Nicholas1980

Brazil Increases Taxes to Bust Bovesta

Really? From who did you got that? CNBC or FBN? Do your real homework before you blabber crap.


On Nov 22 10:10 PM surfgeezer wrote:

> The Brazilian government has to slow the Real's appreciation to help
> their other exporters. Export is a huge part of their GDP and financials
> small. The opposite of us. They will do this by buying foreign debt.
> I find it deliciously ironic that they are increasing taxes on well
> heeled financial types to buy our debt. LOL

Dubai 'Standstill': Masking Commodity Trends, Especially in Base Metals?

This is what is happening to places where individuals trully believe that the sky has "no" limits rather than staying with both feet on rock solid earth.

Bright Future for Petrobras and Brazil, Part 2

Nonsense, PBR and VALE don't DOMINATE Brazil and their growth. Brazil's growth is more than those two companies. Second, Brazil's gap between poor and rich is in decline, but not fast enough, what is healthy. They know their boom and bust pasts, they know what really poverty is and how to kill it..they have been there before..and done, still do to kill poverty and understand that there is more work to do. Tax reform is on the agenda..after the elections. clock is ticking for them to receive more good news while here we still screw up things and to focused on the outside.

On Nov 23 05:57 PM slam stocks wrote:

> Not bad article. PBR and VALE dominate Brazil and their growth. I
> agree the divide between rich and poor continues to grow, but what
> else are these people going to do? We're all capitalists in some
> capacity and agree the methods to exploit the poor does not justify
> the means to earn money, yet, a small opportunity for a better life
> is still better than a hopeless future.
>
> Let's focus on the stock for PBR. This is a brillant opportunity
> to own the largest oil find of the 21st century. However, the price
> is extremely high compared to other firms such as: XOM, CVX (own),
> BP, COP or TOT. Love the company, don't like the price of the stock.
> I would wait for a pullback before purchasing.

Bright Future for Petrobras and Brazil, Part 2

a Brazilian dictator that thinks like Obama? lol..
Are you one of those "harvard graduates" that only believes that South America always will vote for a Dictator or that it's the only place where they could vote for a Dictator like in the past? It's just a question..so i'm not typing that you typed that here.
If I were you..pay attention like me to our own good old USA that is turning into a country the majority never could imagined and still can't "Because we are america, it's impossible here mentality". Anway, do your homework, read books about their history (and not only the wiki) and important..travel to that country before blabber nonsens about it..cause even Dictotors opened the doors for foreingers to make money.

I agree with this. Brazil is doing things the right way, what we here can't or just don't have the will to get out of this hole the hard way to do it eventually the way the brazilians are doing their business.


On Nov 22 08:56 AM longoil wrote:

> National oil companies have historically allowed the multinationals
> to develop their reserves and then nationalized the foreign assets
> and expelled the multinationals after local engineers gained enough
> experience to run the show. This has happened in Mexico in 1938 attempted
> in Iran in 1951 (until the CIA intervened and propped the pro western
> Shah) and successfully done by the Middle Eastern nations in the
> 1970's.
>
> Chavez also kicked the majors recently in 2005, but to his detriment.
> Most Venezuelan engineers don't have heavy oil extraction expertise
> and if they do they are working in western Canada earning big bucks
> in the oil sands [rojects. Most educated Venezuelans I speak to are
> surprisely very anti-Chavez. His power base rests with the uneducated
> and poor.
>
> In the case of Brazil, I think Lulu is smart enough to realize that
> Brazil cannot undergo a long term deep sea master plan on their on
> own and has learned from the lessons of Chavez and the tragedy of
> Canterell double digit depletion in Mexico. The danger still lies
> in the future, where some potential Brazilian dictator could kick
> out the majors in the future.

Petrobras’ Long-Term Prospects Look as Strong as Ever

It's not going to happen. why? they already told Iran and OPEC to take a hike (on a nice way of course). Why? they aren't that short sided as many americans want to think that they are. they know and don't forget the past who screwed their nation in the 70's and why they had to act fast to become fuel independent.

Repsol and the others are just leaving because they can't make that much profit as 'they' want or dreamed. Ohh.. poor companies.

On Nov 29 08:58 AM jarco wrote:

> Perhaps the better question is whether Brazil joins OPEC?

