-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The Feds of recently nailed the principals of e-Gold more or less to a cross of gold for instantaneous non-repudiation of book-entry transactions, threatening set loose the usual Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse. Now it looks like various Men in Black are going after Liberty Dollar, below, for instantaneously non-repudiable physical-delivery bearer transactions, again to prevent the aforementioned Pale Riders -- or at least Pac-Man characters -- to be at large and in charge... Uncle Fed has been dancing on the heads of the Liberty Dollar crew -- whose business was selling gold and silver rounds, intaglio-printed warehouse receipts, etc. on the, shall we be charitable, Amway, model and calling them "dollars" -- for a few years now, including the confiscation of a vault of coins and bullion at a custodial warehouse / minting-printing contractor in Colorado somewhere. Part of the hard-money hoard confiscated back then was a bunch of about-to-be-released "dollars" with Ron Paul on their face, the profits of which were to be donated to Mr. Paul's presidential campaign. The wikipedia entry for "Liberty Dollar" tells a pretty fair story, for them as wants to catch up on the whole thing in more detail. None Dare Call It Conspiracy, and so on. Paradoxically -- or not, depending on which side your agorist bread is buttered -- the price of specie took off so much over the decade or so LD has been cutting their precious metal cookies that the stated "dollar" amount on coins issued at that time is significantly exceeded by the value the gold/silver they're made of, including the, okay, usurious, premium at which they were sold... One presumes, again with the agorist cap on, that this is merely a prelude to a confiscation of specie and other hard wealth, and a massive inflation of the US Dollar in light of the recent assumption of decatrillions of national debt, and thus, cats and dogs living together, The End Of The United States As We Know It. Having witnessed -- even enthusiastically participated in -- various forms of millennialism, capitalist, digital, and/or both, over the past 20 years, I'm not so sure. Rome, though Byzantium, asymptotically persisted as a political entity until the Turkish sack of the 15th century. Nothing ever *really* goes away, even buggy whips and flint-knapping. Political kleptocracy, force monopoly, socialism -- but I repeat myself -- will persist in spite of themselves as recent "elections" -- Mencken's "advance auctions of stolen goods" -- have shown. However, this new but inevitable development in the Free (not as in beer) Money business, like the times, is interesting, if mostly in the Chinese sense. "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' ...as my old .sig used to say. Cheers, RAH -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 9.10.0.500 wsBVAwUBSike2cUCGwxmWcHhAQHQEAf+J1N7T8mfcXlcCiRtVPaYs4D3sNXYL2IH vY78DCGnnRYJkP9r9iMzkkPXjWKuc7d0wBGicEm7J/663WzEGPDEZ3yVBi2SqlNh Yu7oUsnoWz/aX3LdmFzcAsKWmYV0o+dABtX1/RON8m1yDRUlXxFoPkwcSdU9SWmY Adt0SyCJxi9QTm5fSRo3Uzmn+tM9k4A+6MVxzAQC8zWUICl15/kHvSDTOyBy7HkB OIAdU2L7CzWLX/OhuAyjeqX/E6Jck26AQsvYT2RZgUShI0QysMnV5CTVjkyfZ467 Qrvg05zqnLNSeR0NXZgy9sIvOr41aNxI/FrCdBMGg5sVdG/ay9urjQ== =yjbE -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -------- Begin forwarded message: