Peter Schiff: The stimulus will bring about economic Armageddon
posted at 3:10 pm on February 6, 2009 by Allahpundit
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A new communique from the man who saw it all coming, warning us to prepare for Weimar II. If ever you wanted an illustration of just how inexact a “science” economics is, watch this clip back to back with The One’s assurances last night (at roughly 4:20 here) that the stimulus is the only way to avoid Armageddon. How much good has 75 years of data done us? From the NYT’s front-pager this morning on Japan’s experiment, this much:
Economists tend to divide into two camps on the question of Japan’s infrastructure spending: those, many of them Americans like Mr. Geithner, who think it did not go far enough; and those, many of them Japanese, who think it was a colossal waste.
Among ordinary Japanese, the spending is widely disparaged for having turned the nation into a public-works-based welfare state and making regional economies dependent on Tokyo for jobs. Much of the blame has fallen on the Liberal Democratic Party, which has long used government spending to grease rural vote-buying machines that help keep the party in power.
But some Western economists who have studied Japan’s experience say the stimulus accomplished more than it is now given credit for. At a minimum, they argue, it saved the economy from an outright, 1930s-style collapse.
Jim Manzi is demanding that economists put up or shut up on their predictions by publicizing their models now so that they can be scrutinized in a year or two, knowing full well that no one will take him up on the challenge. In sum: We’re at a fork in the road, with plenty of scholarly opinion urging us down both paths, and either one could lead to total destruction. Anyone got a coin to flip? Click the image to watch.
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Schiff is right, government spending is a proven failure to help the economy, but thats not what this is about…this is about getting as much POWER over people’s lives as possible…
and that is what the democRAT party is all about…
we’re slouching towards zimbabwe….and it ain’t gonna be pretty..
right4life on February 6, 2009 at 3:13 PM
Government and production should never be used in the same sentence.
fogw on February 6, 2009 at 3:15 PM
Weimar….so, Allah, are you saying to invest in wheelbarrows? Have a listing code for Barrows-r-Us?
Limerick on February 6, 2009 at 3:16 PM
Uhm, Obama wants economic armageddon. He wants a weakened America. How else do we save the planet and prevent angry foreigners from wanting to kill us?
Riposte on February 6, 2009 at 3:16 PM
I like Schiff, he seems sharp, but good lord has that guy gotten cocky since this began six months ago. Yes, he was right, and has a right to “I told you so”, but he was saying this stuff would happen for the last six years. Chicken Little is eventually right on a long enough time scale.
MadisonConservative on February 6, 2009 at 3:16 PM
Flip your own damn coin. I’m not giving you mine.
BigD on February 6, 2009 at 3:17 PM
I wonder if there’s room in Puxatawny Phil’s burrow to hide away in until this blows over…
This is not looking good – *shudder*
Liberty or Death on February 6, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Remember (I’m paraphrasing) Obama’s speech on election night? “We might not get it all done by the end of one term…” Now it’s crystal clear why he made sure to say that nugget.
Pasalubong on February 6, 2009 at 3:18 PM
My money’s on massive, double-digit inflation that could potentially be avoided if the government were smart enough to sneak this money supply back out of the economy as it begins to recover (which we all know they won’t do).
BadgerHawk on February 6, 2009 at 3:20 PM
I think Ron Paul should be in charge of the Treasury. NOW.
Kini on February 6, 2009 at 3:21 PM
Japan’s experience sucks, and raised taxes enormously to pay for all the wasted bridges to nowhere that they built. Even so, they run a trade surplus, so they only wasted their own money. They don’t owe some other country. We, on the other hand, want to go through the same stupidity, but borrow the money. If our creditors bite, they own us.
Jim Rogers said England is finished. With nothing produced, and nothing to sell, and a lot borrowed, their currency is finished. I wonder who will buy the country.
With the Dems in charge, we would be lucky to have only the Japan scenario, but we’re likely to be the next England.
JiangxiDad on February 6, 2009 at 3:21 PM
invest in lead, gold and euros….
right4life on February 6, 2009 at 3:21 PM
Thank you. I think this bill will fail terribly, but I do hate these “I told you so” people coming out of the woodwork. If you predicted economic collapse in 1985, does that make you prescient now that it’s finally happened? Not if you didn’t give a time frame.
bilups on February 6, 2009 at 3:21 PM
You all should see these Senate gasbags debating this abomination on C-Span.
