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Will Our Private Savings Be Sacrificed To Pay Down The Public Debt?
Submitted by Adam Taggart via Peak Prosperity,
Recently, an article by Daniel Amerman caught our attention. Titled Is There A “Back Door” Method For The Government To Pay Down The Federal Debt Using Private Savings?, it details the process known as financial repression, where sovereign debts are slowly paid off by syphoning private savings from an unaware populace.
In this week's podcast, Chris discusses the mechanics of the process, as well as its probability, with Dan:
To understand financial repression, we have to understand that we've been there before. Many nations have gone through periods in the past where they've had very high levels of government debt. And there are four traditional ways of dealing with that.
One of them is austerity. Everyone understands that. You raise the tax rates. You lower the government spending. This is a painful choice. It can last for decades. And what do you think the voters think about that?
There is another option and this we can call this the Argentina option. And that's defaulting on government debts. It’s radical. Everybody understands it. How do the voters feel about it?
There is a third option is rapidly destroying the value of currency. Creating high rates of inflation that very quickly wipe out the true value of a national debt. But that also wipes out the true value of everyone else’s savings and salaries and so forth. It is such an obvious process you can’t really hide it. So how do the voters feel about that?
Those first three – they all work. They've all been done before. But they're all very painful and make the voters very angry.
Now there is a fourth way of doing this. There's nothing controversial about its existence; it's not the slightest bit controversial for professional economists or people who have studied economics extensively. It's financial repression. And it works. It's what the advanced western nations did after World War II. It was a process that took 25 to 30 years, depending on the country. The West went from an average debt as a percentage of national economy from over 90% to under 30%. So we know it works in practice.
To understand what this fourth alternative is where governments like to go is that there are no political repercussions. It's actually just as painful for the population as a whole. You've got to get the money one way or another. But financial repression is, for most people, just complex enough that the average voter never gets it. And because they don’t get it, they're paying the penalty, but they don’t realize it. And they don't see anyone to blame. That's really good if you want to stay in office.
The key is a concept called negative real interest rates. If the rate of inflation is higher than the interest payments you are taking in, savers are losing purchasing power every year. Remember, this is a zero sum game between the borrower and the saver -- with the saver funding the borrower. Every dollar in purchasing power that the savers, which are you and I, are losing every year -- that goes to the benefit of the borrower, which in this case is the Federal government.
Click the play button below to listen to Chris' interview with Daniel Amerman (56m:04s):
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at this rate .. why not..
http://www.hedge.bz
Stash some $$$ someplace safe, not in a bank account
Elsewhere: Al Sharpton's desperate last-minute election stunt
http://tinyurl.com/npbpknr
Gold, silver, bitcoin.
Add platinum, palladium and highly engineered products made of 52100 steel.
I am not sure how anyone can NOT come to the conclusion that government will eat every scrap of seedcorn it can find before it collapses on itself into a singularity of incompetance and greed.
While I am keen to eliminate all my debt (getting there!) I don't even aspire to save anymore, it will just be taken from me via taxes, inflation, etc. 401ks and the like will be forced into shitty bonds. Income will be taxed at higher and higher rates. Bailins will be had for those with more than a nickle in a checking account (with dollar fees).
ZH kicks me in the balls when I talk about keeping cash in a safe deposit box. So, I guess I haven't figured out a good replacement plan yet ...
Regards,
Cooter
There are lots of mechanisms to save. Keeping and storing dollars, whether in a bank or safe deposit box, is at the very bottom of the long list of options. You only need enough cash for a few months living. Any amount above that should be in anything other than dollars...
Our? lol.
You can't find my savings. It's safely stored at the bottom of the ocean.
http://jerry611.newsvine.com/_news/2012/12/02/15618990-masked-men-hijack...
I am Chumbawamba.
"Will Our Private Savings Be Sacrificed To Pay Down The Public Debt?"
That depends very much on which type of currency you chose for your private savings.
The collective short answer is YES! But how much will you personally contribute will depend on which type of currency you choose for your private savings.
I thought the George Carlin version of this article was quite a bit snappier.
Savings held in Bitcoin defeats financial repression.
Taggart you buffoon! Isn't this like asking if Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner are FUGLY? Stupid questions do not need this much analysis!!!!!
I seem to have moved in to weird 'Twilight-Zone'-eque monitored and keylogged area of 'Firefox', where double-posts seem to be an issue. Sorry for the inconvenience of having to explain that I just deleted my comment in double because you would have thought me as somewhat invasive otherwise.
I've seen several OTHER posters who have made the post 'double-post', but it hasn't happened as of yet to me (but it just DID).
I have moved on and up, I suppose. i will take this as an affirmative that I am pissing the right people off.
"Isn't this like asking if Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner are FUGLY?"
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
If a she-pig and a he-pig see each other in the mire, wallowing in the trough, or otherwise eating the tablescraps, and they are both in season, would it not be correct to assume that piglets are soon forthcoming?
Question posed:
Will Our Private Savings Be Sacrificed To Pay Down The Public Debt?
For examples in the positive vein, see:
GREECE ('beta-test')
Is the Pope Catholic? Does a bear shit in the woods? Does John Boehner like the lipstick that the pig Pelosi wears while they rut together behind closed D.C. doors?
Yes, as well as capital controls -- but at the cost of substantial volatility.
It's not at all a bad idea to have a certain amount of BTC, in case your country goes Venezuelan, but I wouldn't put all of my eggs in that particular basket.
