AND ANOTHER ONE FROM ERIC FRY AT THE DAILY RECKONING

SOMETIMES, THE TRUTH IS SO SIMPLE ...GT

The "Goldman Sachs Phenomenon"


Eric Fry

Now that the American financial sector is safe and unsound once again, has the threat of serious economic crisis genuinely passed? And has the structure of American capitalism actually improved? Or did the Fed merely dress a sow in lingerie and call her a raving beauty?

In other words, what did the Fed accomplish by lavishing billions of dollars upon the financial sector? Was the Fed's inflationary rescue mission really worth all the trouble? Or would the nation have been better off if Bernanke and Paulson had simply gone golfing while Bear Stearns failed?

At first glance, the Fed's rescue seems to have halted a serious crisis in its tracks. The rescue also seems to have preserved the viability of the American banking system. But upon closer inspection, we discover that the Fed's rescue also preserved at least one dysfunctional characteristic of our economic system - namely, an over-reliance on "asset-swapping" activities, rather than "asset-producing" activities.

Australian author, James Cumes, asserts that the US economy has become overly dependent on trading things back and forth, rather than manufacturing goods and selling them. He calls this new reality the "Goldman Sachs Phenomenon."

"In the larger Anglo-Saxon economies," says Cumes, "transfer of ownership [has] supplanted fixed-capital investment as the most common form of what purported to be 'investment.' Investment has become a means of making a fast buck, not by entrepreneurial effort, construction of factories and installation of productive equipment, but by gambling to add market value through mergers and acquisitions...that would lead to higher shareholder value in the marketplace...

"Despite the higher, short-term market values [that might ensue], they would not necessarily add anything to productivity or to the volume or value of final output" - "Inevitably," Cumes continues, "there are social impacts from this deal-maker, day-trader, casino-like type of ownership investment, especially to the extent that it spreads over a more and more major part of the economy...Inequality is dramatically intensified by generous bonuses for senior executives and others in financial firms in the United States and such other financial centres as London."

The Fed's bailout of the financial sector seems to have supercharged the Goldman Sachs phenomenon. Not only do the top dogs at publicly traded financial firms "make bank," they continue to make bank even after destroying billions of dollars of shareholder wealth. And the top dogs enjoy their privileged positions under the watchful, doting eyes of the Federal Reserve and Treasury. No bad deed goes unrewarded.

"Of course, there is justice in rewarding effort and enterprise," Cumes concludes. "That is historically one of the ways in which a capitalist system has justified and maintained itself; but there are other considerations too. "Indeed, if our present essentially democratic capitalism is to survive - and survive securely - it must pay attention to social outcomes. Poverty in the midst of plenty is not a comfortable social situation. Some inequality there will always be but gross and growing inequalities must, over time, be a threat to social, political and even strategic stability, as well as economic and financial stability."

But these "big picture" concerns do not seem to concern the head of the Fed and Treasury. In fact, throughout this crisis, Bernanke and Paulson have assiduously avoided implementing (or even suggesting) any regulatory changes that would impinge upon the limitless liberties of Wall Street's investment banks. The perpetrators of the crisis remain in power and the corporate structures that supported their recklessness remain in place. Instead, incredibly, Treasury Secretary Paulson wags his regulatory finger at hedge funds.

Huh? Why? Hedge funds did not create the crisis, they merely profited from it. Aren't the investment banks the ones who created trillions of dollars of crazy derivatives? And aren't they the ones who loaded their balance sheets with suicidal quantities of leverage? And aren't they the ones who are now receiving billions of dollars of government support?

So here's a radical idea: How about regulating the perpetrators of the crisis, rather than the profiteers? Or maybe the Fed should require all the top-ranking officers of every company that receives a bailout to resign? Or how about one upper-level resignation for every $1 billion a Wall Street investment bank borrows from the Fed's discount window.

This isn't complex stuff, folks. If the Treasury Secretary sincerely wished to clean up and re-regulate the banking system, his new regulations would only require about 50 words:

1. No officer of any publicly traded financial institution may receive more than $10 million per year in total compensation.

2. No financial institution may borrow more than $10 for every one dollar of readily marketable assets (i.e. "Level I" assets) on its balance sheet.

3. No financial institution may incur any liabilities "off-balance sheet."

4. No exceptions.

Implement these regulations and you would have forever eradicated the DNA of financial catastrophe from the American financial system.

But what would critics say about such "draconian" new regulations? (We'll call these regulations the "Level Playing Field Act of 2008.") After choking on their foie gras, they would probably protest, "That's not nearly enough compensation for top officers! You'd lose the top talent!" Then they would protest: "What! No off-balance sheet financing? Are you crazy? That's where all the juice is! You would lose the ability to ramp up return on equity!"

To which we would reply: "Hallelujah!" and "Amen!"... Finally, we could purge the financial system of all the "talent" that has delivered America's most severe credit crisis since the Great Depression. Finally we could purge the system of the "creative" leverage that the "talent" has amassed over the last several years. Finally, we'd have a banking system that would operate like one - a banking system that would provide capital to entrepreneurial endeavors, rather than to catastrophic speculations.

The American financial system does not need "talent" and "creativity." It needs prudence and perspicacity. It does not need creative bankers. It needs dull bankers.

Why? Because the American financial system needs to safeguard its capacity to finance creative and talented entrepreneurs. It needs to safeguard its capacity to preserve the purchasing power of our currency and to safeguard the legendary America capacity to create wealth from the bottom-up, not to destroy wealth from the top-down.

But the American financial system still possesses too much talent and creativity to operate prudently. In fact, Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson may be the most creative finance officials in American history.

Consider yourselves forewarned!

Eric J. Fry

for The Daily Reckoning

FROM MONDAY'S DAILY RECKONING

Scattering Under the Light of the SEC


Why America hates Goldman Sachs
Eric Fry

Reporting from Laguna Beach, California...

If you shine a light on a cluster of cockroaches, they scatter and hide. But when you shine a light on a cluster of investment banking con men, they simply stare back and reply, "The SEC's charges are completely unfounded in law and fact and we will vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation."

As the entire investing world knows by now, Goldman Sachs is the latest cockroach to scuttle under the spotlight. Last Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Goldman of defrauding investors out of $1 billion.

The details of the SEC's complaint allege that Goldman failed to disclose "vital information" about a mortgage-back security called Abacus. The SEC said: "Unbeknownst to investors, Paulson & Co. [a hedge fund]...which was posed to benefit if the [securities in Abacus] defaulted, played a significant role in selecting which [securities] should make up the portfolio...In sum, Goldman Sachs arranged a transaction at Paulson's request in which Paulson heavily influenced the selection of the portfolio to suit its economic interests."

Goldman responded in classic fashion - crying "Foul!" and claiming that it is the victim of a gross misunderstanding. Does anyone really believe them? To rephrase the question, does anyone really believe that this single instance of alleged fraud is the only such instance?

This question reminds us of another truism about cockroaches: There's never just one. Any financial firm that is capable of committing a fraud as egregious and flagrant as the one the SEC's complaint describes is certainly capable of committing a second fraud...and maybe even a third or a fourth...or a fortieth.

The fraud the SEC identifies in its complaint against Goldman is not a mere "Oops!" It is a fraud that every licensed stockbroker in the land would recognize as a career-ending no-no.

"The product was new and complex," explained Robert Khuzami, a director from the SEC's Division of Enforcement, "but the deception and conflicts were old and simple."

In other words, a lie is a lie.

Nevertheless, your editor is content to let due process run its course...and to wait as long as necessary for the guilty verdict to arrive.

Whatever the ultimate verdict, Goldman is already "guilty by association" in the eyes of most Americans. It is guilty by its close association with the practices that precipitated the financial crisis of 2008. It is also guilty by its close association with the powers in Washington who decided which firms would receive billions of dollars of emergency assistance (i.e. Goldman Sachs) and which would be allowed to fail (i.e., Lehman Bros.). And most of all, it is guilty by its close association with the obscene sense of entitlement that characterizes Wall Street pay practices.

