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Ron Paul Rages "They" Refuse To Learn From Their Mistakes
Submitted by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,
This month marks the seventh anniversary of the bursting of the housing bubble and the subsequent economic meltdown. The mood in Congress following the meltdown resembled the panicked atmosphere that followed the September 11th attacks. As was the case after September 11th, Congress rushed to pass hastily written legislation that, instead of dealing with the real causes of the crisis, simply gave the government more power.
Just as few understood the role our interventionist foreign policy played in the September 11th attacks, few in Congress understood that the 2008 meltdown was caused by the Federal Reserve and Congress, not by unregulated capitalism. Not surprising to anyone familiar with economic history, the story of the 2008 meltdown starts with the bursting of the Fed-created tech bubble.
Following the collapse of the tech bubble, the Fed began aggressively pumping money into the economy. This money flooded into the housing market, creating the housing bubble. The Bush Administration and the Republican Congress also added fuel to the housing bubble. These so-called “free-market” conservatives expanded federal housing programs in hopes of creating an “ownership society.”
If Congress understood the Austrian theory of the business cycle, it would have allowed the recession that followed the housing bubble’s inevitable collapse to run its course. Recessions are the economy’s way of eliminating the distortions caused by the Federal Reserve. Attempts by Congress and the Fed to end a recession via inflation and government spending will only lead to future, and more severe, economic downturns.
The corporate bailouts, government spending, and money creation via quantitative easing that Congress and the Fed have engaged in since the fall of 2008, have failed to produce even the illusion of prosperity. The daily experience of most Americans shows that the government’s doctored statistics drastically understate both unemployment and inflation.
This is not to say that no Americans have benefited from Federal Reserve policies. Even Donald Trump has called quantitative easing “a great deal for guys like me.” Much of the growth of government over the past seven years, from the bailouts to the increases in military and domestic spending to Obamacare, has also benefited politically-connected crony capitalists.
The Federal Reserve’s continued delay of an interest rate increase suggests that, contrary to its public statements, the Fed understands that the economy has not recovered from the meltdown and is on the brink of another major recession. Fear that the Fed is not being fully forthcoming with its view of the economy is one reason the stock market declined following the Fed’s recent decision to once again postpone increasing interest rates.
Learning the full truth about how the Fed evaluates the economy and its plans to respond to another downturn are two reasons why it is important to pass the Audit the Fed bill.
A vote on Audit the Fed would probably be the only good thing to occur in Congress this year. A Congress that cannot defund Planned Parenthood is unlikely to make any serious cuts in spending. Instead of waiting for politicians to do the right thing, those who know the truth must spread the ideas of liberty as far and wide as possible. Only when the teachings of the Austrian school are embraced by a critical mass of Americans will Congress cut warfare spending, cut welfare spending, and audit, and then end, the Fed.
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The FED doesn't want to learn jack shit, they know exactly what they are doing. Complete destruction of the dollar and transfer of wealth.
That is why the police state is growing, to get ready for the hordes of broke, angry Americans. This country will become a playground only for the international rich.
“Lord of the Flies” is as apt in this era as it ever was.
It hard to top that first comment.
Kind of OT, but in the same vein.
just too good not to share..
Noted by Drudge:
NEW WORLD ORDER: PUTIN OUTSMARTS OBAMA
Geez, that’s kind of like winning a boxing match with a quadriplegic
When corporate America gets its nose bloodied and a few governments go bankrupt then and only then will you hear the End the Fed mantra be spoken in American society.
THEY DON"T THINK THEY ARE COMMITING A MISTAKE.
THEIR CRONIES ARE PROFITITING FROM THEIR MISTAKES.
HOW IS IT A MISTAKE WHEN YOUR CRONIES PROFIT FROM WHAT MAIN STREET SEES AS MISTAKES ?
winning a boxing match with a quadriplegic...
I agree. The problem is however, the quadriplegic's been stuffed in an Ironman 3 suit.
I can't decide whether I want his batteries to fail before he has to give it back or whether we ought to just destroy the thing altogether.
Either way, End the Fed.
jmo.
The FRBNY Integrity Hotline has been established for the purpose of
reporting unethical or illegal behaviors involving the Federal Reserve
Bank of New York or its employees. The Hotline also accepts reports from
members of the public regarding fraud, waste, and mismanagement at
institutions supervised by the Federal Reserve System. Examples may
include violations of applicable laws or regulations, questionable
accounting, operational controls, and auditing matters.
Submit a report to the FRBNY Integrity Hotline via the website
or call 1-877-52-FRBNY (1-877-52-37269) and the matter will be reported
to the appropriate channels. The FRBNY Hotline is administered by a
third-party vendor to ensure the anonymity of those who choose to remain
anonymous.
