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June 2014
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A Letter from the EditorRedmond Weissenberger
Dear Subscriber,
Welcome to TDV Homegrown’s June 2014 Edition. Homegrown is where TDV writers let you in on ways to manage a better life.
First, Justin O’Connell has a look at marijuana-related domain names.Then, Jeff Berwick opens our eyes to a Truman Show-like naivete.Next, as he does in all of our subscriber publications, Jeff rounds up
absurdities of statism from around the globe. Sinn Hooper gets us healthier as she breaks down how to best manage
our diets. Following that, Justin interviews New Hampshire-based freedom fighter, Carla Gericke. As a special HG bonus, an article from Christopher P. Casey on combating inflation with corn.
Then, we finish off with TDV’s resident advice columnist, Dear Slavey.
Enjoy Homegrown,
Redmond WeissenbergerManaging EditorTDV
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Marijuana-Related Domain Names: A Rare Find
by Justin O’Connell
As some readers will know, I advocate buy-ing quality domain names as an investment vehicle. They only cost ten dollars, generally, and there is but a small property tax known as the iCann fee. By being ahead of the trend, and buying valuable domain names, I think I have put myself into a situ-ation to get by without having a real boss and a static schedule to keep. I am very thankful for this. As you are well aware, The Dollar Vigilante recommends the marijuana industry, among other industries, as potential global money makers. And so I have spent many hours researching the top marijuana related domain names, still available, to bring them to you.
Most are taken. But there are still some left. What you see below might not convince you that these are the best options available in terms of marijuana-related business names, but I assure you there are not much left, and I found these to be the most marketable.
So, to start, here is a list of non-premium do-main names:
• Cannacents.com• Cannaways.com• organikfeed.com• kronikbuzz.com• Kronikfeed.com• Treebudz.com• Treezfeed.com• Budtimez.com
• Devilzlettuce.com• Danklyfe.com• Budlyfe.com• Kroniklyfe.com• Treezlyfe.com• Stonerfeed.com• budherb.com
This list may not be overly attractive, but it is the best of what remains. Of this list, my favorites are “cannacents”, which can clearly be turned into a marijuana pennystock website. After that, I believe “cannaways” has marketing potential, as does “ston-erfeed”, which could function as a sort of Buzzfeed for stoners.
Beyond these options, though, there are pre-mium options. For instance, both “treez.com” and “treeze.com” are available for premium purchase.
These two domains are worth probably up to a $2000 each, as the owners are asking, but perhaps the owners are open to negotiation down towards below $1000. I truly do believe these domains have good marketing potential.
Another option available at GoDaddy auctions is the website “http://weedallaboutit.com/.” This is a good, funny domain name, with serious market-ing potential. “amilehigh.com” is also available for a premium price at NameCheap.com. This would be a good website for Denver based marijuana busi-nesses.
There are surely other possible domain names out there, but after hours-and-hours of research-ing, I learned the hard way that I am late to the marijuana game. Apparently the entire world al-ready thought to buy up all the most obvious do-main names. (Seems obvious, I know.) Some of the domain names above should suit the needs of a fledgling marijuana entrepreneur or get your gears turning for what sorts of marijuana related domain names you’d like to buy.
Justin O’Connell
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The Truman Show US Economy: Real GDP Numbers Show -9% Annualized Drop
by Jeff Berwick
Watching all aspects of the US economy from outside of the propaganda zone sometimes feels like you are watching The Truman Show.
The Truman Show, for those who haven’t seen the 1998 Jim Carrey film, centered on a completely fictitious town. In the movie everything about the town was fake except for one person, Truman Burbank, who wasn’t in on the plot. In a sense your average person in the US, particularly when it comes to the economy, is akin to Truman. They have grown up inside this completely false environment and don’t even know it is all fake.
Virtually everything in The Truman Show-esque US economy is misinformation and complete-ly skewed in which the creators, the US government, the Federal Reserve and the mainstream media con-stantly propagate blatantly false and wrong informa-tion and the American public, like Truman, have no idea that anything is even amiss.
The latest hilarious plot twist, at least for those of us watching it as observers and not intimately tied into the story, were the latest GDP numbers released showing a -1% annualized rate in the first quarter of this year.
GDP IS A FALLACY
I wrote over three years ago about how the “GDP Is A Fallacy”. A fallacy being defined as an argument that uses poor reasoning.
For starters, to completely negate the entire concept, the total amounts of all goods consumed (which is what GDP really tries to track) in an economy can simply not be reliably calculated.
The GDP fallacy gives the impression that it is not the activities of individuals that produce goods and services, but something else outside these activi-ties called the “economy.” However, at no stage does the so-called “economy” have a life of its own inde-pendent of individuals.
By lumping the values of all final goods and
services together, government statisticians concret-ize the fiction of an economy by means of the GDP statistic. By regarding the economy as something that exists in the real world, mainstream economists reach a bizarre conclusion that what is good for individuals might not be good for the economy, and vice versa. Since the economy cannot have a life of its own without individuals, obviously what is good for individuals cannot be bad for the economy.
