In the post-meltdown world, it is irresponsible, ineffective, and ultimately useless to have a serious economic debate without considering and challenging the role of the Federal Reserve.
Most people think of the Fed as an indispensable institution without which the country’s economy could not properly function. But in End The Fed, Ron Paul draws on American history, economics, and fascinating stories from his own long political life to argue that the Fed is both corrupt and unconstitutional.
Inflating is never a benefit to freedom-loving people. It destroys prosperity and feeds the fires of war. It is responsible for recessions and depressions. It’s deceptive, addictive, and causes delusions of grandeur with regards to wealth and knowledge. Wealth cannot be achieved by creating money by fiat, which instead destroys wealth and rewards the special interests, but more importantly, simply is not real.
Inflation has been used to pay for all wars and empires as far back as ancient Rome. And they all end badly. Inflationism and corporatism engender protectionism and trade wars. They prompt scapegoating: blaming foreigners, illegal immigrants, ethnic minorities, and too often freedom itself for the predictable events and suffering that result.
Tract on Monetary Reform from 1923 is also clear:
A government can live for a long time… by print[ing] paper money. That is to say, it can by this means secure the command over real resources—resources just as real as those obtained by taxation…. A government can live by this means when it can live by no other. It is the form of taxation which the public finds hardest to evade and even the weakest government can enforce, when it can enforce nothing else.
From everything I have read an elevated resting heart rate is independently associated with increased inflammatory markers such as the C-reactive protein (CRP) test for inflammation. The autonomic nervous system ANV controls inflammation via signal molecules in the nerve pathways.
This information is provided as an explanation for what I have been doing to improve my health and stop/reduce psoriasis flares. Starting around 2013 I have been modifying my diet with a goal to reduce my chronic inflammation which most médicos now link to psoriasis. I’m now eating a diet that is made up from whole grains, yogurt & milk (non dairy), dark chocolate, walnuts, berries, tart cherries, beans, corn (mostly as hominy or masa harina), oily fish, chile, garlic, avocado, sauerkraut (with probiotics if I can find it), pumpkin pie spice blend, caraway seeds, & various vegetables. Have completely eliminated alcohol, ice cream and extremely limited dairy products.
This has helped but has not been the magic bullet. What I think I have done is significantly improved my health and caused me to lose some forty pounds. Twenty years ago I was on blood pressure and cholesterol drugs; have been off both of those for some years now. I’m in better health now than I was twenty years ago.
The drug that do take is ibuprofen when I have a psoriasis flare. I then go on what I call my ibuprofen cycle which is 2400mg/day for 10 days, nothing for 10 days, 1600mg/day for 10 days, nothing for 10 days & 800mg/day for 10 days. That has worked a number of times to clear up any flares that I have had. I tried 800mg/day for 10 days then nothing for 10 days and repeat as a prophylactic — that failed.
I have also been monitoring my heart rate for the past few years hoping to see a predictor of an oncoming psoriasis flare. That has also failed; I do see a relationship between the elevated heart rate and the flare but unfortunately the flare comes first. With the Polar Pacer watch that I’m now using I can get continuous heart rate monitoring while I’m sleeping. This then gives me a Nightly Recharge™ number ±10 with the minus side indicating that my body is not recovering from the stresses of life. That Nightly Recharge™ is based on two components: how I slept (sleep charge) and how well my autonomic nervous system (ANS) calmed down during the early hours of your sleep (ANS charge). Both components are formed by comparing last night to my usual levels from a rolling average of the past 28 days.
So long story short; I have a new measure that I’m hoping will help me avoid more psoriasis flares and also improve my health. As Grouch Marx said: “I intend to live forever, or die trying.”
James Howard Kunstler provides a yearly prediction of what is to come. He has not been very accurate, no worse than most prognosticators but he is always entertaining. This year is not any different Forecast 2025 — Take Out The Trash