New Rules: You and IRS This January

From the article:

These new IRS rules will affect every American:

• Income tax collection could rise as much as $345 billion a year
• Small businesses will be crushed and unemployment will rise
• A cashless economy is further set in motion
• IRS snooping and audits will increase
• Gold can be tracked
• Identity theft is a risk
• Government surveillance will increase

Majority of Americans Say Fed Should Be Reined In or Abolished, Poll Shows

Key quote from article:

Americans across the political spectrum say the Fed shouldn’t retain its current structure of independence. Asked if the central bank should be more accountable to Congress, left independent or abolished entirely, 39 percent said it should be held more accountable and 16 percent that it should be abolished. Only 37 percent favor the status quo.

Dr. No Comes Into His Own

Finally, Paul Gets His Dream Job

The Day the Dollar Died

Santa's coming to town.

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire by Tom Engelhardt

From the article:

Trying to play down the significance of an ongoing WikiLeaks dump of more than 250,000 State Department documents, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently offered the following bit of Washington wisdom: "The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it's in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets... [S]ome governments deal with us because they fear us, some because they respect us, most because they need us. We are still essentially, as has been said before, the indispensable nation."

Now, wisdom like that certainly sounds sober; it’s definitely what passes for hardheaded geopolitical realism in our nation’s capital; and it's true, Gates is not the first top American official to call the U.S. "the indispensable nation"; nor do I doubt that he and many other inside-the-Beltway players are convinced of our global indispensability. The problem is that the news has almost weekly been undermining his version of realism, making it look ever more phantasmagorical. The ability of WikiLeaks, a tiny organization of activists, to thumb its cyber-nose at the global superpower, repeatedly shining a blaze of illumination on the penumbra of secrecy under which its political and military elite like to conduct their affairs, hasn’t helped one bit either. If our indispensability is, as yet, hardly questioned in Washington, elsewhere on the planet it’s another matter.

JP Morgan Silver Short-Selling Crash by Max Keiser

The campaign to buy silver and force JP Morgan into bankruptcy could work, because of the liabilities accrued by its short-selling.

China-Russia currency agreement further threatens U.S. dollar

China and Russia have agreed to allow their currencies to trade against each other in spot inter-bank markets.

America on the path to permanent war

From the article:

"It's unnatural and unhealthy for a nation to be engaged in global crusades for some principle or idea while neglecting the needs of its own people," said Sen. J. William Fulbright, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in 1966 as the Vietnam War escalated.

Keeping Us Sick, Stupid and Broke

listen to audio

Ron Paul Introduces His New Law Regarding Invasive TSA Screening

Obama White House Hands Out 111 Obamacare Waivers- Hides It on Website

The Lone Star State's Opportunity

Texas HB297 says ALL of Obamacare (not just the mandate) is "invalid in this state; is not recognized by this state; is specifically rejected by this state; and is null and void and of no effect in this state." - first in the country....get this to your state's reps today!

Bullets In The Back: How Boomers & Retirees Will Become Bailout, Stimulus & Currency War Casualties By Daniel R. Amerman, CFA

Here are key quotes from the article:

Currency wars have their victims, much like military wars. What differs is who the victims are and what the casualty rate is. In a military war, the casualties are usually under age 25. Even in a deadly campaign, most soldiers are not victims because they are in support capacities.

The age of the casualties in a currency war is upside down compared to military war, because the worst of the damage is inflicted on those above age 50. Moreover, it is not just a few, but almost everyone who is on the front lines, and thus almost all become a casualty.


Over the course of two years, the private economy - which creates the real wealth in the US - has effectively collapsed, and has not recovered. We're talking about $1.3 trillion of the private-sector economy that has been wiped out and hasn't come back. What has patched this over has been frantic government efforts to create an artificial economy through "stimulus" spending and other means. The depth of the crisis has been temporarily masked through creating an artificial stimulus economy that is funded by the creation of artificial money.

The second key item that needs to be understood is that the United States of America has essentially declared war again – this time against the rest of the world. It is a defensive campaign - and from Asia, to South America to Europe, the world is none too pleased. The fundamental reason for this currency war, as covered in my article "Falling Dollar Means Rapid Consumer Price Inflation" linked below, is that the US private economy can't grow out of its $1.3 trillion hole so long as the US dollar is "strong".