So how do you make an incident report for this from the simple fact that they open for business each morning?
Is it wasteful that many of the stock market futures contracts that Simon Potter buys with USDs created via The Inflation Tax to fraudulently manipulate the stock markets expire out of the money?
Call us up and we'll pretend we care.....
......and then send S.W.A.T. teams to bugger your children and pets.
Jim Grant tried to call the NYFed in 2012, and left a message. They did not call back.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/must-read-jim-grant-crucifies-fed-explains...
Complete destruction of the dollar and transfer of wealth.
Wrong. The FED is a parasite. It does not want to destroy its host. It just wants to continuously milk it with its purposeful mismanagement of our MOE process. This delivers government sustenance through inflation and money changer sustenance through theft by interest collections.
To destroy the dollar is to kill their enormously profitable farming operation they refer to as the "business cycle".
For the first few months after Lehman went down, I framed my response in line with what you say here. I thought: why would they want to kill the Golden Goose which is supporting the lifestyles they are living? But based on their behavior of the past 7 years, I no longer believe this. They may not "want" to kill their host, but the truth is they care almost not at all that it might happen anyway. In other words, though ideally they would like to have a live host to suck off of, it is not their priority. Their priority is sucking as much as they can get NOW. They have decided that it is more important to make sure they receive the last blood of the beast if it is going to die than to keep the beast alive. They are killing the beast, and I see zero change in policy on the horizon. That is the most accurate statement of intent I can imagine.
A parasite eventually kills its host.
Not clever but natural.
But based on their behavior of the past 7 years, I no longer believe this. They may not "want" to kill their host, but the truth is they care almost not at all that it might happen anyway.
They see even more wealth extraction by taking what they have done to the USA for the last 100+ years and to the UK before that ... by taking that up a step ... a global operation. Keep and eye on the keepers of the SDRs.
"...So we should all be asking ourselves: what will the future bring? Where are we headed? For anarchists, this question is intimately related to the question of the state. We know that there is a direct correlation between the prosperity of a people and the amount of state intervention in the economy. The greater the intervention, the less prosperity. And vice versa. So, any anarchist attempting to predict the future, must first forecast what the state will look like in the future. Will state employees allow more individual liberty, or less? Any accurate prediction of the future will depend on an accurate answer to that question.
But how do we predict the future of the state? It seems to me that the only way to do so is to take a look around and survey the people we see. Because, ultimately, it is their philosophy that will determine what the future state looks like. If the great majority is of the opinion that the government should stop meddling in their affairs, the state will slowly dissolve. If, on the other hand, they want more intervention, the state will grow progressively stronger. If people are largely indifferent, the state will also grow, albeit at a slower rate. This is true because state employees and state beneficiaries have an interest in growing the state’s power, and their energetic promotion of the state will gradually overcome the apathy of the people. So, the only way that the state will be smaller going forward is if there is a broad consensus against it. Stop for a moment and reflect. Do you see any signs that the great majority of people are calling for less government intervention in the economy? I don’t...."
http://anarchiststandard.com/2015/09/an-anarchists-guide-to-the-future/
Great Post!
Will state employees allow more individual liberty, or less?
Can you believe you're asking that question. It's like asking, "will my gardener let me into my garden or not". When we catch ourselves asking such ridiculous questions, we are real close to toast.
So, any anarchist attempting to predict the future, must first forecast what the state will look like in the future.
Does a real anarchist predict the future ... or cause the future?
But how do we predict the future of the state? It seems to me that the only way to do so is to take a look around and survey the people we see.
Practice this yourself. Start a personal ongoing poll to see what people know about the WTC7 collapse. By my poll (with 187 respondents), only 15 (8%) know anything about WTC7. So don't expect too much direction from your survey ... unless you want to gauge the effectiveness of the propaganda.
If the great majority is of the opinion that the government should stop meddling in their affairs, the state will slowly dissolve.
Then you're going to have to create and deliver the propaganda that produces that opinion ... because it is propaganda that produces opinions now.
If people are largely indifferent, the state will also grow, albeit at a slower rate. This is true because state employees and state beneficiaries have an interest in growing the state’s power, and their energetic promotion of the state will gradually overcome the apathy of the people.
When I started my career 50+ years ago, 1/4th of my productivity was taken by governments ... and 1/4 of the people were dependent on government. Now both of those ratios are well over 1/2 and growing at an exponential rate. We're past the tipping point. Total government (if it doesn't collapse first into total anarchy and fision) is the obvious endpoint.
So, the only way that the state will be smaller going forward is if there is a broad consensus against it.
