Guest Post: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly - Part 3

Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly - Part 3

“You see in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig.” -  Blondie – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

“There are two kinds of people in the world, my friend. Those who
have a rope around their neck and those who have the job of doing the
cutting.” – Tuco – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The economic peril that we find ourselves confronted with, has been
ninety-eight years in the making. The confluence of debt, demographics,
delusion, and denial has left the country at the precipice of
annihilation. There are two kinds of people in the world, those who
control the money and those that are controlled by those who control the
money. The last century has been marked by a methodical looting of the
good (working middle class) by the bad (Federal Reserve & bankers)
and supported by the ugly (Washington D.C. politicians). When historians
pinpoint the year in which the Great American Empire began its downward
spiral they will conclude that year to be 1913. In this dark year for
the Republic, slimy politicians, at the behest of the biggest bankers in
the country, created a private central bank that has since controlled
the currency of the United States. This same Congress staked their claim
as the most damaging group of politicians in US history by passing the
personal income tax in the same year. These two acts unleashed the two
headed monster of inflation and taxation on the American people.

The government began keeping official track of inflation in 1913, the
year the Federal Reserve was created. The CPI on January 1, 1914 was
10.0. The CPI on January 1, 2011 was 220.2. This means that a man’s suit
that cost $10 in 1913 would cost $220 today, a 2,172% increase in
ninety-eight years. This is a 95.6% loss in purchasing power of the
dollar.  The average American does not understand the insidious nature
of central bank created inflation. It makes you think you are wealthier
while you are driven into abject poverty. The Federal Reserve and
politicians have pulled the wool over your eyes. The CPI was 30.9 in
1964. Today, it is 223.5. This means prices have risen 723% since 1964.
The only problem is your wages have not risen at the same rate, even
using the government manipulated CPI. Using a true CPI figure, average
weekly earnings are 64% below what they were in 1964. This explains why a
family of five could live well with one parent working in 1964, but
even with both parents working and accumulating debt in prodigious
amounts, the average family cannot live as well today.

 

It is not a coincidence that the percentage of the working age
population employed bottomed in 1964 at 59%. The participation rate rose
steadily for the next thirty six years, topping out in 2000 at 67.1%.
The employment to population ratio also bottomed at 55% in 1964. It rose
to 64.4% by 2000. It seems that future historians will mark the year
2000 as the peak of the American Empire. Apologists for the Federal
Reserve and politicians who have steered this country since 1964 would
argue the increase in the percentage of the population working was a
positive development. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The American middle class was forced to send both parents into the
workforce just to keep up with the ever declining real weekly earnings.
The Federal Reserve created inflation has methodically destroyed the
American dream for the middle class. As both parents had to go into the
workforce, American children were left to fend for themselves or be
raised by strangers in daycare centers. The pressure of trying to keep
up with inflation strained families to the breaking point. The number of
divorces per thousand marriages was 10 in the early 1960s. It more than
doubled to 22.6 by 1980 and still resides at 17 today. There are many
factors for the disintegration of the traditional family unit, but the
financial strain on families to maintain a consistent standard of living
due to relentless inflation has been a key factor.

 

From the founding of our country there had been constant conflict
between corrupt bankers trying to control the currency of the nation to
further their own enrichment at the expense of the people and a few
courageous leaders willing to fight them. The bankers won the century
old battle in 1913. 

Den of Vipers & Thieves

“I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of
the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am
convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the
breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits
amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank…You are a den
of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out and, by the
Eternal, I will rout you out.” - Andrew Jackson

 

The First Bank of the United States was created in 1791. Alexander
Hamilton, the 1st Secretary of the Treasury, proposed this bank and
convinced a hesitant President Washington to agree. John Adams and
Thomas Jefferson were against the concept. It favored the moneyed
classes of the North versus the agrarian South. The bank was given a 20
year charter and President James Madison let it expire in 1811. He
understood the true nature of the banking interests:

“History records that the money changers have used every form of
abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their
control over governments by controlling money and its issuance”.

Madison had to renew the charter in 1816 as the War of 1812 resulted
in large government debts. Politicians always turn to bankers when
funding wars and programs to get them re-elected. As usual, once
unshackled, the bankers immediately caused a boom through their loose
monetary policies. The Bank created a fake boom by 1818 through its
reckless lending, which encouraged speculation in land. This lending
allowed almost anyone to borrow money and speculate in land, sometimes
doubling or even tripling the prices of land (remind you of another time
in recent history?). In the summer of 1818, the national bank managers
realized the bank’s massive over-extension, and instituted a policy of
contraction and the calling in of loans. This recalling of loans
simultaneously curtailed land sales and slowed the U.S. production boom
due to the recovery of Europe. The result was the Panic of 1819. There
was a wave of bankruptcies, bank failures, and bank runs; prices dropped
and wide-scale urban unemployment struck the country. By 1819 many
Americans did not have enough money to pay off their property loans. Do
you see any difference between 1816 – 1819 and 2005 – 2011? Central
banks don’t eliminate financial panics, they cause them. Booms and busts
have always existed. They have become more common and extreme since the
unleashing of greedy corrupt central bankers in the U.S., going back
two centuries.

Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson became President in 1829 and proceeded
to declare war on the Second National Bank. He was the first and only
President in U.S. history to pay off the National Debt. He worked
tirelessly to rescind the charter of the Second Bank of the United
States. His reasons for abolishing the bank were:

• It concentrated the nation’s financial strength in a single institution.
• It exposed the government to control by foreign interests.
• It served mainly to make the rich richer.
• It exercised too much control over members of Congress.
• It favored northeastern states over southern and western states.

President Jackson believed that only Congress should be responsible
for the issuance and control of the currency. Delegating that duty to
powerful New York bankers was distasteful to him:

“If Congress has the right to issue paper money, it was given to
them to be used … and not to be delegated to individuals or
corporations”

President Jackson vetoed the extension of their bank charter in 1832.
He redirected government tax revenue to other state banks.  The Second
Bank of the United States was left with little money and, in 1836, its
charter expired and it turned into an ordinary bank. Five years later,
the former Second Bank of the United States went bankrupt. Those who
believe that a central bank is essential to economic progress need to
examine the “free banking” period from 1837 to 1861. In the last five
years of the Second Bank’s existence prices rose by 28%. Over the next
25 years, prices in the U.S. fell by 11%. We experienced the dreaded
deflation. Did deflation destroy America? Not quite. GDP grew from $1.5
billion in 1836 to $4.6 billion in 1861. Deflation is only fatal to
debtors. Inflation is the friend of lenders and the moneyed classes.

The American Civil War brought about the National Banking Act of
1863, which created a network of national banks. Politicians always need
bankers to fight their wars and Abraham Lincoln was no different. By
1870 there were 1,638 national banks. This did not eliminate the booms
and busts that punctuate human history, but the booms and busts were not
scientifically created by a small cabal of bankers. With thousands of
banks, those who made bad lending decisions failed. The economy
withstood the periodic panics and continued to grow. The GDP of the U.S.
grew from $7.6 billion in 1863 to $39 billion by 1913, with virtually
no inflation. The Federal government ran surpluses or very small
deficits during this entire time period. These facts refute the argument
that a strong central bank was necessary to keep our economic system
operating smoothly. It seems the Big Lie was not invented by the Nazis.

