Filed under: aristocrats, bailout, bank bailout, Bank of England, bankruptcy, bernanke, Big Banks, Carbon Tax, Co2, co2 tax, Credit Crisis, DEBT, depopulation, depression, despotism, devaluation, Dictatorship, Dollar, dollar drop, dollar dump, Economic Collapse, economic crisis, economic depression, Economy, Empire, environmental taxation, Eugenics, Fascism, Federal Reserve, GDP, global currency, global economy, global elite, global government, Global Warming, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, imf, Inflation, internationalist, main street, malthusian, malthusian catastrophe, middle class, New World Order, NWO, obama deception, oligarchy, One World Government, Population Control, Propaganda, ruling class, SDRs, single currency, slavery, Stock Market, Taxpayers, third world, US Economy, Wall Street, webster tarpley, World Bank, world currency, world government
America’s Impending Master Class Dictatorship
cryptogon.com
January 23, 2010
Holy shit, this one will scorch your eyeballs!
Forget my excerpts. Click through and read the whole thing. Highly recommended.
Via: Kitco:
Thanks to the endless barrage of feel-good propaganda that daily assaults the American mind, best epitomized a few months ago by the “green shoots,” everything’s-coming-up-roses propaganda touted by Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, the citizens have no idea how disastrous the country’s fiscal, monetary and economic problems truly are. Nor do they perceive the rapidly increasing risk of a totalitarian nightmare descending upon the American Republic.
One stark and sobering way to frame the crisis is this: if the United States government were to nationalize (in other words, steal) every penny of private wealth accumulated by America’s citizens since the nation’s founding 235 years ago, the government would remain totally bankrupt.
According to the Federal Reserve’s most recent report on wealth, America’s private net worth was $53.4 trillion as of September, 2009. But at the same time, America’s debt and unfunded liabilities totaled at least $120,000,000,000,000.00 ($120 trillion), or 225% of the citizens’ net worth. Even if the government expropriated every dollar of private wealth in the nation, it would still have a deficit of $66,600,000,000,000.00 ($66.6 trillion), equal to $214,286.00 for every man, woman and child in America and roughly 500% of GDP. If the government does not directly seize the nation’s private wealth, then it will require $389,610 from each and every citizen to balance the country’s books. State, county and municipal debts and deficits are additional, already elephantine in many states (e.g., California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York) and growing at an alarming rate nationwide. In addition to the federal government, dozens of states are already bankrupt and sinking deeper into the morass every day.
…
It is estimated that the top 1% of Americans control roughly 40% of the nation’s wealth. In other words, 3 million people own $21,400,000,000,000.00 ($21.4 trillion) in net private assets, while the other 305 million own the remaining $32,000,000,000,000.00 ($32 trillion). 77,000,000 (77 million) Americans (the lowest 25%) have mean net assets of minus $2,300 ($-2,300.00) per person; they live from paycheck to paycheck, or on public assistance. The lower 50% of Americans own mean net assets of $27,800 each, about enough to purchase a modest car. Obviously, it would be impossible to retire on such an amount without significant government or other assistance. Meanwhile, the richest 10% of Americans possess mean net assets of $3,976,000.00 each, or 143 times those of the bottom 50%; the top 2% control assets worth more than 1,500 times those in the bottom 50%. When you combine these facts with Wall Street’s typical multi-million dollar annual bonuses, you get an idea of wealth inequality in America. Historically, such extreme inequality has been a well-documented breeding ground for totalitarianism.
If the government decides to expropriate (steal) or commandeer (e.g., force into Treasuries) America’s private wealth in order to buy survival time, such a measure will be designed to destroy the common citizens, not the elite. Insiders will be given advance warning about any such plan, and will be able to transfer their money offshore or into financial vehicles immune from harm. Assuming that the elite moves its money to safety, there would then be $120,000,000,000,000.00 ($120 trillion) in American debt and liabilities supported by only $32,000,000,000,000.00 ($32 trillion) in private net worth, for a deficit of $88,000,000,000,000.00 ($88 trillion). In that case, each American would owe $285,714.29 to balance the country’s books. (Remember to multiply this amount by every person in your household, including any infant children.)
If the common people suspect that something diabolical was in the works, a portion of the $32 trillion in non-elite wealth could be evacuated as well prior to a government expropriation and/or currency devaluation, resulting in less money for the government to steal. What these statistics mean is that it is absolutely impossible for the government to fund its debt and deficits, even if it steals all of the nation’s private wealth. Therefore, the government’s only solutions are either formal bankruptcy (outright debt repudiation and the dismantling of bankrupt government programs) or unprecedented American monetary inflation and debt monetization. If the government chooses to inflate its way out of this fiscal catastrophe, the United States dollar will essentially become worthless. You can be absolutely certain that a PhD. in economics, such as Dr. Bernanke, is well aware of these realities, despite what he might say in speeches. For that matter, so are Chinese schoolchildren, who, when patronized by Treasury Secretary Geithner about America’s “strong dollar,” laughed in his face. One day, perhaps America’s school children will receive a real education so that they, too, will know when to laugh at absurd propaganda.
…
These deficits and debts are now so gargantuan that they have become surreal abstractions impossible even for sophisticated financiers to begin to comprehend. The common citizen has absolutely no idea what these numbers mean, or imply for his or her future. The people have been deluded into thinking that America’s arrogant, egomaniacal, always-wrong-but-never-in-doubt fiscal witch doctors and charlatans, including Greenspan, Rubin, Summers, Geithner and Ponce de Bernanke, have discovered a Monetary Fountain of Youth that endlessly spits up free money from the center of earth, in a geyser of good will toward the United States. Unfortunately, this delusion is false: there is no Monetary Fountain of Youth, and contrary to the apparent beliefs of the self-deified man-gods in Washington, D.C., the debt and deficits are real, completely out of control, and 100% guaranteed to create catastrophic consequences for the nation and its people.
When government “representatives” deliberately sell into slavery the citizens of a so-called free Republic, they have committed treason against those people. This is exactly what has happened in the United States: the citizens have been sold into debt slavery that they and their descendants can never escape, because the debts piled onto their backs can never, ever be paid. Despite expensive and sophisticated brainwashing campaigns emanating from Washington, claiming that America can “grow” out of its deficits and debt, it is arithmetically impossible for the country to do so. The government’s statements that it can dig the nation out of its fiscal hole by digging an even deeper chasm have become parodies and perversions of even totally discredited and morally disgusting Keynesianism.
The people no longer have elected representatives; they have elected traitors.
The enslavement of the American people has been orchestrated by a pernicious Master Class that has taken the United States by the throat. This Master Class is now choking the nation to death as it accelerates its master plan to plunder the people’s dwindling remaining assets. The Master Class comprises politicians, the Wall Street money elite, the Federal Reserve, high-end government (including military) officials, government lobbyists and their paymasters, military suppliers and media oligarchs. The interests and mindset of the Master Class are so totally divorced from those of the average American citizen that it is utterly tone deaf and blind to the justifiable rage sweeping the nation. Its guiding ethics of greed, plunder, power, control and violence are so alien to mainstream American culture and thought that the Master Class might as well be an enemy invader from Mars. But the Master Class here, it is real and it is laying waste to America. To the members of the Master Class, the people are not fellow-citizens; they are instruments of labor, servitude and profit. At first, the Master Class viewed the citizens as serfs; now that they have raped and destroyed the national economy, while in the process amassing unprecedented wealth and power for themselves, they see the people as nothing more than slaves.
Know Your Enemy-The Oligarchs
Filed under: 9/11, american revolution, aristocrats, Bank of England, Big Banks, bloodline, Bohemian Grove, brain manipulation, brainwashing, bush, cathy o'brien, central bank, Child Abuse, child porn, child sacrifice, child sex slavery, clinton, Conditioning, Congress, depression, devaluation, Dictatorship, education, Empire, Eugenics, Fascism, Federal Reserve, Gerald Ford, global government, globalist elite, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Illuminati, indoctrination, internationalist, jesuit, manipulation, market manipulation, mason, nation building, New World Order, NWO, obama, occupation, one world governmnet, Pentagon, Population Control, programming, progressives, Propaganda, queen, rape, ritual abuse, ruling class, secret meetings, Secret Societies, Senate, sexual abuse, slavery, softkill, Stock Market, svali, Torture, vatican, Wall Street, whistleblower, Zionism | Tags: Dissociative Identity Disorder, obama bush related
Is the Vatican Practicing Child Sacrifice?
NoWorldSystem
January 13, 2010
“Nothing, in this world, works the way you think it does.” -Jordan Maxwell
Child sacrifice, trauma-based mind control, what do they have in common? They are both used by the largest cult in the world; the Illuminati.
The Illuminati is a cult created by Adam Weishavpt on May 1, 1776. It is a culmination of secret societies that strive to create a global government called a ‘New World Order’, where the United Nations is the framework for the birth of global institutions (ex: WHO, IMF).
The main agenda of the Illuminati is to completely control all governments, religious and financial institutions of the world. Unfortunately they have succeeded in that effort, they have total dominance over the United States (the seal of the Illuminati is on the back of the one-dollar bill), Russia, the European Union and even the Vatican.
They stage military coups against opposing government, install agents and create a puppet-government so that they become in favor of a New World Order. They have infiltrated the mainstream media, all forms of entertainment and even public schools. We all live in this scientific dictatorship that many aren’t aware of, the public is in a trance, our beliefs and opinions are constantly being shaped so that we are in favor of the agenda. One example is Global Warming, promoting the idea that Co2 is a deadly pollutant that should be taxed on a global scale and that a One World Government is needed to solve this problem.
We live in a world were one family bloodline is in control of this New World Order, the bloodline is called the Merovingian bloodline that dates back to the Priory of Sion, the group was sworn to protect the bloodline that now exists in the European monarchy. Many think that all U.S. presidents are elected ‘by the people’, the reality is all 45 U.S. presidents including Obama are the heirs of the Merovingian bloodline. For example, Obama and George W. Bush are 11th cousins and Queen Elizabeth and George W. Bush are 13th cousins.
Many still believe that this country won its independence from the British in 1776, the reality this country has always belonged to the British monarchy, stolen from the Native Americans. The ‘United States’ technically means a ‘Federal Corporation’ of the British crown, and the citizens are nothing more than indentured servants to Europe. The Private Bank called the U.S. Federal Reserve (the system that is now collapsing the U.S. economy through devaluation) is part owned by the Bank of England. Many wonder why big banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan get taxpayer-funded bailouts, well it’s because they are too part owners of the U.S. Federal Reserve, private corporation.
To the elite, humans are all considered slaves that bear no ‘inheritable blood’ and they believe every aspect of human life should be regulated and taxed for the benefit of the elite. They believe that the human lifespan should be cut down by introducing toxic chemicals into our lives, they also believe they should “maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature” according what is written on the Georgia Guidestones.
We are saturated in a mirth of television, drugs and entertainment for this reason, to keep the population away from the truth of what is being perpetuated against us.
Trauma-Based Mind Control
One of the ways the Illuminati influences the masses is by trauma-based mind control, by creating physical and mental pain on a victim so that they become groomed over time for leadership positions. Many whistleblowers for this reason have come out of the dark to reveal these secrets. Trauma-based mind control is used to create Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), a condition in which a person displays multiple personalities that a mind control programmer is able to manipulate.
Svali (a pseudonym for obvious reasons) explains it best, she is an ex-Illuminati mind control programmer who was born into ‘the family’, she wrote an excellent book called Breaking the Chain – Breaking Free Of Cult Programming that exposes the nature of the cult in great detail.
- Intentional programming of an infant in the Illuminati often begins before birth. Prenatal splitting is well known in the cult, as the fetus is very capable of fragmenting in the womb due to trauma. This is usually done between the seventh and ninth month of pregnancy. Techniques used include: placing headphones on the mother’s abdomen, and playing loud, discordant music (such as some modern classical pieces, or even Wagner’s operas). Loud, heavy rock has also been used. Other methods include having the mother ingest quantities of bitter substances, to make the amniotic fluid bitter, or yelling at the fetus inside the womb. The mother’s abdomen may be hit as well. Mild shock to the abdomen may be applied, especially when term is near, and may be used to cause premature labor, or ensure that the infant is born on a ceremonial holiday. Certain labor inducing drugs may be also given if a certain birth date is desired.
