Pessimistic piece on 2010

More pessimistic than Karl Denninger, but hard to refute his points:

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2009/12/december-19-2009-death-taxes-and-mr.html

There is no recovery

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2009/12/december-11-2009-there-is-no-recovery.html

Until I see old, crappy 500 sq ft houses selling for $50K in California like they were 10 years ago instead of $500K+ I won't agree with anyone that housing has stabilized. There is a lot more pain ahead and I'm tired of the manipulated numbers coming out of Washington (e.g. "seasonally adjusted BS") showing how things are improving. They aren't. Sales tax receipts are way, way down. Rail/truck traffic is down y/o/y. Personal income tax receipts are way down. Property taxes are down. Travel is way down y/o/y. Corporate tax receipts are essentially zero. Greece, Italy, Spain, Baltic states, Ireland, Japan, etc. are all running into big trouble. Dubai is cratering. There is no recovery and things are really much worse than they were last year.

Hey, let's spend our way out of the recession

The insanity increases - Obama actually said that we "must continue to spend our way out of the recession" (but I thought Obama said the recession was over . . .). Craziness abounds. Give the drunks more booze until they are sober. Logic is dead.

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2009/12/december-9-2009-desperate-thing-to-say.html

http://market-ticker.org/archives/1713-Insanity-Doing-The-Same-Thing-Obama.html

And while we're at it why don't we greatly expand Medicare and Medicaid and call it "Health Care Reform" - where is all that money (trillions) going to come from?

Washington DC has become more and more unhinged.