Essential Reading
VIA MAT Policy Change Doesn’t Affect BullionVault And GoldMoney Customers With U.S. Tax Liabilities
On February 22, 2013, the following appeared on SilverDoctors.com:
ViaMat, one of the world’s leading precious metals storage firms (used by BullionVault & GoldMoney as primary storage provider) has just notified US customers that effective April 30th 2013, it will discontinue private storage of precious metals for all clients with a US tax liability. Clients have until April 30th to notify Via Mat International where they would like their physical bullion dispatched to.
And from The Daily Reckoning website on March 5:
An article on this subject said:
“For one, the big gold depositories like Gold Money and Bullion Vault ALL use Via Mat as a primary secure storage provider. So it’s only a matter of time before Via Mat’s decision cascades across these other firms.”
We believe that neither BullionVault nor GoldMoney will see “Via Mat’s decision cascade across these other firms.” Neither company faces U.S. taxation nor are they in U.S. jurisdiction. They are gold dealers who buy and sell gold for their clients for cash and house the gold in Via Mat’s vaults.
As Survival And Prosperity participates in affiliate programs offered by both BullionVault and GoldMoney, I decided I’d better contact both companies to make sure my referrals/their customers with U.S. tax liabilities won’t be affected by VIA MAT’s recent policy change.
Here’s what I received from GoldMoney this Monday:
Dear Mr. Hill,
Thank you for taking the time to contact us and to express your concerns.
We are aware of VIA MAT’s change of policy regarding individuals with potential US tax liabilities.
However, please be advised that this does not impact GoldMoney customers since you do not have a direct relationship with VIA MAT when you store metals at VIA MAT vaults with GoldMoney.
For more information, please see the following FAQ:
http://www.goldmoney.com/faq/are-us-residents-allowed-to-hold-metal-with-goldmoney-at-via-mat-vaults.html
And from BullionVault Tuesday morning:
Dear Mr.Hill,
Thank you for your email. BullionVault is a commercial client of ViaMat. The letter posted and referred to on the internet last month says that the decision applies to ViaMat’s own US private clients. ViaMat has confirmed to BullionVault in writing that it has “no impact whatsoever” on the services they provide to us.
So there you have it. BullionVault and GoldMoney customers with U.S. tax liabilities won’t be affected by VIA MAT’s recent change in policy.
Special thanks go out to GoldMoney’s Toni Sty and BullionVault’s Adrian Ash for helping me get to the bottom of this.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Sources:
The Doc. “LEADING GOLD STORAGE FIRM VIAMAT DUMPS ALL US CLIENTS.” SilverDoctors.com. 22 Feb. 2013. (http://www.silverdoctors.com/leading-gold-storage-firm-viamat-dumps-all-us-clients/). 7 Mar. 2013.
“Where To Go as Swiss are Shutting Out U.S. Taxpayers.” The Daily Reckoning. 5 Mar. 2013. (http://dailyreckoning.com/where-to-go-as-swiss-are-shutting-out-u-s-taxpayers/). 7 Mar. 2013.
North Korea Capable Of Crippling U.S. With Super-EMP Weapon?
“A furious North Korea threatened Thursday to attack America with nuclear weapons as punishment for perceived Western aggression – saber-rattling that came as the United Nations readied more sanctions against the Kim Jung-un’s rogue regime.
An unnamed spokesman in Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry office said North Korea will launch “a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors,” The Associated Press reports.
The spokesman referred to Washington as being the aggressor in a nuclear attack on North Korea, AP states.”
-The Washington Times, March 7, 2013
The last time I blogged about the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s nuclear warfare capabilities was on January 27. From that post:
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has been doing a lot of saber-rattling since I last blogged about the Communist state last month. At that time, I asked:
So what kind of timeframe are we talking about here before North Korea has an ICBM capable of reaching and hitting the continental U.S.?
Based on expert opinion, it could just be 4 short years.
And how does America know North Korea’s intentions are to target it with nuclear weapons? Ju-min Park and Choonsik Yoo reported on the Reuters’ website last Thursday:
North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its “sworn enemy”…
“We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States,” North Korea’s National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
Park and Yoo added:
North Korea is not believed to have the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States, although its December launch showed it had the capacity to deliver a rocket that could travel 10,000 km (6,200 miles), potentially putting San Francisco in range, according to an intelligence assessment by South Korea.
