Lyn Alden - BITCOIN is Not a Ponzi Scheme

Lyn Alden has been on Youtube a lot recently.  I've watched all the videos.

Because I've finally gotten into Bitcoin, I am burying myself in information as I go.  Alden takes on one of the most common misconceptions about Bitcoin - that it is a Ponzi scheme.

Bitcoin is many things, but it isn't a Ponzi scheme.  It isn't guaranteed to succeed at this stage of its young life; it's been around only 12 years.  However, the criticism of it is mostly unfounded.  Not only that, the criticism of Bitcoin sounds ridiculous when you compare it to the fiat dollar.  Those slips of paper in your pocket, or the digits on your screen are about as 'solid' as thin air.

Also, you have no control over the dollar.  Someone can print and create as many dollars as he likes, but not you.  With Bitcoin no one can create more at any time - including you.

One of the things that got me to take a deep dive into Bitcoin was that every argument against it I thought of, I came up with the same argument for the fiat dollar.  "Fiat" = created on a whim by some entity.

Additionally, as I have watched the value of the dollar collapse courtesy of the Federal Reserve, I have watched Bitcoin rise in value.  Despite all of this, otherwise smart people seem to have an inability to see what I and others see as obvious.  

Here's Nassim Nicholas Taleb making an argument that could be made about any stock on the NYSE:

Notice the hedge 'at least for now'.  That's the tell.  Even Taleb is watching the price.  And what's with the COVID comment?  I've learned over the years that experts in one field can be cloddish and idiotic in others.  Taleb shows it here with that crack.

"Bitcoin was launched in the fairest way possible.

Satoshi first showed others how to do it with the white paper in an academic sense, and then did it himself months later, and anyone could begin mining along­side him within the first days as some early adopters did. Satoshi then distrib­uted the devel­op­ment of the software to others and disap­peared, rather than continue to promote it as a charis­matic leader, and so far has never cashed out.

From the begin­ning, Bitcoin has remained an open source and fully trans­parent project, and has the most organic growth trajec­tory of the industry. Given avail­able infor­ma­tion, the market has priced it as it sees fit, out in the open."

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The Establishment Lashes out at Matt Taibbi - AGAIN

Matt Taibbi wrote a reaction piece to the GameStop frenzy that was friendly toward the regular people involved.  No one is allowed to do that, especially if you have a big platform like his.

This caught the attention of a shill at New York Magazine.  He didn't like the populist tone of Taibbi's article, and scolded him in public.

Taibbi dedicated a post on his site in response:

I subscribe to Taibbi's substack.  I suggest you do too.  Here is the comment I wrote on Taibbi's site:

"We have witnessed a complete assault on small business, and no one says boo because if you do, they shout Covid is a thing!! as the local sandwich shop goes under while Target never closes. I can go into the Chase bank down the street, with a mask, and no one is angry. But the rulers of NY and NYC have determined that the small businesses (restaurants mainly), remain closed for indoor dining. The small business destruction is impossible to quantify. There was a poll on Twitter not too long ago asking who did more damage to NYC: DiBlasio or Mohammed Atta. DiBlah won and it wasn't even close.

They do it because of two things. The first is that the corporate media shills will always rush to defend entrenched interests. That's their job. The second is that large sections of the people believe them, and trust places like CNN and FOX. I work with people who come into work and listen to CNN and NPR for their news. Whatever they say about the GameStop event, or the "Insurrrection!" is taken in as gospel.

I suspect that's why the New York Magazine shill went after Taibbi. How dare Taibbi misconstrue the event, and even come close to showing sympathy for the unwashed rabble? Doesn't Matt know that when the masses learn about the leverage they have they must be crushed, and 'taught' the right way to interpret things? Only those who go to the private boarding schools are to be taught what leverage is, and how to use it. John Taylor Gatto blew the whistle on this one many years ago.

Keep up the good work Matt Taibbi. This was a great response."

........

It was Michael Malice who had the poll, as he sees the destruction done to small business and regular people all in the name of 'public health'.  Amazing how all of the COVID! decisions have hurt small businesses and regular people, while enriching those at the top.  The top of the pyramid has learned what they need to do in order to consolidate money and power.  They'll do it again.

It's why this GameStop thing is so important.  Learn about leverage, and how to use it.  

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Why the r/wallstreetbets Silver Move Failed

 Robert Kiyosaki is the author of the best seller Rich Dad, Poor Dad.  It's a pretty good book.  It isn't the one you want.  The one you want is Cash Flow Quadrant.  It's the one with actionable advice.

For the information in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, just watch one of the YouTube videos on it.  You'll get it in 10 minutes.

In this video, Kiyosaki not only tells you why the silver play failed, but also what his upcoming book is about.  He also talks about the way the country is going, and why he's heavy into gold, silver, and cryptocurrency.  I agree with him.  When we talk about the balkanization of these United States, Kiyosaki's comments about what is going on are a large part of the discussion.  He's particularly on point about the idiocy, ignorance, and outright disgusting nature of much of the university faculty / ethos.

If the universities are miseducating students, and the federal government is doing nonsense like this, then it makes sense to get as much information from someone like Kiyosaki, who has a track record of success.  Store your wealth.  Learn why the Reddit silver play flopped, and listen closely to this guy.  

From YouTube:

"This is an episode of The Pomp Podcast with host Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano and guest, Robert Kiyosaki, an American businessman and author. Kiyosaki is the founder of Rich Global LLC and the Rich Dad Company, a private financial education company that provides personal finance and business education to people through books and videos. 

