Allison Bricker

SPRINGFIELD, VIRGINIA – Representative Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty (C4L), formed after his 2008 Presidential Campaign so as to continue advocating the message of limited Constitutional government, has launched a new push to stop H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Hoping to build on the successful effort to secure an Audit of the FEDERAL RESERVE, albeit the FOMC and international transactions are still protected from view, C4L now focuses on creating a groundswell to stop the insidious scheme by Corporatists in government to create a ”cap and trade” framework.

If passed and signed into law, the system will solely benefit the largest of companies thus further consolidating their power while simultaneously stifling competition, which of course is the number one sin in the mind of the Corporatist.

Austrian Market analysts estimate that should the bill pass the Senate, we as individuals could see approximately six-hundred and fifty billion in new taxes and caution that such a boondoggle will also prevent the creation of new jobs from upstart companies on Main Street while further insulating Wall Street’s corporation from bearing any form of pressure by the market whatsoever.

Thus, the Corporatists know that such a system should it be proposed voluntarily would suffer a complete failure before it even began due the enormous barriers raised for new and small business, and therefore must rely on the FORCE of government in order to corner the energy market.

As such, C4L has launched an email blitz of its existing members and has created a website, where individuals can consent to sending a letter to both of their Federal Senators. The draft letter goes on to formally request that their Senators vote against both HR 2454 as well as any future efforts at a Cap and Trade scheme, and even goes so far as to urge the Senators to wage a filibuster if needed so as to kill the bill prior to a final vote.

Source(s): Campaign for Liberty, Stop Cap and Tax • Mises Institute, “The Costs of Carbon Legislation” by Robert P. Murphy Published June 01, 2009 • Government Printing Office Online Document Depository, H.R. 2454 • The Washinton Post, “Tilting at Green Windmills” By George F. Will, Published Thursday, June 25, 2009

Allison Bricker

It may not be televised but its participants will indeed be educated.

THE REGION, INDIANA – The desire which compels me to write and speak in strong opposition towards the oppressive expansion of the American government, whether under Democrats or Republicans, owes its genesis to the firm imploration by my mom that education does not end upon graduation, and instead must be a continual process throughout the course of one’s life. As it is often said, knowledge is power.

The illuminated truth, motivated by my infatuation with the founding of this Republic, came to me through the worn and sometimes crumbling pages of books, not the endless memorization and standardized testing advocated in government schools.

Unencumbered by whitewashed lesson plans and the sometimes-evident pro-statist bias of my teachers and administrators, the ability for me to sit and soak up the words of those dusty essays, journals, letters, and notes is in my opinion, one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments, id est. the Gutenberg Press.

The proliferation of movable-type in the colonies spurred forth the “Challenge of Ideas”, giving rise to the radical Questioning of the absurd notion that rule over mankind came from divinely appointed kings, queens or parliamentary superiority, the “central planners” of their day. Further, its unique place in our history whereby it aided the distribution of both Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence, cements a fondness in my soul for both it and the enlightened distribution of information.

Unfortunately, the business of news, information, and debate had become increasingly consolidated during the course of the last 100 years. As government intervened into the market via absurd licensure schemes under the guise of promoting “fairness”, “public” ownership of the airwaves et cetera, its endless volumes of regulations succeeded only in raising barriers to entry and creating media oligarchies to the benefit of the state. Government sanctioned soap-boxes have proved mightily their efficient processing and packaging of news and information into simplified talking points, but at what cost?

The result of this corporate protectionist media racket; is to have given rise to the sound bite intellect, thereby imbuing legions of collectives charged with half the facts and all the passionate rhetoric once reserved for a Finney tent revival.

Yet we see throughout history that humanity’s yearning for information is as perpetual as a sunrise. Undiscouraged by the darkness, she eternally dawns over the horizon pushing back the shadows and nefarious K-Street deals that go bump in the night, providing her warmth and illumination to the dual pillars known as the trees of Liberty and Knowledge, which to the utter dismay of the D.C. pull-peddlers shan’t be felled.

Indeed the central authority’s arrogance will lead to its own most necessary undoing. Nevertheless fellow readers, windows do not remain in perpetuum. However, our patient suffering at the hands of the old-media spoon-feeders has in large part been relieved via the propagation of citizen journalists and institutions dedicated to the pursuit of Reason and human Liberty.

How many amongst us gave pause just a decade prior to entertain a contrary view on economics outside the Keynesian philosophy, which dominates the airwaves and halls of academia? Further, what is the rise in percentage of Americans who now know that the FEDERAL RESERVE is a private for-profit bank who charges interest to the government in exchange for loans collateralized by our and our posterity’s wages as opposed to just five years previous?

