Overthrowing the Money Power

Financial Sense ^ | January 14, 2013 | JR Nyquist

[No One Special]

Oswald Spengler once wrote, "A power can be overthrown only by another power, not by a principle, and only one power that can confront money is left. Money is overthrown and abolished by blood." One might ask what Spengler meant by this. What was he referring to? What is signified by the power of money opposed by the power of blood? According to Spengler, "Through money, democracy becomes its own destroyer, after money has destroyed intellect." Next comes the rule of naked force - the power of blood and the ways of war. In the end, this is what Spengler saw overthrowing the power of money. And if we look with a discerning eye we will not see Francis Fukuyama's "end of history" or the final triumph of democracy. Something altogether different is being played out today.

Today's news is instructive: A former CIA spy is claiming that Iran has built a nuclear bomb with Russian and North Korean help. Writing for WorldNetDaily, former CIA agent Reza Kahlili has published an article based on "a source in the Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit" with "access to Iran's nuclear program." The source claims that Iran obtained weapons-grade uranium and plutonium from North Korea which was used to assemble the weapon at a previously "unknown underground" facility that former CIA analyst Peter Vincent Pry says "is proof that the U.S. is probably underestimating the advancement and sophistication of Iran's nuclear weapons program." It is alleged that Russian and North Korean technicians are assisting the Iranians at the facility. (See the WND article titled Iran's Nuclear Bomb Program Complete.)

Meanwhile, as if an Iranian nuclear weapon were not enough, China continues to push for dominance of the South China Sea and the East China Sea, with Japan targeted by Beijing's war rhetoric. Yet it is more than rhetoric, since Japan and China have both sent aircraft into the disputed oil-rich Senkaku islands (see China and Japan one step closer to war). Some observers feel that a military clash is likely, with unpredictable financial and political consequences. As the United States has not backed Japan's claim, China feels emboldened to ratchet up tensions. The Japanese defense forces, of course, should not be underestimated. Yet Japan has no nuclear weapons. How then will Japan stand up to China without the promise of American nuclear support?

National security reporter Bill Gertz published an article on Friday titled War Preparation Indicator: Beijing hardens subways for nuclear, gas attacks. Apparently Beijing's subway system doubles as a nuclear blast shelter and is part of a larger Chinese nuclear modernization program. In fact, China has been "tunneling and hiding its nuclear forces since the early 1950s," and only revealed the extent of its long-term preparations in 2010. At the same time, says Gertz, Russia is also "expanding its nuclear forces.... Moscow announced last year that it is also constructing some 5,000 underground bomb shelters in Russia's capital in anticipation of a possible future nuclear conflict."

Given these facts, what nuclear enemy are the Russians and Chinese preparing to face?

According to an article by Pavel Felgenhauer titled Putin Activates Anti-American PR Campaign, "anti-Americanism is a strong public trend in Russia...." And so is anti-capitalism. According to a January 10 story in the Barents Observer, Cold War rhetoric worries Norwegian Foreign minister, Russia's Vice Premier and former ambassador to NATO posted a twitter message in response to the commissioning of a new submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky. Vice Premier Dmitry Rogozin's twitter reads, "Shiver, bourgeois! You're done for!" The Norwegian Foreign Minister expressed dismay at this. He said that Russian officials use Cold War rhetoric "too often." Of course, one should not complain if a fish has gills. It is merely, in this instance, that fish have been presented as having lungs for twenty years - and the Norwegian Foreign Minister is disappointed to find out otherwise.

In the battle between capitalism and socialism, we can see how socialism continues to subvert economic freedom. What triumphed in Russia in the 1990s was not capitalism or democracy, but a show of capitalism and democracy. I should like to remind readers of Richard McGregor's book, The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers. In this book we find that despite outward appearances the Communist Party is actively guiding all major companies and all financial institutions in the People's Republic of China. We in the West can hardly imagine the extent of secret government controls over the economies in Russia and China. These countries are led by former and present communists who do not believe in economic freedom at all. For these autocratic rulers, capitalism is a pretense in the same sense that democracy is a pretense. Meanwhile the West is being undermined by socialism from within. And as Oswald Spengler said, "Through money, democracy becomes its own destroyer, after money has destroyed intellect." Perhaps it is our wealth or perhaps it is our prosperity that has corroded our values and our intellectual integrity. Whatever the cause of our woes, we do not effectively resist them. Instead, we are diverted and we succumb.

The war preparations of Iran, Russia and China go forward, year after year. The United States continues to crawl into socialism. Does anyone think we'll be allowed to crawl back out of it?

[cuban leaf]

I’ve been pretty clear about this here even before I was Cuban Leaf: The only way out of this is hyperinflation followed by war. A big one.

And then I keep thinking about the challenges China is having right now, and how they really do not want us to monetize our debt that they hold. And how they have that one child policy that has gotten them a population heavy with males of military age.

What to do with all of them while they are still useful? Hmmm.