His book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, is the number 1 personal finance book of all time. In this conversation, Anthony and Robert discuss the current global economy, why the Fed is a cartel, what every individual needs to understand about finance, where you should put your wealth to protect it, why the little guy is going to get screwed in this financial depression, and Robert even shares a number of Vietnam war stories."

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The Power Over the Tax Cattle

Another Case of a Conspiracy Theory that has Become Conspiracy Fact

People have written about the "Deep State" for years. Peter Dale Scott is the standard bearer for this line of analysis.

The Deep State really runs things. It is hidden, powerful and frightening. If you wrote about the Deep State as recently as within the past decade, you were labeled a Conspiracy Theorist by the Guardians of Acceptable Opinion, and dismissed as a kook. Apparently those days are over. Peter Dale Scott would routinely produce articles like this, and they would be ignored by everyone except the Conspiracy community, the Revisionist Historians and the Libertarians. The 'Doomsday Project' and other Deep Events were written about by Scott (and a few others), but they didn't make a dent.

Knowledge is power, and it seems that the interests that have a stake in keeping people ignorant haven't been able to stop the onslaught of information. I despair sometimes about the lack of intelligence among people but then I see inroads like this article on the Deep State in, of all places, the New York Times.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/us/examining-who-runs-the-united-states.html?_r=3 

The NYT holds a special place in the pantheon of the Gatekeepers of news and information Hall of Fame. They play both sides of the fence, are guardians of the status quo and the people in power, yet they profess to be the best at the job and on the side of the regular guy.

For an article on the Deep State to appear in the Times is almost unbelievable, and they mention Scott within the first 1/4 of the article. Practically everything in the article would have been considered a silly conspiracy, unworthy of consideration in polite circles as recently as 5 years ago.

I guess things are changing. Not as quickly as I'd like, but this qualifies a progress.

Revisionist History is not Conspiracy Theory - Antarctica proves this.

I introduce a lot of history in my English class. I think it's impossible not to cover the basic history, especially the time period in which the author lived. The days and events are important things that shaped the work.

This era is an era of historical disconnect. Especially with the advent of the world wide web, there is a gap that exists between students and teachers. The teachers have been trained by the textbooks and professors from a pre-internet era. The information hasn't changed a ton, but the accessibility has changed exponentially.

Here's an example and it has to do with Antarctica and the issue of discovery. According to wikipedia, Antarctica was discovered in 1820. Watch the first 5 minutes of this video, and you'll not only learn about an interesting story about the race to the South Pole, but that Antarctica was discovered in 1820. There is a problem however, and you're not supposed to ever find out about it. Much like much of Establishment History, the story is false, almost to the point of being fraudulent.

If it wasn't 'discovered' until 1820, how do you explain the Piri Reis map from 1513?

Graham Hancock, by the way, has been called a 'pseudohistorian' by the Establishment.

Not only that - how do you explain the Oronteus Finaeus map from 1531?

These questions, and this evidence, will cause much chortling, giggles and bad explanations about "conspiracy theories" from the adults who are supposed to be about the free exchange of ideas. I used to think that the professors and the teachers were people with honor, who would welcome debate and new thoughts. I was so wrong it isn't even funny.

I think it's time that the young people out there stop taking a back seat. There are times when it's time to step up. We saw this in the 1960's when people stepped up and demanded real change and and ending of idiotic wars. It wasn't a permanent but they got their point across. They scared the Establishment, which, in my opinion, stepped up the propaganda war and the sped up the dumbing down of the US.

The revisionist historians of today are yelling from the rooftops for help. Your instructors are not evil beasts intent on warping your brain. Their paradigm was built in a different era - one of limited information exchange and blind trust for one's college professors. If you want to rattle the chains, these topics will do it:

• FDR intentionally screws with Japan to provoke WWII.

• The absurdity of the official JFK assassination story.

• The Council on Foreign Relations and its influence.

• The attempt to crush the Wright brothers after they figured out manned flight - the gov't's guy didn't do it first.

• The Federal Reserve and its founding.

There are many more topics to discuss - most of them deal with fraudulent government action. As faith in government has replaced faith in God, the revisionist ideas get tossed down the memory hole.

Gary North shows you how it's done here:

The Origins of the FED - How it Controls Money and People

The Federal Reserve is the topic you're not supposed to talk about.  The FED, the central bank of the United States, took over the country in 1913.  Does that sound like hyperbole?  Only if you are uninformed and believing only the Organs of the Establishment that promote the myth that the FED is there for the public good.

“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson.” – FDR letter to Colonel Edward House, Nov. 21 1933

Was FDR a 'conspiracy theorist'?  Why did he say that?  James Corbett, of the stellar independent news site corbettreport.com explains in this thorough documentary.

From Corbett's site: All our lives we’ve been told that economics is boring. It’s dull. It’s not worth the time it takes to understand it. And all our lives, we’ve been lied to.

War. Poverty. Revolution. They all hinge on economics. And economics all rests on one key concept: money. Money. It is the economic water in which we live our lives. We even call it ‘currency’; it flows around us, carries us in its wake. Drowns those who are not careful. We use it every day in nearly every transaction we conduct. We spend our lives working for it, worrying about it, saving it, spending it, pinching it. It defines our social status. It compromises our morals. People are willing to fight, die and kill for it.

But what is it? Where does it come from? How is it created? Who controls it? It is a remarkable fact that, given its central importance in our lives, not one person in a hundred could answer such basic questions about money as these.