Ok, I will bite. The US govy declares a X% tax on gains associated with precious metals. Absent purchase documentation, the gain is assumed to be 100% of the value. Businesses are alraedy supposed to file tax documents for transactions over 600 or 900 or whatever.
Folks can IGNORE laws, but through the threat of force it may or may not be a wise choice. Don't like taxes now? Don't pay them now! But it isn't practical for most people and most people choose to pay now even though they don't like it.
My point is that there will come a day where the government will simply tax the living shit out of anything that doesn't demand an EBT handout. They will make up book value for that 83 Dodge pickup truck you own and expect a property tax payment. Ditto for houses and land (but NAR says its worth meeeel-ions). And absent the ability to foot those tax bills, the assets change ownership.
Resisting will be very difficult and dangerous. So, I simply concluded not having much is the best way to avoid the eye of sauron as it were.
I do not want a house. I do not want land. I invest in my skill set/experience. I am working to get out of debt. One of my cars is paid for and the other will be in a year or so. Both are older than 10 years and in good working condition.
And I can fit all my shit in the back of those two trucks.
So, maybe I am betting on being mobile if I gotta!
Regards,
Cooter
You assume that dutiful citizens will convert their PMs into dollars so that they can 'use' them. Look PMs are very close to being a Tier I asset. That means they can pretty much be used as 'other consideration' without conversion to some third party fiat. While thegovernment assumes you will convert your 'investments' back into USD,that ain't necessarily so. And it is a mistake to believe that savvy people won't accept PMs in payment for things, especially in times of crisis.
I always look forward to your comments Cooter. I think you may have it right here except for one thing............. the land. I still think land out in the middle of nowhere with a nice deep well, a LOT Of solar panels and a great aquaponics and chicken set up is just a great way to go. The government can't tax what it cannot insert itself into. With land........... and your own production you just rip the government out of the equation. A big plus to your plan though is your skills. I amm constantly trying to get young kids/ older kids anyone to listen to me when I want to teach them canning, gardening, sewing........... whatever is useful to just daily living. And I'm always trying to encourage the young ones coming up to get as many skills as they can. Skills have value that is very hard to tax in a black market economy. People are waking up. I see lots of quiet, determined resisters to the road we are going down now............. EBT and all.
Can confirm they do this already in Greece.
Making a Better Book Safe
http://www.instructables.com/id/Better-Book-Safe/
Lol. Per the author's comments, he did all that work just so the cuts on the inside of the vault are cleaner. Talk about ridiculously anally retentive.
By all means keep emergency cash on hand (not in a bank). You never know if you'll wake up one day and the ATMs and CC machines don't work (say due to a natural disaster or planned economic shutdown). At least for a little while cash will still buy things, assuming there are things to be bought.
Maybe the best plan is the old diversify trick. Don't keep all your eggs in one basket. Make sure you stock you various baskets with assets and resources that you can use for different situations. You don't know what will happen. Some will be wasted. Some will turn out to be a push. Others you'll use or profit from. The point is to have assets of value for whatever comes your way.
Small cash, land, tools, food/aqua, metals, supplies (spare parts, raw and finished materials), a plan, and useful knowledge.
"Small cash, land, tools, food/aqua, metals, supplies (spare parts, raw and finished materials), a plan, and useful knowledge."
Consider that just about everyone will have nothing to trade for. Everyone except for perhaps 0.01% lives hand to mouth. 99.99% will be beggers with absolutely nothing of value to offer.
Mel does an excellent job explaing that the 99.99% will offer for trade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLgJWaDYPc8
Keeping a certain amount of cash on hand to tide yourself over for a few days or weeks in case of a temporary bank/ATM closure is a good idea.
But even that option is under threat from future forms of financial repression. Recently there have been a lot of noises (or trial balloons, if you will) about the supposed benefits of a cashless economy -- benefits to governments and central banks, that is, not to you.
In an astonishingly frank paper, economist Kenneth Rogoff recently wrote, "If all central bank liabilities were electronic, paying a negative interest on reserves (basically charging a fee) would be trivial." Note that he's not talking about a negative real rate of interest, in which your received interest fails to keep up with the rate of inflation; he really means a negative interest rate! That is, he's imagining a world in which you cannot simply opt out and hold zero-interest cash notes, but are forced to pay for the privilege of holding on to your assets, at a rate which will fluctuate at the central bank's / government's discretion.
This may be only a speculative academic exercise, but it seems like more than that. Rogoff is well regarded, and widely listened to. This sort of thing is dangerous. You can imagine it being brought in in stages, starting with abolition of high-denomination notes like the EUR500 and USD100; replacement of previously anonymous travel cards (eg., London's "Oyster") with contactless payment cards linked to your bank account; increased use of NFC-enabled phones as wallets; and so on. Gradually, cash may become marginalized, to the point that it becomes associated with dubious transactions such as those involving drugs and prostitution, and thus the possession and use of cash becomes suspicious in and of itself.
"Will Our Private Savings Be Sacrificed To Pay Down The Public Debt?"
Yes.
I should write articles and do podcasts too.
Correct. I'm also partial to Titanium and Beryllium.
When was the last time any of these were "Confiscated"?
Easy. At his golfing rate Obama may need to personally confiscate all 460CC Titanium drivers and Titanium golf balls
"Correct. I'm also partial to Titanium and Beryllium. "
Neither metals are suitable for trade or currency. These are "High-tech" metals that are only applicable for very high-tech applications, in a working and fully employeed economy.
