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I Have A Better Idea: Get Rid Of The IRS, The Fed, and Vampyre Obama To Save The Dollar

REMEMBER THIS?

The American Taxpayer

Here are a few  stories that got lost in the tidal wave of crap coming out of Washington, D.C. recently, and something new today concerning the death of the dollar.

While everybody on the MSM is talking about the $17 Billion (that’s 1/5th of 1%) that bambi’s minions were able to shave from the $3.7 TRILLION BUDGET, (I can’t wait for QUADRILLION to become the norm), he is actually talking about sucking the taxpayers of even more their lifeforce for guess who?…the IRS; another vampyre organization that needs to go bye-bye along with other outdated fads like the singing bass, the pet rock, shag haircuts, platform shoes, and bell bottoms.

Earlier this month, the usurper-in-chief announced his proposal to close tax loopholes “…for companies and individuals with operations or bank accounts overseas.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is proposing to close tax loopholes for companies and individuals with operations or bank accounts overseas.

Obama said Monday he wants to prevent U.S. companies from deferring tax payments by keeping profits in foreign companies rather than recording them at home. He also called for more transparency in bank accounts held by Americans in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands.

Obama said that his plan would generate $210 billion in new taxes over 10 years and “make it easier” for companies to create jobs at home. Congress may resist portions of the plan.

Yes Sir, closing all those loopholes is going to keep American companies and American jobs here in the states….only if you are a complete dipsh*t, would you believe that.  How about we dump the Federal Reserve System, especially since they appear to be covering the transfer of $9 Trillion Dollars to whomever is their current flavor of the month, get rid of the Internal Revenue Service, (as you will soon see), and send the fascist in charge packing, (impeachment anyone?)

A few days later, it got even better.

Obama seeks to double tax law enforcement budget

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama proposed on Thursday nearly doubling funds to enforce U.S. tax laws next year, with an aim of more than quadrupling funding for tax compliance to $2.1 billion within five years.

The budget plan seeks $12.1 billion for the Internal Revenue Service, responsible for collecting and enforcing individual and corporate tax laws, for fiscal 2010, which begins October 1. That amounts to a roughly 5.2 percent increase over the IRS budget for 2009, which was $11.5 billion.

The budget proposal, which must be approved by Congress, includes a $890 million request to boost tax enforcement, including in the international arena, an increase of $400 million from 2009.

Underreporting of income by individuals and businesses led to a “tax gap” of $345 billion in 2001, the most recent year available, according to the government. Of that, corporate income tax and employment tax underreporting made up about $84 billion, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

The Obama administration said it would use the funds to further expand its efforts to boost compliance outside the U.S., “placing greater scrutiny on cross-border transactions and tax issues.”

Now most of us industrious little monsters know that the tax code is some 70,000 pages and that TurboTax Cheating Timmie cannot even do his own taxes.  We also know that our taxes are going to be going up next year, and that the 8 or so dollars that we are receiving in our paychecks is tax money we already paid and now we get to pay taxes on it again.  How can we be so frakkin’ blessed to have such a patriotic opportunity to pay taxes on the same money twice?  How?…It’s.Like.A.Dream.Come.True.  Joe Biden and the rest of the left wing liberal democrats are having wet dreams about this ponzi scheme.

Meanwhile, in the rest of realityville known as the world, most of you may already know that Brazil and China are in negotiations to replace the American Dollar as their currency of choice for trade deals between their two countries.

Brazil and China eye plan to axe dollar

Brazil and China will work towards using their own currencies in trade transactions rather than the US dollar, according to Brazil’s central bank and aides to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president.

The move follows recent Chinese challenges to the status of the dollar as the world’s leading international currency.

Mr Lula da Silva, who is visiting Beijing this week, and Hu Jintao, China’s president, first discussed the idea of replacing the dollar with the renminbi and the real as trade currencies when they met at the G20 summit in London last month.

An official at Brazil’s central bank stressed that talks were at an early stage. He also said that what was under discussion was not a currency swap of the kind China recently agreed with Argentina and which the US had agreed with several countries, including Brazil.

“Currency swaps are not necessarily trade related,” the official said. “The funds can be drawn down for any use. What we are talking about now is Brazil paying for Chinese goods with reals and China paying for Brazilian goods with renminbi.”

Henrique Meirelles and Zhou Xiaochuan, governors of the two countries’ central banks, were expected to meet soon to discuss the matter, the official said.

Mr Zhou recently proposed replacing the US dollar as the world’s leading currency with a new international reserve currency, possibly in the form of special drawing rights (SDRs), a unit of account used by the International Monetary Fund.

In September, Brazil and Argentina signed an agreement under which importers and exporters in the two countries may make and receive payments in pesos and reals, although they may also continue to use the US dollar if they prefer.

Now add this to the tsunami of crap overwhelming the average American.

Day of reckoning looms for the U.S. dollar

The U.S. dollar slid against most major currencies Wednesday, hitting a five-month low of US$1.3775 against the euro and pushing the Canadian dollar up US1.21¢ to a seven-month high of US87.69¢.

“By many measures, the U.S. appears just a few short steps away from losing its coveted triple-A status, unless the recovery turns out to be considerably stronger than expected and the fiscal repair is faster than commonly expected,” said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. “A downgrade could boost the cost of funding U.S. debt at the margin, but underlying inflation and fiscal fundamentals will ultimately be the primary driver.”

Despite the risk, Paul Ashworth, chief economist at Capital Economics, said the United States was unlikely to lose its rating. But, in the event of a downgrade, he said it would probably not have a lasting impact on the U.S. dollar.

However, he said a big threat lurked in the country’s expanded monetary base, which now stands at about US$1.8-trillion. While the expanded monetary base was needed to feed economic growth and ward off deflation under the Fed’s quantitative easing plan, Mr. Ashworth said such high levels could fuel rampant inflation once broader monetary conditions improved.

And then we have Greenspan weighing in on the little banks capital problems.

Greenspan Says Banks Still Have a ‘Large’ Capital Requirement

May 21 (Bloomberg) — Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan signaled that the financial crisis has yet to end even as borrowing costs tumble, warning that U.S. banks must raise “large” amounts of money.

“There is still a very large unfunded capital requirement in the commercial banking system in the United States and that’s got to be funded,” Greenspan said in an interview yesterday in Washington. He also said that “until the price of homes flattens out we still have a very serious potential mortgage crisis.”

Greenspan’s comments suggest he sees a bigger capital shortfall in the banking system than reflected in regulators’ stress tests on the 19 biggest U.S. lenders. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told lawmakers yesterday that banks have issued more than $56 billion in new stock or debt since the tests found 10 firms needed to raise about $75 billion.

A lack of capital at banks may inhibit lending to consumers and businesses, tempering any economic recovery. The former Fed chief, who left the central bank in 2006, said that the continued slump in home prices is putting at risk millions of borrowers.

