A dozen people around the country filed suit in U.S. District Court in Idaho this week demanding the return of all the copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins — more than seven tons of metal in all — that the FBI and Secret Service seized in November during raids of a mint in Idaho and a strip mall storefront in Indiana.
The Justice Department had decided that the coins, many of which bear the familiar symbol of Lady Liberty and the phrase “TRUST IN GOD,” were being illegally marketed as government-sanctioned currency, according to the sworn affidavit of an FBI agent.
The creator of the coins, Bernard von NotHaus, who lives in Miami, claims that the federal government is trying to shut down production of his liberty dollars, as the coins are called, because of the competition they pose to the greenback. In recent years, his precious metal coins have outperformed the dollar, whose value has plunged in relation to gold.
The raids in November were the result of a two-year undercover investigation of Mr. Von NotHaus and how he sold liberty dollars. The Justice Department has not followed up with any criminal charges against Mr. Von NotHaus or the regional distributors of his coins.
In the suit filed in Idaho, the various plaintiffs say the federal government has no right to continue holding onto their coins any longer.
While it is common for agents to warehouse property seized during criminal investigations, such as firearms or surveillance equipment, the plaintiffs say coins of precious metal should be off-limits.
The coins “do not constitute contraband or other property subject to seizure,” the legal papers state, adding that the seizures violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the plaintiffs.
For the most part, the plaintiffs had possessed bearer certificates for the silver liberty dollars that were being warehoused in Couer d’Alene, Idaho, at a mint. The mint, Sunshine Minting, is one of the sites that federal agents raided.
In an unusual request, the plaintiffs ask for an order, at the very least, forbidding federal agents from touching or moving the coins so that they are not dirtied in any way.
“Mishandling numismatic material can negatively impact value,” the legal papers say.
A spokesman for the Justice Department, Charles Miller, said that the agency had not yet seen the legal papers and could not comment.
E-mail messages circulating among Liberty Dollar enthusiasts have expressed fears that the federal government intends to publicly auction off the coins. There has been no public announcement indicating that to be the case. The U.S. attorney’s office in Asheville, N.C., which led the investigation that prompted the raids last November, did not return several calls for comment over the last few weeks.
Mr. Von NotHaus markets his coins via the Internet as an inflation-proof currency and claims that between 100,000 and 250,000 Americans own them. They have attracted the interest of coin enthusiasts, as well as critics of the Federal Reserve.
A 1999 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center said that many of the stores that accepted liberty dollars “are run by men and women connected to the radical right.” The coins have caught on particularly well in Asheville, N.C., and Austin, Texas, and are accepted by some merchants there.
More than 50,000 of the coins seized last year bear the likeness of Rep. Ron Paul, whose monetary policies Mr. Von NotHaus supports.
“About a quarter of a million people holding liberty dollars are almost up-in arms — not up in arms yet, but almost — about having their property seized, and rightly so,” Mr. Von NotHaus told The New York Sun yesterday.
The clash between the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve over monetary strategy is causing serious strains in the global financial system and could lead to a replay of Europe’s exchange rate crisis in the 1990s, a team of bankers has warned.
“We see striking similarities between the transatlantic tensions that built up in the early 1990s and those that are accumulating again today. The outcome of the 1992 deadlock was a major currency crisis and a recession in Europe,” said a report by Morgan Stanley’s European experts
Just as then, Washington has slashed rates to bail out the banks and prevent an economic hard-landing, while Frankfurt has stuck to its hawkish line - ignoring angry protests from politicians and squeals of pain from Europe’s export industry.
Indeed, the ECB has let the de facto interest rate - Euribor - rise by over 100 basis points since the credit crisis began.
Just as then, the dollar has plummeted far enough to cause worldwide alarm. In August 1992 it fell to 1.35 against the Deutsche Mark: this time it has fallen even further to the equivalent of 1.25. It is potentially worse for Europe this time because the yen and yuan have also fallen to near record lows. So has sterling
Morgan Stanley doubts that Europe’s monetary union will break up under pressure, but it warns that corked pressures will have to find release one way or another.
