Comments on Pro Libertate: The Denouement (Updated)

William,Your blog really shines this week.The fact...

2008-09-18T08:40:00.000-06:00

William,

Your blog really shines this week.

The fact is, Germany in Ruins in 1945 rebuilt from nothing using a fractional reserve system.

They didn't rape themselves, but dedicated themselves to monetary transparency, honesty, and honor.

They focused on producing products of superior quality.

If Americans wanted to do the Right thing:

1. we would repudiate our use of economic hitmen.

2. We would shut down our unnecessary Military Industrial Complex and reintroduce a swiss style militia to accommodate Man's need for adventure and risk

3. We would dedicate ourselves to doing an honest day's work.

4. We would end all subsidies. Big Oil gets Eq.$5.60 a gallon and Ethanol and NG would be king, for just one example, and there would be no need to be in the middle east.

The answer? Across the board debt forgiveness from top to bottom.

Start clean. Tomorrow. Things are too wildly screwed up to continue on the impossible path that is charted for us all, by others.

Would it be tough? Sure, but We would regain our Dignity.

Doing so would dampen enthusiasm for so called "free trade" that isn't.

It ain't Free trade when farmers can't ship grain on their own to whoever they want.

This seems like an appropriate time to ask my ques...

2008-09-18T06:41:00.000-06:00

This seems like an appropriate time to ask my question. I have read THE BELMONT BROTHERHOOD. It purports to have been written by John Birch Society insiders and accuses Welch of founding his society with men who were Federal Reserve Bankers and associates of the very groups that the JBS claims/claimed to be opposing.
I have also read THE BLUE BOOK and it has a whiff of Freemasonry about it.
If the JBS was actually founded by the same type of men who are now bringing about this collapse of our financial system then another layer of the onion needs to be peeled away.

Dear Anonymous from the UK,The red berets are for ...

2008-09-18T00:47:00.000-06:00

Dear Anonymous from the UK,

The red berets are for us. They will not have any use for them - not having a head on which to wear them.

The reference is to Charles Dickens' story "A Tale of Two Cities," set in Paris and London during the French Revolution. Madame Defarge, a peasant after my own heart, sits at the foot of the guillotine day after day, knitting red caps for the citoyens, and counting the rolling aristocratic heads. (Red being the color of revolution.)

As for my imagination being too bloody, when you understand as I do that the gentlemen to whom I refer, the future hog feed and pig manure, have engineered the Great Depression, the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War, the War on Terror, the Vietnam War, and on and on, you will no longer feel that my judgment is too harsh. They have been coldly and emotionlessly responsible for perhaps 150-200 million human deaths in the 20th Century, all in the pursuit of trillions of dollars for themselves. And they are continuing with great gusto in the 21st Century.

You should read General Smedley Butler's short book, "War is a Racket," which you can Google and read on the Web. He wrote of the First World War, but nothing has changed since then.

You should also read the book, "The Secrets of the Federal Reserve" by Eustace Mullins, which you can also find on the Web. You will then understand the present economic meltdown, and also that the Government is not the only center of power in any country. In America, equally powerful is the Pentagon, the CIA, the Federal Reserve, the CFR, and so on.

John F. Kennedy was assassinated primarily by the CIA with the collusion of several other agencies and business interests, because he challenged their power too much, and chose to obstruct their plans. It was NOT the Mafia. They could never have gotten away with it. And Lee Harvey Oswald never fired a single shot at the President.

The President is far, far from being a free agent. So too the Congress. The Election Circus we see these days is just that - a bunch of clowns and performing seals going through their prescribed routines for the entertainment of the hoi polloi.

The fate I prescribed is in fact much too kind for the power elite. No amount of suffering, pain or terror would be adequate to exact from them due process for their crimes. Satan himself would cringe at the catalog of their abominations.

I take nothing back. I only wish those people had seven heads like the mythical Hydra, so that they could each one be guillotined seven times. Perhaps then I might begin to feel somewhat content.

Yours in hope,
Lemuel Gulliver.

Sorry to repeat but it's that good, and from where...

