The Mint

Anarchy: Athiesm with Regards to Government, Jesus, Peaceful Resistance, The Mint

Key Indicators for September 10, 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.62
Oil Price per Barrel: $96.28
Corn Price per Bushel: $7.81
10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.68%
FED Target Rate: 0.16% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!
Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,724 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY
MINT Perceived Target Rate*: 0.25%
Unemployment Rate: 8.1%
Inflation Rate (CPI): 0.0%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,254
M1 Monetary Base: $2,385,400,000,000
M2 Monetary Base: $10,002,100,000,000

On the nature of Empire, Part II: The better way

September 4, 2012 David Mint

9/4/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

In our last correspondence, we began to explore the nature of Empire and found that it is necessarily founded and maintained by a prevailing “Might makes right,” mentality. This mentality has, as its logical end, the effect of destroying the capital stock of a society. This is accomplished by the wasteful consumption of resources by employing them in both warfare, whose destructive nature need not be further explored, and welfare, which by nature rewards sloth and penalizes productivity.

{Editor’s Note: Here we must make the clear distinction between charity, which is a voluntary action taken by a willing individuals to help their fellow human beings and welfare, which is a system of Imperially mandated aid which ends in enslavement both for the recipient and provider.}

When confronted with the fatal defect of Empire, the destruction of the capital stock of a society, the Imperial apologist offers support of the Empire as either the lesser of two evils, implying that the ideological alternative, namely: Anarchy, would lead to chaos and an even greater destruction of life and capital or may find support in any number of religious texts for Imperial rule and conclude that submission to government is God’s will.

“I am an atheist with regards to government, for I have chosen to live in the Kingdom of God”

We offered this refrain a mere three months ago as we explored inconsistencies between a belief in God and a belief in the world’s government. Today, we will take this idea a step further as we present the better way that civil persons over the centuries have searched for and, in their better moments, embraced.

We’ve been inspired to do so by a recent post by Joel Bowman over at the Daily Reckoning entitled: We’re all Anarchists Now.

One of Mr. Bowman’s points is that Anarchy is a concept that has been hijacked. In the same way that the term Liberalism has come to be associated with social progressives, anarchy has come to be associated with rebellious hoodlums. However, when properly understood, Anarchy, devoid of the “Might makes right” mentality, is the perfect antidote for the problem of Empire. As Mr. Bowman explains it:

“Properly understood, the term anarchy, which derives from the Greek anarchia, literally translates an, “without” + arkhos, “ruler.” Freedom from being owned…enslaved…forced against one’s will. Freedom to act voluntarily. Freedom to associate with whomever one so desires and under whatever conditions he or she sees fit…provided they do not diminish the ability of another to enjoy the same freedom.”

In other words, Anarchy declares that, all at once, there are no sovereigns and that every individual is sovereign. You can understand why this may upset those who cannot begin to imagine this worldview.

As for those who would support the “necessary evils” of perpetuating the Empire on religious grounds, we offer the following: Were the Empire to truly be God’s agent on earth, it would cease to exist.

From the beginning, God has desired communion with mankind. It is from a state of perfect communion with God that mankind has fallen, and it is to this state of perfect communion that mankind will return. How can this perfect communion exist if God requires an earthly, Imperial authority to act on His behalf?

Yet the ultimate solution of Anarchy, where there is no sovereign save God himself or where every individual is a sovereign subject to God, depending upon one’s preferred theology, would be the embodiment of a perfect communion with God. In fact, it would be the only way in which it is possible.

The problem, then, is not the existence of Empire, the Empire is simply the manifestation of man’s failed belief system that “Might makes right.” It is this failed belief system that must be vanquished.

The better way

Sadly, to study most of human history is to study the violent and destructive embodiment of the “Might makes right” mentality as Empires rise and fall, either to external Empires on the rise or from revolutions from within. With every violent upheaval, most recently observed in what is now referred to as the Arab Spring, it becomes clear that the populace has simply exchanged one oppressive regime for another.

In fact, as one examines history, it becomes clear that the only true, permanent changes have come about when they are brought about through the use of peaceful resistance. Who amongst us are not familiar with the name Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr.? These men found the key to permanent change lies deep within themselves.

The key has been articulated by Leo Tolstoy in his insightful work “The Kingdom of God is Within You.”

It is the way revealed to us by Jesus, who chose to suffer and die in order to break the disease of ‘Might makes right” in the hearts of everyone. To open the way for a perfect communion with the Father.

This is the better way. His action trumped every argument that could ever be made in favor of Empire, and opened the doors to God’s Kingdom, the reign of a Holy God over a perfect Anarchy where the only rule is emblazoned on every heart:

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself”

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

August 30, 2012 David Mint

Key Indicators for September 4, 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.46
Oil Price per Barrel: $95.35
Corn Price per Bushel: $8.07
10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.58%
FED Target Rate: 0.14% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!
Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,696 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY
MINT Perceived Target Rate*: 0.25%
Unemployment Rate: 8.3%
Inflation Rate (CPI): 0.0%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,036
M1 Monetary Base: $2,306,900,000,000
M2 Monetary Base: $10,032,900,000,000

Empire, The Mint

On the nature of Empire, Part I

8/30/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Those who have followed The Mint for a reasonable amount of time may have noticed a shift in focus, if indeed there ever were a focus. At first, we simply commented on the folly of the economy post August 2007, when the wheels began to come off. We spent our digital ink examining the Federal Reserve and the perversions of what we use as money with a focus on current, even daily events.

Since those days, we have begun to examine the corroded bases of the economy, financial system, and society, as it were. We poured through “Human Action: A Treatise on Economics” the magnum opus of Ludwig Von Mises and compared its compelling logic to the economic reality that we observe in the world around us. What we have found has been all at once predictable and surprising, it that is possible. A world where time and progress have been accelerated by the accumulation of a completely unnatural amount of debt.

On one hand, the accumulation of debt has enabled men to make technological advances which were not even dreamed of a generation before. On the other, this debt has created severe imbalances in the natural world for which the only cure is the liquidation of said debt and an uncomfortable change in the daily activities for many.

Chart - Decline in US Capital Stock — August 2012 has seen a decline in private capital stock in the US. Coincidence or evidence of Empire? Courtesy of The Money Game at http://businessinsider.com

We’ve found that debt, left to its own devices, has a way of achieving equilibrium. Credit is created in response to anticipated increases in the capital stock. However, with the advent of Empire, which we define as a centralized system which employs the philosophy of “Might makes right” to dominate its subjects, debt came to be associated not with increases in the supply of capital, but by decree of the imperial authority.

The nature of an Empire is simple. It arises out of some sort of ambiguous idea of payment for a common defense. Through this seemingly logical argument, the Empire extracts a certain amount of voluntary tribute, what today are commonly called taxes, as people make a conscious choice to cede a portion of their earnings for the common defense.

Yet it doesn’t stop there. With its nascent consolidation of the power to resort to violence, the Empire inevitably expands its activities beyond the maintenance of a common defense. Most of these extensions of power are more difficult to palate for those subject to the Empire. They naturally begin to look for ways to lower their tribute.

A view of Empire througout the world - A Map of World Empires 1900-1914 by Geordie Bozanko — A view of Empire throughout the world – A Map of World Empires 1900-1914 by Geordie Bozanko

The lower tribute coincides with increasing monetary outlays by the Empire, which it must fund by issuing debt. Yet debt issued by an Empire has nothing to do with an anticipated increase in the capital stock, rather, the proceeds are used to fund deficits as the “Might makes right” model goes to work destroying the capital stock of both the Empire and those subject to it.

As the capital stock begins to dwindle, the Empire naturally progresses to using its monopoly on force to take control of the food supply. Those subject to the Empire are required to render crops as tribute and then to accept a ration of food from the Empire. Once the Empire has control of the food supply, the supply “mysteriously” begins to dwindle.

Whatever economic pretense that the Empire was founded on is sacrificed in the blind pursuit of a de facto communism. The end game, which has played out numerous times throughout history, involves starvation, moral deprivation, violence, and revolution.