This will most likely occur through property slumps and banking purges in the vulnerable countries of the Club Med region and the euro-satellite states of Eastern Europe.
“The tensions will not disappear into thin air. They will find fault lines on the periphery of Europe. Painful macro adjustments are likely to take place. Pegs to the euro could be questioned,” said the report, written by Eric Chaney, Carlos Caceres, and Pasquale Diana.
The point of maximum stress could occur in coming months if the ECB carries out the threat this month by Jean-Claude Trichet to raise rates. It will be worse yet - for Europe - if the Fed backs away from expected tightening. “This could trigger another ‘catastrophic’ event,” warned Morgan Stanley.
The markets have priced in two US rates rises later this year following a series of “hawkish” comments by Fed chief Ben Bernanke and other US officials, but this may have been a misjudgment.
An article in the Washington Post by veteran columnist Robert Novak suggested that Mr Bernanke is concerned that runaway oil costs will cause a slump in growth, viewing inflation as the lesser threat. He is irked by the ECB’s talk of further monetary tightening at such a dangerous juncture.
The contrasting approaches in Washington and Frankfurt make some sense. America’s flexible structure allows it to adjust quickly to shocks. Europe’s more rigid system leaves it with “sticky” prices that take longer to fall back as growth slows.
Morgan Stanley says the current account deficits of Spain (10.5pc of GDP), Portugal (10.5pc), and Greece (14pc) would never have been able to reach such extreme levels before the launch of the euro.
EMU has shielded them from punishment by the markets, but this has allowed them to store up serious trouble. By contrast, Germany now has a huge surplus of 7.7pc of GDP.
The imbalances appear to be getting worse. The latest food and oil spike has pushed eurozone inflation to a record 3.7pc, with big variations by country. Spanish inflation is rising at 4.7pc even though the country is now in the grip of a full-blown property crash. It is still falling further behind Germany. The squeeze required to claw back lost competitiveness will be “politically unpalatable”.
Morgan Stanley said the biggest risk lies in the arc of countries from the Baltics to the Black Sea where credit growth has been roaring at 40pc to 50pc a year. Current account deficits have reached 23pc of GDP in Latvia, and 22pc in Bulgaria. In Hungary and Romania, over 55pc of household debt is in euros or Swiss francs.
Swedish, Austrian, Greek and Italian banks have provided much of the funding for the credit booms. A crunch is looming in 2009 when a wave of maturities fall due. “Could the funding dry up? We think it could,” said the bank
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino mentioned in a press conference that she is not allowed to talk about the value of the U.S. Dollar. She says that the Treasury Secretary is the only one allowed to discuss the U.S. Dollar. She even said that she would be fired if she talked about the U.S. Dollar.
First off, its ridiculous that the Treasury Secretary is the only one that can talk about the value of the U.S. Dollar since the Federal Reserve is the institution that fixes the price of the U.S. Dollar. This is just a game of smoke and mirrors the Bush administration is playing because they know that the U.S. Dollar is in the process of losing a good majority of its value. Watch the video of the Dana Perino below talking about why she can’t discuss the U.S. Dollar.
Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence
Published 1976
Chart 1 reveals the linear connection between the Rothschilds and the Bank of England, and the London banking houses which ultimately control the Federal Reserve Banks through their stockholdings of bank stock and their subsidiary firms in New York. The two principal Rothschild representatives in New York, J. P. Morgan Co., and Kuhn,Loeb & Co. were the firms which set up the Jekyll Island Conference at which the Federal Reserve Act was drafted, who directed the subsequent successful campaign to have the plan enacted into law by Congress, and who purchased the controlling amounts of stock in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 1914. These firms had their principal officers appointed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Federal Advisory Council in 1914. In 1914 a few families (blood or business related) owning controlling stock in existing banks (such as in New York City) caused those banks to purchase controlling shares in the Federal Reserve regional banks. Examination of the charts and text in the House Banking Committee Staff Report of August, 1976 and the current stockholders list of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks show this same family control.
