Last Updated: Mar 31st, 2012 - 12:12:16 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Thought for the Day We now have a new parliament. Some old faces and some new faces. Regardless, we still have the same old problems of too much debt and too much government intrusion into our lives. I would like to wish all parliamentarians well for the next few years. They will be hard years as we strive not to meet the same fate as other Western nations who have taken the easy road of borrow and hope and are right now sliding at high speed down the slippery slope and over the edge into insolvency. The moral hazard of Central Banking - too much paper money printed from thin air is working its magic as it has done in the past. We must take serious measures to live within our means as individuals and as a country. What follows are a few object lessons for us and a little amusement and diversion so we don't get too gloomy. The weather is turning into summer and happy days are coming again. Happy reading. Dec 2, 2011, 15:48 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Pensions apartheid: get ready to work until you are 75 as State Ponzi scheme unravels Our Labour hopefuls offered us more tax and a longer wait for the pension. They didn't win. Governments the world over have the same problem about the promises of previous governments - how to break them. [ Visit Website ] Dec 2, 2011, 12:56 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Fed saves Europe's banks as ECB stands pat And so, for now, we can continue to print without limit. [ Visit Website ] Dec 2, 2011, 12:31 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Statement on the Fed's Continued Euro Bailout Statement on the Fed's Continued Euro Bailout - by Ron Paul. The Fed's latest actions in cooperating with foreign central banks to undertake liquidity swaps of dollars for foreign currencies is another reason why Congress needs enhanced power to oversee and audit the Fed. Under current law Congress cannot examine these types of agreements. Those who would argue that auditing the Fed or these agreements with central banks harms the Fed's independence should reevaluate the Fed's supposed independence when the Fed bails out Europe so soon after President Obama promised US assistance in resolving the Euro crisis. Rather than calming markets, these arrangements should indicate just how frightened governments around the world are about the European financial crisis. Central banks are grasping at straws, hoping that flooding the world with money created out of thin air will somehow resolve a crisis caused by uncontrolled government spending and irresponsible debt issuance. Congress should not permit this type of open-ended commitment on the part of the Fed, a commitment which could easily run into the trillions of dollars. These dollar swaps are purely inflationary and will harm American consumers as much as any form of quantitative easing. The Fed is behaving much as it did during the 2008 financial crisis, only this time instead of bailing out politically well-connected too-big-to-fail firms it is bailing out profligate government spending. Citizens the world over deserve better than this. They deserve sound money that cannot be manipulated and created out of thin air by central planners who promise printed prosperity. Fiat money caused this European crisis and the financial crisis before it. More fiat money is not the cure. The global fiat currency system has proven itself a failure, we need real monetary reform. We need sound money. Dec 2, 2011, 12:15 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Bankers Have Seized Europe: Goldman Sachs Has Taken Over Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously an editor for the Wall Street Journal. He should know what he is talking about. [ Visit Website ] Dec 2, 2011, 11:45 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Don't Worry be Happy Enough doom and gloom: [ Visit Website ] Dec 1, 2011, 20:00 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Iceland wins in the end And now the good news. [ Visit Website ] Dec 1, 2011, 14:07 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 A Continent Stares into the Abyss - Euro Zone on the Brink Parliamentary democracy and Central Banking is a lethal combination. Nothing can save the Euro. It is just a question of now or later. Now gives the current politicians much pain so they will opt to "kick the can down the road" as the Americans say. Later produces an even more desperate situation. I have never seen a dilemma with horns bigger than this! [ Visit Website ] Dec 1, 2011, 12:20 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Greeks Balk at Paying Steep New Property Tax Democracy started off in Greece 2500 years ago. Now they are fighting with their elected (now non-elected) bosses about paying tax and electricity. In the light of our problems here at home you should find this article very interesting. [ Visit Website ] Dec 1, 2011, 08:51 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Should the Fed save Europe from disaster? And so we see how dangerous it is to play with paper money. [ Visit Website ] Nov 30, 2011, 18:51 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Imminent Defaults This is a very serious look at the problem of debt in the Western World. Before we can get a REAL Understanding of New Zealand's economic prospects we should understand the world environment. We have a problem. [ Visit Website ] Nov 30, 2011, 14:21 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Prepare for riots in euro collapse, Foreign Office warns That's the trouble with paper money - it's so unreliable! [ Visit Website ] Nov 30, 2011, 13:12 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Gold At $3,000? By the time that gold has moved up to US$3000 per ounce the Federal Reserve will have printed a whole lot more paper money and so the chase will continue as the paper money becomes worth less and less. More people are starting to understand this now and so the process will accelerate into hyperinflation. [ Visit Website ] Nov 30, 2011, 09:55 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Secret Fed Loans Helped Banks Net $13B Bloomberg had to sue the Federal Reserve to get this information and at last it has come to light. This is dramatic news and is distributed by a mainstream medium. The Fed dished out $7.77 Trillion to keep the banking system alive. When you read the details you will understand just how dangerous is our paper money system. All this debt gets owed by the ordinary taxpayer in the end. This illustrates something of the full calamity now rampaging through European financial institutions. We here in New Zealand are borrowing $300 Million per WEEK and guess who has to pay it back! To survive the full impact of this world wide catastrophe we must have no debt and store our money as gold or silver. Apart from that, enjoy the sunny days we are promised and enlarge your vege garden! [ Visit Website ] Nov 29, 2011, 11:48 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 2012 May See the 'Death of Europe,' Says Shugg Westpac economist James Shugg sees doom and gloom and the finish of the EU. No-one is interested in seeing the banks and the economy go back to a sustainable level. We have been on paper money steroids for decades now and we cannot stop. Enormous pressure is building up for the ECB to print money or provide guarantees. But this is just more debt and will produce even more problems in the future. Ordinary economics provides no answer. [ Visit Website ] Nov 28, 2011, 19:08 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Global Sovereign Credit Default Swap Prices Kiwis score well again. Worse than last year but still better than most! See the chart here: [ Visit Website ] Nov 28, 2011, 18:24 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 A crude awakening Oil demand is increasing and supply is decreasing. Ergo, the price will rise. We don't need fancy price fixing by governments - normal limits of supply and demand will adjust the price and keep everything in balance. But governments will still interfere! [ Visit Website ] Nov 28, 2011, 17:26 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 The Greek Bail Out -Informal Explanation The Greek Bail Out - Informal Explanation It is a slow day in a little Greek Village. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the village, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night. The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the taverna. The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him "services" on credit. The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note. The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town. No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole village is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package works. Nov 28, 2011, 17:11 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 2 December 2011 Quote for the Week Debt is the slavery of the free. Publilius Syrus Nov 27, 2011, 14:44