Make no mistake about it, this an overt and blatant signal about just how bad our system has already deteriorated. Although it didn't start with George W. Bush, his tenure in office ushered in a transformation of our system into Rule by Fiat. The term "fiat" was originally a Latin word meaning "let it be done" and represented a decree or pronouncement by a person or Government in the position of absolute authority to enforce it. That's our Government. A Rule by Fiat totalitarian regime.
Obama refused to negotiate over the budget and debt limit deal. Why? Because somehow, hidden from view, he had the leverage to avoid compromise and the authority to force the outcome he and his handlers wanted. Now Obama is forcing Government implemented and managed healthcare down our throats. How about the way in which the NSA operates to spy on every aspect of our lives unfettered from any sort of regulation or restraint. In fact, the NSA pretty much is our worst nightmare: a known pedophile running a child daycare business out of his basement.
Throughout history, Governments move into totalitarian mode when they have lost control of the economy. Of course, if the system is free from Government control in the first place, then there's nothing of which the Government can lose control and you avoid the whole problem. But here we are now with the biggest political charlatan in the history of the United States overseeing the collapse of our system economically, socially and politically. And the implementation of Rule by Fiat is the last gasp of a Government that is letting the business and political elitists confiscate the remaining remnants of wealth that haven't been expropriated from the middle class since 1971. Note: 1971 is when Nixon destroyed any legitimate chance of our system existing as it was given to us by the Founding Fathers when he pulled the plug on any connection between gold and the U.S. dollar, thereby creating a pure fiat currency. And it's this fiat currency that belies the transformation of our Government into one of Rule by Fiat.
Another way of saying "Rule by Fiat" is "because they can." The elitists running our system and using Obama as their front-man can pretty much do whatever they want because they can. No one is even making an attempt at stopping them. The very people who are capable of stopping them are instead shooting each other at the mall on Black Thursday in order to save a couple bucks on the latest fashion sweater or electronic gadget. And Obama is the perfect front-man for them because if you disagree with anything he says or does you are branded as a "rascist."
And while Obama has been the False Prophet of Hope and Change for everyone who voted for him, the U.S. dollar represents the largest financial Ponzi scheme in history. Circling back to this new era of Black
Think about this while the news networks coerce you to bask in the glow of the White House Christmas tree and video footage of Barack and Michelle experiencing holiday glee. They, their political colleagues and the wealthy elite do not have to worry about how they are going to try and make the holiday season joyful for their families. But what exactly did Barack do to earn this right other than sell his soul and our country out to the highest bidders?
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uwunkWS2OxyvTXtPPzb0hsI6pH6iEaflSfDay55Qlkuhqcrea-WWNVRt89kyD-5OHjyLKqCrNkF-lMTstfl_iVyP75Hwq19ZLiNZwwxA=s0-d)
And I guess we're to believe our "news" does not go through a filter?
ReplyDeleteBloomberg Code Keeps Articles From Chinese Eyes
An article that is missing from mainland terminals is the one that, more than any other, might have helped catalyze the creation of Code 204. It is a story about political protests that ran on Feb. 21, 2011, and it is what prompted Chinese officials to cite the terms of Bloomberg’s State Council license to top editors in Hong Kong, employees said. The article was a lengthy explanation written from the Beijing bureau about calls on the Internet for peaceful “Jasmine Revolution”-style protests in China modeled after the uprisings in the Middle East. It even had the Chinese words for Jasmine Revolution — 茉莉花革命 — in the text. Chinese officials, fearful that word of the protests would become widespread, had been trying to block any websites and mobile phone text messages that used those words.
Soon after the conversation with Chinese officials, Bloomberg editors deleted the story from the Bloomberg website, even though the site is global and not China-specific, employees said. This prompted an outcry from Bloomberg journalists in China, and editors later restored it, though it cannot be found with the site’s search engine. (A version of it shows up in a Google search.) Employees said they recalled that it was possible to read the article on the mainland terminals. But as of last week, the article could no longer be found there. Editors might have applied Code 204 to the article after the code’s creation, which occurred in the wake of Bloomberg’s conflicts with Chinese officials over Jasmine coverage. One person said he believed there was a way to apply Code 204 retroactively to articles, so that stories that appear on mainland terminals upon general publication can later be taken off.
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/bloomberg-code-keeps-articles-from-chinese-eyes/?
