The Mint

Copper Price per Lb: $3.48

Key Indicators for May 16, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $92.83

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.20

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.77%

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

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,540

Inflation Rate (CPI): 0.0%

Unemployment Rate: 8.1%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12,599

M1 Monetary Base: $2,335,600,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,783,500,000,000

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

Financial Advice

Two tips to help plan for your child’s college education

May 13, 2012 brenda18

{Editor’s Note: Our recent “Healthy Habits” series has inspired one of our readers, Brenda Lyttle, to share a couple of money saving tips. Brenda is a stay at home mom and a lover of the frugal life. A brief disclaimer, we do not offer individual tax advice and encourage you to speak with a qualified tax professional to determine whether or not these tips are right for you.}

Are you losing sleep planning for your child’s college education? You are not alone in living in fear that you may not be able to finance your child’s college education. You may even have earned some bad credit scores, but if you’re determined and plan early, you can still pull it off.

You will need articulate planning in order to successfully fund you kid’s college education during these times when the college fees are rising exponentially. Here are two tips to help you get started:

1. Choose the Right Tax Saving Schemes

Why not save on some tax payments while planning to fund your child’s college education all at the same time? There are numerous plans available in the market which offer a tax shelter if you decide to invest with them. Here are two of the most popular and rewarding ones:

a. 529 Plans

You can invest with these plans while not needing to pay tax on the invested amount. You can then withdraw the investment for paying tuition fees when your child enters college and the amount will still remain untaxed upon withdrawal! This plan offers its tax saving options to all accrued earnings which are used for qualified educational expenses. You will be exempted from all the federal taxes.

You will be required to pay the state taxes, however, though some of the states are known to waiver a part of the state taxes if you invest your earnings in the 529 plans. You can also use the 529 plans to prepay the tuition fees at your preferred college at the present, presumably lower, tuition rates. This way you are saving on taxes today and protecting yourself from inflated college fees tomorrow.

b. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts

This account is not as popular as the 529 plans but has seen some popularity owing to the fact that your contribution limit is determined by your gross income which is adjusted to future rates. The contributions in this account are non-deductible and will be allowed to grow tax-free. You can’t use the funds of this account for any other purpose apart from an education from a qualified educational institution.

2. Let Them Handle Their Own College Expenses

Have you considered leaving portions of the college expenses to your child in order to save some money from the educational fund to be used for your own future? If you haven’t, it is high time you start doing so! Remember that your child has numerous options for financing his college education irrespective of whether or not you have a college education fund set up for them.

There are numerous grants, scholarships and fellowship programs that colleges offer in order to help students finance their college expenses. In case your child fails to secure one of these, they can always apply for an educational loan. The burden of repayment of this loan will rest on their shoulders when they secure a job. If you are still willing to help them out with their educational expenses, you can do so by paying a part of the college fees from your current income flow at that point of time.

Remember that planning for your child’s college expenses is important. It should be considered as important as securing your retirement and, using these tips, you may enjoy some tax savings in the process!

Brenda Lyttle is a work-at-home mom and lover of frugal living. She suggests that to save money on occasions, you may want to indulge in off-season shopping, such as buying Halloween costumes for 2012 around May or June to get a bargain, instead of waiting until October.

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

Unemployment Rate: 8.1%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12,835

M1 Monetary Base: $2,275,100,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,832,700,000,000

Mint Classics, Politics, Subtle Change from Principles to Rules

The Subtle Change from Principles to Rules Part II – From Eden to Woodstock

May 9, 2012 David Mint

5/9/2012 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!

From Eden to Woodstock

We recently attended a brief seminar which was titled “GAAP Update.” This title, to anyone who is not an accountant, may sound like some sort of fashion show. While I had hoped to observe some of the latest models of pocket protectors, the only thing that any reasonable person (that is you and I, “deer” reader) could observe to be “in fashion” was a decreasing reliance on professional judgment and increasing scrutiny, oversight, and more rules in the accounting profession.

In order to properly understand the above observation, we must first attempt to understand what GAAP is. GAAP, while not addictive, should be taken in small doses. As such, I will proceed to administer it in as small of doses as possible so that we can avoid the common side effects of confusion, drowsiness, and its other less understood attacks upon the human psyche.

GAAP, for those of you who have been fortunate enough to avoid the acronym thus far, stands for “Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.” According to Wikipedia, “GAAP is the standard framework of guidelines for financial accounting. It includes the standards, conventions, and rules accountants follow in recording and summarizing transactions, and in the preparation of financial statements.” Wikipedia goes on to list the principles by which GAAP is guided by as the principles of sincerity, permanence of methods, non-compensation, prudence, continuity, and periodicity.

The presenter at the seminar, a brilliant local CPA, alluded to what we are now calling the “subtle change from principles to rules” when he mentioned that the words “should” and “must” were now explicitly defined in the new accounting guidelines in such a way that it had all but eliminated professional judgment from his profession.

His statements referred to the new requirements which Statement of Accounting Standards 102, entitled “Defining Professional Requirements in Statements on Auditing Standards,” enjoined upon those condemned to his chosen profession. Where the word “must” appears, the accountant is to understand that the requirement is unconditional and must be performed. This is straightforward enough, and even highly trained professionals would have trouble arguing this definition.

It is the stated definition of the word “should,” which has from time immortal been the fallback for the imprudent when explaining why something was not done, which took the man aback. For the word “should,” from now to eternity, shall indicate a “presumptively mandatory requirement,” which for practical purposes, makes it just another spelling of the word “must.”

On the surface, this sounds like a simple and presumably necessary clarification made in the name of making the writings of accountants more accessible to the general public and the ethics of the general public more accessible to accountants.

The deeper truth, the one that our brilliant local CPA alluded to, is that trust in professional judgment has disintegrated and the need for specific, carefully worded instructions that remove the need for “flawed” professional judgment is taking its place. This should alarm us all, as the accounting profession is by no means the only field that this subtle change is taking place in.

[Editor’s note: If you would like to witness for yourself the alarming rate of the expansion of rules written by agencies of the Federal Government, a peek at regulations.gov at any given time will give you a general idea of the proliferation of rules in society.]

Any institution that is organized by human beings, such as a company, a religion, a government, or a football team, follows a pattern. Observe closely, “deer” reader, and see if you can pull an example from your own experience. These institutions begin with some sort of principle or set of principles. The person or persons, whom we will call the founders of the institution, understand the principles upon which they were founded and tacitly operate according to these principles.

When something is in its genesis, it is fresh and exciting. Possibilities bound about, like deer in a meadow in early spring. It is a thing to behold. People flock to this bounding, this life, to simply breathe it in and to somehow be a part of it.

“Let it always be this way!” they say, “I love this! How can I join?”

The founders may or may not have decided how one can join. In the beginning, at the genesis of the institution, it hardly matters. If people are not allowed to join formally, they will do so by imitation. Such is the charismatic nature of an attractive institution which is run on sound principles.

