Housing is not going to recover like the pundits would have you believe. For a partial summary of the evidence, listen the Bloomberg radio podcast on housing linked below.
Harvard's Glaeser Discusses National Housing Trends (Audio)
Aug 28, 2012
Edward Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard University and a Bloomberg View columnist, says that national trends in housing continue to be a relatively poor guide to local markets. Glaeser speaks with Bloomberg's Carol Massar and Michael McKee on "Bloomberg On the Economy."
Then look at this chart.
Any chance that all the recent grads with minimum wage jobs or no jobs are going to pay back their massive student loan debts and buy a home with 20% down. Don't even get me started on the scandal that is FICO credit scoring. Anyone impacted by the crisis of 2008 knows it will be another 3-4 years before they can buy a house ASSUMING they have a solid well paying job and good credit.
This chart was taken from Zerohedge.com, an absolute source of truth for the financially saavy, or those that want to be, like me.
Yes, YOU, the 99% will pay your hard earned taxes to support a government that does absolutely nothing to your benefit while the plutocrats continue to divide and conquer us all.
Whether you are a fan of Romney or Obama or not, you should recognize that they are the same in many ways. In what they say and do...
But hey, how are you supposed to vote. All politicians are corrupt and evil and Congress and the Senate are worthless and it doesn't matter so long as you do your own thing, right?
By David Sirota The Greanville PostAugust 18, 2012
The GOP’s presumptive vice presidential nominee is the 21st century’s flesh-and-blood embodiment of political deception and media obfuscation.
Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan admires Ayn Rand, and if you believe Republican Party mythology, Ryan is a messianic John Galt who will save America from a secret socialist conspiracy. Thus, in Rand fashion, it’s worth asking: Who Is Paul Ryan?
The answer is simple: the GOP’s presumptive vice presidential nominee is the 21st century’s flesh-and-blood embodiment of political deception and media obfuscation.
Purporting to be a small-government budget hawk, Ryan publicly decries corporate welfare and says he wants “to get Washington out of the business of picking winners and losers.” This has generated press coverage promoting Ryan as a great fiscal conservative. Yet, written out of the story is the fact that Ryan is a Huge Government Republican who voted for–and in some cases, still defends–the biggest examples of corporate welfare in American history.
Ryan, you see, was the Huge Government Republican who backed this era’s massive corporate bailouts–the one that picked politically connected companies as winners and taxpayers as losers. He was the Huge Government Republican who regularly voted for profligate war spending bills–the ones that blew a gaping hole in the federal budget. And he is the Huge Government Republican now using his committee chairmanship to oppose serious cuts to the deficit-exploding corporate welfare still embedded in the bloated Pentagon budget.
Similarly, Ryan claims to be, and is billed in the press as, a libertarian-inspired acolyte of Rand–a man who supposedly values freedom and limited government. But as a Huge Government Republican, he has consistently voted to expand the surveillance state, endorse warrantless wiretapping and permit indefinite detention. Oh, and in contradiction to Rand’s writings, he has also pushed to use the power of Huge Government to end a woman’s right to choose an abortion.
Like so many Republicans, Ryan genuflects to the private sector and insinuates that the government is not a job creator. It’s funny coming from a guy who has spent most of his adult life as a federal employee and whose family’s construction company brags of building its fortune off government highway contracts.
Ryan labels himself an opponent of “crony capitalism” and is often promoted by reporters as someone who can help Mitt Romney thwart the Washington insiders who corrupt our politics. Somehow, we are expected to ignore the fact that Ryan has spent the vast majority of his adult life in Washington; that his wife served as a top pharmaceutical and oil lobbyist in Washington; and that, as Newsweek reported in 2011, he tried to insert special provisions into federal law that would boost his personal oil investment portfolio.
Then there are Ryan’s budget proposals, whose central premises are that Medicare must be gutted and Social Security must be turned over to Wall Street because we allegedly don’t have enough revenue to fund them. In response, the press often credits Ryan’s blueprint for being courageous and honest. Yet, in the very same plans, Ryan proposes to severely deplete public revenues by eliminating all taxes on capital gains, interest and dividends, meaning that, according to The Atlantic magazine, Mitt Romney would pay a 0.82 percent tax rate on his $21 million annual earnings.
