Tidbits From The Web Tidbits From The Web...: Tidbits From The Web #83

Friday, March 18, 2011

Tidbits From The Web #83

Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. —Winston Churchill, WWII








A day made of glass...
Some dogs have the life part I...
Shall we play a game?
Tick Tick Tick Tick...    (props to Da)
When it comes to relationships...behavior matters...
Balance an egg...
Prepare the aliens are coming!
Why did they retire these Disney rides?!?!
American Apocalypse!
Clothes say a lot about a man...
Where's Ernie Anastos when you need him?
666 is everywhere part I...
Phytonutrients you should know about...
World's ugliest hotels...
Bill Gates + US govt + Monsanto = not good for anybody...
Speaking of which...this can't be good either...
Real time Google mashups...
Space the final frontier...
Where's Jackass when you need him?
NWO just got one step closer...
Geminoid...coming soon to a college near you...
Our government is full of nin-cow-poops...
Some dogs have the life part II...
2012...doom ain't what it used to be part I...
An ill wind is blowing...
Where's Noah when you need him?
Some dogs have the life part III...
2012...doom ain't what it used to be part II...
666 is everywhere part II...


Lamp In The Dark: Untold History of the Bible




Living real simply...




Consciousness and the Superstring Unified Field Theory...





G n R and the Illuminati...





Today's Message
Finding Motivation: What to Do When You Don't Feel Like Doing Anything
by Chris Widener



"The measure of your success usually comes down to who wins the battle that rages between the two of you.  The 'you' who wants to stop, give up, or take it easy and the 'you' who chooses to beat back that which would stand in the way of your success—complacency."  Chris Widener

In all of my interactions with people, I've never found anyone, regardless of their level of success, who doesn't sometimes find themselves simply not wanting to do the things that they need and want to do. It is a part of human nature that there will be times that, in spite of all that we need to do, and even desire to, we will find ourselves not wanting to do anything. And what separates those who will become successful from those who will maintain the status-quo is the ability at those very crucial moments of time when we are making decisions about what we will do to choose to find the inner motivation that will enable us to conquer our complacency and move on in action.

I find that I confront this issue in my life on a regular basis, so the following success strategies are not merely “pie in the sky techniques,” but proven ways to get yourself to go, even when you don't feel like doing anything. 

Honestly evaluate whether or not you need a break. This is the first thing that I usually do when I find that I don't want to get to a specific action. The fact is that oftentimes we will have been working very hard and the lethargy we are feeling is really our body and emotions telling us that we simply need a break. And this is where it takes real intellectual honesty because when we don't need a break our mind is still telling us we need a break! But sometimes we do need a break. I'll give you a good example. I don't particularly like to exercise, but I do almost every day. Sometimes, I find myself before going to the club thinking about how I just didn't feel like going. Most of the time I am just being lazy. However, sometimes I realize that my body needs a break. So from time to time I will take a one- or two-day break from working out. The benefits of this are two-fold: One, my body gets a break to regenerate itself. Two, after a day or two, I begin to miss my workout, and eagerly anticipate returning to the gym.

Other examples: Perhaps you are a salesman who has been phoning clients for a week straight, day and night. You wake up one morning and just don't feel like doing it any more. Well, take a break for the morning. Go to a coffee shop and read the paper. Go to the driving range and hit some golf balls. Take a break and then get back to it!

Start Small.
I'm at a point in my workout schedule now where a typical workout day for me consists of 30 to 45 minutes of aerobic exercise, and about 30 minutes of weight lifting. So when I find myself not wanting to get up and go to the gym, I will sometimes make a commitment to go and just do a smaller workout. Instead of deciding not to go, I'll commit to doing 15 to 20 minutes of aerobic exercise and 15 to 30 minutes of weight lifting. This is also good for two reasons. One, I actually get some exercise that day. And two, it keeps me from getting into a cycle of giving up when I don't feel like moving toward action.

Other examples: Maybe you are a writer who simply doesn't want to write today. Instead of the long day writing you had planned, decide that you will at least outline a couple of new articles. You will at least get these done, and you may have found that you put yourself into the writing mood after all.

