Dude, you asked for asylum at the wrong embassy

So a Chinese dissident escaped from his handlers and reportedly fled to the US embassy in Beijing. The dissident in question, Chen Guangcheng (who happens to be blind), has helped show the world the atrocities of China's government. Namely, forced abortions and sterilizations. Think about that for a minute. In China, the government has that much power. Of course, he ran to the embassy of a country who's current leader wants the government to have that kind of power. And now there are talks and debates about how to "balance" human rights versus diplomacy. To parse the language, the administration is asking "How can we keep the people who own a lot of our debt happy while maintaining the illusion that we support the right to dissent?" See, this is why being in debt is a bad thing. "The borrower is slave to the lender." The US cannot negotiate from a position of strength here. We will end up being conciliatory in order to have the Chinese government continue to buy our debt. Which pretty much sucks for Chen's family.

From the "What was your first clue, Sherlock?" Files

Read the NY Times story. Yes, I know it's the Times. Yes, I know they can't find their backsides with both hands. Yes, I know they're a failing institution that can't figure out why their readership continues to decline ("Hey, I got an idea! I know we keep losing readers, but let's veer even more leftward! While we're at it, let's expose some secret government programs that are actually keeping bad guys from harming the United States!").

The summary: So, Euroweenies, long enamored with their leftist utopia that has allowed the unemployment rate to dwarf even the United States' unemployment rate, have possibly begun to realize that working for 30 years does NOT mean you get to live off fat government pension checks for an additional 40 years.

As Margaret Thatcher famously put it, "The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." Euroweenies have long loved their generous pensions, social hammock . . . er, safety net, and low work hours. Turns out, thought, that you can't actually survive as a country when YOU KEEP FRAKKING BORROWING MONEY WITH NO HOPE OF PAYING IT BACK!!!!

Ahem.

So, what happens when people realize the free lunch is at an end, and someone has to pick up the tab? What is the response of socialist parasites who don't contribute to the economy? Protests. "How dare they take away our benefits! How dare they make us work longer hours!"

The European model is not sustainable. You cannot continue to live on more than you produce. It's simple math.

Unfortunately, our Congresscritters and our President didn't major in math. No, they took "feel good" classes like Basket-weaving and Sociology. Math, well, that was just too darned hard.

Couple the unsustainable nature of European socialism with the fact that all the banks who loaned money to the nations partaking in this fiasco are linked. If Greece falls, all those loans go bad, which means banks don't have enough money to continue to loan money out to other European nations. Since Portugal and Spain and France depend on those loans, they'll fall, too. And more loans go bad. And more countries fall.

But by all means, keep believing that Socialism is a good system. It ranks right up there with the Unicornocracy, where fantasy beasts benevolently rule over us humans.

Stupid stupid stupid. Seriously, it's basic math, using the > and < signs.

Spending cannot be > than revenue for very long. Despite Obama's magic hand waving, spending more money that we have cannot lead us into prosperity. If it did, we'd be the frickin' richest nation on earth. But it can't, because reality doesn't work that way. (I know, I'm an evil hate-monger for dashing your insipid hopes that the 'Bama is anything other than an empty-suit politician.)

If you really think Socialism is the way to go, go out and run up your credit cards. Then refuse to pay the bill. That's exactly what Europe has done, and it's what the Democrats in the US are doing.

And if you are really so stupid as to run up your credit card bills, you deserve all the pain you bring onto yourself.

Why debt collectors are scum of the earth

Here is a story detailing debt collectors' practices when dealing with those who died while owing money.

This paragraph got my blood boiling.

The companies “want to protect their brand,” said DCM’s chief executive, Steven Farsht. Despite the delicacy of such collections, he says his 180-employee firm is providing a service to the economy. “The financial services industry is under a tremendous amount of pressure, and every dollar we collect improves their profitability,” he said.

No, it doesn't you lying sack of feces. You buy the debt from a company for pennies on the dollar and then try to collect from people who have no legal or moral obligation to pay it. Getting a widow who owns nothing to pay you $5 a month is SCUMBAGGERY at it's worst.

You're entire business model goes against anything decent and right. There's a reason why half of your new hires don't stay past 90 days. It's because they have a conscience. People who aren't scumbags don't like working for or with scumbags, and leave to find honest jobs.
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Macroeconomics 101: Uncertainty

As we watch our 401k's sink in value, as we gaze upon the destruction that used to be our 529 plans for the kids, keep in mind that the whole of the economy depends on one thing. That thing isn't necessarily crude oil or low taxes, nor even the industrious nature of those who innovate, create, and drive themselves to be better than their competitors.

No, the one thing that holds the economy together is "confidence." We can be reasonably confident that we'll wake up and go to work tomorrow, and we can be reasonably confident that we'll get our next paycheck. We're pretty sure that our taxes won't suddenly jump up overnight, nor will the Social Security Administration suddenly decide that it does have a solvency problem and want to fix it with 75% of your pay.

Similarly, when there is uncertainty, or lack of confidence, the market suffers. Think of your own life: If you weren't sure where your next paycheck would come from, would you go out to dinner tonight? Would you sign up for that $200k mortgage? If there was a decent chance that you might not come back from the grocery store, would you head out to pick up that gallon of milk you forgot to get yesterday?

So, with our intrepid President Obama and his Gathering of Clowns (also known as Congress) leading the way, we have speeches about how dire the economic situation is (uncertainty), how it's all the fault of things we don't really understand (more uncertainty), and that we don't really have a decent plan for what to do (ah, the uncertainty topping!).

Watch Obama's body language when he's talking about the economy. He doesn't have a freaking clue about what to do, because for all of his "golden boy" status, he never learned the real lessons of life.

As long as this train-wreck of a government is going to try to "help" I fully expect the markets to continue to spiral downwards. Why? Because these guys couldn't find their way out of a paper bag, much less try to control a $14 trillion economy.

Although I am unhappy to see my retirement monies disappear like a campaign promise, I will be sitting and gloating when those who voted for these ass-hats come to the realization that stupidity can not save you from stupidity.

Wisdom can only be brought with pain. Prepare to get really wise over the next few years.
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Myths about the Great Depression

As the economy collapses around us and companies are lining up to get their grubby hands on taxpayer's dollars, it might behoove some of you to learn about what actually caused the Great Depression.

For starters, go here.

Then, go here.

Despite what your American History teachers told you in high school, the stock market crash did not cause the Great Depression. Bad economic policy caused the Great Depression.

The stock market crash was caused by rampant speculation. People could borrow money to play the market, and it "always went up." Sound familiar? The exact same thing happened in the housing market last year. People could borrow money (or tap into their house's equity) in order to "speculate" and get even richer. Anyone remember the TV show "Flip This House"? What happened when the poor sap trying to get rich quick couldn't flip the house? Financial disaster happened. And everyone who tapped into their home equity loans to buy a new car, or who stayed up listening to how you could flip houses with no money down got swept away in the financial tsunami.

The worst part of the whole thing is that we have a class of "leaders" who are bound and determined to make the same mistakes of Hoover and Roosevelt. Lesson to all the government types: Keynesian economics doesn't work, because you take money from people who are going to create real jobs and real wealth in order to give it to people who won't create anything. If the government creates a job, it only does so at the expense of a private company doing it.

I fully expect this explanation to fall on deaf ears, since too many people are vested in NOT looking after their own affairs. "Gimme my health care!" "Gimme my unemployment check!" "Gimme my overpriced home that I foolishly put 0% down on!" The list goes on.

Still, the best advice on how to handle the future remains the same: Don't have consumer debt. Have an emergency fund. Live below your means.