As the script has played out over the centuries, civil persons everywhere have been known to murmur, “there must be a better way,”

More tomorrow.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

August 24, 2012 David Mint

Key Indicators for August 30, 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.42
Oil Price per Barrel: $94.62
Corn Price per Bushel: $8.11
10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.62%
FED Target Rate: 0.13% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!
Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,655 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY
MINT Perceived Target Rate*: 0.25%
Unemployment Rate: 8.3%
Inflation Rate (CPI): 0.0%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,001
M1 Monetary Base: $2,306,900,000,000
M2 Monetary Base: $10,032,900,000,000

The Mint

The anarchic, feminine genius of Mary Kay’s sales structure

8/24/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

We recently attended a Mary Kay event for the first time with our better half and were astounded by the simple genius of this amazing organization. For starters, the products are terrific and, by most counts sell themselves. From Satin Hands to the revolutionary TimeWise Repair, there is simply no better way to keep one’s skin soft, smooth, and younger looking.

Yet the true genius of this world class organization lies in what we call its anarchic, open source sales structure. It is a structure that not only appeals to feminine tastes, but ensures an optimum sales force which manages and promotes itself.

How do they achieve this?

First and foremost, when the founder Mary Kay Ash set out to create her dream company, She consulted Accounting firms, Management consultants, Human resource experts, and MBAs of the day with business plan. As legend has it, every one of them told her it would not work. Mary Kay had simply examined what she liked about her direct sales experience with other companies as well as her needs as a woman and mother and created a place where literally anyone has the opportunity to succeed and advance in the sales structure.

It is the sort of thing that is difficult for those with advanced degrees and professional credentials to grasp.

As we now know, Mary Kay Ash didn’t listen to them. As a result, working for the company can be a woman’s dream. It emphasizes, relationships, beauty, goal setting, self improvement, and recognition. It is literally a sisterhood of like minded individuals driving the vehicle (the sales structure) that Mary Kay Ash gave them to achieve their dreams and help encourage others to do so along the way.

Mary Kay offers the chance for all those who are interested to become a retailer of their world class product offering. For a nominal fee, which amounts to the production cost of the products included in the starter kit, anyone who is interested can become a Mary Kay Consultant. Establishing this relationship gives the consultant the right to order products at the wholesale price, which is 50% of the suggested retail price of the products. This is in line with what one would expect a small scale retail markup to be in any line of business.

In order to maintain the right to order products at wholesale pricing, the consultant must maintain a minimum order volume over the course of each three month period.

The next part of the structure which we will explore is the tiered referral commission structure. This is the part of the structure where those consultants who have actively recruited other consultants can naturally move up the ladder and begin collecting a portion of the sales of those whom they have recruited.

The structure is simple and works in the following way. The consultant who is responsible for signing on a new Mary Kay consultant has the right to receive a commission of up to 26% on the new consultant’s sales. This 26% may be shared amongst three tiers of consultants depending upon the receiving consultant’s level.

It is important to note that this commission does not impact the selling consultant’s 50% take on sales, rather, it is paid by the company (technically, the customers via the company). We can imply, then, that the Mary Kay Corporation, who is the manufacturer, must produce their products and cover their overhead for 24% of the suggested retail price in order to break even.

Selling Mary Kay cosmetics is not a get rich quick scheme. It is a real company selling real products where, in sharp contrast to jobs in the government or financial industries, six figure incomes must be earned. According to one statistic, roughly one in 2,000 consultants will attain a six figure income from their annual sales activities.

The Mary Kay Pink Anarchist Flag, and homage to Mary Kay’s anarchic sales structure

And therein lies the anarchic genius of the Mary Kay structure, it gives literally everyone a shot at working to attain said six figure income, which cannot be said of many jobs out there. The barriers to entry are practically nil and sales training is freely available in most cities from fellow consultants, who naturally stand to benefit from the overall success of their fellow consultants. The only limitations placed on the consultant are the time, energy, and ingenuity that they are willing to put into the endeavour.

The genius of the Mary Kay structure is furthered in that the commission and the sales leadership structures allow for advancement in almost direct correlation to the of effort and ingenuity of the individual consultant. For the most part, there are no administrative barriers to income advancement, and at any point the consultant can choose to attempt to increase their income by increasing their efforts towards product sales or towards recruiting a team and supporting their team’s efforts at product sales.

It is the entrepreneur’s dream, and it appears to work as the founder, Mary Kay Ash, intended it. The sales structure of Mary Kay allows the manufacturer to harness the anarchy in which we all live to maximize the sales potential of their considerable product offering.

The secret to success in any income earning endeavour is self determination (being one’s own boss) and working one’s tail off. Mary Kay provides the tools and gives the consultant the first part of the equation from the outset. Results and advancement are then determined by the initiative of the consultants themselves.

Starting one’s own business can be a hard, thankless, and sometimes losing proposition, especially during the first few years when the proprietor is learning the ropes and testing what works and what does not. In Mary Kay, as with anything in life, there is no guarantee of success if one gives it a run, but there is a guarantee of failure if one does not try.

Even if one has no need for skin care products, it is impossible not to admire the anarchic genius of Mary Kay’s sales structure, for it is a microcosm of organic economic activity as nature intended it.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

August 15, 2012 David Mint

Key Indicators for August 24, 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.46
Oil Price per Barrel: $96.07
Corn Price per Bushel: $8.02
10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.68%
FED Target Rate: 0.13% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!
Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,671 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY
MINT Perceived Target Rate*: 0.25%
Unemployment Rate: 8.3%
Inflation Rate (CPI): 0.0%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,173
M1 Monetary Base: $2,262,700,000,000
M2 Monetary Base: $10,058,800,000,000

The Mint, Uncategorized

The CTP and the Black Locust, a Lesson in Deferred Maintenance

8/15/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

After a brief hiatus we return to our perch here at The Mint where we see the world very much as we left it with one glaring exception: Prices are rising.

This phenomenon comes as no surprise to our longsuffering readers. By our imprecise calculations, we saw that the tidal wave of money that the FED unleashed into the economies of the world would begin to hit main street circa March 2012. We may have been a bit early, but when preparing for an inflational Tsunami, it never hurts to have a few extra months to prepare.

As prices for everything from gasoline to houses rise, it may be natural to assume that this is a temporary increase which will fade as supply and demand come gently back into balance. For those of this opinion, most notably the members of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee, we have some disturbing news. The same imprecise calculations which gave us March 2012 as the genesis of this latest inflationary wave tell us that the Tsunami of cash will relentlessly pound the shores of consumers through AT LEAST November of 2015, and that is if the FED raises the target rate at its next meeting on September 12-13, which is highly unlikely.

Those who think that the general public can tolerate the sustained price inflation which awaits in the trappings of the current system are making a fool’s bet, for the current monetary system will not survive this Tsunami. Our advice? Sell financial assets and buy real things. This is all one really needs to know about the current state of the economy.

The CTP

Our hiatus has not been spent pondering life as we know it, rather, we used the time to prepare for what we thought would be an easy professional examination to attain the CTP, or Certified Treasury Professional, designation. We thought it would be easy for two reasons. First and foremost, we work in treasury on a daily basis, which should have given us and edge.

Second, the exam deals with Finance and Banking concepts. With all due respect to the bankers and financiers of the world, as an accountant by trade, we have always found finance and banking to be rather simple numerical sciences.

We passed the CPA exam back in the days when it was administered in large open convention center spaces with No. 2 pencils. It was a two day event which was both physically and mentally exhausting.

With this mind numbing experience as our point of reference, we may be excused for thinking that a 3 hour exam and a computer testing center would be a walk in the park.

Nonetheless, we blocked off two solid weeks for which to cram for the CTP exam which, in our accountant’s arrogance, we nearly underestimated.

It turned out that the 3 hours in the testing center were not so much mentally or physically grueling as they were a mind game. The climax of this game came at the bitter end end of the exam when, instead of flashing our results up on the screen so that we could experience the thrill of victory or agony of defeat in front of twenty others taking various nursing and other such certification exams, the computer instead forced us to take a brief survey regarding our preparation for the exam.

After the survey, the screen directed us to leave the testing center. What did it mean? Did we fail so horribly that the computer was too embarrassed for us to deliver the news?

