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The Only Way To Stop The Empire

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Dmitry Orlov via Club Orlov blog,

The final days of US empire are fast approaching. Perhaps its end will pass slowly and gradually, or perhaps the event will unfold rapidly and catastrophically. Maybe chaos will break loose, or maybe its demise will be organized well and proceed smoothly. This nobody knows, but the end of empire is coming as surely as day follows night and sun follows rain. Overexpansion, overreach and over-indebtedness will take their toll—as all past empires have discovered. Empires are like bacteria in a Petrie dish; unthinking, unseeing, unfeeling, they expand until they run out of food or contaminate their environment with their waste, and then they die. They are automatons, and they just can’t help it: they are programmed to expand or die, expand or die, and, in the end, expand and die.

What does the empire feed on? It feeds on money and fear; your money and your fear, both obtained with your cooperation. It is bigger now than when it faced an actual adversary in the Soviet Union. Russia is no adversary; all it wants is to be a normal country, at peace with the world. But the empire won’t let it, will it? It must create enemies. Who are our enemies? According to the authors of endless war they are North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Islamic terrorists. Are any of them actually capable of threatening the US? Well, yes, but they are all quite easy to deter. But the plan of the authors of endless war is not to deter them; it is to back them into a corner with political instability and sanctions, while whipping up the population on both sides into fear-filled frenzy.

We all know that the US military-industrial complex has become a self-perpetuating and uncontrollable organism, just like Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us in 1961. Everyone knows the phrase and Eisenhower's warning—it is part of our collective memory. At a trillion dollars a year and growing, with over 1000 bases ringing the planet, it has expanded far beyond what Eisenhower could have imagined in his worst nightmare. We can’t say we didn’t know: he warned us. After the National-Socialist episode in Germany, many good Germans voiced regrets at not speaking up, claiming that they didn’t know what was being done in their name. But we do not have that excuse: we all knew all along.

Nor was it the first time we were warned. General Smedley Butler told us before, in 1933, and his words are still with us, posted online. Why is it that everyone, generals included, suddenly gain wisdom immediately upon reaching retirement? Butler offered an explanation: his “mind was in suspended animation while serving as a soldier and following orders.” In 1933 Butler told us that he “was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.” He said:

“I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912…I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.”

This empire is nothing new, and we knew what it is and what it does all along. We can’t say we didn’t know. We have watched throughout our lives as the US put down every popular uprising against local autocrats and oligarchs, placed countries under US control, then helped organize and train the death squads that killed off the opposition. Think of Indonesia, Argentina, or Honduras. We watched as the empire crushed every democratic government that threatened US business interests under the false pretext of “anti-communism,” starting with Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, and proceeding to Congo, Haiti (numerous times), and most notably and infamously Chile in 1973 (assassinating president Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973), Nicaragua in the 1980’s, and many, many others. (For details see William Blum’s Killing Hope.) And of course, many of us lived through the epic lies and genocide of millions in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia during the so-called “Vietnam War.” We knew, we watched, and we paid taxes that paid for the bullets and the bombs.

More recently we’ve seen the barefaced lies of empire laid out for all to see in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Georgia, Pakistan, Yemen, Ukraine... they never end! But the trouble we stir up in other places never seems to come home and ring our doorbell, does it? Maybe that’s why it keeps on going. We think that we can just ignore it and go on with our lives—that it won’t affect us. Or does it?

Let’s leave aside the destruction of democracy that always accompanies a militarized, fascist police state that the US has gradually turned into. And let’s ignore the violence that pervades US society, or the vast gulag of incarceration that disposes of our useless eaters. Consider that the only military attack on US soil that actually scored a palpable hit since Pearl Harbor was 9/11. Pearl Harbor was on the periphery, way out in the Pacific, “A Day that will live in Infamy,” the more so since FDR knew it was coming and did all he could to provoke it by cutting Japan off from oil supplies, directly provoking it into launching the attack. But Hawaii is the periphery while 9/11 struck at the heart of the empire, the financial center in New York that drives the imperial wealth pump, and the Pentagon, which is charged with the mission of US world domination.

