“Little else is required,” Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations, once remarked, “to carry a state to the highest degree of affluence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.”

But this quintessentially laissez-faire perspective gains very little traction in modern-day America. In fact, it gains no traction whatsoever, except in a few fringey financial publications. Instead, America’s political elite conspires with the Wall Street bourgeoisie to lead the nation from the highest degree of affluence to the lowest barbarism.

The process begins innocently enough in the name of “crisis management,” as the political elite provides multi-trillion-dollar guarantees and bailouts to the Wall Street bourgeoisie. The proletariat embraces these bizarre, counterintuitive remedies because they genuinely believe these “remedies” contain curative powers. In other words, the proletariat believes that bureaucrats

It’s the Ultimate Fighting Event - Worldwide Economic Mud Wrestling! See it now! First, the Honey Hun … German Chancellor Angela Merkel took on a whole pack of central bankers and economists, charging that they were going to make the situation worse by spending money they didn’t have… and causing inflation.

Then, historian Niall Ferguson - Professor Punchy - took a jab at the meddlers in the pages of the Financial Times. His point was simple enough - that the feds were spending trillions of dollars without really knowing what they were doing. If they borrow money to stimulate the economy they are just taking money out of the private economy and diverting it to public spending. There’s no gain in that, he said.

Watch out Niall! The Nobel Knucklehead - economist Paul Krugman - hit back.

We’ll return to this grapplefest. But first, let’s take a look at what is happening

Washington’s latest bailout scheme will rob you blind for years to come.  I object! Sometimes the stuff we talk about here is pretty academic. This country is up… that sector is down. Sometimes it’s all about a specific stock idea that you might care to invest in.

But today, I am writing to you about something that affects me on the most personal level (I’ll just bet it affects you the same way too), and I’m really ticked off about it.

Bandits in Academic Robes

I’ve got a statement in front of me right now by Gregory Mankiw and Kenneth Rogoff, baldly stating that they wish to take away a major portion of my hard-earned money (and yours) for years to come – and give it to idiots.

Rogoff and Mankiw are your classic ivory tower types who spend their adult lives hiding out in

Risk Assets soar!  German Investor Confidence surprises!  High yielders kicking tail…  Who’s afraid of the SNB? And Now… Today’s Pfennig! OK… Speaking of patience… I think that’s what we’ll all have to possess a lot of going forward with these currencies and stocks… Here’s what I’m talking about… Yesterday morning it looked as though the recent rally in stocks was over, complete, pack up the bags, get on the bus, Gus… And with the trading theme of throwing all risk assets in the same bag and trading them alike that’s been in place since last July, this would seem to be