Tea Party Schools Chris Matthews

I love that the Tea Party schools Chris Matthews in this video below! Make sure to watch what happens with the Glenn Beck critic!

A New Civil War In America

Friends,
   If  this is true, there certainly will be Civil War in America!

Civil War is Coming ??????????????????????

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto.

The decision, announced in a statement released by the U.S. State Department, overturns the position of former President George W. Bush's administration, which had opposed such a treaty on the grounds that national controls were better.

On Wednesday Obama Took the First Major Step in a Plan to Ban All Firearms in the United States. The Obama administration intends to force gun control and a complete ban on all weapons for US citizens through the signing of international treaties
with foreign nations. By signing international treaties on gun control, the Obama administration can use the US State Department to bypass the normal legislative process in Congress. Once the US Government signs these international treaties, all US citizens will be subject to those gun laws created by foreign governments.

These are laws that have been developed and promoted by organizations such as the United Nations and individuals such as George Soros and Michael Bloomberg. The laws are designed and intended to lead to the complete ban and confiscation of all firearms. It will never happen!

The Obama administration is attempting to use tactics and methods of gun control that will inflict major damage to our 2nd Amendment before US citizens even understand what has happened. Obama can appear before the public and tell them that he does not intend to pursue any legislation (in the United States) that will lead to new gun control laws, while cloaked in secrecy, his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is committing the US to international treaties and foreign gun control laws. Does that mean Obama is telling the truth? What it means is that there will be no publicized gun control debates in the media or votes in Congress.

We will wake up one morning and find that the United States has signed a treaty that prohibits firearm and ammunition manufacturers from selling to the public.

We will wake up another morning and find that the US has signed a treaty that prohibits any transfer of firearm ownership. And then, we will wake up yet another morning and find that the US has signed a treaty that requires US citizens to deliver any firearm they own to the local government collection and destruction center or face imprisonment.

This is not a joke nor a false warning. As sure as government health care will be forced on us by the Obama administration through whatever means necessary, so will gun control.

Please forward this message to others who may be concerned about the direction in which our country is headed. Straight into socialism if Obama
has his way...

Are We are being led like a lamb to the slaughter (Socialism / Dictatorship).

Sowing The Wind

QE3: Sowing the Wind

by Frank Shostak on September 21, 2012
The US central bank announced on Thursday, September 13, 2012, that it will expand its holdings of long-term securities with open-ended purchases of $40 billion of mortgage debt a month as it seeks to boost economic growth and reduce unemployment.
In his press conference, following the conclusion of a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Ben Bernanke said the US central bank will continue buying assets, undertake additional purchases and employ other policy tools as appropriate if the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially.
According to the Fed chairman, purchases of housing debt should help the housing market, which he called "one of the missing pistons in the engine." Bernanke holds that mortgage-backed securities purchases ought to drive down mortgage rates and create more demand for homes and more refinancing.
Some experts are of the view that the Fed could eventually buy more than $1 trillion in debt given the open-ended nature of its new policy.
The latest Fed policy is based on the work of Columbia professor of economics Michael Woodford regarding the policy options of the central bank when interest rates are near zero. Woodford argues that the best way to defeat stubborn economic weakness is to keep monetary policy very loose for longer than would otherwise be advisable.
According to this way of thinking the open-ended purchases of securities should help bolster the confidence of American consumers and businesses by showing that the central bank is determined to stop the economy from weakening. This, according to Bernanke (echoing Woodford), will make people more willing to invest, hire, and spend.
Note that what we have here is a suggestion of how to boost the demand for goods and services, which is seen as the stumbling block for the economic expansion. All that is required here is somehow to convince consumers and business that the Fed has the tools and the knowledge to revive the economy and strengthen the labor market.
