The Ruling Elite Called - - hilarious

[Michael Tee]

I reproduced the following article in its entirety but was too lazy to mark each para with "<<."  Great article.  One of the funniest I've read in a long time. 

The Ruling Elite Called
by Jim Quinn
http://www.lewrockwell.com/quinn/quinn32.1.html

 I just got off the horn with the Ruling Elite. We had an emergency conference call and to tell you the truth, they ain’t happy. You little people are not responding the way you are supposed to. A significant portion of you are not getting more optimistic because they tell you to. Instead of just reading the headline on Bloomberg that durable goods orders skyrocketed in June, you actually read the details that said durable goods orders plunged. It is getting difficult for the ruling elite to keep the masses sedated and dumbed down. These damn bloggers, with their facts and critical thinking, are throwing a wrench into the gears. Obama and his crack team are working round the clock to lock down the internet, but it will take time. Not that they are totally dissatisfied. They’ve been able to renovate their penthouses and purchase new mansions in the Hamptons with the billions in bonuses you supplied through TARP. The $1.2 trillion supplied by your children and grandchildren to buy up toxic mortgages off their balance sheets was a godsend. They will never call you suckers, to your face.

Their spirits were buoyed by the 2,600-page DONK (Dodd/Frank) financial reform bill. So many loopholes, so little time. Obama and his crack team of Obamanistas in the White House, supported by their mouthpieces in the mainstream media, have been able to easily manipulate the non-thinking masses into believing this bill would have stopped the last financial crash and will stop the next one. The Ministry of Truth has been working overtime utilizing Federal Reserve paid shill economists like Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi to perpetuate the myth that the actions taken in the last 18 months have averted a Depression, saved 8 million jobs, created a long-lasting recovery, wiped out Swine Flu, and earned Paul Krugman a Nobel Prize in fiction.

This is where we have a problem. The worshippers of Keynes, that rule the country, are pissed off at you. Don’t you realize that government spending of your money, borrowed from the Chinese, with the bill passed to your grandchildren, was supposed to reinvigorate your animal spirits? They handed you other people’s money to buy cars and homes and what do you do? You stop buying cars and homes as soon as they stop paying you to buy cars and homes. You ungrateful bastards. Bennie has been hugely successful at ruining the retirements of millions of grandmothers by paying them 0.20% on their money market accounts while forcing mortgage rates for 30 years down to 4.5%. And still you don’t buy houses. Timmy has instructed Fannie Mae to make home loans to anyone with a pulse who can make an X on a piece of paper. No money down, no proof of income, no assets. Just like the good old days. Still you don’t buy houses. What is wrong with you?

The criminal banking elite have more than bent over backwards to get this economy humming. They have patiently stood by while you haven’t made your mortgage payments for two years while still residing in the house. They’ve pretended to go along with the brilliant HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program) plan, masterminded by the rocket scientists in the White House. Just because virtually no one has been able to qualify for the plan and the redefault rate is 75%, doesn’t mean it hasn’t worked wonders for the economy. The awesome part of not making people pay their mortgages is that they were able to make payments on their credit cards. That allowed the mega elite banks to pretend that consumers are flush and relieve their loan loss reserves while not writing off the bad mortgages and reporting billions in profits for the 2nd Quarter. It is good to be the ruling elite.

The ruling elite are letting you slide on your mortgages and you have the gall to withdraw $20 billion from U.S. equity funds and not buy into this fake stock rally. Don’t you realize that when the stock market goes up, the economy follows? Everyone knows this. But, instead you sit on the sidelines and refuse to invest in the stock market. The super computers of the mega-banks are getting tired of trading with each other and single-handedly making the stock market appear safe. Just because the ruling elite have vaporized $10 trillion of your net worth in the last two years, you hold a grudge? Remember the mantra “Stocks For the Long Run” that the ruling elite burned into your brains through CNBC and the rest of the shillstream media? Why are you so suspicious of our advice? Ignore the fact that the S&P 500 today is at the exact level it reached on March 24, 1998. They meant the really really long term.

Here is the message from the ruling elite to you ignorant masses: Debt got us into this mess and it sure as hell is going to get us out. They have convinced the mainstream media that the reason the economy is sputtering is because the average Joe is not doing their part. This crazy concept of saving for a rainy day seems to be catching on. This is very dangerous. Savings could lead to investment and long-term stability. The ruling elite will have none of that foolishness. The mainstream media is telling you that this new-found austerity will push us back into recession. The talking heads continue to pound away that you have reduced your spending too much, when anyone with a calculator and half a brain (Krugman doesn’t make the cut) can determine that the decrease in consumer debt outstanding is completely the result of write-offs by the mega-elite banks. Consumers are living off their credit cards at this point.

