ROME IS BURNING, NERO IS FIDDLING

By Lynn Stuter

March 17, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

Did you know that the White House is being bombarded by “minutiae?” That the president’s personal aid is a “hunk”? That his speech writer has a “buzz cut?”

While America slides precipitously toward an all-out economic depression, while Also Known As (AKA) Obama continues to break every promise he made on the campaign trail, this is what the New York Times thinks is important for people to know!

Wow, aren’t you just really impressed?

And the lamestream media wonders why people are turning off their television sets, terminating their newspaper subscriptions, and using their computers to access alternative media sources and joining news loops to learn what is really going on in this nation.

This past week the Senate passed HR 1105, the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, complete with close to 9,000 earmarks, $410 billion in spending, the largest spending bill ever passed, appropriating money that the United States does not have. This on top of the $787 billion in pork (H.R. 1) passed by Congress and signed by AKA on February 17, 2009, appropriating money out of thin air to spend on favored projects like building a new overpass across Highway 520 in Redmond, Washington to ease congestion caused by Microsoft.

Payback to Bill Gates for his generous donations to the Obama campaign and inauguration party? Isn’t that the definition of pay-to-play — “You give me a donation and I’ll make sure you are compensated out of the coffers of the taxpayers?”

Every economist worth his salt and the American people told Congress not to pass either of these bills; they did it anyway. At a time when government needs to be seriously downsized and taxes need to be seriously cut, AKA’s answer to the economic situation is to grow government and increase taxes.

Hey, who cares if the government spends money it doesn’t have in the bank. If you or I did that, we would be headed for prison. But what’s good for the people obviously isn’t good for the government; a double standard that violates equal access and equal justice under rule of law.

And we haven’t even begun to talk about AKA’s $3.6 TRILLION proposed budget for 2010 while AKA proclaims,

“These kinds of irresponsible budgets — and inexcusable practices — are now in the past. For the first time in many years, my administration has produced a budget that represents an honest reckoning of where we are and where we need to go.”

Not to mention Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, who assisted the Russian Government from September 1992 through August 1993, who asserts the “[d]eficit [will be] $2 trillion higher this year and next because of [the] crisis we inherited.”

The way AKA is spending money, we have to ask, “What crisis? We don’t see no stinkin’ crisis!” If there were truly a crisis, wouldn’t they be spending less instead of more; wouldn’t they be downsizing government instead of growing government? AKA didn’t “inherit” a crisis, he helped create the crisis, while a Senator, by voting for bailout after bailout, and since becoming the usurper-in-chief, signing bill after bill spending money this country doesn’t have to spend!

And while promising the tax increases will be on “the rich”; don’t bet on it. AKA doesn’t dare bite the hand that feeds him; the rich have the means to do him in so he isn’t going after them; he’s going to go after the middle class, just as has always happened when more money was needed. The cap and trade agenda, based on global warming junk science, is but one way that will happen. Watch for skyrocketing energy prices as carbon taxes and offsets come into play.

Not long in the White House, it is reported that AKA and company are holding extravagant parties on a weekly basis. Wagyu beef steaks costing $100 a pound (is there beef worth that kind of money?) are just the tip of the iceberg, it seems. Not long on the job, it seems AKA and company are “lonely,” absent the night life afforded them by the Chicago underworld.

“My fellow Americans, [pause for effect] while we wine and dine at your expense [pause for effect] while you are losing your jobs, homes, cars [pause for effect] truly [pause for effect] read my lips [pause for effect] we feel your pain [pause for effect] you have to believe that! [pause for effect] That’s what hope and change are all about.” [pause for applause]

With apparently a lot of time on their hands, maybe a course in how not to insult visiting heads of state would be a worthwhile investment of time! “Prime Minister Brown: We, the American people, wish to apologize for the impudence displayed by the White House …”

But then, maybe insulting the leaders of other nations is AKA’s idea of the “new era of responsibility,” fitting right in with the lewd, crude, coarse Alinsky style of community organizing? Look out, Congress, if you don’t bow to AKA’s agenda, those pledging their support on AKA's brown-shirt website may well conduct a sit-in in your bathrooms in support of their “messiah” and his Marxist mentor, Saul Alinsky!

While the lamestream media yawned, AKA appointed “American Taliban” member John Walker Lindh’s defense attorney, Tony West, as assistant attorney general in charge of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Division. Of course, the fact that Mr West raised $65 million for AKA had nothing to do with his appointment, you understand!

This is in keeping with the stream of corrupt, tax dodging, conflict of interest nominees, including those forbidden lobbyists, that just keep cropping up like bad pennies in the AKA administration that was going to have none of that sort of thing going on. But hey, the Marxist pool of talent is so limited, don’t you know?

And lest pornography be left out of the equation, the senate last week confirmed David Ogden to the second-ranking position of deputy-attorney general; Ogden best known for his defending those accused of pornography. Maybe he can do something about those pornographic pictures that appear to be Stanley Ann Dunham circulating on the internet!

And to round out the debauchery, it seems that AKA now has his sights set on veterans. He thinks it would be a grand idea if, after they get shot up, blown up, and injured while fighting illegal “police actions” in far off places, that their health care needs be taken care of by private insurance. What a swell guy! Veterans should feel privileged that AKA shows such appreciation for their service to this country!! You just gotta believe he truly feels your pain!

And lest we forget, AKA has set about to reward unions for supporting his candidacy. On February 6, 2009, AKA signed executive order 13502 “encouraging” government contracts over $25 million include costly project labor agreements (PLA’s). PLA’s require that contractors and subcontractors agree to recognize that the union represents their employees. As 84% of all construction workers do not belong to a labor union, such actually represents a windfall to the unions at taxpayer expense, increasing the cost of construction projects substantially. But hey, what’s a few million here and a few million there. No problem, the taxpayers can afford it!

AKA also believes in the First Amendment guaranteeing free speech so long as it is he speaking freely and everyone else listens. When people speak out against his Marxist ideology, that isn’t free speech, that’s destructive to progress and those people must be held accountable. AKA, you understand, doesn’t believe in discrimination! And I have a bridge to nowhere I’ll sell real cheap!

And just so no one is left out, AKA is working diligently to socialize healthcare so you only get the care the government decides you need, forbids alternative medicine, vitamins, minerals and supplements that would undoubtedly be far more beneficial. Having your healthcare completely under government control means you will conform to the Marxist line or be denied life-saving healthcare.

The same applies to food. AKA is moving to destroy small farms, organic farms and your right to have your own garden (HR 875 and S 425), all under the guise of “food safety.” The goal is not food safety, which is truly a problem with commercial concerns, but controlling your ability to eat. If you want to eat, you will conform to the Marxist philosophy.

If, by this point in the AKA debauchery, people have not figured out that this man is a liar who couldn’t tell the truth if it would serve him better; an empty suit dangling from puppeteers strings; a snake oil salesman; a smooth talking con man; then there is no hope for change!

Americans are watching as AKA, with the help of the Democrat-controlled Congress and the Progressive Caucus, spends money like it was water running from a tap at a time when Americans are losing their jobs, homes and ability to feed themselves; throws extravagant parties while the American people suffer; and works feverishly to implement laws in the name of helping people that do nothing but further oppress the people.

It is becoming increasingly clear to all but the most ardent obamanoids that AKA is a narcissistic Marxist who lusts after power and cares not one iota for the plight of the people of this country. In short, he is dangerous to the continued freedom, liberty and justice afforded the American people by our Constitution and Bill of Rights. While playing to the poor, the downtrodden, the minorities, they are being used by AKA to get what he wants. And if he gets what he wants, which is absolute power, he will laugh at their gullibility in believing he would help them just as Hitler laughed at the downtrodden, poor and minorities who helped him gain absolute power.

Some, looking at AKA’s obvious excesses since moving into the White House — the spendthrift bills that will push this country into a full-blown depression, his extravagant partying at the expense of the people, his insulting of foreign heads of state, wonder if this is just a man out of his element or if this is deliberate.

