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Financial Anarchy
Submitted by Douglas Terry via Alhambra Investment Partners,
The Federal Reserve left interest rates at 0 after their 2 day policy meeting this week. Less concerning, they lowered the forecast for future rates.
We have red and green street lights. Why? Because society finds it beneficial that people using our streets aren’t speeding through an intersection from both directions at the same time. We have laws against stealing. Why? Because we find it beneficial to our society that people in our country can’t arbitrarily take or use or hard earned possessions. Rules and laws in society exist for the betterment of the whole.
Why do certain bankers think that it is beneficial to have interest rates at 0%, at least for the primary players in the financial industry? The interest rate is a cost of money for the society’s economy. Why do we want the hurdle rate set at 0? Don’t we want minimal requirement higher than nothing for the use of our money?
We wouldn’t want the hurdle rate in the economy to be 0. Having no cost to money is the economic equivalent of no intelligent laws in society. The equivalent of using our money but having a baseline of zero for the benefit produced with that money. The results are what you would expect, the wild west, One might say, Financial Anarchy.
Do we live in a world where people many times worry more about the volatility in markets than their day to day job. Is this a world where retired citizens now fear their income is not enough to live out their life? Are we in a world where workers, saving for retirement, must worry about the magnitude of the next market crash? Are these not the result of a world without proper laws and enforcement of such laws.
Rules and laws exist so that the whole enjoys a better quality of life. They exist so that incentives align with morality and the social laws defined by human nature. We should want and expect better from the trustees of our currency. We can do better!
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Best Recovery Ever! (Enjoy it while you can)
We play monopoly for free - what can go wrong?
I would say we have the opposite of financial Anarchy - we have a Centrally Planned Command & Control economy which is failing miserably.
I was thinking the same thing crazytechnician. My first thought was that anarchy in a society where everybody was equal would be much better than what we have now.
The word doesn't mean what he thinks it means.
The funny thing is that he is describing a political force (ruler) forcing things to be a certain way.
Absolute bass ackwards.
Even bringing up anarchy in the context of a legal tender currency system is laughable.
I usually say they mean "chaos" when they use anarchy, but even that one is not applicable here.
Just man trying to extend the life of a system that is designed to fail.
Maybe financial idiocy to keep their ponzi going so they don't dangle at the end of a rope.
pods
Under anarchy, the powerful are free to impose their will without restriction upon us all. Of course they choose Currency as a tool to do so, as it is a direct method of securing their own wealth.
Nothing to do with a "political force" and everything to do with "criminal behavior".
Like Communism / Socialism you mean ?
Surely if the system was Anarchy there would be no legal tender laws and we would be free to create our own currencies and use whatever we choose to use as money..
Bitcoin represents teh very best of anarcho-capitalism. State-free money representing teh will of teh people like nothing else could!
+ Infinity....
"We have red and green street lights. Why? Because society finds it beneficial that people using our streets aren’t speeding through an intersection from both directions at the same time. We have laws against stealing. Why?"
If you were part of a consciousless criminal clan and you controlled the levers of a counterfeiting mechanism that could not be touched by any arm of the government, what would you do?
Start a war and get the government indebted to me.
pods
Precisely. In other words... follow the same game plan since the Bank Of England's inception in 1691. Works like a charm upon the ever-lowing human cattle in their fold.
"The Bears just scored!! Mooooo! Hon... get me another beer! Mooooo! * Burp *"
There will always be force as long as there are humans. Anarchy simply means "without rulers."
Legalized force (legal tender) is not anarchy, as you need rulers to be able to make the laws.
If we truly were living in financial anarchy, I would not be forced to use anything as an offer for trade. There would be no legal tender.
Legal tender is the opposite of anarchy. And what they are doing is not criminal, it is entirely legal. Sure it fucks anyone holding these debt notes, but it is legal.
pods
It is true that under anarchy, the most lethally powerful are free to impose their will, but the key difference between anarchy and, say, a dictatorship is that anarchy doesn't provide the pretense of having laws or order.
In other words, anarchy is more honest than the situation we find ourselves in today, where everyone pretends to be living in a nation-of-laws, but really, it's the most-organized people armed with the best weaponry (gov't) that take as they please (civil asset forfeiture, eminent domain, taxes and fees of all kinds, and so on).
Most people don't understand that anarchism just means no leader.
I don't need a 'leader' to tell me what's right and wrong -they never do that anyway, just trying to make a point.
Honest exchange, means that anything agreed upon can be used as currency - keeps the parasitic third party in between (government) from stealing from both sides while doing nothing of value.