Thus, waging currency war has become a necessary evil now that the US government has (finally) come to the defense of the US economy. To do so, the government must knock down the price of the dollar relative to other currencies. The intent is to stop subsidized foreign goods from flooding the US market, and open the doors for US exports to rebound as well. For more than a decade, US workers have been competing with one hand tied behind their back because of an artificially expensive dollar - and untying that hand is essential for any real recovery.

DC Insiders Indoctrinating OUR Freshmen

belt-way back-room battle brewing

Mike Maloney of GoldSilver.com visited with the one and only Max Keiser in France.

The World Shorts the Dollar by Ron Paul

End of Liberty

John Boehner's "GobGop" Plan to Sell Out the Tea Party in 2013. It Will Begin in January 2011

http://www.garynorth.com/public/7218.cfm

Does the Palestinian Diaspora Care Enough To Become Engaged? by Alan Hart

Hackers Now Targeting Smartphones – Is Yours Next? by Mark Nestmann

Hackers Now Targeting Smartphones – Is Yours Next? by Mark Nestmann

A Movie That Gets It Right by Jeffrey A. Tucker

A Movie That Gets It Right by Jeffrey A. Tucker

Who are the capitalist folk heroes of our time? The Social Network is a film that celebrates one of the greats, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

A lesson from the Prince of Thieves

In times of tyranny and injustice, when law oppresses the people, the outlaw takes his place in history - Robin Hood

Is Your Doctor Getting Cash Payouts From Big Pharma? by Mark Sisson

Is Your Doctor Getting Cash Payouts From Big Pharma? by Mark Sisson

America's Currency Crisis is Now Underway [by National Inflation Assocation]

According to minutes that were just released this week from the Federal Reserve's meeting on September 21st, the Federal Reserve is now trying to figure out ways to boost inflation expectations. The mainstream media is reporting that the Federal Reserve wants to publicly declare their intention to seek a higher inflation rate so that Americans are encouraged to spend more before their money is worth less. Unfortunately, what the mainstream media fails to realize is, not only will their money soon be worth less but it will literally become worthless.

If the Federal Reserve doesn't immediately raise interest rates dramatically, there is serious risk of the current "meltup" turning into hyperinflation before the end of 2012. The Federal Reserve's words can no longer control the present situation. They are saying they want inflation so that when massive inflation does arrive, it appears as though they still have control. With gold up 19% and silver up 38% since NIA's July 28th article "Gold and Silver Capitulation is Near" in which we said, "the big move to the upside (for gold and silver) is right around the corner", it is obvious that the Federal Reserve has completely lost control of inflation and a major currency crisis is already underway.

The world is flooded with excess liquidity of U.S. dollars. Up until now, Americans have been blessed by the fact that the world has been hoarding these dollars, believing they are a safe haven during these uncertain economic times. The world's confidence in the U.S. dollar and strong demand for U.S. treasuries despite the need for the Federal Reserve to monetize our $13.6 trillion national debt will one day be looked back at as the most mysterious paradox of our generation.

The average American today is pouring money into U.S. treasuries. They got crushed when the dot-com bubble collapsed, they got decimated when the Real Estate bubble burst, and now they are loading into dollar-denominated assets. Simultaneously, the Federal Reserve is trying to destroy the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar. The only thing the Federal Reserve should be focused on today is preventing hyperinflation, because hyperinflation always leads to complete societal collapses.

Almost all American investment advisors tell their clients today that government bonds are the "safest investments there are" because they "are backed by the full faith and credit of the government". It is very common for investment advisors to recommend to their clients that they put 25% or more of their assets into U.S. government bonds and keep another 25% of their assets in U.S. dollar cash. Yet, there are almost no investment advisors in existence who recommend to their clients that they put more than 5% of their assets into gold.

Investors who only put 5% of their assets into gold might find that they only retain 5% of their purchasing power in the future. Neither NIA nor its co-founders are investment advisors, but our commentary has consistently highlighted our beliefs that there is no such thing as owning too much gold. NIA believes that individual investors' portfolios should be 100% in assets that will retain or increase in purchasing power during hyperinflation. The only question today that smart investors should be asking themselves is what percentages do I put into physical gold, physical silver, mining stocks, agricultural commodities, etc.

