DEBT: The First 5,000 Years
While the “national debt” has been the concern du jour of many economists, commentators and politicians, little attention is ever paid to the historical significance of debt.
For thousands of years, the struggle between rich and poor has largely taken the form of conflicts between creditors and debtors—of arguments about the rights and wrongs of interest payments, debt peonage, amnesty, repossession, restitution, the sequestering of sheep, the seizing of vineyards, and the selling of debtors’ children into slavery. By the same token, for the past five thousand years, popular insurrections have begun the same way: with the ritual destruction of debt records—tablets, papyri, ledgers; whatever form they might have taken in any particular time and place.
Tennessee Ernie Ford Sings 16 Tons (by curleyb3)
This song should be the theme to the goverment.
“Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store”
Just replace word store with goverment.
“Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the goverment”
Infowars: Top Economic Advisers Forecast War and Unrest
Washington’s Blog
April 11, 2013We’re already at war in numerous countries all over the world.
But top economic advisers warn that economic factors could lead to a new world war.
Kyle Bass writes:
Trillions of dollars of debts will be restructured and millions of financially prudent savers will lose large percentages of their real purchasing power at exactly the wrong time in their lives. Again, the world will not end, but the social fabric of the profligate nations will be stretched and in some cases torn. Sadly, looking back through economic history, all too often war is the manifestation of simple economic entropy played to its logical conclusion. We believe that war is an inevitable consequence of the current global economic situation.
Martin Armstrong writes this week:
We will be updating the Cycle of War. Obviously, it is time once again. Especially since that model also hit to the day 3 times in a row.
Similarly, Larry Edelson wrote an email to subscribers entitled “What the “Cycles of War” are saying for 2013″, which states:
Since the 1980s, I’ve been studying the so-called “cycles of war” — the natural rhythms that predispose societies to descend into chaos, into hatred, into civil and even international war.
I’m certainly not the first person to examine these very distinctive patterns in history. There have been many before me, notably, Raymond Wheeler, who published the most authoritative chronicle of war ever, covering a period of 2,600 years of data.
However, there are very few people who are willing to even discuss the issue right now. And based on what I’m seeing, the implications could be absolutely huge in 2013.
Former Goldman Sachs technical analyst Charles Nenner – who has made some big accurate calls, and counts major hedge funds, banks, brokerage houses, and high net worth individuals as clients –saysthere will be “a major war starting at the end of 2012 to 2013”, which will drive the Dow to 5,000.
Veteran investor adviser James Dines forecast a war is epochal as World Wars I and II, starting in the Middle East.
Nouriel Roubini has warned of war with Iran. And when Roubini was asked:
Where does this all lead us? The risk in your view is of another Great Depression. But even respectable European politicians are talking not just an economic depression but possibly even worse consequences over the next decade or so. Bearing European history in mind, where does this take us?
He responded:
In the 1930s, because we made a major policy mistake, we went through financial instability, defaults, currency devaluations, printing money, capital controls, trade wars, populism, a bunch of radical, populist, aggressive regimes coming to power from Germany to Italy to Spain to Japan, and then we ended up with World War II.
Now I’m not predicting World War III but seriously, if there was a global financial crisis after the first one, then we go into depression: the political and social instability in Europe and other advanced economies is going to become extremely severe. And that’s something we have to worry about.
Billionaire investor Jim Rogers notes:
A continuation of bailouts in Europe could ultimately spark another world war, says international investor Jim Rogers.
***
“Add debt, the situation gets worse, and eventually it just collapses. Then everybody is looking for scapegoats. Politicians blame foreigners, and we’re in World War II or World War whatever.”
Marc Faber says that the American government will start new wars in response to the economic crisis:
We’re in the middle of a global currency war – i.e. a situation where nations all compete to devalue their currencies the most in order to boost exports. And Brazilian president-elect Rousseff said in 2010:
The last time there was a series of competitive devaluations … it ended in world war two.