2008-09-17T15:43:00.000-06:00

Sorry to repeat but it's that good, and from where I'm standing in the all-too Amerikanised UK, highly apt:
Amerika

I like your imagination Lemuel; but would happily settle for a velvet version of your blood-soaked vision.

Are the red berets for us to wear, or them (please forgive my historic naivety)?

11th October

Xx

Dear Funny Fiat Currency @ 9:05am,You said: "Grant...

2008-09-17T11:40:00.000-06:00

Dear Funny Fiat Currency @ 9:05am,

You said: "Granted, Sullivan joined AIG when he was 17 and has worked at the firm for 37 years. But he was C.E.O. for only three years and three months. A total of 1,190 days."

Funny, isn't it? Anne Boleyn was Queen of England for 1,100 days, and because she failed at her job of producing a son, her head was detached from the rest of her.

Instead of receiving such a suitable and lasting reward, Sullivan is having $47 million attached to him by the grateful Board of Directors.

Alas. When will we peasants ever learn that putting the foxes in charge of our henhouses is not a good idea?

Politicians and CEOs loudly proclaim their wish to "serve." There are plenty of toilets in need of cleaning, but somehow that does not count as "service." Unless it comes with a limousine and pays a salary that would make King Croesus blush, somehow it cannot be considered "service."

A curious thing, the English language. George Orwell said it beautifully:

"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

(Sarah Palin, are you listening?)

Personally, I like the French solution. A guillotine on the Mall in Washington, and tumbrils carrying the former Beautiful People to have their heads detached from the rest of them. I shall sit in the front row knitting red berets, and watching the faces of the American Aristocracy as they mount the stairs and see the heads of those in line before them being stuck on pikes to decorate the street corners of the city.

As for the rest of the remains, I favor them being ground up and trucked down to North Carolina to feed the hogs in that fine state. Eventualy, the byproducts would end up being spread on the fields to improve the crops.

Finally - finally - the Beautiful People will actually be of some real "service" to humanity.

Yours in happy imagination,
Lemuel Gulliver.

The sick thing about about all this is that there ...

2008-09-17T10:36:00.000-06:00

The sick thing about about all this is that there are literally thousands of small and large solutions to the entire Humanity challenge. The embedded system breeds ego which breeds stupidity which breeds suffering.

Just to mention ONE solution. For the 85 billion to AIG we could create an entire algae oil production infrastructure for North America supplying all the oil that is needed indefinitely for maybe $25 a barrel net cost.

Martin Sullivan, Minute by MinuteAmerican Internat...

2008-09-17T10:05:00.000-06:00

Martin Sullivan, Minute by Minute

American International Group is bestowing some lovely parting gifts on former chief executive Martin Sullivan. It laid out the details in an 8-K report filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

And what details! A cool $15 million just for walking out the door, along with $4 million in prorated bonus and, for good measure, long-term stock and cash incentives worth roughly $28 million. Total: $47 million.

(This, by the way, doesn't count an additional $17 million in pension payments and deferred-compensation. Paul Hodgson of the corporate governance firm Corporate Library estimated the value of those additional assets in a Financial Times article.)

Granted, Sullivan joined AIG when he was 17 and has worked at the firm for 37 years. But he was C.E.O. for only three years and three months. A total of 1,190 days.

So, even if we leave out his pension and deferred compensation -- not to mention his regular salary ($1 million in 2007) and annual bonuses ($3.6 million in 2007; $10.1 million in 2006) -- AIG was very generous to someone who was roundly considered a not-very-successful C.E.O.

That $47 million severance package works out to $276,470.59 per week every week during his disappointing tenure. That's nearly $39,500 per day -- $1,645 per hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And, remember, this is just the severance pay.

What did the shareholders get out the deal? AIG stock closed at $61.92 a share on the day Sullivan was promoted to the corner office in March 2005. It closed at $34.01 on the day he left last month.

That's a 45 percent decline, about three times the decline of the NYSE Financial Index over the same period. Does that justify a platinum parachute?

For the time that Sullivan will be rewarded with his $40,000-a-day severance package, shareholders suffered an aggregate decline in the value of their stock of about $58.4 million per day.

