Dodge Winston's Blotter

The following are links to facts about the current state of America and the dwindling future that continues to plague the land, the people, and the rotted government.

- We’re borrowing the equivalent of the entire GDP of Germany every two years – ($3 trillion) – and that’s just Federal borrowing.

- A company called SunPower got a $1.2 billion loan guarantee from the Obama administration, and as of January, the company owed more than it was worth. Brightsource got a $1.6 billion loan guarantee and posted a string of net losses totaling $177 million. And, of course, let’s not forget Solyndra — the solar panel manufacturer that received $535 million in taxpayer-funded loan guarantees and went bankrupt, leaving taxpayers on the hook.

- China And Japan Dropping Dollar Cross Rate System, Will Transact Directly. There are many more countries that are trading outside of the USD; such as Venezuela and Iran. Believe it. The USD days are numbered.

- The sabotage of Facebook’s IPO. On 18-May-2012, within seconds of the opening in Facebook, we noticed an exceptional occurrence: Nasdaq quotes had higher bid prices than ask prices. Can you believe this crap?! Even after the 2008 bubble explosion stateside an investor can’t even get a decent investment going or a return from a titan like Facebook?! Who F’d that one up?!

- Marc Faber Sees 100% Probability Of Global Recession In 2013. Anyone who believes that America is going back to the days of greatness that we’ve come to know and love is a FOOL! We are interconnected with the world now, no thanks to our leaders, and we will fall with the world too. A struggle is coming and it will haunt the planet for a long time.

- Many have been conditioned through years of public schooling to see the state as Eden (public schooling can be a wonderful vehicle for brainwashing the future generations). Decades of the predominant welfare state have not only created a reliable voting constituency dependent on handouts, it has perpetuated the Santa Clause-like image of the state. What isn’t considered is the overall social degeneration that is a byproduct of the so-called “social safety net.”

- Dollar Backwardation. That says it all. The world reserve currency is going backwards.

- It may not be quite the 0% coupon which Germany got yesterday for its 2 year bonds (soon realistically going negative if the demand is there), but lending $35 billion to Uncle Sam at a cash interest of 0.625% and a record low yield of 0.748% is still quite remarkable. Because with this auction, total US debt/GDP is now almost 103% (rounded up). We got loaned more money. Actually your kids and the future of this debt laden nation just sunk a bit deeper into the red. These vampires in office love whoring for credit and loans.

- More Than 30 Blocks Of Grey & Decay. Have you ever gone to a struggling city? Why don’t you visit Detroit, Michigan; Oakland, California; New Orleans, Louisiana? I know why. Because you’re afraid. You should be. Those places have been hit exceptionally hard by natural disasters and/or the economic downturn.

- US Citizens Now One Step Closer To Becoming Permanent Tax Slaves. I can’t stand the fact that many of our American made corporations have left home for global positioning in the world market to hire cheap labor (laying off Americans) and to create products made of low quality materials (sometimes dangerous materials). They should be reeled in. But to punish individual American citizens for wanting to find a safer, saner, and friendlier retirement community by becoming an expat? This is fascism!

- Three years ago, the government in all its glory and sound central-planning decided to provide a fully-FDIC-backed facility to allow banks to raise capital at ultra-cheap cost of funds in the middle of the crisis. The Term-Loan-Guarantee-Program (TLGP) has not been far from our thoughts but the next month or so is going to be increasingly anxiety-inducing for the banks that took advantage of that bailout. By the end of June 2012 (i.e. the next six weeks) there is almost $60 billion of TLGP debt that matures for US banks (and will need to be refinanced we assume). So what banking fees are going to increase because of this? Will I need to pay just to open an account now? Ridiculous!

- A month ago we warned that JPM’s CIO office is nothing short of the world’s largest prop trading desk. Not only were we right, but what just transpired is just shy of our worst possible prediction. At the end of the day, the real question is why did JPM put in so much money at risk in a prop trade because we can dispense with the bullshit that his was a hedge, right? Simple: because it knew with 100% certainty that if things turn out very, very badly, that the taxpayer, via the Fed, would come to its rescue. JPM has been around for a long time. There are some large conspiracies about this company and its founder, J.P. Morgan as well. I predicted that they would buy up Washington Mutual. I had heard that JPM/Chase was looking for a west coast bank to buy for more of a national presence. What happened soon after? Washington Mutual magically exploded internally and JPM moved in to purchase Washington Mutual for pennies on the dollar. How convenient. Now they have a trader who’s blew a minimum of $2 billion?! Really?! Smells like bs. Perhaps they just want to create more fear in the pseudo capitalist economy so that we have even more reason to rail against it.

