ECONOMICS: The Federal Reserve is Financial Repression

Thursday, October 30, 2014

http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/88227/how-federal-reserve-purposely-attacking-savers

How The Federal Reserve Is Purposely Attacking Savers
But bungling badly as it does
by Chris Martenson
Monday, October 20, 2014, 12:36 PM

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he answer is that while inflation always steals from savers, it really does its dirty work when the central bank and government conspire to create a condition of pervasive and unavoidable negative real interest rates.

This is the heart of Financial Repression: an environment in which you literally cannot save money without paying a penalty.

The main takeaway of Chapter 18 on Fuzzy Numbers is not that the government fibs a little now and then (okay,all the time) merely because that’s politically expedient, but it does so in service to a larger and more pernicious aim: forcing people to accept an inflation rate that is higher than either their income growth and/or the market’s safe rate of return.

As soon as you are locked into a negative interest rate regime, your capital is losing purchasing power. But simple accounting rules dictate that loss of wealth had to go somewhere. So where did it go? To somebody else.

Negative real interest rates transfer money from every saver to every over-extended borrower. This is especially true with the government (largely because of its special revolving door relationship with the Fed, which both issues the money out of thin air and then buys government debt forcing rates into negative territory).

It’s really that simple. The Fed has openly and actively suppressed rates — not to help the credit markets, as they claim, but to engineer a condition of Financial Repression. Because that’s what the government needs to stealthily take your wealth to pay down the prior debts it accumulated.

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The War on Savers, the War on Capital, and the War on the Poor, Middle Class, and Elderly all intersect with the Federal Reserve.

Zero Interest Rate DESTROYS these communities.

Think about it from an Eccky-or-Icky-nomics POV.

It’s saying that there is NO preference to delay consumption.

It’s also saying there is NO way to preserve wealth for later use in retirement.

Argh!

* Savers are “rewarded” with inflation that depreciates their purchasing power.

* Capital can’t be formed with paying the inflation penalty.

* Since the poor have to spend most, if not all, of their current income, they face the inflation that erodes their future standard of living.

* Middle Class “wealthy” can’t preserve their financial assets into retirement. Why do the near fraudsters / hucksters, who advertise gold collectibles for IRAs, strike a chord with the future retirees? It’s their only chance to preserve their buying power.

* The Elderly on pensions, social “in”security, or savings are screwed by inflation increasing their costs and their capital earns nothing.

So, why do “We, The Sheeple” put up with it?

Bread and circuses!

Argh!

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POLITICAL: No party affiliations?

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Any one notice that the TV ads never mention the party that they represent?

And never mind the “Independents” who are ex-D’s and will caucus with the D’s, but they are not D’s. No!!!

Argh!

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LIBERTARIAN: Forced medical care

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/pentagon-dispatches-west-africa-paint-stark-portrait-ebola-epicenter-n233621

Ebola Virus Outbreak.
– Shepherd FarmerGeek

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“The group was stoned and found hidden in the village’s septic tank,” according to the dispatch, which did not say how many people died in the incident. “The reason for the killings is unknown. It is likely the villagers murdered the group fearing they would be diagnosed with Ebola and removed to quarantine…”

Hugh Adds: How does a country effectively fight an epidemic among such a superstitious population? It’s a hard position. Do you violate a person’s God-ordained rights and force them to receive medical care or do you just wall the village off?

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From this little L libertarian pov, they’d have to be “ostracized”.

The human society has to be able to “quarantine” and / “ostracize” if the species is to survive.

imho

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TINFOILHAT: Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 the great aviation mystery

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/mh370-emirates-head-has-doubts-about-investigation-a-996212.html

Missing Plane: Emirates Head Critical of MH 370 Investigation
Interview Conducted by Andreas Spaeth

Despite months spent searching for Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370, not a trace has been found.Why is there still no trace of flight MH 370? In an interview, Sir Tim Clark, head of Emirates Airline, is sharply critical of the investigation thus far. He believes someone took control of the plane and maintained it until the very end.

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Tim Clark has been a senior manager at the airline Emirates since 1985 and has been instrumental in developing it into one of the world’s largest airlines. Today, the 64-year-old is seen as a knowledgeable expert and critic of the aviation industry. His view of the vanished Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 is a provocative one. The plane that disappeared was a Boeing 777 and Emirates operates 127 such aircraft, more than any other airline in the world.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: It’s now October, seven months after the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370, and we still don’t know what happened. What can still be done to gain some degree of clarity?