In short, America hates Goldman Sachs.

So the fact that Goldman may have actually committed a large-scale fraud is a very big deal. Suddenly, the Goldman-haters are carrying loaded weapons...and the ensuing firefight might produce some significant volatility in the financial markets.

For starters, this event might produce a very convenient excuse for a very pronounced selloff. But Goldman is not merely an excuse for a stock market selloff; Goldman is the stock market...and it is also the commodity market and the Treasury market. Goldman is the biggest market maker in the US stock market and among the biggest players in every major commodity market. Goldman is also one of the largest primary dealers of Treasury Securities.

So maybe it is no fluke that most commodities tumbled Friday, right along with the stock market. Gold and crude oil both tumbled more than 2%. And as this new week begins, Goldman's troubles are mounting.

Citing Goldman's "moral bankruptcy," Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for a full inquiry by Britain's Financial Services Authority in conjunction with the SEC. Germany also said it would ask for detailed information about the case. Both governments had to bail out banks that lost hundreds of millions of dollars on investments marketed by Goldman.

None of this will be good news for the stock markets of the world. And yet, none of this is really a surprise either. Nearly two years ago, in a column entitled, "The Goldman Sachs Phenomenon," your California editor remarked, "The American financial system still possesses too much talent and creativity to operate prudently... Consider yourselves forewarned!" We are re-publishing this column in today's edition of The Daily Reckoning.

Just two months before this column first appeared, JP Morgan Chase had acquired the failing Bear Stearns. As part of the deal the Federal Reserve took responsibility for $29 billion in toxic assets from the Bear Stearns portfolio - effectively handing a $29 billion subsidy to JP Morgan, and establishing a precedent for the hundred-billion-dollar subsidies that would flow to Wall Street's largest firms just six months later.

We smelled a rat back then...and the rat doesn't smell any better now...

Goldman's Travails: Don't Get Your Hopes Up

Goldman's Travails:


By Mike Whitney

Screwing people is a "growth industry". And a big organization like Goldman has a reservoir full of snakeoil, so it doesn't have to worry about running-low on reserves. Just stitch-together a bunch of junk securities, dress them up in sequins and gold-lame', dump them off on investors, and rake in big profits when the ship sinks.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25252.htm

Government by Goldman Sachs SHORT VIDEO BY MATT TAIBBI

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/674.html

The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh by Gore Vidal

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2001/09/mcveigh200109?printable=true

Special army unit ready to be deployed on American soil just before Nov. elections (Update)

http://www.examiner.com/x-37620-Conservative-Examiner~y2010m4d13-Special-army-unit-ready-to-be-deployed-on-American-soil-just-before-Nov-elections
BETTER TO BE AWARE OF THIS POSSIBILITY THAN NOT.

Pay Garnishments Rise as Debtors Fall Behind

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/business/economy/02garnish.html?src=me&ref=business
THINK WE DON'T HAVE DEBTOR'S PRISONS IN AMERICA?
THINK AGAIN.
FIRST OUR GUV'MINT DRIVES YOU INTO DEBT,
THEN THE BANKS DRIVE YOU FURTHER INTO DESTITUTION
AND THE COURTS LET THEM.

REVOLT...THE BOOK

http://revoltthebook.com/

WORTH READING THE WEBSITE PAGE.

I HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK, BUT IT SOUNDS VERY INTERESTING.

POST BY THE AUTHOR ON ANOTHER BLOG:
"a reader of my novel "REVOLT"
 (http://www.revoltthebook.com/) 
 sent me this link. Why? Because when I wrote the original draft in 1997 for the novel I predicted all of this- the narcissistic President with a trouble history, a compliant media, a corrupt Congress and a military willing to follow orders, at least at first. The story revolves around a small community in Idaho that refuses to knuckle under to one more regulation from the aggressive federal government and find themselves under attack, isolated and demonized by a rogue President as "domestic terrorists." When I showed the draft around back in 1997 people laughed, saying no way it could happen here. They aren't laughing now."
You want to see one possible future for America? Read the book.

Riots, Rebellion and Revolution

The Global Economic Crisis:


Riots, Rebellion and Revolution

By Andrew Gavin Marshall

Ratings Agency Predicts Civil Unrest: Moody's is a major ratings agency, which performs financial research and analysis on governments and commercial entities and ranks the credit-worthiness of borrowers. On March 15, Moody's warned that the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Spain "are all at risk of soaring debt costs and will have to implement austerity plans that threaten 'social cohesion'."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25229.htm

ISRAEL'S SECRET WEAPON BBC VIDEO 44 MINUTES

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=178254070504611595#

Life After Stuff

Annie Leonard on Life After Stuff
By Annie Leonard

Annie Leonard reveals what gives her strength, even as she and her popular film, The Story of Stuff, are attacked as un-American.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25190.htm

ALSO:
http://www.storyofstuff.org/

The Cowboy President

The Cowboy President

By Yvonne Ridley

Now that Obama has decided to dispense with judge and jury he is returning the US to the days of the Wild West ... which could make him more of a cowboy president than Bush ever was.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25189.htm

QUOTE TO THINK ABOUT

" It is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world.....


These are the gentry who are today wrapped up in the American flag, who shout their claim from the housetops that they are the only patriots, and who have their magnifying glasses in hand, scanning the country for evidence of disloyalty, eager to apply the brand of treason to the men who dare to even whisper their opposition to Junker rule in the United Sates. No wonder Sam Johnson declared that "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." He must have had this Wall Street gentry in mind, or at least their prototypes, for in every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the people.....

Every solitary one of these aristocratic conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being waged to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug! What rot! What false pretense! These autocrats, these tyrants, these red- handed robbers and murderers, the "patriots," while the men who have the courage to stand face to face with them, speak the truth, and fight for their exploited victims-they are the disloyalists and traitors. If this be true, I want to take my place side by side with the traitors in this fight.

Eugene V. Debs - The Canton, Ohio, Anti-War Speech. June 16, 1918

Pioneer Living "Back to Basics” Online

http://www.pioneerliving.net/

A VERY GOOD WEBSITE FOR PREPARING FOR WHAT'S COMING

Americans stock up to be ready for end of the world

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/14/americans-prepare-for-apocalyptic-disaster

Is Canada's Only Bullion Bank Gold Vault Nearly Empty?

CREDIT TO GOLDMELTER FOR THIS ARTICLE:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Is-Canadas-Only-Bullion-Bank-prnews-2031376392.html?x=0&.v=1

VISIT: http://www.inflation.us/

Of course Sprott can't buy IMF gold: There isn't any!

http://www.gata.org/node/8511

How Americans are propagandized about Afghanistan

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/05/afghanistan/index.html
CAN WE BELIEVE ANYTHING OUR GUV'MINT TELLS US ANYMORE?

