Friday Fictioneers: Out of Body

This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. They were humans. Boys. There was absolutely no way this was happening.

“Dude! What are we going to do?” Steve looked over at Billy. He couldn't tell his brother was 13. Or that he himself was 15. He still couldn't believe this was happening.

“Steve! What are we going to do?!” Billy was growing frantic. Steve couldn't blame him. If there was a time for frantic panicking, it was now.

“I don't know, Billy.”

“What do you mean you don't know? This is your fault!” This was true, Steve thought. It really was his fault.

Billy puffed, “I should have never let you take me to that Voodoo priestess.”

“Look on the bright side, Billy. At least we're at McDonald's.”

The Federal Reserve Is Killing The Economy

I was watching Good Morning America this morning (blame the wife, I can't stand it), and I noticed they were discussing how the Dow Jones Industrial was nearing 13,000 again while the NASDAQ was closing in on 3,000.

It got me pondering on the current discussion about where the inflation rates currently sit on the CPI (sitting at 2.3% right now). Many of the mainstream economists (Krugman, Baker, Wiesenthal, etc) have touted the line that because of this ~2% inflation rate, inflation isn't happening.

This is true in a sense.

What they fail to realize is for all intents and purposes, the economy should be in a deflationary period but isn't because of the massive amount of monetary expansion by the Federal Reserve.

Since the recession started in 2007, the Federal Reserve has printed $2.7 trillion dollar in two round of quantitative easing (buying US Treasury bonds). On top of that, it has kept the Fed rate (the basis for all interest rates) at  historic 0.5%. These are the same policies which led to the housing & credit bubble in the first place.

And it will have disastrous results in the future.

Because all this money is being pushed into the markets, the economy is incapable of removing the enormous amount of bad money (debt) it has in its system. Almost every aspect of the market is inflated from the deflationary lows they need to be at a sustainable rate. The Fed rate needs to be elevated much higher to discourage the massive debt leveraging the Wall Street banks participated in from 2001 - 2007.

This is why so many among the Austrian School warn about inflation, even though we are currently in a stagnant period. If the economy recovers, the monetary expansion is going to rear its ugly head and create a staggering amount of inflation, which will be nothing but destructive for the average citizen, wiping out any savings in cash and destroying wealth.

The mainstream economists and government policy makers are going to be the end of the middle class if we do not wake up and start protecting our wealth.

This article was originally published 2/21/12.

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Mad Men "Tea Leaves"

Peggy is given new responsibility; Don and Harry indulge a client.

Ozzie Loves Fidel

"I love Fidel Castro. I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that son of a bitch is still there." - Ozzie Guillen

Friday Fictioneers: Pot of Gold

Pot of Gold

“Look! A rainbow!”

Steve stopped dribbling the ball to see where is his little brother was pointing. The rainbow stretched across the sky, curving down to settle in a thicket of trees at the back of the field.

“Let's see if there's a pot of gold at the end of it,” his brother said excitedly.

Steve rolled his eyes, “Billy, there ain't gold at the end of a rainbow.” Billy really could be a gullible kid sometimes.

“I'm looking anyway. And if there is, I ain't sharing it with you,” Billy hollered while sprinting across the field.

Steve dashed after him. “Not if I find it first,” he yelled. If anyone was going to find that gold, it was going to be him. He was the older brother, after all.

Flash Fiction: Preserving the Story

 

 

It was banged up. Badly. Faded, too. But it was original, and she just couldn't bring herself to tear it down at the moment. The wall held stories too precious to destroy.

A young couple dancing, celebrating their new wedding bliss. The first day home from the hospital. Her first steps. Celebrating straight A's on the report card. And Junior prom, a bundle of nerves, anxiety, and pure unadulterated joy. The day the acceptance letter came. The day she brought him home, and they knew she had found the one.

When her husband came in later, he found her carefully cutting a large swath of the wall paper. “What are you doing,” he asked.

She just smiled at him and turned back to her work, saying, “Preserving the stories, dear.”
_________________________________________________________

I forgot to add that I was actually really excited when I saw the photo prompt. My wife is addicted to housing rehab (her favorite "housing show" is Rehab Addict), so I was imagining her when I started writing. She loves old houses for the stories, and I can see her using the wall paper as a piece of art to base the room decor.

"Libertarians" In The World

As I've stated before, I call myself libertarian, though to be more specific, I'm an anarcho-capitalist. I believe in non-intervention foreign policy, sound currency, and property rights. I hold the Republican and Democrat parties in complete disdain, and I've been an ardent supporter of Ron Paul since he ran for President in 2008.

But not all libertarians are like me. I wanted to share a recent run in I had online with some of these other "libertarians."

Justified "Slaughterhouse"

Raylan is a man on fire, going after everyone he holds responsible, on the way to a bloody final showdown.

The Firing Of Bobby Petrino

And What It Says About The Public

At 7:15 CDT, University of Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long announced that head football coach Bobby Petrino would be terminated effective immediately. All of this stemming from an improper affair with an employee brought to light after a recent motorcycle crash involving Petrino and the woman.

Petticoats *updated*

So just like with M.D. Pearce, Druggist, Petticoats had to undergo some final revisions.

Just some minor grammar and cast issues. This truly is the final draft.

Also, I have the dates for the two performances for this one as well. It will be performed May 12th and May 19th. This too will be videotaped, so I'll be uploading the performances after some editing.

I'm really excited to see this one in its fruition.