Even if Woodford is right and from now onward consumers and businesses will be willing to boost their demand because they believe that the Fed is determined to stop the economy from weakening, this still may not work. We suggest that it is not enough to boost demand as such; what is required is the strengthening of effective demand. People's demand must be fully backed up by previously produced goods and services.
According to James Mill,
When goods are carried to market what is wanted is somebody to buy. But to buy, one must have the wherewithal to pay. It is obviously therefore the collective means of payment which exist in the whole nation constitute the entire market of the nation. But wherein consist the collective means of payment of the whole nation? Do they not consist in its annual produce, in the annual revenue of the general mass of inhabitants? But if a nation's power of purchasing is exactly measured by its annual produce, as it undoubtedly is; the more you increase the annual produce, the more by that very act you extend the national market, the power of purchasing and the actual purchases of the nation…. Thus it appears that the demand of a nation is always equal to the produce of a nation. This indeed must be so; for what is the demand of a nation? The demand of a nation is exactly its power of purchasing. But what is its power of purchasing? The extent undoubtedly of its annual produce. The extent of its demand therefore and the extent of its supply are always exactly commensurate.[1]
In order to boost the demand for goods and services, one must boost the production of goods and services. For instance, an individual can exercise his demand for bread by producing shirts; or a butcher can exercise a demand for potatoes by first producing meat that he can exchange for potatoes.
Furthermore, producers of final goods can also exchange them for various other goods such as tools and machinery in order to expand and enhance the existent infrastructure, which will permit an expansion of final consumer goods that promotes people's lives and well-being.
The Bernanke-Woodford plan, which is based on relentless monetary pumping, will lead to a weakening of the economy's ability to generate final goods and services in line with consumers' preferences. This will diminish rather than strengthen effective demand for goods and services.
Regardless of psychological disposition, if the ability to generate final goods and services diminishes, it is not possible to boost overall demand for goods and services. We could convince individuals that the Fed's monetary pumping is going to revive the economy and therefore that it is in their own interest to start buying more goods and services. However, if the backup is not there — i.e., if there isn't an increase in the production of real wealth (final consumer goods and services) — it is not going to be possible to expand the overall demand.
If a baker has only saved ten loaves of bread, he can only exercise his demand for other goods in accordance with the exchange value of the ten loaves of bread. In order for him to raise his demand he must produce and save more bread.
The question that one needs to ask is why after lowering interest rates to zero and pumping over $2 trillion into the monetary system the economy remains subdued.
Most economists and other experts respond that we are currently in a unique situation brought about by various mysterious shocks. It is held that if it were not for the Fed's aggressive monetary pumping the economy would have suffered a massive economic depression by now: contrary to various critics, Bernanke's policy has, if anything, saved the economy and hence has been very effective.
(The Fed chairman however is of the view that at this stage the effectiveness of monetary policy might be diminishing. He holds that we now require some support from fiscal policy. In particular Bernanke warned that US economic recovery could be in jeopardy if lawmakers can't stop automatic year-end spending cuts and tax hikes from taking effect. The Fed chairman holds that the new central-bank stimulus efforts would not be enough to protect the economy from the twin shocks.)
We hold that it is a fallacy to suggest that Bernanke's monetary pumping has prevented the US economy from falling into a severe depression. What Bernanke's policy has done is to prevent the removal of various non-productive, wealth-destroying activities that emerged on the back of previous loose monetary and fiscal policies.
Obviously, if Bernanke hadn't stepped in with massive pumping, a large amount of bubble activities would have been liquidated by now. This would have provided more real wealth to wealth generators and would have set in motion a genuinely solid economic expansion. This would have strengthened the economy's ability to generate real wealth.
By introducing another massive monetary-pumping scheme Bernanke is running the risk of inflicting more damage to the process of real wealth generation. Consequently, this raises the likelihood that we could remain in depressed economic conditions over a prolonged period of time.
It must be realized that the damage inflicted on the economy by reckless monetary and fiscal policies cannot be fixed by further aggressive monetary pumping and by lifting people's confidence in the Fed's policies. What is needed to revive the economy is to stop the Fed and to cut government outlays to the bone.