 

Creature from Jekyll Island – Control the Money, Control the Country

“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A
great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our
system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore,
and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. No longer a
government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and
vote of majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small
group of dominant men.” – President Woodrow Wilson

Any impartial assessment of inflation throughout the history of the
United States confirms that from the beginning of our nation through the
War of 1812, the Mexican American War, the Civil War, the Spanish
American War and the Industrial Revolution, the country experienced
virtually no inflation as bankers were kept from controlling the U.S.
currency and our legal tender was backed by gold. The creation of the
Federal Reserve in 1913 and the closing of the gold window by Richard
Nixon in 1971 unleashed a tsunami of inflation that continues to
inundate our country today, killing the once prosperous middle class.

 

The Rothschilds of London understood that a fiat currency system
would benefit the few (bankers & politicians) who understood it and
the masses would be too ignorant to understand they were being screwed:

“Those few who can understand the system (check book money and
credit) will either be so interested in its profits, or so dependent on
it favors, that there will be little opposition from that class, while
on the other hand, the great body of people mentally incapable of
comprehending the tremendous advantage that capital derives from the
system, will bear it burdens without complaint, and perhaps without even
suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests.”

The House of Rothschild had been the dominant banking family in
Europe for two centuries. They were known for making fortunes during
Panics and War. Some claimed they would cause Panics in order to take
advantage of those who panicked. American bankers learned the lesson
well. The Panic of 1907 was the used as the reason for creating the
Federal Reserve. A small cabal of powerful U.S. banking interests
understood that if they could control the currency of the U.S., they
could control the country, its politicians, and its people.

In 1906, Frank Vanderlip, Vice President of the Rockefeller owned
National City Bank, convinced many of New York’s banking establishment
they needed a banker-controlled central bank that could serve the
nation’s financial system. Up to that time, the House of Morgan had
filled that role. JP Morgan had initiated previous panics in order to
initiate stronger control over the banking system. Morgan initiated the
Panic of 1907 by circulating rumors the Knickerbocker Bank and Trust Co.
of America was going broke. There was a run on the banks creating a
financial crisis which began to solidify support for a central banking
system. During this panic Paul Warburg, a Rothschild associate, wrote an
essay called “A Plan for a Modified Central Bank” which called for a Central Bank in which 50% would be owned by the government and 50% by the nation’s banks.

In November 1910 a secret conference took place on Jekyll Island off
the coast of Georgia. Those in attendance were: JP Morgan, Paul Warburg,
John D. Rockefeller, Bernard Baruch, Senator Nelson Aldrich, Colonel
House, Frank Vanderlip, Benjamin Strong, Charles Norton, Jacob Schiff,
and Henry Davison. From this meeting of the most powerful bankers and
politicians in the country came the plan for a Central Bank. This
conference was unknown until 1933. In 1935, Frank Vanderlip wrote in the
Saturday Evening Post: “I do not feel it is any exaggeration
to speak of our secret expedition to Jekyll Island as the occasion of
the actual conception of what eventually became the Federal Reserve
System.”

Behind the scenes these powerful men were formulating the plan for a
Federal Reserve System. There was no outcry from the public to implement
this plan. The public knew nothing of this. The Aldrich Plan was
renamed the Federal Reserve Act and pushed forward by Paul Warburg and
Colonel House. Warburg essentially wrote the Act and pressured
Congressmen to see his way or lose the next election. Colonel House, who
had socialist leanings, was the top advisor to President Wilson.

The Glass Bill (the House version of the final Federal Reserve Act)
had passed the House on September 18, 1913 by 287 to 85. On December 19,
1913, the Senate passed their version by a vote of 54-34. More than
forty important differences in the House and Senate versions remained to
be settled, and the opponents of the bill in both houses of Congress
were led to believe that many weeks would elapse before the Conference
bill would be taken up. The Congressmen prepared to leave Washington for
the annual Christmas recess, assured that the Conference bill would not
be brought up until the following year. The creators of the bill then
pulled the ultimate swindle on the American public. In a single day,
they ironed out all forty of the disputed passages in the bill and
quickly brought it to a vote. On Monday, December 22, 1913, the bill was
passed by the House 282-60 and the Senate 43-23. This meant that the
single most important piece of legislation ever passed by the Senate was
missing the votes of 26 Senators because it was passed during the
Christmas recess. President Wilson, at the urging of Bernard Baruch,
signed the bill on December 23, 1913.

The Road to Hell is Paved by Central Bankers

“Banking was conceived in iniquity, and was born in sin. The
Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power
to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen, they will create
enough deposits, to buy it back again. However, take it away from them,
and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to
disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But
if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers, and pay the cost of your
own slavery, let them continue to create deposits.” – Sir Josiah Stamp (President of the Bank of England in the 1920′s, the second richest man in Britain)

 

The results speak for themselves. The Federal Reserve has been in
existence for ninety eight years and over that time the U.S. Dollar has
lost 95.6% of its purchasing power. In other terms, the bankers who have
controlled our currency since 1913 have generated 2,172% of inflation
in just under a century. In the prior one hundred years, when the
country was growing by leaps and bounds, there was virtually no
inflation. I’m not sure the average person fully understands this
concept. To put it in layman’s terms, something that cost $4.40 in 1913
will cost you $100 today. A pair of boys’ school shoes cost 98 cents in
1913. You could purchase three loaves of bread for 10 cents. You could
purchase six rolls of toilet paper for 26 cents. The truly frightening
impact on the American middle class has happened since Richard Nixon
closed the gold window in 1971 and allowed the Federal Reserve to print
money unfettered by consequences and slimy politicians to make
irresponsible unfulfilled promises as bribes for votes. This chart
should worry even the most ignorant of the masses.

Items	1971	2010/11	% Increase
Average Cost of new house	$28,000	$273,000	975%
Median HH Income	$10,300	$47,000	456%
Average Monthly Rent	$150	$750	500%
Cost of a gallon of Gas	$0.40	$3.80	950%
Average New Car Price	$3,430	$29,200	851%
United States postage Stamp	$0.08	$0.44	550%
Movie Ticket	$1.50	$7.89	526%

Even with the proliferation of two worker households since 1971,
household income has not come close to keeping up with the costs of
daily living. The average American’s standard of living has declined
dramatically over the last forty years and they don’t even know it.
Americans have become the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of their
own slavery through inflation and debt. It is not a coincidence that
consumer debt, which was virtually non-existent prior to the 1960s,
began to take off in the 1970s and went nearly parabolic from the early
1990s until the 2008 financial collapse. As the Federal Reserve and
political class created inflation, which reduced your standard of
living, the bankers who own the Federal Reserve and control the
politicians used their slick marketing machine to convince you that
acquiring goods using vast quantities of debt was just as good as buying
things with cash you saved.

Who benefits from inflation and the issuance of trillions in debt to
average Americans? Based upon the decades of gargantuan Wall Street
profits, mammoth bonuses paid to bank executives, and fact that
Washington politicians absconded with trillions from American taxpayers
to save their Wall Street masters, it appears that bankers and
politicians are the beneficiaries. A gutted, indebted, jobless,
demoralized middle class were the recipients of the downside of
inflation and debt. Without a Central Bank issuing a fiat currency, with
no constraints, none of this could have happened.