In the end it is just a bunch of numbers on a chalkboard that really signifies nothing of impor-tance.
Furthermore, since GDP tracks consumption it is ridiculous to say that an economy grows when people consume more. This makes sense to even small children who understand that you “grow” or get richer by saving not spending.
The following joke perfectly explains the ludi-crosity of GDP:
Two Keynesian economists, John Maynard Keynes and Paul Krugman, were walking down
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because companies slowed the pace of inven-tory accumulation, according to data released on Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analy-sis. In other words, output slowed because they weren’t producing as much stuff to go on shelves. Now companies have an incentive to speed up production to rebuild those inventories.”
So, there you have it, in the Truman Show-esque world of US economics even a drop in the GDP is a good thing for the US economy!
And, of course, they repeated what Janet Yellen recently said, that “cold weather” had slowed the economy in the first quarter! This, while at the same time saying that Global Warming is an urgent issue.
It’s no wonder so many Americans are on anti-depressants and drinking themselves into a stupor when they live in such a bizarro world.
THE GOLDILOCKS RECOVERY
The government and media in the US continue to pound the table about a US recovery for which there is no evidence. In the past they used to call it the goldilocks recovery, which was very apt, since it was never anything but a fairy tale.
All one has to do is look at the percentage of the US population currently employed to see there is and has been no recover whatsoever.
the street one day when they passed two large piles of dog shit.Keynes said to Krugman, “I’ll pay you $20,000 to eat one of those piles of shit.” Krugman agrees and chooses one of the piles and eats it. Keynes pays him his $20,000.Then Krugman, feeling richer, says, “I’ll pay you $20,000 to eat the other pile of shit.” Keynes, feel-ing bad about the money he lost says okay, and eats the shit. Krugman pays him the $20,000.They resume walking down the street.After a while, Krugman says, “You know, I don’t feel very good. We both have the same amount of money as when we started. The only difference is we’ve both eaten shit.”Keynes says: “Ah, but you’re ignoring the fact that we’ve increased the GDP by $40,000.
That is really all you need to know about GDP... it’s all dogshit.
THE MEDIA SPIN
Of course, the mainstream media loves these numbers, as it gives them something to drone on about and put their own spin on. The reaction to the most recent release of a -1% annualized GDP num-ber by Bloomberg takes the cake in spinning this to meet their “recovery” propaganda.
Even if you are so economi-cally retarded as to think GDP is an important statistic then you would think that a negative GDP number would be a negative in terms of the “recovery” meme that mainstream media contin-ues to peddle. Not so fast!
Bloomberg has managed to take this negative number and say it is a positive!
Here is what Bloomberg had to say in their article, “The GDP Drop Is Good For The US Economy”:
“Most of the decline in gross domestic product occurred
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But, some may say, “Yes, but the US is an en-trepreneurial culture and self-employed people will grow the economy”.
Not so fast. Entrepreneurship is at an all-time low, as you can see by the above chart provided by Inc.
And you can see that the employment level for self-employed and unincorporated folks has also dropped in the chart below.
Scared to take chances, many Amer-icans are staying put, choosing not to pursue new careers or starting their own business (see chart: top right of following page).
THE TRUE GDP FIGURE
The truth is that the true GDP figure is much worse than -1% annualized. This is because the statistics do not adequately take into account monetary inflation.
Inflation is the increase in the money supply. An inflation in the money supply leads to an increase in prices. However, the US government likes to fallaciously state that their statistic, the
Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is highly ma-nipulated, is true inflation.
Currently the official CPI sits near 2% but if it were calculated solely the way it was calculated in the 1980s, before they learned to remove all of the inflation out of the CPI number, it is closer to 10% as shown here by the chart on the bottom of the fol-lowing page from ShadowStats.
This corresponds quite well with the actual true increase in the money supply itself which currently sits near 10% annualized as well.
Given that the CPI as it was calcu-lated in the 1980s is near 10% and the true money supply growth is also cur-rently near 10% we can confidently say that current mon-etary inflation is in the area of 10%.
Since the GDP figures are adjusted to the heavily manip-ulated CPI (currently near 2%) we can say
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that the GDP figures, when adjusted for true infla-tion, is approximately -9% annualized.
In other words, the US is already deep into a depression that will become known in the next few years as the Greatest Depression.
THE SHOW IS ABOUT TO COME TO AN END
This is why, for us, watching the US today is like watching the Truman Show. The average person is told all manner of things that are incorrect, wrong and fallacious via the media and the government and think it is real.
One day soon, though, like in the movie, your average person in the US is going to have their boat run up into the falsely erected walls and realize that everything they believed about the US economy was a lie.
By then the US economy will be a smoldering crater, the US dol-lar will have collapsed and capital and travel controls will be fully in place.
Those who are awake and real-ize what is really going on should be moving to protect themselves from this inevitability as quickly as possible.
There are options for people inside the United States to free themselves, and there are lots of reasons to be hopeful. For instance, the “freer” state, New Hampshire,
has worked to create a liberty-based space to op-pose Washington, D.C. See Carla Gericke’s interview included in this issue of Homegrown.
