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WHY DON’T THE GERMANS TRUST OBAMA WITH THEIR GOLD? |
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Written by James Delingpole
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Thursday, 17 January 2013 |
Back in the mid-1920s, the head of the German Central Bank,
Herr Hjalmar Schacht, went to New York to see Germany's gold. However the NY
Fed officials were unable to find the pallet of Germany's gold bullion.
The
Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Benjamin Strong was mortified, but to put him
at ease Herr Schacht turned to him and said "Never mind, I believe you when you say the gold is there. Even if it weren't you are good for its
replacement."
But that was then and this is now. In the eyes of the
Germans - and who can blame them? - America has lost its mojo to such a degree
that it can no longer be trusted honor its debts, even in the unlikely event
that it were financially capable of doing so.
Which is why, following in the footsteps of Venezuela's Hugo
Chavez (who may be an idiot but is definitely no fool), Germany
is repatriating its gold from the New York Federal Reserve, which will now
be stored in Frankfurt.
Now, why in the world would they do that? Don't they trust Obama with their gold?
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WILL THE WORLD SOON HAVE A NEW GOLD STANDARD? |
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Written by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
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Thursday, 17 January 2013 |
The world is moving step by step towards a de facto
Gold Standard, without any meetings of G20 leaders to announce the idea or
bless the project.
Some TTPers will already have seen the GFMS Gold Survey for 2012 which reported that
central banks around the world bought more bullion last year in terms of
tonnage than at any time in almost half a century.
They added a net 536 tons in 2012 as they diversified fresh
reserves away from the four fiat suspects: dollar, euro, sterling, and yen.
Gone is the illusion that the
euro would take its place as the twin pillar of a new G2 condominium alongside
the dollar. That hope has faded. Central bank holdings of euro bonds have
fallen back to 26%, where they were almost a decade ago.
Neither the euro nor the dollar can inspire full confidence,
although for different reasons. The euro is a dysfunctional construct, covering
two incompatible economies (northern vs. southern Europe), prone to lurching
from crisis to crisis, without a unified treasury to back it up. The dollar
stands on a pyramid of debt. We all know that this debt will be inflated away
over time - for better or worse. The only real disagreement is over the speed.
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TALE OF TWO ECONOMIC STYLES |
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Written by Richard Rahn
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Wednesday, 16 January 2013 |
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Will 2013 be a better year? A number of economic commentators have been saying the worst is behind us. I think they are wrong, and here is why. In most major countries, including the United States, government is growing faster than the private sector.
As Mitchell's Golden Rule explains, when the private sector grows faster than government, prosperity increases, and when government grows faster than the private sector, misery increases.
As can be seen in the accompanying table, in most of the major nations, debt-to-GDP ratios are increasing, because the deficits as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) are greater than economic growth -- meaning these countries are getting deeper in the hole each year. The US is one of them.
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CHINA'S LEADERS FEAR THEIR PEOPLE MORE THAN THEY FEAR US |
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Written by Jack Kelly
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Tuesday, 15 January 2013 |
China has threatened Japan, the Philippines
and Vietnam
with war over islands in the South China Sea which under international law
belong to Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.
China has built up its military
forces opposite Taiwan,
even though the new Taiwanese government
seeks closer ties to Beijing.
China is building up military
forces along its border with India, India's
intelligence service reported in July.
If that weren't saber rattling
enough, "China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third world war,"
a Chinese
general said last month.
China bullies its neighbors
because it can, most analysts think.
"Beijing is deploying superior
power in an effort to repeal basic geometry and clearly written treaty law,"
wrote James
Holmes, a professor of strategy at the U.S. Naval War College. "Learn to love Big Brother, Southeast Asia."
There could be a very different
reason for Chinese bellicosity.
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BIDEN'S MORAL ISSUE |
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Written by Jack Kelly
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Tuesday, 15 January 2013 |
Gun control is a moral issue, Vice
President Joe Biden said at a news conference Wednesday.
This was more nonsense from the premier
dunce in American politics. The evidence
is massive gun control measures do not restrict gun violence. They may contribute to it. (All but one mass shooting in the last half
century has taken place in "gun free" zones.)
But liberals don't care much whether
their nostrums work or not. They judge
programs on their declared intent, not results.
That's all it takes to massage their egos, and it spares them the
trouble of having to learn a lot of pesky facts.
