On Monday, we shared with you our friend Tom’s first hand experience and general impressions with the Spain’s currency conversion from pesetas to the Euro.
The conversion to the Euro, for most practical purposes was a long, drawn out process which took two years to implement, starting with the final exchange rate peg to the Euro and culminating with the coin and bill conversion which Tom so eloquently described.
Adios Euros!
Today, thanks to the prospect of forced bail ins, the term for a levy or tax (depending upon your preferred term for asset confiscation) such as the one proposed in Cyprus which would bail out the government and/or banks, there is a run on banks throughout Iberia.
The reason is that the preference for the bail in solutions are now popping out of central banker’s mouths like pop corn. Even Ben Bernanke, slave master of the US currency, has uttered that it would be a possibility.
However, this is the twenty-first century, and bank runs aren’t what they used to be. For one thing, banks now have instant access to all of the digital currency they could possibly want. It is a simple ledger entry for the bank to replace the customer’s deposit with a Central Bank liability.
However, there is still the matter of cold, hard currency. As the Spaniards begin to withdraw currency en masse, the bank branches are bound to run out of Euros. Thanks to technology, holding Euros, either in physical or digital form, is no longer an absolute necessity and, at this point, it is extremely undesirable.
According to a report at Zerohedge.com, Spaniards are getting a crash course on Bitcoin adoption: Spain Bitcoin run has started
As the monetary authorities are just now beginning to understand the practical implications o
Bienvenido real money!
f forced bail ins, the peoples of the world are not content to stand pat while their leaders sqauble over how much to confiscate from whom. Thanks to digital solutions like the Bitcoin, Spaniards and people the world over are making a run on banks from the comfort of their own homes on their smart phones. The Euro, which took two years to implement, may be largely replaced in commerce in a matter of weeks.
Even so, the Bitcoin has its limits, as wealth held digitally has a flight risk of its own. Silver and other hard currencies do not have this problem, and the first stages of the next leg up in Silver and Gold is commencing in lockstep with the Bitcoin app downloads in Iberia. Either way, it is a unanimous democratic process whose end result will be the Euro being voted off the continent.
While the monetary authorities prepare their familiar mantra, “Keep Calm and Carry on,” the response in Iberia is ringing back “I’m Latin, I can’t Keep Calm!”
Neither should you. Here at The Mint, we have taken the step of accepting Bitcoins in exchange for silver coins to deal with this contingency. We ship worldwide and guarantee your satisfaction. If you are interested, please email us at the address below for a quote as we have yet to fully automate this process.
Today we continue with our exploration of the concept of building up the land. We are using, as our living example of someone who dedicated their life to building up a harsh land, a Swiss settler of the sandhills of western Nebraska, Old Jules.
Yesterday, before we deviated into our normal rant about the monetary premium being attached to debt instruments being the root cause of widespread resource misallocation and, by extension, what today is called “climate change,” we explored the idea that mankind was created to live in balance with the earth.
He was neither to overly molest it via excessive development nor ignore it via draconian conservation methods. Rather, he was to build up the earth, and in turn allow himself to be built up by it.
There are preconditions for man to be able to live in balance with the land. First and foremost, he must live in relative peace. If one is to invest adequate time in building up the land, he or she cannot spend an inordinate amount of time preoccupied for and tending to their personal safety. This is why war, far from being an economic boon, is ultimately fatal to man’s efforts to build up the land.
How, then, can peace be encouraged? By allowing uninhibited trade between communist style communities, such as families or tribes. As we explored yesterday, the link between free trade and peace is so strong that it can be said that if goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.
It all seems ideal, doesn’t it? Living in peace, in perfect balance with nature and our fellow man. It doesn’t sound like much to ask of everyone. Yet in practice, building up the land is a difficult endeavor. It is so difficult, that most people, when given the choice between working to build up the land and enjoying the fruits of the land, naturally choose the latter. The debt based money supply has allowed an unprecedented number of humans to spend more of their time enjoying the fruits than building up the land, and every day that this situation persists brings the actions of mankind further out of balance with the need to “build up the land.”
What type of person chooses to build up the land? In gentle climates, like the one we currently enjoy in Oregon, where a minimal effort in planting often leads to an above average yield, gentle persons can build up the land. As the land is strong, the people don’t have to be.
This has been true of the indigenous groups who inhabited the territories and, at the risk of offending our fellow Portlanders, we dare say that it is true of the population today. If one can stand the rain, life is relatively easy. A gentle, forgiving land will produce a gentle and forgiving people.
The corollary to this, naturally, is that a hard and unforgiving land will initially yield a hard and unforgiving people. Or, as Sunday’s Dodge Ram truck Super Bowl spot reminds us, on the eighth day, God made a Farmer:
Again for proof of this, we turn to Mari Sandoz’s account of her father, Old Jules. Jules Sandoz, our settler of 100 years ago, lived in a harsh land. He lived peacefully with the indigenous peoples there, who were being forced away by the Federal Army. He lived less peacefully with the bankers and cattlemen, who attempted to claim the land he was trying to build up by force.
Sandoz give us a glimpse into her rough, determined, and surprisingly refined father:
“Jules Sandoz was not a nice man, but he was smart and tough and talented, and he was a survivor.”
“Old Jules was always ready to serve as a “locator,” to help a new arrival stake out a claim and “find his corners,” locate the precise boundaries of his land. For this, he charged little or nothing, as he wanted so badly to “build up, build up” the community.”
“His (Old Jules’) house was briefly the local post office, until he feuded with the officials and they took it away. His place was the unofficial storytelling center of the community. His skinny daughter, Marie (later Mari {the author}), would hang back in the darkness to stay up and listen to the immigrants and Indians {Indigenous peoples} and, less frequently, the cowboys tell their tales.
Old Jules maintained a well-stocked medical kit and was the unofficial frontier doctor to one and all. He befriended the local Indians, some of the last Lakotas to live free in lodges, tipis, near his home. They called him “Straight Eye,” honoring his shooting skill. He spent windfall money he could ill afford on a Victrola {record player} and phonograph records, because he liked good music and thought he and his family should have it. They loved it.”
“Old Jules became a nationally known fruit breeder and grower, a correspondent of Luther Burbank. He was sure that this land was ideal for raising cherries. He was wrong. It wasn’t.”
Excerpts from “Old Jules” by Mari Sandoz
It took hard people, like Old Jules and the nomadic indigenous people who passed through the Sandhills following the ratings {bison}, to slowly build up a hard land. As the land became softer, Old Jules became softer. For this reason, Old Jules was passionate about bringing settlers to the Sandhills to build up the land.
Today, the sandhills of Western Nebraska are inhabited by kinder persons who have reaped the benefits of the efforts of pioneers like Old Jules. He and countless others whom he encouraged have worked to build up the land to a point where the effort to build it up is falling into balance with the time spent enjoying its fruits.
In Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, the opposite may be happening. Attempts to minimize man’s interaction with the land via conservation, essentially declaring the land off limits for development, is conserving countless acres of land as wilderness. While the efforts are noble and well intentioned, this too will, over time, throw the efforts of man to build up the land out of balance with the time spend enjoying the fruits of the land.
For it is true that the land needs rest, just as man needs rest. But rest must come in the right proportion for both man and the land to maintain their edge and to keep the dynamic between mankind and the land in a healthy balance, allow both to rest and production in a perfect proportion, providing for the future without robbing the next generation of the tools needed to continue building up the land.
“Then once more he raised his head, his face alive, his eyes far-focused, burning. He began to talk slowly, as though his lips were metal, stiffening. “The whole damn sandhills is deserted. The cattlemen are broke, the settlers about gone. I got to start all over-ship in a lot of good farmers in the spring, build up–build–build–“
Old Jules’ dying words from the biography entitled “Old Jules” by Mari Sandoz
Today at The Mint, we continue our journey, and we are glad that you are along with us. With the inflationary fruits of five, nay, 100 years of loose monetary policy beginning to destroy the very currencies which gave birth to them, the world will all too soon be left to pick up the pieces and boldly move forward when all hope is lost.