Whether you believe that 19 Arabs armed with box cutters who couldn’t fly propeller planes took down 3 World Trade buildings that plummeted straight down at the speed of freefall in what looked like controlled demolition (yes there were 3, look up “Building 7”), and destroyed a section of the Pentagon, or whether you believe it was an inside job, doesn’t matter. The point is, in that act of destruction, the wars of the empire finally came home.

What was the result? Did these events cause us to reconsider what we are doing? Of course not! Instead, we went all-in for war. Remember, the empire is an automaton, a self-perpetuating organism, living on money and fear. What better way to whip up fear than to stage, or to allow, or to simply fail to prevent, an attack on the “homeland”—which is, by the way, a Nazi propaganda term. The purpose of war is simply to cause more war, since it is so profitable for the badly misnamed “defense industry.” Butler told us in 1933 that “war is a racket,” and documented massive war profiteering during WWI. Do you know how much money Lockheed, Northrop-Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon et al. are making from the “War on Terror”? The sums are astronomical.

As you read these words, the empire is busy doing its work in Ukraine. Here is how that works. First, it overthrows the elected government in a US-backed coup. Next, it directs its local puppet regime to unleash a military attack and organize death squads to deal with the population in the east that won't go along with the US-backed coup, in this case using actual Nazi-branded death squads, complete with Nazi SS Insignias. (Anyone can verify these facts with the most cursory internet search.) And for the final, consummate imperialist touch, it votes in the UN (together with Canada) against a resolution condemning the Ukrainian Nazis and other racist murderers, while the Europeans shamefacedly abstain. This sort of plan used to work really well, and so the empire keeps repeating it over and over again, even though the results are worse every time.

Vast numbers of Americans support the empire’s wars of conquest because they help maintain their lavish lifestyles. They bother some of us more than others. Many of us are adamantly against them, but only a few find it emotionally unbearable to countenance the destruction of millions of lives in our names and with our money. What makes them different? Who knows, you would have to ask a psychologist.

The question for those who oppose endless war is, What have we done about it? A mass movement in the 1960’s that added up to an uprising by a vast segment of society perhaps had something to do with ending the conflict in Vietnam. In spite of these protests, the empire was able to extend the war by an extra five years all the way to 1973, when it agreed to end it on the same terms that had been offered in 1968 to Nobel “peace laureate” Henry Kissinger. There has been no significant anti-war protest since then, and certainly none that succeeded in preventing or ending war. Why?

First, the draft was ended. This put an end to the involvement of average US families in the wars of empire, and therefore ending the requirement for consent of the governed. The strategists realized that the draft was a disaster for the empire. The new, much better and cheaper way to procure cannon fodder for the endless war is to enlist the children of the underclass, by using economic oppression in order to deprive them of any other means of advancement except military service.

 

Second, the military has been outsourced and privatized, requiring even less involvement by US families in the military, and less need for their consent. “You’re all volunteers, so shut up” is the attitude.

 

Third, the vastly increased scope of domestic spying by the NSA and other government agencies has helped keep everyone under control and stifle dissent.

 

Fourth is the tight government/corporate control of the US media, which has become consummately successful in brainwashing and propagandizing the population.

 

Finally, there is the war on whistleblowers and journalists who expose the truth, from Tom Drake to William Binney, Sibel Simons, Jesselyn Radack, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange. If necessary, the police, who are vastly more militarized than in the past, together with national guard troops, can squash any dissent like a bug. All these measures ensure that efforts at reform pursued through legal, nonviolent means such as voting, protest, civil disobedience, civil resistance, etc. will have absolutely no effect. The only action that can possibly stop the empire in its tracks is cutting off its food supply—the tax money on which it lives. We have to starve the beast through divestment, capital expatriation, tax resistance, tax refusal and tax revolt. Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig told us this flat out in the 1980’s when, being confronted with huge protests over US Central American policy, he said: “Let them protest all they want as long as they pay their taxes.” Truer words were never uttered by a US official. Is there any evidence to contradict his statement? Has any other measure had any impact on the war machine? The honest answer is no. Millions of people around the world protested before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. These protests were ignored. No amount of protest or other efforts can stop it, because it doesn’t cut off the empire’s food supply of money and fear. Only by cutting off its funds by not paying taxes can we stop the empire.

