An excerpt from - Af-Pak War Racket: The Obama Illusion Comes Crashing Down

The amount of money necessary to keep the US military machine growing has reached astonishing levels. Considering the increasing amount of troops and contractors, the White House estimates that it spends one million dollars per soldier, per year in Afghanistan, "not including the added expense of training and maintaining a security force."

According to these calculations, 30,000 troops for this latest surge will add an additional $30 billion to the annual budget, just in troop related costs. Also consider the price of moving fuel around, AFP reports: "Moving soldiers and supplies across the rugged Afghan landscape costs more than in Iraq, with the military consuming 83 liters or 22 gallons of fuel per soldier per day." The Hill adds: "Pentagon officials have told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee a gallon of fuel costs the military about $400 by the time it arrives in the remote locations in Afghanistan where U.S. troops operate."

Other than in Iraq and Afghanistan, you have an unprecedented number of military bases spread throughout the world. Officially there are "900 military facilities in 46 countries and territories (the unofficial figure is far greater). The US military owns or rents 795,000 acres of land, with 26,000 buildings and structures, valued at $146bn. The bases bristle with an inventory of weapons whose worth is measured in the trillions and whose killing power could wipe out all life on earth several times over. The official figures exclude the huge build-up of troops and structures in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade, as well as secret or unacknowledged facilities in Israel, Kuwait, the Philippines and many other places. In just three years of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, £2bn was spent on military construction."

There was public outcry when Bush drastically raised an already bloated military budget to record highs. But in comes the admired anti-war candidate Obama, in the middle of a severe economic crisis, and what happens? Obama drastically increased Bush's record budget to $651 billion in 2009. Yes, during a severe economic crisis, Obama actually increased Bush's budget. US military spending is higher than the rest of the world combined. The 2010 budget, which doesn't account for war-related spending yet, is already set to grow to $680 billion.

However, these budget numbers are deceiving because the Obama Administration has been getting better at hiding extra spending in other budget items. The actual total 2009 budget was over $1 trillion.

And much like the staggering giveaway to the economic elite in the Wall Street banker bailout, no one is really sure where a significant percentage of this money is actually going. On September 10, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld announced that $2.3 trillion in military spending was unaccounted for. As CBS News reported: "$2.3 trillion – that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America."

At that time, Pentagon auditors admitted that they couldn't account for a staggering 25% of all military spending. And the budget has exploded since then, with fewer people accounting for where this money is going.

Once again, just like the $23.7 trillion that went into propping up the Wall Street elite – which totals $80,000 for every American – you have trillions more in taxpayer money vanishing and very few regulating and accounting for it.

Other than this staggering loss of taxpayer money, any serious economist will tell you "that military spending increases unemployment and decreases economic growth."

Economists Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes, in their book "The Three Trillion Dollar War," report that military spending on the war in Iraq has created over a trillion dollars in loses to the US economy.

On top of all the looting of taxpayer money that is occurring, "several powerful House committee chairmen have proposed a surtax on Americans to pay the future military costs."

With the country already operating at a record $12 trillion deficit, members of congress don't know how we can afford increasing an already huge war expenditure.

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Weekly Column Published: 12.04.2009

What does the theory of anthropogenic global warming signify? On the Web Site of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise we find a page on coping with economic sabotage. "Sabotage is a wartime concept," it says. "In simplest terms, sabotage means deliberate or underhand damage or destruction, especially carried out for military or political reasons." This includes "interferences with production ... as by enemy agents...." There is also another definition that should be referred too, as well. Political subversion may be defined as the "lending of aid, comfort, and moral support to individuals, groups, or organizations that advocate the overthrow of incumbent governments...."

On Monday, November 16, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made the following statement with regard to global warming: "If we don't take joint action now ... the Arctic and Antarctic ice could melt and change ocean levels." He further warned that this would "have catastrophic consequences." The Russian president's statement is odd, since Russia is a country that would benefit from global warming. But, as Russia's clandestine services are aligned with the international left, and the international left is fervently committed to the global warming ideology, politics must trump Russia's desire for a better climate.

It is no accident, in light of this, that the planet's chief spokesman for global warming, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Jr., owed a great deal to Moscow's "capitalist prince," Armand Hammer. While Hammer siphoned money to many politicians, he especially enriched Gore's father, Senator Al Gore, Sr. About this relationship one of Hammer's close associates, British journalist Neil Lyndon, wrote, "Throughout the whole of his life, Al Gore Sr. and his family depended on pay-outs, kickbacks and subventions from Hammer. Like his father before him, Al Gore Jr.'s political career was lavishly sponsored by Hammer from the moment it began until Hammer died...."

 In times past, the FBI described Hammer's corporate holdings as "an organization of Soviet intelligence." The U.S. State Department referred to him as a "Soviet mail carrier." German intelligence found that Hammer was involved with the Soviet trade mission in Berlin, and assumed he was a Communist agent. According to researcher Edward Jay Epstein's book, Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer, a British raid on a Soviet trading company in London on 12 May 1927 revealed Hammer's true role. "Among the incriminating documents were records directly linking the Hammer enterprise to Moness Chemicals," noted Epstein, "which was servicing Comintern espionage agents in Germany and Britain. When this was reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Moness's office in New York were searched, and agents found a paper trail that included ... $5,000 'loans' from Harry [Armand] Hammer. The bureau was also able to trace the various people and causes to whom these 'loans' were to be channeled. Hammer was funneling money from his Berlin office to Moness's herbal-remedy company, which was then disbursing it to Soviet secret agents."

To understand global warming, we need to understand the work of Soviet and Russian secret agents. Through an alarmist message, certain groups have become influential. They have mobilized a powerful and active constituency. They are lobbying for government programs. They seek government intervention in the economy. They also seek the "socialization" of industry and commerce, while offering an irresistible critique of greedy corporate interests threatening the whole planet. In short, these groups have initiated an attack against the capitalist system.

Continue here. 

Copyright © 2009 Jeffrey R. Nyquist

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Portal To Altervatives 

Once again the U.S. mint has had to suspend sales of all its one-ounce gold coins, and some fractional ones too, as its supplies of physical gold cannot meet the demand.

Author: Lawrence Williams
Posted:  Monday , 07 Dec 2009

INVENTORY DEPLETION

"The United States Mint has depleted its inventory of 2009 American Buffalo One Ounce Gold Bullion Coins. ... No additional inventory will be made available. As additional information becomes available regarding 2010-dated American Buffalo One Once Gold Bullion Coins, you will be notified."   So said a memorandum issued Friday to authorized purchasers of U.S. Mint gold coins and reported by Jim Sinclair..

Mineweb reported only two weeks ago, on November 25^th, the suspension of sales of American Gold Eagle coins by the Mint - U.S. Mint suspends American Eagle 1-ounce gold coin sales - again, which, at the time, reckoned such sales would be resumed early this month - but in the event, not only is the suspension of the Gold Eagle coin sales continuing, but also now the American Buffalo one ounce gold coin sales have also been suspended, with no new sales now planned until some time in 2010 - although the current sharp fall in the gold price may provide the Mint with a bit of respite from its supply/demand woes.

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Professor Henrik Svensmark argued that the recent warming period was caused by solar activity. Photo: REUTERS

As the world gathered in the Danish capital for the UN Climate Change Conference, more than 50 scientists, businessmen and lobby groups met to discuss the arguments against man made global warming.

Although the meeting was considerably smaller than the official gathering of 15,000 people meeting down the road, the organisers claimed it could change the course of negotiations.

Professor Henrik Svensmark, a physicist at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen, said the recent warming period was caused by solar activity.

He said the last time the world experienced such high temperatures, during the medieval warming period, the Sun and the Earth were in a similar cycle.

Professor Nils-Axel Morner, a geologist from Stockholm University, said sea level rise has also been exaggerated by the "climate alarmists" using computer models.

He said observational data from lake sediments, coast lines and trees show sea levels have remained stable.

Professor Cliff Ollier, another geologist from the University of Western Australia, also said the environmental lobby have got it wrong on ice caps. He said the melting of ice sheets is caused by geothermal activity rather than global surface temperatures.

Professor Ian Plimer, from the University of Adelaide, claimed carbon dioxide from volcanoes rather than humans is driving warming as part of a natural process.

The meeting was organised by Danish group Climate Sense and the lobby group Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT).

Craig Rucker, Executive Director of CFACT, admitted the organisation have taken funding from Exxon Mobil in the past but pointed out that many environmental groups are also receiving funding from major corporations.

Graham Capper of Climate Sense said manmade global warming was a myth and scientists who said otherwise were lying. :

"There are people who know they are lying and do it simply for money and others who think they are doing good," he said. "But they not good scientists."

Lord Monckton, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said he was speaking to delegations from the US and Canada about question marks over the science.

He said a recent poll by the Telegraph, that shows only one in two people accept man made climate change, show people are questioning the consensus being pushed by the UN summit.

"As anybody knows who follows the opinion polls in Britain and Australia and the US, in the last few weeks and months there has been a rapid collapse in the global warming chimera so while we still have our freedom, let us speak out."

In his new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, Al Gore stresses the "spiritual side" of preventing climate change and make this stunning admission: "Simply laying out the facts won't work."

Now why in the world would Al Gore say something like that?

Could it be that he is starting to realize that the facts are not on his side?

In fact, it is being reported that Al Gore is now saying that carbon dioxide is not the primary cause of "global warming".

But that isn't stopping the "eco-prophet" from continuing his reckless crusade against carbon dioxide.  Gore continues to tirelessly advocate a "cap and trade" carbon credit trading scheme which could allow him to reap billions of dollars in profits if it is ultimately implemented.

Apparently what is good for the environment is very good for Al Gore's wallet too.

But that is not what this article is about.

What this article is about is showing how Al Gore's environmental policies would be an absolute disaster for the environment.

Firstly, let us examine the absolutely ridiculous claims that man-made carbon emissions are causing global warming.  The reality is that any global warming that was going on was caused by the sun. 

