25+ minimum queue depth at signing on this morning.
Hitler said everything was fine until the tanks rolled into Berlin
Buy new rose tinted glasses and spend spend spend sheeple
So some fall off the edge, better work harder and not look round, tunnel vision will help you not feel the pain _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Spitzer: Federal Reserve is ‘a Ponzi scheme, an inside job’
By Daniel Tencer, Published: July 25, 2009, Updated 1 day ago
The Federal Reserve — the quasi-autonomous body that controls the US’s money supply — is a “Ponzi scheme” that created “bubble after bubble” in the US economy and needs to be held accountable for its actions, says Eliot Spitzer, the former governor and attorney-general of New York.
In a wide-ranging discussion of the bank bailouts on MSNBC’s Morning Meeting, host Dylan Ratigan described the process by which the Federal Reserve exchanged $13.9 trillion of bad bank debt for cash that it gave to the struggling banks.
Spitzer — who built a reputation as “the Sheriff of Wall Street” for his zealous prosecutions of corporate crime as New York’s attorney-general and then resigned as the state’s governor over revelations he had paid for prostitutes — seemed to agree with Ratigan that the bank bailout amounts to “America’s greatest theft and cover-up ever.”
Advocating in favor of a House bill to audit the Federal Reserve, Spitzer said: “The Federal Reserve has benefited for decades from the notion that it is quasi-autonomous, it’s supposed to be independent. Let me tell you a dirty secret: The Fed has done an absolutely disastrous job since [former Fed Chairman] Paul Volcker left.
“The reality is the Fed has blown it. Time and time again, they blew it. Bubble after bubble, they failed to understand what they were doing to the economy.
“The most poignant example for me is the AIG bailout, where they gave tens of billions of dollars that went right through — conduit payments — to the investment banks that are now solvent. We [taxpayers] didn’t get stock in those banks, they didn’t ask what was going on — this begs and cries out for hard, tough examination.
“You look at the governing structure of the New York [Federal Reserve], it was run by the very banks that got the money. This is a Ponzi scheme, an inside job. It is outrageous, it is time for Congress to say enough of this. And to give them more power now is crazy.
“The Fed needs to be examined carefully.”
Spitzer resigned as governor of New York in March, 2008, after news reports stated he had paid for a $1,000-an-hour New York City call girl.
At the time, Spitzer had been raising the alarm about sub-prime mortgages. In the wake of the economic meltdown triggered last fall by sub-prime loans, some observers have suggested that Spitzer may have been targeted by law enforcement because of his high-profile opposition to Wall Street financial policies.
Investigative reporter Greg Palast wrote that federal agents’ revealing of Spitzer’s identity as a call-girl customer was no coincidence.
Palast wrote that the principle of “prosecutorial discretion” is often used to keep the names of high-profile persons out of the media when they are tangentially linked to a criminal investigation. In the case of Spitzer, the Justice Department chose not to invoke prosecutorial discretion.
Funny thing, this ‘discretion.’ For example, Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, paid Washington DC prostitutes to put him in diapers (ewww!), yet the Senator was not exposed by the US prosecutors busting the pimp-ring that pampered him.
Naming and shaming and ruining Spitzer – rarely done in these cases - was made at the ‘discretion’ of Bush’s Justice Department.
Spitzer recently told Bloomberg News that President Obama’s regulatory reforms of the financial sector are “irrelevant” because regulatory agencies have not been enforcing corporate laws to begin with.
“Regulatory agencies already had the power to do everything they needed to do,” he said. “They just affirmatively chose not to do it.”
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 11:50 pm Post subject:
Gary Dorsch, editor of GLOBAL MONEY TRENDS, observes: "No one is asking who will purchase the $1-trillion of U.S. Treasuries to be offered to the market by September. Once that colossal amount of paper is bought, who will purchase another $5-trillion of Treasury paper over the next four-years, as the US-government plunges deeper into insolvency."
After the deliberate collapsing of the U.S. Dollar, the Bilderberg plan for the Global economy calls for something called Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund (privately controlled by global elitists).
The International Monetary Fund elitists already have plans to print billions of dollars worth of a global "super-currency" to address the economic crisis they created in the first place. A one-world currency is the next step toward a one-world government.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:02 pm Post subject:
He's right.
It is criminal insider dealing going on right now as all the insiders sell their investments.
The cuts agenda is a brilliant diversion from the real crisis Cameron has managed to switch the agenda from market failure to public debt. If that sticks, it's a recipe for a Tory landslide
Seumas Milne, guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 September 2009
Whatever else you might say about David Cameron and George Osborne, they have carried off a brilliant political manoeuvre. This time last year, as Lehman Brothers tipped the global banking system towards collapse, the Tories were floundering, irrelevant to the state intervention needed to prevent financial meltdown and hobbled by their support for the deregulation that unleashed the crisis. Cameron was reduced to bleating about "knee-jerk attacks on free markets", as he and his shadow chancellor made the wrong call on everything from the necessity of a fiscal boost to the takeover of the banks.
Twelve months on, the Conservatives have succeeded in turning the entire focus of political debate on its head. Instead of an argument about how to beat the slump triggered by the banking crash, all three main political parties are now competing over how to cut public spending and services. Cheered on by the bulk of the media, Cameron and Osborne have executed a startling sleight of hand, persuading a large section of the public that the real crisis facing the country isn't the havoc wreaked on jobs and living standards by the breakdown of the free-market model — but the increase in government debt incurred to pay for it..........
........The truth is that the current argument about spending cuts and the deficit is the wrong one. It entirely ignores the central issue of the market failure that brought us to this pass or the social outrage of, say, the ballooning pay gap between executives and their workforces spelt out in the Guardian's executive pay survey. The indifference that greeted Brown's appeals to the TUC this week reflect a far deeper alienation among Labour's traditional supporters, who — as Downing Street's private polling underlines — no longer believe the party stands for social justice.
The prospect of cuts in public services and further privatisation, whoever wins the election — clearly more far-reaching if Cameron and Osborne take charge — will certainly mean industrial confrontation in the years ahead. But if a Tory landslide is to be averted, Brown is going to have to move off Cameron's favoured territory — and fast.