What a disgrace they are.
Utterly incompetent.
aquaviva on February 6, 2009 at 3:22 PM
I’m afraid the stimulus is a done deal. The conference committee will report a slightly improved bill, probably around $750 billion, that will be just enough to get a couple of squishy RINO’s to vote for cloture, or at least be bought off. I think the Democrats have given up on getting political cover from the GOP and will instead take the most partisan road – claiming full credit if the economy recovers, blaming the obstructionist GOP if the economy languishes.
Kenrod on February 6, 2009 at 3:22 PM
Oh dear sweet merciful God. Use some common sense.
What do you do when you’re low on funds?
Normal person answer: Cut costs, pay off bills, save up, find new ways to increase revenue or economize.
Government answer: Spend a bunch and go into debt! Maybe if we spend ENOUGH it’ll get better! For some reason!
It works about as well for individuals as it will for government. I’m aware that it’s theoretically more complicated than that, but since no one’s willing to pony up their model one has to wonder why.
TheUnrepentantGeek on February 6, 2009 at 3:23 PM
So what is all of this going to do? I figure that the intrest rates are going to sky rocket along with gas and electricity. I hear so many different opinions that it’s hard to know what might happen. my bills are paid off and I’m going to save our extra money. I hear people say stock up on canned goods? Just curious as to why. Is it the price or the availability. With the stimulus bill passing will this sink us into a depression? I don’t use banks but credit unions and those are doing fine. Some people say this bill will get us out of trouble. I don’t believe that but what do you think the future will bring.
Brat4life on February 6, 2009 at 3:24 PM
The more I listen to this guy, the more amazed I become.
He’s a sane, rational person that knows what the hell he’s talking about.
They just don’t seem make ‘em like that anymore.
The End of The Republic is Nigh.
Dorvillian on February 6, 2009 at 3:24 PM
Start investing in canned goods.
Kini on February 6, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Price & availability.
No one knows what’s going to happen, but how can stocking up on food that you’d eat anyway hurt?
I’ve turned an entire hall closet into a mini-hoarding room. If nothing else, it makes me feel a little better.
Dorvillian on February 6, 2009 at 3:26 PM
If every American bought some treasury bonds that’d go quite a long way. It’s the principal reason we were able to get out of the depression in WW2. You had the government employing people in defense industry via keynesianism and you had everyday americans engaging in a little sacrifice, buying warbonds and keeping the country solvent. I would be particularly good for us to do in a world when so many multi nationals employ Americans. But that kind of individual sacrifice isn’t cool these days.
DeathToMediaHacks on February 6, 2009 at 3:26 PM
The problem is that America is being run by stupid people. Public School indoctrinated kids, the welfare class, and guilty elite voted in stupid people. Sad.
marklmail on February 6, 2009 at 3:27 PM
That’s a very interesting point, but when it occasionally comes up by economic talking heads, no specifics are ever offered.
The traditional way to reduce the money supply is to sell Treasuries, and sop up cash domestically, and I think to raise the fed funds rate. But the amount of treasuries out there, sold to foreigners to finance our massive deficit spending, will make everyone wary of buying more–unless interest rates are much much higher. But the gov’t doesn’t want to raise them much higher, because it hurts people in the pocketbook, who are living beyond their means on credit. So I’m not sure the gov’t has the freedom to “withdraw” the liquidity it’s pumped-in, without bringing on a worse recession. It’s quite a balancing act, even if someone were committed to trying to do it right–i.e. keep politics out of it.
JiangxiDad on February 6, 2009 at 3:27 PM
Housing prices in Japan are now back down to where they were in 1975, nearly 90% below the late 1980’s peak. The Nikkei index is back down to where it was 25 years ago. This was despite an “heroic” effort at Keynesian stimulation.
KentAllard on February 6, 2009 at 3:28 PM
Brat4life on February 6, 2009 at 3:24 PM
Because if bread is $10 loaf and an apple costs $2, you’re in trouble and hungry. You can carpool to save gas money and keep your lights off but you eat about the same amount unless you are on starvation rations. I’ve heard stories about survivors of WW2 trading gold watches and other valuables for a few potatoes.
theotherKate on February 6, 2009 at 3:29 PM
How come no one in Congress can see that they are creating a disaster?
