War Of Attrition

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08/west102908.html

The gold price is going to explode due to the incredibly vast amounts of
liquidity (monetary aggregate) that has been put into the US (and world)
economies by their respective central banks. It's really a simple
concept. The more money placed into circulation (that is not directly
proportional to tangible wealth and economic activity) is vastly
inflationary, and devalues the currency. The world has placed at least
approximately $3 TRILLION of money into the economy over the last few
weeks. This is going to work to destroy the value of any currency, and
will cause a massive price explosion in tangibles, especially precious
metals. This may sound like a bunch of crap to the uneducated, but you
can mark my words, and a year from now, you will see.

The mainstream media is being used to mollify the concerns of the
average viewer who relies for all of his information from the
television. That is the same thing as the sheep asking 2 wolves what's
going to be served for dinner! It will take courage and great
understanding for the average person to stand up for his own interests,
and against the numerous rantings of the 'talking heads' placed on the
television as the financial experts. How have those stock investments
been working out for you lately? Even if you have nominally kept your
same cash values (which you probably haven't), you are also going to
lose big money when the US dollar starts to tank again. None of the
fundamentals that have weakened the USD have changed. In fact, they
have all deteriorated.

You need to start reading and learning something so that you can make
your own investment decisions. Even if you can't get that much
sophistication, you need to be asking your financial planner some very
tough, well-constructed questions about your portfolio, or you're going
to be another victim of the System.

Change, or more of the same?

http://english.pravda.ru/print/opinion/columnists/106616-change_bush-0

---

When will it ever change? People keep listening to political drivel and other excuses and rationalities for why the current state of affairs is not what we want it to be. The only way that things are going to change is when the People (or individuals that are in that group) finally get disgusted enough to get up and DO SOMETHING...

From all appearances, most Americans are comatose and totally complacent with the status quo. They have no energy to put down the remote control or get out of the Laz-y-Boy chair while watching Dancing With the Stars. I'm beginning to wonder if Americans have the mental and/or physical capacity to demand freedom. It appears that the desire for it has 'left the building' years ago. Jefferson once said that freedom required eternal vigilance if you want to keep it. This isn't a nation of vigilant people, unless you're talking about watching television or seeking entertainment.

I don't mean to sound like a total pessimist because I know of many Americans who are sick and tired of communist government officials foisting their socialist agendas upon the country, and are working to fight against it. Even if they're just fighting for their own freedom from government intervention, it is bigger fight than just an individual fight. Every battle against tyranny is for all people, especially those who are not yet born. We owe it to our future generations to fight for freedom and against tyranny so that our offspring may experience freedom. It is probably the most precious thing that one could have, because life has little meaning without it.

Does The Bailout Pass The Smell Test?

http://www.rense.com/general83/snlkl.htm

It has been my opinion that this 'bailout' does not pass the 'smell
test' as well. One of the major problems has been the hyperinflation of
the US Dollar. It is creating price inflation simultaneously with wage
deflation, which is a double-whammy for most average working people. It
will only continue to get worse because the financial system will
require a lot more 'bailouts' if it is to survive. What the PTB are
doing (i.e., the 'bailouts') will only make the final denouement that
much worse than if they would have just left it alone. But these people
are going for the maximum profits and are hell-bent on inflicting the
absolute maximum amount of financial pain and destruction that they can
muster upon the heads (and pocketbooks) of the normal people of the US,
and of the world. This event is going to have consequences on most of
the economies of the world.

What Went Wrong - Primer on Derivatives and the Market Meltdown

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/14/AR2008101403343.html

This is an article from the Washington Post that breaks down the events regarding the financial instruments called derivatives, and how they became a part of this present market meltdown. It is basically a primer on how they work and how at least one person tried to get the government to regulate them. Now, they are a bigger part of the world's economy than the world economy itself, with notional (face) value of over $53 TRILLION! Warren Buffett called them 'financial weapons of mass destruction' because they can be used to generate obscene profits, but also (when leveraged extremely high) have the ability to destroy the entire world's economy, as what happened in 1998 with a company called Long Term Capital Management.

