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Open Thread
Since posting on Zero Hedge over the next 24 hours will be more sporadic than usual, please use this space for any news, discussions and general observations about life, the universe and everything.
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Oh, Ok...you mean the MSM's hard-on for Dimon.
It is wonderful!
Faberge
easter eggs....
precious metals
bytches
Bartholomew: Corporate society takes care of everything. And all it asks of anyone, all it's ever asked of anyone ever, is not to interfere with management decisions.
Fight Club
http://wastedenergy.net/2011/03/31/this-is-your-life/
Muir, I'm REALLY feeling insecure looking at those right now! I had a comment but got distracted by the rhythm!
I can ignore the bouncing flesh, just not the erect nipples...
In other words...more than a mouthfull is a waste.
Wanna know where we're heading? Just read Magaret Atwoods, Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. It may be fiction but it's all real. Amazing and scary.
http://chuckpalahniuk.net/reviews/the-year-of-the-flood
So...as I was saying, I purchased my first batch of junk silver. Can I be a ZHer now?
Have you fashioned the requisite hat yet?
Tinfoil. Check...
Silver BARS. Check.
Reverse-osmosis 17-stage water filtration system. Check
Turned off TV / cancelled all stupid MSM magazines. Check
Still workin' on the garden thingy...
Ammo?
My better half's department ;~>
Beans...Bullets...Bible...BABY!
Porn?
Had mine filled into a couple dental cavities.
I have two gold molars ;-)
If I were a sociologist or a spook, these open threads would be by far the most interesting...
I know! Who would've thought you'd find a cure for the crabs on a financial/investment info website!
Black people don't care about Zero Hedge.
Maybe for future bling evaluation.
my nice little black friend, calvin has been reading zerohedge, he said they are the "shit". but he never noticed me?
plus, he was in with the soap making boys at the market. tylers, i found soap making men, but said they don't make soap the way that you do. no fat. just olive oil. i am so excited i made friends with my boyz. they are RAS regional agriculture supply FARMS. they have full season CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares available to front range people, that's me. don't really know what that share means. but i am going to find out next saturday.
life is good them you know the right people†
fight club, bitch!
Note to self, target this one for elimination.
I miss Marla's mixes.
RadioZero, bitches!
I do too ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrkeWsQZNyU
yep.
As the economy gets worse Americans are getting more resigned.
As the economy worsens more neandersheep are forced to resign.
nm
i just bought their whole supply....looks like ur gonna have to find somewhere else to go
Any idea why 10 U.S. Senators are in China right now? And why I didn't hear about this prior to departure?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/harry-reids-high-stakes-china-gam...
They are begging. They say, "buy more treasuries plz, we luv u long time"
Confucious say prease unprug printing press, Ben.
Looks like China changed it's peg late march. I'm guessing this is QE3.
TOKYO (Dow Jones)--In a rare reflection of wild currency moves following the March 11 earthquake, Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said it was not the widely anticipated selling of overseas assets by Japanese insurers, but rather moves by the "Mrs. Watanabes" that propelled the yen to an all-time high against the dollar.
http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110423D23JF879.htm Sure. Ok. It was Mrs. Wanatabe.Wow, with those 10 it looks like one big party waitin to happen.......
At least Dickhead Durbin is with them, so you can be SURE the sheeples interests will be protected
Easter holiday with taxpayers money? :)
The info was out there but the MSM kept it quiet. They claim 'security concerns' but taking wives and visiting tourist destinations and shopping malls.
Yeah, I know why. They are letting the chinese know that the American political system has done as much damage to the US population as they know how without shooting them and it is up to China to finish off the financial crushing objective ... to make it look like some external force outside the US was responsible for killing the economic prosperity of the US working or want-to-be-working population. The muslim terraist story isn't holding water.
They are touring the soylent green factory where Americans over 65 will be sent when they seek treatment under Medicare or their SS (or take withdrawals from pension or 401K's).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/
How to see secret data tracking in your iPhone:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0%2C2817%2C2383943%2C00.asp
Bastards, having their stock price in a bubble just isn't good enough for them I guess.
Nope...and their iPad isn't worth a shit either. It doesn't allow Adobe Flash Player. I can NEVER view Rusty's YouTube links :~( !
like the other guy. nm.
Programmer under oath admits computers rig electionshttp://t.co/t23uJ68
woa!
what a GEM
I was hoping that one of these days we'd get some tunes via Marla!
In Italian but very interesting blog: http://flipsideoftheeconomy.blogspot.com/2011/04/argento-dollaro-ed-altro-prima-parte.html
Is competition really a sin? Now, in David Rockefeller's context, I believe that he spoke of preventing competition in the form of creating a cartel within a market whereby the cartel could compete against rogue or uncooperative corporations/groups. But think about competition in the form of separation. Our current political system is split between competing parties and what have we got? Disaster. Competition is an ideology that we should all ponder. Individualism vs Collectivism; Cooperation vs Separation. What is the best model for our species to progress peacefully if we are able to turn the tide against the current phase of our desctructive and manipulative nature? One thing is clear, we must all begin changing or we'll end up starting over again from square one.