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
–Mark Twain
I’ve heard the commercial real estate sector will crash by the end of March and it will make the housing crash look like child’s play. The bond market will follow.
Rae on February 6, 2009 at 3:30 PM
If America follows Japan’s Keynesian stimulation example, it would have to leave its interest rates near zero for the next decade and add about $10 TRILLION to its public debt. And if it gets the same results, you’ll be able to sell your house in 2026 for the same price you paid in 1992.
KentAllard on February 6, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Happy Birthday to Ronald Reagan who said:
Wade on February 6, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Here is how you get out of this mess…
1. Massive income redistribution… make the uber rich engage in personalist micro-philanthropy, don’t tax them…
2. Kill the welfare state… give everybody like $10,000 a year at the same time…
3. We have an information problem in this society… we need regulated spaces of civic involvement… there’s too much partisan circle jerking where nothing get’s accomplished… and that’s bad for us because the more we spend doing nothing is time wasted preventing being micromanaged by the state in other affairs…
4. We need to kill the education system… replace it with a elearning signaling model… guilds… yadda
5. Ban unions… ban corporations… put everybody on the “gig” economy…
ninjapirate on February 6, 2009 at 3:31 PM
An inflationary depression is the ultimate disaster scenario and the way this is being handled will lead to that. The ’30s were a deflationary depression which was good in many ways. A nickel went a long way, so you could get through it simply by cutting spending. With an inflationary depression, what money you have is worthless. You will not be able to buy anything.
keep the change on February 6, 2009 at 3:31 PM
Way to take one for the team, Barney Frank.
/
Christien on February 6, 2009 at 3:32 PM
“O” Dumbo Ears is taking us down the Kenya road.
Rick007 on February 6, 2009 at 3:32 PM
I believe you mean 2003 levels. Let’s stop the hysterics, please. I know Schiff gets an erection thinking about Depression 2, but the fetish isn’t shared.
MadisonConservative on February 6, 2009 at 3:32 PM
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and then misapplying the wrong remedies.
- Groucho
MB4 on February 6, 2009 at 3:32 PM
Um, the government will start “buying” it’s own treasuries. That’s how it will get around the little conundrum you suggested – and they’re already suggesting that.
Ann NY on February 6, 2009 at 3:33 PM
BINGO. They want the economy and the healthcare systems to meltdown so they can impose socialism, the long term goal of the Democratic Party since they got their orders from Stalin in the 1930s.
johnsteele on February 6, 2009 at 3:34 PM
We got into this mess by having spending way in excess of taxes.
Obama wants to get us out by increasing spending and reducing taxes.
pedestrian on February 6, 2009 at 3:34 PM
Sounds familiar.
CP on February 6, 2009 at 3:34 PM
about a year ago the Schiff camp was claiming that right now we’d be having huge inflation going on. the opposite has occurred
jp on February 6, 2009 at 3:36 PM
Tried and true since the corn dole in Rome.
Ann NY on February 6, 2009 at 3:36 PM
He got the crisis prediction right, but not everything he’s predicted has come true. From Wiki:
amerpundit on February 6, 2009 at 3:37 PM
the Dems and other politicians gravitate to Keynsian economics because it helps to justify what they do to stay in power(vote buying).
Hayek economics is the complete opposite, unless we start giving tons in political donations to politicians to do nothing basically on the economic front.
jp on February 6, 2009 at 3:38 PM
Maybe a short term collapse is preferable to decades of stagnation.
lorien1973 on February 6, 2009 at 3:38 PM
Why would I buy a 10 year treasury yielding only 3%, when inflation is going to easily be double that? There are plenty of stocks safely yielding 7 or 8% that also have growth possibilities.
I’m moving my money into the market for the dividend yields until the government ultimately has no choice buy to raise rates to stave off inflation. When that happens I’ll shift to the safety of high yielding cd’s. The government has pretty much boxed themselves into a corner as far as actions go (practically 0% interest and massive money printing, on top of an already highly leveraged debt nation). The trick is timing everything.
BadgerHawk on February 6, 2009 at 3:39 PM
Hit submit too soon. The trick is timing everything so you’re life saving aren’t gobbled up by the coming inflation.
BadgerHawk on February 6, 2009 at 3:40 PM
Why not Push or Split? We are gambling after all, least that’s the message I read.
