"Drain the Banks."

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

False equivalence. Corporations are enslaved to profit, sovereign citizens are free to to against their own best interests on principle.



Double dipping — the corporate employees and shareholders are already voting as citizens.

"Drain the Banks" — Audit the Fed

I can't really argue with any of that.

I have acted/spoken against my personal best interests before. I'm sure as a sole proprietor I could also act against the profit motive and accomodate the public interest. Then again, a CEO could also act that way, at the risk of angering their shareholders/directors.

I'm not following the double-dip idea though. Corporations and individuals will bazillion-dip if they get the opportunity. I can vote as a citizen and double-dip by making a campaign contribution to influence others. I see no distinction in this regard.

Explain audit the Fed? Once we confirm our suspicion of how corrupt it is, what will we do with the info?



Perhaps we should tax political contributions?

[freebeard]

I can't really argue with any of that.

If you can't argue the facts, argue the law. If you can't argue the law, argue the grammar:

Originally Posted by myself

..citizens are free to to against their own..

I made double-dipping up.

Audit the Fed is for transparency: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federa...ansparency_Act. We all know the story, from the Titanic forward.

The audit of the Pentagon is turning up 100s of 1,000,000s of dollars. Taxing stock market transactions a fraction of a percent would slow the high-velocity trading.

edit:

Once we confirm our suspicion of how corrupt it is, what will we do with the info?

Congress authorizes the minting of 20 Trillion dollar platinum coins (as big as a hubcap!), hands them to the Fed and thanks them for all their good work (the dollar being worth 4.7¢ today)

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...and, the BIBLE isn't very keen on "...money lenders..." too.

OTOH, it's against ham & eggs, kung pao shrimp, and a number of other things I'm rather fond of :-) Bacon cheeseburgers, too...

[oil pan 4]

Why platinum?

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Audit the Fed is for transparency: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federa...ansparency_Act. We all know the story, from the Titanic forward.

The audit of the Pentagon is turning up 100s of 1,000,000s of dollars. Taxing stock market transactions a fraction of a percent would slow the high-velocity trading.

edit:

Congress authorizes the minting of 20 Trillion dollar platinum coins (as big as a hubcap!), hands them to the Fed and thanks them for all their good work (the dollar being worth 4.7¢ today)

I think audit the Fed is one of those topics I'd need to read the Wiki on a dozen other things before I had a vague understanding of what it aims to accomplish. From what I've read, the Fed is audited, but certain aspects aren't part of the audit criteria, and that's where the intrigue lies.

I'm only interested if there is good reason to believe reform can be brought about, and corrupt people held accountable for their actions. An audit ultimately needs to at least break even with the cost of administering it, either in direct capture of funds, or in dissuading further fraudulent action from others.

Totally on board with a small tax on transactions to discourage the worthless practice of high velocity trading. There is no public good created by high velocity trading. It reminds me of the premise of Office Space, where small sums of money are stolen on high volumes of transactions. It also reminds me of that time I had 20 phones playing internet advertisements 24/7 earning me $1/day/phone.

Mostly indifferent to modest inflation. It's essentially a tax on anyone holding US debt or low-interest savings. I'm on board with much of what the Pauls advocate regarding monetary policy, but much less so with fiscal policy. We don't need a warehouse of gold backing our paper money and digital bits.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

why platinum?

For one very good reason — denomination.

Platinum bullion coins can, by this statute, be minted in any denomination, whereas coins in any other specified metal are restricted to amounts of $50, $25, $10, $5 and $1. This is the origin of the concept of minting a very high denomination coin, since the platinum clause provides the only loophole.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillion_dollar_coin

[oil pan 4]

I was unaware that platinum was eximp from the precious metals minting laws.

[Xist]

If you cannot criticize someone's grammar, criticize their grandma.

What do the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition say about lending?

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Corporations are like people, but have important differences. As I've said, businesses don't make decisions; people do. For this reason, the people who make decisions need to be held legally accountable. This is an area the US is sorely lacking, not just at the top (but especially at the top). The Enron peons who purposely scheduled maintenance at power plants at the detriment of the public and profit of the company should be thrown in jail for a good long time. The excuse that company culture persuaded them to act that way is not sufficient to absolve responsibility to either say no, whistle blow, or find a different job.

Company culture is a great excuse. It's an excuse for us to ask why, say, Wells Fargo isn't a RICO case.

Corporate fines that pass the punishment on to the shareholders aren't enough discouragement because the executives and directors already got paid and the fines, while costly, aren't costly enough to make illegal acts unprofitable.