You see, a few years ago when the sun was experiencing record sunspot activity, our entire solar system experienced a period of "global warming".  It was not just the earth.  Every single planet circling the sun experienced a warming period. 

Now that our sun has entered into a period of very low sunspot activity, our planet and the rest of our solar system is experiencing a period of "global cooling".

And yet carbon dioxide levels on earth continue to increase.  If the rising carbon dioxide levels were causing global warming then the earth should still be warming.

But it isn't.

The truth, as you will clearly see in the outstanding video below, is that rising carbon dioxide levels follow a rise in earth temperatures.  Carbon dioxide does not cause global warming.  It never has and it never will.  Instead, scientists have now been able to show that when there is higher sunspot activity temperatures on earth rise, and when there is low sunspot activity temperatures on earth fall.  The following video absolutely tears apart Al Gore's theories from "An Inconvenient Truth" and it shows what the primary cause of climate change actually is.....

View Video "The Global Warming CO2 Scam" here.                                                                                                                 

But does it matter if Al Gore's theories are nonsense?

Perhaps his ideas will not save the environment - does that mean that Al Gore is harming the environment?

Unfortunately the answer to that question is yes.

Al Gore, in his reckless crusade to help the environment, is determined to reduce levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by as much as possible.

But there is a problem.

Plants need carbon dioxide to live.  It is one of the key building blocks of life on earth.

In fact, natural sources produce far, far, far more carbon dioxide than humans do.  Wikipedia puts it this way.....

Carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere by a variety of natural sources, and over 95% of total CO₂ emissions would occur even if humans were not present on Earth.

Have you got that?

Over 95 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions would still occur even if you took the entire human race off the earth.

So even if carbon dioxide was causing global warming (which it certainly does not), the truth is that if all human carbon dioxide emissions went to zero, over 95 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions would still be occurring.

So to reduce worldwide carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent or more, Al Gore and his fellow global warming cultists will NOT be able to do that by reducing carbon dioxide emissions caused by man.

Instead they will have to attack all life on earth.

In other words, Al Gore and his followers would have to brutally attack the earth's environment in order to get the kind of carbon emissions that they are after.

In fact, any reductions in carbon dioxide will seriously affect life.  Less carbon dioxide emissions would mean less carbon dioxide for plant life.  That means that crops would suffer.  Less crops and less plant life would mean that there would be less food for men and animals.  In a world that is already teetering on the verge of a major food crisis, any drop in the world food supply would be an absolute disaster.

The truth is that Al Gore absolutely does NOT know what he is talking about when it comes to the environment.  He is simply a con man and a greedy investor who is looking forward to making a lot of money.

But if Al Gore's vision of a world with dramatically reduced levels of carbon dioxide comes to pass, the reality is that life on earth will greatly suffer.  Starvation would be rampant.  In fact, if carbon dioxide levels were reduced far enough, it just might be your own family that starves.

For those who do truly care about saving the environment, there is one thing that you need to know what it comes to Al Gore.....

Al Gore must be stopped.  For the sake of life on earth, Al Gore must be stopped.

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I haven't don't my monthly Port Summary issue for this month, so shall we mosey down to the docks and get a reality check on the so-called 'recovery'?

• Long Beach:  Year to date cargo is down 18.7% compared with last year.  Let's hear it for the stimulus package!

• Port of Los Angeles:  Loaded inbound was down 11.84% for November and overall for the calendar year is down 15.13%.

• Port of Oakland:  Down 9.9% YTD but November say a 3.4% gain.

• Port of Seattle:  Up 15.1% in November, but still down 9.7% overall year-to-date (YTD). International inbound was up 34.4% in November, but is still down 10.7% YTD - way I figure it is replacement parts for things that are breaking.

• Port of Tacoma:  Down 19.8% YTD.

I would reveal the Port of Portland's latest, but they haven't posted November operating results yet, although October YTD was down 37.8%.

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I have this really, really simple economic viewpoint:  When we see outfits like "Shell shipping Houston jobs overseas" and at the same time port jobs are on the endangered list because of a continuing fall in cargoes both inbound and outbound, what does that tell you about "The myth of Globalism"?  Maybe something like "It's imploding!"?

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Corporate globalism at one point seemed like a good idea; it allowed the US to export some of its least desirable industrial operations to third world and emerging countries.  But a little bit of risk avoidance led to a lot of abuse such that now IT departments are being exported (still) and the US finds itself in relations like those with Indonesia tied to exploitive marketing like tobacco outfits.  As a result, you and I can be 'outsourced'; such that we're competing with least-cost workers worldwide and to the extent that corporations have no moral strictures to deal with, regular humans in the US fall victim.  The confidence bubble burst, housing collapses, and government wrings its hands yet fails to recognize the larger design pattern issues.

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To be sure, there are those who argue that folks like me are 'alarmists' and 'doom-sayers' yet the Ports data speaks for itself. 

The next data point that should come into view by mid-January will be that Christmas this year was smaller than last.  "Retail sales figures disappointing for November" headlines a report out of the UK this morning.  Yet optimism is being served up even this morning about the domestic picture with stories like "Super Saturday Expectation High for U.S. Retailers".  Stories about how "Chain stores avoid deeper holiday discounts" sound hopeful, but as always I'm asking "Where's the beef"?

If gold's got a secret it may be something as simple as this:  We needed a larger stimulus with less pork &arrows to pull us out of our economic quagmire and congress has failed for the sake of political expediency.  Gold knows that inflation will necessarily come along at some point, but the recent price action reveals the powerful forces of deflation are still lurking as revealed in the Ports data.

Of course all this is subject to change because linguistically we're due to see global context beginning to change in the next few weeks...so be watching watch closely as we go from reindeer dropping presents to bulls dropping something a little different and expect us to swallow it.

By G$ Simmons and Brett Buchanan

Are financial markets a direct reflection of the overall health of a nation? I wish they were not, but I fear they are.

I wonder at times if our nation has entered a state of purgatory all of us mulling around in the waiting room to Hell, anxiously counting the minutes until the grim reaper saunters through the door sickle in hand his mission to send us off to eternal damnation.

Unfortunately, there is little time to close this door so that we may stave off this potential fate that looms so near. What we need to alter this course is a procession of men who possess moral fortitude and common sense, men of rationality and reason. Men of action who will set in motion the dismantling of institutions that bleed this nation dry.

Hope is not a strategy. This present state of manufactured optimism emanating from the White House and our news outlets is contemptible. We are in dire need of new reformist leadership and of new voices that will speak the truth. A national purification is long overdue. Time is not on our side. Look at the track record this nation has racked up over the last few decades and this economic and moral purgatory in which we find ourselves might very well mark the beginning of our walk of death down the long road to Hell.

I make this analogy of a national state of purgatory not in jest,but rather in practical terms. This nation has gone the way of an absolute meltdown of morality and ethics. We've reverted to a sort of Wild West where anything goes.  From the halls of congress to our corporate boardrooms our collective morality bar has sunk so low we cannot go any lower without disconnecting from the great past this nation is starved to regain. We stand dangerously close to the point where immorality begets our undoing.

Personally, I am father to a daughter of fourteen years. Brett, my co-author, is father to a twenty-month old daughter and an eighteen-year old son. We desperately want to create for our children a better world. But we are fallible men, and certainly not saints. The paragraphs you are about to read are not written from some moral high ground, or a Holier-than-thou pulpit, but rather from saddened hearts when we see that by walking our own moral tightrope, if we were to allow ourselves to slip below the bar, however slightly, we would be just as guilty as the worst perpetrators of our nation's moral destruction. Also, when witness to greater moral transgressions, by our own inaction, we become part of the problem. And we are just two men. Amplify this by fifty million, one hundred million, or three hundred million fold and it is no wonder immorality permeates our society.

This article is our personal effort to call people's attention to the truth. The brevity of our circumstance is immeasurable by past reference. Economically, we have never been so challenged. Over the past few decades a gullible US population cheered the halls of congress and the Oval Office alike as the incestuous bedfellows of money and politics ushered in a financial Coup coup'de'tat' co-opting our public trusts with the greed and excess of Wall Street. Profits are now had at any cost, damn the long-term consequences. Instead of being exposed as the obvious fraud he was, Bernie Maddoff was coddled by the SEC, an institution whose role as regulator is a complete failure. As Wall Street and Washington raped an entire nation, employees of the SEC were too busy surfing porn on the Internet and running private businesses instead of doing the jobs taxpayers pay them to do. All the while,young girls were selling their virginity to the highest bidder in public cyber-forums where grown men (not hormonally charged teenage boys) seek out their sexual fantasies in the netherworld of Internet pornography. What of the wives, children, and even parents of these men? Do they approve of such questionable actions?

Think of our children turning on the television to see people eating bile,cow blood, and live bugs for money on game shows like Fear Factor, or Flavor Flav and his hit reality show where he maintains a stable of women all of whom physically fight each other to have sex with him because he’s a celebrity â€" and a damn ugly one at that. And finally, there’s always  Survivor, the ultimate demonstration of all things wrong with modern human interaction. A reality show that pits person against person in a deceitful game of moral destruction where lack of ethics are rewarded, instead of punished.  Survivor, this is what our nation's leadership has become. Win at any cost. Damn the future of anyone but myself.

Morality is in great part the measure of a nation. Have we unlearned morality? Is this why we find ourselves staring down the abyss?

We are allowing ourselves to become more corrupt by the minute. We stare into the face of our future being raped, but we do nothing. We are as corrupt as the corrupters. We accept the unacceptable. We fail to understand that absolute power, corrupts absolutely. In what will god own as the greatest financial heist in history our leaders have chosen to reward corrupt individuals and their hollow corporations for what are arguably criminal levels of risk behavior by the moneyed elite of this country. What message does that send to our children, or to any one for that matter? Be as corrupt as possible in the US and you will be rewarded? Be the biggest failure jeopardizing the fate of others then stand in the corporate welfare line with all the other wealthiest institutions of the world, your greedy hand extended for a government bailout check while you simultaneously foreclose on an entire nation? Talk about the rich corralling the masses. It's no wonder someone coined the term "The Sheeple."