Dying Blagojevich fundraiser said he overdosed, mayor says
(CNN) – Police are investigating the death of the former chief fundraiser for ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich as a “death-suicide,” an Illinois mayor said Sunday. – Read More
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/13/blagojevich.fundraiser.dead/ _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Leap 2020 - In Pursuit Of The Impossible Recovery
These French people are serious analysts - pay them some money and they give you the fine detail.
Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin (GEAB) N°37 is available! Global systemic crisis: In pursuit of the impossible recovery
Public announcement GEAB N°37 (Septembre 16, 2009) -
Before this summer, LEAP/E2020's team announced that there would be no recovery in sight in September 2009, and not until summer 2010 in any event. Well indeed, contrary to the claims of the media, and financial and political circles, we confirm our anticipation.
The slowdown in the speed of collapse of the global economy, at the origin of all the « good news » (1), is only due to the world's enormous public financial effort of the last twelve months (2). But the « time saved » using taxpayers' money around the world should have been dedicated to redesigning the international monetary system at the heart of the current systemic crisis (3). Yet, besides a few cosmetic considerations (4) and huge gifts to US and European banks, nothing serious has been undertaken, and, when it comes to the future, the « every man for himself » rule prevails (5).
Now, as summer 2009 comes to a close, and as the three rogue waves start impacting the global economy hard (unemployment (6), bankruptcies (7) and monetary shocks (), the time to mend the system, or to prepare for a soft transition towards a new global system, is over (9). The first signs of a major decoupling (10) are beginning to appear: the rest of the world is rapidly moving away from the Dollar zone. As shown by the chart below, there is a 95 percent chance that 1,000 billion new USDs will be printed in a very near future... not very attractive for the Dollar zone.......
http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-37-is-available!-Global-systemic-crisis- In-pursuit-of-the-impossible-recovery_a3797.html
http://www.leap2020.eu _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
Top 10 Americans for monetary reform: #3: President Andrew Jackson
September 21, 12:06 PMLA County Nonpartisan Examiner Carl Herman
The financial crisis in America today could be over almost instantaneously through monetary reform. Monetary reform is a fundamental shift in how America creates money. The shift is from a Robber Baron-era design of banks creating credit to lend to us at interest and ever-increasing debt, to our community (government) creating it for the direct payment of public goods and services. The benefits of monetary reform are conservatively $1 TRILLION every year, the end of the national debt, and full employment.
Please review the links above to fully understand this idea.
The power of monetary reform is evident in history. Napoleonic France quickly became the world’s leading economy and Paris its most beautiful city after ten years of violent revolution that killed or drove-off their economic leadership. Nazi Germany overcame tragic-comic hyperinflation to become the model economy during the Great Depression. These nations were in worse economic conditions than America today (economic power needs to be invested in the public good, not for empire).
This top 10 list of Americans who understood monetary reform deserve your attention. Given our economic condition, you literally have nothing more valuable for your attention.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) is the last US President to pay-off the national debt. He did so only after ending the Federal Reserve of his day, the privately-owned Second Bank of the United States. The story is told in the 10-minute video below from the Money Masters. As did Thomas Jefferson, Jackson understood the subversive act and perpetual national debt with banks creating money to lend to the government. He did not understand the positive policy response of the government creating money directly for the payment of public goods and services. Jackson critics would respond that he was proficient in killing, and indeed less than capable with constructive policy. In fact, in 1836 President Jackson issued an Executive Order called the Specie Circular that required payment to the government for land to be only in gold or silver. This increased demand and emptied the banks of the day of the fractional gold and silver backing their bank notes, causing bank runs. Jackson and Congress could have issued money directly, as had Napoleon, and then accepted this fiat currency for all payments.
As always, please share this article with all who say they want to be a competent citizen. If you appreciate my work, please subscribe by clicking under the article title (it’s free). Feel free to browse at leisure through my complete titles here.
“The bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me, but I will kill it.” (referring to the Second Bank of the US) . - Said to Martin Van Buren (July 8, 1832), quoted in The Autobiography of Martin Van Buren, published in Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1918, vol. II (1920), ed. John Clement Fitzpatrick, ch. XLIII (p. 625)
“I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the Bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out and, by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out.” - From the original minutes of the Philadelphia committee of citizens sent to meet with President Jackson, February 1834, according to Stan V. Henkels, Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United States, 1928
The following two paragraphs are President Andrew Jackson in his veto message for the renewal of the privately-owned Bank of the United States, which would have continued their private monopoly of creating US money. July 10, 1832.
“It is maintained by some that the bank is a means of executing the constitutional power ‘to coin money and regulate the value thereof.’ Congress have established a mint to coin money and passed laws to regulate the value thereof. The money so coined, with its value so regulated, and such foreign coins as Congress may adopt are the only currency known to the Constitution. But if they have other power to regulate the currency, it was conferred to be exercised by themselves, and not to be transferred to a corporation. If the bank be established for that purpose, with a charter unalterable without its consent, Congress have parted with their power for a term of years, during which the Constitution is a dead letter. It is neither necessary nor proper to transfer its legislative power to such a bank, and therefore unconstitutional…
It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society — the farmers, mechanics, and laborers — who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government. There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.”
“I have no hesitation to say if they can re-charter the bank (2nd Bank of the US – a privately-owned central bank) with this hydra of corruption they will rule the nation and its charter will be perpetual and its corrupting influence destroy the liberty of our country. When I came into this administration…I had a majority of 75. Since then it is now believed it (the bank) has bought over by loans, discounts, etc until…there were 2/3 for re-chartering it.” – President Andrew Jackson, April 7, 1833 letter to R. H. M. Cryer referring to votes in Congress. Ralph Catterall, The 2nd Bank of the U.S., Univ. of Chicago Press, 1902.
"But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing." - Farewell Address, March 4, 1837.
