The Big Alienation

The American president has the power to control America's borders if he wants to, but George W. Bush and Barack Obama did not and do not want to, and for the same reason, and we all know what it is. The fastest-growing demographic in America is the Hispanic vote, and if either party cracks down on illegal immigration, it risks losing that vote for generations. 

But while the Democrats worry about the prospects of the Democrats and the Republicans about the well-being of the Republicans, who worries about America? 

No one.

Peggy is correct. We should control our borders. But we should be wary of asking the Federal Government to do it because it is the same government which created the border problem by offering free enticements to all illegals.

'PowerPoint makes us stupid'

Its coloured charts, graphs and bullet-points are supposed to make the most incomprehensible data crystal clear.

But even the sharpest military minds in American were left baffled by this PowerPoint slide, a mind-boggling attempt to explain the situation in Afghanistan. 

'When we understand that slide, we'll have won the war,' General Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO force commander, remarked wryly when confronted by the sprawling spaghetti diagram in a briefing.

Huh? 

Reconnecting Wall Street to Main Street

Built on a foundation of sound money, the United States became one of the greatest industrial powers in the world in the 19th century. During that time, the interests of Main Street and Wall Street were closely aligned. Main Street went to Wall Street to finance new investment, and paid back its financiers out of profits from successful ventures. Under the reigning gold standard, a dollar was worth a fixed amount of gold - so borrowers and creditors knew exactly what to expect down the road.

But with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, the United States Congress delegated its authority to issue currency to a new central bank called the Federal Reserve. The Fed could print new dollars at will, making liquidity available to Wall Street at the expense of Main Street.

A return to honest money could restore the economy - maybe - but politicians, except Ron Paul, do not have the courage to propose it, endorse it or even talk about it.

Arizona’s Immigration Law Is Nothing New for Border Residents

What lots of Americans don’t realize is that the new Arizona immigration law simply extends to the entire state the requirement that darker-skinned, poorer-looking Americans along the border have had to live with for decades — carrying their papers, just like people in totalitarian countries have to do. 

For decades, any darker-skinned, poorer-looking person who travels entirely within the United States but along the U.S.-Mexican border has had to carry his papers with him. There is the possibility that he could be stopped by a U.S. immigration checkpoint as he travels from east to west or vice versa. 

"Your papers, please."  Illegal immigration is a product of the welfare state created by FDR and sustained by every subsequent administration. "Free" entitlements attract immigrants like moths to a flame.  Citizens, as well as immigrants, will now be stopped, searched and interrogated by government officials who will decide if their papers meet the latest dictates from the ruling class.

'Tea party' activists: Do they hate liberals more than they love liberty?

Unfortunately, there is scant evidence that most tea partyers have studied the copies of the Constitution they generously hand out to bystanders.

At a Tax Day tea party in Rockville, Md., the speaking venue was draped with a huge banner: “Tired of Big Government?” Members of the “Tyranny Response Team” stood near the front of the rally with their official blue T-shirts. Giant American flags and ones with “Don’t Tread on Me” (with a coiled rattlesnake) were carried around by men with tri-corn hats. Political campaigns busily sold “9/11 Remembrance” bracelets. 

And yet, the crowd of 300 seemed most outraged that the US government is not being sufficiently aggressive in using its power.

Alas, the Tea Party crowds are looking to government to solve the problems created by government policies.

Love of Liberty vs Love of Government

Today’s brand of patriotism (at least as expressed by many) is totally foreign to the fundamental principles of liberty upon which America was built. I’m talking about the idea that government is an end and aim in itself; the idea that government must be protected from the people; the idea that bigger government equals better government; the idea that criticism of the government makes one unpatriotic; the idea that government is a panacea for all our ills; and the idea that loyalty to the nation equals loyalty to the government. All of this is a bunch of bull manure!

When government–ANY GOVERNMENT–stops protecting the liberties of its citizens, and especially when it begins trampling those liberties, it has become a “destructive” power, and needs to be altered or abolished. Period.

If we apply Jefferson's standards for government to our present day regime, we find a huge disconnect. 

Meddlers at the Gate

No. Legislators never would employ crude and simplistic sloganeering like those rowdy anti-gummint protesters.

