Prepping for Mother?

All these idiotic bank regulations (FATCA) and bank fines may not be so idiotic -- they may be preparing to attempt the mother of all currency controls -- to stop the massive repatriation of dollars when the current dollar dumping becomes a tidal-wave. Say, maybe, next week - - -

U.S. Corporations Dump Dollar For Chinese Renminbi To Buy Imports

France, Brazil, India & South Korea Join Russia & China In Post-Dollar World Order

And it isn't like this should be a surprise. Big Float's been waiting in the wings for a LONG time.

The basic fiat paper money scam is as old as, well, fiat paper money. And the results are, unfortunately, pretty much legion.

And so, for at least the last 40 years or so, Triffin's Dilemma has been gradually working it's dark magic.

Keiser, in his inimitable style, brings things up-to-date.

[Being able to indiscriminately print-up the world's "reserve currency"] offers nothing on the upside, and only subjugation and humiliation on the downside. And despite having an empire of fictional money, the US appears to still have gone bankrupt on these fictional debts. --Episode 624 - RT Keiser Report, July 08, 2014

What to do about it? Well, if you're a prepper -- and this turns out to be The Big One -- sit back and enjoy the show! Or just the next shot-on-goal.

< C:\USR\WP_DOCS\TROLLEY\BLOGS\UNCOMMON>

Ten for Orwellistan!

"The legal hallmark of dictatorship has always been Preventative Law -- the concept that a man is guilty until he is proven innocent..." --Ayn Rand

"Bear with us here. We are used to reacting to crime after it happens. Preventing crime before it happens is new to us and we must adapt. Prevention is now our top priority. We're learning with each new incident." --U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, CNBC, October 16, 2001, 12:45:10

Homeland Security moves forward with 'pre-crime' detection --Privacy Inc. - Declan McCullagh CNET News

"This study, just released, reveals that the U.S.government has played a major role in orchestrating most of those (399 U.S. Justice Dept. reported) terrorist plots. 94% of those cases involved pre-emptive prosecutions. That's the practice of targeting those who officials deem predisposed to committing crimes before an actual crime is committed. ...Unless there is a public outcry over government manufactured crimes, that too may become common practice to target anyone." --Marina Portnaya, Headline News, RT, June 13, 2014

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws." --Atlas Shrugged (1957)

...approximately 40,000 new state laws took effect in the U.S. just at the beginning of 2012 alone. There are so many, even Congress can't figure out how many it passed, let alone all the laws passed by states, counties and municipalities, etc. And the rules, regulations, orders and controls promulgated by bureaucracies at every level. And remember, ignorance of the law is no excuse - - - even when there are millions of them. --But Does Peeping Tom Protect You?, by L. Reichard White

There are 100 million words of binding federal law or regulation... more than any person or business can reasonably expect to comprehend. Only a small fraction of these can be enforced - but which [fraction] changes depending on the whim of the inspector on the scene. --'The Rule of Nobody' - Washington Times

"Even if you're not doing anything wrong, you're being watched and recorded. You simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody, even by a wrong call, and then they can use the system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you've ever made, every friend you've ever discussed something with." --Whistle blower Edward Snowden: Leak of NSA spy programs "marks my end" - CBS News

Every year, thousands of upstanding, responsible Americans run afoul of some incomprehensible federal law or regulation and end up serving time in federal prison. What is especially disturbing is that it could happen to anyone at all -- and it has.... Federal law in particular now criminalizes entire categories of activities that the average person would never dream would land him in prison. --You're (Probably) a Federal Criminal, Brian Walsh - FOXNews.com, - July 21, 2009

Boston civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate calls his new book "Three Felonies a Day," referring to the number of crimes he estimates the average American now unwittingly commits because of vague laws. ... L. Gordon Crovitz: You Commit Three Felonies a Day - WSJ

JEREMY SCAHILL: …you were one of only half-a-dozen members of Congress - not a single senator - to simply state on the record that American citizens have the right not to be assassinated by their own government without due process.

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: …it's amazing that we're in an America where we have to defend the rights of Americans to be free from assassination by their own country… How long is it before some local police department uses a drone to intercept and kill a suspect, and when that becomes commonplace? --Jeremy Scahill and Dennis Kucinich: In Obama's 2nd Term, Will Dems Challenge U.S. Drones, Killings?

ALSO OF INTEREST?

"Fiat money: The historical connection to totalitarianism" | L's Little Letters

UNCOMMON SENSE: The FBI's Greatest Hits, February 26, 2012

Who Ya Gonna Call? -- LewRockwell.com

The Handschu Scam: Short & Sweet, By L. Reichard White

Brief History of a Banana Republic, Compiled by L. Reichard White

UNCOMMON SENSE: Orwellistan? Are we there yet mommy??