“We’re on the edge and if this thing doesn’t get resolved quickly I’m worried,” he said before a meeting with House of Representatives members on financial regulation that was organized by the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center.

Home prices will only start to stabilize once the “liquidation” rate of single-family homes has peaked, he said. “I don’t think we’re there yet.”

This is what Alan Greenspan is talking about.

Small Banks Need Capital, Too, But Could Face Harder Time

Big banks aren’t the only ones under stress-their smaller competitors also need to raise billions in capital to meet tighter government standards but may have trouble doing so, some analysts believe.

While investors have focused mostly on the nation’s largest 19 banks that were the subject of the government stress tests, shares of some smaller banks have been getting pummeled since last week’s rollout of the test results.

One of the reasons: the stricter capital requirements for all banks-not just the 19 biggest-may prove too onerous for some of the regional and community institutions, causing some of them to fail.

“Most of these little banks won’t be able to do it,” said Richard Bove, banking analyst at Rochdale Securities. “We’re headed to a situation where the focus is going to be on small banks. The small banks are going to fail in, I think, pretty large numbers. I’m guessing 150.”

Now pay attention to this next section kids.

Many of the banks will have trouble raising capital due to a variety of factors, among them a “crowding out” factor in which the larger banks will scoop up the lion’s share of the investment money available, and the big banks’ diversity of business that contrasts to many smaller institutions’ stock-in-trade of basic retail lending.

“The ones that can’t access capital are going to have to basically get on their knees and go to a larger bank to take them over,” said Michael Cohn, chief investment strategist at Atlantis Asset Management in New York. “Over the next six months there’s going to be some consolidation with the banks that can’t raise capital, that are OK now but don’t meet the stress-test guidelines. Basically the government’s going to force them to consolidate.”

An additional factor, Bove suggests, is a fundamental desire by the government to knock out the weaker community banks and concentrate financial power in the hands of larger institutions.

That would fit into a philosophy that the comparatve lack of mega US banks and the capital to which they have access makes domestic corporations less competitive with their foreign counterparts, he said.

“The policy of the US government from the mid-1980s on has been to try to eliminate as many small banks as possible, although I doubt any government would admit that’s what they are doing,” he said.

Implementing the stress tests and putting the large banks into position where they would become over-capitalized is consistent with a strategy the government has been implementing since the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

If your head has not exploded yet, here are a few more links to help that process along.

Feds to inject $7.5B more into GMAC

Fed Open to Buying More Securities

Fed Officials Unconvinced Economy’s ‘Stabilization’ to Persist

Senate to Approve Obama’s $91B War Fund Request

Tracking Stimulus Spending May Not Be as Easy as Promised

I am not going to lay the whole economic meltdown situation at Bambi and Timmie’s feet, the responsibility for that could be spread over numerous government agencies, congressmen, senators, presidents, and banking officials, but Bambi and Timmie are NOT making the situation any better even though Timmie, (who cannot even do his own taxes), is saying the economy is stabilizing – wishful thinking if one were to ask me.

I’m still waiting to see what happens with the commercial real estate bubble.

If you have not figured out yet that the whole purpose of this economic meltdown was to completely drain the average American of every last penny, better get on board because after they print all this money and bail out all these companies, inflation is going to be gearing up to finish us off.

8 Responses to I Have A Better Idea: Get Rid Of The IRS, The Fed, and Vampyre Obama To Save The Dollar
  1. California Patriot
    May 21, 2009 | 4:28 am

    GREAT POST!!! It says it all. We are being screwed by a bunch of psychopaths; it’s been going for decades; it’s been going on under democrat and republican administrations.

    Regarding the IRS, I’ve been saying it since I first heard it, nobama is increasing its size in order to squeeze every last drop out of the American taxpayer’s pockets. We will be terrorized by the fascist IRS. I heard their advertisement the other day on the radio. They want to fill positions ranging in pay from approximately $32,000/year to $75,000/year. Every deduction we make will be scrutenized. They tell us it’s just for businesses; don’t fall for it.

    The banks continue to be bailed out because of the derivitives that are out there (maybe in the quadrillions of dollars!). We are paying for the psychopath’s gambling debts!!! Most of the American public don’t have a clue. Holy crap, wake up people.

    My 88 year-old father says we have to vote the politicians out of office. I say we need to physically take them out of office. Take their sorry asses out of office and put them in prison; try them for treason, try them for crimes against humanity, try them for crimes against the laws of God and nature.

    I find myself asking, where is my country? Where is the America I grew up in? Sadly, it was all an illusion. However, I’m not going to give up hope. We still have our Constitution, the greatest document ever written to govern a nation. We can’t let them take that away; it’s our foundation. We need to cling to that document like we cling to our guns and religion. They are trying to destroy it because they know they must in order to defeat us. We have to fight. We have to come together as a collective body.

  2. InsightAnalytical-GRL
    May 21, 2009 | 9:58 am

    Talking heads yesterday on CNBC were talking about the commercial real estate market…today there was a story in the ABQ Journal about a huge office building on the market in NYC for….$100,000!!!

    As for the dollar…talking heads saying China’s taking over the reserve currency will take ten years if it happens and gee whiz, what is the alternative to the dollar? He added that GOLD might become the reserve currency…and, of course, we know how China is buying up gold as are other countries to build up their reserves.

    Seems they’re moving pretty damned fast to me. China and Brazil are also involved in the IMF bond business, by the way (along with India).

  3. Practical Madman
    May 21, 2009 | 1:32 pm

    WAKE UP EVERYONE!!! The banksters rule the world and OWN Washington. This is ALL an illusion! The constitution was left behind in 1873 and we have been ruled (not governed) by a corporation since then. In 1873 congress incorporated Washington. In 1913 they gave the power completely to the banksters. Bankers do not lend money without collateral, and it is no accident that income taxes were also created in 1913. Our taxes (read tributes) are 100% going to the banksters as payment on the interest on the debt (on money “THEY” created from thin air at interest rates “THEY” set). “THEY” will not be happy until there is not a dime left between us left to take!

    In 1933 the corporation went bankrupt, the banksters took all of the gold in Fort Knox for payment of the debt, and that wasn’t enough so they had Roosevelt take all of the gold out of our pockets. This was still not enough money to satisfy the banksters, and in 1936 “THEY” created Social Security to bleed more money from us to give to the banksters. In 1945 at the Brenton Woods, the banksters sold the Corp. US to the IMF. The entity in Washington is OWNED, lock, stock, and barrel by a foreign corporation.

    When you see a flag with gold fringe around the edge, it is the corporate flag, not ours (our flag actually has 48 stars on it because Alaska and Hawaii were added by this corporation- not the legal constitutional government). Every court, post office, and Federal office has this flag in it. Every time you see BO or anyone from congress on TV, there is a gold fringed flag behind them. It is time for EVERYONE to wake up. We lost our country over 100 years ago. We are not using the constitution and have not been for quite a while now! We are living on borrowed time!