Actually I like the option the Catalans have just taken ... and that the south attempted in the USA in the 1860's. Right now we should be insisting our representatives install mechanisms to support orderly secession of any group choosing to do so. And insist that government do at any level, only what the level above it cannot do itself ... the individual being at the top. We're upside down.
Stop for a moment and reflect. Do you see any signs that the great majority of people are calling for less government intervention in the economy? I don’t...."
And you won't. But you will find every minority (which leaves "no" majority) wanting to go it alone. I say let them. Let us all. Segregation works better than integration. People do it naturally, even when it is unlawful.
Exactly, and Congress knows it too, they get their cut for voting to strengthen the Kleptoligarchy while screwing over their constituents (yes, both sides).
Depressions are the economy’s way of eliminating the distortions caused by the Federal Reserve
Adjusted that with a word.
The differences today:
CB / Plunge Protection intervention in stock and bond markets
FDIC
SSA
Food Stamps
Housing Assistance
A troika of the MIC, Wall Street and spooks run the land of the free. While this Deep State is in charge, no one will audit the Fed, much less end it.
Forward - to fewer liberties and zero privacy of a fascist, police state
Who rules America?
The secret collaboration of the military, the intelligence and national security agencies, and gigantic corporations in the systematic and illegal surveillance of the American people reveals the true wielders of power in the United States. Telecommunications giants such as AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, and Internet companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter, provide the military and the FBI and CIA with access to data on hundreds of millions of people that these state agencies have no legal right to possess.
Congress and both of the major political parties serve as rubber stamps for the confluence of the military, the intelligence apparatus and Wall Street that really runs the country. The so-called “Fourth Estate”—the mass media—functions shamelessly as an arm of this ruling troika.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/10/pers-j10.html
Regarding 'Who rules America' - the quote you use seems pretty accurate. However, I am a little surprised that it is quoted from a socialist website.
Socialists are pretty astute identifying the problems - well, at least some of those - so I read wsws too sometimes. Where they fail is in the solutions. You just have to be careful and keep in mind what you're reading for, and what not to take away. (As for any source, read intelligently, with the BS filter turned way up.)
Fucking love Ron Paul, but whoever added in the absurd ampunt of bold, italics, and underlines should be fired.
I am pretty sure it wasn't spell check that did it..
Because they are not mistakes, most of what is driving instability is highly deliberate.
+1
Pass an audit the fed bill. Like that will happen. Controlled opposition - it's not just for breakfast anymore. It's a whole days meal.
If Congress understood the Austrian theory of the business cycle, it would have allowed the recession that followed the housing bubble’s inevitable collapse to run its course.
The "Austrian theory" is an embarrassment to Austria.
Where the Keynesian con inflates trader's efforts away, the Mises Monks and their so-called "Austrian theory" strangle them away.
Poor Ron Paul is clueless ... but everyone else seems to be too.
Friedmanite con...
I'm sure you just convinced a lot of people.
All economic schools are just secular stand-ins for religion.
Popes, priests, and acolytes.
lots of ad hominem for a guy who has it all figured out as you do.
Care to expose your flank and explicate?
Is it something like this:
https://lettingfreedomring.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/obama-and-economy... ?
Is it something like this:
I have no flanks. My descriptions are straight forward, very objective, and unambiguous. I've been very explicit. If you see a flaw in what I describe, expose it.
Please explain how Ron Paul is clueless.
Please explain how Ron Paul is clueless.
Ron Paul thinks gold is "sound money" and so-called "fiat" money is not.
Ron Paul subscribes to the so-called "Austrian Economics" which is clueless as to what money is, always has been, and always will be: "A promise to complete a trade".
The "fiat" money he complains about is just a circulating documentation of that in-process promise. Requiring gold instead just unnecessarily puts control of trade in the hands of miners and current holders of gold. Further it adds several additional degrees of freedom which traders can not and need not predict.
He's close to seeing the problem ... but he doesn't see it so he just presses for an equally dangerous remedy.
The problem is "counterfeiting" by governments resulting in inflation and "theft" by bankers in the form of arbitrary interest collections and cyclical constraint of supply.
A properly managed MOE process makes these problems go away completely. It leaves total control of money in the hands of traders ... for whom it was invented in the first place to allow simple barter exchange over time and space in an efficient and fair manner.
And as an aside, Ron Paul is "silent" on the collapse of WTC7. I know he knows about it. To press for changes to be adopted by your captors is foolish ... it is clueless.
don't worry ron ... they'll listen to you
that is of course AFTER the debt bomb goes off
i swear thats all these politicians do in this country - diffuse bombs AFTER they've gone off
After they deployed them and they go off....
Fixed it for ya.
Ron Paul "Rage" = working himself into a real snit. grr
" the 2008 meltdown was caused by the Federal Reserve and Congress, not by unregulated capitalism."
