Yea, I know I’ve been neglecting to post anything lately, but life is getting to be a full time job in itself for this old man. IOR is hard to focus on when so many other things are happening in the world at large and on the personal level.

The Gray Dog put it succinctly with this quote in an email I got from him a while back: “Sometimes I feel like Alice headed down the rabbit hole.” I know exactly how he feels.

 
by J. R. Nyquist

“Credit expansion,” wrote the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, “is the governments’ foremost tool in their struggle against the market economy. In their hands it is the magic wand designed to conjure away the scarcity of capital goods … and to make everybody prosperous.” But everyone cannot be prosperous. The boom created by credit expansion cannot last. This is what the leaders of the United States have missed. “The inescapable consequences of credit expansion,” wrote Mises, “are shown by the theory of the trade cycle. Even those economists who still refuse to acknowledge the correctness of the … credit theory of the cyclical fluctuations of business have never dared to question the conclusiveness and irrefutability of what this theory asserts with regard to the necessary effects of credit expansion.”

Read it here

Other stuff:

WARNING: STOCKS COULD LOSE 1/3…

ANOTHER EURO BANK ON BRINK…

Wachovia shares plunge as investors question fate

Deal reached on US markets bailout

Elitism: Culture wars and the campaign
by Victor Davis Hanson
PajamasMedia.com

You are a damn elite, not me!

That sums up the current political debate — whether we look at charges that John McCain has so many houses he can’t remember any longer the actual number of them; or that poor Barack Obama is depressed at the soaring price of arugula; or that Fightin’ Joe Biden once bootstrapped himself up at ten in Scranton; or that moose-hunting Sarah snowmachines as naturally as Barack Obama trips over himself in a bowling lane.

A nation of wood-cutters

In short, we remain log-cabin America, formed as the frontier antithesis of Europe. Apparently, we are determined, at least in mind, to stay that way — rightly or wrongly sneering at both natural Francophile John Kerry’s spandex, and also poor forced and uncomfortable duck-hunting John Kerry, decked out in camouflage, and looking as uncomfortable with a dead duck as Mike Dukakis in a tank helmet. We don’t like snooty elitists, and don’t give them a break when they clumsily try at election time in the eleventh hour to morph into one of the people.

A state of mind

Read it here if you have the time…..

Exspider/OUT/doing the chores/back later……..

The Danger is Not Fully Appreciated
by J. R. Nyquist
Weekly Column Published: 09.12.2008

“Perhaps the United States is under financial attack. We know that the country is being encircled through maneuvers in Latin America. At the same time, the U.S. is being isolated from its European allies, financially hobbled by a combination of its own blunders and poorly understood market manipulations. There is continuity in Russian grand strategy, from the rise of Gorbachev to the incursion into Georgia. Russia’s hidden hand should not be underestimated. The advent of Boris Yeltsin was not a period of democracy and genuine liberalization. It was, instead, a period of deception and false promise.

The strategic danger is not fully appreciated, even now.
The link is HERE

High Finance and Bolshevik Principles

One only has to wait for the FDIC to detonate beneath a floundering Republic. If anyone thought U.S. Treasury bonds are a riskless investment, think again. Am I suggesting the U.S. government will default on its obligations? In my opinion, no other outcome is imaginable. If you doubt this conclusion, try to imagine federal, state and local government paying off $10 trillion. It’s not going to happen, as the readiest method of default open to government is the debasement of the national currency. This means an end to American international power – financial and military. It means an end to the old international order, which has existed since 1945.
It means global revolution. Wave hello to socialism. [snip]

Read the rest…..

“I want to warn Americans. As a people, you are very naïve about Russia and its intentions. You believe because the Soviet Union no longer exists, Russia now is your friend. It isn’t, and I can show you how the SVR is trying to destroy the U.S. even today and even more than the KGB did during the Cold War.” Sergei Tretyakov, KGB/SVR defector

If you read the news from day to day you will notice a gradual shift in the strategic balance. This year’s headlines are as representative as those found in previous years. Perhaps you’ve read about joint military exercises involving South Africa and Russia, South Africa and China, or North Korea acquiring uranium from Congo. Perhaps you noted the Communist victory in the Angolan Civil War. Maybe you’ve caught a glimpse of Europe’s growing anti-Americanism, or noticed stories about Russian weapons reaching insurgents in Iraq. How about a recent headline stating that “Germany wants a new strategic Partnership with Russia”?

