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Why The Fourth Branch Of The US Government Needs To Be Abolished, And Why "Authority" Should Never Be Trusted
- Ben Bernanke
- Ben Bernanke
- Central Banks
- Christina Romer
- Council Of Economic Advisors
- Excess Reserves
- Federal Reserve
- fixed
- Lehman
- Market Crash
- Monetary Policy
- President Obama
- Purchasing Power
- Quantitative Easing
- Reality
- Recession
- recovery
- Reserve Currency
- Stagflation
- University of California
- White House
Yesterday we presented Dylan Grice's thoughts on why economists and their opinions should be summarily dismissed as nothing but mere noise on the steep downward slope of a series of failed "authoritarian" policy decisions, which seek to validate one false choice after another, by presenting a hypothetical and fallacious counter-outcome as a certain reality (just consider the "apocalypse" we would be living in if Goldman had failed: of course, there is no justification for this except for what Bernanke et al claim is the one true alternative reality based on nothing but their own conflicted interests), which does nothing but discredit the "science" of economics more and more with each passing day. Yet in the grand scheme of things economists are merely pawns in the hands of the landed elite: the financial system set only on perpetuating the status quo of capital and wealth reallocation from the lower classes onto itself (until there is eventually nothing left), and a government whose only prerogative is to usurp ever more control and authority, until the entire system is one of central planning in economics, social affairs, religion, and every aspect of people's daily lives, all the while pretending to operate under the guise of a democracy, which, at least in America, died long ago. Today, we present the observations of Bill Buckler from his Privateer report, which picks up where Grice left off and demonstrates why one must not only never rely on economists but on form of "authority" in general. Putting it all together is Buckler's close analysis at the glue that makes it all possible: the Federal Reserve, also known as the fourth branch of government, and the entity that provides the endless funding for all of the system's failed policies. As Buckler points out, any reversion to a system that follows the constitutional precepts of the founding fathers will need to do away with the Fed first and foremost, as "the issue is not the political will of the US government to go on spending beyond its means, it is the political will of the rest of the world to go on accepting the unworkable global system indefinitely. They will not do it." In other words, in the step leading up to the last and most important defection in the global prisoner's dilemma, it is up to the American people to take the necessary step to restore the systemic balance (which will happen regardless eventually, only in a far more violent fashion). Everything else that happens on a day to day basis is completely irrelevant.
From Bill Buckler's The Privateer report, Number 661.
NEVER RELY ON “AUTHORITIES”
On the evening of November 23, 1942, Adolf Hitler was deep in “consultation” with the chief of staff of the Luftwaffe (the German air force) on the possibility of supplying the surrounded German 6th army in Stalingrad by air. On hearing of this consultation, Reichsmarschall Goering, the head of the Luftwaffe, promptly contacted Hitler and assured him that the air force could maintain the 6th army for as long as necessary.
All of Goering’s officers on the spot near Stalingrad knew that this was absolutely impossible. So did Goering’s chief of staff. So did Goering. And so did Hitler. Goering had already been proven wrong a little over a year earlier when he insisted that his Luftwaffe could clear the way for an
invasion of Britain. That was not even considered. What WAS considered was that no matter how fanciful or how contradictory to the FACTS on the ground, a method had been found to prolong the illusion that the war could still be won. And besides, how would any of them know that it could not and would not work if they didn’t try it?
They did try it. It didn’t work. The fate of the 6th army in Stalingrad is history. So is the fate of the Nazi regime.
The March Of Folly:
The American historian Barbara Tuchman published a book with that title in 1984. She lists four kinds of what she calls “misgovernment”. There is misgovernment by tyranny or oppression, by excessive ambition, by incompetence or decadence or both, and finally by folly or perversity. The author concentrates on government policies afflicted by folly or perversity, a rich field of enquiry stretching back to the dawn of history. Mrs Tuchman makes the point that folly is “independent of era or locality, is timeless and universal ...and is unrelated to type of regime. Monarchy, oligarchy or democracy produce it equally.”
She has one further principle for the study of government folly. “...The policy in question should be that of a group, not an individual ruler, and should persist beyond any one political lifetime.” That brings us into the realm of political economy, more precisely the dogged clinging to the central role of government in the economy, and particularly in the financial system upon which the economy rests. That policy has been clung to for far more than a political lifetime. It has been clung to at the highest levels of government for almost a century.
The Fed’s March Of Folly:
This road has been taken ever since the Fed was created in 1913. Specifically, the “final frontier” was entered with the FOMC’s decision on August 10. It’s all downhill from there.
Politics and Economics:
The present global monetary system (on life support as it is) remains the one that was hammered out in Bretton Woods in 1944 with the US Dollar as the world’s SOLE reserve currency. As long as this remains the case, the follies of the US government will remain the most important in the world and the follies of their central bank - the Federal Reserve - will remain paramount. By Barbara Tuchman’s criteria, a folly worth examining must “persist beyond any one political lifetime”. In June this year, Senator Robert Byrd, the longest serving politician in US history, passed away at the age of 92. Senator Byrd entered the Congress in 1953. Bretton Woods was in 1944. The Fed was created in 1913.
The other point which needs to be made concerns what could be called the dynastic nature of the Fed. Mr Bernanke is the fourteenth Chairman since the creation of the Fed almost 97 years ago. That’s not many - over the same period there have been seventeen US Presidents. Here we get down to the divide between the political and the economic aspect of political governance.
The Politics Of It All:
There was a time when a president and his party could be and were voted out of office because the people preferred the policies offered by the opposition. That ended in the 1930s, when the “criteria” became which party could almost literally “buy” the majority of votes by directing the redistribution of funds where it would do them the most good. That became entrenched by the late 1960s. Since then, the “platforms” of the major contending parties have been all but indistinguishable. Most US elections have been decided either on the “lesser of two evils” principle or on disgust with the incumbents.
Both sides of US politics have been equally assiduous in their major task as they see it. That task is to safeguard and increase (as far as they are able) the involvement of government in as many aspects of the lives of the people as possible. That is why the euphemism for modern politicians, especially those in the US Congress, is “lawmakers”. It is only VERY recently that politicians from either party have given serious consideration to the problem of paying for it all or whether they CAN pay for it all. For most of the past century, they have not concerned themselves with that. That is what the Federal Reserve is for.
The Economics Of It All:
In essence, the Fed (like any central bank) is the “fourth arm of government”. The executive branch makes policy. The legislative branch translates it into legislation. The judicial branch is supposed to ensure that legislation is permissible under the Constitution - the law which GOVERNMENT must obey. Originally, the system was set up to ensure a division of power between the branches. A “government bank” or “central bank” was not deemed necessary because the powers of government were thought to be limited by the Constitution to the extent where “financing” these operations would not be necessary. They weren’t (except for the post Revolutionary and Civil War periods) for well over a century. But by the turn of the twentieth century, the US government, like so many governments before them, decided that their reach should extend beyond the borders of the nation they governed. This promised to be expensive.
The Fed was initially set up under the pretense that an institution was necessary to provide an “elastic currency” to meet the needs of business. An elastic currency was deemed necessary alright. But it wasn’t to meet the needs of business, it was to meet the needs of government. And that is what the Fed has been doing ever since. As the powers of government expanded and as the COST of government soared, the Fed was always there, the banker of last resort, the branch of government which would “pay” for whatever government chose to do. The government needs the Fed as a guaranteed buyer of its debt.
It is obvious to anyone who takes the time to EXAMINE the situation that the Fed is the fourth and specifically, the economic/financial branch of the US government. It should be equally obvious that this marriage of convenience has been progressively impoverishing the American people. Apparently, it isn’t.