Now, the above discussion focused on a nuclear attack against the United States with intercontinental ballistic missiles as they’re traditionally-intended to be used.
However, earlier this week I stumbled upon material which suggests North Korea may already have the capability to cripple America via unconventional nuclear warfare.
Enter Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, Executive Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and Director of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, both congressional advisory boards. Dr. Pry, a former intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, wrote on the Family Security Matters website on February 26:
The West consistently and unwittingly cooperates with North Korea and Iran by underestimating the advancement, sophistication, and strategic implications of their nuclear weapon and missile programs.
Despite North Korea’s successful long-range missile test in December 2012, and now its third successful nuclear test on February 12, 2013, the Obama administration and the press keep reassuring the American people that North Korea is not yet a fully fledged nuclear weapons state – that a North Korean nuclear missile threat to the United States is still years in the future.
The facts do not support this judgment. North Korea is already a major nuclear threat to the United States–an existential threat.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
Dr. Pry went on to say:
North Korea now appears to be armed with a FOBS capability to make a surprise nuclear attack against the United States–or against any and all nations on Earth–with Super-EMP.
FOBS? Super-EMP? The author of Apocalypse Unknown: The Struggle To Protect America From An Electromagnetic Pulse Catastrophe explained:
A Super-EMP warhead is a nuclear weapon specially designed to produce an enormous burst of gamma rays that generates an extraordinarily powerful electromagnetic pulse, capable of destroying even the best protected electronics, thereby paralyzing military forces and blacking out power grids and collapsing critical infrastructures everywhere–across an entire nation the size of the United States…
During the Cold War, the USSR experimented with a secret weapon, the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS), that used an ICBM like a Space Launch Vehicle to put a nuclear warhead into orbit, like a satellite. Instead of using the ICBM to lob the warhead on a more accurate arcing ballistic trajectory, flying along the shortest range to target, like an artillery shell, the FOBS lofted the warhead into a “fractional” or partial orbit, sacrificing accuracy for limitless range.
FOBS could reach any nation or threaten any target anywhere on Earth.
A Super-EMP warhead does not weigh much, and could probably be delivered by North Korea’s Fractional Orbital Bombardment System, successfully tested in December 2012, against any nation on Earth. Thus, North Korea already possesses an ICBM and poses a mortal nuclear threat to the United States, and to all nations on Earth–right now.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
Real disturbing stuff. Even more so now that the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday for tougher sanctions against North Korea.
You can read Dr. Pry’s warning about the North Korean Super-EMP threat in its entirety on the Family Security Matters website here.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Posts Now Being Published First Thing In The Morning
In my continuing efforts to improve upon Survival And Prosperity, I’m going to try and publish all of the day’s posts beginning and ending around 6:00 AM Central Time. Readers already got a taste of that this morning.
Now, if something comes up during the day that I think followers of the blog should know about right away, I’ll make an exception to this new schedule. However, going forward I anticipate all new material being out on the blog by a little bit after 6:00 AM.
Thank you for your continued support of the blog.
Christopher E. Hill
Editor
Gun Appreciation Day, January 19, 2013
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Illinois Democrats Now Attempting To Ban, Register Guns And Magazines In State House Of Representatives
No doubt about it- the fight for the preservation of gun rights will be an ongoing one. Especially here in Illinois. From the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action website today:
Anti-Gunners Seek to Exploit Tragedy to Advance their Anti-Freedom Agenda to Ban and Register Guns and Magazines – Contact your state Representative TODAY
Yesterday when Senate President John Cullerton was unable to garner thirty votes in the Illinois Senate to pass legislation banning firearms and magazines, he postponed the floor votes on these bills until next week. Now Governor Patrick Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel have shifted their anti-gun focus to the state House of Representatives in an attempt to ban your guns and magazines during the Lame Duck session on Sunday through Tuesday.
