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Ron Paul: Budget cuts meaningless without Fed transparency
By U.S. Rep. Ron Paul
Monday, April 18, 2011
http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1851:...
Congress focused on issues surrounding government spending last week as talk of deficits, the national debt, and the debt limit saturated the airwaves. This is a positive development.
In years past there was very little concern over how much was spent here in Washington, how it was spent, or how much of our gross domestic product was being consumed by government. That blissful ignorance naturally resulted in decades of government spending with impunity, bringing us to where we are today: trillions in debt with astronomical entitlement obligations that will be impossible to fulfill in the not too distant future.
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Prophecy Resource Spins Off Platinum/Palladium Venture:
World-Class PGM Deposit in Yukon
Company Press Release, January 18, 2011
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX-V:PCY)and Pacific Coast Nickel Corp. announce that they have agreed that PCNC will acquire Prophecy's Nickel PGM projects by issuing common shares to Prophecy.
PCNC will acquire the Wellgreen PGM Ni-Cu and Lynn Lake nickel projects in the Yukon Territory and Manitoba respectively by issuing up to 550 million common shares of PCNC to Prophecy. PCNC has 55.7 million shares outstanding.
Following the transaction:
-- Prophecy will own approximately 90 percent of PCNC.
-- PCNC will consolidate its share capital on a 10 old for one new basis.
-- Prophecy will change its name to Prophecy Coal Corp. and PCNC will be renamed Prophecy Platinum Corp.
-- Prophecy intends to distribute half of its PCNC shares to shareholders pro-rata in accordance with their holdings.
Based on the closing price of the common shares of PCNC on January 17, $0.195 per share, the gross value of the transaction is $107,250,000.
For the complete announcement, please visit:
http://prophecyresource.com/news_2011_jan18.php
So it is a good thing that there is so much political pressure now on our leaders to actually put the brakes on runaway spending.
But even the most generous estimate of the spending cut passed this week -- $38.5 billion -- is a paltry 3.5 percent of the $1.05 trillion in spending through the next five months. This hardly makes a dent in our government's mountain of debt.
Even worse than that, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office stripped away the accounting sleights of hand and scored it as only $352 million in cuts, which works out to less than half of 1 percent of spending. Still, the tiniest cut is better than the massive increases we have become accustomed to in federal budgets.
Of course, our disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are not even included in this budget as they are considered emergency spending. They constitute $3.3 billion in spending in the same time, so they more than cancel out any small cuts the warmongers may crow about.
I voted against the legislation funding government for the remainder of this year, as well as next year's budget because, as in years past, government spends far too much on unconstitutional programs. In spite of any rhetoric about fiscal responsibility, a point-three percent (0.3 percent) cut does not suddenly make the rest of the spending constitutional or responsible. And if the American people do not continue to hold the politicians' feet to the fire, you can be sure we will see massive spending increases again in the future.
In addition to Congress' spending, many Americans are finally paying attention to the spending done by unelected banking cronies at the Federal Reserve. Recently the Fed was forced to reveal some details of loans given out during the financial crisis of 2008 and they are truly shocking.
Matt Taibbi points out in a recent Rolling Stone article that two well-connected Wall Street wives formed a real estate investment company that garnered $220 million in so-called "loans" (free money) from the Fed.
Compare this number to the $352 million in spending cuts the CBO says are in the current budget. A few months later, one of the wives bought a $13.5 million personal residence with her husband, the CEO of Morgan Stanley.
The unelected, unaccountable Fed hands out as much or more money this way as our federal government spends, and yet receives hardly any attention. This is why I believe transparency of the Fed is a critical step to regaining control of our financial situation in this country.
We can never get meaningful reforms if all eyes are on the $352 million so-called cuts, and transactions like the $220 million given to Wall Street cronies are done in the shadows. This is why I have reintroduced my Audit the Fed bill to this Congress. HR 1207 is now HR 459 and is essential to true fiscal reform and responsibility.
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An Evening with Bill Murphy and James Turk
Sponsored by Deutsche Edelmetall-Gesellschaft
Friday, April 29, 2011
Hofbrauhaus, Munich, Germany
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Canuc Resources Pursues Ecuador and Nova Scotia Gold Projects
Canuc Resources Corp. (TSX: CDA) has confirmed high-grade gold and the potential for large-tonnage, low-grade copper and gold mineralization at its primary asset, property in the historic Nambija gold mining district in southeastern Ecuador.
Last November Canuc took an option on the Mill Village gold property in southwestern Nova Scotia, which includes two past-producing mines. Canuc plans to begin surface and underground exploration at Mill Village in the next several weeks, financed by $2 million recently raised through a private placement.
To generate immediate income, Canuc is acquiring MidTex Oil and Gas Co., owner of a producing gas well and a lease on 320 acres in Stephens County, Texas.
Canuc's CEO, Gary Lohman, has more than 30 years of experience in the mining industry, primarily as a geologist, and the company's officers include similarly experienced people.
For more information about Canuc, please visit http://www.canucresources.ca/.
