News & Analysis
Fiscal Cliff ... Whatta Meme!
Offers fly, but still no 'fiscal cliff' agreement ... Last-minute deal elusive despite GOP concessions ... Senate Negotiators Remain Short of a Fiscal Deal ... With hours to go, President Obama and Congress barreled toward the New Year's Day "fiscal cliff," trading last-minute offers and narrowing the range of options Sunday, but reaching no deal. "There's still significant distance between the two sides," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, announced Sunday evening, though he said there was still time to reach agreement by Monday's midnight deadline. "We intend to continue negotiations." – Washington Times
Dominant Social Theme: These negotiations are critical for the health of the Republic.
Free-Market Analysis: We have noticed that one way to establish the primacy of government is to create endless crises and then let the mainstream media go to work. Every day there will be new articles, new reports, new deliberations.
People read the newspapers every day and begin to understand that there is no other way for the world to work. The Fiscal Cliff controversy is one of these manufactured crises. The endless sovereign debt crisis in Europe is another. The players come and go but the importance of government is endlessly reaffirmed.
As the Washington Times article tells us, "The fiscal cliff is the combination of across-the-board tax increases due Tuesday, followed a day later by $110 billion in automatic spending cuts imposed as a result of last year's deal to raise the debt ceiling."
Of course, the Fiscal Cliff negotiations could be resolved at any time. But chances are they will not be finished until the very last moment – and even then the results will satisfy no one.
But a larger point will have been made. There is a process – and it is not one to which you are invited. Always, a handful of people are getting together to decide the fate of the world. Always, these tense negotiations are being reported by "sources" close to the action.
But you are not close to the action. You are a watcher. You have no influence over these events. The entire process, in our view, is designed to reinforce your sense of being a bystander. Here's some more from the article:
Talks were so broken at one point Sunday that the top Republican negotiator, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, bypassed Mr. Reid to speak directly with Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
The blockade seemed to lift somewhat when Republicans dropped their demand to change Social Security's cost-of-living adjustment formula, and both sides traded offers on the income level at which taxpayers will see an income-tax rate increase and debated what other incentives would be included.
"You can't win an argument that has Social Security for seniors versus taxes for the rich. So we need to take it off the table," Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, said in explaining why the party decided to forgo demands for entitlement reform.
A deal would have to clear not only the Senate, but also the House, where conservative Republicans hold sway.
In the absence of an agreement, Senate Democrats were preparing to force a vote Monday on their own fallback solution, which would raise taxes on families making more than $250,000, would extend unemployment benefits and could include other party priorities.
But that legislation is unlikely to reach Mr. Obama's desk, leaving a small window for a deal that could rescue millions of taxpayers from rate increases.
We can see from this reporting how the narrative is structured. There are no caveats, no explaining how these people assumed or accumulated power. The process assumes their legitimacy.
And yet ... one could point out that there are significant doubts about both the process and the players. The president himself has been subject to extensive reports that he is not who he says he is. He won't release any school records, for instance, and various reports claim his birth records are forged.
But one could go down the list of participants and discover questions about all of them. The media won't do this, of course. It will simply present them as one presents actors in a script. The drama is important, not the individuals.
By the time you read this, perhaps the negotiations will have reached an end and the Fiscal Cliff will have been successfully surmounted. But you may be sure that soon government officials will discover another crisis, and then another and another.
The point is not to create a resolution but simply to impress on voters how important and necessary the process is. The power elite that wants to run the world counts on this. Without government, there's no possibility of mercantilism. And without mercantilism there's no running the world behind the scenes.
In reality, there is no resolving the larger problems of the US, which have to do with promises to citizens in excess of US$100 trillion. But that's not the point. We're supposed to be transfixed by drama, reaffirming to us once more that there is no other option than Leviathan's regulatory democracy.
Conclusion: Of course, there is but we are not supposed to consider it. That's the real point.
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Posted by olde reb 74 on 01/02/13 02:06 PM
How is it that the 'fiscal cliff' is funding the New World Order? It is through the record keeping by the FRBNY of the auction accounts of Treasury securities. They hide $4 billion DAILY that legally belongs to the government.
Ref. NEW WORLD ORDER: FUNDING OUR OWN SELF DESTRUCTION posted at Click to view link
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Posted by Don from the Republic of Lakotah on 01/01/13 05:16 PM
As the invisible hand diminishes the importance of the stock market ( Click to view link ) some argue that as an unintended consequence, the fear of "getting primaried" ( Click to view link ) drove politicians to this fiscal cliff impasse.
