G20 leaders agree to avoid 'Currency Wars'

Participants of G20 states finance ministers and central bank governors meeting pose for family picture in Moscow, on February 16, 2013 (AFP Photo / Yuri Kadobnov)

While the ‘Currency War’ debate headlined the agenda at the G20 Summit, financial leaders in Moscow failed to reach a debt agreement, but managed to outline plans to crack down on corporate tax loopholes.
Currency manipulations, dubbed as ‘currency wars’ dominated conversation at the G20 conference. Though Friday’s program was set to target austerity and economic stabilization strategies, it derailed with ‘overblown’ talks of currency manipulation.
"We will refrain from competitive devaluation. We will not target our exchange rates for competitive purposes,” announced top finance officials after late night discussions.
“Currencies should not be a tool for competitive devaluation," stressed British chancellor George Osborne.
The Japanese Yen and Chinese Yuan have recently come under fire for intentionally reducing value in order to gain a market advantage. The Yen has dropped over 7 percent under Abe Shinzo’s aggressive monetary and fiscal policies to battle deflation, Bloomberg reports.   
In a joint statement, leaders reinforced their opposition to such tactics, and echoed the G7 – which includes Japan – statement issued earlier this week declaring their commitment to "market-determined exchange rates".
European countries and the US worry that devaluations of currencies like the yen will make their exports less competitive and impede economic recovery at home.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke attends a meeting of G20 states finance ministers and central bank governors' deputies in Moscow, on February 16, 2013 (AFP Photo / Yuri Kadobnov)

On the other hand, the projected goal of striking an agreement on budget deficit levels was left up in the air. The Toronto 2010 G20 summit resolved to cut annual budget deficits in half by 2013 and this pact expires in September.
Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov is confident the G20 will have reached an agreement by that time, while forum host Vladimir Putin expressed hopes Moscow can serve as a model for other debt-stricken nations.
Russia has one of the world's lowest state debt levels… and the country's lowest inflation rate for the past 15-20 years. We hope we'll continue this strategy this year and in the medium term. We'll abide by a very weighted and responsible conservative approach to state finances," Putin said.
The debt-deficit limit was set up after Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Cyprus required Eurozone assistance dealing with their overblown budget deficits. All the five countries (and Italy could very well be on the heel of this trend) tapped into the Eurozone’s monetary rescue fund.

G20 states finance ministers and central bank governors' deputies attend their meeting in Moscow, on February 16, 2013 (AFP Photo / Yuri Kadobnov)

Eliminating tax havens and loopholes   

Meanwhile, British, French, and German finance ministers led the crusade against tax-avoidance at the forum.
The cash-strapped European heavyweights have joined forces to ensure big business pays their fair share in taxes. As the recession drags on, Finance Ministers have ramped up efforts to abolish tax havens such as Bahamas, Cyprus, Monaco, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands. 
The campaign is being backed by the Organisation for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD) which is working together with European governments to crack down on companies that exploit tax structures for profit.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde (C) attends a meeting of G20 states finance ministers and central bank governors' deputies in Moscow, on February 16, 2013 (AFP Photo / Yuri Kadobnov)

"We want businesses to pay the taxes that we set in our countries. And that cannot be achieved by one country alone,” George Osborne, UK finance minister, said pointing out that companies that transfer profits internationally to avoid higher taxes will be more heavily scrutinized.  
Amazon, Google, Starbucks, Google raked in billions of profits, but have paid miniscule amounts in taxes. In Britain last year, Starbucks paid just $13.8 million in corporate taxes.  
“We are determined to develop measures to address base erosion and profit shifting, take the necessary collective action and look forward to the comprehensive action plan the OECD will present to us in July,” the summit communiqué reported.  
Russia is the 2013 G20 chair, and the Leader’s Summit will be held in St. Petersburg on September 5-6, 2013. The G20 is a forum of the world’s largest economies that was established after the 2008 economic crisis. Russia’s agenda for the summit is international financial reform, world trade, investment, energy, and job creation.

Detroit turns a freeway into a river

By Philip Bump

Venice, Italy. Not Detroit — yet. (Photo by Arian Zwegers.)

On Thursday, Detroit tried a little Venetian experiment, turning one of its freeways into a river.
This would have been great if it had been intentional, like an artistic statement about transportation and modern society or something. But instead, it was another statement: We should probably spend some money on infrastructure every so often.
Early in the afternoon, a four-foot water main ruptured on the city’s west side, sending what one resident described as “a little tidal wave” rushing through the street and swamping the nearby Lodge Freeway. Water reached the windows of cars trapped in the lower part of the roadway.
Freak occurrence, right? Not really. A few days ago, there was a break in nearby Shelby Township. In February, a water main break in a residential neighborhood flooded for a month, the freezing water leaving icy obstructions across the paths of neighbors.

Literally while the water main was still gushing yesterday, the Michigan legislature was working (unsuccessfully) to finalize the state’s 2013 budget. A 2009 report from the American Society of Civil Engineers suggested that the state needed an $11.3 billion investment in its water infrastructure by 2029. Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) proposed budget for 2013 offers $56 million in funding for the Water Resources arm of the Department of Environmental Quality and a $2.5 million allocation for a federal matching grant for the drinking water revolving fund program — well off the ASCE’s mark. And legislators are likely to make the municipalities’ woes worse, reducing the amount of revenue collected from property taxes. As Detroit Mayor Dave Bing (D) told CBS, “We can’t take that kind of a hit.”
There is an obvious correlation between how much we spend on upkeep for our infrastructure and how often that infrastructure fails. And these ruptures aren’t just an inconvenience. In each case, this was fresh, treated water that went to waste, meaning that in addition to the cost of repairing damage to the mains and the surroundings, the cost of treatment was lost, too. Maybe spending a little money up front would save money over the long run? Just spitballing here. Oh, and give some folks jobs, since construction employment is at an all-time low, per today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report.
Or we could turn Detroit into a new American Venice and revert to drinking directly from public waterways. Since entropy always wins anyway, why fight it?

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

Walmart VP Calls February Sales ‘Total Disaster’

Walmart’s stock price was slightly bruised after Bloomberg published the leaked e-mails at 2:15 today.

It might be easy to imagine Walmart executives swimming around, Scrooge McDuck-like, in rooms full of gold coins, while throwing bricks of cash on a fire, but really it’s just like any other business (except really frickin’ huge), where a few bad weeks of sales can lead to panic. The folks at Bloomberg have gotten their hands on e-mails that show the level of freaking-out that is going on at Walmart in the face of a not-so-great month.
“In case you haven’t seen a sales report these days, February [month-to-date] sales are a total disaster,” the company’s vice president of finance and logistics wrote on Feb. 12. “The worst start to a month I have seen in my ~7 years with the company.”
This e-mail came only a few weeks after another VP had fretted to his peers about lackluster January sales.
“Have you ever had one of those weeks where your best- prepared plans weren’t good enough to accomplish everything you set out to do?” wrote this second exec on Feb. 1. “Well, we just had one of those weeks here at Walmart U.S. Where are all the customers? And where’s their money?”
Bloomberg says that the leaked e-mails pin the blame for worse-than-expected sales on increased payroll tax pinching people’s paychecks and delayed tax returns that would normally have put billions of additional dollars back in consumers’ pockets by this time of year.
According to leaked minutes of a Feb. 1 meeting, Walmart CEO Bill Simon said that Walmart’s market share is still growing, in spite of a still-constricted economy. However, he cautioned his executives that, “In an environment like this, we can’t afford to hurt ourselves… Self- inflicted wounds are our biggest risk and our toughest enemy.”
“We have to fight against the tougher economic environment to earn a bigger share of a smaller consumer spending pie,” said Simon.
Regarding all this leaked info, a Walmart rep tells Bloomberg, “As with any organization, we often see internal communications that are not entirely accurate, that lack the proper context and represent individual opinions.”
The Bloomberg report comes at the same time as an analyst at Cleveland Research predicted same-store sales growth of 0-1%. Like the Walmart execs, the analyst cited payroll tax hikes and tax return delays, throwing in higher gas prices for good measure.
“If this weakness persists, we believe WMT may react by getting more aggressive on price,” writes the analyst, “which could negatively impact gross margin performance on top of the weak sales.”

National Debt Headed To 200% Of GDP -- Even AFTER Fiscal Cliff Deal!

Is This Where The Secret JP Morgan London Gold Vault Is Located?

