Arkady's Thoughts

An interesting story, but I am rather skeptical.  Fred Upton suggested to Fox News that a bipartisan effort to nix the recently adopted ObamaCare is viable and that a good number of Democrats will join the process.  Conventional wisdom suggests that with Obama as president any effort to repeal his flag ship legislation for which so much political capital has been expended is impossible, however there may be enough votes to overturn the veto.  A very timely discussion indeed as three new ObamaCare taxes have kicked in yesterday. This is very significant for several reasons. First, Republicans must understand that starting with Scott Brown's election the majority of Americans to this day would like to see ObamaCare repealed. The entirety of the 2010 GOP wave (sans Massachusetts) rested primarily on ObamaCare and spending.  Although the weak and ineffective GOP Pledge does commit to repeal the rhetoric has been transformed to repeal-and-replace (troubling), but th...

While nobody was surprised by China's move to tame it's inflation via a rate hike yesterday , I think it provides a great opportunity to demonstrate a contrary view to China's strength.  There are two "facts" that are currently being accepted and discussed in the main stream that deserve some mention. First, everyone is convinced that China is deliberately suppressing the value of their currency, the Renminbi (RMB), in order to achieve superior exporting results. Secondly, everyone is convinced that the Chinese "miracle" will turn into an economy that will overtake that of the United States. Even though I once subscribed to the former, I see no evidence to suggest it is actually true and in fact there is a very good possibility that most people are wrong.   In terms of the latter, I think there is ample evidence to suggest that the exact same financial problems we are experiencing in the United States are happening in China and a crashing halt is a f...

Wishing everyone a happy and festive Christmas.  Thanks to everyone who read, participated and made writing worthwhile.   Also big thanks to anyone who ever clicked on the advertisement banner in the top right as it is the sole method of funding this website.  *nudge* *wink* *hint*

Karl's latest response to me titled ' Arkady:  Read the damn Constitution ' is another attempt by Karl Denninger to defend the absurd ( Kucinich bill ) while demonstrating to the world that he and only he has read the Constitution and understands it properly.  Karl, we know you are a bright guy and are quite capable, yet when you belittle others and flaunt your impeccable intelligence you exhibit signs of insecurity. I would simply like to cover two critical points here.  First, anyone supporting this bill and claiming to be part of the Tea Party is doing the Tea Party movement a great disservice, Karl should either disassociate himself from the Tea Party or take back his support for the bill.  Secondly, the matter of this bill's Constitutionality specifically as it pertains to the issuance of fiat money is turning into a joke. Karl's view: Nowhere in The Constitution, in point of fact, is a monetary standard - either fiat or metallic - defined for the Federal...

I feel honored to have my name in the headline of Karl's blog, must have done something right - or wrong in this case.  Karl did not like me calling him out on his defense of Kucinich Bill and decided to skewer me a bit.  All in good fun, I had no intention to make this personal what so ever even if Karl believes that I have an "absolute vacuum" between my ears.  Meh, helps with the neck pain at least. Karl does not actually state his defense for the bill or any of the points I brought up as to why the bill is just a blatant Marxist lurch, but instead focused on the Constitutional aspect of the debate.  Fine, if Karl believes that Congress can be trusted to maintain the supply of money, believes that paying off the existing national debt in newly printed United States Notes is somehow possible without a major debasement and thinks Congress should control money for the purpose of infrastructure investment - so be it.  To the Constitution we go. Karl demon...

In the previous post I presented the latest bill proposed by Dennis Kucinich and why America's Left is just as interested in removing the Federal Reserve as is the Constitutionalist minority. Incidentally there recently has been some talk of a speech by a one named Bill Still.   His speech can be found here. He presents the problem in today's global economic hardship as stemming from our money supply.  True. He further goes on to say that fractional lending and Federal borrowing is causing financial slavery.  Also true. What is his solution?  To allow sovereign nations to control the money supply by themselves through creation of money.  This is the intellectual and philosophical backdrop of Dennis Kucinich and his latest bill. Bill Still cites an interesting example, which he refers to as "tally sticks".  Once upon a time the King decided to use tally sticks as a form of currency in order to solve the pesky problem of the money supply gr...

I have always mused and wondered out loud about the peculiar alliance between the likes of Ron Paul - a small government sound money advocate and people like Alan Grayson and Bernie Sanders who are admitted socialists.  What is it about these two completely polarizing political viewpoints that brought them together to fight the Fed?  In fact, I was utterly shocked that some libertarians mourned the defeat of Alan Grayson this past November citing his defeat as a loss in the battle against the Federal Reserve. At the time my speculation was rather simple.  Socialists resent the Federal Reserve just as much as we do, however for entirely different reasons.  We resent the Fed for several basic reasons.  The Federal Reserve is a monopoly and controls the supply of money.  It centrally plans interest rates and has a flawed mandate to create full employment which is an illogical desire - because employment should always be liquid.  Finally the Feder...