Detroit – The Map that we are ALL following
Detroit is an example of the entire financial crisis regard the state workers and their pensions. For every person that retires, the state replaces them and this is driving the cost of government up exponentially. Reutersreported that the investment banker dealing with the restructuring experience of the city, told the court “the city plans to pay unsecured creditors, including the city’s pensioners, 16 cents on the dollar. There are about 23,500 city retirees.”
Detroit city has said about half of its liabilities stem from retirement benefits, including $5.7 billion for healthcare and other obligations, and $3.5 billion involving pensions. This is the crisis ALL governments face. The economics of the current system are unsustainable and we are headed to a crash and burn like the fall of Rome. Yes it can be prevented. But ONLY with we take action NOW.
Ancient Coins As Investment
A number of people have been inquiring about coins as an investment for parking money. Keep in mind that the best market for coins or stamps tend to be the country of origin. Thus, US coins will bring the highest prices in the USA just as German will bring the best price in Germany.
There are some markets that are international. That is Art where in the late 1980s, the Japanese began buying famous art at huge prices. Ryoei Saito had purchased Vincent van Gogh’s: “Portrait of Doctor Gachet”, (1890) paying $82.5 million back in 1990 (Inflation adjusted price: $146,8 million). Note: Saito lost a fortune in the Japanese Depression and the whereabouts of the painting are now unknown).
Ancient Coins are in that same category where the market is truly international. The biggest buyers these days are in China and Russia. Many famous people collected Ancient Coins from President Teddy Roosevelt but there was also the American coin collection of US president John Quincy Adams, Many American billionaires also formed famous Ancient Coin collections, notably J.P. Morgan, Calouste Gulbenkian, William Randolph Hearst, J. Paul Getty, and Nelson Bunker Hunt (whose collection was auctioned off by Sothebys shown above). King Farouk I of Egypt assembled a massive coin collection.
Perhaps the earliest known major collector was the Roman Emperor Augustus. Nearly all of the great European national collections were first formed privately by kings and nobility who were often avid collectors. Lorenzo de’ Medici, the patron of the Renaissance, was one of the most notable ancient coin collectors of his time. Even the Catholic popes formed outstanding private collections which are now the core of the current Vatican collections. And many important scientists and scholars, such as Sigmund Freud and Desmond Morris, have also formed fine collections. In our own time many famous personalities such as Buddy Ebsen, Elton John and Tina Turner, to mention just a few, have also been avid collectors. There were other collectors of stamps right down to Calvin Klein.
The Ancient Coin market is international and way under priced compared to US coins, but far broader in the scope of collectors coming from truly around the world. There will be such a gathering at a show in New York City come January. The US coin market holds the record for prices paid with a 1794 US Silver Dollar fetching more than $10 million (seek Stacks Bower Sale)..
The most expensive painting was the 2011 sale for $250 million of PAUL CÉZANNE“The Card Players”, 1892/93 (Inflation adjusted price: $258,4 million). Seller: George Embiricos. Buyer: Royal Family of Qatar.
Eliminating the 4th Amendment & 1st Amendment Freedom of the Press All At One Time
Homeland Security seizes records of Washington Times Investigative Journalist. Freedom of the Press is fading into the sunset. Meanwhile, the Justice Department is preparing now to tear apart the Fourth Amendment entirely. They have formerly given notice that they seized telephone calls without a warrant and are using a terrorist case to win the removal of all search warrants – PERIOD!
This will be a first test case for the Justice Department as it notified on Friday in the criminal case of Jamshid Muhtorov, who was charged in Colorado in January 2012 with providing material support to the Islamic Jihad Union, a designated terrorist organization based in Uzbekistan. He is said to have intended to travel there to join them.
This is how LAW IS MADE – by judges – NEVER the people. The Fourth Amendment erosion began with the Inevitable Discovery Rule created in 1968 to ensure a black man, Robert Williams, who was an escaped mental patient would be found guilty even though the police violated the Constitution.
Williams kidnapped and murdered ten-year-old white girl Pamela Powers from a YMCA on December 24, 1968 in Iowa. His lawyer had him surrender to police two days later in another county on the condition that heNOT be interrogated while being transported by police who would not allow his lawyer to accompany him. One of the detectives began a conversation and proposed that Williams reveal where he had left the body before an impending snowfall because of Christmas. Williams agreed and led the detectives to Powers’ body.
