by Ron Paul
Before the US House of Representatives, February 13, 2008

I rise to speak on the concept of competing currencies. Currency, or money, is what allows civilization to flourish. In the absence of money, barter is the name of the game; if the farmer needs shoes, he must trade his eggs and milk to the cobbler and hope that the cobbler needs eggs and milk. Money makes the transaction process far easier. Rather than having to search for someone with reciprocal wants, the farmer can exchange his milk and eggs for an agreed-upon medium of exchange with which he can then purchase shoes.

This medium of exchange should satisfy certain properties: it should be durable, that is to say, it does not wear out easily; it should be portable, that is, easily carried; it should be divisible into units usable for everyday transactions; it should be recognizable and uniform, so that one unit of money has the same properties as every other unit; it should be scarce, in the economic sense, so that the extant supply does not satisfy the wants of everyone demanding it; it should be stable, so that the value of its purchasing power does not fluctuate wildly; and it should be reproducible, so that enough units of money can be created to satisfy the needs of exchange.

Over millennia of human history, gold and silver have been the two metals that have most often satisfied these conditions, survived the market process, and gained the trust of billions of people. Gold and silver are difficult to counterfeit, a property which ensures they will always be accepted in commerce. It is precisely for this reason that gold and silver are anathema to governments. A supply of gold and silver that is limited in supply by nature cannot be inflated, and thus serves as a check on the growth of government. Without the ability to inflate the currency, governments find themselves constrained in their actions, unable to carry on wars of aggression or to appease their overtaxed citizens with bread and circuses.

At this country’s founding, there was no government-controlled national currency. While the Constitution established the Congressional power of minting coins, it was not until 1792 that the US Mint was formally established. In the meantime, Americans made do with foreign silver and gold coins. Even after the Mint’s operations got underway, foreign coins continued to circulate within the United States, and did so for several decades.

On the desk in my office I have a sign that says: “Don’t steal – the government hates competition.” Indeed, any power a government arrogates to itself, it is loathe to give back to the people. Just as we have gone from a constitutionally instituted national defense consisting of a limited army and navy bolstered by militias and letters of marque and reprisal, we have moved from a system of competing currencies to a government-instituted banking cartel that monopolizes the issuance of currency. In order to introduce a system of competing currencies, there are three steps that must be taken to produce a legal climate favorable to competition.

The first step consists of eliminating legal tender laws. Article I Section 10 of the Constitution forbids the States from making anything but gold and silver a legal tender in payment of debts. States are not required to enact legal tender laws, but should they choose to, the only acceptable legal tender is gold and silver, the two precious metals that individuals throughout history and across cultures have used as currency. However, there is nothing in the Constitution that grants the Congress the power to enact legal tender laws. We, the Congress, have the power to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, but not to declare a legal tender. Yet, there is a section of US Code, 31 USC 5103, that purports to establish US coins and currency, including Federal Reserve notes, as legal tender.

Historically, legal tender laws have been used by governments to force their citizens to accept debased and devalued currency. Gresham’s Law describes this phenomenon, which can be summed up in one phrase: bad money drives out good money. An emperor, a king, or a dictator might mint coins with half an ounce of gold and force merchants, under pain of death, to accept them as though they contained one ounce of gold. Each ounce of the king’s gold could now be minted into two coins instead of one, so the king now had twice as much “money” to spend on building castles and raising armies. As these legally overvalued coins circulated, the coins containing the full ounce of gold would be pulled out of circulation and hoarded. We saw this same phenomenon happen in the mid-1960s when the US government began to mint subsidiary coinage out of copper and nickel rather than silver. The copper and nickel coins were legally overvalued, the silver coins undervalued in relation, and silver coins vanished from circulation.

These actions also give rise to the most pernicious effects of inflation. Most of the merchants and peasants who received this devalued currency felt the full effects of inflation, the rise in prices and the lowered standard of living, before they received any of the new currency. By the time they received the new currency, prices had long since doubled, and the new currency they received would give them no benefit.

In the absence of legal tender laws, Gresham’s Law no longer holds. If people are free to reject debased currency, and instead demand sound money, sound money will gradually return to use in society. Merchants would have been free to reject the king’s coin and accept only coins containing full metal weight.

The second step to reestablishing competing currencies is to eliminate laws that prohibit the operation of private mints. One private enterprise which attempted to popularize the use of precious metal coins was Liberty Services, the creators of the Liberty Dollar. Evidently the government felt threatened, as Liberty Dollars had all their precious metal coins seized by the FBI and Secret Service this past November. Of course, not all of these coins were owned by Liberty Services, as many were held in trust as backing for silver and gold certificates which Liberty Services issued. None of this matters, of course, to the government, who hates to see any competition.

The sections of US Code which Liberty Services is accused of violating are erroneously considered to be anti-counterfeiting statutes, when in fact their purpose was to shut down private mints that had been operating in California. California was awash in gold in the aftermath of the 1849 gold rush, yet had no US Mint to mint coinage. There was not enough foreign coinage circulating in California either, so private mints stepped into the breech to provide their own coins. As was to become the case in other industries during the Progressive era, the private mints were eventually accused of circulating debased (substandard) coinage, and in the interest of providing government-sanctioned regulation and a government guarantee of purity, the 1864 Coinage Act was passed, which banned private mints from producing their own coins for circulation as currency.

The final step to ensuring competing currencies is to eliminate capital gains and sales taxes on gold and silver coins. Under current federal law, coins are considered collectibles, and are liable for capital gains taxes. Short-term capital gains rates are at income tax levels, up to 35 percent, while long-term capital gains taxes are assessed at the collectibles rate of 28 percent. Furthermore, these taxes actually tax monetary debasement. As the dollar weakens, the nominal dollar value of gold increases. The purchasing power of gold may remain relatively constant, but as the nominal dollar value increases, the federal government considers this an increase in wealth, and taxes accordingly. Thus, the more the dollar is debased, the more capital gains taxes must be paid on holdings of gold and other precious metals.

Just as pernicious are the sales and use taxes which are assessed on gold and silver at the state level in many states. Imagine having to pay sales tax at the bank every time you change a $10 bill for a roll of quarters to do laundry. Inflation is a pernicious tax on the value of money, but even the official numbers, which are massaged downwards, are only on the order of 4% per year. Sales taxes in many states can take away 8% or more on every single transaction in which consumers wish to convert their Federal Reserve Notes into gold or silver.

In conclusion, Madam Speaker, allowing for competing currencies will allow market participants to choose a currency that suits their needs, rather than the needs of the government. The prospect of American citizens turning away from the dollar towards alternate currencies will provide the necessary impetus to the US government to regain control of the dollar and halt its downward spiral. Restoring soundness to the dollar will remove the government’s ability and incentive to inflate the currency, and keep us from launching unconstitutional wars that burden our economy to excess. With a sound currency, everyone is better off, not just those who control the monetary system. I urge my colleagues to consider the redevelopment of a system of competing currencies.

Source: http://www.dailypaul.com/97508/ron-paul-lets-legalize-competing-currencies

Related Posts:

• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 8-14
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 April 2-8
• 12 Warning Signs of U.S. Hyperinflation
• The Floating Dollar as a Threat to Property Rights
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 November 13-19
• How the U.S. is Headed for a Complete Societal Collapse
• Gold Confiscation Act
• Ron Paul Exposed!
• BTL Update 2012 February 4
• Ron Paul – CIA Asset!

by G. Edward Griffin 2009 October 21

One of the most entrenched myths of our modern day is the assumption that (1) the bankers own all the gold and (2) therefore, the concept of a gold-backed money system is a very bad idea, because it would give them even more power than they now have. This view is wrong on both points, as I will attempt to illustrate shortly but, first, let us allow a proponent of that myth to express it in forceful terms. The following letter was received from Brian McDermott, Governor of Central Queensland Free State, Australia.

Dear Mr. Griffin, Please, when you’re doing your crash course on money, whatever else you do, DO NOT suggest that America go back on the “Gold Standard.” I understand that you are a supporter of going back on to the “gold standard.” This is very dangerous, as I will show you.

There are many people in various parts of the world who mean well, but many of them can’t see the perils of “The Gold Standard.” This is EXACTLY what Rothschild wants, BECAUSE ROTHSCHILDS OWN ALL THE GOLD! Hope this makes sense, but “money” should be based on real value of productivity. Nothing to do with gold. All the gold in the world could sink below the waves tomorrow, and it would make no difference to our economic situation, or our productivity. It’s just a useless, pretty metal, with a “man-made” value. The “gold standard” is a clever hoax. Please wake up, and wake up others.

Did you know that Rothschild sets the price of gold every day, on the world markets? IT’S A RACKET! He’s laughing all the way to (his own) bank, at the stupidity of the goyim!

May I suggest that you do a crash course on Social Credit (C.H. Douglas.) It’s all there. Please stay in touch.

THIS WAS MY REPLY:

Hello Brian.
Sorry I can’t agree with you, but I do appreciate your taking the time to express your view.

The Rothschilds do not own all the gold or even close to it. Most of it is still in the ground, in the ocean, and in private hoards. Even if they did own all of it that presently is in the form of bars, that would just drive up the price and stimulate gold mining so that new supplies would quickly come into production – as now is happening around the world. When the price hits several thousands of dollars per ounce, it will be profitable to extract it from the oceans, and there is a limitless supply from that source. It’s just a question of the natural balance between supply and demand – without a committee of politicians and bankers drafting a magic formula and using coercion to redirect human resources.

Bankers may hoard gold (because they understand its value more than most people) but they have always done everything possible to prevent a gold-backed currency. If they wanted it, they could have had it long ago, but (as you may have noticed) they always have worked against it. Why is that? It’s because they can acquire far more wealth by expanding the money supply at will and collecting interest on money created out of nothing than they can by having limits on their money supply and collecting interest on a much smaller amount of gold-backed loans. Bankers love to possess gold but they hate a gold-backed currency because that limits their money supply and, thereby, limits the volume of loans.

