Month: August 2014

Institutionalized Tyranny and Serfdom

By

Joe Withrow

Author of “The Individual is Rising”

 

 

For more original articles like this please visit TwoIceFloes.com. On the left content sidebar of the home page you may subscribe to our periodic newsletter.

 

 

“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Modern society does not care much for the individual.  National interest, public policy, and the common good are held up as the ideal.  We still hear lip service paid to the individual rights of man on occasion, but only within the context of individual servitude towards one or another State-driven collective goal.  Of course these goals are presented as moral and upright, but there is a little catch – no one can truly opt-out of supporting the chosen goals.  The State, in all its benevolence, is going to take your money to support the collective goals of society whether you like it or not.

Sadly, most individuals buy right into their societal servitude because the default programming does such a great job of convincing individuals of their own ineptitude.  The default programming steers individuals away from their own interests and passions and funnels them onto the same “lifestyle path” on which they are pushed to “be a productive member of society”.

The government educational system is the leadoff hitter in the programming lineup and children have been relinquished to the educational blob at progressively earlier ages over time.  Kindergarten was developed to precede First Grade.  Then Preschool was developed to precede Kindergarten.  Now we have pre-Preschool in place to precede Preschool.  We guess they ran out of creative names for this last one.

So the kids are herded into government schools where their creativity, critical thinking ability, and common sense are systematically destroyed.  They learn to unquestioningly obey their superiors at all times and to ask for permission to go to the restroom.  To top it off, the kids are spoon-fed faulty history and they are taught that government is a righteous institution forever and always seeking to make their life better.  Their teachers are mostly decent folks, mind you; they just don’t understand what government really is either.

Perhaps worst of all, students are conditioned to never seek a deeper understanding of the world around them and to never focus on discovering and developing their passion.  Instead, students quickly learn that grades and social status are the only worthy goals to be sought after. 

 

 

The next leg of the default programming is college.  The kids were constantly told for at least a decade that they absolutely must go to college in order to be successful in life, so they load up on federal student loan debt when they hit 18 and march off to whatever college will have them.

While there are certainly some exceptions, especially in the more specialized fields, most students quickly learn that college is just another system to be gamed and completed.  Attaining the highest grades possible with the least amount of work is the name of the game for most students – just like it was in high school.  Social status is still a viable goal as well, but the playing field has changed.  Instead of football games and dances, social status is now earned in the basements of dirty fraternity houses with an abundance of crappy beer.

Students have been through 16-20 years of default programming within government-approved educational institutions by the time they graduate college.  Amazingly, a vast majority of these students have learned nothing about money, capital, or finance, and most are completely oblivious to how the world that awaits them actually works.  The poor saps that majored in finance or economics have actually learned less than nothing about money, capital, and finance and they come out with a completely warped view of the subjects.

Most graduates have seen each level of their education as an obstacle to struggle through so they take that mentality with them to the next level of the default programming – the corporate rat-race. 

Once in the rat-race, our degree-wielding worker bees struggle through the work-week and then pursue all manner of entertainment every weekend, regardless of the cost.  The dirty frat-house is traded for a metropolitan bar and the cheap beer might be upgraded to something a little better, bottom-shelf liquor perhaps. 

Now that they are responsible adults, they watch the news and discuss current events around the water cooler at work.  But there is a little problem:  the news is propaganda mixed with celebrity worship which serves to warp priorities and paint a distorted view of how the world actually works.

Thanks to this wonderful system of default programming, most good citizens come to believe things like:

• The foreign wars raging in some desert thousands of miles away are being fought to protect my freedom here in the United States; after all, they hate us for our freedoms.
• The TSA must grope and harass all of us before we travel so they can keep us safe from the bad guys.
• Social Security is a noble program that just needs a little tweaking to make it more economical.
• The government absolutely had to bail-out the Banks with my money for my own good.
• The $17,500,000,000,000.00 national debt is no big deal – we borrowed it from ourselves.
• Quantitative Easing is a very complicated monetary procedure designed to stimulate the economy; it is in no way, shape, or form a method to steal from me and perpetuate a massive Ponzi scheme.
• The economy is recovering marvelously and my job prospects for the future are looking bright – my goal is early retirement!
• Everything will be wonderful if we can just get everyone to vote for better leaders.

