What can we do to improve our lives? What can we do to improve our health and our well being?

From that question, we look into ways in which we can improve our everyday lives by being more aware of our habits and the effect they have on us. What kinds of projects you can do around your home, to improve its ability to be a safe and healthy environment, promoting a healthy routine that you can carefully craft to meet your goals.

We’ll get into all of these ideas and more in today’s podcast. Please have a listen and feel free to drop some feedback so I can improve it.Similar Posts:

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STAGE 2: EUROPEAN SOVEREIGN DEBT UNDER ATTACK

Taken together, the Icelandic and Greek financial crises can be seen as the second stage of the larger global banking crisis.  The first stage of the global banking crisis, which began in late 2007, was centered in the European and U.S. mortgage and mortgage derivative market.  The second stage began with Iceland’s monetary and fiscal crisis in 2009 and continues with the current Greek crisis, and is centered in European sovereign debt.

The global crisis banking crisis is a multi-phase global economic crisis caused by years of over-borrowing followed by the current deleveraging.  This deleveraging was, of course, set in place by all those who gambled with their own and other people’s money.  As time passes, more and more of these gamblers will be unmasked and there will be more countries, companies, industries, and individuals who will lose face and capital in coming months and years.  We anticipate that these problems will continue as various sectors delever over the next six to eight years.

Many believe that the other European nations will act to bail out Greece, and then perhaps Spain or other over-levered nations in Europe who experience debt problems.  We disagree.  In our opinion, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the lender who will bail out the damaged European nations.  In our opinion, it is too hard for European nations to go to their taxpayers and tell them that they are directly or indirectly guaranteeing the debt of a foreign country.

As is their custom, the IMF will extract a high price in terms of the deep cuts in expenditures and increases in taxes demanded of the borrower.  In our opinion, the period of easy borrowing is over for the Greeks, and probably for several other European nations whose debt will come under attack in coming months and years.

The current chaos is creating substantial demand for gold and other precious metals.  Holders of Euros are seeking to acquire more gold, and holders of other currencies such as the Japanese Yen and U.S. dollar are undoubtedly thinking of following suit.  Buying gold to hedge against the probability that the Yen and U.S. Dollar will be under attack in the not too distant future is not unwise.

THE FUTURE OF THE DELEVERAGING CRISIS

The coming phases of the deleveraging crisis will simply be different flavors of one major phenomenon with one major cause.  We are saying this because we do not believe that most investors realize how long and pervasive this deleveraging crisis will be.  If this were a baseball game, we would only be in the 2^nd inning (for non baseball fans among you, that means we are only 20-25 percent through the crisis).

Furthermore, crises are still brewing with respect to the solvency of U.S. states, and the legal subdivisions within the countries in the European Union.  These crises have yet to become globally recognized.  In order to bail out the states and other governmental entities below the national level, a huge quantitative easing (money printing) process will eventually be instituted in many countries.  The effect will be to keep the developed nations economies (and their currencies) under pressure for years.

Governments are not alone.  Many industries, such as banking, financial services, and insurance remain under pressure to decrease their leverage and raise capital.

GLOBAL ECONOMICS

OIL DEMAND UP STRONGLY

The global demand for oil is created by demand for energy in China, India, and other Asian nations.  The world’s supply is not sufficient to handle all of the demand.  Although some pessimists talk about gluts, any price declines in oil will be short-lived.  We are buyers of oil on dips and we continue to expect oil prices to top $90/barrel by the end of 2010.

GOLD IS IN DEMAND BY EUROPEANS

Europeans have been buying gold (which is at a new high in Euro terms).  The obvious reason for their purchases is to hedge the negative effect of a declining Euro.  Many Europeans remember that two world wars were fought on their territory, and that owning some gold has saved many lives and many  fortunes.  During times of crisis they gravitate strongly to gold, and the current crisis is no exception.  European central banks and the IMF may sell gold, but the average European is more likely a buyer than a seller.

U.S. STOCKS

U.S. stocks have been gradually rallying, and we believe that this rally could continue for a few months.  It will cease when short term interest rates in the U.S. rise one or two more times.  We continue to see a broad range of U.S. companies that are overpriced, but there are also values to be found for those who are bargain hunters.

INTEREST RATES

Interest rates in the U.S. and other parts of the world are starting to rise.  The U.S. raised the Discount Rate last week and many pundits argued that the increase was of no importance.  We disagree.  For many decades, we have seen interest rate increases as a warning signal to get out of markets.  In every country, stocks compete with short term interest rates for investors.

If short term rates start to rise, stocks always correct.  U.S. interest rates have seen their lows.  Historically, after the second or third rise in rates, U.S. stocks undergo a larger correction.  When will the second and third rate increases take place?  We imagine that they will happen before the end of 2010.

CHINA

China’s economy continues to expand in spite of concerns among uninformed observers that a slowdown is looming on the horizon.

It is worth noting the many internal changes taking place in China during its continued growth phase.

Change #1

For the past twenty years, migrant workers have streamed into the Eastern seaboard from the nation’s interior agricultural centers in search of manufacturing work, but today, that trend is changing.  Farming families are now making money in agriculture or finding work closer to home.  Migrants are no longer pouring into the East coast and the resulting shortage of migrant workers is sending up the price of labor.  In many manufacturing areas wages are up 20 percent or more.

Change #2

Economic growth is now taking place in many regions of China, and the once ubiquitous assembly line manufacturing for export is now a smaller percentage of economic activity.  Most new jobs are to be found in retail, consumer products, infrastructure, and heavy industry.  These jobs are located throughout the country.

Change #3

A consumer economy is gradually developing.  The savings rate, which we believe to be about 30 percent in China, will gradually fall as the government installs the beginnings of a social safety net.  Currently, the (extended) family is the only social safety net and saving is key to family survival.

Change # 4

China has been building out their infrastructure for many years.  The infrastructure development is by no means complete, but the build-out is very impressive not only in big cities but in second tier cities as well.  This infrastructure will give China a competitive advantage in developing faster economic growth.

Change#5

China is targeting new industries to lead the world in the 21^st century.  Clean energy in all forms is one of their major undertakings.

Also worth noting:

Food price inflation in China and India is another worry.  We expect inflation to be 5 percent in China in 2010.

China’s stock market has been consolidating and moving sideways due to a concerted raising of reserve requirements to stop speculation on real estate.  We believe that about six months before rates peak China’s market will rise strongly.  In the interim, we are selecting low P/E, fast growing companies.

INDIA

India’s economy is booming and, in our opinion, the Indian stock market is currently overpriced.  Inflation is rising and we expect interest rates to follow.  Although we applaud the job that Prime Minister Singh has done on the economic front, we will wait for a correction before moving into Indian shares.  The growth areas include many sectors of the economy such as construction, pharmaceuticals, technology, consumer banking, real estate, and consumer goods.  The nation’s infrastructure is slowly improving but will take decades to become first-world.

