MONEY: Pay your taxes, serf?

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

http://www.impactlab.com/2009/03/27/watching-the-income-tax-system-implode/

March 27th, 2009 at 9:12 am

Watching The Income Tax System Implode

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Change does not happen because everyone gets together first and decides a change is going to happen. Momentum will build quickly around a single event or thought leader. When the general public senses that the end is near, an overwhelming flood of support will rapidly hasten its demise.

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I think it ends when the productive class decides to produce less. They pay less tax. And, the gooferment can’t find enough to tax.

The Chinese decide that 5T$ is too much. And, the world refuses to lend more to the American “banana republic government”.

The world decides that era of the American dollar as a reserve currency is over. And, the American Empire slides into the dustbin of history.

Tax revolt?

Even if we don’t have one here, the one overseas will be much worse.

See inflation is a tax on those foreigners holding dollars.

Gold anyone?

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MONEY: Health care a la WalMart

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/026345.html

April 15, 2009
Thank Goodness for Wal-Mart
Posted by Lew Rockwell at April 15, 2009 12:35 PM

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I kept my COBRA going, but at $538/month, it became unsustainable. I let it lapse four months ago. Last month, I couldn’t refill my high-blood pressure medications and I took my last thyroid pill on Saturday. I didn’t know what I was to do. Kaiser wouldn’t even let me PAY for my medications as I wasn’t a member now.

I remembered Wal-Mart had these walk-in clinics. In desperation and fearing the worst, I went on Easter Sunday. The clinic was spotless, the doctor was a retired UCD Medical Center Professor who just wanted to keep his hand in and see patients, there wasn’t any wait, the cost was only $59, and my prescriptions were only $9 each for a 100 days supply. Total with Wal-Mart: $86. With my Kaiser, I would have paid a $25 copay for the doctor visit and three $25 copays for each medication. Total with Kaiser: $100, but AFTER I paid $538/month to remain a member. Before Wal-Mart, my blood pressure was 123/186, today it is back down to 84/124.

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Great lesson to the “universal health care” advocates!

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MONEY: “pension plans” an idea that’s time has passed

Sunday, April 12, 2009

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/jcpl_denies_full_pension_to_fo.html

JCP&L denies full pension to former employee’s widow
by Karin Price Mueller/The Star-Ledger
Monday April 06, 2009, 9:00 PM

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How much is 17 hours of your life worth? It’s a question widow Brenda Slutter has been wrestling with for years.

Her husband, Ron Slutter, worked for Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) for nearly 36 years. He died of cancer at age 58. Knowing his death was imminent, Ron made arrangements to retire, a move that would allow his wife to receive the largest possible company pension benefit after his death. He was told by JCP&L, his widow said, that his official retirement date had to be on the first of the month — but died 17 hours and 40 minutes before the paperwork was finalized.

Thanks to a tangle of bureaucratic rigidity, legal fine print and the timing of her husband’s death, Brenda, 59, receives only half the pension benefit her husband meant for her to receive.

“If January only had 30 days, he would have made it,” Brenda said.

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Bamboozled contacted JCP&L to talk about the case, but the company wouldn’t discuss any particulars.

“We respect the privacy of all of our employees and do not publicly discuss or disclose any personal information,” said Ronald Morano, spokesman for First Energy, the parent company of JCP&L. “We work diligently to ensure that our employees and their families understand their benefits and the options available to them.”

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Brenda Slutter isn’t surprised by the company’s response, and she’s not giving up her fight.

“This is not how you reward someone for doing an excellent service for your company,” she said. “I guess First Energy needs half of my husband’s pension more than I do.”

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Argh! May I suggest that the various state and federal agencies be prompted to audit the JCP&L and it’s pension plan? Tell me that retirement dates haven’t been adjusted for the executives.

This brings me to why do we have pension plans at all. People should be paid out for their full worth and allowed to make their own arrangements.

It’s a shame to see anyone get screwed.

Pensions and “benefits” came about as a result of the gooferment’s wage and price controls of WW2. Does anyone think we still need the distortion?

Gooferment is the root of all evil.

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MONEY: Obama’s “Bailout Bonds”

Friday, April 10, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/bailout-bonds.html

Bailout Bonds?
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

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The Obama administration is cajoling investment companies to create bailout bonds. These would be similar to the bonds that wartime presidents created to find sucker-investors for their wars. Americans were browbeaten into buying them as a patriotic duty. So too those who say “yes, we can” to the bailouts will be asked to do their patriotic duty, and buy the debt of loser companies.

