Don't forget Au's big sister Ag! Ag is the perfect commodity money for day to day purchases at farmer's/flea markets, garage sales, and other private transactions of a smaller nature. Au's svelte value to vol/weight ratio makes is better for larger transactions, and preserving/storing/tra... larger sums of wealth.
It's amazing that Americans (est. some 50% of our legal tender Au coins were actually turned in for $20.67 under 6102 before the devaluation to $35 in '34 - a 69% hit) went along with this destruction of our money. I suppose it is instructive of what sheeple will abide during an economic meltdown, with portents for the future.
Without the 2nd and its' implied deterrent against tyranny, foreign or domestic, there will be no 1st, 4th, nor any of the other rules we have curbing our government's behavior that we call the Constitution.
Free, questioning, original, rational thinkers, or at least those dumb enough (self humbly included) to let their thoughts be known to the powers that be, have always been in short supply for an emotion based humanity. That is why they are either cherished by the open minded, or reviled by the status quo. Ever wondered why societies have always reserved the most horrific punishments for heretics? Imagine Galileo hauled up; "Recant." "But... it's true." "Recant!" "Okay." - close shave that. Most who bothered pre-Constitution, and some occasionally post, met a repressed or grisly end.
Nope, the majority of hippocampus, amygdala, pituitary governed human neo-cortexes become extremely agitated, and violent when deeply held beliefs, societal programming, or personal power are questioned. In plain words, no one likes having their version of "reality" effed with. Had not the blogosphere the comfortable distance afforded by cabled electrons, I'm sure the murder rate would skyrocket. :-)
I've recently conducted a minor study of riots to try to project a potential post collapse future. I find the '92 LA riots fascinating, as there were numerous media interviews of participants as events unfolded. Take race out of the equation, as many "races" joined in once it gathered momentum and the police backed away. Many respondents were mad at "the system," and felt their behavior justified on that basis. Imagine how many hormone driven brains will feel about "the system" and react when their benefits, direct deposits and savings are locked up and devalued on a bank holiday. Imagine when the dollar can't procure import petro and the agriculture/transporta... systems fail.
If Katrina is any measure of the government's ability to react to a localized event, imagine a system wide event. Lots of LA '92s, which of course will be the just the emergency for full implementation of NDAA and NDRP - the final push for totalitarian tyrannical rule. They will have legalistic justification to dispense with the annoying Constitution all to deal with a problem of their own creation. Tidy little circle. It feels almost inevitable, like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
A lot will depend on how long they can or desire to keep utilities and water going. As long as those are maintained the most desperate kinds of reactions will be minimized. I suspect the powers that be will try to keep these online as it will give the new emergency martial state a chance to ramp up, organize, and clamp down. I see current efforts to hinder the 2nd amendment as forethought to make a clamp down phase easier. And this will be where push comes to shove for anyone who values Liberty.
I'll chide you no further on wealth perception. Okay, maybe once more, but just to re-phrase my previous point. Of all the human beings who have ever lived, how many have more purchasing power or a higher standard of living, and how many less than you (me)? One point I meant to get to was that the fiat debt dollar system HAS generated a great deal of prosperity, but I contend that it is unstable and unfair. Some might point out that life is unstable and unfair, and I might concede that that is exactly why we ended up with a fiat debt dollar system.
Assuming one can negotiate the hazards of chaos to come, let us continue an examination of how gold and silver might be of use. Fiat, paper and digital will meet its mathematically inevitable rendezvous with zero. Trust, its basis, will be lost, but humans inevitably trade, on a free or black market, that which they have or produce for that which they need or desire. That gold and silver are scarce and cannot be procured but by trade or mining at great expense, nor their value to weight/volume and durability, will not be lost long on the market. We will return to "real" money even if only on the black market under repressive legal tender laws. Direct barter will have its place, but many who do not think about it now (the can't eat gold or silver crowd), will probably come to rediscover its inherent drawbacks - relative valuations, weight, volume, & non-durability.
Gold, "the money of kings," being more scarce than silver is ideal for storing or transporting purchasing power of quantity, or large purchases such as real estate. Silver, "the queen of money," on the other hand is ideal for day to day purchases and wages. Both gold and silver are undervalued on today's market (just compare their recent price increases to the total fiat supply increases to see what's out of balance, hint - $1.4 Quadrillion in bank credit derivatives not counted on M2 govt reports.) Silver historically had a 15 to 1 value ratio in gold. It is currently being mined at a 10 to 1 ratio, so somewhere in this ball park is a "natural" silver to gold valuation. However, in today's market 1 troy oz of gold can be traded for 59 troy ozs. of silver. Ever heard of reversion to the mean?
Consider for a moment, a Roman legionnaire earned 1 denarius per day for his troubles - hard labor, and skewering barbarians. An unskilled American laborer at the turn of the previous century might expect a dime a day, and skilled labor might hope for a dollar a day. A denarius was supposed (without devaluing alloys or clipping) to equal 1/10th of a troy oz silver. A pre-1965 US 90% silver dollar contains 0.715 troy oz, and the dime 0.0715 toz. The purchasing power of the dollar was stronger than the metal content in those days, but you get the point.
Today that dime is worth $2.02 on silver content alone. See where this is going? If one had stacks of paper dollars gathering dust just waiting for zeros to be added on, or perhaps digital electron dollars parked in neutral, one could do a lot worse than to purchase $1000 face value of pre-'65 Ag dimes for $20.6K or so. Next, a $500 face value bag of Ag quarters for $10.3K or so. These small denomination/content coins will go a long way at a post collapse flea or farmer's market once the dust settles a bit.
Neither price manipulation of commodities, nor devaluation of currency lasts forever. Even if the worst case never materializes, and somehow the forces of rationality and liberty win out, some form of reversion to the mean, and recognition of monetary value will occur with the precious metals. Those holding physical, in their possession or secreted away will stand far better than those without, or those who trusted paper and digital currency in all their forms too long.
Sure, keep 6 months, a year, or 2 years projected expenses in fiat currency on hand, or in the system. Whatever one can afford to risk losing. I know I sleep better since those shiny little darlings arrived. The fed and ECB have already told us they will do what they do. It's no mystery. Weimar, Zimbabwe, Argentina. They print until the printer is taken away.
Egyptian society most definitely evolved from pre-history through the old, new, and late kingdoms. I believe the Sphinx significantly pre-dates the pyramids of the 5th & 6th dynasties, and note how small the head is. They probably kept changing its face, and whittled down what was once a proportional head of a lion. At any rate, Egypt's isolation by surrounding deserts afforded a degree of protection from invasion which would allow such a massive diversion of resources during a strong period of prosperity.
What were the "gods" that inspired the modern American metropolitan skylines; finance, insurance, industry? Not being an absolute necessity, they do represent a certain vanity, "We are strong and prosperous, come do business with us." One wonders at our current state of prosperity if measured by the pace, source of financing, and cost overruns of the twin towers replacement.
