Liberty Maven

…and why it both does and does not matter.

by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution
Originally published Sunday, June 21, 2009 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article6558.html

CARTEL – n. a combination of independent commercial or industrial enterprises designed to limit competition or fix prices (per Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary) (emblem)

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“Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But if you wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits.”

- Josiah Stamp, President of the Bank of England in the 1920s

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[This article is updated with more information and the March 2009 figures released from this February article in response to a couple press requests.  The figures were calculated from the FED data here, using the same method described here.]

So, who owns the Federal Reserve? Well, it certainly is not the US government, as many would suppose. In fact, I have found that quite a few – including myself last year – who are roughly aware of how the FED works but believe that the owners of the FED is a secret. Well, it is not. The FED’s Purposes and Functions (page 21/146) reads:

“As of March 2004, of the nation’s approximately 7,700 commercial banks approximately 2,900 were members of the Federal Reserve System – approximately 2,000 national banks and 900 state banks. Member banks must subscribe to stock in their regional Federal Reserve Bank in an amount equal to 6 percent of their capital and surplus, half of which must be paid in while the other half is subject to call by the Board of Governors. The holding of this stock, however, does not carry with it the control and financial interest conveyed to holders of common stock in for-profit organizations. It is merely a legal obligation of Federal Reserve membership, and the stock may not be sold or pledged as collateral for loans. Member banks receive a 6 percent dividend annually on their stock, as specified by law, and vote for the Class A and Class B directors of the Reserve Bank. Stock in Federal Reserve Banks is not available for purchase by individuals or entities other than member banks.”

So, the owners of the FED are simply other national and state banks.  What is rather interesting is that this is no normal company stock!  First, they are paid a perpetual annual dividend of 6% per the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 which is not a “law” in the technical sense that the FED implies.  Second, apparently this “stock” is part of each member bank’s balance sheet as only have is “paid in” to the FED and the “other half is subject to call” by the FED.  The FED restates this here.

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D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “Increasingly, we are seeing consumers join forces with farmers in letting the USDA know that NAIS is not a solution for animal health, food safety or food security.” – Judith McGeary

NAIS was a bad idea from the start . . .

• it addresses a “problem” of animal disease control that current laws and agencies already cover
• it forces small family farms to put ID tags on each animal at their own expense, something factory farms are not required to do
• even though factory farms are at greater risk of disease outbreaks than are smaller farms, and most contamination occurs at the slaughterhouse
• it would raise the price of food
• through computer hacking and counterfeit RFID tags, NAIS actually makes our food supply more vulnerable to terrorists and other criminals

No wonder, then, that NAIS has faced substantial resistance, especially since the program has already wasted $142 million since 2004 . . .

• initial plans to make it mandatory were scrapped (although the USDA encouraged states to make it mandatory, and a few have)
• the USDA has fiddled with numbers to suggest that 35% of farms and homes with livestock have been registered. The real number is probably closer to 10%
• registrations increased by just 3% last year
• on a nationwide “listening tour” about NAIS, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is hearing 90% of farmers demand that NAIS should be killed

Congress is angry about this lack of progress. The good news is that the House Agriculture Appropriations subcomittee has de-funded NAIS for 2010.

The bad news is that Congress is angry for the wrong reasons. Their real purpose is to inject the NAIS runt with growth hormones by making the program mandatory – despite the overwhelming opposition. Both subcommittee chair Rosa DeLauro and House Ag Committee Chair Clint Peterson view zeroing-out NAIS as a lever to force the USDA to make NAIS mandatory.

Please notice the disturbing fact that an Executive Branch bureaucracy has the power to make something mandatory. This is the tale wagging the dog. Only Congress should have the power to make anything mandatory.   Read More »

During Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign of 2008 I was fortunate enough to attend a PBS debate in Baltimore, MD and witness some of that that magical Ron Paul truth in person. Following the debate all the other candidates sauntered off the stage. Ron Paul immediately headed toward the audience where he was mobbed by his supporters for autographs and handshakes. A girl near me was having trouble breathing because she was so excited to “meet” Dr. Paul. Ron Paul had acheived rock star status.

