Bulldog Resources Inc (BD)

[sumisu]

The Political Chemistry of Oil / Lisa Margonelli

9/02/10

http://webpages.charter.net/fallingsky/

As to the fate of the developing U.S. great depression, it will encompass the fire of a hyperinflation, instead of the ice of deflation seen in the major U.S. depressions prior to World War II. What promises hyperinflation this time is the lack of monetary discipline formerly imposed on the system by the gold standard, a fiscally bankrupt federal government and a Federal Reserve dedicated to debasing the U.S. dollar. Shadow Government Statistics Copyright 2009

If the Democrats are the solution to the Kochtopus, the U.S. is far more screwed than even I believed possible. The Tea Party is the 2010, 180 degrees out of phase version of Hope and Change. Whether your cabin is on the port or the starboard side of the Ship of Fools, the destination is the same; oblivion. I don’t know what it will take to get the shit for brains Left and the shit for brains Right to understand that billionaires, and the governments that serve them, don’t have their best interests in mind. But, until that basic law of the universe is understood, there’s always the next election… *sigh* Good luck with that. Kevin Flaherty

When I was very young, I had certain assumptions about the path to adulthood. I believed that it was a transition that came as naturally to every person as walking or talking. Surely, I thought, there simply came a time when a man crossed a biological threshold that made him more responsible, more principled, more intuitive, more courageous, more compassionate, more wise. Now that I am much older, I find to my disappointment that wisdom does not necessarily come with age. Some people choose to remain children forever. Giordano Bruno

“Get ready for the cliff-edge,” warned Royal Bank of Scotland credit chief Andrew Roberts in a note to clients late last week. He said “monster” quantitative monetary easing (money printing) is coming and that investors should “Be long gold. Think the unthinkable.”

It would seem that there are more than three (all US based) ratings agencies in the world. There is at least one more, the Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. based in, of all places, Beijing. Following the lead of its US counterparts, "Dagong" has decided to cast its eye over the world of sovereign debt risk. Having done so, it has awarded the US an "AA" (two below top grade) rating. China (along with Germany, Holland and Canada) gets an AA+ rating. The coveted AAA goes to Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

In announcing its sovereign ratings, Dagong's chairman said this: "The essential reason for the global financial crisis and the Greek crisis is that the current international rating system cannot truly reflect repayment ability." What Dagong has done is to focus on the actual wealth creating capacities (and the foreign reserves) of the nations it is rating. This is, of course, the only REAL "repayment ability".©2010 - The Privateer / http://www.the-privateer.com / [e-mail] / (reproduced with permission)

It’s time to realize that the system itself is broken and that it cannot be repaired by simply feeding new cannon fodder into the grinding gears of politics.

The political system that controls our government cannot be changed as long as the decisions that drive that system are made by those who benefit most from it.

What’s the answer? Hell, I don’t know. I worked inside the political system for a decade and don’t have the answer. I went in an idealist who thought change was possible and emerged a drunk who did it for the money. Doug Thompson

My guess is that we’ve got a couple of years at most before somebody puts the right ingredients together in the right way, and the first fully fledged revitalization movement begins attracting a mass following with its strident denunciations of the existing order of things and its promise of a bright future reached by what amounts to a sustained exercise in magic.

Those of my readers who have been paying attention will recognize that this doesn’t mean people will be putting on robes and funny hats and brandishing ornate wands while intoning the names of spirits in whose existence they don’t actually believe. Just as magical incantations in the peak oil scene these days have replaced the old barbarous names with such words of power as “hydrogen economy,” “algal biodiesel,” “advanced petroleum recovery technology” and the like, the rituals that will be practiced by the revitalization movements to come may take the form of community building exercises, protest marches, outdoor festivals, and campaigns for political office. They may even include sensible steps such as weatherstripping homes and building solar greenhouses. What defines an act as ritual, remember, is that it’s done for symbolic rather than practical reasons; weatherstripping a house is a practical action when it’s done for the practical reason of saving a few dozen dollars a year on heat bills, but it becomes a ritual action when it’s done under the conviction that steps of this nature can ward off the end of the age of abundance. The Archdruid Report

The Great Depression and the 1931-1936 collapse of the international gold standard was due to the forcible elimination of the multilateral financing of world trade with real bills.

The gold standard did not collapse because of its “contractionist nature” — as alleged by Keynes. It collapsed because of its clearing system, the bill market was blocked. Antal E. Fekete

And so it is now: as the American empire has been crumbling, its leaders, both corporate and corporatist, were being specially selected for being unable to draw their own conclusions based on their own independent reasoning or on the evidence of their own senses, relying instead on "intelligence" that is second-hand and obsolete. These leaders are now attempting to lead us all on a dream-walk to oblivion. Dmitry Orlov

What scares me is what could happen to the share price of Companies whose Financials are Rotten to the core, or to share prices of Good Companies, whose share prices are measured in a Currency Unit that’s Rotten to the Core? Mark J. Lundeen

A Way To Measure The Severity Of The Situation:

In the face of all the financial and political storms raging at present, it is getting ever more difficult to keep a clear head and to sort out the important from the mere noise. The first step in doing so is to realise that no matter how loud the noise becomes regarding financial crises in other parts of the world, the global system still stands or falls on the standing of the US financial system.

It didn't have to be that way but it is that way as long as the US Dollar remains the unchallenged global reserve currency and the debt issued by the US Treasury remains the asset of choice in which to hold that global reserve currency. As long as this situation remains, the US Dollar and US government debt will be the most important indicators in the world. Actually, there is one other important indicator - Gold.

Here is the situation. The low for US T Bonds on the futures markets since the peak of December 2008 is just above the 114.10 level. That level was hit in June 2009 and again in April 2010. Any close BELOW that level would push 10-year bond yields above 4.00 percent and signal a potential T Bond sell-off. The USDX hit a 2010 high of 82.53 on April 28. That was its highest level since May 2009. Another dive to below the 80.00 level on the USDX - its floor between 1973 and 2007 - would be a warning.

