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The Daily Reckoning | Saturday, May 12, 2012
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Greg Kadajski, checking in today from Baltimore, Maryland...
As your intrepid Managing Editor maintains his tireless commitment to world travel, the privilege of introducing this weekend’s reckonings happily falls to us here at Daily Reckoning H.Q. But first, a brief note on an interesting item that just came across our desk...
Greg Kadajski
Our colleagues at Whiskey and Gunpowder just put together a very informative video on the (diminishing) value of US coins. It’s a short-n-sweet presentation that explains just how important one of these coins could be to the future of your investment portfolio. Which coin, you ask? Here’s a hint...
We’ll let the presentation fill you in on all the details... Click here to view it now.
And now, we turn things over to Addison Wiggin, with this week’s feature essay.
[This weekend’s feature essay first appeared in these pages on May 7, 2012]The Daily Reckoning Presents “America Has Become a Piñata...”
“America’s national government has moved way beyond a political spoils system,” wrote Charles Goyette in his book The Dollar Meltdown. “A spoils system leaves the host alive so that a politician’s occasional ne’er-do-well brother-in-law can be put on the payroll.”
AddisonWiggin
In contrast, Goyette suggested, “America has become a piñata: Everybody gets a crack at it. Presidents and other elected officials pass the big stick around as a reward to those who help keep them in charge of the piñata party.”
Goyette’s book came out in 2009. Since then, we have learned that the party is even more debauched, nay demented, than he ever imagined. And you, dear reader, were not invited...
Ms. Lazar’s clients, according to The Wall Street Journal, pulled down double-digit returns on 10-year Treasuries between the time of that meeting and the time Operation Twist was unveiled to the public on Sept. 21. Sorry you missed out.
The takeover, in fact, occurred on Sept. 6 — giving the hedge fund managers their own handsome payday in a six-week span. Again, you were excluded.
Before you object too loudly, we daresay you might wish to consider the consequences.
The Repeal of Habeas Corpus? When Free Speech No Longer Matters
On December 31, 2011, President Obama signed the Department of Defense Authorization Act into law. This is normally the routine annual budget for the Pentagon. But inserted into this year’s bill is language giving the president the authority to use the military to imprison terrorism suspects — including US citizens — indefinitely, and without charges.
In other words, the “great writ” of habeas corpus is in danger of repeal. No longer would the government have to justify to a judge why it holds someone in custody.
“Take away this great writ,” writes The Future of Freedom Foundation’s Jacob Hornberger, “and all other rights — such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, gun ownership, due process, trial by jury and protection from unreasonable searches and seizures and cruel and unusual punishments — become meaningless.”
Without habeas corpus, you could be thrown in prison for the “terrorist” act of criticizing the government and the government would never have to declare the precise reason it hauled you away. And in theory at least, the First Amendment would still be in force!
“This defense bill,” says The Rutherford Institute’s John Whitehead, “not only decimates the due process of law and habeas corpus for anyone perceived to be an enemy of the United States, but it radically expands the definition of who may be considered the legitimate target of military action.”
“This bill will not only ensure that we remain in a perpetual state of war — with this being a war against the American people — but it will also institute de facto martial law in the United States.”
135 SWAT Raids per Day: “Life Goes on, But It Is Debased...”
Rampant corruption and the apparatus for wide-scale repression: These are the hallmarks of what military theorist John Robb calls “the hollow state.”
“The hollow state has the trappings of a modern nation-state (‘leaders,’ membership in international organizations, regulations, laws and a bureaucracy), but it lacks any of the legitimacy, services and control of its historical counterpart,” Robb wrote in 2008. It is merely a shell that has some influence over the spoils of the economy.
“The real power,” Robb continues, “rests in the hands of corporations and criminal/guerrilla groups that vie with each other for control of sectors of wealth production. For the individual living within this state, life goes on, but it is debased in a myriad of ways. The shift from a marginally functional nation-state in manageable decline to a hollow state often comes suddenly, through a financial crisis.”
It is in this context that the growing “militarization” of police looks even more ominous than it does on the surface.