Bonus Army: US military attacks demonstrating American War Veterans - YouTube

What CAN happen here -- « Antiwar.com Blog

EU funding 'Orwellian' artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour" - Telegraph

< C:\USR\WP_DOCS\TROLLEY\BLOGS\UNCOMMON>

The Federal Reserve's new whiz-bang - - -

"Forward Guidance" is the FED's main new whiz-bang financial manipulation toy. Here's what they themselves say about it - - -

With short-term interest rates at the zero lower bound, forward guidance has become a key tool for central bankers, and yet we know little about its effectiveness. Standard medium-scale ...models tend to grossly overestimate the impact of forward guidance on the macroeconomy -- a phenomenon we call the "forward guidance puzzle." The Forward Guidance Puzzle - Federal Reserve Bank of New York

So, basically, they don't know what the un-fuck they're doing with something that "has become a key tool for central bankers."

"Forward guidance" is just FED spokes-folks publicly explaining what they think they're going to do. Before this, it was unofficial, minor, and called "jawboning." Before that, the FED kept everything hidden as if they were bluffing in a high-stakes poker game.

So the future of the fiat-based world economy hangs on something of which the FED admits, "we know little about its effectiveness," our "models tend to grossly overestimate the impact," and in fact, "forward guidance" is a "puzzle."

(rofl)

I've fallen and I can't get up - - -

< C:\USR\WP_DOCS\TROLLEY\BLOGS\UNCOMMON>

What's with gold? The Bigger Picture - - -

The titular price of gold dropped about $84 dollars on Friday, April 12, 2013 in an obviously unprecedented manner. Yet, at the same time, ABN AMRO, one of the largest banks in Europe, failed to deliver the PHYSICAL gold it had contracted to deliver and defaulted, Venezuela, Germany, and apparently the Netherlands are repatriating their gold from the U.S. Fed -- and the U.S. Mint has periodically suspended sales of precious coins because of a lack of metal to cast them with.

SOMETHING is going on. Maybe it's just a normal trashing of the gold price by the government-banking axis, but to an extreme degree.

The question is, "Why NOW?"

Hopefully the answer is, "Because we've been trying to do this to protect our Keynesian zero-real-interest-rates against gold ever since it hit $1900/oz and threatened them -- and just NOW all the factors were finally right." Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts thinks this is the case.

That's most likely.

BUT if the answer is, "We see a serious ripple in the fiat force, and we're trying to head the disaster off at the pass," they may be right. Worse, their blatantly obvious action against gold may precipitate the very disaster they fear and perhaps are even semi-aware of from history.

In that case, here's what that would likely look like - - - My Blog Former U.S. Under Secretary of Treasury Paul Craig Roberts explains what the bankster-government axis may be worried about.

According to veteran metals trader Andrew McGuire, the western banking-government amalgam, spearheaded as usual by Bankster Goldman Sachs, dumped more than an unheard of 500 tons of PAPER gold on the market late last week. And pimped, cajoled, and forced other weak hands to play along.

What's paper have to do with it? "Paper gold" merely means it was promises to deliver gold, not gold itself. Which is what makes the failure of ABN AMRO to deliver promised gold very interesting indeed.

It's directly analagous to the beginning of an old fashioned run on a bank where the bank was unable to redeem its "Redeemable in Gold on Demand" dollars -- the only Constitutional kind -- because they'd printed those redeemable I.O.U.s for more gold than they actually had. If anyone else had done that, it would be called "counterfeiting."

And because the banks are so interconnected, this isn't just a run on ABN AMRO.

AND maybe the repatriation movement, besides being interesting, is the straw that lit the fuse as Venezuela, Gremany, probably Holland, and perhaps some other countries are repatriating their gold which has been theoretically stored in the valuts beneath the Federal Resreve Bank of New York -- made famous in Die Hard With a Vengeance, the third in the series.

History? That was when France, a few other countries, and most importantly, the markets, called Uncle Scam's Bretton-Woods "London Gold Pool" paper-gold bluff by taking delivery of actual physical gold from the U.S. and its other eight dragooned central banks. In stupidly trying to again raise the market bet and cap the price of gold, Uncle airlifted a bunch of gold to London, ultimately collapsing the floor of one storage vault. But that was all to no avail. Being caught with its counterfeit shorts down, finally, on August 15, 1971, with Executive Order 11615, Nixon "closed the gold window," thus abrogating the international convertibility of the U.S. dollar to gold and finalizing the biggest default in history. So far.

