EGYPT WARNS OF MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ORGANIZATIONS IN U.S.

Egypt Warns of Muslim Brotherhood Organizations in U.S.

An Egyptian government website features a warning that the Muslim Brotherhood has a lobby in the U.S. disguised as civil society organizations

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By Ryan Mauro

Wed, January 14, 2015
                                                                          Notice the look on the middle guys' face?

                                

Egypt warns of Brotherhood groups like CAIR. Nihad Awad (C), Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Ibrahim Hooper (L), National Committee Director of CAIR during a press conference in Washington. Photo © Reuters
 

An Egyptian government website features a warning that the Muslim Brotherhood has a lobby in the U.S. disguised as civil society organizations. The United Arab Emirates has made similar statements and the U.S. Justice Department has confirmed the existence of a Muslim Brotherhood branch in America.

The Egyptian government’s State Information Service has an entire section devoted to documenting the violence and terrorism of the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt is furious with the U.S. for its stance on the Brotherhood. President El-Sisi told the Washington Post in December 2013, then as Defense Minister, that the U.S. has turned its back on Egypt and is misunderstanding the Islamist group.

The documentation includes a timeline  of violence perpetrated by Brotherhood members since July 2014, a statement from the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood condemning the Brotherhood’s exploitation of children, and  many videos documenting the Brotherhood’s extremism and the justifications for overthrowing it and banning it.

Most importantly, the section prominently features an article about the Muslim Brotherhood operating in America and influencing U.S. policy through various fronts. It cites a study done by the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies, a highly-respected organization in Cairo.

“She [Center executive director Dalia Zeyadah] warned that the MB has a network based in the US and operating through civil society organizations engaged in community service domains there. These organizations, she also warned, aim to spread the MB's extremist ideologies in the US,” the Egyptian government website says.

The article from June 2014 states that the Brotherhood is moving to Turkey to set up the “nucleus of its European headquarters which would be operating under the cover of charity work to carry out terrorist acts across the region.”

The Cairo Post reported in February 2014 that the Ibn Khaldoun Center director Dalia Zeyadah “[asserted] that the Brotherhood are still trying to impact decisions of the White House, noting that campaigns against Brotherhood ‘terrorism’ must continue.”

The Egyptian government often talks about the International Muslim Brotherhood to emphasize that it is not just an Egyptian organization. In his interview with the Washington Post, El-Sisi said it operates in 60 countries and that Hamas is one of its branches. He warned that the group is “based on restoring the Islamic religious empire.”

The Clairon Project’s research into the Brotherhood sympathies of a senior adviser to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was covered in the Egyptian media in 2013, specifically by the Al-Nahar television network.

The U.S. government confirmed the existence of a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood with a network a fronts under different names during the prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation, one such trial.

The Justice Department’s list of unindicted co-conspirators in that trial includes a list a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entities and members. The list includes the Islamic Society of North America, the North American Islamic Trust and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The lattermost organization was listed as an entity of the U.S. Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, a sub-section set up to support Hamas.

The United Arab Emirates caused a stir recently when it banned the Brotherhood and some of its most powerful affiliates in the U.S. and Europe, including CAIR, the Muslim American Society and Islamic Relief.

The UAE justified its designation of the U.S-based groups as terrorist organizations despite the immense backlash. The Foreign Minister of the country said it was based on the group’s incitement and funding of terrorism.

Another UAE official said the objective is “putting a cordon around all subversive entities.” And UAE State Foreign Affairs Minister Anwar Gargash said the backlash was being orchestrated by the Muslim Brotherhood lobby in the West.

“The noise (by) some Western organizations over the UAE’s terrorism list originates in groups that are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and many of them work on incitement and creating an environment of extremism,” Gargash tweeted.

The U.S. Justice Department, countless terrorism experts and the governments of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have confirmed the existence of a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. The U.S. Brotherhood’s own documents are even publicly available.

Yet, those who point this out are ridiculed by these Islamist groups and their allies as bigoted “Islamophobes.” The accusation is even nonsensically made about Muslims who point this out.
The refusal of the U.S. government to recognize the toxic ideology of the Brotherhood is undermining America’s ability to have a frank discussion about the issue of Islamism.

Muslim governments are providing verifiable evidence about the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, but their warnings are ignored or rejected. Americans (Muslim and non-Muslim) who voice these same concerns are personally attacked.

Terms like Islamism and Political Islam are used regularly in the Muslim world and even on the Brotherhood’s own website, but the U.S. Brotherhood and its apologists say we can’t.  CAIR has waged a campaign to make the media stop using the “Islamist” term.

America is in the middle of a heated debate about the defining the threat. We should listen to our Muslim allies and let the facts speak for themselves, instead of letting Islamists and their apologists edit our vocabularies.

Watch video: CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations) is in damage control after being designated a terrorist org by the UAE.

http://youtu.be/y81AjZ6AHqM

 

Applying Pressure to the Pulpit

 

 

In Montana, the Concerned Citizens of the Flathead

are taking action to inform

local Pastors of their true responsibility

 

November 9, 2014               by James White               NorthWest Liberty News

 

NOTE:  We commend Chuck Baldwin’s Liberty Fellowship in Kalispell, MT for their efforts to inform the pastors and leaders of churches throughout Montana of unlawful pressures and practices against their rights to freedom of religion forced upon all churches by the IRS and the so called 'federal government' - both of which are private corporations with no authority whatsoever to impose ANY restrictions upon any entity outside the district of Columbia -  Washington, DC.   Time to kick the imposters out of this country and resurrect our rightful Republic.

 

 

    With the recent landslide victories nationwide by Republicans, there seems to be a renewed sense of optimism by many that now, finally, we are going to “straighten things out” and get back on track as a nation.  To others, the results were seen as a repudiation of Obama and most everything he stands for.
   
    Although strong cases could be made for both arguments, one needs to ask themselves if any politician in any district can really make a difference where it counts in the hearts and minds of the America people.  With the approval rating of Congress hovering in the teens, I submit to you that one more bloviating politician, in a $3,000 suit, will have very limited impact on those hearts and minds.  In light of this, does the focus of our efforts need to be directed towards the same place that our forefathers focused their attention - the pulpit of their local church congregation and in support of their Black-Robe Regiment pastor?

    Any student of American History worth their salt will be able to verify the fact that we would not likely have gained our victory of independence without the help from the "Colonial Pulpit."  On a routine basis, Colonial Pastors would rail against the Crown while educating their congregations on the principles of liberty and Natural Law. 

    Of course, the event that can be seen as the climax of the Colonial Pastor’s influence is the “shot heard around the world” on April 19, 1775 in Lexington, MA.  There, the congregation of Pastor Jonas Clark stood eye-to-eye with soldiers from the world’s most powerful military, and kicked off the battle for our nations independence.  No doubt, Colonial Pastors played a huge role in our battle against tyranny.  However, we have to ask where are today’s equivalent of the pastors of old?  And, why are today’s pastors seemingly so afraid to speak against the Federal Government - the modern-day version of the Crown?

    The exact origins of the intent to usurp the nation’s churches, while undermining the principles of Christianity, can be argued intelligently.  However, for many a point of common ground can be found in the Federal Council of Churches 1908 Agenda (2), which is ultimately a blueprint for Socialism under the guise of Christianity.  Notably, it was only 1 year later, in 1909, that C.I. Scofield released the “Scofield Bible.”  In it, Scofield perpetrated the “secret rapture” lie which has gained nationwide acceptance within Evangelical pulpits and congregations alike.  The message: Stand down and do not get involved, for Christ will return soon and take us away from all of this. 

    I have written about and produced a video regarding the “pre-tribulation rapture” that can be seen here. These two early 20^th century events were certainly notable; however, if they were the stake, then the hammer that drove them into the heart of Christianity was the 1954 Johnson Amendment.

    Without debate, the Johnson Amendment was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1954 in an effort to restrict the free speech of non-profit, tax-exempt organizations, including churches.  The Johnson Amendment effectively silenced the pulpits under threat of IRS retaliation, a silence which is still mostly practiced today. 

    However, there is precedent that renders these threats immune (1) (2), and now, more than ever before, 501c3 churches are finding their backbone.  The direction in which things are moving is certainly positive, but the factor that will put the effort over the top will be, no doubt, the involvement of each member of a church’s congregation; and their respective drive to regain the foundations of Constitutional principles.  In Northwest Montana, that drive is well underway with the organization Concerned Citizens of the Flathead.

    Concerned Citizens of the Flathead (CCF) is a grass-roots organization consisting mainly, but not exclusively, of individuals who attend patriot pastor, Chuck Baldwin’s Liberty Fellowship, in Kalispell, MT.  As a group, CCF has drafted a letter which was distributed to EVERY pastor in the Flathead Valley. Accompanying the letter is well over 100 signatures from Flathead Valley residents who want to openly show pastors of 501c3 churches that they have community support if they decide to defy the unconstitutional practices perpetrated by the IRS. 

