Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Is silver a play or WHAT!?
1. The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) has virtually no silver available to fulfill contract obligations. At the March 25, 2010, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) hearings, both Jeffrey Christian and Adrian Douglas testified that gold and silver markets in London, which are theoretically 100 percent backed by metal, only had enough gold and silver in the vaults to cover 1-3 percent of the contracts.
2. The London gold and silver markets are both in backwardation. In normal commodity markets, futures prices are higher than the current month, or “spot,” price. The higher future prices normally reflect the prevailing interest rate less a small amount for storage costs. This normal condition is called contango. When a market is in backwardation, this is an indication of a severe supply squeeze. In other words, that means that there is insufficient physical commodity to fulfill maturing contracts (let alone future contracts).
For more than a year, the London gold market one and three months contracts have been in backwardation - meaning that the spot month price was higher than the prices of these future contracts. Since Nov. 5, the six-month contract has also been in backwardation, which has never occurred in the London market during the available database that goes back to 1989. In silver, the supply shortage is more extreme, where the six-month contract has been in backwardation for much of the past year, and continuously since June 2.
The only way to cure a market in backwardation is for prices to rise high enough to reduce demand and to encourage greater supply.
3. Testimony at the CFTC hearing in March pointed a direct finger at JPMorgan Chase’s London office for suppressing prices in the silver market. The whistleblower, Andrew Maguire, also released copies of his e-mails with CFTC enforcement personnel to show how he tried to provide this information to the CFTC in the months before this hearing, but had not received a satisfactory response.
4. On Oct. 26, CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton issued a statement saying he is convinced there have been violations of the Commodity Exchange Act with respect to the silver market that resulted in the suppression and manipulation of prices. He urged prosecution of the guilty parties.
5. Starting on Oct. 27, a series of lawsuits (now about 25 or so) were filed against JPMorgan Chase and HSBC, the two banks suspected of having the largest silver short positions on the New York COMEX. Two of the suits were filed by law firms who hold the records for collecting the largest settlements under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, Commodity Exchange Act, and Investment Company Act. These are firms who are able to cherry-pick the cases they expect to win easily, so they need to be taken seriously.
6. After failing to report - and even denying - that big banks such as JPMorgan Chase had been holding a large short position in the COMEX silver market, the mainstream financial media started reporting a few weeks ago that JPMorgan Chase had reduced its short position since the beginning of 2010.
In a Dec. 13 letter to CFTC Commissioner Chilton, analyst Adrian Douglas drew attention to the fact that U.S. banks have been reducing their COMEX gold and silver market short positions over the course of 2010. However, foreign banks that are exempt from CFTC regulations have been increasing their short sales. In the silver market, the new short positions from foreign banks over the past five months have more than offset the decline in U.S. bank short positions. As a result, total short positions continue to rise. You can review a copy of Douglas’s letter to Chilton at https://marketforceanalysis.com/article/latest_article_112010.html.
At the Dec. 16 CFTC hearings, Chilton shared much of the information from Douglas’s letter, implying that U.S. banks may be trying to hide their short positions by moving them behind foreign fronts.
7. There are a growing number of reports that owners of COMEX gold and silver contracts, who elect to take delivery upon contract maturity, are being settled for cash instead of with physical metal. In examining the daily movements of silver in and out of COMEX warehouses, the total inventories have declined more than 10 percent since midJune. The analysis also shows that when a large deposit of physical silver comes into the COMEX, it is invariably withdrawn within two trading days. To me that is a sign that there is more demand for metal than the COMEX can supply.
8. Since early October, the 10-year US Treasury debt interest rate has jumped 35 percent. This is a significant sign that the value of the U.S. dollar will fall in the next few months.
9. One of my most accurate sources of inside information, a London metals trader, stated in a recent interview that gold and silver buyers in the Far East were having such great difficulty locating physical metal to purchase that they were now buying paper contracts in order to dump billions of U.S. dollars. It is the purported plan of these buyers to later purchase physical metals as they are able to locate any quantities, with little regard to how much above the spot price they may have to pay, and close out the corresponding amount of paper contracts as they do. In the video posted at zerohedge.com, the last tidbit of information is that JPMorgan Chase may be shorting silver to the Chinese government as part of this activity.
10. Much of the gold sold by the International Monetary Fund was channeled through the Bank for International Settlements. The largest chunk of this gold was purchased by India’s central bank. India’s purchases have supposedly been deposited into unallocated storage - where they may be subject to multiple ownership claims. Because of the risk of losing ownership of gold placed in unallocated storage, a growing number of Far East and Middle East buyers of gold and silver are removing their purchases from London vaults to other locations where this risk is absent. If the London contracts really were backed 100 percent by the underlying metal, this would not matter. But, as you can see from the foregoing information, the decline of physical gold and silver stored in London’s vaults is starting to matter very much.
2. The London gold and silver markets are both in backwardation. In normal commodity markets, futures prices are higher than the current month, or “spot,” price. The higher future prices normally reflect the prevailing interest rate less a small amount for storage costs. This normal condition is called contango. When a market is in backwardation, this is an indication of a severe supply squeeze. In other words, that means that there is insufficient physical commodity to fulfill maturing contracts (let alone future contracts).
For more than a year, the London gold market one and three months contracts have been in backwardation - meaning that the spot month price was higher than the prices of these future contracts. Since Nov. 5, the six-month contract has also been in backwardation, which has never occurred in the London market during the available database that goes back to 1989. In silver, the supply shortage is more extreme, where the six-month contract has been in backwardation for much of the past year, and continuously since June 2.
The only way to cure a market in backwardation is for prices to rise high enough to reduce demand and to encourage greater supply.
3. Testimony at the CFTC hearing in March pointed a direct finger at JPMorgan Chase’s London office for suppressing prices in the silver market. The whistleblower, Andrew Maguire, also released copies of his e-mails with CFTC enforcement personnel to show how he tried to provide this information to the CFTC in the months before this hearing, but had not received a satisfactory response.
4. On Oct. 26, CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton issued a statement saying he is convinced there have been violations of the Commodity Exchange Act with respect to the silver market that resulted in the suppression and manipulation of prices. He urged prosecution of the guilty parties.
5. Starting on Oct. 27, a series of lawsuits (now about 25 or so) were filed against JPMorgan Chase and HSBC, the two banks suspected of having the largest silver short positions on the New York COMEX. Two of the suits were filed by law firms who hold the records for collecting the largest settlements under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, Commodity Exchange Act, and Investment Company Act. These are firms who are able to cherry-pick the cases they expect to win easily, so they need to be taken seriously.
6. After failing to report - and even denying - that big banks such as JPMorgan Chase had been holding a large short position in the COMEX silver market, the mainstream financial media started reporting a few weeks ago that JPMorgan Chase had reduced its short position since the beginning of 2010.
In a Dec. 13 letter to CFTC Commissioner Chilton, analyst Adrian Douglas drew attention to the fact that U.S. banks have been reducing their COMEX gold and silver market short positions over the course of 2010. However, foreign banks that are exempt from CFTC regulations have been increasing their short sales. In the silver market, the new short positions from foreign banks over the past five months have more than offset the decline in U.S. bank short positions. As a result, total short positions continue to rise. You can review a copy of Douglas’s letter to Chilton at https://marketforceanalysis.com/article/latest_article_112010.html.
At the Dec. 16 CFTC hearings, Chilton shared much of the information from Douglas’s letter, implying that U.S. banks may be trying to hide their short positions by moving them behind foreign fronts.
7. There are a growing number of reports that owners of COMEX gold and silver contracts, who elect to take delivery upon contract maturity, are being settled for cash instead of with physical metal. In examining the daily movements of silver in and out of COMEX warehouses, the total inventories have declined more than 10 percent since midJune. The analysis also shows that when a large deposit of physical silver comes into the COMEX, it is invariably withdrawn within two trading days. To me that is a sign that there is more demand for metal than the COMEX can supply.
8. Since early October, the 10-year US Treasury debt interest rate has jumped 35 percent. This is a significant sign that the value of the U.S. dollar will fall in the next few months.
9. One of my most accurate sources of inside information, a London metals trader, stated in a recent interview that gold and silver buyers in the Far East were having such great difficulty locating physical metal to purchase that they were now buying paper contracts in order to dump billions of U.S. dollars. It is the purported plan of these buyers to later purchase physical metals as they are able to locate any quantities, with little regard to how much above the spot price they may have to pay, and close out the corresponding amount of paper contracts as they do. In the video posted at zerohedge.com, the last tidbit of information is that JPMorgan Chase may be shorting silver to the Chinese government as part of this activity.
10. Much of the gold sold by the International Monetary Fund was channeled through the Bank for International Settlements. The largest chunk of this gold was purchased by India’s central bank. India’s purchases have supposedly been deposited into unallocated storage - where they may be subject to multiple ownership claims. Because of the risk of losing ownership of gold placed in unallocated storage, a growing number of Far East and Middle East buyers of gold and silver are removing their purchases from London vaults to other locations where this risk is absent. If the London contracts really were backed 100 percent by the underlying metal, this would not matter. But, as you can see from the foregoing information, the decline of physical gold and silver stored in London’s vaults is starting to matter very much.
Gold nowhere near a bubble
Very interesting argument: One reason we know that gold is nowhere NEAR a top is the "need" by politicians to "protect" the public from gold buy scams.
You need money, and see a TV televangelist turned gold huckster. You send them in an ounce of scrap jewelry. You get a check for 300 dollars. He just made 1100 dollars off your ignorance that gold sells for 1400 an oz. This is so common that legislators are making noises about passing some law or other to "protect" the public.
THIS KIND OF PUBLIC IGNORANCE DOES NOT HAPPEN IN A BUBBLE. In a bubble "everyone" is in on the game. Like shoeshine boys giving Bernard Baruch stock tips or cocktail waitresses in Miami leaving business cards to flip condos, tops occur when everyone is aware and everyone is trying to play. Gold and silver are nowhere near that.
Of course, politicians and extremely powerful people do not have a vested interest in whacking back the prices of Miami Condos, so I expect periodic STEEP corrections in the prices of metals, which is why I want it "in my hand" rather than in some leveraged account.
You need money, and see a TV televangelist turned gold huckster. You send them in an ounce of scrap jewelry. You get a check for 300 dollars. He just made 1100 dollars off your ignorance that gold sells for 1400 an oz. This is so common that legislators are making noises about passing some law or other to "protect" the public.
THIS KIND OF PUBLIC IGNORANCE DOES NOT HAPPEN IN A BUBBLE. In a bubble "everyone" is in on the game. Like shoeshine boys giving Bernard Baruch stock tips or cocktail waitresses in Miami leaving business cards to flip condos, tops occur when everyone is aware and everyone is trying to play. Gold and silver are nowhere near that.
Of course, politicians and extremely powerful people do not have a vested interest in whacking back the prices of Miami Condos, so I expect periodic STEEP corrections in the prices of metals, which is why I want it "in my hand" rather than in some leveraged account.
Keynesianism just Statism applied to economics
If you are one of the few souls who actually pay attention to more than FOX or CNN headlines, you will, or have, heard much criticism of "Keynesianism" lately. Boiled down, Keynes taught that there would be Federal deficits in recession years and surpluses in boom years. The role of the Federal reserve is to push money out there in bad times and goose a struggling economy. There would be far more boom years than recession years, so little need for deficit spending. Thus, the Federal debt would not grow. It would shrink. No one believes that crap anymore. There are no surpluses. Never have been. Even under Clinton, the so called "surplus" was smoke and mirrors. How do we know that? Simple. The federal debt continued to grow. When you have "deficits" your debt grows (It seems stupid to have to say that, but in today's realm of educated fools, one has to). And one thing is absolutely, unequivocably true about Keynesian economists. They produce deficits. Huge, economy destroying deficits. This is unarguable. There are only deficits. And, no matter how large the deficit is, the answer is "spend more." When you strip away the surface prattle, this is simply statism, the belief that a central ruling body does things better than the ignorant masses.
The alternative to this mess is called "Austrian Economics" which is essentially libertarianism, or individual freedom, applied to economics. It says people SHOULD BE LEFT ALONE. We don't need "experts" to direct, guide, shepherd, manage, or control things. Millions of choices of free people, directing their own lives produce collectively an economy and monetary policy and society that is better in every way.
The purpose of this note is not to ARGUE for freedom when applied to econ. Lew Rockwell does this far better than I. Go there and educate yourself.
The purpose of this note is to get it out there in front. The choice is between freedom and slavery to an elite, between individual sovereignty or a ruling class, and between production of your own wealth and determination of your money supply or licking the boots of your masters as they decide when you have "enough."
I fear we are too far down the second road for this current realm to recover. The only question is, when we begin, over then next 10 years or so, to pick up the pieces, will we have enough people who believe in liberty and freedom to insist they be the governing principles of our society?
It is the big question of 2011...................
The alternative to this mess is called "Austrian Economics" which is essentially libertarianism, or individual freedom, applied to economics. It says people SHOULD BE LEFT ALONE. We don't need "experts" to direct, guide, shepherd, manage, or control things. Millions of choices of free people, directing their own lives produce collectively an economy and monetary policy and society that is better in every way.
The purpose of this note is not to ARGUE for freedom when applied to econ. Lew Rockwell does this far better than I. Go there and educate yourself.
The purpose of this note is to get it out there in front. The choice is between freedom and slavery to an elite, between individual sovereignty or a ruling class, and between production of your own wealth and determination of your money supply or licking the boots of your masters as they decide when you have "enough."
I fear we are too far down the second road for this current realm to recover. The only question is, when we begin, over then next 10 years or so, to pick up the pieces, will we have enough people who believe in liberty and freedom to insist they be the governing principles of our society?
It is the big question of 2011...................
What to expect from 2011....
We have spent ourselves into poverty and collapse. The elite ruling classes will resist the collapse of their power with every imaginable tactic. I expect to see coming:
1) Reinstitution of wage and price controls
2) Rationing of goods and services
3) Increasing militarization of everything in daily life for "security"
4) Replacement of Obamacare with a blending of Boehnercare, which will still be socialization of medicine, including some version of death panels
5) An insistence that our safety depends on government review of everything on the internet
6) Beginnings of talk of taxing WEALTH, not just income. Initially this will come from seizing IRAs by forcing them to "invest" in government bonds.