As a way of distracting attention from his failure to control and reduce out-of-control violent crime in Chicago, Emanuel is once again actively seeking to restrict your Second Amendment rights. Emanuel is infamous for saying “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” Convenience should never be used as a factor. No time should ever be considered a good time to attack the law-abiding public and strip it of its rights and civil liberties. As previously reported here, the Illinois Senate recently attempted and continues to try to pass two extreme anti-gun bills which, if enacted, will ban, tax and require registration for semi-automatic firearms or detachable magazines, impose severe restrictions on shooting ranges and create a myriad of new laws that will easily turn an entire class of law-abiding citizens into felons. After their efforts stalled yesterday in the Illinois Senate, thanks to your efforts to call and e-mail your state Senators, it appears that Emanuel and Quinn are still hell-bent on exploiting recent tragedies to achieve their goal of making YOU a felon by shifting their anti-gun focus to the state House. So they are now looking to introduce similar gun and magazine ban registration language in the House when it convenes on Sunday for the last few days of their lame duck session.
Representative Edward Acevedo just filed an amendment to Senate Bill 2899 which would accomplish this. This bill is currently scheduled to be heard by the House Judiciary I – Civil Law Committee on Sunday afternoon and will be considered by the full House soon after. It is critical that you call your state Representative TODAY and respectfully demand that he or she oppose any and all anti-gun initiatives, especially Senate Bill 2899, and stand up for your rights!
While details are still emerging as to the particulars of this legislation, one thing is for certain: Anti-gun politicians are attempting to sacrifice your constitutional rights as a scapegoat for the criminal acts of violence in Chicago by gangs and drug dealers. While it might be convenient right now, it is irresponsible for these anti-gun politicians to launch an attack on your rights as a consolation prize just because they lost in their attempts to flout the Constitution and deny Illinois citizens their right to keep and bear arms.
They may not have not achieved success in courts or in the Senate thus far, but they are still determined to go after your rights. Don’t let them succeed in banning your firearms or magazines as an excuse for stopping criminals and lunatics from misusing them. Criminals — by definition — violate laws, especially gun control laws, including often: murder, rape, robbery, drug-dealing, gang violence, firearm theft, carrying concealed firearms without a license/permit, federal gun-free school zones. They do not obey gun bans, register their firearms, or get subjected to any gun control schemes (like the lone state ban on carrying concealed firearms for self-defense) that only affect and penalize law-abiding citizens like you. Your telephone calls TODAY to your state Representatives will determine the outcome of this very serious assault on your Second Amendment rights.
The NRA-ILA will continue to send legislative updates as details become available. However, it is of the utmost importance that you act NOW to stop this gun and magazine ban. Call your state Representative IMMEDIATELY and respectfully express your opposition to banning firearms or magazines, and urge them to vote against any and all measures that do so, particularly Senate Bill 2899.
To reach the main line for the Illinois General Assembly, please call 217-782-2000.
Contact information for your state legislators can be found by clicking here.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (http://www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Illinois Senate Democrats Push Two Bills That Ban, Register ‘Assault Weapons,’ ‘High-Capacity’ Ammunition Magazines
“I urge the full Senate to follow the committee’s lead and quickly pass this important legislation.”
-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, commenting on two gun “control” bills that passed out of the Illinois Senate Public Health Committee tonight, setting the stage for a possible floor vote Thursday
Here’s the latest on the gun and “high-capacity” ammunition magazine bans expected to be pushed through by Democrats in the “lame duck” session (January 2-9) of the Illinois General Assembly. From the Associated Press this evening:
Illinois Senate Democrats who want assault-weapon restrictions will split the issue into separate votes on high-capacity ammunition clips and the guns themselves.
Democratic Sen. Dan Kotowski (koh-TOW’-skee) of Park Ridge told The Associated Press he intends to press legislation to limit ammunition magazines to ten or fewer rounds…
Chicago Democratic Sen. Tony Munoz is expected to sponsor the second bill banning assault weapons “designed for war.”
Uh-oh. As I was typing this the following hit the newswires. From the Associated Press a short time ago:
An Illinois Senate committee, in a party-line vote, has approved restrictions on semiautomatic assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips.
One measure would ban the sale of semiautomatic handguns and rifles. People who currently own such weapons could keep them, but would have to register them.
The second proposal would limit ammunition magazines to 10 or fewer rounds.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
Semi-automatic rifle and handgun ban?
Gun registration?
That’s what the AP is reporting.
Barnini Chakraborty noted on the FOX News site today:
The state Senate got back to work Wednesday. The House plans to return Monday. Both legislative bodies are working against a Jan. 9 deadline — when the state’s new General Assembly will be sworn-in.
