Friday Food For Thought

[J.O.]

So much for our government's talk about cracking down on Canadians who use foreign tax havens.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jim-love-canadian-mint-chairman-helped-run-offshore-tax-avoidance-scheme-for-clients-1.2441347

[J.O.]

http://globalnews.ca/news/976581/tax-dodge/

Now governments talk about the so-called “tax gap” – the difference between what they could collect and do collect – caused by the use of offshore havens. In the UK, this estimate ranges from £50 billion to £100 billion annually. Of that, about £20 billion sits in offshore tax havens. The Canadian government refuses to make an estimate of the tax gap in Canada.

“Our own estimates would lead us to conclude Canada is losing at least 7.8 billion dollars a year. And probably more like ten or twenty billion,” Dennis Howlett, the executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness, an Ottawa-based NGO, told 16×9. “That’s revenue lost to both federal and provincial governments.”

[inchman]

The Conspiracy Theory is that the upper echelon (the 1%ers) are systematically taking control of all the wealth wherever possible because ultimately Wealth is power. Look at the recent independent currency Bitcoin. Its value rose over 600% in a very short period. It is not controlled by any government. This makes the powers that be very nervous. Currently one Bitcois is worth almost $600 US. It is a digital currency but can be exchanged for real cash. A Revolution is coming.

The Bitcoin is so unstable I can't imagine why anyone would want to use it, except for speculation, drug dealing, appearing to be "cool" or money laundering. It is not much more than a pump and dump scheme.

Had you sold a product in June of 2011 for bitcoins, and sat on them for a few months without spending them, you would have lost 90% of your sale income. Yeah... it works the other way, too, but that's not currency, IMO, that's speculation in vapourware. The people who should be nervous are the ones holding something that could originally be produced for 10 cents and is now "worth" $1000 without even an office chair to back its value. The only way I would accept bitcoins as a form of payment would be to immediately convert them into a real currency.

Cabbage Patch Dolls would be a better currency.

http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg730ztgCzm1g10zm2g25

[deicer]

Winds are changing....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/seatac-15-minimum-wage-passes_n_4339492.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

It appears the ayes have it.

After weeks of careful ballot counting, officials in Washington state on Tuesday certified the results in a potentially historic vote that will create far and away the highest minimum wage in America.

Squeaking by with a mere 77-vote margin, the ballot measure known as Proposition 1 will set a $15 wage floor for an estimated 6,000 airport and hotel workers in SeaTac, Wash., a suburb of 27,000 residents south of Seattle.

While the vote count had been too close to call in the days following the Nov. 5 election, the King County Elections commission posted the official results on its website late Tuesday: 3,040 in favor of the measure, 2,963 against. There were 12,108 registered voters eligible to cast ballots.

Although the results have been certified, they can still be challenged by anyone willing to foot the bill for a recount, according to Kim van Ekstrom, spokeswoman for the elections commission. Van Ekstrom said ballot signatures had continued to trickle in during the days leading up to certification, but no more ballots would be counted.

The ballot campaign was closely watched -- and funded, to the tune of about $2 million -- by business and labor groups, who viewed it as a potential bellwether vote on similar wage measures throughout the country. The $15 wage floor in SeaTac will be more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and it will likely serve as a rallying cry for labor unions and low-wage worker advocates as they try to raise minimum wages on the federal, state and local levels.

Given the money originally dumped into the campaign by the business community, backers of the measure shouldn't be surprised if opponents file for a recount. An umbrella group that lobbied against Proposition 1, called Common Sense SeaTac, told NBC News Tuesday it would challenge the results. Van Ekstrom said challengers would need to put down a deposit of 25 cents per ballot for a hand recount, or 15 cents for a machine recount. That's a small sum for a business advocacy group, though van Ekstrom said the final price tag of the recount would be much higher.

Along with setting the $15 minimum wage, the new SeaTac law will also tie the minimum wage to an inflation index; guarantee that tipped workers don't have to share their gratuities; and allow workers to accrue up to 6.5 days of guaranteed paid sick leave per year. Smaller businesses were carved out of the legislation, and the law would only apply to certain employers in and around Seattle–Tacoma International Airport.

