Smarter Than Thou!

FUN(?) WITH WORDS

   IT may be needless to say, but perhaps it is prudent to write, the word “bailout” is being said all over the place.  It is impossible to avoid hearing about it, unless one is listening to the only alternative, which is how Alex Rodriquez is lying about taking improper drugs.  Even then, I soon expect to hear how he, personally, should bail out the nation’s banks by donating part of his salary to re-fund whatever bank went broke this week. 

   However, the word itself has intrigued me.  Consider what it means, outside of the financial world.  Consider what it means in the area of, well, transportation.  In aviation to bail out means to jump out of an airplane, (probably) with a parachute.  This is because the plane is no longer capable of flying safely, perhaps because it has been damaged by enemy fire.  Its crew can not sustain it any longer, so they give up the effort. 

   In another part of the transportation context, to bail out means to attempt to keep a ship, which has too much water inside it, afloat by moving this water to the outside the ship.  The effort may work and thus the ship will be saved.  However, the crew will not do what they normally do, and the ship will not function very well, while the bailing out goes on.  They are distracted with their bailing. 

   In one case to bail out means to give up, and to try something new.  In the other case it means to make extraordinary efforts to deal with a danger.  The two words, although related, are really quite different.  And maybe this is why no one seems to know what the bank (and possibly car) bailouts are supposed to accomplish, or even which meaning applies. 

   Maybe we should use a different term, for example, “crash and burn.”  

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THE SCHOOL OF EXPERIENCE

EXACTLY how badly Bam-Bam will infect the country with is intellectual disease has yet to be determined.  Without doubt, his economic policies will destroy much prosperity.  However, they may not kill.  The mood of the media commentators runs from depressed to suicidal.  And this is quite strange as they saw, during the campaign, Bam-Bam as capable of walking on water and creating jobs for multitudes out of a few loaves and fishes.   

      Recently I heard one of these media types comment on the effect on college education.  College loans will become more difficult to get.  Parents will be able to pay less.  Students may have to try to work their way through, while fewer jobs, with lower pay, will be available.  So, he concluded, many “students”(?) will simply not go.  And, of course, in his view, this would be a disaster. 

      Really?  I recall a priest once being asked about a certain heresy.  He said, “You need to be a theologian to believe something like that.  Anyone with common sense could not be that stupid.”  I hold that generations of college educated government leaders have the sense of the real “educated” out of them.  As a result they have led, and/or pushed, the USA to the edge of a great depression, and to become part of Latin America, the primitive part. 

      I am NOT saying that there should be no educated experts in positions of authority.  However, as the electorate has become (formally, at least) more “educated,” they have elected more evil and idiotic leaders.  At least the Founding Fathers were only evil, and not idiotic.  Thus, as---God willing ---the population becomes more “uneducated,” they are less likely to (re)elect Liberals.  Only college graduates can fully be Liberals.  The working man is not stupid enough to accept liberal hypotheses. 

      And this will act as a natural “market” limitation on the damage.  As, eventually, fewer Liberals will be in power, the country will recover.  Of course it may take more years than all of us have left in our lives.  But there always is hope in quality non-education… until, alas, the masses start going to college again.    

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KILLING OURSELVES INTO PROSPERITY!

RECENTLY Nancy Pelosi (this nation’s Lady Macbeth) made a comment which people found, well, “odd.”  She wanted to use Federal bail-out money to prevent people from being born.  Her reasoning was this.  The country has a certain limited amount of wealth.  Wealth is defined here as desired things (e.g. diamonds, pizzas) and services (e.g. getting her nails done, plastic surgery).  The country, as a whole, is better off when it is wealthier.  This can be done either by increasing the amount of desired things or services, or by decreasing the number of people, who possess these things.  Thus, she advocated her pro-death policy.

     Even though there was a mini-outcry against her policy (so much that the “family prevention” funding was removed, temporarily), her reasoning is quite correct.  National wealth may be measured by dividing the number of valuable things by the number of people.  However, she was stupidly involved with the wrong part of the equation. 

    When the amount of wealth per person (as in money) is increased these people want to keep it.  Particularly when things are tough, and the future is fearful, people are likely to become misers.  This economic term means to hoard money and not spend it.  So savings, and not purchases, are likely to increase.  People enduring “rainy days,” and expecting floods, tend to hold on to their money.  Commerce suffers.  This is not, officially, what Nancy wants. 

     Now, look at the other part of the equation.  People who produce valuable things try to sell them.  People who dig up gold or diamonds may keep a few for themselves.  But mostly they sell what they produce.  When they are helped with their production (as in favorable government policies) then they tend to produce more and more.  This means that the national wealth increases, even though no babies are murdered.  This is what Nancy should be advocating. 

      Consider what else happens when “Supply Side” policies are “adopted” (pun intended here, as Nancy is against having children being born.  Get it?).   The “over production” of diamonds, pizzas, doorbells, boats, etc, will induce the respective producers to lower their prices in order to sell all they produce.  This will induce people to buy, AND make people optimistic.  When prices are falling, and there are lots of valuable things in the stores, everything gets better.  Additionally, those producers have to hire extra people to produce the “extra” stuff. 

    This is what Nancy should have been advocating.  But she is too in love with self-extermination to recognize truth.  Like the other followers of Bam-bam, they are so interested in being evil (favoring of abortion) that they are willing to destroy the economy of America in order to achieve their evil.  They have a good chance of succeeding. 

    The only consolation for the rest of us will be that America deserves it.      

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ANOTHER THING NOT TO WORRY ABOUT

   I admit from the beginning that all of my basic information comes from Mass Media sources, so all of it may be wrong.  As I understand it, the US national debt is, pretty much, now “owned” by the Chinese.  This means that when the Feds spend more than they take in (which is deficit spending), they raise the money by borrowing.  This means that they issue, literally, IOUs.  This take the official form of Treasury Bills, Notes and Bonds. 

    These pieces of paper carry interest.  So these are simply loans.  To buy these one needs to pay in dollars.  We Americans do not want any other money.  The Chinese have lots of US dollars because we Americans buy (with dollars) lots of stuff from them.  The Chinese, not wanting to buy stuff from us, have these dollars sitting around.  So they use them to buy the T-Bills, and thus gain some interest income.

    Now you understand about all you will ever need to know about international economics and finance.  You probably know more than Tribal Leader Bam-bam does. 

    In recent times the professional Chicken Littles have been openly worrying about this arrangement.  What if the Chinese “call in” our loans?  What if they will no longer finance our debt?  They say, “Panic; run about aimlessly; lose sleep as the sky is truly falling!”  I say, “Don’t worry.  Be happy.”

    So what if the Chinese “call in” US loans?  The good news is that they can not, not really.  The T-Bills are pieces of paper, payable in…. other pieces of paper, called dollars.  Should the holders of the Bills want “payment” they will get pictures of dead Protestant Freemasons, i.e. Washington, Lincoln, Grant, etc.  And if the Treasury does not have enough of these mini-portraits on hand, the Federal Reserve will print up some more.  And dollars do not generate interest as T-Bills do. 

    You know what happens when you run out of “Monopoly money” when you play the game.  You write up some more on any piece of paper, and everyone accepts it as valid.  The world is playing Monopoly.  Why not?  It’s fun.  And it’s free! 

    In the next installment, if I remember to do so, I shall comment on what happens if the Chinese wake up, and stop buying USA loan papers.  Hint:  it also is not a real problem. 

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