Maori ambitions for more power.

A Slippery Slope to Ruin
David Round

For some years I taught constitutional law at the University of Canterbury. I was also a debater, in those days when debating was a more popular activity than it is now ~ and it would happen, from time to time, when I appeared to speak in a debate, that the chairman, in introducing me, would tell the audience that I was a remarkable man, because (among other things) I lectured in constitutional law, and this in a country that did not possess a constitution! I would smile politely at this merry jest and pass on to the subject of my discourse.
But now I shall explain. New Zealand may not possess a single grand document like the document ~ actually the collection of documents ~ which the United States has, for example, and which can be pointed to and read as ‘the Constitution’. But of course we have a constitution. Every organised state has one, and simply has to have one. Every incorporated society has one, and has to have one. Every group, incorporated or not, every sports club and trust and residents’ association ~ every organisation has a constitution, and has to have one. That is what ‘organisation’ means. A constitution is simply the collection of rules by which a group is organised ~ the way in which it is constituted or made up. That is all. New Zealand’s constitution is the body of rules which describe and prescribe how we run our affairs ~ how laws and executive decisions are made, how we are taxed and how taxes are spent, how we decide disputes, how we select and replace the people who do these things, and so on. In New Zealand, as in England, there is no one document that can be pointed to as ‘the constitution’, but that does not mean we do not have one. We cannot, unlike many other countries, draw a precise line between what is ‘constitutional law’ and what is just ordinary law ~ those laws which we think of as typically ‘constitutional’ are to be found in all sorts of places ~ but of course we have a constitution. If we did not, we would not have an organised society.
Sometimes people speak of ‘written’ constitutions (the United States sort) and ‘unwritten’ constitutions, such as our own. But this is a little misleading, because all our constitutional law is certain, and it is all written down somewhere. It may not be on one single piece of paper, but it is still written. It is to be found in Acts of Parliament, in the principles of the common law as declared over the centuries by judges, in the royal prerogative (part of the common law) and in the ‘conventions’ ~ the ‘agreed understandings’ of what is to be done. We do now have the rudimentary beginnings of a written constitution, however ~ in 1986, prompted by Mr (now Sir) Geoffrey Palmer, our Parliament made the Constitution Act, which collects together a number of very basic provisions. It is not controversial ~ it merely speaks of the Sovereign, the exercise of the royal prerogative by the Governor-General, Ministers of the Crown and Parliamentary under-secretaries, the House of Representatives and the Speaker, the full power of Parliament to make laws, the protection of judges from removal from office, and such like. In 1990 Parliament also made the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act ~ a somewhat stupid name, for reasons which, forgive me, I do not have time to explain at this very moment ~ which states certain rights which we all have, ‘subject to such limits as are justified in a free and democratic society’. But neither of those Acts of Parliament is a ‘higher law’. In the United States of America, as we are all aware, the Constitution is a higher law. It is ‘entrenched’ ~ that is to say, it cannot be altered as other laws are altered, but only in a special and complex and difficult way. And it is also the supreme law against which all other laws are to be judged and, if necessary, found wanting. The American courts have the power to declare laws invalid if they conflict with the constitution ~ if they conflict, to put it more accurately, with the judges’ interpretation of what those eighteenth century documents prescribe. And judgments, therefore ~ especially of the higher courts, especially the Supreme Court ~ can often take on a highly political quality. The authors of the Constitution nowhere mention, and never thought about, issues such as abortion, racial segregation and affirmative action, gay rights or donations to political candidates and parties. Such issues are, in any case, political and moral and philosophical issues, where judges have absolutely no special expertise qualifying them to make better decisions than anyone else. When judges decide arguments over fierce modern issues matters according to the words or intention of the constitution, they are in fact free to make law. This is why there is such great interest in the membership of the Supreme Court, and in its decisions ~ because many decisions are not narrowly ‘legal’ decisions, as we might think, but very political ones. It is for this reason also that nominees to the United States Supreme Court must undergo an examination by a committee of the Senate. When judges are able to some considerable extent to act as politicians, it is only reasonable that they be examined as to their political alignments as well as their more strictly judicial record.
Now by this point I am beginning to get ahead of myself, and so I must take a breath and tell you where I am going. At the end of last year the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Bill English, and the Minister of Maori Affairs, Dr Peter Sharples, announced a far-reaching review of New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements. I would not blame you if the announcement ~ and a later announcement, just a month ago, of the membership of the ‘Independent Advisory Panel’ ~ had slipped under your radar. I do not recall much, if any, publicity at the time. (Indeed, at morning tea this very week I mentioned the review to several of my colleagues in the Law School, and a couple of them had not heard of it either.) The review is, fortunately, to be a reasonably leisurely one ~ the advisory panel’s final report is only due in September 2013, and final decisions will be made thereafter by Parliament ~ and so there will be plenty of time for us to think about the issues and make our views known. It is absolutely vital that we do. The issue of our constitutional arrangements is more important than anything else that we have argued about over the last twenty years. It is more important than any Treaty settlement, more important than the foreshore and seabed or the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, more important than anything. Constitutions deal with power, with who exercises it and according to what rules. Everything that has been done in the last twenty years by way of dealing with Maori issues has been done according to the constitutional rules we have grown up with, absorbed with our mothers’ milk and know without even thinking about. The results, we might say, have been bad enough. But if our constitution is changed, then decisions will be made in different ways in future, and by different people. Past decisions may certainly be less than satisfactory, but that is our fault, for not having been firm enough ~ but past decisions will be nothing compared with future decisions which will be made under much more Maori influence. The almost inevitable consequence of any changes made by this review will be a transfer of power from those who have it now to other people. That will mean, in fact, a change from our present equality to a regime of inequality. (Bear in mind, also, that once these particular constitutional changes are made, it will be easier for the newly-empowered to push through further changes in future.)
At present, ultimately, power rests with the people, and all the people enjoy equal political rights. Parliament is supreme, and we elect parliaments. ‘The English constitution,’ a nineteenth century Englishman said, ‘is a majority of one in the House of Commons’. With that majority ~ and we have only one house in this country ~ a parliament can make any laws it pleases, and support any Ministry it pleases. Occasionally, certainly, some people worry about this, and wonder if there should not be ‘safeguards’ of some sort to prevent parliaments from being too hasty or dictatorial. In principle there is something to be said for this, although the need has not been as pressing since MMP was introduced. But in our present situation, the remedy will be worse than the disease.
And what is our present situation? Well, we know it only too well, but let me remind you. This review was promised to the Maori Party by the National Party as part of its coalition deal after the 2008 election. It is not prompted by any failings in our constitution (other than some perceived failing to give Maori more power than they possess now). It is prompted entirely by Maori ambitions, and Maori are already preparing their complaints and demands for new constitutional forms. What is more, the terms of reference of the Independent Advisory Panel are already declared to be to ‘seek the views of all New Zealanders…in ways that reflect the Treaty relationship’ and ‘in ways that reflect the partnership model and are responsive to Maori consultation preferences’. One might almost conclude that the Panel’s conclusions are already to be found in its instructions.
The Panel is of a remarkable racial composition. Its co-chairs are the respected former professor of law (and my old colleague) John Burrows, now a Law Commissioner, and Sir Tipene O’Regan. It has five European members, five Maori members, one New Zealander of Pacific Island extraction and one of Asian descent. Among the five Maori members are Professor Ranginui Walker, known to readers of this column, and certainly someone who will be very vigorously pursuing privileges for members of one of his ancestral races. I am afraid to say that several of the Panel’s other Maori members seem to my perhaps jaundiced eye to be capable, at least, of being readier to pursue selfish racial interests than the common good. Forgive my presumption. Certainly, many of the people appearing before the Panel will be pressing for racial privilege in a new constitution. I do not envy John Burrows his task.
Our present situation is such, then, that unless poor old longsuffering New Zealanders kick up the most IMMENSE stink, the almost inevitable direction of any proposed constitutional change will be towards further racial division and Maori privilege. And once such privilege is in place, then our continued racial division, and our poverty and accelerated decline as a nation, is inevitable.
Once power is transferred from those who have it at present, the newly powerful will not give it back. If our constitution is altered in the way in which it looks as though it may well be altered ~ that is to say, to give more power to one particular racial minority, and (by a written constitution, which will thereafter have to be interpreted by judges) to give power to unelected and unaccountable supporters of the Maori cause in the higher judiciary ~ then we are on an irrevocable slippery slope to ruin. I mean this seriously. If what the Maori Party and its friends desire by way of constitutional change comes to pass, then this once lovely little country of ours will be irrevocably stuffed. More things will happen, of the sort that we have deplored over the last twenty years, and worse, and we will have less and less ability than we seem to have even now to stop them. Yes, it does seem strange that ‘reform’ should lead to a loss of power by the people, but that is what will inevitably happen. Our laws now recognise the equality of all citizens. Let me repeat, the forthcoming constitutional review is not prompted by any failure of our constitution, which is working perfectly well, and without any problems at all. (The only possible exception to that remark might be in relation to our voting system, where some might wish to replace the present MMP system with either the former first-past-the-post system or some entirely new one ~ but voting systems are not a part of the review, being dealt with by a referendum at the time of this year’s general election and possibly another referendum later.) This review has been established, not because of any failure in our constitution, but simply because the National Party promised it to the Maori Party. It is entirely prompted by Maori demands ~ it has no other justification. Maori are already starting to agitate, to demand the ‘justice’ which our present constitutional arrangements evidently deny them. They seek greater power. They will not exercise it for the common good, but in their own interests. National’s behaviour over the foreshore and seabed provides abundant evidence that the Party’s senior figures are perfectly ready to sell their own fellow-citizens down the river for the sake of their own short-term political advantage. They did it then, and there is no obvious reason why they will not do it again. Any change in our constitutional arrangements to grant more rights to Maori must inevitable be a change away from our present equality, and that must mean, inevitably, a change towards inequality. As Maori obtain more rights, so the rest of us must lose some.
Nor must you imagine that such changes will be opposed by many enlightened liberal defenders of the human spirit. For a generation, at least, much of New Zealand’s liberal ‘intelligentsia’ has been profoundly illiberal. Democracy is very much yesterday’s idea. The majority of the people are ~ so ordinary, my dear ~ simply so unexciting~ so dull ~ so worthy of nothing more than being completely ignored, while we pursue the latest new fashions in ethnic and multicultural chic. Darling, David Round is just so mediaeval. I have given many examples in the past in these columns of the way in which our reasonable and widely-shared views are instantly dismissed out of hand by the enlightened as not worthy of a second’s consideration, and I see no reason why their attitudes should not continue. No ~ I doubt that we will get much help from our intellectual leaders, who on the whole think that the Treaty is just a simply marvellous idea. We are on our own.
But there is hope, although, like the cavalry, it may arrive only at the eleventh hour. For most of our history, certainly, until liberty and democracy were achieved, and until we could therefore take them for granted and be anaesthetised by home comforts and tawdry luxuries, our constitution has been a matter of burning concern. Constitutional development has indeed been one of the great themes of English history. From Magna Carta’s sturdy assertion of established rights against the encroachments of bad King John, through the tumults of the Middle Ages, the despotism of the Tudors, the great resistance of the seventeenth century (when the people sent one king to the scaffold and another to end his days in gloomy exile in France) ~ through all of this to the gradual establishment of Ministerial responsibility and parliamentary government under the Hanoverians and a constitutional monarchy under Victoria, the great concern of the Crown’s free subjects was the assertion and maintenance of their ancient liberties. This is why our hearts beat faster at the mention of those heroic days and deeds and documents. Our hearts stir at the assertion of liberty in the American Declaration of Independence, and in the lesser-known but magnificent Declaration of Arbroath whereby the Scots, fighting against the English Edward, declared that ‘it is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honour that we are fighting but for freedom ~ for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life itself’.
‘Freedom’! Think of that! Freedom! What might that be now, exactly?
Set against that magnificent background, this present review seems to be an utter betrayal of the human spirit. Its instigators’ purpose is not freedom, not the greater good ~ not even the shallow lure of economic prosperity, not that that isn’t handy ~ but special ‘rights’ for a racial minority. Their purpose is to bind the non-Maori population of this country hand and foot and turn them over to a racist constitutional regime in which they have far more power than they deserve. Apartheid as improvement. We would laugh out loud at the suggestion that granting more power to farmers, say, or manufacturers, or trade unions or the poor or the elderly, would lead to anything but their stronger pursuing of their own interests ~ yet somehow our rulers manage to suspend disbelief and assume that the inevitable consequence of enlarging Maori influence on our constitution will be the greater good. Equally bizarrely, they seem to think that we will not notice that such ideas are not consistent with our own understanding of our ancient rights and liberties.
The conclusion I am forced to, then, is that whatever the outcome of this review, it will only engender further bitterness and division. If Maori get what they want, then we shall be angry in future for ever. If they do not get what they want ~ if we manage to hold the line ~ well, that will be good, but they will be disappointed, and they will be angry forever in future, because they will consider themselves deprived of what they are (somehow) entitled to. And absolutely everyone will of course have become agitated and concerned during the debate. The entire exercise seems to me to be doomed to an unfortunate outcome, regardless of what precisely happens.)
Doubtless different Maori will come up with different suggestions as to how New Zealanders’ alleged obligations under the Treaty might be implemented. In recent years some have suggested a separate Maori House of Parliament, whose consent would be necessary to laws. Such a proposal would mean that the vote of a European New Zealander would not be worth as much as that of a Maori ~ for the 15% or so of the Maori population would have as much say as the 85% non-Maori. It would also be a guarantee of blackmail demands for ever. It would also mean, of course, a thorough racial classification of everyone in the country to ascertain whom they should be voting for and what their rights were. And then here we’d be, back in Nazi Germany.
(Some elections ago, by the way, the Green Party had a policy of separate and equal Maori and European Houses of Parliament. Perhaps they will tell us if they still have that policy, but they certainly used to.)
Possibly likelier, but equally disastrous, would be the elevation of the principles of the Treaty to some form of ‘higher law’. If we were to adopt a written constitution then it would be very surprising indeed if it did not begin with some acknowledgement of the Treaty and its principles, and thereby give judges the opportunity to strike down laws made by Parliament on the ground that they offended against Treaty principles. This is not far-fetched. Our present Chief Justice ~ one Treaty claimant described her at the time of her appointment as Maoridom’s ‘best weapon’, although we would readily concede she is not entirely responsible for what other people say about her ~ has already publicly stated that she considers herself legally entitled to strike down Acts of Parliament right now if they offend against her interpretation of Treaty principles. She has not been the only judge to voice that opinion. This would be the overturning of centuries of absolutely fundamental constitutional law and democratic principle. She considers herself to be entitled to strike down the laws of this country, decided by democratically-elected Parliaments, if she thinks that ‘Treaty principles” justify it. These are the words of a would-be dictator. As I may have said before, for a judge to do that would be as much a coup d’etat as if armed men entered Parliament and drove the Members out at gunpoint. It is as much treason as Guy Fawkes’ plans (worse, in fact, for it seems that he may very possible have been framed!) She has already demonstrated her readiness to overturn long-established law and embark on disgraceful political adventures when she and her fellows in the Court of Appeal made the 2003 Ngati Apa decision on the foreshore and seabed which has already brought so much anger and division to this country and will continue to do so. That decision was a deliberate political choice. If we get a written constitution, however, we will inevitably be handing more power over to its interpreters ~ some of whom will be people like her.
Treaty principles, as I hope I have explained sufficiently in the past, are such vague platitudes, pulling in different directions, that they can be used to justify about any decision any judge might ever want to reach. If we should ever be unlucky enough to have the Treaty or its principles inserted into our constitution as some special standard with which legislation must comply, then judges will forever after be entitled to strike down any law, any decision on the ground that it offended against Treaty ‘principles’. The Maori Council has already argued, for example, that it is a breach of ‘Treaty principles’ if Maori do not receive preferential treatment in the allocation of limited medical services, such as kidney dialysis ~ this because old people (with kidney disease) are ‘taonga’, guaranteed by the Treaty. By the same token, young and middle-aged Maori people are probably taonga also. So if our constitution says that the Treaty and its principles have some special status ~ a reasonable prospect if we get a written constitution ~ and if some judge swallows this argument, also surely a reasonable possibility ~ then hey presto, Maori enjoy better access to health care for ever than anyone else. We pay the taxes, they use the services. And so it could be with any aspect of government. One could easily imagine that a taxation law, say, could be struck down because Maori can’t afford it as much as anyone else, and therefore it’s oppressive ~ or there might be a declaration that Treaty principles require the Maori language to be taught in all schools, or that the whole country be bilingual, or that more money be allocated to Maori television, or Maori education, or that the Department of Conservation give Maori special rights (the judges have begun to head down this track already), or that the Treaty requires that more rateds money be spent in Maori communities, or that they should have 50:50 representation on local bodies….The possibilities are endless. And there are judges who will enjoy nothing more than making lofty holier-than-thou pronouncements of principle with disastrous consequences and then handing it over to others to attempt to clean up the mess. Examples may be found in some decisions on Treaty principles in the last twenty-four years.
In the light of our present political situation, then, I cannot but think that just about any constitutional reform which is likely to ensue from this current review is going to be bad for this country and its people. Our attitude should most certainly be one of caution ~ indeed, of cynicism. My own family has a saying, a famous remark by a great-great uncle of mine ~ also a lawyer, as it happened ~ who used to say, ‘If you trust anyone, you’re simple’. A little cynical, perhaps, but also wise. And this is the principle of all democracy. We won’t trust other people, thank you very much ~ we’ll be in charge ourselves. We won’t hand care for ourselves over to the state, or to another race, or to judges. No thank you. Right now, we’re in charge, and we want things to stay that way.
David Round
David Round teaches law at the University of Canterbury and is author of "Truth or Treaty? Commonsense Questions about the Treaty of Waitangi".

