• Top Troop Request Exceeds 60,000
• Is the U.S. Preparing to Bomb Iran? - This provoked a thought for me.  If our government thinks that war will get us out of the recession (actually depression) like we are all taught that WWII got us out of the Great Depression.  Then it seems more likely the government might start a war in Iran with this logic no matter how flawed I might think it is.  A country that hasn’t attacked anyone in centuries, who are following all the international laws (that I can tell), and spends around $6 billion on their military every year.  It is of my opinion we should be talking to them and not threating them.  I would encourage you to Google Robert Higgs for great papers about the Great Depression.

Dollar Stuff:

• The Demise of the Dollar – Glenn Beck
• Gerald Celente: The Death of the Dollar

• Picture from Titan’s moon – I remember when this was released and saw it again today and made me forget about things for a bit.

Of the eight insurers listed, Medicare is most likely to reject a claim, sending away 6.85% of requests. This is more than any private insurer and double that of the private insurers’ average!

In short, the AMA is endorsing a plan whose closest existing example is the most frequent denier of claims. How the public option exemplifies “delivering care to patients” is unclear.

via Big Government

The demise of the dollar - This article requires a little bit of a discussion.  From the article.

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar. (1)

How we got here:

If this report is true, to say this isn’t good for the dollar is an understatement.  If you haven’t read anything about dollar hegemony I would suggest that you do.  Also, if you haven’t read anything about the petro dollar and petro dollar warefare I would suggest that you do.  In a nutshell since our dollar is fiat money, meaning nothing is backing it’s actual value but the promise of the government, the only thing keeping the dollar’s value is the fact that oil is only sold in dollars.

What does all this mean?

I think that common sense would tell someone that since the Saudis are in control of the oil they would want a strong dollar and a dollar that retains its value.  However, with the spending spree that the US is on with an estimated nine trillion dollar deficit in the next ten years (2) the world is losing confidence in the dollar as seen by the following.

• UN is calling for new reserve currency saying, “The United Nations called on Tuesday for a new global reserve currency to end dollar supremacy which has allowed the United States the “privilege” of building a huge trade deficit.” (3)
• Dollar under scrutiny at G20 summit saying, “The embattled US dollar is expected to come under scrutiny at a summit of developing and industrialized nations following China-led calls to review its role as a reserve currency.” (4)
• China Urges New Money Reserve to Replace Dollar saying, “In a paper released Monday, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, said a new currency reserve system controlled by the International Monetary Fund could prove more stable and economically viable.” (5)
• China backs talks on dollar as reserve -Russian source saying, “Russia has proposed the creation of a new reserve currency, to be issued by international financial institutions.” (6)
• Gold hits record at $1,045, gains on report of dollar’s demise - ”Gold futures hit a new high on Tuesday, lifted by weakness in the dollar after Australia hiked interest rates and after a report that Gulf-area oil producers, along with China, Russia, Japan and France, are planning to eventually end dollar-based oil pricing.” (7)

What does this all mean?  From the looks of it a new reserve currency that is controlled by the IMF, which would mean to me that we would outsource our monetary policy to the IMF.  The IMF would issue the currency and be controlled by a very small group of people.  This small group of people would hold a massive amount of power over the world economy.  I see it as the Federal Reserve on steroids on a world stage.

Any thing positive?

There is some good news.  We have time to change things if the world decides to create a new world currency without the consent of the US.

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers meeting that it would take up to 30 years to create a new super-currency, suggesting there was no unity in Russia on the issue. (6)

…

While few analysts believe that the dollar will be replaced as the world’s dominant foreign exchange reserve anytime soon. (5)

…

But he [Richard Cooper] said there were no feasible alternatives to the US dollar as a widely used international currency, discounting even IMF’s synthetic SDR currency, comprising a basket of the dollar, euro, yen and the pound.”The dollar will remain the dominant world currency, thanks to the stability of our political system and the rule of law that isn’t a feature of many other economies,” said Irwin Stelzer, director of economic-policy studies at the Washington-based Hudson Institute.

Some groups, he said, were buying euros and other currencies from time to time, “but not in amounts that threaten the dollar’s primacy.”

“Even the Chinese are stuck with nearly a trillion dollars worth of US bonds and are not likely to drive down the value of that hoard by selling large amounts of dollar-denominated assets”, Stelzer said. (4)

For now the dollar is fairly safe.  However, with the recent moves by the international community and the continues policy by the US government of intervention, spending, and isolation of other countries, I’m one to think that the US is only digging itself into a deeper hole.  A drastic course correction is in call for the US.  The question is; is the US going to do it on its own or is it going to be forced to change due to the actions of the international community that it can not control.

I should probably reserve my thoughts on Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and our isolation of ourselves to the rest of the world.  I should probably reserve my thoughts on Healthcare reform, Cap and Trade, and the Labor Union bills going through congress now.  However, I’m sure you can probably guess what my thoughts are so I’ll leave it at that.