N.M. Rothschild , London - Bank of England
______________________________________
| |
| J. Henry Schroder
| Banking | Corp.
| |
Brown, Shipley - Morgan Grenfell - Lazard - |
& Company & Company Brothers |
| | | |
——————–| ——-| | |
| | | | | |
Alex Brown - Brown Bros. - Lord Mantagu - Morgan et Cie — Lazard —|
& Son | Harriman Norman | Paris Bros |
| | / | N.Y. |
| | | | | |
| Governor, Bank | J.P. Morgan Co — Lazard —|
| of England / N.Y. Morgan Freres |
| 1924-1938 / Guaranty Co. Paris |
| / Morgan Stanley Co. | /
| / | \Schroder Bank
| / | Hamburg/Berlin
| / Drexel & Company /
| / Philadelphia /
| / /
| / Lord Airlie
| / /
| / M. M. Warburg Chmn J. Henry Schroder
| | Hamburg ——— marr. Virginia F. Ryan
| | | grand-daughter of Otto
| | | Kahn of Kuhn Loeb Co.
| | |
| | |
Lehman Brothers N.Y ————– Kuhn Loeb Co. N. Y.
| | ————————–
µ
| | | |
8
| | | |
Lehman Brothers - Mont. Alabama Solomon Loeb Abraham Kuhn
| | __|______________________|_________
Lehman-Stern, New Orleans Jacob Schiff/Theresa Loeb Nina Loeb/Paul Warburg
————————- | | |
| | Mortimer Schiff James Paul Warburg
_____________|_______________/ |
| | | | |
Mayer Lehman | Emmanuel Lehman \
| | | \
Herbert Lehman Irving Lehman \
| | | \
Arthur Lehman \ Phillip Lehman John Schiff/Edith Brevoort Baker
/ | Present Chairman Lehman Bros
/ Robert Owen Lehman Kuhn Loeb - Granddaughter of
/ | George F. Baker
| / |
| / |
| / Lehman Bros Kuhn Loeb (1980)
| / |
| / Thomas Fortune Ryan
| | |
| | |
Federal Reserve Bank Of New York |
|||||||| |
______National City Bank N. Y. |
| | |
| National Bank of Commerce N.Y —|
| | \
| Hanover National Bank N.Y. \
| | \
| Chase National Bank N.Y. \
| |
| |
Shareholders - National City Bank - N.Y. |
—————————————– |
| /
James Stillman /
Elsie m. William Rockefeller /
Isabel m. Percy Rockefeller /
William Rockefeller Shareholders - National Bank of Commerce N. Y.
J. P. Morgan ———————————————–
M.T. Pyne Equitable Life - J.P. Morgan
Percy Pyne Mutual Life - J.P. Morgan
J.W. Sterling H.P. Davison - J. P. Morgan
NY Trust/NY Edison Mary W. Harriman
Shearman & Sterling A.D. Jiullard - North British Merc. Insurance
| Jacob Schiff
| Thomas F. Ryan
| Paul Warburg
| Levi P. Morton - Guaranty Trust - J. P. Morgan
|
|
Shareholders - First National Bank of N.Y.
——————————————-
J.P. Morgan
George F. Baker
George F. Baker Jr.
Edith Brevoort Baker
US Congress - 1946-64
|
|
|
|
|
Shareholders - Hanover National Bank N.Y.
——————————————
James Stillman
William Rockefeller
|
|
|
|
|
Shareholders - Chase National Bank N.Y.
—————————————
George F. Baker
Chart 2
Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence
- Published 1983
The J. Henry Schroder Banking Company chart encompasses the entire history of the twentieth century, embracing as it does the program (Belgium Relief Commission) which provisioned Germany from 1915-1918 and dissuaded Germany from seeking peace in 1916; financing Hitler in 1933 so as to make a Second World War possible; backing the Presidential campaign of Herbert Hoover ; and even at the present time, having two of its major executives of its subsidiary firm, Bechtel Corporation serving as Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State in the Reagan Administration.
