Austrian Light on the History of Bubbles

Review of Doug French's Early Speculative Bubbles and Increases in the Supply of Money on Mises.org.

The Coming Economic Catastrophe

Forget all those sweaty teenage encounters. This may be the most illuminating hour of your life.

Just listen, as Marc Faber explains everything:

Peter Jackson's going to have to do it

Forget 'The Greatest Depression', and all the other financial woes.

We'll come out the other side. The market will take care of that. So long as it can successfully push government out of the way and we can stop these idiots starting World War III to try to cover up their unbelievable blunders.

No, what's really important is that someone makes 'The Hobbit'.

And I think it's going to have to be Peter Jackson, now that Guillermo del Toro has quit.

Yes, it is weird that a film which will almost certainly make a ton of money has been so horribly delayed by MGM's long term bond woes, but that's what you get when you let governments spend a hundred years infesting the world's monetary systems to the point of complete breakdown.

Everything good gets shafted. Everything bad gets subsidised.

Let's just hope that when Peter Jackson finally makes this film that he's in 'Lord of the Rings' mood and not 'King Kong' mood.

Liam Halligan for Chancellor

He's a star:

=> Herman and his Frankenstein euro have done enough damage already

Bonson Jorris for PM

There are very few politicians in the world who would be invited to a Maturin Towers bash, but Sir Bonson Jorris is one of them.

God hail him, and all who sail in him.

=> All our limo-loving politicians should be sent down the Tube

Danny Alexander, new Treasury chief, avoided capital gains tax on house

You couldn't make it up.

In the words of Albus Dumbledore, I would like to say a few words:

Crooks, thieves, swindlers, liars, degenerates, charlatans, bandits, criminals, deviants, granny robbers, shysters, and self-regarding toe-rags.

These are just some of the words I could use to describe the counterfeiting pelf merchants in the Glorious Coalition.

Doug Casey — The Greater Depression Has Arrived, so What's Next?

Half an hour more from The Guvnor:

The Austrian Phyle

In the world of the future, when we will have ditched the nation state and replaced it with Neal Stephenson's phyles, I was wondering which phyle you would be in?

I'll be in 'The Austrian Phyle'.

Our 100% gold-backed currency will be 'The Rothbard', with One Rothbard representing one gold Troy ounce.

Our flag will be the old imperial flag of Austria emblazoned with the coat of arms of Ludwig von Mises.

And we will all be extremely heavily armed.

Anyone in 'The Guardian' phyle need not apply for dual-citizenship.

Doug Casey — FreedomFest 2009 and "The Greater Depression"

While we're on the subject of The Guvnor, here's Doug Casey last year predicting everything that's happened in the last year. Mr Casey may actually be nudging ahead in my pack of Austrian favourites, even edging out Mr Schiff and Mr Rogers. And that's saying something!

No video, alas, only scratchily-recorded audio. But still brilliant, for all that:



Quote from Einstein, relayed by The Guvnor in his speech:

"The second most abundant element in the Universe after hydrogen is stupidity."

The Guvnor Speaks — We are in the Greater Depression

David Kramer uncovers a great video interview with The Guvnor, Doug Casey. Look out for the quotes on really long depressions including the Dark Ages and entire life of the Soviet Union. While watching, for Dollar, read Pound; for US, read UK:

"Everything the government has done has been the exact opposite thing of the right thing to do."

Quote of the Day

I would abolish the Federal Reserve and I would resign.

Jim Rogers, on being asked what he would do if he were placed in Ben Bernanke's shoes.

Winner of Today's Turkish Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton studies the rather dusty line of his second-place pole start position, today, before the race began, while modelling his new double-stud black earrings - any similarity to a 'Prize Cock' is entirely unintended and purely coincidental
Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton on winning today's Turkish Grand Prix, despite not being in any way a top man, unlike either Jensten Buttonia or Mark Webmeister.

PS> And congratulations to Mark Webmeister for not murdering Randy Mandy's old boyfriend.

There is no such thing as 'new' politics

There is only one form of politics and there has only ever been one form of politics.

And that is the use of force by organised thieves to extract pelf from victims and organised arrangements between these thieves to share the take.

Whether these thieves are called bandits, mafiosi, kings, politicians, or statesmen, it is the same game and it always has been the same game.

Whether the semi-contractual arrangements between these self-regarding crooks have been called gang rules, turf laws, kingdoms, democracies, or supranationals, it is still part of the same game.