When A Folly Comes Out Of The Closet:
For many decades, the “co-operation” between the US government with their Treasury requirements and the Fed has been taken for granted. Whole systems of “economics” (notably the one popularised by J.M. Keynes in the mid 1930s) have grown up around the practices of “financing” the ever increasing “needs” of government. The terms “inflation” and “deflation” have been moved from defining movements in the amount of money being created to movements in the prices influenced by this manipulation. A vast pile of books has been written and post-graduate university courses designed around the alleged difference between debt incurred by government and debt incurred by the dwindling “private sector”.
Through it all, the quality of the money has declined in lock step with the increase in the amount of money (of all descriptions) in circulation. There have been two defining moments in the entire process. The first came in 1933-34 when Americans were prohibited by law from owning Gold. The second came in 1971 when the final constraints on government fiscal discipline were removed as the final promise to redeem the US Dollar in Gold was jettisoned. On August 15, 1971, the folly came out of the closet. That lasted a decade, during which funded government debt rose by 150 percent. Then came a quarter century of “serial” debt bubbles which lasted until 2007. Over that period, government debt grew by 1000 percent. With the onset of the GFC in 2007 and the near death financial experience of 2008, the closet door opened again. And this time, in stark contrast to the end of the 1970s, it CANNOT be closed.
Shutting The Door On An Empty Room:
In the era of “stagflation” (the 1970s), there was actually an extensive debate about the nature of the money which was fuelling an obviously dysfunctional system. The main reason for this was that the concept of “risk” was still one which was current in investment markets. The steady increase of interest rates, which accelerated as the 1970s were coming to a close, was a contributing factor. So was the cost of living - which was accelerating along with interest rates. So was the “price” of Gold, which now had a “price” since it was no longer “fixed” to the US Dollar. As the 1970s ended, the price of Gold in US Dollars accelerated along with US interest rates. This was not and is not supposed to happen. High interest rates are said to be “bad” for Gold. They certainly weren’t in the last three years of the 1970s.
The door was slammed shut by Chairman Volcker in late 1979 when he took his hands off the Fed’s interest rate controlling mechanisms. US rates skyrocketed, “stagflation” turned into (deep) “recession”, Gold soared and then slumped. And, finally, the world was lured back into the paper US Dollar.
The US government had jettisoned the concept of “risk” as far as their borrowing “requirements” were concerned in the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash. They did so just as the ensuing depression elevated risk aversion in the private US economy to a level it had never seen before and has not (yet) seen since. It took 50 years, the abandonment of Gold and an attempt to combine a welfare state with a war for the fear of “risk” to resurface - in the 1970s. It took interest rates which reflected that fear of risk in the MARKET to get it to subside. It did, in the early 1980s. Then came the era of serial credit “bubbles”.
Blowing The Door Off Its Hinges:
The Global Financial Crisis (GFC), and particularly the “authorities’” reaction to it, has done more than just open the door again to the money machinations which are built into the foundation of modern government. It has laid that entire mechanism bare for anyone to see. But look at what has happened during most of the three decades since the beginning of the “Reagan Bull” in 1982. Twenty-five years of recurrent market booms anaesthetised an entire generation. In the process, the obvious truths that savings must precede investment and that wealth is not a function of the creation of money were buried beneath an avalanche of transfer payments and “bull” (in BOTH senses of the word) markets.
It is hard to awaken from such a long period under the influence of “authorities”. These things take time.
The Mechanism Itself:
To illustrate how pervasive the mechanism is and how it has long since been taken for granted, only one fact is necessary. Since 1931, there have been a grand total of SIX financial years when the funded debt of the US Treasury did not increase. These were fiscal 1947, 1948, 1951, 1956, 1957 and 1960. The US federal government has not run a budget surplus for 50 years. Under the original theory concocted by the “authorities” and elevated to economic holy writ by Mr Keynes, governments can compensate for any slowdown in the economy by spending more than they tax. Then, when the magic bullet of government “stimulus” has done its work, they can pull in their horns and diminish their debt. Governments “can” do that, but the US government hasn’t actually done it for 50 years. The Clinton “surpluses” of the late 1990s are a myth, of course, concocted by applying the “surplus” generated by social security funds to the government’s bottom line. There are no social security “funds”, the entire pile is composed of non-marketable Treasury IOUs which can only be serviced and/or repaid by the productive capacity of this and future generations.
For many years, we here at The Privateer (and many others) have been explaining the mechanism by which the production of real wealth has progressively been taken over by the production of “purchasing power”. The onset of the GFC exposed these mechanisms to public scrutiny to an extent not seen since the 1970s, or before that, the 1930s. The GFC itself, especially in nations (such as the US) where its impact has been most sorely felt, has greatly increased two things so far. One is the ever growing unease and indignation of the public. The other is the lengths to which the “authorities” will go to keep the REAL reasons for the present malaise away from pubic view and, above all, from public understanding.
Now What?:
The first answer to that question was given on August 10 when the FOMC announced that the Fed would NOT be shrinking its balance sheet as it has promised to do ever since it massively expanded it almost two years ago. On top of that, the FOMC let it be known that the Fed would resuscitate its quantitative easing QE) program of directly monetising Treasury debt.
On August 27, Ben Bernanke expanded on the Fed’s future plans at his Fed symposium speech at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Mr Bernanke began by startling his listeners, telling them that the Fed would do “all that it can” to rekindle confidence in the “mechanism” (financial system). His listeners, both inside and outside the conference room, had long since assumed that there is nothing that the Fed can’t do. The Fed’s “omnipotence” is a foundation stone in the entire edifice of trust in the “authorities”. Nothing would rock this more than a revelation that there ARE things the Fed can’t do.
To stave this off, Mr Bernanke listed three things that the Fed can still do. It can buy “more” long-term securities. It can reduce the interest rate it charges on excess reserves to get the banks to lend them instead of storing them with the Fed. And finally, it can “modify the Committee’s (the FOMCs) communication”. Let’s take the first two. When the FOMC announced that the Fed WAS going to buy more long-term securities on August 10, they admitted that the first foray into QE hadn’t worked. When Mr Bernanke talked about reducing rates charged on Fed reserves, he neglected to mention that existing rates have been at 0.25 percent ever since the Lehman scare of 2008.
The third future task for the Fed , “modifying communication”, is one known by “authorities” in all ages and times. Today, when they speak about doing it themselves they call it “public relations” or, less politely, “spin”. When they speak about other authorities doing it, they call it “propaganda”, or more impolitely “disinformation” or still more impolitely “lies”.
The Fed’s real message was delivered on September 1 by departing White House chief economist Christina Romer. She said that the US needed to find the “political will” for more economic stimulus.
The Only “Solution” Left?:
For months now, Nobel prize winning economists, eminent educators, individuals in charge of $US TRILLIONS of investment “capital”, and political “authorities” of all sizes, shapes and descriptions have been unanimous in one message. The “system” can be fixed easily. We have discovered that we didn’t print enough money. No problem. Just print more, preferably MUCH more!
Here’s how Christina Romer put it during her speech to the National Press Club: “The only sure-fire ways for policymakers to substantially increase aggregate demand in the short run are for the government to spend more and tax less. ...I desperately hope that policymakers on both sides of the aisle will find a way to finish the job of economic recovery”.
Ms Romer, one of the chief architects of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package, has resigned her position as the chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, effective on September 3. Once an “authority”, always an “authority” - she is returning to “academe” by returning to her old job as an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley. While she was there, she was engaged in research on fiscal and monetary policy from the 1930s to the present. Mr Bernanke would approve.