The path we traveled to this purgatorial limbo is both easily understood and misunderstood. The answers to understanding are sometimes right in front of us. What are seemingly benign things or actions, those everyday judgments or decisions we make to do one thing or another, are not always benign. Tell a little white lie to make that one sale that will put us into our bonus. Rig the game in our favor so that we might enjoy a little more opulence for the few decades we have remaining on this planet. Look the other way while the Federal Reserve and Wall Street blow economic bubble after economic bubble and in the process create a six-hundred trillion dollar shadow banking system that plays by no one's rules but its own.  In the case of Goldman Sachs, and Wall Street in general, lie, cheat, and steal their way to profitability at the expense of three hundred million taxpayers. The fact is that we have become an uncooperative nation willing to take advantage of anyone for the sake of profit. The idea of building a cooperative future where everyone wins has been sacrificed at the altar of short-mindedness.

It might be this purgatorial limbo I speak of is simpler than it appears.It could be that we are collectively suffering the consequences of the"Peter Principl", or getting to the job of failure. This principle supposes that an individual rises in a corporate hierarchy to their first level of incompetence. An assembly worker gets promoted to supervisor then to assistant manager, then manager, until he next gets promoted to an upper management job for which he is ill equipped and subsequently gets promoted no further as he can no longer demonstrate the competence required for the task at hand. He rather relies on subordinates who are then stuck with an upper manager who cannot carryout his own duties. Could this be the state of our nation? Have we been promoted as far as our competence allows? Are we in fact incompetent to handle our future? Have we now elected a man just incompetent enough for the Presidency who is being manipulated by Goldman Sachs, the Federal Reserve, and a circle of (previous) Wall Street insiders now on the government payroll as cabinet members and high-ranking advisors ? The saddest thing is that we sit idly by whilst our virtue is being stolen.  We do nothing.

A view of the world through rose-colored glasses does no one, any good. We are not as resilient as we think we are. Instead, we exist in a world of synthetic productivity where multi-tasking renders us incapable of doing anything effectively or with any level of competence.  Multi-tasking, that art of simultaneous ineffectiveness is a counter productive weapon that to a large degree has contributed to the potential failure of this nation. If you were to listen to Alan Greenspan however, you would believe that multi-tasking through technological gains by way of the "new paradigm" was the gold at the end of the Information Superhighway and that exotic mortgages and the burgeoning spending class paved the road to riches. We now know the sepremises to be empirically wrong.

It can now be argued that what would seemingly be advancements in productivity are proving to be setbacks. The Information Superhighway has led us to an era of technological arrogance. In reality all we have accomplished is to dilute our ability to carry out simple tasks as we click from a quarterly sales report due in an hour, to Facebook, to on-line solitaire, to writing an email explaining to our boss why the quarterly report will be delayed this day. We are a nation of excuse makers. We look for someone else to keep us one step ahead of our accumulating debt that smothers the potential of what could have been an equitable future. Ironically, it is our technological arrogance that impedes our ability to produce and manufacture our way to prosperity.

Craftsmenwho used to flock to this country to fulfill the needs of a manufacturing base flock here no more. "Made in the USA" used to mean something. It meant quality. It was the definition of industrial capitalism. But now through the wonders of globalization we have exported our craftsmanship through an outflow of jobs to China and India as we turned everyone in the USA into real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and web designers' a perfect playground for bankers to ply their craft, lending money in every creative manner both thinkable, and unthinkable. "Made in the USA" has been reduced to the status of punch-line, synonymous only with "Mortgage Backed Securities" and other "Toxic Derivatives".

Is it any wonder we have evolved into the "entitled society"? If we weren't on the government payroll, or subsidized by the US taxpayer through social welfare then we were borrowing our way to prosperity. Enter the God-fearing middle class. Just dumb enough to buy into the scam a couple hundred million people began signing over their paychecks, selling their future for the enjoyment of having things now. We were transformed into non-productive Sheeple, selling our souls for an easier life in lieu of a better future for our children. At our current rate of productive attrition we will soon be a nation of declawed house cats, possessing no skill-set whatsoever to survive in a world where the ability to produce real goods still reins supreme. Yet we remain the "entitled society", when we are entitled to nothing.

We forget (through economic amnesia) that throughout history all societies fail. Nicolaus Copernicus maintained that civilizations failed when bad money, controlled and understood by an elite few, drove out good money.The same can be said for morality. Bad, drives out good. This is a reality of which we should all be acutely aware but rather are immune to its possibility. We dangerously believe we cannot fail. That, in fact, is the greatest gamble of all. A roll of the dice against history, a bet against all natural laws of the universe, all things are in a state of entropy. All things eventually wither away to nothing. To possess longevity is to be ahead of the universe. Sadly, we have constructed a fragile world that produces material things that do not last. The fiat money we use as the currency of our production is by design, destructive itself. The Federal Reserve prints greed, nothing more. But still we covet it. We pursue it as if it had value. And in this pursuit we destroy earth's resources as if the laws of nature have no relevance. We believe there is only now.

We,the entitled society, morally and fiscally bankrupt have borrowed, spent, and bailed our way into a historical corner. Nero should be so proud. Our public trusts are nothing more than government sanctioned check-kiting operations shifting liabilities from one credit card to another faster than our creditors can say "Federal Reserve". The Ponzi-scheme that is our fiat currency system is about to go the way of what was for a time the symbol of American superiority, General Motors. It used to be said that what was good for General Motors was good for our nation. As I claimed in 2005 that GM would go bankrupt I will now guarantee that the US government is soon to follow. How our ultimate entropy will take form I cannot say, but form it will. We will default.We will restructure. It will be at this point our arrogance will end.

Link Here. 

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Portal To Alternatives 

December 15, 2009 (LPAC)—A private group, representing the speculative global bankers who have destroyed the world economy, called for murderous cuts in medical care and social security, and deep reduction in the income of the population through consumption taxes, as the way to overcome the national debt blowout.

The Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform released a report ("Red Ink Rising") at a Washington event, calling for the cuts to be imposed under guidelines not subject to interference by elected government representatives — a fascist coup d'etat.

A leading spokesman for the Commission, former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alice Rivlin, told Executive Intelligence Review that swindles such as derivatives by which incomprehensibly vast sums become owed to speculators, must be honored (i.e. paid off, bailed out), cannot be touched — "they are contracts"; while any and all national commitments to the survival of the American population ("entitlements") are "on the table" for elimination.

The Commission was created by billionaire financier Peter G. Peterson, who rose in the London-Wall Street power axis after he wrote the justification for the Nixon Administration to end Roosevelt's Bretton Woods system, to swamp the world with speculation and destroy our manufacturing. Members of the Commission include many former heads of the Congressional and White House Budget Offices, who presided as "experts" over the transformation of the economy into a globalist casino.

Legislation proposed by the Peterson Commission is now under Congressional consideration, and President Obama has parroted Peterson's lie that Social Security and Medicare overspending are the cause of the dollar/debt crisis. The Washington Post marked the occasion of the "Red Ink" report's issuance with a lead editorial demanding enactment of the Commission's program.

At the press conference, when Alice Rivlin was asked if ending the present Asian wars might save money, the old crone replied that military spending is trivial compared to the government spending on the elderly, which she said takes money away from the younger generation. Other panelists said the states are spending too much on education, that governors who do not drastically cut services would soon be "out of office."

The spokesmen repeatedly predicted that some catastophic "triggering event" would come along to scare the population into submitting to the dictated destruction of living standards. They said that Obama and the Congress must now "get serious" on this throat-cutting, or face the financiers' threat of withdrawal of capital and ending of support for the government.

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By Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
December 17, 2009

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy hosted a dinner for 49 Nobel laureates. The occasion provided the opportunity for JFK to display his keen wit in the memorable quote, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House—with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

I wonder how many of today's high school and college students appreciate Jefferson's genius. Our third president, author of the Declaration of Independence and founder of the University of Virginia, was a masterful scholar of history, a political philosopher for the ages, a noted horticulturist, an archaeologist, architect, and inventor. He also knew a thing or two about money and banking. Let's take a moment here to review the wise insights on money and banking left to us by this consummate Renaissance man.

Regarding money, Jefferson commented, "Paper is poverty … it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself." We should remember this when we contemplate the loss of 95 percent of the purchasing power of the paper currency called "Federal Reserve notes" in less than a century. As Ben Bernanke and the Fed create trillions of new paper "dollars," we, the richest country in history, face the possibility of a hyperinflationary collapse and accompanying impoverishment.

Jefferson, like other Founding Fathers, understood vividly the vulnerability of paper currencies, because of the devastating hyperinflation of the paper Continental dollar during the War for Independence. That is why the Coinage Act of 1792 stipulates gold and silver, NOT paper, as money. Jefferson and the Founders knew that for money to be sound, it needed to be something objective, tangible, unvarying, as well as something that people valued independent of its use as money—something like a fixed weight of gold or silver—rather than something as transitory and insubstantial as "the full faith and credit" of a government of unreliable human beings.

Jefferson intuitively grasped one of the basic principles of free-market economics: In a free, open competitive market, people choose good stuff (food, machines, tools, etc.) over bad stuff, and so goods of superior quality and value push inferior products into oblivion. The only reason Americans today have such an inferior currency is political. Government legislation denies us the freedom to choose what to accept as money. Jefferson wrote, "I now deny [the federal government's] power of making paper money or anything else a legal tender." What a terrible price we have paid and will pay for legal-tender laws forcing us to accept mere paper as money.

Anticipating the Federal Reserve System, Jefferson believed that, "The incorporation of a bank and the powers assumed [by legislation doing so] have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the Constitution. They are not among the powers specially enumerated." In Jefferson's eyes, a central bank is unconstitutional.

Jefferson warned, "If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers occupied … I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies."

Today, Uncle Sam is woefully dependent on the Fed and a few "too-big-to-fail" banks. That is because Uncle Sam is the world's largest debtor, and without these giant banks to maintain a market for its oceans of debt, the federal government would have to shut down.