Change Your Routine.
I have found that what keeps me in the best shape and burns the most calories for me is to do 30 to 45 minutes on the treadmill every day. Now let me be very blunt. I find running on the treadmill to be extremely boring. Usually I can get myself to do it, but sometimes I need to vary my routine. So instead of 30 to 45 minutes on a treadmill, I will break down my aerobic exercise routine into a number of different areas. I will do 10 to 15 minutes on treadmills, 10 to 15 minutes on the reclining cycle, 5 to 10 minutes on the rowing machine, 5 to 10 minutes on the stair stepper, and then back to the treadmill for 5 to 10 minutes. I still get my exercise, but I'm a lot less bored.

Other examples: Maybe you are in construction and you have been working on the plumbing for a week, and it is getting monotonous. Don't do the plumbing today! Go frame-in the office.

Reward Yourself.
One way that I motivate myself to do something when I don't feel like doing it is to tell myself that if I get through the work that I need to, I will give myself a little reward. For instance, I may tell myself if I get up and go to the club I can take 5 to 10 minutes off my treadmill exercise, which will shorten my workout routine, and I'll allow myself to sit in the hot tub for a few extra minutes. Hey, it works!

Other examples: Maybe you are a mortgage broker who feels like sleeping in. Tell yourself that after the next three mortgages you close you will take your kids to the fair, or your spouse to the movies. Maybe you'll give yourself a night on the town with old friends.

Reconnect the Action with Pleasure Rather than Pain.
Psychologists have long told us that we humans tend to connect every action with either pleasure or pain. Tony Robbins has popularized this even further in the last few years with something he calls Neural Associations. That is, we connect every action with either a pleasure, or pain. When we are finding ourselves lacking motivation, what we are probably finding about ourselves is that we are associating the action that we are thinking about with pain, rather than pleasure. For instance, when I'm considering not going to the health club on any given day, I am usually associating going and working out with having no time, the pain of exercising and weight lifting, or the boringness of running on a treadmill for an extended period of time. What I can do to re-associate is to remind myself that by going in and doing my exercise I will feel better about myself, I will lose weight, and I will live longer. This brings me pleasure. When we begin to run those kinds of tapes through our minds, we find our internal motivating force unleashed and changing our attitude about the action that we are considering.

Other examples: Maybe you are a counselor who really doesn't want to spend the day listening to people. Your association may be that it will be boring, or that you will be inside while it is sunny outside. Instead, re-associate yourself to the truth of the matter: Someone will be better off because of your care and concern. Think of your clients and the progression they have been making recently and how you have been a part of that.

































Knowledge

The Curious Dreamer

Are you ever startled awake with the remnants of a dream in your mind but are not sure what is the meaning of this dream?  Wonder no more!  As the person submitting the site explains, The CuriousDreamer.com is a practical dream analysis site enabling dreamers to take dream interpretation into their own hands with step-by-step dream procedures, a dream analyzer, searchable dream dictionary, glossary, tips, and articles.  Youll have access to a dream dictionary of over 15,000 symbols, the definitions often containing more than one meaning, as "food for thought."  Heres your resource for do-it-yourself dream analysts.  As the developers state, We intend to help you, the dreamer, wander through the wonderland of your own dreams and tap your inner sources of wisdom and self-knowledge.  And may you always have Sweet Dreams!


EightBit.Me
Living life through a tiny little you

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The line between computer games and real life continues to blur, or,
in the case of South Korea, crystallize in a terrifying way that
leaves you nostalgic for blurriness. Moving the West further down
the digitized path, EightBit.me, just launched.Out of the American
city both most and least attached to reality (San Francisco), 8-Bit harnesses
the combined powers of foursquare and Twitter to create
a system where engaging in real activities rewards not you (with mayor status, etc.),
but your online avatar, who, merely by cruising around
town popping into places, will craft a more compelling plot than James
Cameron. The first step's to build a blocky, NES-type alter-you via a surprisingly
fast 10-step process (hair, clothes, skin colour, etc.),
who'll inhabit a virtual world populated by similarly pixelated
representations of foursquare-repped local spots you know and love,
as well as others' avatars, which you can see upon checking into the
same establishments, creating a hilarious scene where a bunch of
people stare at each other and avoid each others' gazes at the same
time. Check-ins and subsequent "Shouts" (tweetable micro-messages)
earn you Mario-esque gold coins spendable on playing TBC mini-
games againstothers, or on enhancing your avatar with awesome
clothing, etc.; specialized prizesare accrued though multiple visitations --
hit the same bar often for a pair of beer goggles, or the same tea-house
for a "Madhatter Hat", something the real you would only wear after a
very long time at that bar. The team plans to continually update with
mini-games, as well as add new fun such as betting virtual currency
on local sports fixtures -- though with the added excitement of
fake-money on the line, that Starcraft match between the Terrans and
the Zerg will become even more of a blur.
















































The Daily Reckoning Presents



Patriotic Expatriates by Doug Casey     


I've written many times about the importance of
internationalizing your assets, your mode of living,
and your way of thinking. I suspect most readers
have treated those articles as they might a travelogue
to some distant and exotic land: interesting fodder for
cocktail party chatter, but basically academic and of
little immediate personal relevance.