The head of the Bank of England since 1973, Sir Gordon Richardson, Governor of the Bank of England (controlled by the House of Rothschild) was chairman of J. Henry Schroder Wagg and Company of London from 1963-72, and director of J. Henry Schroder,New York and Schroder Banking Corporation,New York,as well as Lloyd’s Bank of London, and Rolls Royce. He maintains a residence on Sutton Place in New York City, and as head of “The London Connection,” can be said to be the single most influential banker in the world.
J. Henry Schroder
—————–
|
|
|
Baron Rudolph Von Schroder
Hamburg - 1858 - 1934
|
|
|
Baron Bruno Von Schroder
Hamburg - 1867 - 1940
F. C. Tiarks |
1874-1952 |
| |
marr. Emma Franziska |
(Hamburg) Helmut B. Schroder
J. Henry Schroder 1902 |
Dir. Bank of England |
Dir. Anglo-Iranian |
Oil Company J. Henry Schroder Banking Company N.Y.
|
|
J. Henry Schroder Trust Company N.Y.
|
|
|
___________________|____________________
| |
Allen Dulles John Foster Dulles
Sullivan & Cromwell Sullivan & Cromwell
Director - CIA U. S. Secretary of State
Rockefeller Foundation
Prentiss Gray
————
Belgian Relief Comm. Lord Airlie
Chief Marine Transportation ———–
US Food Administration WW I Chairman; Virgina Fortune
Manati Sugar Co. American & Ryan daughter of Otto Kahn
British Continental Corp. of Kuhn,Loeb Co.
| |
| |
M. E. Rionda |
———— |
Pres. Cuba Cane Sugar Co. |
Manati Sugar Co. many other |
sugar companies. _______|
| |
| |
G. A. Zabriskie |
————— | Emile Francoui
Chmn U.S. Sugar Equalization | ————–
Board 1917-18; Pres Empire | Belgian Relief Comm. Kai
Biscuit Co., Columbia Baking | Ping Coal Mines, Tientsin
Co. , Southern Baking Co. | Railroad,Congo Copper, La
| Banque Nationale de Belgique
Suite 2000 42 Broadway | N. Y |
__________________________|___________________________|_
| | |
| | |
Edgar Richard Julius H. Barnes Herbert Hoover
————- —————- ————–
Belgium Relief Comm Belgium Relief Comm Chmn Belgium Relief Com
Amer Relief Comm Pres Grain Corp. U.S. Food Admin
U.S. Food Admin U.S. Food Admin Sec of Commerce 1924-28
1918-24, Hazeltine Corp. 1917-18, C.B Pitney Kaiping Coal Mines
| Bowes Corp, Manati Congo Copper, President
| Sugar Corp. U.S. 1928-32
|
|
|
John Lowery Simpson
——————-
Sacramento,Calif Belgium Relief |
Comm. U. S. Food Administration Baron Kurt Von Schroder
Prentiss Gray Co. J. Henry Schroder ———————–
Trust, Schroder-Rockefeller, Chmn Schroder Banking Corp. J.H. Stein
Fin Comm, Bechtel International Bankhaus (Hitler’s personal bank
Co. Bechtel Co. (Casper Weinberger account) served on board of all
Sec of Defense, George P. Schultz German subsidiaries of ITT . Bank
Sec of State (Reagan Admin). for International Settlements,
| SS Senior Group Leader,Himmler’s
| Circle of Friends (Nazi Fund),
| Deutsche Reichsbank,president
|
|
Schroder-Rockefeller & Co. , N.Y.
———————————
Avery Rockefeller, J. Henry Schroder
Banking Corp., Bechtel Co., Bechtel
International Co. , Canadian Bechtel
Company. |
|
|
|
Gordon Richardson
—————–
Governor, Bank of England
1973-PRESENT C.B. of J. Henry Schroder N.Y.
Schroder Banking Co., New York, Lloyds Bank
Rolls Royce
Chart 3
Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence
- Published 1976
The David Rockefeller chart shows the link between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,Standard Oil of Indiana,General Motors and Allied Chemical Corportion (Eugene Meyer family) and Equitable Life (J. P. Morgan).