Labour not immuned to making deals it's MMP after all.

Andrew Little has also expressed outrage over the National strategy on Epsom this week.

Given that in New Plymouth, “the independent Rusty Kane came in third with 756 votes and if he hadn’t been in the race they could have gone to Duynhoven”, the mainstream media should ask Mr Little and Mr Kane whether or not a deal has ever been raised with Rusty Kane on the possibility he might step aside so that Andrew Little can continue his ascendancy to Labour leadership.

by Whaleoil on July 22, 2011

To read full article follow this link.
http://whaleoil.gotcha.co.nz/index.php/2011/07/hypocrisy-over-deals/

Leading The Way Maori Promote Biological Farming.

Te Arawa FoMA to promote biological farming systems
Te Arawa Federation of Maori Authorities (FoMA) is investigating biological farming systems for its member organisations.
Te Arawa FoMA is the largest cluster of Trusts & Incorporations in the Rotorua District. Te Arawa FoMA’s goal is to help its members advance their aspirations for economic development, in a manner that is mindful of and does not compromise with the receiving environment, which Maori culture is historically known for.
Many Maori owned trust lands are used for farming and are on either Lakes or rivers catchments. In recent years, nutrient leaching from farming has been an issue in these areas.
The Rotorua Lakes and Land Trust (RLLT) – a joint venture between Te Arawa FoMA and Rotorua/Taupo Province of Federated Farmers – has set up the Vallance Project which explores how biological farming systems can play a role in reducing nitrate leaching from farms, while keeping farming profitable. The project has been operational since August 2010 in Reporoa. A similar research project was set up in two farms in Edgecumbe recently.
“Maori community believes in sustainable management of our land, water and forest resources; it is based on the tradition and culture that has been handed to us by our ancestors,” said Mr Malcolm Short, Chairman of the RLLT.
“Rotorua’s future depends on our land and water. The wealth and wellbeing of the district and its people will continue to depend heavily on making the most of farming, forestry and tourism to generate jobs and income”.
Maori culture believes in Kaitiakitanga (traditional way of environmental management) and Mauri (life force) of nature. Hence, human societies can not be separate from nature.
“That is one of the reasons why we have set up the Vallance research project. Biological farming systems which do not depend on artificial saturation of the farm by chemical fertilisers are expected to provide a more nature-friendly manner of agriculture,” Mr Short added.
Te Arawa FoMA and RLLT have formed an affiliation to take advantage of the benefits in joining together to share resources, ideas and development initiatives. Both entities retain their autonomy but where possible share and/or pool their resources to reach common outcomes.
Te Arawa FoMA is organising “Options and Tools” conference on Friday, 17 June 2011 at the Rotorua Club Inc. located in the Main Grandstand at the Rotorua Race Track.
A number of interesting topics have been chosen for deliberations by the executive committee. Dr Guna Magesan, a senior scientist, has been invited to present a paper on “Biological farming systems and nutrient leaching” for the benefit of farming community.
“In addition to the Vallance project, we are also planning to have a second trial soon on a Maori owned farm,” said Tom Walters, a Te Arawa FoMA representative and Trustee of RLLT.
“We will study pasture productivity, pasture quality, and key indicators of soil physical, chemical and biological properties”.
Various biological farming fertiliser companies will be invited to be part of this research. The focus will be to test the biological farming system rather than the product.
“It is our desire to research methods in which we may farm in a more sustainable manner, and introduce this methodology to a collective of Maori farms across the central plateau after which we may share success stories to fellow members of the Federation of Maori Authorities and indeed throughout the country,” Mr Walters added.
“This is a concentrated conscientious effort on our part, to reduce the dependence and cost of advisors and consultants, and to do a better job at controlling what is controllable. More natural processes and clean lakes and waterways are a priority”.
Ultimately, a balance has to be struck between the productivity and financial sustainability of the farm, and environmental costs. Many of the Western farming systems place a single minded focus on profits to the detriment of the environment, thus forgetting the fact that human society is a part of nature.”
In October 2011, the RLLT is organising a National Conference on Biological Farming Systems in Rotorua with the theme "Towards a Sustainable Farming – by farmers, for farmers ". A number of key scientists from various crown research institutes and universities, and farmers from different parts of New Zealand are participating and sharing their experiences at the conference. For more information, please email: BiologicalFarming.Systems@gmail.com
"We have been promoting our research every possible way," said Gifford McFadden, a Trustee of RLLT and the Project Leader for Vallance Project.
“We believe our national conference will be a turning point for biological farming in New Zealand,” Mr McFadden added.

