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Ron Paul Humiliates Ben Bernanke so bad that CNBC had to cut him off.
- Thread starter aeliodon
- Start date
Quote from Pa(b)st Prime:
The dollar decline hasn't been caused by budget deficits. Read any of my recent posts on the subject. If fiscal policy was the culprit then the Yen would be worthless. The Euro too. U.S. budget deficits are running around 1.5% of GDP. Not exactly huge.At the end of the day the biggest cause of dollar weakness is the trade deficit. Period. The operative word in FX is exchange. Dollars leave in exchange for products but too few of our products are exported in exchange for other currencies. Thus the currency markets are making a revaluation based on the most important fundamental of all. Supply and demand.
With a grossly negative trade balance monetary policy can move in either of two directions .Keep rates high and artificially attempt to keep dollars rare and hence valuable. Or Fed policy can cut rates and hope that a lower dollar stimulates export activity while in turn making imports less competitive to domestic competitors. Since the latter isn't happening-we don't even make enough worth exporting any longer-an accomodative Fed policy is inflationary and ultimately dangerous.
I can't emphasize enough that the world is finally tired of working on our plantation. On what planet do you all think a barista at Starbucks can continue to earn two gallons of gasoline in an hour of work while a nurse in Malaysia toils a couple of days to buy the same products/commodities? The allocation of global products and services is not going to keep trending in such an unjust direction.
We enjoyed a great scam for too many years. We make nothing, export nothing yet expect guys in China to manufacture everything under the sun for us- and get paid squat in return. All in exchange for a piece of paper issued by the U.S. Treasury. A welfare recipient in the States makes several times the average working wage in neighboring Mexico. Thank God the Mexicans aren't as smart or enterprising as Asia. We'd already be toast.
I know my fellow Americans hate hearing this. They'd rather blame Bush. blame Bernanke, blame Congress, blame business, blame OPEC, blame whoever. Just as long as we don't blame ourselves.
The blame though is in the mirror. The blame goes to those who sold out American workers for that cheaper suit made in Brazil. Or for that sporty car Detroit just couldn't build to our yuppie scum specifications. We were taught menial work was beneath us so we trade. Or write mortgages. Or whatever. Just as long as our fingers are clean and unbroken. For those who were forced to toil on the assembly line we demanded the wages of kings. Or at least the same wage as the mortgage broker or BMW salesman. How did our fellow consumers react? They told us to F off. They said Asia builds my dreams cheaper. The formally starving Chinaman didn't strike for higher wages and a comprehensive retirement package. He just performed the tedious work of a robot and now our dollars are fueling his dreams. A dream of a dinner other than rice. Of a ride less laborious than on a bicycle. All good in the moral minefield of global trade and wealth redistribution. Yet with all we STILL have, we whine. And blame. America is filled with bitching, whining, duplicitous losers. A nation literally of cock suckers. A place that cares more about homo marriage, abortion and keeping guns away from young black men who squander and drop out from $15,000 a year of education as if they don't need it. Some say we're like Rome. I say that's unfairly disparaging to the Romans.
Hoho - another Blame America First Liberal!
"The blame goes to those who sold out American workers for that cheaper suit made in Brazil. " Chicken first or egg? Maybe his declining real wages make him look for cheaper suits to wear to work.
"Or for that sporty car Detroit just couldn't build to our yuppie scum specifications. " You mean like the GM EV1 electric car that was available years ago but was shredded in favor of going back to "concept cars" you can't buy? That was American innovation at work. Who would be ahead in those cars now if it wasn't scrapped back then?
"They said Asia builds my dreams cheaper." And companies get tax breaks for moving overseas too. Thank you sniveling, grubbing, whiny politicians.
"America is filled with bitching, whining, duplicitous losers." Then leave. Like Halliburton.
Quote from MarketMasher:
Hoho - another Blame America First Liberal!
Liberal? LMFAO. I'm the most ultra right wing person on this board. And don't misconstrue what I'm saying. In most ways Europe is just as f'ed as us. The tell will be when gold rallies some day on dollar strength.
As far as the rest of your post. Further bs.
Quote from Landis82:
And do you think that the housing market and its tremendous impact on all aspects of our economy will ever have a chance to "stabilize" or come back when Fannie and Freddie ( who securitized 60% of the mortgage origination out there ) are allowed to go belly-up?
Given the complete collapse of the banking sector and lack of capital, who would be able to take "their" place ( and do so successfully ) if they were allowed to go under?
Please answer me that one.
We need a real economy, not one based on consumption and housing..
It's what we USED to have, when the economy of this country was actually GREAT.
Letting these shitty companies collapse is the BEST thing we can do..Purge the economy of its excesses. Punish the fool hardy. Sure, it'll hurt. But it has to be done...
The thing with housing is that there is absolutely nothing the Fed can do. Home prices HAVE to fall...
If not, and if the Fed can keep gauzing up a gushing jugular, then the USD Dollar will get absolutely shredded. In that scenario, people can keep their 800K townhomes, but they will be paying 10$ / gallon for gas, and 5$ for a loaf of bread...
Wait till interest rates are in the double digits...the big question is will that number have a 1 or a 3 in front?
Quote from aeliodon:
Right after Ron Paul took a leak on Ben Bernanke by calling inflation a tax and Ben Bernanke the biggest taxer in the country - CNBC cut Ron Paul off, LMAO.
