Bill Bonner enters the mind of Janet Yellen

Photo Courtesy of The Associated Press

And it is hilarious.

Impersonating Yellen, Bill Bonner sketches the thoughts running through her mind as she mulls raising interest rates.

He writes:

What if they say it’s my fault? What if they call it the Yellen Depression?
Oh, no… It’s not fair… It’s not fair… Boo-hoo… sob… sob… I should have stayed at Harvard. I’d have tenure. I’d have a nice pension. George and I could go the Martha’s Vineyard in the summer. It would be such a nice life.

That is from part one.

But there is also a part two.

There he writes:

"But if the economy is as healthy as I say it is, it isn’t going to be bothered by a quarter-point rate hike. And if it isn’t as healthy… and the rate hike throws it into a tizzy… then all those seven long years of ZIRP did zip for the economy and rates may as well be raised anyway, no?" (Janet smiles; she is pleased with her turn of phrase.)"

Read Part One...

And part two.

Vladimir Putin learns the wrong lesson from the Soviet Union's collapse

As I was watching the opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, a commentator said that Vladimir Putin thought the collapse and break-up of the Soviet Union was devastating, or something to that effect, and that Russia lost a lot of "good Russians." 

Bizarreness of that statement put aside, it deflects from real analysis of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

What we should make of the Soviet Union's collapse was that we saw the complete and utter collapse of a nation based on an idea: Socialism. 

The "former glory of the Soviet Union" was no glory at all because socialism -- no matter how many years and decades it will take -- always plants the seeds for economic destruction. So going back to it would be like a "dog going back to its vomit" (Proverbs 26:11), and fool repeating his folly.

One other point here.

We are not unlike the Soviet Union.

As Thomas Woods explained in his 2009 book "Meltdown": "[the U.S. Federal Reserve System] is dedicated to central economic planning, the great discredited idea of the twentieth century. Except instead of planning the production of steel and concrete, as in the Old Soviet Union, it plans money and interest rates, with consequences that necessarily reverberate throughout the economy."

We are in the midst of a grand experiment that will end in nothing less than devastation for a lot of people. As I explained in previous statuses**, the time for a "soft landing" was over a decade ago. We should end our foolishness now to avoid an even harder landing later.

**Originally written as a Facebook status

CBO: Interest Payments Cost Extra $1.033 Trillion Over Ten Years

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that, over the next ten years, that yearly one percentage point rise would cost us an additional $1.033 trillion in interest payments, on top of the $5.079 trillion we’re already paying.

Top Five Myths about Reducing Our $16 Trillion National Debt || Defeat the Debt

Video: Peter Schiff in Maryland 2012 (playlist)

Video: Peter Schiff on Interest Rates

A 1-minute classic.

Michael S. Rozeff on Monetizing the Debt

A few reasons to buy gold and silver:

As the Federal Reserve keeps buying more and more government debt, with no prospect of reducing its holdings unless and until the government gets its house in order, bond yields are likely to rise, despite Fed buying, because yields also reflect inflation premiums. The prospect of inflation will rise as the Fed monetizes the debt. We would then see yields rising accompanied by firm prices of commodities and metals.

The inflationary participation by the Fed, which postpones the inevitable fiscal decisions of the government, harms all holders of fixed-dollar assets and all those whose receipts of dollars are fixed and lag behind the Fed’s production of new dollars. In addition and more importantly, the inflation sets in motion another boom-bust cycle.

M. Rozeff, Geithner Says U.S. Insolvent

Video: Schiff Report: Chinese inflation is getting worse!

That spells "b-a-d-n-e-w-s" for Americans, because the Chinese will have to stop expanding their money supply and start contracting it to stifle inflation in their own country.

This means reducing exports to the United States and keeping more of their own goods.

As Peter Schiff notes, that's when U.S. inflation will speed up because they may stop hoarding our dollars - and lots of em - and may stop sending us their goods.

Gary North was right: Ben Bernanke is a juggler of digits. But China is juggling, too. It has a decision it has to make about its currency: The RMB.

It has to let its currency rise. The purchasing power of the RMB must go up in order for the 5.1 percent inflation to drop.

Ding! Ding! Ding! It may be time to invest in the RMB, while its still low.