Poisoning Paradise: PCE 1080 Report - Concerning

Poisoning Paradise: PCE 1080 Report - Concerning: "Yesterday the PCE (Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment) released her report on the use of 1080 poison in New Zealand.    TV3 news..."

How Wins Taranaki Regional Council Environmental Award.

Return 2 Earth
– for composting of organic waste.

Return 2 Earth is based at the New Plymouth Colson Road landfill and each year processes large volumes of green waste, wood shavings and animal shed bedding into high-quality compost for a range of markets.

This operation provides a sustainable use for material that, in most cases, would otherwise have been landfilled. All of the green waste from the New Plymouth and Waitara transfer stations is processed by Return 2 earth.

Outdoor windrows are used with mechanical agitation to optimize the compost process, based on the temperature and moisture content of the windrows.

Use of the company’s products by farmers and gardeners benefits the environment as it is likely to be associated with reduced use of chemical fertilizers, reduced leaching of nutrients, improved soil structure and increased soil carbon sequestration.

Company founder Russell How says he and his wife Nerida are honoured to receive the award and hope it encourages others to put hard work and effort into sustainability. Describing himself as an entrepreneur, Mr How got the idea for Return 2 Earth at a sustainability field day at Ruakura in 2008. “I met Gerry Gillespie, of Zero Waste Australia, who talked about what had been achieved in Australia, and I could see an opportunity to make something happen here.”

Mr How says the Taranaki Regional Council, New Plymouth District Council and Envirowaste Ltd have provided valuable encouragement and assistance, and the company’s product is now used by farmers, local gardeners and the NPDC Parks Department.

The issue of nitrogen leaching.

Taranaki environmental activist Rusty Kane believes New Zealand farming is at the crossroads when it comes to the issue of nitrogen leaching.

Down one path lies more efficient, more profitable farms, while going down the other finds the future of New Zealand's clean, green image in serious doubt.

Mr Kane, the leader of the People's Choice lobby group and former political candidate, has been visiting regional councils throughout the North Island to campaign for stronger policies surrounding nitrogen leaching on farms.

Last week he met Waikato Regional councillors Jane Hennebry and Phillip Legg, as well as policy and strategy acting group manager Tony Petch, to discuss the issue.

Leaching occurs when nitrogen-based fertilisers, which are spread on surrounding pastoral land, seep into farm rivers and waterways, creating a chemical imbalance in the quality of the water and surrounding land.
Mr Kane said the issue, if not addressed through regional council policy and changes in farming habits, could seriously impact on New Zealand agriculture.

''We can't say things and do something else,'' he said.

''If you want to have a future in farming, we have to move on this (the nitrogen issue).'' The best recognised way to combat nitrogen leaching is to look after riparian zones, or land immediately surrounding waterways, through the planting of specific trees and plant life on the banks of the waterways. These act as a ''filter'' to prevent nitrogen flowing into the water.

Alternatively, the use of non-chemical fertilisers remove the problem completely.

Mr Kane however is no long-haired tree-hugging hippie.

He knows the pressures farmers are under, and the difficult everyday decisions they must make.

This is where the encouragement and support of regional councils is crucially important, for both groups, and the environment. ''We can't expect the farmers to shoulder all the costs,'' he said. ''But you've got to look at how to really be sustainable as a farmer.

''Conventional farming today is not sustainable and if we don't make changes, we are going to lose our edge.'' ''A good conventional farmer will be a good organic farmer (without the use of chemical fertilisers) . th. th. but we need to change the way we're doing things on the land.'' Ms Hennebry described the meeting with Mr Kane as ''very positive,'' adding she was impressed at Mr Kane's balanced view of change for both farmers and the environment.

Waikato Regional Council is seen as one of the more progressive regional councils in the North Island when it comes to the issue of nitrogen leaching.

Ad Feedback The issue has been included on the agenda in the last two council meetings, signifying the growing importance of the topic.

Ms Hennebry said a recent policy on the use of lower amounts of nitrogen around Lake Taupo was aimed at creating a green belt around the lake, while the council has also highlighted water catchments around the region seen as ''priority'' for action.

The Waikato region extends from Lake Taupo to around Mercer, including the Waikato River and other large water catchments.

Mr Kane formed the People's Choice Party in 1999 to voice about a number of environmental issues around New Zealand.

The leader has stood in a number of elections, but after failing to draw significant numbers of votes, turned the party into a lobby group targetting environmental issues.

Along with his Waikato visit, Mr Kane has stopped in at the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, the Horizons Regional Council (which cares for Manawatu and Whanganui), the Taranaki Regional Council and Northland Regional Council.

BEN STANLEY
Waikato Times

A Straight Shooters Point of View.

Organic Farming Activists get real.

Organic farming creates more CO2 (which is a good thing, of course). So why do urban organic activists pretend it's the other way 'round!

Urban organic activists begin every argument by pining for the good ol' days. They point out that in 1940 one calorie of fossil-fuel energy produced two calories of food. But now, due to the dreaded effects of industrialization, 20 calories of fossil-fuel energy are required per calorie of food. And this, for them, illustrates why an immediate transformation of the food biz is required to "save the planet." How? By converting from a fossil-fuel-based food economy to one based instead on sunshine. Case closed! After all, it's a 20-fold increase, right!

Well... turns out it's not.

A wise man once said an ordinary mind is incapable of making distinctions. The distinction not being made in this case is that while we're using 20 times the fossil-fuel energy, we're certainly not using 20-times the total energy. Not even close...

If only they had ever worked a day on a farm, these "slow," urban activists would appreciate the massive amounts of human and animal labour that used to be required before machines driven by fossil fuels came along. The reason only a single calorie of fossil-fuel energy was required to produce two calories of food was that, prior to the mass industrialization during the Second World War, farmers did the rest of the work by hand and by back! Far more calories were consumed emitting far more CO2. Otherwise, industrialization would not have made economic sense.

Slow food activists will try to tell you that a great deal of today's fossil-fuel consumption results from the transportation of food, and that all food should therefore be procured locally. But transportation turns out to only account for a tiny fraction of energy use. (Were this not the case, greedy capitalists wouldn't ship food over long distances; it's that simple.)

It's energy-intensive activities like the plowing of land, harvesting, and the handling and processing of food that account for the lion's share of energy consumption and hence CO2 emissions.[ii] And when our ancestors relied on horses to do this work -- which of course meant fully one-half of their arable land was dedicated to growing crops for feed (something which clearly had both an economic and environmental impact) -- they still expended enormous amounts of human energy. And all that work, human and animal, had a measurable carbon footprint which greatly exceeds the 20-fold increase in fossil-fuel energy-use that occurred over the last 70 years. How much more exactly? Hold onto your hat.

Even if you believe, as the food activists do, that CO2 is a harmful pollutant, it turns out we're actually releasing at least an order of magnitude less of it today than we used to for every calorie of food produced! Modern-day farming is far more efficient, and thankfully so. All that's changed is that fossil-fuel calories can be easily measured while human and animal calories were never measured. And why did farmers get sucked into replacing their horses with tractors? Simply because there are over 20,000 man-hours of energy in a single barrel of oil which, even when oil is at its peak price, works out to less than two cents per oil-powered man-hour. That's right... two cents!


Of course, besides reverting to human and animal labor, there is another way that some urban food activists envision converting us back to a "sunshine-based" food economy.

They seek to replace evil ol' fossil-fuels with biofuels like ethanol. Instead of burning 20 calories of fossil-fuel energy to yield two calories of food as we currently do, in a biofuel food-economy farmers would burn 20 calories of biofuel, and would once again find themselves setting aside half of all their land to grow that fuel... just like their ancestors did to grow feed for their horses.. See a pattern here!

All you achieve with biofuels is a shift in where the fuel comes from, not in how much is consumed. So much for the sunshine economy! Besides, fossil fuels are sunshine-based as surely as crops are. The sunshine was captured in forests millions of years ago and remains stored in underground reserves in the form of crude oil. Why is today's sunshine any better than yesterday's!

Most members of the urban-environmentalist crowd don't have the slightest conception of what they're promoting in taking us back to what they perceive to be the good ol' days. But the really scary part is that many do.

Biological farming soil study promising.

Preliminary results from biological farming study promising


The Rotorua Lakes and Land Trust (RLLT) - a joint venture between Te Arawa Federation of Maori Authorities and Rotorua/Taupo Province of Federated Farmers - has been studying nitrate leaching under biological farming systems since August 2010 in Reporoa with the research support coming from crown research institute Scion. The preliminary results are promising.

"We don't want to draw any conclusions from these preliminary results as this is in the early days of research but results are definitely encouraging," said Gifford McFadden, a Trustee of RLLT and the Project Leader for Vallance Project.

At this stage, we are monitoring only two farms (one conventional and one biological) in Reporoa. Following these promising results, we have now set up similar research in two farms in Edgecumbe. We will be monitoring Edgecumbe farms from April. Ideally we need, and would like to monitor, a number of study sites to draw proper conclusions.

Please note that these results are only from the tail-end of the drainage season when nitrate concentrations are expected to be low in the drainage water.

"Even in this situation, there is a significant difference between nitrate concentrations between these two farms," said Gifford McFadden.

We look forward to the results during the main drainage season (from late autumn to early spring) when most of the nitrogen leaching occurs.

"Since the amounts of drainage could differ between years due to amount and timing of rainfall), it will be ideal to monitor leaching losses at least for 3 years," he added.

In recent years, water quality has become an important issue in many countries including New Zealand. Farmers are under sustained public pressure to reduce nutrient leaching from their farms to streams, rivers and lakes.

New Zealand farming needs solutions that are simple to implement and easy to monitor.

Vallance Project (biological farming research project) explores how biological farming can play a role in reducing nitrate leaching from farms. This research is being carried out for the benefits of New Zealand farming community.

Total estimated cost for the project is $400,000 over 3 years. We have approached various funding agencies requesting support this research, and we will meet them again with these preliminary results. Already AGMARDT has committed $138,000, Bay of Plenty Regional Council $20,000 and a private company has put up $20,000.

"We hope these results may help some funding agencies to come forward to support this research at least for one or two drainage seasons," said Mr McFadden.

Sweden Reforms Democracy.

Stronger rights of electors to govern their own affairs now anchored in constitution

For the around 300 local authorities and 26 regions the Swedes introduced from the beginning of 2011

1. Citizens' law-proposal (initiative)

2. Right (improved) to demand a plebiscite (decision by the electorate, "referendum").

These changes strengthen the role of citizens in regional and local government. Before this reform there was a citizens' right to demand a referendum but this could be refused by the governing authority.