    Is this the answer to what ails us as a nation? I can't pretend to know.  However, the efforts by CCF are to be commended and are long overdue. 

    You can see the letter and all of the signatures by clicking the link below.  As part of the overall packet sent out to pastors, I have included links to all remaining documentation, including some quotes from our Founders.

Original Letter with signatures

Letter to the Editor

Legislation of Precedence

Founding Father Quotes 1

Founding Father Quotes 2

 

SHOTS FIRED OUTSIDE BIDEN'S DELAWARE HOME

 Secret Service: Shots fired outside Bidens' Delaware home

   

     

By KEN THOMAS and RANDALL CHASE 4 hours ago

Authorities are searching for a suspect and any witnesses after multiple gunshots were fired from a vehicle Saturday night as it drove past the Greenville home of Vice President Joe Biden. The vice president and his wife, Jill, were not at home at the time, although their schedule had them being in Delaware for the weekend. Biden was spotted earlier in the day at Best Buy on Concord Pike.

The incident occurred about 8:25 p.m. as the vehicle drove past the complex at a high rate of speed, according to the Secret Service.

A release from the Secret Service said the car was traveling on Barley Mill Road. "This occurred on a public road outside the established security perimeter," Robert Hoback, a Secret Service spokes person, told The News Journal. "The shots were heard by Secret Service personnel posted at the residence and a vehicle was observed by an agent leaving the scene at a high rate of speed."  An official said thorough searches will be conducted on the outside of the residence, and nearby residences, to determine if any rounds hit a building.

Biden's 7,000-square-foot custom home sits on a private lake several hundred yards from Barley Mill Road. A carriage house and guard shack hug the road at the entrance of the four-acre estate.  Several vehicles, including a New Castle County SUV, were seen parked near the carriage house Sunday blocking the driveway leading to Biden's complex. Other SUVs with Washington D.C. license plates were driving up and down Barley Mill Road, occasionally pulling into the Biden entrance.

Several law officers, some in uniform, descended on a car that stopped on the side of the road just down from the entrance to Biden's about 1:45 p.m. As several officers spoke to a person in the car, other law enforcement could be seen standing in the rain at the driveway entrance.  The Secret Service and New Castle County Police are still investigating in the area.

Molly Ritter, 18, who said she lives nearby with her parents, was not home at the time of the shooting. "People were telling me last night there were police and stuff outside our house," said Ritter, who said she had not spoken to authorities. "We don't really know anything yet. I drove out today and I didn't see anything unusual. There are always people there."

Another neighbor who would not give her name said she was home at the time of the shooting but did not hear the shots. She said other neighbors reported hearing six or seven shots from a passing car. Barley Mill Road was closed until nearly midnight, said the neighbor, who was delayed in picking up her son from the movie theater because of the incident.

Police set up a perimeter and conducted a property check of the area and surrounding communities Saturday night in an attempt to find any suspects, said Sgt. Jacob Andrews, a county police spokesman. They were not successful.

While on scene, police arrested a man who tried to pass officers securing the outer perimeter of the area.

"The individual was not charged in relation to the shooting," Andrews said. "Police then conducted interviews with area residents in an attempt to gather more information in reference to the incident. The area residences were checked for any damage which yielded negative results."

Officers learned a short time later of a report of shots fired near Hoopes Reservoir, more than a mile away.

 

The Biggest Looney Tunes Compilation: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and more! [...

Really good one starting at the 45 minute mark. A warning of today.

Satanic Rituals by Pope Benedict And Others!!

 

Pope Benedict (Joseph Ratzinger) created history on Feb 11, 2013, when he became the first Catholic Pope to ever resign in peacetime.

 So, what prompted this move?

According to some, he was running scared, as an arrest warrant was issued against him two weeks later by the International Common Law Court of Justice.

The crime?

Crimes against Humanity, which include child trafficking, protecting and aiding priests who rape children.

This verdict was a “shot heard around the world,” and more than twenty countries have instigated moves to establish similar courts to obtain justice for innocent victime of these unspeakable evils.

Here is the testimony of one survivor of child rape and torture by those in high places.

