Arkady's Thoughts

One of the most popular and beloved deductions among Americans has to be the mortgage deduction.  According to New York Times this deduction is supported by almost 90 percent of the population.  Wow, the last time this many Americans agreed together probably involved American Idol.  Yet with debt ceiling negotiations hitting a fever pitch there is a strong possibility that this popular deduction might be slashed or removed entirely. The popularity of the deduction especially among middle-class Americans is something of a mystery considering that a vast majority of the people who benefit from the deduction are considered to be top earners (those making over 75k), although your definition of "top earner" may vary.  Wealthier people certainly stand to gain more from this deduction due to a simple reality, wealthier people tend to have more money to purchase homes.  Those claiming the deduction is portrayed neatly within the NYT article. In true NYT...

This should be more aptly called "one of many charts" showing our sad trajectory, but it is food for thought anyway.  Note that this is not an exhaustive or comprehensive list as it does not include every American on the dole, but that simply makes the chart this much sadder. Now recognize the impact of the chart in the context of the debt ceiling discussions.  Then ask yourself, what is the point of working your ass off when you are just paying for every soldier, welfare recipient and bureaucrat.   Finally, if the Government was structured like a voluntary business how many of these people contribute to a productive economy.  Mmmkay then.

While Congress performs yet another kabuki dance over the debt ceiling, a stealthy Ben Bernanke is sneaking up behind the US Dollar ready to slit the jugular.  This is the kind of stuff that you can only learn from Bernanke's latest book -  Mastering Jew-Jiutsu: The Art of Economic Destruction.  Order now and you will get Master Greenspan's pamphlet - Basic Jew-Jitsu:  Bubble Bubble Toil & Trouble for free! Yesterday's announcement sent several key markets into their respective corners. "Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has made it plain to the world that the Fed is not ready to put the U.S. economy's crutches back in the closet," Douglas Borthwick, managing director with Faros Trading, said. "Saying the economy still requires a good deal of support, the chairman is making it plain that QE3 is still on the Fed's mind and is on the table." Good news that Ben's mind is still operational, could have fooled us. Predictably the following happe...

When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker threatened to push through a collective bargaining restriction bill the country stopped and listened.  Every media outlet, blog and casual politico had an opinion.  Suddenly experts on Wisconsin teach salaries, school rankings and the Wisconsin budget appeared out of nowhere.  It seemed like everyone had an opinion and it broke down along two simple lines.  Either you welcomed the change because you felt the concept of public unions to be offensive and silly or you were against the change because any attempt at perceived union busting was met with hostility.  At the end of it all, like so many political discussions in America the fight turned into another bitter partisan slug fest.  After all said and done the wounded unions walked away with promises of revenge, recall petitions and an angry and energized Democrat voting bloc.  Most have now forgotten about the Wisconsin budget battle, but there are some...

On the way to work today and on the way back National Public Propaganda Radio was running pieces on the national debt and the debt ceiling.  Not surprisingly the several guests they brought were of the same opinion, any failure to raise the ceiling immediately would result in a catastrophe.  Their explanation was quite simple and partially correct and as usual the devil is in the details and NPR has masterfully ignored them. NPR and the guests they have procured have recited a popular rhetoric.  A default will cause the interests rates to skyrocket and the value of the dollar to plummet causing long term economic damage.  That is correct, provided of course that the US Treasury chooses to not pay the interest on outstanding debt or pay out maturing debt.  Failure to not pay for schools, agricultural subsidies, homeland security, military bases, lavish transportation costs for Congress and even social security/medicare will not in any way impact our...

After Barack Obama assumed the presidency of the United States there were some speculation that the young and charismatic Democratic leader was going to become the next Lincoln (Newsweek even ran a piece comparing the two men that at the time seemed a tad premature ).  Yet my view back then given Obama's inexperience and skewed perception of where America should go was such that Obama has a much better chance of becoming the next Jimmy Carter rather than some great emancipator. Fast forward to today and it would appear that the conjecture was correct.  One of Carter's notorious legacies was the Misery Index (MI), a very simple number denoting inflation and unemployment.  While some can dispute the accuracy of the index given the difficulty of relying on Government data for inflation, nobody can dispute that using the same formula the index has been steadily rising.  Although the MI numbers only go back to the Truman error, you can see here that Carter's accomplish...

In the upcoming Republican debate slated for June 13th in New Hampshire there will be a slight change of plans from the powers that be.  Gary Johnson who participated in the first debate and is polling neck and neck with Rick Santorum and Tim Pawlenty will be excluded from participation . According to some fuzzy math from the main stream media and a secret formula that is, well, secret, CNN determined that for your viewing and listening pleasure they will be performing you a service by inviting only those candidates that are best for you to hear and see.  Despite facing a backlash in the 2008 campaign by essentially pulling these same shenanigans with Ron Paul, the main stream media since then dubbed lame stream media continues to exert its choke hold on political messaging. With voters increasingly frustrated with the flavor of Republican candidates being served to them by the establishment the need for choice and variety has never been greater.  Instead of...