As we left the room in disbelief, we were greeted by the attendant, who during the exam sat behind a glass window and observed us as one observes animals at the zoo. She handed us a printout.

To our relief and, at this point, surprise, the word “Congratulations” appeared across the top. We couldn’t help but smile.

And now, here we are. While we do not feel any different, we are now one of only 23,000 Certified Treasury Professionals in the world.

The Black Locust

With the exam behind us, we prepared for some much needed R&R through the month of August. We had taken the exam on a Friday and were still catching up on the details of life which we had eschewed during our cramm…er…preparation for the exam.

That very Saturday evening, we drifted into a type of deep sleep that only complete mental exhaustion can produce. Our slumber was abruptly interrupted by the anxious words of our better half:

“Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” was our groggy reply, which was a question and an answer all at once, an efficient use language which appeals only to the hopeless utilitarian’s amongst us.

“That loud sound outside…”

Black Locust, Falling Trees — “That loud sound outside…”

As we got up to do a brief inspection of the grounds, we expected to see nothing and prepared in our minds the familiar speculation that the family of raccoons which roams our neighborhood had caused the disturbance. However, as we opened the front curtains, our jaws dropped.

The large black locust tree which graced our grounds, measuring 25 meters in height and weighing perhaps 10 tons, had split in two and come crashing to the ground in an event that most certainly registered in the Richter scale. While God had miraculously spared the house from being crushed, the tree was sprawled across the entire front side of the lot.

At midnight, the scene was surreal, what was just minutes earlier a brief 20 second walk to the street was now an obstacle course which could only be duplicated if the producers of “Wipeout” and “Survivor” were to collaborate on a project.

Our limited inspection of the grounds revealed that the tree had split, fallen, and pinned the overhead power line firmly to the ground, snapping the mast and electrical meter from the side of our garage like a toothpick.

As we observed the damage, we took a glance up at the remaining half of the tree, which in the night looked like a giant walking ala the Lord of the Rings trilogy, at any moment prepared to bend down and snatch us up.

Black Locust, fallen tree, power line — The local ecological paradigm shift

It was just to much to process. We fought the natural urge to fire up the chainsaw and went inside, where we moved our sleeping quarters to the rear of the home, called the power company to disconnect the line, and went to sleep.

The next morning, the neighborhood awoke in shock and awe as they saw the giant that lay slain. Instead of continuing to recover from the exam, we began, along with our generous neighbors, the grim task of cutting a path to the street.

Two weeks on, we now have had the rest of the tree taken down and what will be, once cut, a great stash of firewood.

Now that a good portion of the grunt work is done, we pause for reflection on the lesson of the tree.

We call the lesson “Deferred maintenance.”

What the tree taught us is that there are two ways to deal with things, be they something as simple as a tree or as grandiose as a nation state’s foreign policy or the world’s financial system. You can either pay a bit for upkeep along the way at regular intervals, or you can choose not to pay for the upkeep and simply wait to pay an unknowable price when an inevitable breakdown occurs.

In the case of the tree, we had many opportunities to have an arborist prune and treat the tree. The tree was like a magnet for those in this line of work. Had we chosen to invest in the upkeep, the tree would have been pruned and inspected. If we had wanted to keep the tree, it could have been cabled together or a rod could have been placed through it to hold the rotting, diverging hulk together. As it turned out, we did nothing until the tree collapsed and our hand was forced.

As a result, our views on trees have changed. Where we once saw peaceful giants all around us, we now see potential house crushers waiting to collapse.

In the case of a nation state’s foreign policy, perceived threats to national interests can be dealt with via diplomacy or, if necessary, small scale skirmishes to keep adversaries either friendly or in check. If this regular upkeep, if you will, is not performed, the nation state may wait for a Pearl Harbor type of event to occur before being roused to taking meaningful action.

Finally, in the case of the world’s financial system, the authorities could allow for bankrupt entities to be pruned from the economic ecosystem from time to time, or wait for a blow up of the Central Banking and national currency system.

In all three cases and any number of other examples which could be called upon, it seems clear that taking the route of ongoing upkeep is the most prudent, especially when trying to preserve what is deemed to be the natural order of things.

However, those who either consciously or unconsciously take on the enormous risk associated with ignoring regular maintenance are essentially choosing not to insure themselves against a probable outcome whose only variable is the timing of the event.

If the event occurs at a time when they are not affected by it, they have come out ahead, as they will have should the event occur and turn out to be less catastrophic than had been anticipated. Indeed, it may even be beneficial if what is really needed is not simple maintenance, but a paradigm shift.

In the case of the tree, we now have sun shining where there once was shade, ideas of what to plant in its place, and great pieces of wood which make us wish we were chainsaw artists. None of this would have come about had the tree been encouraged to stand.

While there is much to be said for prudent maintenance, sometimes it is necessary to let things go and brace oneself for a paradigm shift, for the inevitable can only be put off so long by the machinations of mere mortals.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

July 4th Question, Part III: Americans Revolt Billions of Times a Day

Key Indicators for August 15, 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.36
Oil Price per Barrel: $94.31
Corn Price per Bushel: $7.94
10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.81%
FED Target Rate: 0.13% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!
Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,603 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY
MINT Perceived Target Rate*: 0.25%
Unemployment Rate: 8.3%
Inflation Rate (CPI): 0.0%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,165
M1 Monetary Base: $2,301,800,000,000
M2 Monetary Base: $9,941,700,000,000

Anarchy: Athiesm with Regards to Government, Economics, Freedom, Politics, The Mint

Is Atheism with regards to Government going Mainstream?

July 12, 2012 David Mint

7/12/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

We recently subscribed to Gary North’s latest project, a site called “The Tea Party Economist.” To be clear, we have no political interest nor affiliation. It is our feeling that government, in its current state, is best ignored and avoided rather than confronted. It will go away on its own.

To draw on a well known analogy, the Tea Party, like the Republican and Democratic parties, are all fighting for control of the steering wheel of the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. Rather than fight it out on the control deck, we at The Mint realize that the only ones who survived the Titanic were those who found a lifeboat or other means to stay afloat.

Despite our distaste for all things political, we respect Mr. North and have greatly enjoyed and benefited from what he shares. We suspect that the use of “Tea Party” is more of an attempt to attract his target audience than any endorsement of the Tea Party.

Today, Mr. North shared an article at Forbes which made us gasp. It was written by Jerry Bowyer and as we read through it, one thought passed through our mind: Has our manner of thinking really gone mainstream?

Mr. Bowyer points out a number of examples of a general decline in voluntary compliance with things the government increasingly uses its superior force to mandate, such as taxes and environmental laws. The irony is that as a government’s power grab via rules and regulations accelerates, voluntary compliance, from which all forms of government derive their power, declines.

If Mr. Bowyer is correct, then it would appear that Americans are taking the idea of Atheism with regards to government to heart.

It is clear, yet seldom acknowledged, that the absence of voluntary compliance is the most effective type of revolution which can be waged.

Mr. Bowyer also makes an important distinction. The lack of voluntary compliance is not a form of civil disobedience or act of aggression towards a government. Rather, it is the conscious choice to stop believing in the government and live one’s life as if it does not exist as anything more than a lethal nuisance to be avoided. Mr. Bowyer eloquently describes this phenomenon via an amoeba metaphor:

: Amoeba Ordinatio

“It’s not civil disobedience that I’m talking about. It’s the opposite: Civil disobedience is meant to be noticed. It is a price paid in the hope of creating social change. What I’m talking about is not based on hope; in fact, it has given up much hope on social change. It thinks the government is a colossal amoeba twitching mindlessly in response to tiny pinpricks of pain from an endless army of micro-brained interest groups. The point is not to teach the amoeba nor to guide it, but simply to stay away from the lethal stupidity of its pseudopods.”

“The amoeba does not get smarter but it does get hungrier and bigger. On the other hand, we get smarter. More and more of our life takes place outside of the amoeba’s reach: in the privacy of our own homes, or in capital accounts in other nations, or in the fastest growing amoeba avoidance zone ever created, cyberspace. We revolt decision by decision, transaction by transaction, because we believe deep down that most of what government tells us to do is at bottom illegitimate.”