The Political Will:
Yahoo in the US described the speech as a plea that the US find the “political will” for further stimulus. This is in itself very revealing indeed, especially given Ms Romer’s contention that the only way to “fix” the problem is for the US to “spend more and tax less”. Politically, this has been the only solution resorted to in the US for at least half a century. What is never mentioned by all those who so glibly push this solution to the problem is the reason why the US has been able to get away with it for so long.
To do so would risk moving the debate to the area where the “authorities” dare not go. That is the area of the nature of the global financial system and, even more fundamentally, the nature of the “money” which underpins it. When a government spends more and taxes less, they go ever more heavily into debt. For a “normal” government, this process can only continue until the obvious risk factor shows up in the interest rates they have to pay on their borrowings. At that point, they have no choice but to pull in their horns.
The US government is different because the US Dollar is the world’s reserve. Because it is the world’s reserve, it has a global demand as the underpinning for financial systems everywhere. Yes, it is true that non US central banks are holding increasing amounts of other currencies in their reserves. But the basic system as hammered out at Bretton Woods in 1944 has NOT been altered. The US Dollar remains the world’s only official reserve currency. That means that the US is the only country that can buy goods with debt paper created by their Treasury and payable in “money” created by their central bank.
You have likely read this before - in The Privateer and in many other places. No matter how many times it is repeated, this remains the most important FACT which is never discussed by “authorities”. The issue is not the political will of the US government to go on spending beyond its means, it is the political will of the rest of the world to go on accepting the unworkable global system indefinitely. They will not do it.
A Vested Interest In AUTHORITY:
From time immemorial, the “authorities” in charge of political and economic policy in a nation have clung to “remedies” that would not work - even though they KNEW they would not work. We started this essay with one example. There are countless more. Once you understand this, you will know that “authority” is NEVER to be trusted, no matter how many adhere to it or how long it seems to have “worked”. The only viable alternative to more authority is LESS authority, and therefore more freedom.
Today, no “authority” in the world wants to discuss that. Least of all the ones in the USA.
h/t Robert
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I will take that as a compliment..you sack of shit....keep up the good work...if the alley is too expensive for you...they will always rent the out the dumpster to you...you should be able to afford that .....idiot...
Let me just ask you one question:
When's the last time you could see your pecker when you pissed, fat ass?
I take great delight in junking your sophomoric ass, just for the record.
Next time you have a thought, just let it go.
Don't worry about JB. I've got a piece of gold filling for him so he can start his hoard. You know it doesn't much to start gold fever. Before you know it he's got a new BFF at Monex.
JB, quite frankly, there was relatively minimal inflation before 1973, when Nixon abridged the Bretton-Woods Agreement, IF one considers what FDR did when he devalued the dollar vs. gold, by 33%, overnight, and at the same time made the holding of gold illegal in the US. This automatically made the dollar suspect, as in, what would FDR or his successors, do next? Nixon simply made matters much worse in 1973.
Holders of specie do not like uncertainty, which should be a lesson for the current Administration. Unfortunately, those decisions appear to have been totally divorced from the Executive Branch now, and lie within the "Fourth" Branch, i.e., the Federal Reserve. This is utterly unconstitutional, of course, but then again, we have been operating with a legal and illegal system of government for a great many years. See, in toto, http://republicoftheunitedstates.org/
I gotta call bullshit on that one.
There was plenty of inflation before 1973.
But none before 1913 (barring wartime printing of scrip). Funny how that works, isn't it?
I don't know why you are so upset MS.The dollar is worth 3 cents now compared to when the Federal Reserve was created.That isn't so bad....hey, wait a minute.That's a theft of 97% of the value!
I humbly suggest we implement a revolutionary change.Like abolishing the Fed.
NOW.
And prosecutions.....lots of them.
If we really started prosecuting, that alone may rip the system apart, never mind margin calls and unwinding the derivatives. Lawyers and judges would be needed to be trained in rapid fire programs to get enough workers to deal with them all. And in bad economic times, prison would not be such a nice place, not enough staff, sucky food, or they may decide on executions just to save money and make a point to folks in the future.
Always good to see you.
Always nice to see you too Professor.Teach your charges well as it may make the difference down the road.
Kudos to you for being a Prof by the way...
Keep up the good fight!!!
MsCreant
"You make the money by working. It has value X."
I have to disagree. Your currency only carries value in relationship to the goods and services it can purchase. It has zero intrinsic value.
Hi Gully,
At the moment you are paid, it has a value we can call X (how much stuff the labor can fetch at that moment, the dollar is supposed to be a marker for this). My argument is about saving the buying power my labor has today. If I trust a dollar, I probably will not save that buying power.
You are correct though, labor is what is called "socially abstract." My fabric I make on my hand loom is worth one amount today and half tomorrow because of the invention of the power loom which makes it twice as fast. Social conditions change the "value" of the labor. Just true.
So what happens to the price of gold in dollars when the as yet unnamed fed chairman -- maybe even Ben gets religion -- maybe from brother Ron Paul
And raises interest rates to 18%
If interest rates go even a few percent higher, let alone up to 18% the government would be unable to service the debt and would have to default. The only way the government can pay off its debt is to ramp up inflation for several decades at least. The unfunded liabilities for SS, Medicare and Veterans benefits alone exceeds $100T over the next few decades.
We can't pay the interest now. Won't happen. They have painted themselves into this corner. If they did do that, we default. Then you really need the gold because the dollar is literally useless (no more "full faith" and all that). If we keep it up for a while by printing, and folks put two and two together, currency collapse, and then you really need the gold.
I think they can keep this up for a while so I won't dump all my dollars yet. People don't want to believe this is happening, or they don't know what it means this is happening. May be the rest of the world that forces our hand. Maybe we are the ones who wake up first.
Here is a fun question to consider: It is the first month of Ron Paul's new term as president. What is he doing?
He is being assassinated by a 'lone gunman', one of a dozen 'lone gunmen' hired by Big Money and supplied by the CIA.
That was easy. Give us another one!
Funny and probably right. My point was that even if you had someone who you thought might "get it," that the situation is impossible. This will not be a landing everyone walks away from.
"This will not be a landing everyone walks away from."
+
Awww, I know. But making jokes about THAT part is kind of like making jokes about cancer.
The problem is that I can relate so well to that great cartoon poster from about 1969. There's a big hawklike bird descending on the little mouse. The little mouse is looking the bird square in the eye, flipping him off.
That little mouse is the regulars here on ZH.
Exactly. Carter wanted to deal with the situation honestly but not get the root of the problem. He was still working within the system. The government was going to have limitations put on it.
Ron Paul would know to get rid of the old system. The CIA and the FED run a protection racket on the president. Do what they say and you live. Don't and you die. Which is why this will never be fixed by government or a president or a leader.
The bottom is going to drag this thing to it's death. Once people start doing their shopping with guns you know it's over. But it won't even be televised you'll just hear siren after siren after siren after siren with little mention of it on the news.
The conversion of good money to bad is so complete so completely overdone theres no way get much of it back. Every state, the government, every huge monopolistic corporation is a walking corpse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqzJkTatWiQ
Hence, zombie banks, zombie governments, zombie planet. Reminds me of a sci fi story, what happens to all the vampires when they have sucked all the humans dry?
Here is a fun question to consider: It is the first month of Ron Paul's new term as president. What is he doing?
