MAD AS HELL AND...

After Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke’s press conference yesterday it is more evident than ever that there are now TWO AMERICAS one where 99.9 percent of all Americans live their daily lives in and then the other place which we will call:

BERNANKE-LAND

Long before former Democratic Presidential candidate and the Complete Fraud John Edwards started talking about “Two Americas” another American politician over 40 years ago spoke eloquently about America being divided into two separate groups…The Haves and The Have-Nots and that politician was Robert F. Kennedy.

If only Robert F. Kennedy could see what is going on in America today with a arm of the US Government in the Federal Reserve waging a Complete and All-Out war on the American People with a cruel “money printing” policy to prop up the Wall Street Bastards which is destroying the value of the US Dollar and thus the buying power of the American People’s hard-earned money.

Yes, one can only wonder about RFK would say about that Gong Show in Fantasyland press conference that Uncle Ben “All is Well” Bernanke held yesterday, because it seems that Bernanke and the Fed’s Open Market Committee members actually believe that inflation is under control and is running about 2 percent a year.

NOT!  Think 6 Percent or higher…EASILY!

Oh, these are either some Very Evil and Deceitful People or some just plain Very Stupid People.

If there is anyone that knows what is going on in the daily lives of average Americans it is Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke and unlike Ben Bernanke that has not worked a day of his life in the Real World, Mike Duke has spent a lifetime interacting with Americans from all walks of life and from where we sit it is obvious which man knows of what he speaks.  ZeroHedge.com has the story:

Wal Mark CEO:  “Shoppers Are Running Out Of Money”;  There Is “No Sign Of A Recovery”

“When a month ago the CEO of Wal Mart Americas told the world to “prepare for serious inflation”, the Chairman laughed in his face, saying it was nothing a 15 minutes Treasury Call sell order can’t fix (granted net of a few billions in commissions for JPM). 4 weeks later the Chairman is no longer laughing, having been forced to hike up his inflation expectations while trimming (not for the last time) his economic outlook. “U.S. consumers face “serious” inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart’s U.S. operations warned Wednesday talking to USA Today. And if Wal-Mart which is at the very bottom of commoditized consumer retail, and at the very peak of avoiding reexporting of US inflation by way of China is concerned, it may be time to panic, or at least cancel those plane tickets to Zimbabwe, which is soon coming to us.” In  light of that perhaps today’s words of caution from Wal Mart CEO Mike Duke will be taken a tad more seriously (yes, even with the $50 billion in “squatters rent” that the deadbeats spend on iPads instead of paying their mortgage: that money is rapidly ending). Warning is as follows: “Wal-Mart’s core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried. “We’re seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure,” Duke said at an event in New York. “There’s no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact.” Tell that to Printocchio please.

From Money:

Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in.

Lately, they’re “running out of money” at a faster clip, he said.

“Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year,” Duke said. “This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.””

Recovery is ongoing?  There is limited or very little inflation?  “The Fed sees low inflation going forward?

Please, is there someone in Washington DC or at the Federal Reserve that can take Uncle Ben “To Hell with the American People!  My goal is to make Wall Street rich and if I have to destroy EVERY FAMILY in America to achieve my goals then I will do just that!” Bernanke out into Real America so he can see first-hand what his “money printing” and US Dollar Destroying policies are doing to average Americans?

Oh, Uncle Ben Bernanke is like everyone else at Princeton University and on Wall Street that believe that they are better than most Americans and shouldn’t have to mix with the unwashed masses?

Well, that is the first thing that makes any sense out of the Bogus and Fantasyland Monetary and “Ponzi Scheme” US Treasury debt program of the Federal Reserve and if you believe you are better than most Americans then you also probably don’t give a Damn that you are destroying their lives and pummeling children around the country that now see less food on the table, more bills not getting paid by their parents and much more stress everywhere they look.

There really is no explaining BERNANKE-LAND and the Absolute Nonsense that comes out of the mouths of the Very Same Morons that almost took down the American Republic in 2008 with monetary policy that they claimed was right then….and was not….and is right now….and is not again.

Instead of the Absolute Nonsense and the Outright Lies that are being told by OUR Government about the inflation rate in America (CPI) we believe that a check of the FACTS are in order to see just what Federal Reserve policy is doing to the value of the US Dollar and how the Fed’s out-of-control money printing is driving up commodity prices across the board at the expense of all Americans that have very little room each month to spend more money on the necessities of life which are all skyrocketing up in price….all thanks to One Complete and Total Idiot:

Uncle Ben “I wouldn’t know an honest day’s work if it hit me in the ass” Bernanke

Yes, let’s go Joe Friday on the FACTS instead of what was put out by Uncle Ben yesterday under the lazy eye of the Washington press corps that also would not know a real or legitimate question if it hit them in the ass!

