Taxing the Rich
There has been a major effort to hunt down offshore accounts by all governments. They do not see what they are doing to the world economy how they are closing it down and how that will lead to a massive global economic implosion. Everything that built civilization is being torn apart. A joint investigation by the UK, the US and Australia to identify those using offshore tax havens to hide wealth has uncovered more than 100 people. The “money laundering” laws that were once for drug dealers and terrorists are now including anyone they think owe taxes. They are criminalizing everything and that will justify confiscation of ALL assets.
The likes of Bill Gates and his buddy Warren Buffett are supporting the destruction of commerce with taxing the rich to support a corrupt system that is doomed. It is easy for them to say yes tax the rich even more when you are talking about income. How would they respond to the confiscation of assets? Why do they not donate everything they have keeping just enough for a middle class lifestyle and give it all to government? They would never be where they are had taxes been much higher when they were trying to get started. The assumption is that government is being properly run and the problem is always the individual. They have their’s so the hell with everyone else. Turn it all in if you want to advocate such fiscal-irresponsibility. Neither has to worry about Social Security and how that has been taking more in taxes from people than income tax with no refunds.What is the end game? They obviously are ignorant of history for this can only lead to one place. If they tax 100% of the “rich” who are defined as household income $250,000 or more not billionaires, government will ALWAYS spend more. It never stops until it collapses.
Change Only Comes from the Bottom-up
The Republican staff are all meeting in Virginia right now. The 800 pound gorilla is the upcoming debt ceiling vote. Of course, they are explaining that there can be no confrontation over this. So they are trying to convince everyone to vote for it and what is your problem.
Effectively, the staffers are the real people who run the country. There is no realization that anything is seriously wrong. All they are doing is focusing on how to repackage what the are doing and sell it better. It’s a branding problem from their viewpoint. We have not reached that moment in time when there is any realization that a crisis is even brewing beyond a handful of people.
All the talk about various proposals from gold standards on down are just seen as the tin-foil-hat crowd. You will never sell such ideas for they must be practical. Why would anyone vote for something that eliminates their own job? To the vast majority, there is no problem. If there is going to be any change it MUST come from the ground up. Look at Nigel Farage. He has gained respect only because of the vote. That is it! They respect nothing else and have tuned him out. When the people start listening, then and ONLY then will we see political change. You cannot change anything from the top down. It must come from the bottom up.
Consequently, any SOLUTION must think through every aspect. Who does what and how? These are essential elements of real reform. How can it work going forward.
Unemployment the Lowest since 2008
The private sector continues to expand albeit modestly. This is not a long-term trend. The US economy will turn down 2015.75 for a host of reasons, rising dollar, declining sales to Europe and its recession turns into depression.
This is what we have been warning about. Not all countries implode at the same time. It is a series of dominoes. Europe and Japan must tip over forcing capital to concentrate in the United States. That will have profound consequences and set the political ball rolling down the hill. This is NECESSARY to create change. If nothing happens, they will do nothing. They react only to crisis.
The Problem With Bankers & the Fed
The problem with the NY bankers is they simply want to trade with other people’s money. They have to have their wings clipped. If they want to trade, change careers and become hedge fund managers. Then you can only keep a portion of what you make not 100%, and when you are wrong, you can’t tell government the world will collapse unless they absorb your losses. Restore Glass Steagall and PROHIBIT proprietary trading in banks!!!! Now that you expect the depositors to “bail-in” the banks, how about real reform!
With the Fed, who knows what it is today since it has the legal authority to take over McDonalds or Walmart if it declares them too big to fail. They are no longer limited to banking. The Fed when formed was NECESSARY and it was sound. It was to provide an elastic money supply for the purposes of preventing bank failures buying time to meet short-term obligations without dumping long-term assets. The Fed stimulated directly by buying corporate paper and that would have made the economy much more stable.
However, this is where politicians come in with their sticky fingers. They ordered the Fed to buy government bonds for World War I stopping the buying of corporate paper that directly supported the economy and prevented high unemployment. They never restored the Fed to its original design. Each branch maintained separate interest rates so it could target regional problems. Then World War II and the Social Agenda arrived. Roosevelt usurped all independent power to Washington creating one interest rate and then ordered the Fed to support government bonds at PAR!!!! That was not removed until 1951. Why have regional branches today if they do nothing? Politicians are clueless as to what they are doing.
The Fed was never restored to what it was intended and so many things have been grafted onto it, it would never be designed in the manner it finds itself today.
I was in the middle of the Tax Reform on Capitol Hill and was trying to save Social Security transforming it into a real trust fund managed independently. The obstacle was the internal argument over who would be the independent fund managers. The politicians wanted a piece of that pie and because nobody could ever agree on who the managers would be since they saw the vast potential for bribes (contributions) no agreement could ever be reached. I gave up trying to help. It became obvious – it was about grabbing all the soap and shampoo you will never use when you leave the hotel room -where’s mine?
Gold Inventories
QUESTION: What about the gold inventory decline. Is this not significant?