It is, I think, a given that human society is in its very nature hierarchical. This is why I do regular debate battle with the anarchists and socialist/communists on youtube. Droll, I know, but I can't seem to help it. Their utopian ideals just don't jibe with reality, and they don't let logic get in the way of their agendas.
To me, it's all about defining and constraining the state. This is the great equalizer for the Liberty of the public at large best represented by the Constitutional division of limited government power. If there is no big government machine, there is no lever for powerful monied interests in the private sector to pull for ever greater advantages.
Is there a need for neutral police and courts to peacefully resolve civil and criminal disputes between citizens? Sure. Should government prevent industry from dumping raw toxic waste on the land and waterways? Who else could? Should government accountants police the financial sector the same way beat cops used to patrol neighborhoods? The endemic corruption, fraud, and money chicanery begs for an old fashioned wood massage to the cranium.
Part of the problem is how we measure economic prosperity by GDP. Government spending makes up best I can tell some 40% of GDP. Government spending can only be derived from taxation - money lifted from the economy and filtered through bureaucratic expense before being re-directed, or debt creation - with insidious money printing diluting the purchasing power of all previously existing money. We would be better served by a simple measure of non-governmental individual and corporate income with factors for trade balance and population. Just a working idea, not fully planned out.
We're still using weaponry, and always will. Since man first utilized sticks and stones for hunting and to fend off lions, tigers, and bears - as well as marauding bands of fellow two-legged predators, weapons have been essential for survival. The framers of the constitution were all too familiar with tyranny imposed by big government, and the necessity of the public's possession of firearms as a counter-balance of absolute last resort. The 2nd amendment was made second right behind freedom of religion, speech, and assembly for a very good reason. It is no secret that the shooting revolution didn't get really started until the British went for the colonist militia's guns.
Technology has changed, the nature of a militia has changed, but fundamentally firearms remain Liberty's last, and in gravest extreme only, bastion against the imposition of tyrannical government will upon the public. We need only follow the money to see who really is pulling the levers and strings of government. Whether by choice or bent of character, we know, by their very actions and machinations, that their thirst for power knows no bounds. O big brother, big brother! Wherefore art thou big brother?
The pyramids are interesting. My take, and I'm no Egyptologist, is that they are an excellent example of how the powerful can manipulate the paradigm of societal perception through religion, or the control of information. The pyramids served no purpose to that society other than as tombs to direct their ruler's spirits to the afterlife. Wow, think of the man-hours, food, organization, and materials expended to accomplish them. Some say they were not all produced by classical slave labor. Imagine the power required to convince enough of a population that this was the highest and best use of their resources. Were there doubters? I bet they kept their mouths shut. Heave! Heave!
Now Ron, from your travels of this world, presumedly not without some direct experience as to the economic conditions of most of humanity, I think you know exactly where you stand on a wealth bell curve. Any comparison of American poor to the standards of world poor, and the standards of poor in history places the American poor in the top one percent, perhaps 1% of 1% of all people who have ever lived. So where does that leave you (and me)? I know it has been considered incredibly bad taste for gentlemen or ladies to admit to wealth, but this is an honest discussion, shall we dispense with such convention? You don't truly believe it, just because there are a very few who have amassed so much more, do you?
I suppose it is a matter of expediency, rather than accuracy, that we rank our powerful in monetary terms. Interesting that because of that measuring basis those who have succeeded the most have become so crafty at concealing the true extent of their success. New money like Slim, Gates, and Buffet have their tally sticks paraded on Forbes, while the deeply entrenched family wealth, the kind that created and owns the federal reserve and ECB, flies for all intents and purposes under the radar.
Yep, power is their game, and if fear is one of their weapons, they have me scared. At present I am caught between a desire for self preservation, and a patriotic duty to defend liberty. It does not feel like the right time for any drastic action, yet bit by crafty, patient, incremental, insidious bit I see liberty's erosion, and an apathetic public being led to the pens of dependency, taxation, and usury. I can only trust that I will rise to the occasion if presented. If I have but one mortal coil to shuffle, let it be for Liberty if needs be.
You know from your experience of Zimbabwe what became of the small denomination notes such as 100s. Only a small percentage of the digital US dollars created are represented by paper bills. For a time yet as the erosion of trust continues, paper dollars might even achieve a backwardation as real goods and services will have preferred exchange for paper over electronic dollars.
There is however a mathematical certainty, so long as debt piles on debt and spending on spending, to the course of the fiat debt dollar, and paper will not be spared. I suspect, due to the nature of the money structure created, that when the digital flood comes into the valley of real goods, it will come with such rapidity it will take the breath away. There will be no luxury of time for considered and strategic purchases as bid piles on bid, and the ask withdraws supply.
Were I you, I would add the adventure of weekly trips to my local gold and silver exchange establishments to my boring ATM milk runs. Rubbing elbows with these seedy treasure mongers, I would haggle and steadily reduce my stacks of paper, and add to my personal supply of non-numismatic Au and Ag coins and bars. For those not so adventurous, or perhaps desirous of purchases in quantity, there are many reputable firms online. It might be handy to know some of the locals for small scale exchange back to legal tender as events unfold and shopping must still be done. In the worst case, a sack of fresh produce might be had at a local farmer's market for a single pre-1965 US dime of 90% silver - just keep it on the QT. :-)
Ron: Isn't it ironic that wide open eyes can lead one so far down the rabbit hole to reality wonderland where left is right wing and right wing can be leftist, progressives are regressives, and what was conceived as a constitutional dream state is on the precipice of nightmare? It is my mind, though clear, that is spinning and I yearn for simple patriotic slumber of days gone by.
Money is only a tool, like a firearm, or ideas in a book. Sitting on a table, they are inert. In the hands and mind of a capable human being they are means to exercise power. A fool and his money are soon parted the saying goes. Power is the core, all else are periphery.
Is there anything more powerless than a newborn babe? Yet over the course of our existence we learn, or fail to learn, how to accrete power to ourselves and exert our will on our environment including our fellow human beings. One may have advantages from the status and resources of parentage, but it is still up to the individual to master one's capabilities, and choose what to do with them.
Another tangent: Free will or Predestination? I submit that the question is flawed, presupposing either one or the other. I was predestined by all the events that led to my existence, and the influences, circumstances, and coincidences that shaped the course of my existence, but I exert free will as I wiggle my fingers over this infernal keyboard contraption. Cogito ergo sum. That is all I can ever really know for sure, but my answer to the original question is BOTH. I hold all of my fellow human beings, that I presume to co-exist, responsible for how they choose to exercise their will.