- On a side note, The Wisdom of Thucydides. A very interesting writeup from way back on the state of man and politics. What happened to us?

These are but a few snippets of what is transpiring within our economy, the halls of our political leaders, and the corporations who rule much of the business sector. One cannot sanely believe that capitalism was hijacked by corporations alone (giving birth to corporatism and the socialistic polices being thrown at us). Our corrupt government leaders are just as devious when it comes to steering this free country; meaning they act stupid so that we, the sheeple, can identify with them (yes, in general, we have become misinformed, hence stupid). In actuality they are power hungry globalists who wish to destroy the independence of nationalism, capitalism, family, and self-responsibility. By allowing greedy sharks into the halls of power, we the people have sealed our fates to them by not only believing their lies and falling for the emotional side of debate (as opposed to logic) but we have turned our primary focus to buying stuff and watching television. What the fuck happened to us? We were warriors! Now we are fast food dependent sacks of shit with shrinking cognitive abilities, no muscle tone, and no stomach for fighting for what is rightfully ours! Gawd!

All the reporting/links in this post are from www.zerohedge.com. Talk about keepin’ it real!

Dodge

The global economy has shrunk. It has been hammered like a rusty nail until it has splintered into powdery pieces lying scattered to erode into nothing. Today, right now, the world economy is still shrinking. It hasn’t finished doing its imitation of a dried up plant.

Unfortunately you and I have to live (survive) with the end results. As I sit here wondering what emergency food I should purchase (just in case) the governments of the world; such as the U.S. and Europe are shouting that we need growth. They, and other uncreative “leaders”, are proclaiming that we need to infuse civilization with jobs, the economy with cash, and the store shelves with products. WE! NEED! GROWTH!

You know what? That’s all garbage. We aren’t going to get growth. We aren’t going to grow any economy right now. And frankly, growth is for morons. You know why? Because it is that growth mantra that got us here in the first place. It worked as the driving engine for the birth of America and the eventual copycat nations who wanted to be like us (the populace was small back then).

Today it doesn’t matter if our diplomats and greedy corporate negotiators convinced others to be like us. It doesn’t matter if the World Bank and the IMF gave third world countries raw deals for their natural resources. It doesn’t matter if capitalism was morphed into a greedy virus (thanks multinational corporations… you suck!) that swallows up cultures, religious practices, and the family unit via sugar-filled dreams of lavish estates, cheaply made products, online grocery shopping, and friendships on Facebook. None of it matters because we are here NOW!

The model of exponential growth has created a huge imbalance in many ways:

Savings to Debt
Morality to Attitude
Healthy Foods to Fast Foods
Fitness to Obesity
Marriage to Divorce
Frugality to Insanity
Patience to Right Now!
Natural Resources to Synthetics
Grown to Replicated
Debate to Cussing
Assertiveness to Aggression
Family Time to Video Games

Must I continue on in demonstrating how things, how life has become imbalanced? Our youth are being neglected by parents who themselves were raised within a changing model that continues to slide towards the cliff of no responsibility. This is due to the non-stop growth that our leaders are calling for. They believe that we need the same recipe to get back on track. Well if we want to continue to have our kids desiring overly-priced shoes, our neighbors focusing on materialistic stuff that really isn’t necessary, our fellow countries profiting from slave labor, our world being followed by a camera for everyone to watch on television… then that growth will lead to brain-dead consumers who care about nothing but what the manufactured reality creates for them to get lost within… forever. We’re almost there. Just look at how America has changed. Now look at how Europe is changing. Now look at how the cultural fabric of many third world nations is changing.

Economic growth is a splinter of life. Yes, money pays the bills. But to only satisfy our animalistic desires will make us into just that, animals. What we need are cuts. That’s right. America (as an example) has become a debtor nation in order to pay its bills and continue to function. We are becoming Greece’s twin… just a lot bigger. And it is that insatiable growth mantra (and then creating so many who are dependent upon handouts) that got us here as well as other nations (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain).

