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Bankrupt Governments and Negative Interest Rates

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Click for Original - Bankrupt Governments and Negative Interest Rates

Written by Jeff Nielson

 

 

The United States is bankrupt. Even officially, its debt-to-GDP ratio is well above 100%, the economic/financial point-of-no-return. Unofficially, its total debts-and-liabilities now exceed $200 trillion – ten times as much as this (relatively) puny economy can service, over even the medium term. The U.S. is not merely bankrupt, it is in a financial state unique to the Western governments of the 21st century: “ridiculously bankrupt”.

 

The United States government has never, in its entire history, paid less interest on its debts. Consider the absurd perversity here. Back when we had a rational/legitimate (and solvent) economic system, financing operated on a very basic principle of risk: the greater the risk of default, the higher the interest rate demanded by lenders. Obviously the highest rates of interest would be required with respect to any insolvent/near-insolvent debtors.

 

This principle is merely elementary common sense, and used to be an automatic reality of lending/borrowing. The fact that readers even need to be reminded of this basic principle indicates how far divorced from such rationality our criminal/fraudulent system has become. In the Wonderland Matrix, the more-bankrupt that a (Western) government gets, the less interest it pays on its debts (unless that nation’s name is “Greece”).

 

The nations of the Eurozone were also rendered hopelessly insolvent after the Crash of ’08, following the fraudulent “bail-outs” of our ultra-criminalized Big Banks. Shortly after that (i.e. shortly after these puppet governments surrendered their sovereignty), they were allowed – by their Masters, the bankers -- to pay the lowest-rates-in-history on their debts, too.

 

Roughly seven years have transpired since then, seven years of piling more and more debt onto already-bankrupt regimes, and in which direction have Euro interest rates gone? Down. Lower and lower, first matching the insane/criminal “0%” level originally instituted by the U.S., and now even lower than that – into “negative territory”.

 

So-called “negative interest rates” are nothing less than open fraud/crime: borrowers literally stealing the money of lenders, rather than paying them interest on their debts. How does the equally criminal Corporate media characterize this naked theft? This from “The Economist”:

The boldness of the move to negative interest rates…


Indeed, it is certainly “bold” when the (supposedly) sovereign governments of once-legitimate Western regimes proclaim they are going to start stealing money from any/all who lend to them. How is it even possible for these governments to engage in such crime and perversity? Who would ever willingly lend to an avowed Thief?

 

Bankrupt Governments and Negative Interest Rates - Jeff Nielson

 

The answer (of course) is that no one would ever lend to such a Thief, and it’s been several years since these economically (and morally) bankrupt regimes have had any bona fide “lenders”. What (they) we have instead is an openly fraudulent Ponzi-scheme where these bankrupt regimes claim to be “buying” each other’s debt.

 

None of these Deadbeat Debtors ever “pays” its debts, in terms of ever retiring one penny of the actual debt itself. Rather, these corrupt, Ponzi-scheme regimes simply continue to issue more and more and more of their worthless IOU’s, and then use these worthless IOU’s to “buy” each other’s debts, just to continue paying interest on these ever-increasing mountains of debt. Try such a cheque-kiting scam with respect to your own finances, and then see how many minutes elapse before someone shows up at your door to arrest you.

 

However, the paradigm of ultra-bankrupt governments pretending to remain solvent by serially borrowing/lending, to/from each other is only the tip-of-the-iceberg in this surreal, sovereign fraud. What cannot be overlooked is how this insanity factors into the One Bank’s overall scheme of economic rape – i.e. stealing any and every penny of wealth possessed by the Little People.

 

While the borrowing/lending by our governments is now nothing but a perverse, financial sham, near-zero (and now “negative”) interest rates are a very real economic crime-against-humanity with respect to ourselves. To understand this, we must first wade through more of the perversion of economics from the Corporate media. More from The Economist on low/negative interest rates:

When an economy is struggling, it is standard practice for a central bank to cut interest rates. That makes saving less attractive and borrowing more so, boosting the amount of money being spent and kick-starting an economic recovery. But very low inflation can make a central bank’s life harder…

 

Most readers will not have noticed the gigantic, logical disconnect mixed in with this economic dogma. This is because illustrating (and understanding) the disconnect requires journeying to the now-distant past, back to when we had legitimate economies.

 

Back then, nothing was (is) more inflationary than low interest rates, themselves. Indeed, back when our economies were legitimate (and healthy) the interest rates of Western governments never, ever even approached 0%. Why not? Because before they ever got close to zero, inflation would begin spiraling higher at such an extreme pace that these governments would be required to immediately (and dramatically) raise interest rates.

 

Yet, in the Wonderland Matrix, we have these criminal governments imposing their near-zero/zero/negative interest rates upon us, while trying to tell us that inflation is “very low” (even “too low”). This is not remotely possible, so we would know that these governments (and Corporate media sycophants) were lying about inflation, even if we (somehow) failed to notice food and housing costs soaring higher at the most-rapid pace in our lifetime.

 

This brings us to the economic rape: the rape of savers – the biggest crime of these criminalized interest rates. With inflation (in the real world) at an approximate double-digit pace, but the interest paid to savers now nil (or even negative) this means that savers are raped by the full rate of this punishing inflation. This is an economic crime to which none of us have ever previously been subjected.

 

In any/every previous era in our history, when we had legitimate governments/economies, any time that inflation was high, interest rates were also high, to bring-down that (punishing) inflation rate. Indeed, this is what we still see all around us, in the (relatively) legitimate regimes of the Rest of the World.

 

What is the approach of the Traitor Governments of the “free and democratic” West? Lie about the rate of inflation, make no attempt at all to reduce it, freeze interest (savings) rates at zero, and thus allow the bankers to rape our populations for this full-percentage differential. That differential is the difference between what we lose on our money (every day) to inflation, and what we (now) fail to recover, in terms of interest on our savings.

 

With a “savings rate” of 0%, the annual theft-rate from savers by the banking crime syndicate is already at least 10% of our wealth per year. As savings rates now move into totally criminal, “negative” territory, and inflation (inevitably) continues to worsen, this rape-rate will continue to soar higher.

 

This extreme and rapid cannibalization of all savings/wealth held by Western populations is already intolerable, already an economic crime-against-humanity, and already absolute proof of the treasonous criminality of our own governments. But it gets worse.

 

As most readers (who are actually paying attention) are already aware, these irredeemable regimes are already rapidly moving to an even more-heinous crime – particularly when considered in conjunction with the current economic rape they are perpetrating (on behalf of their banker Masters). They are preparing to “ban cash”.

 

Even considered in isolation, no legitimate government (which respected the Rule of Law) would/could ever engage in such a barbaric infringement on the economic liberty of their own population. However, it is when we consider this fascist act along-side our negative interest rates/high inflation paradigm that we see this is nothing less than the worst form of treason by our governments (so far).

 

Currently, the Little People can choose to at least partially protect themselves from this economic rape. They can avoid having the banks steal their savings (via negative interest rates) by simply refusing to keep their “money” in one of these criminal financial institutions.

 

Of course this still leaves those people subject to the full ravages of our double-digit inflation. But even here, the most-astute of the Little People can protect themselves from this deliberate, criminal inflation – through converting the wealth they hold in rapidly-depreciating paper currencies into gold/silver, instead.

 

Gold and silver have perfectly preserved the wealth of their holders for thousands of years (i.e. they are immune to inflation). Conversely, in the thousand-year history of these dubious/fraudulent paper currencies, none have ever managed to maintain more than a tiny fraction of their value (i.e. preserve the wealth of their holders), for even a single century.

 

As readers were already warned previously, any “ban on cash” would be immediately followed by some form of bullion confiscation. Obviously (corrupt) governments doing everything they could to facilitate the theft of our wealth by the One Bank are not going to allow the Little People to avoid the crime of inflation, avoid the crime of negative interest rates, and maintain possession of their own wealth, simply by seeking shelter in precious metals. Such “shelter” will undoubtedly be yanked out from under us by these lawless, fascist regimes.

 

These are merely some of the horrific, financial consequences, from the latest (and upcoming) acts of treason…perpetrated by the worst governments that (big) money can buy.

 

 

 

Click for Original - Bankrupt Governments and Negative Interest Rates

Written by Jeff Nielson

 

 

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Thu, 06/25/2015 - 05:18 | 6232598 ramgold2206
ramgold2206's picture

FFS I'm so fed up with all this EU bullshit...Ireland took the opposite direction to Greece yet the problems remain (just under the surface). The euro project is doomed but it will limp on for years crisis after crisis dragging everyone down with it.  

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Wed, 06/24/2015 - 21:06 | 6231714 saldulilem
saldulilem's picture

please help me understand this. 'paying off the debt' is not a simple mechanism though right? for one the debt will linger as long as the maturity of the bonds (30 yr?). also as new debt will be issued with new auctions, so debt creation is actually a 2-way street, i.e. debt is sold as long as there are buyers. so .... the only way to 'pay off the debt' is to hold no more bond auctions for 30 years, is this right?

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 20:22 | 6231582 honestann
honestann's picture

from article:  once-legitimate Western regimes...

-----

WRONG.  Once you accept it is POSSIBLE for one human to magically gain "authority" over others (and without their consent even), GAME OVER.  The rest is unavoidable.  The most ruthless human predators ALWAYS HAVE and ALWAYS WILL gain control of any so-called "regime"... especially when even its supposed adversaries (like the author of this article) consider them "legitimate".

?????  LEGITIMATE  ?????

Okay author, explain how any regime was ever legimitate.

Let's take the fictional "nation" and "regime" once called the USA (now the USSA) for instrance.  How did this "nation" and "regime" come to exist, much less come to be "legitimate"?

First, a bunch of europeans moved to America.  Everyone knows and nobody disputes that America was already populated and already had "a system".  That "system" however was legitimate because it was NOT a "nation" and NOT a "regime".

How so?

The system was perfect liberty, perfect freedom.

How so?

Note that neither "liberty" or "freedom" mean "the easy life".  They mean what they mean, namely, you get to run your own life, and nobody has authority over you.

Is that what existed before 1492?

YES.  PRECISELY SO.

How so?

Even the most rabid individualist and advocate of liberty and freedom acknowledges that individuals have a perfect right to establish whatever "house rules" they wish for any other individual who enters their "house", their "property".  The owner can let as many other individuals as they wish enter their property, or even live-on and work-on their property... but all must follow the "house rules".

Since in practice the individual owns includes more than the physical house, for example also barn, equipment sheds, domestic animals, equipment, crops, horses, carts, tools, canals and other goods and goodies the owner created, the term "settlement rules" may be more appropriate, even if a bit bulkier.  This term also implies that more humans live in this area than "just the individual who owns the property".

A synonym for "settlement" is "tribe" (as in "indian tribe").  They too had their "house rules" AKA "settlement rules" AKA "tribe rules".

The critical feature was this.  The tribe/house/settlement (whether indian or gringo or otherwise) only included the property created-by the individual who owned it or traded for it.  The entire basis in reality for "ownership" was "creation".  If you create something (a house, a barn, a canal, a field of crops, whatever), you owned it.

Now to the crucial point.

Everywhere in America that was NOT inside an existing settlement was "no mans land" (my term, but has the appropriate meaning and appropriate implication).  In "no mans land" there were no rules other than "do no harm to others or their property, otherwise you're likely to be shot and killed, and deserve to be".

This system IS liberty.  This system IS freedom.

This system does included "rules", but those rules only apply to "owned property" and the only rules are those created by the owner of the property.  If you don't harm or touch any property, you can't be in violation of rules.

If you don't like the "tribe/house/settlement rules" where you happen to be, you simply stand up, walk away, and go find a tribe/house/settlement with more rules more suitable to your personality.  OR... you wander around in "no mans land".  OR... you build your own little tribe/house/settlement and set whatever "tribe/house/settlement rules" you wish.

The absolutely key, necessary, fundamental characteristic of this system was the existence of "no mans land"... a place you could go and BE FREE.  That doesn't mean you would necessarily never be attacked by a wolf, a bear, a lion, a tiger, a snake or other creatures.  That didn't even mean you were guaranteed never to be hassled, attacked, harmed or killed by a human predator either.  It just meant you were free.

The absolutely key, necessary, fundamental characteristic of the european "system" that caused conflict with the natives, and caused worldwide tyranny today, was the claim that "everyone for hundreds and thousands of miles, and for all eternity, must follow one set of tribe/house/settlement rules".  In other words, there was NO PLACE ANYONE COULD BE FREE... according to the assertions from those who claimed to "create" this "nation" and "government".

You had to obey no matter where you went and no matter what you did.  And you had to pay whatever the human predators in control of that fiction demanded.

THAT IS TOTAL SLAVERY.

-----

By implication, this author claims the following:

If a pack of human predators sits around a table, smears ink on paper or parchment, then claims they "created a nation" and "they are the rulers/government"... that...

Somehow this is valid?

Somehow this is a "legitimate regime"?

