Where Was Your $$ Last Year?

Guess where mine was???

Results for last year now in, 31 Dec 2008 to 31 December 2009: S&P500 up 23.5%, Dow up 18.8%, Gold price up 20.8%, silver price up 35.6%, platinum price up 56.9%, palladium price up 118.4%, and US $ index down 5.2%...source.

Government Prepares for Revolution

If I were President and there was potential for revolution in the near future, this is one of the things I'd do.....

Link



The White House

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
January 11, 2010
President Obama Signs Executive Order Establishing Council of Governors

Executive Order will Strengthen Further Partnership Between the Federal and State and Local Governments to Better Protect Our Nation

The President today signed an Executive Order (attached) establishing a Council of Governors to strengthen further the partnership between the Federal Government and State Governments to protect our Nation against all types of hazards. When appointed, the Council will be reviewing such matters as involving the National Guard of the various States; homeland defense; civil support; synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States; and other matters of mutual interest pertaining to National Guard, homeland defense, and civil support activities.

The bipartisan Council will be composed of ten State Governors who will be selected by the President to serve two year terms. In selecting the Governors to the Council, the White House will solicit input from Governors and Governors’ associations. Once chosen, the Council will have no more than five members from the same party and represent the Nation as a whole.

Federal members of the Council include the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, the Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs, the U.S. Northern Command Commander, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau. The Secretary of Defense will designate an Executive Director for the Council.

The Council of Governors will provide an invaluable Senior Administration forum for exchanging views with State and local officials on strengthening our National resilience and the homeland defense and civil support challenges facing our Nation today and in the future.

The formation of the Council of Governors was required by the Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act which stated, “The President shall establish a bipartisan Council of Governors to advise the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the White House Homeland Security Council on matters related to the National Guard and civil support missions.” (NDAA FY2008, Sec 1822)

Not Your Grandpa's Economy

Here's an excellent video presented by Inflation Nation...


Video

All,

Keep one thing in mind: this is not the ‘70’s! I keep hearing that, “We’ve been here before”, “Inflation is normal”, “Gold went to $850 and then the bottom dropped out”…… and so on.

A few things are different this time around.

1) There are over 2 billion more people on the planet than in the 70’s.

2) There’s a CRAP load more “currency per person” and all asset classes are highly leveraged.

3) There is more debt and other financial instruments than there is GDP in the world. Multiples and multiples. So much so that even taking 10 years of the world’s GDP wouldn’t cover all the monetary obligations of the world.

4) Gold buying in the 70’s was a novelty. Citizens (that is, the FREE citizens of the USA) were not permitted to buy gold from 1933 until 1975. So it makes perfect sense that when the WORLD went to strictly using fiat currency in ’71 and gold became legal to buy people would do so. People literally thought the world would fall apart back then because of the currency concerns. Gold got run up and met the amount of money in the US on a xdollar/ounce basis. When it became apparent that fiat currencies were here to stay for however long, the bottom fell out. There were other reasons as well such as Central Banks selling gold into the market to flood it with gold and intentionally bring the price down.

Anyone who would tell you that inflation is normal and acceptable and tells you that this is all a rerun of a past non-event probably has a lot to lose if the current economic system should fall into jeopardy.

Fear is quite blinding.

The New Treasury Note

December was a busy month for me therefore I didn't get much posting done.

However, I feel this piece is fitting as we bring in the New Year with an idea of what's to come in our country.

Ever since we terminated the Bretton Woods agreement and severed the ties the dollar has with gold, our nation has struggled to convince the rest of the world that the dollar is actually worth something.

Committing ourselves to a strictly fiat currency, we assured the world that the value of the dollar would be the labor of the citizens themselves. The government would tax our labor and pay back it's debts to the world. That works great as long as people have jobs and the Gov doesn't spend more than our labor can possibly pay for. Which is of course the case today for all thinking men to see. The governments debt obligations are greater than all the world's combined GDP's. A couple of times over. Labor wasn't cutting it. They needed to add more to the pot to sweeten the deal.

Next, we started acquiring rights to the world's oil vis a vis our large oil corporations with the backing of the US Military. You know, those people dying in foreign lands to secure oil for us so we can gas up our Hummers in order to hit Taco Bell at 3:00 A.M. in the morning. Brave souls, thank you so much. But I don't eat fast food...the iPod's great though!

This was bitter sweet for the whole world, hard for them to swallow. By the time we were well into the 70's and moving on into the 80's, fiat currency had a strong foot hold on the economies of the world. Our military was not to be reckoned with, nor was our oil. So our dollar had new value, labor and oil and a little bit of arm twisting here and there; like Bruno would do.

