The United States’ Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will stop publishing a key report tracking foreign direct investments (FDI) into the U.S. Through the discontinuation of the BEA’s “New Investment Series,” the U.S. government and the American public will no longer be able to distinguish between FDI used to acquire existing U.S. assets from FDI used to establish new U.S. businesses.
I really want to be surprised that we will no longer be able to view how many of our assets are being sold off to foreign countries. Before we know it we are going to be owned by everyone else. Imagine… the once wealthiest and powerful nation in the wold was auctioned slowly auctioned off to foreign bidders, and hardly anyone said a thing.
We no longer are able to track the actual amount of currency in circulation via the M3 indicator, and now this. Soon we won’t even have the M1 and M2 figures to look at, which would enable even more credit expansion because nobody could question what the Fed is doing.
This is looking more and more like a systematic power grab by banking institutions. Let’s see who ends up surviving the carnage in the years to come.
This may very well be an interesting day…. Asia is taking a major hit as we sleep or well we are about to sleep as is my case. Here is the latest Bloomberg headline:
I’ve been very cautious about the markets continuing on their tumble down and am unfortunately not surprised that this is happening. It seems that the world has reached panic mode and is fleeing paper, which also is another indicator about why gold is so difficult to find.
We just may have reached that point where the markets enter freefall. It is similar to watching a stampede running towards you. You have a few choices:
Get out of the way!
Get run over!
Run like a mad-man and go with the stampede.
I’ll go with #1 or #3 or perhaps a combination of both. When there is panic nothing is rational. Even if things aren’t really necessitating a major sell-off the herd mentality will cause a major sell off. It is self-perpetuating, a feedback loop. Very similar to hyper-inflation. Once the shakeout occurs what is going to happen with all newly created money floating around that nobody wants to lend at the moment, coupled with peak oil, and fiat currencies worth not a whole lot… That’s the trillion dollar question. Not good is all I can say, not good at all.
Imagine losing most of you wealth to the market as did happen similarly in 1929-1932, then due to a massive increase in the money supply prices take off and unemployment rises. Don’t be surprised if the next President resembles Roosevelt and the New Deal. If that ends up being the case I’m even more concerned. He did want to raise taxes to 100% beyond a minimum income. That will halt any growth in an economy because people have no incentive.
On the bright side the amount of panic and fear in the air could be considered a contrarian indicator. Why not…. when there is blood in the streets BUY… oh but wait… HOW MUCH BLOOD??
Many of us worry about our own personal bubble or world within. We sometimes forget that we are part of a larger system. No, I’m not talking about anything spiritual or religious, but a system as a whole… The Earth is a system and for everything on Earth to function there are interdependencies. Those interdependencies begin to break-down when a system fails or is interrupted.
For example: When people feel scared or helpless they look towards authority for the answers. Folks, the answer is within yourself and everyone around you. Why not talk to the person next to you at the street crossing, in line, on the bus, airplane, or train?
CarrotMob came up with an idea that coordinates a group to make a difference or change. I like the idea of giving a business, customers, in exchange for something. In this instance it is a ton of customers for 22% of profits to go towards improving energy efficiency of the store.
Say on a normal day you pull in $2000.00, but on the day CarrotMob comes around you pull in $9000.00. Okay so now you are taking 22% of your profits and putting them towards a long-term energy conservation program that is directly benefiting you the store.
Let’s have some fun with numbers (these are only an example to illustrate a point):
Crazy right? NO
I think we have forgotten, but are starting to wake-up that as a group of individuals we have the ability to do anything.
Let’s now take this to a bigger scale as CarrotMob does at the end of the video. What if a hundred thousand people went to a solar manufacturer and said hey we all want solar for our houses. If we guarantee 100,000 orders will you give us a discount?
This isn’t a new idea… collective pooling of money to make purchases. However, what makes me excited is that this isn’t a Business – Business transaction, but a Group – Business transaction. Sure there are more complexities involved when you are dealing with 100,000 orders versus a bunch of orders for one company, but it is possible.
We are a nation founded on thinking outside the box to come up with innovative and new ideas. The energy crisis that we are and will be facing isn’t outside the grasp of an entrepreneur. Unfortunately there is a big BUT here…
What motivates an entrepreneur? :: wealth
What inhibits an entrepreneur? :: regulations and taxes
You say that regulations are necessary… perhaps, but what happens when there is a corn subsidy or ethanol subsidy? – Money that may have gone towards an innovative idea is redirected towards corn and ethanol, which may not be the best solution. I don’t know about you, but I highly doubt a few individuals are capable of deciding what is for the greater good, using public money. There are unforeseen consequences of such actions.
It is what we don’t see that concerns me. What could be manufactured instead of ethanol plants? We may never know to the full extent because the path of least resistance leads companies to produce ethanol. If I’m guaranteed certain monies from the gov’t, if I do this (the entrepreneurial idea with no subsidy) or that (governmental idea with subsidy), of course I’ll do that because it is easier and has an implicit profit regardless of the profitability of the company.
In looking at the present bailout package… my concern is what we are missing and not seeing. If this package or a variation thereof passes what could that money have been used for? $700 bn dollars is a lot of money. We are going to be over a trillion dollars in debt after it is passed and that is only for THIS year.
The bankers and government officials “employed” by the bankers don’t want you nor I to truly understand how the present system works. Just take a look at my previous post.
