John Browne – Senior Market Strategist, Euro Pacific Capital.
Having been among the economic engines of Europe for much of the past decade, it appears as if the British economy has run out of steam. Inflation is rising while bankruptcies and unemployment continue to swell. It is a problem that would have left Lord Keynes’ head spinning. In many ways, the responses of the U.S. and U.K. governments to the financial crisis have been very similar. So far, the American advantages in size and reserve currency status have allowed us to avoid the storm-clouds now descending upon Britain. But these advantages only provide a temporary respite. In the meantime, the slow-motion collapse in Britain offers a glimpse of our own future – and a chance to prevent it.
The history of the United States and the United Kingdom are closely linked in almost every essential manner, from culture to defense to economics. This is hardly surprising because the Founding Fathers were basically British subjects who wished to restore the traditional liberties they were guaranteed in the mother country.
After the Revolution, America went its own way with enhanced freedoms that led to unprecedented prosperity. Most interestingly, the American Constitution was quiet on the subject of central banking. Two early efforts to imitate the British central bank were withdrawn. But in 1913, Congress eventually agreed to establish the Federal Reserve, which persists today as America’s central bank.
Many economists trace America’s economic decline to the activities of the Fed, in particular to the printing of massive amounts of fiat currency unsupported by the gold and foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank. It is a systemic fraud previously committed in Great Britain. But why would a country’s leadership pursue such a dangerous course?
Senators Judd Gregg and Chris Dodd have announced they are retiring from the Senate at the end of 2010 when both of their terms end. Previously, Gregg said he’d do anything he could to stop Ron Paul’s HR.1207 Fed Audit from passing in the Senate (The Senate version is S.604). Now that Dodd is retiring it appears he can safely join his lame duck peer in this effort to protect the central “banksters”.
A House-passed provision to open up the Federal Reserve to an audit by the Government Accountability Office is unlikely to be included in the Senate reform package, Barney Frank told a meeting of House Financial Services Committee members Wednesday, according to people in the room.
Frank, chairman of the committee, told the members that Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) told him that he had assured Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) that it wouldn’t be a part of the bill. Gregg has been a strident opponent of the effort to open the Fed to an audit.
It’s time for us Fed audit supporters to wake up again out of our slumber and do what needs to be done to get this audit done. The news Dodd is blocking it is both good and bad. The good is that the amendment was tacked on to a horrible financial regulatory overhaul bill and getting it removed from that bill isn’t such a bad thing.
The bad is that now HR.1207 in the House and S.604 in the Senate needs to be brought to the floor as a standalone bill for a vote. Given the number of non-lame(duck) lawmakers that support the audit, the powers against the audit will do everything to make that vote never happen. John Tate of the Campaign for Liberty gives us something we can do to fight against these powers in the Senate by urging our Senators to block a vote on Ben Bernanke’s re-confirmation until the Fed Audit bill is brought to the Senate floor for a vote. It’s once again time to fight fire with fire.
Over the past two months, the campaign has industriously sent over 10 press releases to the local press, but none have been picked up by the mainstream newspapers. While these topics center on the economy, the campaign has addressed timely issues such as health care and the Haiti disaster. While some may say this is overuse of press releases, they have averaged just 1 every 5 days, and the campaign’s only regret is that we cannot send more due to available resources as America is at a critical juncture in our history. However, for an independent campaign, we are making incredible strides, check out all the media postings including the December 13th full page editorial in a local newspaper, the January 11th half-page ad.
Back in October I made note of the fact that Rand Paul’s opponent Trey Grayson, as Secretary of State of Kentucky, is responsible for overseeing the elections. This is an obvious conflict of interest. This conflict is not lost on Rand Paul, who has requested Grayson relieve himself of that duty.
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Republican Rand Paul doesn’t want his chief opponent in Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race to oversee the vote count in the May primary election.
Paul, son of former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas, is running against the man who oversees elections in Kentucky, Secretary of State Trey Grayson. In a letter sent to Grayson’s Capitol office earlier this week, Paul asked Grayson to recuse himself from overseeing the Senate election.
“I really feel like if you’re in the election, you shouldn’t count the votes,” Paul told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I think he shouldn’t have access to any computers counting or tabulating the votes.”
The Grayson camp, for now, is determined not to comply with Paul’s request.
Grayson spokesman Les Fugate called the request absurd. Fugate said Grayson won’t recuse himself.
“It is an insult to the judgment of Kentuckians that Mr. Paul suggest Secretary Grayson stop doing the job that they elected him to do,” Fugate said. “Secretary Grayson is a national leader in elections reform who has received broad, bipartisan support for his commonsense ideas that make our elections more secure, more accessible, and more honest. This political request is absurd and blatantly self-serving.“
Sure, Kentuckians elected Grayson to do this job, but I’m not sure they elected him to oversee his own election. This is the political equivalent of allowing Coach John Calipari to referee Kentucky Wildcat basketball games. Also, it’s difficult for me to swallow the “self-serving” charge. Les Fugate is trying to deflect a charge that could much more easily be made against Trey Grayson rather than Rand Paul.
