December 2, 2008

Suspend the income tax. Then pave the streets with gold, and flat screen TV's and unicorns for everyone!


49 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, of all my favorite Senators; Schumer, Palosi, Frank, I think Polmar is the smartest. No income tax means more for things like homes, condos, and a new back porch. And with interest rates at all time lows, there's never been a better time to buy.

Anonymous said...

I am sensing a disturbance in the force.

Anonymous said...

Why fiddle around with no income tax, just send everybody a $1 million stimulus payment. That's $300 trillion, might as well get used to big numbers. It would also come in handy to start printing $1000 and $10,000 dollar bills again.

Unknown said...

So let me get this straight, we'll get out of debt by not collecting taxes for a year. The solution to irresponsible government is making it more irresponsible?

Unknown said...

Step 1, collect underwear.

Step 2, ......

Step 3, make money

Yea we're all rich.

Roccman said...

"have christmas presents bought"...

um yeah ok.

See these chump chimps don't get it.

we as a species need to stop buying.

all commercials and advertising should be banned.

we will learn to stop buying...it will happen...a la peak energy

the only question is how much pain we can stand before getting there.

monkey talk like this suggest to me...there will be a lot of pain...a lot.

Roccman said...

And for all the polish jokes you have ever let fly from your face...

"By Jan Cienski in Warsaw
Published: November 30 2008 23:34 | Last updated: November 30 2008 23:34

Poland has no intention of trying to spend its way out of the looming economic slowdown, Donald Tusk, the prime minister has said. The comments align his country with Germany rather than the US and the UK as international divisions grow over how to handle the recession.

“When I talk to European politicians who boldly tell me how much money they are going to pump into the economy, I pose the question, ‘Where do you have the money for that?’,” Mr Tusk told the Financial Times.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/53bb2ac6-bf1b-11....
"


They get it.

Not Mr. Chimp Chump Monkey Senator Guy.

Anonymous said...

So what happens to a country that doesn't even collect the money to pay interest on its debt? Do they borrow to pay it? Who would lend to them in such conditions? And more importantly, in the prospect we actually could do such a thing, what happens to the economy when we start collecting taxes again?

Anonymous said...

What a horrible idea.

Captain Anarchy said...

I'm against this, or any other plan that doesn't get me a pony, too.

blogger said...

Peter - I added unicorns, since everyone loves unicorns.

If we're going to blow through another $10 trillion of your children's money, then unicorns should be on the agenda.

Anonymous said...

Listen folks, America has the capital to do whatever the heck it wants. America has a vast amount of credit since foreigners are so damn stupid and continue to lend us money. America has already blown 7.9 trillion dollars, they will blow another 10 trillion dollars. Then we will simply default on our debt and argue with our creditors that "we are too big to fail" and they will end up writing down their debt to us. That is the only way out of this mess. The debt that we hold right now can't be paid back let alone the additional debt we are taking up.

I just don't know why foreigners are so damn stupid! Why do they continue to lend us money instead of using it in their own countries? Don't they realize that America will default on her obligations?

Anonymous said...

There's an article over at wsj today about how a bunch of tools expect RE to bounch back in 6 months.

Unicorns and Rainbows? You betcha!

Anonymous said...

So we're going to change the government financing system from an Interest Only ARM to F*ck It I'm staying till the Sheriff kicks me out?
That would be very Uuhmerican of us.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to Nellyville:

Welcome to Nellyville, where all newborns get a half-a-mill'

Sons, get Sedan DeVilles, soon as they can reach the wheel

And daughters, get diamonds the size of their age - help me out now

One year get one carat, two years get two carats

Three years get three carats, and so on into marriage

Nobody livin average, everybody jang-a-lang

Nobody livin savage, e'rybody got change

Even the paperboy deliver out the back of a Range

It's not a game, it's a beautiful thang



The dumbing down of America is complete.

Now go back to your regularly scheduled TV diet of The Girl Next Door, Snoop Dogg's Father Hood, Wife Swap and Huckabee.

Anonymous said...

