Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
2/26/2013
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog
By 1789, a lot of French people were starving. Their economy had long since deteriorated into a weak, pitiful shell. Decades of unsustainable spending had left the French treasury depleted. The currency was being rapidly debased. Food was scarce, and expensive.
Perhaps most famously, though, the French monarchy was dangerously out of touch with reality, historically enshrined with the quip, “Let them eat cake.”
The Bourbon monarchy paid the price for it, eventually losing their heads in a 1793 execution. But it took the French economy decades to finally recover.
Along the way, the government tried an experiment: issuing a form of paper money. It didn’t matter to the French politicians that every previous experiment with paper money in history had been an absolute disaster…
…History shows there are always consequences to entrusting a paper money supply to a tiny handful of men. The French experiment is but one example. Our modern fiat experiment will be another.
Like the French, our politicians think this time is different. Our central bankers think they’re smarter. And they want us to trust them. After all, what could go wrong?
Ben Bernanke, a man who has expanded the Federal Reserve balance sheet by nearly 300% during his tenure as central banker, just wrapped up Congressional testimony downplaying the risks of his own money printing…
Read the entire article at Zero Hedge.
Update: Coburn: Dire Consequences of Sequester Will Not Happen [full video of the interview is at the link]
‘If it happens, it’s the ineptitude of the Administrative Branch because they want it to happen for a political purpose’
Update 2: Happy Sequester Week
…Right now, Republicans are still playing Obama’s game. They’re talking about immigration reform and gun control. Some reports indicate that deals are being made on both. No deals should be made. It’s time to stop the train and get real spending cuts across the board. There’s even a blueprint for it. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) published his “Back in Black” plan during the 2011 debt ceiling debate.
Coburn’s plan would eliminate duplicative government programs, cut spending, and reform entitlements in a way that would save about $9 trillion over the next decade.
To set up the May debate, Republicans should embrace Coburn’s plan and make it their unflinching position. Why not make the elimination of duplicative programs a starting point from which they wouldn’t budge? But don’t stop there. For every duplicative program, there’s another ten programs that do things the federal government has no constitutional mandate to do…
Arne Duncan lied? I’ve lost all faith in humanity. Via WaPo: The descriptions of the post-sequester landscape that have been coming out of the Obama Administration have been alarming, specific–and, in at least some cases, hyped…
Media Ignore: ‘Obama Can Choose Where Sequester Cuts Fall’
