Hi Everyone,
Check out his link for David Morgan’s prediction for year-end, 2012.

http://m-allison.hubpages.com/hub/David-Morgan-Predicts-Silver-to-Hit-6000oz-by-end-of-2012#

Re: Vote buying and entitlementsL
I beleive there are only two methods by which this can be controlled.
1. Make the voting weight per citizen proportional to the amount of tax paid……we are in the computer age not the horse and buggy age!
Have term limits, so that being a “representative of the people” is not a lifetime profession. I would suggest a maximum of three terms for representatives and one term for a senator.

Relating to segment 3: I am quite comfortable that energy prices will only go up in the mid-long term (the royal mail delivered my gas and electric bills this morning so thats a living proof). The peak oil theory makes perfect sense, as does the short term supply crunch that could arise if troubles get even worse in the middle east. The only thing that stops me from being energy-overweight in my portfolio is the bad memory of 2008, when oil plummeted to sub $40. The Greeks are going to run out of money in March and the package agreed in October 2011 has not been tied up………Greece may have to default and leave the Euro in a very disorderly manner at that point. I am therfore worried about getting into energy at $100. I am not hoping for the Euro implosion, because when your neighbour’s house burns down, you cant sleep easy either. However, any significant dip in energy and related stocks under the aforementioned scenario could be extremely profitable trades on a two year time horizon.

Biggest welfare is social security. One of the biggest voting block is AARP.

Al if you are not going to give up you social security – put a sock in it.

Al, you say you are a big supporter of Ron Paul. Even he calls social security – welfare and should be ended.

Merk – the dude is a broken record. Started a Euro fund – at the top. Now tap dancing how great the Euro is. Just look at the returns of his funds.

For example – the Asia fund is down over 35% over the last 5 years – the hard currency funds is not doing much better AND they both have been in a bull market over the last 5 years. Imagine what their return would be if Asia and precious metals were in a bear market. He should hire a monkey and buy a dart board. The funds would of done better.

Detroit is an example of unfar trade and outsourcing.

Japan dumps their cars on us. Japan does not allow U.S. cars to be sold there. Also, Southern States gave U.S. carmarkers huge tax funded kick backs to build plants in their States. The reason people are leaving Detroit is they moved to South.

This is why I have been speaking of when States give corporations tax funded beenies they will move around where they will get the best deal. This is very bady for local economies. As corporations move the wages for everyone falls. Now the U.S. car markers are taking their jobs overeseas. The South is suffering now. Just research TN and KY where the U.S. car makers closing up shop and building plants in Asia.

Hi Big Al,
Your Weekend special is 5 star. How your quests think on issues help mold my thinking. Enjoyed them all. Axel Merk is one of the best in the business. Thanks

I agree with you Al that I want to get out of SS what I put into to it. But let’s be clear. Every dollar I paid into SS Trust in the late 1960s bought nearly three gallons of gasoline. That means I want approximately $9.00 in today’s dollars for every dollar I paid in the 1960s; and by extension, similar arguments apply for the 1970s, 80s, 90….

Also, the so-called SS crisis is actually a crisis in runaway government spending outside the SS Trust—which was set up as an annuity for senior citizens, not Johnson’s Great Society Programs. Even so, trillions have been stolen from the SS Trust surpluses over the last half-century for everything from undeclared wars, crony capitalism and Marxism gone wild–and the theft continues to this day.

Now that the surpluses are drying up, and those programs outside of SS are looking for a funding stream. Rather than admit that reality, they blame it all on SS payouts to seniors.

How about reducing the civil service pay scales to enable the federal gov’t to balance the budget. Instead, we hear to noble patriots decry that the budget should not be balanced on the backs of government workers. Well, excuse me, their paychecks are being written on the backs of the taxpayers in the private sector who are paid much less than their counterparts in the government. Why should these centralized planners in government be immune to economy they create for everyone else to suffer under?

Al: Before we talk about the evils of “entitlements”, you should first clearly define what is an entitlement, how it is affecting the country and present facts and numbers to back up the statements. For instance, you do not seem to think of Social Security as an entitlement (and I agree with you there) but some of your guests apparently do so what are these entitlements exactly that are making all of us lazy and how?

You have defined entitlement as “government program providing benefits to members of a specified group; also : funds supporting or distributed by such a program. (“Are Entitlements a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?”, Jan 6, 11:13 AM).

Which prompts one to ask whether the multimillion dollar bonuses demanded by and paid to the executives of failing companies bailed out by the taxpayer qualify as entitlement?