Just ask Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who this week offered up this eloquent gem: "A party that stands with Wall Street is a party that stands against families and against fairness."

You know Wall Street; it lives to destabilize the family unit. Just scratch the surface and you'll find 8,500 companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange and another 3,200 companies listed on Nasdaq. Nearly 50 percent of households own some form of equities, and 21 million households own individual stocks outside any employer-sponsored plan.

All working together against kids and fairness.

Actually, what Reid's words reveal is an ideological disposition that is wholly unconcerned with creating a healthier Wall Street or a Wall Street scrubbed of crony capitalism and government-produced moral hazard.

The demonization of Wall Street by politicians is a ploy to cover up the corruption in Congress.

A Short Money Treatise for D.C. Dummies

There is no way a handful of people--wise or unwise--in government and central banks can second-guess what markets made up of billions of people might need. We are living through a disaster that is the result of the latest Greenspan/Bernanke attempts to guide our economic destiny through central bank operations.

Imagine if the government decided to increase the number of minutes in an hour from 60 to 70. You can hear policymakers congratulating themselves: "People will work longer at the same pay. This will be a boon to productivity!" Or if Washington increased the number of inches in a foot from 12 to 15: "Home buyers will thus get more house for the same price and that will stimulate home buying!" Preposterous? It's no more foolish than what we and other countries routinely do with our currencies.

The few who dare make a case for sound, honest money are derided as "gold bugs" or worse by politicians and the media but the few are growing in number and their case is growing stronger as indicated by the soaring national debt, a debt which would not have been possible without fiat money.

Socialism vs Corporatism

When he is a called a socialist, the President and his defenders can easily deflect that charge by pointing out that the historical meaning of socialism is government ownership of industry; under the President’s policies, industry remains in nominally private hands.  Using the more accurate term – corporatism - forces the President to defend his policies that increase government control of private industries and expand de facto subsidies to big businesses. This also promotes the understanding that though the current system may not be pure socialism, neither is it free-market since government controls the private sector through taxes, regulations, and subsidies, and has done so for decades. [Emphasis added]

Government is gaining power by infiltrating the means of production, formerly known as free enterprise.

A reader comments:  "I’m beginning to wonder why we, the people, have allowed the government to grow in size and power – way beyond what the constitution mandates. Though I do believe that we have been duped, I don’t believe it is because we are stupid. If anything, we have been too trusting and respectful of those in positions of authority, including both those in government and the mass media..."

Restoring the American Character

It is the fact that we have allowed the growth of government, particularly in Washington, that is the cause of almost all our ills. Consider the constant complaining about how “divided” America is. The reason for that division is that the government solutions we want are being applied almost exclusively at the national level, creating a set of winners and losers on every issue nationwide. Abortion, gay marriage, gun rights, spending, health care, just about any social issue you can name is being handled at the national level and that creates anger and feelings of impotence among the losers and arrogant gloating among the winners. The federal government was not designed to handle social problems and our attempts to do so have resulted in the wasteful behemoth that now sits beside the Potomac.

Legislating local issues from their Washington, D.C. compound, the federal government is over-extending its Constitutional mandate.

The Value-Added Tax Is Not the Answer

[Human Events, March 11, 1972.]

One of the great and striking facts of recent months is the growing resistance to further taxes on the part of the long-suffering American public. Every individual, business, or organization in American society acquires its revenue by the peaceful and voluntary sale of productive goods and services to the consumer, or by voluntary donations from people who wish to further whatever the group or organization is doing. Only government acquires its income by the coercive imposition of taxes. The welcome new element is the growing resistance to further tax exactions by the American people.

In its endless quest for more and better booty, the government has contrived to tax everything it can find, and in countless ways. Its motto can almost be said to be "If it moves, tax it!"

There's apparently nothing new in the VAT "trial balloon" you can see floating overhead in the Washington, DC skies. Murray N. Rothbard warned us years ago that it was a deceptive way for government to loot and plunder us while blaming someone else.

Avoiding the Lions and the Crocs

You need to investigate the logic of price inflation, which rests on the logic – mostly political – of monetary inflation.

Those who predict price deflation argue that the politics of monetary inflation will be overcome by the size of the debt. The debt will become so gargantuan that the central banks will not be able to prevent massive bankruptcies, default, and bank runs. There will be a rush for liquidity. Prices will fall.

