23 Replies to “Santelli … Friedman … Ponzi”

  1. Santelli is always good for a few zingers…after Bernie Madoff’s monumental Ponzi scheme in the markets, we might direct a few questions to the SECs oversight, not to mention Fannie Mae and Freddie “Nightmare on Elm St.” Mac housing debacle.
    “Social Security is unsustainable, because it makes promises it can’t keep in full.”
    So why do we keep believing the ‘promises’ of ‘free’ money, housing, jobs and the ever elusive growth in the economy?
    Cheers
    Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North”

  2. The economic consequences of what can be described as business-as-usual are coming due and the wishful thinkers are having a hard time with that rough reality.
    The end of the rope is near.

  4. There is plenty of reason to watch CNBC … Larry Kudlow is pretty knowledgable about economic matters.
    MSNBC is a different animal.
    On topic, I realized a long time ago that demographics would work against me should I plan depend mostly on the CPP when the time comes to retire.
    That, and watching my mother survive on the pittance she got. Don’t know to this day how she managed on an income of $1200 a month.
    Therefore, I proceeded with a plan whose goal was to finance my entire retirement with my own efforts. BTW, the value of my house doesn’t count, since it’s pretty hard to eat the kitchen sink.
    That way, if there is any state ponzi money left over by the time I retire, it will allow me to do much more than merely survive.

  6. the pension system of the western world IS a ponzi scheme, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. Falling birth rates ensure that it will fail even faster than anarchists had ever hoped.

  7. Friedman never did answer the question.
    If I stop paying into my life insurance plan, I am still eligible for the rewards accrued.
    If people stopped paying into SS, it would immediately be bankrupt. Because it is a ponzi scheme.
    Imagine the economic security of the poor if their 12-16% payments into SS for the last 20 years gave them even an insurance industry return.
    I can not understand any supposed intellectual that will not agree that SS is economic crap.

  8. The whole of the Liberal/NDP/Separatist scam of the last 50 years starting with Old Lisping Red Mike Pearson has been a PONZI SCHEME perpetrated upon Canadian Taxpayers. Official Bilingualism, 700B Taxdollars spent, result 1 Unilingual Rascist French Province. CBC Billions wasted, Multi-Kult Billions spent buying votes. NEP on Alberta to pay for James Bay Quebec Hydro project, Desmarais Clan and Powercorp buying and paying for Trudeau, Mulroney, Chretien and Martin, including Bob Raes brother. Taxes now consume more of the average Canadian Families annual budget than the necessities of life, being FOOD, CLOTHING, and HOUSING combined and still the stupid dumb a*s Canadian Sheep bawl and mewl for more Gubmint and more CBC, and more stupid laws and regulations to control them. 33M Stupid Pathetic Canadian Sheep controlled by a stack of Rules and Laws and Regulations that is over 500,000 PAGES high. Over 10 stories in height. The Unionized Civil Servants can no longer even reach the top page with an extension ladder. And the Pathetic Spineless Canadians demand more of the same. More Laws More Rules More Taxes. The Canadian Federal Government is an out of control disaster that cannot even control our borders anymore and lets in over 700,000 Immigrants and Refugees every year. And our old folks live in penury while Idiots like McGuinty promise 10,000 dollars per head to buy votes from Immigrants who have never contributed 10 cents into Canada and who will never defend or fight for Canada. All those boys dying for Canada are white boys from small town Canada. Wake Up You Stupid Pathetic Sheep. There is no free lunch, the ride is over…..

  9. Of course Friedman isn’t going to admit SS is a Ponzi scheme. He’s a DemocRat propagandist. It -is- a Ponzi, but he will happily LIE about it. that’s who he is, that’s what his party runs on.
    Its like fuel for them.

  10. I love Rick Santelli. He’s like a terrier with a pant leg; he won’t let go. Tom Freidman is a mendacious douche. ‘Nuff said

  11. Good rant RFB … and right on the money. Canada may still be the best country in the world but when you examine the issues, many of which were pointed out by RFB, we are not much different than a Central American banana republic albeit somewhat more sophisticated.
    PMSH is finally in a position to end the mismanagement, waste and corruption. I just wish that he’d get ‘er done sooner rather than later. Sure he might cause wailing and gnashing of teeth among the left but those entitled crybabies wouldn’t vote CPC anyway. Let’s start with the CBC.