After President Jackson vetoed Congress’ re-charter the 2nd Bank of the US and paid-off the national debt, President Van Buren (elected 1836) and Jackson’s Vice President, was confident the goal of defending the US from a privately-owned central bank was won:
“The practice of funding the public debt…has long been discontinued…A National Bank has become a completely ‘obsolete idea’ among us, as thoroughly condemned in public opinion as a national debt.” – Catterall, p. 431.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Congresswoman Kaptur: There Has Been a Financial Coup D'Etat
In Michael Moore's new film Capitalism: A Love Story, Congresswoman Kaptur says there has been a financial coup d'etat, and that Wall Street - rather than Congress - is in charge.
In a must-watch interview with Bill Moyers broadcast Friday night, Kaptur also said:
* The Federal Housing Agency used to insure 1 in 50 mortgages. But FHA now insures 1 in 4 mortgages, as the debt for bad mortgages has been dumped on the American people
* "Banks have the power to create money". This again confirms and verifies that banks create money out of thin air, not based on the amount of reserve deposits on hand. See this and this
* While - on paper - there are reserve requirements, banks have gone from 10 to 1 leverage (where they could lend out 10 times their reserves) to - in the case of JP Morgan - 100 to 1 leverage. But with derivatives, leverage might be much higher
* Instead of holding hearings on the core problems with the financial system, Congress is holding hearings solely on arcane, peripheral issues
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 7:17 pm Post subject:
Quantitative easing is just about sorting this economic mess.
Anyone who says we should stop is trying to kill us off.
The right wing economists don't want to allow it to continue.
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16039
Quote:
Small "d" Depression: The Financial System is stabilized, the Real Economy Continues to Fall
by Mike Whitney
Global Research, November 12, 2009
The Fed's extraordinary intervention into the financial markets, makes another Lehman-type meltdown extremely unlikely. But while the financial system has been stabilized with a government blank check and rivers of liquidity, the real economy continues to languish. On its current trajectory, GDP will fluctuate erratically for a decade or more while the economy seesaws between positive and negative growth. That means persistent high unemployment, flagging demand, and falling living standards. Where the economy finally lands, will depend more on government policies than on market dynamics. Political changes, like the upcoming midterm elections and Blue-dog resistance to additional stimulus, only add to the uncertainty. That's bad news for anyone who's looking for job security or who wants to see speedy end to the two year-long crisis.
There's little chance that the financial system will suddenly implode or that the country will be overtaken by Zimbabwe-type hyperinflation. But the economy will undergo a low-grade depression, a period of sluggishness and retrenchment that drags on for, what seems like, an eternity. This is what typically happens when crises are extended by keeping terminally-ill banks on life-support instead of putting them out of their misery. Capital that could have been used for jobs and productive activity, ends up vanishing down a rathole.
Regrettably, the post-Lehman economy can't be explained simply in terms of the extremes. Neither "robust recovery" nor "economic Armageddon" accurately describe present conditions. The truth lies somewhere in between, in that vast gray-area where economic indicators conflict with each other and where the best compass is an analyst who knows how to interpret the data. Edward Harrison is a banking and finance specialist who runs the Credit Writedowns website. He posts articles daily and has a solid grip on some very difficult topics. Here's a recent entry on consumer credit which, paradoxically, appears to be expanding and shrinking at the same time. Here's how Edward Harrison sums it up:
"Nonrevolving credit is now increasing along with GDP.... On the other hand, revolving credit is getting crushed....Bottom line: "In Q3, banks are lending again (think cash for clunkers) because nonrevolving debt is up. That’s also why GDP is up. But, revolving credit lines (credit card lines) are being cut.." ( Edward Harrison, "Consumer Credit Down, but does it show deleveraging?" Credit Writedowns) http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2009/10/the-recession-is-over-but-the- depression-has-just-begun.html
GEAB N°39 is available! Global systemic crisis – States faced with three brutal options in 2010: inflation, high taxation or default
As anticipated by LEAP/E2020 last February, in the absence of major reappraisal of the international monetary order, the world is now entering the phase of geopolitical dislocation of the global systemic crisis. In 2010, as protectionism and the economic and social depression will gain momentum, a large number of States will be compelled to choose between three brutal options: inflation, high taxation or defaulting on their debt. A growing number of countries (USA, United Kingdom, Euroland (1), Japan, China (2),…) have used all their budgetary and monetary cartridges in the 2008/2009 financial crisis and are now left with no other alternative. Nevertheless, out of ideological reflex or in an attempt to avoid by any means having to make such painful choices, they will try to launch new stimulus plans (under different names) even though it is now clear that the huge public effort made in the past months to boost the economy is having no impact on the private sector. Indeed the consumer-as-we-knew-him in the past decades is dead, with no hope of resurrection (3). Knowing that nearly 30 percent of Western countries’ economies are now made of « economic zombies » (financial institutions, companies and even states, whose signs of life are only due to central banks’ liquidity injections), it is possible to confirm the inevitability of the “impossible recovery” (4). The international and social (within each country) « everyman for himself » rule is beginning to prevail, as well as a general impoverishment of the ex-Western world, United States in the first place. In fact the West is being scuttled by leaders unable to face the reality of a post-crisis world, who keep resorting to methods from yesterday’s world despite their proved inefficiency.
In this 39th issue of the GEAB, our team has therefore chosen to develop anticipations on general developments in 2010, a year when key states will see their choices be restricted to three brutal options, inflation, high taxation or default, which they will struggle to escape from in vain.
Knowing that one of the reasons why stimulus plans are doomed to fail is that the consumer-as-we-knew-him in the past thirty years is dead, we analyze this phenomenon in this issue of the GEAB, as well as fallout for companies, and for the marketing and advertizing businesses.
In the field of geopolitics, we present a number of LEAP/E2020 anticipations regarding Turkey by 2015 with regards to both NATO and the EU.
Of course, we also present our usual monthly recommendations, as well as the results of the last GlobalEurometre survey.
Evolution of German federal budget (1991 – 2010) (estimates in 2009 and 2010 do not include Angela Merkel’s recently announced tax cut plan) - Source: Financial Times / Thomson Reuters, 11/02/2009
Evolution of German federal budget (1991 – 2010) (estimates in 2009 and 2010 do not include Angela Merkel’s recently announced tax cut plan) - Source: Financial Times / Thomson Reuters, 11/02/2009
Yesterday’s recipes have no effect on the global systemic crisis
The only chance for the states to escape those three brutal options would be that either consumption resumes or the private sector starts investing again. But in the absence of one or the other positive dynamic, States will have no other alternative in 2010 than raise taxes to match their huge public deficits, let inflation soar to diminish the relative weight of their debt, or else file for bankruptcy. Some of these countries (the US, UK, Ireland, Argentina, Latvia, or even Spain, Turkey, Dubai or Japan) could be confronted to two, see all three, options at the same time.
