On Death And Taxes: "The Greed Of The Government Can Never Be Overstated" | Zero Hedge

On Death And Taxes: "The Greed Of The Government Can Never Be Overstated"

Submitted by Jeremiah Johnson (nom de plume of retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces) via SHTFPlan.com,

Readers, you’re awake to the horrors of the Federal Government, our rapidly-declining GDP and ever-increasing debts.  Trillions of dollars have been stolen, in the form of appropriations and programs that funnel directly from the tax-base: the fat “cash-cow” that the government suckles from.  The taxes are life-sustaining to the government juggernaut, managed by the ever self-serving “representatives” of Congress who approve pay raises for themselves, immunity from prosecution from (what was formerly) insider trading, and exonerate themselves from any and all ethics violations.

Taxes keep the government going, keep the system emplaced and you the citizen in your place, from birth to death.  The websiteivn.us reports the breakdown for the federal government’s feedings:

Personal income taxes               47.4%

Corporate income taxes             34.1%

Social insurance taxes                9.9%

Tariffs/gas taxes/fees                 8.5%

Ben Franklin summarized the position of the average citizen two centuries ago:

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

Franklin was correct; however, he should have reversed the order, because taxes can both bring on death and still haunt the deceased after their passing.  The best example of this is the death tax, where a person’s estate is assessed after their death.  Their heirs better pay the tax man!  Yes, how exactly does all of that work?  The deceased individual worked all of their lives, paying income taxes both federal and state, paying off their house and mortgage, paying their property tax.

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Ron Paul: "We Do Not Really Have Democracy" in America, 2016 Is a Distraction | The Daily Sheeple

Ron Paul: "We Do Not Really Have Democracy" in America, 2016 Is a Distraction

by Carey Wedler

Former congressman Ron Paul has long been an unabashed critic of American foreign policy, central banking, and corporatism. This election season, the former presidential nominee has consistently, candidlyexpressed his views on the presidential race, often issuing scathing indictments of the two-party system and the authoritarian tendencies of the candidates in the running. On Monday, Ron Paul appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to discuss the presidential options Americans are left with, arguing the current campaign quibbles serve as distractions from deeper, more systemic problems.

“Morning Joe” news anchor Mika Brzezinski highlighted disappointments the contentious Libertarian Party nomination of former New Mexico Gary Johnson, who has been criticized not only for lacking a philosophical understanding of libertarianism, but also for selecting an arguable neoconservative, former Massachusetts governor and Council on Foreign Relations member, William Weld, as his running mate.

“I know you don’t feel these candidates who are in — Gary Johnson, Bill Weld — they’re really more than a shrug. Is there any possibility for anyone else at this point?” the anchor asked Paul — sparking a characteristically uncensored response.

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Guided By Nonsense - The Data Doesn't Add-Up | Zero Hedge

Guided By Nonsense - The Data Doesn't Add-Up

Submitted by MN Gordon of Economic Prism (annotated by Acting-Man's Pater Tenebrarum),

Seven Year Achievement

“Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction.” — Lewis Carroll

See? It’s easy Janet! Just read the directions!

U.S. consumers are at it again.  After a seven year hiatus they’re once again doing what they do best.  They’re buying stuff.

According to the Commerce Department, personal consumption expenditures (PCE), which is the primary measure of consumer spending on goods and services in the U.S. economy, increased $119.2 billion in April.  That marks an increase of 1 percent, and is the biggest one month increase since August 2009 – nearly seven years ago.  Indeed, this is quite an achievement.

The consumer, you know, is the primary engine of U.S. economic growth. Without consumption GDP doesn’t go up; rather, it goes down.  Moreover, in a debt based money system, when GDP goes down the whole financial debt structure breaks down.

We don’t condone it.  Certainly we’d prefer an honest hard money system where savings and investment drives growth as opposed to borrowing and spending.  But our preference has no bearing on reality in this matter.

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Losing Ground In Flyover America——Wanting For Work, Buried In Debt, Part 4 | David Stockman's Contra Corner

Losing Ground In Flyover America — Wanting For Work, Buried In Debt, Part 4

by David Stockman • June 2, 2016

The flyover zones of America are wanting for work and buried in debt. That’s the legacy of three decades of Washington/Wall Street Bubble Finance. The latter has exported jobs, crushed the purchasing power of main street wages and showered the bicoastal elites with the windfalls of financialization.