We’re not supposed to worry about such things. We’re supposed to shop, that is, before the dollar sinks out of sight and the shopping mall regime ingloriously ends. What then? The Germans want a strategic partnership with Russia. This is perfectly logical. Germany needs Russia because Germany wants to feel safe, and Germany wants to be warm in the winter; and Russia needs Germany, right? It is now suggested that the European Union enter into special negotiations with Russia.

Continue reading>

There is a new book, sporting an old theme, authored by Yossef Bodansky. It is titled  Chechen Jihad: Al Qaeda’s Training Ground and the Next Wave of Terror. The main argument of the book may be summarized as follows: Al Qaeda has nuclear weapons, and some of these have probably been smuggled into the United States for use against American cities. The weapons are Soviet-made weapons, smuggled out of Russia courtesy of the Chechen mafia via the Chechen rebel state (i.e., “Al Qaeda’s Training Ground”). It is an old story, first told by Bodansky in 1999 and repeated in greater detail in this more recent volume.

So be it. We’re active participant’s in either case, so what you see is what you get. Illusion. Meet. Reality.

by J. R. Nyquist
Weekly Column Published: 02.01.2008

After two decades the West has been thoroughly duped; its leaders manipulated, blackmailed, swindled to a point that overt hostile moves by the Russian military, or scathing threats from the Russian president, produces no meaningful reaction. We all know that Russian agents unleashed radioactive poison on the streets of London. British officials believe that Andrei Lugovoy was Putin’s henchman in the matter. And now, with hardly a squeak from so many political pips, Lugovoy is a member of the Russian parliament with full legal immunity. In a recent interview with Megan Stack, published in the 27 January Los Angeles Times, Lugovoy said: “I don’t believe the Cold War is back. It has never ended.”

More>

Years of Crisis Ahead

by Jeff Nyquist

The year 2008 will clarify the position of the United States as a great power in relation to the emerging power of China and the supposedly defunct power of Russia. If the financial crisis worsens (as it is likely to do), a political crisis is bound to follow. Few dare talk about this crisis (even now), although communists have been discussing it for many decades. Mainly, they have been considering how they will exploit a major economic crisis. With the Western intelligentsia sunk in the mire of political correctness, and the stupefaction of a television-besotted public, they are the only party on Earth that is psychologically ready with answers and slogans. Their political powder is dry, and they are well stocked. There is every reason to believe that the public will be confused, that the politicians will be knocked off balance.

The year 2008 may be a year of decision, not because it is a presidential election year, but because the West may be shaken to its foundations.

More

by J. R. Nyquist

One day the United States, as we know it, will disappear and Washington, D.C. will not be the capital of a great nation. But before history reaches this moment, millions of Americans will experience the greatest economic reversal of all time. Consider the logic of this scenario. If America is destined to disappear, the first warning signs will be on the economic front. And now we see the signs, all around. Those who favor U.S. power should be worried. America’s military advantage exists as an economic corollary, and the economic news is bad. There have been trade imbalances. An enormous amount of debt has been accumulated, and the dollar is falling fast.

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My Comment:

So what’s your take on the state of America? I like to consider myself as a spectator for the most part, but its getting really hard to ignore some of this stuff. So let’s just say that I have my opinions, and leave it at that. Right now I’ve gotta go spend some carbon credits (logs on fire). Maybe that’ll help me sort it all out.

Well the vacation was nice while it lasted. I’m still not sure why they call it a vacation though. Hmmmm? What’s up with that?

Anyhow, here’s a few links for ya while I try to re-adjust to my normal life cycle
Log. On. Fire……….

Cycles of History, Boom and Bust
by J. R. Nyquist

“When the economic situation changes, when peak oil has its say, when the Middle East crisis cannot be solved, when American politics reduces to a sharp ideological division, when the real estate bubble continues to burst, what will happen? What will the Russians and Chinese do? For thousands of years the world was about war and dominance, the power of oligarchies and the exploitation of peasants. Does anyone believe that the world cannot revert back? Does anyone think that the fall of modern capitalism will result in any other outcome?”

Read it here

H/T to 1913 Intell for the following links.

A Pearl Harbor without War

By Gabor Steingart in Washington, D.C.

“The dollar crisis has politicians alarmed worldwide. The US currency has lost 24 percent of its value since the introduction of the euro, and now there is even a chance that China could abandon its policy of pegging its currency to the dollar — a problem the United States should take very seriously.”

” Translated into Texan, what the Chinese politely told the Americans last week simply means: Unless something happens, all hell will break loose.”

