U.S. banks getting slaughtered in the carnage

Eighty years ago Ludwig von Mises was writing about what is happening to the U.S. and world financial markets today. As Mises and the rest of the Austrian economists knew, whenever you print money out of thin air (it's not backed by anything), bankers run amok with the easy credit while the populace takes the bait, leading to malinvestment. It's simple - the inevitable contraction follows the peak from the Fed-induced expansion.

As you can see in this article, U.S. banks got creamed in the 4th quarter. Also on prudentbear.com today, the president of the IMF said this worldwide crisis could be quite severe. Well, he finally got something right (after the Austrians have been discussing this for a decade).

The solution? Abolish the Fed, get back on the gold standard, and get the government out of the economy. 2008 and 2009 won't be pretty.