The graph below depicts the main street side of this great societal swindle at work. There are currently 126 million prime working age persons in the US between 25 and 54 years of age. That’s up from 121 million at the beginning of 2000.

Yet even as this business cycle is rolling over, the 77.1 million employed full-time from that pool is still 1.2 million below its turn of the century level and accounts for only 61% of the population. On top of that, average real hourly wages have fallen by 7% (based on the Flyover CPI), as well.

It might be wondered, therefore, as to how real consumption expenditures rose by $3.1 trillion or 38% during the same 16-year period?

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The Federal Reserve Has Created an Unprecedented Disaster for Pension Funds | Liberty Blitzkrieg

The Federal Reserve Has Created an Unprecedented Disaster for Pension Funds

When it comes to the Fed, Congress is mired in hypocrisy. The anti-regulation, de-regulation crowd on Capitol Hill shuts its mouth when it comes to the most powerful regulators of all – you and the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, Congress goes along with the out-of-control, private government of the Fed—unaccountable to the national legislature. Moreover, your massive monetary injections scarcely led to any jobs on the ground, other than stock and bond processors.

– From the post: Ralph Nader Destroys the Federal Reserve in Open Letter – Calls it “Out of Control, Private Government”

If I had to choose one single institution and one single individual most responsible for the weak, putrid and unbelievably corrupt oligarch-controlled U.S. economy, I would choose the Federal Reserve and Ben Bernanke.

The central planners at the Fed have systematically funneled trillions of dollars into the pockets of those who needed and deserved it least, and in the process served to further enrich and entrench a criminal oligarchy while pounding the middle class into oblivion. What’s worse, the financial armageddon faced thus far by the 99.99% is just getting started.

Thanks to the 0% rate targeted by the Federal Reserve, pensions simply can’t get a decent return without moving further and further out on the asset management risk spectrum, and even then, it’s still not sufficient.

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Why The Next Black Swan Will Turn Into A Flock – MarkStCyr.com

Why The Next Black Swan Will Turn Into A Flock

by Mark St.Cyr • May 29, 2016

I was on the phone the other day with a friend, who is also my accountant. 
We’ve been friends going on 30 years. Once in a while our discussions will veer off into 
what is commonly known as “shop talk” where we find we’ve suddenly gone from “just 
gabbing” to a multi-hour intense conversation about markets, the economy, and more. 
This past one was a little more of “the exception” rather than just the average swing into 
the generic.

What I discerned from many of his responses was just how inadequately prepared, 
justifiably frightened, as well as, an overwhelming sense of foreboding was lying right 
below the surface of those many might deem from the outside looking in as people of 
wealth, industry leaders, or people who are just assumed to be “well off.”

What was just as illuminating was how many he explained “are just rolling the dice, 
thinking nothing could be as bad as 2008.” The additional problem? They think (or believe) 
if it happens again all they’ll have to do is the same as they did last time e.g. Hunker 
down, wait for the storm to blow over. Rinse, repeat.

The problem (in my opinion) with that thinking is this: What you think you can do this 
time, has already been severely handicapped or, removed all together. And most 
have no clue.

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Video: The Reason Why We Are So Poor | The Daily Sheeple

Video: The Reason Why We Are So Poor

When you find out what the government really takes from you, you’ll be shocked and outraged, but the evidence is indisputable.

This was a hard video to make because, like most people, learning about our tax system is repulsive and makes my mind shut down. But it’s essential to understanding why we are in the situation we are in. I had the idea for this video for months, but couldn’t figure out a way to make it understandable or believable to the average person. I have done the best I can to explain our servitude with clear and simple to understand examples.

Follow the money.

(H/T: ZenGardner)

Losing Ground In Flyover America, Part 3 | David Stockman's Contra Corner

Losing Ground In Flyover America, Part 3

by David Stockman • May 28, 2016

As we indicated in Part 2, the Fed’s crusade to pump-up inflation toward its 2.00% target by hammering-down interest rates to the so-called zero bound is economically lethal. The former destroys the purchasing power of main street wages while the latter strip mines capital from business and channels it into Wall Street financial engineering and the inflation of stock prices.