The Federal Reserve is primarily responsible for the destruction of
the American middle class. In 1915, according the Federal Reserve annual
report, they operated with 35 total employees. Today, they operate with
over 20,000 employees and the cost to operate the system exceeds $3.3
billion. The Federal Reserve has failed on every one of its stated
mandates:

• It was created to stabilize the banking system and keep bank panics
  from occurring. Within sixteen years of its creation it caused the near
  collapse of the banking system and the Great Depression. The stagflation
  of the 1970s was caused by Fed policies. The Savings & Loan crisis
  was created by their policies. The internet bubble, housing bubble and
  eventual financial collapse were caused by Federal Reserve blunders.
  There have been 18 recessions since the creation of the Federal Reserve.
• The stable prices mandate has been a wretched failure, as the Fed
  has manufactured 2,171% of inflation and destroyed 96% of the currency’s
  purchasing power. This manufactured inflation has enabled the creation
  of our welfare/warfare state.  
• The Federal Reserve mandate of moderate long-term interest rates has
  clearly not been met. The Fed Funds Rate has plotted a path of extremes
  over the decades, ranging from 0% to 19%, not exactly stable. The
  Federal Reserve has consistently set rates too low, leading to credit
  bubbles, which always pop and end in recession or depression.
• The mandate of maximum employment has also been a miserable failure.
  The easy credit policy of the Federal Reserve during the 1920s led to
  the Great Depression with unemployment rates exceeding 20%. Unemployment
  has averaged between 5% and 15% consistently since the formation of the
  Federal Reserve. The true unemployment rate today exceeds 15%.
• The Federal Reserve was supposed to supervise and control the
  activities of banks. Instead, under Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke,
  they stepped aside and let banks take preposterous risks while giving an
  unspoken assurance that the Fed would clean up any messes they caused
  with their debt based enrichment schemes. This total dereliction of duty
  and gross regulatory negligence led the greatest financial collapse in
  history.

The American working middle class (Good) have been deceived by the
Federal Reserve, the banks that control them (Bad) and the Washington DC
political class (Ugly) into believing that a fiat currency, un-backed
by gold, supported by systematic inflation is beneficial to their
wealth. This has been the Big Lie for the last century and has
positioned the country for an epic collapse. Presidential candidate Ron
Paul has been the lone voice of sanity in Washington DC for the last two
decades and his assessment of the Federal Reserve while questioning Ben
Bernanke in 2009 needs to be understood by every American:

“The Federal Reserve in collaboration with the giant banks has
created the greatest financial crisis the world has ever seen. The
foolish notion that unlimited amounts of money and credit created out of
thin air can provide sustainable economic growth has delivered this
crisis to us. Instead of economic growth and stable prices, (The Fed)
has given us a system of government and finance that now threatens the
world financial and political institutions. Pursuing the same policy of
excessive spending, debt expansion and monetary inflation can only
compound the problems that prevent the required corrections. Doubling
the money supply didn’t work, quadrupling it won’t work either. Buying
up the bad debt of privileged institutions and dumping worthless assets
on the American people is morally wrong and economically futile.”

I’ve now completed three parts of the five part series, documenting the downfall of the great American Empire. Part four, Outlaw Josey Wales, will
scrutinize the looting of America by a small group of powerful,
connected, super rich men lurking in the shadows, but pulling the
strings on our puppet politicians. Lastly, Unforgiven  will detail the impending collapse of our economic system and the retribution that will be handed out to the guilty.

The smell of revolution is in the air.

Comments

[LudwigVon]

.

[LudwigVon]

Their only edge, the only thing which makes them powerful, is their great equalizer.

Which is  . ..   "truth"

[Winisk]

Land doesn't go unused.  It supports an ecosystem.  You're a tad human centric that prevents you from seeing the bigger picture.    Also, having driven across most of Canada  I can say that it looks unused from the road which has two ribbons of intact forest on either side.  It's all part of the planning process for cosmetic purposes.  Try hopping up into the air and you will see how little forest we actually have to support that unlimited growth.  Mill towns and mining towns across the north are in decline. 

[Dr. Acula]

>Try hopping up into the air and you will see how little forest we [Canadians] actually have to support that unlimited growth. 

Then it's time to open up your borders and let the highest bidder purchase those lands so that they can be used in the greatest service to humanity rather than for non-economic uses or as pointless nationalist trophies. Professionals (e.g. those at Weyerhauser) know how to plant and maintain sustainable forests far into the future - they know how to help their bottom line AND the environment at the same time, while providing great value to consumers.

[Anglo in Abitibi]

Dr. Acula I agree with many of your points above. However I do about 500 km a week on North Canadian logging roads. What replaces the clearcuts is not a forest. It is a black spruce monoculture. There is no comparison with un-logged forests; NONE.

[Seer]

"The Earth is grossly underpopulated. If you ever drive through United States or Canada you will see the vast amounts of land that go unused."

And there's lots of land out in the desert as well, but that doesn't mean that it can support vast numbers of people.

I'm no expert on Canada, but I'm guessing that central and northern Canada require a bit more energy in order to operate.  Yeah, there's more trees.  I also know about cutting wood for heat and I know that it's not a trivial thing: time spent cutting wood (for your own consumption) means time not spent producing for goods and services from outside one's home.  There is a reason why more of the earth's population has tended to live on coastlines and in warmer regions.

As far as the real price of oil futures not going up in 60 years, well, the average wage in the US (which is by far the greatest consumer of oil) has actually (when adjusted for inflation) not gone up in 40 years.  Basic supply and demand.  Per-person demand has been falling; industry cannot force people to pay more than they can afford.

Interesting comment about corn ethanol being a socialist conspiracy. I'd tend to wonder, especially when it has been pushed by big Ag, which, as far as I know, isn't made up of socialists, how that could be.  But, I agree, corn-ethanol sucks: I spent lots of time fighting folks on ALL sides of the political spectrum over (against) it.

[jomama]

i think you're just messing with us, but i'll bite.

feeding 7 billion people is no small task, and it cannot be done with fossil fuels powering it all.

considering how weak the link of fossil fuels are, the world is not underpopulated, in my opinion.

[AnAnonymous]

The Earth is grossly underpopulated.

There is nothing like the Earth in such sentences.

There are various populations in various states considering the way they expect the environment is going to support them.

There are populations that are on the path of overpopulation, they want to cull other populations as it is the way they manage to reach their current standards. The trouble is that they are running to the end of the process, what can be extracted from the other populations is now peaking. Most in those populations see overpopulation as a problem fundamentally based on census, how numerous people are. They reject considering overpopulation in terms of consumption.

1 billion of starving people are overpopulating the Earth. 300 millions of people consuming the environment so fast they dont if they can keep their standard of life after one generation are.

This is the logics imposed by the US world order. A dead end as starving people have already been pushed out of the race  to consumption and there is no growth to expect by killing them.

This is the US world order. An order wallowing in the denial of the most basic reality.

[old naughty]

@Derpin

We, numbers and deeds, are out of control.

The nuke is happening, be done soon enough.

[Milestones]

No, like China, mandate 1 Child only per couple.    Milestones

[High Plains Drifter]

Blondie: You may run the risks, my friend, but I do the cutting. We cut down my percentage - uh, cigar? - liable to interfere with my aim.

Tuco: But if you miss you had better miss very well. Whoever double-crosses me and leaves me alive, he understands nothing about Tuco. Nothing!

[Chuckles, bites cigar]

[Cult_of_Reason]

Tristane Banon, 31, claims that she was attacked by Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1387621/Tristane-Banon-says-subj...

