Liberty Pile - Libertarian News

"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools." - Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

Although we do not know what these incompetents discussed behind the G-20 closed doors, the world "leaders" issued only a "joint push to aid" statement. "Aid" is undefined. It is what they have been doing and what is not working.

These guys and gals don't seem to be able to reach a consensus on anything. While the US is happy that its creditors are not united and that the status quo of US dominance will continue for a few days, or weeks, that status quo is flying apart.

There is a significantly greater risk today than yesterday that one, and perhaps all US automotive manufacturers enter bankruptcy before an Obama Administration is in place. $25 billion is not going to solve their problems and the guys in DC cannot agree on that number either. Bankruptcy will lead to a cascading fall of supplier firms and, from the numbers I have seen, increase unemployment by as much as 3 million. The pensions will go down as well.

That American Electric Power has joined the line of companies seeking a dole is particularly troublesome. General Electric is on the dole. The FDIC is guaranteeing something at GE even though no one has any deposits with GE. I do not know if, like GE, AEP played the derivatives game, but in the Great Depression the utilities went belly up because they were leveraged beyond their ability to service the debt.

Leverage beyond the ability to service debt also characterizes the "private equity firms" that until a few weeks ago were role models for Wall Street success. And speaking of Wall Street, the entire investment banking industry has failed. Its leading firms, including Paulson's Goldman Sachs, are becoming regulated bank holding companies. This means they have given up their autonomy and turned control over to the lawyers. Lawyers have no clue at all.

What I see is an accelerating collapse, wild gyrations in both numbers and human response [Paulson, who is supposed to know what he is doing, keeps changing his mind] and an inability of anyone in business to plan because the rules keep changing as the outlook keeps changing. The de-leveraging is not over, so the selling pressures will continue and probably increase.

The Security Mafia is becoming concerned about its ability to keep the wars and empire going. Perhaps the idea that our troops will be hitching rides home is not so far fetched, though I think that won't happen until after the Obama Administration has had time to jump up and down and pee in the sandbox.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111403864.html?wpisrc=newsletter I think a great deal in this article is nonsense and speculation, but the fact that an economic collapse will inhibit out ability to wage wars around the globe comes from what I call the bin Laden playbook. I do not think bin Laden will attack us. He is far more conscious of not wasting lives than are we, and there is no reason to attack when you are winning without doing so. I do not think bin Laden is vindictive. He has no need to be.

Ron Paul's solution, the parallel systems suggestion he offered during the debate, might not have worked either, but it would have given all of us time to transition. That time has run out.