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Guest Post: Americans Will Need “Black Markets” To Survive
Submitted by Brandon Smith from Alt-Market
Americans Will Need “Black Markets” To Survive
As Americans, we live in two worlds; the world of mainstream fantasy, and the world of day-to-day reality right outside our front doors. One disappears the moment we shut off our television. The other, does not…
When dealing with the economy, it is the foundation blocks that remain when the proverbial house of cards flutters away in the wind, and these basic roots are what we should be most concerned about. While much of what we see in terms of economic news is awash in a sticky gray cloud of disinformation and uneducated opinion, there are still certain constants that we can always rely on to give us a sense of our general financial environment. Two of these constants are supply and demand. Central banks like the private Federal Reserve may have the ability to flood markets with fiat liquidity to skew indexes and stocks, and our government certainly has the ability to interpret employment numbers in such a way as to paint the rosiest picture possible, but ultimately, these entities cannot artificially manipulate the public into a state of demand when they are, for all intents and purposes, dead broke.
In contrast, the establishment does have the ability to make specific demands or necessities illegal to possess, and can even attempt to restrict their supply. Though, in most cases this leads not to the control they seek, but a sudden and sharp loss of regulation through the growth of covert trade. The people need what the people need, and no government, no matter how titanic, can stop them from getting these commodities when demand is strong enough.
This process of removing necessary or desirable items from a trade environment leads inevitably to counter-prohibition often in the form of strict cash transactions, barter markets, or “black markets” as they are normally derided by those in power. The problem for economic totalitarians is that the harder they squeeze the masses, the more intricate the rebellion becomes, especially when all they want is to participate in free markets the way our forefathers intended.
The so called “drug war” is proof positive of the impossibility of locking down a product, especially one that has no moral bearing on the people who are involved in its use. Only when a considerable majority of a populace can be convinced of the inherent immoral nature of an illicit item can its trade finally be squelched. During any attempt to outlaw a form of commerce, a steady stream of informants convinced of their service to the “greater good” is required for success. Dishonorable governments, therefore, do not usually engage in direct confrontation with black markets. Instead, they seek to encourage the public to view trade outside mainstream legal standards as “taboo”. They must condition us to react with guilt or misplaced righteousness in the face of black market activity, and associate its conduct as dangerous and destructive to the community, turning citizens into an appendage of the bureaucratic eye.
But, what happens when black markets, due to calamity, become a pillar of survival for a society? What happens when the mainstream economy no longer meets the available demand? What happens when this condition has been deliberately engineered by the power structure to hasten cultural desperation and dependence?
In this event, black markets not only sustain a nation through times of weakness, but they also become a form of revolution; a method for fighting back against the centralization of oppressive oligarchies and diminishing their ability to bottleneck important resources. Black markets are a means of fighting back, and are as important as any weapon in the battle for liberty. Here are just a few reasons why such organizational actions may be required in the near future…
The Mainstream Economy Is Slowly Killing Us
There are, unfortunately, some Americans out there who have not caught on yet to the grave circumstances in which we live. Obviously, the stock market seems to have nearly recovered from its epic collapse in 2008 and 2009, and employment, according to the Labor Department, is on the mend. The numbers say it all, right? Wrong! The numbers say very little, especially when they are a product of “creative mathematics”.
Despite the extreme spike in the Dow Jones since 2010, and all the talk of recovery, what the mainstream rarely mentions are the details surrounding this miraculous return from the dead for stocks.
One of the most important factors to consider when gauging the health of the markets is “volume”; the amount of shares being traded and the amount of investors active on any given business day. Since the very beginning of the Dow’s meteoric rise, the markets have been stricken with undeniably low volume interspersed with all too brief moments of activity. In fact, this past January recorded the lowest NYSE volume since 1999:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-23/stock-trading-is-lowest-in-u-s-since-2008.html
Market volume has tumbled over 20% since last year, and is down over 50% from 2008 when the debt implosion began:
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/02/24/trading-volume-anemic-this-year/
So then, if trade is sinking, why has the Dow jumped to nearly 13,000? Low volume is the key. In a low volume market, less individual investors are present to counteract the buying and selling of larger players, like international banks. When this happens, the big boys are able to trigger market spikes, or market drops, literally at will. Add to this the high probability that much of the stimulus that the Federal Reserve has regurgitated into the ether probably ended up in the coffers of corporate banks which then used the funny money to snap up equities, and presto! Instant market rally! But, a rally that is illusory and unstable.
Improving employment numbers are yet another financial hologram. As most of us in the Liberty Movement are well aware, the Labor Department does not calculate true unemployment in the U.S. Instead, it merely calculates those people who currently receive unemployment benefits. Once a person hits the extension limit (99 weeks in many states) on his benefits, he is removed from the rolls, and is no longer counted in the “official” unemployment percentage. While Barack Obama and MSM pundits are quick to point out the drop in jobless to 8.3%, what they conveniently fail to mention is that MILLIONS of Americans have been unemployed for so long that they have been removed from the statistics entirely, and this condition is what has caused the primary fall in jobless percentages, not burgeoning business growth.
Roughly 11 million Americans who are jobless have nonetheless been excluded from the statistical government tally because of a loss of benefits:
According to the Congressional Budget Office, over 40% of the currently unemployed have been so for over 6 months. It also points out that America is suffering the worst case of long term unemployment since the Great Depression:
http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/02-16-Unemployment.pdf
More than 10.5 million people in the U.S. also receive disability payments, which automatically removes them from the unemployment count, making it seem as though jobs are being created, rather than lost:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/19/report-millions-jobless-file-for-disability-when-unemployment-benefits-run-out/
Around 8.2 million Americans only work part time, meaning they work less hours than are generally considered to be necessary for self-support. These people are still counted as “employed” even if they work a few hours a week.
True unemployment, according to John Williams of Shadowstats, is hovering near 23%:
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts
Combine these circumstances with the ever weakening dollar, price inflation in foods and other commodities, and rocketing energy costs, and you have an economy that is strangling the life out of the middle-class and the poor in this country. It is only a matter of time before the populace begins searching for alternative means of subsistence, even if that entails “illegal” activities.
Government Cracking Down On Freedom Of Trade
I was recently walking through the parking lot of a grocery store and ran into a group of women huddled intently around the back of a mini-van. One of the women was reaching into a cooler and handing out glass containers filled with milk. I approached to ask if she was selling raw milk, and if so, how much was she charging. Of course, they turned startled and wide eyed as if I had just stumbled upon their secret opium ring. Somehow it had slipped my mind how ferocious the FDA has become when tracking down raw milk producers. The fact that these women were absolutely terrified of being caught with something as innocuous as MILK was disturbing to me. How could we as a society allow this insanity on the part of our government to continue?
