Never one to mince words, Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr., founder and president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, editor of LewRockwell.com, and author of numerous books on economics and politics, lays it on the line with a scathing rebuke of Obama’s plans to spend one trillion dollars in Obama’s Wealth Destruction, a commentary posted on lewrockwell.com.

Rockwell writes:

With his rhetoric and policies, he (Obama) has decided to demonize private enterprise, just as FDR did, as a way to present government as the great savior.

Rockwell continues:

Now, think about this. If there is a way out of the recession, it will have to be provided by private enterprise. It will come by new businesses, business expansions, entrepreneurship, new technology, and this will be the source of lasting jobs and prosperity.

You cannot make a country rich by looting taxpayers and paying people to pound nails into siding at public schools! These activities amount to capital consumption. They are not sources of investment. You can say that they are stupid tasks or wonderful tasks, but it is not a matter of ideology as to whether such public projects will make us all wealthier. They will not. They drain the sources of wealth from society. They represent a cost, not a blessing.

Continuing, Rockwell condemns Bush’s stimulus plan.

That was also true of Bush’s dumb stimulus program. He was only bailing out his friends at our expense. The effect was to give a little longer life to institutions that were failing anyway. It’s pathetic that the Republicans ever went along with it. You will notice that the scheme didn’t actually work.

Well, Obama is doing the same thing, though rewarding a different set of friends. This is not wealth production. This is wealth consumption. Do enough of this nonsense and you can destroy the livelihoods of an entire generation.

Interestingly, Rockwell praises Reagan for his handling of the 1981-1982 recession.

He (Reagan) was fortunate to have advisers who insisted that he let the liquidation happen rather than attempt to fix the recession of 1981–82 with huge new government spending programs.

Here is Rockwell’s warning, which should be of interest to all gold and silver investors:

The biggest threat facing the American economy right now is rarely even discussed. It is the massive buildup of paper bank reserves in the last quarter of 2008. This was Bush’s doing. He ordered the Fed to print like mad. Fortunately for us, the banks are still holding on to these reserves. When they start lending again, the result could be hyperinflation of Confederate dollar proportions.

Read Obama’s Wealth Destruction by following this link.

The Collapse of ‘09 will follow the Panic of ‘08, says Gerald Celente, founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, on The Lew Rockwell Show. The 13-minute interview can be heard on podcast. (If podcasts are new to you, click on the small podcast icon. You may have to download a free program that will play the podcast.)

This is one of the direst forecasts that I have run across. Calente calls the current mess “a global meltdown, a global economic crisis.” He says the Obama administration may do some drastic things, such as close banks.

Further, he says Obama may even confiscate gold. Still, Calente says he’s buying gold, the form of money that can survive the collapse. On the Rockwell site, there’s another podcast in which Calente forecasts $2,000 gold.

Calente sees a collapse of the commercial real estate market as large retailers close stores. He and Rockwell also discuss the Treasury’s taking over the banking industry, a big increase in the police state – an increase that will continue under Obama – and the potential for domestic riots with the worst living conditions ever. Calente sees “crime going off the scale.”

If you’re concerned about the government taking action against gold, consider buying silver. If silver’s bulk and weigh present challenges, consider palladium, which is now selling its lowest level in years. Although palladium has not been used as money, it is a precious metal that has important industrial uses and will survive the destruction of the dollar. CMIGS has PAMP 1-oz .9995 palladium bars.

In a speech before the House of Representatives, Congressman Ron Paul, a long time student of Austrian economics, predicted not only a dollar crisis but a worsening economic crisis.  He fears that our recession will, because of Fed action, turn into a depression, a view that is most interesting.

The common perception is that the Fed will prevent a depression via its creation of still more dollars.  Ron Paul says that the Fed’s action will bring on a dollar crisis and a depression.  If Paul is right, a dollar crisis and a depression seem inevitable because the Fed has already printed trillions of new dollars and stands ready to print more.

The speech, which is less than five minutes, can be found on YouTube.

Too many casual observers dismiss Ron Paul’s views because he is a doctor.  True, Ron Paul is a doctor who has delivered more than 3,000 babies.  But, he has studied Austrian economics for thirty plus years and is qualified to comment on the economic state of affairs.  Compared to economic understanding that most members of Congress have, Ron Paul should have Ph.D. behind his name along with M.D.

Paul has written several books on economics and politics.  Here is a link to six of Paul’s books available from the Ludwig von Mises Institute.  For gold investors, I recommend Gold, Peace and Prosperity.  For those who would like to still learn more about free market economics, I recommend any of Paul’s books.

Finally, for readers would who like thoroughly grasp the role that the free market plays in increasing economic well-being, The Mises Institute is their source of books on free market economics.  Any serious discussion of economics, free markets and money always involves a discussion of gold.