Republican powerbrokers, of course, hope you never learn any of this. They hope you and an obsequious press don’t bother to review Ryan’s congressional votes or his legislative history. They are hoping, in other words, that when you see Ryan’s boyish Midwestern visage, you won’t see the real Ryan–and you won’t see what his ascent to vice president might mean for the future of America.
David Sirota, an In These Times senior editor and syndicated columnist, is a bestselling author whose book Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now—Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything was released in 2011.
As you know, the Republican National Convention is right around the corner!
From the beginning, I’ve said this convention in Tampa will be a critical step for our R3VOLUTION.
That’s why I’ve instructed my campaign staff to offer financial assistance to our delegates who otherwise wouldn't be able to make it in order to ensure every one of them can reach Tampa.
But in order to make this a reality, can I count on you to please make a generous contribution to help as many of our campaign’s delegates as possible make it to the Republican National Convention?
As you know, the establishment hasn’t just sat still and quietly watched us take over party chapters and rack up delegates.
Their opposition has required our campaign to spend resources in Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, and Oregon to defend our gains and defeat their challenges.
And with August just around the corner, we want to make sure we can cover expenses for delegates that need help reaching the convention.
Your contribution will be put directly toward transportation, lodging, and other costs associated with getting these delegates to Tampa.
This is incredibly important for a number of reasons:
*** First, the Republican National Convention is our opportunity to plant our flag and show that our Liberty movement is the future of the GOP.
Seeing a flood of pro-liberty delegates and so many new and young faces in Tampa will respectfully send that message to the GOP establishment.
*** Second, we’re expecting a credentials battle at the Convention to ensure the national GOP doesn’t just “look the other way” at some of the dirty tricks my supporters had to deal with in many states.
I’ll need my supporters in Tampa to help ensure as many of our campaign’s delegates get credentialed as possible.
*** And finally, the Republican National Convention provides us with the opportunity to affect the Party Platform.
As you know, pro-liberty delegates will be fighting for an internet freedom plank, an Audit the Fed plank, and a plan opposing the indefinite detention of American citizens.
We may also have a battle over a plank opposing the so-called “PATRIOT” Act and undeclared wars.
Getting these crucial issues in the Republican Party Platform will not only show that we are the future of the GOP, but also perhaps even help convince some legislators who were “on the fence” on these issues to start coming our way.
That’s why I’m hoping I can count on you to make a generous contribution to help our campaign’s delegates get to Tampa.
There’s no doubt that our Liberty Movement is growing by leaps and bounds.
And it’s because of your hard work and dedication that we are the future of the Republican Party.
Thank you for all of that hard work and for everything you’ve done for my campaign!
The former head of the Star Wars missile defense program under Presidents Ford and Carter has gone public to say that the official version of 9/11 is a conspiracy theory and his main suspect for the architect of the attack is Vice President Dick Cheney.
Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret. flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam. He is the recipient of the Eisenhower Medal, the George F. Kennan Peace Prize, the President's Medal of Veterans for Peace, the Society of Military Engineers Gold Medal (twice), six Air Medals, and dozens of other awards and honors. His Ph.D. is in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech. He chaired 8 major international conferences, and is one of the country's foremost experts on National Security.
