MONEY: Pirate’s chest

Friday, October 9, 2009

http://townhall.com/columnists/PeterFerrara/2009/09/10/making_up_crime

*** begin quote ***

When Fed Ex got started, the Feds charged it with violating the legal monopoly of the post office. When Fed Ex won that battle, it was a landmark victory for all Americans. The case against Liberty Dollar offers another potential landmark victory for American liberty.

*** end quote ***

Everyone needs competition and “dollars” are no different.

Here’s an entertaining thought experiment. You find a “pirates’ treasure chest”. Breathlessly you open it. What finding would excite you most:

(a) A chest full of 1940 Federal Reserve notes. (When our “pirate” buried a million “dollars”, it was worth the equivalent of a a hundred million. Reference: coffee was 22 cents per pound. You do the math.)

(b) A chest full of Confederate money.

(c) A chest full of Sadam’s Iraqi dinars.

(d) A chest full of GM stock.

(e) A chest full of gold coins.

Yea, I know what I’d pick. And, rebury them under the shore house. Just like our proverbial pirate. For the coming “rainy day”.

Argh!

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MONEY: Insurance … the proper role

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/09/23/renters-insurance-peace-of-mind-for-ten-bucks-a-month/

Renters Insurance: Peace of Mind for Ten Bucks a Month Print
Wednesday, 23rd September 2009 (by April) This article is about House and Home, InsuranceThis post is from GRS staff writer April Dykman.

*** begin quote ***
“We lost everything,” he says. Later they’d find out that it was arson. A former employee of the apartment complex stole rent checks and set the office on fire. Frank was moving into a new apartment in ten days, and the new complex agreed to let them move in early. “We moved in with a plastic bag of groceries, paid for with a $50 food voucher from the Red Cross,” he says. The other 70 displaced tenants stayed in Red Cross shelters.

*** end quote ***
This story may be of interest to the “preparing community”.
(1) Notice the lack of a bug out bag in the apartment AS WELL AS the lack of a bug out bag in the car. To be TOTALLY wiped out by a fire? Unthinkable.
(2) Renter’s insurance, and most insurance is cheap. I’m always amazed at all the Wall Street folks who died in 9/11 that had ZERO life insurance. It tells me that people are not thinking rationally about their “risk profile”. Consumers buy “appliance insurance” on a sub 500$ thing; can people even spell “self insurance”.
(3) On the topic of insurance, politicians want to mandate insurance companies to cover “maintenance” items. Like the previous “appliance insurance” discussion, it’s stupid. Like insuring your car’s oil change. Say it’s 50$ twice a year. The insurance company has to administrate the claims and make a profit. 100$ of oil changes probably would cost a $1,000! Sheer stupidity. Insurance should be for catastrophic things.
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MONEY: When the shoe drops

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff313.html
*** begin quote *** My bet is this. One fine day the bottom is going to drop out of the dollar. There will be a swift and sharp order of magnitude change. The recognition of the problems will reach a point at which it starts to go exponential, not just in terms of people being vaguely conscious that things are not right, but in terms of actually taking action to protect themselves. Foreign central banks may be reluctant to dump their dollar securities and think it better to liquidate them slowly so as not to drive prices down and break the market, but when they observe that others are running for the exits, they will run too.*** end quote ***
I agree that there will be a “run”. But it will look differently.
The Chinese are leading it NOW. The recent swap of Chinese held dollars for IMF gold, their “strategic reserve” acquisition program, and their stated “strategic rebalancing of their portfolio” is happening now.
Since there is nothing backing the US dollar, there is no “bank” to “run” on. So by definition, it will look differently than the Great Depression.
IMHO, (and I’m an injineer by education and know it all blogger by avocation), the “run” is happening now.
US borrowing is in trouble. I think we are seeing the FED quietly, carefully, and with malice aforethought manipulating with the assistance of the bailed out Wall Street firms manipulating the Treasury bond sales. They are selling debt at what appears to be record low levels. But by using shills, they are quietly buying it back from their accomplices on the street after the auction.
That’s why the FED coudn’t stand an audit as Ron Paul and others have asked for. It’s a Ponzi scheme.
So, what will the run look like?
Foreigners will exit the Treasury market. (Didn’t the Chinese students laugh at Geithner?) The dollar will tank against foreign currencies. Commodities rise in dollar terms, but not as much in other currencies. The world “readjusts” to a trading pattern that excludes or minimizes the US since everything will be much more expensive in dollars that no one wants.
Here at home, the fixed income people are screwed — the old, the retired, the elderly, the “savers”. The elite political class continues to spend other people’s money which is fast drying up. (Without access to foreign credit, all they can do is run the printing press.) Hyperinflation will destroy the dollar. As the welfare spending drops, there has to be riots in the inner cities. As the crisis expands, warfare spending has to drop. Eventually the government has to default on its debt. Unfunded liabilities like social security are defaulted on as well.
I hope that commodity money reemerges from the “return to barter” and the chaos of the “American default” like Zimbabwe. And, we can begin the long climb back up.
It’s going to be messy.fjohn