Any such claim is utterly and obviously insane.  Any number of packs of human predators can sit around any number of tables and smear any number of colors of ink on any number of pieces of paper or parchment and pretend to create any number of "nations" and "governments".

The first observation is... NOTHING HAPPENED.  No "nation" was created.  No "government" was created.  All that existed before (human predators, table, ink, paper, parchment) is exactly what existed after (human predators, table, ink, paper, parchment).

NOTHING POPPED INTO EXISTENCE.

The human predators merely invented a stupid game, a game that children call "Simon Says", but adults call "Regime Says" or "Government Says".  Both are complete nonsense... just goofy games that human predators turn into disaster by taking the game seriously, then convincing huge numbers of human morons to take seriously.

-----

And so, I call on the author to edit his article, and remove all absurd terms and notions like "legitimate regime".  No "nations" or "governments" or "laws" or "authority" exist in this universe.  They are all fictions.  And all attempts to pretend such things exist (much less matter) is silly, stupid and insane.  Worse still, such babble is only helpful to the human predators who harm every honest, ethical, productive, benevolent human on the planet.

Get real, author.  Otherwise you just aid and support the predators-that-be, and harm those you pretend to help.  You aid and support the predators-that-be by convincing their prey to believe the predators-that-be CAN be legitimate, which is IMPOSSIBLE.

Thu, 06/25/2015 - 00:38 | 6232291 Harlequin001
Harlequin001's picture

What a load of bollocks.

'If a pack of human predators sits around a table, smears ink on paper or parchment, then claims they "created a nation" and "they are the rulers/government".' Nations are not created this way, they are created by force of arms, overrun in conflict and re-established by those strong enough to establish a rule of law which is paid for by someone, usually through taxation and more recently through fiat debt. WTF are you on about 'sits round a table"?

As for the US, the British established a trading colony in the Americas and basically said 'This far and no further West..." The colonials didn't like that because they saw land fit for the taking and a foreign government preventing them. Problem was it was not 'no mans land' as you say but Indian land, and not fit for the taking either.

As you say, the rules exist, but in the US, as in any other nation state, once the revolution was done, the new government did what any other government has done which is to establish its rules in its new nation state by coercion and force of arms. It slaughtered the Indians through force of arms. It's unfortunate the Lincoln hijacked your government for the corporations but that doesn't make government illegitimate, it just makes your government corrupted.

Humans don't  "'magically' gain authority over others" as you say, they do it coercively. That's what government is, it's bigger than any of us so that it can impose rules. Whether those rules are free and fair is a matter for debate, but you cannot have individuals living above the law anymore than you can suffer governments to do so either, but what you say, that no government has a right to exist or function is absolute bollocks.

Thu, 06/25/2015 - 19:18 | 6235365 honestann
honestann's picture

By your AMAZING logic, if I come over to your home, kill you and your family, I have now become the "legitimate regime" of your home and property.

You have a very strange definition of LEGITIMATE buster!

Also, you have NO FREAKING IDEA what "exists" means, which means you are insane in the the most fundamental possible way.

Just because you and your fellow predators can make noises with your mouth does NOT mean "a nation popped into existence".

Just because you and your fellow predators can shoot people with a gun does NOT mean "a nation popped into existence".

Sure, human predators SAY nonsense like that all the time.  And they are nothing more than bullies and vicious animals.  NOTHING was created.  SOMETHING was destroyed (their victims and the property of those victims).  But sorry, buster, acts of DESTRUCTION are not acts of CREATION.  Don't be infantile!

It is not the "government is illegitimate", it is that "government doesn't exist"... which makes all "claims that government exist false" (and thus illegitimate).

YOU EQUATE DOMINATION WITH AUTHORITY.

You are seriously sicko!

Of course humans can dominate other humans.  Duh.  But "domination" and "abuse" are NOT SYNONYMS FOR "authority".  Only a complete moron would imagine they are.

Look, if I invade your ranch, kill off your family, chain you to a wall and beat you to within an inch of your life... I have dominated you, I have abused you, I have harmed you.  But if I then say, "I am emperor of the universe" and "all creatures in the universe are now my subjects" and "I have authority over all"... THAT IS FALSE.

Harm and domination are real.

Authority is pure, unadulterated fiction, it CANNOT exist.

Ditto for "law", "state", "nation", "official", "government", etc.

Yes, humans can invent UNLIMITED FICTIONS.  You can invent "ogres", "trolls", "ToothFairies", "SantaClauses" and endless other FICTIONS.