I disagree. Neither of those could have done it on their own. And this was not an event, it was a process that took decades to unfold.
Big Finance discovered a whole new world of potential profits with the advent of technology, and created increasingly complex financial instruments to capture them. The markets, and the rules, were tweaked in increments, with the bankers assuring the politicians that any disruptions would be smoothed out in the business cycle. They weren't, and little imbalances stayed, and grew, as others were added over time. The pols were willing to keep letting them try, as no one particular thing caused enough disruption to force action, and besides, the payoffs were just too juicy.
The whole thing became increasingly unstable as the game continued, until here we are.
So sorry, no one gets a pass on this, and all participants share equal blame.
Greed is what caused it. Wall Street making money hand over fist, govt encouraging sub prime lending so everyone can live the American dream!!, "investors" buying product they don't understand (retards). Everyone was living in fantasy land which can't fucking be sustained. Bring the fucking depression on, burn down the system and rebuild. That includes federal gov, constitution (states vs federal), fed reserve, congress (1 term limits), judicial and most important taking business completely out of political process. No fucking donations, no PAC, no nothing. Corps are not people, even though they sure do fuck you hard.
Adding to that, the political interference was largely where the banks were forced to accept subprime loans to benefit the people. This distorted the entire lending profile.
Further distortions were fueled by an economic boom, in which the banks KNEW what was happening to their mortgages, but becasue everyone was making money, they didn't want to interrupt those profits.
They got themselves in so deep, there was no easy way out.
This type of cycle happens all the time, that's why companies (countries) go bankrupt. They willfully IGNORE rational decisions that will necessarily limit their growth or status, and instead "go for broke". And many do go broke.
Austrian economics won't be considered until the Keynesian model crashes and burns so badly it cannot be resurrected. Like Bill Bonner says, people come to believe what they need to believe when they need to believe it. And not a moment before that.
Agree, the same applies for the US folks. Until they face a horror of war on the US soil, they never stop supporting the sionist jewish bankster oligarchy that brings terror and war abroad.
Depressing and true.
Empires are easy. The killing is always on someone else's land. Somewhere else. People have no concrete connection until it is way too late. So we allow it. Very sad.
Thank you Ron for this info...
If Congress understood the Austrian theory of the business cycle, it would have allowed the recession that followed the housing bubble’s inevitable collapse to run its course.
This is so important for our country that I think you should introduce a bill to make all incoming congresspersons and senators take and pass a correspondence course on this material.
Ha! You think that those people can read and write!?
They too busy being bought!
Recessions are the economy’s way of eliminating the distortions caused by the Federal Reserve.
That's a theoretical statement for which you aren't providing any data. Let me guess: Hayek and Von Mises?
Recessions and depressions don't lead to "a curtailing of malinvestment and the return to sound investing and policy". Please provide a historical example of when this has actually happened, anyone reading this.
Recessions and depressions instead tend to cause:
1) Monetary interventions
2) Political instability
3) Wars.
Remember that WWII was essentially a solution to a "downturn in the business cycle" and statist-capitalist exploitation of Germany after WWI.
What I'm saying is that, this little Austrian mental model we have of how the world works, could tell us that a little recession/depression is good for us. Michael Hudson has said Austrian economics was the economics of proto-fascism and neofeudalism (see this interview about 2/3rds in). And it is in fact more likely that an unchecked recession/depression overturns the political system, given how much suffering it would cause the average person, and how politically mobilized people become in times of resource scarcity. Peter Schiff doesn't understand that states create markets, and a business downturn calls into question the existence/current organization of the state, which is something none of us have seen in our lifetimes in the West.
In other words, far from being a little 'tough medicine' that has economies emerging stronger afterwards (examples? counterexamples abound), a truly 'unaccomodated' business cycle downturn is a checkmate on the political system, because the people will not stand for it. They vote for radical parties and they emigrate, as in Greece and Latvia, where all this nonsense has been tried (neoliberalism).
A person might view wholesale change of the political system as a necessary evil, given the advanced state of things. But its not really a responsible thing to be advocating, more of an armchair doom prophet's vision, than an actual vision for a community to rally behind and move towards. I can understand why armchair doom prophets gravitate towards the morality tale that is Austrian economics; the sense of social isolation can make one care more about principles and elitism than about the welfare of mankind generally; but lest anyone believe the data is on your side in this, please look to Keen, Hudson, Vague and Mosler for in-depth albeit scattered refutations of this dogma. Also I'm aware that belief systems are not based on looking at data, but instead on mental heuristics learned in relationship to oneself and generalized to the system outwardly -- but eventually a person wants something more than hand-waving. Trying to make that available here. Thanks.
