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"Never again should taxpayers be asked to bail out a failing financial firm.  It's time that the big players understand that they sink or swim on their own." Sheila Bair, FDIC September 2, 2010       Remember 2007?  Panic was beginning to set in and Congress, rattled - as always, raised the public debt ceiling on September 28th to a staggering $9.81 trillion!!      Congress blew through the new borrowing level in nothing flat.  By July 30, '08, it was necessary to raise the debt ceiling to $10.6 trillion.       That wasn't nearly enough.  Congress has raised the debt ceiling FOUR TIMES since then!  It's now $14.3 trillion.  And what's the actual public debt right now? $13,449,652,537,035.05    Your U.S. Congress has raised the debt ceiling 73 times since 1940.  Maybe we need put the brakes on the runaway spending spree and vote for a different breed of politician.            Surprise, surprise!  The brilliant Stephen Hawking has changed his mind and has decided God didn't do it.  The universe owes its existence to natural law and not a conscious supernatural mind.     Hawking's new book on the subject is coming out next week and will surely set tongues a-wagging.  In The Grand Design, Professor Hawking argues that the Big Bang, rather than occurring following the intervention of a divine being, was inevitable due to the law of gravity.  Physics Created the Universe    Isaac Newton believed the universe could not have been created out of chaos, but Professor Hawking says "Yes, it was."  We believe the average mind will not be drawn into the argument, preferring, instead, the rich and often licentious debate to be found in politics. ("Did the candidate sleep around'?")   Why does the U.S. President constantly bash the rich?      "Barack Obama was raised by people who absolutely hated the American economic system. That would include his mother and another constant presence in his childhood, one Frank Marshall Davis; who just happened to be, by the way, a Communist dedicated to the destruction of capitalism in America. Obama, then, grew into an adult with disdain for capitalism and a hatred of the wealth inequality which results from different people with different abilities and ambitions working in a system of economic liberty. Obama is dedicated to eliminating as much as this wealth disparity as he can ... and he doesn't want to do it by enabling the poor and middle class. His preferred method is to attack the high producers and seize their wealth which he will then distribute to those he views more favorably."   ~Neal Boortz <  If someone becomes rich by stealing from others we have no use for him.  If a person becomes rich by hard work providing a product or service the masses want, then more power to him. (Or her.)        The liberal take on this subject is that almost anyone who has piled up a lot of money doesn't deserve to keep it.  Much of it must be taken away and given to the "less fortunate."        But consider the multi-millionaire with the big yacht.  Think of the JOBS he provides the boat-maker, the outfitters, the working crew, the owners of the dock where it's berthed, the workers at the boatyard where it's hauled for repairs.  The firms that sell him the provisions for his yacht, and the fuel providers, engine maintenance people, and many more earn a living from his yacht.  Why take those jobs away?             "The vision of getting something for nothing, or getting something that someone else has to pay for, explains why so many Americans are duped by politicians." ~Dr. Walter Williams       This brings us back to Professor Franz Oppenheimer who neatly explained in his early 20th century book Der Staat that there are only two ways to exist - either by working to supply one's shelter, raiment, and food....OR, live out of the pockets of people who do.   Why Shouldn't the Ft. Knox Gold Hoard Be Audited?           The little guy from Texas who understands the money problem better than most of his peers in Congress, may call for a peek into Fort Knox.  “If we ever get around to deciding we should use gold in relationship to our currency we ought to know how much is there,” said Rep. Ron Paul. “Our Federal Reserve admits to nothing and they should prove all the gold is there. There is a reason to be suspicious and even if you are not suspicious why wouldn’t you have an audit?”     The Treasury Department says the gold (147.3 million ounces) is there, although it hasn't officially been looked at since the Eisenhower administration.  What harm can be done by officially confirming the Treasury's report?  It would ease people's minds, eliminate all the rumors of thievery, and justify the running expense of protecting the vault with 'round the clock military guards, tanks, and helicopters.      We should also force the Federal Reserve to allow inspection of its gold hoard in New York. If some wheeling and dealing has caused ownership of U.S. gold to flow into other hands, the people deserve to know it.   The Fed, after all, is a creation of Congress and Congress still holds the power to eliminate the bank.     The people own Fort Knox.  Congress is the official representative body of the people.  If the people want to know if 147.3 million ounces of their gold is in place  there's no reason to drag out the question.   Congress merely has to appoint some inspectors and tell them to take a look.  Stalling only raises more questions.   "We must get the economy back to normal."     "Normal?" A Financial Times article reasonably points out that things should not go back to normal because they weren't normal before the crisis. Crises are caused by abnormal conditions - usually too much credit, too much debt, too much spending and too much speculating. Then, when the bubble blows up, it typically takes a long time for the economy to get back on its feet.     When will the talking heads on TV notice this fact?      Economist Paul Krugman says Tea Party supporters are well-to-do and rich folks hate liberals....President Obama in particular.  "Tea Partiers are relatively affluent, and nobody is angrier these days than the very, very rich. Wall Street has turned on Mr. Obama with a vengeance: last month Steve Schwarzman, the billionaire chairman of the Blackstone Group, the private equity giant, compared proposals to end tax loopholes for hedge fund managers with the Nazi invasion of Poland." Witch Hunts      Krugman is from the old Keynesian school of economics through and through.  He is angry because the White House, the Treasury, and the Federal Reserve are not dumping money in an even greater flood into the economy to "make it revive."  He's even more angry at people who dare complain about ballooning government debt, ballooning taxes, and the other economic woes that are biting harder than ever.        Professor Krugman could not be more wrong in his belief that the failed economic prescription of John Maynard Keynes is going to work.