Just my thoughts ... and more ....
"How Political Is This Economy?
This is an arguable point, but we would be hard pressed to find an equivalent instance in US political history to equal the craven cowardice and cynical indifference of the US Congress over the past week. If ever there was a "coalition of the willing" it will be found in those Congressmen and Senators who approved Mr Bush's "detainee bill" and thereby destroyed any pretense of the rule of law or government by Constitution in the United States. In the process, they repudiated the US Constitution, the Geneva Conventions and the foundation of legal process in any free nation - a foundation which long predates the US - habeas corpus.
Democrats in the Senate had a chance to filibuster. They declined it. Many Congressmen and Senators, including John McCain of "compromise" fame, exhibited near total ignorance of what they were voting for. Many others almost literally stated that they did not want to know or understand what was in the bill. Some were even craven enough to say that the Supreme Court will throw it out anyway so it doesn't matter if I vote for it. But before the Supreme Court can make any kind or ruling, the case must be presented to them. And even if it is, how long will that take?
In the Mid September issue of The Privateer (Number 561) we advocated a first step towards curbing the abuses of the present Federal government of the United States. The prodedure is simple. Don't pay any attention to party affiliation, since there is little if any difference between them and has not been for decades now. Simple vote any and all incumbents out and keep voting them out at every successive election. Americans have a great advantage here in that they can get rid of the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate every two years.
Only in exceptional cases should this course of action not be followed. The only exception we can think of is Ron Paul of Texas, who is a giant amongst amoeba in his defense and upholding of individual freedom and liberty against the rapacity of government. Needless to say, Mr Paul voted against this tyrannical legislation.
As a first step, any Congressman or Senator who voted for the bills put to them over this past week has forfeited any and all right to call him or herself the "representative" of any self-respecting American individual. They should, without exception, be summarily thrown out of office on November 7. Remember the old saying: "Don't vote, it only encourages them!" If you have been in the habit of not voting, break it. Vote to DISCOURAGE them and keep on doing so.
How do "discourage" them. Make sure that a political "career" is a thing of the past. Turf out all the Representatives and a third of the Senators every two years and "business as usual" in Washington DC will come to a crashing halt. It's the only way.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle actually thinking that voting against this bill would hurt them in the mid terms in November is bad enough. Politicians who went out of their way to NOT read or even consider the contents of this bill is worse still. In the abject hope that they will be able to get on with political "business as usual", they have wiped their feet on every principle of politics and government which brought forth that great nation which WAS the United States of America. They deserve contempt and repudiation. We can only hope they reap both.
Now, given the slaughterhouse of political (not to mention ethical and moral) principle which the US Congress has become, can there be any further "surprise" at the situation in US so called "markets"? The situation is as breathtaking as it is farcical, with the mid-term election on November 7 still more than a month away.
As The Privateer has also stated in recent issues, the US economy is already IN recession. Economic growth in the US is on the official estimates now lagging behind the level of price inflation. The evidence builds up every day, all of it pointing in only one direction. This recession is CERTAIN to be worse than anything seen since the 1930s, and could even surpass that.
Yet US stock markets, as measured by the Dow, are at their highest levels in nearly seven years. On September 28, the Dow closed only 4.5 points below its all time high set back in January 2000. It is a fairly safe bet that the old 2000 high will be surpassed, if not next week then sometime beetween now and November 7. When political pundits talk about an "October surprise", they are NOT talking about anything which might harm the chances of those in power. The Bush Administration's foreign "policy" is already in disgrace. The US housing bubble has not only burst, it is imploding fast. Add weakness to the stock market to that recipe and no amount of "recounting" will preserve both Houses of Congress in the grip of the Republicans and the Bush Administration.
Precious metals? Unless the powers that be in the US, and specifically the financial establishment, totally lose control, we don't expect to see much action from Gold over the next five weeks. Oil prices and therefore the price at the gas pump have already been hauled down by main force over the past four to six weeks. The Gold price had the rug pulled out from under it a month ago. Gold is the ultimate political metal. Government as it is currently practiced in the US requires complete control over the economy and complete control over the money is a pre-requisite for that. Any alternative - and Gold is in the sum of things the only alternative - must be ruthlessly suppressed.
How ruthlessly? You have seen an example of that this week in the political sphere with the craven cave-in of Congress to what has been accurately described as a Bush Administration "get out of jail free" card. The power they so thirst for and love to weild depends on their ultimate control of the wealth of the nation they rule. And that depends on their control of the money.
If you did not appreciate just how VITAL a money which a government cannot create or destroy is to the peace, prosperity, freedom and liberty of any nation, the Congressional capitulation of Congress over the past week has provided an object lesson. The US government has long since made the choice of empire. Benjamin Franklin, emerging from the Constitutional convention and asked what had been wrought, replied "A Republic, if you can keep it."
The American people have one more chance to start on the long road back to what they once had on November 7. If they choose not to take it, they won't get many more. They may not get ANY more. The stakes are IMMENSE. And those who hold the power will stop at nothing to keep it. If the events in Congress this week haven't illustrated that, not much ever will.
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©2006 The Privateer Market Letter
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Schade und Schande ...