The emotionally healthy can feel good
about themselves without putting others down.
Liberal preening apparently requires feeling superior to those who
disagree with them.
If you don't agree with us about gun
control, you can't be as horrified as liberals are by mass shootings, the vice
president implied. We're good. You're bad.
Making themselves feel good is more important to most liberals than solving problems, and they tend to be intellectually lazy. So this attitude pervades most of the positions they take. Note the following:
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JOKES ABOUT O's SECOND PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION |
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Written by To The Point News
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Friday, 18 January 2013 |
"President Obama will be sworn in with his hand resting on two
Bibles. Is that how screwed up Washington is now? One Bible can't get
the job done anymore?" –Jay Leno
"The White House announced today
that the theme for President Obama's second inauguration will be 'Faith
in America's Future.' The idea is to get our minds off of America's
present." –Jay Leno
"President Obama's inauguration is coming up.
During next week's inauguration, he will be sworn in with not one, but
two Bibles. Relax, Mr. President. We get it. You're not a Muslim. You're
overcompensating." –Conan O'Brien
"President Obama recently came
under fire over the lack of diversity in his cabinet. Then Obama said,
'You guys know I'll be there, too, right?'" –Jimmy Fallon
"The
White House announced that the theme for President Obama's inauguration
will be 'Faith in America's Future.' Which is proof that no one in the
White House has ever seen 'Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.'" –Jimmy Fallon
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HALF-FULL REPORT 01/11/13 |
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Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
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Friday, 11 January 2013 |
On Wednesday
(1/09), we saw the greatest headline ever posted on Drudge:
It was
linked to a Weekly
Standard story on Zero's considering an Executive Order to effect gun
control without legislation from Congress.
It gave CommieMedia libtards the vapors, as chronicled by the Washington
Examiner. They can't stand it
whenever someone reveals they worship an Evil Messiah.
Yet, in
truth, there is in fact an enormous difference between Zero and
Hitler-Stalin. Hitler and Stalin were
both rabidly crazed nationalists, determined at whatever cost to conquer other
peoples and subject them to Germany or Russia.
Zero, on the
other hand, is a rabidly crazed anti-nationalist,
determined at whatever cost to destroy his own country. He is filled with hatred and contempt for
America, as neither Hitler nor Stalin were towards their own countries.
Zero is at
the extreme end of American liberalism, which has always been characterized, at
a minimum, by embarrassment. Liberals
are embarrassed to be Americans, embarrassed over the very existence of America
and in a state of constant apology for it - look what we did to the Indians,
our Founders owned slaves, we're racist imperialist capitalist war-mongers,
blah-blah-blah.
This is why
Zero - who feels free to take his phony-nice mask off in a second term and
expose who he really is - has nominated three revolting embarrassed-to-be-American libtards
to be in charge of our defense, foreign policy, and intelligence security.
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THE LAW THAT CAN SAVE AMERICA AND PUT OBAMA IN JAIL |
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Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
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Thursday, 10 January 2013 |
[Note: this is a Free Access article to enable it to go viral. Every Republican on Capitol Hill, every talk show host like Limbaugh and Levin, every conservative organization needs to be aware of it. There is a federal law that can remove the President from office and put him in prison without impeachment. Here it is.]
Neither the Senate, nor the President, nor
the Supreme Court, nor any federal agency secretary or bureaucrat, has the
constitutional authority to spend one single dime by themselves, without a
majority of the House giving it to them. This is the "power of the purse."
There is, however, a problem - a legal problem, not just a
psychological one, such as Congressistas being spendaholics or too cowardly to
refuse the begging of various constituencies for handouts.
This problem is epitomized by the Senate Republicans'
inability to force Harry Reid to pass an annual budget, even though there is a
law requiring the Senate to do so.
Thanks to Reid's blocking all attempts, the Senate hasn't passed a
budget since April, 2009, which clearly violates federal law - the Congressional
Budget Act of 1974.
So how come Reid can't be prosecuted? Why can't the Senate Pubs take legal action
against him? As Byron
York explains, "the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 doesn't have an
enforcement mechanism. Lawmakers are required by law to pass a budget
each year by April 15, but there's no provision to punish them, or even
slightly inconvenience them, if they don't."
So we arrive at what may well be the single most important
question to ask in America today.
