Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

[grapejelly]

Re: Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

I agree. I'm not that cynical but I can see how the world organizes into a very sophisticated pattern that functions "as if" there is such a conspiracy. I think this is more likely.

[Charles Mackay]

Re: Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

I consider myself rather cynical, and even though I may be, I have difficulty believing there actually exists a cabal of bankers who intentionally contrive to get everyone into debt and then to lock them into it by manipulation of the bankruptcy laws, and then intentionally bring about a deflation in order to reduce most of the populace into serfdom. However, if where we are as a nation now could be attributed to the conscious actions of bankers, then perhaps they have achieved already two out of three steps of the "plan."

But just as well, I really cannot imagine why anyone with multiple millions of dollars would keep endeavoring to double, triple, or quadruple such wealth. Maybe I just don't understand the true happiness obscene wealth can buy.

If you are more cynical than I, then perhaps the portions of Nystrom's remarks will come to fruition. I personally don't discount the possibility.

As a businessman it's against my nature also, but the longer I examine the entrails of the Federal Reserve and Central Banks the more cynical I get. I guess we'll find out ....all in the fullness of time.

[jk]

Re: Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

I agree. I'm not that cynical but I can see how the world organizes into a very sophisticated pattern that functions "as if" there is such a conspiracy. I think this is more likely.

i'm with jim and you, grape. what we have here is the invisible hand at work, but subject to the madness, delusions and passions of crowds. i think bernarnke is genuinely doing his best to pilot the economy, as much as he can pilot the economy, through dangerous waters. i don't think the tulip bubble [the original one, in holland] was a conspiracy. actually tulips were one of the few investment options available to the newly moneyed middle classes, and then one thing led to another, as things often do. someone made a lot of money on tulip bulbs, someone sold at the top, but i doubt it was conspiracy. i don't think the dot.com bubble was a conspiracy - just the product of greed and enthusiasm, mixed with just the right amount of ignorance and denial. i remember my [then] accountant telling me he'd made a killing on the ipo of boston chicken, which of course later went bankrupt and became boston markets. he was probably in on krispy kreme, too. i suppose there might be an international donut conspiracy, but i doubt it.

[Tet]

Re: Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

As a businessman it's against my nature also, but the longer I examine the entrails of the Federal Reserve and Central Banks the more cynical I get. I guess we'll find out ....all in the fullness of time.

From Thomas Jefferson regarding banks.
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous
to our liberties than standing armies. Already they
have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set
the Government at defiance. The issuing power should
be taken from the banks and restored to the people to
whom it properly belongs.
Thomas Jefferson

If the American people ever allow private banks to
control the issue of their money, first by inflation
and then by deflation, the banks and corporations
that will grow up around them (around the banks),
will deprive the people of their property until their
children will wake up homeless on the continent
their fathers conquered.
Thomas Jefferson


The system of banking is a blot left in all our
Constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their
destruction... I sincerely believe that banking
institutions are more dangerous than standing
armies; and that the principle of spending money
to be paid by posterity
... is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
Thomas Jefferson

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

Tet,

Those quotes suggest Jefferson knew quite a bit about banking; he must have been one at some point or either was a thousand-fold more insightful about banking than are present day politicos.

At my age one, I guess, naturally has more contemplations of death, and to my thinking the gloomiest thing about being closer to the end of the tunnel than at its begining, is that at some point I will lose awareness of how all this shit turns out.

I don't think I am about to kick off, but who knows when generally? I sure hope I survive to see some sort of resolution one way or the other to all this mess.

[Charles Mackay]

Re: Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

Ron Paul just recently said:

"Congress and the Federal Reserve Bank have a cozy, unspoken arrangement that makes war easier to finance. Congress has an insatiable appetite for new spending, but raising taxes is politically unpopular. The Federal Reserve, however, is happy to accommodate deficit spending by creating new money through the Treasury Department. In exchange, Congress leaves the Fed alone to operate free of pesky oversight and free of political scrutiny. Monetary policy is utterly ignored in Washington, even though the Federal Reserve system is a creation of Congress.

The result of this arrangement is inflation. And inflation finances war."