The ballot measure's provisional success is an unmitigated victory for labor groups, particularly the Service Employees International Union, which played a lead role in pushing Proposition 1. Not only does the legislation include the kind of employer mandates championed by organized labor, it also allows for those mandates to be waived in a collective bargaining contract, possibly giving companies an incentive to enter into one.

As in almost any minimum wage fight, backers of the proposal said it would improve the lives of thousands of low-wage workers, while the business community said it would raise costs on employers and force them to cut back on hiring.

Abdirahman Abdullahi, an employee of the airport's Hertz rental car location, told HuffPost earlier this month that he took a leave of absence from his job to campaign in support of the measure. "The workers at the airport work hard but don't get what they deserve," Abdullahi said. "They're juggling two or three jobs just to pay the bills, let alone to save money. This initiative ... it's going to improve their lives."

Backers of the proposition had declared victory on election night, but their edge gradually eroded as more ballots were counted in the days that followed. At one point, their lead had dwindled to just 19 votes.

[DEFCON]

Inchman

I think your analysis of the bitcoin phenomena is accurate.

On the other hand, the so-called 'real' money we're all banking on has nothing more substantial than hope backing its value either. Real money depends on pretend day to day valuations that are based entirely on economic performance, specifically, the generation of more debt. This consideration is arguably the biggest measuring stick of economic performance. It's the one economists use to measure the performance of the economy and report back to us on. Doing so results in improvements in consumer confidence because the masses want to believe the warm and fuzzy crap they're being fed. The minders are comfortable in this practice because the only game they were educated to appreciate tells them that increasing debt levels is the fuel that powers the economic engine and almost the only performance measure that counts. IOW's, perpetuating the currency confidence sham to maintain and increase consumer confidence results in our feeling better, which leads to our rushing out to buy more toys on credit.

Historically, possessing physical gold (not ETF generated paper) and to a lesser degree, other precious metals, has always remained the last and best form of real currency that will be available when the crap hits the fan because debt accumulation has stopped. At that time, real money is only useful to those that have a fire to light or something to snort.

Famous accurate historical quotes taken from:

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/mattsta/ma...m_and_liberty/

Those who have knowledge don't predict. Those who predict don't have knowledge - Lao Tzu, 6th century BC poet

"All the perplexities, confusions, and distresses in America arise, not from defects in the Constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, as much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation." - John Quincy Adams

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless." - Abraham Lincoln, from a November 21, 1864 letter to Colonel William F. Elkins

"Banks create credit. It is a mistake to suppose that bank credit is created to any extent by the deposit of money into the banks. A loan made by a bank is a clear addition to the amount of money in the community." - Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th Edition

"Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them but leave them the power to create money, and, with the flick of a pen, they will create enough money to buy it back again. Take this great power away from them and all great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for then this would be a better and happier world to live in. But, if you want to continue to be the slave of the bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let the bankers continue to create money and control credit." - Sir Josiah Stamp, President, Bank of England (2nd richest man in England)

"But if in the pursuit of the means we should unfortunately stumble again on unfunded paper money or any similar species of fraud, we shall assuredly give a fatal stab to our national credit in its infancy. Paper money will invariably operate in the body of politics as spirit liquors on the human body. They prey on the vitals and ultimately destroy them. Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice." , George Washington in a letter to Jabez Bowen, Rhode Island, Jan. 9, 1787

"By this means government may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people, and not one man in a million will detect the theft." - Lord John Maynard Keynes, "Economic Consequences of Peace"

"Capital must protect itself in every way. Debts must be collected, mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When through the process of law the common people lose their homes, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the strong arm of government applied by a central power of wealth under leading financiers. People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. This is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of capitalism to govern the world. By dividing the people we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us except as teachers of the common herd. It is thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished." - U.S. Banker's Association Magazine, 1924

"Congress [not private banks] shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof." - Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution.