But trends regarding consumption and investment are extremely negative. The consumer is incited to save money, pay back his debt and, more generally, reject (willingly or not) the Western model of consumption of the past thirty years (5) due to which growth, in the US and UK in particular, became nearly entirely dependent on him (6). Meanwhile, companies, due to their lack of visibility (to be positive) or to their negative forecasts, are cutting on investment, a situation emphasized by banking credit restrictions (7). Public investment also is reaching limits: it will be impossible to significantly extend or renew previous stimulus plans without excessively increasing public deficits and then being faced, at the end of 2010, to at least two of the three brutal options (. The states are indeed exposed to increasing pressure (general public, supervisory bodies, private investors) (9) to balance their bad, see dangerous, budgets. In other words, public investment in 2010/2011 is doomed to shrink away.
Foreign demand is completely soaked: everyone wants to export in order to find abroad the greedy consumer or the investing company that is no longer to be found at home. The great myth being that Asia, and China in particular, will provide for this « new Western-style consumer ». Besides the fact that many will be called but few will be chosen among non-Chinese or non-Asian to enjoy the region’s market, it would be an underestimation of the systemic nature of the global crisis to imagine that this new consumer will be as greedy as the now moribund Western consumer. The luxury industry and its current woes in Asia clearly illustrate this situation.
Comparative evolution of UK GDP during each recession since the 1930s crisis (in months, from official start of each recession) - Source – National Institute of Economic Review, 10/2009
Comparative evolution of UK GDP during each recession since the 1930s crisis (in months, from official start of each recession) - Source – National Institute of Economic Review, 10/2009
So what’s left?
« Zombie-economy » now accounts for a considerable part of the global economy
Central banks continue to supply financial markets with liquidity, hoping that at some point their huge quantitative effort will result in some qualitative surge in the real economy. In the US and UK particularly, as they continue to pretend that the crisis does not reflect a general problem of insolvency (of banks, consumers, public organizations and companies), they “wait for Godot” and create the conditions for soaring inflation, and collapsing currencies and public money.
States unflinchingly continue to bear the consequences of banks’ mistakes, nevertheless still listening to bankers’ advice. Thus they built up a debt of first unreasonable and then intolerable proportion, and now they are on the verge of drastically cutting public spending (10) and of significantly increasing taxes in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy (11).
« Economic zombies» (12), private and public ones, now account for a large part of Western and Chinese economies: objectively defaulting states (like the UK or US) which no one dares technically declare as such; bankrupt companies still allowed to run by fear of increasing unemployment (13); insolvent banks (14) whose accounting rules are modified, artificially swollen to hide the worthlessness of their assets, to postpone their inevitable implosion (15).
Financial markets are going up thanks to liquidity graciously offered by central banks (16) eager to give back to the consumer/grant-holder a felling of wealth in the hope that he will start being himself again and consume, when in fact all categories of assets (17), such as gold for instance, are also going up (even faster in most cases), clearly indicating that inflation has in fact returned.
Unemployed people are piling up in dozens of millions in and out of official figures, suggesting that 2010 will be a tough year socially-speaking, placed under the sign of protectionism to save jobs (by means of tariff, environmental or sanitary barriers, or by means of simple competitive devaluations), while governments wonder how much longer they can take the global cost of so much unemployment when no recovery is in sight (1.
Evolution of unemployment rate in the Euroland and in the US (1991 – 2009) - Sources: Eurostat, Bureau of Labour statistics, Morgan Stanley
Evolution of unemployment rate in the Euroland and in the US (1991 – 2009) - Sources: Eurostat, Bureau of Labour statistics, Morgan Stanley
LEAP/E2020 wrote in February and March 2009 that, if the international monetary system was not completely reconsidered before summer 2009, the world would inevitably move towards a situation of global geopolitical dislocation, some sort of a worldwide “very great depression”, centered on the collapse of yesterday’s world’s pillar, the US. That’s where we are now (19). Even tampered figures (20) can no longer hide the level of deterioration of the global economic and social situation nor the descent to hell of the US economy and society. This reality is clearly appearing and will be obvious to everyone by the beginning of the second quarter of 2010. In this GEAB N°39, like every month, our team tries to anticipate the main trends so that everyone, personally or professionally, can get ready for a difficult year in 2010, a year when yesterday’s recipes will prove their inefficiency in curbing the global systemic crisis. _________________ www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org www.rethink911.org www.patriotsquestion911.com www.actorsandartistsfor911truth.org www.mediafor911truth.org www.pilotsfor911truth.org www.mp911truth.org www.ae911truth.org www.rl911truth.org www.stj911.org www.v911t.org www.thisweek.org.uk www.abolishwar.org.uk www.elementary.org.uk www.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2149 http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
https://37.220.108.147/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/
Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:06 am Post subject: Present economic scenario and the banking sector
While the world economy has slowed down considerably during the first half of the year 2001, the expectation of an economic revival was modest for the second half. The recessionary trends were compounded by the adverse impact of the September 11th 2001 events on service and trade. In addition, all segments of the financial markets, particularly, the equity markets were badly affected.
Although the sharp spurt in international oil price has abated, their future behavior remains unclear. Macro economic weaknesses have also been associated with the erosion of business confidence. Insurance, airlines, tourism and even the hotel industry has been hit hard and the exposure of the prominent financial institutions to these industries can be a potential source of vulnerability.
So, the impact was also felt in the financial markets of the emerging market economies, as there was a phenomenal shift away from the risky assets. These uncertainties promoted the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to sharply scale down its growth projections for the global economy to 2.4 percent, which is almost half of the level of growth recorded in the year 2000.