Re: the "... unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" quote from our Declaration of Independence. The word PURSUIT in regards to happiness can not be over emphasized, though it is most commonly de-emphasized. An asserted guarantee for Life and Liberty, pure and simple, nothing complicated there, but only the pursuit of happiness, not happiness itself. Liberty really covers whatever pursuit one might undertake, to the limit of others' lives and liberty, but I guess they felt that particular pursuit required a certain emphasis. Poor word choice if you ask me though.
Your posts re: slaves and masters are very thought provoking and I thank you for them.
I think we really skirt around the core issue and that is of power - the ability to exert will over one's environment. What has kept slaves and serfs to the fields and grindstones over the ages? The results of 99.99% of peasant and slave uprisings left to us by history should make that clear. The powerful have had such a tremendous track record of power maintenance by 1.) Controlling a sufficiently effective military to respond to such revolts, or incursions from other power factions 2.) Controlling information and shaping the thought paradigm of society, and 3.) Denying serfs and slaves weapons and training, other than the necessary implements of agriculture or trade. The power class maintain control of their military class by dolling out dribs and drabs of their power, and a stand in for their power, money. I think perhaps power, not money, is the root of all evil.
In light of this line of thought, our original and entirely different from all precedence Constitution and its amendments becomes all the more intriguing with all its divisions and counter positions of power. This in turn makes the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, allowing a corporate non-governmental, non-constitutional banking cartel/cabal entity control over the supply of money, a stand-in for power, that much more nefarious.
I'm not saying an abolishment of the fed and a return to sound money will be a panacea, and mark an end of the powerful exerting onerous will upon the powerless. I will say that it can not but be a step in a right and just direction. Liberty for all is the heritage promised by our Constitution. Although created with flaws and implemented imperfectly by flawed human beings, it represents our best hope for restoring that heritage, and blocking a complete return to the true "barbarous relic" - serfdom and slavery.
I concur that there will always be those who accrete power to themselves as well as those who lose or surrender power. We guarantee the pursuit of happiness, not happiness. It seems human nature contains the desire to improve one's position, and if needs be at the expense of one's neighbor, the willingness. If so, the wisdom then of a counter-balanced exercise of power, the establishment and enforcement of just rules for the game of life become all the more apparent.
Re: Pensions. Given your 40+ years of service to our country in the diplomatic corp, you are fairly due a pension for your retirement years. Whether the pay out is equitable for the service rendered, I can not say. Certainly the American people need representatives in other countries to minimize conflicts, foster trade, and spy for intelligence - the ancient and honorable role of diplomacy.
I just looked up a pie chart for US Govt spending for '12, and it looks like you have more than a few for company. Pensions make up 22% of the budget (must include soc sec.) By comparison, defense 24%, health care 22%, welfare 12%, interest on debt 6%, education 4%, transportation 3%.
You made the right choice in being born when you did. You came up through the ranks in a time of prosperity, and all kinds of pension promises could be made to government workers. Social Security could be promised to all the American people, and payouts covered by future contributions while not a penny was actually saved or invested. Rather bonds were issued and placed on account while the contribution till was raided for government spending. Forward commitments for soc sec and federal pensions are in the $65 T range. Sounds kind of like a Ponzi scheme, doesn't it? It will keep working right up until it doesn't, and then look out below. I think Greenspan said something to the effect of, "We can guarantee future payments in any amount, but we can not guarantee their purchasing power."
Re: slavery - a true slave is owned and has no choice in the matter, but service as commanded by master. A servant is an employee by choice, and at least in this country, CAN be but a temporary engagement. IF expenses are curtailed, debt avoided, education invested in, and an economy is in a growth hiring phase, a new, hopefully better, engagement can be found. Unfortunately most servants do not choose this path, but rather begrudge their employer for low wages in return for essentially unskilled labor. Such is a labor market, and would be fair if the game weren't rigged.
The real slavery (of a sort) is not in currency - the medium of exchange, but in debt. Many have found just what a double edged sword easily obtained credit at usurious rates can be, and how deeply it cuts when economic circumstances change. Interesting that those who lent are happy to receive interest and principle return when riding high, but when unwise loan default born insolvency looms, contribution strings to government are pulled, and suddenly all taxpayers are on the hook for the losses. What's more, because the losses are so much greater than the tax base, new interest bearing debt must be issued by government to cover. The bankers have one more trick up their sleeve, and that is the hidden tax of currency dilution.
Score a win, win, win, win for the bankers, and lose, lose, lose, lose for the American public, aka debt slaves. One can only hope for a harkening back to the ancient practice of debt jubilee. About every eighty years all debts were forgiven, and just to make sure they stayed that way, the money lenders beheaded. Then everybody threw a big party, and went about starting it all over again. The humanity of it all - Sigh. :-)
The Fed's (Fictional) Intervention In The Gold Market, Part II: GATA's Faulty Evidence [View article]
Ah, but the Hunt's were long, and thus need to be stamped on with a change in the margin requirements. The bullion bank concentrated shorts don't get margin call increases as the price drops, do they? Even if they were to, access to the fed guarantees a near-free liquidity ride to cover, and start all over again. The CFTC declared the Hunt's long concentration a threat to the market. Why the blind eye on JP Morgue short concentration? You really believe they're just hedging for clients with long positions?
JPM custodianship of SLV is a time bomb waiting to happen. What are the odds that SLV bullion inventory (even if it exists in anything close to that reported) isn't leased, loaned, sub-allocated, fractional reserved, and cross re-hypothicated into a miasma of counter-party fraud? Same goes for HSBC and GLD.
The Fed's (Fictional) Intervention In The Gold Market, Part II: GATA's Faulty Evidence [View article]
Part of the problem is the entire modern era societal paradigm of perceived valuation of Au in fiat dollar terms, and a general misunderstanding of what money really is.
Despite the de-link from legal tender currencies, Au is still money. It evolved in free market trade as such because of its natural characteristics: 1.) Scarcity; not easily produced or counterfeited, and thus high value to weight/volume ratio. 2.) Durability; does not degrade or decay. 3.) Fungibility; easily divisible into standardized units. These features all play into gold's use as a store of purchasing power value for time deferred purchases of consumer goods and services or investments into new revenue generating enterprises. Its primary disadvantage, despite the high val/weight ratio compared to other commodities, is that any large quantity transfers present large logistical problems. Which in turn is why paper representations of gold evolved. No legal tender laws, or "barbarous relic" propaganda revoke these immutable fundamental characteristics of gold.
Money itself is simply energy one level removed. Gold evolved as the most desired stand in of energy for ease of indirect trade (silver takes second place). Despite consumer demand side economics propaganda, only production/supply allows a market to come into being. All goods brought to market represent all the human energy expended to produce them and transport to market. Competitive demand bid against supply establishes price discovery.
What is missing from the current gold market fiat price valuation is its historic monetary value. This has been artificially stripped from gold by powers that greatly benefit from a system founded on easily reproduced debt based currency. It is the market's still only partial recognition of historic gold monetary value that is behind the decade long resurgence of willingness to trade ever increasingly diluted fiat currency for gold.