Swedish attention to detail for good governance is illustrated by some accompanying innovations. They propose to build a "comprehensive direct-democratic infrastructure" (Kaufmann), with local advice centres for voters who wish to contribute to governance and exploit their new democratic rights. Also planned is a national institution for political participation, which will inform citizens and support and encourage the newly introduced "direct" democracy.

The rules for citizens' initiative and referendum were laid down by revision of the constitution of state which came into force in January 2011.

--------------
Summarised from: Bruno Kaufmann, "A more democratic Sweden": Demokratischeres Schweden md magazin Nr.88, 1/2011 published by mehr-demokratie.de

It's all in the fertiliser.

Tests done by Far North Envirolab Ltd.

Lower Phosphate Leaching.

Studies showed phosphate leaching through soil samples of farms or orchards using natural fertilisers, compared with neighbouring conventional farms using artificial chemical fertilisers.Showed leaching of phosphate in soil depths of 400 mm on farms that used artificial chemical fertilisers were between 31.6% to 168.3% higher than with natural rok fertilisers. It also found Farms and orhards using natural fertilisers leaching was reduced and the waterways less polluted.
In a sediment soil the results showed a 31.6 % less phosphate leaching when natural fertilisers had been used.
In a sandy soil with little top soil it was 74 % less phosphate leaching.
In a day soil with a small layer of top soil it was 168 % less phosphate leaching.
In a mixture of sandy and clay it was 35 % less phosphate leaching.
In very rich, nearly compost soil it was 75 % less.

Organic cows less nitrogen leaching.

College of Sciences Massey University.

Lower nitrogen Leaching.

Interest in organic dairy production systems is increasing in New Zealand. This interest is piqiued in part, by what is seen as a relentless trend of intensification on conventional dairy farms and the widely acknowledged detrimental effect of this intensification on the environment. Cows urine and chemical fertiliser use are the two main sources of nitrogen leaching into waterways from farm run off. Studies have shown differences in nirogen losses from conventional farms differs from that of organic farms. Differences in nitrogen ingested by cows and nitrogen excreted in urine.Studies showed that there is reduced excretion of urinary nitrogen from the organic cows and less nitrate-N is leached in waterways from organic farms.

The Scots Govt have seen the light.

Action plan to add support for Organic Farmers.

Increased support for organic farming was announced yesterday by the Scottish Government's cabinet secretary for rural affairs, Richard Lochhead.
Organic farming is to be given greater priority as part of an action plan agreed with stakeholders in the industry, including the extension of land managers' options to cover organic maintenance payments.

The organic sector is currently making a slow recovery from reduced premiums - essential to cover higher production costs - resulting from the economic downturn and recent publicity questioning the health benefits of organic produce.

Announcing the action plan during a visit to Tio Organics, Forres, Lochhead said organic produce was making an important contribution to Scotland's food and drink sector which was enjoying increased demand and greater consumer recognition as a result of the government's national food and drink policy to boost sales to £12.5 billion.

By Eddie Gillanders.

Press Release

Press Release.
The People's Choice Party.

With their cheaper fertiliser and animal health costs, combined with Fonterra's premium of NZ$1.05 per kilogramme of milk solids. Shows that organic dairy production profits are better for both farmers and the environment, according to Rusty Kane Leader of The People's Choice Party.
Combined with good farm management practices organic farming methods are not only sustainable, they are as productive and profitable as conventional farming.
Proving that being environmentally friendly and sustainable will give organic farmers higher export returns.
World markets are keen to buy as much as possible, global trends show growing demand from consumers for foods that are demonstrably the product of sustainable, environmentally friendly farming practices.
Organic dairy is only 1% of Fonterra's production . Because of preconceived misconceptions around organic farming and it's greenee cogitations. New Zealand dairy farmers have until now been slow to embrace this huge profitable organic opportunity, in which the consumers are increasingly more sophisticated informed and educated on their own health needs their environment and the world around them, having access to online information and sources.
With increasing demand for organically produced products Fonterra is pressing farmers to switch from conventional milk production to organic milk production to meet demand.
Because of this high demand for organic dairy products, and Fonterra's milk solid premium incentives to help grow it's organic dairy sector, there has never been a better time for farmers to convert to organic dairy.
Fonterra is totally committed to supporting the growth of the New Zealand organic dairy sector and is looking to increase the number of organic farms in New Zealand. It was actively recruiting farmers to switch to organic methods, to meet growth it expects within its own organic business of 140% over the next five years.
Fonterra has already more than doubled its organic milk supplies over the past year, luring farmers with a premium of NZ$1.05 per kilogramme of milk solids.
This is to help it's organic dairy sector to gain the production required to reach and supply the mainstream New Zealand consumer and export markets. A predicted increase from 1% to 14% of it's overall production within the next 5 years. Making dairy the fastest-growing category in the organic foods sector.
For a conventional dairy farmer to convert over too and become a fully organic operation in the past may have taken the farmer five to seven years to establish a highly productive organic dairy unit. Today there is so much knowledge available to farmers to turn organic, the process can take as little as two to three years to become fully certified organic without loosing production.” Rusty said ”.

Leader of The People's Choice Party NZ
POBox 5111 Westown
New Plymouth

Inexcusable Nonsense

It doesn't even surprise me to hear the utter, inexcusable nonsense pasted all over Monsanto's website anymore. It seems the entire endeavor is nothing short of pandering propaganda aimed to the uninformed, the naive, or those looking to justify their own affiliations with such debauchery. In defending their right to not label GMO foods, Monsanto had the following to say:

"Individuals who make a personal decision not to consume food containing GM ingredients can easily avoid such products. In the U.S., they can purchase products that are certified as organic under the National Organic Program. They can also buy products which companies have voluntarily labeled as not containing GM ingredients. The law allows for voluntary labeling so long as the information is accurate, truthful and avoids misleading consumers about the food. Monsanto supports both options."

First, this doesn't say anything about how other countries can avoid GMOs. As practices of industrial farming toil the backs of third-world farmers, one can only assume that other countries don't matter.

And secondly, Monsanto has avoided their corporate responsibility by laying the sole responsibility of consumer "choice" to be knowledgeable enough to purchasing organic "to be sure" that it is not infected with GMO technology. It's like having to prove innocence: It's totally un-American.

Or is it?

As the line between GMOs and organics blend; rather, when Monsanto finally dominates the global food market by owning, literally, all the staple crops, it won't matter. The only way we'll be able to avoid it is by growing our own, and even then you'll risk "stealing" intellectual property by pollen drift.

They further pose the question: "What would be the benefits of labeling products containing GM ingredients?"

Well, the benefits would be numerous.




The consumer could be more informed about what they are supporting when purchasing a product.

The consumer can decide if the organic option is worth the extra cost if on a tight budget (because unaccountability long-distance farms, even organic ones, can lead to profiteering either through the farm or the grocer).

The consumer could make the choice as to whether or not he wants to be a testing subject for genetically modified food that haven't been sufficiently tested in human consumption.

It is simply the responsibility of any producer to label what unnatural things exist in their products. That's why we have labels in the first place.


To shift the responsibility to the consumer and assume the cost of organic certification onto the farm is unfair and bullish. Why should a farm be forced to certify organic just to prove it is not part of the genetically modified game? Many small farms are not certified organic because the cost in certification is prohibitive. Now their perfectly reasonable practices go by the wayside of certified organic farms.

In essence, by not labeling GMO products, the small farms might as well have been sprayed with RoundUp: it kills them.

This mindset is indicative of Goliath sized companies calling the shots and all the Davids of the world having to play ball. It's outlandish. If we learn anything from this experience at all, it should be that we all need to save and store heirloom seed whenever we can find it. The real green revolution is not in a petri dish; it's in our backyards, our front yards and our neighbors' farms.

by Keri Marion

Rusty Kane (The People's Choice Party) 2011: The Politics of the Sons of Liberty Academy.

Rusty Kane (The People's Choice Party) 2011: The Politics of the Sons of Liberty Academy.: "The Silver Bullet And The Silver Shield By Silver Shield, on February 25th, 2011 The Ultimate FREE Silver Investors Guide. Two of the most..."

The Politics of the Sons of Liberty Academy.

The Silver Bullet And The Silver Shield

By Silver Shield, on February 25th, 2011
The Ultimate FREE Silver Investors Guide.

Two of the most common questions I get inside of the Sons of Liberty Academy focus on two things: how to turn back the tide of this increasingly corrupt system and how to financially prepare for a post-dollar world. This does not surprise me, since fear and greed are the two most powerful motivators known to man. What will surprise you is that for once, the answer to both questions is the same answer.

Buying physical silver is by far the greatest act of wisdom and rebellion any American can and should be doing right now. It is both a Silver Bullet to rebel against the Elite’s corrupt system and a Silver Shield to protect your family and wealth in a post- dollar world. Buying physical silver is non-violent, non-compliant resistance. Most importantly it works outside of the system and it cannot be stopped.

“As long as you play by the Elite’s rules, the Elite will rule.” -Chris Duane

Any effort trying to work within the Elite’s paradigm, will fail. The Tea Party march on Washington failed. It failed like the 2010 Tea Party Congressional campaign. If failed because nothing happened, and nothing changed. That is not to say they were not great exercises in power. It just will never bring about any real change because awareness campaigns and marches are not enough. The Elite that control our reality don’t really care what we do or say, so long as we do not threaten the root of their power. We have to hack at the root.

“Let them march all they want, so long as they pay their taxes…”- General Alexander Haig

In this article, I intend to put forth a plan that will fundamentally change the game and do it from outside the system. It will overthrow the Elitist system that enslaves us with debt and do so without a shot being fired. Most importantly, there is no way the Elite can stop it. The plan is quite simple, sell every single asset you own right now and buy physical silver.

As with anything else in life, knowing the answer, is not as important as knowing the “why.”

The “why” is what brings about fundamental change in your thinking.

This change in thinking brings about absolute certainty of the outcome.

Absolute certainty brings about massive action.

Before I go any further, I want to have my “cover my ass” moment. I am not a financial adviser. (You can see my parody of these CONmen in my video Wall St Laughs at Main St.) I am extremely biased and fully invested in silver. Silver is extremely volatile and not suitable for most investors. Look at what happened in 2008 and just yesterday, it was down 5% in 15 minutes. I will not be held liable for any losses you may incur but I will be glad to take any donations if things do go the way I see it. You need to have food, water, guns, ammo and supplies before you should even consider investing in silver full force. The most important preparation you can make is mental preparation and nothing does that better then the Sons of Liberty Academy. Before you let my highly convincing arguments wash over you, take time to do your own do diligence. Don’t make any rash decisions decisions like selling your house, 401k, stocks, and family business to go out and by as much silver as you can get your hands on, with a seven and a half month pregnant wife. Only a crazy person would do that… Right?

“Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money.” – Sir Josiah Stamp, Director of the Bank of England (appointed 1928) and reputed to be the 2nd wealthiest man in England at that time.

Silver is the Achilles Heal of the Elite’s paradigm. By transferring their fake, corrupt paper money into real honest money like silver, it will ultimately destroy of their control of the money/debt. The more money/debt they create, the more it will work against them as we put more of that money into silver. Think of it, every single evil in this world, is only made possible through Elite’s debt/money system. Through the control of the of the privately and foreign owned central banks, the Elite control our money, food, industries, government, media, natural resources, capital markets, military and the ultimately you. It enables wars, propaganda, police state, corruption, pollution, crime, drug trade, disintegration of families, etc. In fact you give me your evil that you fight against, I will show you how it comes back to the very corrupt basis of our money. I intend to show how silver is the antiseptic for all of these ills.

Buying physical silver acts both a Silver Bullet to the all of the evils in the world and acts as a Silver Shield for all that you love in this world.

Buying silver will bring amount more political change than all of the political campaigns will ever do.
It will reverse the tide of wealth from going to the Elite and even to Asia.
It will stop tyranny and free billions from the bondage of debt slavery.
It will bring about a new era of human progress unlike anything we could imagine right now.
If we simply take away the Elite’s power, how fast could we progress as a human race if we did not waste our efforts on debt, wars, and taxes? The Silver Bullet and Silver Shield can and will bring about this change. Now that I have raised the bar to the moon, let’s get this show going.

Buying physical silver can be the Second American Revolution without firing a single shot. In order for a revolutionary idea to take hold, you must feel it in your soul. It is important to know that everyone is not motivated the same way as others. I will attempt to lay out as many rationales as I can for you to commit to this plan and to encourage others to do the same. I will use both positive and negative motivations on why you should buy silver. I will appeal to your rational and irrational desires. I will give the financial, historic, political, geological, mathematical, legal, intellectual, emotional, and even spiritual reasons on “why” to buy physical silver.

To buy or not to buy silver is the greatest decision you will have to make before the worldwide collapse of the debt based fiat currencies. If you do fully commit to this idea, you will be taking charge of your future and I believe you will create generational wealth. If you do not commit to this plan, I bet your grand children will curse and spit at you for not taking advantage of this greatest opportunity ever. I do have a flair for the dramatic, don’t I

Throughout history, Silver has been used as money in more times in more places than gold.

To function as money, a monetary item should possess a number of features:

To be a medium of exchange:

It should have liquidity, and be easily trade able.
It should be easily transportable; precious metals have a high value to weight ratio.
It should be durable.
To be a unit of account:

It should be divisible into small units without destroying its value; precious metals can be coined from bars, or melted down into bars again, with a low percentage cost.
It should be fungible: that is, one unit or piece must be equivalent to another, which is why diamonds, works of art or real estate are not suitable as money.
It must be a specific weight, or measure, or size to be certifiably countable.
To be a store of value:

It should be long lasting, durable, and it must not be perishable or subject to decay.
It should have a stable value.
It should be difficult to counterfeit, and the genuine must be easily recognizable.
Today silver is not used as money since it does not circulate but still provides a crucial role as a store of value.

Why does silver or gold have value? This is a very fundamental question. I think one of the best answers came from a movie call the Treasure of Sierra Madre. An old miner was explaining why gold has value. He said that 1,000 men head for the hills with pick axes and provisions after 6 months only one finds any gold. That find represents not only the labor of the man that finds that gold but that of the other 999 miners that did not find anything. That is 6,000 months or 500 years scrambling over mountains going hungry and thirsty. Think about the luck of finding something so rare. Think about how much energy, labor, ingenuity and time that goes into finding silver or gold. Sometimes it takes moving a couple tons of earth to find one ounce of gold or silver. And here we can buy all of that for less than a dinner for four at your local sports bar.

Why silver and not gold? 95% of all of the gold that has ever been mined is still in existence in some form or another because it has treasured. 95% (probably more if truth be told) of all of the silver that has ever been mine has been destroyed and used in such small quantities that it is gone forever. The Elite and their Central Banks own tons of gold and NO silver. Silver is cheaper than gold, the average American can buy and ounce of silver without much thought. If they wanted to buy even one ounce of gold they would have to talk to their wife about it. This means that when the chickens come home to roost, more people will be able to afford silver on the way up than gold. Gold has very little uses compared to silver. Gold mines are common but silver is mined mainly as a by product of zinc.

The Gold Anti Trust Action Committee has led the charge for years in exposing the bankers’ manipulation of gold. Their investigations and awareness campaigns have lead to a heightened awareness in the investment community. GATA is headed by Chris Powell and Bill Murphy. GATA spent $265,000 to get a full page article in the in the Wall Street Journal asking “Where is our Gold?” This brave action asks the investment community why our Gold reserves have not been audited in 50 years and how much gold we really have. If you are like me, I judge men not by the answers they give but by the answers they seek. This question was a direct assault at the heart of the beast. GATA found out that awareness campaigns are nice but they do not change the game. I remember a year or so after that, Bill Murphy and GATA had a campaign to actually sell gold and buy silver because the battle against the bankers was much easier to win in the silver market. No central banks have silver sell like they do gold. The market for silver was so small compared to gold that very little money would be needed to have the bankers capitulate in their duplicitous acts. When the Gold Anti Trust Action Committee says sell gold and buy silver, you have to pay attention.

Silver has been used as an industrial metal for the past hundred years and not been cherished for what it really is; a precious metal. Industrial metals are metals like aluminum, copper and iron are plentiful and can be used in huge quantities and can be disposed of or recycled. Unlike most industrial metals, silver is used in such small quantities, in proportion to the finished product, that it is not recycled except in photography. Silver has literally been thrown away into toxic trash piles all over the world and thus disappearing. In fact there here is an article showing that for 64 years the world consumed more silver than it produced.

Silver is the indispensable metal, next to oil silver is the most widely used commodity ever with over 10,000 uses. As the world technological progress expands, it uses will explode even further. Its unique characteristics are unlike any other commodity in the world.

Most Reflective of all Metals
Greatest conductor of both Heat and Electricity
Strongly Resists Corrosion and Oxidation
Second most Malleable and Ductile Metal (Next to Gold)
Recently Discovered to be a Very Effective Anti-Microbial/Bacterial
It is used in…

Batteries
Bearings
Brazing and Soldering
Catalysts
Clothing (My new dryer uses silver to clean clothes better with less water and energy.)
Coins (Wait until you see the demand skyrocket when the rest of the world wakes up from their Fiat dream)
Electrical
Electronics (Cell Phones, Computers, TVs, etc.)
Electroplating
Photography
Medical Applications (Hospitals have extensive uses of silver for it’s Anti-Microbial/Bacterial qualities)
Jewelry and Silverware
Mirrors and Coatings
Solar Energy (Peak Oil will raise demand for silver until we get Peak Silver)
Water Purification (Clean water is the most basic need for human life and yet clean water is becoming more rare.)
Silver is used in such small quantities and its unique characteristics make it irreplaceable, this makes its price inelastic. All commodities have a self correcting pricing mechanism, except silver. If a commodities price rises too high demand drops off as people seek substitutes or supply rises to meet the demand and thus lowering the price. This does not exist with silver. Silver is used in such small quantities in high tech components and there is NO SUBSTITUTE for it. The manufacturer or customer will absorb the price increase. Silver is now starting to be used in clothing to reduce smells caused by bacteria. What is remarkable about this is that by weight silver only represents 1/40,000th of total inputs. When used in such little quantities price is irrelevant. With over 20 million tons of polyester sports wear produced every year it consumes 1,200 tons of silver or 38 million ounces. Let’s say for example that the average computer has a 1/10th of an ounce of silver in it. (I cannot find how much is actually in a computer, Google fail.) This means that there is $3 dollars of silver in the $2,000 computer. If/when silver goes to $1,000 an ounce now that same amount of silver will be $100. Do you think Apple computer is going to throw its arms in the air and cry that they have to not sell computers because silver is too expensive? No, they will raise the price of the computer and probably advertise that it has the most silver in it. Do you think the average consumer is going to say, “I would buy a computer at $2,000 but at $2,100 no way?!” No, they will find a way to get that $100 so they can the latest Miley Cyrus news.

It is not just the consumer products that are at risk, it is the companies, industries, and nations that are at risk. Apple has a market cap of $300 billion dollars and if a strategic commodity like silver starts having shortages their billion dollar empire is endangered. Companies like Apple will go into panic buying securing any amount of physical silver they can because their entire value added business is dependent on it. They will not buy SLV or certificates of deposit, only the real silver thing. They will whip out their huge check book and stock up. Now you can see why rising prices will actually increase demand. It is not just the Computer industry that is relying on silver; it is the multi billion dollar industries like Energy, Medical, the Military and soon the entire Banking industry as their money/debt system collapses. This directly effects national destinies. Governments held approximately 10B oz of silver in 1950 and have been supplying that physical stock steadily into the market. Today there is no more of that surplus silver left to sell. The nations that manages their resources the best, will win the future.

Unlike industrial demand, monetary demand has no limits. The monetary demand for silver is what will eventually send silver to the moon. Quadrillions of fake money into less than a billion ounces… You can never have too much money, right?

“Paper is poverty…it is the ghost of money, and not money itself.” -Thomas Jefferson

I have seen bright and intelligent men that fail to understand that the electronic digits on their computer screens are not real money. It never fails them though, when they hold and ounce of gold or a 100 ounce bar of silver. A frightening aspect of our society, that we have become so detached from real money that most of us cannot even comprehend real money. Do yourself a favor this week and go to your local coin shop and just touch and ounce of gold or a big fat bar of shiny silver. Then look at the wad of paper in you wallet or worse digits on your bank statement and tell me honestly where you would rather invest your future in.

Infinite money in a finite world. The Irresistible Force Paradox states “What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?” Our debt based monetary system must create more debt every year in excess of the debt AND interest of the year before. (Read The Contrived Drama of the Debt Ceiling.) This coupled with the fact that the more debt/money the bankers create, the more profit for they have. The more money/debt the politicians spend, the more power they have. This sick symbiotic relationship of the “Lender of Last Resort” meets the “Spender of Last Resort” ensures and exponential growth of money. The Elite will keep using the power of the printing press to maintain their power, but will only accelerate their demise. There is a mathematically inevitable end to this system, as infinite money/debt meets the world’s finite resources and ultimately the limits of human faith.

The more money/debt chasing after fewer goods and services is what causes inflation. Ultimately, people’s faith in the currency will fail world wide. It will become evident that the Elite intend to print the currency into oblivion, ruining the main function of money as a store of value. When this happens people will literally throw their depreciating currency at any tangible asset they can get their hands on. Precious metals will be the main beneficiary of this because of their unique properties, such as they do not deteriorate, and universally accepted. The frightening thing is that it is not just American citizens, it this will be the first time in human history where the entire world is so interconnected and all on the same basic fiat monetary illusion. Stop thinking of another Great Depression and start thinking another Dark Ages. My suggestion would be to, beat the rush and panic now!!

