Category Archives: Essays

Warren Buffett: How inflation swindles the equity investor [1977]

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“Every Sunday, Fortune publishes a favorite story from our archive. As controversy swirls around whether Fed Chair Ben Bernanke is downplaying inflation predictions, we turn back to May 1977 for timely advice from Warren Buffett. The Oracle of Omaha has clashed with Bernanke over inflation time and time again, and here Buffett warns how rising prices can hamper growth ‘not because the market falls, but in spite of the fact that the market rises.'”

http://fortune.com/2011/06/12/buffett-how-inflation-swindles-the-equity-investor-fortune-classics-1977/

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Is America A Police State? Marc Victor @ Casey Conference

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Government Bribery and The War on Terror Militarized America’s Police

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“Billions in taxpayer funds have been spent to transform American police forces into clones of the U.S. occupation forces of Iraq and Afghanistan. The 1033 Program and related facilities represent massive profits for U.S. defense contractors. As our Middle Eastern wars wind down, they’ve created a $30 billion-a-year domestic market for their MRAP armored troop carriers, night-vision rifle scopes, camouflage fatigues, Humvees and M16 automatic rifles, amongst other things. This isn’t just cast-off surplus stuff, either. The Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency often simply purchases gear from a defense contractor and transfers it to a local law enforcement agency free of charge.”

http://thesovereigninvestor.com/asset-protection/government-bribery-and-militarization-of-americas-police/

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Deputizing America

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“By its indictment of FedEx, the feds are telling all other delivery firms that they are now forcibly deputized to do the DEA’s job in the War on Drugs. If they don’t play along, they need to show up in court.  Banking regulators have been playing a similar game. Under a campaign known as Operation Choke Point, they have been telling banks that if they don’t investigate their customers for ‘high-risk’ activity, they will be subject to subpoenas and everything that implies. As a result, banks have simply been cutting off links to customers on the simple basis of what business they are in.   If New York’s Department of Financial Services has its way, bitcoin businesses operating in the state will be deputized, too.”

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/deputizing-america

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How to Handle the Coming Bond Market Bust

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“One of the many consequences of the Fed’s ultra-low interest rates is that US corporations have gorged on credit.  In 2007, at the peak of the last credit bubble, US non-financial corporations had $7.2 trillion in outstanding debt. Today, they owe $9.6 trillion.  The Fed has built up a huge conflict of interest in its own policy making.  If it raises interest rates, it will depress the value of its balance sheet (which is now stuffed full of interest-rate-sensitive long bonds). But if the Fed backs off raising rates, for fear of the effect on bloated credit and stock markets, it risks losing all credibility… especially if the rate of consumer price inflation continues to rise.”

http://bonnerandpartners.com/how-to-handle-the-coming-bond-market-bust/

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What Happens When Share Buybacks Dry Up?

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“Ultra-low rates cause investors to pile into increasingly poor investment choices – overvalued stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.  But ultra-low rates have other, more subtle, effects, too…  As we’ve been reporting, it also makes it extremely easy for corporations to borrow. And as the chart below shows, they’ve been borrowing like crazy recently.  What have they been doing with all this money?  One major source of spending has been share buybacks.  Over the past four years, share buybacks have totaled between $75 billion and $159 billion a quarter.  And in the first quarter of this year they reached a high exceeded only by a couple of quarters in 2007.”

http://bonnerandpartners.com/what-happens-when-share-buybacks-dry-up/

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The Fourth Branch: The Rise to Power of the National Security State

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“The rise of the Fourth Branch began at a moment of mobilization for a global conflict, World War II.  It gained heft and staying power in the Cold War of the second half of the twentieth century, when that other superpower, the Soviet Union, provided the excuse for expansion of every sort.  Its officials bided their time in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union, when ‘terrorism’ had yet to claim the landscape and enemies were in short supply.  In the post-9/11 era, in a phony ‘wartime’ atmosphere, fed by trillions of taxpayer dollars, and under the banner of American ‘safety,’ it has grown to unparalleled size and power.  And in 2014, the expansion is ongoing.”

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175876/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_who_rules_washington/

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Jacob Hornberger: Why Not Simply Abolish the CIA?

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“Did any CIA agent get indicted for torturing people? No.  Did any CIA agent get indicted for destroying the videotapes that showed the torture? No.  Did any CIA agent get indicted for murdering prisoners in Abu Graib prison in Iraq? No. We can debate whether it was wise and prudent to call the CIA into existence to fight the Cold War. What is indisputable is the fact that the Cold War ended in 1989 while the CIA continued onward. It’s time for Americans to do what they should have done a long time ago—abolish, not reform, the CIA. It’s time to put a stop to the lying, murdering, assassinating, spying, torturing, and detaining. They have no place in America.”

http://fff.org/2014/08/01/why-not-simply-abolish-the-cia/

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Criminalizing Americans for Government Profit

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“While law enforcement personnel are climbing the ladder to bureaucratic success by taking people’s property, the IJ found that 80% of persons whose property was seized were never charged with a crime. There are only eight states that bar the use of forfeiture proceeds by law enforcement, while in 26 states, 100% of forfeiture proceeds are distributed to law enforcement.   Speaking in Orwellian tones like ‘protecting the public’ and ‘making you safe,’ law enforcement and regulators are, in reality, stealing from the citizenry in broad daylight, with much of the booboisie cheering it on, believing they’re made safer by this thuggery.”

http://www.caseyresearch.com/articles/criminalizing-americans-for-government-profit

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And the Credit for Defeating Slavery in America Goes to… Criminals!

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“If you’re like me, you learned in school that the slaves of the old American South were freed by Abraham Lincoln, or at least by the central government of the United States.  But as I dug through the facts about slavery in the South, I found the same pattern that I’ve seen over and over when I examined historical turns for the better: that the true benefactors were opposed and punished.  The people who did the actual work to end slavery were regarded as criminals by every level of the United States government, from Congress and the Supreme Court, down to the local sheriff. The laws of the United States enforced slavery, and powerfully so.”

http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/and-the-credit-for-defeating-slavery-in-america-goes-to-criminals

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