Bernanke and other thoughts

Since WWII, it was the likes of Truman and Ike, the Kennedys with the Pentagon that ran the order of things and kept the country "safe" from the red menace.With the fall of the wall, Reaganomics were hailed as liberation and deregulation created its raison d'être. Clinton was the beneficiary of feel good years and money plowed into entitlements and the money agencies
The problems started when the NAZ bubble busted and the phlegmaticChairman Greenspan pontificating that cheap money combined with a deregulated bigger is better banking model could and would solve all ills. What followed was Wall Street greed at its worst... Another talker he was that Greenspan. Instead of Volkerizing the players, he chastised wiht empty words while relying on abnormally low rates. Ho, what the great guru he was. Creating a real estate bubble to eclipse all bubbles prior to it and leaving his successor to a bubble to supersede our wildest expectations. I will never forget Greenspan visiting the senate fiance committe hearings. He would show poise. He would reason and blab his musings to Congressmen more interested in their TV face time than meaningful queries. Using a muddled discourse pretty lean on sound bites if it weren't  the exception of "Market exuberance", the Chairman spend more time explaining the actions rather than restraining the new leverage addicts.A FED chairman should be like a plumber. FIRST, he fixes the flood and then he tells who to prevent the next one. 
So after the wheels came off in 2008, with a lot of finger pointing, useless commissions, printing money and a President who talks CHANGE but can`t change a tire without a 12,000 page bill , the question begs: who WILL take up the baton? the Leftists? Give me a break! I doubt Obama's Democrats will get a second term short of an atomic bomb exploding in Texas Stadium. 10% unemployment gives a lot of people time to hold other people accountable for their own lack of political activism.

WHAT THE FUTURE PROMISES

Push your timeline of future events towards 2012, and ask:
- "WHAT US political agenda will carry the day?"
If anything, we think SMALLER government will be the campaign slogan after vilified bankers will have been emasculated by legislation that comes BACK 25 years too late. Negative campaigns don't work...

- " WHO can run on a ticket of smaller government and show a portfolio of lean management?
 That's the candidate the republicans will push

- " WHEN?"
With the Supreme court lifting campaign contribution limits, this is going to be great times for Media assuming they are reaching a wired world... Look for ads to pop on your smart phone soon enough. Candidates will come through in the fall of 2010 to build on this predicted jobless recovery...

 -"HOW do you make money?"
Follow the money ... the reason why the US dollar is rallying against the Euro and even fiercer socialist rhetoric is in part due to SMART people having already priced in an end to Iraq involvement and a leaner form of  government. What are Hutchinson, Power Corp, Buffett or Carlos Slim buying... sure wasn't real estate in 2006... but brand names , distribution, railways (i.e. coal), Newspapers.
Just like the market always think 5 months ahead,  all the billionaires I read about have 5-7 years horizons for their plans in the form of buying and selling assets ... that is  what killed GE's shareholders... lack of focus on thinking on what would  happen in 2012 back in 2006. Instead they hope to grow the business, to increase the dividend and other nonsense...... the older generation would have bailed on the finance arm way before it took over the shop... meantime real estate looks like the play in 2012!
THE TRICKY PART: American Industry must now embark on a "peace" dividend and spend it on infrastructure and technology but they are held back by, of all things. the health care bill was meant to fix the costs of  labor along a viable rate not an exponential curve. CEOs might be scratching their heads on trying to grow their top line revenue for the next shareholders meeting but if they really were any good at their jobs they would TRY to fix health care
Why trust the US as a place of business when health care costs and litigation derail business decisions in favor of China, Brazil? or anywhere for that matter? Any businessman worth his stock options will tell you: " not a good idea to go into a 5 year program where government rhetoric can impede rather than help minimize let alone quantify risk.
I believe it is a  mistake on the part of the Republicans to partisan the debate and block health care reform... the sooner it passes the beter the dividend by the time they come to power in 2012. By 2015 you will read biographies where Republican congressional leaders will look back at 2009 and say THAT was the time to pass legislation. Now money talks in Washington not intelligent debate.

In the meantime, next week the ever frequent US Treasuries notes auction is coming to gauge the market appetite. Let's hope the Wall Street fat cats don't use the opportunity to show their displeasure with the Obama tactics to feed them to popular anger...

Now you may be asking yourselves , been reading this rant for 5 minutes, where is Bernanke in all of this? He 's the desert my friends! With a stalling reappointment vote
delayed in Congress, he may become the poor sacrificial goat to appease all the disgruntled. Quite unlikely for TIME's man of the year but HOW much fun it is to think of all the possible candidates... A good and true disciple of von Mises would be too much to ask for but I'd rather fall asleep on the thought  of an appointment of an Austrian school economist rather than those awful  choices rampant these days!


Enjoy your weekend and hope you have some cash stashed  aside ... you might need it sooner than you think!