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Guest Post: Sovereign Debt: The Death of Nations vs. the Wealth of Nations
Submitted By Damon Vrabel
Sovereign Debt: The Death of Nations vs. the Wealth of Nations
The gap between the truth vs. the lies that pass for truth in the media has never been so wide. But living a lie is very destructive, so it’s important to cross this gap. Today I want to clear up one of the most important lies reinforced by the media–the idea that we have sovereign countries.
No doubt most of you have heard of the sovereign debt crisis that so many countries are facing. We hear endless economists, reporters, and billionaire hedge fund raiders talk about it. But the phrase they use is fictitious. It is a fabrication of the Ivy League, Wall Street, and erudite periodicals like the Financial Times of London. Sovereign debt is an impossibility. It cannot exist.
It seems ridiculous to point this out, but sovereign debt implies sovereignty. Right? Well, if countries are sovereign, then how could they be required to be in debt to private banking institutions? How could they be so easily attacked by the likes of George Soros, JP Morgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs? Why would they be subjugated to the whims of auctions and traders?
A true sovereign is in debt to nobody and is not traded in the public markets. For example, how would George Soros attack, say, the British royal family? It’s not possible. They are sovereign. Their stock isn’t traded on the NYSE. He can’t orchestrate a naked short sell strategy to destroy their credit and force them to restructure their assets. But he can do that to most of the other 6.7 billion people of the world by designing attack strategies against the companies they work for and the governments they depend on.
The fact is that most countries are not sovereign (the few that are are being attacked by CIA/MI6/Mossad or the military). Instead they are administrative districts or customers of the global banking establishment whose power has grown steadily over time based on the math of the bond market, currently ruled by the US dollar, and the expansionary nature of fractional lending. Their cult of economists from places like Harvard, Chicago, and the London School have steadily eroded national sovereignty by forcing debt-based, floating currencies on countries. So let’s start being honest and stop describing their debt instruments as sovereign.
We long ago lost the free market envisioned by Adam Smith in the “Wealth of Nations.” Such a world would require sovereign currencies, i.e. currencies that are well-regulated rather than floating, and an asset rather than an interest-bearing debt. Only then could there be a “wealth of nations.” But now we have nothing but the “debt of nations.” The exponential math of debt by definition meant that countries would only lose their wealth over time and become increasingly indebted to the global central banking network.
So thanks to debt-based, free-floating currencies, the “wealth of nations” transitioned to the “debt of nations” which is now transitioning to the “death of nations.” The new world economic order with one currency, one banking system, one government, and one integrated corporate empire is on the horizon. Perhaps that’s a good thing, but if it were, why would the establishment concoct oxymorons like “sovereign debt” instead of telling the truth? That’s my only goal here–I think people can be trusted with the truth. Lies harm not only the population hearing them, but also the powerful people telling them.
Those powers have the best salesmen in the world, so why don’t they just sell the population on the truth? Apparently they don’t think you’d like it. Well now you have it. And it’s coming unless countries follow Iceland’s lead and recover their sovereignty. The choice is ours.
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Great post.
The Debt of Nations.
i disagree. this piece takes an overly literal and pedantic view of the words "sovereign" and "debt" and emphasizes semantics over substance. while it is true that sovereign nations are not truly "sovereign" in an absolute sense, who cares? neither is the royal family that was used as an analogy - george soros may not be able to attack them financially the way he can "sovereign" debt, but the not truly "sovereign" united states military could assassinate the royals anytime it chose. does this make the royals less sovereign? does this make the united states more sovereign? it all depends on your point of reference.
i think a better way to approach our current situation is to view the world as a system where every action has consequences. "sovereign" nations chose to take out more debt than they could afford to repay as a way to placate and win over voters in democratic countries. now, the consequences of those actions are manifesting themselves, as creditors and financiers demand higher rates of interest. this does not mean the united states is less free - we can still default and screw our creditors anytime we chose. the problem is this course of action would also have consequences, many of which are unpalatable. when you get right down to it, violence is the ultimate arbiter of freedom, and the united states, with its many guns and military budget that exceeds the rest of the world's aggregate military spending, is still very much "sovereign."
that being said, i will grant the author that to the extent military spending relies on debt, the united states is becoming less sovereign every day. however, i dont think this was the thrust of your article, and i object to the notion that financial security defines "sovereignty."
There is more than one form of violence. Adherents to Leftist ideology tend to focus upon overwelming physical force as a threat only because they do not presently control that brand of force. Political/social control mechanism force is also powerful, as recognized by many of the high priest of the Leftist faith.
I don't buy your attempt to dismiss the obvious truth in the authors work via a simple deflection.
The current structure does not work and Leftist ideology is a culprit, not a solution.
Leftist as in Neo-Liberal I am sure..
I didn't choose to take on more debt, yet the "sovereign" nation I live in did. Am I responsible for this debt? Am I to pay the interest forever, never touching the principle? Are my children to pay for this debt? Are my children's children to pay for this debt? Do you honestly believe that the debt will ever, ever be repaid? Ever? When does it end? Stop!
At what point do you say we are not free? When you pay 50% of your income to federal taxes which only services the interest (minimum payment for the dim) on the debt, what about 75%, 80%, 90%? When?