Brazil: Better than a Bubble

What a nonsense, another clown who should work for Hyped up CNBC and has never been to Brazil (Or has been but only to Rio and thinks he knows it all). Mr. Augusto86, Have you been in Brazil? So yes, I bet only went to Rio and think you know it all. You know crap. Keep on watching your business news channel and keep on reading the Wall Street Journal where majority of the journalist don't even know the country or haven't been there but just cut and paste from the Net. Yes, that's typical journalist work today in the "so called Developed" nations..In reality we're not even that devoloped as we want to believe..but hey once you believe it, it goes to your mind and becomes in your mind reality, normal and you just forget about the rest. Yep sometimes we live in bubbles and we don't even realize that till it's to late.
Anyway, Brazil is complete different story that media has ignored because they prefered to pay more or to much attention to a Communist Nation far away from us and looks excotic because it's a "miracle". Who can we trust more..the Brazilians (with who we have a great and historic relationship with if you read the history, specially about world war 2) or a Communist Regime with a bad reputation and who they refuse to call a communist nation on the news channels or wherever. You just ask yourself "again"..can we really trust the media? If you ask it me, the answer will sounds familiar..no, you can't, do your own homework. Today again, the pinheads of CNBC comes with the conclusion from nowhere that Dubai is a bubble..Brazil "must" be a bubble too, because the stockmarket raised a 122% or something. Just from nowhere without even knowing the real deal why Brazil is rising, and how long it took them to come so far. And yep, some people just believe them without doing their own homework. Amazing.
Anyway..Mr Radar is correct. I'm not an expert, but I have lived for years with my parents in Sao Paulo in the terrible times when it had Hyperinflation and when it started to change. Life for most people was hard, but you could survive, and most did and we got used to it, though we knew it must change. Guess what, by time it did changed, for the better. I talk easy, because we had the money, Today it's so much better but it has a long way to go. Important is..Brazilians really learned and still learning from their mistakes..at school, on dinner tables..wherever. Now, they are learning from their big northern neighbor, but far neighbor who got itself in trouble by it's own arrogant behaviour, own believe that it's the only place on earth where it never can go wrong and with the believe that it's the only place where thing get done. Wrong. We need to stop with that "thinking" and get real, so we "know" that we are just as good and vulnerable ( As Glenn Beck ones said..just close your eyes and think how this nation was just before and on the day September 11, 2001). If we do that, we will "know" what to do so that we survive and that everything will be fine, even if it changes. Remeber, nothing in life stays the same forever. Anway back to Brazil, what is a very interesting nation and story (my opinion far more interesting than a communist regime)..what Brazil really needs (and it's getting there after the election)..is a tax reform and some changes in the in their labor force. A big chance that it becomes like Europe? No, they don't like that either because their believe is..Brazil is Brazil and not Europe. They understand that they shouldn't become like Europe where their roots (and North America, but small, if you read their history careful) are from and distroy itself. They want it do the Brazilian way..what's that? That's being simple and down to earth. Foreigners have to understand that Brazilians only believe themself and not so much the Media or their government because of their past and don't have high expectations than about themself. A believe that what you have today can be lost the next day. That kind of thinking keeps the nation growing slow, true, but it's better than growing to fast and loosing mind and money fast. Isn't that the way the people here in the US also used to think and behave?
Another thing we have to understand is that in each state from North to South, life is different. In the South they are very flexible with hiring and firing (also the area where the domestic economy is much stronger) and in the North they need the changes a bit faster, and where the gap between poor and rich is still large (it was bigger in the past) and where there are more opportunities for the locals and foreigners to make money. Also in the South, but compare with the North..a bit less, because it's more developed but still needs more development. Conclusion..there is no Bubble in Brazil ..to reach that level..the have a long way to go and loose their mind.


On Nov 18 11:07 AM Augusto86 wrote:

> Interesting. It's definitely tricky to say when you see such huge
> swings; both in equity and in debt.
>
> I agree with most of your points, especially the observation that
> businesses in Brasil are hamstrung by an onerous burden of regulation,
> impossible labor laws, and competition with the tax-free grey/black
> market.
>
> I'd also like to address #1; to quote investment boilerplate, past
> results are no guarantee of future returns. If China's demand for
> raw materials collapses, Brazilian champs like Vale and Petrobras
> might find themselves re-evaluated rather rapidly. Capital flooding
> out of a country or company is as ugly as capital flooding in is
> lovely.

Bright Future for Petrobras and Brazil

I have lived in Brazil, in the 80's when there was hyperinflation. It was horrible. In July 2009 I went to Porto Alegre in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, and Sao Paulo City, and from there to other places in the State of Sao Paulo. I can tell you how happy and excited I was to see dramatic change of Brazil. I advise to some Americans before the blabber nonsense, go to Brazil, travel from the north to the south and you will be amazed how incredible that nation really is. What impressed me the most was and still is, though they have jobs, and create jobs and get better access to credit than before what was impossible, they, the Brazilian, don't forget their past of how terrible it was during hyperinflation, don't shop that crazy or like drunken sailors here in US, and amazingly just stay calm with both feet on earth, because they understand that they have a long way to go. Brazilian people know it will go slowly and you will never or almost never hear out of their mouth when it's not about football what they play with their feet and not hands "we're the best in the world. Do they care about that it should go faster? Yes and No, because they, the majority cares about what really matters in life.."liberty, family, music, food, football, be and stay close to god (religion) and the pursuit of happiness". Travel to that nation if you don't believe me or believe me and never been..if you do that, you will "know" the Brazil you want to invest in.