Any system other than precious metals is dependent on human decree and manipulation. It must inevitably end up no different than any other fiat money. I am familiar with the social-credit scheme and find it lacking in merit. It is a social engineer’s fantasy. It does not line up with human nature.

Gold has always worked well as a monetary base throughout history. It can’t be improved upon. We must not fall for the line about gold being just a pretty metal, etc. It has intrinsic value even if not used for money, it does not deteriorate, it can be divided into small units and recombined again if necessary, it is scarce so it has great value in a small space, and, best of all, it can be precisely measured for purity and weight, which allows for units that are beyond human judgment and human manipulation. It is the perfect money.

Source: http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/freedomcontent.cfm?fuseaction=banksandgold&refpage=issues

Related Posts:

• Ron Paul: Let’s Legalize Competing Currencies
• G. Edward Griffin: Individualism & Capitalism vs. Collectivism & Monopolies
• Competing Currencies – a Defense Against Profligate Government Spending
• Bernanke is Wrong, Gold is Money
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 April 2-8
• 12 Warning Signs of U.S. Hyperinflation
• The Floating Dollar as a Threat to Property Rights
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 8-14
• Free Market Gold Standard vs Government-Guaranteed Gold Standard
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 December 25-31

2011 July 11
Ron Paul

The end of June marked what is hopefully the end of the Federal Reserve’s policy of quantitative easing.  For months the Fed has purchased hundreds of billions of dollars of Treasury debt, enabling the government to fund its profligate deficit spending, push the national debt to its limit, and further devalue the dollar.  Confidence in the dollar is plummeting, confidence in the euro has been shattered by the European bond crisis, and beleaguered consumers and investors are slowly but surely awakening to the fact that government-issued currencies do not hold their value.

Currency is sound only when it is recognized and accepted as such by individuals, through the actions of the market, without coercion. Throughout history, gold and silver have been the two commodities that have most fully satisfied the requirements of sound money.  This is why people around the world are flocking once again to gold and silver as a store of value to replace their rapidly depreciating paper currencies.  Even central banks have come to their senses and have begun to stock up on gold once again.

But in our country today, attempting to use gold and silver as money is severely punished, regardless of the fact that it is the only constitutionally-allowed legal tender!  In one recent instance, entrepreneurs who attempted to create their own gold and silver currency were convicted by the federal government of “counterfeiting”.   Also, consider another case of an individual who was convicted of tax evasion for paying his employees with silver and gold coins rather than fiat paper dollars.  The federal government acknowledges that such coins are legal tender at their face value, as they were issued by the U.S. government.  But when it comes to income taxes owed by the employees who received them, the IRS suddenly deems the coins to be worth their full market value as precious metals.

These cases highlight the fact that a government monopoly on the issuance of money is purely a method of central control over the economy.  If you can be forced to accept the government’s increasingly devalued dollar, there is no limit to how far the government will go to debauch the currency.  Anyone who attempts to create a market based currency– meaning a currency with real value as determined by markets– threatens to embarrass the federal government and expose the folly of our fiat monetary system.  So the government destroys competition through its usual tools of arrest, confiscation, and incarceration.

This is why I have taken steps to restore the constitutional monetary system envisioned and practiced by our Founding Fathers.  I recently introduced HR 1098, the Free Competition in Currency Act.  This bill eliminates three of the major obstacles to the circulation of sound money: federal legal tender laws that force acceptance of Federal Reserve Notes; “counterfeiting” laws that serve no purpose other than to ban the creation of private commodity currencies; and tax laws that penalize the use of gold and silver coins as money. During this Congress I hope to hold hearings on this bill in order to highlight the importance of returning to a sound monetary system.

Allowing market participants to choose a sound currency will ensure that individuals’ needs are met, rather than the needs of the government.  Restoring sound money will restrict the ability of the government to reduce the citizenry’s purchasing power and burden future generations with debt.  Unlike the current system which benefits the Fed and its banking cartel, all Americans are better off with a sound currency.

Related Posts:

• How to Survive the Death of the Dollar
• Bernanke is Wrong, Gold is Money
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 April 2-8
• 12 Warning Signs of U.S. Hyperinflation
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 8-14
• Free Market Gold Standard vs Government-Guaranteed Gold Standard
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 December 25-31
• How the U.S. is Headed for a Complete Societal Collapse
• BTL Update 2011 December 4
• Ron Paul: Let’s Legalize Competing Currencies

2011 July 13

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke today said that the Federal Reserve is prepared to act with an additional round of quantitative easing if there is any weakening of the U.S. economy and threat of deflation. Bernanke also said that the Fed could act in other ways to stimulate the economy, such as cutting the interest rate that the Fed pays to banks on their $1.5 trillion in excess reserves that they currently keep parked at the Fed. NIA believes this $1.5 trillion alone would multiply into $15 trillion once it circulates through the U.S. economy and if Bernanke on top of that unleashes any additional quantitative easing, it will just about guarantee hyperinflation. Bernanke has made it very clear that he is prepared to print money until the U.S. dollar becomes worthless and the incomes and savings of all U.S. citizens are destroyed.

Ron Paul today asked Bernanke whether or not he watches the price of gold and if he thinks gold is money. Although Bernanke admitted that he does watch the price of gold, Bernanke said that gold is not money, but it is only an asset. Bernanke explained that central banks only hold gold as a “tradition”. The truth is, gold has been accepted as money throughout all civilizations over periods of thousands of years. Bernanke doesn’t want U.S. citizens to wake up and realize that they can opt-out of the criminal Federal Reserve system if they get rid of their U.S. dollars and store all of their wealth in gold and silver. To see a video of Ron Paul’s exchange today with Bernanke, simply visit our blog at: http://inflation.us/blog/2011/07/video-of-ron-paul-asking-bernanke-if-gold-is-money/

The U.S. Constitution defined gold as legal tender and the current fiat currency system we have today where Bernanke can steal from the purchasing power of the poor and middle-class and redistribute this wealth to his banker friends on Wall Street is unconstitutional, immoral, and illegal. The U.S. dollar originally only had purchasing power because it was backed by gold. Today, the U.S. dollar is a fiat currency that is backed by nothing. Any remaining purchasing power the U.S. dollar still has is just an illusion and will soon evaporate due to Bernanke’s actions.

In order for an item to function as money, it should be liquid and easily tradable, easily transportable, and durable. It should be divisible into smaller units without destroying its value and should also be fungible, meaning one unit of equal weight must be equivalent to another (which is why diamonds can’t be used as money). The item must also be a specific weight, measure, or size, so that it is easy to count. It must be long lasting, durable, and not perishable or subject to decay (which is why food items can’t be used as money).

Money must be easily recognizable and most importantly, it must be difficult to counterfeit. The U.S. dollar simply isn’t real money because Bernanke has been counterfeiting trillions of dollars out of thin air. Money shouldn’t require a mark or image to be valuable, but it should just be valuable based on weight and measure. Gold is valuable based on its weight and measure, and fits all of these other qualities and characteristics as well. Never do people explore shipwrecks hoping to discover U.S. dollars, because dollars that Bernanke can print at will even if they could survive the corrosion of the ocean, simply won’t have any purchasing power left by the time explorers can locate them. People explore shipwrecks for gold, because it will last underwater for thousands of years and always retain its value.

When Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe ordered their central bank to implement exactly the same monetary policies that Bernanke has been ordered to implement here in the U.S., the Zimbabwe dollar became worthless and Zimbabweans were forced to pan their rivers for gold. Citizens of Zimbabwe who were able to find 0.1 gram of gold after a long hard day’s work of shifting through thousands of buckets full of mud, were able to take that 0.1 gram of gold and exchange it for a loaf of bread. Those who were too old or weak to pan for gold simply couldn’t afford food and starved to death.

NIA recommends to all U.S. citizens that they read this eHow article about homemade gold panning: http://www.ehow.com/how_7763218_homemade-gold-panning.html This is a skill all Americans will need to have in order to survive hyperinflation. Unfortunately, unlike in Zimbabwe, most gold in U.S. rivers has already been explored for, so Americans might not be as lucky as Zimbabweans.

In order for an asset to be considered money, its supply must be kept scarce. Bernanke has spent a total of $4.7 trillion since the financial crisis of late-2008, which has flooded the world with excess liquidity of U.S. dollars and led to massive inflation in the prices of food and energy, the two items that Americans need most to live and survive. The inflation problems in China are a direct result of their currency peg to the U.S. dollar and willingness to accept the dollars we print in return for the real goods they produce. As soon as the Chinese central bank decides to end their currency peg, China’s currency will increase in purchasing power and all of the monetary inflation the U.S. has exported to them will flow back to the U.S. like a giant tsunami.

Ron Paul today pointed out exactly what we said in our last article. Since the last Presidential election about three years ago, the U.S. dollar has lost about half of its purchasing power priced in gold. Although the U.S. government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has reported only 2% annual price inflation over the past three years, when you account for how the U.S. government used to calculate price inflation before the implementation of hedonics and quantitative easing, annual price inflation has actually been closer to 9%. Soon when price inflation begins spiraling out of control, Bernanke will be forced to raise the Fed Funds Rate north of 10%, which will cause our interest payments on the national debt to soar to over $1 trillion per year. The U.S. government will then need to immediately end Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all other entitlement programs, to have any chance of survival.