I do not think this argument is correct. I have offered my reasons elsewhere. But the logic of deflation rests on an assumption: the triumph of free market leverage over central bank monetary inflation and the monetization of debt. Deflationists do not argue that central banks will adopt a policy of deflation.

Inflationists argue that central bankers will adopt policies of monetary inflation, and these policies will be successful in preventing the collapse of banking and money.

I am in the camp of the inflationists.

Gary North does not have a crystal ball (that we know of) but he has a few ideas on preparing for the uncertain times ahead.

Killing the Beast

Most politicians, and a majority of the population, have come to accept the idea that the proper solution to any problem is a government solution. Of course too often any government solution creates ten more problems. But to the politicians that doesn’t matter. They increase their power and prestige and such a paradigm brings people, rich and poor alike, to their feet begging for favors. As long as there are millions, billions, and now trillions of our dollars in the hands of our politicians at every level, things will not change. For most men and women in public service, the temptation is simply too great. And for far too many, the utilization of such a system is the fulfillment of their dreams.

Our politicians are corrupt, the Constitution is a relic of the past and our protests are falling on deaf ears.

In Defense of Sedition

The income tax and the Fed finally centralized all political power in Washington, as it became trivially easy for the central state to conscript millions of men for its wars, spend mind-boggling sums on things like a welfare state and the nationalization of education that have no constitutional authority whatsoever, and to easily bribe any state government that voices the least bit of dissent by threatening to withdraw federal grants to the state. More than half of the American population is bribed and manipulated in a similar manner today as recipients of myriad federal subsidies. 

Here is an exploration of the transfer of power from the individual and sovereign states to the federal government.

Ariz House: Check Obama's Citizenship

PHOENIX -- The Arizona House on Monday voted for a provision that would require President Barack Obama to show his birth certificate if he hopes to be on the state's ballot when he runs for reelection.

The House voted 31-22 to add the provision to a separate bill. The measure still faces a formal vote.It would require U.S. presidential candidates who want to appear on the ballot in Arizona to submit documents proving they meet the constitutional requirements to be president.

Seems like a reasonable request to us.

The Policies of Insolvency

There was no meaningful recovery from 2003-2007.  GDP growth in the private sector never went over 2%.  Never.  The Federal Government literally borrowed and spent from $500-600 billion every single year from 2003 - 2008, when the banking system essentially collapsed.  This "support" allowed the markets to croon on about 5% GDP growth rates (quite healthy) that were in fact false.  This, in turn, led to the misallocation of credit that resulted in home prices spiking higher as credit was granted to people who had no ability to pay.

That debt, by and large, still exists.  Only a tiny fraction of it has been defaulted or paid down, as I cover every single month in the Federal Reserve G.19 (and quarterly Z1) reports.

So now you have "economic recovery", you say?  Like hell.  You have an economy that is literally bleeding from the femoral artery as the nation's left leg has been severed above the knee by a bunch of homicidal maniacs on both Wall and K Streets.  The patient is alive only because they are pumping in blood at a rate that exceeds that which is spraying all over the floor while you're calling the patient "healing"?” – Carl Denninger

The so-called recovery is an illusion created by corrupt politicians.

Owning Gold and Silver: The Unsafe Method

I knew that none of this would make an impact on the ordinary people of the world who are united in nothing except wanting me to shut up about the Federal Reserve creating so much excess money and credit and how they are morons for not buying gold, silver and oil, of which this futures thing is just a tiny part.

But perhaps a snappy tune would help! I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before!

Calling upon my Mogambo Musical Ability (MMA), I quickly came up with this toe-tapper about the foolishness of people who own paper promises of silver instead of buying physical bullion:

“Ya gotcher paper in your hand.
“You think that you’re so hot.
“You think that you got some silver,
“But paper’s all you got. Chump!”

Investing in gold or silver "certificates" is more risky than taking physical possession of the commodity.

Tea: Vaccine against the Partisan Virus

Democrats cannot save this country. Neither can Republicans.

If you are counting on a political party to rescue us from the downward spiral we are on, then you have not been paying attention. The political parties are the problem, not the solution. They are the ones that created the country’s downward spiral, which like the spiral of DNA is a double helix — in this case, one part elephant and one part donkey.