+1000
I am glad there are a few rational people still remaining among ZH readers. Getting tired of all this anti-FED / pro-gold idealistic BS.
If when people left to their own devices for sure will create such mess, why even bother trying to regulate them with some of the same people driven by "animal spirits" ? Oh, I forgot, it's only a ploy for a money grab...
I like Ron Paul but he only skirts the surface of the problems. Auditing the Fed is akin to inventorying Jeffery Dahmer's apartment. The Fed needs to be destroyed as does all fiat-backed central banking. Because when you can create currency out of thin air, you can reward any crony or punish any adversary at will. The truth can never see the light of day.
The is a point in time that is coming, a small window as things collapse where the people will need to rise up and take control of things for themselves. This notion that politically things can be resolved is laughable at this point when even leading libertarians scratch the surface of the epic events to come.
If Congress understood the Austrian theory of the business cycle, it would have allowed the recession that followed the housing bubble’s inevitable collapse to run its course. Recessions are the economy’s way of eliminating the distortions caused by the Federal Reserve
If Ron Paul and Austrian's understood the debt cycle:
Recessions are part of the DEBT cycle. Debt creators... the banks have super-priority over society. Witness the latest "legal" gambit where some derivative holders get first first priority in bankruptcy payouts.
Debt cycles are harvest cycles, where debtors have to offer up their real property to cancel creditor's claims. Debt instruments always grow with usury, sometimes doubling or growing exponentially, and making claims outside of nature's limits.
Austrian theory is usurious in that it does not recognize power relation, where Creditors are always superor to debtors, even if debtor takes all the risk. Unearned income, passive income, all of these "incomes" are seen as superior over real GDP activity. Rent seeking and parastiic incomes are not divided out of the economy, and must be made good, even if it screws everybody over. Extractive finance is seen as productive, when in fact it is parasitical. Yes, the debts must be paid! Even if the debts were fraudulent upon creation, there is no differentiation.
For three thousand years of history, there was no "debt cycle." Debts were released as a way of keeping society stable, and this "releasing" or clean slate occured at least everytime a new king came into power - about 50 to 75 years.
When Jesus first started his ministry, it was on the Jubilee year, which is probably no accident. Jesus was also killed for 30 pieces of silver, and in those days, silver represented "generational" debt, that could not be erased. The money lenders were extending their control over that society.
It is also no secret that Jesus pissed off the money changers in the Temple, especially when he turned over their tables and whipped them. Ancient man has forgotten more about money than modern man knows.
In Israel release came every seventh year, which is roughly the business cycle:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prozbul
"The Torah mandates a Sabbatical year, known as Shmita, every seventh year.[1] Among other things, the departure of the year cancels all debts. This is one of the many laws in the Torah meant to protect the poor and disadvantaged, affording them a chance to escape from eternal debt."
Hillel's "prozbul" clause allowed debtors to waive their rights. This is the beginning of the "business cycle" as bad Jewish thought then spreads outward to the west. Combine this toxic "debtor must always pay" thought with Usury as a weapon, and something terrible is unleashed on mankind.
Rome was also backward - especially toward the end, and their business "cycle" leads directly toward land enclosure and a society where creditors also hold all money as capital.
Finance Creditors are pulling the same gambit today, where Oligarchy is moving to enclose and capture.
In dark ages land was enclosed and gold consecrated to the vaults. Low access to land, and little money means efficient division of labor never occurs, and hence there was little economic activity. The Dark Ages were a super depression.
Bull. Shit.!! Austrian theory is usurious in that it does not recognize power relation, where Creditors are always superor to debtors.
This cannot be levered as a credible rebuke of Austrian economics. Sorry bud. Way off. austrian economics is about letting markets (and not government) fetter itself out. And its what Jesus would have wanted too - btw - ACCOUNTABILITY!!.
The business cycle is exactly the result of FED induced distortions, by suppressing interest rates making borrowing costs incredibly cheap, thus enhancing unsustainable debt since the debt was induced by non market price fixing.
This is whats wrong with people like you think. We need government to control the usery. Its not that they fucked up in the first place by manipulating markets - no - that part was ok. Rather, they just didn't control the human behaviour that resulted.
Seriously? Fuck. EABOD.
---
Please...
An illegal Mexican steals your fishing boat next to your house in the middle of the night. What do you do?
1) Call the cops AKA GOVERNMENT
2) Call your insurance mandated by the GOVERNMENT
3) Call your congressman / state senator to complain that the GOVERNMENT won't do anything about illegals and now the GOVERNMENT better put up a fucking wall ASAP.
Gee, notice any GOVERMENT involvement Mr. Austria?