That said, see my earlier post: 99.999% will have nothing to trade of value, even if you have something good and in high demand. Food and Toilet paper will be in high demand (see the economic collapses in Venzuela and Argentina). Most have absolutely nothing trade in value for anything in value. Most would resort to crime and violence. Best option is to forget able trade and barter and become self-reliant for all your basic needs.
Hey Nostradamus, you do whatever you think best (obviously you consider yourself to be a preeminent seer), but the rest of us will go by what history teaches us. Venezuela is not applicable, and your percentages in regards to Argentina are way off. Consider Weimar, the collapse of Soviet Russia and other non-Latin states. Every one has similarities and differences, but to trash barter as futile and not worthy of effort is an unfortunate display of ignorance.
"Vezuela is not applicable, and your percentages in regards to Argentina are way off. Consider Weimar, the collapse of Soviet Russia and other non-Latin states. Every one has similarities and differences, but to trash barter as futile and not worthy of effort is an unfortunate display of ignorance. "
Yeah, What do you think they will offer? Wide screen TVs and iPhones? What does the average American household have of value? What skill do you need from them? You need someone to take dictation, file some paperwork for you? Make you a Web Page? Perhaps operate non-functioning machinary because there is no fuel and no electricity? The majority live on tiny lots and couldn't grow a bean if their life depended upon it.
The Differences in Russia and Weimar is that before the time of collapse the majority already were self-reliant (since they had to) And your Right, the US isn't Venzuela, the US will be much worse off because the majority of our people are useless without running infrastructure. At Least in VZ much more of the population had to maintain some form of self-reliance since VZ infrastructure was mostly low tech.
DCRB!!! Those down voters have no idea you are one of the smartest guys in the room!
Glad to see you here
second that, always good to see you, dcrb.
Two out of Three aint Bad.
Yes, this is a good practice but it doesn't help with the loss of purchasing power caused by inflation.
our 401Ks (and other retirement funds) will be replaced with treasury bonds, and the banks will be left to plunder as much as they can from bank accounts as they are now legally allowed to do thanks to Dodds-Frank.
my neighbor's half-sister makes $63 /hour on the internet . She has been out of work for 10 months but last month her pay was $16551 just working on the internet for a few hours. More Info... www.job-reports.com
OK....we already have real negative interest rates, we've had zirp since 08. How is this new?
Come and fucking get it...out of my cold dead hands!
never .... no way......they'd never do that......it'd be unfair
Nothing is really ours, anyway. In some way or shape the state has created a way to take our money through taxes, fees, registration, etc... All capital is subject to these vultures.
If you don't believe me stop paying property taxes. Poof it is gone.
Stop paying car registration. Poof it is gone
Stop paying income tax. Poof your savings and wages are gone.
Live like Jack Reacher, not even .gov can tax you...
But will they take my folding toothbrush?
Maybe just your gold teeth
yes and your one tooth,
+1!
He lived off his govt pension so he was indeed taxed
Well stated Milli.
The Federal Reserve has a first lien on anything you own that you purchase with Federal Reserve Notes. Using their currency is a privilege, and the fee for such use is a first lien on your property. If you don't pay up they send their collection agent, the Internal Revenue Service, after you to collect.
The solution?
Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. Pay for your purchases without FRN. Use your labor, other tangible property, or precious metals.
You can also do what I do: FRN are dual use instruments. They feature two seals on the front. On the left side, the debit side (think of a ledger, as in accounting), you have the Federal Reserve seal. On the right side, the credit side, you have the US Treasury seal. Each seal represents a different form of payment.
When you receive FRN at the bank, or from someone else, you are accepting them as FRN, notes, which represents debt, and is not money. It's currency, but not money, because debt is not money. Unless you don't.
On the back on any checks I cash, I endorse it as follows:
This is a notice to the bank that I am redeeming whatever paper they give me as lawful money, the equivalent of US Notes, which are still "good as gold"; unemcumbered by the national debt.
I only deal in lawful money. The Federal Reserve can go fuck itself.
Seek out "David Merrill - Lawful Money" to learn more.
I am Chumbawamba.
In practical terms (of your note on the redeemed check), this means... what?
It means that he's found a delusional hobby... I suppose we all do in some form or another...
I beleive he means that any check endorsed in this matter does not have to be reported as "Income" and taxed as such.
Please correct if I am wrong.
Its their money, they created it from nothing.
They are just letting you play with it before taking it back.
All of it.
Hedge accordingly.
They already have at least 90% of it back.
Possession is only a perception.
And doesn't just apply to USD, it also applies to BTC.
Even if you only store your BTC writte out long hand, if the blockchain (FRBxx) doesn't say you own it... all you have is a piece of paper.
How true. Likewise this quasi-religious American experience of "Home Ownership" is also a bit of a scam, since it's not true "Ownership", but PR spin for Sheeple.
You don't pay fees or taxes on something you truly "own". If you are paying fees or taxes, you're paying a kind of Rent. If you refuse to pay it, they take it away. So let's cut the crap, and let's call it Home Rental. In the final analysis, does it really make a difference if you pay Rent to a private landlord, versus the Landlord known as the Government? Both are Landlords.
The day we eliminate Mandatory Property Tax is the day you can say that you "own" your home.
It's a states' rights issue and some states have opted not to charge it or otherwise allow their version of allodial title... Practically speaking, it's a city and county issue... as close to "local" as political decisions come...
