The Fed and Quantitative Robbery

With all the hoopla over the election, Bernanke's quantitative easing announcement (a.k.a. theft of your savings) is getting insufficient attention.

Wrap it up in all the excuses you want (a weaker dollar will improve exports, we have to avoid deflation, it's really credit easing to boost business and spending....) it still comes down to the fact that whenever the government creates money out of thin air, the value of the money you have earned and saved goes down.

For every dollar you earned and saved in 1980, you only have 34 cents left. The other 66 cents has been inflated away by the Fed.

If you are old enough to have started working in 1973, when Nixon abandoned the gold standard, that dollar is now worth only 20 cents.

What happened to the value of our money 100 years ago, when we did not have the Fed and we were still on a commodity money standard?

From 1880 to 1910, a similar 30 year stretch, the value of the dollar fell 3 cents. That means you'd still have $0.97 in 1910 for every dollar you earned in 1880 instead of the $0.34 cents you have today from what you earned in 1980.

Here's a chart I have posted before which illustrates the destruction of the value of our money by the government. The dashed lines are periods in our history (including the present) when paper dollars are cut loose from a hard metal standard.

So are we better off with the Fed or with freedom? Does the government simply get to keep printing and borrowing money and then pay us back with less, all the while eroding away our ability to save and provide for our own future?

I think the answer is obvious.

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November 3 -- Now what?

Democrats lost control of the House --BIG time-- but retain a slight majority in the Senate. Republicans (hopefully) realize this was more of a reaction against President Obama's ambitious statist policies than any kind of mandate for Republicans.

This election was about what the country doesn't like--and what it doesn't like is heavy-handed politics, deals with big special interest groups, rising national debt, continued high unemployment, ever-increasing government spending, and the threat of rising taxes.

The problem is most people still want Medicare, Social Security, public education, strict environmental regulation and a whole slew of other government programs. Basically, our country wants to have its cake and eat it too. Since neither the Republicans nor the Democrats can pull that off, every two years the party in charge gets voted out.

So where do we go from here?

People have some homework to do.

As a country, we are going to have to relearn this important lesson of history: command and control, central planning does not --nay, can not--lead to prosperity. It leads instead to economic stagnation, environmental degradation and the erosion of liberty. Until that lesson is crystal clear, people will continue to look to government to solve problems which fall more appropriately on their own shoulders.

That doesn't mean we can't band together voluntarily to help the less fortunate. It does mean that in order to preserve the just and inalienable right to our own lives, we can't use the force of government to rule or rob our neighbor. It means that the solutions to the many difficult problems we face must be solved only by means which respect the individual rights of everyone, equally before for the law. No exceptions. No special interests.

The initiation of force must be totally banned from the realm of acceptable behavior...and not just between citizens. Government force must be strictly limited to protecting citizens from those who do initiate force. This county's motto need to be, not "Don't tread on me" but "Convince me, or leave me alone."

We desperately need effective statesmen who are capable of leading this country back to the ideals of self-ownership, self-reliance, and a compassion based on mutual respect.

Let's hope we voted a few of them in.

Monetary Base and the Theft of our Savings

Here's what's been happening to our monetary base:

From the St. Louis Federal Reserve 1910 - 2010

And here is a close-up since we abandoned the gold standard:

This money creation is a reckless ignoring of the fact that paper money is not wealth. Only production creates wealth. Not the government. Not the Fed.

Yet, this country's producers are being hobbled by regulations and taxes which discourage innovation, risk taking, and job creation at the same time ours savings are begin eroded by inflationary increases in the money supply. Government spending continues to sky-rocket--and remember:

Governments only consume wealth; they do not produce it.

If the government was not inflating away the value of our savings, there would be little need for massive entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security.

Oh wait--if there were not massive entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government wouldn't have to inflate our money.

More info:

Medicare + Social Security = 1/3 of federal spending.

Though this 1/3 is only now. Just wait until more people retire:

Or looked at another way:

So--do we vote in people who will keep promising everything to everybody?

Or is it time to vote for representatives who will cut spending by paring government back to its essential, proper (and Constitutional) limits?

Tuesday.

November 2.

Your choice.

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Peace through Commerce

I recently came across a very interesting blog, Ideas Matter.

The first post which caught my attention was "Hiring a Milkshake" which is a video clip worth watching ...but then so are several of the posts which precede it. I liked these posts so much that I added it to my Google blog reader, and today's entry is the best yet.

In particular, I love this quote in the clip by Johan Norberg, who is already one of my heroes:

"If goods don't cross borders, soldiers will."

Just one of several gems...but see for yourself.

The clip came from another interesting site: FLOW. This just happens to be the site of John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods and author of a pretty good Op-Ed piece giving a real-life functioning alternative to ObamaCare. I am not expecting to find 100% alignment with my beliefs, but some of this stuff is down-right inspirational.

All-on-all, not a bad day on the internet.

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San Fransisco Examiner Endorses John Dennis

It's about time.

[A]fter years of singing the virtues of patriotic dissent against Bush administration policies, Pelosi falsely branded dissenters on Obamacare as Nazis “carrying swastikas and symbols like that,” then denouncing those who challenged their members of Congress in town hall meetings as “drowning out opposing views” and therefore “un-American.”

The Examiner does not believe that Pelosi has ever been drowned out, given the enormous power and speaking platform she possesses. Further, we view her attempt to demonize dissenters as far more dangerous to democracy than anyone’s protest. Therefore, we encourage voters in the 8th Congressional District to support her opponent, John Dennis — an anti-war, pro-marijuana Republican.

A vote for Dennis will send a strong, clear message that dictatorial policymaking, the lavish and unnecessary spending of tax dollars on wasteful programs and personal perks, and demonization of the political opposition are unacceptable behavior for officeholders of any party or philosophy.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/San-Francisco-Examiners-state-nation-election-recommendations--105962408.html#ixzz13iasGdYp

Please support John Dennis.

No matter where you live in the country, this is one election which effects us all.

He's the first candidate in a long time that not only has a chance to unseat Mrs. Pelosi, but he would be a fabulous boost to the cause of liberty and a return to constitutionally limited government. I have had the pleasure of interacting with him on several occasions and find him to be honest, sincere, dedicated, easily approachable, and perhaps most important of all, a principled believer in individual rights.

Every dollar helps.

The materials to support volunteers are very expensive. Every volunteer must be fitted with push cards, stickers, literature, door hangers and yard signs as well as transportation. That is why we are asking you to help keep our volunteers going.

$24.00 supports a volunteer for 1 day.

$48.00 supports a volunteer for 2 days.

$96.00 supports a volunteer for 4 days.

And that's what we have left.

Four days.


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