GOLDBUG: 10K Gold?

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

http://www.garynorth.com/public/4857.cfm

Why Gold Owners Are Targets of the Government
Gary North

*** end quote ***

At some point, the number of investors who figure out that they had better buy gold is going to go from less than 1% of the public to 5%. When that happens, the supply of gold will not increase, and the price of gold will skyrocket. If as many as 10% of the investing public tries to put 10% of their assets in gold, I suspect the price of gold would go to $10,000 an ounce. The gold market is so marginal in the overall commodities market that the attempted 10% of investors to increase their holdings of gold to 10% of their assets would make today’s holders of gold very rich and very happy. I think at some point this is going to happen, but I think it is going to happen in a time of price inflation so bad that the purchasing power of the currencies will decline so fast and so far that the fact that you can get rich in fiat money by selling your gold will not persuade you to sell your gold.

*** end quote ***

Like musical chairs, when the music stops, will you be left with worthless paper?

OH, I forgot, it can’t happen here!

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MONEY: Shills hide that some government debt is unsellable

Sunday, April 26, 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/
ambroseevans_pritchard/5220118/
The-capital-well-is-running-dry-and-some-economies-will-wither.html

The capital well is running dry and some economies will wither

The world is running out of capital. We cannot take it for granted that the global bond markets will prove deep enough to fund the $6 trillion or so needed for the Obama fiscal package, US-European bank bail-outs, and ballooning deficits almost everywhere.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 8:49AM BST 26 Apr 2009

*** begin quote ***

Unless this capital is forthcoming, a clutch of countries will prove unable to roll over their debts at a bearable cost. Those that cannot print money to tide them through, either because they no longer have a national currency (Ireland, Club Med), or because they borrowed abroad (East Europe), run the biggest risk of default.

Traders already whisper that some governments are buying their own debt through proxies at bond auctions to keep up illusions – not to be confused with transparent buying by central banks under quantitative easing. This cannot continue for long.

Commerzbank said every European bond auction is turning into an “event risk”. Britain too finds itself some way down the AAA pecking order as it tries to sell £220bn of Gilts this year to irascible investors, astonished by 5pc deficits into the middle of the next decade.

{Extraneous Deleted}

*** end quote ***

In this long article, the author asserts that not all is good in the “Emerald City”. No need to look behind the curtain.

The FED is buying Treasury debt.

Who is going to finance the American deficits?

And, at what interest rate?

How can shills buying the unsellable help the gangs finance their wasteful ways?

When does this one very big and ugly chicken come home to roost?

Argh!

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MONEY: Deficit spending?

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

200904171047.jpg

Speechless!

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RANT: “Plastic pitchforks”? DOn’t think so.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/04/astroturf-part-2.html

Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Astroturf, Part 2
Hank Kalet

*** begin quote ***

Thomas Frank knows about Republicans and populism.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123975925509119297.html

*** end quote ***

MY RESPONSE:

“Plastic pitchforks”?

I don’t think so. Admittedly I don’t know. It too could be another gigantic conspiracy.

But, I think not. For the first time in American history, the current generation in power is seeing — a lower standard of living for the next one, a dumbing down of “graduates”, and a net loss in their savings and earning power.

It makes me mad. It makes them mad. And, it scares the dickens out of everyone.

The political class, instead of providing leadership, has run around like chicken little spending money we don’t have to feather their own nests, reward their friends, and punish their enemies. Once again, the rich and powerful had their losses made good from the public treasury. Little people lost their 401ks and became the butt of late night comedian jokes about 201ks. At least, they noticed.

And don’t forget employment. We’ve gone from the 50’s America where it was possible for a high school student to earn a living wage on one salary to now, where to wage earners is barely enough to pay the taxes and stay solvent. Never mind live comfortably.

Astroturf?

I don’t think so.

And, it flows back into huge gooferments that suck up money like a vacuum cleaner. With bureaucrats that whine about 5 and 10% annual raises, lifetime health care, and artificially fattened pensions for their “lifetime” of “service”.

I think the “tea parties” are the undercurrent of political unrest that will make VietNam look like a walk in the park.

imho, but then I’m just one of those extremist vet that Nepaolitano and our version of the SS — Homeland Security — is watching out for. Got news for them, they could see a problem until it bites US in the A double Q!

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RANT: Too many drones; not enough workers

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/04/representation_without_taxatio.html

April 10, 2009
Representation without Taxation
By Alan Aronoff

*** begin quote ***

When beneficiaries of government policy do not sufficiently overlap the payers of those benefits, we have a governing system of representation without taxation. This type of system is not sustainable long term, but history suggests it may persist for some time under the pretext of ‘economic justice’ unless soundly rejected by the American people.

*** end quote ***

That’s the result of “progressive” taxation aka “soak the rich”.

The only fair tax is to make it voluntary. If the gooferment provides a service, then it should “tin cup” for donations.

At the very least, if EVERYONE had to pay a 1% tariff on imported goods. That would be “fair”.

As I proposed in page 616 of my book “CHURCH 10●19●62” (http://www.itstartedinchurch.com), a simple modest tariff collection mechanism would require little enforcement:

“Because the Government didn’t want to have a lot of checkers, the value is declared at the border. The tariff is two MILs per 10 ounces of value. The importer declares the value and pays the tariff. To ensure honesty, under estimation triggers a 100% penalty. So because the rate is so low and the penalty so high, importers typically add a zero to the end of the value number. For example, a truck valued of one thousand ounces would be assessed a tax of two ounces. So an importer, to be sure of compliance, would call it ten thousand ounces and pay a tax of twenty ounces. Not very fair, but very easy to administrate.”

We have reached the point where the “takers” outnumber the “producers”. We’ll we now see the diminished incentives lead to decreased productivity. Eventually it winds up that we look like a Communist country where the underground economy and “just getting by” becomes the national ethic.

Where are the pitchfork and torches?

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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

*** begin quote ***

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.

*** end quote ***

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

*** begin quote ***

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.

*** and ***

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.”

*** and ***

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.”

*** end quote ***

# – # – #

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.

*** begin quote ***

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.

*** end quote ***

# – # – #

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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POLITICIAL: BIG GOVERNMENT can’t solve problems

Sunday, April 5, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/french/french111.html

The Lies are Sacred, Blessed by Government
by Doug French

*** begin quote ***

The real trouble, as professor Cleveland points out, is that the vast majority of people have accepted big government as the solver of all problems, thus Obama’s overwhelming election victory. Education is what is needed to fix this problem. It won’t happen overnight, but if more young people read sound, well-written books like professor Cleveland’s, the nation will ultimately return to its roots.

*** end quote ***

As Regan said, “Government isn’t the solution; it’s the problem”.

How right he was.

Unfortunately, the sheep people won’t understand that,

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