Make no mistake, while AKA is obviously a man out of his element, his actions with regard to running this country into the ground are deliberate.

Any individual who has worked for a living knows that you cannot spend more than you make and get ahead of the game; that writing checks with no money in the bank to cover them is a one-way street to bankruptcy; that living beyond your means is a fools game.

Yet that is exactly what AKA is doing. And he is being aided in that by Representative Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid and the Democrat-controlled Congress.

AKA was, and may still be, a member of the Democrat Socialists of America (DSA) New Party; a membership that both he and the New Party have attempted to deny.

AKA hates everything this nation stands for. He is a Marxist, through and through, right down to those he associates with, including William Ayres and Bernadine Dohrn. People are known by the company they keep, even when they try to deny that relationship after twenty years of attending a church where anti-American hate is spewed from the pulpit and the victimology of Black Liberation Theology is the course served up exclusively.

And while AKA told the people that he was about “hope” and “change”, he has filled his administration with the same old anti-American, pro-globalist crowd from the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg group. The more things change, the more they stay the same!

The people have requested AKA prove his eligibility to the office he holds. While claiming his administration would be “transparent” and “open”, he has refused, spending hundreds of thousands if not millions on attorneys to keep that information from being made public. In this endeavor, the courts have been complicit, right down the line, offering various excuses — from standing, to the cases being “moot” after the fact, to being frivolous, to the eligibility issue being the duty of Congress. Congresses says the courts must decide the issue; the courts say it’s the duty of Congress. The same old blame game we’ve seen so many times before.

The evidence that AKA is not natural born, is not even an American citizen, is over-whelming to all but ardent obamanoid worshippers who run on the mantra “don’t confuse me with the facts.”

AKA is what he is and if the American people plan on saving this nation, they better come to the realization of what he is and give him the boot; sooner rather than later.

The emperor truly has no clothes!

© 2009 Lynn M. Stuter - All Rights Reserved

Activist and researcher, Stuter has spent the last fifteen years researching systems theory and systems philosophy with a particular emphasis on education as it pertains to achieving the sustainable global environment. She home schooled two daughters. She has worked with legislators, both state and federal, on issues pertaining to systems governance, the sustainable global environment and education reform. She networks nationwide with other researchers and a growing body of citizens concerned with the transformation of our nation from a Constitutional Republic to a participatory democracy. She has traveled the United States and lived overseas.

Web site: www.learn-usa.com

E-Mail: lmstuter@learn-usa.com 

http://www.newswithviews.com/Stuter/stuter147.htm

Ron Paul: Culprits Of Financial Collapse Should Be Arrested

Not treated as saviors and given more power to “fix” the problem that they created

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, March 12, 2009

Congressman Ron Paul says that the people responsible for the economic crisis should not be hailed as saviors and given more power to fix the problem that they created, but arrested and criminally prosecuted.

Paul told the Alex Jones Show that the only way the private Federal Reserve could be brought under control would come as a result of a mass uprising, noting that there is a lot more awareness in Washington about the Fed’s contribution to the economic crisis.

The Congressman has two bills before Congress, one to abolish the Fed altogether and another to audit the organization.

“Today they’re protected, they’re in total secrecy and they’re protected by the law - if 1207 is passed we have an audit and they have to answer the questions and I figure, if we ever get that far and get the exposure and get the transparency that we need then people will wake up and realize, why do we have them at all,” said Paul.

The Congressman’s bill to audit the Fed is similar to another bill introduced by Bernie Sanders in the Senate which is aimed at getting the Fed to answer specific questions about where $2 trillion in bailout funds has gone, a subject that Bloomberg News sued the Fed simply to try and discover. Staggering scenes unfolded last week at a Senate budget Committee meeting when Bernanke arrogantly refused to state where any of the bailout money had gone despite repeated questioning by Sanders.

Asked if the people who caused the economic collapse should be trusted as saviors or criminally charged, Paul responded, “We should have minimal government, but even in a minimalist government your government is supposed to deal with theft and physical harm and fraud, and that’s what’s going on and that’s what they ignore or protect….it’s horrible what they’re doing….and they should be prosecuting these people, these people should be in prison.”

The Texas Congressman also discussed Obama’s monetary policy, noting that every time a new government initiative was announced to supposedly rescue the economy, the stock markets sink.

“In spite of how a lot of people think the markets don’t know what’s going on, the markets are pretty smart, so the fact that they’re not responding, in spite of all this stuff the government is doing, every time the government comes up with a new program, the markets go down even more,” said Paul, noting that free market advocates were right in warning that the problems will only begin to be resolved once liquidation is allowed to occur.

Asked how bad the economic picture would get, Paul responded, “I think it’s going to be very prolonged, I don’t see any rebound, markets may come back up and that sort of thing but to rebound I would expect it to last every bit as long as happened in the 30’s,” adding that the last depression did not really end until after a world war.

“I think it’s going to be a long long time but now we live in greater danger because people are far more demanding, they believe they have a right to their neighbors property and that’s why there’s liable to be violence….ultimately they’re going to destroy the dollar,” said the Congressman, adding that the only quick solution to the crisis was to follow constitutional principles.

Listen to the interview with Ron Paul below.

Research related articles:

1. Ron Paul Scolds Bernanke For Skipping Congressional Financial Hearings
2. Ron Paul: Printing Money Only Prolongs The Pain
3. Ron Paul Grills Bernanke: “You Can’t Reinflate The Bubble”
4. Ron Paul: Fear Based Bailouts Constitute Economic Terrorism
5. Ron Paul on The Alex Jones Show: “A Global Financial Order”
6. Ron Paul: Government Spending Driving Us Into Depression
7. Paul: Wars planned to save US empire
8. Ron Paul: Bailout Will Destroy Dollar, World Economy
9. Ron Paul: Greenspan, Bernanke Should Be Criminally Charged
10. CNBC Anchors Mortified That Ron Paul Was Allowed Air Time
11. Ron Paul Slams “Born-again Budget Conservatives”
12. Ron Paul: Obama Foreign Policy Identical To Bush

MUST READ! Gold & The Panic Phase

by Jim Willie, CB. Editor, Hat Trick Letter | March 5th, 2009

A couple of bright friends reported to me some overriding themes at the PDAC gathering in Toronto last weekend. Apparently, some surprise came to them. They mentioned that more than a few analysts, writers, and speakers still do not get it. They actually believe the situation with the US Economy and US banking system has begun to stabilize. That is like saying a college basketball player has Michael Jordan under control, or a farmer has his Clydesdale horse under control, or a misguided King can call back the ocean tide, or a man has a hurricane under control as he clings to a roof rafter. The US Economy has entered an accelerated phase of disintegration, while the populace has entered a new panic phase. The US stock market is under the microscope, and it just broke a key multi-year critical support level. This article is intended to be constructive, with a list of perceived meters and conditions, followed by a four-step foundation for a recovery. When finished reading the four planks, one should easily conclude that no solution, let alone attempt, is on the correct path or is in the works.