Over Population, Unfunded Liabilities, Global Warming and Peak Oil have gotten a lot of attention over the last couple of years. They are Elitist scary campfire stories used to scare the masses into larger global governance. One key flaw in all of these theories is that they all rely on our current monetary order remaining in place. Since the time of the Tower of Babel, man has, built systems that went against the natural laws of our world. This has created great feats, but like most man-made systems they are built with the focus of pushing to the extremes and not focusing on a balance. Inevitably things that go up must come down and our monetary system is no different. With the collapse of the monetary order all of these theories/problems will cease to be issues because they will be self corrected by the end of the one thing that makes them possible, exponential growth of money/debt.

When this current monetary order dies so will millions if not billions of people, as the era of unlimited money comes to an end. Think of the millions on food stamps that will have no support system to carry them. Think of the billions in food subsidies ending, food riots and the rocketing food and fuel prices globally. In this hyper-inflationary collapse of the world’s money that I predict, up to 90% of your money will go to food and fuel. Not your mortgage, car payments, taxes, tuition, medical bills… just basic necessities like food and fuel. Most will not be able to make the transition and unfortunately will die. And that is before the wars, riots, and violence take even more people down. This dramatic shift in life will also prevent people from having children in this turbulence. There will be a scar in the human experience that will be felt for generations.

This hyper-inflationary depression will stop global manufacturing in its tracks. If you are one of those misguided people that believe in man made global warming, don’t worry your little mind, the collapse of the dollar will do more to stop human activity than ten Kyoto Protocols or Carbon Ponzi Schemes.

Peak Oil theorists you can stop worrying too. When the collapse of the Dollar happens, the energy intensive Western lifestyle will be cut by 75%. No longer will the economy be able to support gas guzzlers, the largest military power ever known or wasteful corporate giants. The value of oil will sky rocket and the demand will drop significantly, leading to a much longer availability of our current reserves. My greatest hope is that the Elite will lose their power to manipulate the all important oil market. I have no proof, but after studying these criminals for 6 years, I believe they have suppressed technology that would have rendered oil less important. I also believe that they have domestic resources here at home that they have not tapped as they set out to strategically use the rest of the world’s oil first. My prediction is that after a new monetary order is established, the Elite will announce “amazing new discoveries” here at home that will shock the world. This will also push that Hubbert’s bell curve out further.

Things that cannot go on forever, won’t. When the mathematically inevitable collapse of the world fiat currencies, all of those problems/theories will no longer matter. There will be massive inflation in real assets with precious metals, food and fuel far outpacing all other assets. This will lead to a final exhaustion as the old powers try to hold on to power. This will bring about regional wars, civil wars, revolutions, famine, and disease. These events will cut populations, economies, debts, energy use, and our lives back into a much more local and slower reality.

“If you don’t hold it, you do not own it.” -Ponce

Silver has another awesome quality; it has allodial title to it. If you hold it, you own it. Almost everything else you own is controlled by some extent by someone else. If you own your house out-right you still have to pay property taxes, which mean that you don’t really own it. Your cars, computers, TV’s and clothes are rendered less valuable with each registration, taxation, new fashion or planned obsolescence. Even your stocks are not really yours because the actual certificates are held the nefarious DTCC. Who knows if they are selling stock that they do not have. Ever heard of naked short selling?

Silver is without counter party risk. You do not have to rely on somebody fulfilling a promise for your asset to have worth. All paper assets have counter party risk; they use interest rates to value the risk that you might not get your money back. This will become very important as our society collapses and promises are broken by all. When the collapse accelerates, people will do the unspeakable as they become more and more desperate. People whom you have relied on for years will suddenly break faith. This will happen not only with individuals but corporations and governments. Pensions will be cut, benefits terminated and interest payments not paid. This is where things will get really scary. At this point we will either see a deflationary crash or a hyper-inflationary depression. It will be deflationary if there is not enough money to pay the increasing debt and interest. I believe that the Elite will pay all of the obligations to keep their game going. This will lead you to get every promise paid with toilet paper. Ben Bernanke was asked if the government could afford to pay all of the unfunded liabilities of the US government. He responded that while it was possible to pay all of the liabilities it was impossible to guarantee the purchasing power of those dollars. $100 toilet paper coming right up.

“Mad” Max Keiser started a campaign a few months ago called CRASH JP MORGAN BUY SILVER. He is a former banker that provides some of the most cutting commentary on how Banksters really work. This campaign of awareness caught the attention of more than a few people. The campaign is to bring attention to JP Morgan and HSBC’s huge short position on silver. This short position is the largest short position… on anything… EVER. I have heard estimates that for every dollar that silver goes up, these two banks lose $1 Billion dollars. That may seem like a lot of money, but when you understand that the paper price suppression silver and gold is actually one of the pegs of support to the value of world currencies and every other paper asset in the world, losing a billion a day means nothing to support a Quadrillion dollar Ponzi scheme. Silver and gold are actually competing currencies to the Dollar, Euro, Yen, and Yuan. If the Banksters can successfully hold the price of silver and gold down they conversely give support to the paper assets all over the world.

Taking it in the shorts. When an investor shorts something they are literally selling something that they do not have. They promise to buy the underlying asset at the end of the contract. But what if they never buy and keep selling stuff they do not have? It acts as a artificial downward pressure on the price of the asset. This is very common with stocks and can be easily papered over since most stocks are never held in physical form. Commodities on the other hand are the real assets from the earth and have tangible qualities to it. These banks have shorted or sold into the market the equivalent of six months of total world production. Think about that if these banks were forced to cover it would take either all of the silver miners 6 months to work solely on filling that gap while the rest of the world goes without this vital metal. The most likely thing that is going to happen is that if they are forced to cover the price suppressors become price rocket boosters when they are force to go out into the open market and buy to cover their short.

Harvey Organ exposed this most recent commentary.

“The huge rise in silver price has caught the silver bankers totally offside on the silver banking. The BIS data released in November (www.goldexsextant.com) shows that the G 10 bankers have collectively sold forwards and swaps to the tune of 4 billion oz and short naked calls for another 3 billion oz. The total, 7 billion oz represents 10 years of production. If you just do the forwards, then it is 7 years of annual silver production.

Let us say the average cost of acquiring these derivatives and forwards equate to $15.00 for silver. Thus collectively the entire G10 bankers are feeling massive pain (losses) to the tune of: 7 billion oz of silver( 32.30-15.00) = 7 billion x $17.30 = 121.1 billion dollars of losses.This is in a market of only 14 billion dollars. It begs the question to what economic need was this done.This is still off balance sheet.

If you include only the forwards or swaps (the lending of actual metal to which nothing has come back yet) then the losses are: 4 billion x 17.30 or 69 billion dollars. Regardless how you look at it, the bankers are in serious trouble with this huge rise in silver prices. I hope you understand the severity of the situation.”


“A billion here and a billion there pretty soon you are actually talking about some real money.”

This game has a fatal flaw. The real problem for JP Morgan and HSBC is that there is not enough physical silver in the world to cover their short position. These guys are too sharp and too connected to get caught by this trap and I believe they will set up Enron like hedge funds in the Caribbean to move their positions into these shell companies. And they may even go long and ride the rocket up with us. Until the day comes when they cannot deliver the real physical silver this game will go on. Quadrillions of money in Forex, Debt, Derivatives, Real Estate, Stocks and Bonds are on the line. Not to mention the military, political, industrial, and economic power that is tied to all of that. They will take all of the paper loses necessary to keep this game going. Don’t get upset about this, they are creating a MASSIVE subsidy for you to buy more and more physical silver.

This squeeze is will first show in backwardation. Commodities naturally trade in Contango, meaning that the price is cheaper today than it is to buy in the future. This happens because there is interest, storage, and even uncertainty. Backwardation is simply, it is more expensive to get the commodity now than it is to get it in the future. This happens when investors fear a commodity is going to be hard to get in the future they will pay a premium to get it now. Silver just went into backwardation last week. This is just the first rumble of a much larger earthquake. This has not happened since 1997 when Warren Buffet bought 130 million ounces of physical silver.

Speaking of Warren Buffet and his big silver purchase, why did the ultimate value investor get into silver in such a big way? The bigger question is why the ultimate “buy and hold” investor got scared out of his position. He bought 130 million ounces or 1/5 of the world’s inventory at the time in 1997 and he held that position all the way until 2006. Coincidentally that is the exact same time that Barclay’s started the SLV ETF with 130 million. The only comment I ever found disclosing what happened with this billion dollar trade was Buffet saying, “I bought it very early, I sold it very early. Other than that it was perfect.”

What I am about to say I have no proof of, but I feel would make a lot of sense. Warren Buffet was heavily involved in the AIG scandal with Hank Greenberg. Buffet’s General Re took the other side of a lot of shady AIG’s positions. The deals ended Hank Greenberg in 2005 and yet Buffet escaped with a $50 million slap on the wrist? This was all before AIG stole $186 Billion dollars in the big bankster bailout. Is it out of the realm of possibility to say that Buffet was feeling the heat and offered the Elitist insiders his stash of silver to get out of the kitchen? The timing and situation is way too coincidental.

Friends don’t let friends buy SLV. I have to admit I was so excited when SLV came out onto the market in 2006. I loved the idea of buying physical silver with the ease of buying a stock. It did not take long for the rumors to come out that there was not enough physical backing of real silver and that JP Morgan and HSBC was the custodians of the silver, I knew this was a scam to siphon off investment demand out of the physical metal into another paper Ponzi scheme. SLV in a few short years has increased its “reserves” 16 x the original stock at its inception. When I see that SLV can add 523 tonnes in one week and the price of silver did not go to $1,000 overnight, it confirmed my suspicions.

Silver delays are well known through out the investment community. Jim Puplava from FinancialSense.com talked about him purchasing 1 ton of silver or 32,000 oz and it took him 3 months to get it filled and delivered. So let’s think about this, an individual demanding 1 ton of physical silver took 12 weeks to fill, but SLV can “take delivery” of 523 tons in one week, give me a break! Recently even the huge supplier the Perth Mint announced a 6 week delay in 100 oz bullion bars of silver. These are not small coins; this is a 7 pound slab of silver that can be produced really quickly. The even larger US Mint had a record month last month with over 4.5 million ounces of silver sold in January eclipsing a record of 4.25 million ounces that was set only two months before that. While that may seem like a lot, it is only $135 million in sales for a month; Apple lost $10 Billion in 15 minutes.

Eric Sprott is another pioneer investor that just started the $575 million Sprott Physical Silver Trust in November of last year as he believes that: “Silver will be the investment of the decade.” This fund by itself could force the hand of the Elite. I do not think he will be successful because he has too much to lose and when the Economic Hitmen come a knocking, I am sure he will back down. Poor Matt Simmons… One thing I will strongly disagree with is all of these fund mangers telling the dream of silver and selling them silver mining stocks. DO NOT INVEST IN ANY PAPER ASSET INCLUDING THE VERY ATTRACTIVE SILVER STOCKS.