Bowman worked secretly for the US government on the Star Wars project and was the first to coin the very term in a 1977 secret memo. After Bowman realized that the program was only ever intended to be used as an aggressive and not defensive tool, as part of a plan to initiate a nuclear war with the Soviets, he left the program and campaigned against it
July 24, 2012 Dear Concerned Citizen: Thank you for writing me in support of H.R. 459, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, which would give the Government Accountability Office the authority to audit the Federal Reserve and its member components and report to Congress on the results. I strongly agree that such independent audit authority is essential. You will be happy to know that I am a cosponsor of H.R. 459 and voted to pass it on July 25, 2012. The bill passed the House by a vote of 327-98 and I am hopeful the Senate will move to vote on the bill as soon as possible. The Federal Reserve System operates as the central bank for the United States, managing the economy's money supply and overseeing the banking system. Historically, the Fed has not picked winners and losers when distributing money, nor has it brought significant credit risk onto its balance sheet. It has slowed or stimulated the economy by raising or lowering interest rates. Starting in March 2008, however, the Fed used its emergency powers to take massive credit risk onto its books. We now know that as of September 2009, the Fed's balance sheet had expanded from around $800 billion to over $2 trillion, not including off-balance sheet liabilities it guaranteed for Citigroup, AIG, and Bank of America, among others. Recent press reports suggest the Fed did significantly more to bolster the finances of the major financial institutions-- to the tune of up to $7.7 trillion in short term borrowing to shore up their balance sheets—financing that was kept secret and had no strings attached. An audit is the first step in bringing greater accountability to this system. It is essential that we bring more transparency to the Federal Reserve and ensure that the American public and Congress have a clear understanding of the actions the Fed has taken in order to determine the appropriate measures that need to be put in place to avoid another financial crisis in the future. Thank you again for writing me about this issue. I value the messages I receive from my constituents and use them to better inform my decision making process. I hope that you will continue to call or write me in the future on matters important to you. All the best, Jackie Speier Member of Congress
Minutes ago, the U.S. House voted to pass our Audit the Fed bill!
For more information, and to find out how your representative voted, be sure to check www.CampaignForLiberty.org.
Thanks for your help to achieve this historic victory!
Only a few years ago, few would have believed that two thirds of the U.S. House would support a complete audit of the Federal Reserve.
It’s time to further shock the establishment by carrying our momentum over into the Senate.
And that’s where Audit the Fed faces its toughest test yet.
Ben Bernanke and his bankster pals know they can count on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and their other allies to do everything in their power to stop our transparency effort.
With your support today, we can unleash a grassroots tidal wave of action and show these “Wall Street Senators” that who they really should be worried about serving is their constituents – instead of providing cover to the Fed’s destruction of our money and economy.
The energy, enthusiasm, and passion are on our side – and so is a major victory in the U.S. House.
You and I CAN win this fight.
Thanks again for your support!
In Liberty, Matt Hawes Vice President
P.S. H.R. 459, our Audit the Fed bill, has passed the House!
Ben Bernanke and his bankster pals know they can count on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and their other allies to do everything in their power to fight our transparency effort.
So C4L must be able to unleash a grassroots tidal wave of pressure on the Senate right away.
Have you heard about the LIBOR fixing scandal? Perhaps you have heard that Barclay's paid a tiny fine for their part after they admitted guilt, which is highly unusual. What you probably haven't heard is how deep the rabbit hole goes, ho broad the scandal is and how it all impacts YOU!
Does it affect mortgage rates in the USA? Yes. Does it affect money market funds where your 401k money may be sitting? Yes. Does it affect the price of US treasuries? Yes. Does it affect the interest rates you pay on car loans? Yes. Business loans? Yes.
You get the point. Now let's dive in to help you understand what you will NOT hear on Bloomberg, Yahoo News, Associated Press news, Reuters News, and ANY major media outlet.
So the LIBOR rigging scandal involves various large banks, mostly primary dealers to the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England (pretty much every bank that received bailout funds in 2008 and more), and their efforts to keep interest rates low. By doing so, they improve the value of the debt based assets on their balance sheets. By collaborating with each other over time, these banks, which have overlapping shareholders, appeared to the outside world as being more solvent, more fundamentally sound than they really are. LIBOR is the basis for floating rate debt instruments like the collateralized debt obligations (CDO) that exploded in 2008 and caused the global credit system to freeze up. CDOs are a derivative product whose purchase price benefits with a lower interest rate. By colluding with other market makers, these large banks can push the LIBOR rate lower and make financials look better just in time for quarterly reports.
The other asset that banks hold on their books are US treasuries. The Federal Reserve lends money to these primary dealers at 0.25% interest rates while they buy US treasuries which pay up to 2% interest. By doing this in the billions of dollars, banks are able to generate stable income simply from the spread, essentially with no risk. As the global interest rates are pushed down by the Fed and the Bank of England, and many other central banks, the yield on treasury bonds goes up. By manipulating LIBOR, these banks can increase the value of the bonds they have on their books, thus making their assets look better than their liabilities and improving their financial statements in quarterly reports to the SEC, which typically means their stock price will rise as well, giving them even more capital to gamble on derivatives.