It’s all part of the war on depression, which is destined to be as successful as the war on drugs. But, hey, if it is a good investment, why not buy bailout bonds? Well, there’s a problem. The bonds represent credit extended to companies and projects that are proven market failures. Creating these bonds is a way of institutionalizing the principle of buying low and selling lower.

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An even MORE important point is who’s going to buy ANY of the US Gooferment debt?

When the pundits say ONE or TWO Trillion Dollar Deficit, (that means they haven’t or can’t tax it to zero), there are really only TWO choices: INFLATION to monetize the debt (A fancy way to say “we’re going to screw everyone who hold dollars”; that’s why the Chinese with their 5T$ are upset. Inflation is a tax on every dollar that currently exists. How many do you have?) —-OR—- BORROW it. (The Treasury issue notes and bonds, basically IOUs, to folk who think they might get their money back with interest.

Who’s going to buy 2T$ worth of debt?

Not the unemployed. Not the “scared money”. Not the Chinese. Not the retirees who have taken a 50% haircut in the market. Not those with 401ks and IRA that have taken the same haircut or worse.

Who else has savings to loan Uncle Sam?

Watch for the interest rates to rise. See bond buyers KNOW their biggest risk is inflation. For those of us who lived thru the Carter Stagflation, we remember the Treasury couldn’t sell 15% tbills because price inflation was running 20%. History WILL repeat itself.

Gold and silver. Gold and silver.

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MONEY: Leaving the American Dollar

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/g20-summit/5072484/Russia-backs-return-to-Gold-Standard-to-solve-financial-crisis.html

Russia backs return to Gold Standard to solve financial crisis

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Anything that moves the world off the US Dollar as the world’s reserve currency is going to hurt us. The Chinese alone are holding 5T$. What do they do? Obama’s deficits are 2T$ in 2009 alone. Who’s going to buy that debt?

As always, it’s posterity who is going to be left holding the bag.

What can us little folk do? Buy bullion gold coins, take delivery, and “bury” them at home as part of your “savings”. It’s the only investment option that gets you off the fiat currencies. Read about the pre-WW2 German inflation and the news reports out of Zimbabwe. It’s coming, the only question is when. Obama’s socialism and spending is going to make us all poorer, very quickly.

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MONEY: Fiat currency kills the American Dream

Sunday, April 5, 2009

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/dinosaur-economists-and-their-paper-currency/

Dinosaur Economists and their Paper Currency
By The Mogambo Guru

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So the question is, “Is all that spending additive?” I mean, do you add 14% plus 7%? If so, then isn’t government spending 21% of Gross Domestic Product enough to kill the economy a dozen times over, which is what happens every other time in all of history when some brain-dead government of some idiotic country full of childishly-trusting morons allows their corrupt government to spend more than it takes in by creating as much fiat currency as it wants?

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Amazing about the amount of “counterfeit money” the gooferment is going to push out.

Where does it end? Who winds up holding the bag? When does the “barbara streisand” hit the fan?

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MONEY: The creature from Jekyll Island – the Fed!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan108.html

Should We Kill the Fed?
by Patrick J. Buchanan

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Should not this creature from Jekyll Island, for all its manifold crimes and sins against the republic, also be summarily put to death?

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The Federal Reserve Bank!

It’s neither ‘federal” since not even the US Congress can get its books audited.

It “reserves” nothing; it merely manipulates and prints.

And, it’s not a “bank”.

So what is it?

What is the creature from Jekyll Island?

(The name comes from the location of a secret collusion between bankers where the arrangement was hammered out.)

It’s a price fixing cartel a la OPEC for “american” banks.

As PJB alludes, Andrew Jackson must be rolling over in his grave, he killed one of it’s predecessors the “United States Bank”.

Of course, I agree that if we had commodity money, we would NOT have the artificial booms and busts that come with manipulating interest rates. Interest rates are the key indicator to business as to what projects are worth doing and what are not. AND, without a fiat currency, (where the Fed prints all the Congress can spend), the Congress would be restrained in its spending. AND, our poor and those on fixed income wouldn’t have to pay the brunt of the “inflation tax”.

Before leaving the Gold Standard in 1913 and before the FED embarked on manipulating us for the benefit of the rich and their banks, America was in decades of stable slightly declining prices. Money was a stable store of value.

(“Money is a matter of functions four, a medium, a measure, a standard, a store.” p116 in my novel “CHURCH 10●19●62”)

How does one plan in post WW1 Germany, Argentina in the 80’s, Zimbabwe today, or the USA in the next decade? Runaway inflation of the money supply and high interest rates are going to hurt everyone.

I have only heard one real objection and one minor objection to the Gold Standard.