Many have said that the US doesn’t need tax money as it survives on endless debt. Yes, the empire lives on debt, but the ability to sell debt is based on the bond rating of US treasury bonds. Most recently in June, 2014 S&P gave the US a AA+ rating with “stable outlook.”

If there is any doubt about the US credit rating, the ability to sell debt to continue financing the empire comes into question. The ability to collect taxes is what maintains the US bond rating. Any reduction of the US bond rating, and interest rates have to go up in order to continue attracting more investment. Then the interest on the debt balloons out of control and becomes unrepayable—never mind the principal, which they have no intention of ever paying back. By the way, the Tea Party’s efforts to shut down government by refusing to raise the debt ceiling was helping this effort for a time, although for different reasons. They thought that the welfare system is bankrupting the country. This is a laughable claim, because welfare spending looks negligible when compared to military spending. Still, they did manage to lower the bond rating for a time. Shutting down the federal government is a step in the right direction, and since in recent years only the Tea Party has managed to do it, lets give them some credit

If the US became unable to reliably collect taxes, then its ability to finance the empire with debt would be diminished, and the US would have to turn to increasing taxes—another politically unpalatable choice, especially in the age of the Tea Party, when the empire’s main constituency is dead-set against more taxes. So it is absolutely clear that the only thing that could stop the empire is a tax revolt. It wouldn’t even have to be that big; the slightest question about the ability of the federal government to collect taxes could reduce the bond rating. Even a minor reduction could raise interest rates enough to make the US debt unrepayable.

Let's get down to brass tacks: How do you avoid paying taxes, when the IRS withholds our salaries, and the tables are rigged to withhold about 15% more than necessary on average, so 80% of people get a refund? Did you think that this is a coincidence? No, this is a one-year interest-free loan to the empire from taxpayers. But it’s actually quite simple not to pay taxes. Get a W-4 form, write EXEMPT in the space provided, and turn it in to your friendly HR office. Your employer is not allowed to change it unless directed by the IRS. Normally they have no reason to question it.

Here’s what happened last time it was tried on a big scale. In 2007, Code Pink joined the War Resisters League to organize a national project for war tax refusal, to “Stop Bush’s Wars.” This was not a true tax revolt, just more or less a referendum on how many people would potentially support withholding a portion of their taxes owed, even a token amount. The online petition asked people if they would be willing to commit to withhold some of their taxes, even $1, if 100,000 other people would agree to do the same. Out of the US population of 316 million, how many people do you think signed it? About 2,000. So you see, there is not much evidence that people will do the only thing that could stop the empire: a true Tea Party tax revolt.

What this implies is that the empire will continue to churn along, and debt will continue to build up, because any other approach to paying for it is not feasible, and therefore collapse is inevitable. The aftermath of collapse is unpredictable; maybe there will be a soft landing, maybe not. But unless you are willing to engage in some form of tax revolt, collapse is inevitable. You will get to live with the results: stage a tax revolt now, or face collapse later.

Are you sure you want to take your chances on collapse? The results of a personal tax revolt are predictable: retribution with penalties and interest from the IRS; living in fear of having your salary, your property, even your house seized, or worse, your door broken down by federal agents (although these extreme measures don’t happen too often, they happen often enough to instill fear). Perhaps there would be loss of income, or even your job. Losing one’s job often leads to depression, divorce, drug or alcohol abuse, etc. So you may prefer collapse after all: loss of your savings, no heat, electricity or trash removal, shops looted or closed, armed gangs roaming the streets... Your choice!

On the other hand, collapse might go well! Hope springs eternal in the optimistic American heart. We are (or used to be) the “can-do” people. Maybe we can-do collapse better than anyone else? Doubtful though if you read Dmitry Orlov’s Collapse Gap presentation.

The results of collapse later are likely to be worse then the effects of tax revolt now. Especially, since the IRS takes years to catch up to exempt W-4 forms, and it would be even harder to crack down if it were being was done en masse. But it’s perfectly understandable if you opt to do nothing now and suffer no consequences, while engaging in ineffective protest to assuage your conscience. You probably have a family to support, an expensive hobby, or some other excuse. So you decide to take your chances with collapse later. After all, collapse might turn out OK for you! This psychology is quite understandable. I truly hope that collapse will be as painless as you wish it will be, but somehow I doubt it. Good luck though! Whatever happens, you will have to live with your decision for the rest of your life—be it long or short.