In Newsweek's cover story this week, Harvard economist Niall Ferguson calls the U.S. "An Empire at Risk": "If the United States succumbs to a fiscal crisis, as an increasing number of economic experts fear it may, then the entire balance of global economic power could shift." Paul Krugman responds: "These [debt] numbers look huge, but our entire economy is huge."

Maybe Mr. Krugman was thinking about the chinese economy while he was talking about the US economy.

The US is Turning Into Europe

Mr. Mad hedge fund trader. You are correct that the US is turning into Europe. Now I'm not an expert like you, but I grew up in Holland where I studied and worked as a data entry clerk and by time a stock broker at an Investment Bank in Amsterdam "Dexia Bank". Living there I was blind, but once left the country for Sao Paulo-SP in Brazil and today in Miami-FL USA (I regret by doing that, though i still enjoy life here with my wife and friends) my eyes opened how spoiled, naive I was about the Dutch or today European system that's being crippled by all the high taxation of everything from owning a dog to stocks, high unemployment ( because of taxing companies to pay for all "free" benefits), PC language, everything for free mentality ( like study financing and 50% discount for the students who take the bus, metro or train), and I have the right to work 36 hours a week plus having a high salary and 7 weeks ( I had that for life contract with the bank) a year vacation state of mind. Now I see it's happening here too, slowly but it's matter of time it goes that way and might be the end of this nation as we know it. Anyway, great blog.

The Truth Behind China's Currency Peg

Right here? Or Somewhere else, like for example down under in our Western Hemisphere where the Asians will have plenty of choices to buy their products for their homes or whatever. We are going to get tough competion, actually it's already happening. Mr Buffet is "betting" on his country. God knows he trully believes that the US is the only place on earth where the Asians can export their junk, actually it is, because the rest of world makes it difficult for the Asians so they don't wipe out their manufacturing base, or... God knows he's to Naive to believe that the US will remain the only nation on earth where Asians can buy the products they need. If that's so, He's going to loose. Why? There are plenty of nations who produce the goods they need, for example for their homes, garden and by time to go to Mars. True, some are beginners, but improve by time. Why? They see how we screw things up here and that motivates them. Travel and you'll see with you're own Eyes. USA used to be a power in everything, but nothing in life stays the same, powers come and go, we're entering a world where no longer one nation dominates. Oh well, the sun will still shine and we still can have a blast in life when we want, that's the good news :).


On Nov 22 07:39 AM yellowhoard wrote:

> China's middle class will swell to well over the size of the US when
> their currency floats to its natural level.
>
> Imagine hundreds of millions of people all suddenly buying things
> for their homes.
>
> We will surely suffer, but massive spending in Asia will cushion
> the fall. There are still American companies that export to Asia.
> They will prosper.
>
> I suspect that this is the reason why Buffet bought a railroad that
> services US ports that service Asia.
>
> When the yuan and dollar decouple, Asia will be on a shopping spree
> right here.

Upside GDP Surprise: Misleading

The USA Is Already Bankrupt!

YOU are the last generation living in the twilight near the edge of the abyss!

No Empire has EVER lasted forever, not even the mighty Roman's!

Congress is marching us all down a similar political and ideological path as

the Roman's once took. Governments backed only with military force as their

only true source of revenue and power soon fall. We have become such an empire.



The end with be tyrannical, violent, maybe vicious! IF you are one of the lucky few

citizens with any valuables left you will have to defend them from seizure not only

from an increasingly aggressive government taxation force but also from your

fellow citizens that have already hit rock bottom and are homeless by the millions.



If you can afford to leave the USA make plans now!

Havens for the wealthy are sprouting up like weeds

all over the world NOW! The exodus of the wealthy

from Europe, Japan and the USA is well underway!



If you stay here be sure to hide your assets very well!!! Do not keep your money in

the bank!!! Do not hide cash under the mattress either as inflation can turn that

into a pile of worthless paper in only a few BAD years. Invest in durable goods

and non-perishable inventory. Hide it well from the prying eyes of both government

and citizen thieves alike! With these assets your family can barter for food, medicine

and any of the other basic necessities of life in the turbulent years to come.



THE UNPREPARED ARE NOT GOING TO DO WELL WHEN THIS TIME COMES!

United States Congressional Record - March 17, 1993 - Vol. #33, page H-1303 - Speaker- Rep. James Traficant, Jr. (Ohio) addressing the House:

"Mr. Speaker, we are here now in chapter 11. Members of Congress are official trustees presiding over the greatest reorganization of any Bankrupt entity in world history, the U.S. Government. We are setting forth hopefully, a blueprint for our future. There are some who say it is a coroner's report that will lead to our demise."


