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Detroit files for bankruptcy -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kkkcgr4w3k
Russian Leader Warns, “Get All Money Out Of Western Banks Now! United States are preparing for the largest theft of private wealth in modern history
http://countdowntozerotime.com/2013/08/08/russian-leader-warns-get-all-money-out-of-western-banks-now-united-states-are-preparing-for-the-largest-theft-of-private-wealth-in-modern-history/
On this day in 1943 the “Current Tax Payment Act”, was passed by Congress. It provides for income taxes on wages and salaries to be withheld by employers from paychecks. The purpose stated was that is was an emergency provision for the War. Sure — but it is still with us today. This act accounts for the uncontrolled growth of government more than any other event!!!
Also on this day in 1963 The Equal Pay Act, P.L. 88-38, is enacted. It guarantees women equal pay for equal work but proves difficult to enforce. “Equal work” is totally subjective but contributes to Lawyer’s full employment.
Milton Friedman, who was a key player in implementing the “tax withholding” system realized what he had done and sought redemption.
“Far more important, without a system of current collection, it would have been impossible to collect the amount of income taxes that we collected during the war. At the time, we concentrated single-mindedly on promoting the war effort. We gave next to no consideration to any longer-run consequences. It never occurred to me at the time that I was helping to develop machinery that would make possible a government that I would come to criticize severely as too large, too intrusive, too destructive of freedom. Yet, that is precisely what I was doing.”
Since defects don’t matter, according to Chaney and others, there is only one reason why the Government doesn’t just print Legal Tender rather than collecting taxes. That reason is to legitimize the $US as the worlds reserve currency.
On this day in 1943 the “Current Tax Payment Act”, was passed by Congress. It provides for income taxes on wages and salaries to be withheld by employers from paychecks. The purpose stated was that is was an emergency provision for the War. Sure — but it is still with us today. This act accounts for the uncontrolled growth of government more than any other event!!!
Also on this day in 1963 The Equal Pay Act, P.L. 88-38, is enacted. It guarantees women equal pay for equal work but proves difficult to enforce. “Equal work” is totally subjective but contributes to Lawyer’s full employment.
Milton Friedman, who was a key player in implementing the “tax withholding” system realized what he had done and sought redemption.
“Far more important, without a system of current collection, it would have been impossible to collect the amount of income taxes that we collected during the war. At the time, we concentrated single-mindedly on promoting the war effort. We gave next to no consideration to any longer-run consequences. It never occurred to me at the time that I was helping to develop machinery that would make possible a government that I would come to criticize severely as too large, too intrusive, too destructive of freedom. Yet, that is precisely what I was doing.”
Since defects don’t matter, according to Chaney and others, there is only one reason why the Government doesn’t just print Legal Tender rather than collecting taxes. That reason is to legitimize the $US as the worlds reserve currency.
Maybe I should change this board to "The Demise of America".
NSA Whistleblower Reveals Himself:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-09/nsa-whistleblower-reveals-himself
I just love conspiracies so I had to post this:
Glenn Beck says the response to the Boston Marathon bombing will determine whether America survives and says The Blaze will expose the government cover-up on Monday.
End Rothschild Central Banking System : The Only Way to Stop Hyperinflation
by WikiIntelNews
This is a good breakdown as to where we are in this Country:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-15/orwellian-america
GUNS & AMMO SHORTAGES A HARBINGER FOR WHAT’S COMING TO GOLD & SILVER MARKETS
By Bill Holter:
With factories cranking out guns and ammo at 110% of capacity, how could a shortage currently exist?
MASSIVE DEMAND.
Now, think about the Gold and Silver mining industry. Peak production took place over 10 years ago. What do you think will happen when investors, big BIG investors not just in the U.S. but ALL over the world vote with their trillion Dollar wallets? Do you really believe that you’ll have any chance at all to purchase Silver or Gold?
No, you won’t which is why you need to be pre-positioned because what “was” available yesterday will go into hiding over night. This is not even a bold prediction anymore. This is exactly what will happen and again illustrate the simple concept of supply and demand!
Shortages, we Americans don’t really know what these are with the exception of the OPEC (maybe) induced gas shortages back in 1973 and again in ’79. I said “maybe” because I had a client who at the time owned a dozen supertankers, several were filled with oil sitting in the harbor and weren’t allowed to off load. Truly we don’t know what it is to “want” and have never experienced “empty shelves” with the exception of the occasional hurricane or other natural event. Even so, goods started to reappear within a week or so and the “shortage” would go away nearly as fast as it came.
This past weekend I decided to go out and target practice with my family. I stopped at Walmart on the way because we were low on “practice shot” and didn’t want to waste the more expensive hollow point ammo. Lo and behold, in the locked case where normally sits 1,000 or more boxes of ammo…there was NONE! http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/16/ammunition-shortage/1919321/ Well almost none, I counted 7 boxes of odd caliber ammo that had not been hoarded. I knew that the local gun dealer was regularly selling out but I never dreamed that even Walmart would be empty. I figured that with their buying power they would still have stock left…I was wrong! The woman behind the counter told me that they get shipments each and every night but normally by 8:00 each morning everything is gone.
So why is this happening? Well, a couple of reasons. First because people are scared. Scared that an out of control government will ban guns and ammo in direct conflict with this nation’s Constitution. The political and media rhetoric after the Newtown Ct. shooting was turned up full volume. I won’t get into it here, but do yourself a favor and spend an hour or so researching what happened, what “really” happened. There are many contradictions and quite a few things don’t add up just as they haven’t for other “events” in the past. In any case, the population has voted. I don’t mean “voted” as in where Diebold counts the votes, no, they voted with their wallets and decided to spend their money on ammunition and arms. As a side note, the local dealer here has not even seen a new in the box AR in over 2 months. What was retailing for about $800 3 months ago is now $1,800 for a used one. Ah, supply and demand!
But I said that there were 2 reasons for the ammo shortage…there are. The Dept. of Homeland Security has ordered another 21 million rounds bringing the total purchase to 1.6 BILLION rounds…this is enough to kill every living American 5 times over and then some! And this doesn’t even account for those carrying the guns and doing the shooting! Now, if you will take your “adult” thinking cap off and put on the one from “3rd grade”, please ask yourself “WHY?”
Why would it be necessary for Homeland Security to have this many rounds of ammunition? Do they fear a mass mob crashing the Mexican or Canadian borders? OR…are they stocking up for something else? “Something else” that we don’t know about? Well, seriously, we “know about it” but we just don’t know what “it” will exactly look like or when it will start. This is not humorous stuff at all, people are merely acting in their own self preservation modes and doing what they feel necessary to protect themselves. It never matters “why” supply or demand increase or decrease, price and availablity are always affected one way or the other.
My wife read the above and asked me “what does this have to do with investments”? First of all, your investments won’t mean a single thing if you cannot protect yourselves. Secondly, it has to do with “supply and demand”. With factories cranking out guns and ammo at 110% of capacity, how could a shortage exist?
Now, think about the Gold and Silver mining industry. Peak production took place over 10 years ago. What do you think will happen when investors, big BIG investors not just in the U.S. but ALL over the world vote with their trillion Dollar wallets? Do you really believe that you’ll have any chance at all to purchase Silver or Gold? No, you won’t which is why you need to be pre positioned because what “was” available yesterday will go into hiding over night. This is not even a bold prediction anymore. This is exactly what will happen and again illustrate the simple concept of supply and demand! Regards, Bill H.
Visualizing All The Silver In The World
http://demonocracy.info/infographics/world/silver/silver.html
Gritty Questions on the Historic Collapse
Jim Willie CB
The typical articles over the last many years have featured a particular theme. In the last few months, the central theme in Jackass articles has been the isolation and demise of the USDollar, how it is happening, why it must happen, and its importance in the restoration of the global financial structure. But this week, a sudden urge has come to address an overwhelming list of critical gritty questions. They crop up with clients, colleagues, and friends.
More than a crisis, it is more accurately described as a collapse of a corrupt inequitable monetary system, and a desperate defense by the major Western bankers to preserve their power over nations and their governments, alongside a vile vicious violent attempt by the United States to maintain its privilege as owner of the vast USDollar counterfeit machinery, as controller of vast banking pillars of paper columns, and as commander of a vast military.
The current monetary system has a debt foundation, which is collapsing in lockstep with the rapid breakdown in the sovereign bond market. The last four years have seen a long drawn-out unstoppable process, where the collapse cannot be avoided and must happen. The pathogenesis is obvious to those in the Sound Money camp. The blossom of corruption and complete banker criminal immunity has only hastened the urgent need for the collapse. The cadaver in Intensive Care cannot be revived with more intravenous applications of contaminated money, the body dead since September 2008. Insolvent systems rush to the crash zone, where efforts can only delay the outcome.
The central banks are finally in crosshairs of focus, for not producing a solution, more recently for worsening the problem. They have confused their function from providing liquidity, in the belief that they are creating wealth. They have destroyed the system as costs rise relentlessly. Perversely, their efforts to dampen demand so as to reduce price inflation has added to the economic destruction. The outcome will be shocking in its power shift to the East, shocking in its evaporation of paper wealth, and shocking in the simplicity of the new financial structure that rises from the ashes based in barter and gold payments. However, the United States will be left behind, due to its basic ownership of the global reserve currency being scrapped. The extreme corruption cannot be reformed. The US financial system must be extinguished, and with it extreme damage to the USEconomy, which has been hopelessly dependent upon asset bubbles for two decades. No single theme in this article, just an attempt to answer in a straightforward manner some extremely difficult and appropriate questions for this ongoing crisis. Some effort is made for the topics to be presented in a logical flow, with answers not lengthy. For much more detailed analysis, look to the Hat Trick Letter paid reports with a subscription, offered each month.
1) CAN WE BE CERTAIN A COLLAPSE WILL COME AND WHY ??
To be sure, a collapse is not only coming. It is happening before our eyes in what used to be ultra-slow motion. Each year the pace quickens. Two years ago, the MFGlobal client account theft episode was preceded by another red-line event a few months before, and followed by another a few months after. But nowadays, the crisis events occur every month or every week. With $1.2 trillion doled out by the USFed to European banks in January, the Germans demanding repatriation of their official gold account, the Italians electing a comedian to halt the property tax hikes that bail out banks, the British sponsoring a Chinese Yuan Swap Facility, the attack on Mali to wrest its gold for German repayment, the move to shut down the Mongolian copper & gold mine by Rio Tinto, the raids larger and bolder of the GLD inventory, the USFed preparing for QE5 (or rather QE187), the US facing a fiscal cliff, the Japanese ratcheting up the competitive currency devaluations, the Swiss managing their Euro-Franc peg, the Russians hosting a G-20 Meeting of finance ministers to coordinate the alternative to US$-based trade, the Iranian sanctions coming to a conclusion in US acquiescence, and a gathering of five aircraft carriers in the Chesapeake (against all rules, angering the Pentagon), to be sure, the pace of extreme events is quickening. All these have occurred just since the new year began less than two months ago. Extreme events have become the norm. A series of climax events is coming very soon. The changes will be rapid and breath-taking.
2) WHAT WILL THE FUSE BE THAT TRIGGERS THE FINANCIAL COLLAPSE ??
Some mid-sized seemingly minor bank will fail. It will have linkage to another big bank in a corresponding role. The obligations will not be possible to cover. The contagion will spread to numerous large banks across Europe to London and New York. The derivatives could be involved, very unmanageable. If not a mid-sized bank, then a major bank will fail from the inability to contain the profound insolvency and massive bleeding during capital flight. The Greek zone has been contained, where disaster runs its course. But larger Italy, Spain, and France are rapidly breaking down, each in its own unique important way. A great many fuses lie, each waiting to be lit.
3) WHY HAS NO SOLUTION BEEN PUT IN PLACE AFTER OVER FOUR YEARS ??
Because the big banks that hold the power are insolvent, and they choose not to shut down their helm of power. Any valid solution must begin with liquidation of the insolvent broken structures, starting with the biggest banks, which happen to be the protected sites (if not headquarters) of the corruption. The power centers are the central banks and the big attendant banks. They are responsible for the bond fraud, the bond counterfeit, the dispensation of $trillions in secret deals, the narcotics money laundering, and the financial market interventions. They are protected entities with large private police forces. They will not be reformed or prosecuted or liquidated. Thus no solution from internal forces. The solution will be imposed from the outside.
4) WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE USGOVT-LED IRANIAN SANCTIONS ??
The real objection to Iran is that they sharply increased their non-US$ energy transactions over a year ago. That is regarded as financial terrorism, which entered the propaganda mill only to come out as some daft baseless story on nuclear development. Iran has thus followed the Iraq pathway to depart from the USDollar market, but Iran cannot be attacked like its neighbor since it has allies in China and Russia. They work to undermine the USDollar dominance. To brush the USDollar aside is to snuff the American Empire and to remove its full spectrum dominance by stripping the free money credit card. The significance of the Iranian sanctions by the USGovt can be described in chapters of volume, but described in simple terms. The sanctions have galvanized the efforts of Eastern nations to seek a non-US$ alternative in trade settlement that avoids the banks under Anglo-American control. By working to settle trade outside the reach of SWIFT bank rules, the Eastern nations led by China and the many Iranian trade partners have hastened their efforts to settle trade in unconventional ways that center on Gold as a means of payment, either directly or indirectly through hidden intermediaries. The United States did not shoot itself in the foot. The US shot itself in the face where the USDollar is imprinted, and in the chest where the USTBond is held in favor. The US acted to accelerate the rejection of the USDollar in global usage, and thus to quicken the pace of its lost global currency reserve status. The US has pushed itself down the path to the Third World.
5) WHAT EFFECT WILL THE NEW ITALIAN ELECTIONS HAVE ??
The creation of a three-way coalition of Berlusconi, Bersani, and Grillo will shake Europe to its core. The Italians rejected the property tax hikes imposed by appointed leader Monti in very efficient timely grandiose style. The consequent risk is for the big banks to lose their guardian in Monti, the Goldman Sachs preppie. With attention and priority taken away from serving the needs of the big banks, complete with filling the channels to bigger European banks, the risk has risen ten-fold for an accident in Southern Europe. The insolvent (broke, illiquid, desperate) big Euro banks will be vulnerable to default events which could quickly spread across Europe to London and New York. The control room managed by Monti will be at great risk of being shut down. The risk of a great accident is acute.
6) OF ITALY, SPAIN, AND FRANCE, WHICH IS IN THE WORST CONDITION ??
All of them are in dreadful atrocious condition, none worse than the others. The bigger issue is which will ignite the explosion in the financial platform. Spain has a blossom of corruption exposed during a skein of financial firm failures. The scandals involve both politics and security laced with finance. France has capital flight in response to the self-mutilation common to socialism. An absurd tax rate directed against the wealthy might as well be 100%. Socialism will soon be equated with confiscation and tyranny. Italy has a comedian to join two political leaders, where the message is a counter-attack in response to higher capital gains to finance the banker aid. Their political system is far more responsive to the people's will than any Western government, no exception. The distinction in these three nations is their size. Their populations range from 47 to 65 million, together 17 times the size of Greece. None can be bailed out, referring to their government deficits and their banking system. Any or all of the trio of broken nations could collapse, with triple the fuses exposed. If any of the trio falls, the other two will follow quickly. Germany cannot bail out any of the three, and certainly not all three. The duty of bail out would fall on the Euro Central Bank doorstep, which would reveal the monetization schemes as a grand paper mache sham game. As the trio in Southern Europe collapses, the titan Germany will depart the common Euro club. It will then embrace Russia and China, and help the establishment of the great Eurasian trade zone.
7) WHAT THREE COMMON THREADS CONTRIBUTED MOST TO THE COLLAPSE ??
