 It's all too weird, and I am all too scared
Richard Daughty
...the angriest guy in economics
The Mogambo
Guru
Archives
February 16, 2005
- Every actor in the Global Cartel Of Central Banks That Is Destroying
The World By Destroying The Money, or what we professionals in
the economics business simply call GCOCBTIDTWBDTM, is, I am sure,
pumping money like it is going out of style to try and keep asset
prices inflated, because the wealth of the whole world is now
totally dependent on stock prices that go up and bond prices
that also go up. Not to mention the retirement plans of everybody.
So, getting out the calculator, we add 1 = today, plus 2 = tomorrow,
and we get the answer 3, which makes no sense to me and I am
wondering what in the hell I was thinking about and does this
mean that I have Alzheimer's or something? Instantly, a buzz
goes through the classroom, and we all realize the error I have
made. But it will be a cold day in hell when I admit to any of
these snot rag kids that I made a mistake, so I quickly add,
"The answer is three, because today is also somebody else's
retirement, so that makes, in all, three separate demographic
groups that would be devastated with a general asset deflation,
and that is why the answer is three. Write down three in your
notes. Three. The answer is, as I have said, three." With
that I turn on my heel and strut away, triumphant again!
Total Fed Credit actually contracted by $7.6 billion last week,
which, combined with the action of Total Fed Credit over the
last week (down), in the last month (also down and also in the
context of the action of Total Fed Credit over the entire 18-year
term of the Greenspan Fed (up and up, and especially so, horrifyingly
so, insanely so, since 1998), then this is unusual, I think.
And this all happening at the time after the G-7 met, and of
course decided some secret things, and then they all went away
without saying anything, which is spooky. And it is spooky enough
that a fear originating in the instinctual, autonomic regions
of my lower brainstem kicks online-- bink! -- and I am watching
myself empty a machinegun at various bushes that rustle, and
maybe get off a few rounds at neighbors who "say" that
they were only standing out in the yard having a cigarette, but
who were probably probing my perimeter defenses, because we both
know that the abysmal money-and-credit-creating actions of the
Federal Reserve means that there will come a time of desperation,
fear and anger. And when that dark, dismal day comes, my so-called
"innocent neighbors" WILL be out probing my defenses
and getting their butts shot off in the process, and then they
will turn around and blame ME, like I am the one who did something
wrong here!
But the money supply is still expanding (seasonally adjusted)
or is contracting (not seasonally adjusted), as it lags Total
Fed Credit, or not. But The Mogambo, who oddly enough seems to
take a perverse pleasure in being wrong about everything, says
that the slowdown will start showing up in the Ms pretty soon.
And when the money supply starts contracting, coupled with the
monetary inflation (that the Federal Reserve is using to try
to get price inflation blazing, as hard as that is to conceive),
things WILL get plenty ugly, and The Mogambo taking a few lousy
potshots at you in the dark will be the LEAST of your problems.
- Reader Michael van der S. writes to deliver the interesting
factoid that "Weekly US beef kill is down 34% from 780,000
to 540,000 head -- give or take a little. Yet prices on raw skins
have DECLINED for last 3 weeks, the exact opposite of expected
actions." The Mogambo scratches his head. What does this
mean? I eat steaks and my shoes are made from leather, so I should
be uniquely positioned to comprehend the situation, right? It
is true that The Mogambo is eating less beef than usual, put
off not only by the price of the beef (yikes!), but also mostly
thanks to the price of everything else in the damn store also
being higher in price, and by the time I get to the meat counter
I have already spent all of my money on aluminum foil (to ward
off mind-controlling rays from the government and aliens from
outer space), disinfectants (to kill germs because maybe Howard
Hughes was right), the latest issue of Practical Government Economist
magazine (lead story: "Tax Breaks and Credits for the Super
Super-Wealthy; the Beneficial Multiplier Effect of Obtaining
Permits, Paying Impact Fees, Environmental Surveys and Other
Exorbitant Various Costs and Fees when Designing, Planning and
Constructing Mega-Mansions!") and maybe a little beer, and
maybe some pretzels. He goes on to say "Retail on all levels
outside of WalMart type stores has also declined. Downward pressure
on retail prices is extreme." Then he goes on to say, "I
am expecting very poor economy through 2005 - and I see no real
reason for it to change going forward. The implications for the
US as a society are profound and disturbing." And that is
exactly what I have been saying all along!