When there is no hope, one must fight to become hope. This is our charge to you, fellow taxpayer. Fortunately, this is far from the first time that mankind has found itself in this situation. For inspiration, we look back roughly 100 years to a man who had a vision for a place that was then, as now, a place that is difficult to inhabit, the sandhills region of Northwestern Nebraska. (The sandhills have appeared in the news as a possible route for the long delayed Keystone pipeline.)
That man is Old Jules.
Old Jules was a Swiss immigrant who settled in the sandhills and, as our title implies, devoted much of his interesting life to “building up the land.” What does it mean to build up the land? Your idea of building up the land probably means something quite different than my idea of building up the land, and we would both probably have visions quite different for building up the land than someone living 100 years ago, like Old Jules.
Yet all of our visions have merit, for the idea of building up the land, while it may manifest itself in any number of different ways, implies working with the land to help it produce.
The whole idea of man being able to help the land to increase its production and that production helping mankind, in turn, to increase their own production (or reproduction, to be precise), is a miracle. For those who inhabit urban settings, it may seem a mystery from a far off place.
Yet it is the command received by Adam and Eve at the dawn of creation.
Man was never meant to sit back and simply eat the fruits passively produced by the land, rather, the creation and mankind were created to have an intercourse, if you will, with the fruit of one producing fruit in the other, and vice versa. Mankind’s activities were meant to be intimately connected to the land. Mankind is to build up the land, and, in return, the land will build up mankind.
While the Victorian Yeoman farmer ideal may immediately spring to mind when one thinks of building up the land, it should be clear to any thinking person that the division of labor is a far more productive and resilient system by which to build up the land and to reap the benefits of such building.
Even in the Yeoman model, the division of labor existed. One fetched wood, another dug and plowed, another prepared food, still another shelter, and another fetched water, and so on.
The division of labor could flourish beyond close knit communal groups, such as families or tribes, only via a system of trade. The concept of trade, which further enables the division of labor to operate, is important not only for the concept of building up the land, but also for the maintenance of peaceful relations amongst communal groups.
The link between mutual trade and maintaining peace between groups is inseparable. In the words of Frederic Bastait:
“If goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.”
If all of these things, building up the land, the division of labor, and the necessity of trade, are to operate, the concept of money, or what is better described as the emergence of a good of the highest order which carries a monetary premium, must be tacitly agreed upon by all groups that engage in trade.
Today, circa 2013, there is something desperately wrong with where the monetary premium is placed today: Central bank credits, or what most of us know as currency, or money. The problem is that they are debt, and not part of the natural world.
Because the monetary premium has been tied to debt, the operation of money, which should serve to build up the land, instead operates to tear it down. The obvious effects of this purely monetary problem have led man, a la Al Gore, to react to effects the environment by treating a limitless myriad of symptoms. The most extreme of which is the cry for conservation. At its extreme, conservation seeks to cut off the intercourse of man and the land, ensuring the ultimate death of both.
What the land needs, however, is neither the over zealous building up which takes place in the debt based monetary system, nor the sterile, hands off idleness called for by extreme conservation agendas.
What both the land and mankind desperately need, is balance. The only way to achieve this balance, is to return the monetary premium to things in the natural realm.
One of our many “inquietudes” (a Spanish word for which a rough English translation would be agitation) here at The Mint is that the concept of money has been removed from the natural realm of coin, currency, or anything physical and naturally occurring (at least at a base level), and has been elevated and attached to the enigma of a debt, which exists purely in the imagination, if not aspirations, of men and women.
The disconnection, while giving rise to advances beyond our imagination, has thrown the earth’s resources wildly out of balance, via the unnatural transfer of control into few hands.
What many Keynesian trained economists praise as a triumph over the shackles of specie money, we lament as perhaps the ultimate delusion of our time. Such is the delusion that nary one in a million men will understand these words.
With Japan’s recent aggressive devaluation of the Yen, the financial news has again taken up the phrase “currency war” to describe any lack of coordination in the steady devaluation of fiat currencies across the globe.
In a recent piece over at the Financial Times, Niall Ferguson identifies the Bank of England as the current winner in the stealth currency war that is currently being waged. While the Bank of England may be the winner, the losers are not other nations, as the term war would suggest, but rather the savings of those who are unfortunate to count bank accounts or debt instruments denominated in national currencies among their assets.
Who, then, are the winners in what we have dubbed the currency war to end all currency wars? In a simplified sense, those who hold the Dow Jones Industrial stock index (not the individual stocks, which are, in the final analysis, a crap shoot) and those who own gold.
In an attempt to illustrate this point while at the same time saving 1,000 words, should the old adage hold true, we have created the following graph, which plots a normalization (which brings the sheer magnitude of the numbers down to a workable scale) of the M1 and M2 monetary measures against both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and gold prices, all averaged on a monthly basis since April of 1968.
Graph of normalized DJIA and Gold assets classes vs. M1, M2, and Federal Funds Rate measures
Those with a keen eye will notice that the only data point that has been on a downward trend since the US Dollar was officially released from the shackles of the gold standard on August 15, 1971 has been the Federal Funds Rate, which in theory should have an inverse relationship with all of the other data points.
We will leave you with three observations from our graphic exercise:
1. The most volatile of the two asset data sets has been that of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. However, despite its volatility, its overall trend tends to follow that of the M2, or expanded, money supply measure.
2. The more stable of the two asset data sets has been gold, which has generally lagged growth in the M1, or base money supply to which it was tied to pre 1971. Beginning in the year 2000, gold again began to follow the M1 trend.
3. The light blue line, which tracks the Federal Funds Rate, has been on a downtrend. The upticks in the Federal Funds Rate, in theory, should have lead to downward ticks in the M1 and M2 As you can see from the graph, this is not the case.
The conclusion of this brief analysis is the following: Holding Stock Indices such as the Dow Jones should give some measure of protection against inflation over the long term, perhaps even superior to gold. However, since 2000, gold has held steady as an inflation hedge and generally will have less liquidity risk than stocks.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is that upwards changes in the Federal Funds rate, even those as dramatic as were experienced during the Volcker years, have little or no effect on the near term trajectory of the M1 and M2 monetary measures and have never caused these monetary measures to trend downwards, ever. At most, these movements may serve to temporarily arrest the upwards slope of the growth of the M1 and M2 monetary measures.
What does it mean? While the Federal Funds Rate may serve to weakly toggle the rise in the M1 and M2 measures, the Quantitative easing programs, which began in 2008 and are now a permanent piece of monetary policy, have had a much greater direct impact on both the monetary measures and the asset classes which have been included above.
Given the current state of affairs, the QE program must be watched closely as it will have an outsized immediate impact on asset prices.
In the long run, it is clear that the Federal Reserve has set monetary policy on autopilot and programmed a course straight through the stratosphere and into the far reaches of outer space. There is no plan for the US Dollar to return to earth. The M1 and M2 monetary measures will not come down, no matter what happens to QE and the Federal Funds Rate.
It is time to organize investments in the real world accordingly.
We have been remiss in our regular correspondence to you, fellow taxpayer, and we pray you will forgive us. We have completed and published the first two volumes in our series, called “Why what we use as Money Matters.” It is our humble attempt to explain, well, why what we use as money matters. The volumes are currently available on Amazon’s Kindle as wells as in various eBook formats on Smashwords and can be accessed at the following links:
Our objective in writing the series is to convince humanity of two truths:
1. That if the activities of the earth are to be in balance with the available resources, money must be something natural, in other words, not debt or a sort of promise or idea.
2. That Anarchy is an ultimate given, and that Capitalism is the best response to this given.
The governments of the world, as we have known them, are disintegrating, but this will be addressed in our upcoming volumes in the series.
We would be honored if you would give them a read and keep watch for the upcoming volumes, for these ideas are exceedingly important.