    Everything is going according to plan. “THEY” are a few years behind in schedule, and we would already be in FEMA camps for several years now if “THEY” had their way. “THEY” are running behind schedule because of the internet and it’s ability for us to exchange info and wake others up. It won’t be long now before “THEY” shut down this last speed bump to their plans.

    It is way past time to make plans. Stock up on food. Stock up on weapons and ammo (it is almost too late for this). Make plans to get out of the cities at a moment’s notice and have some place to head to. The going is getting ready to get real rough.

    “THEY” are getting ready to collapse the dollar. The US is the last nation of “freedom” and when it falls, there is nothing in their way to install a world government. This has been the plan for over 100 years. If nothing else, these banksters are very patient. They put out a plan they knew would take several generations to accomplish. They call it “the work of the ages”.

    They had to get us to a point of desperation, because we (the citizens) are armed to the teeth and there is no force on earth greater than a free man (or 300 million) fighting for that freedom. This is the main reason there are so many bills to disarm us and to make those that have guns criminals. They have gotten us lulled into a false sense that they will take care of everything. They have gotten the majority of the population dependent on them. They have gotten us dumbed down, drugged up, and distracted so that we can not think.

    Poisons in our food (aspartame and MSG) and water (fluoride) approved by the FDA, poison in our air (aluminum, barium, and other things) with chemtrails, “THEY” do not want you to be healthy. 40 years ago one out of 300 had cancer, now it is one in three. 40 years ago there were 3 inoculations required to go to school, now there are over 50.

    Diamond, this is a great post and you clearly have put a lot of time into compiling it. Now you need to read between the lines. All of this is just distraction. It is meant to get us riled up. It is meant to make us ready to start a new revolution. It is meant to make us want to forcibly throw them out on their asses. That is what “THEY” want. “THEY” want us to make the first move. “THEY” want us to fire the first shot. “THEY” will just keep up with the insanity till they get their way.

    If you have never seen “Endgame” by Alex Jones
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4583630379439989634&hl=en
    it is time. I have been doing a lot of research for months now, and everything he says here is provable, and the most concise documentation of “THEIR” plans.

  4. NoTingles
    May 21, 2009 | 1:50 pm

    When you look around and notice that all your “friends” have abandoned you, do you do a quick breath check, or is there a deeper reason?

    And if you still don’t believe the dollar US ‘as lost ‘er luster…then maybe you will believe it when you learn other countries are unloading dollars as fast as they can.

    Take read of this article by By Vadim Pokhlebkin about the Chinese exodus from the dollar, and how as Diamond pointed out above they’druther trade in of all things…Brazilian Reals!! Holy Cow! What does that tell you? Maybe the graph tracking REAL vs DOLLAR will bring it home for you! Here’s the URL to the article:
    http://www.elliottwave.com/freeupdates/archives/2009/05/21/China%92s-Dollar-Exodus.aspx

    So, what’s the moral of the story:
    First, money doesn’t grow on trees, but neither does it come out of thin air per the Federal Reserve System.
    Second, there is a finite amount of debt that can be absorbed by any any economy. We surpassed our limit years ago. But did that make us stop and think that bailing out those too big to fail might, just might, cause us to loose all credibility in the global market? It apparently has not.
    So, what does our government go and do, why they attempt to bail out GMAC, because, well, it worked for Penn Central didn’t it? Since those days nearly 40 years ago, this STUPID idea that bailout is a good thing has become not last resort, but SOP!! Without batting an eye, let alone a few moments of debate, they ram this stuff through the legislature as if they have to or the whole world will come to a screeching halt. Instead, our currency, and thereby our country is going to be turned into a global pariah from a superpower. Thank you ever so much Mr. Obama! Did you really think that the NWO would want a looser debtor nation like us in their club? It’s going to hurt. But I have to agree with End The Fed, and Ron Paul, and Diamond, that the Federal Reserve System, AND the traitors in Government who aided and abetted, are the source of the problem. I have to agree it’s time to shitcan the FED, and those who played along with it.

  5. Grail Guadrian
    May 21, 2009 | 4:58 pm

    PM,

    So what’s the solution?

  6. navyvet48
    May 21, 2009 | 8:05 pm

    By the way the Federal Reserve Bank won’t have clue when the inflation begins to hit us or how bad it will be because they no longer track it. UGH!

  7. Practical Madman
    May 22, 2009 | 3:08 pm

    Grail Guadrian: the answer is to make as many people as possible aware of the facts that I have posted here. Don’t take my word for it, do some research and prove it to yourself, then tell as many as will listen. WAKE THEM UP!!!!

    If we fail, then “THEY” will have won, and we are doomed. If the majority of the sheeple remain just that, blind, deaf, and dumb sheeple, “THEY” win. But the more that can be awoken, the better our chances are of winning our country back and reinstating a constitutional government. As long as we believe the false history that we were fed in History Class, “THEY” have won. As long as we are falsely lead to believe that the Fed. Gov’t has power to make laws at will, then we loose. Read the Federalist papers to see the true thoughts of the founding fathers. The biggest advantage “THEY” have is our ignorance! Read all you can about Thomas Jefferson, the most brilliant man ever. Read about Andrew Jackson and how he fought the establishment of a central bank. Thomas Jefferson said “If we ever let the banks control the issue of money, the corporations that will grow up around them will deprive us of our wealth and our children will wake up homeless in the land their fathers won” Look around…what is happening? The Federal Reserve is a private bank. The bankers have controlled the issue of money for 100 years and the value of our money has depreciated 96%.

    All this talk of a “constitutional convention” is just to totally kill the constitution we have once and for all. Once they are behind those closed doors, there is no telling what will emerge! (and I can guarantee you that it will have no resemblance to the constitution that we all believe still exists).

    Do a search on “the missing 13th amendment”, do a search on “1873 incorporation of Washington DC”, read and memorize the constitution and understand that there are very limited powers outlined as belonging to the Fed. Gov’t, and the 10th amendment says basically, “if we have forgotten anything, you can’t do that either- all power is left to the states and the people”. Do a search on the Federal Reserve- check out The Creature From Jekyll Island- by G. Edward Griffin. Watch the Endgame by Alex Jones and it will give you more links to research. Read or do a search on “The Red Amendment” it is about how the 14th amendment made us all slaves and porperty that is owned by the Federal Gov’t!

    Once the politicians realize that we are awake, they will straighten up. As long as we keep re-electing them and they do not have to be held accountable, they will keep voting with their wallets. If they realize the jig is up, they will come around, or new politicians that really want to spread the truth will arise. No sitting politician wants to be unemployed, and if they have to toe the line to keep their job, they will. If there is a threat of treason and imprisonment for that charge looming, they WILL toe the line.