Fact1: The nation didn't choose to take out another loan, the Congress/Administration did.
Fact2: Members of Congress and the Admin were elected by ~25% of the population.
Can 25% of the population make debt slaves out of the other 75% of the population? Can a present generation enslave a future one? We are so linear, no?
You answered your own question. If the 25% who pay nothing and consume everything were responsible for their debts, the problem would solve itself, either through belt-tightening or default.
The problem isn't debt; I manage my own just fine. The problem is the ability to incur debt on someone else's behalf.
In fact, that's just one aspect of the problem. Being able to tax someone else into oblivion to pay yourself is another.
It's not the debt, it's that thug politicians have built themselves constituencies of people who produce nothing, and turned our system of limited government and individual rights into one where everyone tries to steal from everyone using government as a weapon.
When people you want to borrow money from wake up to the fact that you're risky or broke, that's not an "attack". Sure, a couple opportunists might jump on the band wagon but it's absurd to suggest Greece was somehow entitled to have everyone lend it money at 5% when its chance of default was 50% (or whatever).
If the British monarchs decided to take out loans to buy everything under the sun, they certainly would be vulnerable to the same thing as these other "sovereigns" are: people would stop lending to them at 1% and demand a return that balances the risk.
It's not the debt, it's that thug politicians have built themselves constituencies of people who produce nothing, and turned our system of limited government and individual rights into one where everyone tries to steal from everyone using government as a weapon.
Well, it IS the debt, but I think I agree with your above also. People we call Americans came here specifically to escape the European class (divide and conquer) system. The "social contract" in colonial America, the Revolution itself and post-Revolution was based on the right to be left alone, not forced into some control system of whatever form it might take.
The "social contract" now consists, as you have pointed out, of everlasting and multi-generational debt peonage at the muzzle of a government rifle. That is the stark reality that too few seem willing to admit. When one group or class can use their "franchise" to force debt on another, the social contract is void.
Locke:
And hence it is that he who attempts to get another man into his absolute power does thereby put himself into a state of war with him; it being to be understood as a declaration of a design upon his life. For I have reason to conclude that he who would get me into his power without my consent would use me as he pleased when he had got me there, and destroy me too when he had a fancy to it; for nobody can desire to have me in his absolute power unless it be to compel me by force to that which is against the right of my freedom - i.e. make me a slave. To be free from such force is the only security of my preservation, and reason bids me look on him as an enemy to my preservation who would take away that freedom which is the fence to it; so that he who makes an attempt to enslave me thereby puts himself into a state of war with me. He that in the state of Nature would take away the freedom that belongs to any one in that state must necessarily be supposed to have a design to take away everything else, that freedom being the foundation of all the rest; as he that in the state of society would take away the freedom belonging to those of that society or commonwealth must be supposed to design to take away from them everything else, and so be looked on as in a state of war.
Sovereignty comes down to a matter of power, a nation either has it or it doesn't. Sovereign means the ability to control one's destiny and actions. No nation is absolutely sovereign.
My view is that the government remains sovereign so long as it retains the ability to force its will, violently or otherwise. Greece retains some sovereignty because it can still default on its debt and still be mostly in control of itself. Obviously, then, there are degrees of sovereign power, the term is not absolute. If the US defaults, who is going to force it to pay? So long as it has the power to enforce its default, it remains sovereign. Once that is lost, it is at the mercy of greater powers, and may lose sovereignty in total. Most of the author's argument is just playing with theory and semantics.
It is actually a form of identity theft. Our elected officials have figured out long ago we are not paying attention and they are having their way with our identities and those of future generations.
Brushfire, actually the semantics of those two words is critical and a unseful tenet in the piece. And in this world, in further continuation of the author's point, financial security defines sovereignty, completely.
In a fractal world, as it is, one example should be enough.
If you had a no financial security (as in means. savings, nothing) and wish to live in this world (mainstream, which is the ambit of this essay), can you really live as a sovereign person?
Totally, abjectly broke, can you really live freely?
It's the same at all levels. War is the center-piece of the nation-state (or a perpetual state of war-preparation) and for that, kings and governments have been in the debt of the money people since this general experiment in "civil"ization began.
I think the author is mostly spot-on.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
Buy Gold and Silver and lots of it.
Indeed, lots of gold and silver. The angle on sovereignty that I find compelling is that (1) multinational banks have business in essentially every country, (2) central banks are established to support the interests of the banking system (which sometimes plays favorably for the average Joe, but does not have to), and (3) central banks, therefore, do not necessarily act in the interest of their reputed sovereign affiliation. To the extent that they control all the money and the capacity to create more, then the global system is glued together by a web of banking interests. I see little room for an alternative conclusion.
Sorry gut you are delusional:
"central banks are established to support the interests of the banking system (which sometimes plays favorably for the average Joe, but does not have to)"
If you have the time, pass the crack pipe this way 'cause I need whatever you are smokin'. I suppose consistent positive inflation is good for the poor and middle class, right? After all, it forces the rich to put their money at risk and invest in the future...which is where you come in.
Central banks are fundamental tennants in Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. Try finding central banks mentioned in Adam Smith, David Riccardo, etc. Educate, don't maintain the status quo.
An interesting and rather stunning thought. Really simplicity itself. Kinda hard to argue thought it's difficult to do that alone.