Good place to start is listening to Lynne McTaggart this interview (below)... it also discusses intention and consciousness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9duY2btsfI
Her website:
http://www.theintentionexperiment.com/
I miss Marla. Where's Marla?
She's smoking reefers in an ice grotto.
That was freaking awesome when tyler posted that during one of the outages. WB7 level stuff.
the dollar will survive 20+ years or maybe longer... US citizens are not treated like dirt and congress can ignore them
.
the .gov WILL CUT 1+billion from the deficit this year... laws will become power as justice will become 2 expencive to educate expectations of... fiat paper money will remain the weakest and most used form of trade for its political purposes long after we are all dead
.
we will have a 'end to major combat' in libya moment... africa may see more revolution... iraq / iran is and will remain a shadow dance of opression modern education and israeli populist tension
.
after fukushima, BP WMD, and the ipad4 the world will continue to get smaller.... obama will get re-elected cuz hes black
I think most people here don't like the current monetary system. Many of you probably want to go back to precious metals as money. I think it would be better than what we have now, but Silvio Gesell convinced me that it has important flaws:
http://www.complementarycurrency.org/ccLibrary/materials/neo.zip
After reading Friedman's "The machinery of freedom", I don't like Gesell's solution (freigeld) because it needs the government to issue this "free money".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machinery_of_Freedom
Alternative currencies could be a good solution.
http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Money
I've spent many ours lately looking for a currency with the following caracteristics (in order of importance):
1) Doesn't need a government to be issued.
2) Doesn't have "liquidity premium". See http://finanzcrash.com/english/aberrations.html
For achieving this, I think there's only two solutions: Gesell's demurrage or not scarcity (as in LETS).
3) It's implemented through free software.
Gold/Silver lacks 2 (and 3, but being physical that's not important).
Bitcoin lacks 2 too.
Ripple is for me the winner. Although Ripple can be seen as a p2p money, it lacks a p2p implementation (like bitcoin has).
Any thoughts on this?
Do you know Ripple or bitcoin?
Have you seen the rise in price for the last?
http://mtgox.com/
I was unable to win the 5 TOZ America the Beautiful Quarter below spot price lottery at APMEX and my ass is still chaffed about that and wtf comes in my email but an sales pitch for specially made plastic air-tites for them. W T F ? Salt in a wound even on Easter???????
The time has come again to begin considering the individual most deserving of that uber prestigious award, the Nobel Peace Prize. Just like many of you, I know who it should be. Indeed, there could hardly be any other choice. My candidate is a man who optimizes all that is peace, and he is the beacon of hopium not just for those whom he governs so wisely, but for all men and women walking the planet who harbor naive goodness and selective truth in their hearts. It hardly needs to be said that I am speaking of President Barack Hussein Obama.
But hasn’t he already won it once, some of you might ask? That’s just a technicality, and given the time and events that have passed since he first graced the Committee by accepting the cash prize and kudos, the Committee may have forgotten they chose him. In the event they have forgotten why they chose him, I will remind them of his many qualifications and accomplishments.
First and foremost, and the primary reason he won the first time remains as true and applicable today as it did back then. Yes, he’s still black. While that in and of itself may well be sufficient for such an august body as the five Norwegians who staff the selection committee, there’s more.
Clearly he’s a caring man, as can be seen by his continued housing of homeless and disenfranchised people in the warm climes of Guantanamo. He wouldn’t even hear of their pleas to be free of his hospitality, such is his generosity. They can stay as long as he wants, no problem.
Then consider this: just yesterday he gave the approval to fire a half dozen hellfire missiles from a UAV cruising the skies above Waziristan, resulting in the deaths of twenty five people, including both “high value targets” and innocent women and children. What does this have to do with peace? It should be patently obvious, but if need be, I’ll explain. Now imagine for a moment if crack intelligence indicated a number of high value targets had taken refuge in the school attended by the President’s two daughters. Would he still have given the “good to go” order to unleash the hellfires? Of course not. This is a FAMILY man, and after all, it’s all about the children, and the children are our future, and don‘t they say the darndest things. Yes, despite the hectic and almost endless hours this man puts in vacationing in Hawaii or playing golf on Nantucket or making sure Wall Street, aka Our Economy, has everything they could possibly need, he still has time to think about those precious to him, so much so that he sometimes forgets those who might be precious to someone else. That’s just the kind of man he is.
If that kind of genuine human concern, and that deeply held belief in the sanctity of all life that shares a good portion of his DNA isn’t reason enough to bestow the Prize of Prizes on him again, there’s more. The world has been riveted this year by the struggle for freedom from oppression breaking out all over the Middle East. President Obama has had a major role in all of this. First, he stood firmly behind the opposition forces at Tahrir Square in Cairo, just as soon as he realized long time strongman and US ally Hosni Mubarak was going to fall. He also has shown the utmost restraint in choosing his battles, opting for peace and non interference every single time a direct US interest was not involved, or the opposition ran counter to US interests and to allies who look as if they have the ruthlessness to crush the uprising. In other words, Libya…yes, Syria…no, Bahrain…are you kidding?