Now, go ahead and tell everyone how it would never happen because you've "got an AR15 and a basemeunt full of ammo"
Austrian "economics" sound good in a book but are a complete fucking failure in the real world. Full stop.
what a stupid fucking argument. all 3 points clearly elucidating precisely what you don't understand about markets.....since in all 3 the state is not needed.
finally. Where, in the fucking world, right now, has government worked? Monetary policy? Fail. Elkimination of poverty? Fail. DEcrease in the inequality gap? Fail.
Fuck off - ass hat. You don't know what you're talking about.
---
4) You buy a fishing boat which is then stolen by an illegal alien -- and YOU do WHAT exactly? Under your scenario, government isn't needed anywhere in the process.
So,you've obviosuly decided to just lose ~$25k because you are taking personal responsibility for not locking up your boat well enough and "oh well, hope the Mexican enjoys it. I sure learned!"
C O M P L E T E F U C K I N G B U L L S H I T.
You would be the first "Austrian boat captain" screaming into the horn to the government AKA sheriffs department to get their ass down to your underground shelter (oops sorry I meant "home") and "do something!"Don't even try and bullshit this because you just make yourself look like a bigger moron... EVERY single person reading this knows exactly what you would do...
In response to Pareto's distorted world view. They read Mises and from then on they are damaged - hypnotized with BS.
Usually people get mad when their worldview is punctured, especially if they have invested a lot of effort and were duped in the process. The honest thing to do though is just turn your back to a dishonest philosophy.
The road to serfdom really is a road to serfdom, only instead of feudal lords it is creditor lords (who hold debts on the population). End effect is the same, a public who has their labor value stolen from them by hidden rents, which push prices.
How about inelastic markets, where government is the lowest cost producer? Ports, roads, bridges, sewers, clean water… the military. All of these do not have ready competition, or if they do, it adds cost. For example, it adds cost to have two sewer lines, and two power lines. Privatizing inelastic markets puts up high cost tollbooths for society where monopolist take unearned income for generations. This is passed on in prices. For example, Greece is selling off their former paid for commons to pay banking creditors; former paid for commons will then generate rental income for now privatized monopolists.
Markets are not perfect predictors of price. When Exxon takes their profits in panama, where there is no income tax that then shifts the tax burden onto middle class labor. Humans don’t act because they don’t know that the prices are a lie.
Austrian theory thinks that markets are Free due to human action. But, actually what they want is markets to be free so a “creditor” class, usually those who own money power, can take rents. It is free for rentiers and parasites to have a free lunch. The original classical economists wanted economies FREE FROM RENTS. Even modern language has been re-normed so predator groups can take rents, the original understanding of free markets now means something different than it used to.
And what about human action, as if it was a standard: When Russia was Bolshevized its brain became parasitized. The people were essentially in a slave camp, and some were actually enslaved in the Gulags. So, how was their human action? People in Gulags did not care about prices.
What about the Western World – should we not believe our lying eyes. High productivity has not brought increased leisure or standard of living. High tech gains and their resultant economic surplus have been siphoned off to Oligarchy. During economic depressions, a “creditor class” will harvest and take. In Gold based Austrian economy, hiding nature of gold induces depressions on a regular basis.
In pre-biblical times, societies actually investigated credit-debt contracts to make sure one party wasn’t trying to “get over” on another. Even with this layer of protection, they STILL had to have a jubilee on a regular basis.
Demonizing government and pretending markets are perfect, and pretending there is human action are all psy-ops to lead the unwary astray.
While having two power lines may "add costs" it lowers prices.
There was a time when power was unregulated in the US. You can read about the results.
* over supply
* very low prices
A question for ZH'ers... Does Ron Paul still support the official version of 9/11? I can't remember him ever weighing in one way or another but this article lead me to believe that he still supports the official narrative.
Can anybody give me clarity on this?
What would happen if Ron Paul said 9/11 was an inside job?
What if he also added that the Israelis and their sayanim - with absolutely, positively no doubt - were as well?
What do you think would be the result?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAueLjdKh1s
..
Yea he said 9/11 was an inside job. Then he said it wasn't. Then he said it was. Why? Because Ron Paul will say ANYTHING to keep himself up on some sort of podium yapping about this or that AKA CAREER POLITICIAN.
The fact that anybody listens to a word this dimwit yaps about anymore is truly shocking...
BTW. There are youtube videos catching him off guard claiming that 9/11 was an inside job. Then he denied it of course. In fact, I think he then denied it was even him in the video which was so outrageously assinine to be beyond incredible.
why don't you find a nice, quiet place to go fuck yourself, stupid?
Anyone stating the obvious truth will not be able to say anything else on any other forum than a handful of shitty conspiracy sites and shows.