Wall Street Journal's Alistair MacDonald "reports" an outright lie
ReplyDeleteFriday, November 29, 2013
Wall Street Journal's Alistair MacDonald "reports" an outright lie
The Wall Street Journal's Toronto-based reporter, Alistair MacDonald, last night published what can only be described as an outright lie. Here's what he claimed:
http://utdocuments.blogspot.com.br/2013/11/wall-street-journals-alistair-macdonald.html
Holidays are no longer about family or love and warmth. The mindless sheeple have been programed to buy shit they don't need with money they don't have. Run up those credit cards now, worry about the bill in January. The masters of subliminal programing have accomplished their objective and now have total control of the masses . Until this mass brain washing of the population, the greatest deception was created by the devil. He convinced people that he did not exist. The people running this massive dumb down of the general population have surpassed the devil.
ReplyDeleteWe have met 'the devil'...
Deleteand he is us.
Just saw the videos on mall brawl and I am totally disgusted. absolutely insane! The empty, hollow soul of today's american people. However, had they any integrity in them, they would not be throwing away their hard-earned money (pearls, despite being fiat) to the swines (worthless products with limited shelf-life by global corporations). I have one quote that supposely came from one of the founding fathers: "Buy what you have no need of and soon you'll be selling your necessaries".
ReplyDeleteWe are going into our fourth year of drought in the US. The weather patterns have changed since that massive earthquake near Japan and the radioactive waters are destroying our oceans. In Nevada, our winters are less and less. It's Nov. 29th and there's no snow at all! My mom lives at the top of the mountains in California and they ALWAYS have 10 foot snowfall but it's gotten ALOT less the last 2 years and there's none right now. The snow plow is idle. Everyone keeps saying it's going to be a bad year of snow and it ain't happening. We depend a lot on that snow for our water and it flows into the truckee river for Reno. a late snow fall (feb/march) will not improve things as that snow melts very quickly than accumulates like early snow. glad I stocked on water but it looks like I may need more.
Gold and Silver is all fine but the US will come and get it when the time comes. FOOD AND WATER is really important for survival. You can't eat rocks. Let all these people buy up the garbage but what's going to happen when food prices soar? What about random blackouts in cities to save power as cheap oil disappears? what's going to happen when you can't listen to music, internet, TV, Xbox, etc.? What about when the sewer system stops working and it backs up back into cities with people getting badly sick from the lack of fresh water?
These people panic and fight over "toys". Wait till they are fighting for their very existence!
"These people panic and fight over "toys". Wait till they are fighting for their very existence!"
DeleteWell, they'll be well practiced, won't they.
Japan Finances Worse Than at War’s End
ReplyDelete“Looking at our country’s outstanding liabilities from a historical perspective, they are above the levels seen near the end of the Pacific War, when all resources available were being spent for the war effort,” said the finance ministry’s fiscal system council in documents released Friday. “This situation is extremely grave.”
Although the BOJ and the government aren’t currently in a snake-eating-its-own-tail type of situation where the central bank is monetizing sovereign debt, bond dealers suspect they’re pretty close. Under its aggressive program launched in April to stamp out over 15 years of deflation, the BOJ is buying government bonds from the market that account for a whopping 70% of newly issued debt, which has helped hold down borrowing costs for the government.
But there are concerns among some lawmakers, government officials, and BOJ policymakers that trouble lies ahead if the government doesn’t do more to rein in its massive outstanding debt and the BOJ’s buying continues unabated.
“We must not become complacent about the current situation, where long-term interest rates are staying at low levels amid the BOJ’s massive purchases of government bonds,” the council said. “Now is the time to act decisively on fiscal overhaul.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/11/29/japan-finances-worse-than-at-wars-end/?
Scrooge McDucks
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. economy and Company X are lookalikes as well, perhaps even twins. Revenue growth in the U.S., for instance, can best be shown by national income or its proxy, more commonly known as nominal GDP. While our annualized nominal GDP growth rate has been a tad better than the 1% that Corporation X has shown over the past 10 years, our five year moving average has slowed from nearly 7% to just above 3% in recent years and struggled to do just that, as shown in Chart 2. “Expenses” have been cut significantly as the share of wages to GDP has declined from 47% to 43% during the past decade. Before-tax profits as a percentage of GDP on the other hand have increased from 10% to 14% over the same period, mimicking what has happened with Company X. And here’s a rather incredible kicker to this theoretical comparison. The U.S. economy – thanks to the Fed – has been operating a 1 trillion dollar share buyback program nearly every year since late 2008, buying Treasuries but watching much of that money flow straight into risk assets and common stocks instead of productive plant and equipment. My goodness! If X can’t grow revenues any more, if X company’s stock has only gone up because of expense cutting and stock buybacks, what does that say about the U.S. or many other global economies? Has our prosperity been based on money printing, credit expansion and cost cutting, instead of honest-to-goodness investment in the real economy?
