Over the next hill

Bank stress tests are a joke, but skillfully parceling out the true extent of our economic disintegration is the name of the game. It is the difference between losing 400 Dow points and, oops, systemic collapse. In the endgame the suits must successfully packetize the mess their failed policies built.

Google timeline

The way the still-experimental Google News Timeline presents an information-rich spatial configuration of events over time will have the public zooming in, out, and searching by the millions. Beyond all the features, though, you have to appreciate any mechanism that addresses our very human obsession with the latest data point.

Who needs a reason

When a government becomes intervention-minded, any excuse or no excuse is needed for bold leadership (read: unaffordable reaction). Success or failure is gauged in immediate political advantage. Unless unintended consequences manifest immediately, exploding cigar fashion, they can still be plausibly blamed on that evil Wall Street or on George Bush.

Back to normal

Every latest piece of economic data is inspected for insight. Is it the one, the real turning point? Or is it just another fake out? Consider instead that we are simply tired of economic crisis and want to will into existence a base from which to resume optimistic linear extrapolation.

Oh happy day

While the world scrambles to find (or create) a new reserve currency, some find comfort in the fact that there’s no alternative to the greenback today, tomorrow, or next year. Hooray! Economic banishment and price inflation are the price of our reckless monetary policy, but the bill isn’t due tomorrow!

What part of banishment don’t we get?

Calls to replace the dollar as global reserve currency persist. Don’t kid yourself: it’s not just Russia and China, and it isn’t just posturing. The world wants a predictable store of value, and after watching Uncle Sam accelerate borrowing and crash their competitive devaluation derby, even our allies want out.

The Obama Book Club

Hugo Chavez knows if you can’t promote Open Veins of Latin America on Oprah’s show, promote it on Obama’s person. Predictably, sales of this page-turner are through the tin roof all over the world, though in the States, I don’t know where you’d find many copies outside of campus bookstores.

It's here somewhere

Bubbles – in stocks, real estate, Treasuries, oil -- are only obvious in hindsight, economists tell us: You can’t recognize a bubble when you’re in one. Well, fine. Then why should anyone trust these dollar-printing, CPI-flogging Mr. Magoo impersonators to spot price inflation before magically draining away trillions in excess liquidity?

Oddities of time and place

The stronger the example, the more convincing, right? Not when the topic is hyperinflation and the examples are Weimar and Zimbabwe. Every time these zombie twins are paraded out, skeptics reject them as oddities of time and place. Never happen here, they scoff. Better idea: list recent history’s many examples.

Still not convinced

“China cannot sell their U.S. Treasuries. They would be hurting themselves,” the pundits declare. “Furthermore, they must continue buying them,” they announce. “Yes, even if we tank the dollar and they have a stimulus. We’re in this together,” and so on. These wishful slogans have become a nimbostratus of denial.

That's Mister Global Zero

When Obama declared, “I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” do we believe this apotheosis of liberalism buys into Global Zero, a program to abolish nuclear weapons from earth? Doesn’t OPEC’s example provide enough insight into cheating?

Old media quivers with contempt at tea parties

The New York Times sniffs, delivers lumps: “All of these tax day parties seemed less about revolution and more about group therapy. At least with the more widely known protest against government spending, people attending the rallies were dressed patriotically and held signs expressing their anger, but offering no solutions.”

Empty Factories

A third. From MarketWatch: “In manufacturing, capacity utilization fell to 65.8%, which means a third of the nation's manufacturing capacity is idle, cutting into profits and reducing companies' pricing power.” Pricing power? Has an odd ring, what with debts cantilevered upon debts, all beholden to a weirdly obsolete consumer culture.

Read his lips

With the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicting a $9.27 trillion baseline cumulative deficit for the President’s 2010-2019 budget, we should revisit Mr. Obama’s campaign assertion: “Now, what I've done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.” I know what you’re thinking, but we shouldn’t question his sincerity.

It's in the way that you see it

A flight descends; its destination does not ascend. Why, then, do we talk of gold’s value soaring? After all, its buying power charts horizon-flat (an ounce of gold bought about 300 loaves of bread in ancient Persia, and it still does today), while paper fiat currencies keep descending into worthlessness.