Is It Time for Law Abiding American Citizens to Stop Paying Their Taxes and Start a New Government?

http://ampedstatus.com/is-it-time-for-law-abiding-american-citizens-to-stop-paying-their-taxes-and-start-a-new-government

Looting Main Street

Looting Main Street


How the nation's biggest banks are ripping off American cities with the same predatory deals that brought down Greece

MATT TAIBBI Posted Mar 31, 2010 8:15 AM
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32906678/looting_main_street/1

GATA's CHRIS POWELL HAS A WICKED APRIL FOOL's DAY SENSE OF HUMOR

GATA will sell 191 tonnes of gold on IMF's terms but $100/oz cheaper

http://www.gata.org/node/8495

Gold, Silver, the CFTC & Conspiracy Theories

CREDIT TO GOLDMELTER FOR THE LINK:
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1270188480.php

Attention Deficit Democracy

Attention Deficit Democracy

By Ralph Nader
A society not alert to signs of its own decay, because its ideology is a continuing myth of progress, separates itself from reality and envelops illusion.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25116.htm

U.S. Decline, Sloth Look a Lot Like End of Rome

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=apWu9PvexGoE

HOW TO CORNER THE GOLD MARKET

http://www.tavakolistructuredfinance.com/Gold.pdf

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS: Good-Bye: Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18339

FEWER AND FEWER PEOPLE ARE CONFUSED ABOUT WHAT'S HAPPENING

We Stand on the Cusp of one of Humanity's Most Dangerous Moments by Chris Hedges

CREDIT TO CLYMER FOR THIS ARTICLE
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/03.10/cusp.html

Bond Market Failure Accelerating

http://fascistsoup.com/2010/03/28/bond-market-failure-accelerating/

Whistleblower Drops Metals Market Manipulation Bombshell

http://fascistsoup.com/2010/03/26/whistleblower-drops-metals-market-manipulation-bombshell/

WHY THE DOLLAR WENT UP AND THE EURO WENT DOWN

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601009&sid=aRHwSTmkzCb8

Swap Spreads Plunge as Portugal Downgrade Boosts Risk

The Native American Ten Commandments

Health care reform bill 101: what the bill means to you

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0322/Health-care-reform-bill-101-what-the-bill-means-to-you

States rebel against Washington

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2009/0327/p02s01-usgn.html

SEVEN YEARS LATER...AND WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED?

http://rethinkafghanistan.com/?utm_source=rtairaq

Soviet Subversion of the Free World Press

CREDIT TO CLYMER FOR THIS LINK:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2307456730142665916&ei=cHyhS-zhOJ__lQfM0fXwDQ&q=yuri+bezmenov&hl=en#

Soviet Subversion of the Free World Press - 1984
1:21:28 - 2 years ago


Yuri Bezmenov, a Russian born, KGB trained subverter tells about the influence of the Soviet Union on Western media and describes the stages of communist takeovers. This interview was conducted by G. Edward Griffin in 1984. This video has been remastered and is now available on DVD. See http://realityzone.com/bezmenov.html

“Only the educated are free.”

there is NOTHING more important to your life right now than what you are about to read…if only you have the courage to do so.

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/indexavt1.htm

PLEASE DONATE A FEW BUCKS TO THIS WEBSITE PLEASE...IT IS ONE OF THE BEST SOURCES FOR REAL NEWS I HAVE EVER FOUND...GT

Information Clearing House Newsletter
News You Won't Find On CNN
March 19, 2010

Please Help

Our Situation is Beyond Critical.

Donations Are Down 70%

Of the more than 67 ,000 people who receive our newsletter each day and over one million people who visit our website each month, 103 people have provided assistance (Thank you)

We are a long way short of the 342 people we need in order to be able to ensure the continuation of this service.

If Information Clearing House is important to you, please use the link below to make a contribution using Paypal, your credit / debit card or check.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/support.htm

or if you prefer to send a check or money order, Information Clearing House, PO Box 365 Imperial Beach, CA 91933. USA.

Low income readers: DON'T send money, just encourage others to subscribe.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/subscribe.htm

To all who have assisted in the past. Thank you. Your help is greatly appreciated. Tom Feeley

KEITH OLBERMANN...ONE HOUR YOU MUST VIEW

http://castroller.com/podcasts/MsnbcCountdownVideo/1526861-MSNBC%20Countdown%20(video)%20-%2003-18-2010-190427

KEITH DEVOTES THE HOUR TO HIS EXPERIENCE WITH OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
AS HE DEALS WITH HIS FATHER'S LAST DAYS.

A MUST VIEW

BANANALAND

http://www.gata.org/files/MurrayPollitt-03-08-2010.pdf

THE LAST HOPE by FRED REED

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reed/reed175.html

THERE IS NOTHING TO DO BUT PREPARE FOR IT...THE SYSTEM WILL COLLAPSE ON ITS OWN

http://dailyreckoning.com/the-patsy-revolt-of-2010/
BILL BONNER SAYS WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS...

THE ONLY 'SOLUTION' IS TOTAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE.

THE REST IS ONLY POSING AND TEMPORARY FIXES
THAT MAKE THE ULTIMATE COLLAPSE EVEN WORSE.

MUST WATCH 11 MINUTE VIDEO

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35841681#35841681
DYLAN RATIGAN AND ELLIOT SPITZER ON THE LEHMAN COLLAPSE

Collapse and Complexity: Empires on the Edge of Chaos

Collapse and Complexity: Empires on the Edge of Chaos
Niall Ferguson  FOREIGN AFFAIRS March/April 2010
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65987/niall-ferguson/complexity-and-collapse

THOMAS COLE - 5 PAINTINGS...'THE COURSE OF EMPIRE'

http://pasleybrothers.com/jefferson/course_of_empire.htm

THE CYCLE OF CIVILIZATIONS...SO FAR

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years.
These nations have progressed through this sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;

from spiritual faith to great courage;

from courage to liberty;

from liberty to abundance;

from abundance to selfishness;

from selfishness to complacency;

from complaceny to apathy;

from apathy to dependence;

from dependency back again into bondage.

Sir Alex Fraser Tyler: (1742-1813) Scottish jurist and historian

The Swaps That Swallowed Your Town

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON

Published: March 5, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/business/07gret.html?ref=business
"AS more details surface about how derivatives helped Greece and perhaps other countries mask their debt loads, let’s not forget that the wonders of these complex products aren’t on display only overseas. Across our very own country, municipalities, school districts, sewer systems and other tax-exempt debt issuers are ensnared in the derivatives mess."

Collapse of the American Empire: swift, silent, certain

Commentary: Historians warning of a sudden 'thief at night,' an 'accelerating car crash'
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-rise-and-certain-fall-of-the-american-empire-2010-03-09

Days Not to Buy Gold Identified

By Patrick A. Heller, Numismatic News

March 09, 2010
http://numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=9741
GOOD ARTICLE ABOUT THE MANIPULATION OF GOLD

WORDS OF PREVIOUS 'ENLIGHTENED' ONES OF THE 'ISMS'

Brahmanism: This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.: Mahabharata 5:1517

Christianity: All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.: Matthew 7:12

Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what which he desires for himself. Sunnah

Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.: Udana Varga 5:18

Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowmen. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.: Talmud, Shabbat 31:a

Confucianism: Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you.: Analects 15:23

Taoism: Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss.: T'ai Shag Kan Ying P'ien

Zoroastrianism: That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good: for itself. : Dadistan-i-dinik 94:5

Calling All Rebels

Calling All Rebels

By Chris Hedges

There are no constraints left to halt America's slide into a totalitarian capitalism. Electoral politics are a sham. The media have been debased and defanged by corporate owners. The working class has been impoverished and is now being plunged into profound despair.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24941.htm

Lewis Black Tells It Like It Is

 Lewis Black Tells It Like It Is
By Mike Ferner
 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24937.htm

VIDEOS OF LEWIS BLACK SKITS...HE'S HILARIOUS
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGGL_enMX313MX313&ie=UTF-8&q=Lewis+Black#

Time for a U.S. Revolution - Fifteen Reasons

Time for a U.S. Revolution - Fifteen Reasons

By Bill Quigley

It is time for a revolution. Government does not work for regular people. It appears to work quite well for big corporations, banks, insurance companies, military contractors, lobbyists, and for the rich and powerful. But it does not work for people.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24935.htm

GT IS TAKING A REST THIS WEEK, BUT WILL POST MORE SOON

HAARP Nature Modification Weapon! Project Blue Beam.flv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRec5NXo02c&feature=related

ALSO, CHECK OUT SOME OF THE OTHER VIDEOS LISTED
ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE PAGE THIS VIDEO IS ON.
THESE TECHNOLOGIES COME ABOUT WHEN GUV'MINTS STRIVE
TO OBTAIN THEM BEFORE THEIR ENEMIES.
ONCE CREATED, THEY WILL BE USED. JUST LIKE NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION (MAD) IS A LIKELY RESULT.