At this stage, whether formally invited or not, people flock to the institution in great multitudes. Everyone wants to bound with the deer, drink from the stream, to lie in the grass.

Then, something begins to happen. The people, who were not there at the genesis, do not understand why the deer are bounding. And when the deer try to explain this to them, the people may not understand or perhaps may disagree with the reasons given for their joyful bounding. In this miscommunication, the principles get lost or distorted.

Nevertheless, the people agree that the bounding must continue, and increase, by all means. They continue to flock to the meadow. Soon, because of the crowds, the bounding area becomes a mosh pit, the water in the stream becomes undrinkable, and the grass turns to mud.

Yes, the once fair meadow full of bounding deer has quickly turned into a scene from Woodstock.

Stay tuned for further sections and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Freedom, Subtle Change from Principles to Rules

Bond Traders prove that the Deer prefer Free Meadows

May 8, 2012 David Mint

Today a Bloomberg article caught our eye:

Billion-Dollar Traders Quit Wall Street for Hedge Funds

It contains the shocking revelation that some of the most sucessful bond traders are beginning to offer their talents to firms who are best able to compensate them.

Not surprisingly, the firms who are best able to compensate them are those who do not suffer the burden of regulation which has been thrust upon banks.

From Bloomberg:

Wall Street’s biggest banks have lost almost two dozen of their most-profitable credit traders in the past 13 months as regulators limit the kind of risk-taking that amplified the housing crisis four years ago. As banks slash or defer pay and reduce the amount they’re willing to wager, the traders are seeing better opportunities at hedge funds and investment firms that seek to profit in markets lenders are retreating from.
“People who were contributing quite a bit to the overall profitability of the firms are forced to move on,” said Doug Shaener, managing partner at Quest Group, a New York-based executive search consulting firm that specializes in financial services. “You’re seeing individuals looking to go to places where they obviously aren’t as regulated, where they don’t have as many restrictions in terms of their trading.”

Yes, the Deer bond traders are leaving the overcrowded, cordoned off meadows and leaping towards greener pastures. It is yet another symptom of the Subtle change from Principles to Rules as it plays out in the finance industry.

Please give it a read and let us know how this disturbing phenomenon is playing out in your corner of the world.

Mint Classics, Politics, Subtle Change from Principles to Rules

The Subtle Change from Principles to Rules Part I – Introduction

May 4, 2012 David Mint

5/4/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Today we wish to take you, fellow taxpayer, on a brief trip back to where it all began, to one of the origins of the agitation which causes your author to pen his thoughts in an attempt to understand the world about him: The Subtle Change from Principles to Rules.

This collection of essays is more an observation than an explanation, which is why we so enjoyed writing it. Over the next few days we will be presenting to our faithful readers our soon to be released ebook. It will be offered for free through Smashbooks.com in all common ebook formats in the coming months.

It is the glory of God to hide things, and the glory of man to discover them. It is a beautiful, mysterious existence which we live in, and there is a tension between what is revealed to us and what is to remain a mystery. This tension is inescapable, and the best one can hope for is to find satisfaction within this tension. Clinging to mystery is to operate in darkness. Clinging to revelation is to live in the past as the future races by.

Thank you for joining us in our observation of what is happening all around us.

The Subtle Change from Principles to Rules

INTRODUCTION

In the lazy summer days of 2007, the world appeared to be getting its groove back. Few, if any, were the signs pointing to the financial catastrophe that was about to unfold.

Yet despite the feeling of relative calm and optimism, it was clear that a deep and permanent change was occurring at the very base of society. Suspicion was beginning to replace trust and goodwill amongst men.

This brief book is a compilation of three essays that were written during the summer of 2007 and first published in October 2010. They deal with a revelation that was given to us as we were attending a breakfast presentation on upcoming changes to the US accounting standards. Instead of fighting off the drowsiness which usually accompanies listening to accounting jargon, we found ourselves grappling with a deeply disturbing truth that increasingly defines life in America to this day.

American society, which had built itself and created an unprecedented dynamism by operating on the basis of tacitly agreed upon principles, was now turning to the blunt instrument of rules as the basis for relationships.

An understanding of this subtle shift in American thinking will greatly aid one in understanding the seemingly inexplicable changes that they see all around them.

Clearly, rules have always been a part of life. They are nothing new. What was, and is new, is the power that is now being ascribed to rules. In America, it was often the case that a rule would be written and modified on the basis of an underlying principle. Rules for the sake of having them did not make much sense.

Now, circa 2012, the power is continuing to shift to the rules themselves. While the hallmark of principles is that they are flexible enough to adapt to constantly changing circumstances, rules tend to serve as a kind of concrete for society which, as they harden, completely paralyzes anything that finds itself trapped amongst them.

Societies based on rules are nothing new. In fact, they are sadly becoming the norm throughout the world. Perhaps the clearest high level distinction between a society that operates on the basis of principles and one that operates on a basis of rules is whether it finds its legal basis in English Common Law, which generally produces outcomes based on equity before the law and a reasonable standard; and Napoleonic Code with its strict adherence to written rules which often has little flexibility regarding the individual circumstance that is being examined

These essays deal with the shift, then, from America’s predisposition to operate on the basis of English Common Law to that of the rigidity of Napoleonic Code, and the inevitable consequences of making this shift.

The eternal question that we present here, “deer” reader, is whether or not one will stay in the meadow once as they see this shift occur.

Stay tuned for further sections and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

The Mint

Exiting the work force, stage left

May 4, 2012 David Mint

5/4/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Today, a couple of things occured which, on the surface, seem to contradict each other. First, the official unemployment rate ticked down slightly from 8.2% to 8.1%. While nothing to write home about, this generally would be seen as good news. However, in the parallel universe of government statistics, the number itself is decieving.

Why? Quite simply, labor participation, which, for better or worse, is the denomenator of the Unemployment rate equation, dropped to a level not seen in the US for 30 years, as in, circa 1982.

In other words, people are leaving the labor force for good or are returning to school, effectively leaving the government’s unemployment dole and joining the government’s student loan program, or what we like to think of as “ultra extended unemployment.”

In other words, the productive economy is continuing to shrink.

While a lower unemployment rate will give both the Obama campaign something to tout and the hacks at the FED academic ammunition to speak of raising short term rates, very few people outside of the ivory halls of Washington can count this jobs report as good news.

It should come as little surprise, then, that there was a widespread drop in most markets today, save US Treasury yields, which inversly correlate with broad market drops.

The M1 money supply is expanding rapidly. Ben’s helicopters have arrived.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.75

Key Indicators for May 4, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $98.49

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.62

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.88%

FED Target Rate: 0.15% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Unemployment Rate: 8.1%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,038

M1 Monetary Base: $2,275,100,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,832,700,000,000

However, this news came against the backdrop of

Gold, Monetary Theory, Of Money and Metals, Silver, The Mint

Is Fiduciary money really money or cleverly disguised debt?

April 30, 2012 halfwayfoods

4/30/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

As money managers are frantically rebalancing their portfolios in a vain effort to get out of the way of Apple’s 20 point decline and Spain’s central bank, whose reason for existing we cannot conjure at the moment, consults experts in toxic assets because it apparently cannot figure out how to perform the most basic of banking functions: Writing down bad assets, we are waxing philosophical here at The Mint.

We will give the Spaniards the benefit of the doubt and assume that they know what should be done with the toxic assets, they just do not want to appear to have admitted that the vile sludge on the balance sheets of nearly all spanish banking institutions are worse than worthless without getting an expert opinion.

Spanish Flag — The defunct Spanish Central Bank looking for unsophisticated Investors to clean their banking system's septic tank

These are smart people, no doubt, the money managers and central bankers involved in the debacle that is the western financial system, circa 2012. It is for this reason that there should be great cause for concern when they appear completely uncapable of functioning when things do not go the way they planned.

For example, a properly functioning banking system would have no problem figuring out what to do with non-performing loans (the common name for the toxic assets that the central bankers so dread). In fact, a properly functioning banking system, where real and not limitless fiduciary money was at stake, would have created an adequate quality control system to ensure that very few financial assets of the toxic variety live to see the light of day. Those that did see the light of day would have beem properly discounted them to a point where all of their toxic side effects could be properly cleaned up should they spill over.

We must assume, then, that there is something dreadfully wrong with the banking system. But what is it?

We began to ponder this question last week when we saw a post by an Ivy League trained economist. The assertion that fiduciary money is money bothered us to the point where we were compelled to jump in to correct this unintentional error.

The Ivy league trained economist indulged us for a time and then, for reasons unknown, disabled commenting on the post. We interpret this action as a concession of the point we are trying to make, either that or they just wanted to get rid of us, which, given our obvious charm, we can only assume is not the case.

What is important is that the post brought up a fallacy which we see it as part of our mission here at The Mint to debunk.

The fallacy, which is widely accepted as fact by money managers and Spanish central bankers alike, is that fiduciary money operates like money when in reality it is nothing more than a debt instrument in disguise.

So which is it? Is The Mint off its rocker or is there something to the error of this “debt is money” point of view, as in, it is causing otherwise intelligent people to act in more and more absurd ways as the inevitable consequences of using debt as money rear their ugly head?

Simply stated, is fiduciary money really money, as the name implies, or is it technically debt? It is a fine point that, to be honest, does not matter to most people on the planet, for what is commonly known as fiduciary money tends to operate as money in a way that is imperceptable to the members of society…until it doesn’t.

The true essence of fiduciary money is not money at all, but debt. Granted, it may be a highly liquid and highly transferable form of debt, but that does not change the fact that when it is created at the bank, be it a local or central bank, it represents a debt of that bank, regardless of the ability of said bank to redeem the fiduciary money for specie money, which is what we hold out as worthy of the term money for purposes of analysis.

As you can see from our presentation of the interaction below, we attempted, in good faith, to convince the Ivy League trained economist that Federal Reserve notes, as their name implies, are debt and not money.

I have redacted the amicable interaction to highlight the applicable text of our interaction as it pertains to the case in point, is fiduciary money really money?

Please read on and decide for yourself.

{Editor’s note: Out of respect for the Ivy League trained economist, we have removed all references to their identity, for it is not our intent to shame, discredit, or launch any form of personal attack on them, but rather, the fallacy surrounding mainstream economics’ treatment of fiduciary money in its analysis}.

The Mint (in response to the intial post):

I would like to point out that fiduciary money is not money, but rather debt which carries in its value a monetary premium which the market has chosen to assign it.

Ivy League trained economist:

“Perhaps this helps you David Mint. I wrote this back on March 8th.

{Link to content further asserting that fiduciary money is money, removed to protect economist’s identity}

The Mint:

Thanks again, however, I still cannot concede your assertions that Federal Reserve notes are money, rather, they are a debt instrument, which is often referred to as fiduciary money.

The proof of this lies in that Federal Reserve notes pay interest and trade at an implied discount rate, whereas money simply trades against other goods in a varying relationship determined by the relative scarcity of resources.

Both circulate as currency in a normal economy, but the rigidity of debt makes it unsuitable for obligatory legal tender.

It is a fine point that is categorically overlooked, but the more one forces debt into the role of money, the greater the disconnect between the activities of men and the resources available to support those activities.

I would love to hear a convincing argument that debt is money if you have one in your archives.

Thanks again and all the best!

Ivy League trained economist:

“Decidedly David Mint, Federal Reserve notes do not pay interest. There isn’t anyone on earth paying interest to anyone else who is holding a $5 bill in his wallet.
Here, David, disabuse yourself. See my many shares on what money is:

{Link to content further asserting that fiduciary money is money, removed to protect economist’s identity}

You ought to spend good time reading this one:

{Link to content further asserting that fiduciary money is money, removed to protect economist’s identity}

The Mint

Quickly, on the fallacy of the $5 bill which is held, the implied interest and discount rate on Federal Reserve notes traded amongst commercial and central banks still affect the value of the bill as it is held up until the moment it is given in exchange for trade. The coupon rate is 0%, but the normal operations of debt instruments hold true for them.

From what admittedly little I have read of your work, I agree with 99% of what you present. It is this fine point, that Federal Reserve notes behave as debt, even when they are part of the M1 money supply, that I believe is the error which is spread throughout mainstream economics. Of this, I have yet to be disabused by what you have presented.

Debt includes all fiduciary money. The point is important because using debt as money works until it doesn’t, meaning the issuer of the debt defaults or is widely perceived to have defaulted, and their debts become worthless in trade.

Ivy League trained economist:

“That’s all fine, except Federal Reserve bank notes are not debt. Decidedly, Federal Reserve bank notes are money owning to bearer negotiability and ability to extinguish contracts.
Yet, Federal Reserve notes are not credits, and thus are not debt. Federal Reserve notes are not even evidences of ownership of contracts.
At most anyone can say is that Federal Reserve notes represent a call on future products to be made by anonymous, as yet, identified others who likely shall take them in exchange.”

The Mint

As a matter of accounting necessity, the Federal Reserve must book a liability when it issues a Federal Reserve Note which makes their notes debt by definition. If this were not the case, why would they list it as a liability on their balance sheet?

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/current/

On the contrary, the most that anyone can say about Federal Reserve notes is that they are the highest and most liquid form of debt which is traded in the US economy. However, this does not change the fact that the essence of the Federal Reserve note is debt.

The Ivy League trained economist unexpectedly exits stage left.

Who cares? Why is this important? It is important because if what we believe about fiduciary money is true, most of the Western world, including the mysteriously influential Paul Krugman (who is not, by the way, the anonymous Ivy League trained economist above), somehow believes that fiduciary money is money that can be produced at will, and that the world will be better off if we simply produced more of it.