7) Talk of punishing speculators in gold and hard assets, and talk, if not yet implementation of federal seizure of gold.... again (did you know that under FDR, it was illegal for Americans to own gold?)
8) a great emphasis on the importance of "patriotism" and a visible effort to enlist religious mouthpieces to emphasize the importance of "God and country."
9) a spreading food crisis, with skyrocketing prices from a combination of high oil, overfertilized land and distribution breakdowns. This will lead to talk of food itself being a matter of "national security" with lots of boodle for Monsanto and other GMO producers. Rising food prices will lead to increased control over the commodities futures markets in the name of "punishing the speculators."
10) expansion of the war in Afghanistan into Pakistan, and maybe Yemen or some other Islamic country for good measure.
1) Reinstitution of wage and price controls
2) Rationing of goods and services
3) Increasing militarization of everything in daily life for "security"
4) Replacement of Obamacare with a blending of Boehnercare, which will still be socialization of medicine, including some version of death panels
5) An insistence that our safety depends on government review of everything on the internet
6) Beginnings of talk of taxing WEALTH, not just income. Initially this will come from seizing IRAs by forcing them to "invest" in government bonds.
7) Talk of punishing speculators in gold and hard assets, and talk, if not yet implementation of federal seizure of gold.... again (did you know that under FDR, it was illegal for Americans to own gold?)
8) a great emphasis on the importance of "patriotism" and a visible effort to enlist religious mouthpieces to emphasize the importance of "God and country."
9) a spreading food crisis, with skyrocketing prices from a combination of high oil, overfertilized land and distribution breakdowns. This will lead to talk of food itself being a matter of "national security" with lots of boodle for Monsanto and other GMO producers. Rising food prices will lead to increased control over the commodities futures markets in the name of "punishing the speculators."
10) expansion of the war in Afghanistan into Pakistan, and maybe Yemen or some other Islamic country for good measure.
Monday, December 27, 2010
YouTube - Madison Co. to evict man from camper
From my old home county. Alexandria Indiana in Marion County.
"I just want to be left alone" Not in the land of the free, baby. They leave you alone, you might not buy their power or you might pee on the ground.
Lick the boots, slaves.
Madison Co. to evict man from camper
www.youtube.com
Madison County officials are forcing a man out of his home — a recreational trailer — because they say he's breaking several ordinances.
a few seconds ago · Like · Comment · ShareYouTube - Madison Co. to evict man from camper
"I just want to be left alone" Not in the land of the free, baby. They leave you alone, you might not buy their power or you might pee on the ground.
Lick the boots, slaves.
Madison Co. to evict man from camper
www.youtube.com
Madison County officials are forcing a man out of his home — a recreational trailer — because they say he's breaking several ordinances.
a few seconds ago · Like · Comment · ShareYouTube - Madison Co. to evict man from camper
They Won’t Leave You Alone
You think they will leave you alone???
HA HA HA!!!
This man OWNS the property, and OWNS the dwelling.
He is being expelled from his own land.
Land of the free!?
Right
They Won’t Leave You Alone
HA HA HA!!!
This man OWNS the property, and OWNS the dwelling.
He is being expelled from his own land.
Land of the free!?
Right
They Won’t Leave You Alone
My Way News - US missiles hit Pakistan borderlands, killing 18
Lets just add "Pakistan" to the list of countries with which we are at war, and be done with it. Crap, while we are at it, lets just do them all a favor and invade all the countries on the globe.
My Way News - US missiles hit Pakistan borderlands, killing 18
My Way News - US missiles hit Pakistan borderlands, killing 18
The truth about the U.S. budget deficit: It’s 13x worse than you think | Analysis & Opinion |
The reason they can say this is that the US does NOT keep its books in a manner that normal businesses do.
Read the article
The truth about the U.S. budget deficit: It’s 13x worse than you think | Analysis & Opinion |
Read the article
The truth about the U.S. budget deficit: It’s 13x worse than you think | Analysis & Opinion |
Mark Helprin: America's Dangerous Rush to Shrink Its Military Power - WSJ.com
For over 150 years we had no pretensions of "fighting a war on two fronts" especially foreign wars. We got along just fine.
Whatever happened to "minding our own business?"
Make no mistakes, there are statist collectivists on the "left" but those so called "conservatives" which advocate perpetual warfare and the federal spending it requires are just as much an enemy of liberty as the leftists.
Mark Helprin: America's Dangerous Rush to Shrink Its Military Power - WSJ.com
Whatever happened to "minding our own business?"
Make no mistakes, there are statist collectivists on the "left" but those so called "conservatives" which advocate perpetual warfare and the federal spending it requires are just as much an enemy of liberty as the leftists.
Mark Helprin: America's Dangerous Rush to Shrink Its Military Power - WSJ.com
Friday, December 24, 2010
Sacramento-area pilot punished for YouTube video | News10.net | Sacramento, California | News
Little by little. Tightening, circling, with predatory eyes.
Many are going to wake up and say "how did we get here." The answer is as plain as these kind of news stories.
Sacramento-area pilot punished for YouTube video | News10.net | Sacramento, California | News
Many are going to wake up and say "how did we get here." The answer is as plain as these kind of news stories.
Sacramento-area pilot punished for YouTube video | News10.net | Sacramento, California | News
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Is A Police State Worth Fighting For?
Do you have plans, even vague ones, to leave the USA?
You should.
Is A Police State Worth Fighting For?
You should.
Is A Police State Worth Fighting For?
Western Civilization Has Shed Its Values by Paul Craig Roberts
This empowerment of the individual is unique to Western civilization. It has made the individual citizen equal in rights to all other citizens, protected from tyrannical government by the rule of law and free speech. These achievements are the products of centuries of struggle, but they all flow from the teaching that God so values the individual’s soul that he sent his son to die so we might live. By so elevating the individual, Christianity gave him a voice.
There is plenty of room for cultural diversity in the world, but not within a single country. A Tower of Babel has no culture....... A hodgepodge of cultural and religious values provides no basis for law – except the raw power of the pre-Christian past.
Power that is secularized and cut free of civilizing traditions is not limited by moral and religious scruples.
Western Civilization Has Shed Its Values by Paul Craig Roberts
There is plenty of room for cultural diversity in the world, but not within a single country. A Tower of Babel has no culture....... A hodgepodge of cultural and religious values provides no basis for law – except the raw power of the pre-Christian past.
Power that is secularized and cut free of civilizing traditions is not limited by moral and religious scruples.
Western Civilization Has Shed Its Values by Paul Craig Roberts
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
"You are the only person I know who is saying this stuff"
Everyone I know of who is not a bureaucratic mouthpiece for the government or the banking industry is saying we are going to have price explosion of commodities and a collapse of the dollar. All predictions are that this will lead AT BEST to a radical lowering of our standard of living, and at worst to societal breakdown, and a collapse of society akin to the Middle Ages.
What is amazing is that people close to me look at me with a straight face and say "you are the only person I know who is saying this stuff." Then I read the mainstream press....., even the financial press, which is a little more informative, and I understand why. Appalling abject stupidity and a complete ignorance of the underlying economic situation, coupled with a kind of Pollyana "oh, it will all work out... things have been hard before."
Makes me think "my GOODNESS, what unspeakable ignorance about our financial situation!"....., and then I feel compelled to make another shrieking wailing prediction of doom somewhere (lol).
It has been bad before. Problem is, every time it has been like this before, the price to fix it has been excruciating, painful, and for many, fatal.
I guess that is just what it is.
www.sprott.com/Docs/InvestorsDigest/2010/MPLID_112610_pg401Emb.pdf
What is amazing is that people close to me look at me with a straight face and say "you are the only person I know who is saying this stuff." Then I read the mainstream press....., even the financial press, which is a little more informative, and I understand why. Appalling abject stupidity and a complete ignorance of the underlying economic situation, coupled with a kind of Pollyana "oh, it will all work out... things have been hard before."
Makes me think "my GOODNESS, what unspeakable ignorance about our financial situation!"....., and then I feel compelled to make another shrieking wailing prediction of doom somewhere (lol).
It has been bad before. Problem is, every time it has been like this before, the price to fix it has been excruciating, painful, and for many, fatal.
I guess that is just what it is.
www.sprott.com/Docs/InvestorsDigest/2010/MPLID_112610_pg401Emb.pdf
$2tn debt crisis threatens to bring down 100 US cities | Business | The Guardian
"We spent too much on everything. We spent money we didn't have. We borrowed money just crazily. The credit card's maxed out, and it's over. We now have to get to the business of climbing out of the hole. We've been digging it for a decade or more. We've got to climb now, and a climb is harder." NJ Governor Chris Christie
$2tn debt crisis threatens to bring down 100 US cities | Business | The Guardian
$2tn debt crisis threatens to bring down 100 US cities | Business | The Guardian
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
"Like Argentina in its worst moments"
You gotta admit, it does have a ring to it!
Oh well, here's to the first go round in the toilet bowl swirl. USA about to lose its AAA credit rating. WHOOPIE!!!!!!!
Dollar's Sovereign Credit Standing: U.S. Plays a Dangerous Game - Seeking Alpha
Oh well, here's to the first go round in the toilet bowl swirl. USA about to lose its AAA credit rating. WHOOPIE!!!!!!!
Dollar's Sovereign Credit Standing: U.S. Plays a Dangerous Game - Seeking Alpha
Monday, December 20, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Bank of America cuts off WikiLeaks | Privacy Inc. - CNET News
Bank of America has added its name to a list of several financial institutions that have refused to process payments for WikiLeaks as the site reportedly readies a document release that targets the banking giant
HA HA! BLEEEEEEED BOA!!!
Bank of America cuts off WikiLeaks | Privacy Inc. - CNET News
HA HA! BLEEEEEEED BOA!!!
Bank of America cuts off WikiLeaks | Privacy Inc. - CNET News
A Dangerous Gap in Our Defenses? - Henry F. Cooper & Robert L. Pfaltzgraff Jr. - National Review Online
A Dangerous Gap in Our Defenses? - Henry F. Cooper & Robert L. Pfaltzgraff Jr. - National Review Online
Everyone really needs to read "One Second After" by William Forstchen. an amazing read and very eye opening.
Everyone really needs to read "One Second After" by William Forstchen. an amazing read and very eye opening.
"CAPITALISM?" What is that?
Many people today, especially the under 30 crowd, look at the mess we are in and think "that is the result of your so called 'free markets.' Who wants THAT?" I don't blame them. They look at the theft, the corporations cozying up to politicians and getting preferable treatment, and the wasting of mountains of resources... yes, even the LOOTING of the entire USA, and they say, with justification, "Save us from 'capitalism.' "
And I agree... if what we have now is capitalism......, but it ain't. What we have is essentially what Adam Smith was arguing AGAINST, which is mercantilism, or governments lining up with big businesses to protect them, coddle them, use the power of the state to keep them running, and ultimately fight wars to keep them in power.
One wag I read calls this "Banksterism." The big money centers fund business, protect it, and are in turn protected by the state. As a result the most effective corrective to the accumulation of power - entrepreneurship - is presented with a set of structural, legal and financial impairments that prohibit competitors from doing the job they should do in a free market. They should be giant killers, keeping ossified and ustabe-successful companies constantly evolving or dying. Instead, we have creaky monstrosities like the customer service phone center at Bank of America who don't care because they don't HAVE to care, no one can touch them.
In reality, all fortune 500 companies are infected with this "I am immune from the market because I am big" thinking. As a result, there is no spirit of entrepreneurship, and not even a fear of entrepreneurship. Sometimes, they even swirl down the drain, too stupid, bloated and lazy to realize they are dying, until the lawyers arrive to cut up the dead cadaver. Remember Eastern Airlines?
This is more pronounced in Europe, of course, where the state and business have always hopped in and out of each other's beds. There, the big banks have always called the tune. Their strategy has always been to PRIVATIZE PROFITS and SOCIALIZE LOSSES. They have been seeking this and doing this for hundreds of years. As an aside, this is why, although there are rich people in Europe, society is MUCH more stratified. The rich STAY rich, and the poor STAY poor, and there is much less ability to move from one class to another.
This stratified situation, with the wealthy bankers calling the political tunes is EXACTLY what was done to Argentina in 2001. The bankers, in the person of the IMF, piled up monstrous line item losses, squeezed every dime they could out of the nation, and fobbed off bone crushing losses on a state stupid (corrupt?) enough to agree to pay them. Of course they passed these losses back down on the backs of the populace. Argentina still has not recovered and may not ever. The same song is being played today, in Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Spain, etc. The goal is TO KEEP THE PAYMENT OF INTEREST ON LOANS GOING AT ALL COSTS.
In a free society, when a small business folds, it folds. They cut up the producing assets, and the lending institution takes the loss, and someone comes up with a newer, more efficient, more profitable and spiffier product/system. Profits rise and people's standard of living goes up. Money is literally "made."
Destruction and bankruptcy are painful to individuals, including the lenders, but the overall process is good for everyone, as efficiency and productivity and wealth all come in higher on the second go-round.
With "banksterism," though, the process is aborted. Again, the goal of the banking thugs is to KEEP THE CASH FLOW ROLLING AND AVOID TAKING A LOSS. They do this initially by allowing the debtor to refinance the debt and borrow more money. When this becomes impossible to do, they encourage the state to step in and guarantee the debt, and when the state is in danger of default they encourage them to print the money to keep the cash running as long as possible. In the case of Argentina, even after they completely blew up the peso by inflating it out of existence, they insisted on the state paying back the IMF and found politicians they could buy off who would agree to it.
This model arrived full bore in the USA shepherded in by George W. Bush, whose entire summary of fitness to be president seemed to be that he could emote with people. He did what, if a Democrat had done, we would be calling "communist" and wound up getting tons of bible believing conservatives to swallow it without batting an eye.
The business model is no longer to find a product people want and need, produce it well at a competitive price, and let it sell itself. Rather, it is to get a government or legislative grant, franchise, subsidy or tax exemption. These things are worth more than Eli Whitney's cotton gin or Ford's Model T or the Comstock lode. What is better, they require no genius, no new ideas, no sweat, no dedication to labor or strategy or any of the characteristics we used to associate with business. What it requires is that you know someone who is powerful who can rig the market for you.