In a world defined by "financial innovation", where $1 of hard collateral can spawn over $1000 in repoed and rehypothecated liabilities (and assets), where "shadow banking" is far more important than traditional bank liabilities (and to this date remains completely misunderstood), and where every month the central and commercial banks force create over $100 billion in credit money (which end consumers refuse to absorb and which therefore ends up in the stock market), the concept of a "hard asset" is an increasingly redundant anachronism. Yet while the Federal Reserve has emerged as the bastion of the New Normal's financial innovation front in which the concept of money is backed by absolutely nothing other than the Dollar's increasingly fleeting reserve status, when it comes to the definition of "Old Normal" money - gold - it still is the domain of the first and original central bank: London.
At first blush, most would not associate London with the hard asset mecca of the world: in fact, when it comes to some of the most spectacular hyper-levered "New Normal" cataclysms in recent years: AIG, Lehman, MF Global, JPMorgan's London Whale, all of them originated in London. Yet for the most part these events occurred precisely because of the mindboggling leverage already employed by the London financial system. Recall that the UK has some 600% in financial debt/GDP - an unprecedented amount compared to any other developed world nation. Yet, paradoxically, the fact that there is so much financial leverage implies that there must be an abundance of hard assets at the bottom of the London Exter Pyramid. After all, financial counterparties, especially in this day and age, may be insolvent but they are not idiots, and all will demand at least some paper representation that there is a trace of hard collateral at the bottom of the latest financial Frankenstein CDO, SPV, CLO, CPDO, RMBS or [insert any other modern financial "asset" acronym]. And keep in mind we are talking private sector gold: Gordon Brown's epic blunder of dumping the sovereign UK gold at rock bottom prices hardly needs a mention.
Which is why in order to spawn such a gargantuan amount of financial debt, London, which for centuries was the financial capital of the world and which sequestered the bulk of the world's real, tangible wealth until the ascendancy of the US in the 20th century, London's commercial vaults, are literally full of gold (as much as it may pale in comparison with the total notional amount of liabilities it has created).
After all it is the London Billion Market Association. Not New York, Zurich or Singapore.
Why is London such an integral part of the gold financial world? We'll let none other than JPMorgan explain:

The characteristics of the London market uniquely support the use of gold as collateral by ensuring:

• Quality and liquidity: “London Good Delivery” sets the standard for gold quality. Rigorous specifications as to size and purity ensure that each London ood Delivery gold bar meets pre-set standards with little to no variation between one bar and the next. This consistency ensures that counterparties will receive gold of an expected quality (99.5% fine), which allows the metal to be easily transferred between members of the London Bullion Market. Ultimately, this facilitates trading and market liquidity—both desirable attributes for collateral.
• Flexibility: The London gold market uses both unallocated and allocated gold. In layman’s terms, allocated gold specifically identifies each gold bar with a specific owner. Allocated gold is essentially held in separate accounts; it cannot be pooled with gold from others to satisfy obligations. In contrast, unallocated gold is held in a general pool by the bullion dealer and the customer has a general entitlement to the metal, but not to a specific gold bar. The LMBA states that unallocated gold “is the most convenient, cheapest and most commonly used method of holding the metal.” In practical terms, unallocated gold is comparable to putting dollars, pounds or euros into the bank. Once deposited, the money becomes fungible—you can withdraw the same amount of money you put in, but you will not receive back the same exact bills that you deposited. The use of unallocated gold allows for amounts smaller than a gold bar to be used as collateral between counterparties—a significant benefit to a collateral program given that a London Good Delivery bar weighs 438.9 ounces, and gold is currently trading for over US$1,700 per ounce.
• Transparency: Readily available price information promotes market transparency and aids in daily mark-to-market and margin calculations. Gold is priced by the market twice daily (morning and afternoon) and widely reported by both the financial press and data vendors. Use of a predictable daily price fix point allows counterparties to mitigate their daily exposure and set haircuts to manage ongoing price fluctuations. The afternoon U.S. Dollar London old Fix is viewed by market participants as the appropriate way to mark gold given daily price fluctuations and increasing values.
• Ease of transfer: The London Bullion Market clears daily using paper transfers that evidence the unallocated gold held between members. This allows them to simply and efficiently settle mutual trades and transfers to/from third parties while mitigating the costs and risks associated with physical movement of bullion. The use of paper transfers and unallocated gold facilitate easy transfers between counterparties when needed.

And speaking of JP Morgan, incidentally the subject of this post, what do we know about their London-based gold vault services? Once again, in their words:

J.P. Morgan recently integrated its gold vaulting service in London with its tri-party collateral agency service.

• J.P. Morgan operates one of the two largest commercial gold vaults in London (one of only six in the City) and is a member of the London gold clearing system.
• J.P. Morgan is also one of the few truly global providers of collateral management services. As collateral agent, J.P. Morgan works with two parties that have an established collateralized lending or financing arrangement.

Who is the other largest commercial gold vault in London? Why HSBC of course: the bank which has recently been embroiled in virtually every scandal involving global money laundering, also happens to be the custodian for such massive (supposedly) physical gold repositories as those of the SPDR Gold GLD ETF. The HSBC gold vault is also known as "Gold's secret hiding place" as CNBC penned it, when Bob Pisani was allowed to take a look deep inside the vault's bowels but only after he was theatrically blindfolded (a visit which we commented on at the time).
Yet Pisani's blindfold, while theatrical, was premeditated: the number of people who know where the HSBC vault is located is a handful, because the last thing commercial gold vaults, and certainly their customers, would want to deal with is a Simon Gruber-type Die Hard 2-style goldjacking.
Amusingly it was none other than the Bundesbank who in November invoked the ghost of the fictional New York Fed gold heist when a member of its executive board told NY Fed's Bill Dudley that  "you can be assured that we are confident that our gold is in safe hands with you. The days in which Hollywood Germans such as Gerd Fröbe, better known as Goldfinger, and East German terrorist Simon Gruber, masterminded gold heists in US vaults are long gone. Nobody can seriously imagine scenarios like these, which are reminiscent of a James Bond movie with Goldfinger playing the role of a US Fed accounting clerk." This happened two months before the Bundesbank diametrically (and embarrassingly) flip-flopped and decided to, all pinky swears to the contrary, begin repatriating its gold from the New York Fed (and Paris) after all. But not London (at least not yet). It also perhaps means that the days of Simon Gruber may not be "long gone", especially if the whereabouts of vaults containing billions worth of gold bullion were known to the public.
And just like the SPDR would want nothing less than to have the address of the HSBC gold vault made public (the same goes for HSBC of course), so those other ETF providers who use JPM's London gold vault as a custodian, such as Blackrock's iShares IAU ETF, or ETF Securities, would want nothing less than to have the location of JPM's vault exposed.
Needless to say, the actual addresses of "LBMA Vault" provided by the LBMA in its Annex 2 for "The Good Delivery Rules for Gold and Silver Bars" lists the headquarters office of the vaulting firm, and certainly not the actual address, because it would have been somewhat disingenuous to blindfold Pisani just to deliver him toe 8 Canada Square, or the HSBC head office in London, the address provided by the LBMA as vaulting address of HSBC. And certainly the address given for the JPM vault at 125 London Wall, aka Alban Gate, which was the firm's headquarters until its move to 25 Bank Street in 2012, is the last place even one bar of gold would be found.
Which is why we were quite stunned to find, in the deep recesses of the internet (and hosted by the Indonesian stock exchange of all place), a trade ticket from May 26, 2011, issued by the Perth Mint of Australia to Avocet Gold Mining (a West African gold miner), in which the Mint confirms its purchase of 2,126 ounces of gold at a price of $1,526 for a total transaction price of $3.246 million.

What is notable about the trade ticket is the additional information provided for the account clearer, in this case, none other than JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, London, as well as the number of the Gold Account held by said clearer: "No. 01380" but what is by far the most interesting, is that the actual physical address of the JPMorgan facility is provided: 60 Victoria Embankment, London.
Ladies and gentlemen: we may just have uncovered the actual location of the ultra-secretive JPMorgan gold vault in the city of London.
Where is 60 Victoria Embankment, London? See below:

The building's southern/river face is the glorious facade of the City of London School which occupied this location from 1879 until 1986 (and which is currently situated just east of here along the Blackfriars Underpass, next to the Millennium Bridge).


As the map above shows, it is a rather sizable building, located just off the Thames river and steps away from the Blackfriars Bridge, whose official designation until recently was Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York, Ltd, a remnant from the firm's merger with Guaranty Trust Company in 1959 (recall that JPM was called Morgan Guaranty Trust until 1989).
A cursory media search about the otherwise very nondescript looking building at 60 Victoria reveals that it had been fully leased by JP Morgan as long ago as 1991. What is more interesting, is that the property had previously been bundled as part of a high-profile commercial mortgage-backed securities, or CMBS, deal called White Tower 2006-3. The deal consolidated properties formerly owned by one-time London real estate mogul, Simon Halabi, one of the financial crisis most notable falls from Grace, who had an estimated net worth of $4.3 billion in 2007, and in April 2010 was declared bankrupt, and whose current whereabouts have since been unknown.
White Tower 2006-3, most infamous for being the first CMBS deal to be placed in liquidation after the start of the currency crisis, held a variety of properties near and dear to JPMorgan's heart, first and foremost 60 Victoria Embankment, the 420,000 sq ft of office buildings fully let to JP Morgan Chase; but notably Alban Gate, the 382,000 sq ft office property located on London Wall
in the heart of the City and fully let to JP Morgan Chase. The latter also was JPM's UK headquarters until last year.
What happened next is interesting: in July 2010 Carlyle bought the bulk of the "White Tower" asset portfolio from the defunct CMBS, paying some £173 million for the 60 Victoria Embankment location. Three very short months later, none other than long-time 60 Victoria resident JPMorgan bought the very same building from Carlyle for a whopping £350 million: a transaction which doubled Carlyle's money in an unprecedented three months! At the time the now former CEO of JPM's investment bank Jes Staley (and who currently works for BlueMountain - the same fund that made a killing by squeezing none other than JPMorgan's London Whale traders), said, "These properties are long-term investments and represent our continued commitment to London as one of the world's most important financial centres." Frank Bisignano, chief administrative officer, added: "These properties are among the most attractive pieces of real estate in London. These buildings ensure that our employees will have the necessary technology, infrastructure and amenities to take our businesses forward." Curiously, JPM showed zero love for its Alban Gate location, which it promptly departed to go to its new Canary Wharf HQ, and Carlyle was forced to pull the sale of this property a year later as it did not get enough satisfactory bids.
A pressing question remains: why did JPM, a long-time tenant of 60 Victoria not submit its own bid for the location it knew it would end up purchasing outright in a few months from Carlyle anyway? Why overpay by £177 million in exchange for merely having one more middleman do a three-month transaction? We hope to find out.
Yet what is very clear is that there was something of far greater value to JPM at the 60 Victoria location than at its old headquarters.
What that "thing" may be, and what is the missing puzzle piece in this story, comes from a very peculiar article written nearly four years ago in an Abu Dhabi/Arab Emirates website titled TheNational, titled "Mystery gold cargo linked to Saad, Gosaibi feud", which described just that - the fate of a series of very peculiar gold shipments, the key of which once again involved the two main abovementioned players: Perth Mint and 60 Victoria Embankment.
We repost the entire story below, while highlighting the key parts:

The Qantas freighter QF71 that took off from Perth Airport on November 3 last year bound for London would not have attracted any special attention, despite the fact that it was carrying 1.2 tonnes of gold bullion, then worth about US$28 million (Dh102.8m).