Bitcoin is also a space that will create a new generation of billionaires. The opportuni-ties abound, and although they are probably more promising abroad, it offers a hope, alongside mari-juana, which junior miners are getting into.
The marijuana industry offers opportunities also, and these will only grow bigger as more states legalize marijuana. Although many of the move-ments to legalize marijuana subscribe to “tax and control” marijuana propaganda, there will be great arbitrage in this industry, and indeed already is.
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Other News from TEOTMSAWKI and TDV Related Tidbits
by Jeff Berwick
Ebay and PayPal Considering Move To Bitcoin
The CEO of e-commerce behemoth eBay said he is indeed considering integrating bitcoin via the company’s payment processing service PayPal. His move would come after Overstock.com made the move, and recently reported over $1 million in bit-coin sales.
In a Q&A session at the company’s annual shareholder meeting Donahoe said bitcoin is “a new, exciting and emerging technology” with lots of potential.
“We think bitcoin will play a very important role in the future. Exactly how that plays out, and how we can best take advantage of it and enable it with PayPal, that’s something we’re actively consid-ering. It’s on our radar screen.”
If eBay and/or PayPal begin accepting bitcoin expect a major rise in the value of bitcoin, possibly causing a rally to $5,000! But always keep in mind how historically volatile bitcoin has been.
US Department Of Agriculture Buying Guns
The US Department of Agriculture has request-ed an unknown number of submachine guns. The solicitation reads:
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical [sic] acquisi-tion of submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambi-dextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot burts [sic] trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore grip) and scope (top rear), stock-collapsilbe [sic] or folding, magazine - 30 rd. capacity, sling, light weight, and oversized trigger guard for gloved operation.”
Most of the times these agencies say they need the weapons to train their officers, which is alarm-ing as it is that the Department of Agriculture needs submachine guns to train.
The machine guns, as any American paying attention will know, will be used to raid people’s homes and steal their things. This is part of a long-standing trend to ensure each federal government agency is its own paramilitary unit.
The Eurosceptic Union
European’s are skeptical of centralization. Before May 25th and May 26th European integra-tion seemed to be a sure thing. After the elections on those days last week, this was no longer true.
The winners of last week’s elections were hardly parties from the center, but, rather, often fringe groups. Right-wing anti-EU parties won in France, Britain and Denmark. The anti-euro (but pro-EU) Alternative für Deutschland made considerable gains. In Greece, the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party will enter the European parliament. On the far-left, meanwhile, the anti-troika Syriza party leads the ballot.
The reality in Europe is that politics are shifting from left versus right to pro-European versus anti-European. People are rejecting centralization. They don’t want rule by technocrat.
Anti-centralization parties now have the politi-cal momentum and governments like Britain and France will have to figure out how to respond. Pres-sure will rise for EU powers to be repatriated.
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applies sanctions on Russia for refusing to comply with the Foreign Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Russia would reciprocate with similar sanctions.
Under current Russian law, fines of up to $2,285 or two years in prison punish the illegal collection of data that falls under the definition of commercial, tax or bank secrets.
The illegal disclosure of that infor-mation without the consent of its owner can be punished by up to 200,000 rubles in fines (45,700), a prison term of up to 3 years, and a 30year old ban on occupying
some official and commercial posts.
Californian’s Ready To Vote On Jefferson State?
Residents in California’s rural, agrarian and politically conservative northern counties are mov-ing towards secession, a dream they’ve had for more than a century.
“We have 11 counties up here that share one state senator,” compared to 20 for the greater Los Angeles area and 10 for the San Francisco Bay Area, said Aaron Funk of Crescent City, a coastal town in Del Norte County near the Oregon border. “Essen-tially, we have no representation whatsoever.”
Jefferson State is not alone. A Silicon Valley venture capitalist Jim Draper is
looking to create six Californias.
House Votes To Block Feds From Targeting Medical Marijuana States
The War On Drugs is coming to an end be-cause people are fed up with the state committing acts of thefts and murder against people because they choose to use drugs.
The House voted early Friday in favor of block-ing the federal government from arresting and caging people in the states where marijuana is legal. That the GOP controlled house would vote this way comes as a surprise to many.
A recent survey by Pew Research Center found that 61 percent of Republicans support medical marijuana.
China Stops Using US Consulting Firms
The effects of the NSA leaks by Edward Snowden are still being felt as state-owned Chinese companies will stop working with US consulting companies over fears they are spying for the US government.
“The top leadership has proposed setting up a team of Chinese domestic consultants who are par-ticularly focused on information systems in order to seize back this power from the foreign companies,” a senior policy adviser to the Chinese leadership was quoted by the FT as saying.
“Right now the foreigners use their consulting companies to find out everything they want about our state companies,” the adviser said.
China already banned Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system from government computers, ac-cording to Chinese state media agency Xinhua.
“Under President Xi Jinping, technology and implementation will look to be converging, so for-eign tech firms should be very worried about their prospects,” Bill Bishop, an independent consultant based in Beijing, told the FT.