Obama continues to state he will not raise taxes for those earning less than $200,000, yet he is doing absolutely nothing to reduce government spending. With China and Japan getting ready to pull the plug on the U.S. dollar, future U.S. deficit spending will have to be paid for by outright money printing. The price inflation that is ahead as a result of monetary inflation is the absolute worst thing that can happen to middle class Americans. Obama's inflation won't hurt the wealthy as much because the wealthy, if they become educated and act quick enough, can still preserve the purchasing power of their wealth by buying gold and silver.

Obama's plan to reduce our budget deficit from $1.6 trillion today down to $752 billion in 2015 is contingent on 5.58% annual GDP growth and interest rates on our public debt of only 4.1%. The only way we will see 5.58% annual GDP growth is with massive inflation and when inflation spirals out of control, so will interest rates. There is no doubt that our nation's budget deficit come 2015 will be substantially higher than it is today, if our nation survives until then.

Why Gold and Silver?

U.S. Wants Broader Internet Wiretap Authority

From press release of September 27, 2010, FoxNews.com:

The Obama administration is developing plans that would require all Internet-based communication services -- such as encrypted BlackBerry e-mail, Facebook, and Skype -- to be capable of complying with federal wiretap orders, according to a report published Monday.
National security officials and federal law enforcement argue their ability to eavesdrop on terror suspects is increasingly "going dark," The New York Times reported, as more communication takes place via Internet services, rather than by traditional telephone.
The bill, which the White House plans to deliver to Congress next year, would require communication service providers be technically capable of intercepting and decrypting messages, raising serious privacy concerns, the Times said.

Look out for a lame duck

As the calendar rushes toward the November 2nd elections, prospects increase for a bloody “lame-duck” session.  There is a laundry list of bills stacked up for passage that have not yet made it to the floor for a vote.  After the elections, Democrats who lost will have nothing further to lose, and will be eager to get as much of Obama’s radical agenda enacted as possible.

U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey

From a poll performed by the Pew Research Center:

Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.

We have this beautiful freedom in this country, but like most, we rarely use it. 

And those who do exercise their freedom, do they use it correctly?

12 Ominous Signs For World Financial Markets

From the article:

But it is becoming hard to deny that there are some serious danger signs out there at this point....

#1 Corporate insiders are getting out of the U.S. stock market at an absolutely blinding pace. It is being reported that the ratio of corporate insider selling to corporate insider buying last week was 1,411 to 1, and this week the ratio has soared even higher and is at 2,341 to 1.
#2 Many of the world's wealthiest people are buying absolutely massive quantities of gold right now.

#3 It is being reported that J.P. Morgan is gobbling up the rights to as much physical gold as it possibly can.

#4 The United States Mint has announced that it has run out of 1-ounce, 24-karat American Buffalo gold bullion coins and that it will not be selling any more of them in 2010.

#5 It is becoming increasingly difficult to explain the unusually high option volume that we are witnessing right now.

#6 Some very large investors are making massive bets that the S&P 500 is going to take a serious tumble during the month of October.

#7 On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan shocked world financial markets by cutting interest rates even closer to zero and by setting up a 5 trillion yen quantitative easing fund.
#8 The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago are both publicly urging the Fed to do much more to stimulate the U.S. economy, including beginning a new round of quantitative easing, even if it means a significant rise in the U.S. inflation rate.

#9 Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz told reporters on Tuesday that the loose monetary policies of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are throwing the world into "chaos".

#10 At the end of September, federal regulators announced a $30 billion bailout of the U.S. wholesale credit union system.
#11 Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and GMAC Mortgage have all suspended foreclosures in many U.S. states due to serious concerns about foreclosure procedures. Now, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is actually demanding that all mortgage servicing companies in the state of Texas immediately suspend all foreclosures, the selling of foreclosed properties and the eviction of people living in foreclosed properties until they have completed a review of their foreclosure procedures.

#12 Not only that, but Nancy Pelosi and 30 other members of Congress are requesting a federal investigation of the foreclosure practices of U.S. mortgage lenders. Needless to say, this controversy has the potential to turn the entire U.S. mortgage industry into an absolute quagmire.