Yes, “Just the Facts Ma’am.”

Since Uncle Ben Bernanke gave his “QE2 – Quantitative Easing” speech at Jackson Hole, Wyoming last summer (read..let’s get this Ponzi Scheme really going boys and girls to save our asses from Total and Complete Embarrassment!) here is how all of this money printing by the Federal Reserve has impacted US markets  (Thanks for one of the best sites to follow financial markets – Finviz.com for their great charts):

S&P 500 – UP 23 percent

US Dollar – DOWN 17 percent

Which makes the REAL return on the S&P 500 since last summer only 6 percent or so since the US Dollar has been plunging in value as the markets have been going up.

What about other commodity prices since Uncle Ben and the Fed really cranked up the money printing?

Crude Oil – UP 60 Percent

Silver – UP 167 Percent

Gold – Up 28 Percent

Here’s the real kicker though.  There are ETFs (Exchanged Trade Funds) that any investor can put money into that follow ALL of the commodities and let’s see how a couple of those have been performing since the Fed turned on the money printing presses:

PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking – UP 54 Percent

iShares S&P Commodity-Indexed Trust – UP 48 Percent

So Uncle Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve REALLY believe that all of their money printing and manipulation of interest rates has nothing to do with the rise in commodity prices and now the increased prices for goods across the consumer sector in America?

As we said earlier, these are either some very Evil and Deceitful People or they are Just Plain Stupid.

We wanted some “Wall Street” perspective on Uncle Ben Bernanke and the Fed’s policies in the last couple of years so we called a longtime friend of ours that has worked on “The Street” since getting his MBA from an unnamed Elitist Bastard School in New England and his take is very simple:

Wall Street Friend: “The Federal Reserve is running a very loose monetary policy in order to keep down interest rates and to encourage banks, investors, traders and anyone else to move their money into riskier assets which they hope will move money from the sidelines into the stock market primarily.  If people come to see that inflation is going up they will then rationally decide they need to make more on their money or risk losing money in real terms (real terms = return on investments – the inflation rate…the REAL inflation rate not the fantasy that the Fed claims is the inflation rate).  The only problem is that for a potential short-term political gain from lower interest rates and very accommodative monetary policy the Fed has unleashed the inflation genie around the world that is already seeping into costs at major US companies and those companies will have to pass those price increases along to American consumers who for the most part have seen little to no real or actual income growth in years.”

Mad As Hell And: “Is that what all this money printing is about?  More inflation and driving up asset prices?”

Wall Street Friend: “Well, when hedge funds that are investing in things like futures and are making speculative and very short-term bets on all kinds of assets, securities and other things can borrow money from large US banks at lower rates and with easier terms than solid medium and small-sized industrial, manufacturing and production companies in America then there is something wrong and there is something terribly wrong in America when banks are encouraged to make risky loans to speculators and to look at loans to companies that would employ average Americans with a skeptical eye.  Yes, there is something terribly wrong and it is all being driven by an attempt by the Fed to drive up asset prices to the exclusion of everything else even job creation in America.”

Mad As Hell And: “That is just crazy, but that is exactly what we are seeing on the bank loan side for business loans with credit still be very tight even for people and companies with good credit that cannot get capital even when the Fed is flooding the banks with money.  That money is being poured into the stock market and commodities and not being loaned out which is nothing less than the Fed turning its primary mission on its head in order to prop up stock markets to the exclusion of the American People.”

Wall Street Friend: “That is right on, but there is something else going on here.  Take a look at a chart for the Euro currency

Mad As Hell And: “Wow, the Euro is up 23 percent over the last year.”

Wall Street Friend: “And the US Dollar is down 17 percent over the same time.”

Mad As Hell And: “What does that mean?”

Wall Street Friend: “Well, these central banks all work together and there was a lot of concern in 2010 about the debt problems in Europe with Greece and other smaller countries problems might force the break up or downsizing of the Euro system and there has been an active attempt by the central banks to stop that from happening and that means that as the Euro has been bid up by central bank intervention and China moving out of US Dollar investments the Dollar has gone down in value.  Add in the easy money at the Fed and that is just driving the Dollar down further as investors and traders look for places to put money in currencies that are not in freefall as the US Dollar is right now.”

Mad As Hell And: “So you are saying the West, America and Europe, and their central banks were concerned about the failure of the Euro and thus they intervened to drive up the value of the Euro which has helped drive down the value of the US Dollar?