Russian Government Tells Russian Banks: Ignore FATCA Or Be Prosecuted
The head of the Lower House financial markets committee said that until Russia passes a law, any report to US tax authorities by Russian banks would be considered a violation of bank secrecy.
Bank employees who permit it could face criminal charges. Russia also said that if the US
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The measure now heads to the Democratic Senate.
New York State Assembly Approves Initiating Process Towards Medical Marijuana
The marijuana industry provides diverse op-portunities for individuals looking to make a differ-ence and make money while doing so. Across the globe marijuana is being legalized, and the same goes for US states. Even DC is moving in this di-rection. The trend continues as the New York State Assembly approved legislation recently to begin the process towards allowing medical marijuana in the state. The cannabis bill could “effectively nullify” federal pot prohibition laws if it becomes law in New York.
Assembly Bill 6357 passed easily in New York earlier this week by a 94-36 margin. Despite the initial and overwhelming support for the medical marijuana bill, the measure is expected to face an uphill battle in the state senate.
Here is an excerpt from New York’s marijuana bill excerpt: “This legislation is an appropriate ex-ercise of the state’s legislative power to protect the health of its people under article 17 of the state con-stitution and the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
Florida will be voting on a similar law in
November. Whichever state passes the bill first will become the 22nd state to go against the federal ban on pot in the US.
Dish Accepts Bitcoin
The obsolescence of the traditional banking system is palpable, and everyone is making adjust-ments.
Beginning in Q3 Dish Network will become the largest company that accepts bitcoin. Subscrib-ers will be able to make one-time bitcoin payments at mydish.com. Dish is the No. 2 satellite company in the world and plans to process payments Via Coinbase, whose Instant Exchange will translate the amounts into US Dollars based on the exchange rate when the transactions take place. Subscribers will be able to pay with whatever bitcoin wallet they would like.
“Bitcoin is becoming the preferred way for some people to transact and we want to accommo-date those individuals,” says Dish COO Bernie Han. Dish’s decision is “a large step forward in the grow-ing momentum of customers paying companies in bitcoin for things we do everyday, like watching premium TV.”
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Tastes of Life
by Sinn Hooper
Has the health trend has passed you by and you can’t catch up?
Become a health food genius in ten minutes using only your taste buds and the rainbow. No prior knowledge required!
Even if you haven’t been paying attention to the health craze that is afflicting pretty much everyone on your friends list, you have surely heard the aphorism that food can either be medicine or poison.
If you aren’t already eating the right foods and avoiding the wrong ones then you are dying a very sad, slow death by your own hand. It is your fault. Reality bites.
It is your fault because you know it, deep down, that you are killing yourself, and yet you haven’t tried and don’t know how to stop or even where to begin down the right path of health and true power.
Years and years of us moving away from what is natural and good toward a toxic industrial diet has put us in a stupor and we’ve all forgotten how to eat. It’s the greatest joke humanity ever played on itself.
How quizzical would our dilemma be to a jaguar? Something so basic, that requires no higher thinking at all. And we don’t know how to do it!
You may feel like there is too much informa-tion to dissemble, you are too busy, or it is too late to start. Don’t fall into the trap of excuses that cut you off from living your true potential!
Like every other species on this planet, you were born with everything you need to begin your journey back to health, it is your birthright. Claim it!
Your body is truly amazing. No matter what shape you are, or how you may think you don’t add
up, take time right now to feel gratitude for your body; for the protection and many gifts it freely gives you. Your body wants and knows what is best for you.
The Six Tastes of Life
Everything you need to know about what to eat every meal to guarantee health and vitality is intrin-sic. A lost language within your very own body!
And the key to uncovering what has been lost is so simple. It’s right there on your tongue!
The Six Tastes of Life are a concept of Deepak Chopra, MD. They are like a cheat-sheet for you to follow to have a perfect, healthy diet with zero to minimal thinking required.
Include these tastes in every meal and you are done. You will have given your body all of the nutri-ents and support it needs to go on serving you and unlocking gifts you haven’t even dreamed of yet... and you didn’t have to read anything except this one article:
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Sweet Foods(Build tissue and calm nerves)
• Whole Grains• Starchy Vegetables• Dairy• Meat• Chicken• Fish• Honey• Molasses
Sour Foods(Slow emptying of stomach, reducing insulin-
inducing effect of carbohydrates)
• Citrus Fruits• Berries• Tomatoes• Pickled Foods• Vinegar
Salty Foods(Help stimulate digestion)
• Natural salts• Salted Meats• Fish
Walking into the produce department of a gro-
• Sweet• Sour• Salt• Bitter• Pungent (Spicy)• Astringent
Astringent Foods(Absorb water and tighten our tissues)
• Lentils• Beans• Green Apples• Grape Skins• Cauliflower• Pomegranates• Tea• Coffee
Bitter Foods(Loaded with natural phytochemicals,
which are anti-inflammatory, detoxifying, and immune boosting)
• Green Leafy Vegetables• Kale• Celery• Broccoli• Sprouts• Beets
Pungent Foods(Contain natural anti-oxidants and anti-bacterial,
-viral, and -fungal chemicals;Stimulate digestion and metabolism)
• Peppers• Chilies• Onions• Garlic• Cayenne• Curry• Turmeric• Black Pepper• Cloves• Ginger• Mustard
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• Asparagus• Celery• Avocado• Zucchini• Brussels Sprouts• Green Peas
Blue and Purple Foods
• Blueberries• Purple Grapes• Red Cabbage• Beets• Eggplants• Plums
White Foods
• Pears• Coconuts• Onions• Garlic• Cauliflower• Parsnips• Rutabagas
cery store can be daunting to a newcomer. There are so many options and they all look a lot alike. Hope-fully the Six Tastes of Life will help you through those first few trips.