I once spoke with a congressman after hearing him complain about Federal Reserve policy. When I reminded him that the Fed had been created by an act of Congress, and that the creator controls the creation, he turned ashen, speechless. Is Congress a bunch of cowards or do the banks have a choke-hold on our government?

Are the Fed and the giant money-center banks as "dangerous" as Jefferson believed? Certainly, their power is undeniable.

The wealth of the American people is jeopardized by paper money and big banks. We should have heeded Jefferson's warnings.

Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson is an adjunct faculty member, economist, and contributing scholar with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College.

Link Here. 

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Portal To Alternatives 

The New Media Journal
President Obama has issued an amendment to Executive Order 12425,  designating the international law enforcement agency Interpol as a "public international organization," thus extending diplomatic immunity to the law enforcement group

The amendment to the Executive Order -- which does not need to be put to the senatorial test of "advise and consent" -- reads:

"By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 1 of the International Organizations Immunities Act (22 U.S.C. 288), and in order to extend the appropriate privileges, exemptions, and immunities to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12425 of June 16, 1983, as amended, is further amended by deleting from the first sentence the words "except those provided by Section 2(c), Section 3, Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of that Act" and the semicolon that immediately precedes them."

The text of Section 2(c), which now applies to Interpol states:

"(c) Property and assets of international organizations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation. The archives of international organizations shall be inviolable."

Because of this move by the Obama Administration any and all Interpol offices in the United States cannot be searched due to its status as a diplomatically protected organization. It's offices are considered sovereign and its files are not subject to legal request, be it by subpoena or discovery.

The website ObamaFile.com notes, "If any branch of government wants to keep documents out of the hands of the US court system, just hand them over to Interpol until the smoke clears." It added that Interpol can maintain files on US citizens.

Diplomatic immunity, usually reserved for those who work at diplomatic missions throughout the United States, exempts persons and offices directly connected to foreign governments from being subject to search and seizure by law enforcement. It exempts said entities from US taxes and extends this protection to immunity from FOIA requests.

The amendment to Executive Order 12425, signed by Obama on December 17, 2009, declared Interpol records immune from search and seizure, "The archives of international organizations shall be inviolable."

By virtue of this declaration, any information that Interpol may have on political operatives or elected officials in the US -- including SEIU president Andy Stern, domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and President Obama himself -- would be immune from any attempts to bring the information to light.

Link Here. 

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By DAVIS LUHNOW

Mexico City

Dec 25,2009 

In the 40 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs," the supply and use of drugs has not changed in any fundamental way. The only difference: a taxpayer bill of more than $1 trillion.

A senior Mexican official who has spent more than two decades helping fight the government's war on drugs summed up recently what he's learned from his long career: "This war is not winnable."

Just last week, Mexican Navy Special Forces swarmed a luxury apartment tower in a central city and gunned down Arturo Beltrán Leyva, a drug trafficker whose organization helped smuggle several billion dollars worth of cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. during the past decade, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Within days of Mr. Beltrán Leyva's death, Mexican officials were already trying to guess which of his lieutenants would take his place. Almost no one expected the death of Mr. Beltrán Leyva to slow down the business of drug trafficking or the horrific drug-related violence in Mexico that has claimed around 15,000 lives in the past three years. On Monday, hit men gunned down several family members of a Mexican naval officer who had been killed in the Beltrán Leyva raid. Four people have been arrested in connection with the killing, though Mexican authorities say the hit men are still at large.

Growing numbers of Mexican and U.S. officials say—at least privately—that the biggest step in hurting the business operations of Mexican cartels would be simply to legalize their main product: marijuana. Long the world's most popular illegal drug, marijuana accounts for more than half the revenues of Mexican cartels.

"Economically, there is no argument or solution other than legalization, at least of marijuana," said the top Mexican official matter-of-factly. The official said such a move would likely shift marijuana production entirely to places like California, where the drug can be grown more efficiently and closer to consumers. "Mexico's objective should be to make the U.S. self-sufficient in marijuana," he added with a grin.

He is not alone in his views. Earlier this year, three former Latin American presidents known for their free-market and conservative credentials—Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, Cesar Gaviria of Colombia and Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil—said governments should seriously consider legalizing marijuana as an effective tool against murderous drug gangs.

If the war on drugs has failed, analysts say it is partly because it has been waged almost entirely as a la w-and-order issue, without understanding of how cartels work as a business.

For instance, U.S. anti-drug policy inadvertently helped Mexican gangs gain power. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the U.S. government cracked down on the transport of cocaine from Colombia to U.S. shores through the Caribbean, the lowest-cost supply route. But that simply diverted the flow to the next lowest-cost route: through Mexico. In 1991, 50% of the U.S.-bound cocaine came through Mexico. By 2004, 90% did. Mexico became the FedEx of the cocaine business.

That change in the supply chain came as Colombia waged a successful war to break up the country's Cali and Medellin cartels into dozens of smaller suppliers. Both moves helped the Mexican gangs, who gained pricing power in the market. Before, the Colombian cartels told Mexicans what price they would pay for wholesale cocaine. Now, Mexican gangs play smaller Colombian suppliers off of each other to get the best price. Mexican gangs are "price setters" instead of "price takers."

Some Mexican officials say privately that the U.S. should seriously consider allowing cocaine to pass more easily through the Caribbean again in order to squeeze Mexican gangs. "Would you rather destabilize small countries in the Caribbean or Mexico, which shares a 2,000-mile border with the U.S., is your third-biggest trading partner and has 100 million people?" one official said.

Today, the world's most successful drug trafficking organizations are found in Mexico. Unlike Colombian drug gangs in the 1980s, who relied almost entirely on cocaine, Mexican drug gangs are a one-stop shop for four big-time illicit drugs: marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin. Mexico is the world's second biggest producer of marijuana (the U.S. is No. 1), the major supplier of methamphetamines to the U.S., the key transit point for U.S.-bound cocaine from South America and the hemisphere's biggest producer of heroin.

This diversification helps them absorb shocks from the business. Sales of cocaine in the U.S., for instance, slipped slightly from 2006 to 2008. But that decline was more than made up for by growing sales of methamphetamines.

In many ways, illegal drugs are the most successful Mexican multinational enterprise, employing some 450,000 Mexicans and generating about $20 billion in sales, second only behind the country's oil industry and automotive industry exports. This year, Forbes magazine put Mexican drug lord Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman as No. 401 on the world's list of billionaires.

Unlike their rough-hewn parents and uncles, today's young traffickers wear Armani suits, carry BlackBerrys and hit the gym for exercise. One drug lord's accountant who was arrested in 2006 had a mid-level job at Mexico's central bank for 15 years.

Recently, Mexico's deputy agriculture minister, Jeffrey Jones, told some of the country's leading farmers that they could learn a thing or two from Mexican drug traffickers. "It's a sector that has learned to identify markets and create the logistics to reach them," he said. Days later, Mr. Jones was forced to resign. "He may be right," one top Mexican official confided, "but you can't say things like that publicly."

Mr. Jones says he stands by his comments.

Because governments make drugs illegal, the risk associated with transporting them translates to high rewards for those willing to take that risk. The wholesale price of a single kilo of cocaine, for instance, costs $1,200 in Colombia, $2,300 in Panama, $8,300 in Mexico, and between $15,000 and $25,000 in the U.S., depending on how close you are to the Mexican border. At a retail level on the streets of New York, it can run close to $80,000. With markups like that, the business is bound to keep attracting new entrants, no matter what governments do to stop it.

Governments also have a hard time stopping the drugs trade because, like any good business, trafficking organizations innovate and adapt. Mexican customs has stumbled upon a long list of ingenious methods to transport cocaine, including one shipment of liquefied cocaine smuggled in red wine bottles. Another recent bust yielded 800 kilos of cocaine—worth an estimated $40 million—stuffed inside a batch of frozen sharks.

By DAVIS LUHNOW

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by Chuck DiFalco | December 29, 2009

As people prepare to pop champagne corks at midnight on New Year's Eve, I see media hype about the years 2000-2009 being the "lost decade" in America.  Those years overall were bad ones for Wall Street, but not for Main Street. So what if 401k portfolios became "201k" in and around the 2001 recession?  House prices still went up.  Jobs disappeared primarily in computer technology sector.  The American middle class directly or indirectly measures its economic well being first by jobs and second by home ownership.  All the other factors combined don't equal to either of these factors.  Just because the stock market performed poorly over the zeroes doesn't mean it was a lost decade in suburbia.  Middle America did just fine all the way through 2007 when the unemployment rate last stayed below 5%.  Too bad Main Street's lost decade didn't start on an even number nicely packaged for media spin and public consumption.

On the topic of the 401k, there is a faction attacking this popular employee benefit. For example, Stephen Gandel of Time Magazine wrote: "The average 401(k) has a balance of $45,519.  That's not retirement." His conclusion: "The ugly truth, though, is that the 401(k) is a lousy idea, a financial flop, a rotten repository for our retirement reserves."   There the media goes again.  Another factoid spun into a fallacy.

I consider my situation typical.  I have multiple accounts in addition to my 401k.  They are called rollover IRAs; I have worked for multiple employers like almost every employee who started working since 1980.  Portability is why 401k's gained traction in the first place.  My accounts are spread over multiple mutual fund companies.  On average, they are less than the quoted figure.  Together, they represent years of prudent saving and investing. Apparently Mr. Gandel forgot to add.  A few employees suffer life events that set back their finances, more handle their finances irresponsibly, and many more than that do just fine.  The left wing press has lost touch with how the middle America leads its financial life.

Unfortunately, some magazine writers aren't the only disconnected ones.  "[The 401k] may be a good tax-free-savings system for wealthy individuals," said George Miller, Congressional Democrat of California's 7th District.  Well I have news for you, Mr. Miller, I'm not wealthy, and the 401k works well for me and millions of registered middle class voters just like me.  So what would politicians like Mr. Miller do?  Invited to speak before a Congressional Committee, academic Teresa Ghilarducci proposed to replace the 401k with another government run program.  I feel saved.

