Great Depression Online Archive Issue:

Sorry for Getting Caught

Great Depression Online
Long Beach, CA
July 31, 2009

Inside This Issue You Will Discover…

*** Worse than the IRS
*** We Never Knew Ye
*** Sorry for Getting Caught
*** And More

Worse than the IRS

According to a Gallop Poll released on Monday, Americans think the Federal Reserve’s job performance is worse than that of the IRS.

“Only 30 percent of Americans think the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors is doing a good job,” reported Reuters.

“That makes the Fed the worst reviewed of nine key agencies -- including the tax-collecting IRS….  Twenty-two percent of Americans said the central bank was doing a poor job.”

Here at the GDO we don’t question the Federal Reserve’s workmanship.  We commiserate in it.  They’ve been tasked with doing the impossible…promoting maximum employment and price stability both at the same time. 

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Still, while we don’t question the Federal Reserve’s workmanship, what we do question is their very existence in the first place.  Not only is what they do unconstitutional, it’s unconscionable too. 

The corner banker can already cause enough mischief lending out the deposits of others.  Backing them up with a central banker and a seemingly endless supply of cheap money only serves to launch man’s penchant for a good mania into outer space.

We Never Knew Ye

Quite frankly, we’d rather let the market – a collection of willing participants engaged in a collection of business transactions – determine the price of the economy’s most fundamental element than some price fixer in D.C. 

What is it exactly we’re talking about?

Money.  More precisely, the price of money as determined by the rate of interest in return for credit.  The Federal Reserve’s been monkeying around with the price of money like drunks tossing horseshoes in the rain for the last 96 years.

Once the price of money – which impacts every aspect of an economy – is fixed by a central planning bureaucracy, the free market no longer exists.  Alas, free markets…we never knew ye.

We’ll wrap it up today…and head into the weekend…with a little humor piece we uncovered just for you…

Sorry for Getting Caught

A good comedy’s hard to come by these days.  We scour the headlines and find nothing but calamity.  But occasionally we come across something worth a good belly laugh…

The Mayor of Los Angeles has an extramarital affair…again.  The President throws like a girl.  Congressman Barney Frank opens his mouth.  And this…

Two Senators borrow money through the “friends of Angelo” program.

Here are the characters of this particular script…

The Senators are Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad.  Dodd, of course, is a notable buffoon.  And Conrad, until now, we’d never heard of.  As for Angelo…that’s Angelo Mozilo – the former chief executive of Countrywide.  You know the guy…the one with the orange tan.

And here’s the plot…

“Two influential Senate committee chairmen were told they were getting special VIP deals when they applied for mortgages, an official who handled their loans told Congress in closed-door testimony,” reported AP on Tuesday.  “Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad had denied knowing they were getting discounts when they negotiated their loan terms.”

We’re neither shocked nor appalled by this sort of thing.  In fact, we expect it.  For what good is being a Senator if you don’t get a little VIP treatment?  By definition isn’t that what a Senator is…a very important person?

Whether the story’s true or not we couldn’t give a rip.  Still, we are determined to enjoy it…

“Dodd, D-Conn., who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, still maintains that he got no preferential treatment.”  

“Conrad initially said in June 2008, ‘“If they did me a favor, they did it without my knowledge and without my requesting it.’”

Here’s the kicker…

“The next day, Conrad changed course after reviewing documents showing he got special treatment and said he was donating $10,500 to charity and refinancing the loan on the apartment building with another lender.  He also said then it appeared Countrywide had waived 1 point at closing on the beach house.”

This brings to mind a certain question for Conrad…a question you may have heard as a kid…

Are you sorry you did what you did…or are you sorry you got caught?

We presume it’s the latter.

Sincerely,

M.N. Gordon
Great Depression Online

P.S.  Right now there is a small window of opportunity you can take advantage of.  And if you do, you could be able to secure your family’s financial future forever.  Some people will take advantage of this, but most others won’t.  They’ll simply watch as the train passes them by.  Which will you be?

 

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