The Pentagon has distributed $2.6 billion in military surplus to local police agencies since 1997. Thus do towns of only a few thousand people have their own SWAT teams. Time was their use was limited to hostage-takings and other high-stakes situations. SWAT raids nationwide numbered only 3,000 per year in the early 1980s, according to University of Eastern Kentucky criminologist Peter Kraska.
Nowadays, SWAT teams are used to serve routine warrants. By the time Kraska stopped counting in the mid-2000s, the annual number had exploded to 50,000 — an average of more than 135 per day.
What happens when the tinder-dry combination of piñata-party corruption and a police-state structure meet the spark of violence?
We don’t know where all this is going... but we know it makes us uneasy...which is why we are increasingly interested in casting our gaze for investment opportunity far, far away from US shores.
The US remains a land of (some) opportunity, but it has lost its monopoly.
Regards,
Addison Wiggin,
for The Daily Reckoning
Joel’s Note: For most people, the answer to Addison’s question, “What happens when the tinder-dry combination of piñata-party corruption and a police-state structure meet the spark of violence?” is a resounding, “We don’t wanna be around to find out!”
If that sounds like you, may we suggest preparing yourself for what’s coming down the pipes with a subscription to Addison’s Apogee Advisory. It’s Agora Financial’s primary research tool dedicated to analysing the bilious corruption of the state, the political and economic fallout likely to result from it...and specific ways you can protect your wealth and independence. Check it out here.What is the “Second Wave” of the Internet?
Did you know the “Second Wave” of the Internet is almost here — and 6 amazing companies stand behind its biggest breakthroughs?
This story could break wide open as soon as this summer. Here’s what you’re about to see...
Imagine endless fuel and power. Imagine never getting stuck in traffic again. Imagine meeting your doctor and out of town family members in your living room whenever you want...
Experts are just now starting to clamor about the “Second Wave” — find out all the details for yourself — right here.ALSO THIS WEEK in The Daily Reckoning... Economics By and For Human Beings
By Jeffrey Tucker
Auburn, Alabama
“Economics puts parameters on people’s utopias.” Yes. That’s exactly it. That’s why the politicians hate economics. That’s why the media are so... selective in which economists they call on to talk about policy. That’s why the economics departments in colleges are put down by the sociologists, philosophers, literature professors and just about everyone else who has romantic longings for a coerced utopia.
An Electrifying Biotechnology — A Shot at Shocking Profits
By Patrick Cox
Marco Island, Florida
Fascination with the effects of electricity on the body goes back — way back. In the 1770s Italian physician and physicist Luigi Galvani shocked the world with the discovery that a spark could cause a dead frog’s legs to twitch. In 1802, German chemist Johann Wilhelm Ritter furthered Galvani’s research into electrophysiology. He observed how halting a strong current in muscle nerves could cause a muscle to contract.
Protecting Your Assets from an Out-of-Control Government, Part I
By Terry Coxon
By keeping all your assets in the country where you live, you commit, ahead of time, to ratify whatever policy your home government might adopt, no matter how objectionable, unreasonable or pernicious that policy happens to be. If the next new mandate is “Register today to get a nail pounded into your head,” you’re already signed up.
Protecting Your Assets from an Out-of-Control Government, Part II
by Terry Coxon
Most Americans still have yet to stick a single financial toe across the border, but more and more are considering it...Because internationalizing your financial life means dealing with the unfamiliar, the project can seem more complex than it really is, so it’s best to start with the simplest measures, even if by themselves they don’t give you all the safety you’re looking for. Even from a simple beginning, what you learn with each step will make the next step easier to plan. Start with the first rung on the ladder of internationalization. Then climb, at your own speed, to reach the right level of protection.The One Retirement Plan Obama Can’t Touch
If you’ve already retired, or want to retire soon, I urge you to watch this video presentation before we have to pull it down.
This “Secret $200 Retirement Blueprint” shows you step-by-step how to grow a monster-sized nest egg with a little time and a tiny grubstake.