The slow down in the global economic recovery has turned the attention of the economic policymakers towards short-term measures to ensure a strong and sustained recovery. While these efforts are important, they would not distract the international community from the pressing need to remove barriers to trade and investment that hurt the poor people most in the developing countries.
Even during the economic downturn, firms like LoanMax of rod aycox fame have helped people with any type of income to start and manage small scale businesses. This is the main reason for the phenomenal growth of this organization from humble beginnings. With each passing year more and more customers are signing up to avail the various financial packages. While the slowdown in the global economy has affected many organizations, it has not made a dent in the operations of the prominent players.
LEAP/E2020 is of the view that the effect of States’ spending trillions to « counteract the crisis » will have fizzled out. These vast sums had the effect of slowing down the development of the systemic global crisis for several months but, as anticipated in previous GEAB reports, this strategy will only have ultimately served to clearly drag States into the crisis caused by the financial institutions.
Therefore our team anticipates, in this 42nd issue of the GEAB, a sudden intensification of the crisis in the second half of 2010, caused by a double effect of a catching up of events which were temporarily « frozen » in the second half of 2009 and the impossibility of maintaining the palliative remedies of past years.
As a matter of fact, in February 2010, a year after us stating that the end of 2009 would mark the beginning of the phase of global geopolitical dislocation, anyone can see that this process is well established: states on the edge of bankruptcy, remorseless rise in unemployment, millions of people coming to the end of their social security benefits, falling wages and salaries, limiting of public services and disintegration of the global governance system (failure of the Copenhagen summit, growing Chinese/US confrontation, return of the risk of an Iran/Israel/USA conflict, wars worldwide… (1)). However, we are only at the start of this phase for which LEAP/E2020 will supply a likely timeframe in the next GEAB issue.
The sudden intensification of the global systemic crisis will be characterised by the acceleration and/or strengthening of five fundamental negative trends:
. the explosion of the bubble in public deficits and a corresponding increase in state defaults
. the fatal impact of the Western banking system with mounting debt defaults and the wall of debt coming to maturity
. the inescapable rise in interest rates
. the increase in issues causing international tension
. a growing social insecurity.
In this GEAB issue our team expands on the first three trends of these developments including an anticipation on Russia’s position in the face of the crisis, as well as, of course, our monthly suggestions.
In this public announcement, we have chosen to analyse the « Greek case », on the one hand because it seems indicative of what 2010 has in store for us, and on the other because it is a perfect illustration of the way in which news and information on the world crisis is moving towards « make-believe news » between blocs and interests which are increasingly in conflict. Clearly it is a « must » to learn how to decipher worldwide news and information in the months and years to come which will be a growing means of manipulatory activity.....................
SEE! more (A LOT MORE) about the GRAND DEPRESSION (already in progress) and where it will lead - not to mention who DELIBERATELY CAUSED IT! Can you say "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion"? Can you say "ISRAEL DID 911"? Can you say "Death by 1000 Cuts"? Can you say "Humpty Dumpty"? Can you say "ALIEN RACE"?
...and the Insurers and Governments. Intruments of the Elite! _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Six Banks Made $51 Billion in ‘09 (The rest lost money) | The Big Picture
www.ritholtz.com
I gave myriad reasons in Bailout Nation for being strongly opposed to bank bailouts. One of the most compelling factors was the horrific impact past bailouts
Iceland - The Hallmarks of an Israeli Operation
June 16, 2010
The Israeli Role in the Plundering of Iceland
Part Two
THE HALLMARKS OF AN ISRAELI OPERATION
Shortly before the catastrophic collapse of Iceland's three major banks in the fall of 2008, the island nation was ranked as one of the wealthiest and most productive nations in the world. The financial damage caused by the plundering of Iceland's banks is the worst suffered by any country in economic history relative to the size of its economy.
Iceland is a volcanic island nation of about 320,000 people.
When the privatized banks of Kaupthing, Glitnir, and Landsbanki collapsed in October 2008 they had reportedly amassed debts equivalent to 12 times Iceland's gross domestic product. The looting of the Nordic nation's banks did not happen by accident, but was done through a conspiracy that has the distinct hallmarks of an Israeli intelligence operation. Recognizing these hallmarks is essential to solving the crime and preventing it from occurring to other nations.
When the Icelandic banks were privatized in 2002-2003, through "a series of insider dealings," the stage was set for massive amounts of debt to be "uploaded" to the newly-deregulated banks through the acquisition of foreign companies that were net debtors. When they finally collapsed under a mountain of debt, the three major Icelandic banks reportedly held an estimated foreign debt of nearly $100 billion. For a nation the size of Kentucky, with a population of a small U.S. city (about 320,000 like Aurora, Colorado), the banks' debt translates to more than $200,000 per resident.
The assets of Icelandic pension funds, a pool of wealth that current U.S. budget czar Peter Orszag studied before the collapse, were expected to shrink by as much as 25 percent. Orszag's involvement in the Icelandic operation is suspicious in light of his previous work in Russia during the period when it was being plundered by Jewish robber barons following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Peter Orszag
So, how were the hardy Vikings of Iceland plundered? The Icelandic heist was carried out in the same way as the plundering of the U.S. Treasury in 2008-2009, through an unregulated "economic bubble" scheme very much like a Bernard Madoff investment fund. How the scheme operates is fairly simple. An entity, in this case a private bank, is puffed up to look like it is doing amazingly well. Like Madoff's funds, the appearance of success brings in new investors while keeping the image – and the operation – up and going. The image of wealth and prosperity is, however, only a false front that is used to bring more money into the operation.
In reality, the criminals like Madoff running the operation are sucking every last penny they can out of the operation – in this case giving huge unsecured loans to scoundrels like Robert Tchenguiz - "Kaupthing's biggest client as well as director of its largest shareholder." The Tchenguiz formula for property deals is like Larry Silverstein's: borrow heavily to buy the property, and then raise the rent to pay off the loan. (Silverstein, who obtained control of the Twin Towers at the end of July 2001, raised tenants' rents by 40 percent.) Tchenguiz reportedly borrowed more than 1.7 billion Euros (more than $2 billion) from Kaupthing to finance his private investments. But how can a single individual, a foreign national, borrow some $2.5 billion from an Icelandic bank in unsecured loans, causing it to collapse? Tchenguiz, a shameless fraudster, is now trying to sue the Icelandic banks.
Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz
The Robert Tchenguiz operation, named Rotch, "is a complex web of about 600 different companies, with Vin-Rotch Properties, the ultimate holding group, based in Panama." Robert and his brother Vincent are directors of more than 300 companies each. The Tchenguiz family was reportedly "the second biggest landlord in Britain" in 2003. How can a playboy who spends much of his time carousing on yachts off St. Tropez run a "complex web of about 600 companies"? He can't, and he doesn't.
"At the top of the chain is Rotch Property Group, based in Mayfair," the Telegraph reported in May 2003. "It's biggest shareholder is a Panamanian company called Vin-Rotch Properties and the ultimate controlling party is the Tchenguiz Family Trust," which is known to be run by his father, Victor Tchenguiz in Israel.
While it may look like a business about property, in fact, it is not, the Sunday Times reported in a 2002 interview with Robert Tchenguiz: "It is a business about debt and the efficient recycling of debt through complex capital structures."
"From a structural point of view," Robert said, "Rotch is a family business and ultimately owned by our family. The way it's owned – Panama – I don't know if that's of interest to your readers, that's not necessarily something I want to tell them."
"The accounts of Rotch are impenetrable," the Times noted, and the family business is "a web of unfathomable companies with tentacles reaching deep." The Tchenguiz operation is actually an Israeli octopus run by Victor and a team in Israel. The whole operation is based on swapping debt, which is loaded onto a chosen victim (like Kaupthing) – which is then shoved off a cliff. Tchenguiz's brother Vincent was quoted in 2005 as saying: "About three-quarters of our business is debt…but it has come down considerably – about 20 percent [i.e. from 95 percent] – over the years. It's about £3 billion at the moment."
When the puffed-up operation collapses, the outrageous debts are simply passed on to the state, the central bank, and the people. Kaupthing "failed to recoup a total of £1.47 billion (about $2.5 billion) – equivalent to 45 percent of deposits – advanced to Tchenguiz's operations." Because the Tchenguiz family (of London and Israel) played such a big role in the plundering of Iceland, I call it Operation Tchenguiz (as in Genghis Khan).
The value of the OMX Iceland 15 from 1998 to October 2008. The three major Icelandic banks comprised 73 percent of the value of the OMX.
OPERATION TCHENGUIZ
Remarkably, Genghis Khan, the Mongol conqueror of Asia known for his use of terror (1162-1227), crops up with two of the main characters in this sordid saga. Dorrit Moussaieff, the First Lady of Iceland is an Israeli Jew from a Bukharan (Persian) family of jewellers, who is said to have made the golden robes of Genghis Khan. Victor Tchenguiz, the father of Robert Tchenguiz, the biggest borrower from the largest Icelandic bank to collapse, is an Iraqi-Persian Jew who was the court jeweller and head of the mint under the Shah of Iran. Oddly, Victor changed his family name from Kedourie Molayem to Tchenguiz while he lived in Iran (in honor of Genghis Khan) and who now lives in Israel.
While these family connections with Genghis Khan and Israel are interesting, they do not prove that the robbing of Iceland was an Israeli operation. In order to prove that this was an Israeli intelligence operation we need to show high-level Israeli connections occurring at key points in the operation. When we can see that key individuals in the Icelandic saga are connected to Israeli intelligence, we can say that we have evidence of an Israeli conspiracy. If this is the case, it certainly needs to be taken into consideration by those who are working to solve the crime and recover the looted wealth of Iceland and other European nations affected by the plundering of Iceland's banks.
As Eva Joly, the Norwegian-French investigator who was hired by Iceland's state prosecutor said: "The priority is tracing any flow of assets from the banks and getting them back."
RECOGNIZING ISRAELI CRIMINAL GANGS
It was back in the early 1980s while visiting my mother's cousin in Sacramento that I first learned how Israeli criminal gangs robbed banks in America. My relative's husband, who held a senior position at the California Board of Equalization (i.e. the state agency for tax administration), told me about an organized gang that had set up phony jewelry shops in the Los Angeles area. Members of the gang would rifle through the trash bins behind expensive stores on Rodeo Drive in order to find carbon copies from credit card purchases. The gang would then use the pilfered credit card numbers to ring up fake purchases from their fake jewelry stores. The primary losers in this scam were the banks, which lost a great deal of money before the racket was shut down. All of the members of the criminal network, I was told, were Israelis.
Shortly thereafter, while on a sojourn in Puerto Rico where I worked as a sailing instructor, I came across a similar Israeli operation engaged in agriculture. I attended a Jewish holiday party held by the Israelis involved in this commercial enterprise. This operation was centered near Ponce on the south shore and was involved in producing melons and fruit. I recall seeing their logo on the produce boxes in the local supermarkets. Two years later, when I was back on the island, I learned that the farming operation had suddenly shut down and the Israelis had left the island owing more than $67 million to local banks.
Bollyn windsurfing in the waters of Puerto Rico
These are just two of the Israeli criminal financial scams I personally became aware of in the early 1980s in which the primary targets were American banks. There have certainly been other much larger scams of this sort perpetrated by Israelis in the United States. Such organized criminal activity is actually quite typical of Israelis in America.
During the past three decades, primarily because the U.S. government has not cracked down on it, the Israeli criminal network has been allowed to grow while increasing the range and complexity of its operations in the United States. Zionist control of the U.S. Department of Justice has enabled Israeli criminals to escape prosecution, which was painfully evident in the official mishandling of the 9-11 investigation by Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff – the son of an Israeli Mossad agent. Chertoff is the person responsible for the "non-investigation" of 9-11 who authorized the wholesale confiscation and destruction of crucial evidence.
Michael Chertoff oversaw the destruction of the crucial evidence of 9-11.
The hallmark of an Israeli operation, such as the false-flag terror attacks of 9-11, the Madoff scam, or the government bail-out of A.I.G. and Goldman Sachs, is the presence of Israelis (or Zionist agents) at the key nodal points of the operation. Not only are all the key players in the operation Israelis or Zionists, but so are the investigators, media interpreters, prosecutors, and judges who wrap up the loose ends of the crime. The clearest indication of a major Israeli crime is the presence of a Zionist at the critical points of the operation.