Summary and Conclusion

The US central bank announced last Thursday that it will undertake open-ended purchases of $40 billion of mortgage debt per month until the labor market improves substantially. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, who has introduced the new policy, is of the view that this will revive the economy. It is questionable why all this pumping should revive the economy given that the zero-interest-rate policy and the over $2 trillion in monetary pumping since 2008 haven't been successful. We suggest that by introducing further massive monetary pumping Bernanke is running the risk of severely damaging the US economy. Consequently, this raises the likelihood that the US could remain in a depressed economic state for a prolonged period of time.

He Seems To Know Where He Stands

He seems to know where he stands. I Am the Democratic Liberal-Progressive's Worst Nightmare. I am a White, Conservative, Tax-Paying, American Veteran, Gun Owning Biker. I am a Master leatherworker. I work hard and long hours with my hands to earn a living. I believe in God and the freedom of religion, but I don't push it on others. I ride Harley Davidson Motorcycles, and drive American-made cars, and I believe in American products and buy them whenever I can. I believe the money I make belongs to me and not some liberal governmental functionary, Democratic or Republican, that wants to share it with others who don't work! I'm in touch with my feelings and I like it that way! I think owning a gun doesn't make you a killer; it makes you a smart American. I think being a minority does not make you noble or victimized, and does not entitle you to anything. Get over it! I believe that if you are selling me a Big Mac or any other item, you should do it in English. I believe there should be no other language option. I believe everyone has a right to pray to his or her God when and where they want to. My heroes are Malcolm Forbes, Bill Gates, John Wayne, Babe Ruth, Roy Rogers, and Willie G. Davidson, who makes the awesome Harley Davidson Motorcycles. I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor. I know wrestling is fake and I don't waste my time watching or arguing about it. I've never owned a slave, nor was I a slave. I haven't burned any witches or been persecuted by the Turks, and neither have you! I believe if you don't like the way things are here, go back to where you came from and change your own country! This is AMERICA ...We like it the way it is and more so the way it was ..so stop trying to change it to look like Russia or China , or France , or some other socialist country! If you were born here and don't like it... you are free to move to any Socialist country that will have you. Massachusetts started the ball rolling. Keep it going. I believe it is time to really clean house, starting with the White House, the seat of our biggest problems. I want to know which church is it, exactly, where the Reverend Jesse Jackson preaches, where he gets his money, and why he is always part of the problem and not the solution? Can I get an AMEN on that one? I also think the cops have the right to pull you over if you're breaking the law, regardless of what color you are, but not just because you happen to ride a bike. And, no, I don't mind having my face shown on my driver's license. I think it's good.... And I'm proud that 'God' is written on my money.. I think if you are too stupid to know how a ballot works, I don't want you deciding who should be running the most powerful nation in the world for the next four years. I dislike those people standing in the intersections trying to sell me stuff or trying to guilt me into making 'donations' to their cause.... Get a job and do your part to support yourself and your family! I believe that it doesn't take a village to raise a child; it takes two parents.... I believe 'illegal' is illegal no matter what the lawyers think! I believe the American flag should be the only one allowed in AMERICA ! If this makes me a BAD American, then yes, I'm a BAD American. If you are a BAD American too, please forward this to everyone you know.... We want our country back! My Country..... I hope this offends all illegal aliens. My great, great, great, great grandfather watched and bled as his friends died in the Revolution & the War of 1812. My great, great, great grandfather watched as his friends died in the Mexican American War. My great, great grandfather watched as his friends & brothers died in the Civil War. My great grandfather watched as his friends died in the Spanish-American War. My grandfather watched as his friends died in WW I. My father watched as his friends died in WW II. I watched as my friends died in Vietnam, Panama & Desert Storm. My son watched & bled as his friends died in Afghanistan and Iraq . None of them died for the Mexican Flag. Everyone died for the American flag. Texas high school students raised a Mexican flag on a school flag pole, other students took it down. Guess who was expelled...the students who took it down. California high school students were sent home on Cinco de Mayo, because they wore T-shirts with the American flag printed on them. Enough is enough This message needs to be viewed by every American; and every American needs to stand up for America .. We've bent over to appease the America-haters long enough. I'm taking a stand. I'm standing up because of the hundreds of thousands who died fighting in wars for this country, and for the American flag. If you agree, stand up with me. If you disagree, please let me know. I will gladly remove you from my e-mail list. And shame on anyone who tries to make this a racist message. AMERICANS, stop giving away Your RIGHTS ! Let me make this clear! THIS IS MY COUNTRY ! This statement DOES NOT mean I'm against immigration ! YOU ARE WELCOME HERE, IN MY COUNTRY, welcome to come legally: 1. Get a sponsor ! 2. Learn the LANGUAGE, as immigrants have in the past ! 3. Live by OUR rules ! 4. Get a job ! 5. Pay YOUR Taxes ! 6. No Social Security until you have earned it and Paid for it ! 7. NOW find a place to lay your head ! If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone, then YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM ! We've gone so far the other way . .. .. bent over backwards not to offend anyone. Only AMERICANS seems to care when American Citizens are being offended ! WAKE UP America ! ! ! If you do not Pass this on, may your fingers cramp ! Made in the U S A & PROUD OF IT!!!!!

A Real Eye Opener

A Real Eye Opener


WHY is the USA BANKRUPT?

Informative, and mind boggling!

You think the war in Iraq was costing us too much? Read this:

We have been hammered with the propaganda that it
was the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us.

I now find that to be RIDICULOUS.

I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over
and over again until they are read so many times
that the reader gets sick of reading them..
I also have included the URL's for verification
of all the following facts...


1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare
to illegal aliens each year by state
governments.

Verify
at: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters7fd8


2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food
assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC,
and free school lunches for illegal aliens.


Verify
at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML



$2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid
for illegal aliens.. Verify at:
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML



4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!




Verify
at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt..0..HTML


5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.


Verify
at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML


6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate
illegal aliens. Verify at:
http://transcripts..cnn.com/%20TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML




7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are
illegal aliens.




Verify
at: http://transcripts.CNN.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML
http://transcripts/..cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML%3E;






8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal
aliens for Welfare & social services by the
American taxpayers.



Verify
at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.HTML


9. $200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed
American wages are caused by the illegal
aliens.


Verify
at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSC%20RI%20PTS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML



10. The illegal aliens in the United States have
a crime rate that's two and a half times that of
white non-illegal aliens. In particular,
their children are going to make a huge
additional crime problem in the US

Verify
at: http://transcripts.cnn..com/TRANscriptS/0606/12/ldt..01.HTML
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0606/12/ldt..01.HTML%3E;
http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml%3E;%C2%A0%20w.drdsk.com/articleshtml



The total cost is a whopping
$ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR AND IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, HAVING TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY; IT IS $338,300,000,000.00 WHICH WOULD BE ENOUGH TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY FOR THE CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY.



HOW CAN WE ALLOW THE U.S. CONGRESS TO GET AWAY WITH LETTING THIS HAPPEN YEAR AFTER YEAR!!!!!


If this doesn't bother you then just delete the message. I hope you forward it to every legal resident in the United States!!

What Will Arizona Do????

Just breaks your heart…

What will Arizona do??  How can you possibly survive??  Surely, it's like losing a member of the family.

