Especially where you expect massive amounts of Americans to be moved enough somewhere between Memorial Day and July 4 to move out with their pitchforks againts the massive amounts of fraud that have been commited against them. First you need someone to come out and connect the dots for most of them, and that in itself will be excruciating…most of them couldn’t point out Iowa on a map, and Iowa has been in the news for a couple of months now. I don’t know how you’d explain the massive amounts of embezzlement and fraud that have gone into this credit depression from it’s inception to it’s (near) conclusion in a way that these people would understand it. Better you than me. I don’t have the patience for it.

Not even including the Obamabots…the people that will wring their hands and state that with a little more time the Obama messiah will lift his hands, the skies will open, a ray of light will come down, and the Obamalordsonhighinheaven will make this mean old credit depression go away and everything will be perfect once more.

You take away the Obamabots and the stupid people, that doesn’t leave a lot of pitchfork wielding people, IMHO.

But, what the hell, I’m a sucker for a lost cause. Plus this whole thing reeks to high heaven and pisses me off to no end.

(yeah, I know the founders were pretty much a bunch of self-serving hacks who covered up their larceny and swindling with high-flown rhetoric … but between their self-interest, their genuine concern for their own descendants’ welfare, and their rhetoric, they put this nation on a good track for about 100 years … interesting that the dawn of American Empire coincides with the time when most of the founders’ grandkids would have been passing on …. but history’s inapt to my question. Or maybe it’s quite apt. Comments, sir?)

“I think your history is off about FDR. He was the primary mover behind Social Security, CCA and WPA legislation and other legislation that pulled the US out of the Great Depression. Hoover was a boy doing the bidding of big finance — like Bush, he and unregulated markets got us into the financial messes then and now.

“FDR is my favorite president.

“Not interested in your newsletter. Have already cancelled.”

Hoozah! Saves me the trouble. Honestly, if FDR is your favorite president, you should never have received this newsletter.

Trust us, we have our FDR history straight. That you tout social security as a noble accomplishment says plenty.

“Gary,

“Your newsletter is as clear and fair evaluation of our plight as anything could be.

“However, I suspect there are many things which could be done to improve the outcome, some of which come quickly to mind.

“First, immediately decrease those activities which are costly and ineffectual. Start with our foreign billeting of military troops, our expansion of military activities of any kind. Stop all transfer payments to agricultural entities. Decrease taxes. Force all insolvent banks through the FDIC process, letting those which have a viable business be resold to new private investors after having stripped off the old shareholders, bondholders and managements. Stop all TARP expenditures. Absolutely stop any transfer payments to any investment banks, hedge funds or other non-bank investors.

“Second, announce generally the intended contraction of government, so that those on the public dole would see that it was going away over some reasonably short period.

“Third, adopt a gold-backed currency. In the years to come people will need to save and invest (the expression “the economy runs on credit” used to be “the economy runs on savings and investment”). We need to get back to that, and a gold backed currency would be necessary to protect those savings from an incompetent government. A probable concurrent event should be the extinction of the Federal Reserve Banking system, but that may be more politics than it’s worth.

“Fourth, if you have to invest in infrastructure, reinvest in railroad transportation systems for both freight and passengers. It may not be as convenient, but its costs are a fraction of the current highway and subsidized fuel systems, and transport is essential to the survival of the society.

“Fifth, create a public dialog about the stewardship required in public office. Public corruption in the coming crisis will represent the greatest threat to democratic institutions. The current level of public corruption is fatal, whether in the example of Fannie and Freddie’s demise, or that of Goldman being on the receiving end of taxpayer largess.

“I’m sure that in an hour every one of your readers could come up with ten others. I am terribly unhappy with the current circumstance, but not prepared to starve to death in the dark. If our society is broken, let’s “fix” it, but let’s do it from our side, the producers, workers and savers, not from those on the dole and those who pander to them. We do have to cut back on consumption. We do have to “lower our living standards.” But that’s not a complete analysis. The question is, what will we preserve? ”

Preserve? Ultimately nothing. Every life, every civilization, every species comes to an end.

Regards,
Gary Gibson
Managing Editor, Whiskey & Gunpowder