Now, think of yourself again. What interest rate does your bank pay on certificate of deposits? or savings accounts? Somewhere around 1%?. Banks will take your money and pay you next to nothing. If LIBOR was not manipulated, it is certain that interest rates would float upwards towards 5-7%. But that would decrease the value of the assets on the banks books and they would have to pay you a higher rate for your money on deposit.
How about money to buy a car or a small business loan? Here they probably charge anywhere from 5% - 15% for these loans they provide to the public. The money they lend, comes from everyone else's deposits, for which they pay 1% interest, and from the money they get from the Federal Reserve, for which they pay 0.25%. So they are making an AWESOME spread.
So how about those US treasuries? Remember that is how the Federal government pays for its deficit, and you've probably heard the annual deficit is well over $1 trillion dollars, annually, and future prospects do not look very good. This means that as the Federal government is giving aid to foreign nations in the billions, it is borrowing money at around 2% interest from buyers of the treasuries. Put another way, if the Federal government could not find buyers for the treasuries, it would not be able to make good on all its debts and it would default on its existing obligations, just like Greece.
Fortunately for the US federal government, the rest of the world is undergoing massive turmoil and downturn, making the US dollar a safe haven, so OPEC exporters, Japan, China, and the Federal Reserve is buying our treasury bonds, keeping our government afloat.
But what if there were fewer and fewer buyers of these treasuries? What if banks like JP Morgan Chase, and national governments and central banks around the world stop buying treasuries? Would we go broke. You bet. So it is in the best interest of the Federal government to keep interest rates low so the cost of debt service is low and so that the deficit can continue to be funded. The USA is now the largest debtor nation with a national debt of over $15 trillion dollars. Eventually, we will go bankrupt. It's just a matter of time.
Back to the LIBOR scandal. So the banks are colluding to keep interest rates low, screwing savers from any kind of decent return, urging people into riskier investments like the stock market, all the while they are getting money for nothing from central banks, buying treasuries, keeping the government afloat. If the banks crash, the government crashes. So now you have a perpetual cycle where no matter what crimes and fraud and wrongdoings occur at large banks, they are allowed to continue operating to keep the country from defaulting on it's financial obligations. It's really a stall tactic because eventually the house of cards must fall, but perhaps we will wait until after the next election so the next president can take the blunt of the blowback.
Enough of my ranting, watch these financial reports and decide for yourself.
Now watch this video which elaborates on the breadth of the sectors impacted by LIBOR and interest rate manipulation.
The DOJ will most likely investigate only foreign banking institutions because it wants to present the illusion of justice, while working to protect US banks, particularly JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America. This allows the currency war to drag on and force the Euro down against the US dollar, which is under attack as the global reserve currency by Iran, China, Japan, Russia, India, South Africa, Venezuela, and Brazil. The scales are tipping.
The manipulation is obvious to all and yet nothing is done to stop it because politicians, bureaucrats, and CEOs are afraid it will affect their financial fortunes. Meanwhile, we are destroying that of our children.
Banks' Defenses to Potential Trillions in Libor Claims Fail
The big banks have been manipulating the world’s central economic indicator – Libor – for decades, harming homeowners, students, credit card holders, small businesses, cities and many others.
The sums involved were huge. As the Economist notes:
The sums involved might have been huge. Barclays was a leading trader of these sorts of derivatives, and even relatively small moves in the final value of LIBOR could have resulted in daily profits or losses worth millions of dollars. In 2007, for instance, the loss (or gain) that Barclays stood to make from normal moves in interest rates over any given day was £20m ($40m at the time). In settlements with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in Britain and America’s Department of Justice, Barclays accepted that its traders had manipulated rates on hundreds of occasions.
The Independent notes that potential liability from the Libor suits could wipe out Barclays, RBS and other banks … and that the big banks have taken inadequate reserves against litigation risks.