Love to hear some discussion on the idea. Milestones
Very well, a quick synopsis:
In the aftermath of the Iraqi War, the majority, if not all, of the oil from southern Iraq goes to China as it is necessary to fuel all those factories and production facilities the multinationals relocated, or opened, there.
The copper being mined by the Chinese in Afghanistan, the Chinese miners being protected by the American military, is required for the production facilities and factories the multinationals relocated to that country.
Those pipelines carrying oil and gas across Afghanistan, the final endpoint being India, are necessary for those production facilities, factories, IT firms and healthcare sector firms which have been opened or relocated there by the multinationals.
Starting to get the macro picture now......
In other words, those resource wars have nothing to do with a pseudo-sovereign entity of America, but everything to do with the larger operations of the multinationals and transnationals.
+1. excellent representation of the resource war that we are experiencing. in fact, it makes sense for businesses to buy phosphate, oil, natural gas, copper etc. and not invest in people/jobs.
i think that some of the deflationary forces (china's real estate debacle and the US banks not lending) are very negative for commodities. then i remember, all these wars are about oil, pipelines and lithium.
Deary,
The cycle won't be complete if the products made in china aren't bought by someone at whatever price that is and whether going into debt buying those things
as long as everyone is busy doing something there won't be a depression, JOBBBS Whatever it takes [ala You know who!]
Atleast that's what the efficiency/productivity theorists believe
How can you provide jobs when robots/chinese are replacing factory workers
and Indians-online doing services efficiently and productively [more work/hour/worker,less cost to company for work and hence more operating margins]
So multinationals made huge profits as long as chumps in US/UK/Europe went out and bought their products and services using credit cards
And I don't think they have models where USD is defunct or unstable- a stable USD is imperative for all these models to work
Wage arbitrages are HUUUUGE! I mean HU....GE!
I've been repeating this over and over
President of India gets a pay of 2000$/month,
Average call center worker gets 400-500$/month
Unemployment benifits in US are 1000-1600$/month for last 24 months and counting -excluding food stamps
China doesn't even disclose worker-wages freely
So, How can a small business in US hire a worker paying wages and benifits,[ now new healthcare too] and compete against a mutinational company which is providing products and services ultracheap!
I am writing a book on this but will not give details here to keep this forum's sanctity intact-
maddy 10,
The late Sir James Goldsmith has some interesting thoughts on this very point, and he authored a book called "The Trap".
Here is an interview he did with Charlie Rose (1994) predicting the impoverishment of western societies as we know it via business in the pursuit of global labor.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5064665078176641728&ei=2s4yS-jdG...
multinationals are the contemporary 'sovereigns'...
The horse has already left the barn and the genie's escaped the bottle.
Interesting perspective. Bottoms up!
The Panel of Judges looked at many cons and ponzi schemes over the years including JP Morgan's manipulation of the gold market to the Hunt Brothers cornering of the silver market in the 70's. But in the end, nothing compared to, Goldman Sachs 7$ trillion wealth transfer of middle class assets to it's own ultra rich class, by a method better known on Wall St as the "Sub Prime Shuffle." It had been pulled off in the 30's by a group of rogue bankers, but Goldman was able to pull it off on such a massive, nation-wide scale, from shady mortgage broker to CDO pusher, to the chop shops for toxic assets, a fully vertical intergated one stop shop for fraud.
Besides the "Con of the Century Award," Goldman or Goldman Alumn, pocketed a few other awards as well. One of them was "Best Architech of Fraud" awarded to former CEO, Hank Paulson. Hank Paulson also won awards for "Inflitrating the White House" and for "Biggest Bag of Bonuses Given by One Man" ($700 billion).
"Best Architech of Fraud" was given to Hank Paulson because of his sheer tenacity and endurance to see the scheme through to the end zone, even though it took almost 20 years. Hank would be there from the beginning championing for the break down of Glass-Stegall, and 20 years later he would happen to be Treasury of America with a premediatated $700 billion dollar bailout for his crownies. Naturally, Hank Paulson was also awarded the the "Inflitrating the White House Award" something that had never been accomplished by a banker. The scheme played liked right out of his college football days. Hank, as quarter back, does a reverse hand off, and then runs 90 yards to catch a pass and score the touch down!
Another Goldman Alunmi, Chris Cox, was awarded "Best Insider" as he headed the SEC long enough for Goldman Sachs to re install their servers in front of the que of servers belonging to the SEC themselves. Its all about que position for these High Frequency Traders these days.
Lastly, Goldman Sachs, took awards for "Best Plea Bargarn" for offering up a couple 20 somethings from the mortgage trading department and a couple billion dollar fine for a fraud case, at the same time, covering up the "7 trillion dollar wealth transfer" to it's clients.
Madoff, although not present for the "Banksters & Gansters Ball" was awarded "Best Side Show" for his his sacrifical offering of himself to conceal the real ongoing fraud on Wall Street. Posted by Wall St Onion at 12:40 PM 0 comments
Only 4 more weeks until the US Cyber Security Agency shuts down my site>
www.WallStOnion.blogspot.com
You know, I heard the same thing about who really profited from those sub-prime; something to do with the genocidal, drug trafficking maniac GHW8ush.