Congressman Patman: "Mr. Eccles, how did you get the money to buy those two billions of government securities?" Eccles: "We created it." Patman: "Out of what?" Eccles: "Out of the right to issue credit money." - Testimony of Marriner Eccles, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, before the House Banking and Currency Committee, 1941

"Every circulating Federal Reserve Note represents in actuality a one dollar debt to the Federal Reserve system." - Money Facts, House Banking and Currency Committee

"Every Congressman, every Senator knows precisely what causes inflation…but can't, won't support the drastic reforms to repeal of the Federal Reserve Act because it could cost him his job." - Robert A. Heinlein, Expanded Universe

"Every effort has been made by the Federal Reserve Board to conceal its powers, but the truth is that the Federal Reserve System has usurped the government. It controls everything in congress and it controls all our foreign relations. It makes and breaks governments at will." - Louis McFadden, Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency

"For a long time I felt that FDR had developed many thoughts and ideas that were his own to benefit this country, the United States. But he didn't. Most of his thoughts were carefully manufactured for him in advance by the Council on Foreign Relations One World Money Group. The United Nations is but a long range, international banking apparatus clearly set up for financial and economic profit by a small group of powerful One-World revolutionaries, hungry for profit and power. The One-World government leaders and their ever close bankers have now acquired full control of the money and credit machinery of the U.S. via the creation of the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank." - Curtis Dall, Son-in-Law of F.D.R., 1936

"For more than a century, ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it." - David Rockefeller, Memoirs, 2002

"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance." - James Madison

"I am afraid that ordinary citizens will not like to be told that the banks can, and do, create and destroy money; and they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of governments and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people." - R. McKenna, Chairman, Midland Bank London

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power of money should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs." - Thomas Jefferson

"I have never seen more Senators express discontent with their jobs. I think the major cause is that, deep down in our hearts, we have been accomplices in doing something terrible and unforgivable to our wonderful country. Deep down in our heart, we know that we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy. We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected." - John Danforth

"I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by it's system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world… no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men." - Woodrow Wilson

"If all the bank loans were paid up, no one would have a bank deposit, and there would not be a dollar of currency or coin in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial banks for our money. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money, we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp upon the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible - but there it is. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it is widely understood and the defects remedied very soon." - Robert H. Hemphill, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

"If Congress has the right to issue paper money currency, it was given to them to be used by the government and not to be delegated to individuals or corporations." - President Andrew Jackson, Vetoed Bank Bill of 1836

"If ever again our nation stumbles upon unfunded paper, it shall surely be like death to our body politic. This country will crash." - George Washington

"If that mischievous financial policy which had its origin in the North American Republic [debt-free money] should become indurated down to a fixture, then that government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off its debts and be without a debt to the International Bankers. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the civilized governments of the world. The brains and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That government must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe!" - Times of London newspaper, 1865

"If the people were to ever find out what we have done, we would be chased down the streets and lynched." - George H.W. Bush to White House reporter Sarah McClendon, 1992

"If two parties, instead of being a bank and an individual, were an individual and an individual, they could not inflate the circulating medium by a loan transaction, for the simple reason that the lender could not lend what he didn't have, as banks can do. Only commercial banks and trust companies can lend money that they manufacture by lending it." - Professor Irving Fisher, Yale University, in his book "100% Money"

"If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed." - Mark Twain

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie." - Joseph Goebbels

"If you want to make someone angry tell him a lie; if you want to make him furious, tell him the truth. All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed , second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident." - Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the 'hidden' confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights." - Alan Greenspan, Gold and Economic Freedom

"It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Founding Patriot Samuel Adams

"The one aim of these financiers is world control by the creation of inextinguishable debts." - Henry Ford

"It may appear that what goes on is happenstance, but the government most surely has planned it." - Franklin Roosevelt

"Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you."
- Pericles, 430 B.C.)

"Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States." , Sen. Barry Goldwater (Rep. AR)

"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England… nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament , or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All we have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." - Herman Goering, Nuremberg Trials

"Neither paper currency nor deposits have value as commodities, intrinsically, a 'dollar' bill is just a piece of paper. Deposits are merely book entries." - Modern Money Mechanics Workbook, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 1975

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge - even to ourselves - that we've been so credulous." - Carl Sagan

"Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity." - Marshall McLuhan

"Our goal is gradually to absorb the wealth of the world." - Cecil Rhodes, "The secret banking cabal"

"Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation and I care not who makes the laws." Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild international Banking Dynasty, 1790

"Power concedes nothing without demand." - Frederick Douglass

"See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them; and gives it to persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil in itself, but also is a fertile source for further evils, for it invites reprisals. If such a law is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply and develop into a system." - Frederic Bastiat

"Should government refrain from regulation and taxation, the worthlessness of the money becomes apparent and the fraud can no longer be concealed." - Lord John Maynard Keynes, "The Economic Consequences of Peace"

"Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are the United States government's institutions. They are not government institutions. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign swindlers." - Congressional Record 12595-12603 June 10, 1932

"The bold effort the Second National Bank of the U.S. had made to control government and the distress it has wantonly produced are but premonitions of the fate that awaits the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution or the establishment of another like it." - Andrew Jackson

"The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, so what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. They pull the strings and we dance." - John Swinton, New York Times Chief of Staff

"The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of our Constitution. I am an enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but coin. If the American people allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson.

"The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases." - Thomas Jefferson

"The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government, all under their control. Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent." - Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976

"The entire banking movement, at all crucial stages, was centralized in the hands of a few men who for years were linked, ideologically and personally, with one another." - Gabriel Kolko

"The eyes of our citizens are not sufficiently open to the true cause of our distress. They ascribe them to everything but their true cause, the banking system; a system which if it could do good in any form is yet so certain of leading to abuse as to be utterly incompatible with the public safety and prosperity. The Central Bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of our Constitution." - Thomas Jefferson

"The Federal Reserve Act as it stands seems to me to open the way to a vast inflation of the currency. I do not like to think that any law can be passed that will make it possible to submerge the gold standard in a flood of irredeemable paper currency." - Henry Cabot Lodge Sr., 1913

"The Federal Reserve Banks are not federal instrumentalities." - Lewis vs. United States 9th Circuit 1992

"The Federal Reserve banks are one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever seen. There is not a man within the sound of my voice who does not know that this nation is run by the International bankers." - Congressman Louis T. McFadden (Rep. Pa)

"The Federal Reserve bank buys government bonds without one penny…" , Congressman Wright Patman, Congressional Record, Sept 30, 1941

"The few who understand the system, will either be so interested in its profits, or so dependent on it's favors, that there will be no opposition from either class." - Rothschild Brothers of London, 1863

"The financial system has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That board administers a finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group. That system is private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money. This (Federal Reserve) Act establishes the most gigantic trust on Earth. When the president signs this bill, the invisible governments by the monetary power will be legalized. The people may not know it immediately but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed, the worst legislatives crime of the ages perpetrated by this banking bill." - Charles A. Lindbergh, Representative, MN

"The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity." - Abraham Lincoln

"The great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one. What luck for rulers that men do not think." - Adolf Hitler

"The high office of President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American's freedom, and before I leave office I must inform the citizen of his plight. We are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence…" - John F. Kennedy at Columbia University, 1963

"The Illuminati bankers rule the world through debt, which is money they create out of nothing. They need world government to ensure no country defaults or tries to overthrow them. As long as private bankers, instead of governments, create money the human race is doomed. These bankers and their allies have bought everything and everyone." - Henry Makow

"The increase in the assets of the Federal Reserve banks from 143 million dollars in 1913 to 45 billion dollars in 1949 went directly to the private stockholders of the [federal reserve] banks." - Eustace Mullins

"The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the People vs. The Banks." - Lord Acton, Lord Chief Justice of England, 1875

"The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented." - Major L.B.Angus

"The real menace of our republic is this invisible government, which, like a giant octopus, sprawls its slimy length over city, state, and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of a self created screen. At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both political parties." - John F. Hylan, New York City Mayor, 1922.