He is bringing US troops home from over a hundred nations around the world. This he can do by executive power alone. He is diverting the money saved by the reduction in military spending to the support of existing social programs. This may require some congressional support but it is an easy sell. He is using the political capital gained in the endeavors cited above to establish a free market in money through the end of regulations banning competing currencies. He is giving credit for his success to all the folks throughout America who do the bulk of the living and working and dying and he is taking no credit for himself.
Fiat currencies are backed by promises. People trade their life energy (and labor & production) for promises from a gov't that may not even exist tomorrow.
Gold is backed by blood,sweat & tears. That's where the value comes from. The shit doesn't fall out of helicopter's. How many million's of people have died trying to mine,steal,or protect it. That is where the value comes from.
Because gold is harder to manipulate than paper. The value of paper is whatever the fed decides based on the numbers in circulation. The value of gold is whatever the parties in a free exchange of goods and services decide is worth. No need for an intermediary called the fed. If you wanted, you could embed thin threads of gold in paper currencies above a certain denomination, lets say $20 dollars, similar to what is done to day with security stripes in US denominated FRNs. This way the value of the FRN would be ties to the value contained intrinsically in the paper. Not a note, but actual money.
Actually, the question to ask is, why do you need dollars in that exchange? Just use gold or silver (or whatever) coins. Dollars are the intermediary. They are superfluous.
Whatever amount of money is currently in circulation is sufficient to act as currency.
There is no such thing as a "shortage of money." That's like saying "there is a shortage of accounting." Because that's one of the core functions of money - as a unit of account.
Money can be infinitely divided into fractions to fulfill its core purpose. Unlike other goods, money primarily performs a conceptual function.You don't need ever-increasing supplies of money to do something like power an engine. The quantity of money is unimportant when deciding how much of it to purchase - it's the price, and only the price.
The Gold Standard is here,just unofficial,people would rather have it than cash,shares,bonds,paper,etc.Take the paper crap out of the equation and what would the price be.Wake up matey,its here,people want physical whether the Government and the Central Banks want it not.The Gold Standard is back because people trust it and are buying it. Welcome to the NEW GOLD STANDARD.
Well duh! Why do you think more coinage was made from silver & copper?
Try $10,000/oz; that would back all the world's major currencies nicely. As Alan Greenspan observed several decades ago, the gold standard would bring about the end of the deficit spending, wealth confiscating welfare state. That is the only reason we are using fiat dollars, the quantity of which has grown to an enormous height. But as Jim Rogers has often observed, "Trees do not grow to the sky," so the ultimate fate of the fiat dollar is collapse.
Dollar Bill Hiccup
"Better buy an AK and practice a lot, because if you trust no authority you had better bury that gold close at hand and be able to defend it yourself. An AK is good because you can also hunt deer with the old soviet round and you could drop your sandwich inside the rifle and it would still fire."
If the only tool you have is a Hammer every problem looks like a Nail.
Gully, that is why a good Bearing will diversify in every way possible. Little bit of real estate. Stocks & bonds. Some investments overseas. Au, Ag and Pt.
Even some plain old FRNs in case we DO get a real deflation.
And there is nothing wrong with being armed to the teeth as well.
DoChenRollingBearing
As they say about sex, it ain't the gun but the gunner.
How one thinks is more important to playing the game.
Most people find a solution that works say twenty percent of the time but apply it to every situation.
We know how that ends.
Diversity and flexibility are the keys.
"And there is nothing wrong with being armed to the teeth as well."
There are some styles of Martial Arts that teach you to use everything as a weapon. Then then you are armed with an entire world.
Oh, some nice gems there Gully!
The gunner...
I forgot flexibility...
Tai Chi teaches just what you said, the whole world is your weapon! I love Tai Chi...
DoChenRollingBearing
TCC teaches you to move with the world, same with Bagua and Aikido.
Different idea then seeing every object as a potential death dealing device.
But now that I think about it, if you channel your Chi through any object it will acheive the same purpose.
Gully,
I told you once, I'll tell you again. You are one of the many treasures here at ZH.
Try as I may, I still can't seem to make my CHI hit a deer at 300 yds.
Still practicing though....
Maos Dog
If you have ever shot a Deer at three hundred yards then you focused your Chi. If you ever intentionally hit anything from a pool ball into a pocket to throwing a rock at a tree then you focused your Chi.
When you are "in the zone" you are acting with optimal efficiency and your Chi is focused. It is very hard if not impossible to focus your Chi when straining. Chi floows when everything is "effortless".
Reverse kiai's can completely unfocus your Chi though, so avoid reverse kiai's at all costs!
Since you are such a believer in the martial arts, martial meaning combat, you would recognize that there are plenty of reasons to use the best weapon available for combat. Tell you what, you stick to Tai Chi and I'll stick to AK Foo.
If you don't know how to swing a hammer you will never hit the nail. Whatever your tool then practice with it. This goes for Mind as well.
At it again are we? I see that Dollar Bill Hiccup has been a ZHer for a bit over 3 weeks.
The argument that there is not enough gold has been debated on the pages of ZH about 3,000 times +/- 20%. It's not a strong hand to be holding in this economic environment. I'll agree that the most intuitive argument is one based on the "price" of gold currently. When it was $300 the same could have been said. When it decouples from its link with the dollar pricing (see gold in Euros, Yen, etc) then arguments of this sort are exposed for what they are: Invalid. That the "price" of gold is not a relevant factor in its role as a store of wealth.
Same old argument, different day.
+ $1248 as usual Rocky.
Good to see you trolling around here in the ZH trash can!
Tasty morsels to be sure. Wait til we get the "you can't EAT gold" guys on the page.
Then we can have some fun.
You can eat gold. Moses called it "manna".
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2129165010048711403#
Gets boring after a while, though.
Rocky,
Any thoughts on Eichengreen's Golden Fetters? In that view, the gold standard did not have a very positive outcome.
It's a much subtler argument when pricing gold in various currencies but if my liabilities are in USD then I price gold in USD.
If I have a view that another currency will be a more constant store of wealth, I will look at that other currency.
I think that gold as a store of wealth is valid only to a certain extent. I own 5% in gold and miners. However, I would have to second JBs comment that value is created by labor and production. Analysis of labor and production is a weak point in western economics, a blind spot during and after Marxism. Western economics depends on the rational agent and the Anglo Saxon notion of Utility. I own some gold because I want to own a bit of the irrational. Economics as a discipline has tried to validate itself with mathematics and claim the certainty of hard science. The underlying math for much is the calculus which is better suited for a bullet's trajectory than supply, demand and desire which drives economies. Minsky is so much more interesting than Friedman because of his priority of desire. In general, I think that western economics has simply manipulated statistical analysis and maths to create a new language of control, just as theologians did in the middle ages. So we are left with a vacuum of real economic thought. I think that gold's popularity is a symptom of this.
If wealth and value are created through labor and production, gold is not going to save you from the mercantilist practices and labor arbitrage of the emerging markets and most notably China. I don't think printing dollars is either, unless of course the end game is to default / devalue if Asia refuses to revalue. But that would raise suffering to a entirely new level.
We are a far cry from your original post: #564605
As for Eichengreen, it seems that the exact circumstances that caused the GD are currently playing out. Eichengreen says that the abandonment of the gold standard would enable a quicker recovery from recession/depression. They blamed it on the gold standard then -- what can they hang their shitty policies on now? Gold will be sought now just as it was then so I guess they'll still choose the old bugaboo gold. If they can drag this thing out long enough, and enough gold can be secreted in private hands and in banks as reserves, the same circumstances can arise to call for a gold confiscation -- again. When will these fools in power ever learn? After they have looted the treasuries as much as they can and pass the bill on to the next several generations in the form of lowered standards of living. Same shit different century.
