Liberation not Stimulation

Dr. Yaron Brook, President, The Ayn Rand Institute

  

I Reiterate…

Have you protected yourself?  If not, why?

“The markets are painting a picture of calm, but they never tell you what’s lurking behind in the murky waters of reality.”

America Half Off

Nice article below sent from our Comrade in Arms Sean. 

 

As our economic ship continues to spring leaks, the sanguine crowd still clings to the false belief that the Fed/Treasury tag team can easily step in and keep us afloat.  This comfort has sustained many bubbly forecasts despite overwhelming evidence of an unfolding economic and monetary catastrophe of historic proportions.  Ironically, it is this same tag team who got us into this condition in the first place.  By expanding the money supply, they have “tagged in” inflation, which has debased the dollar relative to other currencies, thereby allowing foreigners to come and buy our companies half off. 

 

A more appropriate title for the article might be “The Great American Fire-Sale.”  Besides being bought out involuntarily (as with Budweiser), most companies are forced to pass around the hat, hoping to woo the Asian and Arab governments for badly needed funds (as with every U.S. investment house; i.e. Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch).  These developments should be alarming on many levels, yet most seem unperturbed. 

 

The fact that troubled firms need to look abroad for cash provides startling evidence of the extent of the deterioration of America’s economic might.  The reason we need to seek capital from abroad is that we have squandered our own on consumption.  Certainly, these “foreign investments” come at a great cost.  Contrary to the media’s positive spin of foreigners “investing in America,” such acquisitions really amount to foreigners buying up America, as our creditors take our assets in exchange for our debts. 

 

Are these thoughts too xenophobic?  Is this “investing in America” by foreigners really a good thing after all?  Your comments are appreciated.

 

The Great American Yard Sale

 

When Belgian-based, Brazilian-controlled InBev launched a hostile offer for American beer king Anheuser-Busch last month, xenophobia quickly foamed to the top. Beer drinkers in St. Louis, Mo.–A-B’s home–vowed to swear off Bud if those foreigners bought “our” beer.

 

They’ll get over it. A-B’s shareholders sure did, considering the $52 billion price tag, which at $70 a share was a 27% premium for a stock that had gone flat. The ruling Busch family ultimately faced up to the fact that the U.S. is for sale, and foreigners are buying. It’s everything from the St.-Tropez crowd buying up condos in Palm Beach, Fla., to Asian and Middle Eastern governments sinking billions into U.S. banks to Europeans taking over U.S. pharmaceutical and infrastructure companies. Even tourists are busy using their euros and pounds to snap up iPhones, jeans, shoes and everything else they can stuff into the empty suitcases they carry along for just that purpose, damn them.  More,,,