A great early example in the USA is John D. Rockefeller, the first owner of "big oil." He did not make his fortune by drilling for oil and meeting people's needs. Rather, he stirred up a bunch of emotional estrogen laden busybody shrews and let them do the work for him. He donated the eye popping sum (in its day) of 4 MILLION dollars to the Woman's Temperance Society to lobby against "demon rum." With prohibition, the possibility of an ethanol based internal combustion engine was dead, and petroleum was not only the way to go, it was the ONLY way to go! He was a genius, a schemer, a strategist and an amazingly foresighted man, but he was decidedly NOT a "capitalist." He managed to let the U.S. government kill his competition. After that, making a fortune was easy.
We have this exact scenario in every business sector today, but expressed most perfectly in the area of big banks, and their government henchman, the Federal Reserve. There is a three way triumvirate between the Fed, the big Wall Street Banks, and the US Treasury. In fact, it is such an incestuous triangle that it is difficult to remember who is working with which branch, they move so fluidly in and out and between these three.
There have been three big "bubbles" recently caused by the insistence that we float new loans to troubled financial sectors and institutions. The first came with the Y2K fears, when the increase of the money supply by 20% caused an artificial boom in the tech markets. When this collapsed, the money rolled into the housing market, which pretty much began tanking in 2006, but spectacularly imploded in 2008.
The final, or "next to the final" bubble, has been the credit markets themselves or the treasury bond markets. The desperation to keep that inflated has been most panicked and intense, because the collapse of that bubble drags the whole system down with it, which only leaves the final bubble...... a nuclear one.
When empires suffer economic and financial collapses, they always wage wars.
War will always pull the failed state out of the doldrums, because it does the job of "creative destruction" that the market would have done if you had let it do its work. Only it is not so "creative" in its destruction.
Me? I am looking for a place to move. Our country is run by fools.
And I agree... if what we have now is capitalism......, but it ain't. What we have is essentially what Adam Smith was arguing AGAINST, which is mercantilism, or governments lining up with big businesses to protect them, coddle them, use the power of the state to keep them running, and ultimately fight wars to keep them in power.
One wag I read calls this "Banksterism." The big money centers fund business, protect it, and are in turn protected by the state. As a result the most effective corrective to the accumulation of power - entrepreneurship - is presented with a set of structural, legal and financial impairments that prohibit competitors from doing the job they should do in a free market. They should be giant killers, keeping ossified and ustabe-successful companies constantly evolving or dying. Instead, we have creaky monstrosities like the customer service phone center at Bank of America who don't care because they don't HAVE to care, no one can touch them.
In reality, all fortune 500 companies are infected with this "I am immune from the market because I am big" thinking. As a result, there is no spirit of entrepreneurship, and not even a fear of entrepreneurship. Sometimes, they even swirl down the drain, too stupid, bloated and lazy to realize they are dying, until the lawyers arrive to cut up the dead cadaver. Remember Eastern Airlines?
This is more pronounced in Europe, of course, where the state and business have always hopped in and out of each other's beds. There, the big banks have always called the tune. Their strategy has always been to PRIVATIZE PROFITS and SOCIALIZE LOSSES. They have been seeking this and doing this for hundreds of years. As an aside, this is why, although there are rich people in Europe, society is MUCH more stratified. The rich STAY rich, and the poor STAY poor, and there is much less ability to move from one class to another.
This stratified situation, with the wealthy bankers calling the political tunes is EXACTLY what was done to Argentina in 2001. The bankers, in the person of the IMF, piled up monstrous line item losses, squeezed every dime they could out of the nation, and fobbed off bone crushing losses on a state stupid (corrupt?) enough to agree to pay them. Of course they passed these losses back down on the backs of the populace. Argentina still has not recovered and may not ever. The same song is being played today, in Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Spain, etc. The goal is TO KEEP THE PAYMENT OF INTEREST ON LOANS GOING AT ALL COSTS.
In a free society, when a small business folds, it folds. They cut up the producing assets, and the lending institution takes the loss, and someone comes up with a newer, more efficient, more profitable and spiffier product/system. Profits rise and people's standard of living goes up. Money is literally "made."
Destruction and bankruptcy are painful to individuals, including the lenders, but the overall process is good for everyone, as efficiency and productivity and wealth all come in higher on the second go-round.
With "banksterism," though, the process is aborted. Again, the goal of the banking thugs is to KEEP THE CASH FLOW ROLLING AND AVOID TAKING A LOSS. They do this initially by allowing the debtor to refinance the debt and borrow more money. When this becomes impossible to do, they encourage the state to step in and guarantee the debt, and when the state is in danger of default they encourage them to print the money to keep the cash running as long as possible. In the case of Argentina, even after they completely blew up the peso by inflating it out of existence, they insisted on the state paying back the IMF and found politicians they could buy off who would agree to it.
This model arrived full bore in the USA shepherded in by George W. Bush, whose entire summary of fitness to be president seemed to be that he could emote with people. He did what, if a Democrat had done, we would be calling "communist" and wound up getting tons of bible believing conservatives to swallow it without batting an eye.
The business model is no longer to find a product people want and need, produce it well at a competitive price, and let it sell itself. Rather, it is to get a government or legislative grant, franchise, subsidy or tax exemption. These things are worth more than Eli Whitney's cotton gin or Ford's Model T or the Comstock lode. What is better, they require no genius, no new ideas, no sweat, no dedication to labor or strategy or any of the characteristics we used to associate with business. What it requires is that you know someone who is powerful who can rig the market for you.
A great early example in the USA is John D. Rockefeller, the first owner of "big oil." He did not make his fortune by drilling for oil and meeting people's needs. Rather, he stirred up a bunch of emotional estrogen laden busybody shrews and let them do the work for him. He donated the eye popping sum (in its day) of 4 MILLION dollars to the Woman's Temperance Society to lobby against "demon rum." With prohibition, the possibility of an ethanol based internal combustion engine was dead, and petroleum was not only the way to go, it was the ONLY way to go! He was a genius, a schemer, a strategist and an amazingly foresighted man, but he was decidedly NOT a "capitalist." He managed to let the U.S. government kill his competition. After that, making a fortune was easy.
We have this exact scenario in every business sector today, but expressed most perfectly in the area of big banks, and their government henchman, the Federal Reserve. There is a three way triumvirate between the Fed, the big Wall Street Banks, and the US Treasury. In fact, it is such an incestuous triangle that it is difficult to remember who is working with which branch, they move so fluidly in and out and between these three.
There have been three big "bubbles" recently caused by the insistence that we float new loans to troubled financial sectors and institutions. The first came with the Y2K fears, when the increase of the money supply by 20% caused an artificial boom in the tech markets. When this collapsed, the money rolled into the housing market, which pretty much began tanking in 2006, but spectacularly imploded in 2008.
The final, or "next to the final" bubble, has been the credit markets themselves or the treasury bond markets. The desperation to keep that inflated has been most panicked and intense, because the collapse of that bubble drags the whole system down with it, which only leaves the final bubble...... a nuclear one.
When empires suffer economic and financial collapses, they always wage wars.
War will always pull the failed state out of the doldrums, because it does the job of "creative destruction" that the market would have done if you had let it do its work. Only it is not so "creative" in its destruction.
Me? I am looking for a place to move. Our country is run by fools.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Gonzalo Lira: Want To Ruin Your Own Country? Assume Your Banks’ Liabilities
This guy is ALWAYS a good read.
He is from Chile.
Gonzalo Lira: Want To Ruin Your Own Country? Assume Your Banks’ Liabilities
He is from Chile.
Gonzalo Lira: Want To Ruin Your Own Country? Assume Your Banks’ Liabilities
Ben Bernanke, Man of Experience
I find it amazing that anyone pays any attention at all to what the man says. Except for a brief time waiting tables in school, he has zero experience in the real world. His whole life has been reading abstruse books written by people like himself, and doing complicated math formulas that are supposed to describe economic phenomena, but have absolutely nothing to do with the study of human action. He's a character who should appear in Alice in Wonderland, or Through the Looking Glass.
-- Doug Casey on Ben Bernanke
-- Doug Casey on Ben Bernanke
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The Great Silver Squeeze
The press is finally catching on that JP Morgan is in deep trouble. gulfnews : Reality of the great silver squeeze
The most interesting point made in the article is this one:
The most interesting point made in the article is this one:
Earlier, the CFTC had plans to provide greater transparency on speculative limits by mid January; but for reasons unspecified they have declared such deadlines can't be met.
Did you catch that? The CFTC, (kind of like the SEC for commodities), was going to institute "position limits" for precious metals. This is a restriction on the amount of contracts a trader can hold, in an attempt to limit the ability of one big player to bully the market. This is usually to prevent one person or group of people to "squeeze" the market by buying up positions solely to force delivery requirements and run up prices. It is a form of market manipulation that has been around forever.
However, this deadline was before the CFTC admitted that one "trader" owns nearly 40 per cent of the market. Their words were "fraudulent efforts" to "deviously control". The cat is out of the bag that this "trader" is none other than JP Morgan. Since it has become obvious that this "one trader" has such a massive position, now they say the deadline for people like this to unwind their positions "can't be met." That means, boys and girls, that there is a huge commitment that THEY CANNOT UNWIND BY JANUARY. This is the classic definition of a short squeeze.
To make matters more complicated, the MUCH MUCH larger OTC market in London has no position limits at all. It is fairly common knowledge in the markets that massive purchases of silver have been made by cash flush Asian banks who have scared the living pooh out of the markets by demanding physical delivery of the silver they bought. This is the major reason silver has gone from 15 to 30 dollars an ounce in the past two months.
Given the fact that there has been a long tradition of fraud, lies, double-dealing (literally having metals "in trust" for people, but having the same kilo of gold or silver pledged to 2,3 or 10 people!!!... admitted in a lawsuit against Morgan Stanley) and all kinds of shenanigans, AND the fact that the world banking system HATES gold and silver because it threatens their financial monopoly........ I would not be surprised AT ALL to find that JP Morgan is actually just a bagman for the interests behind the Central Banks, used to illegally suppress any precious metals claims to be "money."
Buy silver. Get it in your hand, not in SLV or some fund you may or may not be able to trust.
PS. if you want a great online debate about whether this state is as bad as I claim, there is a good online discussion between "Kid Dynamite" and Jason Hommel on seeking alpha here Seeking Alpha NOTE: there is a lot of extraneous noise in here. One commentator is an obvious ass and makes reading the whole thing unpleasant, but if you just skip to the interchange between the original poster and Jason, you will get a great display of the differences between a person who has basic trust in the integrity of the markets and a person who does not.
gulfnews : Reality of the great silver squeeze
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Investors to Silver: 'Let’s Get Physical' by Frank Holmes
SQUEEZE SQUEEZE SQUEEZE!!!!
from the article:
Some skeptics may argue that there is no backwardation apparent from COMEX settlement prices. Aside from the fact that COMEX recently changed the method to determine settlement prices from a market-driven basis to instead allow a manual override, which now makes backwardation on the posted COMEX settlement prices virtually impossible, one has to first recognize that COMEX is first and foremost a market for paper-gold and paper-silver.
Interesting notation I did not know. If the stats show you are creating big problems.... just change the way you report the stats.... problem solved! ha ha. It eventually comes back to bite you.
Any way you look at it, the backwardation in gold and silver is a truly rare event and an exceptionally bullish one too. So be prepared for an upside explosion in the price of both precious metals as the scramble for physical metal intensifies even further, and investors increasingly choose to hold the metals themselves, instead of paper promises.
.... and maybe bankrupt JP Morgan in the process????? One can hope.
Investors to Silver: 'Let’s Get Physical' by Frank Holmes
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Count Our Holiday Blessings: At Least We’re Not Starving by C.J. Maloney
Why am I infuriated with Richard Burr and S.510. ( I SWEAR TO YOU I WILL VOTE DEMOCRATIC FOR HIS SEAT IF HE RUNS AGAIN!!!)
This is why.....
America's ability to feed itself has been mercifully free from meddlesome bureaucrats and government tinkerers.... for the most part. Therein lies the rich historical bounty of our food production.
Of course, all good things eventually end.
Count Our Holiday Blessings: At Least We’re Not Starving by C.J. Maloney
This is why.....
In America the agricultural sector has, despite constant political inroads, been for the most part free of the degree of government control found in countries prone to famine. That is our saving grace and our safety. But should this ever change and we find ourselves in the sad state of a North Korea you can still be thankful to God for His mercy upon us, His favored children, and count your holiday blessings.
America's ability to feed itself has been mercifully free from meddlesome bureaucrats and government tinkerers.... for the most part. Therein lies the rich historical bounty of our food production.
Of course, all good things eventually end.
Count Our Holiday Blessings: At Least We’re Not Starving by C.J. Maloney
The Penniless Billionaires - Coinflation.com
From the book:
In the autumn of 1923, Lott Hendlich, a German widow in her fifties, returned to her native Frankfurt after an absence of more than four years in Switzerland. In 1919 she had gone to spend a few pleasant weeks in a Swiss village where her relatives lived. But almost immediately, Frau Hendlich broke her hip in a fall. During her long convalescence her chronic cough became worse, and the doctor attending her advised her that she was suffering from advanced tuberculosis. The months and years of her illness dragged on interminably even though her relatives were genuinely solicitous (they insisted on defraying all her expenses, including the fees of her doctor). At last, in September 1923, she was "cured" and considered well enough to return home. Her much longed-for homecoming soon became a nightmare.
In the stack of accumulated mail she found three letters from her bank; they delineated her ruin. The first–written in mid-1920 by a minor bank officer who had befriended her–advised her "to invest most of the funds in your rather substantial bank account" (amounting to over 600,000 marks, or the equivalent of more than $70,000 at the exchange rate prevailing in 1919). "It is my judgment," the writer continued, "that the purchasing power of the mark will decline, and I suggest you try to guard against this through some suitable investment which we can discuss when you come into the bank."