Think of it as a virus that has invaded the body politic.

Both Republicans and Democrats offer Big Brother solutions to their constituents. The differences are inconsequential. The parties bicker over social issues to camouflage their intentions and misdirect voters' attention away from their nefarious economic schemes. Voters are beginning to catch on and are looking for alternatives.

Hating the government finally goes mainstream

Three years ago, the Republican establishment piled scorn on the presidential candidacy of Ron Paul.

Today, he is in a statistical tie with President Obama in 2012 polling. His son, an ophthalmologist who has never run for elective office, is well ahead of not only the GOP's handpicked candidate for Senate in Kentucky but also both Democratic contenders -- all statewide officeholders.

What happened? Did America suddenly develop an insatiable appetite for 74-year-old, cranky congressmen from Texas? Is the gold standard catching on?

Americans are looking for responsible stewards to lead them from the edge of the precipice upon which we are located. If such persons are elected, they will need to find a way to reverse decades of reckless spending and corrupt leadership. They will need to convince a population which has grown to be dependent on government that they should begin to fend for themselves. The path we are on leads to a financial abyss. Steering us on a path to recovery will require commitment from both leaders and followers. One way or another, change is in the air.

Greenspan and His Fed Were Wrong 90% of the Time

"Almost one half of US households pay no federal income tax."

So, welcome to the beginning of the end. If half the citizens get bread and circuses without paying for them, you can bet that the whole shebang is headed for destruction. The math doesn't work. Half the people have no interest in curbing taxes or spending. Obviously, those people would prefer to raise taxes - on us - rather than give up their free pills and retirement benefits. Even among the half that does pay taxes, most pay very little - less than they get back in 'services.'

Meanwhile, the 'rich' get socked hard.

The progressive income tax has enabled politicians to transform us into a servile population.

Freedom from the Income Tax

Someday, I hope, April 15th will no longer be Tax Day (the day your income tax return must be filed) but instead will be known as Freedom Day — a day to remember the huge, expensive, intrusive, and meddling government that was once was and that we should be on guard against forever.

That can come only after we repeal the income tax and reduce the federal government to a size that can subsist on just the tariffs and excise taxes already being collected. No flat tax, no “fair” tax, no replacement tax of any kind — because government has been made so small an income tax is no longer needed to finance it.

Impossible?

Not at all.

The late Harry Browne tells us how to return to our Constitutional roots.

You don't have a right to violate my rights!

A true understanding of ‘natural rights’ is required in order to make  sense of the insanity in Washington. When viewed through the proper lenses it is easy to understand that virtually everything that Washington does in the name of rights is really about removing rights and providing entitlements in order to bribe the population. Unfortunately, as the population of looters increases the population of producers will decline, which will lead to an inevitable collapse. The only hope we have is to support policies and officials that have this basic understanding and are willing to support the longevity of the nation over their own self interest. In the end, we have to have the courage to say to our neighbors, friends, and political leaders that they don’t have a right to violate our rights.

The Constitution was intended to protect our rights from governmental intrusions but politicians have run roughshod over the Constitution for a very long time. 

Shurtleff leads 7 states in gun fight

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and six other states filed a brief in federal court in Montana on Monday, arguing that the federal government has no constitutional authority to regulate firearms manufactured and sold within their borders.

The friend-of-the-court brief seeks to bolster arguments made by the Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA) that legislation passed in that state exempts Montana-made guns from federal taxation, registration, licensing, marking or record-keeping requirements. [emphasis by IABR]

We commend these States for recognizing that the infringement by the federal government on their sovereignty is not Constitutional but question their filing a protest in a federal court where the deck is stacked against them. Rather, why don't they just claim their Tenth Amendment rights and refuse to comply?

In Defense of Sedition

sedition |siˈdi sh ən|
noun
conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.

First, the Declaration represented a giant step forward for its time. It preceded (by half a century or so), presaged, and to at least some degree inspired, the 19th-century development of anarchist theory which made the failure clear.

Secondly, it made clear that the hypothetical “legitimacy” of any government which resulted from action on its claims must rest firmly on a basis of … you guessed it … sedition … “the Right of the People to alter or to abolish” the “lawful civil authority.”

No sedition, no revolution.