[disabledvet]

Actually he called himself "Ghenghis Khan" at the time--there's been confusion as to his true identity.  upon being arrested however DSK was heard to exclaim "hail my King Kong!" while announcing "no man is no man without total conquest as his goal!"

[falak pema]

she has a mother who had a crush on DSK...that's why she didn't prosecute, to spare mummy's feelings. Very freudian touch! Mother and daughter...cluster-fuck vision ...was his dream...if I may extrapolate like a drunk poet.

[Yen Cross]

I have my (Hugo Montenegro) cued up as we speak! Nice work!

[tom a taxpayer]

I've seen this movie a 1,000 times. It's not the smell of revolution in the air...it's the smell of bread and circuses.

[High Plains Drifter]

I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."

"Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."

-Woodrow Wilson, after signing the Federal Reserve into existence

traitorous bastard...........while our fathers slept the enemy crept in........

[FederalReserveB...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvMosRQfaoA

[buzzsaw99]

Game over bitchez.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsx2vdn7gpY

[Yen Cross]

+10 Buzzsaw. I'll die trying!

[buzzsaw99]

...we're all gonna to have to take a bite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpO0OV4mfvo

[Yen Cross]

I'm with you!

[Rusty Shorts]

You still in Singapore?

[Yen Cross]

No, thank you kindly for asking. We are fishing barramundi. As a friend ( stay long USD)

[HellFish]

Anyone have links to part one and two?  Who writes part three of anything without including links to part one and two?

Rope, tree, banker - some assembly required.

[Piranhanoia]

The Burning Platform;  .com

[DavidPierre]

correction...

www.TheBeastialityPlatform.com

[cbxer55]

Sounds like something you'd be into, Dipshit Pierre.

[Smokey1]

Pierre's an American deserter who is into sheep fucking.

[joemayo]

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/82130.html

Thomas Woods:

I mentioned the fake quotation phenomenon not long ago...

The main one is Woodrow Wilson himself, who is portrayed as somehow having been tricked by the wily private bankers into establishing the Fed. So he is quoted as saying that he is a most unhappy man, for he has unwittingly ruined his country by creating the Fed. Anything to this effect from Wilson is fake. Wilson was proud of his role in creating the Fed.

[High Plains Drifter]

http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-plank/ron-pauls-ghostwriter-quotthis-ron-pau...

thomas woods, thomas woods. now where have i heard that name before? oh yes. he is the asshole that is one of the ghost writers for ron paul books....yep, talk about a fake ass son of a bitch...co-founder of a organization called the league of the south....if this boy is from the south, why is he acting like a yankee????.....yep if he wants to talk about fake ass quotes, then maybe he needs back up and regroup, considering the above quotes came from woodrow wilson's own damn book, he wrote by his own hand and considering ron paul is running around telling everyone within earshot that he is writing his own books, i am not sure if mr woods is in any position to pass judgment on so-called fake quotations (as he calls it).......whatever..........

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Woodrow_Wilson

let us cut to the chase shall we. just ask them if they think the terrorist state of israhole has a right to exist and see what happens? oh the going on and on and trying to spin and to get out of answering such a intrinsic question for you see, this is the crux of the problem. they will not answer this question, nor will they even consider it. they won't talk about aipac either nor will they talk about anything relating to jewish power in this country because that whole bunch including the jew, lew rockwell is controlled opposition.
oh i get tired of these disinfo john birch society members.....

today glenn beck announced his taking america back tour date for 2011, won't be in washington dc this year, but will be in jerusalem....talk about a ass kisser delux for the likud party, man this guy must have his own locker set up in israel to keep his silver plated knee pads so he can put them on whenever he makes his little secret trips to israhole to kiss the proverbial asses of his masters.....the fuckstick......

its time to fix bayonets and take the high ground and before the charge, we must stand in silence as El Degüello is played........no mercy and no quarter for the bastards.......

[Yes_Questions]

today glenn beck announced his taking america back tour date for 2011

Really?

Will he talk about the OLIGARHY again?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0OUXkZO8vE

Oh, and +1

[High Plains Drifter]

beck is trying to do some major penance with the yids, because he stepped on his dick when he started criticizing the reform rebbes on his fox television show, which mainly because of this flap, is going off the air by december of this year. not only has he lost his fox show because of this , he has also lost new york , phili and los angeles on his radio network. so now he goes to israel, hat in hand , trembling and groveling at the feet of his zionist masters, begging for forgiveness, having gotten use to his $100M a year living style. oh by the way, today on his radio show, he was talking about how God told him to do his show from Jerusalem this year. Imagine that. God talks to glenn beck. well i never.......oh by the way, glenn beck is a john bircher too. the apple does not fall far from the tree.

[Muir]

"Lastly, Unforgiven  will detail the impending collapse of our economic system and the retribution that will be handed out to the guilty.

The smell of revolution is in the air."

__

Who writes this shit?
__

"Buy", "sell", "reverse position."

Take a Holiday.

What's with this victim crap?

__

[Yen Cross]

Ask Panetta after he's done with Chillary. How do you get a stealth Helo- copter tail back,( After you invade and kill in sovereign territory?)

I guess you hire a MEXICAN drug cartel. And buy a lot of acid. The kind that disolves dead people.

[Yen Cross]

Site lock. Appologies. Ref; The new CIA head.

[wefreethinkers]

So... the question remains??? What are we going to do about it?  Complain? Post meaningless comments?  Hold on to that remote, waiting for the big boom before we take action? Sure while the system is still breathing, so must we play the game. Gotta at least have food shelter and clothing... right?  We could start by trading in those worthless dollars for silver.  One step in the right direction.  There are more of us than there are of them.

[jm]

How about we hold a portfolio of secured bank debt and equities with strong cash flow and no debt?

[jm]

Here's why I say this:

the gold + long bond barbell covers the tails, but they would probably cancel each other out return wise.

So you need less tail, and more center.  Ergo, secured bank debt, which is really quasi-sovereign debt, plus equity with no debt, with management that respects shareholders that want their caspital returned to them via dividends.

Or is it better just to buy utility stocks?  I kinda think that what utility bonds were in the 30s is what utility equities will be in these darkening fiat years.

Local currency sovereign debt is an option too.

So many choices.

[FederalReserveB...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvMosRQfaoA

[wefreethinkers]

No offense, but can you really believe this "change" is possible?  Again, you are relying on someone else to solve the problem. How has that worked for you so far?  Do you really think the president would take these actions?  Where did it ultimately get Lincoln?

[Yes_Questions]

I plan to hold on to it.  And the remote too.

Kidding.  I feel your question above.  Someone once posted that this is a community of intelligent, but frustrated people with nothing more than their keyboards (my paraphrase).  But it seams the match is getting closer to the tinderbox that is the remnant of the "middle class".

What gets done about it is anyones' guess, but I think history gives some pretty good insight into this.  Unfortunately we are still in a stage of having to be proactive: to prevent a full collapse, where all too many still see this as esoteric.  Too abstract to wrap their heads around and understand that their lot in life is so negatively affected by this.

[Seer]

Bad systems fail.  It was/is inevitable.

We can beat on this all we want, but in the end no one is going to come up with any "solution."  The reason being is that "solutions" are about finality, and there really isn't anything that's final.  Life, the US empire, fiat currencies, they're all transitory, it all ends eventually.