The choice is clear. Here is a man whose belief in peace is so firm and so resolute that he will actually start wars just so he has the opportunity to end them, thus bringing peace. Surely if this great man is given the chance to lead for four more years, and bring about the kind of change we can all believe in, he is likely to have a chance to end conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, Yemen and Libya, perhaps even Iran. Add to that that this is a man intent on winning the future, and all that is left is book the Oslo hotel, don the top hat white tie and tails, and begin the standing ovation. Yes, we can!
"They can stay as long as he wants, no problem." Priceless!
"Here is a man whose belief in peace is so firm and so resolute that he will actually start wars just so he has the opportunity to end them, thus bringing peace."
Excellent chin!
I second the strawmans nomination ;-)
BRAVO, Chindit. Gonna spread that around a bit.
Thanks and Thankful to/for all.
Where have all the old timers gone?
Happy Easter
How the US Republican and Constitution are suppose to function. These videos should be shown to each and every American.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFFlqKgfUw8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY5pHkPBYrk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqf0dejhIpI
Off topic, if there is one, but just saw this article on what it will be like after we go through our oown Argentina-like crash. Living without banks--Argentinians refuse to put their money in banks for some reason (hint: Milton Friedman).
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0118/1224287752539.html
Good observations ( often contrarian to the stuff posted here at ZH ) on metals :
http://blog.darienwealth.com/archive
How shall we dishonor the Royal Wedding??????
I hate celebrity and all the related gossipy horse shit. This is too good an opportunity to miss. Chindit is our reigning colonial, and WB7 our artiste in residence, but I have a modest proposal. Let's slime the Limeys with a few good Limericks.
Exhibit A:
There once was a bar maid named Gayle
Whose tits featured prices of Ale
On her behind,
For the sake of the blind
The list was copied in Braille.
Great Limerick! Pomp and circumstance a massive bore...
"Win the future" is now the NEW Mantra of the Oh' Bama!!!
Paradise lost regained...wow! Enuff to make John Milton turn in his grave!
But which way? The red or the blue way?
Anyways...it is his grave!
"Winning the Future"
If I remember correctly, somebody else has a similiar slogan, "Winning".
How's that working out for him?
Trader Jack
Good post and reminder.
Alas, Kate's only a Jew,
But William has molars to chew,
He will chomp on her tits
Till she screams in her fits,
Bite me! L'chiam for two!
Your verse is obnoxious and rude
Insulting, moronic and lewd
An obvious Creep
Your problems are deep
Perhaps you should get yourself screwed
+
Gee, I really enjoyed this! :D
LOL +++
Sol Saks died. He created tv show "Bewtitched". Loved that show. Eliz. Montgomery was a hottie. She's dead too. I think they're all dead. Moment of internet silence please.
She was a real beauty. Who do we have now? O tempora, O mores!
And "Bewitched". Created both.
Helen Caldicott.
A bleak view of Fukushima.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMXvpWoHzeE&feature=player_embedded#at=358
I concur with her views.
Fellow ZH-ers, it is to me undeniable that we are about to venture into a Great Change. Setting aside some of the trader mentality that permeates this space, the direction of things remains unmistakable, and the velocity is increasing.
The insights, arguments, counterarguments, and perspective found here are of great personal value in wrestling with the ramifications that lie ahead.
All that said, however, there are some things that are unchangeable, and I would be remiss not to share my ultimate comfort in these unnerving times:
The Promise-
I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
Where, O grave, is your destruction? (Hosea 13:14)
The Work-
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
The Reward-
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:17-18)
The only Great Change will be, welll.....not so great.
Look to England, countries in Europe and its people.
The people of England have, for a century or more, just gradually declined into massive welfare state. You can live in England at subsistence level your entire life, and more than half do.
The same will happen here in the U.S. There will be some hot spots, easily cooled.
But the Great Change is not in the cards, just a very orderly stepping down of classes, Upper Upper class to upper, and so on. Take a look at several cities, their inhabitants are already undergoing this gradual change for 20 years and will continue.
It's all about expectations. Once you become convinced that you are never going to be great-looking, very very smart, or rich or even any better off than your parents were, likely have already seen them live smaller, you will to. Once expectations become smaller the need for Great Change disappears.
There aren't any assassins, only a paltry few revolutionairies ready to lay down their own lives for the Great Change and they are too hamstrung to do anything yet.
Until the head is chopped off, and by that I mean a complete coup against our Government, the only change will be marginal, at best.
Is it the government? Or those who pull the strings in England and the US. You know the BoE and the FED or even the IMF on a global scale? They seem to be the ones who need to have justice applied. And Religion itself can blurry so much so easily that it can't be trusted in any form. Unless it's just amongst your individual self and no one else, then you might find true enlightenment but not by going to church and simply following the herd with a book that is just stories derived from other stories. It's crap like that that feeds the sheeple onto the slaughter house. Anyone who junks is a sheeple and I did your mother anyway so I'm your daaaaaaaad.
:I direct you to the Charlie Reese column, his last.
In it he makes the case clearly that the 545 peeple who constitute our elected royalty, have all the power they need to stop the fucking bullshit from ever getting started. It is they and the 545 before them, and the 545 before them who have placed this country on E-bay.