Now that you have come out of the cliché closet you can play with the big guys.
Thanks for your response. Enjoy your posts and look forward to more time on ZH.
You're a smart guy. Thanks for hanging in there.
I'm 15 years ahead of you. the clinton's were all I needed to see to know we weren't in kansas anymore.
That's true. You'd be in ARkansas.
LOL!
Arkansas is a well kept secret. Everything needed for self fulfilment is here.
Abundant farm land, sound infrastructure where most needed. We've not paved every goddam thing in sight. Lots of clean water including an abundance of springs, beautiful mountains, and a natural border (the Mississippi) to the east, and north (Boston Mountains) to keep out the marauding hordes. Indigenous trout to be found in the White and Red Rivers. A hardy and industrious population whose heritage goes back to the Territories.
We just don't tell people about it.
I don't have a lot of money but I have considered buying land. I am not far from there and have looked around on maps a little...
Look at land around the Mt View and Mt Home area. Beautiful land, lots of rivers, lakes, and friendly people. Stone County is the home of the Blanchard Caverns. Unbelievable.
if your stupid enough to keep the paper..so be it..A Nordic Euro currency is being planned and will be executed by summer 2011..and it will be backed by gold silver as well as oil....all in paper will understand soon enough..to go blowing off your mouth when you know nothing..shows what an uninformed moron you are...and that ladies and gentleman is why we are in predicament to begin with..uninformed morons..who are too scared to do anything about anything..other than attack the ones bold enough to seek alternatives from a failed and corrupt system..now go back in your corner and suck your thumb and pretend Uncle Scam will save you...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882304575465623070689934.html
JB, read very carefully...
Good link hulk
Now if we could get the state of Texas
To distribute lone stars
One lone star equals one oz of gold
Texas could lead the way...
+ Lone Stare State! Our only state to be a a Rebupblic. Do not count our Texas when it comes to the view of the USA!
DosZap is invited to comment!
"Better buy that gold quickly (would this be the gold bug talking his book?) :
Aprox: 165,000 tons of gold in world @ $1250 and ounce = $6.6 Tn
(20 % in Bank Reserves)
US GDP $14.5 Tn, therefore ALL THE GOLD IN THE WORLD = 46% of US GDPGlobal GDP (not PPP but $) aprox. $ 55 Tn, therefore ALL THE GOLD IN THE WORLD = 12% of Global GDP.
IS THERE REALLY ENOUGH GOLD to serve as currency for the global economy?"
165,000 tons of gold in world @ $10,000.00 and ounce = $52.8 Tn. Is that enough for you?
" Is there really enough gold to serve as currency for the global economy"?
Sure, prices adjust accordingly.
The size of the suply is meaningless. Value is not frozen @ $1250/oz. I could just as easily become 125,000/oz., or $125.00. It will be what society is willing to pay for it, which is why it is so intriguing.
Another metric:
$8.6 trillion M2 money supply / 264 million troy ounces U.S. gold reserves= ~$32,500 per tr oz.
Gold is not to be used as currency, this idea is no more than a ruse.
Split the functions of money:
Synopsis:
For a monetary system to work, anyone, anywhere, must be able to exchange the currency for gold at a floating rate. We call this FREEGOLD.
The problem is the expectation that a single form of money can successfully perform both these functions (medium of exchange and store of wealth) simultaneously. It can't. We should not expect it too. As outlined here, the rest of the world is unwilling to force the breakdown of the USD, preferring instead to let it kill itself, which we can see clearly happening today. This Freegold concept is the natural successor to the current system.
The Gold Standard idea is a red herring, put about by those seeking to support the USD system (ie. The Fed and Uncle Scam). Of course a Gold Standard is unworkable. It is this concept which is the "barbarous relic", not gold itself.
Physical Gold is payment in full. Currency is a claim in the system. Think about it.
Thank goodness you're here. I was getting tired fending off all these gold bashers. The level of incomprehensibility is fatiguing.
Nitwit Nadler ... {is JohnnyBravo his bastard son?}... is at it again, quoting Nouriel Roubini on where to find a safe haven in these difficult economic times.
The verdict? Well... paper money of course!
According to Roubini, the dollar, swiss franc, and the yen, are the best places to hide. Roubini goes on to state:
"I believe that gold is going to trade around current levels. There are two extreme events that lead to a spike in gold. One is inflation, but we have no inflation ... {LMAO}...in advanced economies. If anything, there is a risk of deflation. The other event in which gold prices go up is the risk of a global financial meltdown, and that tail risk has been reduced because we backstopped the financial system.” {WTF...with more paper?}. Roubini said.
Wait a minute... Where have we heard that before?
Well, it turns out that Roubini also had this to say:
"I don’t believe in gold. Gold can go up for only two reasons. One is inflation, and we are in a world where there are massive amounts of deflation because of a glut of capacity, and demand is weak, and there’s slack in the labor markets with unemployment peeking above 10 percent in all the advanced economies. So there’s no inflation, and there’s not going to be for the time being.
The only other case in which gold can go higher with deflation is if you have Armageddon, if you have another depression. But we’ve avoided that tail risk as well... {ROFLMAO} ... So all the gold bugs who say gold is going to go to $1,500, $2,000, they’re just speaking nonsense. Without inflation, or without a depression, there’s nowhere for gold to go. Yeah, it can go above $1,000, but it can’t move up 20-30% unless we end up in a world of inflation or another depression. I don’t see either of those being likely for the time being. Maybe three or four years from now, yes. But not anytime soon."
Seems like exactly what he had to say in his recent interview, except the above was posted in October 2009.
You may remember that gold was trading just above $1000 back then.
So in fact, Roubini was dead wrong.
Gold has risen by about 20% in less than a year since his original interview, but he has not changed his tune.
Why is that?
Yet Nitwit Nadler is real happy to quote him stating the same prediction that was flat wrong the last time he came out with it.
Don't hold your breath looking for any disclaimer in the commentary by Nadler however.
There is an infinite capacity by the anti-gold media to trot out the same flawed analysts and let them restate their commentary no matter how many times these guys are proven wrong.
And it is never discussed how they have been wrong all the way up for gold.
Gold goes up and gold goes down, but anyone with a clue will note that it is up far more often than down, and has risen year after year.
{Charts... anyone?}
How does the media spin that?
When we have the sharp corrections along the way, we are told the bull run has ended. And when we have the upside surges, we are told gold is a bubble.
Wrong!
Meanwhile guys like Roubini are right there urging people into paper currency for safety.
It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.
Keep up the good work Nadler!
{JohnnyBravo call your dad!}
Viva LeMetropoleCafe
Thanks for your comment. Many others are/have been wrong. That subprime mortgage problem was contained so well. May we please have another?
good news for those that prefer bear meat to deer meat or venison.
colorado is issuing many more bear license during kill season this year. this is the governments way of sustaining the implosion of the healthy brown bear population. everyone is quite excited. guess they might do the same thing to the human race some day.
Issue trophy tags for the big people first, 500lbs or over. Then work your way down. Heads on a wall. Think I partied too much this weekend, my brain and body are spent. Get out, go get some fresh air and exercise. Some of you spend waaaaay too much time here. Had some great venison grilled over a wood fire in the woods by a lake. Caught some nice trout, from glacier fed waters. When you're out there, you remember that not much else is needed other than that.