DAVID ROCKEFELLER
—————————-
Chairman of the Board
Chase Manhattan Corp
|
|
______|_______________________
Chase Manhattan Corp. |
Officer & Director Interlocks|———————
——|———————– |
| |
Private Investment Co. for America Allied Chemicals Corp.
| |
Firestone Tire & Rubber Company General Motors
| |
Orion Multinational Services Ltd. Rockefeller Family & Associates
| |
ASARCO. Inc Chrysler Corp.
| |
Southern Peru Copper Corp. Intl’ Basic Economy Corp.
| |
Industrial Minerva Mexico S.A. R.H. Macy & Co.
| |
Continental Corp. Selected Risk Investments S.A.
| |
Honeywell Inc. Omega Fund, Inc.
| |
Northwest Airlines, Inc. Squibb Corporation
| |
Northwestern Bell Telephone Co. Olin Foundation
| |
Minnesota Mining & Mfg Co (3M) Mutual Benefit Life Ins. Co. of NJ
| |
American Express Co. AT & T
| |
Hewlett Packard Pacific Northwestern Bell Co.
| |
FMC Corporation BeachviLime Ltd.
| |
Utah Intl’ Inc. Eveleth Expansion Company
| |
Exxon Corporation Fidelity Union Bancorporation
| |
International Nickel/Canada Cypress Woods Corporation
| |
Federated Capital Corporation Intl’ Minerals & Chemical Corp.
| |
Equitable Life Assurance Soc U.S. Burlington Industries
| |
Federated Dept Stores Wachovia Corporation
| |
General Electric Jefferson Pilot Corporation
| |
Scott Paper Co. R. J. Reynolds Industries Inc.
| |
American Petroleum Institute United States Steel Corp.
| |
Richardson Merril Inc. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.
| |
May Department Stores Co. Norton-Simon Inc.
| |
Sperry Rand Corporation Stone-Webster Inc.
| |
San Salvador Development Company Standard Oil of Indiana
Chart 4
Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence
- Published 1976
This chart shows the interlocks between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York J. Henry Schroder Banking Corp., J. Henry Schroder Trust Co., Rockefeller Center, Inc., Equitable Life Assurance Society ( J.P. Morgan), and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Alan Pifer, President
Carnegie Corporation
of New York
———————-
|
|
———————-
Carnegie Corporation
Trustee Interlocks ————————–
———————- |
| |
Rockefeller Center, Inc J. Henry Schroder Trust Company
| |
The Cabot Corporation Paul Revere Investors, Inc.
| |
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Qualpeco, Inc.
|
Owens Corning Fiberglas
|
New England Telephone Co.
|
Fisher Scientific Company
|
Mellon National Corporation
|
Equitable Life Assurance Society
|
Twentieth Century Fox Corporation
|
J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation
Chart 5
Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence
- Published 1976
This chart shows the link between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Brown Brothers Harriman,Sun Life Assurance Co. (N.M. Rothschild and Sons), and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Maurice F. Granville
Chairman of The Board
Texaco Incorporated
———————-
|
|
Texaco Officer & Director Interlocks —————- Liggett & Myers, Inc.
———————————— |
| |
| |
L Arabian American Oil Company St John d’el Ray Mining Co. Ltd.
O | |
N Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. National Steel Corporation
D | |
O Brown Harriman & Intl’ Banks Ltd. Massey-Ferguson Ltd.
N | |
American Express Mutual Life Insurance Co.
| |
N. American Express Intl’ Banking Corp. Mass Mutual Income Investors Inc.
M. | |
Anaconda United Services Life Ins. Co.
R | |
O Rockefeller Foundation Fairchild Industries
T | |
H Owens-Corning Fiberglas Blount, Inc.
S | |
C National City Bank (Cleveland) William Wrigley Jr. Co
H | |
I Sun Life Assurance Co. National Blvd. Bank of Chicago
L | |
D General Reinsurance Lykes Youngstown Corporation
| |
General Electric (NBC) Inmount Corporation
** Source: Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence. Staff Report,Committee on Banking,Currency and Housing, House of Representatives, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, August 1976.