Back to finance
While the Fiscal cliff and subsequent fallout have taken a toll on the average working American to the count of 2% right where it counts, there is a something altogether wonderful and dreadful knocking at the door:
Inflation
The wave of inflation that has been on the horizon ever since Federal Reserve monetary policy gave us new acronyms such as ZIRP and QE, appears to be breaking and will soon wash ashore. Now that it is breaking, the only thing that stands between it and the average working American is some flavor of collective default by the nation’s banks. Thanks to the programs which are represented by the above mentioned acronyms, this is highly unlikely.
At this point, then, the only entities whose default could cause such a chain reaction are the Federal Reserve, US Treasury, or possibly the ECB. However, here at The Mint we believe that the tidal waves of cash that have been unleashed may even make the default of one of these institutions manageable.
The Federal Reserve has succeeded in the sense that they have flooded the system with so much cash and have repeatedly stated in no uncertain terms that they will backstop the Treasury and MBS market until the US Dollar’s last dying breath. While for a time, maturing debt obligations were mopping up the liquidity that the FED was pumping in, most consumers have now moved to extend maturities via refinancing or, on the conservative end, have closed out both cash and debt positions by paying off mortgages with savings which had been “ZIRPed” into dormance as an income producing asset. This collective action has put the economy in a sort of warped reset where the fiat currency debt monster can run amok for the foreseeable future, with the attendant fatal real world consequences.
Oddly enough, as the FED begins to claim victory over the financial crises which its own policies have made possible, the double whammy of the Basel accords and Dodd-Frank regulatory regimens may eventually eliminate many of the financial institutions which today are household names.
The Repo man cometh
In what is perhaps an unintended consequence, the afore mentioned regulations have given what is known as a REPO contract its walking papers. In our oversimplified understanding of the matter, for simplicity is a virtue here at The Mint, the REPO arrangement, which is a glorified demand deposit, has allowed banks to hold their client’s funds on their balance sheet as Tier I capital.
In 2017, these arrangements will be forced to be properly classified as demand deposits, and many of the wiser financial institutions, who already have a long way to go to reach the Basel Tier I requirements, are already steering their clients away from these arrangements.
How much capital will this pull out of the banking system? Nobody knows. But what is for sure is that unwinding these REPO positions will leave some institutions exposed and unprepared. They will probably become aware of their exposure via the classic individual financial panic mechanism:
Of Money and Metals: The Operation of a Free Money Supply Explained is Volume II in the “Why what we use as Money Matters” series. Of Money and Metals presents the fallacies of the current day practice of circulating debt in the place of money and explains the urgent need for and the operation of a free money supply. This volume also explores the phenomenon of Bitcoins and digital currencies.
It is available to our dear readers for free until January 31, 2013 at smashwords.com, just enter coupon code: MA65L
As our site name implies, we have more than a passing interest in monetary theory. As such, ideas for new types of coin and currency are of special interest. When the value of the coins proposed contains an insane amount of seigniorage, we are compelled to call it out.
The Fiscal Cliff melodrama playing out in the halls of US Federal Government’s Capital has given rise to the above mentioned monetary insanity.
As the so called, moronic “Fiscal Cliff” false alarm approaches, it becomes more common for those of a Socialist/Statist leaning philosophy to search for easy solutions to what amounts to enabling catastrophic policy failures, out of control spending, and unsustainable debt pacts.
This is not surprising, as Socialism and economics are incompatible philosophies. Anyone who claims otherwise either mistakenly applies small system theory to large scale systems or is a shill. From one of these insane theorists comes the idea of the US Treasury coining a trillion dollar platinum coin to deposit at the FED, who would then cancel the Treasury’s debts.
This will not happen, first and foremost, because the insane monetary system relies on debt as its lifeblood, as such, any debt cancellation by the underlying foundation of US Treasury debt is out of the question.
Second, it must be recognized that coining a trillion dollar coin, theoretically equal to 1/60 of global GDP, that anyone other than the FED would accept at face value, is impossible, it simply flies in the face of reason. The FED has been paying 100 cents on the dollar for the MBS toilet paper that banks have sold to them for years now, as such, any concept of value left the halls of the Federal Reserve years ago.
The third reason is that the US debt at the FED has already been largely canceled via the FED’s various QE operations over the past several years. For the reasoning as to why the official US Debt held by the FED hasn’t been lowered to better reflect its true drag on GDP, we refer fellow taxpayers back to reason one.
We will present more data to back this claim in the coming week. In the meantime, if someone offers you a trillion dollar coin, be sure to check the spot price of platinum before making a more reasonable counter-offer. In any event, you are better off holding the platinum, as someday it will be worth are least a trillion Federal Reserve notes, the shills at the FED and Treasury have assured it.
In our recent open letter to Evo Morales, we brought up three principles which must operate together in a society for the greatest amount of material good to come to the greatest possible amount of people. While most assume that the principles, Liberty, Private Property, and Equality before the law, can only operate via the apparatus of government, we argue that the exact opposite is the case. By necessity, the operations of government, an ultimate sovereign, would necessarily hinder the operation of these essential principles.
The reasoning is this: These principles are so important that they must be learned and respected by every member of society. At the same time, they are so basic to human nature that they are most effectively learned by simply living amongst one’s fellow human beings. As such, the more a person is exposed to the anarchic environment in which we all ultimately live, the more quickly they will master these essentials.
Free Banking – The key to Liberty
The apparatus of Government can only retard the most effective teacher: Hands on experience.
The recognition of the vacuum of power called Anarchy, which all systems great and small operate under, is extremely important when trying to understand the world as we know it. However, it is not the focus of today’s Mint.
Today’s Mint is focused on Free banking. Within our three great principles, Free banking generally fits under the principle of Liberty. However, as banking and currency circulation, circa 2012 is perhaps the least free area of enterprise, it deserves special consideration as we examine what true freedom consists of.
Important as it is, the concept of Free banking may seem foreign to you, fellow taxpayer, as it is to nearly every other person, great and small, on our beloved earth.
However, the concept of Free Banking is perhaps the most important thing that men today can dedicate themselves to, for it is the lack of Freedom when it comes to currency and credit which has lead to stripping of the earth’s resources and the resulting environmental problems which a number of developing nations suffer from in a disproportionate manner.
Specifically, the suppression of Free Banking has caused the activities of man to create what is an unsustainable imbalance with the demands of the earth’s natural systems.
So what is Free banking? As the name may suggest to many in the developed world, it is not a lack of monthly charges on a bank account, rather, it is the freedom for banks to compete as issuers of credit and safe keepers of currency in any form.
The Free Lakota Bank – Free Banking in action
The current slave banking system’s fatal flaw is that it is obligated to issue credit and accept deposits in currencies which are nothing more than debt issued by a Central Bank. This constraint causes the currency created by the Central Bank to be the basis of all of man’s activities out of a necessity to pay a tax to the government in said currency.
To compound this fatal flaw, the issuing Central Banks actively manipulate the interest rates, which affect the price of the flawed currency and credit, making the value of both the credit and savings of everyone completely subject to the whims of the Central Bank.
If the currency which everyone was working for had been created legitimately by the labor of another man and its price, via the interest rate mechanism, allowed to respond to real supply and demand signals, a natural balance would be struck between credit and savings in society. This balance would express itself as conservation and eventual increase of the earth’s resources.
However, the currency which everyone is working for is nothing more than a piece of data created by a computer and printed onto a piece of paper and, via the active suppression of the interest rate mechanism, is not allowed to be properly discounted. As such, all of the labors of man are set towards destroying the earth, turning it into more pieces of paper, and depositing them into a bank in order to close out the credit account created by the computer.
We observed the zeal with which Evo Morales and other revolutionary leaders have implemented reforms by closing down a majority of the ministries of the government almost immediately upon gaining the power to do so. It is a swift move in which they attempt to consolidate their power. However, as one studies these cases, they will see that often there was one notable exception that was allowed to continue operating: The Central Bank.
The Central Bank is often seen as a sacred cow, even by those who vehemently opposite it, on the grounds that the currency and interest rates are too important to day to day life to be to the incapable hands of the people, which is what the concept of Free banking is all about.