Perhaps it was a coincidence, or maybe Michael is friends with
them, but the NYSE Members took last week as a good time to sell
106,750,000 shares. As I like to keep an eye on the guys who
are deep in the bowels of the financial industry (and if you
keep at this thing long enough, you will come to appreciate the
subtle humor of why I used the word "bowels" to describe
the financial services industry), I note that this is an increase
in their usual level of selling. But they occasionally have big
sales or big buys, and sometimes it is a lot higher than this,
so I am not sure that there is anything to this whole Member
buy/sell activity as an indicator. But being the paranoid suspicious
type, and knowing people like I do, I don't trust any of those
slimy weasels, and after you have looked at the NYSE through
the lens of the Dick Grasso scandal and the board of directors
scandal and the compensation committee scandal and probably everything
else scandal, you get kind of suspicious, too, because dogs that
lie together and work together and run around sniffing each other's
butts together during a long boom know all KINDS of things about
everybody.
Then, you automatically extrapolate that to the whole financial
services industry, and then extrapolate that to the government,
and then extrapolate that to how those government bastards are
all out to get me, and then you extrapolate that to alien beings
from outer space controlling the governments, and then you extrapolate
that to invisible Thought-Control Waves being beamed into my
mind, then pretty soon you are feverishly squirreling away guns
and ammo and gold and silver,
and attaching roll after roll of aluminum foil to the ceiling
and walls of your house, and trying to train a stupid cat to
attack on command, which is, it turns out, a BIG waste of time
and effort (and not to mention a fortune in Kitty Yummies and
cat toys, and don't get me started on the hassle of trying to
find a simple cat whip! I politely ask the guy for a cat whip,
and he sneers at me and says they don't have any cat whips. So,
naturally, being The Mogambo, I start getting in the guy's face,
and I say, "How do you expect me to train a cat if I can't
whip them, moron? Haven't you ever seen the lion-tamer at the
circus, you stupid bozo? A chair and a whip! The freaking guy
is wearing riding boots, a safari helmet and packing a pistol!
I mean, chicks must be crawling all over this guy! Hey! That
gives me an idea! While you are at it, get me a nice cat-training
pistol, too! And a cat-training hat! And the macho boots! Don't
forget the boots, man!" Well, the sad news is that they
didn't have ANY of this stuff! What has happened to us, America?).
So knowing these guys as I do from long years of reading the
paper, reading magazines, watching the news and answering subpoenas
and getting into screaming hissy-fights with government employees
over trivial and ridiculous things and yelling at my mutual fund
companies about the princely sums they pay for advice only to
be given a slap in the face with investing performance which
turns out to be worse than average, and they keep on paying for
this same bad advice, year after year, for crying out loud! So,
I am sure that they would willingly screw the hell out of me,
anytime, day or night, 365 days a year, if it meant that they
would benefit, even minutely, by it.
But here in the USA it seems unnaturally calm. Calm and quiet.
And if we were in the movies, this is when the grizzled sergeant
takes the cigar out of his mouth and says, "Yeah. TOO quiet!"
and sure enough, in the next couple of minutes there is going
to be a hell of a pitched battle, and there will be bullets flying
everywhere and all the English-speaking White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
(WASPs) are acting brave and heroically, in contrast to all their
cowardly and despicable attackers, who are either of a different
race or they speak with foreign accents, who ruthlessly attack
Our Brave American Boys, which ought to tell you why there is
so much racism and xenophobia in America. Trying to connect this
with economics and earn a few brownie-points for my mandatory
Diversity Instructional Message (DIM), I point out that our Federal
Reserve central bank is filled with WASPs, the whole banking
system filled to bursting with WASPs, the political system is
overflowing with WASPs, and together they are killing our money,
and as soon as your money is sufficiently debased, you will die,
bitter and screaming out your rage in the gutter.
