September 2010
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Dear Reader,
Recently one of my physicians said he is too busy to follow the events EWR deals with, and he doesn't even read the newspaper.
If he’d asked my opinion about this, I’d have said, “You know all the money you work thousands of hours each year to accumulate? If you don’t become savvy about geopolitics and economics, it will go away.” More about this on page 2.
In a hard-to-spot way, the fast-escalating gay marriage legal battles have become important to investors. In addition to legal rights, many same-sex couples seek formal state “recognition” of their marriages. Opponents fear this would tarnish state recognition of theirs.
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The Keynesian nightmare is in full force now. As predicted in the 2/10 EWR, deflation is back, and the world is headed for big trouble. I've lowered both velocity estimates again. A change in our investment tactics is on page 2. (Velocity is explained in the June-July 2008 EWR.)To both sides, I ask, do you really want your marriage blessed by the government?
I’d sooner have mine blessed by the Keystone Kops.
The world needs to grow up and realize that governments are not the measure of legitimacy.
Legitimacy comes from adherence to ethical principles, not from politics.
By asking government officials to pass judgment on all sorts of things that are none of their business — such as affairs of the heart — we confer upon them a credibility they do not deserve.
The implications are profound. For instance, when the government says we are coming out of the recession, we should invest accordingly, right?
A lot of people do.
Investors are told China is a good spot to put money, the place is booming. How do we know China is booming? Because statistics reported by the Chinese government say it is.
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Truly, I kid you not, there are people over age four who believe the Chinese government tells the truth.
As in the case of gay marriage, investors who look to government for authenticity and credibility would be more in touch with reality if they’d throw in with the Keystone Kops.
2,500 years of economic history show clearly that political power corrupts. All governments, without exception, lie, cheat and steal, and always have. In recent years their schemes and swindles have sent untold millions of investors to the poor house. Let’s stop helping them pretend they are a source of legitimacy.
More about this on pages 3 and 4. As for the other articles in this issue, my wife says to warn you, they will be scary.
September 2010, Page 2
Weren’t the American founders exceptions to “power corrupts?” No. As revolutionaries and founders, they were brilliant. But once their new regime was in operation, they launched a government-owned central bank, a bond scam, the unconstitutional Louisiana Purchase, and a default on debts to France followed by an unconstitutional war with France. This leads to a question that is rarely asked: if the founders couldn’t be trusted with power, who can? ♦
Investments, Peace of Mind
In the January EWR I asked, has the Fed run out of maneuvering room?
My conclusion was, probably: “I think the odds are very high that if they print enough money to keep the depression from happening, they will send the dollar into a hyperinflation like the one in 1779, when George Washington wrote, ‘a wagon load of money will scarcely purchase a wagon load of provisions.’1” (You will find a concise 4-page explanation of this loss of maneuvering room in the 1/10 EWR. Back issues of EWR are $15.00 each, or you can get the full EWR archive on CD here or call 800-509-5400.)
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Evidence that the Fed has indeed run out of room is piling up fast. The August 10th announcement by the Fed that the economy is weaker than they expected and they need to loosen more was, in my opinion, a historic turning point. It was a tacit admission that Keynesianism has failed utterly and miserably, and they don’t know what else to do except apply more Keynesianism: print more money!
The St. Louis Federal Reserve web site admits that over the past two years, the Fed has poured more than a trillion dollars into the banks.
Most of it is still there, waiting for bankers to develop the courage to loan it into the economy.
Also, non-financial corporations are holding two trillion dollars.
That’s three trillion greenbacks on hold, waiting to avalanche into the economy as soon as the managers of these dollars become optimistic enough to deploy them. And, on August 10th, Fed officials said they will loosen more. Such is the stuff of which hyperinflations are made.
A powerful advantage
One reason Harry Browne invented the Permanent Portfolio and Variable Portfolio strategy described in his little Fail-Safe Investing book is to give us peace of mind. With the Permanent Portfolio, we don’t need to endlessly hover over our investments, tweaking our portfolios according to fast changing conditions.
In addition to recommending the Permanent Portfolio, EWR makes suggestions for the Variable Portfolio, in case you want to speculate. Our emphasis on the two dominant economic trends — more war and more debasement of currencies — has helped in this quest for peace of mind. I didn’t plan it that way, but that’s how it turned out. Here’s how.