All very well, you may say. But there are practical
issues, you also say. A person can't just pick up and
leave and go where he wants and do what he wants
...can he? Get real, Casey. There are reasons a person
has to stay where he is, aren't there?


Let's look at some of those reasons.


"America is the best country in the world. I'd be a fool
to leave." That was absolutely true, not so very long ago.
America certainly was the best - and it was unique. But
it no longer exists, except as an ideal. The geography it
occupied has been co-opted by the United States, which
today is just another nation-state. And, most
unfortunately,one that's become especially predatory
toward its citizens.


"My parents and grandparents were born here; I have
roots in this country." An understandable emotion;
everyone has an atavistic affinity for his place of birth,
including your most distantrelatives born long, long ago,
and far, far away. I suppose if Lucy, apparently the first
more-or-less human we know of, had been able to speak,
she might have pled roots if you'd asked her to leave her
valley in East Africa. If you buy this argument, then it's
clear your forefathers, who came from Europe, Asia, or
Africa, were made of sterner stuff than you are.


"I'm not going to be unpatriotic." Patriotism is one of
those things very few even question and even fewer
examine closely. I'm a patriot, you're a nationalist, he's
a jingoist. But let's put such a tendentious and emotion-
laden subject aside. Today a true patriot - an effective
patriot - would be accumulating capital elsewhere, to
have assets he can repatriate and use for rebuilding
when the time is right. And a real patriot understands
that America is not a place; it's an idea. It deserves to
be spread.


"I can't leave my aging mother behind." Not to sound
callous, but your aging parent will soon leave you behind.
Why not offer her the chance to come along, though? She
might enjoy a good live-in maid in your own house (which
I challenge you to get in the US) more than a sterile,
dismal and overpriced old people's home, where she's
likely to wind up.


"I might not be able to earn a living." Spoken like a
person with little imagination and even less self-
confidence. And likely little experience or knowledge of
economics. Everyone everywhere, has to produce at
least as much as he consumes - that won't change
whether you stay in your living room or go to Timbuktu.
In point of fact, though, it tends to be easier to earn
big money in a foreign country, because you will have
knowledge, experience, skills, and connections the
locals don't.


"I don't have enough capital to make a move." Well, that
was one thing that kept serfs down on the farm. Capital
gives you freedom. On the other hand, a certain amount
of poverty can underwrite your freedom, since possessions
act as chains for many.


"I'm afraid I won't fit in." As I explained a little earlier,
the real danger that's headed your way is not fitting in at
home. This objection is often proffered by people who've
never traveled abroad. Here's a suggestion. If you don't
have a valid passport, apply for one tomorrow morning.
Then, at the next opportunity, book a trip to somewhere
that seems interesting. Make an effort to meet people.
Find out if you're really as abject a wallflower as you fear.


"I don't speak the language." It's said that Sir Richard
Burton, the 19th-century explorer, spoke 10 languages
fluently and 15 more "reasonably well." I've always liked
that distinction although, personally, I'm not a good
linguist. And it gets harder to learn a language as you
get older - although it's also true that learning a new
language actually keeps your brain limber. In point of
fact, though, English is the world's language. Almost
anyone who is anyone, and the typical school kid, has
some grasp of it.


"I'm too old to make such a big change." Yes, I guess it
makes more sense to just take a seat and await the
arrival of the Grim Reaper. Or, perhaps, is your life
already so exciting and wonderful that you can't handle
a little change? Better, I think, that you might adopt the
attitude of the 85-year-old woman who has just
transplanted herself to Argentina from the frozen north.
Even after many years of adventure, she simply feels
ready for a change and was getting tired of the same
old people with the same old stories and habits.