Of course there is a major gap that cannot be explained between these beliefs and what is actually taking place in the world which creates a great deal of cognitive dissonance within much of the population.

The simple fact is:  this is not what a free society looks like.

 

 

Okay, so American culture may be a little schizophrenic. So what? Why should we care? We believe in laissez-faire and non-intervention, so how is it our problem?

Well, despite our best efforts we still have a sense of justice.  We just can't keep quiet while the default programming converts unwary human beings with infinite potential into willing victims of the collectivist Ponzi. 

You see, the default programming is designed to trick individuals into giving away their power – first to school teachers, then to professors, then to bosses, and always to government thugs and globalist bureaucrats.  All of that personal power is then used to further strengthen the systems of enslavement.  Of course the school teachers, professors, corporate middle managers, and the petty government officials and bureaucrats do not have a clue that this is what they are really doing – they have bought the propaganda proclaiming them heroes working for the common good of mankind.

Truth be told, we also have selfish reasons for opposing the default programming and schizophrenic culture – we are poorer because of them.  The default programming has created a lifeless economy where zombies consume a very large percentage of the ever-dwindling wealth.

Roughly fifty percent of the American population is now directly receiving some form of payment or benefit from the government – this is common knowledge.  On top of that fifty percent, there are numerous zombie industries consuming massive amounts of wealth – very nearly all of which is redistributed to these zombies from the small productive sector of the economy. 

The military-industrial complex destroys massive amounts of wealth in order to build tanks and planes and missiles to sell to the government – much of which are obsolete by the time they are sold and the rest are used to cause havoc in faraway deserts (for democracy, of course).  Government subsidized Big-Agra works to create Frankenfood which serves to squeeze the small-time farmer out of business and also wreak havoc on the health of the American population. 

Meanwhile Big-Pharma works diligently to create dishonest drugs and government-mandated vaccines designed not to cure anything, but rather to temporarily placate all of the serious and not-so-serious symptoms that frequently plague people addicted to genetically-engineered processed food loaded with high fructose corn syrup and MSG while perpetuating sickness and obesity – at a massive profit margin of course.  Local governments get into the wealth destruction act by authorizing and funding (at least partially) SWAT teams, military grade weapons, and sometimes even tanks for small police departments.  Something about Middle America seems to scare the daylights out of the "authorities". 

All of this misallocation of capital and wealth destruction is made possible by the Federal Reserve System and its banking sector which perpetually transfers wealth from all of us to the insiders while also conjuring money ex nihilo to purchase government bonds on all levels to keep the Ponzi going.

Of course zombies beget more zombies so the amount of wealth consumed and destroyed continues to increase over time.  We are all poorer as a result; poorer in monetary terms as well as in ways that cannot be quantifiably measured.

So we feel obligated to call it out. 

We just can’t help but envision a world in which the old principle of laissez-faire is respected and individuals are free to claim their natural-born sovereignty.  We envision such a world where the capitalist principles of sound money, free markets, and property rights drive vibrant economies geared towards production, innovation, and wealth-creation.  It’s a world where governments do not hold a monopoly of force over particular geographic areas and individuals are free to voluntarily associate with or disassociate from any society, organization, or institution that catches or loses their fancy.  The only rule is that these societies, organizations, and institutions must respect the natural rights of all individuals.

Now we are not suggesting that this laissez-faire capitalist vision of society should be forced on everybody… far from it.  We would just like for it to be an option.  There can be other options as well.