David Kotok - Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Cumberland Advisors, with $2 billion dollars under management - writes:
The LIBOR rigging is systemic.
***
This scandal is going to take down many more than just Barclay’s leaders. The claims are likely to be in the trillions.
But the banks say that they are judgment-proof because their manipulation didn’t cause any damage.
Specifically, the banks claim:
(1) Sometimes they nudges rates up and sometimes down …. so it’s a wash;
(2) Some people won and others lost … so it’s a wash; and
(3) It would be impossible for anyone who sued to quantify the amount of damages they suffered due to rate manipulation.
But the first argument is easily debunked. As Yves Smith notes:
The idea that one party’s loss from the manipulation was another’s gain is irrelevant to those on the losing side [quoting the Economist]:
….banks will be sued only by those who have lost, and will be unable to claim back the unjust gains made by some of their other customers. Lawyers acting for corporations or other banks say their clients are also considering whether they can walk away from contracts with banks such as long-term derivatives priced off LIBOR.
The second argument is also easily dispatched. For example, it is clear that for many years up until 2007, every time the banks nudged Libor rates higher, homeowners, students, credit card holders, small businesses and other borrowers were damaged by artificially inflated interest rates.
The case would be especially easy for people who borrowed money and finished paying off their loan during this period. For example, someone who bought a house in 2005 and sold it in 2007 could have a strong case.
Similarly, it is clear that Barclays and other big banks manipulated rates downward after the financial crisis hit in 2007, to make themselves look stronger than they really were. Because of the way their interest rate swaps were structured, local governments got creamed by lower Libor rates.
So governments which bought interest rate swaps during the relevant period based upon the assumption that rates would keep rising - especially if they were misled as to the likely direction of rates by one of the banks that participated in rigging Libor (Citi, Chase,, UBS, RBS, etc.) - could have a solid case.
Finally, I can assure you that derivatives experts, mortgage experts, statisticians, and alot of other people are crunching numbers right now to start quantifying damages.
For a picture of the trend, this is also from Econoday:
As you can see, the first quarter job situation has been collapsing. There are still 12. 7 million Americans unemployed, 41.9% of the unemployed have been so for more than 27 weeks, and the broadest measure of unemployment (U-6) was 14.9% (+0.1%). For those of you wishing to see the so-called "U" data, please go here.
Steve Forbes has a message for a nation dominated by increasingly short-term decisions made on Wall Street and in Washington D.C., and by ever greater economic, financial and currency instability. As long as America continues moving away from sound money; away from sound financial and economic policies; and, ultimately, away from freedom, its future grows more dim. The dot-com and housing bubbles followed by the 2008 financial crisis and the most severe economic decline since the Great Depression serve as powerful lessons. A future of bigger government, higher taxes, more burdensome regulations, less consumer choice and more unrealistic government promises requires more and more Federal Reserve play money. Steve Forbes has a quintessentially American policy prescription rooted in American history. The answer to America’s economic problems is—and has always been—new wealth creation. New wealth creation doesn’t come from the government or from the Federal Reserve’s printing press. New wealth creation is what happens naturally with stable money based on the gold standard, lower taxes on individuals, a simplified tax code, reduced bureaucracy and free markets.
Remember that central banks are private institutions owned by dynasties and institutions that manipulate the money supply to benefit themselves, not the rest of us. Just ask your savings account how much it has returned to you lately. Interest rates are purposely pushed to the bottom purportedly to keep the economy stimulated by motivating people to borrow and spend, just what the growing poor and middle class need to do when their houses just tanked in value or they lost them altogether. Their 401ks took a dive as well, probably still hasn't recovered from the 2008 dip. And now there is a threat of another? Boom bust cycles are purposefully created and controlled. Don't be a fool.
A generation of market participants has grown up knowing only the era of central bankers and the 'Great Moderation' of (most of) the last two decades elevated their status significantly. While central bankers are generally very well aware of the limits of their own power, financial markets seem inclined to overstress the direct scope of monetary policy in the real world.
