Mr. Rogers All Up In Alexis’s Neighborhood
Friedman v. Donahue - Greed
Chart: Money in Circulation (Inflation Adjusted)
Amount of money in circulation ~1917 to Present (as printed by the Fed). Pay close attention to how this graph ends.
House Passes ‘Stimulus’ 244-188, Spites Face
Yet another stimulus bill has passed under supposedly “urgent” circumstances. “We don’t have a moment to spare,” Obama declared (perhaps pretending that he is the new George W. Bush). The last trillionesque-dollar stimulus was hurried through under much similar circumstances - though at that time, the House had enough sense to vote against it the first time. (For more “urgent” do-gooding by Congress, see Patriot Act.)
It used to be that there was enough wisdom in this country to not cut off your head to spite your face (e.g. spending our nation into insurmountable debt obligations and destroying the dollar to alleviate our borrowing and spending too much). Now it seems that anyone can be convinced to lop off their own head as long as they are pressured with the insistence that they are imminently and urgently ugly.
The U.S. economy certainly is ugly, and for our US Congress, there isn’t a moment to spare.
SEC Bans the Selling of Financials at a Loss
Under new SEC rules, selling of financial stocks for less than the price purchased is to be banned.
The SEC approved the ban, which will prohibit investors from reducing or selling positions in all publicly quoted financial companies at values less than the purchase price of those positions. The ban will remain in force until such time after the SEC publishes a review of selling rules.
Financial turmoil has brought about the recent ban, as financial institutions have come under pressure from widespread selling of positions in that sector. Sellers have been blamed for driving down the share price of AIG and Lehman Bros., the insurance and investment banking interests that have capsized during the past week.