 

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Sat, 11/29/2014 - 10:53 | 5498845 sam site
sam site's picture

When TSHTF the taxpayers will have little money to feed themselves, much less pay taxes.  The empire is going to be squeezed and sure they will confiscate bank accounts and pension funds - but that will buy time till there is no more to take from the people.

With no viable income because most jobs will be gone, it's hard to imagine how the empire will survive.  No more skimming rackets like the Petro-dollar and Reserve dollar to prop us up and no more counterfeiting the dollar as importers are going to demand gold-backed currency. 

Since the Fed crooks have already cleaned out our gold in the Clinton era, we're going to be up the creek and the government at all levels is going to be starved as well.  Game Over folks.  

That's what makes me optimistic about the future.  The evil empire is finally going to be starved as well.  And all the toxically injured sheeple with their blind allegiance to the establishment are going to die like flies. 

Probably just as well as they will resist any reform and will represent mad, vocal obstacles to the formation of an ideal Anarchy taking place.  See

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48nNzoBu2i0

for a vision of the new ideal world of our future without government ruining everything.

 

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 11:08 | 5498862 rsnoble
rsnoble's picture

Even if you aren't one of the 'toxically sheeple' you are likely to die like flys.  1:1,000,000,000=your chances aren't good.  Preparation will be 10%, luck 90%.  I'd say get out of the US but I have the feeling they will have a temper tantrum and have to loft nukes everywhere and take everyone down with them just like a true sociopath would.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 10:58 | 5498848 rsnoble
rsnoble's picture

My bets on a slow, gradual ass fucking with no lube.  We've already seen how they can pull one bullshit solution(extension is more like it) out of their asses after another and can make up rules as they go.

So was Eisenhower a good guy or was he another one of those jackasses that like to tell us to our faces of how things are going to be.......you know like elitest bs.  I honestly don't know.  That's one of their little 'play god' tricks.  "Oh look, you're fucked just like I told you that you were going to be it's a miracle I'm god!"

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 13:42 | 5499222 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

I saw Eisenhower in the lobby of the Bellevue-Stratford hotel in Philadelphia during the 1960 campaign between Kennedy and Nixon.  I was a democrat and I didn't like him them, but looking back, he was the last honest president we had, who got to finish his term.  He was a little short guy like Putin, Napoleon and Robert Redford, but he was a giant compared to the miscreants who run for and hold office today.

Did he just warn America about the military-industrial complex, or was there something between the lines about the real extent of the anti-communist crazies like McCarthy in both the military and government?

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 16:24 | 5499553 BlussMann
BlussMann's picture

Eisenhower was a sorry Bolshevik bastard that the so called "Military Industrial" complex rewarded. The crimes of this incompetent buffoon have been detailed in part in "Other Losses" and his military incompetence was legendary. He was instrumental in seting the stage for the real Red ("Civil Rights") revolution with his use of the Army to beat down White's in the South.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 11:05 | 5498858 rsnoble
rsnoble's picture

"More recently we’ve seen the barefaced lies of empire laid out for all to see in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Georgia, Pakistan, Yemen, Ukraine... they never end! But the trouble we stir up in other places never seems to come home and ring our doorbell, does it? Maybe that’s why it keeps on going. We think that we can just ignore it and go on with our lives—that it won’t affect us. Or does it?"

Russia: The dog that bites.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 12:01 | 5498991 Felix da Kat
Felix da Kat's picture

There has been a seismic shift in the values of the achieving western man. He no longer wants to work with others to improve society; to further the interests of capitalism and the stature of his fellow man but rather it is purely a greedy, self-interest at the expense of others that he seeks. To be the criminal before he is the victim; to no longer aspire to be a mere, altruistic James Bond but rather the more powerful and self-aggrandizing, James Bond villian. It's too bad, but president Obama aspires to the James-Bond-villian model and the example he is setting is most divisive. One need not wonder how this fundamental shift in values plays out in the end... Roman historians know it well.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 12:23 | 5499042 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

The United States of America collapsed September 18th 2008 and is

propped up with phoney stats to provide the appearence of a stable economy and a workable central planning model. Each and every business quarter reveals the underlying instability of this propped up system of fraud. And each and every business quarter brings us closer to the end game which is empirically defined as zero sum. Enclaves

will survive but the majority of populations will face starvation, disease, and mass genocide. The MIC has already stockpiled for the collapse and World War Three is certain. Furthermore, when the military superpowers realize that the end game of survival is based on pre-emptive war and a first strike tactic of aggression, they will push the button on the nukes.