Wall Street Friend: “Yes.”

Mad As Hell And: “And now the easy money by the Fed is driving down the value of the US Dollar more and is causing inflation by driving up the prices of commodities which is going to really hit the US consumer?”

Wall Street Friend: “Yes, and that is why if your investments are not yielding at least 6 percent a year via interest payments, dividends or price growth then you are losing money because inflation in the US is running at least 6 percent and is probably closer to 10 percent for Americans that spend all of their paycheck each month just to live their lives.”

Mad As Hell And: “Thanks for that advice and with Silver up 167 percent, Gold up 28 percent and Commodity ETFs up 50 percent in the last year, all investments any American can purchase, it isn’t very hard to beat the money printers at the Fed!”

Wall Street Friend: “Just watch out when the central banks decide the Euro has gone up too much or the US Dollar has declined too far, or when the Asian countries get their act together and decide to quit getting ripped-off by holding US Treasuries which are the worst investment in the world because they are yielding negative rates of return, because when that happens interest rates in the US are going up and that will slow down the price increases we have seen in metals like Gold and Silver, but not in the core items that Americans buy everyday, food and energy and government subsidized things like health care and education from continuing to go straight up.  Maybe you should buy a farm!”

Mad As Hell And: “Thanks for that insight, now let me ask you:  What will a gallon of gasoline cost in November 2012?”

Wall Street Friend: “Around $4.50 Dollars a gallon would be my guess and headed to $5.00, because if it looks like a Republican will be elected and that the US will start to go after all of its natural resources to help drive down the cost of energy in America, OPEC will want to squeeze every last Dime out of the American People before the party is ended by a sane US energy policy that includes all energy sources:  fossil fuels, nuclear, natural gas, renewable, battery, etc.”

Mad As Hell And: “Sounds like the Iranians holding the American hostages in Iran right up until Reagan took over as President in 1980.”

Wall Street Friend: “Exactly like that.  If Obama gets re-elected a gallon of gasoline is headed to $10 Dollars a gallon.  A Republican and gas will steady around $4 Dollars and head south as natural gas become a big player in US transportation, that is if what you call a “Real” Republican is elected President.  If it is another George W. Bush type Republican that doesn’t know his rear-end from the side of a barn and who is not willing to address the very serious problems facing the country America will continue its decline and China will overtake the US by 2020 easy in economic terms.”

Mad As Hell And: “Well, since $10 Dollar a gallon gas would destroy the American People we are working to elect a Real Republican in 2012.”

Wall Street Friend: “Democrat or Republican it matters little to me…Wall Street always makes money!”

Mad As Hell And: “You Bastards!”

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Before we get to the subject of this post, the US Government’s All-Out attack on the Boeing Company, we first must address the Obama “birth certificate” issue that has been swirling around the country for a few years now.

The thing we could never quite comprehend about the whole Obama “birth certificate” and “was Obama born in the US thing” here at Mad As Hell And… was that we could never convince ourselves that public officials in Hawaii and even Barack Obama himself would have risked being tossed into prison if any or all of them had misrepresented where Obama was born because if it had turned out that Obama was born outside of the US then those public officials in Hawaii and Barack Obama would have ended up in prison for committing fraud against the American People.

Since we rather doubted that public officials in Hawaii or Barack Obama would do anything that might end up with them being sent to prison for committing fraud we never thought there was anything to this entire “birther” issue, but clearly there was something to Obama not asking for and putting out his birth certificate for all of America to see just to quell a controversy that could have been ended long ago.

Oprah Winfrey asked the very question that many of our wives (most if not all that voted for Obama in 2008 and are now lukewarm at best on him) have been asking for over a year now and were asking last night at the dinner table:

“Why did you (Obama) wait so long?” (to release the full birth certificate)

Now, that is a Damn good question and for the life of us a question we cannot come up with a good answer for and to a person here at Mad As Hell And… if were 100% sure of something (which Obama must have been about his birth) that was being disputed by many in the general public (only 38 percent of Americans in a recent poll were “very sure” that Obama was born in Hawaii) then we would have moved immediately to end in speculation on the issue which Obama could and should have done in 2007 long before he was elected President.  Senator Obama did not do that, release his full birth certificate in 2007 which he could have easily done, and it is our opinion that not doing that has hurt him with many Independent and Moderate voters that were wondering before something like “why not just release the full birth certificate?” and are now wondering something like “just why in the Hell did Obama release the birth certificate now?”