And it is not as though him saying so would change the conversation.
God fucking damnit some of you fucks are so fucking stupid - why not troll infowars, son?
--
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How indelicate your comment. Apparently I struck a nerve...
Wel maybe the "obvious" truth to morons. Maybe you should have properly classified the word "obvious"...
Furthermore, you DO know Ron Paul would carefully craft earmarks for his congressional district that would bring in $BILLIONS for his district -- whilst he would simultaneosuly vote no on his own earmarks because he knew they had the votes to pass! Somebody used the word "evil" here and son, THAT defines evil...
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Federal spending in anti-government Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-TX) district has quadrupled since 1999 to more than $4 billion, making Texas’ 14th congressional district one of the highest per-capita federal spenders in the country. With $14,707 spent per resident annually, it is clear that Paul’s constant bemoaning of overly-indulgent government spending is nothing but empty rhetoric used to rouse political support for his presidential bid.
Take FEMA, for example. Following the devastation caused by Hurricane Ike back in 2008, Ron Paul rallied against government assistance for those hit by natural disasters:
In several disasters that have befallen my Gulf Coast district, my constituents have told me many times that they prefer to rebuild and recover without the help of federal agencies like FEMA, which so often impose their own bureaucratic solutions on the owners of private property. Is bailing out people that chose to live on the coastline a proper function of the federal government?
Yet a recent investigation shows that while Paul was ranting about the evils of FEMA, his office was quietly planning what they could do with the new federal funds, which eventually included rebuilding 180 homes, reconstructing the county’s seawall, and embarking on an extensive beach nourishment project.
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BTW Go fuck yourself.
They aren't 'mistakes,' Ron.
Evil - not stupid, Sir.
What the FED is doing to the markets is like the Medieval practice of treating the sick via the practice of bloodletting. In nearly all cases, it was totally counterproductive, and accelerated the pateint's demise.
Hey, hoWS this this PONZI
It is the nature of the mind to legitimize any activity from which it achieves satisfaction.
It is the nature of the mind to supress all knowledge that would tend to de-legitimize activity that results in satisfaction.
So, basically, when people do something that 'feels good' at the time, but has bad consequences later, they will make up a story of why and how the bad behavior is alright. Perhaps they will invent ceremonies and public theater to allow them to pretend that the activity they love is not actually what they all know it is.
People usually use social dynamics to allow the suspension of knowledge. If 'everyone knows it' then 'it can't be wrong'...even if each person in 'everyone' actually knows that it is wrong. This is the nature of denial.
This is why theft, when dressed up in any other clothing sells so well... Whether the variety of theft is via slavery (theft of life and labor), plantationism (theft of labor), taxes (theft of wealth), murder (theft of life), colonialism (theft of natural resources, life, and labor) the dynamics whereby it is socially justified and defended are the same.
The recipients of the loot WANT to legitimize it sub-consciously, even if not consciously...And most often it is consciously.
And, having legitimized bad behavior, they will mentally disregard all evidence of their elective-behavior's destructiveness.
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Ron Paul thinks "they" refuse to learn from their mistakes?
THAT SOCK PUPPET WOULDN'T KNOW A MISTAKE FROM A PROPER RESPONSE IF HE STEPPED ON HIS SONS TOUPEE, SLIPPED AND THEN HIT HIS HEAD ON THE GROUND...
"They" Mr. Paul? How about YOU Mr. Paul because you are gold pumping fool 24/7/365.
Did anybody see him on Bloomberg during the last Fed announce? He flapped his mouth all over the place and never said a damned thing! Seriously, it looks like he is incoherent and rambling like a drunk sailor!
Meanwhile:
Gold looks to extend losses to a third straight session
Published: Sept 29
Gold futures turned lower as a stronger dollar and a global rout in commodities weighed on the precious metal in early Tuesday trade.
December gold GCZ5, -0.04% gave up 70 cents, or 0.1%, to trade at $1,131 an ounce on Comex, a day after the metal recorded its largest single-day point and percentage drop since early September. Prices also fell 0.7% on Friday.
Gold “has been behaving more like a raw commodity and less like a safe-haven asset recently, and that’s bearish given the present slump in the raw commodity sector,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco.com.
Comparing gold to dollars rather than dollars to gold.
Gold vs Currencies 2014
Gold vs:
FRN -1.8%
Argentine Peso +31%
Australian Dollar +7.7%
British Pound +5.0 %
Canadian Dollar +7.9%
China Renminbi + 1.2%
Euro + 12.1%
Indian Rupee +1%
Yen +12.3%
Russian Ruble +79%
Swiss Franc +9.9%
You know,,, the world doesn't rotate around the u.s contrary to popular u.s citizens thinking. If you were in any of the other countries you'd be doing the cha ching dance.