Therefore the plan for individuals, who have been betrayed on a colossal scale, must defend themselves by exiting all assets and hunkering into cash. The betrayal lies at the feet of bankers, politicians, military brass, and corporate chiefs. By the way, cash is prescribed in that perfectly crafted document called the US Constitution. Gold & silver are the only forms of money that can legally satisfy debts public and private. That near perfect document has also been betrayed, with even the last president calling it a ‘mere piece of paper’ incredibly. The financial problems of the nation took deep root with the Vietnam War and the subsequent abrogation of the Bretton Woods Accord that had forged the US$-Gold linkage. The analysts, pundits, bankers, and politicos seem to have totally lost sight of this basic fact. Their deep error, along with profound corruption, will be centerpieces in the next chapters written in history. My rational and considered belief is that gold, as well as crude oil, will be anchors to the next global reserve currencies. (BOTH controlled by the power elite!! This, I believe, is why JFK chose to use silver.~ TWRR) What better route to stabilize both financial and commercial price systems? Those who believe that the USDollar will prevail and survive this turmoil as the global reserve currency are precisely as incorrect as those who believed the US banking system could survive the mortgage debacle as it unfolded. We are witnessing a long slow drawn-out death experience for the USDollar, liquidation of the USEconomy, to be followed by a default by the USTreasury Bonds. During the panic phase, the response in the gold & silver prices will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

CRESCENDO AFTER ETHICS ORIGINAL SIN

The topic of fraud has clearly been in the news often in the last two years. The mortgage fraud was for a while covered up by its framing as a subprime problem, but no longer. The counterfeit of Fannie Mae mortgage bonds, estimated at well over $1 trillion, has been essentially kicked under the rug on USGovt hallways following its nationalization. The insider trading by Goldman Sachs is an example of outstanding and impressive executions, perpetrated with complete impunity. The maze of unscrupulous, devious, and insidious fraudulent business units of JPMorgan is worthy of a 500-page chapter in the US financial history treatise, someday to be written. See the complete distortion of usury costs (interest rates kept low) by JPM, with such a volume of Interest Rate Swaps that was sufficient to run the Bond Vigilantes out of town. Skewed cost of money is the foundation for speculative bubbles. See the management of USTreasury Bonds by JPM on behalf of the Federal Reserve, along with the $2.2 trillion that they sold above and beyond the officially stated USGovt issuance of USTreasury Bonds. That is called counterfeit evidence, the records for which were lost in the third building at the World Trade Center. See the management by JPM of the Bank of Baghdad. Twice as much money is missing from the Iraq Reconstruction Fund than was stolen by Bernie Madoff, up to $100 billion being estimated. And never overlook the financial tentacles that extend from Afghan operations on the contraband side, to the Bank of Baghdad as the clearinghouse.

(Still unmentioned is the biggest fraud of all...the Federal Reserve Banking System, which is nothing more than a huge ponzi scheme!!)

The quiet climaxes of fraud are seen with the Madoff Ponzi Scheme and other minor cases. If you think that authorities are still looking for where Madoff hid the stolen money, then you must believe that the Wall Street mission is to assist in the capitalization process for US industry. The majority of the Madoff funds are safely placed in the same location as much of the Wall Street ill-gotten gains. My sources report that location to be banks within the tiny ally coastal nation north of Egypt and south of Syria, which with the urging of the last Administration, removed all extradition laws in recent years. Trace back to find the original sin of the ethics violations, and you should find your feet squarely at the abrogation of the Bretton Woods Accord that cut the linkage between the USDollar and gold. This is an ethics violation climax of historical proportions.

The pathogenesis of breakdown must join with fraud during the advance of foreign debt ownership, which resulted in lost sovereignty. The hidden placation of foreign creditors results in hidden policy that does not cater to national interests of the United States anymore. The breakdown that comes will enable foreign creditors to gather a wide swath of US properties (residential homes, commercial property, factories, etc) from USTreasury Bond and USAgency Mortgage Bond conversion to hard assets. The teamwork, synergy, and innovation at the core financial engineering had been concentrated in what can be described at best as a national Ponzi enterprise of clean industry for the next millennium, and at worst on a grand network of fraudulent financial enterprise that includes fraudulent bonds, counterfeit bonds, narcotics, and arms dealing. The response in the gold & silver prices to recognized official and private fraud will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

STOCKS ARE THERMOMETER

The major indexes of the US stock market are in the news daily, and viewed by the public as perhaps the most important concurrent signal of the crisis. Technical chart analysts warn that the breakdown below the 2002-2003 support levels sounds an extremely loud alarm, paints a large billboard warning, and should be taken seriously as a dire development. Novices might not recognize the pattern below in the S&P500 index, but experienced analysts surely do. It is a long-term DoubleTop Head & Shoulders reversal pattern. It is a Mother of Reversal Patterns. Its base is roughly at 775, its top at 1550, which indicates a target of nearly zero. Not only are private wealth accounts being cut down but pension funds as well. Individuals invest much more in stocks than pension funds, which are diversified into bonds and commercial property. All asset groups are suffering. The public has begun to respond in minor panic to the stock market declines, as private telephone calls testify. Expect another decline of 25% to 35% on both the S&P index and Dow Jones Industrial Index. With each passing month comes more specific evidence of economic deterioration or disintegration, coupled with mammoth additional bank losses. They push stocks down. The key drivers seem to be job loss and big financial firm loss. See the history making $100 billion AIG annual loss, the ongoing hemorrhage at Citigroup and Bank of America, the gigantic extensions of cash from the USGovt to big banks.

The claptrap propaganda coming from Wall Street centers on price multiples against earnings. The problem is that earnings are evaporating, and the PE ratio argument is empty. The response in the gold & silver prices to the deep stock declines, cratered pensions, and loss of life savings will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

RETAIL IS THE BAROMETER

Over 80 thousand retail stores closed in 2008. The forecast from expert corners is for another 120 thousand retail shutdowns in 2009. Numerous retail chains have gone out of business, with the list expected to more than double in 2009 and 2010. Recall retail consumption had been the boasted foundation of the USEconomy, the engine of growth to the global economy, by inept clueless hack economists for at least a decade. The national guidance from the economic counsel staffs continues to utter heresy that spending is healthy, when sound economic reason dictates that investment in productive enterprise is the key to any solution. This blight is very difficult to hide from the American public, as they pass the partially and completely shutdown malls, mini-malls, and small office strip malls during their daily lives. The feedback loops are indeed vicious, as reduced spending means job cuts, even though they are low-paid jobs. Bear in mind that the construction and operation of retail shopping malls does not constitute investment in an economy toward its productive capacity, but rather creation of a pathway to liquidate and spend home equity on the path to foreclosure and bankruptcy. In my view, retail serves as a barometer on what to expect in the near term future. The crisis collapse in the car industry echoes loudly the retail woes, as annual sales decline range from 40% to 50% per brand. The response in the gold & silver prices to the blight in shopping malls, retail crash, and car collapse will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

FORECLOSURES ARE THE LEADING INDICATOR

In 4Q2008, the rate of foreclosures rose by 53%. No stability whatsoever is evident. The only good news is that the rate of FC is no longer 100% on an annual basis. So a deceleration is in progress. Maybe in one year’s time, the FC annual growth rate will only be 30% to 35%, with some luck. The Mortgage Bankers Assn reported today that the mortgage delinquency rate rose by two percentage points to 7.88% by year end 2008, and the foreclosure rate rose to 3.3% also. The total in DQ or FC rose from 10.1% in 3Q2008 to 11.2% in 4Q2008. So one home loan in nine is late or dead. Also, an estimated 20% of American homes are in negative equity situations, with loan balances in excess of their home values. As the delinquencies convert to foreclosures, the bloated home inventory for sale will remain at elevated levels. In fact, they are grossly under-stated, since banks are rotating foreclosed properties on their books in order to avoid a further flood on the bloated condition. REO properties by banks are a hot topic.

