Subtle Media Anti-Anarchist Spin

This story was interesting. The teacher's union sponsored a protest, criticizing education budget cuts and Wall Street corruption.

This was a "State-approved" protest. If you're protesting against budget cuts in the part of the State that employs you, then you really aren't protesting against the State.

If you're protesting "Higher salary for my State job!", you're literally saying "Higher taxes for everyone else!" Of course, the State media never presents it that way.

I was really amused by this section:

The May 12 protest was overwhelmingly peaceful, with tens of thousands of activists moving throughout the city streets in an orderly fashion. However, a small group of anarchists did cause a ruckus at one point

Notice the dig against anarchists. How do you know they were anarchists, and not just some random troublemakers?

State propaganda is "Anarchists are people who like random violence and property destruction." That's why I call myself a "market anarchist" or "agorist".

I was amused and offended by the subtle dig against anarchists. Such a message, repeated many times, leads to the false belief that anyone who criticizes the State monopoly is a dangerous criminal. Those subtle mind control tricks are pathetically obvious to me now. However, others are fooled, which is a serious problem.

Thursday's Post Disappeared

What a POS. I just noticed that Thursday's post disappeared.

Also, some of your comments may have been lost.

Blogger Was Down

In case anyone was wondering what happened, Blogger was down. What a POS.

Ireland Steals Private Pensions

This story was very interesting. Facing budget pressure, Ireland's government seized private pension plans.

They imposed a tax of 0.6% of plan assets per year for the next four years. This is a tax on plan assets and not income. Even if the pension plan loses money on its portfolio, it still pays 0.6% of assets as a tax.

You might say "So what? It's only 0.6%." A 100% tax would be flagrantly obviously corrupt. The State steals property via taxes. The State doesn't steal 100%, because that would be too obvious.

Interestingly, this tax penalizes fully funded pension plans. They will pay a larger tax than an underfunded pension plan.

Ireland's government is broke because Ireland bailed out its banks. Now, Ireland is seizing private pension plan assets, to pay for the bank bailout. They are doing this under pressure from the EU and foreign creditors. The banksters who own Ireland government debt can profitably lobby Ireland's government to raise taxes to prevent a default.

Could this happen in the USA? Yes. At any time, tax law may be changed. Pensions and IRAs and 401(k) plans have certain legal rules now. Those laws can be changed.

How can the State steal your 401(k) or IRA? The most commonly-cited proposal is "mandatory annuity conversion".

They can force you to buy Treasury debt or an annuity, with your IRA or 401(k) assets. That would subsidize the State. Treasury interest rates are much less than inflation. The implied interest rate for an annuity is a lousy rate, and annuities have loads and hidden fees.

At any time, the State may seize your IRA, 401(k), or any State-licensed investment. In 1933, President Roosevelt seized every American's gold. Based on that precedent, the State may steal any investment.

No investment is safe.

1. If you invest in a checking account, money market account, or Treasury debt, you will definitely be robbed by inflation.
2. If you invest in stocks, the return will probably underperform true inflation. Over the past 10 years, the stock market has severely underperformed true inflation, as measured by gold and silver.
3. If you invest in real estate, you will be robbed by property taxes. State bureaucrats can arbitrarily raise property tax rates, ruining your property value. Property can be seized via eminent domain. Zoning laws restrict what you may do with your land.
4. Any State paper investment is subject to seizure. It can come from a dispute with the IRS, a frivolous lawsuit, "asset forfeiture", or other legal tricks.
5. If you invest in an IRA or 401(k), the tax law may be changed, enabling State thugs to rob you.
6. If you invest in a gold or silver ETF, there's a management fee. Even worse, there's a risk that the ETF fund manager is lying about how much physical metal he owns. I.e., there's a fraud risk.
   
7. If you invest in physical metal, there's a "where to store it" problem. If you use a third party, you're subject to fraud risk. If you hide it in your home, you may be robbed by common criminals, or by criminals wearing badges and uniforms. If you buy gold or silver from a State-licensed dealer, they are required to report the transaction to the State. If police keep track of who owns physical gold and silver, they can rob you legally, or leak the list of gold owners to other criminals.
   

