Ben Stein was wrong, now he's right?

First, watch the video of Ben Stein arguing with Peter Schiff about the housing collapse in 2008...watch the whole video too, it's awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYX1AgEV0vo

Obviously Schiff was right (and is still right), and Stein was embarrassingly wrong. Then read the NYT article of Ben Stein that came out today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/business/24every.html?ref=business


Sounds like a little light went on in Ben Stein's head. Maybe he wiped the dollar signs from his eyes and sees things a little more clearly. Good for him, we need a lot more people to recognize reality.

Another thing I want to point out is how ridiculous TV can be. Every Sunday I tune into the morning talking heads to hear some kind of discussion about the economy. Every week, for weeks now I've been disappointed. What could possibly be more important than the economy? I mean, check out this video about the Inspector General of the Federal Reserve and you tell me if there is anything more important than the gov's moves to "save" the economy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXlxBeAvsB8

Of course, those of us in the know, realize that nothing the gov is doing is saving the economy on any level. This country was on the way to economic self-destruction before Obama got into office, now Obama, Bernanke, Geithner and others have actually slammed the accelerator into the floor!

It's simple to understand really. If your wife or husband spent too much, ran up the credit card and spent your son's college savings, does it make sense to get an extension of credit from your credit card and INCREASE your spending further? No, of course not. It would be very painful but you have to cut all spending and save money. Your son can't have money for the mall, can't have his 1st car when he turns 16/17 and has to go to community college.  You can't go on vacation and you can't buy more useless things that will get you further into debt. 

The same goes for gov spending. Oh wait, don't forget, our lendors (foreign governments) are giving us less of their money....less credit. If you do some research you'll see the headline says that China has increased it's purchase of U.S. debt lately. Ahh, breathing room right? Not so fast, keep reading and you'll see that China is simply selling off it's purchases of securities from those like Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, and buying short term debt, no more 10 and 30 yr T-Bonds. They are not buying into Obama's solution, they are not stupid.

I should give Ben Stein some credit though, he did apologize to Schiff...

"Next, here’s a lesson I learned in a 12-step program and should have learned better: avoid contempt prior to investigation. When the financial stock meltdown started, I was on a television show with Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital, who warned that Merrill Lynch could be in very bad shape. I glibly said that I thought that its problems were limited and that the stock was a buy. Mr. Schiff was completely right and I was wrong. I had no idea that Mother Merrill, where I have been a happy stockholder for years, had been turned into a such a wild house of high-stakes gambling. I apologize to Mr. Schiff for my dismissal of his views, which turned out to be far superior to mine in this area. (I could do without his acolytes sending me endless hate mail, though.)"

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/business/09every.html?r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

I wish the President, his administration, the Fed, Congress, and state politicians (especially CA) would apologize too. Sadly, I think it's too late. I hope you have your seat belt on because as Chris Martenson said, "I think the next 20 years are going to be completely unlike the last 20 yrs." I'm buying Peter Schiff and Chris Martenson who got it right and make sense. Who are you buying?