You decide.

story link ITCCS.ORG and The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State

Our Reptilian Overlords Unmasked (VIDEO)

They are among us. Blood-drinking, flesh-eating, shape-shifting extraterrestrial reptilian humanoids with only one objective in their cold-blooded little heads: to enslave the human race. They are our leaders, our corporate executives, our beloved Oscar-winning actors and Grammy-winning singers, and they’re responsible for the Holocaust, the Oklahoma City bombings and the 9/11 attacks. Well Maybe…

Come Check Out ParanormicsTV

UPS Driver Arrested For Stealing $200K In Gold, Silver Bars...

 
ANDERSON, Calif. (AP) — Officials say a driver with United Parcel Service has been arrested on suspicion of grand theft after several packages containing silver coins and silver and gold bars worth more than $200,000 went missing during the shipping process.
The Shasta County Sherriff’s Department says Kevin Peel was arrested Friday in the city of Anderson.
The department says Peel became a person of interest early in the investigation, which began in October when several packages containing precious metals went missing.
Authorities say sheriff’s detectives served a search warrant at Peel’s home days later and found cases of gold bars and silver coins matching the quantities reported stolen.
Deputies recovered gold and silver bars worth about $200,000 but say they had no evidence at the time the 40-year-old driver had stolen the precious metals.
He’s being held on $250,000 bail.

 http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2015/01/17/ups-driver-arrested-in-theft-of-gold-silver-bars/

Russian Sobriety Test....Hiccup....

 

  Russian Sobriety Test....Hiccup....

I can't believe some of the silly stuff

we find on the internet

This is pretty neat....

This will mess with your mind

 

 

Texe Mars... Why I Am Not Charlie Hebdo And Never Will Be

We’ve all heard about it by now—how a handful of alleged Moslem terrorists armed with assault weapons killed almost the entire editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo, a magazine published in Paris.

It’s been recited over and over how the terrorists wanted to stamp out “Free Speech.” You see, they despised Charlie Hebdo because the magazine had run a dark political cartoon depicting Mohammed, the Islamic prophet. And the despotic Islamicists couldn’t stand for that. So, armed and trained, they burst into the offices of Charlie Hebdo and began shooting. Blood flowed.

Across the Western world, people everywhere are outraged and angry. Angry at the “backward” Moslems who, they say, oppose Free Speech, who would kill just because of a cartoon.

Now, every day we Americans view political cartoons on the editorial pages of our newspaper. Some we like, others we don’t. But we wouldn’t murder because of one, would we? The newspaper artist and publication are exercising their rights to Free Speech. We live in a Democracy, and whatever we want to say or do, go ahead. Do it. There’s no-one that can stop you. Or so they say.

The news media flipped out on this one. CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, Fox—they all railed and ranted about the “evil Moslems” who, we are repeatedly told, hate our freedoms and liberties. Our politicians, too, expressed their anger and disapproval of the Jihadis who killed simply because, we are told, they hate Free Speech.

The spy and surveillance communities were thrilled to discover that the public is now anxious to spend money—big money—to conduct more and more spying on, well, everyone, to find the evil among us. What a boon to the NSA, the CIA, the FBI, and their sidekicks.

In Paris, French President Hollande, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, English Prime Minister Cameron, and about a dozen other leaders marched in protest against the terror attack. In nearby streets, reportedly, over two million marched with placards, demanding that Jihadism be stopped and that Free Speech be protected by their governments.

“We are Charlie Hebdo,” many cried out. Others solemnly pledged, “I am Charlie Hebdo.” Thus, they identified with the magazine.

Well, you two million sheep, let me give you a little wake-up call. Let me be among the first to scream out:

“I AM NOT CHARLIE Hebdo!”

After that sinks in, let me go on to shout out:

“I AM A CHRISTIAN!”

Now, may I please explain?

First, let me say that the Jihadis (if it was Jihadis, all the signs of a False Flag are present!) who supposedly did this horrible act were indeed following The Koran, their most holy book, The Koran calls for the death of he who insults—or even pictures—their late Prophet, Mohammed. (I have done an extensive investigative report, The Crescent Moon, the Star, and The Black Stone—Unmasking the Evils of Islam, 60 minutes, Tape or CD, $10.00, phone 800-234-9673, on the Koran and uncovering the Islamic religion.)

The Jihadis are using their religion to bash and murder those who oppose them. This wicked tactic will fail. Such tactics always eventually fail. One cannot establish righteousness on a wall of blood and death. Therefore, Moslems, your murderous acts are in vain, only serving to inflame and arouse active opposition.

Remember, a group of religious thugs long ago in Jerusalem also perpetrated murder on the One they labeled “blasphemous.” How did that turn out?