"The regional Federal Reserve banks are not government agencies. …but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations." , Lewis vs. United States, 680 F. 2d 1239 9th Circuit 1982

"The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it." - John Kenneth Galbraith, in his book "Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went", 1975

"The surest way to overthrow an existing social order is to debauch the currency." - Lenin

"The Trilateral Commission is international and is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States. The Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power: Political, Monetary, Intellectual, and Ecclesiastical." - Barry Goldwater , U.S. Senator

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." - H. L. Menken

"This Federal Reserve Act establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President Wilson signs this bill, the invisible government of the monetary power will be legalized. The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency bill." - Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr. , 1913

"This truth is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of Capital to govern the world. By dividing the voters through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance. Thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves what has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished." - Sir Denison Miller

"The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes." - Benjamin Disraeli, First Prime Minister of Britain

"There is no more direct way to capture control of a nation than through its credit and money system." - Phillip A. Benson, President of American Bankers' Association, 1939

"They must find it difficult… those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority."

"They who have put out the people's eyes reproach them of their blindness." - John Milton

"The actual process of money creation takes place primarily in banks. Bankers discovered that they could make loans merely by giving their promise to pay, or bank notes, to borrowers. In this way banks began to create money. Transaction deposits are the modern counterpart of bank notes. It was a small step from printing notes to making book entries crediting deposits of borrowers, which the borrowers in turn could 'spend' by writing checks, thereby 'printing' their own money." - Modern Money Mechanics, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

"The Federal Reserve is answerable to no one." - Ronald Reagan

"The Great Depression was not accidental, it was a carefully contrived occurrence. The international Bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so that they might emerge as rulers of us all." - Louis McFadden

"The only thing that is necessary for evil to triumph is for men of good will to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace in a continual state of alarm (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing them with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." - H. L. Mencken

"The youth who can solve the money question will do more for the world than all the professional soldiers of history." - Henry Ford Sr.

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." - Henry David Thoreau

"There are two methods, or means and only two, whereby man's needs and desires can be satisfied. One is the production and exchange of wealth; this is the economic means. The other is the uncompensated appropriation of wealth produced by others; this is the banking and political means." - Albert Jay Nock

"To expose a 15 Trillion dollar ripoff of the American people by the stockholders of the 1000 largest corporations over the last 100 years will be a tall order of business." , Buckminster Fuller

"Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government." Henry Kissinger, Bilderberger Conference, Evians, France, 1991

"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don't have brains enough to be honest." - Benjamin Franklin

"Very soon every American will be required to register their biological property in a national system designed to keep track of the people and that will operate under the ancient system of pledging. By such methodology, we can compel people to submit to our agenda, which will affect our security as a charge back for our fiat paper currency. Every American will be forced to register or suffer being able to work and earn a living. They will be our chattels (property) and we will hold the security interest over them forever, by operation of the law merchant under the scheme of secured transactions. Americans, by unknowingly or unwittingly delivering the bills of lading (Birth Certificate) to us will be rendered bankrupt and insolvent, secured by their pledges. They will be stripped of their rights and given a commercial value designed to make us a profit and they will be none the wiser, for not one man in a million could ever figure our plans and, if by accident one or two should figure it out, we have in our arsenal plausible deniability. After all, this is the only logical way to fund government, by floating liens and debts to the registrants in the form of benefits and privileges. This will inevitably reap us huge profit beyond our wildest expectations and leave every American a contributor to this fraud, which we will call 'Social Insurance'. Without realizing it, every American will unknowingly be our servant, however begrudgingly. The people will become helpless and without any hope for their redemption and we will employ the high office (presidency) of our dummy corporation (USA) to foment this plot against America." - Colonel Edward Mandel House

"We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But the work is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries." - David Rockefeller, Trilateral Commission Founder, 1991

"We are now permitted to own gold again only because the intention is to force the Canadian/American people onto a strict gold standard while we do not have enough gold to permit this system to operate even marginally. Forcing us onto a gold standard, under the guise of our 'proven' inability to manage debt, will complete the destruction of the middle class and finish our subjection to the International Bankers and the UN." - Howard Freeman.