A) The dispersion of phony money throughout the economic and banking system, which in the process contaminated and undermined capital. B) The plethora of bond fraud, bond counterfeit, huge bailouts for the big banks, and hidden banker loans totaling $23 trillion (still counting), which created a banker syndicate and banker welfare system together. C) The spread of predatory war sponsored by the USMilitary and USGovt security agencies, for the advancement of banker seizures, resource grabs, and attacks on civilians. Aside from the costs to the USGovt deficit, the global impact has been horrendous concerning US prestige and good will toward the United States. With bad money, corrupt banks, and aggression through war, the world has been brought to its knees as it wishes to bring the US leadership to heel.
8) WHAT HAVE BEEN THE OBJECTIVES FOR THE ARAB SPRING ??
Multiple motives appear at work. The goal has been to loosen the grip of power by Moslem autocrats, which would permit the replacement of more suitable pro-West leaders (puppets). The goal has been to loosen the lines to official government accounts, like the 144 tons of Libyan gold that still sits in London banks, which is much more integrated into their bank management schemes. The goal has been to destabilize the national fabrics, an old favorite game of the USGovt security agencies, since it tends to permit a climate conducive to their ploys. Imagine pitting your neighboring husband and wife against each other with false sexual dalliances, while setting fire to other neighboring houses, then robbing the neighborhood homes. But a backfire is in progress on three fronts. Egypt is on the verge of a banking breakdown which might expose the USTreasury Bond is unwanted in the global financial market, outside the big US bank control. Syria is leaning more heavily toward a Russian alliance. Their naval port will not be yielded. The presence of HezBollah is clear, with the Saudi assassination of Prince Bandar in September, in response to other Assad family hit squad actions. The big impact crater is likely to be the House of Saud itself, which is in great danger of falling. King Abdullah is teetering in health, if not comatose. With the fall of the Saudi regime will come the fall of the Petro-Dollar, thus the USDollar itself as global reserve.
9) ARE THE OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT GOLD RESERVES DATA ACCURATE ??
Not a single nation reports accurate gold reserves data. Doing so would reveal the absence of their gold from domestic raids and the consequent bankruptcy. Doing so would reveal the accumulation of gold toward new plans for the next financial chapter. Either weakness or strength would be publicized in a true accurate statement of the gold accounts. Not even foreign official accounts are accurate. In fact, no gold accounting is accurate the world over. The national treasure and jewels are well concealed, as the global monetary war runs white hot.
10) HOW MUCH GOLD DO CHINA AND RUSSIA REALLY HAVE ??
At least five times as much, and possibly ten times as much gold as reported, which would mean more than Fort Knox before it was pillaged in the 1990 decade. Both superpower nations purchase all their domestic gold mining output, with nothing exported. The Russians have gold accumulated over the centuries dating back to Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and the Czars. (Tidbit: Russian word Czar is for Caesar, and German word Kaiser is for Caesar.) The Kremlin contains a vast system of tunnels under its main buildings, stretching for kilometers, filled with gold bars and gold artifacts (think chalices, necklaces, inlaid gemstones). The Kremlin is a veritable Eastern Orthodox version of the Vatican itself, in wealth under control, but surely not religious political power. Over the last decade or more, Russia has been converting its vast oil wealth into gold bars. Since the Soviet debt default, a new strategy has been put to work in the conversion. On the other hand, China has two gold accounts. Their official sovereign wealth accounts and central bank reserves have been accumulating gold at a much more rapid pace than revealed. They see no need to reveal any strategic plans. The fast accumulation of reserves from trade surplus has served as easy flow to gather gold, mostly through the Hong Kong window. The public statement of their Gold reserves data brought laughter to my best gold source of information, since he personally has brokered great volumes of Chinese gold purchases.
11) WHY DOES GERMANY DEMAND A RETURN OF ITS GOLD ACCOUNT ??
An important camp within Germany is no longer part of the Anglo-American financial team of syndicate bankers. When Deutsche Bank CEO Ackerman was pushed out, fell out, or was dropped into the hot seat of interrogation, the German role changed more visibly. The nation is of two camps, one still beholden to the Anglo-American bankers and the satellite offices at the Intl Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Their past cooperation and allegiance had been firm and loyal. The other camp has been building ties with Russia and China, even the Persian Gulf. It has been working diligently and vigorously for over four years in establishing the framework for a new trade system founded in barter, to be transacted in gold. Germany offers the engineering, project management, and coordination, like from the Finns on connecting the electronics from commodity to monetary markets. The other camp has been busy in heavy railroad construction directly with Russia for resource and mineral delivery. It has been busy in trade with China, centered on construction equipment. Germany no longer trusts the bankers to the West, having suffered a fraud from both London and New York. The fraud involved runs far deeper than reported, since it includes a substantial amount of fake gold bars made of tungsten. The British Brown Bottom in 2001 involved Deutsche Bank in gold delivery to cover massive short positions. The Mali excursion in yet more USMilitary (NATO cover) adventure involves an attempt to secure more gold in order to repay the German gold account. Germany has changed teams in the true playbook, the new adversary to the Anglo-American bankers who will find themselves increasingly isolated. Germany has been defrauded, and they are angry. The Germans make for a strident determined potent adversary. In the Jackass view, Germany is the swing nation, the brain trust, the key member of the newly formed Eastern Alliance. It has aligned with Russia, China, and the Persian Gulf.
12) HOW WILL THE COMEX SUFFER A FINAL SHUTDOWN ??
The COMEX will be drained eventually of its Gold & Silver inventory. They had to resort to stealing 140 thousand accounts at MFGlobal in November 2011 in order to preserve its inventory. Do not be surprised if the Libyan 144 tons of liberated gold found its way to the LBMA and then COMEX. The two crime events should indicate the final stages of desperation. The COMEX has resorted to regular raids of the GLD & SLV exchange traded funds over the last two to three years, in greater recent volumes. They short the ETF shares, a privilege granted only to the big banks, then arrive to cart off bullion bars in overnight shipments. Also, vast supply routes have been established between the LBMA and COMEX, with help from the Swiss castles situated at the Bank For Intl Settlements, and from the Roman Catacombs, where decades of cooperation have been afforded. The armored shuttles have been at a frenetic pace to avoid defaults, especially in Silver. The most recent element has been the solicited aid of Scotia Mocatta, the Canadian pillar which appears to have joined the big US banks in naked shorting. The COMEX will shut down from a vicious combination of absent inventory and thin ranks of brokerage accounts. The players have left the COMEX, after the MFGlobal thefts which were endorsed by the corrupted US court system beholden to Wall Street objectives. All across the United States, compliance departments have banned usage of the COMEX by futures risk management teams. Empty shelves and no traffic.
13) CAN THE INELASTIC SUPPLY IN THE GOLD MARKET BE EXPLAINED ??
The inelastic demand for Gold is well known. Demand rises with a rising Gold price, called Gold Fever. But inelastic supply is less understood and mentioned. As forward sales schemes unravel, they drain large mining firms of scarce cash. Operations suffer and big projects are not funded like in the past when a lower Gold price was the case. Two new ravaging effects have taken root. As the major central banks debase the currencies worldwide, they lift the cost structure for businesses and the cost of living for workers. So mining firm profit margins are reduced and worker household stress increases for feeding families. The pinch from reduced profitability combines with the nasty pinch of labor strikes to hinder mining output. Also, the new wave of resource nationalism has struck in several nations. The poorer nations that host mining projects have turned hostile. They are suffering from slower economies and wider deficits. The response has been for their governments to renegotiate royalty agreements, to confiscate properties, and to manage a much tougher line against the foreign mining firms. They have imposed harsher strictures on environmental contamination, often as a ploy to gain more revenue from royalty or penalties. The end result is lower mining output in association with a higher price for Gold & Silver, which defines inelasticity. It is the opposite of what clownish conventional economists predicted, and exactly what the Jackass predicted over the last seven years.
14) WHAT CRITICAL DAMAGE HAS THE CHINESE YUAN SWAP FACILITY DONE ??
The Yuan Swap practice has created a broad platform and precedent for non-US$ trade. The list of nations with such swap deals include Brazil, Australia, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Belarus, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Add England to the long and growing list of nations making bilateral currency agreements with China, which should instill fear in New York. The swaps have established a virtual barter system that is divorced from the banking settlement for trade. Instead, a bilateral account is set up with credits and debits, depending upon delivery and receipt. Regard the swap system as a foundation for global trade settlement in Gold, as the Chinese Yuan makes the rough transition to a gold-backed currency. In the Jackass view, the shift to a gold trade settlement system will coincide with the gradual Yuan currency backed by gold. They will become interchangeable when procuring Gold Trade Notes, my theory, all in time. The Chinese Yuan Swap Facility has undermined the USDollar dominant role in trade. Following trade practices will come bank reserve management practices, which means the removal of the USTreasury Bond from global banking. The numerous Yuan Swap Facilities have essentially worked to dethrone the USDollar as global reserve currency.
15) WHAT IS THE CRITICAL PIECE IN THE GOLD TRADE FINANCE CONCEPT ??
Actually three pieces. The absent usage of the USDollar itself, and the bypass of the Western banking system with its community of SWIFT members, and the sidestepping of the FOREX currency market. If trade is to be settled in Gold, or using vehicles such as the Gold Trade Note, then the USDollar, the big Western banks, the SWIFT codes, and the FOREX are all rendered suddenly obsolete. The banks must adapt to become utility firms. A few gold-backed currencies might spring up with unique distinctions. The gold trade finance concept ushers in a new alternative system long sought in order to create a more viable equitable sustainable financial structure. The banking system should serve trade, not the reverse. Hence the USTBond will slowly vanish from the global banking system, and the USDollar will lose its global reserve status. The end result is a unavoidable slide by the United States into the Third World.
16) WHAT WILL BE THE NEXT FINANCIAL CENTERS ??
Whatever nations begin to dominate as intermediary functions for gold trade as it serves trade settlement between nations, they will grow into the next financial centers. The current attention is on Turkey and India. The Ankara banks are under scrutiny. New attempted controls by the USGovt have been announced by the pretender lords, under the guise of consequence for aiding trade with Iran. The US efforts will not succeed in stopping the progress in gold intermediary development. The Near East has a long history, much longer than the American history. Iran has numerous trade partners, and an extensive system of intermediaries that include the United Arab Emirates, which is undergoing a transformation. Iran's partners include Turkey, India, China, Japan, and South Korea. These are major nations which will refuse to comply with pressured US tactics. The emergence of alternative trade payment methods in order to keep Iran moving will create the next financial centers. They will be centered upon Gold flows, Gold management, Gold purchases as intermediary, Gold in payments, as well as Gold in smuggling. The recent decision to relax Gold rules within India, to permit corporations to form banks, to ease the pathways for integrating the vast household gold wealth in India, will work to thrust India as a potential gold finance center. Both Turkey and India will realize a benefit in economic growth, which has been nonexistent in the last five years under the fiat paper currency regimes that fast approaches the dust bin. The Near East is a logical center for gold finance, since it links the East with the West in a natural intermediary role. They have been developing the non-standard currencies that have served for five thousand years, namely Gold, Silver, and Platinum. By pushing Gold into the periphery, the financial centers of the West have pushed themselves into an awkward position where they will fall off the stage. In doing so, they have promoted new centers to crop up and mushroom in growth.
17) WHERE ARE THE SAFEST PLACES TO STORE GOLD BARS & COINS ??
Hong Kong for a number of reasons will remain the safest place for Gold storage. It has a long history of professionalism, independence, and integrity. Following the independence in 1997, the city state nation has pursued a unique role and direction. It is under the Chinese wing, but has its own regional charter toward continuity and some measure of autonomy. The Mainland China rulers prefer to use Hong Kong as a port to the West, but also to copy it internally. The British roots helped to establish HK bankers as top notch, but they are no longer subservient to London whims. The HK banking hub is the foremost in all of Asia, with a new rival Shanghai having emerged. The HK airport has greatly expanded its vaulted services. My source indicates that the HK vault service capacity is three to five times greater than reported. It has associations with all the major vault firms in an impressive list. Their integrity is as great as their disdain for the US bankers, with whom they show zero cooperation, as confirmed by an Interpol source. The claimed advantages of Singapore are spurious and illusory. Don't bother, since it does not even have a Depository Bond agreement for the bullion vault firms.
18) WHAT HAS GONE SO HORRIBLY WRONG WITH GOLD MINING STOCKS ??
Several serious flaws and shortcomings to mining stocks exist. The big hedge funds short them heavily with Wall Street help like credit lines. Other hedge funds short the smaller mining stocks and go long the majors, a spread trade. The majors are working with Wall Street on hedged forward sale programs, a grand collusion. The Goldman Sachs GDX fund shorts the entire group, just to keep them suppressed. The brokerage house Canaccord is involved in naked shorting of mining stocks. After acting as partner to raise cash in a very large number of finance deals for Canadian junior mining firms, they keep selling shares with the collusion of the Alpha Group, far more than they own. The mining firms themselves are in deep trouble, with rising costs, a shortage of engineers, hostile foreign governments, and difficult projects. The mining firms are printing new shares in heavy dilution (like the USGovt on USDollars), which is inflation. Under pressure, the mining firms will soon begin to renege on their covenants, as some will be forced to sell their properties to the banks. Eventually the USGovt and other Western governments might force sale of mining companies for pathetic low prices under law in order to replenish their Gold reserves in the central banks. The recent extreme challenges for the mining firms relates to hostile labor unions and resource nationalism that prompts confiscations. Distress for mining firms will result in continually lower metal output, resulting in supply shortages which favor owners of physical metal, not the mining stocks. The global assault on paper wealth includes mining stocks. The Gold & Silver metal prices have vastly outperformed mining stocks since 2008, when the Hat Trick Letter subscribers were urged to dump the paper and to buy the metal. Expect the trend to persist.
19) WHY ARE BOND YIELDS SO LOW, GIVEN HUGE SUPPLY AND NO BUYERS ??
The JPMorgan war room controls the Interest Rate Swap derivative machinery. The contract is a complex device that matches short-term spreads versus long-term spreads in order to fabricate fresh USTreasury Bond demand for the long maturities. In essence the IRSwap creates artificial demand for USTBonds, and thus creates the illusion of a flight to safety in the USGovt sovereign debt securities. Since 2011, the buyers for the USTBonds have largely been confined to the US Federal Reserve. Since 2011, the supply of USGovt debt sold in securitized bonds has remained at a frenetic $1.0 to $1.3 trillion pace. With huge supply and almost no buyers, the bond yield should have zoomed higher than bonds from Spain and Italy, maybe even Greece. But instead, thanks to the JPMorgan derivative room, the vast USTBond tower is maintained from a brisk demand of totally artificial type from flying IRSwap buttresses. They will all experience seizures. The USTBond yield might be zero when the USGovt debt default occurs. The Weimar replicas of fake toxic money will not halt until the end.
20) DO LOW INTEREST RATES REALLY STIMULATE THE USECONOMY ??
No, low interest rates smother the USEconomy for several reasons. They also create conditions for the banks to convert into speculative houses even more than a decade ago. They are playing the USTBond carry trade, borrowing cheap short-term money and investing in long-term bonds. They cannot earn much profit with low rates in the commercial sector. But the important negatives for low rates work to dampen commercial activity. To begin with, the vast armada of savers, the retirees holding CDs from banks, and the big pension funds, all earn very little on their capital. It is unjust and a perversion. Twice as much savings earn interest as consumer loans pay interest, a net negative that Wall Street harlots prefer to ignore in their promotional harangues to shrinking audiences. The banking sector is suffering for many reasons, one of which is the poor income on their bond portfolios. As much as the mavens and official barkers recite the benefits of low rates and its stimulus, the exact opposite is the case. Worse, the low rates signify low value for capital. They therefore distort the financial markets on valuation of a broad assortment of assets. But the worst effect that renders deep damage to the USEconomy from low interest rates is the encouraged diversion of assets toward investment in commodities in defense, as a hedge for inflation. The migration toward commodities lifts the entire cost structure, and reduces the profit margins for business. The effect is deadly as it forces capital in the form of equipment and machinery into retirement. Business segments shut down. The low rate environment kills capital, reduces the capital base, and smothers the USEconomy. Not one in ten economists comprehends this basic point.