Inventing a fiction does not create anything REAL.

Just because someone can harm you when you disobey their commands... does not mean that somehow, magically, some "government" popped into existence.  ALL that happened is... some creature threatened you and harmed you.  PERIOD.  What that creature utters is IRRELEVANT.

-----

You say utterly insane things like "we cannot have individuals living above the law any more than we can suffer governments to do so either".

What "law"?  Where do YOU get off telling me I must obey what YOU decide I must obey (even if that fictional law was coined by some other equally demented creep)?  Where does ANYONE get off trying to force others to comply.  The appropriate response to this is... to exterminate the creature who threatened you or harmed you.  NOT to elevate that creature into some form of fictional deity who MUST BE OBEYED.

You are UTTERLY brainwashed.  The human predators have so completely brainwashed you that you advocate your own enslavement!  That is sick.  And very sad.

And for the record...

I refuse to be governed... by anyone.  Ever.

PS:  Before you get on your high horse and reply, I suggest you look at the thousands of utterly insane and unjustified ideas that have been taken as "obvious" and "indisputable" in the history of mankind.  ENDLESS is the supply of that.  Hell, there have been thousands of the "one god/deity who created the universe"... if you actually believe what humans say and was accepted as clear, obvious and indisputable by virtually everyone who lived in huge areas of planet earth.

You need to GET FREAKING REAL... stand back a ways, refuse to "simply accept what most others do in your society or era", and LOOK AT REALITY.  And only reality.  Because only reality exists.  Your endless fictions do not, and neither have the thousands of not antiquated fictions that nobody believes today, but were considered CENTRAL FACTS by millions elsewhere and before in history.

And then come to the obvious conclusions... you and virtually everyone else on planet earth today is just as deluded and insane as those morons were in other strange places and times throughout human history.  Because that's a fact.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 19:03 | 6231341 Meremortal
Meremortal's picture

Whiners suck even when they are right. And I missed the writer's solution to all this, what was it? Keep your money in the mattress? That's all you've got?

"Of course this still leaves those people subject to the full ravages of our double-digit inflation."

Inflation rates are higher than reported but nowhere near double-digit, that's horseshit. I've lived with double-digit inflation and this isn't it. The writer also ignores real interest rates as opposed to numerical rates as that would require actual analysis.

The writer also misses the main driver of this entire catastrophe, which is the demographic impact of 80 million baby boomers coupled with vote-buying through redistribution of capital by politicians.

This lazy griping is a waste of time. It's old fucking news. "They're crooks and they're raping us!" No shit? I had no idea!

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE NOW? is the question.

But hey, wah-wahh laced with namecalling passes for deep thought these days. Solutions are hard.


Wed, 06/24/2015 - 22:14 | 6231279 ThrowAwayYourTV
ThrowAwayYourTV's picture

I keep just enough money in the bank to pay my monthly bills, electronically on payday evening.

A couple years ago I got to thinking, it's me who crawls out of bed every morning at 5:30 and puts up with everyone's shit 40-50 hours a week. So why take my hard earned paycheck to the bank and put it in there so they can immediately lend it out to some poor slob at 18% interest, then go play golf all day with the profits that they did absolutely nothing for.

I was born at night but I wasn't born last night.

 

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 16:01 | 6230739 PGR88
PGR88's picture

Progressive/Left government is only possible with a system of fiat money and central banking.

The American welfare-warfare state would wither without the advantages of monetized debt, hidden inflation and manipulated interest rates.   Of course it effects the economy, but it has unseen knock-on effects on society, the family, and individual morality.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 15:53 | 6230701 q99x2
q99x2's picture

That's right its "our nations" the banksters nations not your nations.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 12:37 | 6229939 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

It would be great if the common folk just started using some currency OTHER than their official one for daily transactions...precious metals, foreign currencies, chickens and zucchini, whatever.

Then when everyone is safely trading for most of their needs/wants outside the official currencies, TPTB will be playing with each other using their own worthless Monopoly money. Because then no one would CARE what their stupid fiat did, it wouldn't be relevant for most.

Buy local, buy used, buy vintage and pay cash or an agreed-upon equivalent. Forget about the "official prices" of things...decide what YOU will give up in exchange for that thing. Stop thinking in "dollars", and seeing gains or losses where they don't actually exist. Let the Ponzi-players worry about such trivial nonsense as what their fake money is worth.