On the other hand: Believe me, Charlie Hebdo is not some nice little publication engaged in protecting our Free Speech with its political cartoons. No, this magazine is nothing less that a mega-sick, disgusting, depraved piece of trash. Utter garbage. Its cartoons are anti-Muslim and anti-Christian, designed to induce hatred of religion and destruction of all things good. This is horrendously filthy pornographic stuff.

When I investigated Charlie Hebdo, I found sick, depraved cartoons showing a “joyous” Mohammed having gay, anal sex. I saw Mohammed kissing men and having sexual relations with kids. I also saw the Pope, nude, cavorting about in a perverted fashion. Worse than these, however, are the cartoons which depict Jesus Christ sodomizing God the Father, bestiality, sodomy, on and on... Charlie Hebdo is so disgustingly sick, I am surprised that a tiny three Moslems out of some 1.6 million worldwide were upset enough to attack the magazine with arms.

I thought, why? Why do the editors and artists of this Parisian magazine hate Islam and Christianity with such apparent purple passion? A little more investigation uncovered the reason: Charlie Hebdo is a thoroughly Jewish publication, owned and run by Jews, and most all Jews hold a talmudic, all-consuming hatred for Moslems and Christians.

Charlie Hebdo is a hate publication 100 times as smutty and sexually dark as, say, a Hustler or Playboy magazine. Its owners and staff are murderers—they are destroying souls. The millions of Paris protesters demanding it continue its press activities are simply outright morons. They are all idiots, just like their stupid, ignorant leaders.

This is not a matter of Free Speech. It’s a case of brain-dead members of a religion, Islam, coming face to face with an ongoing, evil, dirty Jewish conspiracy!

The government of France has given a million dollars to Charlie Hebdo, to keep this stupid, anti-Moslem, anti-Christian business putting out their inflammatory junk. Prior to the assault, Charlie Hebdo was on the verge of bankruptcy, unread by the masses. A failure. Now there’s money in the coffer.

And so, the circle of hate and violence will continue, with Jews and the French government acting as agents provocateur, working furiously to incite the crazy Islamists.

In my opinion, Charlie Hebdo is a classic, false flag operation. Its financing comes straight from the Mossad and now, from official sources in Paris. These monsters are totally opposed to liberty and to Free Speech. Satanic to the core, they deceive millions into believing they are supporting Democracy and liberty when, in truth, all they are doing is supporting a filthy, unspeakable yellow rag of a pornographic publication, filled with vile smut.

Now, here is a final irony—a great hypocrisy, if you will. Charlie Hebdo, only a week prior to the assault on their offices, fired one of their cartoonists. What had he done to deserve being fired? Why, he had suggested a cartoon poking fun at Zionists in Israel.

That was too much for the Jews in charge of Charlie Hebdo. You can depict the Pope as a dithering, naked idiot and Mohammed as a plundering sexual predator, but never, never say or do even one little thing to paint the Jews as other than pious, holy, and sanctimonious. Total, rank hypocrisy.

Then, there’s France. This is a nation that has actual laws against Free Speech. It is unlawful in France for anyone who dares to criticize the Jews and Zionism. Hundreds of people are in French prison cells. Their crime? They said something, anything, which indicated they are not 100% in line with the Jewish teachings. Holocaust deniers!—put them all in prison as hate criminals!

There is no Free Speech in France, or in Canada, Spain, or Germany. Because the Jews are in charge in those countries. Don’t believe it—say something in Paris negative about Judaism, the Jews, or Israel. And then, watch for the gendarmes to arrive and take you away.

And no one will protest and march for you, either, because they are all afraid of what the Jews might do—to them!

So, let me again state: “I AM NOT CHARLIE HEBDO...I AM TEXE MARRS, CHRISTIAN!” I don’t appreciate pornography and smut, and I have no love at all for vigilantes who would seek to punish the smut-peddlers with death. I say, let these evil Jews do their best to defile and pillage religion and morals. They have only a few years, at most decades, to do their unseemly, dirty work.

Then, they will meet the true God in heaven, the real God. And trust me, on that soon-coming day, these pornographic beasts will surely get their just rewards. Yes, payment in full.

http://www.texemarrs.com/012015/charlie_hebdo_article.htm

First wood-burning ban hearing draws FURIOUS crowd in Utah

The Gov continually wants to control the people. This is just another example of taking away another right from us. Consequently, it is difficult to stop the government from interfering. I believe it all boils down to money. I find it hard to believe that wood burning stoves cause the inversion! Large corporations do coal burning for electricity, the refineries across the Wasatch front spew lots of particles, increased population in Utah, SL and Weber counties account for exhaust pollution, Kennecott, Geneva, US Magnesium (MagCorp), the list goes on... What is not okay to breathe are chemicals including chlorine, hydrochloric acid, ammonia, sulfuric acid, hydrofluoric acid, hydrogen cyanide, hexachlorobenzene and dioxin. These are the noxious chemicals that cause breathing problems. Cars do not produce these pollutants, industries do!! The difference is the State receives big $$$'s as pay-offs from corporations.. . So let's attack the few wood burners...hmmmm.