Martenson's Updated Crash Course - A Great Learning Experience

There were a few things that completely changed my worldview for the better.  These things made me think rationally, clearly, independently and thoroughly.  The writings of Theodore Dalrymple and John Taylor Gatto, the campaigns of Ron Paul, the 'Peter Schiff was Right' youtube videos and the works of Gary North and Tom Woods are some of the main sources from what was a serious philosophical change for me from 2005 - 2011.

A video series that put together the absurdity and danger of our monetary system and the FED was called "The Crash Course" by Chris Martenson.  It provided a visual link to the things that are never discussed in mainstream circles, and certainly never in school.  I had never had such things explained to me as a young person. The Crash Course opened my eyes instantly.  I think I watched the whole thing twice upon discovering it.

Martenson's premise is simple: the next 20 years will be nothing like the last 20 years.  He focuses on the E's: Economy, Education, Energy and Environment.  Recently he released a condensed and updated version of The Crash Course.  It will probably me more informative and useful to you than any social studies, civics or economics class you'll have in school.  It certainly contains more information and depth than your teacher, who thinks that 'Obama will take care of things' or 'once the Republicans get back in charge things will be better'.  People who still think that way should be taught how to escape that limited mindset.  The first thing to show them is this quote by Zora Neale Hurston: “Anybody depending on somebody else's gods is depending on a fox not to eat chickens.”  The second step is to watch the updated Crash Course:

EF Podcast #3 - Why I Use a $20 Gold Certificate as an Avatar

"Twenty Dollars in Gold Coin payable to the bearer on demand"

What was the Gold Standard?  Why do I use an image of an old $20 bill as my avatar / image?

The gold standard did two things that people in power and governments severely dislike: 1) it limited their power and reach and 2) it placed power and independence in the hands of the regular people.

Money backed by gold can't be printed, because gold can't be arbitrarily printed or created.  This limits the ability of governments to create war and exercise power over institutions or people.  The reason why the US gov't has devolved into a rapacious empire is because there is practically no limit to any cost.  Wars all over the planet? Not a problem.  Prisons out of control and a Police State to monitor the Herd?  No problem.  Big Business wants to capture a sector of the economy by creating a regulatory thicket to block the little guy?  No problem as gov't will create a department and enact legislation to crush small independent people.  How much will all of that cost?  Doesn't matter as the Federal Reserve will create the debt, monetize it and it is now "paid" for.

If you had the ability to open your browser, go to your bank account and move the decimal place around, or add numbers as you saw fit - you'd be thrilled.  The idea is a silly one, but that is what the FED can, and does, do.

How it came to be that way and how to find out more - see below:

Books:

• The Creature from Jekyll Island, G. E. Griffin
• What has Government Done to Our Money? by Murray Rothbard
• A History of Money and Banking, by Murray Rothbard (links to a PDF download)
• Pieces of Eight, by Edwin Vieira
• The Case for Gold, by Ron Paul and Lewis Lehrman

Facebook Follies - part 27

There is some debate going on about the ACA, also known as "Obamacare".  Of course Obamacare will contribute to the bankruptcy of the United States.  It won't do as much damage as Medicare or Social Security, or Bush's Medicare Part D, but it will simply speed up the train as it barrels toward the burning trestle.

Someone who sits in the 1st pew of the Church of the State took my and someone else's free market (and hence negative) views of the program as sacrilege  - he was OFFENDED.  In the below exchange you'll see how logical fallacies, logical leaps and poor attempts at obfuscation rule the day on Facebook.  Unfortunately for this person, he ran into a buzzsaw - me.

FS and I agree on the moral reprehensibility of the ACA.  NLB loves his masters, God - oops - government will heal all, and it is the beneficent overlord of the economy as well.  I used to be surprised that people thought this way, but I am naive no longer.  Take a look:

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FS -  What I would like, is for the position of "hey, let's not force each other to do things" to be recognized as a legitimate human right and not be chastised as being a crazy extremist position. Especially when I am caught between two factions: one that wants to take my money and throw it TO people they do like and the other which wants to take my money and throw it AT people they don't like.

Mr. M - Mr. S you are correct, but you're going down a thoughtful path that many cannot understand as they've been addled and bamboozled. In order for healthcare to be a 'right', then you make healthcare workers slaves, as they are forced to provide their services as one has a 'right' to those services. The free market works, is has worked, but one must go back (in US history) at least 100 years to see even a facsimile of such a market. Once the AMA and the Rockefeller foundation got its claws in the medical establishment, the downward cycle began.

(side note - I was thinking of this article when I wrote this.  I will add italics to NLB's intellectually limited response)

NLB - I guess we'll all find out soon enough how monumentally the ACA destroys the good and pure market system I suspect we'll be just fine.
And Dcm, Last I checked there were plenty of major crashes pre-1900. Check your history. It's only in the highly market regulated 50s-70s that the boom-bust cycle took a break.
LOL the only country in the world where people talk like this, as though we're all goddamn mercenaries and everyone else can go f*** themselves. It's truly our national religion. "Yeah, screw the greater good." Rah rah, America. *sigh*
And yes, you are aligning yourself with a very common political position, FS, all assertions to the contrary.