Once the infant is born, testing is begun at a very early age, usually during the first few weeks of life. The trainers, who are taught to look for certain qualities in the infant, will place it on a velvet cloth on a table, and check its reflexes to different stimuli. The infant’s strength, how it reacts to heat, cold, and pain are all tested. Different infants react differently, and the trainers are looking for dissociative ability, quick reflexes, and reaction times. They are also encouraging early dissociation in the infant with these tests.
The infant will also be abused, to create fragments. Methods of abuse can include: rectal probes; digital anal rape; electric shocks at low levels to the fingers, toes, and genitalia; cutting the genitalia in ritual circumstances (in older infants). The intent is to begin fragmentation before a true ego state develops, and customize the infant to pain and reflexive dissociation from pain (yes, even tiny infants dissociate; I have seen it time and time again; they will glow blank and limp, or glassy, in the face of continued trauma.)
Isolation and abandonment programming will sometimes be begun as well, in a rudimentary sense. The infant is abandoned, or uncared for by adults, intentionally during the daytime, then picked up, soothed, cleaned up and paid attention to in the context of preparing for a ritual or group gathering. This is done in order to help the infant associate night gatherings with “love” and attention, and to help the bonding process to the cult, or “family”. The infant will be taught to associate maternal attention with going to rituals, and eventually will associate cult gatherings with feelings of security.
As the infant grows older, i.e. at 15 to 18 months, more fragmenting is intentionally done by having the parents as well as cult members abuse the infant more methodically. This is done by intermittently soothing, bonding with the infant, then shocking it on its digits; the infant may be dropped from heights to a mat or mattress and laughed at as it lays there startled and terrified, crying. It may be placed in cages for periods of time, or exposed to short periods of isolation. Deprivation of food, water, and basic needs may begin later in this stage. All of these methods are done in order to create intentional dissociation in the infant.
Child Sacrifice
In this interview, Svali explains a more public technique of trauma-based programming by child sacrifice carried out during an induction ceremony at the Vatican.:
Public trauma-based mind control has been used constantly against us, for example, 9/11. Many people were so traumatized from the events of September 11th that they would have believed anything the U.S. government had put out based on fear alone. Like torture, terrorism is used to intimidate or coerce subject(s) into behaving and thinking a certain way so that the person(s) remain obedient and do what they are told. 9/11 was the mega-ritual that has accomplished many goals including the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan because we were constantly told that the terrorists will hit us again if we didn’t do something about it.
“Fear is a strong basis for mind control, whether it’s the kind of mind control that is the mass-mind control over a whole society or if it’s the kind of absolute robotic mind control that I experienced under MK-ULTRA on a U.S. Pentagon level.” -Cathy O’Brien
Cathy O’Brien is also a victim of mind control (was not born into ‘the family’), she tells her story how she was sold by a sexually abusive father to the military industrial complex; “A local politician that was sanctioning this child pornography ring was associated with my grandfather’s blue masonic lodge, when this one particular politician came to my father and told him he can receive immunity from prosecution if he would sell me into MK-ULTRA mind control. My father was thrilled, he agreed to sell me into the project and was trained in how to raise me for MK-ULTRA.”
Filed under: Bank of England, Central Banks, China, fort knox, gold, imf, scam
Fake Gold Bars Found in Fort Knox and BoE
Filed under: 1984, 9/11 Truth, Africa, aristocrats, Bank of England, Big Brother, bilderberg, Bohemian Grove, Britain, cashless society, Central Banks, Communism, Control Grid, cult, DEBT, depopulation, Dictatorship, Dissent, Economy, elite, Eugenics, famine, Fascism, Federal Reserve, freemasons, George Bush, global economy, global elite, global government, Goldman Sachs, Illuminati, Income Tax, internationalist, IRS, malthusian, malthusian catastrophe, manipulation market, market manipulation, masons, Media Manipulation, Military Industrial Complex, New World Order, NWO, oligarchy, One World Government, Oppression, orwell, Police State, Population Control, queen elizabeth, queen of england, rome, rothschild, ruling class, Secret Societies, slavery, Stock Market, Surveillance, tax, third world, toxic earth, toxic environment, toxicity, truth movement, u.s. economy, vatican, Wall Street, War On Terror, world government | Tags: Dr. Russell Blaylock
Fight The New World Order with Global Non Compliance
Filed under: 14th amendment, anti-human, Bank of England, Big Banks, Britain, british commonwealth, bush, CFR, chase, Colonialism, corporation, corporatism, David Rockefeller, Dictatorship, duke of edenburgh, eminent domain, Empire, Eugenics, Europe, Federal Reserve, Genocide, george washington, global elite, global government, global oligarchs, Goldman Sachs, imperialism, indentured servant, internationalist, internationalists, IRS, John Kerry, JP Morgan, king of england, mafia, masons, nation building, New World Order, North American Union, NWO, obama, occupation, oligarchy, One World Government, paul warburg, pope, private bank, property rights, queen elizabeth, queen of england, revolution, revolutionary war, rockefeller, rothschild, royal bloodlines, Secret Societies, skull and bones, slavery, Social Security, Taxpayers, truth movement, United Kingdom, US Constitution, us sovereignty, US Treasury, vatican, virginia, voluntary servitude, Washington D.C., White House, world government | Tags: crown colony, king george, king james, real us history, title of nobility
U.S. is a ‘Federal Corporation’ British Crown Colony
Filed under: Ahmadinejad, angela merkel, Bank of England, bank of the world, Barack Obama, bilderberg, BRIC, Britain, centralization, China, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dictatorship, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, Europe, european union, Fascism, Federal Reserve, g20, global currency, global economy, global elite, global government, Globalism, gordon brown, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, imf, IMF bonds, India, Inflation, internationalist, internationalists, Iran, Joaquin Almunia, london, Medvedev, Mongolia and Afghanistan., New World Order, nicolas sarkozy, NWO, obama, One World Government, Russia, Sarkozy, SDR, SDRs, single currency, socialism, sovereignty, Stock Market, super currency, UN, UNCTAD, United Kingdom, united nations, US Economy, US Treasury, Wall Street, World Bank, world currency, yuan
UN Calls For Bank Of The World, New Global Currency
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
September 7, 2009
The United Nations has called for the establishment of a new global reserve currency to be overseen by a bank of the world in an effort to reduce the role of the Dollar in international trade.
Details of the proposal were outlined in a report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The report also calls for the new global reserve bank to monitor and manage the national exchange rates of member states.
“There’s a much better chance of achieving a stable pattern of exchange rates in a multilaterally-agreed framework for exchange-rate management,” Heiner Flassbeck, co-author of the report and a UNCTAD director, told Bloomberg News.
“An initiative equivalent to Bretton Woods or the European Monetary System is needed.” said Flassbeck.
He also added that while the UN also backed strengthening Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), a synthetic paper currency issued by the International Monetary Fund that was dormant for half a century until earlier this year, that would not be enough to “protect emerging markets”.
This latest call for a new reserve currency from the UN echoes previous efforts by the global body to initiate talks on replacing the Dollar.
Meanwhile, an influential Chinese policy maker has slammed the US Federal Reserve’s policy of printing money to buy Treasury debt, declaring that it threatens to set off a serious decline of the dollar and compel China to redesign its foreign reserve policy.
Earlier in the year, China expressed support for a Russian proposal for the creation of a new supra-national global currency as an alternative to the Dollar as the world reserve currency.
Other heavyweight elites such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, UK Business Secretary and top Bilderberg member Peter Mandelson and EU heads such as Joaquin Almunia, to name but a few, have called for a new economic world order consisting of vastly increased overarching centralization.
The creation of a de facto world currency to supplant the Dollar would likely lead to a complete collapse of the greenback, of which trillions are held in in foreign exchange reserves by many foreign countries.
As we have repeatedly warned, the introduction of a new global currency system is a key cornerstone in the move towards global government, centralized control and more power being concentrated into fewer hands.
Furthermore, a global central bank will establish a de facto financial dictatorship which will wield power over the economies of every country on the planet with no accountability whatsoever.
Filed under: Ahmadinejad, Bank of England, Barack Obama, bilderberg, BRIC, Britain, China, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dictatorship, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, Europe, european union, Fascism, Federal Reserve, g20, global currency, global economy, global elite, global government, Globalism, gordon brown, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, imf, IMF bonds, India, Inflation, internationalist, internationalists, Iran, jim tucker, london, Medvedev, Mongolia and Afghanistan., New World Order, NWO, obama, One World Government, Pakistan, rothschilds, Russia, SDR, SDRs, single currency, socialism, sovereignty, Stock Market, super currency, UN, Uncategorized, United Kingdom, united nations, US Economy, US Treasury, Uzbekistan, Wall Street, world currency, yuan
Global Currency Becoming a Reality
Noworldsystem.com
June 22, 2009
BRIC leaders (Brazil, Russia, India and China) held their first-ever summit in Yekaterinburg Russia last week to discuss ways to complete the New World Order by reforming a better and “more diversified international monetary system” (IMF) that will issue a new global ‘super currency’ that will eventually replace all other currencies of the world.
A global ‘super currency’ created by the International Monetary System (IMF) is the New World Order plan that will eventually control all sovereign nations of the globe and will issue their own bonds called Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). This is a big step towards a One World Government where a United Nations agency (the IMF) would print the world’s currency instead of sovereign countries having control of their own monetary system.
The New World Order is all about centralization of power, they seek to control every aspect of the world’s society in a dictatorial-manner where everything is filtered through them, the internationalist oligarchs. They think we are nothing more than indentured servants on their global plantation, that we will willingly bend with the wind of the globalist’s agenda to create a one world socialist dictatorship.
At the Bilderberg group in Greece, investigative journalist Jim Tucker reported that regular attendee Carl Bilt “made a speech advocating turning the IMF into a world department of treasury under the auspices of the United Nations.”. Tucker warned this is a giant leap towords the completion of a World Government. He also warns the Bilderberg members will stress to the public that the problem of global economic crisis is the justification for the centralization of power. [Source]
These are the same internationalist elite that created the world economic crisis in the first place through inflation and deflation of currencies through federal reserves of the world. Bilderberg sources say the globalists want an “intense-but-shorter depression that paves the way for a new sustainable economic world order, with less sovereignty but more efficiency”. Tucker’s Bilderberg sources agree saying “Treasury Secretary Geithner and Carl Bildt touted a shorter recession not a 10-year recession….partly because a 10 year recession would damage Bilderberg industrialists themselves”. [Source]
Brazil, Russia and China before the BRIC summit contributed over $70 billion to the IMF in hopes the system will reform and push the new global super currency (SDR bonds). [Source] The Brazilian government currently has around $200 billion in international reserves to invest in IMF bonds to issue debt to developing nations.
BRIC nations have called out for the death of the US dollar and its long held dominance as the main currency in the world financial market. Russian President Medvedev praised the New World Order: “BRIC should create the conditions of a fairer World Order” and called for a “more diversified international monetary system”. Brazilian President before the BRIC meeting said that the global economic crisis has created the conditions for a New World Order: “After the crisis, everyone has become similar. We have the possibility to create a New World Order and together we should improve our relations”.
The BRIC leaders ended the summit to attend another summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO) in Yekaterinburg. The SCO consists of leaders from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Pakistan, India, Mongolia and Afghanistan.
