Schiff predicts inflation as a consequence of the massive bailout money that was created by the fed. I'm not convinced that he's wrong just because it isn't happening right now - the money sitting with the banks is going to have to leave sometime. They can do so slowly, so as not to shock the economy, but the amount that has to eventually leave is massive. This isn't to say I'm sure he's right either, though even if he's wrong it may not matter (read past the next paragraph for why).

The article mentions Japan creating a lot of yen to deal with the Asian economic crisis, but what it doesn't mention is that the Japanese government and people save money and have savings, compared to the American governments, and American consumers spending and debt.

One reason for why we shouldn't have a fed controlling the money supply, is that controlling inflation and deflation is not desirable in and of itself. It's only the effects on the economy that are good or bad.

The federal reserve bank has shown time and again that it can keep the currency relatively steady (with a slight increase in inflation every year), and yet we regularly have these economic crises fairly often, about once every decade. This did not happen with nearly the frequency it does now under more naive economic systems, pre 1913. Yes, the federal reserve act was created in response to just one such incident in 1907, but that's the problem with government acts. They're passed in response to rare events, so when the events become significantly more common, it isn't obvious that the frequency increased rather than decreased. By the time the next rare undesirable event happens (a little sooner than it otherwise would have), people conclude that the act is working, but we need to do more of it.

In the long term I see little reason to conclude that the federal reserve has a stabilizing effect on that economy, or that it's even desirable to control the amount of inflation or deflation.

We would be better off not worrying not so much about inflation and deflation, and instead wonder why our economy crashes every 10 years. Which isn't to say I'd like to utterly disband the fed immediately, the effects on our economy would be terrible. I submit to you that our economy wouldn't crash more often or be any worse if we never had a central bank.

Yeah, but they cost 10,000 Yen! Yikes.... that's like $115. Even for Japan they're ridiculously expensive.

JD:
Yen -> USD is easy keeping in mind they don't have any cents, and convert straight to US cents.

i.e.: 18900 Yen = 18900 cents = 189.00

Just imagine the decimal before the last 2 zeros.
It's roughly that in the exchange market (yesterday: 0.01050)

In reply to this comment by joedirt:
How much is 18,900 yen?

How much is 18,900 yen?

Yall are thinking small time here. We are talking about the potential collapse of the dollar in general...very much akin to the fall of the soviet union. It isn't quite the same as no one in the world wants to see the dollar collapse, so others are helping with the cover up (short term bail outs and debt lending). At the very least, we are looking at a 20% devaluation of the entire us market. That means everything you own is now 20% less valuable than it was before, you make 20% less, the works

Being the dollar is the world currency, this will be a world wide problem...investing in euros and yen at this point won't help you as most of the world banks are going to have the same problem if the dollar busts. Sad times ahead. Now is the time to adjust your living patterns.

As for Netrunner, I don't think there is any long slow way out of it. The only real solution is liquidation. You have to let the market fall on the debt to give value back to the currency. There is no amount of stimulus or governement bail outs that will do this, this will just put less trust in the markets where the money is being played with by powers other than the market

It is really bad yall. The more and more data I review , the worse the outcome looks. The best bet for those sifters that are interested is to get all of your stocks and investments out of the financial sector. At this point, things that are hard money based, like gold and precious metals are your most realiable bet.

Someone needs to ask McCain if the fundamentals of the economy are still strong even after this↓

US government rescues insurer AIG (Sept 16, 2008)

The US Federal Reserve has announced an $85 billion (£48 billion) rescue package for AIG, the country's biggest insurance company, to save it from bankruptcy.

The plan involves a loan in return for an 80% public stake in the company.

The rescue follows Monday's collapse of US investment giant Lehman Brothers, which caused share prices to plummet across the world's financial markets.

Meanwhile, Barclays said it had reached a deal to buy Lehman's US investment banking and capital markets businesses.

The rescue of AIG - which has a trillion dollars in assets and insures bank loans around the world - prompted a shares rally in Asia, with Japan's market up 2% in early trading.

The board of the Federal Reserve made the decision "with the full support of the Treasury Department", it said in a statement, adding that the secured loan included conditions designed to protect "the interests of the US government and taxpayers".

Emergency meeting

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson refused to bail out Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest investment bank in the US.

Correspondents say AIG's demise would have a far greater impact on the world's financial markets than Lehman's.

Many banks and investment funds in the US and around the world would lose their insurance cover at a time when defaults on payments are likely to rise.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the central bank, the Federal Reserve, met senior members of Congress late on Tuesday to brief them on the bailout.

The plan calls for the government to seize up to 80% of AIG and remove its management, similar to the way it took control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

US President George W Bush welcomed the package, and the White House said the deal was made "in the interest of promoting stability in financial markets and limiting damage to the broader economy".