Susoni

Snip

SALT LAKE CITY — The first of seven public hearings to measure the appetite for a seasonal, residential wood-burning ban was attended by close to 200 people in Tooele County clearly fired up over any effort by the state to "regulate" their lives.

The crowd that packed into the Tooele County Health Department on Wednesday afternoon was unanimously, unequivocally and boisterously opposed to proposed rule out for public comment that would ban wood burning in certain areas from Nov. 1 to March 15, beginning this year.

"We are going down a slippery slope if the government does this ban without compromise," said Steve Pohlman. "Why don't they just ban all cars from driving?"

Many residents described areas where they lived in Tooele County in which natural gas is not available and wood is a cheap, renewable way for them to heat their homes.

"Wood is a renewable resource. Why the hell are we banning something that we don't have to pump out of the ground?" questioned Darrell Holden, asserting the "one-size-fits-all" approach does not work.

Chad Allred, who works in the wood stove industry, said Environmental Protection Agency-regulated devices have already reduced emissions by more than 96 percent.

"I would challenge any other industry to say they have reduced emissions by that much," Allred said. "It seems to me that we are shooting a fly with a shotgun. … This is overreach on the part of government."

If the rule is passed as approved, it would be the toughest seasonal wood-burning ban in the country.

The seasonal ban would impact those areas in the state that are out of compliance for federal air quality standards for PM2.5 or fine particulate pollution. Those areas include all of Utah, Salt Lake and Davis counties, portions of Tooele, Box Elder and Weber counties and Cache Valley.

Wood smoke accounts for about 4 percent of the areas' emissions inventory, generating by EPA estimates about 876 tons of pollutants. Of that, about 34 percent is direct PM2.5 emissions, while the majority of the rest is made up of volatile organic compounds that assist in the formation of PM2.5.

William Hogan, of Rush Valley, wondered aloud at the blanket nature of the ban.

"I don't even see an inversion where I live, yet you don't want me to burn a wood stove?"

Others criticized that the proposed rule undercuts self-reliance, hurts small business and sets neighbor against neighbor.

"How is this going to be enforced? Neighbor turning in neighbor? It took me five years to buy my stove because I wanted to be part of the solution, not the problem," said Aaron Holt, a Weber County resident who said he felt so strongly about the proposal that he drove down from Roy because he will be out of town for that meeting. "I think this will affect my ability to be self-reliant."

The Utah Division of Air Quality already bans wood burning on those days when pollution begins to creep above federally set limits. On those mandatory action days, people cannot burn a solid fuel device such as a wood or wood pellet stove or a fireplace. The only exemptions apply to those who use wood burning as the only way to heat their house because of lack of other options. There are only a few dozen of those households in the state, and regulators are working to convert those to another source through financial incentives. Read More

"Gold & Economic Freedom" by Alan Greenspan

Published in Ayn Rand's "Objectivist" newsletter in 1966, and reprinted in her book, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, in 1967.

Gold & Economic Freedom
By Alan Greenspan

An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense — perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire — that gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other.