I would be willing to swallow the Obama-Limbaugh Stimapaluzzi, so would the rest of the country, why not just move forward with something similar? Oh right..duh, forgot this is not actually about creating stimulus…silly me.
javamartini on February 6, 2009 at 3:40 PM
Better stock up and Load up, we are going to be in for a rough ride.
saiga on February 6, 2009 at 3:41 PM
Oh sure.
It’s a coin flip.
The Great Depression meant nothing. Nothing.
The only problem was we didn’t do more of the things that made it last 10 years.
Kind of like the only thing droolers do wrong is not drool more.
notagool on February 6, 2009 at 3:41 PM
to add on to my Dem/Keynes point, the other extreme is the Rothbard camp. To them everything the Govt. does is evil, the Federal Reserve can do no right and the Govt. should do nothing. It helps justify their anarchism, and a princple they are willing to apply to other spheres, like Foreign Affairs. Its just an avenue to go on an anti-govt. nutter frenzy.
jp on February 6, 2009 at 3:41 PM
He is an economist … he gets some things right and some things wrong
It is not wise to only follow one of these guys for your economic news
joey24007 on February 6, 2009 at 3:42 PM
Mark Sanford, Ron Paul, and this guy get it…
therightwinger on February 6, 2009 at 3:43 PM
I’ve been listening to Schiff over the last few months. I’m deeply afraid his prediction of economic Armageddon will come to pass, sooner than later.
Glenn Beck seems to follow him also. Beck has been calling the crisis for two years now.
If we have severe economic hard times globally, and if the Reid-Pelosi Leftists overreach and government becomes too oppressive, we could be looking at wars and upheavals at home and abroad.
petefrt on February 6, 2009 at 3:44 PM
You didn’t look very well at your own link.
Feb-84 10,201.00 10,201.00 9,830.00 10,031.00
Feb-09 7,908.51 8,093.96 7,795.27 7,949.65
Actually it’s not just down to where it was 25 years ago, it’s even LOWER!
KentAllard on February 6, 2009 at 3:44 PM
Bernanke is a student of Milton Friedman, beleive it or not. He has studied the Great Depression and what the Fed did that Friedman proved was so bad was Tightening Money Supply. So bernanke is doing the opposite now and flooding the system with Money. It’ll be interesting to see what happens and if hyper inflation comes or if the Fed can them come up with a way to stop it.
jp on February 6, 2009 at 3:45 PM
I’m gonna need some more canned goods on hand. Good lord.
CP on February 6, 2009 at 3:45 PM
Exactly, also important is to know if they are ideologically blinded(Socialist or Libertarian/Anarchist).
the Credit Default Swaps is what made this mess so bad, Schiff never predicted that. He was just predicting Doomsday, because that is what his camp does every year.
jp on February 6, 2009 at 3:48 PM
The stimulus will bring about economic Armageddon?
“Oh, yes, it will!”
(Despite what Obama and Pelosi and Reid, et al., tell us.)
When a sharpy salesman in that flamboyant sports coat [purchased at Goodwill] tells you you have to buy something right now, that the offer will not be available in an hour or the next morning, that you can’t beat the price, but you have to act now…intelligent people walk away. The rubes buy into it, and end up with a lemon for a car, or have monthly payments and service charges and interest that gorw exponentially each month until they have to approach a loan shark to get them off the hook.
Same as this “stimulus package.”
We are being sold a bill of goods that is not at all what they are trying to lead us to believe. Look over the currrent legislation…this isn’t pork, it is robbery. All the Left and Democrat special interests and special programs that could not, will not, stand on their own, in open debate on the floor of Congress are being rammed down our throats…and Obama and Pelosi and Reid are depending on American fear to get this thing passed.
“Buy it now, the price is perfect, you can’t get a deal like this, ever, anywhere…so just sign on the dotted line and I’ll get that Yugo limo prepped for you to drive away in just a few minutes…”
Obama? Pelosi? Reid? Durbin? Shumer? Would YOU buy a used car from any of these guys? Then why buy into the “stimulus program?”
coldwarrior on February 6, 2009 at 3:48 PM
Yea, but things have been kind of slow for the last 50 years or so. It’s time for a good rumble. Then we can stop this stupid $hit for another 50 years.
saiga on February 6, 2009 at 3:49 PM
The Nikkei 225 was more than 4 times what it is today in 1990. It climbed to around 39,000 before it finally started tumbling.