However, it is for this very reason, the indispensible role of currency and credit in society, that currency and interest rates CANNOT be left in the hands of any one entity, no matter how much clairvoyance is attributed to them.
No one would argue that grains and fuel are important to everyday life in nearly all the earth. However, even hard core Marxists would be hard pressed to admit that all peoples would be better off were only one entity given the ability to produce and set the price for either. As such, it has been proven over and over again that the expansion of the ability to produce such indispensible items not only provides them in sufficient quantities to satisfy demand, it will do so at a price that is more or less tolerable for all (this argument, of course, is null if the price is controlled by a single entity).
While free market proponents are quick to recognize the benefits of the freedom to produce grains, fuels, and healthcare, for example, they become hardcore Marxists when it comes to currency and credit. What those who fall into this trap fail to realize is that all of the virtues of free markets are worthless if the most basic economic common denominators of currency and credit are not allowed to operate in as nature intended.
Free banking would allow free markets to solve all the problem of scarcity in currency and credit in the most efficient way possible. Why, then, is Free banking seen as the ultimate boogeyman by those in authority? It is for one reason and one reason only:
Control of currency and credit represents the ultimate authority in the material world.
While free market reforms can go a long way towards liberating the peoples of the world, the task and to close down the Central Bank and allow both the banks and the people to choose in what currency they will issue credit and maintain their savings. Far from leading to anarchic chaos, the basic need for exchange and the issuance of credit amongst humans would cause all of society who wished to trade with one another to arrive at a tacit decision as to what is best suited to serve as currency.
While in most cases, this tacit decision has arrived on Gold and Silver, the British and American empires, the most recent examples of empire, grew so wealthy that lesser metals, such as copper, were thrust into use as currency.
As a practical matter, it must be admitted that closing down the Central Bank would be a shock. For this reason, we look to solutions such as those seen in the actions of Canupa Gluha Mani, the Ithanchan of the Free Lakota Bank, as a path to free banking and the ultimate freedom of the peoples of the world.
The Lakota people declared their freedom from the sovereignty from the Government of the United States government in 2007. As an important part of this process, they knew that it would be necessary to establish their own monetary system. Further, they recognized that to simply choose another currency would again make them slaves to the creators of that currency.
To solve this problem, they opened the Free Lakota Bank and adopted what is known as the American Open Currency Standard, which is attempt to return to a balanced system of metallic weights and measures to use as currency which is recognized and traded internationally.
While this may seem now like an impossible step to take, the Peoples of the earth must enjoy free banking if they are to enjoy Liberty, Private Property, and Equality before the law in any meaningful way. For the lack of options in currencies in favor of the Central Bank’s monopoly on the issue of credit will keep the Peoples of the earth and their governments in the bonds of financial slavery until the Freedom of Banking is restored.
Free banking, by its very nature, does not obligate a people to adopt a currency standard, as the native Lakota people have. While the most likely outcome of the liberation of the currency and credit markets is for all involved to quickly settle on a new currency standard, it is necessary to guarantee that all Peoples the right to choose which currency they want to hold and to bank in. This is the only way that man can live in harmony with one another and with the natural world. This freedom is the spirit of the principle of Free Banking.
As the title suggests, it is a brief look at what is to come in the monetary realm as the Biblical prophecies regarding the end of the world unfold. While nobody can predict when or exactly how these events will play out, it is important to be aware of them and, if necessary, take the gift of time afforded us in the here and now to make the proper adjustments to one’s relationship to both their money and The Living God.
The Beauty of Rapture
Students of Eschatology will note our belief in a pre-tribulation rapture. For those unfamiliar with the term, the concept of rapture is the taking up, out of this world, of we who accept Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Jewish Messiah.
Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection undeniably changed the world. He is the ultimate expression of God’s mercy towards us. To us it is logical that we are to be called up to heaven to watch God’s final judgments unfold from the safety of our new home with Him. Admittedly, anyone who has taken the time to read the book of Revelation would be either masochistic or insane to not want to subscribe to a pre-tribulation rapture.
Even so, there are strong arguments which find support in scripture for a “mid-tribulation” rapture or even a “post-tribulation” rapture. Further, there are those who believe that the book of Revelation is simply an allegory for events which occur from time to time throughout history.
Given the seemingly sound, yet grim, alternatives, on what basis can we have confidence that this pre-tribulation rapture is true?
As stated above, the basic logic of our worldview leads us to this conclusion. God loves us jealously and mercifully. He is bringing the judgments described by John to the earth to prove once and for all the He is the only God. For those of us who already understand this, the display of sovereignty and wrath is unnecessary and inconsistent with who He is to us.
However, if God is making one last merciful attempt to call His creation to Him, the events in described in Revelation are perhaps the only way to get their attention. The time of evangelism of the living saints will be over. Were God to allow those of us who have already chosen to give our lives to Him to suffer further through the tribulations, it would only serve to cause confusion amongst those whom He will call during the time of tribulation.
For those who believe that God will need many witnesses at that time, would not the rapture of the saints, who would disappear without notice, be perhaps the most powerful witness since Jesus himself first appeared? We argue that many who witness the rapture but do not partake in it will be God’s most fruitful evangelists through the tribulation that is to come.
To apply this logic to the events examined in our e book, for the believer, the test of allegiance that will take the form of the mark of the beast appears to be, has already been passed.
Beyond logic and into Beauty
Yet beyond logic, or perhaps to further affirm it, there is a beautiful symmetry between God’s first universal act of redemption, at the resurrection of Jesus which occurred on the date of a Jewish festival call the Passover, and what will be His final act of redemption before He returns to physically reign, which we believe will be at the time of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish day of atonement or judgment. It is also known as the Feast of Trumpets.
Jason Hommel has written extensively regarding the Feast of Trumpets being the appointed time of the coming rapture of the saints. Through his insights, we gather a greater glimpse of the beauty of Jesus’ plan to rapture His bride, the church.
For the rapture will not be an emergency airlift operation of a people in distress, this is what the day of our salvation from sin was. No, the rapture will be Christ knocking at our door to take those who are prepared and have our lamps lit to our wedding feast with Him.
Somehow the word beauty seems inadequate. For God has given us the model of the Jewish wedding, a seven day celebration which begins at an unexpected time. This is consistent with the scripture, “You will know not the day nor hour, but the season.” It is also consistent with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, which generally takes place over a period of two days for the simple reason that no one knows exactly when the new moon, which marks its beginning, will occur.
You will notice that while we may be certain of the time of year which Jesus will come, no one is certain as to which year it will occur, nor the specific date, the only certainty is that the doors of heaven will be swung wide open at that time.
It is just as God intended it, and it is beautiful.
Rosh Hashanah for the year 5773 (or 2012, according to the Gregorian calendar) begins on September 16th.
We would be remiss here at The Mint if we did not enquire and make an honest attempt to understand the phenomenon of bitcoins. Bitcoins, according to wikipedia, are units of a peer-to-peer digital currency. They are a purely digital attempt to solve the eternal problem of what to use as money. Are they to be trusted? Lets take a look.
First, we must look at them from a purely conceptual standpoint. Are they money? Yes, bitcoins, as we understand their operation, meet our pure definition of money in the sense that they are not debt.
However, they have a rather severe limitation in that universal or even regional recognition as money in exchange and convertibility to other forms of money could prove elusive. This is a psychological barrier that theoretically could be overcome, however, it is difficult to assume that a majority of persons would, in time, learn what a bitcoin is and then take the time to sign up for and monitor a bitcoin account.
The market penetration for bitcoins could be as large as the number of internet and mobile phone users in the world but would more likely be similar to that of banking customers who use online and mobile banking services. In other words, those who are comfortable storing a portion of their wealth in a digital media.
Given the barriers to recognition and acceptance, at this point, bitcoins are probably best thought of as a share of stock in an amorphous payment clearing mechanism whose business model consists of the free exchange of its own shares of stock between account holders and the constant validation of transactions and subsequent logging of ownership of said shares.