"I've got to wait until the kids are out of school. It
would disrupt their lives." This is actually one of the
lamest excuses in the book. I'm sympathetic to the view
that kids ought to live with wolves for a couple of years
to get a proper grounding in life - although I'm not
advocating anything that radical. It's one of the greatest
gifts you can give your kids: to live in another culture,
learn a new language, and associate with a better class of
people (as an expat, you'll almost automatically move to
the upper rungs - arguably a big plus). After a little
whining, the kids will love it. When they're grown, if they
discover you passed up the opportunity, they won't
forgive you.


"I don't want to give up my US citizenship." There's no
need to. Anyway, if you have a lot of deferred income
and untaxed gains, it can be punitive to do so; the US
government wants to keep you as a milk cow. But then,
you may cotton to the idea of living free of any taxing
government, while having the travel documents offered
by several. And you may want to save your children from
becoming cannon fodder or indentured servants, should
the US reinstitute the draft or start a program of
"national service" - which is not unlikely.

But these arguments are unimportant. The real problem
is one of psychology. In that regard, I like to point to my
old friend Paul Terhorst, who 30 years ago was the
youngest partner at a national accounting firm. He and
his wife, Vicki, decided that "keeping up with the Joneses"
for the rest of their lives just wasn't for them. They
sold everything - cars, house, clothes, artwork, the works
and decided to live around the world. Paul then had the
time to read books, play chess, and generally enjoy
himself. He wrote about it in Cashing In on the American
Dream: How to Retire at 35. As a bonus, the advantages
of not being a tax resident anywhere and having time to
scope out proper investments has put Paul way ahead in
the money game. He typically spends about half his year
in Argentina; we usually have lunch every week when in
residence.


I could go on. But perhaps it's pointless to offer rational
counters to irrational fears and preconceptions. As
Gibbon noted with his signature brand of irony, "The
power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except
in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous."


Let me say again, time is getting short. And the reasons
for looking abroad are changing.


In the past, the best argument for expatriation was an
automatic increase in one's standard of living. In the '50s
and '60s, a book called Europe on $5 a Day accurately
reflected all-in costs for a tourist. In those days a
middle-class American could live like a king in Europe;
but those days are long gone. Now it's the rare American
who can afford to visit Europe except on a cheesy
package tour. That situation may actually improve soon,
if only because the standard of living in Europe is likely to
fall even faster than in the US. But the improvement will
be temporary. One thing you can plan your life around is
that, for the average American, foreign travel is going
to become much more expensive in the next few years
as the dollar loses value at an accelerating rate.


Affordability is going to be a real problem for Americans,
who've long been used to being the world's "rich guys." But
an even bigger problem will be presented by foreign
exchange controls of some nature, which the government
will impose in its efforts to "do something."

FX controls - perhaps in the form of taxes on money
that goes abroad, perhaps restrictions on amounts and
reasons, perhaps the requirement of official approval,
perhaps all of these things - are a natural progression
during the next stage of the crisis. After all, only rich
people can afford to send money abroad, and only the
unpatriotic would think of doing so.


I would like to reemphasize that it's pure foolishness to
have your loyalties dictated by the lines on a map or the
dictates of some ruler. The nation-state itself is on its
way out. The world will increasingly be aligned with what
we call phyles, groups of people who consider themselves
countrymen based on their interests and values, not on
which government's ID they share. I believe the sooner
you start thinking that way, the freer, the richer, and
the more secure you will become.


The most important first step is to get out of the
danger zone. Let's list the steps, in order of importance.


    * Establish a financial account in a second country and
transfer assets to it, immediately.
    * Purchase a crib in a suitable third country, somewhere
you might enjoy whether in good times or bad.
    * Get moving toward an alternative citizenship in a
fourth country; you don't want to be stuck geographically,
and you don't want to live like a refugee.
    * Keep your eyes open for business and investment
opportunities in those four countries, plus the other 225;
you'll greatly increase your perspective and your chances
of success.

Where to go? The personal conclusion I came to was
Argentina (followed by Uruguay), where I spend a good
part of my year, and even more when my house at La
Estancia de Cafayate is completed.


In general, I would suggest you look most seriously at
countries whose governments aren't overly cozy with the US and whose people maintain an inbred suspicion of the police, the
military, and the fiscal authorities. These criteria tilt
the scales against past favorites like Australia, New
Zealand, Canada, and the UK.