P.S. As of April 14, 2013, 22:57, it looks like Goldman et.al. are still working the plan. Be interesting to see just how far they can go before the markets once again slap them upside the head.

< C:\USR\WP_DOCS\TROLLEY\ARTICLES.NEW\HOW_MUCH>

Orwellistan? Are we there yet mommy??

Well, are we??

Unfortunately the stuff below only starts with impeccable Democracy Now and from three nearly impeccable guests:

1. William Binney, an NSA whistle blower who worked as a manager there for more than 30 years,

2. Jacob Appelbaum, a TOR and privacy software designer and activist

3. Laura Poitras, an Oscar-nominated anti-war filmmaker intimidated by Uncle ~40 times because she is.

--Whistleblower: The NSA is Lying-U.S. Government Has Copies of Most of Your Emails  http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/20/whistleblower_the_nsa_is_lying_us

--Exclusive: National Security Agency Whistleblower William Binney on Growing State Surveillance   http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/20/exclusive_national_security_agency_whistleblower_william

--Detained in the U.S.: Filmmaker Laura Poitras Held, Questioned Some 40 Times at U.S. Airports  http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/20/detained_in_the_us_filmmaker_laura

--"We Do Not Live in a Free Country": Jacob Appelbaum on Being Target of Widespread Gov’t Surveillance  http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/20/we_do_not_live_in_a

And another interview with Mr. Binney:

--NSA Whistleblower: U.S. Assembling Information On Every U.S. Citizen

And here's a good measure of just how pervasive Orwellistan U.S.A. has already become:

--Confirmed: New Nationwide "Trapwire" Surveillance System Is Actively Recording, Monitoring Everything

--WIKILEAKS: Surveillance Cameras Around The Country Are Being Used In A Huge Spy Network - Business Insider

Then there are the USA domestic spy-drones:

--These Police Surveillance Drones Could Be Watching You Right Now - Business Insider

And, perhaps, even more "interesting" tools and techniques:

--14 Incredibly Creepy Surveillance Technologies That Big Brother Will Soon Be Using To Spy On You - BlackListedNews.com

Don't even have an appropriate closing.  Maybe - - - 

"Of course you're free. Now shut-up     ---    if you want to stay that way."

r.

P.S. Great weather!  How about those Cubbies!  I think I'll plant zucchinis again this year.  Do you guys like pizza as well as I do?  

Ron Paul: Putting your money where your mouth is - - -

Putting your money where your mouth is - - -

--Greg Mankiw's Blog: The Ron Paul Portfolio

- - - AND loving it - - -

--Ron Paul's Long-Term Holdings Outperform The Market And Most Pros - Seeking Alpha

L. Reichard White, Monday, December 26, 2011 11:49 AM

ECONOMICS IN ONE EASY LESSON

Economics is simpler than you think -- if you're an Austrian Economist (Hayek, Mises, etc.) rather than a Keynesian Economist (J.M. Keynes), monetarist (Milton Friedman), neo-Keynesian economist (Bernanke, Krugman, etc.).

1. The "law of supply and demand" applies to "money."

2. An increase in the "money" supply greater than the increase in production -- because of the law of supply and demand -- causes a general price inflation across the boards.

3. Credit (I.O.U.s of various types, including stock certificates, bonds, etc. -- that note on the back of granddad's cigarette pack), as Daniel Webster put it, is equivalent to "money" and has all the effects of "money."

3A. Most I.O.U.s start out as limited circulation I.O.U.s -- and stay that way unless a market is established which allows them to be traded, that is, makes them "liquid."

4. A sudden change in the amount of either "money" or credit -- in either direction -- disrupts trade and thus the advantages of specialization and division of labor -- which ultimately determine the physical level of well-being of the human race -- and make the "modern" large populations possible.

5. Without the advantages of trade (and thus division of labor), extremely large numbers of men, women and children would die.

6. Barring the crash of a solid gold or silver asteroid, a sudden change in the supply of gold and silver (transactional hard money) are highly unlikely.

7. Because their value depends on psychology rather on a directly perceived value of a strictly limited physical commodity, the effective supply of both credit and paper/megabyte money can change suddenly.

8. The supply of both credit and paper/megabyte money CAN change with extreme rapidity, paper/megabyte because it's easy to create, credit because it completely depends on confidence that the debtor can and will pay, and without that confidence, a credit vehicle becomes devalued or even worthless. That is, because people can lose confidence in an I.O.U. and so don't want it, it becomes less, or even completely, "illiquid." That is, "people don't want it" = "illiquid" = "devalued" or even "worthless."

