Oil, Oozing Out of the Ground into Every Consumer Good On the Planet

1/21/2011 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Today we are taking a short break from our usual rant/commentary.  As long as governments see fit to tinker with the economy and trade, there will be no shortage of fallacies to refute, advice to give, defeats to lament, and victories to cheer.  We see it as our duty to add a voice to the cause of Liberty, no matter how weak and crackled that voice may be.  However, here at The Mint, apart from bombarding our readers with seemingly incessant yet strangely entertaining commentary, we endeavor to go a step further and attempt to educate.  By educate, we mean assist you, fellow taxpayer, in cutting through the onslaught of data to pick out important trends.

As we have mentioned before, at the bottom of every Mint, we provide data on eleven metrics that we have given the title "Key Statistics."  We follow these Key Statistics daily in order to understand what is broadly happening to the economy within the confines of the US Dollar system which has come to dominate world commerce.  Please note that we define the US Dollar as a system, and we must emphasize that this system, which is often mistaken for Money, is in fact a large fishing net, one that is cast over the world in an attempt to measure every activity under the sun.

With all of that said, we will now move on to our educational Mint of the day, the topic of which is oil.

Obama to Eliminate “Just Plain Dumb” Regulations, Default as a Viable Strategy for the US!

1/19/2011 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

We awake today and sense that something is about to change, and change for the better.  We can't quite put our finger on it.  It is just a feeling we get from time to time.  We had this same type of feeling in mid 2009 about 2010.  It was going to be bad.  Not catastrophic, not even funny, but just plain bad.  In some ways we were right.  While all appeared to be well in the financial world, at least if you only look at the government sponsored numbers, one got this sinking feeling that something was amiss. 

Perhaps this may be the best way to sum up 2010.  It was the year that the feeling that something was amiss hit main street.

Let's face it.  When the fruits of over 30 years of monetary madness became evident in 2007 and 2008, the average person did not necessarily know what was going on.  On TV, the politicians and news anchors spoke of things going wrong and what was being done by the government to fix it.  By 2009, it was apparent that no matter how much the politicians said that all was well, all was not well.  By 2010, the full weight of the economic catastrophe was beginning to be felt by the general public.

This year we begin with hope.  We have a feeling that 2011 will be better, maybe much better, for the average Joe.  We have nothing to base this on, only a feeling.  It may be that 2011 will be better only by way of comparison with 2010, but better it will be.

The tax compromise reached near the end of 2010 gave credence to this feeling.

US Debt Ceiling Vote to Ignite Armageddon in Bond Markets? Key Indicators all Point to Inflation

1/18/2011 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

For some months now we have been wrestling with the notion that there will be a major collapse in the Bond Markets.  We have speculated as to the causes and possible effects in these chronicles, comparing the coming events to the battle of Armageddon, famously prophesied by John in the book of Revelation, Chapter 16.  Bondholders have been lured into a valley, and our guess is that they are about to get slaughtered.

When and how will this occur?  This is the subject of our speculation today.  Be forewarned, fellow Gambler, that we do not have any sort of inside information.  Rather, we rely on our own wild imagination and questionable powers of deduction.  Actual events may differ dramatically from what we imagine, and we pray that they will!

Our current speculation has its origin in digesting the reality of the upcoming Congressional vote as to whether or not to raise the debt ceiling.  In the past, this would barely have been news.  The government almost always, without fail, spends more money than it takes in. This is one of the few things that you can count on a democratically elected government to do.  To cover the deficit, the government must issue debt.  Since there is almost always a deficit and there is almost always interest to be paid on existing debt, the amount of debt owed by the government must always increase.  This is the basis of our current insane monetary system.

Gambling on Stock Prices, Kenny Rogers Helps to Explain Price Formation

1/14/2011 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

"You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done."

The Gambler by Kenny Rogers

Despite our warning yesterday, there is no sign on the Oregon coast that the Yuan invasion has begun to move north.  What a relief.  We are still trying to deprogram ourselves from converting everyday prices from Bolivianos into US Dollars.  Creating yet another everyday conversion mechanism for our mind to follow may be more than our system can handle.

A peek at the news today reveals that "Higher food and Energy Costs Lift Wholesale Inflation."  This "Wholesale inflation" is the type of inflation that rolls downhill to the consumer.  High rates of consumer inflation are on the horizon.  As night follows day, so do rising wholesale prices find their way downstream.  Even the ECB seems to think so, though it continues to buy bonds with printed Euros and leaves its special friends and family (read banking cartel) interest rate at 1%.  Worried about inflation?  You must be kidding.  Fellow taxpayers are advised to plan accordingly and get at least some physical silver and/or gold.

Peering further, We see continued evidence of Government mismanagement, this time in their handling of investments.

The Yuan Invades US Shores and Portugal “Clears a Major Hurdle”

1/13/2011 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

The world turns.  Things must move forward.  What must happen will happen, all on its own perfect schedule.  The schedule for certain large events, which is what most humans in the modern world observe closely, is more often than not an absolute mystery.  This frustrates many.  Jesus did not tell us exactly when He will return so that we could schedule an alert on our iPhone, He simply told us that His return is certain and that we must watch for signs and prepare ourselves accordingly. 

In the same way the Market is telling us that the days of the US Dollar's worldwide dominance in commerce will come to a close.  When will it occur?  If we knew, we would be rich.  The truth of the matter is that nobody, not even the authorities who pretend to have supreme control over the world's currencies, knows when the tipping point will occur.  But we are beginning to see many signs.