"When you have zero rates that go on indefinitely, you are inviting future problems." – Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig, warning that an extended period of ultra-low interest rates can trigger speculation, in a May, 2012 interview.
“Save some cash, load up with gold and silver, and be patient. Get ready for a crime wave — a large segment of the population will do ‘whatever it has to’ in order to obtain food. Hungry men and women can be desperate and lawless.” – Richard Russell, author of the Dow Theory Letter.
"This world is an uncertain realm filled with danger. Honor undermined by the pursuit of power. Freedom sacrificed when the weak are oppressed by the strong. But there are those who oppose these powerful forces; who dedicate their life to truth, honor, and freedom. These men are known as Musketeers". – Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers, serialized March to July, 1844.
“It is not the goal of the Fed or the politicians to pump up the prices of real economic goods of any description. Since “inflation” is conventionally held to be rising prices of the essential goods which make or break real economies, the prices of these essential goods must be held down by any and all means. And foremost amongst these goods is anything that can or has been used as a medium of exchange in the past. Gold (and to a lesser but still considerable extent, Silver) are the curse of all interventionists. They are the alternative to the …
“My investing model is ABCD: Anything Bernanke Cannot Destroy: flashlight batteries, canned beans, bottled water, gold, a cabin in the mountains.” – David Stockman, in a May, 2012 interview
"Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready." – President Theodore Roosevelt, San Francisco, California , May 13, 1903
“The CDS [credit default swap] is probably the most important instrument in finance. What [the advent of the] CDS did is lay-off all the risk of highly leveraged institutions – and that’s what banks are, highly leveraged – on stable American and international institutions.” – Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Chairman, May 2006
“At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it.” – Suzanne Collins, in “Catching Fire” (Book Two of the The Hunger Games series)
"The best things in history are accomplished by people who get tired of being shoved around." – Robert A. Heinlein
“There are going to be situations where people are going to go without assistance. That’s just the facts of life.” – Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates
“Apparently, I’m supposed to be more angry about what Mitt Romney does with his money than what Barack Obama does with mine.” – David Burge
“Whether we like it or not, we are in an era of colliding crises that will culminate in a transition to a new social and economic system. Humanity always has burdens and troubles—that is the nature of a changeable world interacting with human nature—but there are decades in which little happens and years in which decades happen. We are in just such an era, and we will all be swept along by events that no longer respond to the Status Quo’s financial magic.” – Charles Hugh Smith, in his blog Of Two Minds
“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore …
“Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” – Amos 5:23-24 (KJV)
“In addition, inflation should creep higher. Do not be mellowed by the affirmation of a 2% target rate of inflation here in the U.S. or as targeted in six of the G-7 nations. Not suddenly, but over time, gradually higher rates of inflation should be the result of QE policies and zero bound yields that were initiated in late 2008 and which will likely continue for years to come.” – Bill Gross, PIMCO Investment Outlook, May, 2012