Supply Of Dollars Will Grow Way Faster Than The Supply Of Gold

Faber: It's Dead Simple, The Supply Of Dollars Will Grow Way Faster Than The Supply Of Gold

WATCH THE VIDEOS AT THE BOTTOM.
NOTICE HOW THE ENGLISH CHAP AT CNBC PUTS DOWN GOLD.
CNBC IS A STOCK PUMPER, NOTHING ELSE.
NO INFORMATION WORTH A SHIT,
EXCEPT FOR RICK SANTELLI WHEN THE MORNING REPORTS COME OUT.
http://www.businessinsider.com/faber-golds-bull-case-is-dead-simple-the-supply-of-dollars-will-grow-way-faster-than-the-supply-of-gold-2010-03

ONE HOUR PROGRAM ON 'AMERICA'S GOLD' ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL

THE HISTORY CHANNEL IS CURRENTLY SHOWING A ONE HOUR PROGRAM IN THE SERIES HOW THE EARTH WAS MADE CALLED 'AMERICA'S GOLD'
VERY INFORMATIVE SERIES.
I STRONGLY RECOMMEND IT

The Case against Greenspan and Bernanke

The Case against Greenspan and Bernanke

By Mike Whitney

Greenspan and Bernanke are either criminally negligent in failing to execute their regulatory duties or complicit in aiding and abetting the banks and other financial institutions in the sale of fraudulent loans to investors and homeowners. Which is it?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24887.htm

This Is One of the Biggest Wall Street Frauds Ever...

This Is One of the Biggest Wall Street Frauds Ever...

By Porter Stansberry:

Once this fact becomes common knowledge, it will probably mean jail time for several leading Goldman executives and the end of the firm.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24873.htm

The Road to Armageddon By Paul Craig Roberts

The Road to Armageddon

By Paul Craig Roberts

If the U.S. government can murder its citizens abroad it can murder them at home, and has done so.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24872.htm

A SIMILAR CARTOON COULD BE DONE FOR THOSE WHO DON'T BELIEVE GOLD IS REAL MONEY

THE TREE WOULD BE LABELED 'ECONOMIC REALITIY'

Gold price suppression is public record and public policy, not 'conspiracy theory'

http://www.gata.org/node/8052

OLD ARTICLE FROM GATA (11/20/2009)

LONG, BUT NEEDS TO BE READ TO UNDERSTAND HOW THE GOLD
PRICE IS BEING SUPRESSED

CHARLIE REESE ARTICLE TO THINK ABOUT

CREDIT TO GOLDMELTER FOR THIS ONE:

545 PEOPLE--By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them..

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits..... The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red ..

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power..

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.



What you do with this article now that you have read it......... Is up to you.

This might be funny if it weren't so darned true.

Be sure to read all the way to the end:

Tax his land,

Tax his bed,

Tax the table,

At which he's fed.



Tax his tractor,

Tax his mule,

Teach him taxes

Are the rule.

Tax his work,

Tax his pay,

He works for peanuts

Anyway!



Tax his cow,

Tax his goat,

Tax his pants,

Tax his coat.



Tax his ties,

Tax his shirt,

Tax his work,

Tax his dirt.



Tax his tobacco,

Tax his drink,

Tax him if he

Tries to think.



Tax his cigars,

Tax his beers,

If he cries

Tax his tears.



Tax his car,

Tax his gas,

Find other ways

To tax his ass.



Tax all he has

Then let him know

That you won't be done

Till he has no dough.



When he screams and hollers;

Then tax him some more,

Tax him till

He's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,

Tax his grave,

Tax the sod in

Which he's laid...



Put these words

Upon his tomb,

Taxes drove me

to my doom...'



When he's gone,

Do not relax,

Its time to apply

The inheritance tax..

Accounts Receivable Tax

Building Permit Tax

CDL license Tax

Cigarette Tax

Corporate Income Tax

Dog License Tax

Excise Taxes

Federal Income Tax

Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

Fishing License Tax

Food License Tax

Fuel Permit Tax

Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)

Gross Receipts Tax

Hunting License Tax

Inheritance Tax

Inventory Tax

IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

Liquor Tax

Luxury Taxes

Marriage License Tax

Medicare Tax

Personal Property Tax

Property Tax

Real Estate Tax

Service Charge Tax

Social Security Tax

Road Usage Tax

Recreational Vehicle Tax

Sales Tax

School Tax

State Income Tax

State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

Telephone Federal Excise Tax

Telephone Federal Universal Service FeeTax

Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes

Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax

Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax

Telephone State and Local Tax

Telephone Usage Charge Tax

Utility Taxes

Vehicle License Registration Tax

Vehicle Sales Tax

Watercraft Registration Tax

Well Permit Tax

Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What in the hell happened? Can you spell 'politicians?'

POSTED THIS COMMENT ON A MARKETWATCH ARTICLE TODAY...LET'S SEE IF THEY LET IT STAY

The article is:
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/fundmastery/2010/02/24/gold-inflation-commodities/#comment-421


MY COMMENT:

2/24/10

The lack of understanding of why IT IS IMPERATIVE TO HAVE GOLD right now in this article and many of the other comments here, explains a lot of why the people of the U.S. and other countries have allowed their guv'mints to get them into this financial disaster.

I won't bother to explain it here, but will instead refer you to the one man who CLEARLY KNOWS what is going on and why.

His name is JIM SINCLAIR and his website is JSMINESET.COM.

You should read it EVERY DAY and BELIEVE WITH YOUR ENTIRE BEING what he is telling you.

MarketWatch and many of the anti gold idiots who comment here attacked me when I ran one of the most successful groups on the MarketWatch Community, GOLDTRADER'S GROUP.

I have since been posting free charts as close to real time as possible, a comments blog for informative articles, and a talkbacktogoldtrader blog.

All you have to do is Google GOLDTRADER to find us.

I am 65 years old and have been trading gold since 1973, so I have been through all the 1970-80s markets and have seen it all.

OUR COUNTRY IS BANKRUPT!

As is most of the world that has allowed themselves to be dependent on the U.S. DOLLAR which has been debased and devalued to the point of worthlessness.

The only thing that is keeping most economies running at the moment is UNENDING PRINTING OF PAPER MONEY which, when it finally permeates the markets, will COLLAPSE ALL PAPER MONEY that isn't completely backed BY GOLD.

If you don't have physical gold right now, you are going to die in the streets soon when the violence starts like you are beginning to see in Greece and other areas of the world where the money becomes worthless and all goods become scarce or non-existent.

The CRIMINALS running the U.S. Guv'mint are leading you into a hell you will not be able to imagine.

It's time for the citizens of the world to take back their governments and acknowledge their losses, which are great and very painful, and restore their medium of exchange to gold and silver or currencies that are completely 100% BACKED BY GOLD.

Anything else will allow the shysters to, once again, debase the medium of exchange and STEAL from those who think it still has consistent value.

Debasing currencies by over printing them causes HYPERINFLATION which is the worst of all taxes.

You have been warned...WAKE UP AND PROTECT YOURSELVES WITH GOLD!

NOW!

A parable about how one nation came to financial ruin.

Basically, It's Over

A parable about how one nation came to financial ruin.

By Charles Munger (Warren Buffet's long time friend and business partner)

Updated Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010
http://www.slate.com/id/2245328/pagenum/all/

U.S. TREASURY BONDS, A CHINESE WEAPON?

FROM THEDAILYRECKONING 2/23/10

Dan Denning, reporting from Melbourne, Australia...


Recently we claimed that borrowing your way to national prosperity is a sure-fire way to servitude and political instability. Today, we aim to prove it. To do so, we cite this article from Reuters. It suggests that China is using or should use its large holdings of US Treasury bonds as a cudgel with which to bludgeon the United States, its strategic adversary/indispensable economic partner.

Figures in the People’s Liberation Army want the financiers to sell US bonds as a way of punishing Washington for selling arms to Taiwan. Mind you this might not seem like such a good idea if the bond selling triggers a run on the dollar and swift devaluation in China’s forex reserves. But maybe China’s arsenal of US bonds is like a pile of bullets – they’re no good unless you fire them.