http://www.pimco.com/EN/Insights/Pages/Scrooge-McDucks.aspx
Christmas Time on Wall Street
ReplyDeleteby MIKE WHITNEY
Remember how Quantitative Easing was going to “get the banks lending again”?
Well, it hasn’t worked that way. In fact, after 4 years of zero rates and $3 trillion in monetary pump-priming, “banks are lending less to small businesses and consumers than before the financial crisis”. (International Business Times)
But how can that be, you ask, after all, didn’t the banks just report record profits in the Third Quarter?
Yep, they sure did. $40 billion-worth. But the bulk of that dough was raked off their gaming operations, you know, all the dodgy activities that Dodd-Frank regulations were going to stop, but never did. As far as lending to households and small businesses, that’s been a non-starter from the get-go. Check this out from the IBT:
“Small business loans… decreased in 2012 from 2011. … there was $588 billion in small business loans outstanding in June 2012, 3.1 percent less than at the end of 2011.” (“Banks Have Received $2.3 Trillion In Quantitative Easing But Are Lending Less To Small Businesses And Consumers Than Before The Financial Crisis“, International Business Times )
Okay, so let’s do the math: The Fed beefs up its balance sheet by a hefty $3 trillion, and the banks issue a whopping $588 billion in new loans.
Sounds like a bargain to me! You’re doing a heckuva job, Bernanke!
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/27/christmas-time-on-wall-street/
Take a look at some of the data and it becomes clear that QE is now about just (albeit indirectly) funding the US gubmint. The ship truly be sinking! Generally speaking foreign support for the $USD is over for now.
DeleteTurkey’s gold exports to Iran may hike dramatically if western sanctions against Iran are eased, said Ayhan Güner, head of Turkey’s Jewelry Exporters Association, via a written statement on Nov. 25.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-may-export-more-gold-to-iran.aspx?pageID=238&nID=58582&NewsCatID=345
Turkey and Iraqi Kurds seal 'secret oil deal'
Agreement to allow pumping of oil and gas through Turkey to world markets likely to anger Baghdad, reports suggest.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/11/turkey-iraqi-kurds-seal-secret-oil-deal-2013112984836393182.html
While the Chinese real estate industry is marching into the overseas market, its first choice is usually countries where there are many Chinese people, such as the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore, International Finance News reported.
ReplyDeleteChinese real estate enterprises investing in the overseas property market can date back to the year 2006, when Shanghai Industrial Group, joined by Ningbo United Group, Jinjiang International Group and Greenland Group, made a $1.346 billion investment of the "Baltic Pearl" project at Finland Bay in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The most recent investment was made on October 2012. Greenland Group and US Forest City Group started a joint venture and made an acquisition of the Brooklyn Atlantic Square real estate project. The total investment exceeded $5 billion and is the largest single real estate project in the last 20 years in New York. Greenland Group has successfully entered six countries including the US, South Korea and Australia.
Actually, top Chinese real estate enterprises have never missed any parties that explore the overseas market.
Since 2012, large real estate companies including Vantone Real Estate, Capital Group, China Railway Construction Corporation and SOHO have all had real estate projects or made investment plans in the overseas market.
"They would be ashamed to claim themselves as ‘first-tier companies' if they do not explore the overseas market," a real estate commentator joked.
In 2012, Dalian Wanda, China Oceanwide Holdings and Russian North Caucasus Resorts company signed an intent agreement with a total investment of $2.5-3 billion, planning to build large cultural, tourism and commercial facilities in Moscow, St. Petersburg and North Caucasus.
Earlier this year, China's biggest real estate company, Vanke, entered the US by buying a 70 percent stake of Block 201 in Folsom Street, San Francisco from its real estate veteran developer, Tishman Speyer.