These shares, then, would need to be converted into a local currency to be of use outside of the realm of bitcoin account holders.
The validation of the exchange and the logging of ownership of the bitcoins must be done by someone for the bitcoins to maintain their integrity and therefore any value which others may attach to them apart from a fickle monetary premium which is, at present, compromised by the barriers of recognition and convertibility refered to above.
This validation is currently undertaken voluntarily by the bitcoin account owners themselves and is accomplished by the users offering their resources, in the form of computer processing power and the use of computer hardware and electricity which makes the processing possible, to the greater bitcoin network for this purpose.
In return for the computer processing power and use of hardware and electricity which they dedicate to these processes, the bitcoin account owner receives a quantity of newly created bitcoins in exchange for the completion of a set quantity of computing (read bookkeeping and auditing functions) completed. These newly issued bitcoins serve to dilute the overall stock of the existing bitcoins.
The process of bitcoin creation realized through computer processing is refered to as “mining,” a name which is a fairly accurate description of the way in which bitcoins come into creation, even though the process more resembles accounting than strip mining.
As of this writing, we understand that mining bitcoins on a small scale is not profitable, which in layman’s terms means that the cost of the electricity needed to perform the computer processing involved in mining is greater than the amount of bitcoins which would come into existence as a result of the computer processing performed.
This calculation is naturally expressed in dollars as we are not yet aware of a utility company which accepts bitcoins as payment for electric bills.
It would then follow that bitcoin creation would slow as long as this price relationship exists. We will ignore, for the sake of simplicity, the fact that a great deal of bitcoin “mining” is done via bots which use the electricity and computer processing capacity of unwitting hosts, which makes mining profitable for some at the expense of others, and simply state that bitcoin creation, on net, is currently a losing proposition.
The fact that the mining of bitcoins is not profitable should make the existing bitcoins more valuable in the future as the stock of bitcoins will either cease to be diluted will be diluted at a lower rate. This would theoretically cause the value of bitcoins to increase until it again became profitable to “mine” them, which in turn would lead to an increased rate of dilution of the bitcoin stock and lower relative value in exchange, etc.
In this sense, the economics of bitcoins is similar to that of mining precious metals. Another similarity that the bitcoin has to precious metals is that theoretically there is a logarithm which ultimately will place an absolute limit on the number of bitcoins in existence. The logarithm places a mathematical limit to the stock of bitcoins in the same way that nature places a theoretical limit on the extractable amounts of precious metals which can be used as money.
However, bitcoins have a distinct disadvantage to precious metals owed to the fact that bitcoins require constant bookkeeping and auditing to maintain the integrity and therefore value of the bitcoin as money. Precious metals, on the other hand, do not rely upon administrative functions to maintain their value and rely entirely upon their relative value in trade.
Further, we must assume that the bookkeeping and auditing needed to maintain the integrity of the bitcoin will increase exponentially as bitcoin production approaches its logarithmically imposed limit, just as the incentive to perform these functions (mining, as it were) continues to diminish.
Given this inevitable dynamic, it is unclear if the integrity of the system can be maintained once the incentive to maintain the integrity of the system, which is currently supplied by the ability to “mine” bitcoins, is removed.
Having said all of that, it is now time to point out the obvious flaw in the bitcoin model, the flaw which lands bitcoins squarely in the realm of equity and makes them unfit for long-term use as money: The threat of competing digital currencies which would surely come into existence if the bitcoin were to gain widespread popularity and acceptance.
Even with the digital checks and balances on production which are mathematically built into the bitcoin model, the bitcoin, like gold, silver, seashells, and fiat currency, fails to completely solve the happy problem which has no solution:
That the infinite increases in trade due to the increased division of labor in the world will require money and debt markets with the flexibility and dynamism that only a completely free money supply can offer.
Gold and silver may hit physical limits, bitcoins may be limited by logarithms, and debt based fiat currencies tend to collapse upon themselves. This is proof that none of them, by virtue of physical and psychological limitations, completely fulfill the role of money for man. They were never meant to.
The determination of what will serve as money must be left in the hands of the people who are involved in trade. Left to their own devices, we would be amazed at the speed and efficiency with which the problem of what is money can be solved.
In other words, let those engaged in trade decide what is most suited as money at a given time and allow them to trade with it without hindrance.
For it is not the costs associated in the production of a monetary unit which remove value from the economy, rather, the administrative burdens, unnecessary conversion costs, and the rigidity of an imposed monetary unit which deals mortal blows to trade and consequently the ability of all humans to flourish to the greatest of their abilities.
Unnatural restrictions on the money supply, which solutions like bitcoin attempt to solve, are devastating to trade. The destruction wrought by monetary hegemony should surpass hunger, poverty, and climate change as global concerns, for allowing a free money supply to operate would serve to eradicate all of these problems and their symptoms, namely social unrest, terrorism, and health care crises.
As money managers are frantically rebalancing their portfolios in a vain effort to get out of the way of Apple’s 20 point decline and Spain’s central bank, whose reason for existing we cannot conjure at the moment, consults experts in toxic assets because it apparently cannot figure out how to perform the most basic of banking functions: Writing down bad assets, we are waxing philosophical here at The Mint.
We will give the Spaniards the benefit of the doubt and assume that they know what should be done with the toxic assets, they just do not want to appear to have admitted that the vile sludge on the balance sheets of nearly all spanish banking institutions are worse than worthless without getting an expert opinion.
The defunct Spanish Central Bank looking for unsophisticated Investors to clean their banking system's septic tank
These are smart people, no doubt, the money managers and central bankers involved in the debacle that is the western financial system, circa 2012. It is for this reason that there should be great cause for concern when they appear completely uncapable of functioning when things do not go the way they planned.
For example, a properly functioning banking system would have no problem figuring out what to do with non-performing loans (the common name for the toxic assets that the central bankers so dread). In fact, a properly functioning banking system, where real and not limitless fiduciary money was at stake, would have created an adequate quality control system to ensure that very few financial assets of the toxic variety live to see the light of day. Those that did see the light of day would have beem properly discounted them to a point where all of their toxic side effects could be properly cleaned up should they spill over.
We must assume, then, that there is something dreadfully wrong with the banking system. But what is it?
We began to ponder this question last week when we saw a post by an Ivy League trained economist. The assertion that fiduciary money is money bothered us to the point where we were compelled to jump in to correct this unintentional error.
The Ivy league trained economist indulged us for a time and then, for reasons unknown, disabled commenting on the post. We interpret this action as a concession of the point we are trying to make, either that or they just wanted to get rid of us, which, given our obvious charm, we can only assume is not the case.
What is important is that the post brought up a fallacy which we see it as part of our mission here at The Mint to debunk.
The fallacy, which is widely accepted as fact by money managers and Spanish central bankers alike, is that fiduciary money operates like money when in reality it is nothing more than a debt instrument in disguise.
So which is it? Is The Mint off its rocker or is there something to the error of this “debt is money” point of view, as in, it is causing otherwise intelligent people to act in more and more absurd ways as the inevitable consequences of using debt as money rear their ugly head?
Simply stated, is fiduciary money really money, as the name implies, or is it technically debt? It is a fine point that, to be honest, does not matter to most people on the planet, for what is commonly known as fiduciary money tends to operate as money in a way that is imperceptable to the members of society…until it doesn’t.
The true essence of fiduciary money is not money at all, but debt. Granted, it may be a highly liquid and highly transferable form of debt, but that does not change the fact that when it is created at the bank, be it a local or central bank, it represents a debt of that bank, regardless of the ability of said bank to redeem the fiduciary money for specie money, which is what we hold out as worthy of the term money for purposes of analysis.
As you can see from our presentation of the interaction below, we attempted, in good faith, to convince the Ivy League trained economist that Federal Reserve notes, as their name implies, are debt and not money.
I have redacted the amicable interaction to highlight the applicable text of our interaction as it pertains to the case in point, is fiduciary money really money?
Please read on and decide for yourself.