Another rule to follow that makes grocery shopping a lot easier is one of my favorite short-cuts, “The Seven Colors of the Rainbow”:
Red Foods
• Watermelon• Pink Grapefruit• Papayas• Red Bell Pepper• Chili Peppers
Orange Foods
• Oranges• Melons• Mangoes• Apricots• Sweet Potatoes• Carrots
Yellow Foods• Lemon• Banana• Pineapple• Peaches• Yellow Squash• Corn• Yellow Bell Pepper
Green Foods
• Apple• Kiwis• Lime• Spinach• Lettuce• Chard• Arugula• Kale• Swiss Collards• Broccoli• Artichokes
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notifications about how your totally clean, detoxify-ing gluten-free, non-dairy, soy, peanut, GMO, blah blah blah diet is going.
As a general rule though, eat what nature intended. A perfect diet would never include foods that are frozen, leftover, unnatural, or canned.
Also, if you’re curious about how much food you should be eating to be healthy, just look down at your hands. I’m not going to get all sappy on you again, but again, your body is your best friend. Make two cups with your hands and put them together and make a bowl. Two of those bowls per meal. It is ideal to allow 1/3 of your stomach some space each meal for digesting.
Sinn Hooper
Simply following The Six Tastes of Life and The Seven Colors of the Rainbow will ensure you are feeding your body the most nutritious diet on the planet.
Of course there are more foods that would fit into each category of The Six Tastes of Life and The Seven Colors of the Rainbow. You will find them as you begin tasting and researching on your own, just remember: always natural, never processed, no GMOs.
I’m not saying you have to trade in your busi-ness slacks for tweedy hippie trousers and remain celibate from the foods you’ve loved all your life. Be a normal person and allow yourself to do what truly makes you happy, by all means. The last thing we all need are more annoying self-righteous Facebook
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TDV Interview
with Justin O’Connell
New Hampshire has attracted a diverse array of freedom lovers from all over the US. The Free State Project has invited people from all over the world to join with their communi-ty of pro-liberty people and focus their reform efforts on one state: New Hampshire. New Hampshire has been considered one of the most ideal places to live, having been ranked as one of the most livable states, with plenty of recreational resources, mountains, lakes, riv-ers, forests, beaches and year-round tourism to keep people of all interests enamored.
New Hampshire has a live-free-or-die culture (it says so on their license plate) and that is why libertarian activists are moving there. New Hampshire does not have a sales tax or an income tax and has low regulation.
For more information on the many advantages that New Hampshire has to offer, visit The New Hampshire Advantage and 101 Reasons to Move.
The following is a TDV interview with NH-based freedom fighter, Carla Gericke.
TDV: What’s new in the Free State? Carla Gericke: New movers are arriving weekly! The growth and excitement is palpable. Keene’s Rob-in Hooders won a 1st Amendment lawsuit against the City of Keene. I won a First Circuit Court of Appeals case against the Weare Police Department, which Reason magazine called, “A powerful rebuke to cops who continue to harass people with bogus wiretapping charges when they dare to capture im-ages or sound of police encounters on their cell-phones.” The politico-participants are working on the upcoming elections. We hosted a record break-ing Liberty Forum in February, with author and activist Naomi Wolf, and whistleblowers Thomas Drake and Jesselyn Radack, who represent Edward Snowden. And, of course, PorcFest is coming up in less than a month!
TDV: What can individuals expect at Porcfest this year? CG: It’s crazy! For keynotes, we have food freedom activist Joel Salatin, Patrick Byrne, CEO of Over-stock.com (the first large retailer to take Bitcoin), and Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine. Equally exciting is opening up the event to new speakers who want to talk about their passions. This year’s theme is “DIY,” Do It Yourself. This is like a clarion call for Free Staters. We’re folks who like to DO things, not just talk about them. Expect everything from Beekeeping for Beginners, to Biltong Making (I’m doing that one), to Build Your Own AR-15. There are gun shoots, nightly themed dances, hikes, BrunchFest, bonfires, and more. We have also focussed on “Kids and Family” events, like junior tie-dyeing, PorcOlympics, knitting classes, teen mixers, and even a paper airplane contest. There are popular returning events like Buzz’s Big Gay Dance Party and the Ladies of Liberty Cook-Off. Folks like Jeffrey Tucker, TDV’s very own Jeff Berwick, and Bill Buppert will be in attendance. Last, but not least, expect a few surprise guests! You can check out the PorcFest schedule here.