But the government kept spending. And now it appears that as unemployment is rising and the worlds largest oil fields are declining in production the world is starting to question whether or not the US government will be able to meet all of it's debt obligations. We know this is happening because of the declining purchase of Treasury notes by foreign entities. They require more value. When the labor force is diminished and the oil is drying up, what else have you got? Gold? Nah, we most likely leased all that out and besides, we printed up so much money that the price of gold would go so high, governments of the world would have to jump through rings of fire to get people to use the stuff again.

Hey! We've got land! We've got lots and lots of land that those pesky, foreign creditors might be interested in. Only one problem. What to do with it? And oh, there's so many houses on all that land. Wait, wait, light bulb moment! The value of the currency comes from labor and taxes and oil (we could probably add opium from Afghanistan but I'll leave that alone). If the government could figure out a way to add all the homes in America (or most anyway) onto their balance sheet, they wouldn't have to worry about the value of Treasuries anymore, you could just sell stock in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because that's an excellent revenue source for the government. So as foreign governments buy less Treasuries we can entice them with something that actually has value, homes. A tangible asset unlike a Treasury which is simply a promise.

So as your children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads, Congress confirmed mortgages were dead and the move they made next, filled me with dread.

They passed a bill on Christmas Eve, when NO ONE in the world was watching, that would back stop an unlimited amount of bad debt written off by Fannie and Freddie. Being that the Gov seized both companies in 2008, if your note is held by Fannie or Freddie, you are now another revenue source for the Gov. If you lose your home, the Gov now owns your home. That is until they can sell it again to another revenue source in proper commie pinko fashion. And that person will never pay their mortgage off because the Gov will make sure you lose your job in x number of years and force you to foreclose, keeping that asset on their books forever more.

I'm going to list the article here in it's entirety lest Bloomberg decides to pull it, which they've been known to do....

Source...

U.S. to Lose $400 Billion on Fannie, Freddie, Wallison Says

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Taxpayer losses from supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will top $400 billion, according to Peter Wallison, a former general counsel at the Treasury who is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

“The situation is they are losing gobs of money, up to $400 billion in mortgages,” Wallison said in a Bloomberg Television interview. The Treasury Department recognized last week that losses will be more than $400 billion when it raised its limit on federal support for the two government-sponsored enterprises, he said.

The U.S. seized the two mortgage financiers in 2008 as the government struggled to prevent a meltdown of the financial system. The debt of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks grew an average of $184 billion annually from 1998 to 2008, helping fuel a bubble that drove home prices up by 107 percent between 2000 and mid-2006, according to the S&P/Case- Shiller home-price index.

The Treasury said on Dec. 24 it would provide an unlimited amount of assistance to the companies as needed for the next three years to alleviate market concern that the government lifeline for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest source of money for U.S. home loans, could lapse or be exhausted.

Lax regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led to the mortgage companies taking on too many risky loans, Wallison said.

“It turns out it was impossible to regulate them,” he said. “They were too powerful.” He said no one knows how much will be needed to keep the companies solvent.

From 1990 to 1999, Wallison served on the board of directors of MGIC Investment Corp., the largest U.S. mortgage insurer, including a stint on the audit committee, according to Bloomberg data and company filings.

The continued government support of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac makes buying their debt a good investment, Wallison said.

“It was always safe to buy these notes,” he said. The U.S. government was always going to stand behind them. They’re as good as Treasury notes.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Leising in New York at mleising@bloomberg.net.

So this guy, Wallison, former counsel for the Treasury, says the Gov was always going to stand behind them (Fannie and Freddie) even though at one point in time they were privately held?

Sorry but does anyone else here smell a set up? This appears to be years in the making.

What can we take from this? Well, it seems evident to me that the Federal Reserve is anticipating either a significant decline in the purchases of Treasuries or they are expecting to need a whole lot more money to fund their deficits. You see, as the trade deficits shrink throughout the world as Americans buy less, foreign governments have less money to buy Treasuries with. But if they can entice the average investor and large institutions to invest in equities like Fannie and Freddie, maybe, just maybe they can make up for the difference in revenue.

Moral of the story, Treasuries are dead. If you have 'em, sell 'em. The only real question here is, to what extent are the Treasuries dead? And here's something to watch out for and you heard it here first.

Will the Gov wipe out the existing share and bond holders in order to compensate current Treasury Note holders with Fannie and Freddie stock once the Gov defaults on them and crushes the currency? Seems to be heading that way in my thinking.

Protect yourselves from these madmen. It's the four B's time. Bullion, bullets, bible and beans.