It is important to spread the word about NIA to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, if you want America to survive hyperinflation. Please tell everybody you know to become members of NIA for free immediately at: http://inflation.us

Related Posts:

• How the U.S. is Headed for a Complete Societal Collapse
• Fiat Money
• Facts and Truth About U.S. Inflation, Debt, and Political Crisis
• World Domination By ‘The Money Changers’
• Competing Currencies – a Defense Against Profligate Government Spending
• Media Already Marginalizing Ron Paul Presidential Campaign
• Manning The Barricades for Virtue and America
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 April 2-8
• 12 Warning Signs of U.S. Hyperinflation
• U.S. Dollar Collapse Could Occur at Any Time

US: Federal legislators who refuse to increase the debt ceiling are being threatened with blame for causing the unthinkable shutdown of many government services as of midnight tonight. They will have to carry guilt for putting 800,000 federal workers on furlough, stopping funding for Planned Parenthood abortions, canceling tours of the Statue of Liberty, delaying pay to soldiers stationed in the Middle East, and even cancel the annual Cherry Blossom Parade. [It never occurs to these spenders to consider the nation's ability to pay for the programs they launch. They assume that, once they are started, the public will not tolerate their elimination, even if it destroys the nation. So far, they have been right – but is there a change in the wind?]
DailyMail 2011 Apr 8 (Cached)

Japan suffers a 7.4 earthquake aftershock on Thursday that put another nuclear plant on emergency power to keep the fuel rods cool. There is no evidence of new radiation leaks.
NHK 2011 Apr 8 (Cached)

British constitutionalists engage in ‘lawful rebellion’ and try to arrest a judge who violates the law during trial of a tax case. This is a common-law right under the Magna Carta. The police refuse to support the protestors. This may be the beginning of a new tax revolt to rival the poll-tax riots of 1990.
InfoWars 2011 Apr 8 (Cached)

Genetically modified fungus that kills the malaria parasite is under development. It is sprayed on walls and bednets to be picked up by mosquitoes that carry the parasites. [The problem with all GM organisms is that the long-term effects are not known, and unanticipated damage to life and environment may be severe and irreversible.]
Yahoo 2011 Apr 7 (Cached)

Japanese journalist drives straight into the Fukushima nuclear-reactor evacuation zone. The area is eerily deserted except for a few animals. It is like a scene from a science-fiction apocalypse movie. His Geiger counter proves the severity of this disaster.
YouTube 2011 Apr 6

US: Senate votes to repeal the provision in ObamaCare that requires companies to report to the IRS all business transactions exceeding $600. The bill now goes to the White House. [This is good news, but the entire bill should be repealed. Unfortunately, there is no serious movement in that direction at the present time.]
C4L Apr 5 (Cached)

Japan: Radiation levels at damaged power plant are so high that measurement devices have been rendered useless.
NHK 2011 Apr 5 (Cached)

Tokyo Electric Power Company admits it knew that radiation in seawater was 7.5 million times above normal BEFORE it started dumping its radioactive water, which means it was seeping from ground sources. The Japanese fishing industry is dead and will remain so for many years. [Those who eat the fish may also be dead.]
ZeroHedge 2011 Apr 5 (Cached)

Japan sets limits to the amount of radiation permitted in fish, hoping this will instill public confidence that they will be safe to eat. Already some fish are exceeding those limits. India has halted food imports from Japan.
Yahoo 2011 Apr 5 (Cached)

US: Government reverses its former stance and now calls for phase-out of dental mercury amalgams. [This is good news for mercury-free dentistry, but 'calling for' and 'requiring' are not the same thing. The fact that dental mercury is still allowed at all shows that much has yet to be done.]
MercuryExposure 2011 Apr 5 (Cached)

Dentist speaks before the Costa Mesa, California, City Council and urges them to ban dental mercury. The city did so and made national headlines. This was partly responsible for the federal government’s reversal on this issue.
YouTube 2010 Oct 26

Ivory Coast leader, Gbagbo, is abandoned by his military and remains holed up in a bunker attempting to negotiate with the UN where he can obtain asylum.
Yahoo 2011 Apr 5 (Cached)

UK: Military and health officials urge doctors to use their positions of trust in society to build support for the myth of global warming by portraying it as a threat to health.
Guardian 2011 Apr 5 (Cached)

Jesse Ventura takes on mainstream news commentator, George Stephanopolous, about covert government operations, including 9/11 and the CIA Assassination Manual.  Jesse says he would like to be Ron Paul’s running mate in 2012.
YouTube 2011 Apr 4

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Topic: Using Social Networks

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After the radioactive cloud emanating from Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant reached Europe last week, French authorities detected radioactive iodine-131 in rainwater and milk.
EurActiv 2011 Apr 4 (Cached)

The Queen of England dissolves the Canadian Parliament for the third time in 3 years. [The Queen still has full power over her colony-states. Canada is not an independent nation.]
BLN 2011 Apr 4 (Cached)

Here is ‘how-to’ advice for long-term food storage. Be prepared for disruption of food availability. Better safe than sorry.
Ready Nutrition 2011 Apr 4

The Dalai Lama promotes the myth of global warming. [Incidentally, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.]
DNA 2011 Apr 2 (Cached)

Although the Dalai Lama claims the Tibetan glaciers are melting, the latest scientific data shows that many of them are stable, and half are actually growing.
Telegraph Posted 2011 Apr 2 (Cached)

US: Three forecasting scientists/professors testified before a congressional committee and reported that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change violated 81% of standard forecasting procedures. They recommended that Congress terminate all funding for climate change regulations and research and stop funds for organizations that advocate the myth of global warming.
Digital Journal Posted 2011 Apr 2 (Cached)

China: Researchers have created genetically modified cattle that produce milk that is similar to human milk. They also are producing cloned cattle, but the offspring are unhealthy, and many die shortly after birth. [As usual, the lure of profits from patented food blinds GMO developers to the possibility of negative long-term consequences of their work.]
Telegraph 2011 Apr 2 (Cached)

US: ‘Concierge Medicine’ is a free-market program for those who are willing to pay more for better medical service than available from Obama Care. Collectivists are worried that this will produce inequality of care. [Since collectivists cannot raise the standard for everyone, they seek to lower the standard for all.]
Yahoo 2011 Apr 2 (Cached)

Woman in Phoenix, Arizona, films “dry rain” consisting of tiny particles falling from the sky. Watch closely and you will see them reflecting sunlight as they flutter to the ground. [Just prior to this, Phoenix had been the focus of intensive chemtrail activity.]
YouTube Posted 2011 Apr 2

Many governments take threat of bee-killing pesticides seriously. Bayer’s ‘neonicotinoid’ pesticide, believed to be the cause of honeybee die-off, has either been banned or limited in Germany, France and Slovenia. The UK is reconsidering it prior to approval. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does nothing.
Grist Posted 2011 Apr 2 (Cached)

New Hampshire House of Representatives votes to end participation in regional cap-and-trade program. The Governor supports cap-and-trade because the state gets $12 million in federal handouts for it every year.
WattsUpWithThat Posted 2011 Apr 2 (Cached)

Ron Paul advocates competition in currency (by legalizing the use of gold & silver) and removing sales and capital gains taxes from the coins. He says the shortage of US minted coins forces people to use Federal Reserve Notes, and he wants an explanation for the shortage.
YouTube Posted 2011 Apr 2

Obama announces a plan for the federal government to buy up millions of acres of MORE land under the ‘Great Outdoors Initiative’. Children will be encouraged to participate in the name of helping the environment and fighting global warming. [The nation already staggers under the unbearable weight of deficit spending, and now this? But it is not really about money. It is about implementing the UN's Agenda 21, designed to drive people off of rural lands and herd them into cities]
HumanEvents Posted 2011 Apr 2 (Cached)

California Air Resources Board (CARB) used false data to justify air pollution rules that will cripple truck deliveries and create massive unemployment and higher prices, thus adding further burden to the state and businesses.
YouTube Posted 2011 Apr 2

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ANALYSIS
Reports and commentaries that look beyond the news to identify historical facts and trends that must be understood to place the news into perspective. This is our “think-tank” section that makes it possible to anticipate future events.

Organized Chaos. This is an excellent analysis of the extent to which the so-called spontaneous uprisings in the Middle East are influenced and even planned by key figures who are members of the American-based CFR.
New American 2011 Apr 4 (Cached)

Fat Head, a humorous and highly informative documentary says we have been fed a load of bologna about the movie, Super Size Me, and nearly everything we’ve been told about healthy eating is wrong. That’s quite a claim, but our bet is that, after viewing this program, you probably will agree. So, watch it here and, if you like it, support the film maker by purchasing a copy. [This program does not touch on the hazards of artificial hormones and antibiotics in meat and dairy products nor does it deal with inhumane treatment of animals in factory farms, but that is another story and does not negate the truth this program delivers about fraudulent claims against dietary fat and cholesterol.]
Hulu Posted 2011 Apr 1

US: Organic farmers file lawsuit against Monsanto, but this reporter says it may be designed to fail. [If so, this is another case of controlled opposition. The lawyers are funded by the Rockefellers and Soros.]
Rense 2011 Apr 1 (Cached)

“Extend and Pretend” is an excellent analysis of the bookkeeping tricks and rule-changing that tanked the US economy. You will learn how the mistakes and frauds of the past were hidden from view and why the worst is yet to come.
Financial Sense 2011 Mar 31 (Cached)

Kirk Elliot, PhD explains how food inflation is depleting savings and destroying the middle class. Here are the hard numbers.
API posted 2011 Mar 31

Alex Jones exposes Al-Qaeda as a tool of the New World Order. It’s role is to destabilize enemy governments and terrorize friendly into accepting totalitarian measures in the name of security. His evidence cannot be dismissed.
Prison Planet 2011 Mar 31 (Cached)

Genetically modified organisms now are found in 85% of processed foods.  Viruses are frequently used to splice genes together. GMOs are not tested and virtually unregulated in the US. Here are the facts you need to know.
Farmwars 2011 Mar 29 (Cached)

Middle East protests have been linked to Western influence and funding and is believed to be controlled opposition. If this is true, the international power elites will replace these toppled governments with new rulers who will do their bidding.
Activist Post 2011 Mar 25 (Cached)

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• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 15-21
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News December 18-24
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 October 2-8
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 March 19-25
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 29-February 4
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 8-14
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One of the most frequently asked questions we receive at the National Inflation Association (NIA) is what warning signs will there be when hyperinflation is imminent. In our opinion, the majority of the warning signs that hyperinflation is imminent are already here today, but most Americans are failing to properly recognize them. NIA believes that there is a serious risk of hyperinflation breaking out as soon as the second half of this calendar year and that hyperinflation is almost guaranteed to occur by the end of this decade.