Is there a risk that the State will steal your pension or IRA or 401(k)? The State financial industry *ALREADY* controls almost all investments. They steal a couple percent per year via management fees and hidden fees. Not content with stealing a couple percent of your savings every year, State thugs might get greedy and explicitly seize more. That would be "killing the goose that laid the golden egg", but never underestimate the stupidity of State bureaucrats.

The State financial system will probably collapse in 15-20 years. Once that happens, all State paper investments will probably be worthless. Given that, I should cash out my IRAs, pay the withdrawal penalty, and buy gold and silver. But where would I safely store the metal?

I expect the State to collapse in 15-20 years. I'll keep my State paper investments as a hedge. In a year or two, I'll start gradually buying gold and silver, so I can estimate the risk.

When Will GLD Or SLV Default?

If you read the fine print of the GLD or SLV fund prospectus, they fund manager is allowed to lend the fund holdings to short sellers. In effect, the GLD and SLV fund manager is secretly practicing fractional reserve banking.

In this post, I only specifically mention GLD and SLV, because they're the largest gold and silver funds. Even funds that claim to have "full reserves" are suspect (like PHYS). Unless you inspect the vault, you can't be sure that the fund manager has all the metal he claims to have.

GLD and SLV are a variation of the classic fractional reserve banking scam. Shares of GLD and SLV represent a "demand deposit" for gold or silver. At any time, the shareholder may sell his shares for the NAV. However, only "designated market makers" may redeem shares of GLD or SLV for physical metal or futures. The fund manager doesn't keep as much gold/silver in his vault as there are shares of GLD/SLV. In other words, he's practicing fractional reserve banking.

As long as all shareholders don't simultaneuosly sell, the fractional reserve scam continues. Like any Ponzi scam, a continuous supply of buyers helps prolong it. As long as more people buy GLD and SLV than sell, a default cannot occur. The GLD/SLV fund manager is counting on the fact that all shareholders won't simultaneously sell, just like a classic fractional reserve bank counts on the fact that all demand deposits aren't simultaneously withdrawn.

Given that GLD and SLV are practicing fractional reserve banking, an eventual default is guaranteed. It's not a question of if, but when, the default will occur.

Imagine the following headline:

There was a default in the gold leasing market. The GLD fund was stuck with a loss of 10%. According to the fund's prospectus, that 10% loss is passed on to shareholders.

What would happen? After that default, people would sell their GLD and buy physical metal. That would lead to a run on *ALL* PM funds, and not just the one that defaulted. After a default, it'd be obvious to any fool that GLD and SLV are a scam.

State insiders are eager to avoid this. They want to preserve the illusion that State paper investments are sound. Therefore, GLD would probably get a bailout, either explicitly or indirectly.

GLD and SLV shareholders do not have the right to redeem for physical metal. They only have the right to redeem for paper. If necessary, insiders will print enough paper to bail out the fund. That would be more attractive than a default, which would cause people to switch from paper to physical metal, taking actual delivery.

GLD and SLV are secretly practicing fractional reserve banking. They are lending out their metal to short sellers. This guarantees an eventual default. However, a default would cause people to switch from paper metal to actual metal. Therefore, the fund would be bailed out, explicitly or secretly. After all, fund shareholders are merely promised paper, and not actual metal. Therefore, a default by GLD or SLV or another large PM fund is logically equivalent to the complete collapse of the State financial system.

An eventual default is guaranteed. That applies to GLD and SLV and all PM funds. However, that default will occur around the same time that the State financial system scam completely collapses. Until then, those funds are "too big to fail" and will get a bailout.

What Pecentage Of Americans Pay Taxes?

This statistic is commonly quoted and incredibly misleading. The fake statistic is "51% of Americans pay zero Federal income taxes".