As many have heard, the IMF is selling a large amount of gold that was contributed to them by member countries in order to raise cash to help countries with problems.  The countries who deposited the gold with the IMF have agreed to the sale, yet even with this large sale hanging over the market, gold prices remain strong.  It is widely rumored that India will be the purchaser of the IMF’s gold.

Indian officials have stated from time to time in the world press that they are buyers of gold at market prices.

ATTRACTVE INVESTMENT AREAS

Bargains continue to be available, but one must be thorough and careful in picking them.

We continue to see growing countries that are well situated to supply the Chinese economic machine with raw materials or partially manufactured products as attractive investment opportunities.

We are concerned about some emerging markets due to high valuations.  This has kept us out of India and Taiwan.  We are currently focused on U.S. and European technology and energy companies, fast growing companies in the developed world, gold bullion and Canadian gold mining companies, companies with new oil discoveries (wherever they may be located),  Indonesia, Thailand and some specific Chinese companies.

Thanks for listening.

Monty Guild and Tony Danaher
www.GuildInvestment.comSimilar Posts:

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One of the most fascinating and brilliant researchers and alternative historians, on the ancient Egyptian world, simply must be John Anthony West. His work has truly revitalized many people’s understanding of ancient Egypt, a subject which is often clouded by the uninspired and often dim witted theories of the modern-day quackademics in the field of Egyptology.

West is well known for his work with actor Charleton Heston and geologist Robert Schoch on Mystery of the Sphinx; a documentary which details his theory that, due to evidence of water erosion on the Sphinx, this monument must be thousands of years older than is currently believed by the academic Egyptologists. He also made a fantastic documentary called Magical Egypt, which is a Symbolist view of the ancient Egyptian world.

This alternative perspective, espoused by J.A. West, operates under the premise that the ancient Egyptians can do a far better job of telling their own history, in their own words, than the contemporary researchers. These academics largely ignore the Egyptian writings as fanciful myths and fail to grasp the true meaning of many of the temples and artifacts they study.

Indeed, academics of today cling to this notion that the Egyptian civilization was primitive, had virtually no advanced technology and built the pyramids as great tombs. However, a thorough examination of the temples, monuments and artifacts, shows that they must have had highly advanced technology; because they accomplished feats of precision and ingenuity that we, with all of our technology, have yet to surpass.

Alternative Egyptologist and Author John Anthony West comes on the program to talk about his research and work into ancient Egypt and the current financial turmoil. He is the author of Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt, The Traveler’s Key to Ancient Egypt, and The Mystery of the Sphinx. He is also behind the DVD series Magical Egypt.

We discuss what the ancient science of the Egyptians can offer us today, we discuss how the current financial turmoil is connected to the ancient world. We talk about John’s background and how he got interested in Ancient Egypt.

Topics Discussed: Great Sphinx of Giza, Water Erosion on The Sphinx, Dating of the Sphinx, Paleoclimatology, Robert Schoch, R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Temple of Man, The Financial Crisis, Materialism, “The Church of Progress”, Enlightenment, Gerald Celente, Gurdjieff, Astrology and much more. December 14, 2008

If you want to know more about a relatively new way to view the ancient world, which goes against the typical notions of, what J.A. West calls, the Church of Progress; then this interview will truly blow your mind. If you want to know more, there are many videos and books you can look at, to get a more detailed picture of the topics they discuss in the interview.

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If you do anything business related on your computer, I think you will find that a good backup solution, even if it is only used ONCE, will pay for itself many times over.  Just think about all of the work that goes into creating and organizing the files on your computer and if your time and effort is worth anything, a few hundred dollars will seem like a pittance; especially when you consider the fact that, with a good backup solution, you can simply replace your drive and be back up and running with a few hours as if nothing happened.

Network Attached Storage

The solution which I feel is finally coming of age, for the home user on a budget, is Network Attached Storage (NAS); particularly NAS systems which support at least RAID 1 mirroring or similar setups which allow for redundancy.

While most of us can get away with having an external drive that we periodically copy our data to; there is still a good possibility that this drive will crash. If you are using this drive to archive files, then you will have lost data. So it is imperative to have a mirrored system to hold your data.

I waded through the various systems out there and the reviews. I found many which are “adequate” but inflexible; because they do not allow for future expansion. For example, I saw many which allow you to swap out drives; but cap the number of Terabytes you can have in the array.

Well, after a night of searching, I ran into a combination which gives you a total of 2TB (redundant, actually 4TB total) on a nicely featured NAS box.

Mirrored Hot Swappable 4TB Network Attached Storage System for Under $600

I recently ordered one of these diskless NAS boxes for under $200 after rebate:

It runs a tiny version of Linux and supports a variety of backup and file system protocols including Apple’s “Time Machine”. One nice aspect of it, is the fact that you can plug in any SATA or SATA II hard drive and have it do RAID 1. So you can always buy a larger drive in the future.

I saw this interesting bit of info in one of the reviews:

“It does Netgear’s own proprietary XRAID mirroring (but not RAID 0). XRAID apparently allows the automatic upgrade to more then two drives, if you would use it in a Netgear box, which supports more then two drives. Unlike with other home office NAS, the firmware is saved in a flash and not on the drives itself. The drives are hot swappable and rebuild themselves automatically unlike with many other personal NAS products. The NAS can share directories via CIFS, NFS, AFP, and HTTP. It also can do FTP and TFTP, which comes in handy in the lab.”

So if a 3TB drive came on the market and you wanted to incorporate it into your box, you would just pull one of the 2TB drives out and pop it in; then it will copy the data over. Then you would pop the other 2TB array out and the data on the newly copied drive would be copied back; so you can expand the array easily.

When you toss in 2 x 2TB Western Digital Hard Drives, the whole system with 2TB of redundant network accessable storage came out to under $600.Similar Posts:

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Unfortunately, most people do not have the desire or the know-how to have such a set-up. So until this propagates to a larger sub-set of the population; most of this kind of communication will be stuck on places like FB & MySpace.

I can sense a growing dis-content among many, with this kind of centralized set-up. I think they really are tired of giving control of their content, feed management and social network to a large company.

If someone can implement a very simple, easy to install, open source, app, which accomplishes much of what these network sites do; then there may be a big change in store for this kind of communication.

It will have to be something that people can equate to their existing social network sites (at first). Most likely, it will also have to integrate with sites like FB, in order to remain connected to the legacy network.

That would be a good project for an enterprising programmer. Something to finally put an end to these large networking sites controlling our experience and profiting from our everyday activities.Similar Posts:

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After a lone Nigerian would-be terrorist tried to detonate explosives in his underclothes Christmas Day on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, TSA immediately grabbed for even more invasive power over American citizens.

