Leviathan: “You Better Play Along If You Want To Survive”

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

The Lord Acton vision of the corruption as a function of power has been demonstrated by our very own government. The Rule of Law and Constitutional constraints no longer matter, it seems. Rule by tyranny is so much easier and has displaced the constraints that enabled America to become great and successful.

Examples of the abuse of power now abound. Recent treatment of the ratings agencies is but one example. The ratings agencies dared tell the truth about the US government’s financial condition. They did so by lowering their ratings on US government securities. That is the business they are in and that is what they are supposed to do when conditions warrant.

Government’s reaction is a blatant example of how far we have moved toward totalitarianism. Eagan-Jones was forbidden from rating government bonds for two years. I don’t understood that decision, but I am neither Leviathan or a ratings agency. Can’t anyone rate a bond so long as it is not used to provide investment advice? Am I allowed to say that government bonds are crap? Can Eagan-Jones do so, so long as they don’t rate them?

All Egan-Jones did was adjust the rating of government debt so that it conformed with the change in financial conditions of the government. Or, to put it simply, all they did was their job and tell the truth. For that they are being punished. How dare they expose the fact that the Man Behind The Curtain is a fraud!

Now S&P is under attack for the same reasons. Peter Schiff describes this assault (my emboldening):

With the announcement this week of its massive $5 billion lawsuit against ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, the Federal Government took a bold step to squelch any remaining independence of thought or action in the financial services industry.

Given the circumstances and timing of the suit, can there be any doubt that S&P is paying the price for the August 2011 removal of its AAA rating on U.S. Treasury debt? In retaliation for the unpardonable sin of questioning the U.S. Treasury’s credit worthiness, theObama Administration is sending a loud and clear message to Wall Street: Mess with the bull and get the horns.

Shockingly, the blatant selectivity of the prosecution, however, has failed to ignite a backlash. But as the move violates both the spirit of the Constitution and the letter of the law in so many ways, I can’t help but look at it as a sea change in the nature of our governance. Call it Lincoln with a heavy dose of Putin.

The clear message is that exposing the fraud that is our government will unleash the powers of the State against you. The Wizard of Oz financial status of this country must not be revealed. To do so is to risk the retaliation of a malevolent State.

No individual or company is big enough to survive a government persecution. Should the State want to destroy them, regardless of innocence or guilt, they can. That is the state that our country has reached.

“You better keep quiet or we are coming for you” is the clear threat being communicated. Along with it is the implied threat that “once you are on our radar, we make the choice as to whether to destroy you or not for speaking out, even if it is the truth.” No one can survive a government persecution.

This abhorrent behavior by the State is no different than putting guns to people’s heads. If we don’t reverse this path, that will come soon enough.

http://www.economicnoise.com/2013/02/22/leviathan-you-better-play-along-if-you-want-to-survive/