The president of Iceland, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, explains how his country has healed from the economic crisis while Europe and the rest of the western world are still grappling with the same problems that caused the crisis. Basically, they let poorly managed institutions (banks) fail and encouraged resources to be reallocated to more responsibly managed firms.
- Category Archives Fiscal Policies
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PBS Frontline: The Untouchables
Why is it impossible to prosecute Wall Street executives for the financial collapse? Could it be, as the transcript of the interview with Lanny Breuer hints, that the legal system has completely been taken over by a philosophy that weighs ‘justice’ against the potential harm to certain institutions or individuals within society? One hopes not, because the judicial system is supposed to be about enforcing (blindly) existing laws. One would also hope the legislative branch is thinking about the laws they create and whether they would have adverse affects on such prominent facets of society BEFORE they vote them into law.
Watch The Untouchables on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.
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Sign the Petition to Audit US Gold Reserves
For many years, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) has been gathering official government documents that indicate the US gold reserves are insufficient and cannot cover the paper obligations assigned to them. Through leasing and swap agreements with other nations, the details of which are hidden from the public, the nation’s gold could be in jeopardy and at the very least, over-reported. Some people have even openly speculated that the Fort Knox facility contains mostly empty space.
There is now a movement to have the gold reserves audited. As the description in the petition notes, the reserves have not been audited since 1953! Prior to that, there were semi-regular audits. In the last 60 years, there has been too much turmoil to simply assume normality in this matter. A prudent and measured action is necessary.
It’s amazingly easy to create a White House account and sign the petition – all you need is a valid email address and zip code. If the petition gets at least 25,000 signatures, the White House must take action to take the issue to the next step for further study. Read and sign the petition today.
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The Soverign Debt Solution
After all is said and done, this is basically what’s been happening in Europe, where countries like Spain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Cyprus depend on each other and the stronger members of the European Union to keep buying their bonds, burying them ever deeper in debt (to each other).
But it’s not limited to just Europe, of course. The US is in just as bad of shape as far as debt is concerned. In all western nations, as the cartoon above adequately portrays, there seems to be a symbiotic relationship between the banks and the countries in debt. The banks enable the governments to keep borrowing just to be able to buy more debt from other countries’ governments, which are doing the exact same thing. The whole sovereign bond market is one giant Ponzi scheme, just waiting to capsize.
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Economic Freedom vs Debt Slavery
Pierre Poilievre, Canadian MP, makes a plea for his nation not to follow in the footsteps of countries like the United States, where people have been encouraged to go into debt which will be impossible to repay, or like Europe, which is now ensnared in welfare programs that are impossible to stop without complete social upheaval.
- Official US Debt is now larger than its economy. Through current or future taxation, the US citizen is on the hook for this debt.
- The US is on the cusp of funding 100% of the Chinese Military – just with interest payments alone!
- The direction the US is going reflects the socialist policies already in place in Europe, where Greek citizens are taking to the streets to demand their government not halt the flow of welfare checks they have become so dependent upon.
- It’s good that Europe has bail-out fund, but S&P has recently downgraded that fund, indicating that it, too, will soon need a bail-out.
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The American Dream
Maybe it’s time we all wake up from our slumber. Maybe it’s time to understand the things that we’ve been too lazy to learn for ourselves instead of relying on someone else to tell us what to think! We have God-given rights as human beings, yes! But along with those rights, we have responsibilities we must accept – each and every one of us!
Here’s a start…. understand what money truely is!
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation, and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property – until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” – Thomas Jefferson, 1802“He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.” – Ben Franklin
For more information on the Federal Reserve, the way it works and its history, see this article. And here’s an interesting look at the way the US fiat currency has been debased over the last 100 years.
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