Read it.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/reese.asp
Damned internet...
Lot of assumptions in your comments, anony. Very few if any applicable to me. I am not a despot, double-bagger, or simpleton, nor am I on any path toward it. And I am very well prepared for the tempest that is going to unfold.
I believe your expectations of gradual change are hopeful at best. While gradual degradation has been the prevailing vector for decades...I don't think it is reasonable to assume it going forward, neither in the U.S. nor the U.K.
In any case, my point was to simply to put things in the context of a much longer term, one in which the outcome is already determiend and only subject to being occluded by temporal events.
We need a forum here at ZH for those who are sick of the phrase "going forward".
"I don't think it is reasonable to assume it going forward, neither in the U.S. nor the U.K. "
Translation: We can assume it going backwards. Going sideways, crabs are my favorite food.
snoopy's in that sopwith camel groove, today!
Thank you, very apropos for Easter Weekend.
And for the scientist in you; energy is neither made nor destroyed, it simply changes form.
Therefore, brethren, you will live on - just not in a body.
Choose a cow, a star, Heaven, or the ether and vacuum of space (and smile).
mayhem_korner
very nice presentation, thanks
over 700 comments...impressive in such a short span (12 hrs)
On the Trump thing, the US is moving further and further to the right towards the desire for the strongman leader very much like the Soviets did on the left.
The fact that the guy even gets airtime and pushes the America strong message suggests that somewhere some group is seeking the strongman.
Only time will tell what this development truly is, but distrubing comes to mind. Soemthign darker and more sinister is at play methinks.
Conspiracy crap aside this guy would be a serious opponent to a detnete arpporach to foreign relations. Something like
"Blow the f'ers up if they don't listen!" Or maybe the industrial complex or the "Matrix" is ready to move the true agenda forward with a guy like this.
They are clearly floating him that is for sure - "Q" rating and all.
One thing I do know is - you can smell the napalm on the horizon
Interesting. The strongman cometh looking funny as hell. There are plenty of people wondering why they have to struggle and pay high gas prices in the "greatest country on earth", maybe thinking we should just go take shit from the other kids in the yard. These same people are likely to be birthers, so he entered the race on that, but I doubt he believes it. Trump is quite ugly, and has poor taste in his buildings, but he's probably not stupid. And since almost half of America doesn't believe in evolution, so it's possible for Trump to be on the ballot, just not get elected. Britain would give up on us.
and Britain gives up on us? 'splain me how big a loss is that?
Trump is a stalking horse, holding the place for a serious candidate by undercutting 'President Obama' and deflecting attention from the would-be candidates.
The neo-cons will want a military man, and someone like Petraeus is political through-and-through.
Wouldn't surprise me one bit ...
Dr. Webster Griffin Tarpley is predicting just exactly that!
The once-United States of America is now a fascist military dicatorship.
WE need another 1776, I will be on the side of liberty!
ZH needs to update their Vocabularies list. I don't see BTFD and WTF (Wikileaks Task Force, LOL). Please update.
What the fuck is the matter with you? Just buy the fucking dip.
My question is why our congress is in recess and traveling abroad with their spouses while there still isn't a real budget in place and the debt ceiling needs to be addessed before QED can commence. The senators wives are on the orgy boat, and the thieving lying insiders got some kind of advanced warning.
All is good though - Katie Couric reported last night that you can sell yours gold for alot of money!
In comparison with ancient Rome :
The third Punic war ended 146 BC. Carthage AND Corinth, Greece BOTH destroyed. Rome had no commercial rivals. Mare Nostrum declared. Ten years later, a new 'equestrian' middle class emerged between patricians and plebs. It started the 'social' wars between Populares and Optimates. Hundred years after 'Mare Nostrum'...Rome became dictatorship under JC...Caesar's son Augustus crowned fifteen years later after defeating at Actium other Oligarch, Mark Anthony, to become undisputed absolute ruler as Emperor-Princeps.
Now compare with USA. Third 'Punic' war won in 1989, when USSR collapsed...assuming that WWI and WW2 were Punic Wars 1 & 2, between continental Statist Europe, world empire builder, and free enterprise republican USA...Now twenty years later...after social wars between Populares and Optimates...both two faces of same coin... have raged for sixty years, fat Romans and their slave population...face the inevitable arrival of a military dictator or collapse of Empire...!
Will USA be Imperial Rome...by ending the Republic...declaring perpetual war on the world...well, well...does history repeat...? But then do we have a Julius Caesar in the wings?...That is the linch pin to the totalitarian powder keg!
Caesar is hiding in the shadow.
Max Kaiser has an excellent video interview with Brad Cooke, CEO of Endeavor Silver...Here:
http://maxkeiser.com/
During the interview Cooke mentions that industrial use of silver is now using 45% of yearly silver production (up from 12% in 2003) and that although it is difficult to determine exactly how much silver is being purchased by investors the number is at least 17% of silver production and 'growing by leaps and bounds'...
This is an excellent interview with an intelligent man that knows the market well.
-
Harry Lime: "Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly."
-
One of the greats; one of my all time favorite movie moments. I watch this every six months or so.