BadgerHawk on February 6, 2009 at 3:51 PM
Schiff has the direction, if not the timing right.
JiangxiDad on February 6, 2009 at 3:51 PM
But their currency has maintained it’s value relative to gold. Our experience is likely to be different than Japan’s in this regard too. I would expect our market to be much higher than now, but our currency to be worth much less. In other words, in real terms, our market will also be down.
JiangxiDad on February 6, 2009 at 3:53 PM
I’m afraid out stock market isn’t going to grow alot for awhile. Historically its made big jumps then leveled off. I think we are in one of the long leveling off periods..
if doomsday comes, you’ll probably be better off to have a ton of Silver coins over Gold to buy things with.
jp on February 6, 2009 at 3:54 PM
You’re saying the economy was trashed over night and not over a period of years, and Schiff just got lucky. His strategy was to keep predicting the greatest financial crisis to date and eventually it would happen, and not that maybe he saw the changes that would lead to the crisis and sounded an unpopular warning when it was still early enough to be avoided.
DFCtomm on February 6, 2009 at 3:55 PM
They’re going to have to raise interest rates and try to get some of the money supply back out of the economy simultaneously (to do it with just interest rates they’d have to be monsterously high). And they’ll cheat by buying up their own treasuries to try and do it.
BadgerHawk on February 6, 2009 at 3:55 PM
Obama and the Democrats: Stimulating the economy into the sewer
Believe dat!
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on February 6, 2009 at 3:56 PM
Schiff might have an axe to grind. His father was infamous I think for claiming the income tax was unconstitutional and/or voluntary, and he didn’t pay it. I believe he was imprisoned for some time. I like Schiff, but I do wonder if he sees the present system as having caused his father’s demise.
JiangxiDad on February 6, 2009 at 3:56 PM
jp on February 6, 2009 at 3:54 PM
Might as well get the canned goods too or you might be paying an ounce of silver for a can of peaches. Capitalism, baby! :)
theotherKate on February 6, 2009 at 3:56 PM
What Obama/Pelosi/Reid want to do is the equivalent of throwing gasoline on a burning building.
HalJordan on February 6, 2009 at 3:57 PM
I think Japan’s starting to get a little pissed off with everyone flooding their currency right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started trying to de-value it in the near future.
BadgerHawk on February 6, 2009 at 3:57 PM
The guy at The Market Ticker is also predicting doom but he claims the dollar won’t collapse because all other currencies will be in equal or worse position, and thus making the dollar look damaged but safe.
DFCtomm on February 6, 2009 at 3:58 PM
That sounds about right.
BadgerHawk on February 6, 2009 at 4:00 PM
I believe The President and the Left are sold on the Paul Krugman take on this topic. You’ll note from this Kos Kid and the video in the diary of Krugman on Morning Joe, there is no daylight in his position about the Japanese and FDR “chickening out” on going all in on spending. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/2/6/13352/25960/557/694072
AYNBLAND on February 6, 2009 at 4:00 PM
yep, and talk about an emotionally invested group of people. No matter what is happening, this group(which is Ron Paul) will have a negative doomsday prediction tied to it.
they get some stuff right, and alot wrong.
I prefer the Milton Friedman/Hayek brand of libertarian economics over their’s.
Then of course there is Paul Krugman, who wants to nationalize the banks the way Sweden did in 1992.
jp on February 6, 2009 at 4:01 PM
MadisonConservative appears to have left the building. Maybe he smelled smoke after all.
HalJordan on February 6, 2009 at 4:01 PM
yep, I know Sony for example is hurting badly due to currency exchange rates.
jp on February 6, 2009 at 4:02 PM
I wonder how much bread you can buy with a Nobel prize in economics.
DFCtomm on February 6, 2009 at 4:03 PM
HalJordan on February 6, 2009 at 4:01 PM
Nah, he’s on the other thread making jokes about a hotdog down a hallway.
theotherKate on February 6, 2009 at 4:04 PM
Actually, you didn’t look at it at all:
Mar-03 8,397.15 8,509.43 7,824.82 7,972.71 291,587,100 7,972.71
Now what is it today? 8076?
Try again.
MadisonConservative on February 6, 2009 at 4:06 PM
That’s good as he should probably stick to hotdogs.