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2013-10/30/content_17070860.htm
Goldman Sachs sued in Singapore penny stock saga
ReplyDeleteSINGAPORE (Reuters) - A shareholder who suffered losses in a penny stock trading debacle in Singapore is suing Goldman Sachs, accusing the investment bank of arbitrarily selling her holdings and saying the sales contributed to a crash in their prices.
Last month, Blumont Group Ltd, Asiasons Capital Ltd and LionGold Corp Ltd - three firms interlinked by cross shareholdings and common officers - lost a combined market value of about S$8 billion ($6.4 billion) in just three days of trading.
The court case may shed light on the causes of the crash. Both the crash and huge run-ups in their share prices earlier in the year left many in the market mystified, prompting the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the stock exchange to launch an extensive review.
The lawsuit was filed in the High Court in London on November 20 by Quah Su Ling, who held stocks in all three companies and is the chief executive of investment firm IPCO International Ltd, the second-largest shareholder in Blumont. It is being brought against London-based Goldman Sachs International, a fully owned unit of Goldman.
Quah said that on October 2 Goldman demanded she pay back about S$61 million ($49 million) in loans in cash, giving her only 1.5 hours to do so, according to the filing which was seen by Reuters.
As Quah failed to make the repayment, Goldman issued a notice of default and immediately started to sell Quah's collateral, including shares in investment firm Asiasons, Blumont, a natural resources investment company, and gold miner LionGold, the filing says.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/goldman-sachs-sued-singapore-penny-171712610.html?
You wrote: "But what exactly did Barack do to earn this right other than sell his soul and our country out to the highest bidders?" The term "useful idiot" comes to mind. However, as you wrote, "when he [Nixon] pulled the plug on any connection between gold and the U.S. dollar, thereby creating a pure fiat currency", we can assume all presidents, including Nixon, since then were "useful idiots."
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I have stopped celebrating the last few Christmases insofar as gift giving and shopping are concerned. We are completely fed up with the commercialization of Christ's birthday and how it has been hijacked by the merchants, the true meaning of the season having been tossed by the wayside in the name of the almighty dollar. We will go nowhere near a shopping mall at this time of year and will spend December 25th as we have been doing for the last few years: quietly with family, a nice meal together, gratitude for what we have, and reflecting upon both Jesus and ourselves. We're getting back to the basics.
ReplyDeleteSGE Delivery YTD 1928 tons, 43 tons in Week 47
ReplyDeletePhysical delivery from the Shanghai Gold Exchange remains extraordinary robust throughout November. According to numbers released today by the SGE, last weeks delivery was 43 metric tonnes, up 7.5 % from a week earlier. Total SGE delivery year to date stands at 1928, on track to reach 2092 tons at the end of December. Total SGE delivery equals Chinese gold demand (jewelry, industrial, bar and coin demand).
In September I interviewed Alex Stanczyk, Chief Market Strategist for the Anglo Far- East group of companies. From his contact at the biggest gold transporter in the world, he told me there was even more gold being shipped to China than was moved through the SGE, and most of this gold came from the UK and Switzerland. This is what Alex tweeted today:
http://www.ingoldwetrust.ch/sge-physical-delivery-week-47
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY=WEALTH-X AND UBS WORLD ULTRA WEALTH REPORT 2013
ReplyDeleteDuring the past year, the world’s
UHNW population reached an all-time
high of 199,235 individuals and a
combined wealth of US$27.8 trillion.
•
Growth was largely due to North
America and Europe, with the two
regions responsible for a net gain of
nearly 10,000 UHNW individuals and a
total increase in wealth of US$1.5
trillion.
•
An economic slowdown in the
emerging markets has led to declines
of UHNW population and wealth in
China and Brazil, the fourth and
seventh wealthiest UHNW nations in
the world respectively.
•
Wealth-X has identified 2,170
billionaires globally, with a total net
worth of US$6.5 trillion, equal to 23
percent of the world’s UHNW total
wealth. This is more than any other
wealth tier despite making up only one
percent of the UHNW population
http://wuwr.wealthx.com/Wealth-X%20and%20UBS%20World%20Ultra%20Wealth%20Report%202013.pdf
so much for fed policies benefiting main street....
$3 trillion headache on the way for corporations
ReplyDeleteBorrowing money at bargain basement interest rates may seem now like a nice way to pad profits and share prices, but it may not be as much fun in a few years.
Companies face three consecutive years where more than $1 trillion each will come due in the form of maturing bond issues that have been used during the free-wheeling, zero-interest days courtesy of the Federal Reserve.