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MONEY: Why buy insurance?

Thursday, September 24, 2009

http://www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/insurance/should-you-hurry-to-buy-life-insurance/?cid=1230

Should You Hurry to Buy Life Insurance?
Hough: Policy prices are rising. Here’s what you need to know.

*** begin quote ***

Avoid it <<insurance>>, unless both of the following statements apply:

1. Your death would put someone you care about in a financial bind.

2. You’re not rich enough to set money aside for that person now.

Note that caring about someone isn’t enough of a reason, because insurance is a money-losing proposition, making it a poor gift versus simply saving. The purpose of insurance is to turn the unknowable (the probability of financial disaster brought on by your death) into the known (the cost of premiums today). Buy only enough so that your loved ones don’t suffer financially, not enough to make them feel like they’ve hit the lottery. They’ll feel like lottery winners anyhow after seeing your savings and brokerage accounts stuffed with all the money you saved on insurance. Buy only cheap term insurance, not expensive whole life or anything else that builds investment value, because you can build investment value in your brokerage account with more control and lower fees.

*** end quote ***

I remember the old life insurance salesman’s canard: “A man who dies, leaving his family with no life insurance, doesn’t die; he absconds!”

I think this author nails it.

Worth a quick read.

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MONEY: The worst is not yet over

Friday, September 18, 2009

http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2009/09/15/daily-maul-under-obama-big-banks-get-bigger-shocker

DAILY MAUL: Under Obama, Big Banks Get Bigger – Shocker!
Submitted by Rob Williams on Tue, 09/15/2009 – 4:57am.

*** begin quote ***

In promoting and subsidizing the takeover of failing banks by the biggest banks and investment houses, the Post notes, the government violated federal antitrust regulations, which prohibit any single bank from controlling more than 10 percent of deposits nationwide. They also violate Justice Department antitrust advisories on the degree of control over regional financial markets by individual banks.

*** end quote ***

What a surprise!

So the next time, the problem will be even bigger. And the gooferment will have a bigger role in the “solution”.

Argh!

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MONEY: Ignore the 5% “rule” at your own financial peril

Thursday, September 17, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/q2c7fp

Tales From Lehman’s Crypt
By LOUISE STORY and LANDON THOMAS Jr.
Published: September 12, 2009

*** begin quote ***

“I spent a long time being very angry,” says Mr. Schaefer, the former Lehman executive turned gas station owner. “Angry for working so hard and doing so much. More importantly, for my family and all the time I was away traveling — the time I put in away from them. Now all that money I earned, the money paid in stock, is gone. I can’t go back and remake it.”

*** and ***

When Lehman closed its origination business, Mr. Linton lost his job. Rich and single, he has pursued a life of leisure since then — sailing in his 37-foot boat, playing jazz trombone and, at the moment, taking a week to learn how to fly Russian fighter jets and gliders in New Mexico. He briefly considered attending culinary school.

Although Lehman laid him off in early 2008, his departure turned out to be a boon for Mr. Linton. Being forced out convinced him to bet against the firm’s stock as a counterweight against the Lehman shares he still owned, which protected him when the stock’s value plummeted. Combined with a well-timed sale of his Manhattan apartment and a stream of income from real estate investments, the moves gave him financial padding that frees him from job worries.

