Those who spend much time around me know that I have a deep interest in matters economic and financial. In fact, I know enough economics to truly understand why it is known as "the dismal science". Nevertheless...

This presentation is well worth your time. Since we are in an election year, we'll have the candidates and the talking heads in the media telling us what is going on. Do yourself a favor: instead of listening to them, (let alone believing them), educate yourself. This presentation tells exactly where we are financially, how we got there, and what will happen in the future without some significant changes.

I repeat - take the time to educate yourself. Don't depend on someone else to tell you.

This is hysterically funny if you take the point of view that our country is totally screwed - which I do. Not so funny if you harbor any hope of us getting out of this mess with our freedoms or our constitution intact.

A bill winding its way through the Congress, (the so-called Dodd-Shelby Bill, also known as HR3221), is supposed to help "troubled homeowners" keep their homes. The reality is that the bill will use $300 billion in taxpayer money to bail out banks that made stupid loans.

Oh, and the bill was basically written by Bank of America.
And BofA is trying to buy Countrywide, but doesn't want to be responsible for all the bad loans Countrywide wrote.
And Countrywide made an extra-special, super-duper home loan to a guy by the name of Christopher Dodd, who just happens to be the sponsor of the "Dodd-Shelby" bill.

Ain't that just a knee-slapper?

Here's the actual BofA presentation from March 11 of this year proposing what is now the Dodd-Shelby bill.

When the revolution comes, the first people up against the wall are going to be the bankers.

I've retired from the Boar's Head Tavern, (thanks for six great years, Michael), but I guess I still need a place to talk about what's on my mind. So R/A is back in business.

When my marriage broke up several years ago, Mary Gauthier's CD Mercy Now, served as the soundtrack for the dissolution of my life. I queued it up today for the first time in several years, and I must say it has aged very well. IN other words, I like it because it's good, not just because it made me feel good back then.

Arthur Robinson has written a terrific article on the politicization of science for Human Events. We are teetering on the edge of a return to the dark ages when the UN decides that scientific fact can be better determined by polling and politics than by the scientific method.

If you haven't discovered it yet, Gary North's website is well worth at least a weekly visit. He updates it daily, and I almost always find something worthwhile there.