by Bill Bonner
Today, on the
Ides of February, we hold our hat in our hand... we bow our head...
and let our mouth fall open in amazement. Our Lenten program of
fasting, prayer and meditation is producing results. We are lightheaded
from near-starvation and alcohol deprivation. But our thoughts are
clear. Or else, we are hallucinating.
In the last
two days, we've taken a look at what promises to be the biggest
bust-up of all time.
It began in
stealth when a small group of big bankers boarded an unlisted train
in the middle of the night. They all knew each other. All were from
powerful New York banking families. But they didn't even use their
own names when talking to one another... so afraid were they that
word of their meeting would leak out.
Then the strange
little group traveled in complete secrecy to a small island compound
off the coast of Georgia. There they could talk freely. But the
conversation wasn't about hunting or sports... or politics... or
religion.
It was about
how they could change the way America – and the world –
did business. Every transaction, every purchase, every sale, every
salary, every bonus, every investment gain or loss would be affected.
Everything would change.
Still operating
in nearly total secrecy, they got Congress to pass a law on Christmas
Eve, when few members of Congress were at work and almost no one
was paying attention – a law that would put vast new power
in their hands. It must have been a bit like Obama's health care
plan. It changed everything. But few people read the law before
voting on it... and almost no one knew what it would mean.
Land of
the Law
Now –
100 years later – not only is it the law of the land, but we
have become the Land of the Law. That is to say, this new law changed
the way we keep score in life... in business... in investing. It
also changed the face of the country. We are now a nation shaped
by paper money... formed by easy credit and activist bankers...
built on a dollar of no sure value.
It is a system
that allows people – especially those in the federal government
– to spend money they don't have on things they don't need
and can't afford. More important, it makes it possible for them
to transfer vast sums of money... and massive new powers... to themselves.
It is that
system that has kept the typical workingman's wages flat for the
last 40 years. (Easy money and nearly unlimited credit allowed Americans
to buy what they needed from overseas manufacturers... and never
have to settle up on the bill.)
It is this
system, too, that is responsible for electing presidents –
such as Barack
Obama, who, without the support of this banking cartel, would
never have won the election in 2012.
Americans go
to the polls. They think they decide who runs the country. But the
real decision was made long ago. The real decision makers are people
whose names few people know. If they decide to dump a president,
his chances of reelection plummet. If they decide to stick with
him – as they did with Obama – he is a near shoo-in.
The Fix
Was In
Do you remember?
Just a few months before last year's election, stocks and houses
were sinking and Obama was running behind in the polls. And then
things started going his way. His numbers started to look better.
Housing began to stabilize. The stock market headed back up.
What happened?
The elite bankers
– operating through the central
bank that they own and control – announced more "stimulus."
And now they're committed to a program of "QE
to Eternity." As long as it takes. As much as it takes.
What did this
mean, really? It meant that the Fed was printing money and giving
it to its own cartel members. It didn't go to mom-and-pop businesses.
It didn't go to struggling households. It didn't go to Rogue Economists.
No, it went
to the big financial interests, the successors to the same fellows
on the train 100 years ago: the movers and shakers in the financial
world... the elite... the rich... the 1%. And it – more than
anything else – determined the outcome of the 2012 election.
The popular
press rants and raves about "the rich." But it has no
real idea what is going on. The media think the Fed is trying to
stimulate the economy. They're all for it. More money. More stimulus.
More power to the activists.
But look what
happened. The press reported a "recovery" in housing.
There was no such thing going on – not really. Instead, as
revealed in this space, the big money was getting money (at virtually
no cost, thanks to the Fed's zero interest rate policy) and using
it to buy houses. Ownership was passing from the little guys to
the big guys, from Main Street to Wall Street.
Well-financed
players were buying up hundreds of thousands of houses. Yes, they
were putting a floor under prices. But they were also shifting more
wealth from Middle America to the top of America.
And then Barack
Obama – buoyed by a strong stock market... bottoming-out housing
prices... and phony employment and inflation numbers – appealed
to the little guy for his vote!
The whole show
was breathtaking. The election was bought for him by the richest,
most elite elements in the nation. And it was paid for with money
that cost them nothing.
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