When that happens, corporations will have to choose between rolling over, or refinancing, debt at interest levels likely to be higher than the present day or using cash on their balance sheets to pay off their creditors.
The calculus from both borrowers and the Fed assumes that rates will still be low enough to roll the debt, and economic growth will be strong enough to absorb the costs of paying it down.
It's a high stakes bet that market experts hope will pay off.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101232128
Stamp Out Campaign Cash Corruption in Our Lifetime
ReplyDeleteSince he left his job as CEO of the Vermont-based ice cream company in 1996, Cohen has taken his marketing know-how into progressive politics and in 2012 began Stamp Stampede — the manufacture and sale (at cost) of rubber stamps to be used on paper currency — all perfectly legal — to spread the word to rid government and politics of outside corporate and anonymous cash. There’s a wide assortment of stamps — “Not to Be Used for Bribing Politicians” reads one message, “The System Isn’t Broken, It’s Fixed” is another.
“Every stamped bill will be seen by an average of 875 people,” Cohen claims “and will help grow the movement to #GetMoneyOut of politics. Stamp 5 bills a day for a year and that’s a million eyeballs.”
He writes:
We’re already making big waves. So far, 16 states and over 500 municipalities have passed ballot initiatives calling on Congress to propose a constitutional amendment that says: 1) Money is not free speech and 2) Corporations are not people. Over 150 congressmen and President Obama say they would support an amendment. 80 percent of Americans – Democrats and Republicans – think there is too much money in politics. But change won’t happen if we sit back and let other people do the dirty work.
http://billmoyers.com/2013/11/29/stamp-out-campaign-cash-corruption-in-our-lifetime/
Bright spotlight needs to be shone on how the platinum price is determined
ReplyDeleteDespite the major undersupply of platinum and strong upcoming demand, platinum prices remain at levels that leave many South African mines under water.
Exactly how the price of platinum is determined – particularly in futures markets – needs to come under scrutiny.
A futures market record sent to Mining Weekly points to negligible near-term trading but hectic futures trading.
Thousands of contracts – representing multiples of annual supply – are being traded backwards and forwards, several months out from now.
Will these trades be accompanied by the delivery of physical platinum metal?
One observer questions whether, in the absence of physical delivery, these trades can really be classified as trades at all.
It is alleged that the current registered, available-for-sale, physical volume of platinum on the Nymex is miniscule – something like 1/160th of annual demand.
If so, is a tiny volume of physical metal supporting the global platinum price – at virtually no cost to the controlling bankers?
Are the futures markets dominating the physical markets, rather than the other way round?
Does this mean that futures markets can basically set the price at any level?
http://www.miningweekly.com/article/bright-spotlight-needs-to-be-shone-on-how-the-platinum-price-is-determined-2013-11-25
Grant Williams On Flushing The Impurities Of QE From The System
ReplyDeleteGrant Williams "pulls no punches" in this all-encompassing presentation as the "Things That Make You Go Hmmm" author reflects on what is behind us and looks ahead at the ugly reality that we will face when "the impurities of QE are finally flushed from the system." Central bankers of today have "changed everything" he chides, "in ways that will ultimately end in disaster." Following extraordinarily easy monetary policies across all of the world's central banks, Williams explains why "we are now near the popping point of the 3rd major bubble of the last 15 years," each bigger than the last. The only way Janet Yellen avoids being at the helm when this ship goes down is to blow an even bigger bubble than Bernanke's government bond experiment, "which is highly unlikely." From how QE works, why many don't "feel" wealthy anymore, to the fact that "the geniuses that gave this thing life, don't have the guts to kill it," Williams warns, ominously, "the bills have come due on the blissful latest 30 years."
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-30/grant-williams-flushing-impurities-qe-system
Global Gold Mine and Deposit Rankings 2013
ReplyDeleteMathematically, unless we have high-grade, high ounce deposits that are being fast tracked online, it will be very difficult to find a way to get supply to match demand.
http://www.visualcapitalist.com/global-gold-mine-and-deposit-rankings-2013
Quantitative Easing Is a Ponzi Scheme: Dever
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bloomberg.com/video/quantitative-easing-is-a-ponzi-scheme-dever-qm3k_g8xRbyhUGGvYgxIjA.html
Smuggled gold has its own price in India As the grey market for retail gold rears its head, a dual pricing system emerges in Kerala with smuggled gold undercutting official supplies
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Shivom Seth
Posted: Friday , 29 Nov 2013
MUMBAI (Mineweb) -
Gold merchants in the state of Kerala in India could be setting a trend of sorts with their dual pricing system. Two organisations in the Southern state are bringing out separate rates for daily sale at retail points.