You can, if you want, trade in and out of investments that benefit from the two trends. Or, you can do what I do. I just stay in things that look like they have a good chance of doing well from these trends over the long run. I ride through the occasional downturns, like the one now, having faith that governments will remain stupid and corrupt and will continue returning us to the two trends.
This saves me from needing to be good at timing. If I got off the train every time I thought a temporary drop in these investments was near, I’d be faced with two problems: First, what if I’m wrong? If the drop does not happen, I’ll be left standing at the station, with the train long gone.
Second, if I’m off the train, when do I get back on? It’s almost a sure bet I’ll be either too early or too late. The worry would likely freeze me into immobility, or stampede me into something half-baked.
The way I look at it, when you are invested in things that do well during wartime or during currency debasement, you have all the stupidity and corruption of the world’s governments working in your favor. I cannot imagine a more powerful advantage.
Another reason I don’t sell
As predicted on page 1 of the February 2010 EWR, the US and most of the world have returned to conditions that are deflationary, due to a fall in velocity. Cash is king, and nearly all investments have a temporary downward bias.
With deflationary conditions back in the driver’s seat, it is tempting to sell everything and go into cash. But with that $3 trillion overhang threatening at any moment to plunge into the economy, I’d be terrified to do it. If the overhang breaks loose suddenly, I could wake up one morning to find the value of the dollar in a free fall and no one willing to accept dollars in trade for their goods or services. Cash could go from king to crud in an eye blink.
My best guess is, the present deflationary interlude will turn into a bargain-hunting opportunity in a number of months (not years). But the opportunity isn’t here yet, so I consider any new investment purchase to be too risky for my tastes at this time. Patience is my watchword. Sometimes the wisest thing to do is nothing.
September 2010, Page 3
When I think the bottom has arrived, I will let you know. Until then, I’m just accumulating cash in anticipation of what may turn out to be the last great buying opportunity for many years.
If I’m right that the Fed has run out of maneuvering room, then this downturn will wave a full-blown deflationary depression at us. Officials will panic and launch a slapped-together inflationary scheme that will lure or force the three trillion dollars into the economy, plus perhaps a trillion or two more just to make sure it works.
I will do my best to spot the inflationary reversal on the horizon and give you some good buying suggestions before prices shoot into the stratosphere.♦
The secret Jewish tragedy
The physician I wrote about on page 1 is Jewish. I’ve met lots of Jews, and others, who just let their Uncle Saul manage their money. Uncle Saul has been handling the family’s finances for decades and he knows a lot.
This tradition worked well for Jews for centuries. However, there is a reason why so many Jews have names such as Goldstein, Silverstein, Goldberg and Silverberg. (Stein means stone, and berg means mountain.)
For all of history until the 20th century, money was gold and/or silver. In the Middle Ages in Europe, Christians were forbidden to be moneylenders, so the lending of gold and silver became the province of Jews. Many Jews became extremely knowledgeable about finance and economics.
Also, Jews had close-knit communities in which the experience of the ages was passed down from generation to generation. It’s probably not much of an exaggeration to say that across Europe, if your money was not being managed by a Jew, your chances of losing it were much greater.
In short, the Jews were western civilization’s repository of financial experience and wisdom, and they appreciated the importance of gold and silver. (Precious metals cannot be created out of thin air, which means they cannot cause malinvestment or become worthless.)
Then the 20th century brought two monetary disasters for Jews. One was that central banks, with their stop-start-stop-start monetary policies, began shifting the economic hot spots all over the globe. Clans of every ethnic stripe, Jews included, broke up and scattered, searching for jobs and business opportunities.
Fledgling Sauls no longer spent evenings at the feet of elderly Sauls, absorbing centuries of economic wisdom.
This led to the second disaster. Fledgling Sauls had to get the knowledge from someone, so they went to college. There they were taught Keynesianism.
Keynesianism contradicts 3,000 years of Jewish experience. It teaches, among other things, that governments can be trusted, and gold and silver are not necessary backing for the government’s currency.
I sometimes wonder if the whole Federal Reserve and Keynesian fiat currency scam wasn’t designed as an attack on the collective economic memory of Jews. The financial lessons taught by the elderly Saul Goldsteins and Saul Silverbergs were the bedrock of modern civilization, and in the 20th century these lessons were effectively erased.