That being the case, looks for Illinois Democrats to try and make the proposed gun and magazines bans- and gun registry- the law in Illinois by a week from today.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (http://www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Sources:
“Illinois Senate to address bans on guns, clips.” Associated Press. 2 Jan. 2013. (http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/local/article_27c39e22-553e-11e2-9913-001a4bcf6878.html). 2 Jan. 2013.
“Ill. Senate committee approves bans on guns, clips.” Associated Press. 2 Jan. 2013. (http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Ill-Senate-committee-approves-bans-on-guns-clips-4162513.php). 2 Jan. 2013.
Chakraborty, Barnini. “Illinois Dems press forward with gun control bills, firearms group warns of ‘no exemptions’” FOX News. 2 Jan. 2013. (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/02/illinois-dems-press-forward-with-gun-control-bills-firearms-group-warns-no/). 2 Jan. 2013.
Obama Backs New Gun Ban After Declaring ‘I’m Not Going To Take Away Your Guns’ In 2008
“A woman in the crowd told Obama she had ‘heard a rumor’ that he might be planning some sort of gun ban upon being elected president. Obama trotted out his standard policy stance, that he had a deep respect for the ‘traditions of gun ownership’ but favored measures in big cities to keep guns out of the hands of ‘gang bangers and drug dealers’ in big cities ‘who already have them and are shooting people.’
‘If you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it,’ Obama said. But the Illinois senator could still see skeptics in the crowd, particularly on the faces of several men at the back of the room.
So he tried again. ‘Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’ he said. ‘This can’t be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I’m not going to take away your guns.’”
-Mary Lu Carnevale and Christopher Cooper, Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire blog, September 5, 2008
David Jackson and Jackie Kucinich reported on the USA TODAY website tonight:
Obama backs new assault weapons ban
President Obama supports efforts to reinstate an assault weapons ban as part of a comprehensive plan to address gun violence, his spokesman said Tuesday.
Press Secretary Jay Carney added that Obama would back proposals to close the “gun show loophole,” which allows people to buy weapons without background checks…
Obama met with aides and others to develop a “comprehensive” plan that would include the education, social and mental health issues associated with gun violence. He is also “interested in looking at” possible restrictions on high-capacity ammunition clips, Carney said…
Obama “wants to move in the coming weeks,” Carney said.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
“I’m not going to take away your guns.”
Truth-loving Americans will hold the President to that statement.
Sources:
Mary Lu Carnevale and Christopher Cooper. “Obama: ‘I’m Not Going to Take Your Guns Away.’” Washington Wire. 5 Sep. 2008. (http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/05/obama-im-not-going-to-take-your-guns-away/). 18 Dec. 2012.
Jackson, David and Kucinich, Jackie. “Obama backs new assault weapons ban.” USA TODAY. 18 Dec. 2012. (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2012/12/18/obama-carney-newtown-assault-weapons-ban/1777793/). 18 Dec. 2012.
Quote For The Week
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
-Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (French historian and political thinker, in his 1835 book Democracy in America. 1805-1859)
Project Prepper Begins
Back in early 2007, I decided to launch a blog that warned anyone who would listen of a coming U.S. financial crash.
By 2010, many Americans had tasted the type of carnage I predicted three years earlier. And it was at this time I decided to take my blogging in a new direction, from simply warning about the coming storm to providing information and possible solutions for coming out on the other side of the maelstrom in decent shape.
For almost two years on Survival And Prosperity, I’ve addressed that information component. As I see it, the writing is on the wall concerning where our economy and larger financial system is headed. As such, it’s time to really focus on potential solutions- those things that might help protect and grow self and wealth in these uncertain times and down the road.
Enter “Project Prepper.”
Once in a while I blog about preppers/survivalists, and as a result, I’m often mistaken for one. The truth is, I’m not a “modern survivalist.” I’m just an independent researcher and blogger currently focusing on economics, finance, investing, and personal safety.
That being said, as a result of my research and this blog, I’m now aware of the myriad of man-made and naturally-occurring threats to my life and lifestyle (and those of my loved ones), and think it’s probably wise to acquaint myself more with “prepping” via a sustained “hands-on” program of learning and doing, which I’ll call “Project Prepper.”
Through a series of posts on this blog which I suspect should last for quite some time (years?), I’ll be able to share my preparedness experiences with you.