The next letter, dated in September 1922, and signed by another officer said, "It is no longer profitable for us to service such a small account as yours. Will you kindly withdraw your funds at the earliest opportunity?"
The third letter, dated several weeks before her return from Switzerland, announced, "Not having heard from you since our last communication, we have closed out your account. Since we no longer have on hand any small-denomination bank notes, we herein enclose a note for one million marks."
With gathering panic Frau Hendlich looked at the envelope that had contained the letter and the million-mark note. She noticed that affixed to it there was a canceled postage stamp of one million marks. Her bank account–which four years before seemed large enough to provide her with a serene existence to the end of her days–had been utterly consumed by inflation and could no longer pay for an ordinary postage stamp.
Friday, December 03, 2010
Want JP Morgan to crash? Buy silver
Are you an anarchist at heart? Do you secretly or openly loathe big corrupt corporations? Do you feel helpless when you witness the power and crookedness and sluice of money that goes between these mammoth organizations and government........ and screws over the little guy?
Tell the truth, would you not REALLY deep down inside... just once... like to STICK IT TO THE MAN?
Well here is your chance. And I mean it. This could have bone rattling implications on the corrupt banking cartel that is RUINING the economy of the entire world (starting with America and the EU). It is a simple strategy. Buy a little bit of silver (or a lot, if you have the money), and take delivery of it. Put it in your hand.
Read the article below to see why this will crash one of the most corrupt, manipulative, deceptive financial institutions on the planet, and in the process pull down the gossamer web of lying derivatives hawkers. It is going to happen anyway. All financial systems are built on TRUST, and when people no longer trust them, they implode. They have definitely betrayed that trust, and you can be ahead of the rush to the exits.
Our system has become hopelessly corrupted and is unreformable, with derivatives "notional" value of over 10 times the value of the underlying markets in tangible goods and services. What that means is that "derivatives" like future, options, insurance, and swaps on a widget industry that produces 10 million dollars worth of widgets a year.... that industry has in the financial world over 100 million dollars worth of derivatives floating around. The derivatives themselves have swamped the underlying industries and have become completely unrelated to them....... except for the risk they pose.
Nowhere is this more crystal clear than in the element argentum, or silver. The casinos of Wall Street (aka "investment banks") have openly and blatantly manipulated the price of silver (and gold, but silver is a much smaller market) for years. They have "sold forward" derivative contracts of silver in huge, massive amounts, garnering small paper profits, but creating massive risks to themselves and the stability of the exchanges, and the entire worldwide financial system.
The problem is that the silver they sold does not exist. It is only on paper, as a promise. They have, over the years, built up a gogonzilla, a megaphon, a gastroodley amount of these fictitious silver bars they have sold but cannot deliver if the market actually demands them. I use made up words because the amounts are eye-popping. Just four of the IBs on Wall Street are pledged to deliver THE ENTIRE WORLD PRODUCTION OF SILVER FOR A YEAR. The problem is that of course they do not have this silver at all. What is worse is that one of these outfits (HSBC) is the "caretaker" or "trustee" of all the silver for the (very popular) ETF fund SLV, which is a stock that trades on the NY Stock Exchange. You see, the "underlying" silver you are supposed to be buying when you trade SLV is held in trust by an outfit who is has already sold FAR in excess the amount of silver they hold "in trust."
At its core, this is similar to a Ponzi scheme. You are selling promises that you cannot back up. A ponzi works until the promises get called in. The truly great thing about this is that silver is small enough (only 600 million oz produced yearly, worldwide, and almost all of this is used up by industry) and the big corporate thieves are in this deep enough, that making them eat what they have been shoveling the public is relatively easy. You just have to buy physical silver and take possession of it.
This is a pretty smart thing to do anyway, what with the looming collapse of the US dollar. Silver has gone up almost 300 per cent since the crash of Lehman two short years ago. It is not showing any "topping out" signs at all. It is a good investment for you to have as a part of your investments. If you are a "gloom and doom" person who is looking for severe societal problems in the next few years, then having some silver is especially wise, and could mean the difference between survival and starvation.
But even if things do not "unwind," it is good, and right, and moral to destroy what is like a ponzi, or a counterfeiting scheme. When you blatantly sell worthless paper that has nothing to back it up, you are like a counterfeiter, printing up dollar bills in your basement. It is wicked. It is stealing, and it should be stopped. The way to stop it is to "squeeze the shorts" or bring them the paper, and demand they deliver. In the famous words of the mega tycoon Daniel Drew "He who sells what isn't 'his'n', must buy it back, or go to prison." This refers to the sleazy person who has manipulated prices downward by "selling short" far in excess of what he can hope to actually deliver. When someone (Commodore Vanderbilt in the old days, the American Public today) buys up all these promises and says "bring em here, I want them," then the fun begins.
The "little guy" in America can do this, simply because the big banks are impossibly over-leveraged short, the silver market is so small, silver has a VERY VERY good chance of returning to a "monetary metal" (mail me about that if you need an explanation), and the paper currencies of the world are in a wild inflationary race right now. If just the citizenry of America (not counting China, or EU or others) bought ONE OUNCE (28 dollars and 50 cents as we speak) of silver and took it home (thus, off the market), the market would utterly panic. Three ounces, and industry could not get the silver they need to produce circuitry, solar panels, water filters, photo equipment, etc etc and would demand the banks cough up on the worthless promises they have made.
Just think. You could wreck the entire corrupt, vermin ridden, filthy financial establishment (and maybe the government too, if things got rolling just right) without a single bomb being detonated, a single death ......, well maybe some of the thieves in high positions in banks might jump, but whatever......, no FBI showing up at your door. You would not have to attend any rallies and wear shirts with those stupid marxist retread slogans or even wave one "don't tread on me" flag.
That is MY kind of anarchy, baby!
Want JP Morgan to crash? Buy silver | Max Keiser | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Tell the truth, would you not REALLY deep down inside... just once... like to STICK IT TO THE MAN?
Well here is your chance. And I mean it. This could have bone rattling implications on the corrupt banking cartel that is RUINING the economy of the entire world (starting with America and the EU). It is a simple strategy. Buy a little bit of silver (or a lot, if you have the money), and take delivery of it. Put it in your hand.
Read the article below to see why this will crash one of the most corrupt, manipulative, deceptive financial institutions on the planet, and in the process pull down the gossamer web of lying derivatives hawkers. It is going to happen anyway. All financial systems are built on TRUST, and when people no longer trust them, they implode. They have definitely betrayed that trust, and you can be ahead of the rush to the exits.
Our system has become hopelessly corrupted and is unreformable, with derivatives "notional" value of over 10 times the value of the underlying markets in tangible goods and services. What that means is that "derivatives" like future, options, insurance, and swaps on a widget industry that produces 10 million dollars worth of widgets a year.... that industry has in the financial world over 100 million dollars worth of derivatives floating around. The derivatives themselves have swamped the underlying industries and have become completely unrelated to them....... except for the risk they pose.
Nowhere is this more crystal clear than in the element argentum, or silver. The casinos of Wall Street (aka "investment banks") have openly and blatantly manipulated the price of silver (and gold, but silver is a much smaller market) for years. They have "sold forward" derivative contracts of silver in huge, massive amounts, garnering small paper profits, but creating massive risks to themselves and the stability of the exchanges, and the entire worldwide financial system.
The problem is that the silver they sold does not exist. It is only on paper, as a promise. They have, over the years, built up a gogonzilla, a megaphon, a gastroodley amount of these fictitious silver bars they have sold but cannot deliver if the market actually demands them. I use made up words because the amounts are eye-popping. Just four of the IBs on Wall Street are pledged to deliver THE ENTIRE WORLD PRODUCTION OF SILVER FOR A YEAR. The problem is that of course they do not have this silver at all. What is worse is that one of these outfits (HSBC) is the "caretaker" or "trustee" of all the silver for the (very popular) ETF fund SLV, which is a stock that trades on the NY Stock Exchange. You see, the "underlying" silver you are supposed to be buying when you trade SLV is held in trust by an outfit who is has already sold FAR in excess the amount of silver they hold "in trust."
At its core, this is similar to a Ponzi scheme. You are selling promises that you cannot back up. A ponzi works until the promises get called in. The truly great thing about this is that silver is small enough (only 600 million oz produced yearly, worldwide, and almost all of this is used up by industry) and the big corporate thieves are in this deep enough, that making them eat what they have been shoveling the public is relatively easy. You just have to buy physical silver and take possession of it.
This is a pretty smart thing to do anyway, what with the looming collapse of the US dollar. Silver has gone up almost 300 per cent since the crash of Lehman two short years ago. It is not showing any "topping out" signs at all. It is a good investment for you to have as a part of your investments. If you are a "gloom and doom" person who is looking for severe societal problems in the next few years, then having some silver is especially wise, and could mean the difference between survival and starvation.
But even if things do not "unwind," it is good, and right, and moral to destroy what is like a ponzi, or a counterfeiting scheme. When you blatantly sell worthless paper that has nothing to back it up, you are like a counterfeiter, printing up dollar bills in your basement. It is wicked. It is stealing, and it should be stopped. The way to stop it is to "squeeze the shorts" or bring them the paper, and demand they deliver. In the famous words of the mega tycoon Daniel Drew "He who sells what isn't 'his'n', must buy it back, or go to prison." This refers to the sleazy person who has manipulated prices downward by "selling short" far in excess of what he can hope to actually deliver. When someone (Commodore Vanderbilt in the old days, the American Public today) buys up all these promises and says "bring em here, I want them," then the fun begins.
The "little guy" in America can do this, simply because the big banks are impossibly over-leveraged short, the silver market is so small, silver has a VERY VERY good chance of returning to a "monetary metal" (mail me about that if you need an explanation), and the paper currencies of the world are in a wild inflationary race right now. If just the citizenry of America (not counting China, or EU or others) bought ONE OUNCE (28 dollars and 50 cents as we speak) of silver and took it home (thus, off the market), the market would utterly panic. Three ounces, and industry could not get the silver they need to produce circuitry, solar panels, water filters, photo equipment, etc etc and would demand the banks cough up on the worthless promises they have made.
Just think. You could wreck the entire corrupt, vermin ridden, filthy financial establishment (and maybe the government too, if things got rolling just right) without a single bomb being detonated, a single death ......, well maybe some of the thieves in high positions in banks might jump, but whatever......, no FBI showing up at your door. You would not have to attend any rallies and wear shirts with those stupid marxist retread slogans or even wave one "don't tread on me" flag.
That is MY kind of anarchy, baby!
Want JP Morgan to crash? Buy silver | Max Keiser | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
WikiLeaks website disconnected as US company withdraws support - Telegraph
THIS is extremely serious.
It is no secret that a cabal of governments have run a coordinated series of DOS attacks against WL. No matter what you think of them, the sexual antics of its founder, or the leaks themselves, this is an ILLEGAL activity against a purveyor of information. Rather than go through the legal gyrations of actually parceling evidence and prosecuting him for illegalities, they pull this heavy handed KGB/Gestapo/Stasi kind of trick.
Mark my words. This is a bad bad bad precedent. Don't like what some guy critical of your government says? Don't bother with the law, just burn the newspaper building down. Get some goons from the other embassies in your country to help.
WikiLeaks website disconnected as US company withdraws support - Telegraph
It is no secret that a cabal of governments have run a coordinated series of DOS attacks against WL. No matter what you think of them, the sexual antics of its founder, or the leaks themselves, this is an ILLEGAL activity against a purveyor of information. Rather than go through the legal gyrations of actually parceling evidence and prosecuting him for illegalities, they pull this heavy handed KGB/Gestapo/Stasi kind of trick.
Mark my words. This is a bad bad bad precedent. Don't like what some guy critical of your government says? Don't bother with the law, just burn the newspaper building down. Get some goons from the other embassies in your country to help.
WikiLeaks website disconnected as US company withdraws support - Telegraph
Thursday, December 02, 2010
YouTube - THE MADNESS OF A LOST SOCIETY
One of the best, most incisive and sobering vids I have seen in a while.
YouTube - THE MADNESS OF A LOST SOCIETY
YouTube - THE MADNESS OF A LOST SOCIETY
Stand by for more worse news
At the end of December, another two million workers will join the ranks of those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits and a total of 4 million Americans will be without unemployment checks and face destitution.
The U.S. Economy: Stand by for more worse news | Opinion Maker
The U.S. Economy: Stand by for more worse news | Opinion Maker
At some point creditors will have to take their punishment.
I remember arguing with a Duke Faculty person outside a polling station during the 2008 election that the bailouts were counterproductive, would not "save" anything and would only put off the unpleasantness.... and exacerbate it. It is like a person refusing to excise a boil until the leg must be amputated.
From the article
Mounting calls for 'nuclear response' to save monetary union - Telegraph
From the article
Dr Buiter said the rescue packages for Greece and Ireland put off the day of reckoning. At some point creditors will have to take their punishment. While Europe is now the epicentre of the debt crisis, concerns may ultimately spread to Japan and the US. "There is no such thing as an absolutely safe sovereign," he said.
Mounting calls for 'nuclear response' to save monetary union - Telegraph
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Disappearing Bank Accounts
I used to keep in a safe place between 2 and 10 thousand dollars "in cash"
Since focusing on gold, silver, guns, ammo and food, that has disappeared. Maybe I should re-think.
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Disappearing Bank Accounts
Since focusing on gold, silver, guns, ammo and food, that has disappeared. Maybe I should re-think.
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Disappearing Bank Accounts
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Long Arm of the Law | 5280 | Denver's Magazine Since 1993
You thought it would stop with Airport inspections?
Idiot.
Long Arm of the Law | 5280 | Denver's Magazine Since 1993
Idiot.
Long Arm of the Law | 5280 | Denver's Magazine Since 1993
Monday, November 29, 2010
So WHY in the world would you "stockpile" stuff?
50 Ugliest Facts About the U.S. Economy
As we close on another week replete with ugly economic data and the usual bizarro counterintuitive market, here is a summary of the 50 most underreported facts about the state of the US economy, courtesy of the Coto report. After reading these it almost makes sense that the market has become completely desensitized to the sad reality now pervasive in this country. Readers are encouraged to add their own observations to this list. Surely if the list is doubled, the market will go up to 72,000 instead of just 36,000.