Andrew Maguire the whistle blower. He was a former silver trader in London who contacted the CFTC last year about insider knowledge on how JP Morgan manipulates the silver market. He informed the CFTC in advance of the silver smack downs led by JP Morgan. These coordinated attacks lead to huge profits for the insiders, lowers the price of silver, and wipes out bullish investors. After being blown off by the CFTC, he contacted GATA and they published the news to the world. When he turned whistle blower a few days later he and his wife were involved in a serious hit and run in which the attacking driver sped away and nearly ran over more people who tried to stop him from getting away. Police helicopters were called in and captured the driver but no details were released to the public. Andrew Maguire was slated to be on a bunch of news shows detailing his story but all of them except for one (listen here.) canceled on him after the “accident”. King World News who ran the interview was cyber attacked the day after the interview.

I predicted that Silver would go to $50 an ounce by the end of March in my article 2011: Doom is Always 6 Months Away. i was pretty bold to predict a 62% increase in 3 months after a 74% increase in the 6 months before that. This was based on a CRIMEX default in the delivery month of March. I think we are getting close to the end of the line for paper manipulation of the physical market. The US mint is having record sales of silver, big money players like Eric Sprott and the richest man in the world Carlos Slim Helu are sniffing the silver market, and the Fed is going to be under pressure to print even more money. But my predictions are small compared to these guys…

“There is very little silver and we need it for everything.” Stephen Leeb on his $100 an ounce prediction.

How about this video predicting $936 silver. Adrian Douglas of GATA predicts this because there is 45 to 100 times the amount of paper silver and gold to the real metal. They do this to artificially support the value of the dollar. When this ends, it will explode the value of the real silver and gold. Adrian sums it up that investing in precious metals is not “about preserving your wealth but multiplying your wealth.”

Mike Maloney predicts $1,500 silver in this video. Bix Weir from GATA predicts $6,000 silver. Ultimately all of these predictions are really ridiculous because it is based on the fundamental lie that the dollar is going to be in existence.

My most shocking prediction is that silver may go to $50 and then you will not be able to buy silver at any price! The reason for this prediction is that this is all about illusion and once that illusion is broken no one will trade their REAL money for FAKE money. This is where ratio investing comes into play.

“Assets are neither really created or destroyed. They merely shift from on perceived value to another.” -Chris Duane

Ratio investing. The purpose of this exercise is to see that all assets right now is based off of an illusion of wealth, debt and the dollar. Even the value of real assets like property and companies are tied to this illusion. What is your house worth if there was no 30 year mortgage? This paradigm is going to mathematically end. The infinite growth/debt model with collide with a very finite world. As the pillars of this illusion start to collapse, more and more people will shift their wealth out of paper promises into tangible assets. And since gold has a market cap that is nearly 200 times higher than silver and trades at 45 ounces of silver to one ounce of gold, the potential upside of silver is unlike any other investment opportunity out there. Another was to look at the value of the price of silver relative to gold, is that silver is only 2% of the value of gold. Eric Sprott says that that there is $6 Trillion in investable gold and only $30 Billion in investable silver.

Gold and Silver Ratio.

Right now it takes 42 ounces of silver to buy 1 oz. of Gold. (42 to 1)
700,000,000 ounces of silver was mined in 2009 versus 80,000,000 ounces of gold which is about a 9 to 1 ratio.
There was an estimated 40,000,000,000 ounces ever mined of silver and an estimate 5,300,000,000 ounces of gold was mined. That ratio is 7.5 to 1 ratio.
Silver has been consumed as an industrial metal, where as gold has been cherished as a precious metal forever. As a result there is still about 5 billion ounces of gold in the world. Silver inventories, on the other hand, have been decimated with only and estimated 5 billion ounces above ground. The other 39 billion ounces are in the landfills of the world in tiny amounts. Maybe if the price of silver rises significantly enough, we will see massive recovery efforts in Staten Island.

•Historically the Ratio has been 16/1 to 10/1. 4x undervalued.

•If the total amount of Gold and Silver above ground is equal to 5 billion ounces that it would put the ratio at 1/1. 42x undervalued.

•Total amount of physical Gold and Silver in monetary/bullion form would put the ratio at 1/5. 230x undervalued. (So Silver to Gold ratio is 1 to 5, yes there is less silver bullion than there is gold.)

So if the price of Gold never went up and based off of Silver market fundamentals it should find some market balance. At that point you could in the extreme case trade your 42 ounces of silver for 210 ounces of gold! (1/5 silver to gold ratio.)

Historically, silver been seen as the poor man’s gold and it was the money of the common man. Silver was not as rare as gold, and plentiful enough to be used to pay for basic necessities such as bread and milk. I think in this paradigm of multi-million dollar basketball contacts and no sense of economic reality, it is good to use something I find useful like historical ratios for determining value. For example an average Roman soldier was paid one Denarius for each day of service. Each Denarius was 1/10th of an ounce or about $2.70 a day which is equivalent to the world’s average daily pay. That valuation lasted for hundreds of years for basic labor. So now when you hear, “brother can you spare a (silver)dime?” you know that it meant a day’s wages. Later, skilled craftsman pushed that wage to almost and ounce a day. Our Constitution actually defines a real “dollar” is a coin containing 371.25 grains (troy) of fine silver or .77 ounce of silver. My hero, Henry Ford pushed that wage to an unbelievable $5 a day or 3.6 ounces a day which was seen as excessive at the time. Today an average worker makes let’s say $100 a day. If there was some economic reality in the system, like real money, a 1/10th of an ounce would equal a day’s wages of $100. Therefore an ounce of silver should be about $1,000 an ounce, a far cry from today’s price of $27. (The longer I write this article the more it goes up, now at $33…)

A day’s wage was about a dime or a 1/1oth of an ounce for 2,000 years and currently for about 4 billion people. You could buy about 16 years of hard manual labor for about $10,000 with a bag 5,000 of 90% silver dimes. I know college kids with $10,000 dollars available with their credit cards. If they were smart, they would blow their money on a bag of silver instead of beer, pizza and spring break. For $200,000, parents could buy 320 years of hard manual labor in silver dimes or you could send your kid to college to get drunk and find themselves…

Some other historical reference points include Jesus being sold out by Judas Iscariot for 30 Shekels or 15 ounces of silver. Can you imagine selling out your friend, much less Jesus Christ, for $400 bucks? What if we had $1,000 ounce silver? For $15,000, there are a lot of people who would do the deed. (Isn’t that the price hit men charge in movies?) It is also interesting to note that was the same value for a slave at the time. Plots of land were bought in the bible anywhere from 50 ounces to 200 ounces of silver. Good luck finding average properties for $1,250 to $5,000 a piece. But again, what if silver was $1,000 an ounce? Finding properties from $50,000 to $200,000 is a snap. So the purpose of this exercise is to see the ratio between a known silver amount and a known asset. When you take away the manipulated measuring stick of the dollar, the only way to compare an assets value is to compare assets to other assets. So right now it may cost you 2,000 to 8,000 ounces of silver to buy a plot of land. If we have a reversion to the mean, and our debt/money system collapses, you should be able to pick up land for 50 to 200 ounces. I really think that this is even too high, so let’s keep digging with this theme.

There are 36 billion acres of land in the world of which 8 billion acres are arable. So the ratio of silver to total land is 1 ounce of silver to 45 acres of land and 1 ounce of silver per every 10 arable acres. Now I am in Ohio and an acre of arable land here goes from $10,000 to say $40,000 an acre. This would give a dramatically higher implied value of silver.

What I am about to tell you was my prime motivator to bet the house on silver, literally. When Silver peaked in 1980 you could buy the average house for about 800 ounces of silver. This was the days of 20% mortgages and the inflation “slayer” Paul Volker. If you got out of housing at the top of the recent housing bubble you could have traded out of your inflated house value and into the undervalued silver and took delivery of say 40,000 ounces of silver. If/when we get back to the silver house ratio of 1980 you will be able to buy 50 houses for your 40,000 ounces. My advanced strategy that I will be using will result in no taxation on the gains and be able to create 10 times the wealth in this scenario. I explain it in my Sons of Liberty Academy.

I believe that we will shoot way past the previous 1980 peak in the house/silver ratio because there is so much less silver, so much more money, and because of the housing boom, millions of more homes. In fact in Arizona right now I can pick up a 2,000 sq ft home for $40,000 or 1,290 ounces. Could it go to 100 ounces? Who knows? I am confident that this will blow much farther in the extreme. Silver has much more up side and the housing market is nowhere near the bottom.

At the peak of the Hunt Brothers gambit silver climbed to $48 an ounce. Using the government’s questionable inflation adjustments, that would equal $128 an ounce. Or conversely today’s price of $31 dollars an ounce is equal to $11 an ounce in 1980. These numbers are very flawed and benefit the government as they have shown to lower inflation. (Read And Now For My Next Trick… No Inflation.) The official inflation implies that the money supply has risen 200% in the past 30 years. Every chart I see shows the money supply to have grow everywhere from 8 to 10 times not 2 times.

In 1980 the entire GDP of the country was $2.5 Trillion dollars and the Federal Budget $590 Billion dollars. Today the GDP is $14.5 Trillion and the Federal budget is actually larger than the entire GDP of the US in 1980 at $3.5 Trillion dollars. $1.5 Trillion of that is pure debt. Do you hear the printing presses whirring? Or more accurately the key strokes on Bernanke’s iMac. The Fed probably has an iPhone app to create billions of dollars on the go…

Silver has returned 25% annually since 2002 for nearly a 600% return. This is amazing in light of almost every other assets class getting destroyed.


There are 6.5 Billion people in the world and about 800 million ounces of silver bullion currently above ground. That is .12 ounces of silver per person if every ounce was evenly distributed around the world. But we know that it is not evenly distributed. Think about you local millionaire could easily buy a ton of silver. Based off of that, only 25,000 people in the word could ever own exactly 1 ton of silver. Yet there are 10 million millionaires in the world.

Quadrillions in to a billion. Another way of looking at silver is by its market capitalization. If there is a billion ounces of silver bullion in existence and silver is at $30, the market cap of silver is $30 billion dollars. Let’s look at how silver’s market cap relates to other values.