At the very least, prepare yourselves for the Treasury Tidal Wave coming our way. Get some silver and gold to protect yourselves from the devastating hyperinflation coming our way. Nearly guaranteed at this point.

Good luck in 2010.

Inspiration for the Future

Source...

If your mindset never angles toward this possible future, you will be overwhelmed with shock while others around you take all you have...

Dmitry Orlov is an author with first hand knowledge of the collapse of the former Soviet Union.

Dmitry Orlov: Predictions for the Next 10 Years

By Dmitry Orlov, originally published at ClubOrlov.Blogspot.com

The decade will be marked by many instances of autophagy, in business, government, and in the higher echelons of society, as players at all levels find that they are unable to control their appetites or alter their behavior in any meaningful way, even in the face of radically altered circumstances, and are thus compelled to consume themselves into oblivion, as so many disemboweled yet still ravenous sharks endlessly gorging themselves on their own billowing entrails.

Governments will find that they are unable to restrain themselves from printing ever more money in an endless wave of uncontrolled emission. At the same time, rising taxes, commodity prices, and costs of all kinds, coupled with a rising overall level of uncertainty and disruption, will curtail economic activity to a point where little of that money will still circulate. Inflationists and deflationists will endlessly debate whether this should be called inflation or deflation, unconsciously emulating the big-endians and little-endians of Jonathan Swifts Gulliver's Travels, who endlessly debated the proper end from which to eat a soft-boiled egg. The citizenry, their nest egg boiled down to the size of a dried pea, will not be particularly vexed by the question of exactly how they should try to eat it, and will regard the question as academic, if not idiotic.

Distressed municipalities throughout the country will resort to charging exorbitant fees for such things as dog licenses. Many will experiment with imprisoning those unable to pay these fees in state and county jails, only to release them again as the jails continuously overflow and resources run low. The citizenry will come to regard jails as conveniently combining the features of a soup kitchen and a homeless shelter. Some towns will abandon the idea of having a fire department and decide that it is more cost-effective to just let house fires run their course, to save on demolitions. In an effort to plug up ever larger holes in their budgets, states will raise taxes, driving ever more economic activity underground. In particular, state liquor tax revenues will drop for the first time in many decades as more and more Americans find that they can no longer afford beer and switch to cheap and plentiful Afghan heroin and other illegal but very affordable drugs. Marijuana smoke will edge out car exhaust as America's most prevalent smell.

Several countries around the world will be forced to declare sovereign default and join the swelling ranks of defunct nations. There will be a mad shuffle to find safe havens for hot money, but none will be found. Investors around the world will finally be forced to realize that the best way to avoid losses is to not have any money to start with. Despite their best efforts to diversify their holdings, investors will find that they are all long paper, be it stocks, bonds, deeds, promissory notes, or incomprehensible derivative contracts. They will also find that, in the new business climate, none of these instruments make particularly formidable weapons: as the friendly game of rock-paper-scissors turns hostile, they will discover that rocks stave in skulls, that scissors puncture vital organs, but that the paper, even when wielded expertly, just causes paper cuts. Those formerly well-heeled persons who tend to believe that "possession is nine-tenths of the law" will find many extralegal exorcists eager to liberate their demons. In particular, organized crime rings will start using data mining software to identify lightly guarded cabins and compounds in Montana and other remote locations that are well-stocked with canned food, weapons and gold and silver bullion, and start harvesting them by softening the target with mortars, rockets and aerial bombardment, then sending in commando teams with grenades and machine guns. Once the harvest is in, they will expatriate the proceeds using the diplomatic pouches of defunct nations held in their sway.

While the bullion is expatriated, the Pentagon will attempt to repatriate troops from Iraq, Afghanistan and the numerous US military bases around the world, soon finding that they lack the wherewithal to do so, stranding the troops wherever they are, and forcing them to resupply themselves. Military families will be invited to donate food, uniforms, clean underwear and toiletries for their loved ones overseas. American weaponry will flood the black market, driving down prices. Some servicemen will decide that returning to the US is a bad idea in any case, and go native, marrying local women and adopting local religions, customs and garb. Although national leaders will continue to prattle on about national security whenever there is a microphone pointed at them, their own personal security will become their overarching concern. Officials at all levels will attempt to assemble ever larger retinues of bodyguards and security consultants. Members of Congress will become ever more reticent and will avoid encountering their constituents as much as possible, preferring to hide in Washington's hermetically sealed high-rises, walled compounds and gated communities. Meanwhile, outside the official security perimeter, a new neighborliness will take root, as squatting becomes known as "settling in," trespassing as "beating a new path," and fences, walls and locks are everywhere replaced by watchful eyes, attentive ears and helping hands.