If the Krugman’s of the world get their way, labor and accumulated capital will be so poorly allocated that it could take three generations for humanity to adequately organize itself to make good use of the earth’s inexhaustible reasources. Do you have that kind of time?

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.86

Key Indicators for April 30, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $104.88

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.60

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.92%

FED Target Rate: 0.14% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,664

MINT Perceived Target Rate*: 1.00% AWAY WE GO!

Unemployment Rate: 8.3%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,214

M1 Monetary Base: $2,210,700,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,970,100,000,000

Events, The Mint, Uncategorized

Pete’s Pest Control – Restoring one’s faith in humanity

April 26, 2012 David Mint

4/26/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

As we were cutting down a the tree in the back in the yard last week, we encountered Carpenter ants. For the uninitiated, carpenter ants seem to thrive on moisture and wood. Hence, Oregon, and more precisely, the Mint’s backyard, is paradise for this winged menace.

Our first reaction was that of indifference. It was just another one of a zillion bugs which appear as the temperature begins to warm up here.

For those of you live have never had the pleasure of living in Oregon, we should clarify that living here is like living in two entirely different places depending upon the season. Under the cover of rain, humans and animals alike go hibernation, taking with them lattes, iphones, ipads, kindles, androids, and the occasional paperback to while away the rainy months.

When the sun comes out, however, Scotty beams the entire Northwest to another planet. One full of rich colors and light. So many people and animals appear as if from nowhere that you hardly recognize supposedly familiar surroundings and landscapes. It may be a hallucination owed to a temporary overload of vitamin D, but it sure feels real.

For a primer on spring in Oregon, take a quick gander at Kurosawa’s dream sequence:

As we pondered life as we know it during the intoxicating dream that is a warm, sunny, early spring day here, a faint memory came to us, like Obi Wan Kenobi’s hologram appearing to call on Luke Skywalker.

Ours was one of the home inspector mentioning something about prior carpenter ant activity in the house.

As we came to, we performed a quick internet search which confirmed our fears, the winged beasts we had encountered were indeed carpenter ants, and they had their sights on the Mint’s humble abode as a summer home.

From the looks of things, they were inviting the entire clan to join them.

It was clear that swift and decisive action must be taken to eradicate these guests. Beside termites, there is no greater enemy of a wooden house than the carpenter ant.

We considered doing it ourselves. However, after narrowly winning a pitched battle with mice over the winter, we decided that DIY pest control is more trouble than it’s worth. The only question was, on whom shall I call?

As a sales prospect, we were ripe. We wanted the whole nine yards, nuke the carpenter ants, take out the sugar ants as collateral damage, seal off the entrances and exits and take no prisoners.

And while we are at it, let’s teach the mice a lesson. We had illusions of our house being a sterile environment, free from the forced cohabitation practiced by insects.

After contacting a number of local pest control agencies, it became clear that we were in for more than we bargained for. The exterminator was to be our companion for life, making a courtesy visit every three months to spray the perimeter and send a bill.

It seemed a high price to pay, yet worth the piece of mind. We were gathering bids and checking reviews. We had three companies coming out to bid and two more in the wings when we came across Pete’s Pest Control.

As you can see here, the guy has a ton of rave reviews and not one negative comment. This is extremely rare in the exterminator business, for obvious reasons. While a number of comments got our attention, we knew that Pete would be the one to get us out of this jamb when we saw this five word phrase in one of them:

“Pete is the ant whisperer.”

We picked up the phone immediately.

Pete: “Pete’s Pest Control, this is Pete…”

The Mint: “Hi, we have some carpenter ants which I need taken out. While we are at it, I need an ongoing service to take care of some sugar ants, mice, etc…”

Pete: “You don’t need a contract, you need to get rid of the carpenter ants. We can do that.”

The Mint: “Yeah, but we were thinking of having a year round protection…”

Pete: “We will get rid of the carpenters ants and come back until they are gone if it is necessary, and it will not be. We have a one year warranty.”

The Mint: “But what about the ongoing service contract…”

Pete: “If you really do not want to see another bug around your house or garden, ever, we can talk about that, for now, we just need to annihilate the carpenter ants.”

The Mint: “OK, when can you be here?”

We set the appointment and hung up, thoroughly impressed. The rest of the companies had tied a service contract to the initial service or strongly recommended one.

Our first impression of Pete was that he is extremely efficient and that he knows what he is doing. Impressed by the phone conversation, we promptly cancelled the appointments for estimates. Comfortable that we had the #1 pest mercenary on the case.

When Pete arrived, he went straight to work and gave us the assignment to clear access to the interior where he would be working and inspecting. We cleared the access points as he roamed and sprayed the perimeter.

“Aha!” we heard outside. We went out and Pete had identified the ant’s access point into the house. Like a General who had arrived at the field of battle a day before the opposing army, Pete sprayed the access points on the house as well as the base of the tree and phone line.

He then accurately predicted that it would rain in five minutes, and that the terminex that he had sprayed would be dry before it came.

He was correct on both counts, and we had to smile as he reported “this is a good scenario.”

Once the carpenter ant threat had been neutralized, he went after the sugar ants. Then things got really impressive.

We had opened some small access points upstairs into the attic. They were small and Pete is tall, so we said, “are you sure you can get in there?”

Pete fired back: “I can detect 17% humidity by smell”

He then reported that we did not have the conditions upstairs to sustain insect life and that it was not a concern.

We then showed him the crawlspace, the scene of the battle with the mice. He could smell the activity and recommended that we stock up on the decon before they took it off the shelf. It seems that soon only licensed pest control professionals will be able to purchase it. A great tip.

He then proceeded to the garage to show us the only place, under a side door, where the mice could enter.

“You seal that, you solve your mice problem once and for all.”

The entire experience restored any faith that we may have lost in humanity. Pete is the most efficient and competent professional that we have met in the Northwest, in any profession.

Even if you do not have a pest problem we recommend that you schedule a service with Pete anyway. Being the competent professional that he is, he will try to talk you out of it. However, if you want a lesson in world class customer service, insist that he come and watch him work. You will be amazed.

As for us, we said goodbye to Pete by letting him know that we would call if we saw anything.

“You won’t,” said Pete, decisively “we got ’em.”

We were sad to see him go.

Thanks Pete! The Mint tips its hat and raises a glass to you. May we all strive to achieve the excellence which you have shown us today.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.80

Key Indicators for April 26, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $103.95

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.24

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.95%

FED Target Rate: 0.15% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,657

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,204

M1 Monetary Base: $2,210,700,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,970,100,000,000

Healthy Habits, Personal Finance

Budgeting – Healthy Habits Part III – Debt elimination and the Mystery of tithing

April 20, 2012 David Mint

4/20/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

If you have missed the first two parts of this series, please take a moment to review them below:

Budgeting – Healthy Habits Part I – Expenses

Budgeting – Healthy Habits Part II – Income

Today, before we put budgeting to rest for a season, we would like to leave you with some additional healthy habits:

Additional Healthy Habits:

Avoid accumulating too much debt – Limit yourself to one or two credit cards with realistic credit limits to avoid the temptation to over spend. Create a policy between you and your partner to discuss all unplanned purchases over a certain dollar amount before committing to it. There is wisdom in counsel, and often running a purchase by someone else will help one make a rational rather than emotional decision.