Imagine for a moment that someone inherits a farm. Let's say that the farm has good topsoil, a good well, good breeding stock, good seed, and excellent farm equipment in good repair. Prior to passing into the control of the present owner the farm did a good business selling vegetables, meat, and dairy products to the local market, and it made a small profit.
But let us suppose for a moment that the present owner of the farm doesn't understand farming, or isn't even really interested in learning. The present owner has no objection to standing around looking good, so he stays at the farm, standing in front of it, looking good to passers by.
Of course, the bills still come in, so our farmer puts them on his credit card. When that bill comes due he uses another credit card, Then another. Pretty soon the interest payments alone are higher than his bills and the banks get nervous and call him. No problem. Our farmer sells the tractor, takes the money around to the various credit cards, the food store, the utilities, and pays off all his bills. Then he stands around in front of the farm looking good to passers-by, the lord of his domain.
Will, the bills still come in. Again the credit cards get loaded up. So, this time our farmer sells the harvester. Then later on, the cattle, then the chickens, then the seeds, then he leases the well to his neighbor and finally sells the top soil from his farm to another farm down the road whose soil is getting tired. The cash is taken around to the various creditors, the food store, the utilities, etc.
Now at this point, our farmer thinks everything is okay. The bills are paid, he has a little cash in his pocket, and everything is fine.
Of course, you know better. The farm simply does not exist any more; it's just an empty lot with a few buildings, and soon they will be gone as well. The path from the farmer's present condition to seizure of the property for unpaid taxes is a foregone conclusion, even if the farmer doesn't look far enough ahead to see it.
Poor, dumb, stupid farmer.
That farmer is our government, and our business leaders.
Just as our hypothetical farm has lost its soil, livestock, seed, and farm equipment, America has lost its manufacturing ability. Short sighted business leaders, with as little interest in manufacturing as our farmer had in farming, decided their own personal bonuses would be higher if they simply sold their factories rather that ran them. After WW2, the 27 American TV companies including Zenith, Emerson, RCA, GE, etc. led the world in TV technology. Then, the owners of the patents on TV technology decided they didn't need to dirty their hands by actually making the TV sets themselves any more, and they started selling licenses to manufacture, which the Japanese bought.
By 1987, the only remaining American TV company is Zenith. The patent holders get their money, but the American products which can be sold overseas are gone, along with the jobs to make them.
The same happened in high-tech electronics. The integrated circuit was invented in the United States. But rather than focus on selling integrated circuits, the companies that owned that technology sold the machines to MAKE integrated circuits around the world, and now America sells very few chips anywhere. The patent holders have their money, but the cash flow from sales of manufactured goods, and the jobs that go with them, are gone. When Seymour Cray needed custom chips for his supercomputers, he had to order them from Japan.
The same thing has been happening in aviation. The airplane was invented in the United States, and through the 60s, we sold a lot of them around the world. But lately, all aircraft sales to foreign countries involve "offsets", a portion of the core technology that gets licensed to the purchasing nation and gets manufactured there. Bit by bit, the core technology gets bled off, taking with it jobs, and cash flow from the sale of those manufactured products. Along the way, the rights to manufacture American inventions outside America leak away on a steadily increasing basis. Even the mighty F-16 is now being manufactured overseas, under license.
To cover the loss of manufacturing jobs, our government has invented the catch phrase "service economy". This is the idiotic notion that we don't need to actually sell manufactured products; that we can grow and prosper our nation by doing each other's laundry. To conceal the loss of manufacturing jobs, the government has legislated into existence thousands upon thousands of useless paper-shuffling jobs, and declared their necessity by fiat. The most obvious is the income tax which has been so obfuscated by the government that half of you had to rely on an outside expert to figure out just what all those incomprehensible words really meant. By this device, the government has replaced those jobs that made products to sell with an equal number of jobs that produce nothing whatsoever of any worth, except to keep the unemployment figures down. This over-burdening of the American people with gratuitous regulations and paperwork has accomplished nothing except to obfuscate the loss of manufacturing jobs, and to transform the American character from innovators and inventors creating new products to that of minor clerks, peeking under each other's seat cushions for lost change.
So, with most of our manufacturing now gone, just what DOES America make? Trouble, mostly. With 4% of the world's population and 18% of the economy, we have 50% of all the lawyers, all looking to make a killing by looting those few industries that still call America home (like Microsoft). Kids don't want to be scientists and engineers; they've seen how little such people are valued in our country. Based on recent history, kids see the "big bucks" are in corporate law, specifically investment banking, leveraged buyouts, greenmail, junk bonds, in short what other countries describe as "trying to make money grow by shaking it side to side".
With America's ability to actually produce products that can compete on the open world market in decline, it's no wonder that the balance of trade is the problem it is. Nobody buys our export products because we just don't make that many any more, and like or not, we have to buy our appliances from the people who make them, which are NOT Americans. (When Ampex invented the VCR, they didn't even bother trying to find an American company to make it, they immediately sold the rights to Japan).
So, what do all these countries on the plus side of the trade imbalance do with their surplus billions? Well, they have been loaning it right back to us!
Our government engages in a practice politely called "deficit spending". Other terms which would aptly describe the practice include "counterfeiting" and "check kiting", but it all comes down to the same thing; spending money one does not actually have.
What would be a jailable offense for a normal citizen was rendered legal for the government by the Federal Reserve Act. This was not a popular piece of legislation. In fact the Democrats had campaigned in 1912 on a platform of rejection of the creation of a private bank in charge of a fiat money system. Nevertheless, on December 23, 1913, taking advantage of the absence of congressmen opposed to the creation of a fiat monetary system during the Christmas break, the Federal Reserve Act was passed.
Years later, during the great depression, Congressman Louis T. McFadden (who served twelve years as Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency) asked for congressional investigations of criminal conspiracy to establish the privately owned 'Federal Reserve System'. He requested impeachment of Federal officers who had violated oaths of office both in establishing and directing the Federal Reserve -- imploring Congress to investigate an incredible scope of overt criminal acts by the Federal Reserve Board and Federal Reserve Banks. McFadden even suggested that the Federal Reserve deliberately triggered the great stock market crash of 1929, in order to eventually force the passage of the Emergency Banking Act of March 9, 1933, which suspended the gold standard.
In describing the FED, McFadden remarked in the Congressional Record, House pages 1295 and 1296 on June 10, 1932:
"Mr. Chairman, we have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks. The Federal Reserve Board, a Government Board, has cheated the Government of the United States and he people of the United States out of enough money to pay the national debt. The depredations and the iniquities of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks acting together have cost this country enough money to pay the national debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of the United States; has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through the misadministration of that law by which the Federal Reserve Board, and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it".