Jim Rickards agrees:
Currency wars lead to trade wars, which often lead to hot wars. In 2009, Rickards participated in the Pentagon’s first-ever “financial” war games. While expressing confidence in America’s ability to defeat any other nation-state in battle, Rickards says the U.S. could get dragged into “asymmetric warfare,” if currency wars lead to rising inflation and global economic uncertainty.
As does Jim Rogers:
Trade wars always lead to wars.
And given that many influential economists wrongly believe that war is good for the economy … many are overtly or quietly pushing for war.
Moreover, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said that the Iraq war was really about oil , and former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill says that Bush planned the Iraq war before 9/11. And seethis and this. If that war was for petroleum, other oil-rich countries might be invaded as well.
And the American policy of using the military to contain China’s growing economic influence – and of considering economic rivalry to be a basis for war – are creating a tinderbox.
Finally, multi-billionaire investor Hugo Salinas Price says:
What happened to [Libya’s] Mr. Gaddafi, many speculate the real reason he was ousted was that he was planning an all-African currency for conducting trade. The same thing happened to him that happened to Saddam because the US doesn’t want any solid competing currency out there vs the dollar. You know Gaddafi was talking about a golddinar.
Indeed, senior CNBC editor John Carney noted:
Is this the first time a revolutionary group has created a central bank while it is still in the midst of fighting the entrenched political power? It certainly seems to indicate how extraordinarily powerful central bankers have become in our era.
Robert Wenzel of Economic Policy Journal thinks the central banking initiative reveals that foreign powers may have a strong influence over the rebels.
This suggests we have a bit more than a ragtag bunch of rebels running around and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences. “I have never before heard of a central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising,” Wenzel writes.
Indeed, some say that recent wars have really been about bringing all countries into the fold of Western central banking.
Many Warn of Unrest
Numerous economic organizations and economists also warn of crash-induced unrest, including:
- The head of the World Trade Organization
- The head of the International Monetary Fund
- The head of the World Bank
- Leading economic historian Niall Ferguson
- Leading economist John Williams
Poor Richard's News: Unsustainable: Government spending per household exceeds median household income
President Obama has spent more money than any world leader in history, and according to 2010 census data, the Federal Government is actually spending per household more than the median per-household income.
from Terence Jeffrey:
As reported in my new book, “Completely Predictable,” the combined spending of federal, state and local governments per American household actually exceeded the median household income for 2010, which is the latest year for which all relevant government data are available.
In fiscal 2010, according to numbers published by the Census Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), net spending by all levels of government in the United States was $5,942,988,401,000. That equaled $50,074 for each one of the 118,682,000 households in the country.
In that same year, according to the Census Bureau, the median household income was $49,445.
That means total net government spending per household ($50,074) exceeded median household income (49,445) by $629.
Government in the United States, of course, has not always spent more per year than the median household earns. As recently as 2000, the relationship between government spending and household income was dramatically different.
I don’t want to offend any drunken sailors here, so I’ll just say that President Obama’s spending is completely out of control. With every dollar this government spends, we hurl closer and closer to a financial crisis like the ones in Cyprus, Greece, and all across the EU.
“Nowhere am I so desperately needed as among a shipload of illogical humans.” ~ Spock
Poor Richard's News: What Sequester? Feds spend $1.5 million to study why lesbians are fat
Here at PRN, we’ve tried to curb all the sequestration drama by reporting the truth about it. For instance, we reported that sequestration was indeed Obama’s idea to begin with, that no actual cuts would occur because of it and all the grandstanding being done by the those on the left, including the president, simply weren’t true. But another way in which we’ve tried to keep it all in perspective is to report on the hundreds of billions of dollars our government wastes every year. And of all the things we’ve found, this one might just be the most amazing.
From CNS News:
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $1.5 million to study biological and social factors for why “three-quarters” of lesbians are obese and why gay males are not, calling it an issue of “high public-health significance.”
Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., has received two grants administered by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to study the relationship between sexual orientation and obesity.
“Obesity is one of the most critical public health issues affecting the U.S. today,” the description of the grant reads. “Racial and socioeconomic disparities in the determinants, distribution, and consequences of obesity are receiving increasing attention.”
“[H]owever, one area that is only beginning to be recognized is the striking interplay of gender and sexual orientation in obesity disparities,” it states. “It is now well-established that women of minority sexual orientation are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic, with it continues.
“In stark contrast, among men, heterosexual males have nearly double the risk of obesity compared to gay males.”
My thoughts after reading this: What. Did. I. Just. Read.
The phrase “minority sexual orientation” sounds like it needs to be in a joke about politically correctness run amok. But unfortunately it’s not a joke. It’s real life. This is what we’re up against folks. No, not fat lesbians, rather, a government who thinks it’s acceptable to take your money to study them.
Those savage sequester budget cuts! O, the humanities! Those white slivers are the draconian, heartless, unwise, gargantuan sequester cuts. The purple part is the federal budget — the money that will be spent after the sequester cuts those evil Republicans are making the government do. Just look how spending nosedives — the country will collapse!
No wait… real spending is going up even after the “budget cuts,” isn’t it?
Never mind.
This national emergency was brought to you by the fabricators in the White House, and the leadership of the Democratic Party. (Not to mention a few Republicans who keep yelping about how the defense budget can’t be trimmed or we will be left vulnerable.)
Walter E Williams - Theft, Debt And Politics (by LibertyPen)
Obama Says There Is "No Doubt" We Need More Taxes
Via Bloomberg:
President Barack Obama said there is “no doubt” the government needs new revenue from closing tax “loopholes” and limiting deductions, along with enacting spending cuts, to reduce the federal deficit.
There’s “no reason why we can’t have really strong growth in 2013,” the president said in an interview with CBS television yesterday before the network’s Super Bowl broadcast. He cited a recovering housing industry, strong manufacturing and rising car sales.
Revenue could be raised through an overhaul of the tax code, he said, “and we can do it in a gradual way so that it doesn’t have a huge impact.”
“There is no doubt we need additional revenue, coupled with smart spending reductions in order to bring down our deficit,” he said. “I don’t think the issue right now is raising rates.”
Rand Paul: Above All Else, Pay the Crony Banksters Their Interest
As much as I hate social security, medicare, and other government hand outs those recipients of the stolen loot are far more deserving than the crony banksters that Rand wants to protect.
Senator Rand Paul wants crony banksters and anyone else who supports the state by buying US government securities to be first in line for your tax dollars.
This afternoon, Sen. Paul introduced the Default Prevention Act, which would require the President to prioritize federal revenue to interest on the national debt.
“Some of my Republican colleagues in the House have decided to surrender to the Democrats’ annual plan to increase the debt ceiling. I believe we should stand and fight for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution before we raise the debt ceiling. My legislation takes the possibility of default off the table so we can continue to push for fiscal restraint. There is no reason the government would – or should – responsibly consider the idea of default,” Sen. Paul said.
UPDATE
To elaborate on what is going on here. Rand is, in a fashion similar to his TSA proposal, which I discussed with Doug Wead on the Robert Wenzel Show, attempting to micro-manage government in ways that will help expand the government instead of shrink it. The best thing that could happen is for investors to get nervous about holding government paper, which would make it much more difficult for the government to finance expansion. Rand, however, comes up with a proposal that will protect debt holders and eliminate their fears of holding US government debt. Thus, preventing market imposed discipline on the US government.
Newly surfaced audio of Obama in 2006: raising the debt limit “a sad state of affairs”
Never mind the fact that yesterday he demanded a no-strings-attached, non-negotiable debt limit hike. In 2006, Senator Obama was very concerned about the “sad state of affairs” that was America’s debt.