And finally, there is Gold, which hit a new 2010 high of $US 1180.70 on April 30. The signal for Gold is simple. Any close above the December 3, 2009 all time high spot future close of $US 1218.30 is it. Gold is closer to its "signal" level than either T Bonds or the USDX. But all three are important.©2010 - The Privateer / http://www.the-privateer.com / [e-mail] / (reproduced with permission)

The Suspect: Governments working with central banks that issue fiat currency the world over and bullion banks such as JP Morgan Chase.

The Crime: Intentional selling of sovereign and central bank Gold into the Gold market to suppress the price of Gold.

The Murder Weapon: Massive naked short sales on COMEX and London Bullion markets.

The Motive:[img][/img] Suppression of the Gold price so as not to raise alarm over the MASSIVE creation of new paper currency by fiat paper governments with nothing of value to back such currency except for huge mountains of un-payable debt. Alex Stanczyk

How can such a crude check-kiting scheme mesmerize the entire population?

...This is not an easy question to answer. But going through all the alternative explanations one by one, we come to the conclusion that the debt of the U.S. government is still redeemable in a sense, however limited or restrictive it may be. The debt of the U.S. government has a liquid market in which it can be exchanged for Federal Reserve credit. In turn, Federal Reserve credit can still be exchanged in liquid markets for physical gold, the ultimate extinguisher of debt, albeit at a variable price.

But if you break that final link, when gold is no longer for sale at any price quoted in U.S. dollars, then the rug will have been pulled from underneath this house of cards, and the international monetary system will collapse like the twin towers of the World Trade Center. And this is the situation that we are confronted with. Antal E. Fekete

In the non-OPEC world, global oil production peaked in 2007. For OPEC, this peak was Q1’08. And realize this was when oil was shooting over $100 a barrel, so there were gigantic incentives to produce. Yet both non-OPEC and OPEC production still declined, so peak oil is probably already past. Adam Hamilton

How much of our freedom is related to 'cheap energy'? Last I checked, the average American uses over 60 barrel of oil equivalents of the 3 primary fossil fuels (oil, coal and natural gas) per year. Depending on ones assumptions (and occupation), this is in the neighborhood of hundred(s) of years of manual human toil supplanted by cheap ancient sunlight. (At $20 per hour, a human laborer makes over $40,000 per year so even an energy subsidy of 100X p/a equates to $4 million in dollar terms.) Do our social freedoms emanate from the nature of our socio-political system, or the reverse - is our socio-political system a byproduct of the resources we acquired and used after finding this land? What is freedom, anyways? And what will freedom look like in the future? Nate Higgins

The stimulus plan was made in blissful ignorance of the marginal productivity of debt which is negative and falling. In this situation more debt will only stimulate deflation, economic contraction, unemployment, and it will lead to further weakening of the global financial structure. Antal E. Fekete

INFLATION IS COMING:

There is a DIFFERENCE between the DEFLATION of the 1930’s DEPRESSION and the INFLATION coming our way in the SECOND GREAT DEPRESSION. In 1930’s EROEI (Energy Returned on Energy Invested) was 100-1, in 1970 it was 30-1, today its about 10-1. The world was AWASH in HIGH EROEI in the early 1900’s. Today the CANADIAN TAR SANDS is losing money when OIL is below $80-90 a BARREL.

Back in the day all it took was for some SLOB to SHOVE a PIPE in the ground and OIL JUST GUSHED OUT. Today, you need HIGH TECH EQUIPMENT to pump the oil. A $BILLION DOLLAR OFF SHORE RIG called “THUNDERHORSE” comes to mind. When THUNDERHORSE hits its peak production it will only be producing 250,000 barrels a day, but these OFF SHORE FIELDS deplete rapidly in just a few years….not like the great OIL FIELDS from OKLAHOMA, TEXAS and CALIFORNIA that lasted for decades or half a century.

When the price of oil DEFLATES to a certain level, then we have SUPPLY DESTRUCTION. This translates to our whole MODERN ECONOMY as it is now based on FOSSIL FUELS and not MANUAL LABOR as it was in the early 1930’s.

A local LARGE DAIRY in my area lost $600,000 the first quarter of 2009. They have about 3,500 cows and produce about 170,000 lbs of milk a day. They are getting about $10 a 100 pounds. Another HUGE DAIRY in Colorado has ten times the number of cows 35,000 and produces about 1.5-1.6 million pounds of milk a day. It is in debt now over $60 million. Looks like BANKRUPTCY is just around the corner.

People don’t realize that AMERICANS have put their money not in their FOOD SOURCES, but worthless SUBURBAN SPRAWL as in BROKERS, INSURANCE AGENTS, STAR BUCKS, RETAIL GARBAGE, STRIP MALLS and etc. We should have been paying the FOOD PRODUCERS much better. There is a DISASTER waiting to happen in the FARM, RANCH, and DAIRY INDUSTRY. The small farms are gone with only LARGE CORPORATE ENTITIES that remain. These are going to VAPORIZE as the EROEI drops even lower to 8-1 or 5-1. Americans will soon be paying much higer prices for FOOD, unless they want to STARVE TO DEATH. SRSrocco

Now, I understand that those who espouse various systems of monetary theory, and who are called experts in it, do not really understand money. What they understand and espouse are the workings of their particular system - no matter how divorced from reality it may be. Bruce Beach

I doubt that any of you need to see a quantitative analysis about how overextended America is. So why post this? Cryptogon is not about trying to change society, popularity contests, group think circle jerks, or lobbying politicians on the ship of fools to make minor course corrections on the way to oblivion. At this point, Cryptogon is about trying to convince a handful of you (to convince yourselves) to not only survive what is happening, but to be able to stand as examples and teachers for others wherever you happen to be.

Any top down solutions, assuming they materialize (which I wouldn’t), will attempt to centralize power with Greenwashed, Soviet style mega projects, with attendant killoff and dictatorial components. Bottom up movements will not have the funding, organizational capability or pathological motivation required to affect system-scale change.

