Legal Tender Act: Gold and Silver are Money

The unconstitutional central bank uses fiat to power the largest government in history. The federal government will never shut down its own money printer. So it’s up to the states and the people to get the job done. An important first step is the “Legal Tender Act” - now law in 3 states, and counting.

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Destroy the Economy, Win a Nobel

Bernanke was Fed chairman when the housing bubble, created by his predecessor Alan Greenspan in the wake of the bursting of Greenspan’s tech bubble and the 9-11 attacks, exploded. When the housing market collapsed, Bernanke worked with Congress and the Bush administration to bail out big banks and Wall Street firms.

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Bulgarian Pres. Blames ‘Lack Of Faith In Institutions’ For Bank Runs

"Bulgarians’ lack of faith in institutions sparked runs on two banks and triggered the worst financial crisis in 17 years, the nation’s president said. 'Let me make this very clear: there is no banking crisis in my country, but there is a crisis of confidence,' Rosen Plevneliev said today. With low trust in institutions, rumors, attempts at destabilization and speculative attacks can 'create a panic,' the president said. The central bank blames an 'organized attack' of 'criminal actions' for the run on First Investment Bank. Corporate Commercial Bank lost deposits because of a dispute between a majority shareholder and a large depositor, Capital newspaper reported June 18, citing unidentified people." Continue reading

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The Curious Case Of The Bulgarian Bank Runs

"Because of the extent of the fraud, BNB say that nationalizing CorpBank is not an option – it describes it as 'a bottomless barrel'. The Bulgarian Finance Ministry estimates that the cost of the deposit guarantee will raise the public deficit from 1.8% of gdp to 3%, putting it at the Maastricht treaty limit. This will be seen as a considerable disappointment in Brussels, which in the recent European Semester report advised the Bulgarian government not to allow the deficit to rise any further. And it raises considerable questions about the capability of the BNB to supervise banks effectively. Only a month ago CorpBank was given a clean bill of health. Now it is bankrupt because of a major fraud." Continue reading

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German Gold Stays in New York in Rebuff to Euro Doubters

"Surging mistrust of the euro during Europe’s debt crisis fed a campaign to bring Germany’s entire $141 billion gold reserve home from New York and London. Now, after the Free Democratic Party, which flirted with bringing the gold home, dropped out of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition and was replaced by the Social Democrats, the government has concluded that stashing half its bullion abroad is prudent after all. Ending talk of repatriating the world’s second-biggest gold reserves is a rebuff to critics including the anti-euro Alternative for Germany party, which says all the gold should return to Frankfurt so it can’t be impounded to blackmail Germany." Continue reading

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Fed fears risks posed by exit tools; plan almost done

"The sheer magnitude of the amounts of money used to combat the crisis - $2.6 trillion sitting at the Fed as bank reserves and $4.2 trillion held by the Fed in various securities - may complicate the U.S. central bank's ability to control its target interest rate once the decision is made that it should be raised. The Fed has neared consensus that its workhorse tool will be the interest it pays banks on excess reserves on deposit at the Fed. Another tool would have a similar impact but apply more broadly, using overnight repurchase agreements that would let money market funds and other institutions as well as banks essentially make short-term deposits at the Fed." Continue reading

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Japan economics minister warns of premature QE exit

"Japanese Economics Minister Akira Amari warned that it would be premature for the Bank of Japan to consider an exit strategy from its massive stimulus programme, voicing hope instead for further monetary easing if achievement of its inflation goal falls behind schedule. The central bank has kept policy unchanged since deploying an intense burst of monetary stimulus in April last year, when it pledged to double base money via aggressive asset purchases to accelerate inflation to 2 percent in roughly two years. With Japan only halfway to meeting that target, the BOJ is set to keep its stimulus plan intact well into next year." Continue reading

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Neofeudalism’s Tax Donkeys and the Battle for Control of Resources

"Those with access to the low-interest unlimited credit spigot of the Federal Reserve are free to snap up tens of thousands of houses and tens of thousands of acres of productive land, along with other rentier assets such as parking lots and meters, fossil fuels in the ground, and of course the engines of credit creation, the banks. Should a legitimate (as opposed to black market/cash business) small business manage to open its doors, it faces a blizzard of junk fees, permits and taxes that make its survival a dubious prospect. No wonder self-employment and small business are in structural decline." Continue reading

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Tax Collectors Grow More Aggressive; Payers Caught in the Middle

"Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs doesn't have enough power, or so the British Parliament is told. HMRC wants to be both judge and jury when it comes to recalcitrant taxpayers. It wants to the ability to 'raid bank accounts' and to do so without a court warrant. What comes across clearly in both the IRS stance and in the requests by the HRMC is a certain level of arrogance that is magnified by modern communication facilities. The pushback against intrusive tax collection is growing, even as agency demands for more power and revenue are expanding as well." Continue reading

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More Jawboning from Australia’s Central Bank

"RBA Governor Glenn Stevens proceeded from characterizing the level of the exchange rate as 'uncomfortably high' to noting 'that foreign-exchange intervention can, judiciously used in the right circumstances, be effective and useful.' That latter observation was particularly noteworthy because, according to The Wall Street Journal, a currency intervention has essentially been verboten in the decades since Australia shifted to a floating exchange rate in 1983. He closed his remarks on this particular topic with an even more overt statement: 'Nonetheless, we think that investors are under-estimating the likelihood of a significant fall in the Australian dollar at some point.'" Continue reading

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