#50) In 2010 the U.S. government is projected to issue almost as much new debt as the rest of the governments of the world combined.
#49) It is being projected that the U.S. government will have a budget deficit of approximately 1.6 trillion dollars in 2010.
#48) If you went out and spent one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.
#47) In fact, if you spent one million dollars every single day since the birth of Christ, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.
#46) Total U.S. government debt is now up to 90 percent of gross domestic product.
#45) Total credit market debt in the United States, including government, corporate and personal debt, has reached 360 percent of GDP.
#44) U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% (to $138 billion) for the year ending September 30th, 2009.
#43) There are now 8 counties in the state of California that have unemployment rates of over 20 percent.
#42) In the area around Sacramento, California there is one closed business for every six that are still open.
#41) In February, there were 5.5 unemployed Americans for every job opening.
#40) According to a Pew Research Center study, approximately 37% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have either been unemployed or underemployed at some point during the recession.
#39) More than 40% of those employed in the United States are now working in low-wage service jobs.
#38) According to one new survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
#37) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008. Not only that, more Americans filed for bankruptcy in March 2010 than during any month since U.S. bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005.
#36) Mortgage purchase applications in the United States are down nearly 40 percent from a month ago to their lowest level since April of 1997.
#35) RealtyTrac has announced that foreclosure filings in the U.S. established an all time record for the second consecutive year in 2009.
#34) According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March 2010, an increase of nearly 19 percent from February, an increase of nearly 8 percent from March 2009 and the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.
#33) In Pinellas and Pasco counties, which include St. Petersburg, Florida and the suburbs to the north, there are 34,000 open foreclosure cases. Ten years ago, there were only about 4,000.
#32) In California’s Central Valley, 1 out of every 16 homes is in some phase of foreclosure.
#31) The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that more than 10 percent of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment during the January to March time period. That was a record high and up from 9.1 percent a year ago.
#30) U.S. banks repossessed nearly 258,000 homes nationwide in the first quarter of 2010, a 35 percent jump from the first quarter of 2009.
#29) For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
#28) More than 24% of all homes with mortgages in the United States were underwater as of the end of 2009.
#27) U.S. commercial property values are down approximately 40 percent since 2007 and currently 18 percent of all office space in the United States is sitting vacant.
#26) Defaults on apartment building mortgages held by U.S. banks climbed to a record 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010. That was almost twice the level of a year earlier.
#25) In 2009, U.S. banks posted their sharpest decline in private lending since 1942.
#24) New York state has delayed paying bills totalling $2.5 billion as a short-term way of staying solvent but officials are warning that its cash crunch could soon get even worse.
#23) To make up for a projected 2010 budget shortfall of $280 million, Detroit issued $250 million of 20-year municipal notes in March. The bond issuance followed on the heels of a warning from Detroit officials that if its financial state didn’t improve, it could be forced to declare bankruptcy.
#22) The National League of Cities says that municipal governments will probably come up between $56 billion and $83 billion short between now and 2012.
#21) Half a dozen cash-poor U.S. states have announced that they are delaying their tax refund checks.
#20) Two university professors recently calculated that the combined unfunded pension liability for all 50 U.S. states is 3.2 trillion dollars.
#19) According to EconomicPolicyJournal.com, 32 U.S. states have already run out of funds to make unemployment benefit payments and so the federal government has been supplying these states with funds so that they can make their payments to the unemployed.
#18) This most recession has erased 8 million private sector jobs in the United States.
#17) Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of 2010.
#16) U.S. government-provided benefits (including Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs) rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.
#15) 39.68 million Americans are now on food stamps, which represents a new all-time record. But things look like they are going to get even worse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting that enrollment in the food stamp program will exceed 43 million Americans in 2011.
#14) Phoenix, Arizona features an astounding annual car theft rate of 57,000 vehicles and has become the new “Car Theft Capital of the World”.
#13) U.S. law enforcement authorities claim that there are now over 1 million members of criminal gangs inside the country. These 1 million gang members are responsible for up to 80% of the crimes committed in the United States each year.
#12) The U.S. health care system was already facing a shortage of approximately 150,000 doctors in the next decade or so, but thanks to the health care “reform” bill passed by Congress, that number could swell by several hundred thousand more.
#11) According to an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation the health care “reform” bill will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes on the American people by 2019.
#10) The Dow Jones Industrial Average just experienced the worst May it has seen since 1940.
#9) In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
#8) Approximately 40% of all retail spending currently comes from the 20% of American households that have the highest incomes.
#7) According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, two-thirds of income increases in the U.S. between 2002 and 2007 went to the wealthiest 1% of all Americans.
#6) The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
#5) If you only make the minimum payment each and every time, a $6,000 credit card bill can end up costing you over $30,000 (depending on the interest rate).
#4) According to a new report based on U.S. Census Bureau data, only 26 percent of American teens between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs in late 2009 which represents a record low since statistics began to be kept back in 1948.
#3) According to a National Foundation for Credit Counseling survey, only 58% of those in “Generation Y” pay their monthly bills on time.
#2) During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.
#1) According to the Tax Foundation’s Microsimulation Model, to erase the 2010 U.S. budget deficit, the U.S. Congress would have to multiply each tax rate by 2.4. Thus, the 10 percent rate would be 24 percent, the 15 percent rate would be 36 percent, and the 35 percent rate would have to be 85 percent.
So why in the world would you NOT lay up some bags of rice, wheat, flour, etc?
As we close on another week replete with ugly economic data and the usual bizarro counterintuitive market, here is a summary of the 50 most underreported facts about the state of the US economy, courtesy of the Coto report. After reading these it almost makes sense that the market has become completely desensitized to the sad reality now pervasive in this country. Readers are encouraged to add their own observations to this list. Surely if the list is doubled, the market will go up to 72,000 instead of just 36,000.
#50) In 2010 the U.S. government is projected to issue almost as much new debt as the rest of the governments of the world combined.
#49) It is being projected that the U.S. government will have a budget deficit of approximately 1.6 trillion dollars in 2010.
#48) If you went out and spent one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.
#47) In fact, if you spent one million dollars every single day since the birth of Christ, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.
#46) Total U.S. government debt is now up to 90 percent of gross domestic product.
#45) Total credit market debt in the United States, including government, corporate and personal debt, has reached 360 percent of GDP.
#44) U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% (to $138 billion) for the year ending September 30th, 2009.
#43) There are now 8 counties in the state of California that have unemployment rates of over 20 percent.
#42) In the area around Sacramento, California there is one closed business for every six that are still open.
#41) In February, there were 5.5 unemployed Americans for every job opening.
#40) According to a Pew Research Center study, approximately 37% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have either been unemployed or underemployed at some point during the recession.
#39) More than 40% of those employed in the United States are now working in low-wage service jobs.
#38) According to one new survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
#37) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008. Not only that, more Americans filed for bankruptcy in March 2010 than during any month since U.S. bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005.
#36) Mortgage purchase applications in the United States are down nearly 40 percent from a month ago to their lowest level since April of 1997.
#35) RealtyTrac has announced that foreclosure filings in the U.S. established an all time record for the second consecutive year in 2009.
#34) According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March 2010, an increase of nearly 19 percent from February, an increase of nearly 8 percent from March 2009 and the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.
#33) In Pinellas and Pasco counties, which include St. Petersburg, Florida and the suburbs to the north, there are 34,000 open foreclosure cases. Ten years ago, there were only about 4,000.
#32) In California’s Central Valley, 1 out of every 16 homes is in some phase of foreclosure.
#31) The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that more than 10 percent of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment during the January to March time period. That was a record high and up from 9.1 percent a year ago.
#30) U.S. banks repossessed nearly 258,000 homes nationwide in the first quarter of 2010, a 35 percent jump from the first quarter of 2009.
#29) For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
#28) More than 24% of all homes with mortgages in the United States were underwater as of the end of 2009.
#27) U.S. commercial property values are down approximately 40 percent since 2007 and currently 18 percent of all office space in the United States is sitting vacant.
#26) Defaults on apartment building mortgages held by U.S. banks climbed to a record 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010. That was almost twice the level of a year earlier.
#25) In 2009, U.S. banks posted their sharpest decline in private lending since 1942.
#24) New York state has delayed paying bills totalling $2.5 billion as a short-term way of staying solvent but officials are warning that its cash crunch could soon get even worse.
#23) To make up for a projected 2010 budget shortfall of $280 million, Detroit issued $250 million of 20-year municipal notes in March. The bond issuance followed on the heels of a warning from Detroit officials that if its financial state didn’t improve, it could be forced to declare bankruptcy.
#22) The National League of Cities says that municipal governments will probably come up between $56 billion and $83 billion short between now and 2012.
#21) Half a dozen cash-poor U.S. states have announced that they are delaying their tax refund checks.
#20) Two university professors recently calculated that the combined unfunded pension liability for all 50 U.S. states is 3.2 trillion dollars.
#19) According to EconomicPolicyJournal.com, 32 U.S. states have already run out of funds to make unemployment benefit payments and so the federal government has been supplying these states with funds so that they can make their payments to the unemployed.
#18) This most recession has erased 8 million private sector jobs in the United States.
#17) Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of 2010.
#16) U.S. government-provided benefits (including Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs) rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.
#15) 39.68 million Americans are now on food stamps, which represents a new all-time record. But things look like they are going to get even worse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting that enrollment in the food stamp program will exceed 43 million Americans in 2011.
#14) Phoenix, Arizona features an astounding annual car theft rate of 57,000 vehicles and has become the new “Car Theft Capital of the World”.
#13) U.S. law enforcement authorities claim that there are now over 1 million members of criminal gangs inside the country. These 1 million gang members are responsible for up to 80% of the crimes committed in the United States each year.
#12) The U.S. health care system was already facing a shortage of approximately 150,000 doctors in the next decade or so, but thanks to the health care “reform” bill passed by Congress, that number could swell by several hundred thousand more.
#11) According to an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation the health care “reform” bill will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes on the American people by 2019.
#10) The Dow Jones Industrial Average just experienced the worst May it has seen since 1940.
#9) In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
#8) Approximately 40% of all retail spending currently comes from the 20% of American households that have the highest incomes.
#7) According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, two-thirds of income increases in the U.S. between 2002 and 2007 went to the wealthiest 1% of all Americans.
#6) The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
#5) If you only make the minimum payment each and every time, a $6,000 credit card bill can end up costing you over $30,000 (depending on the interest rate).
#4) According to a new report based on U.S. Census Bureau data, only 26 percent of American teens between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs in late 2009 which represents a record low since statistics began to be kept back in 1948.
#3) According to a National Foundation for Credit Counseling survey, only 58% of those in “Generation Y” pay their monthly bills on time.
#2) During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.
#1) According to the Tax Foundation’s Microsimulation Model, to erase the 2010 U.S. budget deficit, the U.S. Congress would have to multiply each tax rate by 2.4. Thus, the 10 percent rate would be 24 percent, the 15 percent rate would be 36 percent, and the 35 percent rate would have to be 85 percent.
So why in the world would you NOT lay up some bags of rice, wheat, flour, etc?
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Food for thought.......
I sat down and thought the other day about all the people who have said, in one form or another "When the fecal matter hits the fan, I am coming to stay with you."
This is jocular, well meaning, and maybe a way to comment on me swerving into being a "prepper" without revealing the true underlying thought that they think I am nuts, and likely to be in the headlines for some wild shooting spree, with these crazy anti-government rants and all those guns! Kind of the nervous, frozen smile and "heh heh" you get in polite company where no one has the stomach to say "you are freaking insane!"
However, in talking to some folks, they will admit that our problems are insurmountable and they cannot see a way out of our mind numbing debt. In that context they chuckle and refer to me putting aside precious metals, guns, ammo, and food as "maybe a good thing... the gold and silver has certainly been good to you, huh?" It is at that point in the conversation when they usually say "well, I am coming to YOUR house when all that stuff goes down."
I laugh and say "come on." But the problem is, I won't be here if things get so bad that they are looking for a safe place in the midst of an economic or societal implosion. I will, of course, try to stay local if things are moderately bad, but if things are screamingly dangerously "gotta find food" so that I am actually eating my store of rations, there is NO WAY I am hanging around a place where half the people are already dependent on government checks, helpless and prone to violent crime (Durham NC has some of the highest crime rates in the state). I have a place and more importantly, a group of people I have already pre-arranged to "get with."
The other thing is that if I WERE to stay here, I have heard this same line from over 17 families. That means they are just like the Durham welfare drones who have faith in that government dole. Their trust is that it just won't get that bad, and they will be continuously gainfully employed with moneys to provide. What they really think is "things will never get that bad." I really hope they are right......, but what if they DO get that bad? These are people I love. I would probably have to say "here is enough to keep you going a little bit, but you cannot stay here."
You should pray (if you pray) that I am crazy. Nothing would please me more than to give stored food away in bulk to keep it from going bad, and replenish it in about 10 years....., assuming I am still here on earth at that time. If things are really bad, do NOT imagine that you can just glom on to some person you know who is crazy enough to have some weapons and food stored away somewhere. Lots of folks are going to have the same ideas. If that person is REALLY well prepared and things are REALLY bad, you are going to show up at a house with an open door saying "Gone. Take what you can use."
This is jocular, well meaning, and maybe a way to comment on me swerving into being a "prepper" without revealing the true underlying thought that they think I am nuts, and likely to be in the headlines for some wild shooting spree, with these crazy anti-government rants and all those guns! Kind of the nervous, frozen smile and "heh heh" you get in polite company where no one has the stomach to say "you are freaking insane!"
However, in talking to some folks, they will admit that our problems are insurmountable and they cannot see a way out of our mind numbing debt. In that context they chuckle and refer to me putting aside precious metals, guns, ammo, and food as "maybe a good thing... the gold and silver has certainly been good to you, huh?" It is at that point in the conversation when they usually say "well, I am coming to YOUR house when all that stuff goes down."