Whereby even just a decade past many swam in a sea of noise almost exclusively dominated by the 24-hour cable news cycle, perhaps unaware of what questions to even ask, let alone where to look, our present station finds us on the familiar yet long undisturbed grounds of our forbearers.

Americans today are questioning the answers like no time in recent memory. The floodgates of knowledge have burst open providing us the gift of distributed learning via wonderful institutions such as the Mises Foundation, which has its entire catalog available for the taking on iTunes university, free of charge. We the People are gathering under varied banners unified solely by dissatisfaction of government intrusion into all spheres of our lives.

The airwaves are humming with talks of finding Constitutional solutions to the present Crisis, such as the symposium being held by Mike Church in Washington tomorrow to discuss the possibility of a remedy at the hands of an Article V convention.

It makes me smile to know that despite the Central Authority’s best efforts to squeeze out dissent, the tighter they grasp, the more we awaken.

Long Live Liberty and let us raise a glass in celebration of the coming Second Age of Reason.

Allison Bricker

U.S. Government Complicit as Whistleblower’s Evidence on Silver Manipulation Ignored by CFTC

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Precious Metal Commodity traders from J.P. Morgan’s [Chase] investment bank are using the bank’s massive market share to periodically and in an artificial manner, drive down the price of silver via shorts. This allows the House of Morgan to buttress their physical Silver reserves, as according to some current estimates silver is leveraged at a rate of 100 to 1, meaning that for every ounce of actual silver, there exist 100 paper claims, in a manner similar to the practice of fractional reserve banking¹. Moreover, it allows the House of Morgan to reap additional massive profits off the backs of those caught outside of the short-loop in silver, but even this is not the endgame.

The Smoking Argus is currently awaiting a return call from Mr. Brian Marchiony who is the J.P. Morgan Media Relations contact as of this writing.

Consequently, the House of Morgan gained this massive position in silver as a result of the New York FEDERAL RESERVE rescinding the original offer to provide a collateralized loan to Bear Stearns in favor of a non-recourse loan based on Bear Stearns assets to J.P. Morgan, orchestrated by then New York FED bank President, Tim Geithner. This taxpayer-funded fire sale in March of 2008 resulted in the House of Morgan obtaining all the liquid assets of Bear Stearns and shielded J.P. Morgan’s assets from seizure should the toxic mortgage debt assumed by the taxpayer on behalf of the FEDERAL RESERVE default.²

Fellow readers, it should be easy to recall that during the height of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, people wondered just how one man was able to defraud his clients for a period of over 10-years without so much as a whimper from government regulators. However, upon a more thorough investigation, testimony surfaced that the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] was indeed aware of Mr. Madoff’s ruse as it was warned by former industry executive, Mr. Harry Markopolos a decade prior, but chose not to act upon the information provided.³

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana

Relying on this widely accepted fallacy that government regulation ensures a level playing field and that mistakes are only the result of the “wrong” party being in power, the House of Morgan now looks to escalate the fraud to an entirely new level via its manipulation of a market in the Trillions of dollars. As now comes the case of wealthy London Commodities trader turned whistleblower, Andrew Maguire. Mr. Maguire has uncovered and documented evidence of what will go on to become the largest fraud in human history utterly eclipsing Mr. Madoff, aided yet again by a deafening silence from government.

Beginning in November of 2009, Mr. Maguire notified the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] that the House of Morgan was utilizing its taxpayer-funded position in the Silver market to cover and flush its ETC holdings via signaling its traders of the London Bullion Market Association to sell short en masse thereby causing a precipitous drop in price.

The CFTC for those not familiar with this particular alphabet soup agency is an agency of the U.S. government formed in 1975 tasked to investigate and prosecute fraud in the commodities market. Its current chairman, appointed by President Obama is Gary Gensler, who surprise, is yet another Goldman Sachs crony bequeathed a seat of power within our government.

Nevertheless, hoping to offer additional proof so as to solicit some sort of action regarding the Morgan scheme, Mr. Maguire again contacted CFTC Senior Investigator Eliud Ramirez on February 3rd, 2010 to outline the then forthcoming short sale of sliver to take place through to Friday, February 5th upon release of the January unemployment report. As that Friday’s price drop began just as predicted and growing impatient with the lack of a response, Mr. Maguire drafted additional emails in real-time urging the CFTC look into the short sell orders, yet all that he received in return was silence.⁴

Finally, after threatening to go public with the information given to the CFTC, Mr. Maguire received a response from Senior Investigator Ramirez, which stated:

“Thank you so very much for your observations.”

