Schedule M
COFFEE, TEA, OR ME?
Lives of the Bureaucrats
To North Korea, With Love
An Excess of Power
Thanks for the Memories
New Voters
Don Obama
Our Savior
Boom, Bust, and Beyond
Who is B.R. Lynch?
About the Nothing Store
As Obama and crew print and borrow more and more money, the U.S. dollar faces an uncertain future.
But three cheers for our Unmighty Dollars -- print as many as you like. They're already worth Nothing, so they can't go down in value.
Comments? Email The Nothing Store team!
The Nothing Store issues new currency weekly.
Counterfeiting Instructions:
Click on a denomination above, print the bills, cut them out, and stuff in an envelope. Send to your congressman or senator marked as a CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION. They'll get the message! For the address of your congressman, click here for senators and here for representatives.
The sermons on climate are frightful,
Armageddon is hardly a trifle,
But the gas we fear most,
That could turn us to toast,
Comes from Believers so bloated and fartful.
(Newsflash, December 12, 2009, Al Gore reported to be well on his way to becoming the world's first Carbon Billionaire.)
Nobody knows what sort of energy rules will finally be burped up from the gaseous bowels of lawmakers bloated from dining on do-goodies and drunk with power, but history tells us that investors and average citizens can bank on at least a couple certainties.
Every time government cooks up a feast of regulation, especially one stuffed with as much half-baked science and garnished with layers of undigested pork as the Cap and Trade bill, the first priority of sane people should be to simply get out of the way. The smart ones will heed the ominous rumblings and duck. The naive and the preoccupied will be coated with a smelly mess.
Sometimes defensive action is the best investment.
We here at the Nothing Store remember well when the government thought it was a good idea to impose average mileage standards (CAFE) on the auto industry. Those of us who knew cars saw it wouldn't work. We knew that Detroit would rush to make some junky small cars to up their mpg average while still selling the public the big cars and trucks it wanted. We watched as people spent good money for Vegas and Pintos, X-cars, and Oldsmobile diesels cobbled together from gasser V8 parts. In 1982, General Motors recalled more cars than it made. Chrysler went bankrupt. This wasn't just a little government indigestion; this was major diarrhea, and a lot of people were smeared from head to toe when their cars fell apart before they finished paying for them. Meanwhile oil imports continued to grow. People were hurt, car companies went south, and the stated intent of the legislation--reduction in oil imports--was a bust. Indeed, the percentage of imported oil went up. Of course the left side of the chorus line sung the same old tune: More regulation is the answer, not less.
As Milton Friedman said
These are the same politicians who pushed ethanol, another boondoggle created in a rush of hysteria to solve problems not yet fully understood. Investors who jumped on the ethanol bandwagon must feel like they are hung over from drinking the stuff. The only people making money on ethanol are the usual crowd of the politically-connected--the farmers and agribusinesses who know how to game the system of crony capitalism that results when government picks winners and losers.
But the ethanol program is more than just a run-of-the mill screw-up. Congress managed to hurt the environment--growing corn for ethanol requires massive inputs of chemicals, fossil fuels, and water. Food prices rose, and mixing ethanol in fuel damaged countless internal combustion engines. Meanwhile, oil imports as a percentage of total oil use continue to grow. Naturally, the politicians are looking at requiring more ethanol. So it goes.
We were not tempted to invest any of our modest savings in ethanol manufacturing, even though it was very trendy a few years ago, and we took steps in our personal life to limit the damage from ethanol. For personal transportation, we are hedgers, owning both a hybrid and diesels. The hybrid is cheap to operate, but better yet will be hybrids which use the internal combustion engine only as small, on-board generators of electrical energy that powers the drive train. Plug-ins like the Chevy Volt, powered by energy generated from distant sources and sent along the grid, will not be economically viable until better batteries come along. Until then, we would avoid dedicated plug-ins.