I suspect that President Putin is well aware of the need to strike first and he will nuke the fuck out of the USA very soon. Once Putin nukes the USA there will be no more time left to dither and plan out an escape route. In brief, all out aggression and war is certain given the lack of intelligence of American politicians and the American military executive. Moreover, this explains why O'Bummer has fired many US Military Generals during his term. The next president will be faced with continued restructuring of the MIC due to probable coup attempts in the near future. Instability in the USA is a working model of governance that the White House and the MIC intends on using to control the masses into accepting tyranny as a final arbiter

in life as we know it. Crashing the system is not actually needed due to the fact that the system has already crashed to a point of no return. Genocide is the only way out for the MIC and their ilk and empiricism reveals this wholeheartedly for all on Z/H.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 02:18 | 5500839 bunnyswanson
bunnyswanson's picture

The largest army on earth is in the USA.  The American public.  I still have hope for this very reason.  Everyone is wake and gone far beyond where I am (excelling as only Americans can when faced with a challenge) with regard to facts, including names, dates and countries.  So proud of them.  Now, I just sit back and read comments.  No one disagrees.  If they do, they are bombarded with dismissive retorts that result in their scurrying away to some other article and comment section.

 

If you want to help your country, you will want to watch legislation moving forward regarding disarming the law abiding citizens.

 

Putin is housing E Snowden...I do not know what is going on here but it is very possible there is a small group of politicians, retired and active military members and business people CRYING OUT to the Public - HELP US WE ARE UNDER DURESS.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 12:48 | 5499096 blindman
blindman's picture

Hitman: Kill the Death Economy! | Interview with John Perkins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL_OZxzfUCQ

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 13:35 | 5499199 tarabel
tarabel's picture

 

 

An interesting compilation of anti-American wet dreams that will, alas for all of you eager dreamers, prove false.

Look around the world. Are the people who currently run America any different from those who run the other countries? No.

So the victory of these delusionalists would merely enthrone a system that is even worse than the present state of affairs.

But I do not anticipate such a victory except perhaps in a high tide sense of the word, a la Picketts Charge.

Simply by reading ZH, one can get a sense of an underlying American rebirth that is bubbling away beneath the facade of globalist triumphalism.

Just as the Empire of the Romans was revivified time and again by determined men from the less degenerate frontier regions, so too is an American renaissance gradually taking hold. The growing ranks of the outsiders are withdrawing their support for the current way of doing things and are fortifying themelves against the likelihood of future trouble.

Our friend in Brazil, so critical of the US, is nevertheless a fervent supporter of the status quo in his own country.

Our many, many busy Okhrana minions are quite happy with the status quo in Russia.

Our occasional Chinese visitor is utterly content with conditions in his own tottering country.

Look where you will, you find people who are perfectly happy with everything about the NWO except the identity of those who are running it.

Who is actually looking at the storm and planning on getting rid of the people who are bringing it down on our heads?

The Americans. Armed and dangerous, we'll be there for the finish.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 13:29 | 5499201 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

 Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. Plenty of people around the world know its not working right. The only ones that think its all going to be OK are paid to think that. The first step has been taken. Admitting something is wrong. The next step is correctly iddentifying the probem. We are getting there now. It takes time for that part to sink in. That brings me to the willingness thing. No one with a brain is going to jump up without a good plan that could actualy work.

 Step one accept the truth. Check.

Step two identify correctly. getting closer

Step three find a good solution. Im workin on it.

Step four build a concensus. Not an easy task. but it is starting to form.

Step five make a plan. Im of the opinion this part will happen fast once we have built the concensus.

Step six do it right. Accountability in all things.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 13:46 | 5499231 AE911Truth
AE911Truth's picture

It is the Self Defense Justification. We have every right to destroy a system that is destroying us.

