I stopped reading fiction books or watching fiction movies a long time ago.  I even stopped reading mock-news comedy sites like theonion.com.  Why?  Because none of them can compare to the insanity of real life.

Take this one, as example.  The prince of peace, Barack Obama, nominated a new man to head the "White House Council of Economic Advisors" on Monday.

I have to admit, for a split second I almost leapt off my balcony to the beach 29 floors below!  I thought it said that Krugman - Paul Krugman - had been nominated to be Barack Obama's top financial advisor!

Considering that Paul Krugman has been lobbying for war to get the economy working and his latest scheme that he drew up in his lab was to fake an alien attack (see "Krugman's New Extraterrestial Economic Plan For America") so we could put everyone back to work building light sabers and plasma rays.  Then, after everyone had spent a few years focusing all their efforts on that he would announce that it was all just a grand ruse to "get the economy going".  In his mind, we'd all fawn over him for coming up with such a great way to get us all back to work!  Sure, we spent two years destroying incalculable human and natural resources.  But, hey, that's better than not having anything to do, right?

Thankfully, I had misread and it wasn't Paul Krugman.

It was Alan Krueger... a man who has been working in the White House for two years and who has his doctorate in Keynesian Economics from Harvard University.

I knew, just from reading that he had his PhD from Harvard that he would be a moron.  That's just a given with those "credentials".

I strapped myself in (to ensure I wouldn't throw myself off my balcony) and began reading his list of "accomplishments".

It starts by saying that he wrote a book whose mission was to convince people that raising the minimum wage does not increase unemployment.

Thank goodness I was strapped in tight!  Are you kidding, Krueger?  I can refute your entire book in one sentence and there is no rational thing you can say in response.  Ready?

If that is true then raise the minimum wage to $1,000/hour and tell me how that will not result in unemployment rising to 99.5% or higher.  At that rate, only people currently making more than $1,000/hour would be employable.

I mean, really.  This is Obama's new senior advisor??  This will probably shock him then, but removing the minimum wage completely would result in full employment.  Heck, I'd even hire Alan Krueger to wash my car all day long for $0.15/hour.  That may be something he is actually good at, too.

But, maybe he has accomplished something in his career... let's read on.

The next big thing he is known for is being "instrumental in the cash-for-clunkers program".

Yes, what a stroke of genius that was!  Let's offer heavily indebted Americans incentives to trade in their perfectly good, working used cars and to go further into debt to buy new cars.  Then, let's take the used cars and destroy them.  Yes, good, working cars... throw them on a scrap heap.  Net result?  Americans are more indebted and hundreds of thousands of good cars are destroyed (causing the price of used cars to rise 20% btw).

Sheer genius, Alan!

What's your next masterpiece?  Cash for Houses?  Anyone with an older house that they have paid off can call the government and have them come and burn it to the ground and then offer them incentives to buy a new, much more expensive house that they can't afford!  This keynesian economics stuff is easy!  I'm surprised anyone even has to go to Harvard for this.  Just pick something... anything.  Destroy it and have the government write you a cheque for doing so!

The U.S.S.R. failed 20 years ago this month.  It failed because it made the incorrect assumption that the economy can be managed from the top down by a bunch of propellerheads with mathematical equations.

Economists and thinkers like Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard, who had stated that socialism and economic central planning would not work were vindicated at that time.  You can see a speech by Murray Rothbard just days after the fall of the Soviet Union here:

Mises, Rothbard and the Austrian school of economics was right.  It continues to be right and will always continue to be right.  However, politicians and the public in general don't like the message.  The message is that there is no free lunch.  Now, the lure of trying to centrally manage an economy has made a great comeback.  This time, in the U.S.S.A.

This nomination of Alan "Freddy" Krueger only ensures that the Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue will continue on to the bitter end.

Our holdings in real assets, gold, silver, precious metals stocks and internationalizing our assets, especially outside the US, continues to be the most rational of choices.

Jeff Berwick
Chief Editor
The Dollar Vigilante

The Dollar Vigilante is a free-market financial newsletter focused on covering all aspects of the ongoing financial collapse.  The newsletter has news, information and analysis on investments for safety and for profit during the collapse including investments in gold, silver, energy and agriculture commodities and publicly traded stocks.  As well, the newsletter covers other aspects including expatriation, both financially and physically and news and info on health, safety and other ways to survive the coming collapse of the US Dollar safely and comfortably.  You can sign up to receive our FREE monthly newsletter,  our Basic Newsletter ($15/month) or our Full Newsletter ($25/month) with specific stock recommendations and updates at our Subscriptions page on our website at DollarVigilante.com.

Copyright © 2011 Jeff Berwick