Towards the end Ron Paul left Ben Bernanke speechless.
This is a clever statement? It is not a tax. It is the way the world operates.
Inflation has been going up for centuries. Inflation exists in all 230 countries.
If Ron Paul was President, inflation would still go up.
In the 1950s, the average person made a buck or two an hour. But things were also cheap.
In this decade, the average American makes $20-$30 an hour. And things are more expensive. Wages keep pace.
But by all counts, people now are wealthier, with bigger houses, more possessions and more opportunities than people of the 1950s. People then owned a car, no computers, few electronics, rarely traveled far, etc.
And a hundred years ago, there were few homeowners and mostly renters.
If inflation were at 0%, wage increases would almost completely stop.
Again, inflation is not a tax. It goes up, and so do average wages.
This Ron Paul lovefest over a stupid statement is sickening. Learn a little economics and grow up, folks!
The main reason we have disbalances is because we don't like stability, humans are not machines, we get bored with repetitive processes, so we create new modules, which sometimes work & sometimes don't. Credit Crunch is nothing more but another module which hasn't worked in light of very low interest rates.
Quote from TraderZones:
This is a clever statement? It is not a tax. It is the way the world operates.
Inflation has been going up for centuries. Inflation exists in all 230 countries.
If Ron Paul was President, inflation would still go up.
In the 1950s, the average person made a buck or two an hour. But things were also cheap.
In this decade, the average American makes $20-$30 an hour. And things are more expensive. Wages keep pace.
But by all counts, people now are wealthier, with bigger houses, more possessions and more opportunities than people of the 1950s. People then owned a car, no computers, few electronics, rarely traveled far, etc.
And a hundred years ago, there were few homeowners and mostly renters.
If inflation were at 0%, wage increases would almost completely stop.
Again, inflation is not a tax. It goes up, and so do average wages.
This Ron Paul lovefest over a stupid statement is sickening. Learn a little economics and grow up, folks!
I think you are leaving out the time value of money. That was what Paul was also saying.
If I print more money and get to use it first, it buys me what a dollar buys TODAY. By the time all that extra money ripples out through down to the rest of YOU, it is inflationary. So there is almost a class-creation of who gets to use it first.
If you think your wages are going to rise at the same rate that money can be printed, that would be unusual. And in times when unemployment is rising, maybe it's not even possible to get your wages to even match.
I lost faith in CNBC a long time ago. When the news broke that one of NBC's nighttime "news" programs faked an explosion of a GM truck, GM was giving an emotional news conference about what NBC did. Well wouldn't you know it, I was watching CNBC at the time and they conveniently cut off the news conference the second they figured out what GM was saying and never went back to it. I had to turn to Court TV to watch. You can claim the Ron Paul cutoff was coincidentally, but what I saw was blatantly obvious.
Quote from WaveStrider:
I think you are leaving out the time value of money. That was what Paul was also saying.
This also has no meaning. People make a certain amount of money and things cost a certain amount of money. Wages and costs both go up.
The average family in 2006 made almost 3 times the income as people in 2006 (in 2006 dollars). Inflation and time value of money is already factored in.
Basically, people have gotten wealthier on average every year. Some, but not all families are 2-income, but regardless, the average American is much better off now than a long time ago.
And do we want to go back to the 1800s? When most Americans were relatively destitute? No stocks or investments or retirement. Few possessions. Basically working hard and dying young?
___________________________________________________________________
ALL FAMILIES - MEAN FAMILY INCOME
YEAR, $$$WAGE, IN 2006 $$$
1947 3,546 27,414
1948 3,671 26,256
1949 3,569 25,838
1950 3,815 27,286
1951 4,194 27,782
1952 4,457 28,941
1953 4,706 30,358
1954 4,684 29,955
1955 4,962 31,871
1956 5,341 33,792
1957 5,443 33,368
1958 5,565 33,155
1959 5,976 35,390
1960 6,227 36,224
1961 6,471 37,277
1962 6,670 38,054
1963 6,998 39,394
1964 7,336 40,754
1965 7,704 42,088
1966 8,395 44,628
1967 8,801 45,400
1968 9,670 47,961
1969 10,577 50,270
1970 11,106 50,360
1971 11,583 50,289
1972 12,625 53,176
1973 13,622 53,996
1974 14,711 53,056
1975 15,546 51,779
1976 16,870 53,141
1977 18,264 54,080
1978 20,091 56,982
1979 22,316 57,760
1980 23,974 55,851
1981 25,838 54,961
1982 27,391 54,949
1983 28,638 55,099
1984 31,052 57,394
1985 32,944 58,870
1986 34,924 61,298
1987 36,884 62,622
1988 38,608 63,229
1989 41,506 65,164
1990 42,652 63,784
1991 43,237 62,421
1992 44,221 62,263
1993 47,221 64,882
1994 49,340 66,377
1995 51,353 67,461
1996 53,676 68,684
1997 56,902 71,272
1998 59,589 73,610
1999 62,567 75,709
2000 65,773 77,008
2001 66,863 76,147
2002 66,970 75,056
2003 68,563 75,163
2004 70,389 75,134
2005 73,304 75,707
2006 $77,315 $77,315
from: InflationData.com