Couple this with the fact that these selfsame monsters of different
races and languages, who were, as you recall, killing Our Brave
Boys In Battle not ten minutes ago, ALSO all have fiat currencies
and central banks and corrupt political systems, and they are
all debasing their currencies so as to inflict inflation on their
own people, too! Not just us! They do this by buying up all the
dollars that are being spent by Americans on imports, and which
end up in the pockets of foreigners, who are called "foreigners"
because they all talk with foreign accents. So, the point is
that that, and you may want to write this down, the whole racist
and xenophobic defense mechanism is not as effective as Hollywood
would lead us to believe.
- The problem with raising interest rates to cool inflationary
fires is that it can initially cause inflation to accelerate,
which seems paradoxical to me. But then again, almost everything
seems paradoxical to me, mostly because I am a real stupid guy.
But by way of explanation, I ask the rhetorical question, "What
price do I have to charge for my widgets if I pay one percent
on my financing, and how much I have to charge for my widgets
if I have to pay twenty percent on my financing?" And the
reason why this is a rhetorical question, and thus not requiring
an answer, is that it ain't my freaking job to figure that crap
out, because my job is to be the Big Boss and Capitalist Swine,
where I strut around like I'm some kind of hot stuff, and I make
everyone work like dogs around the clock, and I under-pay them,
and I constantly exploit the working proletariat trash, and trick
them, and systematically cheat them every chance I get, because
every dime I can screw out of those hateful morons, slackers,
malingerers and thieves goes right into MY pocket, which only
BEGINS to pay me back for the sheer aggravation of having to
spend my precious life dealing with human workers, whom I call
"trash" behind their backs ("Hahaha! Trash! Hahaha!"),
and they caught me a couple of times, and then I answered their
concerns about demeaning their dignity as both workers and as
human beings, and in my usual calming and reassuring way by ordering
them to get their fat butts out of my office and get back to
work or do I have to get out Mister Baseball Bat Of Employee
Motivation (MBBOEM) again?.
But we were not talking about how The Mogambo Sweatshop (TMS)
is turning such fabulous profits by cruelly exploiting the downtrodden
proletariat worker as conveniently suggested by Marx. Perhaps
this has something to do with Frank Shostak's essay
at Mises.com, entitled "The Myth of The Neutral Interest
Rate Policy." This is only ONE of the myths of economics,
and they all revolve around some weird bastardization of Keynesian
economics.
And although I go to great lengths to demonize Keynes, in my
heart of hearts I kind of admire the guy, as he achieved fame
and fortune by peddling nonsense as economic fact, and got a
lot of people to swallow it, hook, line and sinker. All he said
that the government could counteract a contraction of economic
activity by deficit-spending. Well, duh! It's the same thing
that every dirtbag government in all of history tried to do,
moron! I mean, what could be more pleasant? You are the government,
and you are going to spend more money that you can collect! It's
Nirvana, dude! Do you think that only NOW has any government
in history tried to spend more that it collected? Hahahaha!
And the reason governments DON'T do that, when they would all
simply LOVE to do that, is that when they send the country deeper
into debt, it has always, and let me re-emphasize that word ALWAYS
because it is crucial to comprehend the enormity of this Big
Mogambo Lesson In Economics (BMLIE) and the reason that it is
crucial is because I promise you that it is going to be on the
Final Exam, and I am telling you this now so that perhaps you
will pay particular attention and not have to repeat my course
for the fourth year in a freaking row because I am as sick of
looking at you as you are sick of looking at me, but it ALWAYS,
and there is that word spelled all in capital letters, so you
know this has GOTTA be important, fails. And when it fails, the
economy is ruined, and there is unimaginable suffering and upheaval.
That, and that alone, is why nobody tries that silly freaking
crap, dude! I mean, how hard IS this to understand?
The Keynesian theory went on to say that the debt, which is the
icky residue after money is borrowed and spent, could be paid
back out of the increased tax revenues as the economy began to
grow! Wow! Astonishing! It makes you slap your head and say to
yourself, "Wow! Astonishing!" At the end, Keynes predicted
that everything would be back to normal, IF, and I emphasize
"if" by capitalizing both letters, which seems to be
some kind of weird literary device strangely running through
these last couple of paragraphs, IF you use the increased tax
revenue to pay back the debt that you incurred for the deficit-spending
program.