“I have been fortunate to have some nice toys,” he says. “And they are all paid up. It’s a nice situation to be in.”

*** end quote ***

I don’t understand a lot of things.

I didn’t understand how smart people, with dependents, working on Wall Street, don’t have life insurance. 91101 exposed they didn’t.

I don’t understand how these ex-Lehman people, who worked on the Street, have all their portfolios so heavily weighted with Lehman. Guess they never heard of options or derivatives.

I don’t understand a lot of things. Wall Street’s “rules of thumb” have been time-tested. Ignore them at your own peril.

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MONEY: UN says kill the dollar!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/currency/6152204/UN-wants-new-global-currency-to-replace-dollar.html

UN wants new global currency to replace dollar
The dollar should be replaced with a global currency, the United Nations has said, proposing the biggest overhaul of the world’s monetary system since the Second World War.
By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
Published: 6:45PM BST 07 Sep 2009

*** begin quote ***

In essence, the report calls for a new Bretton Woods-style system of managed international exchange rates, meaning central banks would be forced to intervene and either support or push down their currencies depending on how the rest of the world economy is behaving.

*** end quote ***

And, why are we in the UN? We’re financing this “barbara streisand” against our own self-interest. We “nuked” Sadam for suggesting oil should be priced in Gold not dollars. Let’s see if we do the same to the UN for a similar suggestion!

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MONEY: FDIC “insurance”?

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi117.html

FDIC Walks a Tightrope
by Bill Sardi

*** begin quote ***

Bair’s second assignment is to slowly put small insolvent American banks out of business, over a thousand of them, while fostering public confidence in the FDIC insurance company’s ability to insure the public’s money. The FDIC admits to only 416 on the agency’s “problem bank” list. Frankly, without bailout money, few banks would have adequate reserves. By collapsing small banks, depositors are likely to bank their money at larger institutions. So Bair is really a shill for the large bankers to rub out their smaller competition, though she may have no other option in this instance.

*** end quote ***

So, why if “too big to fail” is bad, does the gooferment limit the size of a single bank to say ONE ONE THOUSANDTH of it’s reserve. And, oh by the way, why doesn’t it have a REAL RESERVE? Not so IOU from the FED or the Treasury.

Argh!

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MONEY: In Gold We Trust

Thursday, August 27, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/fink1.1.1.html

IN gOD WE TRUST
  by Gabriel Fink

*** begin quote ***

The merits of placing references to deity on currency is another debate. What should not be debatable to any of the three Abrahamic religions, is placing the name of God on something that is worthless, has no value, represents debt, usury, and facilitates war. The only type of currency that the phrase “In God We Trust” could be placed upon without taking the Holy name of the Lord in vain, is gold or silver coinage. After all, God indeed himself created these materials of intrinsic value, a feat the anointed Fed chairman can only feign doing in spite of his lofty seat in the marble temple in DC.

*** end quote ***

Without a question, the American motto should be:

In GOLD, we trust!

Clearly anything less is fraud.

And, let’s just go with ounces. No need for the word “dollars” anywhere.

It’s even OK with me if we want to be international friendly!

KILOGRAMS of gold!

See ounces have flavors; even grams do to.

We need a crystal clear measure.

A stone. (The old New England measure for potatoes!)

Heck we can call it a nano-STONE.

Let’s just be honest in our vocabulary. And our money!

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MONEY: Might be a good answer to the wrong problem!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Nothing against discount brokerages, but may I suggest that it might be the “right answer to the wrong problem”. I was always enamored of the metaphor of “leaning your ladder against the wrong wall”. Recently, after many years of meandering and sometimes successful trading (i.e., went all in on a stock that tripled), I’ve decided that, like medicine, sometimes one can be too smart for one’s own good. I hired what I’ll describe as “an institutional portfolio manager”. (Yeah, have to a 500k$ portfolio to get into that game!) But, I’ve concluded that the “casino” (aka Wall Street) is no place for the DIY crowd like I once was. The electronic trading, the specialists, the “financial consultants”, mutual fund’s crass graft, and all the other machinations have taken the “game” to a new level. The globalization of finance has convinced me that the dollar is on a fast road to perdition. Even gold coins now carry a hefty 12% markup over spot. SO there is no “good” investment for the little guys. Even at cheap transaction fee!

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MONEY: Dollar is in big trouble

Saturday, August 22, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lilley/floy10.1.html

Sound Money: The Impossible Dream?
by Floy Lilley

*** begin quote ***

Debt: The US must borrow 46 cents for every dollar spent this year. Outstanding public debt as of 18 August is $11,704,322,903, 918. An estimated population of the United States is 307,209,243, so each citizen’s share of this debt is $38,127. The debt-to-GDP ratio is 82%. This debt will grow by a trillion dollars a year. The debt has to be rolled over every four years. That’s $240 billion a month to be skimmed off capital markets. The four largest budget items are wars, social security, Medicare/Medicaid, and interest on the debt.

*** end quote ***

How does the Republic get out of the mess that the congresscritters have created?

Inflation? Repudiation? What Chapter applies to the nation?

It’s clear we can’t meet our commitments. So what, or rather who, gets thrown under the bus?

Clearly the Chinese, and any one holding our debt. Senior citizens, pensioners, the sick and elderly.

Social security goes broke. What does that look like?

Argh!

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MONEY: Your Home Is Not An Investment

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/your-home-is-not-an-investment.html

Your Home Is Not An Investment
from Bargaineering.com by Jim

*** begin quote ***

There are many benefits to owning a home and I’m a huge fan of it, but don’t justify buying a home by thinking its home is an investment. It’s not.

It is, however, a place to live, a place to make your own, and a place to make yours. It’s a place to put down roots, a place to raise a family, and a place to grow old in. It’s a place to call your own, it’s just not an investment. It’s a home.

*** end quote ***

Had this discussion a few weeks ago with an OLDER friend and his family. Couldn’t seem to break thru that “rent” was not “lost”. Sigh.

It’s only an investment if you get rent for it.

Frau is enamored with HGTV and all the renovation, vacation, and first time. (I don’t understand how they can ignore labor cost in the renovations. I don’t understand buying an international vacation home for several 100K$; how many times can you go there? I don’t understand first time buyers who exceed their budget consistently.)

It’s only a legacy.

It’s not an ATM like how people were refinancing to get cash out.

Everything is great when the market is going up; down, not so good.

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MONEY: Hyperinflation

Tuesday, August 18, 2009
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,641758,00.html
MILLIONS, BILLIONS, TRILLIONS
Germany in the Era of HyperinflationBy Alexander Jung

*** begin quote ***

During the hyperinflation in Germany of 1920s, the country’s currency, the mark, went crazy. The government of the Weimar Republic may have been able to clear its debts, but it came at the cost of the citizens’ savings. It’s an era that is still part of the national psyche today.
*** and ***

Take for example the family that sold its house to emigrate to America. On arrival at the port of Hamburg, they found that the money wasn’t enough to pay for their crossing — in fact, it didn’t even pay for their tickets back home. Then there was the man who drank two cups of coffee at 5,000 marks each, only to be presented with a bill for 14,000. When he asked why this was he was told he should have ordered the coffees at the same time because the price had gone up in between. And then there’s the story about the couple that took a few hundred million marks to the theater box office hoping to see a show, but discovered it wasn’t nearly enough. Tickets were now a billion marks each.

*** end quote ***

And that kiddies is what faces us here in the USA in the near future.
But It CAN’T happen here!
Can it?
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MONEY: An interesting facet; most will miss it

Friday, August 14, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north742.html

Pink Slip Nation
by Gary North

*** begin quote ***

The re-sets will not be re-set. The lenders will face walkaways. Not that many home owners have enough savvy to keep paying on the mortgages, on the assumption that the lenders will not foreclose.

*** end quote ***

There’s a pearl of wisdom in here.

In an ARM (adjustable rate mortgage), there are times when the interest rate “resets”. Goes higher from the “teaser rate”.

Here’s the gem.

Just ignore the reset.

The bank can’t afford to foreclose. It can’t afford to renegotiate. It’s “hung”.

Payers should just keep paying based on their old schedule. There may be idle threats from the bank. (The smaller your bank the better.)

When does the chicken come home to roost?

I’m not so sure. When this trouble works itself out, interest rates may be lower and the ARM resets back down? When the bank eventually gets shut down and acquired by a bigger bank? When the Ponzi scheme runs out?

When it does go to foreclosure, the homeowner will have a valid argument: precedent. The bank kept cashing my checks, didn’t foreclose, so it — remember my law degree is from the Judge Judy school of law — has accepted a modification!

Very cute! No?

Just ignore the big bad wolf cause he can’t blow very hard!

This may be wrong, but I’m not so sure. I think it’s a very very savvy move. And, costs the homeowner nothing to try.

Comments?

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MONEY: Coins may be an inflation hedge?

Thursday, August 13, 2009

http://www.survivalblog.com/nickels.html

Mass Inflation Ahead — Save Your Nickels!
By James Wesley, Rawles — Editor of http://www.SurvivalBlog.com
Updated, April, 2009

*** begin quote ***

In five years, the circulating nickel as we now know it, will be history, and it will be treated with nearly the same reverence that we now give to pre-’65 silver coinage.

*** end quote ***

Wonder if I buy some bags of coins from TD. They have the free coin sorter. Hmm.

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MONEY: Gold was debunked?

Friday, August 7, 2009

from FACEBOOK

The Gold standard debunked 80 years ago.. THere’s not enough Au or Ag in the ground to support an Earth-wide economy of 6+ Billion people….

*** my response ***

I believe, respectfully, that you missed the point. It’s not about Au or Ag. It’s about selecting something (anything) that limits the “sovereign” from adulterating the currency. With a fixed amount of Au in the universe, who cares if a dollar maps to micrograms as opposed to ounces. The respective gooferments can NOT just print more “wealth” that they use. From the Civil War to the Fed, prices gently declined. The greenback and the gold specie were circulated equally. “Good as gold”. Unfortunately, the Fed allowed the politicians to escape the chains of fiscal discipline. They can’t raise taxes so they inflate the currency. Look at the value of a dollar. It lost GT10% against the Euro last week alone. Argh!

# – # – #

I’ve blogged about my realization at the Smithsonian. The franc of Louis 1 was a hockey puck of gold; fast forward to Louis 14 and it’s a thin shirt button. That demonstrates inflation.

If we mined all the gold, currency units would be mapped to ounces of gold. Who cares if it mili ounces or nano ounces. It restricts how much currency the gooferment can print.

It doesn’t matter if it is gold, silver, or something else that’s limited in supply. The idea is to PREVENT gooferment from creating it. Out of thin air!

Argh!

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MONEY: A global central bank would be a disaster

Thursday, July 30, 2009

http://thedailybell.com/bellPage.asp?nid=461&fl=

Daily Bell Archive
Issue 360 • Sunday, July 26, 2009
“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” – Ayn Rand
Peter Schiff explains why he was right about free-markets, why Art Laffer was wrong and whether he will run for Senate

*** begin quote ***

Daily Bell: Where do you think this central banking approach to economic development is headed? Do you think it will eventually succeed as a global force – generating a global central bank, etc?

Peter Schiff: I think that in the end, central bankers controlling fiat money will prove to be an unworkable and inherently flawed system. Despite the apparent distinction, central bankers are politicians who are more concerned about rosy economic statistics than they are about sound currency. This can only lead to devalued currencies, which sooner or later becomes a major issue. A global central bank would be a disaster.

*** end quote ***

It would truly signal the end of the American Empire.

Without the status of the world’s reserve currency, an awful lot of dollar would start looking for a home! They’d come to our shores looking for something to buy. Price inflation would be inevitable. Anything that could be boxed up and shipped home would be bid up. One can see whole productive factories being packed up and shipped lock, stock, and barrel. Labor is cheaper elsewhere. The USA wages would drop like a rock.

We’d suddenly know what it is like to be the tail on someone else’s dog.

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MONEY: Recognize the dollar for what it is; an ongoing fraud

Thursday, July 23, 2009

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MONEY: Cash; one defense against gooferment

Saturday, July 4, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl/abolish-cash.html

To Fight Deflation, Abolish Cash
Could Japan Make Reality of ‘Science Fiction’?
by Leo Lewis

*** begin quote ***

With recovery elusive, a population doddering into old age and perhaps a decade of deflation in prospect, Japan may start mulling the most radical monetary policy of all – the abolition of cash.

Unorthodox, untried and, said one Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi strategist, “in the realms of economic science fiction”, the recommendation has nevertheless begun floating around Tokyo’s corridors of power and economists have described Japan as particularly suitable as a testing ground.

The search for more outré economic policies continues, despite the recent surge in the Nikkei 225 index. The market may be reflecting soaring Chinese investment, rising consumer confidence and other cheerful data but economists see few long-term beacons of hope for Japan.

*** end quote ***

There’s no doubt that the gooferment would love to eliminate cash.

It could really track and control the People then.

How can we think that we are “independent”?

The gooferment manipulates us into thinking we’re in charge. Just try and change anything. They don’t even follow their own rules!

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MONEY: A dollar is worth a dollar, except when the dollar is a gold coin

Friday, July 3, 2009

http://federalism.typepad.com/crime_federalism/2009/06/are-gold-american-eagles-worth-what-congress-has-said-they-are-worth.html

June 16, 2009
Are Gold American Eagles Worth What Congress Has Said They Are Worth? Or: The IRS v. Robert Kahre

*** begin quote ***

[Editor’s note: I am not a tax protester. Until researching the issue that is subject to this blog post, I thought all of the arguments raised by the tax protester crowd were frivolous. On this issue, I am not so confident.]

Take a look at this gold coin. It’s a Gold American Eagle. Look at the image on the right. Do you see what the coin says on the bottom half, underneath the nesting baby eagle?Gold American Eagle 50 Dollars

It says $50, right?

Indeed, it is (as I will explain below) $50. It’s worth as much as an Ulysses S. Grant. Well, if you believe it’s really only worth $50, send all of your Gold Eagles to me. I will sell them on eBay for about $1,000 each.

And now you can see the problem of Robert Kahre. Mr. Kahre is facing federal prison because he claimed that Gold Eagles are worth what Congress has said that Gold Eagles are worth.

Is Mr. Kahre’s position frivolous? I don’t think so. Please indulge me.

*** end quote ***

I blogged about this one.

*** begin quote ***

https://reinkefaceslife.com/2008/02/26/goldbug-why-buy-and-hold-gold/

(4) There are some interesting nuances in holding American Gold Eagle, which are produced by the gooferment (i.e., the Treasury Department’s Mint), and are asserted to be dominated in dollars. The one ounce gold American Eagle is stamped 50 “dollars”. AND, it is really worth ~940 “dollars” in Federal Reserve Notes. (There’s a recent tax case where the employer declared his employees earnings in “dollars” as represented on the Eagles he gave them. Everyone paid less taxes.)

*** end quote ***

This is an interesting quirk that can be exploited.

Of course, at your own risk.

Sigh, what is a dollar anyway!

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MONEY: ALLYBANK; corpse of GMAC

Thursday, July 2, 2009

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MONEY: Banks aren’t safe

Friday, June 26, 2009

http://mises.org/story/3507

Dead Banks Walking
Mises Daily
by Doug French
Posted on 6/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

*** begin quote ***

On the other hand, if a legitimate banking system were in place, it would be based upon honoring property rights. Customers making a deposit in a bank expect the bank to guard, protect, and return their money — at a moment’s notice in the case of demand deposits. After all, that person has not traded a present good for a future good. The depositors believe the bank is warehousing the money for them and that it is available to them at any time. This deposit is not a loan — there is no fixed term, which would be required in the case of a loan — and availability hasn’t transferred.

However, we don’t have legitimate deposit banking but a fractionalized banking system that combines deposit banking with loan banking. Those that sympathize with fractionalized banking will contend that time certificate of deposit accounts are in essence loans from depositors, entitling the bankers to use the funds at their discretion for the term of the CD — just as long as the banker has the money ready when the CD matures. But if the money is lent secured by illiquid assets such as real estate, the banker is clearly not counting on those loans to satisfy expiring CDs and must count on attracting new CD money to pay off the old.

“There is no incentive for bank depositors to go to the trouble of determining a bank’s soundness if the government is going to guarantee deposits.”