The inflation and subsequent collapse of the residential real estate market was facilitated by the Federal Reserve over nearly a decade. From the late 1990’s when the technology bubble burst until early 2007 when investors began to realize how much bad debt had actually been created in the housing market, interest rates were kept artificially low, while capital poured into suburban sprawl and subprime mortgages.
The leader of the Fed and manipulator-in-chief of the economy during the primary boom years was Alan Greenspan, who once believed in things such as the gold standard, the impossibility of sustaining a housing bubble, and speaking to Congress in riddles and financial jargon. His main adversary in the Congress was Ron Paul, who still believes in things such as the gold standard, the impossibility of sustaining any manufactured market bubble, and is a master riddle-solver himself with a strong Austrian economics background.
One of the great mysteries of the Greenspan legacy has been his rumored doctoral thesis for New York University, compiled and written in 1977. Certain revealing parts of the 180-page thesis have been reported on by Barron’s news organization. The parts reviewed by Jim McTague at Barron’s show that Greenspan most likely understood and could have predicted all of the events he was putting into motion by inflating a massive housing bubble.
A most intriguing quote from the article shows how the master manipulator knew what would happen when the dotcom bubble burst and all that capital needed a new home in residential housing. “Greenspan also broke new ground in the introduction to his thesis, where he noted that homeowners were refinancing for larger amounts than their original mortgage, in essence monetizing increases in their home’s market value and spending the excess cash on goods and services or putting it into savings.” This was long before double-digit rises is home values, subprime mortgages, no-doc loans, Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOCs), and inflatable-value McMansion-burbs, but is a perfect representation of what happened during the real estate boom of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
Ron Paul, as well, understood the consequences of the housing bubble. In a speech made into the Congressional Record on September 6, 2001, he stated, “Refinancing especially helped the consumers to continue spending even in a slowing economy.” The same monetization of rising property values that Greenspan was concerned about became Greenspan’s policy when looking for a new bubble.
Neither Paul nor Greenspan believed that a continual cycle of rising home prices and refinancing could continue, however. As Greenspan himself claimed in his doctoral thesis, “There is no perpetual motion machine which generates an ever-rising path for the prices of homes.” Paul, in the same entry into the Congressional Record as referenced above, agreed: “This, too, will burst as all bubbles do.” And the more inflated the bubble became, and the more capital was misdirected into it, the greater would be its fall.
Who, though, could have predicted such a large crash of the real estate market, with property values falling to lower than the replacement costs of the buildings? Well, Greenspan, for one. A “break in prices of existing homes would pull down the prices of new homes to the level of construction costs or below, inducing a sharp contraction in building,” he wrote in the thesis that earned him a well-deserved Ph.D; well-deserved due to his uncanny ability to predict the consequences of policies he would set in place and disclaim responsibility for later on.
Paul also knew that malinvestment caused by government intervention in any sector of the economy would lead to disaster. Making a statement before the Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives in September of 2007, Paul said, “The housing boom was caused by the Federal Reserve’s policy resulting in artificially low interest rates. Consumers, misled by low interest rates, were looking to consume, while homebuilders saw the low interest rates as a signal to build, and build they did.” The larger the bubble, the more malinvestment would occur, and the more severe the correction would have to be.
Most joking aside, the example of Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chairman should serve as a strong warning against putting anyone in power who believes they understand how the economy works. Greenspan understood and believed in libertarian ideas of economic manipulation and Austrian economics, and then spent nearly two decades at the Fed working against every one of those principles.
It is not so much that he went back or overturned what he believed in to become the most successful bubble-inflator in history — far worse than that, he used his understanding of how a free market can work in order to further the cause of socialism. In fact, it would probably have been far less destructive to have someone in charge of the Fed who had admittedly no understanding of how markets work at all, rather than someone who understands free markets and the prosperity they help engender but psychopathically worked in the opposite direction.
Ron Paul, on the other hand, stood by his principles and had the audacity to challenge supposed libertarian and Austrian economics advocate Greenspan. For this and his continuing adherence to traditional American beliefs of individual liberty and free trade, and his opposition to government manipulation and corporate welfare, he has been marginalized by mainstream media and colleagues in Washington.