Eliud Ramirez, Senior Investigator
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
February 9th, 2010

Email Correspondence Between Maguire & CFTC

Shortly thereafter he was removed from the witness list to testify before the CFTC and on March 23rd, Mr. Maguire contacted Adrian Douglass of the Gold Anti-Trust Commission [GATA] a private citizen’s action group to solicit their help in blowing the whistle on Morgan’s manipulation of the commodities market. Thus, as Mr. Bill Murphy Chairman of GATA prepared to testify before CFTC commissioners on the systemic problems in the futures commodity market, he revealed Mr. Maguire’s name and portions of his email communications with the CFTC into the record.
[See VIDEO]

When pressed by Commissioner Bart Chilton, who himself was included in the original email communication between Andrew Maguire and the CFTC to provide a specific example of fraud within the market, GATA Chairman Murphy opened the floodgates citing the warning provided to the CFTC by Mr. Maguire regarding the February 5th silver manipulation. Somewhat flustered, Commissioner Chilton then remarked:

“Alright, okay, well that’s more specific than I anticipated.”

Commissioner Bart Chilton
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
March 25th, 2010

The following day with his name now in the public as a whistleblower, Mr. Maguire and his wife were involved in what has been reported as a “bizarre” car accident. Whereby upon their return home from shopping, a car sped out of a side-alley and rammed their vehicle sending both Mr. and Mrs. Maguire to the hospital. Witnesses to the accident attempted to block the suspect, but had to dive out of the way themselves when in an attempt to make a speedy getaway, the suspect almost hit them along with several other parked vehicles on the road. Police in London, then took to the air and finally apprehended the suspect, but as of this writing are still refusing to release any names. Mr. and Mrs. Maguire were released from the hospital the following day and are expected to make a full recovery⁵.

Also as a result of Bill Murphy’s testimony before the CFTA and following the Maguire car accident, multiple old-media outles cancelled interviews with Mr. Murphy as the story was becoming far too hot to handle and perhaps its implications all too foreboding. However not all was lost, Kingworld Media, who broke the Madoff Ponzi scheme secured an interview with both Andrew Maguire and Adrian Douglass of GATA to assist in spreading the word to the public regarding the consequences of the House of Morgan’s material fraud.

Thus, just what is the endgame of such a massive level of fraud and manipulation? Quite simply the suppression of silver and the larger gold market serve to help retain a strong dollar and thus allow the FEDERAL RESERVE, of which J.P Morgan is a shareholder, to continue printing money whilst keeping a lid, at least in the short-term, on runaway inflation. Whether exposed by continued reporting by the New-Media, i.e the blogosphere or by a naked short squeeze, this house of cards shall too fall, just as the mortgage bubble. However, the consequences are of a far greater nature than any previous financial scheme foisted upon the American people.

It is most unfortunate indeed that we are witnessing the literal fleecing of our economy, with the gatekeepers in government put in place to protect markets and consumers against fraud, are merely the sycophants and beneficiaries of the private central bank. Further, it should be no surprise that the servants to the Central Bankers, i.e. Senator Dodd has insulated the FED even further by removing any semblance of a true audit from his “financial reform bill” which of course just renders even more power unto the corrupt 3rd Central Bank of the United States.

Fellow readers, we must continue to work towards excising this parasitic cancer entwined into our system by ending the FEDERAL RESERVE and returning our Republic to sound money in lieu of the useless paper fiat we now so rely. Until this occurs, it will matter not which puppet-in-chief inhabits the oval office as both major party candidates are routinely funded by the very banks that are leeching this Republic dry.

The cost of inaction is to pass on a nation to our children and the larger posterity, a dead carcass utterly resembling nothing of which we knew as children or what the Founding Generation sought to construct. Should we choose the path of least resistance and instead prefer the noxious repugnant odor of apathetic distraction, then and only then will we truly deserve the title of the lost generation. Thus, the question you have to reconcile; is whether peace and contented conformity is so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and economic servitude?

Source(s): ¹Kingworld Interview Andrew Maguire and Adrian Douglass march 30, 2010 • ²Washington Post “Fed Takes Broad Action to Avert Financial Crisis”, By Neil Irwin and David Cho – Monday, March 17, 2008 • ³Digital Journal “Markopolos: SEC knew about Madoff operations 10 years ago By Chris V. Thangham. Feb 5, 2009 • ⁴ Email Correspondence between Andrew Maguire and CFTC, originally obtained by GATA • ⁵New york Post “JPMorgan ‘chase’ story in UK” By MICHAEL GRAY March 29, 2010 •

Allison Bricker

THE REGION, INDIANA – The term neoconservative may have come into more common use during the eight nightmarish years of the Bush Administration, but let us be candid, its core ideology has existed since the founding of the Republic. For there have always been those amongst us who felt that security and obedience is achieved only by pummeling into submission any slight towards the state’s fragile ego executed by the hands of its unsophisticated warmongering political administrators. Whilst Alexander Hamilton might be the pious genesis of the American embodiment towards this philosophy, whereby he was sent to meet his Creator unto the hyper-masculine ritual of pistol dueling, its renaissance began in earnest with the Wilson Administration.