"We are on the verge of a Global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order." - David Rockefeller to the United Nations Business Council on September 23, 1994

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." - Winston Churchill

"We fix the price of gold and silver to make them valuable or not." - J. P. Morgan, in a letter to his son

"We have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks. They are not government institutions. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers. This evil institution has impoverished the people of the United States and has practically bankrupted our government, and it has done this through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it." - Senator Louis T. McFadden, Chairman US Banking & Currency Commission

"The principle we must keep in mind is that two people cannot both be the exclusive owner of the same thing at the same time. Yet fractional reserve banking operates on the theory that bank account holder A and borrower B can both own the same money at the same time. This practice is just as fraudulent as selling two buyers the same vacation home and giving them both exclusive title to the home and hoping that they don't both show up to use it the same weekend. With fractional reserve banking, titles to money (gold) are spuriously created, meaning there are more titles to property than there is actual property. In fact, no new money is created, but the number of titles to existing money is expanded. And it is in this manner that the value of the dollar is diminished. In the absence of a gold standard, the crime is exceeded today to the point of absurdity, as only titles themselves are traded with no tie to any real property whatsoever. We have been swindled." -

"We shall have world government whether or not you like it… the only question is whether or not it be by conquest or consent." - James Warburg, Rothschild Banking Agent, 1950

"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first thing to be bought and sold are legislators." - P.J. O'Rourke

"When the people fear the government, there is Tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is Liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

"When you control opinion, as corporate America controls opinion in the United States by owning the media, you can make the masses believe almost anything you want, and guide them as you please." - Gore Vidal

"When you or I write a check there must be sufficient funds in our account to cover the check, but when the Federal Reserve writes a check there is no bank deposit on which that check is drawn. When the Federal Reserve writes a check, it is creating money." - "Putting it Simply", Boston Federal Reserve Bank

"You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out. If the American people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning." - Andrew Jackson

"In the U.S. today, we have in effect two governments. We have the duly constituted government, then we have an independent, uncontrolled and uncoordinated government in the Federal Reserve, operating the money powers which are reserved to congress by the Constitution." - Congressman Wright Patman

"Money is not based on gold anymore; money is only an idea. Ideas are not scarce. There should be no shortage of money to lubricate the gears of commerce any more than there should be a shortage of imagination. Today money is created on computers and paper, and since it is so easy to create, no one should have a right to charge interest on its creation. Yet, that is what the Federal Reserve System does - loans money to the people, charges interest on it, and puts the working public into debt just for being given permission to build for itself its own prosperity." -

"If you do nothing when you have a chance, is your plan to wait until there are no more chances to do something?" -

"If you're in a card game and you can't figure out who the patsy is, you're it." - Warren Buffett

"A tyrant is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader." - Plato, The Republic

"The ultimate ignorance is the rejection of something you know nothing about and refuse to investigate." - Dr. Wayne Dyer.

"Each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand mediocre minds appointed to guard the past." - Maurice Maeterlinck.

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

"What you can't imagine, you can't discover." - Albert Einstein

"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him." - Robert Heinlein

"In times of universal deceit, speaking the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

"I find it hard to understand why those who demand Unitary Education by the State do not also demand a Unitary Press by the State… Either the State is infallible, in which case we could not do better than to submit to it the entire domain of intelligent thought, or it is not, in which case it is no more rational to hand over education to it than the press." - Frederic Bastiat

"A government big enough to give us everything we want is a government big enough to take from us everything we have." - President Gerald Ford

"Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again." - Andre Gide

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance or conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King Jr.

"I must study war and politics so that my children shall be free to study commerce, agriculture and other practicalities, so that their children can study painting, poetry and other fine things." - John Adams, U.S. President

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin, 1755

"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves." - Bertrand de Jouvenel

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad." - James Madison

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will one day reach himself." - Thomas Paine

__________________
"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power."
- Lao Tzu

"A woman is a lot like a refrigerator. 6 feet tall, 300 pounds ... it makes ice."
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!"
"How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain."
- Homer Simpson

[conehead]

Wow... :eek: :eek: :eek:

[boestar]

Currency in the USA today is not worth the paper on which it is printed. Since the removal of the gold standard there is nothing backing up the almight dollar.

One quote I didnt see (didnt read them all)

Money is the root of all evil - Unknown

[conehead]

Value of Bitcoin hit $1,000 today...