Why all the fuss over the gold standard?
Well it goes back to the original Founding Fathers and the meaning of the word "dollar". "Dollar" is actually a weight measure of silver, 371.25 grains, to be exact. Our American silver dollars are actually heavier, since other metals were added for durability. But that 371.25 grains of silver WAS the dollar, matching in weight an unbroken chain of accepted monetary units that reached back through the Spanish Milled Dollar, the Dutch Daller, back to the German Thaler; the product of a silver mine which sold it's product in coins of an exact weight. The Coinage Act of 1792 defined our dollar to exactly match in weight the silver dollars in use around the world, and then defined the gold dollar to be that amount of gold which would equal the worth of silver in a silver dollar, 24.75 grains, 1/15 the weight of the silver in a silver dollar.
So, what's wrong with this? Nothing really. When you, as a citizen, hold a silver dollar or a gold dollar in our hand, you hold that actual worth of metal. Nothing the government can do can change the worth of the money in your control.


Take the Roman Silver Denarius pictured above. The Roman Empire is long gone, but the money that Rome issued still has worth because the coins themselves had inherent worth. Long after the collapse of the empire, Roman silver coins were still used as money, because the silver in the coin itself did not depend on the issuing government for its worth.
Of course, carrying around too much coin can be bothersome, so many nation, including our own, issued paper notes as a convenience. But that paper currency of the nation was just a convenience. The gold and silver certificates were merely "claim checks" for the equivalent weight of gold or silver held in the treasury, and which would be produced on demand when the certificate was presented. But in the end, the lawful dollar of the United States was 371.25 in silver, or 24.75 grains of gold.
The problem with this system from the point of view of the government or the banks is that it limits the amount of money they can work with. When the bank runs out of silver or gold (or the equivalent certificates) it can no longer lend any more money with which to earn interest. When the government runs out of gold or silver (or the equivalent certificates) it can no longer spend money (just like the rest of us).
The immediate effect of ending the gold standard was that with the paper dollar no longer legally dependent on 371.25 in silver or 24.75 grains of gold, more paper dollars (now called "Federal Reserve Notes") could be printed, their worth no longer under the control of the citizens but under the control of the issuing central bank, based on the total number of dollars printed (or created as credit lines). The more dollars which are created out of thin air, the less each one is worth.