To be sure, a few dozen or a few hundred or perhaps even a thousand home loans might receive actual aid by the USGovt. The number of home loans to receive some form of official aid is proposed to benefit one in nine, coincidentally. Time will tell to what extent any new legislation on so-called ‘cramdowns’ takes root. Bankruptcy judges might soon have the power to dictate to a bank that it reduce home loan balances, seeking a level of affordability relative to proved income. The home loan aid process is incredibly slow, while the pace of economic decline is accelerating. Be sure to know that households in foreclosure, or in delinquency, or even in chronic insolvency from an under-water home loan do not spend money, and generally cut back on expenses, even enter a bunker mentality under siege. The response in the gold & silver prices to the household insolvency and foreclosure process will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

JOBS ARE THE LIGHTNING ROD

Nothing captures the attention of the public like the reports on job loss. Sudden income loss is often devastating. The continuing claims for jobless in the official aggregate records eclipsed the 5 million mark in late February. When the USGovt announces back-to-back months of over 500 thousand (half a million) job losses, the public will surely notice and scream from rooftops. Of course, the number is probably worse, since official agencies are urged to put the best face of their tilted figures. In the coming months, expect the number of monthly job losses to surpass the one million mark. As that occurs, the national level of concern will surely morph into some form of panic, with disorder to follow, and civil disobedience rampant. Calls for extreme action by the USGovt will be made, as though they control any solutions at all. In fact, look for their collective actions to greatly aggravate the national economic ills, with time release to occur down the road. After all, they sell hope. The response in the gold & silver prices to horrendous job loss will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

POLITICIANS REPEAT HISTORICAL ERRORS

The honeymoon is almost over for the new president. His cabinet staff comes from the same crowd within the establishment responsible for the financial collapse. They just wear different colored jackets, coming from the Clinton Camp instead of the Bush Camp. In my view, they are almost all turncoats to the nation. The federal budget for next year has centerpieces of tax increases (up 33% on income, up 100% on capital in the form of dividends), removal of some tax deductions for home mortgages, and a $20.4 billion defense budget increase. Obama even mentions measures that harken protectionism. Some of these main items are in a state of flux, as the errors of their ways are being re-evaluated. One should not increase taxes during a recession. One should not tax capital during a capital liquidation. One should not tax energy production during price instability. One should not discourage home purchase during a housing bear market. One should not increase military spending, when money is desperately needed for domestic purposes. These are classic political errors that will render additional harm to the current economic and financial crisis. The Glass-Steagal Law to prevent collapse of the financial system was removed late in the 1990 decade. Dominos can now fall, as it is joined at the hips from banking, stock brokerage, and insurance. Its scrap was a Pet Project of former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, again the Poster Boy of financial failure and fraud (see his gold leasing multi-year project). His was the stolen 1990 decade of prosperity. The damage is therefore certain to run across the primary financial sectors for a long painful sequence in time. The insurance firms are next to fall. Watch Prudential, MetLife, Hartford, and Lincoln.

History is being actively ignored. “What experience and history teach is this: that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.” These words were spoken by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (19th century German philosopher). Few observers seem to realize that on the spectrum, the distance between Fascism (battle cry of last eight years) and Socialism (battle cry since inauguration) is remarkable short. Socialism shares the misery, as the successful are forced to pay for the failures, the corrupt, and the lazy. To construe that nationalization and absence of profit motive represent movement in the direction of communism seems very much correct. The Politburo at the US Federal Reserve has done its job since irrational exuberance took root. The response in the gold & silver prices to USGovt policies that amplify the damage to the national condition will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

BANKERS FUND FAILURE & FRAUD

For over a year, a clear trend has been set in stone. The USFed and USCongress (aid & abet) have been on course to redeem fraudulent bonds, to fund almost exclusively the largest banks, and to deny credit supply to the mainstream. Unwritten orders were given by the USFed and Goldman Sachs henchmen who dominate the Treasury Dept for banks receiving TARP funds not to lend, but rather to acquire smaller banks in distress. All this while the regulators have been obviously given orders to sit on their hands or to aid the acquisitions and mergers (see the FDIC and Bair efforts). By the way, the FDIC fund is almost empty. The inescapable conclusion is that proper credit supply to profitable and promising enterprise is being obstructed, thus strangling the USEconomy. The nationalization of AIG and Fannie Mae was more designed to hide credit derivative explosions, to bury a mountain of counterfeit bonds, and to prevent a shutdown of perhaps over one hundred thousand businesses. The AIG conglomerate insures 70k individuals, over 100k businesses, and has 74 million customers. Without insurance or bonded coverage, many businesses would have been forced to close operations. The response in the gold & silver prices to misdirection of credit toward failure and fraud, and to exclude the healthy promise of private enterprise will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

A GENERATION OF LOST WEALTH

Much talk has come of a lost decade of wealth. A hint has come in the last few days of a lost generation of wealth, a cry which will reverberate very soon. This is real. This is accurate. This is a legitimate claim. My forecast is for housing prices to fall at least to those seen in 1988-1990, maybe lower. The stock market indexes could easily fall to the same levels they showed during those years, based upon powerful momentum and soured psychology. One should really examine the root causes and likely consequences from diverse liquidation amidst economic deterioration. The USEconomy can easily be described, as a result of unchecked credit growth combined with financial engineering hidden by a shadow banking system, to have been little more than a phony expansion of a national bubble for a full generation since that important 1971 year, when the USDollar broke ties with gold. The palpable risk is for much of the accumulated wealth for perhaps over 30 years to gradually be lost. If so, then a failure of state is assured. If so, then the national debt in the form of USTreasury Bonds cannot possible remain viable.

The two best single indicators in my view, among numerous, for judging the prospect of such calamities are these. 1) The USTBond credit default swap has risen from a mere one basis point a few years ago to a full 1.0% now. That is a 100-fold rise, and ranks among the worst in the world, along with the United Kingdom. 2) The BKX bank stock index has broken down in repeated fashion, the most recent being a month ago, fully forecasted by the Jackass. Today the Citigroup stock fell below $1 per share. The bank sector leads the stock market lower, and confirms the breakdown below critical support. The response in the gold & silver prices to perceived decades of lost wealth will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

1ST STEP IN RECOVERY – REMOVAL OF WALL STREET

The elite power center is still in charge from Wall Street. Their primary objectives are to avert a credit derivative meltdown, to prevent exposure of a bankrupt dead banking system from proper accounting, and to raid the public till (more bailouts for fraud) as much as is possible. The USFed still refuses to reveal usage of the TARP funds from last autumn, in full defiance. That Goldman Sachs executives continue to appear during official US Dept Treasury announcements on policy is a travesty. TARP fund disbursement, along with control of surly Congressional members, was the job of Goldman Sachs henchmen employed as underlings at Treasury. The travesty continues. The Wall Street syndicate remains in firm control of Treasury. They should be prosecuted, imprisoned, and ordered to give restitution to fraud victims. Instead, they remain in control. The official Stress Tests for big banks constitute yet another charade to endorse the channel of public funds into private banks. The response in the gold & silver prices to continued syndicate control of public funds will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

2ND STEP – END FOREIGN WARS

War costs generally are horrific and serve as principal cause for massive indebtedness to the United States. This has been the case since the Vietnam War. Hundreds of billion$ are annually allocated without question to military budgets, war costs, foreign aid in support of military objectives, and elsewhere, all in crippling fashion. Such chronic spending and industrial diversion has come for a generation without debate. The next annual budget includes yet another sizeable increase for the defense budget. The war in Afghanistan can be best described as Waterloo with a turban headdress. The emphasis at the national level for construction and destruction has been centered on war initiatives, with shockingly little awareness of the ultimate millstone placed around the national neck for the United States. Iraq Reconstruction Funds have recently been reported to be the object of between $50 and $100 billion in missing funds! Yet this news item was buried on back pages. This has been a wellspring of corrupt slush funds that even touched Henry Kissinger’s hands. The reconstruction should be focused within the US. The response in the gold & silver prices to misallocation of priorities and funds toward war will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