On the whole I tend to agree with folks here that the existing system is dysfunctional, and that a return to real free trade is the path that we will end up going down.  What I don't agree with is that this path will be the panacea that people believe it will be, and the reason is is because as long as there are shortages of resources there will be wars, and as long as there are wars there will be people willing to follow others (and accept others as their masters).

[Yes_Questions]

Neandersheeple forever?

My optimistic side tells me the scarcity model wagon wheels are starting to get wobbly.  There is increased questioning of the need for the wars in the ME, for example.   This is (just one small) favorable sign.

[wefreethinkers]

Yeah!  Can you hear me clapping?  Standing ovation no less.  Keep that line of thinking going and it's a BIG favorable sign!

[Seer]

Again, how can people like you believe that it's a tragedy to print endless dollars, yet not believe that it's a tragedy to have people believe that there's also endless resources?

Another fan of Hopium...  Sigh, Darwin will sort this all out...

[wefreethinkers]

What shortage of resources?  Oh, yeah, the shortage that the dysfunctional system created.  We have to stop believing those lies as one of the first steps.  The fear of not enough is at the heart of the dysfunction.

[Seer]

Oh, I see, there's no dysfunction in believing that there are unicorns, that the earth is infinite and we can have it all?

Grow the fuck up.  Take a first level algebra class if you want to know about how Ponzis work (the exponential function).

Little snivlers like you promote the notion of the carmel-filled world just to justify YOUR (unjustificable) desire to have whatever you want.  When the US empire's theft ring collapses you'll be standing there naked and crying, wondering where everything went, wondering how the <fill in the blank> was able to screw YOU over.  Sorry, but this world is driven by nature, and nature doesn't spit out skittles and unicorns.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right...

BTW - I don't believe in governments.  I believe in the right to bear arms.  I believe in PMs.  I live in RURAL America and I'm getting in to farming. Yeah, shit-head, go ahead, try and peg me into one of those stereotypes that you've been programmed to "identify."

[LudwigVon]

 try and peg me into one of those stereotypes

Got one.

"Ignorant"

[blindman]

imo you have the insight. city folk do not
have a realistic reference regarding time.
time. it is not so plastic as one would like to
believe. it is plastic to a degree but not
infinitely so. you can not have what you want
when you want just because you have found what
you want in the past on a shelf or in your mail
as you were able to pay. in fiat currency,
bound by nothing but a promise and a faith on
strangers who live by breaking their promises
and failing to deliver what they have promised.
mark?

[Yen Cross]

 I'll take the top- popoff  picture.

[lynnybee]

........ i love this article ! , adding it to my favorites !

[max2205]

Now what? Should I cash my refund check or not....

My pitchfork is getting rusty

[bolen]

we damn need some cowboy deplomacy, NOW.

where is our clint eastwood?

[TooBearish]

nothing will be done - the lemmings and sheep will be corralled into tyrannical dictatorship quite willing - so that they might eat

[THE DORK OF CORK]

Dork Dissertation Ditched

[THE DORK OF CORK]

There was me thinking the American empire really got going in 1913.................

Maybe its a European thingy but we have found rape and pillage can be quite profitable and well rewarding if willing to accept the risks.

Just ask the Norse , they were dab hands at it before they became good Christians.

This purer then the driven libertarian snow tale is really quite childish.

Every nation needs its New Testement I guess - we can keep the other messy stuff in a seperate book.

But what if the two books have no real fundamental connection................ 

[Seer]

Those who fail to understand history...

[CPL]

I think you missed his point....by half quoting a sentence.

[slewie the pi-rat]

heh heh heh

IMF to sell gold to raise bail for Strauss-Kahn | Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee

[Yen Cross]

I'm here Slewie! Hope you had a nice weekend. Nice post!

[jkruffin]

Hey chart readers:

Did you notice the double x dragon triple doji head and shoulder hammer that was formed today?  ROFL  These suicide longs keep dreaming up chart patterns daily to try and get some idiot to believe this market is going higher still.

This thing is days away from a total collapse. But hey, let them keep charting fake charts for all I care.

[Yen Cross]

I noticed the lack of a(daily closing candle). (on Wednesday) I noticed the out side close, followed by an in side close 2 days later.

[francis_sawyer]

Did you notice the double x dragon triple doji head and shoulder hammer that was formed today?

Some million years ago, conditions existed on this planet whereby OXYGEN levels increased (mostly due to a radical increase in large leafy plants [like ferns] that were able to grow to enormous sizes, spewing out OXYGEN, and sequestering CO2... IOW - Al Gores worst propaganda nightmare)...

The results were several phenomenon which include DRAGONFLY (dojis) about 3 feet in wingspan... And, of course, the DINOSAURS (whice were all only possible [SUPERSIZED] because of the oxygen intake capacities...

Alas... In the natural course of things [besides black swan events like asteroids hitting the planet]... Too much OXYGEN eventually leads to a LACK of CARBON (for the plants to sequester)... They then die, become smaller, and oxygen levels decrease... To exacerbate this, the sequesterd carbon in then buried underground (&undersea)... Only to be RELEASED at some point by some mammal (called "MAN"), who owes his own existence to the fact that when the dinosaurs went extinct, that smaller mammals were able to profligate...

So as far as CHARTS are concerned (& their relation to DRAGONFLYS)... One might want to consider the aforementioned story...

Or NOT... Makes no real difference to me... Tutto Sommato...

[Dapper Dan]

That some dam fine commentary Francis, thank you.    no sarc inten.

[francis_sawyer]

Did you notice the double x dragon triple doji head and shoulder hammer that was formed today?

Some million years ago, conditions existed on this planet whereby OXYGEN levels increased (mostly due to a radical increase in large leafy plants [like ferns] that were able to grow to enormous sizes, spewing out OXYGEN, and sequestering CO2... IOW - Al Gores worst propaganda nightmare)...

The results were several phenomenon which include DRAGONFLY (dojis) about 3 feet in wingspan... And, of course, the DINOSAURS (whice were all only possible [SUPERSIZED] because of the oxygen intake capacities...

Alas... In the natural course of things [besides black swan events like asteroids hitting the planet]... Too much OXYGEN eventually leads to a LACK of CARBON (for the plants to sequester)... They then die, become smaller, and oxygen levels decrease... To exacerbate this, the sequesterd carbon in then buried underground (&undersea)... Only to be RELEASED at some point by some mammal (called "MAN"), who owes his own existence to the fact that when the dinosaurs went extinct, that smaller mammals were able to profligate...

So as far as CHARTS are concerned (& their relation to DRAGONFLYS)... One might want to consider the aforementioned story...

Or NOT... Makes no real difference to me... 

[disabledvet]

"and then it goes higher anyways" thus allowing for yet another CB to "tack another bear dick to the wall."  it is there job after all.  we all wonder about Greenspan however.  we really, really, REALLLY wonder.

[Quisat_Sadarak]

He who controls the printing presses -- can buy all the spice in the universe!

[Yes_Questions]

For a while, I thought Herbert was inspired by petrol as the "Spice".

But, lately I have seen that its the permission to issue and control the currency. 

[Quisat_Sadarak]

Lately indeed.

The house of Ordos represents the FED.  Insidious bankers.

[Yes_Questions]

double..

[Yes_Questions]

Time to pass the Water of Life around and have a Weirding Module enhanced re-set.

[FederalReserveB...]

Nationalize The Federal Reserve: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvMosRQfaoA

[Lord Welligton]

This means that a man’s suit that cost $10 in 1913 would cost $220 today, a 2,172% increase in ninety-eight years.