Using the economy as a laboratory of how to turn a firm understanding of the economy on its head and foster socialism and corporatism, mad scientist Greenspan has further impoverished us all to enter into and direct the economy from the sacred halls of the financial elite. Paul, by advocating true freedom and less government, has been shunned by the government-corporate media and the brainwashed masses, but his ideas and influence are being embraced by an ever-expanding group of people waking up to the evils of government manipulation and psychopathy of power.
TEHRAN, April 30 (Xinhua) — Iran had totally removed U.S. dollars in the country’s oil transactions, an Oil Ministry official said on Wednesday.
“The dollar has completely been removed from our oil trade….Crude oil customers have agreed with us to use other currencies (in the trade),” Oil Ministry official Hojjatollah Ghanimifard was quoted as saying by the state television.
“We make our transactions with euros in Europe, but yen in Asia,” he added.
Due to the tensions with Washington in the past years over the nuclear disputes and the latest depreciation of dollars, Iran has vowed to decrease the greenback in its foreign trade. Iran central bank also has reduced dollars in the country’s foreign reserves. In last November’s summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Saudi Arabia, Iran proposed that it was necessary to replace the U.S. dollar with other major hard currencies in oil trading.
But some Arab allies of the United States showed few support to Tehran’s advice.
However, Iran’s Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari has already declared in last December that Tehran had completely stopped selling its oil in dollars, according a report by the semi-official ISNA news agency at that time.
“In line with the policy of selling crude oil in non dollar currencies, currently selling our country’s oil in U.S. dollars has been completely stopped,” Nozari was then quoted as saying. Right now it’s not clear why there seems to be a contradiction between comments by the two officials over the exact time to stop dollars in Iran’s oil trade.
New York, April 25, 2008
A group of concerned citizens from around the country take to the streets of New York to draw attention to the spreading global financial crisis.
The value of the dollar is dropping like a rock and this video is to show how this is affecting the prices of everything from gas to milk. This is the first of several videos to show what is really happening to the economy of the United States and why this country is in a lot of trouble financially.
Taxes were on the forefront of many Americans’ minds this week as they scrambled to meet the April 15th deadline to file their returns.Tax policy in this country hurts taxpayers twice – once when they pay taxes, and then when the government spends the money.Americans are sick and tired of the financial burden and the endless forms to fill out. To add insult to injury, after collecting this money the government does some very detrimental things to the economy.
The burden of complying with the income tax is tremendous.Since its inception in 1913, the tax code has gone from 400 pages to over 67,000.The Tax Foundation estimates that around $265 billion dollars and 6 billion hours are spent just on compliance.That expense amounts to about 22 cents of every dollar the IRS collects.Imagine the boon to the economy if we spent that time and money expanding our businesses and creating jobs!
Aside from the direct loss of money and productivity, the funds from the income tax enable the government to do some very destructive things, such as vastly over-regulating economic activity, making it difficult to earn money in the first place.The federal government funds over 50 agencies, departments and commissions that formulate rules and regulations.These bureaucracies operate with little to no oversight from the people or Congress and generate around 4,000 new rules every year and operate at a cost of about 40 billion dollars. There are some 75,000 pages of regulations in the Federal Register that Americans are expected to know and abide by.Complying with these governmental regulations costs American businesses more than one trillion dollars per year, according to a study by Mark Crain for the Small Business Administration.This complicated system drives production to other countries and shrinks our job market here at home.
Big government is destructive when it takes your money and when it spends it.There is no economic benefit to supporting a government sector as massive as ours.In fact, this country thrived for well over 100 years without an income tax.Today, if you took away the income tax, the government would still have revenue from other sources equal to total government spending in 1990, when government was still too big.$1.2 trillion should be more than enough to fund a government operating within its constitutional confines, and that is exactly what we need to get back to.
I have introduced legislation many times to abolish the IRS and the income tax.It is fundamentally un-American to require taxpayers to testify against themselves and be considered guilty until proven innocent.Abolishing the IRS altogether would trigger an avalanche of real growth in the economy.
With these financial hard times only just beginning, this would be the most efficient and logical way to get our economy growing again, and Americans would need not dread the 15th of April every year.