MR. M - "check your history". Ok. I think I will, but only if you go through the reams of evidence that show that the business cycle is affected only by gov't intrusion. The boom / bust cycle is caused by 3rd party intrusion - it's why the French, when asked by the gov't officials 200 yrs ago said 'laissez faire' - let us be. I suggest von Mises' magnum opus, "Human Action", where he demolishes the views you seem to have adopted. Another good choice is Murray Rothbard's "America's Great Depression", where he showed that the FED and the US Treasury caused the Great Depression by the artificial expansion of credit. It's why you never hear of the Great Depression of 1921, because the federal gov't did....nothing and it was over in 18 months, and the downturn post WWI was worse than the one in 1929. Rothbard's "Man, Economy and State" is if you want the full monty, and not just an isolated American study. You can also go through Isabel Paterson's "Ghost in the Machine" - a great read, written in the WWII era when her views were unpopular. Albert J. Nock's "Our Enemy, the State" will, if you're looking for an analysis of the 17th and 18th centuries, do the job of showing you how government is the enemy of the people. For the 'happy ending' you can go through Carroll Qugley's "Tragedy and Hope" (B Clinton's mentor - mentioned by name in his DNC acceptance speech in 1992) for an insider's view of how the Big Banks have been intruding and, via the Morgans, Rockefeller's et al, taking over what was once a free economy and a free people. He wrote it after having 2 yrs of access to the papers of the CFR. Of course they broke the plates because it caused such a stir, but that's just coincidence.

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It was the "check your history" comment and the "It's only in the highly market regulated 50s-70s that the boom-bust cycle took a break." comment that made me write all of that.  Telling me to check my history is one thing, but the 50's - 70's is purely odd, as 2 minutes of analysis blows it away.  Our economy now is multiple times more regulated, and we have no vestiges of a gold standard, and our boom bust cycle is out of control.  The guy makes no sense.  Notice the arrogant *sigh*, as NLB takes the pseudo high road, after making so many unfounded assumptions about freedom and the free market that his response becomes a parody.  FaceBook is usually not worth it to go bananas like that on someone, as he won't read any of those things, but there might be an enterprising person, or a critical thinker who will, and then it is worth it.  In the space below I posted this link, not for NLB, but for one of the Remnant: 

Right v Left = Fake

One of the first things that happens when a person wakes up from the matrix is that he realizes that the Republican v Democrat 'fight / debate' is a total fraud.  Yes, there are superficial differences but on the whole they are the same.  The differences?  The Establishment Right says that taxes should be around 32% of income, and the Establishment Left would like that rate to be closer to 40%.  Both are beholden to Big Bank and Big Corporation.  When I learned that Pres. Obama's largest corporate donor for his 2008 election campaign was Goldman Sachs, I quickly realized that everything I had been taught about the two parties was wrong - and had been wrong since about 1952, when Robert Taft was defeated in the Republican primary.

We have the same thing today.  Albert J. Nock wrote years ago that American Big Business was deathly afraid of, and did not want a free market.  They didn't want the little guy competing and possibly usurping their hold of the market.  This is why they re-named the Swope plan (Gerard Swope ran General Electric) the New Deal - a cartellization of Big Businesses with regulations keeping out competitors.

Now we have the same thing.  The US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers are going against Tea Party Republicans because they are against the expansion of debt and the raising of the debt ceiling.  From the Washington Post: "And the U.S. Chamber is doing research on key states where it can battle back against tea party candidates willing to use the country’s debt repayments as a bargaining chip."

You're taught that the Republican Party is an unthinking ally of the Tea Party, and they're all for Big Business and moneyed interests.  This is false - they're for government corporate subsidies and an unfree market that stifles the small business entrepreneur in a regulatory thicket that is impenetrable.  That, along with more debt, more FED inflation and cronyism, is the desired result - in other words the status quo is actually what the Republican Party wants - as does the Democrat Party.

Gary North sums it up best: "...the Chamber of Commerce has joined with the National Association of Manufacturers to pressure Congress to accept an increase in the federal debt ceiling. More than this, some businesses are now organizing for the congressional campaigns in 2014 to defeat Tea Party candidates in the Republican Party. This is the old-time Republicanism. This is the eastern Republican establishment. This is what the United States has faced with respect to the Republican Party ever since Lincoln was inaugurated. It is the party of big business. It is the party of intervention. It is the party, or was for decades, of high tariffs. It is the party of Hamiltonianism: Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Hoover, and Nixon."

I am reminded of two sayings.  One from Lew Rockwell: "It isn't Left vs Right, it's the State vs. YOU" and one from Pat Buchanan: "The major parties are two wings of the same bird of prey".

What You Learn About the Government in School is Propaganda

I've been listening to a lot of Tom Woods' work on my iPod recently.  Even though I've heard this talk before, it still sounds fresh.  After hearing an historical talk like this, I am saddened and amazed at how abysmal our system has become.  The things we learn about US history are simply wrong.  The disturbing part is that because it is "in the textbook" or "everybody knows that"  - the adults in the room do no research, and, even more disturbing, refuse to look into the things they are teaching the young people in their charge.

The reason why the lecture below is called "Why You've Never Heard of the Great Depression of 1920" is because we are taught that FDR 'saved' the country from economic ruin by way of the New Deal.  The opposite is true, however.  The Great Depression was the first time that the government decided to roll up its sleeves and "do something".  Even a surface analysis of this topic doesn't look favorably on FDR and the New Deal.  If Roosevelt 'saved' the country and cured it from depression - why did it take so long?  There were other depressions, 1920 to be exact, and the government of the US did nothing.  As a matter of fact, the government LOWERED spending and taxes.  The Federal Reserve did nothing, as it was forbidden to participate in open market operations until 1922.  This chapter of history is simply forgotten - down the memory hole.  No one mentions it, and if they do, they gloss over the topic because it goes against the shibboleths that 'everybody knows'.  Why is this so?  Because it doesn't fit the paradigm of 'The State can solve all things, and if it weren't for our Wise Overlords, we'd be dirty and miserable - victims of the Free Market'.   In the old days, this would be called propaganda - now it's called Public Relations.  Nothing Woods brings up is unable to be found with a little digging.  As an experiment, tell an adult that you think that FDR saved the country from nothing and he should have let the market solve the problem.  You'll find an angry and frustrated person in front of you.