3RD STEP – TRUE INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

Much talk has come for infrastructure projects that would fortify the USEconomy enough to provide traction toward recovery and sustenance. Jobs would come on such projects. To date, the projects are something of a joke. Some actual measures on alternative energy seem like a trifling trickle. Look to the Obama Stimulus package to see out of every $1 in funds, we have 14 cents of pork and 11 cents of stimulus, with a lot of political garbage typical of the last twenty years. No change in makeup and mix. In my view, a high-speed railway from Orange County California to Las Vegas Nevada does not qualify as manifested commitment to infrastructure. What? The USGovt subsidizes shuttles to and from Disneyland and the Vegas casinos!!! Thousands of bridges and tunnels and port facilities are in dire need of repair. In my former hometown of Pittsburgh alone, several bridges are shut down as ancient and a hazard. Pipelines for water, sewer, and energy supply are needed nationwide. Expansion of airport facilities is sorely needed, like concourses, jetways, and air traffic control centers, not security rat mazes. The infrastructure should include farms to harness the wind and sun, even to produce hydrogen gas from ocean water. Such initiatives are nowhere to be seen, as the same old same old junk pork and garbage and home earmarks continue to prevail. The response in the gold & silver prices to infrastructure waste and propaganda will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

4TH STEP – FACTORY RESTORATION

Any attempt to revive the nation with job creation and reconstruction would quickly expose the majority of observers (except those who continue to sleep) that the United States has an industrial base that is missing in action against a backdrop of a war economy. The better description is abandoned, dispatched, and forfeited industrial base. Unless and until the USEconomy reinstalls its factory foundation, returns significant portions of it from Asia (especially China), and ensures adequate training to professional staffs, the nation cannot conceivable recover. It is that simple, mainly because the challenge is not to put chunks of money in people’s hands to spend. The challenge is to enable people to earn legitimate chunks of money to spend from viable jobs. For a decade, the nation depended too much upon raiding home equity, upon jobs centered on the housing and mortgage industry, and upon extracting cash to spend on whatever they wished, whether productive, necessary, frivolous, or wasteful. The monumental and highly visible destruction, dismantling, and deterioration of the US car industry highlights the damage done better than any words or graph.

The USGovt must encourage job creation on the Homeland soil, for factories, reconstruction, and alternative energy pursuits. The Dept of Homeland Security seems much more intent on fencing the zones soon to morph into wasteland. The industrial base is the most important structure to a national economy, not its financial sector. The US has had its priorities backwards for almost two decades, putting financial engineering and its clean industry ahead of factories and their dirty effluent. The smokestacks of Wall Street have poured out noxious gases that finally have rendered crippling damage. The response in the gold & silver prices to continued factor ruin will be profound, with advances to date only a prelude to a march to $2000 gold and $50 silver.

Let’s bring back recycling initiatives, which are so productive. Here is a factoid worth thinking about. One metric tonne of recycled paper usage saves an average of 5 large trees, saves 30 thousand liters (~7100 gallons) of water, and requires 60% less energy for pulp processing. Conservative is a great element to fit into the industrial revitalization of America.

Copyright © 2009 Jim Willie, CB
Editorial Archive

Jim Willie CB is a statistical analyst in marketing research and retail forecasting. He holds a Ph.D. in Statistics. His career has stretched over 24 years. He aspires to thrive in the financial editor world, unencumbered by the limitations of economic credentials. 

Jim Willie CB is the editor of the “HAT TRICK LETTER” Use the below link to subscribe to the paid research reports, which include coverage of several smallcap companies positioned to rise like a cantilever during the ongoing panicky attempt to sustain an unsustainable system burdened by numerous imbalances aggravated by global village forces. An historically unprecedented mess has been created by heretical central bankers and charlatan economic advisors, whose interference has irreversibly altered and damaged the world financial system. Analysis features Gold, Crude Oil, USDollar, Treasury bonds, and inter-market dynamics with the US Economy and US Federal Reserve monetary policy. A tad of relevant geopolitics is covered as well. Articles in this series are promotional, an unabashed gesture to induce readers to subscribe.

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/willie/2009/0305.html

It's Time to Admit the Obvious: The Political Classes Deliberately Are Blocking an Economic Recovery

by William L. Anderson

These are heady times at the editorial offices of the New York Times and at the Washington, D.C., home of Sojourners. Columnist Thomas Frank of the Wall Street Journal cannot contain his glee, and the editors of The Nation are enraptured. College and university faculty members still are celebrating. Indeed, one would think that "Happy Days are Here Again" is playing over and over wherever there is a music box.

Barack Obama has delivered. He not only has produced a federal budget so profligate that even Paul Krugman has endorsed it, but his actions on the tax-borrow-spend front have earned the praise of none other than God Himself. That’s right, Jim Wallis, the founder and leader of the Marxist organization Sojourners, has studied the highlights of the document and declared them fit for praise from the Almighty. Thus, we finally are seeing the convergence of the atheists and those who say they believe in God: all can worship Obama.

I have scanned many writers and editorial pages and websites that make their home on the Left, and all seem consistent in their praise of the president’s new proposals. After Obama’s recent speech to Congress, Wallis gushed:

This wasn’t really a budget speech, or even a State of the Union. It was a call to rebuild a country – from its infrastructure, to its economy, to its values. Last night, Barack Obama called a new generation to a new American future. And from the "twittering" and Facebook status updates I am aware of going on last night, the new generation stayed up late to watch and got the speech they wanted – a vision for the new America they hope to raise their children in.

Lest one think that Wallis was enjoying just a momentary flash of glee, read on:

Some people don’t like strong leadership. I do. And this is the kind of leadership that calls and inspires people to act themselves and be part of the solutions we need. I like that too. And it’s a new kind of leadership that invites being held accountable to results. That’s fair.

Obama has a vision and last night offered a road map. And he invited citizens across the political spectrum to bring their own ideas but to join the journey and stop standing by the side of the road with their arms folded in critique. Disagreement comes with a responsibility to offer better ideas, says this president.

The words of Ty’Sheoma, a school girl from South Carolina, sitting in the gallery next to Michelle Obama, were lifted up by President Obama last night. She wrote the Congress to ask for help for her school but wanted them to know, "We are not quitters."

Furthermore, lest one thinks that Wallis is speaking only for himself, read these recent words from Paul Krugman:

Elections have consequences. President Obama’s new budget represents a huge break, not just with the policies of the past eight years, but with policy trends over the past 30 years. If he can get anything like the plan he announced on Thursday through Congress, he will set America on a fundamentally new course.

The budget will, among other things, come as a huge relief to Democrats who were starting to feel a bit of postpartisan depression. The stimulus bill that Congress passed may have been too weak and too focused on tax cuts. The administration’s refusal to get tough on the banks may be deeply disappointing. But fears that Mr. Obama would sacrifice progressive priorities in his budget plans, and satisfy himself with fiddling around the edges of the tax system, have now been banished.

As the Obama administration continues on its legislative and political path, I think that we have to re-frame the terms of the argument. For most people, the dispute supposedly is over the way to an economic recovery. On one side, there is the Keynesian demand that we spend out way out of the crisis, and the recent Nobel Prize conferred on Krugman, who is the loudest and most prominent spokesman for this policy prescription, supposedly lends this path some legitimacy.

On the other side, there are people like Peter Schiff and the Austrian Economists and mainstream economists like Robert Barro, who say that the government’s "solution" is upside down and is making the economic crisis worse. Writes Barro:

Given our situation, it is right that radical government policies should be considered if they promise to lower the probability and likely size of a depression. However, many governmental actions – including several pursued by Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression – can make things worse.

I wish I could be confident that the array of U.S. policies already in place and those likely forthcoming will be helpful. But I think it more likely that the economy will eventually recover despite these policies, rather than because of them.

As one who admires Schiff and others who have spoken out and told the truth – and I believe they are correct – I believe that it is time for us to understand a basic truth that is coming out of the new regime: There is not going to be a recovery, and that is just fine with Obama and the political classes that now have a death grip on our lives.

This is a harsh and seemingly conspiratorial statement, and people who know me know that I am extremely skeptical of "conspiracy theories," yet here I am peddling what some very well might call a "conspiracy theory." Do I believe that what Washington is doing is a diabolical plot aimed at fundamentally changing the U.S. economy in a way that economic depression will be a permanent way of life?

