California 'Current' Love: Qatar

“Of course Al didn’t show up,” said one high placed Current staffer. “He has no credibility.

“He’s supposed to be the face of clean energy and just sold [the channel] to very big oil, the emir of Qatar! Current never even took big oil advertising—and Al Gore, that bullshitter sells to the emir?”

Let me start out by saying I have never been a fan of the anonymous quote. Its shoddy and in my opinion; just simply not credible. Now with that said, I would think the quote above courtesy of the NY-Post is more of a punch line, more so than it is something to derive information from. Because I think its obvious the sentiment for Gore from employees at Current, just ask Eliot Spitzer if he digs the new format.

If I was to quote anyone, I would quote rapper Ice Cube, as I think it sums up the whole process here:

“Bend over, grab your ass, spread your cheeks and give me two big coughs”

No, I’m not just quoting Ice Cube’s ‘first day of school', I’m quoting Al Gore and the green police’s latest move, who tapped that green ass like a piggy bank; all the way from Cali’ to Qatar.

 

Yes indeed, the green movement got a little darker this last week (how about onyx black) with the sale of Current TV to Qatar funded Al-Jazeera. Yes, THAT Al-Jazeera. It was reported that Glenn Beck was interested into buying Current TV but was rebuked because he was too “right”. Alana Goodman (commentarymagazine.com) said it best about dismissing Beck for Qatar:

“But an authoritarian-Islamist government that has criminalized homosexuality, discriminates against non-Muslims, prosecutes journalists, and has a “Not Free” rating from Freedom House?”

 

There are no shortages of punchlines you could come up with here regarding Gore and this sale. It’s literally endless. The real story is the people who actually believed in the man or at least the movement enough to stomach the man who give them a voice.

The green movement has been effective because it bully’s people and companies out of fear or isolation. These unsavory tactics such a hyperbole, misinformation and just flat out lies make this happen. And nobody exemplifies this more so than then Mr Gore. This is the same guy who warned of 10-20 foot rising coastal areas in his book/movie 'An Inconvenient Truth', before he bought that Nine million dollar pad in Monticeto, California so he could rub elbows with Oprah. After this lie was brought to light he admitted to it, because he knows if he makes it scary enough (even if its false) people will act, talk about sheer ignorance or arrogance:

"I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is..." - Al Gore

The green movement has come a long way since those crazy 60’s. They have long since traded in their tree hugging for cappuccinos and Ipads. Instead of protesting deforestation with protests chaining themselves to trees in rain forests, this crowd are chained to a chair in at Starbucks (without any sense of irony) blabbering about how evil capitalism is for its carbon footprints. As a side note, I'm not impressed with any protesters involving trees until you take it to this level. Wake me up when you display that type of commitment to your premise.

Going “green” is an ideal that while may sound like a great idea; it’s still an ideal. Thus, it is highly desired but hardly practical.

Big Al knows this. He is a capitalist himself. He capitalized on his surname via his daddy’s political career and made himself hundreds of millions of dollars in personal wealth by parlaying his career in politics into becoming the face of an entire ideology. He has no real work history to speak of, out of politics with no experience… yet he here he is, the fattest cat in the room (pun intended).  

He’s L Ron Hubbard incarnate (minus the kinky sexcapades). He’s made a fortune off ideologues, fear, politics and being a natural and gifted self promoter with nothing to sell. That’s a talent. So congrats to Al Gore going green via his sale and subsequent windfall made possible by big oil, anti-gay, anti-free speech or basically everything he allegedly fought against as a Democratic Congressman, Senator and VP; you know, the party beholden to the (sic) common man... minus the Vaseline.

Turning Japanese? Turning Japanese? I really do think so.

That's why I'm turning Japanese
I think I'm turning Japanese
I really think so

I know I cannot be the first to use this analogy, but god bless new wave music & the 80's, for this apropos song. 

With so much attention being paid to the Eurozone, specifically Greece’s departure from it and 165% debt to GDP ratio in tote, its surprising to me that nobody in the MSM mentions the king of living beyond its means. This is none other than the spawn of American ingenuity and the benchmark that all post-war reconstructions whom are modeled after… Japan.