Perth, in Western Australia, is home to Australia's Gold Corporation Mint, where bullion is processed and turned into standard 12.5kg bricks. From there, the ingots are shipped daily around the globe to vaults in America, Europe and Asia, evidence of the world's apparently insatiable appetite for the precious metal. But what made this shipment unusual was that it was the first of 15 such cargoes, of varying quantities and values, which over the next seven months were eventually unloaded mainly in London. Smaller amounts were also delivered to Dubai and Zurich.

The total value of the bullion exported in these operations approached $430m at current market prices, and it weighed 10.4 tonnes. The other distinguishing factor was the identity of the recipients, or "consignees" as they are known. According to documentation seen by The National, they were all companies associated with the al Gosaibi family of Saudi Arabia. The al Gosaibis have since fallen out spectacularly with their partner, Maan al Sanea of Saad Group, in the biggest corporate scandal to hit the Middle East, leaving about 120 banks worldwide with debts estimated at up to $22 billion and a decreasing likelihood of getting their money back.

In a global hunt for assets to offset their losses, the banks have looked into every corner of the Al Gosaibi trading empire and the Saad Group controlled by Mr al Sanea. A small army of lawyers, forensic accountants and corporate investigators has been hired to track down assets over which the banks believe they have claim. They have turned up property, financial investments, relatively small amounts of cash and other baubles of the wealthy, such as aircraft leases. There was even a private zoo. But the most curious discovery so far is the Gosaibi gold.

Perhaps the most remarkable fact about the shipments is that although there are detailed and specific records of them having taken place, neither party in the al Gosaibi-al Sanea confrontation seems to lay any claim to their ownership. Each side denies it was responsible for the shipments. Despite being regularly ranked among the world's billionaires, neither the family's controlling partnership, Ahmad Hamad Al Gosaibi and Brothers, nor Mr Al Sanea's Saad Group has any previous known involvement in the bullion business.

The first shipment took place just as the world appeared on the verge of financial meltdown last November. They continued until May, when the crisis in the two Saudi families exploded into the public domain after they failed to make repayments on loans associated with their banking businesses in Bahrain. The shipments reached a peak in late February and early March, just as tensions within the al Gosaibi family intensified after the death of Sulaiman, the family patriarch and chairman, on February 22.

One shipping document shows that, the following day, "a shipment of 21,500 fine ounces of large 12.5kg gold bars, minimum 99.5 per cent purity" was sent from AGR Matthey, a well known Australian bullion dealer, from Perth Airport via Singapore to London's Heathrow. From there, the bullion was moved to the vaults of Standard Bank of South Africa, located in the London offices of JPMorgan Chase at 60 Victoria Embankment, Blackfriars, London.

The shipment was marked "London good delivery", meaning it met the internationally recognised standards for bullion delivery and could be deposited alongside bullion of the same quality. The Standard Bank account in which it was deposited was in the name of Al Gosaibi Trading Services, one of the companies owned by the al Gosaibi family. But financing such a transaction - the gold was worth about $20m - is a complicated process.

The usual procedure is for the consignee to arrange a letter of credit with the supplier, which is then guaranteed by a bank. In this case, the letter of credit bears the reference number "Awal 157". Awal is the Bahraini bank owned by Mr al Sanea, but which is now in the administration of the Bahrain Central Bank. Ten of the 15 shipping documents bear the Awal reference, while the rest have reference to "TIBC", The International Banking Corporation, the al Gosaibis' Bahraini bank which is similarly in administration.

It is common practice in the trade finance business for those letters of credit to be separately financed by a third party, such as an international bank. This is what happened with the Gosaibi gold. The amounts paid for the bullion were drawn down from lending facilities with these global banks but those borrowings have not been repaid, banking sources say. International banks, so far frozen out of the settlement process in Saudi Arabia or offered derisory amounts by the feuding families, are keen to track down the location and ownership of this bullion, to seize and offset against debts owed them. While most of the bullion ended up in London, two shipments went to other locations.

Also on February 23, some 629kg of "London good delivery" were shipped from Perth on Singapore Airlines flight SQ226/SQ490 to Dubai International Airport. The shipment was delivered to the Brinks Global Services facilities at the Dubai Airport Free Zone, marked for the attention of: "Malcolm Clingham, for account of Al Gosaibi Trading Services Ltd." Again, the financing reference was "Awal 158". Attempts to reach Mr Clingham were unsuccessful. An employee of Brinks in Dubai said he left the company about four months ago.

The other non-London shipment took place on April 29, when 689kg of gold left Perth on Singapore Airlines flight SQ226/SQ346 to Zurich in Switzerland. The shipment was marked for delivery to: "UBS AG Zurich, for account Standard Bank PLC." Although no named consignee account was mentioned on the shipping document, the financing reference was "TIBC 438". The final shipment to arrive in London took place on May 6, when 722kg was placed on a Delta Airlines flight DL94 in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the US. This was marked for the Al Gosaibi Trading Services account at Standard Bank at the JPMorgan Chase building in London. The financing reference was "Awal 177".

So while there is plenty of evidence that the gold shipments took place, there is huge uncertainty about who initiated them, who owns the bullion, and even where the gold is now. The company named as the bullion account holder, Al Gosaibi Trading Services (ATS), is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bahrain-based Al Gosaibi Investment Holdings (AIH), based in Bahrain which is in turn owned by three family members. But the management control of ATS and AIH is in dispute.

In a legal filing in New York, John D Potter, a former general manager of Al Gosaibi Investment Holdings, declared that: "Mr al Sanea exercised complete control over the operations and activities of AIH, to the exclusion or virtual exclusion of the other directors and the shareholders." Lawyers for Mr al Sanea, the London firm of Harbottle & Lewis, declined to comment on the gold shipments. But sources close to the Kuwait-born financier have denied he was involved in the transactions.

Creditor banks, which asked to remain anonymous, have told The National that their inquiries to Standard Bank in London have not so far produced any positive indication of ownership of the bullion, or even confirmation that it is still in Standard's vaults. Through its South African head office, a spokesman for Standard Bank said: "Our executives in London are adamant they cannot comment - not even off the record - as this would be a breach of client confidentiality."

Whoever ends up owning the gold from Perth will at least have made some money out of the Saudi confrontation, which has affected the kingdom's economy and stock market, and ravaged the balance sheets of regional and international banks. The gold price has risen by nearly 50 per cent over the past year. The shipment last November, worth some $28m when QF71 took off from Perth, is now valued at $42m - wherever it might be.

Courtesy of TheNational, we now know that one of the key features of the building at 60 Victoria is that it houses at least the vault of the Standard Bank of South Africa: in other words, somewhere deep underground, there is, indeed, a major gold vault. We also know, that after leasing this location for nearly two decades, JPMorgan decided to take the plunge and bought it outright in 2010, in a transaction that as shown above was a scramble to park cash and to procure the property for sale. In other words, JPM now has sole custodial possession of all the vaulting services offered under its 60 Victoria Embankment address.
So is this where the legendary JPMorgan London vault is located? Certainly nothing short of Blythe Masters admitting on live TV that yes, this is where one of the two largest commercial gold vaults in the UK is located, and as JPM admitted previously, only one of only six commercial vaults in all of London, there will be speculation and one can't be certain.
However, a quick cursory virtual trip around this building using Google's Street View feature shows that this building, barricaded on every side by a dense forest of bollards, is as protected from outside interest (especially of the automotive kind) as any modern day fortress.
The building's entrance on John Carpenter street, just north of Victoria's embankment - bollards everywhere:

The building's reinforced back/delivery entrance: corner of Kingscote and Tudor: barriers, a reinforced gate with a screen on top of it, and even more bollards which surround the entire building and prevent the parking of any cars in proximity to the building:

And finally, not one, but two rows of bollards, cordoning off a 60 foot area in the street on both sides. South view:

And north view:

Needless to say, no car, or any other potential threat, can enter that ~60 foot space from either side.
Is that where, dozens of feet underground, the world's most secretive commercial gold vault is located? Just below what was once the main campus of the City of London School for boys.

h/t Ro

So God Made A Banker

Brilliant satire.
This is completely different from our post last week, albeit with a similar title.
Inspired by the Dodge Superbowl Commercial narrated by Paul Harvey (Watch: God Made A Farmer), we present a tribute to another under-appreciated hero: the Bankster.