In a word, yes. The Obama and Democratic proposals are not simply economic documents. They are fundamentally political in nature and they reflect an understanding that few people have of the Great Depression.

When people discuss the Great Depression, it usually is in the context of whether or not the New Deal was "successful." Economists such as Robert Higgs and Murray Rothbard have argued that it was not, and Barro’s comments above add to that side of the discussion. On the other hand, we have a recent article in Salon which claimed that the New Deal produced "spectacular" economic growth, and we also have Krugman’s columns which claim that the only problem with the New Deal was that Franklin Roosevelt did not spend enough money because the "conservatives" had his ear.

Now, I go with the first group. The New Deal was an unqualified economic failure, if one judges economic "success" by things like unemployment rates, private investment, real output, and the move of people from lives of poverty to lives of plenty. Unemployment stayed in double digits throughout the decade, many people lived in poverty, and the economic output never did match what it had been during the 1920s.

However, I have to add something that most people leave out of the discussion: the New Deal was an unqualified political success, and it was successful precisely because it blocked the economic recovery. This is counter-intuitive, I realize. I have heard discussion in the halls of my university that the public will lose patience with Obama and the Democrats if they don’t deliver and "political guru" Dick Morris even predicts that further economic failure will result in the Republicans gaining political strength.

Don’t count on it. During the 1930s, the Roosevelt administration never had to worry about losing political power, and it held and added to its political majorities. Roosevelt even won a third term of office although the first eight years of his presidency had barely moved the rate of unemployment below what it had been during the worst days of the Herbert Hoover administration.

This spectacular run of political power did not come in spite of the economic crisis; it came because of it. The crisis never ended, and that provided vast opportunities for the political classes in Washington to add to their power over the lives of individuals.

We have to remember that with the exception of the U.S. entry into World War I, most Americans had little contact with governments, and especially the federal government. They lived their lives mostly employed in private business, and with their own families and private associations like churches and clubs.

The Great Depression and the New Deal changed all of that. Americans who once had held jobs that were lifting them from poverty now had to depend upon the pittance of money they received from Washington to keep them from sliding off into economic oblivion. The Works Progress Administration might have paid very little, but whatever money these people received helped to keep them alive for another month.

As James Couch and William Shughart have pointed out in their book, The Political Economy of the New Deal, the Roosevelt administration understood the political power that it had and, more important, the power that it held over the very survival of individuals and their families. In previous times, people could have ignored what was going on in Washington, but during the years of the New Deal, that no longer was possible.

Indeed, they were utterly dependent upon the political classes in Washington and that meant voting "for the right people." In his recent Christmas Day column, Krugman claimed that the Roosevelt administration was nonpolitical in its economic spending, and provided a roadmap for "good government." The meticulous research of Couch and Shughart exposes Krugman’s claim for the Big Lie that it is. Indeed, the New Deal was a vast vote-buying scheme created and maintained for one purpose: keeping Roosevelt and his party in power, and it succeeded beyond expectations.

We know that Obama and his political minions have been reading all about FDR and the New Deal, and we also know they have not been reading Murray Rothbard or Ludwig von Mises. They know all about how FDR and the New Dealers manipulated policies and continuously blocked an economic recovery that would not come about until after Roosevelt was dead and government spending was reduced drastically.

The key to holding power, however, is blocking an economic recovery and having an economy in which double-digit unemployment is the norm. Don’t think that this would trigger a revolt from the American voters. Once the voters have come to believe that their own futures are tied to the whims of the political classes, they will vote their personal security. Furthermore, the administration and Congress will do everything possible to further empower labor unions, and we can look for huge inroads as the government simply will declare that businesses and organizations become unionized – or else. Organized labor is a political creation, and that means that every working individual is going to constantly be scrutinized for political loyalties – if that person wants to keep his or her job.

A true economic recovery would strengthen businesses and families, but it would do so at the expense of the power of the political classes. Such a state of affairs no longer is acceptable in Washington, and Obama and his friends are going to make sure that we don’t forget that either.

The key to holding power, however, is blocking an economic recovery and having an economy in which double-digit unemployment is the norm. Don’t think that this would trigger a revolt from the American voters. Once the voters have come to believe that their own futures are tied to the whims of the political classes, they will vote their personal security. Furthermore, the administration and Congress will do everything possible to further empower labor unions, and we can look for huge inroads as the government simply will declare that businesses and organizations become unionized – or else. Organized labor is a political creation, and that means that every working individual is going to constantly be scrutinized for political loyalties – if that person wants to keep his or her job.

During the 1930s, the New Dealers said that the high rates of unemployment were due to the fact that the U.S. economy was "mature." I have not heard that term used just yet, but I am sure that sooner or later, we are going to be told that double-digit unemployment is going to be the permanent state of things, and that if we want employment, we have to make sure that the "right people" are happy with us.

William L. Anderson, Ph.D. [send him mail], teaches economics at Frostburg State University in Maryland, and is an adjunct scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He also is a consultant with American Economic Services.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson240.html

Copyright © 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

William Anderson Archives

The Rothschilds, LBMA, and Gold

In case you missed it:

A MUST READ for anyone who wants to see more clearly the reason for the wrodl monetary crisis and who is behind it...

It has been said that "the wealth of Rothschild consists of the bankruptcy of nations"

The Rothschilds, LBMA, and Gold

"It would be insufficient to sum up the (Rothschild) family as still very wealthy. ..(their fortunes are as) ineffable as always....today the family grooms the inaudibility and invisibility of its presence as a result, some believe that little is left apart from a great legend -- and the Rothschilds are quite content to let legend be their public relations." (The Rothschilds, Frederick Morton, 1962)

Gold-Eagle analysts, including the Red Baron's The Grand LBMA Exposés (http://www.gold-eagle.com/gold_digest/baron1110.html) and the Oracle of Alberta's Novus Ordo Seclorum and China (http://www.gold-eagle.com/gold_digest/alberta1030.html), have drawn attention to the role of the London Bullion Marketing Association (LBMA) and to the House of Rothschild, as a key player at the LBMA and global gold markets. The intention of this essay is to provide an in-depth forensic historical and geopolitical assessment of key issues and players in today's markets. For this purpose, an historical analysis is a good teacher. To understand today's currency and gold markets requires a study of the House of Rothschild; undoubtedly the world's most influential merchant banking power for over 200 years.

When a Rothschild Falls in the Forest, Does Anyone Hear It?

Most people would have overlooked the Globe and Mail's (Canada's national newspaper) news clip announcing the very recent death of Baron Edmond de Rothschild in the newspaper's International Business section. The Baron's death is no small event when considering the importance of the Rothschild's in European and global financial history. When a Rothschild dies, does anybody hear it or understand the significance? It is ironic that while days of attention were devoted to the deaths of Princess Diana and Mother Theresa, virtually no attention is given to the death of a member of one of the wealthiest families in the world.

The following description of the Baron's demise appeared in the Globe and Mail under his picture:

"Baron Edmond de Rothschild, philanthropist, international financier and member of the banking dynasty, died Monday in Geneva, of a respiratory illness at age 71, a spokesman said. Mr. Rothschild was president of his Geneva-based bank and financial companies as well as the Luxembourg-based Leicom Fund. He was believed to be the richest family member (of the House of Rothschild) that has played a major role in French business and culture for nearly two centuries. The Rothschilds are widely known for their wineries in the Bourdeaux region of France, including the Baron's Chateau Clarke, where he is to be buried this week in a private ceremony. Mr. Rothschild was named an officer of France's legion of honour in 1994, and its order of arts and letters in 1990. Throughout his life, he donated the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars to hospitals, museums, and the State of Israel. An avid art collector, he gave works to the Louvre museum in Paris. Mr. Rothschild's son Benjamin, 34, will succeed him as president of Paris-based Cie Financiere Holding Benjamin et Edmond de Rothschild."