I laugh and say "come on." But the problem is, I won't be here if things get so bad that they are looking for a safe place in the midst of an economic or societal implosion. I will, of course, try to stay local if things are moderately bad, but if things are screamingly dangerously "gotta find food" so that I am actually eating my store of rations, there is NO WAY I am hanging around a place where half the people are already dependent on government checks, helpless and prone to violent crime (Durham NC has some of the highest crime rates in the state). I have a place and more importantly, a group of people I have already pre-arranged to "get with."
The other thing is that if I WERE to stay here, I have heard this same line from over 17 families. That means they are just like the Durham welfare drones who have faith in that government dole. Their trust is that it just won't get that bad, and they will be continuously gainfully employed with moneys to provide. What they really think is "things will never get that bad." I really hope they are right......, but what if they DO get that bad? These are people I love. I would probably have to say "here is enough to keep you going a little bit, but you cannot stay here."
You should pray (if you pray) that I am crazy. Nothing would please me more than to give stored food away in bulk to keep it from going bad, and replenish it in about 10 years....., assuming I am still here on earth at that time. If things are really bad, do NOT imagine that you can just glom on to some person you know who is crazy enough to have some weapons and food stored away somewhere. Lots of folks are going to have the same ideas. If that person is REALLY well prepared and things are REALLY bad, you are going to show up at a house with an open door saying "Gone. Take what you can use."
EU rescue costs start to threaten Germany itself - Telegraph
"You cannot find a bank safe deposit box in Germany because every single one has already been taken and stuffed with gold and silver. It is like an underground Switzerland within our borders. People have terrible memories of 1948 and 1923 when they lost their savings."
EU rescue costs start to threaten Germany itself - Telegraph
EU rescue costs start to threaten Germany itself - Telegraph
Sunday, November 21, 2010
BOB RUBIN: "US In Terribly Dangerous Territory," Bond Market May Be Headed For "Implosion"
I may buy some WAY WAY out of the money July bond puts.
BOB RUBIN: "US In Terribly Dangerous Territory," Bond Market May Be Headed For "Implosion"
BOB RUBIN: "US In Terribly Dangerous Territory," Bond Market May Be Headed For "Implosion"
In jail for being in debt | StarTribune.com
We outlawed debtor's prisons, for better or worse, back in the 19th century.
This article, upsetting as it may be, is even more upsetting because of the underlying trend away from individual rights to corporatism.
Of course, one could argue that these persons are just scofflaws and "should" be prosecuted. This is true, but not the issue. The question is whether debt is a sufficient cause for incarceration.
I am actually of the opinion that involuntary servitude to pay back debt is morally superior to debtors prisons, wage garnishment, or bankruptcy, but in a country with a history of race based slavery, this will never happen.
The fact is, though, that "caveat emptor" belongs to the financial houses no less than the end consumer. If you are so phenomenally stupid as to issue credit cards to college kids with no incomes, make mortgage loans to unemployed persons, and extend lines of credit to people who are a tick away from destitution, then don't go whining to the state for police protection from your own stupidity.
In jail for being in debt | StarTribune.com
This article, upsetting as it may be, is even more upsetting because of the underlying trend away from individual rights to corporatism.
Of course, one could argue that these persons are just scofflaws and "should" be prosecuted. This is true, but not the issue. The question is whether debt is a sufficient cause for incarceration.
I am actually of the opinion that involuntary servitude to pay back debt is morally superior to debtors prisons, wage garnishment, or bankruptcy, but in a country with a history of race based slavery, this will never happen.
The fact is, though, that "caveat emptor" belongs to the financial houses no less than the end consumer. If you are so phenomenally stupid as to issue credit cards to college kids with no incomes, make mortgage loans to unemployed persons, and extend lines of credit to people who are a tick away from destitution, then don't go whining to the state for police protection from your own stupidity.
In jail for being in debt | StarTribune.com
How Gold Performs During Periods of Deflation, Disinflation, Runaway Stagflation and Hyperinflation -- Seeking Alpha
Amid the global crisis in confidence, investors seem to be rediscovering the fact that gold has been used as money for thousands of years. In periods where black swans are no singular occurrences but are practically coming in flocks, the status of gold as a safe haven has yet again proven its worth. - Ronald-Peter Stoferle, The Erste Group
How Gold Performs During Periods of Deflation, Disinflation, Runaway Stagflation and Hyperinflation -- Seeking Alpha
Revolution, God, and Tin Foil hats
Is it just tinfoil lunatic obsession for morally grounded people to rant, complain, whine and trumpet the creeping totalitarianism? Maybe. Then again, there may well come a time when we have to simply DEFY the state. Much of the reaction of the state at present leads me to fear that very set of events in our future, or abject tyranny. I hope I am very very wrong.
At its heart, the "TEA PARTY" is NOT a group of Christian activists seeking to impose a theocracy. It has Christian morality at its core (and be thankful for that!), but it is a step down from a Christian movement (and be thankful for THAT, too!!!!). It is, in reality, a threat of revolution from the common man against the accretion of power in DC, and the subjugation of the populace. If that is so, let us hope that the halls of power quake and back off, rather than attempt to hold on to power with force. Get this straight, though..... MEN RARELY (VERY RARELY) GIVE UP POWER VOLUNTARILY. It has to be wrested from them. You are a fool if you look for change to come from DC and hope that sending a bunch of guys with (R) after their names to "Sodom on the Potomac" will change things.
If this is so, it is time for Christians, especially, to LEARN that there is, a "theology of revolution." Calvin, Knox, Rutherford, the Scotch Presbyterians, etc actually formed the ideological boilerplate for the formation of this country, or at least the revolution. One of the reasons this country had one of the few "successful" revolutions in history was precisely that people KNEW why they were biblically justified in standing up to tyranny.
Rebellion without moral constraints is horribly ugly. If you look at bellowing militia waving AR-15s or AK-47s and think they have no commitment to civil structures, you do RIGHT to fear. Anarchical rebellion is never pretty. God put civil structures in place to preserve order and protect the rights of people. When those structures are gone, and the people are unrestrained, blood can flow in tidal waves, and things can get extremely ugly. The lack of such things in the birth of our country, and relatively irenic conclusion to our initial war lay in precisely this.... people knew why they were revolting, and to what purpose.
For what it is worth, the principles laid out by Calvin (actually by Augustine, and, one could claim by Paul), are that rulers are appointed by God and rule for Him and in His name and for his purposes. These purposes are PRIMARILY to provide freedom (for the propagation of the gospel), to punish the wicked (who deprive persons of their freedoms) and to "reward the just."
When a king or ruler begins to rule in OPPOSITION to these principles, he has forfeited his right to rule and should be, in the name of God, resisted as a tyrant rather than a lawful king. This resistance is not to be done lightly, but carefully and slowly. The steps are 1) Protest, appeal to the law, and seeking protection in the various legal/political structures that exist (courts, "lesser magistrates," differing municipalities 2) Flee ... either to another state or area, or to another country altogether 3) Revolution, under the leadership of a "lesser magistrate" who rises against the higher (a state against DC, for example. Revolution does not have to be violent, though it often is.
If you look at our Declaration of Independence, you will see that it is a secularized (without all the God-talk) recap of those very principles. This is why, when King George saw the DOI, he exclaimed "the colonies have run off with a Presbyterian minister!"
When I look at the creeping fascism in the areas like S510 and the recent internet control bill, my tin foil hat becomes a bit constricted. You might dislike the term "fascism" and think because we don't see some mesmerizing screecher with a a goofy moustache and straight bangs, it is not "fascist." Fascism is the union of state worship with corporate control with a military emphasis.
I ain't looking for black helicopters to come zooming in and spirit me off as soon as I post this, but there is no doubt that people who express fierce independence and a willingness to resist are at least viewed as "someone to watch." I want the federal drones to view all the "little people" out there as ASSETS, rather than potential enemies. In the meantime, though, I wanna keep my copy of LEX REX close by, and remind them that they look awfully close to King George these days.
At its heart, the "TEA PARTY" is NOT a group of Christian activists seeking to impose a theocracy. It has Christian morality at its core (and be thankful for that!), but it is a step down from a Christian movement (and be thankful for THAT, too!!!!). It is, in reality, a threat of revolution from the common man against the accretion of power in DC, and the subjugation of the populace. If that is so, let us hope that the halls of power quake and back off, rather than attempt to hold on to power with force. Get this straight, though..... MEN RARELY (VERY RARELY) GIVE UP POWER VOLUNTARILY. It has to be wrested from them. You are a fool if you look for change to come from DC and hope that sending a bunch of guys with (R) after their names to "Sodom on the Potomac" will change things.
If this is so, it is time for Christians, especially, to LEARN that there is, a "theology of revolution." Calvin, Knox, Rutherford, the Scotch Presbyterians, etc actually formed the ideological boilerplate for the formation of this country, or at least the revolution. One of the reasons this country had one of the few "successful" revolutions in history was precisely that people KNEW why they were biblically justified in standing up to tyranny.
Rebellion without moral constraints is horribly ugly. If you look at bellowing militia waving AR-15s or AK-47s and think they have no commitment to civil structures, you do RIGHT to fear. Anarchical rebellion is never pretty. God put civil structures in place to preserve order and protect the rights of people. When those structures are gone, and the people are unrestrained, blood can flow in tidal waves, and things can get extremely ugly. The lack of such things in the birth of our country, and relatively irenic conclusion to our initial war lay in precisely this.... people knew why they were revolting, and to what purpose.
For what it is worth, the principles laid out by Calvin (actually by Augustine, and, one could claim by Paul), are that rulers are appointed by God and rule for Him and in His name and for his purposes. These purposes are PRIMARILY to provide freedom (for the propagation of the gospel), to punish the wicked (who deprive persons of their freedoms) and to "reward the just."
When a king or ruler begins to rule in OPPOSITION to these principles, he has forfeited his right to rule and should be, in the name of God, resisted as a tyrant rather than a lawful king. This resistance is not to be done lightly, but carefully and slowly. The steps are 1) Protest, appeal to the law, and seeking protection in the various legal/political structures that exist (courts, "lesser magistrates," differing municipalities 2) Flee ... either to another state or area, or to another country altogether 3) Revolution, under the leadership of a "lesser magistrate" who rises against the higher (a state against DC, for example. Revolution does not have to be violent, though it often is.
If you look at our Declaration of Independence, you will see that it is a secularized (without all the God-talk) recap of those very principles. This is why, when King George saw the DOI, he exclaimed "the colonies have run off with a Presbyterian minister!"
When I look at the creeping fascism in the areas like S510 and the recent internet control bill, my tin foil hat becomes a bit constricted. You might dislike the term "fascism" and think because we don't see some mesmerizing screecher with a a goofy moustache and straight bangs, it is not "fascist." Fascism is the union of state worship with corporate control with a military emphasis.
I ain't looking for black helicopters to come zooming in and spirit me off as soon as I post this, but there is no doubt that people who express fierce independence and a willingness to resist are at least viewed as "someone to watch." I want the federal drones to view all the "little people" out there as ASSETS, rather than potential enemies. In the meantime, though, I wanna keep my copy of LEX REX close by, and remind them that they look awfully close to King George these days.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
CNBC: 3 big banks cutting deal on foreclosures - Real estate- msnbc.com
Rats and cockroaches scurry when the lights are on.
Note that they are cutting deals ONLY when the states Attorneys Generals are preparing cases against them. All the fraud and abuse has undergone months and months of scrutiny and they have been shameless and recalcitrant.
Now, though, they are cutting deals. These are the people who, if we had not propped them up with TARP money, would have plunged us all into ruin if we let them go under.
Bah.
CNBC: 3 big banks cutting deal on foreclosures - Real estate- msnbc.com
Note that they are cutting deals ONLY when the states Attorneys Generals are preparing cases against them. All the fraud and abuse has undergone months and months of scrutiny and they have been shameless and recalcitrant.
Now, though, they are cutting deals. These are the people who, if we had not propped them up with TARP money, would have plunged us all into ruin if we let them go under.
Bah.
CNBC: 3 big banks cutting deal on foreclosures - Real estate- msnbc.com
Too Stupid to make up.....
As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the following:
When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field. We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our bags searched, the whole nine yards.
Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National Guard. That’s where the stupid started.
First, everyone was forced to get off the plane–even though the plane wasn’t refueling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100 people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to a holding area. No vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.
It’s probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9 pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons weren’t loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo well before we even got to customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.
The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us unload all of the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind, this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by U.S. Customs officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a one-hour run through. After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to reinspect our Cargo–just to inspect us again: Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.
This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.
So we’re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:
TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.
Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.
TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to have them.
Soldier: Why?
TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.
Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I’m allowed to take it on.
TSA Guy: Yeah but you can’t use it to take over the plane. You don’t have bullets.
Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?
TSA Guy: [awkward silence]
Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get the f**k out of here. I’ll buy you a new set.
Soldier: [hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security]
This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns–but nothing that could have been used as a weapon.
Another TSA Outrage | RedState
When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field. We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our bags searched, the whole nine yards.
Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National Guard. That’s where the stupid started.
First, everyone was forced to get off the plane–even though the plane wasn’t refueling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100 people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to a holding area. No vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.
It’s probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9 pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons weren’t loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo well before we even got to customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.
The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us unload all of the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind, this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by U.S. Customs officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a one-hour run through. After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to reinspect our Cargo–just to inspect us again: Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.
This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.
So we’re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:
TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.
Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.
TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to have them.
Soldier: Why?
TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.
Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I’m allowed to take it on.
TSA Guy: Yeah but you can’t use it to take over the plane. You don’t have bullets.
Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?
TSA Guy: [awkward silence]
Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get the f**k out of here. I’ll buy you a new set.
Soldier: [hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security]
This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns–but nothing that could have been used as a weapon.
Another TSA Outrage | RedState
I guess we need 51 stars on the flag?
American foreign policy is fatally flawed on a number of fronts:
1) Having some good intentions makes us the "good guys"
2) We have the moral resources to police or administer the world and will remain uncorrupted by taking up the power to do so
3) We have the financial resources to administer what has become an empire
4) Even if 1-3 above were all true, we have a fatally stupid belief that imposing a government "top down" through use of military force will transform a society
In his better days, before he became a waterboy for Neocon foreign policy, Rush Limbaugh said it best when he stated "the military is there to kill people and break things."
Gov. Perry's plan sounds just dandy to me. What is one more country to rule?