Most disturbingly, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) wants to implement full-body scans at the nation’s airports-allowing unelected bureaucrats to virtually strip-search and gawk at kids, moms, grandmothers, grandfathers — you and all other American passengers — through your clothes.

Predictably, misinformation on the graphic nature of the images and ability of TSA personnel to copy, photo, and save the images poured forth from TSA flaks.

I have included direct contact information for the TSA at the end of this post. Call them today and let them know how disgusted you are with their latest plan to invade our privacy.

It’s a peeping tom’s dream, and a nightmare for those of us who believe in the great American principles of liberty, restrained government, and privacy.

Unless we stop this outrage, TSA agents will be snooping at the undergarments of such “threats” as American kids, grandmothers, and grandfathers. And if you or they refuse? You will be physically searched by TSA employees just like a criminal after being arrested.

The TSA’s dirty little secret is the agency has been pushing for full-body imaging since 2002 and even introduced the technology at a handful of airports in 2007-without ensuring that passengers knew they were being watched in this manner.

As Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said, “Nobody needs to see my wife and kids naked to secure an airplane.”

Despite self-serving assurances from the TSA, these full-body scans are an unconstitutional, unacceptable intrusion into the privacy of American passengers nationwide.

Last year, Campaign for Liberty Director of Development Steve Bierfeldt sued the TSA for detaining him for carrying cash. Because Steve so strongly stood up to them, the TSA backed down from its unconstitutional searches of passengers’ non-terrorism-related property.

But such victories for liberty are rare in today’s America and must be fought for by a vigilant public jealous of its liberty.

We now risk losing the gains we have made against the surveillance state, all because of the “systemic failure” of the federal government-as Obama himself called it. Now the TSA wants to know far more about us than just the amount of cash we’re carrying.

Use the numbers below to contact them today as we show the TSA that the freedom movement will not sit idly by in this fight.

Just as Big Brother advocates jumped on the intelligence failure of 9/11 to nationalize airport security, they once again want to use their own failure as an excuse for more power.

But we know that this latest move will not keep us safe. So far, it has been passengers and flight crew who have stopped such incidents as this and the attempted “shoebombing” of December 2001.

They can keep stripping away our privacy and liberty, all to foil the last attack, but the terrorists will continue to circumvent any of their freedom-crushing “security” measures.

As Judge Andrew Napolitano has explained, “Airline travel is safer today because pilots have guns, cockpit doors are like bank vaults, and the passengers have become courageous. All this was done by individuals in the private sector, not by the government. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if the feds had not stripped us of our natural rights to keep ourselves safe-by keeping and bearing arms-9/11 would never have happened.”

If we want to diminish the threat of terrorism and fly more safely, we can restore the Second Amendment, hand airline security back to the private sector, and end our government’s policy of foreign interventionism.

Contact the TSA’s “Office of Civil Rights” by phone toll free at 1-877-EEO-4-TSA (1-877-336-4872) or (800) 877-8339 (TTY) and by email at TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Let us do our part to show Washington and the TSA that Americans not only deserve and want both, but that we will not stop until our privacy and all our other freedoms are secure.Similar Posts:

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In the lecture, he explains his theories on ancient Egypt, detailing the manner by which his truly independent perspective was developed: his influences, experiences and how his understanding of symbolist Egypt evolved over the many years of his career.

Architecture does in stone what music does in sound; in other words, its visual vibrations that are affecting us. We’re inside the symphony, as it were, when we’re inside a sacred space. We’re being affected emotionally by the vibrational nature of that particular building.

So when we go into an Egyptian temple, we are resonating to its harmonies and proportions and so-on. The great sages of the past understood that each of the cosmic principles, which are the gods as it were. The gods are not some strange animal headed beings, they are the embodiments of cosmic principles and those cosmic principles are inextricably related to certain interplay of numbers which give rise to geometry, harmony, proportion and measure.

When you know the secrets of the numbers and secrets of the principles, you are able to produce a building that will evoke within the emotional center of the beholder, that particular principle.

–John Anthony West

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Jim,

Armstrong sees the Gold bull market lasting until roughly 2016 (17.2 years starting in 1999). Is it at this point that you see the USDX bottoming at .5200?

Is it at that point when you see the Federal Reserve Gold Certificate put in place? According to cyclical analysis it would come at the low point business wise of the 17.2 cycle.

How long do you think this world monetary system will take to be implemented?

I guess once again the US will lead the process.

Do you think China (or India) will take a major role in it?

Will it be done under the IMF umbrella?

After the Federal Reserve Gold Certificate is in place, do you believe that the world´s economy can enjoy some period of stability (with the exception of geopolitical considerations)?

Best regards,
CIGA Christopher

Christopher,

I see the USDX bottoming between .4600 and .5200, yes. I have learned not to argue with Armstrong on cycle timing. Gold should have a temporary high point between January 14th and June 25th, 2011.
Implementation is not a process, it is a surprise.

The US will not necessarily lead the process. By then the IMF will be the Western World Central Bank, if not in name, certainly in function.

China and India will play a major role by demand via back financial channels.

It will likely be done under the IMF umbrella as part of a Super Sovereign Currency.

After the Federal Reserve Gold Certificate is in place the world’s economy should be able to enjoy a period of stability for a considerable amount of time, but with a total rearrangement of positions of national economic powers moving towards Asia and do not forget Jakaya Kikwete and the common market of sub Sahara African countries of merit and leadership. They are there.

Regards,
JimSimilar Posts:

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The confidence model is rapidly crumbling, after many years of neglect; the US dollar bubble is finally bursting in an awesome way. If there were genuine integrity, then surely such a model would do; but the lack of sufficient moral fortitude in the hearts of men, makes it virtually impossible to have a confidence based economy for very long; because the confidence is merely an illusion and the model can only be sustained as long as the illusion persists.

On the daily chart, we see panic buying (and short covering) driving the price of gold to well above $1200 dollars. Major central banks, such as the Indian central bank, have become large-scale buyers of Gold.

It looks like my original medium-term target of $1379 is going to be upon us relatively soon. Our next target may soon be followed by a touch of the inflation-adjusted high of $1650, followed by a period of consolidation.

Gold Daily Chart: December 21, 2008 - December 2, 2009

The picture becomes clearer if we look at the inflation-adjusted monthly chart, showing the gold price action clear back to 1970. Considering official inflation statistics, we can see that gold has yet to move past its previous high, despite a vast expansion in monetary aggregates, which has occurred during the past several decades.

