Does such a scenario imply sovereign default of an advanced economy?

that must behttp://www.businessinsider.com/nouriel-rubini-parties-at-roman-abramovich-with-gwen-stefani-marc-jacobs-and-lots-of-girls-2010-1#nouriel-and-roman-1

“America’s foreign creditors would not accept a sharp reduction in their dollar assets’ real value that debasement of the dollar via inflation and devaluation would entail. A disorderly rush to the exit could lead to a dollar collapse, a spike in long-term interest rates, and a severe double dip recession.”Austrian Economists have been concerned over a dollar collapse for years, all the while claiming that bailouts will surely expedite such an event.Professor, if we had taken our medicine (allowed failure to fail), do you believe we could have rebuilt without suffering a currency crises?Do you foresee regretting bailouts?Actually, will someone in the media please ask the professor this question during your next interview?hlowe

http://www.georgewashington2.blogspot.com/Monday, January 18, 2010The Crusade Continues in IraqABC News is reporting that U.S. military weapons are inscribed with secret ‘Jesus’ Bible codes:Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found.The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army …One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”Other references include citations from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as “the light of the world.” John 8:12, referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12, reads, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”Trijicon confirmed to ABCNews.com that it adds the biblical codes to the sights sold to the U.S. military. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions “have always been there” and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is “not Christian.”The company’s vision is described on its Web site: “Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom.” ….comment: before i read this i did not know that biblicalcitations were inscribed on weapon accessories. now i know..” who would jesus shoot? ” i wonder..insanity and cruel stupidity rule, no doubt, there is so muchmoney in it. cash money from hard lobbied government contracts.and some say jesus rules but i think they refer to a “differentlevel” or something like that?.and it seems some think the “light” of jesus is likened to abullet from a gun barrel?.”And the king answering, shall say to them, VerilyI say to you, Inasmuch as ye did it to one of thesemy brethren — the least — to me ye did it.”.or words to that effect…anyway.

Dr. Roubini fails to mention that the price of the barbaric relic of gold could easily surpass the $2000/oz. mark if the last paragraph ultimately becomes the policy response of choice.Let us not forget Warren Buffett’s cautionary op-ed in the New York Times dated Wednesday, August 19, 2009 in which he suggest the three possibilities to address these issues. 1. borrowing from foreigners 2. borrowing from own citizens 3. or through a roundabout process of printing money.Judging from these three scenarios there seems to be only one logical conclusion to the outcome in which our leaders “steering ship” will ultimately choose.Buffett concludes his op-ed by suggesting “the dollar’s destiny lies with Congress.”

If God were to hold a press conference it would be at the Wynn in Las Vegas — not a Pritzker property in New York. God has a long memory and He liked A. N. He does not think much of the current generation.

The incrowd, including Roubini, not wanting to listen to the others, us. As Obama, connected to Summers-Geithner-like types:The political capital lost in bailoutsThe real killer for Obama has been his dependence on Summers and Geithner which I liken to George W. Bush’s dependence on Rumsfeld and Cheney. For his part, Geithner, now ensconced in a huge scandal over the cover-up at AIG, says:The test is whether you have people willing to do the things that are deeply unpopular, deeply hard to understand, knowing that they’re necessary to do and better than the alternatives.And indeed they have been willing to go against the will of the people. But, Obama mis-underestimated the outrage these policies would cause. It’s the bailouts and the crony capitalism and looting they brought into public view that people object to most.http://www.roubini.com/us-monitor/258298/grading_obama___s_economic_policy_after_one_yearWe, the people, stand alone. We can either vote Dem (Geithner) or Rep (Paulson), never getting someone to take it up for us.Lobbied (bribed, bought) gov. is the outcome.Roubini found his place.

Theft! Were the US & UK central banks complicit in robbing the middle classes?by Albert Edwards, Societe GeneraleMr Bernanke’s in-house Fed economists have found that the Fed wasn’t responsible for the boom which subsequently turned into the biggest bust since the 1930s. Are those the same Fed staffers whose research led Mr Bernanke to assert in Oct. 2005 that “there was no housing bubble to go bust”? The reasons for the US and the UK central banks inflating the bubble range from incompetence and negligence to just plain spinelessness. Let me propose an alternative thesis. Did the US and UK central banks collude with the politicians to ‘steal’ their nations’ income growth from the middle classes and hand it to the very rich?http://www.zerohedge.com/article/scandal-albert-edwards-alleges-central-banks-were-complicit-robbing-middle-classesRe-appoint Bernanke, for who’s sake?

Supreme Court on Thursday rolled back restrictions on corporate spending on federal campaigns — http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/supreme-court-rolls-back_n_431227.htmlCorporate Personhood and free-speech? The insanity continues!This makes Volcker’s efforts next to worthless.One step forward and three steps back …

Professor, once again, you prove U R Da’ man!:The US also faces political constraints to fiscal consolidation: Americans are deluding themselves that they can enjoy European-style social spending while maintaining low tax rates, as under President Ronald Reagan. At least European voters are willing to pay higher taxes for their public services.A couple of points on the Professor’s improved website: The amount of high quality economics information the little guy can get at this site is awesome. However, I do have a constructive comment to make on the blogging section: economics is not a a real time science so in a sense the blog space should take a second seat to other content. However, it would be nice if the Professor finds a way to give the site some real time flavor by making blog comments more prominent. Hint: take a look at http://www.BusinessIncider.comAs I have said many times before, I am always a couple of months early. It looks like the vix is finally starting to crack:-)

The Supreme Court just took an AK-47 and blew away the last shred of the Constitution today.January 21, 2010 — the day our democratic republic died.

Fed’s role and double agenda revisitedBy far the major enabler was the Federal Reserve Board (FRB). Acting as the banking system’s lobbying organization, its tandem of Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke fought as a free-market Taliban against attempts to introduce financial regulation. Working with the Goldman Sachs managers on loan to the Treasury, the Fed managed to block attempts to rein in debt pyramiding.Mr. Bernanke ignored the very first lesson taught in business schools. This was the lesson taught by William Petty in the 17th century and used by economists ever since: The market price of land, a government bond or other security is calculated by dividing its expected income stream by the going rate of interest – that is, “capitalizing” its rent (or any other flow of income) into what a bank would lend. The lower the rate of interest, the higher a loan can be capitalized. At an interest rate of 10%, a $10,000 annual income is worth $100,000. At 5%, this income stream is worth $200,000; at 4%, $250,000. Mr. Bernanke thus rejected over three hundred years of economic orthodoxy in testifying recently that the Fed was blameless in fueling the real estate bubble by slashing interest rates after 2001. Financial fraud also was not to blame. Anointed with the reputation for being a “student of the Great Depression,” he showed himself to be clueless.He is not really all that clueless, of course. His role is to play the “useful idiot” whom financial elites can blame to distract attention from how they have gamed the system. Wall Street’s first aim is to make sure that the Fed remains in control as the government’s central regulator – or in the present case, deregulator, able to disable any serious attempt to check Wall Street’s drive to load down the economy with yet more debt so as to “borrow its way out of the bubble.”Public relations “think tanks” (spin centers adept in crafting blame-the-victim rhetoric) use simple Orwellian Doublethink 101 tactics to call this “free market” policy. Financial self-regulation is to be left to bankers, shifting economic planning out of the hands of elected representatives to those of planners drawn from the ranks of Wall Street. This centralization of authority in a public agency “independent” from control by elected representatives is dubbed “market efficiency,” with an “independent central bank” deemed to be the hallmark of democracy. The words “democracy,” “progress” and “reform,” are thus given meanings opposite from what they meant back in the Progressive Era a century ago. The pretense is that constraints on finance are anti-democratic, not public protection against today’s emerging financial oligarchy. And to distract attention from the road to debt peonage, financial lobbyists accuse governments strong enough to check the financial interest” of threatening to lead society down “the road to serfdom.”http://michael-hudson.com/