And one more piece of sage advice: stop thinking like
your neighbors, which is to say stop thinking and acting
like a serf. Most people - although they can be perfectly
affable and even seem sensible - have the attitudes of
medieval peasants that objected to going further than
a day's round-trip from their hut, for fear the stories of
dragons that live over the hill might be true. We covered
the modern versions of that objection a bit earlier.


I'm not saying that you'll make your fortune and find
happiness by venturing out. But you'll greatly increase
your odds of doing so, greatly increase your security, and,
I suspect, have a much more interesting time.


Let me end by reminding you what Rick Blaine, Bogart's
character in Casablanca, had to say in only a slightly
different context. Appropriately, Rick was an early but
also an archetypical international man. Let's just imagine
he's talking about what will happen if you don't effectively
internationalize yourself, now. He said: "You may not
regret it now, but you'll regret it soon. And for the rest
of your life."



Whiskey and Gunpowder
By Gary North
March 9, 2011
Washington, D.C., U.S.A.


How to End the Fed


Things are not always as complicated as they seem. With
respect to the Federal Reserve System, it is a deliberate
mystery. It was deliberately designed in 1910 to deceive 
the public, who were opposed the idea of a central bank.
The conspirators who met on Jekyll Island in November 
1910 knew this. They did good work from their point of
view. They concealed the beast.

The general public today knows little about the FED. 
Prior to Ron Paul’s Presidential run in 2007-8, far fewer
people understood it.

I have been asked: “How could we get rid of the Federal
Reserve? What will replace it?” The answer: either the 
free market or Congress.

People who think of themselves as free market people 
often are not. The tax-funded public schools and the 
state-regulated and accredited university faculties have
taught that the modern system of intrusive civil 
government is necessary for an orderly society. People 
cannot imagine a market-based society.

There is an old saying, “You can’t beat something with
nothing.” But the free market social order is not nothing.
It is expanding around the world, which is why the world
is getting richer.

At the Federal level, a free market social order in 
banking existed prior to 1914. That was back when the
dollar was worth over 20 times what it is worth today. 
(On this point, see the inflation calculator of the Bureau
of Labor Statistics.)

We can go back to that system. We will go back to it.
The question is: When? The other question is: At what
price?


Ending the Fed By Law


Ron Paul could introduce a bill to end the Federal Reserve
System. He could call it: “The Monetary Liberty Act.” It 
would get known as the “End the Fed Act.” Here is what
the text might say:


The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 is hereby repealed. So 
are all subsequent acts based on the Federal Reserve Act
of 1913.

All authority of the Federal Reserve System to act in the
name of the United States government is hereby revoked.

The assets of the Board of Governors of the Federal 
Reserve System, which are already the property of the
United States Government, are hereby transferred to the
Department of the Treasury. This includes all of the 
assets listed on the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve
System.

The twelve (12) privately owned Federal Reserve Banks
will return all assets held in trust for the United States
government within thirty (30) calendar days of the 
signing of this bill into law.

The gold reserves of the United States government that
are held in storage by the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York will be transferred to the Government’s depository
at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, within one calendar year after 
this bill becomes law. The Government Accountability 
Office will conduct an inventory of the gold held in 
storage by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York before
and after this transfer.

The Board of Governors will vacate the premises of the
Federal Reserve building within thirty (30) calendar days
of the signing of this bill into law.

Any pension fund assets of the employees of the various
Federal Reserve Banks will remain under the control of 
those banks. All pension obligations under the authority 
of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
are hereby transferred to the Department of the 
Treasury, to be administered under the retirement 
program of the Department of the Treasury.


This is simple. The Board of Governors of the Federal 
Reserve System is a government agency. Its authority 
would be transferred to the U.S. Treasury.

The dozen Federal Reserve Banks are privately owned. 
All authority of these 12 banks that derives from their 
connection to the Board of Governors will cease. If they
can make a profit, fine. If not, equally fine. The free 
market will determine which will survive and which will
not.

Is this radical? Not at all. There are two historical 
precedents: the refusal of Congress to renew the charter
of the Bank of the United States in 1811, and the refusal
of Congress to renew the charter of the Second Bank of 
the United States in 1836. Both of them went bust.