If markets fall, investors need only to run to central bankers, and Ben Bernanke and his ilk will put on a sticking plaster and offer a liquidity lollipop to the investment community for being such brave little soldiers in the face of adversity
Monetary policy impacts the real economy because it is transmitted to the real economy through the money transmission mechanism. This has become particularly important in the current environment, where, as UBS' Paul Donovan notes, some aspects of that transmission mechanism have become damaged in some economies. Simplifying the monetary transmission mechanism into four very broad categories: the cost of capital; the willingness to lend; the willingness to save; and the foreign exchange rate; UBS finds strains in each that negate some or all of a central bank's stimulus efforts. In the current climate, it may well be that the state of the monetary transmission mechanism is even more important than monetary policy decisions themselves. Some monetary policy makers may be at the limits of their influence.
If you have seen and learned what I have then you would most likely be a twisted zombie just working away making a little money, struggling in this un-stimulating economy, frustrated by how much it costs to do anything, go anywhere, then you might begin to understand why I want to build a Wikispeed C3. Don't get me wrong, I have an awesome job with an excellent company with an awesome future. But someday, I would liket o be able to say that I contributed to the new economy that values energy efficiency, assuming that ever comes.
Meanwhile, let me tell you about about the Wikispeed C3.
The Wikispeed C3 gets 100 mpg and can achieve zero to 60 in less than 5 seconds. Efficient and Awesome!
It's not only ultra efficient, already achieving over 100 miles per gallon with a combustion engine, its fast, economical (less than $25,000), made locally in the Peninsula with regionally sourced materials where possible! and did I mention it gets 100 miles per gallon? yes, that's right, gasoline is over $4 a gallon here in California and I would like to use as little as possible to save money and reduce the demand for the energy wars.
Right now this car is in its early testing and modeling stages. Right now we are using Agile Scrum software development methodologies to iterate on the car and make it better and less expensive, without compromising quality and safety.
Our goal is to continue achieving over 100 miles per gallon through each revision of the car and go to market with a whole new car company, similar to Tesla, which recently went public on one of the exchanges in New York City. (I'd like to see us start an exchange here in the Peninsula that competes with NYC or Chicago. ) Anyway, this looks really fun. I may even make something out of this business and pass it on to my kids. Better than leaving them nothing.
If you ever end up reading this book, I sure would like to know what you think. I am just a regular guy and reading this, along with other related books you see in the TwistedPolitix Reading List, doesn't look so bad. The idea here is to finally get out of the boom bust cycle twisted economix and war presented by our world power hungry. That just means making your local economy more resilient to outside forces, like bribery, corruption, racketeering, fear, uncertainty and doubt. It would resemble life in the past in the sense that we were more locally involved, but that technology would be more advanced in some areas and behind in others. Forget Obama, Romney, or Ron Paul for now. Just think about how this economy and life in general could improve. This is where you go think, not disengage behind a screen.
Transition Handbook
The first of these was the Transition Handbook, by Rob Hopkins.
Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, describes it well:
“The Transition concept is one of the big ideas of our time. Peak oil and climate change can so often leave one feeling depressed and disempowered. What I love about the Transition approach is that it is inspirational, harnessing hope instead of guilt, and optimism instead of fear. The Transition Handbook will come to be seen as one of the seminal books which emerged at the end of the Oil Age and which offered a gentle helping hand in the transition to a more local, more human and ultimately more nourishing future.”
Some investigative reporters have reported that Gaddafi my have been ousted in 2011 by NATO forces not because there was a local uprising against his tyrannical rule, but because he was making progress on his ideas for a gold backed dinar that would be used to trade Libyan oil. It would also be the single currency of a United States of Africa that Gaddafi had proposed starting in 2000, and brought up again in 2007 and 2009 at regional conferences. Here are some of the articles that suggest there is a lot more behind the USA and NATO involvement.
The United States of Africa is a proposed name for the concept of a federation of some or all of the 55 sovereign states of Africa. Former Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, who was the 2009 Chairperson of the African Union (AU), advanced the idea of a United States of Africa at two regional African summits: in June 2007 in Conakry, Guinea,[4] and again in February 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.[5] Gaddafi had previously pushed for the creation of the African Union at a summit in Lomé, Togo, in 2000.[6] Having described the AU as a failure on a number of occasions, Gaddafi asserted that only a true pan-African state can provide stability and wealth to Africa.