Iran President Ahmadinejad had strong words against the U.S. at the SCO Summit: “Western-style capitalism is falling apart, marking the end of the age of Imperialism” and that the New World Order should be less US-centric because “Washington’s many political and economic woes show that its judgement can no longer be trusted”. [Source]
The BRIC leaders plan to further discuss policies that will create this new global monetary order at the next G20 summit held in the US in September. Obama and Gordon Brown alluded to a New World Order and talks of a new global super currency at the last G20 London summit of 2009:
http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-40228820090610
BRIC Nations Call For A Multipolar World Order
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6514737.ece
Ahmadinejad: We Need New World Order
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/ahmadinejad-we-need-new-world-order
Time for ‘new world order’: Brazilian President
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.db1c3a82d0827b5cdf05eea3ba146af8.511&show_article=1
BRIC by BRIC: Leaders Summit in Russia
http://www.as-coa.org/article.php?id=1708
London Telegraph Admits Plan For Bank Of The World, Global Currency
http://www.prisonplanet.com/london-telegraph-admits-plan-for-bank-of-the-world-global-currency.html
Cash to become extinct as chips take off
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25637102-5014239,00.html
G-20 Shapes New World Order With Lesser Role for U.S., Markets
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=axEnb_LXw5yc&refer=news
G20 will seek new international framework for global financial regulation
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7957862.stm
Filed under: austria, Bank of England, BOE, Britain, Central Banks, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Europe, european union, Germany, global economy, gold, gold shortage, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, Inflation, Lehman Brothers, london, manipulated economy, manipulated prices, market manipulation, mortgage, mortgage companies, mortgage lenders, nationalization, platinum, silver, silver shortage, south africa, Stock Market, switzerland, UBS, United Kingdom, US Economy, us mint, Wall Street | Tags: HBOS, Jurg Kiener, Krugerrand, run on banks
Gold Runs Out In Germany
Allan Hall
London Evening Standard
October 12, 2008
Risk-averse Germans are turning to gold in troubled times – but there’s none left.
German gold dealers say demand has skyrocketed this past week to 10 times normal so no more orders can be taken for the foreseeable future.
“The demand exceeds our capacities by a great deal,” said Heiko Ganss, head of precious metal company Pro Aurum.
“The requests cannot be satisfied right now,” a dealer from the Düsseldorf WGZ Bank confirmed.
“Demand for gold as a conservative investment has risen dramatically,” said stephan Henkel. “right now the demand is about 10 times as high as in normal times.”
Gold deliveries now take between four and six weeks.
The US mint said on Monday it had exhausted some of its supply of bullion coins and was struggling to meet demand for gold, silver and platinum.
South Africa’s Rand Refinery, producer of the world’s most popular gold bullion coin, the Krugerrand, temporarily ran out of the coins in August.
Londoners Queue-Up on Sidewalk to Buy Gold in Rush for Money Haven
Bloomberg
October 9, 2008
Londoners stood in line outside the largest gold coin and bar retailer in the city’s West End shopping district, clogging the lobby and trading among themselves as they sought a safe haven for their money.
“People want something tangible, something they can hold on to, something the banks can’t give them,” said Chris Burrow, the owner of ATS Bullion, the gold dealer in the Strand that traces its roots back to the 17th century. “There’s no time to breathe. We’re rushed off our feet. Staff are exhausted.”
As U.K. stocks tumbled to a five-year low, paced by financial-services companies, gold advanced. Since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s Sept. 15 filing for bankruptcy protection, exacerbating the worldwide credit crisis, gold for immediate delivery has jumped 19 percent.
“Investors are rushing to safe havens and physical gold seems to be the favorite one,” said Frederic Panizzutti, a senior vice president at MKS Finance, one of Switzerland’s four bullion refiners.
British government action to prop up the banking industry has failed to reassure investors. The U.K. on Oct. 8 promised 50 billion pounds ($86 billion) of capital to banks, the same day the Bank of England cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point. Last month, the government brokered a takeover of HBOS Plc, Britain’s largest mortgage lender, and seized control of Bradford & Bingley’s mortgage division.
Austria Witnesses New Gold Rush
BBC
October 12, 2008
The financial crisis is prompting people to look for safer forms of investment than stocks and shares.
The interest in gold coins is so great that many of the world’s major mints are struggling to keep up with demand, including the Austrian Mint, which produces the Vienna Philharmonic – one of the best-selling bullion coins worldwide.
Sales of Vienna Philharmonic gold coins have gone up by more than 230% since last year.
Kerry Tattersall, the director of marketing at the mint, says production has gone into overdrive.
“We are running at present something like three shifts on all of the machines, on the presses, producing both gold and the silver bullion coins.
Read Full Article Here
Central banks all but stop lending gold
Javier Blas
Financial Times
October 8, 2008
Central banks have all but stopped lending gold to commercial and investment banks and other participants in the precious metals market, in a move that on Tuesday sent the cost of borrowing bullion for one-month to more than twenty times its usual level.
The one-month gold lease rate rocketed to 2.649 per cent, its highest level since May 2001 and significantly above its five-year average of 0.12 per cent, according to data from the London Bullion Market Association.
Gold lease rates for two, three, and six months and for a year also jumped to levels not seen in the last seven years.
Traders said the jump reflects the fact that central banks — mostly European — have almost completely stopped lending gold in the last few days and are not rolling forward old leases after maturity. This is because of fears that some borrowers might not repay their bullion loans if they are engulfed by the financial crisis.
“A number of central banks have been cutting back on their gold lending,” said Tom Kendall, a precious metals strategist at Mitsubishi in London.
John Reade, a commodities strategist at UBS, added that there had been a lot of talk about some central banks being unwilling to lend their gold because of a redoubled focus on the risk of borrowers not returning it.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/99680-..ces-tell-two-different-gold-stories
Blatant Banker Manipulation Of Gold Prices
http://www.prisonplanet.com/blatant-banker-manipulation-of-gold-prices.html
No Mass Mania for Gold Yet – Less than 1% of Public in Western World Have Invested in Gold
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1224161100.php
Spot Gold Price Is Now Meaningless
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle%2Barticleid_2713209.html
Gold expected to rally above $1000 in Q1 2009
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/b..o-rally-above-1000-in-q1-2009.aspx
What the Pros Say: All that Glitters is Gold
http://www.cnbc.com/id/27095525
Kiener: Gold Prices To Double On Paper Market Default
http://www.prisonplanet.com/kiener-..o-double-on-paper-market-default.html
Filed under: 2-party system, AIG, bailout, Bank of England, Bear Stearns, Big Banks, Britain, Central Banks, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Derivatives, Dictatorship, Dollar, ECB, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, Europe, european union, fannie mae, Fascism, Federal Reserve, foreclosure, freddie mac, G7, global economy, Great Depression, Greenback, henry paulson, housing market, hyperinflation, Inflation, interest rate cuts, Japan, JP Morgan, liquidation, london, middle class, mortgage, mortgage companies, mortgage lenders, Nancy Pelosi, national socialism, nationalization, neocons, Neolibs, Paulson, rate cut, real estate, scotland, socialism, Stock Market, subprime, subprime lending, switzerland, Taxpayers, UBS, United Kingdom, US Economy, US Treasury, Wall Street | Tags: Nouriel Roubini, run on banks, swiss central bank
Potential Cost For Bailout is $5 Trillion or $43K Per Household
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
October 15, 2008
The total potential cost of the financial bailout to the U.S. taxpayer is already rapidly approaching $5 trillion, over seven times as much as the meaningless $700 billion bailout bill figure.
Analysts have previously marked out the $5 trillion figure as the actual cost, now those predictions are becoming demonstratively accurate.
Meanwhile, Hank Paulson has defended government intervention, stating “There’s no doubt that the way to get the maximum bang for the taxpayers here was to invest in banks.”
Based on this Reuters summary and the sources linked within the table, here is a breakdown of the bailout’s cost to taxpayers so far.
|
Bailout Type
|
Cost To Taxpayers |
|---|---|
|
|
$300 billion |
|
|
$250billion |
|
|
$25 billion |
|
|
$150 billion |
|
|
$700 billion+ |
|
|
$29 billion |
|
|
$200 billion |
|
|
$85 billion (+ extra request of $35 billion) |
|
|
$300 billion |
|
|
$4 billion |
|
|
$87 billion |
|
|
$200 billion+ |
|
|
$50 billion |
|
|
$144 billion |
| POSSIBLE TOTAL | $2.56 trillion+ |
| NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS PER U.S. CENSUS |
105,480,101 |
| POSSIBLE COST PER HOUSEHOLD |
$24,26
|
In addition, the U.S. government has said it will temporarily guarantee $1.5 trillion (£856 billion) in new senior debt issued by banks, as well as insure $500 billion (£285 billion) in deposits in non-interest accounts, mainly used by businesses.
These figures take the potential cost to $4.559 trillion+ – or $43, 221 per household.
Furthermore, when you account for the fact that the credit default swap market is around $62 trillion, and that derivatives worldwide are worth between between $1 and $2 quadrillion, the numbers start to become meaningless.
Fed To Offer Unlimited Dollars
Bloomberg
October 13, 2008
The U.S. Federal Reserve led an unprecedented push by central banks to flood financial markets with dollars, backing up government efforts to restore confidence in the banking system.
The ECB, the Bank of England and the Swiss central bank will offer unlimited dollar funds in auctions with maturities of seven days, 28 days and 84 days at a fixed interest rate, the Washington-based Fed said today. The Bank of Japan may introduce “similar measures.’’ The dollar declined and some money-market rates fell.
Policy makers from the Group of Seven nations pledged at the weekend to take “all necessary steps’’ to stem a market panic after the MSCI World stock index plunged 20 percent last week. Central banks last week cut interest rates in tandem for the first time since 2001, the U.S. plans to buy $700 billion in distressed assets from banks and in Europe, the U.K. is leading a push to keep lenders afloat with taxpayers’ money.
“By providing unlimited dollar funds they are acting on the back of the G-7 plan to ensure the system is fully liquidized,’’ said Lena Komileva, an economist at Tullet Prebon Plc in London. “We’re going to see even more liquidity provided and more aggressive rate cuts are coming.’’
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE49F97920081017
Millionaire Hedge Fund Trader Thanks Idiot Traders
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/18/banking-useconomy
Treasury Black Out Key Parts Of Bailout Contracts
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/..136030.html
Wall Street banks in $70bn staff payout
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/17/executivesalaries-banking
Homeless Numbers Alarming
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-10-21-homeless_N.htm
House prices ‘to plummet by 35%’ – the biggest ever fall in Britain
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/..–biggest-fall-Britain.html
Royal Bank Of Scotland Nationalized
http://business.timesonline.co…g_and_finance/article4932250.ece
Switzerland Pumps Billions Into Bank System
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081016/eu_switzerland_banks.html?printer=1
UBS Gets Bailout From Swiss National Bank
http://www.chicagotribune.com..7,0,4057853.story
Dow Jones Bloodbath Mirroring 1929 Rout
http://www.prisonplanet.com/dow-jones-bloodbath-mirroring-1929-rout.html
Two More Banks Closed By Regulators
http://money…00397x1211373371x1200675175
U.S. Stocks Plunge Most Since Crash of `87 on Recession Concern
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid..er=home
Roubini Sees Worst Recession in 40 Years, Rally’s End
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?..efer=home
JPMorgan Responsible for the Destruction of U.S. Financial System
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article6826.html
World May Be Lucky to Get Worst Recession Since 1983
http://www.bloomberg.com..OAeSWBCY&refer=home
Stocks On Track For Worst Year Since 1937
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6050283.html
Former Fed chief says U.S. now in recession
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE49D2QB20081014
Filed under: Alan Greenspan, bailout, Bank of England, bernanke, Big Banks, BOE, Britain, central bank, CFR, China, CNBC, Communism, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dow, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, energy, Europe, european union, fannie mae, Fascism, Federal Reserve, freddie mac, George Bush, george soros, global economy, gold, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Greenback, henry paulson, housing market, hyperinflation, Inflation, interest rate cut, interest rate cuts, jim rogers, martgage companies, Media, Merrill Lynch, mortgage, mortgage companies, mortgage lenders, Oil, Paulson, rate cut, real estate, Russia, Stock Market, subprime, subprime lending, Taxpayers, United Kingdom, US Economy, US Treasury, Wamu, washington mutual, WW2 | Tags: run on banks
Fannie and Freddie Seized…Cost to Taxpayer: Over $1 Trillion
Contrarain Profits
September 8, 2008
Uncle Sam has finally taken over Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE). Yesterday, the Bush administration placed the mortgage giants under a conservatorship, putting billions of dollars of taxpeyers’ money at risk in the process.
The Treasury says it will stump up $200 billion to back the companies in exchange for a 79.9% stake in each. The government is now the biggest player in the US mortgage market.