Silver and Gold Will Be Money

Legislation being submitted by Ron Paul. Familiarize yourself with it, or watch dancing with stars instead....

Source

Statement Introducing the Free Competition in Currency Act

By: Dr. Ron Paul, U.S. Congressman

Before the US House of Representatives, December 9, 2009

Madame Speaker, I rise to introduce the Free Competition in Currency Act of 2009. Currency, or money, is what allows civilization to flourish. In the absence of money, barter is the name of the game; if the farmer needs shoes, he must trade his eggs and milk to the cobbler and hope that the cobbler needs eggs and milk. Money makes the transaction process far easier. Rather than having to search for someone with reciprocal wants, the farmer can exchange his milk and eggs for an agreed-upon medium of exchange with which he can then purchase shoes.

This medium of exchange should satisfy certain properties: it should be durable, that is to say, it does not wear out easily; it should be portable, that is, easily carried; it should be divisible into units usable for every-day transactions; it should be recognizable and uniform, so that one unit of money has the same properties as every other unit; it should be scarce, in the economic sense, so that the extant supply does not satisfy the wants of everyone demanding it; it should be stable, so that the value of its purchasing power does not fluctuate wildly; and it should be reproducible, so that enough units of money can be created to satisfy the needs of exchange.

Over millennia of human history, gold and silver have been the two metals that have most often satisfied these conditions, survived the market process, and gained the trust of billions of people. Gold and silver are difficult to counterfeit, a property which ensures they will always be accepted in commerce. It is precisely for this reason that gold and silver are anathema to governments. A supply of gold and silver that is limited in supply by nature cannot be inflated, and thus serves as a check on the growth of government. Without the ability to inflate the currency, governments find themselves constrained in their actions, unable to carry on wars of aggression or to appease their overtaxed citizens with bread and circuses.

At this country's founding, there was no government-controlled national currency. While the Constitution established the Congressional power of minting coins, it was not until 1792 that the US Mint was formally established. In the meantime, Americans made do with foreign silver and gold coins. Even after the Mint's operations got underway, foreign coins continued to circulate within the United States, and did so for several decades.

On the desk in my office I have a sign that says: "Don't steal – the government hates competition." Indeed, any power a government arrogates to itself, it is loathe to give back to the people. Just as we have gone from a constitutionally-instituted national defense consisting of a limited army and navy bolstered by militias and letters of marque and reprisal, we have moved from a system of competing currencies to a government-instituted banking cartel that monopolizes the issuance of currency. In order to reintroduce a system of competing currencies, there are three steps that must be taken to produce a legal climate favorable to competition.

The first step consists of eliminating legal tender laws. Article I Section 10 of the Constitution forbids the States from making anything but gold and silver a legal tender in payment of debts. States are not required to enact legal tender laws, but should they choose to, the only acceptable legal tender is gold and silver, the two precious metals that individuals throughout history and across cultures have used as currency. However, there is nothing in the Constitution that grants the Congress the power to enact legal tender laws. We, the Congress, have the power to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, but not to declare a legal tender. Yet, there is a section of US Code, 31 USC 5103, that purports to establish US coins and currency, including Federal Reserve notes, as legal tender.

Historically, legal tender laws have been used by governments to force their citizens to accept debased and devalued currency. Gresham's Law describes this phenomenon, which can be summed up in one phrase: bad money drives out good money. An emperor, a king, or a dictator might mint coins with half an ounce of gold and force merchants, under pain of death, to accept them as though they contained one ounce of gold. Each ounce of the king's gold could now be minted into two coins instead of one, so the king now had twice as much "money" to spend on building castles and raising armies. As these legally overvalued coins circulated, the coins containing the full ounce of gold would be pulled out of circulation and hoarded. We saw this same phenomenon happen in the mid-1960s when the US government began to mint subsidiary coinage out of copper and nickel rather than silver. The copper and nickel coins were legally overvalued, the silver coins undervalued in relation, and silver coins vanished from circulation.

These actions also give rise to the most pernicious effects of inflation. Most of the merchants and peasants who received this devalued currency felt the full effects of inflation, the rise in prices and the lowered standard of living, before they received any of the new currency. By the time they received the new currency, prices had long since doubled, and the new currency they received would give them no benefit.

In the absence of legal tender laws, Gresham's Law no longer holds. If people are free to reject debased currency, and instead demand sound money, sound money will gradually return to use in society. Merchants would have been free to reject the king's coin and accept only coins containing full metal weight.

