Feedback Friday - June 15, 2012

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Welcome to this week's addition of Feedback Friday.  Most of the staff, and a number of readers and subscribers of TDV are all huddled in at AcaCondos awaiting the arrival of Hurricane Carlotta.  Don't worry about us, though.  We knew it was coming so we bought extra vodka, whiskey, tequila and lots of ice.  We should be fine!

And, since going to the beach is out for today what better way to spend it than answering some reader emails.  Let's get right to it.

EYE CONTACT - A FUNCTION OF POLITICAL STRUCTURE?

IN RESPONSE TO: "The Weekend Vigilante June 9th, 2012"

Jeff,

I wondered about that eye contact avoidance you noticed in Vancouver, Canada as well.  They have that here in the Netherlands too. Everyone walking the streets, looking at the ground. I first thought it had to do with dog poop everywhere. I have a different view on that now, related to the crab joke with the American and Canadian crabs with the Canadian crabs trying to drag escaping crabs back into their tank.

In a normal natural environment a friend is an asset, he extends your network, an extra pair of eyes and ears on the look out for opportunities or dangers. This is mutual beneficiaryland. But in socialismland knowing too many people can be a liability. You make eye contact with a fellow crab and it might just be one that drags you back into the tank.

I started realizing this after a discussion with a colleague about freedom and in which I tried to find common ground by asking him:"Who owns that hand?" pointing at his hand. He replied "The government and my parents". That scared the bejeeevas out of me. Whenever I meet him at the coffee machine now, I avoid eye contact, looking at his hand, that government hand, imagining it clinging to a government gun, the government finger at the government trigger, ready to take orders from the netherworld that controls him. I walk away as quickly as possible, looking at the ground, pretending to have to go somewhere fast.

It must have been that way for Jews in Nazi Germany or occupied Europe. Many friends is no longer an asset, but a liability. It only takes one traitor to turn you in. Just look at Rand Paul, you know they can be anywhere.

Opperdienaar

Jeff's Response:

That's a very interesting thought, Opperdienaar.  I think the lack of Vitamin D in places like the Netherlands and Kanada has something to do with it too but you could very well be right about that.  Another place where no one looks anyone in the eye is Russia... perhaps a throwback from decades of communism.  As for your colleague, I would do the same thing as you, run away!  My god.  The government and his parents???  

CAPITAL CONTROLS AND EXPATRIATION

IN RESPONSE TO: "Capital & Travel Controls and Preparing for Chaos in Europe"

Dear Jeff,

If severe capital controls happen, then how does an American or Canadian in Mexico access their funds?

Once ATMs stop dispensing pesos then one is screwed. As you should know, actual currency conversion at banks in Mexico is problematic. And Americans aren't welcome to open foreign banking accounts.

And Jeff, let's be real... very,very few have $300,000 for a St Kitts (or other) passport.. Even 50 grand is beyond most.

So that sorta nixes the argument to leave ones home country if you're a mere mortal.

Dan

Jeff's Response:

Hi Dan,

Long time subscribers of TDV know that we have always recommended having at least 1-2 months worth of cash in your house.  At minimum.  That cash will be worth less and less every month due to inflation but may come in very hand when ATM machines go dark.  Southern Europeans are learning thisthe hard way right now.  One Italian bank, BNI, has frozen all of its clients accounts as of last week.

As for keeping any other cash you have in a bank in the US or anywhere in Europe, why take the chance?  Why not store most of your own money yourself, where you are charged nothing, have total privacy as to when you "withdraw" it and can never have the bank tell you that you can't have your money.  Perhaps decades ago it made sense when there was much less chance of a currency collapse or a bank collapse because the dollar was still backed by gold or the government still hadn't acquired enough debt to become a system ending situation... and the government, with its insurance protection, was much more likely to pay out in the event of a bank collapse - compare that to today where the FDIC has been bankrupt since 2009.  And, don't even get me started on the fact that you make 0.10% interest, at most, thanks to the criminal activities of Ben Bernanke.

But, that's okay, because we don't recommend holding any fiat currency for long, anyway.  We recommend having most of your savings in precious metals.  Although, there are still banks that will accept US citizens as clients.  Our guys at TDV Offshore can give you an idea of your options for an offshore bank account that is likely to be safer than any onshore bank in the US or Europe for the next few years.