Don Rich warns that the government’s bailout spells trouble for anyone holding US dollars. A major issue is that the Congressional Budget Office’s estimation of the costs of the bailout is far too conservative…
This from last Thursday’s Daily Reckoning:
A recent study from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has zero credibility. It pegged likely taxpayer losses in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts at $25 billion. For those with a sense of history, it is worth remembering that the S&L bailout had a $160 billion price tag. The numbers diverge so far from reality as to be laugh-out-loud funny. Funny, that is, except that the CBO estimate demonstrates a willful disconnect with the actual consequences of federal government actions.
As demonstrated below, the real cost of the bailouts will easily exceed $1.3 trillion. In fact, the real cost is likely to range between $1.3 trillion to $1.6 trillion, and is not unlikely to reach $2.5 trillion.
Between 2001 and 2007, Fannie and Freddie purchased or guaranteed $700 billion of Alt-A and subprime loans. Given the default rates on these loans – and the fact that the price of the housing that is the ultimate security of the loans will, for reasons demonstrated below, fall by at least thirty percent – this alone implies a loss for Fannie and Freddie on the order of $210 billion.
Fannie and Freddie acknowledge already-impaired loans on the balance sheet of $19 billion, which they have used creative accounting to avoid deleting from the shareholder equity account. This means that Fannie and Freddie have a maximum of $64 billion in capital remaining.
Given the inevitable losses on the Alt-A/subprime portion of their portfolio, it must be the case that if the federal government, as it is doing, guarantees Fannie and Freddie’s solvency, the difference between the loss and the capital to be made up by the government (i.e., the taxpayers) must equal, not $25 billion but $147 billion.
That alone would mean that the CBO is blowing smoke with their estimated cost figures, and if you think back to the S&L cost of $160 billion, this is not a surprising result. The real picture is so much worse that it is pretty obvious the CBO is flat out inventing figures just to get the politicians through November.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out how the government is going to get its hands on such money: the Federal printing press…
I don’t know what those people in Washington are taking to sleep at night after all their electorally driven accounting and finance exercises, but I can tell you what they will be doing to keep the government open for business: printing a whole lot of money.
Chairman Bernanke has the discount window open to any collateralization not worth the paper it is written on, so in effect he has the helicopters ready to drop hundred-dollar bills over Wall Street – as he once famously described the ultimate policy instrument of a fiat-money system.
Of course, if he does that, we will have to change his nickname from Helicopter Ben to Hyperinflation Ben, which answers the question of who picks up the tab of bailing out Fannie and Freddie: anyone owning dollars.
Produce a lot of something, and it becomes worth less. And given the losses at Fannie and Freddie, the taxpayer guarantee, and the ongoing initiation of Boomer retirement, only the inflation tax will work to pay for keeping Fannie and Freddie afloat.
Like it or not, we are about to enter interesting times, and it is too bad our supposed professional civil servants at the Congressional Budget Office have failed to tell the emperor the truth: that he is buck-naked bankrupt and getting ready to take a lot of people with him.
P.S Don Rich is an instructor of economics, finance, and political science at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, PA. He also teaches economics, government, and history at Delaware County Community College in Exton, PA. You can leave comments for Don on the mises.org blog.
Greenspan: U.S Economy in ’once-in-a-century’ financial crisis
September 15, 2008
The nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shows that the U.S. is “more communist than China right now” but its brand of socialism is meant only for the rich, investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC Europe on Monday.
“America is more communist than China is right now. You can see that this is welfare of the rich, it is socialism for the rich… it’s just bailing out financial institutions,” Rogers said.
Stock markets jumped after the U.S. government’s decision to launch what could be its biggest federal bailout ever, in a bid to support the housing market and ward off more global financial market turbulence.
But Rogers said in the long term the move spelled trouble.
“This is madness, this is insanity, they have more than doubled the American national debt in one weekend for a bunch of crooks and incompetents. I’m not quite sure why I or anybody else should be paying for this,” Rogers told “Squawk Box Europe.”
Soros Compares Mishandling Of Current Crisis To Great Depression
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
September 17, 2008
Billionaire investor George Soros has slammed US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for behaving in the same manner as bankers in the 1930’s and mishandling a financial crisis that threatens a repeat of the Great Depression.
Soros told BBC Newsnight that the world was merely at the beginning of a financial storm and warned, “We mustn’t allow the financial system to collapse as it did in the 1930s.”
Referring to Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, Soros stated, “The way Paulson is handling the situation is reminiscent of the way the bankers handled it in the 1930s.”
He added: “The financial system has gone overboard and the financial engineering has grown to big, it takes up too big a share in the world’s resources.”
“Now it is shrinking. When it becomes regulated it will be less profitable than the last 25 years.”
Soros, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, is ranked by Forbes as the 99th richest person in the world with a net worth of around $9 billion.
Ironically, Soros made his name by reaping the dividends of another financial meltdown when he “broke the Bank of England” by short-selling the pound sterling before the currency dropped out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, landing Soros a profit of around $1.1 billion.
In 2006, the highest court in France upheld a conviction that Soros had practiced insider trading when he bought shares in French bank Société Générale after discovering that the bank was on the verge of a takeover.
Soros has repeatedly predicted fiscal armageddon, writing three books about a “superbubble” that is on the verge of collapse.
In response to those accusing him of crying wolf in an effort to panic financial markets and benefit from the fallout, Soros stated, “I have a record of crying wolf…. I did it first in The Alchemy of Finance (in 1987), then in The Crisis of Global Capitalism (in 1998) and now in this book (2008’s The New Paradigm for Financial Markets). So it’s three books predicting disaster. (After) the boy cried wolf three times . . . the wolf really came.”
Respondents to a Daily Mail article about Soros’ comments accused the financier of engaging in wanton hypocrisy.
“I don’t know why on Earth they interview Soros since he has been proven again and again to deliberately spread financial rumour for his own exploitation and gain,” wrote one, “Soros became a multi multi billionaire precisely through manipulating markets like this – if this man says that we are heading for a 1930’s style crash you can guarantee he already has plans to profit from it.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSPEK4365020080917?sp=true
US authorities have now spent $900 billion to prop up the financial system
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/..d=9736054&cKey=1221686585000&ty=ti
Central banks pump £100bn into money markets
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/m..2008/09/17/cncentral117.xml
Treasury announces debt auctions for Fed
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jnS9Vm..m4iAD938I1A80
Fed Pumps $70B Into Financial System
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080916/ap_on_bi_ge/fed_credit_..E44U6Xfx.Fe7GUOQ.D1v24cA
Run On The Bank? Americans Could Lose Their Deposits
http://www.prisonplanet.com/run-on-the-bank-americans-could-lose-their-deposits.html
Merrill Lynch seals future with Bank of America deal
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/bu.._finance/article4755438.ece
Rogers: Dollar To Lose World Reserve Status
http://www.prisonplanet.com/rogers-dollar-to-lose-world-reserve-status.html
Paulson: Congress Has No Authority Here
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/09/paulson-congres.html
Goldman profit plunges 70 pct amid market slump
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080916/bs_nm/goldmansachs_dc
August home starts seen at lowest level in 17 years
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1638353220080917
Russia halts trading after 17.5% share price fall
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles..ORTUNE5.htm
Dow closed down 450
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20..er=1;_ylt=Al5VvbZImvYKFj5hEtFaLktv24cA
Is Britain Heading For Worst Recession Since 1929?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/09/15/bcnrecession115.xml
Washington Mutual Tumbles 30%
http://news.yaho..CZ6k2k2Rd38VKPgv6b.HQA
Now fear stalks British banks
Inflation rises to 4.7% and FTSE plunges ANOTHER 90 points as global markets tumble in wake of Meltdown Monday
Bush Claims Economy Can Weather Storm
Bailouts Will Push U.S. Into Depression
Filed under: Bank of England, Bear Stearns, bernanke, Big Banks, BOE, central bank, Congress, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dick Cheney, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Euro, Federal Reserve, florida, George Bush, Germany, global economy, Globalism, Great Depression, Greenback, henry paulson, housing market, Inflation, JP Morgan, Northern Rock, Paulson, Police State, real estate, Stock Market, subprime, subprime lending, swat, US Economy, US Treasury | Tags: Don Kohn, nationalize banks, Nordic bank nationalisations
Federal Reserve Plans To Nationalize All US Banks
Telegraph
March 31, 2008
The US Federal Reserve is examining the Nordic bank nationalisations of the 1990s as a possible interim solution to the US financial crisis…
The Fed has been criticised for its rescue of Bear Stearns, which critics say has degenerated into a taxpayer gift to rich bankers…
A senior official at one of the Scandinavian central banks told The Daily Telegraph that Fed strategists had stepped up contacts to learn how Norway, Sweden and Finland managed their traumatic crisis from 1991 to 1993, which brought the region’s economy to its knees…
It is understood that Fed vice-chairman Don Kohn remains very concerned by the depth of the US crisis and is eyeing the Nordic approach for contingency options…
Scandinavia’s bank rescue proved successful and is now a model for central bankers, unlike Japan’s drawn-out response, where ailing banks were propped up in a half-public limbo for years…
While the responses varied in each Nordic country, there a was major effort to avoid the sort of “moral hazard” that has bedevilled efforts by the Fed and the Bank of England in trying to stabilise their banking systems…
Norway ensured that shareholders of insolvent lenders received nothing and the senior management was entirely purged. Two of the country’s top four banks – Christiania Bank and Fokus – were seized by force majeure…
“We were determined not to get caught in the game we’ve seen with Bear Stearns where shareholders make money out of the rescue,” said one Norwegian adviser…
“The law was amended so that we could take 100pc control of any bank where its equity had fallen below zero. Shareholders were left with nothing. It was very controversial,” he said…
Stefan Ingves, governor of Sweden’s Riksbank, said his country passed an act so it could seize banks where the capital adequacy ratio had fallen below 2pc. Efforts were also made to protect against “blackmail” by shareholders…
Mr Ingves said there were parallels with the US crisis, citing the use of off-balance sheet vehicles to speculate on property. All the Nordic banks were nursed back to health and refloated or merged…
The tough policies contrast with the Fed’s bail-out of Bear Stearns, where shareholders forced JP Morgan to increase its Fed-led rescue offer from $2 to $10 a share. Christopher Wood, chief strategist at brokers CLSA, says the Fed’s piecemeal approach has led to “appalling moral hazard”…
“Shareholders have been able to lobby for a higher share price only because the Fed took over the credit risk on $30bn of the investment bank’s dubious paper. The whole affair also amounts to a colossal subsidy for JP Morgan,” he said…
Federal Reserve SWAT Teams To Police The Economy?
NY Times
March 3, 2008
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad new authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.
[…]
Under the Treasury proposal, Fed officials would be allowed to examine the practices and even the internal bookkeeping of brokerage firms, hedge funds, commodity-trading exchanges and any other institution that might pose a risk to the overall financial system.
Real Estate Price Collapse, Paradise Lost in SW Florida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgTdxEGauok
Recession: The Movie – Now playing everywhere
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4OOCReeLWo
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/991194..000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Fed Bailout Of Bear Streans Looks Like Investment
http://www.businessweek.com/..4/b4078000069548.htm
German watchdog eyes $600 bln global bank losses: report
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080329/germany_banks_losses.html?.v=1
Weak dollar not at odds with policy: ex-US official
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSHKG3018120080331
Dollar Falls to Near Record Low Against Euro on Inflation Data
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pi..4V7YusRk&refer=japan
Market Plunges, Fed Acts
http://norris.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/market-plunges-fed-acts/
Paulson Claims Stimulus To Create 600K Jobs
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/2008.._nNh3mLV3UPKb.HQA
Paulson warns US house prices must plunge; Orders for Durable Goods in U.S. Unexpectedly Fell
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b.._finance/article3627054.ece
Paulson Backs Regulatory Overhaul, Broader Fed Role
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/new..sid=a9LEWNdBhrf8&refer=home
Is Cheney betting on Economic Collapse?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13851.htm
Fed Auctions Another $50 Billion To Banks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200..vxGaVFf7P_qKL62bAV9mpv24cA
Paulson To Visit China Next Week
One In Six West Virginians On Food Stamps
Bush: Rebate Checks Will Make Economy ‘Stronger Than Ever Before’
Eurozone Struggles With Inflation
USA 2008: The Great Depression
Fed Official: U.S. Slipping Into Recession
Investment Firms Tap Fed For Billions
Filed under: Bank of England, Bear Stearns, Big Banks, BOE, California, central bank, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dow, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Euro, food prices, gas prices, George Bush, global economy, gold, Great Depression, Greenback, henry paulson, Inflation, interest rate cut, interest rate cuts, Iraq, nymex, Oil, Paulson, Petrol, rate cut, silver, Stock Market, US Economy, Wall Street, wheat
Update: Gold Regains $954, Oil $108, Euro $1.58
AP
March 27, 2008
Gold prices edged slightly lower Thursday after the dollar gained against the euro, leading investors to sell the precious metal traditionally viewed as a haven against inflation.Other commodities traded mixed, with crude oil briefly rising above $108 a barrel and wheat and soybean futures retreating.