Political force would go 'poof' in a puff of smoke if people saw that government is the problem, not the solution.
Anarchism does not mean chaos - if you mean chaos, say so. (last bit directed at the writer of the article)
Hey pods,
I think what he is talking about when he uses the word, "anarchy" is the extreme lawlessness of the actions of the elites in the global financial system. They function in a system of anarchy in that they are apparently untouchable by the justice system. Corruption runs deep and true.
Damn the taxpayers, full speed ahead,,,
;-D
I see where he is coming from but it pisses me off when someone conflates anarchy to lawlessness.
This makes people clamor for more rules/laws/power for rulers to address this "anarchy" when it was their system in the first place that nurtured this.
Which screws us little people even more because the same ones breaking the rules (moral ones) are the ones charged with cleaning it up.
It adds to the problem when someone intimates that we don't have enough rules, as it is the very rules that allow this to take place (aka anarchy).
Take away the legalized force, and you take away the collective ability to fleece.
You have to deal with individual force, but that is much easier. Corporate force is much worse. And corporations are a creating of the state, aka the rulers.
pods
I agree, and like I've said many times here on ZH, until justice is blind and everyone is treated equally under the law, whatever we choose it to be, then humanity is doomed to repeats it's excesses of greed and fear...
Strong AI has the potential to be that "perfect" policeman. Unfortunately, the paranoid psychopaths whose names we do not speak, will first and foremost weaponize it.
Sigh,,,
;-D
Quite right!
“The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.”
? Confucius
So, ... it's Anarchy gone wrong?
Anarchy, that is, in a society (a real society) where it is NOT true that everybody is equal! Anarchy only really occurs when some people abolish the rules of civilization for themseoves and that standard by force trickes down to the rest of us.
Rules must be forced upon the strong just as equally as upon the weak. In fact, the rules must always be applied to the strong first, in order to secure the rules, and thus society, from their power-drunk criminal behavior.
Your societal design works great until you realize that it is the strong and powerful that make the rules.
pods
Yes, the author of the main piece is sadly misinformed about the reasons behind most laws, or at those laws which impact the finances of the rich. Those laws are on the books to squelch competition and enhance the flow of money upwards in the wealth pyramid. That fact is why we have ZIRP, which is only a part of the overall legal scheme. When you are really, really rich, you reach a point where nobody and nothing can steal your wealth except your government. The remedy is to take control of the government. The governent runs on laws backed by force. Once you realize you are in control of your government, it is a teeny-tiny logical leap to start passing laws to preserve and enhance your wealth. This is not "financial anarchy". It is a highly efficient financial shaughterhouse.
Every member of the Fed (the Central Planning Committee) has taken Econ 101.
In the trade-off between Capital and Labor, employment will continue to stagnate or decline as free money (technology backed by free-cost of capital) kills jobs.
So why are they hell-bent on destroying the country?
The question is: Why are they hell bent on destroying humanity ? What is their agenda ? Are they aliens from another species ? Is this part of the evolutionary process of humankind ?
A & B) They are luciferians, hell-bent (ha) on destroying all that is good (good=God same word).
C) Yes
D) Evolution is the laughable theory they have foisted upon us to make us think we descended from apes, thereby further removing us from God. See the pattern?https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IHFqFP-Li_o
We play monopoly for free - what can go wrong?
Follow me here.
Let's say I have some pieces of metal, they're round and flat. let's call them cions. There are so few of them that if everyone in the world wanted one there wouldn't be enough cions to go around. Now my friend asks to borrow a few so he can use them for collateral to purchase a car. He promises that he will give them back as soon as the loan is paid off. I tell him that I want 10% in cions every year until they are returned. Why? Because they are rare and I don't want to take a chance of losing the value.
Now let's say that someone else can make something similar and calls them coins. He makes bunches of them so everyone of his friends can have as many as they want at a small cost. Soon his friends find out that their cions are not as valuable as coins and they are actually losing value. He tries to sell them but no takers. He tries to give them away but no takers. He offers to pay someone to carry them off and dump them somewhere, still no takers. Finally he tells people that he will pay them 1% a year in cions until they are returned for every cion that they take.
Something is happening here and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?
Well, the sword swallower, he comes up to you
And then he kneels
He crosses himself
And then he clicks his high heels
And without further notice
He asks you how it feels
And he says, "Here is your throat back
Thanks for the loan".
Bernanke set the bar low and then managed to get under it. The Yellen led Fed has managed to start the digging process and the bar is now just a shadow in the hole.