President Woodrow Wilson enabled by the creation of the limitless purse provided by the then newly formed Federal Reserve, collateralized by the confiscation of current and future wages decreed under the 16th Amendment, and unchecked federal authority promulgated by tying Senators to popular knee-jerk sentiment all achieved in 1913, now began a course of “Making the World Safe for Democracy”¹. So fell the first domino in a sustained effort to forever alter American foreign policy into that of a new tradition, one of a perpetual war-footing and imperial expansion.

At the dawn of the Twentieth Century, the American people were very much opposed to intervening in the growing conflict in Europe. However, Woodrow Wilson’s personal ambition wholly contrary to his public rhetoric, was to see American entry into World War I. He saw this as an opportunity to propose his machination for global governance, i.e. The League of Nations. So much was Wilson’s desire towards achieving that end, his Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan resigned in protest², citing Wilson’s Warmongering Diplomacy.

Further, President Wilson so decidedly intolerable of any form of dissent pushed for and achieved a legislative muzzle to stifle Anti-War sentiment in the form of the “Sedition³ and Espionage Acts”. Now with statutory authority, Wilson could jail and silence outspoken opponents of the war, claiming the now tired phraseology of “National Security”. The most famous of theses un-American incarcerations was Eugene Debs, the Cindy Sheehan of his day.

By the middle of the century, the American consciousness was becoming successfully manipulated into lockstep with an interventionist foreign policy. With the Central Authority spewing endless propaganda capitalizing upon the rapid growth of technology, i.e. nuclear annihilation and philosophical boogie-men, ergo “The Communist Red Scare” the state seized upon the manufactured fear to begin its chess game in earnest, funded of course by the private Central Bank. Few things fellow readers make a Central Banker’s eyes gloss over quicker than the thought of mountainous interest payments received on loans required to rebuild a war ravaged nation, continent, et al. As it is said, War is the Health of the State and a secure retirement for the Central Banker.

Fully intoxicated with the rise to superpower status, the Central Authority flexed its muscle under “The Marshall Plan” and thus now began to truly resemble the British tyrants cast off by the Founding Generation not even 200 years earlier.

It remains my conviction that through understanding history in its full prism, We the People can more fully understand the continued saber rattling on Iran and return the neoconservative philosophy to the plane of Hell especially reserved for warmongering tyrants and their Central banker puppet-masters.

While the glorious struggle to reclaim our foreign policy to that of commerce with all, tangling alliances with none will indeed be a difficult task, let us take proper stock of the situation and know that we are making progress. Last week former Vice-President Cheney became so deluged unto his hawkish tendencies that he felt it necessary to reach out to former Democrat and Rand Paul’s Senate primary opponent, Trey Grayson to try and extol the vice that is the Whig neoconservative philosophy.

For while Mr. Cheney is indeed a most tormented soul full of rage, he is no fool; a win for Ron Paul’s son in the Kentucky Senate race will be a referendum on his legacy, the Bush Doctrine. Moreover, it will further solidify that the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts was not merely dissatisfaction with President Obama, but a wider more raucous, growing dissatisfaction with Statist political philosophy in general. That it will illustrate an awakening and realization that regardless of whether a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ follows a politicians name, government continues to grow exponentially, its vacuous nature devouring our Liberty and the posterity’s financial security.

Further, it is time once and for all to refuse to accept the terms offered by the neoconservatives that those of us who prefer the wisdom of the Founder’s foreign policy, “Blame America”, as it is utter logical fallacy to the first degree.

We do not blame America; we blame the small pricked political looters who seek to enrich themselves whilst standing upon the bloodied corpses of American Soldiers killed in senseless wars upon sovereign nations of which are no threat to us outside of the contrived commotions at the behest of the CIA⁴, i.e. Iran:

Source(s): 1Making the World “Safe for Democracy”: Woodrow Wilson Asks for War – George Mason University, “History Matters” • ²The Resignation of Secretary of State William J. Bryan, 1915 JSTOR • ³Sedition Act of 1918, Brigham Young University Archives • ⁴ “Iranian scientist defects: US covert ops hurt Iran nuclear program” – Christian Science Monitor By Scott Peterson, Staff writer / March 31, 2010

Allison Bricker

WASHINGTON D.C. – Senators Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina are meeting today with President Obama to discuss tactics on how best to orchestrate the appearance of bipartisanship regarding comprehensive immigration reform. However, immigration reform is not the sole reason for the Senators’ visit. Also on the agenda is the culmination of the plutocrat’s fetish like desire to track all Americans with yet another attempt at shackling us with a national identification card.