The dollar strengthened against the euro after the U.S. Commerce Department reported that the economy grew slightly in the fourth quarter. The euro bought $1.5766 in Thursday trading, down from $1.5815 in New York late Wednesday.
A stronger greenback often encourages investors to sell hard assets like gold and silver, which are seen as hedge investments during times of economic uncertainty and rising inflation. A stronger dollar also makes dollar-denominated commodities seem more expensive to overseas buyers.
Gold for April delivery inched 40 cents lower to settle $944.20 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier trading as low as $940.
“Gold seems to be following the euro,” said Scott Meyers, analyst with Pioneer Futures in New York. “I think it’s a brief pause in the upward trend but we have to keep an eye on the dollar.”
Other precious metals traded higher. Silver for May delivery rose 16.7 cents to settle at $18.55 an ounce on the Nymex, while May copper added 14.80 cents to settle at $3.873 a pound.
Gold had moved higher in the previous two sessions, breaking out of last week’s commodities slump that saw big drops in everything from corn to copper. Gold has gained 12 percent this year, driven up by U.S. interest rate cuts, record-high crude prices and nervousness about the economy. The metal reached a record 1,033.90 this month, and analysts say it could go even higher.
“We’re going to see sustained acceleration in the (gold) market,” Meyers said. “There’s enough nervousness about the dollar and I don’t know if there’s enough bullets in (Federal Reserve Chairman Ben) Bernanke’s gun to keep lowering rates.”
In energy markets, oil futures briefly rose above $108 a barrel after the bombing of a major oil pipeline in Iraq. Dow Jones Newswires reported that the attack cut off exports from the southern city of Basra, although oil officials said exports weren’t affected.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery added $1.68 to settle at $107.58 a barrel on the Nymex after earlier rising as high as $108.22.
Other energy futures traded mixed. April gasoline futures fell 2.66 cents to settle at $2.7163 a gallon, while April heating oil futures rose by 10.45 cents to settle at $3.1483 a gallon.
In agriculture markets, wheat prices fell after the dollar rebounded.
Wheat for May delivery dropped 19 cents to settle at $10.14 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, after earlier falling as low as $10 a bushel.
Other agriculture futures traded mixed. Corn for May delivery added 3.25 cents to settle at $5.55 a bushel on the CBOT, while May soybean futures declined 24.75 cents to settle at $13.2725.
BlackRock says gold record high may be challenged
Reuters
March 26, 2008
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OvCVEsahhZo
Investment manager BlackRock expects tight gold supply and a gradual rising trend in the price which could lift the metal to new highs above the record $1,030 per ounce hit last week.
“We expect a gradually rising trend in the gold price and if that happens we will get to a new high. We are expecting that positive trend to continue, with volatility over the short term,” said fund manager Evy Hambro, who runs BlackRock’s $17 billion (8.5 billion pound) World Mining Fund and co-manages the $8.9-billion World Gold Fund.
Gold traded at $931.60 an ounce on Tuesday, well off a high of $1,030.80 hit on March 17.
“We think the replacement cost of gold today is much higher than where the market is right now,” Hambro said, adding that even if the price reached the desired level it would have to be sustained for gold companies to invest.
“Just because it reaches that number doesn’t mean it’s going to change anything. We’re not going to see all gold mining CEOs building new projects. The price needs to average that over a decent period of time for them to start investing shareholder capital into new production assets,” he said.
The Gold fund’s top three holdings as at the end of last month were Australia’s Newcrest Mining (NCM.AX: Quote, Profile, Research), Canada’s Barrick Gold (ABX.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Kinross Gold (K.TO: Quote, Profile, Research), which together accounted for over 22 percent of the fund.
“In the gold space we are very much in a situation where production will continue to likely decline. There are not enough new gold discoveries to replace the gold being mined,” Hambro said.
Recent News:
http://business.timesonline.co..economics/article3624591.ece
Wall Street To Shed 20,000 Jobs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/..money/2008/03/26/bcnjobs126.xml
Paulson Says New Financial Rules Needed
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080326..4FpI27qGt34XERusSs0NUE
Next Stop $2000 Gold
http://seekingalpha.com/article/69710-next-stop-2-000-gold
Bush Actually Thinks Economy Will Get Stronger
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsN..=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true
$5.40 Gasoline Spotted In California
http://www.nbc11.com/news/15701062/detail.html
Paulson: Social Security Unsustainable
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080325191211.f5erep3w&show_article=1
Banks Want You to Bail Them Out
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a233faa2..0-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Questions abound on Bear Stearns buyout
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN1438930520080320
Goldman Sees $1.2 Trillion Global Credit Loss
Financial Destruction Of The Average Man
Food Stamp Use Hits All-Time High
Sterling falls as BoE highlights downside risk to pound
New Home Sales Fall To 13-Year Low
Hoarding by banks stokes fears on credit crisis
Gas Prices Skyrocket To All-Time High
Barrick Gold to invest up to $35m in Allied Gold
Chinese banks allowed to trade gold futures
Existing-Home Sales Rise, Prices Fall
Fed May Buy Mortgages Next
The four ‘new sheriffs’ of Wall Street
Filed under: Bank of England, Bear Stearns, Big Banks, Britain, central bank, credit card, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Europe, Federal Reserve, global economy, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Greenback, Inflation, interest rate cut, interest rate cuts, JP Morgan, liquidation, Merrill Lynch, New World Order, New York, NYSE, rate cut, Stock Market, United Kingdom, US Economy, Wall Street, ww1
Bear Stearns Collapses, Sold to JP Morgan at $2/Share
Depression2.tv
March 17, 2008
Last Friday we got a taste of what the future is likely to be like as we make our way further into the belly of the second great depression. The Fed rushed to bail out a venerable Wall Street institution, which was rumored to be insolvent. Sunday evening, that rumor was confirmed to be true, as Bear Stearns agreed to sell itself to JP Morgan for a paltry $2 per share. Two dollars! This for a firm that was trading at $170 just over a year ago, and was as high as $54 just Friday! If Bear Stearns is only worth $2 per share, how can we possibly say with any confidence what other “investment banks” are worth?
While this bankruptcy comes as a shock to nearly everyone, it should be a surprise to no one. The global financial system has been teetering on a precipice for years if not decades, pumped up by unsustainable amounts of debt at every level of the economy, and is primed for a crash. That the crash has been postponed countless times by even easier money lent to yet poorer credit risks has served only to instill a false sense of confidence in markets and to magnify the impending calamity that seems finally to be at hand. Warnings that have been sounded on websites such as this one appear finally to be coming true, as confirmed by none-other than the venerable Wall Street Journal in a front page article titled, “Debt Reckoning: US Receives a Margin Call.”
The US is at the receiving end of a massive margin call: Across the economy, wary lenders are demanding that borrowers put up more collateral or sell assets to reduce debts.
The unfolding financial crisis – one that began with bad bets on securities backed by subprime mortgages, then sparked a tightening of credit between big banks – appears to be broadening further. For years, the US economy has been borrowing from cash rich lenders from Asia to the Middle East. American firms and household have enjoyed readily available credit at easy terms, even for risky bets. No longer.
Americans simply don’t have enough money to pay back the mortgage and credit-card debt they’ve run up. That reality is forcing banks to retrench as loans gone bad shrink their capital bases and falling house prices shrink the collateral that homeowners can borrow against. And it will presumably force chastened consumers to change their ways as well.
Americans simply don’t have enough money… What does it mean? It means defaults, economic loss and a spiral of fear and more loss. It means more Bear Stearns. Time’s article quotes David Rosenberg, an economist at Merrill Lynch: “I’m not saying we’re going back to our parents’ level of frugality, but what we have witnessed in the past 20 to 30 years – and especially the parabolic credit growth of the last five years – is going to be bursting in the next decade.” If not back to our parents’ level of frugality, then what? To our grandparents’ level? How can anything less be avoided, in an era when most people are already working full speed, maxed-out and yet still need credit to survive? And now they’re cutting off the credit!? The result for households will be the same as for Bear – massive liquidation. And the Fed is in no position to do anything about it. The Fed is currently operating in triage mode – desperately trying to aid the banks and save the global financial system as we know it. But what ammunition does the Fed have to save the average American working stiff, who is up to his eyeballs in debt?
Wall Street fears for next Great Depression
London Independent
March 16, 2008
Wall Street is bracing itself for another week of roller-coaster trading after more than $300bn (£150bn) was wiped off the US equity markets on Friday following the emergency funding package put together by the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase to rescue Bear Stearns.
One UK economist warned that the world is now close to a 1930s-like Great Depression, while New York traders said they had never experienced such fear. The Fed’s emergency funding procedure was first used in the Depression and has rarely been used since.
A Goldman Sachs trader in New York said: “Everyone is in a total state of shock, aghast at what is happening. No one wants to talk, let alone deal; we’re just standing by waiting. Everyone is nervous about what is going to emerge when trading starts tomorrow.”
In the UK, Michael Taylor, a senior market strategist at Lombard, the economics consultancy, said on Friday night: “We have all been talking about a 1970s-style crisis but as each day goes by this looks more like the 1930s. No one has any clue as to where this is going to end; it’s a self-feeding disaster.” Mr Taylor, who had been relatively optimistic, has turned bearish: “It really does look as though the UK is now heading for a recession. The credit-crunch means that even if the Bank of England cuts rates again, the banks are in such a bad way they are unlikely to pass cuts on.”
Mr Taylor added that he expects a sharp downturn in the real UK economy as the public and companies stop borrowing. “We have never seen anything like this before. This is new territory for us. Liquidity is being pumped into the system but the banks are not taking any notice. This is all about confidence. The more the central banks do, the more the banks seem to ignore what’s going on.”
Bear Stearns Rescue Is `Finger in Dike,’ Scholars Say
Bloomberg
March 17, 2008
With Bear Stearns Cos.’ temporary rescue in place, the $200 billion subprime crisis joins the history of government bailouts to preserve jobs, homes and savings when economic disaster looms.
Ever since Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo shut the New York Stock Exchange for four months in 1914, to prevent foreign investors from cashing out and throwing the U.S. into financial chaos at the outset of World War I, American policy makers routinely have suspended their support for free markets when confronted by economic peril.
“I think the systemic risks dominate right now, which means you’ve got to put your finger in the dike,’’ says William Silber, a finance professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He is the author of “When Washington Shut Down Wall Street: The Great Financial Crisis of 1914 and the Origins of America’s Monetary Supremacy’’ (Princeton University Press, 232 pages, $27.95).
Bailouts can buy time while policy makers try to defuse panic. Last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York provided financial support for Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest U.S. securities firm. It faced eroding investor confidence in the fallout from losses related to securities based on mortgages to the least creditworthy borrowers.
Bear Stearns executives were striving today to strike an agreement to sell the firm to JPMorgan Chase & Co. before financial markets open tomorrow, people with knowledge of the talks said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080317/us_nm/bearstearns_lawsuits_dc
Banks Face New World Order Consolidation
http://www.reuters.com/artic..743541720080317?sp=true
Stocks Widely Mixed on Bear Stearns News
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080317/wall_street.html
Filed under: 9/11, Australia, Bank of England, Britain, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Europe, european union, FTSE, global economy, Great Depression, Greenback, hong kong, Inflation, interest rate cut, interest rate cuts, Japan, Mervyn King, rate cut, Stock Market, US Economy
Bank of England Governor hints at rate cut as global markets bounce back
UK Daily Mail
January 23, 2008
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has given the strongest indication yet that an interest rate cut is imminent.