Here is the problem. The police made no effort to find the body and the evidence at trial was that Williams led them to the body proving he committed the crime. The Supreme Court heard the case and in Nix v. Williams, 467 US 431 (1984) created the Inevitable Discovery Rule to uphold the conviction with hindsight that in and of itself was illegal for it did not exist at the time of his conviction. This rule states that IF POLICE would have found that evidence anyhow, then it still can be used even if they violated every tenet of the constitution. Now you see why I may have studied law, I found the practice of law to be anything BUT a rule of law. It is always in the best interest of government or who you know like the banks in NYC.
So in other words, the case of Jamshid Muhtorov can be counted on eliminating the Fourth Amendment altogether. Already, there is theInevitable Discovery Rule and the government can say they would have obtained a search warrant anyway, so why bother. This will save taxpayer money. How can you prove what they would have done if they did their job correctly? I suppose you can use this argument to justify rape as well since inevitably she would have consented anyway. Seems to be the same logic to me.
Good-Bye Constitution. Founding Fathers – you screwed up. You should have taken Benjamin Franklin’s argument that judges should have been appointed by their own members and never by the state – it was the Scottish System.
Canadian Radio Interview
This Week in Money with host Jim Goddard in Canada Interviewing
Martin Armstrong in Switzerland
Obama Opposed Raising the Debt Ceiling in 2006
The Washington Post has noted that Obama was opposed to raising the Debt Ceiling back in 2006. Here is his actual speech.
March 16, 2006 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE S2237-2238:
“Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about America’s debt problem.
The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to
$8.6 trillion. That is ‘‘trillion’’ with a ‘‘T.’’ That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion.
$8.6 trillion. That is ‘‘trillion’’ with a ‘‘T.’’ That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion.
Numbers that large are sometimes hard to understand. Some people may wonder why they matter. Here is why: This year, the Federal Government will spend $220 billion on interest. That is more money to pay interest on our national debt than we’ll spend on Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. That is more money to pay interest on our debt this year than we will spend on education, homeland security, transportation, and veterans benefits combined. It is more money in one year than we are likely to spend to rebuild the devastated gulf coast in a way that honors the best of America.
And the cost of our debt is one of the fastest growing expenses in the Federal budget. This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy, robbing our cities and States of critical investments in infrastructure like bridges, ports, and levees; robbing our families and our children of critical investments in education and health care reform; robbing our seniors of the retirement and
health security they have counted on.
health security they have counted on.
Every dollar we pay in interest is a dollar that is not going to investment in America’s priorities. Instead, interest payments are a significant tax on all Americans—a debt tax that Washington doesn’t want to talk about. If Washington were serious about honest tax relief in this country, we would see an effort to reduce our national debt by returning to responsible fiscal policies.
But we are not doing that. Despite repeated efforts by Senators CONRAD and FEINGOLD, the Senate continues to reject a return to the commonsense Pay-go rules that used to apply. Previously, Pay-go rules applied both to increases in mandatory spending and
to tax cuts. The Senate had to abide by the commonsense budgeting principle of balancing expenses and revenues. Unfortunately, the principle was abandoned, and now the demands of budget discipline apply only to spending.
to tax cuts. The Senate had to abide by the commonsense budgeting principle of balancing expenses and revenues. Unfortunately, the principle was abandoned, and now the demands of budget discipline apply only to spending.
As a result, tax breaks have not been paid for by reductions in Federal spending, and thus the only way to pay for them has been to increase our deficit to historically high levels and borrow more and more money. Now we have to pay for those tax breaks plus
the cost of borrowing for them. Instead of reducing the deficit, as some people claimed, the fiscal policies of this administration and its allies in Congress will add more than $600 million in debt for each of the next 5 years.
the cost of borrowing for them. Instead of reducing the deficit, as some people claimed, the fiscal policies of this administration and its allies in Congress will add more than $600 million in debt for each of the next 5 years.
That is why I will once again cosponsor the Pay-go amendment and continue to hope that my colleagues will return to a smart rule that has worked in the past and can work again.
Our debt also matters internationally. My friend, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, likes to remind us that it took 42 Presidents 224 years to run up only $1 trillion of foreign-held debt. This administration did more than that in just 5 years. Now, there is nothing wrong with borrowing from foreign countries. But we must remember that the more we depend on foreign nations to lend us money, the more our economic security is tied to the whims of foreign leaders whose interests might not be aligned with ours.
Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘‘the buck stops here.’’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.