In a July 1997 edition of the Globe and Mail another rare report of another important Rothschild enterprise was made (see Rothschilds holding company fiscal year profit up 66%): The article referred to the Rothschilds Continuation Holdings AG, parent of N.M. Rothschild & Sons Ltd, "a Swiss holding company for the Rothschild merchant banking business worldwide ...(with) operating profits rising to 179 million Swiss francs ($122.4 million U.S.) in the year ended March 31 from 108 million francs the previous years." A 66% profit increase is no small feat especially when you consider their line of business. In the article, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, chairman of Rothschild's Continuation, noted "We've got a good balance of businesses and on the whole we've had a pretty good run." Sir Evelyn also noted that the company has three global business lines "treasury and bullion trading; resource banking, or banking for the mining industry; and investment banking." Such stupendous returns on a supposedly barbarous relic, gold, make even George Soros's Quantum Fund returns seem meagre. It is important to note that this rare exposure of the family business coincides with the recent rare exposé by the LBMA that the equivalent of between 30-42 million ounces of gold per day are traded in London.

The more significant cousin of RCH AG is in fact N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd, named after Nathan Mayer Rothschild, one of the five sons of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who operated the London-based house of the family merchant banking enterprise in the latter part of the 18th and early 19th century. The Rothschild business enterprise has changed little in over 200 years. But why change a good thing when such large and sustained profits can be made by trading currency, treasuries, and gold plus gold leasing, financing of gold mining operations, and investment banking?

So what is the significance of the death of one of the richest and greatest philanthropers in the world, and the connection to the London Bullion Marketing Association?

The House of Rothschild: Roots in Germany

To understand the importance of the Rothschild's in world financial markets, one must study the history of the House of Rothschild. Ironically, despite their enormous influence on European finance and banking for over 200 years, there are few references to the House of Rothschild in history books. There are a few exceptions including the exhaustive financial historical account of the House of Rothschild between 1770-1830 entitled the "The Rise of the House of Rothschild" by Count Egon Caesar Corti (1928) and "The Rothschilds" by Frederic Morton (1962 ), undoubtedly a family-commissioned auto-biographical account of two hundred years of the House.

The House of Rothschild was founded in 1776 in Frankfurt, Germany by Mayer Amschel Rothschild - (born 1743 in Frankfurt, Germany). Mayer fathered five boys who would establish the most successful merchant banking network in England (Nathan), France (James), Austria (Salomon), Prussia (Amschel) and Italy (Carl).

From humble beginnings as a rare coin trader, Mayer quickly built a private merchant banking empire which was the choice of not only the German Prince William, but also the financier of choice of the major powers of Europe. The Rothschild name became synonymous with merchant banking quality and safety. The financial acumen of Mayer and his five sons became legendary. The acumen and the accumulated wealth of Mayer has been continually passed down to the next male generation of Rothschilds, without dilution. Their market worth has never been audited or accounted for, following from Mayer's clever accounting practices and the keeping secret books and subterranean vaults which were never the privy of auditor, legal counsel or state taxmen. Their mastery in financing both economic growth and war in Europe with both gold and fiat currencies undoubtedly continues unabated into the 20th century, though romantic auto-biographical accounts might lead you to believe that "that was history."

Their financial hand has been in virtually every major European event, including financing the Duke of Wellington defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, to financial aid to Prince Metternich of Prussia. The Rothschilds were the first to build the railways of Europe. Studying the Rothschild family acumen for stock markets, gold trade, and financing of nations provides an insight into how 'Smart Money' survives. The Rothschild name is also associated with philanthropy, horticulture, and fine wines (the French house). While romantic autobiographical accounts of the family suggest that their empire has dwindled since World War II, all this may be a clever illusion to avoid publicity and attention. In the words of the autobiographer Frederic Morton "the family grooms the inaudibility and invisibility of its presence as a result, some believe that little is left apart from a great legend - and the Rothschilds are quite content to let legend be their public relation"

Today, their historical ingenuity and financial acumen is undoubtedly at work building new wealth regardless of a bear or bull stock, bond, or gold market. They undoubtedly revolve in circles that include the LBMA, and possibly every important central bank board of directors, including the IMF. While even by conservative accounting, they are undoubtedly the wealthiest family in the world, though you will never see them listed in Fortune magazine.

Through the involvement of N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd. in the LBMA in London, I believe they benefit from virtually every transaction in financial trading, whether treasuries or gold bullion, negotiating gold lease terms for central banks and mining companies, or simply purchasing their own share of gold and gold real estate. One could even imagine that they are involved in the trading of oil for gold and dollars (as per ANOTHER's hypothesis), given their family's interests in Royal Dutch Shell, the world's largest oil company. As Count Corti in 1926, we shall examine the "reported" evidence of their past and current influence in world financial events.

The English House of Rothschild (N.M. Rothschild & Sons)

Of the two major Rothschild Houses (French and English), the London House (New Court ), founded by Nathan Mayer Rothschild and operating today as N.M. Rothschild and Sons, is undoubtedly the most influential, especially as it pertains to gold and currency trading. Twice daily a Rothschild agent sits in a cloistered room "fixing" the price of gold in the world's largest bullion trading market: the London Bullion Market Association ( LBMA ). Historically, N.M. Rothschild was owner and operator of England's Royal Mint Refinery and was the primary gold agent to the Bank of England.

Nathan helped finance Britain's conquest of Napoleon at Waterloo, and benefited in London's stock market from advanced knowledge (from his superb courier service using pigeons) of Napoleons defeat at Waterloo. Nathan helped finance the Duke of Wellington's army having bought 800,000 pounds of gold from the East Indian Company for $8 million then selling the gold to the Duke to help defeat Napoleon. Hence, Nathan became chief broker and pay master general to England's most important army; the Rothschilds were England's lifeline for getting paycheques to the English army. Nathan could single handily wipe out savings of many a competitor by dumping "consols" in London driving down their share prices, as he did with the advance news of Napoleon's defeat. Nathan eventually switched businesses to "buying and selling money only."

On a daily basis, Nathan was legendary in London's markets for jumping in and out of the market with tens of thousands of princely rounds, never too early and never too late. Eventually Nathan would become richer than Prince William, his father Mayer's German client. It is said that the Rothschilds were the inventors of the courier service using passenger pigeons to relay news amongst the family and to their client beneficiaries. Nathan's ability to depress stock prices, then buy them up after people panicked was legendary.. He would use Rothschild agents to send false news which would be used by observers falsely leading the crowd astray, then he would buy up the same stock at ridiculous low prices. One of the Rothschild's first victims was the legendary Barings and Ouvard Bank which Nathan almost destroyed after their competitor attempted to wrestle merchant banking business from the House. Ironically, Barings Bank recently suffered an untimely death at the hands of a rouge derivatives trader in Singapore!

More than any other family, the Rothschilds have built and maintained an empire unparalleled by any monarchy in history. Their acumen as money changers and financier to the leaders of Europe over the past 200 years is unparalleled. No single corporation or business entity has survived with so much accumulated wealth intact.

To this day, N.M. Rothschild & Sons of London still lists as its primary business the selling and buying of treasuries and gold bullion. N.M. Rothschild helps fix the price of gold in London each day through the LBMA. A recent London Times articles explained that the gold price fix ceremony where five men (including a Rothschild) talk on their phones for 10 minutes, then lower tiny Union Jacks sitting on their desks, thereby fixing London's gold price each day. This ceremony takes place at 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m., like clockwork, the same way, in the same place, and with mostly the same firms participating since the first gold fixing was enacted at Rothschild in St. Swithin's Lane on Friday Sept. 12, 1919. The company's name is also associated with many gold mining companies (e.g. Trillion Resources Ltd. and other Canadian mining companies).

The French House (Baron Edmond de Rothschild et.al.)