Rep. Jim McDermott, the "Cock Brothers," and rising health-care premiums

'Who's paying you?  The cock brothers...'
Jason Mattera vs. Rep. Jim McDermott, Feb. 11, 2013.
Jim McDermott (D-WA) attempts to walk away from a good question — whatever happened to the price cuts in health-care premiums Democrats promised when they passed Obamacare three years ago?
McDermott doesn't answer the question because there is no good answer.  Premiums have spiked and the promise to bend cost curves lower was empty rhetoric.
Watch Mattera ambush Barney Frank (this is outstanding)...
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Kerry: Sequestration Might Force Cuts in Israel Aid

Secretary of State John Kerry has joined the chorus of officials claiming that the minor cuts resulting from sequestration would be a huge threat to “national security,” and was quick to play the Israel card in defending his own department’s budget.
According to Kerry, the $2.6 billion cut in the budgets of the US State Department and USAID would mean a few hundred million dollars in cuts to American grants to foreign militaries, the largest of which is the multi-billion dollar yearly “aid” to Israel.
Kerry’s comments are part of an administration campaign to insist that the cuts are unacceptable, as Senate Democrats push a plan for major tax increases as an alternative to allowing the cuts.
And while the average American might not be sold on the idea that a slight reduction in annual gifts to the Israeli military is such a dire thing, Congressional sentiment is likely to be starkly different, as many see anything even hinting of falling short of slavish dedication to Israel as an unthinkable lapse. Devastating tax increases might not be popular among Congressmen, but if they can be spun as a pro-Israel move, their support is likely assured.

Marc Faber : Buy Gold To Protect Against The Next Crisis , 2013

xrepublic.tv/node/2194

TREASURY BOND BUBBLE COLLAPSE - Jim Rogers

http://xrepublic.tv/node/2196

Jim Rogers On Glenn Beck's Radio Program: Obama's State of the Union, US...

Global Economic Collapse In Process: Billionaires Continue To Dump Stocks, Traders Are Betting Against The Economy, Hedge Funds Preparing For Market Sell-Off, And Now They Start Betting Against Currencies As World Plunges Into Recession

Billionaires Dumping Stocks, Economist Knows Why

Despite the 6.5% stock market rally over the last three months, a handful of billionaires are quietly dumping their American stocks . . . and fast.
Warren Buffett, who has been a cheerleader for U.S. stocks for quite some time, is dumping shares at an alarming rate. He recently complained of “disappointing performance” in dyed-in-the-wool American companies like Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and Kraft Foods.
In the latest filing for Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett has been drastically reducing his exposure to stocks that depend on consumer purchasing habits. Berkshire sold roughly 19 million shares of Johnson & Johnson, and reduced his overall stake in “consumer product stocks” by 21%. Berkshire Hathaway also sold its entire stake in California-based computer parts supplier Intel.
With 70% of the U.S. economy dependent on consumer spending, Buffett’s apparent lack of faith in these companies’ future prospects is worrisome.
Unfortunately Buffett isn’t alone.
Fellow billionaire John Paulson, who made a fortune betting on the subprime mortgage meltdown, is clearing out of U.S. stocks too. During the second quarter of the year, Paulson’s hedge fund, Paulson & Co., dumped 14 million shares of JPMorgan Chase. The fund also dumped its entire position in discount retailer Family Dollar and consumer-goods maker Sara Lee
….
No investors, let alone billionaires, will want to own stocks with falling profit margins and shrinking dividends. So if that’s why Buffett, Paulson, and Soros are dumping stocks, they have decided to cash out early and leave Main Street investors holding the bag.
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Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is selling roughly 42 percent of his stake in the Internet search

Google Inc. chairman Eric Schmidt plans to sell up to $2.51 billion of his share in the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Friday.
http://articles.marketwatch.com/2013-02-08/markets/36990257_1_shares-of-google-stock-eric-schmidt-plans
Venezuela devalued its currency, the bolivar, the country’s Finance Minister Jorge Giordani said Friday. President Hugo Chavez ordered the move from Cuba, the minister said

http://articles.marketwatch.com/2013-02-08/markets/36989549_1_finance-minister-jorge-giordani-devalues-venezuela
Could these be the signs of the upcoming market collapse people have been talking about? I don’t know, but things could start to get interesting.

An ominous contemporary warning

Something happened this week that brings back haunting memories of the 2001 put options of airline stocks, except this “bet” is against the entire U.S. economy. This week, an anonymous trader bought 100,000 put options on the ETF, which is an acronym for an exchange-traded fund. One commonly traded ETF is XLF, which, in the most unscientific and basic terms, is a group of funds that is like a barometer for the stock market.

High-Level Executives Suddenly Dumping JP Morgan Stock En-Masse

Over the last week and a half, high level JP Morgan executives have dumped over $6 million in shares in what experts have described as ‘unusual activity’.

Anyone believe JPM’s October 12th earnings report which beat expectations? Looks like accounting BS engineered to dump legacy positions on the general public.A chorus of high-level executives inside JPMorgan (JPM) are selling down their stakes in the company, in what some experts are citing as “unusual” activity within the nation’s largest bank by deposits.CNBC reports that JPM execs have dumped $6 million in the past 10 days!

Urgent! Hedge Funds Preparing For Market Sell-Off.

Some of The Biggest U.S. Hedge-Fund Investors Score Big by Betting Against Yen

Some of the biggest U.S. hedge-fund investors have made billions betting against the yen, exploiting Japan’s determination to weaken its currency and boost its economy.
Wagering against the yen has emerged as the hottest trade on Wall Street over the past three months. George Soros, who made a fortune shorting the British pound in the 1990s, has scored gains of almost $1 billion on the trade since November, according to people with knowledge of the firm’s positions. Others reaping big trading profits by riding the yen down include David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital, Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC and Kyle Bass’s Hayman Capital Management LP, investors say….

Jim Rickards: Currency War 3 Has Just Begun

 

Currency War Fears Threaten Fragile Global Economic Recovery 

The world economy faces a new threat. Instead of a banking collapse or too much debt, fears are growing that countries are using their currencies as an economic weapon.
History suggests that’s never a good thing.
If too many countries try to weaken their currencies for economic gain — sparking a so-called “currency war” — then the fragile global economic recovery could be derailed and the international financial system thrown into chaos.

World Plunges Into Recession

With the disappointing initial GDP releases for Q42012 from Europe out, the “world” as defined by 41 OECD countries across the globe, has plunged into recession. We define “recession” through two alternative definitions for our comparison, either the presence of a single negative quarter-on-quarter growth or the more traditional two consecutive negative quarterly growths. Whichever way you look at it, the number of countries in expansion plunged dramatically between 3Q2013 and 4Q2012.
Now this is a diffusion index, with each country receiving equal weightings, and so it appears that 60% seems to be a viable threshold for the definition of “global recession” using the single-quarter definition (black) and 70% is probably the appropriate threshold for the 2-quarter definition (blue).
…

WIKIPEDIA: International conditions required for currency war

For a widespread currency war to occur a large proportion of significant economies must wish to devalue their currencies at once. This has so far only happened during a global economic downturn.
An individual currency devaluation has to involve a corresponding rise in value for at least one other currency. The corresponding rise will generally be spread across all other currencies^[19] and so unless the devaluing country has a huge economy and is substantially devaluing, the offsetting rise for any individual currency will tend to be small or even negligible. In normal times other countries are often content to accept a small rise in the value of their own currency or at worst be indifferent to it. However, if much of the world is suffering from a recession, from low growth or are pursuing strategies which depends on a favourable balance of payments, then nations can begin competing with each other to devalue. In such conditions, once a small number of countries begin intervening this can trigger corresponding interventions from others as they strive to prevent further deterioration in their export competitiveness.^[20]

Felix Zulauf – We Have Never Seen Anything Like This In History

KWN: Renowned money manager Felix Zulauf told King World News that despite the rally in stocks, the world economy is still in trouble.  Zulauf, founder of Zulauf Asset Management and 20+ year Barron’s Roundtable panelist, believes the current euphoria among investors and optimistic expectations going forward are creating a very dangerous environment.  Zulauf also feels that although there has been a long consolidation in gold, the fundamentals are still quite bullish.

This is the final part of a three part written interview series which has been released on King World News.  In these interviews the legendary money manager has discussed why he believes central planners will fail, how this will lead to systemic collapse, gold repatriation, what investors should be doing with their money right now, how they can protect themselves going forward, and much more.

Analyst Explains Why Wal-Mart’s February Sales Are So Bad—Hours Before Leaked Emails Confirm

This morning, an email hit our inbox with a big call on Wal-Mart from a firm called Cleveland Research.
In the note, the firm said it was lowering its Q1 2013 same-store sales growth estimate for Wal-Mart to 0 percent from 1 percent.
In other words, they expect Wal-Mart’s sales to stagnate in the first quarter.
The reason why, according to Cleveland Research (emphasis added): “A pullback in consumer spending related to 1) payroll/social security tax increase, 2) delayed tax returns, and 3) rising gas prices.”
…
Stocks Look Expensive Relative To Industrial Production

It’s certainly a yellow flag.

 

The great global warming swindle - Full version

Euro-Land Banks In Trouble

Source: Pater Tenebrarum of Acting-Man blog

A Record Amount of Bad Loans
A recent study by Ernst & Young has revealed that euro-land banks in the aggregate now hold € 918 billion ($1.23 trn.) in non-performing loans (7.6% of all loans outstanding). E&Y sees about 15.5% of all loans in Spain and 10.2% of all loans in Italy as likely to be in NPL status (this exceeds the most recent official numbers somewhat).
In light of such staggering numbers, the idea to use the ESM for direct bank recapitalization seems somewhat ambitious. This is especially so as the idea to employ the ESM to take over the costs of already bailed out banks is being pushed by a number of euro area members. No doubt Ireland and Spain would be happy to see that (in fact, Spain is already the 'exception' as the ESM is potentially on the hook for € 100 billion for its banks – but this is structured as a loan to Spain's government, not a direct bank bailout).
The problem is that if the ESM wants to retain its AAA rating, it will have to back any financing it obtains from the markets with far higher guarantees if it rescues banks rather than governments. Given that what has been pumped into ailing euro-zone banks to date already amounts to €300 billion, its official capacity could be quickly exceeded if these existing bailout commitments were taken over by it.