You can read the entire article here at Forbes.com:

Everyday, more and more people are recognizing the insanity of attempting to comply with the onslaught of rules and regulations which allegedly protect them against others. They are realizing that the Rules are building a prison in which they themselves are incarcerated.

We conclude today’s Mint with a quote from Ayn Rand which seems appropriate when considering an amoeba like government:

“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed.”

While we may have no confidence in government, we make up for it in an abundance of faith in God and our fellow men and women. Are you ready to come out of Babylon?

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

July 2, 2012 halfwayfoods

Key Indicators for July 12, 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.43
Oil Price per Barrel: $85.76
Corn Price per Bushel: $7.71
10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.48%
FED Target Rate: 0.17% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!
Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,571 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY
MINT Perceived Target Rate*: 0.25%
Unemployment Rate: 8.2%
Inflation Rate (CPI): -0.3%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12,573
M1 Monetary Base: $2,367,500,000,000
M2 Monetary Base: $9,963,900,000,000

Events, Politics, Spain, Sports, The Mint, Uncategorized

A Happy Ending to the Euro 2012 and the Futility of European Elections

For the few who missed it, Spain handily defeated Italy yesterday, proving Moody’s wrong once again and making us 1-0 on Euro cup calls here at The Mint. The Spanish national team, which has won each Euro and World Cup since 2008, will now go down as one of the greatest national teams of all time.

Spanish Flag — Spain downs Italy as The Mint goes 1-0 on its Euro 2012 prediction

The continent will now turn its weary eyes to the Olympic games, while those who can afford it prepare for their constitutionally guaranteed summer vacation (no kidding, the EU high court has held it as such).

Unfortunately for footballers and vacationers alike, Europe is operating in a perpetual crisis mode, and it is possible that vacationers will return to a Europe that is quite different than the one they left just 30 days before. One in which their options are limited and their ATM card doesn’t work.

Yes, what started as a minor Hellenic financial problem has predictibly mushroomed into a political crisis at the highest level of the EU. Voters, fed up with the bailout/austerity approach to banker welfare, increasingly exercise what is left of their sovereign right to vote out relative conservatives and/or moderates and vote in technocrats and/or populists as their fearless leaders.

Here is another prediction, for what its worth, the populists take Germany in the fall of 2013, Europe’s version of Mega Maid will have turned all the way from suck to blow. The path of austerity that they are currently on will be but a faint memory as the ECB and policy makers move from bailing out the bankers to bailing out any and every political ally.

{Editor’s note: A populist, for our purposes, is a socialist who no longer masquerades as a conservative or moderate, they are out of the closet, as it were.}

Yet for all the drama and human suffering that is unfolding, we can’t help but think that this is all simply a high priced publicity stunt to get the doomed Euro currency some air time.

For many of the European peoples, the Euro currency has served as nothing more than an unwanted crash course in math and an agent of larceny on the grandest of scales. The average Jacque, Giorgos, Jorge, or Giovanni would have been better off in the long run had the Euro never been dreamed up.

EU-flag — Rising Populism in Europe to test the ECB’s commitment to elasticity

However, the continued use of the Euro is an extremely high priority to for a select few with addreses on Wall Street, in The City, and anywhere in Germany. As such, the current tack for the doomed Euroship is for it to be spoken of in the same context as climate change or terrorism, which invariably involves an increasingly illogical and alarmist rhetoric.

The question of whether or not something should be done is glossed over in favor of handing supreme power to a body who demands that something be done. The only rhetoric that is allowed beyond fear mongering is a discussion of what the supreme power should do.

And so it is with the Euro.

There will be a number of elections over the coming months in the Eurozone, and not one of them will matter. The tone in Europe is turning decidedly populist, as George Friedman eloquently describes in his recent Geopolitcal Weekly report via Stratfor:

The Futility of European Elections

The only question that remains is whether or not the ECB will accomodate the populist agenda with an accomodative monetary policy.

Our guess is that they will, for populism has never been bound by fiscal restraint.

Economics, Jesus, Spain, Sports, The Mint, True Capitalism

Spain downs Portugal 4-2 on penalties, Euro 2012 prediction intact, Faith and Courage in the face of hegemony and collapse

June 27, 2012 David Mint

6/27/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

We are emotionally drained here after Spain’s victory over neighboring Portugal in the Euro 2012 semifinal which took place in the Ukraine. From what we could tell, soveriegn credit quality was not mentioned nor did it have an impact on the match. As such, the correlation between a country’s sovereign credit quality and Euro cup performance is still being tested.

If Germany downs Italy tomorrow, the hypothesis will hold, at least as far as the semifinals are concerned. We are predicting that Spain will disprove the hypothesis in the final and take the cup home.

Yet the Euro 2012, as are the Olympic games, which commence in just one tender month, are large scale distractions from the disease that ails the world and is threatening to rip it apart. Yes, fellow taxpayer, the insane “debt is currency” monetary experiment of the past 40 to 100 years is beginning to disintegrate.

Someday the historians will write about our times and lament: “They used debt as money, and corn as fuel,” or something to that effect.

While modern life is full of such contradictions, there are few with the potential to wreak such havok as the one where debt is forced into the role as money, which is akin to water being forced into service as oil.

But what is so bad about debt based currency? Doesn’t the ability to create money at will buffer everyone from suffering another depression?

On the contrary, the fickle nature of electronically created debts masquerading as money is economic suicide. This demands an explanation that we will not unduely withhold, for it about to burst out of us.

Capitalism is man’s only productive reaction to his Anarchic surroundings. It is inevitable that man would choose an increasingly free and capitalistic society as he gains a deeper understanding of natural law and his rightly understood self interests.

The expansion of the capitalistic system relies upon the division of labor in which men (we include women as we use the term “men” to define all of mankind) increasingly abandon self reliance and begin to trust their fellow men to provide them with life’s essentials.

This process is good, for it inspires and encourages widespread effeciencies in all spheres as man’s natural tendency to economize is rewarded as his actions align with what we refer to as the demands of anarchy and the natural economic law of supply and demand.

While this process is good, it is dependant upon capitalistic principles to operate in all spheres without exception. Any part of the system which succombs to hegemony (what we refer to as ‘Might makes right“) by one party causes all of those who mistakenly rely upon that part of the system to become vulnerable to its collapse.

The hegemonic parts of the system are prone to collapse because their existence is no longer owed to willing participation, but the use of force.

At the risk of oversimplifying a complicated issue, the more an organization encourages willing participation, the more it must adapt to the wants and needs of its clients. The process of adaptation makes the organization extremely strong and stable. It becomes a rock.

A hegemonic system, where organizations rely upon force to maintain thier positions, has already failed, for the organizations cease to adapt in a vain attempt to force others to adapt to them. The organizations in turn become weak and prone to collapse.

The largest hegemonic system operating today is the world’s monetary system, and it is on the verge of collapse. This debt based monetary system is especially dangerous because it has the effect of stimulating economic interdependence in much the same way that a healthy capitalistic system would while at the same time rendering useless or destroying the capital upon which a healthy capitalistic system relies upon to operate.

While the more perceptive members of society see it coming, the inevitable collapse causes the interdepence on which all rely to suddenly cease to operate. The result is chaos and suffering for the unprepared.

While there are many ways to prepare for this, there is only one way to start. It requires large amounts of humility, faith, and courage.

For now is the time to walk humbly with God and others. It is time to step, on the right with faith, which is provided by God, and the left with courage, which comes from within.

Faith…courage…faith…courage…faith…courage as we work together to pick up the pieces of the failed experiment to build something new, something reliable, something that will last.

For walking humbly in faith and courage is to live in the Kingdom of God.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.36
Oil Price per Barrel: $80.42

Key Indicators for June 27, 2012

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.42
10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.62%
FED Target Rate: 0.16% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,585 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY

MINT Perceived Target Rate*: 0.25%
Unemployment Rate: 8.2%
Inflation Rate (CPI): -0.3%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12,627

M1 Monetary Base: $2,192,300,000,000
M2 Monetary Base: $9,933,900,000,000

Economics, Events, Sports, The Mint

The Mint’s Euro 2012 prediction – Germany loses on all fronts

June 25, 2012 David Mint

6/25/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

After defeating Greece in the quarterfinals, Germany will now face Italy in the Euro semifinals and, if they are victorious in there, either Spain or Portugal in the finals. If the 2012 Euro plays out according to the most recent soveriegn credit ratings, according to Moody’s, we should expect the following outcomes from the aforementioned teams:

Germany (Aaa) defeats Greece (Ca), which already occurred on Friday. Spain (A3) would defeat Portugal (Ba3) on Wednesday, and Germany (Aaa) would come out a hair ahead of Italy (A3).