Immigrants are boycotting Arizona by the thousands, showing their outrage with Arizona's controversial new SB-1070 law by moving elsewhere.   In the small town of Guadalupe, AZ, south of Phoenix, Manuel Renaldo is one of those who is punishing Arizona by leaving.    As he loaded his stolen car with his belongings and family of ten, Renaldo told this reporter through an interpreter,  "It's a matter of principle.  I refuse to be supported by a state that treats me like a criminal." The effects of the exodus are being felt by Arizona retailers who are reporting dwindling sales of beer, spray paint, and ammunition.    Also hit hard are the state’s hospitals, which have reported a dramatic decline in births and emergency room visits.   Tattoo parlors are also in a state of panic. Renaldo told a reporter through an interpreter , "He and his family are moving to California, which is a state that will support him and his family with dignity.  There are far more Democrats there!"

Bernanke Helps Defuse Default

Bernanke Helps Defuse "Default"

Our federal government is currently $14.1 trillion in debt. The vast majority of the American people believe this number is far too high and on track to go far higher. Fortunately, Congress created a mechanism to force itself to reexamine its spending habits when budget deficits got out of control: the debt ceiling. Once total outstanding federal debt reaches the limit, the Treasury Department is no longer authorized to issue new debt. Like the states and family budgets, the federal government would then be forced to make do with tax receipts. The current debt limit is $14.294 trillion. The Treasury Department predicts that we will reach that limit sometime this spring. Somewhere between 62 percent and 71 percent of the American people oppose raising it. Will Washington listen to the American people? Or will they heed the Obama Administration and just continue their reckless spending ways?

In defense of never-ending reckless spending, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has been trying to bamboozle Congress into raising the debt ceiling so that the Obama Administration can continue their free-spending ways unchecked. Geithner claims that unless the debt ceiling is raised by “the end of the first quarter of 2011,” the “full faith and credit of the United States” would be “called into question” and there would be “catastrophic damage to the economy.” As we have detailed before, this is simply false. In the fall of 1995, the federal government reached its $4.9 trillion debt ceiling. Congress refused to raise it. The world did not end. Instead,Treasury took several measures during the period to raise funds to meet federal obligations without exceeding the debt ceiling. Was, as Geithner warns, the “full faith and credit of the United States … called into question”? No. Was there “catastrophic damage to the economy”? No.

To remove any possible doubt regarding “the full faith and credit of the United States,” Senator Pat Toomey (R–PA) and Representative Tom McClintock (R–CA) have introduced the Full Faith and Credit Act, which would make the payment of interest on the debt the top priority. The Obama Administration quickly identified this legislation as a threat to their scare tactics and thus their big government spending plans, so Deputy Treasury Secretary Neil Wolan wrote a letter to Toomey claiming that any form of non-payment, be it to a retiree holding a U.S. savings bond or to the state of California to build its train to nowhere, “would merely be default by another name” and “would therefore bring about the same catastrophic economic consequences Secretary Geithner has warned against.”

Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reluctantly contradicted this claim after persistent questioning from Representatives McClintock and Mick Mulvaney (R–SC). McClintock went first, asking: “In January you told the Senate Budget Committee that we’re not seeing extraordinary stress in the municipal market, which suggests that investors still are reasonably confident that there won’t be default among major borrowers. One reason they might believe that is because most states have rules which put debt repayment and interest payment at a very high priority. Above many other obligations of the state and locality. Wouldn’t be a good idea if the federal government did the same thing?”

Bernanke responded: “Well, it would reduce the risk with the debt limit that is for sure. You haven’t done that yet, of course. I would like to just comment that it would take some time for us to change our systems and computers and so on to make sure that we could change that prioritization, but doing that would reduce some of the risks associated with the debt limit.”

Later, Mulvaney followed up: “Given our fiscal situation, if we are able to figure out a way to work through those workability problems if we were able to figure out a way to prioritize, would that assuage your concerns about using the debt ceiling as an environment to have a discussion about changing our fiscal policy?”

Bernanke: “Well, my concern since I’m involved on the financial side, my concern is about not defaulting on the debt, and for me that is a very high priority so that would help on that count very much.”

So yes, there are some minor technical issues to be worked out and some computer programmers at the Treasury Department may have to pull an all-nighter. But Bernanke’s testimony clearly confirms that prioritizing interest and debt payments is possible and, in direct contradiction to claims by Wolan and Geithner, would help reduce the risk of default “very much.”

The responsibility for driving down spending and borrowing rests—under our Constitution—squarely with Congress and the President of the United States. In light of the nation’s fiscal plight, raising the debt limit should not be the first option but rather the last resort, and it should be accompanied by immediate, substantial spending reductions and other actions to set the nation on a path to reduced spending and borrowing.

Investors Finally Fear the Inflation Precipice

Investors Finally Fear the Inflation Precipice
by Robert P. Murphy on February 10, 2011

Well it's about time. The headline on Monday's CNBC article announces: "Investors Starting to Believe That Inflation Threat is Real."