That moment reminded me of the utter irrelevance of petty law, as well as the determination of human beings to defy such law.
The Orwellian hammer has been thrust in the face of those who trade in raw milk, organic produce, and herbal supplements, while small businesses are annihilated by government dues and red tape. In the meantime, law enforcement officials have been sent strapped to shut down children’s lemonade stands (no, seriously):
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500164_162-20079838.html
Government legislation which would give the FDA jurisdiction over personal gardens has been fielded. Retail gold and silver purchases of over $600 are now tracked and taxed. The IRS even believes it has the right to tax barter exchanges, even though they do not explain how bartered goods could be legally qualified as “income”, or how they can conceive of ever being able to trace such private trade:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=205581,00.html
Want to choose what kind of currency you would like to use to protect your buying power? Not if the Department Of Justice’s Anne Tompkins has anything to say about it. After the railroading of Liberty Dollar founder Bernard von NotHaus, she stated:
“Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism…”
“While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country,” she added. “We are determined to meet these threats through infiltration, disruption, and dismantling of organizations which seek to challenge the legitimacy of our democratic form of government.”
http://www.fbi.gov/charlotte/press-releases/2011/defendant-convicted-of-minting-his-own-currency
As our economic situation grows increasingly precarious in this country, more and more people will turn towards localized non-corporate, non-mainstream business methods and products. And, the government will no doubt attempt to greatly restrict or tax these alternatives. This mentality is driven in part by their insatiable appetite for money, but mostly, it’s about domination. They do what they do because they fear decentralized markets, and the ability of the citizenry to conceive of choices outside the system. Slaves are not supposed to choose the economy they will participate in…
A “black market” is only a trade dynamic that the government disapproves of, and the government disapproves of most things these days. Frankly, its time to stop worrying about what Washington D.C. consents to. They have unfailingly demonstrated through rhetoric and action that they are not interested in the fiscal or social health of this nation, and so, we must take matters into our own hands.
Black Market Advantages
If the events in EU nations such as Greece, Spain, and Italy are any indication, the U.S., with its massive debt to GDP ratio (real debt includes entitlement programs), is looking at one of two possible scenarios: default, austerity measures, and high taxes, or, hyperinflation, and then default, austerity measures, and high taxes. In the past we have mentioned barter networking and alternative market programs springing up in countries like Greece and Spain allowing the people to cope with the faltering economy. Much of this trade is done away from the watchful eyes of government, simply because they cannot afford the gnashing buffalo-sized bites that bureaucrats would take from their savings in the process. When a government goes rogue, and causes the people harm, the people are in no way obligated to continue supporting that government.
Black markets give the citizenry a means to protest the taxation of a government that no longer represents them. In a country stricken with austerity, these networks allow the public to thrive without having to pay for the mistakes or misdeeds of political officials and corporate swindlers. In a hyperinflationary environment, black markets (or barter markets that have been deemed unlawful), can be used to supplant the imploding fiat currency altogether, and energize community markets that would otherwise be unable to function. Ultimately, black markets feed and clothe the grassroots movement towards economic responsibility, and every man and woman with any sense of independence should rally around this resource with the intention to fight should it ever be threatened.
“Legality” is arbitrary in the face of inherent conscience, or what some call “natural law”. Without arbitrary legality, and unjust and unwarranted regulation, many federal alphabet agencies would not exist, including the FDA, the IRS, the EPA, the BLM, etc. These institutions do not matter. What they say has no meaning. What matters is what is honorable, what is factual, and what is right. Our loyalty, as Americans, is to our principles and our heritage. Beyond that, we don’t owe anyone anything. A black market in one place and time is a legitimate market in another. For now, private localized trade is able to flow with only minor interference, but there will come a day when even the most practical and harmless personal transactions will be visited with administrative reproach and vitriol. Alternative market champions will be accused of “extremism”, and undermining the mainstream economy. We will be vilified as separatists, isolationists, terrorists, and traitors. I believe it will be far more surreal than what we can possibly imagine now.
They are welcome to call us whatever they like. Honestly……who cares? Let the paper pushers do their angry little dance. The goal is freedom; in life, in politics, and in trade. If we do not change how this country does business ourselves, the results will be far more frightening than any government agent at our doorstep, and the costs will be absolute…
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+1 to ya!
Does it make sense...... Building a house of creditcards after default. I wonder. I have so many important questions.
In the US a weapon is easy, over here, it's rather difficult.
Smoke a joint is easier though. 'Over here' Time will tell.
now now, we won't have Papa Doc and G-Paps running the USA; after all you have Don Corleone!
The article details a few of the more innocuous actions of the brutal American police state. But the reality is it goes far, far beyond that, as we all surely know by now.
It's all about control. The tyrants in government want absolute control of every aspect of human existence. How else can they scientfically manage their glorious New World Order and perfect the human race? Everything and everyone must be tracked, and life outside of the "system" must be made as near to impossible as can be. Look forward to the armed federal agents that will be driving around rural areas looking for smoke from "illicit carbon producing activities" (burning wood to heat your home).
Look to your left, then to your right, 1 of the three of you isn't an informant or direct employee of the American police state. That's the future you have to look forward to America. Get out while you can, the gates are closing fast.
That time is now in The Peoples' Republic of California. Behold the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
First time wood smoke violators receive a warning letter. Second time violaters are fined $400. Penalties increase thereafter. And of course, anonymous snitches are encouraged; there's even an 800 number.
http://baaqmd.gov/~/media/Files/Compliance%20and%20Enforcement/Advisorie...
I think there is barter every where. Think about the Apartment complexes that give the Maintenance Person a free apartment and a low wage as compensation. Think of people that live with elderly people for a low wage and free room and board. How about house sitters? Neighbors, I will cut your grass if you watch my children when they get home from school.
Families are usually in the barter business. I will watch the children you will help me clean up my yard, etc.
I am sure most of the people on this board have bartered in the past but they really don't think about all of the times when they did as it appeared like the normal thing to do. I suppose most of us consider it doing someone a favor, with an expected favor in return.
"Neighbors, I will cut your grass if you watch my children when they get home from school"
I barter all the time... I offer to smoke your grass while you watch your children come home from school...
Looks like ben came here throwing junks from his helicopter.
Black markets, illegal aliens, under the table deals, imports, ... all evidence of a tainter collapse.