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Taxpayer-funded bank rescues in the euro area so far – the total already amounts to €300 billion, and that is not counting what might be used to bail out Cypriot banks and what may still be required in Italy and Spain (chart via Die Welt).

Paul B. Farrell: Today, all investors, Main Street and Wall Street only see today’s closing prices, quarterly earnings, year-end bonuses. There is no long vision of an American Dream in our destiny.

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

“New-Millennium Dow: 49,200 by 2013!” That was the headline for my early January 2000 column.

“Carnage! Record plunge! Wall Street weighs market’s future!” The Wall Street Journal’s headlines screamed at me the third trading day of the new millennium. Hey, tell me what’s happening? Fear set in. Anxieties. My heart beat faster. Is this it? The big crash? Quite a dramatic opening.

Then suddenly I bust out laughing. Hey, these financial journalists are just doing their job. And they’re good. These guys sell news by hitting emotional hot buttons, hyping late-breaking stories. And it worked. Today fear. Tomorrow hope. News is entertainment in the New Millennium.

A week earlier, in a late December column, dot-com insanity had become a dangerous virus consuming America’s 95 million investors … Wall Street was red hot … stocks roared … the top 19 funds of 1999 had totally irrational returns from 179% to 323% … investors laughed at 30% index-fund returns … expected 100% plus returns to continue indefinitely … early retirement was all the buzz.

Paradigm shift: Great American Dream triggers death of optimism

Something profound and historic happened during the New Millennium transition, as we left behind the manic New Economy dot-com ‘90s and the 20th century’s era of wild, irrational exuberance that reminded us of the Roaring Twenties, the Crash of 1929 and the long Great Depression … we also left behind the optimism driving the American Dream. That dream died in the New Millennium transition.

The future, the economy, the markets — investors had been optimistic with abandon. We had a vision that was projecting prosperity for decades ahead. Then suddenly, a great fear set in, we became short-term self-centered thinkers, our vision of the future died.

Before that shift in our destiny 13 years ago, Investors Business Daily really had predicted the Dow 49,200 for 2013. Other optimistic gurus had a vision for America projecting way out to 2047. Yes, these pundits and economists kept a long-term perspective and saw America’s future headed into a prosperous new century and beyond.

All trends were uplifting, hopeful, promising, all reflected not just in our faith in the technology revolution and new economics of the ‘90s but in so many exciting forecasts that gave meaning to the New Millennium Dow that were reported on that third trading day of 2000.

We were a powerful nation with a long-term vision of our meaningful destiny, believed in the promise of the American Dream, shared an optimism that was made us one. Listen:

• 15,000 by 2005: Deutsche Bank economist Ed Yardeni, quoted in Barron’s.
• 18,500 by 2006: Prudential’s chief technician, Ralph Acampora, quoted in Fortune.
• 41,000 by 2008: Harry Dent, author of “The Roaring 2000s: Building The Wealth And Lifestyle You Desire In The Greatest Boom In History.” Wired magazine quoted 41,000 as a peak with the market not bottoming till 2022. Dent has since published “The Great Crash Ahead” and “The Great Depression Ahead.”
• 21,200 by 2010: Sheldon Jacobs, publisher of the popular No-Load Fund Investor newsletter hedged his optimistic bet in small type: “But it won’t be smooth sailing. There will be three major bear markets before then.” But long-run, it was optimistic.
• 30,000 by 2010: In an interview, Barron’s noted that back in 1989 Frank Jennings, manager of Oppenheimer Global Growth & Income Fund, had successfully predicted the Dow at 10,000 within 10 years. His new Dow 30,000 assumed an “exponential gain of 11% a year.” Later in 2000, Jenning’s optimism was reinforced with the publication of “Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting from the Coming Rise in the Stock Market,” by James Glassman and Kevin Hassett.
• 49,200 by 2013: Investor’s Business Daily made this forecast based on an assumed 15% annual growth rate, which was the actual average gain of the Dow from 1982 to 2000, so at the time, it made sense.
• 100,000 by 2020: Charles Kadlec, chief strategist at J. & W. Seligman, used an 11.1% annual appreciation in his book “Dow 100,000: Fact or Fiction.” That was before Bill Gross’s single digit New Normal returns.
• 120,400 by 2025: InvestmentNews reported that Yale economist Roger Ibbotson made this prediction based on a 10% compounded growth rate through 2025. A quarter century earlier, when the Dow was around 600, Ibbotson had successfully predicted a 10,214 Dow by 1999.
• 153,000 by 2023: This was another mathematical extrapolation of Investors Business Daily’s long-term market projections out to 2023.
• 700,000 by 2047: And for best in over-the-top optimism: Back in 1997, in their 50th-anniversary issue, the editors of Kiplinger’s magazine looked ahead to their 100th anniversary in 2047 and came up with this astronomical forecast.

Today, all bets are off: Kiplinger’s New Math of 10% annual economic growth is history, later confirmed by Pimco’s New Normal. Yes, eventually it may reverse, put Kiplinger’s back on course to Dow 700,000 by 2047. But don’t bet on it.

Recently Bloomberg Markets asked, “Is U.S. economic growth over?” Citing economist Richard Gordon’s research on economic growth, the magazine warned global growth “will slip below 2% in 2013,” then keep falling to the historic 0.2% level by 2100, depressing the Dow with it.

Why did America’s dreamy optimism peak in 2000, then die?

Yes. the dot-com market mania peaked in early 2000. Then nosedived. On March 20 my headline read: “Next Crash? Sorry, you’ll never hear it coming.” Actually we heard the crash, but quickly fell into denial. And when people cannot face the truth, suppress it, their spirits turn fearful, outwardly brash, but weakened inside, defensive, open to threats.

And at that moment in our history, the American Dream, our optimism bubble blew up, died … and has yet to return. We collapsed into a 30-month recession: The Dow dropped from 11,722 in 2000 to 8,235 and lost eight trillion in market cap by 2002.

And in those few months after the Dow’s January 2000 peak, Wall Street turned against itself, shifting from optimism to negative condemnations from leading financial minds, exposing a layer of evil, hidden, a darkness driving Wall Street, propping up the ‘90s technology revolution, shattering our faith and optimism in the American Dream. Listen:

• Forbes: Famed contrarian money manager David Dreman remarked that “the average analyst forecast was wrong by 40% between 1982 and 1990 and didn’t get any better in the ‘90s, in fact, they got worse. The average analyst consensus forecast was off 48.7%.” In fact, the “inaccuracy of these forecasts shows how dangerous it is to buy or hold stocks on the basis of what analysts predict.”
• Wall Street Journal: To the sophisticated investor, “it is no longer news that analysts’ recommendations may lack objectivity,” but “what isn’t as widely known: The pressure that negative analysts feel is often from their own clients, institutional investors. One analyst who did issue a sell signal and wound up in ‘the doghouse’ said, ‘You make a lot of friends when you say buy a stock, but not when you put out a sell.”
• BusinessWeek: “Wall Street research reports are more sales documents than disinterested analyses. Most professional investors understand this and treat research accordingly,” but Main Street investors never get it, till it’s too late.
• Forbes: Economist Gary Shilling warned that “Wall Street analysts, often appearing on TV business shows, have spurred you to buy stocks for years, and correctly so in this long bull market. But what will their advice be worth if we head into a full-blown bear market? Less than zero; they’re paid to be bulls 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
• Newsweek: “How much research do Wall Street analysts actually do? You should not take Wall Street research too seriously. … Remember to laugh the next time someone tells you that the stock market is a rational place and that big-money investors know what they’re doing.”

All that and more filled my March 20, 2000, column: “Next Crash? Sorry, you’ll never hear it coming.” Few listened.

Since then, nothing feels quite right. The optimism that energized the great American Dream now seems just wishful thinking, a child’s fairy tale that vanished in 2000, along with projections of Dow 49,200 for 2013, and a Dow 700,000 in 2047.

Today, all investors, Main Street and Wall Street only see today’s closing prices, quarterly earnings, year-end bonuses. There is no long vision of an American Dream in our destiny.

Obama Bid to Deport Homeschool Refugees May Threaten U.S. Rights

Homeschooling advocates are up in arms after Obama’s Justice Department, led by disgraced Attorney General Eric Holder, claimed that a ban on home education was not a violation of fundamental human rights and that, as such, the ruthlessly persecuted Romeike family should be deported to Germany. Experts say deporting the innocent homeschoolers to face barbaric German authorities — infamous worldwide for lawlessly abducting homeschooled children and jailing home-educating parents — would be bad enough. Particularly troubling for Americans in general, however, is that the case could set a dangerous precedent for U.S. freedom, too. 

The Romeikes, who fled outrageous persecution in Germany so that they could homeschool in peace and freedom in America, were awarded asylum in the United States by a federal immigration judge in 2010. They had fled from their native land two years earlier to escape the extreme punishments meted out to homeschoolers there. According to U.S. law, persecuted members of particular social groups — home educating families or Christians, for example — are supposed to be allowed to stay in the Land of the Free to avoid further persecution in their homelands.

With help from the U.S.-based Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), the Romeikes, evangelical Christians who refused to surrender their children to the German government’s “education” system in the face of a Nazi-era ban on homeschooling, were granted political refugee status. The family, which currently lives and homeschools in Tennessee, argued successfully in court that they were being persecuted for their beliefs and homeschooling by German authorities — officials who refuse to respect human rights and engaged in a vicious campaign that included massive fines, threats to remove parental custody, and jail time.   

“We can't expect every country to follow our Constitution. The world might be a better place if it did," noted U.S. Immigration Judge Lawrence Burman in his ruling, which was celebrated by human rights activists worldwide. “However, the rights being violated here are basic human rights that no country has a right to violate. Homeschoolers are a particular social group that the German government is trying to suppress. This family has a well-founded fear of persecution." In his verdict, the judge called the ruthless German persecution "repellent to everything we believe as Americans."