So will the British press please stop referring to the current form of the same old game being played in the Westminster bubble as 'the new politics'. It is the same old politics of gangs of Westminster thieves playing against each other but needing to organise themselves collectively in various gang formations to extract the most pelf personally for each particular thief at the least possible personal risk to themselves.

If they have to jettison one of the gang members who has been caught dipping his wick and spending his pelf too outrageously, temporarily awakening the brainwashed sheeple to the ongoing and mysterious emptyings of their wallets, then jettisoned he will be, to preserve the future wealth-stealing activities of the rest.

Robert de Niro spent much of Goodfellas going around slaying those who spent the take too visibly. Laws had to go on the meat hook in the back of the freezer truck for the same reason, to preserve the ability of all the other crooks in the Glorious Coalition Crew to go on stealing from us.

It really is as simple as that.

Welcome to Maturin World. Everything is clear.

Two down, six to go

With the Spanish government's debt downgrade, it would appear PIMCO's 'Ring of Fire' map is coming true.

What's the betting that the EU will make it illegal for rating agencies to give anything other than AAA gradings for EU sovereign debt? What's the subsequent betting that this will make absolutely no difference at all?

Pip pip!!

Cronies take another dip from the trough of pelf

Apparently, Neil Kinnock and his dreadful wife have trousered £12 million pounds in taxpayer-extracted pelf over the years, making them two of the richest socialists in Wales.

Read more about the latest line of failed pols and other Westminster hacks, as they all line up at the trough, including the sad John Prescott once again 'selling out' to the toffs, and plunging his maw into the ongoing stream of wealth stolen from the working people of this country.

Mercantilism in England

Superb article by, who else?, Uncle Murray, describing the rotten guild and nation state system of medieval England, which continuously tried to throttle the life out of all enterprises, to gain miserable short-term benefits for the privileged few.

Yes, this does indeed sound a lot like today. Let us hope that Treasury Minister rent boy stories, and similar public-outing humiliations and tax-waste revelations, can make our current masters equally ineffective in preventing the market from saving us:

It was in the 16th century that England began its meteoric rise to the top of the economic and industrial heap. The English Crown in effect tried its best to hobble this development by mercantilist laws and regulations but was thwarted because, for various reasons, the interventionist edicts proved unenforceable...

Good old Uncle Murray.

What does a £40,000 pound rent boy look like?

This.

Apparently.

Maybe when they raise capital gains tax next week, the Westminster hackers will be able to buy £60,000 pound rent boys? It's amazing what the government can achieve when they set their minds to a thing.

Capital gains tax and the politics of envy

Sir Bufton Huffchester opines on the madness of increasing investment taxes in the midst of a depression, to help fund £40,000 pound rent boys for Westminster hackers, and fuel the envious hatred of socialists.

BTW, ignore Sir Huff's nonsense about drug taking and prostitution, where he lets down his liberal instincts and reveals his authoritarian ones

Schiff Report Video Blog: European Market Overview

The Duke reports on China's reconsideration of its Euro purchase policy, the latest Spanish downgrade, and on how the market has subsequently moved its eye away from America's own debt problems. He follows this with a discussion of Greece, how its debt problem should have been handled, and how the 'Continuous Depression' was interrupted briefly by a wasteful phoney spending binge, which will make the underlying problems last much longer.

We now all know that governments will not do the right thing and will try to inflate their way out of all subsequent 'double-dips', 'triple-dips', call them what you will, thus feeding the depression, and that the ultimate end of this is a collapsed Dollar and a collapsed Euro.

He predicts that the next 'dip' will be in long-term government and corporate bonds, and all other forms of long-term debt:

Precious Metal Protection from Frightening New Creatures

The Mogambo Guru has been drinking too many Peanut butter milkshakes again, as his Basic Mogambo Strategy (BMS) to avoid synthetic blood-sucking creatures leads him into recommending that you buy gold, silver, and oil.

Who'd 'a' thunk it?

Jose Mourinho on brink of Real Madrid move after Inter Milan agree compensation deal

Jose's on the move again.

Let's see how long he lasts at Real Madrid.

AngloAustria's favourite soccer manager's jobs coaching Manchester United - and then England - can't be too many years off, now.

The Wall Street Journal's War On Gold

Uncle Gary gets back on form with his latest musings on gold.

Link to Uncle Gary's free 2009 book mentioned in the above piece:

The Gold Wars

Table of Contents

• Gold at $10,000?
• Gold’s Tremendous Leverage
• Greenspan, the Gold Bug
• Government Gold Standard: Bait and Switch
• Two Kinds of Gold Standard
• If Gold Goes to $3,000
• Gold at $3,500 by 2010?
• Gold Is a Political Metal
• Gold Sales Threatened (Again)
• Is America’s Gold Gone?
• Cliche: “Gold Is Just Another Commodity”
• Cliche: “There Isn’t Enough Gold”
• Exchange Rates and Gold
• The Re-Monetization of Gold
• Gold’s Dust and Dusty Gold

MPs' Expenses: Treasury chief David Laws, his secret lover and a £40,000 claim

What your capital gains tax looks like before it's handed on to Westminster hackers' lovers
So now we know why the current gang of crooks in Westminster need to rape the rest of us with increases in capital gains tax. So they can pay their lovers £40,000 pounds of our money, to make them love them more.

Sweet.

Blair's fight to keep his oil cash secret: Former PM's deals are revealed as his earnings since 2007 reach £20million

Tony Blair really is a piece of work.

To think I used to knock on doors in the pouring rain (well, light drizzle), to get this man into Downing Street.

It really makes me sick.

And I apologise.

I just didn't realise what a selfish money-fixated criminal I was helping to unleash upon the world.

May God forgive me for my stupidity.

How long do you work for the tax man?

Excellent YouTube by the Tax Payers' Alliance:

ID cards scheme to be scrapped within 100 days

Papieren, bitte!
Let us not be churlish.

Let us give praise where praise is due.

For the Glorious Coalition is going to scrap the fascist police state horror of ID cards.

Let us hope they destroy all of the records too (which they won't), that will enable the next fascist government to roll it all back in again, when the Glorious Coalition collapses under the weight of its double think.

But fair's fair. Minus several hundred for pathetic budget cuts, capital tax gains increases, and the failure to drastically roll back the state. Plus one for scrapping the current ID card scheme.

It will be back.

Normal service of kicking the Glorious Coalition will resume momentarily

Public Law 111-148 is hereby repealed

Uncle Gary's plan for the Ron Paulians to take over the U.S. Republican Party.

Total Fed Credit Takes Credit for Inflationary Nightmares

The Guru is sent to his Stupid Mogambo Bunker (SBM) where he finds his Mogambo Fed Alarm (MFA) ringing its little heart out because of the $28 billion dollars the Fed magicked out of thin air last week, to pump into the fractional reserve system.

Mysterious Money Supply Discrepancies

The Mogambo Guru uses his Powerful Mogambo Brain (PMB) to advise us to “Buy gold, silver and oil right away!", after seeing the latest money supply figures from the Fed.

Capital gains tax rise to punish prudent savers

George Osborne, yesterday, putting the finishing touches to his budget
Another nail in the coffin of a productive economy based on savings.

Spend! Spend! Spend!

The mantra of all tyrants at all times.

Martin Wolf and the Vampire Economy

Sean Corrigan, Chief Investment Strategist at Diapason Commodities Management, tells all about the FT’s Great Keynesian Thinker, Martin Wolf.

Excellent.

Have We Crossed the Point of No Return?

All Aboard the Good Ship "European Dream"!
Philipp Bagus, an associate professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, thinks we might have.

Why Asia Will Overtake America

Uncle Gary writes a strangely tangential piece which eventually gets to the crux of the matter:

Once China's real estate bubble has popped, it will be time to move capital into the region that is committed to future-orientation. These people are not just hard workers. They are not merely high-return workers when given capital. They are uniquely future-oriented. This is new to Asia. It is part of the Western influence: Fabian socialism in India and Marxism in China. Both systems limit economic growth, but they are both linear and highly future-oriented: the kingdom of central planning society. When central planning is abandoned because of its inefficiency, the concept of linear history remains.

US money supply plunges at 1930s pace as Obama eyes fresh stimulus

Oh no, not another 'stimulus'!

When will these Frankenstein bozos finally work it out that what they are doing isn't working.

Phone Auburn, Alabama, Mr President. Speak to some people who actually know what's going on.

Is Europe heading for a meltdown?

Err... Yes.

Good article from Edmund Conway, who even puts the words 'Madoff', 'Ponzi', and 'Greenspan' in the same paragraph. Top marks, sir.

PS> Mrs Conway, just why did you call your son Edmund? Wouldn't Edward have been a lot easier for everyone to say?

Schiff political update

Two new Schiff reports on his current campaign news:

(Good line on grass roots and astroturf, in this one! :-)



(And then there were two...)

