Our Economic Protector: The Penny

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!! News
January 24, 2016
Yahshua Matheny
The penny has a critical role as an economic vanguard against inflation.

We've all been through it: fumbling around with pennies when your cart costs one last cent or slightly more. Most of us have resigned to simply telling the cashier to "keep the change" whenever the price point doesn't end in a neat zero or five. Escalating the matter even further, some have been calling for the U.S. to drop the penny from mint, just as Canada did in 2013. However, despite the initial benefits retiring the penny would seemingly give, there is substantial evidence against this change of economic policy. For everyone interested in a strong economy, the answer is simple: the United States should not get rid of the penny.

The penny has a critical role as an economic vanguard against inflation. According to the Scholastic article,"Should the U.S. get rid of the penny?" the price of minting a penny now costs "almost two cents to make one." This means that inflating the penny via increased minting of the coin would be much more difficult financially than, say, minting a coin with a lower cost to ratio, like the dime or quarter. The cost prevents mass minting and therefore resulting inflation that also brings economic havoc, as seen in the inflation of the German Reichsmark after World War I. In order to pay war reparations from the Treaty of Versailles, the Mark was printed in massive quantities, devaluing it greatly. Wheel barrels of Marks would only afford a single loaf of bread. In order to avoid such an economic crisis in the United States, a stable currency without a potential ro be inflated is needed. Therefore, the penny should be kept.

Another benefit of keeping the penny would be the avoidance of rising prices caused by losing the coin. Without pennies, stores would have to round up to the nearest 5 or 0 cent mark in order to support customers paying in cash and coins. This could have an impact on consumers. According to Forbes, research suggests that consumers could spend an additional $600 million a year if the penny was dropped out of mint. This could severely hurt families, as the collective ride of prices would begin to take a toll on budgets. The penny, along with the nickel, is the last line of defense against a devestating price increases such as the one described.In today's economy, losing such a valuable advantage would, and could, be disastrous nationwide.

One of the most potent aftereffects from dropping the penny would be a rise in government spending, something that is already a catastrophic problem today. According to Forbes, an economic study, found that the resulting inflation from dropping the penny could result in an extra $1 Billion in federal spending. With government spending already at ** $3.5 Trillion and a deficit at $486 Billion, another billion to the pile might not sound like much, but it is still impactful. Getting another billion deeper into the deficit is not a productive economic outlook, especially if it is easily avoidable. Thusly, keeping the penny is what anyone seeking to reduce federal spending would desire.

The common, popular, and main talking point in favor of ridding the penny is the aforementioned production to value ratio described earlier. Since pennies cost more to mint than they are worth, cutting them out of production would save the government money, reducing federal spending, as the anti-penny argument goes. However, as illustrated above, retiring the penny would simply encourage inflation, raise prices, and as a result, increase government spending. Introducing such a slew of economic problems based upon a flimsy preposition would be a recipe for financial misconduct. Any economic gain that would result from getting rid of the penny would be near - immediately countermanded by the effects.

Aside from cutting down on the annoying penny hassling, getting rid of the coin would just cause more problems than it is worth, quite literally. Seeing even more inflation added to our current economic status, along with higher prices from rounding up, and lastly, government spending increasing by another billion, is just unwise to needlessly cause. If we just decide to keep the penny, not only will we prevent such financial troubles, but we'll also save ourselves the extra costs on both a local and nationwide level.

Who doesn't want to keep more change in their pocket?

***

**Federal Spending by the Numbers, 2014

Yahshua Matheny is 14 years old, and likes studying economics, history and politics. He is a contributor to SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!! News.

Page and McLaughlin: The FBI Will Recommend Prosecution For Hillary

Breitbart
January 24, 2016





Chicago Tribune Editorial Board member Clarence Page and “McLaughlin Group” host John McLaughlin predicted the FBI will recommend Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton face prosecution for mishandling classified information on Friday.
McLaughlin asked, “Forced prediction for the panel: the FBI will recommend that Hillary Clinton face prosecution for mishandling classified information? That’s the FBI. Yes or no?”
Page stated, “I’m going to say yes, but she won’t be indicted.”
McLaughlin responded, “I’m with you.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

Tennessee Introduces Bill to Get Rid of Gun-Free Zones

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!! News
January 24, 2016
Mark Matheny


"An armed society is a polite society"..   
                                                              - Robert A. Heinlein


Looks like lawmakers in Tennessee are waking up to the fact that "Gun-free zones" do not keep Americans safe.

Tennessee is introducing a bill that will allow Conceal carry holders to sue property owners that prohibit them from carrying in their establishments.

