Day: November 19, 2008


The MOAB Keeps Growing, and Growing

Last Winter, when I first started writing about the Mother of All Bailouts (MOAB), I predicted that the cost of the bailout would grow inexorably. Sadly, I was all too right. In fact, the scope of the MOAB is now much larger than I had predicted, early in 2008. The latest tally thusfar is an almost incomprehensible $4.28 trillion US Dollars. But wait, it gets worse. In addition to bailing out bankers and insurance companies, more and more entities from outside the financial sector are lining up to the Federal trough. The TARP bailout set a dangerous precedent. There is …


Letter Re: Finding Abandoned Properties, Post-TEOTWAWKI?

Dear Mr. Rawles, I recently became a fan of your blog and wanted to commend you for your work in educating the masses. While I don’t have a retreat, I’m using a different strategy and hope for your input. I live in western Maryland. Historically we are fairly disaster-proof from natural disasters enjoy all four seasons. My plan is to prepare (as best we can here) and after a disaster, claim a better vacant property. Two other thoughts: I recently purchased David Blume’s book “Alcohol Can Be a Gas” and intend to fuel my own flex fuel vehicles and have …


Letter Re: UCLA’s Eye-Opening Colloquium on the Worldwide Financial and Economic Crisis

Hi Jim, I’m responding to Tuesday’s article Letter Re: UCLA’s Eye-Opening Colloquium on the Worldwide Financial and Economic Crisis in which the general cause of the crisis was ascribed to too much economic freedom. The following articles make the opposite case, that it was actually caused by government interference in the markets: The Government Did It The Myth that Laissez Faire Is Responsible for Our Financial Crisis Alan Greenspan vs. Ayn Rand and Freedom Stable Money is the Key to Recovery As pointed out in the article Stable Money is the Key to Recovery, “…some three-quarters of the massive derivatives …


Odds ‘n Sods:

More than 20 readers sent us links to various articles about Gerald Celente’s recently very gloomy predictions, including this one: Celente Predicts Revolution, Food Riots, Tax Rebellions By 2012    o o o Eric flagged this one: Root cellars thrive as food prices rise. Oh, and BTW, count this as yet another greenie that doesn’t mind giving an exact location to reporters. How incredibly naive! (“Don’t forget to mention the nearest cross-street!”)    o o o From Cheryl, our Economic Editor, comes another big batch of news and commentary. It is noteworthy that the most incisive reporting on the US …