  12. Friedman nicely demonstrates the out-of-context ripeness that can occur when you repeat your previous point instead of answering a specific question:
    SANTELLI: What’s the definition of a Ponzi scheme?
    FRIEDMAN: It’s a program that made promises that it cannot keep in full and it needs to be fixed and reformed.
    Snork. “Friedman once described a Ponzi scheme as…”

  13. Hey,
    Where do I ask about getting the utube video to work? I have been having problems with many of the embedded utube videos on this site. Any suggestions.

  14. Legalities aside, friedman described SS as a ponzi scheme – and Santelli called him on it. This ticked off friedman and he resorted to name-calling. Game Over.
    This typifies the jam that perry and sometimes palin seem to have a knack of putting the left in: they use a term that the general public can grasp – ponzi, death squads, etc that, while exagerations, get to the numb of the issue – the left than dramatically over-reacts and by doing so shines even more attention on the topic and inflicts damage upon their side of the argument. IOW they are undone by Alinskyite tactics that in the past have been their sole stock and trade.
    Perry is growing on me…’maybe he is the one…

  15. A former, somewhat cantankerous, but fair, supervisor once said to me:
    “There’s no such thing as a stupid question.”
    But there are many stupid answers….Mr Friedman, welcome to stupid!

  17. Private: Click the YouTube logo bottom left of panel to go directly to the YouTube site and view it there. Or, double click the panel to go to YouTube.

  18. Phil let’s start by having the farmers quit subsidizing the consumers. Farmers are getting the same price for wheat as they did in the 1930’s but their input costs are not 1930’s. Are you willing to pay the true cost of your food. Input cost plus a small profit to the farmer? Yah I didn’t think you would want to pay $20/chicken or $8 bucks for a loaf of bread or $25/lb for beef etc.

  19. I take my hat off to Perry, because social security has indeed become a Ponzi scheme, and finally there is a politician who has the guts to say so.
    Government debt is also a Ponzi scheme, particularly the way Obama employs it.
    You can extend the life of these Ponzi schemes temporarily through increased taxation, but eventually someone is going to get left holding the bag.

  20. As soon as you could see Freidman either couldn’t or wouldn’t answer Rick Santelli’s fundamental question, (i.e. whether you call it “Ponzi”, “Pyramid”, “Chain Letter” or whatever, is it not a system that is only currently functioning based upon having “contributions” from the newest members exceed the “promised payments” to the oldest members?), you had to see Freidman was done. Great job Rick!

  21. Social Security is not technically a Ponzi con because when demand for benefits outstrips premiums they will just raid some other fund to make up the deficit – or crash the program and deny liability claims. Government can do that where as common street criminals can’t.
    So unlike a Ponzi con where the vendor can go broke and go to jail, the Social Security program is really a confidence game with no financial or criminal liabilities to the underwriter.

  22. If I stop paying into my life insurance plan, I am still eligible for the rewards accrued.
    If people stopped paying into SS, it would immediately be bankrupt. Because it is a ponzi scheme.
    Posted by: Jim at September 8, 2011 5:58 PM
    Distilled down to the very basic elements … well put, Jim.

  23. “Yah I didn’t think you would want to pay $20/chicken or $8 bucks for a loaf of bread or $25/lb for beef etc”
    No, but then, you wouldn’t have to. Simple economics: a seller’s prices are dictated by the market, not by whatever pie-in-the-sky price they want. Because, as much as an unsubsidized farmer might want to charge $20 for a chicken, or $25/lb for beef, the market wouldn’t bear it. At the first sign of usurious prices, there would be more competition: additional farmers starting up businesses, or imported food from other countries/sources. Prices would hit market equilibrium.
    I agree with getting rid of farm subsidies and letting true market capitalism take hold, WITHOUT cost-ineffective government intervention or interference. But “$8 bread” hyperbole isn’t helping people understand the issues, or market forces, either.
    mhb23re
    at gmail d0t calm

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