Anbody notice who's in charge of the rule of law lately?
idiot central bankers are like idiot generals....always fighting the last war...errr, depression
Ah, but it's money for nothin, and the chicks for free.
Financial Anarchy.
Been going on for so long.............................Since fiance started
It is not only financial anarchy. It is the will and the means for total global domination under a criminal enterprise, whether you like it or not.
Sounds like you are talking about a ruling class.
It might sound fancy to use the term anarchy to describe the situation, but it is akin to calling a fat guy "tiny."
Saying so doesn't make it so.
pods
Yes, it has been going on since "finance" started. The problem that exists with what we call "money" are those who control its reprsentative value and costs can't be much trusted. The question I raise is why should I be charged a cost for wanting to conduct a transaction? And, what is the true cost of using "money" controlled by a few.
Rule of Law.
Yeah, right.
Plan is to further decimate EM.
And to reduce DM to EM as well, by the same wealth-power vacuum cleaner we have allowed them to have.
While we are on the subject of the mis-use of words, decimate doesn't mean what you seem to think it does.
Decimate means to kill one in ten.
A Roman method to improve the performance of the military, should it be in doubt.
When your debts ar unpayable, money has to be free. ZIRP usually gives way to NIRP. Then they get rid of cash in favor of electronic money
Blah, blah, blah... the which cannot be sustained won't be, period.
Again what part of ALL fiat (paper/eleectronic promises) will die don't people understand?
Regardless, 7+ billion people still need to eat..
get long sharecropping and guillotines, beat the rush.
ask not what your debt-based fiat can do for you, ask what you can do for your debt based fiat....
I can't see electronic money ( currency) existing without some sort of cash.
It screws up the drug dealing and ILLEAGAL invader Paridigm, for just two examples. And both of those are ultra important to TPTB.
But I could see a dual system, like we now have with our laws. One system for the average native born CHUMP. He gets chipped, and has to use electronic money. His every penny is tracked and accounted for. His entire life is recorded by the system.
Then, another system. For illeagal special invader class. Hands off, laws don't apply. Here is your driver licences.. Go vote. Work under the table, send half back to your native country. Just show up, and your five kids are waltzed into school, no vacinanation, no birth certificate. No property tax to cover the expense.
Now, those at the top, in finance, or government. They always get a complete pass.
Rule of law? Indict Corzine or Hillary, and I'll believe it. Indict. And a fair trial. Never happen. Swept under the rug, and go fuck yourself. But don't take a Snickers from 7-11. That's 15 to life, if the cops don't shoot you on sight.
many people, myself included, where many different hats and in many ways have different identities.
The "game" has never really changed, adapt or die, period.
same as it ever was.
The Golden Rule: Those with the paper gold make the gold rules.
We should want and expect better from the trustees of our currency. We can do better!
In your dreams. We're stuck with the zombies and the psychopaths.
The game of Monopoly is never fun at the end of every game. It's just slow torture going around the board until you finally are hoping you just end up in jail or someone flips the FUCKING board over. We are all just going around the board now waiting for the board to be flipped.
Like a hearts game where one guy is always running the boat, saving the queen for the very last play.
It's even less fun when one of the players can reach into the bank any time he chooses.
We only have laws because people who would never really break them in the first place, obey them.
We have anarchy because the people who would never really obey any law written, are in charge of country.
Look at Hillary. She doesn't believe any law pertains to her. She parades around laughing at any criticism. You can prove her treason by any basic definition, yet shown the facts she would just laugh and have you executed for even daring mention she broke a law.
"Rules and Laws"?!?! Where the fuck has this asshat been?
The moral hazard was unleashed long ago. Now that fraud is the status quo, possession is the law.
How quickly forgotten the words of that notorious criminal: "Give me control of the money and I care not who makes the laws."
Markets do not exist in their own right; they are supposed to represent the value of the underlying companies and the state of the economy.
Companies provide real products and services into that economy.
Companies take raw materials and make them into products.
Cheap oil = collapsing global economy
Low commidity prices = lack of demand for raw materials from which real things are made
QE and low interest rates may have kept markets up, but the real economy is collapsing.
Maintaining the penthouse suite while the foundations are crumbling.
Central Banks policies just aren’t working.
Markets do not exist in their own right; they are supposed to represent the value of the underlying companies and the state of the economy.
This is false. A market is just the playing field for simple barter exchange. Money allows simple barter exchange over time and space.
A market has "nothing" to do with underlying companies and states of economy. It only has to do with trade.
Exactly.