In our estimation, the most likely time frame for a full-fledged outbreak of hyperinflation is between the years 2013 and 2015. Americans who wait until 2013 to prepare, will most likely see the majority of their purchasing power wiped out. It is essential that all Americans begin preparing for hyperinflation immediately.

Here are NIA’s top 12 warning signs that hyperinflation is about to occur:

1. The Federal Reserve is Buying 70% of U.S. Treasuries. The Federal Reserve has been buying 70% of all new U.S. treasury debt. Up until this year, the U.S. has been successful at exporting most of its inflation to the rest of the world, which is hoarding huge amounts of U.S. dollar reserves due to the U.S. dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. In recent months, foreign central bank purchases of U.S. treasuries have declined from 50% down to 30%, and Federal Reserve purchases have increased from 10% up to 70%. This means U.S. government deficit spending is now directly leading to U.S. inflation that will destroy the standard of living for all Americans.

2. The Private Sector Has Stopped Purchasing U.S. Treasuries. The U.S. private sector was previously a buyer of 30% of U.S. government bonds sold. Today, the U.S. private sector has stopped buying U.S. treasuries and is dumping government debt. The Pimco Total Return Fund was recently the single largest private sector owner of U.S. government bonds, but has just reduced its U.S. treasury holdings down to zero. Although during the financial panic of 2008, investors purchased government bonds as a safe haven, during all future panics we believe precious metals will be the new safe haven.

3. China Moving Away from U.S. Dollar as Reserve Currency. The U.S. dollar became the world’s reserve currency because it was backed by gold and the U.S. had the world’s largest manufacturing base. Today, the U.S. dollar is no longer backed by gold and China has the world’s largest manufacturing base. There is no reason for the world to continue to transact products and commodities in U.S. dollars, when most of everything the world consumes is now produced in China. China has been taking steps to position the yuan to be the world’s new reserve currency.

The People’s Bank of China stated earlier this month, in a story that went largely unreported by the mainstream media, that it would respond to overseas demand for the yuan to be used as a reserve currency and allow the yuan to flow back into China more easily. China hopes to allow all exporters and importers to settle their cross border transactions in yuan by the end of 2011, as part of their plan to increase the yuan’s international role. NIA believes if China really wants to become the world’s next superpower and see to it that the U.S. simultaneously becomes the world’s next Zimbabwe, all China needs to do is use their $1.15 trillion in U.S. dollar reserves to accumulate gold and use that gold to back the yuan.

4. Japan to Begin Dumping U.S. Treasuries. Japan is the second largest holder of U.S. treasury securities with $885.9 billion in U.S. dollar reserves. Although China has reduced their U.S. treasury holdings for three straight months, Japan has increased their U.S. treasury holdings seven months in a row. Japan is the country that has been the most consistent at buying our debt for the past year, but that is about the change. Japan is likely going to have to spend $300 billion over the next year to rebuild parts of their country that were destroyed by the recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, and NIA believes their U.S. dollar reserves will be the most likely source of this funding. This will come at the worst possible time for the U.S., which needs Japan to increase their purchases of U.S. treasuries in order to fund our record budget deficits.

5. The Fed Funds Rate Remains Near Zero. The Federal Reserve has held the Fed Funds Rate at 0.00-0.25% since December 16th, 2008, a period of over 27 months. This is unprecedented and NIA believes the world is now flooded with excess liquidity of U.S. dollars.

When the nuclear reactors in Japan began overheating two weeks ago after their cooling systems failed due to a lack of electricity, TEPCO was forced to open relief valves to release radioactive steam into the air in order to avoid an explosion. The U.S. stock market is currently acting as a relief valve for all of the excess liquidity of U.S. dollars. The U.S. economy for all intents and purposes should currently be in a massive and extremely steep recession, but because of the Fed’s money printing, stock prices are rising because people don’t know what else to do with their dollars.

NIA believes gold, and especially silver, are much better hedges against inflation than U.S. equities, which is why for the past couple of years we have been predicting large declines in both the Dow/Gold and Gold/Silver ratios. These two ratios have been in free fall exactly like NIA projected.

The Dow/Gold ratio is the single most important chart all investors need to closely follow, but way too few actually do. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) itself is meaningless because it averages together the dollar based movements of 30 U.S. stocks. With just the DJIA, it is impossible to determine whether stocks are rising due to improving fundamentals and real growing investor demand, or if prices are rising simply because the money supply is expanding.

The Dow/Gold ratio illustrates the cyclical nature of the battle between paper assets like stocks and real hard assets like gold. The Dow/Gold ratio trends upward when an economy sees real economic growth and begins to trend downward when the growth phase ends and everybody becomes concerned about preserving wealth. With interest rates at 0%, the U.S. economy is on life support and wealth preservation is the focus of most investors. NIA believes the Dow/Gold ratio will decline to 1 before the hyperinflationary crisis is over and until the Dow/Gold ratio does decline to 1, investors should keep buying precious metals.

6. Year-Over-Year CPI Growth Has Increased 92% in Three Months. In November of 2010, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS)’s consumer price index (CPI) grew by 1.1% over November of 2009. In February of 2011, the BLS’s CPI grew by 2.11% over February of 2010, above the Fed’s informal inflation target of 1.5% to 2%. An increase in year-over-year CPI growth from 1.1% in November of last year to 2.11% in February of this year means that the CPI’s growth rate increased by approximately 92% over a period of just three months. Imagine if the year-over-year CPI growth rate continues to increase by 92% every three months. In 9 to 12 months from now we could be looking at a price inflation rate of over 15%. Even if the BLS manages to artificially hold the CPI down around 5% or 6%, NIA believes the real rate of price inflation will still rise into the double-digits within the next year.

7. Mainstream Media Denying Fed’s Target Passed. You would think that year-over-year CPI growth rising from 1.1% to 2.11% over a period of three months for an increase of 92% would generate a lot of media attention, especially considering that it has now surpassed the Fed’s informal inflation target of 1.5% to 2%. Instead of acknowledging that inflation is beginning to spiral out of control and encouraging Americans to prepare for hyperinflation like NIA has been doing for years, the media decided to conveniently change the way it defines the Fed’s informal target.

The media is now claiming that the Fed’s informal inflation target of 1.5% to 2% is based off of year-over-year changes in the BLS’s core-CPI figures. Core-CPI, as most of you already know, is a meaningless number that excludes food and energy prices. Its sole purpose is to be used to mislead the public in situations like this. We guarantee that if core-CPI had just surpassed 2% and the normal CPI was still below 2%, the media would be focusing on the normal CPI number, claiming that it remains below the Fed’s target and therefore inflation is low and not a problem.

The fact of the matter is, food and energy are the two most important things Americans need to live and survive. If the BLS was going to exclude something from the CPI, you would think they would exclude goods that Americans don’t consume on a daily basis. The BLS claims food and energy prices are excluded because they are most volatile. However, by excluding food and energy, core-CPI numbers are primarily driven by rents. Considering that we just came out of the largest Real Estate bubble in world history, there is a glut of homes available to rent on the market. NIA has been saying for years that being a landlord will be the worst business to be in during hyperinflation, because it will be impossible for landlords to increase rents at the same rate as overall price inflation. Food and energy prices will always increase at a much faster rate than rents.

8. Record U.S. Budget Deficit in February of $222.5 Billion. The U.S. government just reported a record budget deficit for the month of February of $222.5 billion. February’s budget deficit was more than the entire fiscal year of 2007. In fact, February’s deficit on an annualized basis was $2.67 trillion. NIA believes this is just a preview of future annual budget deficits, and we will see annual budget deficits surpass $2.67 trillion within the next several years.

9. High Budget Deficit as Percentage of Expenditures. The projected U.S. budget deficit for fiscal year 2011 of $1.645 trillion is 43% of total projected government expenditures in 2011 of $3.819 trillion. That is almost exactly the same level of Brazil’s budget deficit as a percentage of expenditures right before they experienced hyperinflation in 1993 and it is higher than Bolivia’s budget deficit as a percentage of expenditures right before they experienced hyperinflation in 1985. The only way a country can survive with such a large deficit as a percentage of expenditures and not have hyperinflation, is if foreigners are lending enough money to pay for the bulk of their deficit spending. Hyperinflation broke out in Brazil and Bolivia when foreigners stopped lending and central banks began monetizing the bulk of their deficit spending, and that is exactly what is taking place today in the U.S.

10. Obama Lies About Foreign Policy. President Obama campaigned as an anti-war President who would get our troops out of Iraq. NIA believes that many Libertarian voters actually voted for Obama in 2008 over John McCain because they felt Obama was more likely to end our wars that are adding greatly to our budget deficits and making the U.S. a lot less safe as a result. Obama may have reduced troop levels in Iraq, but he increased troops levels in Afghanistan, and is now sending troops into Libya for no reason.

The U.S. is now beginning to occupy Libya, when Libya didn’t do anything to the U.S. and they are no threat to the U.S. Obama has increased our overall overseas troop levels since becoming President and the U.S. is now spending $1 trillion annually on military expenses, which includes the costs to maintain over 700 military bases in 135 countries around the world. There is no way that we can continue on with our overseas military presence without seeing hyperinflation.

11. Obama Changes Definition of Balanced Budget. In the White House’s budget projections for the next 10 years, they don’t project that the U.S. will ever come close to achieving a real balanced budget. In fact, after projecting declining budget deficits up until the year 2015 (NIA believes we are unlikely to see any major dip in our budget deficits due to rising interest payments on our national debt), the White House projects our budget deficits to begin increasing again up until the year 2021. Obama recently signed an executive order to create the “National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform”, with a mission to “propose recommendations designed to balance the budget, excluding interest payments on the debt, by 2015″. Obama is redefining a balanced budget to exclude interest payments on our national debt, because he knows interest payments are about to explode and it will be impossible to truly balance the budget.