In a speech to the Institute of Directors in Bristol last night, King appeared to put pressure on the Committee to follow the Fed and cut rates.
He said that although inflation remains an “issue” the current interest rate of 5.5 per cent is “probably bearing down on demand.”
Although London’s leading shares jumped almost 100 points as the market opened the FTSE has continued to slide since then.
At 9.30am today it had dropped to 5702 after opening at 5839
In Asia, investors woke up to news of the shock rate cut this morning and the Nikkei index in Japan, the Australian Stock Exchange and the benchmark Hang Seng in Hong Kong leapt as investors scrabbled for bargains.
After Monday’s stock market turmoil, the U.S. Federal Reserve hit the panic button yesterday, slashing rates by 0.75 percentage points to 3.5 per cent.
The move has led to increasing pressure on the Bank of England to cut interest rates by 0.5 per cent.
In a desperate bid to calm the global stock market meltdown, the rate cut was even bigger than the emergency cut which followed 9/11.
Filed under: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bank of England, California, Canada, central bank, Credit Crisis, DEBT, despotism, ECB, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, european central bank, Federal Reserve, gas prices, global economy, gold, Great Depression, Greenback, housing market, Inflation, interest rate cuts, Iran, Northern Rock, Oil, OPEC, Petrol, rate cut, Russia, Stock Market, United Kingdom, US Economy, Venezuela
World stocks plummet after global banks take action in bid to avoid recession
Daily Mail
December 13, 2007
Stocks worldwide have plummeted in the wake of yesterday’s unprecedented decision by leading central banks to pump billions into money markets in a bid to avoid a worldwide recession.
The Bank of England has joined the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and their counterparts in Canada and Switzerland to pump at least £55billion into money markets.
However this morning the FTSE 100 fell more than 70 points to 6458.7 and the markets in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan all suffered nervous starts to the day’s trading.
Investors are worried that the shock decision by the world’s banks could mean that the credit crisis is likely to get worse.
It is hoped that the loans – £ 22.7billion of which will go to the UK – will help make lending between banks easier, avoiding any repeat of the Northern Rock crisis.
The Rock ran into trouble because the current economic climate has encouraged banks to hoard their cash, rather than lend it to each other.
Russia to dump waning dollar
Press TV
December 14, 2007
Russian oil firm Rosneft will follow the lead of Gazprom and LUKOIL to sell crude in rubles amid the ongoing depreciation of the dollar.
“Our specialists are looking at all possibilities that could be beneficial for the company,” Rosneft Spokesman Nikolai Manvelov said. “Everything depends on economic viability.”
Russia’s largest independent oil producer, LUKOIL earlier announced that the company will switch to the ruble in its gas and crude deals within two years.
“Selling for rubles is much more attractive,” Deputy Chief Executive Officer Leonid Fedun said on December 12. “Gazprom is considering introducing ruble-denominated contracts and I think that technically Russian companies can do it by 2009 if the banks are ready.”
“We consider the idea of selling our resources for rubles to be quite possible,” Gazprom’s Vice President Alexander Medvedev said at a recent conference in New York.
Last month, Iran and Venezuela proposed to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to switch to a basket of currencies in its oil deals.
Iran, the world’s fourth most prolific oil exporter, has already abandoned the dollar, Iran’s Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari said on December 9, describing the currency as unreliable.
U.S. Stocks Decline as Fed Fails to Assuage Recession Concern
http://www.bloomberg.com/a…yi2xynL0&refer=us
Report Says That the Rich Are Getting Richer Faster, Much Faster
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/…ThcWg&oref=slogin
LA Times Says Gold For Conspiracy Theorists
http://www.latimes.com/wireless/avantgo/la-fi-gold16dec16,0,465745.story
Fed To Announce New Mortgage Rules
http://www.washingtonpost.co…007121401875.html
‘A financial tsunami is upon us’: Schultz sees an apocalypse now
http://www.marketwatch.com/new.34-A49..dist=TNMostRead
Mortgage Crisis Inflicts Collateral Damage
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22246203
Schwarzenegger To Declare Fiscal Emergency
http://www.nbc11.com/news/14858065/detail.html
Russia may dump weakening US dollar in its energy deals
http://www.dailyti…2007%5C12%5C15%5Cstory_15-12-2007_pg5_43
Money-Market Rates Fail to Respond to Bank Measures
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?…d=a9anSVhH.NOQ&refer=home
November Consumer Prices Rise More than Forecast
http://www.bloomberg.com…4BNlo&refer=home
Greenspan: Odds of recession ‘clearly rising’
http://noworldsystem.com/2007/…ession-clearly-rising/
Central Banks to Pump Billions into World Financial System
http://www.nytimes.com/200..8-8QuVU5oMlm5w8E6dIl7JlQ
GAO: “USA is living beyond its means”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjZBOCAgR64
U.S. Economic Collapse News Archive
Filed under: Australia, Bank of England, Canada, canadian dollar, central bank, China, Credit Crisis, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, energy, engineered recession, Europe, Federal Reserve, food prices, George Bush, global economy, global elite, Globalism, gold, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Greenback, housing market, imf, Inflation, Joseph Stiglitz, loonie, Northern Rock, Oil, OPEC, Paulson, Saudi Arabia, Stock Market, US Economy, US Treasury, Wall Street, World Bank, yale
Economic Expert Says Global Crash Imminent
Echoes former world bank leader with prediction of global recession
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
November 20, 2007
A leading economic expert has warned that a global crash and recession is imminent on the back of record highs in real estate, stocks and energy, combined with a devaluation of the dollar and continued “speculative bubble thinking”.
Robert Shiller, the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics at Yale University told an audience at the annual Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Week that a sharp downward correction is due in the global markets.
Shiller stated:
“Perhaps we have gotten a little too confident in the global economic growth,” said Shiller. “The problem is high oil, stock and real estate prices. I believe that a substantial part is speculative bubble thinking. We have gotten too confident of the prices in these markets,”.
“The unwinding of these markets is the most serious risk facing these markets today,” Shiller added.
With the effects of the credit crunch hitting more and more lower level lenders, it is clear to see that the fallout is spreading and propagating a general decline. We are seeing the unfolding of an overall meltdown that represents a gutting of the United States by neo-mercantilist institutions bent on the formation of a new global monopoly.
Shiller also pointed to the futures market, such as that of the CME in Chicago, which now predicts a major, ongoing decline over the coming four years.
We are witnessing the unfolding of a crash exactly as predicted by Former World Bank Vice President, Chief Economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz last year.
Stiglitz agreed that the process of hijacking and looting key infrastructure on the part of the IMF and World Bank, as an offshoot of predatory globalization, has now moved from the third world to Europe, the United States and Canada.
Stiglitz warned that the signs were there with plummeting real estate prices in the U.S., stating that a global economic depression could only be avoided if a correction was made.
But no correction will be made because the World Bank/IMF/Globalist doctrine betrays a focused agenda to deliberately foment economic turmoil, riots, and then enforced bondage to eternal debt. We have witnessed this time and time again, their own documents even confirm this as the chosen method of social control.
The shareholders of Federal Reserve, part of the same group of elite families that owns the bank of England, created the IMF and World bank to siphon government funds. Then they effectively steal the real assets of the third world countries that take their loans in some cases at 42% interest. These global loan sharks secure the water, power and roads which are then handed over to private, piratical, letter of mark companies.
China Voices Alarm at Dollar Weakness
Financial Times
November 19, 2007
China on Monday expressed concern at the decline in the dollar, joining a growing chorus of global policymakers alarmed by the weakness in the world’s main reserve currency.
Premier Wen Jiabao told a business audience in Singapore it was becoming difficult to manage China’s $1,430bn foreign exchange reserves, saying that their value was under unprecedented pressure.
“We have never been experiencing such big pressure,” Mr Wen said, according to Reuters. “We are worried about how to preserve the value of our reserves.”
China keeps the currency composition of its reserves a state secret, but some analysts believe that more than two-thirds are probably still held in dollars.
Mr Wen’s comments came as top international economic officials spoke out in support of a strong dollar in the aftermath of the weekend’s Group of 20 summit in South Africa and Opec meeting in Riyadh.
Hank Paulson, US Treasury secretary, told reporters in Ghana: “A strong dollar is in our nation’s interest.”
He said the US economy had its “ups and downs” but he believed that “our long-term economic strength will be reflected in currency markets”.
Mr Paulson and other top US officials, including President George W. Bush, have become increasingly vocal on the dollar in recent days in an apparent effort to signal that they are not indifferent to its fate.
Zhou Xiaochuan, China’s central bank chief, said Beijing wanted a strong dollar because it would help to ensure an orderly resolution of the recent market instability caused by US mortgage lending problems.
“So in this sense, actually we hope to see a strong dollar,” Reuters quoted Mr Zhou as saying. “We support a strong dollar.”
Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European central bank, told reporters that Mr Zhou’s remarks “echoed what has been said by the monetary authorities of the US”.
“What we are witnessing is unco-ordinated verbal intervention,” said Stephen Jen, head of currency research at Morgan Stanley. “This is useful as in the absence of it, investors and speculators would have interpreted it as the authorities condoning what was going on in the currency markets.”
The Japanese yen rallied against a range of currencies on Monday, notably commodity-based rivals such as the Canadian and Australian dollars. The prospect of China allowing its currency to appreciate against the dollar drove sentiment, traders said.
The dollar was largely unchanged in early US trading. The US currency has shown some tentative signs of stabilisation in the past few days, but many analysts remain bearish.
Global crash imminent, warns expert
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/50…inent-warns-expert
As dollar weakens, Gulf nations look at currency pegs
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/19/bloomberg/bxatm.php
Food pantries struggle to meet increasing demand
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200711…ood_pantries_shortage
Loonie shouldering heavier share of greenback’s decline: IMF
http://www.canada.com/nation….5a&k=90145
Asian Leaders Sign Regional Economic Pact
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/w…html?hp
Saudi Riyal Touches 21-Year High
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=6&s….=Business
Central bank governor says China supports strong dollar
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/19/business/yuan.php
$38B In Wall Street Bonuses As Stocks Decline
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/new….worldwide
Goldman Sachs Behind Sky-High Oil Prices?
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com….h-oil.html
The Crash of 2008
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23465
Taxpayers to foot the Northern Rock bill
http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/….e2903877.ece
Global Gold Stocks May Beat Bullion, Baker Steel Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news….2k&refer=europe
Weak Dollar Wrecks American’s Dreams
http://www.reuters.com/article/lif…142820071119
OPEC Interested in Non-Dollar Currency
http://ap.google.com/articl….D8T0AC6G0
Saudi minister warns of dollar collapse
http://www.telegraph.co.uk…17/cndollar117.xml
Chávez sees oil at $200 if Iran invaded
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3e346fdc-923f-11dc-8981-0000779fd2ac.html
Dow Down 200 Amid Banking Concerns
US September net foreign capital flows -14.7 bln usd
The Discipline Of the Dollar
Dollar Decline “Irreversible”
Goldman Sees Subprime Cutting $2 Trillion in Lending
Opec unites behind higher prices
Oil rises over $95 on weak dollar
Oil rises ‘Kill the cable, kill the cable,’ Oil leaders’ private debate televised by mistake
Opec nations clash over weak dollar
OPEC agrees to dollar talks after forex basket proposal
‘Greener, reliable’ OPEC wraps up politically-charged summit
Chavez starts OPEC summit with 200-dollar oil warning
U.S. Economic Collapse News Archive
Filed under: Alan Greenspan, Bank of England, Big Banks, Britain, China, citigroup, Credit Crisis, Dow, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Euro, global economy, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Greenback, housing market, Inflation, interest rate cuts, Joseph Stiglitz, Merrill Lynch, Northern Rock, Paulson, pound, rate cut, Stock Market, subprime, subprime lending, US Economy, US Treasury, wells fargo, Yen
Dollar Decline “Irreversible”
The Independent
November 17, 2007
The decline of the dollar, symbol of US global hegemony for the best part of a century, may have become so entrenched that some experts now fear it is irreversible.
