The unthinking writer

June 1-3, inclusive has been  too pleasant to spoil with vile thoughts brought on by examining the fools who would rule us. Thus I leave it  to you good folks to keep your boots on the necks of our political masters. Do it . After all, it is for the children.

43.31 N by 95.18 E, has been rain-free most of the week, and Camp J at last bears a springtime shine, thanks in part to the lucky find of another John Deere 318 which reduces mowing time to a couple of hours while leaving the other one outfitted with its dozer blade for pushing things around.  A hideous corner of  the place is being tidied.

And the main F150 is again seaworthy at smaller expense than I feared, meaning I can park the small emergency backup F150.  And New Dog Libby hasn't escaped to the swamp for a full 24 hours. So this morning I am with Sidney Harris: "When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"

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Back to beautiful basics

Sometimes I get tired trying to make sense of the  government loonies. So back to basics, to the TMR I intended -- libertarian thought as revealed to the perceptive mind through exploring guns, dogs, and women who manage allure even with privacies decently covered.

Lessee, there are bad girls...




Cute Luddite  girls...



And girls with dogs and guns.

Be still my beating heart.

Do you believe? Really believe?

It isn't this morning's ADP report holding that the recovery is a politcally inspired myth.  Every hour brings reams of such excited reports about whether we were up or down last month or last quarter. Or, Hell,  in the time elapsed since you wiped and stepped into your shower this morning.

In and of themselves they serve mostly as marketing bullshit designed earn broker commissions by persuading the gullible to get into or out of one stock, bond, option or another -- what ever the brokers behind the reports are pushing.  "Quick, Widget is up and the Zloty is down. Time to make a move, Bunkie."

But taken over a long time, they get amalgamated into a database which can be sensibly interpreted. As  Michale Penta does in explaining his view  there is almost certainly a QE3 in our futures.  QE3?  It's the third round of "Quantitative Expansion," weasel words for massive money printing.

Penta dissects the Federal Reserve promise to defend the dollar by beginning to soak up a tiny bit of the extra funny money it created and distributed during QE1, QE2, and the earlier bailouts and giveaways to the too-biggies-to-failies.

To do that, the Fed must sell something. Trouble is, it has nothing much  to sell. It is leveraged about 50 to 1, meaning it already owes $50 for every $1 it possesses.




Through quantitative easing efforts alone, Ben Bernanke has added $1.8 trillion of longer term GSE debt and Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). (In fact, the Fed now holds more of these mortgage instruments than their entire balance sheet before the crash.) 


Conceptually, it is no different from cleaning out your kitchen miscellaneous junk drawer and hoping the contents will pawn for enough to pay off your Lexus. 


And yes, the Fed does in fact count as an asset the mortgage your idiot brother-in-law left behind when he finally found a stripper desperate enough to run off to Mexico with him.


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So what?


So it explains why the dollar bill which a few years ago would buy a pound of nice bacon will now buy three thin slices of nitrated pig fat with a thin red line inked on. (Buy bacon today; tomorrow it will be two slices.)

For those of you with little confidence in the coming QE3

Ever since I decided to begin accumulating ammunition as a minor protection against currency devaluation, I've had a weird ambition.

I would create an alternate form of money based on the .22 long rifle 36-grain hollow point, still  available at WalMart for  .0389 cent per round. I would repackage them in five- and  ten -round lots and offer them as a Liberty Quarter and a Liberty Half. (Or I might  immodestly deem them TMR coins. That would, as a matter of euphony, make them "Teemers" in the vernacular or better yet -- as a tribute  to the sane side of the Tea Party -- "Teamers." The Teamer Two (bits) and the Teamer four (bits). Perhaps eventually a Teamer Buck and Teamer Fin would evolve. Yes,Teamers.)

The only thing which has stopped a tiny experiment in the business model is my inability to find clear and cheap-enough plastic packages to contain the cartridges in a rattle-free manner. In truth, I haven't looked all that hard, but the incessant reports of plummeting  paper money might move me to intensify the search.

The Teamers would be everything Ben money is not. They have inherent utility; you can always shoot them.  They are backed by -- in fact made of -- commodities which will always be in demand. They and their value are instantly recognizable.  There is no chance of profitable counterfeiting. Even Bernanke would have a hard time  taking over and accelerating the machinery needed to produce ammunition. (Besides, Senator Schumer wouldn't approve.)

I would try the Teamers first in their natural habitats, gun shows and gun shops. I see a four-ounce can of gun oil I want and  offer two Teamer Fours, maybe plus a loose round or two for lagniappe or to cover the sales tax.

Yes, bulk is a problem, but, then, wheelbarrows were a popular item in Weimarville. It can be worked out at least until the Teamer catches on to the point of huge transactions being denominated in the stable new money.  This is actually an opportunity. A fresh market could then be developed in warehouse receipts for Teamers. From that could come Teamer futures markets, then options and other derivatives on Teamer futures. Then a Federal Reserve Note promising to pay to the bearer on demand one or more Teamers.

This is getting exciting. Why, by the time of the second Chelsea Clinton Administration the concept could expand to include other calibers. Imagine, credit default swaps and arbing momentary price inefficiencies between, say, the .22 long rifle and .380 ACP full metal jacket.