to a fault, lack of campaign experience, distaste for for inside-the-Beltway DC political games
Intrade: n/a
Sum: Love the man... but I dunno if he's serious about recent hints, and came as quite a surprise to most.
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Runners-up: Barbour, Daniels, or maybe Newt- although he's a non-starter for me personally due to heavy, heavy baggage and a number of poor choices from working with race-hustler Al Sharpton to total loser moves in NY-23... Scozzafava really made fool of him.
As a defense hawk, I don't stand take Ron Paul serious... at all.
Sure like Petraeus, would like to hear more from him on some key issues. But the good General seems fairly resolute about not entering politics anyway, and if the politically inexperienced Petraeus did go that way, perhaps a better fit as a VP alongside -say- a Sarah Palin...
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Please choose five:
survey tools
Thanks to all for participating...
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Despite the shifting political sands of the past two years, one thing has been constant: Mitt Romney running for president.
Having spent many millions of his personal fortune being defeated in 2008, he scarcely paused for breath and just carried on with his 2012 bid. Campaigning up and down the country during the mid-terms, Romney has been endorsing candidates, holding fundraisers and building up the kind of network of goodwill that traditionally stands White House aspirants in good stead.
His message is finely honed and has resonance. Matinee Mitt will never look like that regular guy next door but he's stopped tending to his bouffant thatch, shed his tie and loosened up a little.
Talking to several hundred fired-up Republicans crammed into Benedetto's Italian restaurant in a strip mall in Land O'Lakes, Florida on Friday, Romney accused Obama of trying to smother "the very creed of America" with taxes, excessive regulation and the growth of what Margaret Thatcher called the nanny state.
But the star of the show was not Romney but Marco Rubio, who seems to be coasting to victory in the Florida Senate race...