The Damning Effects of the Global Debt Crisis

The Mogambo Guru partially reveals his cunning Mogambo Plan Of Vengeance (MPOV), while discussing the financial fall-out from the ongoing Greek drama. (Or should that be drachma?)

Investing in Silver as China Enters its “Spend” Phase

The Mogambo Guru wonders whether there will be a future Asian market for his new Mogambo Brand Lucky Tasty Eggrolls (MBLTE).

We Have Nothing Left to Fear…

Casey Research think that everything is fine and dandy. Or at least, that it will be in the long run. Check out their section on George Osborne, BTW, and his magnificent proposed 3.9% cut in government borrowing.

I really couldn't have put it better myself.

Cobden Centre's Annual Lecture and Drinks Reception

Toby Baxendale's Cobden Centre, perhaps the second-most Austrian-leaning establishment in the UK, after Maturin Towers, is holding its annual event at the National Liberal Club on the 9th of June (a venue familiar to any regular denizens of any Sean Gabb libertarian conference).

There's an open invitation on the Cobden Centre web site, and if you want to go, you should let the organisers know (details on the web site).

Alas, Maturin Towers has already had its annual drinks reception. This consisted of me sitting out in the garden last weekend, under the last of the apple blossom, with a large gin and tonic and a fine bottle of chilled Gewurztraminer, while my butler barbecued a few slices of Aberdeen Angus.

Though God (and Great Western) willing, you should find me lurking somewhere near the bar (if there is one) at the Cobden Centre's bash. I'll be the one in a Mises.org tie. I may even go mad this year, and wear the bow tie version, if I can remember how to knot the damn thing.

Chin chin!!

So where's my invite to the LSE?

Hang on a minute.

I bang on for months, nay years, about how Britain is heading into Japanese-style stagflation, and nobody from the LSE sends me a cushy speech invite.

However, years after it's obvious what's going to happen, the Skool Swot Adam Posen tells us we're heading into Japanese-style stagflation, and suddenly he's hailed as an economic genius and a guru of the finest water:

=> MPC's Adam Posen warns Britain at risk of Japan-style deflation

So, now the Grate Adam has spoken, it must be true.

Chiz! Double-Chiz!! It's a Swindle! Etc.

Coalition considers plan to sell off Britain's roads

Is Walter Block smiling?

Well, we'll see. Because although a proposed plan to privatise Britain's roads may sound all fine and dandy, and fit within the required paradigm of a future Hoppe World, there's many a slip betwixt cup and lip before we reach that promised land.

However, is this the Gladstonian orange book wing of the old Liberal party re-establishing itself? Perhaps. We'll keep an eye on this one, just in case it is. Here's what we predict will actually happen though:

• This will be the usual fascist corporatist stitch-up where instead of assets being sold off lock-stock-and-barrel, a favoured political friend of the government is granted a license to print money in the form of a multi-year franchise to 'operate' a road asset which will continue to be owned by the government, which will continually interfere in the management of the asset
• The favoured political friend will take some of this pelf and use it to make political donations and grant jobs and directorships to various Coalition hackers within the Westminster bubble
• After the farce of Railtrack and other rail-related 'privatisations' (i.e. franchise grants), the favoured political friend will demand huge financial concessions from the taxpayer to make up for the risk of future government machinations within the field of their granted franchise rights
• Road taxes will not drop by a penny, to make up for the new toll charges on the franchised road assets, so taxpayers will have more pelf taken away by one hand with nothing to make up for it from another hand (and remember, this will be on assets that they nominally already own and on which they have already been bled white to pay for)
• Nobody will be allowed to compete with the franchised roads, i.e. this will be the granting of a monopoly in the finest Elizabethan tradition, in return for a flow of pelf back to the government, to waste on rubbish and other corruptions

It's still interesting though, and Walter Block may yet smile at this. But given the fragile nature of this horrible stitched-up government, it will probably all end in tears, with capitalism once again being given a bad name amongst the masses, who will (rightly) begrudge handing over toll money for assets they already own, in return for nothing in the way of tax cuts.

The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Walter Block

George Osborne to unveil £6bn of spending cuts as era of austerity begins

Yes, George.

Only another £157 billion (or is it £139 billion?) to go, before the British government is actually living within its means. And no doubt even this paltry amount of £6 billion, within the £7 billion quantum wave level of statistical noise, will push the client state to the edge of the streets.

