Lux Lucet

Happy April Fool’s Day! And good April Fool that I am, I find myself hard at work once again to bring you my weekly blogging awesomeness.

Well, okay. Maybe awesomeness is a little too strong. I’ll settle for weekly blogging not-too-horribleness.

At any rate, I am kinda pumped about this week’s topic, namely the Federal Reserve. In short, I’m fed up with it.

But more than that, there are few things in life that bring joy to my heart more than the thought of dishing out a good beat down to ne’er do well boys and girls at the dear Federal Reserve.

I find it, how shall I say….cathartic. Yes, that’s it! Cathartic! And since it’s been a little while since I’ve dissed the Fed, I expect that it will prove all the more so.

Audit the Fed

Zero Hedge reported this week that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform voted to allow a vote on a bill calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States.

Norm Singleton, President of Campaign for Liberty, commented that, “Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy have no excuse to not schedule a vote on Audit the Fed…as soon as possible.”

Let’s hope the House gets the job done and that the Senate follows suit.

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to support the audit effort, tweeting,

This raises the question, why is it so important to audit the Fed?

In short, the Fed has for over 100 years wielded enormous and unaccountable power over the lives of every single person in this country. And it’s way past time to put a stop to this abuse.

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) rules over our financial system, with the power to control (up to a point) the single most important price in the entire economy, the interest rate, which is simply the price of borrowing money.

But that’s not all. During the last financial crisis, it was the Fed that bailed out the billionaire bankers on Wall Street on the backs of ordinary Americans.

And when the next financial crisis hits, and the next one almost certainly will be far worse than the one in 2008, you can bet your bottom dollar that they’re going to try the same stunt again.

The secretive Fed with all its back door deals to bail out the rich and well-connected is the very antithesis of what the Bible teaches about good government and sound monetary practice.

It is responsible for creating the largest Ponzi scheme in world history.

Forbes reported that even the limited audit of the Fed done 2011 revealed that it handed out $16 trillion, “to corporations and banks internationally, purportedly for ‘financial assistance’ during and after the 2008 fiscal crisis.”

Ron Paul noted during his 2012 presidential campaign that $5 trillion went to foreign banks.

Auditing the Fed will shine the light of truth into a very dark corner of the Deep State, one that badly needs to be exposed.

Audit the Fed…then end it.

Jim Rogers on the Fed

Jim Rogers has been a financial hero of mine for some time. In 2008 when all of Washington and Wall Street were running around with their hair on fire desperately trying to find some way to “save the system,” Jim Rogers responded by saying, “Let them fail. Let the bankruptcy courts sort it out.”

True that.

Rogers, who’s been relatively quite recently, popped up in the headlines this week to share his insights on the Fed. When asked by a reporter “What worries you?,” Rogers replied, “The Federal Reserve…has no clue what they are doing. They are going to ruin us all…this is going to end very, very, very badly…propping up zombie banks and dead companies is not the way the world is supposed to work…It’s been nine years and we have nothing to show for it [the bail outs] except staggering amounts of debt.”

It would be hard to overstate just how out of the mainstream Roger’s comments are for a guy who’s one of the most respected investors in the world.

When our current financial house of cards begins to topple, as it inevitably will, Rogers will be there to speak the truth.

A Financial Fukushima

Dave Kranzler, another voice of financial sanity, released a deeply pessimistic but informative article this week. In it he wrote about three “black swan” events, “which could inflict a financial nuclear accident on the U.S. markets and financial system.”

The first is the Treasury debt ceiling. Kranzler opines that Congress will raise the debt ceiling (I agree) and that the Treasury will issue the bonds.

Kranzler goes on to say that he believes the Fed will then print the money and give it to the central banks of Beligium or Switzerland who will then purchase these bonds. In other words, the Fed will engage in another round of Quantitative Easing (Quantitative Easing (QE) is just an obscure way of saying “print money”) only this time secretly so as to make it appear that foreign central bank are buying the newly minted Treasuries, not the Fed. This seems entirely plausible to me.

Second, Kranzler writes about the ongoing collapse of the once great American shopping mall. he reports that many well known retailers are shuttering stores.

The cause of this is not, as is popularly believed, due primarily to online shopping. Per Kranzler, only about 7% of all US retail sales were made online at the beginning of 2015.

No, the reason for the retail collapse is that people just don’t have the money to spend. Households have maxed out their credit cards. The debt fueled growth boom has ended.

And it’s not just the consumer who is drowning in debt, but retailers and mall owners themselves.

Further, Kranzler adds that, “there will be widespread defaults on the consumer debt that’s already been issued.”

The third and final of Kranzler’s black swans is, “the looming pension crisis.” According to one of Kranzler’s sources, a stock market decline of 10% lasting more than three or four months, “would cause every single public pension fund to blow up.”

The thread connecting all three of these black swans is the Federal Reserve and its debt-based, fiat currency, Ponzi scheme.

The Fed has blown the single biggest debt fueled financial bubble in world history, and it appears that it’s getting close to bursting.

Just remember that when it all blows up, it will not be the fault of capitalism, individual liberty, or lack of regulatory oversight on the part of government.

Pin the tail on the correct donkey. End the Fed.

Donald Trump Contra Mundum

Back in the early centuries of the Christian church, there was a saying “Athanasius contra mundum,” Athanasius against the world.

Here in the 21st century, we have, not Athanasius, but Donald Trump against the world. In the face of over the top opposition from both the Republican and Democratic establishment, all of academia, and the press, Trump pulled off one of the most unlikely upsets is US political history.

What was his secret sauce? He appealed to the interests of ordinary Americans. The so-called “deplorables” whom elite snobs like Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama delight to scorn.

But now that Trump is in power, he appears to be turning on many of the same people who put him into office.

In the wake of the Republicans failed attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare last week, Trump decided the source of the problem was not the lame Trumpcare bill which has little voter support, but the House Freedom Caucus.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer event hinted that the president might campaign against Freedom Caucus members if they don’t get on board the Trump train.

Someone needs to explain to the president that lobbing verbal hand grenades at the Freedom Caucus, one of the few groups in Washington that’s not a bought and paid for subsidiary of the Deep State, a group of men who actually represent their constituents’ interests, is a bad idea.

One of the best op-ed pieces I’ve seen to this effect was posted in, of all places, CNBC, where senior columnist Jake Novak observed,

If President Trump continues on thi path, he’ll have a new enemy to contend with called “history.” Because history shows that when Republican presidents turn on conservatives and conservative ideals, they end up failing badly.

Trump seems to be of the mind that he can bully his way through Washington. But if he keeps up this sort of rhetoric, he will end up alienating the conservative base, some of the best friends he has. This is a lesson he needs to learn, and fast.