Clark: MH 370 remains one of the great aviation mysteries. Personally, I have the concern that we will treat it as such and move on. At the most, it might then make an appearance on National Geographic as one of aviation’s great mysteries. We mustn’t allow this to happen. We must know what caused that airplane to disappear.

*** and ***

SPIEGEL ONLINE: At what point on the presumed flight path of MH 370 do your doubts begin?

Clark: There hasn’t been one overwater incident in the history of civil aviation — apart from Amelia Earhart in 1939 — that has not been at least 5 or 10 percent trackable. But MH 370 has simply disappeared. For me, that raises a degree of suspicion. I’m totally dissatisfied with what has been coming out of all of this.

*** end quote ***

A long read, but a very informative one.

Why is the equipment able to be disabled?

They make the smoke detectors tamper proof!

Any why aren’t the Gooferments, politicians, and bureaucrats demanding answers?

It’s like it’s all forgotten.

Argh!

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GOVERNACIDE: State Department plans to bring foreign Ebola patients to U.S.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

2014-Oct-28 2304

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/28/state-department-plans-to-bring-foreign-ebola-pati/

State Department plans to bring foreign Ebola patients to U.S.
By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times – Updated: 9:40 p.m.
on Tuesday, October 28, 2014

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The State Department has quietly made plans to bring Ebola-infected doctors and medical aides to the U.S. for treatment, according to an internal department document that argued the only way to get other countries to send medical teams to West Africa is to promise that the U.S. will be the world’s medical backstop.

Some countries “are implicitly or explicitly waiting for medevac assurances” before they will agree to send their own medical teams to join U.S. and U.N. aid workers on the ground, the State Department argues in the undated four-page memo, which was reviewed by The Washington Times.

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Are these politicians and bureaucrats just plain stupid?

Argh!

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TINFOILHAT: Ebola into the US — planned?

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/10/paul-craig-roberts/the-immigration-of-ebola-2/

The Entry of Ebola into the US Has Hallmarks of a Planned Happening
By Paul Craig Roberts
October 23, 2014

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More information is available that suggests the the government had advance information that ebola was coming to the US and that the government expects a much larger outbreak of the disease in the US than it admits.

*** and ***

The U.S. government knew about the outbreak in advance, but didn’t warn the public

It’s now clear that the U.S. government has long known this outbreak was coming but did nothing to warn the public.

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While it’s terrible to be so untrusting, but the Gooferment has earned our distrust.

The failure to close the commercial air lanes, properly alert the ERs, and the flat out lying about the status of protocols is at best incompetent and at worst criminal.

The politicians and bureaucrats showed us just how immoral, ineffective, and inefficient that Gooferment can be.

If evidence can be found, then maybe “We, The Sheeple” will awake?

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GOVERNACIDE: Gooferment is the greatest cause of drug addiction

Monday, October 27, 2014

http://dailybell.com/editorials/35727/Wendy-McElroy-US-Government-Guilty-of-Creating-Heroin-Addicts/

U.S. Government Guilty of Creating Heroin Addicts
October 16, 2014
Editorial By Wendy McElroy

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At least three factors call the official line into question.

First, in July 2013, the National Institute of Health published a study entitled, “Introduction to the Special Issue: Drugs, Wars, Military Personnel, and Veterans.” It stated: “Recent research suggests that the use and misuse of alcohol and prescription opioids (or POs such as OxyContin, Vicodin, and Percocet) are the signature substances associated with OEF/OIF/OND military personnel and veterans; for many, the consumption of these substances is causing additional challenges both for military personnel and veteran populations.” (OEF/OIF/OND = Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn, Iraq) It would be amazing if prescription drug abuse was prevalent while far more easily and anonymously obtained drugs were eschewed.

Second, in the earlier stages of the 13-year war, rampant drug use was acknowledged. A 2007 Salon article was entitled, “Afghanistan. It’s easy for soldiers to score heroin in Afghanistan. Simultaneously stressed and bored, U.S. soldiers are turning to the widely available drug for a quick escape.”