The Germany would then come out victorious after handling Spain on July 1.

However, as Italy showed England yesterday, poor credit ratings can be overcome on the pitch. Therefore, we are speculating that Spain will defy Moody’s and take the cup.

Ironically, a similar scenario is set to play out at the latest emergency EU summit (we have lost track but believe that there have been at least 14 prior to this one) where the Germans are set to capitulate on not only austerity measures but also restraint on monetary policy.

As unemployment in Europe’s club med regions rises, Germans and Europe in general will be keen to avoid a repeat of the rise of the Third Reich in their neighbors to the south.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.36
Oil Price per Barrel: $79.31

Key Indicators for June 25, 2012

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.31
10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.61%
FED Target Rate: 0.16% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,585 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY

MINT Perceived Target Rate*: 0.25%
Unemployment Rate: 8.2%
Inflation Rate (CPI): -0.3%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12,503

M1 Monetary Base: $2,192,300,000,000
M2 Monetary Base: $9,933,900,000,000

Anarchy: Athiesm with Regards to Government, Economics, Freedom, Spain, The Mint, True Capitalism

Spain, Inc., the latest proof of Anarchy in action, an Impromptu Manifesto

June 11, 2012 David Mint

6/11/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

When we attended graduate school in Spain, we were the first North American student in our course. It was late 2003 and the Eurozone was full of optimism. This optimism lead some of the professors to use a portion of their class time taunt the US model as failed and the European model as the obvious way forward.

As proof of European supremacy, our Finance professor often made a point of mentioning to us that the yields on the Spanish 10yr bond were almost the equivalent to the yields on the US 10yr bond.

What a difference nine years and 500 basis points make.

Circa 2012, Spain dominates the financial headlines as the latest casualty of the European debt crisis. Apparently Spain now is in need of a bailout. The bailout strategy which will be employed by Spain, Inc. is a hybrid of the prior bailouts accepted by their counterparts, Greece, Inc. and Ireland, Inc.

Greece, Inc. required a bailout because its government was broke. Ireland, Inc. was slightly more ingenious in that it made a good faith effort to backstop its banks, only to find that it was now the entity which required a backstop. Spain, Inc, theoretically learning from both experiences, forced its banks to accept the backstop directly so that the Spanish government could save face and be spared the humiliation of the Irish scenario.

Unfortunately, the markets have seen through the charade and are now putting pressure on all bonds, bank or sovereign, which hail from the Iberian Peninsula.

Spain’s strategy has failed before it was even implemented for lack of collateral and credibility, both of which are in desperately short supply amongst the EU leadership.

How did once proud Europe end up in this situation? They decided to force a debt based currency integration by integrating only the currency part of the equation and leaving the debt and fiscal matters to chance.

As if choosing to use a debt based currency weren’t bad enough, choosing only to implement the currency is like handing the nations foolish enough to engage in such a gamble the revolver in a game of Russian roulette where the revolver is fully loaded.

Now, the revolver is being passed and it is Spain’s turn. Once Spain slumps to the floor, it is Italy’s turn, the Belgium, France, etc. until the European Currency Union, doomed from its outset, breathes its last.

At some point in the process, possibly as Spain pulls the trigger, USA, Inc. will be forced to step in with the “ultimate” backstop, the final hope of the failed, insane “debt is money” currency regime. As the US throws its sovereign credit rating in front of the runaway freight train of Europe’s soveriegns, it will quickly find itself in the very situation that it is trying to save the European Sovereigns from.

For in this debt crisis, the unwritten rule of quality holds. When one adds wine to sewage, one gets sewage. When one adds sewage to wine, one gets sewage. The sovereign vats have long since been polluted. It might make sense to check one’s portfolio and remove as much sewage as possible.

Beyond that, we will present two unsolicited yet practical bits of advice. First, US Bonds will ultimately slide as USA, Inc. wades across the pond to aid Europe. The Euro currency will rally as the run on European banks by the citizens and the wholesale dumping of any bond denominated in the currency begins. Quite simply, demand for the Euro will exceed supply in the short term.

Plan accordingly.

We submit to you that the Spain, Inc. debacle is further evidence of one of The Mint’s central themes, that Anarchy is man’s reality, it is an ultimate given, it simply is, and all understanding of the current political and social structures is greatly facilitated by one’s acceptance of this fact.

In fact, one’s ability to act and react to the unfolding changes in the current political and social structures depends upon accepting and embracing Anarchy as the basis for reality and learning to operate in the Truly Capitalistic system which organically emerges as men learn anew that mutual trust and cooperation are in their rightly understood self interests, and that he who is to lead must truly become the servant of all.

To truly embrace this fact, we must understand the nature of mankind. Man, left to his own devices, is completely devoid of the ability to do the right thing. He doesn’t have it in him. He is lazy, self-serving, and completely evil. He needs God and his fellow man to be able to do anything productive, altruistic, or what may be considered remotely good. A full defense of this statement is a subject for another day (although the evidence is all around us), we mention it here only to underscore the necessity of a framework which presupposes this fact within which mankind can use this weakness to avoid both self and mutual destruction.

The only reliable framework which has emerged out of natural Anarchy which not only addresses the problem of human nature, but also turn man’s weaknesses into strengths is what we call True Capitalism. Ironically, by allowing market forces to work with as little hindrance as possible, mankind can insulate itself from descending into chaos and catastrophe.

In fact, to fight the workings of True Capitalism is, by default, to submit oneself to chaos and misery. Yet every nation on the planet is devoted to some degree in the fight against True capitalism. Why? Because the nation state sells itself as the most perfect expression of man’s good intentions, which we presuppose do not exist. In other words, the dream of the nation state is built on a false pretense that is usually attributed to socialism: That man is inherently good and wants to do good to others.

Given their presuppositions, is it clear that the nation state and a truly capitalistic society are, in fact, the antithesis of one another. Where a nation state regulates by edict, truly capitalistic society regulates by example. Where a nation state is rigid, where truly capitalistic society is pliable. Hence, where truly capitalistic society will bend but not break, the nation state is repeatedly smashed to pieces when faced with change.

For the more a nation state tries to force men to do good, the more mankind’s character flaws will overtake these good intentions until the nation state becomes an expression of mankind’s evil nature.

The truly capitalistic society allows each mans evil nature to be corrected by allowing him to experience the consequences of his inherently poor behavior, paradoxically and naturally improving the behavior and norms of all.

Moving to a less philosophical level, how can we be sure that Anarchy is the basis of man’s current existence? The evidence can be found in that the institutions which supposedly offer the best option to Anarchy, the nation states if the world, are beginning to succumb to the punishments they have built up in their losing fight against natural law.

Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, and now Spain, Inc. are now succumbing to the inevitable. The member of club med which turns from the failure of the Euro currency to go it alone and embrace the much feared “Anarchy,” as it were, paradoxically stands to be richly rewarded by the flocks of tourists who can suddenly afford a European vacation without the Euro.

We conclude with a brief manifesto for your perusal and enjoyment. What does the future hold?

Out of Anarchy, a Truly Capitalistic System will ORGANICALLY emerge, and with it a new dawn for humanity, built on mutual interest and almost endless capital formation which will engender a spontaneous and dynamic social order, a society without borders that would enjoy freedom and prosperity that we cannot even imagine under current conditions.

