Hasta la vista, baby...

...and if you'll allow me one more, will Ahnold become a REAL Austrian (of the von Mises kind) in this, his final role?

Yes, Kali-fornia belatedly declared a state of emergency over their finances.

Yawn.

After decades of advance billing, it's here: "Terminator 9: Fiat Money" Now playing everywhere. It's the only show in town, and the last picture they'll ever make.

You vill vatch it, und you vill liff it.

Along the laugh cynically/cry/scream/commit suicide continuum, I generally favor laughter. This recipe (with a bit of a scream folded in here and there) keeps the blood pressure down and the blood not spilled, which only they want. The cynicism topping is my fuel-saving shortcut to the truth.

Hence, and with a sardonic grin, I'm of a mind to start a pool: Will it be force (farce?) majeure/default? A bailout? Bankruptcy? Perhaps, if God feels any mercy for the rest of us, a 9.8 earthquake???

Pick your poison(s) and a date, prize to be determined...

Me? I vote for all of the above, in that order, commencing as soon as possible. I really didn't need that label on my new pry bar telling me that it contains something known to you Carnacs of the Environment to cause cancer, as if I was going to chew on the damn thing or stir my soup with it. And then there was the inoperable nozzle on the last gas can I bought. That was the last straw. I could shove it up your a** (wanted to, at the time) and it still wouldn't spill a drop. And maybe that's the point. You've converted it into an environmentally friendly safe-sex toy, one that closely mirrors what you did to your oil industry and, come to that, your entire state. Now you can't even self-immolate, which would certainly be the honorable thing.

Somewhere along the way, your imported/minority vote robots will turn on you, and they're smarter than you think. Hell, they're clever enough to unscrew that nozzle, and they'll burn your lesbian gay bisexual transgendered worker's welfare paradise to the ground for lying to them all these years and then betraying them in "the hour of their need". You'll also see the faces of a lot of your public employees in that madding crowd, and I'm sure you'll be sincerely shocked that your cannibal class turned on you...

Not me. I'll probably have to break down and buy a new flat screen and subscribe to cable, just to see the show. You, the kleptocratic screwers, will become the screwees, reaping what you've sown for lo, these many decades. Act surprised all you want, but being as foreseeable as tomorrow's sunrise, the popcorn will be ready at my house.

Economic oblivion couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. I do resent my forced participation, but at least I get to watch you stop twitching first. Since I'm prepared, I'll be watching from a comfortable vantage point, laughing on a full stomach.

One final question - will the last one of you turn off the lights or will Arizona have to do even that for you feckless girly-men?

Hasta la vista, you little babies. You did it to yourselves. And no, you won't be back. You're too well-marbled for that.

Batten Down the Hatches!

I often complain that we have our own PIIGS, and that not enough attention is paid to them. California is our Greece, at least in that it will probably be the first to fall. (How you screw up a state blessed with the economic output of Silicon Valley, Hollywood and miles of agricultural paradise would be incomprehensible had it not already been accomplished!) Illinois isn't far behind, and could still pull out a win in these last laps. Our Portugal is probably Michigan, there being a strong parallel in the loss of industrial base. You get the picture...

Our saving grace thus far is the reserve currency status of the dollar, which makes us king of the fiat hill. In the long view, that's not much of a hill to be king of, and all signs now point to mid-1931.

Here are the "thoughts" of the economic rapist pulling the levers:

Oh, shit.

In the (paraphrased) words of the Mogambo Guru - "forget gold - I'm going long on canned goods and ammo"

Coming Soon, to a TragiComedy Near YOU

Greece Bans Large Cash Transactions:

Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said "From 1. Jan. 2011, every transaction above 1,500 euros between natural persons and businesses, or between businesses, will not be considered legal if it is done in cash. Transactions will have to be done through debit or credit cards"

"There's tax relief for incomes up to 40,000 (euros)"

"Taxable income based on the new scales will include capital gains from the short-term trading of stocks"

"Deposits in banks outside Greece are exempted from audits of their origin if they are repatriated within six months of the passing of the tax bill and are taxed with a 5 percent rate"

"Wages of board members in unlisted state companies will fall by 50 percent"

And (surprise, surprise) income taxes are going up:

The new tax bill will increase the burden on the rich while easing taxation for those on low incomes. The top income bracket which will be taxed by the maximum 40 percent will be expanded to include incomes of over euro 60,000 a year, from the current euro 75,000 threshold.

(euro 60,000 to 75,000 is RICH???)

Prime Minister George Papandreou told a cabinet meeting that “Our primary duty now is to save the economy and reduce the debt, aiming to do so through the fairest possible solutions that will protect — as far as that is possible — the weaker and middle classes.”

I like that. Having mismanaged and destroyed the economy, they will now protect the "weaker and middle classes" "as far as that is possible". Time for a Sally Field "he likes us, he really likes us" commercial...

Under the new law, all Greeks must collect receipts in order to qualify for the income tax-free amount of euro 12,000 — an attempt to crack down on widespread tax evasion, where vendors under-declare their income by not giving receipts. Cash registers will have to be installed everywhere, including kiosks found on practically every Greek street, and food markets.

(Bummer. If they weren't so broke they could put in cameras to monitor those thieving vendors.)