Ukraine a Glimpse of what is to come?
The protests in Ukraine demonstrate how all governments respond. Even England went after kids trying to organize on Twitter. The governments monitor everything now to head-off protests. A 12-year old in England found that out the hard way. The US arrested a man for using Twitter to help protesters evade police.
In Ukraine, after weeks of student protests over the government corruption and its failure to sign a European integration and association treaty, the police violently cracked down on protesters, and politicians passed a series of new laws in the middle of the night. Among them:
- Criminal extremist activity is now redefined, broadly and loosely, that effectively criminalized protests, press reports, or social media that is anti-government.
- Insulting a policeman or judge is now a criminal offense. This includes behavior that “patently offends” or “shows insolent disrespect”.
- Blocking of administrative buildings is now criminalized with a 5-year prison sentence.
- Anyone who organizes an assembly in violation of ‘established procedures’ can be arrested.
- The government has streamlined its ability to force Internet Service Providers to block certain websites it deems harmful in its sole discretion.
- New amendments to the criminal code allow pre-trial and trial proceedings to be conducted, even if the defendant is not physically present to defend himself.
Clearly, Ukraine is suppressing everything and the youth, who have no future, are fighting for more than the right to simply speak. This is what we can expect from more and more governments that see themselves as all-powerful and the people as simply the class to be ruled.
Unemployed Youth Exceed 200 million
A United Nation study has reported that about 206 million people are now unemployed. This is the cost of socialism taxing the rich so there is no job creation with nearly half of that number amounting to youth under 25 years old. The economy on a global scale is terribly weak. This UN annual report released Monday by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is shocking and politicians cannot see what they are doing to the future.
The future does not look bright at all. The UN is projecting that by 2018 the number of unemployed youth will climb to about 215 million. This type of forecast is simply taking the trend in motion and projecting the same pace forward. There will be an exponential rise after 2015 and this will be a Phase Transition resulting in greater violence and protests all because governments refuse to even consider what their policies have been doing.Thailand of the Verge of State of Emergency
The violence in Bangkok is mounting. This is an effort by some to overthrow the government as a weekend just past with violence in the capital city of Bangkok. The protesters have been trying for more than two months to bring down the government in a Marxist uprising of the poor against the rich, middle class, and the monarchy. This has been an 8-year conflict that emerged from mainly the poor rural supporters of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her brother, the ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled by the military in 2006. The government has announced they are considering declaring a stat of emergency.
The rival politicians exploit the poor rural workers telling them that if somehow they get the money of the middle class and rich, somehow their lives will be better and they will have to work less. This is simply appealing to the criminal side of humanity where when you do not have what you want – just go take it from someone else. On the street these are criminals. When they get politicians to do it by decree, they call this social justice. At the end of the day, it is still about taking from someone else what you yourself are unwilling to work for.
Unfortunately, this is the downside of the Cycle of War. Appealing to the less honorable aspects of humanity and the thief ALWAYSjustifies their own actions convincing themselves that they are entitled to whatever the other person has because they have been cheated somehow in their own mind.
Wildcat Banks
QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; One of the criticisms of you is that you support the idea of a central bank. Your view that Andrew Jackson destroyed the central bank and caused a depression and sovereign debt defaults appears to be a different view than what is talked about in the gold community. Could you explain your position on this point?
Your’s Truly
Confused Goldbug
ANSWER: As always, people latch onto a single fact and then apply it out of context to everything. ALL banking prior to the Civil War was a bank that issued its own “receipts” for deposits and these receipts eventually circulated as money. This goes back to the first “paper” money system so to speak that emerged in ancient Egypt and lasted for more than 2,000 years. This same system was the established way before federal backing and money took place right through Virginia Tobacco money to the paper money issued by the Bank of the United States (see illustration). Jackson destroyed the Bank of the United States because he did not like the power of any bank and in that respect was rather Marxist in he views.
Jackson had personal banking problems regarding credit so his actions seem to be rather personal and quite frankly brain-dead. He destroyed the Bank of the United States and then shifted the deposits of the Federal government to state banks. My bet is there was favoritism in that decision if not kick-backs. This lent tremendous credibility to local banks and what began was the age of Wildcat Banking thanks to the irresponsibility of Jackson.
Here is a good example of what Jackson unleashed. The currency issued by Oxford County Bank of Fryeburg, Maine, was actually issued by speculators who then sold them wholesale at deep discounts in New York City. A fraud market emerged because there were countless banks all issuing money (receipts) based upon pretend deposits without a central bank regulating anything. This is the classic example of Wildcat Banks that were created thanks to Andrew Jackson’s personal vendetta against the Bank of the United States. Oxford County Bank was chartered in 1836, but never actually entered the banking business. There was no bank taking deposits or lending money. They only issued currency against deposits that never existed. These notes are very common confirming that this type of fraud was successful and quite common. There were numerous Wildcat Banks and there was no way for people to confirm any bank’s notes were worth anything following the antics of Andrew Jackson.
Jackson unleashed a massive financial crisis. As state banks then failed, some states like Louisiana issued bonds to bail out the banks. However, the fictional money was far too vast and many states went into default on their bonds – even permanently. So we have the same reaction of government trying to bail out banks and in turn they themselves go bust. Those who support Jackson because they hate banks, also fail to notice history.
During this period, the United States did not issue $10 gold coin between 1804 and 1838. The $20 and $1 gold coins did not begin until 1849 with the California Gold Rush. The government minted a $2.5 gold coin in 1796 and stopped in 1808 restarting again in 1821. The $3 gold coins began in 1854 and the famous $4 gold coins were just patterns. The $5 gold coin began in 1796 and was continuous for the most part.
Even the silver dollar ended with the rare issue of 1804 and did not reappear until effectively 1840 because of the crisis created by Jackson with the Wildcat Banking failures. There was a shortage of coins and this was filled by private banknotes.
My problem is NOT with the Federal Reserve. You need a single bank – not countless unregulated chaos. The problem today is simply the money center banks became greedy, conspired to repeal Glass-Steagall under Clinton, and they wanted to effectively trade with other people’s money. If they want to be a hedge fund – enter the field. But what they want is to trade with other people’s money, keep all profits for themselves, and when there is a loss, hand it to the taxpayer claiming the government cannot borrow without them.
If you want to yell and scream about the Fed, what is your solution? Do the same stupid thing that Jackson did? You also better understand the system. INFLATION is not properly defined as an increase in money supply. Follow that absurd definition and you relieve Congress of all responsibility and focus only on the Fed. But inflation is not simply money supply defined and currency in circulation be it even electronic. Congress has the fiscal side of the equation and they issue the REAL money by creating bonds that have become the reserves of all banks. The Fed does not control that. So stop the nonsense. You better start understanding the system as a whole or you will create the same nightmare as Andrew Jackson. You really want countless banks with no regulation or central clearing facility? Those who are for this wildcat era because they are like Jackson and personally hate banks, will only hand them more power and total insanity. Deal with the system directly – both sides – Fiscal & Monetary if you want to fix anything for real! Otherwise, you will unleash the dark forces that will totally destroy your future.