The War on Cash
The “War on Cash” is heating up. Louisiana has outlawed paying cash for second hand goods, under the pretense that criminals sell stolen goods for cash. France outlawed paying more than €1000 for anything, and you cannot get more than €200 from an ATM. JP Morgan Chase is outlawing storing cash in a safety deposit box. Most bank analysts are now calling for the end of cash. As I have been warning, in no way are we heading towards a gold standard or anything of the sort. Instead, we are heading into the eye of electronic money for taxes.
Besides the fact that government will get every halfpenny they are looking for in taxes, moving to electronic money is a major advantage for banks. This is why their fake independent analysts are all lining up to demand abolishing currency.
Of course you have the benefit of ending bank robberies. But honestly, banks do not carry that much cash anyway. The MAJOR benefit for them to eliminate cash is that it will eliminate bank runs.
The good old days of lining up at the bank to withdraw your money will be gone forever. With banks on the brink of total disaster in Europe, eliminating cash will have the desired effect of eliminating the crisis in their mind. U.S. banks see the writing on the wall, for whatever starts in Europe eventually migrates here, just like plays and fashion.
Americans are just naive. Europe has routinely cancelled currency. Old currency from a few decades ago are no longer good, even in Britain. You can swap it in if you go to the government but they often want you to prove where it came from.
The government can simply cancel ALL CURRENCY. That will force people into electronic money; it is coming faster than you may ever suspect. This is why they are also tracking the movement of gold. They are forcing society back into the barter system. Our Solution is the ONLY way out of this mess.
Judges and Cops Fail to Prosecute Their Own – Judge Richard Owen is “Above the Law”
Judge Richard Owen Appointed to Bench by Richard Nixon
Police misconduct is everywhere and nobody seems willing to prosecute any officers for outright murder. This same code of protecting their own exists even more so among judges. After watching the “The Forecaster”, many people are shocked at how Federal Judges are totally out of control, sending emails commenting on new articles appearing on Judge Richard Owen. Far too many judges believe they are some demigod. There is no mental test for qualification, and judges actually do not even have to be a lawyer in many cases. Administrative law judges at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodities Future Training Commission (CFTC) can be somebody’s brother-in-law with zero requirements for understand the law, no less the subject that they pretend to preside over.
The number of articles on Richard Owen, the judge who allowed Goldman Sachs to run Princeton Economics, having Dementia are all over the place. I am not sure if the movie has suddenly prompted the review of Judge Owen, but before, there was but one article. Now articles are all over the place calling Owen Above the Law.
- Owen – How to Police Judicial Dementia_ One Chief Judge Plays Cop, While Others Try Gentle Persuasion
- OWEN – Judge Richard Owen _ Above the Law
- Owen – Not Getting Any Younger _ Simple Justice
- Owen -What Is To Be Done About Super-Old Judges_ _ Above the Law
- OWEN-Life Tenure for Federal Judges Raises Issues of Senility, Dementia – ProPublica
The famous lawyer, William Moses Kunstler (1919–1995), even wrote in his book, Hints and Allegations, about Owen threatening to throw him in jail on contempt. “Richard Owen, a strong pro-government jurist … when I vigorously protested, the judge threatened to hold me in contempt.” (id/p 30)
Yes, he would even forget who I was and would call me counselor as if I was the lawyer. The one time I boxed him in, he had no choice but to rule against the CFTC, or I could sue his former law clerk Alan Cohen (now board member of Goldman Sachs). He called me a “legal terrorist” and joked about taking lawyers away from Steven Schiffer, amused that he drove him to commit suicide. The SEC took their judgement against his estate. In the case of Princeton Economics, he sanctioned Tancred Schiavoni (receiver’s lawyer) confiscating all employee 401K money. In the case of the public fund we managed for Deutsche Bank, he made all investors prove it was their money. In a complete reversal of the law, where they are supposed to prove something is tainted, instead made people prove it was their money or they would keep it. No other judge would every say, “Hey, this is wrong.”
Yes, it is interesting how many people are now coming out about Judge Owen and how he has acted above the law for so long. The problem – no federal judge will listen to a complaint against another judge. They violate their oath of office all the time. This is what we call justice. This problem is systemic. It is not limited to Judge Owen. It was Judge Pollack who dismissed all class actions suits against banks for issuing fake research during the dot-com bubble. He was in his nineties. We will never reform government without reforming the judiciary.
When Did I Become Wealthy?
