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Our Economy.. the noose tightens

As you know, O gentle readers, I have an almost morbid fascination at watching the powers that be slowly tighten the noose around our necks economically... this week was chilling to watch.

The Bear Stearns debacle keeps going and going... in 2006 it was one of the largest global investment banks and securities trading and brokerage firms. Now it has been eaten by JP Morgan, no less... one would think that risky trading practices would be to blame. But are they?

Or did they just get too big for thier own good?

Today, they are throwing on the news that top executives are being indicted and taken into custody on criminal charges related to the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.

This, after Bear Stearns had to go through with the Fed, of all companies, transacting a deal between JP Morgan and themselves to stay afloat.

Are they being punished? After all, they did the same business dealings with risky SIV's that other companies did, JP Morgan included.

The chilling part to me is that JP Morgan himself was one of the principles in getting the Federal Reserve Act signed. He personally put the money and power together to put Woodrow Wilson into office, in exchange for Woodrow signing into law the 3rd Central Bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve.

JP Morgan is a principle shareholder in the company called the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve was the mediator between JP Morgan and Bear Stearns.

If that isn't a conflict of interest, then what would be considered one?

Now they are throwing Bear Stearns people in jail.. for causing the current credit problem in the United States...

If we follow that logic, can't we just throw the Federal Reserve shareholders in jail? After all, Bear Stearns lost thier ass on risky credit deals... the Federal Reserve is responsible for half of our paychecks going away, between direct and indirect (inflation) taxes. What is the bigger crime here?

But wait.. it gets better!

Today's Headline.. quickly buried amongst Spears Spawn and such...

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the government must quickly give the Federal Reserve greater power to regulate the financial system.

Yes, THAT is something we need more of!

Expanded Fed powers.. because... where is that quote...."Our nation has come to expect the Federal Reserve to step in to avert events that pose unacceptable systemic risk"

The Fedral Reserve Act of 1913 was sold to the people as somthing that would make our lives more ~stable~.. so that there would no longer be bank runs and such.

The last Great Depression is a pretty good example of how that worked.

Of course, they LEARNED from the last Great Depression... now we are told that the reason it happened is that not enough money was put into circulation to stop it from happening.

Well, they have certainly fixed THAT... we have so much money in circulation that our dollar is currently worth squat... and going down daily.

Now, long-term, no banker is stupid enough to ensure that the very money they use becomes worthless. I'm not a banker and can do that math.

So what are they thinking?

There is your thought for the night.. ;)

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What...ya don't like the notion of putting the fox

in total and complete control of the hen house before the bank that can't fail....fails?????? (Hiya Devon) :)

PEAK OIL DEMAND and PRICE OF OIL

I suspect that the oil industry had predicted that the demand for oil would peak, in the near future. If they were going to sell less oil, what would they do? I can think of two things: one is to lower the production and the other is to raise the price.

"first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks...will deprive the people of all property" -Thomas Jefferson

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"first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks...will deprive the people of all property" -Thomas Jefferson

I got my hair cut today.

It was beginning to bug me too much so I decided to bite the bullet and deal with it. How is this relevant to this thread?

The price was thirteen dollars. Not a bargain, but not outrageous. When it came time to settle up I fished out $13.00 in Fe'ral Reserve paper and said "This is for the till." Then I handed a quarter oz of Ag (Five Liberty Dollars) to my barber and said, "And this is for you. It's a quarter ounce of silver. It's not legal tender but it's real silver."
"It's beautiful," she said, "Thank you!"

She was still gushing and admiring the piece as I left the shop.

The more we spread real money, the more people will recognize it, and ultimately the easier the transition will be after the fecal matter contacts the oscillating ventilator.

Go and do good works. Your opportunities are boundless.

Sic Semper Tyrannis!
Professor Bernardo de la Paz
Impolite and impatient pedantic putz.