UPDATE: Mike “Mish” Shedlock has a couple good blog posts with a different outlook for the dollar.  I would suggest taking a look at them.

• Ridiculous Hype Over Secret Oil Meetings
• Why Would Anyone Want To Hold Dollars?

External Sites:

• dollar hegemony
• petro dollar
• petro dollar warefare
• fiat money

Sources:

1. The demise of the dollar
2. Obama to raise 10-year deficit to $9 trillion
3. UN calls for new reserve currency
4. Dollar under scrutiny at G20 summit
   
5. China Urges New Money Reserve to Replace Dollar
6. China backs talks on dollar as reserve -Russian source
7. Gold hits record at $1,045, gains on report of dollar’s demise

• CAUTION: Stock Market Crash /Collapse Dead Ahead Say Faber, Rogers, Dent and Celente
• China and Japan begin talks on building alliance
• Vegas Casinos Fold on Expansion Plans

Political Stuff:

• 10 Things You Should Know About Iran
• ElBaradei says nuclear Israel number one threat to Mideast - definitely something you won’t read in the media here in the States.

Awesome Stuff:

This picture is just awesome.  Taken from the Cassini space craft that is orbiting Saturn.  It was taken when Saturn was eclipsing the sun.  Via The Big Picture

At least Justice Scalia understands that we have way too many laws in America even if he doesn’t say it directly.

Scalia: ‘We Are Devoting Too Many of Our Best Minds to’ Lawyering

I mean there’d be a, you know, a defense or public defender from Podunk, you know, and this woman is really brilliant, you know. Why isn’t she out inventing the automobile or, you know, doing something productive for this society?

I mean lawyers, after all, don’t produce anything. They enable other people to produce and to go on with their lives efficiently and in an atmosphere of freedom. That’s important, but it doesn’t put food on the table and there have to be other people who are doing that. And I worry that we are devoting too many of our very best minds to this enterprise.

I think it’s great that everyone is saying no to him.  I just hope that it keeps up.  However, to my surprise the media is finally starting to slowly catch on.  The blog-o-sphere is much faster to recognize these trends than the media.  Even comedy shows like SNL pick up on it quicker as seen from their skit below.

139. Secession, Nullification, and Interposition

Political Stuff:

• Analysis: Why everyone is saying no to Obama
• U.S. regulator to unveil open Internet plan

Economic Stuff:

• HSBC bids farewell to dollar supremacy
• Sanctions and isolationism
• Car showrooms quiet after clunkers clamor ends
• Obama open to newspaper bailout bill
• US May Face ‘Armageddon’ If China, Japan Don’t Buy Debt – This article has a great video, which is below.

Recipe Stuff:

• Slow-Cooked Tomato and Herb White Beans – Haven’t made but plan to.
• Eggplants stuffed with ricotta and ham — Aubergines farcies à la ricotta et au jambon – Making on Tuesday!

Interesting Stuff:

• The Post–9/11 Roundup of Innocents
• US Detention Camps For Political Subversives

In 2002, FEMA sought bids from major real estate and engineering firms to construct giant internment facilities in the case of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack or a natural disaster. Okanogan County Commissioner Dave Schulz went public three years ago with his contention that his county was set to be a location for one of the camps. Alex Jones has attended numerous military urban warfare training drills across the US where role players were used to simulate arresting American citizens and taking them to internment camps.

• Halliburton Subsidiary Gets Contract to Add Temporary Immigration Detention Centers - (NYT Subscription)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 — The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a contract worth up to $385 million for building temporary immigration detention centers to Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary that has been criticized for overcharging the Pentagon for its work in Iraq.KBR would build the centers for the Homeland Security Department for an unexpected influx of immigrants, to house people in the event of a natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space, company executives said. KBR, which announced the contract last month, had a similar contract with immigration agencies from 2000 to last year.

The contract with the Corps of Engineers runs one year, with four optional one-year extensions. Officials of the corps said that they had solicited bids and that KBR was the lone responder.

A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Jamie Zuieback, said KBR would build the centers only in an emergency like the one when thousands of Cubans floated on rafts to the United States. She emphasized that the centers might never be built if such an emergency did not arise.

“It’s the type of contract that could be used in some kind of mass migration,” Ms. Zuieback said.

• Jim Rogers Knows – His 10 Tips for a Successful Life
  • I think I should point out Jim’s list here and you can click the article for more.
    1. Conduct your own research and trust your own judgment.
    2. Focus on what you yourself love.
    3. Be persistent.
    4. Broaden your horizons and see as much of the world as you can.
    5. The most important thing you can learn is how to think and question everything you hear.
    6. Study and learn from history.
    7. Master more than one language – and make sure one of them is Mandarin.
    8. Don’t panic.
    9. Take care of yourself and don’t neglect the sunscreen.
    10. Remember that boys need girls more than girls need boys.

It was still a great day! I hope you all watch and enjoy!

External Links:

• House Financial Services Cmte. Hearing on Regulatory Overhaul