The Amish will become public enemy #1 and Obama's secret army will be sent to take them out. Crips and Bloods will be told to go out and kill for fun, have a field day, and Acorn like organizations will provide the transportation. Hell they might all be given matching purple shirts for the occasion.
Poor Jebidiah doesn't have a gun and the population around the Amish is too dispersed to stop the slaughter. They will get there a bit too late. Next will come the race wars.
We will not make it to a barter economy before the welfare class rebels and is taken out. If you think ghetto America will sit and do nothing when the gravy train ends, you're fooling yourself. They riot over 2000 pairs of shoes being produced because, you gotta have hot kicks to represent. Imagine when they actually go hungry.
You're going to see Somalia in major US cities. Gangs of hundreds with automatic weapons will be sent out to kill anyone they see. Grocery stores will be attacked and pillaged. Do you think the flash mobs are just for fun? It's practice runs.
Rival gangs will fight each other for power and cities like Cleveland and Detroit will turn into the worst holywood disaster films. I think deep inside most people know this, which explains current gun sales.
Gold and silver won't protect you, perhaps if you get out of the USA. The only comodity that will be worth anything is bullets. If you got bullets you'll get anything you want.
Below post covers my response.
Well said - I've always said it - Boomers like nothing more than a Flag draped over a coffin - and I imagine they want nothing more than to see the world burn for not granting them eternal life
So lets say that Gang A takes over Detroit. How long will that takeover last when all transportation into the city is halted. No gas, no food, no clothes, maybe no water or electricity. Does the gang have the ability to command the populace to produce the things the populace needs for survival? Don't think so. That is in direct contrast to the historical "natural" leaders that have risen to command the populace in small groups/tribes who live off the land. That was sustainable. Gangs taking over Detroit is not sustainable.
What would Lord Humongous do?
Just wait until Snake Plissken arrives... He doesn't give a fuck about your war or your president...
You haven't been paying attention, grasshopper ... In a number of American cities the 'hood has moved out to the periphery of town, so the natural rove of the gangs will be into the outer burbs and farmland. Gas is cheap when it is sourced from your car ... Same with reloads from your basement cache.
Public enemy # 1 ? Feels like quite a promotion.
Amish, admired.
Keep calm and carry on with your ways, defended under the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
This shit again?
Do you really think that anyone here is flat-out stupid enough to own gold without having more guns than you?
adr,
Nice try. No cigar. The U.S.A. is not Somalia, the Middle East, the EUSSR or the Politburos in other places.
Overheard in my local hardware store today: 'Would those Syrians be massacred if they had guns to protect themselves? No. They would have fought their way out; got away from the government troops.'
This was not a call for the U.S. or anyone else to 'arm the rebels'. It was a statement of age-old fact: ordinary citizens must defend their own ways, and only a fool would give any government the sole right to bear arms.
The elite Trilateral Commission-Rothschild-Rockefeller nazis prey on our empathy for our fellow beings...whilst they seek to make a perfect Brave New World, with their eugenics and 'scientific socialism'. They hate genuine community. Dislike your Christian roots if you must, but get you to a Church and a gospel choir on your judgment day. I am the typical New Englander, faithful to our traditions, although rarely seen in Church. It is a fact that most people, especially our Armed Forces, depart this world pleading for their God or their mother. Fact.
>> Dislike your Christian roots if you must, but get you to a Church and a gospel choir on your judgment day. <<
I wish I could +1 this more than once. I am not much of a churchgoer either but it distresses me to see people bashing their religious and cultural heritage (which more often than not they are entirely ignorant of) because of, well, because they are being played right into the hand of the New World Order getting hyped up on identity politics, sex politics, what have you.
Kipper,
Quite so. We can afford to go our own way, but it is the Church and tradition that the powerbrokers fear most because it gives ordinary people an allegiance to themselves, their community, their kith and kin...far beyond the reach of the globalist central bank cartel, their Trilateral Commission, their eugenics, their money grubbing and power grabbing BS.
Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
Alexis de Tocqueville
livid levity,
True. This is our Western tradition, for good or bad, yet more kind than other cultures in that we live and die by our words, while they simper with their autocracy.
Liberte, egalite, fraternite. This is our ideal, and our own long march forward.
y'know, it's very easy for you to make a sweeping statement like
when your "religious and cultural heritage" centers around you, your identity is the default "normal" one, and the people who look just like you, right down to the genitals.
"identity" and "sex" politics are such code words here - just like "social issues" when discussing voting politics - but until you dudes learn to respect other people that are different to you, in whatever ways, "they" will be able to manipulate you into thinking you, and the god that looks like you, is all that matters in the world.
and that is identity politics!
here's a link from a recent ZH thread:
lolmao500
Vote up!
8Vote down!
0Win :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/oklahoma-personhood-fetal-perso...
"If I wanted the government in my womb," the sign said in painted blue letters, "I'd FUCK a Senator."
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/ron-paul-defeats-obama-head-head-polling#c...
/junk away!
Cathartes,
Stop. Think. Which country and culture protects your words; your right to agree to disagree. I may disagree with your words, but my family fight for right to say whatever you want. This is our Western way, our gift to civilisation.
Stop. Think before you damn your compatriots, and assist those who hate you and want to foment hatred of Americans by Americans.
There is no country that defends the rights of indivduals more than the USA, although it is true to say that the government and the alien globalist central bank cartel are in the ascendancy now, and trying to make a debt slave of the USA, as they have done in Britain, Europe, Japan, and the Far East, and the satellite nations of those places.
Love your neighbour, your fellow American. That's all you have to protect yourself.
you're young, your posts have proved this.
which country and culture pretends, for now, to protect my words, but is seeking to own my womb? that would be this one. did you even look at the link?
words are hella easy, bodies, well, those need to be under thumb.
Most, want to be law-abiding...CRIMINALS, eventually to force 99%'s into self-preservation!
See you at the local swap meet
Black market, barter or even auctions. Great way to exchange goods without government intervention. I'm all in.
All my PM transactions are on the local black market. Fuck taxes!
You pay taxes in the Spread. Don't fool yourself. I'm going to give you the name of a great refinery. Gary owns the joint, and charges 4%. He is a straight shooter, and handles P.M.'s like a hero!
Don't ask him to store it though. I'll do it this way . MW
Craigslist and a few $ over spot to the seller in 100% cash. The money is going to the seller!
That is opposed to the coin shop or online guy with the money over spot plus the 9% in sales tax.
I don't think I am fooling myself when a silver maple is a little over $40 coming out of the coin shop and $35ish all in from local seller.
You have a point. I was talking about junk metal. Sorry for the confusion. They still are reliable and have pretty darn good rates for small orders.
Tyler Durden,
Interestingly, both the author and ALL of the commentors (on the article) have overlooked one, very important point. Next year (2013), perhaps sooner, the federal government will impose price controls (PC's) on petroleum derivatives, including automotive fuel. When? I dunno, but I speculate that the government will impose the PC's before the price of gasoline breaches $6 per gallon. Several months after such imposition, there will be a vibrant, thriving black market for fuel. Indeed, about seven months after such imposition, it will be very difficult to buy fuel at the legal price, and most Americans will have to buy at least half of their fuel on the black market, where the price shall be MUCH higher than the legal price.
The black market for fuel draws near. Get over it.
-- Paul D. Bain
paulbain@pobox.com
Owner of these domain names: GasPriceControls.com, FuelPriceControls.com, etc.
paulnobrain,
BS.
The preponderance of doom and gloom circulating around the net and on financial blogs is largely sourced to the elderly folks of the Boomer generation. If you're over 55 and you just said to yourself, "I'm not elderly", then you're my target audience (and you're wrong about not being elderly). Members of the most vain and arrogant generation in American history.
As the Boomers crossed the threshold into the "death zone", they could no longer deny the aging process. The Boomers brought us viagra, Rogaine, fad diets, fad exercise routines, plastic surgery, botox, and all the other trappings of an infinitely vain generation trying to deny the fundamenal aspects of the aging process. These are the people who said 30 was the new 20, 40 was the new 25, and 50 was the new 30. These are the people addressed by the novel and movie "Fight Club", which gets bantered around this site a lot but I doubt many of you actually "get it." With their life style obsessions, vanity, and arrogance.
You see, the Boomers are incapable of facing their own mortality and are collectively recoiling in horror that they will soon depart the Earth and be forgotten like most of those who have come before them. This fear of death is being sublimated into their desire for scorched earth, leaving nothing but cinders in their wake. For the vanity of the Boomers is so infinite that they'd rather imagine the general collapse of civilization than imagine a world where they do not exist. Indeed, in their infinite vanity they believe that the world simply cannot continue to exist without them.
Society is not going to collapse any time soon. America is the strongest and best funded police state on Earth and maintains iron fisted control of its population with brutal efficiency. There won't be food riots. There won't be fuel riots. There won't be economic riots. You won't get to go down in a blaze of glory fighting off looters on your 2-10 acres of land in bumfuck nowheresville with your AR-15.
No. You are simply going to die, most likely of natural causes. It is true that the Boomers have inflicted great damage upon America and the world economy, but it is not nearly sufficient to bring about the "end time" scenarios that the Doomers envision. We younger folks will pick up whatever pieces are left as the last of the Boomers exhales their final breath and relinquishes their stranglehold on global wealth and power from their clutches - and we'll move on.
So, no, Boomers, this is not the end. The sun will rise and set, the tides will ebb and flow. Without you. You were never special; you were always the same decaying organic matter as everything else. And one day soon, you are going to die.
Yeah but the boomers used up all the oil. Yes, they will die, but we will also have collapse as well.
'And...',
It grieves me to admit that your analysis is largely correct. The 'baby boomers' were gifted much by their parents whose own childhoods were blighted by war, and their grandparents' lives were blighted by war. There was a brief moment in time when the U.S. and the world was relatively war free; fewer people were killed in war.
'Baby boomers' fckd up, big time. I tell my teenage daughter and 25-year-old son this: the world changed beyond recognition during your brief lives. It is for me to deal with the culprits. You get on with your lives, stay close to your friends, believe in each other. I will deal with the miscreants.
One child is every child in my land, won through the blood, sweat and tears of my people of whatever creed, color or religion in these United States.
Great playwrite Arthur Miller started his career with socialist zeal, inveighing against New England. His final play was a tribute to New England, a place that he grew to love after he had cast aside prejudice and politics. Age and maturity taught him the value of the genuine human struggle toward mutual understanding, for all its faults, and the eternal struggle for liberty and human dignity - genuine, not political/bankster slogans.
What do you mean the Boomers had no war. We had the no War called Vietnam and it was not voluntary to join the Services. There was a draft and we lost many Honorable young Men in a senseless War. Not to mention all of the problems the Men had that survived. Like being doused with Agent Orange. All of the mental problems from fighting people that would sneak up in the middle of the night or out of the bush, etc. All of the land mines that took off their legs or arms.
How dare you critize the Boomers that lost their lives or were emotionally affected for their entire lives because of that War.
What amazes me is how much better the Vietnamese were at getting past the war that killed several million uniformed and civilian Vietnamese. I have my own not-so-fond memories from my active (voluntary) service in SW Asia, but having seen how our grandparents dealt with WWII, it is kind of annoying to hear Vietnam era vets go on about their woes.
I am on the margin of your Boomer description, except that I can tell you this.
If we are the mostt vain and arrogant, then the next generation that will "pick up the pieces" are the laziest slothful and spoilt generation in history. That would be Xers I believe. The Y's have you beat all around.
Keep decieving yourselves and blaming others (us) it is what you do best.
Who's blaming who??
Who else but the boomer parent created the "laziest slothful and spoilt generation in history?" We are what YOU created!
Boomers have only themselves to blame for what they've done to democracy and the earth.
You allowed corporatocracy to take root and expand so lucrative jobs in finance could make you more money than any generation before could image - so your "individuality" could be expressed with McMansions, travel, and "discovering yourself" thru the self-help movement. You gave your kids everything without making them earn anything and you wonder why they feel entitled and hate you when you finally had to say no.
And you will still retire comfortably while anyone under 50 is struggling to pay off our inflated mortgage so we MIGHT be able to put YOUR grandkids through university and MAYBE retire before we drop dead of exhaustion - partly because you keep working to save more because your RESP or 401K dropped a bit in 2008.
Fuck all the boomers. You inherited the earth. And you still don't realize what you wasted away.
And you think your kids have invalid feelings of entitlement!
At least I worked for it instead of laying back pissing and moaning about how it is alwaus someone els'a fault I can't..... wah, fucking wah.
I hope to retire one day with enough to see me through 15 years of retirement, because every job I had I've had to fund my own pensiion. That means I won't retire till I'm 70. and I'm not alone.
I have not refused to work because the benefits or conditions were not to my liking, nor blamed anyone else for my choices.