Where does that leave us?

Get over the armchair, change-the-world ego trip. Strike “hope” from your vocabulary. Get together with your neighbors and try to produce your own food. People who are interested in surviving (or their own health, finances, spiritual well being, etc.) might mimic you.

Very, very few people are interested in voluntarily confronting reality. Those of us who are should view collapse as a crisis of opportunity and know that lots of people will be looking for ways to feed themselves when the time comes.

“Do you know how to grow a spud?”
“Yes?”
“Hmm. What else do you know? Tell me more…”

I’m starting to think of this as a home grown food insurgency. No insurgency gets anywhere without support from the occupied population. As shortages occur, and the various atrocities related to industrialized food production result in shock and anger, tell receptive people how you killed your own steer, grew your own spuds-vegetables-fruit, milked your own cow, caught fish, shot pheasants, smoked venison, etc. Better yet, offer them some. Let them taste freedom for the first time.

The state might try to stop you, if it gets wind of what you’re doing, and that’s fine if it does. You’ll know that you’ve got nothing to lose at that point. And people who know that they have nothing to lose are capable of incredible things. Kevin - Cryptogon

This government will stop at nothing even including manipulation. What the Fed does not want is a swooning stock market, surging gold, or sinking bonds. I think all three are now being manipulated. Pressure from various sources continues on gold, and we know the Fed is buying bonds. When an item is manipulated, the aftermath always ends unpleasantly. I expect "unpleasantness" ahead. In my opinion, big money and veteran investors have joined China in worrying about the dollar. It's a major reason why they trust this market. Richard Russell, Dow Theory Letter, 6 May 2009

…the US government intervenes in the gold market to make the dollar look worthy of being the world’s reserve currency when of course it is not equal to the demands of that esteemed role. The US government does this by trying to keep the gold price low, but this aim is an impossible task… So recognizing the futility of capping the gold price, they instead compromise by letting the gold price rise somewhat, say, 15% per annum. In fact, against the dollar, gold is actually up 16.3% p.a. on average for the last eight years. In battlefield terms, the US government is conducting a managed retreat for fiat currency in an attempt to control gold’s advance. James Turk

The causes of wealth are something totally different from wealth itself. A person may possess wealth i.e. exchangeable value; if, however, he does not possess the power of producing objects of more value than he consumes, he will become poorer. A person may be poor, if he, however possesses the power of producing a larger amount of valuable articles than he consumes, he becomes rich. The power of producing wealth is therefore infinitely more important than wealth itself; it insures not only the possession and the increase of what has been gained, but also the replacement of what has been lost. This is still more the case with entire nations (who cannot live out of mere rentals) than with private individuals. Freidrich List - The National System of Political Economy

It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments. Ideologically it belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of rights. The demand for constitutional guarantees and for bills of rights was a reaction against arbitrary rule and the nonobservance of old customs by kings. The postulate of sound money was first brought up as a response to the princely practice of debasing the coinage. It was later carefully elaborated and perfected in the age which, through the experience of the American continental currency, the paper money of the French Revolution and the British restriction period, had learned what a government can do to a nation's currency system. Ludwig von Mises - The Theory of Money and Credit - originally published in German in 1912

History is being actively ignored. "What experience and history teach is this: that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it." These words were spoken by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (19th century German philosopher). Few observers seem to realize that on the spectrum, the distance between Fascism (battle cry of last eight years) and Socialism (battle cry since inauguration) is remarkable short. Socialism shares the misery, as the successful are forced to pay for the failures, the corrupt, and the lazy. To construe that nationalization and absence of profit motive represent movement in the direction of communism seems very much correct. The Politburo at the US Federal Reserve has done its job since irrational exuberance took root. The response in the gold & silver prices to USGovt policies that amplify the damage to the national condition will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver. Jim Willie, CB: 20090305

We are forecasting dramatic measures will soon be taken by the Obama Administration that will worsen the credit crisis and severely damage the nation’s economic system. Whatever Obama wants, Obama gets. Desperate, scared, and not knowing what to do to survive the economic storm, people are seeking a messiah to save them, and Obama is their man. When fear rules, reason and logic are ruled out. Gerald Celente

A new estimate has come from the Shadow Govt Statistics folks on the inflation adjusted 1980 peak gold and silver prices. They use the best available and most accurate price inflation calculations. Using their CPI Inflation Calculator, the equivalent today for 1980 peak gold ($850) and silver ($50) would be $6650 and $391 per ounce, respectively. John Williams said, “I think we would all agree today’s economy is much worse than that in 1980.” It is both useful and fun to set a goal based upon some realism! Efforts to avoid a deflationary depression will probably produce a nasty bout of inflation, according to Williams. He advises hoarding gold and even whiskey to barter. Alistair Barr reports. My suggestion is to include guns, ammo, and the real thing (toilet paper) along with soap. See the Ritholtz article. Jim Willie, CB

You know to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. Jesus, Matthew 16:3

There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. Ludwig von Mises

"More capital injections and guarantees may become necessary to ensure stability and the normalization of credit markets." So said Fed Chief Bernanke in a speech at the London School of Economics. Here, in bold words, is proof of the economic incomprehension of events at the highest levels, the US Fed itself.

Guarantees are one thing. They depend upon the liquid assets of the issuer of the guarantee. But if the one making the guarantee is in debt to the tune of TRILLIONS and running a deficit also to the tune of TRILLIONS per year, such a guarantee should look at least doubtful. Capital, and injections of same, are entirely different. Capital is PRODUCTIVE plant and tools. Capital is NOT the monetary value of such plants and tools. This is what Fed Chief Bernanke has reversed in his own mind! Clearly, from the words out of his own mouth, he thinks that if he injects a huge sum of money in the US financial system, then in an act of spontaneous generation, a matching quantity of new plant and tools on their factory floors will spring forth!

