I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing. - Thomas Jefferson (source link below)I wasn't going to post anything today but after last night's pathetic "showdown" between Obama and Romney, I wanted to share a few thoughts and then link a commentary that is a must-read. I was discussing the political situation with a friend and colleague and I expressed this view:
I listened to all three debates, there's really not much difference in the platforms between Romney and Obama, other than the "moral" stuff (birth control, planned parenthood, etc).Honestly it's not going to make a difference for the most part which candidate is in the White House. The political system has been completely captured by the big corporate and ultra-wealthy money (please review Citizens United v. the FEC SCOTUS decision if you don't believe me).
To me, the same ultra-elitists control either candidate. At the margin there's the Koch/Adelson whackos who give a lot of money to Romney. I'm not sure which left-winger ultra-elitists give money to Obama other than Soros. But I think our elections have come down to nothing more than a dog and pony show in order to make the 50% who actually vote think that their vote makes a difference. What's been the difference between Bush and Obama besides Obama maybe kicking a little more down to the welfare class? Do you really think that McCain would have let GM/Chrysler disappear? McCain led the charge for TARP.
My business said this morning: "well at least the Republicans give lip service to free enterprise" My response was "all lip service is good for is oral sex."
Rather than lay out my own pontification, please read the following commentary:
Prior to every election, politicians from both parties swear up and down that they will do something about our exploding debt, but it never happens. Once again this year, our politicians are making all kinds of grand promises about getting U.S. government finances under control. But they are also promising all kinds of new plans and programs which are going to cost a lot more money on top of what we are already spending.Here's the LINK
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/images/sp_en_6.gif)
Dave, what do you make of gold? Is the bull market over? Looks like it's signalling a Romney win.
ReplyDeleteBased on what, is gold signalling a Romney win? I think you're reading and buying into too much MSM bullshit.
DeleteGold doesn't care who wins the election. Gold only cares the extent to which the U.S. and the rest of the world devalues fiat currency. Everyday the U.S. spending deficit increases and the amount of National debt increases. This is dollar devaluation - every single day.
Have you heard Romney or Obama say ANYTHING remotely that resembles a solution to the spending and debt accumulation problem? I've heard plenty of political platitudes but NO, NONE, ZERO solutions, let alone any solutions that are workable.
Japan is getting ready to drop its next currency printing bomb on the world.
This pullback in gold so far is barely a blip on the 12 year chart. This is nothing. Mild correction to get the momentum chasing idiots and wussies out. Nothing more.
My hypothesis is based on the fact that should Romney win, he'll fire Bernanke. No Bernanke means no QE. Pretty simple.
DeleteIn Friend of Another’s (FOA) Gold Trail, he once said,
Delete“My friend, debt is the very essence of fiat. As debt defaults, fiat is destroyed. This is where all these deflationist get their direction. Not seeing that hyperinflation is the process of saving debt at all costs, even buying it outright for cash. Deflation is impossible in today's dollar terms because policy will allow the printing of cash, if necessary, to cover every last bit of debt and dumping it on your front lawn! (smile) Worthless dollars, of course, but no deflation in dollar terms! (bigger smile)”
-April 2001
@Anonymous: You gotta buy those dips dude! Also, I think you're looking at it backwards. Gold isn't a commodity, or an investment, its money! Or more importantly, a STORE OF VALUE. Gold actually doesn't "move"...its the dollar thats going up and down. You asked,
"Is the bull market over?". A better question to ask is "Is the bear market for paper money over yet?"
Answer: HELL NO!
Read and re-read what Dave in Denver wrote above, he knows what he's talking about.
-Sicilian Gold
First of all, Romney - in typical Romney flip flop fashion - has said both he'll fire Bernanke and keep him. LOL.
DeleteSecond, why does everyone think the printing is up to Bernanke? Bernanke works for the Big Banks. The Big Banks own the Fed. Bernanke, because of his economics pedigree, is just the "cover" story. Whoever is in that seat will have no choice but to print. Otherwise our system collapses.
Either way, gold goes the moon.
I'll buy that. Sorry for being a pest, Dave.
DeleteThe sentence that comes after your quote states: "I now deny their power of making paper money, or any thing else, a legal tender." http://books.google.com/books?id=YzpPAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA411
ReplyDeleteBut it goes without saying that to adopt the ideas of an 18th-century philosopher would mean going backwards hundreds of years. :-)
37 Facts About How Cruel This Economy Has Been To Millions Of Desperate American Families
ReplyDeleteHave you ever laid in bed awake at night with a knot in your stomach because you didn't know how your family was possibly going to make it through the next month financially? Have you ever felt the desperation of not being able to provide the basic necessities for your family even though you tried as hard as you could? All over America tonight, there are millions of desperate families that are being ripped apart by this economy.
In this article you will find a lot of very shocking economic statistics. But please remember that behind each statistic are the tragic stories of millions of desperately hurting American families.
