Topic: Gold and Silver
"The Wreck of the Hesperus" and the Meltdown of the Global Monetary System Musing on the famous poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the world monetary system. A European organization called the United Future World Currency created by former central bankers is exposed. by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution
(libertarian)
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Yesterday I was unpacking my books from China, a chore that took a few hours. I came upon a wonderfully illustrated, hardbound edition of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Wreck of the Hesperus." Unable to resist, I sat down and cracked it open – the copy is about 70 years old. (photo1photo2)
For a little background, Longfellow was a New Englander who lived seaside for much of his life from 1807-1882. Many of his poems have a rhythmic cadence, and he is also very well known for the poem "Paul Revere's Ride." Here is "The Wreck of the Hesperus:"
It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintery sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughter, To bear him company.
Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax, Her cheeks like the dawn of day, And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds, That ope in the month of May.
The Skipper he stood beside the helm, His pipe was in his mouth, And he watched how the veering flaw did blow The smoke now West, now South.
Then up and spake an old Sailor, Had sailed the Spanish Main, "I pray thee, put into yonder port, for I fear a hurricane.
"Last night the moon had a golden ring, And to-night no moon we see!" The skipper, he blew whiff from his pipe, And a scornful laugh laughed he.
Colder and louder blew the wind, A gale from the Northeast, The snow fell hissing in the brine, And the billows frothed like yeast.
Down came the storm, and smote amain The vessel in its strength; She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed, Then leaped her cable's length.
"Come hither! come hither! my little daughter, And do not tremble so; For I can weather the roughest gale That ever wind did blow."
He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat Against the stinging blast; He cut a rope from a broken spar, And bound her to the mast.
"O father! I hear the church bells ring, Oh, say, what may it be?" "Tis a fog-bell on a rock bound coast!" -- And he steered for the open sea.
"O father! I hear the sound of guns; Oh, say, what may it be?" Some ship in distress, that cannot live In such an angry sea!"
"O father! I see a gleaming light. Oh say, what may it be?" But the father answered never a word, A frozen corpse was he.
Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark, With his face turned to the skies, The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow On his fixed and glassy eyes.
Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed That saved she might be; And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave, On the Lake of Galilee.
And fast through the midnight dark and drear, Through the whistling sleet and snow, Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe.
And ever the fitful gusts between A sound came from the land; It was the sound of the trampling surf, On the rocks and hard sea-sand.
The breakers were right beneath her bows, She drifted a dreary wreck, And a whooping billow swept the crew Like icicles from her deck.
She struck where the white and fleecy waves Looked soft as carded wool, But the cruel rocks, they gored her side Like the horns of an angry bull.
Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, With the masts went by the board; Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank, Ho! ho! the breakers roared!
At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach, A fisherman stood aghast, To see the form of a maiden fair, Lashed close to a drifting mast.
The salt sea was frozen on her breast, The salt tears in her eyes; And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed, On the billows fall and rise.
Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, In the midnight and the snow! Christ save us all from a death like this, On the reef of Norman's Woe!
In the past, the poem just brought thoughts of pity for the poor maiden and her headstrong father. This time though, an allegory struck me.
The Father/Skipper is the world's central bankers and governments who have fastened us, say Lady Liberty or the maiden, to the mast using the bonds of fiat money. We too, may have little warning before the time arrives when we realize that the central bankers are powerless and frozen dead at the wheel.
For the time being, the charade made by the Money Masters is still in place, but the storm still rages on. Meanwhile they lie, saying that we are in deflation of -2%, when the truth is prices are inflating at a +6% rate. They say unemployment is 10%, or 9.6% like it's some kind of going-out-of-business sale, when the truth is it's at depression levels of 21%.
Of course their prime fear is a psychological realization of these facts by the population at large. Some have even told me that my writing is a disservice, as if the charade could be maintained forever.
The fact remains, it cannot. The US banking system is horribly insolvent. The $592 Trillion USD in notional derivatives contracts still hangs like the sword of Damocles above us. The prolonging of mass unemployment is, in a major fashion, due to government propping up the financial sector and housing bubble which should have - admittedly rather violently due to the machinations of the FED - collapsed back in 2007. However, a recovery would then have been rather swift, and the bankrupted firms quickly bought up by stronger hands. Instead the malaise spread to all other sectors of the economy.