{Editor’s note: Out of respect for the Ivy League trained economist, we have removed all references to their identity, for it is not our intent to shame, discredit, or launch any form of personal attack on them, but rather, the fallacy surrounding mainstream economics’ treatment of fiduciary money in its analysis}.
The Mint (in response to the intial post):
I would like to point out that fiduciary money is not money, but rather debt which carries in its value a monetary premium which the market has chosen to assign it.
Ivy League trained economist:
“Perhaps this helps you David Mint. I wrote this back on March 8th.
{Link to content further asserting that fiduciary money is money, removed to protect economist’s identity}
The Mint:
Thanks again, however, I still cannot concede your assertions that Federal Reserve notes are money, rather, they are a debt instrument, which is often referred to as fiduciary money.
The proof of this lies in that Federal Reserve notes pay interest and trade at an implied discount rate, whereas money simply trades against other goods in a varying relationship determined by the relative scarcity of resources.
Both circulate as currency in a normal economy, but the rigidity of debt makes it unsuitable for obligatory legal tender.
It is a fine point that is categorically overlooked, but the more one forces debt into the role of money, the greater the disconnect between the activities of men and the resources available to support those activities.
I would love to hear a convincing argument that debt is money if you have one in your archives.
Thanks again and all the best!
Ivy League trained economist:
“Decidedly David Mint, Federal Reserve notes do not pay interest. There isn’t anyone on earth paying interest to anyone else who is holding a $5 bill in his wallet.
Here, David, disabuse yourself. See my many shares on what money is:
{Link to content further asserting that fiduciary money is money, removed to protect economist’s identity}
You ought to spend good time reading this one:
{Link to content further asserting that fiduciary money is money, removed to protect economist’s identity}
The Mint
Quickly, on the fallacy of the $5 bill which is held, the implied interest and discount rate on Federal Reserve notes traded amongst commercial and central banks still affect the value of the bill as it is held up until the moment it is given in exchange for trade. The coupon rate is 0%, but the normal operations of debt instruments hold true for them.
From what admittedly little I have read of your work, I agree with 99% of what you present. It is this fine point, that Federal Reserve notes behave as debt, even when they are part of the M1 money supply, that I believe is the error which is spread throughout mainstream economics. Of this, I have yet to be disabused by what you have presented.
Debt includes all fiduciary money. The point is important because using debt as money works until it doesn’t, meaning the issuer of the debt defaults or is widely perceived to have defaulted, and their debts become worthless in trade.
Ivy League trained economist:
“That’s all fine, except Federal Reserve bank notes are not debt. Decidedly, Federal Reserve bank notes are money owning to bearer negotiability and ability to extinguish contracts.
Yet, Federal Reserve notes are not credits, and thus are not debt. Federal Reserve notes are not even evidences of ownership of contracts.
At most anyone can say is that Federal Reserve notes represent a call on future products to be made by anonymous, as yet, identified others who likely shall take them in exchange.”
The Mint
As a matter of accounting necessity, the Federal Reserve must book a liability when it issues a Federal Reserve Note which makes their notes debt by definition. If this were not the case, why would they list it as a liability on their balance sheet?
On the contrary, the most that anyone can say about Federal Reserve notes is that they are the highest and most liquid form of debt which is traded in the US economy. However, this does not change the fact that the essence of the Federal Reserve note is debt.
The Ivy League trained economist unexpectedly exits stage left.
Who cares? Why is this important? It is important because if what we believe about fiduciary money is true, most of the Western world, including the mysteriously influential Paul Krugman (who is not, by the way, the anonymous Ivy League trained economist above), somehow believes that fiduciary money is money that can be produced at will, and that the world will be better off if we simply produced more of it.
If the Krugman’s of the world get their way, labor and accumulated capital will be so poorly allocated that it could take three generations for humanity to adequately organize itself to make good use of the earth’s inexhaustible reasources. Do you have that kind of time?
In our brief but necessary excursion into the wild world of Eschatology here at The Mint, we have endeavored to bring to your attention, fellow taxpayer, what one can expect in the Monetary Realm as the world comes to an end.
To be clear, we are not predicting when the world will come to an end, for only God alone can determine this, rather, we are sharing our interpretation of what will take place regarding man’s relationship to his money and possessions as the inevitable trials and tribulations which will take place begin to unfold.
First, a brief review of parts I and II of the series:
Part I – Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s: Around 2000 years ago, Jesus reiterated the importance of a mark in determining monetary ownership, stating that since the mark of Caesar is on the coin used to pay the tax to Caesar, it is proper to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
With this simple statement, Jesus reaffirmed both the complete Sovereignty of God as well as the validity of private property held by men in God’s view.
The obvious yet staggering implication is that money and coinage given by an Emperor may at some point be demanded back by that Emperor, therefore it is foolish to accumulate money and coinage issued by an Emperor as a store of one’s wealth.
Not surprisingly, the same is true today.
Part II – The Vision of John: Roughly 60 years after Jesus’ declaration, the Apostle John was given a vision of the events that would transpire before Jesus returned to the earth to reign triumphantly.
{Editor’s Note: This is not unprecedented; in addition to the vision of Daniel which we will discuss today, a vision of Jesus’ first coming was given to Isaiah some 700 years prior to the event.}
The Revelation of St John: The Four Riders of the Apocalypse, 1497-98, by Albrecht Dürer, Woodcut
John’s vision, recorded in the book of Revelation, covers a great deal of topics and is perhaps the most widely studied book when it comes to Eschatology. In this series, we are specifically concerned with only the portion of the vision which is commonly referred to as the “Mark of the Beast.”
In our review, we stated that the “beast (satan)” will at some point in the future demand the worship of all men. Specifically, he will ban all worship of the One True God and cause a statue to be set up, which God refers to as the “abomination which causes desolation,” and demand that everyone on the earth render worship to the statue.
One tactic that will be used to coerce mankind into worshiping the statue instead of the One True God will be to require mankind to accept a “mark” on their physical body in order to be able to buy and sell.
The choice to accept or deny this mark will be the watershed moment for the inhabitants of the earth at that time. They will be forced to choose to either throw their lot in with satan, whose kingdom is being destroyed forever, or the One True Living God, whose Kingdom is established for eternity.
On paper, the choice is obvious. However, given the deception which satan employs in an attempt to manipulate mankind, much perseverance will be required.
The prospect of losing title to all of their possessions and not being able to buy or sell may be too much for even self professed Christians to bear, and many, faced with the choice to continue their way of life within the system or to presumably wander the earth as Cain was, may be tricked into capitulating to satan’s tactic and accepting the mark.
We wrote yesterday that the Rapture will occur before any of the tribulations, including the dreaded choice of whether or not to accept the “mark of the beast,” takes place. Therefore, if the end times which John writes of seem like too much to bear (as it is for us,) we implore you to begin trusting Jesus today.
If you have just made or have already made a decision to trust Jesus, you may stop reading and begin a life of praise and service to God.
However, for those who are unfortunate enough to be living on the earth during the perilous days to come, the third and final passage which we will consider is intended to give them a measure of hope, as well as the timeframe which one must be prepared to endure.
Fortunately, God has given us, circa 2012, a guide to the end times. For the vision of Daniel regarding the end times, related in the book of Daniel, Chapter 12, taken together with the vision of John in Revelation gives us the specific time frames that the “Mark of the Beast” will be required to be used for buying and selling within the earth’s system.
It is clear from John’s vision that the imposition of the mark will coincide with the erection of the statue which God calls the “abomination which causes desolation.” Therefore, according to Daniel 12:11-12, the time frame from the beginning of the tribulations until the time that the decision to accept or reject the mark is presented to all of those on the earth at that time, will be 1,290 days, or approximately 3 years and 6 months.
If one finds him or herself on the earth at this time, we advise you to use those 1,290 days to prepare at least 45 days of rations.
Why 45 days? Because 45 days is the period of time which one will have to refrain from buying or selling if you still desire to accept Jesus and reject the mark of the beast. As it is related in Daniel 12:12:“Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of 1,335 days.”