Believe.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.35
Oil Price per Barrel: $81.49

Key Indicators for June 11, 2012

Corn Price per Bushel: $5.92
10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.60%
FED Target Rate: 0.16% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,596 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY

MINT Perceived Target Rate*: 0.25%
Unemployment Rate: 8.2%
Inflation Rate (CPI): 0.0%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12,411

M1 Monetary Base: $2,306,000,000,000
M2 Monetary Base: $9,790,100,000,000

Bible Teaching, GSM, Jesus, The Mint

Never Compromise: Murder, Robbery, Decriminalization, and the Slippery Slope

June 8, 2012 David Mint

6/8/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

As the world continues to hurtle towards a form of financial armageddon, at The Mint, we have become increasingly reflective. Ed Harrision of Credit Writedowns, recently posted regarding the causes and effects of the current financial crisis/recession/depression which much of the western world now finds itself in.

In the essay, Mr. Harrison observes that one of the root causes of the financial crisis is the combining of financial deregulation with desupervision and the decriminalization of financial crimes.

The most notable example of this phenomenon has been the MF Global Bankruptcy. On the surface, it would appear that the firm purposely helped itself to its clients’ segregated funds in order to cover the firms margin calls which it received in those gloomy days in late October of 2011.

In layman’s terms, this is robbery. Yet in the parallel universe of the insane “debt is money” monetary system in which we live, John Corzine, the CEO of MF Global at the time and supposedly the one who is ultimately responsible for the firms actions, is able to freely walk the streets after telling a series of Congressional committees that He had no knowledge of the “transfers” (read: theft) of client’s funds which were illegally used by MF Global in a desperate attempt to stave off the firms imminent collapse in late October of 2011.

We do not wish to further flog Mr. Corzine, or for that matter, Jamie Dimon, who, as the CEO of JPMorgan, served as an accomplice to the theft (for JPM happily took the missing client funds as collateral in the fateful transfer), for their consciences, if indeed they have one, must be flogging them daily without mercy.

We do, however, wish to flog the idea of decriminalization when it comes to the financial industry. Like sending remotely controlled drones into war, the digitalization of the world in financial matters gives the actors involved a false sense that they are operating not in the real world, but in a virtual world where they alone are acting.

How does this false perception of reality play out and, more importantly, differ from what is commonly understood as real life?

In the example of the remote controlled drone, the drone facilitates acts which more resemble murder than self defense, for it is much easier to convince a teenager, who has been raised playing video games where the actions taken on the screen have no real world consequences (save wasting otherwise valuable time), to kill someone if it can be done by giving them a video game control and a sofa from which to guide their armed drone into real world combat over half the world away.

The experience for the teenager on the sofa is similar to that of the video game and, as such, has the effect of removing the real world consequences of having murdered persons who posed them no existential threat. It is as if the distance both dehumanizes the very real interaction which is taking place.

So it is with financial crimes. As persons begin to conduct a great portion of their financial transactions, especially those involving large sums of money, in a virtual world with little or no human contact, it becomes easier for persons who have access to the funds of others to shun their fiduciary duty and use the funds of others for their purposes without their consent.

While the technical medium employed is an electronic transfer, the actions similar to those taken by Mr. Corzine are more accurately described as robbery.

Yet as of today, Mr. Corzine has not been accused of a crime.

The problem is not that crimes such as murder via remote controlled drone and robbery via wire transfer take place, for robbery and murder have been unfortunate parts of the human experience since the dawn of time.

Nor is it a problem that the means to commit these crimes exist and are used as a normal part of life. For remote controlled airplanes and electronic wire transfers may have great benefits.

No, they problem is that the misuse of these mediums has been largely decriminalized. Those who use them to commit crimes can now justify their actions behind a smokescreen of words and those who should be holding these persons accountable appeal to some good greater than Justice that is being served: Security and Financial stability.

However, without Justice, security and financial stability are mere illusions.

What is important is to have a belief in one’s principles which is firm enough so that it is impossible to compromise them, even when holding to them causes one personal injury.

Bettie Mitchell, the founder of Good Samaritan Ministries, recently shared the story of how her father visited her one day, unannounced, when he was 70 years of age. This was unusual because she knew that her mother had not sent him, which had always been the case in the past.

She knew that what he was to say was important, and that it did not come from him, but from the Holy Spirit.

Her father arrived at her house, she let him in. He entered, sat down and told her the following:

“When I was your age, I had all of the spiritual gifts that you have. Then I began to compromise. Never Compromise.”

With that, Bettie’s father got up, and walked out. There was nothing more to be said, the message had been delivered.

There are principles by which one must live their lives which cannot be compromised upon. Put a different way, it is much easier to stand by one’s principles 100% of the time that 95% of the time.

Once one compromises on their principles 5%, or even 1% of the time, they begin to go down a slippery slope. They are constantly searching for the next patch of firm ground upon which to stand as they find themselves caught sliding down an increasingly unstable incline.

How easy it would have been to simply stay on the level path, even if it did take a little longer to get to one’s destination.

Today, while lawmakers, Judges, and central bankers struggle to find their moral compass as they slide further down the slippery slope they have set out on, we challenge each and every one of you, fellow taxpayers, to stay on the path, where it has always been wrong to steal, and it has always been wrong to murder.

For it is this increasingly narrow path that leads to life.

Stay tuned for further sections and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.30

Key Indicators for June 8, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $84.10

Corn Price per Bushel: $5.92

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.64%

FED Target Rate: 0.16% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,595

Inflation Rate (CPI): 0.0%

Unemployment Rate: 8.2%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12,554

M1 Monetary Base: $2,306,000,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,790,100,000,000

Anarchy: Athiesm with Regards to Government, Economics, Freedom, Oregon Politics, Politics, Spain, The Mint

Anarchy: Atheism with regards to government – Part III – The Test

June 4, 2012 David Mint

6/4/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

A colleague from our grad school days in Barcelona recently contacted us from Madrid with an exciting project he and a partner are developing. As such, we are unwittingly trying our hand at the emergent Natural Cosmetics Market.

While Spain and Europe in general appear to be falling apart at the seams, his company is experiencing a boom. As with most smaller enterprises, all it lacks is some well guided investment to transform this mini-boom into a supersonic boom. “El Empujon”, we call it. The big push to get them over the hump, to open new markets, scale production, and create countless jobs in the value chain.

It is just this sort of thing that Governments in the West espouse in word but make nearly impossible in deed.

While the products are all natural, they may be subject to FDA approvals. Then, once the governmental hurdles are cleared, we face a fiercely competitive market where access to the final consumer is tightly controlled by what amounts to a monopoly or at best, an oligarchy, in the cosmetics world. Then there are patents, customs, and any number of mines in the field which must be avoided or diffused to successfully bring the products to market.

How shall The Mint attack this Goliath? We are working on a strategy, which we call, the “Heart of the Beast.” The details of which, for obvious reasons, we shall keep a well guarded secret for the moment.

Anarchy: Atheism with regards to government – Part II – On the Legitimacy of and belief in Government

May 23, 2012 David Mint

5/23/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

“I am an atheist with regards to the world’s government, for I have chosen to live in the Kingdom of God”

Yesterday at The Mint, we took quite a ride through Portland’s plastic bag ban, bisacksuality, the virtues of non-violent protest, anarchy, atheism, and the imaginary construct of government.

If you missed it, we encourage you to give it a read as it will aid greatly in understanding today’s installment. Of course, if your prefer to jump cold turkey into today’s Mint, by all means, carry on.

And onward we must toil, for this is exceedingly important.

Yesterday we offered that the best way to test the legitimacy of government, that is, its right to govern, would be to simply live as if the government did not exist and see where resistance came from.

If resistance were to come from a solid majority, then that would lend credence to the necessity of government. If resistance were to appear in the form of a minority relying on an imaginary framework to create and enforce a series of rules, imposed by one group on other groups in order to gain or maintain an unearned privilege, the legitimacy of the government should be questioned.

Not the legitimacy of those who are governing at the time, mind you, rather, the legitimacy of the apparatus which allows such rule by the minority at the expense of the majority.

For if a majority would be materially better off by simply shedding the illusion of government, why does the idea of government persist?

Here at The Mint, we understand that the idea of government and its companion, central banking, have risen as mans’ collective response to help him deal with his anarchic surroundings.

Let’s face it, it is nice to sleep at night with the idea that someone is watching over us and our assets. Even more comfort may be found in the idea that, were something to happen to ourselves or our assets, we would probably still be taken care of.