Market slump

Meanwhile, the Fed has left interest rates unchanged at 2%. The BBC's Matthew Price in New York said the bank had clearly decided an interest rate cut would not help to alleviate the short-term financial crisis.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones rallied on Tuesday, closing 141 points higher having on Monday suffered its worst day's trading since the September 2001 attacks on the US.

But leading indices across Europe and Asia ended lower, with banking shares being the worst hit. Shares in Britain's biggest savings group, HBOS, initially dropped 35% before closing 22% down.

Central banks around the world responded by carrying out emergency measures to keep markets liquid.

The Bank Of England and the Bank of Japan injected £20bn (25bn euros; $36bn) and 2.5 trillion yen ($24.1bn; £13bn) respectively into their money markets.

The extra funding came as the interest rates at which banks lend to each other rocketed - as they did at the start of the credit crunch.

I'm glad you're having a great time. That's cool that you got to rap with the lead singer too. Wish I could travel like that and hang out with the beautiful people. Kind of tough to do when you're in prison.

BTW, Farhad is saying goodbye to us all:

http://obscure.videosift.com/talk/This-Is-The-End

I'm sure he'd appreciate a few kind words from a fellow obscure sifter.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Haha, I forgot how funny that video was. Nice.

Yeah, it was pretty cool, I got to see ART-SCHOOL live on Friday, and managed to get to talk to the singer after the show, get a signature for my girlfriend (they're her very favorite band) and a pic with the singer. It was a great show. I was down in Tokyo just for Friday and Saturday to hang out with a friend that's there for a semester, so it was a pretty awesome weekend.

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
Ahh, in old Edo town, I see. I can't imagine a better conversation to have in one of the world's great cities than one about 2G1C (as those of us in the art biz affectionately call it.)

Tell the Emperor I said hi, and that he still owes me 10,000 yen for that bet. He thought I didn't know how to make balloon animals.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Funny, I was having a great conversation about 2 girls 1 cup on the train in Tokyo yesterday evening with a buddy and his Mexican friend on our way to go drinking.

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
Thanks. I had to come out of retirement to defend my bad name. None of you asshole would talk about 2 girls 1 Cup.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
You're alive! Good to see you around.

Haha, I forgot how funny that video was. Nice.

Yeah, it was pretty cool, I got to see ART-SCHOOL live on Friday, and managed to get to talk to the singer after the show, get a signature for my girlfriend (they're her very favorite band) and a pic with the singer. It was a great show. I was down in Tokyo just for Friday and Saturday to hang out with a friend that's there for a semester, so it was a pretty awesome weekend.

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
Ahh, in old Edo town, I see. I can't imagine a better conversation to have in one of the world's great cities than one about 2G1C (as those of us in the art biz affectionately call it.)

Tell the Emperor I said hi, and that he still owes me 10,000 yen for that bet. He thought I didn't know how to make balloon animals.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Funny, I was having a great conversation about 2 girls 1 cup on the train in Tokyo yesterday evening with a buddy and his Mexican friend on our way to go drinking.

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
Thanks. I had to come out of retirement to defend my bad name. None of you asshole would talk about 2 girls 1 Cup.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
You're alive! Good to see you around.

Ahh, in old Edo town, I see. I can't imagine a better conversation to have in one of the world's great cities than one about 2G1C (as those of us in the art biz affectionately call it.)

Tell the Emperor I said hi, and that he still owes me 10,000 yen for that bet. He thought I didn't know how to make balloon animals.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Funny, I was having a great conversation about 2 girls 1 cup on the train in Tokyo yesterday evening with a buddy and his Mexican friend on our way to go drinking.

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
Thanks. I had to come out of retirement to defend my bad name. None of you asshole would talk about 2 girls 1 Cup.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
You're alive! Good to see you around.

I suspect this has nothing to do with Obama. There's a Japanese drama airing right now called "CHANGE" (yes, they use all caps in the title) in which a political neophyte suddenly finds himself elected Prime Minister and goes about reforming Japan's corrupt political system. The commercial may be trying to capitalize on the popularity of the drama.

The commercial itself is for 'E-Mobile,' a cell phone provider whose name is a pun that basically means "Great cell phone." Also, E-Mobile's mascot has been the monkey from before this commercial was shot (another reason why it isn't likely an insulting shot aimed at Obama).

Commercial's content:

"Everyone, E-Mobile is now now 1980 yen (about US $20) every month. For just 1980 yen a month, you can talk as much as you want 24-hours a day with other E-mobile customers. E-mobile brings... CHANGE!"

(Crying monkey shot)

"Cell phone... revolution."

(Caption)

"Don't think it's possible? E-Mobile."