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Posted by 1776 on 01/01/13 03:52 PM
Putting America's Tax Hike In Perspective Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/01/2013
Click to view link
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Posted by HaroldSmith on 01/01/13 03:29 PM
Such a great analysis, and such a terrible proscription. Regulatory Democracy? Really?
The obvious problem that we face is that people believe the myth (propaganda) that they need to accept the use of violence by others in order to solve social problems (If we don't allow them to threaten us with guns to steal the fruit of our labor, who will educate the roads?!?) Government is merely a gang of thieves writ large, a human tax farm that occupies an arbitrary geographical area, and most importantly a cancer that plagues mankind. You do not try to reform cancer, you do not try to put it in a neat little box called "Regulatory Democracy", you eradicate it.
The universal application of the non-aggression principle, which we all accept in our own lives, is the solution. You cannot reform the mafia and turn it into a children's hospital.
Please consider the arguments made by those in the AnCap/Voluntarist/Freedom/whatever you want to call it movement. While you've been working hard identifying and diagnosing the problem, they've been doing the same at figuring out the solutions. I think both communities would benefit from a meeting of the minds. A great place to start would be these free books:
Click to view link
Thanks for all you do DB.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks for the insights. We do propose solutios. In fact, this iteration of The Daily Bell is all about solutions ...
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Posted by Don from the Republic of Lakotah on 01/01/13 11:58 AM
This world needs a neologism, a corollary the Nuremberg defense (ie "I was just following orders.") Allow me to propose the Congressional corollary (ie "I was just a bystander when I signed this piece of legislation into law.")
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Posted by amanfromMars on 01/01/13 02:29 AM
"This man explains in clear mathematical terms what is going on. The fact that everything looks normal until the last few minutes of the "hour" is really quite sobering. Happy New Year and thankyou for the insight of Daily Bell ….. Click to view link " …. Posted by tjdetmers on 12/31/12 07:40 PM
Seems like one needs to be prepared for a Titanic Flash Crash and/or Colossal Quantum Leap, tjdetmers, which connects SMARTR AIdDeveloped Players to Global Intelligence Grids, Spooky Networks and Free Radical Underground Channels with Non State Actor Lines of Sublimely Strange and Stealthy Steganographic Communication. ….. for entirely valid reasons of maintaining IP Source Protection and Virtual Security with Anonymity.
Which trumps those false joker cards which promise just Immunity and Impunity, which are two charlatan safe havens with nothing but old problems in store destroying the future with its dirty deeds done dirt cheap, and yet to be accounted for with a claim of responsibility.
And that is an abdication of power and control and a sure sign of a failed leadership.
Oh, and thanks for sharing that video link, tjdemers. I learned a lot more about all that I didn't quite know, and confirmation of it being right and not wrong in whatever future direction the algorithm leads programming, is timely in Singular States of CHAOS.
Clouds Hosting Advanced Operating Systems States are a Virtual Reality Product Floating Platform for Capital Adventuring which Captures Deaf, Dumb and Blind Wealth and Insatiable Interest in Alternative Intelligence Markets delivering Brave New Orderly Worlds.
Happy New Year.
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Posted by Don from the Republic of Lakotah on 01/01/13 01:33 AM
It's official. The "huffing and puffing" good grey men of both parties concluded their "tortuous work of play acting" by agreeing to do nothing. ROTFL.
"Democratic officials: Fiscal 'cliff' deal reached
WASHINGTON (AP) - Racing the clock, the White House sealed a New Year's Eve accord with Senate Republicans late Monday to neutralize across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts in government programs due to take effect at midnight, according to administration and Democratic officials."
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Posted by Don from the Republic of Lakotah on 01/01/13 01:12 AM
"And this higher power be exactly what, Lakotah?"
It matters not one whit as long as individuals end up feeling disempowered. Capice?
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Posted by 1776 on 12/31/12 11:07 PM
12/31/12 - Sen. Rand Paul speaks on fiscal cliff negotiations
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Posted by dave jr on 12/31/12 09:25 PM
You know, they kicked the can so far down the road that it went over a fiscal cliff. You can't recover it now, it's way down there! Nope, it's tangled in this fiscal tree overhanging the fiscal cliff. Now we'll have to crawl out on the limb. Little further.
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Posted by tjdetmers on 12/31/12 07:40 PM
Click to view link
This man explains in clear mathematical terms what is going on. The fact that everything looks normal until the last few minutes of the "hour" is really quite sobering. Happy New Year and thankyou for the insight of Daily Bell
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Posted by amanfromMars on 12/31/12 07:28 PM
[blockquote]"To reinforce your sense of being a bystander." Period. The end. You do not control affairs. A higher power does. You do not even own your own life. A higher power does.[/blockquote] … Posted by Don from the Republic of Lakotah on 12/31/12 03:04 PM
And this higher power be exactly what, Lakotah? Man or Virtual Machine? Heavenly Woman or Insatiable Lover? Or is a Figment of the Imagination Servering Global Operating Devices SMARTR Enabling and Base Current Earth Default?