Again, 45 lonely days is all one will have to refrain from buying or selling as a consequence of wisely rejecting the mark of the beast. During this extremely short period of time, the beast will appear to have complete control over the monetary realm.
Then, the fraudulent monetary and religious system that the beast has attempted to impose on the earth will collapse, and all of the earth will fall into a deeper tribulation as a result. However, it is clear from Daniel’s vision that those who refused to accept the mark of the beast will be blessed.
We are aware that this is but one of many interpretations of the events surrounding the end times. It is our prayer that you will find both comfort and a call to action in our interpretation of what is to come.
45 days may seem like a long time, but with the proper preparations, all of the peoples of the world who remain during the coming tribulation may eagerly await the coming of Jesus without fear and full of hope.
God is faithful and will quickly answer honest and earnest prayer. We encourage everyone to study the Bible and to seek God in order to develop their own understanding of what is to happen and what they are to do.
It is clear from Jesus’ answer to the spies’ question that He ascribed little importance and value to the coinage of Caesar. This flew in the face of what to most people believe about money on a subconscious level.
As we have explored in this space before, the current monetary system, where money is debt, creates an unnatural link between human beings, a sort of mutual slave/master relationship in which each and every person within the system finds themselves ensnared.
How does Caesar ensnare people in this system? By simply placing his mark on the coinage, the coin becomes Imperial property. The next step is to pass a series of laws, commonly known as legal tender laws, which obligate people to use the coinage in trade and commerce.
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” therefore, may be seen as a call out of the system of Imperial coinage and tribute. If one remains in the system by accepting and using the coinage in exchange for goods and labor, they remain a slave to the empire and all of the money bearing his mark which they have accumulated belongs to Caesar.
Today, some 2000 years after Jesus’ words, most of the western world lives in a system where not only does the modern day Caesar lay claim to their money via a mark, but also their future output by means of debts which are incurred as a necessity in the face of the declining real world value of the Imperial coinage in trade.
And yet it is only money, nothing more. Jesus stresses both private property rights and God’s divine sovereignty over all when He continues, “and to God what is God’s.” implying that everything is God’s while recognizing the right for Caesar to lay claim to all Imperial coinage via the mark.
This brings us to the second passage which we will examine as we continue our eschatological dabbling into what to expect in the monetary realm as the world comes to an end.
The Revelation of St John: The Four Riders of the Apocalypse, 1497-98, by Albrecht Dürer, Woodcut
The second passage relates to us a portion of the vision given to the Apostle John as he was exiled on the Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea circa 95 AD.
The passage, Revelation 13:14-18, is a source of widespread discontent amongst Christians who are paying attention as it warns of a time when all people on the earth will be forced to make a permanent choice between accepting the “mark of the beast” and “buying and selling.”
The discontent stems from the perception that one will be forced to accept the mark, and as a consequence presumably be forever estranged from Jesus, to be able to put bread on the table for themselves and their families. On the surface, this discontent is completely understandable.
Yet in light of the coming rapture of the Church, it is also completely unfounded for the true believer. Allow us to explain.
At the Mint, we are of the opinion that Jesus will rapture us (those who have accepted Jesus as their savior) before the inhabitants of the earth are faced with this fateful decision. This opinion is based on the parallels between the rapture and Jewish wedding traditions, where the bride (the Church of Christ) is swept away for seven days.
The parallel is that Jesus will come to sweep us away and hide us in his house (heaven) for the seven years of the tribulation which were revealed to John in his vision. This interpretation is supported by everything else that Jesus said about the end of the world.
While nobody knows exactly when Jesus will come, it is reasonable to expect that He will return around the time of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The first coming of the Messiah, Jesus, was the culmination of the Jewish Passover which occurs in the springtime. It could logically follow that the second coming of Jesus would occur during the harvest time around the Feast of Trumpets. Though we do not know the time of Jesus’ return, we will know the season.
If you, too, would like to share this joyful fate, we encourage you to choose today to trust Jesus. At this point, you may stop reading and begin a life of praise and service to God.
In the unfortunate event that one chooses to decline God’s loving invitation and finds themselves on the earth when humanity is faced with the ultimatum to either accept the mark of the beast or to be denied access to a perceived economic necessity, namely, “buying and selling,” please read on, for there will still be time to choose eternal life with God, but it will involve a seemingly difficult decision.
There is no shortage of speculation as to what form this “mark of the beast” will take, ranging from barcode tattoos, implanted microchips, and even the choice to worship on Sunday. Here we do not wish to add to the speculation.
Rather than focus on the substance which the mark will take, it is more important to focus on what it will mean, for at the time of the ultimatum, the choice they are being asked to make will be subtle and at the same time, crystal clear for all of mankind.
God’s enemy, satan, desires to occupy the place of God in people’s lives and the obligation to worship an image and accept a mark will be his final, desperate attempt to obtain all human worship for himself through a final deception.
It is clear that this desperate attempt will fail, yet that even some of those who are following Jesus may be led astray. For this reason, it is important for all to be aware of the choice which is being presented.
The acceptance or denial of the mark will be a choice that all those on earth will be forced to make and it appears to be the final watershed event in human history. The choice for those living at that time will be clear to them and the consequences eternal.
The choice is the following: Will you accept the mark and throw your lot in with the world which you can see or will you deny the mark and throw your lot in with the unseen God, and as a consequence subject yourself and your family to being ostracized from the world system to face hunger, persecution, and torture?
Denying the mark will likely be similar to losing title to all of one’s assets and loss of access to the banking system.
In other words, it would mean being shut out of the system.
The choice that each person makes at that time will then be clear for all to see. It will symbolize either entitlement to goods, services, and protection in the world system or being cast out of it to wander the earth as Cain did.
Those who desire to throw their lot in with God at that time are then presented with the some very important questions here and now: How long can you and your family survive without access to your assets or the banking system? Is it worth it to resist the mark and live as wanderers? Won’t God understand if I take the mark and forgive even this transgression?
To the first two questions, only you can provide the answers. The Bible is clear as to the answer to the third question, and from what we read in Revelation 14:9-12, it appears that the answer is no.
So, then, the true believer is left to prepare to live outside of the system until Jesus comes for them, to keep their lamp lit until the groom comes, as it were.
But for how long? That, fellow taxpayer, is the exciting part, and it will have to wait until tomorrow.
We must preface this series with a simple disclosure: There is no human who knows the exact time that the world will end. Further, there is no human who knows exactly how the world will end in a general sense, for experiencing the end of the world will be both a deeply personal experience as well as a universally polarizing event which will determine the eternal fate of people and communities.
That said, our limited studies of eschatology and monetary theory have lead us to some inescapable conclusions that we are compelled to share with you starting today, following one of the biggest festivals of the Christian calendar, Easter, which is celebrated three days after the Jewish Passover celebration and marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead some 2000 years ago.
Our studies accept as fact that the earth was created some 5,772 years ago as of this writing, in agreement with the Jewish calendar, as well as the fact that Jesus Christ, who was crucified, dead, and raised from the dead some 2000 years ago, is the Messiah.
Consequently, we accept the Bible as both an accurate historical narrative and a reliable guide as to what is to come.
Today, we will focus on the first of three passages which, taken together, give us reliable information as to what will transpire as the time of Jesus’ triumphant return approaches.
The Revelation of St John: The Four Riders of the Apocalypse, 1497-98, by Albrecht Dürer, Woodcut
It is our prayer that you will find both comfort and a call to action in our interpretation of what is to come. With the proper preparations, all of the peoples of the world may eagerly await the coming of their Lord without fear and full of hope.
The first passage is related in Matthew 22:15-22, Mark 12:14-17, and Luke 20:21-25. It is focused on what appears to have been a brief verbal exchange between Jesus and a group of spies sent to ask a question of him by the religious authorities.
Interestingly enough, it seems that people 2000 years ago were as eager to avoid paying taxes as they are today. In an attempt to catch Jesus advocating for tax avoidance, the religious leaders, who wanted to get rid of Jesus, send spies to trap him in his words.
