XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Thursday 13 September 2012

Ron Paul: "Country Should Panic Over Fed's Decision" - "we are creating money out of thin air," - "We've Lost Control!" -

Ron Paul: "Country Should Panic Over Fed's Decision" - "we are creating money out of thin air," - "We've Lost Control!" - 




Paul’s reaction to more Federal Reserve stimulus:

“It should not surprise anybody, but it is still astounding. To me, it is so astounding that it does not collapse the markets. [Bernanke] said, ‘We are in very big trouble. We are going to do something unprecedented and we believe it will not hurt the dollar.’  And yet the stocks, they say ‘we love this stuff.’ But the dollar didn’t do so well today and the real value of the dollar is measured against gold, and gold skyrocketed from its very low to its highest. It means we are weakening the dollar. We are trying to liquidate our debt through inflation. The consequence of what the Fed is doing is a lot more than just CPI. It has to do with malinvestment and people doing the wrong things at the wrong time. Believe me, there is plenty of that. The one thing that Bernanke has not achieved and it frustrates him, I can tell—is he gets no economic growth. He doesn’t do anything with the unemployment numbers. I think the country should have panicked over what the Fed is saying that we have lost control and the only thing we have left is massively creating new money out of thin air, which has not worked before, and is not going to work this time.”
On potential unintended consequences:

“The biggest unintended consequence is what we need is a restoration of confidence. If the Fed is expressing a lack of confidence and they do not know what to do, it does not do anything to restore confidence. People might restrain from doing anything. ‘Interest rates are low. I do not have to buy my house this year. I will wait until next year. It might be a little easier. Prices might come down.’ So people are restrained and it is the opposite of when you expect that housing prices are going up, and you are afraid interest rates are going up. That is why the market rate of interest is so crucial. The rate of interest should give the businessman, the entrepreneurs, the investors and the savers information. But there is no market to interest rates. That is why there is such gross distortion and why we do not have a market economy. We have a rigged economy through central economic planning by central banking. The system is failing, it was doomed to fail and we have to wake up to that fact.”
On whether the Federal Reserve needs discipline:

“Short of getting rid of the Fed, which is not going to come and I wouldn’t do that overnight anyway, I would say that Congress has the authority to say, do not buy debt. Do not buy any debt. The Congress can yell and scream and pander to the people. They can say the deficits are terrible and terrible. But nobody wants to cut overseas spending or food stamps for the poor. They say, ‘we cannot do it without the Fed. The Fed has to buy this debt.’ That is a moral hazard for the politician. If the Fed couldn’t buy the debt, and interest rates would rise all of the sudden the burden would be on the Congress to get their house in order to restore confidence. Even that would panic a lot of people because live within your means? We do not like that. We like this idea that we can give people anything they want for free, so we can get reelected. Well, all of this is coming to an end.”
On whether Bernanke should be pulling back liquidity and raising interest rates right now instead:

“Liquidity should be determined by the market. I don’t think he should raise rates. He should just get out of rigging rates. The system is so biased. It helps the bankers who get free money and then they buy government debt. What about the people who are frightened, they do not like the stock market and they are frugal and want to take care of themselves?  What do they get—1% on a CD? That is unfair. It’s bad economics. You want to let the market determine interest rates and let it sort it out. People get so nervous, because we have lived so long with a Keynesian economic model of fixing interest rates and intervening in the market.”
On whether Romney would do the right thing with the Federal Reserve if elected:

“So far, I have not heard that he would, but he has changed his mind before. If he gets to be president, we will keep our fingers crossed.”





The Guinness World Records 2013 - Zeus of Otsego, Mich., as the world’s Tallest Dog - stands 7-foot-4 -

The Guinness World Records 2013 - Zeus of Otsego, Mich., as the world’s Tallest Dog - stands 7-foot-4 - 




A Great Dane from Michigan is doggone tall.

The Guinness World Records 2013 book published Thursday recognizes Zeus of Otsego, Mich., as the world’s Tallest Dog.

The 3-year-old measures 44 inches from foot to shoulder.

Standing on his hind legs, Zeus stretches to 7-foot-4 and towers over his owner, Denise Doorlag. Zeus is just an inch taller than the previous record-holder, Giant George.

Zeus weighs 155 pounds and eats around 12 cups of food a day. That’s equivalent to one 30-pound bag of food.

Doorlag says she had to get a van to be able to transport Zeus.

Read more - 
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1256136--world-s-tallest-dog-stands-7-foot-4

Tall ship fires live round in mock battle; 2 injured, buckshot was loaded into one ship’s cannon instead of blanks -

Tall ship fires live round in mock battle; 2 injured, buckshot was loaded into one ship’s cannon instead of blanks - 


Two women taking part in a mock battle at a California tall ship festival were hit with real ammunition and left with minor injuries when buckshot was loaded into one ship’s cannon instead of blanks.

The Amazing Grace, a tall ship based in Gig Harbor, Wash., fired at the vessel Bill of Rights, hitting two people onboard during a Dana Point festival that celebrates 19th century seafaring, authorities told the Orange County Register.

One of the women hit, Bill of Rights deckhand Donna Reed, said she and volunteer Laura Huber were struck by multiple pellets.

“It was like a scene from ‘The Exorcist’,” Reed told the Los Angeles Times. “I started to bleed in several different areas.

Reed said she was still sore on Wednesday, four days after the Saturday accident, and still had some of the pellets in her leg because doctors said it was safer than removing them.

Both ships would normally use small cannons that use blank charges that look like common shotgun shells. It was not clear how the buckshot ended up getting loaded into the cannon.

“The plan is to never shoot live ammunition,” Bentley Cavazzi, chief operations officer for the Ocean Institute which runs the festival, told the Times.

Orange County sheriff’s spokeswoman Gail Krause told the Register her department is awaiting the outcome of an investigation before deciding whether to pursue charges of negligent discharge.

But Reed, a South Carolina native who recently took a job on the ship as a deckhand and public relations rep, said that regardless of the reason she and Huber hold no grudge against the crew of the Amazing Grace, in fact one crew member is a nurse who was the first to help them.

“We are both fine and just glad it was not more serious,” Reed told the Register. “Who else can say they have been shot by a cannon?”

Read more - 
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1255991--tall-ship-fires-live-round-in-mock-battle-2-injured-by-cannon