By doing this, I’ll also be able to make more progress in providing readers of this blog those possible solutions I talked about earlier in the post.
Will I end up being a “prepper” at the end of it all? Who knows? If anything, I should be able to glean a good deal of useful knowledge from this venture.
Knowledge which I hope to share with you.
Watch for new “Project Prepper” posts in the coming days.
Republican. Democrat. The Economy’s Still Toast.
Boom2Bust.com is an independent financial blog that seeks to warn and educate its readers about the coming U.S. financial crash.
-From “About” page on Survival And Prosperity’s predecessor blog, Boom2Bust.com, which debuted on Memorial Day Weekend 2007
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has weighed-in on the selection of Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) as the running-mate of Mitt Romney in this November’s presidential election. Fran Spielman, Chicago Sun-Times City Hall reporter, wrote on the newspaper’s website this morning:
Emanuel, the former White House chief-of-staff now co-chairing the president’s re-election campaign, took his first shot at Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s chosen running-mate.
The mayor said he served with Ryan on the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Budget Committee and believes Ryan’s budget-cutting ideas do not chart the right course for the nation or the middle class.
“A lot of independent economists say his budget would lead to a recession,” Emanuel said. “I don’t think a recession is a pro-growth strategy.”
A lot of economists- independent and otherwise- didn’t see the recent housing crash, global economic crisis, and “Great Recession” coming either.
And these days, most economists are predicting a subdued-yet-steady recovery for the U.S. economy with no hint of recession on the horizon.
Based on their prior missed calls, why would anyone believe them?
Now, I’m not writing this post in support of Congressman Ryan and the Republicans’ budget.
Nor do I agree with these “independent economists” Mayor Emanuel speaks of.
However, it’s my view and that of this blog that at this point in the game- where a financial crash has been temporarily averted by drastic monetary/fiscal measures taken by Washington and the Fed circa 2008- when it comes to the U.S. economy and larger financial system it really doesn’t matter which political party controls the reigns now and after November.
We have a spending problem. And both the Republicans and Democrats have clearly demonstrated they are not serious about curtailing it.
But what about the Republican budget-cutting Mayor Emanuel just alluded to above?
Well, what about it?
As the FOX News website pointed out today:
Here are a few little-known facts about Paul Ryan’s supposedly slash-and-burn budget plan.
• Government spending increases almost every year over the next decade.
• Tax and other revenue rises year after year.
• The 10-year deficit is still $3 trillion.The fact that Ryan’s spending plans grow the federal budget over the long term is one that could easily be lost in the political melee underway in the wake of his selection as Mitt Romney’s running mate.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
Not only is our financial “day of reckoning” still on its way, but it will most likely be a lot more painful due to actions (mountains of new debt accrued in the name of stimulus) taken to delay what to me looks inevitable.
And it’s not just this blogger who envisions a truly disturbing outcome. A number of those very few economists and other financial types that correctly-called the housing collapse, the 2008 economic crisis, and the “Great Recession” are once again sounding the alarm.
And once again, most Americans- with assistance gladly provided by the mainstream media and numerous Pollyannas throughout society- marginalize the warnings of these “crash prophets.”
Ignore at your own peril, I say. Or rather, many of their track records say.
Republican. Democrat. The economy’s still toast, from where I stand.
Ignore all the political rhetoric, the propaganda, the intellectual masturbation. A quick look below the surface of our financial system and it becomes readily-apparent the patient is gravely-ill.
Just like that depiction of Uncle Sam on this blog’s “About” page.
Hopefully, I’m wrong about all this.
Chris looks forward to retiring the blog one day, as such an activity will signal his belief that the worst of the crash is over with a sustainable economic recovery now at hand.
-Boom2Bust.com, Memorial Day Weekend 2007
Sources:
Spielman, Fran. “Emanuel: Paul Ryan budget plan could trigger recession.” Chicago Sun-Times. 14 Aug. 2012. (http://www.suntimes.com/14480460-761/emanuel-paul-ryan-budget-plan-could-trigger-recession.html). 14 Aug. 2012.
“Fact Check: Ryan budget plan doesn’t actually slash the budget.” FOX News. 14 Aug. 2012. (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/14/fact-check-ryan-budget-plan-doesnt-actually-slash-budget/). 14 Aug. 2012.
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