Bankers, pressured to earn returns for shareholders and protected from bank runs by FDIC insurance, have over time lent not only more of their deposits but advanced the money for riskier projects. James Grant in a recent Grant’s Interest Rate Observer reminisced about National City Bank, which back in 1954 had only lent out 41 percent of its deposits, with less than one percent of the portfolio being real-estate loans.

By the end of last year, the total loan-to-deposit ratio for all US banks and thrifts was 87 percent, and 60 percent of all loans were classified as real-estate secured.

*** end quote ***

Bottom line: Don’t invest in any bank stock.

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MONEY: Expect more intrusions and less roi

Sunday, June 21, 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5526129/Lloyds-Bank-hit-by-Obama-tax-purge.html

Lloyds Bank hit by Obama tax purge
Banking group drops American customers in UK ahead of costly proposals to stamp out tax evasion
By Louise Armitstead
Published: 9:39PM BST 13 Jun 2009

*** begin quote ***

This week American private client account-holders at Lloyds’s received letters informing them of an “important change in policy regarding clients who are resident, domiciled or linked to the United States by property or asset holdings”. They were told the bank had “no choice” but to “cease acting as your investment manager.”

*** end quote ***

Funny, here comes the unintended consequences!

It will be just the first.

More forms, more intrusive checking, more audits.

Argh!

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MONEY: Commodity versus fiat money

Saturday, June 20, 2009

http://lewrockwell.com/orig10/hansen1.html

Will Radically Different Banking Plans Work?
Not until we abolish legal tender laws
by Betsy Hansen

*** begin quote ***

Because the fiat money system is both the strength and weakness of America’s tyrants. It bleeds the people’s wealth and labor, but it also threatens to collapse under its own weight – or whenever the scales fall off the people’s eyes. With its green engravings of famous Americans, electrons whirling around in bank computers, and loans created out of thin air, it is one vast confidence game.

*** end quote ***

The Federal Reserve Bank (which is none of those things) allows the congress critters, the Administration, politicians, bureaucrats, and their ilk to raise taxes without explicitly raising taxes.

The sheeple can’t even tell what they are paying in taxes. Inflation erodes their “savings” such that the gooferment can steal all their earnings in a given year. Even the worst tyrant of dictator of old used to have to leave the serfs enough to eat from year to year. And, the sheeple don’t even know they are being robbed.a

Imagine the uproar if a President said: “Sorry we have to take everything you earned this year for the good of everyone.” There would be riots in the streets. But the FED can inflate away. Since 1970, inflation has reduced the value of a dollar 97%!

Sheeple, how stupid can you be?

Independence Day? Don’t make me laff!

We’re not independent as long as the FED exists. Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson, were right.

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MONEY: What is the correct interest rate?

Thursday, June 18, 2009

http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/fdic-sets-bank-interest-rate-caps.html

Your Take: FDIC Sets Bank Interest Rate Caps by Jim Wang

*** begin quote ***

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation SealNear the end of May, the FDIC Board of Directors approved a rule that capped the interest rate “less than well capitalized institutions.”

*** end quote ***

And, what part of fascism don’t you understand?

The gooferment is trying to run the banks.

What a joke.

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MONEY: Don’t mess with Uncle Sugar’s monopoly

Monday, June 15, 2009

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/e-gold/

Threat Level Privacy, Crime and Security Online
Bullion and Bandits: The Improbable Rise and Fall of E-Gold
    * By Kim Zetter Email Author
    * June 9, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Jackson has finally registered E-Gold with FinCEN, and has begun applying to states for money transmitting licenses. The company is also blocking people who appear on the Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals and plans to follow bank procedures for verifying customer income and sources of transmitted funds. There are other plans in works to clean up the system as well.

*** end quote ***

Read this with an eye towards why this fool was targeted.

Think they care about catch bad guys?

Or, could it be that he was undermining their monopoly over “money”.

That stuff they laughable call “money” … Federal Reserve Banknotes.

Paper!

Fiat trash.

No, he was giving people an easy and cheap way to store value.

That couldn’t be “taxed” by inflation.

Imagine how much better the Chinese would be if they had 5T$ of gold as opposed to Uncle Sugar’s little green pieces of paper.

No, anyone who messes with that monopoly, will bring the goons out in force.

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