As for your comment on passports, you have greatly overstated the costs.  TDV Passports hasn't announced it yet, but we have negotiated three separate expedited passport programs with the governments of three different countries.  One in the caribbean, one in South America and one in Asia.  The cheapest is less than $12,000.  There is one for $25,000 and takes 8 months.  The fastest is 42-90 days and costs $90,000.  We have negotiated all of these directly with the governments of those countries and we will be announcing them all to subscribers in the coming weeks.  Or you can call us to get more info now (646-568-5518).

No one else is doing what we are doing.  We are literally scouring the world looking to find governments willing to expedite passports for our clients.  If you know of a country or have connections with a country that you believe may be amenable to an expedited investment passport please contact us at TDV@dollarvigilante.com and we'll have one of our guys on the next plane there.

As for your comment, "So that sorta nixes the argument to leave ones home country if you're a mere mortal"... please, you sound so defeatist.  Only 100 years ago your forefathers probably boarded a rickety ship, chancing death, barefoot, to go to a land they hear may offer some opportunity.  You don't need a "second passport" to go somewhere else.  Take the next plane to Cambodia, contact TDV's correspondent there and open up a hostess bar for $200... it isn't that hard.

TDV IN AFRICA

 Greetings Jeff,

I always start my day with TDV. Because of the time difference, the newsletter enters my mail like 6:00 am - 7:00 am Lagos, Nigeria time, TDV incredibly has turned to my daily tonic.

Reading very insightful, articulate and thoughtful content from TDV brightens my day and opens me to the reason I should take my freedom back from the "tyrants" called government.  James Guzman (TDV Client Services in Acapulco) introduced me to TDV. I met James during the Student for Liberty conference, last february in Washington DC. We had a very thoughtful discussion centering on liberty and government regulations .

I am one of the few African students that strive to learn and advance liberty in Africa.

Thank you and keep the good work going. 

Regards,

A.B.

Affiliate at African Liberty Org.

Jeff's Response:

 Hello, A.B.!  This is one of the beautiful things about the internet is that we have readers from around the world.  Soon, we'll be launching our new redesigned website and it will have forums and we will begin to set-up TDV Groups around the world so freedom-minded people can get together and form their own friendships and societies.

We've already talked more about A.B. and he'll be submitting a full write-up on Lagos, Nigeria for the TDV newsletter.  As with all of our country write-ups, we always have TDV subscribers in each country who are often, but not always, expats, who can give you boots-on-the-ground insights and even meet with you should you choose to visit their area.  Most TDV subscribers are quite similar in their outlook on life and usually get along tremendously well.  And now we have yet another country, Nigeria, where we'll have a local TDVer who can help you if you decide to go there for business or just to live.

WHAT KIND OF ANARCHIST ARE YOU?

IN RESPONSE TO: "The Weekend Vigilante June 9th, 2012"

Hi Jeff,

I am trying to figure out what exact form of anarchy you are aligned with. Is it anarcho capitalism or some form of social anarchism?

The more I read your material, the more I see danger in not clearly defining what you are preaching. The reason being that central bankers regularly rely on manipulative Hegelian and Alinsky tactics to distort and redirect philosophies and thinking, to help ensure they ultimately arrive at a fusion between capitalism and socialism/communism, known as communitarianism (see Niki Raapana's blog for detailed info). The central bankers remain in charge. It doesn't matter what government does since they lend to all governments and control them from behind the scenes via their well-coordinated global and private banking institutions.

Suggesting "government" is the problem when in fact it is central bankers (that control governments) that are the problem lends itself to quite a bit of distortion and manipulation.

My understanding is that the central banker end-goal for the US will look something like this, which is taken from the Club of Budapest's web site. This Club is a major NGO providing vision to the central banker-controlled United Nations:

"“We support the shift of our economic focus from translational corporate “fusionism” to regional subsistence. Subsistence economy focuses on a “natural” way of living. This is not “back to stone age”. It rather means a spiral, wavelike progress out of the life-destroying habits of today’s so-called civilization and accepting and welcoming the complexity of life.

We support the development of sustainable, decentralized, that is local, high-tech production, combined with local use of local resources. and the redesign of our monetary system according to a fourfold model: 1) economy of gifting (a basic matriarchal feature), 2) counter-trade (barter) economy, 3) complementary local monetary systems for regional trade, and 4) unified currency (for example called “terra”) for interregional and global trade. In our eyes compound interest has to be abolished. Also the concept of “owning” land must be reconsidered."