E-Bay is an example of a perfect market. I might give you a dollar for your S&M Barbie for the novelty but a serious Barbie collector might give you $500.00 for it.
It's production cost has nothing to do with it's perceived 'value' especially since the Barbie collector knows his market and can resell the Barbie for $900.00 to his fellow collector S&M Sal.
A marketplace is merely a coincidence of wants where each actor places a higher value on goods received whether goods or a Medium of Exchange (money, currency etc.) is used to complete the transaction.
Caveat emptor is the rule of the marketplace.
It's production cost has nothing to do with it's perceived 'value'
But when we're talking about a commodity backing or standardizing a medium of exchange, it is important.
Proponents of gold for such a purpose claim the "fungible" property of the stuff allows them to solve the "there is only 1oz per person" problem by saying "we'll divide and make the divisions worth more".
They fail to recognize that has dramatic effects on the "producers" and "holders" of gold at the same time. Thus, the cost of gold production does definitely affect its perceived value. Especially when gold has no artistic attribute and is of controlled purity.
In short, it fails as an MOE because there isn't enough of it ... and fungibility doesn't fix that.
Further, it is impossible to maintain balance between supply and demand for it ... a necessary attribute of a properly managed MOE process.
You won't see the Mises Monks touch this with a 10 foot pole.
cramer = butthurt
extremely pathetic
CNBC in full-blown damage control after a fed prez put the dunce-cap on CNBC's "golden boy"
Usury is necessary for an economy to work. Theft is constantly occurring on a daily basis due to inflation. That means every year that goes by, that ditch you broke your ass to dig by hand for $1000. mutates into a job done for free given enough time. Each day inflation takes its bite, if you held onto that cash you were paid for that job, you dug that ditch for less money. It really sucks when you think of it. Because as that shitty useless paper they handed you to do that work becomes worth less every day, you got screwed for saving that money for the work you did. Basically, the labor was stolen from you. No gun in the ribs or a thief during the night, but stolen nonetheless.
There is an obvious Medium of Exchange (MOE) management process that "guarantees" zero inflation "and" freely created money ... all the time and everywhere.
It cannot be viewed without the proper perception of what money is, always was, and always will be:
Money is "a promise to complete a trade".
Money is "a promise to complete a trade".
Means the same thing as medium of exchange.
Means the same thing as medium of exchange.
but as I have illustrated over and over, all are not equally efficient or robust as exchange media ... the commodity based processes are deficient in many obvious ways.
The differences lie partly in the process and partly in the degrees of freedom.
Is this the point in the debate where one party, unable to make his case or break his opponent's case says "we've been arguing the same thing all along"?
The other common out is "we must agree to disagree".
Debate with Mises Monks is like squeezing on a wet bar of soap. If you don't squeeze skillfully they just squirt out.
For the negative posters, I'd like to clarify my use of the term "usury". If you looked up the modern definition, you might be mislead by what I intended in my post. I was referring to the ancient biblical definition, because the intent was to show the length of time of which such a concept has been understood. I have included the ancient meaning below:
Usury,
The word usury has come in modern English to mean excessive interest upon money loaned, either formally illegal or at least oppressive. In the Scriptures, however the word did not bear this sense, but meant simply interest of any kind upon money.
... If you disagree with my statement regarding inflation and the effect on past earned currency, I'd certainly like to see your post as to why.
Well worth reading the blurb, a thought-provoking paragraph, but not worth the click. Is this a statement of economic theory or does Douglas really know something?
I took a few minutes of my precious morning reading time to learn more about how ZIRP not just distorts decision making - we've seen a lot about that - but sows chaos. Which it evidenty does, but I was hoping for some more digging down into the micro-level.
Perhaps the ZH comment writiers can do better.
Nah, most have moved on to the acceptance part of grieving and are just waiting until things blowup.
Get outta debt and wait. The new Project Mayhem.
pods
Another glittering jewel of collosal ignorance bather in mispeak/newspeak and the perversion of the language and of ideology.
Anarchy. It is the exact OPPOSITE of anarchy that has created the environment of which the writer of this peice laments. Anarchy means without state. It is THE STATE (and in some cases the preciously bandied term "rule of law") that has not only failed to prevent the FRAUD (it cannot) and CRMINAL behavior (it breeds criminal behavior) but has actually FOSTERED it through market interventions, regulation and-now pay attention because this is where the rubber hits the road- THE STATES MONOPOLY ON VIOLENCE and its liberal use of the threat of force and coercion that ENABLES the ongoing lawlessness that the article describes.