Diesels are long-lasting and will run on a variety of fuels without damage. We have friends who run their old Mercedes diesels on fryer oil, and we may someday do the same. We have a diesel-powered boat. Boaters who own outboard motors have been one of the groups hardest hit by the ethanol mandate. We hear that on an island in the Chesapeake Bay, famous for its blue crab fishery, many of the outboard motors are out of commission at any one time because of problems with ethanol drawing water into the fuel. For any motor that sits awhile, like those in outboards, tractors, lawn equipment, and generators, ethanol is a disaster. Replacing fuel pumps, injection systems and carburetors is not cheap.
Our home state requires gasoline to contain 10 percent ethanol. Some are advocating 15 percent. People are replacing their gasoline-powered machinery with diesels. At the level of basic survival, where all financial planning starts, we are long on both hybrids and diesels. We have no argument against the government requiring clean diesels. There is a difference between regulations for health and safety, well thought out and applied in increments, and massive programs hastily imposed.
When the first diesel-electric hybrid comes along, and especially one that uses a small diesel solely to generate electrical energy, we will be a buyer of that vehicle and probably an investor in that company.
Because of demand in the developing world and the eventual devaluation of the dollar, a continued rise in the costs of transportation fuels is inevitable. Plan accordingly.
Energy is not in short supply, in fact, it is the most abundant thing in the universe, but turning it into useful power has been mankind's ongoing struggle. Our crawl up from poverty has always depended on two things: abundant power and freedom. The two are intertwined and when government restricts either one, civilization's progress is slowed.
Cap and Trade will have greater impacts than either CAFE or ethanol, simply because it distorts every piece of the energy economy, not just transportation. As manufacturing continues to move to nations hungry for prosperity, where economic and civil freedoms are growing and power is abundant, the more advanced societies will increasingly rely on the information economy to maintain prosperity.
Stewart Brand's famous statement that "information wants to be free" is of course true. Trouble is, information only does any good when it is communicated, and communication is not free. Sharing information with your neighbor may only require the power from your morning oatmeal to move your vocal chords to generate a sound wave, but the more people you want to reach and the more information you want to share, the more power you need. The electric grid is the most efficient way to send that coded power, but somebody has to pay to get all those electrons vibrating.
The only free lunches are eaten by those folks taking a break from inventing perpetual motion machines.
Nobody we know has read the entire 1,200-page Cap and Trade bill that passed the House. Some of the stuff reported so far is spectacularly counter-productive, and that's just on the face of it. Never mind all the unintended consequences.
Of course the House did exempt the carbon emissions from corn ethanol. Surprised?
Maybe wind and solar will turn out to be good investments; they certainly are appealing, but in a distorted market, who knows? We would let the dust settle before putting any money there.
In an ever-changing world, with most people so scientifically illiterate that they are incapable of understanding the arguments about man-made global warming, the Cap and Trade bill seems less like a rational response to a possible threat than just another Great Leap Forward by those who want to remake the world at the point of a gun.
Over 2,000 lobbyists sought to influence this legislation. There will be lots of money made by those who know how to manipulate the system. Lawyers and Wall Street Cap and Traders will prosper. If you feel safe swimming with those sharks, invest away, but we will be heading for safer shores, docking our hard-earned nest egg in gold, silver, cobalt, oil, and natural gas, all the while smiling from behind the wheel of our Volkswagen turbo diesel.
The Cap and Trade future will be one of higher taxes and diminished opportunities. As we are forced into The Great Leveling, everyone will develop his own strategy for keeping his assets intact. Some young people will continue to innovate and find ways to prosper, but we fear many more will settle into days of fuzzy conformity and evenings of HD Survivor.
We suspect a sure growth industry will be advising people on the tools and ideas needed to weather the austere times ahead.
Politics is not our game, but we are reminded of Trotsky's famous observation: "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you." No one will escape the consequences of Big Government. Protecting yourself and your family from the impersonal onslaught of the regulatory machine may be your wisest move. Keep a low profile, vote for candidates who have the courage to throw sand in the gears, and even if you don't have a lot of money on the table, pay attention. This is a big deal.