The second step to reestablishing competing currencies is to eliminate laws that prohibit the operation of private mints. One private enterprise which attempted to popularize the use of precious metal coins was Liberty Services, the creators of the Liberty Dollar. Evidently the government felt threatened, as Liberty Dollars had all their precious metal coins seized by the FBI and Secret Service in November of 2007. Of course, not all of these coins were owned by Liberty Services, as many were held in trust as backing for silver and gold certificates which Liberty Services issued. None of this matters, of course, to the government, which hates competition. The responsibility to protect contracts is of no interest to the government.

The sections of US Code which Liberty Services is accused of violating are erroneously considered to be anti-counterfeiting statutes, when in fact their purpose was to shut down private mints that had been operating in California. California was awash in gold in the aftermath of the 1849 gold rush, yet had no US Mint to mint coinage. There was not enough foreign coinage circulating in California either, so private mints stepped into the breech to provide their own coins. As was to become the case in other industries during the Progressive era, the private mints were eventually accused of circulating debased (substandard) coinage, and with the supposed aim of providing government-sanctioned regulation and a government guarantee of purity, the 1864 Coinage Act was passed, which banned private mints from producing their own coins for circulation as currency.

The final step to ensuring competing currencies is to eliminate capital gains and sales taxes on gold and silver coins. Under current federal law, coins are considered collectibles, and are liable for capital gains taxes. Short-term capital gains rates are at income tax levels, up to 35 percent, while long-term capital gains taxes are assessed at the collectibles rate of 28 percent. Furthermore, these taxes actually tax monetary debasement. As the dollar weakens, the nominal dollar value of gold increases. The purchasing power of gold may remain relatively constant, but as the nominal dollar value increases, the federal government considers this an increase in wealth, and taxes accordingly. Thus, the more the dollar is debased, the more capital gains taxes must be paid on holdings of gold and other precious metals.

Just as pernicious are the sales and use taxes which are assessed on gold and silver at the state level in many states. Imagine having to pay sales tax at the bank every time you change a $10 bill for a roll of quarters to do laundry. Inflation is a pernicious tax on the value of money, but even the official numbers, which are massaged downwards, are only on the order of 4% per year. Sales taxes in many states can take away 8% or more on every single transaction in which consumers wish to convert their Federal Reserve Notes into gold or silver.

In conclusion, Madame Speaker, allowing for competing currencies will allow market participants to choose a currency that suits their needs, rather than the needs of the government. The prospect of American citizens turning away from the dollar towards alternate currencies will provide the necessary impetus to the US government to regain control of the dollar and halt its downward spiral. Restoring soundness to the dollar will remove the government's ability and incentive to inflate the currency, and keep us from launching unconstitutional wars that burden our economy to excess. With a sound currency, everyone is better off, not just those who control the monetary system. I urge my colleagues to consider the redevelopment of a system of competing currencies and cosponsor the Free Competition in Currency Act.

We're sorry to inform you, you've been robbed...

Have you been wondering where we are in this economical cycle? Do you have any kind of insight at all what our country is "all about" right now....

Would it be helpful for you to know what the rest of the world thinks of the US? Do you care or do you assume that things will stay the way they are because for you anything else would simply be too inconvenient? Do you have any idea what's even at stake?

This article touches on it nicely....source.

Excerpt:

“Just over a year ago, the United States underwent a seemingly radical change, seemingly overnight. Its financial system had been revealed as insolvent under the weight of huge liabilities and worthless assets. The government refused to allow all the bankrupt institutions to fail, and thus permit the market to do its job of purging the rot from the system.

Instead, the authorities saved their favorites, effectively merging bank with state. They did so under cover of a witches’ brew of subsidies, guarantees and quasi-nationalizations bearing bizarre acronyms like TARP; PDCF; TAF; TSLF; and my personal favorite, the ABCPMMFLF, otherwise known as the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Fund Liquidity Facility.

And those were just the visible programs. The Fed, our central bank, dropped interest rates to zero and monetized additional trillions of dollars worth of problem assets, away from prying eyes. The nature and source of these assets remain matters of speculation, because the Fed to this day refuses to tell us what it bought and from whom.

When the smoke cleared, we Americans found ourselves the subjects of a gangster state, in thrall to a clutch of greedy, corrupt and incompetent banks which only days before had failed. We were now the guarantors of trillions of dollars in worthless assets that had generated billions in profits for those same banks in recent years. Their gains remained their gains; but their losses were now our losses. Our money, the reserve currency of the world, was now backed by toxic waste.

The events of last fall were, to all appearances, a bloodless coup, taking us from freedom to fascism virtually overnight.”

Viva la Restoration

Remarks of Robert K. Landis, finews.ch Gold Conference

Zurich, Switzerland, November 17, 2009