Third, newspapers have recently exploded with stories of an epidemic rise in America’s heroin addicts. On March 21, a BBC News headline trumpeted, “The horrific toll of America’s heroin ‘epidemic’.” In April, NBC News ran a 17-part series on the epidemic. The Washington Post (May 16) ran an article entitled “When heroin use hit the suburbs, everything changed”; which focused on heroin addiction becoming a white phenomenon. None of the stories mentioned the impact of war or that most soldiers coming home are white. Instead, like the ABC News coverage (July 31), they dwelt on the “doubling” of addicts as though it had no discernible cause.

Conclusion

What is the truth of it? Sometimes intentionally and sometimes not, often directly and often through circumstance, the American government is the greatest cause of drug addiction at home. And war is its conduit.

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So why can’t “We, The Sheeple” connect the dots?

The Welfare / Warfare State makes us all poorer with its large number of Unintended Consequences!

Put Walmart and the other “drug” stores in charge of distribution and treat addiction as a medical problem.

Argh!

Dona Nobis Pacem

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POLITICAL: Addiction is a MEDICAL problem

Monday, October 27, 2014

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: South Brunswick Twp Police Department <south-brunswick-twp-police-department@emails.nixle.com>
Date: Mon, Oct 20, 2014 at 12:00 PM
Subject: Advisory Message: South Brunswick Police Officers Save 21-year-old man

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South Brunswick Police Officers quick actions saved the life of a 21-year-old Township man early Sunday morning. At 4:11am police received a 911 call from a man who said his friend had overdosed on heroin and was unconscious in a backyard. Officer Scott Bucca and Officer Marcus Leysath responded to the residence off Deans Lane and were directed to the backyard by the friend. They found the victim unresponsive with minimal breathing. Officers used the medicine Naloxone to prevent the heroin from slowing and stopping the victim’s breathing. The officers reported that within minutes of administering the medicine the victim began to breathe normally. The Monmouth Junction First Aid Squad and paramedics transported the victim to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick for treatment.

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While any tragedy averted is good, it has to trace back to the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs”!

If all “illegal” drugs were for sale at WalMart and Walgreens, then addicts would be safe from adulteration and varying concentrations. 

Addiction is a MEDICAL problem, not a LEGAL problem. 

And, if “drugs” were no longer illegal, then they wouldn’t be “kool”. 

Argh!

One of the reasons that USP http://www.usp.org/ was formed was to ensure safe drug standards.

So once again, Gooferment creates a problem and then “finds” a solution that requires more Gooferment!

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— —-Ferdinand John Reinke… a proud Virginian since March, 20121641 International Drive #414Mc Lean VA 22102(732) 798-0508http://www.reinke.cc (Personal page)http://www.reinkefj.com (Professional page)


LIBERTARIAN: Shave a child’s head?

Sunday, October 26, 2014

https://www.quora.com/If-my-3-year-old-asks-me-to-shave-her-head-as-a-libertarian-why-shouldnt-I-comply-with-her-request

If my 3-year-old asks me to shave her head, as a libertarian, why shouldn’t I comply with her request?

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Libertarians don’t preface every conversation about individual freedom with a disclaimer that we’re only talking about rules for adults, but it is usually implied.

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Plus, Libertarians are not a uniform homgenous group. It’s like a clowder of cats.

Parents have a self-assumed obligation to this person.

As such, they are compelled to act in the child’s best interest.

I would ask, “why shouldn’t you comply”?

It won’t kill her. And it may well be a “learning experience for all involved?

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INTERESTING: Predisposed to sleep in two stages

Saturday, October 25, 2014

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/waking-up-at-night-is-ok-busting-the-8-hour-sleep-myth.html

Why Waking Up at Night Might be Good For You
Jordyn Cormier
October 18, 20145:29 pm

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Humans may be more predisposed to sleep in two stages: a first sleep and a second sleep. Beginning a couple of hours after dusk, the first sleep would traditionally last about 4 hours. Then, there would be an interlude of waking activity — be it tending the fire, praying, reading, getting frisky, or deep contemplation — before resuming sleep number 2 into the morning. According to historian Roger Ekirch, there are multiple references in literature to affirm this idea that first and second sleep were common, undisputed practices up until the early 1700s when street lighting came about and it became fashionable to stay up late.

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So that’s why I have get up several times a night? 

I have sleeplets!

Laugh!

Never heard this meme before.

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