The LIBOR manipulation benefited the bankers far more than any borrowers. They rigged the low end where bankers borrow, but the high end was still set at market rate. So, it's a simple spread cheat by a few basis points, but multiplied by the amount loaned worldwide equals a nice chunk of change for the bottom line.
Banks win on a high or low dollar relative currency valuation because it is literally monopoly money to them. Even if one sets aside the fractional reserve system, they have first access to the central banks that create more currency out of thin air debt. They do however have a vested interest price suppression of limited supply, difficult to produce historic monetary metals.
Competitive currency devaluations between nations, the currency wars, to affect trade settlement balances are a part of the economic scheme, no doubt, but who do you think sits atop the currency exchanges and benefits whichever way the fiat wind blows? Who has the inside information on the timing plans of the central banks, which are in reality not governmental bodies, but bank cartels?
Let's go further down the rabbit hole of the role of government in all this. Are our governments still beholden to the voting public at all? No politician gets elected dog catcher without substantial financial backing. Substantial financiers back both sides of our red/blue political system, and in turn demand and receive dominant access and influence in any matters of government policy they choose. They need only give back enough to the public to keep a thin veneer of respectability, and ever increasingly, provide government program dependency. Incumbent retention, despite obvious government failure to protect the best interest of the public at large, seems to bear out the effectiveness of the status quo.
The only motive I can think of for the decades long systematic dismantlement of America's once proud manufacturing and production of real goods in demand (the only measure of real economic health) is to reduce a once free and strong nation to a collective and dependent debt slave society. Such is a dream come true for those at the very top of a banking cartel/cabal, don't you think?
Hi fellows. It's been a busy few days, but I've tried to keep up with the conversation. Some thoughts for consideration: 1.) The absolute safest way to avoid financial counter party risk and own your gold and silver is physical bullion in your possession, which in any quantity at all must mean your home that in turn must truly be a castle. Consider many small stashes, safes, and garden holes. Dig deep for the bullion and as you fill the hole salt with junk metals to "foil" metal detectors. Dig additional false holes and salt with junk. 2.) In the event of ever more draconian governmental acts to prevent the use of precious metals as money in competition with their fiat debt currency, a black market for goods and services will flourish. A true patriot must be mentally prepared to become a criminal in the eyes of a state that loses all credibility in regards to unalienable constitutional heritage. 3.) The second amendment will take on greater meaning if one is prepared with firearm ownership, training, and mental willingness to use the gravest extreme protect one's castle, treasure, kith, kin, life and liberty from both civilian criminality, and governmental search, seizure, and oppression. 4.) When asked about Roman taxation, I believe Yeshua of Nazareth was said to have asked who's visage was on a coin. When the reply was "Caesar's," he responded, "then render unto Caesar what is Caesar's." There was also that bit about a wealthy man's ability to reach the kingdom of heaven was less than that of a camel's passing through the eye of a needle. I think we also know his opinion on money changers, particularly if they set up shop at temple. With all respect, I reserve my opinion. 5.) Our constitutional republic has been undermined by a gradual, patient, and systematic cabal for quite some time. The highlights in a parade of infamy have been the enactment of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the removal of silver from coinage in 1964, and the end of the gold standard in 1971. The fed has printed away 98% of the purchasing power of the dollar since its inception. The lack of silver in coinage has left the people with naught but very low value to weight ratio copper, nickel, zinc, and paper as reserve against fiat collapse. Abolition of the last tenuous link of the dollar to gold has left the banking cabal free to generate as much currency as required to corrupt the politicians, law enforcement, courts, military, media, and markets to do its bidding as it sees fit for its primary benefit. It is of course unstable and unsustainable, and therefore it will not be sustained, but one wonders, and shudders to think of what might be left in the wake of collapse.
Our revolution of 1776 was staged in the face of tyranny, in some ways greater, in some ways less than that of today. I have only hope that the American people, and in fact all of humanity, will awaken to reality, no matter how discomfiting, and find the means to change course peaceably. Slim hope, but one must have hope, and exercise one's 1st amendment rights, while they yet exist.
The Fed's (Fictional) Intervention In The Gold Market, Part II: GATA's Faulty Evidence [View article]
OK, so you can see a "proven" conspiracy in rigging LIBOR, the basis for global loan rate setting affecting $ quadrillions, but are unable to fathom the possibility that the large short concentrations by bullion banks are a conspiracy to suppress Au & Ag prices to bolster the relative value of fiat debt currencies? Wow, maybe denial is just a river in Egypt.
Gold was money par excellence long before Nixon decoupled the dollar from it in 1971. The "something shiny" argument is spurious at best, and insipid at least. Au requires great energy, material, and labor to add it to a real money supply, unlike paper or digital currency, which offers the simplest of supply dilution possibilities.
For currency dilution to work to the greatest advantage of those with direct access (Governments and TBTF Megabanks) to the source of dilution (Central Banks), the purchasing power of the diluted currency must be maintained as much as possible. Hence the motive for price suppression of precious metals, historic competitors to fiat currencies as stores of purchasing power preservation.
Governments and Megabanks are powerful entities with every means and motive to hide market manipulations. In 2008 Megabank insolvency chickens had come home to roost. The government bailouts did not come from a ready reserve of standing capital, but from pure fiat money creation backed only by more debt.
Why would government so abuse the public which it is intended to serve? Megabank campaign contributions and/or illicit kickbacks? Megabank participation in Treasury auctions? Fear of civil unrest born of public anger by incompetent government regulatory policy? Fear of future limitations of government spending power, by extension, elected official personal power, with a return to a sane, sound, gold standard monetary system?
The Fed's (Fictional) Intervention In The Gold Market, Part II: GATA's Faulty Evidence [View article]
Right, re: http://bit.ly/MJ28bR velocity is all that is currently missing for hyper-inflation to occur. There have been plenty of dollars already created in M2 alone; http://bit.ly/rsTWKo. Realize the Fed unilaterally ceased providing data on M3 in '06. One wonders at the real motive for this beyond the stated savings of cost to taxpayers to keep up with all of it - which says something if you think about it. Can you really believe the Fed doesn't know the real total money supply, M3? Why keep this information from the public?
Some event(s) will upset the unstable balance on the inflation/deflation tightrope we're walking. Given the Fed is ready, willing, and able to QE as they deem required, my money is on an eventual hyper-inflationary cascade into real goods, gold and silver in particular, to preserve purchasing power in the face of fiat debt currency dilution. The Chinese know where the value of their trade deficit acquired US T-notes, bills, and bonds are headed, hence their rapid acquisition of bullion and other resources. Is it a healthy sign that the Fed is the primary buyer at Treasury auctions?