-
Harry Lime: Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don't. Why should we? They talk about the people and the proletariat, I talk about the suckers and the mugs - it's the same thing. They have their five-year plans, so have I.
Martins: You used to believe in God.
Harry Lime: Oh, I still do believe in God, old man. I believe in God and Mercy and all that. But the dead are happier dead. They don't miss much here, poor devils.
-
Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) plays a total sap in 'The Third Man'... the best film noir ever, imo...
Close between Double Indemnity and Third Man, imo, but Third Man probably wins.
And ....
Harry Lime : what has Switzerland ever invented in five hundred years except the cuckoo clock?...Talk about the Borgias and the Reniassance...when european civilization was at tipping point...
As for Alida Valli she was in a class that left Harry Lime ( Orson) and Martins (Cotton) wondering why women are femme fatale, like the Lady from Shanghai (Rita) was both in the film as in real life. After Third Man...Alida made Senso for Visconti and drove Farley Granger to being a classical cad...some woman.
Oups...Its all up there about the Renaissance...second post...sorry!
who bombs the casbah when saudi arabia starts shooting their people?
Zerohedge rocks!
Important: Real interest rates are negative! Big Silver and Gold driver.
Local coin dealer is not restocking at these prices. They've been in business for forty years and are not willing to take on inventory at these prices. They have no bullion and fewer than 100 numismatics priced at a premium.
“Blyth Masters! This is the SLA, Spit, spit spit. I’ve an hair on my tongue. Can’t get it off. You know how much I hate that!!? Huh, of course you do. You put it there.
Remember that night when you were drunk? Of course you don’t, you were drunk.
I know what you said about us Blyth Masters, I know you badmouthed us to the execs at JP Morgan, put the kibush on our deal. Now we gonna put the kibosh on you!
You know we’ve kiboshed before. And we will … kibosh again.” http://youtu.be/5I6CGBNODaY
just wonder what you all think the end game is for the dollar?
Does currency actually revert back to actual physical gold and silver?
Or does the NWO try to ram another fiat paper scam down the world's throat?
and who's going to buy that BS game again?
Could this be the end of fiat trash paper?
who's going to buy that BS game again?...
The next generation. Human nature is fickle in that regard. Without the renewal of humanity, history would have nothing to rhyme with.
The IMF will try to impose their SDRs on those countries that hyperinflate away. The central banker's central bank. The SDRs are based on a basket of currencies and they'll add silver, gold, and oil weights to it. They're going to keep the paper game going as long as possible. but they will remain in charge because they probably have more gold and silver than all us ZHers combined. damn rothschilds
RECAP
World needs $100 trillion more credit, says World Economic Forum, 18 January 2011, by Emma Rowley (The Telegraph) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/davos/8267768/World-needs-100-trillion-more-credit-says-World-Economic-Forum.html
Banks facing $3.6 trillion ‘wall of maturing debt’, IMF Global Financial Stability Report says, 13 Apr 2011, (The Telegraph) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8448169/Banks-facing-3.6-trillion-wall-of-maturing-debt-IMF-Global-Financial-Stability-Report-says.html
Youri, your Karma is to tell us all we will die without a USD in our pockets, dried out down to our very sockets. Watch out for your 401 pension funds...they'll be the next to disappear in this Oligarchic propagated tsunami.
RECAP
The scary actual U.S. government debt, 27 October 2010, by Neil Reynolds – Ottawa (Globe and Mail) http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/economist-says-real-us-debt-is-200-trillion/
Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff says U.S. government debt is not $13.5-trillion (U.S.), which is 60% of current gross domestic product, as global investors and American taxpayers think, but rather 14-fold higher:
$200-trillion – 840% of current GDP.
“Let’s get real,” Prof. Kotlikoff says.
“The U.S. is bankrupt.”
People talk of the worthlessness of the dollar as a currency, so why sweat the debt level?
I am just a typical US layman who has a question for you guys.
If the US Dollar is not longer the World Reserve Currency, would that kill the drug trade and other illegal black markets. Why would drug dealer smuggle US dollars out of the US if they can not be used anywhere else in the world?
Any Thoughts?
Until the US goes officially Weimar...it is still the richest country of the world. As everybody and his son own their savings in USD. Ask the Arab oil plutocrats, the drug barons, the chinese industrial giants, the indian software kings. Everybody is dollar rich. Every body loses BIG if USD tanks. This Kotlikoff professor is throwing dynamite sticks at the Oligarchy.
Well as you know the biggest drugsdealers are the NSA/CIA and FBI and part of that money is used in new black projects and operations, bribes and new salaries and swimming pools for all the criminals involved including the banksters who launder the drug money. And they also could switch their dollars to somtin else.
How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangs, 3 April 2011, by Ed Vulliamy The Observer (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs
Yeah, the rabbit hole goes realy deep folks!
Yes, when Wells settled their plea deal with.... (SEC, IRS, ??) they admitted that Wachoia had - quote: "failed to report..... [suspicious cash transactions]". Hey, what's a bankster to do? Turn away free money? Right
The dollar pipeline from supplier to final distribution is maybe a week.
Along the way, prices can be bumped up at each distribution point, meaning almost as fast or faster than the NYSE or your local FedEx driver.