Our communities are expected to look similar to the former USSR's "soviets" which were self-sustaining communities that grew their own food and had a local council that oversaw everyday life and law and reported back to the government to ensure full alignment with socialist policy. Our US soviets are expected to rely on local resources to contribute to a national service industry-based economy.

This isn't too far off from the communities you are advocating. If you tweak things a little, you might end up with a bunch of post-Libertarians (post-Constitutionalists) who cave-in to external pressures and relinquish their freedoms to a local unelected council that oversees daily life and reports back to a central banker-controlled government entity.

If the central bankers can get you close to their envisioned goal, it's only a small push to get you to conform to the middle way they were seeking all along, in the first place.

Are you guarding against this and if so, how?

A fan

Jeff's Response:

If you have any doubts about what kind of anarchist I am then you haven't been paying much attention.  In my opinion there is only one type of anarchist, anyway.  To me, anarchism means adherance to the non-aggression principle.  This means that you never, under any circumstance, aggress against others.  This, of course, would then preclude an involuntarily government, which is a form of aggression.  The same goes for anarcho-communism, which is an oxymoron.  Communism, by its nature, means you force people to be in a collective and force them to share all of their property with the collective.  Therefore, it is not anarchism.

You may have gotten confused when I suggested that we may start a community in Acapulco with some shared quarters and perhaps living in a style called co-housing.  It was just an idea we had because we hear from many anarchists and libertarians who would like to leave their country of birth and go to a place like Acapulco but they don't have much money... so we were looking at ways to make it as cheap as possible, even perhaps having a central kitchen where food is made daily at costs of $1-2/day per family.

However, we have since decided against that.  We are still looking at doing a community... one that is almost totally self-sufficient... and one that is quite cheap.  But we have dropped the co-housing idea.

In the meantime, literally dozens of TDV subscribers and readers are visiting us each month now in Acapulco.  We just had a large dinner with about 20 people last night at Harry's, an exquisite steak house in Acapulco with TDV'ers.  Many are buying or renting at AcaCondos.  So, that's our community for now and we'll look to expand it.  As well, for those looking to move to Acapulco we've begun to offer a service to help people find a condo/house here if what we have in AcaCondos doesn't meet your interest.  Just contact us if you'd like more info.

HOW TO TRADE STOCKS?

Hello,

I have a very simple question, how do you trade stocks? What platform? Broker? I mean, I´d like to subscribe, but how do I trade? (Super novice about that)

Thanks,

JD

Jeff's Response:

Hi JD,

It depends where you live.  If you live in the US and don't have any foreign passport then you will not be able to open a brokerage account anywhere outside of the US.  But, there are plenty in the US.  We suggest going with the discount brokerages.  Interactive Brokers is a pretty good one.

If you are not an American or are but have a foreign passport, then the world is your oyster.  One that I personally like because the service is very good is Internaxx, based out of Luxembourg.  They market themselves this way, "Internaxx Bank is a premium offshore bank for international investors and expatriates", which is great.

Once you have a brokerage account set-up it isn't all that difficult to figure out... but it is one of those things you just have to do to learn.  So, when you start and make your first purchase, buy just a small amount so that if you make any mistakes it won't cost you too much.  And if you do make a mistake and end up losing a little bit, consider it a cost of your education.  It'll still be cheaper than most college educations, by a factor of a thousand.  Oh, and they would never teach you how to invest in school!  They don't want you to be anything but a worker drone.

Once you have an account set-up, try out TDV Golden Trader.  Vin Maru, the Chief Editor of TDVGT made a clarion call to sell all gold stocks in February and saved numerous of our subscribers large amounts of money as from February to now the sectors in which we focus (the gold mining stocks) have fallen by about 25%.  

He actually picked the top to the day... he's a bit of a freak of nature as a trader.  Plus, he's just recently started advising subscribers to wade back in so your timing is excellent.

Good luck!

THE HEALTH VIGILANTE

Jeff,

I just wanted to thank you for the June issue of The Dollar Vigilante. Excellent! Especially the health vigilante. Congratulations on improving your health. I have improved my health over the past few years. I Want to recommend a book to you by Milo Shammas named "Healthy Garden, Healthy You". A must read. He has own organic products company. Dr. Earth. soils, fertilizers, etc... My small garden with his product in it feeds us all year long. This is ground breaking health information. I highly recommend it. Thanks a million for all your efforts. The best info available anywhere.

Dave L., subscriber

That's all for this week, thanks to all who wrote in!  Tune in to The Weekend Vigilante tomorrow to see how we fare with Hurricane Carlotta!  Have a great weekend!