No revolution, no United States of America.

Is it time to re-invoke and, at the same time, re-invent the Declaration of Independence?

State's tentacles choke freedom at every turn

What of any consequence remains beyond the state's reach in the United States today? Not wages, working conditions, or labor management relations; not health care; not money, banking, or financial services; not personal privacy; not transportation or communication; not education or scientific research; not farming or food supply; not nutrition or food quality; not marriage or divorce; not child care; not provision for retirement; not recreation; not insurance of any kind; not smoking or drinking; not gambling; not political campaign funding or publicity; not real-estate development, home construction, or housing finance; not international travel, trade, or finance; not 1,000 other areas and aspects of economic and social life.

The extent to which government intrudes into our daily lives is so pervasive that most of us take it for granted. And when there are problems - and there are many - we expect government to solve them. Freedom, liberty and responsibility are concepts which have become passé.

The FCIC: Passing the Buck

Last week the federal government’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission held hearings as part of their continuing investigation into the causes of the acute economic meltdown which occurred in late summer 2008. This bipartisan commission, partly inspired by the Pecora Commission- which investigated the causes of the Great Depression- is expected to report back to Congress before the end of the year.

Things don’t seem to be going well. The individuals questioned by the commission mostly seem to be diverting blame for the whole fiasco to someone else.

The government is looking for the villains. Yeah, right. And John Wilkes Booth was trying to find out who shot Lincoln. And Jesse James was looking for the train robbers.

Depressed about our future

America is broke. We Americans have spent the last 15 years borrowing money for consumption instead of investment. Because of our high levels of debt, several prominent economists, including Gerald Celente — who predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union, the housing bubble and the tea parties — and Peter Schiff — who predicted both the NASDAQ bubble and the housing bubble — are predicting a coming collapse that will dwarf the housing bubble. 

A depressing assessment of our economic circumstances.

What Do We Do If the Rich Start to Leave?

The numbers are small. A modern record, to be sure, and an embarrassment to some. But nothing to be alarmed about. Better to just curse their greed, slap an exit tax on their assets, and move on. There are plenty more where they came from. 

But what if more of them start to leave?

500 American citizens and green card holders in the last quarter of 2009 said goodbye to America forever. Not many, but double the number of expatriations in all of 2008. Good riddance, other millionaires will take their place.

But what if more of them start to leave?

The wealthy among us - you know, those who make money by producing things we need and want and who employ us - are being vilified and punished by politicians - you know, those who interfere with our freedom and liberty and produce nothing but hot air and stagnation. They could not be blamed for taking their goods and services to a more hospitable environment.

A Grand Adventure

He grew up in the woods and rivers of the county, fishing and swimming and hunting under sprawling blue skies and driving his rattletrap car insanely and lying on the moss with his girl and watching the branches above groping the sky and marveling as the young do at the strangeness of life, and the war came in a far country. It doesn’t matter which. It was just a country.

His father, an angry man emitting the foul stench of patriotism, said his duty was to become a soldier and kill whoever it was in the far country, wherever it was. His father didn’t know or much care. It didn’t matter. Somebody would know. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. It would be a grand adventure, an uncle said.

He enlisted. 

Fred takes us on a stark and cheerless journey. Warning: blunt language and graphic portrayals of war.

Obey the (Natural) Law

You can get into trouble if you ingest a disapproved intoxicant or narcotic. Heck, you can get in trouble for ingesting some approved ones without permission.

You can get into trouble if you refuse to sell your land to the government at any price when politicians decide they want it for a public or private use...

You can get into trouble for doing some jobs without a government license, even if your customers are perfectly happy.

And, oh yes, soon you'll get into trouble for not buying a health-insurance policy.

You can get into trouble for doing a long list of other things that harm no one whatsoever. The things I'm thinking of are not objectively wrong. They're just mandates and prohibitions decreed by a legislature and signed by an executive.

"It's the law."

It's probably impossible to simply exist for 24 hours without breaking some obscure law inflicted upon us by arrogant legislators at the local, state and federal levels.

A Space Oddity

[I]n the 20 years leading up to 2007, incomes scarcely rose. But standards of living went up anyway. How was it possible? Easy. Instead of saving 8% of their incomes, as they had for the previous 5 decades, they spent the money. The savings rate fell to near zero. Debt increased. Of course, you can only take a thing like that so far. In this case, the end of the credit expansion came three years ago. All of a sudden consumers were faced with a grim prospect. They could no longer spend money they didn’t have. Now they had to NOT spend money they DID have. It was pay back time…time to return the money they had borrowed during those carefree years. 

Settling up was so alarming and so disagreeable that the feds swung into action to prevent it. 

Bill Bonner  takes the clothes off our kings with a few deft remarks.

The New Intolerance--Hatred Of The South Is Hatred Of America

At the firing on Fort Sumter, April 12-13, 1865, the first shots of the Civil War, Virginia was still inside the Union. Indeed, there were more slave states in the Union than in the Confederacy. But, on April 15, Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteers from the state militias to march south and crush the new Confederacy.

Two days later, April 17, Virginia seceded rather than provide soldiers or militia to participate in a war on their brethren. North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas followed Virginia out over the same issue. They would not be a party to a war on their kinfolk.

 

Slavery was not the cause of this war. Secession was—that and Lincoln's determination to drown the nation in blood if necessary to make the Union whole again. 

If history is a reliable indicator, States which dare to assert their Tenth Amendment rights will incur the full wrath and fury of the federal government.

Doug Casey: Public Service Announcement on the Census

L: Hi Doug, what’s on your mind?

Doug: Government bean counters. Last week we spoke of the government treating citizens like cattle – well, it’s now the season for the U.S. government cowboys to count up the herd. I want to encourage a little civil disobedience. 

L: Ah. The census. What did you do when they came a-knockin’?

Mailed in your Census form yet? It's for your own good and the good of your community the pols say - but they can't help me or my community without penalizing someone else or another community.

When is a government a police state?

When is a government a police state? The answer is not obvious because there is no clear dividing line between the two; rather, ‘a government’ and ‘a police state’ are two points on a continuum.

Every government asserts its authority through force or the threat of force -- that is, through laws imposed by police or other armed agents. At what point on the continuum does a government cease to be limited and become an Orwellian police state. To answer 'where' requires a definition of the points. 

Do you feel threatened by your government? There's probably little reason to fear if you get all the permits, pay all the taxes, and follow all the rules they impose.

Oldspapers and the Crisis of the Establishment

The national puppet shows that entertain us politically are not widely perceived as puppet shows. So, the entertainers who control the strings can charge a lot more to the public. The public really does think that the show must go on. The level of taxation borne by the victims, the level of national government indebtedness, and the rate of monetary expansion all point to the grand success of the illusion.

The threat to the entertainers is that the public will begin to perceive that there are hands inside the puppets and above the strings on the marionettes.

This process of realization has begun.

Gary North on the end of Times - the New York Times that is.

Parting Company

I believe we are nearing a point where there are enough irreconcilable differences between those Americans who want to control other Americans and those Americans who want to be left alone that separation is the only peaceable alternative. Just as in a marriage, where vows are broken, our human rights protections guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution have been grossly violated by a government instituted to protect them. The Democrat-controlled Washington is simply an escalation of a process that has been in full stride for at least two decades. There is no evidence that Americans who are responsible for and support constitutional abrogation have any intention of mending their ways. 

Walter Williams makes a case for secession.

Laughing at the dead

A secret video showing US air crew falsely claiming to have encountered a firefight in Baghdad and then laughing at the dead after launching an air strike that killed a dozen people, including two Iraqis working for Reuters news agency, was revealed by Wikileaks today.

The footage of the July 2007 attack was made public in a move that will further anger the Pentagon, which has drawn up a report identifying the whistleblower website as a threat to national security. The US defence department was embarrassed when that confidential report appeared on the Wikileaks site last month alongside a slew of military documents.

War is a dirty business since it involves killing people. If we are fighting for a good and noble - and Constitutional - cause and we are conducting it in an honorable manner, we should not be concerned about censoring media scrutiny.

Government and Gasoline

Indeed, if increasing domestic energy production was really a prior ity, the administration would direct the EPA to remove its many roadblocks and barriers to energy production.  In fact, abolishing the EPA altogether would do much to improve our country's economy.  Instead of protecting the environment as they are supposed to do, most of what they do simply chills the economy.  Polluters should be directly liable in court to any and all parties they harm, rather than bureaucrats at the EPA.

