Right now, however the Fed is on record that they will start monetizing debt and already basically doubled the monetary base. Velocity is still low and many banks aren’t lending, but still, with that kind of monetary expansion, there’s no reason to expect gold prices won’t continue to rise… be it to $1500 or beyond.

For the first time since this Greatest Recession Since the Great Depression (GRSGD) began, bank delinquencies on the books of the more than 7800 banks that report to the FDIC are on the decline.  And Exhibit 1 shows the first point on what should continue to be a downward trend as loan delinquencies return to pre-GRSGD levels over the next few years.

Late in the fall of 1988 the accounting firm, Coopers & Lybrand (C&L), won a competitive award to construct a computer system that collected the monthly security and loan information relating to Ginnie Mae’s mortgage-backed security program. As a C&L consultant with a math major and a Wharton M.B.A., I was put in charge of testing the system as it was being developed.

Where is Howard Beale when we need him?  Two years into the Greatest Recession Since the Great Depression (GRSGD) and our financial leaders are still telling us that we need to be patient while waiting for our economic recovery.

Mortgage debt in the United States (currently more than $10 trillion) has grown to the point that it is nearly the same size as our national debt (in fact, a few years ago, U.S. mortgage debt actually successfully passed our national debt), and it has only been as a result of the new Administration’s debt spending that our national debt has regained the lead in the race to see which can account for the highest amount of our economic debt.

Peter Schiff just lost the Republican nod for US Senator in Connecticut. If someone ever embodied the antithesis to the nation’s current approach, it is Schiff.

A long Japanese-like malaise, very possibly a prolonged 70’s style stagflation and a slow downward spiral of a Britain-esque imperial demise is what I see on the horizon. Unfortunately, I almost hope for that since an all out Rome style collapse is within the realm of possibility.

According to MarketWatch.com, China is considering a move away from linking the Yuan to the dollar

Throughout much of our nation’s history, US federalism has moved toward centralizing power within the federal government. Since the post-bailout hysteria and most recent public sector expansion, the issue of states’ rights has had a renaissance. Some Americans long for a system where states have more control to govern. You know, the system our Founders seemed to envision, where each state is an experiment adopting best practices from one another.

While I’m happy that both the PCIP bridge and the eventual change in law will allow many to obtain health coverage, I don’t feel the Affordable Care Act meaningfully addresses any of the issues in our health care system. Namely, the multitude of reasons health care is unaffordable.