You could not make this stuff up !!
I go from angry to laughing to sorrow to fearful back to laughing all in a couple of minutes , and i am more or less prepared for the outcome of this train wreck.
But what the hell , i also would rather have a pony than a unicorn..

Anonymous said...

Proof positive the sanity train has left the station. Our problems revolve around the fact that on average, Americans have been spending about $1.06 for every $1 they earn from productive labor. We've been on this foolish spending spree for a long time.

The Congress Fairy can't fix it with pixie dust.

satan said...

I've taken craps bigger than that.

Mammoth said...

Jane Z said:
"I am slowly moving from...to the ‘damn we better get our shit together stage.’"
------------
Thanks to this and other blogs, including Roccman’s, I have also entered this stage. Got ~5 acres, barn, vegetable carden & fruit trees, G & G, food stashed away.

Honing those farming, carpentry, and other self-sufficiency skills.

Coming soon: Livestock, solar panels & water-wheel electric generator (‘micro-hydro’).

How much time do we have before it all falls apart? Is there still time for one to become completely prepared?

-Mammoth

Anonymous said...

Pave the streets with flat screen TVs!!!!

Then you could show PICTURES of gold paving stones, or whatever else you want. When some major ego wants to walk down the street, they could switch to a water image, so it seems like they are walking on water. The rich could have $100 bills blowing around under their feet like fall foliage. Republicans could walk on thousands of faces of poor/ethnic people. Etc.

The possibilities are endless.

Mammoth said...

"It would also come in handy to start printing $1000 and $10,000 dollar bills again."
---------
A wheelbarrow may also soon come in handy...

Anonymous said...

.



Wow, of all my favorite Senators;

Good grief, what are you in 5th grade?

Favorite Senators???

Do you also Buy and Swap Senator trading cards with your friends?

.

Scott said...

So what happens to a country that doesn't even collect the money to pay interest on its debt? Do they borrow to pay it?

It's called a "negative amortization loan"--(google it.) The shortfall in paying down the interest is added to the principle balance of the mortgag--er, treasury debt.

We can have Fannie and Freddie administer it for us. Maybe we can sell the debt to other countries as an investment!

It worked really well for some homedebtors--at least for a while!

Extra bonus--it would make for lots more great Peter Schiff clips on TV.

Anonymous said...

Senator Trading Cards!

Great Idea

On the back are the stats,

How long in office,

What state they represent,

How much they have embezzled,

How many bribes accepted,

How many indictments,

How many convictions,

How many women he's cheated on his wife with!

This is a great idea!!!!!


.

Anonymous said...

I just don't know why foreigners are so damn stupid! Why do they continue to lend us money instead of using it in their own countries? Don't they realize that America will default on her obligations?

Are you serious you don't know why? Very obvious. We would either invade their country with our military, and/or destroy their economy with our ability to freeze assets, cause a currency flood, etc, etc.

How is every country convinced we will do this? Because WE'VE DONE THIS MANY TIMES, WHENEVER WE WANTED TO. We invaded Iraq mainly because they said they would go off the dollar peg.

What's really cool is, China is nearly ready to do this to us--all it needs is four things:
1. a bigger military. (They are rapidly building a nuclear navy and catching us on space technology.)
2. More robust domestic consumption. This is also imminent.
3. A longer list of countries to export to, to replace the U.S. when we're "gone" as consumers. They're making great inroads in various places, and are passing us as exporters to African countries.
4. A U.S. recession long/deep enough to allow them to dismiss us as an unneeded consumer base. We're there this year probably.

Watch for a dollar-deluge from China within the next two years--and once it starts (from any country, actually, doesn't have to be China) NO country awash in U.S. dollars will want to be the last holder of them. Get the picture?

I voted for Barry, but I gotta say I doubt he will be willing to lie to get us into an immoral, counterproductive war just because it's the only way to save our wealth--that's the purview of the Repubs.

Anonymous said...

My German grandparents lived during the great inflation of the Weimar Republic. Sensing that times were getting iffy, my grandfather sold his cabinet shop and planned to emigrate the family to Brazil.