In conclusion I hope that you realize that as a group of individuals we can do anything. Fear will keep us paralyzed, major traumatic events allow the Constitution to be thrown out the window, and the media feeds us a story they want us to believe. We are a nation of entrepreneurs! You have a choice.
I endorse no candidate for the upcoming election. However, I recently read Ron Paul’s statement about the state of the potential bailout that may be voted on as early as tomorrow. Given the urgency of that matter and clarity of prose I present it here.
Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.
The events of the past week are no exception.
The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress’ throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect. It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China! “This is welfare for the rich,” he said. “This is socialism for the rich. It’s bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters.”
That describes the current bailout package to a T. And we’re being told it’s unavoidable.
The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to believe it. But that has become the conventional wisdom, with the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble and its predictable consequences – predictable, that is, to those who understand sound, Austrian economics – are being let off the hook. The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!
• The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time. That means $700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.
• Financial institutions are “designated as financial agents of the Government.” This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.
• Then there’s this: “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.“ Translation: the Secretary can buy up whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with it, and be subject to no one in the process.
There goes your country.
Even some so-called free-market economists are calling all this “sadly necessary.” Sad, yes. Necessary? Don’t make me laugh.
Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against the American people. The two major party candidates for president themselves initially indicated their strong support for bailouts of this kind – another example of the big choice we’re supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes. Now, with a backlash brewing, they’re not quite sure what their views are. A sad display, really.
Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the end of the political atrocities we’ll witness in connection with the crisis, time is short. Congress may vote as soon as tomorrow. With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid to vote for it. Call them! Let them hear from you! Tell them you will never vote for anyone who supports this atrocity.
The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government? Do we care?
When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media?
Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what kind of country we shall be.
In liberty,
Ron Paul
P.S. All week long, Scott Horton’s excellent Antiwar Radio program, which I highly recommend, will devote its first hour (12:00-1:00pm ET) to the financial crisis. Today, my former economic adviser, Peter Schiff, will be on the program. We’ll stream these programs at theCampaign for Liberty website. Listen in!
Whenever there is panic and fear, which are growing rapidly day by day there is generally an accompanied amount of control and restriction by the state (the government). Everyone’s focus at the moment is on the stock market and the bailout plan. However, behind the scenes events are unraveling that once again as they have ever increasingly since September 11, 2001 are limiting and curtailing our freedoms. We fought hard for these and to have them taken away as a byproduct of events that could have been avoided…
During times of unrest and ill ease it is imperative that we stand by the constitution and not let it go by the wayside. We expect the state to intervene and save us versus take care of ourselves. The founders of this country who risked their lives to have freedom would be disgusted at how we roll over these days.
Our borders are becoming increasingly difficult to cross with more information required. Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post wrote an interesting article about the extended search capabilities of the border guards…
The U.S. government has quietly recast policies that affect the way information is gathered from U.S. citizens and others crossing the border and what is done with it, including relaxing a two-decade-old policy that placed a high bar on federal agents copying travelers’ personal material, according to newly released documents.
The policy changes, civil liberties advocates say, also raise concerns about the guidelines under which border officers may share data copied from laptop computers and cellphones with other agencies and the types of questions they are allowed to ask American citizens.
The article continues
But what DHS did not disclose was that since 1986 and until last year, the government generally required a higher standard: Federal agents needed probable cause that a law was being broken before they could copy material a traveler was bringing into the country.
If you or I go through the United States border we may be detained, our personal documents photocopied, our cell phones held onto, our computers searched, and the list goes on. Previously, a customs agent would have to obtain permission from the courts or have a probable cause to commit such acts. No longer is that necessary. The rest of the article cites specific instances where people have been detained for 5.5 hours, been asked about their religious beliefs, who people in their cell phones are, and so one.
Every time I travel internationally I dread going through United States customs. I would rather go through customs in India, China, Egypt or any other country for that matter than the US (there are a few exceptions). Prior to September 11, 2001 this wasn’t as big an issue. However, these days you are automatically assumed to be somewhat guilty, and questioned as such. As a foreigner I can’t imagine what customs is like.
Once I was returning to the United States from Europe. There are many stamps and visas in my passport as I have traveled all over the world. The customs agent started to go through my passport page by page asking me about every country I had a stamp for. The stamps were a couple years old and had no relevance to my present trip so I was becoming quite annoyed. Finally I asked him if he had ever been to India and if not that he had to go because it is such an amazing country. The people are friendly, the food is amazing, and so on. He replied that he doesn’t travel outside the United States. A border agent that doesn’t travel outside the United States seems quite ironic.
State powers seem to be growing within the United States as well. Prior to the Republican National Convention there was a mass arrest in St. Paul Minnesota.
The Glass Bead Collective released video on Thursday of the mass arrests of protesters, media and bystanders at Shepard Road on day one of the Republican National Convention. A number of those arrested were heading to or from the SEIU Labor Day concert on Harriet Island. (Three members of the Glass Bead Collective were among those arrested in the week before the RNC in St. Paul.)
The Glass Bead Collective said the video came from a cameraman who hid his video before being arrested. From the press release, “Video released today shows the indiscriminate arrest of a crowd of two hundred at the waterfront across from a concert on Harriet Island Regional Park during this month’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The video includes multiple angles of the event as well as an interview with the cameraman who buried his footage and was one of almost two hundred people arrested for rioting without probable cause.”