Want to live in a socialist utopia?  By all means!  But your utopia would have to be a voluntary association of individuals.  You know that 50% we mentioned earlier?  We bet many of them would be happy to join you!  We will be real interested to see if you can make it work for even a month without a coercive government to steal the fruits of individual labor and force individual servitude, however.

Speaking of, that is precisely what’s wrong with coerced collectivism as a societal structure – it requires forced individual servitude in order for it to limp along for any extended period of time.  If this isn’t tyranny, we don’t know what is.

 

 

Liberty and Tyranny have done battle since the dawn of civilization.  'Democracy' was idolized in the early 20th century specifically to trick people into confusing one for the other.  "We must make the world safe for Democracy!" Wilson cried as U.S. troops crossed the Rubicon. 

The other warring nations on both sides must have looked at each other in confusion.  "Why in the hell would anyone want to make the world safe for democracy?" they must have asked each other.  After all, there was not one single nation that referred to itself as a democracy when World War I began.  The Allied powers featured republican governments teamed up with imperial governments and constitutional monarchies to fight the Axis powers which consisted of imperial governments teamed up with both absolute monarchies and constitutional monarchies.  There wasn't a democracy for as far as the eye could see.

There were 123 “democracies” in existence by the year 2007.  By good old Woodrow's logic, peace and prosperity must have been raining down from heaven! 

But as it turns out, roughly 500 million people have been violently killed in one government war or another since the world became safe for democracy.  The Universe, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

Of course we know nothing will change until it all comes crashing down and hits rock bottom with a resounding thud.  We know the masses will just point and laugh; if they even pay any attention at all.  They could not care less about our laissez-faire vision, and our disdain for regulatory democracy might anger them.  But we also know that there is a Remnant out there.  These are the people who have conquered the default programming and are pretty peeved about being lied to for decades.  It is the Remnant that gives us cause for long-term optimism.

Here's to a laissez-faire vision of Liberty… and to a world safe from democracy.

 

Joe Withrow

08-04-2014

 

Cognitive Dissonance: For more of Joe’s thoughts on the “Great Reset”, the global paradigm shift, and regaining individual sovereignty please read “The Individual is Rising” which is available through Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions here.

Please note that while I did edit this book for Joe I do not participate in any revenue from the sale of this book.

 

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1s5VvAs Cognitive Dissonance

Let’s turn back the clock two years.

 

In the spring of 2012, the entire EU financial system came close to collapsing. Few investors understand the severity of what happened during that period. After all, the financial media primarily focused on stories about the bailouts working and the ECB’s solutions to the crisis.

 

In June 2012, Spain requested a €100 billion bailout. At that time, most investors believed this to just another bailout. It was not. In the build up to this mess, multiple counties implemented capital controls limiting cash transactions, ATM withdrawals and the like. There was even talk of suspending the Schengen agreement, which allows for visa-free travel among 26 countries, including most of the European Union.

 

The whole point of creating the EU was to allow for greater access to markets through open borders and greater flow of capital through a monetary union. The fact that the EU was ready to suspend all of this is proof positive that it was on the verge of breaking apart. Without open borders and open capital flows, the EU, in principle, ceases to be.

 

What held this whole mess together?

 

The European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi, commented that he was willing to do “whatever it takes” to keep the Euro in one piece.

 

Notice that Draghi didn’t actually do anything. He didn’t somehow render all of the insolvent EU banks solvent. He didn’t somehow delever the system to make it financially stable. He didn’t even force Governments to get their fiscal houses in order (all the talk of austerity was total fictitious; spending increased across the board throughout this period).

 

So the only thing that changed was a shift in investor confidence based on a Central Banker issuing a strongly worded verbal intervention. This was the sole cause for:

 

1)   The massive stock market rally in EU markets.

2)   The large drop in EU sovereign bond yields.

3)   The change in confidence pertaining to the EU as an investment.