For the Obama administration and disgraced Justice Department chief Holder, however — despite numerous international agreements enshrining parental rights, as well as, of course, the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court rulings — a ban on home education is perfectly acceptable. After the asylum ruling, the administration immediately sprang into action to help the German government crush the Romeike family and to ensure that other homeschooling refugees fleeing Germany would have to find somewhere else to go. Most of the German victims have fled to neighboring countries, all of which allow home education.

With the Romeikes, first, the Department of Homeland Security — which, ironically, is at the same time working fiendishly to provide amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants — disputed the asylum decision with the Board of Immigration Appeals. The Obama administration argued, among other points, that the family should be promptly deported even though the children may be seized by authorities and the parents jailed if they are forced to return to Germany. The family appealed that decision, but the Attorney General has decided to seek the deportation of the Romeike family anyway. The case, Romeike v. Holder, is currently before the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.    

Homeschooling leaders in the United States, while deeply concerned about the fate of the Romeikes and hundreds of other persecuted German home-educating families, are also sounding the alarm about the legal arguments being made by the Obama administration — specifically how they relate to Americans’ freedoms. The German government, of course, continues to enforce and justify its draconian ban on the right to homeschool by claiming the purpose is to “counteract the development of religious and philosophically motivated parallel societies.” Essentially, authorities there argue that everybody must think the same.

Incredibly, however, the U.S. Justice Department claimed in court filings that such policies do not constitute a violation of fundamental human rights, at least not as long as everybody’s rights are infringed upon equally. In other words, the U.S. government is basically arguing that a total ban on homeschooling does not violate fundamental rights. In its response to the family’s appeal, Holder also claimed that there was no religious persecution involved because all homeschoolers are not religious and not all Christians choose to educate their children at home.     

“This argument demonstrates another form of dangerous ‘group think’ by our own government. The central problem here is that the U.S. government does not understand that religious freedom is an individual right,” explained attorney and HSLDA Chairman Michael Farris, an internationally respected expert on human rights law and home education. “One need not be a part of any church or other religious group to be able to make a religious freedom claim. Specifically, one doesn’t have to follow the dictates of a church to claim religious freedom — one should be able to follow the dictates of God Himself.”

In a statement posted on the organization’s website, Farris noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has already made it clear that religious freedom is an individual right. The current administration, however, does not seem to understand that. “They only think of us as members of groups and factions,” the HSLDA founder and constitutional law professor continued. “It is an extreme form of identity politics that directly threatens any understanding of individual liberty.”

Another part of the administration’s argument is that the Romeike family is not being persecuted as part of a “particular social group” with “immutable characteristics” that cannot or should not be required to change. Basically, DOJ is saying that because the family can choose not to homeschool, they do not deserve political asylum. In his online statement, however, Farris rips apart the argument by drawing a hypothetical comparison: What if the government claimed, for example, that it could force Orthodox Jewish children to eat pork for part of the week because they could eat kosher food the rest of the time? 

“This argument necessarily means that the United States government believes that it would not violate your rights if our own government banned homeschooling entirely,” noted Farris. “After all, you could teach your children your own values after they have had 22-26 hours of public school indoctrination aimed at counteracting religious and philosophical views the government doesn’t like.”

That argument leads logically to deeply troubling conclusions. “When the United States government says that homeschooling is a mutable choice — they are saying that it is a characteristic that a government can legitimately coerce you to change,” Farris explained. “In other words, you have no protected right to choose the education for your children. Our nation could remove your ability to homeschool and your choice would be mutable — since the government has the authority to force you to implement their wishes.”

Farris concluded his analysis by warning that the Obama administration and Holder’s Justice Department in particular are making extremely dangerous claims that could represent a real threat to the fundamental liberties of all Americans. “We should understand that in these arguments by the U.S. government, something important is being said about our own liberties as American homeschoolers,” he explained. “The Attorney General of the United States thinks that a law that bans homeschooling entirely violates no fundamental liberties.”

While the ultimate fate of the Romeike family remains unclear — a decision in the case is not expected for about another year — the implications of the case are far-reaching. Indeed, homeschooling advocates around the world say that it is important for free Americans to stand up for the human rights of persecuted German homeschooling families, and that by doing so, U.S. liberties are being protected in the process.

As The New American reported last year from the first ever Global Home Education Conference in Berlin, homeschooling leaders, human rights activists, attorneys, policymakers, families, and more from across the globe are increasingly united in their resolve to protect the rights of parents to raise their children in accordance with their religious and philosophical views. Worldwide, aside from Sweden, Germany, and some full-blown dictatorships, the trends appear largely favorable.

However, with the outrageous arguments being advanced by the Obama administration in the Romeike case, home-education advocates say the time to get involved in defense of educational liberty is now. If the president and his extremist allies get their way — they are already pushing for federalized, universal pre-school, while bribing states into accepting the national "Common Core" school curriculum — the parental rights of all Americans could be in serious jeopardy. 

Hyperinflation Nation Part 1/3

Enemies, Foreign and Domestic

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle --  Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Jack Mullen
Activist Post

America is facing two wars, both instigated by a foreign nation with foreign interests; wars to be fought here on American soil with Tyranny and Liberty in the balance.

At this very moment Americans are secretly being herded, manipulated, divided and gulled into a civil war; A weakening, disarming, demoralizing, devastating, but still dispensable civil war. Then, without relief, the second, and most brutal, war will begin; a war to determine the future of the world for generations to come.

The Civil War will be a false flag event, staged to disarm Americans followed by an attack of multi-national troops - destroying the final resistance and instituting a new system of government; a world government with the former America as a territory.

To understand how this is possible it necessary to open your mind and look around.

The United States Government has been captured and is not the government authorized by the Constitution for the United States of America, but rather a usurper occupational government that is de facto.

Black’s Law Dictionary, first edition, defines de facto:

In fact, in deed, actually. This phrase is used to characterize an officer, a government, a past action, or a state of affairs which exists actually and must be accepted for all practical purposes, but which is illegal or illegitimate. 

Black’s Law Dictionary, first edition, defines usurper:

One who assumes the right of government by force, contrary to and in violation of the constitution of the country.

 A Constitutional government has limited authority to intervene in the operation of the states and would have almost no authority to intervene in the lives of citizens of the states. A Constitutional government cannot exceed its authority as defined in the Supreme law of the land but, using only the 4th and 10th amendment as a check, it’s abundantly clear, the United States federal government has exceeded its authority, is rogue, and thus illegitimate, illegal and void.

If asked how to cope with a great host of the enemy ... I should say: "Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will."  Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The de facto United States Federal Government (USG) is actually a country unto itself, a nation located within the area defined as the District of Columbia and territories held in the name of the United States, but not incorporated in the Union of States called the United States of America (America) [A].

Article 1, section 8, paragraph 17 of the Constitution for the united States of America contains a loophole exposing the Constitution and America to a pathogen, an invading foreign body; a quiet deceit - a Trojan Horse in the heart of America [A].

In the United States today we have in effect two governments. ... We have the duly constituted Government. ... Then we have an independent, uncontrolled and uncoordinated government in the Federal Reserve System, operating the money powers which are reserved to Congress by the Constitution - Congressman Wright Patman, Chairman of the House Banking Committee [C]

It is in the District of Columbia where usurpers began to create a separate nation, a legislative democracy, legislated by the same Congress legislating the Constitutional government of the Union of States. By careful use of the name United States, distinctly differing from United States of America, but deceitfully used as a synonym for the latter, a parasite has perched on the heart of our Republic.

After years of deceit and treachery, the United States has become a foreign master, a tyranny with third party interests and third party goals, pretending to represent the Republic of the United States of America.

This act [Federal Reserve Act] establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. ... When the President signs this act the invisible government by the money power, proven to exist by the Money Trust investigation, will be legalized. - Charles A. Lindbergh Sr speaking to Congress after the Federal Reserve was passed, December 22, 1913 [C]

If the United States is a foreign legislative democracy, who are its leaders, are they not the duly elected members of Congress and Senate and the White House? No - in fact, it’s been a long time since the United States of America has had leaders not in service to foreign masters. The last time was before Woodrow Wilson was conveniently placed in office and before the private banking cartel known as the Federal Reserve was given charge of American money and credit.

The truth is, the USG is an agent of the top five (or so) International mega-banks including the private Federal Reserve. The bankers are proxies of power and action for a hidden elite, a small group of hereditarily wealthy families that have for hundreds, if not thousands of years, controlled and influenced the world. Names such as Rockefeller in America and Rothschild in the United Kingdom are among those that control the USG.

All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

It is the country of the United States, with foreign interests and control, which seeks to instigate and benefit from a war; a war between the United States and America. A war they plan to start AFTER inciting a civil war.

It is time to recognize and acknowledge the deceit, only then can you ‘know the enemy‘.

Deceit quite deliberately leads to confusion and confusion leads to disarray and self defeat. Americans are being pitted against Americans to disarm America - before the war starts with the United States. It’s time to be clear: Americans, the citizens of the 50 states, are being deceived, by a cunning and ruthless foreign nation, into choosing either tyranny and enslavement by tacit unconditional surrender (disarming) or face a baited civil war and final war against an undeclared enemy (International bankers occupying and controlling the United States, a separate and hostile nation embedded in the heart of America.)