Unscramble that key religiously and Heavens Deliver Devilish Tasks for Angels Intervention with Captivated Intelligence Control. How Good is your See in a Meeting of Sees? Overwhelming and Omniscient would be Great Game Theory moved into Singularity Spheres of Virtual Reality Operations ... ... Deep Quantum Space Missions.
Daily Bell, it appears that your at point in the vanguard of such a Novel Steganographic Programming Pilot ... AI MasterClass.
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Posted by 1776 on 12/31/12 04:14 PM
The 'Stupendous Sum' of 1924: Calvin Coolidge on Taxes and Government Spending By: Jake (Diary) | March 21st, 2012
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Posted by Americanist on 12/31/12 03:58 PM
Ignorance and collectivism are and have been the driving forces for enslavement of those subjectable by those who seek to live priviledged lives at their expense. The readers of the Daily Bell know this all too well.
So, as "rossbcan" says below: what are you going to do about it?
Indeed, that is the bottom line isn't it? What are each of us going to DO?
As I see things, we are turning up the heat by informing our friends and those in positions of influence of our real situation. Ignorant and free can never be!
Every day, hundreds more worldwide are "seeing" because of our efforts. While it does not need any central planning at all, we simply must decide to locate a useful educational piece everyday and share it with a targeted list of those who are interested in that subject or are in a position where they need to know what we are sharing.
If the millions of us do this each day there is no amount of MSM message control that will prevail. But we cannot sit back, be informed and not tell our friends. I Google "Ron Paul" everyday to find, comment and share with others. You do what you think best.
"Friends don't let friends stay ignorant!"
We must become the leaders we seek! We must become the media we seek! We must become the activists we seek!
In a war (and we are at war my friends), the way to win it is to escalate it rapidly with all available troops and weaponry aimed at critical enemy sights(issues) and recruit new trained troops as rapidly as possible. Overwhelm the purveyors of lies with so much truth among the people that their lairs are filled with water and are flushed out!
NEVER be discouraged! NEVER stop! Learn to aim your weapons more accurately but keep hitting their critical positions. Fiat central banking, expose and rout the U.N.! Withdraw membership and involvement in both. Just those two critical sites destroyed, their setback would be emmense!
God bless you folks at the Daily Bell. Keep those articles coming! Share, share, share!
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Posted by 1776 on 12/31/12 03:41 PM
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has introduced a new FY 2013 budget. Unlike his last effort, which cut exclusively -- though deeply -- from discretionary spending in order to show much could be cut without touching entitlements, this one includes some entitlement reforms.
Paul claims his budget: Reduces federal spending by $11 trillion relative to President Obama's budget Balances in five years, within the balanced budget amendment window supported by all 47 Senate Republicans Achieves a $111 billion surplus in FY 2017 Eliminates four Cabinet-level departments (Energy, Education, Commerce, and Housing and Urban Development) while privatizing the TSA Freezes foreign aid at $5 billion a year Reduces most discretionary spending to 2008 levels Rand Paul Unveils Latest Budget Proposal.
Click to view link
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Posted by Leave me be on 12/31/12 03:21 PM
Spot on DB.
It is all theater to keep the masses in a fog while the theft by fraud continues unabated. The fraud helps the money powers put the vast majority into a state of perpetual slavery - world wide. I keep wondering when the average American man or woman will wake up and wonder - "What makes me liable for the debt these politicians keep creating out of thin, stinking, hot air?".
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Posted by Don from the Republic of Lakotah on 12/31/12 03:04 PM
"But you are not close to the action. You are a watcher. You have no influence over these events. The entire process, in our view, is designed to reinforce your sense of being a bystander."
Most excellent! Such pithy analysis is what draws me to DB. Those of us "in the know" already know that the politicians of both parties will do their most solemn duty [1] by agreeing to do nothing (of consequence) about the much ballyhooed fiscal cliff. So, why the drama?
"To reinforce your sense of being a bystander." Period. The end. You do not control affairs. A higher power does. You do not even own your own life. A higher power does.
Note 1. Yes, it is indeed a most solemn duty. Takers elect politicians explicitly to maintain the status quo that enables takings to continue unimpeded.
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Posted by 1776 on 12/31/12 02:20 PM
Rahm Emanuel on the Opportunities of Crisis WSJDigitalNetwork
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