According to the American Column,
In a story originally reported by The Tennsessean, Senator Dolores Graham has introduced Bill 1736 in order to balance the rights of the second amendment guaranteed by the Constitution and property rights that are inherent to anyone who owns property in America.“It is the intent of this section to balance the right of a handgun carry permit holder to carry a firearm in order to exercise the right of self-defense and the ability of a property owner or entity in charge of the property to exercise control over governmental or private property,” the bill reads.
the problem with the bill is the fact that:
 this bill does not extend to establishments that are legally required to be gun free zones, leaving people defenseless and lacking reparations upon being injured in an incident on government property.
Gun free zones, according to Presidential candidate Donald Trump, are invitations to bad guys who want to use guns in order to do harm.

If elected, he promises to do away with gun free zones here in the U.S. in schools and on military bases:



Of course, the Obama administration, and the left, want to instead make Americans less safe by introducing legislation that in effect disarms citizens and makes them more vulnerable to lawless thugs. The President's daughters go to school everyday with armed security, but they want your children to go to "gun free zoned" schools where they are vulnerable. Obama and our government Representatives have armed Secret Service details following them around, but they want the populace disarmed because "Guns don't make us safer"... (as Hillary Clinton has recently said).

Yet, the Dalai Lama XIV once said:
“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” 
Hopefully we can get more State Representatives to look into passing similar legislation.

Iran: ‘We Welcome War with the United States’

PJ Media
January 21, 2016
John Kerry said Monday that “the world is safer today” because of the Iran nuclear deal. Details of how loud and long the mullahs laughed have not been released.
In reality, the world is more threatened than ever by an aggressive and assertive Iran, confident and swaggering after besting Kerry at the negotiating table.
As the International Atomic Energy Agency certified Iran’s compliance with the stipulations of the nuclear deal and the U.S. and EU ended sanctions against the Islamic Republic, the head of Iran’s armed forces, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, was not in a conciliatory mood. After Iran seized two U.S. Navy boats and briefly held ten American sailors hostage, Firouzabadi declared:
This incident in the Persian Gulf, which probably will not be the American forces’ last mistake in the region, should be a lesson to troublemakers in the U.S. Congress.
And Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), crowed:
American sailors started crying after arrest, but the kindness of our Guard made them feel calm.
He added:
Since the end of the Second World War, no country has been able to arrest American military personnel.
There was more. Said IRGC commander Ahmad Dolabi:
I saw the weakness, cowardice, and fear of American soldiers myself. Despite having all of the weapons and equipment, they surrendered themselves with the first action of the guardians of Islam.
American forces receive the best training and have the most advanced weapons in the world, but they did not have the power to confront the Guard due to weakness of faith and belief.
They did not have the power to confront the Guard. One might almost get the impression that Dalabi thought of the incident as a battle in a larger war.
Indeed, Iranian spokesmen have been declaring their willingness, and even desire, to confront the U.S. militarily for quite some time. On February 11, 2014, the 35th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said:
The Defense Ministry is working to ensure that the Iranian people are armed and ready to confront any enemy threat. Yesterday’s successful test of Iranian-made ballistic missiles was also a crushing response to the nonsense of the American officials who frequently threaten Iran. It is a clear answer to their military option.
The Defense Ministry and the Iranian nation are always ready, and Iran will welcome it if the Americans again put themselves to the test and face the consequences. The Americans will again be defeated, just as they were in the Iran-Iraq war. If they implement their nonsense, the Iranian nation will hand them a crushing defeat.
This saber-rattling has long been common among Iranian officials. Firouzabadi once boasted:
Iran is prepared for the decisive war against the U.S. and the Zionist regime. … Iran has been making plans, conducting maneuvers, and preparing its forces for this battle for years now.
In May 2014, senior Iranian commander Massoud Jazayeri warned that if the U.S. attacked Iran, not only would the result be “the annihilation of the Israeli regime,” but war in the U.S. itself:
[The Americans] know that aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran would mean annihilation of Tel Aviv and spread of war into the United States.
Fadavi added:
Today the Americans and the entire world know that one of our operational goals is destroying U.S. Navy Forces.
A specific target would be aircraft carriers:
[Carriers] provide U.S. airpower in combat; therefore it is natural that we want to sink them … destroying, annihilating, and sinking U.S. boats has and will be in our plans.
In February 2015, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps conducted a drill dubbed Great Prophet 9 in which Iranian forces destroyed a replica of an American aircraft carrier. IRGC commander Jafari said that the drill was intended to be a “message of (Iran’s) might” to “extraterritorial powers.”
Iranian TV coverage of the drill focused on a banner that read:
If the Americans are ready to be buried at the bottom of the waters of the Persian Gulf -- so be it.
This is a direct quotation from the father of the Islamic Republic, the Ayatollah Khomeini.