When the sale of his shop closed he ended up with a suitcase full of Reichmarks and they started planning for the big move. Only a month later the money had lost so much value their plans to leave Germany were impossible.

Moral of the story: if you plan to exit this madhouse with anything besides the clothes on your back, don't wait, do it now.

Anonymous said...

So let me get this straight, we'll get out of debt by not collecting taxes for a year.
-------------------------------

yep. and how will that work you ask?

we will make it up via increased revenue in future years! let our children pay for it!

Anonymous said...

seems like he does make a point. is it better to give the corporations hundreds of billions or would it be better to give it to the tax payers if you could force the tax payers to pay down debt? it would trickle up to the financial sector and the individuals would benefit from reducing their debt.

Anonymous said...

Senator Trading Cards!

Great Idea

On the back are the stats,

How long in office,
------------------------------

right or left "handed" or a "switch" hitter....

Anonymous said...

"Moral of the story: if you plan to exit this madhouse with anything besides the clothes on your back, don't wait, do it now."

Isn't the moral: buy and put yourself in debt?

Anonymous said...

Hey Mammoth, how about a new windturbine, a front porch, and maybe a vacation home?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just don't know why foreigners are so damn stupid! Why do they continue to lend us money instead of using it in their own countries? Don't they realize that America will default on her obligations?

Are you serious you don't know why? Very obvious. We would either invade their country with our military, and/or destroy their economy with our ability to freeze assets, cause a currency flood, etc, etc.

How is every country convinced we will do this? Because WE'VE DONE THIS MANY TIMES, WHENEVER WE WANTED TO. We invaded Iraq mainly because they said they would go off the dollar peg.

What's really cool is, China is nearly ready to do this to us--all it needs is four things:
1. a bigger military. (They are rapidly building a nuclear navy and catching us on space technology.)
2. More robust domestic consumption. This is also imminent.
3. A longer list of countries to export to, to replace the U.S. when we're "gone" as consumers. They're making great inroads in various places, and are passing us as exporters to African countries.
4. A U.S. recession long/deep enough to allow them to dismiss us as an unneeded consumer base. We're there this year probably.

Watch for a dollar-deluge from China within the next two years--and once it starts (from any country, actually, doesn't have to be China) NO country awash in U.S. dollars will want to be the last holder of them. Get the picture?

I voted for Barry, but I gotta say I doubt he will be willing to lie to get us into an immoral, counterproductive war just because it's the only way to save our wealth--that's the purview of the Repubs.

December 2, 2008 4:56 PM


No one is being forced to buy U.S. Treasuries. But these dopes continue to do so anyways. I just don't get it. The only way America lives below their means is if interest rates skyrocket and then and only then will this nation live below its' means.

I think foreigners are just throwing good money after bad. They, (China and Japan) are so damn stoooooooooopiiiiidddd. They save, save and save. For what? So Americans can live life up and not even pay it back! Mark my words, America will default on her debt and these suckers will be left holding the bag. What a bunch of idiots!

ApleAnee said...

Mammoth said...

Coming soon: Livestock, solar panels & water-wheel electric generator (‘micro-hydro’).

How much time do we have before it all falls apart? Is there still time for one to become completely prepared?

I am thinking that the real preparation is mental and the flexibility to learn and do things that we would not normally have done or thought about? The rules are changing fast. I am going to go to the nursery down the street in February and help with the tomato starts and the early plantings. Is nice to be in the hot houses during the winter.

The husband is just finishing up with his Piper Pacer. He has rebuilt it from scratch. It is amazing. Looks brand new and it is paid for. We are thinking that this little airplane might be useful in another couple of years. Great outback plane. Maybe we could transport your world famous organic veggies for you. :-) His Dad had a Super Cub after WW2 and he sold John Deere tractors from his airplane. He would land in the field, take the kids for an airplane ride and then sell Dad a tractor. Clever as hell that strategy.