Of course what we’re suggesting is that China accumulated US debt as both a by-product and a weapon. The huge stock of US government securities was a by-product of China’s trade strategy. That strategy was to keep its currency low and gain global manufacturing market share through low labour and production costs. The result was a blizzard of US dollar trade surpluses that were reinvested into US bonds.

You could say it’s China that’s paid for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But why is this bundle of bonds now a weapon? We think China’s export-driven growth strategy is on its last legs. Labor unions in Europe and America – given today’s political climate and high unemployment – will have the ear of politicians. And they will be saying something like this, “Make the Chinese pay!”

What they’ll mean is that China will be pressured to give up its main economic weapon – currency manipulation. This has kept Chinese exports cheap all over the world and led to the gutting of American manufacturing jobs. It’s made it pretty tough on exporters in Europe too. As a result of China’s dollar peg, European exporters suffered doubly from a weaker US dollar. American goods were cheaper in Europe. But European goods were not cheaper in China.

So the unions and the politicians will probably not tolerate another leg of the global recession in which China gains more market share by keeping the currency peg and exporting its way to more growth (if growth is to be had). It brings us to the end-game of China’s export-driven development.

It also brings us back to one of the great monetary questions of the day: when will China de-peg? The answer has always been simple: when it is in China’s interests to do. To us, that means China will de-peg when the benefits of increased purchasing power in the currency are more important that dwindling export profits.

In other words, we think China is close to a new phase of growth that’s driven by consumer demand, domestic consumption, and more mature Chinese capital markets open to foreign investment. A de-pegging of the currency would see a much stronger yuan. This would give Chinese savers a lot of spending power on global markets. They would also be able to buy more Chinese goods, which might lead to higher wages in China too (and more stoking of consumer demand).

This is all a theory, of course. And we could be way wrong. But there will come a day when Chinese customers are worth more to Chinese producers than American customers. De-pegging the currency will bring that day forward. And it could be sooner than you think.

This means that the accumulation of forex reserves was never really meant to protect China from external trade shocks, although they would be handy in that event. It means they were a side effect of a trade strategy whose ultimate objective was to gain as much global manufacturing market share as possible.

Now, you might wonder why China would damage its own interests by “punishing” the United States and selling bonds. But it depends on what China’s interests are. If China’s interests are in fundamentally weakening an economic competitor and strategic adversary, then selling US bonds is in China’s interests.

China’s ultimate interests are in regaining Taiwan. And we’d suggest it try and use its bond leverage to weaken US resolve about defending Taiwan. And selling US bonds or crashing the dollar wouldn’t just weaken US resolve. It would expose the loss of strategic influence that occurs when you are a chronic debtor nation.

Mind you the US still has a lot of aircraft carriers, strategic bombers, and nuclear weapons. It’s not like it is bereft of tools of persuasion. But the basis of all those tools has always been a strong economy, a strong industrial base, and sound finances.

The question now is, if the base of military strength has been eroded, how long will the US maintain its military advantage? Can America afford it? And when push comes to shove, will American voters demand that an American President defend Taiwan? Hmmn...

JUST READ THIS ONE AND ALL THE LINKS IN IT, YOU WILL LEARN LOTS

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1338.htm

DISREGARD THE HEADLINE OF THE ARTICLE.
JUST LEARN WHAT IS  IN THE BODY OF THE ARTICLE

MR TAXMAN, WATCH YOUR BACK

Wealth Disparities in U.S. Approaching 1920s Levels

from SEEKING ALPHA  Feb 21.2010

http://seekingalpha.com/article/189649-wealth-disparities-in-u-s-approaching-1920s-levels

READ THIS COMPLETELY...THEN WAKE UP AND GET PREPARED

[Ed. Note: This report should be read from its website location at

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1341.htm

as this email copy does not contain the links embedded in the original report.]

February 20, 2010

US Suicide Pilot Joe Stack Named First "Gray Champion" Of 21st Century

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers

In a move sure to bring both shock and fear to the ruling classes of

United States, especially their government officials, the American

Patriot Community has named suicide pilot Joe Stack as their "first Gray

Champion of the 21st Century".

According to the American Patriot website GrayChampion.Com, by Joe

Stack's piloting his plane into the Austin, Texas Echelon Federal

Building this past week he "has fired the first shot in the New American

Revolution."

GrayChampion.Com defines a Gray Champion as follows:

"Gray Champion's are also those rarest of Americans, arising to stand

among their fellow citizens to "do their duty" on an average of once or

twice every generation..a time that has come, once again, as the future

of the United States hangs in the balance.

The true determination of who can be called a Gray Champion rests with

history as these rarest of Americans were during their times, and by the

actions they performed, were always labeled as terrorists, rebels,

murderers and traitors and held up for scorn by the elite classes,

government officials and media barons who were the targets of these Gray

Champions in the first place."

In our previous report about the actions of Joe Stack (and actually when

we had first heard of the American moniker "Gray Champion") to strike

back against a government he believed no longer served the true

interests of its citizens, we quoted from his "manifesto" delivered to

the World upon his death, and wherein he said:

"I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed

and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take

nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates

the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that

results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin

to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what

they are.

Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn't so, but

violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke

is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all

along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools

like me all along."

To the fears of Joe Stack and his fellow American citizens of their

living in a country whose government no longer serves them, but in

chilling fact sees them all as enemies and has begun targeting them for

destruction, the evidence is becoming overwhelming, and as we can read:

As reported by the ABC Television News Service in their February 3rd

article titled "License to Kill? Intelligence Chief Says U.S. Can Take

Out American Terrorists" they report:

"The director of national intelligence affirmed rather bluntly today

that the U.S. intelligence community has authority to target American

citizens for assassination if they present a direct terrorist threat to

the United States.

"We take direct actions against terrorists in the intelligence

community; if . we think that direct action will involve killing an

American, we get specific permission to do that," Director of National

Intelligence Dennis Blair told the House Intelligence Committee."

Based upon US Intelligence Director Blair's testimony to Congress, and

should the American government had discovered Joe Stack's plan to attack

the Echelon Federal Building in Texas, they had the right to assassinate

him instead of arresting him and bringing him to trial, and which flies

in the face of every standard the United States was built upon, not to

mention its being against their own laws and Constitution.

And it gets worse.

In a just released report (February 19th) titled "Bush Lawyer Said

President Could Order Civilians to Be 'Massacred'" by the American news

magazine Newsweek it is said:

"The chief author of the Bush administration's "torture memo" told

Justice Department investigators that the president's war-making

authority was so broad that he had the constitutional power to order a

village to be "massacred", according to a report by released Friday

night by the Office of Professional Responsibility."

To those Americans believing that their government would never result to

the wholesale massacring of them they are warned to think twice,

especially when viewed in the light of a just released article by the US

Newswire Service titled "1,000 Architects & Engineers Call for New 9/11

Investigation" and which, in part, says:

"Richard Gage, AIA, architect and founder of the non-profit Architects &

Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Inc. (AE911Truth), will announce a decisive

milestone today at a press conference in San Francisco, as more than

1,000 worldwide architects and engineers now support the call for a new

investigation into the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7 at

the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. After careful examination

of the official explanation, along with the forensic data omitted from

official reports, these professionals have concluded that a new

independent investigation into these mysterious collapses is needed.

Gage and his group base their conclusions on forensic evidence. Gage

states, "The official FEMA and NIST reports provide insufficient,

contradictory, and fraudulent accounts of the circumstances of the

towers' destruction. We are therefore calling for a grand jury

investigation of NIST officials. Gage points out the destruction of the

third high-rise, World Trade Center 7, a 47-story skyscraper which was

not hit by an aircraft, yet came down in pure free-fall acceleration for

more than 100 feet, a significant fact that NIST has been forced to

admit, due to research conducted by AE911Truth petition signers. Other

disturbing facts emerging from the forensic evidence include:

Complete destruction of both Twin Towers in just 10 to 14 seconds at

near free-fall acceleration

Over 100 first-responder reports of explosions and flashes at onset of

destruction

Multi-ton steel sections ejected laterally 600 ft at 60 mph

Mid-air pulverization of 90,000 tons of concrete & metal deck

in 1200-foot-dia. debris field: no "pancaked" floors seen in the debris pile

Several tons of molten metal found in debris.