Talk about symbolic tokenism. And most of that £6 billion has already been re-spent on the pet projects necessary to hold the Glorious Coalition together.

After all, there's no point marrying someone you don't like, just for the power, unless you can have a bit of fun on the side with other people's money.

Pass the brandy, Sir Humphrey.

How Michael Gove plans to destroy private education

School Vouchers: The Welcome Mat for Leviathan
There is a tiny private education system in the UK, which has somehow managed to survive the past 150 years of the state trying to destroy it, local authorities throttling it through the mechanism of constantly denying 'planning permission', and hideous bureaucrats trying to drown it in hugely expensive Gosplan-style red tape.

But Michael Gove, the 'Education Minister' of the Glorious Coalition has a plan to wipe away even this tiny remnant. The rough outline of this plan has been revealed by The Guardian:

=> Conservatives aim to lure private schools into state system

Say what you like about The Guardian (and I often do), I think their headline hits Gove's plan on the button to try to wipe away the last vestige of private education in this country, and replace it with Swedish-style socialism, with state-funding being used as the lure to walk complete state control of all schools in through the back door of pecuniary need.

Alas, many private schools will fall for the lure, and suck in state funding and other trendy 'parent control' measures (read: Interfering Busybodies). Obviously, in the fullness of time, this glorious state funding will make itself felt as the state's fundmasters dictate the terms on which a school can run, despite all the promises at the beginning of keeping their dead hands out.

Michael Gove, by then retired, will be able to smile on his fat ex-ministerial pension, and relax in the knowledge that his ideological plan to destroy state-free education succeeded. Complete mental control of all children will then finally be in the lap of the state.

So do not be fooled into thinking that Michael Gove's Friedmanite plans should be supported. The only plans which can be supported are those in which state funding of schools is reduced, with the savings passed back to taxpayers to do with as they will.

Follow the money. If the state supplies it, they also supply the control. If consumers of school services have it, they have control. It really is as simple as that. For more on the dangers of school 'vouchers', try these short pieces:

=> Voucher Socialism (Lew Rockwell)

=> Vouchers: What Went Wrong (Uncle Murray)

=> Vouchers: Another Central Plan (Laurence M. Vance)

=> Freedom and School Vouchers (Debate between Milton Friedman and Lew Rockwell)

UK public borrowing £7bn lower than expected

For two months, AngloAustria has been saying that it is pathetic that the entire UK general election was fought upon the price of £6 billion pounds, which AngloAustria declared to be nothing more than statistical noise.

Gordon Brown (remember him, the man who is now living on a colossal British government pension worth £5 million pounds) fulminated with righteous indignity about evil opposition plans to cut British government spending by the eye-watering and staggering amount of an unholy £6 billion pounds, from a government spending budget of £700 billion pounds. (With £500 billion taken in from tax revenue and about £200 billion taken in from borrowing and quantitative easing.)

However, now that the election bromide season is over, it turns out that statistical noise has been responsible for subtracting £7 billion pounds from the British government's projected spending figures, which is £1 billion more than the sum the entire election was fought over.

Yes, that's right folks. Statistical noise proved more significant than the entire general election campaign.

You really couldn't make it up.

Muppets for rulers? How about muppets for voters. We really are a bunch of idiots for continually being taken in by these shysters. We really do only have ourselves to blame.

Bureaucrats hate reality

Just look at the above photograph. The expressions on the faces of the two bureaucrats in the centre stage will tell you everything you need to know about the truth and the reality of enforced fascist socialism, as projected by the EU.

Let us hope the EU dies. Let us hope this monstrous fascist horror dies soon.

UPDATE: Is that Sir Humphrey Appleby standing between the two main Eurocrats, just above Merkel's right shoulder? Stone the crows, I do believe it is! Welcome back, Sir Humphrey!

Markets left reeling after week of global drama

It is time for the Austrians.

Are you a politician?

Then phone Auburn, Alabama. People who know what is actually happening and what to do about it are waiting for your call.

Pink Hitler posters provoke fury

Que?

Mogambo Roundup

19th of May: Comprehending the Enormity of Derivatives
Anagram highlight: Sheer Economic Insanity (SEI)

20th of May: Markets, Bottoms and Dow-Gold Intersection
Anagram highlight: Hot Mogambo Stud (HMS)

21st of May: Danger in Numbers: The Decline of Paper Currency
Anagram highlight: Up To Here (UTH) - as in, "We've had it UTH"

Peter Schiff: Stock market, U.S. economy, financial regs, exchange controls

The Duke gives his viewpoint on the volatile world markets. His basic view is simple to sum up:

"There is no U.S. recovery."

