Highly entertaining exchange with the hypocrite from Texas. Thanks for this one!

Quote:

Never mind that both Bernanke and Paulson basically (although not directly) told us twice that this wouldn't be allowed - that there would be no games like this where investment (and commercial) banks went and hit The Fed's "extraordinary" facilities and at the same time were buying back their own shares to prop the price, essentially buying their own shares with Fed Money.

Can you elaborate or point to where these statements were made? Also is Lehman hitting up the fed for money, can it be proven, according to them they are not?

I am not disagreeing, I think they are toast, I am just trying to verify.

Excellent Gen.....

'...have gone so far as to give me an alternative fax number on different equipment, typically in a district office...'


Which has a chute bolted to it, directing every incoming fax to drop right into an overworked paper shredder.


Yup, dedicated fax number with a purpose.

Ron Paul is a piece of ****.

Quote:

Can you elaborate or point to where these statements were made? Also is Lehman hitting up the fed for money, can it be proven, according to them they are not?

You're kidding, right?

What part of Bernanke telling the banks to raise capital and strengthen their balance sheets has not been clear and convincing?

Buying back stop reduces shareholder equity and weakens the balance sheet.

The Honorable Paul wears a 3-piece Coughlin when poleiticking, but relaxes in his Loeb robe when convenient.

Maybe Texans will wake up as the American electorate has.

The tall man had an opportunity to stand taller than he is during the BSC hearings instead his robe opened up and revealed shrinkage.

Thanks for the truth, Genesis!

I was out Sunday at Lowes here in Columbus OH. I was surprised at how packed it was. The parking lot looked full and the 2 cashiers in the garden center were slammed with both lines 4 or 5 deep, for the whole time I was there.

The danger in extrapolating macro views from micro anecdotal data is dangerous though. I have noticed many more sold and sale pending signs lately. Sales from Franklin County are still lower than previous years, and inventory on the market is lower than last year, though creeping up. I suspect many sellers who pulled their listing have not put it back on the market though.

Funny how the County Auditor is holding prices steady at the assesed value from 3 years ago and spinning it how it helps people. Me thinks they do not want to have to take those values down, even though property taxes will not go down even if the assesssed value decreases; that is because of the way they have written the law in OH. Inside millage.

If I had to make a call: no major recession here, yet, though one could make the case that OH (and MI) have been in one all along. They are getting desperate here. It is palpable. Mayor is bitching about overtime with the public safety departments. Over 70% of the budget is earmarked for public safety. Reminded me of the article about Vallejo. Things are going to get worse before they get better. Surprising how long this has gone on, huh? LOL

BTW, or most importantly, thank you KDen for all your work. Great ticker by the way, as usual.

Lion; I was in Home Depot last week and saw the same thing. Lines in the garden center. We said heck with that and went over to the cashiers in the regular area. There were NO lines there, in fact cashiers were free. Wonder if you would have found the same thing at your Lowes?

Great Ticker Karl..

I e-mailed today's Ticker with the excerpts about Ron Paul to both Lew Rockwell and The Mises Institute. I hope they are embarrassed. His behavior pretty much negates everything they supposedly stand for. I also pointed out in my e-mail what an excellent opportunity this is to watch free markets in action:

"When news of Ron Paul's actions reach his constituents, I hope they do what Paul always so publicly endorses. Let the free market decide the value of his Representation. I suspect the free market will not value it very highly."

<i>My political prediction stands - an extremely strong Democrat showing is on tap for November, with a decent probability that The Senate becomes filibuster-proof.

Bring it on - America needs to wake up, and I suspect this will do it. Buy your tin cup for the soup line now, so as to avoid the price inflation later.
</i>

Are there going to be future MarketTickers on how to:

1. Protect yourself from a 70% income tax rate?
2. Profit from the near doubling of Capital Gains taxes?
3. Profit from at the very least the socialization of the health care and energy sectors? (plus others)
4. Profit from a unions gaining massively in power?
5. How to profit from the enormous taxpayer bailouts of housing speculators and insolvent financial companies?
6. Profit from open borders and amnesty for all illegals?

I have for the most part had a problem with the "you are not one of my constituents" response's from a member of congress.

Considering the fact that the vast majority of legislation proposed and approved by members of congress representing other states has a profound affect on my wallet.

No I cannot vote for them, but telling me they do not represent me while ****ing me from over the horizon is still bull****.

Quote:

His behavior pretty much negates everything they supposedly stand for.