"Likewise this quasi-religious American experience of "Home Ownership" is also a bit of a scam, since it's not true "Ownership", but PR spin for Sheeple."
Only while the gov't has the resources to enforce taxation. When it costs $10 to $30 for a loaf of bread, its unlikely the gov't will have a lot of manpower available to enforce taxation. What remains of the LEO will be trying to prevent the masses from burning down all of the big cities and to protect the elite from angry lynching mobs. Rarely do unpaid or underpaid police and military continue to enforce laws.
FWIW: I am not suggesting this will happen tomorrow, or even next year. However it's a mathematical certainly that what is unsustainable will fail. Ideally, you want to have land and other resources prepped and able to provide self reliancy so that you aren't forced to take to the streets to survive.
Some are born ethical , others have ethics thrust upon them
This is unethical and will come to a sticky end at point of a stick
See
https://www.academia.edu/8871698/Ebola_and_Money
what a phoney question; its a given.
As the philosopher said : there are no dumb responses, only dumb questions. The responses feed the beast like Kim Kardashian feeds the people press (and we sheeple love it!).
And today the media IS the message...
sadly, you could explain this in gradeschool terms and the citizenry would still be just as clueless had you not said a word. Nor would they care, so long as there is ice cream in the freezer and reality tv.
already being sacrified:
- inflation
- ZIRP, no interest
- free shit army lifetime benefits
dupe
exactly, they don't have to take it directly when they can cause inflation to devalue it (and thus the debt)
If you're a true libertarian -- where money cannot create money -- then ZIRP is fine.
If you want to increase your wealth, you invest it in a venture that has a Risk/Reward relationship. Parking it in a bank account does not conform to that.
I continue to be amazed at the intellectual duplicity of faux libertarians/Libertarians who are opposed to fiat money and FRB, yet in the same breath bitch that "ZIRP is bad". Amazing intellectual hypocrisy, really.
Although I didn't downvote you, I disagree with the charge of intellectual hypocrisy. Investing directly in a venture has two costs: risk and opportunity cost. But wouldn't you agree that those costs remain regardless of whether an intermediary (i.e. the bank in which my funds are parked) is involved? I could even contend that a risk premium should be paid for agreeing to involve such an intermediary by depositing the money in a bank, rather than making a direct investment in a venture. The intermediary is a second entity that could go broke before capital is returned.
Back in the olden days, banks' raison d'être was to facilitate investments in ventures. However, the government perverted this mutually-beneficial relationship between the holders of capital and its prospective users; most recently via zirp. We should get more money back than we deposited. But not because we created that extra money--rather, because we helped create the opportunity that created that extra money.
Anyway, that's my 2¢. (Too bad it was worth about a buck 100 years ago . . .)
10yr yield @ 1%
book it
Umm, what the flying fuck do they think has been going on for the last 6 years?
pods
Just let the currency crash that will do the same thing.
I guess .gov will have to assist me dredging it from the bottom of the bay.
Damn boating accidents!
Fools - what do you think a zero interest rate plus 2% CPI policy is? Private savings has been stolen for 6 years. Wake-up.
Heck, try 8-10% real CPI. I don't think anything is going to wake people up short of the Kardashians starting to talk about this. I rate that pretty unlikely.
These things only work when there is someplace for real growth to occur. Then investment can go there. But there ARE no more places to go...the whole world is involved now.
In a world with many economies, you can always find a place on the way up. But in a global economy, you run out of options. Unless you can do business on other planets, you're pretty much fucked.
What savings? Confiscation proof here. Lol.
The day they take money from my savings.. #saywhen
In the light of the global FATCA coming soon to a Socialist Banana republic near you, I would say that a serious attack on all your assets is coming. If they can see it, you don't own it period.
Today I saw a docu about youthunemployment in Europe and something other came up.
Pensions.
Young people are jalous at older people's pensions and their houses.
They've got the wealth.
They do the travelling.
They buy the expensive cars.
So I think they'll take it from the older people.
Inhertances, tax them to 90% and you've downpaid it all in 20 years.
Or cut the pension system like they did in spain and greece and portugal.
They'll keep their hands of younger people's money. And so they'll keep support from that group.
And older people arne't carefull with their money, they always say: I'm to old to care.
So I think they'll take it from the older people.
Inhertances, tax them to 90% and you've downpaid it all in 20 years.
No. If the government gets it, then the kids don't... All this will do is exactly what it has done, create multi-generational dependents upon the spigot... kids living in a parent's basement (no parents are actually together...)... and their only form of human interaction is online or phone, even when in person, except when touching genitals... and their only form of expression is useless clothing and making the world know the intimate details of their miserable lives... from taking pictures of every meal or wearing outlandish outfits... all in a desperate attempt to find purpose.
The debt will never be paid down. There is no political motivation to curb spending and every motivation to increase it. The system will continue printing until it crashes.
Pretty much -- that is, unless we're past the point where wealth involves tangability.
The problem is really that there is no sovereign money creation. A democratic government that could create sovereign money, without having to borrow from the banking system, could create money as a means of exchange rather than as a counterbalance to a financial asset (debt/loan). So long as it is created in amounts that do not cause inflation, sovereign money could be given to states as a means of financing infrastructure, to the poor in order to finance social welfare programs to create demand for goods and services (provided of course that they are willing to work at the earliest opportunity), or to all citizens equally. Moreover, corporate profits need to be reduced and more needs to go into worker compensation. If shareholders are compensated less, then prices for all goods will reduce significantly and with it government spending.