In their desperation, the central bankers and world governments may turn to desperate delay tactics. At the G8 meeting this week, the Associated Press reports a group called United Future World Currency bribed [my terminology] world leaders with a gift commissioned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, 10 handmade books bound with silk and gold thread with a marble bas-relief for the covers. The group also included 10 coins made of gold, valued at about $4,000 each for each of the world leaders. Members of the group, per its website include Belgian central banker Luc Luycx and Italian central banker Guido Crapanzano.
It is extremely ironic that the gifts were made of true money, gold, and a lot of lip service is given to gold but the plans for the people would simply be the usual fiat, fractionally-reserved FRAUDULENT currency. See the design here, and logos here. Their website states that they are also seeking to destroy the anonymity of money, and make it completely traceable and have funded studies to "to study the potential for a new coin with a high level of protection against counterfeits. In short, an 'intelligent coin' that can communicate with mobile phones, give and receive inputs and be recognized as fake or authentic." Privacy advocates, including myself, will be screaming bloody murder.
Perhaps the most laughable section of United Future World Currency's website is the skewed version of monetary history written by Silvana Balbi de Caro. Ironically, the history still gives lip service and acknowledges that gold and silver have been money throughout all of human history. It even alludes to the uncontested fact that when the gold and silver coins are debased with base metals, it always coincides with the collapse of major empires. However, it skips the last 70 years of fiat monetary rule completely, and omits any admission of John Law, the Song dynasty's disastrous experiments with paper money, the closing of the gold window by Nixon, hyperinflations due to paper currencies like Weimar in the 1920s, Argentina in the 1990s, and Zimbabwe today. It's stupid conclusion:
"Yet global market mechanisms are knocking at the door: the boundaries that divide us today will seem too narrow for tomorrow’s generation. Old national currencies will seem a relic from the past. And the utopia of a universal currency will become reality."
Always be wary when people speak of "utopia." It would bea utopia for central bankers – a new money worldwide that they can inflate as evenly as they so please. However this misses a key fact.
Consumers, not central bankers, are the true sovereigns of market economies. The marketplace should choose the currency, and people should be free to use whatever they so wish as money. In our United States, gold and silver coins are the only forms of lawful money the government is allowed to issue, yet we trade worthless scraps of linen embedded with cyanide, arsenic and mercury, bills of credit known as Federal Reserve Notes, as if they were money when the reality is that FRNs are merely ghosts and shadows of true money.
The fact remains that there is only one surefire way of escaping the Hesperus before it wrecks. The bonds strapping you down can be cut with a blade forged of physical gold and silver. View buying a little physical gold and silver as calamity insurance because our trusty Skippers remain adamant to keep at sea as the perfect storm continues to rage.
For the Republic!
Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution
Special thanks to AH for the tip on United Future World Currency.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
As always, unlike the NFL, the author grants full permission to allow any accounts of, rebroadcasts, retransmissions, repostings of this article to your blog or anywhere else in order to promote the Restoration of our Republic.
Veritas numquam perit. Veritas odit moras. Veritas vincit. Truth never perishes. Truth hates delay. Truth conquers.
Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito. Do not give in to evil but proceed ever more boldly against it.
The views expressed in this
article are those of Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Posted By: Rhode to Surfdom
Date: 2009-07-10 09:05:10
Jake as usual excellent insight provided in a very well-written piece. I agree that folks of you disposition norally fail at politics due to excessive intelligence but hopefully that trend can reverse itself.
I wish you luck in you quest to join Dr. Paul in that inept benevolent institution for he helpless(as Mark Twain/Sauel Clemens referred to it) and thank you for your great work. The analogy you draw is accurate in my opinion and the hipocrisy of the central bankers is as appalling as it is lacking in morality.
Posted By: Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution
Date: 2009-07-10 09:27:25
Dear Rhode to Serfdom -
Thanks for your kind words, but I do not believe I am excessively intelligent, (please remember that just 2 years ago I was completely clueless.)
Upon reflection, a lot of the reasons for writing this column to me are altruistic in nature - I just want to warn people before it's too late. In a lot of ways, we are fortunate to have enough time to prepare. Though there is always a chance I am wrong, it diminishes with every passing day.
The continued Keynesian belief in raw numbers and statistics is starting to boggle my mind - the school of the Austrian economists at mises.org are the key group in firm opposition. Was it not Keynes who said 'When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?'
Posted By: Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution
Date: 2009-07-10 15:00:24
Dear daddysteve -
Despite arguments to the contrary, I am still realistic. An average Joe like me has little chance of becoming Senator due to the amount of fundraising required.
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It was the schooner Hesperus,
Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,