I’m thinking of this now because it seems every time I read something from Robert Higgs I approach that same feeling. Higgs is a liberty rock star. In a recent article he annihilates the pro-regulatory power-grabbing bottom-feeders of our government.

Even if systemic risk does exist, why should anyone believe that the fakers and time-servers employed by a government regulatory agency will have the ability to gauge its magnitude and to identify the specific firms that must be eased away from the precipice—always, of course, at the great expense of taxpayers and holders of dollar-denominated assets?

Let’s be frank: systemic risk is the greatest—and perhaps the phoniest—excuse for unwarranted bailouts ever devised by the mind of man.

Read all of “Mommas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Report on the Government’s Financial Reforms” by Robert Higgs. You’ll be glad you did.

Earlier this year the Campaign For Liberty’s Steve Bierfeldt was detained at the St. Louis airport for carrying cash. The story was reported first on Judge Napolitano’s Freedom Watch show and then other news outlets picked it up.

The ACLU has now brought a lawsuit against the TSA on behalf of Steve Bierfleldt and CNN ran a report on the story during Wolf Blitzer’s “Situation Room” yesterday.

Check it out below.

Today is the RJ Harris money bomb. He’s a true Ron Paul Republican and steadfast Constitutionalist.

From RJHarris2010.com:

I have served our country on three deployments: one for a peacekeeping mission in Korea and two for the Iraq war. Both of the war deployments were with the Army National Guard. Additionally, I have used my military Air Traffic Control Training to work for the Federal Aviation Administration. Desiring at one point to try my hand in business, I founded a small chain of games/toy stores, which unfortunately did not survive the economic downturn of 2001. In 2006, I decided to return to college to make a civilian career change from aviation to law; although, I do continue my aviation career in the Oklahoma Army National Guard as an Air Traffic Control Platoon Leader for two Platoons in the 1-245th Aviation Regiment. I completed the undergraduate portion of my education in Philosophy this past May at the University of Oklahoma. Currently, I am a First Year Law Student at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

The primary mission of this campaign is to elect a Constitutional Conservative to represent the people of the 4th Oklahoma Congressional District.

Harris also had an excellent appearance on Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano earlier this year. If you believe in the Constitution then please send a few dollars to RJ Harris 2010 today.

It’s Friday and that means another installment of “Quick Hits”…

I read a quite sobering article by Chris Hedges earlier this week entitled, “The American Empire Is Bankrupt”. After reading the headline I said to myself, “well, duh!” But the first paragraph of the article shocked me out of my “duh-ness”. It reads:

This week marks the end of the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency. It marks the start of a terrible period of economic and political decline in the United States. And it signals the last gasp of the American imperium. That’s over. It is not coming back. And what is to come will be very, very painful.

Hedges directs the ultimate economic horror movie, something I’ve tried to prepare my family for after watching Chris Martenson’s excellent “Crash Course” last year. I find myself asking the same question over and over again. Are the doomsayers like Peter Schiff, Ron Paul, Jim Rogers, Chris Martenson, Chris Hedges, and Gerald Celente right?

If they are, I know I’m at least partially prepared now and am trying to become more prepared every day. That is, of course, without going completely into the commando-survivalist realm. If I did that, I’d likely have to survive a divorce before I’d get to use any of my newly acquired skills.

A big deal was made this week over Obama murdering an innocent fly with his bare hands during a CNBC interview. As if all of the human Obamatons frozen in O-face since our long national Obamagasm began on January 20th wasn’t enough. He is now the lizard king. He fellates humans with his sharp tongue and strikes down insects with his bare hands. Is there anything this  Superhuman-in-Chief cannot do? Removing his teleprompter seems to be his only kryptonite….  or is it?

