Fear Awaits Signal GOP Is as Crazy as Many Believe

Update: 'Fear Index' (VIX) (CBOE Volatility Index) stays mellow, as every policy maker and his mother mouth feel-good platitudes. "Make no mistake about it, the VIX is moving with direct correlation as to whether or not the government is making progress on reopening and addressing the debt ceiling," says Seeking Alpha (SA).  SA says an agreement on a debt ceiling is imminent.

Here's a somewhat contrary view: "Last week Todd Salamone said, 'If the VIX closes above the 18 area, it is quite possible that a move to the 22-24 region would happen quickly. This area marks double the 2013 low and the most recent August low. A close above 18 would suggest negative sentiment is building instead of decreasing, pressuring stocks and heightening volatility expectations in the process.' Todd was dead-on, as the VIX soared above 18 and peaked just beneath 22 before imploding later in the week." VIX is trading at 17 at 12:48 Eastern P.M.
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Now here is one fascinating interplay, the potential death throes of an American political party (John Judis), mass racism, and the possibility of the meltdown of the world economy.

The base, the popular base of the Republican Party or suicide caucus, doesn't fear an economic meltdown, much less the government shutdown they engineered.

After all, God is watching and a global economic crisis may enable the succession of the Republican Homeland free of ZOG and the United States federal government. Don't think for a moment the lunatics don't hold sway in the Republican Party, in case you were not already convinced.

Fear itself is something to fear. And so is lunacy.

The U.S. federal government., this is the entity helping to deliver healthcare to the brown and black still intent on passing themselves off as decent Americans to the chagrin of the Republican homeland.

Yet, Wall Street does not seem to buy this as a compelling argument to crash the global economy.

As soon as the 'Fear' indices suddenly rise, watch out. This is not happening right now.

"Major equity indexes surged again at the end of last week with optimism that Washington's budget stalemate will be broken, pushing the CBOE Volatility Index back below the 16 level," reports Chris McKhann, echoing a widespread estimation that markets have already priced in a political deal on the government shutdown and impending default.

This holds no comfort for the vast majority of Americans. Nor should it.

"I've gone up to a 25-percent chance" of a government shutdown, said Potomac Research chief political strategist Greg Valliere. "Last month, I was at 10 percent. I think (House Speaker John) Boehner and most of the leadership know this could blow up on them in the 2014 election, and they're leery about doing anything that radical," reports Patti Domm, CNBC Executive News Editor. Valliere's statement was reported on September 18, 2013.

Tea Baggers Wave Confederate Flag at
Weekend Rally at White House Protesting
Gov Shutdown That Tea Party Demanded

Radical and crazy is the GOP order of the day.

Press coverage is trying to chill out the American populace, that segment not significantly composed of God-fearing whacks who believe in magic and white power.

See Bill Moyers' Let's Call The Shutdown What It Is: Secession by Another Means and Debt limit defeat turns conservatives into neo-Confederate fantasists.

Hopes for sanity and rumors of a solution to the GOP-created crisis abound today, I'll believe it when I see it.

Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz, rallying Tea Baggers, remain optimistic about something.

Reagan Budget Director: Romney-Ryan Plan Is "Fairy Tale"

Today's Republican party doesn't look much like it did in Ronald Reagan's day

One thing about the Tea Party-Republican extremists holding elected office now-a-days is their compulsion to follow partisan marching orders, no matter how dangerous and extreme.

This dynamic is worrying to some past Republicans such as Reagan budget director, David Stockman (1981–1985), who blasted the current GOP ticket's fiscal plan, such as it is, in a New York Times op-ed.

The Times column—likely not widely read among the rural, white working class sought by Romney and Ryan—ought to at least stimulate some thought before voters consider casting their votes for this most radical and least rational-minded presidential ticket in modern American history.

Writes Henry Blodget at Tech Ticker:

Stockman calls the budget an "empty conservative sermon" and "fairy tale" and says it will "do nothing to reverse the nation's economic decline and arrest its fiscal collapse."

Stockman's main complaint about the Ryan budget, which reflects his broader frustration with today's Republican party, is that it preserves massive and, in his view, unnecessary spending on Defense and other programs while screwing people who actually need help by cutting food stamps, Medicaid, and other efforts that lessen the pain of poverty.

Stockman also rails against the new "Wall Street-coddling" bailout Republicans like Ryan, who stand by and let the Federal Reserve fix interest rates, encourage speculators, crush savors, encourage overconsumption, and punish thrift.

Specifically, Stockman observes, Ryan's "phony" budget plan:

• Maintains Defense spending that is nearly twice the $400 billion (adjusted for today's dollars) that General Eisenhower spent in the 1960s
•  Shreds the safety net provided by $100 billion in food stamps and $300 billion in Medicaid
• Does not cut one dime from Medicare or Social Security for another decade
• Includes no serious plan to create jobs
• Radically cuts taxes on the richest Americans while eliminating tax breaks that mostly help the middle class
• Fails to even consider a "value-added sales tax," which is the only way the country can begin to climb out of its budget hole

In short, Stockman says, Ryan's plan is "devoid of credible math or hard policy choices." Harsh words coming from a fellow Republican. But, then, today's Republican party doesn't look much like it did in Stockman and Reagan's day.