Author: Mark Nestmann

Imagine the world in which the president of the United States decides that the government will set wages and prices. One evening, the president announces to the nation: “I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United States.” After a short transition period, any increases in wages or prices would need to be first approved by the government. What would happen next? We don’t have to look very far to see the consequences of such actions. That’s because, on August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon made that exact announcement. The results were disastrous. Farmers stopped … Continue reading →

The post The Gold Standard appeared first on LewRockwell.

Over the last decade, tens of thousands of visitors to the US – plus US citizens and residents returning home – have been subjected to warrantless border searches of their electronic devices. Border officials may seize, search, and copy the contents of any such device. There’s no arrest, warrant, or even probable cause required – just “gimme.” And activists claim that since the inauguration of President Trump, this practice is becoming increasingly common. While the majority of searches seem to occur when entering the US, border officials also have the authority to search electronic devices before you leave the country. … Continue reading →

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2016 was another record-breaking year for the number of US citizens and its long-term residents expatriating, giving up their US citizenship and passport or green card. According to a February 9 announcement in the Federal Register, 2,364 expatriated in the fourth quarter of 2016, bringing the tally for last year to 5,409. That’s a 26% increase over 2015. It’s more than 13 times as high as it was less than two decades ago, as this chart reveals. Myths, Misunderstandings and Outright lies about owning Gold. Are you at risk? As high as these numbers are, I think they’re only the … Continue reading →

The post Uncle Sam (and the Taxman) appeared first on LewRockwell.

Through an accident of birth, I and over 280 million other people are native-born US citizens. Unless we owe the IRS more than $50,000 or are otherwise ineligible, this status entitles us to carry a US passport. It is one of the world’s premier travel documents, providing us the right to enter more than 170 other countries either without a visa or by obtaining a visa on arrival. Another billion or so people live in countries – I’ll call them “passport heavens” – that give their citizens the right to hold a passport providing visa-free entry to at least 140 … Continue reading →

The post Citizenship by Investment? appeared first on LewRockwell.

Every president inherits something difficult. Some problems are simply out of the incoming president’s hands. Obama inherited a financial crisis. Reagan inherited double digit inflation. Kennedy, Nixon, and Ford each inherited the Vietnam War. For President Trump, it’s debt. Donald Trump enters the White House with a $19.9 trillion a headache. In percentage terms, that’s 107% of our GDP. Sure, every president inherits some kind of debt from his predecessor. But none of them had to follow the Borrower-in-Chief, Barack Obama. Obama doubled the federal debt during his tenure in the Oval. He pushed the total debt close to $20 … Continue reading →

The post Trump’s Terrifying Problem appeared first on LewRockwell.

While it wasn’t widely publicized on this side of the pond, a hacker breach last month into Britain’s Tesco Bank sent shockwaves throughout Europe, with the thieves managing to steal £2.5 million pounds (US$3.1 million). That’s a relatively small loss compared to other hacker attacks, such as the staggering $81 million theft earlier this year from the Bangladesh central bank’s accounts in New York. What is more distressing though is the fact that nearly 7% of Tesco’s customers were affected – as well as the techniques the hackers may have used to penetrate the bank’s databases. Early reports on the … Continue reading →

The post Don’t Let Hackers Bleed Your Bank Account appeared first on LewRockwell.

Stroke of the pen. Law of the Land. Kind of cool. Paul Begala, advisor to President Bill Clinton (1998) One of the oldest traditions in the American republic is “government by an emergency.” Over the last 2½ centuries, US citizens have endured confiscation, imprisonment, and censorship conducted outside normal constitutional constraints. The Supreme Court has routinely upheld war and emergency powers claimed by US presidents. In most cases, the majority of Americans have supported these measures. An executive order is the “law of the land” unless overturned by the Supreme Court or overridden by Congress. That’s happened only twice in … Continue reading →

The post How Much Power Does the President Have?` appeared first on LewRockwell.

Don’t trust banks to protect the money you’ve deposited? You’re hardly alone. From a legal standpoint, the money you deposit in a bank no longer belongs to you. Instead, the bank owns it. You are merely just another one of their unsecured creditors. What’s more, in the event of future bank failures, the US government has now signed an international agreement confirming that it will not pay off depositors. Instead, it will force them to submit to a “bail-in” regime, like bank depositors in Cyprus experienced in 2013. The bail-in scenario, on top of the lowest interest rates in 5,000 … Continue reading →

The post Carrying Cash? appeared first on LewRockwell.