57-71,
Actually, pissing and lying back was the proud boast of the baby boomers, the 60s generation...until their jollies blew up in the face of their children who they hope will forgive their excess, and pay for their excess.
ZOMGAWD!!!!!!!!
evil evil boomers!! and "we are what YOU created!" - but, but. . . then who created teh boomerz??? who gets THAT blame??!! surely if YOU are not at fault for your existence, how can teh boomerz be at fault for THEIRS??
get a grip dude.
there are idiots in every generation, lazy slothful gimmes in EVERY age group, every country, everywhere.
your argument is like blaming the current president for EVERYTHING that's happening NOW, and not connecting the dots to the overall picture - there are piles of greedy stupid to go around for every age group in this country.
C...
Incorrect again. The unprecedented collapse of the world financial system happened under the watch of the baby boomers.
Unprecedented. Five syllables. Easy to understand.
Cheeses Christ! ... talk about a selective rendering of revisionist history!
The collapse of the ponzi began with the expense of Kennedy's Vietnam war (actually instigated by Eisenhower's administration), followed by Johnson's overspending on a "Great Society", causing Nixon to declare bankruptcy by creating a dollar backed only by credit and hot air, forcing Carter to begin deregulation, then came free-spending, drug-trafficking Ronnie and war-mongering Bush I ... finally culminating in the first 'boomer' president, Slick Willy -- who, admittedly, banged in some final nails with the promotion of ninja loans and the removal of Glass-Steagall, but at the end of a non-boomer trail of destruction.
It's also worth noting that the only boomer presidents -- Slick Willy, Dubya and Obomber -- were/are still heavily controlled by the pre-boomer Neocons and Trilaterals -- with Kissinger, Perle, Wolfowitz, Brzezinski, Rockefeller, Greenspan, Buffet and other assorted criminals pulling the strings.
57-71,
You needed parenting classes before your offspring were born, judging by your self-serving excuse. You blame them for inheriting your mess.
Sorry to dash your theory,
no offspring.
By choice, once i saw what was coming.
57-71,
Then your comment will die, without legacy, and worthless, yet you dare to mither the young. Be grateful that your parents gave you life, and give life to the young who do not deserve to suffer the faults of the older generation.
If you wish to serve only yourself, then at least assist the young who need help that you were given by your parents.
Comments don't die because one has no descendents, writings live and succeed death.
You have no idea who I assist and with what. Both personally, and much of my very job is training and passing on knowledge to younger people..wait for it... who want to work.
I have never read anywhere that one must be grateful for a life given. And in fact, from the bitterness expressed toward the boomer parents, it is patently obvious that their offspring are quite ungrateful for life. Lying about complaining for one's lot in life is not the way to happiness. Life is what you make of it.
And, while you are still on the blame subject who said anyone deserves anything? Other than the past 20-30 years there was no such thing as "fair". Not that there is now, but people now seem to have a perception that did not exist before then that all must be fair. There is no such thing as fair. Get out and make somethhing for yourself and be happy with a what you have.
57...
Cognitive dissonance in your confused words.
The dissonance of which you speak lies with your lack of comprehension.
Probably because some asshat of a Boomer parent, and a stellar education system, always explained everything to you, and you don't have to think for yourself.
The whole defined separating of people into "generations" is as fucked up as Repub/Dem, rich/middleclass/poor, etc.
I think that by most published parameters I'm technically a "boomer" (about to be 47 y.o.), but certainly the tail-end and my life experience has been much more GenX. Just one more way to keep us arguing instead of getting together for actual change. Just my 2c.
True, I agree.
I rarely comment on this subject but sometimes i just get so tired and pissed at all the excuses. It is a sad commentary on any age group when they blame another group for giving them everything. I think of the many rich and ultra rich to whom this has not/does not apply for many thousands of years. By that logic the offspring of anyone with a bit of cash will be useless and homeless.
I sure hope things turn around economically for everyone. I fear if there is a boom, we will still have a lost generation.
the people most "lost" will be anyone who feels entitled to something simply by virtue of their being. this includes those who cling to "national" identities, or similar.
the rest of us will be getting on with getting on, like we always have. . .
Cathartes,
You have a problem with national identity?
Trilateral Commision troll, perhaps. You will be getting on with wreaking havoc on any place, in serving your 'scientific socialist' dystopia. Sick eugenics. Sick sociopathy; self-hatred, tool of the rootless cosmopolitans; the ruin of nations, all for the political and profit of the self-serving few; the globalist central bank cartel, and their political pets.
You: debt slave. Get up off your knees, apparatchik, slave.
ahhh babykins, you come here with your less than two months user status to tell me I'm a troll, and for the Trilateral Commission no less - you're a fucking hoot you are!
your loyalty to your "new england" state-us is hilarious, as are the names you chose to call me. I've not been a "debt slave" in donkey's years, don't bank, am food self-sufficient, can and do make my own clothing, meals, bed, etc.
and people who identify with nationstates, which are OBVIOUS fictions put in place to create loyalty to flags so as to raise military to fight other nationstates - who's the fool??
get back to me when you come of age, and gain some lived life experience that doesn't include being freshly raised by your daddy.
Beneath your broad-brush faux stridency, do you, perhaps, have some unresolved "parental issues" lurking?
(Psychological Projection is a fairly common ailment - but one that can usually be ameliorated, if not entirely cured, once the internalised resentment/hurt is admitted-to and exposed)
NuYawk...
Nice. Blame the offspring. Pray they forgive you.
NewEngland - pray for the the Patriots.
NuYawk...
And this is our United States of America. We can agree to disagree, and talk about sports ;-)
Patriots will kick your ass next time...always next time....Doh! Hope springs eternal on the sports field ;-)
The boomers (I'm one) are just a cog in the wheel, ala the Strauss-Howe generational theory, playing their part as a generation devolved one step from the great generation ( the first turning), which leads to successive devolving generations until society reaches the eventual supercrisis (the fourth turning).
The offspring of the fourth turning then (hopefully) turn into the next great generation, and the cycle repeats.
BTW we're in the fourth turning.
trip,
You don't get it, do you? It is their life. The young only want to have a chance to live their lives. You and your ilk by your ways have burdened them with debt slavery. All your soft words are worthless, something only impressive among your own, and your therapy groups. You and your sort have foisted debt slavery on the young, all for your vain shallow self-serving money and politics.
Apologise. Don't rationalise, and rub salt into their wounds.
Apologise to the young, and make amends for the lazy faults of your peers.
ne, I type a few dozen words that briefly describe an interesting theory on generational dynamics, and from that you think you 'get' me??