Something About Tax Cuts Or Earnings Or Money Or Something In Recent Economic News

Sarcasm can be so uplifting.

Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear and Read

Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear and Read

Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility - Sigmund Freud

The Ten American Industries Which Will Never Recover

Here is the list of the ten jobs categories that will not recover based on 24/7 Wall St. research:

1. State and local government jobs.

2. Construction.
3. Installation, maintenance, and repair.
4. Automotive manufacturing.
5. Pharmaceuticals.
6. Big Telecom.

7. Newspapers.
8. Airline Employees.
9. Realtors.
10. Bank Tellers.

See article for details.

With or Without Federal 'Permission' by Michael Boldin

We have to agree with the core beliefs of the article's author :

1. Rights are not “granted” to us by the government – they are ours by our very nature, by our birthright.
2. ALL just political authority is derived from the people – and government exists solely with our consent!
3. We the people of the several states created the federal government – not the other way around!
4. The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that which has been delegated by the people to the federal government in the Constitution – and nothing more.
5. The People of each State have the sole and exclusive right and power to govern themselves in all areas not delegated to their government.
6. A Government without limits IS A TYRANNY!
7. When Congress enacts laws and regulations that are not made in Pursuance of the powers enumerated in the Constitution, the People are not bound to obey them.

These seven items – are what establish the proper role of government under the constitution. But sadly, an honest reading of the constitution as the founders and ratifiers gave it to us makes clear that MOST of what D.C. does today is NOT authorized by the constitution.

Are Governments Counterfeiting Gold Coins?

Is the Great Recession Just a Precursor to an Even Worse Downturn?

From the article by the Economic Policy Journal:

Rick Davis at Consumer Metrics is out with his latest numbers on the economy. They show no end in sight to the current leg of the downturn.

Our data strongly suggests that the consumer portion of this recession did not start out to be about housing or damaged consumer balance sheets. But it is now.

There probably hasn't been two separate recessions in three years, simply one that has evolved in significant ways. But if this really is a "double dip" recession, then our data indicates that the "Great Recession" of 2008 was merely the precursor, and not the main event. It is this current dip that we should be really concerned about; the current contraction in consumer demand is about structural changes in consumer behavior, whereas the "first dip" was about short term loss of consumer confidence.

The Persistence of Red-State Fascism by Anthony Gregory

From the article:

It is natural for libertarians to identify more with the side out of power. In a democratic system, those not wielding government force are, categorically, less guilty of crimes against individual liberty. Their rhetoric tends to be much better. An appeal to constitutionalism, founding principles or balanced budgets is much more often heard from those not at the reins of the state. It is music to libertarians’ ears, even when we know the song was ripped off and is being lip-synced.

The pattern has been this way for a long time. Under Clinton, the right condemned federal welfare, police abuses, internationalism in foreign policy, and almost all erosions of the constitutional limits on the central state. The 1990s right flirted with revisionist history and a radical rethinking of the post-New Deal government, helping libertarians to find at least some common ground. The Kosovo War, in particular, demonstrated that the leftist attachment to peace was an illusion and that perhaps as much headway could be made on war issues in conservative circles as could be made anywhere.

Then we had the Bush years. The conservative movement became almost completely enthralled with the very worst of what government is capable of: mass murder. The American right began to take on the character of a truly totalitarian movement. Calls for deporting dissenters, shutting down the press, nuking tens of millions of people, banning Islam and other such despotic proposals were heard all over talk radio. At the height of Bush’s power and prestige, it almost looked like liberty was doomed in America, thanks primarily to the same crowd that gave us Reagan, the Contract with America and the defeat of Al Gore. Lew Rockwell’s "The Reality of Red-State Fascism," as well as many other works by him and by others on this site and elsewhere, perfectly summed up the problem of the time.
Things have swung back somewhat. Conservatives now talk about the Founding Fathers again. They have put up a noble resistance to Obamacare, Cap and Trade and the rest of the administration’s truly terrible domestic schemes. Unfortunately, they fail to go all the way in condemning domestic socialism, but it is a start. Conservatives have even taken an interest in nullification and other radical doctrines of classical liberalism. At times, it seems like they are all that is standing between our imperfect state of freedom and the total socialization of America. Rightwingers are even becoming skeptical of "nation-building" in Afghanistan. Ann Coulter of all people has become a qualified dove, all the while Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and the other leaders of progressivism have become fixated on demonizing the tea parties, hysterically prophesizing the rise of racist militias, and championing the national security state.