The problem is that it can't work. The "borrowed and spent
money" distorted the economy while it was being spent. And
when the economy grew with all of this stimulus, it grew by virtue
of increase in businesses that sprang up to sell stuff to government,
which was doing all this buying. But if the government stopped
buying stuff, and instead used the money to pay back the debt,
then the economy would sink and stall, because the economy is
now composed of 1) guys who sell stuff to the government, and
2) guys who are making a living by getting money from the government
without selling them anything except a sob story! It's a closed
circle! Hahahahaha! And then, even worse, they all use their
government-money to buy imported goods and services, creating
a record trade deficit of $615 billion last year! Hahahaha!
Brilliant economic planning, jerks! Hahahaha! This is your government,
and your Federal Reserve central bank, all rolled into one huge,
loathsome, corrupt and filthy glob of crap (GOC). The point is
NOT that it is, as I say, a GOC, but that there will NEVER be
a time when the economy can pay down any of this debt. And that
is why no government debt has been repaid for the last forty-five
years in a row. So total debt has to just keep getting bigger
and bigger and bigger, and then one day you see this thing rising
up over the horizon, and it will be the arrival of the Mutant
Debt Monster That Ate The World, and if you think that the government
is going to save you, then to you I say "Hahahahaha!"
Which brings me to one of the idiotic sponsors of National Public
Radio, whose motto apparently involves "solving the problem
of homelessness," which always give me a big laugh,
and not the good kind of laugh where joy and happiness are infectious
and pretty soon everybody around you is smiling and laughing,
too, but the OTHER kind of laugh, an evil, dry, mirthless and
sinister half-laugh, half-sneer, as if Satan himself was mocking
you. So, as my charitable contribution this week, as part of
the philanthropic Mogambo Charity (MC) which distributes, free
of charge, slaps to the faces of people who are acting really,
really, really stupid, and by really, really, really stupid you
know that I mean the Federal Reserve, as I would never forgive
myself if I accidentally passed up an opportunity to heap a big
ol' stinking pile of Mogambo Sneering Contempt (MSC) on the Federal
Reserve, there are two main reasons why some people are homeless.
1) They can't afford to pay rent, or 2) they don't want to own
a house. As for Reason Number Two on our Hit Parade of Reasons
For Homelessness, to tell you the truth, I own a house, and I
have learned the hard way that I don't want to own a
house because it is a responsibility, by which I mean that it
is a big, time-consuming hassle, and an expensive one, too! And
when it comes time to disappear in the middle of the night, beating
it out of town one step ahead of the police after getting the
maximum cash advance form each of my wife's credit cards, what
are ya gonna do with a house THEN? Take it with you? Hahahahaha!
So that leaves Reason Number One as the reason, namely that they
can't afford it. And why can't they afford it? Because prices
of housing, and the electricity, and the utilities, and the furnishings,
and the bullet-proof doors with the little peepholes that let
you see who is out there, and lets you decide whether or not
you should try and make a break for it with guns blazing, or
stay inside and lash out, like the cornered little rat that I
am, with a hail of hot lead, and go down in glory, yelling "Here's
a little present for Alan Greenspan and the rest of his
Federal Reserve bastards from The Mogambo, boys!" and then
unleash a firestorm of high-powered weaponry that exploits little-known
loopholes in the Second Amendment. Hopefully, Alan Greenspan
will read the story in the paper, and is so moved by it that
he resigns and appoints me as the new chairman of the Federal
Reserve, which would suit me fine! After a little butt-kicking
(to get it out of my system) and a little hounding people and
ruining their lives (to get the revenge out of my system) and
a cheeseburger and fries (to get something INTO the system),
I will soon show your children how a gold
standard guarantees happiness and prosperity. It is too late
for you, as a lot a sins must be washed away in the Great Washing
Machine Of Economics (GWMOE). But in another twenty or thirty
years of life under the gold standard,
grateful people of the world will probably all name their children
Mogambo, or golden
Mogambo, or (my personal
favorite) Mogambo, The Macho Stud Muffin.
And why did prices of housing go up? Because of the same reason
that is ALWAYS the reason for everything bad happening: A meddling
government, with financing provided courtesy of the damn Federal
Reserve! The banks are ALWAYS at the source of economic problems,
just as I am always at the source of neighborhood problems, but
they always start it, sort of like France kept picking on poor
old Germany in 1939, and although they initiated the hostilities,
I am determined to show these so-called "friends and neighbors"
just who in the hell they are messing with here, now that pre-emptive
strikes are part of the American credo.
