U.S. Mint: Don’t Melt the Pennies and Nickels
December 14th, 2006Oh yeah, and don’t try to carry more that $5 worth of the coins out of the U.S. Thanks. Have a nice flight…
The restrictions on moving things of value OUT of the U.S. are, in my opinion, the most telling signs that the U.S. is approaching economic collapse. If they’re implementing this rule for pennies and nickels… After trillions of dollars of public wealth have been stolen and squandered…
Put a fork in it. It’s got to be close to done.
I never really bought into the Government-Seizing-Physical-Gold theories that gold bugs have been howling about for years. Well, even though I didn’t buy into that stuff before, you’d have to be in total denial if you think this pennies and nickels thing isn’t going to be about precious metals at some point in the not to distant future. And I’m not a gold bug anymore. I’m a shovels, seeds, goats and cows bug now.
I don’t like to do things like this, because it frightens people, but I’m left with no choice this time. I’d rather be wrong, and burn some credibility karma, than be right having not said anything.
WARNING: If you plan on removing physical gold, silver or platinum from the U.S., do not wait any longer to do it. GET YOUR ASSETS OUT NOW. The window of opportunity for removing anything of value (that is convertible into another currency) from the sinking ship is closing rapidly.
While it’s impossible to know for sure, I think you should be quietly implementing your overall contingency plans now, whatever those might be. And the fewer people who know about your plans, the better.
Via: USA Today:
People who melt pennies or nickels to profit from the jump in metals prices could face jail time and pay thousands of dollars in fines, according to new rules out Thursday.
Soaring metals prices mean that the value of the metal in pennies and nickels exceeds the face value of the coins. Based on current metals prices, the value of the metal in a nickel is now 6.99 cents, while the penny’s metal is worth 1.12 cents, according to the U.S. Mint.
That has piqued concern among government officials that people will melt the coins to sell the metal, leading to potential shortages of pennies and nickels.
“The nation needs its coinage for commerce,” U.S. Mint director Ed Moy said in a statement. “We don’t want to see our pennies and nickels melted down so a few individuals can take advantage of the American taxpayer. Replacing these coins would be an enormous cost to taxpayers.”
…
There have been no specific reports of people melting coins for the metal, Mint spokeswoman Becky Bailey says. But the agency has received a number of questions in recent months from the public about the legality of melting the coins, and officials have heard some anecdotal reports of companies considering selling the metal from pennies and nickels, she says.
Under the new rules, it is illegal to melt pennies and nickels. It is also illegal to export the coins for melting. Travelers may legally carry up to $5 in 1- and 5-cent coins out of the USA or ship $100 of the coins abroad “for legitimate coinage and numismatic purposes.”
Violators could spend up to five years in prison and pay as much as $10,000 in fines. Plus, the government will confiscate any coins or metal used in melting schemes.
Research Credit: MT and PS
Unreasonable Searches and Seizures
December 14th, 2006Via: Reason:
The rising use of SWAT teams is bad, but it’s about to get worse.
Research Credit: TheAgitator
IRS: Make Sure You Declare Income from Criminal Activities
December 14th, 2006Via: All Financial Matters:
I was reading through the “Other Income†section (scroll down as the page doesn’t seem to be loading correctly) in Publication 17 and found some pretty funny stuff. The section deals with all sorts of “other income†and whether or not you have to report it. Here’s some of the funny stuff I found (word-for-word as the IRS has it written):
Bribes. If you receive a bribe, include it in your income.
Illegal income. Illegal income, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Form 1040, line 21, or on Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity.
Kickbacks. You must include kickbacks, side commissions, push money, or similar payments you receive in your income on Form 1040, line 21, or on Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040), if from your self-employment activity.
Stolen property. If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner.
For Super-Sized Kids, a McGym Is New on the U.S. Menu
December 14th, 2006Pushing the limits of absurdity, in Jesus Land and beyond!
Via: Yahoo/AFP:
US fast-food giant McDonald’s, often accused of catering to expanding waistlines, has a new item on its menu for kids — gyms.
The company is testing R Gyms — in-restaurant mini-gyms with stationary bicycles hooked to video games, obstacle courses and aerobics exercises — in seven of its restaurants to help customers age 4 to 12 fight flab as they ingest calories.
The latest R Gym, named for the restaurant’s advertising mascot Ronald McDonald, opened in California earlier this month and the company is hoping to spread the concept across the United States.
“What we’ve been able to do with the R Gym is to provide our youngest customers with a more relevant contemporary experience, including games and activities that are more suitable to children’s lifestyles today and of course tomorrow,” Danya Proud, a spokeswoman for McDonald’s told AFP.
But critics say the mini-gyms are but an attempt by the burger giant to polish its image at a time when Americans are increasingly aware of the health hazards linked to obesity.
“The number of calories that a child is likely to burn in one of those gyms is quite small compared to what they can eat, even in a small meal,” said Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.
It would take a child, for example, more than three hours of exercise to burn off a 200-calorie milkshake.
Senator Hospitalized with Stroke-Like Symptoms
December 14th, 2006For people who are still looking to get upset about meaningless Left/Right politics, here’s a pretty good one. This will have even the kooks at DailyKos wrapping their heads in tinfoil.
Via: CNN:
He is the senior senator from South Dakota and serves on numerous committees, including appropriations, budget, banking, energy and natural resources, and Indian affairs.
