Congress still has a long way to go in representing their constituents and not their special interest benefactors (eg. cram down bill) but we should give credit when credit is due. Yesterday, two potentially significant pieces of legislation were signed by the President: Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 and the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. These pieces of legislation are potentially significant not so much because of their main objectives (which are significant in their own way) but for two potentially powerful amendments included in each.

Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009

"He who has the gold, makes the rules" ~Lyndon Forman

First it was millions, then billions and now trillions of dollars. The mind just becomes numb looking at all those zeros.

I heard an analogy the other day by Gerald Celente regarding just how much a trillion dollars is.
Gerald said. "If you were to spend One Million dollars a day, a day, since the time that Christ was born until today, you still would not have spent a trillion dollars."
So I did the math, and you know what? He was right. In fact you would not have spent 3/4 of a trillion dollars. Yet the Washington elite have decided they can do it in less than a year.

Why do I bring this up? My biggest fear that comes from this crises are the solutions put forth by Washington. I fear that in order to save Capitalism they will destroy the currency, and all those benefits that come from being the world’s reserve currency.

This is a joint article I wrote with Bonddad

Regardless of when this recession ends, the malaise of working and middle class America will not be relieved until wages increase, and employment rates return to a robust level. Since unemployment is a lagging indicator, the news on that score is grim. Almost every analyst believes that there will be another "jobless recovery" such as those that followed the 1990 and 2001 recessions. Even after GDP bottomed and those recessions technically ended, there was an average 17 month increase in unemployment of .9% (or a 15% percent increase in the rate) followed by a 13.5 month decrease back to the rate at the "bottom" of the recession. If that pattern holds true again, then even if this recession bottoms shortly, unemployment will be 10.1% by July, rise to 11.3% by December 2010, and take until at least early 2012 to decrease back under 10%, looking like this graph:

Note this is U3 unemployment, so U6 unemployment will be correspondingly worse.

It's Friday Night! Party Time!   Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!

This week's video is Frontline's The Madoff Affair. Be aghast at how people of the super elite wealthy class are just as stupid as regular folk. Be horrified on how rock star status trumps facts, evidence and anything based in reality. Were you aware Bernie Madoff was a NASDAQ chairman at one point?

This morning the BLS reported that consumer inflation ramined unchanged (seasonally adjusted) in April, (rising 0.2% NSA). Year-over-year prices have fallen -0.7% into deflation. YoY consumer deflation is only surpassed by 1949 in the post-Depression era.

The first 4 months of inflation data are still in accord with the optimistic scenario I laid out in January:

In the Optimistic scenario, the fiscal and monetary stimuli, together with intelligent new political leadership in Washington, halt the meltdown perhaps by mid-year, and wage reductions remain the exception. In the Pessimistic scenario, the stimuli fail, and wage reductions spread, leading to a wage-price deflationary spiral.