The standard response is that there must be 
independence between the Federal Reserve System and
the U.S. government. Let us apply this to other agencies:


    * The Department of Defense
    * The Department of the Treasury
    * The Department of State
    * The Department of Education

I could go on, one by one, to list all of the thousands of 
agencies that are funded by Federal taxes and which 
operate by means of the authority of the U.S. 
government. Only one government agency is defended
by publicists, both on and off the payroll of the Federal
Reserve System, as deserving to be independent of the
government that has transferred authority to it: the 
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

The phrase, “the independence of the Federal Reserve
System,” is a code phrase for “the independence of the
four largest U.S. banks from the threat of losses.” A 
growing number of voters has figured this out since the
fall of 2008. This is why the Federal Reserve System is 
facing public criticism for the first time since 1914. This
criticism will grow.

All of this may seem Utopian. Ron Paul could not get
Congress to audit the FED, which by law possesses this
authority. The Congress has been in the hip pocket of 
the FED for almost a century. The Congress lets the FED
run the nation’s economy.

But as criticism spreads, there will be more voters who
figure out what the FED is and has always been: a 
government-created cartel of the banks. It operates for
the benefit of the largest banks.

Will Ron Paul get such a law passed by Congress and 
signed into law? No. Does this mean that the FED is 
forever untouchable? No.

We need the following:


   1. A wave of price inflation caused by the FED
   2. A subsequent recession caused by the FED
   3. A depression caused by the FED
   4. A wave of outage in response to the FED
   5. An endless series of criticisms of the FED

This will result, ultimately, in the abolition of the FED.
Whatever replaces it will decide the economic fate of 
Americans: Congress (hyperinflation) or the free 
market (economic stability).

But could the free market replace the FED without a
catastrophe following? Yes. We are already seeing this
in another sector of the economy.


“You’ve Got Almost No Mail!”


From the days of America’s most famous postmaster, 
Benjamin Franklin, two decades before the American 
Revolution, residents of North America have thought 
that the country could not do without a government-
funded postal system. In the past 15 years, this faith
has quietly died. The United States Postal Service now
delivers mostly subsidized opportunity mail. (I hate the
work “junk mail,” for I built my business on opportunity
mail. But I have not used it for 15 years.) With email, 
UPS, FedEx, and text messaging, the first class letter is
an anachronism. Historians will not be able to trace much
after 1998 based on copies of letters.

With no fanfare, the postal system has become optional.
The public does not go to the local Post Office often. If
it were not for Netflix, a lot of people would not check 
their mailboxes daily.

All of this has happened without any new legislation. The
once unbreakable monopoly of the Post Office is a rusted-
out shell, staffed by union-protected workers who 
probably know their jobs are peripheral. Its volume 
declined by over 12% in 2010. This is expected to 
continue. That would cut volume by 50% by 2017. About
40,000 employees were fired in 2010. Saturday delivery
will be dropped soon. There is another rate hike 
scheduled. Yet the outfit will lose $10 billion this year.

All this has happened without any enabling legislation. It
has happened quietly. Market competition has reduced 
the USPS to an anachronism. It is a leftover shell of a 
bygone era.

In an essay about his youth, sociologist Robert Nisbet 
remarked that in the year he was born, 1913, the only
contact that most Americans had with the Federal 
government was the Post Office. Later that year, the 
Federal Reserve Act was passed in a late session, just 
before Christmas break. Also in that year, the income 
tax came into effect. The expansion of the Federal 
government has been relentless ever since.

Nevertheless, the Post Office is slowly dying. No one 
planned this. The free market has replaced it, despite
its official monopoly.

This offers hope. It means that free market solutions 
can come into existence before a government entity is
shut down by law. The Post Office officially is a 
monopoly, yet its monopoly status has been eroded over
the last four decades. It has been almost entirely 
replaced over the last two decades.

I think of a TV commercial that did not directly attack 
the Post Office. It was targeted at UPS. But UPS 
responded much faster than the Post Office could.

While critics of the postal monopoly had for decades tried
to get Congress to revoke the Post Office’s monopoly, all
attempts failed. They were associated with the fringe. 
Yet, year by year, the Post Office fell behind. It is 
irrelevant in American life today.

This was not planned by any political group. It was the
result of new technologies. People made decisions, day by
day, to bypass the Post Office.


An End Run Around the Fed


I do not expect Congress to revoke the Federal Reserve 
Act of 1913 in this decade. The powers that be who run
this country do so by means of the Federal Reserve 
System more than by any other semi-private institution.
It is at the center of control, because the monetary 
system is at the center of the economy.

But the central bank faces a problem. To maintain the
boom, the FED must inflate. To cease inflating would 
allow the credit bubble to implode on a scale far more
devastating than what happened in 2008. The FED has
placed us all on the back of the tiger.