The ugly truth really is that people like Gandel, Ghilarducci, and Miller remain ignorant of and/or politically biased against what's good for the American middle class.  These ivory tower denizens don't want to give the ordinary American the opportunity to win or lose.  They want the US government to immunize working people from risk taking and decision making.  They want to mandate equal outcomes.  Everybody wins!  Nobody is below average!  If they haven't figured it out by now, government is part of the problem.

The 401k is the rare exception where the government got it right by combining personal responsibility with payroll friendly accounts. The feds standardized rules and then kept their hands off operations. Each plan might have limited choices.  However,  rollover IRAs into which 401k balances get funneled after switching jobs involve many options.  With disappearing pension plans and the now exposed IOUs in Social Security, the 401k plan is this best opportunity for the middle class to retire at all.

Personal responsibility is  an idea that is anathema to left wing ideologues.  These same ideologues would better serve not only the American middle class, but all Americans by fixing the real retirement  problem.  The real retirement problem in the US is the intergenerational Ponzi scam absurdly known as the "Social Security Trust Fund."  In the coming decade, coming up with real money to pay social security benefits will threaten the solvency of the American government.

I don't mean to single out liberals.  In fairness, other segments of the status quo deserve criticism.  For their part, Republicans were all too eager to bail out the fat cat bankers and their Wall Street handlers.  (By the way, I haven't seen a change in 2009.)  Money that could have funded Social Security obligations has already been spent.  Also, Republicans never met a tax cut they didn't like because "deficits don't matter."  Well, deficits don't matter, until they do.  That moment next decade when federal financial mismanagement matters, those leaders will be long gone and blame everyone else if confronted. 

For their part, the bankers and financiers have joined forces to serve their own interests.  Wall Street doesn't seem to have changed much since the market meltdown of 2008.  The rules enabling them to dump toxic securities on the global markets still exist.  CEO Chuck Price: when "the [speculation] music is playing, you've got to get up and dance."  They take the money and run.  Also, now bankers won't lend to creditworthy small businesses.  The biggest job generation machine stalls as a result.  Where is the modern counterpart of Amadeo Giannini?

If 2007 was the start of the lost decade, then the end won't get behind us until late in the teens.  Credit crisis recessions don't resolve themselves after a year or two like excess inventory recessions.  While US consumers and the banks deleverage, the US government leverages up.  Uncle Sam is taking on more debt that it can't pay back.  A debt default is too much an obvious television event, the kind that gets politicians unelected.  Politicians are dumb, but they aren't stupid.  The US Congress, the Administration, and the Federal Reserve will instead opt for under-the-table money printing during 2010-2017.  The writing on the wall says "inflation."  Alas, if only Milton Friedman were still alive.

America's current power brokers just don't get it.  I know, there are always exceptions, like my Congressman Ron Paul and media figure Lou Dobbs.  Upon us now blows the perfect storm combination of serious economic problems and poor leadership.  The media's detachment from the ordinary American's plight, the federal government's stubborn reliance on party line politics and empty promises, and Wall Street's greed ensures a smaller American middle class towards the end of the next decade.  I don't plan to be a statistic.  Self education, spending less than your income, control over your accounts, and big picture awareness of the global economy can make you succeed as well.

Copyright © 2009 Chuck DiFalco

"I rememberPRESIDENT OBAMAtalking to me about how he had joined the ILL CULT - he didn'twant to -but he describedhimself as just an ordinary guy who wanted to take awage packet home...that ishow it was...he didn'twant to end up on thestreets...at the end of the day, it was all aboutmoney...you had to have it tolive...if he hadn't joined the ILL CULT...he would have been disbarred...hewouldn't have got a job...wouldn't havebeen able to live...that's how a lot of people get conned into joining the ILL.You are young,you want toprove yourself in life - you are told that you will 'neverget a job' if youdon't...the ILL provehow powerful they are."

I don't know if this is true but it is plausible.

CONCLUSION

When Iwas a sixties radical, we used to think people who worked forthe Establishment had sold their soul to the devil. I didn't imagine itwas literally true, as the Illuminati are Satan worshippers, soyou're unwittingly working for his disciples.

The worldhas been colonized by this Satanic cult. What we are experiencing, whiletrying to maintain some civilized traditions over Christmas, is theirrelentless attempt to induct us into their cult as mind controlledservants.

Link Here. 

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While some may view this phenomenon with fear, I welcome it and believe that although difficult times are ahead, the accelerating change provides an opportunity to transition into a better societal structure. Not only will the economic and political breakdown clean the slate and allow for a better system to be built, but the rapidity of this change means that we may actually be able to see the changes manifest within our lifetimes. While this is exciting to think about, it makes predictions such as these a bit more difficult to pen.

I've managed to get about 8 of 10 right in the past few years, but admittedly did not anticipate how quickly or strongly the stock market would rebound in 2009. I was also early to predict that deflation would subside and inflation would materialize, although there are some signs of the coming storm.

Here are my 10 predictions or best guesses for what will transpire in 2010:

1. Deflationary Pressure Continues

I know this may come as a surprise to gold investors, but I believe the U.S. and world economy will likely experience a continued deflationary dip during 2010. Banks are still not lending and the expansion of the monetary base is not keeping pace with the massive contraction in the credit markets. With the commercial real estate shoe yet to drop and a glut of production capacity, deflation is the more likely and immediate threat to the economy. I believe the Fed and government pull out all of the stops to fight the deflationary threat. With new consumer stimulus programs, tax rebates, government lending, pressure on the banks to lend and the printing presses running overtime, all of the newly-created money will eventually work its way into the system and as the velocity increases, deflation will subside and inflationary pressures will materialize. This could easily spiral out of control and lead to hyperinflation during 2011-2012, as no matter how confidently Ben Bernanke speaks of his abilities, once the money is created and flows into the economy it multiplies via fractional reserve banking and becomes very difficult to soak back up. So while I view widespread inflation as inevitable, I don't think it will happen in 2010.

2. Stock Market Rangebound

I believe the plunge protection team will continue to support the stock market during 2010, although the growth will slow considerably. As stocks are mainly a cash market, the deflationary impact felt in the credit markets will have little impact on stocks. The market is due for a correction and there may be short volatile swings as investors lose confidence, but I think the market will end the year little changed (+/- 5%). The market is on life support, with a fat IV injection of liquidity via the government and Fed. Absent this meddling, the market would currently be much lower and I would be predicting new lows for 2010.

3. Fed Funds Rate to Remain Near Zero

While many are anticipating a rise in rates during 2010, I believe the Fed will be forced to keep rates low due to deflationary pressures. Any rate increase would wreak havoc on the markets and this is the Fed's biggest fear. At most, a small increase could occur towards the end of 2010. Higher rates are certainly on the horizon, but I think we need to see much higher inflation before the Fed changes course.

4. Real Estate Prices Flat to Lower

Real estate prices are likely to flat-line or decline during 2010. As real estate is heavily reliant on the rapidly-contracting credit market, deflation will trump any inflationary pressures created from the expansion in base money. There is an over-supply of housing and the high rate of foreclosures is likely to continue or increase during 2010. I believe real estate will be an excellent buy at some point in the next 5-10 years, but it is nowhere near a bottom yet.

5. Unemployment Remains High

Officially-reported unemployment (U-3) will hang around 10% for most of 2010, but could rise to as high as 12% nationwide. Of course, true unemployment that counts marginally employed and discouraged workers is closer to 20% currently. Government will be the major source of any new jobs, as private enterprise and small businesses continue to struggle. Of course, any wealth or jobs the government claims to create is really just a wealth transfer and not true or sustainable growth.

6. U.S. Dollar Rallies, but Drops to New Lows by Year End

With rates likely to remain near zero, I anticipate more dollar weakness during 2010. The Fed doubled the supply of base money during the past year, deficits are at record levels and Asian countries have already begun diversifying out of dollars. There have also been reports suggesting Arab countries, China, Russia, Japan and France want to end oil dealings in dollars. If the dollar begins to lose its status as world reserve currency, look out below! The current bounce could continue a bit longer before the plunge, but by the end of the year the dollar index will be at or below 70.

7. Gold and Silver to Make New Nominal Highs

While some are claiming gold has peaked, I believe gold is nowhere near a top and will reach a new nominal high between $1,300-$1,500 during 2010. Silver will outperform gold reaching $24 or higher as the gold/silver ratio dips towards 55. Remember, gold can perform well during periods of inflation or deflation. While I believe deflation is the greater threat during 2010, this will occur primarily in credit-based markets such as real estate. Cash-based markets such as precious metals are likely to experience inflation as record amounts of new money have been printed during the past year. Look for more central bank purchases during 2010, as well as significant purchases from China and other countries that are eager to diversify away from dollars. The gold/silver suppression story will continue to gain steam and with more and more investors demanding delivery, pressure will increase on shorts and COMEX regulators. There will be some type of rule change or restructuring at minimum and the potential for default is possible. Lastly, the Dow/Gold ratio will decline after bouncing in 2009.

8. Energy Prices to Push Higher

With the strengthening economy, increasing demand from China and India, plus declining supplies, I expect energy prices to move much higher during 2010. Oil will trade most of the year in the $75-$100 range, but will break above $100 for some time. I think natural gas will generate even greater returns than crude oil as it bounces off oversold lows. In addition, I expect clean energy companies to rebound during the 1st half of 2010 and think lithium and rare earth miners will benefit from this trend.

9. Agriculture Prices to Rise Sharply

One thing that is certainly not in over-supply is agriculture. With a very poor harvest season, lack of water in key agricultural areas and exploding demand from a growing middle class in China and India, I believe prices for many food items will shoot dramatically higher in 2010 and subsequent years. Investing in quality fertilizer companies should prove very profitable over the next few years.

