Join me brothers! The time is now!

It has been known for a while that Romney will likely be the republican nominee. After winning Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island on Tuesday, he is definitely going head to head with Obama.

Friends, we need to rally behind him. Just like this lucky recruit in the picture, we need to get motivated. Romney may not be the answer to our problems but he certainly will be the lesser of two evils.Grass root initiatives could be the decider in this election. We need to do what we can in motivating ourselves and our peers to get the word out that Obama needs to be defeated. It is imperative for the future of America. Get motivated! Speak out! Talk to people and get the word out that Obama is not the answer! If you can change one swing voter then you've done your job.

I think I can get my entire Pizza Hut store to vote for Romney. There might be five out of seventeen that do not vote, but the rest will vote for Romney based on the motivation that I have done in the store.

"We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls."-Churchill

Cool Video

Here is an awesome four minute video titled "If I wanted America to Fail" that focuses on how the government's environmental policies weakens America. If you despised America and wanted to weaken it so that it could be transformed into another system what would you do differently than what the government--especially the left--is doing in the economy, the education system, foreign policy, and domestic policy? This question makes you think.

A Scary Image on Derivative Exposure Estimates

9 Biggest Banks' Derivative Exposure - $228.72 Trillion

 Website with Story, The "buildings" stacked up next to these large bank headquarters are palettes of stacked $100s. Derivatives are very risky and come with a lot of consequences. On one hand they are great tools to hedge a larger position of non-derivatives. That was the intended purpose, but now days people use these instruments daily with larger positions to leverage up the best way possible. The FED has had to look out for these banks best interests because if they hadn't paper money would have failed along with all these bad banks bets. When/if the house of money crumbles, I would advise to not be in it for the customers will be stuck with the bill (i.e. MF Global). Credit Unions don't have shareholders and reinvest to get get low rates and more customer service. These are how banks are suppose to conduct business. Looking out for customers as opposed to looking to get rich off customers.                                                                            

Americans can be Nasty and Vicious when they need to be

Ace linked to this British Army Museum contest to determine Britain's "most outstanding military opponent".  That would be a fun study to investigate, but the answer was a surprise to me:

George Washington has been named as the greatest foe ever faced by the British.

The rest of the top five were:

In second place was Michael Collins, the Irish leader, ahead of Napoleon Bonaparte, Erwin Rommel and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Very surprising to me was the omission of William the Conqueror, who delivered by far the most devastating defeat ever suffered by the English army.

But that's not why I posted this.  I posted this because of the joke poster Ace put up:

Which shows that even our most sainted Founding Father in this famous painting was really fighting dirty. 

In reading further, it says that the candidates had to be from the 17th century onward.  I think it was more of a popularity contest than any study by the British Army museum, though the justifications given for Washington are good.  Also interesting that Britain's most worthy opponent was, more or less, a fellow Brit.

The Fed Is Helping To Bailout Europe

I came across this article describing how the the Federal Reserve is helping to bailout Europe and what this is resulting in:

On Tuesday, March 26, 2012, I was invited by Ron Paul and his staff to assist a meeting of the Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology Subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services.[...]

The hearing dealt mainly with the Fed's currency swap with the ECB, which amounts to a covert bailout of European banks.[...]

During the financial crisis between 2007 and 2009, the Fed had bailed out European banks mainly through direct loans to subsidiaries in the United States. In order to conceal the bailouts, the Fed now uses mainly currency swaps. In the swap, the Fed sells dollars to the ECB and buys them back later at the same price, receiving interests. This construction resembles a dollar loan to the ECB at about 0.6 percent (0.5 percent above the federal-funds rate). The ECB can then use these dollars to lend them to troubled European banks. At the hearing the Fed officials did not deny the obvious: the bailout of European banks by the Fed. Rather, they claimed that the bailout was basically a free lunch for US taxpayers, as they would get an almost-risk-free benefit in the form of the interest on the swap.[...]

Let's have a look at these startling arguments. First, there ain't no such a thing as a free lunch; not even for the Fed, the ultimate money producer.[...] One cost of the swap operation acknowledged by the officials in the hearing is the moral hazard created. Banks and governments worldwide may expect that the Fed will come to save them, too, especially if they are well connected with the US financial system. So why be prudent?

The article then goes on to point out what bailing out bankrupt welfare nations through the IMF and the Federal Reserve is resulting:

The highest cost of the swaps, though, may be something else. Through the swaps, the Fed is helping the ECB to bail out European banks that finance insolvent and irresponsible governments. The Fed is indirectly bailing out countries like Greece, Portugal, and Spain, debasing the dollar. Thanks to the bailouts, the political project of the euro continues. Without the swaps, some European banks might have failed, and with them their sovereigns. Thanks to the swaps, the eurozone stays intact.

The project of the euro leads to an ever-increasing rescue fund, and gradually toward a fiscal union and more centralization. A European financial government and the European super state, which would most likely abolish tax competition in Europe, are on the horizon. The highest cost of the Fed policy, therefore, may be liberty in Europe.[...]

Finally, the Fed claims to be prudent. But how can the Fed know the point at which it is no longer prudent to bail out foreign banks? How can it know when the costs of the bailouts start to exceed the benefits to the US public? How can they know what is best for the United States? Interpersonal-utility comparisons are arbitrary. Thanks to the bailouts, some banks may win, some stock owners may win, but at the cost of liberty in Europe and to the detriment of dollar users. Moreover, bailouts produce moral hazards, crises, and losses for individuals in the future. Yet the Fed claims to know what to do: social engineering at its best — or, as Hayek would put it, a fatal conceit on the part of central (banking) planners.

In sum, the Fed has assumed the task of bailing out the financial industry and governments worldwide by debasing the dollar. Fed officials claim to know that the bailout-swaps are basically a free lunch for US taxpayers and a prudent thing to do. Thank God the world is in such good hands.

The whole article is a worth reading. This last main points of the article state some of the main arguments that I have against the IMF/World Bank, the Federal Reserve, and central banking in general: that is is allowing the continuation of failed socialist economic policies and failed welfare states to the effect of helping to set up a global economic system based on central planing/socialism. Whether this is by design or simply the result of hubris on the part of the central banks does not change what is happening. ("The Creature From Jekyll Island" is worth reading to learn more about central banking in general.)