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TDV: Is voting libertarian important in NH? CG: Voting is important to some participants, oth-ers could care less. We welcome minarchists and anarchists, and the predictable debates that come with the territory. What is more exciting is that early movers are developing an understand that in order to shift the tide against an overreaching state, we have to band together, and oftentimes even hard-core anarchists will vote for their friends (who are sometimes also anarchists, like FSP participant Tim O›Flaherty who ran as a NH state representative in 2012… and won). NH is a unique state: Ron Paul came in second in both the Republican and Demo-cratic primaries in 2012, the only state where this happened. TDV: What sort of press have free staters received lately? CG: There’s been a lot of recent press about Ger-icke vs. Weare Police Department, et al:
• http://rt.com/usa/162272-police-film-ap-peals-court/
• http://www.unionleader.com/arti-cle/20140525/NEWS07/140529379
• http://arstechnica.com/tech-poli-cy/2014/05/court-upholds-first-amend-ment-right-to-film-police/
• http://reason.com/blog/2014/05/29/come-to-free-state-projects-porcfest-wit
I was interviewed by two liberty-curious locals
recently: http://overshareshow.com/episode/liber-tarian-lady-free-state-movement
The New York Times covered the Free State Project in a front page article about Free Keene and the Robin Hood parking meter activism.
Other recent stories in which Free State partici-pants were instrumental:
The New Hampshire Senate rejected a bill to establish a state minimum wage.
The DEA raided 200 businesses nationwide on May 7th and the only raid where agents encountered public scrutiny took place in New Hampshire.
The legislature passed an anti-spying bill that
requires government entities, including federal agencies, to obtain a warrant prior to wiretapping personal electronic devices.
A reporter who attended Liberty Forum wrote an article for Aeon Magazine covering the diversity of (and harmony among) FSP participants’ views.Finally, last year’s BEARCAT controversy generated a lot of mainstream media.
TDV: How has bitcoin changed the prospects for the free state? CG: Crypto-currencies spread freedom. When Overstock.com started accepting Bitcoins, NH has the highest per capita spending on the first day of sales. This gives you an idea about how big the Bitcoin community is here. The longest running Bitcoin meetup, now in its 99th consecutive week, happens weekly in downtown Manchester. The founders of Lamassu, the “Bitcoin ATM,” are FSP participants. Movers pay rent in Bitcoins, agorist taxis take Bitcoin, agorists chefs work for Bitcoin, state reps accept Bitcoin donations, the list goes on. The Bitcoin economy is real and robust, and contin-ues to grow here in NH. TDV: Is there any federal legislation free staters are keeping their eyes on? CG: I can only speak for myself, and I prefer not to pay attention to what our Evil Overlords are up to in the Hell Mouth. Moving to New Hampshire is about localism on steroids. It’s about keeping the spirit of liberty alive in one place. I used to say, “I want to change the world.” Now I say, “I want my backyard to be free.” TDV: Why should individuals move to the free state? CG: If you are looking for the most vibrant liberty community is the world, this is it! New movers often express amazement about the sense of community that exists here--it’s difficult to put into words. Free Staters help each other with everything from un-packing moving trucks, to campaigning, showing up at an activist’s arrest, to mundane real-life things like
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ing in the US. Four seasons, coastline, mountains, lakes, the works. You can get a small sampling of what New Hampshire has to offer here: http://freestateproject.org/resources/recreation. TDV: Is New Hampshire a model for the rest of the US? CG: NH can become a beacon of liberty for the rest of the world to emulate, but for now, I would say most movers have given up on trying to change things on a national scale. NH was chosen for many reasons: political, cultural, economical, quality of living, etc. You can read the “101 Reasons” here. NH is consistently rated as a top “Freest State.” Low taxes, no state sales tax, no state income tax… It is land-based, English speaking, and gravity still ap-plies! To gain a better understanding of why NH was selected as the FSP’s destination of choice, check this out. TDV: What’s on the agenda for Free Staters and the Free State? CG: The Free State Project is the most successful mass-migration movement for liberty since the clos-ing of the American frontier. Thousands of activists are moving to claim “Liberty in OUR Lifetime.” And the official move hasn’t even been triggered yet! As the Free State Project nears its goal of attracting
20,000 signers and trigger-ing the move, we can look to our early accomplish-ments as proof that concen-trating our efforts in one small state WORKS. New Hampshire – the “Live Free or Die” state – has already gained a reputation as the top liberty destination for activists worldwide. So sign the pledge, plan a visit--come to PorcFest or our sister winter event, Liberty Forum--then be the change you seek and vote with your feet!