Tips on Debt elimination – Check your budget to ensure that you have a surplus with which to pay back the debts (via depreciation line or an operating surplus), if not, make adjustments (belt tightening, if you will) until you do have a cash surplus. Start with the lines where you have been most conservative and pare them back, then make cuts if necessary.

There is nothing wrong with delaying gratification. In many ways, a purchase can be more satisfying if made with funds obtained via a multitude of tiny sacrifices.

Start paying back the smallest debts first. Paying a debt off will help you build momentum and create habits in order to pay off bigger and bigger debts as you go along.

A great resource for this is Gary North’s “Deliverance for Debt” Debt reduction course. It is free and you can subscribe via email.

http://deliverancefromdebt.com/

Naturally, there is an infinite number of different tips and tricks for eliminating debt and saving money. In this space, we will endeavor to share a few of our tried and true tricks, however, it is not enough.

We must then make a shameless appeal to our altruistic fellow taxpayers to share one or more of their favorite tips on The Mint’s Budgeting Forum. Its easy, just sign in with your Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, or other nearly other commonly used internet user IDs and help your fellow man to help him or herself on their journey to budgeting nirvana.

Stealth Saving – Pay an extra $5 to $10 on utility bills each month. After a few months, you will have a free month of utilities.

Open a separate savings account – Fund this account first every month and make it difficult to access (no online banking, checks, etc.). Open it at a separate bank from the one that you normally bank at. This will force you to think twice before using it.

Pay cash for items – There is something about cold hard cash that makes you think twice about spending and helps solidify the limit on how much you can spend. Cash disappears, plastic doesn’t!

Keep the change – Pay cash for items and accumulate the change throughout the day. At the end of the day, dump it in a 5 gallon water bottle. When it is full, take the money to the bank and go on vacation.

80 – 10 – 10 plan – This is mentioned by many and the general idea is that you live on 80% of your income, save 10% and tithe (give to your local church) 10% of your income. I will not elaborate on it here, other than to make mention of the reasoning for the tithe.

Why tithe? Despite the numerous Biblical references, tithing is not one of the Ten Commandments. So why do it, especially when you are in debt?

God designed tithing not to separate us from our money, rather, to teach us how to serve and experience blessing in the process.

Tithing, apart from helping keep the lights on at your local church, has the incredible habit forming benefit of forcing one to focus on their income. God knows that you can spend all day in a defensive position, cutting costs and desperately clinging to maintaining what you have. This is an expense based focus on money and it can have many benefits in the material world, but it is worthless in God’s Kingdom.

God wants you to have an income focus. “What can I do to serve others that is most highly valued by them?” should be the question on your mind. Remember, “The greatest amongst you shall be servant of all.”

Tithing forces you to focus on your income first, which naturally will force you to focus on serving others rather than maintaining and increasing your own possessions. It may seem strange, but serving the greatest number of people has the unique benefit of increasing one’s blessing, both on earth and in heaven.

God has made his creation perfect, and the economic laws are eternal and He can be trusted. “But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all of these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33

Additional Budgeting resources:

The Bible: Daily study of God’s word will give wisdom in guidence in every area of your life, finances included.

Mint.com: A free expense tracking software which accesses your online bank account information once you give it permission

Turbotax.com: An online income tax calculation tool. There is a charge to file your taxes with the software. Tip: To avoid the charge and get the benefits of a free tax adviser, use turbotax to calculate your taxes, then copy the information to a paper form and mail it in. This is a great way to be aware of changes in the tax code without having to do hours of research.

Dailyreckoning.com: A great resource for alternative investments.

APMEX.com: An online precious metals dealer which sell gold and silver coins at reasonable prices.

deliverancefromdebt.com: Gary North’s debt elimination course mentioned above, free of charge.

A budget, like staring at oneself in the mirror each morning, can be a scary thing. After waking up, nearly everyone could use some degree of care to make oneself presentable. Your budget is no different.

Rest assured that there is not anyone who looks in their financial mirror, the budget, and turns away completely satisfied. We are all imperfect human beings, and a realistic budget tends to reflect our imperfect actions. According to Mises, the source of all Human Action is to remove “felt uneasiness.” Creating a budget, then may be a way to measure just how ill at ease we are.

{Editor’s Note: If you have ever wondered why people do what they do and how the economy works, we encourage you to take the time to read “Human Action” by Von Mises}

Finally, take comfort in knowing that everyone lives on the margins. The rich are always on the brink of either acquiring another sports car or losing a mansion, while the poor are always on the brink of much graver decisions involving the use of resources. There is no one this side of heaven who does not feel need and want to some degree.

And it is good, for it is this felt uneasiness which causes us to serve one another. This mechanism alone, if left unchecked by coercion and compulsion, would eradicate poverty as we know it.

The time has come to stop doubting and believe.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.73

Key Indicators for April 20, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $103.88

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.12

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.97%

FED Target Rate: 0.13% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,029

M1 Monetary Base: $2,211,300,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,968,200,000,000

Bible Teaching, Healthy Habits, Personal Finance

Budgeting – Healthy Habits Part II – Income

April 18, 2012 David Mint

4/18/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Today we had the privilege of sharing these budgeting tips that you, fellow taxpayer, are currently indulging in, with our wife’s mothers group. It was a great experience and we were pleased that nobody fell asleep during the presentation.

Let’s face it, budgeting falls closer to most people’s definition of chores than their definition of entertainment.

Mothers (and Fathers) are wise out of necessity. They are forced to plan for not only their own needs but also those of others. For most of them, budgeting is old hat.

As such, we found ourselves preaching to the chior, which is always a pleasant experience. We pray that you are in the chior as well, fellow taxpayer, as today’s installment on income is vitally important.

The M2 money supply measure is on the cusp of crossing $10 TRILLION for the first time ever. Bedford’s law states that it will take less and less time to cross $20 trillion, and so on.

What does it mean? It means that prices are about to shoot up in a nasty way, and it will be much more important to increase you income than to attempt in vain to control your expenses, as most will choose to do.

{Editor’s note: If you need a refresher on Expenses, please check out Part I of this series}

So how does one go about increasing their income? In a general sense, it can be summed up in the following phrase:

Economize and value your time!

More specifically, putting this phrase into action can take many forms, such as:

Moonlighting or Self Employment – What can you do to help others when you are not at work? Would they pay you for it?