So good luck, charitable foundation, on "curing" homelessness.
If you really want to cure homelessness, get the damn government
out of the economy, especially that part which relates to houses.
But even if you can't do that, at least get rid of the Federal
Reserve, which is creating more and more money and credit to
be used to drive prices higher and higher. Only when you solve
the problem of monetary inflation will you solve the problem
of price inflation which will solve the problem of homelessness.
And even then there will always be guys who, because of Reason
Number Two, don't want to paint the damn house, or mow the damn
lawn, or pay the damn electric bill. Especially the electric
bill, when, for the cost of a fifty foot extension cord, I can
plug into my neighbor's house and get free electricity! All I
want for free! Hahahaha! He was warned to watch me every second,
and now it is MY fault that he stopped paying attention?
- Some good news (such as it is) for people who save money, is
that the interest rate on the 6-month Certificate of Deposit,
currently paying 2.97%, is steadily going up, and will soon crack
the three percent barrier! Whoopee! Or in Mogambo-ese, "Whoop-freaking-ee!"
Inflation is running at more than three percent, and after the
bite of taxes levied on the paltry gain, you would need roughly
double that piddly 2.97% interest rate to let the saver break
even in terms of buying power! The Greenspan Fed is pounding
interest rates down and down in their desperation, and thus proving
that they are incompetent morons who have no idea what in the
hell they are doing! This is proof! If they were NOT incompetent
boobs, why are they pounding your grandmother in the head?
- Fernando Gonzalez on FSO has noticed a divergence between two
indexes that has important technical aspects. "In the past,
it has been quite a consistent observation that whenever the
primary (S&P500) and speculative (Naz) markets are out of
sync like this, the dominant current direction is likely to be
unsustainable. In this case, this market is more likely to encounter
resistance of the upward trend rather than strength to continue
the recent advances". Translation; stocks should be heading
down.
- To show you the complete idiocy of the people who should know
better, the news from the Commerce Department that imports of
goods and services exceeded exports by $56.4 billion in December
was received as some wonderful news. And it was, I guess, as
it is now second largest deficit ever in the history of the United
States ("The silver medal goes to December 2004!"),
as compared to November's $59.3 billion deficit (the current
gold-medal winner).
It wasn't until you read, in the back, in the footnotes, in small
print, in a foreign language (Aramaic), in a rare dead regional
dialect of Aramaic, we learn that imports went down because we
imported slightly less oil, and that the price we paid for it
averaged only $36.63 a barrel, which was the biggest drop in
the price of oil since 1991. Remember: imported oil cost $41.15
in November. So that part of the trade report showed a decrease
in oil imports that lowered their total value to $11.8 billion
from $13.4 billion, for a savings of $1.6 billion in the trade
deficit.
So adding back the $1.6 billion into the trade report, the trade
deficit is actually more like $58 billion. And if we had imported
our usual growing allotment of oil, then the trade deficit would
have almost certainly been the worst ever. Maybe even a new record!
- Bill Bonner of The DailyReckoning.com is as amazed as the rest
of us that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has "owned
up to the central role he has played in sparking unprecedented
global imbalances" by admitting "the growth of home
mortgage debt has been the major contributor to the decline in
the personal saving rate in the United States from almost 6 percent
in 1993 to its current level of 1 percent."
So instead of people accumulating savings, they accumulated debt,
which is actually an anti-savings. Not only that, but people
who "tap into their equity" of their houses by borrowing
against it spent almost half of the money for "additional
household expenditures, reducing savings commensurately and thereby
presumably contributing to the current account deficit."
Perhaps this has something do with the article entitled "Bankruptcies
In UK Soaring" which was the headline that blared out at
me from the FreeMarketNews.com posting by Michael J Ross. He
writes, "The number of citizens in England and Wales going
bankrupt reached a record high during the last three months of
2004. Specifically, individual bankruptcies increased 34.6 percent
compared to the same period the previous year, while 8 percent
higher compared to the previous quarter. "
So, who gives rat's ass about some limey trash? I knew you were
going to say that! And Mr. Ross has an answer for you! He writes
"While U.S. citizens often think that English news has little
effect upon their own lives, these developments could presage
future pain for U.S. consumers, a sizable portion of whom are
already up to their eyeballs in credit card balances, house and
car loans, and cash-out mortgages. At the same time, the U.S.
