Animal Farm

Bill Bonner: The Greatest Fraud Ever

"Banks – with the happy connivance of the Fed – create new money. Corporations use it to buy their own shares. Central banks buy shares too. Besides, buying stocks seems to please everyone who matters. Investors are happy. Speculators are happy. Economists are happy. Politicians are happy, too. After all, a rising stock market means the economy is getting better, doesn’t it? But there is a heavy price to pay, dear reader. The financiers end up owning more of the real businesses… the real enterprises… the real houses… the real output of the real economy. Wall Street firms own more houses. And more stocks. All are bought with money that they – or their cronies – created." 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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The World’s Biggest Ponzi Scheme Exposed

"The poor saps in this Ponzi scheme are on the hook for a whopping $222 TRILLION! Just like Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff, paying off promises with other people’s money is exactly how the United States Government operates. For decades, the US government has been racking up debt in your name and the names of your loved ones. Your personal stake in this Ponzi scheme is $714,000 and growing. Even newborn babies are immediately stuck with this bill! And it’s not like the United States Government is doing all of this for our own good. Ponzi and Madoff stole to live a life of luxury. What the American government is doing with your money is much, much worse…" Continue reading →

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Fed Money Pumping Brings Results: The Affluent Society Returns

"Once again, monetary inflation is being confused with high-end entrepreneurialism. Ludwig von Mises, the great Austrian economist, was not fooled about the wealth effect of modern finance and, indeed, with his colleague FA Hayek dealt a devastating blow to the ever-reoccurring idea that 'this time it's different.' It's not different. Never. It just depends on where you are in the business cycle. Like a bad penny, this dream often recurs when the Fed has dumped enough money into the economy. These funds slosh around in the recesses of commercial banks and financial firms and then gradually find their way into stock markets and thence into high-end real estate." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: This Should Make Every American Angry…

"When the price of money goes down banks’ profit margins go up; by moving to zero interest rates, the Fed handed them higher earnings. And by guaranteeing the debt of the weakest institutions, the Fed gave big bonuses to the worst managers. Now, the alcohol is taking effect. All around the world markets stagger. Economies slur their words. Investors have severe memory loss. Businessmen can’t tell up from down. And the poor consumer gets a headache every time he checks his bank balance. Some people have access to the free money. Others don’t. Those with the access tend to be in the financial elite. It is no wonder the rich get richer; the game is rigged." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: Why I Sued Washington 28 Years Ago

"When the Spanish conquered South America, their encomienda system of slavery typically required only 40 days of work from their victims. The French conquered Madagascar; they forced male Hovas between 16 and 60 to work 50 days a year. The US example is closer to that of Russia – where Emperor Paul I, in 1797, declared that three days a week was enough for serfs to give their lords and masters. That works out to nearly 150 days a year. A 50% tax rate – federal, state and local – is the equivalent of about 125 days of forced labor a year. Pretty steep. But that’s just the beginning. In our system of crony democracy, all the major industries have whips in their hands." Continue reading →

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Lew Rockwell: Speaking Truth to Monetary Power

"We have every reason to expect governments to exploit their positions as monopolists of the production of money in ways that increase their power and benefit favored constituencies. We do not need 'monetary policy' any more than we need a paintbrush policy, a baseball bat policy, or an automobile policy. We do not need a monopoly institution to create money for us. Money, like any good, is better produced on the market within the nexus of economic calculation. Money creation by government or its privileged central bank yields us business cycles, monetary debasement, and an increase in the power of government." Continue reading →

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Wendy McElroy: First They Came For The Porn Stars…

"The Department of Justice (DOJ) program is called Operation Choke Point. The choke point is America's payment infrastructure through which an estimated $5 trillion in consumer purchases flow each year; more than eight million merchants use it to process credit and debit card payments. The DOJ is targeting banks and payment companies, such as PayPal, with a tsunami of subpoenas and other expensive legal demands. The demands go away if the institutions refuse to do business with people whose activities are deemed 'objectionable' although they are legal. The DOJ is imposing its own moral criteria on who can participate in the market place." Continue reading →

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Why I Sued the U.S. Government 28 Years Ago and What I Learned

"My name is Will Bonner. In 1986, at the age of seven years old, I took the US Secretary of the Treasury, James A. Baker, to federal court over the US national debt. When I was seven years old, I took James A Baker, former US Secretary of the Treasury, to court... over the US national debt. I wasn't looking for a big cash payday. I was asking the court to prevent Mr. Baker and the United States Treasury from getting away with the biggest rip-off in history... a policy most people don't understand or like to talk about... but one that I believed would ruin this country... And I wish I was writing to you to tell you that I had been successful... that I had stopped it. But it didn't turn out that way." Continue reading →

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