    If we fail to wake others up and we fail to educate ourselves as to what the constitution really says and when it got left behind, then the only hope is to follow the founding fathers’ path, and no one really wants another revolutionary war.

    The states are just as guilty. By 1973 ALL of the states had been replaced with corporations just like the Fed. Gov’t. Just go to your local post office and you will see a state flag, and a Fed flag, both
    “infringed” with gold fringe. The banksters create the money from thin air, and every politician will sell your soul and theirs for it, as long as we are asleep and they will never see the inside of a court room facing treason charges.

    Right now, to a certain extent, we still have the first amendment. Use it to talk about the true duty of government. Use it to wake others up. As long as the internet is still intact, do some research and learn where things got hijacked. Once the first amendment is gone, we have no choice but to use the second!

  8. Practical Madman
    May 22, 2009 | 3:12 pm

    PS- Many many thanks to Diamond for all of her work establishing this site and for her tireless efforts in deep diving into those rabbit holes and fighting her way through those many layered webs. God Bless and protect her!

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THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT PIECES TO READ ON THIS SITE:

Tea Party Patriots Vs. The Master Class

Still have that sinking feeling in your midsection every time you think about the District of Criminals, The Fed, Bernanke, etc.?  Are you still not sleeping well at night because you know something is “so wrong” but the scope of the problem is just getting larger each day?

Remember when we spoke about giving up every last penny of our wealth to get rid of the bloodsucking elites that are killing our childrens’ futures?

After reading this commentary, you will have the concise MATH, (there’s that word again), and course of the nation that  explains why you feel like a hamster on crack, and can’t sleep at night.  The numbers do not lie.

This piece is long, it’s brutal, and it will make you weep, but I urge you to read every single word because it will resonate. Remember it when the epitome of the elite class gives his State of The Union Address, and then it will be time to get the little gray cells working because I refuse to allow these bastards to keep raping us into indentured servitude.

America’s Impending Master Class Dictatorship

Copyright 2010 by Stewart Dougherty, with all rights reserved.

FOREWORD: At certain times, focusing on the big picture is important not just for investment success, but for personal welfare, and even survival. We believe such times are here. It is estimated that 98% of Americans have never held a gold coin in their hands. Yet 100% of Americans regularly handle Federal Reserve Notes. From a contrarian standpoint, the financial message from those two statistics is clear. Even so, gold is much more than money or an investment medium; it stands for liberty and throughout history has facilitated escape and ensured freedom. Never having touched a gold coin is the monetary equivalent to never having breathed fresh air, felt the warmth of sunshine, looked up at the stars or risen from the gutter. Fiat Federal Reserve Notes are becoming nothing more than sewage decomposing in the vast, toxic septic tank of predatory Washington politics, epic Federal Reserve arrogance and error, blatant Wall Street fraud and outright Master Class plunder. Below, we outline America’s troubling and compounding predicament, and urge you to think about how to protect yourself from its consequences, both financially and personally.

Thanks to the endless barrage of feel-good propaganda that daily assaults the American mind, best epitomized a few months ago by the “green shoots,” everything’s-coming-up-roses propaganda touted by Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, the citizens have no idea how disastrous the country’s fiscal, monetary and economic problems truly are. Nor do they perceive the rapidly increasing risk of a totalitarian nightmare descending upon the American Republic.

One stark and sobering way to frame the crisis is this: if the United States government were to nationalize (in other words, steal) every penny of private wealth accumulated by America’s citizens since the nation’s founding 235 years ago, the government would remain totally bankrupt.

According to the Federal Reserve’s most recent report on wealth, America’s private net worth was $53.4 trillion as of September, 2009. But at the same time, America’s debt and unfunded liabilities totaled at least $120,000,000,000,000.00 ($120 trillion), or 225% of the citizens’ net worth. Even if the government expropriated every dollar of private wealth in the nation, it would still have a deficit of $66,600,000,000,000.00 ($66.6 trillion), equal to $214,286.00 for every man, woman and child in America and roughly 500% of GDP. If the government does not directly seize the nation’s private wealth, then it will require $389,610 from each and every citizen to balance the country’s books. State, county and municipal debts and deficits are additional, already elephantine in many states (e.g., California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York) and growing at an alarming rate nationwide. In addition to the federal government, dozens of states are already bankrupt and sinking deeper into the morass every day.

The government continues to dig a deeper and deeper fiscal grave in which to bury its citizens. This year, the federal deficit will total at least $1,600,000,000,000.00 ($1.6 trillion), which represents overspending of $4,383,561,600.00 ($4.38 billion) per day. (The deficit during October and November, 2009, the first two months of Fiscal Year 2010, totaled $296,700,000,000.00 ($297 billion), or $4,863,934,000.00 ($4.9 billion) per day, a record.) Using the GAAP accounting method (which is what corporations are required to use because it presents a far more accurate and honest picture of a company’s finances than the cash accounting method primarily and misleadingly used by the U.S. government), the nation’s fiscal year 2009 deficit was roughly $9,000,000,000,000.00 ($9 trillion), or $24,700,000,000.00 ($24.7 billion) per day, as calculated by brilliant and well-respected economist John Williams. (www.shadowstats.com) Fiscal Year 2010’s cash- and GAAP-accounting deficits will likely be worse than 2009’s, given government bailout and new program spending that is on steroids and psychotic.

Putting Fiscal Year 2009’s $9,000,000,000,000.00 ($9 trillion) deficit another way, 17% of America’s private wealth, accumulated over a period of 235 years, was wiped out by just one year’s worth of government deficit spending insanity.

Given this, is it any surprise that Treasury Secretary Geithner has announced that the release of the nation’s FY 2009 supplemental GAAP financial statements has been delayed? Remember, this is the same Secretary Geithner who bullied people to cover up the sordid details of the AIG, or more accurately, the taxpayer-funded, multi-billion dollar, Santa Claus bailout and bonus bonanza for Goldman Sachs. Do you really think this government, characterized as it is by fiscal and monetary secrecy, lies, chicanery, cronyism and stonewalling, wants the people to know what is actually happening? Obviously, it does not, so it hides from the public the inexcusable facts.

It is estimated that the top 1% of Americans control roughly 40% of the nation’s wealth. In other words, 3 million people own $21,400,000,000,000.00 ($21.4 trillion) in net private assets, while the other 305 million own the remaining $32,000,000,000,000.00 ($32 trillion). 77,000,000 (77 million) Americans (the lowest 25%) have mean net assets of minus $2,300 ($-2,300.00) per person; they live from paycheck to paycheck, or on public assistance. The lower 50% of Americans own mean net assets of $27,800 each, about enough to purchase a modest car. Obviously, it would be impossible to retire on such an amount without significant government or other assistance. Meanwhile, the richest 10% of Americans possess mean net assets of $3,976,000.00 each, or 143 times those of the bottom 50%; the top 2% control assets worth more than 1,500 times those in the bottom 50%. When you combine these facts with Wall Street’s typical multi-million dollar annual bonuses, you get an idea of wealth inequality in America. Historically, such extreme inequality has been a well-documented breeding ground for totalitarianism.

If the government decides to expropriate (steal) or commandeer (e.g., force into Treasuries) America’s private wealth in order to buy survival time, such a measure will be designed to destroy the common citizens, not the elite. Insiders will be given advance warning about any such plan, and will be able to transfer their money offshore or into financial vehicles immune from harm. Assuming that the elite moves its money to safety, there would then be $120,000,000,000,000.00 ($120 trillion) in American debt and liabilities supported by only $32,000,000,000,000.00 ($32 trillion) in private net worth, for a deficit of $88,000,000,000,000.00 ($88 trillion). In that case, each American would owe $285,714.29 to balance the country’s books.  (Remember to multiply this amount by every person in your household, including any infant children.)

If the common people suspect that something diabolical was in the works, a portion of the $32 trillion in non-elite wealth could be evacuated as well prior to a government expropriation and/or currency devaluation, resulting in less money for the government to steal. What these statistics mean is that it is absolutely impossible for the government to fund its debt and deficits, even if it steals all of the nation’s private wealth. Therefore, the government’s only solutions are either formal bankruptcy (outright debt repudiation and the dismantling of bankrupt government programs) or unprecedented American monetary inflation and debt monetization. If the government chooses to inflate its way out of this fiscal catastrophe, the United States dollar will essentially become worthless. You can be absolutely certain that a PhD. in economics, such as Dr. Bernanke, is well aware of these realities, despite what he might say in speeches. For that matter, so are Chinese schoolchildren, who, when patronized by Treasury Secretary Geithner about America’s “strong dollar,” laughed in his face. One day, perhaps America’s school children will receive a real education so that they, too, will know when to laugh at absurd propaganda.

The government has announced that during the fiscal years from 2010 through 2019, it will create an additional $9,000,000,000,000.00 ($9 trillion) in deficits, an amount that is almost certain to be understated by trillions given the country’s current economic trajectory. The government assumes that this vast additional deficit will be funded by others, such as the Chinese, as it is a statistical fact that the United States will be incapable of funding it.

Furthermore, with the budgetary equivalent of a straight face, the Office of Management and Budget reports in its long-term, inter-generational budget projection that the United States government will experience massive, non-stop deficits for the next 70 (SEVENTY) years, requiring the issuance of tens of trillions of dollars of additional debt. The OMB does not project even one year of surplus during the entire seventy year budget period.

These deficits and debts are now so gargantuan that they have become surreal abstractions impossible even for sophisticated financiers to begin to comprehend. The common citizen has absolutely no idea what these numbers mean, or imply for his or her future. The people have been deluded into thinking that America’s arrogant, egomaniacal, always-wrong-but-never-in-doubt fiscal witch doctors and charlatans, including Greenspan, Rubin, Summers, Geithner and Ponce de Bernanke, have discovered a Monetary Fountain of Youth that endlessly spits up free money from the center of earth, in a geyser of good will toward the United States. Unfortunately, this delusion is false: there is no Monetary Fountain of Youth, and contrary to the apparent beliefs of the self-deified man-gods in Washington, D.C., the debt and deficits are real, completely out of control, and 100% guaranteed to create catastrophic consequences for the nation and its people.

When government “representatives” deliberately sell into slavery the citizens of a so-called free Republic, they have committed treason against those people. This is exactly what has happened in the United States: the citizens have been sold into debt slavery that they and their descendants can never escape, because the debts piled onto their backs can never, ever be paid. Despite expensive and sophisticated brainwashing campaigns emanating from Washington, claiming that America can “grow” out of its deficits and debt, it is arithmetically impossible for the country to do so. The government’s statements that it can dig the nation out of its fiscal hole by digging an even deeper chasm have become parodies and perversions of even totally discredited and morally disgusting Keynesianism.

The people no longer have elected representatives; they have elected traitors.

The enslavement of the American people has been orchestrated by a pernicious Master Class that has taken the United States by the throat. This Master Class is now choking the nation to death as it accelerates its master plan to plunder the people’s dwindling remaining assets. The Master Class comprises politicians, the Wall Street money elite, the Federal Reserve, high-end government (including military) officials, government lobbyists and their paymasters, military suppliers and media oligarchs. The interests and mindset of the Master Class are so totally divorced from those of the average American citizen that it is utterly tone deaf and blind to the justifiable rage sweeping the nation. Its guiding ethics of greed, plunder, power, control and violence are so alien to mainstream American culture and thought that the Master Class might as well be an enemy invader from Mars. But the Master Class here, it is real and it is laying waste to America. To the members of the Master Class, the people are not fellow-citizens; they are instruments of labor, servitude and profit. At first, the Master Class viewed the citizens as serfs; now that they have raped and destroyed the national economy, while in the process amassing unprecedented wealth and power for themselves, they see the people as nothing more than slaves.

America’s public finances are now so completely dysfunctional and chaotic that something far worse than debt enslavement and monetary implosion, terrible curses unto themselves, looms on the horizon: namely, a Master Class-sponsored American dictatorship.

Throughout history, the type of situation in which America now finds itself has been a fertility factory for tyranny. The odds of an outright overthrow of the people by the Washington and Wall Street Axis, or more broadly, the Master Class are increasing dramatically. The fact that so few people believe an American dictatorship is possible is exactly why it is becoming likely.

Dictatorships have blighted history and ruined lives since the beginning of civilization. In recent times alone, tyrants such as Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu, Amin, Hussein, Mussolini, Tojo, Kim, Pinochet, Milosevic, Tito, Batista, Peron, Pol Pot, Mugabe, Marcos, Somoza, Mengistu, Bokassa, Sese Seko, Franco, Ho Chi Minh, Mao, and Castro have power-sprayed blood onto the screen of time and ravaged mankind with murder, torture and human oppression. A full catalog of history’s tyrants would require a book of hundreds of pages. In the past 100 years alone, over 200 million human beings have been annihilated by wars, ethnic cleansings and government assassinations. Just when we think that civilization has been able to rise above tyranny’s inhumanity and disgrace, a new dictator appears on the scene to start the process all over again. Every time this happens, fear and submission paralyze the vast majority of the affected masses, leading them to “follow orders” and lick autocracy’s blood-stained boots.

History has proven to tyrants that oppression works. In fact, it is easy to control a populace, once you control the money, markets, military (including police), media and minions (the recipients of welfare, social security, free health care, government jobs and the like, who are dependent upon the state and likely to be compliant). This is exactly where the United States is today.