In the case of America’s 80 million working age adults (25 or over) with a high school education or less, the Fed’s double whammy has been catastrophic. As we demonstrated yesterday, the employment-to-population ratio for this group has plummeted from 60% prior to the great recession to about 54% today.

In round terms this means that the number of job holders in that pool of the less educated has shrunk from 49.4 million to 43.5 million since early 2007.That’s nearly 6 million workers gone missing or 12% of the total from just nine years ago.

And as we documented yesterday this plunge is not due to aging demographics. The MSM meme that it’s all about the baby boomers hanging up their spikes doesn’t wash; the labor force participation rate of persons over 65 has actually increased sharply in recent years.

Cont..... 

Losing Ground In Flyover America, Part 2 | David Stockman's Contra Corner

Losing Ground In Flyover America, Part 2

There has never been a more destructive central banking policy than the Fed’s current maniacal quest to stimulate more inflation and more debt. That’s what is killing real wages and economic vitality in flyover America—-even as it showers prodigious windfalls of unearned wealth on Wall Street and the bicoastal elites who draft on the nation’s vastly inflated finances.

In fact, the combination of pumping-up inflation toward 2% and hammering-down interest rates to the so-called zero bound is economically lethal. The former destroys the purchasing power of main street wages while the latter strip mines capital from business and channels it into Wall Street financial engineering and the inflation of stock prices.

In the case of the 2% inflation target, even if it was good for the general economy, which it most assuredly is not, it’s a horrible curse on flyover America. That’s because its nominal pay levels are set on the margin by labor costs in the export factories of China and the EM and the service sector outsourcing shops in India and its imitators.

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of two minds-Charles Hugh Smith: The Anger of the Unprivileged Is Rising Globally

The Anger of the Unprivileged Is Rising Globally

Privilege serves the same purpose--benefiting the few at the expense of the many--regardless of the system's ideological labels.

The righteous disgust with the status quo that spawned the broad-based campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump is not unique to the U.S.Globally, those disenfranchised by the status quo--the unprivileged, or in Peggy Noonan's phrase, the unprotected-- are starting to express their discontent in the streets, in social media and in elections.

Why are people around the world angry? It's obvious to everyone in the unprivileged classes and a mystery to the "we're doing just fine here, what's your problem?" privileged classes: The system is rigged to benefit the protected few and marginalize the unprotected many.

The problems are not just political; they are structural. As I outline in my new book, Why Our Status Quo Failed and Is Beyond Reform, there are two structural engines of disorder at the heart of the system:

Cont..... 

Russia And Saudi Arabia Locked In Relentless Fight Over China's Oil Market | Zero Hedge

Russia And Saudi Arabia Locked In Relentless Fight Over China's Oil Market

Submitted by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com,

Russia and Saudi Arabia have been (relatively) quietly fighting for market share in China ever since oil prices started their downward spiral in mid-2014 - now the battle is heating up, and teapot refineries are what could tip the balance.

Though the Saudis had historically been China’s biggest oil supplier, Russia managed to take the top spot several times during that period, thanks to the so-called teapot refineries. This has now forced the Saudis to do something they’ve never done before—target teapots on the spot market in order to regain lost market share.

Teapot refineries rose to fame due to their greater processing flexibility as compared with state-owned Chinese oil giants. Last year, they finally won import quotas for crude, most of which they then export in the form of oil products.

Russia was quick on the uptake and until recently was the leading supplier to these teapots. Now, however, the Saudis have stepped up their game and have offered teapots spot oil contracts. That’s very unusual for Saudi Arabia, which prefers to trade its oil on the futures markets and at a fixed price--but the stakes seem to be high enough to justify this move.

However, life is not all easy for the teapots, either. Last year, they faced tightened credit requirements from local banks, who got worried about falling returns. The independent refiners found a solution to this problem this year, when 16 of them agreed to ally in order to improve their purchasing power.

Cont..... 

Charles Hugh Smith: Is the World Getting Crazier, But We No Longer Notice? - Of Two Minds

Is the World Getting Crazier, But We No Longer Notice?

The banquet of consequences is about to be served.

If we step back and look at what's happened since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09, it's easy to see that the global leadership has chosen to do more of what's failed spectacularly.

Since the Global Financial Meltdown, central bankers and planners have pursued policies designed to boost global stock markets to create a wealth effect in which people will be psychologically inclined to borrow and spend more because their stock market/IRA portfolios are rising. This supposedly encourages them to spend this "paper wealth."