Japan’s ascension from rubble after WW2 to the world's third-largest economy has been staggering, especially for a country that’s about the size of the state of Montana. With a population that values education as much as anyone in the world, Japan has become a standard to many and no more than those in the corporate world, noted for their dedication to innovation and organization. But if you dig a little deeper, Japan and with all its glitz, glam & refined style; it isn’t all what it seems.

Because, like all fiat facilitated economies, the debt monster is alive and well and the only way to keep from getting swallowed up is to keep pushing, keep innovating and never, ever under any circumstance become stagnant. Well, at least over the last 20 years or so that’s been the case.

This is precisely what happened to Japan in the 1990’s known in Japan and around the world as Japan’s “lost decade”. When the NIKKEI started to free fall and real estate prices started to fall with it, those asset bubbles burst. This left the government in panic mode, so like all bureaucracies do in a panic, they did the opposite of what was right and did what was easy - threw money at it, instead of letting the natural correction run its course. 

They began to doll out stimulus after stimulus (sound familiar?), bailed out banks and insurance companies (getting warmer?) with the economy still limping along they said the hell with it and raised its consumption tax 2 percent (doesn’t this sound familiar too?) which subsequently brought on another recession.

After about two decades, and even with stimulus’s keep piling on, Japan’s economy finds itself in a ditch. Since 2011, the Bank of Japan has issued quantitative easing programs in excess of 900 billion alone. With very little to no growth potential, an aging population and an exponentially escalating debt tab; Japan is running on borrowed time. 

 

In a recent interview with Spiegel Online's Anne Seith, The Bank of Japan's governor, Masaaki Shirakawa said: "At the moment, the effect of our monetary policy in stimulating economic growth is very limited. The money is there, liquidity is abundant, interest rates are very low -- and, still, firms do not make use of accommodative financial conditions, the return on investment is too low."

Doesn't this sound eerily similar as well? 

Japan is currently using 25% of its outlays just to service their debt. If they raise interest rates, the number will climb dramatically. This is why the US is so fearful of raising its interests rates well. The FED wont entertain raising interest rates until 2014, so imagine all the cheap money printed off until then? If we are to raise interest rates where we already pay 220 billion on basically 0% what will it look like if those rates go up? As I pointed out back in March, via Kyle Bass, for every additional percentage point it will also bring about $140 Billion dollars on top of the existing 220 Billion.

  President's FY 2013 budget, Congressional Budget Office

Japan’s current debt to GDP ratio is currently 220% according to IMF reports for comparison’s sake the US debt to GDP ratio is about 102% (but that number has doubled in just four years). Japan however, unlike the US, has a few unique circumstances that will either prolong a slow death or escalate to their death at the speed of sound. 

Graph: zerohedge.com

Japan is one of the few countries that its public finances most of its debt (an astounding 95%). Thus, if they are comfortable with virtually no return on their investing (0.75% average return) into the debt and increasing inflation, they can literally keep financing their own debt as long as they don’t mind saving up to go to the grocery store as if it were a vacation.

The other option(s) is eye popping and absolutely lunacy to say the least. Newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants the Bank of Japan to start issuing “unlimited easing” starting with a 120 billion dollar bullet into infrastructure. If that doesn’t get inflation where he sees fit and despite a declining Yen the threats coming out of Shinzo Abe’s mouth, will bring the death of Japan sooner rather than later.

In true, ancient Japanese kamikaze fashion, the Liberal Democrat Shinzo Abe with all his love for easing (hello Bernanke) is threatening to change the country’s laws and actually take the Bank of Japan over: read quite literally, socialization.  

So, as you can see, here in the US by all accounts, we are not Japanese yet. Although if we keep up this pace, follow the Japanese playbook and we look at the last four years as any indication; it should tell you it’s only a matter of time before we do.  

The Legend bids farewell...

After years of trying to teach Congress and the country about sound money and encourage freedom, Ron Paul's time in government draws to an end. I wont link story's about him or say anything else, I don't think that does his service justice a the impact is to deep of his time in Washington. I will say however that Ron Paul did indeed cure my apathy. He inspired me to look deeper into issues to find the truth. He's the essence of a statesmen and his place in our government will be missed but he always stay in our hearts and his ideas will carry forward. Freedom and liberty are things people die for and that will always live on. Best of luck in your retirement Mr Paul, enjoy it, you deserve it. We will keep up the fight.