If someone you care about is suffering from the recent economic calamities, it’s a near certaintythat he or she is a victim of the Keynesians who obliterated thousands of years of Jewish wisdom. 2 ♦
Dangers in Financial regulations
Be very careful. More giant financial scams are inevitable, I believe, due to the Fed’s loose monetary policy and to the June 25th passage of the Dodd-Frank financial “reform” bill. This is a devil’s brew if there ever was one. Two points:
First, economic history shows clearly that when massive amounts of money are injected into an economy, people go wild chasing it. Millions contract get-rich-quick fever and turn to gambling — “investing” — of one sort or another. Numerous hoaxes spring up as various species of vermin come out of the woodwork to take advantage of the frenzy. The tech and real estate bubbles are only two of the more recent examples. More can be found in the 1841 classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds by Charles Mackay.
If you think the pre-crash inflation of the money supply produced a lot of scams, wait till you see what the post-crash inflation produces.
Second, millions of Americans, including politicians, have been taught in school that their country has a free market capitalist economy. This is while federal, state and local regulations are so numerous no one knows how many there are, certainly tens of thousands. This is freedom?
September 2010, Page 4
The “financial reform” bill began with more than 1,300 pages,3 and ended at over 2,300.4 It requires 243 new federal rule-makings, each of which will be hundreds or thousands more pages of law.5
This one dictate will touch not only members of the financial industry but farmers, storefront check cashiers, small manufacturers, home buyers and others.6
No human could possibly…
…read all laws, much less understand them, or know which ones he or she is violating. Yet, if you do something illegal, ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Law researcher Harvey Silverglate estimates that on average every American unwittingly commits three felonies per day.7
Did you know that the Clean Water Act classifies sand and rock as “pollutants,” and if you skip a stone into a lake, you are committing felony pollution?8 Up to 15 years in prison.
The Federal Code alone contains more than 4,400 criminal offenses,9 many of them financial. Prosecutors are known to spend their lunch hours playing a game in which they look for ways to indict and convict Mother Teresa.10
Again, this is free market capitalism?
A key point: The regulations are so numerous and convoluted that even the most honest financial expert is forced to create investment vehicles that are mysterious. The documentation for any publicly traded instrument must cover so many bases, and be written in such detail that, in effect, simplicity and clarity are illegal.
Please read those last five words again. The subprime mortgage meltdown exposed the fact that even the world’s top financial experts did not know what they had been buying.
The public was taught in school that regulations protect them, so they feel safe putting their money into things they don’t comprehend. Crooks know this and take advantage of it.
Regarding the new 2,300-page law that is touted as a way to shield us, none other than the former head of the SEC, Harvey Pitt warns, “This legislation fixes nothing, accomplishes nothing, yet promises everything,” and it has “loopholes so large that a fleet of trucks could get past the supposed barriers.”11
Markets can fix this problem…
…easily if they are allowed. The two-step solution is quite simple. First, eliminate all the thousands of regulations and replace them with just one, of four words: thou shalt not steal.
Second, repeatedly warn the public, do not invest in anything you don’t understand.
This way, if the investment industry wants your money, they will be forced to make their products very simple and transparent, and they will be able to do this, because simplicity and clarity will no longer be illegal.
Unfortunately, Washington is headed in the opposite direction, enacting more regulations, so here is an early warning: it will take a few months or a year for the financial quacks to figure out how to cloak themselves in the new red tape, but after they do, Goldman Sachs, Bernie Madoff, Lehman Brothers and the other scandals of recent years will look like child’s play.
Summary: the regulatory jungle…
… is where the crooks hide, and the government is making the jungle bigger and thicker. Wise investors will not only become more cautious and reluctant about buying financial instruments, they will become more interested in things that are simple and understandable, such as gold, silver and platinum coins.♦
Get your loved ones out of the country?
For at least 20 years my wife and I have been agonizing over that question. We have friends who have left the country, and in recent years, as economic conditions have deteriorated, we’ve been mulling over the pros and cons ourselves. We’ve finally come to a decision.
The pertinent facts should be divided into two categories, economic and political.
The economic threat
In my opinion, economic history shows that a century of insane monetary policy is nearly certain to end in a revolution. The shakeout of America’s malinvestment is already very disruptive, and it has hardly begun. I think it will create widespread feelings of despair, and desperate people do desperate things.
September 2010, Page 5
Economic conditions may become much worse in America than in a lot of other places, because America has long been a bastion of Keynesianism and therefore contains an immeasurable but certainly gigantic amount of malinvestment. Also, the US government has accumulated the largest debt in world history.
However, you can survive a bad economy. All of your ancestors for tens of thousands of years before the 20th century survived economic conditions that were far, far worse than anything reasonably likely in the coming crisis. Most lived their entire lives in constant fear of starving to death.
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Take a look at the movie “Gone with the Wind.” That was America’s worst time, and you may have ancestors who went through it. What we will experience will almost certainly not be as bad, although I think it will be as big and important.
Before you make a decision about leaving the country, watch the intriguing PBS video called “The 1900 House,” which you can get at www.netflix.com. This film series shows what life was like for the typical urban middle class family in 1900. If you don’t know much about economic history, you will be appalled.
Then try to imagine what life was like two centuries ago, three centuries, four, etc.
Granted, I do think things in the US could become worse than 1900 for anywhere from a few days to a few months. But if you’ve made preparations, stockpiling life’s necessities, it won’t likely be more than a scary inconvenience to you.
The worst we will face for a long period, meaning more than a year, I believe, will be a drop in our standard of living to that of the 1940s.
A very important point…
…is that this crisis is global, and the world is interconnected. No matter where you go, you will probably experience a steep slide in your standard of living for a while. It won’t be as bad as 1900, at least not for very long, but it won’t be fun. Be prepared.
Since the crisis is global, for me the deciding factor is not the economic threat but …
… the political threat
2,500 years of economic history show clearly that when governments get themselves into this much trouble, they go bananas. The reason is psychology.
Take Obama, or any other president in the world. Although he is an ordinary human elected only to do a managerial job, he lives like royalty, and is admired and even loved by tens of millions. He is told repeatedly in a thousand ways that he is a superior form of homo sapiens.
He has grown accustomed to this exalted position, and to a feeling of self-esteem beyond that of a Greek god.
Then one day, after the country has been in economic turmoil for years, he looks out his window and finds a mob. Ten thousand enraged people hate him so much they want to kill him.
Imagine the emotional whiplash the politician feels.
In an effort to save his neck, he panics and pulls out all the stops, trying one desperate measure after another.
The desperate measures make things worse. (The $1.4 trillion federal deficit shows we are already in the early stages of this.)
In a few months, the mob of ten thousand has grown to fifty thousand. Then a hundred thousand.
Now paranoid, the ruler levies draconian measures, turning the country into a police state. Gestapo and storm troopers are on every street corner.
September 2010, Page 6
I am entirely convinced that if our global Keynesian economic crisis continues along the path it is on, a lot of very nice countries will end up with dictatorships and concentration camps. That’s why…
…we’ve made a firm decision…
…to stay in America.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t have a prepared refuge in one or more other countries. If you have the resources to do it, you should. New Zealand, Switzerland and Canada, in that order, would be my top picks. A superb tool for selecting the best places to hide out is the Freedom Index at www.freeexistence.org.
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But I’m talking here about your primary country of residence — the place where you have your dog and your treasured keepsakes.
Why is America our choice?
With the exception of Switzerland, no country has the principles of liberty engrained in its political DNA as deeply as America. Thank heaven for Thomas Jefferson. Every American grows up reading Jefferson’s statement that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain rights, including life and liberty.
Your rights do not come from the government. They come from a Higher Authority, and cannot be revoked by humans.
For now, to most Americans, Jefferson’s words are mere platitudes. But these words are in their heads, and the speeches and placards at a Tea Party rally I attended last year convinced me the words are in the early stages of again having real bedrock meaning.
Revolutions are not started…
…by revolutionaries. They are started by governments. A revolutionary cannot gather a following unless a lot of the population is enraged at the government’s behavior.
In the US, the disgusting behavior of the democratic and republican parties in recent decades has triggered a desire to look back to our libertarian Founding Fathers for guidance.
We should also give thanks for Patrick Henry, who pressured Madison and the other Federalists into adopting the Bill of Rights. These include the Second Amendment — the right to keep and bear arms.
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A remark often attributed to Admiral Yamamoto in WWII is that it would be senseless to try to conquer America because “there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
Whether Yamamoto actually said this is beside the point. Every power junkie understands the truth of it and has no desire to find out if his body armor actually works.
I wonder, is there more behind the June 28th Supreme Court decision about the Second Amendment than meets the eye? Did someone whisper to the justices that the economy is so bad the Constitution will be entirely erased if the justices do not put the teeth back into it?
This is not to say America is about to be, in Jefferson’s words, transported to liberty in a featherbed. We have hard times ahead.
It is to say that, in my opinion, except for Switzerland, the country that has the best chance of emerging on the other side of the economic crisis without a full-blown police state, including jack-booted government thugs and concentration camps, is America.