After months of huge and sustained turmoil on the money markets, lack of confidence in the world’s totemic currency has become so widespread that an increasing number of international traders are transferring their wealth to stronger currencies such as the euro, which recently hit its highest level against the dollar.
“An American businessman over here who is given the choice would take anything but the dollar,” David Buik of Cantor Index said yesterday. “I would want to be paid in yen, and if not yen then the euro or sterling.”
Matthew Osborne, of Armstrong International, added: “The majority would say sterling. There are a few dealers in the City who may take the view that they’ll take dollars now, while they’re cheap, and hold on to them for 12 months.
“But the problem is so serious that there are people who in July or August might have been thinking, ‘I’m paid in dollars, how annoying’ for whom it’s now a question of, ‘Do you have a job; do you have a bonus?’ “
The collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market in the US, which is fuelling the dollar unrest, has already brought down one British bank, Northern Rock, and has forced others to declare vast losses. Yesterday, just as it appeared that the dollar might have finally reached its floor, there was another warning that the sub-prime crisis is going to get worse. The US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, warned an international business summit in South Africa: “The sub-prime market, parts of it will get worse before it gets better.” Huge numbers of US homeowners are still cushioned by introductory interest rates set when they took out loans in 2005 or 2006, he said. When these introductory offers run out, their interest payments will increase, setting off another wave of defaulting and repossessions. And the dollar is enduring its rockiest spell in recent memory.
Goldman Sees Subprime Cutting $2 Trillion in Lending
Bloomberg
November 16, 2007
Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) — The slump in global credit markets may force banks, brokerages and hedge funds to cut lending by $2 trillion and trigger a “substantial recession” in the U.S., according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Losses related to record home foreclosures using a “back- of-the-envelope” calculation may be as high as $400 billion for financial companies, Jan Hatzius, chief U.S. economist at Goldman in New York wrote in a report dated yesterday. The effects may be amplified tenfold as companies that borrowed to finance their investments scale back lending, the report said.
“The likely mortgage credit losses pose a significantly bigger macroeconomic risk than generally recognized,” Hatzius wrote. “It is easy to see how such a shock could produce a substantial recession” or “a long period of very sluggish growth,” he wrote.
Goldman’s forecast reduction in lending is equivalent to 7 percent of total U.S. household, corporate and government debt, hurting an economy already beset by the slowing housing market. Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf said yesterday that the property market is the worst since the Great Depression.
Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank, and Merrill Lynch & Co. have led companies writing down more than $50 billion on securities linked to subprime mortgages. The risk of further losses by banks has pushed their borrowing costs above the average for investment-grade companies, according to Merrill Lynch indexes. Citigroup paid bondholders the highest yield relative to benchmark interest rates in its history this week.
Will Dow-gold ratio hit one-to-one again?
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/276972
Markets poised for severe fall: Bank of England
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/mon….cnking115.xml
Stiglitz: Greenspan To Blame For Crisis
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?…6mHrJk&refer=us
Wells Fargo: Housing worst since Great Depression
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7080215
China State TV To Viewers: Dump The Dollar
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/…p-dollar.html
Cost Of The Crunch $2 Trillion, Says Goldman
http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/16/gold….ed=rss_news
Goldman Sees Subprime Cutting $2 Trillion in Lending
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/new…A&refer=home
Suddenly ‘world’s biggest financial institutions are paying more to borrow in the corporate bond market than the average company’
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/…fqw&refer=home
Investors Should Spank Banks for Betraying Trust
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news….4&refer=home
Pound Poised for Biggest Weekly Drop Against Dollar Since 2005
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/new…8&refer=uk
Warning over rate rise by ‘devious’ lenders
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.j…1/17/nrates117.xml
Fed Pumps $47bn Into System, Goldman Sachs Warns Recession
http://noworldsystem.com/2007/11/17/fed…s-recession/
Gold falls below $800 and Oil Slides $94 a Barrel
http://noworldsystem.com/2007/11/16/g…-a-barrel/
Jim Rogers Urges People To Sell Dollars
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps…d=aXH9wCx1oydw
Gold steadies as bargain hunters resurface
Gulf states’ dollar peg comes under threat
Pound hits fresh 4-yr low vs euro after weak data
Economists in poll expect credit turmoil to continue: WSJ
UK: Fastest rise in food prices for 14 years
Forex – Pound sinks as Oct retail sales show flagging sentiment
Bank’s grim warning over UK economy
Consumer inflation posts increase
Inflation, gold: Back to the 1970s?
Goldman Sachs bets credit crisis will worsen
British taxpayers face paying £730 EACH to cover Northern Rock in plans to ‘nationalise’ bank
Carnage on Wall Street as loans go bad
Treasury Market Inflation Anxiety Renewed
‘Sub-prime black hole is getting scarier’
California, Ohio, Florida Cities Lead U.S. Foreclosure Filings
US dollar will get stronger: Bush
Dollar to stay anchor of China’s reserves: Chinese official
When I start seeing Jay-Z flashing euros instead of the dollar, I know our economy is in trouble
Talk of Worst Recession Since the 1930s
Recession fears grow as inventories swell
Recession fears grow as inventories swellOECD Says the Full Effect of the Sub-Prime Mess is Still in Front of Us
MBIA, Ambac Downgrades May Cost Market $200 Billion
Paulson Becomes Boxed-in by `Strong’ Dollar Chant
88% Erosion and Purchasing Power
Bear Stearns Cuts Subprime Assets, Limits Writedown
Orlando Foreclosure Filings Up 184%
Judge rules against the banks!?
Crude Oil = $98; Gold = $845
Wall Street Sees Worst Weekly Point Loss Since 9/11
Gold bounces above $800 after 1 percent drop
It’s the FIRE Economy, stupid
Dollar Crisis: None dare call it ‘conspiracy’
Subprime Losses May Reach $300/400 Bil
Sterling falls as risk aversion leads to carry unwind
Time for the White House to Rescue the Dollar?
Bets against the dollar unlikely to slow this quarter
Even a weakened dollar still rules
World stocks hit 8-week low
With the dollar’s fall, intervention idea gains force
Currency Controls Return as Central Banks Fight Gains
The Risk of a Systemic Shock to the System is “Alarmingly High” – Morgan Stanley
Wall Street’s money machine breaks down
Oil Price Rise Causes Global Shift in Wealth
Global credit crisis intensifies
Ron Paul to Bernanke: How can we solve inflation with more inflation?
U.S. Economic Collapse News Archive
Filed under: Bank of England, bernanke, Big Banks, Britain, China, Credit Crisis, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Euro, Federal Reserve, food prices, foreclosure, George Bush, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Greenback, Inflation, interest rate cuts, jim rogers, Northern Rock, poll, pound, rate cut, Stock Market, subprime, subprime lending, swiss franc, United Kingdom, US Economy, US Treasury, Wall Street, Yen
Jim Rogers Urges People To Sell Dollars
Bloomberg
November 15, 2007
Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) — Investor Jim Rogers urged people to get out of the dollar and says he expects to be rid of all his U.S. currency assets by summer next year.
“If you have dollars, I urge you to get out,” Rogers said in an interview from Singapore. He is chairman of New York-based Rogers Holdings, formerly known as Beeland Interests Inc. “That’s not a currency to own.”
The dollar fell 9.5 percent this year against a basket of six major currencies as a housing slump slowed the economy and losses stemming from subprime mortgage defaults spread among U.S. banks. Rogers, who said last month he was shifting out of all his dollar assets, plans to buy commodities, Japan’s yen, the Chinese yuan and the Swiss franc.
Interest rate futures traded on the Chicago Board of Trade show a 72 percent chance that the central bank will lower its target rate for overnight loans between banks to 4.25 percent on Dec. 11, its third reduction this year.
Rogers, who predicted the start of the global commodities rally in 1999, criticized Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke for comments on the currency before a congressional committee on Nov. 8.
“He is a total fool,” Rogers said. “He said Americans who buy only American goods are not affected if the value of the U.S. dollar goes down. I was terrified.”
Bernanke said the only effect of a weaker dollar on a typical American with their wealth in dollars, buying consumer goods in dollars, would be “their buying powers, it makes imported goods more expensive.”
Rogers said that’s not right.
“If you only buy American products and the dollar goes down, the price of oil goes up, copper goes up, wheat goes up,” he said. “That affects you. He doesn’t understand the economy as far as I can see.”
Pound hits fresh 4-yr low vs euro after weak data
Reuters
November 14, 2007
Sterling fell to a new four-year low against the euro on Thursday, while British shares timmed losses after UK retail sales data showed an unexpected monthly fall in October, boosting the case for Bank of England rate cuts.
Retail sales fell 0.1 percent on the month versus expectations for a flat reading.
“It suggests that the economy is slowing down in the fourth quarter and it’s looking like there is going to be a rate cut in February which will mean cable (sterling/dollar) will go lower,” said Geoff Kendrick, currency strategist at Westpac.
Sterling fell to a session low of $2.0472, down about half a cent from pre-data levels .
The euro rose as high as 71.52 pence, highest since July 2003 .
The FTSE 100 .FTSE trimmed losses, down 0.46 percent after the UK retail sales data.
Gulf states’ dollar peg comes under threat
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/14499…9fd2ac.html
Economists in poll expect credit turmoil to continue: WSJ
http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinves….EY-DC.XML
UK: Fastest rise in food prices for 14 years
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jht…s/2007/11/13/ncosts113.xml
Forex – Pound sinks as Oct retail sales show flagging sentiment
http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/ar….EY-DC.XML
Bank’s grim warning over UK economy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/nov/15/economy1
Consumer inflation posts increase
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071115/economy.html
Inflation, gold: Back to the 1970s?
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/colu…dc6fb7b9ca1&p=2
Goldman Sachs bets credit crisis will worsen
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article3157810.ece
British taxpayers face paying £730 EACH to cover Northern Rock in plans to ‘nationalise’ bank
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-2342105….nk/article.do
Carnage on Wall Street as loans go bad
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7086909.stm
Treasury Market Inflation Anxiety Renewed
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid…er=home
‘Sub-prime black hole is getting scarier’
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article3155150.ece
California, Ohio, Florida Cities Lead U.S. Foreclosure Filings
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/200….-lead-us.html
US dollar will get stronger: Bush
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2007…113234035
Dollar to stay anchor of China’s reserves: Chinese official
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ibhPYyc-ifNr4ni18X_R6ekczbuw
When I start seeing Jay-Z flashing euros instead of the dollar, I know our economy is in trouble
http://noworldsystem.com/2007/11/15/is-jay-z-signaling-a-recession/
Talk of Worst Recession Since the 1930s
http://www.nysun.com/article/66268
Recession fears grow as inventories swell
Recession fears grow as inventories swellOECD Says the Full Effect of the Sub-Prime Mess is Still in Front of Us
MBIA, Ambac Downgrades May Cost Market $200 Billion
Paulson Becomes Boxed-in by `Strong’ Dollar Chant
88% Erosion and Purchasing Power
Bear Stearns Cuts Subprime Assets, Limits Writedown
Orlando Foreclosure Filings Up 184%
Judge rules against the banks!?
Crude Oil = $98; Gold = $845
Wall Street Sees Worst Weekly Point Loss Since 9/11
Gold bounces above $800 after 1 percent drop
It’s the FIRE Economy, stupid
Dollar Crisis: None dare call it ‘conspiracy’
Subprime Losses May Reach $300/400 Bil
Sterling falls as risk aversion leads to carry unwind
Time for the White House to Rescue the Dollar?
Bets against the dollar unlikely to slow this quarter
Even a weakened dollar still rules
World stocks hit 8-week low
With the dollar’s fall, intervention idea gains force
Currency Controls Return as Central Banks Fight Gains
The Risk of a Systemic Shock to the System is “Alarmingly High” – Morgan Stanley
Wall Street’s money machine breaks down
Oil Price Rise Causes Global Shift in Wealth
Global credit crisis intensifies
Ron Paul to Bernanke: How can we solve inflation with more inflation?