21) WHY HAS THE USDOLLAR NOT BEEN REFORMED IN RECENT YEARS ??
Because the USGovt has no jurisdiction over foreign nations and international contracts. Although the USDollar is widely used in foreign commerce, the USGovt cannot dictate changes and important alterations to past contracts in place. About five years ago, a plan was afoot to replace the USDollar with a newer better version. But all efforts hit an obstacle since the USGovt has no jurisdiction to alter past contracts that involve the USDollar within them. To be sure, the USGovt can control flows of money as a grand gatekeeper and toll taker, but it cannot dictate over external contracts. As the global financial and monetary collapse has continued, the United States has found itself unable to extricate itself from the tightening noose around its own neck. In time, the USDollar will experience a global shun, at which time great new problems will befall the nation.
22) HOW WILL THE USDOLLAR BE ELIMINATED ??
The USDollar will not be reformed replaced or repaired by bankers, since they are too committed and entrenched in fraud and corruption. The USDollar will be eliminated in a series of steps that begins with its isolation. The movement toward trade settlement outside the USDollar, not necessarily in Gold, works to isolate the USDollar turned toxic. Once isolated, the many nations not so firmly aligned to the West will thrive, while the Western core nations continue to crumble and collapse. When the USDollar is no longer in favor in a majority of trade settlement, it will begin to see wholesale dumping of the USTBond as a reserve asset. Then the US-led axis of fascism will be revealed in the United Kingdom, Canada, and most of Western Europe. They will continue to use the USDollar in both trade and banking, but they will ingest toxic paper during their continued unabated collapse. As the stage shrinks and the lights dim, the USDollar will be dealt with by the USGovt itself in brutal fashion. The US will devalue its own currency to survive, just like Third World nations.
23) HOW DOES THE CURRENCY WAR AFFECT THE USDOLLAR POSITION ??
Nations around the world are locked into policies to debase their currencies in a series of competitive devaluations in order to protect their export trades. A lower domestic currency exchange rate protects the trade by keeping the prices down for their exported products. Other nations are affected as they lose trade to the competitor which devalues. Actually all nations lose, since global trade shrinks in aggregate. The USDollar is artificially propped as a result. But pain comes from the devaluations since they increase import costs like crude oil, such as in the case in Japan. Also, nasty effects occur like with Switzerland, whose central bank collected a pile of Japanese Govt Bonds in a diversification program. In competing currency wars, everybody loses in a race to the bottom. Nations are slowly coming to the realization that if they simultaneously rid themselves of the entire batch of fiat paper currencies, and adopt a gold trade finance system, even if they suffer a writedown of USTBonds in the process, they will be better off with a future, after being freed from the toxic tentacles. The USDollar and USTBond are agents of ruin during the ongoing unstoppable collapse of paper assets, paper wealth, and paper money. The next stop is the Gold Standard, which the participants in the currency war are gradually moving to adopt, as they follow the Chinese lead.
24) HOW WILL THE UNITED STATES FALL INTO THE THIRD WORLD ??
The global isolation and rejection of the USDollar will force the USEconomic participants to bid up the currency required for the many supply routes leading into the nation's factories, offices, stores, and homes. The USDollar will be forced to bid up Chinese Yuan and Gold ultimately. They will be forced to bid for whatever currency is required for the assorted supplies like crude oil, metals, and foodstuffs, as well as for finished products like cars, hardware, home electronics, and clothing. The process will see some shocking events like 30% devaluations, just like seen in Venezuela. My estimate is that the USDollar will eventually see a 50% to 60% devaluation in total over the next few years. That will cut US personal wealth in half. That will open the door to 25% to 30% price inflation suddenly. The process will cause grand shortages, civil disorder, and perhaps chaos. Violence will erupt at the gasoline stations and food supermarkets. The USEconomy will lose its credit line, and become a credit risk. For decades, the USEconomy has been running up deficits, with no enforcement or discipline or controls, in essence shoving the debt paper on foreign nations in lieu of legitimate savings. They resent it. Foreigners will demand hard currency at a time when the USDollar loses its global reserve status and premier position. A sense of retribution will emerge. As the gold trade finance chapter opens, the USDollar severe devaluation will coincide.
25) WHY ARE AMERICANS SO ILL-INFORMED ??
The United States is the home of a vast syndicate that has been in firm control for decades, but only since 911 has it exerted stronger controls. In the process, much greater banker welfare has become the norm, as have tight reins to control the USCongress while integrating and enriching the military contractors, and more quietly the pharmaceutical giants with at times deadly vaccines. In order to maintain the charade of a national directive toward security, complete with all the earmarks of national socialism, the network news has been under very firm control. Dan Rather and Keith Olbermann can attest. Since the 1980 decade, the entire news conglomerates that include television, radio, newspapers, and journals has been subject to strict oversight by the USGovt security agencies. Since 911, the Homeland Security apparatus has exerted its controls. The ownership of the major network conglomerates is a short list, which in the 1970s consisted of 25 firms. Now it consists of a mere five firms. They have been totally woven into the security fold. A branch of Hollywood has also been grown from the security fold. The bias is evident in domestic political stories, international geopolitical stories, bank related stories, money related stories, economics stories, and financial market stories. The US citizens remain the worst informed people of any industrialized nation, and the most subjected to propaganda. The British are a close rival. The Goebbels methods are actively at work in propaganda widely disseminated.
26) WHAT HAS KEPT THE BIG US BANKS AFLOAT FOR THE LAST FOUR YEARS ??
Two flows of funds have kept the big US banks going. The first is the financial derivative trades that grew out of control in the 1990 decade and became vogue. They are totally unregulated, and therefore subject to grand fraud. For instance a big financial firm might have credit default swap contracts against its bond bust that total 200 times the value of the corporate bonds themselves. It like the entire neighborhood owning a fire insurance policy on a single home. To lite the home ablaze can be profitable for some participating investors. The banks have an extremely large volume of both credit default swaps and the more important interest rate swap contracts. In fact, JPMorgan owns $82 trillion in interest rate derivatives, which exceeds the size of the global economy. No regulation in oversight means the big US and London banks can rig the prices, even counterfeit some of the contracts held. Notice the LIBOR banker scandal that emerged in 2012 to shock the world. It will spread, not shrink, as all major financial markets are corrupted. The second very important source of funds is basic narcotics money laundering, the biggest beneficiaries being the New York banks. Few realize that JPMorgan runs the Iraqi Export Bank in Baghdad Iraq, which serves as the clearing house for Afghan narcotics. A ripe 85% of all heroin in the world comes from Afghanistan. Terrorists pale by comparison in importance in the war mission. The United Nations has issued several drug related finance reports that have identified the big US banks as primary centers for money laundering of narcotics funds. Some like Wachovia have pled guilty. In recent months, the Queen of England has been implicated, as have the Vatican bankers. Without the derivatives and money laundering, the big US banks would have folded and gone bust years ago.
27) DOES THE USFED REALLY HAVE AN EXIT PLAN ??
The USFed has no Exit Strategy. It ran a blatantly obvious fake plan in 2009 that the Jackass dismissed immediately and correctly. The Zero Percent Interest Rate Policy will remain in place until the USGovt debt default occurs. Any rate hike would cause a balloon in USGovt borrowing costs and much greater deficits. Any rate hike would cause a sudden implosion of the entire derivative structure, the so-called nuclear event. Any rate hike would break the big US bank carry trade locked into USTBonds, and thus cause bond yields to rise twice as fast as the USFed could control them in a great unwind. Any rate hike would crush the already comatose housing market. Any rate hike would harm badly the USEconomy from higher cost of loans. The Quantitative Easing policy will remain in place until the USGovt debt default occurs. No buyers of any critical mass exist to purchase USTreasury Bonds. The USFed has been purchasing at least 80% of USTBonds in new issuance and rollover supply. Foreign buyers are long gone, aghast at the hyper monetary inflation and toxic effect on their banking reserves. They also possess smaller trade surpluses. If the USFed were to halt the purchases of USTBonds, the pressures on the Interest Rate Swap machinery would break it quickly in a matter of one to two months. The result would be long-term bond yields rising to the 7% to 8% or 9% range. The USFed has no Exit Strategy, never had any Exit Strategy, and will not be granted an Exit Strategy. It is stuck in the monetary corner, totally reliant upon its Weimar printing press, gradually isolated in its USDollar self-fellatio activity.
28) HOW WILL THE USGOVT BUDGET DEFICIT BE FINANCED AND COVERED ??
The only exit ramp that might be seen is with the USGovt and its deficit finance. The likelihood grows every month for a major oppressive event, where private US pension funds (IRA, 401k, Keough, managed pension, etc) are forced to cover the USGovt deficit in the form of special USTreasury Bonds which also cover a portion of the USAgency Mortgage Bonds. The US citizenry is captive to the desperate whims of the USGovt and its bankrupt condition, sure to dole out desperate policy actions.
29) ON THE FISCAL CLIFF, ARE SEQUESTERED BUDGET CUTS ALL THAT BAD ??
The Jackass loves the automatic budget cuts, even if across the board in nature. Whatever it takes to reduce the vast USGovt bureaucracy and vast military establishment is wonderful and welcome. The fear tactics have already reached a fever pitch, with recited calls for long airline delays and cuts to the welfare morass that includes Social Security and Medicare. The point must be made that even the first round of cuts will be only $85 billion for the fiscal year ending September 30th. That is minor compared to the overall $3.8 trillion bloated budget, as in $3800 billion. It is a trifling amount in proposed cuts from the sequestered route, only 2.2% of the total bloated budget. The pain comes from the budget cuts arriving at a time of chronic recession that dogs the USEconomy. The marginal effects will be certain, but the movement to reduce the size of the USGovt is in a good direction.
30) WHY ARE AMERICANS SHUNNED ACROSS THE WORLD ??
The USGovt regularly puts out volumes of requirements and onerous rules for foreign entities to follow and abide by, at their own cost. The USGovt has in the past few years forced a burden on the foreign firms. As a result, the foreign firms have decided on an increasing basis not to incur the cost, not to support the staff, and not to deal with the nuisance. They do not hate the US citizen. They despise the USGovt and its sprawling imperial over-reach.
31) WHY DID THE POPE REALLY RESIGN ??
This is difficult to answer with any measure of certainty. But indications have been made by credible parties that the Vatican is soon to be exposed for some truly devious pernicious scummy banking relationships that involve big banks like JPMorgan and various central banks. The big corrupt US bank has managed the Vatican gold account for decades. Imagine the cross traffic from the brisk Afghan narcotics money laundering activity. More clearly, the Vatican is embroiled in narcotics money laundering at its primary bank. It is difficult to confirm, but the Jackass doubts that God approves of any activity on usage or finance related to heroine and cocaine. The Vatican apparently is soon to be subjected to a new financial audit. The recently appointed German lawyer Ernst von Freyberg will be the new president of its bank, filling a post left vacant since May when a financial scandal involving narcotics money laundering with Roman banks tainted the institution for the umpteenth time. The appointment was made by a commission of Cardinals and approved by Pope Benedict before his departure was announced, now final. The bank's formal name is a total joke, the Institute for Works of Religion. Plenty of other reports swirl about an intolerance for certain sexual rituals by the Vatican bankers that the current pope has no more patience for. Benedict has laid a trap. There are two chambers to the Vatican, the College of Cardinals and the Jesuit Bankers. The former pledges fealty and devotion to the Prince of Light with active ceremonies. The latter pledges fealty and devotion to the Prince of Darkness with active rituals.
32) ARE THE ANGLO AMERICAN BANKERS STILL IN CONTROL ??
In no way are the London and New York bankers in control. They are reacting to events. Their many structures are fast crumbling. Their bond markets are held up by paper emissions in ever increasing volumes. Their currencies are at war with each other, not simply competition. Their banks are grotesquely insolvent, kept afloat by direct monetary inflation, open state welfare, and oppressive taxes. The central banks are stuck in the ZIRP corner with only QE as an option, otherwise known as dead money and hyper monetary inflation. Weimar is alive and vigorous on its destructive rampage. The global trade settlement system is making steady progress in a non-USDollar alternative, which will strip the United States of the global currency reserve privilege, abused to the hilt. The trade finance structure will gradually revert to the Gold Standard, and from that firm position, dictate banking policy. The bankers of the future will be those who own Gold & Silver, which will rise to $5000 per ounce and $250 per ounce respectively, probably more suddenly than even the gold community comprehends or anticipates.
I Hope You're Ready: "The Sell-Off Today Is The Start. Not the End."
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/02.13/ready.html
DHS Supplier Provides Shooting Targets of American Gun Owners
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/dhs-supplier-provides-shooting-targets-of-american-gun-owners_02192013
Inflation Since the American Revolution
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/01.13/inflation.html
If They Come for Your Guns, Do You Have a Responsibility to Fight?
http://dcclothesline.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/if-they-come-for-your-guns-do-you-have-a-responsibility-to-fight/
...and today they took it down just as much!!
Update: Sell out Americans "cliff" deal sends silver screaming...
This is what I meant yesterday when I stated:
From Ron Paul
Government Security Is Just Another Kind Of Violence
The senseless and horrific killings last week in Newtown, Connecticut reminded us that a determined individual or group of individuals can cause great harm no matter what laws are in place. Connecticut already has restrictive gun laws relative to other states, including restrictions on fully automatic, so-called “assault” rifles and gun-free zones.
Predictably, the political left responded to the tragedy with emotional calls for increased gun control. This is understandable, but misguided. The impulse to have government “do something” to protect us in the wake national tragedies is reflexive and often well intentioned. Many Americans believe that if we simply pass the right laws, future horrors like the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting can be prevented. But this impulse ignores the self evident truth that criminals don't obey laws.
The political right, unfortunately, has fallen into the same trap in its calls for quick legislative solutions to gun violence. If only we put armed police or armed teachers in schools, we’re told, would-be school shooters will be dissuaded or stopped.
While I certainly agree that more guns equals less crime and that private gun ownership prevents many shootings, I don’t agree that conservatives and libertarians should view government legislation, especially at the federal level, as the solution to violence. Real change can happen only when we commit ourselves to rebuilding civil society in America, meaning a society based on family, religion, civic and social institutions, and peaceful cooperation through markets. We cannot reverse decades of moral and intellectual decline by snapping our fingers and passing laws.
Let’s not forget that our own government policies often undermine civil society, cheapen life, and encourage immorality. The president and other government officials denounce school violence, yet still advocate for endless undeclared wars abroad and easy abortion at home. U.S. drone strikes kill thousands, but nobody in America holds vigils or devotes much news coverage to those victims, many of which are children, albeit, of a different color.
Obviously I don’t want to conflate complex issues of foreign policy and war with the Sandy Hook shooting, but it is important to make the broader point that our federal government has zero moral authority to legislate against violence.
Furthermore, do we really want to live in a world of police checkpoints, surveillance cameras, metal detectors, X-ray scanners, and warrantless physical searches? We see this culture in our airports: witness the shabby spectacle of once proud, happy Americans shuffling through long lines while uniformed TSA agents bark orders. This is the world of government provided "security," a world far too many Americans now seem to accept or even endorse. School shootings, no matter how horrific, do not justify creating an Orwellian surveillance state in America.
Do we really believe government can provide total security? Do we want to involuntarily commit every disaffected, disturbed, or alienated person who fantasizes about violence? Or can we accept that liberty is more important than the illusion of state-provided security? Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. We shouldn’t settle for substituting one type of violence for another. Government role is to protect liberty, not to pursue unobtainable safety.
Our freedoms as Americans preceded gun control laws, the TSA, or the Department of Homeland Security. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference, not by safety. It is easy to clamor for government security when terrible things happen; but liberty is given true meaning when we support it without exception, and we will be safer for it.
I am always amazed that every Friday, Saturday and Sunday Americans host hugely attended high school & college basketball/football and professional games in which nobody gets shot by madmen with assault weapons.