LTCM was ran by the researchers that actually won the Nobel Prize for Economics when they came up with what is known as the Black-Scholes formula that is used to calculate prices (technically called premiums) on derivatives. They work fine as long as the assumptions in the model are true. LTCM was highly leveraging their investments in these instruments. They were trading derivatives (i.e., options) on the Russian GKO bond market, which were government bonds. When this market experienced a discontinuity (i.e., when the model's assumptions were not true anymore because the Russian government defaulted on the bonds), this made the company instantly bankrupt, and they did not have the ability to pay any of their counterparties (i.e., the companies on the other side of the investment). The counterparties therefore could not pay the companies with which they had investments. This created a daisy chain of possible company failures that were threatening the entire global banking system.

Then Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan got together a group of around 10 of the largest banks in America to 'pony up' and 'donate' about $5 billion to cover LTCM's losing position in order to save the world's economic system. I bet you didn't remember that story, but it was the day that derivatives almost destroyed the world's financial system. Tom Brokaw didn't tell you about that one. And you thought the evening news really kept you informed. This was before Enron, Tyco, Fannie Mae, etc.

So these people (regulators, financial professionals and Congressmen alike) have known about the dangers of derivatives for a long time, but continued to allow the financiers to make their money. And now, when their shenanigans have caught up with them, they come to average people to bail them out. Even though we didn't want to do it (since the majority of voters and average people didn't back these bailouts), the Congress that is beholden to the big corporations gifted our money to them anyway. Don't you just love democracy?

More Financial Pain Ahead for the Uninformed

Once again, the economy has been trashed more than is being made public.  According to the article below, the US government has given away more than $2 TRILLION in bailouts, all without the knowledge of the average American.  I'm not surprised at this in the least.  As I've been saying all along, this is an orchestrated 'crisis' that is serving a larger purpose. 

This 'crisis' was engineered and purposely created in order to create the appearance of chaos in the markets.  And, of course, the fatcats are getting billions in profit from these events, while giving the bill to average Americans (and those of other countries as well) to pay.  In addition to this, when the markets fail (and they WILL fail), these same fatcats have already moved all of their assets out of the financial markets, and into safer investments.  Unfortunately, those remaining in financial assets will see their investments plummet in value.  This is the theft, but people have to be perceptive to actually identify the 'sleight-of-hand' theft process.  It is subtle in its execution, but the theft is a complete confiscation of the value of the investments that people have made.  In short, your $100,000 may still have a nominal value of $100,000, but the purchasing power will probably be closer to $50 once their process is complete. 

This may sound incredible, but during the last hyperinflation it was not ridiculous.  I will give a brief example.  During the Weimar Germany Deutchemark hyperinflation, there were retirees who were living off of the interest from their retirements before the hyperinflation.  After (or during) the hyperinflation, people had requested that their retirement checks be mailed to them.  The bank said that they could do it, but didn't really wish to do it because--get this--the value of the STAMP that would be required to mail the check to the retiree was more than the value of the check that represented the value of the person's retirement savings!  This is what appears to be the plan for the new financial paradigm.  Of course, the bankers and other insiders who got out of the game while the money still had value are the ones who have stolen the difference in value of the money.  Don't let them steal all of the value you have given over your working years to earn this money!

---

http://marketoracle.co.uk/Article6614.html

The Bailout Won't Work, and the System is Definitely Going to Implode

The destruction of the American economy is already a done deal, especially given the fact that the citizens are not willing to endure pain today for better days tomorrow. The irresponsible fiscal policies of the previous 20+ years are all about to 'come home to roost'. Continued deficit spending, bad investments and bad allocation of resources have resulted in gross distortions in prices, demand, and market dynamics. In short, the American economy is terminal. From the look of it, Congress and the Executive branch are both hellbent on continuing the failed, fundamentally flawed approaches that have brought us to this present state of affairs. This misnamed 'bailout' will only magnify the pain that will be felt about 12-18 months from today. The organization we call 'the government' does not have the welfare of Americans as a first priority. This is evident because we know that the bailout won't work, and that the majority of Americans do NOT support this corporate welfare giveaway. So they can't be doing it for us. The system is going to fail, but the question will be whether or not the corporations go down with the country. They are working as hard as they can to avoid it, and to hell with the average American.

---

http://theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/The_Bailout_Wont_Work_and_the_System_Will_Implode