Because they borrowed from the Banks and were not able to pay it back. It is called being Bankrupt or being in receivership to your creditor, the Bank.
This article's basic premise is misunderstood by its author.
Agreed, and I wasn't as nice as you were.
Look at those japan machine orders and that is may! Should be good for 2% on the index. Ko ma.....tsu
Sorry, sovereign debt crises happened in the days of commodity money as well. Rome, Great Britain, and the Ming Dynasty come immediately to mind. The problem is the author imagines that word "sovereign" ought to mean "omnipotent." The fact is that no matter what kind of government or money we have, the amount of wealth the government wishes to consume always outstrips the amount of wealth it can seize from the citizens without causing a revolt, and slaves are notoriously inefficient at production and worthless at innovation.
What governments cannot seize today, they borrow from tomorrow, by assuring the creditors that tomorrow, seizing the necessary wealth will be politically more viable than it is today. Borrowing *always* requires the trust of the lender, as the creditor-debtor relationship is voluntary. Sovereign debt crises happen, not because of anything intrinsic to fiat money or central banking, but because governments eventually consume so much that lenders stop trusting them to pay it back. They then simply choose not to provide the government with wealth. The government might respond in a variety of ways--looting its citizens, conquering its neighbors, devaluing its currency, or simply withering. But any of those will cause more trouble and not rescue the state from the simple fact that there is not enough to keep it fed.
Thus the cause of sovereign debt crises is not fiat money, but simply the fact that there are limits to force.
+1
nice summary. I would go further and say that Banks are the creators of governments to whom they act as creditor. The contest between real and fiat currencies is merely a drama placed to obscure the obvious relationship.
It is the "Luke, I am your Father." moment.
No, no, that's not true! That's impossible!! ........Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo...........
Indeed. I am reminded of the ill-fated omen that sends me clamoring for a stake and garlic necklace, "This time it's different."
What's with you 4 guys being so logical!?
Thanks for the injection of sanity. I was going to write something along those lines myself, but I would have been less patient.
LOL at the whole "Adam Smith" reference. Adam Smith's Britain had a central bank which by the time of his death had been in existence about as long as the Fed has been in our time.
Said bank being founded in part with the capital of "tally sticks" - notched sticks, split in two - which recorded the debts of the Crown.
Any serious student of the Austrian school, sound money, and sound policy - screw it, make that anybody interested in any kind of defensible, non-criminal policy at all - is ill served by promoting posts such as this.
You can tell whose read some real economists and who hasn't when they post nonsense like this. Sometimes I think anything with a "banks are evil" them will get +1'd around here, no matter how preposterous. But it's good to have the debate--the argument doesn't even happen on the pages of the NYT, where the Great Krug merely speaks, and it is so.
Currency doesn't have to be commodity-backed any more than it needs to be debt-backed. Tying the currency to debt or gold is a way of saying to people that what they're exchanging for their money isn't really what's represented by the money.. ie the money is not a medium of exchange.
If you maintained a currency that was a pure medium of exchange, you could still use it to buy gold or debt, but it could no longer be used by some special interest (like bankers) to hold the nation hostage.
this is meaningless stupidity.
i know this will not be a popular comment for many of the posters here who only see what their empirical minds can comprehend, but many of the things tyler speaks of i have been expecting for 25 years - world currency, world government, lies accepted as truth by most. it is contained in the bible, and whether it is true prophecy, warped space/time visions, or collective intelligence inherent in our dna, it is proving true.
further, i can tell you that you will not be able to buy or sell in future without giving up your sovereign individuality, that your gold and silver will do you no good, and that you will have to choose between your righteous beliefs and your materialistic needs. i suggest, in other words, that your best, nay only option will be to go out in a blaze of (spiritual) glory.
You waste your breath, pilgrim.
This site is mammon-centric, not manna-centric. Better use your talents elswhere.
Blaze of (Spiritual) glory. LoL. That was funny. Give 'em credit for that. LoL.
I disagree. Don't speak for all of us . . .
It's Zen0, he tells you not vice versa.
I disagree as well. All ideas should be considered here. We are not all the same. Diversity and diversification rule.
I cannot disagree, however, that ZH is mammon-centric!
I thought we were mammary-centric.
Organ centric, be it personal or state eh...
Right on, Oquities.
I'm starting to wonder if maybe the finance/ government/ establishment cabal is a sentient meta-entity. Living information. An evil, soul-sucking, parasitic spirit otherwise known as Satan.
It cannot be defeated by using its own methods against it, because it will infect and corrupt all those who try (just look at the history of the Catholic church). The Beast can only be defeated by removing its host. Then its followers will consume each other in the prisons they have created, and the Beast will shrivel and die. In case you haven't figured it out already, its methods include: Control, heirarchy, secrecy, violence, greed, and lies. Use these methods, and you channel the Beast. It takes particular delight in tricking "good" people into channeling it. It achieves this by taking advantage of religion, fear, willful ignorance, patriotism, cop penis syndrome, "the public good", "think of the children", etc.
To survive we must form small, self-sufficient communities, use real money, and trade as free individuals. Everyone should be taught and bound together by our own meta-entity: the internet. And if anyone tries to implant a credit chip in your forehead, you implant a bullet in his. Consider it self-defence.