Evidence of advanced explosive nano-thermitic composite material found

in the WTC dust by an international team of scientists"

Even worse for these Americans are those still believing that President

Obama is going to protect them, but which all the evidence clearly shows

he is not going to do, in fact, since taking office he has not only

continued all of the former President Bush's policies, he is now

actively involved in protecting from prosecution the Bush Administration

"architects" of the new Fascist state being created in the United States

along with continuing the cover-up of the events surrounding 9/11, and

as we can read:

As reported by the Associated Press News Service in their article titled

"DOJ review finds no misconduct by memo authors", Obama overruled his

own Department of Justice lawyers who wanted the Bush Administration

authors of the so called "torture memos" prosecuted and has allowed them

to go unpunished, and as we can read:

"An initial review by the Justice Department's internal affairs unit

found that former[Bush] government lawyers Jay Bybee and John Yoo had

committed professional misconduct, a conclusion that could have cost

them their law licenses. But, underscoring just how controversial and

legally thorny the memos have become, the Justice Department's top

career lawyer [and close Obama friend] reviewed the matter and disagreed."

Scarier still about Obama are new reports coming from the US questioning

weather he is even in control, and as we can read as reported by the

Salon.Com News Service in their report titled "Who's in control in the

White House?", and which, in part, says:

"Recall that one year ago, Obama instructed the DEA to follow his

campaign pledge and respect local statutes legalizing medicinal

marijuana. When the DEA kept raiding pot dispensaries in states that had

passed such laws, Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated the cease and

desist decree, stating that "What (Obama) said during the campaign is

now American policy."

As even more raids nonetheless continued, the Justice Department then

issued an explicit memo ordering federal agents to refrain from

prosecuting those who are in "compliance with existing state laws

providing for the medical use of marijuana."

And yet the DEA has recently intensified its crackdown. Here in Colorado

-- where voters enshrined medical marijuana's legality in our state

constitution -- the feds not only raided two dispensaries, but did so in

a way that deliberately humiliated their superiors.

In January, the DEA stormed a company that performs cannabis quality

tests. The firm's alleged infraction? Following protocol and formally

applying for a federal equipment license. DEA rogues responded to the

request not with thanks or -- heaven forbid -- approval, but instead

with the gestapo.

This was topped last week when DEA agents arrested a medical marijuana

grower who dared discuss his business with a local news outlet. Sensing

a P.R. opportunity, DEA agent Jeffrey Sweetin used the spectacle to

insist that he will not listen to stand-down directives from his bosses."

Now most interesting about all of these events now occurring in the

United States, including Joe Stack now being said to be one of the "Gray

Champions" of his generation, is that they have been predicted to occur,

and as we can read as reported by the Wall Street Journal News Service

in their December 29, 2008 article titled "As if Things Weren't Bad

Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.", and which says:

"For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the

U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took

his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil

war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's

found an eager audience: Russian state media.

In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his

predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the

attention is going to grow even stronger."

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB

analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future

diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students,

publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia

relations.

But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of

the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything

from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr.

Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia

is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness

of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically

and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.

A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does

not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.

"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he

says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if

we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia."

Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says,

its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the

dollar and on trade with the U.S.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline,

and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the

collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he

says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to

Russian control."

In these most darkest of times, and as the fate of America now hangs in

the balance, one can only hope that her people will awaken, and in their awakening arise together, as the one people that they are, so that when

the history of these times are written, and though many of them will

become their own "Gray Champions", a new and better Nation may be born

again.

© February 20, 2010 EU and US all rights reserved

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1341.htm

-- Sorcha Faal

sorchafaal@fastmail.fm

SATIRE FROM 'THE ONION'

U.S. Economy Grinds To Halt As Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/u_s_economy_grinds_to_halt_as

MATT TAIBBI: Wall Street's Bailout Hustle

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32255149/wall_streets_bailout_hustle
Goldman Sachs and other big banks aren't just pocketing the trillions we gave them to rescue the economy - they're re-creating the conditions for another crash

America In Shock As “Gray Champion” Joe Stack Dies For Freedom

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1340.htm

February 19, 2010

America In Shock As “Gray Champion” Joe Stack Dies For Freedom
By: Sorcha Faal

Contains the full text of Joe Stack's final letter.

DON'T EXPECT TO GET THE TRUTH FROM THE MEDIA.

FULL TEXT OF JOE STACK'S SUICIDE 'NOTE'

BETTER READ AND COPY THIS BEFORE IT'S TAKEN OFF THE INTERNET
AS IT MIGHT RUN THE 'DANGER' OF CREATING COPY CAT 'DOMESTIC TERRORISTS'.
YES, THAT'S THE TICKET. CALL ANYONE WITH A GRIEVANCE AGAINST OUR
CORRUPT GUV'MINT A 'TERRORIST'!

Austin plane crash: Full text of Joe Stack online suicide note posted on website embeddedart.com


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/02/18/2010-02-18_austin_plane_crash_full_text_joe_stack_manifesto_posted_on_website_embeddedartco.html

REGARDING THE PLANE CRASH INTO THE IRS BUILDING IN AUSTIN, TEXAS

GT sez:
I am amazed, but not shocked, that all the media are portraying this man as a 'nut case'.

He seems to have planned out very well his tactics of revenge by burning his house down to prevent the IRS, banks or anyone being able to profit from that asset.

He then crashed his plane into the IRS building causing damage to that Federal property and
to some of the guv'mint employees who have sold out (for their profit) by supporting  (by working for) that agency that robs their fellow citizens yearly of a good portion of their hard earned incomes without any Constitutional right to do so.

He very eloquently wrote a very long treatise (which the media feel compelled to call a 'manifesto', a derogatory term in recent history used to describe the Uni-bomber's treatise), and also called it  'rambling', a 'screed' and a 'rant', none of which describe the very precise language I have read in his very eloquent and concise 'suicide' letter, as well as being a synopsis of all the things that are wrong with this country, and the guv'mint that has both caused and allowed these many problems and CRIMES to come about AND PERSIST.

Just goes to show any of you that continue to think that mere 'logical protests in words alone' will
cause any progress to happen or prosecution of the perpetrators of these many crimes to occur any time soon, if ever.

Revolutions start when conditions such as these continue to occur on an ongoing daily basis.

This man's act was one more 'shot heard round the world' as the Second American Revolution
begins to take form.

CHARTS FROM JSMINESET.COM

The Bankruptcy of the United States is Now Certain

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/02.10/bankrupt.html

US Federal Reserve “Shock” 2012 Move Dooms America

US Federal Reserve “Shock” 2012 Move Dooms America
By: Sorcha Faal
February 3, 2010

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1332.htm

"...United States Federal Reserve System, that basically rules over the finances of America, has given a “shock warning” to President Obama that they do not intend to renew the charter granted to them in 1913 by the US Congress and is set to expire on December 21, 2012, which (coincidentally?) is also the exact date that the controversial Mayan Calendar predicts will be the ending of our present age."

Financial market - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_market

Hyperinflation - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation

The Nightmare German Inflation

http://www.usagold.com/germannightmare.html

GARY NORTH: BANKROLLING THE INCONTINENT SUBCONTINENT

FROM A FREE EMAIL YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE TO:
Issue 935 February 12, 2010
To subscribe to this letter:

http://dailyreckoning.com/get-reality

BANKROLLING THE INCONTINENT SUBCONTINENT

The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but
the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth (Psalm 37:21).

The question arises: How wise is it to lend to wicked
people? Not very.

What about lending to national governments, whose
representatives were elected in order to show mercy to
certain voting blocs with taxpayers' money? Not very.
Yet this is what has been done on a massive scale.
The European Central Bank now faces its moment of
truth: how to finance the European Union's rumored bailout
of Greece.