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02242009.html.February 24, 2009Doomed by the Myths of Free TradeHow the Economy was LostBy PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS.http://www.counterpunch.org/.January 21, 2010The Rule of Law Has Been LostSecurity FoolsBy PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS…….”The greatest human achievement is the subordination of government to law. “…..comment : i disagree in that the greatest human achievement isthe capacity of the human mind to symbolically model in consciousness the physical world and “accurately” represent and communicate these models to one another, minds, and to recognizeand appreciate the difference between a word, a representation,a model, a concept and the actual “thing” itself. and also appreciate the manifest, self evident, connectedness of everything.but , yes, controlling the authority / tyranny of “government”, its”law” and invariant and dismal ignorance is / was a good thing.end of this comment…..”One Obama appointee, Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein, advocates that the U.S. government create a cadre of covert agents to infiltrate anti-war groups and groups opposed to U.S.government policies in order to provoke them into actions or statements for which they can be discredited and even arrested.Sunstein defines those who criticize the government’s increasingly lawless behavior as “extremists,” which, to the general public, sounds much like “terrorists.” In essence, Sunstein wants to generalize the F.B.I.’s practice of infiltrating dissidents and organizing them around a “terrorist plot” in order to arrest them. That this proposal comes from a Harvard Law School professor demonstrates the collapse of respect for law among American law professors themselves, ranging from John Yoo at Berkeley, the advocate of torture, to Sunstein at Harvard, a totalitarian who advocates war on the First Amendment.” ……”Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. “.comments ….speaking of corruption and confused association of freedomof speech and homicide, is there any difference? ( is there any limit to what any particular word can mean or represent ) and isit now “legal” by interpretation of supreme justices to stealelections and is there a symbiotic circular power that dolesout, prints, money for a sector of the economy to then exerciseit’s “freedom of speech” ( pimping ) in lobbying and buying( owning ) representation by financing political ( whores ) to deliversector friendly legislation marketed as just “law”, ( civilization devolving into chaos via fascism ). mr. o, we have seen publicly violatedby his own policy to bailout wall st. via justice k. etc. as alwaysthe taxpayer, present and future, and pensioner must pay for all folly, thank you forplaying the “you get it in the rear for caring” game..i thought that “God” had no skin in the game whenit comes to mankind and that is why we have so manyforsaken. then i thought what is the function of thisconcept of “God”? how does it relate to time and the concept/sof time and man and his concept of himself? ( itself ).and gender variations…in time/s..and of technology and education and familial relations andthe socialization process as it relates to maturity, identityand the creative capacity for humanity to solve problems, makeproblems and blow smoke up other peoples arses..i wondered how is it that so few people could screw so manyout of so much for so long? i still wonder. ( see “law” )..and i have observed this. all law depends, primarily, on onething and, primarily, it is NOT enforcement. it is VOLUNTARYCOMPLIANCE. without this no law can “live”. they must beinternalized or they die, hence we have a history of civildisobedience. to kill certain laws, to change the law andto make the law. a “persons” obligation to other “persons” andto him/her self. we also have a history of legal lawlessness in a number of sectors of the economy and society in general..so the question becomes how do a small group of peoplemanipulate the “masses” to live lives that are not in theirown interest, if indeed that is what is happening. i guessit is due to some combination of ignorance and illusion, satisfaction and threats of punishment, induction and indoctrination. joining the herd, belonging and adheringto the articulated description and imagery of “culture”.so we must educate to articulate “culture”.and educate to be rid of the destructive elements and forcesin the culture…and this relatedto biologic and neurological development so it takes time, energy and sympathy/empathy etc.. sensitization. and great balance….and technology as it relates to communication and cognitive development as this intersects with the basic imagery of thefamily unit… mother/ child/ father…..siblings and associatedneurological patterns. again, structure and function…lessonlearned, many wishing they were orphans..having said that i wonder if we have arrived at a point inour collective consciousness that could be characterized asperpetually adolescent? ( unconscious ) has the “information revolution” renderedthe individual, all individuals, inept? undeserving of identity?of secondary “person hood” due to lack of political affiliation this being the means of securing finances to buy legal and lawfullooting, this being systemically essential.have we forsaken thought and the mind as corporations have none.no heart and no recognition of the individual “person”, but onlytheir function as in their “cog ness”.incapable of synthesizing it all in a functional, humane way? or incapable or reaching maturity. we seem to go right from adolescence to senility never reaching maturity or a state ofcivility. consciousness. forgotten oscar wilde quote goes here..leading to collapse welcomed with open arms, and the arms willbe many?.i see a man trying so hard to be a father to strangers andthey, so wanting to see a father in a stranger, on a stage withno curtain but the light of day..one thing we do is adapt, for better or worse. there is always someone exploring those limits. perhaps everyone? perhaps we have reached a limit to which further adaptation is not possible..that may be the elusive meaning of maturity. i wonder.where insanity becomes lucid, does man evolve?.and they say there is looting in haiti, ( for survival ) andthey say there is looting on wall st. ( for survival ), but…they are different and are met with different responses butthere is no opacity, only transparency, in viewing the differingresponses. it is systemic, ( the system ) that does not workfor some “persons” but is designed to create and sustain other”persons”, whatever a person might or might not be.bail outs maintain the fed, why they call it “the fed”. othersmust feed themselves if there is anything left after the fed havebeen fed..so now all pet owners should be able to declare their pets as”persons” and reap whatever gains this “distinction” may afford.or can fiat “persons” coexist with natural “persons”. do we notknow what a person is? at the highest levels of supreme justice?of course we don’t! if we did, we wouldn’t be able to wipe themout so carelessly, that is the natural persons. consider there may be a lag in realizationbetween being doomed and the perception or experience, with perhapsan opportunity to avert the thing, but only perhaps.but then again it is all taking place in a delusional and synthetic concept of time on the one hand yet crushing the momenton the other..that was my nightmare. when some people woke up their realitywas even worse, but are they really “persons”. conscious persons?apparently consciousness is not a prerequisite for person hood?i guess we already knew that.