Many bad apples, mainly titans within government and corporations, have taken us, you and I, the hardworking citizen to the brink of disaster and the only thing that can get us back to a manageable lifestyle are cuts. I am not talking just about economic cuts. I am talking population cuts (slowing it down). If we could somehow manage our population growth then we could solve a ton of the problems that we face. From natural resource use to government spending habits. We need to stem both illegal immigration and procreation too. Instead of people having seven kids it would be prudent to have two. This is like the China one-child policy (which goes against every fiber in my body). But it is necessary for a time. It’s like a garden. You don’t over-plant the land. If you do then the crop will fight itself and strangle itself. We are doing that. Across the world the growing population is strangling itself. It must slow down for a time and then replant itself in a responsible way.

I don’t know the answer, the model or the silver bullet solution (I wouldn’t trust government to manage something like this). But I do know that we need to get back to basics and quit focusing on flashy, overpriced trash. I’m not a dictator. I don’t want to be a dictator. I don’t know how to get there from here. But I do know that we can’t grow forever, economically or population wise. As the answer evades me the only things that are helping slow the population explosion is war, famine, viruses, murder, car accidents, overdoses, death from natural causes, etc.. God chooses when it is our time to go by whatever method he deems fit. But God has also given us freewill. And we are using our freewill poorly or should I say our leaders are choosing poorly. They got us here. I believe that it’s up to us to take our planet back and begin a dialogue on how to slow this spin-zone down.

Dodge

Yep! Now that Greece can’t form a pro-austerity government, meaning that it is more than likely that an anti-austerity government will be formed in June, depositors are making a run on their local Greek banks.

Global meltdown coming to a street corner near you.

Dodge

Do you like taking shots? Perhaps you like to toss back a few whiskey shots or some other spirit of choice once in awhile. Well I found a cool shotglass. It’s the Fred and Friends Doomed: ‘Crystal Skull’ Shotglass

I really dig the fact that the skull appears to float in the glass. It wasn’t simply made in the shape of a skull to sit on a counter like any other skull-shaped drinking cup. It floats like some specter of alcohol.

Personally I don’t drink much. But I used to back in the day. Boy did I ever! And the skull shotglass would have been a great addition to my drinking toolkit. When I’m retired I can envision myself with a big beard taking a shot of whiskey as I stand on my cabin’s porch. Until then I’ll settle for a cold glass of water as I take a break from mowing the back lawn. You see I’m a responsible, family man and always will be. The floating skull shotglass doesn’t mesh too well for now. But it will in my golden years.

Dream on!

Dodge

Well the elections for Greece have been completed. Apparently the pro-bailout parties of the New Democracy and Pasok parties were 2 votes short of a majority. Many Greeks were fed up with the austerity program that their leaders and the EU were applying, so much of the populace changed their tune and went with anti-bailout parties to stem the tide of cuts.

In one sense you need to make cuts if revenue is not meeting demand as opposed to borrowing into oblivion which is what we do… borrow until our debt is greater than our revenue. Pathetic. The U.S. will be like Greece someday. No one can bail America out though. What will we do? Start another war? Anyway, Greece ran itself into the ground with their own economic policies. But there are bigger implications with this election. With the growing power of the conservatives and the right-wing parties, Greece could be released from the EU if they decide to not follow the austerity program as outlined. That is what many of the Greeks voted for – anti-austerity as opposed to being anti-EU. I don’t know if Greece can have one without the other so on down the road we just may see Greece leave the fold.

In France, Sarkozy was not reelected. Hollande, a Socialist, was. This is the first time since the 80′s with Francois Mitterrand a Socialist has been elected. Hollande apparently has a “tense” relationship with the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, and it is expected that France will be battling the cash cow, Germany in the future over Greece, bailouts, etc.. So how did Hollande get elected? Well one of the things he wanted was to repeal the retirement age from 62 and back down to 60. So pensions were and are a big deal. When are they not?

As the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain) continue to sink in REAL debt the EU will feel more of the pain. Lookout for lawsuits filed in the International Court as well. This is not going to get better. It will get worse. Believe it. Don’t buy into the fake headlines and the political hype. Money talks and bullshit walks.

Dodge