I'm sure the kids hanging out at the malt shops in 1941 just wanted to live their lives too. Sometimes shit happens.
Try stepping back a few paces so you can see the forest. Hard to notice anything when your face is stuck to a tree.
On behalf of my boomer generation, I apologize most deeply and sincerely.....that more of us didn't don a jimmy hat every time we had some of that free love.
Now we're overrun with petulant, sniveling snots who blame us for their failure to thrive.
Get over it. Pick up the crummy pieces and trudge on
BarterPays.com
OMg!! A Black Market would be, uhhh - un-American!!
God bless
http://www.aintmymedia.com/
As others have said, the cash economy has never gone away entirely. Perhaps, that is why the central planners regale us with the Brave New World of a 'paperless' economy, everyone hooked up to the wonder of digital transactions.
That's just clever seductive marketing talk by the would-be debt slave masters who wish total control over every aspect of human activity - ie the Trilateral Commission-Rothschild-Rockefeller old money, old central bank feudalists who are now happily linked up to central banks everywhere on earth. Oh how they all envy the control which the Chinese Politburo exerts over their vast lands under 'capitalism with Chinese characteristics' and hope to mimic them = the elite ruling all, contrary to the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
However, fear not, gentle friends. We shall overcome today and every day. I am sorry for the troubles experienced by others, but my land and my people will offer the powerbrokers an offer they cannot refuse: play nice or else. Compromise is good for your health.
Try to outlaw or tax into extinction the farmers' markets and other traditions in New England, seriously threaten our self-sufficiency instead of merely pass ridiculous laws...and you will learn the error of your ways. Some 'tribute' is always paid to the Emperor, within reason. No more than that.
It would require a massive army of snipers to subdue an uprising in the land of abundant woods, water and military families in New England. Jaw jaw is better than war war. Just thought I'd add that to the comments on this excellent article.
We will keep calm, and carry on. Good luck and may your God go with you, wherever you live.
Speaking of China, I am reminded of the old adage that the hardworking, inventive Chinese have survived as the world's oldest continuous civilisation IN SPITE of their rulers. There's something modern people can learn from the Far East; something the Founding Fathers understood.
"It would require a massive army of snipers to subdue an uprising in the land of abundant woods, water and military families in New England. Jaw jaw is better than war war."
Those who speak like that have not had to face chemtrails spraying jet drones. They can spray spores, heavy metals, chemical agents, biological agents at lower altitudes and very quietly.
'Green Leader',
Do not lecture me about military. My family have lived it for hundreds of years. Clearly, you are young and frightened. Fear not. See the strategy, not the mere tactics.
Pay tribute to your empire/government, and do not mither me and mine with your fears. Thank you.
I am sorry for your troubles in your own land. Fight your own battles, and do not imagine that you deserve the liberties won by my land, unless your own blood and treasure is spent to win it, pet.
so much arrogance in one so obviously young.
Cathartes,
Pick up a gun and kill your enemy before you mither others with your sick sociopathy...sending others to die for your filthy political arrogance.
Get this through your political head: we hate you politicians, your bureaucrats, your schemes, your two-faced lies.
Ta.
Cathartes can handle herself, plant a garden, raise goats and know what's going on in the cosmos, unlike you!
go easy on him Green Leader, he's a newb here, and obviously young. . .
*wink*
(this is the month, indeed. . . shall we get through Purim's full moon next week unscathed? if so, will the 20March vernal equinox be yet another test? my bets are on March, then June, then August - by then, shifts happen)
as always, wishing you health, and great peace.
Happy Purim!
The year is Adar 5771
How could I forget? Oh well, the fictitious book of Esther was the only one NOT found amongst the Dead Sea scrolls. Wonder why?
Just for your enjoyment and pleasure, originating in the Kingdom of Edom, via Khazaria and Brooklyn I am presenting you
Revelation 3:9 Boyzzz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgJInVvJSZg
ahh, Green Leader, we don't share the same points of views, we know this from posts long ago here, but your beliefs are hard won by your lived life, and I respect that.
may you celebrate what you will, peacefully, no harm to any, though you may have suffered in the past.
take care of those pups now! and yourself.
(for the record, not my down vote, comes with the territory, eh - I'll throw in an up vote to balance all karma)
You know, I was being sarcastic about Purim. The whole strory & concoction goes against Yahweh's own laws. I am just not eloquent and on the laconic side as a way to expressing my-self. Check out Revelation 3:9, Genesis 10:1-3 & Hebrews 8:8-9, if you want. It's all connected to the video...
Yes, my beliefs are hard won and you are the very first person to acknolwedge that. Thank you. And thank you for letting me know the dates...I really couldn't bring myself to asking you here. I think the shift is in August. In the meantime, I dreamed about the global cancer plague released on January 5th on December 30th, just six days before. "Cancer ruaj (spirit) for the planet." I could swear they were spraying us Neodynium ore dust! I know of several antidotes, depending on body chemistry. Pharmakeia will NOT work. Pharmakeia promoters are condemned in the book of Revelation. Yes indeed.
I must go, I am overloaded.
Take care.
newengland,
Not knowing what you will be facing in battle means certain defeat.
I will turn 50 in a few months and know how to detox my body (and my dogs', which are more vulnerable) from the various *cocktails* thrown in by the covert ops personnel. As for fear, I served in the USCG 9th District (Great Lakes, that is). I have faced death many times.
I was at Sam's Club this afternoon, and saw a magazine entitled, and I kid you not..... "Backyard Chicken Raising". Holy cow, can't believe that is even in print in 2012.
abbottmd,
That's a good thing. Self-sufficiency is the ideal sought by most people, and only disrupted by vain powerbrokers, in my opinion. Read the magazine. Take charge of your life, whether you are rich or poor.
Right on...Another source: Mother Earth News...
Been around at least 40 years (that I know of..)
My favourite slogan: " I Am Responsible.."
Great mental/attitude tune-up..
Be safe all..
Another good source of info and resources:
http://www.backyardchickens.com
A stealth chicken coop for two to four birds is on my project list (right after building two or three bee hives).
A good idea that I picked up in one of the forums at the site above: take a japanese beetle trap, fill it with bait, and remove the bottom from the trap part so that the beetles fall out the bottom. Put the trap in an enclosed spot in the yard where your chickens can roam. Place a pie tin or aluminum baking pan under the trap and fill it with water. The beetles are attracted to the trap and then fall out the bottom into the water. The chickens will quickly learn that tasty morsels waiting to be devoured frequently fall into the water. This takes care of the japanese beetles and, while they're in season, provides you with free chicken food.
oooh, we are soo going to copy this! I could visualise it in your words, the hennies will love it.