10. More Bank Failures, Political Tension, Voter Discontent

I anticipate more banks will fail during 2010, allowing the largest banks to scoop up smaller competitors at bargain prices. Tensions will increase in the Middle East and between the U.S. and China/Russia. A major attack will be attempted on U.S. soil, the electorate will turn against corporatist politicians of both parties and a third political party will begin to emerge. Faith in the political system will continue to wane causing a growing movement towards restructuring society under a better system. People will become less apathetic as government meddling and banker exploitation will finally begin to hit everyone in the pocketbook. Look for more frugality, local buying, community organization and a move towards becoming self-sustaining.

While many are fearful of the political and economic climate at the moment, I remain optimistic that the current crisis is a necessary cleansing of the system and will allow for the rebuilding of a better society. The transition will undoubtedly be difficult as jobs become scarce, prices rise and crime and civil unrest flourish. However, there are common sense steps that you can take to protect yourself and your family. Besides diversifying out of dollars, moving your money out of banks and owning precious metals directly, you should also consider becoming more self-sufficient, learning to garden, stockpiling food and supplies which might become scarce, continually educating yourself and encouraging others to stop supporting a failed ponzi-based system. As it collapses under the weight of its own hubris and corruption, there will be enormous opportunities to profit individually and collectively as a society. The better prepared we all are to weather the storm and facilitate the transition, the better our future promises to be.

Link Here. 

Jason Hamlin
Founder - GoldStockBull
www.goldstockbull.com
Jason@...

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Edited by Stefanie Carignan

Venezuela - El Universal - Original Article (Spanish)

Obama's Nobel Prize acceptance speech sought to legitimize his bellicose strategies

Concerned by increases in bombing and assassinations of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan; the shipment of more soldiers, bombs, military planes and the equipment of war to seven Colombian military bases; the refusal to release of photographs showing torture and the names of those responsible for it in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo; the absence of punishments for U.S. citizens guilty of torture, acts of terrorism, civilian assassinations and grave war crimes, a group of Latin American organizations used the occasion of the recent International Human Rights Day, December 10th, to send a public letter to Mr. Barack Obama, U.S. president and Nobel Peace Prize recipient of 2009, exhorting him to take the following actions to demonstrate his genuine will to achieve peace in the world:

"Cease to invade nations, promote war and send soldiers and arms to Iraq and Afghanistan, as called for by the United Nations Security and Human Rights Councils, which called for the implementation of a plan for withdrawal from these nations."

"Do not send troops or construct military bases to intervene in Colombia and South America."

"Do not support or recognize the actions or organized elections by the coup forces in Honduras."

"Close the military bases in Guantanamo, Colombia, Aruba, Curacao, and Honduras, as well as the "School of Assassins" (School of the Americas or Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) in Fort Benning, Georgia."

"Order the immediate trial and extradition to Venezuela of the torturer, assassin, and terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who is currently protected by his government after multiple violent crimes against humanity and his involvement in bombing of Cubana Flight 455 in 1976."

"Prohibit the practice of torture and publicly order the trial of militants and U.S. citizens responsible of torture and other crimes against humanity. In addition, prohibit the secret deporting of persons to nations where torture is practiced and capital punishment is permissible."

"Begin the progressive, rapid dismantling and elimination of all atomic bombs and other weapons of mass destruction."

Unfortunately, Obama's speech upon receiving the Nobel Prize strayed far from the exhortations reproduced above and instead sought to legitimize his warmongering strategies. As the Mexican newspaper La Jornada skillfully demonstrates, the decision of Norwegian academics to grant Obama the good luck of a preventative Nobel Prize—in an effort to reinforce peaceful tendencies in U.S. public power—has proven to be a profoundly mistaken one. On the contrary, the Prize has signified a lucky permission to kill—that is to say, a splendid alibi with which the superpower's Head of State will be able to justify (as he has already done) whatever act of war or barbarism he commits in the name of national security, the promotion of democracy or, simply, peace.

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By: The_Gold_Report

321gold founder Bob Moriarty returns to The Gold Report for a lively exclusive interview about what he sees as the best investments for 2010. "Last year it was gold," says Bob, "and this year I believe it will be gold shares." Noting that Bernanke 'destroyed the financial system of the world,' Bob sees two possible outcomes—a deflationary collapse wherein the U.S. refuses to pay back its $10 trillion debt, or hyperinflation. "Those are the only two alternatives," he says, "and either is pretty bad."

Want to read more exclusive Gold Report interviews like this? Sign up for our free e-newsletter, and you'll learn when new articles have been published. To see a list of recent interviews with industry analysts and commentators, visit our Expert Insights page.

DISCLOSURE:
1) Karen Roche, of The Gold Report, conducted this interview. She personally and/or her family own none of the companies mentioned in this interview.
2) The following companies mentioned in the interview are sponsors of The Gold Report: Avalon Rare Metals; Revett Minerals, Goldcorp.
3) Michael Berry—I personally and/or my family own the following companies mentioned in this interview: Senesco Technologies, Goldcorp, Quaterra Resources, and Galway Resources.
I personally and/or my family am paid by the following companies mentioned in this interview: Revett Minerals.

The GOLD Report is Copyright © 2010 by Streetwise Inc. All rights are reserved. Streetwise Inc. hereby grants an unrestricted license to use or disseminate this copyrighted material only in whole (and always including this disclaimer), but never in part. The GOLD Report does not render investment advice and does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned in this report. From time to time, Streetwise Inc. directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned and may make purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise.

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Obama stimulus funds tagged for fake zip codes

Posted: January 07, 2010
12:30 am Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling

WorldNetDaily

By Daniel Tencer
Thursday, January 7th, 2010

A lawsuit filed against investment bank Goldman Sachs by a shareholder alleges that the company spent more money on corporate bonuses than it earned in 2008.

Shareholder Ken Brown's lawsuit is one of two suits filed against the company this week over its controversial decision to hand out billions of dollars in bonuses even after it was accused of playing a central role in the financial collapse of 2008 and receiving $10 billion in direct aid from the US government.

In his lawsuit (PDF), Brown states that Goldman Sachs gave out $4.82 billion in bonuses in 2008, despite earnings of only $2.32 billion that year. The lawsuit alleges that the company spent 259 percent of its income in the first quarter of 2009 on compensation.

Goldman Sachs handed out $16.7 billion in compensation in the first nine months of 2009, according to Bloomberg news service, and that figure may reach $22 billion for the entire year. Brown's suit says the company typically sets aside 44 percent of its net revenue for employees.

"Payment of this exorbitant amount of compensation, which has little to do with Goldman Sachs's performance, and was financed in large part with government bailout and taxpayer money, is a waste of the company's assets and a breach of duty and loyalty," Brown asserts in the suit.

Brown's suit asks the court to order the company to return the bonus money to company coffers.

In another lawsuit, filed Thursday, an Illinois pension fund that is a Goldman shareholder demanded that Goldman return some of the compensation it has handed out since the financial collapse. The Central Laborers' Pension Fund wants compensation for damages to shareholders from the company's compensation spending.

Reuters reports:

The lawsuit contends that Goldman's revenue for the year was artificially inflated by government bailouts of the banking industry and the insurer American International Group Inc, as well as a change in Goldman's fiscal year.

Such sums, and Goldman's practice of continuing to pay out nearly 50 percent of net revenue as compensation, show "scant regard" for the interests of shareholders, it said.

Both lawsuits "are completely without merit," Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael DuVally told Bloomberg news.

Goldman Sachs has paid back the $10 billion it received in direct aid from taxpayers, meaning the company is not bound by government compensation limits. But the $10 billion figure doesn't include the billions more the company received thanks to pressure by the Fed on insurance giant AIG to pay all of its debts to Goldman -- and other AIG creditors -- in full.

On Thursday, it was revealed that during the financial crisis, the New York Fed -- then run by current Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner -- tried to cover up its demand that AIG use taxpayers' money to compensate Goldman Sachs.

Daniel Tencer

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#1) When even Wal-Mart is closing stores you know things are bad.  Wal-Mart announced on Monday that it will close 10 money-losing Sam's Club stores and will cut 1,500 jobs in order to reduce costs.  So if even Wal-Mart has to shut down stores, what chance do other retailers have?

#2) Americans are going broke at a staggering pace.  1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 - a 32 percent increase over 2008.

#3) American workers are working harder than ever and yet making less.  After adjusting for inflation, pay for production and non-supervisory workers (80 percent of the private workforce) is 9% lower than it was in 1973.  But those Americans who do still have jobs are the fortunate ones.

#4) Unemployment is absolutely exploding all over the United States.  Minority groups have been hit particularly hard.  For example, unemployment on many U.S. Indian reservations is over 80 percent.

#5) Unfortunately the employment situation is showing no signs of turning around.  December was actually the worst month for U.S. unemployment since the so-called "Great Recession" began.

#6) So just how bad are things when compared to past recessions?  During the 2001 recession, the U.S. economy lost 2% of its jobs and it took four years to get them back. This time the U.S. economy has lost more than 5% of its jobs and there is no sign that the bleeding of jobs will stop any time soon.

#7) Can you imagine trying to get your first job in this economic climate?  Our young men and women either can't get work or have given up on work altogether.  The percentage of Americans 16 to 24 who have jobs is 13 percent lower than ten years ago.

#8) So where did all the jobs go?  Over the past few decades we have allowed the corporate giants to ship mountains of American jobs overseas, and there are signs that this trend is only going to get worse.  In fact, Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder estimates that 22% to 29% of all current U.S. jobs will be offshorable within two decades.  So get ready for even more of our jobs to be shipped off to Mexico, China and India.

#9) All of these job losses are leading to defaults on mortgages.  Over the past couple of years we have seen the American Dream in reverse.  According to a report that was just released, delinquent home loans at government-controlled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac surged 20 percent from July through September.

#10) But that is nothing compared to what is coming.  A massive "second wave" of mortgage defaults is getting ready to hit the U.S. economy starting in 2010.  In fact, this "second wave" is so frightening that even 60 Minutes is reporting on it. 

#11) Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has announced that it made a record profit of $46.1 billion in 2009.  Apparently during this economic crisis it is a very good time to be a bankster.