A federal Reserve Note.
The swindle of the system is simple. The Federal Reserve Bank hires the US Treasury to print up some money. The Federal Reserve only actually pays the treasury for the cost of the printing, they do NOT pay $1 for each 1$ printed. But the Federal Reserve turns around and loans out that money (or credit line) to banks at full face value, those banks which have exhausted their deposits then loan that Federal Reserve fiat money to you, and you must repay it in the full dollar value (plus interest) in work product, even though the Federal Reserve printed that money for pennies, or created it out of thin air in a computer.
As the Federal Reserve overprints more money, the money supply inflates, and too much money starts chasing too few goods and services, which means prices go up. But contrary to the charade put on by the Federal Reserve, inflation doesn't just come and go due to some arcane sorcery. The Federal Reserve can halt inflation any time it wants to by simply shutting down those printing presses. It therefore follows that both inflation and recession are fully under the control of the Federal Reserve.
Over time, that excess of printing has destroyed the value of that dollar you think you have. If you want to know by just how much, go out and try to purchase 371.25 grains of silver right now. Usually, the deterioration is gradual. Sometimes, it has to be obvious, such as the 1985 devaluation (done to halt the trade imbalance) which triggered the Japanese real-estate grab in this country.
Many politicians have attempted to reverse this process. John F. Kennedy issued an Executive Order 11110, requiring the Treasury Department to start printing and issuing silver certificates for the silver then remaining in the US Treasury.
Kennedy decided that by returning to the constitution, which states that only Congress shall coin and regulate money, the soaring national debt could be reduced by not paying interest to the bankers of the Federal Reserve System, who print paper money then loan it to the government at interest. This was the reason he signed Executive Order 11110 which called for the issuance of $4,292,893,815 in United States Notes through the U.S. Treasury rather than the traditional Federal Reserve System.


John F. Kennedy's United States Note.
That same day, Kennedy signed a bill changing the backing of one and two dollar bills from silver to gold, adding strength to the weakened U.S. currency.
Kennedy's comptroller of the currency, James J. Saxon, had been at odds with the powerful Federal Reserve Board for some time, encouraging broader investment and lending powers for banks that were not part of the Federal Reserve system. Saxon also had decided that non-Reserve banks could underwrite state and local general obligation bonds, again weakening the dominant Federal Reserve banks".
Kennedy's E.O. was never implemented following his assassination, and shortly afterwards, United States silver coins were taken out of circulation and replaced with the copper clad slugs in use today. These two events, the failure to print new silver certificates, and the substitution of worthless slugs for our silver coins, may explain why the Warren Commission included on its panel John J. McCloy, a man with no experience in crime, law enforcement, or national security, but who had been the President of the Chase Manhattan Bank.
It should be noted that the banks themselves are still using the gold standard. Accounts are still settled between major national banks by the transfer of gold bullion.
So here we are with a bank that legally counterfeits the money you borrow but expects a full value (plus interest) repayment. But what's good for the Federal Reserve is good for the government itself, and this is where we get back into that funny word "deficit spending". The government spends more money than it takes in. It has for many years now. The Federal Reserve, being the only lawful source of this fiat money, prints up the excess cash the government needs (or manufactures a credit line in a computer). This extra cash is treated as a loan, in order to keep the government overspending from further eroding the worth of the dollar in the world market. The government (meaning the taxpayers) is on the hook for the full face value, plus interest.
But there's another problem. The government is borrowing so much money that it drives the interest rates up! You pay MORE interest on your mortgage, car loan, and credit cards, because the government cannot balance its books. That extra interest you pay is therefore another hidden tax. The government, in its "generosity", gives you a tax credit on mortgage interest that is higher because of their own borrowing!
During the 80s, as exports dropped, and jobs moved from manufacturing to lower paying "service sector" jobs, the US tax base declined. In order to keep the jobless rate from rising, a massive defense program called the Strategic Defense Initiative was cranked up, but since this program produced no exportable product, it produced no taxable sales revenues, and hence the money poured into the project accelerated the government decline into debt. Because manufacturing was on the decline, fewer start-up companies were approaching the lending institutions, so the government loosened up the rules (while increasing the insurable deposit limit) to allow "investments" in more high risk ventures, most of which turned out to be frauds, or worse, money laundering operations for drug criminals. This includes Whitewater, Flowerwood, and Castle Grande. Despite shifting the S&L loss primarily onto the taxpayers (to reassure foreign investors that the taxpayers still made America a safe place to park their surplus cash) the government plunged further into debt.
In the 12 years of the Reagan/Bush administrations, the United States went from being the world's largest creditor nation to the world's largest debtor. Many of those nations which had enjoyed huge trade surpluses started loaning that profit back to the United States with the stipulation that we work on our manufacturing, clean up our infrastructure, raise taxes, in short, clean up our act, so that investment in America makes sense!
However, we didn't quite do that.
There has been some shuffling around to try to conceal the real scope of the problem. Over the last several years, the Federal Government has been sending less tax money back to the states than it takes in in taxes. This means that the states have to borrow MORE money to cover their obligations. The net result is that the debt is being transferred to the states, to conceal its true size. The government will easily admit to a $3 trillion "publicly held" debt, grudgingly concede that it's "unfunded liability" brings that number to almost $7 trillion, but the real hard truth is that total government debt, state and federal, is now over $14 trillion dollars, or about 50,000 for every man, woman, and child inside the United States. Since 1960, the taxpayers have shelled out $15 trillion in interest payments alone, while the principal continues to rise.
Yet another stunt the government has pulled is to "borrow" from the various trust funds under its control. Some $2 billion has vanished from the trust accounts of Native Americans (presently suing the Departments of the Interior and Treasury), and nearly ¾ of a TRILLION dollars has been removed from your Social Security retirement trust fund and spent in the last 8 years.