If you watched TV you would think we all cower in fear when in public places because there are so many weapons owned by Americans.
Fact is, there are only one or two out of a few hundred million population that are so insane that they choose to kill innocent people in mass.
This is all a fantasy world in which a person should worry about getting shot by someone when attending school or a movie.
I take my chances. I am more likely to die in a car accident than be threatened by some psycho who wants to kill people in mass.
Why not ban cars or fast food which kill more people than this kind of gun violence?
I Fear the Government and the Obedient Sheeple,
More Than I Fear Guns
Scott Lazarowitz
I do not intend to write something here to convince the emotionally hysterical gun-control crowd to abandon their fantasy of removing guns from the world. They live in a fairyland and there appears to be no way to change their minds.
Nor am I trying to even convince the so-called conservatives, the Republicans, the alleged "gun-rights" advocates to stop it with their kowtowing. This is really just a rant (albeit an informed rant).
But I do want to note that the point of the right to bear arms – which is a right, by the way, not a government-granted privilege – is for people to have the means to defend themselves, not just from everyday criminals and predators, but mainly from government tyrants and their minions.
I just don't understand the so-called gun defenders and gun store owners suddenly joining the irrational hysterics of "Why would anyone need an assault rifle, or military-style weapon? We should ban those." Well, as history has shown, if you're going to forbid the civilian population from having certain firearms, then for your own safety you will have to forbid police and military from having them too.
But a lot of people don't seem to understand that. They trust government police and military. A lot of people feel safe with an armed government and a disarmed civilian population. (It really should be the other way around!)
And why is almost no one from the gun-rights crowd pointing out that it's really the government's gun restrictions, gun-free zones and "zero tolerance," in which honest, law-abiding civilians (e.g. teachers, school administrators and other adult school workers) are forcibly disarmed by government bureaucrats and police, that increases the vulnerability of these children to an attack by an armed intruder?
This is why I call people "sheeple," "zombies," and assert that many people now are totally hypnotized and brainwashed to love and adore their most vicious predators and threats to society: The State and its loyal flunkies.
For clearly, Washington is preparing for something, whether it is economic collapse and civil unrest, "natural" disasters, or civil war …
Whatever it is, it's something, and we know the bureaucrats are preparing for something, given the Department of Homeland Security's purchases of hundreds of millions of hollow-point bullets and high-powered battle rifles, Barack Obama's Executive Orders to seize control over mass communications in America and seize U.S. infrastructure and people involuntarily, Obama's preparing the FEMA rendition camps (not to mention the many coffins and mass graves being prepared), the U.S. Army's manual which outlines a plan to kill rioters and demonstrators, the Army's training troops to drive tanks through U.S. streets, FEMA's preparing for food storage confiscation, and more unconstitutional and criminal Obama-police state policies now.
There is also Obama's NDAA provision of indefinite detention of Americans, which gives the President the power to have the military seize and detain indefinitely anyone that the President or his minions have deemed a "terrorist," a "combatant," or otherwise a criminal, without providing any evidence against the accused.
Obama also has claimed the power – upheld by the court bureaucrats – to assassinate anyone he chooses, based on his own reasons, without any due process or any evidence against the accused.
A widely publicized example of that was Obama's assassination of Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, whose only "crime" was criticizing U.S. foreign policy within his religious sermons, totally protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. (I have addressed that here and here.)
You see, the power-grabbers have started with the Muslims, after the widespread post-9/11 brainwashing of Americans toward anti-Muslim prejudice and acceptance of anti-Muslim government policies and militarism.
So, thanks to the sheeple zombies' approval of the post-9/11 hysterical "War on Terror," Washington has now been cracking down on speech, critics of stupid government bureaucrats, political dissent and government whistleblowers. But start with the Muslims and they will go on from there.
More recently, former Marine Brandon Raub's Facebook posting questioning the government's official explanation for 9/11 caused such a stir, he was criminally abducted by Secret Service and local authorities and involuntarily detained in a psychiatric ward. He is not the first victim of the State's such crimes, as there have already been others in recent years.
Among the Obama Regime's war on whistleblowers, Army Private Bradley Manning suffered major abuse during his extensive pretrial military imprisonment. Manning allegedly released videos and documents to WikiLeaks exposing our own government bureaucrats' war crimes in Iraq and the bureaucrats' incompetence and corruption as well.
Former CIA asset Susan Lindauer was another government whistleblower who has already suffered at the hands of the un-American central planning degenerates in Washington.
More examples of the government bureaucrats' war on speech, political dissent and government criticism include former Obama Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein, who wants to "cognitively infiltrate" Internet sites and social media, and Obama's new law in which Constitutionally-protected protests will be stifled. And even Facebook has suspended the account of a user who questioned the official narrative involving the Sandy Hook, Connecticut school shooting.
But it is clear that Washington wants to stifle criticism and dissent amongst the masses, and us schmucks who do have a right to criticize the most buffoonish and imbecilic bureaucrats who have ever pervaded Washington, DC and who should be criticized, lambasted, raked over the coals, satirized, lampooned – all totally protected by the First Amendment, regardless of what the Supreme Bureaucrats say and/or whether there's a "War on Terror" or not.
Besides the government's cracking down on free speech, it has become oppressive in other ways. Examples include the TSA's VIPR teams now invading the bus terminals, Amtrak stations (which is being encouraged by all the filthy government hand-outs, of course), and on roads and highways, the government siccing S.W.A.T. teams on alleged student loan defaulters, and the FDA's war on raw milk.
As Jon Rappoport noted, government bureaucrats don't like it when the people over whom they rule do things on their own. That is why government bureaucrats are now forcing independent-minded people back on the government-controlled grid.
The government bureaucrats don't like it when the people express their own independence and who show that they do not need those government bureaucrats, or their alleged "security" workers to defend the people. That is why government bureaucrats insist on "gun-free zones," in which children are left vulnerable to attackers, rather than allowing the adults at the school to be armed to protect those children from real harm.
"Let's put a police officer or security guard in the school," the compromisers cry. However, locking down the schools like this turns the kids into prisoners, and won't protect them.
The near impossibility of being able to reach those who can rightfully be considered "sheeple" is frustrating now.
For those who are still in denial of the possibility that the U.S. government could possibly ever turn the guns on the people, there is already precedent of this. During the 19th Century American War on Independence, besides President Abraham Lincoln's State-murders of many thousands of innocent civilians in the South and his army's murders of hundreds of military protesters in the North, as Thomas DiLorenzo pointed out,
Lincoln illegally suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus and imprisoned tens of thousands of Northern political critics without any due process; shut down hundreds of opposition newspapers...censored all telegraphs; rigged elections; imprisoned duly elected members of the Maryland legislature along with Congressman Henry May of Baltimore and the mayor of Baltimore; illegally orchestrated the secession of West Virginia to give the Republican Party two more U.S. senators; confiscated firearms in the border states in violation of the Second Amendment…
And there are other examples of those abuses, committed by Presidents Woodrow Wilson and FDR, besides the more recent examples.
And regarding the right to bear arms, a lot of people actually find it absurd if you point out how Hitler took advantage of gun control laws already in place, and further strengthened them to disarm Germans, mainly the Jews. So had Jews in Germany been able to exercise their right to bear arms, many of them might have been able to resist the Nazis from abducting them and taking them to their deaths. (See David Kopel and Richard Griffiths on that issue.)
It really should be the reverse of what the sheeple want: We would be much better off, much safer and more secure with an armed civilian population and a disarmed government!
Finally, while Premier Obama violates his oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States" on a daily basis, one individual who has declared with very strong and straightforward language his personal pledge to resist the fascist disarmament campaign is Stewart Rhodes, Founder of the Oath Keepers organization. Included in his statement of resistance, Rhodes declares,
I pledge to refuse compliance with any and all laws that attempt to strip me and my children of those arms … I will use nullification, civil disobedience, and active resistance against all such laws. I will nullify, disobey, and resist as an individual, and I will work with my neighbors to nullify, disobey, and resist as towns, counties, and states. We will not disarm, we will not comply, and we will resist…
I pledge to defend myself, my neighbors, my town, county, and state, against any attempt to forcibly disarm them pursuant to any "assault weapons ban" or any other illegitimate "law" passed by oath breakers within Congress, or pursuant to any illegitimate order, action, or decree by the oath breaker within the White House. We will not disarm. We will resist. And if given no other choice but to fight or to submit to abject tyranny, we will fight, just as our forefathers in the American Revolution fought against the tyrants, usurpers, and oath breakers of their day.
If we are presented with the "choice" of submission to tyranny or fighting in defense of our natural rights, we will fight, as our forefathers fought, when the British Empire attempted to disarm them and confiscate the military pattern arms, ammunition, and supplies of their time. We will make the same choice as Patrick Henry made, when he rejected "peace" purchased at the price of chains and slavery, and said "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" I too choose liberty or death.
I hereby reaffirm my oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor in defense of the principles of liberty enunciated in our Declaration of Independence, for which our forefathers spilled their blood. We will not let the Republic fall without a fight.
And he means it. I don't know anyone personally who has the guts to declare such a strong statement of resistance to government tyrants. I know I don't.
But we do need more Stewart Rhodes in America, that's for sure.
(And fewer buffoonish, dangerous government bureaucrats, that's for sure.)
Gold, Paper, and a Train Wreck
GE Christenson
Begin with a few facts and assumptions and follow the logic:
Gold has been a store of wealth for more than 3,000 years. Silver has been used as money in most countries of the world. Both are still valuable.
All unbacked paper money eventually reverts to its intrinsic value of zero. Throughout history, there have been no exceptions to this statement. The world’s current experiment with unbacked paper money is only 41 years old and looking rather strained.
A person, business, or government cannot increase their indebtedness forever by spending in excess of revenues. This seems self-evident. Eventually, the person, business, or government will become unable to find anyone willing to lend under those circumstances. “Deficits don’t matter” is nonsense.
“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” This is Stein’s Law and seems obvious, but we often act as if we don’t believe it.
Politicians and governments will do everything possible to retain current power, even if it is destructive in the long term.
My belief is that most people will agree with these simple and straight-forward statements.
We know that the United States (and the rest of the world) uses an unbacked paper currency which has lost perhaps 90% of its value in the last 40 years. We know that the official US government debt exceeds $16 Trillion and is growing rapidly – approximately 12% per year for the past five years. We also know that the present value of unfunded obligations of the US government for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, military pensions, and other commitments is $100 Trillion to $220 Trillion depending upon who is counting. It does not matter which calculation is correct since it is impossible for the US government to fund and pay either present value estimate.
The current debt exceeds $16 Trillion and will increase at current growth rates to about $25 Trillion in another four years. Interest rates on the national debt are historically low because the Federal Reserve continues to “print money” and then makes huge purchases of government bonds. Assume a modest 5% interest rate on $25 Trillion of national debt in 2016. Do you believe that our economy can generate $1.25 Trillion in annual taxes just to pay the interest on the debt? How about funding a 6% interest rate on $35 – $45 Trillion in national debt by the year 2020? The interest payments would be about $2.4 Trillion – approximately the entire revenue for the government in 2012. “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
Our politicians will probably address the budgetary problem, as created by them, by taking the easiest way out, by angering the least number of voters, stalling, blaming others, appointing committees, and by concealing the problems and consequences as best they can. Possibilities include: printing $Trillions and blaming the resulting inflation on a convenient scapegoat, defaulting on all debt owed to foreigners, means-testing Social Security, Medicare, and other programs, forcing pension funds and IRA’s to buy T-Bonds, higher taxes, higher inflation, and reduced military spending. Many more creative suggestions will be set forth, but they probably will not include balanced budgets, fiscal sanity, or debt repudiation.
If paper money eventually declines in value to nearly zero, the national debt is never repaid, government will continue to borrow and spend in excess of revenues, and this process can be extended for only a few more years, what should we expect?
Assume the dollar will decline in value against all commodities. Food, energy, metals, and practically everything you need for survival will substantially increase in price. Jim Sinclair calls this “currency induced cost-push inflation.”
Assume that government guarantees, programs, and promises will be changed, reduced, eliminated, or devalued. How much good is receiving Social Security income if your monthly benefit purchases only seven loaves of bread, a few fishes, and a tank of gasoline?
Assume that taxes will increase and our standard of living will decrease.
Assume that most paper wealth in the form of debt instruments, T-Bonds, T-Notes, state government bonds, and corporate debt will substantially decline in value and purchasing power.
Assume that gold re-enters the global monetary system in some form, not because politicians and central bankers want it, but because they are forced to include gold in order to create a credible monetary system that will inspire confidence in the new currency.
This begs the question, how do you prepare? Perhaps we should cash out all paper investments, buy gold, and hunker down on rural farmland. This will not work for most people. Further, while most people know much is wrong in our economy, they are not ready to abandon their current lifestyle. The problem is that by the time it becomes clear that economic disaster is upon us, it will be too late for most people to protect themselves. A partial solution is simply to buy physical gold and silver – NOW!
People riding a runaway train can party and remain oblivious to the fact that the train is about to crash into a huge obstacle. Our runaway financial train is about to destroy the status quo as it crashes into the obstacle of mathematical consequences – the inevitable financial train wreck. “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
When will the collision/collapse occur in the United States? Jim Sinclair, one of the premier financial intellects of our time, thinks we may have until perhaps 2015 – 2017 before the collision. He recommends physical gold bullion – in your possession or perhaps stored in a secure private storage facility. I think silver coins and bullion stored in a secure and private facility are also a wise investment.
But because we don’t know when the crash will occur, it makes far better sense to prepare now, even if early, than to wait and hope. If all of these potential disasters miraculously disappear and our financial world continues as it has, preparation will be, at worst, inexpensive insurance. “Buy that insurance” while you still can.
Are you prepared? Do you have enough financial insurance – physical gold and silver?
Ron Paul's Congressional Farewell Speech
A New Kind of Freedom
Nelson Hultberg
Karl Marx was asked once how he could justify advocating a political system of slavery for the individual, which is what socialism is. He replied that socialism is not slavery; it is a "new kind of freedom." As all perceptive students of history know, the intellectuals of Europe bought into such Alice in Wonderland sophistry and plunged into the twentieth century nightmare of collectivist tyranny. But unfortunately, so did American intellectuals about 30 years later when the Progressives of Woodrow Wilson's era established the Creature from Jekyll Island to usher in centralized government banking and the progressive income tax to "spread the wealth around."
Socialism is not really so bad, reasoned the American intellectual community. If we think about it, it actually is a "new kind of freedom." We just have to do what the Red Queen and the Mad Hatter advocated. We have to change the meaning of the words that define the fundamental values of our lives. After all, there is no objective reality; words can mean whatever we want them to mean. All we have to do is teach Marx's new definition of freedom to the young at an early enough age that when they grow into adulthood they will not think of a government-dominated society as slavery at all. It will be a "new kind of freedom" to them.
Americans never bought into Lenin's violent revolutionary socialism but they did buy into the Fabians' democratic evolutionary socialism. Fabian ideas in Britain were readily picked up by the American progressives and liberals of the twentieth century. This redefinition of values has been consuming us now for 100 years ever since the Creature from Jekyll Island and the tax revenuers took over Washington. The progressives and liberals have even redefined their redefinitions. Fascism, being basically the same as socialism, is now acceptable in the mix.
What is horrifying is that Barack Obama's election victory is tied directly to this corruption of values. We have now elected, for a second time, a man who was raised by communists in Hawaii. Obama's mind was forged from the likes of Frank Marshall Davis, a powerful and radical communist apparatchik of the fifties, sixties, and seventies. Davis was Obama's constant companion from the age of 9 to 18 before he went off to Occidental College in Los Angeles. His worldview is thus the Marxian sophistry that socialism is a "new kind of freedom." In the mind of Obama, individuals like Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart are not entrepreneurial benefactors to their fellow man; they are evil rich people who exploit their fellow man. These evil rich need to be leveled down. And the way to do it is insidiously, governmentally, with ever-expanding redistribution of wealth programs and ever-expanding monetary inflation.