Should Johnson not be able to complete his term, which ends in 2008, South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, a Republican, could appoint his replacement, which could shift the balance of power in the Senate.
Analysts: Dollar Collapse Would Result in ‘Amero’
December 14th, 2006HA! It’s not dinero, it’s amero! For years, this amero concept has seemed like a joke, but if you’re still holding U.S. dollars (or dollar denominated financial instruments), you won’t be laughing.
Via: WorldNetDaily:
Two analysts who have reconstructed money supply data after the Fed stopped publishing it argue a coming dollar collapse will set the stage for creating the amero as a North American currency to replace the dollar.
The reconstructed M3 data – the broadest measure of money – published on econometrician Gary Kuever’s website, NowAndFutures.com, shows M3 increased at a rate of 11 percent in May, compared to 9 percent when the Federal Reserve quit publishing M3 data earlier this year.
Asked why the Fed decided to stop publishing M3 data, Kuever told WND, “The Fed probably wants to hide how much liquidity is being pumped into the market, and I expect the trend to keep pumping liquidity into the market will continue, especially since the economy is slowing down.”
Why is this important?
“The trend line in my M3-plus-debt chart is staggering,” Kuever said. “There has been a straight, long-term trend line of M3-plus-credit increasing since 2000. Long-term, we are creating inflation and the dollar has lost almost 98 percent of its value in the past 100 years.”
Kuever, a retired investor, is concerned that with growing budget and trade deficits “the dollar could collapse.”
“Especially if the Fed cannot increase rates, because we have already entered a recession,” he said.
Bob Chapman, who issued a reconstructed M3 estimate to the 100,000 subscribers to his newsletter, “The International Forecaster”, agrees.
“The world is awash in money and credit,” Chapman told WND. “My numbers show M3 increasing at about a 10-percent rate right now.”
Chapman believes the U.S. economy entered a recession in February. In his newsletter of Dec. 9 he predicted the Fed would hold interest rates at 5.25 percent.
“The Fed is in a very tough spot here,” Chapman wrote, “If they raise rates, the real estate market will collapse, and if they lower rates, the dollar will collapse.”
“What Should I Do with My Money?”
December 13th, 2006WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy sell or hold any financial instrument.
Many people are emailing, wondering: What should I do with my money?
While I think questions at this stage should be about water, shelter and food, a lot of Cryptogon readers still have investments on the brain; as if there’s some logical (and knowable) way to navigate what will probably be the grandest collapse in the history of civilization.
Many people, even now, are simply not thinking weird enough.
If, after reading:
and
Waiting for Clarity on the Brink of Oblivion
…you still feel inclined to try your luck on the ponzi-scheme, faith-based scam known as “investing,” I’ve found an article that you should read closely. Summing it up in one line: The advice being doled out to millionaires by the room-full—buy low management cost ETFs and funds that track stock indexes.
Even though I don’t play with stocks anymore, this is a damn good article, with sound advice—for those who insist on playing with ponzi schemes. It would have been better if it told people to learn how to hedge their stock index bets with out of the money put options. But that might not have maintained the right appearances. People might ask disturbing questions like, “If there’s that much risk involved, why am I playing this game in the first place?” The response of the index pushers would be, “Trust the market, over time…” Sure. How many decades do you have to recover your losses?
What’s the alternative?
Becky and I picked ticks off our goats this afternoon, and watered the garden…
Via: San Francisco Magazine:
For 35 years, Bay Area finance revolutionaries have been pushing a personal investing strategy that brokers despise and hope you ignore.
Small Nuclear War Could Severely Cool the Planet
December 13th, 2006Neocon solution to global warming? <--- Ok, that wasn't funny. Via: San Francisco Chronicle:
A regional nuclear war between Third World nations could trigger planetwide cooling that would likely ravage agriculture and kill millions of people, scientists reported Monday.
For many years, Western military scientists and strategists have assumed that the damage from small-scale regional nuclear wars would be limited to continents on which they occurred. Now, in a revamping of the “nuclear winter” debate of the 1980s, new and far more sophisticated computer models show that even these little nuclear wars could create global devastation.
Research Credit: EP
Saudi Ambassador Abruptly Resigns, Leaves Washington
December 13th, 2006Has Cheney reported to an undisclosed location?
Via: Washington Post:
Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, flew out of Washington yesterday after informing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and his staff that he would be leaving the post after only 15 months on the job, according to U.S. officials and foreign envoys. There has been no formal announcement from the kingdom.
The abrupt departure is particularly striking because his predecessor, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, spent 22 years on the job. The Saudi ambassador is one of the most influential diplomatic positions in Washington and is arguably the most important overseas post for the oil-rich desert kingdom.
Turki, a long-serving former intelligence chief, told his staff yesterday afternoon that he wanted to spend more time with his family, according to Arab diplomats. Colleagues said they were shocked at the decision.
Cryptogon Readers Contribute $31, $20 and $23
December 13th, 2006Anonymous sent $31, RS sent $20 and JG sent $23.
Becky and I decided to use $50 from these funds to become members of the Weston A. Price Foundation. We had both heard of this organization and Becky loves Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. But it wasn’t until some acquaintances in Germany (via Cryptogon and Farmlet) sent us some back issues of the Wise Traditions journal that we knew we had to become members. The journal is packed with incredible articles. Serious Red Pill material. Please check out the Weston A. Price Foundation for yourself.
Thank you all very much!
