Friday Humor: Top Ten Reasons Why Fiat Currency Is Superior To Gold

By John Butler: In the spirit of the holidays and hope for a more prosperous 2013, I thought my readers might appreciate a little humour to partially offset the relentless doom and gloom associated with the Amphora Report. So please, don’t take this edition too seriously. But if you happen to stumble across a ‘paperbug’ or two over the holidays, perhaps you could share some of the points made here. Humour sometimes helps people realise just how hopelessly misguided they are. Cheers!

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Number 10: There Is Not Enough Gold (Or Silver) In The World To Serve As Money

Let’s begin with the obvious. We know that central banks the world over have printed money at exponentially growing rates for years. There is now so much paper and electronic money floating around the world that gold (or silver) can not possibly be expected to keep up. You can’t print gold, after all, you need to find it, dig it out of the ground, refine it, etc, a hugely expensive and time-consuming process which practically ensures a stable rather than exponentially growing supply of the stuff.
Of course, we know that an exponentially growing supply of money is a good thing. How else can an economy hope to grow, especially one bearing an exponentially rising debt burden! We need all that new money to pay all that new interest, don’t we? And don’t forget, most things keep getting more expensive, like food and fuel. Don’t we need more money to pay for all that too? What about government entitlements that keep growing in size? If we didn’t have a constant flow of new money, how on earth would we pay for all of that? It is essential that we keep the printing presses rolling.

Oliver Stone: ‘US has become an Orwellian state’

Americans are living in an Orwellian state argue Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone and historian Peter Kuznick, as they sit down with RT to discuss US foreign policy and the Obama administration’s disregard for the rule of law.
­Both argue that Obama is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and that people have forgiven him a lot because of the “nightmare of the Bush presidency that preceded him.”
“He has taken all the Bush changes he basically put them into the establishment, he has codified them,” Stone told RT. “It is an Orwellian state. It might not be oppressive on the surface, but there is no place to hide. Some part of you is going to end up in the database somewhere.”
According to Kuznick, American citizens live in a fish tank where their government intercepts more than 1.7 billion messages a day. “That is email, telephone calls, other forms of communication.”

Feinstein's Gun Control Bill Will Trigger The Next American Revolution

Brandon Smith: All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns, that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party - Mao Tse Tung

After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military - William Burroughs

Revolution?  Yes, it all sounds rather “extreme”, but the cold hard reality of our era is not going to comfort us with diplomacies and niceties, so honestly, why should I have to sugar coat anything?  We live in extreme times and there is no longer room for prancing around the ultimate consequences of that which is taking place in America today.  This country is increasingly sliding towards the edge of internal conflict.  The Liberty Movement and true Constitutionalists see it, subsections of Republicans and Democrats see it, and most of all, the federal government sees it.  In fact, they may even be counting on it. 

Over the past two years alone, multiple draconian policies have been enacted through executive order by the Obama Administration which build upon the civil liberty crushing actions of George W. Bush and press far beyond.  The Patriot Acts, the FISA domestic spy bill, the bailouts of corrupt international banks, attempts at CISPA and SOPA, actions like the NDAA authorizing the treatment of U.S. citizens as “enemy combatants” without rights to due process; all paint a picture so clear only a one-celled amoeba (or your average suburban yuppie) would not see it.  You and I, and everyone else for that matter, have been designated potential targets of the state.  Our rights have been made forfeit.

Sandy Hook Shooting Hoax - Morris

Morris: There is no evidence for what is said to have happened at the Sandy Hook School in Connecticut - No pictures of the door shot up - nor of 600 students being evacuated - the one picture of children being taken out is apperently from an emergency drill earlier in the year. The Connecticut Health officer (Medical Examiner) in charge of the post mortems made a meaningless speech saying he had not seen all the children - The rifle the alleged shooter used was found in the trunk of a car - The brother of the alleged shooter has been locked up (silenced) for his own safety - The parents have not spoken except for one father who was seen to be joking around before the cameras came on

Russian Policies in 2012 A Look Back - SovietBear

Morris: Russia will be a Full SuperPower by 2015. Russia is also introducing a lot of nationalistic laws - banning US NGOs and US adoptions. Russia has its own mind again. Source

Argentina: a case study in how an elite political dynasty is used to further the new world agenda

By Dave Truman: I have a new theory: globalization is rather like making a sponge cake. With just a few local variations, you can smell the same rancid ingredients baking wherever you come across them in the world.

Note: be sure to read Dave’s previous article, “Home thoughts from Uruguay”

First, you need generous proportions of monetized debt. The more you can muster the better. You will not get the results you want (rampant inflation and a widening of the gap between the rich few and the many poor) without it.

Second, you need to add a sprinkling of corrupt politicians. Their role is to provide the illusion that the ordinary people of any country (known these days as Plebs in Britain) actually have some say over their lives. In reality, politicians are there to make sure that genuine local economies and communities are dismantled and national assets and infrastructure are stripped bare. Now things are really cooking.

Third, add some genetically modified education; this will ensure that the capacity of the masses for independent critical thinking is destroyed.

Finally, don’t forget to ice it all with an artificially sweetened, bought and paid for mass media in order to mask the taste of the unsavoury filth that has been cooking inside – and viola!

The Real Crisis: "People Have Lost Trust In The Government And The Market"

Submitted by Tyler Durden: The death of the 'cult of equities' was a popular topic this year among both fringe blogs and the best-known institutional asset managers and sell-side strategists. As AP discusses in this excellent article, ordinary Americans - defying decades of investment history - are selling stocks for a fifth year in a row. It's the first time ordinary folks have sold during a sustained bull market since relevant records were first kept during World War II. The answer is both complex and simple but summed up best by a former stock analyst's comment that in order to buy stocks "You have to trust your government. You have to trust other governments. You have to trust Wall Street, and I don't trust any of these." With Fed policy trying to force investors back into stocks (at any cost), a former fund manager notes, presciently that, "When this policy fails, as it will, baby boomers will pay the cost in their 401(k)s." Are we the new 'Depression Babies'? We suspect so.

French Artists Strike Out Against Evil American Empire

By Wolf Richter: Théâtre Royal de Luxe, a street-theater company in France, decided to sue an evil American multinational giant, or so it seems. But there are complications: Royal de Luxe is at the confluence of political connections, government subsidies, Coca-Cola commercialism, perhaps even world domination, and certainly, awesome art.
While it performs a variety of street shows, Royal de Luxe is internationally known for its giant marionettes that are suspended from reinvented construction implements or fantasy vehicles. Actors in livery, perched on the implement or swarming around the giant’s ankles, pull on ropes to get the giant to open its eyes, move an arm, turn the head, walk step by halting step.... The shows have been a huge success around the world.
Jean-Luc Courcoult started the theater company in 1979 with a play on the streets of Aix-en-Provence, in the south of France. Over the years, styles changed, and the company moved around a bit. In October, 1989, while in Toulouse, according to its own website, “the company received a call from the mayor of Nantes who offered subsidies and the use of a warehouse on the banks of the Loire River.” It was “an offer that could not be refused.”
And that generous mayor? Jean-Marc Ayrault, member of the Socialist Party. He’d been elected a few months earlier, and has since been reelected time and again, while also having been elected to the National Assembly. He who in June, 2012, became the Prime Minister of France. Voilà.

The Coming Isolation of USDollar - Golden Jackass

Jim Willie CB: The typical human reaction to any infection, vermin, danger, or toxicity is to stand back, to isolate the agent, to trap it, to prevent its further spread or release, then to remove it in a safe secure way if possible using trained professionals. Eventually decisions must be made on the level of acceptable risk on the removal, like what is willing to be lost or damaged or killed in the process. Risk analysis, cost trade-offs, and minimization decisions must be evaluated and executed. The toxic agent in global trade, global banking, and global bond market is the USDollar. In 2009, the Jackass began making a certain firm point. Those nations that depart from the entire USDollar system early will be the leading nations in the next chapter, with stronger foundations, richer solvency, emerging economies, healthier financial markets, efficient credit engines, growing wealth, stronger political helm activity, and better functioning systems generally. Imagine a contaminated blood system that infects, corrupts, and destroys all interior organs from the spread of the toxin. Those nations that stick with the crumbling USDollar system stubbornly will find a horrible fate with devastating effects, rampant economic damage, broken financial markets, sputtering credit engines, tremendous loss of wealth, wrecked supply lines, poverty spreading like wildfire, ruined political structures, social disorder, isolation from the rest of the world, and a fast ticket to the Third World. That is EXACTLY what is happening in the last several months. A division has begun, as the East has been busily installing the next generation platforms, as related to trade, banking, and commercial integration.

No More Industrial Revolutions, No More Growth?

Charles Hugh Smith: The common feature of the transformative technologies of the 20th and 21st centuries is that they were one-offs that cannot be duplicated.

What if the engines of global growth that worked for 65 years (since 1945) have not just stalled but broken down? The primary "engines" have been productivity gains from industrialization, real estate development and expansion of consumption based on the continual expansion of debt and leverage--in short-hand, financialization.

The Status Quo around the globe has responded to the obvious endgame of financialization (the 2008 financial crisis) by doing more of what has failed: expanding credit and leverage, flooding the global economy with liquidity (money available for borrowing), credits and subsidies for real estate development and a near-religious belief in "the next industrial revolution" that will spark rapid growth in employment, profits and productivity.

"The usual suspects" for the next engine of growth include nanotechnology, biotechnology, unconventional energy and Digital Fabrication, i.e. 3-D printing and desktop foundries. But are any of these capable of not just replacing jobs and revenues in existing industries, but creating more jobs and expanding revenues and profits?

There is a growing literature on this very topic, as many start questioning the quasi-religious faith that there will "always" be another driver of growth, i.e. the expansion of wealth, profit, employment and assets.

The Status Quo dares not even entertain this question

War & Peace, An Awakening: Renaissance or Ruin? Top Trends 2013 - Gerald Celente

1.  War: Call them what you will – civil wars, uprisings, protests, Arab Spring, terrorism, rebellions – when we add them up they equal the “The First Great War of the 21^st Century.” Yet, even now, as the conflicts proliferate, only The Trends Journal recognizes that they are not only connected, but also cumulative.
 2.  Peace: From our trends catbird seat we see the ships of state heading on a collision course that will wreak global havoc. But if the Captains (Presidents, Prime Ministers, Chancellors, Kings and Emirs) follow the course we chart, not only will much of the world escape the worst ravages of war, we will sail toward a prosperous and peaceful future.
 3. The Next Great Awakening: The American Revolution had its roots in a powerful, little celebrated religion-inspired movement called “The Great Awakening.” We, at The Trends Journal have already determined that the stage has been set for a Second American Revolution that will draw its inspiration from a new “Great Awakening.” However, while the “New Awakening” we are forecasting will have a spiritual basis, it will not be “Christian specific,” and the Revolution it engenders will be fought with hearts and minds, not bullets and armies.  
4. A Fracking Future:

The Influence Of The Pharmaceutical Industry Over Political Administrations

By Eileen Dublin: Like the IFSC clearing House Group who shape Irish Fiscal policy ‘The pharmaceutical industry’s lobbying of the (Irish)  government demonstrates how multinationals play governments off each other and limit political choices’. In the US changes to how antidepressents are prescribed will have ‘significant financial implications for the $10 billion U.S. antidepressant market (and) shows that financial ties between the creators of the APA handbook and the industry far exceed limits recommended in 2009 by the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences.’ Source

Antidepressants to treat grief? Psychiatry panelists with ties to drug industry say yes
Bitter pill that comes with having large drugs sector