Big Brother Update

So, these are things that litterally just happened yesterday, after I uploaded my final post regarding the police state. I really wanted to switch topics a little bit, but given that these just happened yesterday, I had to upload them.

First, your daily dose of the Police State:



And, on my way home from work last night, I heard this story on NPR marketplace (you can listen to the story if you click on the tab on the top-rightish part of the screen). Now, obviously this is about individuals, not governments, but it's still applicable. It's stories like these that make me wonder WHY on earth we have such a love affair with gadgetry and technology... I've been seriously perplexed by this obsession that we have since I was a little boy, and as it continues to grow at an exponential rate, it continues to baffle me. Everybody's so obsessed with the 'coolness' of technological innovations that they never stop to consider how easy it is to abuse. Back in college, I wrote an essay arguing against the frequently cited claim that 'technological innovation' will be the answer to all of our problems, like food production, population growth, disease, etc... Clearly, technology can solve some of these problems, but at what cost? I've dubbed this to be what I call 'the old woman who swallowed the fly' syndrome, which, I think it's a rather appropriate way to describe that mentality. But I digress, that's a rant I could spend a whole 'nother post on.

Lastly, I just wanted to get back to the economy for a bit...


Hmm... what does this remind me of?



Sounds like the makings of Grapes of Wrath 2 to me. And on that note, for those of you that didn't hear, Bernake announced yesterday that he was not going to raise interest rates. Let me make this perfectly clear: the Fed has 2 options right now... It can either raise interest rates (stifling any semblance of 'growth' to the US economy), or it WILL have to continue with Quantitative Easing (IE, 'printing' more 'money', thus driving up inflation even further). There are no other options... So, we can see that Bernake is taking us further down the path of inflation.

Also interesting to note, in response to the article I posted yesterday, we'll hit our debt ceiling around the middle of May, and if we don't raise it, we'll have enough money to pay our obligations until June/July before we run out of money. Interestingly enough, QE2 is set to run out around that same time... With congress being what it is today (which, by the way, saw an article (though I can't find it now) that congress has just a 9% approval rating), we're approaching a MAJOR cliff, and very quickly running out of time to address it. We almost had a shutdown over a couple dozen billion... now we're literally talking about TRILLIONS of dollars...

Turbulent times indeed. Better step up the preparation, cuz things could get rocky sooner than we thought.