Also, can the members of our Congress who set their own pay, raises and perks and enjoy taxpayer-paid pension and medical plans also be called “members of a specified group” and their benefits “entitlements”? It would be interesting to know what Mr. Ron Paul thinks about Congressional entitlements and whether he has ever proposed any steps to cut them.

Also, can self-funded programs which are legally separate from the general budget and which repay beneficiaries who have paid into the system during their entire working lives (and much of it with pre-inflation dollars) be called “entitlements”?

My point is that unless we are clear about what we are specifically talking about, all this discussion become just so much hot air.

Also, before we smugly blame the poor for “not taking care of themselves” we should also remember that, back in 1971, gas was around 30c/gal, a typical car was around $2,500 and a middle-class house in Florida was around $25,000. Today each of them cost 10 times in nominal dollars. In other words, it is the dollar which has lost 90% of its purchasing power over the last 40 years and the savers got wiped out in the process.

So, what happened in 1971? Of course, Nixon reneged on Bretton Woods and went off the gold standard to pay for the Vietnam insanity with funny money which made saving an outright suicidal act.

On top of that, for the last several decades the interest rates have been kept artificially low so one cannot get an income from the savings when one can no longer work.

On top of that, the Republicans want to “privatize” Social Security, i.e., make everybody put their money in the stock market instead. The trouble is that when the majority buys, that buying pressure pushes the price up towards the top and when the majority sells, that selling pushes the price down towards the bottom. In other words, in the stock market, the majority will always buy high and sell low, i.e., lose money and their losses will be the gains of the minority. This is a mathematical fact and there is no getting around it.

On top of that, when savers are starved of reasonable returns from their savings, they are forced to scrounge for higher returns from risky areas such as junk bonds. This also gives rise to Ponzi schemes galore and the house of cards ultimately collapses and we only need to remember the 1989-90 S&L debacle and what caused it.

Therefore, the constant homilies by our politicians and the right-wingers on the virtues of saving and how we should all be “responsible for ourselves” are utter nonsense. In fact, if we get rid of Social Security then the current generation will some day wake up without any savings, income or safety net and will regret the day they made that short-sighted decision but it will be too late for them by then.

So, if we want people to take care of themselves, give them something worth saving, i.e, real money and a market-dictated interest rate that ensures an income stream when they are no longer able to earn. We need to remember that Social Security itself was created because FDR wanted to inflate our way out of the Depression and wanted people to spend all their savings to bolster the economy. Therefore, making saving impossible for the people on one hand and then blaming them for their lack of saving on the other is nothing but foolishness at best and unadulterated hypocrisy at the worst.

Also, why is Social Security constantly attacked in the first place? It is paid for by FICA taxes and is not even a part of the budget. So if Social Security is cut then the FICA taxes must also be either proportionately cut which will have a zero net effect on the budget or the surplus FICA revenue will have to be clandestinely diverted to other areas such as corporate bailouts and tax giveaways for the super-rich.

Finally, the real trouble with today’s America is the appalling state of education of its young people. We live in the 21st Century and need 21st Century education and skills to compete in the world. So when American kids routinely stand among the last in math and science in international competitions while the Asian kids are literally driving themselves to death to excel in those subjects, then is it any wonder that jobs are migrating there? So when our politicians treat education as the first target for all budget cuts and the conservatives want to supplant science with religion in our schools, the outcome is quite predictable and no amount of bookkeeping gimmickry can remedy the problem.

Big Al,
As usual, great show….thanks.

hi big al:
hope you’re well
The sprott silver purchase you are speaking about; can you tell me, is that physical being held by them, shipped to you, or paper silver through sprott asset management??? if you wouldn’t mind
Thanks-ed

Entitlements are theft.

agreed braxton!

Hi Al
I agree with you about SS since we do pay into it. Ron Paul will have an opt out option for people coming into the system.
As for the fraudulent unemployment numbers, it does not include all the jobs that are no longer available because of closed companies, etc.- about 6 million. There are still millions out of work, but the media is working for Obama’s reelection by saying his policies are working.
Great segment with Alex. Jim Rickards has a great book explaining the race to the bottom with all currencies “Currency Wars”. We will have massive inflation which will steal everything from the savers.

Comment to Hemal,

I will get sources on the other side of your argument and I will do a show on the subject of peak oil. That is a topic that I have not visited for awhile and, for me, it is long overdue.

Thanks for the idea,

Big Al

Big Al and fellow bloggers,
Great show today and wonderful comments, I am looking forward to the follow-up work this week.
Bobby

Al, great show.

I worked in Motown for many years and have since moved as I see the end coming fast. Detroit does have a entitlement mentality, but the main reason for its decline was because they were a one industry town (Big Three). The big three were not close to competitive and management did not discern the competitive threat and the Asian manufacturers ate their lunch. The city was at its peak population around 2mm, but now city services cannot support such a large geographical area and they need to shrink fast. It is now way too late due to the corruption with Killpatrick, Coleman Young, Conyers, Martha Reeves, etc. There are many many auto plants that have closed over the years and there are only a handful now operating. There is no hope for the city as Leaders just would not believe the auto industry would end up like this. I remember a GM exec telling me “Son, we have always been #1 and will always be #1, don’t rock the boat”

Bing is trying his best, but he had no chance as the damage had already been done.

I believe that the government (we the people) have an obligation to provide some level of safety net for those who cannot help themselves. In the discussion with John Robertson, he used an example of a disabled person who finds it difficult to work full time.

Obviously, this person needs assistance and I don’t begrudge him that – even government assistance. My question is where are his parents? Where are his brothers and sisters? Where are his children? There was a time in this country when families took care of each other. There was a time when the first level of “safety net” was the family. No longer since we have become little more than serfs working for our master, the Federal Government, and we now rely on its benevolence to survive.

Next, where are the charities and churches? Again, there was a time before we allowed the government to become our nurse maid when our faith based institutions provided another level of “safety net.” Our increasing godless culture has shifted from charity to goverment. (There is a reason that almost every hospital in your city or town starts with “St.” something.) It used to be that hospitals, orphanages, and shelters were all run and funded by faith based institutions funded by our Judeo-Christian ethic to take care of our “brother.”

Unfortunately, we now have the government we deserve, the one we chose. The entitlement culture only grows as the Government borrows .42 cents for every dollar it spends buying votes for more of the same. The amount of austerity and change in our culture that is required to make this Republic (democracy) work is now so severe that our economy must first completely “crash and burn” before the changes happen.

I am generally an optimistic person, but I believe we are well past the point of no return and our economic system is doomed.

Entitlements that prop up entitlements, that is what the food stamp program is all about, it is an extension to the declining value of all welfare programs.

As I understand our contributions to social security over the years have been spent.
I didn’t have control over the spending or the contribution. – Why do you call SSI an entitlement? Isn’t it social security insurance we pay in over the years for our retirement and security after our working years are over?

The government solution to the issue of fiscal constraints on entitlements will be to apply ” means testing ” to medicare and social security eligibility. Means testing has become well entrenched in the Veterans Administration and in the Military Retirement programs where it has been applied for years and years. There is NO DOUBT that means testing will be applied to medicare and social security because these are the major fiscal drains. Whether one believes that their ‘prepaying’ into these programs makes them entitled to these benefits or not, those persons of who have adequate ‘means” as judged by the government, will receive all their ‘benefits’. Without this restriction, the programs are unsustainable. Physicians are turning aware medicare patients because the monetary restitution fails to cover the cost of caring for the patient (office overhead, insurance, supplies, etc). If the SS and Medicare systems are to survive, means testing will be used to ration the benefits to the lower economic strata of society…..so there is your future…..like it or not.

It is not possible for most of us to be fully prepared for what lies ahead in the next few years. Here is one difficult scenario to consider. What will you do when a dozen people with their children come to your home for food. If you give them food they and others will be at your door the next day. In a very short time you will have to say NO and they will forcefully try to enter your house. How many people are you or I willing to kill to protect our food supply? My prayer is–Lord don’t allow me to face such a dreadful problem. I am already in anguish over this.

Hello Dale,
Great question you pose.
The Bible lays down a principle that if “a man does not work, he shall not eat.” Food costs money, which is gained as recompense for work. Therefore if someone comes to my home for food, I will feed him and his family free of charge the first time. If he comes back the next day I will give him food in exchange for work, which he can do for me. If he or his family does not want to work, they can go look for food elsewhere. Or, it may be that they have something of value to me and I might work out an exchange, ie. barter. People may have items of value, but not have food or be able to secure food, as supply chains may be down, and the sparse 72 hours JIT grocery store food supply will have been exhausted.
“Charity without accountability results in ‘enablement'”, and doesn’t show respect for anyone, nor does it help anyone longterm. It only creates another dependant family or in the macro a dependant class of people. People will have to know what they believe and why they believe it. While emotions will be running extremely high, discipline to preserve one’s resources will be absolutely necessary. It will take strong and courageous people to come through. That’s why is’s called ‘survival’. My prayer is “Lord, when I do face these things, let me do it with wisdom, strength, courage and compassion.”

Assume ahoentr Malay is eksyen if that person is seen reading a book in public Eh I didn’t know that. I like to read everywhere I go (especially at the public places) because of my insatiable desire for reading ^_^. Oh well, I will still read despite the peculiar look they will give me.