Recent American events paint an ominous picture of a Master Class that is now in total control.

When 90% of the American people vehemently rejected the $700,000,000,000.00 ($700 billion) TARP bailout plan, the Master Class put it on a fast track and approved it anyway.

When a clear majority of the American people said no to a government takeover of Chrysler and GM, the Master Class poured billions of taxpayer dollars into those corporate sinkholes and took them over anyway.

When the people said no to multi-trillion dollar crony bailouts for the bankers and insurers whose corruption had caused global financial mayhem, the government pledged to those elite insiders more than $13,000,000,000,000.00 ($13 trillion) of the people’s money anyway.

When the people expressed astonishment and anger that Wall Street planned to pay itself record 2009 bonuses, in the midst of America’s worst-ever fiscal and financial crisis caused by them, Wall Street stuffed its pockets with taxpayer-supported bonus money anyway.

When the people said no to a proposed $40,000,000,000.00 ($40 billion) bailout of AIG and its elite trading partners such as Goldman Sachs (an amount that subsequently exploded to $180,000,000,000.00+ ($180+ billion)), the Master Class went underground, covertly misappropriated taxpayer money and made the payoffs anyway.

When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were nationalized at enormous taxpayer expense, the government approved $6,000,000.00 individual pay packages in 2009 (150 times the average American wage) for the CEOs of both failed companies anyway.

When a clear majority of the people said no to nationalized health care, even after being bombarded by a multi-million dollar, lie-drenched propaganda campaign designed to bamboozle them, the House and Senate passed nationalized health care bills anyway.

When more than seven million American workers lost their jobs and were subsisting on unemployment benefits and food stamps, federal government employees, who now earn DOUBLE what private sector workers earn, were given another round of pay and benefits increases anyway.

When private sector workers’ 401Ks and IRA retirement plans plummeted in value due to economic collapse and endemic Wall Street-orchestrated market corruption (including systemic front running, flash trading, naked short selling and other manipulations), government “defined benefit,” lifetime-cost-of-living-adjusted pension plans, despite already being underfunded by $2,000,000,000,000.00 ($2 trillion), were made richer than ever anyway.

The long, shameful litany of events signaling the total divorce between the Master Class and the people of the United States doesn’t stop there. It goes on and on.

The message from the American Master Class to the American people is simple and clear:

We Defy You.

Governments that openly defy the people are either already totalitarian or in the process of becoming so. Monetarily, the United States clearly functions as a totalitarian dictatorship already, with a Federal Reserve that operates in secrecy, creates limitless amounts of debt and currency at will, and showers trillions of dollars upon favored Master Class insiders with zero transparency or accountability whatsoever. The Federal Reserve is so shameless about its dictatorial powers that it flatly refuses to provide details about multi-trillion dollar bailouts and rescues of privileged elites, in open defiance of Congress and the people. The fact that they get away with these blatant acts of defiance demonstrates the true extent of the Master Class chokehold on America.

If the Master Class were a benign despot and if its policies and programs actually worked, that would be one thing. But that is not the case. Rather, its programs are in a complete shambles.

Every single government entitlement program in the United States is bankrupt. This includes Social Security ($17,500,000,000,000.00 underfunded; $17.5 trillion); Medicare Part A ($36,700,000,000,000.00 underfunded; $36.7 trillion); Medicare Part B ($37,000,000,000,000.00 underfunded; $37 trillion); Medicare Part D ($15,600,000,000,000 underfunded; $15.6 trillion), Government and military pensions ($2,000,000,000,000 underfunded; $2 trillion), Food Stamps (current underfunding difficult to measure because the number of recipients is exploding; hundreds of billions underfunded versus original projections, minimum); and the list goes on. The above underfunding amounts are NET of projected tax receipts over the next 50 years. But the current recession has invalidated virtually all long-term budget and tax receipt assumptions, meaning that the true underfunded amounts are now greater than current, already mind-boggling estimates.

While the above statistics are terrifying enough to any citizen with a functioning brain, what is Twilight Zone-eerie and a far more serious cause for alarm is the casual indifference with which the Master Class is now making the country’s dire and irreparable fiscal circumstances even worse.

The nationalized health care program will cost at least $1 trillion over the next ten years, and most likely multiples of that. It is being crammed down America’s throat by a bankrupt government that does not have the money today and will not have the money tomorrow to pay for it. Worse is the fact that the same government that has bankrupted each and every existing social program now intends to directly or indirectly control the health care of all citizens. Based on the government’s existing track record and the health care program’s enormous complexity, invasiveness and cost, the probability that it will become a national fiscal and humanitarian catastrophe is roughly 100%.

“Cap and Trade” is a multi-trillion dollar tax scam being foisted onto the American public without a legitimate debate or popular referendum. You might be surprised to learn that “Climate Revenues” are already included in the federal budget, starting with $79,000,000,000.00 ($79 billion) in fiscal year 2012, which begins only 20 months from now. During fiscal years 2012 through 2019, the government expects to collect $646,000,000,000.00 ($646 billion) in “Climate Revenues,” a completely new tax category. Have any of your elected traitors told you that they have enacted $646,000,000,000.00 ($646 billion) in “Climate” taxes beginning twenty months from now and continuing forever? These “Climate Revenues” are based on junk science, lies and hysteria, and have been pimped by greed-diseased parasites who seek to make billions from operating and manipulating the Cap and Trade “marketplace.” Favored elitists such as Hank Paulson, Al Gore, General Electric and Goldman Sachs, among others, have positioned themselves to profit from the nation’s upcoming Cap and Trade tax misery and economic debilitation.

The reality is that the giant Ponzi scheme called the United States of America is running out of money. In any Ponzi scheme, money must constantly be poured into the top of the funnel in order to pay the redeemers at the bottom. As the number of redeemers has grown, tax receipts have fallen far short of covering their withdrawals, a problem that has now become an outright government funding emergency further aggravated by the fiscal, financial and economic crises.

If the Washington and Wall Street Axis were not legally able to create and distribute counterfeit American money, the Ponzi scheme would have collapsed already. Trillions of new, out-of-thin-air, printing-press and electronic “dollars” have bought the Axis additional time, but new sources of revenue must immediately be found to keep the scam alive. Congress is fully aware of this reality. Outright tax increases would be bad politics during a recession that is morphing into a depression, and also bad for 2010 re-election campaigns, so they cannot be implemented. Therefore, Congress continues to advance the health care and Cap and Trade agendas, which are nothing but taxation Trojan Horses festooned in righteousness and sanctimony, despite overwhelming popular opposition.

