The Bite is Worse than the Bark

I don't follow celebrities much but I was sad to hear that Natasha Richardson had died from what had appeared to be a minor head injury. I am a bit clumsy and I fall or bump into things all the time. If I had fallen as she did, I would have gotten up, dusted myself off and said I was OK too. You do this, especially when you are tough and strong-willed. We praise that. Alas, this is not the right decision all of the time.

Yet this is supposed to be the rallying cry for America 2009, the President said it in his inaugural address, "we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America." Of course, along with the chorus are the solos and the bridge - threatening to burden the song with too much histrionics, like the AIG outrage, the fear of releasing all those "terrorists" being held at Guantanamo Bay who were truly tortured as was confirmed today though we knew this all along but were afraid to challenge Bush and his deputy, Gonzales, and the Federal Reserve buying Treasury Bonds.

What, say you? How does the Central Bank of the United States purchase bonds issued by the Treasury of the United States? We are cannibalizing our own money supply. Where does the Federal Reserve "get" all of this money? They just decide to print more money? And what is all of this money tied to? Not much, it seems other than the value of the dollar in relation to all the other world currencies. The dollar went down today since we "watered down" our money supply. Isn't that what the Fed has been doing this whole time, when it reaches deep down into the printing press for those bailout funds it has been doling out left, right and center? Now we buy our own bonds with wet, freshly printed, money and this is supposed to help us, right? Where is China when you need them to buy our debt? Oh yeah, they are now big enough to kick our A's.

Today China said no to Coca-Cola in its bid to buy a large Chinese soft beverage maker. Serves us right, what goes around, comes around. Americans would have been screaminng if the Sears Tower was to become Wangchi Tower; Willis Tower? We hardly raised an eyebrow.