A Conspiracy of Counterfeiters

Pat Buchanan

"Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens."

"Lenin was certainly right," John Maynard Keynes continued in his 1919 classic, "The Economic Consequences of the Peace."

"There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."

Keynes warned that terrible hatreds would be unleashed against "profiteers" who enriched themselves through inflation as the middle class was wiped out. And he pointed with alarm to Germany, where the mark had lost most of its international value.

By November 1923, the German currency was worthless, hauled about in wheelbarrows to buy groceries. The middle class had been destroyed. German housewives were prostituting themselves to feed their families. That same month, Adolf Hitler attempted his Munich Beer Hall Putsch.

Today a coterie of economists is prodding Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to induce inflation into the American economy.

Fearing falling prices, professor Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund, is pushing for an inflation rate of 5 to 6 percent while conceding that his proposal is rife with peril and "we could end up with 200 percent inflation."

Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winner and columnist for The New York Times, is pushing Bernanke in the same direction.

Bernanke, writes Krugman, should take the advice he gave Japan in 2000, when he urged the Bank of Japan to stimulate the economy with "an announcement that the bank was seeking moderate inflation, 'setting a target in the 3-4 percent range for inflation, to be maintained for a number of years.'"

And who inspired Bernanke to urge Tokyo to inflate? Krugman modestly credits himself. "Was Mr. Bernanke on the right track? I think so -- as well I should, since his paper was partly based on my own earlier work."

But Krugman is not optimistic about Bernanke's injecting the U.S. economy with a sufficient dose of inflation. Why is Ben hesitant? Two words, says Krugman: "Rick Perry." Krugman believes Bernanke has been intimidated by Perry's populist threat in Iowa after his first day of campaigning:

"If this guy (Bernanke) prints more money between now and the election, I don't know what y'all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous."

Perry was indulging in Texas hyperbole, and the press came down hard on him for language unbefitting a presidential candidate.

Yet Perry has raised a legitimate series of questions. What should be done to high officials of the U.S. government who consciously set out to dilute and destroy the savings and income of working Americans? What should be done to those who have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution and then steal the wealth of citizens by secretly manipulating the value of the currency, the store of wealth upon which those people depend?

Is inducing inflation -- debauching the currency, the systematic and secret theft of the savings of citizens -- a legitimate policy option for the Federal Reserve? Has Congress authorized official thievery? Who do these economists think they are?

Inflation rewards debt -- and erodes savings. It is legalized counterfeiting, the deliberate creation of money with nothing to back it up.

If a citizen printed dollars bills, he would be tracked by the Secret Service, prosecuted and imprisoned. Why, then, is the Fed's clandestine printing of money with nothing to back it up a legitimate exercise and, according to Krugman & Co., a desirable policy for Bernanke and the Fed?

Schooled economists such as Rogoff, Krugman and Bernanke know how to shelter their wealth from the ravages of inflation -- and even to get rich. But what about widows whose husbands leave a nest egg of savings in cash and bonds? What are they supposed to do as the value of their savings is wiped out at 4, 5 or 6 percent a year -- or whatever annual rate of ruin the Rogoffs and the Krugmans decide upon?

This is not only an economic issue but a moral issue. To inflate a currency is to steal the money citizens have earned and saved and entrusted their government to protect. Any government that betrays that trust and steals that wealth is not only unworthy of support. It is worthy of being overthrown. On this one, as Keynes said, Lenin was right.

Perry and Ron Paul deserve the nation's gratitude for putting this issue of the unfettered power and the amorality of our unelected Federal Reserve on the political docket.

SOURCE

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David Gregory's Intolerance

On NBC’s Meet the Press, host David Gregory grilled Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) on her political and religious views.

Near the end of the segment, Gregory asked Bachmann about her views on gays and lesbians. He played a clip of Bachmann saying that the gay lifestyle was “personal bondage, personal despair, and personal enslavement.”

“I am running for the presidency of the United States, I’m not running to be anyone’s judge,” Bachmann replied.

Video follows

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

By Lloyd Marcus

The liberal media are signaling that their mission to reelect Barack Obama is going to involve declaring Bible-believing Christians to be intolerant bigots, unfit for high office. The trigger issue is one of the liberal media's favorite causes: normalizing homosexuality.

Please, please, please understand, as we said in the '60s, "where I'm coming from." This article is not about bashing homosexuals. I have homosexual family and friends whom I love very much.

However, I found David Gregory's attack on Michele Bachmann for comments she made regarding homosexuality to be extremely disturbing and offensive. Bachmann is a Christian and simply compassionately espoused the biblical point of view. Just as Muslims live by the Quran, Christians strive to live by the Bible.
Here are a few Bible quotes about homosexuality.

Lev. 18:22: "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination."

Lev. 20:13: "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act;..."

Rom. 1:26-27, " ... for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts ... "

Whether you agree with the Bible or not is irrelevant. My point is that Bachmann did not "make up" her take on homosexuality. It came from a holy book considered sacred by mega-millions worldwide.

So, when Gregory beat up on Bachmann, he was really attacking Christians and the Bible. But most disturbing was Gregory's arrogant bullying and implicit threat to all who disagree. In effect, he announced: We, the media, have declared homosexuality normal -- period, end of subject. Any one of you Neanderthals daring to suggest otherwise will suffer the consequences.

Would Gregory have been so aggressive interviewing Muslim presidential candidates about their beliefs? I suspect not.