Of course, last week's announcement was couched in terms of removing barriers and red tape.  However, the fact that we had these barriers in the first place is yet another reminder of how the energy market is hampered and controlled by bureaucrats and central planners in Washington, rather than the demands of the people and the decisions of private investors.

Obama has relented somewhat on his opposition to offshore drilling but it should not be his decision in the first place.

Recent Growth In Economy Is But A Mirage

Wall Street, banking and government are almost totally corrupt. The people are disgusted and are more and more angry every day. They see the US and world economy is again faltering. They see the sovereign debt crisis, especially that of the US. They know that soon America will lose its AAA sovereign debt rating because we have a government that keeps on spending and refuses to cut costs. They know that such a course can only lead to bankruptcy. They see the beginnings of capital controls being erected and the vote buying in Congress.

The world economy is beginning to again slow as quantitative easing ends and stimulus packages of the G-20 countries run out of steam. As a result of these previous methods of propping up economies inflation is rising, as wages remain stagnant. Taxes and fees are rising as home foreclosures hit new records. What is left of people’s assets is about to disappear as home prices fall further and stock and bond markets finally fall. The purging that should have taken place three years ago is upon us and the temporary antidote is more, more and credit again. There is no real growth; it is a mirage. In 50 years America’s leadership has led it to financial, economic and political suicide.

"We need to regulate the free market" say the bureaucrats. They don't understand that markets are not free while being manipulated and regulated by government interference.

Exposing the Government’s Lies

One of the most important chapters addresses this government lie: "America has a free market." The State is inherently opposed to the market, of course, but U.S. politicians love to hail "free enterprise" and the "free market" for their own self-interested purposes. Doing so makes them sound decent and reasonable because even today many people have at least some vague sense that the market is the source of our prosperity. More importantly, politicians love to promote the idea that we have a free market because that means when things go wrong in the economy, they can blame the market, rather than accept blame themselves, and claim that they need more power to overcome the market’s alleged failures. 

Lies the government tells us. 

Halloween Comes to the Subways

This time a couple of women explode on a subway in Moscow, and in New York all manner of absurdly armed Robocops rush into the city’s subway  with military paraphernalia dangling from all attachment points. Armor. Helmets. Steely gazes. And what appear to be M16s, described by the press as machine guns, which they are not, and as submachine guns, which they are not, and as assault rifles which, if they are selectable full-auto, they are. Nothing like high-velocity full-auto in a crowded subway car. I mean, all of this is so practical.

How much does this have to do with security? About nothing.

The question is not who's winning the War on Terror. The question is: Who's losing it?

Doug Casey on Anarchy

Doug, you keep saying you're an anarchist. I suspect most of our readers know that doesn't mean you like to wear black army boots and throw Molotov cocktails at McDonald's restaurants during WTO protests, but I'm not sure how many really know what it is you do mean. And since this is central to your world-view and hence touches on all your thinking as an investor and speculator, it seems useful to clear the air. Few may agree with us on this topic, but let's talk about anarchy.

And now, a few words from a present-day anarchist...

The Sudden Emergence of Tom Paine

Unlike most of the other eminent leaders of his day, there was nothing in the least aristocratic in the background of Tom Paine. The son of a poor English corset maker, he was forced to educate himself for lack of schooling. After serving a checkered career as corset maker, sailor, and petty bureaucrat, he finally rose to the status of a minor English tax collector. He was soon characteristically in trouble with the authorities. Chosen by his fellow excise collectors in 1772 to petition Parliament for higher wages, he was curtly dismissed from the service by the authorities. Unemployed, bankrupt, the unhappy Paine began his life again at the age of thirty-seven by emigrating to America, armed only with a letter of introduction he had managed to obtain from Benjamin Franklin in London.

Thomas Paine stirred the yearning for independence by proclaiming the British invaders as tyrants. I'm sure the king wished Paine would "sit down and shut up", just as our present tyrant wishes we would.

You're Stupid!