I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit”
Lower the Liquidity = Greater the Volatility
The hike in VAT to 19% targeting collectors that will apply to silver coins is a bit convoluted yet, but so far it appears that buyer’s purchasing from German auctions and living in Germany will have to pay that tax. There is a lot of negotiating still going on at moment so we’ll see once auctions commence next year. This is reflecting the trend of DEFLATION as government hunt down wealth and cause it to hide.
Italian collectors have all but vanished from auctions in Europe be it art, stamps, coins, or cars and wine. France will not allow bullion dealers to buy or sell even gold for cash.
ATM Machines even in Switzerland last year handed out 1,000SFr. This year 500SFr. France and Italy were €200 last year and are now down to €150. This is all part of the REAL CONSPIRACY to eliminate cash and force everyone into electronic cash so they get 100% taxation. Anyone who thinks these people will return to a gold standard or print money like Germany did in the 1920s, had better open their eyes.
Mature governments, ALWAYS AND WITHOUT EXCEPTION, attack the people and destroy their own economy. All such empires, nations, and city states have ALWAYS died by their own hand – economic suicide. They tax everything that moves and thus reduce the velocity of money causing people to hoard and invest less. This is why liquidity is still down by 50% from 2007 levels. They are desperate to sustain their power and will never hand anything back. This is why they historically force revolution.
It was Thomas Paine who wrote Common Sense that finally moved the American Colonists to revolution (it is worth a good read).
PERHAPS the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not
yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long
habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial
appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in
defence of custom. But tumult soon subsides. Time makes more
converts than reason.
….
SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to
leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not
only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by
our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former
promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the
latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages
intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the
last a punisher.
yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long
habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial
appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in
defence of custom. But tumult soon subsides. Time makes more
converts than reason.
….
SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to
leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not
only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by
our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former
promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the
latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages
intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the
last a punisher.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best
state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one; for
when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a
government, which we might expect in a country without
government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we
furnish the means by which we suffer! Government, like dress, is
the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the
ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of
conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would
need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it
necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means
for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the
same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two
evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design
state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one; for
when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a
government, which we might expect in a country without
government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we
furnish the means by which we suffer! Government, like dress, is
the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the
ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of
conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would
need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it
necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means
for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the
same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two
evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design
Americans cannot have bank accounts or brokerage accounts outside the USA for any institution dealing with an American risks having all their assets confiscated by the USA for not spying on Americans. Germany enacted laws in 1933 under Adolf Hitler that made it illegal for Germans to have money outside of Germany. That led to Switzerland adopting secrecy laws in 1934. Where Hitler at least respected Switzerland’s sovereignty, the USA, Britain, Germany, and France have not respected Switzerland’s sovereignty in the least criminally charging their banks, confiscating Swiss assets in the USA of banks, and yes, the Swiss removed their gold reserves from the Fed and took them home for that very reason. Our Western Governments have crossed the line of international law not respecting any nation- something that even Hitler would not do to Switzerland. The difference, our governments today are desperately trying to cling to power whereas Hitler was building his nation from scratch following the turmoil of hyperinflation of the ’20s that repudiated all previous debt. We are trying to sustain our debt bubble by taxing anything that moves or hides.
This policy of hunting down capital worldwide for taxes reduces international liquidity and is driving unemployment higher. The whole Bail-In policies adopted for banks allowing them to take depositor;s money has even more capital fleeing the banking systems hiding in equities to various tangible objects from real estate, metals, collectibles, etc… These people in government CANNOT see beyond their own self-interest to retain power at all costs that they are destroying the world economy. When we turn down next time after 2015.75, hold on tight, for the lower the liquidity, the greater the volatility. This is BY NO MEANS going to be a simple just buy gold and wait. We are into serious stuff here that historically has never ended well.
Feinstein Can Outlaw Any Criticism of Her NSA – But Is She Prepared To Wage War Against the World Who Disagrees With Her?
Feinstein is simply 80 years old and perhaps has dementia because her idea of outlawing any criticism of the NSA is not merely reminiscent of Russia in the days of Lenin with his secret police, but it is about as undemocratic as one can imagine. It has now come out that the NSA has been tapping Merkel’s phone since 2002. Spain has now ordered theAmerican Ambassador to appear and explain the US spying on everyone everywhere. Dianne Feinstein is a threat to world political stability like nobody before in recent times. What if she had learned that Stasi of East Germany had been tapping her personal phone and also claimed it was necessary because of terrorism? The real terrorism is not 19 guys and a camel. It is coming from Washington and defended by her office and the target is the entire world.