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Arthur Fullerton wrote a new diary post: Is PRISM story Killian Part Deux?
When Dan Rather broke the story about George W. Bush’s Vietnam service record he used documents whose authenticity later undermined the entire story. Many people believe to this day that the underlying story Rather reported was true, but the forged documents provided to the journalist were intended not to prove the story, but to discredit [...]
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Arthur Fullerton wrote a new diary post: Rules of the Fiscal Cliff
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Arthur Fullerton wrote a new diary post: The Big Five
The Big Five The number of US manufacturing jobs peaked in 1979 at around 19.5 million jobs and has fallen to roughly 11.5 million manufacturing jobs now. U.S. agricultural employment peaked in 1910 at around 11.5 million jobs and has fallen over the past century to roughly 2.1 million today. However both our total manufacturing [...]
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Arthur Fullerton wrote a new diary post: Honest Ben’s Cash for Gold
Honest Ben’s Cash for Gold Is the Federal Reserve buying gold? Speculation is mounting that the Fed is quietly buying gold and gold swaps (See the Izabella Kaminska Financial Times alphaville blog http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2012/08/07/1109781/gold-qe/ ). The last time this country was in a Depression the Fed did exactly that. Oh, and before you rush out and buy [...]
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Arthur Fullerton wrote a new diary post: The Biggest Lies Are Not Even Being Spoken
The Biggest Lies Are Not Even Being Spoken As charge and counter charge fill the air waves and the pundits debate the truth or falsehood of particular campaign ads, the biggest lies of this campaign season are passing unremarked. Neither the Republicans, nor the Democrats are telling the American people the truth about our economy [...]
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Arthur Fullerton wrote a new diary post: Get Ready for the Romney Bush ticket
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Arthur Fullerton commented on the blog post Occupy Wall Street and the Ghost of Democracy
Great Post.
The big threat to representative democracy is not OWS and people protesting in the streets, but the organized forces of plutocracy that currently control both parties. The next six months will likely tell the tale. Will OWS shrivel away as the fall chill turns to winter cold? Or will the snows of winter be like Valley Forge and forge the beginnings of a new nation.
The key for George Washington was drilling and preparation through the long cold bitter months. The key to civil rights protests was the months of preparation and training in nonviolent action. The same was true for Gandhi. In all three instances change took decades.
This is not going to be either quick or easy.
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Arthur Fullerton commented on the diary post The Confidence Fairy and Faith Based Economics by Bill Egnor.
Certainty and confidence do matter in business, but not in the sense that Washington usually means. Do you notice how deregulation is never portrayed as increasing uncertainty? Yet a regulated industry is much more certain of what the rules it will be operating under will be. No, Washington wants to socialize the risk of losses [...]
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Arthur Fullerton commented on the blog post Golden Oldies Video: Geithner Says “No Risk” of AAA Downgrade
Sorry, I am not offering investment advice. Just stating that the S&P downgrade has the effect of reducing the value of all the securities in a money market mutual funds portfolio — potentially by an amount larger than the pathetic yield on the paper at the same time it may trigger redemptions forcing them to sell securities at a loss and thereby reducing the net asset value of the portfolio below a dollar for dollar level. Remember what almost happened when L. Bros. went under? Several MMF threatened to break the buck. Treasuries and all debts tied to treasuries much bigger deal. Fed backstop will potentially be required to prevent this.
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Arthur Fullerton commented on the blog post Golden Oldies Video: Geithner Says “No Risk” of AAA Downgrade
Because of S&P action, Money Markets may break the buck on Monday without Fed backstop. Basic savings account better choice for safety.
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Arthur Fullerton wrote a new diary post: What Doesn’t Create Jobs
Two weeks ago I wrote ( What Happened to the Jobs? ) about where the economy lost jobs in the Great Recession showing that most of the jobs lost were in frontline non supervisory manufacturing, construction, or government. In this post I want to look at what doesn’t create jobs. There are lots of ideas floating around [...]
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Arthur Fullerton commented on the diary post 1937 by bobschacht.
Oh and recommended, a good discussion to bring up, thanks for posting.
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Arthur Fullerton commented on the diary post 1937 by bobschacht.
My fear is that we aren’t in 1937, but 1931 — three years after the initial crash and teetering on the edge of a long downhill slide with no expansionary fiscal policy to stop the downdraft, but instead a locked in fiscal contraction of 1.8 to 2 percent to speed the decline. Last time (In [...]
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Arthur Fullerton commented on the blog post Late Night FDL: Does a Republican President Make You Want to End it All? Apparently You’re Not Alone
Actually it may correlate with stock market returns which statistically are significantly higher (16.5%) under Democratic administrations than Republican ones. Pedro Santa-Clara and Rossen Valkanov published the results of their work in “The Presidential Puzzle: Political Cycles and the Stock Market,” which was featured in The Journal of Finance in October of 2003. It makes sense that better economic conditions as represented by stock market returns would lead to lower suicide rates.
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Arthur Fullerton commented on the blog post The Never-Ending Pivot Is a 360 Back to the Deficit
Of course, if the pain gets bad enough we can always turn to “The Leader” (whoever that might be at the moment) and abandon the whole idea of representative government — substituting a popularly based military dictatorship for the dysfunctional Congress. A cynic would almost think that was the point all along.
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Arthur Fullerton commented on the blog post The Shame Sets In
Meanwhile, Congress is off on Summer vacation, inviting 74,000 workers on FAA contracts out to play without pay, Larry Summers plays cya, little Timmy is stuck in the well, and its time for another empty rhetorical pivot to jobs. Unemployment is on track to be above 9% on election day, but apparently the progressive base will turn out for the President because they have no where else to go (if they don’t turn out we can blame the loss on the left for staying home).
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Arthur Fullerton wrote a new diary post: Without a Vision the People Perish
The wisdom of Proverbs 29:18 holds that without a vision the people perish, but happy is he who follows the law. When I was a child in 1st grade going to public school in a small town in rural southeast Arkansas, I got beat up nearly every day at recess by the older bigger kids [...] -
Arthur Fullerton commented on the blog post To End Debt Ceiling Crisis, Reagan and Clinton Would’ve Invoked the 14th
Amen.
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Arthur Fullerton commented on the blog post The Anarcho-Rightists
Another word for government is civilization. Anti-government equals anti-civilization. I’m sorry, but I happen to like clean hot and cold running water, sanitary sewer systems, safe food, safe streets, emergency responders, paved roads, secure ways to save, hospitals, schools, and the internet. I like the idea of living in a society where no one goes hungry, where no one sleeps in the street, where no one has to choose between paying for heat or paying for medicine. I prefer living in the 21st Century to the 18th Century and I don’t believe I am alone. Want to see a state where the people have thrown off the shackles of the government — go to Somalia.
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Arthur Fullerton commented on the diary post This is hilarious. (awkward silence on C-Span over SS) by athena1.
Beautiful. Math, on TV.
Where X (SS income)is greater than Y (SS expense) = Z (egg on the reporter’s face)
Recommended highly!
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