How much did an iPod cost then?

[Yen Cross]

Be nice My Lord. I-Pods were non-existant and worsted wool (hounds -tooth) were well sold. I understand your inflation concerns, and agree 20 thousand percent! Cheers.

[Lord Welligton]

Just thought I'd ask.

[Happy Days]

What can be done? I've seen that mentioned so often.

1. If you keep going to work, you're a willing participant in their game. So if a good percentage of the population just stopped going to work (a nationwide strike if you want to call it), you'll bring this country (read bankers, politicians and large corporations) to it's knees in a week or so. It may not be pretty, either.
2. I know I know...most will say I have a mortgage and bills to pay. So what? ...if everyone stopped paying their fake mortgage and related bills...what's going to happen? Not much if half the people do it. Look how many people are going mortgage payment free for years...and that, my friends, is a rather small portion of society. Have they been rounded up and put in FEMA camps. NO...they have overwhelmed the system in their own little way successfully. Remember this and remember it well, the money banks "lend" is fake...and the people take this fake money and do real labor to pay it back while the bankers sit on their fat arses laughing at you while devaluing the buck at your expense in time and labor. Is this not fraud, stealing, counterfeiting?...give it any name you like...it's wrong and they are screwing you royal That's a fact.
3. Before anyone says "what about you? or you first"...we can say we've done it...11 years ago at age 49 and we aren't millionaires, either.
4. So you see, you don't need violence to do this...just the right mind set to realize you don't have to participate. It starts with you..inside of you. If you are afraid, then they win, you lose and more importantly, your children will really lose. You have a choice...choose wisely. If you want freedom for you and your offspring, you better risk something.

[Seer]

"If you want freedom for you and your offspring, you better risk something."

Aside from the fact that "freedom" is highly subjective, providing for your offspring is, I agree, fundamental.  People need to keep in mind that there are quite a few people on this planet doing this.

Not sure that having everyone stop doing what they're doing would be good, not if all at once.  I would kind of like to see that systems protecting dangerous materials (such as found at nuke plants) be kept being looked after...  In the end, however, 99% of the jobs that we're currently performing won't exist at some point in the future.

[blindman]

Alien - Extended Chestburster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JehjqlzXwIQ
.
"the food ain't that bad baby..."

[Yen Cross]

 I am so impressed with the (financial & intellectual input of some posters on Z/H.) Thank you.

[Diatribe]

Hear, hear.  

[Yen Cross]

Please ask? I trade currencies, so I may be of little help. I just got junked as usd/ jpy is breaking a decending trend line.

[gordengeko]

"A small cabal of powerful U.S. banking interests understood that if they could control the currency of the U.S., they could control the country, its politicians, and its people."

These are and always have been foreign banking interests.  Also, J.P Morgan and Rockerfeller were not attendees at that infamous meeting on Jekyll Island.  They had representatives there in place of them so not to arose suspicion.  Where did you get your research from??  Many well respected researchers have studied this extensivley.  Would have been nice to make reference to them.  

G. Edward Griffin.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu_VqX6J93k

The money masters

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936#

There were only very brief moments in time where you could call it "America".  The 'American" Empire as you say that is in a downfall, is a facet of the royal crown which is the British/European Banking Empire.  Stems from the Phoenicians who were the powerful sea merchants from the ancient times.

[Yen Cross]

Head back over to another site (Cancer Boy( Show some Good Will)

[Seer]

I junked you because of your inability to raise ANY argument against what he presented.  If there was a FAIL button I would have clicked on it.

[Yen Cross]

I will try harder in the future. Thank you for your thoughts. What arguement did I miss?

Thank You.

[gordengeko]

If this author is going to "BORROW" information from a WELL RESPECTED researcher,  he should at the VERY LEAST get the information correct.

[docmac324]

ZEITGEIST, the movie.

[Yes_Questions]

All three.

[CPL]

...sigh...listen liberal arts major COME BACK WHEN YOU CAN BUILD IT.  Fucknut.  So far all I've seen is me, four other engineers and 5 million fucking idiots.   

Question why are you invited if given instruction?  Because that would be your job.  Shut up and fucking work.  Not like I couldn't get a hot Mexican chick with five times more life skills to fill your role....just kidding...I would, they actually know how to sew a button on a shirt.

[zen0]

"In the end, given these risks, all countries should follow the Toronto G-20 accord to halve their deficits by 2013 and stabilize their respective debt-to-GDP ratios by 2016."

Bank of Canada, May 16

USA is part of the G20. Will they go rogue or massage a message to correspond to their eternal electioneering?

[Yen Cross]

USA is the G-7, which was found from NATO. G-3 ( respectfully, (go to the library) )

[Blanc swan]

Sorry for off topic, but I'm puzzled by how articles are handled at zerohedge. This morning I saw something written by Bruce Kasting that I made a mental note I was going to read later. When I went to find it again, just completely vanished. No way to find it. It wasn't amongst the ordinary articles, it was among those 3 "reserved" spots that are always at the top of the page.

[nmewn]

Under contributors...page down ;-)

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/ss-trust-fund-we-lost-11-trillion-last-year

[Yen Cross]

I will never junk you. That bitch that junked me will pay over time!!!

[mynhair]

Click on "Contributors" at the top.

[nmewn]

"The world will soon wake up to the reality that everyone is broke and can collect nothing from the bankrupt, who are owed unlimited amounts by the insolvent, who are attempting to make late payments on a bank holiday in the wrong country, with an unacceptable currency, against defaulted collateral, of which nobody is sure who holds title."

Anonymous

[Yen Cross]

 Beat it you wanabe (Diamond {price fixer}.) Come on show me your real FACE!!! nmewn

Step up and learn to trade!

[Seer]

But, but... the skittles were great, and I'm just positive that the unicorn will show up and give me a ride home...

[disabledvet]

"you mean we need to ask the government for another bailout.  AGAIN?"

"yep."

[mynhair]

Ben Strong related to Maurice Strong?

[Yen Cross]

Classic.

[sellstop]

This country has made a lot of progress since 1913.

Expansion of the money supply is essential to encourage the development of natural resources. And that is what we needed 100 years ago.

Do we need a monetary expansion today, in this country, or in the world for that matter, that is facing energy and natural resource shortages. I don't think so.

How do we go from the paradigm of continual growth to one of a sustainable standard of living?

And what "standard of living" do we accept?

That is the crux of the problem we face.

IMHO

gh

[Seer]

Not sure that monetary expansion was necessary 100 years ago, or that a lot of "progress" has been made (it's all pretty subjective), but, yes, what sort of system can we all use that will property account for our diminishing resources (and with them, diminishing standard of living), that's the question.  The current paradigms just don't seem quite up to it (since they're all predicated on endless growth).

[CPL]

So you are a Luddite that uses a Computer? 

Fucksakes man.  Grow a pair and sort your shit out mate.  And please stop using the term paradigm, anyone over 30 died slowly of that buzz word in 96'.  dumb fuck...seriously now.

Oh yeah, your mom is rusty snap trap cunt whore btw.  Since were throwing around annoyances of verbal interest that require a dot.com dictionary to translate.  Ass.  If you are goign to say some thing say it.  Picture this like a pub.  Open your mouth if you are going to add to it to dicuss, giving a blow job or randomly picking a fight isn't admissable until it's come to terms that both parties just hate each other proper. 