Since the events of September 11th, the aristocrats on the hill have sought a way to effectively track like cattle all U.S. Citizens; however, despite their relentless fearmongering of boogiemen terrorists, the American people have in large part resisted the attempt to achieve “safety” via a mirroring of 1970’s era East Germany.

In a fashion similar to when the FDIC proposed the “Know Your Customer Rule” before public backlash forced a retraction, the statist have returned to their default playbook to achieve their end by swaddling in a national identification card under the guise of “securing the borders”. Then Assistant Director of the FEDERAL RESERVE, Richard Small provided keen insight to the minds of plutocrats when he spoke at the Mid Atlantic Compliance Conference in 1999, quipping that success of “Know Your Customer” depended on simply renaming the provision in order to avoid public scrutiny; the Central Authority hopes to replicate a corresponding trajectory for the National ID.

Whereas, “Know Your Customer” finally became law upon passage of the unconstitutional USA PATRIOT Act, the National ID card has encountered continued resistance thanks both to the new-media and internet-at-large. First as REAL ID, then as the PASS Act, the National ID has thus far repeatedly run up against an ever-growing chorus of Americans awakening to a federal government intruding ever further into our personal lives and business.

As recently reported, efforts are now under way by Imperial Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Scott “Tea-Party” Brown (R-MA), and seven other co-sponsors co-conspirators to indefinitely detain Americans merely upon suspicion and without trial. Further, details remain sparse on the Obama Administration and Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair’s request to be granted authority by Congress to assassinate Americans suspected of committing belligerent acts against the Central Government. Now the seek to saddle us with a biometric ID which confirms identity be scanning the veins in our hands?

These several recent legislative maneuvers by the treasonous statists in Congress are scheming what can no less be described and ought rightfully be referred to as the “New Intolerable Acts”.

While we are fortunate to have a robust and growing body of enlightened pro-liberty advocates, thinkers, and teachers such as Representative Ron Paul, we must not rest upon their hard work to reclaim our quickly atrophying liberties. As his interview with Megyan Kelly of Fox News demonstrates, we must also consider utterly detaching ourselves form what was once referred to as “the fourth branch of government”, ergo the old-media, as it is obvious at least to this blogger, that they are but mere shills for the statists. Her inference that an erosion of our natural liberties is of no consequence and a necessary concession under the current events, shows her to be a cold lifeless traitor to human liberty.

Make no mistake, the world, why undeniably dangerous, has always appeared to be at an unrivaled level of hostility when viewed through the lens of the here and now. Whereas it took close to 2,000 years of human civilization for an imperfect generation to rightfully proclaim the individual as the standard-bearer of liberty, in full possession of our natural rights, and offer the opportunity to form a more perfect Union.

Let us not now shrink in the duty to be ever vigilant defenders of both our own and our posterity’s unalienable natural liberties in the face of this growing tyranny.

The Smoking Argus

In his weekly Texas Straight Talk address, Representative Ron Paul discusses the bizarre spending habits of the United States government. Specifically via the State Department regarding the construction of yet another multimillion dollar embassy, this time in London as well as news the nation’s private Central Bank, the FEDERAL RESERVE may have been involved with both financing the likes of the Watergate burglars and Saddam Hussein. Dr. Paul points to these nefarious actions by the FEDERAL RESERVE during Watergate as published in the Senate Watergate Report from 1974¹ as well as its involvement in financing Saddam Hussein² as precisely why the FEDERAL RESERVE’s immunity from audit should be repealed in its entirety. [READ FULL TRANSCRIPT]

Related Material(s)
	Rep. Ron Paul -Texas Straight Talk – Bizarre Spending Habits TRANSCRIPT (PDF 00kb)

Source(s): The Senate Watergate Report published 1974,2005 • The New York Times “Follow the Money” by: Martin Mayer published January 14, 2004

Allison Bricker

WASHINGTON D.C. – Speaking to a standing room only crowd in the ballroom of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Representative Ron Paul of Texas addressed attendees of CPAC 2010 with an energy and passion usually reserved for the stump. After being largely dismissed by the old-media and political status-quo during the 2008 Presidential campaign, the reception for Doctor “No” at this year’s annual conservative gathering mirrored the response he routinely received at campaign stops and still garners at his speeches before the energetic college crowd. Driving home his message of smaller Constitutional government his speech was interrupted several times by standing ovations and loud chants of “End the FED”, the latter a reference to his bill to finally allow for a full and complete audit of the FEDERAL RESERVE, H.R. 1207.