Basically, what your local public school has become is a mouthpiece for government propaganda.  An event like the depression of 1920, the lack of action by Pres. Harding and the federal government simply cannot be discussed as it won't make you a wide eyed drone worshipping at the feet of The State.  Anything relating to the free market, free market capitalism, rugged individualism or the gold standard is not taught, or openly mocked.   Woods displays this in this easily researched speech.  Your local schoolteacher cannot understand these events, as the textbook doesn't cover them adequately, if at all.  Anything that bodes favorably on the government and State Worship is pushed, and Real History and the strong individuals who created it are maligned.

Rather than stay stuck in the comic book version of history you had in 7th grade, learn from one of the great voices of the Libertarian Movement.

3rd Quarter Report

We are in strange times.  The state of the schools, current affairs, and the economy are so odd, that they beggar description.

School: As I've probably mentioned in previous posts, this year has been a difficult one.  The intellectual curiosity of this crop of 9th graders is at an all time low.  The strange part is that it hasn't been a gradual decline, this year I have seen a cliff like drop of curiosity and academic performance.  I graded an exam as I would have graded an exam in 1998, and the class average, for both sections, was a 54.  I took into account spelling, grammar, content and appropriate answers.  As I do not give multiple choice exams (they have been proven to be useless, and the Power Elite school abolished them years ago), the writing was not only substandard, it showed a lack of awareness of the story we read and the English language.  There were misspellings of the main characters, obvious facts were incorrect, and the cheaters cheated off of someone who had no idea what happened in the story, so the answers all reflected the same incorrect nonsense.  It would be funny if it weren't so tragic.

Additionally, and tellingly, one of my top students told me that "I don't want to offend you, but, well, the reason that we didn't do well, is that, like, the times you were reading the story to us, we were talking because, well, I don't mean to offend you, but the story was boring."  This was told to me by one of the top students in my morning class.  The sad part is threefold, the guise of 'caring' about my feelings, the fact that a 'boring' story is license to talk while the teacher is reading the it to the class, and this was from one of the top students in the class - a young woman with a first class mind.

Current Affairs:  The Boston shooting and its aftermath is difficult to watch.  That a tragic event would be used to turn a major U.S. city and its environs into a tyrannical police state is sad.  The Herd cheers their oppressors as the police lockdown the area to catch - a 19 year old.  Only the online libertarian community and a few conspiracy minded people seem to notice what is transpiring.  I guess the words of a gov't official ring true:  "Never let a good crisis go to waste."  The American Herd, ahistorical and lacking a basic understanding of Human Rights or the Bill of Rights, tolerates scenes like this while they cheer the 'police' for keeping them 'safe'.  The works of Benjamin Franklin, a figure dimly familiar with the average American public school student, ring truer than ever:  "Those who give up their liberty for more security neither deserve liberty nor security.”

The Economy:  The FED continues its operations of printing money, Congress continues to make rules for the people yet immunize itself from harm.  The gold price is crushed, simply hammered in a way that has not been seen in 30 years, and the depositors of Cyprus, the regular people, have their money simply taken from them as a way to pay back banker and government debts.  All the while, the economy is in the tank and the people, who have been trained in such a manner, beg for their overlords to 'do something!'

It is education that solves many of these problems, as the electorate has been schooled to extinction.  The free market, which allows for trial and error, mistakes to be made and then solved, is vilified and laughed at by the Power Brokers.  It's easy for them to maintain a stranglehold on minority wealth and power as they make the rules and regulations, thereby never needing to worry about any pesky little people crawling to the top.  Sometimes, someone breaks through and does this.  It is time to rip the cover off of the Educational Establishment, look at how and what they teach, so we can see how they created this unholy mess we're in now.

This is a good place to start:

What's Happening

In School

We have (another) new initiative - this time from the State - a two fold bureaucratic monstrosity that involves hours of useless grading and paperwork.  None of the grading or paperwork will help a single student, nor will it affect positively the time I am able to spend with my students during the day.  Here's the system:

1. We have to give a diagnostic exam in the Fall, and then another follow up exam in the Spring.  
2. The SLO, (student learning objective) will be written by the teacher predicting how much better the students will do on the exam in the Spring than they did in the Fall.
3. The diagnostic exams are simple re-hashed state exams with little to no relevance to anything in the school world or the real world.
4. Naturally, the grades were crushed during the grading of the Fall exams.  This ensures that the 'grades' for the Spring exams will be WAAYYY better than the Fall exams. 
5. This will be touted as 'improvement' by the students and proof that the teachers are doing a great job.