But, tragically, the rightwing is still locked into its post-9/11 mentality...

Behind the Wheel

From the article:

 

Catherine Austin Fitts is a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Wharton School (MBA). At the Chinese University of Hong Kong she studied Mandarin. She served as a managing director and member of the board of the Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read & Co, Inc. (now part of UBS). Later, she was Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) during the presidency of George Herbert Walker Bush. As such, she was responsible for the operations of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the largest mortgage insurance fund of the world.

After leaving the Bush Administration, Fitts founded The Hamilton Securities Group, Inc., an investment bank and financial software developer named after the first U.S. Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. In 1996, she and her successful company became targets of a vicious, longlasting “qui tam lawsuit”, that resulted in the closing of Hamilton Securities.[1] Fitts was ultimately successful in Court of Claims litigation asserting that the government had no right to withhold monies owed to Hamilton.

In the years afterwards, Fitts spoke publicly about the degree of fraud endemic in the federal mortgage operations, trillions missing from government agencies and the connections to drug trafficking and “black budgets.”[2] Moreover, with her mentioned expertise, she was one of the first to warn of an approaching housing bubble. Her prediction that the ”strong dollar policy” would lead to a weakened federal credit is currently being proven correct.

The central banking-warfare investment model” is really a control model, through which a small group of people can control the most resources on the most profitable basis. Essentially what happens is: Central banks print money and then the military makes sure that other parties accept it and that the financial system continues to have liquidity. The question many people ask with regards to a fiat currency, which is a paper currency, is: Why would anybody take paper, which has no value? They take the paper, because it’s part of the enforcement and military supervision, if you will, of the network that is printing the money. The system has created a fantastically profitable way of controlling large populations and access to resources very cheaply.

Iraq: An End or an Escalation? By Ron Paul

Amid much fanfare last week, the last supposed "combat" troops left Iraq as the administration touted the beginning of the end of the Iraq War and a change in the role of the United States in that country. Considering the continued public frustration with the war effort, and with the growing laundry list of broken promises, this was merely another one of the administration’s operations in political maneuvering and semantics in order to convince an increasingly war-weary public that the Iraq War is at last ending. However, military officials confirm that we are committed to intervention in that country for years to come, and our operations have in fact, changed minimally, if really at all.

After eight long draining years, I have to wonder if our government even understands what it is to end a war anymore. The end of a war, to most people, means all the troops come home, out of harm’s way. It means we stop killing people and getting killed. It means we stop sending troops and armed personnel over and draining our treasury for military operations in that foreign land. But much like the infamous "mission accomplished" moment of the last administration, this "end" of the war also means none of those things.

50,000 US troops remain in Iraq, and they are still receiving combat pay. One soldier was killed in Basra just last Sunday, after the supposed end of combat operations, and the same day 5,000 men and women of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood were deployed to Iraq. Their mission will be anything but desk duty. Among other things they will accompany the Iraqi military on dangerous patrols, continue to be involved in the hunt for terrorists, and provide air support for the Iraqi military. They should be receiving combat pay, because they will be serving a combat role!

Of course the number of private contractors -- who perform many of the same roles as troops, but for a lot more money -- is expected to double. So this is a funny way of ending combat operations in Iraq. We are still meddling in their affairs and we are still putting our men and women in danger, and we are still spending money we don’t have. This looks more like an escalation than a draw-down to me!

The ongoing war in Iraq takes place against a backdrop of economic crisis at home, as fresh numbers indicate that our economic situation is as bad as ever, and getting worse! Our foreign policy is based on an illusion: that we are actually paying for it. What we are doing is borrowing and printing the money to maintain our presence overseas. Americans are seeing the cost of this irresponsible approach as our economic decline continues. Unemployed Americans have been questioning a policy that ships hundreds of billions of dollars overseas while their own communities crumble and their frustration is growing. An end to this type of foreign policy is way overdue.

A return to the traditional American foreign policy of active private engagement and non-interventionism is the only alternative that can restore our moral and fiscal health.