Having Grayson oversee the election could also be compared to the Democrats health reform proposal. They claim there will be competition between the government and the private sector. Fair competition is not possible when one entity controls the game.
When one side has the ability to “cheat”, whether they do so or not, the final results will always be tainted. If Grayson can’t see this as a legitimate conflict of interest then he isn’t smart enough to be the next Senator from Kentucky.
Obama, one year to the day after his historic inauguration, argued that when Americans are educated about the details of his plan “those specific provisions are actually very popular.”
“One of the things that I have learned in Washington is you have to repeat yourself a lot because because unfortunately it doesn’t penetrate,” he said.
Yeah, that’s it Barack. It’s because we didn’t hear your side of the health care debate enough. I was sick of hearing about it back in August and here it is January and we still are hearing about it. The truth of the matter is we don’t want your brand of government medicine. We don’t appreciate being placed in a strait-jacket, forcing us to have some form of health care. The government is already way too intrusive.
The more Barack Obama repeats himself the less patience people will have for his agenda. So keep on repeating yourself Obama. You may not get the change you want, but you just might get the change you deserve in 2012.
Congressmen Ron Paul and Anthony Weiner appeared on CNN earlier today to discuss the Brown victory and what it means for the state of politics in America. Weiner praises Ron Paul while at the same time poking fun at him by saying he isn’t in touch with the mother ship at times.
Paul continues to preach his steadfast dedication to free market principles and the CNN anchor takes Paul’s views to the libertarian extreme suggesting he thinks government shouldn’t be involved in “anything”. Watch Ron Paul respond in the video below.
Let me start off by apologizing for the headline, but it’s pretty much what the current health reform bills deserve. In the midst of all the smiles and hugs between conservatives thanks to Scott Brown’s victory over Martha (Marcia?) Coakley tonight, my happiness is more reserved.
We were told repeatedly that if Scott Brown wins then the Democrats efforts to reform health care will die. Thus far no one has explained to me how a candidate who supports government health care for his home state be the right candidate to help stop it nationally? I think all the congratulations spreading around should be more tempered right now. Scott Brown could easily force Obama to compromise further on some kind of health reform bill and allow both sides to claim victory while the American people are left wondering what the hell happened?
Brown’s support of “Romneycare” in Massachusetts is all the evidence we need to suggest Obama’s health reform efforts aren’t quite dead yet. Sure right now many are claiming it is a done deal. To them and those who believe them I only have one question: Wasn’t Martha Coakley a done deal to replace Ted Kennedy at one time?
This short series will address the War on Terror. While my stances on both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars are very clear, I have not yet formally written on Guantanamo Bay and its prisoners, offered practical solutions to improve our border and airline safety, and commented in depth on our foreign policy and terrorism abroad. In this part, I will explain the history of ‘Gitmo’ for knowing its history is key to understanding what should be done with this military base. Next I will dissect a recent editorial published in the local newspaper by the incumbent Congressman and then propose my solutions on how to handle Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Following this, no current discussion on terror would be complete without discussing the controversial body scanning and I will add my comments and solutions on airline safety. The last part will summarize just how dangerous the war on terror is – not only to our soldiers who risk their lives everyday and avoiding financial ruin as a country, but also to our liberties as a free society.
Readers should be aware that the incumbent in my congressional race sits on Homeland Security and is a rabid supporter of the Bush and Obama administrations’ War on Terror. While I do not question his motives to protect the American people, I do very much oppose his actions and ineffective solutions. Our country’s leaders have not only plunged our nation into expensive, preemptive, and unjust wars for the past decade, but have embarked on a vast extension of a modern-day police state. It is the duty of every citizen to question whether these new restraints over our lives are, in fact, beneficial. I view the infringement of civil liberties that are protected by our Constitution as not only illegal but unnecessary and immoral.
Congressional Democrats are frantically negotiating the final version of the so-called healthcare “reform” bill. We think they should stop and start over.
I do not believe the healthcare bill is about reform. Reform would change direction in healthcare policy, whereas this healthcare bill continues on the failed path of increased government control.
Government control is actually the cause of our healthcare crisis. Consider that in 1960, the United States had the best healthcare in the world, even though . . .
* 75% of healthcare expenses were paid for privately
* There was no Medicare, no Medicaid, nor Ted Kennedy’s HMO Act.
Since the federal government got more involved in healthcare . . . Read More »
Liberty Maven
John Browne – Senior Market Strategist, Euro Pacific Capital.
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