Why was the bailout agreed to -- assuming that the
details can be worked out? Because of the threat to the
commercial banks of Northern Europe. A default would have
busted some big banks all over Europe.

The issue did not turn on the issue of whether to help
the national treasuries of the profligate PIIGS: Portugal,
Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. The European Central
Bank does not answer to, or have any concern for, the
elected governments of the PIIG nations. It answers to,
and has a great deal of concern for, the large commercial
banks of Northern Europe. That is to say, it is a central
bank. It feathers the nests of large commercial banks
under its jurisdiction.

Whenever we hear "bailout," we should follow the
money. Where does the money wind up? Who is the final
beneficiary?

The Federal Reserve System and the Treasury bailed out
AIG in 2008. Who were the beneficiaries? AIG was helped;
this kept it from a well-deserved bankruptcy. But AIG did
not keep most of the money. Who got the money? The banks
that were owed billions of dollars by AIG because of AIG's
issuing of derivatives. The bailout money was pure profit
for the recipient banks, which were paid off at face value
for their preposterously high-risk leveraged investments.
The losers are the rest of us.

The EU and ECB have decided to fund the spendthrift
nations that ran up debts to European banks. The threat of
default still hangs over the banks that made the stupid,
supposedly low-risk loans to the PIIGs.

The money on the line is huge:
trillions of euros in a wave of defaults in a worst-case scenario.
The euro is the common currency unit in Europe,
although not for the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

Speaking of the UK and Switzerland, their banks are
holding lots of IOUs from the PIIGs. According to one
estimate, the money owed to British banks is the equivalent
of 16% of the UK's entire gross domestic product. British
financial columnist Edmund Conway has estimated Great
Britain's exposure as close to $350 billion in euros. Not
to be outdone, Swiss banks are holding the bag for 21% of
Switzerland's GDP.

These are big numbers. They are not limited to just
two nations. Loans to PIIGs are in the range of 30% of
France's GDP. Germany's banks: 19%. Netherlands: 29%.
Then there are the PIIG nations themselves. Their banks
are also holding bags. Portugal's banks: 24%. Ireland's
banks: 34%.

For a table on which nation's banks are
holding the bag for what percentage of its nation's entire
GDP, click here:
http://www.garynorth.com/public/6094.cfm

THE CARRY TRADE

The carry trade is a variation of "buy low and sell
high." It is "borrow low and lend high." This is possible
because of a specific central bank policy: to stimulate the
economy with low short-term rates. Borrowers can then lend
long: buy high-rate bonds. They borrow short and lend long.

How did these banks get themselves into such trouble?
Simple: the ECB funded it.

The spendthrift nations ran up large debts. They
borrowed more money than lenders -- banks -- thought was
reasonable at low interest rates. So, the lenders demanded
higher rates. In the case of Greece, rates were as much as
three percentage points above German bonds of the same maturity.

The banks bought these bonds and then used them as
collateral to get ECB loans. They paid the ECB 1% per
annum. That rate point spread is worth billions of euros in profits.

Now economic reality is breaking through. Greece may
default. The risk factor is high. The commercial bankers
assumed that there would never be a default. They assumed
that the spread between Greek bond rates and German bond
rates was there for no good reason other than to make them
richer. They assumed that the ECB would never allow the
Greek government to default. After all, if the ECB really
was convinced that Greek debt was too risky, the ECB would
not have accepted the Greek bonds as collateral for its 1% loans.

This is the carry trade in action. It always comes to
this: a day of reckoning, when the debt-ridden borrower
cannot pay its debts. No one ever expects any government
to pay off all of its debts. They do expect it to meet its
interest payments in full and on time.

The risk of default is real. While governments never
pay off their debts, they can walk away from them at any
time. No one can prosecute them. This is what economists
call an asymmetric relationship: in this case, between
sovereign national borrowers and fractionally reserved
lenders. Lots of leverage means that a single national
default can take down a lot of banks.

The ECB, having funded this inverted pyramid of debt,
now must take action to see that a default does not take
down any large banks. It will have to intervene to save
the big banks. It wants to avoid this.

The fractionally reserved dominoes could easily have
toppled. The ECB knows this. It subsidized these high-
risk loans at low rates in order to save the European
economy from the recession, but now the policy has
backfired. The banks gorged themselves with IOU's from
PIIG governments. Now what?

In an economic sense, the ECB has been bailing out the
PIIG governments all along. It allowed their bonds to be
used as collateral. Now the inverted debt pyramid is
larger than when the bailout process began. If it topples,
the devastation will be much worse.

MORAL HAZARD

In 1802, a free market economic theorist and
successful banker, Henry Thornton, described what the ECB
is facing today. A central bank will be called upon to
provide emergency loans to bail out insolvent banks, in
order to avoid a wave of defaults and busted banks. Two
generations later, Walter Bagehot named this phenomenon:
moral hazard.

It is a shame that Thornton did not come up with this
phrase, for it was Thornton, more than any banker in
history, who was most closely associated with morals. He
was William Wilberforce's cousin and a founder of the
Clapham Sect of evangelical Protestants, which promoted
moral reform and the abolition of slavery. He was a gold
standard advocate.

Until this year, the moral hazard argument had been
confined to a discussion of government and central bank
bailouts of profit-seeking banks and brokerage firms. Now,
however, there has been a quantum leap. The moral hazard
argument has been extended to nations -- indeed, to a
subcontinent: southern Europe. It has been called Club
Med, because of its club-like spending habits and the nations'
location on the Mediterranean or close to it (Portugal).
Ireland is included, leading some wag to call it Club O'Med.

The amount of money at stake is astronomical.
Europe's entire experiment in the European Union and the
common currency is now facing destruction. Salaried
bureaucrats must now make decisions that could saddle
taxpayers with new debts for a generation. The central
bankers must decide how much fiat money will be required to
paper over (digit-over) the crisis.

This crisis goes far beyond domestic politics and
monetary policy. Beginning with Jean Monnet before World
War I, there has been a messianic push for a United Europe.
This goal has been a big part of the modern push toward
centralization and micro-management by governments.

The proponents of European union were relentless in
their efforts to move from a free trade zone (the matador's
red cape) to the creation of a new nation state (the sword
under the cape). As of December 1, 2009, they had
fulfilled their goal through the Lisbon Treaty. This had
to be substituted for a Constitution, which did not get
ratified by the voters of all the nations. There is now a
new Europe.

Then, without warning, the financial crisis has hit
this year. It is now apparent to everyone that the
recession has undermined the supposed guidelines for bank
capital and fiscal policy. No agency is enforcing high
bank capital requirements set by the Basel Accord I (1992).
No one is enforcing the less restrictive Basel II
guidelines (2004). No one is enforcing the low percentage
requirements set for national deficits in relation to GDP.

The only common agency of the New Europe that has the
authority to impose sanctions on the treasury departments
of the independent nations is the ECB. The central bank is
officially in control over monetary policy. It can legally
decide which banks and governments receive or do not
receive assistance in the form of newly created digital
money. It must back up any decisions made by the EU. It
holds the pursestrings.

The ECB still faces the threat of governments
defaulting on their debt. This was considered
inconceivable as recently as three months ago. The risk
factor has risen, as reflected in rising insurance rates
against default.

Any default could create a crisis for the commercial
banks in each nation. The major European nations are under
the ECB. Only Great Britain and Switzerland are outside
the euro zone, meaning outside the authority of the ECB.

So, a threat to any nation's commercial banks becomes a
threat to the euro zone as a whole. This means that the
ECB will have to take action, country by country to deal
with any domino effect of one or more national defaults.

The ECB must act on behalf of Europe as a whole, yet
it has no civil authority over the domestic policies of
individual member nations. It has only the power over the
monetary base that affects all of them. It holds the money
bag. Meanwhile, large commercial banks are holding bags
full of IOU's from struggling national governments.