The Fed's (Fictional) Intervention In The Gold Market, Part II: GATA's Faulty Evidence [View article]
Hyper-inflation needs only velocity of the money already created. Most of the newly created money of the last 10 years is currently tied up in derivatives, sovereign debt, and corporate cash, debt, and equities. Spending that will increase velocity is currently somewhat paralyzed by uncertainty, and a strangulation of consumerism. I don't know what the exact catalyst(s) will be, but the status quo is unstable, and there will come a time when trust is breached sufficiently for velocity to emerge, and fiat money to seek purchasing power preservation in hard assets on an unprecedented scale.
Occam's razor tells me that the relative value of government's fiat debt currency benefits from bullion bank gold and silver market manipulations, and hence the CFTC blind eye on short concentrations.
Thanks chaddt. Re: gold supply, it is obviously a great deal easier to print paper or digital money than to mine gold and silver, and that's really sort of the point. It is not that the PMs can't increase in supply, they will, but the tremendous cost and effort puts a natural constraint on the economic powers that be's schemes upon money supply. It is the ease with which they have inflated, to their primary benefit, that is in need of curtailment. Admittedly for decades we have had relative prosperity, but a hollow debt consumerist sort of prosperity that has destroyed competitiveness and real productive capacity. It seems we accepted a free lunch but now the real bill is coming due.
Whether or not one subscribes to concepts like peak oil, it is clear we live on a world of finite resources, and it is abundantly clear that most if not all of the easy extraction has already occurred. Stepping outside the current paradigm, it seems surreal that as a society we could have believed that quadrillions of debt dollars could be created out of thin air for a promise to pay later and somehow they would all maintain purchasing value forever against limited resources.
Re: China, one of China's primary advantages, once they decided to join the world economy, population - an abundant supply of cheap labor, is also an Achilles heel in a near term worldwide economic collapse. China's development has been at an astounding pace since the '90's, but they are still not a mature economy with a strong middle class base for an internal consumption economy. They are heavily dependent on exports.
As their primary customers, Europe and the US curtail purchases of their goods, we are starting to see the slow down in China as well. There is a very real risk of social unrest, and central government implosion, think warlord's warring states period and famine, if they cannot adapt very quickly while the west deals with a paper bubble collapse.
Another factor is that the one child policy, while some effort at population control was/is necessary, has created a strange demographic with a large aging population bubble atop narrow younger generations with a skewed majority towards males. Historically, societies have tended to use large numbers of excess young males for war.
Bullion's Sneaky Little Problem [View article]
It's amazing that Americans (est. some 50% of our legal tender Au coins were actually turned in for $20.67 under 6102 before the devaluation to $35 in '34 - a 69% hit) went along with this destruction of our money. I suppose it is instructive of what sheeple will abide during an economic meltdown, with portents for the future.
Without the 2nd and its' implied deterrent against tyranny, foreign or domestic, there will be no 1st, 4th, nor any of the other rules we have curbing our government's behavior that we call the Constitution.
Best regards,
Der Kratz
Bullion's Sneaky Little Problem [View article]
Nope, the majority of hippocampus, amygdala, pituitary governed human neo-cortexes become extremely agitated, and violent when deeply held beliefs, societal programming, or personal power are questioned. In plain words, no one likes having their version of "reality" effed with. Had not the blogosphere the comfortable distance afforded by cabled electrons, I'm sure the murder rate would skyrocket. :-)
I've recently conducted a minor study of riots to try to project a potential post collapse future. I find the '92 LA riots fascinating, as there were numerous media interviews of participants as events unfolded. Take race out of the equation, as many "races" joined in once it gathered momentum and the police backed away. Many respondents were mad at "the system," and felt their behavior justified on that basis. Imagine how many hormone driven brains will feel about "the system" and react when their benefits, direct deposits and savings are locked up and devalued on a bank holiday. Imagine when the dollar can't procure import petro and the agriculture/transporta... systems fail.
If Katrina is any measure of the government's ability to react to a localized event, imagine a system wide event. Lots of LA '92s, which of course will be the just the emergency for full implementation of NDAA and NDRP - the final push for totalitarian tyrannical rule. They will have legalistic justification to dispense with the annoying Constitution all to deal with a problem of their own creation. Tidy little circle. It feels almost inevitable, like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
A lot will depend on how long they can or desire to keep utilities and water going. As long as those are maintained the most desperate kinds of reactions will be minimized. I suspect the powers that be will try to keep these online as it will give the new emergency martial state a chance to ramp up, organize, and clamp down. I see current efforts to hinder the 2nd amendment as forethought to make a clamp down phase easier. And this will be where push comes to shove for anyone who values Liberty.
I'll chide you no further on wealth perception. Okay, maybe once more, but just to re-phrase my previous point. Of all the human beings who have ever lived, how many have more purchasing power or a higher standard of living, and how many less than you (me)? One point I meant to get to was that the fiat debt dollar system HAS generated a great deal of prosperity, but I contend that it is unstable and unfair. Some might point out that life is unstable and unfair, and I might concede that that is exactly why we ended up with a fiat debt dollar system.
Assuming one can negotiate the hazards of chaos to come, let us continue an examination of how gold and silver might be of use. Fiat, paper and digital will meet its mathematically inevitable rendezvous with zero. Trust, its basis, will be lost, but humans inevitably trade, on a free or black market, that which they have or produce for that which they need or desire. That gold and silver are scarce and cannot be procured but by trade or mining at great expense, nor their value to weight/volume and durability, will not be lost long on the market. We will return to "real" money even if only on the black market under repressive legal tender laws. Direct barter will have its place, but many who do not think about it now (the can't eat gold or silver crowd), will probably come to rediscover its inherent drawbacks - relative valuations, weight, volume, & non-durability.
Gold, "the money of kings," being more scarce than silver is ideal for storing or transporting purchasing power of quantity, or large purchases such as real estate. Silver, "the queen of money," on the other hand is ideal for day to day purchases and wages. Both gold and silver are undervalued on today's market (just compare their recent price increases to the total fiat supply increases to see what's out of balance, hint - $1.4 Quadrillion in bank credit derivatives not counted on M2 govt reports.) Silver historically had a 15 to 1 value ratio in gold. It is currently being mined at a 10 to 1 ratio, so somewhere in this ball park is a "natural" silver to gold valuation. However, in today's market 1 troy oz of gold can be traded for 59 troy ozs. of silver. Ever heard of reversion to the mean?
Consider for a moment, a Roman legionnaire earned 1 denarius per day for his troubles - hard labor, and skewering barbarians. An unskilled American laborer at the turn of the previous century might expect a dime a day, and skilled labor might hope for a dollar a day. A denarius was supposed (without devaluing alloys or clipping) to equal 1/10th of a troy oz silver. A pre-1965 US 90% silver dollar contains 0.715 troy oz, and the dime 0.0715 toz. The purchasing power of the dollar was stronger than the metal content in those days, but you get the point.