But the policy runs aground on two realities: 1) only the top 5% of the households own enough stocks to make a difference to their wealth (and their perception of wealth, i.e. the wealth effect), and 2) the wealth effect only occurs in "good times" when people feel the economy is healthy and their prospects are improving.

Cont.... 

Is This The End Of The U.S Dollar? Geopolitical Moves "Obliterate U.S Petrodollar Hegemony" | Zero Hedge

Is This The End Of The U.S Dollar? Geopolitical Moves "Obliterate U.S Petrodollar Hegemony"

Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com,

It seems the end really is nigh for the U.S. dollar.

And the mudfight for global dominance and currency war couldn’t be more ugly or dramatic.

The Saudis are now openly threatening to take down the U.S. economy in the ongoing fallout over collapsing oil prices and tense geopolitical events involving the 9/11 cover-up. The New York Times reports:

Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

China has been working for years to establish global currency status, and will strengthen the yuan by backing it with gold in moves clearly designed to cripple the role of the dollar. Zero Hedge reports:

China’s shift to an official local-currency-based gold fixing is “the culmination of a two-year plan to move away from a US-centric monetary system,” according to Bocom strategist Hao Hong. In an insightfully honest Bloomberg TV interview, Hong admits that “by trading physical gold in renminbi, China is slowly chipping away at the dominance of US dollars.”

Putin also waits in the shadows, making similar moves and creating alliances to out-balance the United States with a growing Asian economy on the global stage.

Cont..... 

Keynesian Central Bankers - Wrong From The Beginning, But No One To Stop Them | Zero Hedge

Keynesian Central Bankers - Wrong From The Beginning, But No One To Stop Them

Submitted by Jeffrey Snider via Alhambra Investment Partners,

Amidst all the pearls of wisdom unleashed in mainstream economics over the past unbelievable eight years or so, it was one paragraph of common sense that had it been written and appreciated at the start of this period might have saved us all the inordinate and totally unwarranted trouble.

But borrowers will only demand more credit if they have optimistic expectations of future income - and banks will only supply it if they deem them creditworthy. Interest rates, which is [sic] all ECB policy can affect, are less important than economic expectations.

That was published by the Wall Street Journal in an article describing how European banks are largely if not completely at the margins indifferent to QE and NIRP. Monetarism has failed on every count and by every standard. QE was supposed to be a simultaneous boost to liquidity, a push on banks (into lending) from “portfolio effects”, and then via price channels a huge lift to those very economic expectations.

None of it worked anywhere it was tried. Full stop.

The worst part is that anyone operating on common sense rather than ideology knew it wouldn’t work right from the start at the very least because of the reasons stated in that exact paragraph. Throw in some continued monetary irregularity and there was no chance.

Ben Bernanke claimed that savers would benefit from their disturbed position once QE had performed its magic largely upon expectations – the full recovery would push interest rates back up to their natural position whatever that might be. Savers and investors are still waiting and with interest rates lower now than when QE was in effect; despite Bernanke’s successor having “raised rates” in the meantime.

They really don’t know what they are doing. They never have. And nobody stops them. 

The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity : What Did Fed Chairman Yellen Tell Obama?

What Did Fed Chairman Yellen Tell Obama?



This week, President Obama and Vice President Biden held a hastily arranged secret meeting with Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen. According to the one paragraph statement released by the White House following the meeting, Yellen, Obama, and Biden simply “exchanged notes” about the economy and the progress of financial reform. Because the meeting was held behind closed doors, the American people have no way of knowing what else the three might have discussed.

Yellen’s secret meeting at the White House followed an emergency secret Federal Reserve Board meeting. The Fed then held another secret meeting to discuss bank reform. These secret meetings come on the heels of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s estimate that first quarter GDP growth was .01 percent, dangerously close to the official definition of recession.

Thus the real reason for all these secret meetings could be a panic that the Fed’s eight year explosion of money creation has not just failed to revive the economy, but is about to cause another major market meltdown.

Establishment politicians and economists find the Fed’s failures puzzling. According to the Keynesian paradigm that still dominates the thinking of most policymakers, the Fed’s money creation should have produced such robust growth that today the Fed would be raising interest rates to prevent the economy from “overheating.”