The ECB must now use money as the only sanction
available within the euro zone that is a serious threat to
member national governments. There is no way that NATO
will be used to take over bankrupt member states. There is
no agency with police power that can enforce a decision by
any court to require member states to honor their IOU's.

An agency without any guns has become the agency with
the only available sanction: butter. It can intervene and
work out an arrangement by which technically bankrupt O'Med
national governments can preserve the legal facade that
they are solvent. The game of deceiving investors can continue.

The investors are the best and the brightest bankers
in Europe. They decided that there can be no default by a
member nation. What were they thinking of?

Maybe they thought that nations cannot default. That
was the standard textbook account in the good old days.
But, way back in the good old days (pre-2000), each
European nation had its own central bank. Not today.

Maybe they thought that the ECB would intervene in
order to prevent any default. A default could topple very
large banks all over Europe. That would force the ECB to
put the pieces back together. The ECB now has to face this
threat. Commercial bankers concluded that, in a showdown
between the ECB and a national treasury department, the ECB
would blink first and provide the government with newly created funds.

THE SHORT-TERM WAGES OF SIN

Let us review: "The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again."

Professor Philipp Bagus has written an enlightening
article on the threat to the euro. He identified the
origins of the euro carry-trade. He also identified the
political incentive to sin.

The incentives for irresponsible behavior for
these and other countries are clear. Why pay for
your expenditures by raising unpopular taxes? Why
not issue bonds that will be purchased by the
creation of new money, even if it finally
increases prices in the whole eurozone? Why not
externalize the costs of the government
expenditures that are so vital to securing political power?

When the New Europe's new central bank subsidized this
behavior, thereby providing huge profits to commercial
banks, sin increased. Economics teaches this: "When the
price falls, more is demanded." The price of fiscal
profligacy fell because of the policies of the ECB.

Greece got away with this. It will now get bailed out
by the ECB. This will send a message to voters and
politicians across Europe: "Gravy train!"

For the member states in the eurozone, the costs
of reckless fiscal behavior can also, to some
extent, be externalized. Any government whose
bonds are accepted as collateral by the ECB can
use this printing press to finance its
expenditures. The costs of this strategy are
partly externalized to other countries when the
newly created money bids up prices throughout the monetary union.

Each government has an incentive to accumulate
higher deficits than the rest of the eurozone,
because its costs can be externalized.

Consequently, in the Eurosystem there is a built-
in tendency toward continual losses in purchasing
power. This overexploitation may finally result
in the collapse of the euro.

To prevent such behavior, there must be negative
sanctions. There have been none. There have been
guidelines. But without negative sanctions, the guidelines
are enforced by a plea to act responsibly. This has been
about as effective as sex education in the tax-funded schools.

Such a regulation was installed for the European
Monetary Union. It is called the Stability and
Growth Pact, and it requires that each country's
annual budget deficit is below 3% and its gross
public debt not higher than 60% of its GDP.

Sanctions were defined to enforce these rules.
Yet the sanctions have never been enacted and the
pact is generally ignored. For 2010, all but one
member state is expected to have a budget deficit
higher than 3%; the general European debt ratio
is 88%. Germany, the main country that urged
these requirements, was among the first to refuse to fulfill them.

http://mises.org/daily/4091

CONCLUSION

The ECB did not decide to let the Greek government go
without aid of any kind. That would have sent a message:
"No more Mr. Nice Guy." But the Greek government might
have defaulted. Greek voters would not have risen up to
demand that the government raise taxes and cut spending to
be able to pay foreign bankers.

If any other debt-laden government defaults, some
large commercial banks all over Europe will suffer huge
losses. Then the ECB will have to bail them out. So will
their own national governments.

For the first time in my lifetime, politicians in
Europe are having to consider the costs and benefits of
national default. The theology of the messianic welfare
state is being reconsidered. "A government need not
default" has always meant, "a government can stiff lenders
with fiat money." Today, that traditional avenue of
concealed default has been cut off in Western Europe. The
threat of real default has reappeared.

If the euro dies, the New Europe also dies.

That will be a funeral I hope to attend.

GT WILL POST MORE SOON WHEN I FIND TIME (and the energy!)

RIGHT NOW, I'M EXHAUSTED AND DOING CHORES THAT HAVE BEEN POSTPONED
FAR TOO LONG.

I HAVE BEEN SUFFERING FOR SOME TIME NOW WITH A VERY SORE LEFT SHOULDER AND SORE LOWER BACK WHICH MAKES ME WANT TO LAY IN BED AFTER A BIT OF 'UP TIME'.  HOPEFULLY, WHEN THE SUN RETURNS, I WILL 'SPRING' TO LIFE ONCE AGAIN.  I'M REALLY FEELING MY AGE LATELY.

PLEASE BEAR WITH ME, AS I AM PUSHING MY LIMITS MOST OF THE TIME.

I WILL BE TRYING TO GET SOME READING DONE TONIGHT AND TOMORROW AND
WILL POST IMPORTANT ARTICLES I FIND IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO READ.

America's Impending Master Class Dictatorship

http://www.kitco.com/ind/Dougherty/jan222010.html

EXCERPT:
"..deficits and debts are now so gargantuan that they have become surreal abstractions impossible even for sophisticated financiers to begin to comprehend. The common citizen has absolutely no idea what these numbers mean, or imply for his or her future. The people have been deluded into thinking that America’s arrogant, egomaniacal, always-wrong-but-never-in-doubt fiscal witch doctors and charlatans, including Greenspan, Rubin, Summers, Geithner and Ponce de Bernanke, have discovered a Monetary Fountain of Youth that endlessly spits up free money from the center of earth, in a geyser of good will toward the United States. Unfortunately, this delusion is false: there is no Monetary Fountain of Youth, and contrary to the apparent beliefs of the self-deified man-gods in Washington, D.C., the debt and deficits are real, completely out of control, and 100% guaranteed to create catastrophic consequences for the nation and its people. "


LONG ARTICLE BUT WELL WORTH THE READ.
MAY HELP YOUR FRIENDS UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING.
.

SERENDIPITY...A WEBSITE TO PERUSE

http://www.serendipity.li/index.html

I WAS GOING TO LINK TO ONE ARTICLE ON THE CIA, BUT INSTEAD HAVE DECIDED
TO SIMPLY RECOMMEND THE ENTIRE WEBSITE FOR YOU TO PERUSE AND STUDY.

MAKE SURE YOU ALWAYS READ WHAT THERE IS ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF ANY
PUBLICATIONS, THEN USE YOUR OWN BRAINS TO DECIDE WHAT TO TAKE SERIOUSLY OR NOT.

THE WHOLE POINT OF MY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR  READING ARTICLES AND VISITING OTHER WEBSITES THAT I HAVE DISCOVERED, IS TO MAKE YOU AWARE OF
WHAT IS OUT THERE THAT YOU MAY NEVER DISCOVER ON YOUR OWN.

THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF THE INTERNET IS TO SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE,.

SO, PASS THIS AND OTHER LINKS ALONG IN WHATEVER YOU PUT OUT DIGITALLY,
WHETHER IN AN EMAIL TO OTHERS OR YOUR COMMENTS ON OTHER ARTICLES AND
WEBSITES.

THE MORE PEOPLE WHO 'KNOW' WHAT IS GOING ON,  WILL RESULT IN MORE PEOPLE
ADDED TO THE REVOLUTION AGAINST THE CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY THAT HAS ALMOST DESTROYED THE WORLD.

Ron Paul: After ‘CIA coup,’ agency ‘runs military’

US House Rep. Ron Paul says the CIA has in effect carried out a "coup" against the US government, and the intelligence agency needs to be "taken out."
http://rawstory.com/2010/01/ron-paul-cia/

THIS LINK CAME FROM SORCHA FAAL ARTICLE:
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1326.htm


LOTS TO STUDY FOLKS, AS THE WORLD'S TOP CRIMINALS TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD BY CREATING ECONOMIC COLLAPSE!