Happy Hump Day everyone!

Confederacy of Dunces is a cult favorite about a blustery, spoiled, arrogant and unemployed middle aged man who lives at home with his mother. Apparently it’s laugh-out-loud, can’t-put-it-down funny, but I’ve not yet read it. Perhaps I should, ’cause I could use a few laughs today. The title reminds me of this Johnathon Swift quote:

“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”

Swift is attributed with many simple but meaningful quotes, such as “Every dog must have his day,” and “Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.” Well, I hope this Swift quote will soon be heard coming out of the mouths of the mainstream media pundits: “A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying… that he is wiser today than yesterday.”

Sometimes it’s no fun to say “I told you so,” such as when you threaten your kid that if he doesn’t study he’s going to fail school . . . and then he doesn’t listen to you, and of course he fails school, and now he lives in your basement playing video games. And he’s thirty. It’s times like these when words like “I told you so” ring a little hollow.

Not that this is going to prevent me from saying it: To my friends and family who said I was over reacting to the economic indicators, and panicking about something that would supposedly “never happen,” I TOLD YOU SO.

The United States of America, this grand social experiment, did have a chance but we blew it. As did the Pakled in Star Trek the Next Generation we’re bobbing about aimlessly, lost in space inside our broken starship, proclaiming “We are SMART!” and insisting that the Federation find a way to make us “go” again. If you have NO idea what I’m talking about, the Star Trek episode titled Samaritan Snare should be instructive. Whenever I listen to idiots like Sean Hannity blather on about how America is the “greatest, best country God has ever given man on the face of the Earth” I think about the Pakled. Hannity even kinda-sorta looks like a Pakled to me.

Hmph. Moron.

Anyway: People with limited incomes have known things were bad for awhile now, and now it’s finally dawning on Middle America how completely destroyed we are. Little does Middle America know that a loud and not-insignificant minority has been screaming about our doomed economy for years. Maybe you even know one of them. Maybe he’s even your crabby uncle yelling at no one in particular at the family reunion how this country has gone to hell in a handbasket. Well guess what: When it comes to the government, the craziest old coot in your family tree hollering about the shysters in Washington D.C. is probably the one talking the most sense.

Anyone who thinks the “sub prime crisis” is the cause of our present day problems is confused by the mainstream media and needs to turn off the TV set. The housing situation looks like a cause, but it is just one of many symptoms, as were the Savings and Loan crisis and the ENRON debacle. Here is the bottom line reason for the pickle we find ourselves in today: Our economic system has no foundation. One cannot build wealth by moving around debt. As for the “information” upon which we made our investment decisions? Nearly all were lies. Smoke and mirrors. Shadows. Whispered promises that were never intended to be kept.

Ron Paul Doesn’t Look So “Crazy” Now, Does He, New Yorkers?

Look, it’s Ron Paul! But what is he doing in New York, the fancy magazine for elites, alongside establishment finance types like a former Morgan Stanley economist and a famous investor? Isn’t he sort of “kooky?” Everyone (who didn’t live in a basement or wasn’t a furry) laughed at Paul’s quest for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, especially since Paul wanted to get rid of the Federal Reserve and take America back to the gold standard, in which money is backed by something other than the worthless promises of filthy bankers and shiftless bureaucrats. But now it looks like the Fed’s board of governors may be leading us into depression, and even that capitalist bible the Wall Street Journal ran an article this weekend speculating that the thinking behind the gold standard, if not the standard itself, “will have its day again.” So Paul’s stock is rising! Let’s hear what terrible things he has to say about our future . . . (read the rest here)

Here’s a hint for the next time you are foolish enough to get your financial advice from TV: Whenever Fox News or ANY corporate-owned pundit says a politician is a “kook,” RUN, DON’T WALK, to find out what that kooky politician is saying, because he’s probably the only sane man in that confederacy of dunces. Ron Paul is not an ordinary politician. He’s a statesman, an honest broker, a rare breed these days. Every thing Ron Paul says about the Federal Reserve Bank and our doomed economy, including the reasons behind our current predicament, is true: It’s high time we returned to a commodity-based currency. It’s time we started manufacturing things again, instead of just moving money around and calling it “productivity.” It’s time for transparency and honesty in government and politics. It’s time the financial community, including the Security and Exchange Commission, started following it’s own rules. It’s all so simple and obvious, and it blows my mind that these simple statements of fact are denigrated as “kooky,” when they are self-evident.

Now excuse me while I go work in my garden and count my gold. Oh, and take out another home-equity loan to pay off my VISA debts. For the last time. I swear. This time I really mean it.

Dolce & Gabbana wedges, 2004 (?) collection