12. U.S. Faces Largest Ever Interest Payment Increases. With U.S. inflation beginning to spiral out of control, NIA believes it is 100% guaranteed that we will soon see a large spike in long-term bond yields. Not only that, but within the next couple of years, NIA believes the Federal Reserve will be forced to raise the Fed Funds Rate in a last-ditch effort to prevent hyperinflation. When both short and long-term interest rates start to rise, so will the interest payments on our national debt. With the public portion of our national debt now exceeding $10 trillion, we could see interest payments on our debt reach $500 billion within the next year or two, and over $1 trillion somewhere around mid-decade. When interest payments reach $1 trillion, they will likely be around 30% to 40% of government tax receipts, up from interest payments being only 9% of tax receipts today. No country has ever seen interest payments on their debt reach 40% of tax receipts without hyperinflation occurring in the years to come.

It is important to spread the word about NIA to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, if you want America to survive hyperinflation. Please tell everybody you know to become members of NIA for free immediately at: http://inflation.us
National Inflation Association 2011 March 26

Related Posts:

• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 April 2-8
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 8-14
• How the U.S. is Headed for a Complete Societal Collapse
• Ron Paul: Let’s Legalize Competing Currencies
• BTL Update 2011 October 30
• Competing Currencies – a Defense Against Profligate Government Spending
• Bernanke is Wrong, Gold is Money
• Manning The Barricades for Virtue and America
• The Floating Dollar as a Threat to Property Rights
• BTL Update 2011 March 3

Seth Lipsky is the founding editor of the New York Sun. A graduate of Harvard College, he served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam as a combat correspondent for Pacific Stars and Stripes. A former senior editor and member of the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, he has also served as editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal/Europe, managing editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal, and assistant editor of Far Eastern Economic Review. In 2009, he published The Citizen’s Constitution: An Annotated Guide.

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on February 16, 2011, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Phoenix, Arizona.

TO BEGIN, consider one of the most important measures of property, the kilogram. It’s a measure of mass or, for non-scientific purposes, weight. According to the papers last week, a global scramble is under way to define this most basic unit after it was discovered that the standard kilogram—a cylinder of platinum and iridium that is maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures—has been losing mass.

You may think that this is impossible. Of all the elements, iridium is the most resistant to corrosion, and the cylinder is kept in a facility at Sevres, France, where it is under three glass domes accessible by three separate keys. The cylinder itself is more than 130 years old and is what the New York Times calls the “only remaining international standard in the metric system that is still a man-made object.” The new urgency to redefine the kilogram comes from the fact that its changing mass “defeats,” as the Times put it, “its only purpose: constancy.”

The question I invite you to consider for a moment is what would happen if we just let the kilogram float? This is a question that was posed in an editorial last week in the New York Sun. After all, the editorial said, we let the dollar float. The creation of dollars, and the status of the dollar as legal tender, is a matter of fiat. Its value is adjusted by the mandarins at the Federal Reserve, depending on variables they only sometimes share with the rest of the world. This would have floored the Framers of our Constitution, who granted Congress the power to coin money and regulate its value in the same sentence in which they gave it the power to fix the standard of weights and measures—like, say, the aforementioned kilogram.

Now, the record is clear in respect of how America’s founders viewed money. Many of them went into the Second United States Congress, where they established the value of the dollar at 371 ¼ grains of pure silver. The law through which they did that, the Coinage Act of 1792, noted that the amount of silver they were regulating for the dollar was the same as in a coin then in widespread use, known as the Spanish milled dollar. The law said a dollar could also be the free-market equivalent in gold. The Founders did not expect the value of the dollar to be changed any more than the persons who locked away that kilogram of platinum and iridium expected the cylinder to start losing mass. In fact, in this same 1792 law, they established the death penalty for debasing the dollar.

Today, members of the Federal Reserve Board don’t worry about how many grains of silver or gold are behind the dollar. They couldn’t care less. And this is what I believe is the most worrisome threat to property rights today. When the value of a dollar plunges at a dizzying rate—at one point in recent months it collapsed to less than ¹/_1,400 of an ounce of gold—Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke goes up to Capitol Hill and declares merely that he is “puzzled.” No “new urgency” to redefine the dollar for him. The fact is that we’ve long since ceased to define the dollar, and it can float not only against other currencies but even against 371 ¼ grains of pure silver.

So, the New York Sun asked, why not float the kilogram? After all, when you go into the grocery to buy a pound of hamburger, why should you worry about how much hamburger you get—so long as it’s a pound’s worth? A pound is supposed to be .45359237 of a kilogram. But if Congress can permit Mr. Bernanke to use his judgment in deciding what a dollar is worth, why shouldn’t he—or some other Ph.D. from M.I.T.—be able to decide from day to day what a kilogram is worth?

No doubt some will cavil that the fact that the dollar floats makes it all the more reason for the kilogram to be constant. But what’s so special about the kilogram? If the fiat dollar floats, one has no idea what it will be worth when it comes time to spend it. If the kilogram also floats, it will simply be twice as hard to figure out what something we’re buying will be worth. So what if, when we unwrap our hamburger, the missus has to throw a little more sawdust in the meatloaf?

Or let us consider a compromise. Let’s go to a fiat kilogram—that is, permit the kilogram to float—but apply the new urgency to fixing the dollar at a specified number of grains of gold. To those who say it would be ridiculous to fix the dollar but let the butcher hand you whatever amount of hamburger he wants when you ask for a kilogram, I say, what’s the difference as to whether it’s the measure of money or of weight that floats?

For that matter, one could go all the way and fix the value of both the kilogram and the dollar but float the value of time. You say you want to be paid $100 an hour. That’s fine by your boss. But he—or Chairman Bernanke—gets to decide how many minutes in the hour. Or how long the minute is. You know you’ll get a kilogram of meat for the price a kilogram of meat costs. But you won’t know how long you have to work to earn the money.

There was obviously a satirical element to that Sun editorial. But it’s not satirical to say that we are in a dangerous situation in our country in respect of the dollar, and that property rights are very much bound up in the question of money. After all, consider that kilogram. It is a cylinder. And it’s a cylinder the size of, say, a golf ball. The amount of mass that it is believed to have lost is measured in a few atoms, and yet the institution where they maintain standards is in a complete tizzy about it. The implications are said to be enormous.

The dollar, by contrast, has collapsed from ¹/₃₅ of an ounce of gold to less than ¹/_1,300 of an ounce of gold. If the kilogram had collapsed on that order of magnitude, there would be left only a small shard of that handsome grayish cylinder under the three glass domes at Sevres, France.

I understand that this is not where the property rights discussion is usually focused. It usually centers around the takings clause of the Constitution—the clause at the center of the landmark case that erupted when condemnation proceedings were launched against the homes in New London, Connecticut, of a woman named Susette Kelo and her neighbors. Under the Fifth Amendment, the government is prohibited from taking private property for public use without just compensation. That is a bedrock principle of American constitutionalism. What was special about Susette Kelo is that her property was taken for private use. It was coveted by a private, non-profit development corporation for private, for-profit use near a big pharmaceutical development that the town reckoned would benefit the public.

Mrs. Kelo and her neighbors went all the way to the Supreme Court to try to keep their homes. She lost the case, Kelo v. New London, albeit by a five to four vote. On the one hand, it was a terrible defeat for the principle of property rights. On the other hand, the decision was so alarming that states have begun changing their own laws to strengthen protections against the kind of raid on private property that Mrs. Kelo suffered. At least 43 states have already passed such laws. Rarely has the loser in a Supreme Court case established so great a legacy as Mrs. Kelo, whose case is one of the most important warnings we have had in my generation of the vigilance that is going to be required in respect of the right to property enshrined in the Fifth Amendment.

Which brings me to the question of how the law can be used to illuminate the problem of the floating dollar. What I consider the most astonishing legal question in the country came into the news in 2008, when Judith Kaye, the chief judge of the highest court in the state of New York, the Court of Appeals, filed a lawsuit in an inferior court, asking it to order the state legislature and the governor to give her a raise.

My first reaction, and that of my colleagues at the Sun, was to consider this something of a joke. Yet the more we began to look at the case, the more it threw into sharp relief the issue of the right to the property that comes to us in the form of a salary or is held by us in the form of savings. The judges on New York’s Court of Appeals, after all, hadn’t had a raise in more than a decade, and they were having an ever harder time making their salaries cover rising costs. In that they are just like the rest of us.

But it turns out that under the Constitution, judges are not quite like the rest of us—and in a way that lies at the heart of the American Revolution. Indeed, in the Declaration of Independence, one of the reasons our Founders listed for breaking with England was that King George III had “made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.” So they wrote into the Constitution not only that judges would have life tenure (with good behavior), but also that the pay of a judge would not be diminished during his term in office. This principle that one can never lower the pay of a judge is also in many state constitutions.

So if in, say, the year 2000 a judge was paid in dollars that were worth ¹/₂₆₅ of an ounce of gold, and if today that same judge is being paid with dollars worth less than ¹/_1,300 of an ounce of gold, has the judge’s pay been diminished?

The more I’ve thought about it, the more I have been nagged by the thought that judges’ pay could be the device with which to attack the legal tender law I have come to regard as the greatest threat to property in America. This is the law establishing that paper money in America must be accepted in payment of debts, public and private. The Founders themselves hated paper money. Washington, whose picture is on the one dollar bill, warned that paper money would inevitably “ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice”; Jefferson, whose picture is on the two dollar bill, called its abuses inevitable; as did Madison, whose picture is on the $5,000 bill. Paper money, he said, was “unconstitutional, for it affects the rights of property as much as taking away equal value in land.”

