When "Bad News Is Good

April 27, 2010

By Al Doyle

Despite the current state of the economy, occasional rays of sunshine can be found. Here is one bit of information that will leave freedom lovers smiling.

Steadily falling newspaper circulation numbers dropped another 8.7 percent in the past six months, and several of the loudest and most arrogant mouthpieces of the left took the biggest hits. The San Francisco Chronicle saw its circulation fall 23 percent to 241,330, while the Washington Post had a 13.1 percent decline to 478,483.

USA Today lost 13.6 percent of daily readers, with circulation dropping to 1.83 million. The weekday numbers for the New York Times fell below 1 million to 951,063 for an 8.5 percent loss,

(Click on Chart to Enlarge)

Standard & Poor's downgraded Greece to junk bond status. The Greek government found few if any takers when offering more than 13 percent annually on three-year bonds last week. Portugal, Ireland - and some would say California - are reportedly headed for the same fate in the not too distant future.

Linda Brady Traynham of whiskeyandgunpowder.com on proposals to confiscate privately owner retirement accounts in exchange for government bonds and promises: "The rape artists are moving on their plans to hijack your 401(k) and replace it with a handsome certificate suitable for framing that says you have a Guaranteed Retirement Account in exchange for one of your old, unsafe means of preparing for the future.

"Given the speed with which the left-wing Congress and the "I just sign what they send me"president moves, you have at most days to contemplate what is left of years of thrift and deferred gratification. These people don't mess around when they have prey in their sights.

"What I would really do - and did two years ago - is pay the penalty and close the position out. You're to have to pay taxes on those funds eventually anyway, and better to snatch two-thirds or so of the prize away before it gets dumped into the general fund and is spent on housing for Hamas, the snail darter, uniforms for the Obama Youth, excruciating bad modern 'art', or more prerequisites for Congress. Even half a loaf is better than none, if you turn into objects of intrinsic value such as gold, silver, diesel oil and emergency rations."

If a 401(K) and IRA confiscation sounds far fetched to you, keep in mind that the exact same scenario took place in Argentina in 2008, and U.S. government debt is at South American levels.

Naysayers on inflation need to consider this fact. The U.S. monetary base of $800 billion in the fall of 2008 has tripled to $2.4 trillion.

U.S. mortgage indebtedness of $1trillion in 1980 has grown 10-fold to $10 trillion today. The average homeowner had 80 percent equity and owned 20 percent in 1945, Those numbers arenow reversed.