According to the LA Times, Ron Paul is no longer a fringe character:

For three decades, Texas congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul’s extreme brand of libertarian economics consigned him to the far fringes even among conservatives. Not a few times, his views put him on the losing end of 434-1 votes on Capitol Hill.

No longer. With the economy still struggling and political divisions deepening, Paul’s ideas not only are gaining a wider audience but also are helping to shape a potentially historic battle over economic policy — a struggle that will affect everything including jobs, growth and the nation’s place in the global economy.

His warnings on deficits and inflation are now Republican mantras.

Read more at Mish.

Despite an attempt to add a crippling amendment, and the (surprise) opposition of Barney Frank, the bill passed. Here’s the Youtube video:

For more details, see Mish.

So, Orly Taitz has released a picture of what is purportedly a certified copy of a Kenyan birth certificate for Barack Obama. You can see it at WorldNet Daily. Before everyone gets too excited, here’s a few things to consider:

• Kenya didn’t become a republic until December 1964. The birth certificate is dated in February 1964.
• Reportedly, the name of the certifying clerk, E.F Lavender, is also the name of a common detergent in Kenya
• The certificate# 44 0 47 is laughable: 44 = he’s the 44th US President, O = Obama & 47 = his age.
• The book number listed is 44B. That’s 44 – he’s the 44th US President, B = Barack.

All in all, a lot of suggestions it’s a fake.

If you want to understand why the stimulus will fail, just read Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s article in the Telegraph entitled Bond Market Calls Fed’s Bluff As World Falls Apart. As Ambrose points out:

The yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds – the world’s benchmark cost of capital – has jumped from 2pc to 3pc since Christmas despite efforts to talk the rate down.

The Fed has stepped into the breach, up to a point. It has bought $350bn of commercial paper, and begun to buy $600bn of mortgage bonds. That helps. But still it recoils from buying Treasuries, perhaps fearing that any move to “monetise” Washington’s deficit starts a slippery slope towards an Argentine fate. Or perhaps Bernanke doesn’t believe his own assurances that the Fed can extract itself easily from emergency policies when the cycle turns.

Now, the stimulus is going to add another $800 billion to the borrowings, and who knows how much Geithner’s “Bad Bank” plan will add in addition. Borrowing of that much money is bound to increase interest rates even more. And that increase will directly counter a stimulus bill that is already badly constructed to produce immediate benefits.

Check out this video from Jim Cramer in which he admits the current market is rigged, and that trust is breaking down. His solution: more regulation. If they are calling for more regulation on CNBC, then you know that change is coming. Unfortunately, that change will, in the end, make no difference.
It will make no difference, because this economic system will end the way every other system based on a debased or fiat currency has ended: with a crash. If you look at history, you will find that every time fiat money has been used, it has failed. And, it has failed the same way, with a wave of debt, speculation and inflation.

Finally, somebody is going after Robert Rubin and his part in the current rapid destruction of our financial system. Surprisingly, it’s the Wall Street Journal. Less surprisingly, Rubin has a litany of excuses:

Under fire for his role in the near-collapse of Citigroup Inc., Robert Rubin said its problems were due to the buckling financial system, not its own mistakes, and that his role was peripheral to the bank’s main operations even though he was one of its highest-paid officials. “Nobody was prepared for this,” Mr. Rubin said in an interview.

Sure, nobody was prepared! Except for all those people who were warning about the coming crisis for years before it happened! Since 1999, Rubin was paid, not counting stock options, $115 million by Citi! Presumably, he was paid that much to help Citi avoid bankruptcy.

Today, the United States’ political and economic systems are stuffed to the gills with people of two types: those who immediately and effectively blame others, and the fools who let them get away with it. Rubin is a prime example of the first type, and things will not get better until we all stop being the second type. This is why I have little hope for the incoming Obama administration. So far, he is staffing his economic team with people who were complicit in the current destruction. More of the same is not going to work, and that is all that Obama’s team is offering.

For more on Rubin, see Rubin Agonistes, and Mirabile Dictu! Rubin Takedown by the Wall Street Journal.

Today, the Fed announced that it was allowing American Express to restructure as a bank holding company. This gives American Express access to the Fed’s emergency credit lines. That’s a pretty good indication that American Express is in severe trouble.

There are 13 former Goldman Sachs directors running the Treasury Department and the NY Fed. For the last five years, Goldman Sachs has been, by far, Obama’s largest campaign contributor. Jim Johnson, who sits on the Goldman Sachs board, was a chief Obama campaign advisor before he was busted for his sordid Countrywide deal. Warren Buffet, who owns a $5 billion stake in Goldman Sachs was another Obama advisor. Robert Rubin, a former Co-Chairman of Goldman Sachs was an Obama financial advisor. Other Obama advisors include JPM’s Jamie Dimon, who in the last 6 months has received $213 billion from the Fed and Paulson, and Timothy Geithner, the engineer behind the Bear Stearns/JP Morgan deal.

So, what’s the chance that the Treasury Department will see much change under Obama?

Only a fool would say that there are not substantive differences between Barack Obama and John McCain. Yet, in the end, these differences are irrelevant to the fate of the United States. Once an empire begins to decline; reversal is almost impossible. This is particularly true, when financial engineering has replaced real achievement. When a nation reaches that point, then there are few real sources of wealth available to it. As Kevin Phillips has pointed out:

On the edge of decline the Spanish had gloried in their New World gold and silver; the Dutch, in their investment income and lending to princes and czarinas; and the British, in their banks, brokers, and global financial network. In none of these situations, however, could financial services succeed in upholding the national preeminence that had been earlier built by explorers, conquistadores, maritime skills, innovative science and engineering, the first railroads, electrical dynamos, and great iron and steel works. Invariably, power and greatness passed to new explorers, innovators and industrialists.

Each of those declining empires had skilled statesmen who appreciated the true situation of their countries and tried to restore its preeminence. In every case they failed, because the power of existing political factions to defend their own interests was too great. Consider that Spain was far richer and more powerful than the U.S. in the 16th Century. And yet, it fell very swiftly. If the Count-Duke of Olivares couldn’t save Spain, who would bet that John McCain or Barack Obama can save the United States?