If the government has to borrow your retirement money when things are supposed to be so good, under what conditions can it repay the money? Or is that government IOU in your retirement account merely a promise to either tax you a second time or stiff you on the benefits you thought you were paying for?


In the last 8 years, during what are supposed to be record setting good times, the Federal government has nearly DOUBLED its debt load. The estimated interest on the debt equals all the personal income tax paid by all Americans. Our government is so deep in debt that it cannot get out.

This brings us to the issue of collateral. We've borrowed so much money the lenders are getting nervous. Back during the Johnson administration Charles DeGaulle demanded the United States collateralize the loans owed to France in gold and started carting out the bullion from the treasury. This caused several other nations to demand the same and President Nixon had to slam the gold window closed or the treasury would have been emptied, since the United States was even then in debt for more money than the treasury could cover in gold.
But Nixon had to collateralize that debt somehow, and he hit upon the plan of quietly setting aside huge tracts of American land with their mineral rights in reserve to cover the outstanding debts. But since the American people were already angered over the war in Vietnam, Nixon couldn't very well admit that he was apportioning off chunks of the United States to the holders of foreign debt. So, Nixon invented the Environmental Protection Agency and passed draconian environmental laws which served to grab land with vast natural resources away from the owners and lock it away, and even more, prove to the holders of the foreign debt that US citizens were not drilling. mining, or otherwise developing those resources. From that day to this, as the government sinks deeper into debt, the government grabs more and more land, declares it a wilderness or "roadless area" or "heritage river" or "wetlands" or any one of over a dozen other such obfuscated labels, but in the end the result is the same. We The People may not use the land, in many cases are not even allowed to enter the land.
This is not about conservation, it is about collateral. YOUR land is being stolen by the government and used to secure loans the government really had no business taking out in the first place. Given that the government cannot get out of debt, and is collateralizing more and more land to avoid foreclosure, the day is not long off when the people of the United States will one day wake up and discover they are no longer citizens, but tenants.
The following map shows the current extent of all lands grabbed by the government under the guise of environmentalism.