Most recently, my appreciation for numismatics has been piqued due to a collection of coins accrued by several generations. Primary focus upon those containing silver has led to study in detail of currencies long dead for various reasons however, debasement has been the overall catalyst in rendering newer coins of less tangible value. The Roman empire expansion, PM accrual by Venetian bankers, and the British realm are very good history lessons in acquisition and subsequent dilution of PM based monetary systems. Most people to whom I communicate new-found information concerning actual value of PM's verses that of fiat currency, is met with general disinterest and admittance of little or no physical possession of precious metals. Perhaps I live near and communicate within an area considered a statistical outlier.
Much talk on whether PM'S -particularly silver, has become overvalued and overdue for a correction. To this I say whether a 10% or 20% correction should occur, I would be purchasing more physical to hedge against future currency debasement, which latecomers may also realize. At less than 5% of my liquid assets invested in PM's, I "feel" underfunded, but hesitate to add more until a correction occurs, so I will be BTFD.
I ask sincerely what would be the catalyst for a reversal/noticeable correction?
This guy could be right. A skilled daytrader I think.
5 new waves for silver higher he says.
$51-$58 will give resistance because of the ol record of 1981. More a psychological barier/
Silver target $60 ($59.85) taken before June 31 he says.
Silver's PARABOLIC Trajectory and Demise of the US Dollar Technical Analysis by Matt Chart http://youtu.be/84h9J-zcYGEThe "correction" is underway as we speak. It is called "Japan." I have these wonderful pens that I use to write with. Funny how something drew my attention and my squinting brought it into sight: Made in Japan. From the back of my brain there was an approaching sound, kinda like the sound of those helicopter blades in Apocalypse Now: whooooop whooop whooooppppp....
So besides the Made in China, we have all kinds of products that don't say "Made in the USA" but only "packaged" in the USA. Lots of things that are in my bathroom and maybe yours too. So back to the point: Japan is about to play whack-a-mole with Kindle and many other products (Full disclosure: Only own paper books, albeit lots of them:::)))
Also, Mexico is digging newly into creating silver mines, wonderful silver mines in Mexico. Key words: reversion to the mean.
As to gold, well now that's interesting. Maybe good for the next twenty years and after that (me thinks, aka IMHO!) it will be irrelevant. Won't share with why, but there's plenty of it, let's say.
So what is valuable. Your United States citizenship, which we have been giving away as though it was a toy inside a nutritionally-deprived fast food meal with colorful characters on it to appeal to small children. Immigration can only serve the Ponzi-government scheme until the real costs of immigration: destroyed school sytems, destroyed cultural systems, destroyed social "glue" makes it all fall down.
So sure PMs go up, but then PMs go down. Personally, me thinks the best investment of anything is to husbandry the United States via shutting down all immigration (we are long past "carrying capacity") and welfare. Create factories, put people to work, all will be good. Gots money? Invest in an American company that creates here and now....By the way, after you have paid the taxes on your gain, you need a lot of gain to....gain.
hi, espirit! you are fortunate in that yer family/extended family has a trans-generational coin collection. so, yeah, you are in a fabulous place where the sun, errr, moon more symbolically for silver, is shining on yer styooopid ass! (that's a little Fight Club love tap, k?)
first of all, recognize in your own narrative the subtle difference between "silver" and "silver coins" and then realize that in the US, due to early coin stardards laws, not to mention the Constitiution, US silver coins may be something a bit more "special" than a 10-kilo bar.
you figure out if that is something important to you to buy/trade around for yourself, ok?
peace.
Stripmining America - Unpatriotically
by Ralph Nader at:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/22-9
I met him and photographed him in August last year in Buffalo, NY; I was campaigning and coordinating petitioning efforts inn my Congressional District for 'his right hand man.' He is a very, very odd dude. Doesn't like flash photography. How often does one get to meet whom they voted for for US president? Love him!
Max & Stacys' [1198] The Truth About Fruit & Veg Markets – 23 April 2011 http://maxkeiser.com/2011/04/23/1198-the-truth-about-fruit-veg-markets-23-april-2011/
Download show here: http://ia600606.us.archive.org/30/items/MaxKeiserRadio-TheTruthAboutMarkets-23April2011/TaM23042011.mp3http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/221335/march-11-2...
Sweet. The federal government finally came to their senses and bought iPad2's for every student in a whole school.
http://www.twincities.com/ci_17904745?nclick_check=1
We have looked and looked, but can't find the source of the spending problems we have????
Getting them ready for "Higher Affirmation" (Higher Education).
Silverbugs: Where are you buying and what do you pay for physical?
At my local coin shop here in upstate NY, they are sold out of AE as I found out yesterday. I was able to get 1 oz libertad's for spot+$2, panda's for spot +$10; Morgan and peace dollars are spot+$3. I have been buying 'junk' silver nickels, dimes and half dollars on evilbay for about melt value+10%....