E-mobile web site (English): http://www.emobile.jp/en/index.html

Photos of the monkey used in previous EM campaigns: http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4930#postcomment

I dunno, but something about this whole thing seems off...

The main reason the founding fathers began the gold standard was to counteract their first attempts at creating a monetary system that no one else would accept.

He throws out a lot of numbers in the video (years and prices), but the prices stop after 1931. Why? I wanted to know so I checked a few things out. I found out that in 1971, the price of gold sky rocketed (source, click on "1833-1999 Yearly Averages"). This would support qualm's remarks that speculation would have created a serious deficit for the federal government.

But this is in US$ still! If the dollar is inflating so rapidly then of course going off the gold standard would have this effect! Let's compare it to all the other nations of the world and then we will see how the dollar is sinking fast! http://www.goldprice.org/gold-price-history.html

It's also worth mentioning that this website is a site that SELLS gold for these exact reasons to protect yourself from inflation. Pay special attention to the curve similarities/differences between the major world economies (US$, the Yen, the Euro, the Swiss Franc, even the Canadian Dollar).

I'm not seeing a panic here, I'm seeing the price of gold inflating around the world at the same rate everywhere. Where's the flaw here?

I try to have an open mind about these things, but aside from the accusation of "shadow government" which you could level at any one of these so-called "think tanks", I'm not sure what's so wrong about participating in an international governmental body.

I'm also curious, is Bush part of CFR?

How about European nations, are they?

Are the U.N., WTO, ICC, all hotbeds of CFR activity?

My problem with this whole line of thinking is that while Bill Clinton and Bush agree on the necessity of NAFTA, they disagree on the way they respond to the UN, WTO, and ICC. Bill Clinton, and Bush 41 liked 'em, Bush 43 despises them. McCain talks pie in the sky about replacing them with new organizations with more limited membership, and a more NATO-like bent. Long story short, if all these guys are all marching to CFR's orders, why have their policies toward international governing bodies differed?

Personally, I see changing NAFTA into NAU as a good thing, since it'd temper some of that capitalistic exploitation with a regulatory body that would make the playing field equal between all three countries, like with the EU. I wouldn't mind changing from the dollar to an "Amero" if it's a strong currency, especially if the dollar is gonna keep racing for parity with the Yen.

I hear Hillary Clinton and Obama making minor noises about "renegotiating" NAFTA to move slightly in this direction (and that's probably an exaggeration at that), but McCain says it's fine as is, and should just be expanded to Central America, too.

I may be a fire-breathing liberal, but free trade should be the policy, so long as there are protections for consumers, workers, and the environment. Protectionism ultimately stifles the economy to everyone's detriment, even if in the short term it can be beneficial.

Rage against the machine music notwithstanding, I don't see anything sinister about a group that sees a global governing body as being a necessity for globalization to work properly. I think we're being hit now by the problems of not doing that while still happily globalizing away (e.g. lead paint in toys, jobs moving overseas, stagnant/shrinking wages, etc.).

AIPAC or PNAC on the other hand, those guys are just out to screw with us.

Proving once again that Japan is the wild, wonderful world of wtf.

This is brilliant for Tokyo, though, because so many people bike to the train stations that the area surrounding a station is perpetually overflowing with bikes. It must be a real bitch though when this thing breaks down and some poor guy has to climb down there and retrieve the bikes by hand.

Some of the stats from the video:

1) It can retrieve a bike in 23 seconds.
2) The lot holds 9400 bikes total.
3) Each underground chamber is 15m deep and 7m in diameter.
4) One chamber holds 180 bikes; 36 chambers total under the station (I guess the remaining bikes are stored upstairs because 180*36 != 9400)
5) Rental cost is 100 yen per day (about $1 US) or 1800 yen per month (about $17.50 US).

I'm guessing here's where you'd buy the CD (It's in Japanese, so I don't know if anyone can translate to make sure it's the right thing)

http://from-earth.shop-pro.jp/?pid=4263663

It's 2000 Yen, which translates to $18.72 so it makes sense.

I'll try to find the CD somewhere a little closer to home (well my home here in the USA anyways)

I've learned to take pleasure in the slow filtering of functional martial arts into mainstream attention and media, so when I see something like Flash Point, I just nudge my training buddies and say, "Look dude, an RNC!" and then continue stuffing carcinogenic popcorn and swedish fish in my mouth in complete disobedience of any regular dietary regiment and with total disregard for my physical health.

I don't kick newbies off the mats during BJJ training for spazzing out or giving up their back. They're newbies, it's what they do. Donnie Yen is the cinematic equivalent of a no-stripe white belt. Pat him on the back, maybe mention how next time he should probably not try bench-pressing the guy from under mount, and tell him you'll see him tomorrow, same place, same time. That's how progress is made, y'know?