Category: Quote of the Week

"Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." – Frederic Bastiat, Essays on Political Economy, 1872

"During the hyperinflation in post WWI Germany, what used to be a comfortable nest egg was suddenly the value of a postage stamp. If one held just a portion of their savings in precious metals, the crisis was greatly softened. Gold will never be worth nothing, even if the exact price fluctuates. There is a famous photograph, however, of a German woman during this time period burning piles of tightly bound banknotes to keep warm." – Congressman Ron Paul

“How fabulous,” writes Brian Reade in the British tabloid The Mirror. “Thanks to the way it props up the USA’s two biggest mortgage firms, more than half of American homes are now effectively owned by the state… Who’d have imagined that when the most right-wing of neo-cons leaves office 50% of the Land of the Free will effectively be [public housing]”? – Bill Bonner

Every economy in the world has experienced booms and busts, but somewhere along the line someone came up with the bright idea of eliminating the busts. Throughout the 1990s the world experienced a series of economic crisis in Asia, Mexico, Russia, and even in the US markets that would have been enough to cleanse the system and restore equilibrium. On each and every occasion the Fed met the problem head on with the printing press, so a full blown reaction was avoided thereby creating what I call a “distortion” in the financial system that would eventually have to be sanitized. …

“When we add an additional trillion dollars to the debt, the burden of the taxpayer, sooner or later there’s got to be a reckoning… This is the mother of all bailouts.” – Sen. Richard Shelby, R.-Alabama, ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, Sept 21, 2008

“I didn’t know how long we’d have together… Who does?” – Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, in Blade Runner (1982). Screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, based on the novel by Philip K. Dick

“Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!” – George C. Scott as Gen. ‘Buck’ Turgidson , in Dr. Strangelove, 1964. (Screenplay by by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern and Peter George.)

"If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs." – Theodore Roosevelt

“A billion here, and billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” – Senator Everett Dirksen

“It’s easy to find a trend and ride the train. The problem is, managers don’t know when to get off it.” – Peter Rup, discussing the collapse of Ospraie Management LLC’s commodities hedge fund.

“Lehman Brothers Holdings has gone bankrupt. Here is a firm that was founded in 1850. It survived the Civil War and the Great Depression. It did not survive the current breakdown. Anyone who thinks this crisis is some minor affair is not paying attention.” – Dr. Gary North

“In financial crises, your actual capital adequacy and liquidity does not matter. Both Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns — and Lehman particularly — were felt to be adequately capitalized only days before their fall. But once people thought that the end was near, the trading stopped, liquidity dried up, and the capital fled.” – Steven M. Davidoff

“…we have yet to see a genuine effort by our national security leaders to engage the public to frankly and openly inform them on where we face major threats, how best the community should better protect itself and improve risk reduction measures. In fact the reverse is true: a range of government reports relating to Australia’s ability to respond to large-scale emergencies have been embargoed on the grounds that to share that information with the public would only serve to frighten people.” – Australian Strategic Policy Institute Strategic Insights Newsletter # 39 – Taking a punch: Building a more resilient …

"He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" – Matthew 16:2-3

‘What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.’ So, if government financial ‘favors’ are granted to reckless investment firms (Bear Stearns) and now mortgage borrowers, what about other economically vital ‘multiplier’ industries like: automakers, airlines, credit card and insurance companies and even corporate real estate lenders? The logical conclusion for this current drift is hyperinflation. In order to make good on its promises the Federal Government will have to resort to the printing press…with a vengeance. – John Browne