Today that dime is worth $2.02 on silver content alone. See where this is going? If one had stacks of paper dollars gathering dust just waiting for zeros to be added on, or perhaps digital electron dollars parked in neutral, one could do a lot worse than to purchase $1000 face value of pre-'65 Ag dimes for $20.6K or so. Next, a $500 face value bag of Ag quarters for $10.3K or so. These small denomination/content coins will go a long way at a post collapse flea or farmer's market once the dust settles a bit.
Neither price manipulation of commodities, nor devaluation of currency lasts forever. Even if the worst case never materializes, and somehow the forces of rationality and liberty win out, some form of reversion to the mean, and recognition of monetary value will occur with the precious metals. Those holding physical, in their possession or secreted away will stand far better than those without, or those who trusted paper and digital currency in all their forms too long.
Sure, keep 6 months, a year, or 2 years projected expenses in fiat currency on hand, or in the system. Whatever one can afford to risk losing. I know I sleep better since those shiny little darlings arrived. The fed and ECB have already told us they will do what they do. It's no mystery. Weimar, Zimbabwe, Argentina. They print until the printer is taken away.
Bullion's Sneaky Little Problem [View article]
What were the "gods" that inspired the modern American metropolitan skylines; finance, insurance, industry? Not being an absolute necessity, they do represent a certain vanity, "We are strong and prosperous, come do business with us." One wonders at our current state of prosperity if measured by the pace, source of financing, and cost overruns of the twin towers replacement.
It is, I think, a given that human society is in its very nature hierarchical. This is why I do regular debate battle with the anarchists and socialist/communists on youtube. Droll, I know, but I can't seem to help it. Their utopian ideals just don't jibe with reality, and they don't let logic get in the way of their agendas.
To me, it's all about defining and constraining the state. This is the great equalizer for the Liberty of the public at large best represented by the Constitutional division of limited government power. If there is no big government machine, there is no lever for powerful monied interests in the private sector to pull for ever greater advantages.
Is there a need for neutral police and courts to peacefully resolve civil and criminal disputes between citizens? Sure. Should government prevent industry from dumping raw toxic waste on the land and waterways? Who else could? Should government accountants police the financial sector the same way beat cops used to patrol neighborhoods? The endemic corruption, fraud, and money chicanery begs for an old fashioned wood massage to the cranium.
Part of the problem is how we measure economic prosperity by GDP. Government spending makes up best I can tell some 40% of GDP. Government spending can only be derived from taxation - money lifted from the economy and filtered through bureaucratic expense before being re-directed, or debt creation - with insidious money printing diluting the purchasing power of all previously existing money. We would be better served by a simple measure of non-governmental individual and corporate income with factors for trade balance and population. Just a working idea, not fully planned out.
We're still using weaponry, and always will. Since man first utilized sticks and stones for hunting and to fend off lions, tigers, and bears - as well as marauding bands of fellow two-legged predators, weapons have been essential for survival. The framers of the constitution were all too familiar with tyranny imposed by big government, and the necessity of the public's possession of firearms as a counter-balance of absolute last resort. The 2nd amendment was made second right behind freedom of religion, speech, and assembly for a very good reason. It is no secret that the shooting revolution didn't get really started until the British went for the colonist militia's guns.
Technology has changed, the nature of a militia has changed, but fundamentally firearms remain Liberty's last, and in gravest extreme only, bastion against the imposition of tyrannical government will upon the public. We need only follow the money to see who really is pulling the levers and strings of government. Whether by choice or bent of character, we know, by their very actions and machinations, that their thirst for power knows no bounds. O big brother, big brother! Wherefore art thou big brother?
Bullion's Sneaky Little Problem [View article]
Bullion's Sneaky Little Problem [View article]
I suppose it is a matter of expediency, rather than accuracy, that we rank our powerful in monetary terms. Interesting that because of that measuring basis those who have succeeded the most have become so crafty at concealing the true extent of their success. New money like Slim, Gates, and Buffet have their tally sticks paraded on Forbes, while the deeply entrenched family wealth, the kind that created and owns the federal reserve and ECB, flies for all intents and purposes under the radar.
Yep, power is their game, and if fear is one of their weapons, they have me scared. At present I am caught between a desire for self preservation, and a patriotic duty to defend liberty. It does not feel like the right time for any drastic action, yet bit by crafty, patient, incremental, insidious bit I see liberty's erosion, and an apathetic public being led to the pens of dependency, taxation, and usury. I can only trust that I will rise to the occasion if presented. If I have but one mortal coil to shuffle, let it be for Liberty if needs be.
You know from your experience of Zimbabwe what became of the small denomination notes such as 100s. Only a small percentage of the digital US dollars created are represented by paper bills. For a time yet as the erosion of trust continues, paper dollars might even achieve a backwardation as real goods and services will have preferred exchange for paper over electronic dollars.
There is however a mathematical certainty, so long as debt piles on debt and spending on spending, to the course of the fiat debt dollar, and paper will not be spared. I suspect, due to the nature of the money structure created, that when the digital flood comes into the valley of real goods, it will come with such rapidity it will take the breath away. There will be no luxury of time for considered and strategic purchases as bid piles on bid, and the ask withdraws supply.
Were I you, I would add the adventure of weekly trips to my local gold and silver exchange establishments to my boring ATM milk runs. Rubbing elbows with these seedy treasure mongers, I would haggle and steadily reduce my stacks of paper, and add to my personal supply of non-numismatic Au and Ag coins and bars. For those not so adventurous, or perhaps desirous of purchases in quantity, there are many reputable firms online. It might be handy to know some of the locals for small scale exchange back to legal tender as events unfold and shopping must still be done. In the worst case, a sack of fresh produce might be had at a local farmer's market for a single pre-1965 US dime of 90% silver - just keep it on the QT. :-)
Bullion's Sneaky Little Problem [View article]
Money is only a tool, like a firearm, or ideas in a book. Sitting on a table, they are inert. In the hands and mind of a capable human being they are means to exercise power. A fool and his money are soon parted the saying goes. Power is the core, all else are periphery.
Is there anything more powerless than a newborn babe? Yet over the course of our existence we learn, or fail to learn, how to accrete power to ourselves and exert our will on our environment including our fellow human beings. One may have advantages from the status and resources of parentage, but it is still up to the individual to master one's capabilities, and choose what to do with them.
Another tangent: Free will or Predestination? I submit that the question is flawed, presupposing either one or the other. I was predestined by all the events that led to my existence, and the influences, circumstances, and coincidences that shaped the course of my existence, but I exert free will as I wiggle my fingers over this infernal keyboard contraption. Cogito ergo sum. That is all I can ever really know for sure, but my answer to the original question is BOTH. I hold all of my fellow human beings, that I presume to co-exist, responsible for how they choose to exercise their will.