 

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 13:51 | 5499236 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

Not a right. A duty.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 14:07 | 5499255 moneybots
moneybots's picture

"Whether you believe that 19 Arabs armed with box cutters who couldn’t fly propeller planes took down 3 World Trade buildings that plummeted straight down at the speed of freefall in what looked like controlled demolition..."

 

But they could fly propeller planes.  They trained at flight schools. World Trade 1 and 2 never fell at freefall speed, only freefalling exterior column sections did.  Any controlled demolition i have ever seen, had numerous obvious demolition charges going off just before they fell.  Such was not the case on 9/11.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 14:14 | 5499273 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

Dont change the subject.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 16:54 | 5499633 moneybots
moneybots's picture

"Dont change the subject."

 

The comment in quotes was in the post, by the author.  He made it part of the subject.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 20:34 | 5500108 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

 No. Read it again.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 15:52 | 5499478 bunnyswanson
bunnyswanson's picture

Bring in the clowns ... I mean the perps ... into a courtroom.  Let the testimonies begin.  Sue the 2 countries and 1000 men for every cent they have - Pay off the banks, Japs, China.  Resume operations as normal.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 16:17 | 5499538 BlussMann
BlussMann's picture

You really need to do some serious research, you are wrong on all points.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 16:22 | 5499314 windcatcher
windcatcher's picture

I am amazed that the fascist (merger of corporate monopoly with government) in Washington spend $22 BILLION a year to propagandize and brainwash Americans into thinking that we are a capitalist nation that flourishes in democracy (government of, for and by the People) and are spreading democracy through out the world.

The reason the fascist spend 22 billion a year to propagandize and brainwash Americans is because the Free Enterprise System (free from corporate monopoly) of capitalism, our American democracy and Americn rule of law have been overthrown and replaced with the fascist multinational corporate monopoly global Empire. You can still see the last remains of America’s Main Street Capitalism of Free Enterprise.

The terms “Free Market” and “Free Trade” are not capitalism and democracy as you may have been brainwashed to think, but rather, corporate monopoly fascist that are Free to steal whatever they want, from whomever they want and do it legally with fascist secret trade agreements.

Everytime intelligent people use the word Capitalism, Free Trade, Free Markets to describe fascist corporate monopoly global Empire, instead of the Free enterprise System of Capitalism and Fair Trade, they are unjust to themselves and their readers; refuse to be brainwashed.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 16:17 | 5499522 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

We can talk about symtems. But the important thing is understanding the sickness. Opinions vary on this sure. I feel it comes from values. Our values have been corrupted. It starts with money being corrupted and flows from there. Because the way we all do buis is thru this valueless money. Now I could be wrong. I feel doing things honestly is the best way. It starts with us all useing an honest means of fair trade. To do that we need a coin that has a specific value that can be correctly measured. Energy can be measured.

 Math is good and sound. Before you can use any math you must measure correctly. How could we possibly value anything without a correct measurement to start from?

 The fiat empire is the sickness. All the rest? symtems. This should be the focus?

 I talk about a global strike. Why dont any of you call me on it? No questions, not a peep. Everybody is an expert not just krugmen.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 17:17 | 5499687 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Uncover the Methods of Money Creation First to make sure you are not treating symptoms and not the actual causes of the Problem.

So a Problem Statement is needed.

A) US is a Military Empire which causes war, death, disease, and uses Fiat and non-standard Financial Instruments, Central Bank, Rigged or Fixed Markets, and collaboration with MIC & other Conglomerates.
B) US is sick due to USE of FIAT as a Currency, Fiat is Debt based & can be created by chartered Banks without limit.
C) Reality in the USA is nothing but spin and propaganda due to control over all media, public messages, and Education. However Deeper problems stem from those that control banking, debt, credit, financing, funding, US Politicians, US Tax Policy, Cost of Education & Tech Training, Cost of Legal Representation, Cost of going to Court, Cost of Health Care, and many monopolies supported by Chartered banks that can Create money out of thin air without limit which is inflating most of the very important areas of our lives including the Overhang of Tax Burden.

Question how is Fiat Expanded?