Who loses? The students, as usual.  They lose days that could be going toward real information, and are instead inundated with more high stakes exams that do nothing but justify the jobs of highly paid bureaucrats in the state capital and in the district office.  Public education has become a dangerous farce.  The 'State', which has taken a once proud and effective public school system and run it off the rails, is now saying: "here's the new system, and trust us, this time it will work."  This is the crowd that, with the help of the NEA, destroyed whatever credibility they had with their education policies of the late 1960's and early 1970"s.  Here's the worst part.  Our new 'system' uses the Common Core Learning Standards.  This is the government's way of trying to fulfill the dream they've been having for the past 100 years - a one size fits all curriculum that will so totally dumb down the youth of America via a national standard.  As usual it is couched in verbiage like 'literacy' and 'standards' and other fancy eduspeak.  Nowhere will you hear about active literacy  and passive literacy, the trivium or the classic seven liberal arts.  Orwell would be proud, these state documents that dictate our 'system' are Newspeak to the core.  On a positive note, we all had a good laugh while going through the new state 'plan' - it is the little people, us, who understand the joke that all of this is.

Current Affairs 

The mainstream media is having a time with the 'fiscal cliff' chatter on the main networks and newspapers.  There is cognitive dissonance at its finest.  The government has created over $16 trillion in debt.  (The real number is much higher).  Now, it is expected to 'save' the financial straits of the country by - - spending more and cutting nothing.  The US gov't spend $10 billion a day, yet the politicians are bickering about tax levels and the inability to cut anything, at any time.  The problem is spending, yet spending cuts never seem to happen.  The only solution, possibly, is the day of reckoning when the well runs dry, and the government checks bounce, or the dollars are worthless due to reckless money printing by the FED.  The American people are half of the problem, as the huge majority of incumbent representatives were reelected in the House and the Senate - no changes made there.  There is an old quote about democracy - that it is the type of government where the people get the government they deserve.  Well, with the dumbing down of the American electorate, and the resulting charade that is the political scene, that quote seems more appropriate than ever.

Which "Fiscal Cliff"?

There is a lot of chatter nowadays about the 'fiscal cliff'.  The first question to ask is: where are you getting your financial information?  The mainstream information, naturally, is propagandized faux panic.  Mainstream pundits on channels like MSNBC and CNBC are hyperventilating about two things: the new higher tax rates that go into effect on January 1st, combined with the government 'cuts' that go into effect the same time.  The higher tax rates will cause economic problems, as will the implementation of 'Obamacare'.  The more things are taxed, the less you get with regard to economic activity.  Taxation is not only theft, it causes economic slowdowns.  The government 'cuts' are farcical.  They are cuts in spending increases - meaning that if a 9% increase in spending was planned, the new 5% increase in spending is accounted as a 4% "cut".  Congress can pull this off because many Americans get their financial information via the mainstream media, or they aren't paying attention at all.

There is a much bigger cliff about which to worry.  Peter Schiff was one of the early sources that changed my economic thinking.  He follows the free market 'Austrian' perspective and knows his history.  These two factors allow for an economic analysis that is superior to any mainstream source.  This video is typical of the SchiffReport - in depth analysis that is not geared toward an agenda.  When the Great Default happens, the real 'fiscal cliff', there'll undoubtedly be more of the "Peter Schiff was Right" videos posted on youtube.




For a daily site to check for national and international financial news, zerohedge.com is a good choice.  For Austrian free market analysis combined with historical background, I can't think of a more readable and media friendly site than mises.org.

Ask a Question and PAY

ZeroHedge, a site I enjoy immensely, had a post today featuring Michael Burry giving the commencement address for the UCLA Economics Department.  Burry is one of the stars of the Michael Lewis book The Big Short, which analyzes the few people who went against conventional wisdom and made huge amounts of money.  Good for them.  Burry and the few others who called the crisis correctly (Peter Schiff comes to mind) are examined in Lewis' book.  They are fascinating characters and the fact that they were able to summon the monumental act of will in order to go against conventional wisdom is inspiring.  Reading Lewis' book coincided with my introduction to Austrian Economics  and libertarianism - both non mainstream schools of thought and it made the transition easier as I had inspiration to guide and help me down a path ridiculed by the mainstream.   It has now gotten to the point that I enjoy being the odd man out, asking the questions that just shouldn't be asked.

Burry's 15 minute speech is worth it.  As I get older I listen much more closely to those who went against the grain.  What is noteworthy is 14:05 into the speech.  Burry describes what happened to him after he published an op-ed in the NY Times called "I Saw The Crisis Coming, Why Didn't The Fed?" Within 2 weeks, his 6 defunct funds were all audited.  The Congressional Economic Crisis Commission demanded all of his correspondence dating back to 1993.  The FBI showed up at his door.  It should be noted that a government that is incapable of doing anything right is suddenly able to react with efficiency and speed when it comes to someone who criticizes the FED in print.  I wouldn't trust the government to fix a pothole as it is so cloddish.  This is the same government that botched the response to Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, missed the economic crashes of the dot com bubble and the housing bubble, blew the chance to catch Madoff's ponzi scheme even after the SEC was tipped off ten times, is trillions of dollars in debt and has an approval rating near the single digits.  Despite whiffing on huge issues, it is able to, with pinpoint accuracy, go after Burry with dedication and skill.  This is what a once proud country has come to.  Burry asked a question, and he paid - about a million dollars in legal fees and hundreds of hours of wasted time, all for naught as he broke no laws.  All he did was state (1st amendment?) that the emperor has no clothes.  What government apparatchik made the call?  Which of the obsequious toads decided that this guy needed to 'be taught a lesson?'  This is a pathetic response from a government that exists at the consent of the governed.  That anachronistic phrase should be retired, as we are now servile whelps who bow and scrape before our overlords.  Good for Michael Burry to "bet against America, and win."  America deserves to take some losses as collectively we have become soft minions genuflecting before our god, The State.  Perhaps we have already lost.