Armageddon is hardly a trifle,
But the gas we fear most,
That could turn us to toast,
Comes from Believers so bloated and fartful.
Surviving Cap and Trade, A Short Guide for the Little Guy
(Newsflash, December 12, 2009, Al Gore reported to be well on his way to becoming the world's first Carbon Billionaire.)
Nobody knows what sort of energy rules will finally be burped up from the gaseous bowels of lawmakers bloated from dining on do-goodies and drunk with power, but history tells us that investors and average citizens can bank on at least a couple certainties.
Every time government cooks up a feast of regulation, especially one stuffed with as much half-baked science and garnished with layers of undigested pork as the Cap and Trade bill, the first priority of sane people should be to simply get out of the way. The smart ones will heed the ominous rumblings and duck. The naive and the preoccupied will be coated with a smelly mess.
Sometimes defensive action is the best investment.
We here at the Nothing Store remember well when the government thought it was a good idea to impose average mileage standards (CAFE) on the auto industry. Those of us who knew cars saw it wouldn't work. We knew that Detroit would rush to make some junky small cars to up their mpg average while still selling the public the big cars and trucks it wanted. We watched as people spent good money for Vegas and Pintos, X-cars, and Oldsmobile diesels cobbled together from gasser V8 parts. In 1982, General Motors recalled more cars than it made. Chrysler went bankrupt. This wasn't just a little government indigestion; this was major diarrhea, and a lot of people were smeared from head to toe when their cars fell apart before they finished paying for them. Meanwhile oil imports continued to grow. People were hurt, car companies went south, and the stated intent of the legislation--reduction in oil imports--was a bust. Indeed, the percentage of imported oil went up. Of course the left side of the chorus line sung the same old tune: More regulation is the answer, not less.
As Milton Friedman said
When a private enterprise fails, it is closed down; when a government
enterprise fails, it is expanded.
So of course Obama has continued the charade, requiring even higher
corporate fuel economy standards, with fines to be imposed on car
companies that don't make the grade. We wonder if the Obama bunch will
fine GM, which it now owns, essentially making taxpayers fine themselves.
The pile of absurdities is reaching to the stratosphere. And once again,
a lot of consumers will waste their money on lemons. Don't count on a
bailout. Sooner or later it will dawn on the dopes that we are broke.These are the same politicians who pushed ethanol, another boondoggle created in a rush of hysteria to solve problems not yet fully understood. Investors who jumped on the ethanol bandwagon must feel like they are hung over from drinking the stuff. The only people making money on ethanol are the usual crowd of the politically-connected--the farmers and agribusinesses who know how to game the system of crony capitalism that results when government picks winners and losers.
But the ethanol program is more than just a run-of-the mill screw-up. Congress managed to hurt the environment--growing corn for ethanol requires massive inputs of chemicals, fossil fuels, and water. Food prices rose, and mixing ethanol in fuel damaged countless internal combustion engines. Meanwhile, oil imports as a percentage of total oil use continue to grow. Naturally, the politicians are looking at requiring more ethanol. So it goes.
We were not tempted to invest any of our modest savings in ethanol manufacturing, even though it was very trendy a few years ago, and we took steps in our personal life to limit the damage from ethanol. For personal transportation, we are hedgers, owning both a hybrid and diesels. The hybrid is cheap to operate, but better yet will be hybrids which use the internal combustion engine only as small, on-board generators of electrical energy that powers the drive train. Plug-ins like the Chevy Volt, powered by energy generated from distant sources and sent along the grid, will not be economically viable until better batteries come along. Until then, we would avoid dedicated plug-ins.