The military industrial complex continues to do the heavy lifting for this economy. If they weren’t blowing up bridges, power plants and orphanages in foreign countries and then rebuilding them at ten times the expected cost, how would they possibly spend $895 billion per year. It ain’t easy to waste that kind of money annually. Whenever some crazy dude like Ron Paul questions the need to spend as much as the rest of the world combined on the military, some potential terrorists are captured in the nick of time and the threat level is raised to Orange (thanks Tom Ridge). The “professional” journalists on the major networks then do their part in this farce by spreading fear among the general population. Rinse and repeat.

So, we now find ourselves at the edge of the abyss again. The ruling elite have a great plan. It involves more debt, more stimulus, more printing, more accounting fraud, more pain for the masses, and of course more bonuses for Wall Street. If you, the little people, will just follow this 10-step plan, the ruling elite will be just fine:

1.   Stocks are undervalued according to the same "experts" who told you they were undervalued in October 2007. Take out a loan and buy mega-banks stocks, commercial real estate developers, and bankrupt car companies.

2.   General Motors, in a brilliant strategic coup, has bought "subprime" auto loan company Americredit. What else does a government/union owned car company need? The fact that GMAC has lost $10 billion of taxpayer funds in the last year shouldn’t worry you about your investment in GM. If you can’t sell cars to people with no income, no job and no prospects for repaying the seven year 0% loan, who can you sell a car to? When the government pays Goldman Sachs millions to convince you to buy the stock of GM in its Fall IPO, ask no questions and just buy buy buy.

3.   Ignore the fact that Citicorp, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo would be declared insolvent if the FASB had not caved in to threats from the Federal Reserve and Treasury. Just buy their stocks. Trust Wall Street.

4.   Enough austerity already. You haven’t bought a new HDTV in six months. It’s like you’ve been living in a 3rd-world country. If you have any equity left in your house, borrow against it and buy something big and glitzy. Make sure you show it off to your shallowest neighbors. They will go out and buy something bigger and glitzier on credit. Before you know it we have a recovery. Keynesianism 101.

5.   Stop frequenting financial blogs like Naked Capitalism, Credit Writedowns, Dollar Collapse, Market Oracle, 321Gold, Jesse’s Cafe Americain, Of Two Minds, Zero Hedge, Mike Shedlock, or Barry Ritholtz. These sites will just shower you with facts, analysis and truth. Watch CNBC, Fox, MSNBC and the other corporate media to get the ruling elite approved view of the world.

6.   If you are currently renting or living in your mother’s basement, have no job, no savings and no prospects, Fannie Mae wants to put you in your very own house. Mortgage payments are optional. The 50% of Americans that pay taxes will gladly fund your new abode.

7.   If you are approaching the 99th week of unemployment, have no fear. The ruling elite will use the MSM to run hundreds of sob stories about only two years on the dole being immoral and cruel. The White House will present a study from "impartial" economists that proves that extending unemployment benefits to 156 weeks will create or save 3 million jobs.

8.   The stress of this recession has been too much. You need to whip out that credit card and book a trip to Disney World or Dollywood. Worry about funding that 401k sometime in the future.

9.   Unquestioningly accept the fact that Iran is an imminent threat to your safety and liberty. Support the obliteration of this evil nation based upon information provided by the CIA (WMD slamdunk) and the Israelis.

10.   Lastly, call your Congressman and tell them to extend the tax cuts for the rich. As you have probably concluded, the ruling elite are rich. They don’t like paying taxes. That is why they employ thousand of tax lawyers. Since the expiration of the Bush tax cuts will hurt the ruling elite the most, a full court press of disinformation is in order.

The ruling elite expect you to comply without question. Have they ever led you astray before?

July 31, 2010
http://www.lewrockwell.com/quinn/quinn32.1.html

[sirs]

And along those lines of a great article!!
------------------------------------------------------------

Many of the wonderful-sounding ideas that have been tried as government policies have failed disastrously. Because so few people bother to study history, often the same ideas and policies have been tried again, either in another country or in the same country at a later time-- and with the same disastrous results.

One of the ideas that has proved to be almost impervious to evidence is the idea that wise and far-sighted people need to take control and plan economic and social policies so that there will be a rational and just order, rather than chaos resulting from things being allowed to take their own course. It sounds so logical and plausible that demanding hard evidence would seem almost like nit-picking.

In one form or another, this idea goes back at least as far as the French Revolution in the 18th century. As J.A. Schumpeter later wrote of that era, "general well-being ought to have been the consequence," but "instead we find misery, shame and, at the end of it all, a stream of blood."

The same could be said of the Bolshevik Revolution and other revolutions of the 20th century.

The idea that the wise and knowledgeable few need to take control of the less wise and less knowledgeable many has taken milder forms-- and repeatedly with bad results as well.

One of the most easily documented examples has been economic central planning, which was tried in countries around the world at various times during the 20th century, among people of differing races and cultures, and under government ranging from democracies to dictatorships.

The people who ran central planning agencies usually had more advanced education than the population at large, and probably higher IQs as well.

The central planners also had far more statistics and other facts at their disposal than the average person had. Moreover, there were usually specialized experts such as economists and statisticians on the staffs of the central planners, and outside consultants were available when needed. Finally, the central planners had the power of government behind them, to enforce the plans they created.

It is hardly surprising that conservatives, such as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Britain and President Ronald Reagan in the United States, opposed this approach. What is remarkable is that, after a few decades of experience with central planning in some countries, or a few generations in others, even communists and socialists began to repudiate this approach.

As they replaced central planning with more reliance on markets, their countries' economic growth rate almost invariably increased, often dramatically. In the largest and most recent examples-- China and India-- people by the millions have risen above these countries' official poverty rates, after they freed their economies from many of their suffocating government controls.

China, where famines have repeatedly ravaged the country, now has a problem of obesity-- not a good thing in itself, but a big improvement over famines.

This has implications far beyond economics. Think about it: How was it even possible that transferring decisions from elites with more education, intellect, data and power to ordinary people could lead consistently to demonstrably better results?

One implication is that no one is smart enough to carry out social engineering, whether in the economy or in other areas where the results may not always be so easily quantifiable. We learn, not from our initial brilliance, but from trial and error adjustments to events as they unfold.

Science tells us that the human brain reaches its maximum potential in early adulthood. Why then are young adults so seldom capable of doing what people with more years of experience can do?

Because experience trumps brilliance.

Elites may have more brilliance, but those who make decisions for society as a whole cannot possibly have as much experience as the millions of people whose decisions they preempt. The education and intellects of the elites may lead them to have more sweeping presumptions, but that just makes them more dangerous to the freedom, as well as the well-being, of the people as a whole.


Telling it like it is

[Xavier_Onassis]

Just because the Russians did poorly on central planning does not mean that it cannot work. The PRC has managed to combine a mixed and a free economy well enough to produce a high growth rate for over a decade. Of course, an obedient labor force, with a huge reserve waiting in the countryside, and a gigantic market in the USA was required, but still, the people running the PRC are champions at central planning. I doubt that this could work in any country but China, and with a major market anywhere but in the US, but still, do not blame planning when it is bad planners who have failed.

[sirs]

LOL....exactly as Sowel has opined.  Yea, thay just didn't have the "right people" yet.  Didn't have "enough money" to make it work.  Not enough "obedient people" yet (read: not enough control)

China's economy is improving BECAUSE of injecting more capitalism and its practices, at the expense of stifling Communistic control

[Xavier_Onassis]

There is NO stifling of Communist control in China. Every factory built to manufacture exports is approved by the local Communist Party. They have to do thi, because the utilities and highways needed are built & maintained by the State.

The Central Planners of the PRC are just better at capitalism than capitalists or anyone elsewhere. This is partly due to some unusual factors that are present, and partly because they are highly competent at what they are doing.

[BT]

The Central Planners of the PRC are just better at capitalism than capitalists or anyone elsewhere.

If it is government money, i don't think it qualifies as capitalist investment. It might be closer to fascism as i understand the differences between the economic and political definitions.

[Plane]

Just because the Russians did poorly on central planning does not mean that it cannot work.

What exactly did they fail to do?

I think that the Soviet Union was run about as well as central planning could ever manage.

Note that the same country was centrally managed by Czars who did well sometimes but demonstrably not as well as the Soviets.


I think that Russians are still learning to distribute management , they stand a good chance of embraceing diversity , allowing a hundred flowers to bloom and reinventing themselves as a superpower.

