The Binary Circumstance

ABC News and their chief investigative reporter Brian Ross are doing an illuminating series of stories about how the Democratic Party has been courting big money at their convention in Denver while doing their best to prevent any media coverage of it.

Anybody who thinks the Democrats are the party of the little people should read about the “Pelosi 100“:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) created the “Pelosi 100″ for people “who contribute and raise $100,000 in personal funds,” according to documents obtained by ABC News.

The wealthy members of the “Pelosi 100″ attended a private, lavish party Monday night in the penthouse suite of the Denver Performing Arts Center, featuring Tony Bennett, John Legend and James Taylor.

There was a heavy security presence with police telling reporters “no media is allowed,” although observers on the balcony of a nearby apartment building could view the scene.

Also included in the $100,000 Pelosi package was “preferred booking” at a top downtown Denver hotel, four convention hall credentials and access to luxury sky boxes overlooking the convention floor.

An ABC reporter trying to cover the event was roughed up, choked by a cigar smoking Denver policeman and ultimately arrested by several police officers even though he and the cameramen appeared to be on a public sidewalk. One officer can be seen pushing the reporter out into the street while the reporter is complaining that he’s on public property. (The link for the video is in the article.)

During the arrest, one of the officers can be heard saying to Eslocker, “You’re lucky I didn’t knock the f..k out of you.”

In addition, lobbyists are spending wildly at the Democratic Convention and some ethics groups have noted Barack Obama’s silence on the matter.

A spokesman for the Obama campaign, Ben LaBolt, said the Senator could not “make changes to this year’s convention” because of the “very late end to the primary season.”

As a result, lobbyists are once again spending millions of dollars here on gourmet food, top-shelf liquor and private lavish parties for Democratic elected officials who seem more than happy to play the role of world-class freeloaders.

According to Denver’s top chefs and caterers, no expense is being spared.

Kevin Taylor, of the Denver restaurant Palette, who says he is the only four-star chef in Denver, says he is booked to prepare delicacies for more than 100 “high end, hush-hush events.”

“The demand is over the top, you’ve never seen anything like this,” said chef Taylor, especially for his signature King Crab terrine appetizer with white champagne caviar.

The Democratic Party elite are certainly not having trouble putting gas in their tanks, food on their tables or paying for health care though they want us to believe they understand the financial difficulties so many Americans are having these days. The fact is they don’t.

Germany is an example of what happens when the government prints too much money to pump up the economy. Pumping up is another way of saying preventing deflation. (See my recent post about how much money the Fed is creating to keep the financial system propped up.)

We should not ignore the extreme hyperinflation of Germany in the 1920’s as an example of how bad things can become when inflation gets out of control. In January 1919 an ounce of gold cost 170 German marks. Less than five years later, the same ounce cost 87 billion marks. The hyperinflation affected everything, even postage stamps. For example, in 1923 a stamp originally issued for 300 marks was overstamped with a revised value of 2 million marks.

Source: The Demise of the Dollar by Addison Wiggin. New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2008, pg. 145.

Is hyperinflation in our future?

From Yahoo News/AP:

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that wholesale prices shot up 1.2 percent in July, pushed higher by rising costs for energy and a variety of other products from motor vehicles to plastic goods.

The increase was more than twice the 0.5 percent gain that economists expected and left prices rising over the past 12 months by 9.8 percent. That marked the biggest annual increase since the 12 months ending in June 1981, a period when the Federal Reserve was driving interest rates to the highest levels since the Civil War in an effort to combat a decade-long bout of inflation.

I remember those double-digit interest rates from the early 80’s. It was not fun.

The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press, that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. — Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve

Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effective than that which deludes them with paper money. — Daniel Webster

Source: The Demise of the Dollar by Addison Wiggin. New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2008, pg. 81.

To see just how much Ben Bernanke has been using that printing press, see my previous post.