 

Here we are now, two years later, and the ECB has failed to create the sustainable recovery that it promised. Because of this, in June of 2014, Mario Draghi implemented Negative Interest rate Policies or NIRP and hinted at launching a QE program.

 

Systemically, Europe bought the rumor and is now selling the fact. Note that European Financials actually peaked in June 2014 and have since taken out their trendline dating back to the 2012 bottom.

 

This goes for Spain’s stock market, France’s stock market, the German Dax, etc. ACROSS THE BOARD, European markets peaked in June 2014 and have since been in decline.

 

Many of them have taken out their trendlines dating back to Draghi’s promise to do “whatever it takes.” The markets may very well put that promise to the test in the coming months. Nothing has been fixed in Europe.

 

This concludes this article. If you’re looking for the means of protecting your portfolio from the coming collapse, you can pick up a FREE investment report titled Protect Your Portfolio at http://ift.tt/170oFLH.

 

This report outlines a number of strategies you can implement to prepare yourself and your loved ones from the coming market carnage.

 

Best Regards

 

Phoenix Capital Research

 

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1s5xU6v Phoenix Capital Research

Google customers have reacted with outrage, according to The Guardian, following the release of an Android game that invites players to mimic the Israeli army ‘dropping bombs’ on Gaza.

 

 

As The Guardian reports,

Bomb Gaza, which is designed for Android phones and tablets, has been downloaded up to 1,000 times since its release on 29 July 2014, according to app store data. Its stated aim is to “drop bombs and avoid killing civilians”.

 

Seemingly designed to offend, the game reflects the real-life conflict in Gaza in which at least 1,800 Palestinians have been killed. Many comments on the game’s review section express outrage that the game is being given a platform by Google, though some also defended Israeli positions.

 

…

 

Bomb Gaza is not the only title on the Android store which references
the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. There is also a game
named Gaza Assault: Code Red (with a five star rating) and Iron Dome, based on Israel’s controversial US funded missile defence system.

 

One individual proclaimed:

 

Utterly shameful. Real people, many of them children, are dying in Gaza. Many of those who haven’t been killed face life with debilitating injuries, bereavement and without homes. Their suffering is as real as yours or mine, and to make light of it like this speaks of your essential failure as a human. Shame on the creators of this game, and those who ‘play’ it. – George Coote

*  *  *

No comment.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1nlicfI Tyler Durden

Google customers have reacted with outrage, according to The Guardian, following the release of an Android game that invites players to mimic the Israeli army ‘dropping bombs’ on Gaza.

 

 

As The Guardian reports,

Bomb Gaza, which is designed for Android phones and tablets, has been downloaded up to 1,000 times since its release on 29 July 2014, according to app store data. Its stated aim is to “drop bombs and avoid killing civilians”.

 

Seemingly designed to offend, the game reflects the real-life conflict in Gaza in which at least 1,800 Palestinians have been killed. Many comments on the game’s review section express outrage that the game is being given a platform by Google, though some also defended Israeli positions.

 

…

 

Bomb Gaza is not the only title on the Android store which references
the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. There is also a game
named Gaza Assault: Code Red (with a five star rating) and Iron Dome, based on Israel’s controversial US funded missile defence system.

 

One individual proclaimed:

 

Utterly shameful. Real people, many of them children, are dying in Gaza. Many of those who haven’t been killed face life with debilitating injuries, bereavement and without homes. Their suffering is as real as yours or mine, and to make light of it like this speaks of your essential failure as a human. Shame on the creators of this game, and those who ‘play’ it. – George Coote

*  *  *

No comment.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1nlicfI Tyler Durden

Wolf Richter   www.wolfstreet.com   http://ift.tt/Wz5XCn

The elegant sanction spiral the US and the EU are imposing on Russia has not been, let’s say, welcome by German business tycoons. But they can’t fight it directly. They have to do it indirectly, by evoking dire consequences.