Recommended reading:  Harry Markopolos' Nobody Would Listen.  Mr. Markopolos continually figured out that Madoff was running a ponzi scheme.  He repeatedly informed the SEC.  Nobody would listen, nor would they take him seriously.  Anyone who thinks that 'government regulation' is worth anything should read this book.




For those who are upset at my disdain for the much of America:

Non Fiction Short List

A friend of mine and former student SM, along with another, KP, asked me to provide a short write up as to which books might be worthwhile.  As their young active minds crave knowledge I always attempt to give them the answers they seek.  Here's the comment:

1) G. E. Griffin's "The Creature From Jekyll Island". This book changed many things for me. It is a wonderful historical romp and covers the lead up to and the birth of the FED. Sounds dull but is not, as you get LOTS of history you never learned in schule. Highly recommended. 2) J. Grisham's "The Innocent Man" - I just finished this and it was pretty good. A true story about a guy getting the death penalty for something he not only did not do, but couldn't have done. 3) Ron Paul's "The Revolution". This morphed me from an odious Establishment Conservative to a free thinking libertarian. Well written and a quick read. 4) If you want to know why I type 'schule' and my reform plan for skoool is to close them all down, then read (for free) John Taylor Gatto's "The Underground History of American Education". Again - rife with history and info that is impeccably researched and the prose is poetic. (I know, oxymoronic but forgive me). It's one of the few books I'd wished I'd read 10 years ago. For a shorter version of his philosophy "Weapons of Mass Instruction" is a winner. It's the book that is my pic. One fiction selection: "Watership Down" by Richard Adams. Anyone who can read English should read it. It's that elegant and wonderful and beautiful. Let me know if you have a specific brand of nonfiction as these may not be your cup of tea...

Here's G. Edward Griffin talking about his Magnum Opus, The Creature From Jekyll Island.

-------------------

I followed with this tepid list of fiction books - just off the top of my head but worth a look....

Ayn Rand's "Anthem" is really good - a dystopian collective nightmare where the group is all encompassing. It does not contain the subject pronoun "I" - that's how hard core it is. Bradbury's "F451" is spectacular - another future dystopia where firemen burn books because they are illegal and make people smart - sort of like now. I just read the uncut version of Stephen King's "The Stand". It was complex, wonderful, strange and engrossing. His serial "The Green Mile" is also exceedingly well done. I like his work.

The Great Depression

BOOK REVIEW - Murray Rothbard's The Great Depression

Here's the tale we're told: "Herbert Hoover was a free market enthusiast, and his capitalist, Republican Party principles were ineffective against the crash of 1929.  Only the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a good Democrat, saved the US economically.  FDR came in and he saved the country from the Great Depression via the New Deal, and, eventually, World War II".

The above myth is the classical story taught to students in the school systems today.  Hoover was a hands off, somewhat evil man, and FDR was a cuddly and wholesome 'traitor to his class' and helped the little guy and the country rise up out of the ashes of the Great Depression.  What Murray Rothbard does in his book The Great Depression is totally destroy this completely fabricated story.  If the old adage 'history is written by the victors' is true, then the Hoover / FDR era is certainly proof.  Rothbard leaves no stone unturned in his analysis of the run up to the Hoover presidency, and the Hoover term itself.  The Austrian economists correctly state that the economic errors of the business cycle are present during the boom - and Rothbard shows this to be true in his analysis of the years 1921 - 1932.  Not only was there government intervention in the economy during the 'Roaring 20's', but there was massive government intervention during Hoover's presidential term.  The idea that Hoover was a laissez - faire free market capitalist is absurd, and The Great Depression proves it conclusively.

Notes from The Great Depression

- "Since the government and its controlled banking system are wholly responsible for the boom and since government is largely responsible for aggravating the depression, we must necessarily concentrate on these acts of government intervention in the economy." (82) The first third of the book is devoted to competing economic theories and how they explain the business cycle.  Our economy, since the advent of Central Banking, has gone through ups and downs.  This 'business cycle' has been explained by various schools of economic thought.  Rothbard analyzes the cycle itself, and then the manner in which the theories explain it.  As the other theories are found wanting, Rothbard, with his analysis and evidence, uses the Austrian theory of the business cycle to walk the reader through the many government interventions (currency manipulation / bank credit meddling etc.) during the boom of the '20's.


- With regard to intervention in the agricultural sector of the economy: "With the Federal Farm Board (FFB) generally acknowledged as a failure, President Hoover began to pursue the inexorable logic of government intervention to the next step: recommending that productive land be withdrawn from cultivation, that crops be plowed under and that immature farm animals be slaughtered - all to reduce the very surpluses that government's prior intervention had brought into being." (209)  Rothbard explains the absurdities of the Hoover administration with regard to agriculture.  In his ham fisted attempts to control and 'manage' the supply and demand of commodities, Hoover, when faced with failure, suggests asinine policies such as these.  The level of irony goes even higher, and is the part of the story that you are NEVER told - the FFB was chaired by the president of International Harvester Co. - Alexander Legge.  Yes, big business was in the process of cartellization and attempted control of the American economy, through their friends in government.  Not only did Hoover interfere, it was the Big Corporation that handled the details.  This brings us to possibly the most shrouded and sinister story behind both the Hoover New Deal and FDR's New Deal.