I use Tulving as a reference for pricing physical, but they only take large orders. For smaller orders, reasonable prices can be found at placs like APMEX and Gainesville Coins.
try buying junk coins from the local dealers, rather than online "auctions". are there other coin dealers in your area? 10% (S&H?) seems pretty, almost $5/oz, at this point. in my locality, last week, the guy i checked would nick you abt $2-3/ oz if you were selling to him. if you were buying junk coins, not so bad.
i think, traditionally, some coin dealers have had bulk junk and/or bullion sales as a sideline; others have specialized in this service, for years. the prices you relate about the libertad's are ok, certainly for Gem Uncirc. the panda prices are freaking unbelievable, aren't they? same thing with gold. the Chinese, first of all! then, everybody else wants these great coins with all kindsa pandas and lunar calendar stuff. coupla years ago, a guy way past me in coin knowledge looks at a baccarat table 3 deep in chinese gamblers and sez: slewie, we should get us a 1/2 oz. gold panda and toss it on that table and see what happens! good, guy, always coming up with stuff like that!
meanwhile, our mints have been going ape-shit doing 65 kindsa quarters, 5 diff nickels and who knows how many damned pennies. and 1/2 oz. gold versions of the First Ladies! Eagles? gold & silver bullion? we'll let you know, ok? Grrrrrrr!
JUST HOW RIGGED IS IT ???
JPMorgan Chase was responsible for lobbying congress for the overturning of Glass-Steagall, while it created the credit default swap, and countless variants of CDOs. It has enjoyed the strongest derivatives position since that time.
JPMorgan was responsible for structuring the securitized-mortgage-foreclosure profit cycle:
they profit from lending the mortgage, then profit from its securitization, then profit from its foreclosure (especially the FHA loans, where they automatically are reimbursed almost all of the original amount), then profit from its reselling, then profit when it's securitized again.
And JPMorgan Chase has been involved, both directly and indirectly, in offshoring jobs and promoting massive offshoring of jobs -- when then leads to economic problems and unemployment, thus leading to default on mortgages, resulting in foreclosures, further profiting JPMorgan Chase.
And if those unfortunate souls then must put in for food stamps, JPMorgan Chase profits from that program, as it is routinely, nationally and locally, handled by them and their banks.
And it doesn't end there, as those jobs are offshored to countless foreign factories, and foreign production facilities, and state-of-the-art research & development laboratories and training centers of which normally are financed -- over the past three to four decades -- by US foreign aid (USAID, OPIC, various and sundry other programs, etc.). [And people thought all those executives doing stints at those former government agencies -- they've now all since been privatized -- were actually performing public serivice?]
That's correct, you the taxpayer and your descendants, have paid for the multinationals' foreign enterprises -- while they pay almost no taxes, or usually none at all (over 70% of American-based multinationals and corporations at last count paid no federal taxes).
Just how rigged is it??? It's completely rigged.
"If a man be rightfully entitled to the produce of his labor, then no one can be rightfully entitled to the ownership of anything which is not the produce of his labor, or the labor of someone else from who the right has passed to him."
--- Henry George
"Under capitalism, man exploits man; under communism, it is just the opposite."
--- John Kenneth Galbraith
I heard Galbraith speak when I was a young kid and he truly enlightened me. On TV, of course, but all the same...
www.forecastfortomorrow.com
Quite a lot of information is appearing regarding how few products are made in the United States, even as the giant welfare state allows the least productive to furhter enhance their financial position via children who are magic carpets to welfare (by a variety of names) benefits and disability benefits. Odd isn't it that as we have become more technologically advanced and have less and less personal contact, particularly in the socialization of our children. We are seeing enormous numbers of children with classifications as "autistic" or similar social disfunctions. And yet, no one seems to be exploring that for the First Time in history we have huge numbers of children separated from their mothers. Now, it probably doesn't need to be a "mother" per se, but the constant contact with a human being...the same one so that trust for their concern for the baby/child is developed, is necessary such that a socialization which makes a human human, and not the proverbial feral child, can be developed, created, and taught.
There are numerous studies on "attachment theory" that note the problems of children that are not provided the inviolate, absolutely necessary care and continuity of One Single provider of love and attention in their life. This is not concomitant or commiserate with being only female, certainly "daddy" or "grandfather, appropriately attentive can serve this function. However, biologically nature has traditionally seen to demand this bond of humanness via the teat and the baby/child's necessary feeding. In most countries around the world a baby/child will stay connected to the teat until three or four, sometimes even suckling slightly, a wee bit longer.
Then we turn to our westernized countries where in order to have a "more perfect union", we decide to create giant daycare factories where a baby will be handled, most probably, primarily for either feeding a bottle or to change, and as such will not receive the eye contact of love and affection with the physical nutrition that a mother would provide. Can we not see the connection between the denial of the contact/feeding scenario and the increases in autism/lack of attachment/socialization.
If you watch any small human for a period of time, especially during the toddler non-verbal years/the very early months of life even, the finding shall be that the wee human constantly seeks the eye contact of its mother/father, but particularly its mother. This reassures the baby/child that the care is there; the care is consisten; the care is loving. All is well with the world.
