More evidence

Even though the government hasn't officially declared our current economic crisis a recession, we all know it's here. Car dealers know for sure, and he's an excerpt from an article on cnn.com regarding a car dealership in Florida:

Mr. Thomas has stopped ordering new vehicles, and he is relentlessly cutting costs, including his own salary. He is slashing medical benefits and matching funds for the retirement accounts of his remaining employees. He has stopped giving free oil changes and tires to charities, stopped offering coffee to customers and even canceled janitorial services for the bathrooms.

Sounds like the contraction phase of the business cycle. Government grows the money supply leading to easy credit, malinvestment occurs, we reach a peak (consumers are tapped), and then the pain begins, as you can see above.

More government help - please no!

Governments around the world are trying to figure out how to "save" their economies. They all vow to do something, and usually use the term "stimulus." So, they want to stimulate their economies. Unfortunately for them, that is impossible. Only entrepreneurs, who invest capital to start businesses and employ millions while providing the goods and services we want and need, can "stimulate" the economy. Since governments don't make bicycles, candles, pizza slices, pens, shirts, cars, and the billions of other items we desire, they cannot "stimulate" their economies. They can only get out of the way, and leave businesses alone.

The loons who created this mess (by allowing their central banks to inflate) are meeting to discuss the problem. The problem is, they are prescribing the same medicine - the wrong medicine. Get out of the way, stop taxing and regulating, eliminate your central bank, and stop printing fiat currency. Then, and only then, will economies flourish. They won't do this, of course, so we're in for a decades-long global recession. Mark my words.

Just the first step

Governments usually take small steps when they take away our freedom. If they didn't, we would revolt. So they do it slowly, one step at a time. They sell it - it's all about patriotism. And they keep rolling out Kennedy's famous "ask what you can do for your country" line.

As reported on the examiner.com, the first step is to expand national service:
"President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start."

Amazing. So I guess they own you and me. It says "requiring." What if you don't want to go? What if you want to do with your property (yourself) as you see fit? Will you face jail time by refusing to report?

This is dangerous - very dangerous.

The future of America

As you can read here in this article, California is broke. There's a massive financial shortfall, and the state may need help from the federal government. That means you and I may have to pay to keep California from collapsing.

Amazing what happens in the public sector. Runaway spending, no accountability, and petty bureaucrats spending other people's money. Unfortunately, this looks like the future of the entire country, since the entire banking system is insolvent.