Author Chris Brady's Leadership Blog

A Great Article for the Fourth of July!!!

Thanks go out to reader Yitz Weiss for sending me the link to this article.  I hope you enjoy it and Happy 4th of July to all you Americans out there!!

A Radical Departure From the Norm

Leadership, economics, and politics have been so thick on this blog for a while now I can't help acting upon impulse to bring you a little poetry. One of my favorites is Leonard Cohen. This is a rendition of one of his songs performed by none other than Bon Jovi. I hope you enjoy this little radical departure from the norm for this site!  Consider this your art class for the day!

 

Calling Global Warming a Fraud is Now A Treasonable Offense?

The Ludwig Von Mises blog, always an interesting read, recently posted an article that caught my attention.  It's bad enough the overblown religion of global warming has the traction it does, but, hey, everyone is free to believe what they want to believe.  But when it starts to become "treason" to oppose such fancies, that's when things have gone too far.  For more of the details, check out the blog. Remember, the ferocity with which someone bites back after their ideas have been attacked is often a sign of hysterical fanaticism.  We can and should be able to discuss opposing points of view, but name calling is a strategy that usually covers up a deeper motive.  (Click on photo for larger image.  Source: Energy and Environment, 2003)

Caption Contest 2009.11

"The Creature from Jekyll Island" a Must Read

Okay, okay, how many times can I quote one author? The following quote is so sobering it should make the staunchest partisans on either side stop and take a cold, hard look. It comes from G. Edward Griffin and his book, The Creature from Jekyll Island:

"The New World Order cannot become a functional reality so long as the United States remains able to go it alone. If the American people were to awaken to the realities of world politics and regain control over their government, they still would have the military and economic power to break away. Among the world planners, therefore, it has become the prime directive to weaken the United States both militarily and economically. And this directive has come from American leaders, not those of other countries." 

Just get the book and read it. 

You will never see things the same.

U.S. Debt Clock

Have you ever heard that figures don't lie but liars can figure?  Most of what passes for "economic commentary" these days is closer to the latter than the former. As long as the "experts" make it all sound complicated the masses can be duped. But it is actually very simple.  Our government is fleecing us and using the power of the unconstitutional Federal Reserve to do it. The US money supply is created from debt which didn't exist a moment before it was loaned to the government for the very purpose of creating it. Sound strange? It is. It's not high finance it's highway robbery, and the numbers are staggering. For a very sobering, real-time look at the drainage of our well-being and the erosion of our dollar, check out the following Debt Clock. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves for letting this continue. (Thanks to reader Clyde Keep for sending this along).

Caption Contest 2009.10

More Power to the Fed?

I have contributed many posts on this blog detailing the perplexing operation of the fiat money system propagated by the Federal Reserve System in the United States. Incredibly, president Obama is now proposing even more power to the Fed! I don't agree or endorse everything Congressman Ron Paul says, but his comments in this video concerning this proposed expansion of control for the Fed are clear, candid, and correct. It is extremely important that We the People awaken to the dangersous waters in which we are swirling. Being informed is the first step to righting the ship. Please share this and other posts, as well as those on Orrin Woodward's blog, with anyone you can. The truth can make a difference! 

Third Time's the Charm?

The following is from American Affairs magazine, January 1946 issue:

". . . given control of a central banking system and an inconvertible currency [a currency not backed by gold], a sovereign national government is finally free of money worries and needs no longer levy taxes for the purpose of providing itself with revenue. All taxation, therefore, should be regarded from the point of view of social and economic consequences."

From that same article, Beardsley Ruml, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at that time, wrote:

"The . . . purpose of federal taxes is to attain more equality of wealth and of income than would result from economic forces working alone."

Then in February 2009, G. Edward Griffin wrote:

"The federal government now could operate - even at its current level of spending - without levying any taxes whatsoever."

These three quotes taken together are staggering. If they are true, they basically are saying that our government's Federal Reserve System is so effective as to "create" money out of nothing sufficient to cover its enormous spending needs. The Federal Income Tax Code is then superfluous. However, who can imagine the government not taking money it has gotten hundreds of millions of us accustomed to giving? Instead, these tax dollars are for the purpose of class warfare and the redistribution of income - in other words, statist control and socialism in support of our burgeoning welfare state.

The more I scratch this itch the more I realize why first Thomas Jefferson and then later Andrew Jackson worked so vehemtly to dismantle the national banks of their eras. Is it even possible for someone to do it a third time?

(Below are some images representing the fights Jefferson and Jackson had on their hands as they both struggled, ultimately successfully, to rid the United States of a national banking system. Click on each to enlarge).

Inflation: The Secret Taxation

"The best way to destroy the Capitalist System is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens." -- Lenin

"[Inflation] is the most unfair of all taxes because it falls most heavily on those who are least able to pay:the small wage earner and those on fixed incomes. It also punishes the thrifty by eroding the value of their savings." -- G. Edward Griffin