Bob Brinker (bobbrinker dot com) had the minor objection that there would no ability for the government to supply stimulus to the economy with monetary policy. That’s is the problem, Bob; the politicians want inflation so they can spend to buy votes, reward their friends, and punish their enemies.

More substantially, Brinker objected to giving Congress the power to value money. He feared runaway inflation as the the COngress, as did the French Kings, inflate uncontrollably. That we agree on. Congress is like drunken sailors. Except their ship is always in.

Returning to the Gold Standard, where a dollar is defined as some amount of gold and / or silver, will impose discipline on the world.

How do we get there?

Let people be free to use whatever they want for money. The King, the government, the criminals in DC should just repeal the mandatory tender laws that force everyone to accept the dollar. The marketplace will quickly adjust.

And, Americans can get back to work.

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MONEY: Ditch dollar movement?

Thursday, March 19, 2009

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52H2CY20090318

U.N. panel says world should ditch dollar
Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:16am EDT
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent

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LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on the dollar.

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The end of the US Dollar as the World’s reserve currency? That would be unbelievable. “Everyone” said that it could never happen! SO, what happens when it does? Are we on the road to being like Zimbabwe?

Why are we still funding the UN. We should ditch them!

Gold and silver — the Dead Old White Guys were right — The Palladium rounds (i.e., medallions — the Gooferment gets mad if you call them coins. But thy look like coins to me.) at about 300$/oz seem like a bargain. Rarer than Platinum at 1200$/oz.

But, plan for a Carter-like inflation; did you see Carter visited the Obama White House yesterday. Why? To get advice on how to print “Whip Inflation Now” buttons?

Will Obama on Leno distract everyone with how incredibly screwed we are? And what a good guy he is personally.

Humbly, I think he’s drowning us in the deep end of the pool while he tries to distract us. Ain’t gonna work. At least, I’m not distracted as to what this means to us low fixed income folks. I hope it’s not distracting the People or you.

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MONEY: Live debt free

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88524

People demanded change and it’s coming

Posted: February 10, 2009 8:41 pm Eastern

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The time of politicians listening to the will of the people has long passed. They are no longer our servants, they are our masters. Masters who demand we continue down the same road that has failed us for years.

What are we going to do about it?

As for me, I have decided to take hold of my future by preparing for very uncertain times. I live debt free. I live within my means. I don’t have the biggest house in town. But I sleep well and know that when they screw things up even worse than they already have, I can pay my bills because I don’t invest in their nonsense. I own land, gold, cash and a very small amount of stock.

I suggest you do the same.

I fully intend to expose and vote against everyone who voted for this foolish bill. Any member of Congress who voted for this bill should never be re-elected. They have blatantly disregarded the cries of the constituents who gave them their jobs. They may have ignored us once without a consequence but not twice.

Shame on whom this time?

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Craig R. Smith is president and CEO of Swiss America Trading Corporation, an investment firm specializing in U.S. gold and silver coins. An expert in tangible assets, he is an author, commentator and frequent radio and television guest because he instantly engages audiences with his common-sense analysis of economic trends.

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Seems like a good plan to me.

It goes hand in hand with my first element of my “Success for your generation” that is “(1) ruthless financial discipline — no bad debt;”

Maybe Dave Ramsey IS right!

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MONEY: Where are we going to be in 20 years?

Monday, March 16, 2009

http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5565&Itemid=48

The Money Meltdown: A Conversation with Thomas Woods Jr. by Brian Saint-Paul 3/11/09

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Q: We’ve had bailouts and stimulus packages, and possibly more of both in the near future. If you were to look into a crystal ball, where are we going to be in 20 years? Where is all of this heading? Will we reach a point of total economic collapse? Or will we wind up as the newest Euro-style state?

It seems to me that the best-case scenario is a kind of European third-way stagnation: high unemployment, anemic growth (if any), and a whole bunch of people scratching their heads and wondering why this is happening. That could be our fate.

Of course, it could be worse. It may turn into something like what Japan endured in the 1990s and beyond — though at least Japan had some domestic savings as a cushion. Or there could well be a complete collapse of the system, with the dollar destroyed. This is all conditional, because it depends in large part on what the government does. Its cure is almost sure to be worse than the disease.

I’d love to think that if a collapse came, people would say, “Obviously, intervention doesn’t work, so let’s try what the Austrians have been suggesting.” But I think instead a demagogue would rise up to say — as usual — that the problem is not enough government involvement, and that he’s going to rescue us.

That’s the most likely outcome.

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Thomas E. Woods Jr. is senior fellow in American history at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author of nine books, including two New York Times bestsellers: The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History and the just-released Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse, as well as the award-winning The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy. Visit his new Web site.

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