For some time, I have been a proud member of the fuddy duddies who have been predicting the return of serious stagflation. Thus far, our prognostications have clearly been half-right — the "real economy" is indeed caught in a terrible rut, far worse than most of the Keynesian economists recognized even in late 2008.

However, on the (price) inflation front, things are not as clear-cut. Although asset prices and producer prices have surged in response to Bernanke's monetary pumping, retail consumer prices (at least as officially reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) have not been rising at alarming rates.

I am not the first economist to explain this apparent anomaly by reference toWile E. Coyote: The serious inflation won't hit until everyone thinks it is going to hit. And although the "fundamentals" of serious price inflation have been in place since late 2008, we are seeing more and more signs that Bernanke's dam of obfuscation is starting to crack.

A Simple Picture

Simplistic as it may seem, I still cannot shake the feeling that the below chart is all we really need to know that eventually, we will experience large price hikes:

Yes, yes, there are all sorts of sophisticated arguments for why there's nothing to see here, just keep moving along, the dollar will be fine. In particular, there are arguments about the demand for holding "base" money totally offsetting Bernanke's injections, and the huge increase in excess reserves means that the new money isn't "leaking out" into the broader economy.

However, when the serious price inflation comes — as I still believe it will — I think we will all look back at the above chart and be shocked that people were worried about deflation in 2008-2010. And there is precedent for this sort of thing; remember that in 2005 and 2006 plenty of really smart people (including Ben Bernanke) denied that there was a housing bubble[1]:

In Bernanke I Don't Trust

It is true that Bernanke could reverse course before things are too late, as far as the purchasing power of the dollar is concerned. But this would entail devastating pain to the banking sector, since the Fed would have to reverse the policies that bailed out the overleveraged titans in the first place. If Bernanke has to choose between saving rich bankers or the dollar, I am confident he will choose the former.

When Bernanke made his infamous appearance on 60 Minutes, most analysts understandably focused on his absurd claim that he wasn't printing money. But the thing that most alarmed me was this exchange (starting at about 7:20 inthis video):

BERNANKE: There really is no problem with raising rates, tightening monetary policy, slowing the economy, reducing inflation at the appropriate time. …

Q: You have what degree of confidence in your ability to control this?

BERNANKE: A hundred percent.

Now that should be terrifying. Realistically, Bernanke shouldn't have 100 percent confidence that he can control his toaster. I mean, he might turn the dial up too high, or someone might spill water on it. It could happen.

By the same token, there are all sorts of scenarios where the natural "unwinding" of the Fed's extraordinary policies won't work as planned. In particular, if even official CPI inflation starts creeping above 4 and 5 percent on an annual basis, while unemployment remains above (say) 8 percent, then it will become apparent that Bernanke's "exit strategy" leads into a brick wall.

"Well, If the Fed Started Monetizing the Debt, Then I'd Worry About Inflation …"

One of the more absurd stances rejecting the inflationist warnings comes from people who think Federal Reserve policy is completely divorced from the Treasury's fiscal position. Such naïve analysts think that Bernanke's decision to soak up more than one trillion in government debt had nothing to do with the massive deficits that the government has been and will continue to run.

Those pooh-poohing our current situation will concede that interwar Germany or modern Zimbabwe got into trouble all right, but those were situations where the central bank "monetized the debt." This supposedly stands in sharp contrast to the scientific monetary policies of the "independent" Federal Reserve.

To put these claims in context, note that in the 2nd quarter of 2009, the Fed's absorption of Treasury debt amounted to 48 percent of the new debt issued in that period. And ZeroHedge posted the following chart showing that the Fed is currently the world's largest single holder of Treasury securities, surpassing China:

Print: $10 $8

Audio: $15

Conclusion

No one knows the future for certain. But given the economic and political realities, I still remain confident that prices quoted in US dollars will continue to escalate, not only in commodities and certain asset classes, but eventually in most consumer goods. At some point it will be so obvious that not even Ben Bernanke will be able to deny it.

When will the breakout occur? Again, no one can know such things for sure, but there are growing signs that "the market" will soon recognize that Bernanke & Co. have painted us into a very tight corner.

Robert Murphy is an adjunct scholar of the Mises Institute, where he will be teaching Anatomy of the Fed at the Mises Academy this winter. He runs the blog Free Advice and is the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, the Study Guide to Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, the Human Action Study Guide, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal, and his newest book, Lessons for the Young Economist. Send him mail. See Robert P. Murphy's article archives.

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Predictions

1    The US Dollar will be replaced as the world's reserve currency.

2    The US will keep printing money UNTIL THEN.

3    The purchasing power of the US Dollar will decline.

4    The consumers of the US will face massive increases in the costs of all commodities due to shortages and pricing. The price of food and gasoline will be prohibitive to achieve.

5    As long as the Congress has access to money they will spend it all and spend more than they take in.

6    There will be a monetary shift from fiat paper money to a currency backed by something of value like precious metals.

7    Because of all the above we the common variety citizens will be regulated, monitored, curfewed and restricted by martial law. Further those of us that are ultra conservative, will be placed into concentration camps.

8    The US government will confiscate precious metals and our guns.

9    The US government will confiscate money in retirement plans and require they be invested in government bills, notes and bonds and at end of the persons life they will revert to the government.