Yet if it does not reverse its policy, it must produce 
hyperinflation at some point. That will destroy the FED’s
ability to guide the economy. Hyperinflation will lead to
alternative currencies. Digital technology is now 
international. If buying and selling digital U.S. dollars is 
no longer profitable, because long-term contracts are not
possible under hyperinflation, then the citizens of the 
United States will do what citizens of Zimbabwe did. 
They will use other currencies.


If the FED produces a Third World economy through 
hyperinflation, then people will do what Third World 
citizens do: find reliable currencies elsewhere. This can
be done on-line nearly for free. The Internet has 
reduced the transaction costs of using rival currencies.

The FED economists know this. They know that 
transaction costs for using other currencies are low. If 
the FED’s policies undermine long-term contracts, the 
citizens are not helpless. They can switch.

It will not take legislation to end the FED. All it will take 
is the FED. If the FED continues to inflate, it will destroy
its base: the monetary system based on the FED. But if it
ceases to inflate, by ceasing to buy Treasury debt, it will 
create Great Depression 2.

QE2

Bernanke can get away with QE2 today only because 
commercial banks are not lending. If they start lending,
M1 will rise, the M1 money multiplier will rise, and price 
inflation will return.

He has bought time with QE2, but he has not bought a 
way out of the credit bubble that Greenspan created and
he created.

He can play hide and go seek with Ron Paul, refusing to 
show up at the hearings of the Monetary Policy 
Subcommittee. Congress cooperates. But he cannot play
hide and go seek with the business cycle. Greenspan did,
but he got out in 2006. He passed on the Old Maid to 
Bernanke.

The Federal Reserve System bases its power on its ability
to control the monetary base. It swapped T-bills for toxic
assets to save the big banks, but to replenish its supply 
of swappable liquid assets, it has to inflate, as it is now
doing. QE2 is replenishing the supply of Treasury debt to
swap with large banks.

The FED did not bail out any small banks in 2008. It never
has. Its unofficial mandate is to bail out the largest 
commercial banks. This it has done.

I think Bernanke sees another banking crisis coming. This
is why he has pushed QE2. Only Hoenig has voted against 
it. Bernanke has his way with the other members of the 
Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market 
Committee. He has not said why this massive increase in
the monetary base is mandatory for the economy. To 
talk about this would create doubts. He does not want to
rock the boat. So, he gets away with another $600 billion
in monetary base creation.

This is working for now. But the results are unavoidable:
either price inflation or continued high unemployment 
and stagnation, because commercial banks thwart the 
stimulation. He is on the tiger’s back. So are we.


Conclusion


The Post Office looked unbeatable for over 250 years. 
Technology has made it peripheral. The same will happen
to the Federal Reserve System. It looks unbeatable. But 
the Internet can beat it. There are ways out of the 
FED’s trap.

A lot of people will pay a heavy price for Bernanke’s 
policies. That will be the price of persuading those 
people with the bulk of their assets in digital dollars to
sell those assets and replace them with other digits.

This is why I do not think the FED will resort to 
hyperinflation. The economists know that the FED’s
victims can escape. The FED will risk mass inflation, but
at some point it must say: “We will buy no more 
Treasury debt.” That will be the moment of truth. That 
will be the day it climbs off the back of the tiger.

So will we all.



A Parting Shot


I believe that America is at a turning point, I read that 
400 wealthy people control more money than 150 million
Americans, this is a serious situation to be in, and cannot
continue without the middle class taking some kind of 
stand (Riots, Protests, Uprisings). The World needs to 
wake up to the fact that so many elitists wealthy 
individuals are corrupting society, ordinary working
people are suffering at the hands of these so called 
leaders, who quite frankly have no fucking clue what they
are doing. It amazes me that human beings such as 
Ghadafi, Mubarek, Ben Ali and the Saudi Royal family had
an opportunity to make life for their citizens good, with 
all the wealth from oil over the years, but squandered it 
on themselves. Citizens in the USA are beginning to 
realize that what they once had has been squandered by
the corrupt Banks, Fed, Insurance companies, 
Corporations et al. It time for all everyone to take a 
stand and demand change for the good of all.



Quote of the Day
Though no one can go back and make a brand new
start,anyone can start from now and make a brand
new ending.
- Carl Bard

Peace, love and happiness...until next time...






































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