Gold Monthly: 1970 - 2009: $1650 Price Objective

Nobody can say for sure what will happen with the short-term fluctuations. But longer-term it is quite clear that the price of gold will move into the $5,000 range, as the reality of the need for hard assets sets in. It doesn’t take but a few billion dollars worth of gold purchases to create a significant increase in the gold price. Given all of the trillions of dollars already in circulation and the trillions planned for bailouts; the target of $5,000 will likely turn out to be a conservative target, once the dust has all cleared.Similar Posts:

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Of course, there will be road-bumps along the way; but the general course will take us to $1650 and then into the $3000-5000 range.  Where Gold goes beyond there depends on the monitary policies of the United States and what kind of thinking takes hold as all of this inflation begins to hit hard where it hurts.

The beautiful thing about gold, is the fact that it gives us all a clear omen, which allows the wise and observant among us, a chance to prepare for difficult times ahead.  This golden comet will become ever more brilliant with the passage of time.  Perhaps most of us will soon realize what is occurring and what they must do to deal with the situation.  This situation isn’t going to go away on it’s own and nobody is going to solve the problems  it creates for us in our stead.

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Principle is originally there; just call it to mind and it is there of itself. Desire is originally not there; if you can just see through it, it disappears of itself. Stopping desire and keeping to principle are basically not two things; to the extent that you have stopped desire, to that extent you keep to principle. Nothing benefits people more than principle, yet those who keep to principle are few. Nothing harms people more than desire, yet those who indulge desires are many.

When people have desires, it is like trees having insects; consumed within unknown, before long they collapse. Those who think desire is fun do not realize desire is like fire; if you do not put it out, you will burn yourself. Your spirit will suffer from irritation, alcohol and sex will wear out your vital energy, producing illness and ulcers, so you cry out in pain day and night. Buddhists who say you suffer from your sins after death do not realize you already suffer while still alive.

–Thomas Cleary

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PIMCO’s Bill Gross with a great monthly letter. Here are the key points:

• Over the past 30 years, paper asset prices rose 2X as much as they should have based on economic fundamentals
• This was the result of leverage
• The asset price rise in turn pumped up the economy’s fundamentals (Soros’s reflexivity)
• The government wants to restore the “old normal” (2007) not the “new normal” (slower growth as asset prices return to trend)
• Therefore… The Fed will keep rates at 0% for at least 18 months into sustained 4% growth
• Next year, when the inventory restocking effect wears off, 4% will be tough

Bill Gross:

[I]n a New Normal economy (1) almost all assets appear to be overvalued on a long-term basis, and, therefore, (2) policymakers need to maintain artificially low interest rates and supportive easing measures in order to keep economies on the “right side of the grass.”

Let me start out by summarizing a long-standing PIMCO thesis: The U.S. and most other G-7 economies have been significantly and artificially influenced by asset price appreciation for decades. Stock and home prices went up – then consumers liquefied and spent the capital gains either by borrowing against them or selling outright. Growth, in other words, was influenced on the upside by leverage, securitization, and the belief that wealth creation was a function of asset appreciation as opposed to the production of goods and services…

My point: Asset prices are embedded not only in our psyche, but the actual growth rate of our economy. If they don’t go up – economies don’t do well, and when they go down, the economy can be horrid.

To some this might seem like a chicken and egg conundrum because they naturally move together… if long term profits match nominal GDP growth then theoretically stock prices should too.

Not so. What has happened is that our “paper asset” economy has driven not only stock prices, but all asset prices higher than the economic growth required to justify them…

[L]et me introduce Chart 2 a PIMCO long-term (half-century) chart comparing the annual percentage growth rate of a much broader category of assets than stocks alone relative to nominal GDP. Let’s not just make this a stock market roast, let’s extend it to bonds, commercial real estate, and anything that has a price tag on it to see if those price stickers are justified by historical growth in the economy.

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In its rising there is no light,
In its falling there is no darkness,
A continuous thread beyond description,
Lining what can not exist,
Its form formless,
Its image nothing,
Its name mystery,
Meet it, it has no face,
Follow it, it has no back.

Understand the past, but attend the present;
In this way you know the continuity of Tao,
Which is its essence.”

–Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching – Peter Merel’s Interpolation)
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Bearing and nurturing,
Creating but not owning,
Giving without demanding,
Controlling without authority,
This is love.”

– Lao Tzu (Tao te Ching — Peter Merel’s Interpolation)
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‘I’ve seen an agent punch through a concrete wall. Men have emptied entire clips at them and hit nothing but air. Yet their strength and their speed are still based in a world that is built on rules. Because of that, they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be.’

‘What are you trying to tell me, that I can dodge bullets?’

‘No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.’

Many years ago, I entered this movie without a clue of what to expect. Incidentally, I find that these kinds of unexpected surprises, are often the best kinds of transformative experiences. The mind has no time to prepare any expectations for the experience. Instead the mind is just hit with the new reality and must quickly transform itself in response; there is no time to filter or deflect the experience.

The Matrix exceeded my wildest expectations and instilled a newfound curiosity towards the very nature of our experiential reality. At first there was a stream of thought to the effect that, maybe we are literally plugged into a mechanical device which simulates our reality. This further brought about thoughts such as, “What in fact is reality anyways?”

If our conscious reality is simply impulses arriving via the nervous system, then the reality is quite literally a projection in our own minds and is therefore holographic in it’s very nature. This essentially means there is not a solid, tangible, world out there, as our rational minds often like to think. Instead, we have this biological operating system which constructs these rule sets, which govern our impression of reality, in order to function more effectively (by it’s own definition, of course) in our environment.

What I am getting at here is the fact that our minds have a basic rule-set by which they operate, in order to survive in the current environment. This rule-set is generally set-up for the basic survival of our biological envelopes (bodies). However, by no-means are these foundational rules concrete; they are simply the consensus that we have, as a collective, chosen to instill via the socialization process.

When I imply that the rules are not concrete, I mean there may be a different, perhaps more succinct, set of rules; which will at some point, allow us an even deeper connection with the world around us. We have to be willing to look at the current set of rules in a critical light, in order to enable our selves to do this. Clearly there is an inherent resistance to this, which seems to be a product of the Ego not wanting to let go.

If we, on an individual level, can genuinely undock from this control grid, as many have done in the Matrix; then I foresee many of the limitations which now impede our day-to-day lives falling by the wayside.

If such a movement were to come to fruition, perhaps the people who made this conscious decision to undock from the control grid and redesign reality, will again build great societies, where they and their descendants can better self-actualize. A society where novelty is in great abundance, where individuals are no longer a drain on resources; but instead a priceless asset which compounds novelty as they reflect it from their own unique perspective in order to generate a richness of experience which most of us can only dream of in today’s world.Similar Posts:

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Appreciate your life and be content with your home;
Sail boats and ride horses, but don’t go too far;
Keep weapons and armour, but do not employ them;
Let everyone read and write,
Eat well and make beautiful things.