BBQs and babysitting. There are several participant-run community centers across the state where folks gather daily to chat, make plans, and party. The “Porcupine” community has gotten so large--we have more than 1,600 movers now--that people can align according to personal preferences--home-schoolers, gun enthusiasts, people of faith, atheists, politicos, veterans, entrepreneurs, artists, techies, musicians, chefs and foodies, farmers, the list goes on. A deep sense of freedom and security comes from being surrounded by enough like-minded people to make a real difference. TDV: What should individuals looking to move to the free state do to prepare for the move? CG: Consult our website for resources and tips: http://freestateproject.org/resources. We also have a “Moving Guide” to assist movers: http://freestateproject.org/move/moving-guide. Let us know if you are planning to visit by hitting the “Contact” button on the side of the website. We will arrange meetups with other participants, and answer your questions. TDV: Other than sovereign individuals, what can individuals expect to find in New Hampshire? (any attractions, nature, etc.?) CG: NH offers some of the best quality of liv-
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Combating Inflation with Corn
by Chistopher P. Casey
US farmland values have been growing. Since 2009, the nationwide per-acre value has risen almost 40% while prime farmland properties have sold for record prices. This appreciation derives from legitimate supply and de-mand trends in agricultural commodi-ties. These developments include: an increasing world population, continued limitations on arable land, fresh-water constraints, declining growth in crop yields, and increasing caloric consump-tion in developing countries. These trends are powerful, likely to continue, and carry a worldwide impact. But there is a far more important reason to invest in farmland today, one that is not re-flected in current values.
Farmland is an inflation hedge. Allocating part of one’s investment portfolio to farmland (particu-larly farmland in nations which will experience rela-tively high inflation) will not only protect investors, but will allow them to profit – perhaps immensely.
Why farmland and not some other real estate asset class? Why not own a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), which holds office buildings, hotels, retail shopping malls, or the like? All things being equal, it is true that all real estate should perform relatively well in an inflationary environment. Unfortunately, in the next two to ten years, investors will also likely to have to contend with severe economic down-turns interrupted with weak “recoveries.” Picture the US in the 1970s, but potentially far worse. In such situations, the office building cannot attract
tenants, the hotel goes vacant, and the retail shop-ping mall loses its anchor stores. Farmland has no vacancy issues.
In an inflationary recession, farmland values should thrive. Unlike other real estate asset classes, farmland sells its products to an international marketplace. Corn, soybeans, and wheat will fetch a similar price in any market. Accordingly, as a na-tion’s currency depreciates relative to other cur-
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increased 118%. Farmland appreciation was especially dramatic when viewed in the 30-year period from 1960 through 1989 (see chart on following page).
And how did tradi-tional investment vehicles like stocks and bonds per-form during this ten-year period? In real terms, stocks lost value (up 115% which is less than the aforemen-tioned 118% increase in the consumer price index). Worse, bonds lost almost 70% of their real value (a 10-
Year Treasury Bond total return index increased by only 38% in nominal terms). Investors experienced a decade of massive losses.
Despite this historical precedent, the invest-ment community – to this day – ignores farmland. In fact, few wealth managers will even consider farmland as an investment for their clients. Why? First, the wealth management industry rarely adopts a macroeconomic viewpoint, and certainly not one that deviates from Federal Reserve or other government agency prognostications. Those firms, which do hold a macroeconomic opinion, embrace Keynesian economic theory, which leads them to
rencies, its exports become cheaper. A devastating inflation in the US will hurt American consumers at the grocery store, yet whet the appetite of foreigners.
As demonstrated in the following graphs, the impact of the 1970s US inflation provides some precedent. Grain exports rose significantly not only in absolute volume, but also relative to global ex-ports [US Department of Agriculture. Production. Supply & Distribution (electronic database). www.fas.usda.gov/psdonline. July 2012].
Perversely, this provided a double-whammy for American consumers. As the law of demand dictates, more demand generates higher prices. So agricultural products rose not just in nominal terms, but also in real terms. In fact, the 1970s experienced some of highest prices ever for US agricultural com-modities after accounting for inflation (US Department of Agriculture. National Ag-ricultural Statistics Service. http://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/.)
Rising crop prices in-creased farm revenue, which directly translated into higher farmland values. For the ten-year period ending in 1981, US farmland values rose 303% while inflation
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share the mainstream’s skewed economic expecta-tions. Austrian economists are rare in the wealth management industry, and thus few wealth manag-ers foresee a period of inflationary recessions.
Second, the wealth management industry remains focused on real estate benchmarks that exclude farmland. Therefore wealth managers solely consider traditional real estate asset classes. Absent a change to the real estate benchmarks, no advisor or wealth management firm will act as a “prime mov-er” and incorporate farmland investments. In the cowardly wealth management industry, being the first to deviate from standard investment portfolio benchmarks invites repudiation and entails career risk. So much the better for today’s astute investors, since the price of farmland excludes demand from their clients.
Inflation will come. Not just in the US, but in the developed world at large. It may not happen this year. It may be preceded by a brief deflationary pe-riod. But it will be arrive, regardless as to the contin-ued “tapering” of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program. Once a lethal dosage has been ad-
ministered, reducing the size of additional injections does not cure the patient (for additional information on US inflation, please visit the WindRock article Inflation: Why, When, and How Much? located here). As the U.S. monetary explosion since 2008 dwarfs the increase of the 1970s, the coming inflation may be quite ugly. With the exception of precious metals, few investments can rival the inflationary protection offered by farmland.