The problem here is that this solution rests entirely on an honest and egalitarian government which will remain a fantasy. It involves taking from some and providing to others arbritrarily determined by need.
Also, money is almost entirely created by sovereign states and the use of any other money is frequently deterred.
Gold on the ceiling
I ain’t blind
Just a matter of time
Before you steal it
How about removing impediments to the economy and allow it to grow? Why no mention of this? A healthy growing economy coupled with .gov spending restraint will do wonders to reduce the debt. Of course it will never happen, but a man can dream can't he?
Ravings of a lunatic! Go back to thinking inside the box you were given.
/sarc
They've been dreaming like that for a long time, and no, it hasn't worked in the past and won't work in the future.
No, no they haven't been thinking that way. Their "solution" has always been moar debt and moar regulations. When have you ever known government to curb spending?
A healthy economy means higher production... which will only come from people for a short while longer. Reducing the debt isn't in the cards... the folks who will control the consolidated future production have no interest in paying off the debt of people who are unnecessary for production... the debt will be defaulted upon, either through repudiation or devaluation... but, until then, we'll do anything to remain in denial.
Fuck fiat. Gold, bitchez.
Yes, it is called FATCA legislation (http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Corporations/Foreign-Account-Tax-Complianc...). Private savings in this context are actually millions and billions illegally stashed away by 0.1%'ers for tax evasion in Switzerland, Caymans, Bahamas, Hong Kong, Singapore and Jersey.
Raw data:
(PDF alert) http://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/Zucman2014JEP.pdf
http://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/Zucman2014JEPdata.xlsx
Oh bullshit. FATCA is ensnaring people below the poverty line in countries around the world like Canada, Australia. Not just the 0.1%
FATCA is a mechanism for the government to keep close tabs on all US citizens' wealth. You most certainly do not need to be a billionaire to get hosed. The stage is being set for an overt asset grab.
Ah.. you can bet they will be stolen, but to pay down the debt, not so much.
So, basically this is a quick summary of what has been going on for the last five years, but, without the additional penalty of the government debt increasing instead of decreasing. Because, when stealing from savers in the present just isn't enough, you have to steal their future savings too.
"Will Our Private Savings Be Sacrificed To Pay Down The Public Debt?"
HAHAHA - OF COURSE THEY WILL!!!
They've pretty much appropriated all the private land in CA, there just isn't that much left to steal
DC is too busy check kiting to even consider thinking about paying down the debt - that concept went out the window decades ago....
Hell no, I didn't even read or listen to the clip. Hell, the IMF is already siphoning my savings for.., uh more than three decades and for what, arming third world democracy's. I got a better idea that, it's called a treasury repatriation swapping US Treasury gold bullion with China. It solves several problems at one time. First it says America makes good on its excessive deficit spending, improves foreign relationships with emerging markets, eases monitary questions regarding valuations and is also good for overall public relations.
This is radical thinking, something out-of-the-box.
Oh by the way, I have read most of Gustave Le Bon, The Psychology of Revolution
Savings in America? Oh that's rich...
"Available Credit" is a kind of savings...
Only if debt was savings in America...
How could there be "political consequences" to criminal incompetence & financial repression when the ruling one-party system forces the clueless sheeple to hold their noses and choose between their elephant & jackass sock puppets?
For insurance, the ruling party makes sure the corporate media cartel blacks-out coverage of any real opponent, then excludes them from the televised debates. The elephant/jackass party just did this to Libertarian candidate for Florida Governor Adrian Wyllie, who is polling at 15% despite having 1/1,000th the FeRNs and being blacked out of media coverage, debates, voter guides, etc.
Umbrella coverage is also provided by the E-J's minions "counting" (cough) votes by computer in secret.
We're **cked. Stacking more silver bullion (off shore).
Bernanke's son has a $400,000 plus student loan plus Bernanke himself has loans. Based on his borrowing to the max the Federal reserve trys to print out of debt.
Bernanke and his wife made enough money to pay his son's college as well as pay cash. He instead decided to borrow to the max.
Borrow with today's dollars and pay back with tomorrow's inflated - and nearly worthless - dollars.
When you're broke , go touring absolute elsewhere :
https://www.academia.edu/8872647/Non-Aristotelian_Universes
How does financial repression reduce the debt?
When the current budget deficit is greater than negative interest rate.
Deficit = to 4% of GDP
Negative interest rates of 3%
Is it true that many people are converting their life savings from cash or bank deposits to tangible gold and silver? Would people really feel safer with a stack of gold coins buried in a can in the back yard than money in a bank?
Anyone who's voted for the politicians who (Obama, Pelosi, Reid, etc.) authorized/borrowed trillions in debt are alone responsible for that debt. They've taxed me without representing me so they own the debt.
I'd feel safer with my neck in a guillotine than having a substantial amount of cash in a Wall St bank.
The only difference between "Financial Repression" and "Options number 3" is the timeframe of implementation. In both cases they inflate away government debts. Financial Repression just does it somewhat slower than option number 3.
'Private savings'....not from me anyway, I keep around $300 in a bank account so I can write a check if I have to, that's it.
'Private savings' are not in a stupid fucking bank, you dumbasses.
Jesus fucking Christ Almighty, how goddamned dumb do you think people are?