Live peacefully and delight in your own society;
Dwell within cock-crow of your neighbours,
But maintain your independence from them.”

–Lao Tzu (Tao te Ching — Peter Merel’s Interpolation)Similar Posts:

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When fat is added to the fire it consumes itself.

Cinnamon can be eaten and so is harvested.

The lacquer tree can be used and so is slashed.

Everyone knows the usefulness of the useful

But no one knows the usefulness of the useless!

– Chuang Tzu

A certain carpenter was traveling with his helper. They came to a town where a giant oak tree filled the square. It was huge, with many limbs spreading out; large enough to shade a hundred oxen and its shade covered the entire square. The helper was amazed at the potential lumber contained in this one tree but the carpenter passed it by with a mere glance. When his helper asked him why he had passed up such a magnificent specimen the carpenter replied that he could see at once that the great oak’s branches were useless to him.

“They are so hard,” he said, “that were I to take my ax to them it would split. The wood is so heavy that a boat made of it would sink. The branches themselves are so gnarled and twisted they cannot be made into planks. If I tried to fashion house beams with it they would collapse. If I made a coffin from it you would not be able to fit someone inside. Altogether it is a completely useless tree. And that is the secret of its long life.”

– Chuang TzuSimilar Posts:

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Every day something new is added.

In pursuit of Tao,

Every day something is let go.

– Lao Tzu

Similar Posts:

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With an RSI reading of 70, gold is one hot commodity.  This should start ringing some alarm bells at major money centers around the world.  It is becoming ever-more apparent, that we are experiencing a serious rout of inflation which could very well turn into a devastating wave of hyper-inflation in due time.

Gold Breakout Chart: October 7, 2009

• Golden Comet Now Seen By The World: $1650 Target In Sight
• The Wormhole at the “Process Event Horizon”
• Thoughts on the Gold Chart and Economics
• The Wheels are Falling off the Wagon
• If you know the mind of a killer, you can stop the killing.

The Master does nothing,
yet he leaves nothing undone.
The ordinary man is always doing things,
yet many more are left to be done.

The kind man does something,
yet something remains undone.
The just man does something,
and leaves many things to be done.
The moral man does something,
and when no one responds
he rolls up his sleeves and uses force.

When the Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is morality.
When morality is lost, there is ritual.
Ritual is the husk of true faith,
the beginning of chaos.

Therefore the Master concerns himself
with the depths and not the surface,
with the fruit and not the flower.
He has no will of his own.
He dwells in reality,
and lets all illusions go.

–Tao Te Ching (ch. 38 — S. Mitchell Translation)Similar Posts:

• What Is Taoism and How Can We Understand Tao?
• How are we going to realize our true nature with all of these rituals standing between us and reality?
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As of September 25, gold has broken through two long-term formations and sits at the neckline of an inverse head & shoulders formation.

Given that gold closed the week at the neckline of such a long-term Head & Shoulders formation, after having shown such resilience over the past few weeks, it is time we prepare ourselves for a significant move, further into unknown territory. The chart above indicates that gold is acting like a coiled spring, ready for the slightest trigger, to send it into launch mode; bringing the price into the $1200-1300 USD range.

When I look at this chart, I am reminded of the 2002-2003 period, when gold was hovering around the $375 range in a large wedge formation. At the time everyone was thinking, “this must be it for gold, it’s already had such a run from $250, the bull run surely must be over by now.”

I remember seeing the wedges, similar to the current chart, though less volatile than the current price fluctuations. I remember seeing a good-sized wedge in the MACD which had broken to the upside. In fact, it was at this time that Jim Sinclair, the CEO of Tanzanian Royalty Exploration and the author of Jim Sinclair’s Mine Set had a contest for gold community members to draw the relevant trend lines on an Investors Business Daily gold chart that he provided. The prize for this contest was a one ounce gold coin.

Well, I took Jim up on his offer and drew formations similar to those on the attached chart. Including a MACD breakout precisely like the one on the current chart. I made the chart simple yet elegant and intuitive and fortunately for me; out of all of the hundreds of charts sent in to his fax, he chose mine as the winner. What a great feeling that was and what an appreciation I gained for the power that each of us has to understand what is going on in the economic world with elegant simplicity not endless complexity.

It was even more rewarding to see gold advance to $450 by late 2004 and then $700 by 2006. What you have to realize, when you are studying these charts, is the fact that the underlying forces which propel gold skyward have not changed. The governments and central banks of the world continue to employ their disastrously flawed Keynesian economic models which create welfare, warfare and ultimately massive inflation.

Politicians love having all of the “free” money, hot off the printing press, to buy votes, line the pockets of their associates and bail out their friends. That is why these leftist notions of a nanny state taking care of us from cradle to grave, often embraced by Republicans and Democrats alike, is not going to solve the problems it was intended to solve.

This is because everything has a cost, yes even the nanny state, corporate welfare and the like. As the price of the yellow metal rises the buying power of the savings of billions of individuals decreases; so they are in effect robbed in broad daylight by the Keynesian inflationary policies. Is it any wonder that the standard of living continues to decline all over the western world.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” –Einstein

One of these days, it may dawn upon people, en mass; that in general the government doesn’t solve problems, it only creates problems. So the only way to truly solve problems is by strictly limiting the role of government to that of a referee and letting the free market bring about the solutions we need.

Had the free market been allowed to act upon zombie banks years ago, when the problems first arose; these banks would have never become “too big to fail.” Had the free markets been allowed to act, unhindered, in the health care field, we would have more choices and less people unable to get the help they need.

Unfortunately, with the public school educated populace; the first place they turn whenever their is a problem is the government. So we have the Hegelian dialectic, “(problem) oh goodness, what a dreadful problem! — (reaction) what are they going to do about it? — (solution) the policies that were originally sought, but did not find the political support are now widely supported and then implemented without much opposition.”

It really saddens me to see my countrymen repeating this cycle over and over again, unaware and uncaring of the fact that it makes their lives much more difficult and constrained. I often wonder when it will become apparent to them that all of this nonsense isn’t working. Will it be when gold is at 3,000? 5,000? 10,000?

I can’t say for sure when decisive action will be taken; but if history is any indicator, inevitably there will come a point at which the pull of the massively centralized state on people’s lives distorts the culture of these people to such an extent that they decide they’ve had enough of it. This would be the point where they realize that it costs so much more to live in a massive welfare state than the benefits that are derived from it and the productive individuals either demand real change, or they pull up anchor and head for some place which will suit their needs.Similar Posts:

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• A Golden Comet in the Sky
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These are the kinds of outcomes you see when people become driven by the irrational forces of the current international fiat money system. Supply and demand are not as effective when you have government and monetary authorities toying with foreign exchange rates and creating vast sums of fiat; this wreaks havoc on markets and causes the severe imbalances we have been seeing as of late.

