For historical purposes, I would to be on the record for a few musings that I hope will find there way into Google’s search indexes so as to be preserved for my children to read one day (kind of like cryogenics for your thoughts).
Lately, I have been reflecting on the absolute madness of what is going on in virtually every market imaginable (stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.). One day, a hundred years from now, kids will be reading about this stuff in their history classes - or, perhaps having things beamed into their heads telepathically. They will perhaps wonder: ‘what were they thinking?’ The overwhelming answer will be: “they weren’t”
My pipe dream for the day, which usually involves time travel or playing in the NFL, is that someone could get through to the pigs at the trough in the government before Old Major and Napolean take over.
- This bailout stuff is a bad idea - borrowing to de-leverage? does this sound a bit screwy to anyone? A Wall Street personality was on NPR the other day saying that if there was no bailout the recovery in banks would take 10 years. My thought: “so…?” All we are doing with this bailout stuff is creating more moral hazard, more future problems that perfectly embodies the spirit of “push it off to the next generation - at least we won’t be here for the shit storm” that has prevailed in recent years.
- America will forever be addicted to leverage - two generations (soon to be three) have come of age where the culture of “buy now, pay later”, “you deserve it”, and “..but all the other kids have one!” is ubiquitous. It’s hard to remove something from your DNA - it’s just kinda there.
- Our country had many years of freedom and prosperity - both will diminish in the future. However, we should be thankful that we had any at all - remember, several generations passed in countries like the former Soviet Bloc where subsistence and repression was a way of life. More government control (by default if anything else with all of the spending and administration) means less freedom. More restricted markets mean less overall prosperity.
- The size, scope and level of government intervention is analogous to pouring oil into the drinking water supply - America will soon resemble the nations of western Europe as they currently are - old, stodgy, bloated, bureaucratic and functionally obsolescent in terms of creating higher standards of living and being a beacon for those with high aspirations.
- The American Taxpayer will soon be an indentured servant all the way around - to his government, to foreign governments and to foreign and domestic corporations and financial institutions
- The American Entrepreneur is being cast aside -when was the last time President Obama or any of these other so called political ‘leaders’ paid any meaningful verbage or time to small businesses and entrepreneurs? My question to them is: “where is your future tax base going to come from?” (you can’t tax the foreign companies and countries that are buying up America by the day Mr. Obama) What will inevitably happen is that the entrepreneurs (and other producers) are going to be expected to pick up the slack for everybody else- all the government spending and programs will be heaped on the “producers’ by those that produce nothing - this makes me sick to my stomach. State and local governments take every chance they get to stomp and spit on small businesses - whether it is hiking their taxes, passing encumbering ordinances or taking land through eminent domain for “public good”.
I don’t want this to sound too much like a whiny rant. I generally hate it when people present problems and do not put forth solutions. My solution is simple: when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is STOP DIGGING.
