Regardless of the outcome, the heated debate over America's fiscal cliff signifies nothing. But gold's growing role as a hedge against global fiat currency debasement gives us a more realistic read on the future of the American economy.
While President Barack Obama dickers with John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on US$607 billion of spending cuts and tax increases, Congressman Ron Paul believes America has already fallen over the fiscal cliff, given that Washington's bill for unpayable entitlements has now hit US$222 trillion.
"The treasury's bare," proclaimed Mr. Paul in an interview on Fox News December 17.
"The country's bankrupt; they won't admit it, and that's why there's so much anger and frustration because it's hard to divvy up loot when there's none to divvy up."
Growth must be genuine
It goes without saying that real economic growth comes from business-led and capital expenditures, and not by thinking about tax rates and budget cuts in the face of insurmountable debt.
Instead, to avoid dividend tax hikes that could jump to 43.4 from 15 percent, leading U.S. companies like Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST-NASDAQ, $98.92) awarded shareholders, including management, a US$3 billion Xmas Dividend gift.
Moreover, aping Washington's misguided script that tries to goose productivity by increasing debt, Costco had the nerve to pay the dividend with borrowed money.
Meanwhile, signs of bankrupt governance, if not outright bankruptcy, abound in the U.S.
As reported on Greg Hunter's USAWatchdog.com a website that bills itself as supplying the straight dope, over 20 million homes in the U.S. remain vacant.
Moreover, to prevent more damage to fragile balance sheets, Mr. Hunter adds, financial institutions are avoiding foreclosers. Despite extraordinary stimulus measures, nearly 47 million Americans - about one in seven, an all -time high - survive on food stamps.
Meanwhile, robust sales of both guns and ammunition in the U.S. suggest widespread unease. And unlike profligate leaders in big government and big business, Americans who do not have jobs are trimming balance sheets, as evidenced by their dwindling spending on almost everything.
like reduced spending on consumer goods, purchases of gold bullion portend a fundamental fiscal shift.
It will be one, say's Mr. Paul that will be spurred by "a dollar crises where we will be forced to revamp and change our system of financing. And although he admits this won't be anything as bad as the collapse of the Soviet system, it will involve a lot of changes.
Meanwhile, in faraway Japan, home to another debt-fuelled currency debasement, Japanese pension funds with US$3.4 trillion in assets are taking a big step.
Nick Barisheff President of Bullion Management Group Inc. |
This article was published and written by Investor's Digest of Canada
copyright 2013 by MPL Communications Inc.
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