Yet these same promises are also the promises of the Almighty God! Why, then, if one were to believe in the God of the Bible, would it make sense to attribute the power of God to a government which is by definition an assembly of fallible men?

The answer, most would say, is that God is unseen, while men, while they may be fallible, can be observed to be acting. This logic is clear. Some may even take it a step further and claim that the government is God’s agent to provide protection and provision to His people. There is certainly support for this idea in scripture. However, it is important to watch how the men act before blindly ascribing supernatural powers to them.

In the case of government, the confiscation of n

anarchy-symbol1 — The irony is this: To be an Atheist is to be an Anarchist, and to be an Anarchist is to live in the Kingdom of God

early 30% of a person’s income, which is what the average American may expect to pay in the form of Federal, State, and Local taxes, does not exactly fit with most peoples idea of the preservation of assets, nor does the idea of restricting the ability of one to own a weapon fit with the preservation of one’s life.

Yet it is clearly stated in the Bible that he who trusts in God shall be both protected and provided for.

How can this paradox be reconciled? For it is one thing to deny the existence of the unseen God. It is quite another to deny the existence of God on one hand, and on the other assign the attributes of the non existent God to an entity which consistently operates in a manner contrary to the self interest and freedom of the individual, which presumably would be the reason that an individual would deny the existence of God in the first place.

For the sake of consistency, then, the professing atheist must be a professing anarchist as well. If not, one would be at a minimum inconsistent and possbily insane to assent to most if not all of the actions of the government, for the sacrifices required by most governments on the earth far exceed those requested of humanity by the Living God.

Those who know God, on the other hand, would be inconsistent were they to declare that God is their provider and protector and then eschew what God asks of them in favor of fulfilling a requirement imposed upon them by the government when the two come into conflict with each other.

So what gives? Is it possible to be an atheist with regards to the world’s governments without living in defiance of nor toiling against them? Is it possible to simply deal with the inconveniences which appear as a result of a large part of the world’s population acting upon the belief that the government really exists?

In other words, is it possible to live in the world but not be of the world, as the apostle Paul alluded to? For to do so is to choose to live in the Kingdom of God.

The only way to know for sure is for both the atheist and the believer to peacefully and actively test the hypothesis of a government’s legitimacy by living their lives as if the government did not exist, and then patiently wait and see where any resistence to their chosen way of life came from.

Aslong as they are not stealing from of hurting anyone, they should be just fine, right?

More to come.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.45

Key Indicators for May 23, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $90.37

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.03

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.72%

FED Target Rate: 0.16% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,561

Inflation Rate (CPI): 0.0%

Unemployment Rate: 8.1%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12,496

M1 Monetary Base: $2,233,100,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,836,900,000,000

Anarchy: Athiesm with Regards to Government, Economics, Freedom, Oregon Politics, The Mint

Anarchy – Atheism with regards to government – Part I

May 22, 2012 David Mint

5/22/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

There are certain questions which one encounters in everyday life which demand a shocking answer.

For example, the everyday grocery bagging inquiry “Would you like paper or plastic?” can be responded to with the customary preference. This is the routine response and requires no creativity whatsoever.

A prepared, slightly creative individual may think outside of the box and have their response prepared. “I don’t need a bag, I’ve brought my own,” which is interpreted to mean “I am saving the earth and thereby reject your greedy corporate attempt to deliberately pollute it by rudely offering me an already manufactured bag for my own convenience.”

Then there is the creative genius, the one who rises above the imaginary philosophical bickering and takes what is given to them while at the same time disarming the mythical compulsion which the slightly creative person above felt threatened by. What is their shocking response to this common question?

“I’ll take either one, I’m bisacksual.”

In the same way, when approached with the somewhat common question posed by an eager petitioner “are you registered to vote?” One can give the standard yes or no answer which the question requires.

The slightly creative person may turn the question into an opportunity to share their point of view. “That depends, what is the issue?” Depending upon the issue, they may either wholeheartedly lend their support and sign the petition or engage in a lengthy debate about the error in supporting the proposed legislation.

Enter the creative genius, as in the grocery check-out line, they rise above the imaginary philosophical bickering about what the government should or shouldn’t require everyone to do and at the same time disarm the mythical compulsion which caused the slightly creative person to enter into a lengthy and meaningless debate. What, then, is their shocking response to this common question?

“I’m an atheist with regards to government.”

This is dedicated to the creative geniuses.

At the moment, we are residing in Oregon, where plastic bags are frowned upon to the point that the City of Portland passed an ordinance intended to reduce the use of them. The result is that large retailers in Portland are now one sack outlets, which not only clashes with Portland’s tendency towards plurality in any number of spheres, it has noticeably diminished the quality of the paper sacks available.

The great irony in the ban on bisacksuality is that the same people seen at City Hall protesting the “forced” use of plastic bags are likely to be the same ones who will chain themselves to a tree when the increased demand for paper sacks resulting from this action (the butterfly effect, if you will) leads to the acceleration in the destruction of rainforests in the Amazon.

On the bright side, the plastic bag ban and resulting plea to save the rainforests should combine to help Oregon’s ailing lumber industry in the short term.

Yet all of this nonsense about plastic bags, the rejection of bisacksual Portlanders, and backdoor stimulation of the Oregon lumber industry serves to illustrate the effects that government actions have on the population and industry.

As Henry Hazlitt astutely observed in his classic “Economics in one lesson,” actions taken by governments have the exact opposite long term effect on reality as that which was intended. For this reason alone, all government mandates must be met with suspicion.

Yet none of these government actions and the resulting imbalances would be possible without an unwavering faith in the government on the part of the people, which is why the only hope for the world to escape the crazy cycles inherent in placing faith in the government is for the populace to become not militant, but agnostic towards the actions of their government as they would a well intentioned but clumsy sidekick.

Take the example of Portland’s plastic bag ban. Were the disenfranchised bisacksual population of Portland to violently oppose the plastic bag police (which, most certainly, do not exist), they would be wasting their time and resources only to perpetuate a system which promises nothing more but endless power struggles and the short lived thrill of victory or agony of defeat.

Even if bisackuality were to be legalized, no sooner would the ink be dry on the new ordinance than would a band of sacktivist warriors covered in plastic armor be organizing to take back their right to a paper only Portland. The bisacksuals would then organize and revolt, etc.

To be clear, we have no strong feelings one way or the other on the sack issue, we have merely chosen to shamelessly embellish upon the theme in order to make a larger point.

The point is that militancy breeds militancy, and violence breeds violence. Ghandi, and more recently Martin Luther King, understood that long term, permanent change could never come about by force of arms. Rather, they understood that the only way to test whether or not an idea was true or simply temporary public opinion was to live in peaceful defiance of the idea and tolerate whatever opposition they met with.

In the case of King, the good reverend was thrust into the civil rights battle in the Southern US. For those who may be unfamiliar with this piece of history, we will oversimplify it by saying that there were rules in the South which demanded that African Americans sit in the back of the bus.

Rosa Parks and thousands of other African Americans began to put this rule to the test, not by petitioning the powers that be for permission to sit in front of the bus, but rather, by sitting in front of the bus as if the rule did not exist.

Would some supernatural force come and move her to the back? Or would those who used the rule to gain privilege for themselves be the ones who would force her to the back of the bus or even deny her entry onto the bus in the first place?

The creative geniuses amongst us already know the answer.

The deeper question which must be addressed, then, is not whether or not each individual rule is necessary, but rather, is a government which imposes rules and forces those effected to put them the test, a necessity? Or is it merely an imaginary framework to erect a series of rules which are imposed by one group on other groups in order to gain or maintain an unearned privilege?

The only valid way to test this theory would be for one was to live their life as if the government did not really exist. What if one were to test this theory not by withdrawing from the government or fighting to change it, for both courses of action would be to acknowledge its existence, but by simply deciding not to believe in it?

In other words, what if one decided to stop attributing power to the government by simply changing their own mind about its existence and acting accordingly? What if the simplest path to freedom were to become a peaceful Anarchist? An atheist with regards to government, as it were?

These questions must burn until another day. Please share your thoughts below, as we are intrigued.

