Monthly Archives: June 2009

A Message from Pamela Browne…

:::

Today, June 17th, is a bittersweet day for me. My late husband, Harry Browne, was born on this day. To commemorate his birth each year of our marriage, I spent a great deal of time and effort planning a day full of special surprises. Consequently, it was always a happy day.

:::

Harry has been gone for more than three years now. I miss him more than words can express.

:::

I know many reading this Downsizer-Dispatch miss him too.

:::

In these troubling times, we all miss Harry’s voice.

:::

* Harry understood Austrian economic theory and the business cycle.

:::

* He also specialized in understanding the damage that Big Government does to our economy — especially when the politicians try to “fix” it.

:::

We wish we could directly access his wisdom right now, whether it was in his clear, persuasive columns, or his warm, convincing monologues on air.

:::

I am pleased that there are voices that continue to carry forth Harry’s message, reminding people of the peace of mind that his Permanent Portfolio approach afforded.

:::

There are also voices who continue to proclaim his dictum that “Government Doesn’t Work.” The brightest and most effective of those voices is DownsizeDC.org.

:::

Harry was proud to be

Quote of the Day: “We have the greatest opportunity the world has ever seen, as long as we remain honest — which will be as long as we can keep the attention of our people alive. If they once become inattentive to public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors would all become wolves.” — Thomas Jefferson

:::

Subject: Good news about the “Audit the Fed” bills

:::

Last Thursday we reported that the “Audit the Fed” bill (HR 1207) had 200 co-sponsors, and that the companion Senate bill (S 604) had zero cosponsors. But in the space of just four days…

:::

* The House bill now has 224 cosponsors
:::* And the Senate bill has its first cosponsor, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina

:::

Your pressure is working. In fact, the Federal Reserve Board has become so worried about this legislation that they’ve actually hired a lobbyist to fight it!

:::

Let’s keep pushing…

Quote of the Day: “Those who predict price inflation believe that the money multiplier [velocity] will turn upward again. They just don’t know when. Those who predict price deflation believe that the money multiplier will not turn upward again… I am in the inflationist camp. But until I see a sustained reversal [from down to up] of the money multiplier, I will continue to predict relatively stable consumer prices.” – Gary North

:::

Subject: The Federal Reserve might be powerful, but velocity proves YOU hold some of the cards

:::

When speaking of monetary policy, do you know what velocity is?

:::

It’s the speed at which dollar bills are spent — change hands.

:::

They’re moving slow. That has a lot people bandying around the word, “deflation.”

:::

It doesn’t make sense. As we’ve reported on several occasions, including the June 5th Downsizer-Dispatch, the Federal Reserve Bank (the FED) is counterfeiting at record levels — doubling the entire money supply in less than twelve months.

:::

That’s inflation. So why aren’t prices exploding — increasing by 10%, 20%, 50%, or more?

Quote of the Day: “One time in the House of Representatives [a colleague] told me a story about a proposition that a teacher put to a boy. He said, ‘Johnny, a cat fell in a well 100 feet deep. Suppose that cat climbed up 1 foot and then fell back 2 feet. How long would it take the cat to get out of the well?’ Johnny worked assiduously with his slate and slate pencil for quite a while, and then when the teacher came down and said, ‘How are you getting along?’ Johnny said, ‘Teacher, if you give me another slate and a couple of slate pencils, I am pretty sure that in the next 30 minutes I can land that cat in hell.’ [So] if some people get any cheer out of a $328 billion debt ceiling, I do not find much to cheer about concerning it.” — Senator Everett Dirksen, Congressional Record, June 16, 1965

:::

Subject: How deep is the hole the politicians are digging for us?

:::

The financial newsletter The Privateer reports…

:::

“Warnings have been issued from the Treasury that the Congressionally mandated debt ceiling of $12.1 TRILLION will most likely be breached in the second half of this year.”

:::

This pit of borrowing doesn’t even account for the deepening currency well we reported in last Friday’s Dispatch.  

:::

The politicians are borrowing and the FED is printing at staggering rates. As their shovels continue to ominously clang and clash, the news gets worse. Again, from The Privateer…

Quote of the Day: “We are in danger of being overwhelmed with irredeemable paper, mere paper, representing not gold nor silver; no sir, representing nothing but broken promises, bad faith, bankrupt corporations, cheated creditors and a ruined people.” — Daniel Webster (1782-1852), US Senator Source: speech in the Senate, 1833

:::

Subject: Trillions of reasons to audit the Federal Reserve

:::

Since last September the Federal Reserve has made $9 trillion in transactions that are not reflected on its balance sheet. This compares to $2 trillion in transactions that is reflected on the Fed’s balance sheet.

:::

What was the purpose of this $9 trillion? Who got how much, and why did they get it? No one knows. Congress doesn’t know, and neither does the Inspector General charged with monitoring the Fed, as you can hear for yourself in the video embedded in a blog post by David Theroux of the Independent Institute.

:::

Likewise, neither Congress nor the Inspector General knows anything about the profits or losses the Fed may have experienced from the $2 trillion that is reported on its balance sheet.

:::

Add up the numbers —

They think reading the bills is a joke

Quote of the Day: “By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.” — John Maynard Keynes Source: “The Economic Consequences Of The Peace” 

:::

Subject: Counterfeiting Update

:::

In May of last year the U.S. money supply stood at roughly $834 billion. Now, a year later, the Federal Reserve has created an additional $941 billion out of thin air. Pay close attention to those numbers…

:::

* The amount of new money the Fed has created is roughly $107 billion more than all the money that was in circulation just a year ago
:::* In other words, the U.S. money supply has more than doubled

:::

Think about what this does to the value of your dollars, to your savings, to your paycheck, to your retirement income? A doubling of the money supply means your money is worth half what it was.

:::

Of course, your money’s loss of value won’t manifest itself overnight. It will take time for the Fed’s counterfeiting to drive up prices. But those who get the new money first will be able to

Quote of the Day: “Absolute, arbitrary power over the lives, liberty and property of freemen exists nowhere in a republic, not even in the largest majority.” — Kentucky Declaration of Rights – Art. I, Sec. 2 also found in the Wyoming Declaration of Rights Art. I, Sec. 7
:::

:::

Subject: We already know the results of one so-called health care reform

:::

Some politicians want to mandate that employers provide health insurance for their workers, and/or that individuals must acquire such insurance, much as we’re all required to have car insurance. This is supposed to achieve universal coverage while also reducing costs. But…

:::

Massachusetts politicians have already run this experiment, with bad results.

:::

Please use our generic health care campaign to tell your Congressional employees to NOT impose Massachusetts’s mistake on the entire country.

Quote of the Day: “This is my long-run forecast in brief: The material conditions of life will continue to get better for most people, in most countries, most of the time, indefinitely. Within a century or two, all nations, and most of humanity, will be at or above today’s Western living standards. I also speculate, however, that many people will continue to think and say that the conditions of life are getting worse.” — Julian Simon

:::

Subject: Many minds vs. few minds

:::

The 1970s were bad. We had high inflation plus bouts of high interest rates, high unemployment, and high oil prices punctuated by severe gasoline shortages. Major American companies struggled to survive, factories closed, and the industrial north became known as the Rust Belt.

:::

Major intellectuals talked of limits to growth and a bleak future that might even include an ice age. It was common in those days to think that things could only get worse, but a man named Julian Simon thought otherwise…

Quote of the Day: “The coming debate is not just about the freedom to make one’s own medical decisions. It is about life and death. If we insist on a dynamic and competitive market, health care will be better, cheaper, safer, and more secure. If we go in the direction of new government programs, mandates, and price controls, we will see higher costs, more medical errors, more uncoordinated care, and more lives lost because people with government “insurance” nevertheless couldn’t find a doctor who would treat them.” — Michael F. Cannon, Director of Health-policy Studies at the Cato Institute

:::

Subject: You’ll regret it for the rest of your shortened life

:::

Be ready, Congress plans to rush through a complete overhaul of YOUR health care this summer.

:::

You can bet this so-called reform bill will…

:::

* Be long, complicated, and packed with special interest favors
:::* Have massive consequences, both intended and unintended
:::* Add hundreds of billions of dollars to our already cancerous national liabilities

:::

You can also bet that…