"The movers and shakers of the US financial system are talking as if nothing had changed from the heady bubble years of the late 1990s. Once the Republican Convention is over in early September, their political counterparts are set to paint a picture of the United States which will strain the bounds of credulity to heights seldom if ever reached in US history. Sadly, this is what we have to "look forward" to over the rest of the year."
(Gold This Week - August 13, 2004)
Have you read Mr Bush's acceptance speech at the Republican convention. See what we mean? Have you noticed the avalanche of GOVERNMENT statistics, all pointing towards an ever weakening economy, yet Wall Street hangs in there and the US Dollar rises? See what we mean. Did you notice what happened to the Gold "price" on September 3, in the face of a shortened trading session and with HUGE volume just towards the close of trade? See what we mean?
It is not just "the movers and shakers of the US financial system" (see the quote above) who are talking as if nothing has changed. US politicians, of both parties, are talking as if the last four years (with the exception of what did happen on September 11, 2001) never happened. Anyone over the age of about twelve who has lived through the past four years would recognize very little if any of it from a perusal of what has been going on at the two contending US political party's conventions. Perusing the speech from the man who has been "in charge" of it all (at least in public perception), President Bush, one could easily be forgiven for waiting for a giant "snap" indicating that the bounds of credulity have finally been found.
Not so, it would seem. A Time magazine poll taken during the final three days of the Republican Convention (August 31 - Sept. 2) gives Mr Bush an eleven point lead over Senator Kerry. The respondents to this poll had not yet heard Mr Bush's speech, but they had heard most or all of the other ones, and they had all lived through the last four years.
Of course, what will be headlined is the 11 point lead for Mr Bush. The fact that the poll was taken from a grand total of 926 "likely voters" will be confined to the small print. Which "likely voters"? Well, we don't know this either. It's safe to say that they were not gleaned from the delegates to the Republican convention or Bush's lead would be bigger. It's also safe to say that they were not gleaned from the protestors who thronged the sreets of New York, kept in check by a phalanx of police said to be as big as 37-40,000 - bigger than the armies of most world nations.
In war, according to Winston Churchill, "truth" must be protected by "a bodyguard of lies", that being necessary in order to deceive the enemy. In modern politics, the potential enemy - to the "elected representative" - is the voter. In a minor sense, this is true of the voters who don't vote for the candidate, but for the "enemy", the opposing candidate. But in a fundamental sense, it is true in the sense that the only time that a citizen actually gets to pass judgement on the actions of his or her "elected representative" is when that citizen votes.
Decades ago, there used to be a slogan in the US. It went like this: "It doesn't matter who you vote for, as long as you vote." That was in the days when Americans perceived (or at least thought they perceived) a difference in the policies of the respective candidates. It has now become clear to a great many Americans, most of whom don't bother to vote, that there is little if any difference between candidates. Twenty years ago, another slogan was doing the rounds: "Don't vote, it only encourages them." The problem with this one is that the fewer people who vote, the fewer people the "elected representatives" have to fool.
Nowadays, things have gone beyond both those slogans. The "elected representatives" - and the establishment figures behind them - have achieved what they have been striving for. They have created a literal "fools paradise". We hasten to add that this achievement is by no means confined to the United States, but it is more important in the United States because of the stature of the US in the world.
When the mainstream media can blandly announce that the candidates picked at the political conventions are "not bound" (MUCH more on this in the early September issue of The Privateer - published on September 5) by the party platforms worked up at those same conventions, then "voting" ceases to have any meaning at all. Unfortunately, THIS US election has much more meaning than ever before to those outside the US.
To a far greater exent than is the case inside the US, thoughtful observers OUTSIDE the US make a sharp distinction between the American PEOPLE and the denizens of Washington DC. After all, most of them live in a "Democracy" too. Apalled as most of them are with the actions of the US government in the wake of 9/11, these observers understand that the AMERICAN people had no say in these actions and no ability to change them. The point is that on November 2, 2004, they WILL have a say. To these observers in the rest of the world (and to many fine, thoughtful, and proud Americans too), the re-election of George Bush will send the unmistakeable message that the American people approve of his actions. Despite the lack of a positive alternative facing the US electorate, these foreign observers and Americans alike would and will see this as a tragedy, both for the US and for the world. Sadly, they will be right.
But the REAL tragedy is that so-called "Democracy", both in the US and in the rest of the world, has degenerated into a situation in which it is indeed those who CAN be fooled all of the time who decide who will win the election. Some of this is sheer gullibility. Some of it is inertia - "I've always voted this way." But much if not most of it is the attitude of not wanting to rock the boat. The consumers vote for a candidate who tells them that they can keep on consuming, no matter how much debt they rack up in the process. The parasites vote for those who tell them that the "government money" will keep on flowing undiminished. The fearful vote for those who promise "safety". The "do-gooders" vote for those who want to enforce their "good" by the power to pass laws. All these people, even if they KNOW that they are being lied to, don't mind.
That is what lets Mr Bush - or to be more precise, Mr Bush's political minders - get away with the apalling drivel which passed as an "acceptance speech" at the just completed Republican Convention.
Over the last week of the northern summer, US markets ebbed to their nadir of "thin trading". On September 3, over a short session, Gold took a $US 5.50 smack to the downside amid large volumes in late trading. How flagrant can you get? Not half as flagrant as Mr Bush's acceptance speech. Manipulating the "price" of Gold is kindergarten stuff compared to this.
It all "works", until the means to make it "work" are utterly used up. That day is approaching with alarming speed. The overriding task of the US political and financial establishment is to keep all the balls in the air until after November 2. That is also the overriding task of the Republican party. The Democrats are in a bit of a quandary. They would like to see a financial "glitch", but they certainly don't want a collapse. They don't want to have to clean up the rubble, even if they can blame the "earthquake" on their predecessors. The next two months are going to be "trying" for everyone, and there's no way to predict the outcome, not of the election, but of the efforts to make the unworkable work in the lead up to the election."