One gold miner Gold Corp has a market cap of $30 billion. (1 to 1)

Bill Gates is worth $53 billion. (1 to 1.76)

The total market cap of all gold miners is $250 billion. (1 to 8.3)

It is 1/10th of the market cap of Apple computer which stands at $300 billion. (1 to 10)

The total amount of FRN’s in circulation in the world is $800 billion. (1 to 26)

The total amount of other world currencies in circulation is $2 Trillion. (1 to 66)

Physical gold’s estimated market cap is $6 Trillion. (1 to 200)

The total market cap of all private businesses is $10 Trillion. (1 to 333)

The total GDP of America is $15 Trillion. (1 to 500)

The total estimated market cap for all American stocks is $15 Trillion. (1 to 500)

The total estimated amount of US Treasuries is $15 Trillion. (1 to 500)

The total estimated amount of world debt is $15 Trillion. (1 to 500)

The total amount of corporate and muni debt is $25 Trillion (1 to 833)

The total value of commercial property is $30 Trillion. (1 to 1,000)

The total estimated market cap of the rest of the world’s stock market is $50 Trillion. (1 to 1,666)

The world GDP is $55 Trillion. (1 to 1,833)

The estimated value of Residential Real Estate is $80 Trillion. (1 to 2,666)

The estimated unfunded Government liabilities is $250 Trillion. (1 to 8,333)

The estimated value of Reported derivatives is $700 Trillion. (1 to 23,333)

Finally and estimated $800 Trillion in shadow derivatives in the shadows. (1 to 26,666)

The examples above takes into account ALL of the silver bullion above the earth’s surface. If we narrow it down to just the available silver in the COMEX/CRIMEX warehouses of 100 million ounces all of those ratios explode by a factor of 10! The United States alone spends more money on interest on the national debt EVERY DAY of $4 Billion dollars than the entire warehouse of available silver valued at about $3 Billion dollars.

Let’s take this even further to really grind it home. Inside the COMEX/CRIMEX warehouses are two classifications of silver, Registered cand Eligible. Registered classification means that the silver is available on demand for delivery to investors.. Eligible silver can become Registered and deliverable if the owner of the silver wants to sell it. This has a hook of that it cannot be encumbered by obligations like loans taken out against the bullion or if it has been leased out. (That means if you have silver at the warehouses they can “loan” out your silver with a promise to pay it back.)

“If you don’t hold it, you do not own it.”- Ponce

There are only 42 million ounces of silver in the CRIMEX Registered and deliverable category. That is less than $1.5 Billion dollars worth of silver. The world could sneeze and come up with that kind of money. The Elite protect this little hoard with a myriad of tricks but let’s start with the rules. The CRIMEX has a known policy that you can sell unlimited amount of silver (including paper silver that does not exist) but you can only take only a limited amount of silver off of the table. They recently raised the margin requirements by 50% in an effort to shake out weak hands using leverage, and silver went up in response. If things start getting out of control they can force you to settle for the dollar value of the contract. They have even paid in the past premiums to the contract to dissuade physical delivery.

The Circle K Boys. If things get really scary for the Elitist banking institutions, they will change and break the rules as they go to drive out any rebels who dare to fight against their control system. All of you have heard of the Hunt brothers trying to “corner” the silver market in the 80′s. Well, take some time and read the REAL story the Elite don’t want you to know. The Rockefeller and Rothschild banking families change the rules, raised national interest rates, margin requirements, and even possibly murdered the King of Saudi Arabia to put a stop to the Hunts attack at the root of the Elite’s power. The long and the short of the whole sad affair DO NOT USE LEVERAGE PLAYING THIS GAME. Pay cash and take physical possession of your silver.

While these tricks might work on the big boys, it cannot stop an army of us ants from loading up on all of the silver we want. We can all be mini Hunts and essentially do the same thing by taking delivery. There is a huge disconnect between the paper price of silver printed by the COMEX and the real world price of silver. Check out this awesome site that shows the difference between the CRIMEX price and the EBAY price of silver. The most popular coin of silver in production is the American Silver Eagle and it is going for +31.9% over the CRIMEX price. That does not include shipping and insurance! That is $10 dollars over spot and the premium that these coins got when most these coins were produced was about $1.50, a 666% rise in implied premium. The scary thing is, while things are starting to get warmed up, these premiums will rise as silver becomes more scarce in the market.

The Silver Alliance of ants and big boys are mounting their final assault on the CRIMEX in March 2011. There are over 50,000 contracts that have the potential to take delivery of 250 million ounces of silver in March alone. (Remember there are only 42 Million ounces available.) So just before these contracts came due the Elite raised the margin requirements and then proceeded to smack down silver after hours by 5%. This weak attempt will not dissuade enough buyers from standing for delivery in March. The last delivery month in December, silver was up 30% as hedge funds squeezed the CRIMEX. Now that the sharks smell blood, this raid will be much harder and faster. A 30% rise this time would bring silver to $43, but I figured that it will be even more extreme this time around and shoot for $50. I also predict that the $50 price will not just be a blow off top. This time the silver supply shortage will be so apparent, that the illusion is so completely destroyed. People will no longer sell their REAL money for Fake money anymore. If they do, they will want $1,000 an ounce for their silver. Go big or go home.







“The current international currency system is the product of the past,” he said, noting the primacy of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency and its use in international trade and investment. — Chinese President, Hu Jintao

China, China, China. China is without a doubt a huge factor in the rise of silver. Once it was the largest exporter of silver, it has swung in 5 years to the complete opposite direction. That is a swing in demand of over 200 million ounces. China has already started to ban exports of some of its rarer earth minerals. I have no doubt China will do the same with silver soon enough. China also has the largest holdings of fiat money of our debt and it only makes sense for them to diversify out of the unstable dollar into real assets like silver. The last time China had any significant silver holdings the Western world went to war with China in the Opium Wars. And judging by the recent trial balloons being floated by the likes of Donald Trump we might be going to war with China yet again and this time I think the Chinese will be ready.

Speaking of the Elite screwing countries out of their silver, do some research on the Crime of 1873. The Elitist bankers de-monetized silver after the Civil War that caused nearly 20 years of grinding deflation that benefited the bankers who held the debt. This return to the gold standard was done ahead of the largest silver find of the Comstock Lode that would have freed America from the debts of the bankers. Here are some starter articles, The Crime of 1873 and the Wizard of Oz and On the “Crime of 1873″.

China is also encouraging its citizens to buy silver as an investment for the first time in 60 years. Take a look at the State TV unveiling silver as an investment like Ford would show off a new F150. If a billion people by a little of anything, huge swings tend to happen in markets. Also think about how easy it is for the average American to buy 100 ounces of silver while it would seem impossible for the average Chinese citizen to accumulate that. If we are truly headed for world wide flattening of the labor markets as the Elite desire, it is only prudent to stock up on silver as a hedge against that.

The Silver Bears have caused quite a stir recently with their humorous take on the Silver markets. There are even rumors that China is leading the charge in shorting the paper CRIMEX market while they are taking delivery with the physical metal. Once they have taken delivery of all of the physical silver their shell companies can declare bankruptcies and they ride off into the sunset.

Let’s get away from all of the silver fundamentals and let’s look at the real reason why we are all buying silver, the Dollar. Let’s face it if the dollar was worth its weight in gold, we would not be in this mess. Because the Elite have manipulated the Dollar and the price of silver, historical malinvestments have been made and all of the silver ever mined is close to exhaustion. The dollar is supported by many things, all of which are failing.

10 years of war have hurt the military.
We are losing the monopoly on oil, which is why Iran is in the cross hairs.
Our industry is decimated.
Our boarders are wide open bringing in 24 million illegal immigrants into the system.
The housing and stock bubbles have wiped out the middle class.
Debt is rising at all levels, exponentially.
Our government is weak and ineffectual.
Saudi monarchy is failing.
80 million baby boomers are now starting to suck from the giant ponzi scheme.
Our debt is no longer wanted overseas leading to the “lender of last resort”, the Fed, to create more and more money out of thin air.
It will not take long for all of the supports to get knocked out and it will be a world wide run to the fire exit of gold and silver. There will be no warning and there will be not time to move assets around. The long term chart does not look good and with over 500 other currency collapses, why would the dollar be the exception? Beat the rush and panic early.

“For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. When people are saying, “Everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape. But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief. For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded.” Thessalonians 5:2-6

I have seen articles by Adrian Douglas from GATA that claim the USGS said silver would be extinct by 2020. I said with all the stuff I know about silver this would be the most incredible exclamation point on why you should sell every single asset you have and buy silver now! Adrian did not cite the source but I knew this guy would not put his reputation on the line for a crazy claim like that, so I sent an email to the USGS myself.

“Adrian Douglas wrote a report that claimed the USGS said that silver was going to be the first element to become extinct and as soon as 2020. Was this written by the USGS and where is it?”

I got back from the USGS was this…

I don’t believe that the USGS would ever use the term “extinct” in regards to the depletion of a resource. The USGS estimates current worldwide silver reserves are estimated to be 510,000 tons. The global demand for silver in 2009 was about 24,400 tons. If nothing else were to change, the implication would be that we’d run out of silver in about 20 years. However, new deposits are still being discovered, and scarcity should lead to higher valuation, which should eventually lead to more exploration interest. Here’s a diagram showing silver’s relative abundance.

While cheap silver ore may become scarce, given the right price, it shouldn’t become extinct!

Regards,

Greg Durocher
USGS Office of Communications & Publications
Science Information Services – Alaska


That last line is what this is all about. The bankers manipulated the price of silver down that gave rise to a quadrillion dollar Ponzi scheme to give them unlimited power and profits. This manipulation has caused incredible malinvestment so that all of humanity has trashed a precious metal to consume it to the point of oblivion. At some point, very soon, the physical market is going take over and all of the games that the bankers are playing will end. It will be game over and you will never see a more dramatic rise in price in anything, ever. Quadrillions are outstanding in debt/money to less than a billion ounces of honest money silver. When silver’s value is re-established and once again treated as a precious metal, humanity will stop wasting this metal and the higher prices will force wiser use and recycling of silver. Silver will not become extinct; it will just go to the moon!

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. There is no other example that even comes close to the stage that is set for the silver rocket launch. Silver has massive economic forces pushing it, the declining dollar, and industrial demand. The entire 5,000 year production of the human race is all but used up. The entire world is for the first time blinded by fiat and digital money. If only one of these reasons can true, it would be enough to create generational wealth. All of these together tell me that an average American can with very little effort, raise a king’s ransom of silver. This is truly a once in Human History opportunity.

All over the world we see these color revolutions. They are Western Elite’s funding revolution in areas of the world where they seek to dominate. There was the Orange Revolution of the Ukraine, Rose Revolution of Georgia, and the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan. Now we are seeing the uprisings in the Middle East and a Jasmine Revolution in China. These revolutions used a simple color to signify a feeling real change. I propose that we start the Silver Revolution. Our sole purpose is to strike the root of the Elite’s power, which is their money system. The best part of this is that this system is going to collapse of its own cancerous excesses. All we have to do is be the silver straw that breaks the Elite’s back.

In the end, I believe that we need a monetary system that has competition. Gold and silver should circulate along with debt free treasury notes. Usury should be abolished. Those that use the deceitful practice of forgery, I mean Fractional Reserve Banking, should be thrown in jail. This would end the era of gamblers and insiders and allow honest days pay for an honest days work.

If you need a little motivational music for your Silver Revolution, try this on for size. The Silver War Cry.




“Ideas don’t happen on their own, throughout history ideas need patrons.”


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