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The Looters Are in Control
Zero Hedge ^ | Rick Ackerman

Posted on 11/19/2012 7:08:33 PM PST by Perdogg

And now it’s time for Mr. Obama to start paying for all those votes by reaching deep into our pockets. If you intend to avoid paying your “fair share,” however, please take note: There will be few places to hide. For a gimlet-eyed view of what may lie in store for taxpayers and citizens of all political persuasions during the next four years, ponder the guest commentary below, from Wayne Siggard, a regular in the Rick’s Picks forum. RA]

The election was all about new math: 47 = 51. The foresight and genius of the Founders knew no bounds. Ben Franklin said, “Once the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” The trumpets have sounded. The heralds have announced the awakening of the masses to that reality. The greatest and most free nation the world has ever known has just sold its birthright for a mess of pottage; or, at least, the promise of an Obama phone. The takers have voted to take control over the producers.

Everyone will now get a fair shot — except that those who work in government and those who take government welfare will get a fairer shot. Obama knows that you didn’t build that company. You didn’t live frugally and save more money than your neighbor while they spent theirs on drugs or riotous living. He knows this because he didn’t get anything without government assistance — affirmative action put him ahead of more qualified people who earned a spot that he took, just like Elizabeth Warren. You couldn’t possibly have gotten anything on your own merit or hard work.

"A claim for material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers." – Friedrich von Hayek

Von Mises said that full government control of all activities of the individual is virtually the goal of both national parties. Have you ever tried to drill an oil or gas well? Have you ever tried to build a house or commercial building? Have you ever tried to manufacture and sell a product? The International Building Code (IBC) increases in size, restrictions and requirements every year. Why? Because a bureaucracy needs to expand to justify its existence.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." – Lord Acton

Have you ever experienced the disdain and contempt of a bureaucrat whose permission you sought? It used to be that their power to grant a license or permit was retribution for their pay being less than that of the private sector. Now, you get to pay them 50% more than you would get for the same job, and the disdain has not decreased. Firemen, police officers, and military personnel can retire as young as 38, many making over $100,000 per year if they work until 50, and many can take another job and collect another pension on top of the first. Meanwhile, according to the Census Bureau, the average middle class family’s income has decreased $4,019 during the Obama years, to $50,964. More than half of the lifeguards in Newport Beach, CA, make over $150,000 per year and can collect more than $100,000 in pension benefits starting under 50 years of age.

So, What’s Coming?

That paradigm of preternatural prestidigitation, the Federal Reserve Bank, will continue its policy of zero percent interest. The big banks will mask their insolvency with free money from the Feds. Greedy speculators and fools who overspent on housing will have their mistakes paid for by those taxpayers who had the foresight to save and invest wisely. Obama bundlers and other insiders will continue to get billion dollar investments from the government, sucking valuable capital from the private sector. The official inflation rates will miraculously stay low while you are paying 100% more for gasoline and food.

"History is largely a history of inflation, usually inflations engineered by governments for the gain of governments." – Friedrich von Hayek

Foreign nations are no longer purchasing U.S. government bonds. The largest purchaser is the Federal Reserve Bank. In other words, the government is printing money from thin air. In 1970, you could go to Las Vegas and buy a silver dollar for one paper dollar. It now costs around $35. A mansion behind the Beverly Hills Hotel sold for $200,000. It resold in 2004 for $16 million. A house in Flintridge, CA, sold for $115,000. Its current value is $4.5 million. The base price for a Corvette was $5192. It is now $49,600, a comparative bargain. What you could buy for $1 million in 1970 now takes $36 million. Senator Everett Dirksen in the 1960s is reputed to have remarked,” a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon we’re talking real money.” You can now add three zeros. The bottom line is that if you are collecting 0.15% interest on your CD, you are losing real purchasing value of at least 10%, and that rate will be accelerating in the next four years. Carlo Ponzi was a hopeless naïf compared to our elected officials.

Harry Reid Has a Plan

Harry Reid already has a bill on his desk which requires that all pension plans (except for the unions, of course), 401Ks, and IRAs be converted to annuities from the government. This pile of cash represents the largest pile of readily available cash in the world right now. The money will be gone as soon as it hits the government’s account, and you will be left with empty promises. There is no money, only a printing press.

Capital export controls will be enacted. You will not be able to get your money out of the country. Already you can no longer open a bank account in Switzerland unless you have over $30 million because the reporting requirements are too onerous for a smaller account. All requests to Switzerland for visas from Americans will be suspended. History will be repeated (shocking, I know), and all gold in private hands will be confiscated. The Republicans will cave, the tax rates will rise, and anyone making more than the insider politicians and government employees will encounter ever-increasing marginal tax rates.

Payoffs for votes will be made. Affirmative action requirements will be increased in every field of endeavor. Women’s abortions and contraceptives will be free. Regulations will stop the advent of fracking and the boom in oil and natural gas will come to an abrupt halt. Payments to environmental groups for lawyer’s fees will expand exponentially. Government-controlled lands with oil and gas potential will be declared wilderness or national monuments, just like Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah. I could go on for another ten pages, but , in a nutshell, the message from Mr. Obama is, “You lost.”

And finally, Israel has recognized that Mr. Obama will offer no succor. Before the end of January, they will raid Iran. Gasoline will reach $7 per gallon, and voila, solar and wind energy will be competitive. No matter that your thermostat is set at 40 degrees, if you can get fuel or power.

The looters are in control. Set your alarms.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Politics/Elections
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1 posted on 11/19/2012 7:08:35 PM PST by Perdogg
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To: Perdogg

I must have missed it when I retired from the Marines. $150,000, in my dreams.


2 posted on 11/19/2012 7:19:00 PM PST by gunner03
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To: Perdogg
The looters are in control. Set your alarms.