One of Ayn Rand's powerful insights in Atlas Shrugged is that dictatorships take over because the people actually approve of them. She called it the "sanction of the victim." This attitude now permeates the American electorate. Nietzsche's "slave mentalities" dominate the throngs of voters who determine what our government is to do. The great majority of Americans are demonstrating that they actually want to be enslaved.
Rand also made the following observation: When asked once why she voted Republican if she thought both parties had sold out to collectivism, she replied that both parties are headed toward the abyss, but Democrats wish to charge toward it and Republicans wish to creep toward it. She, no doubt, felt that we have more time to educate the people as to what is happening with Republicans in power.
Well, America just ran out of time this past election night. A majority of American voters indicated that they believe government owes them a living along with health care, security and self-esteem. They indicated that they are very comfortable with the Fabian march into socialist-fascism that has been taking place ever since the Creature was instituted in 1913. They indicated that they believe rich people don't earn their wealth; they steal it from the kindly masses by siphoning off the surplus productivity of their labor and reducing them to grinding poverty. (This is the fallacious "labor theory of value" that Marx perpetuated.)
Unfortunately, this fallacious reasoning is why so many Americans have become so slothful and are choosing to vote for a living rather than work for a living. It is the reason why so many productive men and women in America are poisoned with guilt and now tolerate the egregious, confiscatory taxes that are destroying the dynamism of our economy and the sanity of our lives. Justice and prosperity cannot be built by catering to slothful masses with theoretical fallacies.
The slothful masses now control America through an Orwellian czar in Washington whose mentor was a rabid communist apparatchik in the 1970s and whose close advisors (Bill Ayres, Jeremiah Wright, Valerie Jarrett, etc.) have always been radical leftist haters of America. This Orwellian czar is now a lame duck President and doesn't have to run again. All that blocks him from ravaging our rights and freedoms is a supine Senate and a timid array of House Republicans. Will these political sycophants be able to stand up to him and the new hordes of entitlement seekers that bolster him with their eager votes? Not likely. Congress will, instead, begin to reach out to the new entitlement seekers along with the pressing hordes of illegals and their comrades waiting in the wings for entrance to America.
Jean Raspail's Camp of the Saints looms over the horizon. Congressional sycophants will begin to emulate Fox News analyst, Kirsten Powers, who gleefully reported on election night, "We are now a brown nation." They will begin to reevaluate their position on the illegals. They will reason that another 15 million illiterate anti-Americans amidst us is no problem. To paraphrase Nixon, "We're all Multiculturalists now."
Thus, Obama will push full-blown for amnesty for the illegals and Marx's redefinition of slavery into a "new kind of freedom." We will charge toward the abyss at a speed never before employed. Obama and the Creature will gobble up the last of our freedoms. America will become a giant replica of Greece.
Forget the $- 1oz of Silver for 45 Acres!
http://silverbearcafe.com/private/09.12/silveracres.html
The Bottom Line on Gold to the fiatdollar -
Investing in specific mining companies that are poised for growth
and/or a takeover by a larger company can be a way to increase your
wealth many times over.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79581622
But not every junior mining company offers such promise...
and timing is an essential key to successful investing with
this strategy -
I do compare USGIF mining comp. on the LT to ex. Barrick & Goldcorp which I
held since the beginning and never sold @ that time as @ current -
I was and am a contrarian to most other investors -
the ABX & GG made me to support a lot of 100s of other
junior mining companies over the last 30yrs+ and most of
them have made my years to be pleasant on the LT investing
but it often takes to have some patience
with the Au & Ag bull rides still only few dull moments
makes a great time
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79543440
God Bless
Ron Paul: Audit the Fed, Now or Never!
10 Things That We Can Learn About Shortages And Preparation From The Economic Collapse In Greece
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/06/10-things-that-we-can-learn-about.html
Michael Snyder, Contributor
Activist Post
When the economy of a nation collapses, almost everything changes. Unfortunately, most people have never been through anything like that, so it can be difficult to know how to prepare. For those that are busy preparing for the coming global financial collapse, there is a lot to be learned from the economic depression that is happening right now in Greece.
Essentially, what Greece is experiencing is a low-level economic collapse. Unemployment is absolutely rampant and poverty is rapidly spreading, but the good news for Greece is that the global financial system is still operating somewhat normally and they are getting some financial assistance from the outside. Things in Greece could be a whole lot worse, and they will probably get a whole lot worse before it is all said and done. But already things have gotten bad enough in Greece that it gives us an idea of what a full-blown economic collapse in the 21st century may look like.
There are reports of food and medicine shortages in Greece, crime and suicides are on the rise, and people have been rapidly pulling their money out of the banks. Hopefully this article will give you some ideas that you can use as you prepare for the economic chaos that will soon be unfolding all over the globe.
The following are 10 things that we can learn about shortages and preparation from the economic collapse in Greece....
#1 Food Shortages Can Actually Happen
Most people assume that they will always be able to run out to their local supermarket or to Wal-Mart and get all of the supplies they need.
Unfortunately, that is a false assumption. The truth is that our food distribution system is extremely vulnerable.
In Greece, many people are starting to totally run out of food. Even some government institutions (such as prisons) are now reporting food shortages. The following was originally from a Greek news source....
The financing for many prisons has decreased to a minimum for some months now, resulting in hundreds of detainees being malnourished and surviving on the charity of local communities.
The latest example is the prison in Corinth where after the supply stoppage from the nearby military camp, the prisoners are at the mercy of God because, as reported by prison staff, not even one grain of rice has been left in their warehouses. When a few days earlier the commander of the camp announced to the prison management the transportation stoppage, citing lack of food supplies even for the soldiers, he shut down the last source of supply for 84 prisoners. The response of some Corinth citizens was immediate as they took it upon themselves to support the prisoners, since all protests to the Justice ministry were fruitless.
#2 Medicine Is One Of The First Things That Becomes Scarce During An Economic Collapse
If you are dependent on medicine in order to survive, you might want to figure out how you are going to get by if your supply of medicine is totally cut off someday.
In Greece, medicine shortages have become a massive problem. The following is from a recent Bloomberg article....
Mina Mavrou, who runs a pharmacy in a middle-class Athens suburb, spends hours each day pleading with drugmakers, wholesalers and colleagues to hunt down medicines for clients.
Life-saving drugs such as Sanofi (SAN)’s blood-thinner Clexane and GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK)’s asthma inhaler Flixotide often appear as lines of crimson data on pharmacists’ computer screens, meaning the products aren’t in stock or that pharmacists can’t order as many units as they need.
'When we see red, we want to cry,' Mavrou said. 'The situation is worsening day by day.'
The 12,000 pharmacies that dot almost every street corner in Greek cities are the damaged capillaries of a complex system for getting treatment to patients. The Panhellenic Association of Pharmacists reports shortages of almost half the country’s 500 most-used medicines. Even when drugs are available, pharmacists often must foot the bill up front, or patients simply do without.
#3 When An Economy Collapses, So Might The Power Grid
Try this some time - turn off all power to your home for 24 hours and try to live normally.
Sadly, most people simply do not understand just how dependent we are on the power grid. Without power, all of our lives would change dramatically.
In Greece, authorities are warning of an impending "collapse" of the power grid. If it goes down for an extended period of time in Greece, the consequences would be catastrophic....
Greece’s power regulator RAE told Reuters on Friday it was calling an emergency meeting next week to avert a collapse of the debt-stricken country’s electricity and natural gas system.
'RAE is taking crisis initiatives throughout next week to avert the collapse of the natural gas and electricity system,' the regulator’s chief Nikos Vasilakos told Reuters.
RAE took the decision after receiving a letter from Greece’s natural gas company DEPA, which threatened to cut supplies to electricity producers if they failed to settle their arrears with the company.
#4 During An Economic Collapse You Cannot Even Take Water For Granted
If the power grid goes down, you will soon no longer have clean water coming out of your faucets. That is one of the reasons why it is absolutely imperative that the power grid stay operable in Greece.
Sadly, most people don't understand just how vulnerable our water system is. In a previous article, I quoted from a report that discussed how rapidly our water supply would be in jeopardy in the event of a major transportation disruption....
According to the American Water Works Association, Americans drink more than one billion glasses of tap water per day. For safety and security reasons, most water supply plants maintain a larger inventory of supplies than the typical business. However, the amount of chemical storage varies significantly and is site specific.
According to the Chlorine Institute, most water treatment facilities receive chlorine in cylinders (150 pounds and one ton cylinders) that are delivered by motor carriers. On average, trucks deliver purification chemicals to water supply plants every seven to 14 days.
Without these chemicals, water cannot be purified and made safe for drinking. Without truck deliveries of purification chemicals, water supply plants will run out of drinkable water in 14 to 28 days. Once the water supply is drained, water will be deemed safe for drinking only when boiled. Lack of clean drinking water will lead to increased gastrointestinal and other illnesses, further taxing an already weakened healthcare system.
What will you do when clean water stops coming out of your faucets?
You might want to start thinking about that.
#5 During An Economic Crisis Your Credit Cards And Debit Cards May Stop Working
Most people have become very accustomed to using either debit cards or credit cards for almost everything.
But what would happen if the financial system locked up for a period of time and you were not able to use them?
This is something that the citizens of Greece are potentially facing in the coming months, and this is something that all of us need to start thinking about.
#6 Crime, Rioting And Looting Become Commonplace During An Economic Collapse
Big corporations are already making extensive plans for how to protect their stores in the event that Greece switches from the euro to the drachma.
The following is from a recent Reuters article....
British electrical retailer Dixons has spent the last few weeks stockpiling security shutters to protect its nearly 100 stores across Greece in case of riot.
The planning, says Dixons chief Sebastian James, may look alarmist but it's good to be prepared.
Company bosses around Europe agree. As the financial crisis in Greece worsens, companies are getting ready for everything from social unrest to a complete meltdown of the financial system.
#7 During A Financial Meltdown Many Average Citizens Will Start Bartering
During this economic depression, alternative currencies have already been popping up in Greece.
When things fall apart on a global scale, will you have things to barter for the things that you need?
#8 Suicides Spike During An Economic Collapse
When you think of the Great Depression of the 1930s, what do you think of?
Many people think of images of people jumping out of buildings.
Well, something similar has been happening in Greece. Suicide statistics in Greece have been absolutely soaring during the last couple of years.
Once prosperity disappears, many people feel as though life is not worth living anymore.
#9 Your Currency May Rapidly Lose Value During An Economic Crisis
Just remember what happened in Germany during the Weimar Republic and what has happened recently in places like Zimbabwe.
The truth is that it can happen anywhere.
Right now, Greeks are pulling their money out of the banks because they are worried that their euros will be turned into drachmas which would rapidly lose value.
If I was living in Greece I would definitely be concerned about that. The return of the drachma seems to get closer with each passing day. Just check out these screenshots.
#10 When Things Hit The Fan The Government Will Not Save You
Has the government of Greece come to the rescue of all of those that are deeply suffering right now?
Of course not. The truth is that the Greek government can barely take care of itself at the moment.
History has shown us that governments simply cannot be counted on when things hit the fan.
Just remember what happened during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
In the end, the only one that can be counted on to take care of you and your family is you.
So you better start preparing.
Unfortunately, as I wrote about the other day, time is rapidly running out for the global financial system.
Even some of the top economic officials in the world are warning that another major crisis could be on the way.
Just check out what World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the other day....
Events in Greece could trigger financial fright in Spain, Italy and across the eurozone. The summer of 2012 offers an eerie echo of 2008.
He also compared a potential exit of Greece from the eurozone to the collapse of Lehman Brothers back during the last financial crisis....
If Greece leaves the eurozone, the contagion is impossible to predict, just as Lehman had unexpected consequences.
So what are some things that the average person can do to get prepared?
Well, a recent article on SHTFplan.com entitled "The List: A to Z Survival for the Abysmal Times Ahead" contains hundreds of ideas for preparing for the chaotic economic environment that we are heading into.
Preparation is going to look different for every family. No two situations are exactly the same.
But there are some practical steps that nearly all of us can take to better position ourselves for what is coming. Now is the time to get educated and now is the time to take action.
Or you could be like all of those that laughed at Noah while he was building that big boat.
In the end, things did not work out too well for those folks.
The Impending Undeclared Default Of 5 Major US Banks -
http://www.jsmineset.com/2012/01/30/the-impending-undeclared-default-of-5-major-us-banks/
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=71615015
GOLD is the Real Money -
CALVF will keep it away from BS 666 cult can't confiscate it -
http://zfacts.com/p/461.html
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=71421542
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=71613261
God Bless
I can't believe this is real:
http://silverbearcafe.com/private/12.11/rubicon.html
The Truth about Banks part 1. -
TheMhdj
speaks volumes with what the msm isn't saying
what is real is what is sensed
by those not so desensitized
by mass programming..
The Prepper Movement: Why Are Millions Of Preppers Preparing Feverishly For The End Of The World As We Know It?
The American Dream
In America today, there are millions of "preppers" that are working feverishly to get prepared for what they fear is going to happen to America. There is a very good chance that some of your neighbors or co-workers may be preppers. You may even have noticed that some of your relatives and friends have been storing up food and have been trying to convince you that we are on the verge of "the end of the world as we know it". A lot of preppers like to keep their preparations quiet, but everyone agrees that the prepper movement is growing. Some estimate that there are four million preppers in the United States today. Others claim that there are a lot more than that. In any event, there are certainly a lot of preppers out there. So exactly what are all these preppers so busy preparing for?
Well, the truth is that the motivation for prepping is different for each person. Some preppers believe that a complete collapse of the economy is coming. Others saw what happened to so many during Hurricane Katrina are are determined not to let that happen to them. Some preppers just want to become more independent and self-sufficient. There are yet others that are deeply concerned about "end of the world as we know it" scenarios such as terrorists using weapons of mass destruction, killer pandemics, alien invasions, World War III or EMP attacks.
But whatever the motivation is, the prepper movement is clearly growing. Today, millions of Americans are converting spare rooms into storage pantries, learning how to grow survival gardens and stocking up on everything from gas masks to auxiliary generators.
Recently, the Salina Journal gathered together about two dozen preppers. What they found is that there is a tremendous amount of diversity among preppers, but that they also clearly share a common passion....
It was a diverse bunch. All different shapes, sizes, ages, gender and political persuasions.
Some were ex-military. Some never served. Some were unemployed, some had jobs. A few were retired.
But they all shared a common bond: They call themselves Preppers, and they had gathered to share ideas, demonstrate various skills, enjoy each other's company and to put faces to the online names they use to disguise their identity.
Never before in U.S. history have we seen anything like this. We are at peace and most of us still have a relatively high standard of living and yet millions of Americans feel called to start preparing for the worst.
A lot of preppers don't like to publicize the fact that they are prepping. As the Salina Journal discovered, a lot of preppers try very hard to keep their prepping to themselves.....
They are trying to keep their passion for prepping hidden from neighbors and, in some cases, employers who they said would frown on their association with such a group. Two admitted their appearance here would probably get them fired if their companies found out.
Many people believe that it takes a lot of money and resources to be a prepper, but that is not necessarily the case.
For some, the best way to get prepared is to radically simplify things.
For example, a recent article posted on Yahoo Finance profiled a man that lives in his RV and that survives on about $11,000 a year....
I had an apartment in Burbank and was the typical Los Angeles apartment dweller. I started to feel a strong desire to simplify my life. I had a garage full of stuff I never used, my closets were full, and I started to see that it was costing me money to have an apartment big enough to hold all the stuff I never use.
My initial plan was to scale back and move into a smaller apartment. Before long, I realized I didn't need too much to be happy. I could fit into a small space. That's when the RV idea occurred to me. I was just sitting in traffic and an RV pulled up. I said, "I could probably fit in that thing." The more I looked into it, the more I realized how practical it would be. For what I was paying for rent in LA, I could own my "house" free and clear and not pay rent, and own my car as well.