[Kip Powick]

Currency in the USA today is not worth the paper on which it is printed. Since the removal of the gold standard there is nothing backing up the almight dollar.

One quote I didnt see (didnt read them all)

Money is the root of all evil - Unknown

First Epistle to Timothy in the New Testament (1 Timothy 6:10), starts "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil"

[DEFCON]

The Federal Reserve has always been running the granddaddy of all Ponzi schemes. Canadian currency, amongst all the others locked in, will always follow the lead of the US global reserve currency, meaning, we're all sailing in the same sinking boat. Iceland recently opted out and is doing much better now. Although it's a secret of a kind, the Fed is 80% owned by the Rothchilds of England and the Crown. The other 20% is owned by the six biggest US banks, the same ones that are receiving 80B interest free per month from the FED, who for their part create it from thin air, literally. That money then becomes debt that ends up being repaid with interest in perpetuity by the present and future American taxpayers, guaranteeing a continuing high standard of living for the great grandchildren of the 1% crowd and everyone else between. This scheme / scam has worked well for the Fed in the past and while the 80B is only a gift to the banksters, it's only intended public purpose is to ease the economic fear, get them borrowing again and the Fed's confidence game back on track.

[inchman]

Currency in the USA today is not worth the paper on which it is printed. Since the removal of the gold standard there is nothing backing up the almight dollar.

One quote I didnt see (didnt read them all)

Money is the root of all evil - Unknown

No currency has any actual value. It is only representative of value so that we don't have to carry fish and buckets of wheat around with us to pay for stuff or have to barter something that our boss gives us for working for him.

Gold has no more value than paper currency or bitcoins.

In fact, as a currency, gold is a poor choice because it is so volatile. It is VERY difficult and very expensive to convert real in-your-pocket gold into cash and there is a huge spread between the buy and sell price of an actual piece of gold because the brokers need to protect themselves from price swings between when they buy it from you and when they can sell it to someone else. Non-touch transactions don't have quite as much spread because the broker doesn't actually own the gold at any point, so doesn't take any risk.

A good currency is one where I can earn a dollar this week and be sure to get full value for that dollar next week or next month. Gold and bitcoins don't fall into that definition.

With the exception of aircraft windshields and electrical contacts, gold is only used for speculation and decoration. Gold only has value because people think it does. You can't eat it, and you can't store your milk in it. Only a tiny fraction of the available gold is actually used to produce goods. The rest is superfluous. If people all decided tomorrow that gold wasn't worth anything, miners would stop mining it and virtually nothing else would change. OTOH, if people did the same thing with wheat, farmers would stop growing it and LOTS of things would change.

So, wheat is worth more than gold.

[DEFCON]

Inchman

"A good currency is one where I can earn a dollar this week and be sure to get full value for that dollar next week or next month."

I've borrowed the following from ABC News:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/ron-paul-talks-gold-silver-and-inflation-with-fed-chairman-ben-bernanke/

"I'm having some difficulties with cutting and pasting anything at the moment, but please Google 'The fall in the value of the American Dollar' (it's relative because of its global reserve status) and take a look at what's happened to the buying power of the dollar just since the early 90's and the why of it all.

edited to remove a dead link

[Mizar]

After weeks of careful ballot counting, officials in Washington state on Tuesday certified the results in a potentially historic vote that will create far and away the highest minimum wage in America.

Actually, this will be a perfect example to see if raising minimum wages works as it is way above everything else around. A nice experiment.

As for the consistently striking Seattle Boeing employees, they screwed their long term future by going on strike the last time. Eventually they will be left with the 747,767, 737 and the original 777 lines. All themselves without a long term future.

It is one thing to have a good paying job and have high productivity. Bringing lines that that to a halt for a month or more, sorry boys, you should have learned from the UAW.

[mo32a]

^^Are you having trouble quoting entries as well, if so you are in the same boat as me. Can cut and paste outside of forums but can't do so on forums.

Have you made any progress on finding a fix?

[Kip Powick]

^^Are you having trouble quoting entries as well, if so you are in the same boat as me. Can cut and paste outside of forums but can't do so on forums.

Have you made any progress on finding a fix?

Just a thought.................