So, over the weekend, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche told the public that business in Russia had been booming, with sales still up 20% in the first half, “but now the momentum is going down.”

Even before the start of the Ukrainian fiasco, the Russian economy was in “a difficult phase,” and the sanctions leave it “further impaired,” he said. “This impacts the Russian car market and thus also Daimler.” Russia is a smallish but important market for Daimler, as is the case with many German companies – last year, it was the 13th largest destination for German exports. But car sales in Europe have been abysmal. And Daimler had been counting on Russia as one of the bright spots.

As good soldier of Germany AG., he cannot publicly attack the government’s foreign policy. Domestic policies, however, such as the introduction of the first minimum wage, are a fair target for these seasoned, ultra-wealthy warriors [Extortion Over Minimum Wage In Germany: BMW, Daimler, VW Threaten to Offshore Production].

Attacks against foreign policy must be indirect. And so he said what they all say, that it was “very clear,” there is “the primacy of politics,” he said. “The economy has to adapt to the conditions set by government policy – independent of the direct consequences.”

And the direct consequences are not good for Daimler. The company has deep connections in Russia, including equity investments, such as a 15% stake in Russian truck builder Kamaz. And it’s assembling trucks in Russia under the Mercedes-Benz and Fuso brands. Other German companies are similarly involved, and the sanction hurt.

This phenomenon has already shown up in the Ifo Institute’s Business Climate Index, which has been dropping since March, and in its Business Expectation Index, which has been dropping since the beginning of the year. All four sub-indices – manufacturing, construction, wholesaling, and retailing – have taken a hit.

Now the media-savvy and always on the forefront economist Hans-Werner Sinn, president of the Ifo-institute, chimed in with a piece in the Wirtschaftswoche. The sanction spiral against Russia and the conflict in the Ukraine have already damaged the German economy. “The economic recovery that began in the second half of last year and continued until winter seems to take a longer break now,” he said. And Ifo’s growth estimates last month of 2.0% for this year and 2.2% for next year? Forget that. They’ll have to be lowered.

“The assumption that the second quarter of 2014 compared to the first, grew by 0.3% is no longer tenable given the current state of things. More likely is zero growth.”

And for the third quarter? “The currently estimated growth of 0.4% will likely have to be revised down. That will significantly reduce the annual growth forecasts for 2014 and 2015.”

The sanctions exact their pound of flesh. In Q1, Germany enjoyed a bout of growth of 0.8%, the fastest in three years, in part due to the unusually mild winter weather. At the time, it sparked a lot excitement, now obviated by events. Even though the Bundesbank a month ago raised its annual forecast for Germany by 0.2 percentage points to 1.9%, it too saw stagnation in Q2. And now Q3 and Q4 are looking increasingly iffy.

But Sinn was quick to point out, by drawing a fearsome parallel, that Germany won’t re-plunge into the kind of economic hole that it had plunged into during the Financial Crisis, he said. He had his reasons: “First, the domestic economy is supported by a considerable increase in consumption; secondly, the service sector is very solid; and thirdly, the Ifo indicator, compared to the earlier periods, softened only moderately. Thus, there is no resemblance to the disaster of 2008.”

But precisely by bringing up the “disaster of 2008,” he reminded Chancellor Merkel – and for that matter, President Obama – what politics could do to the economy, if the political leaders continued to storm down the road of economic sanctions. It was a warning by Germany AG, echoing Daimler CEO Zetsche: the German economy lives and dies by its exports, and it cannot afford an economic conflict with Russia.