Really - a staffer telling some interest group not to waste 20 reams of paper on superfluous junk is a repudiation of libertarianism and free market economics???

Explain that - this should be good.....

I suspect you have no idea what paleo-libertarians (as exemplified by Rockwell) and Austrian economics (Mises) is all about. Again - even if we accept the most malevolent interpretation of this exchange between your fearless leader and the secretary - it has no bearing on his championing of individual rights and economic freedom.

Jesus Christ - do you have to be mentally dim to post here? HIS STATUS AS AN ******* WHO WON'T TAKE FAXES FROM CONSTITUENTS (were it true, and not just histrionics for the poster-children for short-bus political philosophy) HAS ABSOLUTELY NO BEARING ON HIS IDEOLOGICAL POSITIONS IN RESPECT TO INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY OR ECONOMIC FREEDOM.

The ignorance on display from the aggregate of hit and run posters in the last two threads is appalling. You cannot simply say anything that pops into your mind about a person because you don't like them or their ideology and expect not to be nailed. You should be prepared to defend your positions.

I call you out Morgan. Explain how the accusations leveled against Dr. Paul here have any relevance at all to his belief in free market economics and individual liberty.

At least y'all aren't nonstop quoting that Gandhi thingy anymore

This is taken directly from Rothbard's "Man,Economy and State" (pg773); " Professor Mises has keenly pointed out the paradox of interventionists who insist that consumers are too ignorant or incompetent to buy products intelligently, while at the same time proclaiming the virtues of democracy,where the same people vote for or against politicians whom they do not know and on policies which they scarcely understand. To put it another way the partisans of intervention assume that individuals are not competent to run their own affairs or hire experts to advise them, but also assume these same individuals are competent to vote for these experts at the ballot box".
I would have to classify Ron Paul as particularly adept at assuming the role of "Partisan of Intervention" unless he's just setting himself up as a clairvoyant who is channeling his constituents wishes.

Morgan

Hunt Valley in Baltimore, MD - *the* location to shop outside of the downtown - had about 3 people in the Damon's on Saturday evening. Usually there's a crowd with a 20-minute wait.. not this time.

Wegmans was supercrowded, but they'll probably survive anything.

I've lost all respect and support for RP unless he sends an ass-kissing letter to his constituents denouncing his secretaries handling of the situation to Karl. That kind of BS qualifies and his actions during the BSC hearings qualifies him for the Pussy-Patriot award in my book.

The Ron Paul attacks seem like a case of "killing the messenger", and he is your own messenger (at least on some issues, like government spending, I believe). Now, I'll admit, he has been a pretty lousy messenger. He totally blew the opportunity to effectively question Bernanke, et al. He can't effectively elucidate his point of view to convince people. He comes across as a cook sometimes. But, at least he was trying (I'll give hime the benefit of the doubt on that).

I'll also give him the benefit of the doubt, for now, that he might have some idiots working for him, and that he is not aware of what has been faxed to his office (hard to believe, and ultimately, even if true, this does not absolve him of guilt.)

I do believe he had pretty much become an embarassment as a messenger for those of us who share many of his beliefs, and thus was not really helpful. Maybe he does deserve to be "taken out back and shot", as they say. If he does not personally respond to Karl's "expose", then he deserves everything he gets. However, I believe there is no more serious an accusation against a man of priciples than that of being a hypocrite. If you make that accusation, you better damn well have the evidence to support it, and not throw it about lightly (Truthseeker).

I'm saddened that Ron Paul let things get to this point, but he does have no one to blame but himself. He's an adult, and deserved the "outing" by Karl. I hope he attempts to redeem some credibility by repsonding personally.

Morgan - I may be dense, but I don't follow how Ron Paul is an interventionist. Please explain further.

God help us all get through this mess. Unfortunately, Ron Paul did not do much to help. If Ron Paul did do anything positive, it was to at least raise some awareness on issues of fiscal responsibilty and individual liberty. I think he deserves some respect for that.

TX, Jennifer Bailey stated that the instructions she was following came directly from Ron Paul's Chief of Staff.

If she's lying, she's ****ed. I have no reason to believe she is, and I also have no reason to believe that this could have possibly gone far enough to get a SECOND phone call from his office without Mr. Paul himself knowing about it.

Now if I'm wrong, my fax will light up with an apology and change in stance from Mr. Paul, and I'll both print it and remove the block.

I'm not holding my breath.