In this respect, the plundering of the banks of Iceland is similar to the Madoff scam. The biggest "losers" in the Madoff operation were fellow Zionist crooks, such as orthodox Jewish fraudsters Jacob Ezra Merkin and Sonja Kohn of Bank Medici. Merkin and Kohn operated "feeder funds" that funneled billions of dollars directly into the Madoff pipeline. More than half the money that disappeared in the Madoff pipeline came from such "feeder funds." In this way tens of billions of dollars were sent to secret offshore Zionist-controlled accounts -- where they remain to this day.
The controlled media's focus on Madoff's Jewish "victims" serves to divert public attention from the fact that the co-conspirators in the Madoff scam are Zionist orthodox Jews connected to private Israeli banks – with secretive branches in Switzerland (and other offshore tax havens). The focus on high-profile Jews who claim to have lost money in the Madoff scam is meant to mollify public anger against the Zionist-controlled judicial system that is protecting the criminal network behind the Madoff scam -- and its ill-gotten gains.
The Icelandic operation has the distinct profile of an Israeli operation. The First Lady of Iceland and Robert Tchenguiz, the largest borrower from Kaupthing, are both from Persian Jewish families of jewelers (with affinities for Genghis Khan) based in Israel, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. While there are many other foreign Jews connected to the Icelandic heist, it is the involvement of Jews with connections to Israeli intelligence that reveals the outline of the Israeli operation.
WHO OWNS THE BANK?
The superficial reporting in the Zionist-controlled media obscures the Israeli connections. The New York Times, for example, reported on 8 May 2010 that Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson and Magnus Gudmundsson, former executives of Iceland's Kaupthing bank, had been arrested. Kaupthing was the largest of the three Icelandic banks that collapsed in October 2008 "under a mountain of debt, causing the Icelandic currency to crash and sending the economy into a tailspin."
"Magnus Gudmundsson, a former Kaupthing executive who now runs a privately held bank in Luxembourg, was also arrested," the Times reported. This raised the obvious question about what kind of bank would be run by a former executive of a bank that had failed so badly as Kaupthing. The private bank that Gudmundsson was running when he was arrested in May was actually the former Kaupthing Luxembourg, a branch that had been taken over in July 2009 and renamed Banque Havilland S.A., after the Guernsey mansion of secretive David "Spotty" Rowland – the new owner of the bank.
Kaupthing Luxembourg was bought by Blackfish Capital, "a small British hedge fund" owned by David Rowland, a British tax exile based in the Channel Islands, and his son Jonathan David Rowland, managing director of Citigroup's European Financial Entrepreneurs Group. Despite being a tax exile, David Rowland is the largest contributor to Britain's Conservative Party, which recently won control of the government. When he gave more than £1 million to the party of David Cameron, Rowland said he gave the money because of his concern for "liberty."
When Rowland took over Kaupthing Luxembourg, Blackfish Capital was headed by Martyn Konig, a former veteran director of NM Rothschild and Sons who held senior positions at Goldman Sachs and UBS. Rowland and Konig are both involved in international mining companies, as are several other key players in the Iceland operation. Why would Rowland want to take over a branch of a failed bank under investigation for its role in the collapse of a country's economy? Were Rowland's connections with Israeli intelligence or the Tchenguiz family factors in his decision to take over Kaupthing Luxembourg?
When the former CEOs of Kaupthing and Banque Havilland were arrested, Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said: "It's crucial that the players in the collapse are held accountable. I'm still of the opinion that the lending practices of Kaupthing were either unethical or illegal." Sigurdardottir said Kaupthing had lent 1.5 trillion kronur ($11.5 billion) in transactions that were "if not illegal, completely unethical." The loans were granted to 10 "interlinked parties."
Independent reporters in Iceland, suspicious of the motives behind the foreign purchase of a key branch of the collapsed bank, criticized the media silence about the takeover of Kaupthing Luxembourg in 2009:
The sale of Kaupthing Luxembourg is a very interesting event for various reasons. First is the media silence in Iceland…Why the silence about one of the most valuable assets Iceland has, not from a financial point of view, but from that of the value of information it has on the whole economic collapse and all the very dubious deals going on at Kaupthing and in fact other banks as well.
Did Rowland buy Kaupthing Luxembourg in order to control critical information about where billions of dollars had gone? Was Kaupthing Lux a key conduit in Operation Tchenguiz?
Suddenly, without any explanation, Martyn Konig resigned as chairman of the board of Banque Havilland after only a few weeks. Why did Konig quit the new bank so abruptly? Had he discovered dirty business that he wanted no part of? This question is very relevant because the Luxembourg branches of both Icelandic banks Kaupthing and Landsbanki are said to have been neck deep in dirty business. So, why did Rowland buy Kaupthing Luxembourg and what are his connections to Israeli intelligence?
David Rowland is connected to Israel in several ways:
· Rowland manages the Tchenguiz Depository Trust, a fund belonging to Israel-based Victor Tchenguiz;
· he is the largest shareholder in Shore Capital, an Israeli high-tech venture capital/investment firm linked to Israel's Bank Leumi -- and the Mossad.
Jonathan Rowland was the founder (with his father) and CEO of JellyWorks Plc, a private equity fund that invested in budding Internet companies. The company only lasted 8 months from its flotation in December 1999 until it was acquired by Shore Capital in August 2000. David Rowland was the biggest shareholder in Shore when it bought JellyWorks. Rowland's investment of £12 million in the company was bought out for £45 million – a nearly four-fold return.
Jonathan Rowland has a vision of becoming a banking dynasty: "I want to run an investment house like the Rothschilds or the Flemings," he says. "There is no one around like that any more."
There is also an amazing 9-11 connection. Jonathan Rowland was supposed to be at a meeting at the World Trade Center on 9-11 – but stayed away, just like Larry Silverstein and 4,000 Israelis, saying he had a hangover. As The Independent (U.K.) reported in October 2003:
He had a meeting scheduled in the World Trade Center on the morning of 11 September 2001. But having overdone a "quiet drink" the previous night, he was in his hotel room nursing a glass of Alka-Seltzer when the planes hit the twin towers.