At its most horrid, we have the giant welfare factories pumping out children of the idiocracy who exchange body fluids in a manner that has never, again, been seen before in human history. Even during the period of "free love" (See: Hippy era, mid-1960s to early 1970s), the circle that exchanged body fluids was relatively small given the lack of mobility. Now with airplane travel and vacations on giant cruise ships (Yuck! Never taken one; never will!), the exchange of body fluids has gone viral (Pun intended: Stds rampant, AIDs deathly)
Of course, as this last week's series on PBS on autism indicates, a giant complex (another one: welfare complex, disability complex, autism complex...what's new this week?), those who treat autism and those they say have it, love themselves for their bountiful largesse in treating the autistics (is that a word). But what was quite interesting about all of these shows is that there seemed to be little directive addressed towards these children. For instance, as a parent, I tell my children: Sit down, now. Eat your broccoli. Read this page. Go to bed immediately. Brush your teeth. In what appeared to be endless liberal permissivism, these autistic workers (IMHO) appeared to constantly be asking these children to do something. Guffaw Guffaw Guffaw. Ah yes, let's ask the little kiddies what they'd like to do? Don't you want to behave? Ha Ha Ha.
At what point does this madness end? These autistic children are giant drains on our society, as are so many "newly discovered" categories for our children. The Ritalinizing of our male children (especially) will surely be seen one day as a pharmaceutical Mengelian nightmare; the pumping of huge amounts of drugs into small bodies such a crime against nature and person as to be tantamount to an intellectual chemical castration. Oh sure, it may keep the child in their seat, immobile, drooling and passive, but we have yet to see the results of this chemical behaviorism and its results in adulthood.
We have created a culture where behavior is to be bound chemically in our children, as surely as the Chinese once bound the feet of women, demanding an unnatural, perverted and twisted, outcome.
One cannot help but feel that the interference with nature's bond between mother and child leads no where good. Certain behaviors are sacrosanct for they are the basis for all that can come next. One builds not nuclear reactors on the edge of the ocean, for instance, because one should be wary of the black swan tsunami. And one interfers with the baby/child/mother bond at great peril. Now combine the lack of the attachment bond with welfare parenting, children had as the access to the "benefits" (maybe not good enough for thee and me, but for those who prefer to accept the "lower standards" of life that are free rather than the up-at-dawn, work-your-hinnie-off-risky-wanna-advance-kinda-thingy, these children receive a double-detachment of attachment theory. Never desired, never wanted, and certainly as the future progresses, unsocialized and uncared for until a classification of "autism" allows the giant social service government agencies to step in. (How is it that these welfare people have child after child? Are we supposed to believe that this is not child abuse? Bringing a child home that will never have any chance in life because the parent is blackmailing society into supporting their child, and therefore, them.
And lastly, and what should really scare you, they will eat you first. Once one of the primary socializations of children was the local church. Children were scrubbed clean, forced into constraining clothing, buttoned up, and took to church where the proper behavior of mouth closed, sit still, was required. This being a preemptory behavior to self-control, the platform for all success in life. So what will happen with all of these children who no longer receive this training. After all, the children couldn't understand the preacher yet, but they could understand the whack behind the ears of their parents expecting them to behave.
Or maybe I'll watch the shows on PBS again and see if I missed more directives from the adults in the room. Or maybe we'll just resign ourselves to supporting endless numbers of unsocialized, almost humans, forever.
PS Watched Unstoppable with its ridiculous camera cuts in the millionth of a second, Blair Witch gone mad camera cutting. They do believe in Hollywood now that the more camera cuts the more they can pretend that character development is not necessary. Also watched The King's Speech and The Tourist. Praise Baby Jesus, and give me more. Please.
In the 1980's, my MIL (now deceased) worked for the county welfare office as a clerk/typist. I remember when she said that people would get more $ in their welfare checks for having a child with "ADD". I thought "Here we go", and 30+ years later "they" are EVERYWHERE...
When I was a kid in school we did'nt have "ADD",we had "spaz" kids that stood in the hall while the rest of us tried to learn.
I guess the people who junked you have portfolios heavily weighted in pharma stocks because that's why the things you write about are allowed to go on. Getting your child diagnosed as whatever is highly profitable for pharma and the health care industry.
I remember reading in the Boston Herald a while back about parents wanting to get their grade schoolers diagnosed as pediatric bipolars because the parents stood to rake in on Social Security benefits. Sad.
Seriously, you shouldn't have been junked. Your post may have been tl;dr, but the junkers had every opportunity to pass it by. This is an open thread and you weren't spamming designer shoes at 90% off, which is the only sort of post that should get a junk on these threads.
kumquat you were junked by those whose parents didn't love them
and they recognised themselves in your essay
Can we expect the Comex to raise margins dramatically in a way that would seriously affect the silver price (to help JPM)?
I closed a large speculative position before the week-end. Sometimes it is wise to take part of your profits. Staying with an uptrend is not as easy as it seems :-\
Didn't see the rein-rampant-speculation-or-face-black-silver-swan article, I'll read all the comments there:).
QE3
the financial speed ball
that kills the fiat junkie...
freebase the dollar
Question. Just thinking out loud here.
If the US Dollar is no longer the World Reserve Currency, would that kill the illegal drug trade? If the US Dollar can no longer be used outside the US, then there would be no need to smuggled it out of the US?
Any comments?