Given that the current
President of the United States seems determined to bypass the House's
appropriation authority and spend gigantic sums on whatever programs he wants
or enforcing whatever Executive Orders he issues, is there an enforcement
mechanism for his violating the power of the purse clauses in the Constitution?
The answer is yes.
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THE DÉJÀ VU CATASTROPHE |
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Written by Jack Kelly
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Wednesday, 09 January 2013 |
The
men whom President Barack Hussein Obama has chosen to head his national
security team send more shivers down the spines of
our allies than those of our enemies.
So
if Charles
Emmerson is right in thinking the world in 2013 "eerily looks like the
world of 1913, on the cusp of the Great War," that's not good.
The
United States, like Britain 100 years ago, is in relative economic and military
decline, Mr. Emmerson, a researcher for Chatham
House, a British think tank, wrote in Foreign Policy magazine Jan. 4. Hostile powers are rising and "jostling for
position in the four corners of the world."
The
president wants someone whom many consider an outright traitor to replace Hillary Clinton as
Secretary of State; a straight out Anti-Semite to take over for Defense
Secretary Leon Panetta, and a sympathizer of Jihad Islam as CIA Director.
You couldn't ask for a greater recipe for catastrophe than that.
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UNCLE SAM IS ADDICTED TO OVERSPENDING |
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Written by Richard Rahn
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Tuesday, 08 January 2013 |
Tax revenue in 2013 will be lower (despite the just passed
tax increase), and government spending will be higher than forecast. It's an
easy prediction -- and this is why.
The capital gains tax rate and the tax on dividends is being
raised from 15 percent to 23.5 percent for higher-income people. There are many
studies, including those made by the U.S. Treasury, showing that the
revenue-maximizing rate on capital gains is less than 15 percent.
Taking a capital gain is often a discretionary event, and it
is well documented that capital gains realizations fall as the rate is
increased. Thus, this rate increase will be a net revenue loser for the
government.
Expenditures will also be far higher than forecast. The
simple fact is the Obama administration and Congress, particularly the
Democrats, are unable to resist the urge to spend more.
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PHONY SELF-ESTEEM HURTS CHILDREN, EARNED SELF-ESTEEM HELPS THEM |
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Written by Dr. Joel Wade
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Wednesday, 09 January 2013 |
There is a study
by Jean Twenge of San Diego State University that is getting a lot of news this
week, in which she found that college kids today are more likely to call
themselves gifted and driven to succeed, while their test scores and hours
spent studying are decreasing. Their tendency toward narcissism has also
increased over the last 30 years.
Some reports get a bit more frenzied
than I prefer ("We
are raising a generation of deluded narcissists!" just gets us scared, I prefer to be effective); but Twenge has been studying this trend
for several years, has accumulated some impressive research, and has
written several books.
Today I want to look at what
I consider one of the sources of this trend: the phony self-esteem movement, and how it feeds the fixed trait
mindset - and thus the need to see oneself as just fantastic. This also shows
what can be done to remedy the situation, by contrasting phony self-esteem with the genuine article -- earned self-esteem.
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WILL EUROPE GO THE WAY OF THE MING EMPIRE? |
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Written by Matt Ridley
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Monday, 07 January 2013 |
A "rational optimist" like me thinks the world
will go on getting better for most people at a record rate, not because I have
a temperamental or ideological bent to good cheer but because of the data.
Poverty, hunger, population growth rates, inequality, and mortality from
violence, disease and weather -- all continue to plummet on a global scale.
But a global optimist can still be a regional pessimist.
When asked what I am pessimistic about, I usually reply: bureaucracy and
superstition. Using those two tools, we Europeans seem intent on making our
future as bad as we can.
Like mandarins at the court of the Ming emperors or viziers
at the court of Abbasid caliphs, our masters seem determined to turn relative
into absolute decline. It is entirely possible that ten years from now the
world as a whole will be 50 per cent richer, but Europeans will be 50 per cent
poorer.
As the Ming empire found out, the more government you buy,
the less economic activity you get. A Fujian travelling salesman in 1400 was
enmeshed in such a tangled bureaucracy that he could neither travel nor sell
without bribes and permits, and he had to submit a monthly inventory of his
stocks to the emperor.
Sound familiar?
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THE SECURITY DIAMOND OF JAPAN, INDIA, AUSTRALIA, AND AMERICA |
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Written by Shinzo Abe
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Monday, 07 January 2013 |
Peace, stability, and freedom of navigation in the Pacific
Ocean are inseparable from peace, stability, and freedom of navigation in the
Indian Ocean. Developments affecting each are more closely connected than ever.
