More symptoms - - -

- - - of unsound money:

Our parents were "The Greatest Generation," and they earned that title by making enormous sacrifices and investments to build us a world of abundance. My generation, "The Baby Boomers," turned out to be what the writer Kurt Andersen called "The Grasshopper Generation." We've eaten through all that abundance like hungry locusts. --Op-Ed Columnist Thomas L. Friedman, Root Canal Politics - NYTimes.com

These are just two more symptoms of unsound money. The boomers - - - and everyone in line behind us - - - are just following the incentives implicit in fiat (paper/electronic) money: Because of chronic yearly inflation caused by central bankers and politicians, this kind of "cash is trash" and thus saving is stupid. Our parents on the other hand, behaved in accordance with the incentives implicit in real Constitutional "hard" money (gold and silver) -- which can't be inflated.

Right between the eyes -- free vs. regulated

Email To CNBC sent May 12, 2010:
==========
I heard two sound-bytes on your air that struck me "right between the eyes" -- in the frontal lobes.

1. In the [2008] financial crisis, it was the regulated entities, not the shadow entities that blew up. --James S. Chanos (Kynikos), May 6, 2010, 07:53:49.

2. Only about 35% of stock market trades are done on the "official" markets -- the rest are done on markets you never even heard of. --Yesterday [May 11, 2010] about 2:49PM

Can you maybe do a segment on the implications, which seem to be:

"We need to do away with the current financial establishment in favor of  unregulated true free-markets."

Or perhaps,

"We're doing away with regulated markets whether we know it or not -- and unregulated works better."

Or did I miss something??

Health, happiness, & long life,
Rick

P.S. Baring the special segment, how about a personal note from Kudlow -- or Michelle Caruso-Cabrera?

Who luvs ya babe? Episode 3

HINT: NOT politicians. In this case, not Brit politicians

...a more fundamental point is this: all these three [British political] parties agree with each other on the economic measures that have to be taken, i.e., massive cuts in social welfare public spending, which will hurt the poor, and to support the banking system and the financial system in this country. ...All three political parties are agreed that the war in Afghanistan has to continue as long as the United States says it has to ... So I'm just bemused when I hear talks of a progressive coalition. What is going to be progressive about it? All three parties are going to do more or less the same thing, which is attack the poor. --Tariq Ali on Britain's Political Deadlock, Gordon Brown's Resignation and Pakistan's Role in the Times Square Bombing Attempt

Out of Greece: The dynamics of contagion

"As I testified before this committee in the midst of the Mexican financial crisis in early 1995, major advances in technology have engendered a highly efficient and increasingly sophisticated international financial system. ...But that same efficient financial system, as I also pointed out in that earlier testimony, has the capability to rapidly transmit the consequences of errors of judgement in private investments and public policies to all corners of the world at historically unprecedented speeds." -Alan Greenspan to House Banking Committee, 16 September, 1998.  --BIG-FLOAT: The American Damocles