I’m not so sure that the existence of paper money is the problem. The problem is the requirement that a one dollar paper note be accepted in lieu of 371 ¼ grains of silver. Certainly when the greenback was introduced—as it was by President Lincoln—it was for a cause, the Union, that was worth enormous risks. The Treasury Secretary who helped him put through the greenback as a war measure, Salmon Chase, became, in 1864, the sixth Chief Justice of the United States; and when the concept of legal tender finally came up for consideration, Chase ruled against the greenback. Lincoln, however, eventually got two new justices on the court, and legal tender was established in a series of rulings—one involving the purchase of some sheep, the other of some bales of cotton, and another some land—known as the Legal Tender Cases.

A few months ago, I called Bernard Nussbaum, who was representing Judge Kaye, and asked him why she didn’t challenge legal tender head on. He told me he feared the Legal Tender Cases couldn’t be overturned. It was too heavy a lift. So instead he fought the case on separation of powers grounds. It seems that the New York legislature had said it would not give the judges of New York a raise until the legislators got a raise. The judges sprang on this as a transgression of separation of powers—and, no surprise, when they heard their own case, they ruled against the legislature. A few weeks ago, the legislature decided to delegate to an independent commission the job of deciding judges’ pay.

By my lights, this delegation to an unelected body, even if the legislature could overrule it, was an unsatisfactory outcome. But it turns out that the judges of New York are not the only jurists who are furious about the diminishment of their pay. A group of federal judges is also in court, fighting over their salaries. In the case of the federal judges, Congress had some time ago enacted a law that gave them an automatic pay increase designed to keep up with the Consumer Price Index. But then, as deficits got out of control and Congress’s own salary lagged, Congress suspended the automatic pay increase.

At that point, a coalition of federal judges went into court. Their aim is limited: to force Congress to reinstate the automatic pay adjustment. To understand the scale of what one is talking about, consider the pay of but one of the plaintiffs, Judge Silberman. I don’t know his exact salary. But at the time he was assigned to the District of Columbia Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, the salary of a federal appeals judge—$83,200—was worth 258 ounces of gold. Since then, the value of the pay of a judge of one of the Appeals circuits—$184,500—has been diminished to 139 ounces of gold.

At this very hour, the judges’ petition in their pay case is before the United States Supreme Court. And while I believe the justices have been wronged by Congress, I hope they lose on the question of whether a suspension in the automatic pay adjustment is unconstitutional. That should get them angry enough to come back and look legal tender in the face. They could force Congress to pay them in the gold or silver equivalent of a federal judge’s salary at the time they were appointed to the bench. It would move judges closer to the kinds of salaries the lawyers before them are receiving.

And people would start to ask: If judges deserve honest money, why shouldn’t the rest of us?

To those who suggest that such a scenario is far-fetched, one can say, no more far-fetched than the notion that the post-Civil War monetary system could be erected on Supreme Court decisions in a pair of disputes over payment for a flock of sheep and some bales of cotton. Or that centuries of law on abortion could be overturned in a fell swoop by a Supreme Court ruling in the case of a woman who later changed her mind. Could the court cast aside precedent to decide such a sweeping issue as legal tender? It certainly didn’t hesitate—nor should it have—in demolishing the notion that racially separate schools could be equal. With everyone from the United Nations to Communist China today calling for the abandonment of the dollar as a reserve currency, is it so hard to imagine that the Supreme Court might revisit the Legal Tender Cases?

It may be that the judges will lose their pay case, just as Susette Kelo lost her house, or that they will win a partial victory and the Supreme Court will shy away from confronting legal tender. But we know from Mrs. Kelo’s case that this needn’t be the end of things. People began to see the logic and think about property rights, and now at least 43 states have passed laws to make it harder for state and local jurisdictions to use the power of eminent domain to seize private land for someone else’s private use.

Could such a thing happen with money? Well, there is a part of the Constitution called Article I, Section 10. It is the section that lists the things that states can never do. And one of these prohibited activities is making legal tender out of something other than gold or silver coin. So what is happening now is that a growing number of states, watching the sickening plunge in the value of federal money, are starting to explore how they can set up monetary systems based on gold or silver coins. The most recent effort was launched in Virginia, where there is a bill before the General Assembly to set up a joint committee to study the question. There have been early stirrings—just stirrings—in the legislatures of several other states.

Could the entry of the states into the monetary role be a reaction to a failure at the federal level, the way the states reacted to the failure of the Supreme Court to enforce Susette Kelo’s Fifth Amendment rights? It would be inaccurate to make too much of these efforts. But it would be shortsighted to make too little of them. Strange things can happen. It is even possible that one can take a cylinder of platinum and iridium, lock it away in a room under three glass domes, secure it with three separate keys, and come back in a few years to discover that part of it has disappeared. And the New York Times will write an editorial about the value of constancy.

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“Reprinted by permission from Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College.” SUBSCRIPTION FREE UPON REQUEST. ISSN 0277-8432. Imprimis trademark registered in U.S. Patent and Trade Office #1563325.

Related Posts:

• Ron Paul: Let’s Legalize Competing Currencies
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 April 2-8
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 8-14
• Free Market Gold Standard vs Government-Guaranteed Gold Standard
• How the U.S. is Headed for a Complete Societal Collapse
• Gold Confiscation Act
• IF THE BANKS OWN ALL THE GOLD, WHY WOULD WE WANT A GOLD-BACKED MONEY SYSTEM?
• Competing Currencies – a Defense Against Profligate Government Spending
• Bernanke is Wrong, Gold is Money
• Manning The Barricades for Virtue and America

JP Morgan-Chase bank says its net income jumped 47% in the fourth quarter of 2010, and that executive salaries in their home-loan division tripled from $549 million to $1.8 billion since last year. CEO Jamie Dimon says that hurdles are high for investors who want to force banks to buy back bad loans, and this will be vigorously opposed in court.
Yahoo 2011 Jan 14 (Cached)

US: Treasury announces it will sell warrants it holds in Citigroup and 2 smaller banks to raise money to repay the $700 billion bailouts. It claims it will make $12 billion on its $45 billion bailout of Citigroup. [We are getting tired of having to repeat this warning, but it must be done: We don't believe you can squeeze orange juice out of a rock. In spite of all the brave talk about economic recovery and improved profits, banks and other bailed out entities are not yet producing anywhere near sufficient real profit to repay the bailouts. The trick they have used in the past, working in partnership with the Federal Reserve, is to provide new bailouts, hidden from public view, to repay the old ones, thereby fooling the public into believing bailouts are acts of statesmanship. Eventually, all of this will be exposed but, by then, it will be too late to do anything about it.]
Yahoo 2011 Jan 14 (Cached)

US: A recent poll reported that Obama’s approval rating has soared to 77%. [Here's how they produced that absurd figure: 44% like him as a person and also like his policies. 29% like him but oppose his policies. 2% like his policies but dislike him as a person. 19% dislike him and his policies. The reality, therefore, is that 75% like something about him (mostly his personality) but only 46% like his policies, which is the meaning of an approval rating. This is classic media spin.]
InfoZine 2011 Jan 14 (Cached)

Illinois raised its income-tax rate to 5% to pay off a $15 billion deficit. That’s a 66% increase. Neighboring states with lower taxes are gleefully anticipating the influx of businesses and jobs away from Illinois.
Yahoo 2011 Jan 13 (Cached)

AIG and the US government are working on a plan to sell $20 billion dollars of AIG stock to expand the company’s capital. This will reduce the value of existing shares, but it is hoped it will attract needed capital from investors. [As with previous moves to attract new capital into businesses that continue to lose money, we are skeptical. The standard game plan is for the Treasury and the Fed to covertly provide politically favored investors with new money or offer guarantees to cover the loss of old money so that, on the surface, it looks like the bailouts have been paid back. Watch closely. Can you tell which shell covers the peanut?]
MSNBC 2011 Jan 13 (Cached)

If you still believe that mass bird kills are caused by fireworks, flying into buildings, indigestion, or some other “official” explanation, here is a map showing global locations for 30 recent events. [Whatever the cause, it is happening world wide. See the article by Andrea Silverthorne in the Forum section, below, for reasons to suspect formaldehyde that forms from methane gas.]
Google 2011 Jan 13 (Cached)

US: Home foreclosures hit a record high of over 1 million in 2010. If not for the recent wave of court cases in which banks are prevented from foreclosure when they cannot document that they own the mortgage, the total could have exceeded 3 million. Currently, more than 5 million homeowners are at least 2 months behind in their payments. [Not to worry. Our leaders and media pundits have assured us that the economy has turned around.]
Yahoo 2011 Jan 13 (Cached)

Missouri has no problem with illegal immigrants because of common sense laws: English is the official language; police verify immigration status of those who are arrested; and illegal immigrants are not eligible for taxpayer-funded programs like food stamps, health care, and financial aid for education.
Ozark Sentinel posted 2011 Jan 12 (Cached)

Morgan-Chase bank in Cleveland told a homebuyer that the only way they were willing to modify his loan downward was for him to default on his payments, which he did. [Why would a bank advise default? Because it counts on moving the mortgage into a GSE (Government Sponsored Enterprise) such as Fanny Mae or Mac and thereby receive a subsidy on the revised loan. In other words, the banking game continues at the expense of taxpayers.]
ZeroHedge 2011 Jan 12 (Cached)

Philippines: Town mayor forces university to uproot a field of GMO eggplant. The reason is that the university failed to follow the law and take adequate steps to insure that the plants could not contaminate natural crops in the vicinity.
NaturalNews 2011 Jan 12 (Cached)