One of the most telling signs, of how crippled world economy has become lately, is a vast fleet of idle cargo ships off the coast of Singapore. With trade dropping off around the world, the price to charter these ships is now a tiny fraction of what it was in better times; many ships cost 1/10 of what they once did.

Unless we replace our monetary system with sound hard-asset-based money, it is likely that we will continue to see these kinds of severe imbalances for many generations to come.

Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession

Simon Parry | UK Daily Mail

The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination – and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year.

The tropical waters that lap the jungle shores of southern Malaysia could not be described as a paradisical shimmering turquoise. They are more of a dark, soupy green. They also carry a suspicious smell. Not that this is of any concern to the lone Indian face that has just peeped anxiously down at me from the rusting deck of a towering container ship; he is more disturbed by the fact that I may be a pirate, which, right now, on top of everything else, is the last thing he needs.

His appearance, in a peaked cap and uniform, seems rather odd; an officer without a crew. But there is something slightly odder about the vast distance between my jolly boat and his lofty position, which I can’t immediately put my finger on.
Then I have it – his 750ft-long merchant vessel is standing absurdly high in the water. The low waves don’t even bother the lowest mark on its Plimsoll line. It’s the same with all the ships parked here, and there are a lot of them. Close to 500. An armada of freighters with no cargo, no crew, and without a destination between them.

My ramshackle wooden fishing boat has floated perilously close to this giant sheet of steel. But the face is clearly more scared of me than I am of him. He shoos me away and scurries back into the vastness of his ship. His footsteps leave an echo behind them.

Navigating a precarious course around the hull of this Panama-registered hulk, I reach its bow and notice something else extraordinary. It is tied side by side to a container ship of almost the same size. The mighty sister ship sits empty, high in the water again, with apparently only the sailor and a few lengths of rope for company.

Nearby, as we meander in searing midday heat and dripping humidity between the hulls of the silent armada, a young European officer peers at us from the bridge of an oil tanker owned by the world’s biggest container shipping line, Maersk. We circle and ask to go on board, but are waved away by two Indian crewmen who appear to be the only other people on the ship.
‘They are telling us to go away,’ the boat driver explains. ‘No one is supposed to be here. They are very frightened of pirates.’

Here, on a sleepy stretch of shoreline at the far end of Asia, is surely the biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history. Their numbers are equivalent to the entire British and American navies combined; their tonnage is far greater. Container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers – all should be steaming fully laden between China, Britain, Europe and the US, stocking camera shops, PC Worlds and Argos depots ahead of the retail pandemonium of 2009. But their water has been stolen.

They are a powerful and tangible representation of the hurricanes that have been wrought by the global economic crisis; an iron curtain drawn along the coastline of the southern edge of Malaysia’s rural Johor state, 50 miles east of Singapore harbour.

It is so far off the beaten track that nobody ever really comes close, which is why these ships are here. The world’s ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world’s economies.

So they have been quietly retired to this equatorial backwater, to be maintained only by a handful of bored sailors. The skeleton crews are left alone to fend off the ever-present threats of piracy and collisions in the congested waters as the hulls gather rust and seaweed at what should be their busiest time of year.

Local fisherman Ah Wat, 42, who for more than 20 years has made a living fishing for prawns from his home in Sungai Rengit, says: ‘Before, there was nothing out there – just sea. Then the big ships just suddenly came one day, and every day there are more of them.

‘Some of them stay for a few weeks and then go away. But most of them just stay. You used to look Christmas from here straight over to Indonesia and see nothing but a few passing boats. Now you can no longer see the horizon.’

The size of the idle fleet becomes more palpable when the ships’ lights are switched on after sunset. From the small fishing villages that dot the coastline, a seemingly endless blaze of light stretches from one end of the horizon to another. Standing in the darkness among the palm trees and bamboo huts, as calls to prayer ring out from mosques further inland, is a surreal and strangely disorientating experience. It makes you feel as if you are adrift on a dark sea, staring at a city of light.

Ah Wat says: ‘We don’t understand why they are here. There are so many ships but no one seems to be on board. When we sail past them in our fishing boats we never see anyone. They are like real ghost ships and some people are scared of them. They believe they may bring a curse with them and that there may be bad spirits on the ships.’

read full article…

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It is often thought that the 16th amendment gives congress this power to tax labor.  However, in 1916, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled “the Sixteenth Amendment does not purport to confer power to levy income taxes” in Brushaber vs. Union Pacific Railroad.

It is unfortunate that the majority of the population still does not understand the law, or the reason why the Constitution forbids direct un-apportioned taxes.  If this understanding of the law were more wide-spread, we would see the end of many of these organizations which take of the fruits of our labors.

The graduated income tax and the institutions it supports are deeply immoral; it undermines the inalienable rights of the individual and gives the Federal Government virtually unlimited power to take our property and control our lives.

Unnecessary and Immoral

By Jake Towne | Campaign For Liberty

“In a Time of Universal Deceit, Telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act.”
- George Orwell, author of 1984

Summary: The federal income tax is an unnecessary and immoral tax. I am in favor of abolishing the federal income tax and eventually the entire IRS. YOUR income from YOUR labor belongs to you and no one else, especially the government, has the right to steal it from you. Most Americans are unaware that while the government collects $1,200 billion in federal income taxes and collects roughly $3,000 billion in total taxes, the fact is that “only” $67 billion is necessary to run the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, which includes the FBI and federal court system. (1) (2) (3) When one compares this amount to the Banker Bailout of October 2008 for $800 billion and the Obama Stimulus Plan for $1,100 billion with interest, one wonders why not bailout the taxpayer in a plunging economy instead?

Although a removal of this tax will be strongly opposed, likely not even addressed, by my Republican and Democrat opponents, I am extremely confident that this is the best step for each individual and our country as a whole to achieve prosperity since the tax’s only purposes are to redistribute wealth and steal the fruit of one’s labor. The elimination of this tax will be paid for by ending the costly overseas military empire of 761 bases in 147 countries which includes 54,974 soldiers based in Germany, and 34,039 soldiers based in Japan, although WWII ended 64 years ago. (4)

Since eliminating the tax may not be politically possible while I am in office, I also pledge to aggressively fight to abrade the strength and breadth of this tax by introducing a series of bills that legislate changes such as no income tax withholding from paychecks, no taxes on tips, raising the standard deduction, removing taxes on capital gains and interest, and many more. I am open to supporting other transition plans and ideas, but all must undeniably reduce the tax burden, and not be “revenue-neutral.”