Kali funny story we were all like 20yo, raoul, j morningstar, and Ivan all on old man Wille's horses hunting way up high near Pierre Lakes. see the elk herd, Wille shots it dead. damn got to get it down, fast or it will spoil. damn horses thoroughbred types. would NOT let us put the meat on their backs. crazy scene scary really. had to be responible. so went home for the night, loaded up the quarter horse, they made it but wasn't pretty. really really steep terrain. not a smart kill. these guys learned a BIG lesson. me to never go hunting with idiot young cowboys.
excess is ugly in all its forms. So is stupidity. I think your story shows that "thoroughbreds" usually aren't worth much when the going gets tough. That's why all my dogs are mutts. :) Pierre lakes, beautiful country.
Events,Crisis and Debt ultimately mean that the world economic system is never stable,there are no reserves or consistent economic policies to give it stability.Its like a building rocking on its foundations unable to stop,the certainty is it will collapse as its foundations are gone but its just a question of when ? The anology of the Sixth Army in Stalingrad is well founded,everbody at the top is in the know but everyone ignores the problems in the interests of self preservation.The political system is brought and paid for,freedom is an illusion given by the elite for their own self interest when it suits.So what now ? Gold is supressed to give the illusion of some kind of non-existent handle on the situation,wars are ongoing with no direction or end game,the media is full of ex college types who believe what they are told,don,t understand the full depth of the subjects and therefore do not or not allowed to ask the questions that require real answers, or we have old sweats who just play the survival game. Maybe its time for a new constitution,some kind of political new deal with guarantee,s on both sides,to get this you need pressure,independent pressure,not from within a broken system but from outside.The markets and finance are only one facet of the problem,social cohesion,employment,immigration,corpoate and civil crime are all tearing society apart.Either the future is planned or else we have crisis management.Looks like for the forseeable future we,ll have crisis management. From small acorns great oak trees are built,trouble is you need a decent acorn to start it off,anyone know of any.
" Maybe its time for a new constitution..."
FUCK YOU. We have a Constitution. The problem is out "elected leaders" disregard it whenever they can.
You want a new consitution? Bye-bye. We don't need you.
I agree with you, without the venom. People can't help their ignorance. Enforcing most of the rules on the books would go a long way towards restoring faith in our system.
+1,000,000,000
Well the Constitution is really working well.America Bankrupt,Leaderless,Unemployed, with Poverty,Hunger,Homelessness,etc.The Constitution was written in 1786 and the ideal,rights and aims are worthy of any nation,problem is its ignored like you say,so if something is ignored thats bad,if its the democratic ideal and centrepointof your nation thats a joke and shows that you are not only financially bankrupt but morally and spiritually fucked as well.So instead of getting pissed off get even and get it sorted.
The tools only work as well as the hands that wield them.
The Constitution was a beautiful framework designed to minimize moral hazard. The 'law' of today's Amerika in no way resembles that laid out in the Constitution. The current system of law in the US is closer to a modified version of Roman law, and history shows how twisted that can get.
i actually have beautiful acorns on my outside deck. plus mr squirrels drops them to me from the wonderful oak tree above. haven't been around full grown acorns for a mighty long time. cause where i use to live there was only scrub oak, black bears sustain their diet on scrub oak....... corns?
~your little pine nut.
If one wishes to see the extent of the "systems" involvement directly in our eCONomy, one needs look no further than the recent documentary Food Inc. where they demonstrate how government subsidy of corn production has directly controlled and orchestrated the entire factory farm production of food in this country (and others). None of this would have been possible without the constant inflation mechanism afforded by our central bank. Everyone talks about how it affects your portfolio without ever considering how it directly affects your stomache and subsequently your health. We are directly the product of the fed's inflation engine.
Food Inc. was at the same time enlightening and depressing. Backing our way out of that morass of political and business incest would be impossible. That, too, is ripe for revolution.
Our pasture/forest fed products are a sell out. In that regard, food Inc has been enlightening to many folks...
Easy answer: heirloom seeds
The enemy is the Fed and by extenstion the Fed's shareholders, the Banks (and their material shareholders). Now its important to not get to "Soviet" on this, meaning totalitarian government tend to find an individual scapegoat to lump all their problems onto - "It's their fault." Maybe Greenspan will be THAT man when he's in the ground. But lets begin to transperantly dissect the method of POWER in this country. Let's do it not to "get'em" but simply find some of the interrelationships between these banking interests and their control over the economy/your life. What we have to do is no different than what some scrappy reporter in some "leftist" West African newspaper or some low power radio station in Central America ahve to do. Currency speculators and bond viligantes, red meat predators like George Soros have preyed on developing countries for a hundred years. Now America is in the same boat as all those banana republics we all made fun of. To take it back we have to find out:
WHO ARE THE EXACT PEOPLE THAT ARE DOING THIS TO US!
We need to move beyond blaming "the Fed," "the banksters," "the lobbyists," and "the government." We're fools to keep doing that and our children will only suffer more.
Corporations are organized like little (big) fascist states. GE, Cisco, GS, BAC, WF are virtual fascist states. Just like "privaitize the profits and socialize the losses," they keep the productive parts of power government without the overhead. But, there are not robots - they use people. And people can be monitored. People leave a trail. People have vanity.
So lets start with WHO is running GS and WHO has been on the board of directors for the last 30 years. Let's find that list of PEOPLE, publish it and then examine what other institutions are these same people serving. Connect the dots. Its a massive CRIME SCENE. Time to figure out "who dunnit." Its a game that tracks people in and out of government, in and out of board rooms and in and out of investments that profit from the demise of these United States and the suffering of your children.
Lets just call it - "SIX DEGREES of ALAN GREENSPAN"
America is a nation of hunters.
bankonzhongguo
Riddle me this, why assume there is a SINGLE group of people involved in a SINGLE conspiracy?
Gully, bankonzh,
You both missed .gov spending by both parties. And WE elect these guys. It is our fault too. I think SPENDING is ultimately the biggest problem, the banksters are just enablers, thieves and vultures.
DoChenRollingBearing
I think you ignored my point. The reality is there are very many groups conspiring to maintain or assume control. Each has it's own agenda. Sometimes they overlap, most of the time they do not.
Everyone assumes there is a single group of powermad elites manipulating events for their own benefit.
The reality is more like a free for all on a mountain of ice with each group maintaining dominance only until a better prepared group pushes them out.
The enemy of my enemy is only my friend until I do not need him anymore, then he is another threat.
Gully, quite correct. I sort of responded to you just below in a comment to both you and bankonzh.
The problem is everyone will cut a deal with the alligator
If they think the alligator will eat their competitors political rivals you name it
The constitution was made and still can protect the plain Jane citizen from the alligators
The constitution was good before case law and precedence
But there is hope case law and precedence is not the constitution just a veil waiting to be lifted
"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions. ... Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the 'new, wonderful good society' which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean 'more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.'" - Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. — Benjamin Franklin
We've been here before (more than once even!)
bankonzh,
Good point re elites. There are many factions among the elites, all jockeying for their shot at the spoils.
Its not a single a "group" or single "conspiracy". Data is data. Local at the data objectively. Is there any connection? And we have to sift through a long list of players to find the few names that might appear again and again - that 2 standard deviations of fellow players that creep along at everyone elses expense. Frankly, we have to do this BEFORE things get so bad that the masses start demanding the ovens get turned back on and Constitution ver 2.0.