Here’s the newly surfaced audio:
Obama then decried the $8 trillion national debt. During his first term alone, the United States’ debt has risen to more than twice that number: $16.4 trillion, but for some reason the nation’s debt doesn’t matter very much any more. Those darn Republicans are “holding a gun to the nation’s head” and we must accrue more debt immediately!
U.S. Secret Service Bans Certain Gold and Silver Coins On eBay
(Forbes) “eBay was contacted by the U.S. Secret Service sometime last month to remove the Liberty Dollar precious metal coins. Citing consistency with eBay’s general policy of not listing counterfeit items, eBay spokesperson Ryan Moore confirmed the ban with Coin World. The following email was sent to affected sellers when the systematic removals began:
The United States Secret Service has requested the removal of all Norfed Liberty dollars on the eBay site as counterfeits. … Please do not relist this item(s). We appreciate that you chose to list this coin on our site and understand there was no ill intent on your part. Your listing fees have been credited to your account.
Real is fake and fake is real. That’s pretty much the monetary world that we live in now as we are coerced to trade and pay taxes in the designated and one ‘legitimate’ State currency. Certainly, the U.S. Secret Service wouldn’t want anyone purchasing pure (.999 fine) gold and silver medallions mistakenly thinking that they might be getting official and real money issued under the authority of the United States.”
Jailed without conviction: Behind bars for lack of money
The teenager opened her neighbor’s unlocked car, grabbed the iPhone off the armrest and ran home, a few doors away in her downtown neighborhood here.
Perchelle Richardson still isn’t sure why she took the phone. Just five days earlier, for her 18th birthday, her mother had given her a standard, no-frills cellphone. But she loved the way iPhones looked, and her little brothers had seen this one through the car window as they played outside.
The high school student, with no previous criminal record, was arrested and, because her family couldn’t raise the $200 to spring her, would spend 51 days in jail, missing school, before she got her day in court. Her public defenders unsuccessfully asked the judge to release her without court fee and after that could do little beyond bringing her school worksheets, which she craved, she says, because they helped to break her boredom.
Ms. Richardson is symbolic of a little-known criminal-justice crisis that affects the millions of low-income Americans each year who languish behind bars in city and county jails. On any given day, three-quarters of a million people are jail inmates and two-thirds of them haven’t been convicted of anything, according to US Department of Justice statistics. They are awaiting trial, and an estimated 80 percent of them cannot afford to pay bail.
Most won’t go to prison: Overall, 95 percent of those booked into local jails in 2010-11 were not subsequently sent to prison, says Timothy Murray of the Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI). And 75 percent of felony defendants will be judged innocent, given probation, or sent to rehabilitation programs and never end up being sentenced to prison, says longtime correctional researcher James Austin.
Richardson’s stay would have been longer, but an aunt helped the family put together the court fee. She was released two weeks before she was arraigned in court.
Many defendants, like Richardson, serve more time waiting for trial than the sentence they receive for their charges – particularly for petty or probation-worthy offenses. Yet in New Orleans, like other cities across the nation, there are countless stories about how the lives of poor people were set back while they sat in jail, all for the lack of a relatively small sum of money. There’s the dishwasher stopped on a traffic-ticket warrant who lost his job while waiting for trial; the jailed fast-food worker who couldn’t reach her landlord, was evicted, and lost her possessions, which were stacked on the curb.
“Every case of unnecessary pretrial incarceration is much more than simply an effective and unjustifiable waste of taxpayer money – it has direct and tragic human costs,” says Judge Truman Morrison III, who has sat on the Washington, D.C., Superior Court bench for 30 years and is PJI’s board chairman. Judge Morrison says that even though courts have in recent decades developed pretrial programs in which most defendants return to court without problem, the ways that the justice system sets bail haven’t changed. “Most judges spend their days saying, ‘$200, $500, $1,000.’ They have no idea if these people are getting out,” he says.
And for the local jurisdictions who pay for those jail beds, needless pretrial incarceration costs billions each year, according to Justice Department estimates.
So true. So sad.