Diesels are long-lasting and will run on a variety of fuels without damage. We have friends who run their old Mercedes diesels on fryer oil, and we may someday do the same. We have a diesel-powered boat. Boaters who own outboard motors have been one of the groups hardest hit by the ethanol mandate. We hear that on an island in the Chesapeake Bay, famous for its blue crab fishery, many of the outboard motors are out of commission at any one time because of problems with ethanol drawing water into the fuel. For any motor that sits awhile, like those in outboards, tractors, lawn equipment, and generators, ethanol is a disaster. Replacing fuel pumps, injection systems and carburetors is not cheap.
Sign of the Times
Our home state requires gasoline to contain 10 percent ethanol. Some are advocating 15 percent. People are replacing their gasoline-powered machinery with diesels. At the level of basic survival, where all financial planning starts, we are long on both hybrids and diesels. We have no argument against the government requiring clean diesels. There is a difference between regulations for health and safety, well thought out and applied in increments, and massive programs hastily imposed.
When the first diesel-electric hybrid comes along, and especially one that uses a small diesel solely to generate electrical energy, we will be a buyer of that vehicle and probably an investor in that company.
Because of demand in the developing world and the eventual devaluation of the dollar, a continued rise in the costs of transportation fuels is inevitable. Plan accordingly.
Energy is not in short supply, in fact, it is the most abundant thing in the universe, but turning it into useful power has been mankind's ongoing struggle. Our crawl up from poverty has always depended on two things: abundant power and freedom. The two are intertwined and when government restricts either one, civilization's progress is slowed.
Cap and Trade will have greater impacts than either CAFE or ethanol, simply because it distorts every piece of the energy economy, not just transportation. As manufacturing continues to move to nations hungry for prosperity, where economic and civil freedoms are growing and power is abundant, the more advanced societies will increasingly rely on the information economy to maintain prosperity.
Stewart Brand's famous statement that "information wants to be free" is of course true. Trouble is, information only does any good when it is communicated, and communication is not free. Sharing information with your neighbor may only require the power from your morning oatmeal to move your vocal chords to generate a sound wave, but the more people you want to reach and the more information you want to share, the more power you need. The electric grid is the most efficient way to send that coded power, but somebody has to pay to get all those electrons vibrating.
The only free lunches are eaten by those folks taking a break from inventing perpetual motion machines.
Nobody we know has read the entire 1,200-page Cap and Trade bill that passed the House. Some of the stuff reported so far is spectacularly counter-productive, and that's just on the face of it. Never mind all the unintended consequences.
Of course the House did exempt the carbon emissions from corn ethanol. Surprised?
Maybe wind and solar will turn out to be good investments; they certainly are appealing, but in a distorted market, who knows? We would let the dust settle before putting any money there.
In an ever-changing world, with most people so scientifically illiterate that they are incapable of understanding the arguments about man-made global warming, the Cap and Trade bill seems less like a rational response to a possible threat than just another Great Leap Forward by those who want to remake the world at the point of a gun.
Over 2,000 lobbyists sought to influence this legislation. There will be lots of money made by those who know how to manipulate the system. Lawyers and Wall Street Cap and Traders will prosper. If you feel safe swimming with those sharks, invest away, but we will be heading for safer shores, docking our hard-earned nest egg in gold, silver, cobalt, oil, and natural gas, all the while smiling from behind the wheel of our Volkswagen turbo diesel.
The Cap and Trade future will be one of higher taxes and diminished opportunities. As we are forced into The Great Leveling, everyone will develop his own strategy for keeping his assets intact. Some young people will continue to innovate and find ways to prosper, but we fear many more will settle into days of fuzzy conformity and evenings of HD Survivor.
We suspect a sure growth industry will be advising people on the tools and ideas needed to weather the austere times ahead.
Politics is not our game, but we are reminded of Trotsky's famous observation: "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you." No one will escape the consequences of Big Government. Protecting yourself and your family from the impersonal onslaught of the regulatory machine may be your wisest move. Keep a low profile, vote for candidates who have the courage to throw sand in the gears, and even if you don't have a lot of money on the table, pay attention. This is a big deal.
"hybrid cars"
"green cars"
biodiesel
biodiesel
biodiesel
electric cars