Acquiring new skills at your present job and constantly seek advancement, which in most cases will increase your chances of getting a raise or promotion.

Generating passive income – For most, passive income is not an option until we collect social security or can draw on a 401K or other retirement plan. This is why you save, but it will not fill your income gaps while you are younger and working. However, the concept of passive income becomes very important when considering…

Investments – If you have some input as to how your retirement money is invested, it is best to choose investments that provide a growing stream of passive income. That is, investment in companies which make real things which people want and are willing to pay for. If there are no good alternatives, the next best thing to do is to purchase gold or silver coins and to take possession of them. Store them in a hidden safe on your property. Gold and silver will hold value against a depreciating currency and have the added advantage of incurring no maintenance costs or taxes while you hold them.

Jesus’ teaching on money via a response to a question on tax evasion:

We have recently explored the phrase “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to the Lord what is the Lord’s” in the context of eschatology, or the end times. Now, we will briefly examine this phrase as it applies to our relationship to money and property.

With the above statement, Jesus recognizes that everything is God’s, and at the same time, that God recognizes and enforces private property rights in dealings between men. This is often a point of confusion.

He also creates an eternal separation between a person’s soul and their money.

Below is the full text of this brief but important interaction as it is translated in the NIV. Please read and let us know below if you arrive at a similar conclusion:

Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar

15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”

18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

Wait, we are talking about budgeting, right? Why are the words of Jesus important and relevant? Tune in tomorrow for a final dose of healty habits as well as an explanation of the practical benefit of tithing, the curious ritual in which the devout give 10% of their income to a religious institution.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.66

Key Indicators for April 18, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $102.82

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.01

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.98%

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

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,033

M1 Monetary Base: $2,355,700,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,926,800,000,000

Healthy Habits, Personal Finance

Budgeting – Healthy Habits Part I – Expenses

April 17, 2012 David Mint

4/17/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your Mints…

Now that we have dealt with what will happen in the monetary realm as the world comes to an end, we must leave eschatology in its proper place, namely the future, and return to our daily toils.

Today’s installment of The Mint is out first attempt in this space to tackle budgeting.

Every person, family, company, and nation needs some sort of budget. Some do it for show, but a great majority create and attempt to adhere to a budget as a matter of survival. In the final analysis, the ability to properly create a budget or forecast is second only to the ability to perform to or understand deviances from said budget in terms of importance to one’s economic existence.

Many people understand that they need a budget, but have trouble gathering the courage and mustering the time to create and maintain a proper budget. In this space, we offer some tips which we pray you will find helpful as you sit down to this seemingly daunting task. Enjoy!

Tips for budgeting beginning with compiling expenses:

Think Easy Maintenance – If you are using a computer spreadsheet, use one you are comfortable with.

Include the kitchen sink – Throw into your budget anything you are currently doing as well as those things you think you may want to do which involve shelling out cash. Finally add the things you hope you won’t have to do but, if you have to, you will have to shell out cash for them, too.

Be a Conservative – It is better to underestimate your income and overestimate your expenses and to be pleasantly surprised than to assume everything is going to go well and to get shocked when an emergency drains your accounts.

Don’t forget taxes – Whether they be of the sales, income, property, or use variety, taxes are unfortunately a large part of the average American’s budget. While somewhat difficult at first, you will have a clearer picture of your finances if you record your gross paycheck as income and then record the deductions before net pay as expenses or transfers. It is a bit painful, but it will greatly help you make some key decisions making in the future.

Or depreciation – Perhaps the most overlooked expense line in a family budget is that of depreciation, or what may be more easily understood as “the wear and tear expense.” Depreciation is simply recognition that anything, a car, house, etc. deteriorates over time and will likely need repair. Contemplating depreciation allows you to unconsciously develop a rainy day fund to deal with unexpected repairs or regular maintenance.

Large ticket purchasing tip: The difference between a good investment and a bad one is often determined at the time of purchase. Learn to buy large ticket items, cars, houses, etc. out of season (that would be the winter in most places) and be sure to negotiate a price reduction for any major repairs. This will make your depreciation expense (which is a function of the purchase price of an asset) more tolerable and help you sleep at night.

Note: Depreciation and asset valuation are part of what I call “balance Sheet budgeting, which we will get into more tomorrow.

A note on Health insurance – This is perhaps the fastest rising cost for most families. Consider focusing on a healthy lifestyle and reducing your health coverage to major medical or other type of high deductible plan. However, do not give up so much coverage that you risk forgoing necessary treatments in the case of an emergency, you do not want to be faced with a tough life or death decision and have it boil down to finances.

Assume inflation – Ever since the Federal Reserve took over control of the nation’s money supply in 1913, the US Dollar has lost over 95% of its purchasing power. In 1971, then President Nixon officially took the US Dollar (and world’s monetary system) off of the gold standard, the decline accelerated. The value of the dollar continues to decline at a rate somewhere between 2% officially and 10% unofficially each year. It is important to recognize rising costs as a fact of life and consciously plan to increase your income accordingly.

Which brings us to income. How exactly does one increase their income at a 2-10% pace each year?

We will address that any other questions tomorrow as we explore the Income side of the budget and respond to the ever present question, “How are we going to pay for all of this?”

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.66

Key Indicators for April 17, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $102.82

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.01

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.98%

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

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,033

M1 Monetary Base: $2,355,700,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,926,800,000,000

Jesus, Monetary Theory, What to expect in the Monetary Realm as the world comes to an end

Dabbling in Eschatology: What to expect in the Monetary Realm as the world comes to an end – Part III of III – The Vision of Daniel

April 11, 2012 David Mint

4/11/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

If you missed parts I or II of this series, please click below and give them a brief read before continuing:

Part I – Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and Part II – The Vision of John

In our brief but necessary excursion into the wild world of Eschatology here at The Mint, we have endeavored to bring to your attention, fellow taxpayer, what one can expect in the Monetary Realm as the world comes to an end.

To be clear, we are not predicting when the world will come to an end, for only God alone can determine this, rather, we are sharing our interpretation of what will take place regarding man’s relationship to his money and possessions as the inevitable trials and tribulations which will take place begin to unfold.

First, a brief review of parts I and II of the series:

Part I – Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s: Around 2000 years ago, Jesus reiterated the importance of a mark in determining monetary ownership, stating that since the mark of Caesar is on the coin used to pay the tax to Caesar, it is proper to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

With this simple statement, Jesus reaffirmed both the complete Sovereignty of God as well as the validity of private property held by men in God’s view.

The obvious yet staggering implication is that money and coinage given by an Emperor may at some point be demanded back by that Emperor, therefore it is foolish to accumulate money and coinage issued by an Emperor as a store of one’s wealth.

Not surprisingly, the same is true today.

Part II – The Vision of John: Roughly 60 years after Jesus’ declaration, the Apostle John was given a vision of the events that would transpire before Jesus returned to the earth to reign triumphantly.