Over the past decade, things have steadily gotten worse for American families no matter what our politicians have tried. Poverty and government dependence continue to rise. The cost of living continues to go up and incomes continue to go down. It is truly frightening to think about what this country is going to look like if current trends continue.
The following are 37 facts that show how cruel this economy has been to millions of desperate American families...
8. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 85 percent of middle class Americans say that it is more difficult to maintain a middle class standard of living today than it was 10 years ago.
9. In the United States today, 77 percent of all Americans are living to paycheck to paycheck at least some of the time.
10. In the United States today, more than 41 percent of all working age Americans are not working.
11. Since January 2009, the "labor force" in the United States has increased by 827,000, but "those not in the labor force" has increased by 8,208,000. This is how they have gotten the unemployment numbers to "come down".
12. Sadly, 60 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were mid-wage jobs, but 58 percent of the jobs created since then have been low wage jobs.
13. Today, about one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the federal poverty level.
14. Right now, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does.
15. At this point, less than 25 percent of all jobs in the United States are "good jobs", and that number continues to shrink.
16. There are now 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.
17. According to USA Today, many Americans have actually seen their water bills triple over the past 12 years.
18. Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/37-facts-that-show-how-cruel-this-economy-has-been-to-millions-of-desperate-american-families
If Romney gets in, it's just another group of crooks that take over...sad really.
ReplyDeleteRomney’s Big Navy Guru Made Millions From Building Ships
When all was said and done, the roundtrip deal helped net Lehman’s firm a reported $180 million. And besides that, Lehman continues to own shipyards that do lucrative maintenance work for the Navy. Even leaving aside the intricate ferry-and-shipyard series of deals, Lehman still stands a decent chance of profiting from the naval buildup he is helping to plan.
Lehman, through a Romney campaign aide, calls any suggestions that he benefited from shipbuilding operations “kind of amusing.” Lehman says he lost enormous sums of money on the Superferry deal, rather than earning it.
But Ryan Sibley — an editor at the Washington, D.C.-based watchdog Sunlight Foundation who has closely tracked the former Navy Secretary’s investments — says that ”Lehman’s involvement with the Superferry shows that he is no stranger to using personal connections to influence costly decisions.”
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/big-business-romneys-navy/all/
Neil Barofsky’s Disappointment with Vikram Pandit and President Obama
ReplyDeleteOctober 23, 2012
Former TARP Inspector General Neil Barofsky explains his disappointment with the former Citigroup CEO and the president for failed financial leadership.
Barofsky also shares his deep disappointment in President Obama for protecting — instead of reigning in — the big banks.
“I thought that if there was ever going to be a political figure that would take on the interests of Wall Street, it was going to be President Obama. And that just didn’t happen,” Barofsky says. “It was the exact opposite of that… He had the same ideology as Secretary Geithner and, frankly, the same ideology as a lot of those people who came from Wall Street.”"
http://billmoyers.com/content/neal-barofskys-disappointment-with-vikram-pandit-and-president-obama/
The 80% Solution
ReplyDeleteSo said President Obama in the middle of the great debate in respect of foreign policy. We take it as one of the most maddening moments in the whole campaign. What question does one imagine Mr. Obama was answering? It turns out to be that he was answering the question of whether either one of the candidates would be prepared to declare that an attack on Israel is an attack on America. They both expressed friendship. And then started rattling on about sanctions. What we kept thinking is this: If Mr. Obama comprehends how bad it is for Iran that its currency has shed 80% of its value, why doesn’t he comprehend that about a dollar that has lost 50% of its value under his presidency alone?
The point seemed to go right by Mr. Romney. Gee, willikers, what is it going to take to get the Republican candidate to make an issue of the collapse of the dollar? Its value has plunged under Mr. Obama to less than a 1,750th of an ounce of gold from the 850th of an ounce of gold it was worth on the day Mr. Obama was sworn to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. It may be that Mr. Romney doesn’t want to press that point for strategic reasons — under the last Republican president, after all, the dollar shed nearly as much of its value as the 80% the rial has lost. That is, the vallue of the dollar under President George W. Bush plunged to an 850th of an ounce of gold from a 265th of an ounce of gold.
The Sun thinks Mr. Romney would be wise to wage the argument anyhow. President Bush is a big boy, and he can take it. The collapse of the value of our currency is hurting our people the same way the collapse of the rial is hurting the Persian people. We last wrote about this comaprison in the editorial “Rial Clear Politics.” No doubt some of the policy makers will point to the flatness of the consumer price index. In recent years, though, this index has become an index of items that aren’t rising in price. It has been stripped of things like gasoline and food, at least when convenient for the policy makers. This is a debate this country needs to have.
The president is boasting that his policies have destroyed the Iranians’ currency even worse than he, the Fed, and the Congress have destroyed our own. The Iranian currency is down 80%, the value of our own is but half of what it was four years ago. American working men and women, and millions who can’t find work, are going to buy gas and groceries and coming home with empty wallets.
http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-80-solution/88049/