Read the rest……….

IS CHINA BLACKMAILING AMERICA?

Geopolitics at $100 a Barrel

THE CONTEMPORARY CRISIS
Hitting the Wall
by Jeff Nyquist
Fri, 7 Sep 2007 15:00:00 GMT

The crisis deepens. Red flags and warning indicators are appearing, one after another — in the financial markets, in the skies over the Arctic, in a broken White House with its broken strategy, in a shopping mall regime where the operative rhyming slogan is “shop until you drop,” and the rhyming subtext follows: “the sheep are asleep.” All cultures are corrupt and dishonest to some extent. But here, at the pinnacle of civilization, with unprecedented technology and access to knowledge, the intellectual level is declining. Elevation of mind is absent. To succeed a civilization requires certain minimum levels of courage and truthfulness — from individuals as well as nations. And today, sadly, in Europe or Asia, Latin America or Africa, the continents of man are sinking into a Great Dark Ocean of confusion. We are degenerates — part of a degenerated race of beings who’ve lost something vital within ourselves.

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ECONOMIC WARFARE IN THE FINAL PHASE

by J. R. Nyquist

This week the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, warned against Russia’s use of energy as an instrument of foreign policy. Speaking before his ambassadors, the French President said: “Russia is imposing its return [as a great power] on the world scene by employing its assets, notably oil and gas, with a certain brutality.” A great power ought to be gentle in its economic or political superiority. The Russians, however, are accustomed to a more cynical use of their advantages. The language of the Russian president includes mockery, condescension and threats. The West cringes, the East advances. Who cares what the weak countries think? Their feelings are without consequence.

Russia is not only engaged in a military buildup. Russia wants to use its economic muscles. You might ask what economic muscles Russia could have? It is bankrupt, backward, hobbled, demoralized and generally dismissed as an effective economic actor. We must remember, however, that positions in the world economy can change, that tables can be turned. Last June, at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, the Russians called for a “new international financial architecture.” Here is Russia’s “Final Phase” economic strategy. The financial vulnerability of capitalism is growing. Keep pushing oil prices higher. Weaken the dollar. Precipitate the inevitable “crisis of capitalism.” Let the have-not nations rise up. Let them throw off their dollar shackles. Let them unite with Russia and China in “one clenched fist.”

Read the rest HERE

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Since 1998 I have publicly warned of Russia’s war preparations. The idea of preparing for nuclear war is absurd for most Americans, because the idea of nuclear war makes no sense in a consumer society. However that may be, Russia’s war preparations were as undeniable then as they are today. And Russia is not a consumer society. In the late 1990s Russia was refurbishing huge nuclear war bunkers and building underground cities. The only purpose such bunkers and cities could serve is in relation to a future nuclear war. For a country that was supposedly broke to be spending its precious resources on something so expensive, so far out of the way of “normal” expectations, seemed inexplicable. “Oh well,” people would shrug. “The Russians are used to doing this sort of thing. It gives them psychological comfort. Let them do what they want. It needn’t trouble us.” The public missed the fact, however, that Russia was continuing to violate arms control agreements. It was not admitting to all the nuclear warheads it possessed, and was not reliably disposing of them. It was developing new, deadly, biological and chemical weapons.

Read the rest HERE

A financial crash is more than an economic glitch. It leads into dangerous political territory. It can trigger revolutions. Financial distress in the 1780s led to the French Revolution. Financial distress brought the Nazis and Japanese militarists to power before World War II. A financial earthquake may cause a political earthquake. A political earthquake, in turn, can set off a revolution, civil war, or even a world war. This is what history teaches.

It is economic distress that drives the average man to despair. Financial calamity changes his political outlook from cool detachment to naked fear. This signals opportunity to the political opportunist, the fanatic and the demagogue. These will always play on fear. America is a country that has enjoyed prosperity, and this has contributed to political moderation. The center holds as long as the economy runs smoothly. We do not know, however, what the effect of a major crash would have on an ethnically divided welfare society with an aging population supplemented by a rapidly growing foreign work force.

Then there are international and geopolitical consequences: Europe is economically tied to America. Money flows from one country to another, and so does financial trouble. This week the European Central Bank reached for $130 billion in emergency funds. The markets are jittery. Europe is nervous. American real estate prices are falling. There are growing losses connected with U.S. mortgages. The solution of lower U.S. interest rates is not an option because of Chinese threats to sink the dollar.

Read the rest HERE

My thoughts: Invest in popcorn and enjoy the show.