I

Like it. Start giving away silver to start changing the mindset of those still sleeping in our communities. It is amazing that when faced with a piece of green paper and a piece of silver almost everyone wants to hold and have the silver. Must be the pretty,pretty,shiny,shiny part of our early human nature.

nice professor! as for me

nice professor!

as for me and my home, we shall worship the LORD

Nice post there Devon

It is a morbid fascination, is it not? I'm totally hooked.

Thank you for the heads up !

I have once again sent off an e-mail to my congressman.

TRUST IN MONEY

Below are excerpts from THE GRIP OF DEATH, A study of modern money, debt slavery and destructive economics by Michael Rowbotham.

---

‘The Grip of Death’ is a literal translation of ‘mortgage’, when the owner of a house pledges his or her house to another with a handshake…until death.

Trust in money

It is assumed by everyone - and clearly by economists - that money is a neutral and accurate medium; that money does no more than reflect the economic facts. This trust is shown by the unquestioning acceptance, not just of unrealistic debts, but of a whole range of other monetary data. For example, America is currently expanding its already colossal output - but not to supply itself - simply driven by the need to obtain export revenues to improve its balance of payments. At the same time, many Third World nations are striving to develop a stronger export sector, again not producing goods for themselves, but to improve their balance of payments in order to fund debt repayments. Thus we have the bizarre situation in which the richest nation in the world is seeking to increase output simply to remain financially viable, whilst the poorest nations, who desperately need to improve their domestic agriculture and industrial infrastructure, are orienting their economies towards a glutted world market - all this being driven by monetary considerations. This again places economics, and financial economics in particular, quite simply in the realm of unreality.

It is not just in the macro-economic sphere that questionable monetary statements prevail. Every budget and every election is dominated by spending plans, spending cuts, savings made here, and accusations of money wasted there. ‘The other party’s spending plans don’t add up’ they all chorus. Scores of economists and political commentators then huddle around their calculators to check whether one party’s promises have more financial credibility than the other’s. With a triumphant shout, the claim is made that ‘there isn’t enough money’…So we can’t do it. Money is trusted. Money is accepted as the final arbiter. Money is the overall economic truth; the limiting reality. And if there isn’t enough money, well that’s that…

But this perennial shortage of government funds, enshrined in the repetitive cry ‘We haven’t got the money’, has got to be challenged. Money is a man-made device, and for an entire economy to be perpetually in the position of not being able to do what it wants, simply for lack of bits of paper with numbers on them, is strong evidence that the shortage of those bits of paper and numbers lacks all validity. Consider some of the decisions taken in pursuit of cuts in expenditure… The building is already there, the equipment is in place, the people that are employed there can be good at their jobs, providing a much valued service to local residents. And then along comes a ‘Grey Suits’ who tells us that the hospital, collage, library, post office, coastguard station, research laboratory, swimming pool or whatever has to be closed for lack of money. But in what possible sense can we not afford what we already have, and which is already there? A town can be in desperate need of a school, community centre, or repairs to its roads and drains. The raw materials may be lying idle in a builder’s yard, people may be desperate for work, but there isn’t enough money… so we can’t do it. In what possible sense can we not afford to do what we plainly can, in physical terms, achieve?

First by inflation, then by

Of course, they LEARNED from the last Great Depression... now we are told that the reason it happened is that not enough money was put into circulation to stop it from happening.

First by inflation, then by deflation.

Just like the last time.

"first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks...will deprive the people of all property" -Thomas Jefferson

I am disgusted at the fact that they pin the blame on a few fall

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guys to satisfy the public's need for justice. What a show, a couple of people get thrown in jail, and the sheeple feel justice is served. In the meanwhile our families will be paying this off for years to come. What B.S. Keep up the great work Devon.

Michael Rowbotham

is the author of THE GRIP OF DEATH A study of modern money, debt slavery and destructive economics.

Below are excerpts from Goodbye America! Globalisation, debt and the dollar empire also by Michael Rowbotham.

---

The lost debate

At the time of the depression, critics of the monetary system claimed that an economy based upon banking found itself in a position of perpetual instability. It was inherently vulnerable to slumps and booms, driven or depressed by the rate of borrowing. It would surge, then crash as businesses and consumer confidence waxed and waned, and as banks’ lending policy altered. However, the monetary reformers’ arguments went far deeper than the issue of ‘boom-slump-boom’. Monetary reformers mounted a wholesale attack on the adequacy of the financial system.