Pass all the fucking pointless rules and regualtions you want. Pass all the "laws" you desire. Won't make damn bit of good if said interests are not exposed to the LAWS OF THE MARKET, risk, failure, insolvency, etc.
Misusing the term anarchy just furthers the willful ignorance that is so pervasive in the majority of debate about the subject of economics and finance.
56 months in a row of artificial interest rates.
Wait, sorry 102 YEARS of that shit.
artless
The Laws of the Market can be suspended in the short run, but not the long run.
The Laws of the Market can be suspended in the short run, but not the long run.
Economic collapses are consequences of the Laws of the Market. If they can be suspended, they are not laws.
The Fed is basically keeping the light at Green because there are a zillion "cars" on one road and none on the other - no reason to change the light....just to prove it works?
Once this Keysian debacle finally blows then the politicians will be forced to actually have a viable fiscal plan - Europe and the US are bankrupt
Once this Keysian debacle finally blows then the politicians will be forced to actually have a viable fiscal plan
Please describe a "viable fiscal plan". Shouldn't take more than 200 words.
we citizens have already condoned the notion of being overtaxed so the govt can redistribute funds as they see fit - that prob can't be changed - so the only thing that is viable is a balance budget with no off balance sheet gimmicks...they can do whatever they want within that parameter and i could care less....and balanced means including the interest payments on past excess...
i know it never happens but a balanced budget would fix a lot...
i know it never happens but a balanced budget would fix a lot...
A budget is only a plan. Just like almost all businesses, governments make their budget and then they ignore it.
In those cases where they claim to have to live within their budget you correctly note they game their way out of the obligation.
There are three ways to stop out of control fire: Remove its heat; remove its oxygen; and/or remove its fuel.
We need to do all three with governments. It's easy to do with almost everything else in the world. Why is it so hard to do with governments?
Once this Keysian debacle finally blows then the politicians will be forced to actually have a viable fiscal plan
Viable? You might as well be waiting for Jesus to return.
The plan is the same as always. Steal as you go. When it stops nobody knows.
Keynsian morons led by spineless, brainless political hacks, while the true evil behind the curtain remains unrevealed. War is the political answer, always has been. Find an enemy, blame them for all the wrong that's been done, fixate on them, and kill them. When the killing is done, create a new currency and do it all again.
Its not financial anarchy otherwise ZH would be celebrating!
ITS FINANCIAL oligarchical monopoly. Your money is now our money!
Its the end of Capitalism and market models : a belief in Adam Smith's vision of the future cost of capital's risk integrated into current investment or current consumption depending on TRADE-OFFS.
With ZIRP/NIRP and endless printing THERE ARE NO TRADE OFFS.
End of argument about capitalistic investment. BAck to Middle ages, vertical society based on INEQUALITY; aka allegiance to kings to be in the aristocracy circle and the end of private entrepreneurship; UNLESS you go into a parallel economy which is outside the grasps of status quo Oligarchs.
You have to become a heretic and not bend knee to King and monetary shaman !
On a recurrent note : "When things get tough we all have to lie" now comes to Volkswagen land. They lied about diesel gas fume emissions...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-21/volkswagen-drops-15-af...
This article directly harpoons the malignant source of many of our problems; look what happened when Dick Cheney and his delusional Neocons were allowed to run amok with absolutely no regard to law or human decency - they walk away from deliberate murder, wanton destruction and atrocious war crimes with the ease of moving from a restaurant table after knocking over a glass of water. This is JUST NOT right and as long as it is permitted, we are doomed to horrific consequences...
And prey tell, how is the current admin any different?
Obama has signed more extra-judicial drone executions than GWB by a long shot.
As long as the red/blue pardigm is embraced, we will have a cauldron of decit the likes of which we can only imagine.
The banksters continue to fund the status quo to their benefit. This has been the case for a long, long time.
This article only furthers the illusion of a free market and fuels the idea of "anarchy" as being good.
The utopian idea of anarchy being the answer to freedom is pure poppycock when held up to the fallen nature of man's free will.
Get over it, anarchy won't work without a governing body of individuals willing to exert pressure on those trying to exert pressure on them.
Hence the need for the Rule of Law...
DaddyO
and Hell followed.
Ahaha ahahaha ahahaha
Turn on. Tune in. Drop out.
I get the biggest kick on Saturdays, listening to the financial advisor programs on the radio. Encouraging people to call and ask how to " invest" their retirements. What kind of mortgage. " Let us help yo to protect your future".
I am always tempted to call, and ask a few key foundation questions.
What do you think of ZIRP?
Is Social Security a Ponzi sceme?