Sell in May and Run Away . . . Fast

The Keynesians are terrified, says Uncle Gary. Everything they have done has failed. Their only solution, when this current expensive 'recovery' finally peters out, will be to recommend much more of the same. All they will get, thinks Uncle Gary, is even more expensive failure.

BA loses £500 million — Unions set for 15-day BA strikes on Monday

Hilarious.

David Cameron already has coalition trouble – with his own party

Rope Dancer Extraordinaire, Charles Moore, adds another twist to his repertoire, as the mood music swings against David Cameron.

UPDATE: Pointless comment, on article:

Jack Maturin on May 22, 2010 at 12:12 PM

> So I say: "Long live the new politics!"

Charles Moore, Last Week

> The Government of Britain cannot and should not be conducted by an imperial court

Charles Moore, This Week

A week, it would seem Charles, is a long time in politics. Let the 'Glorious Coalition', and all of its odious tax rises and other politics-of-envy socialism, fall apart as quickly as possible.

Water will not boil at 99°, but it will at 100°

Hugh Hendry, of Eclectica Asset Management, writes a fascinating commentary for his outlook in May 2010, heavily based around Japan and China — interspersed with some Talking Heads song lyrics. As well as revealing his musical influences, I think you'll find that reading Mr Hendry's deep thoughts will be a great investment of your time, especially if you are heavily invested in the Far East.

Not tempted yet? Well, let me supply a little taster (my highlighting):

It is now commonly accepted that the magnitude of the financial problems confronting the world economy are so great that in all likelihood we will be confronted by a hyperinflation allowing sovereign debts to be paid off in worthless fiat currency. Just like the Bolsheviks in 1918 and 1919, the machine-gun of the Commissariat of Finance will pour fire into the rear of the bourgeois system. We do not dispute this outcome.

However, it remains our contention that policy makers can only gain the political legitimacy for such extreme behaviour if the world is once more confronted by a profound and debilitating deflationary event. We therefore find it a more profitable exercise to envisage what such a catastrophic event might look like.

Hendry, in short, is shorting China.

It would be interesting to lock Mr Hendry and Mr Schiff in a fight cage together to see which one comes out breathing.

Eclectica Letter May 2010

(Here's a PDF link, if you would prefer that.)

Casey Research - Buy Gold, Silver, and Oil, on the Corrections

The Mogambo Position as seen by Casey Research
Yes, the condensed headline above sounds a lot like the advice promulgated by the Mogambo Guru, but Casey Research put it in a much subtler way, e.g.:

"Even so, a portfolio whose core is heavy with cash against near-term deflation and that gives you the flexibility to buy tangible assets when they get cheap… bolstered by a solid position in gold to ward off the effects of an all-but-certain future inflation, and a winner in crisis as well… and which focuses on a slow build of shares in high-quality precious metals and energy companies… should pretty much get you through any conceivable scenario that may come to pass."

And:

"If you agree with our analysis that says inflation is inevitable and that fiat currencies will sooner or later be taken off life support, then scary drops become great buying opportunities. Imagine if you had bought during that waterfall decline in 2008; you could’ve paid less than $9 for an ounce of silver. That would make the current correction less worrisome. By extension, buying during today’s big downdrafts will give you peace of mind tomorrow when we see another correction at higher levels."

I'm still a Junior Mogambo Ranger, myself, but it is nice to see the same sentiment reflected in bigger words, put forward in a less emotional manner.

Cameron: Tax cuts due in 20 years, probably

"In an interview with The CoalitionGraph, the Prime Minister said he would deliver “lower” rates of tax as soon as economic conditions allowed."

Always the weasel words.

And once again, Heath-Cameron has it 'derriere avant visage', because unless taxes are cut and government spending is reduced on a 100% proportionate basis to allow these cuts, then the economy is going to remain in a Japanese-style perma-depression, ad infinitum, with government continually sucking up productive output and destroying it with wasteful consumption.

(And that's if we avoid hyperdepression or hyperinflation.)

No doubt Heath-Cameron is taking advice from the same economists who failed to predict the credit crunch and the current world's financial travails, on when real economic growth is going to come back to Britain (which no doubt will be stimulated by further government spending.)