Other people make the most of what they already have. It is absolutely amazing what some families are able to do with limited resources.
For example, there is one family that is actually producing 6000 pounds of produce a year on just 1/10th of an acre right in the middle of Pasadena, California.
This family grows more food than they need and they sell the excess to restaurants in the surrounding area. You can see video of their amazing garden right here.
Other Americans take prepping to the other extreme. For example, Steven Huff is building a 72,000 square foot "home" (some call it a fortress) in Missouri. Huff is the chairman of Wisconsin-based TF Concrete Forming Systems, and he wants to show off what his firm is capable of. Huff claims that this will be "a home that uses very low energy, as well as having strong resistance to tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, fire, flood and insect damage".
In reality, what Huff is building kind of resembles a castle. You can see pictures of this remarkable "home" right here.
But Huff is not the only one taking things to extremes.
In a recent article, I detailed how renowned Texas investor Kyle Bass appears to be very well prepared for the horrible economic collapse that he believes is coming. The following is how one reporter described his recent visit to the 40,000 square foot "fortress" owned by Bass....
"We hopped into his Hummer, decorated with bumper stickers (God Bless Our Troops, Especially Our Snipers) and customized to maximize the amount of fun its owner could have in it: for instance, he could press a button and, James Bond–like, coat the road behind him in giant tacks. We roared out into the Texas hill country, where, with the fortune he’d made off the subprime crisis, Kyle Bass had purchased what amounted to a fort: a forty-thousand-square-foot ranch house on thousands of acres in the middle of nowhere, with its own water supply, and an arsenal of automatic weapons and sniper rifles and small explosives to equip a battalion."
Do you think that Bass is taking things too far?
Well, there are other big names that are busy preparing for the worst as well.
For instance, Robert Kiyosaki, the best-selling author of the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" series of books is now a full-fledged prepper.
He says that he is "prepared for the worst" and that he and his wife "have food, we have water, we have guns, gold and silver, and cash".
So should the rest of us be preparing?
Of course we should be. Our nation is drowning in debt, the U.S. economy is dying, the number of earthquakes and other natural disasters is increasing, and the entire globe is becoming an extremely unstable place. If you read my articles on a regular basis, then you know that there are a whole host of reasons to try to become more independent and self-sufficient.
So what can we all do to get prepared?
Well, in a previous article I listed a few things that can be done by most people....
#1 Become Less Dependent On Your Job
#2 Get Out Of Debt
#3 Reduce Expenses
#4 Purchase Land
#5 Learn To Grow Food
#6 Find A Reliable Source Of Water
#7 Explore Alternative Energy Sources
#8 Store Supplies
#9 Protect Your Assets With Gold And Silver
#10 Learn Self-Defense
#11 Keep Yourself Fit
#12 Make Friends
For those interested in learning more about preppers and prepping, there are a lot of really great resources out there....
*American Preppers Network
*The Survival Mom
*In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog
*The Surburban Prepper
So what do you think about preppers?
Do you think that the prepper movement is going too far?
Do you think that the prepper movement is not going far enough?
Are there legitimate reasons why Americans should be preparing for difficult times ahead?
Ben Bernanke Makes Insane Comments On Gold
By Lee Rogers
July 13, 2011
http://www.roguegovernment.com/?news_id=26202
Ben Bernanke who today was testifying in front of a Congressional Committee made the assertion that gold is not money during an exchange with Congressman Ron Paul. He even went as far to say that central banks only hold gold because of tradition. Of course, both of these statements are completely absurd because gold has been recognized as a form of money for thousands of years and is still today recognized as a storer of value. The reason why the gold price keeps going up is because people recognize it as something that will maintain value in the face of economic uncertainty. Central banks hold gold because it represents real wealth where as monetary units like Euros, Dollars, Yen and other currency systems are nothing more than an illusionary concept that is only based on the premise of people's confidence. These currencies are either printed or created on computer systems as digital credits and are not backed by any real financial asset. Regardless of what you think about gold or other precious metals, it is a historical fact that gold has maintained its value for thousands of years and for Bernanke not to recognize this very simple concept is more proof that his agenda is only to promote confidence in an otherwise broken system.
Most people don't understand how the central banking systems of the world work and this is why Bernanke and other assorted central banker bozos can get away with making insane statements such as the ones Bernanke made today. The reason why governments around the world maintain huge piles of debt on their books is because the system is designed to facilitate that exact phenomenon. The central banks of the world create money out of nothing and loan that money at interest to governments who give them bonds or debt in exchange. This forces the people into perpetual debt enslavement as the governments implement draconian taxes on the population to pay the interest they now owe back to the central bank. This system is nothing more than a pryamid scheme much like the types of scams that people like Bernie Madoff and other white collar criminals have run. The only difference is that the corporate media which has spent an enormous amount of time covering these scandals, ignores the fact that much of the world's financial system is setup in a very similar fashion to the scams that they themselves have been critical of. So if you've ever wondered why the United States government is in trillions of dollars of debt, it is because the system is designed to ensure that exact outcome transpires.
Unfortunately, it does not appear as if Bernanke will ever stop the endless amount of money creation that this system allows. The quanitative easing programs known as QE1 and QE2 were just fancy labels in order to more easily justify excessive money creation. A wire service report detailing the minutes of a recent Federal Reserve meeting indicate that they are actually considering additional money creation programs which shouldn't come as much surprise. The only thing central banks can do during an economic crisis is create more money or change policies to manipulate the amount of money that circulates within the system. Bernanke who has made previous comments stating that he would drop money out of a helicopter to keep the economy going has essentially already done that and will continue doing so until the existing money supply has little to no value.
I am so panic about the demise of the dollar because about 90% of the world use dollar for their transactions, so i wonder if such a thing happen what will happen to the world?
so i thing it is incumbent on us to come out complain mysteriously about it so that I.M.F and the world leaders will come out and do some thing about it.
So i urge every one to come out and complain.
Obama's "Millionaire Tax" Collected Over Next Ten Years Will Plug 4 Months Worth Of Deficit
In order to keep the ongoing class warfare waged by the administration in perspective, today the CBO was kind enough to score the revenue impact of the proposed and much debated Buffett Tax, now appearing in non-populist literature as "Surtax on Millionaires." According to the Budget Office, said tax which is the source of substantial consternation among the population, would generate, over the next decade, a grand total of... drum roll... $453 billion. Why the drum roll? Because as we pointed out a few days ago, the US closed the 2011 fiscal year having added $1.23 trillion in debt (a number which would have been $1.4 trillion absent some year end settlement gimmickry). In other words, last year the US government had on average a $100+ billion deficit each month. In yet more other words, the great populist gimmick that is the Buffett Tax will have the great benefit of generating, between 2011 and 2021 enough money to plug a debt hole, at the rate America currently spends money, of 4 months.
From the CBO:
Dear Mr. Leader:
As you requested, CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have estimated the budget impact of S. 1660, the American Jobs Act of 2011, as introduced in the Senate on October 5, 2011. CBO and JCT estimate that, in total, enacting S. 1660 would decrease deficits by about $6 billion over the 2012-2021 period (see enclosed table). That estimated deficit reduction of $6 billion over the coming decade is the net effect of $447 billion in additional spending and tax cuts in titles II through III and $453 billion in additional tax revenue from the surtax specified in title IV.
S. 1660 is similar to S. 1549, the American Jobs Act of 2011, as introduced in the Senate on September 13, 2011. Provisions in title I, II, and III related to both federal revenues and spending are identical for the two bills. The only difference between the bills is that S. 1660 replaces the provisions in title IV (Offsets) of S. 1549 with a surtax of 5.6 percent, starting in 2013, on a taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income in excess of $1 million (or $500,000 in the case of a married individual filing a separate return), indexed for inflation. JCT estimates that title IV of S. 1660 would increase revenues by $453 billion over the 2012-2021 period, whereas title IV of S. 1549 would increase revenues by $450 billion over that period.
I guess just about everything has been posted and debated about the dollar demise. We are waiting for what we see as inevitable and just need to sit back and observe the puppet masters and work every once in a while to get the big picture!! The long they delay this game the worse it will be once the day of reckoning comes. This is a good read from The Silver Bear:
Preservation
Johnny Silver Bear
(Editor's Note: I recently received an email from a reader who voiced the same concerns that I expect most of our readership shares, about their retirement savings and how to best secure their assets and deal with the demise of empire. You folks are fortunate in that you have awakened and realized that there was something very, very rotten going on. There is still time to do something. In an attempt to answer her questions, I found my self slipping in to one of my rants. I decided to post it for you all to enjoy. - JSB)
Dear Johnny,
As a dear friend of mine referred me a few months back to your web site, I am still pretty green as to understanding what all is going on. I would not refer myself as a sheeple but at times it is difficult for me to follow some of the articles. I am learning though.
The reason I am writing to you is more on a personal note than anything regarding silver and hoping that you can help me. This past December I moved my retirement funds out of the G Fund, TSP. Smart move but now in various diversified accounts for example I Shares Silver, Gold Silver Mines and even McCormick Spices to name a few. In December my gut reaction was to pull it all and to invest in silver currency. My investor guy talked me out of it due to the 10% penalty along with 20% taxes. I haven’t "lost" any money to date other than the devaluation of the dollar. (still a loss in that sense but not like losing it all)
I have been sick over the state of the economy and my gut reaction is that I made a big mistake. After reading the latest article regarding the amount of silver basically left, I have not been able to sleep well. I do not know if I am on target in thinking that I still should pull my all my retirement funds but my gut is telling me it is now. Normalcy mode tells me that I am jumping the gun but every time I step out of the box it has been a good move. I know I will hear some junk from the investor guy that I should not put all my eggs in one basket but again my gut is telling me that it will not get better.
So my biggest concern after much thought is making sure my mortgage payment is made if the SHTF. Being that my husband and I are retired there is no guarantee even that check will be there…for him being a state employee and me a federal employee. I have prepared myself with food, etc and now at a crossroads regarding the silver.
I do realize that you do not have a crystal ball to look into to say what exactly going to happen but guess I am looking for reassurance that I see things as they truly are. Any help would be greatly appreciated for I do have a call into the investor.
Thanks for all you do for it is greatly appreciated!
June
Dear June,
As you might imagine, I receive many emails daily and I am, due to time constraints, unable to answer most of them, but your email struck a chord with me because we recently dealt with my wife's IRA.
But before I get to the retirement account option, I will address your other questions. First, you are absolutely right about the dollar devaluation. The U.S. Dollar has lost more than 60% of it purchasing power since 2002. The value of silver has not increased. The value of the dollar has tanked. Most people do not understand the insidious nature of inflation. It is not a natural occurrence. It is a contrived means of theft. It was originally implemented by goldsmiths who invented the fractional reserve system. Please follow this link to a video that might help you understand the methods of their madness: http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/02.09/moneyasdebt.html
To further illustrate my contention that we are being screwed by the Government and the Federal reserve, please consider, on July 23rd, 1965 L.B.J. unconstitutionally signed the Coinage Act of 1965 and prevaricated that it would legally supersede the original Coinage Act of 1792. He did not have the constitutional authority to mess with the value of U.S. coinage. He was just one more criminal politician, in a long line of criminal politicians, trying to rewrite the U.S. Constitution for his own personal gain. His contention, that he had the power to do so, was ludicrous. In fact, the penalty, prescribed in the original coinage act for doing so, was/is death. But the dumbed down sheeple didn't seem to mind, so he got away with it. Johnson was a slimeball criminal. Ah, but I digress.
A dime, minted in 1964 was comprised of 90% silver. Today, a pre 1965 dime will purchase a gallon of gasoline. Today, gasoline is cheaper than it was in 1964. The reason we can't buy gasoline for 10¢ with Federal Reserve notes is because we have been robbed by the Federal Reserve (owned by American and European Banking families) and a complicit government. Pretty much everything is cheaper now than it was in 1964. Advances in technology, manufacturing and distribution would have/should have provided a greatly enhanced standard of living for all Americans. That is if we hadn't been ripped off by the powers that be. This is the main reason that the middle class is shrinking. Until we abolish the Federal Reserve and prosecute the criminals, the future of the United States will remain in great peril.
The dollar still has a ways to go before the people realize it is worthless. Silver represents a store of value that can not be altered by the criminal banksters or politicians. So, to sum up the first point. I believe that, even if you take a 10% penalty and pay 20% taxes (that's probably about as much as you would have paid in taxes on the income originally) you will be ahead of the game if the dollar loses another 10%. I think silver will surpass $100 an ounce within the near future.
Silver, however, is more volatile (price wise) than gold. I believe there is quite a bit more potential for the price of silver to rise than there is for gold. Naturally then, the factor of risk is greater holding silver than it is for holding gold. Silver, however, is rarer than gold. Not very many people are aware of this fact. Most of the world's above ground stockpile of silver has been used up by industrial applications and weaponry. The traditional silver to gold ratio (for last 5000 years, prior to the federal government illegally fixing the price) has been 16-to-1. At gold's current price of around $1542.00, the price of silver should be at least $96.00. If there was no manipulation by criminal banksters, the Silver Users Association, the Crimex (Comex) the FED, or the government, I would expect the price of gold to be closer to $10,000.00 per ounce which would mean silver could reach a value in excess of $625.00 an ounce. Investing in precious metals is the best security that I am aware of.
And now we arrive at yet another option, which is to leave your savings in an IRA. It is now possible to move funds that are currently in a self directed IRA into an account that mirrors gold and/or silver in their appreciation (or depreciation) against the dollar. Although this is one of the most prudent things you can do with a IRA, it is my least favorite option because I am afraid that the government might be intending to seize the retirement accounts of all Americans and force them into U.S. Treasuries (or something like that). The Federal Reserve is currently buying the bulk of each Treasury Issuance which is, beyond a doubt, hyperinflationary. So many criminals, so little time...
For years I have complained that my wife's 401K was subject to criminal constraints in that she could only go long on the issues she was involved with. Her company mandated (all companies mandate by law) that she could only invest, and go long, in XYZ mutual funds. At the time, I believed were they were bad investments. In a free market you have to have the option to bet against an issue as well as betting for it. Taking away the option to short an issue provides for nothing more than a rigged game. But all the sheeple seem to go along with it. Everybody's 401K has the same restrictions. Nobody balks. It's much easier remain ignorant of the realities of investing than to gain the understanding that they are being fleeced.
I personally have lost all faith in the system, as well as the hope that the worthless sheeple might wake up, and, as a result, I spend most of my time trying to provide evidence of the crimes of the Darkside, and to present the remedies and solutions that I have come across, in my research, that might help my readers deal with the current, abysmal, state of affairs. When I started "the Bear" I was actually (naïvely) trying to pose solutions to the "big picture" problem. Solutions that might have "righted the ship". That was ten years ago. About three years ago I realized the system was irrevocably broken and beyond repair and that all I could do was help those that had finally awakened from their sheeple slumber to prepare for the collapse. It is like a slow motion train wreck.
The day is fast approaching when Joe Sixpack will not be able to afford a sixpack on Friday and, when that day comes, and I expect it to happen this year, the country will slip into a chaotic haze. Joe will not have a clue as to what happened, why it happened, who caused it or who is to blame. At that point we will have riots in the streets, clueless idiots with no plan. These folks will be mad at everyone who has something, anything...
So prepare yourself. Own physical bullion. Hold it yourself. If you're concerned, bury it in the backyard. Don't tell anyone that you have it. Don't pay more than a 5% premium to buy it or sell it. You can, eventually divest your self of everything you own and convert it to bullion. At that point you will be a pauper, and eligible for medicare and medicaid. Leave a map to where it is hidden for your kids or whomever. This will eliminate any probate.
By the way, I am not a licensed financial planner. The message I am trying to convey comes as the result of ten years of intense study and good old common sense. In spite of what I have stated in this piece, please take everything I say with a grain of salt.
June, we appreciate your readership and wish you the best.
Respectfully,
Kenny Parsons aka Johnny Silver Bear
Chief cook and bottle washer,
The Silver Bear Cafe.