What happens when Barack turns the Internet off for 4 months at a time? And the only one with any type of successful communications network is the US military complex?
http://www.ll.mit.edu/publications/labnotes/radiowaveofthefuture.html
.mil will use their superior communications network to squash your communities and steal your gold.
Years ago(1993) an idealist named Mudge was working on a subversion of the Internet via FM radio waves. Friend of the underground movement.
http://www.l0pht.com/
You need to either spend some time in the military or spend more time with people in the military. The people at the top may or may not be evil, but they're not *nearly* smart enough to pull something off like that. They're mostly total idiots.
+1000... Military Intelligence...the oxymoron of the ages.
Two words: occult war. Every 50 years or so a certain egregore emerges and reigns, and evokes a psychic vortex that leads to its undoing. The subcycle closes when Golem goes berserk. Ironically, in the original myth Golem has the word "Truth" tatooed in his forehead.
"In God We Trust"
The sooner the better.
Oquities,
Sir,3 witnesses(Junk-Flaggers) are accusing you of Heracy.
Sir,You will stand trial for this blasphemous act.
And Sir the ATHEIST's have set your bail at $1,000,000,000,000.
Sir,I suggest you contact the Government for a BAILOUT PACKAGE immediatly.
am happy to have been junked on such a subject.
lest you scorn me, please know that this opinion is not non-malleable, but the 25 years mentioned have been mammon and manna centric, with study of science, finance, psychology, comparative religion, economics, history and literature. i don't need validation, but i do wish to help. occam's razor has several blades these days.
Sir i,m sorry to to say.......another witness has come forward to testify.
Okay Okay.......joking aside,I agree and got to admit this place has quite a few stubborn MAMMON WORSHIPPERS.
I like Damon Vrabel's writing. He's been on Max Keiser's page a good bit lately too.
But the middle class cannot be effectively robbed without fiat money. Ultimately, govt will pay in worthless paper but demand gold and silver to pay taxes, like the late Roman empire.
Has Drudge gone infowars?
based on the current page this evening, it sure looks like it.
http://www.drudgereport.com/
Yikes
Tell me how to delete posts on ZH, I am applying for a loan next week
/sarcasm
Interesting thought and well written. I see "Sovereign" as just another entity or vehicle to consolidate debt or assets under no tangible boundaries as such.
The Wall Street Investment Bankers, proudly recommended to clients, (Enron and Worldcom) - "Special Investment Vehicles".
george soros is old and will die soon.
The Doelarr has been getting crushed, tonight and for the last month! So death of who then?
The Doelarr is DEAD!
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-gary-null-show-wnye/
.
interview with johan hari. minute 40 or so.
.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/how-goldman-sachs-gambled_b_633436.html
Johann HariColumnist, London Independent
Posted: July 2, 2010 03:52 AM How Goldman Sachs Gambled On Starving the Poor - And Won.
"the only way to fix it is to flush it all away"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCEeAn6_QJo
+100,000 Level up!
"The new world economic order with one currency, one banking system, one government, and one integrated corporate empire is on the horizon. "
Conspirator theorist's wet dream.
My copy of the collector's edition of "An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" just arrived today from Amazon. I'm on page 5 of seven hundred something.
So far it's a lot of efficiency talk and an inquiry into the making of pins and nails through the division of labour.
And quite a few showings of the word shewn.
This is a little off topic..but did anybody hear anything about this...
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee headed by Sen. Joe Lieberman unanimously approved the "Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010" on June 28, moving the bill to the Senate for a full vote.
According to the Heartland Institute:
"Right now, China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in a case of war. We need to have that here, too," says Sen. Lieberman.
While fear mongering may help Lieberman convince the public that it needs saving from the Internet, the only danger lurking in cyberspace is an authoritarian information monopoly, says Heartland.
Washington's most effective power grabs are always sold as needed security, but, predictably, they quickly manifest into little more than relinquished civil liberties, says Eric Garris, founder of antiwar.com.
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=19540&utm_source=newsle...
http://www.heartland.org/full/27937/Proposed_Internet_Kill_Switch_Raises...
text of the bill
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s3480/text
Sure, I've heard of it. It'll probably pass too - the worst ideas always do.
If you like that bill, you'll love this one:
http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1715-McCain-and-Lieberman-s-Nightmarish-Detention-Bill
McCain never wrote me back when I called him an unpatriotic, power-hungry, freedom-hating, raisin-assed, butt-sucking, demented dictator in the letter i wrote him re this little gem. I wonder why....
I guess "China" is the new password in congress. Any crap they want to pass, just say "China" and it will pass.
nice ..buy pms...
Exactly.
The other thing is that we can default and guess what, we can print our own legitimate money if the banksters don't want to lend to us.
Money creation is the worst monopoly, and also the one that's been hidden the best. The sad fact is soverign nations are supposed to utter credit, not private banks.
This was a great article.
Only an idiot doesn't realize what they want is to complete globilization. It isn't conspiracy theory.
Also, conspiracy theory, is a fact, not something to be laughed at. But of course the idiot that does not know their history is too stupid to realize that biggest changes in the history of mankind came out of guess what 'conspiracy'. If conspiracy didn't happen so much, how come people are charged with it all the time...conspiracy to commit.....enter offense here...
I swear all the people that joke at conpsiracy theories, instead of just letting them be, or gasp, investigate it, are the TRUE idiots.