In order to understand the source of their antagonism, it is necessary first to understand the specific role of gold in a free society.
~~~
Money is the common denominator of all economic transactions.

It is that commodity which serves as a medium of exchange, is universally acceptable to all participants in an exchange economy as payment for their goods or services, and can, therefore, be used as a standard of market value and as a store of value, i.e., as a means of saving.

Picture
The existence of such a commodity is a precondition of a division of labor economy. If men did not have some commodity of objective value which was generally acceptable as money, they would have to resort to primitive barter or be forced to live on self-sufficient farms and forgo the inestimable advantages of specialization. If men had no means to store value, i.e., to save, neither long-range planning nor exchange would be possible.

What medium of exchange will be acceptable to all participants in an economy is not determined arbitrarily. First, the medium of exchange should be durable.

In a primitive society of meager wealth, wheat might be sufficiently durable to serve as a medium, since all exchanges would occur only during and immediately after the harvest, leaving no value-surplus to store. But where store-of-value considerations are important, as they are in richer, more civilized societies, the medium of exchange must be a durable commodity, usually a metal.

A metal is generally chosen because it is homogeneous and divisible: every unit is the same as every other and it can be blended or formed in any quantity. Precious jewels, for example, are neither homogeneous nor divisible. More important, the commodity chosen as a medium must be a luxury.

Human desires for luxuries are unlimited and, therefore, luxury goods are always in demand and will always be acceptable. Wheat is a luxury in underfed civilizations, but not in a prosperous society.

Cigarettes ordinarily would not serve as money, but they did in post-World War II Europe where they were considered a luxury. The term "luxury good" implies scarcity and high unit value. Having a high unit value, such a good is easily portable; for instance, an ounce of gold is worth a half-ton of pig iron.

In the early stages of a developing money economy, several media of exchange might be used, since a wide variety of commodities would fulfill the foregoing conditions. However, one of the commodities will gradually displace all others, by being more widely acceptable.

Preferences on what to hold as a store of value will shift to the most widely acceptable commodity, which, in turn, will make it still more acceptable. The shift is progressive until that commodity becomes the sole medium of exchange.

The use of a single medium is highly advantageous for the same reasons that a money economy is superior to a barter economy: it makes exchanges possible on an incalculably wider scale.

Whether the single medium is gold, silver, seashells, cattle, or tobacco is optional, depending on the context and development of a given economy. In fact, all have been employed, at various times, as media of exchange. Even in the present century, two major commodities, gold and silver, have been used as international media of exchange, with gold becoming the predominant one.

Gold, having both artistic and functional uses and being relatively scarce, has significant advantages over all other media of exchange. Since the beginning of World War I, it has been virtually the sole international standard of exchange.

If all goods and services were to be paid for in gold, large payments would be difficult to execute and this would tend to limit the extent of a society's divisions of labor and specialization.

Thus a logical extension of the creation of a medium of exchange is the development of a banking system and credit instruments (bank notes and deposits) which act as a substitute for, but are convertible into, gold.

A free banking system based on gold is able to extend credit and thus to create bank notes (currency) and deposits, according to the production requirements of the economy. Individual owners of gold are induced, by payments of interest, to deposit their gold in a bank (against which they can draw checks).

But since it is rarely the case that all depositors want to withdraw all their gold at the same time, the banker need keep only a fraction of his total deposits in gold as reserves.

This enables the banker to loan out more than the amount of his gold deposits (which means that he holds claims to gold rather than gold as security of his deposits). But the amount of loans which he can afford to make is not arbitrary: he has to gauge it in relation to his reserves and to the status of his investments.

When banks loan money to finance productive and profitable endeavors, the loans are paid off rapidly and bank credit continues to be generally available.

But when the business ventures financed by bank credit are less profitable and slow to pay off, bankers soon find that their loans outstanding are excessive relative to their gold reserves, and they begin to curtail new lending, usually by charging higher interest rates.

This tends to restrict the financing of new ventures and requires the existing borrowers to improve their profitability before they can obtain credit for further expansion. Thus, under the gold standard, a free banking system stands as the protector of an economy's stability and balanced growth.

When gold is accepted as the medium of exchange by most or all nations, an unhampered free international gold standard serves to foster a world-wide division of labor and the broadest international trade.

Even though the units of exchange (the dollar, the pound, the franc, etc.) differ from country to country, when all are defined in terms of gold the economies of the different countries act as one — so long as there are no restraints on trade or on the movement of capital.

Credit, interest rates, and prices tend to follow similar patterns in all countries. For example, if banks in one country extend credit too liberally, interest rates in that country will tend to fall, inducing depositors to shift their gold to higher-interest paying banks in other countries.

This will immediately cause a shortage of bank reserves in the "easy money" country, inducing tighter credit standards and a return to competitively higher interest rates again.