{Editor’s Note: This is not unprecedented; in addition to the vision of Daniel which we will discuss today, a vision of Jesus’ first coming was given to Isaiah some 700 years prior to the event.}

Albrecht Dürer, The Revelation of St John: The Four Riders of the Apocalypse, 1497-98, Woodcut — The Revelation of St John: The Four Riders of the Apocalypse, 1497-98, by Albrecht Dürer, Woodcut

John’s vision, recorded in the book of Revelation, covers a great deal of topics and is perhaps the most widely studied book when it comes to Eschatology. In this series, we are specifically concerned with only the portion of the vision which is commonly referred to as the “Mark of the Beast.”

In our review, we stated that the “beast (satan)” will at some point in the future demand the worship of all men. Specifically, he will ban all worship of the One True God and cause a statue to be set up, which God refers to as the “abomination which causes desolation,” and demand that everyone on the earth render worship to the statue.

One tactic that will be used to coerce mankind into worshiping the statue instead of the One True God will be to require mankind to accept a “mark” on their physical body in order to be able to buy and sell.

The choice to accept or deny this mark will be the watershed moment for the inhabitants of the earth at that time. They will be forced to choose to either throw their lot in with satan, whose kingdom is being destroyed forever, or the One True Living God, whose Kingdom is established for eternity.

On paper, the choice is obvious. However, given the deception which satan employs in an attempt to manipulate mankind, much perseverance will be required.

The prospect of losing title to all of their possessions and not being able to buy or sell may be too much for even self professed Christians to bear, and many, faced with the choice to continue their way of life within the system or to presumably wander the earth as Cain was, may be tricked into capitulating to satan’s tactic and accepting the mark.

We wrote yesterday that the Rapture will occur before any of the tribulations, including the dreaded choice of whether or not to accept the “mark of the beast,” takes place. Therefore, if the end times which John writes of seem like too much to bear (as it is for us,) we implore you to begin trusting Jesus today.

If you have just made or have already made a decision to trust Jesus, you may stop reading and begin a life of praise and service to God.

However, for those who are unfortunate enough to be living on the earth during the perilous days to come, the third and final passage which we will consider is intended to give them a measure of hope, as well as the timeframe which one must be prepared to endure.

Fortunately, God has given us, circa 2012, a guide to the end times. For the vision of Daniel regarding the end times, related in the book of Daniel, Chapter 12, taken together with the vision of John in Revelation gives us the specific time frames that the “Mark of the Beast” will be required to be used for buying and selling within the earth’s system.

It is clear from John’s vision that the imposition of the mark will coincide with the erection of the statue which God calls the “abomination which causes desolation.” Therefore, according to Daniel 12:11-12, the time frame from the beginning of the tribulations until the time that the decision to accept or reject the mark is presented to all of those on the earth at that time, will be 1,290 days, or approximately 3 years and 6 months.

If one finds him or herself on the earth at this time, we advise you to use those 1,290 days to prepare at least 45 days of rations.

Why 45 days? Because 45 days is the period of time which one will have to refrain from buying or selling if you still desire to accept Jesus and reject the mark of the beast. As it is related in Daniel 12:12: “Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of 1,335 days.”

Again, 45 lonely days is all one will have to refrain from buying or selling as a consequence of wisely rejecting the mark of the beast. During this extremely short period of time, the beast will appear to have complete control over the monetary realm.

Then, the fraudulent monetary and religious system that the beast has attempted to impose on the earth will collapse, and all of the earth will fall into a deeper tribulation as a result. However, it is clear from Daniel’s vision that those who refused to accept the mark of the beast will be blessed.

We are aware that this is but one of many interpretations of the events surrounding the end times. It is our prayer that you will find both comfort and a call to action in our interpretation of what is to come.

45 days may seem like a long time, but with the proper preparations, all of the peoples of the world who remain during the coming tribulation may eagerly await the coming of Jesus without fear and full of hope.

God is faithful and will quickly answer honest and earnest prayer. We encourage everyone to study the Bible and to seek God in order to develop their own understanding of what is to happen and what they are to do.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.68

Key Indicators for April 11, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $102.70

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.36

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 2.03%

FED Target Rate: 0.15% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,660

Inflation Rate (CPI): 0.4%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12,805

M1 Monetary Base: $2,299,000,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,823,900,000,000

Jesus, The Mint, What to expect in the Monetary Realm as the world comes to an end

Dabbling in Eschatology: What to expect in the Monetary Realm as the world comes to an end – Part II – The Vision of John

April 10, 2012 David Mint

4/10/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

If you missed Part I of this series, please click below and give it a brief read before continuing:

Part I – Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s

It is clear from Jesus’ answer to the spies’ question that He ascribed little importance and value to the coinage of Caesar. This flew in the face of what to most people believe about money on a subconscious level.

As we have explored in this space before, the current monetary system, where money is debt, creates an unnatural link between human beings, a sort of mutual slave/master relationship in which each and every person within the system finds themselves ensnared.

How does Caesar ensnare people in this system? By simply placing his mark on the coinage, the coin becomes Imperial property. The next step is to pass a series of laws, commonly known as legal tender laws, which obligate people to use the coinage in trade and commerce.

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” therefore, may be seen as a call out of the system of Imperial coinage and tribute. If one remains in the system by accepting and using the coinage in exchange for goods and labor, they remain a slave to the empire and all of the money bearing his mark which they have accumulated belongs to Caesar.

Today, some 2000 years after Jesus’ words, most of the western world lives in a system where not only does the modern day Caesar lay claim to their money via a mark, but also their future output by means of debts which are incurred as a necessity in the face of the declining real world value of the Imperial coinage in trade.

And yet it is only money, nothing more. Jesus stresses both private property rights and God’s divine sovereignty over all when He continues, “and to God what is God’s.” implying that everything is God’s while recognizing the right for Caesar to lay claim to all Imperial coinage via the mark.

This brings us to the second passage which we will examine as we continue our eschatological dabbling into what to expect in the monetary realm as the world comes to an end.

The second passage relates to us a portion of the vision given to the Apostle John as he was exiled on the Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea circa 95 AD.

The passage, Revelation 13:14-18, is a source of widespread discontent amongst Christians who are paying attention as it warns of a time when all people on the earth will be forced to make a permanent choice between accepting the “mark of the beast” and “buying and selling.”

The discontent stems from the perception that one will be forced to accept the mark, and as a consequence presumably be forever estranged from Jesus, to be able to put bread on the table for themselves and their families. On the surface, this discontent is completely understandable.

Yet in light of the coming rapture of the Church, it is also completely unfounded for the true believer. Allow us to explain.

At the Mint, we are of the opinion that Jesus will rapture us (those who have accepted Jesus as their savior) before the inhabitants of the earth are faced with this fateful decision. This opinion is based on the parallels between the rapture and Jewish wedding traditions, where the bride (the Church of Christ) is swept away for seven days.