That, by the way, works out to more than $2.4 million per hour, $40,555 per minute, $676 per second.

by Mark Stein

If America has been serving two masters (i.e God a...

2008-09-17T09:25:00.000-06:00

If America has been serving two masters (i.e God and money) do you think God will bless America?

The Federal Reserve System which is run and controlled by 12 commercial banks since 1913 is the culprit of the US financial crisis. These banks' greed is never satisfied.

Greed and God are incompatible.

Will,The US financial crisis was initiated by the ...

2008-09-17T08:56:00.000-06:00

Will,

The US financial crisis was initiated by the commercial bank cartel who are members of the US Federal Reserve System since 1913. Although they've been successful in the past,in authorising the printing of US dollars; their note printing band-aid approach to delay the investors' stock Exchange run from Stock Exchanges throughout the world isn't going to work this time.

Sack all the commercial bank members of the Federal Reserve System and amend the Federal Reserve Acts to return the control of US monetary policy and administration back to the US government.

Wake up America and stop analysing; do it quickly before the US dollar devalues into a Mickey Mouse currency. Remove the ever hungry wolves that feasts on the public treasury. Thier love for money is the root of all the evils being experienced today.

God will not bless America who serves two masters. "Mene, Mene, tekel u pharsin" You've been measured and weighed and found lacking.

Having just come upon your blog, I don't know how ...

2008-09-17T07:35:00.000-06:00

Having just come upon your blog, I don't know how much I agree with your position, but I do think we agree that the financial crisis is Terminal. I've been screaming since January about this. This is what it looks like today. Much more to come.

Most excellent, Mr. Grigg.What bugs me is that peo...

2008-09-17T00:24:00.000-06:00

Most excellent, Mr. Grigg.

What bugs me is that people think of these antics as "capitalism", and when it fails - well obviously "the market" failed, and we need more regulations ... and freedom doesn't have a chance.

Greg
http://theholycause.blogspot.com/

Dear Will,There are two schools of thought on this...

2008-09-16T22:01:00.000-06:00

Dear Will,

There are two schools of thought on this matter.

First is the school of Adam Smith, Paul Warburg and Gordon Gekko: Greed Is Good. Second, and the one to which I subscribe, is the school of Aesop and his fable of the farmer who killed the goose that laid the golden eggs: Greed Is Stupid.

Personally, I think we cannot say it any better than the Good Book: "MENE, MENE, TEKEL U PHARSIN."

The words of the Prophet Daniel to King Belshazzar as he feasted, interpreting the meaning of that mysterious writing appearing on the wall of Belshazzar's palace:

"God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; your kingdom shall be divided and given to the Medes and Persians."

In the case of Wall Street, their kingdom shall be divided and given to the Chinese and the Arabs.

Ah, yes, history is a wonderful study. It is so comforting for us inconsequential people to know that the stupid are doomed to repeat it.

Yours sincerely,
Lemuel Gulliver.

A nice 4 (Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan)front ...

2008-09-16T21:47:00.000-06:00

A nice 4 (Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan)front war will distract us from the wipeout of the shell game service (you want to supersize that tub of MSG?)economy. I've always wondered if those scary passages of Jeremiah in the bible about "10 nations of the north" is talking about USA. Oh well as long as I can have comfort and convenience.

I think I've finally figured out why the GOP has f...

2008-09-16T21:46:00.000-06:00

I think I've finally figured out why the GOP has fielded such ridiculous candidates; they sincerely want to hand this mess to an unsuspecting sucker. There is no way they want to put a confused old man and a soccer mom into office ...the funny thing is, the culture wars have been reignited and they might win anyway. hahahahahahahaha!

Hey guys, thanks for bailing me out...it is great ...

2008-09-16T21:25:00.000-06:00

Hey guys, thanks for bailing me out...it is great that really big corporations like the one I run can cook and fry the books, pay top guys like me millions, and then you are left holding the bag.

It is also great that a private bank bails me out and then sends you, even though you had no say in the matter, the bill. Hopefully it won't take a gun to collect...

Imagine if Bank Of America, the CIA-cozy bank that...

2008-09-16T19:28:00.000-06:00

Imagine if Bank Of America, the CIA-cozy bank that recurs in so many drug money stories, would get flattened in the Lehman rescue... "You mean, the CIA smuggled dope for 50 years for nothing?" :-))

I need to emphasize that my use of the term "denou...

2008-09-16T16:18:00.000-06:00

I need to emphasize that my use of the term "denouement" wasn't intended to convey the sense that we're at the end, or grand climax, of our problems. Rather, the point is that the "unraveling" has started, and it will continue and accelerate from here.

Just FYI. :-)

We would be absolute idiots to believe this is the...

2008-09-16T16:12:00.000-06:00

We would be absolute idiots to believe this is the denouement...

There are even bigger and better plans in store for the human race. The problem is, we don't have anyone willing to stand up and get the herd moving to prevent our nightmare future. Everyone's looking for someone else to make the first sacrifice.

I fear it is only the begining of Act III, in whic...

2008-09-16T06:52:00.001-06:00

I fear it is only the begining of Act III, in which greater and more insulting tyrannies are heaped upon a public ever more eager to be insulted and debased.

Correct, this is just the beginning

I fear it is only the begining of Act III, in whic...

2008-09-16T06:52:00.000-06:00

I fear it is only the begining of Act III, in which greater and more insulting tyrannies are heaped upon a public ever more eager to be insulted and debased.

Correct, this is just the beginning

Just a question. Sent you a package about Sanilac ...

2008-09-16T05:57:00.000-06:00

Just a question. Sent you a package about Sanilac county some time ago. Did you receive it?

Kenneth Lewis at Bank of America is "MORAL HAZARD"...

2008-09-16T04:41:00.000-06:00

Kenneth Lewis at Bank of America is "MORAL HAZARD" writ large. Acting as the government's errand boy, he piles on risks, obviously believing that he's "too big to fail." (And what do we know -- maybe Hank gave him a secret handshake or something.)

Two eras in history stand out for large-scale financial lunacy: the John Law Bubble of 1720, and the Greenspan Bubbles of 1995-2007.

John Law was run out of France, as the scoundrel he was. Greenspan is on a book tour, and makes cameo appearances on TV as (get this) some kind of financial expert.

Who was smarter -- 18th century French peasants who kept their gold coins in a sock? Or 21st century Americans who idolized Greenspan as the Maestro, and STILL get paid in his worthless peachback scrip, even as the burning mountain of derivatives which "backs" it slides into the sea?

I suggest a Grigg-McKinney ticket as long as you c...

2008-09-16T02:06:00.000-06:00

I suggest a Grigg-McKinney ticket as long as you can persuade her to oppose abortion and the Brady Bill.

will,this ain't the denouement. we're still in th...

2008-09-15T22:08:00.000-06:00

will,

this ain't the denouement. we're still in the opening credits. when the dollars come home, that's the denouement. the climax...that's gonna be ugly.

buy ammo! it'll be worth its weight in gold when the time comes.

i hear REM in the background...hmmm

rick

How is it the saying goes? May you live in intere...

2008-09-15T21:38:00.000-06:00

How is it the saying goes? May you live in interesting times?

Well, these certainly qualify but few will stop to look at the causal conditions. Hubristic arrogance, economic ignorance, political ignorance and a disregard for history. This is not new rather it is the very history of all empires - for anyone who has made even a cursory study of them. Which is probably why they get little air time at the local gov't schools.

It is truly a shame that the only politician that I dan recall in my lifetime, Congressman Ron Paul was mocked and laughed at during the debates for pointing these very things out - as he has been doing for so many years.

It would be humorous if it weren't so tragic as I look out on the political landscape. The socialist Obama/Biden or the fascist McCain/Palin. Which will more more painlessly crash us into our demise quickly and with the least pain - for neither will save us.

While I believe that the people of this country are generally good people and after 30 years of voting, I remove my consent to be ruled by the whims of the imbeciles who will dutifully trot to the polls and pant like Pavlovian dogs on election night.

Death to tyrants . . . The only good bureaucrat is stretching a rope.

Sic Semper Tyrannis