Summarizing,…
…most people can withstand a terrific amount of economic hardship, especially if they are physically and emotionally prepared.
Political hardship is an entirely different breed of cat. We’re talking housecats vs. mountain lions, and I’d rather wrestle a housecat.
I think economic conditions might be harder in America than in many other places, but our ancestors survived much worse, and we can, too.
What counts most, by far, is the country’s political psychology. In my opinion, except possibly for Switzerland, America has the best chance of avoiding a police state, and eventually regaining the road to liberty and abundance.
We’re staying here.♦
Revolution on the horizon
The clearest way to look at politics is not, democrats vs. republicans (or liberals vs. conservatives, or left vs. right); it’s liberty vs. political power. Both major parties are on the side of power, they want as much as they can get. Their only disagreements are about which of them should have it, and which parts of your life they should control.
Twenty-five centuries of economic history give us an idea of what’s coming, because political disasters have happened so many times in other countries.
One example is the calm, quiet land of wine, cheese and romance, called France. Americans speak of “The” French Revolution, which leads to the assumption France had only one uprising, in 1789-1799.
September 2010, Page 7
Actually, since then, France has had at least ten, depending on what you call a revolution. These have included a widespread army mutiny in World War I, and a 1958 uprising in which the army threatened a parachute assault on Paris.
The strikes and riots of 1968 were so vicious the French president fled the country. He was Charles de Gaulle — the man who had stood up against the Third Reich.
Don’t think it can’t happen here. In recent years, under the democratic and republican parties, the US has gone so far toward the French model of socialism that I think it is reasonable to expect France’s 1968 levels of economic turmoil and violence.
The flash crash — more coming
At bottom, what the deficits, regulations and bailouts in the US mean is, the government’s power is growing by leaps and bounds. There is no telling what the power holders will do, or how often they will change their minds, which changes flows of money. Consequently, no one who is street-smart about economics will commit his money to fixed-asset projects that are long term. This means an increasing number of things will break down and stop working. Tempers will flare, desperation will spread, and violence will break out.
Or maybe not. Maybe I’m wrong, and a new era of peace, brotherly love and prosperity is just around the corner. But if I’m right…
As predicted in numerous EWRs since the war began in 2001, conditions are growing more chaotic and extreme. A tiny preview of what’s coming was the “Flash Crash” of May 6th. At about 2 p.m., the protests in Athens over the Greek debt crisis turned violent. By the end of the day in the US, hundreds of stocks had become temporarily worthless, while the stock of, for instance, Apple, briefly went from $256 to $99,999.12
Get used to it. Eventually, levels of anxiety and anger will grow to the point where the revolution will be triggered. (And a lot of profits will, too.)
But that’s not quite true. I think…
… the revolution has already been triggered…
…and now we are waiting to see it play out. Here’s my reasoning.
In 1818, John Adams wrote that the American Revolution of 1776 “was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people.”13
Adams pointed to a sermon by Reverend Jonathan Mayhew. The minister argued that there is a Higher Law than any government’s law, and the government was violating the Higher Law; the colonists had to choose which law they would obey and defend. Adams said the sermon “was read by everyone.”
Enough chose the Higher Law to launch the freest and most prosperous nation the world has ever known.
In other words, Reverend Mayhew began a consciousness raising in which he forced the colonists to choose between their government and their God, and they chose their God.
Adams wrote, “This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.” The shooting was only the conclusion.
Mayhew had asked, “how far are we obliged to submit?” The answer from the rebels was, we don’t know exactly where the line is, but we know the government has crossed it.
I think Americans today have begun to repeat Mayhew’s question, and they are coming up with the same answer.
The more you see references to a Higher Law, or to God vs. government, in the Tea Party movement and elsewhere, the further along the revolution is.
For more about the conflict between the government’s law and Higher Law, see my Uncle Eric book Whatever Happened To Justice?. Also take a look at my video, How to Win the Revolution Peacefully at www.YouTube.com.
As I expected when I began writing the Uncle Eric books in the 1980s, we are now into an economic crisis so severe it is triggering a repeat of the first American Revolution, a change in the hearts and minds of the people. The main purpose of the books has always been to help steer this change in the direction Mayhew did, back toward liberty.
Another way to track the revolution’s progress is to observe the character of the rioters. As long as the violence is confined to college students and others who are young and without many responsibilities, it won’t likely amount to much beyond the immediate mayhem.
September 2010, Page 8
When you begin to see the middle-aged and old in the streets — the people with children, careers, houses and businesses — then you are seeing the beginning of a genuine insurrection that will likely have lasting results, hopefully good ones.
Please help steer the revolution in the right direction. Spread the word about the need to return to the original American principles described in the Uncle Eric books.♦
Watch the Marines
As in France and so many other countries, I think the revolution in America will be decided mostly by the military. When the big trouble hits, and the politicians have scattered to the four winds, the armed forces will be looking for honorable, intelligent guidance. They’ll know that finding it among the groups who caused the disaster — the democratic and republican parties — will be as likely as discovering a snowball in hell. They’ll look elsewhere.
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For most of US history, the military has been able to remain aloof from politics, by saying the country’s future should be decided by the voters. Now, all but the most naïve can see that the democratic party and republican party have only one principle: we will say anything necessary to get elected.
In short, during the crisis, with mobs in the streets and both parties incapable of true leadership, the military must decide for themselves whose orders to follow. The persons they choose will effectively be the government.
Bear this in mind. We are in a temporary crisis, not the end of the world. France and many other countries have been through numerous horrific disasters started by politicians and ended by the military, and they are still there. Many are very nice places to live. America will be, too.
They will decide our fate
One of the most gung ho forces in the world, the Marines have always been the backbone and spear point of the federal government’s global empire. Their tradition of Semper Fidelis — Always Faithful — means they have been willing go anywhere and do anything they are told.
The Marines are sentries at the White House. The president’s helicopter is called Marine One.
In my opinion, at some point in the approaching upheaval, the Marines will figure out that the country and the government are not the same thing. They will realize the government is destroying the country, and this will force them into a choice. Does Semper Fi mean loyalty to politicians, or to homeland and family?
A fine old movie that speaks to this point is the 1951 “Desert Fox,” a true story. You might also check out www.oathkeepers.org, and the 1961 movie classic “Judgment at Nuremburg.”
Summary: historic, earthshaking events…
… have been set in motion by Washington’s economic blunders. My guess is, the outcome will hinge on the Marines.
Today’s Marine Corps may be the finest large fighting force in world history, and no one wants to go eyeball to eyeball with them. They are the president’s praetorian guard, 14 so I think whoever the Marines decide to follow will be America’s new government.
In short, the decisions of the Marines will determine what America will be for the next hundred years.♦
As I said on page 1, the source of legitimacy is not government, it is ethics, principles, Higher Law. I think a lot of military officers and NCOs are now quietly beginning to face the fact that the crisis will not be solved by the people who caused it; the federal government’s civilian leadership has long been just a big version of the Keystone Kops.
If 2,500 years of economic history are any guide, at some point this crisis will end up in the lap of the military. If the officers and NCOs make the right decisions, America will once again be the land symbolized by the statue of “Liberty Enlightening the World” in New York harbor.
If you know persons in the military, they may need to talk with someone about the grave decisions they are beginning to perceive on their horizon.♦
1 the power to coin money: the exercise of monetary powers by the Congress,” by Thomas Frederick Wilson, M.E. Sharp publisher, 1992, p.67.
2 Some Jews were involved in the rise of the Federal Reserve and Keynesianism. Every culture has its traitors.
3 “Back go Basics on Financial Reform,” wall st. jrnl., 23 Apr 10, p.A19.
4 “The Uncertainty Principle,” wall st. jrnl., 14 Jul 10, p.A18.
5 Ibid. “The Uncertainty Principle,” wall st. jrnl.
6 “Finance Overhaul Casts Long Shadow…,” wall st. jrnl., 14 Jul 10, p.1.
7 three felonies a day, by Harvey A. Silverglate, Encounter Books, 2009.
8 go directly to jail — the criminalization of almost everything, edited by Gene Healy, Cato Institute, 2004, p.21, 24; and http://wildlifelaw.unm.edu/fedbook/fwpca.html
9 Ibid. three felonies a day, P.XXXI.
10 Ibid. three felonies a day, P.XLIV.
11 “Experts Grade the Legislation,” wall st. jrnl., 16 Jul 10, p.A5.
12 “Legacy of the ‘Flash Crash’… wall st. jrnl., 6 Aug 10, p.1.
13 This article’s info about the Amer. Rev. are from the book the revolutionary years by Mortimer J. Adler, Encyclopedia Brit., 1976, pages 21-28 and 306-310.
14 Praetorian guard: a Roman emperor’s extremely loyal, highly skilled fighting force.