All That Glitters is Not Goldman

In the past month, I’ve written two articles (published here) contending that our current “economic crisis” was not caused by mismanagement of interest rates, unemployment rates, the velocity of money or other technical elements of our “economy”.  Instead, our economic crisis is the result of a loss of moral values at a national level.  Last week’s S.E.C. suit against Goldman-Sachs supports my contention:  moral decay precedes and causes economic collapse.

 

A Coming Run on Gold Storage Vaults

There is a necessary relationship between 1) gold market price manipulation; and 2) gold storage fraud.

For over a decade, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) has alleged gold market price manipulation.  In A.D. 2009, we heard allegations (empty vaults or counterfeit gold bars with tungsten cores) that imply the existence of significant fraud in the gold storage industry.

So far, we’ve tended to view gold price manipulation and gold storage fraud as two coincidental but entirely unrelated phenomena. However, I’m convinced that the two phenomena are as interrelated and codependent as heads and tails.  If you have the first (price manipulation), you must have the second (storage fraud).

 

Taking Delivery

As the world edges closer to economic Armageddon, reports of scandals in government, banking and financial institutions grow increasingly common.   Many people suppose these scandals to be a result of economic troubles.  I.e., the public is under economic stress and looking for someone, anyone, to blame.  Therefore, the public is hungry for “scandals of the rich and famous” and our news/infotainment industry is happy to provide whatever the public will pay to believe.

But the truth is that the current rash of scandals is not the result of the economic crises—it’s the cause (or at least evidence of the cause).  We’re heading towards an economic collapse because the people in government and finance who claim to be trustworthy are actually immoral, greedy, and unworthy of anyone’s trust.   We’re heading for an economic calamity because the number of immoral politicians and financiers has reached a critical mass and is finally too great to be ignored, denied or survived.

 

Moral Economics

Back about A.D. 1995, President Bill Clinton’s reputation for lying inspired the “$6 Bill”—a joke “paper dollar” that included pictures of Bill Clinton on one side and Monica on the other, a few witticisms, and a big, bold number “6” in each of the four corners.  The $6 Bills were so obviously a joke that they couldn’t be construed as counterfeits.

Even so, a friend of mine conducted an “experiment” in which he paid for hotdogs and cokes at several convenience stores with “$6 Bills”.  The clerks (primarily immigrants) accepted the joke “dollars” and even gave change.  The story seems kinda funny, except that when the clerks “cashed out” at the end of their shift and the boss found the $6 Bill in the money tray, the clerk’s were undoubtedly charged for the $6 loss.  Thus, my friend’s innocent “experiment” actually robbed each clerk who ignorantly accepted the $6 Bills as if they were money.

 

Gold: $2010 in 2010?

When a child sees David Copperfield cause a beautiful woman to rise up off a table and float in mid-air, the child thinks he’s seeing “magic”.  When an adult sees the same performance, he knows it’s only a trick—but he’s still wondering “How th’ heck did Copperfield do that?”