State of Virginia is considering establishing a committee to study whether it should adopt currency such as gold or silver should the Federal Reserve collapse. [This is a step in the right direction but strictly speaking, it is unconstitutional. Article 1 Section 10 of the Constitution says that states may not "coin money." That is reserved to the federal government. States must allow only gold or silver coins to be legal tender (which means people are required by law to accept them), but they cannot issue legal tender coins themselves. They can manufacture their own coins and accept them in payment of taxes, but cannot make them the official money of the state that people must accept. So it gets murky. Let's hope the committee will sort all this out and come to the conclusion that the state should issue silver and gold coins, encourage them to be used as money even though they are not required to do so. That would be ideal. No one needs to be forced to accept gold or silver.]
Market Oracle 2011 Jan 12 (Cached)

US: Housing market values have fallen 26% since their peak in June 2006, which is worse than the decline during the Great Depression from 1928 and 1933. [In spite of these grim statistics, this article insists that the economy is revving back to life. We shall see.]
CNBC 2011 Jan 11 (Cached)

US Court case discloses that military conducted mind-control experiments on 7800 Viet Nam veterans. They were subjected to nerve agents and psycho-active drugs (including LSD). Soldiers volunteered but were not told of the risks.
Alternet 2011 Jan 11 (Cached)

Obama’s presidential commission report on the Gulf gusher suggests the the US government should share responsibility. [That probably is correct, but there is more here than meets the eye. If the government shares responsibility, this will blunt the legal attack on BP and will save it billions of dollars in law suits. The government likely will have to pay at least half of the damages and most of the remediation costs. Taxpayers, once again, will be put through the ringer, while the people who were personally responsible for this disaster will not pay a dime or be punished in any way.]
DailyMail 2011 Jan 11 (Cached)

Obama is pushing for Internet ID overseen by the Department of Commerce – to protect your on-line identity, of course. It will be optional – for now. [If the public wants this, the private sector could and would provide it without government presence or access to the data base, but that is not what will happen.]
DailyMail 2011 Jan 10 (Cached)

Canada: Homeowner fined $5,200 for growing cucumbers in his basement. Authorities thought he was growing marijuana. Even though only cucumbers were found, the fine was levied to cover the cost of the search.
The Province 2011 Jan 10 (Cached)

Australia: Government is considering re-naming ‘climate change’ (already changed from ‘global warming’) to ‘climate challenges’. This is because most people no longer think that climate change is man-made, so the myth makers must find a more appealing phrase. [No matter how they sell it, at its core it is junk science leading to carbon tax.]
The Australian 2011 Jan 9 (Cached)

Massachusetts federal court voids bank seizure of 2 foreclosed homes because the banks failed to show they held the mortgages at the time of foreclosure. This is expected to have an enormous impact on other foreclosed homes in the past and in the future.
DailyMail 2011 Jan 8 (Cached)

US: While the Constitution is read on the House floor, a woman in the audience yells out that Obama has violated the Constitution because he is not ‘natural born citizen’ as required. She is removed.
Yahoo Posted 2011 Jan 8

Upcoming G20 meetings to discuss how rising food prices can be used as an excuse for passage of regional laws to increase government control over crops, farming methods, quotas, and prices. [Never let a good crisis go to waste. Instead of reducing government interference in the free market, which is the primary cause of food shortages, they are pushing ahead for more controls than ever. Collectivism always grows until it consumes everything.]
Reuters Posted 2011 Jan 8 (Cached)

China supplies most of the world’s honey and is notorious for using antibiotics to keep the bees “healthy” –  but the honey becomes contaminated, which is far from healthy for humans. Chinese honey is falsely labeled as from Taiwan, Indonesia or Malaysia to avoid tariffs.
Globe and Mail Posted 2011 Jan 8 (Cached)

Ron and Rand Paul plan to introduce a bill to cut the federal budget by $500 billion. Rand says that the government collects about $2 trillion, but spends $4 trillion. Ron advocates repealing the welfare warfare state.
Sad Hill Posted 2011 Jan 8

Greek doctor (Harvard graduate) tells how medical research is a “damned lie.” He says bad science is manipulated to skew data favorably toward drug manufacturers who fund the research. Up to half of all medical research is untrustworthy.
The Atlantic Posted 2011 Jan 8 (Cached)

==============================

ANALYSIS

Reports and commentaries that look beyond the news to identify historical facts and trends that must be understood to place the news into perspective. This is our “think-tank” section that makes it possible to anticipate future events.

Pulitzer Prize winner, David Johnston, explains how the rich get richer at your expense. It’s a system of subsidies and tax breaks for those with political influence. He says these mega-businesses should earn their money in the marketplace, not receive it as a gift, stolen from the middle class by their friends in politics.
The DailyBail posted 2011 Jan 13

The Arizona shooting has resulted in a media frenzy to vilify conservatives, Constitutionalists, Libertarians, the Tea Party, “divisive political rhetoric,” and gun-rights advocates. Like every other crisis in the present day, the event is being used to create public acceptance of yet more government power. This is an excellent overview.
NeitherCorp 2011 Jan 12 (Cached)

Globalism and the UN’s Agenda 21 are forbidden by the Bill of Rights and the American Constitution. Here is an excellent outline of how to restore America’s core value.
FreedomAdvocates 2011 Jan 12 (Cached)

Vaccine Court is an alternative to a real court and was established to shield drug companies from prosecution for vaccine injuries (like autism). Only small damages are granted, and those are charged to taxpayers, not Big Pharma. [Guess who lobbied for that.]
PPJ Gazette 2011 Jan 9 (Cached)

Here is a short video that is designed to condition people to accept and even approve being crammed into mega-cities with tightly controlled housing, transportation, education, job placement, and food choices. It’s pure propaganda for the UN’s Agenda 21 program that aims to remove most people from the country where they are hard to control and get them into mega-cities where they can be totally regimented. This REALLY is what is being planned for you.
YouTube 2011 Jan 4

Lockheed Martin, a military and aircraft production company, is the largest single recipient of US tax dollars. This author says that, like the largest banks, it has become too big to fail, which means its mistakes and corruption are always covered up by the government, and its losses are passed to the taxpayers. This is an eye-opening review.
Yahoo 2011 Jan 4 (Cached)

Alcohol is a fuel and can be distilled from plants that thrive in poor soil, don’t need much rain, and grow like weeds without cultivation. [If we could ever break our fixation on gasoline from oil, producing fuel from these sources could bring back economic prosperity and oil independence to the US.]
ActivistPost 2011 Jan 4 (Cached)

US: Local law enforcement increasingly is being brought under federal control primarily through offers of money from Washington. [Local police departments seldom resist a federal grant to help them hire more officers and purchase needed equipment; but, with the money, comes control.]
PoliceOne.com 2010 Jan 3 (Cached)

Related Posts:

• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 15-21
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 September 18-24
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 29-February 4
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 February 26-March 4
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 December 25-31
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 December 4-10
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 November 6-12
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 22-28
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 1-7
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 December 11-17

How to Defend the Free Market Gold Coin Standard: Stop Defending the Government Counterfeits
Characteristic features of a free market gold standard:

1. Private property
2. The right of contract
3. The enforcement of contracts by the government
4. No government licensing of banks
5. Open entry in coin production
6. No government mint
7. No government currency or coins
8. Therefore, no legal tender laws

When anti-gold economists attack the gold standard, they are attacking the phony gold standard — the imitation standard — created by major European governments in the 19th century. Those governments did the following:

1. Limited private property
2. Did not allow the right of contract
3. Did not enforce all voluntary contracts
4. Licensed banks
5. Forbade entry in coin production
6. Ran government mints
7. Established government currency and coins
8. Passed legal tender laws

GaryNorth.com 2010 December 27

Two Kinds of Gold Standards
This is why the free market is the only reliable source for the re-establishment of a gold standard. Honest money begins with these steps: (1) the revocation of legal tender laws that require people to accept the State’s money; (2) the enforcement of contracts; (3) laws against fraud, which fractional reserve banking is. The free market can do the rest.
LewRockwell.com 2003 August 26

Related Posts:

• Competing Currencies – a Defense Against Profligate Government Spending
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 April 2-8
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 8-14
• Gold Confiscation Act
• How to Survive the Death of the Dollar
• BTL Update 2011 December 4
• Ron Paul: Let’s Legalize Competing Currencies
• IF THE BANKS OWN ALL THE GOLD, WHY WOULD WE WANT A GOLD-BACKED MONEY SYSTEM?
• Fiat Money
• Bernanke is Wrong, Gold is Money

“Organic” food is no longer safe. The FDA and USDA have colluded in approving the neurotoxin ‘Neotame’ which may be even more toxic than aspartame. No labeling will be required, nor will it be listed in the ingredients. It will be used in USDA certified “organic” processed food and cattle feed. [The only hope of escape is to raise our own food or buy from local growers who do not use such chemicals – which is why Congress recently passed legislation that eventually will put small-scale organic growers out of business.]
FarmWars 2010 Dec 31 (Cached)

US: As frustration and anger grows, airports are considering replacing TSA with private security firms. [One advantage of private firms is that they can fire bad employees, whereas that is almost impossible with government workers. However, private firms must adhere to TSA requirements and oversight – the same backscatter x-ray machines and intrusive pat-downs – because TSA pays for them.]
Washington Post 2010 Dec 31 (Cached)

US: The federal government demands that power plants and oil refiners must reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and obtain permits before building new facilities. Texas refuses to comply and is suing the feds for overreach of authority. So far, federal courts have ruled on the side of the federal government. [GHG emissions, like CO2, are either harmless or miniscule, so the permits have nothing to do with reducing pollution. They are for revenue and control.]
WSJ 2010 Dec 31 (Cached)

Short video explains that most GHG is merely water vapor and that human activity accounts for less than 1% all GHG.
YouTube Posted 2010 Dec 25

China will slash exports of Rare Earth Elements by 35% in the first half of 2011. REEs are used for electronic products such as computers, X-rays devices, and I-Pods. China supplies 97% of REEs for the world. The US and Japan are scurrying to develop alternative sources.
The Independent 2010 Dec 30 (Cached)