Federal Reserve has made it clear that it has no intention of
slowing down its current schedule of rate hikes. In 2004 there
were an estimated 1.6 million households in the U.S. that sought
bankruptcy protection. That number could certainly rise during
the current year as more American consumers feel the pinch of
higher lending rates."
- Now that the true cost of the Medicare prescription drug program
is being revealed to be exorbitant, Congressional buttheads are
wringing their little hands and bleating as they always do. Don't
believe them. They knew all along.
To give Ted Kennedy a little credit, although he is a loathsome
Leftist commie-rat Democrat from Massachusetts, which is a state
that I hold up as a worthless collection of morons, he voted
against this extravagant extension of the Medicare program. But
to make sure that we do not forget his ridiculous credentials,
as if being from Massachusetts is not embarrassing enough, he
goes on to say, "The problem is not caused by its being
too generous toward seniors. In fact, it is not generous enough.
Too much of the cost of the program goes to increase the drug
industry's already-inflated profits." Hahahaha! So it is
not the cost per se, but that the drug companies got too much
of the money! But, and notice that I am laying on the floor convulsed
in laughter, if the seniors spent the exact same amount of money
on the drugs, then that would be okay! It's not the cost, only
who GETS the money! Hahahaha! And remember that the people of
Massachusetts keep electing this guy, and also John Kerry, the
loser Democrat moron who had a damn plan ("I have a plan
for that!") for everything on the campaign trail, but now
that he is back to being a mere Senator, he is not going to tell
us ANY of his marvelous plans.
- And don't be carried away that the latest report shows showed
the number of U.S. workers filing for state unemployment benefits
dropped by 13,000 to 303,000. It was, admittedly, the fewest
number of applicants in more than four years and the less-volatile
four-week average of initial claims fell by 16,000 to 315,500,
which was also the lowest in more than four years.
The caveat comes when you read "The number of workers continuing
to receive benefits rose by 47,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.737
million. The four-week average of continuing claims rose by 22,500
to 2.734 million."
- Bob Wood, of Kaizen Asset Management, passes along this timeless
bit of wisdom from Sir Josiah Stamp, who was the President of
the Bank of England in the 1920's, and was also the "second
richest man in Britain." Mr. Stamp writes, "Banking
was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The Bankers own
the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to
create deposits, and with the flick of the pen they will create
enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from
them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and
they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better
world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers
and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create
deposits."
- But all is not sunshine and roses, as we learn from the Associated
Press that "Consumers' confidence has fallen dramatically
over the past month, reaching a 16-month low, and economists
say the political debate over revamping Social Security probably
is a major factor in the decline."
In more news in the same vein, we read that "The AP-Ipsos
consumer confidence index sank to 79.1 in February, down sharply
from 92.5 in January. February's showing was the worst since
October 2003."
- From H.H. we get a link to, what I suppose, is an article by
Norman McLain entitled "A Cautionary Tale" and is supposed
to be at the Mindfully.com site**, whatever
that is,
but I don't need to
check sources because I am The Mogambo, whose entire life has
been one of always doing things by taking the easy way out, and
only doing things that 1) I want to do, or 2) things where I
cannot avoid the responsibility because mean, spiteful little
people are FORCING me to act responsibly, and if you are my wife
or daughter reading this, then, yes I am talking about YOU! **[Editor's question:
Is this the piece, MoGoofaloo?]
But the article is the sad story of how descendants of the Romans
handled the economic ignorance and corruption that WE are now
experiencing. After awhile, we come to this telling description,
"For a time, the wealthiest curiales succeeded in bribing
their way onto the lists of senators, for the Senate was the
cream of Roman society and the ancient, if ineffectual, symbol
of its past republican glory." It sounds exactly like our
Congress to me! He goes on to say, "Others bribed their
way into other ranks of the bureaucratic honeycomb, such as the
enormous Palatine service."
