Militarism

As America goes down the drain economically, and the buck loses ever more value and purchasing power, there are many reasons for it. We have discussed the huge problem of overseas jobs, and how some of it comes about by tinkering with tariffs. But there are other serious things, which debilitate the dollar, causing it to shrink in value. Among them is the fact that America has become an extremely militaristic nation.

Many are now comparing us to the Roman Empire, which self bankrupted itself by means of expansionism and militarism, which the Romans could not pay for, and which caused them to fail and fall. Chalmers Johnson's book, "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic," illustrates the situation very clearly, and he especially takes it out on the military. Economics is the thing which we all live and die by, and economics is the main thrust of "Militarism." According to the Federation of American Scientists, since the beginning of WW II, America has used military force in other nations, 201 times, and in most cases we were the instigator of the use of force. We have never succeeded in creating a single democratic institution in any of these forays. This leads the rest of the world to believe that we are an imperialist power, a new Rome, an out of control military society, fully determined to dominate the rest of the world.

40% of the military budget is "black," or secret, even from most members of Congress. The Black Budget, as an example, constructed a $300 million National Reconnaissance Office building without anyone knowing about it, even though it was plainly visible on Route 28, west of D.C. Elegant Lady, Tractor Rose, Forest Green, Senior Citizen, island Sun, and Black Light, White Cloud, and Classic Wizard, are all black budget items, which few outside of the military know how much they cost, or what they are. They cost hundreds of millions of paper dollars, all run off the printing presses, which decay the dollar. Johnson says, "We don't manufacture that much in this country any more, are the largest single weapons manufacturer on earth, and will sell weapons to practically anyone who wants them. We like to pretend that this is capitalism, but it isn't. It has only one customer, and the industry is extremely concentrated. According to the Pentagon's own count, we currently have 737 American military bases located in other countries. It took 300 years for the Roman Empire to succumb. In my lifetime, I've seen the collapse of the Nazi, Imperial Japanese, British, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Soviet Empires. If you and I were talking in 1985, and I said to you that four years from now, the Soviet Union would disappear, you'd have thought he's probably daydreaming, but now it's gone." Very observant fellow.

America today, thanks to trade imbalances, welfare expenditures of various types, huge military expeditions, and the various black budget items, has unfunded but committed expenditures of $70 TRILLION DOLLARS, which obviously are un-payable. We have become dependent on foreign nations to buy our debt, in order to keep us trading with them. China knowingly holds hundreds of millions of US debt paper, and it well knows we are bankrupt. China and other nations keep buying our debt because we spend the dollars with them, which fosters their development and liquidity with un-backed pieces of paper. Both sides are participating in a game of musical chairs, except the public doesn't know the game is on-going. The public, thanks to the bought and paid for media, keep telling us that the economy us wonderful, and Bush has announced that he has cut the deficit by 50% as he promised. The "official" government figures on everything to do with economics are fairy tales, but everyone believes them.

SUDDENLY

That was a '50s movie with Frank Sinatra, and well worth a rent and watch, but has nothing to do with today. Suddenly, is how things can happen, be it an auto accident, explosion, or collapse. Think about it and remember how suddenly the World Trade Center thing happened, school shootings, blowing up a US ammunition dump in Iraq two days ago, A Yankee Pitcher slamming his plane into a NY upper east side apartment building, or a collapse of a nation's economy. Boom! And it's over, sometimes in an instant. Not to again mention a thing past, but the reichsmark was worth a quarter in 1922, and two years later, it was a ratio of 5 million to one US dollar, at which point it was used to start fires or wipe one's behind. If China, or some other sucker nation decided that they no longer needed to prop up the US fragile economy, and stopped buying our irrational debt, we would come down just like Humpty Dumpty's falling off the wall. Remember when the stock market took its dive in just a few days? The mighty Soviet Union collapsed like a deck of cards in a very short period of time, and all of its subservient nations became independent immediately.

How many marriages have instantly dissolved, when one of the mates discovered that the other had been cheating, maybe for years? America has been cheating for years by printing un-backed dollars with no limits of any kind, and spending itself into obscurity, but like the cheating mate, no one has exposed it. When the truth was found, the marriage dissolved instantly, and the Soviet was no more. The Soviets had been bankrupt for years, just like America, and they had been cheating, and deceiving for a long time, but when the truth came out, they were suddenly kaput. It is not difficult to think of 'suddenly' things. A slip of a hammer or saw, a miscount of dollars, a bad check, a falling building, a fire or explosion, a car wreck, a bankrupt retail chain, or a host of other unexpected, but in retrospect, obvious faults. Chains or retail establishments often hide debts and cook the books to hope that they can pull themselves out of the fire. When it is no longer possible, all the stores close immediately, everyone is fired, and the creditors can only hope for the best.

Why is it so difficult to realize that the U.S. economy is far worse than any chain of retail establishments, failing marriages, or a firetrap building. The U.S. economy is holding together by the sheerest of threads. The Dow rushes ahead to new highs, while its P/E ratio is 22 to 1, or double what it should be, and the black budget items continue to grow and steal. With a $70 trillion debt which is committed and unavoidable, and the presses running night and day, why does it take a few truthful people such as myself to point this out, while the media ignores it completely? Are we in error? Are we exaggerating? Are we lying? Is Stott's law, which states that the more of anything there is, the less they are worth, including dollars, a falsehood?

Ike warned about the military-industrial complex, but then he partook by feeding it lavishly while he was in office. Succeeding presidents and Congress have fed and fed and fed that complex, and we are now on the bankrupting, militaristic path which Rome, Greece, Egypt, and all previous world powers and empires have trod, with their inevitable and unavoidable collapse. There's no way the citizenry can correct what the D.C. Gang has wrought for decades, even by voting correctly The least thing informed people can do is protect themselves by not saving any surplus assets in the currency of the failing nation, but rather by saving in historic money, which is silver and gold. It makes so much sense, but it is impossible for the average public school graduate to contemplate, and especially when the gods of the media are either ignorant of the facts, or are in league with the D.C. Gang, and hope to prop it up as long as possible. It all looks so nice now. The fall is upon us, and the leaves are brilliant in their colors. The stock market is up, and all are happy, except for the record bankruptcies, foreclosures, and job losses to China and Mexico. A client just bought gold from me as I am writing this, and a news broadcast he just heard, said that there are over 400,000 illegals in Houston, not counting the refugees from Katrina. Is this a sign of insolvency, with the illegals getting free medical and many social benefits, plus breeding new babies which are automatically citizens? Can America print to feed and care for the lazy, illegal, and worthless forever, without officially declaring what it is, and that is bankrupt? How long can a falsehood be maintained? You tell me, but in the mean time, protect yourself.

October 12, 2006

Don Stott has been a precious metals dealer since 1977, has written five books, hundreds of columns, and his web site is www.coloradogold.com