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January 21, 2010

Ron Holland

As the United States moves into a new decade of military overreach abroad and national bankruptcy at home, Washington is in a desperate search for more revenue and a solution to the future financing of the trillions in national debt obligations currently held by foreign central banks and investors. Economists, politicians and smart investors know the dollar's days as the world reserve currency are numbered as is our ability to finance the national debt.

Although the historical government solution to unsustainable government debt loads has always been the destruction of the debts by currency depreciation and eventual hyperinflation, there is always an intermediate step used to buy more time for the politicians in power. This action, usually sidestepped and downplayed by the establishment historians paid to hide the real facts of history is wealth confiscation. Napoleon had it right when he stated, "History is a state of lies agreed upon."

The largest source of liquid private wealth remaining in the United States are the $15 trillion in private retirement funds and the ultimate ownership, control and future of these funds have already been compromised and exchanged for the favorable tax treatment of private retirement plans. Congress writes the laws, so they can tax, penalize, hold your funds hostage and although they'd never use the word, "confiscate" your assets at their discretion.

The retirement trap I'm writing about is only a proposal at the present time and since it may well begin in the latter years of the Obama Administration assuming the Democrats can somehow maintain their majorities in Congress, I'm calling it the "Obama Retirement Trap". But make no mistake, the government need for current revenue and their frenzied search for a short-term fix to fund a backstop of liquidity to buy future government debt obligations when no credible investors will buy them is an unspoken quest of both political parties. The establishments of both political parties will do anything to stay in power and this will include raiding and pillaging your retirement funds.

Washington Proposals for a Mandatory Guaranteed Retirement Annuity

The government is getting ready to use that power and in a remarkably cunning way.

The prototype for their plan was devised in 1991 by Alicia H. Munnell, then Director of Research for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. She presented the idea in a paper entitled "Current Taxation of Qualified Pension Plans: Has the Time Come?" Later she was promoted to Assistant Treasury Secretary, and along with Robert Reich, Henry Cisneros and Hillary Clinton, she began to plot a raid on retirement funds. One element of the scheme was to create a Mandatory Pension System and fund it with a one-time 15% tax on retirement assets and a recurring 15% tax on retirement plan income.

I warned about this in my 1994 book, "Escape the Pension Trap". Fortunately, the GOP election victory that same year derailed the Mandatory Pension System.

Guess what? It's back… and nicely repackaged. It's back because, due to slumping tax collection, Washington is on a desperate search for a new revenue stream. And this time they don't want to just tax your retirement assets, they're out to take them.

Teresa Ghilarducci: The New Architect of the Retirement Plan Wealth Attack

The latest leftist plan first appeared in 2007 at the Economic Policy Institute: Agenda for Shared Prosperity. In 2008, she became the new Director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research. In her book, "When I'm 64: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them", she hypes her retirement solution for millions who do not have adequate retirement savings and her solution is to confiscate most of the retirement assets of successful Americans.

Here's her plan…

Each year, the government will put $600 into a Guaranteed Retirement Account for you and every other working person in America. If $600 amounts to more than 5% of your annual compensation (if you earn more than $12,000) you will be required to contribute 5% of your total annual compensation to the GRA. The Feds will promise to pay a 3% "inflation adjusted return" on each GRA, based on the government's Consumer Price Index. When you retire, you receive a portion of the account each month. Then — get this — when you die, your heirs receive only 50% of what's in your GRA. The rest goes to Uncle Sam. Remember, this is the good news!

Next…

Following the introduction of Guaranteed Retirement Accounts, the next step will be to cap the tax deduction for annual contributions to existing private retirement plans at 5,000. (Many Americans will support this, given the hostility to the well-publicized Wall Street mega-bonuses and retirement plans.) Next will be a tax on every retirement plan's income, to provide an immediate flow of revenue to the Feds. Finally, there would be a prohibition on buying any non-U.S. investment for any retirement plan.

What Would Spark This Nationalization?

A plan this radical can't just be slipped through Congress. It can only ride into law on a first-class national crisis. Have you noticed that somehow the politicians are always able to find one when they need one.

• Loss of Triple-A Status for U.S. Treasury Bonds

The loss of triple-A status for Treasury bonds is the most likely trigger. And according to Steven Hess, Moody's lead analyst for the U.S., it's not that far-fetched. He states, "The AAA rating of the U.S. is not guaranteed. So if they don't get the deficit down in the next 3 to 4 years to a sustainable level, then the rating will be in jeopardy."

• Terrorist Attack or Military Disaster

A terrorist attack or a military disaster like the collapse of Pakistan or an Israel/Iran conflict and disruption of oil shipments could close American markets just as we saw in 2001. That would create a financial crisis over night.

• Another Economic Meltdown

After years of deficits, the greatest hazard to our economy is a run on the dollar and on Treasury securities by foreign investors. Although America's foreign creditors don't want to start a run on Treasury debt — they prefer a slow, orderly retreat — no one intends to be the last to head for the exit. Political or economic pressure in Asia could force Japan or China to take immediate action and dump our debt and knock the prices down to fire-sale levels.

What happens if China decides to cut its losses on U.S. Treasuries and issues a $100 billion sell order? That's only 10% of their holdings, but it could set off panic selling of dollar-denominated bonds and crush the U.S. stock market like an egg shell. Mortgage rates would spike, which would suck the housing market into another air pocket. The President would probably sign an Executive Order closing the markets until order could be restored.

Any of those events would take place in an atmosphere of deep public worry and fear. That's when Washington would come to your rescue and guarantee to restore your retirement funds back to a "pre-crash" level. How nice, right? However, in exchange you would need to "voluntarily" move your retirement assets into your new Guaranteed Retirement Account.

For those who don't sign up for a GRA because they're not fooled by the carrot, there would be sticks to consider.

1. Additional withdrawal penalties and taxes on their retirement plan.
2. Limitations on permissible investments — nothing that isn't "in the public interest."
3. Mandatory minimum holdings for targeted investments, such as Treasury obligations.

Remember, these retirement proposals are just in the discussion stage but progressives are promoting this confiscation agenda to the Obama Administration as a new source of revenue for a bankrupt federal government desperate for additional sources of revenue.

When the next economic or stock market crisis hits, your retirement assets will be at risk from this type confiscation effort regardless of whether the Democrats or Republicans are in control.

The Confiscation Event

At some time during the next decade, a global run on treasury debt and the dollar will also likely take the American stock market down past lows not seen since the financial meltdown crisis in 2008 and 2009. The 50% to 75% stock market pullback during the actual bankruptcy of the Washington debt and paper dollar will send shock waves through retirees and current plan participants as their private retirement plan balances plummet.

At this time, Washington will come to the rescue and guarantee all private retirement plan market values back to pre-crisis levels. The gullible American public will overwhelmingly support this effort by switching their dwindling funds into the Guaranteed Retirement Annuity managed by the government. For the first few years, Washington will probably label those few of us who warn that that Americans have lost their retirement benefits as extremists, Ron Paul paranoids and Tea Party advocates.

Then it will become crystal clear to all Americans that their retirement benefits have been given away for a promise by an evil group of plunderers who have never in their history kept a promise, a guarantee or their word on anything. The greatest theft of wealth in the history of the world will have taken place and only those few who heeded an early warning will still have their retirement benefits and security.

Regards,
Ron Holland

Link Here. 

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...The U.S. Economy Is Dying And Is Simply Not Going To Recover.

Even though the U.S. financial system nearly experienced a total meltdown in late 2008, the truth is that most Americans simply have no idea what is happening to the U.S. economy.  Most people seem to think that the nasty little recession that we have just been through is almost over and that we will be experiencing another time of economic growth and prosperity very shortly.  But this time around that is not the case.  The reality is that we are being sucked into an economic black hole from which the U.S. economy will never fully recover.

The problem is debt.  Collectively, the U.S. government, the state governments, corporate America and American consumers have accumulated the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.  Our massive debt binge has financed our tremendous growth and prosperity over the last couple of decades, but now the day of reckoning is here.

And it is going to be painful.

The following are 20 reasons why the U.S. economy is dying and is simply not going to recover....

#1) Do you remember that massive wave of subprime mortgages that defaulted in 2007 and 2008 and caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression?  Well, the "second wave" of mortgage defaults in on the way and there is simply no way that we are going to be able to avoid it.  A huge mountain of mortgages is going to reset starting in 2010, and once those mortgage payments go up there are once again going to be millons of people who simply cannot pay their mortgages.  The chart below reveals just how bad the second wave of adjustable rate mortgages is likely to be over the next several years....

#2) The Federal Housing Administration has announced plans to increase the amount of up-front cash paid by new borrowers and to require higher down payments from those with the poorest credit.  The Federal Housing Administration currently backs about 30 percent of all new home loans and about 20 percent of all new home refinancing loans.  Tighter standards are going to mean that less people will qualify for loans.  Less qualifiers means that there will be less buyers for homes.  Less buyers means that home prices are going to drop even more.

#3) It is getting really hard to find a job in the United States.  A total of 6,130,000 U.S. workers had been unemployed for 27 weeks or more in December 2009.  That was the most ever since the U.S. government started keeping track of this statistic in 1948.  In fact, it is more than double the 2,612,000 U.S. workers who were unemployed for a similar length of time in December 2008.  The reality is that once Americans lose their jobs they are increasingly finding it difficult to find new ones.  Just check out the chart below....

#4) In December, there were also 929,000 "discouraged" workers who are not counted as part of the labor force because they have "given up" looking for work.  That is the most since the U.S. government first started keeping track of discouraged workers in 1949.  Many Americans have simply given up and are now chronically unemployed.

#5) Some areas of the U.S. are already virtually in a state of depression.  The mayor of Detroit estimates that the real unemployment rate in his city is now somewhere around 50 percent.