If you are having trouble "pasting" it may be that you are trying to paste on the first line of your new posting.

Take your cursor and drop down one line...right click....you should see the options box with the word "Paste " in it.

Click "paste" and everything on your clipboard should drop into the new posting.

[inchman]

I've borrowed the following from ABC News:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/ron-paul-talks-gold-silver-and-inflation-with-fed-chairman-ben-bernanke/

"I'm having some difficulties with cutting and pasting anything at the moment, but please Google 'The fall in the value of the American Dollar' (it's relative because of its global reserve status) and take a look at what's happened to the buying power of the dollar just since the early 90's and the why of it all.

edited to remove a dead link

That's why Ben Bernake was the chairman of the Federal Reserve and Ron Paul delivered 4,000 babies.

BTW, Ron Paul says the same thing about the Chair-elect of the FR as he did about Ben Bernake.... sort of like Rob Ford.... just spouts the same phrases over and over hoping that they'll stick.

The fact that he uses one speculative commodity of little intrinsic value against another to judge the value of the US dollar shows he has no understanding of the monetary system.

The current situation in the United States was set up by Alan Greenspan, who also oversaw the dot-com meltdown. The current chair and the next have the job of cleaning up after Greenspan. Unfortunately, that means printing money. I'm surprised that the US dollar is still as strong as it is.

[deicer]

A study on the effects of a low wage regime.....

http://democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/sites/democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/files/documents/WalMartReport-May2013.pdf

[inchman]

Interesting...

If you look at the chart on page 3, and forgetting about the top 1%, it would appear that all of the "normal people" categories have increased their "after tax income adjusted for inflation" by about 50% since 1979. The super rich have far outpaced the other categories, but that doesn't diminish the gains that all three other categories have made. A 50% increase in real, take-home buying power to a low wage earner is a lot more significant than a 200% increase to the top 1%.

The graph only goes to 2009... hard to analyse their arguments without the numbers presented.

But up to 2009...

There has been a slight decrease in the past few years in the US, as one might imagine, given their situation, but the overall trend is up, and the lowest quintile has actually done better than the other 3 groups over the past few years, being the only group with an increase in real buying power.

Although I'm sure they don't feel it in their lifestyle, the group that has had a significant decrease in the past few years is the 1%.

So, I'm not sure of their point of displaying this graph. It goes counter to their argument.

[DEFCON]

It's kind of funny that the unionization of Wal-Mart and its impact on wawcon etc. doesn't seem to be much of a consideration, but yet, we should be comforted knowing the government is here to help. Hmmm?

Why is Wal-Mart the giant they are; because their customer base doesn't give a dam about the consequences to the mom and pop orgs, but only that they can buy their Tide for a buck less a gallon at Wal-Mart. At a 4.38% profit margin, size does matter and it's their size that allows them to be grossly profitable at 4.38% and in a position to keep any potential challengers at bay. They've almost got themselves into a position where they'll be considered to be, 'too big to fail'. Should that day approach, we'll see the government rhetoric change to let us know how important Wal-Mart is to the economy, blah, blah, blah. At the end of the day, it's all about the corporatocracy, not the minion.

[mo32a]

Kip and Defcon re inability to cut and paste.

The problem is a piece of code in the service(IMB?) handling the forum that needs to be rewritten, as it has a problem with IE11.

Once the administrators rewrite the code you have to clear your browser cache and then reload the forum.

[DEFCON]

Thank you for the info mo32a.

[Kip Powick]

Kip and Defcon re inability to cut and paste.

The problem is a piece of code in the service(IMB?) handling the forum that needs to be rewritten, as it has a problem with IE11.

Once the administrators rewrite the code you have to clear your browser cache and then reload the forum.

I had IE 11 installed but had other problems with it....dumped it and loaded IE 9- 64 bit (Win 7 Pro)

Thanks for the info

[J.O.]

IE 11? I didn't know that anyone was actually using it!

[J.O.]

Another reason I stay with my Apple stuff. Worth the money.

[deicer]

Self Explanatory.....

http://www.buzzfeed.com/sapna/the-walmartfights-hashtag-is-the-most-disturbing-part-of-bla