Most Americans accept homosexuals and are repulsed by anyone abusing them. However, America's acceptance of homosexuals is not good enough for the left. The left wish to bend our arms behind our backs until we cry "uncle," proclaiming homosexuality to be normal.

Even home improvement and cooking TV programs feature a high number of homosexual couples disproportionate to the population. Clearly, many TV producers have an agenda to normalize the homosexual lifestyle.

My dad has been in Christian ministry as a pastor for 50 years. Dad said he is being pressured to embrace the Gospel of Homosexuality. He added, "Those of us who disagree are being pushed into the closet."

Has the left won? Are we afraid to quote the Bible's rebuke of homosexuality?

Think about this, folks. According to the left, if you disapprove of acts forbidden by scripture, not only are you a "hater," but you are deemed mentally ill -- diagnosed as homophobic and in need of treatment.

During his Bachmann interview, Gregory kept referring to homosexuals as "gay Americans" in an attempt to make disapproval of a "sexual behavior" the same as discriminating against an ethnic group such as African-, Hispanic-, and other Americans.

The left reinforces the theme, calling opposition to the homosexual agenda "bigotry."

Black Civil Rights groups are offended by the left comparing their struggle to that of homosexuals.

I state again, "I have homosexual family and friends whom I love very much." However, loving them does not mean I must submit to dictatorial pressure from the media to embrace the homosexual lifestyle as being normal.

To get their way, the left always distort the discord, portraying all opposition to equal the extreme evil. For example, Americans welcome legal immigrants who obey our immigration laws with open arms. We oppose illegal immigration and all the crime and stress on our welfare system that comes with it. The left brands anyone seeking to protect our borders extremist, anti-immigration, and racist.

If you believe that elementary kids should not be forced to celebrate Gay Pride Day and not be encouraged to experiment with homosexuality, the left numbers you among the minority of nutcases seeking to harm homosexuals.

Regardless of the issue, the left, via their liberal media enforcers, slander the opposition, painting them to be haters and extremists. Former Obama supporters turned off by his unfolding socialistic agenda are suddenly redneck racists against a black president.

Patriots, I realize all of you are not Christians and my purpose is not to force my faith on anyone. This article is not about whether homosexuality is right or wrong. It is about the liberal media throwing down the gauntlet, saying, Hey, you Christians had better get with the program regarding the normalcy of homosexuality, or else!

The liberal media usurping ultimate authority to enforce their "ultimate consensus" on an issue, destroying anyone who dares think otherwise, is a serious assault on our freedom.

SOURCE

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An Unusual Economy?

Thomas Sowell

Many in the media are saying how unusual it is for our economy to be so sluggish for so long, after we have officially emerged from a recession. In a sense, they are right. But, in another sense, they are profoundly wrong.

The American economy usually rebounds a lot faster than it is doing today. After a recession passes, consumers usually increase their spending. And when businesses see demand picking up, they usually start hiring workers to produce the additional output required to meet that demand.

Some very sharp downturns in the American economy, such as in the early 1920s, were followed quickly by bouncing back to normal levels or beyond. The government did nothing -- and it worked.

In that sense, this is an unusual recovery in how long it is taking and in how slowly the economy is growing -- while the government is doing virtually everything imaginable.

Government intervention may look good to the media but its actual track record -- both today and in the 1930s -- is far worse than the track record of letting the economy recover on its own.

Americans today are alarmed that unemployment has stayed around 9 percent for so long. But such unemployment rates have been common for years in Western European welfare states that have followed policies similar to policies being followed currently by the Obama administration.

Those European welfare states have not only used the taxpayers' money to hand out "free" benefits to particular groups, they have mandated that employers do the same. Faced with higher labor costs, employers have hired less labor.

The vast uncertainties created by ObamaCare create a special problem. If employers knew that ObamaCare would add $1,000 to their costs of hiring an employee, then they could simply reduce the salaries they offer by $1,000 and start hiring.

But, since it will take years to create all the regulations required to carry out ObamaCare, employers today don't know whether the ObamaCare costs that will hit them down the road will be $500 per employee or $5,000 per employee. Even businesses that have record amounts of cash on hand are reluctant to gamble it by expanding their hiring under these conditions.

Many businesses work their existing employees overtime or hire temporary workers, rather than get stuck with unknown and unknowable costs for expanding their permanent work force.

As unusual as 9 percent unemployment rates may seem to the current generation of Americans, unemployment rates stayed in double digits for months and years on end during the 1930s. Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration followed policies very similar to those of the Obama administration today. He also got away with it politically by blaming his predecessor.

SOURCE

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ELSEWHERE

House GOP targets “job-destroying” laws: "The House Republican agenda this fall will focus on repealing environmental and labor regulations that GOP lawmakers say are driving up the cost of doing business and discouraging employers from hiring workers. House majority leader Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, said in a memo to his fellow Republicans that as soon as Congress returns to Washington next week he will start bringing up bills to repeal or restrict federal regulations."

West Bank: IDF training squatters ahead of expected “mass disorder”: "The IDF has conducted detailed work to determine a 'red line' for each settlement in the West Bank, which will determine when soldiers will be ordered to shoot at the feet of Palestinian protesters if the line is crossed. It is also planning to provide settlers with tear gas and stun grenades as part of the defense operation. The IDF is currently in the process of finalizing its preparations for Operation Summer Seeds, whose purpose is to ready the army for September and the possibility of confrontations with Palestinians following the expected vote in favor of Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly."

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The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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