Can we EVER pay down the debt?
How long do currency regimes historcally last?
Do you believe 5% unemployment?
Why Is John Corzine walking the streets?
Greece is fixed? It's out of the news.
I'm a Mexican. Should I pay taxes?
You know, fun stuff.
Rules and laws exist so that the whole enjoys a better quality of life. They exist so that incentives align with morality and the social laws defined by human nature. We should want and expect better from the trustees of our currency. We can do better!
Answer:
Russia and China will do what the American and Western European people(s) refuse to do through there leader(s) by enforcing the "rules and laws" that they already have on the books but refuse to follow!
As far as the "whole" enjoying a better way of life?... Don't see that happening if Russia and China have to do all the work enforcing it!
Haiku time:
Invisible sneaks,
financial langoliers eat.
Destroying your wealth.
Having no cost to money is the economic equivalent of no intelligent laws in society.
Wrong.
And making such a statement is an admission you are clueless about the what money is.
Money is obviously "a promise to complete a trade". It has always been this. It will always be this.
Knowing that, change "money" in your assertion to "a promise to complete a trade". It proves your assertion to be unintelligent.
While it costs nothing to make a promise, failure to deliver on it can have severe costs. In the olden days, the cost was your life. A little later it was debtors prison. Today it is interest load (unless you are elite or Israel ... then it is forgiveness).
https://realcurrencies.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/the-difference-between-d...
A noteworthy difference between interest-free credit and debt-free money is that interest-free credit can be spent as often as it is repaid, while debt-free money can only be spent once. This means interest-free credit is more flexible.
Isn’t debt a problem?
Debt as a problem is overrated. It’s not so much the debt, but the interest that is killing us. A mortgage is good example: we go into debt to buy the house, say $100k and after 30 years we have paid $250k, $150k interest. For the repaid debt we obtained a house, for the usury we got nothing.
Crucial to understand is that it is not the bank’s credit. It’s just bookkeeping and the banks keep the books for the community, who really owns the credit. It is in reality our brethren who are allowing us to buy now and pay later. Credit is automatic, when it is mutual.
You can get people to risk capital with no premium?
Where are they? I want to borrow some money.
Hmmm, risk my money to make you happy with no return or keep it in my pocket with no risk at all...
Tough choice.
1/10 th of the real story.
The "anarchy" angle is interesting.
There is but one presidential candidate who has identified our country as an oligarchy and has flat out said that "Wall Street's business model is based on fraud".
And who is that? The neo-greenbacker? How is that any better?
Ooo, ooo, I know.
FREE STUFF!!!!!
Hey armchair keyboard warrior Freewheelin Franklin. If you were to actually attend a town hall meeting or any type of speech scenario and have the balls to take the microphone and ask a question of the candidate of your choice in front of hundreds of people as I have - I might then see great value in your opinion about presidential candidates. Have you? Would you? Do you even have a preference?
Invisible hand,
Enforcer of natural law.
Where hast thou gone to?
"Trustees of our currency"
First, what's this 'we' shit?
Second, I don't trust anyone to be in charge of the currency.
The only "control" we need are standards for weights, measures, and degrees of fineness. Something any metrology lab and assayer can provide. The founders had it right until Alexander Hamilton became Secretary of the Treasury and spearheaded the "public blessing" of debt. Which was nothing more than getting the rich to buy into the fledgling government in return for political (economic) favors. He whored the girl out before she could ride a pony.
Yeah,
That silly bastard wanted to pay off the war debts and make the new republic a viable entity worthy of the name that honored it's obligations.
What a rat. We should have just screwed the creditors and the Army veterans.
Maybe they should have stayed home and minded their own business and we could still toast the Queen's health today.
If you prefer ideology to actual history, then you will love Howard Zinn. He's got a pantload of it to enjoy.
Actually, Hamilton did screw the Revolutionary Army veterans, big time.
And the Whiskey Rebellion, a great example of early corporatism in the new republic.
Don't hate the player, hate the game, right?
WHY?
REALLY?
The Fed knows that each unit of currency is backed by a face-value unit of debt.
But the debt bears interest while the currency does not, and the interest gets paid first.
The principal gets rolled-over...because after paying interest on the debt-side of the currency there isn't enough currency left to pay the principal. Hence a default would destroy the ability to pay the debt backing the next unit of currency, and so on, until all the units of currency are destroyed. Chain-reaction currency implosion.
The Fed knows, then, that no matter what total debt must expand...and if the banks can't lend, or people are too indebted to take more loans, then governments and central banks must do it for them.