You dumb clucks!  Never have we seen any people as outright stupid as you collectively are.  You all are so dumb and ignorant, that you don't know how to teach your kids!  Admittedly, you have taught them how to talk, walk, eat, drink, think, relieve themselves in the proper place, bathe, dress, know colors, and 98% of everything they'll ever know probably, but you parents are so idiotic, that we'll have to teach your kids the remaining few percentages.  We're going to start a public school system, which we will force all your kids to attend, and you'll pay for them with taxes on your property.  You don't have any kids needing educating?  Tough.  The schools we create won't do much teaching anyway, but you are forced to send them.  Everyone pays taxes on their property from now on, including railroads on their rights of way.  No one escapes except churches and a few other charities..  After all, if you're so stupid as not be able to teach your kids anything, in our opinion anyway, we'll have government force education on those poor, unfortunate children, who are just crying for our type of education, which you are far too stupid to give them.

Don't worry. The government wants to help you.

No Bang for the Keynesian Buck

You may not have watched my video seminar, "Retirement Armageddon." It's here.


Let me explain why you should.


In fiscal 2010, the Federal debt will increase by an estimated $1.5 trillion, give or take $100 billion.


Have you estimated your share yet? Probably not.


Divide $1.5 trillion by 300 million Americans. The figure is $5,000.


Every American resident, from oldsters to infants, just got hit with an extra $5,000 tab. This is on top of what he already owes. What does he already owe? Something in the range of $300,000: a $90 trillion total debt divided by 300 million.


It will happen again next year. And the next.

The forecast is gloomy and bleak says Gary North:

"Most people have heard some of the bad news. They have not heard it without the sugar coating. The reality is grim. How grim? Watch the video." 

The Fed's Last Hurrah

Our economy is being transformed from a mostly capitalistic one to a mostly socialistic one. More decisions are being made by politicians and lawyers in Washington and fewer by entrepreneurs. The motivation behind this shift is the mistaken belief that the financial crisis of 2008 was caused by too much capitalism and a lack of proper government oversight. This conclusion is self-serving for those in power, and couldn't be more economically misguided. Through corruption or just plain ignorance, Congress and this Administration have embraced an ideology that has failed every time it has been tried.

It may be too late to turn the economy around, even if we started today. But we are continuing to regulate and punish entrepreneurs and to reward and empower government bureaucrats. 

Failed Banks and Failed Billions

As this criminal activity unfolds the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke wants more regulatory authority for the Fed so the Fed can better cover up criminal activities. He says the Fed is unequally suited to supervise large, complex financial organizations and to address both safety and soundness risks and risks in the stability of the financial system as a whole. This is the ringleader talking. This is the nexus, the core, the leader of criminal activity in America grasping for even more power. This is the same group under Greenspan and then Bernanke that created the stock market bubble of the late 1990s, the housing, mortgage, commercial real estate bubble, the bubble that took the Dow to 14,100 and then from 6,500 to 10,900, the toxic garbage bubble and the bubble on Wall Street and in banking. These are the people who lost Americans trillions of dollars so they could implement world government. All this just didn’t happen; it was planned that way. Yes, they are unequally suited to the creation and transmission of criminal activity. This is the same Fed that spent two years in Lehman’s offices and found nothing, because they aided and abetted their criminal activity. They knew everything that was going on. They were trying to bail Lehman out and it did not work.

The manipulations of the economy by the Fed are enriching the elites and destroying the entrepreneurial quintessence of America.

The Rich Can't Pay for ObamaCare

Add it up and the government is counting on squeezing an extra $1.2 trillion over 10 years from a tiny sliver of taxpayers who already pay more than half of all individual taxes.

It won't work. It never works.

The maximum tax rate fell to 28% in 1988-90 from 50% in 1986, yet individual income tax receipts rose to 8.3% of GDP in 1989 from 7.9% in 1986. The top tax rate rose to 31% in 1991 and revenue fell to 7.6% of GDP in 1992. The top tax rate was increased to 39.6% in 1993, along with numerous major revenue enhancers such as raising the taxable portion of Social Security to 85% of benefits from 50% for seniors who saved or kept working. Yet individual tax revenues were only 7.8% of GDP in 1993, 8.1% in 1994, and did not get back to the 1989 level until 1995.

Punitive tax rates on high-income individuals do not increase revenue. Successful people are not docile sheep just waiting to be shorn.

Of course, the government could consider spending cuts instead of raising taxes but that is not in their DNA.