The most provocative and hotly contested claim by monetary reformers was that, with the use of bank credit as the dominant form of money, the economy was not self-liquidating. In other words, the economy suffered from a recurrent ‘lack of effective demand’ and was unable to sell all the goods it was capable of producing.

This was clearly a radical and disturbing concept. For an economy to be capable of producing goods and services, yet incapable of selling them to its consumers, would indeed be a bizarre circumstance. The monetary reformers pointed to the ‘poverty amidst plenty’ of the depression, when food was left to rot in the fields or burnt as fuel, whilst people starved and industry collapsed for want of sales to a population with no way to express its ‘real demand’ for the abundant goods and services of their own economy. The lack of effective demand, or ‘lack of purchasing power’, from which the economy suffered was blatant for all to see. But the criticism of monetary reformers went yet further. They argued that even outside a recession, when the economy did appear to be functioning properly, this was only because of perpetual investment and growth. There was still an underlying ‘lack of effective demand’ from the established economy. This was only being compensated for by growth, since the investment injected essential fresh bank credit into the economy.

The underlying ‘lack of effective demand’ made the economy reliant upon this constant investment. Economic stability was impossible. Simply to continue functioning, the economy had become dependent upon constant development, constant borrowing, and constant growth involving the speculative production of additional goods. This pursuit of economic change was directed neither by genuine demand nor sensible purpose.

People were caught up in this pattern of growth, ever more firmly tied to fulltime wage-earning by debt and lack of purchasing power. Those displaced from employment by new technology would find themselves recycled into new jobs, producing new goods which were not necessarily needed or wanted, but for which markets would have to be created. An age of perpetual growth, speculative production and reliance of the economy on ‘marketing strategies’ was prophesied. Work, employment and production were becoming an end in themselves, justified by little more than being a route for distributing incomes to a population increasingly wage-dependent as their debt grew.

The lack of effective demand and pointless over-production forced nations to search for overseas markets, both as outlets for their unsold goods, and in pursuit of revenues to bolster their illiquid economies. Since all nations were under such pressure, they became locked into an impossible and irreconcilable economic conflict - export warfare - where each nation attempted to become a net exporter. But since for every net exporter there must be a net importer, in aggregate, nations were searching for markets that didn’t exist.

It was further argued that a bank-based money supply had a dramatic impact on government revenue and the nature of taxation. The perpetual scarcity of money in a debt economy let to a shortfall of taxation revenues and annual government borrowing. Meanwhile, the cumulative backlog of an interest-bearing national debt resulted in taxation becoming ever more predatory and oppressive.

There were micro-economic effects too. Monetary shortage not only drove people and businesses further into debt, but this gave a pronounced advantage to cheap, low-cost products. Thus, the financial system was accused of being responsible for the many ‘jerry-built’ products of the inter-war depression years.

So unbalanced was the financial system that banking - which ought to reflect economic activity rather than dominate it - had actually become a focus of policy, exerting growing centralized control over both the economy and individuals. Ultimately, this was because banks administered the debt bondage in which all were held, and banks were the source of fresh debt upon which the economy was becoming increasingly dependent.

In summary, the monetary reformers claimed that the monetary economy had come to dominate and distort the real, productive economy. Conflicts, pressures and a cycle of development were being fostered by a financial system that did not reflect reality. Banking had secured a ‘monopoly of credit creation’ and government, by refusing to create and circulate a sufficient medium of exchange free from debt, was neglecting its primary fiscal responsibility. Governments had thereby abandoned their peoples to perpetual economic slavery in a dysfunctional, out-of-control economy.

From these assertions, it is clear that this was not just an economic critique, but a highly charged socio-political debate. The significance of these arguments is further emphasized when they are placed in a broader historical context.