This is not economics. This is magic, with Mr Bernanke as the magician in chief. If what Bernanke thinks is so WAS so, then one could plant a pile of $US Dollars and watch wealth spring forth!President Obama wants to deficit spend, to spend what does not exist on what is still here. Deficit spending is a contradiction in terms and of facts. One can only spend what IS here. The Privateer / http://www.the-privateer.com / [e-mail] / (reproduced with permission)

We are on the road to nationalization. In many ways, we're in the midst of nationalization without a whimper. There is no real talk about it. I mean, we've essentially nationalized the insurance companies, the mortgage companies, the banks, and medical care is moving in that direction, and now the car companies are going to be run by a car czar from this Congress. I mean, it is such an embarrassment. It is such an insult to us who believe in freedom, who believe in sound money and who believe in limited government. It is such an insult to the whole idea of what made America great, and this is what it has come to - bailout after bailout after bailout - and nobody even calls it what it really is. It is the nationalization of our industries. Dr. Ron Paul

At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to state this or that or the other, but it is 'not done'... Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. George Orwell

The same insider financiers who brought the world to the brink of financial collapse are now gobbling up the remaining sound assets of failing banks under the guise of saving the system. In giving unrestricted power to Treasury Secretary Paulson to decide arbitrarily whose debts the US government will rescue, Congress has unwittingly given him the power to decide which banks survive and which will be allowed to fail. Paulson's remarks this week that "additional banks will fail," is all too telling. If we had access to the details, which we don't (and won't), we would see that those banks designated to fail are not being allowed to have access to government bailout funds. Only the larger, insider-connected banks on Wall Street are having their toxic debts exchanged so that they have the liquidity to buy out the failing banks at pennies on the dollar. The FDIC is complicit in this as they seize banks they don't rescue and then conveniently designate another favored bank to come in and "rescue" the failing bank--instead of allowing the open market to freely bid on the remaining sound assets. The result is a massive shift of ownership of the remaining good debt from failed bank stockholders to the insider-connected banks and investment firms who created this mess. This crisis has nothing to do with saving Main Street--it's all about enriching those who drove the system into bankruptcy and establishing a permanent shift in financial power to government agencies staffed by former executives of these insider institutions. Joel Skousen's World Affairs Brief 20081010

If the spot demand is severe enough, the price may even go into backwardation where the spot price is higher than the forward price. Should that happen — it hasn’t happened yet because forward rates in London are still position and the important active December COMEX gold and silver contracts are still in contango — we would need to seriously consider the possibility of severe or even fatal systemic monetary consequences in the immediate future. 20081008 Tom Szabo

Being right is bitter medicine in bad times, being wrong however will be fatal.

All of us, whether aware, asleep or in deep denial of our present circumstances are in the same boat, a boat that is rapidly sinking. Most people, however, have little awareness or understanding of what is happening. Michael Thomas Bucci’s recounting of his community’s ignorance is not unusual, it is the norm.

All of us who are aware of the reasons for the collapse of our economies are shocked by this bifurcated reality. We and those not yet aware exist in worlds as separate as black and white. What we share, however, is a mutual inability to change what is.

Those ignorant of what is to come, however, will suffer in far greater measure than those who understand what is happening. In the not too distant future, economic fear and uncertainty will be replaced by abject terror and despair; and if you don’t understand the now changing world, you will soon be its victim. Darryl Robert Schoon

Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.

The events of the past week are no exception. The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress' throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect. It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China! "This is welfare for the rich," he said. "This is socialism for the rich. It's bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters. Ron Paul

This is the end of a system. It is not a cyclical correction. It is not a market pullback and it is not a repricing of risk in an otherwise resilient marketplace. We are witness to the end of an economic system based on credit-based paper money that began 300 years ago in England. All beginnings have endings—and that we didn’t expect it to end doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t. Mark J. Lundeen

Friday morning* on the ABC program Good Morning America, Senator Dodd said the congressional leaders were told “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.” Senator Christopher J. Dodd, chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee September 19, 2008*

Everybody complains about pork, but members of Congress keep spending because voters do not throw them out of office for doing so. The rotten system in Congress will change only when the American people change their beliefs about the proper role of government in our society. Too many members of Congress believe they can solve all economic problems, cure all social ills, and bring about worldwide peace and prosperity simply by creating new federal programs. We must reject unlimited government and reassert the constitutional rule of law if we hope to halt the spending orgy. Ron Paul

"We have lost control," said Hale, quoting Bernanke. "We cannot stabilize the dollar. We cannot control commodity prices." Chicago Tribune

What's the difference between a Sorcerer and a Scientist?

A Sorcerer wants you to believe his will is the cause of his miracles. A Scientist wants you to know that his miracles are part of the natural order of things.

If Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke ever thought he or the Fed or any other institution had "control" over the dollar or commodity prices he wasn't, in my view, much of an economist. The currency of institutions is credibility, not control, although when the credibility bank account is full credibility can seem like control. Credibility is earned by being right, and lost by being wrong. Dave Lewis

U.S. SEIZES FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC

This represents a crime of such gigantic proportions
that many people won’t even be able to fathom what has happened. Kevin Flaherty

If the US government allows Fannie and Freddie to fail and international investors are not compensated adequately, the consequences will be catastrophic. If it is not the end of the world, it is the end of the current international financial system. Mr Yu Yongding

We looked into the abyss if the gold price rose further. A further rise would have taken down one or several trading houses, which might have taken down all the rest in their wake. Therefore, at any price, at any cost, the central banks had to quell the gold price, manage it. It was very difficult to get the gold price under control but we have now succeeded. The U.S. Fed was very active in getting the gold price down. So was the U.K. Eddie George, Bank of England, September 1999

...the fact remains that, once the dollar’s global reserve function is successfully eliminated via an engineered crash of the US economy, there will be no choice but to initiate at least regional anchor currencies that can assume the dollar’s reserve role in a more limited, regional fashion. These anchor-currency or regional reserve currency arrangements will then inevitably lead to regional single currencies. Alex Wallenwein

We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine, and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the work is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries. This quote is by David Rockefeller, founder of the Trilateral Commission, in an address to a meeting of the Trilateral Commission in June 1991.

