Every Crisis Is An Opportunity For Plunder
The Financial Times is reporting that a major U.S. bank has begun stuffing its automatic teller machines with extra cash. The source reports that the banks fear a possible bank run from panicked depositors due to the national brinkmanship being played out by the government’s debt ceiling. But they’re lying.
We’ve been here before…
In August 2011, moneyed interests began sounding the alarms in a similar fashion. The head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde said that failing to raise the debt limit “could very seriously damage not only the U.S. economy but the entire global economy.” She has declared that raising the American’s debt ceiling is:”mission-critical“.
Warren Buffett has also sounded the alarms declaring that not raising the debt ceiling is like unleashing a nuclear bomb. And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men are bemoaning that if we don’t raise the debt ceiling, we’ll never put humpty back together again. International financial institutions have a vested interest in scaring the American people into doing what they want, and this ATM ploy is just the latest trick in their bag.
Don’t fall for it.
President Barack Obama‘s address to the nation on Tuesday declared that he was willing to negotiate with the GOP, if they agree to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown. The president declared that Congress can’t choose what part of the government can or cannot be funded. He is wrong however. Economist Thomas Sowell writes,
As for the House of Representatives’ right to grant or withhold money, that is not a matter of opinion either. You can check the Constitution of the United States. All spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, which means that Congressmen there have a right to decide whether or not they want to spend money on a particular government activity. Whether ObamaCare is good, bad or indifferent is a matter of opinion. But it is a matter of fact that members of the House of Representatives have a right to make spending decisions based on their opinion.
Should we raise the debt limit?
The national debt limit was reached back in May, but the Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew has been using accounting tricks in order to keep financing the government without borrowing. Lew says he will no longer be able to continue after October the 17th. The borrowing limit was first enacted in 1917, and Congress has subsequently raised it 77 times. The current ceiling is at $16.7 trillion.
The President does not need to raise the debt ceiling limit in order to authorize more spending however. The 14th amendment of the United States authorizes it automatically when it says: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law … shall not be questioned.” So technically the government can incur whatever debts it wants, according to the constitution, and those debts are valid. The president will likely not choose this route however.
If the government doesn’t make a decision by October 22nd the cash will run out. The president is refusing to negotiate unless Republicans give in to his demands to fund the government WITH Obamacare AND raise the debt ceiling. Meanwhile nearly the entire financial world is busy terrorizing the population with economic scare tactics to get us to acquiesce to more borrowing and more debt.
We should resist.
After all…
“The only thing we have to fear… is fear itself!”