Re: the "... unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" quote from our Declaration of Independence. The word PURSUIT in regards to happiness can not be over emphasized, though it is most commonly de-emphasized. An asserted guarantee for Life and Liberty, pure and simple, nothing complicated there, but only the pursuit of happiness, not happiness itself. Liberty really covers whatever pursuit one might undertake, to the limit of others' lives and liberty, but I guess they felt that particular pursuit required a certain emphasis. Poor word choice if you ask me though.
Bullion's Sneaky Little Problem [View article]
I think we really skirt around the core issue and that is of power - the ability to exert will over one's environment. What has kept slaves and serfs to the fields and grindstones over the ages? The results of 99.99% of peasant and slave uprisings left to us by history should make that clear. The powerful have had such a tremendous track record of power maintenance by 1.) Controlling a sufficiently effective military to respond to such revolts, or incursions from other power factions 2.) Controlling information and shaping the thought paradigm of society, and 3.) Denying serfs and slaves weapons and training, other than the necessary implements of agriculture or trade. The power class maintain control of their military class by dolling out dribs and drabs of their power, and a stand in for their power, money. I think perhaps power, not money, is the root of all evil.
In light of this line of thought, our original and entirely different from all precedence Constitution and its amendments becomes all the more intriguing with all its divisions and counter positions of power. This in turn makes the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, allowing a corporate non-governmental, non-constitutional banking cartel/cabal entity control over the supply of money, a stand-in for power, that much more nefarious.
I'm not saying an abolishment of the fed and a return to sound money will be a panacea, and mark an end of the powerful exerting onerous will upon the powerless. I will say that it can not but be a step in a right and just direction. Liberty for all is the heritage promised by our Constitution. Although created with flaws and implemented imperfectly by flawed human beings, it represents our best hope for restoring that heritage, and blocking a complete return to the true "barbarous relic" - serfdom and slavery.
I concur that there will always be those who accrete power to themselves as well as those who lose or surrender power. We guarantee the pursuit of happiness, not happiness. It seems human nature contains the desire to improve one's position, and if needs be at the expense of one's neighbor, the willingness. If so, the wisdom then of a counter-balanced exercise of power, the establishment and enforcement of just rules for the game of life become all the more apparent.
Best regards.
Bullion's Sneaky Little Problem [View article]
I just looked up a pie chart for US Govt spending for '12, and it looks like you have more than a few for company. Pensions make up 22% of the budget (must include soc sec.) By comparison, defense 24%, health care 22%, welfare 12%, interest on debt 6%, education 4%, transportation 3%.
You made the right choice in being born when you did. You came up through the ranks in a time of prosperity, and all kinds of pension promises could be made to government workers. Social Security could be promised to all the American people, and payouts covered by future contributions while not a penny was actually saved or invested. Rather bonds were issued and placed on account while the contribution till was raided for government spending. Forward commitments for soc sec and federal pensions are in the $65 T range. Sounds kind of like a Ponzi scheme, doesn't it? It will keep working right up until it doesn't, and then look out below. I think Greenspan said something to the effect of, "We can guarantee future payments in any amount, but we can not guarantee their purchasing power."
Re: slavery - a true slave is owned and has no choice in the matter, but service as commanded by master. A servant is an employee by choice, and at least in this country, CAN be but a temporary engagement. IF expenses are curtailed, debt avoided, education invested in, and an economy is in a growth hiring phase, a new, hopefully better, engagement can be found. Unfortunately most servants do not choose this path, but rather begrudge their employer for low wages in return for essentially unskilled labor. Such is a labor market, and would be fair if the game weren't rigged.
The real slavery (of a sort) is not in currency - the medium of exchange, but in debt. Many have found just what a double edged sword easily obtained credit at usurious rates can be, and how deeply it cuts when economic circumstances change. Interesting that those who lent are happy to receive interest and principle return when riding high, but when unwise loan default born insolvency looms, contribution strings to government are pulled, and suddenly all taxpayers are on the hook for the losses. What's more, because the losses are so much greater than the tax base, new interest bearing debt must be issued by government to cover. The bankers have one more trick up their sleeve, and that is the hidden tax of currency dilution.
Score a win, win, win, win for the bankers, and lose, lose, lose, lose for the American public, aka debt slaves. One can only hope for a harkening back to the ancient practice of debt jubilee. About every eighty years all debts were forgiven, and just to make sure they stayed that way, the money lenders beheaded. Then everybody threw a big party, and went about starting it all over again. The humanity of it all - Sigh. :-)
The Fed's (Fictional) Intervention In The Gold Market, Part II: GATA's Faulty Evidence [View article]
JPM custodianship of SLV is a time bomb waiting to happen. What are the odds that SLV bullion inventory (even if it exists in anything close to that reported) isn't leased, loaned, sub-allocated, fractional reserved, and cross re-hypothicated into a miasma of counter-party fraud? Same goes for HSBC and GLD.
The Fed's (Fictional) Intervention In The Gold Market, Part II: GATA's Faulty Evidence [View article]
Despite the de-link from legal tender currencies, Au is still money. It evolved in free market trade as such because of its natural characteristics: 1.) Scarcity; not easily produced or counterfeited, and thus high value to weight/volume ratio. 2.) Durability; does not degrade or decay. 3.) Fungibility; easily divisible into standardized units. These features all play into gold's use as a store of purchasing power value for time deferred purchases of consumer goods and services or investments into new revenue generating enterprises. Its primary disadvantage, despite the high val/weight ratio compared to other commodities, is that any large quantity transfers present large logistical problems. Which in turn is why paper representations of gold evolved. No legal tender laws, or "barbarous relic" propaganda revoke these immutable fundamental characteristics of gold.
Money itself is simply energy one level removed. Gold evolved as the most desired stand in of energy for ease of indirect trade (silver takes second place). Despite consumer demand side economics propaganda, only production/supply allows a market to come into being. All goods brought to market represent all the human energy expended to produce them and transport to market. Competitive demand bid against supply establishes price discovery.
What is missing from the current gold market fiat price valuation is its historic monetary value. This has been artificially stripped from gold by powers that greatly benefit from a system founded on easily reproduced debt based currency. It is the market's still only partial recognition of historic gold monetary value that is behind the decade long resurgence of willingness to trade ever increasingly diluted fiat currency for gold.
The LIBOR manipulation benefited the bankers far more than any borrowers. They rigged the low end where bankers borrow, but the high end was still set at market rate. So, it's a simple spread cheat by a few basis points, but multiplied by the amount loaned worldwide equals a nice chunk of change for the bottom line.
Banks win on a high or low dollar relative currency valuation because it is literally monopoly money to them. Even if one sets aside the fractional reserve system, they have first access to the central banks that create more currency out of thin air debt. They do however have a vested interest price suppression of limited supply, difficult to produce historic monetary metals.