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"This Will All Blow Up In The Fed's Face," Schiff Warns "Trump's Right, America Is Broke" | Zero Hedge

"This Will All Blow Up In The Fed's Face," Schiff Warns "Trump's Right, America Is Broke"

Euro Pacific Capital's Peter Schiff sat down with Alex Jones last week to discuss the state of the economy, and where he sees everything going from here.

Here are some notable moments from the interview.

Regarding how bad things are, and what's really going on in the economy, Schiff lays out all of the horrible economic data that has come out recently, as well as making sure to take away the crutch everyone uses to explain any and all data misses, which is weather.

"It's no way to know exactly the timetable, but obviously this economy is already back in recession, and if it's not in a recession it's certainly on the cusp of one"

"We could be in a negative GDP quarter right now, and I think that if the first quarter is bad the second quarter is going to be worse"

"The last couple years we had a rebound in the second quarter because we've had very cold winters. Well this winter was the warmest in 120 years so there is nothing to rebound from."

On the Fed, and current policies, he very bluntly points out that nothing is working, nor has it worked, but of course the central planners will try it all anyway. He also takes a moment to agree with Donald Trump regarding the fact that the U.S. is flat out, undeniably broke.

Cont.... 

Doug Casey: The Real Problem is Government | International Man

The Real Problem is Government

I give a good number of speeches each year. For some time I've asked audiences a question: "What useful purpose does the U.S. government serve?" I do that not to be challenging or provocative, but to actually find out if anyone else can think of a useful purpose the government serves. The question at first shocks, then amuses and then perplexes almost everyone because it is both so obvious and outrageous that no one ever thinks of asking it. Most people accept the institution of government because it has always been there; they have always assumed it was essential. People do not question its existence, much less its right to exist.

Government sponsors untold waste, criminality, and inequality in every sphere of life it touches, giving little of value in return. Its contributions to the commonweal are wars, pogroms, confiscations, persecutions, taxation, regulation, and inflation. And it's not just some governments of which that's true, although some are clearly much worse than others. It's an inherent characteristic of all government.

Cont.... 

The Financial System Is A Larger Threat Than Terrorism -- Paul Craig Roberts - PaulCraigRoberts.org

The Financial System Is A Larger Threat Than Terrorism

Paul Craig Roberts

In the 21st century Americans have been distracted by the hyper-expensive “war on terror.” Trillions of dollars have been added to the taxpayers’ burden and many billions of dollars in profits to the military/security complex in order to combat insignificant foreign “threats,” such as the Taliban, that remain undefeated after 15 years. All this time the financial system, working hand-in-hand with policymakers, has done more damage to Americans than terrorists could possibly inflict.

The purpose of the Federal Reserve and US Treasury’s policy of zero interest rates is to support the prices of the over-leveraged and fraudulent financial instruments that unregulated financial systems always create. If inflation was properly measured, these zero rates would be negative rates, which means not only that retirees have no income from their retirement savings but also that saving is a losing proposition. Instead of earning interest on your savings, you pay interest that shrinks the real value of your saving.

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The Stupid Things People Do When Their Society Breaks Down | Zero Hedge

The Stupid Things People Do When Their Society Breaks Down

Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

A frequent mistake that many people make when considering the concept of social or economic collapse is to imagine how people and groups will behave tomorrow based on how people behave today. It is, though, extremely difficult to predict human behavior in the face of terminal chaos. What we might expect, or what Hollywood fantasy might showcase for entertainment purposes, may not be what actually happens when society breaks down.

It is also important to note that social and economic destabilization is usually a process, not an immediate event. This actually works in the favor of liberty activists and the preparedness minded. As a system moves through the stages of a breakdown, certain signals in the psychology of the population can be observed, and this gives us a warning as to how far down the rabbit hole we have actually gone.

Except in the case of a nuclear or EMP (electromagnetic pulse) event (which unfortunately are concerns because of the powder keg situation in Syria), vigilant liberty proponents could have considerably more time than the average person to preposition themselves safely. That said, there will be a host of expanding problems of a psychological nature we will have to deal with before, during and after the final leg down in the unfolding mess that internationalists often refer to as the “great global reset.”

The following list is based on social behavior patterns commonly seen during systemic crashes through modern history (the past 100 years). These are some of the stupid things people do as they begin to realize, at least subconsciously, that a SHTF scenario is in progress.

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