U.S. Official Resigns in Protest of Afghan Strategy

Foreign Service Officer Matthew Hoh, a former Marine officer in Iraq, has resigned in protest over our planned escalation in Afghanistan. His background is impressive and his reasons are troubling.

But many Afghans, he wrote in his resignation letter, are fighting the United States largely because its troops are there -- a growing military presence in villages and valleys where outsiders, including other Afghans, are not welcome and where the corrupt, U.S.-backed national government is rejected. While the Taliban is a malign presence, and Pakistan-based al-Qaeda needs to be confronted, he said, the United States is asking its troops to die in Afghanistan for what is essentially a far-off civil war.

Hat tip to Polipundit.com

U.S. Dollar in Decline

As the world begins to to talk about pricing oil in a currency other than the dollar, the dollar has also lost its status as the reserve currency of the world.

Over the last three months, banks put 63 percent of their new cash into euros and yen -- not the greenbacks -- a nearly complete reversal of the dollar's onetime dominance for reserves, according to Barclays Capital. The dollar's share of new cash in the central banks was down to 37 percent -- compared with two-thirds a decade ago...

...Economists believe the market rebellion against the dollar will spread until Bernanke starts raising interest rates from around zero to the high single digits, and pulls back the flood of currency spewed from US printing presses.

"That's a cure, but it's also going to stifle any US economic growth," said Schiff. "The economy is addicted to the cheap interest and liquidity."

Economists warn that a jump in rates will clobber stocks and cripple the already stalled housing market.

"Bernanke's other choice is to keep rates at zero, print even more money and sell more debt, but we'll see triple-digit inflation that could collapse the economy as we know it.

"The stimulus is what's toxic -- we're poisoning ourselves and the global economy with it."

Our rapidly increasing national debt along with expansionary spending policies (causing the U.S. government to print more money while keeping interest rates near zero) is leading the world to believe that we are no longer a reliable source of investment.

Global Warming

Are you feeling the global warming effects? Here in in Illinois we are not....Doesn't seem like the world is experiencing it either...

For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.

And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.

U.S. Currency and Financial Stability

The World Economic Forum has come out with their rankings...the U.S. is now ranked 50th in currency stability and 38th in financial stability.

And our Congress continues to spend money that we don't have....don't look for these numbers to get any better any time soon.

Has the Stimulus Bill Helped the Economy?

Early in the year we were told that the massive, pork-laden stimulus bill had to be passed immediately so that our economy could rebound more quickly. The Obama Administration showed us graphs of what would happen with and without the stimulus package. They promised it would "create or save" millions of jobs (never mind that you can't measure "saved" jobs).

Well, if you go back and look at that graph, we WORSE OFF than we would have been WITHOUT that massive spending bill. Except, of course, that our government is further in debt...

click here for graph