SAR #8105

The truth is we don't know what the truth is anymore.
James Howard Kunstler.

Words of One Syllable: Explain to me again why we are giving the people at the Fed, who have already proven themselves incapable, ever more power over the economy.

Brinkmanship: Saudi Arabia's King, at a time when Saudi production is falling, says he has ordered new oil discoveries left untapped to preserve the oil for future generations. Is this an admission that they have reached a point where they cannot supply the market and their own future? If the Kingdom has reached Peak Oil, the world has too, and it is all downhill from here.

Bigger Brother: The Bush administration plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes. Homeland Surveillance Secretary Chertoff said the pogrom program will start by tracing and monitoring antiwar activists, ACLU supporters, and liberal Democrats. Respectable, law abiding citizens have nothing to fear. Yet.

Alphonse: Last week, Fed head Bernanke said there is nothing fundamentally broken on Wall Street that a little regulation and incentives for participants to be slightly more honest couldn't fix.

Gastone: Meanwhile, Former Fed chairman Paul Volcker said that the current Fed is not doing its job, is doing the wrong job, and will cause even greater economic suffering.

Competition: The US does not have undisputed bragging rights, it seems. The foolish boom in the British housing market has been, proportionally, much bigger than the one in the US. If what the US is going through is a "crisis", words to describe Britain's prospects will best be found in the Book of Revelations.

Score: World civilization is based on oil. The world is running out of oil. Whoever controls the remaining oil determines who lives and who dies. Think of the soon-to-be war with Iran as another corporate takeover.

It's Only Money: China's foreign reserves are now $1.68 trillion, up 40% in the last year.

There's News! Mall vacancy rates are rising. Commercial real estate failures are the leading credit risk for mid-size and small banks. Late payments on consumer loans are at a 16 year high. Retail bankruptcies are becoming a growth industry. Unemployment is up, job creation is down. There's news, most of it bad. Listen to the CNBC crowd, they've found the turning point. Again.

Unemployed: Alberto Gonzales, one-time Attorney General and Bush family pet, has been unable to land a job with a Washington law firm. Maybe it's the economy. After all, the Administration he served seems to have little interest in the law.

Extra Points: "I foresee a lot of dead people throughout the world this year, victims of both hunger and riots over food. I also foresee governments being overthrown, and perhaps quite a few... If you allow a system to control your society that treats food and water as tradable commodities, there is only one possible outcome. If basic human needs are traded in a market based on profit margins, people themselves become tradable, and thereby expendable. We have such a system. " Ilargi at Debt Rattle