Just like SETI searching the heavens for intelligence life, so too do we as a popular unpolitical front of Citizens need to expose the organs of Corporate governance upon our Repulbic. Its a war - Citizens verses Corporations. Pick a side. The People's government is being outsourced to private for-profit interests, but these are people and real as you and me, that regarldess of their direct or indirect interests or intents are helping the demise of these United States by way of the economy. Who is profiting from HFT this year and last? Who exactly is supervising that on-going transfer of wealth?
These are just some of the question of the days of our lives.
The best disinfectant is sunlight. Only the true vampires will fight us on this front.
"Its a massive CRIME SCENE"
Its a CRIME IN PROGRESS.....
I've been a subscriber to The Privateer for over 10 years and have followed the progression of Bill Buckler's philosophy. He has been right on, but early. There isn't much wrong with being early. I've bought gold since 2000 and have not had the half-hearted need to look back with regret on any purchase. It was wrenching to buy at $400, $500, $600... Each leap was done in some trepidation of being totally insane, and a "gold bug". At this point I could lose 1/3 to 1/2 of the "price" value of my holdings and be ahead. This is only said to point out that it has been Mr. Buckler who provided the knowledge to know that what I was doing was the right thing. There isn't a lot of hyperbole in The Privateer, a few exclamation marks, a few bold texted areas. It reads well and is in bites a page or two long. The newsletter is always 12 pages, no more, no less. I skim it once to get the thrust of the issue and then go back to digest the information. It is hard to put down before finishing it.
The excerpt above from the current issue is the first 5 pages of 12.
I don't have any interest in the newsletter other than being an avid subscriber.
I just printed out my .pdf version from the website which arrived last night. Now, off to do some reading...
I have only read The Privateer some 2 - 3 times (friend lending me his issues), and I was duly impressed.
Moi re Gold? I have been buying since the early 1980s.
Funny point about how abused I felt buying gold after having watched it go up $50 or $100 since the last time... In particular, I remember feeling REALLY ABUSED AND STUPID when I bought a Platinum Eagle for $900 after Pt had had a run. I really felt dumb. Like a real sucker. Not now though.
Feeling dumb is not a rare occurrence. I had a roll of 1/10th ounce platinum eagles from the first year. Sold them on eBay one at a time. Made some money, but do I wish I had them back! I didn't need the money; I was playing "dealer". There's dumb for ya.
You have just jumped on the Gold Ponzi Scheme. Gold has no intrinsic value.
What? Can you define "Ponzi Scheme" and how it relates to gold in any way?
Intrinsic value, by definition, means that its value is based upon perception.
"The actual value of a company or an asset based on an underlying perception of its true value... in terms of both tangible and intangible factors."
A stock certificate has no intrinsic value other than it's ability to light your cigar.
Gold has value as a metal with unique characteristics as well as its perceived value as a currency or store of wealth. Its rarity gives it value as does the perceived rarity of a diamond (much in question).
I perceive your comment to be that of an irritant, written for the sole purpose of exacerbation.
A piece of Real Estate has worth as people can live in it and need it for daily living. Wheat has value because people need to eat. Water has value because it is needed for survival and for cleaning to avoid desease.
What value does gold have? For what purpose is there for gold? The only reason people are buying gold is because they think someone else will pay more for what they have. That is a ponzi scheme.
Again with the Ponzi.
Charles Ponzi is turning in his grave.
After a fiat currency collapse, what are you going to use to pay your property taxes?
light of the world, shine on me
Gold is the answer!
dumbass junkers...
If fiat crashes they'll settle for a bushel of corn and some of my nice tomatoes.
There will probably not be enough folks with gold for it to be a direct currency.
I view gold as a store of wealth, to be used/redeemed once a new, more rational financial system has been put in place (or to use to trade with for something of even more value to myself in the future [suckers!])
Fiat always crashes RR. Still need to pay those property taxes. Historically, much property lost due to inability to pay taxes...criminal, but thats the way it is.
Ok, got your point. You're saying that somehow I won't be able to pay my taxes?
I'll pay with whatever crap they want to have. Sell tomatoes for the currency du jour. A dollar crash is only one step in the normal progression of events. I have gold as well which can be redeemed. It is after all a STORE of wealth, no? That is the ultimate use for having gold. As they say in the real estate field, its "highest and best use".
There will likely be enough gold for property purchases. This is the way it currently works in Vietnam.
Waterfall, Gold has value to me and many others.
It would be interesting to know what percentage of people like gold vs. those who do not.
...
I have read that the percentage of people here in the USA who have actually merely TOUCHED a gold coin is only something like 2%. If true, that amazes me!
How much value would your gold be if you were hungry, thrusty, homeless? What if there was a disaster and you had no electricity, no public water? How much value would your gold have? How much value would 10 Bottles of water, 20 cans of beans, a plastic tarp to shelter you from rain be worth? Gold would not be what was valuable.
You are making the leap from civilization to Armageddon. There are degrees of progress or regression between those extremes. At those times a medium of exchange is needed. This has happened many times in the course of history and will happen again. The proven and perceived value of gold has served at those times, and will again.
Hey, read a bit of monetary history, you will be amazed.
Every 60 years people as WFS tries to tell other people the same story, just as they do not understand what is going on.
Valueable in your post can be anything: an old piano, a tyre or even your grandmother.
A bit difficult though, to exchange groceries for an old piano. But if I would live in a shack, homeless, I rather have a goldcoin in my possession than the piano.
Note that gold has a history of 5000 years as money: it is indestructable, easy to carry, is difficult to mine & refine and more importantly: only 20x20x20 meter of the stuff has been mined in the history of the world. Gold = money and the only real money = gold.
What we are going through now happens every 60-100 years. Politicians & bankers debase the money, revolution and everybody says it may never happen again. Read monetary history: Smart people had gold, the rest did not understand the system and had to start all over again.
Now, please read about it, will you?
there you go.......whore out granny include some extra K-Y jelly, no need for birth control. cut your costs in half with the granny train.
Nothing has 'intrinsic' value unless you need it.
Gold is useful for trade and savings, as it can not be debased. A ponzi scheme requires that someone be issuing more shares than they have inflows. Ponzis require fruad to be committed. The only ponzi in the gold markets is the use of paper instuments to represent real gold, though that is arguable.
Is trade intrinsically valuable? If it is, then gold is intrinsically valuable as well, as it facilitates trade. Saying gold has no intrinsic value is like saying a tractor has no intrinsic value, because you can't eat it. It has a purpose, and when allowed to function in that role, it performs well, producing a great deal of gain (grain in the case of a tractor, specialization of labor in the case of gold).
Poetic and brilliant again...
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/2010/09/great-moments-in-wall-street-...
banzai7, you outdid yourself, this is priceless. You’re the greatest. I’d like this one for the wall!!!
LOL, brilliant wb7!
We have been in darkness; our beloved country, and there has been a silence as the hope for freedom’s survival seemed ever impossible. The torch of freedom, still burning, lay beside the road.
But, Tyler, you have reached for it.
The darkness and the silence are not an accident of America’s development; rather they are intentionally created to conceal the spectacular theft of America’s financial and social core. At the center of this oppression is the Federal Reserve System; the many symptoms of our problems – a prostitute Congress, a puppet executive branch, a bell hop media, a cadre of paid university and government economists, a confused and financially denuded population – are only extensions of Fed power, greed, and, yes, criminality.
Once the torch is carried into the darkness, one theme should be our rallying cry: Disband, dismantle, and eliminate the Federal Reserve.
also a good read along the vein from jeff...
http://www.bullionbullscanada.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15114:the-solution-to-sovereign-insolvency-part-i-taxation-history&catid=47:us-commentary&Itemid=132
Food Inc. is indeed a mortifying view of US Industrial Agricultural policy. I'm not sure if it was in Food Inc or another equally mortifying documentary (King Corn?) that explained how the industrial use of fertilizer sprang from the government's desire to use up the enormous quantities of phosphates that had been stock piled for World War II to make gun powder. They initially wanted to spread it in national forests to increase timber production.