I've a nearby friend working on the beekeeping - he lost his first colony, then gained two the next season, is doing well - the notion of using local honey to assist with seasonal allergies is being "tested" by people who barter his honey, and appears to be helpful. but he just loves the bees - *smile*
Abbott,I got hooked growing chickens (ironically for pest control without chemicals) now I have more eggs daily than I know what to do with.I give a lot out to the outreach,family,neighbors,I trade with a local merchant for his personal consumption,the silver coins he occasionally gets for eggs. I'm not breaking even yet,still a good deal
Now I am not up to snuff on all the legalities of these black markets, but is there not a way to make them legal with virtually zero tax consequence? Let's see if I can express this.
I set up an exchange market, say in a building or tent and call it a commodities exchange, similar to the LME. (set it up as a legal entity the same as all other commodity exchanges) Then, every transaction of say a pig for some clothing is valued at par. There are no gains to pay, so then it would only be subject to a government tax on the fee paid to make the exchange, which goes to the exchange owner. In almost every case, if pushed, one or another or both parties to an exchange could claim a loss.
Am I off in La La land with this?
Black markets AKA the FED ( OIS). Nuff said? Better yet! Let's discuss the LIBOR syndicate that has been brushed under the carpet!
Ah, yes. The Liebor, and its Politburo enablers in the Far East.
I love being attacked by the MSM for saying this stuff...and all the other rationalists out there as well...but the fact of the matter is this: when the Puritans landed they broke bread and shared their food. They knew each other and spoke from the "same sheet of music" cuz they all went to church on Sunday. Wanna build a school? Have the community build it and you will have the best school ever. We're not gonna have that "government stuff" (which apparently includes the awful government approved milk at 3.00 a gallon)--okay, but not okay of course. I like safe food if i'm not growing it. God as community hasn't been apart of our discourse since the dawn of the 20th century. He's not off to a good start in this one either. "People don't want to be lectured to." Yeah...i understand. Don't worry then...you're not on the "to be controlled" list. Give people a sense of their historical communalism...that they really are designed to share and thus be...eh, forget it. It really is a miracle not that the Puritans survived and thrived...but that we somehow continue to in their..."wake."
disabledvet,
Perfectly expressed, brother. We die on our feet rather than live on our knees. Amen, brother. Amen. And I say that as someone who only goes to Church occasionally. Tradition: it saves us all. Genuine community: it saves us.
This is true.
Well, Tylers. Tell me why my last attempt to comment met with the 'access denied'. I logged out, and here I am again, commenting. Are you a Fight Club or a tool of some foreign interest?
Is it so terrible that 'disabledvet' and I talk about New England, and genuine community?
OK.
Geddit. The Fight Club serves a foreign power. G'luck with that. Ta ra, debt slaves.
Barter is alive and well where I am.
I recently traded 2 nice rainbow trout for a dozen eggs.
If you want something, someone, somewhere along my road has it, or can get it.
is this New Englandish? Straight from the Horses Mouth!
Yen,
The Libor manipulation is well known by central banks all over the world. Interesting that it only faces prosecution in the West.
They aint seen nothing yet.
Americans have a love for making a good trade. Just recently I completed my first honest trade. A straight deal without any Money of any kind involved.
Maybe there will be more as long there are good People willing to do what they need to get by.
Sweetheart,...Seagull,
Stay close to your family, friends, land, agriculture, gold and silver. Stay away from sophists, big government and big corporations.
When did the rest of you stop doing this?
More than 30 years ago when living in the USA I saw most of the country’s east was a hollowed out core with inner cities that looked like the exoskeleton of an insect parasitized by a spider. I saw poverty in the south and intermountain west that reminded me of Cambodia. In California every third person was a realtor yet no one could afford to buy a home on their average salary. I received a speeding ticket while riding a BICYCLE; the policeman and his radar gun were in the trees along the bike path. The largest numbers of graduates at my university were majoring in Anthropology! Thousands of them each year. Nothing made economic sense to me and rationally applying logic and following the probabilities through to their logical outcome I could see the outcome would be bankruptcy and social disorder. So I encouraged my family to get all their assets out of the USA and congratulated them on being so foreseeing when others were not. And now, they blame me thirty years later because the Dow is at 13,000, the 12% non callable treasuries we had are trading a ozone layer premiums, so on and so forth.
So my question to you, Mr. Durden, is how much longer can it last? I mean, being right on the basis of internal validity is nice but if in the external real world you are wrong you are faced with the dilemma of how long to wait before you change your mind. This economy if it were a medical patient on life support, has surprised all the doctors and continued to live well past 100 and still begs for more Viagra.
Of course, many people are rightfully predicting the demise of the USA economically, politically, militarily, morally and otherwise. Of course they are right. But when? I have been hearing for the past 15 years that it can’t last much longer and yet it does. Readers, what do you think, the USA will last:
a. one year
b. two to three years
c. not more than five years
d. not more than ten more years
e. in my children’s lifetime
What would your answer have been five or ten years ago and would you have been right? Would you change your answer now if you were wrong before?
I think it’s good to prepare for the inevitable; but it’s better to prepare for the continuation of the present because it looks to me like this road is very long and the can is still well in play. Mr. Durden you hit it on the head; Americans are slaves, worker bees. The slave masters don’t want Americans growing their own food, living abroad, trading in barter, communicating with each other in private, feeling free. I saw that with my own eyes a long time ago. And you can see it all around you in abroad. The USA government has hired 2,000 IRS agents to work in Hong Kong going after Americans with bank accounts there. If you do the math, there is no way these people could possibly get enough taxes to recover their own salary and living expenses, let alone make a profit for the goverment. And even if they did the money they recovered would be a few seconds of federal borrowing at most. So what is the point? To keep Americans from feeling free. And yet Americans keep accepting more and more restrictions on themselves without feeling any sensation of a noose around their necks.
So, its fine to tell readers what is going to happen and what will be the consequences in the USA and abroad when it does. We can all imagine the scenarios. But that is not practical; what we need to know is when it will come down. This is the only question that matters.
lasuwan, pet.
When will you get up off your knees and make your own country instead of asking the U.S. people to pay and fight for you?
Ask the U.S. people to fail for your faults? Eejit, debt slave.
Here is the news: troops are coming home to my land. Good luck to you and yours. See the slaughter in Syria for a glimpse of your future, pet.