The parallel is that Jesus will come to sweep us away and hide us in his house (heaven) for the seven years of the tribulation which were revealed to John in his vision. This interpretation is supported by everything else that Jesus said about the end of the world.

While nobody knows exactly when Jesus will come, it is reasonable to expect that He will return around the time of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The first coming of the Messiah, Jesus, was the culmination of the Jewish Passover which occurs in the springtime. It could logically follow that the second coming of Jesus would occur during the harvest time around the Feast of Trumpets. Though we do not know the time of Jesus’ return, we will know the season.

If you, too, would like to share this joyful fate, we encourage you to choose today to trust Jesus. At this point, you may stop reading and begin a life of praise and service to God.

In the unfortunate event that one chooses to decline God’s loving invitation and finds themselves on the earth when humanity is faced with the ultimatum to either accept the mark of the beast or to be denied access to a perceived economic necessity, namely, “buying and selling,” please read on, for there will still be time to choose eternal life with God, but it will involve a seemingly difficult decision.

There is no shortage of speculation as to what form this “mark of the beast” will take, ranging from barcode tattoos, implanted microchips, and even the choice to worship on Sunday. Here we do not wish to add to the speculation.

Rather than focus on the substance which the mark will take, it is more important to focus on what it will mean, for at the time of the ultimatum, the choice they are being asked to make will be subtle and at the same time, crystal clear for all of mankind.

God’s enemy, satan, desires to occupy the place of God in people’s lives and the obligation to worship an image and accept a mark will be his final, desperate attempt to obtain all human worship for himself through a final deception.

It is clear that this desperate attempt will fail, yet that even some of those who are following Jesus may be led astray. For this reason, it is important for all to be aware of the choice which is being presented.

The acceptance or denial of the mark will be a choice that all those on earth will be forced to make and it appears to be the final watershed event in human history. The choice for those living at that time will be clear to them and the consequences eternal.

The choice is the following: Will you accept the mark and throw your lot in with the world which you can see or will you deny the mark and throw your lot in with the unseen God, and as a consequence subject yourself and your family to being ostracized from the world system to face hunger, persecution, and torture?

Denying the mark will likely be similar to losing title to all of one’s assets and loss of access to the banking system.

In other words, it would mean being shut out of the system.

The choice that each person makes at that time will then be clear for all to see. It will symbolize either entitlement to goods, services, and protection in the world system or being cast out of it to wander the earth as Cain did.

Those who desire to throw their lot in with God at that time are then presented with the some very important questions here and now: How long can you and your family survive without access to your assets or the banking system? Is it worth it to resist the mark and live as wanderers? Won’t God understand if I take the mark and forgive even this transgression?

To the first two questions, only you can provide the answers. The Bible is clear as to the answer to the third question, and from what we read in Revelation 14:9-12, it appears that the answer is no.

So, then, the true believer is left to prepare to live outside of the system until Jesus comes for them, to keep their lamp lit until the groom comes, as it were.

But for how long? That, fellow taxpayer, is the exciting part, and it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.69

Key Indicators for April 10, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $100.90

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.34

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 1.99%

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

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,660

Inflation Rate (CPI): 0.4%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12,716

M1 Monetary Base: $2,299,000,000,000

M2 Monetary Base: $9,823,900,000,000

Gold, Jesus, Monetary Theory, What to expect in the Monetary Realm as the world comes to an end

Dabbling in Eschatology: What to expect in the Monetary Realm as the world comes to an end – Part I – Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s

April 9, 2012 David Mint

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

We must preface this series with a simple disclosure: There is no human who knows the exact time that the world will end. Further, there is no human who knows exactly how the world will end in a general sense, for experiencing the end of the world will be both a deeply personal experience as well as a universally polarizing event which will determine the eternal fate of people and communities.

{Read the entire e book on Smashwords}

That said, our limited studies of eschatology and monetary theory have lead us to some inescapable conclusions that we are compelled to share with you starting today, following one of the biggest festivals of the Christian calendar, Easter, which is celebrated three days after the Jewish Passover celebration and marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead some 2000 years ago.

Our studies accept as fact that the earth was created some 5,772 years ago as of this writing, in agreement with the Jewish calendar, as well as the fact that Jesus Christ, who was crucified, dead, and raised from the dead some 2000 years ago, is the Messiah.

Consequently, we accept the Bible as both an accurate historical narrative and a reliable guide as to what is to come.

Today, we will focus on the first of three passages which, taken together, give us reliable information as to what will transpire as the time of Jesus’ triumphant return approaches.

It is our prayer that you will find both comfort and a call to action in our interpretation of what is to come. With the proper preparations, all of the peoples of the world may eagerly await the coming of their Lord without fear and full of hope.

The first passage is related in Matthew 22:15-22, Mark 12:14-17, and Luke 20:21-25. It is focused on what appears to have been a brief verbal exchange between Jesus and a group of spies sent to ask a question of him by the religious authorities.

Interestingly enough, it seems that people 2000 years ago were as eager to avoid paying taxes as they are today. In an attempt to catch Jesus advocating for tax avoidance, the religious leaders, who wanted to get rid of Jesus, send spies to trap him in his words.

In response, Jesus not only foils their attempt at trapping him, He delivers a simple monetary concept with wide ranging consequences. He challenges them not on whether it is right to pay taxes, but rather on what they are using as money.

When asked whether or not it was right to pay the Roman Imperial tax. In response to their question, Jesus stated the obvious. Namely, that since the coin used to pay the tax belonged to Caesar (the Roman Emperor) to begin with it should be no problem to simply give it back to him when he asks for it.

Jesus’ response cut to the heart of monetary theory, what they were using as money. The people’s choice to use the Emperor’s money in those days had enslaved them to the Emperor in a way that no army or jail master could, and they were eager for a way out.

In those days, Emperors had made a habit of declaring themselves gods and demanding allegiance. The Jews were peculiar in that they refused to recognize these imposters and instead worshiped the Living God. However, the Jews also had become accustomed to conceding certain aspects of their allegiance to the Emperor in an effort to survive.

Jesus, with a simple statement, challenged people to get off the fence, for the fence would one day be burned down and people would have to make a concrete choice, put their money where their mouth is, as it were, between ultimate allegiance to the Emperors of this world or the One True Living God, who alone is worthy of glory and honor and praise forever and ever.

Today, it is customary for most people exchange their labor for paper or digital currency issued by the Emperor. 2000 years ago, Jesus warned against this.

Why? The answer, which we will explore tomorrow, had already been partially revealed to Daniel some 600 years before, and was going to be completely revealed to John on the Isle of Patmos some 70 years later.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

Copper Price per Lb: $3.79

Key Indicators for April 9, 2012

Oil Price per Barrel: $102.28

Corn Price per Bushel: $6.49

10 Yr US Treasury Bond: 2.04%

FED Target Rate: 0.15% ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce: $1,641