Perry: May need troops in Mexico - Dan Hirschhorn - POLITICO.com
1) Having some good intentions makes us the "good guys"
2) We have the moral resources to police or administer the world and will remain uncorrupted by taking up the power to do so
3) We have the financial resources to administer what has become an empire
4) Even if 1-3 above were all true, we have a fatally stupid belief that imposing a government "top down" through use of military force will transform a society
In his better days, before he became a waterboy for Neocon foreign policy, Rush Limbaugh said it best when he stated "the military is there to kill people and break things."
Gov. Perry's plan sounds just dandy to me. What is one more country to rule?
Perry: May need troops in Mexico - Dan Hirschhorn - POLITICO.com
The first signs of the coming dollar crash are in Hong Kong
Sovereign man has a very nice, insightful and VERY prescient article about the weakness of the world's fiat currencies, the strength of the Chinese remimbi, and the recent issuance of bonds by McDonalds denominated in Remimbi. However, the most significant story here is the relaxation of currency controls between Hong Kong (a protectorate of China, but one which has its own, freely traded currency) and China. The recent ruling that China can make instant cross border settlements with Hong Kong without gov't approval is a virtual nuke-sized hole in the currency restrictions that have held the Chinese currency down. Look for money (dollars especially) to gush into China and the remimbi to gush out.
If you don't have a broker with Hong Kong connections, now might be a time to get one. Moreover, a smart kid who moves to Hong Kong today and positions himself to facilitate the flow of money between the debt laden countries which use dollar/euro/yen and China will probably find himself amazingly wealthy in the years to come.
The first signs of the coming dollar crash are in Hong Kong
If you don't have a broker with Hong Kong connections, now might be a time to get one. Moreover, a smart kid who moves to Hong Kong today and positions himself to facilitate the flow of money between the debt laden countries which use dollar/euro/yen and China will probably find himself amazingly wealthy in the years to come.
The first signs of the coming dollar crash are in Hong Kong
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Jim Rogers: G20 Is a Waste of Time
“It’d be better off if they just met in a bar, had a few beers and went home.”
ha ha
"Chinese have been working dawn to dusk for 20 years, and saving over 35% of their income. Any time you have a country that works hard, saves and invests, it will do better than a country which consumes, borrows, and spends." Well, doh. Plain simple hard economic facts. Work hard, save money, don't live beyond your means. Basic financial truths that ought to be bedrock principles of planning, from the family on up. How is it that folks come to believe that governments are somehow exempt?
Jim Rogers: G20 Is a Waste of Time
ha ha
"Chinese have been working dawn to dusk for 20 years, and saving over 35% of their income. Any time you have a country that works hard, saves and invests, it will do better than a country which consumes, borrows, and spends." Well, doh. Plain simple hard economic facts. Work hard, save money, don't live beyond your means. Basic financial truths that ought to be bedrock principles of planning, from the family on up. How is it that folks come to believe that governments are somehow exempt?
Jim Rogers: G20 Is a Waste of Time
Motivation of My Filming of My TSA Encounter by John Tyner
John Tyner's common sense note:
TSA's response? Of course. They are going to INVESTIGATE this dangerous person. Lesson: Never humiliate vengeful bureaucrats.
Motivation of My Filming of My TSA Encounter by John Tyner
Every attempt to blow up a plane since 9/11 has been stopped by passengers after the government failed to provide protection for them. Every incident, however, has been met by throwing more money and less sensibility at the problem. Aside from securing the cockpit doors and the realization by passengers that they must fend for themselves because they're more likely to be killed by a hijacker than flown safely to their destination where the hijacker's demands can be met, security is largely the same as it was before 9/11.
The only thing changing is the amount of money being spent on the problem and the constant erosion of liberty, and all I did was draw attention to this. If you want to argue that the airlines are private, you're preaching to the choir. I refused the x-ray machine, and then I refused a groping by a government official. I mildly protested, and when they told me that I could submit to the screening or leave the airport, I left peacefully. The only time I got angry during the entire encounter was when I was unlawfully detained and threatened with a lawsuit and a fine.
If you think the government is protecting you, ask yourself this: If the official at the end of the video thought I had an incendiary device, why would he want me to go back into a small area crowded with hundreds of people instead of leaving the airport as quickly as possible?
TSA's response? Of course. They are going to INVESTIGATE this dangerous person. Lesson: Never humiliate vengeful bureaucrats.
Motivation of My Filming of My TSA Encounter by John Tyner
YouTube - Quantitative Easing Explained
FANTASTIC VIDEO. The common people NAIL the federal reserve. When the man in the street understands and puts it together like this, it is all over for the fed.
YouTube - Quantitative Easing Explained
YouTube - Quantitative Easing Explained
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Commentary » Blog Archive » The Entitlement Crisis
Really liked this. Jim DeMint is one of the true good guys. This person's criticism of him though, is a bullseye. YOU MUST BE WILLING TO TAKE ON ENTITLEMENTS IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT THE DEBT. All the caterwauling about "it is not fair to the retiring boomers" (hey, *I* am one of those people) is irrelevant. It *IS* unjust. So freaking what? I live in a world of injustice and this is one more item. Justice is one thing. Survival is another.
I do like his comment about earmarks being the "gateway drug" to wasteful and corrupt spending.
Commentary » Blog Archive » The Entitlement Crisis
I do like his comment about earmarks being the "gateway drug" to wasteful and corrupt spending.
Commentary » Blog Archive » The Entitlement Crisis
Friday, November 12, 2010
Nice
Best Line in the dialogue: "People like you think it is a crisis when you run out of sprouts at the salad bar at Whole Foods"
Weasel Zippers » Blog Archive » Obama: “I’m So Glad To Meet an Indian Communist, I’m Told You’re Part of The Political Mainstream Here”…
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Junkscience.com -- 100 things you should know about DDT
A pretty impressive rebuttal to those who would continue the ban on DDT.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
MyDesk ▷ TheBullionDesk
Can someone out there say "short squeeze"? thank you. thank you very much. Silver sold off 2 dollars and came screaming right back.
Expect JP Morgan and the big guys to fight, kick, scream, manipulate, and try every dirty trick in the book to stop this.
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Gold and Silver Confiscation | FINANCIAL SENSE
When a nation loses confidence in the currency, the state starts to throw its weight around. Just as Roosevelt confiscated Gold, the only state with hyperinflation BEFORE the age of fiat currencies also attempted to confiscate gold an silver.
Gold and Silver Confiscation | FINANCIAL SENSE
Gold and Silver Confiscation | FINANCIAL SENSE
Wake bus driver accused of slapping kindergartener :: WRAL.com
Why criminal charges? A nice friendly -ss whipping would have taught him that you don't mess with other people's kids, and then he could go on and be a productive citizen.
Wake bus driver accused of slapping kindergartener :: WRAL.com
Wake bus driver accused of slapping kindergartener :: WRAL.com
Political Ratholes by Gary North
I usually like Gary North, but this article is just desk pounding screechingly good.
FANTASTIC review of Meg Whitmans, campaign, as well as a generalized survey of culture, politics, economics and life.
Outstanding.
Political Ratholes by Gary North
FANTASTIC review of Meg Whitmans, campaign, as well as a generalized survey of culture, politics, economics and life.
Outstanding.
Political Ratholes by Gary North
Sanderson Farms eyes Nash County site :: WRAL.com
I never thought I would wind up with the peasant dress wearing, patchouli crowd, but I am opposed to this too.
http://www.foodincmovie.com/
Sanderson Farms eyes Nash County site :: WRAL.com
http://www.foodincmovie.com/
Sanderson Farms eyes Nash County site :: WRAL.com
David Stockman on spending
I sure hope David Stockman is wrong.
He was right the last time he piped up,though.
"On the fringes of the 75-plus greenhorns who will populate the Republican caucus, there appears to be some sentiment in favor a modern version of Senator Robert Taft’s sensible isolationism of an earlier era. At least some of the Tea Party crusaders appear to be saying, “enough of nation building and wars of occupation in the global backwaters." But wait until the neo-con thought police get done with “freshman orientation” at the Republican caucus meetings in December. The $800 billion that goes for national security and its step-child, homeland security, will be safe from assault -- at least from the anti-spending forces of the GOP."
www.minyanville.com/articles/print.php?a=30936
He was right the last time he piped up,though.
"On the fringes of the 75-plus greenhorns who will populate the Republican caucus, there appears to be some sentiment in favor a modern version of Senator Robert Taft’s sensible isolationism of an earlier era. At least some of the Tea Party crusaders appear to be saying, “enough of nation building and wars of occupation in the global backwaters." But wait until the neo-con thought police get done with “freshman orientation” at the Republican caucus meetings in December. The $800 billion that goes for national security and its step-child, homeland security, will be safe from assault -- at least from the anti-spending forces of the GOP."
www.minyanville.com/articles/print.php?a=30936
Monday, November 08, 2010
Radical Difference Between Monetization 1 and QE2 | FINANCIAL SENSE
Interesting article here. He claims that this round of "quantitative easing" -which means that the fed is simply printing money- is radically different than anything we have seen thus far.
This time, the fed is intervening directly into the Treasury Bond market. In other words, the Fed will be creating an artificial Treasury bond market, where it uses an unlimited amount of newly created public money to buy from private investment banks. We are "borrowing from ourselves" by simply printing the money.
In evaluating why this so-called "QE2" is so different from the first rounds of quantitative easing, we need to understand that the use of the funds is quite different. In the autumn of 2008 the Federal Reserve used the original round of money to create artificial liabilities when there were no lenders, thereby keeping the highly leveraged banking system from collapsing. The money wasn't actually being spent on anything you could reach out and touch; this was more about balance sheets and accounting manipulations on a massive scale.
During 2009 and early 2010, for the true second round of quantitative easing (which involved rolling the new dollars over from the first round of bank loans and creating substantially more new dollars), the Federal Reserve created an artificial mortgage market, so that mortgage interest rates would be lower than what a free market would've allowed, and thereby would hopefully help slow down or avert a collapse in the housing market. The new money was used to acquire financial instruments (mortgage securities), but "sterilization" meant that the newly created money would not be allowed to escape from the Federal Reserve's and banks' balance sheets. So again, the new money wasn't being used to buy or create anything you could actually reach out and touch. The mortgage money had already been lent by the bank, so the newly created Fed money didn't go to the home purchasers.
What makes this current round night-and-day different is that the new money is being created to pay real people for real jobs and real tangible goods. The United States government budget deficit is not about market values of financial instruments, but rather about paying workers on a massive scale for "stimulus" projects. It's about massive road reconstruction projects and expensive high-speed rail lines – with the money being given to workers to go out and spend, in return for their labor. It's about paying a vast army of federal workers - who spend their paychecks. The federal budget deficit is about massive transfers and redistributions of wealth within the US, including Social Security and Medicare, low income housing and many other purposes. All of which require real money that really gets spent by real people.
This is huge, disastrous, and a precedent of monstrous proportions.
We have fools running our monetary policy, and we are going to suffer eye popping consequences for it.
There is simply no way out of this.
Radical Difference Between Monetization 1 and QE2 | FINANCIAL SENSE
This time, the fed is intervening directly into the Treasury Bond market. In other words, the Fed will be creating an artificial Treasury bond market, where it uses an unlimited amount of newly created public money to buy from private investment banks. We are "borrowing from ourselves" by simply printing the money.
In evaluating why this so-called "QE2" is so different from the first rounds of quantitative easing, we need to understand that the use of the funds is quite different. In the autumn of 2008 the Federal Reserve used the original round of money to create artificial liabilities when there were no lenders, thereby keeping the highly leveraged banking system from collapsing. The money wasn't actually being spent on anything you could reach out and touch; this was more about balance sheets and accounting manipulations on a massive scale.
During 2009 and early 2010, for the true second round of quantitative easing (which involved rolling the new dollars over from the first round of bank loans and creating substantially more new dollars), the Federal Reserve created an artificial mortgage market, so that mortgage interest rates would be lower than what a free market would've allowed, and thereby would hopefully help slow down or avert a collapse in the housing market. The new money was used to acquire financial instruments (mortgage securities), but "sterilization" meant that the newly created money would not be allowed to escape from the Federal Reserve's and banks' balance sheets. So again, the new money wasn't being used to buy or create anything you could actually reach out and touch. The mortgage money had already been lent by the bank, so the newly created Fed money didn't go to the home purchasers.
What makes this current round night-and-day different is that the new money is being created to pay real people for real jobs and real tangible goods. The United States government budget deficit is not about market values of financial instruments, but rather about paying workers on a massive scale for "stimulus" projects. It's about massive road reconstruction projects and expensive high-speed rail lines – with the money being given to workers to go out and spend, in return for their labor. It's about paying a vast army of federal workers - who spend their paychecks. The federal budget deficit is about massive transfers and redistributions of wealth within the US, including Social Security and Medicare, low income housing and many other purposes. All of which require real money that really gets spent by real people.
This is huge, disastrous, and a precedent of monstrous proportions.
We have fools running our monetary policy, and we are going to suffer eye popping consequences for it.
There is simply no way out of this.
Radical Difference Between Monetization 1 and QE2 | FINANCIAL SENSE
Run, Silver, Run!! | FINANCIAL SENSE
You see, readers, as uncomfortable as it may be to say: I love liberty, not necessarily America. But I stand on the shoulders of giants in American history in this regard. Loving liberty more than country was the reasoning behind the American Revolution in the first place.
Run, Silver, Run!! | FINANCIAL SENSE
Run, Silver, Run!! | FINANCIAL SENSE
Saturday, November 06, 2010
If this is happening in NEW YORK!!!???
This is quite unbelievable.
I could understand it if it were a bunch of traditionally democratic seats in Georgia, or Alabama. But NEW YORK??
Five seats flipped from dem to republican. That is astounding.
Left Coast Rebel: Breaking News: Randy Altschuler camp reports that Democrat Tim Bishop is down by over 300 in NY-1
I could understand it if it were a bunch of traditionally democratic seats in Georgia, or Alabama. But NEW YORK??
Five seats flipped from dem to republican. That is astounding.