Click here to watch this video presentation now.The Weekly Endnote... And now, it’s over to a few readers for some thoughts, ideas and rumors...
First up, Reckoner Loon channels a little Orwell with this...
Sometimes calling things using an accurate designation rather than its generally used designation causes people to take a closer look at their assumptions and accepted ideas. Ergo: Homeland KGB, Gestapo Act, Government clerks (not leaders, coercion is not leading. Would you call a bully a leader?), Government schools, National Martial Law Authorization Act. Just a thought.
DR: Can we add National Offense...Department of Homeland Insecurity...The War on the Poor...the list goes on...
Next, here’s Reckoner Dave S., writing in from California...
I have held, for years, that one of my greatest fears for our liberty and our society is creeping ageism. The education debacle could well define the lines in that fight.
You eloquently frame the education element in the two examples. And I’m sure the two positions define the frustrations of overlapping generations. There are better examples.
Representing a different take on the boomer generation that “used up all the fun”, I worked my way through state school, nights when classes were days and vice versa. All-nighters at Denny’s before tests were the routine and if extra shifts were available they were worked as well. I didn’t know student loans even existed. When it came time to start a career, I took a pay cut to join a Fortune 50 company because of the training. We ate pasta in the early years while I paid my dues and raised two sons. Progressively, with hard work, things got better, and better. When that ended, I reinvented myself and leveraged my network to do something else. When that failed, I used it again to secure my current endeavor. Today, other than the confiscatory aims of the insiders, I’m on track for a comfortable run of non-production before the inevitable.
Representing a different take on the current generation, my sons took different but similar-in-the-end paths. Both went to state schools. Both found jobs as early as high school and proved their value early and paid dues in part-time employment that opened the door to better hours, better money, better responsibilities. Neither emerged saddled with education debt. I helped, but within my means so I didn’t either.
There are still, today, opportunities to get a job that starts at $8 an hour with the possibility to be earning $80K a year after a decade of hard work and a shot at a 6-figure future. And, the path hasn’t changed.
1) Get the education you can afford and don’t apologize for it
2) Work while you’re getting it and pay as you go... You are entitled to what you have money for...period
3) Build relationships and lean on them to connect you to the opportunities
4) Be willing to start below your worth and prove yourself
5) Work hard and prove your value
6) Life is not fair so put on your practical blinders... Sometimes good things happen to undeserving people in your peripheral vision...Sometimes bad thing happen to undeserving people. Play the hand that’s dealt you.
7) Be patient and mind steps 3-6.
This may not be the path for the migrant worker to see his son go to an ivy league school and become CEO but it’s also not the path to a life of indentured servitude either with an expertise in underwater basket weaving. On this merry-go-round many grab for the brass ring but that few get it is a statistical fact. Spend as much time wanting what you get as getting what you want.
Thanks for your insights and reckonings. They are a daily dose of sanity in a world that is either too slow with or thinks they’re too clever with simple math.
And finally, this one from Reckoner CR...
Dear DR, Again with the dire warnings of doom, and the coming crisis, the death of an Empire, the police state. We are only about 100 years into our Empire and I admit we (the US) are not that good at it yet, but with time maybe we will figure out how it is done. But history has plenty of examples of Empires that lasted for a lot longer than we have been around.
As far as the police state, I wonder if it isn’t man’s natural state to want to be ruled. The erosion of freedom is so obvious that if people really cared they would use the system to fix it. Monarchies have lasted for thousands of years. No collapse is imminent. The rules have changed on a lot of things here in the US and I am assuming around the world. One of the common themes in your pages is reverting to the mean. Maybe a small ruling class and the larger class of servicers of the state is the mean. Anyway, I still love reading every day. You guys are the best, keep up the good work.
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What say you then, Fellow Reckoner? Is all the “end of the empire” stuff overblown? Are we “doom and gloomers” blind to history? Or are things really as bad as they seem...or worse?!
As always, we welcome your thoughts. Email them to the address below and...
..enjoy your weekend.
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
Managing Editor
The Daily Reckoning
Saturday, 12 May 2012
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