We sit and try and figure out where this thing is going and it is mind boggling. We have pretty well figured out that there won't be a leisurely retirement at the beach in the future. I am going to read Kunstler's World Made by Hand. I read the Long Emergency years ago and couldn't believe it. I am a believer now.

You are sitting perfect for whatever comes. You have been a step ahead of the game ever since I have been reading here.

Water wheel is way cool.

Anonymous said...

"America will default on her debt and these suckers will be left holding the bag. What a bunch of idiots!"

There really isn't any other possible outcome since there's no way we will be able to pay the money back, just like the strawberry picker that got a $700K loan.
The US is the world's largest sub-prime borrower. A borrower with a printing press.

Anonymous said...

Someone answer this for me: why don't the Chinese just start buying stuff from us with those dollars instead of Treasuries? I know we don't make a lot anymore, but cripes, they could buy stuff from Boeing or Caterpillar at least. Or buy up the few good corporations we have left. Or buy up farmland or forests. Or send a few million people to Disneyworld. Something. Anything.

What's the point of sitting on a mountain of dollars, which are guaranteed to be worthless before long?

Anonymous said...

Headline:

"Fed Extends Three Emergency Loan Programs Until April 30 to Unlock Credit"

Fewwwwww! Good. I'm glad to see the good people at the Fed working so hard to keep interest rates so low. Brave people.

Hey everybody, I think there's something you should know. These emergency programs are really permanent. So go out and buy a home.

Mammoth said...

"Someone answer this for me: why don't the Chinese just start buying stuff from us with those dollars instead of Treasuries?"
------------
Didn't China just recently announce their intention to vastly increase their Gold holdings?
=====================
Another topic, along the lines of my earlier post: Anyone here who hasn't read Kunstler's book, "The Long Emergency" is missing out on what's REALLY going on.

Kunstler seems to have a pretty firm, no-BS perspective of what lies ahead for this country; for the world. Can anybody here who has read this book make an arguement against what he is saying?

-Mammoth

Anonymous said...

was it Hamiliton or Burr who said the treasury should default on its debts. did the bullet finaly do him in? as secetary of the treasury?

Anonymous said...

and the balls of that strawberry picker that sold that 700,000 for 1.4 million or more than any job he might have moved up to would pay were........

Anonymous said...

HI TOOLS,

IS HE FOR REAL?!?!?!?!

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, MY WIFE AND I PAID $36,029 IN FEDERAL INCOME TAXES FOR 2007!!!! DO I CARE?!?!?!? NO!!!!!!!!!!!! I DO CARE ABOUT WHERE AND HOW IT IS SPENT!!!!!!!!!!

HOW ABOUT CUT FEDERAL SPENDING!?!?!?!

WHY ARE WE PAYING INTEREST TO THE FUCKIN FED!?!?!?!?

WE SHOULD PRINT OUR OWN DAMN MONEY!!!!

HOW ABOUT PAYING DOWN THE MOTHER FUCK!NG DEBT!?!?!?!?

HOW ABOUT LETTING THESE STINKING, FILTHY, PIECE OF SH!T CROOKS IN CORPORATE AMERICA PAY UP AND/OR FAIL AND BE OUT OF WORK FOR THEIR FU*K UPS!!!!!!!?!?!?!

DAMN I AM SO FRIGGEN PISSED!!!!!!!!!

I'M OUT!!!

DOPES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Jane Z:
I just read World Made by Hand.
Kunstler is a remarkable writer. You won't have to imagine what things will be like when this thing is done and we have to start over. It's chilling (but not hopeless). Great read.

Mammoth:
Got Chickens/chicken coop?

ApleAnee said...

Anonymous said...

Someone answer this for me: why don't the Chinese just start buying stuff from us with those dollars instead of Treasuries?

Yea, like baby formula?

FlyingMonkeyWarrior said...

WHY ARE WE PAYING INTEREST TO THE FUCKIN FED!?!?!?!?
That is a really good question.

Hi Roccman and Mammoth.

Paul E. Math said...

Beyond the obvious reasons this is a bad idea: this is highly regressive tax policy.