Left Coast Rebel: Breaking News: Randy Altschuler camp reports that Democrat Tim Bishop is down by over 300 in NY-1
Boehner under fire: First cut should be lawmakers' salaries - TheHill.com
My understanding is that the first task Boehner has agreed to pursue is SLASHING LAWMAKER SALARIES.
Lest you think this refers to how much money they make, this is NOT the point.
This refers to the size of their budget, so that their staff size is reduced.
Reducing the number of salaried people who run around on staff for Congress cannot be anything but a good idea.
I applaud this, and think we all should.
Boehner under fire: First cut should be lawmakers' salaries - TheHill.com
Lest you think this refers to how much money they make, this is NOT the point.
This refers to the size of their budget, so that their staff size is reduced.
Reducing the number of salaried people who run around on staff for Congress cannot be anything but a good idea.
I applaud this, and think we all should.
Boehner under fire: First cut should be lawmakers' salaries - TheHill.com
Color Me "Skeptical"
It's starting.
Watch this little 20 second vid.
"This health care bill will ruin the best health care system in the world, and it will bankrupt our country. We are going to repeal ObamaCare"
real good up to here, John......
" and replace it with common sense reforms that will bring down the cost of health insurance."
which lets you know that Boehner is indeed just one more shill for big pharma and the traditional special interests of Republicans.
Many of the people encouraged or energized or empowered or something by last Tuesday's results talked about "holding their feet to the fire." Well, he is already giving you your first big fat juicy podiatric target right here.
We will know within a month whether we have real change or not. Color me "skeptical."
RealClearPolitics - Video - Boehner: "We Are Going to Repeal ObamaCare"
Watch this little 20 second vid.
"This health care bill will ruin the best health care system in the world, and it will bankrupt our country. We are going to repeal ObamaCare"
real good up to here, John......
" and replace it with common sense reforms that will bring down the cost of health insurance."
which lets you know that Boehner is indeed just one more shill for big pharma and the traditional special interests of Republicans.
Many of the people encouraged or energized or empowered or something by last Tuesday's results talked about "holding their feet to the fire." Well, he is already giving you your first big fat juicy podiatric target right here.
We will know within a month whether we have real change or not. Color me "skeptical."
RealClearPolitics - Video - Boehner: "We Are Going to Repeal ObamaCare"
Friday, November 05, 2010
YouTube - Bernanke Perjury?
This is TREASON! Nothing short. I swear if this present Congress does not reign in this bunch of thieves, it is all over.
YouTube - Bernanke Perjury?
YouTube - Bernanke Perjury?
YouTube - Debt Collection Firm Sets Up Fake Courtroom to Trick Debtors Into Paying
You have to laugh at the creativity of this.
YouTube - Debt Collection Firm Sets Up Fake Courtroom to Trick Debtors Into Paying
YouTube - Debt Collection Firm Sets Up Fake Courtroom to Trick Debtors Into Paying
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
The big political news of the night!
The real story is the nonstory. The Republican pick ups at the state level.
There will be 18 states subject to reapportionment. The Republicans will control a majority of those — at least ten and maybe a dozen or more. More significantly, a minimum of seventeen state legislative houses have flipped to the Republican Party.
The North Carolina Legislature is Republican for the first time since 1870.
The Alabama Legislature is Republican for the first time since 1876.
Expect that in the South, do ya? Understandable. However:
The entire Wisconsin and New Hampshire legislatures have flipped to the GOP by wide margins.
The State Houses in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Montana, and Colorado, all now GOP.
The Maine and Minnesota Senates now are Republican GOP.
The Texas and Tennessee Houses went from virtually tied to massive Republican gains. The gains in Texas were so big that the Republicans no longer need the Democrats to get state constitutional amendments out of the state legislature.
These gains go all the way down to the municipal level across the nation. That did not happen even in 1994.
This was a tsunami.
Now comes the REALLY hard part, which is convincing local congressmen and state senators to ASSERT THEIR RIGHTS AS STATES to a confiscatory, encroaching, unconstitutional federal government.
I have long ago given up on any kind of change from DC. Maybe I could be surprised, but I don't think so. Real revolutions, like real politics are always local.
We have had power, money and influence stolen and moved to DC mostly because the "give a damn" of locals has been misplaced, and it is difficult to stand up to the storm of vituperation, ridicule, tut-tut-ing and hostility one endures when attempting to defy the triumvirate of DC apparatchniks, the military industrial complex, and the cozy relationship between Wall Street and the Federal Reserve.
Here is hoping for a big round of TAKE A HIKE! to DC. One can hope.
There will be 18 states subject to reapportionment. The Republicans will control a majority of those — at least ten and maybe a dozen or more. More significantly, a minimum of seventeen state legislative houses have flipped to the Republican Party.
The North Carolina Legislature is Republican for the first time since 1870.
The Alabama Legislature is Republican for the first time since 1876.
Expect that in the South, do ya? Understandable. However:
The entire Wisconsin and New Hampshire legislatures have flipped to the GOP by wide margins.
The State Houses in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Montana, and Colorado, all now GOP.
The Maine and Minnesota Senates now are Republican GOP.
The Texas and Tennessee Houses went from virtually tied to massive Republican gains. The gains in Texas were so big that the Republicans no longer need the Democrats to get state constitutional amendments out of the state legislature.
These gains go all the way down to the municipal level across the nation. That did not happen even in 1994.
This was a tsunami.
Now comes the REALLY hard part, which is convincing local congressmen and state senators to ASSERT THEIR RIGHTS AS STATES to a confiscatory, encroaching, unconstitutional federal government.
I have long ago given up on any kind of change from DC. Maybe I could be surprised, but I don't think so. Real revolutions, like real politics are always local.
We have had power, money and influence stolen and moved to DC mostly because the "give a damn" of locals has been misplaced, and it is difficult to stand up to the storm of vituperation, ridicule, tut-tut-ing and hostility one endures when attempting to defy the triumvirate of DC apparatchniks, the military industrial complex, and the cozy relationship between Wall Street and the Federal Reserve.
Here is hoping for a big round of TAKE A HIKE! to DC. One can hope.
Anyone have an axe?
WE SPEND TOO MUCH!!!!
How freaking hard is that to understand? The Brits have gone across the board and cut spending because they realize they are going under if they don't. Everything is cut, from health care to the miltary (Brits are considering forming a joint military with France to avoid the massive outlays necessary to project power around the world as the US poodle).
Could we borrow one of your budget architects?
Federal Reserve return to Jekyll Island to celebrate 100 years of fleecing the USA
If the American people knew what really went down on Jekyll Island and understood the Federal Reserve, they would surround Jekyll Island, drag every last one of these guys out into the streets and hang them from a lamp post. This is absolutely Unbelievable. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
International Committee Against Stoning | Save Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani Campaign
The breathtaking mercy of the Iranian mullahs is just heartwarming.
They have decided to hang her, and that "immediately" rather than stoning.
I am sure she is grateful
International Committee Against Stoning | Save Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani Campaign
They have decided to hang her, and that "immediately" rather than stoning.
I am sure she is grateful
International Committee Against Stoning | Save Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani Campaign
Jumbo smuggling racket busted in Assam, 9 rescued - The Times of India
How exactly would one "smuggle" an elephant?
Jumbo smuggling racket busted in Assam, 9 rescued - The Times of India
Jumbo smuggling racket busted in Assam, 9 rescued - The Times of India
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Value of a College Degree?
If you have a son or daughter who is nearing High School completion, should they go to a University? Or would a trade school or technical school be a better choice?
Here are some interesting statistics:
I would say that unless your son or daughter has SPECIFIC STATED GOALS to major in something like engineering, chemistry, math, physics, or accounting, you would be far far far better off letting him or her learn a trade, and then pursue whatever liberal arts interests s/he has with money they make on their own. That is, if your goal for sending him/her to college is to be able to provide a decent standard of living, let them learn a trade and pursue the education on their own. That way you accomplish your goal of equipping them for life and avoid the fiscal black hole. I have a Masters Degree, but the things I learned on my own over the years have proved far more valuable than most of the education I received in school. With the bone crushing level of debt most kids hit the streets carrying, and the ubiquity of college degrees no one wants, this is even more so.
There is a world of learning out there and available to persons who are intellectually curious and motivated, and you don't need a college degree to explore that world. You also don't need a hundred thousand dollars..., just an agile mind, an internet connection, and a willingness to smile when your friends look at you like you are from Mars and say "where do you GET this stuff?"
On the other hand, if your kid is not the kind who is bored by school so that s/he pulls out encyclopedias to scan for interesting articles (my history in the third grade and following), they are very likely to be more successful in becoming a plumber, electrician, a/c tech, machinist, welder, nurse (you have trade and four year degrees both), medical tech of some sort, mechanic, electronics tech, or any number of trades which "make things go." What is more, they will have an experience of mixing with people who view the world FAR FAR FAR differently from a middle class kid cloistered in the suburbs, insulated from real life by layers and layers of the protective cocoons we have built. I thank God that the first job I took out of college was as a plumber running a backhoe (a skill I picked up in HS, due to a father who insisted I work summers and holidays). I moved to a research position in a lab in 4 months. Interestingly enough, I made more running the backhoe than I did in the lab.
The facile and energetic and motivated ones will wind up owning their own electrical and a/c etc., companies and be far more successful economically than someone who majored in Political Science, or English, or Psychology, or Sociology, or Economics and is shuffling around in some corporation xeroxing papers and answering phones.
What is more, University degrees in those disciplines tend more and more to be ideologically strait jacketed, taught my non-thinking leftist ideologues whose idea of instruction is only slightly better than some Kommissar shouting slogans from Mao's little red book. I assisted my daughter recently in writing a paper on a review of the role of the USA in the post colonial cold war years, regarding the new countries coming out from being colonies of European states. I was appalled at the sloppy "scholarship" for supporting a case I actually AGREED with (US foreign policy was counterproductive to freedom in those fledgling countries). The idiot who wrote the article clearly did not know what "capitalism" was in the first place, and confused colonial slavery and oppression with capitalism, utterly confusing the truth that "capitalism is essential for freedom" with the false conclusion that "capitalism then must EQUAL freedom" (see this video where Milton Friedman destroys this assumption). The the sole resource listed for historical support for this position came from marxists.org. My daughter, bless her heart, when asking for help, prefaced it with "Dad, I just want to write the paper, not to argue with them!" (HA! she knows me too well!)
For an average total outlay of over 25,000 dollars a year, don't you think that AT LEAST your child should learn to analyze positions, think and argue clearly, and know how to spot logical fallacies? If, on the other hand, you want a drone who is able only to be mesmerized by Glen Beck or Jon Stewart and allow that person to do their thinking FOR them, then a liberal arts University degree sounds like as good a deal as any.
Here are some interesting statistics:
- In the United States today, there are 5,057 janitors with Ph.D.’s, other doctorates, or professional degrees.
- In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.
- In the United States today, over 18,000 parking lot attendants have college degrees.
- Total student loan debt in the United States is climbing at a rate of approximately $2,853.88 per second.
I would say that unless your son or daughter has SPECIFIC STATED GOALS to major in something like engineering, chemistry, math, physics, or accounting, you would be far far far better off letting him or her learn a trade, and then pursue whatever liberal arts interests s/he has with money they make on their own. That is, if your goal for sending him/her to college is to be able to provide a decent standard of living, let them learn a trade and pursue the education on their own. That way you accomplish your goal of equipping them for life and avoid the fiscal black hole. I have a Masters Degree, but the things I learned on my own over the years have proved far more valuable than most of the education I received in school. With the bone crushing level of debt most kids hit the streets carrying, and the ubiquity of college degrees no one wants, this is even more so.
There is a world of learning out there and available to persons who are intellectually curious and motivated, and you don't need a college degree to explore that world. You also don't need a hundred thousand dollars..., just an agile mind, an internet connection, and a willingness to smile when your friends look at you like you are from Mars and say "where do you GET this stuff?"
On the other hand, if your kid is not the kind who is bored by school so that s/he pulls out encyclopedias to scan for interesting articles (my history in the third grade and following), they are very likely to be more successful in becoming a plumber, electrician, a/c tech, machinist, welder, nurse (you have trade and four year degrees both), medical tech of some sort, mechanic, electronics tech, or any number of trades which "make things go." What is more, they will have an experience of mixing with people who view the world FAR FAR FAR differently from a middle class kid cloistered in the suburbs, insulated from real life by layers and layers of the protective cocoons we have built. I thank God that the first job I took out of college was as a plumber running a backhoe (a skill I picked up in HS, due to a father who insisted I work summers and holidays). I moved to a research position in a lab in 4 months. Interestingly enough, I made more running the backhoe than I did in the lab.
The facile and energetic and motivated ones will wind up owning their own electrical and a/c etc., companies and be far more successful economically than someone who majored in Political Science, or English, or Psychology, or Sociology, or Economics and is shuffling around in some corporation xeroxing papers and answering phones.
What is more, University degrees in those disciplines tend more and more to be ideologically strait jacketed, taught my non-thinking leftist ideologues whose idea of instruction is only slightly better than some Kommissar shouting slogans from Mao's little red book. I assisted my daughter recently in writing a paper on a review of the role of the USA in the post colonial cold war years, regarding the new countries coming out from being colonies of European states. I was appalled at the sloppy "scholarship" for supporting a case I actually AGREED with (US foreign policy was counterproductive to freedom in those fledgling countries). The idiot who wrote the article clearly did not know what "capitalism" was in the first place, and confused colonial slavery and oppression with capitalism, utterly confusing the truth that "capitalism is essential for freedom" with the false conclusion that "capitalism then must EQUAL freedom" (see this video where Milton Friedman destroys this assumption). The the sole resource listed for historical support for this position came from marxists.org. My daughter, bless her heart, when asking for help, prefaced it with "Dad, I just want to write the paper, not to argue with them!" (HA! she knows me too well!)
For an average total outlay of over 25,000 dollars a year, don't you think that AT LEAST your child should learn to analyze positions, think and argue clearly, and know how to spot logical fallacies? If, on the other hand, you want a drone who is able only to be mesmerized by Glen Beck or Jon Stewart and allow that person to do their thinking FOR them, then a liberal arts University degree sounds like as good a deal as any.
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