OMFG, Morgan. Let me guess.... you are a former public school student? It was tough waiting out my 90 minute ban to be able to call you on your mental pablum.

How is Paul in any way acting as a 'Partisan of Intervention'? How is he "advocating government policies intended to thwart or alter free market operations" (the contextual definition of 'partisan of intervention')?

I'm glad you chose to quote Rothbard - but what does the passage quoted have to do, even collaterally, with his bastardly refusal to accept a fax? How is he subverting a free market.

I'll offer a quote in kind, and I can probably make a better reasoning as to why mine is more applicable:

harry potter wrote..

Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.

"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.

I haven't even read the random Harry Potter quote that I am posting to refute your position (above), but I can already tell you that it has as much to do with this discussion as the passage you posted to support your contentions about Congressman Paul.

Morgan wrote..

I would have to classify Ron Paul as particularly adept at assuming the role of "Partisan of Intervention" unless he's just setting himself up as a clairvoyant who is channeling his constituents wishes.

Can someone with a brain assist this fool? I like a good debate, and this is only embarrassing..... Bear - your cheerleading implies that you understand his points - maybe you can explain to me how the passage quoted (from Rothbard) has any relevance whatsoever to the subject being discussed (let me give you a hint - you cannot because it is wholly irrelevant to this subject - I really believe he/she just copy and pasted the first paragraph that they came to and posted it). I encourage you to try and demonstrate it's relevance - or were you just applauding that there were no misspellings in the post?

Txdomer-

We are all consumers of Representative government. When one's Representative blithely refuses to hear the views of his constituents, it sends the message that "Consumers" of government are too ignorant or incompetent to understand the issues. Don't we have enough people in Washington who think they are omniscient? This seems like a form of intervention in the marketplace between the constituent and the Congressional Representative.
PS
I apologize to Genesis if I have caused the wrath of Mises to fall on his head. I genuinely thought they would like to know what Ron Paul was up to.

Allow me to jump on the "Discredit Ron Paul" bandwagon:

I was at a rally of his one time and when I shook his hand I also sneezed. His reaction was to cringe rather than say "God Bless You." Can you imagine? That shows that he really could care less for his supporters and it's all an act. Besides, I think the reason I sneezed is... I'm allergic to bull****!

(the preceding paragraph was fictional satire to show you how flimsy your accusations have been - they prove nothing)

I found what Ron Paul said about the "Glass Steagall repeal" legislation the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act:

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congre....

He voted AGAINST it, claimed it wouldn't solve any problems, and also made some very accurate predictions about our economy.

IF Congressmen Paul told his staffer to do what she did (and she wasn't acting on her own initiative) then he is guilty of nothing worse than Karl's own personal behavior on a daily basis. If you read Paul's writings, he disagrees on several key issues with Mr. Denninger's assertions. If he feels like someone (who in his opinion is mistaken) is misleading his constituates and creating a lobbying group to influence his behavior, then he has the right to ask to be left alone. Having a few "yes men" signatures attached doesn't change the fact that the White Paper and subsequent recommendations are Karl's opinons and agenda. By elimininating the need for the people he represents to actually expend any effort (or money), it reflects on how strongly (or rather weakly) they feel about the issues represented.

When Karl doesn't like a post on his forum, he can be very disprespectful to the poster (as I'm sure you've noticed). However, if someone dares to tell the great and powerful KD that he is incorrect, please stop sending your junk faxes (ie go away kid, you're bothering me), then KD wants to make a federal case out of it. Then Ron Paul is a dastardly scoundrel who must be publicly shamed into changing his behavior.

I also like how KD says that RP is the only person in DC who has acted this way, and right after discusses other (unnamed) Congresspeople who have reacted badly to his faxes and whose staff's didn't even have the courtesy to contact him openly and directly with a request that he stop. They just blocked him, and then lied about it when confronted (and he tries to pass this off as somehow ethically superior to the behavior of the RP staffer?).

(BTW, sounds like your petitions are really working good KD)

This entire "scandal" is in fact so trivial that after yesterday's ticker, I was just going to ignore it as blatantly ridiculous. However, after today's rehash and obvious coersion attempts I thought I'd check out what people on the forum are saying about it. Disappointed is a good word to describe how I felt after seeing the lack of critical thinking on display. (Hat-tip to Circpros for injecting some sanity into this witch hunt.)

And, as for you KD, I wouldn't spend too much time bellowing about "false Gods"... or people may begin to turn a critical eye towards the bellower.