They are only referring to 1040 income taxes. They are not referring to the payroll tax (Social Security and Medicare tax). Everyone who works on-the-books pays Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Via the "Earned Income Tax Credit", some very-low-wage earners get a full or partial refund of payroll taxes. However, this refers to the employee-paid portion and not the employer-paid portion.

Some taxes are paid by the employer and not the employee. Those taxes still come from the pool of money that would otherwise be available for salary. For example, unemployment insurance tax is paid by the employer, but not the employee. Salaries are lower by the cost of the unemployment tax. Unemployment taxes are collected by states and not the Federal government, but state unemployment insurance law is influenced by Federal law.

There also is the inflation tax, paid by everyone who uses FRNs as money. Even if you have credit card debt and no savings, the inflation tax still hurts you. Your salary doesn't keep pace with inflation and the 20%+ credit card interest rate is much closer to true inflation compared to what insiders pay to borrow (typically 6% or less).

When you buy gasoline, a large component of the price is tax. When you buy alcohol and cigarettes, taxes are a large component of the price. There are many hidden Federal taxes, in addition to the Federal income tax. Unlike the income tax, most of these hidden taxes are regressive.

The worst tax is the hidden "non-free market tax". Suppose your salary is $10/hr, but in a really free market you would earn $30/hr. You're paying a 66% non-free market tax. You never see that money. Some of that wealth is destroyed by inefficiency. The rest disappears as higher profits for insiders.

The non-free market tax affects prices when you buy things. For example, expensive health insurance is caused by the Federal law that artificially restricts the supply of doctors, by limiting the number of slots in State-licensed medical schools.

There are many indirect taxes that a typical slave pays. Most of these taxes are hidden. The non-free-market tax is the biggest tax and best-hidden tax. It is misleading to say that 51% of the people pay no Federal income tax. There are many other hidden and indirect taxes.

When Was Osama Bin Laden Killed?

Some people claim that Osama bin Laden was actually killed 9 years ago. Allegedly, Benazir Bhutto claimed that Osama bin Laden was killed in late 2001. She was silenced via assassination.

Some bloggers claim that the "Osama bin Laden" videos that were "certified legitimate" by the US government were obvious fakes.

Did US troops kill Osama bin Laden? Did they kill a bearded arabic guy? You can't be sure.

Even "releasing the photos" would prove nothing. Someone would claim they were photoshopped.

Osama bin Laden had failing kidneys. I didn't see any report claiming that his "compound" had a kidney dialysis machine.

Suppose Osama bin Laden really did die 9 years ago, but they exactly weren't sure when or where. Then, you can stage a raid claiming to kill him.

Disturbingly, the US government kept changing the "official story". First they said he used a woman as a shield, and later he didn't. First, they said he was armed and shot at US troops. Later, they said he was unarmed. It's embarrassing that they kept changing the "official story".

By rapidly disposing of the body/evidence, it's now impossible to prove if they actually killed him.

It was obviously a kill mission, and not a "capture him alive" mission. What happened to due process? Doesn't he get a trial? Can the President declare anyone a terrorist, and summarily execute them?

It would have been embarrassing to have a trial, where the defendant was claiming "You got the wrong guy!"

"No-knock warrants" are sometimes death warrants for the victim. Sometimes, the judge explicitly instructs the police to shoot first and ask questions later, as Randy Weaver's wife discovered.

Police can summarily execute anyone with a trial. All they have to do is say "He was resisting! I thought he was reaching for a gun!", and now it's legal murder.

Most police are not homicidal maniacs. However, they know the State legal system will bend over backwards to rule in their favor. Therefore, the incentive is to use deadly force, even when it isn't necessary.

There's another disturbing aspect of the "official story". Isn't Pakistan a puppet government and ally? Why didn't they catch him?

Also, if he really was Osama bin Laden, wouldn't they want to interrogate him?

This "Osama bin Laden" murder story has many suspicious elements. The "official story" changed several times. The body and evidence were rapidly destroyed. The real bin Laden may have actually died 9 years ago. The US troops went on an assassination mission, rather than capturing him and giving him a fair trial.