ANSWER: No. The inventory at COMEX has always been volatile. Inventories rise and fall without any leading indicator to price. Supplies will shift also between London and New York. Inventories dropped sharply after 1980 as well. Manipulators often play with the inventories of all commodities to try to affect prices. During the Buffett silver play, he was buying in London so the inventories in New York dropped sharply and that was touted to get people to but those highs as well.
My greater concern is the organized effort by government to shut down gold as an exit out of the “official” monetary system. Just as Canada is going after BitCoin, we will see other countries do the same. In gold, the US imposed regulations on all refining whereby they must report to the government all metal coming in and out. France has shut down buying gold for cash and limited ATM machines handing out cash as well. The stories about cash settlement rather than bullion in some places is due to this new aggressive tactic of tracking gold. This is why buy what you can in coins for cash where you can for that window is likely to end as well.
Does the increase in demand for coins offset the shifting of investment out of ETFs? Not really. Gold has not rallied sharply and that is the key issue. Falling gold prices will also help reduce mine output and that will set the stage for a stronger rally. Despite all the hype, after 13 years up, it does not matter what the market is, there just has to be a pause. It’s no big deal. It is what it is. Always trying to talk it up is bad for the market. That is why the Nikkei declined for 23 years.
Windows 8
A reader in the field writes to correct the posts regarding Windows 8. To clarify, indeed, all systems since Windows 2000 phone home. What I object about with Windows 8 is that it now reports 3rd party programs that you install. Granted the theory is they are protecting you like government. This I find offensive and with the changes in law that the government can just walk in to anyone and demand whatever they have on you, there is no guarantee about anything going forward. We are switching to UNIX for all machines to be provided to clients to access our systems.
Nevertheless, to be fair, this is what a reader has sent in:
“You talk about cycles all the time so consider the Microsoft OS another cycle. Everyone knows that XP is rock solid and when the entire world started getting slammed with viruses after Love Letter the world realized that .VBS files actually should be blocked and signatures don’t always work and that security patches are actually required and not issued to keep people busy.
The reality is this is a business driver….Windows XP will no longer receive Security patches after April 2014 and every Microsoft product has an end date. If you are in a large company and have not upgraded, you will be subject to high costs to continue to receive patches that the public will not automatically receive after this day.
Windows 8 as with any OS upgrade is what drives the PC cycle and the PC manufactures love it. All computers “call home” since Windows 2000 and it wasn’t until post Windows XP and Office 2003 that just having a key to install a product would be enough….Microsoft introduced the “activiation” process after the required key is input during installation (unless your company has an Enterprise agreement). This killed a lot of piracy and boosted revenues. Who actually paid for software before this….nobody.
The reality is Windows 8 was an attempt to one-up Apple in having an OS that could be used on a tablet and Computer but this is clearly not appropriate.
Apple is actually built of BSD UNIX and I personally suggest someone like yourself should absolutely be implementing UNIX from a stability perspective alone.
I work in Threat Management doing computer security and I can tell you that most of what you are frustrated with is common but what has been reported is not accurate. Windows 8 sucks because it sucks and they tried to be cool…nothing new.”
California Sues JP Morgan Chase for Illegal Practices
The NY Banks are use to controlling the courts in NYC so much so that they forgot the rest of the world does not accommodate everything they do. California’s attorney general filed suit Thursday, alleging that JPMorgan Chase & Co. used illegal tactics in its efforts to collect debts from more than 100,000 credit card holders between 2008 and April 2011.
The number one tactic used is to get rid of lawyers to prevent a defense or go after people who can not afford lawyers to ensure victory. JPMorgan Chase used this famous NY strategy in California. The complaint read:
“At nearly every stage of the collection process, defendants cut corners in the name of speed, cost savings, and their own convenience, providing only the thinnest veneer of legitimacy to their lawsuits.” It further alleges that JPMorgan Chase sued borrowers “based on patently insufficient evidence — betting that borrowers would lack the resources or legal sophistication to call defendants’ bluff.”
JPMorgan Chase engaged in what has become called ”robo-signing” where they churned out lawsuits that was a practice which became widely used during the mortgage foreclosures until it was outlawed. Banks were forging signatures and pretending they had titles when the did not. JPMorgan Chase was one of the five major banks that settled with California and other states after the housing market meltdown for such practices.
This time the lawsuit concern debt-collection where once again officials similarly signed legal documents that included sworn declarations without reviewing the related files and bank records or even reading the documents. Anyone else would get 5 years in prison for such antics. JPMorgan Chase actually filed 469 debt-recovery lawsuits in a single day day alone. The company’s in-house lawyers filed an average of 100 lawsuits a day for each day the courts were open while its outside counsel filed yet another 20,000 lawsuits.
California is now seeking a permanent ban on the allegedly illegal practices as well as damages for borrowers who were harmed as the company rushed to obtain court judgments and wage garnishment orders without properly checking documents. They also are seeking a $2,500 for each violation of state law, and an additional $2,500 for every lawsuit that involved a senior citizen or disabled person.