Was it really a hangover that kept Jonathan Rowland from attending the meeting he had flown across the ocean for – or did he also get a message telling him to stay away from the World Trade Center, like the 4,000 Israelis who were supposed to have been in the Twin Towers on 9-11? Are the Rowland's tied to the network of Israelis suspected of pulling off 9-11? It certainly appears that they are.
ZVI MAROM AND THE MOSSAD
Zvi Marom, one of the directors of Shore Capital since 2000, is an Israeli with "close links with the Israeli Chief Scientist's Office and with Governmental bodies funding research for Israeli high tech companies." The main governmental bodies funding research for high-tech companies in Israel are the military -- and the Mossad. Marom and the Mossad are evidently working with David Rowland, who took over Kaupthing Luxembourg in 2009.
Mossadnik Zvi Marom works with David Rowland
The Luxembourg subsidiary of Kaupthing was established in 1998 and has a branch in Geneva, Switzerland. This is the same model as the privatized Israel Discount Bank (IDB), which has a subsidiary in New York and a branch in Switzerland. One of the directors of IDB New York, Seymour Merinsky (aka Sy Syms) was a business partner of Bernard Madoff at Yeshiva University's Syms School of Business.
MENDI AND MOISES GERTNER
Icelandic investigators have reportedly put two secretive Israeli property tycoons, Moises and Mendi Gertner, orthodox Jewish brothers affiliated with the Mossad's diamond-dealing Benny Steinmetz, under scrutiny. The Gertner brothers reportedly bought a 2.5 percent stake in Kaupthing Bank in June 2008 for 14 billion kronur ($176 million). Why did the Israeli property and diamond-dealing Gertner brothers (co-owners with Israeli right-wing diamond tycoons Benny Steinmetz and Dan Gertler of Nikanor, a copper and cobalt mining operation in the Congo), invest in Kaupthing when it was clearly failing?
Benny Steinmetz
Dan Gertler
Steinmetz and Gertler, founder of the DGI Group, are close to and supported by the Israeli military/intelligence establishment. They are friends of Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman and prime ministers Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu. Why would Israeli diamond and mining tycoons connected to Israeli intelligence invest in an Icelandic bank on the verge of collapse? Were they simply using funds borrowed from the bank to try to prop it up just four months before it collapsed?
Simon Halabi, a Syria-born Jew who was another big borrower from Kaupthing, disappeared owing some $75 million to the bank. Halabi, a property tycoon who was estimated to be worth £3 billion in 2007 was declared bankrupt in the High Court of London at the end of March 2010 over a £56.3 million loan he received from the bank's British unit, Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. Halabi was not present at the hearing and no representations were made on his behalf. Halabi's last address was at a hotel in Switzerland. Why would Simon Halabi be in Switzerland? Most likely because that's where he stashed the money.
Simon Halabi disappeared owing $75 million to Kaupthing.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 4:21 pm Post subject:
Systemic Crisis of the World Economy: Global Geopolitical Dislocation
Four Single Points of Failure: Strategic, Financial, Economic and Social Convulsions
Having put recent events, symptomatic of the acceleration of world geopolitical dislocation, into perspective, the four individual points of failure in the second half of 2010 (2), according to LEAP/E2020, are as follows:
• Western public debt: when insolvency becomes intolerable
• European austerity: when contextual growth is abandoned in favour of structural stablility
• Chinese inflation: when China is going to begin to export its inflation
• US contraction: from « hidden mass austerity » to « imposed Federal austerity »
Each one will be affected by a major shock during the course of the second half of 2010, leading to a sectorial, regional or global crisis.
When investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker broke the story four years ago that a DC-9 (N900SA) "registered to a company which once used as its address the hangar of Huffman Aviation, the flight school at the Venice, Florida Airport which trained both terrorist pilots who crashed planes into the World Trade Center, was caught in Campeche by the Mexican military ... carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine destined for the U.S.," it elicited a collective yawn from corporate media.
And when authorities searched the plane and found its cargo consisted solely of 128 identical black suitcases marked "private," packed with cocaine valued at more than $100 million, the silence was deafening.
But now a Bloomberg Markets magazine report, "Wachovia's Drug Habit," reveals that drug traffickers bought that plane, and perhaps fifty others, "with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.," Wachovia and Bank of America.
The Justice Department charge sheet against the bank tells us that between 2003 and 2008, Wachovia handled $378.4 billion for Mexican currency exchanges, "the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in U.S. history."
"A sum" Bloomberg averred, equal to one-third of Mexico's current gross domestic product."
Since 2006, some 22,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence. Thousands more have been wounded, countless others "disappeared," torture and illegal imprisonment is rampant.
In a frightening echo of the Reagan administration's anti-communist jihad in Central America during the 1980s, the Bush and now, Obama administration has poured fuel on the fire with some $1.4 billion in "War on Drugs" funding under Plan Mérida. Much of that "aid" is destined to purchase military equipment for repressive police, specialized paramilitary units and the Mexican Army.
There is also evidence of direct U.S. military involvement. In June, The Narco News Bulletin reported that "a special operations task force under the command of the Pentagon is currently in place south of the border providing advice and training to the Mexican Army in gathering intelligence, infiltrating and, as needed, taking direct action against narco-trafficking organizations.".......
Economist Dr. James K. Galbraith spoke at the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers' 9th convention last month, where he brought delegates a message not often heard from economists – that there is a progressive response to the economic crisis.
Galbraith – the son of famed Canadian economist John Kenneth Galbraith – regaled delegates with his analysis of the roots of the economic recession that has destroyed jobs, families and communities. He said the crisis wasn’t an economic crisis but a fraud perpetrated on innocent victims.
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), the time to mend the system, or to prepare for a soft transition towards a new global system, is over (9). The first signs of a major decoupling (10) are beginning to appear: the rest of the world is rapidly moving away from the Dollar zone. As shown by the chart below, there is a 95 percent chance that 1,000 billion new USDs will be printed in a very near future... not very attractive for the Dollar zone.......