- The Swope Plan: "In September 1932, Gerard Swope, head of General Electric, far surpassed the radicalism of his old public works proposal by presenting the Swope Plan to a convention of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association.  The Plan, which garnered a great deal of publicity, amounted to a call for compulsory cartellization of American business - an industry was to be forcibly mobilized into trade associations, under Federal control, to regulate and stabilize prices and production, and to prescribe trade practices." This would "... coordinate production and consumption". (245)  This Big Business cartel, became what you and I know as the New Deal's National Recovery Administration.  While the NRA was struck down as unconstitutional by the Scheckter case, the principles were pushed continuously to the point that we, in 2012, have a cartel of 6 banks controlling 70% of the nation's banking.  It was Big Business' desire to stifle competition and limit new competition that was the impetus behind the New Deal.  The fairy tale you get in school is absurd to the point of being intellectually criminal.  Hoover, to his credit, was horrified by the Swope Plan, and refused to back it.  He was told that if he backed it, he'd be reelected, and if he rejected it, he'd lose.  For more information on this, see Hoover's memoirs.

This is just a minuscule representation of the amount of unsound meddling by government during the boom of the '20's, and the new departure from laissez faire by Hoover post 1929.  Prior to Hoover, governments had done nothing to interfere with the government, and the business cycle corrected itself, as it always does, and it did in 1921.  We've been taught, through the fallacy of authority, that we need a 'leader', a 'manager', to steer us through the hard times.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Rothbard on recessions - he explains how the philosophy of government intervention changed:







Here is Tom Woods giving you the details of how government NON INTERVENTION works.  This is a story from American history hidden from you.  You're to think of government as the thing that will solve all problems:

Schiff Before Congress

Peter Schiff testified before congress not too long ago.  He had no notes, no teleprompter, and no one there to provide any refutation of his arguments.  Listening to the following 22+ minutes will give you a very good grasp of what bad government does to our economy.  I'll let the video speak for itself.

On a more sinister note, the video was eventually taken down after a week or so.  Mr. Schiff has since re-posted it via his Youtube channel.  Was there a conspiracy?  Probably not, but who knows.  I got this email from Europac (Schiff's company), which I will post in its entirety.  Read and then analyze his testimony for what actually happens in the business world, instead of getting distorted "news" from the paid off quislings of the mainstream media.

Pay particular attention to the last 3.5 minutes.  You'll see how everything you've been taught about the gold standard and income and life in the United States was wrong.

The email was as follows:

Friends,
 Many of you know that last month I was in Washington to testify in front of the House Subcommittee on Government Reform and Stimulus Oversight. I argued that bad monetary and fiscal policies had combined with excessive taxation and regulation to stifle job creation in America. As a result of a Youtube video of the hearings that was in the process of "going viral" many in the media and political establishment began to take notice. In the aftermath of the testimony, I was invited to discuss my testimony with Greta Van Susteren, Mike Huckabee, and many others.
Unfortunately, the "viral" video that news and media sites had linked to most often, and which I had mentioned on my radio show, was inexplicably removed from Youtube by the individual who posted it in the first place. There is no conspiracy here, just an unfortunate string of events that have left many people disappointed that a video that could have reached into the cyber stratosphere, has instead simply disappeared. And while there are dozens of other versions of the testimony online, in today's world there is no substitute to a big view count.

And so, in an attempt to roll another snowball down the same hill, I have posted a new version of the video on my Youtube Channel. In order to comply with securities regulations I elected to delete a very small portion of my testimony, but plenty of other versions are available online that have all my remarks. But in order to make up the lost view counts I urge you to click on this link and send it to as many people you know who may appreciate my message to Congress.

If enough people watch, the video will go to the top of the charts and more people, many of whom may still be completely unfamiliar with the benefits of capitalism, will be exposed to our ideas. If you want to move the needle and impact the debate, here is a way to do it. All you need to do is click.

Sincerely, Peter Schiff CEO and Chief Global Strategist Euro Pacific Capital

Pieces of Eight

No, we're not reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island - although that would be fun.  We're talking about money.  It is one of those topics that has intentionally been left of the list of "things to learn" in school.  Actually, it is pretty high on the very LONG list of things not to be discussed in school.  Edwin Vieira, the author of the book Pieces of Eight, speaks with James Turk of GoldMoney about the irrationality of our money, and its blatant unconstitutionality.  Our constitution clearly states that the Federal Gov't cannot emit "bills of credit" (paper money), and that the states can use "NOTHING BUT gold and silver coin" in the repayment of debts.  Why do we use neither?  Who gains from this obvious fraud upon the people?  Who loses?  Why is there a war on gold?
To make it short (and because E. Vieira does a much better job), the gold standard limits government.  Ok, big deal - gov't can't fund endless wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen etc). But the part that the overlord elites really dislike is the power gold puts in the hands of the people.  That is the part that your gov't masters hate.  You should be a sheep.  You should have your wealth confiscated, and the Power Elite should strive for a medieval manor style world, with you as one of the serfs.  Gold stops all of that.  With gold money your wealth is stored, prices go down, entrepreneurship skyrockets and people have control over their lives.
Do you see now why it isn't even discussed?  Why gold and silver and the constitution and dozens of other things are NOT on the list of things for you to learn in "school".  It didn't happen overnight, but over a few sinister decades these topics were removed from schools and universities.  Don't think you will get lessons in gold and free market economics in college.  They've been bought off as well.  The best part is you can learn about all of the forgotten things at mises.org and from Tom Woods.  Oh yes, you can get a 44 minute lesson on constitutional money from a guy with 4 degrees from Harvard right here for FREE.