We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether world government will be achieved by consent or by conquest - James P. Warburg, testimony to US Senate hearings concerning United Nations and its organizations, February 17, 1950

Why is America slated for destruction? Dr. John Coleman writing in Conspirators' Hierarchy: The Story of the Committee of 300, explains the goal and the reason Americans must be disarmed. According to Coleman the elite, the mega-bank masters of the United States desire a

A One World Government and one-unit monetary system, under permanent non-elected hereditary oligarchists who self-select from among their numbers in the form of a feudal system as it was in the Middle Ages. In this One World entity, population will be limited by restrictions on the number of children per family, diseases, wars, famines, until 1 billion people who are useful to the ruling class, in areas which will be strictly and clearly defined, remain as the total world population. 

There will be no middle class, only rulers and the servants. All laws will be uniform under a legal system of world courts practicing the same unified code of laws, backed up by a One World Government police force and a One World unified military to enforce laws in all former countries where no national boundaries shall exist. The system will be on the basis of a welfare state; those who are obedient and subservient to the One World Government will be rewarded with the means to live; those who are rebellious will simple be starved to death or be declared outlaws, thus a target for anyone who wishes to kill them. Privately owned firearms or weapons of any kind will be prohibited.[emphasis added][B]

A civil war, to be instigated by the USG, is necessary to quickly involve and downsize armed populations and destroy police units that might, in the end, still be loyal to America. A civil war is necessary because American active military troops might be unwilling to attack and kill Americans, except, if necessary to "restore peace" (a deception). A civil war is necessary to demoralize and turn Americans against any further violence that will be required to preserve the right to self defense and inevitably the right to life.

The move to disarm Americans is a false flag campaign and it includes elements of staged attempts to get some people to voluntarily turn in their weapons, while others will be cast as terrorists, outlaws, renegades, enemies of the state; hunted, jailed or murdered.

The move to disarm Americans is necessary so mega-bankers, and their elite masters, can move on to the next stage of their megalomaniacal dream of world government, a world government based on feudalism. A world government of elites and slaves - and in between nothing, except a tear for what could have been.

Although crime is currently at a 50-year low in America, yet gun ownership and sales are at all-time highs, crime and violence will rapidly rise after "gun-control" measures are implemented and Americans willingly disarm. For examples of rising crime rates under gun-control conditions look at Chicago or Mexico.

The abbreviated list below names a just a few reasons why being and staying armed, now, is more important than anytime in American history since the revolutionary war.

• The USG has recently announced the dollar’s value will be “killed”[1].
• Federal agencies are arming themselves with billions of rounds of HOLLOW POINT ammunition for use in a war they will create against American Citizens [2]. 
• The USG is creating unnecessary agencies to act against American Citizens; agencies such as The Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, and the Transportation Safety Agency; agencies created to subdue American Citizens. Structurally these unnecessary agencies are similar to agencies created by Nazi Germany during the early growth period of Nazi fascism and subsequent tyranny. For example, the Nazi RSHA, equivalent to DHS, was the parent agency of the SS, the Gestapo and a whole menu of police state bureaus - organized to maintain ironclad control in support of Nazi authoritarianism. DHS appears to be the parent agency to a growing number of sub agencies such as the TSA. [3]. 
• The global mega-banks have control of the American military. The American military is a mercenary force working toward the goals of a foreign usurper which include creating a world government, while ending nation states. The military is being used to destroy nation states around the world and will later be used against American Citizens. Without weapons, Americans cannot hope to present even the threat of repelling an attack by the usurper controlled American military. 
• The USG is currently conducting military drills simulating assaults on American cities, see the military "training" operations in St. Louis, Miami, Houston and other cities. This is unprecedented and signals the USG is practicing for a time when they will be back to these cities with non-simulated assaults [4]. Unprecedented USG military training, in apparent total disregard for the Posse Comitatus Act, has been noted around the country. Foreign troops have been reported training in various locations including documented evidence of Russian troops training in Colorado and others reportedly seen in North Carolina and Texas. [F] 
• The USG, using a totally controlled television media, created a false hysteria around shootings at the Aurora theatre and Sandy Hook elementary schools. These events were not properly investigated and many aspects surrounding the events appear to be completely staged. Therefore, until they are privately investigated, it has to be assumed these too were FALSE FLAG, staged events, similar to the Dunblane primary school shooting in Scotland, used to disarm citizens of the United Kingdom, and the Port Arthur massacre used to disarm Australians. Both Dunblane and Port Arthur have similarities consistent with the shootings reported at Sandy Hook. [5] 
• The global mega-banks and the USG have evolved the condition where more than 50% of Americans are beholden to government for basic survival needs; welfare, job contracts, subsidies, food stamps etc. Fifty percent of the people dependent at the same time government will be forced to devalue the dollar to continue servicing its debt. As debt continues to rise, and more government borrowing is required to service the debt, inflation will destroy the currency and the value of the entire financial system denominated in dollars will collapse, making support of those on government assistance impossible. This situation will lead to sharply rising crime; crime that would be less damaging if Americans are armed.[6] 
• Further dollar-related news, the Chinese and other nations are maneuvering to replace the Federal Reserve Note (FRN) as the world’s reserve currency. The plan will be to begin using gold and silver for purchases of petroleum. The so-called petro-dollar (FRN) retains its value primarily because it’s the only currency accepted for purchases of petroleum in the major oil producing countries. United States world power is maintained in large part by a monopoly in the petro-dollar. The value of the dollar will drastically change with the loss of this monopoly since dollars, purchased to exchange for oil, will not be available to invest in United States treasury notes. 
• Devalued dollars will purchase less food, while mega-banks manipulate food prices with financial market products tied to food resources. Commodities market derivatives, Exchanged Traded Funds (ETF) and commodity index funds associated with raw food materials are financial products that can artificially manipulate food prices and production leading to shortages and rising prices. Additionally, the USG has reduced the amount of corn that can be grown for food as corn earmarked for conversion into ethanol products is diverted from the food market. Finally persistent drought and higher prices for imported foods, as the dollar is devalued, will lead to generally rising food prices and shortages leading to rising crime. [7][8] 
• The USG has engineered the mass migration of American industry to China, resulting in a falling standard of living (in America) which will decline more sharply as the dollar is devalued. At that time rising prices will lead to massive unemployment, resulting in rising crime; crime that would be partially offset if Americans were armed. 
• The global mega banks have looted and relocated American wealth (manufacturing, patents, gold, silver and other physical or intellectual things of value) to China and other foreign locations; American gold and silver has been stolen. Precious metals looting is why the private banking cartel, called Federal Reserve, refuses an audit of America’s precious metals reserves. 
• The global mega banks have engineered and sold fraudulent financial instruments that will cause hundreds of trillions of dollars of counter party obligations during conditions resulting from a dollar devaluation. These obligations will become the obligation of the American Citizen via secret and deceitful contracts hypothecating all American assets as collateral for USG debt. Americans will be aware that mega-bank obligations, assumed firstly by the de-facto government and then transferred by agreement to Citizens, are fraud, but without weapons it will not be possible to rightfully stop the confiscation of property. American property will be dispensed to global mega-bankers and their operatives including the Communist Chinese. The Chinese will bring military forces to protect their property against disarmed Americans. 
• The USG Department of Justice and the President of the United States are operating a lawless fascism, unrestricted by the supreme law of the land (Constitution), the USG will ‘authorize’, by executive orders and illegal statutes such as the NDAA, use of attack drones to kill Americans without warrants or any due process. 
• The global mega-banks acting through their agents of the USG, have implemented a eugenics program to surreptitiously reduce American population. The system uses a long-term approach and acts through a process of genetically modified foods, chemically poisoned public water supplies and a medical system of treating only symptoms of disease with harmful, addictive and poisonous pharmaceuticals. 

This list is just the beginning, but it does highlight a few important points. When the dollar is devalued (not if), the American way of life will instantly change. Rising prices, food, medicine and fuel shortages will cause crime and violence to rise. A falling dollar value means imports slow or stop all together. As the dollar falls in value (while prices in key sectors rise), the economy will begin to slow, leading to higher employment. Unemployment and rising prices, especially for food, will cause higher crime rates. Being armed during this period of time is critical if you are to protect and keep what resources you may have accumulated.

As the dollar is devalued, those on government assistance will need more money to buy the same goods - causing civil unrest among those depending on government funds for subsistence. At that time all American governments will be seen as a failure and their collapse will be forth coming. As traditional governments (states and some federal services) begin to fail, the USG will become embolden to continue the goal of destroying the American system of states and sovereign nation status. Troops, US and foreign, will begin to collect people suffering from economic collapse and financial ruin, placing them in ready-to-go FEMA camps situated around the country. The pretense will be to feed and care for people, but the truth will much different. The USG will require hungry, cold, sick and homeless people to turn in their guns and accept authoritarian rules before entering the camps. While in camps, it will become apparent to the occupants the USG is going bankrupt. Devalued dollars, taxpayers unable to pay, foreign nations demanding payments on loans will all be used as reasons why the expected support, food, medicine and care will dwindle. Life in the camps will become violent, leading to mass murder, starvation and forced labor.

At this point the outlook is grim. Americans seemed to have the choice of accepting tyranny now, disarming and preparing for the coming collapse of the dollar, still leading to camps, mass murder, and the end of America. Or Americans can stand now, in a contrived civil war, and fight to keep their only means of self defense, knowing at the end of this bloody, tiring and demoralizing conflict, the traitorous former government of the United States will be waiting with troops both foreign and domestic to continue the assault until Americans defeat and rout the foreign United States or accept the tyranny after defeat.

I think these two choices are valid, but only after a certain point in time. For now, Americans have a slim third possibility. We are still armed. We are still well fed and the dollar will still buy meals, medicines, and munitions; we still have power.