The cheers continued to echo throughout the ballroom as he spoke to the necessity of realigning American Foreign Policy to that of the Founding Generation and classical not neo conservative philosophy.

Source(s): CPAC • MinnesotaChris YouTube Channel • C-SPAN

Wire Report

Dominick T. Armentano -Research Fellow, The Independent Institute/Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Hartford

Dominick T. Armentano is a Research Fellow at The Independent Institute and Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Hartford. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Connecticut, and he is the author of the books, Antitrust and Monopoly: Anatomy of a Policy Failure, Antitrust: The Case for Repeal, Intervention in the Petroleum Industry, and The Political Economy of William Graham Sumner. His articles have appeared in such scholarly journals as the Antitrust Bulletin, Business and Society Review, Antitrust Law and Economic Review, and Business History Review, as well as in the Financial Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reason, National Review, and Hartford Times. Professor Armentano is frequently interviewed on numerous TV and radio programs including “Economically Speaking” (PBS).

(Wire/Ind.Inst.) The economic landscape still looks pretty gloomy despite (because of?) massive increases in federal government spending by Congress. Want something else to worry about? What if your government suddenly went “belly up” on some or all of its public debt IOU’s?

Impossible you say? Not really.

When individuals or businesses have long-run expenses that exceed anticipated income—and have neither capital nor savings to fill in the gap—they often declare bankruptcy. And though it is rare, even some city governments (i.e., Vallejo, Calif.) have been plunged recently into insolvency and bankruptcy, and some state governments (with heavy pension costs) might consider it. But could it happen to our own federal government?

Most economists have always regarded this possibility as nearly unthinkable. After all, the U.S. government has never defaulted on a penny of its debt obligations in over 220 years. What this means is that when the Treasury sold government bonds, the bondholders have always received their interest payment and have always had their original principal returned at maturity. In that sense, U.S. government bonds have been 100 percent safe.

There are several ways that U.S. debt could become risky and unsafe and increase the likelihood of a general or partial default. The most obvious problem would be that Congress becomes unwilling or unable to raise taxes sufficient to pay, by law, the interest on the national debt.

So far this has not been an insurmountable problem despite the fact that in FY 2009, the interest cost to “carry” the U.S. public debt was $383 billion. (For a frame of reference, the budget for NASA last year was $19 billion.) The carrying costs by year 2019 are estimated to be more than $700 billion.

But these historical costs and projections are based on conservative guesses about deficits and interest rates. What if annual deficits now become trillion dollar holes (as they have) and rising interest rates (as are likely) force governments to pay far more to fund their increasing debt?

The analogy here would be to a credit card holder who already has debt, spends more this month than last, accumulating even more debt and, in addition, faces increasing payments every month because of higher interest rates. It becomes an impossible situation.

In the case of ever-increasing public debt, where does the new money come from to “carry” this increasing burden? Federal taxes would have to be increased to extraordinary levels; but this effort would prove self-defeating since it would likely destroy incentives and the economy to boot.

Another possible debt/default scenario, and just as depressing, is that the Federal Reserve continues to purchase more and more U.S. government debt. When the Fed purchases government securities in the “open market” it tends to push bond prices up and interest rates down, making it easier for the Treasury to market new debt and keep its funding costs low.

Unfortunately, the purchase of government securities (public debt) by the Fed leads to what economists call a “monetization” of that debt. Sellers of the securities get “new money” from the Fed and that new money normally works its way into the economy and raises prices for almost everything including interest rates.

The resulting inflation (or even the anticipation of it) also starts a vicious cycle of dollar depreciation that makes it even harder (at existing interest rates) to sell U.S. debt abroad. Again, as rates increase on more and more debt, the interest and refunding burden grows exponentially, and the once unthinkable becomes at least debatable.

Depressing as it is, however, the U.S. currency and debt/funding situation is actually in reasonable shape (as measured, say, by recent credit-default swap spreads) at least when compared to near basket-case countries such as Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and especially Greece.

A particularly dangerous example is Japan, where government debt is currently an astounding 200% of its GDP and is expected to rise to 230% by 2012. But none of this should make U.S. government bondholders at all smug since defaults on “sovereign debt” abroad could start a contagion that could swamp all boats. Stay tuned.

Copyright 2010 The Independent Institute

Allison Bricker

Essay No. 2

- A Response to My Friend Republicae from “Essays of the Revolution” and fellow member of the DailyPaul.