Rich people pay a higher proportion of their income in taxes. Because we were once enlightened and realized that, even after paying that higher percentage, rich people still have more money than the rest of us.

Cancelling income tax is the same as providing a tax rebate equal to the amount of income tax you pay. So the more money you have (ie: pay more income tax) the more you benefit from this proposed policy.

Also, raising the number of dollars will just raise the price of everything - the rich will not only have more dollars under this policy but will be that much richer because they own all the stuff which will have increased in price.

Anonymous said...

We have the WATER. And you sunbelt/scumbelt tards ain't touching a drop. Kunstler is right, have fun in AZ, FL, etc...

Captain Anarchy said...

But I wanted a unicorn AND a pony! My golden parachute says I get one. It's right there in the contract...

Captain Anarchy said...

"Do you also Buy and Swap Senator trading cards with your friends?"

I don't know if he does. But I buy and swap Senator-Backed Securities. I'm hoping to eventually create a bribery derivatives market.

Captain Anarchy said...

"I think foreigners are just throwing good money after bad. They, (China and Japan) are so damn stoooooooooopiiiiidddd."

Just in the past three months I've been trying out a thought exercise. You may find it useful.

I've been trying not to look at anything and think "oh, that's stupid". Even things that do look pretty stupid.

There are several motivations for this. The first is that recently I had many chances to interact with a person who was fresh out of college and who said that about things all the time. And that person was making a fool of theirself. Because they were commenting on things that anyone who has actually worked in the field knows are done that way for very specific but unintuitive reasons. I found myself playing devil's advocate for things I don't agree with just to try to get some nuance into this persons' head.

I realized I do this a lot myself (less and less as I get older I hope). But beyond the face-saving measures, there's the fact that reality is wicked complicated and it's very difficult to know all the factors involved.

Saying things are stupid also tends to act as a thought-terminating cliche. Even when things appear stupid, there are often things to be learned from them. If a person makes a stupid decision, there's often a reason they chose that way. And understanding those other factors that the person used can be very valuable.

It can be especially valuable when making predictions about economic issues. A lot of the hedge fund selling could be seen as stupid if one didn't understand the kinds of leverage pressures they'd gotten themselves into. Very often, stupid things are stupid for a reason - just not necessarily a good reason.

I'm not by any means an expert, but as to China I can put forth a few unfounded speculations to demonstrate examples of why they have done things that may appear stupid to us (and which, in truth may actually be stupid).

#1 - They've been outmaneuvered by Washington and Europe. Either outsmarted or outhegemonized.

#2 - The individuals and committees making the decisions are making decisions that meet "local" goals (like fighting over influence within the country at the expense of the country's overall influence) and which are quite smart when viewed from that perspective.

#3 - They're playing out (more) rope for us to hang ourselves with.

#4 - When they look around at who would end up more powerful as a result of the US falling they decide "better the devil that you know".

#5 - They would rather take an economic hit than have global instability which could result in internal stability. (I like this one - China is extremely conservative and risk-adverse in its own way. Has been for the majority of the past 4,000 years)

#6 - They have other priorities which don't even connect with the way we're thinking about the question. Example - What if China doesn't care about its dollar reserves? What if keeping the exchange rate low and buying oil are the only uses they have for dollars and consider it to be toilet paper outside those two concerns? While we've been blowing bubbles, they've used the economic arrangements of the past two decades to build up their industries develop their internal markets and develop the kind of real wealth that Art Laffer scoffed at. Why worry about losing the first stage rocket booster if it was always meant to be expendable anyway?

At the international level, there's seldom only one reason for anything. Cause and effect can be fairly confusing. I wouldn't be surprised if reality was some combination of the above factors, factors about which I am completely clueless, emotion/rivalry, and covert intelligence type stuff (blackmail, industrial espionage, financial sabotage, etc).

Hope that's useful.

top-dead-center said...

A wheelbarrow? How much digital cash will an ordinary garden wheelbarrow hold?

No more pony! I want a big flat screen tv and a unicorn! And an Oompa-Loompa!

Buy gold online - quickly, safely and at low prices