Personally I blame your parents...especially that whore gutter tramp of a mother of yours.

[CPL]

Since I've been junked.  We are both able to junk each properly now.  Son of a Whore swilling cock gobbling piece of human gutter trash.

Was that too much?   Sorry, I meant you have human personality aids disorder.  Nobody likes you or will like you.  You are infectionious and annoying and must find your own annoy base of conduct....<gasP!>  No not another left/right 23 year old moron annoyance at how I could not care...shit...lost it....blew the load and ignored your life.   Just like your Dad did...properly I might add.  Dad's that catch farts are useless.

Night sparky...lol

[CPL]

And you..IMHO doesn't exist anymore.  Who the FUCK uses Crux in a sentence and again with PARADIGM!!! 

....going to nurse annoyance with Rye...an adult drink, I shall discuss my annoyance later.

meanwhile this website has all the answers for a dirty little cunt like you. 

www.lemonparty.org

I stand by the lemon party for what it offers to strangers for all eternity!

[bankruptcylawyer]

the real reason america will not and cannot throw off the fed is pointed out in the essay. the fed is part of an ingrained class system, and as we know from history , class systems are deeply ingrained in the social fabric deeper than merely superficial monetary concerns, but also privelege, status etc......

the uppermiddle, new rich, the just propertied class, the pensioner class, the government job class.......the various people who all have a vested stake in the loss of the fed as well as federal (and even state) government largess.

etc....a full top 20% of americans have a lot to lose (even if that just means 50k a year income in a job)  if the fed charter is yanked. yes, at least  1 out of 5 people either owns a house that has significant value above water, a business that relies on credit, a large pension, works for the government, relies on government handouts for their business success ( rather than merely for the minimal benefits of food and gas). and of course , last but not least, the military. which is a giant welfare employment program. 

the fed is not going out without taking down the entire system of government largess, which won't happen because too many people depend on it right now.

as we all know....systems don't change until things get bad enough. which means, until more people are hungry and angry, and the domestic markets for owning durable goods, equity and debt are crushed.

don't hold your breath, this could take another 10-15 years!

[Seer]

"don't hold your breath, this could take another 10-15 years!"

Or, it could happen in 10-15 days...

Since it's all one big Ponzi it's guaranteed to fail.  Things really do happen a lot faster than most would tend to believe.  Sadly, I doubt that when this empire's in history's dust bin that people will understand what happened (it'll still be stupid Left vs. Right propaganda, that rather than the fact that we can't grasp the notion of the exponential function- yes, let's click our heels together, kiss the frog, dreams CAN happen! [and so another Ponzi starts]).

[Ewe235]

To be fair, the rise of the "I-want-it-now" hyperconsumer mindset has a lot to do with why both parents have to work and they are still falling behind.  When I grew up (in the 70s), my father had an average job, and mom stayed home with three kids.  We lived in a small house (it's what they could afford), bought used cars (it's what they could afford), didn't take vacations other than camping, because you guessed it, it's what they could AFFORD.

My brother and I shared a bedroom until my parents finished the basement when I was 10, there certainly weren't granite countertops, or 3.5 bathrooms, 2-car garage, or any of that other stuff that every 23-yr old college grad thinks they DESERVE instantly.

If us kids wanted things, guess what... we got a job.  We had paper routes, washed cars, mowed lawns, babysat, whatever it took, and I can still remember how good it felt to get paid (in cash back then).  None of this is a "woe is me" story, just the opposite, I have fond memories of all of it, even fighting over who had to go brush their teeth first after Dad wook take a nasty dump in our ONE bathroom.  Don't take too long of a shower, because you had to save hot water for the next person.  We still laugh about it.

How do children growing up in their 'pods' now (own bathroom, TV, computer, cellphone, car) ever develop family ties with their parents or siblings?  They never have to compromise for anyone, ever.  And it is unlikely they will be able to afford on their own the lifestyle that their parents have gone into debt to provide to them.

Tell me why it is now considered normal to drop $500 to upgrade your 12-month-old iphone, yet not have a single penny saved for retirement or even an emergency fund. "It's OK, when mom & dad kick it, I'll get their money".  This can only end badly.

Live within your means.

<end old guy rant

[jomama]

I-want-it-now, and put it on my credit card!

[wefreethinkers]

I feel ya!  Still raised my kids to contribute and work for what they want, yet they still had more than I did.  They've learned the debt lesson, I've never bailed them out.  We all have to learn our own lessons.  Still I'm leaving what ever is left to the next generation, or maybe the next.. the jury is still out on that one... problem solved :0)

[Seer]

For a moment I thought you were talking about my history :-)

And another thing about the 70s, the US was just on the cusp of peaking in oil production.  After about 1971 the US became an importer (this is a significant swing economically, one which pretty much has established the path since).

But lest we think that we didn't live a life of entitlement, consider that the majority of the world's population lives on $3/day or less.  My wife grew up in the Philippines (lived there until she was 45), and while I can recount my early years of helping my dad cut and sell kindling when he was out of work, it still doesn't compare to my wife's early years.  Both her and I regularly note how North Americans have such as sense of entitlement.

Rest assured, there WILL be a correction (govt or no govt, Fed or no Fed).

[ClassicalLib17]

@ewe235, This has been the most compelling thread I have had the pleasure to read in a long time on zerohedge.  I am 57 years old and you just described my upbringing to a "T."  God Bless you, whoever you are.

[Ewe235]

Thanks ClassicalLib, first time poster - long time reader.

My wife had a different upbringing, I've had to reprogram her to show her what a mortgage really costs, why we can't rely 100% on our pensions being there, why we can persevere through the horrors of having just 2 bathrooms!  I must say, a minimum of economic enlightenment goes a long long way, it seems like most people (apart from posters on sites like this) have no clue.

Just have to make sure I pass that mentality onto my 2 kids, so far so good.

[Ewe235]

"I only have to make the minimum payment right?", so easy! 

[gall batter]

Bill Bonner, writing from Shanghai, where he pd $900. for dinner for six:

The recovery story was always phony. So then, what’s the real story?

As near as we can tell, there are several stories running at once.

1) The Great Correction – in many of the advanced economies, but centered in America…

2) The continued rise of the developing economies…not just in Asia, but in Latin America and Africa, too.

3) The increasing scarcity of cheap energy, land, water and raw materials.

4) The decline (suicide might better describe it) of the American Empire.

5) The approaching end of the dollar-based world financial system.

There are probably a few more we forgot to mention. Each one on its own might be fairly easy to decipher and predict. But they work together…and at cross-purposes. It’s hard to figure out what is really going on…or what is causing it.

For example, the correction tends to depress prices. But the big expansion in the developing world tends to increase them.

And there’s one more major pressure on prices – the feds. The US controls the world’s reserve currency. And the US is working hard to inflate the world’s supply of dollars. That too should increase prices, eventually.

The trouble with inflation today is that it is the worst kind of inflation. It makes prices go up…but not incomes, at least not in the US. Incomes are rising in Asia. So, people can buy more cars and more meat – and push up prices. Then, Americans pay higher prices…while their incomes don’t rise.

Why don’t their incomes rise too? Because the US is in a Great Correction. It spent too much and borrowed too much in the boom/bubble years. Now, it’s paying the price. That’s why so few houses are being built; we built today’s houses yesterday. And it’s why so little money is being borrowed and spent today; we already spent it.

