PS Jim K. what is stopping you from melting down gold jewelry into ingots?

Jim K where do you get the idea that we cannot own gold. I was told a story by a Chicago gold and antiquities dealer that went like this. In the early 1990's or so an old man dress poorly came into his shop and wanted to buy $400,000 worth of gold. The dealer said that he would need guaranteed funds and it would take two or three days to complete the transaction. The old man gave the dealer a Bank Certified Check, the dealer called the bank and the check was verified as good. The old man showed up in a limousine three days later and the gold was loaded into his trunk and he disappered. Hours later the bank called and said that the deposit securing the $400,000 was opened with a similar instrument from another bank and that the deposited item thus bounced. It was later learned that the old man had actually received two checks from the bank one for $50,000 which he cashed and pocketed and the $400,000 dollar check which the gold dealer cashed and pocketed. The issuing bank is the one that lost out on this scam. SORRY ABOUT THE LONG STORY JIM K. BUT WHAT WAS SOLD AND TAKEN POSSESSION OF HERE WAS GOLD BULLION. Where do you get your information that gold cannot be owned by people. Their are companies that buy gold jewelry and melt it down into ingots etc.

The quote is crap. It appears to blast capitalism and capitalist's lackey, Civil Servants. It is a BS nodding of the head towards the Rush Limbaugh class of intellectualism like Logan and his "republic not a democracy" weak thinking. Rush and Hannity and all this crap is dead, lets move on. Logan's apologizes for its appearance etcetera is just as lame as his arguemnts for "republic". Shameful, shameful, shameful. Y'all's derelection of intellectualism never ceases to amaze me.

Warren you obviously must have slept through the Clinton thingy. He raised taxes (called largest tax raise in history by the Repubs.) and it was given it's 51st vote by none other than the President Pro Tempore of the Senate aka Al Gore. This tax increase led to substantial surpluses and pay downs of the debt in the latter years of Clintons term. Warren Buffet supports Obama's plan. Again this quote says that the average family paid 2% of their earned income while the rate in 1950 was 17.4% and up on taxable income. In order to get the rate down to 2% on "earned income" sufficient deductions for things like dependents and itemized deductions must be taken. Ya think maybe this quote is intended to be misleading and rabble rousing. The Barak plan will put money into the hands of those that will spend it (probably people like you and I) and into the hands of those who will profit from the spending, thus the economy will grow ala Bill Clinton. Warren ignores that the debt got its present growth burst under Reagan and he ignores Chaney's famous "deficits don't matter" approach to National Accounts. The Republican philosophy of the past 20 out of 28 years which has run our national accounts into the ground is DEAD. They call it "conservative", it ain't is BS. (PS: If 50% pay no federal taxes in your view is that not much better than the 2% average of 1950 and the 24% of today (whenever today was in the quote), the point is that this quote is BS and cutting taxes in the current environment is BS.

I think we should just go on a Cigar Standard and forget about nickel and gold.

This quote is all over the right wing fraud blogs. Can the editior give more information about the source of this dribble? Where this Yearbook can be found, what nation is being referred to etcetera? This is really serious stuff. If it is some how implied that this was actually written for the guidance or orders for some "Civil Servants" some where in the world we should be informed. Editor: if you are unable to so inform us your use of this material is totally irresponsible.

So now we apparently know that capitalism is a totalitarianism like any other or do we. I will google this foolishness right now!

While his methods were and still are a little arcane I agree with him that gold ain't sh** or on the other hand maybe it is. I remember doing things with my buddies as a kid, building forts, developing a ball field etcetera and we had nothing but are mutual cooperation and enthusiasm. Why cannot adults work this way. If some adults put in more than their fair share of work given them a voucher exchangeable for other goods and services. What the hell do we need gold for?

What an innocuous quote! In 1950 the rate on the first $4,000 of TAXABLE income was 17.4% and the rate on TAXABLE income above $400,000 was 91%. In 2000 the rate was 15% on the first $43,850 and 39.6 on all income above $288,350. First of all we are not taxed on earned income we are taxed on taxable income. The amazing thing here is the dramatic reduction in these later years of the rates for the wealthy and the individula rate is also much lower than in 1950. The low rate started at 17.4 on $4,000 and went up from there, in 2000 we were at 15% all the way up to $43,850. A substantial reduction from the rates of 1950. Thank God for these post modern times so much better that the '50's. Taxes need to be raised back to where they were in 1950.

I understand that there are powerful or intelligent or insightful or inspiring people behind the scenes that help identify talent. I have heard it said that Abner Mikva, who is one of the above, identified and may have put a bug in Barak's ears, even though Barak had to do the work, and had to beat out in effect about 12 candidates from each party to get where he is today. In this latest election the parties nation wide did the nominating.

Sure is nice to have a clear election for a change!

And now it is not just the philosophical "Can" but also the permission denoting "May". Remember the old "Can I", yes you can but you may or may not dialogue.

As long as it is not prospering we tend to abide and suffer it as in the Alaskan Independence Party of which Mr. Palin was a member. Ever heard of an American who is irrationally concerned about which state her/his child is born in. Sarah was adamant that her child be born in Alaska rather than one of the other 49 states. She is Alaska first America second, I think that is treasonous thinking. Since we are sending her and Todd back to the bush we can forget about her treasonous mentality.

I think Woody Allen was happy all of his life to date, especially with his Korean step-daughter. This quote reminds me of the "gallows humor" in the Army when we used to say "We don't make much money but we sure do have a lousy time."

You guys sound like a convention of Star Trekkers or some fringe religious group convention standing around and complaining about the apathy of the world. People as renown as Buffet, Powell and the CEO of Google have commented on the logic, equanimity and generally expressed goodwill, and capability of Obama to be a leader of the American People. Logan knows nothing of history if he does not know how it is that people get into positions of political power, Obama said it nicely last night in Manassas, Va. He expressed how meaningfull it was for him to meet "us" rather than how lucky we are to meet him. Many on this site espouse a politics of individuality while some espouse a politics of community, I think in this election the pendulum is moving a little more towards the community side of the ledger.

A famous retirement community south of Ocala is called The Villages. Pleasant enough place, but I am told that the developer is staunchly conservative and publishes a propagandistic newspaper, for his town, prohibits politics per se and will not allow signs on the lawns promoting candidates etc. Can this be true in America? Mike I walked door to door in Ocala for a week, many are yes noncommital or not interested but others welcomed our visits and we engaged in political talk for thirty minutes even with some of oppositie affiliations. Some greeted us saying that they were pleased because no political worker ever comes down their street. It seems that some thorougly enjoyed the give and take of politcal discussion, but alas there were very few others like me and us who actually took the discussion to the people. Jim K you are a riot, your comments above drip with so much venom and the sad thing is you do not even know it -"caught up in hype, raucous crowd, motley crew, looked like they were not smart" What does smart look like anyway Jim? Your comments were just the opposite of a warm up speaker at the Ocala Biden rally. He said Barak and Joe are consummate gentlemen not like the ugliness of John and Sarah. Then Joe Biden came on and he said "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN". It was a great show. Just think Jim K you will have 4 years maybe 8 to chew on your sour grapes, Many people actually are not really happy unless they are miserable, sounds like you may be one of them. Mike obviously has his head in the sand as usual, with crowds of 100,0-00 in St Louis, early voter turn out and election day voting expected to be at record levels and Mike says that the nation is apathetic. No Mike when it comes to knowledge of current events and knowledge of "wha's happenin" it is you that is pathetic.Obviously Twain is wrong since the fact that the drove is split like 51% to 44% plus 5% undecided it is a fact that people are not following the crowd but making up their own minds which way is best. If Twain were correct the 44% and the 5% should be jumping on the 51% bandwagon.

I have missed y'all, I just returned from a week of political work in Florida where I turned the state around for Barak. I helped establish freedom in the tyrannically ruled Marion County, (aka Ocala). Was great to be with open minded people, not like in my home town. Open mindedness to me is the definition of freedom. Can't speak your mind in to many places it seems.

I'm with you this time Billy!

I would normally give this a five but just now thought of Rush and Hannity. Those guys freedom should be denied. I mean they are no better than folks who cry fire in a crowded theatre.

The more things change the more they remain the same. Apparently there will always be wolves. Learned last night that the market crashed in 1907 for the same basic reason it crashed this time. It was caused by derivatives which were then referred to as bucket shops where investors basically bet on the market rather than actually buying the market. These things were made illegal but then restored in the late '90's. The point, oh yeah the point, is that there will always be piggish behaviour. What we need is a pragmatic common people and leaders in an educated democracy, demcoracy, democracy.

It is also the theory that all people are "common" people. At least there is no inalienable inequality of persons. Joel welcome to the debate, however, you are wrong. The USA is a republic that is a democracy. Republic is just another word that means state. Thus we talk of the republics of Europe or the states of Europe. Texas used to be a republic and now it is a state, it always was more or less a democracy. Originally the two words meant the same thing basic thing. Re means to go back, as in return, redo etcetera. Thus re-public means to return to the people. Thus "government of, by and for the people" equals a democratic republic.

I had a highly educated friend (in science at least) and he was of the belief that since the US has a 30 trillion dollar economy there must therefore be 30 trillion dollars floating around. He had never heard of the accelerator effect, that is when 30 people exchange the same one dollar bill over a 30 day period they have just created $30 dollars worth of transactions, which equals $30 dollars worth of income and expense to each other. Never forget that one persons income is another persons outgo but net effect is a boost in the GDP.

Ken you touch upon a interesting philosophical or logical question. And that is does "the tail wag to dog" or does "the dog wag the tail"? We live in an organized hierarchy from which we cannot escape unless we move to the woods and become hunter gatherers like some wish to do, why don't they just do it and shut up? If we all had the power and options that you suggest where we could all stiff our creditors where would we really be? I admit that there are crooks everywhere and that is why we have auditors, checks and balances etcetera. Do the auditors and checks and balances some times fail? Well of course from time to time. But life in modern society requires faith, and fiduciary trust etcetera,

There are no stockholders of the US Central Bank/Federal Reserve. In effect the Federal Reserve owns itself. Banks who chosse to be a member bank of the Fed system do purchase stock so to speak and must maintain a depostit balance with the Fed. No bank is forced to be a member of the Fed systrem. As for as the Bank of International Settlements it is like a reserve bank for reserve banks and a settlement agent. If anyone has ever bought a home you should know that you have a settlement date, a day of reconking in which any and all parties interested in the transaction, seller, buyer, mortgager, appraisers, insurers, real estate tax authorities, real estate agents etcetera all get their piece of the action. The Bank of International Settlements performs this function for reserve banks. It was estabishied in 1930 so just because you or I have just become familiar with it does not mean that it is secretive. It just means we have just learned something new. (As far as the Fed owing itself it is similar to a Tree in my home town. Under the authority of the State of Alabama title, ownership to this tree belongs to the Tree itself, no one person, or city can cut this tree down, or disturb it. The tree was supposedly a meeting place or council place for the local Indian Tribes.) In the same way the Fed is secured from transient or political influence because it owns iteself.) It is a sick crowd that always feels set upon by forces they no nothing of. It is just a psychological reaction caused by their own ignorance or feelings of incompetence. If you check the education levels of bankers, politicians, world leaders and compare it to the education level of people like Archer above you will immediately know why he is such an air head.)

All middle men have a license to steal. The wealth in my village comes from cotton brokers, peanut brokers etcetera. Like banks they buy the stuff from the poor farmers and sell it to some body else. The banks buy money from us by giving us interest and sell it to someone else for more interest. Yeah they all make a profit but they are also providing a service. You could run all around the country paying your folks in currency, what would that cost you?