Dumbest Asses on the planet are in the banking industry, they're cuckoo, nuts, out of their fucking minds.
Get a fucking ka loo.
"And because they don’t get it, they're paying the penalty, but they don’t realize it. And they don't see anyone to blame. That's really good if you want to stay in office."
We know we are paying the penalty. Vote anti incumbent.
"To understand what this fourth alternative is where governments like to go is that there are no political repercussions."
I am sure that is what the politicians would like to imagine.
"It's actually just as painful for the population as a whole."
You think the politicians are going to escape the anger of the voters?
what's best: guillotine, firing squad or the noose?
Balance is important and like so many things in life when it comes to economic policy it is very important to balance the markets reward when it comes to savings and debt. Savings plays an important role in the economy and has been shortchanged, this will come back to haunt us.
The idea of being frugal and living within our means has not been given due credit, living by increasing debt is far too acceptable. When we find it necessary to discuss savings we are back to basics and it is a sign we have strayed far off course in our economic policy. More on the important role savings plays in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/09/savings-and-role-it-plays-in-econ...
Buying Gold?
Or Retiring Debt?
Which is the better use of my income, while I still have it?
PHYSICAL GOLD, by far, preferably COINS such as the 1-oz. Canadian Maple Leaf, which is 99.99% pure gold. When you finally need to use the gold, other people will easily see that it is genuine. Indeed, if you VERY lightly bite this particular coin, you will easily leave teeth marks - and it is easy to pound into a much larger and thinner size, then slice into small pieces. The 1-oz. American Eagle gold coin actually contains only 91.6% pure gold - or 22 karat gold (the rest is copper and nickel, added for durability) - far less malleable for thinning and cutting. Bite into it and you will probably break a tooth! It may be the most commonly produced gold coin, but it is also the most commonly counterfeited.
When inflation finally hits its max, you will be able to sell one-tenth of an ounce of gold to pay off your new car loan. Certainly you recall the post-World War 1 Weimar Republic years in Germany when a loaf of bread would literally cost a wheel barrow full of Marks? As soon as workers were paid, they literally rushed to the stores to buy necessities before the prices increased even further that same day.
Wait till 401k's, private pensions, etc. are "required" at some point to invest all or part of your "savings" in gov't paper of some sort.
For me, it's Gold and Silver bitchez.
Savings accounts with interest; ah, I remember those!
All of the above.
Please, would someone from Greece or Italy that has expertise in how business is done under-the-table write a comprehensive study of it? The masters can teach the rest of us how they do.
A the 11:30 mark, Martenson talks about money as markers for real wealth, which grows at a steady, slow rate. As usual with Martenson, and those he interviews, that grossly understated the real problem, that the economic systems are based on making "money" out of nothing as debts to "pay" for strip-mining the planet's natural resources, in such a way that the real wealth is actually DECREASING at an exponentially accelerating rate. However, we live in Bizarro Mirror World, where everything appears proportionately backwards, so that our fundamentally fraudulent financial accounting system presents the destruction of wealth, by high-grading ourselves to hell, as being positive, rather than negative.
All of Martenson's work that I am aware of consistently underestimates and therefore understates the actual magnitude of the problems, and therefore, can continue to propose shallow "solutions" to his perceived level of those problems. In that context, I repeat this quote, which I think goes deeper into the real problem:
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/NWO/silent_weapons_quiet_wars.htm
Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars
"Energy is recognized as the key to all activity on earth. Natural science is the study of the sources and control of natural energy, and social science, theoretically expressed as economics, is the study of the sources and control of social energy. Both are bookkeeping systems: mathematics. Therefore, mathematics is the primary energy science. And the bookkeeper can be king if the public can be kept ignorant of the methodology of the bookkeeping. ... In this structure, credit, presented as a pure element called "currency," has the appearance of capital, but is in effect negative capital. Hence, it has the appearance of service, but is in fact, indebtedness or debt. ... if balanced in no other way, will be balanced by the negation of population (war, genocide)... They must eventually resort to war to balance the account, because war ultimately is merely the act of destroying the creditor ... War is therefore the balancing of the system by killing the true creditors (the public ...) the economy has been transformed into a guided missile on target."
America is the heart of the beast of a globalized empire. Americans have a history of violent revolution and civil war, and a general population which has more personal weapons than most of the rest of the world's armies combined. Control over the government of the USA has been captured by the international bankers. That process has been deliberately destroying the American democratic republic and its rule of law. The American debt slavery systems have generated numbers which ARE DEBT INSANITIES. None of the traditional solutions to that problem are possibly going to work anymore. It is grossly optimistic to think that the historical solutions to runaway debt slavery problems are still possible, after that creates a global problem in which DEBT INSANITIES have become astronomically amplified by globalized electronic frauds, backed by the force of atomic bombs.
I thought this interview was very interesting regarding the insights it provided regarding the history of financial repression, however, I no longer think that any such history has much application to the foreseeable future. I believe that America is necessarily headed towards debt insanities going through psychotic breakdowns, causing death insanities, which will embroil the rest of the world in that madness.
The human species is rapidly reaching the limits to be gained from the industrial revolutions being able to rape and plunder a fresh planet. "Real wealth" is being destroyed faster than its being created. The basic ability to grow the economy at an exponential rate was a boom based on a fresh planet to strip-mine, which is necessarily headed to the most catastrophic bust possible, especially since everything through and through the established systems is based on deliberately ignoring that basic problem. Theoretically, there are enough creative alternatives possible to integrate into alternative systems, wherein some better balanced human, industrial and natural ecologies could develop better dynamic equilibria. However, in fact, we are rushing as fast as we can towards political economy based on enforced frauds madly destroying itself!
