Insulting Government Employees, PPI Up, and Rand Paul Busts Out Austrian Econ on Geithner

Anyone familiar with my work has likely seen the barrage of insults I have thrown at government employees over the years.  Still, I gotta quasi stick up for them in this instance.  In regard to Ron Paul's great new budget plan, CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviews the Dr. and suggests that the plan would cause great unemployment by the elimination of government agencies:

The idiots at Business Insider agree:

RON PAUL: I want to immediately put another 10mm Americans out of work http://read.bi/pDjOp1 [by cutting $500B of govt spending immed.]

What these statists don't realize is that money not sapped into bureaucratic paper pushing will be better spent elsewhere.  This point is made by Paul but the benefits of eliminating government employment come down to much more than that.  If I were a government employee, I would be insulted by the fact that people in the media imply that I am incapable of doing anything else besides my present job.  When the likes of Blitzer say that laying off government workers will create massive unemployment, they are really saying that said employees would have no means by which to support themselves after being let go.  They become incapable of finding suitable employment according to short sighted government apologists.

This should be insulting to be told that you are only capable of only performing one job.  Disregarding the fact that money not squandered through the public sector stays in the private economy to be used elsewhere, claiming that government employees can only specialize in paper pushing is idiotic and disregards man's ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

New Producer Price Index numbers are out today and wouldn't you know they beat expectations by increasing at .8%:

Alas, that is precisely what it got after September PPI printed up 0.8% from the month before (following the unchanged print in August) and 6.9% YoY. The number was above even the highest expectation from Wall Street strategists (consensus was 0.2%). And while PPI ex food and energy was up just 0.2%, try telling that to those 99% of the population whose income is barely sufficient to buy the, you guessed it, food and energy, which rose by 0.6% and 2.3% respectively.

Mainstream forecasters were surprised but it makes sense given such reported trends:

Despite all the bleak economic news, a funny thing has been happening in the financial industry over the last few months: the banks have quietly turned on the lending spigot.

Loan growth is still modest. And it remains heavily weighted toward the strongest corporate and consumer borrowers. But after several quarters of having their loan balances plunge or flatten out, several of the nation’s biggest banks are reporting increases.

On Monday, Citigroup officials said the bank recorded loan growth, compared with a year ago, in almost every one of its businesses during the third quarter, and in almost every corner of the globe. Wells Fargo executives said new loan commitments to small businesses were up 8 percent, while lending to bigger companies has been growing for 14 months in a row. Across the industry, analysts expect credit card loan balances will start increasing before the end of the year.

“The narrative that banks aren’t lending is incorrect,” Timothy J. Sloan, Wells Fargo’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. “Lending is strong, and based on what we’re seeing,” he added, it will “continue to grow.”

Bernanke has the economy all revved up and ready to go at this point.  This holiday season will be very telling to see if a manipulated recovery really is in the works.  The U.K. is attempting this same feat but is getting different results:

UK Inflation Rises Again to 5.2% - Ultra Loose Monetary Policy May Lead to Stagflation
Gold is trading at USD 1,656.50, EUR 1,211.20, GBP 1,054.00, JPY 127,093.00, AUD 1,634.70 and CHF 1,494.10 per ounce.

The U.K. is probably getting hit more by the European crisis as its banks may be exposed to more euro debt than the U.S.'s.

I will end with a great video of Sen. Rand Paul grilling Treasury Sect. Timothy Geithner today:

I may not always agree with Rand on everything but he clearly demonstrates his knowledge on Austrian econ to Geithner who wouldn't know a dollar from rectangle shaped leaf.  Nothing beats watching Turbo Tax Tim squirm in his seat as he does the pandering of his boss while crying "the crisis wasn't my fault! Stop yelling at me!"

Update- Almost threw up watching the intro speeches by the candidates for the GOP debate.  This is gonna be pathetic.  Paul just said he likes that many people aren't paying taxes.  I agree completely, the half of Americans not paying income taxes shouldn't start paying taxes, the other half should not pay income taxes either.  Romney is tearing apart Cain which is hilarious.

Just wanted to point out this interesting piece from Zerohedge on the higher education bubble:

• Vince Sampson, president, Education Finance Council, said during a panel at the IMN ABS East Conference in Miami Monday that lenders are no longer pushing loans to people who can’t afford them.
• The bubble in the sector is over
• Noted political dynamic of education funding
• U.S. is currently 16th in the world in degree attainment
• He notes the U.S. education secretary and U.S. president have probably looked at that number
• Nevertheless state universities are struggling because state governments are poorer: Sampson
• Says a sustained effort is underway at some schools to bring in out-of-state tuition, which typically pay 100% of the cost
• Barbara Lambotte, a senior credit officer at Moody’s said during the panel that student loan lenders are chasing the same potential borrowers
• Everybody is going after borrowers with co-signers and high FICOs, also students who may be going to the better schools: Lambotte
• Gary Santo, a MD at First Marblehead said during the panel that borrowers too are being more conservative in theirchoice of education funding
• Lambotte said Moody’s outlook on private student loan ABSmarket is negative, but newer loans should perform better

I can only hope the value of my degree goes up because of this.