Well, this cancerous growth of government is the exact point
that I want to bring up. In my Leftist hometown rag of a newspaper,
the St. Petersburg Times, the front page in the Sunday edition
had a nice article
entitled "Pay Scales Tip in Favor of County Staff"
by Michael Sandler. It is the despicable story of how people
who get their paychecks from taxes are making big, BIG bucks
and taking home big, BIG benefit packages that are so preposterously
generous that there is no equivalent in the private sector, or
anything even near. These government employees are raking it
in!
And the funny part is that the photo they included was a wide
shot of some county commissioner's meeting, and they all look
exactly like the same people that used to sit near me in all
my classes in all my years of public schooling, and I am here
to tell you that most of my time all those years was spent either
being summoned to the Principal's office on some trumped-up charge,
or in a classroom laughing at the utter incompetence and arrogant
stupidity of my classmates ("puny Earthlings!"), and
I am doubtful, VERY doubtful, that the people in the
photo are any different from their look-alike counterparts from
my youth.
And I am here to tell you that this proves that there is no God,
because if there WAS a God, then The Mogambo would not be holed
up under the 34th Street overpass bridge and being ordered to
come out with my hands up, and these people would not be making
insanely huge salaries to ruin the economy and thus the society.
Their blinding incompetence and the unbelievable stupidity of
their predecessors makes The Mogambo laugh in that creepy way
that has these dark undertones of disgust and fear and utter,
utter contempt. But I see you are intrigued with my assertion
that I have proved there is no God. Allow me to elaborate. If
there was a God, then The Mogambo would be given a 007 license,
whereby I could slap the hell out of morons until they smarten
up and they say "The Mogambo was right! A fiat currency
that the government can print at will, and a central bank to
administer all this money, and huge, unbelievable leverage from
abusing fractional-reserve banking are too great a temptation
for mere mortals, and that is why it always leads to disaster!
I see it now! Thanks Mogambo for slapping my stupid face until
I understood! All hail The Mogambo!" And then I would stop
slapping the hell out their snotty little faces and go find ANOTHER
moron, and slap some sense into HIS head, too!
But this is not about me and how I have proved that there is
no God, but the thrust of the article was that all the pay ranges
for these guys are being drastically increased, and huge raises
are being handed out, because what they do it to hire certain
consultants, who take a look at pay scales in other counties,
and then they recommend that all the local salaries are waaaAAAAaaaaayyyy
too low, and that everybody ought to be given a big, fat raise.
Then everybody GETS a big fat raise. And then the consultant
goes over to some OTHER county, compares their paltry wages to
our new, high wages, and that means that they need big, fat raises,
too! What a racket!
The county people admit that they have no problem with attracting
or keeping workers, which is how the private sector determines
wage scales! So there are plenty of people who want the jobs
with the current pay, and yet they get more money just for showing
up and listening to some jackass consultant's opinion! Wow! Nice
perk!
But in a weird, Leftist way, you can almost hear one of their
economist co-conspirators say, "It's okay if government
workers make more money, lots more money, because the average
income of the population will go up! And higher incomes mean
higher spending! So, my advice to you, as a trained university
professor of economics" (and this is where you look down
and see the Harvard pin in his lapel and your blood runs cold
and then you think of The Mogambo, and you wish-- oh, how you
wish! -- that The Mogambo was here right this minute because
HE would know what to do!) "is to increase the size of government,
and give everyone huge salaries! And use tax money to give them
these absurdly generous retirement benefits, where they are GUARANTEED
to show huge profits, because if they DON'T make huge profits
in their retirement accounts (like the rest of us in the real
world), then the damned is required to increase our taxes and
put THAT money into their retirement fund to make up any and
all shortfalls! Thus the stock market will go up! And everybody,
and when I say 'everybody' I mean us, prospers when the stock
market goes up!"
Ugh.
***** The Mogambo Sez: It's all too weird, and I am all
too scared. I know what history says will happen, and that is
why I am scared. And you should be, too.
Feb 16, 2005
Richard Daughty
email: scgcjs@gte.net
Archives
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Daily Reckoning
Richard Daughty
is general partner and C.O.O. for Smith Consultant Group, serving
the financial and medical communities, and the writer/publisher
of the Mogambo Guru economic newsletter, an avocational exercise
the better to heap disrespect on those who desperately deserve
it. The Mogambo Guru is quoted frequently in Barron's, The
Daily Reckoning
and other fine publications.
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