US: The Center for Disease Control was audited in 2007 (the results are only now being revealed) and it was discovered that they had ‘misplaced’ $8 million in equipment. [It's about time to also audit the FDA which, in spite of its long history of corruption, always has been excluded from audit.]
Yahoo 2010 Dec 30 (Cached)

New California law requires whooping cough vaccinations for all middle and high school students – both public and private. [Of course, this is all about protecting children's health and has nothing to do with Big Pharma's lobbying activities.]
Sacramento Bee 2010 Dec 29 (Cached)

US: Home foreclosures continue to climb, once again contradicting predictions of mainstream analysts. Foreclosures in process increased to 1.2 million in the 3rd quarter, a 4.5% increase from the second quarter, and a 10% increase from a year ago.
Reuters 2010 Dec 29 (Cached)

The Space and Science Research Center, a leading independent research organization, has issued a warning about food & biofuel shortages due to an anticipated, dramatic temperature drop worldwide. These scientists have been right in the past about major climate shifts in opposition to NASA, NOAA and UN predictions that all have been wrong in promoting the global warming myth.
SSRC posted 2010 Dec 29 (Cached)

Hawaii’s new Governor, a friend of Obama’s family, says he wants to dispel ‘conspiracy theories’ about Obama’s birthplace. He is quoted as saying, “I was here when that baby was born.” [This is laughable. If he wants to dispel conspiracy theories, all he has to do is release Obama's birth certificate. Hawaii law restricts issuance only to those who have a "tangible interest." Every American has a highly tangible interest in knowing if their President is eligible for the job. Notice that the Governor said he was in Hawaii when Obama was born, but he did not say Obama was in Hawaii when he was born. Clever.]
Yahoo 2010 Dec 29 (Cached)

BP Oil’s Gulf-spill liabilities appear to be much lower than anticipated 4 months ago. This is due to the official declaration from Washington that damage is not as bad as feared (which tends to minimize law suits), and may be why there is evidence the company has continued to spray Corexit long after claiming it was stopped on July 15. [Corexit, although toxic to marine life and humans, causes oil to sink below the surface and create the false impression that it is gone.]
Yahoo 2010 Dec 29 (Cached)

US: The misnamed Food Safety bill that recently was passed by Congress calls for “harmonization” with the UN’s rules for control of food and drugs. It even grants the FDA authority to participate in policing food regulations in other countries. [The move toward global government is progressing rapidly toward completion, and it is being led by collectivists within the American government.]
NaturalNews 2010 Dec 29 (Cached)

A disinformation campaign is underway in the Ivory Coast to justify foreign intervention to maintain control of oil reserves. President Gbagbo fell into disfavor with western nations when he opened oil investment to China and Russia. Now he faces a military ouster if he does not resign and accept exile. [This article is heavy with "anti-imperialism" rhetoric commonly found in leftist propaganda, which reveals the bias of the writer. However, as far as we can tell, the facts in this story are correct. If you have another perspective, let us know, and we will publish it.]
Kader Badreddine 2010 Dec 28 (Cached)

CNBC Reporter says he was warned by the head of GE, which owned CNBC, to avoid stories that might “move the market” (news that could cause the public to buy or sell stocks) because, otherwise, he could have his “brains blown out.”
EconomicPolicyJournal 2010 Dec 27 (Cached)

Former Arizona State Senator, Karen Johnson, made news when she went to the state capitol building and delivered copies of What in the World Are They Spraying, the chemtrail documentary film, to state representatives. She was interviewed in the film and is active in holding lawmakers accountable. [Go forth and do likewise!]
WMIcentral 2010 Dec 27 (Cached)

China: Government is proposing the approval of genetically modified rice & corn, paving the way for an explosion of GMO products within 2-3 years. Local governments will be ordered to produce higher crop yields, and this likely will force them to accept GMO crops based on the promise of higher yields. [Never mind if the yields don't materialize or if there are serious health hazards, the focus will be on yield projections and payoffs to government officials. Americans will consume the food because it will be cheap.]
Reuters 2010 Dec 27 (Cached)

New Orleans law firm challenges the government’s assertions that Gulf seafood is safe to eat. This is in response to the announcement that the government intends to buy Gulf seafood to feed to military personnel and serve at schools.
MSNBC 2010 Dec 27 (Cached)

Portugal has won the ‘War on Drugs’ by decriminalizing them and providing treatment instead of jail time. The US, which has been “fighting” drugs for 40 years and spent over $1 trillion treating addicts as criminals, does not look with favor on the Portugal strategy.
Scientific American 2010 Dec 27 (Cached)

Obama enacts end-of-life plan that drew “death-panel” claims. The government will pay doctors to advise the elderly and those with serious illnesses to make advance decisions regarding when to withdraw medical life support. [There is nothing wrong with this at first glance, but doctors will be required to follow government guidelines which, inevitably, will be determined by political expediency with little regard for personal preference.]
New York Times 2010 Dec 26 (Cached)

Citigroup Chairman says Citibank is not “too big to fail” but too “interwoven into the fabric” of global finance to let it fail (another way of saying the same thing). This analyst recommends breaking Citibank and Goldman Sachs into smaller parts so they no longer can make that claim. [We think they should be allowed to fail. Otherwise, the system will never be rid of the toxic business practices that have caused the present financial crisis.]
Global Economics 2010 Dec 26 (Cached)

US: Photos and independent lab tests indicate that ‘Corexit’ dispersant has been recently sprayed in the Gulf, despite claims from the government that spraying stopped on July 15.
MSNBC 2010 Dec 26 (Cached)

Scientists at Cornell University in New York are working on machines that can create food from raw materials squeezed out of syringes, like ink is ejected from cartridges in ink-jet printers. The goal is to manufacture on the spot a synthesis of just about any food that naturally exists – and many that don’t. [One can only shudder at the prospects of future dining on synthetic food without natural enzymes, vitamins, or other essential micro-nutrients.]
DailyMail 2010 Dec 26 (Cached)

US: Fiscal conservatives want to change federal law so states can declare bankruptcy, just like corporations, cities, and private citizens. They say this is the only way to reduce excessive welfare and medical benefits, reduce unrealistic retirement plans, and cancel plush contracts with crony suppliers. Naturally, unions and lobbyists oppose the concept. [We think it is a reasonable proposal. Without this, the federal government inevitably will bail out the states, take them over, and perpetuate the losses, which will be passed to all Americans through inflation.]
RawStory 2010 Dec 26 (Cached)

Iris scanning & face recognition is now coming to your cell phone to prevent unauthorized individuals from using the device or entering sensitive data areas. [There is much to like about this; but, like so many other advances in technology, it has the potential for abuse in the hands of oppressive governments seeking to track their citizens.]
Android Headlines Posted 2010 Dec 25 (Cached)

==============================

ANALYSIS

Reports and commentaries that look beyond the news to identify historical facts and trends that must be understood to place the news into perspective. This is our “think-tank” section that makes it possible to anticipate future events.

Utah State Senator Steve Urquart correctly assesses Obama’s new ‘Wilderness Reinventory’ as a cruel joke and a massive federal land grab for millions of acres of land, particularly in the West. Economic development will be prohibited, and many people will lose their resource-related jobs. Urquart says this is a ploy by Obama to garner leftist support. [The larger ploy is to depopulate 1/2 of America's land mass, known as the 'Wildlands Project' and part of the UN's Agenda 21.]
Desert News 2010 Dec 31 (Cached)

This short video explains the intent of the UN Agenda 21 Wildlands Project and the re-wilding of rural land.
YouTube Posted 2010 Dec 31

Rosalind Peterson: The Chemtrail Cover-up. Here is an excellent overview by a veteran researcher of what we are told are merely “persistent contrails”. Of special interest is why there is a rise of heavy metal contaminants in California water supplies and why persistent contrails are seen in areas where there are no commercial flights.
YouTube/Prison Planet Posted 2010 Dec 28.

US: Bad news for Baby Boomers. 10,000 every day are reaching age 65. Most have lived high, and few have savings for retirement. Inflation is eating away Social Security benefits; traditional pension plans are disappearing; 401(k) stock retirement plans have performed poorly; and housing equity has plummeted. [They voted for collectivism at every election. Now they have to pay for it.]
Washington Post 2010 Dec 27 (Cached)

Here is an explanation of the difference between a government-controlled gold standard and a free-market gold standard. [Bottom line: Not all gold standards are equal. If the free market controls the price of gold, it will be fair. If governments do so, they will cheat.]
Gary North 2010 Dec 27 (Cached)

An amazing 23-minute video exposé on Big Pharma. In 2009, $5 billion was paid in fines by drug companies for fraud. That’s a lot, but Americans spend over $300 billion a year on pharmaceutical drugs, so the fines are less than 2% of gross income. Drug executives consider that to be a good business model. Astonishingly, a tax advocate reports (at the 11:15 marker) that company kickbacks to doctors in the cancer industry accounted for 60 to 70% of doctors’ income.
YouTube Posted 2010 Dec 25

An excellent report on how the perceived threat of Islamic Terrorism in America actually has been created by the government for the purpose of frightening the population into passively accepting the loss of their liberties in exchange for ‘national security’. Includes an analysis of the latest so-called terrorist plots that now are known to have been instigated by the FBI.
SOTT Posted 2010 Dec 25

Judge Napolitano delivers a fiery commentary on the Federal Reserve. You won’t want to miss this one.
YouTube Posted 2010 Dec 25

US Department of Agriculture admits that GMO plants contaminate natural plants. Meanwhile, the USDA is redefining its rules to circumvent the courts and allow GMO alfalfa planting. This is a precedent-setting case that will affect your food and your health.
YouTube 2010 Dec 24

Related Posts:

• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 8-14
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 November 20-26
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 15-21
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 December 4-10
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 January 22-28
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 December 11-17
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 November 6-12
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2011 February 26-March 4
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 November 27-December 3
• Reality Zone Unfiltered News 2010 September 18-24