I sincerely HOPE that the USDA, enshrined on my list of the Anti-Christ, is taking in a good, long, and hard look at what is happening in Russia's grain producing region with the advent of their record breaking heat wave and 22 month drought. (I sold my wheat position several weeks ago, thinking I was a genius after buying at the exact bottom... woulda, coulda, shoulda held on to that position.)
There is absolutely no risk in the near term for fertilizer shortages or insufficient fuel for tractors... or what ever techno failure doomers or Hollywood can conjure up (I said NEAR TERM). The risk is, has been, and always shall be the WEATHER. The U.S. has the mother of all militaries, a massive Strategic Petroleum Supply, and a nationwide network for 911 and first responders... but, unbelievably, the U.S. has no plan for a multi year drought in the nation's grain producing region NOR for an earthquake in California resulting in the demolition of their reservoir system that would stop the production of well over half of the nation's fruits and vegetables. What, exactly, does the USDA do? Well, they do inspect meat, but only at the time of slaughter... and given that the real risk is after slaughter, well, I certainly feel better and better about their $48 gazzilion budget, don't you?
Our government is always fighting the last war... and they confiscate the resources people might use to make better arrangements in order to fight that wrong war.
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The Media Manipulation Machine was busy doing its dirty work this past week... but before I get on with my rant about what I fervently HOPE is "Peak Victimization" I want to point out this fantastic treatise from a self described "workers bee" at one of the Federal Reserve Banks.
Now, assuming you read that link... the writer makes a couple of fallacious assumptions, but not that Macro economics is hard.... it IS hard, he has that one correct... his first f***ed up assumption is that we need a Federal Reserve in the first place! Macro economics IS hard, and a couple of young, penniless PhD's (or even an army of them) working at the Fed is not a better alternative to the free market's million's of participants, each making rational decisions with his or her own money. As somebody recently pointed out with respect to this article and the economics "profession" general... Economics is not a hard science!! In economics, 2 + 2 does not equal four necessarily, although it certainly could.... but it does not have to. I assert that self-educated, professional Wall Street traders that made a lot of money taking risks with their capital and using their noodle everyday are a much better research vehicle than these "worker bees" at the Fed.
Worse, if you read this elitist B.S., the writer pretty much tells us that we shouldn't worry our slow and little minds about the subject.... after all, only input from PhD's in economics is required and worth listening to. These are the very folks that create these problems and then request greater resources to FIX the problems they have created... thereby creating more and greater problems... this is exactly how the U.S. got to the point where its government runs a deficit equal to 10% of GDP per year.
Neither I, nor any of the other professional investors/traders that blog only for fun and to vent ever said that any of this WAS easy. We merely saw the housing and banking disaster long before you, Greenspan, Bernake, Treas. Sec. Paulson, et al... Read my Blog, Mr. Athreya! If a self-educated average Joe like (and many other economic bloggers) me called: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman, Bear Stearns, Housing, Banking, and the CMO market's well in advance... why, exactly, didn't you and the rest of your credential stamped weenies? Could it be that our experience is of greater use than your "training"? Maybe this is like swimming.... you simply have to get wet before you can call yourself educated?
Nothing sharpens and focuses the mind like having your own skin in the game. We don't need the Federal Reserve whatsoever. Nor do we need Bloggers to set interest rates... let the Free Market make these decisions.
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OK. Peak Victimization.
Oh.......... My............... G-d.................
No doubt, the Left will see this mass murder in terms of gun control... and NOT the fact that they have spent decades convincing everyone that they are a victim. This guy was a thief and a liar, and likely mentally ill, and now a mass murderer... and then you tell a person with these kinds of character defects, over and over and over again, that someone else is to blame... and he murders a bunch of "these" people in cold blood... and who exactly is at fault here? The NRA?
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The Mommy Victim. That's right. You "gave up" a career which would have CERTAINLY been all that you dreamed of as college student (LOLOLOLOLOL) to actually breast feed your own children, read to them in bed, and provide a nurturing, loving home for your children and their father?!! What kind of professional ARE YOU??!! Don't you know that breeding and child rearing are the work of the underclass??!! Those g-d d-mn men did this to you!!!
Earth to the Media and to our last few presidents. There were PLENTY of married women with children (or single women with children, for that matter) that you morons should have considered for the Supreme Court!!! The nit-wit writing this article only sees this in terms of reproductive options for careerists?? What about the American PEOPLE? Remember them? Our Supreme Court Justices, for the most part, come from only 5 Law Schools! This was NOT the norm down thru the court's history, but it has become the rule over the past 4 decades. There is NO REQUIREMENT that a Supreme Court Justice even need be a lawyer. I have read the U.S. Constitution... I am not a lawyer... and I am more than capable of interpreting this document, thank you very much (non of the framers, you know, they guys that wrote the document went to Law School as we know it). It is high time we had a "soccer mom" Supreme Court Justice. It is high time we had a working class, non lawyer Supreme Court justice. Not everything is black man, white woman, Jew, Muslim... there are plenty of other backgrounds and experiences that would make a significant contribution to the Court.
But the media has an agenda... and that agenda has all career women, everywhere, as victims of their biology... is there any wonder at the state of the family here in the U.S. ?
G-d save our kids.