Northwestern Mutual Makes First Gold Buy in 152 Years

June 1 (Bloomberg) — Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., the third-largest U.S. life insurer by 2008 sales, has bought gold for the first time the company’s 152-year history to hedge against further asset declines.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=ajf0L9wTPq6Y&pid=20601087

Looks like this insurer reads my blog and saw the debt chart just below.

Profound debt

Beyond Rand

Larken Rose is best known for his courage in resisting the supposed US “income tax,” which is enforced without having been written into law; and suffered imprisonment for encouraging folk to take advantage of the fact. Recently, however, he has taken to writing novels, and his latest, called The Iron Web, has nothing to do with the i-tax but much to do with our prospects for terminating  the government it funds. I’m delighted to give the book two thumbs up.  Full article.

A new strategy for liberty

Secession in three easy steps.  “Just as the rules of basketball favor those who are tall, strong, and have a good jump shot, the rules of democracy favor those who want to grow the government.  For decades, we have been playing by Goliath’s rules, the very rules that allowed Goliath to rise to power in the first place.  The only way we can play away from our weakness is to get out of the electoral politics game altogether.”  A brilliant column by Stewart Browne.

Step 3: Even as the State and its cheerleaders grow increasingly hostile toward us, we remain entirely peaceful. At its core, secession is the most peaceful way to solve any political conflict.  And if we follow steps 1 & 2, we’re likely to see Washington ‘s language grow ugly, and their tactics grow desperate.  It is crucial that when this happens, we remain non-violent.  The guns in your garage might be itching to defend your freedom, but you need to leave them there until the next turkey shoot.  If there is one thing Washington loves, it’s a violent fight.  If we engage in one, we’re right back to playing their game.When Washington really starts to lose its cool towards secessionists, if we remain peaceful, Washington ‘s credibility will wane even further, and our position will grow stronger.

Eventually, this new approach becomes a positive feedback loop.

Full essay here.

Non-participation works! Voting is your way of expressing your consent for the way the thugs known as government do business.  Voting for anyone in government is simply consenting to more of the same….more for thugs and less for you.

Depression II marches on….

Full article here..

What follows is a laundry list that puts the USEconomy halfway between the Intensive Care Ward and the National Morgue:

- Endless War spending could subsidize every household in America with $1000 per year

- Income is trending down in the United States, England, and Japan

- US banks loan loss reserves are at a 20-year low while profound losses continue

- Of the nearly 9000 US banks, 1575 of them posted a Q1 loss

- Bernanke claims $2 trillion is needed by the big US banks, but they pass the Stress Test

- Municipal bonds and state finances are disasters, as they each appeal for USGovt aid

- A shocking 20% of US homeowners have loan balances greater than their home values

- Half of modified loans result in foreclosure within several months

- Jobs report for April revealed jobless level at 8.9% (massaged) and 15.8% (actual)

- Jobs Report for April included 66k worse revised job losses for March and February

- Continuing jobless claims at 6.56 million, grew 220k just last week

- CALPERS pension fund is insolvent, USGovt pension PBGC guarantee fund in deep deficit

- FDIC requested $500 billion in additional funds to cover bank failures (giant failure coming)

- Car sales still down 40% annually, with steep Japanese car sales declines also

- Detroit carmakers are closing down plants, with huge ripples through entire supply chain

- GM & Chrysler restructures are extremely likely to result in Chapter 7 liquidation in time

- GM burned $1.3B in Q1, burns $113 million per day, unable to transition to green cars

- Business investment down 38% in Q1, a RELIABLE LEADING INDICATOR

- Durable goods up 9% in Q1, but only after Q4 was pushed down from bank shock

- Inventory reduction not key, but rather inventory/sales ratio, since sales way down

- Economic contraction despite lower energy costs from crude oil, natural gas, gasoline

- Housing was false foundation since 2002, now in stubborn decline, the Giant Albatross

- Distress sales make up 40% of all housing sales, led by underwater sales and foreclosures

- Cramdown Law rejection means open season on foreclosures, more huge bank losses

- Banks admit that home loan are not modified after all, a revolving door to foreclosure

- Option ARMs, Jumbos, and Commercial mortgage defaults are ramping up fast

- Commercial mortgage bonds have $70-100 billion that cannot be refinanced, sure to default

- Staggering decline in consumer credit, -80% in Q3, minus $31.7B in Q4/Q1

Rumsfeld and wife perform amazing “ignore the screaming lady” trick.

Mass murderer does an excellent job of pretending to ignore a screaming lady just as he ignored the millions he ordered executed and tortured. Rummy has no shame.

Cops brutalize another American…

Remember, America is land of the free and home of the brave.

Silver breaks out to the upside of multi month down trend

Warren Buffet says the government is doing the right things -AP

No need to link to this story because it is being splashed upon every lamestream source available.  Now what does this mean?

Buffet is highly correlated with investing wisdom which is quite accurate for the most part.  However, Buffet’s reputation based upon the past offer up no reason to believe the man will not make errors going forward.

The federal government is doing nothing correctly and everything poorly as has been the case from the very beginning.

Perhaps Buffet speaks from his and only his perspective.  Berkshire is the largest private shareholder in Goldman Sacks the fifth largest bank in America  Goldman is the recipient of huge amounts of tax dollars -bailed out.  So from this perspective Buffet speaks the truth.  However, if bailouts are good for Warren then that means the American people are being pilfered in a big way.

Think about it.

Gold from the Govern Mint?

Full article…