In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. - US Constitution

The Militia is the real department of homeland security. The militia existed before the Constitution, and continues to this day. Able bodied men 18 to 45+ are already enrolled (if not yet notified) in the militia of their residing state, and each state has the responsibility to organize and make ready the men in their charge. Individual states have laws regarding age categories and the organization of the militia. State laws, and the Militia Act of 1792, require men to equip themselves with necessary combat supplies and firearms. The militia is vital part of the tools given to Americans to defend against enemies both foreign and domestic.

Thomas Paine said “it is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.” and the militia, created before the American Revolution and used during the Revolution, is what a patriot must learn about, rebuild, and organize again to protect his country from its government and foreign enemies (the United States).

What distinguishes the militia from the private agency armies and the military of the United States?

• The authority for militia is any threat to public safety. 
• Those active in militia are usually not bound for a fixed term of service, or paid for it. 
• Those active in militia cannot expect arms, supplies, or officers to be provided to them. 
• No one has the authority to order militia to surrender, disarm, or disband. [emphasis added] [D] 

Each state has a militia, from there each county and local region have units and sub-divisions. Investigate your state’s militia, actively enroll and get the ball rolling. These are tools we have now and they cannot be taken away. It is important to understand the militia is not a privately organized small group of men roaming around in the backwoods. The militia is a state level and state organized (including counties) public army, operating without pay and having no allegiances other than to the Constitution, and with final authority in matters involving preservation of the American system.

So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Get aggressive. The current system of American money is unconstitutional and also a fraud and scam and is used by the enemy to fund operations against Americans. It is possible to take some measures that will proactively cause the dollar to be less important, while taking away the power of the criminal banks existing as parasites on a stream of stolen wealth called interest payments.

The mega-banks can be punished while moving toward a lawful monetary system. For example, if 1 million people would buy 100 ounces or more of silver now, 100 million ounces of silver worth approximately $3 billion at the current value of the dollar, the house of cards surrounding the price fixing of silver would begin to fall apart. One million people is not that many, but if only 60,000 people took a portion of their soon-to-be devalued paper dollar savings and turned it into silver now, it would have the same effect. $50,000 worth of silver at say $31/oz is, rounding off, about 1600 ounces of silver. So if 60,000 people with savings of $50,000 or more bought 1600 ounces of silver, the banking cartels criminal death grip on the American monetary system would begin to change. At that point those buying silver would have an asset that will not devalue as the dollar’s value cracks and collapses.

As the banking system begins to feel the pressure of the silver price increase, caused by just 60,000 people (around the attendance of a NFL game) buying 1600 ounces of silver, those having silver could start spending it into the market. Rising silver prices will cause dollar devaluation and silver could be used to barter items instead of using devaluing dollars.

Remember, silver will not lose its purchasing power as the dollar devalues and the paper currency’s purchasing power approaches zero. The chain reaction of this action would bring about a cleansing as corrupt-to-the-core financial institutions began to crumble; their participation in decades of silver and gold price fraud and manipulation finally costing the banks instead of suckered investors. For my thoughts on rising silver prices and metals price suppression see http://www.activistpost.com/2011/04/50-silver-price-point-of-liberty.html

Staying proactive, contact your state legislators -- I visited mine in person -- get them up to speed on what's happening to their state and America. Download and print documents about states that are writing legislation to protect the second amendment. Remind your legislators you can vote with your feet and move! If you have to move (like people in NY, MD, NJ, CA and IL) then do it. There are states that will resist and that’s where you will be among like-minded, and armed, resisters in great numbers.

Contact your local sheriff -- I did -- explain the situation and remind him that he’s the highest Constitutional law authority in the county. He has signed an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the State and the United States Constitution and he has the power (and obligation) to keep so-called federal officials and agents out of the county. Buy your sheriff a copy of Richard Mack’s book, The County Sheriff: America’s Last Hope and buy a few copies to pass out of Alex Jones’ videos such as Police State 4 and End Game.

Alert: yet another weapon has been re-discovered, built into the system, and available to be used now in the fight against the rogue USG. Jury Nullification is a concept dating back to the Magna Carta and has been used in the America many times when the legal system became corrupt and illegal laws were used to punish citizens. Fully informed jurists can declare the law illegal :

The jury has a right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy. - Chief Justice John Jay, U.S. Supreme Court Georgia v Brailsford (3 Dallas 1, 1794) 

The pages of history shine on instances of the jury's exercise of its prerogative to disregard instructions of the judge; for example, acquittals under the fugitive slave law. - U.S. v Dougherty 473 F.2d 1113 at 1130 (1972) [E]

Thomas Jefferson stated : "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution." It is possible, then, to turn back unconstitutional law using your right to declare the law illegal.

Illegal Laws are NOT LEGAL and you are responsible and obligated to ignore them and arrest and prosecute anyone, uniformed or not, that tries to enforce illegal, unconstitutional law.

The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and name of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void, and ineffective for any purpose; since unconstitutionality dates from the time of its enactment, and not merely from the date of the decision so branding it. 

No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it. [16 Am. Jur. 2d, Section 177; later 2d, Section 256]

So, when States like Maryland or New York enact laws that infringe on the right to "keep and bear arms" - you are responsible to NOT obey; furthermore, because these laws are void, anyone attempting to enforce the laws is a criminal and should be prosecuted.

The meaning of void from Black’s Law Dictionary is : “Null; ineffectual; nugatory; having no legal force or binding effect; unable, in law, to support the purpose for which it was intended.”

Also be sure to use the remaining purchasing power of your dollars wisely, because soon they will be worth far less. Buy land, food, guns, ammo, silver, solar panels, education, etc.

Learn a martial art -- coming situations may require confrontation and being prepared is the best policy.

Get together with your neighbors and help them prepare and make a neighborhood plan.

The instigators are preparing to take charge of all states, all property, implements, food, farms, equipment, arms and claim the right of disposition of all people. (executive orders are already in place)

So here’s the bottom line: being armed is the only threat against tyranny you have. Gun owners are the militia against the tyranny gathering at the gate. Regardless of your own interest, feelings or opinions about guns, the truth is: guns are a force field, a repelling barrier, an equalizer, a final last resort chance to remain free, alive and in charge of your own destiny.

Remember, the instigators MUST have your permission to destroy this nation of states. You must provide the spark that lights the fire of their revolution. We have reached a singularity in time and history. This is a beginning and an end; for if free will is real, and if good can and should prevail, then now is the time to come together and take the Moral High Ground.

Morally Americans must not use their arms until their is no other choice. We must not be baited into the false idea that being disarmed is American. When America is disarmed, America is gone, not just physically, but philosophically. Since 1776, Americans have experienced liberty and self-determination like no other nation in recorded history. But this freedom and self-determination has been predicated on the ability to defend against those that would enslave and determine our lives. The American experience has always tacitly depended on guns at the door.

Abraham Lincoln said:

Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide. - Lincoln’s Lyceum Address, January 27,1838

Again, Lincoln said, “All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years”. What were Lincoln’s assumptions when he made that statement? The assumption was Americans were ARMED and could not be attacked by FOREIGN enemies and fall because there were guns at every door.

Americans are being attacked now by a foreign enemy. A foreign occupying force has usurped our Federal Government and is now trying to destroy America from WITHIN.

Lincoln said: “If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher.”

To win this battle, and it is indeed a great historic battle - an age old battle between good and evil -Americans cannot “die by suicide”. We must remain armed and remain informed. WE must support those that have the courage and understanding to remain armed and ready to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

But we must take the Moral High Ground, which means we will not be baited and instigated into a battle amongst ourselves. This is truly the OLDEST manipulation in the world. The Moral High Ground means we shoot last.

The Moral High Ground demands we do NOT SURRENDER our arms. And, in order to keep the Moral High Ground, we stand up now and DECLARE to our leaders, statewide and in the Congress of the usurper Federal Government: we are Constitutionally the Sovereign and the government is a LIMITED representative of the people and WE the PEOPLE will not give up our right to self defense.

When we have stated that we DO NOT CONSENT to being disarmed and we have stood silent without firing on ourselves. Then, if it must be, with the MORAL HIGH GROUND, we can stand and fight united AGAINST the foreign usurper enemy.

Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM! - Mel Gibson as William Wallace, Braveheart

SOURCES:
* quotes from “The Art of War” : http://www.chinapage.com/sunzi-e.html

[A] "The Two United States and the Law" http://supremelaw.org/library/freeman.html

[B] Source taken from : http://educate-yourself.org/nwo/

[C] Gary Allen, “None Dare Call It Conspiracy”,Buccaneer Books, New York, 1971,pg 59,58 ISBN:0899666612

[D] Militia : http://www.constitution.org/mil/cs_milit.htm

[E] Jury Nullification : https://fija.org/

[F] Massive Military Training in Many States: http://www.thegovernmentrag.com/maydaylinks.html;

[1] http://www.infowars.com/senior-obama-official-we-are-going-to-kill-the-dollar/

[2] http://www.infowars.com/establishment-launches-straw-man-over-government-bullet-purchases/

[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt

[4]http://www.infowars.com/marines-to-invade-south-carolina/

[5] Port Arthur False Flag http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/palies1.htm; Sandy Hook False Flag : http://theintelhub.com/2013/01/09/evidence-sandy-hook-school-shooting-staged-by-factions-of-us-government-and-mainstream-media/; Dunblane False Flag : http://www.dunblaneexposed.info/2006/10/sandra-uttley-statement/

[6] https://rt.com/usa/news/half-government-million-percent-320/

[7] http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/27/how_goldman_sachs_created_the_food_crisis?page=0,1

[8]http://www.aei.org/article/energy-and-the-environment/alternative-energy/production-of-corn-ethanol-as-an-automotive-fuel-source-should-cease/

Jack Mullen has been a businessman for more than 25 years, owning 3 radio stations, several technology based companies and a resource development company