I just returned from a rather unsettling family reunion.

It was held in the aftermath of my 93-year-old Aunt Emma’s funeral.

That was bad enough.

But when the topic turned to the stock market things went even farther south…and fast.

There were at least four of us in the room who had invested various amounts and with varying success in the equities of our choice.

I was probably the only one there who had, predictably, lost his shirt…at least to this point. You see, I had made the mistake of investing in gold funds and stocks. At the time, I believed we still had a free market economy with room for any commodity or interest sector to score giant gains in somewhat predictable cycles.

Now, I know better. On a daily basis, I watched the value of gold knocked down in patterns so boringly repetitious they could not have possibly been left to chance.

As my retirement fund was losing more than half its value, I did a little homework, visited a gold investors’ bulletin board and discovered the real reason for our so-called booming economy of the Clinton years.

It’s as rigged as a Biloxi roulette wheel.

Bubba’s choice of Wall Street insiders like Robert Rubin to oversee his financial miracle was no accident. They oversaw a group of financial manipulators known even in mainstream media circles as the "Plunge Protection Team."

Whenever the bottom was about to drop out from under the market, massive sums of our tax dollars would be fed back into the Dow or Nasdaq, propping up the overpriced stock bubble and delaying the inevitable bear market.

To further insure the availability of cheap money to underwrite their risky derivative investments, the money manipulators also needed to keep down the price of gold. That let them borrow at one percent interest and invest the proceeds into their favorite fiat enterprises.

Yesterday morning, I shared some of these insights with three other relatives, all long-term Republicans. I expected they would share my indignation at the blatant manipulation and clearly socialistic policies that allowed government investment and ownership of our means of production. Certainly they would object to Clinton’s cynical political maneuvering based on nothing more than fiscal lies.

The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.

No one wanted to offer a hearty three cheers for Bill Murphy and the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee lawsuit that’s been filed against the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland and the Federal Reserve Banks.

I suspect if I had pressed them on the issue I would have discovered that the Bill Clinton economy had been good to each of them, personally. And since they may have benefited from the private use of public funds on their behalf, I suspect they feel there may yet be an acceptable place for modifications to that outmoded notion of a laissez faire economy.

Or perhaps the silence was one of resignation or guilt. I refuse to cast stones.

Were I in their position, I might have been tempted to feel the same way. At least, there’s nothing personally that I could do to change things, I might reason…so why not just go with the flow and pocket the proceeds?

But then…I have to live with myself. As a conservative, I believe in a limited role for government. Washington D.C. should be neither a help nor a hindrance to my financial success. It should not guarantee fortunes to insiders nor thwart the legitimate investments of those who don’t share their investment philosophies. It should be neutral.

Obviously, we can all agree that the Plunge Protection Team was established for two reasons…to make money for those in power and to preserve the power itself. A good economy is critical to one’s re-election chances. Just ask Bill Clinton.

Here’s a thought for all those who knowingly ride the coattails of expanding government, growing their own portfolios on the public dime.

Today, the government controls the rise and fall of the market. But what it chooses to do with the equities it owns may also control the fates of individual companies. If a future corrupt administration has a bone to pick with Bill Gates, it can buy controlling interest in Microsoft and force him out…or it can purposely buy high and sell low to send the value of that company straight into the dumpster.

Government involvement inevitably leads to government control. Good conservatives should know that…and speak out against it no matter what the personal cost.

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