Because, the Fed knows that a failure to expand the debt, which allows a corresponding expansion of total currency, currency that allows past debts backing currency to be rolled over without default, will result in a chain reaction of defaults in that debt, and corresponding destruction of the currency it backs.
With each roll-over the percentage of that accumulated debt representing compounding interest grows, and corespondingly the amount representing the original principal shrinks.
When the principal can't service the accumulated interest anymore, interest rates must come down or there will be a default triggering a chain reaction until the currency is destroyed.
When the principal can't service the accumulated interest anymore, even with ZIRP, then the Central Bank must expand its balance sheet to keep credit growing to avoid that chain-reaction. Expanding its balance sheet supplants expansion in the real economy. And expansion of the CB balance sheet delays the chain-reaction, while further growing the portion of the debt representing compounding interest, and shinks the portion representing the principal...
...MEANING THAT QE DELAYS COLLAPSE BUT EXACERBATES THE FUNDAMENTAL CAUSE OF THE COLLAPSE.
Once ZIRP was not enough to keep credit expanding, the system was done.
Since then we've just been waiting for the array of delaying tactics to be expended.
gc - Very well put
If you take a $1 Federal Reserve Note to the treasury, do you receive $1 in US Bonds in exchange?
How is the Federal Reserve Dollar backed by anything? Even if it was, would you rather have a $1 IOU or $1 of gold?
What a scam all around, eh?
New Worls Order is anarchy?
Thanks for confirming that.
The advent of 1.)fiat money which can be printed out of thin air as opposed to gold which has to be dug out of the ground 2.)computers/internet which allow extraordinary consolidation and transfer of money by just a few individuals, 3.) that those certain few individuals, unencumbered by the need to have to do any useful meaningful work to provide for themselves allowing them to focus on controling fiat through the manipulation of the banking (fractional reserve and central banking) and political system guarantees an"unnatural" rate of interest.
The repeal of Glass Steagal centralized the power and risk within a few hands. Very surprising wasn't it ?
Thank Robert Rubin, Larry Summers and Bill Clinton. How much money have they made since 1999?
Banking, Brokres, and insurance used to have to compete for investors $$ and returns. After repeal of Glass Steagal there is no competition. They all play off of one balance sheet.
Since the immoral QE was launched by the Bolsheviks, everybody operates off of the FRed's balance sheet. Very similar to the USSR.
They came, they saw, they stole…
“Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich”
In a review, the NYPost reveals:
Records show that of the $105 million the former president raked in from speeches over 12 years, about half came during his wife’s four-year tenure at the State Department.
The author writes that “of the 13 Clinton speeches that fetched $500,000 or more, only two occurred during the years his wife was not secretary of state.”
Most estimates put the power couple’s combined net worth at $100 million to $200 million.
http://nypost.com/2015/04/20/book-claims-foreign-cash-made-bill-and-hillary-filthy-rich/
Anarchism is another political word, like liberal, whose entymology means the opposite of its colloquial use.
From Webster:
Anarchism is to statism what atheism is to religion, meaning an absence of. Statists would have you believe it means chaos and disorder because in their warped minds, social order is impossible without the state.
Ummm... that sounds like " I only do what the voices in my wife's head tell her to tell me what to do."
Don't lie. You don't have a wife.
Very good.
Ding Ding Ding DIng DIng
Spirit of 42 please go to the head of the class.
actually it is more beneficial to society to have cost of money at zero
most of the people prefer to have zero interest rates and only small group of rich people want to do nothing and earn interest by lending money (which is abnormal if you really think through it)
...said Karl Marx from his grave...
Nonsense; absolutely no one in this age of rampant inflation holds this view except the propagandists for the cartel who are the beneficiaries. How can a lender justify a loan of his private property without compensation, without interest?
Artificial pricing of interest rates dismantles the capitalist production that enriches nations and replaces it with government programs and central planning that destroy nations (fascist socialism). Interest rates are prices - the price of money. ZIRP is a price control - a free market destroyer. Bernanke's ZIRP replaced true market prices on Treasury debt, mortgages, corporate bonds, EBT cards, subprime car loans... with artificially low prices. To quote Ron Paul, "savers and borrowers have been signaled into unsustainable patterns of economic activity" and those capital projects created by ZIRP now have no market.
As credit rose to finance this Bernanke/Yellen boondoggle, prices rose as the purchasing power of the dollar eroded, plummeting Americans' standard of living... particularly wiping out the life savings and labors of savers and retirees and the underemployed.