From my analysis, based upon multiple perspectives of historical research and subsequently merged harmoniously along with principal philosophies from the ‘Age of Enlightenment’ the Republic is not dormant; but was toppled long before the birth of the “lost” or 13th Generation. However make no mistake; the weight is borne with full impact by the 13th and all herein. As such, if we are to realign ourselves within the natural state of human liberty, it shall, as it always has, require a firm conviction by all who profess to favor Liberty to set about righting the glorious path which for so long has been allowed to drift astray.

Therefore, for the purposes of illustration and exchange let me offer a simplified time line of our history from which to begin:

Whilst it is doubtful the beginning of the simplified timeline would cause undue consternation to most, the justification for the transfer from Republic to Populist Democracy through to the present oligarchy will indeed make court historians of the state take umbrage at such an assertion. Therefore, let me make it plain, the timeline results from analysis that with passage of the “Trifecta” in 1913, the Central Authority, i.e. Washington D.C. was unchained from its Federalist restraints of carefully contrived Checks and Balances in its entirety, thus rendering the Republic as nothing more than an impotent sentimentality. Peering further in to the lecherous year of 1913 forebears witness to the key points of the dismantling, which leads us through to the present state of our disheveled Union:

• 16th Amendment (Collateralization of Americans and posterity, Feb. 3, 1913)
• 17th Amendment (Effectively removes states from any role/check on Federal Authority Apr. 8, 1913)
• FEDERAL RESERVE Act (Monopolization of monetary policy into hands of private bankers – Dec. 23, 1913)

All were principal in absolving the ship of state from its Constitutional moorings thereby allowing the Republic to begin listing in the kneejerk speculative inclinations of populist democracy, and thus resulting in a massive growth of central government. As history will illuminate, “democracy”, like the chaos of anarchy, is always a transitional period which results in the creation of a vacuum granting the means for miscreants and tyrants to further centralize power.

Further, with the end of Bretton Woods in 1971 and thus with the transition complete, the Central Banker Oligarchs gained total unchecked power over the nation; let the derivative financial schemes and nationalist neo-patriotism commence.

In conclusion, it is my view that if there is to be a restoration of the Republic in our lifetime we must accomplish the following for a peaceful transition:

1. End the 3rd Central Bank of the United States, i.e. FEDERAL RESERVE.
2. Repudiate Odious Debt created by FEDERAL RESERVE.
3. Repeal Income tax.
4. Restore State Check on the Central Authority’s power and simultaneously reintroduce the people to their representation amongst the several states by repealing the Direct Election of Senators.

May we see the Torch of Liberty Burn all the Brighter.

Your Friend in Liberty,

Allison Bricker

Allison Bricker

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance, one cannot fly into flying”. -Friedrich Nietzsche

BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY – On Monday, former Governor of Alaska, and 2008 Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin endorsed Dr. Rand Paul¹ over his Primary opponent, Secretary of State, Trey Grayson stating:

“I’m proud to support great grass roots candidates like Dr. Paul — While there are issues we disagree on, he and I are both in agreement that it’s time to shake up the status quo in Washington and stand up for common sense ideas.” Sarah Palin Former Governor of Alaska

Recent polling was already showing Rand widening the gap substantially between himself and Grayson² as well as beating every possible Democratic contender in the General Election prior to Sarah the Rogue’s verbal thumbs-up, so it appears to this blogger at least, as more of a calculated political move by the former Governor, than a huge plus for Candidate Paul.

In addition to her official statement endorsing the younger Paul, her political action committee, SarahPAC donated $2,000 to the doctor’s already burgeoning campaign war chest, again mostly thanks to money-bombs from the grassroots and not PAC’s. Her endorsement, in conjunction with recent controversial actions taken by the Campaign for Liberty, the attempted co-opting of the Tea-Party movement by the likes of Dick Armey³ and indeed the questionable platform stances by Rand Paul himself have left many in the Liberty movement, myself included, scratching our heads. It begs the question whether cozying up to establishment figureheads will lead to a watering down of the message, or derail the momentum thus far gained on the road to restoring the Republic.

However, where some see the aforementioned as nails into the coffin of all the progress thus far, upon further contemplation, I see opportunity; opportunity to make strides towards the reclamation of our natural rights formerly unfathomable in the wake of the Bush administration, September 11th, and the status-quo’s brand of neo-patriotism.

Nevertheless, it was very deflating to listen early on to Scott Horton’s interview of Rand Paul over at Anti-War.com⁴. During the interview, the younger Paul espoused believing in the Chief Executive’s right to act unilaterally without a Declaration of War, support for continuing the war in Afghanistan, and the absurd notion of keeping Club Torture, i.e. Guantanamo up and running in lieu of a total and complete shuttering.