I recognize that most people have been engrained with the idea that we must have an IRS income tax, that everyone must “pay their fair share” to the country. Although I will grant that an absence of taxes is impossible, nothing could be further from the truth than to claim the federal income tax is necessary. Therefore, here is the truth with sources to support my reasoning:

1)The federal income tax was originally a Marxist idea. In 1848, Karl Marx wrote the 10 Planks of a Communist State in his Communist Manifesto. The second plank, right after the abolition of private property was “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax.” (5) In 1909, this Marxist idea was politically accepted by Americans as retribution against the “evil capitalists” who had caused the Panic of 1907, although fraudulent money and credit expansions by the bankers was the real root cause. 100 years later, both political parties still scapegoat all those in the financial industry as “evil doers.” (6) (7) By claiming an ever-increasing amount of your income, the State literally owns your labor. The progressive income tax strongly discourages the creation of new innovations, goods and services, as well as depleting and discouraging citizens to obtain more income. (photo)

2)The federal income tax has grown far beyond its original scope. The income tax was first placed into circulation as a 1-7% tax on only the very richest Americans. The first IRS income tax form had all those earning less than $20,000 paying NOTHING. (8) This may sound insignificant but, per the Minneapolis FED, this was the equivalent of $430,707 in 2009. (9) This top tax bracket grew to an onerous 92% in the 1950s. While the rate for the richest has receded, for the middle class this tax has grown 500% to 1000% from this time period. (10) Today, the top 1% of all wage-earners still pay over 40% of the total income tax collected. (11)

However, this certainly does not mean that the average American is not taxed heavily. An American making a salary of $50,000 will still pay around 15% in federal income tax without factoring in tax on interest and capital gains. This is in addition to the 15.3% payroll flat tax from Social Security and Medicare, the 3.07% Pennsylvania state income tax, any local, estate, vehicle, sales or property taxes, and the most vicious hidden tax of them all, the FED’s inflation tax, which has been running amok at 5-10% annually since 2002. (12) (13)

3)The premise behind collecting the federal income tax is a complete farce. The IRS claims the tax is voluntary, whereas any sane American realizes that she or he will go to jail if the tax is not paid. The Treasury calls it “our voluntary tax system.” (14) The IRS claims it pursues “enforcement programs to promote voluntary compliance” and establishes “strategies to maximize voluntary tax law compliance by emphasizing customer satisfaction.” (14) This is evident from not only the legal code, but even from the latest 1040 instructions to the taxpayer! (15A) (15B) (16)

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman writes that the American taxpayer willingly pays income tax “of their own free will” but laments “unfortunately, there will always be some that cheat their fellow citizens by avoiding the payment of their fair share of taxes.” Shulman then infers that IRS enforcement will be “prompt” and “strong” (read: ’swift’ and ‘merciless’) for this voluntary tax. (17)

4)The federal income tax is of dubious constitutionality and the Founding Fathers sought to prevent it. The 16th “Income Tax” Amendment of 1913 may never have been officially ratified, and even if it was, in 1916 the Supreme Court ruled “the Sixteenth Amendment does not purport to confer power to levy income taxes” in Brushaber vs. Union Pacific Railroad. (18) (19) (20) (21) However, I do concede the point that Congress has successfully used the amendment as the basis of its powers to tax incomes.

It is important to realize that the Congress can stop the income tax without first revoking the 16th Amendment. After all, the 16th Amendment did not really create a NEW tax; all it did was allow for DIRECT taxation of the citizens. Before the 16th, federal taxes were apportioned; that is, each state paid their “dues” to the federal government based on population. Washington, D.C. never sent a tax bill to each individual citizen. The 16th changed all this, and it is crucial to understand that our Founders did not intend for this to happen because its omission was purposefully done in the original Constitution.

5)The income tax is mostly used for War-Making, the Welfare State, and the National Debt – not general government and law enforcement! The income tax amounted to $1.2 Trillion for 2008. (2) Outlays were for $2.9 Trillion plus the $0.8 Trillion October bailout. (1) We spent just $0.067 Trillion for general government and law enforcement! (3) Out of every tax dollar, the IRS estimates we spend about a quarter on defense, a dime on the national debt, two pennies on general government & law enforcement and the remainder on Social Security (a giant Ponzi scheme) and other welfare and social programs. (22) (23) (24)

Pie Charts Detailing Income/Spending of the US Government

6)The $1.2 Trillion federal income tax is unnecessary. Cutting our overseas military empire spending of $1 Trillion per year would justify its elimination. (25) Instead of bailing out the banks for $0.8 Trillion in October and $1.1 Trillion of the Obama stimulus plan, we could have bailed out the increasingly unemployed taxpayer for the 2008 and 2009 tax bills as I argued in January 2009. (26)

7)America did quite well for one hundred and forty (140) years without an income tax, from 1776-1913.

8)Since we do not have a sound currency anchored to anything, and the fractional reserve system has broken down, this makes the income tax even more unnecessary. As Irelated earlier, our dollar-based monetary system has been reduced to simple paper ticket printing or electrons in bank accounts. (27) It is no secret that we simply could just print up even more tickets each year to pay for government expenses instead of resorting to both the pretense and bureaucratic waste of having the IRS plunder the population. Although foreign Treasury bond holders would be horrified, at least the drop in purchasing power would be publicly visible and more honest to everyone, especially savers and those on fixed incomes.

9)Today’s Establishment use the federal income tax solely as an instrument to drive and force social and economic change. Let’s not bother with the more infamous loopholes, let’s look at the much-lauded mortgage tax credits. What were the effects? One, while beneficial for those with mortgages, the government added fuel to the FED-created housing boom by subsidizing more people to obtain mortgages. Two, over the long run, this increased demand increases the housing prices, removing some of the benefit in the tax break. Three, those without mortgages were, in effect, penalized. The same logic can be applied to other deductions, whether education credits, charitable donations, or even child credits or orphan drug research. (28) Government exists to protect liberty, not to redistribute wealth, grant special privileges, or influence the lives of individuals and their actions. (photo)

10) The federal income tax code is time-consuming, confusing and baffling for many Americans. No wonder the code itself now consists of 3.4 million words and if printed would fill 7,500 pages. (15B) The code and regulations together were 66,498 pages long in 2006. (29) The taxpayer’s 1040 instructions are 161 pages long.(17) Americans spent 6.4 Billion hours filing their taxes in 2006. (29)

11) America’s “Tax Army” employs more people (1.2 million) than we have armed forces stationed in the United States (0.9 million). (14) (4) Collecting taxes is a completely non-value added task, adding nothing to our economy. Some of our brightest minds — lawyers, accountants, and computer experts – pound away at keyboards trying to figure out either how to plunder more money from others or find loops in the tax code to “save costs” for their clients. The total cost of collecting taxes is estimated at $63 billion, ironically just $4 Billion short of funding general government and law enforcement! (30) (3) The IRS employs 91,000 and will spend $11.6 Billion in 2009 collecting taxes. (31) (32)

List of Sources

(1) White House. FY 2009 Budget. p. 35/342. Approx. $3,000 billion in 2008 outlays. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf

(2)Ibid. p. 26/342. Approx. $1,200 billion in federal income taxes collected in 2008.

