You'd better watch what you say (if you know what's good for you).

I guess I've been expecting this for a while, but now it's happened.

An article, a couple of weeks ago, by Joan Whitely at the Las Vegas Journal-Review told of a business that made use of a bit of a loop-hole (at best) in tax law regarding payment of their contractors (employees?). Essentially, they violated the spirit of the law by paying their people (employees, contractors, whatever) in gold or silver coins, of the US mint. So what? It's real money, right? But the catch is that the noted dollar value has since multiplied several times in today's inflated, fiat-based dollar value. So the employers reported the face value of the coins regarding taxation, whereas those paid received current-day dollar values much higher than the face value would lead one to believe.

Oh, horror! (Never mind the practices of the Fed have opened up the staggering difference between minted face value and comparative "paper" dollar values found today.)

So, that's enough of a story right there. The feds are prosecuting for "tax evasion, tax fraud, and criminal conspiracy" (a bit harsh).

It turns out, the Las Vegas Journal-Review has an area where readers can comment on the article. This is where it gets spooky, as author Thomas Mitchell writes:

This past week the newspaper was served with a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. attorney's office demanding that we turn over all records pertaining to those postings, including "full name, date of birth, physical address, gender, ZIP code, password prompts, security questions, telephone numbers and other identifiers ... the IP address," et (kitchen sink) cetera.

Tantamount to killing a gnat with an A-bomb.

There was no indication what they were looking for or what crime, if any, was being investigated, just a blanket subpoena for voluminous and detailed records on every private citizen who dared to speak about a federal tax case.

Can you believe that? Off-hand comments and rantings in the comments section of a news article are being subpoenaed by a federal grand jury? Really? Welcome to our brave, new world, folks. Apparently what we're endowed by our Creator, is revocable by mere mortal.

Yep, I anticipated something like this happening here--someday.

In contrast, I never really expected a lecture on the nature of freedom from ex-leadership personnel from ex-USSR. And yet, we have a fine article to that effect today by none other than Mikhail Gorbachev--calling, essentially, for a second American revolution in the spirit of perestroika. Wow.

I guess I've got my surprise quota for the day.

Federal Reserve oversight--or not

This is stunning. Since September of last year, the Federal Reserve ought to have lots of explaining to do. We're talking about trillions of dollars, unaccounted for. Fortunately, we have officials responsible for overseeing the Federal Reserve to make sure nothing gets out of hand.

Or do we? In this video, we see Representative Alan Grayson (finally, someone!) asking some direct questions about what's happening at the Federal Reserve. (You may know the Federal Reserve as the bank that prints the money, so you don't have to. It's called inflation, and I believe we're about to be hit with a tidal wave of decreasing value of every Federal Reserve Note held by anyone in the world.)

So--what's happening at the Federal Reserve? Apparently the Inspector General for the Federal Reserve doesn't know either. Nice. As Rep. Grayson mentioned, the sums in question amount to ~$30,000 for every person in this country. It seems the Fed "printed" these vast sums of money, handed them out to anonymous recipients, and has no real accounting for where this money went or who received it. It also seems the Inspector General has no idea either.

If we at least had an elected post available at this state-mandated currency factory, that would help. Perhaps we may have a slim shot at some occasional accountability. Or maybe if we at least had some other, viable form of legal tender, that would allow all who see fit to simply abandon use of the Federal Reserve Note for something that has hopes of maintaining its value. Unfortunately, we have no such things. Making purchases with gold or silver or bottle caps or Cabbage Patch Dolls is seen as use of a competing private currency, and is simply not allowed. Why not? What's the big deal?

The big deal is the government's refusal to maintain total control over the value of every citizen's work. To avoid being hemmed in by pesky budgets--spending within its means (through tax collection)--our lawmakers have discovered the allure of debt. Don't have enough in the budget for that pork? Who cares? We'll charge it! That's right--our lawmakers can spend infinite amounts of money to get what they want now and YOU'LL pay for it! How? The Federal Reserve will create new money (out of nothing, backed by nothing) to pay the debts incurred by the spenders in Washington. But wait, doesn't that cost somebody somewhere? Yes it does.

There is a finite amount of Federal Reserve Notes in circulation throughout the world (though some days it may not seem like it), representing a finite value. Suppose I hold $1,000,000 of those notes. I have a fraction of that total value. When the Federal Reserve cranks up their printing presses (they need not literally print the notes anymore), they do not create more value as represented by those finite Federal Reserve Notes in the world. In fact, they create more dollars, but the value remains the same. What does this mean? It means the $1,000,000 I hold now have less value than they did before the printing surge.

We can see this with a simple lemonade stand. Suppose I sell some great fresh-squeezed lemonade on the corner. I have a giant pitcher of perfectly-flavored lemonade, and it's selling great. But I've run out of lemons and sugar. Oops. I don't want to shut down my stand, and I've got some worthless water, so I decide to add water to my depleted pitcher of lemonade. Mmmm. I continue to sell lemonade, adding water when necessary. After a while, I notice my customers don't have any more nice compliments. In fact, many demand their money back, since this lemonade resembles dirty water more than lemonade.

Which would you prefer--the first or the last glass of that lemonade? The first obviously contains the best value. This is exactly what the Federal Reserve is doing to the value of the dollar. They add more and more "water" to the fixed value of the pitcher of lemonade, diluting the worth of each glass (eventually) to zero. And that's what we can expect to happen to our dollar at this current rate.

But there's not much use in complaining. You don't vote for king. And you don't vote for any of the posts held at the Federal Reserve.

Hey, it's only your livelihood.