Monthly Archives: March 2010

Precious Metals Manipulators and Assassins

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This sounds like the script for the next Jason Bourne movie, but it is real and it is happening right now.

The players:

  • JPMorgan Chase – allegedly some of The Smartest Guys in the Room
  • a London trader named Andrew McGuire – trades precious metals on the commodities markets
  • the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)- The US Government agency responsible for regulating the futures markets
  • the Gold Anti-Trust Action committee (GATA) – a private organization committed to exposing fraud in the Gold Futures markets

Late last fall, Andrew McGuire received first-hand information that JPMorgan Chase actively and intentionally manipulated the price of silver in the futures market. By “first-hand”, I mean that JPM traders bragged to him about what they did and how they did it. Later, McGuire provided the CFTC with specific forecasts as to what was going to happen in the silver markets and when. He was completely accurate, which gave credence to his assertion that the market was manipulated. The CFTC apparently did nothing with the information, since they’ve had it since November. Last week, McGuire contacted GATA director Adrian Douglas with the information. Douglas was scheduled to testify to the CFTC and he used that testimony as an opportunity to expose the scam.

The next day, McGuire and his family were injured when their car was T-boned by a hit-and-run driver in London.

A word to the wise…

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Officially More Fascist Than Yesterday

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Well, no one can ever accuse the Executive, the Legislature or the lifetime government bureaucrats of allowing a silly anachronism like The Rule of Law to get in the way Health Care Reform. I don’t know why we would expect any different. They didn’t allow The Rule of Law to be an impediment to Financial Reform, The War on Terror, The War on Drugs, The War on Poverty, and virtually every other function of the federal government. I’d be more depressed about the way the government has destroyed the last vestiges of our representative republic if I hadn’t already grown used to the fact that the America I used to believe in no longer exists.

I will be the first to admit that our health-care system is broken. Horribly, horribly broken. But I’ve also spent my entire adult life watching the government lie, cheat, steal and kill all in the name of “helping us”. It leaves me speechless to know that any thinking adult could still believe the government is going to make health care better. Someone – anyone – show me something the free market used to do that the government now does better.

I no longer have any faith in our government whatsoever. It is beyond reform. It is beyond reason. It is beyond the restraints of the law. It is criminal, corrupt and arbitrary. It is peopled primarily by egomaniacs, criminals and morons. I am more than happy to let anyone who wants to be “ruled” by such people do so, but I respectfully request that you not force me to do so. I will under no circumstances relinquish my liberty.

I was born free, I will live free and I will die free.

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When Divorce is Inevitable

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I was listening to the radio this morning and heard a couple of sound bites from Nancy Pelosi. In the first, she admitted that “many of our people, (meaning, Democratic Congressmen), don’t want to vote for this health bill.” In the second, she said, “we will do whatever it takes to pass this bill”. It left the impression that there was a small cadre of people who were determined to create a new healthcare system regardless of the rule of law.

This country – to all appearances – is more polarized than ever. There’s a group of people utterly committed to socializing healthcare and another group of people equally committed to a free-market solution. These two groups will never agree. The only solution that will please both is divorce.

The time has come for us to start talking about divorce. If we cannot get along, and there is no doubt that we cannot, then the most reasonable solution is to shake hands, bid each other farewell, and go our separate ways.

In that vein, Fred Reed has a typically insightful piece today about what may happen when the States assert their sovereignty. Good stuff.

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Should You Walk Away?

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Walking away from a mortgage that is no longer a good deal for you is not immoral. If you’re having trouble with your mortgage, you need to read this article by University of Arizona professor Brent T White. The article is about the economic impact of walking away from your mortgage, but there’s more to it than that. Here’s what I consider “the money quote”:

Norms governing homeowner behavior stand in sharp contrast to norms governing lenders, who seek to maximize profits or minimize losses irrespective of concerns of morality or social responsibility. This norm asymmetry leads to distributional inequalities in which individual homeowners shoulder a disproportionate burden from the housing collapse. (My emphasis)

Keeping a mortgage that is killing you is not only not “the right thing to do”, it is also stupid. Don’t let the bastards of Wall Street and D.C. make a slave out of you.

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