Why did the Fed do this? As Ron Paul reveals, it meant "trillions more newly-created dollars flowing to Wall Street.
http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2015&Itemid=69
Broken link
Interest Rates Are Prices – Article by Ron Paul
Ron Paul
September 28, 2012
One of the most enduring myths in the United States is that this country has a free market, when in reality, the market is merely the structural shell of formerly free institutions. The federal government pulls the strings behind the scenes. No better illustration of this can be found than in the Federal Reserve’s manipulation of interest rates.
The Fed has interfered with the proper function of interest rates for decades, but perhaps never as boldly as it has in the past few years through its policies of quantitative easing. In Chairman Bernanke’s most recent press conference he stated that the Fed wishes not only to drive down rates on Treasury debt, but also rates on mortgages, corporate bonds, and other important interest rates. Markets greeted this statement enthusiastically, as this means trillions more newly-created dollars flowing directly to Wall Street.
Because the interest rate is the price of money, manipulation of interest rates has the same effect in the market for loanable funds as price controls have in markets for goods and services. Since demand for funds has increased, but the supply is not being increased, the only way to match the shortfall is to continue to create new credit. But this process cannot continue indefinitely. At some point the capital projects funded by the new credit are completed. Houses must be sold, mines must begin to produce ore, factories must begin to operate and produce consumer goods.
But because consumption patterns have either remained unchanged or have become more present-oriented, by the time these new capital projects are finished and begin to produce, the producers find no market for their goods. Because the coordination between savings and consumption was severed through the artificial lowering of the interest rate, both savers and borrowers have been signaled into unsustainable patterns of economic activity. Resources that would have been used in productive endeavors under a regime of market-determined interest rates are instead shuttled into endeavors that only after the fact are determined to be unprofitable. In order to return to a functioning economy, those resources which have been malinvested need to be liquidated and shifted into sectors in which they can be put to productive use.
Another effect of the injections of credit into the system is that prices rise. More money chasing the same amount of goods results in a rise in prices. Wall Street and the banking system gain the use of the new credit before prices rise. Main Street, however, sees the prices rise before they are able to take advantage of the newly-created credit. The purchasing power of the dollar is eroded and the standard of living of the American people drops.
We live today not in a free market economic system but in a “mixed economy”, marked by an uneasy mixture of corporatism; vestiges of free-market capitalism; and outright central planning in some sectors. Each infusion of credit by the Fed distorts the structure of the economy, damages the important role that interest rates play in the market, and erodes the purchasing power of the dollar. Fed policymakers view themselves as wise gurus managing the economy, yet every action they take results in economic distortion and devastation.
Unless Congress gets serious about reining in the Federal Reserve and putting an end to its manipulation, the economic distortions the Fed has caused will not be liquidated; they will become more entrenched, keeping true economic recovery out of our grasp and sowing the seeds for future crisis.
http://www.rationalargumentator.com/index/blog/2012/09/
When the men who control the Congress, the Presidency and the Currency are a law unto themselves, then there’s no other way to describe our dilemma than financial anarchy.
Financial anarchy gives absolute freedom to lawless international bankers. It destroys the economic security and liberty of life of the people.
A nation, absent government regulation of weights and measures that regulate a hands-off, fair-dealing , incorruptible money supply, falls inevitably into economic disorder, debt slavery, and, ultimately, into social collapse.
The pretend purpose of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 was to break the grip of the money trust; it did the opposite. Why? It was written by the money trust.
William Greider in his book, “Secrets of the Temple” wrote, "At the time [about 1913] the conventional wisdom in Congress was that the government institution would finally harness the money trust, disarm its powers and establish broad democratic control over money and credit. The results were nearly the opposite. The money reforms enacted in 1913 in fact helped to preserve the status quo, to stabilize the old order. Money center bankers would not only gain dominance over the new central bank but would also enjoy new insulation against instability and their own decline. Once the Fed was in operation the steady diffusion of financial power halted. Wall Street maintained its dominant position and even enhanced it."
The only rules and regulations we need enforce property rights in all forms up to and including each monetary unit. When the value of the money itself is being deliberately shifted, someone is being stolen from or paid and their property being taken and redistributed. The attack on property rights has grown so large now that they are directly taking control of your body as well through health care and carbon laws which will redistribute the people themselves under Agenda 21/2030 into more manageable urban areas. This is no longer a conspiracy.
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld
As if "government" is the opposite of this supposed "anarchy".
Anarchy schmanarchy. We got foxes with gasoline in a burning chicken coop. Other may say, "Put it out." but I say,"Get the popcorn!"