(3) Ibid. p. 59/342. Add “Administration of justice” and “general government” for 2008.

(4) Towne, Jake. April 2009. “America’s Military Empire.” http://www.nolanchart.com/article6271.html

(5) Marx, Karl. 1848. “Manifesto of the Communist Party” p. 21/44. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/manifest.pdf

(6) Armstrong, Martin. 2008. It’s Just Time. p. 12/77. Contemporary visit and extension of Kondratrieff cycles. http://www.contrahour.com/ItsJustTimeMartinArmstrong.pdf

(7) Rothbard, Murray. 1986. A History of Money and Banking in the United States. p. 240-242/510. http://mises.org/books/historyofmoney.pdf
(8) The First IRS Income Tax Form. 1913. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/1913.pdf

(9) Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Inflation calculator. http://www.minneapolisfed.org/

(10) Quinn, James. 2009. “GRAND ILLUSION – THE FEDERAL RESERVE” http://www.nolanchart.com/article6123.html

(11) National Taxpayer’s Union. Who Pays Income Taxes? 2007 figures. http://www.ntu.org/main/page.php?PageID=6
(12) Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Form PA-40 2008. http://www.revenue.state.pa.us/revenue/lib/revenue/2008_pa-40_fillin.pdf
(13)Towne, Jake. 2009. “The Real Interest Rate.” http://towneforcongress.com/economy/unlocking-the-money-matrix-the-real-interest-rate-part-1215 http://towneforcongress.com/economy/unlocking-the-money-matrix-the-real-interest-rate-part-1215
(14) Edwards, Chris. 2003. “10 Outrageous Facts About the IRS.” Fact #7. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3063
(15A) The IRS Tax Code. The IRS strangely recommends visiting Cornell University to view the code and they are correct, it’s easier to view. http://www.irs.gov/taxpros/article/0,,id=98137,00.html#irc
(15B) The IRS Tax Code. Easier to search than the IRS or Cornell version. http://www.fourmilab.ch/uscode/26usc/
(16) The Great IRS Hoax, Chapter 5. http://famguardian.org/Publications/GreatIRSHoax/GreatIRSHoax.htm
(17) IRS 1040 instructions p2/161, http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040.pdf
(18) The Constitution of the United States of America. http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html
(19) Benson, Bill. “The Law That Never Was.” http://www.thelawthatneverwas.com
(20) Tax Facts, #1 through #19. http://www.voluntarytax.info/tax_facts1.htm
(21) Brushabervs. Union Pacific Railroad. US Supreme Court, 1916. http://supreme.justia.com/us/240/1/case.html
(22) IRS 1040 instructions p91/161, http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040.pdf
(23) Paul, Ron. 2004. “Social Security: House of Cards.” http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul215.html
(24) Gnazzo, Douglas. 2005. “Social Security: The Whole Truth.” http://www.honestmoneyreport.com/archives/2005/truth/part1.html
(25) Paul, Ron. March 2008. “Intervening Our Way to Economic Ruin.” http://www.antiwar.com/paul/?articleid=12519
(26) Towne, Jake. January 2009. “Why Obama’s Stimulus Plan Will Fail… and a Better Alternative.” Idea #1. http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=3
(27) Towne, Jake. 2009. “Yes, Virginia, There Are No Reserve Requirements.” http://towneforcongress.com/economy/yes-virginia-there-are-no-reserve-requirements-part-22-1
(28) Joint Committee on Taxation. 2008. “Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures from 2008-2012.” p. 51-70/77. http://www.jct.gov/s-2-08.pdf
(29) Edwards, Chris. 2007. Testimony to House Budget Committee. p. 4/6 http://budget.house.gov/hearings/2007/02.16edwardstestimony.pdf
(30)Angier, Chuck. 2008. “Why a Fair Tax Won’t Happen.” http://www.nolanchart.com/article2776.html
(31) Internal Revenue Service, Data Book. 2008. p. 72/81. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/08databk.pdf
(32)Internal Revenue Service, Budget-in-Brief. FY 2009. p. 2/14. http://www.irs.gov/pub/newsroom/budget-in-brief-2009.pdf

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The extent to which the dollar falls relative to the other currencies depends on how much gold increases relative to those currencies. As has been predicted for years, we are moving from a confidence based economy into a hard asset based economy.

Over then coming weeks, I expect we will see some shocking dollar corrections in the currency markets; which will begin to wreak havoc over the daily lives of billions of people. We are likely to see civil unrest, rapid increases in prices for everyday items and shortages.

Elliott Wave Formation in Gold as it Reacts off of its all-time high at $1037.

Gold broke out of the recent consolidation wedge, confirming some recent bullish activity.

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Coordinator: Crucifixion?
Prisoner: Yes.
Coordinator: Good. Out of the door, line on the left, one cross each.
[Next prisoner]
Coordinator: Crucifixion?
Mr. Cheeky: Er, no, freedom actually.
Coordinator: What?
Mr. Cheeky: Yeah, they said I hadn’t done anything and I could go and live on an island somewhere.
Coordinator: Oh I say, that’s very nice. Well, off you go then.
Mr. Cheeky: No, I’m just pulling your leg, it’s crucifixion really.
Coordinator: [laughing] Oh yes, very good. Well…
Mr. Cheeky: Yes I know, out of the door, one cross each, line on the left.

Video Link: Life of Brian ending

The ending of Life of Brian

Some things in life are bad,
They can really make you mad,
Other things just make you swear and curse,
When you’re chewing life’s gristle,
Don’t grumble,
Give a whistle
And this’ll help things turn out for the best.
And…

Always look on the bright side of life.
[whistle]
Always look on the light side of life.
[whistle]

If life seems jolly rotten,
There’s something you’ve forgotten,
And that’s to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you’re feeling in the dumps,
Don’t be silly chumps.
Just purse your lips and whistle.
That’s the thing.
And…

Always look on the bright side of life.
[whistle]
Always look on the right side of life,
[whistle]

For life is quite absurd
And death’s the final word.
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin.
Give the audience a grin.
Enjoy it. It’s your last chance, anyhow.
So,…

Always look on the bright side of death,
[whistle]
Just before you draw your terminal breath.
[whistle]

Life’s a piece of shit,
When you look at it.
Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke it’s true.
You’ll see it’s all a show.
Keep ‘em laughing as you go.
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.
And…

Always look on the bright side of life.
Always look on the right side of life.
[whistle]

Always look on the bright side of life!
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