History Repeating

With the Central Subway Project, the Only Way Out is Through

"At times, it's difficult to remember that voters approved the Central Subway. That's because the project, a 1.7-mile extension of the T-line running from SoMa to Chinatown, as described in Proposition K of 2003, hardly resembles its current iteration. A $647 million budget has swelled to some $1.6 billion. An estimated daily ridership exceeding 100,000 is now pegged at 35,100. But if misery loves company, we've got both. A recent U.S. Department of Transportation study of 10 major rail projects revealed an average cost-per-passenger 500 percent higher than the initial figures used to sell the idea." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWith the Central Subway Project, the Only Way Out is Through

A Nation Unhinged: The Grim Realities of “The Real American War”

"Turse’s book reminds us that the primary 'tragedy of Vietnam' was not that America somehow 'lost its way' in fighting an ill-advised war but rather that the war itself was a series of criminal acts perpetrated by the US government on the Vietnamese people. My characterization may sound strident to many today. Most Americans at the time certainly would have disagreed with it. Yet as the war dragged on, the number who recognized the war’s criminality grew inexorably. If you don’t already know the reason, Kill Anything That Moves will show you. And if you already do, this book will remind you why we must never forget what our country did to Vietnam." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA Nation Unhinged: The Grim Realities of “The Real American War”

Investors euphoric as US margin debt reaches ‘danger’ levels

"Bank of America’s monthly survey of investors showed a dramatic rise in confidence in August, with a net 72pc expecting growth to accelerate over the next year. It is the highest in reading since 2009. Almost everybody expects bond yields to rise as deflation fears evaporate, with just 3pc still worried about the risk of an economic relapse. Managers have slashed their bond allocation to a 28-month low. The exuberant mood comes as margin debt on Wall Street hovers near $377bn, just below its all-time high and well above peaks before the dotcom crash and the Lehman crisis." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingInvestors euphoric as US margin debt reaches ‘danger’ levels

Is Slowing M2 Money Supply Signalling Another Stock Market Crash?

"According to Austrian Business Cycle Theory, when a central bank slows its money printing that has fueled a manipulated stock market boom, the stock market is very vulnerable to a crash. Murray Rothbard in his book America's Great Depression explained how it occurred before the October 1929 crash. The money supplied slowed before the October 1987 crash. It slowed before the 2008 September Financial Crisis. And it is slowing again now." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIs Slowing M2 Money Supply Signalling Another Stock Market Crash?

The Secret Plot to Prop Up the Municipal Bond Market

"Not only are capital regulations, written as parts of Basel II and Basel III, driving banks to hold government instruments such as US Treasury securities, but it is also driving banks to buy junk municipal debt. The disclosure that European banks are holding bad Detroit paper confirms my suspicions as to the true principles of the so-called safety guidelines capital requirements. They are no such thing, they are crony rules designed to prop up risky government paper. In time, as more government regions from Puerto Rico to Chicago and Los Angeles go into a financial crisis stage, we will learn of even more global bank exposure to debt from these sectors." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Secret Plot to Prop Up the Municipal Bond Market

A congressional speech on the centennial of the Expatriation Act of 1868

"In 1868, men stood on the floor of the House and quoted philosophers from the Roman Republic, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands in support of the proposition that emigration and change of citizenship are basic human rights. In 1968, men stood on that same floor and spluttered that Americans who emigrated and changed their citizenship were traitors who should never be allowed to return for a visit." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA congressional speech on the centennial of the Expatriation Act of 1868

State Of Mind: The Psychology of Control

"Are we controlled? To what extent and by whom? What does it mean for humanity's future? From cradle to grave our parents, peers, institutions and society inform our values and behaviors but this process has been hijacked. State Of Mind examines the science of control that has evolved over generations to keep us firmly in place so that dictators, power brokers and corporate puppeteers may profit from our ignorance and slavery. From the anvil of compulsory schooling to media and entertainment, we are kept in perpetual bondage to the ideas that shape our actions." Continue reading →

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Son of ex-American abroad: ‘It’s like watching a house on fire’

"In the midst of all the frenetic, shallow coverage about 'tax dodgers fleeing the country', it’s nice to see that at least one newspaper ran a front-page story which honestly portrays the various motivations that Americans abroad had for leaving the country and the reasons that they ultimately cite when they take the big step of giving up citizenship. It covers all the various reasons: tax savings, flight from U.S. militarism, government harassment of political activists abroad, and the desire to become a full member of another society. Surprised you didn’t catch this one on Twitter or Google News? This article is from four decades ago." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSon of ex-American abroad: ‘It’s like watching a house on fire’

Homeland Security tracks down 400-page diary of Nazi leader and Hitler aide

"The FBI opened a criminal investigation into the missing documents. No charges were filed in the case. But the Holocaust museum has gone on to recover more than 150,000 documents, including a trove held by Kempner’s former secretary, who by then had moved into the New York state home of an academic named Herbert Richardson. The Rosenberg diary, however, remained missing. Early this year, the Holocaust museum and an agent from Homeland Security Investigation tried to locate the missing diary pages. They tracked the diary to Richardson, who was living near Buffalo." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHomeland Security tracks down 400-page diary of Nazi leader and Hitler aide

Scholarly book presents ‘hidden history’ of Nazi ‘gun control’

"'A skeptic could surmise that a better-armed populace might have made no difference,' the overview for 'Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and ‘Enemies of the State’' observes, 'but the National Socialist regime certainly did not think so -- it ruthlessly suppressed firearm ownership by disfavored groups.' The book, 'based on newly-discovered, secret documents from German archives, diaries and newspapers of the time … presents the definitive, yet hidden history of how the Nazi regime made use of gun control to disarm and repress its enemies and consolidate power.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingScholarly book presents ‘hidden history’ of Nazi ‘gun control’