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

Ron Paul just recently said:

"Congress and the Federal Reserve Bank have a cozy, unspoken arrangement that makes war easier to finance. Congress has an insatiable appetite for new spending, but raising taxes is politically unpopular. The Federal Reserve, however, is happy to accommodate deficit spending by creating new money through the Treasury Department. In exchange, Congress leaves the Fed alone to operate free of pesky oversight and free of political scrutiny. Monetary policy is utterly ignored in Washington, even though the Federal Reserve system is a creation of Congress.

The result of this arrangement is inflation. And inflation finances war."

Paul who seems to be the "darling" of the anti-fiat money crowd is neverthless a politician by virtue of his position as a congressman. Even if he is capable of overcoming the usual behavior of politicians--that is to say they have two interests: their own welfare, and getting re-elected--he is 1 against 500 or so and however many lobbiest there are. If one is grasping at him as a wind of change, I believe one is grasping for straws.

[Tet]

Re: Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

I sure hope I survive to see some sort of resolution one way or the other to all this mess.

Certainly would be nice to know, I'd like to be able to teach my children how the game is played because this one is quite a racket. Myself, I think it all gets sorted out pretty soon and for the time being I believe for the better. I also believe you'll be around to see how it all turns out.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

Certainly would be nice to know, I'd like to be able to teach my children how the game is played because this one is quite a racket. Myself, I think it all gets sorted out pretty soon and for the time being I believe for the better. I also believe you'll be around to see how it all turns out.

This is more philosophical that else, Tet. What might you teach your children, how to play the game to their advantage (which I guess could mean joining the band of thieves themselves), or to protect themselves from how others will be playing it?

When you say "sorted out pretty soon and for the time being...for the better," do you have a general time frame?

What do you see as "for the better"?

[jk]

Re: Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

i've read that the inflation/deflation "jefferson" quote is apocryphal. since i haven't read jefferson's works and committed them to memory i can't say myself. but whether a statement is true or valuable doesn't really depend on who said it.

and jim, i share your fascination with the idea of seeing how things turn out. but it seems they never turn out, they just turn, turn, turn...

[Tet]

Re: Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

This is more philosophical that else, Tet. What might you teach your children, how to play the game to their advantage (which I guess could mean joining the band of thieves themselves), or to protect themselves from how others will be playing it?

To protect themselves, but I certainly don't mind identifying those that are ripping people off and giving them a bit of their own medicine.
Not sure that's a lesson I want to teach them just yet though.

When you say "sorted out pretty soon and for the time being...for the better," do you have a general time frame?

Putin leaves March 2008, I think he's going to be doing a lot of payback this year. South America this summer is going to really take off. China with their $200 billion is going to be making some major purchases. I think by 2012 the pendellum is clearly swinging the right direction and the right direction is away from Private Central Banks to a system where the government not private industry determines the money supply.

What do you see as "for the better"?

If things go correctly I believe that one spouse can stay home and raise the family again. The motivation for war won't be there because they'll take the profit out of war. That's how I see it, the world will be a better place, the sky will be the limit.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq

i've read that the inflation/deflation "jefferson" quote is apocryphal. since i haven't read jefferson's works and committed them to memory i can't say myself. but whether a statement is true or valuable doesn't really depend on who said it.

and jim, i share your fascination with the idea of seeing how things turn out. but it seems they never turn out, they just turn, turn, turn...

Yes, jk, it seems we keep spinning our wheels in the mud.

Below is a bit to reiterate how long, relatively, things can take before unwinding.

Peter Schiff http://www.safehaven.com/article-6876.htm

Recently voiced concerns from the Chinese government that their surging domestic stock market was crossing into bubble territory helped to set off last week's sharp decline, including a single day plunge of 6.5% (the equivalent of more than 800 points on the Dow Jones.) While a bubble may indeed be forming in Chinese stocks, my guess is that there is room for a lot more air before it finally pops.
In fact, the recent warnings in China are reminiscent of Alan Greenspan's infamous "irrational exuberance" speech in December of 1996. As history has shown, the Chairman was correct (perhaps for the only time in his tenure), but Greenspan failed to comprehend just how much irrationality the markets would bear before they finally gave in. In fact, after nearly four more years of unprecedented market exuberance, Greenspan himself took the "new era" bait hook, line and sinker. Surprisingly, he became one of the market's greatest cheerleaders. My guess is that before a similar peak is reached in China, officials there will be snared on the same line.