2.28.2010

True Fiscal Insanity

Printing money to buy government debt.

Q. What do you get when you cross Hunter S. Thompson and Ron Paul?

A. The Mogambo Guru, who eviscerates the Dirty Fed with true Gonzo style.

4 comments:

Cut and Shoot said...

Speaking of Ron Paul I read today that 2 or 3 candidates announced that they'd challenge Paul for the November election. There is speculation that those challengers are trojan horses that aim to dilute the vote for Paul.

Jr Deputy Accountant said...

I'm pretty sure the Mogambo Guru banged my Mom in March of 1980 on a trip through Milwaukee and out I popped.

Just a theory. I don't look like my dad anyway :P

Anonymous said...

What I can't figure out is what the end-game is if during a severe recession, the US is reduced to buying its own debt.

I guess the bonus is that we get the interest payments off of it.

beebs
budding austrian economist

Anonymous said...

So, I don't know if you review all your comments or not but I wanted to put this out there in case you do since you put up a post about colleges. IMHO the story is about their tactics for gaining market share where "students" and those "wonderful student loan proceeds dollars" are concerned. IMHO, that's what it is - market share of a student loan pie. I couldn't find the actual thread you had started so I'm just throwing this up here in case you read this stuff.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/2010-05-06-drake06_ST_N.htm

There is a Frontline documentary called College, Inc. that lays things out pretty well. Take a struggling private college to the stock market with a few wealthy prominent names and recruit, recruit, recruit. Get them in, signed up, saddled in huge government backed debts, watch the stock go up up and away, and I suspect that many will cash in and ride off into the sunset with saddlebags bulging with dollars. The loan default rate is pretty high.

"President Obama's administration is proposing tougher regulation of for-profit colleges because of concern that recruiters are signing up unqualified students and leaving them with taxpayer-funded student loans they may be unable to repay"

I'm not really an O fan. Actually, I don't really give two shits about the Presidential races if the primaries show that my candidate of choice doesn't have a Chinaman's chance in hell of winning - I was a Ron Paul fan but when he didn't get any traction in the primaries, I could tell I was beating a dead horse. Anyhoo, in this circumstance I would say that OMGObama (I love that JDA phrase) has the right idea.

During the previous years, the department of ed couldn't give a rat's ass about student loan debt or even where the money was going to for that matter. If grant or student loan money was being used for throwing keg parties, road trips to the KC Power and Light District, float trips down the Meramec, etc. they really didn't care even though the loan agreements call for the proceeds to go toward education related expenses. There was a large scale dereliction of duty where that was concerned and there seemed to be little to no concern about the entire college system increasing their prices way beyond what normal inflation would dictate. Now the bill is going to be due.

Like I said not an O fan but the USA is the mob and to use a Winston Churchill quote "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." But, his administration is trying deal with this problem in some fashion (probably because they know that the jig is up but let's not quibble with motives :>)

Happy Super Tuesday!