In the last few days, gold has been on a losing streak. Last Tuesday, gold prices fell by $42 per ounce – 3.3% – the biggest single-day drop in value in nearly three years. Does that mean gold has resumed its long-term downtrend since it reached its all-time high of $1,923.70 per ounce in 2011? Some analysts predict gold prices will fall another 20% or more before stabilizing. That’s certainly what central banks and governments would like you to believe. But it’s not how the world’s richest investors and central banks themselves are investing. Billionaire George Soros, for instance, recently … Continue reading →

The post Totally Private, Tax-Free Gold Storage? appeared first on LewRockwell.

Geneticists tell us the entire human race originated from a single tribal group of around 200 people who migrated from Africa into Arabia about 80,000 years ago. About 10,000 years ago, their descendants, by then numbering around 5 million, began to form agricultural settlements, leading to the first kingdoms. In more recent centuries, the earliest nation-state emerged. By 1920, around 1.7 billion of their descendants lived in fewer than 80 countries. That consolidation has now ended. In the last century, dozens of new nations have been created, mostly formed along religious or ethnic lines. That’s why nearly 200 countries exist … Continue reading →

The post Can You Establish Your Own Sovereign Nation? appeared first on LewRockwell.

You’ve just arrived home from work. As you walk through your front door, your wife hands you a cocktail. “Honey, we’ve got to talk,” she tells you as she pours herself a double. “I was balancing the checkbook today, and guess what. We’re missing $6.5 trillion from our account.” “No problem,” you respond, as you take a sip from your cocktail. “I’ll just call up Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen tomorrow. I’m sure she can help us make good on the shortfall. After all, the Fed has the authority to create money out of thin air.” Of course, this scenario … Continue reading →

The post Just Another Day at the Pentagram appeared first on LewRockwell.

A few weeks ago, the IRS published its quarterly “name and shame” list in the Federal Register. That’s the list federal law requires the agency to maintain of individuals who give up their US citizenship. The official name is “Quarterly Publication of Individuals, Who Have Chosen to Expatriate.” Whatever you call it, getting on this list makes you an enemy of the state – in an instant, you are blacklisted. The image of former US citizens living tax-free in some tropical paradise is an irresistible populist target. Rep. Sam Gibbons (D-FL), referring to expatriates, spoke of “the despicable act of … Continue reading →

The post Escaping the US appeared first on LewRockwell.

If the IRS has its way, cash will be a thing of the past. In its place, every transaction will be digital, every purchase will leave a footprint. And it will tell your story – where you go and what you buy while you are there. A cashless society means your bank – and the US government – controls every penny you own and every purchase you make. They can freeze your account at will, leaving you destitute with just a few taps on a keyboard. As Ron Paul said, “The cashless society is the IRS’ dream: total knowledge of, … Continue reading →

The post They’re After Your Cash appeared first on LewRockwell.

Do you own a dog? You could face six months in federal prison If you walk it on federal lands on a leash longer than six feet in length. Do you have a bank account? If you deposit or withdraw more than $10,000 in cash over multiple transactions, you could be imprisoned for up to five years. You could also lose every penny in the account, under the theory it “facilitated” your crime. Do you have foreign investments? If you neglect to tell Uncle Sam about them, you could face draconian penalties. Forget to file just one form? You could … Continue reading →

The post The Criminalization of Everything appeared first on LewRockwell.

As a US citizen or permanent resident, you are forgiven for the belief you have the right to remain silent. “Pleading the fifth” (amendment), is such common chorus in American culture, it’s near cliché by now. We hear it on television, from every tv cop to the real-time reports on testimony from gangsters, disgraced bankers and bureaucrats alike. Even grade schoolers know the Constitution reads, in part, “No person shall… be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself….” This applies to taxes too, right? Not so fast. For proof, look at Lois Lerner, former head of … Continue reading →

The post Yes, You Can Be a Witness Against Yourself appeared first on LewRockwell.