HalJordan on February 6, 2009 at 4:07 PM
So the point is that Leftist mucking around in housing and financial markets (see CRA, mortgage-backed securities, and Fannie/Freddie) have endangered the dollar and may lead to crushing inflation, eh?
Hmmm…sounds vaguely familiar…
“The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency.”
“The way to crush the bourgeoisie [i.e. capitalism] is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”
Comrade Lenin would be very proud of what his ideological descendants — with the help of this era’s “useful idiots” (i.e. liberals and Democrats) — have been able to accomplish.
rvastar on February 6, 2009 at 4:07 PM
Yes, and it’s at the exact same level it was 6 years ago. Again, with that in mind, how does that point to economic collapse?
MadisonConservative on February 6, 2009 at 4:07 PM
Anybody who believes our politicians are going to get it right and put the economy back on above-average growth path is seriously deluded. Not gonna happen for 12 years or more, I think, enough to set me up for government handouts just as I hit retirement age.
Greg Toombs on February 6, 2009 at 4:08 PM
My strategy is going to be hold as much cash as possible and if it looks like inflation is going to ramp up then hop into gold. My retirement strategy is to buy while shares are cheap with a 20-25 year outlook. It may not work, but I’m just a wrench turner and not an economist, so what do I know.
DFCtomm on February 6, 2009 at 4:08 PM
God help us, talk about being Judged
jp on February 6, 2009 at 4:09 PM
Haven’t seen you putting your money where your mouth is.
MadisonConservative on February 6, 2009 at 4:09 PM
Vitter: It’s unlikely there will be a vote tonight.
Trader on the Floor on Fox: There was short-selling at the end of the day’s trading. There’s a lot of traders who don’t believe this bill will pass. There’s a lot of investors who don’t have any faith in what’s happening.
amerpundit on February 6, 2009 at 4:09 PM
I guess if we were smart we’d quit worrying and go apply for Govt. jobs
jp on February 6, 2009 at 4:10 PM
He said 25 years ago, so the issue is 25 years ago and it clearly is down to where it was then and then some. Are you daft?
HalJordan on February 6, 2009 at 4:11 PM
Right. All that spare money everyone has these days.
Chuck Schick on February 6, 2009 at 4:12 PM
At this point I’m praying for the complete armegeddon and crash. That’ll be the only way to flush all those in Washington who caused this mess down the tubes for good.
Griz on February 6, 2009 at 4:12 PM
Please factor in inflation over the last 18 years, even if it’s 2-3% per year (I have no idea what Japan’s inflation has been.)
It’s not a sudden collapse, but it’s a collapse none the less:
(cocktail napkin, no research)
1990 – 39,000
2002 to present – 13,000
60% inflation loss means the Nikkei adjusted equivalent is about 5200.
That’s a real loss of 86% in purchasing power since 1990.
Maybe I’m wrong.
Greg Toombs on February 6, 2009 at 4:13 PM
Oh I’ve invested in lead and the mechanisms to throw that lead, and I am looking currently looking to investing in gold, but I don’t think investing in the euro will be a good longterm investment seeing as how Europe will soon be Islamo-land…
Liberty or Death on February 6, 2009 at 4:13 PM
And I was making it clear that such circumstances have existed far more recently, in a time where we experienced economic prosperity. Are you daft enough to think that’s irrelevant, or do you just enjoy being part of the crowd that proclaims the sky is falling?
MadisonConservative on February 6, 2009 at 4:13 PM
“When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” — Benjamin Franklin
“The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.”
Why Democracies Fail. Quoted from various sources.
God help us all.
maineconservative on February 6, 2009 at 4:15 PM
probably should’ve bought BofA stock yesterday, hit under $4 for awhile, down like 90% on the year. up alot today
jp on February 6, 2009 at 4:15 PM
More precisely, an 86% loss of purchasing power between 1990 and 2002. That’s far more dire than the 39% loss between 2002 and today, which also occurred between 2002 and 2003, and rebounded. With that in mind, why are we now suddenly freaking out over the Nikkei?
MadisonConservative on February 6, 2009 at 4:16 PM
I pray that it is only double digit inflation.
MarkTheGreat on February 6, 2009 at 4:16 PM
Dow Jones: There may not be a vote tonight.
amerpundit on February 6, 2009 at 4:16 PM
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