A fully free banking system and fully consistent gold standard have not as yet been achieved. But prior to World War I, the banking system in the United States (and in most of the world) was based on gold and even though governments intervened occasionally, banking was more free than controlled. Periodically, as a result of overly rapid credit expansion, banks became loaned up to the limit of their gold reserves, interest rates rose sharply, new credit was cut off, and the economy went into a sharp, but short-lived recession.

(Compared with the depressions of 1920 and 1932, the pre-World War I business declines were mild indeed.) It was limited gold reserves that stopped the unbalanced expansions of business activity, before they could develop into the post-World War I type of disaster. The readjustment periods were short and the economies quickly reestablished a sound basis to resume expansion.

But the process of cure was misdiagnosed as the disease: if shortage of bank reserves was causing a business decline — argued economic interventionists — why not find a way of supplying increased reserves to the banks so they never need be short! If banks can continue to loan money indefinitely — it was claimed — there need never be any slumps in business.

And so the Federal Reserve System was organized in 1913.

It consisted of twelve regional Federal Reserve banks nominally owned by private bankers, but in fact government sponsored, controlled, and supported. Credit extended by these banks is in practice (though not legally) backed by the taxing power of the federal government.

Technically, we remained on the gold standard; individuals were still free to own gold, and gold continued to be used as bank reserves. But now, in addition to gold, credit extended by the Federal Reserve banks ("paper reserves") could serve as legal tender to pay depositors.

When business in the United States underwent a mild contraction in 1927, the Federal Reserve created more paper reserves in the hope of forestalling any possible bank reserve shortage.

More disastrous, however, was the Federal Reserve's attempt to assist Great Britain who had been losing gold to us because the Bank of England refused to allow interest rates to rise when market forces dictated (it was politically unpalatable).

The reasoning of the authorities involved was as follows: if the Federal Reserve pumped excessive paper reserves into American banks, interest rates in the United States would fall to a level comparable with those in Great Britain; this would act to stop Britain's gold loss and avoid the political embarrassment of having to raise interest rates.

The "Fed" succeeded; it stopped the gold loss, but it nearly destroyed the economies of the world, in the process. The excess credit which the Fed pumped into the economy spilled over into the stock market, triggering a fantastic speculative boom.

Belatedly, Federal Reserve officials attempted to sop up the excess reserves and finally succeeded in braking the boom. But it was too late: by 1929 the speculative imbalances had become so overwhelming that the attempt precipitated a sharp retrenching and a consequent demoralizing of business confidence.

As a result, the American economy collapsed. Great Britain fared even worse, and rather than absorb the full consequences of her previous folly, she abandoned the gold standard completely in 1931, tearing asunder what remained of the fabric of confidence and inducing a world-wide series of bank failures. The world economies plunged into the Great Depression of the 1930's.

With a logic reminiscent of a generation earlier, statists argued that the gold standard was largely to blame for the credit debacle which led to the Great Depression.

If the gold standard had not existed, they argued, Britain's abandonment of gold payments in 1931 would not have caused the failure of banks all over the world. (The irony was that since 1913, we had been, not on a gold standard, but on what may be termed "a mixed gold standard"; yet it is gold that took the blame.)

But the opposition to the gold standard in any form — from a growing number of welfare-state advocates — was prompted by a much subtler insight: the realization that the gold standard is incompatible with chronic deficit spending (the hallmark of the welfare state).

Stripped of its academic jargon, the welfare state is nothing more than a mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of the productive members of a society to support a wide variety of welfare schemes. A substantial part of the confiscation is effected by taxation.

But the welfare statists were quick to recognize that if they wished to retain political power, the amount of taxation had to be limited and they had to resort to programs of massive deficit spending, i.e., they had to borrow money, by issuing government bonds, to finance welfare expenditures on a large scale.

Under a gold standard, the amount of credit that an economy can support is determined by the economy's tangible assets, since every credit instrument is ultimately a claim on some tangible asset. But government bonds are not backed by tangible wealth, only by the government's promise to pay out of future tax revenues, and cannot easily be absorbed by the financial markets.
A large volume of new government bonds can be sold to the public only at progressively higher interest rates. Thus, government deficit spending under a gold standard is severely limited.

The abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit.

They have created paper reserves in the form of government bonds which — through a complex series of steps — the banks accept in place of tangible assets and treat as if they were an actual deposit, i.e., as the equivalent of what was formerly a deposit of gold.

The holder of a government bond or of a bank deposit created by paper reserves believes that he has a valid claim on a real asset. But the fact is that there are now more claims outstanding than real assets. The law of supply and demand is not to be conned.

As the supply of money (of claims) increases relative to the supply of tangible assets in the economy, prices must eventually rise. Thus the earnings saved by the productive members of the society lose value in terms of goods.

When the economy's books are finally balanced, one finds that this loss in value represents the goods purchased by the government for welfare or other purposes with the money proceeds of the government bonds financed by bank credit expansion.

In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold.

If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves.

This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard.

Original URL: http://www.constitution.org/mon/greenspan_gold.htm | Text Version