With one or two exceptions (such as Nouriel Roubini), the entire situation was only predicted in sectional detail by adherents of the Austrian School. And yet this is the economic school which is currently being entirely ignored by the world's political leaders.

No doubt, this has nothing to do with the general advice from the Austrian School which is for governments to dramatically cut spending and to cut taxes to allow it, thereby greatly diminishing government wealth, power, and control over the societies which they currently parasitise like metastasising cancer cells.

Back in Blighty!

Ah, the boundary joy of a late Spring and an early Summer in the glorious May of England!

And to return to savour my firsts personal days of the Glorious Coalition, I thought I would find young virgins walking the land holding bags of gold and remaining unmolested on walks from Lands End to John O'Groats.

Alas, I find the following headlines in The CoalitionGraph, instead:

=> David Cameron will rue the day he betrayed the Conservatives

=> Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown

=> FTSE falls to three-month low on eurozone crisis fears

=> Whatever Germany does, the euro as we know it is dead

=> The George Osborne effect: sterling plummets

=> 'Perfect storm' as market tremors hit China, Europe and the US

=> City fears of 'Great Depression Mark II'

Come on Chaps, chin up. We can get out of this. We just have to slice the government in two.

Keiser Report №44: Markets! Finance! Scandal!

Maturin Towers doesn't necessarily agree with everything Max Keiser says, but this report on the success of lying, and its links to banking, should fill in a few interesting minutes, if you're at a loose end:

Quote of the Day II

"Britain, too, is at a crossroads. Its political leaders cannot bear the thought of not spending, so they have stopped thinking about it. They are falsely convinced that any cuts in public spending would destroy the country’s basic public services and stop any economic recovery from ever beginning. Their economists have this backwards. The British population can look forward to ever-increasing taxation under the thumb of a coercive and costly bureaucracy whose monetary policies serve the state, but do not serve people."

Floy Lilley

A fascinating article by Floy Lilley about how New Zealand came back from the brink of a huge debt waterfall.

HIPS scrapped by the Government

High-flying high-performing Whitehall civil servant on £150,000 a year, plus 25% annual bonus, plus index-linked final salary pension, in charge of the HIPS program, and shortly to be transferred to the 'Keeping the Coalition in at all costs' program, to secure public sector salaries and pensions, particularly those of high-flying high-performing Whitehall civil servants
And so how much money was wasted on these damned stupid Home Information Packs? Will all home sellers be getting a refund from the government for having had to have produced these nonsensical pieces of junk which nobody took seriously?

To ask the question is to know the answer.

We really are ruled over by a bunch of muppets.

Quote of the Day

[My square-bracketed addition]

"You have to choose between trusting the natural stability of gold or the natural stability and intelligence of members of the government. And with due respect to these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the [state corporate mercantilist] capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold."

George Bernard Shaw

Gold bulls claim price could double to $3,000 in five years

Is that all?

Meanwhile, in the current gold price dip, load up on lots more.

Shock US jobs data

Why is anyone shocked?

Perhaps everyone really ought to start listening to Peter Schiff.

The scandal of the 1922 Committee putsch

The Normster lays into Cameron's Stalinist incursions into the Tory backbenches.

Good for him.

I'm confident that the Normster will be one of the first onto the barricades when Cameron is kicked into ignominy and we hopefully then also eject ourselves from the monstrously fascist EU.

David Cameron drops more Tory pledges as he hails coalition deal

Pleased you voted Tory now, to legitimise this creep's need to feel the soft leather of the prime ministerial limousine behind his derriere?

Quote of the Day - Her Blessedness Speaks

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS, 1976

Top News Just In - Liz Hurley Versace Dress 2nd Most Popular of all Time

All I can say, is why wasn't Liz's dress first? And who is that tool standing behind her?

(Not that I'm jealous or anything.)

Queen Canute tries to stop the waves

Die dummkopfe Königin Angela "Canute" Merkel thinks she can buck the market (i.e. the global aggregation of voluntary human desires).

Good Luck, Angela. I hope the angels are with you.

I also hope you have a lot more ink to print a lot more zeroes on your paper, which will soon reach its basic intrinsic value; which is that of poor quality firelighters.

You would have thought that the same government which generated the Weimar inflation would know better. Ah, but then that is to assume that governments are collectively capable of learning the lessons and remembering the decisions which landed Europe in two decades of appalling fascism.

Schiff Report Update

Two new video blog updates from The Duke.

Excellent promo video for Der SchiffMeister's new book.