European Council President Van Rompuy had a dream: the sanctions “should have a strong impact on Russia’s economy” but only “a moderate effect on EU economies.” But the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) warned that exports to Russia would dive 17%, after having dived 16.9% in April, when the sanctions began their handiwork, and 17.5% in May. Read….  Sanction Spiral Successful: German Exports to Russia Plunge

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1smNKXW testosteronepit

While we are used to the daily flashing red headline from GM on recalls, today's was a lot more concerning:

• *GM RECEIVED SUBPOENA BY U.S. DOJ
• *GM SUBPOENA RELATED TO SUBPRIME AUTOMOBILE LOAN CONTRACTS
• *GM FINL: SUBPOENA ALSO FOR WARRANTIES ON UNDERWRITING CRITERIA

We have warned of the surge in subprime auto-loan lending (and lowering standards and rising delinquencies) but this move by the DoJ should be very concerning. Once investors began digging into the details of subprime mortgage deals in 2007, the drastic credit risks reality was exposed very quickly… we fear the same in auto loans.

 

The OCC has warned…

Auto-loans are surging… Subprime auto-loans were up 10-fold in 2013…

 

As OCC reports,

 

Auto lending remained a highly competitive product segment, as strong growth continued through the end of 2013.

 

 

 

Banks reported year-over-year growth of 11.3 percent in the third quarter of 2013 and 12.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 (see figure 18). Banks continue to hold a sizable market share of outstanding loans of $250 billion, or 31 percent of the total auto lending market.

 

But risks are rising… Signs of Risk in Auto Lending Beginning to Emerge 

 

Across the industry, auto lenders are pursuing growth by lengthening terms, increasing advance rates, and originating loans to borrowers with lower credit scores. Loan marketing has become increasingly monthly-payment driven, with loan terms and LTV advance rates easing to make financing more broadly available. The results have yet to show large-scale deterioration at the portfolio level, but signs of increasing risk are evident. Average LTV rates for both new and used vehicles are above 100 percent for all major lender categories, reflecting rising car prices and a greater bundling of add-on products such as extended warranties, credit life insurance, and aftermarket accessories into the financing (see figure 26).

 

 

As we have numerous times…

Of course, this is not the first time we have discussed this… As we discussed here "Auto Loan Delinquency Balances Rise 24% YoY":

 

 

 

And here…

It Always Starts Somewhere …

 

However, what interests us about this development is mainly this: it shows that the credit bubble is beginning to fray at the edges. Every downturn starts with a seemingly innocuous report about things 'suddenly' and 'unexpectedly' going wrong in a relatively obscure corner of the market. We find ourselves reminded of how sub-prime real estate credit troubles began to show up for the first time in February of 2007, leading to the often repeated mantra that this particular disturbance in the force was 'well contained'.

 

That is however never how it works – in the end, it is all one big interconnected market. When troubles begin to show up at one end of it, they soon tend to  begin to spread.

 

A car repo notice – at least the repo sector can expect a boom now.

 

Good-bye overpriced SUV piece of junk – it was nice to know ye while it lasted …

 

Conclusion:

One should certainly keep both eyes open henceforth; more anecdotal evidence of this type is likely to emerge in coming months, especially if the Fed continues with its 'QE tapering' course. Once problems become visible in one obscure corner of the low grade credit markets, it is often a warning sign for the entire market and economy.

We suspect the DoJ investigation stems from this

"Buying The Car Was The Worst Decision I Ever Made" – The Subprime Auto Loan Bubble Bursts

*  *  *

Of course, the biggest irony is that it was the government itself that has been forcing GM to aggressively push NINJA loans onto any deadbeat consumer with mirror-fogging skills. And now it is going after GM for doing just that…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1smNDM6 Tyler Durden

John Kerry is at it again… Speaking at the US-Africa Summit, the US Secretary of State explained:

• *KERRY STRESSES NEED FOR COUNTRIES TO OBSERVE HUMAN RIGHTS

Which is odd, given that: a) Obama admitted we tortured some “folk”; and b) when countries refuse to observe human rights – the US drones them?

*  *  *

But not be outdone, Joe Biden came a close second for QOTD with:

• *BIDEN SAYS AFRICANS MUST DEMAND AN END TO CORRUPTION

In America?

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1kzLUD8 Tyler Durden