In response, Jesus not only foils their attempt at trapping him, He delivers a simple monetary concept with wide ranging consequences. He challenges them not on whether it is right to pay taxes, but rather on what they are using as money.
When asked whether or not it was right to pay the Roman Imperial tax. In response to their question, Jesus stated the obvious. Namely, that since the coin used to pay the tax belonged to Caesar (the Roman Emperor) to begin with it should be no problem to simply give it back to him when he asks for it.
Jesus’ response cut to the heart of monetary theory, what they were using as money. The people’s choice to use the Emperor’s money in those days had enslaved them to the Emperor in a way that no army or jail master could, and they were eager for a way out.
In those days, Emperors had made a habit of declaring themselves gods and demanding allegiance. The Jews were peculiar in that they refused to recognize these imposters and instead worshiped the Living God. However, the Jews also had become accustomed to conceding certain aspects of their allegiance to the Emperor in an effort to survive.
Jesus, with a simple statement, challenged people to get off the fence, for the fence would one day be burned down and people would have to make a concrete choice, put their money where their mouth is, as it were, between ultimate allegiance to the Emperors of this world or the One True Living God, who alone is worthy of glory and honor and praise forever and ever.
Today, it is customary for most people exchange their labor for paper or digital currency issued by the Emperor. 2000 years ago, Jesus warned against this.
Why? The answer, which we will explore tomorrow, had already been partially revealed to Daniel some 600 years before, and was going to be completely revealed to John on the Isle of Patmos some 70 years later.
Yesterday we took our fellow taxpayers for a detour which is leading us into what, for some, may be uncharted waters. These waters are commonly known as the Bible, or the Word of God. While seemingly unrelated to the discipline of economics and specifically monetary theory, it is important to gain an understanding of the Bible for two reasons:
It is the most widely read book in the history of the world to date
In its labyrinth of narratives, poetry, song, and prophecy, it provides the only coherent framework within which humans, who have been given the gift of reasoning, can understand the world in which they inhabit and what they are to do with their time here.
If only for these reasons alone, it is of the utmost importance that the Bible be understood if we are to gain any meaningful understanding of what is called the “economy” and our specific area of interest, monetary theory, as these disciplines make absolutely no sense without an understanding of the framework in which they operate.
Regardless of one’s preconceived judgments about the Bible’s ability to provide this framework, it is important to understand that a number of one’s fellow humans believe that the Bible provides this framework. With this given, it can be inferred that this belief is, in whole or in part, is driving their choice of actions.
A Bible Handwritten in Latin in Malmesbury Abbey, Wilshire, England. Transcribed in Belgium in the year 1407
However, if you remain unconvinced or simply do not have time or motivation to undertake a careful study of the Bible, we will relate what we understand, it is in no way a substitute for one’s personal and corporate study of the Bible, but we appreciate your confidence.
The lessons of the Bible are important and we reiterate, without an understanding of the framework of the Bible, nothing that is going to take place in the future will make sense but will appear to simply occur at random:
Truly we tell you, the events to come have been foretold. The Kingdom of God is advancing.
What does it have to do with money? Why is a proper understanding of what we use as money important?
We are glad you asked, allow us to explain:
The current monetary system which most of the Western world uses to each day is built on debt. Debt, at its essence, is built a faith that persons will perform certain actions in the future. Performance of these actions from the debtor’s perspective is homogenized as being able to order delivery of the debts of others to the creditor in order to satisfy the debt.
Wrapped up in a narrative which will take under two minutes to read, the final consequences of using debt as money have never been more clearly stated. Please give it a read, it is important.
We have been cooking up a project here at The Mint and have been remiss in our faithful correspondence to you, fellow taxpayer. For this, we offer you our humble apologies.
With our mission partially accomplished, we are back in the saddle and riding the monetary range. The days have been uncharacteristically sunny here in the Northwest, and it should come as no surprise that the outlook has cleared up, along with the skies. While Europe remains in the dual grip of debt and cold, the US is once again tying its shoes and heading out to dance.
Official unemployment is down and inflation is nowhere to be seen according to the government.
Yet no matter what the official statistics say, there is something much more important occurring as we write, something that will adversely affect every person who is long the current US Dollar via holding the currency directly or indirectly via some vague promise to have the currency delivered in the future (Read: Bonds, MBS, and any derivative of such).
The fateful occurrence is this: The US Dollar is about to carry out its suicide mission.
Suicide mission? Wouldn’t the Government inform us of something as important as the severe devaluation of the currency?
Yes and no.
Allow us to explain. First and foremost, the Government, who, behind the banks in the Federal Reserve system, gain the most from a weak dollar, have a tremendous incentive to devalue the dollar as well as a tremendous incentive to hide this fact.
However, the truth can easily be deduced by simply observing what the stated Federal funds rate is at any given time and waiting approximately three years for the effects of that rate to hit main street.
39 months, to be exact, but here at The Mint there are no extra points given for accuracy.
Where were we, something about a suicide mission, ah yes…
Join us, fellow taxpayer, on a journey back to the lazy days of August and September of 2007. The world could not have been brighter. Everything seemed to be turning up roses, which in retrospect should have been the first sign of trouble.
"Benky" sends the US Dollar on its final quest
In early September, Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has just parked his avatar, “Benky” and logged off of World of Warcraft after completing a quest during his third day of “work” after a much undeserved vacation when the phone in his office rang.
“It’s time,” said the voice on the other end, and Bernanke slowly hung up the phone. Nothing more needed to be said.
The Federal Reserve was finished; it was only a matter of time. 100 years of subtle confiscation was about to go into the history books, and it was time to execute the plans which had been laid for its chief agent, the US Dollar, to go out in spectacular fashion.
Mr. Bernanke and his colleagues held a cursory open market meeting to say a tearful goodbye to the currency which they had been sworn to defend. They then set in motion a series of rate cuts which to this day have not been reversed.
The US Dollar was off on its suicide mission.
It had been on many similar missions before, all with overwhelming success in what were increasingly high risk operations against multiple targets, and it had always returned to its home shores with the spoils of war in its train, stronger and more arrogant for the experience.
But this mission was unheard of. Delving into short term interest rate depths never before attempted by a currency its size. Infiltrating foreign bases and confiscating wealth on an unimaginable scale. Only this time, it was not foreseen that it would return. A bigger, stronger, and more efficient model was waiting in the wings to swoop in and bring the spoils, which the US Dollar was to so painstakingly confiscate, home.
The mission, as in the past, was to take three years. Beginning at the FED, it would make a slow and steady descent through the short term funding markets and then plunge, in the span of 15 months, to the unexplored bottom. There it would lurk, setting mines and nets for the next 39 months which would confiscate the wealth of not just individuals and corporations, but of nations and multinationals as well.
It would be a grand climax to an illustrious career.
For their part, Bernanke and his colleagues at the FED would provide all of the cover fire they could muster in order to give the US Dollar as much time as possible to carry out its terrible work. In the end, however, there was little doubt that the currency would be found, tried, and executed during this tour of duty.
So certain was this fact, that neither provision nor measure was to be taken by anyone at the FED to rescue the US Dollar. No further resources would be used in its rescue, save the empty words of Bernanke and his colleagues.
The US Dollar’s orders were clear: To remain at the ultimate depths of short term funding markets, laying as many traps as possible, until it expired in this effort.
It is a grim mission, to be sure, with a grim outcome for those who are long the US Dollar and, ultimately, for the dollar itself.
Circa February 7, 2011, it appears to the greater world that the US Dollar has descended to the 1% level, the exact level it had been perceived to be at on that fateful day in late summer of 2007 when Mr. Bernanke got the call. For most people, it feels that all has returned to normal after four years of what can only be described as an economic nightmare.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
For in one short month, it will be clear that the US Dollar, rather than returning to base at the FED, as it has for nearly 100 years, has gone deeper and further into the pockets of the world than any currency has ever dared go before.
And it is about to pick each and every one of them.
If there was ever a time to own real assets instead of US Dollars, it is now.
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