Market traders say the move is an upshot of the spurt in smuggling which has spawned a grey market for retail gold. The difference in rates also indicates the yawning demand supply gap and bristling competition among traders of the precious metal, and goes beyond being just a tool to attract customers.
The South Western state of Kerala boasts of a large number of reputed brands, with the state accounting for a sizeable chunk of the country’s gold market
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-gold-news?oid=219957&sn=Detail
House Prices, Home Ownership And Real Income – Why Housing Is Still Weak And Investor Dependent
ReplyDeleteThis is a faster acceleration rate in house prices than during the much-discussed housing bubble of the last decade.
http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/house-prices-home-ownership-and-real-income-why-housing-is-still-weak-and-investor-dependent/
CNBC Core Viewership Drops To Fresh Two Decade Low
ReplyDeleteCNBC was created by the ultimate crony-capitalist, elitist firm, GE through its then owned subsidiary NBC. Before there was CNBC, there was the Financial News Network. It was a much more free wheeling network that was not afraid to put on anti-establishment views. Everyone watched FNN.
Then one day, I had a discussion with a GE insider, he told me that they were going to blow FNN off the map, that they were going to control financial news. He told me that they had the Q ratings for all the FNN anchors and that they were going to make huge offers for the top anchors and get huge cable penetration beyond what FNN was getting and simply destroy FNN.
I was suspicious of the plan. Everyone watched FNN! But then, CNBC made a bid to then-FNN anchor Sue Herrera. It is reported that then-General Electric's CEO Jack Welch directly made the bid to get her to move to CNBC. She went over. Ultimately, GE executed its plan (with some help from some financial irregularities at FNN) and destroyed FNN. CNBC acquired FNN for $154.3 million on May 21, 1991 and immediately merged the two operations. CNBC immediately took over FNN's satellite transponder space, more than doubling its audience at one stroke
It has taken 20 plus years, but it appears that investors are finally fed up with elitist financial news propaganda.
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/12/cnbc-core-viewership-drops-to-fresh-two.html
The Money Changers Serenade: A New Plot Hatches
ReplyDeleteFormer Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, a protege of Treasury Secretaries Rubin and Summers, has received his reward for continuing the Rubin-Summers-Paulson policy of supporting the “banks too big to fail” at the expense of the economy and American people. For his service to the handful of gigantic banks, whose existence attests to the fact that the Anti-Trust Act is a dead-letter law, Geithner has been appointed president and managing director of the private equity firm, Warburg Pincus and is on his way to his fortune.
A Warburg in-law financed Woodrow Wilson’s presidential campaign. Part of the reward was Wilson’s appointment of Paul Warburg to the first Federal Reserve Board. The symbiotic relationship between presidents and bankers has continued ever since. The same small clique continues to wield financial power.
Geithner’s career is illustrative. In the 1980s, Geithner worked for Kissinger Associates. In the mid to late 1990s, Geithner served as a deputy assistant Treasury secretary. Under Rubin and Summers he moved up to undersecretary of the Treasury.
From the Treasury he went to the Council on Foreign Relations and from there to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). From there he was appointed president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he worked to make banks more profitable by allowing higher ratios of debt to capital, thus contributing to the financial crisis.
Geithner arranged the sale of the failed Wall Street firm of Bear Stearns, helped with the taxpayer bailout of AIG, and rejected saving Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy in order to create the crisis atmosphere needed to more fully subordinate US economic policy to the needs of the few large banks.
Rubin, a 26-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, was rewarded by Citibank for his service to the banks while Treasury Secretary with a $50 million compensation package in 2008 and $126,000,000 between 1999 and 2009.
When a person becomes a Treasury official it is made clear that the choice is between serving the banks and becoming rich or trying to serve the public and becoming poor. Few make the latter choice.
As MIchael Hudson has informed us, the goal of the financial sector has always been to convert all income, from corporate profits to government tax revenues, to the service of debt. From the bankers standpoint, the more debt the richer the bankers. Rubin, Summers, Paulson, Geithner, and now banker Treasury Secretary Jack Lew faithfully serve this goal.