Muammar Gadhafi's decision to pursue gold standard and reject dollars for oil payments may have sealed his fate (June 7, 2011) Attacking Col. Gadhafi can be understood in the context of America and Europe fighting for their survival, which an independent Africa jeopardizes. The war raging in Libya since February is getting progressively worse as NATO forces engage in regime change and worse, an objective to kill Muammar Gadhafi to eradicate his vision of a United Africa with a single currency backed by gold. Observers say implementing that vision would change the world power equation and threaten Western hegemony. In response, the United States and its NATO partners have determined “Gadhafi must go,” and assumed the role of judge, jury and executioner. “That man has invested in Africa more than any other leader in the recent history of Africa's coming into political independence,” he continued. The Muslim leader said America needs access to the mineral resources in Africa to be a viable power in the 21st century.
Pre-existing Condition
During the Libyan escalation, General Wesley Clark wrote an article for the Washington Post suggesting to the world that Libya did not meet the US criteria for intervention (which is quite unusual considering that we have invaded sovereign nations over 200 times since 1800). However what is certainly more concerning is that in 2007 on an interview on DemocracyNow, General Wesley Clark revealed plans exposed to him in the Pentagon right after 911 that suggested the US was planning to invade Libya as far back as 1998.
There are extensive reports supporting these claims. including this RT report on YouTube. The articles and video all made the following startling and disturbing claims:
Just prior to the air strikes, Gaddafi had planned to introduce a new currency, the “Gold Dinar”.
The currency was to be supported by Libya’s massive gold reserves of 144 tonnes.
The gold coin was to be accepted throughout Africa and the Middle East and would have been the only currency accepted for purchases of oil.
This strategy would likely crush both the Dollar and the Euro, making the Dinar the dominant international currency.
The NATO military action is the result of a US-led plan to crush Gaddafi’s currency plans and to protect Western financial interests. The military action is supported by US oil interests, who are seeking to obtain access to Libya’s massive oil reserves.
Grounds for Impeachment
President Obama argued that the War Powers Act did not apply to the Libyan intervention because the United Nations and NATO provided him with sufficient authority to be involved. Understand that what Obama is saying is that the President of the United States, Chief of the US Military can direct US military intervention in another sovereign nation because the UN and NATO authorize such actions. That is very likely unconstitutional and grounds for impeachment as many have suggested. Unfortunately for those in favor of restricting the Presidential powers, the Democratic Party and Republican Party are too "motivated" to see money being spent on a US projection of power that distracts the public from the turmoil at home.
Shouldn't we seriously consider doing something like this again? Or is our economy so bad that nothing can be done. That's what they would like you to believe!
Coinage Act of 1792
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Coinage Act or the Mint Act, passed by the United States Congress on April 2, 1792, established the United States Mint and regulated the coinage of the United States.[1]The long title of the legislation is An act establishing a mint, and regulating the Coins of the United States. This act established the silver dollar as the unit of money in the United States, declared it to be lawful tender, and created a decimal system for U.S. currency.[2]
Steve Forbes has a message for a nation dominated by increasingly short-term decisions made on Wall Street and in Washington D.C., and by ever greater economic, financial and currency instability. As long as America continues moving away from sound money; away from sound financial and economic policies; and, ultimately, away from freedom, its future grows more dim. The dot-com and housing bubbles followed by the 2008 financial crisis and the most severe economic decline since the Great Depression serve as powerful lessons. A future of bigger government, higher taxes, more burdensome regulations, less consumer choice and more unrealistic government promises requires more and more Federal Reserve play money. Steve Forbes has a quintessentially American policy prescription rooted in American history. The answer to America’s economic problems is—and has always been—new wealth creation. New wealth creation doesn’t come from the government or from the Federal Reserve’s printing press. 
A generation of market participants has grown up knowing only the era of central bankers and the 'Great Moderation' of (most of) the last two decades elevated their status significantly. While central bankers are generally very well aware of the limits of their own power, financial markets seem inclined to overstress the direct scope of monetary policy in the real world.