The drive behind globalisation

As discussed in the opening chapter, the dominance of the international market and the recent upsurge in international trade is seen as one of the most damaging features of globalisation. Of curse, it is not trade per se that is the focus of concern, but that involving
(a) the international exchange of near-identical products, and
(b) the importing of goods and services that could be produced locally.

As a related, geographical example, why is it profitable to grow vegetables in the southern hemisphere and air-lift them to Europe? This is a vastly inefficient use of resources. Apart from the gross wastage of the transport involved, the misuse of land is glaringly apparent. Land desperately needed in southern Africa to feed indigenous populations is directed to producing foodstuffs for export, whilst in Europe 10% of land is currently out of production under set-aside and Europe’s farmers are struggling to survive.

Under-consumption does not mean that consumers are buying too little, but that they are unable to buy all of the goods that their economy is producing.

Extensive marketing and globalisation

Overproduction, under-consumption and intense competition for scarce consumer purchasing power all have a critical effect on commerce, particularly on marketing. These factors constitute the main drive behind globalisation by creating an ubiquitous pressure towards extensive marketing. This involves the use of transport as a competitive strategy - a device for securing adequate sales in a cut-throat market.

This is most easily outlined as the international level. If an economy suffers from a lack of effective demand, and difficulty in selling the goods and services it produces, the obvious solution is to try to sell some of its products to another economy - i.e. to export. Another economy offers an increased customer base and additional consumer purchasing power.

Of course, this instantly creates a problem. Commerce attempting to export in search of additional sales will come into conflict with domestic commerce in another country. That nation’s domestic commerce, already suffering from the lack of purchasing power within its own economy, will find its sales reduced by foreign goods. Commerce in that nation will have to respond, and one of the strategies it will use will be to attempt to find its own export outlets. But if all economies suffer from debt and under-consumption, and their commerce is seeking overseas sales, commerce is still, in aggregate, seeking sales that do not exist.

This analysis explains two phenomena. First, the conflict that is all too evident in the constant effort to ‘capture’ foreign markets whilst ‘defending’ domestic markets in a global economy dominated by surpluses and inadequate sales. Second, it explains the cross-border exchange of near-identical goods and services, since to the extent that each firm is successful in its export drive, this will inevitably lead to an exchange of customers.

This pressure to export is more accurately described, not in terms of international trade, but in geographical terms, since the export imperative also operates within a national economy. Globalisation is an extension into the international domain of trends that have dominated domestic economies for many years - released by the free trade ethic that has progressively removed protectionist barriers.

The intense competition for sales in a debt economy places pressure on firms to supply goods and services to a wide geographical area, since this will offer them a wide potential customer base. If a firm initially serves a local market, the lack of purchasing power within the local area will pressure it to seek a wider regional market. If a firm has a regional market, there is pressure it to seek the additional purchasing power of a national market. If a firm cannot obtain sufficient sales from within its national market, it will be obliged to seek a foreign market for its products. Firms in all localities, regions and nations are under the same pressure - driven by the lack of effective demand within their existing market range, and in response to invasion by competitor firms from further afield.

This offers us a powerful explanation for the intense conflict over trade in the world as a whole and the trend towards the increasing ’overlap’ of markets. With all firms using transport as a competitive device to seek further markets, the final result is a thin spread of national or international supply by firms, with massive transport costs incurred and shared, and near-identical goods from many different manufacturing sources available in most areas.

Turn water into fuel - Free detailed instructions here:

How to build the conversion device and install into a vehicle for up to 98% better gas mileage.

Free book
Free videos

Many different experiments to analyze.

http://www.mindstrain.com...
THE TRUTH SHALL BE REVEALED!

Your link is not working

Your link is not working

Turn water into fuel - Free detailed instructions here:

How to build the conversion device and install into a vehicle for up to 98% better gas mileage.

Free book
Free videos

Many different experiments to analyze.

http://www.mindstrain.com...

THE TRUTH SHALL BE REVEALED!

Sorry guys

The water/fuel thing is complete BS.

Simply because you cannot make an engine do what it is not designed to do.