Hell even cheating on ones wife is a conspiracy. But don't tell that to the idiots. They think conspiracy is belongs in the fiction category, except in reality you'll find conspiracy in the history section in every history book.
If you're going to blow a conspiracy theory out of the water, you better have more than name calling to back you up. Sadly, that's all these dipshits do. It can't be real because I don't want it to be. Even though they've stated certain intentions over, and over, and over again like groundhog day.
People should focus on facts, know their history, and the human being itself if they wish to understand what's going on instead of using sophistry to lump things into the 'conspiracy' collumn so they can veg out and watch 'The Biggest loser' and not know it's themself.
This isn't what I want to put on any one person, just the idiocy that is putting one's head in the sand, and having the retarded notion of discriminating against thought and ideas that they are too stupid, too uninterested, and too scared to follow.
Next thing you know some of these idiots will say only private banks can create money out of thin air. No the gov't of, by, and for the people can do it too. Worried about a default of loans to private bankers on the fear of higher rates? Why?
The only ones that should be concerned are the bankers who have ALWAYS been (at least for 100 years if not forever) obsolete. A middle man where one needs not be.
13 trillion debt, most of which can be defaulted on, legitimately, and should be. What problem do we have? What austerity measures should we adopt? How about NONE!
That's the right answer. Only the idiots, say otherwise.
they are labeled Conspiracy Theorists to destroy any evidence or credibility, FACTS they use to confirm the conspiracy.
its not a theory when backed by facts.
Following the author's "logic" I propose we change the name of America to the "States of United America" and then all our debt will be null and void.
I am convinced it can't be a good thing, because I hate corporations and what they do to everything. They turn everything into fake bullshit. So they want to turn the entire world into one big corporate fake bullshit empire.
they're working towards this (however, unlikely to succeed):
One reasonably common science-fiction scenario involves nanomachines being programmed to build copies of themselves using materials in their environment. If not stopped, such nanobots could theoretically grow exponentially, turning all available material on Earth into more nanobots and ending life as we know it - this is known as the "Grey Goo" scenario. Some scientists (and noted homeopathy fan, HRH The Prince of Wales) have expressed concern that this scenario could actually happen in real life, although most consider it extremely unlikely.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Nanomachines
Great piece!
Very very nice.
What most individuals are unaware of is that nations as they are now known are in fact corporations. For example, Australia is registered with the SEC under the CIK 0000805157.
What most individuals are also unaware of is that they are effectively chattel of these corporations and not sovereigns. They are stripped of their sovereign status and duped into a status of capitas diminutio (via the straw man created at birth). Capitas diminutio was a method of identifying slaves in Roman times; citizens are also a creation from Roman times, and citizens fall under Roman law.
Jordan Maxwell has lots to say on this topic. Interesting fellow.
I agree with the author's analysis. However, nations which choose to fight back and default or issue their own currency or new currency, can be punished by the money cartels (numismato-terroristas)
Iceland is an isolated island nation with few enemies and could be left on its own devices after default.
Other countries, like Greece and Eastern block countries can be destroyed by external threats of neighbor countries like Turkey or Russia and countries with multiethnic population can be threatened and actually be destroyed from the inside out. The divide and conquer still works and it can be painful.
It may be cheaper to pay the banks with a haircut than to have to buy jet fighters tanks and arms and have to use them and maintain them.
The modus operandi is very similar to Chicago protection racket of yester years.
Ah shoot, governments have been borrowing money from bankers since... well... Napoleon was looking for money to fund his wars.
Oh, heck, LOOOONG before Nappy - it was not unknown for medieval kings to go to the jewish bankers (the only ones allowed to be bankers, due to using different chapters of the bible for a guidance on the matter) for war money . . . and then get so deep in, the only way out was to declare them enemies of the state, and seize their assets. I think the Plantageanates did it twice.
Also, I feel I must take some exception to the author's implication that the Chicago school was a monolithic proponent of fiat currency.
Palopennesian wars, according to Looney Larouche
Thanks for the post but I'm not sure I entirely agree with your premise. I think that certain institutions would like to see a NWO with a global currency. However, near the end of your post you use Iceland as an example of a country that is still sovereign - unless countries follow Iceland’s lead and recover their sovereignty - which provides a springboard for an excellent counter argument. Countries in dire straits still have the option of saying no and defaulting - and depending on how dire the straits, that option may become more and more attractive.
I'm not sure I agree with the premise, either... though it is well written and well reasoned.
I think the central issue is just because a sovereign spends more than it takes in and resolves this issue by issuing debt doesn't make them disappear from sovereignity.
It just makes them a relatively weak sovereign realtive to sovereigns that are asset backed.
As for the U.S., you may well imagine the sovereign moniker does not exist, and conclude there is no such thing a sovereign debt. I'm sure Timmy wished that were the case, then default would be a snap. But tell that to a massive creditor and asset accumulator such as China.
Conversely, if the US decides not to pay for it's global indebtedness, say forever, and uses it's military assets to enforce the issue to the world's disliking-- will anyone care if the thesis holds water?