Just ask yourself what it is that you want or need, and what you are willing to hand over to get it. Don't let yourself be limited to dollar amounts...those can fluctuate wildly during crisis times. They aren't reliable.

An example...One day your house is "worth" 100,00 dollars. One year later it is "worth" 200,00 dollars. Well, has your house doubled in size, or done anything to justify that increase?

Of course not. The fact is that your HOUSE is worth pretty much what it was worth a year ago. It's just that your MONEY has become worth less, thus you need MORE of it.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 13:37 | 6230114 Johnathonathon
Johnathonathon's picture

Yes, spot on. I love how conveniently the idea of state owned sovereign central banks are overlooked. As if that wasn't why Lybia was blown to the stone age. We can talk about central banks bond rates all we want but the only rate a nation should be selling its bonds at is close to zero, and it should be to the state owned central bank. Setting lending rates is another sstory. We can go round and round with this HORSESH*YTE debate over rates. Just like in winnie the pooh, we can go round and round the mulberry bush. After a while we can comment on how the footprints indicate that the whole world has joined us. 

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 11:14 | 6229613 who cares
who cares's picture

They (the Fed) will run out of phisical PM metals soon and when people will wake up, like they did in the late 70's, there will be no phisical left to buy. Those who will own it will not sell until interest rates will be sky high. No more no less and it will happen much sooner than everybody thinks. 

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 12:59 | 6230005 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

It may seem like physical is in shorter supply, and through traditional channels this may be true. But there is still a LOT of gold floating around out there. There is significant gold recovery from old electronics, gold-filled and plated items...even the 24k gold used to 'paint' old china is recoverable.

Of course, it is a lot of work to get it, and it only makes sense in larger amounts. But when gold prices go up, the numbers start to become more do-able.

Even now, with gold down so much from the highs, there is a thriving little sub-industry of private entrepreneurs doing stuff like this on a smaller scale in their backyards. Much to the chagrin of the environment and local ordinances, mind you. But they ARE doing it. There are folks with 50 gallon drums of old cell phone innards and computer chips, video 'fingers' etc. Every now and then they smash, incinerate or acid-bath the crap, and they are recovering significant amounts of gold.

Of course, some are also stinking up the air, dumping their used chemicals improperly, or blinding or disfiguring themselves for life, but hey, there's always gonna be a few, you know? There really isn't much you can do about a guy who thinks it would be a good idea to heat up acid in the microwave, or who thinks his standard eyewear is a suitable substitute for protective goggles.

There's a gold refiners site that has some funny shit on their forums...and comments from regulars along the lines of, "He's doing this shit in his KITCHEN! God!", and "You did WHAT? What are you, stupid?"

But there's plenty of gold still out there...

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 11:50 | 6229759 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

What rate of paper gold to real gold can they handle?

100 to 10?

100 to 1?

1000 to 1?

10000 to 1?

When you print infinite fake money and have paper PM funds like GLD where you only own a % or what you sell and loan out PMs you do not own, you have some powerful levers to play the game....

 

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 11:11 | 6229594 rsnoble
rsnoble's picture

Yep and if you owe them money and don't pay you go to jail.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 11:41 | 6229739 TrumpXVI
TrumpXVI's picture

and (eventually) if you don't owe them money you go to jail...for NOT owing them money.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 11:10 | 6229588 Spungo
Spungo's picture

Going completely cashless would destroy the economy. School bake sale? Nope. Start a lemonade stand? Nope. Mow lawns for $5? Nope. Rake your leaves? Nope. Shovel snow? Nope. Sell stuff on craigslist? Nope. 

Policy makers are completely retarded if they think elminating cash is a good idea. They might as well pass a law making it illegal to have a job.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 14:33 | 6230327 davidalan1
davidalan1's picture

ATMs NOPE....and their owners and the profits Banks make on each transaction? NOPE....fucked up world

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 11:19 | 6229640 TrumpXVI
TrumpXVI's picture

One would think.

So, can someone from Louisiana please explain how the recent laws limiting cash sales have been working (or not working) there?

I would expect significant non-compliance.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 10:36 | 6229446 JR
JR's picture

America, as anyone can see, is banker-owned.  

The Fed’s plan is to dump the US Constitution into the NWO garbage pail as it works toward a banker-owned world government. First, it had to buy the media; then it bought the US Congress.