More tomorrow…

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.53

Key Indicators for May 22, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $91.67

Corn Price per Bushel: $5.97

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.79%

FED Target Rate: 0.16% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,568

Inflation Rate (CPI): 0.0%

Unemployment Rate: 8.1%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12,503

M1 Monetary Base: $2,233,100,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,836,900,000,000

Mint Classics, Politics, Subtle Change from Principles to Rules

The Subtle Change from Principles to Rules Part IV of IV – What does it all mean?

May 14, 2012 David Mint

5/14/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Today we will conclude our brief trip back to one of the origins of the agitation which is The Mint: The Subtle Change from Principles to Rules.

The following is the final excerpt from our soon to be released free ebook. It will be offered for free through Smashbooks.com in all common ebook formats in the coming months. What does it all mean? Read on and let us know what you think!

What does it all mean?

At this point, we are forced to step back from the mud and ponder the events unfolding in the meadow and ask the questions that are raised in the parable, for they are of the utmost importance.

The parable highlights the subtle yet important difference between principles and rules. In the meadow parable, the activities and projects referred to as meadow improvement represent rules. Rules are made by those who either do not fully understand or do not desire to adhere to the principles of an activity and are generally imposed with the stated purpose of maintaining or “improving” the status quo.

Once a human institution, as the meadow was to represent, makes the subtle change from being guided by principles to being governed by rules, these rules fill the meadow with “cordoned off areas” and “canals” until no one can freely move about within them.

A glance at the following definitions will help us to better understand the conceptual difference between principles and rules. A principle, according to the Encyclopedia, “signifies a point (or points) of probability on a subject (i.e. the principle of creativity), which allows for the formation of rule or norm or law by (human) interpration of the phenomena (events) that can be created.” By contrast, a rule, according to dictionary.com, is “a principle or regulation governing conduct, action, procedure, arrangement, etc.” Making a clear distinction between principles and rules is confusing because the terms are often used interchangeably to define two concepts that could not be more different. This is why the change is subtle.

We must then attempt to compare and contrast these concepts in the following manner: Principles make things possible. Principles create. Rules govern conduct or regulate. Rules destroy. With this understanding, we can now postulate that, while principles tend to create rules, rules tend to destroy principles once the propagation of rules dwarfs the principle that created them. It is as if an invisible prison is constructed by the growing threat of going to a real one.

Does this mean that principles are bad because they create rules? By no means, in the same way, rules are not bad either, but principles must be held above the rules that they create in order for the principles to maintain their power to create and make things possible. Once rules are allowed to dominate, they thrust aside principles and a prison begins to quickly construct itself.

This is what our brilliant local CPA was alluding to in the GAAP Update seminar when he mentioned that the word “should” in of some of the pronouncements had been changed to “must.” For this careful choice of words is perhaps the clearest manifestation of this subtle shift in American society, circa 2012.

The word “should” bestows some glimmer of freedom of choice upon the hearer. As in “You should wear a jacket, its cold.” While the word should implies a strong suggestion that would do well to heed, it is understood that one is free to ignore it, albeit at their peril. Once the word “must” is placed in the same sentence, this freedom is removed and the only thing that remains is the expectation of punishment for non-compliance. It describes this subtle change from principles to rules that is happening in not only in GAAP but in many other areas of society as well.

This choice of words will only lead to resentment and violence in the meadow, where those guilty of stealing water rations for their parched fellow meadow dwellers and for crossing into a cordoned off area are either incarcerated, banished, or exterminated in an increasingly futile attempt to keep the meadow clean. While those dwelling in the meadow may gradually adjust to this dire state of affairs, it will be clear to all external observers that the once vibrant meadow has turned into a gruesome cross between a pig sty and a slaughter house.

Such is the fate of a society in which rules are employed to remove all semblance of freedom of its inhabitants. It is not a question of if, but when.

It is abundantly clear that the principles of liberty and self-determination are the only antidote to the poison of rules once they have overwhelmed the principles that gave rise to them.

And what of the deer who began all of the bounding in the meadow in the first place? Wouldn’t they have stayed around to ensure the freedom of bounding? It is perhaps the greatest of ironies that these deer, who so fervently loved bounding and whose activities attracted the very people who would stifle and destroy it, would simply bound to another meadow as the first restrictions on bounding were drafted.

For it is the very nature of true freedom to respect the right to freedom of others. Even if they choose to destroy the very freedom that has been accorded to them.

If you have enjoyed these musings, please share them with your friends and family via any means you deem appropriate.

In the case that you and feel mysteriously led to contribute financially to this author’s work. Please visit click on the “Donate” button on the upper right hand side of this page. All donations are accepted by The Wilcox Trading Company via Paypal, are considered sales of the book and, while given and accepted in a charitable spirit, may not be considered charitable donations by the IRS.

Thanks again and we wish you all the best, deer reader!

Stay Fresh!

Mint Classics, Politics, Subtle Change from Principles to Rules

The Subtle Change from Principles to Rules Part III – Meadow Improvement

May 11, 2012 David Mint

5/11/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Today we continue our brief trip back to one of the origins of the agitation which is The Mint: The Subtle Change from Principles to Rules.

The following is another excerpt from our soon to be released ebook. It will be offered for free through Smashbooks.com in all common ebook formats in the coming months. Enjoy!

Meadow Improvement

The once vibrant meadow and its subsequent demise can provide us with a metaphor from which to gain an understanding of the difference between principles and rules and what it means for us as persons as we navigate together this subtle yet incredibly important cultural change in our society.

We pick up the scene at our meadow in the aftermath ofWoodstock. It has become obvious to everyone in the meadow, both deer and persons alike, that the meadow is no longer the utopia that they had entered. The people become desperate to understand what went wrong and more importantly how to keep it from going wrong again in the future.

How will they go about this? First, they cordon off a bounding area, so that bounding may continue, albeit in a limited fashion. Other areas are then cordoned off and efforts are made to revive the grass in these areas. It is prohibited to enter into these areas until it has been deemed “suitable for bounding.” Next, they decide to construct a canal system in part of the meadow and allow the stream to “revive” itself within its new found confinements. Water from the stream and canals is then rationed, which, in turn, limits bounding. This limitation on bounding, as envisioned, seems to rejuvenate the meadow for a time.

At this stage, something peculiar; a paradox, if you will, begins to take place. The people in the meadow begin to see that, although bounding now has become a limited an increasingly coveted activity, and their other projects seem to have achieved their aims, the grass is growing and the stream is beginning to clear up. Heartened by their success, they begin to dedicate themselves more and more to “meadow improvement” and less to bounding.

There is now scarcely time or space for bounding anyhow, and “meadow improvement” is a much more worthy cause. Why just look! We have grass growing where no one can bound and our canal system now provides more rations of water for more people who are not bounding. What could be better?

The clear answer, though few people now recall, is the very reason that people began to flock to the meadow in the first place: The freedom of bounding in a meadow! Joyful, unadulterated bounding without water rations and cordoned off grassy areas.

Now, however, nobody dares to say these things out loud, because everyone knows that “meadow improvement” has become vital, and that bounding, while entertaining, must be done on an extremely limited and controlled basis, with a careful eye on the grass and the stream, lest the area be disturbed again and they find it in need of further improvement.

Of course the original, “genesis” deer and their principles, are now long gone, searching for another meadow in which to freely bound about. Some who remain in the meadow are still searching for these principles and long for the days when they will bound freely again.

However, since most of those who remain were either unaware of, or in some stage of disagreement with the original principles, the “why” of the boundless joy that they once beheld; “meadow improvement” continues and the deer and their principles are idolized, but rarely sought.

Why? A return to those principles would lead to too much bounding, of course. And, of course, too much bounding leads to ruined meadows.

So what is the point of this tale, “deer” reader? What can you and I learn from a humble accounting lecture, bounding deer, and “meadow improvement” projects? In other words, what does it all mean?????

Indeed, what does it all mean? For the answer, stay tuned for our final installment and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Economics, Gold, Monetary Theory, The Mint

Are Bitcoins Money? The concept of digital currency and the desperate need for a Free Money supply

May 9, 2012 David Mint

5/9/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

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.

Imagine.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.70

Key Indicators for May 9, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $96.42

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.41

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.84%

FED Target Rate: 0.16% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,589