Agreed. However a society is only as strong as its weakest link and the fact is the expression of "sovereign" power is nothing of the sort since it has been loaned away to the pay day lending crew and has become an extension of the same. This makes the exercise of "sovereign" or "private" military power an extension of the loan sharks collection operation. Still, does it matter if folks dislike it as long as this exercise of power is held as supreme?
IMO, the Sovereign Debt play is the latest version of a viral trojan-horse worm designed to bring down national currencies instead of computers.
Zombie computers...meet zombie banks...
Instead of malicious spyware or code, it's today's digital monetary equivalent: the USD.
So, by this reasoning...wouldn't this make Krugman the QE2 spam king?
(...wait a minute, this may be a whole new take on that blue pill thing....)
...that your gold and silver will do you no good, and that you will have to choose between your righteous beliefs and your materialistic needs. i suggest, in other words, that your best, nay only option will be to go out in a blaze of (spiritual) glory.
Bravo! Renewal time.
The Stealth of Nations: US Banks Gold and Silver Derivatives
Even the true monarchs in the 14th century were all dependend on the banks. Why do you for example think the crusaders where all killed?
For their money because the French king was flat broke en tought he could solve all his problems by killing them.
He failled. All the gold was gone and the country was broken for the next 150 year.
Seems like there are several distinctions collapsed together needing clarification:
1) asset-based lending (eg based on a nation's gold reserves, property and commodities) vs cash-flow based lending (eg based on a nation's current and future surplus tax revenues). We on this site switch references frequently. Often entrepreneur founders prefer asset loans while professional managers prefer cash flow loans. "Sovereign" nations mentioned in this article seem to have mostly manager mind-sets who let its bankers obligate the nation with more money than cash flow could support. Founder mind sets in the US were long ago suppressed, squelched, and attacked in government-guided education, leaving no check on the manager mind-sets.
2) the symbolism of nationality vs the legal rights respected by foreign political entities of individuals from another recognized political entity: passports act as a currency for individuals to tread on another nation's property as a legal arrangement. Nationalities in symbol alone (without passports) (ie Al Qida) have no such legal status. It seems today that nationalities in symbol alone have more status today than in years past- a status that puts their members in a place of higher respect than average passport holders.
3) types of money: seems like JPM, GS and others created a different type of money recently, distinct from central bank notes, gold or sticks. They have something that neither average people have or sovereigns have. They leave this definition of their type of money rather vague so they can keep their game going. I realize I am not defining it either b/c the definition eludes me, someone out of their world. Money is a set of promises and they have their own promises with each other.
4) whether all this is for good or evil: a big question worth keeping top of mind in this forum. More clearly stated would be "how do we know if what we do and what others do is being done for good or evil." meaning that several of these leaders mentioned in these comments have either evil intent (ie a master plan to dominate the world currency) or goodwill intent (ie to make the world better and protect a nations citizen from itself and others), just that observers have difficulty discerning which it is. Some observers have good hearted intentions and can accurately discern the evil intent of leaders; except they are marginalized by the leaders and by other mean-hearted and good-hearted people as overly religious, crazy, stupid etc. What is different in the world now IMHO is that those seeking to be known as one of the good-hearted people of the world -whether religiously affiliated or affiliated with another aspirational identity - have been marginalized and have accepted themselves as such. My current initiative is to alert such marginalized folks as to this position and then to suggest new actions. I for one am looking at establishing cooperatives for several activities supporting quasi-free activity.
The ZH story about money moving out of Afganistan to Dubai through Arab codes of conduct that cannot be tracked- this old practice and brings these people freedom. I aim to study up on their ancient methods. I hope to unplug from the currency system in part in preparation for further suppression by my overly oppressive taxing entities.
Sovereign debt is the last invention of capitalism to “save” itself. The US' crisis (a result of the 80’s and 90’s try to save capitalism via subprime and housing market bubble) was – via QE and sovereign debt - displaced to Europe. Watch the creation of a new US/Eureopean economic entity, with euro/dollar parity (the euro becoming an empty shell) while the US keeps all (newly) transferred European capitals seeking refuge in the US, while the dollar keeps its status of world reserve currency, with all the privileges attached. All done with the help of IMF and the well known corrupt
rating agencies cronies of ….
etc., etc., etc.
As some of you would say,
“wash, rinse, repeat”.
Ok, i've decided i can't put it off any longer - here it is ...
Scary DOW monthly chart.
http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com
Beg to differ:
"But living a lie is very destructive."
The billions of people on this planet live lies practically every day of their lives. 66% of the world population believe in the lie of a life after death. Unless you include the transformation from human blood, flesh and bone into carbon, and carbon is included in life after death, this is one of the most believed lies in creation.
Robert Byrd and Ted Boyo Kennedy died without ever having to confront the life of lies they lived, just mention a few. My father donated money to the church in his later years thinking it would buy his way into heaven. He died believing that lie.
I'm afraid just the opposite of the above statement is the truth: people can live extraordinary lives believing all kinds of lies, big and small, and go to their graves without paying any consequences. And so it goes generation after generation.
I suggest you read the morality play "Everyman." This life is a test -- a very brief test. I first learned of the play 18 months after my epileptic seizures on Shrove Tuesday and Good Friday 1986.
There is nothing wrong with a one world government as long as I run it.
Remember, it's not a lie if you believe it.
The frontispiece of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, depicting the Sovereign as a massive body wielding a sword and crozier and composed of many individual people.