If the nationalized health care program is passed, revenues and fees will kick in immediately in 2010, whereas costs will not begin to accrue until 2012 and later. The government plans to spend the revenues immediately to forestall a total fiscal collapse. Nationalized health care has absolutely nothing to do with health care; it has to do with creating an immediate revenue stream to help fix the current government funding crisis. Similarly, Cap and Trade has nothing to do with fixing the environment. It, too, is nothing more than a massive tax increase similarly designed to address the government’s epic funding shortfall, with thick slices of pork thrown  in for privileged insiders and deceitful propagandists like bloated “Father of the Internet” and now “Savior of the World” Al Gore.

The last thing the Master Class wants is for the people to understand the disastrous state of the nation’s finances. Master Class brainwashing tells the people that it is “negative” and “pessimistic” to look at the facts, despite the fact that psychological health is characterized by the ability to identify and deal with reality. The Master Class wants the people to put on Bozo the Clown happy faces and let sugar plums and green shoots dance in their brains as they write one check after another to pay for Cap and Trade, nationalized health care, and a mind-numbing assortment of other taxes and fees.

On Sunday night, November 30, 2009, North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Il (a name that says it all, even better than Made-off’s), an international poster child of Master Class psychological illness, devalued his country’s currency by 99%. This vicious tyrant, who has given birth to a national hell on earth, is chauffeured in Mercedes Benz limousines, drinks the finest imported whiskies and dines in imperial dignity on foods prepared by personal chefs while his citizens starve to death on the streets or, at best, eke out a subsistence living. Kim became paranoid that the people were actually figuring out how to improve their pitiful, impoverished lives in tiny ways, so he decided to wipe them out. The people were given one week to exchange their money at a rate of 100 old Won for 1 new Won. Any lifetime family savings in excess of roughly $700.00 were simply confiscated by the North Korean government. To keep the people in line, the military and police were put on high alert, fully prepared to kill or arrest any protesters.

On January 9, 2010, Venezuela’s strong man Hugo Chavez devalued his country’s currency by 50%, overnight and without warning, causing immediate inflation, shortages of food and supplies, and general financial chaos throughout the nation.

While you might be shaking your head in pity over the plight of the citizens of North Korea and Venezuela, ask yourself this: could this not happen in the United States?

On April 5, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, an Obama hero, outlawed gold ownership overnight by signing Executive Order 6102, which gave the people three and one-half weeks to surrender all privately-owned bullion to the government for a price of $20.67 per ounce. On January 30, 1934, nine months after collecting the people’s gold, Roosevelt devalued the dollar 69% overnight, by raising the gold price from $20.67 to $35.00 per ounce.

Since its founding in 1913, the Federal Reserve has devalued the dollar by 98+% thanks to endless money printing and debt creation, a corrosive and impoverishing process that is now accelerating. In the past year, the Fed has engineered $20+ trillion in bailouts, subsidies and guarantees for well-connected and lucky scavengers and opportunists, an amount equal to roughly 40% of the total private wealth created in this country since its inception. All because a few elitist government man-gods with an almost perfect record of error and failure have deemed in their imperial wisdom that it shall be so. The citizens, whose hard-earned wealth is being systematically destroyed by this continual, government-decreed monetary debasement were never invited to the debate or given a say, which is par for the course for dictatorships. This massive de facto devaluation now hangs over the people’s wealth like a great monetary sword of Damocles.

Conceptually, whether it is a 50% overnight devaluation in Venezuela, a 69% overnight devaluation in the United States, a 98% devaluation in America over time, or a 99% overnight devaluation in North Korea, what is the difference? The fact is: there is no difference; monetary debasements are all the same. In each and every case, the people’s wealth is stolen via government edict, while the people stand by helplessly and in shock.

So one must ask: For whom does the bell toll? A foreign “them,” or a domestic us? Who is to say that you will not be told tomorrow morning that, effective immediately, in accordance with some perversely named mandate such as the “American Monetary Security, Wealth Preservation and Terrorism Prevention Act,” enacted by emergency for “the safety of the nation and the financial well being of the citizens,” all existing currency and bank balances will be redenominated in “New Dollars,” at a conversion rate of 1 new for every 100 old currency units? Would this not simply be another, almost predictable act of defiance toward the American people by the Master Class? And if that happened, do you honestly believe that the Master Class would not have been alerted in advance and allowed to make special preparations for itself ahead of the devaluation? Do you think they intend to go down in the same ship as the people they defy? If such a currency devaluation were announced, what could you do about it? March on Washington? But how would you get there if your money had been wiped out?

Despite what you may hear from State Media, which includes virtually all establishment news organizations, particularly financial ones (e.g., CNBC), America is on the precipice. No bankrupt nation in history has ever defended or preserved the freedoms of its citizens. In fact, it has been the exact opposite: in desperation, bankrupt governments have routinely plundered their citizens’ wealth and imposed totalitarian controls. What will make things different for the United States, the largest debtor nation in all of recorded civilization?

The United States government cannot ever, possibly pay its debts, is pathologically incapable of controlling its spending or curbing its hunger for both domestic and international empire and persistently refuses to tell the American people the truth. If America’s citizens were told the truth and given the benefit of true leadership, as opposed to the guile and dishonesty of an endless array of political liars and hacks, perhaps they could rally and defeat the problems that afflict them. But instead, they are fed by the Master Class a steady diet of narcotic propaganda that deludes, confuses and enervates them. The truth cannot set people free if it is never told, and that is the essence of America’s gathering tragedy.

In a future article, we will detail specific developments you should watch for to chart the course of America’s ominous and potentially deadly national storm. The current, grave situation is already a clear call to action. When the signals become even more urgent, it will be late in the game to take protective action, and possibly too late. Citizens should begin to prepare now not just for financial survival, but for the personal security of themselves and their loved ones should a Category 5 economic and political hurricane rip into the nation, something that becomes more likely every day.

With respect to personal finances, in virtually every national currency devaluation and major political upheaval in the past, gold has represented sanctuary for the affected people. Gold has not just preserved wealth, but personal freedom as well. While governments can devalue fiat currencies, they cannot, by edict, devalue gold. Yes, they can try to manipulate its price, but unless all governments join in the collusion, ultimately the price will return to market. The market for gold is global, and demand exists in all nations and among all peoples. Should the government attempt to confiscate gold, it will be an outright admission that the financial system is collapsing, and the people will know better than to hand over to a corrupt government their only means of survival. The most important point is this: devalued currencies never rise again. Once they are destroyed, they are gone forever, and those whose wealth had once been denominated in them are wiped out. As you have no doubt heard before, not one fiat currency has survived over time, and that is an indisputable fact. More significantly, no fiat currency has ever suffered the abuse that has been inflicted upon the United States dollar, meaning that it is at extreme risk. Gold has been money for 5,000 years. It has not merely survived, it has prevailed over each and every fiat currency collapse throughout history. Given this, the most important financial question a person can ask him- or herself today is: How is my wealth denominated at this time? And given its denomination, is my wealth likely to be safe in current and evolving circumstances?

