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Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme Chants the "Better Way" Mob

Posted: 22 May 2011 10:05 AM PDT

I have devoted a fair amount of coverage recently to protests in Spain, Italy and other places. The US has seen massive protests in Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, and now Oregon.

The protests in the US and Europe have a common theme "gimme gimme gimme".

Everyone wants something, and they want to take it from someone else to get it. In the US, the SEIU is right at the top of the list in wanting to pick the pockets of everyone else for their own self-serving benefit.

Misguided SEIU Oregon Protest

Please consider Thousands storm Oregon's capitol steps rallying for "a better way"

Taking to the steps of the state capitol in Salem on Friday, thousands of state workers, union members and advocacy groups rallying for alternatives to budget cuts, wage freezes and furlough days in Oregon.

At least 36 busses carried people in to Salem from communities across all corners of Oregon. Many rally members say they're tired of making concessions while corporation and wealthy Oregonians "aren't paying their fair share."

Most of the participants in Friday's rally were state workers on an unpaid furlough day, one of 10 the state is forcing employees to take this year to help balance the budget.

SEIU Mob in Oregon

Untenable Wages and Benefits

Public union members want to preserve the status quo, just as they do in Greece and Spain.

Well the status quo is broken, and proof is easy to find: Public union wages and benefits have bankrupted many cities and states. The way to fix the problem is to get rid of public unions not increase their power.

Protesting the Wrong Thing

Please consider this email I just received from "LT"

Mish,

The biggest problem I have with the protests in Europe is that they seem to be protesting the wrong things.

In Greece, for example, the nation has been floating on an unsustainable tide of government spending for public- and quasi-public-sector jobs and pensions, and also for entitlements. A huge segment of the Greek population gets some or all of its money from the various layers of government.

It seems to me that much the protesting is against the prospective loss of the national free lunch, because the Greek public knows their artificially-supported lifestyles will disappear down the drain and Greece will be back to being the third-world country is was 30 or 40 years ago.

That is why the Greeks are protesting against austerity measures. They should be protesting against bailouts and state guarantees of debt that will saddle them and their children with a lifelong bill, but for now it just seems like a standard leftist rant in favor of socialism and statism.

The PIIGS should default on their unsupportable debts AND cut back their wild spending to get back on solid ground financially, but the protesters seem to have little appetite for the second part of that equation.

Cheers,

LT

Austerity Measures Needed

LT has the right idea, not just about Europe, but about misguided protests in the US as well. Austerity measures are needed, but the bailouts of banks at taxpayer expense are not.

The SEIU and their Greek counterparts want no part of the pain. Unfortunately untenable wages and benefits helped wrecked Greece and they have bankrupted many cities and states in the US.

So, yes there is a "better way". The "better way" is to stop the bailouts of banks and stop handouts to unions as well.

The Better Way

Implement Rand Paul's national Right-to-Work proposal
Scrap Davis-Bacon and all prevailing wage laws
Get rid of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD, and the FHA
Stop the bailouts of banks at the expense of taxpayers
Implement Paul Ryan's Voucher Proposal for Medicare (see Who's Right on Medicare Reform, Ryan and Rivlin or Obama and Gingrich? for details.)
Reduce military spending substantially
Stop attempting to be the world's policeman
Kill the student loan "debt-slave" program
Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment
Audit the Fed then end the Fed

That is the better way. It will be difficult to pass those measure because each proposal has a mob of naysayers and constituents all clamoring "gimme gimme gimme".

We need a leader willing to spell out the serious situation the nation faces, what must be done about it, and the sacrifices that must be made for the nation to get out of its hole.

President Obama is clearly not that leader. Indeed he fails on every point.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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Conspiracy Garbage on Zero Hedge

Posted: 22 May 2011 01:08 AM PDT

Day in and day out there are a number of excellent articles on the site Zero Hedge. Moreover there are a number of authors on the Zero Hedge site that consistently write excellent article after excellent article.

I will even volunteer a name in that latter category. Bruce Krasting writes consistently good articles. Krasting is one of the reasons I read Zero Hedge.

However, I am sick of people who take every idea and make a conspiracy out of it. Enough is enough.

I draw the line with this inane defense of Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Was Dominique Strauss-Kahn Trying to Torpedo the Dollar?

I will not excerpt the article so as to introduce cherry pick bias.

Instead I suggest the number of people that have stepped forward speaks for itself. This is not a case where the accused is accused out of the blue by a single person. This is a case where there is a massive amount of pre-existing information.

Moreover, and more to the point I agree with Mike Whitney, the author of that piece of nonsense, that Dominique Strauss-Kahn deserves a fair trial.

Everyone deserves a fair trial. However, "fair trial" does not mean trumping up sheer idiocy and conspiracy nonsense in his defense.

Moreover, as long as we are discussing "fair trial" I would like to point out one simple fact. It is a crime to make false accusations. To presume the innocence of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, presumes his accuser is guilty of a crime.

Perhaps she is. Perhaps not. However, no one needs to grasp at straws in defense of DSK as Mike Whitney did.

This is one of the problems of aggregation sites. There is not a consistent point of view. One day one author says stock market will rise, the next day another author says the stock market will fall.

We are supposed to believe both?

Zero Hedge consistently trumps up the idea "you heard it here first". Given that various authors on the Zero Hedge site express wildly contradictory opinions, the idea "you heard it here first" is undoubtedly true by definition.

If you want to be an aggregator, then be one. But don't express an aggregation as a "call".

Worse yet, every extreme point of view from hyperinflation to deflation, from attacking DSK to Defending him is all portrayed on Zero Hedge with the same "it's going to happen" mentality.

Here's the deal: If you throw up enough conspiracy garbage, some of it bound to happen, no matter how ridiculous it is.

DSK may be found "not guilty" but let's stop the nonsense that DSK was setup because he was trying to "Torpedo the Dollar".

Not everything is a conspiracy, and right at the top of the list is Whitney's "Torpedo the Dollar" theory. In fact, given the Fed clearly wants a lower US dollar, the idea that the US would setup someone in the opposite direction is blatantly preposterous.

Aggregation sites that accept every piece of complete silliness offered, are subject to this kind of scathing attack.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List