9. Since most people hold money for later use, at least partially, it's important that people have confidence it will hold its trade value and NOT devalue. Thus, the main "psychology" that determines whether or not people will hold a particular I.O.U. is their expectation as to its future value. If they expect its value to drop -- or equivalently, expect prices to rise -- they will spend it quickly. That is, if they expect a general price inflation, they will lose confidence in their money and spend it quickly.

10. Once people in general start to spend quickly, this puts more money into circulation quickly, thus increasing its effective supply, which causes more inflation, more inflationary expectations, destroys more confidence, and so forth. The Austrian School of economics calls the rapid spiral that results a "crack-up boom" or "catastrophenhause." Others call it "hyperinflation." Which is why U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Bernanke and the FED are so concerned by peoples' "inflationary expectations." This is, of course, not a problem with transactional hard money -- which, barring that solid-gold asteroid, can't suddenly inflate -- or suddenly deflate.

Just another I.O.U.

There's always a discount on an I.O.U. The amount depends on its perceived likely-hood of being paid. The dollar is, in essence, such an I.O.U. The perception of repayment is dropping and you can follow it by watching the value of dollars on the market. --L. Reichard White, Thursday, November 11, 2010 3:22 AM

Out of Greece: The dynamics of contagion

"As I testified before this committee in the midst of the Mexican financial crisis in early 1995, major advances in technology have engendered a highly efficient and increasingly sophisticated international financial system. ...But that same efficient financial system, as I also pointed out in that earlier testimony, has the capability to rapidly transmit the consequences of errors of judgement in private investments and public policies to all corners of the world at historically unprecedented speeds." -Alan Greenspan to House Banking Committee, 16 September, 1998.  --BIG-FLOAT: The American Damocles

Complex systems and the "Waterfall Effect"

The economy is such a complex organism with so many variables that it simply cannot be controlled. It is the height of arrogance that our politicians and so-called economists think they can control it. And it is the absolute height of arrogance that they attempt to do so in such a way as to ALSO benefit their selfish goals. With this level of stupidity, unintended consequences become many orders of magnitude more probable than the intended consequences. In fact, betting on the exact opposite of stated political goals is a sure bet for the long run right now. And the payoff will be tremendous! --FOFOA: The Waterfall Effect

American Star Wars: THE Synopsis

"Zero Hedge ... remains convinced that the epic battle of our age will be between knowledge and ignorance. Moreover, we have lately become convinced that the United States is engaged in a mortal struggle with itself, split between the placating, patriarch, content to obfuscate and conceal everything -- from M3, to accounting rules, to the state of its financial institutions, to the provisions of the largest slab of legislation to pass in decades, to the very balance sheet of its central bank. A country that attacks truth tellers when they have bad news ("Shorts") and is prone to utter obvious falsehood platitudes like "We can never run out of money." And, contrary, a country that loves discourse, debate and, by extension, markets. A country that punishes falsehoods, concealment and that revels in projecting a bright beam of sunshine to the dark corners of... well... everything. Which country do you think you live in? Next time you hear some elected or appointed official talking, ask yourself: "Is he/she working to create or suppress knowledge." The lines draw themselves after that" Zero Hedge | The Dark Side

How inflation led to totalitarianism in Rome

The episodes of extreme inflation took a standard form. ... The government ...resorted to debasing the coins of the realm. This took the form of replacing the gold and silver in coins with copper and other cheaper metals. Over the period 218 to 268 A.D. the silver content of Roman coins dropped to one five thousandth of its original level. Sometimes the size and weight of coins were reduced. It also meant vastly increasing the amount of coins in circulation. There was a corresponding increase in prices. The emperors usually blamed the price increases on the greed of merchants. ... In 301 AD Diocletian issued an edict declaring fixed prices; i.e., price controls. His edict provided for the death penalty for anyone selling above the control prices. There was also penalties (less severe) for anyone paying more than the control price. Irate consumers sometimes destroyed the businesses of those who sold higher than the control prices. In the short-run these draconian measures may have curbed inflation but in the long-run the results were disaster. Merchants stopped selling goods but this led to penalties against hoarding. People went out of business but Diocletian countered with laws saying that every man had to pursue the occupation of their father. The penalty for not doing so was death. This was justified on the basis that leaving the occupation of ones father was like a soldier deserting in time of war. The effect of this was to turn free men into serfs.   EPISODES OF HYPERINFLATION, Thayer Watkins, ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT, SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY