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.
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.
Which Jesus? Several are here already…illegally…
Richard B. serves up history and facts very efficiently. Pay attention to the facts, lest you be blind-sided by your ignorance.
rt on free health care for everbody fk these rich ass drs. and insurance copanys been getting over on public for yrs now time to change and now is thetime
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/08/gop_upset_victory_in_delaware.html
I left this on a different post but since you all seem to like this one here goes.
Seat held by Dems for almost 40 years’ GOP Upset Victory in Delaware Special Election. The Dem running was the daughter of the rep who had passed away. This had been a Dem district, what do you think happened?
Maybe a message being sent to Washington. Not having checks and balances in our government is making all people nervous.
Isn’t our VP from Delaware?
The funny thing about illegal immigration is -
as the economy gets worse they aren’t coming here as much anymore. But seriously the best solution to illegal immigration is a general amnesty. The illegal immigrants would become legal tax paying citizens that pay for the services they use. America used to do that every few years. Illegal immigrants actually help drive down the wages of the average American because they are the new “slaves”. Everyone thought that getting rid of slavery would destroy the economy of the South. Guess what – I didn’t. It’s part of the reason trickle down economics doesn’t work. You have lift people from the bottom up. Henry Ford knew this. He paid people $5/day when people were previously making pennies an hour. He knew well paid workers would be able to afford the very products they make. The quality of American life has greatly improved until about 1980 when it was artificially uplifted by loose credit/debt. Also, the stock market rules changed greatly in the late 1970′s and introduced what is known as “adherence to stockholder valuation.” In other words you get grossly overcompensated Jack Welches who are no better than glorified “efficiency experts” axe 130,000 jobs from GE in 7 years and create GE financing to cater to stock investors. Look at GE now. Completely deregulated free market leads to erosion of middle (working) class because jobs are shipped overseas. It leads to poor long planning in the corporate world and less technological advancement. The second immigration problem we have – we educate the brightest minds in the world and we don’t keep them. That’s changed greatly in the last 10-15 years – we used to hand out visas. Much of your cutting edge technology in the 80′s-90′s is brought to you by Europeans, Indians, and Chinese working mostly in Silicon Valley. America needs immigrants. Too bad we treat non-white immigrants like crap. Remember the Chinese in the 19th century. They were the Hispanics of 100 years ago. America is still racist and doesn’t think plan ahead very well. That goes for both political parties. Who here is for the Great Wall of Mexico (ahem New Berlin Wall)?
Obama’s Nazi State: Spy On Your Family And Friends For Me! http://bit.ly/46x4q #tcot #gop #obamcare
Yeah snitch out family! @hiphopgrandpa Obama’s Nazi State: Spy On Your Family And Friends For Me! http://bit.ly/46x4q #tcot #gop #obamcare
Being one that has read the U.S. Constitution, I do not support any side of the views of any political machine. My “views” are not ideas that have sprouted from one polititian’s pie-hole or another, rather I express all that our ingenius forefathers had laid before us. We, as a nation, was never to be as it is now, a Democracy, rather a Republic. Do any of you yolkels know the difference? From the previous comments I wold say not. In a nut shell and for those that cannot understand “big words”, a Republic is only ment to uphold the laws and a Democracy leaves the upholding to the people by a majority vote. An example of this, as it I had learned, is: In a democratic state, a man commits murder and flees. A possie is formed and rides out to capture this man to punish him for his crimes. Upon finding him, the possie votes to hang him and majority vote wins. Mind you, I am not a proponent for allowing murderers to run free, but I do not think the emotionaly charged possie should determine the murders fate. In a Republic state, a man commits the exactly same crime and flees. The elected Sheriff would organize a possie to find the man and hold him until he can be tried by a body, by all reasonable doubt, consisting of his peers. What does this have to to do with Obama and his presidency? Simply, He is not upholding the laws, but neither did either Bush, nor Clinton, nor Regan, hell there has not been a single President that has up held the laws in near 100yrs. We have allowed laws to be changed to fit the benefit of a small group and we have allowed new laws be in acted that mirror old laws, laws that were simply not being inforced. We, the people, were never ment to be supported by the government, yet there are millions who are, we were never to be Frederaly taxed, either, its against the Constitution. The U.S.A. was meant to be a Free Market. This means, if your business fails, there is not a “Bailout”! Your failier in life is not the responsiblity of the government! Meaning, if you have 67 kids and choose not to work, there is no help from the goverment. That means get a job.
At one time, it was a requirement that to vote you had to own land, however, our population has grown such that many responsible adults are living in apartment. So where does that leave the nation? With the inclusion of welfare, we allow those that are not responsible to vote. How does that make for a good political practice? It is apparent that those on wefare cannot get their crap together enough to not be on welfare, therefor should not be allowed to have a say in the political process, for they may muddy the waters to their benefit. I am fine with the government aiding people, but not those that do not aid themselves.
Because of those that choose to freeload on the government’s couch, so to speak, that have helped get those politians into office that will allow more freeloading, that our nation has been falling into the same ruin that the Roman Empire fell into, so very long ago. How do we free our nation from this downward spiral into communism? Nominate the most caring, unpolitical minded, blue collar person you know for the next election. Choose a person that does not care what “Party” goes for what cause. Choose the person that can see the evils of any choice that she, or he is required to make. We no nothing of Obama and his ilk, just as we knew nothing of G. W. Bush, yet we elected these people! The Idiot and the Liar! We have become the laughing stock of the world. Ex-commuinist, an oxy-moron, in Russia are giggling at how we once stood prevent a commuinist state occuring anywhere in the world (Korean war and the Vietnam “Policing Action”) are now becoming just as they were and without all the blood! That just makes it easier to succede in the transition, there are no martyrs!
We are ridding the nation of religion, by the by, was founded on christian beliefs. Yet, we have those who, wholeheartedly, believe that means no other religions aside for christianity. Wow! I do know that Christ would not say that your religion was wrong. In fact, the most he would do is ask about its hypocracy. Yet, I do not think he would be happy, on the same note, with what “Christians” do in His name.
I am ashamed to be an American right now. Ashamed to live in a nation that once advertised “Land of Opportunity”.
“We are ridding the nation of religion, by the by, was founded on christian beliefs.” You realize that by today’s standards almost all the founding fathers would be considered atheists? Back then they were called humanist and deists and you couldn’t come right out and blatantly say – God is like Santa Claus – you should stop believe in Gods when you’re old enough to think logically.
Richard – you have swallowed the state training hook, line and sinker. The Founding Fathers were atheists…obviously you have not read a history book that was written 100 years ago.
http://wallbuilders.com/
So I have taken the time to read everyone’s comments and have found that there are just quite a few assumptions being made that are not correct. 1. The people that write and read this site are republicans….wrong, we are former dems, former repubs, and indies. 2. We are biblebanging christians….wrong again….christians, atheists, agnostics, and pagans.
Something that has become very clear to me over the last couple of months and is demonstrated in this comments on this page is that America is now in a battle between part of the population that thinks socialism is the way to go and the other part of the population that believes in the constitution and capitalism. The civil war that this administration and former administrations have prepared the populace to wage is now on the verge of beginning. It will not matter what we say to the “other side”, they believe that socialism is the way to go and personal responsibility be damned.
The next few months should be rather interesting.
http://wallbuilders.com/
Wow. Are you serious? Great so the American Taliban (Evangelicals and Fundamentalists) are not only trying to rewrite science books but history as well?
The funny thing about religious whackos is that even though you don’t do abortion, contraception, and you love sex you are still not managing to take over the world by outbreeding us sensible middle of the road people. More Americans every year are not going to church.
You’re
A) You’re too controlling in brainwashing your children which means they rebel and are disproportionally alcoholics and drug addicts (You’re basically replacing one mental disease with another.) or they become agnostic/atheist.
B) Your ideas and morals are just plain dumb.
C) You are disproportionally in the armed forces and get killed off in war because any culture non-Christian, or skin color non-white is evil.
Seriously, what’s wrong with Socialism? It gets confused with Communism too often. Unregulated capitalism as expressed in The Road to Serfdom is great in theory just like the Communist Manifesto but in practice it obviously doesn’t work. Socialism is a middle ground.
You have to realize that The Wealth of Nations was written (same year as History of Rise and Fall of Roman Empire by the way 1776) as a positive commentary on the first Industrial Revolution. Then when people saw the class division brought about by it they reacted with the Communist Manifesto in mid 19th century. Also, that’s when Dickens did his social commentary in the guise of novels. That’s when you had the robber barrons in the US (hypercapitalism). You realize that Rockerfeller’s assets were actually a significant percent of the US GDP. By today’s standards Astor, Carnegie, Rockerfeller would be worth between 200-300 billion dollars each and most people worked over 70 hours a week just to afford shitty food and shitty lodging. Bill Gates is worth under 70 Billion. The Road to Serfdom was written in 1942 as a reaction to communism and facism. Even as paper was rationed in England during WWII they still managed to hand 2 million copies in England. That’s why you have Margaret Thatcher (Mrs. The problem with Socialism is that you run out of other people’s money to spend) who then influences Reagan. And then there’s Milton Friedman who helped popularize capitalism and equated it with freedom. Reagan dumbed it down and basically said “more capitalism equals more freedom.” Hence his belief is racking up massive debt and Americans modern attitudes towards credit arose. Ayn Rand, the darling of Greenspan was Russian. America doesn’t do middle ground and that’s what the problem is. Socialism is the middle ground. Diamond Tiger, seriously – travel abroad and learn about politics in different countries and meet people from other cultures. You represent some of the characteristics that make Americans particularly unpopular in the world right now.
“So I have taken the time to read everyone’s comments and have found that there are just quite a few assumptions being made that are not correct. 1. The people that write and read this site are republicans….wrong, we are former dems, former repubs, and indies. 2. We are biblebanging christians….wrong again….christians, atheists, agnostics, and pagans.” Are you serious. Look at all the links on the right column. You think you represent mainstream America? You’re delusional.
I went through some of the articles written on your website. There is no attempt to be unbiased or reasonable. You not-so-subtly imply that socialism leads to Nazism and there’s just too many unsubstantiated claims of conspiracies. There’s definitely racist and xenophobic slant to the content on this site. And you probably think you’re patriotic.
Oh and your hero Thomas Paine -
Wrote The Age of Reason (1793–94), the book advocating deism and arguing against institutionalized religion, Christian doctrines, and promoted reason and freethinking.
In France, he also wrote the pamphlet Agrarian Justice (1795), discussing the origins of property, and introduced the concept of a guaranteed minimum income.
Milton Friedman, Mr.Capitalism equals Freedom, argued for a negative income tax which is almost the same thing a guaranteed minimum income.
The problem I have with people like you is that you are like a Creationist. You had your opinion a long time ago and everything you read and hear supports it. You “stay the course” intellectually and morally. A “flip flopper” like me reads hundreds of books and listens to some Rush and Glenn Beck to constantly challenge myself and expand my worldview. Remember, keep your enemies closer and at least make an effort to understand them.
Look up the Republican TARP. It’s called the Resolution Trust Corporation.
Hmm. Whatever happened to courteous, thoughtful, and documented discourse? Save DT’s response, I see none here, although the name calling would appear to indicate significant levels of fear, rage, and hatred.
Richard B- when you finish writing posts to yourself and you leave please turn out the lights.
…and kathy understands the monster well.
thedametruth. I’m gonna have to check out that blog to see if it’s any different than this one.
thedametruth. If you seriously put thought into the “birther” movement you have a screw loose. You think someone is going to put that much effort and money into running for President just to have it come unhinged because of a birth certificate? Do you have any idea where that Kenyan birth certificate came from and how easy it would be to forge and who would have the motivation to forge it? Do you honestly think a foreigner would run for the Presidency in this country? Just admit it, you hate Socialism. I have no problem with that. You are like a Bigfoot or UFO researcher – if you make big claims you need the proof to back it up. No one in the mainstream is going to listen otherwise. It’s fodder for some radio hosts because it’s good ratings.
You guys must just read different books than me, watch different media than me, and culturally you just are so different than me. I can’t believe we both live in America.
well…it is rare that I indulge in interchanges with individuals who profess to be well informed while unable to write using proper grammar, but…you are amusing because of the passion with which you espouse your rather sophomoric ideas. Firstly, to answer your question, yes, I actually DO have a very good idea about where these “birth certificates” originate and I believe I know which of them is genuine. To express my opinion is my right as an American,or at least it was until the White House made it clear that they would prefer to have Informers turn in those with whom they disagree. I am intrigued as to where you got the notion that all Americans must live, think, act and believe the same things–YOURS of course–when America has been known for well over two centuries as a place that embraces differences and the freedom to express them. Other than to wince at your poor grammar, I respect your right to have opinions that differ from mine or anyone else’s, because, unlike your narrow minded, rage and fear motivated self, I believe there is room for everyone, and that everyone deserves courtesy and respect. Even the the poor, confused illegal alien in the White House…heck, even YOU, who sees fit to attempt to belittle and disparage those with whom you disagree with cheap epithets and baseless, uninformed accusations.
Well folks, that’s it. Nothing to see here. The Dame’s finished with her entertainment for the day.
Whoa! Did he just spout off the very same retoric as all the other sheeple?
Socialism is not a possible form of government, nor is anarchy, nor communism, nor is democracy. All of these “forms” are still Oligarchies. It is a government that has a singular figure head for its “Leader”, yet has many people pulling his strings like a puppet. The label we put on the form of government is to keep the people happy. The ideas of socialism will not inspire competition amongst the people. It was that very same inspiration that allowed America to grow into a great nation. Think about what America really has going for it? Well, we have land and we have people. What natural resources that we could trade that will allow us to compete with the world markets? Oil? Gold? Our best natural resource is our minds and our drive. In a socialist state we will lose that, because we will not be able to rise above our station. At least, that is without killing your way to the top, as was practice in the former U.S.S.R.. The White House’s proclamation to turn in those who speak against it is like asking some one for there socialist members party card, Comrad.