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D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quotes of the Day: “The Democrats’ failure to pass a troop funding bill that will actually get our armed forces the money they need is nothing less than a disgrace.” — House Minority Leader John Boehner, June, 2008

“It’s going to be an interesting fall as Republicans try to explain their vote against legislation that they’ve described as funding for our troops in a time of war, because I’m confident their constituents will be reminded.” – a White House Official, June 2009

Don’t believe me? Check the House roll call vote for the final version of the Supplemental Appropriations Act, which funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just 5 Republicans were for it, and only 32 Democrats against.

What could me more convincing than that?

“But wait!” you will probably say, “There must be more to the story.”

You’re right of course. In fact, on May 14th there were 51 Democrats and only 9 Repubicans against the bill.

What happened?

As we noted two weeks ago, the bill was already loaded with extras that had nothing to do with the wars.

But when the Senate got their hands on it they added still more unrelated items . . .

* Funnelling billions of dollars to a failed, neo-colonial (i.e. “foreign aid”) scheme called the International Monetary Fund
* The Graham-Lieberman measure, an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act to continue the coverup of the detainee abuse scandal

House Republicans wanted the IMF provisions stripped from the final bill, and the detainee abuse coverup retained. Instead, they got the exact opposite of what they wanted, and so they voted no, even though this meant they would not be “supporting the troops.”

It’s funny. Four years ago, Republicans supported the bill to “support the troops” even when Real ID was attached. Last year, they voted to “support the troops” even though the Democrats added $95 billion in domestic pork spending to it.

Why the change of heart now? Probably because a Democrat’s in the White House. It’s not “their” war anymore. As our quotes of the day demonstrate, charges of hypocrisy are flying fast and furious, and will likely continue for some time.    Read More »

Ron Paul appeared on Bloomberg TV yesterday to discuss Obama’s new directive regarding increasing the power of the Federal Reserve. This is a really good four minute interview.

While there was nothing that new in the interview Ron Paul spoke directly and didn’t meander as he tends to do at times. He even got in a good soundbite.

Check it out below.

Since 1990, the Real Interest Rate has been negative and continues to plummet. This negative rate of interest is causing the capital destruction we see in America today. The stock market and real estate booms and collapses are merely symptoms of this root cause.

by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution

Originally published Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article6542.html

“Interest is the difference in the valuation of present goods and future goods; it is the discount in the valuation of future goods as against that of present goods.”

– Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, 1949.   (photo license)

Consumers in our modern market economy primarily use government fiat debt-based currency. Historically and currently, these currencies are inflated and debased by central bankers. Quite possibly THE key factor to understand is the concept of interest rates, and the “real” interest rate I will introduce in this article. (see note 1)

As related earlier in the series, when dealing with fiat currencies like the dollar, it does not matter how many dollars you have, but how much purchasing power you can command. Each consumer makes a conscious action to either spend the currency have or save it, usually in a bank. When saving, the consumer usually does this because they believe the purchasing power they are saving up will be of more utility – to “remove them from uneasiness” as Mises puts it – in the future.

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Obama is set to announce some truly sinister regulatory changes today. Changes that will make Ron Paul and other anti-Federal Reserve crusaders ill. How convenient for this news to arrive right after Ron Paul’s HR1207 surpassed a House majority.

To get that sick feeling one need not read beyond the first part of this USA Today story:

President Obama on Wednesday plans to unveil the most sweeping overhaul of financial market regulation since the 1930s in response to a Wall Street crisis that sent the economy into an epic tailspin.

His plan would give broad new powers to the Federal Reserve, abolish the Office of Thrift Supervision, establish a new watchdog agency to protect consumers, and more tightly regulate hedge funds and derivatives, according to a senior Treasury Department official.

Yeah, that’s what the Fed needs: Broad new powers! Hopefully Obama is truthful when he speaks about his new plan. he should begin with, “Hello America, let me introduce you to your next iteration of Progressivism or Socialism or Fascism. In fact I’m going to “ism” you to death.”

My Fed-ache just reached migraine status again. When will our long national Obamagasm be over?