1) Federal Spending, Subsidies, Contracts whatever
2) Federal Reserve has many programs which are not fully known... these could be Expansionary, and we know the Effect of QE provides cash to Prime Dealers/TBTF Banks, and Operation Twist seems to be buying Financial Assets/Securities from many entities to remove toxic assets from balance sheets
3) Fractional Reserve Lending,
4) Rehypothication of Assets by Banks, Fraudulent Behavior in Financial Industry

But they say TBTF & Shadow banking Hedge Funds can create money more than a Ratio of 40:1, Creation to Assets

If you consider the Volume and Value of Federal Contracts they have expanded exponentially. Fraud, Waste & Abuse must be happening. Inflation of Fees, Costs, Prices of Contracts has to be a problem. Computer & IT Systems for instance are multi-year Programs worth more than $2 a year at the VA Administration. It is outrageous.

But the Size of the Derivative Market seems to indicate the biggest problem area.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 16:16 | 5499534 BlussMann
BlussMann's picture

Actually the USSA isa militarized, anti White, anti West Marxist police state dominated by the usual suspects.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 18:40 | 5499878 frankly scarlet
frankly scarlet's picture

Interesting. Orlov fails to understand that U.S. bond/debt appeal is created all syntheticly with derivatives. Sales are in the vast majority to the Fed and it's member banks. The stabilization fiund at Treasury maintains ZIRP also with the aid of the Fed and banks and also with the use of derivatives and QE. The task of QE has now been handed to the Japanese with their government pension plan dumping Japanese bonds and acquiring U.S. debt/bonds. Japanese QE will be used to buy up these dumped Japanese bonds while the real savings of Japanese pension plans is transfered to prop up the Fed's game in the U.S. for another year. Is this a lame way to hide the acquisition of toxic U.S. debt from the Japanese public?

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 19:03 | 5499933 polo007
polo007's picture

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7df68668-7019-11e4-bc6a-00144feabdc0.html

While abundantly accommodative policy has boosted the price of risk assets, the rising tide of asset prices has not lifted all boats. Rather, capital market pricing has disconnected from economic fundamentals. Are we to assume that fundamentals will catch up? Or should prudent investors start pruning risk from their portfolios?

The Federal Reserve implemented extraordinary measures as a crisis management tool, yet now seems to lack conviction on when to normalise rates. Zero rates were supposed to end when unemployment dropped below the 6.5 per cent “trigger”; that “trigger” became a “threshold” and that “threshold” vanished into the policy ether even as unemployment continued to improve.

Unwilling to declare victory and withdraw, it seems the Fed has forgotten the proper role of interest rates: to ensure that scarce resources are put to their best use.

Artificially low rates mean that improperly qualified borrowers obtain loans and then bid resources away from those who might employ them more productively. Along the way leverage accumulates, increasing financial risk and market volatility. One does not have to look far to see signs of building financial excess.

Issuance of covenant-lite loans has dramatically expanded, share repurchases have become a key driver of stock valuations and short maturity interest rates remain in negative real territory. These imbalances have elicited mostly yawns from Fed officialdom. Why raise rates, goes the thinking, with prices tame and labour still slack?

Alas, low inflation does not immunise the economy from financial deleveragings and economic downturns, as the 2008 housing meltdown demonstrated. A central bank that ignores credit market excesses, preferring to believe it can dial up or down whatever level of wage growth or unemployment it considers optimal, is one that does not understand its limitations.

If growth were a simple problem of credit and demand management, we would not be having this discussion. If wealth followed in the wake of money printing, Venezuela and Zimbabwe would be members of the G20. Or consider the eurozone, one central bank but 18 countries – some with Great Depression unemployment levels and others with full employment. This disparity of performance cannot be explained by interest rate policy. Rather, it is attributable to relative competitiveness between states.

In a global economy, nations offering consumers what they want at prices they are willing to pay capture their fair share of global demand. Those that deploy their productive resources inefficiently experience disappointing wage growth and high unemployment.

In the US, continued wage stagnation and low labour force participation suggest the Fed’s policies cannot be effective without a more competitive domestic economy.

The Fed’s reluctance to pull the plug on zero interest rates is understandable. Since low rates have enabled activities that would not survive a rate rise, a renormalisation will be painful. Rising rates will price out marginal borrowers. Default rates in corporate and high yield loans will rise, pushing risk premiums wider. Higher capital costs will damp asset prices. So why do it?

Because “kicking the can” means the inevitable deleveraging will be more painful. Sustainable growth comes from improvements to work process and product. Merely adding leverage to a business does not improve its efficiency; higher home prices do not increase the wages of those in the home.

The Fed can multiply the quantity of funds, but that increase does not add to the nation’s capital stock, enhance the skill of its labour or expand its access to natural resources. The game of pretend ultimately has to end. For investors, the question that matters is when and how.

When the end game comes, leverage will be forced out of the system and asset prices will fall. If the Fed is willing to recognise that ultimately its policies cannot dictate economic realities, rate rises should begin soon, presumably in 2015.

A path of proactive, controlled deleveraging means the pain will come sooner, but the severity will be relatively muted. If the Fed fails to remove the punchbowl, the belated deleveraging will come anyway catalysed by the capital markets, which will not be pretty.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 19:55 | 5500036 Otto Zitte
Otto Zitte's picture

This is the most Chinese Propaganda I've seen.

Take your hentai and shove it.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 20:21 | 5500079 bunnyswanson
bunnyswanson's picture

Mossad/CIA with the aid of the Israeli and Saudi Arabian goverments carried out 911

Mossad/CIA with the aid of the Israeli and Saudi Arabian goverments carried out 911

Larry Silverstein committed mass murder while committing insurance fraud.

Larry Silverstein committed mass murder while committing insurance fraud.
        
Rumsfeld, Bush and Cheney aided and abetted the enemy.
            
Rumsfeld, Bush and Cheney aided and abetted the enemy.

 

Mossad/CIA with the aid of the Israeli and Saudi Arabian goverments carried out 911

Mossad/CIA with the aid of the Israeli and Saudi Arabian goverments carried out 911

Larry Silverstein committed mass murder while committing insurance fraud.

Larry Silverstein committed mass murder while committing insurance fraud.
        
Rumsfeld, Bush and Cheney aided and abetted the enemy.
            
Rumsfeld, Bush and Cheney aided and abetted the enemy.

 

Do you know why these statements have been made for 13 years and not one Defamation of Character lawsuit has been made?

Because they are GUILT and fear a courtroom like a herpes infection.

 

The collapse will make slaves out of your children.  The collapse will end with your life being absolute and utter misery, drudgery, REGRET and long line to the grave.

If you allow your ocuntry to collapse under the weight placed on it by CON ARTISTS, prepare to pay the price.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 20:56 | 5500173 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

Yea about the jewish conection. It is hard to see how the actions of a shadow government can be blamed on people that they dont answer too. Its like blamming me for the actions of my brother. If my governemt/brother does bad things blame should go there.

 We see this way too much. I never owned any slaves. That aint how some see it tho. Part of the accountability thing is placing blame where its truly due. The truth would be a good thing to know before one starts placing blame.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 00:28 | 5500690 bunnyswanson
bunnyswanson's picture

Mossad - Israel -  Jewish people are victims - I strongly believe the holocaust was an inside job as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpw7fUj11bA

Real Suspects of 911 in this 15 min clip mentions the names of lower level individuals (security, eye wtinesses, strangely many related to GWB).

 

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 11:13 | 5501329 Caleb Abell
Caleb Abell's picture

You're an optimist.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 21:15 | 5500223 blindman
blindman's picture

Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers - Wild Horses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZHJajD6T-M

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 03:43 | 5500917 fr0thing
fr0thing's picture

"welfare spending looks negligible when compared to military spending" - Um, 3.2 TRILLION dollars in welfare spending last year alone is NOT negligible.

Dumb-ass.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 05:43 | 5500986 ConfederateH
ConfederateH's picture

@Dimitri:  Your chacterization of the Tea Party is strays far from the target.  You forget that Ron Paul was the father of the organization and how he was castrated by the war mongers of the Republican party on the eve of the 2012 election.  That so many representatives elected by the Tea Party were corrupted by the war mongers is not the Tea Party's fault.

What really bothers is how the leftish tint to your rose colored glasses prevents you from seeing this.  It reminds me of Russel Brand.

By the way, what an exception interview you had with Chris Martenson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2uOsqnLLsc

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