The owners of this country know the truth: It's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.

The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying - lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else...

But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting screwed by a system that threw them overboard 30 screwing years ago. You know what they want? Obedient workers - people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly crappier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your lousy retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this rotten place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club. George Carlin

The LIMA Declaration: On Friday, May 16, at the Summit in Lima, Peru, a declaration was issued by representatives from nearly 60 countries promising to act with urgency to address the rising cost of staple foods. Europe and China were there. The US was NOT! A 60-nation Summit - and the US was not invited.

A SUMMIT In Russia: Brazil, Russia, India and China are talking about forming a political alliance. The four largest emerging economies sent their foreign ministers to Yekaterinburg, Russia, where they met on May 16, for the first time outside the venue of the United Nations. The Europeans and Chinese were there - the US was NOT.

A SUMMIT In China: New Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is visiting China on May 23 and 24 for his first foreign trip since taking office, a further sign of improving ties. President Medvedev will make a state visit to Beijing at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, China's Foreign Ministry has said. The US is not there. This is a new global pattern led by the Japan/China Summit in early MAY. The US is simply NOT there.

©2008 - The Privateer http://www.the-privateer.com [e-mail] (reproduced with permission)

“So far gasoline prices haven’t fully reflected this oil surge, but they will. The tight Oil/Gas Ratio rendered in these charts makes this crystal clear. Regardless of where oil went between $11 and $124, the OGR didn’t break. And it is not going to break today either. You just can’t have finished goods priced lower than their feedstock input costs……Over one of the most volatile oil and gasoline decades ever witnessed, the OGR remained solidly locked within a tight range. It averaged 35.7, which means a barrel of crude oil cost 35.7x as much as a gallon of wholesale gasoline since 1998 on average. Diesel’s average ODR came in very close at 35.5.” Adam Hamilton

"Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation." Ben Shalom Bernanke

"...Politicians love to demagogue on high oil prices while consumers love to whine about them. But in real terms, oil is a lot cheaper today than it was in the summer of 2005! It is too bad the US Congress and American people will never understand this. We are all trapped in viewing the world through the lenses of our own fiat currencies, but as our central banks debase them it radically distorts our perceptions of real price trends...
...When viewed in euro terms, it looks like about one-half of oil’s dollar bull is fundamental. But when viewed in gold terms, this fraction drops to merely one-fifth. This is somewhat disturbing as it calls into question all kinds of perceptions about nominal price moves in all assets worldwide. Perhaps everyone, even students of monetary theory, is seriously underestimating the impact of fiat inflation on asset prices..." Adam Hamilton

"Watching the markets is much like watching a World Wrestling Entertainment match. There is a real arena with real fans in the seats, and the competitors are very athletic and act combatant. There is a referee officiating the event. There is a real announcer calling play-by-play of what he seemingly is watching. The wrestlers go at it, and apparently suffer bone-jarring hits and body slams that would make mere mortal men scream like a girl. There is a winner and a loser, scores are kept, and rankings assigned to the wrestlers. It all looks just like any professional sporting event. Except it isn't, it's totally scripted and fake…" James McShirley

The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own. Aldous Huxley

The Full Import Of The NATO Bucharest Press Conference:
At the NATO press conference in Bucharest, the French President was crystal clear. The serious press across Europe has treated his statements and those of German Chancellor Merkel with serious and dignified respect. In that joint press conference with German chancellor Merkel, French President Sarkozy repeated his stand that France intended to reintegrate fully into NATO - once a separate European Defence Pillar became a reality. This is the key statement! France will reenter NATO, solely to build that separate European Defence Pillar. In effect, this is a Trojan horse play. If the US allows France to come back into NATO, France will promptly assign some of its own forces to the Euro Corps, giving it real military teeth. France will also assign some or even ALL its nuclear forces to the Euro Corps. The game is then up for the US because then Europe will have its very own armed nuclear forces. At that point, the separate European Pillar is established. President Sarkozy even explained where that other pillar of the Transatlantic relationship would stand. He did it in a humorous way. But the import of what he said was that US forces belonged back in the US. That would leave two “pillars”, one back in the US and the other on European soil. That inherently necessitates a US withdrawal from Europe.

The geo-strategic outcome of the Bucharest NATO Conference is that President Bush has lost Europe.

© 2008 - The Privateer http://www.the-privateer.com / [e-mail] (reproduced with permission)

…we think that deflation and hyperinflation can only occur deterministically with reference to an external standard. With the lapse of the gold standard, there is none. Therefore its more likely to be the end result of policy decision(s). Jesse's Café Américain

It’s puzzling why bankers have come up with these new ways to lose money when the old ways were working so well. Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf

The United States during the Bush administration has failed to exercise proper political leadership. As a result the United States has suffered a precipitous decline in its power and influence in the world. The invasion of Iraq has much to do with the rise in the price of oil and the unwillingness of the rest of the world to hold dollars. A recession in the United States and the resilience of China, India and the oil-producing countries will reinforce the decline in the power and influence of the United States. A significant part of the monetary reserves currently held in Unites States government bonds will be converted into real assets. This will reinforce and extend the current commodity boom and create inflationary pressures. The decline of the dollar as the generally accepted reserve currency will have far-reaching political consequences and raise the specter of the breakdown of the prevailing world order. The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crash of 2008 and What It Means. George Soros

[US] "Treasuries are the most overvalued asset in the world, bar none" Pimco's Bill Gross

"I'm under strict orders not to talk about the dollar. I'm not going to get fired just to answer your question."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino

Jim Willie CB

Jim Sinclair has revealed the identity of a major gold investor working in cahoots with the gold cartel itself. When the gold cartel takes a huge position to short gold in the futures market, all intended to suppress the upward flight in the gold price, some entity takes the counter-party position. At the March PDAC gold conference in Toronto Ontario in Canada, the irrepressible Sinclair claimed the party taking other side of gold forward selling contracts is the Carlyle Group. Many huge short positions have been placed by JPMorgan, Barrick, and AngloGold Ashanti. In doing so, the shadowy powerhouse Carlyle has been secretly accumulating future gold production. He implied his role in the exposure was that things are far enough along that risk has diminished. The Carlyle Group was mentioned in the March Macro Economic report as being stuffed with former foreign heads of state, ambassadors, military brass, defense contractors, bank titans, and more. Earlier in his speech, Sinclair mentioned something about an agency residing in the Cayman Islands that was accumulating vast amounts of gold shares, without offering any further information. Any connection to the Carlyle Group is unknown. Sinclair had made a clear point in recent weeks on his public website (click here) that there is only ONE dog at the top of any political heap. One can conclude that the top gold dog lives in the Caymans and controls much of Carlyle. He stressed that an important objective in the gold suppression game, and in being an architect in the next chapter of the financial structure for the Western world, is to own & control gold production over the long term. It is not as important to just own gold, but to own much of the future production of gold over the long term. The aim of this unseen group is not to just control gold production but perhaps to gain control over most or all major commodity production, like base metals and energy.

Sinclair has stated his belief that when the US$ DX index hits 52 (now 72), in about the year 2011, the USDollar will be saved as the international currency and tied to some kind of gold certificate. If not directly, the USDollar might be floated with a formal alignment to a gold & interest rate self-balancing mechanism. He suggested that the timing could easily change, with a higher DX trigger price and a sooner timeframe.

Sinclair repeated his theme regarding certain hedge funds, that many have been employing a leveraged spread trade. They are long the major gold mining companies and short the juniors. The so-called Juniors consist of the hundreds of small Canadian explorers and producers, headquartered throughout Canada, but mostly in Vancouver and Toronto. He expects the fate of these risky spread trades will soon change, and sees that process is in motion now, soon to be very apparent. He expects the juniors should soon rise suddenly in share price like a balloon being held under water that will pop-up once the pressure holding them down is removed. On his website he has been repeatedly pounding the table to take delivery of share certificates (stock shares), so as to nail the shorts when they try and cover their short positions. A share purchased on margin is immediately available for others to short. A share sitting in a brokerage account can be shorted in an unethical manner with a ‘wink & nod’ by brokerage executives.

Jim Willie CB (200803) Hat Trick Letter http://www.goldenjackass.com/subscribe.html

We are becoming increasingly concerned that the authorities in the world do not get it. The extent of de-leveraging involves a wholesale destruction of credit. The risk is that the Shadow Banking System completely collapses. Bernard Connolly, global strategist at Banque AIG

You have three vicious cycles going on simultaneously. A liquidity vicious cycle, in which asset prices fall, people sell and therefore prices fall more; a Keynesian vicious cycle, where people’s incomes go down, so they spend less, so other people’s income falls and they spend less; and a credit accelerator, where economic losses cause financial problems that cause more real economy problems... [We are facing] the most serious combination of macro-economic and financial stresses in a generation, and possibly, much longer than that… An increasing risk that the principal policy tool on which we have relied, the Federal Reserve lending to banks in one form or another, [is like] fighting a virus with antibiotics. Lawrence Summers

Money supply inflation ultimately leads to price inflation and this extraordinary rate of increase in the money supply, as several commentators, including Deepcaster, have pointed out, is leading us down the path to a hyperinflationary depression. Or, more ominously, to an attempt to implement The Cartel’s END GAME. Deepcaster

The resignation of Admiral William Fallon as US military commander in the Middle East probably signals a Bush Regime attack on Iran. Fallon said that there would be no US attack on Iran on his watch. As there was no reason for Fallon to resign, it is not farfetched to conclude that Bush has removed an obstacle to war with Iran.

The US is already over stretched both militarily and economically. An attack on Iran is likely to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Paul Craig Roberts; former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term.

On March 17, President Bush meets with his Plunge Protection Team (PPT) (aka the President's Working Group on Financial Markets) to be "briefed" on the state of US financial markets. This promises to be the tensest meeting since the PPT was set up in the wake of the October 1987 stock market crash.

Then, on March 18, the FOMC gets together in what is probably the most anticipated scheduled meeting in their history. The desperation of the financial system is best illustrated by one simple fact. On March 13, the day before the Fed stepped in to bail out Bear Stearns, the betting on the futures market that the Fed would cut by 1.0 percent was zero. On March 14, seeing the bailout, the betting on a 1.0 percent cut had surged to 64 percent! The remaining 36 percent is betting on a cut of 0.75 percent. If the PPT is meeting to plan ways to stave off a Gold surge and a stock market and Dollar plunge on release of the FOMC's decision, they most certainly have their work cut out for them.

©2008 - The Privateer http://www.the-privateer.com [e-mail] (reproduced with permission)

he Collateralization of Trash - Deepcaster

Indeed, the Fed’s March 11, 2008 announcement establishing a new Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLP) is merely a short-term Band-Aid for what is a structural systemic crisis. The TLSP allows Federal Agency and non-Agency (i.e. private entity) AAA/Aaa Residential Mortgage backed (and otherwise illiquid) securities (some of which is irretrievably illiquid “bad debt”) to be used for collateral. Allowing these securities (containing bad debt) to be used as collateral makes it possible for banks to liquidate or transfer previously illiquid securities in their portfolios.

Let’s be candid here - - “previously illiquid” is a euphemism for “without any market value” (i.e. zero market value - ZMV).

That which is illiquid is illiquid because it has no market. That which has no market has no market value. Quod erat demonstrandum.Looking a bit more deeply, the reason for the zero-value character of these illiquid securities is that these bundles of mortgage-backed and other securities contain (in the case of mortgages) mortgages that either were in default or about to go into default. Thus to save the big institutions from having to fully recognize losses (Heaven Forefend!) The Fed will allow this junk to be used as collateral for cash (!) and, we predict, will allow the debt to be “rolled” indefinitely, if it can not be repaid.