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided. The concept has been discussed, debated and questioned throughout history, from the time of the Romans through to the present day, although it has changed in its definition, concept, and application throughout, especially during the Age of Enlightenment. The current notion of state sovereignty was laid down in the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), which, in relation to states, codified the basic principles of territorial integrity, border inviolability, and supremacy of the state (rather than the Church). A sovereign is a supreme lawmaking authority.
....
..comment: a sovereign would naturally be the receiver of interest,
if it chose to have a fiat money system,
on it's own self created debt money. think andrew jackson. that is the nut of it.
i think the author is correct.
but this system would lay bare cruelty and murder abroad which is currently
referred to as "world order" and world imperialism or "markets".
currently banks use the illusion of sovereign "money", currencies and debt,
to enforce the rules of their "market making" , whatever they think will
be profitable to their finances. impact on people, secondary consideration
at best. this priority is in conflict with that of a sovereign of and by and for
the people. and made possible because the banks receive the interest on
debt money which the "people" rightfully own.
a scam at the root of the tree of fraud. so it goes.....
Global Socialism vs Sovereign States
Global Socialist Government to rule you all
So funny! A Global Dictatorship to save you from crisis. Totally a lie.
Speaking of Sovereign Nations, whose side is Obama on?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIugyLb4kpM
Nice essay. I am one of the least likely people to cite Marx, but the following excerpt contains a gem of truth, namely, that the system of slavery and cryptocratic rule based on debt is not the essence of capitalism, and that it predates the industrial era.
Just think of the link between Venice, Amsterdam, London, New York, and you get the picture. I hope Geopol reads this, he will certainly feel corroborated in his thought that our contemporary Oligarchy was born in Venice:
"The system of public credit, i.e., of national debts, whose origin we discover in Genoa and Venice as early as the Middle Ages, took possession of Europe generally during the manufacturing period. The colonial system with its maritime trade and commercial wars served as a forcing-house for it. Thus it first took root in Holland. National debts, i.e., the alienation of the state – whether despotic, constitutional or republican – marked with its stamp the capitalistic era. The only part of the so-called national wealth that actually enters into the collective possessions of modern peoples is their national debt. [7] Hence, as a necessary consequence, the modern doctrine that a nation becomes the richer the more deeply it is in debt. Public credit becomes the credo of capital. And with the rise of national debt-making, want of faith in the national debt takes the place of the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which may not be forgiven.
[...]
With the national debt arose an international credit system, which often conceals one of the sources of primitive accumulation in this or that people. Thus the villainies of the Venetian thieving system formed one of the secret bases of the capital-wealth of Holland to whom Venice in her decadence lent large sums of money. So also was it with Holland and England. By the beginning of the 18th century the Dutch manufactures were far outstripped. Holland had ceased to be the nation preponderant in commerce and industry. One of its main lines of business, therefore, from 1701-1776, is the lending out of enormous amounts of capital, especially to its great rival England. The same thing is going on today between England and the United States. A great deal of capital, which appears today in the United States without any certificate of birth, was yesterday, in England, the capitalised blood of children. As the national debt finds its support in the public revenue, which must cover the yearly payments for interest, &c., the modern system of taxation was the necessary complement of the system of national loans."
Karl Marx. Capital Volume One
Chapter Thirty-One: Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch31.htm
"The fact is that most countries are not sovereign (the few that are are being attacked by CIA/MI6/Mossad or the military)."
this article is the single most important article ever published on zh. the crescendo of truth within is a symphony of musical virtuosity.
anyone doubting the truth of this quote should look up confessions of an economic hitman on youtube (if the interviews with the author are still there).
god bless zerohedge!
i call "musical break".
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KJgs1ZlAKk
.
TED HAWKINS, "HAPPY HOUR" Boom boom booom boom, booom boom boom boom, boom boom boom booom boom boom Welcome , to happy hourBlinking on the neon sign
She won't mind, if I stopped for just one
I could still make it home in time
As my eyes grow accustomed to the smoky dimmed lights
I see the jukebox near the door
There she is in another man's arms
slow-dancing across the floor
So this is Happy Hour
Two drinks for the price of one
People laughing and having fun
What a great place to be Welcome to happy hour
They gather here everyday
Cheating is one of the games they play
This time it's on me
You're dancing and your eyes are closed
I wonder what world you're in
What will you tell me when you get home
Where will you say you've been
At the sound of laughter of his pretty words
take away whatever makes you blue
When the fun is over
What will you do
When there's nothing left of us but you
So this is Happy Hour
Two drinks for the price of one
People laughing and having fun
What a great place to be
So this is Happy Hour
They gather here everyday
Cheating is one of the games they play
This time it's on me
Welcome to happy hour
They gather here everyday
Cheating is one of the games they play
What a great place to be
Welcome to happy hour
Two drinks for the price of one
People laughing and having fun
This time it's on me . . ( when there is nothing left of us but you.? )
Ha ha ha ha ha read some history.
The whole history of the British monarchy is a gradual erosion from absolute power to a figurehead with no power at all. This took place slowly and gradually by a series of small steps. But in each case, debt or lack of money forced them to make a deal with parliament that resulted in an increase of power for parliament, and a decrease for the crown, in return for money or debt relief.
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