I think it would be interesting to apply the same analytic lense of industrial policy to finance. Where the US now has a handful of companies controlling the food chain driven in effect by USDA policy, likewise a handful of companies now control the financial industry, driven by US policy.
I think that it is and will be insidiously difficult to reverse these policies that grew out of the "military industrial" complex. I am not sure how individuals can take back responsibility for their lives and hold their policiticans accountable. One way of course may be through debt destruction, deleveraging and all of the social discontents that will arise.
At any rate, what we do need is less Budweiser government, more micro brewery participation. With the current set up of the major TBTF banks, this is not going to happen any time soon. The TBTFs have become national champions, on par with Europe and Asia, etc. The national banks ARE THE MILITARY INDISTRIAL COMPLEX.
But I do not think we have crossed the River Styxx and our motto should not be, "Abandon hope all ye who enter here".
Rather than advocating a climate of fear or complacency I think it would be more constructive to adopt something akin to the revoloutionary war motto, "Don't Tread on Me" when it comes both to our politicians and our lives.
In a country where an SUV and a granite counter top seemed to matter most for a time, I do not think many were acountable to themselves, let alone their politicians.
Participation in the political process is probably the most difficult thing that we have to once again become accountable for ...
Speaking of phosphates. They are mostly locked up compounds not available to the plants. Their over use renders the microbes in the soil unable to unlock naturally ocurring phosphorus in the soil. The over use of nitrogen fertilizers encourages insects and pollutes the water table. So we have to find a balanced way of increasing fertilization to maintain crop yields without getting negative blow backs. Learning by screwing up. Just like our financial mess.
Compost bitchez!!!
Also, http://www.howtodothings.com/home-garden/how-to-use-urine-as-a-fertilizer
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=human-urine-is-an-effective-fertilizer
Was using VF11 (18 bucks a gallon) when I looked at the ingredients. .15% nitrogen. Thats it! Needless to say, that was the last gallon of VF11 I bought. foliar feeding works great...
Microbes rule, industrial chemicals drool. Three cheers for carbon dioxide.
worms rule too. all that industrial chemical drool chases them worms away...
yeah urine is good shit.
LOL, flushing good fertilizer down the drain and wasting water to boot.
but hulk, don't you get my joke? urine is just liquid shit, not solid. i mean i don't want to be gross, but we all do it. ya know in the last couple of months i have really come to terms with the "private" human functions.
I got it kathy. We have an unhealthy aversion to our "output" which has caused much environmental damage, waste of water, waste of money, and waste of valuable fertilizer, when composted
"they will not do it"....well they don't WANT to do it but guess what they are all mercantilists trying to jam their goods into the only market that accepts their products. Yes the USA needs to get its act together but pot...kettle...black - what are these export only mercantilists going to have to do to get their act together? Global pain unlike anything we've seen before.
Addressing the subject directly(abolishing the fed), has anyone here checked out http://www.monetary.org? Seems the Founding Fathers may have underestimated the importance of monetary control and left out of the Constitution direct instructions on how to control it. I'd welcome any comments on the American Monetary Act, as it seems to be a work in progress and headed in the right direction.
Bad Monetary Policy Is Redundant
http://mises.org/daily/4668
There is a great article in this month's The Numismatist (Sept, 2010) about Andrew Jackson and his battle with national banks. Full of duels and death, nasty politics that make today's Washington look like a petting zoo.
Jackson's message on the unfairness of the U. S. Bank:
"Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth, cannot be produced by human institutions. But when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages, artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer, and the potent more powerful, the humble member of society, the farmers, mechanics, and laborers, who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government."
The history of central banks in the U. S. is a most fascinating one. It has taken much longer this time to demonstrate that it does not work, and is doing more damage as a result.
Madison wrote about impartial taxation. The Constitution requires gold and silver be the basis of money. Conveniently ignored like the 10th Amendment. Jackson, Lincoln and Kennedy were all in conflict with the central banksters. I wonder if Thomas Sowell has weighed in on the act you mention. He seems to know his stuff.
Thomas Sowell rocks!
I really cannot see the infatuation with gold. It has no industrial use. If the entire Monitary system breaks down, I do not believe Gold will save anyone. That is because Gold is also in a form Money or a form of exchange.
What good will Gold do if you are hungry? You cannot eat it. If people are bartering Coffee for corn etc., I do not believe that will barter for Gold. If I have coffee and want grain, I would not accept gold.
People seem to accept that they will be able to use Gold as currency but I do not believe that will be the case. I do believe that Guns and ammunition would be a valuable commodity. People will most likely ban to gether and will need protection against others that are trying to take what they have to survive. Gasoline (which is hard to store, a gas powered chain saw, a whole house propane generator, a small tiller for a garden, a well with a hand well pump. These are the things people would need to survive. Not Gold. All of the above can be used today. A chain saw can be used to cut wood for your fireplace, a whole house generator can be used when the power goes out, a gun and ammo is good to have in case of a home invasion.
Something else that would be invaulable would be a small farm and a supply of seeds. Or even a house with about an acre of cleared ground. Of course you will be able to live in the property and use it every day.
What good would gold be? If I have the above items I could be almost self sufficient and could use them to trade. Why would I trade any of them for Gold? I am sure that a gas powered chain saw would be a lot more valuable than a gold coin. In hard times there may be no need for currency of any type including Gold. The currency would be Food, Fuel, Water, Shelter.
There is an interesting show called the Colony. It is an experiment on how people would rebuild after a disaster. They put the Colonists in New Orleans were the disaster was. They gave them 7 days of food and film how they try to survive. Great show, you can get it on Demand thru Comcast. But, what is very interesting is that there is no mention of Gold or any currency except exchange of goods. Everyone should watch it.
You have arrived on the scene. The comment has left even me speechless.
I just can't find the energy nor stamina to reply.
I'm calling in the tag team!
"It has no industrial use."
"You cannot eat it."
"Gold as currency but I do not believe that will be the case"
There are a few morsels to start with.
I tire too Rocky, but please allow me:
Gold is valuable because people want it. Maybe not Bravo, and maybe not our latecomer here, but enough of us do.
Tired here too, but here goes: gold has thousands of years of historical precedence as a store of wealth and that is all the fuck that matters...
And JFC, it does have industrial use...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882304575465623070689934.html
Thanks for the follow-up.
Also my comment to the goober above: #564793
"It has no industrial use."
Better call everyone in the electronics industry with your recent discovery to let them know about all the money they are wasting and the repeal of Ohm's Law.
You should be talking to the less than sparkly waterfall person about that.
I merely quoted the inane comment.
#564713
gold is sparkly. recycled gold is good.
gold jewlry makes me happy and feel very feminine. so that is good for mankind, i feel.
touchmeman.
You're already touched.
Main Entry: touched Part of Speech: adjective Definition: crazy Synonyms: batty, bizarre, bonkers*, cuckoo, daft, eccentric, fanatic, flighty, insane, neurotic, not all there, not right, nuts, nutty, obsessed, out of one's mind, peculiar, pixilated, queer, unhingedRR, too funny. Her humor is an acquired taste. Welcome to the asylum!
Agreed. Zh just wouldn't be the same without velo... er Kathy, JB , Leo and the comments they generate...