The Fed seems to have no idea what is really going on – probably intentionally. So, it tries to combat the correction by issuing more credit and printing more dollars – as if we didn’t have enough already. This extra money further pushes up prices, adding to Americans’ misery.

[Kassandra]

Tyler dear, on your way home would you stop at the store and pick up some Troll Spray? We have a huge infestation!

[Yen Cross]

 I will watch the gbp (F) news later in the trade. I think it will be positive.

[I am Jobe]

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
Henry Ford

[Fiat Money]

Jim, I'd love to agree with your cut & dried (black & white) Fed bashing analysis, but it is far too simplistic.  to begin with:
#1.   take the Fed ENTIRELY OUT OF THE PICTURE, and you would STILL have "INFLATION" - tens of thousands of people  competing for prime real estate locations in their home buying.    Even if "money" were absolutely free  (devoid of inflation), there still would be only so much water to supply arid LA, Phoenix, or Las Vegas;  and only so many homes within a 20 min. drive of NYC.... or only so much oil to fuel a gluttonous world, circa 2011, (etc.).   

  Regardless of the Fed's shenanigans, there is REAL COMPETITION for SCARCE RESOURCES, occasioned by that EXPONENTIAL human growth curve.  

    (Now, yes, the parasitic Fed & allied bankers are SABOTAGING family planning & birth control worldwide in the name of "moral values," aka "respect ESTABLISHMENT authority" authoritarianism,   but that is an altogether different story from Fed's money-creation/debt-money/ inflation.) 

#2.  You fail to compare the material standards of living early 1900s (pre Fed) vs 1950s, '70s, & today.    For one thing,  lots of horses and not much mechanized traffic in those days..!   Radios were scarce, and TVs, air conditioners, central heating, telephones, (etc.) were non-existant.    You use the example of a good business suit ($10 then vs $220 today) - but how about  LIFE EXPECTANCY: age 46 for a US male in 1900 (!!), vs 78 today.

  I could go on,  but take a look at your hero, "No Name" Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  Except for a horse, some guns, some clothes, a few coins, and (hopefully) a full water canteen,  these men (and their Civil War soldier compatriots in the movie's bridge-blowing climax)   didn't have very much in way of  material goods...  and certainly, in the entire Fed era (1913 to present), it is a hell of a lot easier for more men to find the $$ & alcohol to get blind, stinking,  drunk than it was in 1860s wild west!    (i.e. for most of the Fed era, more consumables, were available to far more people, than pre Fed,  if only because of good timing,  the Fed being there at the dawn of the days of oil based, industrialized agriculture & meat production -   America  & world taking advantage of those huge grain growing regions made possible by the western "manifest destiny" conquest of the American plains & breadbasket.)   

[Fiat Money]

also, Jim, you fall in that far too typical trap of painting Alexander Hamilton as a "TOOL of the bankers" and Jefferson & Monroe as idealized saints.   

   HELLO?  Hamilton believed in FAIR WAGES for "free," talented, upwardly mobile, and entrepreneurial  working class (true "private enterprise") -  while Jefferson, Monroe, Washington, AND JACKSON (the ultimate bankster hater) all DEPENDED ON SLAVERY for their own income & power base.

      This is an egregious and horrible error for today's commentators  (to overlook) - especially what with Hamilton PUTTING the NATION's FINANCES on a SOUND FOOTING, AND  Hamilton drawing up what would become the foundations of America's INDUSTRIAL & MANUFACTURING eras.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Report_on_Manufactures

   For example,  Jefferson's crowning achievement as executive (president) was his Louisiana Purchase from cash-strapped Napoleon -  America's first Treasury Secretary, Hamilton, was the man who GAVE  later presidents (including Jefferson) that  magic pot of gold (Federal revenue base, = "money")  to buy Louisiana territory (AND commission, outfit, and man the WARSHIPS Pres. Jefferson sent to "the Shores of Tripoli" to fight the Barbary Coast pirates,  1803... AND to fund  Lewis & Clarke,  and all of Jefferson's other accomplishments as president)  etc. etc. etc.  

  Hamilton was aware of THE BALANCE - make a nation too fiscally & financially weak, and it will be DEVOURED by neighboring states & rival empires.  (Which is why Jefferson's successor,  President James Monroe, formulated that whole "Monroe Doctrine" thing -   you can't keep foreign empires out of your hemisphere,  if you don't have the manpower & navy to back up your (cheap)  talk!) 

    (Before I sound like a "HAWK" here,  on the debit side,  Hamilton sided with the corrupt judges, bankers, and landlords who were CRUSHING small farmers leading to first Shay's Rebellion, then the WHISKEY REBELLION.   Books & textbooks on the Civil War seem to overlook both Hamilton AND PRESIDENT WASHINGTON,  LEADING ARMIES to CRUSH "domestic insurrection,"  even though the small farmers had legitimate grievances, the bankers, landlords, & tax-collectors were BRIBING judges, to  ROB small farmers & land-holders of what little wealth they had,   after those same small farmers had just  run off the British overlords in the American Revolution! )   

[Kokulakai]

We're gonna' need a lotta' rope.

[Yen Cross]

XAG is going to hit the 200sma. Spike up short squeeze, and run down to the daily and h-4 trend lines.

[tony bonn]

"When historians pinpoint the year in which the Great American Empire began its downward spiral they will conclude that year to be 1913"

damned fucking straight!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JLee2027]

When historians pinpoint the year in which the Great American Empire began its downward spiral they will conclude that year to be 1913

This is nonsense. Default on the debt, and return to the Gold Standard. Problem solved after 3-4 weeks of rioting.

[JR]

This, then, is the case against the Federal Reserve.

Perhaps never have the charges been so complete, so detailed, so damning.

“The smell of revolution,” says Jim Quinn, “is in the air.”

Someone had to step forward and put this on paper.  The intentional assault and the single primary cause of the destruction of the American system is the establishment, the continuation of, and the expansion of the Central Bank.

Thanks for this, Jim Quinn. What a piece you have done.

[Yen Cross]

 Welcome.  Bed time for me.

[JR]

Hello, Yen Cross. And good night!

[Yen Cross]

 Hope you are long usd/jpy. I started @ 80.50.

[bid the soldier...]

I don't disagree with you and Quinn but isn't 1913 also the lift off of America in her progress to the very zenith above all nations in the history of civilization?

Was the Fed sine qua non to America's success in the 20th century?

It is a puzzling coincidence, no?

[Ham Wallet]

No, the lifting point was dropping a couple of bombs on Japan. 

[blindman]

it all depends on the degree of your
acceptance of the idea that debt is
infinitely fungible and acceptable as...
money, at the end of a barrel of a gun,
thank you uncle joe, sam or whatever.
it is like lauding the parasite for the
hearty nature of its host, no?

[Flesh Wound]

It could be worse you could live in Europe . Just have a look at how many bankrupt nations are congregated in the one spot.

[falak pema]

you must be from Zimbabwe in Atlanta...

[Maxter]

remember this aticle next time you see a riot for a small raise.  Will there still be poeple who think they are "overpaid lazy bastard" or something like that again?

[JR]

Jim Quinn brushes it all away and goes right to the core.  With every article he gets closer and closer to the source of America’s problems, and it’s the central bank.

From what I’m reading into many of the comments here, Quinn must be closing in on their nest eggs.  Obama’s Information Czar Cass Sunstein and his troll operatives are moving in because they see the gathering storm against  the citadel.