Karl Denninger, "Amusing Nonsense ("Speculation")

"Amusing Nonsense ("Speculation")

by Karl Denninger

"The headline screams: "Euro Weakens on Concern Over Europe Spending Cuts, Bank Losses": June 1 (Bloomberg) - The euro fell to a four-year low against the dollar on concern mounting writedowns at Europe’s banks and efforts to reduce budget deficits will hamper the region’s economic recovery. Economic recovery? Where?

Look folks, the prayer at the Keynesian Altar has failed. The God did not hear you (because he doesn't exist); all you have done for the last 30 years is pull forward demand and claim to have a connection to a god-like economic intelligence. You have put forward a lie. You have done so intentionally. You have looted the public and government alike. And now the game is up. Who is "you"? There are a lot of "you"s:

The banksters. All of them. The belief that one can use credit as a way of life is outrageous and indeed functionally insane. Credit is simply the ability to eat tomorrow's hamburger today. But when tomorrow comes, which hamburger do you intend to eat then? Remember, tomorrow's hamburger eaten today must still be paid for tomorrow. So you must earn two hamburgers, not one, if you eat the first one early, and compound interest means that it is in fact not two hamburgers, it's three or more over a period of years. Good luck with that.

Americans. No, you can't have a big house just because some Realtard says you can afford it, or some bankster-cum-mortgage-mill gives you a pre-approval letter. Houses require maintenance, upkeep, utilities and taxes to be paid. None of this is in the purchase price but all of it must be added into the budget. That 3,000 square foot McMansion that was the average new home in 2007 comes with a $300/month utility bill, a $1,000/month property tax bill and over a ten year period $20,000 or more in maintenance and upkeep expenses - another $250/month or so, plus, of course, insurance against calamities. That same prototypical family of four can easily live in the 1,500 square foot house that has operating expenses one third that of the 3,000 sq/ft McMansion. Tricky mortgages may allow you to buy the McMansion - at least for a couple of years - but they won't support the operating expenses. The Realtards don't care, as they earn based on a percentage of the sale price, so the more house you buy the more money they make. That makes them your adversaries, not advocates. Absolutely everyone in the housing industry should be tarred, feathered and then bound and tied to the railroad tracks. The scam known as the "ownership society" pushed by the Bush Administration along with those in the industry was fraud writ large and you got screwed by it. These people may be your neighbors and associates but they most-certainly are not your friends!

Central Bankers. All of them. They're liars and have preyed on both the people and politicians alike. Nobody wants to hear the truth but that's exactly what we need. We cannot spend 10+% of GDP in borrowed money as a "stimulus", and yet Bernanke specifically counseled Congress to do so. These people are frauds and instead of taking responsibility for their willful malfeasance and misfeasance they try (successfully, often, at that) to goad governments into doing even-more stupid things to rescue themselves from their own quagmire.

The Public, again, and not just in America. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Government cannot hand out money it does not have. You cannot tax the people to pay the people - that's a circle jerk at best. Wealth is generated only from manufacturing, mining and growing things - that is, exploiting the "freebie" of energy from the Sun. All other acts are distribution of that wealth. When you attempt to distribute what you don't have you are participating in a Ponzi scheme as the only way to accomplish that goal is to borrow at ever-compounding interest. Coverage of that debt requires an ever-larger pool of suckers who will buy your bonds and finance your deficits - the definition of a Ponzi scheme. The unconstitutional acts of Congress and the Executive in the US, and their analogues worldwide, in pandering to the people do not change these facts - they can't, as they're immutable mathematical laws.

WAKE UP FOLKS. There is no way out of this box that does not require that the pain we have accumulated and denied be experienced. It is not possible to change that outcome and the longer we wait to accept it the worse the pain will be, just as occurs in a case of gangrene. If we wait too long then the gangrene reaches the torso and the economy (and political structure) dies."

- http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

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