This vast con game remains unrecognized by Congress and the public. At the IMF Research Conference on November 8, 2013, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers presented a plan to expand the con game.
Summers says that it is not enough merely to give the banks interest free money. More should be done for the banks. Instead of being paid interest on their bank deposits, people should be penalized for keeping their money in banks instead of spending it.
To sell this new rip-off scheme, Summers has conjured up an explanation based on the crude and discredited Keynesianism of the 1940s that explained the Great Depression as a problem caused by too much savings. Instead of spending their money, people hoarded it, thus causing aggregate demand and employment to fall.
Read more at http://www.wirenews.co/op-ed/usa/16459/the-money-changers-serenade-a-new-plot-hatches#QrwHgRFJm4Cigh0p.99
Gold prices could continue to struggle as even good news is unable to generate sustainable momentum said analysts.
ReplyDeleteWith markets closed for the U.S. Thanksgiving Holiday, gold prices on Thursday remained in a fairly tight range with low at $1,235 an ounce to a high of $1,246.80. Because of the shorted trading day, spot gold closed the North American session at $1,243.40 an ounce, down $1.60 or 0.13% on the day.
Wednesday’s news of renewed demand for bullion in China was not enough to keep prices above the key area of $1,250 an ounce. According to media reports, gold imports into China hit 129.8 metric tons in October, the second highest flows of gold this year.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kitconews/2013/11/28/good-news-isnt-helping-gold-prices/
[when China has decided it wants Gold to rise, it will.....]
Intelligence Gathering Plays Key Role at New York Fed’s Trading Desk
ReplyDeleteBy Pam Martens: December 2, 2013
According to Akhtar, a summary of this conference call is put together by the staff of the Board of Governors and is delivered to each Board member shortly after the call ends and is immediately transmitted to each Federal Reserve Bank President.
It is understood that a large source of the intelligence being collected today is coming from phone calls made by the Markets Group to the Primary Dealers (the biggest Wall Street firms) with whom the New York Fed conducts its open market operations. According to multiple sources, the New York Fed has direct phone lines to its Primary Dealers. What is not routinely known on Wall Street is that, according to Akhtar, the New York Fed’s traders, at the time of his report, were officially tasked with visiting “market participants and dealers at their offices in New York City to learn about markets and dealer operations; these visits frequently take place in the afternoons.”
Given that a large chunk of the New York Fed’s staff ends up with high-paying jobs at these Wall Street firms, this hobnobbing in the afternoon raises a host of red flags, not the least of which is the potential for front-running (trading ahead of the customer) and leaking a competitor’s information.
We do not know if that afternoon hobnobbing by the Markets Group is still going on, but plenty of other hobnobbing of a questionable nature is – considering that the New York Fed is also a key regulator and examiner of these Wall Street banks.
Kimbrough explains that the Markets Group gathers together again at noon to prep for their afternoon conference call with the Board of Governors’ staff. “So, throughout the day,” adds Kimbrough, “we’re essentially doing a lot of market monitoring for these twice a day conference calls with the Board. In addition to that, we’re writing reports throughout the day as well. We have staff who are either writing short-term updates on what’s going on in the equity markets or corporate bond markets. And we’re looking to see if we have any inclination of what market participants are expecting; because market expectations are hugely important for the Fed in thinking about the course of the economy.”
The day for the traders and analysts wraps up around 6 to 6:30 p.m. Kimbrough says that it’s a long day because they “try to cover the closing of Japan as well as the middle point of Europe all the way through the U.S. session.”
Andrew Huszar is a senior fellow at Rutgers Business School and a former Morgan Stanley managing director. Huszar wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal in November that he had “…left the Fed out of frustration, having witnessed the institution deferring more and more to Wall Street. Independence is at the heart of any central bank’s credibility, and I had come to believe that the Fed’s independence was eroding.”
Huszar continues: “In the past, Fed leaders — even if they ultimately erred — would have worried obsessively about the costs versus the benefits of any major initiative. Now the only obsession seemed to be with the newest survey of financial-market expectations or the latest in-person feedback from Wall Street’s leading bankers and hedge-fund managers. Sorry, U.S. taxpayer.”
Huszar is not alone.
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/12/intelligence-gathering-plays-key-role-at-new-york-fed%E2%80%99s-trading-desk/