Podesta wants to take more of your property

John Podesta, president of a liberal think-tank, wants the government to take more of your property with a VAT, or value-added tax. A VAT is pretty much a national sales tax. In their never-ending thirst for our money, the government, cheered on by the liberal/socialist types like Podesta, consider all the countless ways they can rob us.

Podesta is as uninformed and clueless about history and economics as well. As you can read in the article, he says that former President Clinton's tax on the wealthy led to a growing U.S. economy. Oh really? Are you sure, John, it had nothing to do with the clueless Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan printing billions and billions out of thin air?

Greenspan exposed

Another great article from the Mises Institute, this one exposing the former Fed boss Alan Greenspan. Unfortunately for America, Greenspan tried to nullify the fundamental laws of economics. Once of his worst sins was printing money, and printing money, and printing money. The "Great Printer" printed so much in the 90's that the NASDAQ went up ten times in ten years! That's not really supposed to happen, and it all began to unravel in 2000.

So when your friends tell you it was the "free market" that caused all of our problems, just have them go to mises.org or here to find out the truth.

Fannie Mae took the Fed's bait

According to this article, the Federal National Mortgage Association, nicknamed "Fannie Mae," is in some trouble. But it's their own fault. As Alan Greenspan, former Fed Chairman, and his successor, "Helicopter" Ben Bernanke, the current Fed Chairman, inflated away the dollar by pumping excess liquidity into the market for years and years, Fannie Mae took the bait and got involved in the whole game. Instead of being more prudent, Fannie Mae was just one cog in the whole housing bubble.

What kind of trouble is this quasi-governmental agency in? Well, there may be substantial problems, since the article points out that as of December it had assets of $35.8 billion. Now? $12.2 billion. Ouch.