COMMENT: Martin, your recent post makes me wonder when did I become “one of them rich people”? We have a family business, it’s no glamour job, I get dirty everyday and never considered myself financially wealthy. Every day it’s just more regulations, fees and taxes both hidden and upfront. There is little protection from the assault on business and “wealthy” people. I wonder why bother with it all but If I’m so rich how come I can’t retire? Florida limits how much our property value assessments can go up each year to “save our homes” but don’t limit how much the mileage rate can be hiked up so the gov still gets more taxes. If every form of savings and investment is attacked it’s going to be tough for anyone to get through to the other side of all this
REPLY: The problem is that they never define who the rich are. We have images that the rich are always someone who has more, but the reality it is you. Having $827,000 in assets is hardly stinking rich. It is not enough to retire at 65. You are in the top 1% with annual income of just $400,000 (see where you stand). So this is who Joe Biden called the “super rich” who we envision as Bill Gates and the bankers, who escape taxes. It is a threshold that is much lower than most would imagine.
Can Europe be Saved?
QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, I find it truly enlightening that you told the European Commission from the outset this idea of the euro would fail because of a faulty structural design. Do you think there is any way to save the European system now?
ANSWER: Unfortunately, I believe the entire European project is completely dysfunctional and it has turned anti-democratic in a desperate attempt to hold on to power. Sure, there are things that could be done. I could probably fix the system in 90 days or less, if not in 30 days. But you are talking about political power v economic reality and for that reason alone, no reform is possible without the crash and burn.
Politicians will not give up power willingly. It just does not work that way. I have tried to stop what we face decades ago. A two-year-old with a pocket calculator could have figured out where we are today back in the 1980s. You just cannot perpetually borrow year after year, with no intention to pay anything back, without screwing up the entire future. I met with people back during the Reagan years. They said, “Oh, no problem. They will be paying back with cheaper dollars.”
Consequently, human nature stands in the way of saving Europe. Those in government justify in their narrow minds by refusing to listen to the people quite easily. Bureaucrats (unelected) and politicians (pretend elected) live in an imaginary world where they are smarter than everyone else is and they know best. With this line of thinking, these people justify shutting down the democratic process.
The Romans overthrew their king in 509 BC, like the revolutions against monarchy during the 18th century. When it was time to overthrow the Republic that was consumed by the oligarchy, as we find ourselves once again today, we will face the danger where we have de facto kings, but using democratic pretenses. There were dictators in the Middle East who pretended to be elected. This public fraud is just human nature. They put lipstick on a pig and call her a star. On January 16, 27 BC, the Romans gave Octavian the title of Princeps (plural: principes) a Latin word meaning, “First in time or order; the first, chief, the most eminent, distinguished, or noble; the first man, first person.” They also gave him the title Augustus, from the Latin word Augere (meaning to increase), which can also be translated as “the illustrious one”, “majestic”, “the increaser”, or “venerable”, which was a title of a religious authority rather than a political one. The term Augustus became the de facto title for emperor. We can date the coinage for the emperors received each year of power, as if the senate under the old Republic had appointed them.
The bronze coinage of Rome was actually issued by the Senate, not the emperor, and display the marking “SC” meaning “Senatus Consulto“. This demonstrates the two separate monetary authorities over the creation of money that existed just as we have the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. There are some gold coins issued with “SC”, suggesting that the Senate on occasion had some supply of gold. The authority on coinage in Rome originally belonged to the consuls appointed annually by the Senate exercised by trustees who were appointed by the consuls, similar to how the President appoints his own cabinet. So in Rome, the pretense of the Republic being maintained was that the emperor became the consul, maintaining the trappings of the Republic like a dictator pretending to be elected, or those who run the Treasury, Fed etc.
Rome kept up the pretense of the Republic even though nobody voted for the emperor. This is why I warn we too can move towards freedom or authoritarianism. Our crisis in democracy will reach the breaking point. Those in government today are just openly corrupt. Police are robbing the people under the pretense of confiscation of money that “might be” tainted just by having cash. The institutions of justice have crumbled to dust on the floor and nobody pretends to be just any more.
The head of Europe is appointed, not elected. Greece can have a public election, yet Brussels rejects such an election and demands the new government abide by their demands. Europe has been pretending to be democratic; with the people electing representatives to Brussels by the unelected commission are not required to comply with the Parliament elected by the people. So we have the same pretense in place with the fall of Rome. A very disturbing outcome so far. America is not far behind.