In short, the United States is in deep trouble. We have lost a huge amount of our manufacturing capacity, and those products we still make do not compete well on the world market, despite the steady devaluation of the dollar. In short we have vast debts to pay and little to pay them with. Like the foolish Farmer we have sold the machinery that allowed us to prosper, and we stand around shaking our investment portfolios back and forth in the hopes that the money inside will somehow grow all by itself. It won't. It never has. The very best that can be said is that money gets moved from one person to the other.
Those nations and banks to whom we owe money have been very patient indeed with us. They know that our economies are so tightly entwined that what hurts America will hurt them. But sooner or later, possibly after a market crash, someone, in order to pay their own debts, will demand their loans to the United States be paid. Rather than get caught with "bad paper", there will be a run on the United States government.
In addition to the government debt of $14 trillion, our businesses are home to trillions more in foreign investment, kept here by the promise that the American taxpayer will be made to cover all losses. But with our manufacturing in decline and our schools producing far more lawyers than anything else, it should be obvious to the prudent observer that the American taxpayer, even if so inclined, may not be able to cover the losses of their own government, let alone a foreign investor. That has to be making them nervous as well.
This brings us to the "equities markets", most notably the stock market. Over the last several years a constant media harangue has assured us that the soaring numbers of the stock market are the sole measure of how good our economy is. But close examination of those high-priced stocks reveals that most are heavily over-valued; their price the result of market forces rather than underlying worth (earnings ability). Amazon.com, as one example, has had a terrific run-up of its stock price, even though the company itself has yet to show a profit.
The government has admitted to using covert means to prevent a market downturn; to keep the stock prices at an artificially high and overvalued level, in order to wave those impressive numbers about as "proof" that everything is okay so that the taxpayers go back to work and pay more taxes. But in order to keep those stock prices up above their actual worth, demand must be maintained to keep the prices high. In other words, NEW investors must constantly be brought into the bottom of the pyramid to keep the prices of the stocks at the top from dropping. Hence the onslaught of commercials luring neophyte investors into the stock market via "online trading". Like any Ponzi scheme, the stock market will collapse when no more new buyers can be dragged in at the bottom. As the market starts to stutter, governments (most recently Britain) have moved to dump huge reserves of gold onto the world market to depress gold prices and deter investors from deserting the stock market for gold.
Some years back I worked on the film version of "The Day The Bubble Burst", and in between playing a stock broker, I got to spend some time with the show's consultant, Mr. William Hupt, who had been on the trading floor in 1929 as it all fell apart. He still had, framed, that last strip of ticker tape that ushered in the Great Depression, and he shared some stories which have a bearing on what is going on today.
The first story Bill shared is that there had been early indications of a dangerously over-valued market, running to deep on margin, and like the Plunge Protection Team, the largest investment houses, in particular the House of Morgan, attempted to reverse the early corrections by purchasing large blocks of stock in order to create market demand and drive the prices back up. It worked all but the last time.
The second story Bill shared was that a friend of his, riding up to his office in September of 1929, overheard the elevator operator chatting about his own stock portfolio, and his investments. Something about that image of an elevator operator playing the market set off warning signals, and Bill's friend immediately liquidated his entire portfolio, just in time to miss the great crash. Many people, including the actor Charlie Chaplin, had recognized the "recruitment" of that segment of society that did NOT have risk capital as new investors as a desperate attempt to prop up an overvalued market, and got out in time to save their own personal fortunes.
In the end, there is no such thing as a free lunch. You cannot make money grow in value by shaking it back and forth from one bank to another. You cannot prosper a nation by doing each other's laundry, or filling out their government mandated and greatly obfuscated paperwork, or flinging stock certificates around which may have as little real worth as Federal Reserve Notes. To make money, to show a profit, you must make products that somebody else wants to buy, and sadly, that is a capability the United States has allowed to slip away in great measure. The "service economy" was political propaganda to make the public believe that the decline of our manufacturing ability was a good thing.
Our nation is broke, bankrupt, and having sold much of its machinery and technology (or given it away to political donors), is unable to easily return to those endeavors which once made our nation great. Our infrastructure is in decay (the percentage of roads in the US with major damage doubled last year alone), our public schools unable to produce a workforce able to function in a high-tech manufacturing environment, and those managers end engineers with manufacturing experience have in great part been lured away to other nations. The severity of our total government debt has reached a point where the promise that the taxpayers can be made to cover any foreign investment loss rings hollow, because we can no longer pay the debts our government has now.
Our nation is in trouble. We don't make many of the products we used to make. Consequently we don't have the products to sell that we used to. We don't even make most of the products we need ourselves (like that computer you're staring at this very moment). Result: we have a massive trade imbalance. Cash is flowing out of the nation, and it's not coming back in anywhere near as fast. There's no way to spin it; that is a major problem. Our nation is becoming poorer, it is hopelessly in debt, and all the artificial escalation of stock prices cannot conceal that.
And as the artificially pumped up stock market continues to decline, the true scale of the economic horror which is the product of decades of government corruption, will become apparent to all.

Catching Argentinian Disease

~it will be a sad day for the "independence of America's central bank"~
The USA has an independent central bank? really?
Isn't the FED a "private company", that behaves like the central bank of the USA? So in other words..do they really care about "we the people?
The last questions is clear: No.

Dollar Forced to Abdicate Its Throne

why worry about the fake us dollar? If money is not real, why can't we by time replace the us dollar with the mickey mouse dollar? At least the Fed doesn't control that.

Learning from Brazil's Financial System

less to lose in the crisis, but now in my opinion have room to improve their financial system. Are they doing that? Slowly, because they're being forced to thanks to the crisis.

Upside in Emerging Markets: Brazil is Bouncing

Argentina(food)? I would stay away since that country's policies are just a failure of Venezuela, you can't trust the numbers of the goverment that is littlerly sponsored by hugo chavez. Costa Rica(Great retirement and future location of Tech companies)??? Uhmm, it's stable, but but...not to be in an area that is highly possible to be hit by a hurricane, I would check out more the north east of Brazil for retirement that offers more than the Central American nations combined and super relaxer. For Tech companies? check it out the south where there the Germans tech companies and american (microsoft and google) invest more..why? Highly educated, young (most of them bilangual and from northern European countries descent) and dynamic population and the areas/states are as developed like or some higher than european nations and higher than in most south american nations. The joke was "Brazil, will always be the land of the future"...If you just ignore that joke, and the so called experts in the developed world who comes mostly with out dated info about Brazil, you do your own home work and see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears that the future has arrived in Brazil, but has a long way to go, and come to the conclusion that it works and that they learned their lesson of their own misserable past and of course from our Government idiotic policies, while we were suppose to know better.