Japan, as one of the oldest sea-faring democracies in Asia, should play a
greater role in preserving the common good in both regions.
Yet, increasingly, the South China Sea seems set to become a
"Beijing Lake," which analysts say will be to China what the Sea of Okhotsk was
to Soviet Russia: a sea deep enough for the People's Liberation Army's navy to
base their nuclear-powered attack submarines, capable of launching missiles
with nuclear warheads. Soon, the PLA Navy's newly built aircraft carrier will
be a common sight - more than sufficient to scare China's neighbors.
That is why Japan must not yield to the Chinese government's
daily exercises in coercion around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The ongoing disputes in the East China Sea and the South
China Sea mean that Japan's top foreign-policy priority must be to expand the
country's strategic horizons.
Japan is a mature maritime democracy, and its choice of
close partners should reflect that fact. I
envisage a strategy whereby Australia, India, Japan, and the US form a diamond
to safeguard the maritime commons stretching from the Indian Ocean region to
the western Pacific. I am prepared to invest, to the greatest possible extent,
Japan's capabilities in this security diamond.
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CHINA AND THE RACE FOR THORIUM POWER |
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Written by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
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Tuesday, 08 January 2013 |
Princeling Jiang Mianheng, son of former leader Jiang
Zemin, is spearheading a project for China's National Academy of Sciences with
a start-up budget of $350m.
He has already recruited 140 PhD scientists, working
full-time on thorium power at the Shanghai Institute of Nuclear and Applied
Physics. He will have 750 staff by 2015.
The aim is to break free of the archaic pressurized-water
reactors fueled by uranium -- originally designed for US submarines in the
1950s -- opting instead for new generation of thorium reactors that produce far
less toxic waste and cannot blow their top like Fukushima.
"China is the country to watch," said Baroness
Bryony Worthington, head of the All-Parliamentary Group on Thorium Energy, who
visited the Shanghai operations recently with a team from Britain's National
Nuclear Laboratory. "They are really going for it, and have talented
researchers. This could lead to a massive break-through."
The thorium
story is by now well-known. It could do for nuclear power what shale
fracking has done for natural gas -- but on a bigger scale.
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WEEKLY MIND FOOD 01/11/13 |
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Written by Joe Katzman
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Friday, 11 January 2013 |
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Best of Weekly Mind Food (So Far)
Weekly Mind Food aims to show you what TTPers without a
regular column, but with deep expertise in key fields, are paying
attention to. We call ourselves TTP's Team B. Note the "Weekly
Mind Food" category in the left side-bar now, which will have
all our issues. They're Free Access, as
are all the linked articles, so feel free to read them at your leisure
- and to mail the article's URL to your friends!
This issue has a simple premise: The best links from the last
6 months of "Team B's" WMF! It's a subjective "ohmakase" view, but I
think you'll find the content and the presentation eye-opening, even if
you've read WMF before. I did, and I wrote them!
This is the last issue I write. After this issue, TTP is
adopting hunkajunk's idea, and calling for section editors in order to
continue this feature. That will help minimize each individual's time
commitment. If you would like to take full responsibility for a
section, email us,
using the address the web link will show you.
I thought about doing the best of in the same sections as the
regular briefings, but some themes emerged that were best broken out to
their own headings. Copybook Heading
offers my parting credo, and USSA: United Surveillance
State of Amerika? is actually a mild title, compared to
what the links suggest. The Oligarchic Road to Serfdom
looks at the socio-structural foundation beneath. A set of 3 video Orations
offers first steps toward a way forward. Fighting Back:
Sharpen the Saw offers a combination of previous
personal, professional, and political links that will give you
strength, perspective, and some useful solutions & tools.
We do still have the best of Polis
(domestic politics), Economos (global
economy), Ekpolitismos (culture &
civilization), Techne Logos (tech, incl.
citizenk2's awesome story about the disaster that made the Gulf of
Mexico come north), Stratiootika
(geopolitics & military), plus Useful Web
Resources and 1 Good News This Week
items to brighten your week and/or make you better.
We end, as we should, with Make 'Em Laugh.
Personally, I thought Donald "Cosmo" O'Connor was the best part of
Singin' In the Rain...
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