In the Summer of 2010

by: Ron Holland

Are you ready for interesting times and an exodus from the United States? A possibly apocryphal ancient Chinese curse goes “May you live in interesting times.” Those words may derive from an authentic Chinese proverb: “It is better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in chaos.”

Either way, the message is easy to understand for anyone living in the summer of 2010. As I look over at Lucky, my golden retriever whose only concerns are when do we eat and when do we go back in the ocean to play ball, I can see the advantages of being a dog. But as a man I know it is time to defend my freedom and secure my wealth for myself and for my posterity.

The U.S. is wandering through a fake recovery, an expanding sovereign debt crisis, a stock market downturn and a double-dip real estate collapse. Meanwhile, the Swiss franc is moving to historic highs to the euro. And what does the conventional press want to tell us about? The “strong” dollar, who’s to blame for the oil disaster, the newest episodes in a host of foreign and domestic political soap operas and – a fresh diversion – which politicians are telling the biggest lies about their military records.

Welcome to the Fake, Jobless Economic Recovery

Last Friday, The Feds announced that the U.S. economy has added 431,000 jobs. The boldest spokespersons tried to announce this as good news, but the details revealed that only 40,000 of the total are private-sector jobs – the kind that produce things people want and are willing to pay for. The rest are little more than assignments in make-work projects designed to buy votes and beef-up the statistics on a fake recovery.

The American financial press asks hourly, “Will the euro survive as a currency?” And every time, the question is a prelude to “Again the dollar’s strength indicates it remains the world’s safe-haven reserve currency.” My response is, “Oh, really?” This is just more lies from Washington and Wall Street that you believe at your peril.

“Lies, damnable lies and statistics.” It’s an expression attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, one of my favorite British historical figures. He was prime minister twice, but in his early years he had been a stock promoter. When a boom in South American mining stocks collapsed in 1825, he lost everything, much as a later Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, did in 1929. Both Disraeli and Churchill turned to writing to repair their finances (Disraeli also married a rich widow many years his senior). Again like Churchill, Disraeli went into politics with success, and both secured loans from the Rothschild banks.

Interesting to some, though perhaps not to others. But British history over the last century is a worthwhile topic for all of us. It’s a model of what happens when an empire reaches its pinnacle and then slides into decline. It’s a model of what is happening to America today.

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Reposted from LewRockwell.com