If the previous sentance seemed deficient in buzzwords, feel free to add your own.

[Michael Tee]

<<Just because the Russians did poorly on central planning does not mean that it cannot work. The PRC has managed to combine a mixed and a free economy well enough to produce a high growth rate for over a decade.>>

I agree with that.  Further, I would say that the central planning of the centralized government was essential to the success of the mixed economy that followed.  I also agree with XO that the Party's control over the Chinese economy is as tight as ever, ready to step in at a moment's notice as and when needed to curb any excess of the "entrepreneurs" operating under the Party's watchful eye.

[sirs]

The Central Planners of the PRC are just better at capitalism than capitalists or anyone elsewhere.

If it is government money, i don't think it qualifies as capitalist investment. It might be closer to fascism as i understand the differences between the economic and political definitions.

BINGO

[Plane]

<<Just because the Russians did poorly on central planning does not mean that it cannot work. The PRC has managed to combine a mixed and a free economy well enough to produce a high growth rate for over a decade.>>

I agree with that.  Further, I would say that the central planning of the centralized government was essential to the success of the mixed economy that followed.  I also agree with XO that the Party's control over the Chinese economy is as tight as ever, ready to step in at a moment's notice as and when needed to curb any excess of the "entrepreneurs" operating under the Party's watchful eye.

Chinas recent successes are just as attribuitable to decentralised enterprise as their many failures during the Mao era are attributable to centalised controll.

When China has more millionaires than the USA it will probly be last week.

[Michael Tee]

<<Chinas recent successes are just as attribuitable to decentralised enterprise as their many failures during the Mao era are attributable to centalised controll.>>

Does anyone know of any studies that tend to prove plane's theory, or for that matter, mine?

[Xavier_Onassis]

The Chinese government has veto power over where and in what industries money can be invested in specific industries. A lot of the money is from Taiwan, Japan South Korea and the US.

[Plane]

<<Chinas recent successes are just as attribuitable to decentralised enterprise as their many failures during the Mao era are attributable to centalised controll.>>

Does anyone know of any studies that tend to prove plane's theory, or for that matter, mine?

Isn't the History of China itself the biggest scale study of this subject that there ever has been?

Centralised planning = worst period of famines in all Chinas history , surpassing in deaths even the results of Imperial Japaneese occupation.


Partial decentralised authority + minor tolerance for normal human ambition= greatest prosperity in all of Chinas history.


How is any study going have a bigger sample?
Or more definate results?

[Michael Tee]

<<Isn't the History of China itself the biggest scale study of this subject that there ever has been?>>

Not really.  The Communist era is only 61 years old.

<<Centralised planning = worst period of famines in all Chinas history , surpassing in deaths even the results of Imperial Japaneese occupation.>>

I honestly don't know what on earth you are talking about.  In all of China's history of communist rule, there has been only one famine, never repeated.  In China's four thousand years of pre-Communist rule, famine was a regular and recurring event.  It looks to me like the communists have got famine licked.

<<Partial decentralised authority + minor tolerance for normal human ambition= greatest prosperity in all of Chinas history.>>

LOL.  That's a pretty selective rendition of the events of the past sixty years.  A more realistic appraisal would be:  overthrow of capitalist pro-American government --> Communist Chinese government --> true national independence  -->solid infrastructure of healthcare, housing, education, redistribution, national pride and central planning --> world dominance.

[Plane]

LOL.  That's a pretty selective rendition of the events of the past sixty years.  A more realistic appraisal would be:  overthrow of capitalist pro-American government --> Communist Chinese government --> true national independence  -->solid infrastructure of healthcare, housing, education, {to an extremely low standard}. redistribution, national pride and central planning --> world dominance.

<<Isn't the History of China itself the biggest scale study of this subject that there ever has been?>>

Not really.  The Communist era is only 61 years old.

What larger scale or longer lasting study do you have in mind?

>><<Centralised planning = worst period of famines in all Chinas history , surpassing in deaths even the results of Imperial Japaneese occupation.>>

I honestly don't know what on earth you are talking about.

You certainly do not!

I am talking about the most severe famine that the human race has ever known with more deaths caused than the whole Japaneese occupation of the same territory.

You can't pass over the worst famine of all human history as just another famine in a country that has had one or two every century since pre history, Every human land has had one or two famines every century or two , the worst of them all is still the worst of them all.

What makes you think that there will never be another? That there is a strong ability to return to the same sort of central planning that they had during the worst famine they ever had?