And keep your powder dry.

Line.
Sand.
Drawn.

3 posted on 11/19/2012 7:24:19 PM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal The 16th Amendment!)
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To: Perdogg

Rick Ackerman is a very sharp market analyst, with an interest in gold and precious metals stocks. His specialty is what he calls the “hidden pivot” in chart analysis. I haven’t subscribed to his service, but I’ve read quite a lot of his work.

He’s not usually into politics. It sounds as if he must be feeling pretty desperate, to write this.


4 posted on 11/19/2012 7:33:12 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Perdogg

Just another day in paradise.


5 posted on 11/19/2012 7:38:14 PM PST by Gator113 (WHO gave the order to NOT rescue our men in Benghazi?)
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To: Perdogg
Obama is an evil communist dictator.

Every day these they pass more laws and regulations that take away our freedom.

They have even banned light bulbs for the government funded hoax of goball warming:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/first_they_came_for_our_watt_bulbs_4UHGL0Mnmp76P8n9UO152I

This shows socialism doesn't work.

Every person I have talked to isn't even aware that they are banning lightbulbs. Soon they'll want to check our houses to see if we have them and haven't changed to those mercury laden curly bulbs.

democrats/communists have to be stopped.

6 posted on 11/19/2012 7:47:45 PM PST by rurgan (give laws an expiration date:so the congress has to review every 4 years to see if needed)
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To: Perdogg

Most of the people who voted for obama don’t have 401ks. And many who voted for Romney don’t have any either. So, if the government said “We’re going to take your 401k and you’ll be better off” there are millions who will say “Great! I don’t have one so I don’t care.” And many people who have them will say “Okay, I trust the government.”


7 posted on 11/19/2012 7:48:52 PM PST by Terry Mross (I haven't watched the news since the election. Someone ping me if anything big happens.)
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To: Perdogg

Let me see if I can make the paradigm easy to understand ...

Its now the Makers VS. the Takers.


8 posted on 11/19/2012 7:49:37 PM PST by R0CK3T
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To: R0CK3T

Correct


9 posted on 11/19/2012 7:50:47 PM PST by Broker ( sojourner)
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To: Perdogg

Buy a small patch of farmland and grow your own food.

Yeah, that takes a ton of work but the value of your sweat is plummeting right now. Make something real from it.

After that it’s just ammunition and a good water supply.

See you after the shooting dies down.


10 posted on 11/19/2012 7:56:21 PM PST by DNME (It's never over. Never.)
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To: Terry Mross

I don’t get the 401k scare. Granted, government will confiscate if the mood strikes. But they’ll take anything because they’re sluts. Why are we so particularly defensively about 401ks, anyway, when they started openly and deliberately stealing retirement for our own good over 70 years ago? It’s as if they banned fruit, then legalized apples, and now we’re frightened they’ll take away our apples. What about the rest of the fruit? Should’ve held the line for it all instead of apples alone.

Besides, if they can’t get 401k money directly they’ll inflate it into their coffers.


11 posted on 11/19/2012 8:02:27 PM PST by Tublecane
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To: Broker

Just look at that map, all that Red area is transferring their wealth and property to the Blue to pay for their self voted entitlements.

At some point the Red will figure out what’s going on then its going to ge ugly IMO.


12 posted on 11/19/2012 8:03:43 PM PST by R0CK3T
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To: Perdogg

No place to hide?

http://www.LivingInThePhilippines.com

http://travel.cnn.com/singapore/life/five-reasons-why-expats-love-singapore-550132


13 posted on 11/19/2012 8:24:30 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: Tublecane

I just wish I would have spent it on hookers and booze instead of saving it all those years.


14 posted on 11/19/2012 8:27:30 PM PST by Dr. Pritchett
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To: Perdogg; All

Prepare. Persevere.


15 posted on 11/19/2012 8:30:09 PM PST by PGalt
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To: rurgan

“They have even banned light bulbs for the government funded hoax of goball warming”

That was pure GOP. Fred Upton put it in the bill, and Bush signed it.


16 posted on 11/19/2012 8:41:40 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
When the US goes, there will be no restraint from China. I wouldn’t want to be a neighbor...
17 posted on 11/19/2012 8:47:59 PM PST by DB
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Singapore? Not exactly a free country if you disagree with the
Minister Mentor..


18 posted on 11/19/2012 9:08:36 PM PST by RitchieAprile (the obsteperous gentleman..)
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To: DesertRhino
Now that Obama stole the election we now live in a communist dictatorship ( what people always came to America to get away from).It's the communist piece of crap Obama that is destroying our freedom and our country . It was Obama , democrats and the media who passed socialist Obamacare with which the government now will control every aspect of our healthcare and so controls the individual and all of us. Obamacare killed freedom and tipped us into becoming a socialist county and Not a single Republican voted for the socialist Obamcare but I'm sure you will all try to blame Republicans for that too instead of focusing on the threat Obama and the democrat party who are evil anti-American communists nothing of you which can claim Bush was)Yeah sure everything is Bush's fault to you( I bet you think Bush wrote Obamacare and the 100,000 of pages of laws and more government regulations democrats have imposed on us). I can tell you that if Obama and democrats do not get thrown out of power AND we remove all of these government regulators (including the EPA and IRS) that we will be slaves in decaying socialist hell hole the likes of we have never seen , a huge public housing project at best .
19 posted on 11/19/2012 9:42:56 PM PST by rurgan (give laws an expiration date:so the congress has to review every 4 years to see if needed)
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To: Perdogg

I took a Thanksgiving meal today to a family having some trouble.

Conservatives believe in helping the poor, but NOT helping them STAY POOR!!!


20 posted on 11/19/2012 9:49:21 PM PST by djf (Political Science: Conservatives = govern-ment. Liberals = givin-me-it.)
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