Its time to bid a not-so-fond adieu to the New York Times columns of Ben Stein.

No, he is not leaving the paper. Rather, we've reached the point where Stein's commentary has become detached from reality, so ridiculously fabricated, that it can no longer be read....

The final straw as far as I am concerned came this past weekend.

Rather than admit his error, Stein went a completely different way: He blamed the sell off on traders. (Can Their Wish Be the Market’s Command?) It was the last bit of idiocy from him anyone should tolerate.

Apropos to the subject of disagreeing with Ben Stein.

The Big Picture | Farewell To Ben Stein

Chinese leaders have deliberately held down living standards for their own people and propped them up in the United States. This is the real meaning of the vast trade surplus—$1.4 trillion and counting, going up by about $1 billion per day—that the Chinese government has mostly parked in U.S. Treasury notes. In effect, every person in the (rich) United States has over the past 10 years or so borrowed about $4,000 from someone in the (poor) People’s Republic of China.

This is a good article. Fortunately, this relationship looks likely to continue for the time being, and it is the reason the present economic problems haven't turned into an all out catastrophy... The Chinese are literally bailing out our banks.

The $1.4 Trillion Question

The US is at risk of losing its top-notch triple-A credit rating within a decade unless it takes radical action to curb soaring healthcare and social security spending, Moody’s, the credit rating agency, said on Thursday.

The warning over the future of the triple-A rating – granted to US government debt since it was first assessed in 1917 – reflects growing concerns over the country’s ability to retain its financial and economic supremacy.

What is the Democrat's Social Security Plan?

FT.com / World - Moody’s says spending threatens US rating

York professor Peter Spencer, chief economist for the ITEM Club, says the global authorities have just weeks to get this right, or trigger disaster.advertisement"The central banks are rapidly losing control. By not cutting interest rates nearly far enough or fast enough, they are allowing the money markets to dictate policy. We are long past worrying about moral hazard," he says.

Merry Christmas!

Crisis may make 1929 look a 'walk in the park' - Telegraph

By STEPHEN S. ROACH
Published: December 16, 2007

This recession will be deeper than the shallow contraction earlier in this decade.

You Can Almost Hear It Pop - New York Times

Politicians need to appeal not only to people at risk of losing their homes but also to those such as Ben Sullivan, who sees the agreement as a undeserved bailout. After the 2001 technology stock bust, many people lost significant value in their retirement plans, Sullivan said. "No one was offering to pay for their 401(k) losses. Why should they do it for their housing losses?" said the 28-year-old commercial banker.

Sullivan lived in the District for years and watched as his friends flipped condominiums and investment properties. "I think we shouldn't be bailing out the homeowners that got greedy buying homes they couldn't afford," said Sullivan, who moved to Atlanta nine months ago.

Those Who Avoided Risk Call Plan A Raw Deal - washingtonpost.com

Stewart: When you lower interest rates, it drives money to stocks and lowers the return people get on savings.

Greenspan: Yes, indeed.

The Big Picture | Alan Greenspan on The Daily Show

This is very, very bad! Maybe Ron Paul is right about having a gold based currency. Interest rate changes are warranted to smooth the edges of the business cycle, not to bail out a bunch of transparently poor financial decisions made by borrowers and lenders! This is the most socialist, politically motivated, special interest serving thing that I have ever seen the fed do!

In the free market, those that made bad credit decisions must be allowed to pay the price, and only by paying dearly can lessons truly be learned. Borrowers who were unwitting and took on too much debt must learn that there are consequences for their actions. Homebuilders that built too many homes or overpaid for land need to face the consequences. Wall Street firms that provided credit to all of these activities with too much laxity must also pay a price. This is all part of a healthy correction.

Fed Rate Cut!

I've spoken to a number of people over the past few years who've convinced themselves that the housing bubble is really only something that is going on in California and the increase in their home price is real permanent wealth. Such a fallacy is perfectly understandable emotionally, but its bad business. Here are some graphs of the regions of the country that are most impacted by the "sub prime" forclosure problem. Do you live in one of the darkly colored areas? If so, lots of people in your area can't afford to pay their mortgages. That means housing prices in your area are going to go down. Most of the Americans on MemeStreams that I know live in such an area.

The Big Picture | Brief Foreclosure History & Mortgage Delinquency Maps

House prices in the U.S. from 1890 until 2005, plotted as a roller coaster that you ride from a first person perspective. Here is the datasource. Hold on to your hats.

Real Estate Roller Coaster - Google Video