The French House, which was most recently headed by the Baron Edmond de Rothschild, was the most powerful private merchanting banking arm and the richest of all the Rothschilds and ran the Compaigne Fincanciere, a world wide organization which builds villas, hotels, pipelines, and finances other banks. Rothschild Freres, run by cousing Baron Guy Eduoard, was the largest private bank in France. The French House also controlled mining companies ( De Beers and gold mines in South Africa ) , metal plants ( Rio Tinto ), oil interests ( Royal Dutch Shell ) , and chemical industries (Morton, 1962). The Baron was estimated to be the richest Rothschild and probably the most multiple millionaire/billionaire in Europe. That wealth is now passed on to his son, in Rothschild tradition always to the males, Benjamin ( 34 years of age ) . Edmonds cousin Baron Guy Eduoard was director of the Bank of France. Baron Guy, who owned the Compagnie du Nord railway network in France, was known to use participants to join in ventures serving as initiator and packager as well as guarantor with very deep pockets of cash.

As Morton (1962) notes, the two banks in London and Paris are still probably the largest private institutions in the world. "Although the French house controls scores of industrial, commercial, mining, and tourist corporations, NOT ONE bears the family name." In the 1920s the banks of England and France were organized under the French House into a noisless international syndicate that reached from J.P. Morgan in New York to their cousin Baron Louis' Creditanstallt in Vienna, Austria.

To appreciate the Rothschild's ability to sustain and increase their wealth and avoid the scrutiny of both the public, the markets, and the state taxation system, consider the story of the death of Edouard Rothschild, of the French House. Anticipating the death of Eduoard in 1949, Rothschild agents began to sell their majority stock holdings of Royal Dutch Shell, Rio Tinto and Le Nickel ( giant mining corporation ) to drive down the price of shares just prior to his death to reduce the value of the estate that was subject to taxation by the French Government. This selling created a panic in the world markets depressing stock prices further. A few days following the death of Eduoard, Rothschild agents bought the volume of stock back at depressed prices, and his reported estate wealth was taxed at the depressed price on the day of his death. One should never underestimate the capacity of a Rothschild to influence markets, even today.

Rothschild interests touch virtually every aspect of our lives. They helped found and finance Royal Dutch Shell and De Beers. Following World War II they invested in vast areas of resource rich properties in Canada, possibly gold rich deposits. Joey Smallwood, premier of Newfoundland, Canada, described the 50,000 square mile land purchase by Rothschild as the biggest land deal in Canadian history. Their influence extends to the Bank of England, Bank of France and most likely the U.S. Federal Reserve, and possibly the IMF. They thus have enormous influence on the world's monetary policy.

We shall never have a full accounting of their wealth. All we can go on is Morton's (1962) comment that their wealth is "ineffable as always." Even our conservative estimates suggest a family with staggering wealth and thus influence. In a world awash in debt and unsustainable fiat currencies subject to implosion, the power of gold and the preference of the Rothschilds to gold cannot be easily ignored.

The Rothschilds and the LBMA: The World's Central Bank?

Consider the Rothschild's profound position of influence in the LBMA and the transaction fees they are earning on each and every transaction of treasuries and 42 million ounces of gold transactions DAILY (recently reported volumes of physical, leased, forward sales). . The Rothschild business earns income from "transactions" (including transfers, calls, puts, trades, leases) and one can only begin to imagine the transaction costs associated with last reported trading of over 42 million ounces of gold per day through the LBMA (more than twice South Africa's annual gold production).

Also consider their involvement and influence over monetary policies exercised by the Bank of England and the Bank of France (and possibly the US Federal Reserve System) and in Geneva. Consider the world's above ground gold reserves is roughly 120,000 tons -- with roughly 40,000 tons or 33% held by central banks. How is the remaining "private" gold holdings distributed? Does anyone have such an account? Certainly not the World Gold Council and their statistics. If a single private owner held 5% of world's remaining gold, would that not constitute majority share holdings? If any player could have accumulated, and could afford a 5% holding of the world's gold supply over the last 200 years, it would be the Rothschilds. Could it be that the Rothschilds through their involvement in daily London gold trades are quietly amasing more of the precious metals in their private vaults, while the confidence game of the Central Banks tries desperately to avoid what Soros calls "unsustainable" fiat currency built on unsustainable debt? It was Mayer Amschel Rothschild who kept a secret subterranean vault full of gold beneath the House of Rothschild in Frankfurt in the 1770s (Morton, 1962) .

While the world is led to believe that gold is a barbaric relic of the past, a huge confidence game is being played out in fiat currency markets, illustrated by the events in Asia. In order to maintain confidence in inherently unsustainable fiat currencies and unsustainable debt, confidence in gold must be depressed, given that it is the only alternative store of value. The increasing volume of gold transacted through LBMA reflects the crescendo this confidence game has reached. These large volumes also suggest that gold is trading as currency and not as a barbaric commodity, as the press is apt to suggest. Could it be that the LBMA is being used as a testing ground for the establishment of a new gold-backed world currency system? If so, the Rothschilds are in a position of enormous influence over such a genesis process.

Consider these words of Stanley Fisher (WSJ, Nov. 12, 1997), IMF's Deputy Managing Director: "What is needed at this point in the world's economic affairs is leadership in setting up a SYSTEM more dependable than using IMF bailouts as a guide to the future value of money. Where that leadership comes from is a tough question."

Indeed, will the leadership and system Fisher is speaking come from the House of Rothschild through the central institution of the LBMA? Only time will tell.

If the Rothschilds, through the LBMA operations, are effectively cornering the world's gold supply they would undoubtedly be in a prime position to benefit from a currency crisis - which they and Soros undoubtedly expect, given Soro's claims that the Asian, and thus by implication all fiat currencies, are inherently unsustainable. This crisis of sustainability is already engaged in Asia and will undoubtedly wash over Europe, England and the U.S. And who recently announced another bailout package? The IMF, of course.

The Houses of Rothschild, more than any other players, knows the historical power of gold and importance of a gold-backed currency system. The English system they helped engineer remained resilient and sustainable for over 200 years until the early 1900s. The Rothschilds believe in gold as the ultimate store of value; always have and always will. Undoubtedly they do not consider the metal a barbarous relic of the past.

Epilogue

We are reminded of Morton's words, "today the family grooms the inaudibility and invisibility of its presence as a result, some believe that little is left apart from a great legend - and the Rothschilds are quite content to let legend be their public relations."

What is unique about old power and money of the Rothschilds is their uncanny ability to sustain their power and wealth, and keep it within the family. While it is a tribute to the power of family, the danger is their ability to control and influence the daily lives of average human beings, with fewer resources and less power. Such power can lead to the temptation of becoming as powerful as the gods. Control over such important forms of value such as gold, as an instrument of liberty, may lead to the temptation of exercising dominion over such liberty. The maintenance of power and wealth is ultimately motivated by an anxiety of losing the security that such power has provided. The power and wealth of the Rothschilds carries with it enormous privileges and hopefully a sense of responsibility for the welfare of others. While the Rothschilds and Rockefellers have exercised philanthropy to the benefit of many, even this exercise has benefited their corporations through a tax system which rewards such "charitable" and "atruistic" organisations. What distinguishes the Rothschilds from other world power brokers, like Soros, is their diminutive "presence" in the world, in spite of their untold influence on almost every aspect of our economic existence. Their continued bullishness on gold exhibited through their activities in the LBMA and gold trading suggests that we maintain our confidence in the this barbaric relic. Ultimately, however, one must be keenly aware of the potential controlling influence over gold which the Rothschilds and their merchant banking brethren can exercise, and thus placing our liberty in their hands.

It has been said that "the wealth of Rothschild consists of the bankruptcy of nations"

 

References:

The Globe and Mail (various issues)

The Wall Street Journal

Morton, Frederic (1962). The Rothschilds.

Corti, Baron Egon Caesar (1928). The Rise of the House of Rothschild.

Soros, George (1994). The Alchemy of Finance

http://www.gwb.com.au/gwb/news/banking/rothchild.html