The future for America’s children is dim. When the producing Little Red Hen becomes the victim, instead of the hero, in America and the bread she baked and saved, “all by herself,” is seized by a criminalized oligarchy of banker puppeteers, we the people have become the slaves of the bankers.

“It is possible that your grandchildren will own neither home nor car, but will live in ‘government-owned’ apartments and ride to work in ‘government-owned’ buses, and be allowed to keep just enough of their earnings to buy a minimum of food and clothing while their rulers wallow in luxury."

So writes Sheldon Emry in “Billions for the Bankers; Debts for the People.”

In Asia and Eastern Europe it is called “communism”; in America it is called “democracy” and “capitalism.”

Concludes Emry:

“When the credit/debt bubble is pricked by the bankers they will foreclose on America. Then, they will own it all. There may be a ‘managed chaos’ – riots and terrorism—to alarm the people with the fear of anarchy as the bankers prepare to impose a dictatorship on America as the ‘solution’ for the problems they, themselves, have created.”

Jeff, thanks for this enlightening and long overdue article. As Emry states: “Only an educated people will be able to resist the lies of the bankers’ stooges.”

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 10:03 | 6229332 juggalo1
juggalo1's picture

This article is a helpless flim-flam piece which bears no resemblance to how the economy actually works.  To whit: because the US issues the currency its debt is denominated in, the US can pay or not pay as much interest as it wants, because it can decide whether to pay debt by "borrowing" or by seignurage.  The market's response to this balance is expressed in the inflation rate.  Despite over 8 years of endless harping about the collapsing dollar and hyperinflationary death spiral, Chicken Little still is wrong.  Why do you think that is?  You say no one lends to the US government, and yet foreign lenders and institutions do it all the time.  You say governments are stealing deposits with negative interest rates, and yet billions in currency is still on deposit with central banks, supposedly willingly being stolen.  If your theory is not borne out by the facts, at some point you must change the theory.  If a prophet's words do not come true they are a false prophet.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 12:10 | 6229838 Kickaha
Kickaha's picture

I was eager to read the remainder of your post after you started out with the hint that you were going to inform me how the "economy actually works", but the rest of your post had nothing to do with the economy, or how it worked.  Instead it described how the government might hope to keep rolling over its financial obligations, or paying them off via hyperinflation following a couple of hundred trillion dollars of seigniorage.  

I don't think I would ever expect Sprott to advise me to sell gold and silver and hoard dollars, so his opinions on how soon TEOTWAWKI will arrive must always be taken with a grain or two of salt. The USA is like that guy who jumps out of a 100-story skyscraper.  On the way down he smiles and shouts "things are just fine, so far."  It looks like you also agree that things are just fine, so far, so Sprott must therefore be the one who is the idiot.

 

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 11:20 | 6229642 JR
JR's picture

@You say no one lends to the US government, and yet foreign lenders and institutions do it all the time.

The  Fed is issuing the bonds and turning right around and buying them back with printed money. It also is “self-dealing using nations [the BLICS] to buy USTBonds with free money [it prints] in another desperate attempt to save the system.”

The Western elites are raping  the financial system and destroying the dollar as the monetary unit for the world’s reserve currency.  China and Russia have exposed this multitrillion dollar fraud and taken advantage. Already, the RMB is pushing out Treasury bonds in the global-banking system.

This giant paradigm shift as Treasury bonds go away is in reaction to Fed printing of $1 trillion per quarter (which includes its hidden QE bond purchasing because there are no legitimate buyers for Treasury bonds any longer).

In short, the Fed has injected Zimbabwe-type currency injection into the world’s monetary system; it’s called currency destruction on a grand scale.

@You say governments are stealing deposits with negative interest rates, and yet billions in currency is still on deposit with central banks, supposedly willingly being stolen.

Since you obviously are using the banker propaganda, perhaps you could suggest where my mother can put these Federal Reserve Notes that she is forced to receive and use as currency. The stock market, where your pals are waiting?

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 10:51 | 6229505 miker
miker's picture

I disagree with your assessment. The author of the article is pretty much correct in all of his conclusions; however, your belief is also based correctly on the fact that governments can and will do everything in their power to prolong their life. And the US being a very powerful country will be able to prolong things for quite some time. How long? I have no frigging idea. I don't think it will collapse in 2015 but as time goes on, the stresses increases and one day, something will give.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 15:59 | 6230720 juggalo1
juggalo1's picture

You say that the US can prolong the current situation for a long time, but you provide no reason why the current situation is not sustainable indefinitely.  Inflation is a monetary phenomenon, but hyperinflation is an economic phenomenon.  If the US were to run say 8% annual inflation for 6 years, our debt would be insignificant.  Why would that mean the EOTWAWKI?

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 16:56 | 6230965 Atticus Finch
Atticus Finch's picture

I see that you have your thinking cap on. Maybe time to get a new hat.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 16:22 | 6230825 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

Trade matters.  Should America's global trade partners no longer accept dollars, then shit will get real in a hurry...

It's a fiat world after, "full FAITH and credit"...

don't forget, there is not, nor will there ever be an economic, monetary, fiscal, or political solution to resource scarcity.

tick tock motherfucker.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 13:02 | 6230011 chisler
chisler's picture

Hence: "On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everybody drops to zero." Given that fact, the only question remaining is, "How much time is left." Given ignorance and the Darwinian principal of survival the remaining life on the timeline is a mystery but all the signs point to the conclusion.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 09:05 | 6229126 christiangustafson
christiangustafson's picture

Short Sprott funds.

Short PMs.

SII.TO down 75% from its 2011 high.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 15:28 | 6230568 delacroix
delacroix's picture

In the back of my mind, I have this suspicion that they will steal the sprott metal if they need to.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 11:06 | 6229078 Spungo
Spungo's picture

Negative interest rates would be great for me because my mortgage is on floating rate. It sure sucks for pensioners though.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 08:12 | 6228987 Captain Debtcrash
Captain Debtcrash's picture

If they manage to ban cash and go to significantly  negative interest rates it will extend the bubbles we have now into super bubbles. It won't prevent a crash, only cause it to happen from a higher point. Explained here. 

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 09:02 | 6229119 casey13
casey13's picture

And the lower they push the metals the more they destroy the mining industry and the higher the price will ultimatly be.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 11:06 | 6229554 BuddyEffed
BuddyEffed's picture

My observation on the banning of cash is that it will be extremely difficult to do so at the lower levels of transactions.  Higher levels are already cashless.  You deposit the check, you charge the card.  That's all cashless.   Banning cash would likely lead to more single points of failure at the lower levels.  And too much of that could easily lead to cascading points of failure, as one grain of sand can often trigger an avalanche of thousands more on the unstable slopes.

Many of the business models that were viable under a growing economy become at risk under a steady state or even worse off under a contracting ecomomy.   Attempts at going cashless could be too much for many small businesses to handle. 

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 12:48 | 6229705 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

Banning cash WILL be tried but the free shit army will start screaming and crying and the one thing a politician won't risk is the perks and privilege of his/her position. This is one giant balancing act, but sooner or later somebody will make a wrong move and the collapse will start. All that is being done now is put off the inevitable so it will be impossible to even slow it down.....

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 11:10 | 6229590 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

I don't expect a ban either, but I could easily see some type of 'transaction fee' or 'sales tax' added to cash transactions. Even if it is not really added, you might see the backdoor version where you pay full price with cash, but get a 3% discount paying by EBT cards. Of course, all that means is that the price has already been raised to cover that discount.

The mechanism is already in place for this - you see it on many gas pumps. It would be a simple thing to offer a 2% discount if you use the Walmart Customer Loyalty card instead of cash. Target is already there with a 5% discount if you use the Target Card.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 12:09 | 6229835 JR
JR's picture

The last thing that the central bank needs is panic. When that happens the first thing the people think about is “Who did it? Who created this crisis?”

And these days, with all the information provided on the Internet, the answer will be clear: “The Fed did it.”

Suddenly, the people realize that their representative government turned over America, every single piece of it, to a private bank. And after the initial shock, the people will take their futures into their own hands instead of trusting them to their government.

If, however,  as in G. Edward Griffin’s pessimistic scenario of the future, the creature from Jekyll Island – the Fed – is allowed to continue its present course, a cashless society is one of the forces that will be used to drive society into global totalitarianism. Wrote Griffin in 1994 should his pessimistic scenario become reality:

“Electronic transfers gradually replace cash and checking accounts. This permits UN agencies to monitor the financial activities of every person. A machine-readable ID card is used for that purpose. If an individual is red flagged by any government agency, the card does not clear, and he is cut off from all economic transactions and travel.

“It is the ultimate control.”

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 16:18 | 6230809 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

blah, blah, blah...  "laws" that cannot be enforced are less than useless.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!