Free Talk Live

Watch as a Democratic Senator gets nailed on the Fiscal Cliff. Maria Bartiromo (probably speaking for millions of Americans) is sick of the BS spewing from the politicians in Washington regarding the so-called Fiscal Cliff and rhetorically asks: "Are you guys just incompetent or what?"

when you hear congress and their media cronies come out whining about how they need to squeeze a little more money out of your pocket or they’re going to have to lay off police and fire fighters, and throw old people into the snow, and let children be educated by wolves, and the roads, the roads, for God’s sake WHAT ABOUT THE ROADS!!! … Keep in mind that while the whole nation teeters on the edge of that fiscal cliff, Obama and Congress just gave themselves a raise.

No grocery store would hire a clerk who insisted on adding up a customer's purchases with an ancient abacus. Yet a similarly archaic standard is about to be inflicted on the nation's taxpayers and consumers. Current farm programs—which consist of massive subsides, price supports and various marketing restrictions—were enacted in 2008 and expire on Dec. 31. That should be cause for rejoicing, except that the system is rigged against consumers and taxpayers.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reached its highest number yet of companies audited for undocumented immigrants on their payrolls this past fiscal year. Audits of employer I-9 forms increased from 250 in fiscal year 2007 to more than 3,000 in 2012. From fiscal years 2009 to 2012, the total amount of fines grew to nearly $13 million from $1 million. The number of company managers arrested has increased to 238, according to data provided by ICE.

Warning that our nation's fiscal health has deteriorated appreciably since the onset of the financial crisis and the recession, Bernanke called upon lawmakers to confront the long term fiscal challenges sooner rather than later. If lawmakers don't confront them, they'll find themselves confronted *by* them.

Insanity abounds! An old suggestion has resurfaced that was originally made during the debt ceiling crisis in 2011. Cullen Roche, writing for the Pragmatic Capitalist, shared a suggestion sent to him by one of his readers, and the unusual idea had made it all the way to the desks of Yale law professors and court economists. Now the suggestion has resurfaced, this time from Brad Plumer, writing for the Washington Post. To solve the economic crisis all they have to do is issue two shiny new platinum coins worth … wait for it … $1 trillion dollars each!

As we slide towards the “fiscal cliff,” President Obama’s stance seems pretty clear: Americans want lots of stuff but shouldn’t have to pay for it. (It’s a position the GOP has also often taken.) A new education survey suggests the President’s position is politically smart.

With Congress spending all its time trying to avert the fiscal cliff, a slew of other legislative matters are going unattended. One of them is the agriculture bill which, if not addressed, could lead to a doubling of the price of milk early next year. It works like this: In order to keep dairy farmers in businesses, the government agrees to buy milk and other products if the price gets too low. The current agriculture bill has a formula that means the government steps in if the price of milk were to drop by roughly half from its current national average of about $3.65 a gallon.

Limiting supply has clearly been a huge plus for the BTC. Becoming known as a currency for illegal drugs and gambling is more problematic, of course. But let’s not forget that the U.S. Treasury printed 3 billion $100 bills in the 2012 Fiscal Year. Most of those (the Federal Reserve estimates 80%) go overseas and many of them simply facilitate the global drug and arms trade, not to mention tax evasion and human trafficking. So the BTC’s growing role in the same types of business might qualify it for “Reserve currency” status sooner than anyone thinks.