Competitive currency devaluations between nations, the currency wars, to affect trade settlement balances are a part of the economic scheme, no doubt, but who do you think sits atop the currency exchanges and benefits whichever way the fiat wind blows? Who has the inside information on the timing plans of the central banks, which are in reality not governmental bodies, but bank cartels?
Let's go further down the rabbit hole of the role of government in all this. Are our governments still beholden to the voting public at all? No politician gets elected dog catcher without substantial financial backing. Substantial financiers back both sides of our red/blue political system, and in turn demand and receive dominant access and influence in any matters of government policy they choose. They need only give back enough to the public to keep a thin veneer of respectability, and ever increasingly, provide government program dependency. Incumbent retention, despite obvious government failure to protect the best interest of the public at large, seems to bear out the effectiveness of the status quo.
The only motive I can think of for the decades long systematic dismantlement of America's once proud manufacturing and production of real goods in demand (the only measure of real economic health) is to reduce a once free and strong nation to a collective and dependent debt slave society. Such is a dream come true for those at the very top of a banking cartel/cabal, don't you think?
Bullion's Sneaky Little Problem [View article]
1.) The absolute safest way to avoid financial counter party risk and own your gold and silver is physical bullion in your possession, which in any quantity at all must mean your home that in turn must truly be a castle. Consider many small stashes, safes, and garden holes. Dig deep for the bullion and as you fill the hole salt with junk metals to "foil" metal detectors. Dig additional false holes and salt with junk.
2.) In the event of ever more draconian governmental acts to prevent the use of precious metals as money in competition with their fiat debt currency, a black market for goods and services will flourish. A true patriot must be mentally prepared to become a criminal in the eyes of a state that loses all credibility in regards to unalienable constitutional heritage.
3.) The second amendment will take on greater meaning if one is prepared with firearm ownership, training, and mental willingness to use the gravest extreme protect one's castle, treasure, kith, kin, life and liberty from both civilian criminality, and governmental search, seizure, and oppression.
4.) When asked about Roman taxation, I believe Yeshua of Nazareth was said to have asked who's visage was on a coin. When the reply was "Caesar's," he responded, "then render unto Caesar what is Caesar's." There was also that bit about a wealthy man's ability to reach the kingdom of heaven was less than that of a camel's passing through the eye of a needle. I think we also know his opinion on money changers, particularly if they set up shop at temple. With all respect, I reserve my opinion.
5.) Our constitutional republic has been undermined by a gradual, patient, and systematic cabal for quite some time. The highlights in a parade of infamy have been the enactment of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the removal of silver from coinage in 1964, and the end of the gold standard in 1971. The fed has printed away 98% of the purchasing power of the dollar since its inception. The lack of silver in coinage has left the people with naught but very low value to weight ratio copper, nickel, zinc, and paper as reserve against fiat collapse. Abolition of the last tenuous link of the dollar to gold has left the banking cabal free to generate as much currency as required to corrupt the politicians, law enforcement, courts, military, media, and markets to do its bidding as it sees fit for its primary benefit. It is of course unstable and unsustainable, and therefore it will not be sustained, but one wonders, and shudders to think of what might be left in the wake of collapse.
Our revolution of 1776 was staged in the face of tyranny, in some ways greater, in some ways less than that of today. I have only hope that the American people, and in fact all of humanity, will awaken to reality, no matter how discomfiting, and find the means to change course peaceably. Slim hope, but one must have hope, and exercise one's 1st amendment rights, while they yet exist.
Best regards.
The Fed's (Fictional) Intervention In The Gold Market, Part II: GATA's Faulty Evidence [View article]
Gold was money par excellence long before Nixon decoupled the dollar from it in 1971. The "something shiny" argument is spurious at best, and insipid at least. Au requires great energy, material, and labor to add it to a real money supply, unlike paper or digital currency, which offers the simplest of supply dilution possibilities.
For currency dilution to work to the greatest advantage of those with direct access (Governments and TBTF Megabanks) to the source of dilution (Central Banks), the purchasing power of the diluted currency must be maintained as much as possible. Hence the motive for price suppression of precious metals, historic competitors to fiat currencies as stores of purchasing power preservation.
Governments and Megabanks are powerful entities with every means and motive to hide market manipulations. In 2008 Megabank insolvency chickens had come home to roost. The government bailouts did not come from a ready reserve of standing capital, but from pure fiat money creation backed only by more debt.
Why would government so abuse the public which it is intended to serve? Megabank campaign contributions and/or illicit kickbacks? Megabank participation in Treasury auctions? Fear of civil unrest born of public anger by incompetent government regulatory policy? Fear of future limitations of government spending power, by extension, elected official personal power, with a return to a sane, sound, gold standard monetary system?
Please apply some logic and follow the money.
The Fed's (Fictional) Intervention In The Gold Market, Part II: GATA's Faulty Evidence [View article]
Some event(s) will upset the unstable balance on the inflation/deflation tightrope we're walking. Given the Fed is ready, willing, and able to QE as they deem required, my money is on an eventual hyper-inflationary cascade into real goods, gold and silver in particular, to preserve purchasing power in the face of fiat debt currency dilution. The Chinese know where the value of their trade deficit acquired US T-notes, bills, and bonds are headed, hence their rapid acquisition of bullion and other resources. Is it a healthy sign that the Fed is the primary buyer at Treasury auctions?
The Fed's (Fictional) Intervention In The Gold Market, Part II: GATA's Faulty Evidence [View article]
Occam's razor tells me that the relative value of government's fiat debt currency benefits from bullion bank gold and silver market manipulations, and hence the CFTC blind eye on short concentrations.
Bullion's Sneaky Little Problem [View article]
Whether or not one subscribes to concepts like peak oil, it is clear we live on a world of finite resources, and it is abundantly clear that most if not all of the easy extraction has already occurred. Stepping outside the current paradigm, it seems surreal that as a society we could have believed that quadrillions of debt dollars could be created out of thin air for a promise to pay later and somehow they would all maintain purchasing value forever against limited resources.
Re: China, one of China's primary advantages, once they decided to join the world economy, population - an abundant supply of cheap labor, is also an Achilles heel in a near term worldwide economic collapse. China's development has been at an astounding pace since the '90's, but they are still not a mature economy with a strong middle class base for an internal consumption economy. They are heavily dependent on exports.
As their primary customers, Europe and the US curtail purchases of their goods, we are starting to see the slow down in China as well. There is a very real risk of social unrest, and central government implosion, think warlord's warring states period and famine, if they cannot adapt very quickly while the west deals with a paper bubble collapse.
Another factor is that the one child policy, while some effort at population control was/is necessary, has created a strange demographic with a large aging population bubble atop narrow younger generations with a skewed majority towards males. Historically, societies have tended to use large numbers of excess young males for war.