The tolerances on just the upper valve train on most modern engines will not work with water injection... you will get good mileage for about 15,000 miles or so, then wonder why your evap system has rotted out, your motor sounds funny because of the compression loss (pitted valve seats, scored cylinder walls, an oil pump that is cavitating water), your car always has a check-engine light because you've popped those little oxygen sensors and toasted your cataytic convertor.

This is the same idea that goes around any time gas gets high... the last time is was magnetic fuel filtering, before that it was water injection, before that it was magnetic fuel filtering, etc, etc, ad nauseum... back to the 40's.

There ARE ways to make this work.. just not with a conversion. You have to have another engine.

Armor up

Japan unvieled there water powered car last Friday,
www.reuters.com/news/vide... -
America had the technology ten years ago but chose to kill the inventor, Stanley Meyers in 1998. 3000 innocent citizens on 911 and your worried about a concentration camp? Better spread the word now and hope we won't have to fight later. Ron Paul Revolution all the way. The other side means business.

Turn water into fuel - Free detailed instructions here:

How to build the conversion device and install into a vehicle for up to 98% better gas mileage.

Free book
Free videos

Many different experiments to analyze.

http://www.mindstrain.com...

THE TRUTH SHALL BE REVEALED!

BIG PICTURE

http://www.dailypaul.com/...

"first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks...will deprive the people of all property" -Thomas Jefferson

Although that is a good quote

There is no known primary source which proves Jefferson ever said it. If you have that source, there are several historical societies which are experts on the man and his writings that would be interested in validating it's authenticity. (if you notice and do the lineage, all versions on the net either point nowhere, or to each other. There is never a cited source for this quote from a specific writing of Jefferson anywhere)

It is a good line though.

Guess these don't count any more either...

"That we are overdone with banking institutions which have banished the precious metals and substituted a more fluctuating and unsafe medium, that these have withdrawn capital from useful improvements and employments to nourish idleness, that the wars of the world have swollen our commerce beyond the wholesome limits of exchanging our own productions for our own wants, and that, for the emolument of a small proportion of our society who prefer these demoralizing pursuits to labors useful to the whole, the peace of the whole is endangered and all our present difficulties produced, are evils more easily to be deplored than remedied." --Thomas Jefferson to Abbe Salimankis, 1810. ME 12:379

"The system of banking [I] have... ever reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our Constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens." --Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816. ME 15:18

"The banks... have the regulation of the safety-valves of our fortunes, and... condense and explode them at their will." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1819. ME 15:224

"The States should be urged to concede to the General Government, with a saving of chartered rights, the exclusive power of establishing banks of discount for paper." --Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813. ME 13:431

America has a funny way of rewriting thier own history... as do all civilizations.

Last I read

we are reprieved into limbo until just after the olympics.

"what are they thinking?"--my guess is

oh sh*t oh sh*t oh sh*t, we killed the goose that lays the golden eggs.

hey e_ got your email...

hey e_ got your email... thank you very much... that is the 3rd source who is predicting the time period from sept to november.... getting scary!

as for me and my home, we shall worship the LORD

no problem, sierra

and that was the opinion of european bureaucrats.

amazing isn't it.... the

amazing isn't it.... the whole world knows but people living in this country just go along like everything is just great!

as for me and my home, we shall worship the LORD

Well

At least I will know that I'm sane and not completely paranoid when it happens! Small consolation though...

Oh yes --- we can't have

Oh yes --- we can't have things turning sour for the Red Chinese Olympics; it certainly would not do to give our future overlords a black eye in any way.

Isn't that a Golden rule?

Never piss off your banker?

LOL

I'll wager you 10 to 1

that I have more gold than my banker ;-)

LMAO

I won't take that bet... I have a bigger gold earring than the amount of gold in my bank.

I could sure use some

good news. My thought for tonight. Ok, WTSHTF we all stay home and sleep
because I don't see a super hero coming to our rescue. Peace

There are heroes amongst us, try

www.jsmineset.com
Read all last two day postings
You'll feel some optimism

Jim Sinclair is an angel

along with Trader Dan, Monty and the others at jsmineset.com. Thank you for pointing that out Lysa.