The essential problems are what the vast majority of people have been conditioned to not want to understand the ways that money is measurement backed by murder, because the debt controls were backed by the death controls. In the context, Amerman is correct about how the Zombie Sheeple were being fleeced to exhaustion. However, I do not hear him fully facing the degree to which the established systems could change gears to precipitate the conditions which mass murderers those Zombie Sheeple. (That is extremely intense, because anyone who believes that they are preparing for that, probably are not, but rather, are only preparing to become unavoidably involved in those outbreaks of runaway psychotic death insanities.)
The deeper problems are that the history of the most successful death controls was those were done through the maximum possible deceits, within which context the controlled opposition groups continued to operate inside of the same frame of reference of basic deceits about the death controls. Since the only genuine solutions require transformations in basic human ecology, but the actual human ecology operates on the basis of being directed by murder systems which developed through the history of warfare, in which success was based on backing up deceits with destruction, the most probable future ways that the human ecology will change enough to deal with the changes in the industrial and natural ecologies are through mass extinctions, which are spiraling from the periphery towards the core of civilization. That may also be seen as working its way through the lower levels of the social pyramid systems up towards the top.
In the real context, in which the political economy is actually inside of the human ecology, and therefore, the realities are debt controls backed by the death controls, inside combined money/murder systems, when Martenson again speaks, at the 29:15 mark, that "we are the sheep that then are effectively funding the rates ... that fund the US government," what is connected to that situation is not only that the American people are the Zombie Sheeple being fleeced to exhaustion, but also also being set up to be mass murdered.
Since Martenson, et alia, tend to not fully face the degree to which the governments actually are covertly controlled (but rather tends to continue to presume Hanlon's Razor in those regards), they tend to not be able and willing to go through thinking about how the Sheeple being fleeced to exhaustion fits into the bigger picture regarding those Sheeple being slaughtered. This kind of interview speaks in very interesting ways about the way that financial repression historically worked, and is still now working to metaphorically "fleece the sheep." However, in my opinion, Martenson, et alia, do not look at the bigger picture, and certainly do not peer deeper into that bigger picture.
The bigger picture is how the murder systems originally made and maintained the monetary systems, and so, the established enforced frauds could not exist without the power of governments to back them up, which means that the power of governments to rob, and kill those who resist being robbed (i.e., through taxation, and legal tender laws, etc.,) that make fiat "money" made out of nothing as debts by private banks become the public "money" supply, which everyone is forced to accept and adapt to live within, despite that system being fundamentally fraudulent.
Those who refuse to face the facts about the bigger picture then can continue to recommend superficial "solutions" to these problems which continue to deliberately exclude the death controls as the central features. That encapsulates all of the other ways in which the current political economy is based on deliberately ignoring and disregarding the environmental ecology. The bigger picture is that real human ecology is dominated by the most deceitful death controls, which was what made and maintained the political economy, whose central feature was enforced frauds through the monetary systems, which have various manifestations, such as financial repressions.
The greater tragedy is that the runaway debt insanities are driving conditions towards provoking death insanities, while there appear no practical political ways to prevent that from happening. From about the 41 minute mark, this video starts to talk about whether there are any ways for some of the sheep to "leave the flock." At about the 42:20 mark, it goes on to also correctly state that: "We have been taught to be sheep more or less ... and, it takes a paradigm shift to stop being a sheep ..."
That video then goes on to discuss how the financial wolves operate (within that metaphor about people being sheeple), and how one has to go through enough of paradigm shift to understand that, in order to more effectively respond to that real situation. HOWEVER, I FIND THAT PEOPLE MARTENSON, ET ALIA, WHO TALK ABOUT "PARADIGM SHIFTS" TEND TO ONLY MEAN RELATIVELY SUPERFICIAL FORMS OF THOSE NECESSARY "PARADIGM SHIFTS."
Martenson then asks the most important question regarding WHAT HAPPENS IF GROWTH IS NO LONGER POSSIBLE, (WHICH RELATES TO THE BASIC PROBLEM OF DIMINISH RETURNS FROM BEING ABLE TO STRIP-MINE A FRESH PLANET'S NATURAL RESOURCES.) The answer to that question returns to the ways the runaway debt insanities must eventually provoke death insanities, as the only solutions which could work in the real world, which has been controlled by a fundamentally fraudulent financial accounting system, which was able to operate on the basis of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, which could operate on the basis of EVIL DELIBERATE IGNORANCE TOWARDS THE CONSEQUENCES OF THOSE FRAUDULENT FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS!
The "paradigm shifts" which I think are necessary are a series of intellectual revolutions in the philosophy of science, which then applies to political science, and therefore, applies to the combined money/murder systems. However, that can not be done unless our understanding of social sciences faces the facts that warfare was the oldest and best developed of social sciences, whose success was based upon deceits, which in turn became the foundation for economics, whose success was based on frauds. We should be understanding human beings and human civilizations as manifestations of general energy systems. However, our current understanding of those is almost totally dominated by the biggest bullies' bullshit world view, which presents everything in as backwards a way as possible.