That sums it up well!!
Thanks Isaiah, that's a great read.
The Illuminati and the House of Rothschild
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/rothschild.html
BS Want You To Pay For - THE LOOTING OF AMERICA -
Vote for RON PAUL and end this system run by criminals!
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-looting-of-america-the-federal-reserve-made-16-trillion-in-secret-loans-to-their-bankster-friends-and-the-media-is-ignoring-the-eye-popping-corruption-that-has-been-uncovered
Quote:
Basically, an unaccountable private monopoly creates our money, sets our interest rates, regulates our banking system and makes secret loans to whoever they want.
The Federal Reserve has more power over our economy than any other institution and nobody can overrule any decisions that they make.
Does that sound very "American" to you?
Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, it has been systematically destroying the wealth of America through constant and never ending inflation.
The U.S. dollar loses more value every single year.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, what you could buy for $1.00 in 1965 will cost you $7.17 today.
Sadly, the devaluation of our money is actually accelerating. That is one reason why we are seeing precious metals soar right now.
Not only that, but the Federal Reserve was also designed to be a perpetual government debt creation machine.
Do you know how money is created in this country?
Normally, more money is only created when more debt is created.
What this sets up is a never end spiral where the amount of money and the amount of debt are continually increasing.
Most Americans believe that we could solve the government debt problem if we could just control spending.
But that is not the case.
The Federal Reserve system was designed to get the U.S. government into constantly increasing amounts of debt and this is exactly what has happened....
Safety is to Gold Production Mining -
CALVF's A target production rate of 100,000 oz per annum -
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CALVF's BLANKET GOLD MINE Production Au 40,000 oz/year
http://www.caledoniamining.com/pdfs/CALPres05262011.pdf
http://www.caledoniamining.com/pdfs/CALPres05192011.pdf
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CALEDONIA MINING CORP.
A Profitable Gold Miner! (CAL:TSE) (CALVF:US) (AIM,LONDON:CMCL)
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CAL Production Cost Au $648.-- per ounce -
Gold Mines Producers often 1st of GOLD Au Bulls to Fly HIGH -
Got CALVF's GOLD -
The Road to a Downgrade
A short history of the entitlement state..
JULY 28, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903999904576470551476951590.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
Even without a debt default, it looks increasingly possible that the world's credit rating agencies will soon downgrade U.S. debt from the AAA standing it has enjoyed for decades.
A downgrade isn't catastrophic because global financial markets decide the creditworthiness of U.S. securities, not Moody's and Standard & Poor's. The good news is that investors still regard Treasury bonds, which carry the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, as a near zero-risk investment. But a downgrade will raise the cost of credit, especially for states and institutions whose debt is pegged to Treasurys. Above all a downgrade is a symbol of fiscal mismanagement and an omen of worse to come if we continue the same habits.
President Obama will deserve much of the blame for the spending blowout of his first two years (see the nearby chart). But the origins of this downgrade go back decades, and so this is a good time to review the policies that brought us to this sad chapter and $14.3 trillion of debt.
With former President Truman at his side, LBJ signs the Medicare bill into law, July 30, 1965.
Associated Press
FDR began the entitlement era with the New Deal and Social Security, but for decades it remained relatively limited. Spending fell dramatically after the end of World War II and the U.S. debt burden fell rapidly from 100% of GDP. That changed in the mid-1960s with LBJ's Great Society and the dawn of the health-care state. Medicare and Medicaid were launched in 1965 with fairy tale estimates of future costs.
Medicare, the program for the elderly, was supposed to cost $12 billion by 1990 but instead spent $110 billion. The costs of Medicaid, the program for the poor, have exploded as politicians like California Democrat Henry Waxman expanded eligibility and coverage. In inflation-adjusted dollars, Medicaid cost $4 billion in 1966, $41 billion in 1986 and $243 billion last year. Rather than bending the cost curve down, the government as third-party payer led to a medical price spiral.
LBJ launched other welfare programs—public housing, food stamps and many more—that have also grown over time. Last year, the panoply of welfare programs spent about $20,000 for every man, woman and child in poverty, according to Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation.
Social Security's fiscal trouble began in earnest in 1972 with bills that increased benefits immediately by 20%, added an annual cost of living adjustment, and created a benefit escalator requiring payments to rise with wages, not inflation. This and other tweaks by Democrat Wilbur Mills added trillions of dollars to the program's unfunded liabilities. Believe it or not, these 1972 amendments were added to a debt-ceiling bill.
None of these benefit expansions were subject to annual budget review and thus they grew by automatic pilot. They are sometimes called "mandatory spending" because Congress is required by law to make payments to those who meet eligibility standards, regardless of other spending needs or tax revenues.
According to the most recent government data, today some 50.5 million Americans are on Medicaid, 46.5 million are on Medicare, 52 million on Social Security, five million on SSI, 7.5 million on unemployment insurance, and 44.6 million on food stamps and other nutrition programs. Some 24 million get the earned-income tax credit, a cash income supplement.
By 2010 such payments to individuals were 66% of the federal budget, up from 28% in 1965. (See the second chart below.) We now spend $2.1 trillion a year on these redistribution programs, and the 75 million baby boomers are only starting to retire.
We suspect that in the 1960s as now—with ObamaCare—liberals knew they had created fiscal time-bombs. They simply assumed that taxes would keep rising to pay for it all, as they have in Europe.
On Monday night Mr. Obama blamed President George W. Bush's "two wars" for the debt buildup. But national defense spending was 7.4% of GDP and 42.8% of outlays in 1965, and only 4.8% of GDP and 20.1% of federal outlays in 2010. Defense has not caused the debt crisis.
Many on the left still blame Ronald Reagan, but the debt increase in the 1980s financed a robust economic expansion and victory in the Cold War. Debt held by the public at the end of the Reagan years was much lower as a share of GDP (41% in 1988 and still only 40.3% in 2008) compared to the estimated 72% in fiscal 2011. That Cold War victory made possible the peace dividend that allowed Bill Clinton to balance the budget in the 1990s by cutting defense spending to 3% of GDP from nearly 6% in 1988.
Mr. Bush and Republicans did prove after 9/11 that the Washington urge to spend and borrow is bipartisan. Republicans launched a Medicare drug benefit, record outlays on education, the most expensive transportation bill in history, and home ownership aid that contributed to the housing bubble. The GOP's blunder was refusing to cut domestic spending to finance the war on terrorism. Guns and butter blowouts never last.
Then came Mr. Obama, arguably the most spendthrift president in history. He inherited a recession and responded by blowing up the U.S. balance sheet. Spending as a share of GDP in the last three years is higher than at any time since 1946. In three years the debt has increased by more than $4 trillion thanks to stimulus, cash for clunkers, mortgage modification programs, 99 weeks of jobless benefits, record expansions in Medicaid, and more.
The forecast is for $8 trillion to $10 trillion more in red ink through 2021. Mr. Obama hinted in a press conference earlier this month that if it weren't for Republicans, he'd want another stimulus. Scary thought: None of this includes the ObamaCare entitlement that will place 30 million more Americans on government health rolls.
This is the road to fiscal perdition. The looming debt downgrade only confirms what everyone knows: Congress has made so many promises to so many Americans that there is no conceivable way those promises can be kept. Tax rates might have to rise to 60%, 70%, even 80% to raise the revenues to finance these promises, but that would be economically ruinous.
Yet Mr. Obama and most Democrats still oppose any serious reform of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. This insistence on no reform reinforces the notion that our entitlement state is too big to afford but also too big to change politically. This is how a AAA country becomes AA, the first step on the march to Greece.
The US risks default on its $14.3tn (£8.7tn) debt
without a deal to raise the borrowing limit by 2 August 2011 -
US Debt Ceiling -
Shona Mashona Masonic Golden Key -
Gold mining stocks not only track the price the gold,
but they move proportionally higher relative to the current
price of gold (and lower if gold price moves down).
So in a manner of thinking they are like option plays
on the price of gold without the expiration date.
Note that we are talking about the trading characteristics
of a commodity.
The price action tends to be characterized by sharp emotional
moves and spikes with excited peaks.
Gold and gold mining stocks tend to trade and move like small
stocks.
Keep in mind though that they can still trend in bull markets.
You only have to look at the chart above and observe
the bull market from 1969 to 1980.
In Chart below, notice the extremely sharp price moves after
some base building formations labeled as 1 and then the peak
of the moves labeled as 2.
Also note the volume surges -
this is what technicians call base building.
Remember bases always take longer to form than tops -
the more base building the higher the moves -
Welcome to Caledonia Mining Corporation (CALVF)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65504488
What do you conceal?
All the secrets which have been intrusted to me.
Where do you conceal them?
In the heart.
Have you a key to gain entrance there?
It is a tongue obedient to reason,
it speaks in their absence,
as in their presence.
Shona Mashona Masonic Golden Key -
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=59249631
http://www.caledoniamining.com
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65504469
where have you been bozzo?
>>> 6 Steps by the IMF for a One-World Currency
Brandon Smith
Alt-Market
July 18, 2011
http://www.infowars.com/6-steps-by-the-imf-for-a-one-world-currency/
In mainstream financial circles, the concept of a global currency is often spoken of only with an atmosphere of caution. It is approached always in hypothetical terms. It is whispered of as some far off dream; a socio-economic moon landing in the far reaches of fiscal space. Perhaps in 2015, or 2020, or maybe 2050, but certainly never just over the horizon, or right around the corner posing as an innocuous trade asset created over 40 years ago and used only on rare occasions. Unfortunately, the development of a centralized global security representing the creation of a supranational economic body is much closer than many would care to admit…
The most common argument made in the mainstream against a global currency taking shape is the argument that no other currency in the world today has the strength or widespread circulation necessary to replace the dollar as a primary reserve unit. This is true, if, you only look at separate currencies, and not the big picture. The reality is, central banks and the IMF have no intention of replacing one national currency with yet another national currency as the world reserve. What they DO intend to do, however, is replace the dollar with a basket of national currencies linked together and homogenized under a single unit. This has been openly announced by the IMF for months, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn even produced a press release explaining the plan (this was before he apparently watched ‘Maid in Manhattan’ 57 times in a row then allegedly tried to “romance” a cleaning lady, which of course landed him in court):
http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2011/021011.htm
The G20 has also raised discussion of a global currency and a greater oversight role for the IMF on a number of occasions:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/at-g20-kremlin-to-pitch-new-currency/375364.html
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Sarkozy-in-favour-of-an-international-currency-of-reference-21179.html
A more in-depth look at the IMF plan for the SDR can be seen in a white paper released at the beginning of this year entitled “Enhancing International Monetary Stability – A Role For The SDR?”:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2011/010711.pdf
A global currency, or at least the foundation for one, already exists in the form of “Special Drawing Rights” (SDR’s), created by the IMF in 1969 as paper collateral used to replace gold as the primary means of international trade between governments and central banks without the need for Forex exchanges. That is to say, the SDR was used as a tool for displacing the strength of gold. Today, the asset has morphed into a trade mechanism representing a basket of currencies, and, a tool to displace the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency.
Skeptics will argue that the SDR is a “long way” from being ready to unseat the dollar, but, these economists and pundits rarely consider that the financial circumstances of markets today could quickly change tomorrow. Yes, by the standards of this very moment, a move to elevate the SDR to reserve status is impractical, mainly, because the dollar is still clinging to its relative value and widespread use. This will not be the case for much longer.
Over the past month, the “big three” ratings agencies; Moody’s, Fitch, and S&P, have suddenly decided to do the job they should have been doing years ago, and have begun a wild roller coaster ride of credit downgrades for countries with immense Debt-to-GDP ratios. Greece has been junked. Ireland has been junked. Portugal has been hit. Spain has been hit, and is ready for yet another downgrade. Italy is on the chopping block. Finally, even the U.S. is near losing its AAA status as S&P has announced it will decide within the next month whether a downgrade of our rating will soon be necessary.
The most important aspect of the S&P announcement is their statement that the downgrade is NOT about the impending debt ceiling decision, but America’s overall creditworthiness and our lack of ability to maintain our current spending and inflationary habits. That is to say, even if the debt ceiling is raised, as all the Keynesians are clamoring for, we could still lose our top credit rating:
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2623832
This storm of downgrades after years of inaction by ratings agencies, in my view, is simply not a coincidence. The fact that Ben Bernanke has admitted that QE3 is on the table as well after the Fed denied any need for more stimulus only two months ago is also highly suspicious (though he tried to take back the statement later after a thorough grilling from Ron Paul):
http://www.businessinsider.com/black-and-white-and-red-all-over-2011-7
The bottom line is that if the ceiling is raised, the Fed is ready to print the dollar into an early grave. If the ceiling is frozen in place, America defaults on its debts and its credit rating evaporates. Either way, the dollar will inevitably lose its world reserve status. Enter the SDR…
What we are witnessing is a careful and deliberate “shuffle” of economic circumstances towards a financial and political environment more receptive to a global currency. Or, indeed, a public so desperate for stability as to have no other choice but a global currency. Here are some of the steps that will likely take place and in certain cases must take place before the SDR is able to fulfill the role the IMF intends. Many of these steps are already being implemented as this is written:
1) The IMF Must Increase Circulation Of SDR’s
The normal restrictions on SDR printing were removed in 2008 by the IMF just as the credit crisis began to take shape under the guise of “producing more liquidity”. SDR’s can now be created in unlimited numbers. Allocations of SDR’s by IMF member countries leaped in 2008 to 2009. America’s holdings of SDR’s grew from 21 billion to 203 billion in the span of a single year:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/tad/extsdr1.aspx
Using the “SDR Department”, the IMF has also been issuing SDR’s to emerging market countries and needy nations off the books, at the expense of the American taxpayer! Rich countries like the U.S. pay into the SDR Department program which is supposedly designed to redistribute “foreign aid” to poorer countries as low interest loans denominated in SDR’s. These loans show up nowhere on our Federal Budget:
http://www.house.gov/jec/imf/sdrdept.pdf
In 2004, the cost of paying into this program was around $5 Billion a year, but this has surely been expanded since. Finding accurate numbers on current U.S. loans through the hidden SDR Department program has proven difficult, to say the least…
The point of all this? The SDR is being widely circulated under various operations, some of them public, some of them not so public.
2) Standardized Exchange Tables For The SDR Must Be Put In Place
The IMF now releases daily conversion and exchange tables to SDR’s for almost every other currency on the planet:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/data/rms_five.aspx
One important aspect of SDR conversion to take note of is that the currencies most highly valued on global forex markets, and the SDR table, are the Bahraini Dinar, and the Kuwaiti Dinar. The Bahraini Dinar is pegged directly to the SDR basket, while the Kuwaiti Dinar is pegged to “an undisclosed basket of currencies” (probably the SDR). The dollar, on the other hand, is relatively weak in comparison when converting to SDR’s, even though most of the IMF’s funding, and thus ability to create SDR’s, comes from the U.S.
Doesn’t seem fair, does it…?
Another important fact to remember is that the IMF admittedly sets the valuation of the SDR using factors outside of natural supply and demand. Meaning, they have the ability to place any value they please on the SDR versus other currencies. It is no surprise then that currencies which tie themselves to the IMF basket and placate IMF desires are rated strong in SDR’s, and perform well in forex markets, while the dollar, which remains (supposedly) independent, is weak versus SDR’s. Today, one dollar is worth 62 cents in SDR’s.
3) The SDR Must Be Made Indispensable To Global Markets
The IMF has openly suggested that the SDR could be used as an intermediary asset in volatile currency markets through what is sometimes referred to as a “Substitution Account”. Meaning, if China, for example, wished to dump their holdings of U.S. dollars because they are devaluing rapidly, they could exchange those dollars for SDR’s instead of directly converting them into another standard currency, like Euros, or Yen. This, according to the IMF, would lessen the direct damage to the Dollar, because the SDR is partly denominated in dollars. Therefore, as China throws out dollars in exchange for SDR’s, the value of the American Greenback goes down, but conversely, the value of America’s SDR holdings will go up.