Bill Murphy, in his inimitable style, rightly characterizes this latest Fed Action as “Cash for Trash” and Jim Sinclair also, quite rightly, characterizes it as “The Monetization of Bankruptcy.” Deepcaster 200803

From jsmineset.com

“Markets and economic activity are the result of the perceptions of the participants.”--Allen Greenspan 2004
The new school economics are based not on Economic Law but rather on belief and perception driven by unbridled greed run by the Authoritarians.

It is difficult to argue against the success of the adjustment of perception running both markets and business activity as applied on each economic turn down after Volcker’s period of Chairmanship.

It was the Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve who busted the USSR by busting their client nations, sending the ruble into dust.

Since Volcker’s leadership, subsequent Federal Reserve boards have been busy giving back all that Volcker had accomplished until the US dollar died as the reserve currency of choice. The US dollar’s status is now the universal reserve currency of mistake.

Because economic law still functions underneath the spin of perception, the dollar has dropped from being a star to being a scar on the US.

Right now perception is again being used as the primary tool for the correction of the rigamortus that has set into basic credit.

Slowly but surely the damage has been done by the cover up and bandage solutions for the now broken credit system.
No amount of spin will cure the horror of a meltdown in fraudulent OTC derivatives because all levels of debt feel and reflect any level of debt. You can see through business activity the march of the systemic breakdown in credit markets.
The last systemic breakdown in credit markets was in 1930, giving rise to every then known way to expand both monetary and fiscal stimulation.

Nothing changes. Spin will grow and grow, this time becoming almost ineffective. Interest rates on the short end will continue their dive towards zero as long rates hold and rise.

This is a Weimar-like set of facts monetarily.

To those that see a contradiction in short rates getting airtime while long rates hold or rise consider that that NY Port Authority had to pay 20% for money two weeks ago. 30 year US Treasuries will have a hard time competing with that. The credit standing of US Treasuries is reflected in the condition of the US dollar and long term US Treasury bonds. Short-term treasury (91) day bills look toward the discount rate for a key to direction.

The system is broken. The spin is at 9000 RPM. Economic law is reasserting itself. The jig is up.

Have you protected yourself? Jim Sinclair (200802)

Yes, we understand that it is considered the duty of those in charge, the usher in the burning theatre, to maintain order, and certainly NOT to create a panic rush for the exits. But we wonder at what point as they reassure the public to remain placidly in their seats, and shut off the fire alarms, and describe the smoke wafting in between the rows as cigarette fumes from the Ladies Lounge, that a fine line in motive and outcome is crossed. And as the privileged few are allowed to slip out the side doors first, after collecting their expensive coats and valuables, we wonder at what point this becomes something more than the duty of a public servant, and a despicable act of fiduciary negligence... Jesse's Café Américain (200802)

The US banking system is teetering at the precipice, the brink of collapse. Such words used to be regarded as vacant nonsense, laden with hyperbole, spoken by crackpots, used to frighten the public and to garner silly attention. NO MORE!!! Almost two years ago, in the Hat Trick Letter, my forecast was made crystal clear, that the housing crisis and mortgage debacle would topple and destroy the US banking system, just like what happened to Japan in the 1990 decade. The US banking system cannot withstand insolvency like the stronger Japanese banking system, which survived temporarily as vampire entities. The forecast should be clearly seen by now to be in the process of coming to pass. The mortgages, the CDO bonds, the commercial paper, these are all evidence of wrecked mechanisms in the US banking system. They will continue to worsen dramatically. The financial condition of institutions within the US banking system has gone critical, with core assets gone negative. Total deposits held, free of borrowed USFed reserves, have vanished. US banks have burned through their entire capital core, melted down from disastrous mortgage portfolios, their bonds, and related CDO leveraged bond derivatives. They must now rely upon borrowed reserves from the USFed in order to continue to function as lending institutions. The US banks by end January had almost $40 billion in total reserves. They have turned heavily to the USFed Term Auction Facility for the temporary $40 billion in resupplied capital. That is not injected, donated, free money. It must be returned. Jim Willie CB (200802) Hat Trick Letter http://www.goldenjackass.com/subscribe.html

Charlie and I are of one mind in how we feel about derivatives and the trading activities that go with them: we view them as time bombs, both for the parties that deal in them and the economic system.

…The derivatives genie is now well out of the bottle, and these instruments will almost certainly multiply in variety and number until some event makes their toxicity clear…

…In our view, however, derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal. Warren Buffet (20030221)

"The Last Man Standing Walks Away:

Mr David Walker, US Comptroller General and the man who led the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for a decade, has announced his retirement. His resignation takes effect on March 12 and President Bush is not expected to appoint a replacement during the rest of his term of office. Mr Walker has been one of the very few men in the US federal government (Ron Paul is another) who took “Government Accountability” - especially FISCAL accountability - seriously. His message to the US government and the American people throughout his tenure has been that the fiscal profligacy and the resultant liabilities - funded and UNFUNDED - of the US government were unsustainable and leading straight to disaster. For ten years, Mr Walker has been one of the very few voices in government pointing straight at the irreparable damage being done to the REAL economy of the US. He was ignored." The Privateer (200802)

“Inflation is the web of the financial spider, and deflation the mastication of the human fly.” Jeffrey Mark

“LEAP/E2020 wishes to remind that we are now resolutely stepping into an era with no historical precedent. Our researchers insisted on that many times in the last two years: any comparison with the previous crises of our modern economy would be fallacious. It is neither a “remake” of the 1929 crisis nor a repetition of the 1970s oil crises or 1987 stock market crisis. It is truly a global systemic crisis, that is to say a crisis affecting the entire planet and questioning the very foundations of the international system upon which the world was organised in the last decades.” LEAP/E2020 (200802)

"We really and truly are screwed beyond all imagination, just in case you didn't know that already." the cryptogon

When Fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. Sinclair Lewis

"The ruling class has the schools and press under its thumb. This enables it to sway the emotions of the masses." Einstein