You and your ilk want someone to save you from your worst nightmare: your governments, your lazy selves or your religious bigotry.
Go forth and multiply in your land, not mine. Thank you.
Is that you, Gabby? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke5Mr5eCF2U
Death from a thousand cuts takes a long time.
I am fascinated by the roman empire as an analogy. The western roman empire was in a continuous recession for a hundred years before it finally collapsed. Average real incomes were estimated to have fallen in half. The population eventually quit caring and it fell due to malaise and productivity losses due to economic mismanagement. But it took fucking forever. North korea has lost 20 percent of its population to starvation and they are still hanging in there.
Yep. It is all so very fascinating for the academics to view the people as spots in a Petri dish.
That is why only the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence gives protection to all, and it is attacked by the elites who beg money and protection from the labour of the majority and the Armed Forces, whilst thinking themselves oh so high and mighty.
Modern government and bureaucrats, pets of the globalist central bank cartel, are filth.
Laosuwan,
I do not think most will ever leave America. Our Country is a very bountiful Country. Lots of trees for heat, lots of fields for crops, in many areas lots of rivers, lakes, reservoirs and wells for water. It is very possible to live off the land without wages. It just would take time for people to adjust to a different lifestyle.
We have to remember that all of the original settlers lived off the grid and provided all of their needs from the bountiful America.
The most likely scenario is more of the same. An ever expanding police state and erosion of individual liberty. It can last hundreds of years. Study history, sudden collapse of empires is extremely rare. There is generally a very long and gradual decline and then a seemingly "sudden" collapse brought about by some "trigger" such as external forces, internal division, power grabs by provincial leaders etc.
They can keep this show going long enough for everyone alive today to have died of natural causes. That's why I believe the proper course of action is not to move into the woods and prepare for the apocalypse, but to seek out greener pastures outside of the American police state.
And either way, whether it's more police state tyranny or a general collapse, it doesn't look good for the people living in the U.S. over these next few decades.
Many service and business people I know are totally open to bartering. There is less shame and stigma involved nowdays.
The roman empire mismanaged the productive capacity of the people to the point they wouldnt allow people to change jobs and taxes were based on how much you "should" be earning not on actual earnings. The people increasingly dropped out and bartered and lived subsistence lives and it reached the point taxes were paid in food and commodities and services rather than money.
Snr. Chavez,
True.
There is honor in genuine trade between honest people.
Yada yada yada.
Bottom line:the pets of the globalist central bank cartel and Trilateral Commission are terrified that their scam is exposed.
Their apparatchiks will fight harder to defend the status quo because their income and status depends on it. F'em.
They attack the U.S. and the Constitution because it stands in the way of their elite feudalism.
To my mind "dead broke" is when you can not access resources any more.
I don't think the USA or EU will have that specific problem any time soon. It is a matter of degrees, and of cumulative effects, rather than some on-off proposition.
This is the same reason why USD paper will not actually lose 100% of its value because the US still has a large physical resource base, and the means to access it, mobilise, and utilise it, plus engage in trade with these. Thus there is always going to be resources demand, and as long as there is steady demand (and there will be) then even a paper currency is not entirely unbacked and is not actually worth nothing at all.
It's also why even in the worst case of a hyper-inflationary Depressionary period the US people would still not die from famine, as orderly rationing would still be viable, and obviously would take place. So I'm also not convinced either of the view that digital fiat would not immediately make a quick comeback, especially if the USD FRN and FED system were summarily abandoned.
Necessity would require a replacement, and given commodities would then become so valuable, and necessarily 'nationalised' (yeah, you can bet on that), how then would such a currency not already be implicitly backed by economically viable state resources?
And I also wouldn't assume gold will be money of the day either, still just a store of value, because much of the State's backing value is going to be in physical commodities that we all need, for at least a few decades. I'm not convinced things will get so disorderly that we get a defacto gold standard, but I do think it will get so bad that the FRN, FED and TBTF will go away permanently. It was much the same for the dead-broke Soviet Union and they were still able to mobilise their resources and recover with a new fiat and banking system.
A black-market will become essential in the interim as political and market collapse and economic regeneration takes place, because no one is going to be stupid enough to trust the government or market again, for a very long time.
Even if the US destroys the FED system to destroy its debts, the US itself will still not become dead-broke. It has too much real stuff not to re-emerge as a major economy. And I'm quite certain the US is not about to run out of energy, or the means to obtain it.
This is a debt crisis, complicated by deliberately instigated massive corruption, injustice, theft and endless lies.
But it's still a transient, a very rotten but passing phase, and I'm not convinced it's not been worse before.
The public just got to see more of it this time, and who is doing it, and how they are doing it.
Some may feel that fiat currency is implicitly evil and dishonest, but that does not mean allegedly unbacked and worthless paper won't immediately return.
this has been going on for millenia. When the workers get squeezed, they withdraw their offer of
labour and reject the cash economy. I think that's why they had slaves in ancient Greece. to keep
them from leaving (of course, they were well fed).
This withdrawl was the reason why debt jubillees were the norm. otherwise, the people would withdraw.
I think that (coin) money has always been the bait of the rich to get people to come live in the
box called the city, under the rich man's control.
this is a small sign of the fact that we are inching ever closer to a civil war followed by a new revolution in favor of liberty, no matter if people like it or not.
http://expose2.wordpress.com
Terry Gilliam called it:
Top holiday security camps
-luxury without fear
-fun without suspicion
-relax in a panic free atmosphere
Have a suspicion free weekend zh
Even the fed admits its an unsustainable illusion:
HONOLULU, Hawaii, March 1 (Reuters) - Recent signs of improvement in the U.S. economy are encouraging but the rebound has been anemic and the Federal Reserve must "keep applying monetary policy stimulus vigorously," San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams said on Thursday.
"We are far short of maximum unemployment. And I expect inflation to fall this year below the 2 percent level that we view as consistent with our mandate," Williams said in a speech to a financial analysts' dinner in Honolulu.
Despite a recent drop in the unemployment rate to 8.3 percent, Williams said he expected it to remain above 8 percent into next year and to be "well over" 7 percent for several years to come.
Strained household finances, a weak housing market and tight credit conditions are likely to hold down spending growth for some time, he added.
"Let me emphasize, though, that overall things are turning for the better. You can sense greater optimism in the business community, although it is cautious optimism," said Williams, a voting member this year on the Fed's policy-setting panel.
Still, Williams said further stimulus may be needed if the economy stumbles again.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/02/usa-fed-williams-idUSL4E8E22S4...