Additionally, while continuing to observe Rand’s campaign it seems pedantic to me when he offers, “term limits”, code for lazy democracy, as a way to combat corruption in Washington D.C. As we all know, the 22nd Amendment has done little to spare us of corrupt, disastrous, power-hungry Chief Executives. It has only succeeding in perpetrating the illusion of change with each successive changing of the puppet.

But wait, there is hope; Rand like his statesman father, understands the insidious parasitic relationship of the FEDERAL RESERVE and the U.S. government. This my fellow readers in my opinion is our “golden arrow”; our chance to come face to face with the absolute root which enables the promulgation of its siblings, the FEDERAL RESERVE. The reality that a private cartel of bankers and the cottage supporting industries, i.e. Goldman Sachs have intertwined themselves so tightly into government via currency creation and the endless list of their crony sycophants receiving high level cabinet and department level appointments are the core reason for the current dilapidated condition of our Constitutional Republic, once known as America.

The central banker puppet masters alone through legislation enacted almost a century age, ergo the FEDERAL RESERVE Act, 16th, and 17th Amendments succeeded in delegating ‘We the People’ as collateral to finance their odious debt, corrupted the Senate, and morphed us from Republic to populous democracy, whilst simultaneously bestowing upon themselves monopoly control over the currency.

Moreover fellow readers ask yourself this question, where was your political philosophy and understanding of the issues five, ten, twenty years ago? My sophomore year in high school for example, my mother and myself sat glued to the television watching Tom Brokaw declare Bill Clinton the 42nd President of the United States. Upon Mr. Brokaw’s announcement, I remember turning to my mother and asking, “Things are going to be better now –right?”

Up until the election of William Clinton, the previous Presidents were all ‘evil’ Republicans, save my infancy during the Carter administration, and we were a rust-belt working class “Democrat” family, so surely a Democrat in office would make life peachy. Unfortunately, reality painted a different picture and the election of Clinton was a furthering of my education rather than salvation for working-class families such as my own.

The actions of the Clinton Administration were the catalyst for me to dig beneath the nationalist sugary sweet veneer that was beat into my head throughout my tenure at government school. The nauseating actions undertaken especially by his Attorney General, Janet Reno forever removed my rose-colored glasses and prompted me to purchase my first copy of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man/Common Sense from a local bookstore.

In addition, contrasted against the largely college-centric movement of the late 1960’s whereby the focus was largely on the dissatisfaction of college-aged anti-war protesters, the Liberty movement is not so one-dimensional.

We are made up of not only the 13th Generation, a generation literally written off in our infancy as “the lost generation”, the roots to the movement run deep and are of a diverse stock. The movement includes not only those of us in our 30’s and 40’s, but we also benefit from the excellent work undertaken at the college level by Young Americans for Liberty, and are blessed with the veteran elders of the movement like Dr. Paul, Lew Rockwell, and Judge Andrew Napolitano, to name just a few.

In addition to spanning generations, my time in the movement has afforded me the opportunity to meet those from every walk of life under the sun; black, white, yellow, red, Christian, atheist, rich, poor, queer, straight, it matters not. The liberty movement redefines “big-tent” simply as American, people-group be damned.

So please ask yourself the last time you can remember something that freely unified such a wide swath spanning generations, race, and class. Liberty, my fellow readers is a most glorious unifier like no other. Thus, this is why we shake the puppet masters to their core. Fear not the endorsement of “Sarah the Rogue”.

As such, as we all continue to learn and expand our understanding; we must make room for this to apply to individuals like Sarah Palin as well, and seize the opportunity to begin a dialog with her and her supporters about the insidious nature of Central Banking, true Constitutionally limited government, and the doctrine of just, not preemptive war.

The Kentucky Senate race is likely to be watched closely both to gauge the threat to the establishment’s entrenched power via the inclusion of a Paul in the Senate and to see if Democrats could steal the seat currently held by Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) who announced his retirement last year. Let us seize the opportunity before us to spread the warm glow of the Sunshine of Liberty through educating and conversing with others on the principles of natural rights and the dangers of Central Banking.

Our posterity and our Republic deserve no less and the opportunity before us has never before in my lifetime been so self-evident.

Source(s): ¹Rand Paul U.S. Senate Campaign Website “Sarah Palin Endorses” by David Adams 02/01/2010 • ²Public Policy Polling “Paul Takes Big Lead in GOP Primary” 12/22/2009 • ³ Huffington Post “Operation Steele/Armey: GOP/Tea party Co Opt Each Other” by Alex Brant-Zawadzki published: December 17, 2009 • ⁴Scott Horton Interviews Rand Paul May 17, 2009 •