"Just like the formation of galaxies and hurricanes and nautilus shells, the universe of the macro-economy operates through non stochastic fractal growth progression and nonlinear decay. Expect the unexpected." Gary Lammert

"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable…" H.L. Mencken

"Organized crime is now officially legal and combined with the stock and capital markets - all enforced by force and rigged profits. This is the economic infrastructure for fascism." Catherine Austin Fitts

"Let’s face it, globalism is simply repackaged communism with a fascist twist, and "free trade" is how the redistribution of wealth scheme is being implemented. It is being implemented by well funded and well planned inside "traitors" (pun intended) who have been carefully installed in various key positions of industry and government over many many years. Part of the necessary goals on the road to world government are to make the American Constitutional Republic, the sovereign nation state and "capitalism" look very very bad, while advancing the ever creeping mobocracy known as "democracy" over a limited republican form of government…" Karl Reile

"Lenin was certainly right, there is no more positive, or subtle means of destroying the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate secretly and unobserved an important part of the wealth of the citizens. The process engages all the hidden forces of economics on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner that not one man in a million can diagnose." John Maynard Keynes

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see a brick wall at the back of the theater." Frank Zappa

"We are at a wonderful ball where the champagne sparkles in every glass, and soft laughter falls upon the summer air. We know at some moment the black horsemen will come shattering through the terrace doors, wreaking vengeance and scattering the survivors. Those who leave early are saved, but the ball is so splendid no one wants to leave while there is still time, so everyone keeps asking, what time is it? But none of the clocks have hands." Adam Smith from The Money Game

"The gold offensive is already in full swing and has been extensively analyzed and reported on in previous issues. Add to all that the potential currency offensive, and you have a good picture of what's in store for the US - and the world. As despicable and repugnant as the current (or any other) neocon or potential ultra-liberal regime of the US may be, guess how it's going to compare to what a technologically updated and economically powerful China will inflict on the world when the US no longer holds the reigns of ultimate power in the world. Those who now hate the United States will long for the days when all they had to focus their hatred on was George Bush. That's why it's so important that Americans understand the China threat as well as the fiat threat to their way of life." Alex Wallenwein

"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under." H.L. Mencken

But capital alone is not worth of credit, unless associated with moral qualities in the tradesman; for a prudent man of great industry, integrity, and knowledge in his business is more worthy of credit without capital, than a rich man ignorant in his business...Persons who begin with large capitals do not succeed, generally speaking, so well as those who begin with small ones cautiously administered... Andrew N. Ure - The Philosophie of Manufactures 1841

"It has been a few decades since Al Greenspan was a devotee of Ayn Rand, and it shows. I'm not much of a fan of Rand as I found her philosophic views tended to steam roll over the, in my view, important questions of consciousness and totally missed Hume's point on the failure of reason alone, however, she did have her moments. Her steadfast defense of gold as money is a case in point- a point obviously lost on Greenspan over the decades." Dude

"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't." Mark Twain

"The course of a progressing inflation is this: At the beginning the inflow of additional money makes the prices of some commodities and services rise; other prices rise later. The price rise affects the various commodities and services, as has been shown, at different dates and to a different extent. This first stage of the inflationary process may last for many years. While it lasts, the prices of many goods and services are not yet adjusted to the altered money relation. There are still people in the country who have not yet become aware of the fact that they are confronted with a price revolution which will finally result in a considerable rise of all prices, although the extent of this rise will not be the same in the various commodities and services. These people still believe that prices one day will drop. Waiting for this day, they restrict their purchases and concomitantly increase their cash holdings. As long as such ideas are still held by public opinion, it is not yet too late for the government to abandon its inflationary policy. But then finally the masses wake up. They become suddenly aware of the fact that inflation is a deliberate policy and will go on endlessly. A breakdown occurs. The crack-up boom appears. Everybody is anxious to swap his money against "real" goods, no matter whether he needs them or not, no matter how much money he has to pay for them. Within a very short time, within a few weeks or even days, the things that are used as money are no longer used as media of exchange. They become scrap paper. Nobody wants to give away anything against them. It was this that happened with the Continental currency in America in 1781, with the French mandats territoriaux in 1796, and with the German Mark in 1923. It happened with the dollar in 1973. It will happen again whenever the same conditions appear. If a thing has to be used as a medium of exchange, public opinion must not believe that the quantity of this thing will increase beyond all bounds. Inflation is a policy that cannot last." Ludwig von Mises

“spit in the bastards eyes and use silver for money” Bond, David Bond

"If total shares outstanding grow by 10%, for example, your stake is worth 10% less even though you still hold the same number of shares. Dilution is to a stock exactly what inflation is to fiat-money supplies. The more shares issued the more the value of your own stake erodes." Adam Hamilton

"Gold’s reputation as a store of value had been eroded many times before, to wit, during such historical episodes as the Tulipomania, the South Seas Bubble, the Mississippi Bubble and, more recently, during the Roaring Twenties of the Twentieth Century." Dr. Fekete

"Religion is regarded by the wise as false, by the foolish as true, and by the rulers as useful." Seneca the Younger

"The failure to lead in this country now includes all the major fields of enterprise and resolves into a general and total failure of authority that threatens to drag us into darkness. Leaders in politics, business, the news media, science, medicine, education, and the organized religions have all failed to prepare the public for the hardships that will attend a global energy crisis supercharged by climate change, disorder in the financial markets, and almost certainly more war." James Kunstler

"The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject." Marcus Aurelius

"News is what people want to keep hidden; everything else is publicity." Bill Moyers

"They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent, there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience, something worthwhile will be realized. Thus, talent is a species of vigor." Eric Hoffer

"The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion. It is the man who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and wider -- and progressively better able to grasp any theme or situation -- persevering in what he knows to be practical, and concentrating his thought upon it, who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree. Alexander Graham Bell

"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest." Benjamin Franklin

"You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension, a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. It’s a journey into a wondrous land, whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s a signpost up ahead, your next stop, the Twilight Zone!" Rod Serling