Gold/Silver are money,,, the rest are trash.
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Ok I'll play.
How old is the Earth?
How much gold is REALLY out there.
I look forward to your ground breaking answers. Wait, let me help. Nobody really knows. Plenty of "educated guesses" and theories based upon science and religious drivel.
So. How does gold become "money" if you don't know how much actually exists, where it is -- or who really has it?
The FED certainly didn't help, but unregulated derivatives were the real problem in 2008.
James Rickards in Currency Wars gives some figures for the loss magnification of complex financial instruments/derivatives in 2008.
Losses from sub-prime - less than $300 billion
With derivative amplification - over $6 trillion
"It’s nearly $14 trillion pyramid of super leveraged toxic assets was built on the back of $1.4 trillion of US sub-prime loans, and dispersed throughout the world" (pg 404, “All the Presidents Bankers”, Nomi Prins).
Japan had the mother of all real estate bubbles that burst in 1989, but the effects stayed in Japan as there were no derivatives to spread the problem.
"voice of one crying in the wilderness" comes to mind. Or maybe the sound of one sane voice in the pandemonium of a Times Square New Years hoopla.
Our financial ship of state is being captained by the crew of the Titanic and Ron Paul is in the 3rd class hold yelling iceberg!
Dr. Ron Paul is an exceptionally bright, and learned, man, but if he thinks Paulson, Bernanke, and Geithner, fucked up by getting a bailout from Congress, he does not understand that his Austrian solution would have resulted in complete annihilation of every bank, and investor, in the entire world. Paulson had no other option, or course of action, to take. Paulson was cornered like a rat with no way out of the most certain demise that he faced. At the very least, Paulson bought time with Geithner's TBTF bailout Ponzi. Had Dr. Paul been at the helm, we would all be eating our fellow humans on the barbeque with no beer to wash it down, or potatoes, and onions, either.
The complete wipeout was needed.
Agreed, but Paulson bought seven more years for everyone to prepare their bug out bags, and plans. Moreover, the complete wipeout is on our collective doorstep, and this will happen in a matter of days, or hours. In brief, the complete wipeout is here this week, and next. The talking heads know it, and so does TBTF. We are most certainly not going to witness any sort of turnaround in our lifetimes IMHO.
I'm gone kwote Hitlery here. "At this point,what difference does it make?" We are all gonna have to eat each other when they finally DO collapse.
If the Fed had allowed for a cleansing recovery in 2008, the devastation would have probably wiped out most of Wall St and not just Lehman.
These TBTF Wall St banks are the indirect owners of the Fed and who knows if that would have put the Fed in jeopardy somehow.
Also what about the secret $16T in foreign bank bailouts. Likely a world Depression and huge cluster if all banks world-wide were allowed to fail.
We'll never know the extent of this crime until it's forced on everyone in the next crisis and counterfeiting fiat currency will not be able to save us as before.
Sub-prime loans in the US are simply not enough to cause the worldwide meltdown of 2008. They make for a convenient punching bag - fuck poor people! - but the real culprit was the massive shadow banking industry that securitized and sold this crap all over the world, the ratings agencies that blessed it, and the fools who bought it.
I am not certain the arguing the details is anything other than distraction.
I try to focus on one thing: Freedom
The fools who bought this crap were almost every major bank in the world, afraid they would fall behind the returns of their borthers. The FED exported major funds to most of the major banks to help keep them solvent and closing transactions. We should have allowed failures among at least many of the weaker institutions.
What mistakes? /s
Slightly OT: Check out these security robots:
http://www.knightscope.com/about.html
Saw a bunch wandering around the property and sidewalk in front of the (KS) company yesterday. Two engineers with a laptop analyzing one. The other robots were milling about. They're about 5 feet tall and really stand out outdoors (one expects this in a movie, not in a semi-residential neighborhood).
What's the definition of insanity ???
is this your fathers socialism
They're ALL reptilians, period.
Two power lines lowers prices....you've got to be kidding me.
Ok here is another example:
There is a natural land mass....called a port. In that port ships come and go and unload their goods.
The port comes to be owned by a monopolist. They then charge what the market will take, and tell the shippers, go fuck yourself if you don't like it. Pay me. Pay me. Because I know you have to sail 2000 miles to find another port.
Or two sewer lines. If one is unusued it may start to crack, and hence become unusable.
Really.... I try to educate you guys but you just want to argue and make points.
The plain fact of the matter is that there are inelastic markets and they have to be regulated to get lowest price. Stupid Austrians think that everything is elastic and price competition. The world does not work that way. On this basis alone, Austrian theory should be rejected as sophomoric dribble.