10   The government will finance green energy and we will be paying 20 cents for a kilowatt of power as opposed to five cents for power derived from coal and oil. 

11    Congress will not have the courage to return us to a US Constitutional base thereby eliminating all the activities that are unconstitutional such as education dept, health, commerce, HUD and all the others that are states rights.

12    Congress will not protect our borders and will grant some form of amnesty.

13    Congress will not eliminate the IRS.

14    Congress will impose a VAT TAX.

15    Because of all the above there will be rioting in the streets of the major cities of the US.

16    There will be a period of time where there will be no banking or stores open. 

17    Our enemies will start to explode suicide bombs in public places. 

18    Our enemies will explode an atome bombs and EMP as soon as they are capable. We will be without all forms of operations that depend upon electrical or electronic power. 

19    The Muslims will do everything in their power to demand Sharia law and acceptance of Muslim customs and morees. 

20     Congress will not activate NASARA. We will not be able to depend upon it. We will not be able to depend upon the US government for anything, we have to depend upon ourselves.

21    The government will restrict the movement of monies and will attempt to control all monies of everyone.

ANWR, Alaska A Follow Up On Oil!

This is the best presentation on ANWR I have seen.  I would like to add a little more information. A new pipeline across  Alaska isn't required since the location for drilling in ANWR is about 160 miles from the North Slope Prudhoe Bay pipeline where it would be connected.  Second the wildlife loves the pipeline since it is heated and provides a shelter during the worst times durng the winter. Maybe another question should be asked.

FIRST do you know what ANWR is? ANWR  Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. . Now A comparison And some perspective� NOTE WHERE THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT AREA IS� (it's in the "ANWR Coastal Plain") THIS IS WHAT THE DEMOCRATS, LIBERALS AND "GREENS" SHOW YOU WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT ANWR and they are right these ARE photographs of ANWR ISN'T ANWR BEAUTIFUL?  WHY SHOULD WE DRILL HERE (AND DESTROY) THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE? WELL THAT'S NOT EXACTLY THE TRUTH Do you remember the map? The map showed that the proposed drilling area is in the ANWR Coastal Plain Do those photographs look like a coastal plain to you? WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE THAT IS NOT WHERE THEY ARE WANTING TO DRILL! THIS IS WHAT THE PROPOSED EXPLORATION AREA ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE WINTER AND THIS IS WHAT IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE SUMMER HERE ARE A COUPLE SCREEN SHOTS FROM GOOGLE EARTH AS YOU CAN SEE, THE AREA WHERE THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT DRILLING IS A BARREN WASTELAND. OH� AND THEY SAY THAT THEY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE EFFECT ON THE LOCAL WILDLIFE� HERE IS A PHOTO (SHOT DURING THE SUMMER) OF THE "DEPLETED WILDLIFE" SITUATION CREATED BY DRILLING AROUND PRUDHOE BAY * DON'T YOU THINK THAT THE CARIBOU REALLY HATE THAT DRILLING? HERE'S THAT SAME SPOT DURING THE WINTER. HEY, THIS BEAR SEEMS TO REALLY HATE THE PIPELINE NEAR PRUDHOE BAY * *The Prudhoe bay area accounts for 17% of  U.S. Domestic oil production NOW, WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THE POLITICIANS ARE  LYING ABOUT ANWR? REMEMBER WHEN  AL GORE SAID THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD WORK TO ARTIFICIALLY RAISE GAS PRICES TO $5.00 A GALLON? WELL AL GORE AND HIS FRIENDS HAVE ALMOST REACHED THEIR GOAL! NOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT THE POLITICIANS HAVE BEEN LYING, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?   YOU CAN START BY FORWARDING THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW SO THAT THEY WILL KNOW THE TRUTH.

To Hell With Farming

To Hell with Farming
by An Ex-Farmer on February 4, 2011

[This article first appeared in American Mercury (November 1937). An MP3 audio file of this article, narrated by Brad O'Connell, is available for download.]

I used to be a timid, thin man. I never got on very well in the city. When I was talking to people, they tended to drift away, or they turned to someone else and said: "Having nice weather, aren't we?" I didn't see in my job any of the heroic aspects my superiors were always glorying in, so probably I wasn't very good at it.

For a while I turned to poetry and wrote a beauty about the song of the hermit thrush, but everybody in the office thought it was la-di-da. I didn't like noise or smoke or subways or hurrying or playing golf or getting drunk Saturday nights, so I began to think there must be something wrong.

I went to a psychoanalyst who told me I disliked everything too much. For this I took a great dislike to the psychoanalyst. I refused to pay five bucks for this new hate, and the psychoanalyst ended by hating me. So I decided to "get away from it all" — to move from the city to the great quiet of the country and simplify my life. I bought a farm far up in New England, and I bought a cow, too. I had always wanted to own a cow and watch it cropping my grass while I dreamed the days away.

At five o'clock the first afternoon I went to the pasture to milk my cow among the daisies and buttercups. The flies seemed to bother her a lot, and she wrapped her tail around my face three times with a loud crack. A good deal of milk went up my sleeves and over my knees, but there remained an additional two gallons in the pail.

When I had achieved this result, the cow placed one hoof in the bucket, turned it over, and walked thoughtfully to a patch of clover.

The next day I hitched her in the barn for milking, and then she gave two pailsful and I didn't know what to do with it. One of my farmer neighbors suggested I get a pig, make butter of the cream, and raise the pig on the skimmed milk. This idea fit in very well with my simple plan for a simple life. I would be a self-sustaining unit in the good, old-fashioned way. So I bought a pig. I also bought a cream separator, a churn and a cream can, a butter worker, and some wooden paddles, besides numerous buckets.

I discovered promptly that making butter was a terrific job. The neighbors, however, told me a man couldn't make butter the way a woman could, and that I ought to have a wife. There was nothing else to do: I got myself a wife right off.

She said she'd have to have some ice to cool the cream if she was going to make butter, and that we really should have running water, because washing the separator was a great chore. Consequently I laid in a pipe to a spring and blasted tons of rocks out of the ditch in order to lower the pipe so that it wouldn't freeze in winter. When my hired dynamiter had blasted two windows out of the house, I decided the ditch was deep enough. While painting the new window sash and puttying the new panes, I decided it was wonderful what a man's hands can teach him if he's not too far sunk in the decadence of civilization. I felt there was a certain nobility in what I was doing, learning by trial and error, learning as the cavemen learned, as the race has always learned.

The water ran fine for two weeks and then the spring dried up. So I put in a pump from a spring lower down, but the water was hard as a brick and plugged the pipes with lime. Nevertheless, I soon learned to take the pipes apart and knock out the lime deposits, and my wife said it was wonderful how handy I was getting to be. She didn't know the half of it. I had torn the pump apart four times in the first week.

Sifting some dirt to recapture a little brass screw that I had dropped, I couldn't help reflecting that the ramifications of a cow's influence were extensive indeed. My red-and-white bovine had already led me to the matrimonial altar, forced me to undertake a course in blasting, taught me something of geology, made me a pig-raiser, a glazier, a plumber, and now a combination garage mechanic and miner.

About this time, I found I'd have to get some hay into the barn to winter my cow. This necessitated a hand rake, grindstone, whetstone, and scythe, and also brought a bill of $20 for man-with-team, the loss of some ten gallons of sweat, and another bill of $10 for beer. Meanwhile the garden was growing full of witch grass, and the woodchucks wouldn't eat any of it, though they did raze the peas and beans, and the cutworms leveled the cabbages. I set to work in the garden and was very busy. The summer passed and I never once spent a minute watching my cow crop the grass while I dreamed the days away.

This pastime, however, was undertaken vicariously for me by a number of former friends from the city who came and lolled in the shade and told me what an idyllic life I had and how they envied me. They knew a lot about birds and flowers, and they told me what a beautiful view there was from the mountaintop yonder. I would have liked to find out more from them about the country around my home, only I had to put a new roof on the barn because after the rain had leaked in on my hay, the cow wouldn't eat it.

Winter was almost upon me by the time I had finished the roof and built my new icehouse. I had always loved to watch the seasons fade into one another and see the leaves turn red, and the first snow, and all the rest of it. But now I felt like a man running through a railway tunnel with a locomotive behind him. I had to cut wood like mad in order to keep warm. I also had to buy a new ax, a saw, some wedges, a sledge, mittens, boots, and a pair of snowshoes. I already had so much gear piled in the woodshed there wasn't room for more, and so I had to keep my snowshoes under the bed. This made my wife mad. But I said I was damned if I was going to build a snowshoe house, and that was that.

It wasn't long, of course, before I slashed my foot with the new ax. While I was resting in bed, studying the Department of Agriculture pamphlets on how to raise bees, caponize roosters, install cement floors in stables, and build henhouses, I decided it was silly to work day and night for the sake of one cow. I decided I would buy some more cows, now that I had a new separator and pump and icehouse and cream can and so many buckets. After all, two cows can live as cheaply as one.

So, when spring came, I bought six cows and seven pigs. I soon found, however, that my pasture wasn't big enough for seven cows and that I'd have to clear some of the scrub. And the fences were down everywhere. I had to go into the woods and cut 500 cedar fence-posts. And then I spent the spring dodging loops of barbed wire which chased me up and down and coiled round me like the tentacles of an octopus.

It was now apparent that I'd have to plant a lot of crops to feed my seven cows over the winter, and this entailed buying a team, a plow, harrows, a wagon, harness, corn planter, cultivator, and various other implements. It also entailed feeding and watering the horses twice a day for the next 50 years, or however long they lived, or however long I lived.

"Love of nature and appreciation of the beauties of the landscape were foreign to the rural population. The inhabitants of the cities brought them to the countryside."

Ludwig von Mises,
Human Action

That summer, even more city people came to see our farm; it seemed we were a realization of their dream, a crystallization of their longing for a place in the country. My wife was busy with the canning and the garden and the butter-making and the house and the pullets, and God knows I had enough to do without sitting and listening to the city people tell me what an idyllic life I had and how they envied me. But I didn't notice any of them grabbing a hayfork and pitching in.

When my crops began to grow I realized I'd have to have an addition on the barn for storing them, so I set to work on that. By the time it was finished I had collected so many tools I had to build a tool shed to put them in. My hogs were big and it was time to butcher them. I decided I'd buy some more tools and go ahead and learn to butcher. Hadn't I already become something of a carpenter, plumber, blacksmith, painter, lumberjack, tinsmith, mechanic, and veterinary? Well, it was a bloody job, but I had learned not to think, which is very useful.

My cows commenced having calves. I couldn't bring myself to kill them, so I had to feed them, which was worse. I fought rats, thawed frozen pipes, fixed machinery, cut ice, cut wood, and performed prodigies of midwifery for my cows. Occasionally I recalled with awe a vision of myself sitting on a boarding-house porch with nothing to do, thinking life was a vacuum.

And thus I sank into a bog of work from which I emerged but rarely for 15 minutes late Sunday afternoons, just before chores. I kept it up for five years, and then I began figuring and found I was losing $500 a year on an investment of $8,000, coupled with fifteen hours of toil per day. I felt that I'd come to the end of my rope.

That was the year I didn't get the storm windows on until March, and in April my wife wanted them off again. I said, "To hell with it!" I said, "Pitch a flat-iron through them if you want air." And I put on my best suit and took the train for the city.

When I got to the city it smote me in the face, and I knew, right away that I didn't like it any better than before. I walked right past the psychoanalyst's door, however, without going in. Yet soon I felt so lonely I thought I'd look in at the office and see the boys. Maybe I'd ask for a job again. But they wouldn't want me. My face was like cordovan leather, and I had calluses on my palms like warts.

It began at the reception desk when Miss McEvoy came out and shook hands. "Why, where have you been?" she cried. "I'd hardly know you. You're positively bronzed."

"I've been on a farm," I said. "I'm a farmer now."

"A farmer! Oh, you always were lucky. And here I am at the same old desk. Well, I suppose you want to see Mr. Stewart. He'll be so pleased."

In the president's office, Mr. Stewart said: "Why, how you've grown, how well you look! A farmer, eh? Master of your own time, down to the city for a spree. Y'know, I've always wanted to break away and have a little farm in the country."

He shook his head sadly. "And a cow maybe — but I guess I haven't the courage. Say, Blinks will want to see you." And he pushed the buzzer.

Blinks came in. "Boy, put 'er there!" he said. I didn't think I was squeezing very hard, but Blinks howled. "For heaven's sake don't crush my knuckles. Stewart, the fellow doesn't realize his strength. Take a look at this mitt, look at those calluses."

Mr. Stewart ran a fingertip over them, awestruck.

Soon there were three more men in the office. One of them put a hand on my arm and asked shyly, "Let me feel your muscle." I flexed my arm and the chap's eyes gleamed with envy. "Hard as nails," he said, and they all nodded their heads.

"You chop down big trees, I suppose," said Mr. Stewart.

"Pretty big," I said. "I cut my foot with the ax once when I was new at it."

Finally, there wasn't any way out of it but for me to take off my shoe and show them the scar, and roll up my trouser-leg and exhibit the two white marks the horse's caulks had left. This was so much of a climax that I thought I'd better leave before the spell was broken. They all wanted to take me out to dinner, but I told them to come up to the farm in August instead for a big blow-out, "golden bantam picked just twenty minutes before, clotted cream, wild berries, home-cured ham". And then I tore myself away, feeling very airy.

In August the office workers came out to the farm and I met them at the station with a load of hay. I let them fish the brook and pick berries and chop down all the trees they wanted to. I also showed them the actual horse that had kicked me.

The following winter they came again, bringing more pals with them to see the snow. And so, as time went on, my farm became a Mecca for businessmen whom I allowed (at $6 a day) to play around the woods with sharp hatchets, provided they remembered that once in the house they mustn't whittle furniture. The chairman of the board of the Amalgamated Gas Corporation was the worst one for whittling, but he paid extra for the privilege, so we let him go ahead.

$15 $10

Pocket Edition

More and more came the next summer and I hired two maids for my wife, and I didn't do a thing except play with my paying guests and teach them to shoot woodchucks and make wooden whistles. Most of them were pretty well behaved and spent their time jumping in the hay and practicing milking, hiding in the corn, going about naked, and teaching a cow to kick.

Now that I have two hired men and don't personally delve in the fruitful earth for simple fare, or cut my fuel in the winter woods, or scythe the lower meadow in summer dawns while the dew is on, or roam the hills at sunset looking for the cows, or feed the horses, I have become quite famous as a genuine nature man and woods dweller.

And last year, I installed an oil burner, a chauffeur with station wagon, a home electrical plant, and three new bathrooms to take care of my paying admirers who come on reverent pilgrimages. You should hear them saying wistfully, "Oh, how I'd like to break away and live the simple life like you do."

This article was originally printed in American Mercury (November 1937)