This sounds like a brilliant strategy to offset sudden currency collapse. However, it is actually a very subversive way to slowly elevate the SDR as a world reserve currency itself, and to replace the dollar entirely, while the IMF plays the hero. It also allows the IMF to slowly “harmonize” all the world’s currencies until there is no distinction in their value. The SDR becomes a de facto reserve unit without officially overthrowing the dollar.
If the U.S. is faced with the nightmare of having its own currency dumped by international central banks, obviously, our Treasury would jump at the chance to support conversion to the SDR to lessen the damage, rather than face the full brunt of losing our reserve status. In fact, the U.S. would have NO CHOICE but to support the SDR and the IMF as the intermediary in all global financial transactions, otherwise, we would face certain long term full spectrum collapse. The only support holding up our financial system would then be our membership in the SDR basket. We would become completely dependent, and the IMF would have total centralized control over our economy.
What the IMF has done is create a potential environment in which any country that does not participate in SDR exchange will be left in the dust by every country that does. They have conjured an artificial economic matrix, where traditional laws of supply and demand no longer apply. A kind of “manipulated evolution” of finance. A chimera economy. They will have the power to determine the value of every currency on the planet arbitrarily using the SDR Substitution Account.
4) China Must Be Given Membership In The SDR
Right now, it appears, the only thing holding the SDR back from its debut as a global currency asset is the inclusion of emerging markets into the IMF basket. Talk of China joining the basket in 2015 has been floating around for the past couple years. However, I believe that the inclusion of the Chinese Yuan may come much faster than this.
New IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, has offered China a greater role in the IMF power structure, including a post for Min Zhu, a Chinese national, as a deputy managing director:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/06/us-imf-lagarde-china-idUSTRE7655JM20110706
Lagarde and members of the G20 have also been pressing hard for the addition of the Yuan and perhaps other currencies into the SDR. A decision on Chinese inclusion may come as soon as this November:
http://www.emergingmarkets.org/Article/2818350/G20-presses-for-yuan-SDR-inclusion.html
http://english.capital.gr/News.asp?id=1163175
5) China Must Decouple Completely From The Dollar
One of the points of contention over Chinese inclusion in the SDR is its ties to the U.S. dollar and economy. That is to say, China would first have to decouple from the dollar, before coupling to the SDR. Its sounds like some weird parasitic experiment, and, it is.
China started taking steps to make decoupling from the U.S. and the dollar a reality back in 2005 (which suggests foreknowledge of collapse), when they began issuing Yuan denominated bonds (to circulate Yuan around the world), and, when they began converting away from an export based economy and towards a consumer based economy. The problem is that because of the wider circulation of Yuan, the increase in stimulus, and the Chinese refusal (so far) to allow faster currency appreciation, China is now in the midst of a double digit inflationary crisis (that’s REAL inflation folks, not fraudulent Chinese CPI numbers):
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/7432861.html
Because they have deliberately restructured towards a consumer based economy, eventually, China will have to allow the Yuan to increase substantially in value versus other currencies in order to amplify the buying power of its citizens. Otherwise, they will be crushed under the weight of rising prices:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/26/us-britain-china-idUSTRE75P1V120110626
This cannot be done without a considerable dump of their forex reserves and treasury holdings, most of which are composed of U.S. dollars and securities. This means that in order to counter inflation, and to be included in the SDR, China will have to liquidate a large portion of its U.S. holdings. This would strike the American economy hard.
6) The Dollar Must Be Removed As The World Reserve Currency
All of the above factors are leading towards one obvious conclusion; the end of the dollar as a reserve currency. The IMF will never achieve its goal of complete centralized administration of the global economy without a common supranational currency unit. And, a supranational currency unit cannot exist while the dollar remains in its current position. Thus, for the IMF to succeed, the dollar must be removed.
The expansive debt of the U.S., the endless fiat printing of the Federal Reserve, the Chinese adaptation away from the dollar and towards the SDR, and the quiet spread of the SDR itself, are all leading to this end. This does not mean, though, that the tangible version of the dollar will disappear. The interesting thing about the SDR con game is that many Americans may barely notice the transition of the global economy into IMF hands, because physical dollars will likely remain. We might feel the heartache of a devaluing monetary system, and an extremely weakened economy, but the flow of power will be obscured for a time from those who are unaware. In the end, all currencies will be tied to and completely reliant on the SDR, but our Greenback funny money will still be in our pockets. The issuance of an “SDR note” may come one day (if we allow this farce to continue), but it is not necessary. As long as every currency is required to be pegged to the SDR, the IMF will retain control.
A common assumption is that changes like these take place in some distant future we will never witness, not right under our noses while we sleep. The current evidence suggests, though, that an engineered transference to a highly condensed global economic system is underway right now, and that our country will suffer greatly in the process. To understand the tactically implemented disaster we are about to experience, it is vital to become aware of the intended end result. Just as in understanding any criminal act, it is vital to first understand a criminal’s ultimate motive.
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Financial Services Hearing July 13 2011
Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Prepper Dad? Even Robert Kiyosaki Is Warning That An Economic Collapse Is Coming
http://silverbearcafe.com/private/06.11/richdad.html
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All about the fall of the dollar and the economic repercussions. This board was started so that we can do much complaining about the fall of the dollar and why. I am really, really, angry about this mess our government and the Federal Reserve have created. It's wreaking havoc through out the world's economy.
These are links to a few websites that are relevant to the 'Demise of the Dollar'. :
http://www.dollarcollapse.com/default.asp
http://silverbearcafe.com/private/home.html
Here are some must watch videos to help explain the ponzi scheme that we call our monetary system. :
http://silverbearcafe.com/private/02.09/moneyasdebt.html
http://silverbearcafe.com/private/6.08/difference.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5355374476580235299
http://silverbearcafe.com/private/mises.html
Fiat Money ~ Toilet Paper Money
The history of fiat money, to put it kindly, has been one of failure. In fact, EVERY fiat currency since the Romans first began the practice in the first century has ended in devaluation and eventual collapse, of not only the currency, but of the economy that housed the fiat currency as well.
Why would it be different here in the U.S.? Well, in actuality, it hasn’t been. In fact, in our short history, we’ve already had several failed attempts at using paper currency, and it is my opinion that today’s dollars are no different than the continentals issued during the Revolutionary War. But I will get into that in a moment. In the meantime, I will show you that fiat currencies have not been successful, and the only aspect of fiat currencies that have stood the test of time is the inability of political systems to prevent the devaluation and debasement of this toilet paper money by letting the printing presses run wild.
Fiat Money -Rome — The Denarius
Although Rome didn’t actually have paper money, it provided one of the first examples of true debasement of a currency. The denarius, Rome’s coinage of the time, was, essentially, pure silver at the beginning of the first century A.D. By A.D. 54, Emperor Nero had entered the scene, and the denarius was approximately 94% silver. By around A.D.100, the denarius’ silver content was down to 85%.
Emperors that succeeded Nero liked the idea of devaluing their currency in order to pay the bills and increase their own wealth. By 218, the denarius was down to 43% silver, and in 244, Emperor Philip the Arab had the silver content dropped to 0.05%. Around the time of Rome’s collapse, the denarius contained only 0.02% silver and virtually nobody accepted it as a medium of exchange or a store of value.
Fiat Money -China — Flying Money
When the Chinese first started using paper money, they called it “flying money,” because it could just fly from your hands. The reason for the issuance of paper money is simple. There was a copper shortage, so banks had switched to the use of iron coinage. These iron coins became overissued and fell in value.
In the 11th century, a bank in the Szechuan province of China issued paper money in exchange for the iron coins. Initially, this was fine, because the paper money was exchangeable for gold, silver, or silk. Eventually, inflation began to take hold, as China was funding an ongoing war with the Mongols, which it eventually lost.
Genghis Khan won this war, but the Mongols didn’t assume immediate control over China as they pushed westward to conquer more lands. Genghis Khan’s grandson Kublai Khan united China and assumed the emperorship. After running into some setbacks with paper currency, Kublai eventually had some success with fiat money. In fact, Marco Polo said of Kublai Khan and the use of paper currency:
“You might say that [Kublai] has the secret of alchemy in perfection…the Khan causes every year to be made such a vast quantity of this money, which costs him nothing, that it must equal in amount all the treasure of the world.”
Even Helicopter Ben would be impressed. Marco Polo went on to say:
“This was the most brilliant period in the history of China. Kublai Khan, after subduing and uniting the whole country and adding Burma, Cochin China, and Tonkin to the empire, entered upon a series of internal improvements and civil reforms, which raised the country he had conquered to the highest rank of civilization, power, and progress.”
Wait a second, I thought we were bashing fiat currencies here…Can anyone say crackup boom? Since Marco Polo experienced this firsthand, and has been very helpful to us thus far, I think I will allow him to finish his analysis of China’s paper money experiment.
“Population and trade had greatly increased, but the emissions of paper notes were suffered to largely outrun both…All the beneficial effects of a currency that is allowed to expand with a growth of population and trade were now turned into those evil effects that flow from a currency emitted in excess of such growth. These effects were not slow to develop themselves…The best families in the empire were ruined, a new set of men came into the control of public affairs, and the country became the scene of internecine warfare and confusion.”
I wonder if Keynes read Marco Polo’s experiences with Chinese fiat currencies when he said that the U.S. government should just bury bottles full of money in old mine shafts to spur economic growth.
Fiat Money -France — Livres, Assignats, and Francs
The French have been particularly unsuccessful in their attempts with fiat money.
John Law was the first man to introduce paper money to France. The notion of paper money was greatly helped along by the passing of Louis XIV and the 3 billion livres of debt that he left.
When Louis XV was old enough to make his own mistakes, he required that all taxes be paid in paper money. The currency was backed by coinage…until people actually wanted coins.
The theme of the day…the new paper currency rapidly became oversupplied until nobody wished to own the worthless junk anymore and demanded coinage for their currency.
Oops. It looks like Law didn’t think that anyone would actually want coins ever again. After making it illegal to export any gold or silver, and the failed attempts by the locals to exchange their paper currency for something of actual value, the currency collapsed.
John Law became the most hated man in France and was forced to flee to Italy.
In the latter part of the 18th century, the French government again tried to give paper money another go. This time, the pieces of garbage they issued were called assignats. By 1795, inflation of assignats was running at approximately 13,000%. Oops.
Then Napoleon stepped on the scene and brought with him the gold franc. One of the good things that Napoleon realized is that gold is the way of a stable currency, and that’s what pretty much ensued during his reign.
After Waterloo had come and gone, the French gave it another go in the 1930s, this time with the paper franc. It took only 12 years for them to inflate their currency until it lost 99% of its value. History has proven a couple things about the French: 1) They are quick to surrender and 2) They are very talented at making worthless currency.
Weimar Germany — Mark
Post-World War I Weimar Germany was one of the greatest periods of hyperinflation that ever existed. The Treaty of Versailles was essentially a financial punishment placed on Germany to make reparations.
The sums of money to be paid by Germany were enormous, and the only way it could make repayment was by running the printing press. (Huge unpayable debt — that sounds familiar. I wonder what the solution in the U.S. will be.)
Inflation got so bad in this period that German citizens were literally using stacks of marks to heat their furnaces. Here is a brief timeline of the marks per one U.S. dollar exchange rate:
April 1919: 12 marks
November 1921: 263 marks
January 1923: 17,000 marks
August 1923: 4.621 million marks
October 1923: 25.26 billion marks
December 1923: 4.2 trillion marks.
Fiat Money -More Recent Times
In recent times, fiat failures have become more common occurrences. For the sake of time, I won’t go into extensive details of all these examples of paper money failures, because there are SO many. But here you have it:
In 1932, Argentina had the eighth largest economy in the world before its currency collapsed. In 1992, Finland, Italy, and Norway had currency shocks that spread through Europe.
In 1994, Mexico went through the infamous “Tequila Hangover,” which sent the peso tumbling and spread economic hardships throughout Latin America.
In 1997, the Thai baht fell through the floor and the effects spread to Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and South Korea.
The Russian ruble was not the currency you wanted your investments denominated in in 1998, after its devaluation brought on economic recession. In the early 21st century, we have seen the Turkish lira experience strokes of hyperinflation similar to that of the mark of Weimar Germany.
In present times, we have Zimbabwe, which was once considered the breadbasket of Africa and was one of the wealthiest countries on the continent. Now Mugabe’s attempts at price controls, combined with hyperinflation, have the nation unable to supply the most basic essentials such as bread and clean water.
Fiat Money -Lessons to Be Learned
Here in the U.S., I should say the lessons were not learned. There are many consistencies from the above-mentioned stories that led up to the eventual collapse of the currencies.
The scary thing is that the U.S. has some of these above-mentioned characteristics, the ones that lead to toilet paper money becoming just that. More on that in just a second. I would first like to give a brief look at the U.S. attempts with paper money in our short history.
The first attempt with paper money came in 1690 with the issuance of Colonial notes. The first Colonial notes were issued in Massachusetts and were redeemable for gold, silver, corn, cattle and other commodities.
The other Colonies quickly jumped on the toilet paper money bandwagon and began issuing their own paper currencies. Like a broken record, the money quickly became overissued. The lessons of John Law and others were definitely not learned. It is not good enough just to say that a currency is backed by commodities. It actually HAS to be backed by commodities. Essentially, it was still a fiat money, and in a short period of time, Colonials became as good as toilet paper.
The next experiment came during the Revolutionary War. Big surprise — the issuance of paper money was used to finance the war efforts. This time, the currency was called a continental.
The crash of the continental was spectacular, and the phrase “not worth a continental” was coined. This brought on a large distrust for paper currency, and until 1913, toilet paper money in the U.S. wasn’t used. Enter the infamous Federal Reserve and its monopoly on money and interest rates. Now we have the greenback.
Although the money was “officially” backed by a gold standard until 1971, it wasn’t a true gold standard. When the government found it inconvenient to have a gold standard, it just made it illegal for U.S. citizens to hold gold or exchange dollars for gold.
As reported on Strike-the-root.com:
“Under the infallible leadership of President Franklin Roosevelt, it was made illegal to own gold. On March 11, 1933, he issued an order forbidding banks to make gold payments. On April 5, Roosevelt ordered all citizens to surrender their gold — no person could hold more than $100 in gold coins, except for collector’s coins. He also made it unlawful to export gold for payment abroad, unless done through the Treasury. The penalty for defying Roosevelt was 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.”
But the official demise of the dollar was locked into place in 1971 when “Tricky Dick” Nixon completely severed all ties between the dollar and the gold standard. During the decade that followed, the U.S. experienced some of the worst inflation in its history, only matched by today’s U.S. monetary and fiscal irresponsibility.
The U.S. of A. has all the characteristics set in place that have led to the collapse of every other fiat currency money in history.
We are currently at war, and the financing of this war is extremely inflationary. In fact, if you look back at our history, since 1914, the U.S has engaged in 16 military conflicts. We have been involved in some form of violent international accord in 44 of the past 93 years. The overwhelming majority of military conflicts result in monetary inflation.
The U.S. has a debt similar to that of Weimar Germany. All though the reasons for the debt are completely different, it appears that this Mount Everest of IOUs is going to be impossible to pay back. I guess the U.S. could just print 10 trillion dollar bills and hand them out, but the implications of such actions are obvious.
We are currently increasing the supply of dollars at a rate of 13% per annum. This overissuance of a currency has been the leading indicator of a currency on the brink.
So what’s in the future for the dollar?
Some, myself included, might say that the dollar has already failed. It has lost over 92% of its value since its initial issuance in 1913. After the revaluation in 1934, the dollar dropped another 41%. In my opinion, it already is toilet paper money, but for the above-mentioned characteristics, which are alarmingly similar to the circumstances that led up to the eventual collapse of the dollar’s toilet paper predecessors, I believe that we have seen only the tip of the iceberg of the dollar’s inevitable path toward becoming toilet paper money.
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