One thing is certain: as the epic David and Goliath monetary battle unfolds, between the people fighting to defend their hard-earned wealth on one side, and a Master Class that greedily and pathologically wants to plunder them on the other, the price of gold will become extremely volatile for a period of time. Volatility will, in fact, tell you that the War on Wealth has officially been declared, and will be your signal to do whatever you must to protect what is yours. As the government Goliath and its Master Class allies short tonnes of bullion into rigged futures markets in a desperate attempt to make gold look dangerous and risky, the Davids will be coming forth not just in the United States but from all corners of the globe, buying 10 grams here and one ounce there. There are 6.8 billion Davids, versus one diseased Master Class that numbers in the small millions. There is no way the Master Class can defeat the people, if the people finally rise up and say “No More of Your Plunder. No More of Your Cold and Soulless Financial Oppression. No More of Your Cynical and Godless Exploitation.”

If you find the above argument compelling, you should consider how to protect yourself from Executive Orders that could be issued at any time, under any pretext, and that could be extremely hostile to your financial and/or personal health and well being. One simple way to start is to purchase one ounce of gold for yourself and each member of your household, and much more if you can afford it. That is not financial advice; it is merely the common sense generously communicated to you by history.

Stewart Dougherty

Stewart Dougherty is a specialist in inferential analysis, the practice of identifying historic and contemporary patterns and then extrapolating their likely effects upon the future. Dougherty was educated at Tufts University (B.A., magna cum laude), and Harvard Business School (M.B.A. and an academic Fellow). He can be reached at stewartdougherty@cs.com. He is not affiliated with or compensated by those he references or recommends. He does not offer investment or trading advice, and nothing in this article should be construed as such. This article represents the author’s personal opinions, and nothing more. The reader has the author’s permission to share, print, forward or post this article provided that the content is not changed and the author is acknowledged.

(H/T Mike)

Big Brother’s Lock On Your Money Is Complete

I wrote about it; I tried to warn people, but after the healthcare fight we just went through, I think most people just wanted a breather from battling the fascists in Washington (to our long-lasting detriment).

Now we have the financial reform bill that includes the new federal agency Office Of Financial Research, and the Bureau of Consumer Protection keeping track of every single financial transaction you could possibly imagine; including your bank balance, and when you walk to the ATM to take cash out.  I wasn’t lying, but I do think I was one of very few writing about it.

The fascists have the banks, the insurance companies, the credit card companies, the car companies, OUR healthcare, and now Americans’ financial transactions.

Senate Democrats Pass Bill Allowing Govt to Collect Addresses, ATM Records of Bank Customers

(CNSNews.com) – Senate Democrats united to pass a financial regulatory bill that allows the government to collect data on any person operating in financial markets at any level, including the collection of personal transaction records from local banks, including customers’ addresses and ATM receipts. (emphasis mine)

The Senate voted 59-39 on Thursday to pass the bill – the chief aim of which is to more-heavily regulate the financial industry – sending it to a conference committee in the House of Representatives, where differences between the House and Senate versions will be ironed out.

The bill, if it becomes law, will create the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and empower it to “gather information and activities of persons operating in consumer financial markets,” including the names and addresses of account holders, ATM and other transaction records, and the amount of money kept in each customer’s account.

The new bureaucracy is then allowed to “use the data on branches and [individual and personal] deposit accounts … for any purpose” and may keep all records on file for at least three years and these can be made publicly available upon request.

*break*

Shelby slammed the new consumer bureaucracy, saying that it was meant not to protect consumers but to “manage” them by monitoring their behavior.

“Mr. President, make no mistake, behind the veil of anti-Wall Street rhetoric is an unrelenting desire to manage every facet of commerce under the guise of consumer protection.

“They may be interested in protecting consumers, but they are more interested in managing them,” Shelby said.

Shelby also criticized the idea that Americans need government to watch over their every financial move, saying that it was better to allow people the freedom to make their own choices and fail than to never allow them the freedom to choose at all.

“Mr. President, I have faith in the American people and their ability to make good choices,” said Shelby.  “Granted, we do not always choose well.  But I believe that a poor choice freely made is far superior to a good choice made for me.”

“I am afraid that the architects of this bill do not share this sentiment,” he said. “Nor do they share my faith in the American people.”

Shelby further said that the ability of the Federal Reserve to collect such detailed information about the most basic of financial transactions was the beginning of an effort by government to regulate every financial action of every American citizen.

“This new consumer bureaucracy is intended by its architects in the Treasury to begin the process of financial regulation with the intent of changing the behaviors of the American people,” said the senator.

Shelby appears to be correct. The bill allows the bureau to collect any and all information on any person operating in the financial markets.

As it reads: “[T]he Bureau shall have the authority to gather information from time to time regarding the organization, business conduct, markets, and activities of persons operating in consumer financial services markets.”

Meanwhile, depending on the conference version of this bill, you may be able to fund a new federal agency that takes idle appropriations, invests them, and keeps the profits.  Those profits are ‘not considered the government’s property’. I am still trying to ascertain who that money actually belongs to because it is not yours anymore.

4.15.2010

Obama Turns Financial Reform Into A Political Fight

I am currently reading this bill and wanted to drop an interesting tidbit on you. For those interested in reading the 114 page Manager’s Amendment, go here. I am only a couple hundred pages into this POS but starting on page 60, a new government office is to be established. The “Office Of Financial Research” will be part of the Treasury, and will have a Director appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. This office will also have a data collection center to keep track of all financial and nonbank financial institutions so as to be able to report to Congress on companies that ‘threaten’ the economy. It is unclear how big or how many new government employees this office will create, but considering how events are unfolding now with Obamacare, I’m assuming pretty large.

The interesting tidbit pertains to the Financial Research Fund that is to be established and the ability of the Office that is providing Congress with reports to invest monies they aren’t using. Let me know if you think that’s a conflict of interest, and if you would like to know exactly how much money that is?

“Funds obtained by, transferred to, or credited to the Financial Research Fund shall be immediately available to the Office, and shall remain available until expended, to pay the expenses of the Office in carrying out the duties and responsibilities of the Office.”

The above quotes are from Chris Dodd’s markup draft. I went to the actual amended bill (Amendment No. 3739 of Bill S. 3217) that was passed and found the pertinent information starting on page 62, with the investment and non-governmental monies section on page 78. It’s still in there.

At this point, the underground economy is about to get a bit larger.

UPDATE: More information on the Office Of Financial Research, here.

Words Of Wisdom....

The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.

- Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson And American Sovereignty

"On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, 1823

It is the sacred principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter to which the American people will henceforth pledge their allegiance.

- President George Bush (41) addressing the United Nations

Which will it be America? US Sovereignty or UN Slavery? - The Monster

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