The necessary "paradigm shifts" are astronomically more amplified than anything which stays within the established frame of reference. Although the study of the history of economics, and its episodes of "financial repression," are quite interesting, that is still looking at the problem through a relatively small keyhole. Whatever used to be human history can not be contained within any old-fashioned understanding, AFTER we have become apes with atomic bombs backing up electronic monkey money.
There are growing contradictions emerging from human beings developing intelligence that internalized natural selection, to develop cultural systems of artificial selection, which developed to operate through the maximum possible deceits and frauds. In that context, in my view, it is grossly optimistic to believe that what is happening is merely "a redistribution of wealth." It is too superficial a view to regard the social polarization as being the problem, when that is being trumped by the destruction of the natural world, and the consequences of building everything on the basis of being able to strip-mine a fresh planet.
The path we are on now is way worse than guys like Martenson et alia tend to discuss. They tend to deliberately ignore, or underestimate and understate, the roles of the murder systems in having made and maintained the established monetary systems. Therefore, they also tend to not place enough emphasis upon the role of the death control systems in the foreseeable future. As long as we continue to actually operate those through the maximum possible deceits, and deliberate ignorance, then we are constantly being driven towards development of death insanities, as the only ways left to resolve the debt insanity situations.
You may believe that strip mining the planet is a bad thing, but the majority of people would prefer to have a car/TV/house/iPhone/computer/etc over a vast area of forest that has never been touched by humans.
Post WW2 it actually worked pretty well, becaause the war was pretty much a one-time expense. This time, they will not stop. They are not only taking savings to reduce debt, but also to fatten Wallst. The problem is that Wallst. is insatiable along with the government's desire to spend and subsidize the elites.
A purge of elites will be necessary to satisfy the demand for justice.
It happens during every revolution.
If you have money, live it up and enjoy it while you can....
You will never regret it!!!
Too many people I know scrimped and saved for their old age, then when they got old, they discovered either:
1).That their health would not allow them to take advantage of having money
2). They no longer desired to do what in their youth they thought would be meaningful to them.
3). The dollar that they worked so hard to save up in their youth
became as worthless as a plugged nickel when they finally got around to taking it out and spending it--due to inflation
4). They got so hung up on saving (addiction!) that they never learned to enjoy spending money.
5). They died before they got to use and enjoy their money.
Unless and except for employer contributions, 401(k)s and retirement acounts are basically a sucker trip...better to pay the tax and take the cash...after-tax dollars in hand are worth far, far more than pie-in-the-sky dollars when you die!.
Take out the cash, make mistakes, but eventually learn to use cash....if your money is always invested for you, you will never learn how to use/invest cash advantageously...
Spend cash wisely...if you must have "things". buy them outright and never mortgage your life for "things".
Remember that cash in the bank is a targetable asset.
It is truly said that the key to wealth is being in the right place at the right time with money and knowledge....be sure that you have the (cash) money to take advantage of unique fleeting opportunities.
WHY would anyone keep any money in any bank, except enough for immediate use for DEBIT CARDS and/or CHECK WRITING. Keep ALL other CASH (not invested in gold, silver, stocks, land, other hard assets, etc) in your possession, to be deposited into that account a day or two before needed.
"And what about interest paid on your savings account?", some may ask. My answer: WHAT interest? Is that miniscule return worth having all of your bank deposits confiscated?
Party Hardy and BLOW THE MONEY before it's confiscated folks. They will not even bother with financial repression this time.
"will-our-private-savings-be-sacrificed-pay-down-public-debt"
The answer to the question is yes and they've been doing it since 2008 and part of they (EU) have been putting laws in place for direct confiscation of whatever savings are left for when it comes to that however it's not to pay down public debt. QE, ZIRP, negative savings rate etc has all been done to keep the banks solvent while they bleed the last drops of life out of the western economies before the banking mafia move to Hong Kong.
1) If governments wanted to pay down public debt they'd default on the debt owed to the debt-pushers and issue their own currency as a means of exchange instead of borrowing pretend money from the banking mafia and then paying it back with real stuff.
2) The banking mafia live on debt, want as much of it as possible and currently own the political elite so their reason for wanting to get their hands on those savings will be different from the stated reasons.
Every economic decision made since 2008 has been made to keep the banks solvent however these decisions are damaging the real economy and deepening the slump. This then feeds back into the banks' balance sheets leading to the banking mafia needing to drain more blood from the serfs which worsens the slump which weakens the banks which makes them need to drink more serf blood which worsens the slump which etc.
It's a vicious cycle and the only thing that can stop the banking mafia taking down the entire western economy (which will probably take down the global economy with it) is if the banking mafia can be taken down first.
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nb on savings, the relative value of saving strategies only applies to that proportion of your income you can save. If you can only save 10% of your income then even with the best saving strategy you're still being robbed on the other 90%.
I have read that some economists believe that one positive effect of inflation (in the form of rapidly rising prices) is an increase in the "velocity" of money - that is, the same dollar will be spent by more people in shorter period of time. Example: if a loaf a bread costs $1 today and will likely cost $2 tomorrow, people will with $2 will buy 2 loaves today. This cycle will repeat itself more quickly re: this same $2 throughout that day regarding other recipients of this $2 re: other products. The result: increased sales, inducing increased production; thereby creating more jobs.
However, assuming that a loaf of bread has an umlimited shelf-life (much like a McDonalds' hamburger roll, as opposed to getting moldy like REAL bread), will NOT a point be reached where consumer demand peaks and current sales simply subtract from future sales?
Any thoughts?