Christopher P. Casey
Christopher P. Casey, CFA®, CPA is a Managing Director at WindRock Wealth Management (www.windrockwealth.com) and a regular investment analyst contributor to The Dollar Vigilante. Using Austrian economic theory, Mr. Casey advises wealthy individuals on their investment portfolios to maxi-mize their returns and minimize risk in today’s world of significant government intervention. Mr. Casey can be reached at 312-650-9602 or at [email protected].
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Dear Slavey,
I live in a little town in Ohio and make about $32K a year as an Office Manager for a Dentist. You would think that would be enough in a small town, but it’s just not. I was wondering what you consider necessities these days and what you consider luxuries? Are there expenses most people have that they should stop spending money on?
Joanne in Xenia, OH
Dear Joanne,
I’m getting the sense we’re going to have an-other pretty major economic crash later this year. It’s time to hunker down, and the best way of doing that is to watch your money very very carefully. The number one foolish expense these days is credit card debt. Stop using them, and if your credit is good enough, find one of those 0% interest balance trans-fer offers and keep transferring the balance to new cards when the offers run out. And if your credit is bad, stop worrying about it. Anyone making under $50K doesn’t need to give their credit score another thought. The credit score is one of the major ways the system in the US enslaves you. The truth is, you
just don’t have to buy into it. If you have a stable employment, and you don’t use credit cards, don’t plan to leave your home for a while (especially if you rent), and you buy used vehicles, a bad credit score won’t hurt you at all.
Another major expense to get rid of is cable TV, you can watch almost anything you’d want ei-ther live over the air in crystal clear high definition, or via the internet. There’s a great site called Where to Watch (wheretowatch.org) that links you to all the places to stream movies and TV shows online.
One thing you should never cheap out on is good nutritious food. If your community has a farmer’s market – visit it regularly, and remember that the cheap processed foods you think you’re saving money on can eventually end up costing you much more in medical costs down the line.
If your family enjoys soda, make a healthy ver-sion of it at home with a Soda Stream machine (so-dastream.com). Sparking water and a splash of juice is a lot healthier than a Coke and tastes way better.
Gas prices are getting very high. Do you live close enough to work that you could bike, or car-pool? Doing one of those could save a lot on gas, and always keep your car well maintained to save on fuel as well. And since you’re in a small town, if you have the option to live close enough to work to walk, even better.
A good plan for clothing is to find it online, or at Target. Why pay $100 for designer jeans when you can pay $20? And if you like high end brands once in a while – buy them slightly used on eBay at a deep discount. You’d be surprised how many
Dear Slavey
TDV Homegrown’s Resident Advice Columnist
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wealthy people throw out barely used clothes in the big cities that end up being sold online.
If you find you’re really strapped for cash, how about limiting your movie nights and dinners out to once every couple weeks? Invest in a nice TV with an Internet connection and a Blu-Ray/DVD player and save some major dough on entertainment.
Something I touched on earlier will save you an enormous amount of money over the long term. Take whatever preventative measures you can to maintain your health. There’s nothing more expen-sive in 2014 America than medical bills. Seventy-five percent of all people declaring bankruptcy because of medical debt had health insurance. Oh, yeah, that’s another thing. Why pay $500 a month for the triple-A health plan? Believe me, if you get a major illness, the copay will bankrupt you just as easily as not having insurance. I’d go for the ‘catastrophic’ plan that mainly covers you when you have a major incident. ADD IT UP! Would you pay $6000 a year for small visits to the doctor for minor/day-to-day issues? I almost guarantee you wouldn’t. Better to pay for maintenance visits with cash, then use the insurance when the big stuff comes up. You will save a small fortune! And when getting prescriptions – shop around. If your insurance doesn’t cover them,
find a non-profit pharmacy (yeah, they actually exist) or ask your doctor if he/she knows of a cheap pharmacy that isn’t associated with the major chains. The pharmaceutical companies also sometimes of-fer discount plans for expensive drugs that a lot of people take, like Nexium. If your medicine is really expensive, go to the website of the manufacturer – you may be surprised the deal you can get.
In the United States, I consider the extremely high costs of medical care to be extortion. If you have insurance and you’re in the group that doesn’t care about your credit score, don’t pay the mid-range co-pays for medical tests or procedures. That $600 copay for a test you had done at the hospital will be forgotten by the hospital in six months. It’s not enough for them to sue you over. They already got WAY more than they should have from your insurance, you don’t need to be extorted for money you don’t have.
Last point about saving money in 2014 Amer-ica: With the income you have, don’t even consider “buying” a house, the bank will own it, not you, and if you add it up, it’s probably way cheaper to rent than buy. With the US economy on the verge of collapse, it’s best to not to let a bank have any legal noose around your neck.
Disclaimer
The Dollar Vigilante needs no disclaimer. Everything we say here is what we believe. Furthermore we need no disclaimer because we believe that all na-tion states, governments, securities agencies or other legislative bodies are illegitimate and we do not recognize them nor believe we need their permission to say what we feel about any topic and frankly think it is hilarious that people think a government body should be there to protect them.
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