There is no good answer to that last question and for anyone out there that thinks President Obama has been singled out by the “birthers” or anyone else because he is an African-American we can assure and remind everyone that when Jesse Jackson ran a very strong campaign for the Democratic nomination for President in 1988 that there was no one questioning Jesse Jackson’s citizenship because Jackson had been on the American scene for decades and was well known to most Americans.  Barack Obama on the other hand came out of nowhere from a state legislator in Illinois to the Presidency in less than 10 years and in reading his books it is very apparent that he lived a life both overseas and in Hawaii that was very different than what most Americans experience when growing up and thus why so many questions were asked about his background, education, experience and yes…upbringing.

No, we never doubted that President Obama was born in America (Hawaii) and that makes this delayed release of his full birth certificate, about four years after when he should have released it just to clear the air, so very Damn odd.  We are very happy that Obama decided to release his full birth certificate though because it clears up one of the Bogus issues that was being debated in the country and instead of our wives wondering about why in the Hell it took so long for him to release his birth certificate some of the more important issues facing the country can now be discussed and be brought to the forefront.  Below is one of those very important issues:

Phillip Greenspan of Harvard Law points out one of the most important stories of the year that could dramatically affect the United States of America going forward and has caught our attention here at Mad As Hell And… because the actions of the US Government against Boeing recently may very well force us to move our companies and thus jobs overseas and that is something we do not have any interest in doing:

The Biggest US Economic Story of the Year:  The Federal Government vs. Boeing

“Buried in the ocean of news regarding our three wars has been what I think is the biggest U.S. economic story of the year: the federal government’s lawsuit against Boeing, seeking to prevent the opening of its $2 billion factory in South Carolina, for which 1000 workers have reportedly already been hired (in case you missed the news altogether: story, story).

Whatever the ultimate decision in the lawsuit, the very existence of the dispute will change the business landscape here in the U.S. for the next decade or two.

First, the fact that this happened to Boeing, a company with vastly more political power than average (you might say that it is practically an arm of the federal government itself) is significant. There are hardly any U.S. or foreign companies that can rely on similar influence.

For a U.S. company, for example, the prospect that Boeing’s $2 billion investment might be effectively confiscated by the government will be one more reason to build the next factory in a foreign country. The U.S. government won’t be able to sue to prevent the startup of production in Mexico, Canada, China, etc.”

Yes, you got that right, the US Government it now on the attack against Boeing because they decided to build a plant in South Carolina (a $2 billion dollar investment already) primarily because of the labor problems that Boeing has had for years with unions in Washington state and now the Federal Government is going to file a lawsuit against Boeing to stop the plant from opening and beginning full operations.  No, we are not making this us and yes….this is still the United States of America….right?  Well, maybe not, because this sounds like something that might have gone on in Communist U.S.S.R or Cuba under Castro.

To the above we can only:  Either these are some Very Stupid People that are pursuing this lawsuit against Boeing or they are Wacko Liberals that live in a Fantasyland that don’t care that millions of jobs might be sent overseas because of this lunacy.  Answer:  Both of the above are true.

As US Senator and former Governor of Tennessee Lamar Alexander pointed out in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday

The White House vs. Boeing:  A Tennessee Tale

“This reminds me of a White House state dinner in February 1979, when I was governor of Tennessee. President Jimmy Carter said, “Governors, go to Japan. Persuade them to make here what they sell here.”

“Make here what they sell here” was then the union battle cry, part of an effort to slow the tide of Japanese cars and trucks entering the U.S. market.

Off I flew to Tokyo to meet with Nissan executives who were deciding where to put their first U.S. manufacturing plant. I carried with me a photograph taken at night from a satellite showing the country at night with all its lights on.

“Where is Tennessee?” the executives asked. “Right in the middle of the lights,” I answered, pointing out that locating a plant in the population center reduces the cost of transporting cars to customers. That center had migrated south from the Midwest, where most U.S. auto plants were, to Kentucky and Tennessee.

Then the Japanese examined a second consideration: Tennessee has a right-to-work law and Kentucky does not. This meant that in Kentucky workers would have to join the United Auto Workers union. Workers in Tennessee had a choice.

In 1980 Nissan chose Tennessee, a state with almost no auto jobs. Today auto assembly plants and suppliers provide one-third of our state’s manufacturing jobs. Tennessee is the home for production of the Leaf, Nissan’s all-electric vehicle, and the batteries that power it. Recently Nissan announced that 85% of the cars and trucks it sells in the U.S. will be made in the U.S.— making it one of the largest “American” auto companies and nearly fulfilling Mr. Carter’s request of 30 years ago.”

Well written Senator Alexander but Alexander and anyone else with a working brain knows what is going on here is that the thousands of Wacko Liberals that have joined the Obama Administration, and we mean even left politically of Wacko Liberals in San Francisco like Nancy Pelosi, don’t see a non-union job that pays someone $50 dollars an hour with full benefits as equal to a job that pays a union member in Washington state the very same wages and benefits and that is because the American worker in South Carolina is not a union member and thus will not indirectly support the Democratic Party via political union donations.

That’s right:  The Obama Administration will conduct an All-Out Attack on Americans working in South Carolina working for a company like Boeing making very good wages with great benefits ONLY BECAUSE those are non-union jobs that will not then be forced to make contributions to unions which will turn around and give money to the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates.  Yes, that is not only OUTRAGEOUS it is UN-AMERICAN.

If President Obama allows this lawsuit to go forward against Boeing because the company decided to open a factory in South Carolina, a state which we consider to be a very pro-business place that helps businesses run successful enterprises and create good paying jobs for their employees which is very unlike the “Let’s Attack Business” California, then President Obama and the Wacko Liberals are going to find that they are going to completely lose people like our wives that don’t really like seeing the Federal Government waging war on the American People and American Business.

As for the entire union angle to this Federal Government vs. Boeing story many of us here at Mad As Hell And… have seen up-close what happens to a state that is dominated by unions which is the case in the state of California, the former Golden State now Broken State, where reported unemployment is over 12 percent and real unemployment is over 20 percent.  Unions ARE THE DIRECT CAUSE of the destruction of the state of California because the public employee unions have bought off a majority of the state legislators in the Broken State with campaign donations only after the private sector unions coupled with the most Wacko Liberal Government policies in US history chased most of the good paying jobs out of the state to other US states, like South Carolina, and even worse overseas.

Here is the real question on this Federal Government vs. Boeing issue:

Does President Obama care about the American People and the American Republic more than the unions that now dominate the Democratic Party?

If this lawsuit by the National Labor Relations Board vs. Boeing goes forward then we will all know the answer to the above question and that will send a signal to us and other businesses in America that the US Government under Democratic Administrations will wage war on American business and American employees that are not union members and since it is impossible to predict which political party might be in the White House at any given time that will then force businesses to look overseas to countries that are actually welcoming to new businesses opening up and here is the real kicker…places where the wages are much lower and if we move jobs there will just make businesses that much richer.

Yes, these are some Very Stupid People in the US Government pursuing this case against Boeing and as Phillip Greenspan points out in his Business Insider column:

“The Chrysler and GM bankruptcies already showed bond investors that the black letter law may not have as much to do with how their investment works out as the sentiments of politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. (link). Now the federal government is stirring up uncertainty among those who would directly operate factories in the U.S. How to price that uncertainty is going to be a huge challenge, but the price is certainly not going to be $0.”

Oh, you say that the development authorities for 10 Chinese cities have called this morning to see if we are interested in moving factories to China after seeing that the US Government is now at war with American business and American non-union employees?  This time tell them to stay in touch because it makes little sense to work like Hell to keep jobs in America paying Americans good wages and providing good benefits if the US Government is going to wage an All-Out war on American Business and American Workers (which has been going on in California for over a decade now to disastrous consequences), especially when there are millions of people in Asia that will do the same job for 1 / 20 th the salary and benefits.

No, we do not want the above to happen but we also realize that just like the Republican Party will sell out the American People to Wall Street (as will the Democrats at times if they can get donations from the Wall Street Bastards) it is our belief that the Democratic Party will sell out American Business and EVERY non-union American Worker in order to appease their masters in the private and public unions.

Yes, there are some Very Stupid People and one can only wonder who in the Hell raised some of these folks in both political parties that will sell out a majority of the American People for a few pieces of silver?  Sure the Hell wasn’t our parents that’s for sure because punishing the American People in order to satisfy very small constituent groups like the Wall Street Bastards or the Unions is something we were taught is not only Un-American it is downright evil.

No, it is not the Federal Government vs. Boeing.  It is the Federal Government vs. EVERY non-union worker in America, which is about 90 percent of the US workforce, and American Business.

California waging an All-Out War on Business is one thing but the US Government at the direction of President Obama’s Administration?

Say the above isn’t so Barack Obama, because if it is you will have terribly disappointed everyone here at Mad As Hell And…. that have defended you and your Administration with our friends on many things over the past couple of years that were really not of your creation or fault, with those very same friends now looking at us and saying things like:

Friends:  “Told you so.”

Our response more and more:  Sigh…”You were right.”

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