(Bad news arrived today. Amazon UK are delaying delivery of my copy until June the 11th. Chiz!):



The Duke of Connecticut then talks about his ongoing political race, the falling from grace of his Democratic opponent, and his support for the Pauls, both Ron Paul Senior and Rand Paul Junior:

There’s Always More Money to Print

The Mogambo Guru quotes Herr Von Mises while engaging in a loud Mogambo Banshee Wail Of Outrage (MBWOO).

Food Price Inflation to Spur Zombie Takeover

The Mogambo Guru (blessed be his name) reckons the Zombies are coming, with one producer-price index showing that U.S. crude goods such as iron ore, construction sand and pulp are shooting up at 44.5% year-over-year, the fastest rate since 1974, with another index showing that including food and energy within a basket of such crude goods produces a figure of 33.4%.

The Mogambo's answer?

Hmmmm...

Keep up.

The Keynesian Race to Bankruptcy

Uncle Gary on getting it good and hard.

Keep away from the whisky and the revolvers!

Sir Bufton Huffchester on the Money

Good work, from the Huffster:

"Mr Cameron and those modernisers from the Conservative benches who have gone laughing into coalition with him do not want a debate that would expose so many illusions and betrayals. They fear their party will realise the truth sooner or later, and end up splitting; that would be inconvenient for those for whom power is not so much an aphrodisiac as an addiction."

Rubicon crossed — Alea Iacta Est, Kemosabe!

Inescapable hyperinflationary depression baked into the western world's cake, apparently.

Crazy.

"Most governments still believe that deficit spending and money printing is the solution to all their problems. Because the world economy’s expansion in the last 100 years and particularly in the last 40 years has been primarily based on credit and not real growth, governments live under the false impression that money printing will work this time too. But we have reached the point when investors will no longer buy worthless government debt that will never be repaid with real money. We will first go through a period when governments issue and buy their own debt thus monetising the debt or print money. This will be the hyperinflationary phase. Thereafter the world will realise that none of the government debt and very little of the bank debt will ever be repaid. Credit will then implode and so will also the assets financed by credit. Eventually there will be a new monetary and financial system and the world will start afresh. The adjustment period will be very long and will involve economic and human misery, leading to social unrest and major political change. It will be a horrible experience for the world during this extended period of adjustment. But it will be like a forest fire that clears out the deadwood and creates the conditions for strong new growth. Once the new era starts it will therefore be from a very much lower level and individuals will be rewarded for hard work with little or no social security safety net. Credit will only be granted for sound capital investment projects, not for consumption or speculation. Ethical and moral values will return and the golden calf will not be worshipped. But before that, the period of readjustment will be very long and extremely difficult for the whole world."

Funky.

"Hyperinflation will destroy many currencies so paper money will definitely reach its intrinsic value which is zero. Gold and silver will virtually be the only assets that will protect investors fully against the destruction of money."

Super trooper.

"How can anyone take a massive rescue package seriously when most of the countries making the commitments are bankrupt themselves? Spain and Italy have committed tens of billions each. And they are the ones that will be attacked by the Wolfpack next. This is the bankrupt saving the bankrupt. The IMF has no money but is dependent on its members of which the US is the biggest contributor. And they are bankrupt too. The UK, which is not in the Euro Zone and which has a worse budget deficit than Greece, contributed £15 billion. The new UK government is planning to cut a massive £ 6 billion of costs out of its next year’s budget which will bring major hardship. But as a last act, the outgoing labour government committed £15 billion which if paid out will never be repaid. The whole thing is a total farce. Governments commit trillions to rescue banks and sovereign states but cannot even make budget cuts of a few billion in their own countries. This shows that the world economy and the world financial system is being run by morons who only have their own self interest in mind and do not understand the consequences of their ruinous actions."

Spectacular.

So gold is likely to make a top in the next few years between $5,000 and $10,000. But if we get hyperinflation the price could go exponentially higher like in the Weimar Republic when gold reached DM 100 trillion per ounce in 1923. Will gold experience the same type of correction when is has peaked as happened after the 1980 peak? Probably not, because gold is likely to be a part of a new monetary system that will be created when the current one has collapsed.

Obviously, I believe gold is in a bubble, even though only Austrian gold-bugs are buying it.

UK Debt to GDP Figure: 400%

Wham, bam, thank you, Ma'am.

Westminster Village Struggles To Come To Terms With New Austerity Measures

Westminster Village insiders, yesterday, discussing the regrettable austerity measures about to applied to the British population by the Glorious Coalition