#6) For decades, our leaders in Washington pushed us towards "a global economy" and told us it would be so good for us.  But there is a flip side.  Now workers in the U.S. must compete with workers all over the world, and our greedy corporations are free to pursue the cheapest labor available anywhere on the globe.  Millions of jobs have already been shipped out of the United States, and Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder estimates that 22% to 29% of all current U.S. jobs will be offshorable within two decades.  The days when blue collar workers could live the American Dream are gone and they are not going to come back.   

#7) During the 2001 recession, the U.S. economy lost 2% of its jobs and it took four years to get them back. This time around the U.S. economy has lost more than 5% of its jobs and there is no sign that the bleeding of jobs is going to stop any time soon.

#8) All of this unemployment is putting severe stress on state unemployment funds.  At this point, 25 state unemployment insurance funds have gone broke and the Department of Labor estimates that 15 more state unemployment funds will likely go broke within two years and will need massive loans from the federal government just to keep going.

#9) 37 million Americans now receive food stamps, and the program is expanding at a pace of about 20,000 people a day.  The United States of America is very quickly becoming a socialist welfare state.

#10) The number of Americans who are going broke is staggering.  1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 - a 32 percent increase over 2008.

#11) For decades, the fact that the U.S. dollar was the reserve currency of the world gave the U.S. financial system an unusual degree of stability.  But all of that is changing.  Foreign countries are increasingly turning away from the dollar to other currencies.  For example, Russia's central bank announced on Wednesday that it had started buying Canadian dollars in a bid to diversify its foreign exchange reserves.

#12) The recent economic downturn has left some localities totally bankrupt.  For instance, Jefferson County, Alabama is on the brink of what would be the largest government bankruptcy in the history of the United States - surpassing the 1994 filing by Southern California's Orange County.

#13) The U.S. is facing a pension crisis of unprecedented magnitude.  Virtually all pension funds in the United States, both private and public, are massively underfunded.  With millions of Baby Boomers getting ready to retire, there is simply no way on earth that all of these obligations can be met.  Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Chicago and Joshua D. Rauh of Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management recently calculated the collective unfunded pension liability for all 50 U.S. states for Forbes magazine.  So what was the total?  3.2 trillion dollars.

#14) Social Security and Medicare expenses are wildly out of control.  Once again, with millions of Baby Boomers now at retirement age there is simply going to be no way to pay all of these retirees what they are owed.

#15) So will the U.S. government come to the rescue?  The U.S. has allowed the total federal debt to balloon by 50% since 2006 to $12.3 trillion.  The chart below is a bit outdated, but it does show the reckless expansion of U.S. government debt over the past several decades.  To get an idea of where we are now, just add at least 3 trillion dollars on to the top of the chart....

#16) So has the U.S. government learned anything from these mistakes?  No.  In fact, Senate Democrats on Wednesday proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $2 trillion to pay its bills, a record increase that would allow the U.S. national debt to reach approximately $14.3 trillion. 

#17) It is going to become even harder for the U.S. government to pay the bills now that tax receipts are falling through the floor.  U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% in the year that ended on September 30th, 2009.

#18) So where will the U.S. government get the money?  From the Federal Reserve of course.  The Federal Reserve bought approximately 80 percent of all U.S. Treasury securities issued in 2009.  In other words, the U.S. government is now being financed by a massive Ponzi scheme.

#19) The reckless expansion of the money supply by the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve is going to end up destroying the U.S. dollar and the value of the remaining collective net worth of all Americans.  The more dollars there are, the less each individual dollar is worth.  In essence, inflation is like a hidden tax on each dollar that you own.  When they flood the economy with money, the value of the money you have in your bank accounts goes down.  The chart below shows the growth of the U.S. money supply.  Pay particular attention to the very end of the chart which shows what has been happening lately.  What do you think this is going to do to the value of the U.S. dollar?....

#20) When a nation practices evil, there is no way that it is going to be blessed in the long run.  The truth is that we have become a nation that is dripping with corruption and wickedness from the top to the bottom.  Unless this fundamentally changes, not even the most perfect economic policies in the world are going to do us any good.  In the end, you always reap what you sow.  The day of reckoning for the U.S. economy is here and it is not going to be pleasant.

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Jan 26, 2010

By: Lorimer Wilson

In spite of philosophical differences in many areas of politics and economics, Ron Paul and Simon Johnson agree that the cosiness that exists between the U. S. Congress and the financial elite has not worked, and is not working, in the best interest of the average American. They both suggest that major changes must be made in that relationship to strengthen the American economy. Is it too late, however, to avoid the repercussions of an even weaker greenback, rising inflation and the opening of the floodgates in the price of all investments related to gold and silver?

"When Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve, he urged AIG officials not to disclose to the

Securities Exchange Commission relevant details of agreements with banks to bail out Goldman Sachs. Apparently he felt at the time that regulators and the public would be angry that taxpayer money was used to fully compensate bankers who made some horrifically bad investment decisions. These banks should have suffered the consequences of the huge risks they were taking. After all, they kept plenty of rewards when times were good. Instead, the Fed found a way to socialize these major losses so these banks could survive and continue making more bad decisions, at the expense of the American people and the value of the dollar." So says Dr. Ron Paul in a recent article entitled 'Why the Fed Likes Independence'.

Paul's comments are a perfect follow-up to earlier comments by Simon Johnson in his article entitled "The Quiet Coup" in which he said that the finance industry had effectively captured our government going on to say:

Financial Oligarchy Remains Unchallenged

"America is in financial crisis but instead of the financial oligarchy being broken up to permit essential reform they are continuing to use their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed. Unfortunately, our legislators seem unwilling to act against these powerful financiers opting instead to succumb to their power and influence and continue to give them what they deem to be in their best interest instead of that of the taxpayers'.

All this is happening because of the false belief by all concerned that large financial institutions and free-flowing capital markets are crucial to America's position in the world and that whatever the banks say is true, and what they want is necessary. The government's velvet-glove approach with the banks is deeply troubling, for one simple reason: it is inadequate to change the behavior of a financial sector accustomed to doing business on its own terms, at a time when that behavior must change. There is no better time to take such action than now but it is evident that reform is but a pipe dream. America's financial oligarchy is still in control and, as such, the long-term consequences will be dire!"

Powerful Elite Protecting Their Own

Paul reports that "Geithner claims he had to take such politically unpopular actions to save the economy from collapse. Half of that is right - it was politically unpopular, but it is extremely premature at best, to claim the economy has been saved...It is hard to argue that this sort of government waste has done anything but harm to our economy. Raiding Main Street to bail out Wall Street is a foolish idea."

Johnson goes further saying that "typically countries in crisis are in a desperate economic situation for one simple reason—the powerful elites within them overreached in good times and took too many risks. That certainly is the case with the powerful elites - the financial oligarchy - in America...they (the American financial industry) gained political power over the years by amassing a kind of cultural capital, a belief system in which Washington insiders believe that large financial institutions and free-flowing capital markets are crucial to America's position in the world … and always and utterly convinced that whatever the banks said was true."

Lack of Transparency Troubling

Paul makes the point that Geithner's revelation shows the need for Fed transparency and that "their claim that they should have "independence" is a canard. They very much enjoy their comfortable pattern of bailing out friends and devaluing the currency with no oversight and no accountability. Geithner specifically asked officials at AIG not to disclose to the SEC or to the public particulars about this special deal for his friends. We only know these details now because AIG was eventually forthcoming when Congress demanded some answers."

Paul's views only confirm Johnson's who put forth that "When the crisis first began the government was slow to react and then did so with a lack of transparency, and an unwillingness to upset the financial sector. The response so far is perhaps best described as "policy by deal" in that when a major financial institution got into trouble, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve engineered a one-of bailout and then announced that everything is fine without stating what combination of interests were being served, and how. This was late-night, backroom dealing, pure and simple."

Congress Should be More Responsible

Paul concludes that "We should be getting information on all such dealings straight from the Fed. The Fed should be accountable to Congress because it is a creature of Congress. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to oversee the integrity of the monetary unit.

We have unwisely and unconstitutionally delegated this authority to the Federal Reserve, which has in turn devalued our dollar by 95 percent and counting. When the Federal Reserve engages in harmful policies, Congress is still ultimately responsible. If the Fed is not made accountable through a GAO audit at least, it will continue to be accountable to no one, and that is unacceptable."

Unfortunately, as Johnson sees it "Regulators, legislators, and academics almost all assumed that the managers of these banks knew what they were doing. In retrospect, they didn't. As more and more of the rich made their money in finance, the cult of finance seeped into the culture at large. In a society that celebrates the idea of making money, it was easy to infer that the interests of the financial sector were the same as the interests of the country and that the winners in the financial sector knew better what was good for America than did the career civil servants in Washington. Faith in free financial markets grew into conventional wisdom—trumpeted on the editorial pages of The

Wall Street Journal and on the floor of Congress.

Throughout the crisis, the government has taken extreme care not to upset the interests of the financial institutions, or to question the basic outlines of the system that got us here. This velvet-glove approach is inadequate to change the behavior of a financial sector accustomed to doing business on its own terms, at a time when that behavior must change."

What Will Financial Elite's Behaviour Mean for Your Investments?

The major bailouts to the banks and the following major stimulus spending will further destroy the strength of the U. S. dollar and cause significant inflation. That in turn will be favorable for the future price of gold and silver, more favorable for those companies that mine such precious metals, even more so for the few gold and silver royalty companies that exist and, in particular, those that have long term warrants.

We may not like what has happened, and still is happening, with the behavior of our politicians and the country's financial elite but we can, and should, prepare now for the financial rewards their actions (and inaction) will bring our way. Just prepare for the inevitable, be patient as it unfolds and then enjoy your new found prosperity.

Lorimer Wilson is Editor of www.FinancialArticleSummariesToday.com (F.A.S.T.) and www.MunKnee.com (Money, Monnee, Munknee!) and an economic analyst and financial writer. He is also a frequent contributor to this site and can be reached at editor@...."

© 2010 Copyright Lorimer Wilson- All Rights Reserved

Link Here. 

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James Corbett
The Corbett Report

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Henry Blodget | Jan. 30, 2010,