All actions have consequences. Consumers living beyond their means, taking out loans for homes they couldn't possibly afford, resulted in the sub-prime crisis, Fanny and Freddie mess, and meltdown of the US economy.

The TARP bailout for $700-some billion has opened the door to every Tom, Dick and Harry industry standing in line for a bailout handout: the auto industry, rental car companies, ethanol industry, and credit card companies to name a few. States such as California and even Wisconsin might put their hands out as well. President elect Obama is talking about another bigger and better stimulus package too, asap.  

Our government acts like they can give out billions of bailout and stimulus money with no consequences.

But history tells us no economy can thrive by printing up and passing out dollars. It did not work for Germany, where you practically needed a wheelbarrow to hold your Marks to buy a loaf of bread. "In 1914 one egg cost less than one mark. Nine years later an egg was 80,000,000,000 (eighty billion marks)."*

To finance the new spending during Carter years, the joke was, Hey, Jimmy, just print up another roll of $20s! We know how well that worked.

So why do we think we can do what no other government could do in the past, by printing up new money to finance and shore up failing industries with no consequences? Arrogance maybe?

Money Morning sounded another warning today: With Billions in Bailout Funds Flowing, the "Peso-fication" of the Dollar Continues:  

The plethora of bank and corporate bailouts, stimulus plans and interest-rate cuts that the U.S. government has produced over the last three months can only lead to one outcome: The U.S. dollar has to decline.

During the crisis so far, the dollar in general, and U.S. Treasury bonds in particular, have been regarded as a “safe haven,” making the dollar strong and pushing long-term U.S. Treasury rates downward. In the New Year, however, this is likely to change – the weight of the added supply of dollars in circulation will be too great for the greenback to shrug off.

Much of that report makes my head spin, but I do understand the basic principle that you cannot increase the money supply so dramatically without inflationary consequences. The amount of deficit spending we have committed to so far is unprecedented.

Usually I check the stock market every day and look at how the dollar is trading too. Today, the US dollar was down in all trading: against the Canadian dollar - $1.23 vs $1.28 a few days ago, against the Euro, the dollar had fallen 4 cents to .76.  

If this trend continues, the dollar loses value, therefore, you need more of them to pay for purchases. Hence, the wheelbarrow will be needed to carry your cash to the store! On second thought, people will just use a credit card instead of cash, so no need for the wheelbarrows.

What we need is to tighten our belts and live within our means, be it at the local, state, or federal level of government. It is time to act like grownups and say NO to frivolous spending and bailouts. If we don't, the Carter years will look like the good old days for the dollar and us.

Did you contact Senators Kohl and Feingold about the auto bailout? Senator Kohl (Phone: (414) 297-4451, (202) 224-5653) and Senator  Feingold (Office of Senator Russ Feingold (202) 224-5323)

*From Richard Maybury's Whatever Happened to Penny Candy, Wallpaper, Wheelbarrows, and Recession, pp 52. 

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Remember the song, Raindrops keep falling on my head? I'm thinking we need a new version: ACORNs keep falling on my head! (Sing along to the original song's last refrain.)

ACORNs keep falling on my head,

And just like the guy who keeps reg-i-st'ring the dead,

No one seems to care,

'Cause, we're never gonna stop the fraud by complainin'

Because they're free-e-e,

No one's checkin' their ID 

I'm sure we could come up with alternative lyrics to the whole song with a different theme for each stanza: multiple registration, fictitious name, underage, felon, non-citizen registrations--you name it, but you get the idea. 

Here are just a few newsworthy rotten ACORNs. 

Missouri officials suspect fake voter registration:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Officials in Missouri, a hard-fought jewel in the presidential race, are sifting through possibly hundreds of questionable or duplicate voter-registration forms submitted by an advocacy group that has been accused of election fraud in other states.

Charlene Davis, co-director of the election board in Jackson County, where Kansas City is, said the fraudulent registration forms came from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. She said they were bogging down work Wednesday, the final day Missourians could register to vote.

1 VOTER, 72 REGISTRATIONS: 'ACORN PAID ME IN CASH & CIGS': 

CLEVELAND - A man at the center of a voter-registration scandal told The Post yesterday he was given cash and cigarettes by aggressive ACORN activists in exchange for registering an astonishing 72 times, in apparent violation of Ohio laws.

Local 2 Investigates Dead Voters: (And Texas has a voter ID law!)

Texas Watchdog compared Harris County's voter registration roll with the Social Security death index and found more than 4,000 matches -- registered voters that, it appears, are already dead.

...Auditors identified 49,049 registered voters state-wide who may have been ineligible to vote. Approximately 23,576 may have been deceased and another 23,114 were possible felons. And they found more than 2,359 duplicate records.

Many convicted felons remain on voter rolls, according to Sun Sentinel investigation. The video clip interviewed one convicted felon who was registered by the Democratic party. (ACORN was not mentioned in this case.)

Since January 2006, more than 1.6 million new voters have registered in Florida. FDLE [Florida Department of Law Enforcement] identified more than 124,000 possible felons.

...Elections workers are now reviewing more than 3,800 possible felon voters but have more than 108,000 others still to be checked. "We've not touched those records yet," Browning said.

Yesterday, the 3rd person [was] charged with election fraud in Wisc.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A third person in Milwaukee faces charges of election fraud after prosecutors say he turned in 54 fake registrations, including one for a man who died 16 years ago.

Frank Walton, 29, submitted the inaccurate voter forms to the city Election Commission, according to a criminal complaint, with errors that also included fake driver's license numbers and Social Security numbers.

Walton faces one count of falsely procuring voter registration and faces up to 3 1/2 years in prison and $10,000 in fines if he's convicted.

And, let's not forget that even Mickey Mouse Tries to Register to Vote, The cartoon character's application, which included a stamped logo of ACORN, was rejected by Florida elections officials over summer. 

Florida elections officials rejected Mickey's application this summer. It is unclear whether Mickey tried to register as a Democrat or a Republican. But the application included a stamped logo of ACORN, the community organizing group that is facing accusations of voter registration fraud.

At least Mickey is a Florida resident! 

There are so many incidents of ACORN and other fraudulent voter registration stories, that it is difficult to keep up with them. There is little that can be done at this point because we have not accurately maintained our voter registration rolls and Democrats are unwilling to help remedy the situation. (Remember how the Wisconsin Democrat Senators wouldn't bring Voter ID to a vote last spring? My Senator, Jim Sullivan*, cast a key vote in keeping that measure from the floor.)

Sickening.

*I will help the next conservative Republican State Senate candidate's campaign. How about you? 

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