U.S. Economic Collapse News Archive
Filed under: Australia, Bank of England, Britain, central bank, citigroup, Credit Crisis, Dow, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Federal Reserve, global economy, gold, Great Depression, housing market, Inflation, interest rate cuts, liquidation, middle class, Oil, Stock Market, US Economy
Welcome To The “$1,000 Gold” Fan Club
Kevin A. DeMeritt
Ezine Articles
October 23, 2007
The $1,000 gold fan club? Absolutely. And, as far as fan clubs go, this one’s membership is swelling daily. There’s no question that the number of financial analysts who see gold topping the $1,000 mark have suddenly become as common as Tom Brady touchdown passes. But whether these folks are newcomers to the gold bandwagon or have been riding confidently along for years, it is remarkable just how many analysts now see nothing but good for gold.
Here, for example, is what a few $1,000 gold prognosticators have to say…
• The Falling Dow/Gold Ratio. The Dow/Gold Ratio – the number of gold ounces it takes to buy one share of the Dow Jones Index – has fallen from 42 in 2000 to nearly 19 in 2007. “What is interesting,” said analyst Dr. Marc Farber, “is that despite the stock market’s rebound since October 2002, the Dow/Gold Ratio has continued to decline. Simply put for the holder of gold – the world’s only honest currency, since it cannot be printed by some dishonest central banker – the Dow, although it increased in value in dollar terms, has continued to decline in gold terms with the result that, today, it ‘only’ takes 20 ounces of gold to buy one Dow Jones Industrial Average.
“Simply put, since 2000, gold has risen at a much faster clip than the Dow Jones and I would expect this out-performance to continue for the next few years until ‘gold currency’ holders will be able to buy one Dow Jones with just one ounce of gold.
“Now, you may think that I have become insane (but) I am convinced that the US Fed’s monetary policies will lead to exponentially widening wealth inequity and impoverish the majority of US households, which will then lead to social strife, protectionism, war, and the breakdown of the capitalistic system.
“However, if one considers that in 1932 and in 1980 one could indeed buy one Dow Jones Industrial Average with just one ounce of gold, then maybe my views are rather conservative. Possibly one will be able to buy, sometime in future, one Dow Jones with just half an ounce of gold!”
With that in mind, Farber believes we could be in store for a lot more than just $1,000 gold.
• In 1980 Dollars, Gold is Just Half-Price. John Hathaway, managing director of Tocqueville Asset Management, believes $1,000 gold isn’t far off. “I don’t think it will take much. Let’s not forget, in 1980 dollars, gold is less than half of its nominal price today.
“The disparity between the amount of paper that has been created since 1980 and the amount of gold that has been produced since then is just enormous. The ratio of financial assets to physical gold is at the low end of a historical range. If you were to mark all the gold to market that has ever been mined, which is a very conservative approach, and then take the valuation of all the global stock markets and all the global bond markets, gold represents about 3%, compared with a figure in the mid-20% range in 1980, which was the top of the bull market in gold and the beginning of the bull market in financial assets.
“Gold is a good value, certainly, at these prices, just based on the considerations we’ve discussed. Even if you don’t think worst-case outcomes are in the cards, gold is still rare and hard to find, and believe me, these companies are having the toughest times trying to maintain production, much less build it.”
• Central Banks Abandon Control of Gold. Two Citigroup metals analysts wrote that central banks faced a choice between a global recession and their continuing “control” of gold.
They chose to focus on staving off global recession.
“We believe that the policy resolution to the credit crunch will take the form of a massive, extended ‘reflationary rescue’ in a new cycle of global credit creation and competitive currency devaluation which could take gold to $1,000/oz or higher.”
• Slashing Interest Rates Will Only Add Fuel to the Fire
Analyst John Ing believes $1,000 gold is just on the horizon. His reasoning? Bankers are out of bullets when it comes to settling U.S. debt battles. “Ironically, while there is a crisis of confidence in the credit markets, the world is awash in liquidity due the gargantuan current account surpluses of China and other Asian countries as well as the Middle-East,” Ing wrote. “The problem however, is not the supply of surpluses, but the imbalance between the short term and long term obligations of the world’s biggest debtor and the United States.”
“As long as there is a lack of confidence in the short term, central banks are faced with the dilemma as to how to supply liquidity. Today, central banks continue to boost money supply but the monetary aggregates were already growing at double-digit levels and they had little room to maneuver. What is likely then is a dramatic reduction in interest rates, which will serve as a short term palliative. But this will not correct the imbalances. Central banks have tried to stabilize the global financial system by pumping large amounts of liquidity into the markets. To date, they have only addressed the symptoms of the underlying crisis. The situation will become even worse.”
• “Gold Is the Purist Play Against the Dollar”
When the former head of technical research at Citigroup predicts gold is heading not to $1,000, but to $3,000, it makes great sense to listen.
“Gold is the purest play against the dollar,” Louise Yamada, managing director of Yamada Technical Research Advisors said. She predicted gold would surpass $730 on its way to $3,000 inside of a decade.
• “Still Cheap Relative to Oil or Base Metals”
Australia’s Fat Prophets newsletter is another prominent member of the $1,000 gold fan club.
“We think the price could reach $850 an ounce by the end of the year, based on issues in the US housing market,” senior equities analyst Greg Canavan says. “US housing was an accident waiting to happen. We have also been forecasting an eventual price of $1000, and we would expect that in the first half of 2008.
“In the US, we expect further interest rate cuts. In Europe, the euro is getting stronger, with implications for exports. It could lead to a slowdown there,” he went on to say. “Also in Europe, the Bank of England had said it would not be bailing out lenders. But now it has been told that it must do so. So investors are seeing that gold is a fundamental store of wealth.”
Canavan added, “You should have 10 per cent of your portfolio in bullion or gold stocks. Also, it is considerably undervalued right now so it is more than just insurance. Despite being at more than 20-year highs it is still cheap relative to oil or base metals.”
• World Currencies “Becoming Increasingly Doubted
James Turk in his Freemarket Gold & Money Report believes $1,500 gold is possible.
“A blow-off leg in gold is looking increasingly likely once it clears $1,000. Think about this a moment. The US dollar is now trading at record lows, with no bottom in sight. Commodity prices are soaring, with wheat at over $9 per bushel and crude oil looking increasingly well supported over $80 per barrel. Gold is rising against all the world’s currencies, indicating that fiat national currencies backed by nothing but promises from over-indebted governments are becoming increasingly doubted. Britain just experienced the world’s biggest bank run since the 1930s. … We should be mentally prepared for the possibility that gold exceeds $1,000 within the next few months, and then just keeps climbing to a blow-off high.
“How high? A doubling of the gold price has happened before in blow-offs like the one I am describing, so $1,500 or more is not out of the question.”
So…where are you with your investments? Are you overly reliant on those worrisome “paper” investments at a time when more and more people want to hold something of authentic value in their hands? If that’s the case – and even if you’ve never joined a fan club your entire life – today may be the perfect time to become a member of the $1,000 gold fan club.
Whisperings of a gold conspiracy
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20071025/cleisure/cleisure3.html
Filed under: Alan Greenspan, Bank of England, bernanke, canadian dollar, central bank, China, citigroup, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dow, ECB, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Euro, european union, Federal Reserve, George Bush, global economy, gold, Great Depression, Greenback, housing market, Inflation, Northern Rock, Oil, Sarkozy, Stock Market, US Economy, Wall Street
Greenspan Warns Good Times Are Over
Short News
October 2, 2007
Alan Greenspan has announced the end of the good times for the world economy and that the economic future is a gloomy one, due to many factors including a slow down in the US economy which will have repercussions across the globe.
Greenspan predicted the boom of the 90’s following a “new economy”,a high-tec boost to productivity whose effects have been prolonged by the economic rise of China although he now claims that these have only given a temporary respite to the economy
He warns that government intervention to counteract the economic slowdown often do more harm than good citing the Bank of England intervention to help Northern Rock, a move that triggered the run on the bank.
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
Dollar Crunch Puts Gold Centre Stage
Telegraph
October 2, 2007
The dominoes are toppling. What began as a credit crunch has turned into a dollar crunch. We are witnessing a run on the world’s paramount reserve currency, an event that occurs twice a century or so, and never with a benign outcome.
The US dollar has fallen through parity against the Canadian dollar and plummeted to all-time lows against a basket of currencies. This is dangerous. None of the mature economic blocs seems able to take the strain, let alone step in to restore order.
Ultimately, Europe and Japan are in worse shape than the US. A mood of sauve qui peut is taking hold.
Is this what gold is sniffing as it breaks out against all currencies, smashing through €500 an ounce against the euro, and vaulting to a 28-year high of $743 against the dollar?
“Central banks have been forced to choose between global recession or sacrificing control of gold, and have chosen the perceived lesser of two evils,” said Citigroup in a fresh report.
“We believe that the policy resolution to the credit crunch will take the form of a massive, extended ‘Reflationary Rescue’, in a new cycle of global credit creation and competititive currency devaluations. This could take gold to $1,000 an ounce, or higher.”
The report’s authors, John Hill and Graham Wark, say the avalanche of central bank bullion sales earlier this year was “clearly timed to cap the gold price”.
They do not explain this explosive allegation, long promoted by the gold group GATA. But it would not surprise me if the European Central Bank’s motive for selling 37 tonnes in April and May was to hold the euro price of gold below €500.
Citigroup said the game was up once the Federal Reserve slashed rates a half point and opened the liquidity floodgates.
Talk of “competitive devaluations” is a new twist, although Bernard Connolly from Banque AIG has been warning for a long time that this would be the denouement. Gold bugs often prattle about the dollar’s demise – condign punishment for a country that has amassed $3 trillion of net liabilities abroad, slashed its savings rate below zero and spent itself into a debtor’s gaol – but they rarely ask what currency it is supposed to collapse against.
China is a leveraged play on US shopping malls. Japan is already buckling. Its economy contracted 0.3pc in Q2. Wages have fallen for eight months in a row. The Abe government has fallen – the first sub-prime victim, but not the last.
Until now, the euro has served as the “anti-dollar”, the default choice for Asians and petrodollar powers wary of US assets. This cannot last.
A rate of $1.43 (it was 83 cents in 2000) will combine, after a one-year lag, with deflating property bubbles in the Club Med bloc to cause a crisis in 2008. It will then become clear that the needs of the Germanic and Latin zones are incompatible and that a coin with no treasury, debt union, or polity to back it up cannot displace the dollar – if it survives at all.
Airbus is already underwater, unable to meet its dollar contracts unless it shifts plant from Europe. Every 10-cent rise in the euro costs €1bn.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is in guerrilla warfare against the ECB, threatening to invoke Maastricht Article 109, which gives EU politicians power to set a fixed exchange rate (by unanimity) or a “dirty float” (by majority).
The mood is moving his way. Eurogroup chair, Jean-Claude Juncker, has stopped pretending that all is well. “We have begun to have great concern about the exchange rate of the euro,” he said.
Europe will not let America export its day of reckoning to the rest of the world. It will counter with its own devaluation.
No doubt Ben Bernanke will use all means to avert disaster, including the “printing press” he invoked in November 2002. By this he meant that the Fed could inject unlimited stimulus by purchasing as many bonds and assets as it wants. He believes the Fed could have avoided the Depression if it had been more creative in 1931.
Even so, I am not sure that the Bernanke Fed will move fast enough, given fears of moral hazard, or, indeed, whether the rate cuts on offer are enough to head off an insolvency crisis. The chart of S&P 500 looks eerily similar to October 1987, the last time a tumbling US dollar set off a crash.
A Bundesbank rate rise was the trigger then. If the ECB’s hawks are pig-headed enough to ram through one last rise on October 4, we might see a replay.
Large parts of the global credit system are still shut. The $2.2 trillion market for commercial paper has shrunk by $368bn over the past seven weeks as lenders refuse to roll over loans. The $2.5 trillion market for “structured finance” remains frozen.
US sales of new houses are down 21pc in a year. Median prices have fallen 14pc since March to $225,700. Builders are having to slash tariffs to move stock at all.
We wait to see what happens as “teaser rates” on some $1.5 trillion of mortgages jump with a venomous kick in coming months. The Fed should have thought about this three years ago when rates were 1pc. It is too late now.
How do you play gold rally? Citigroup says the mining shares are poised to surge after lagging badly, offering a “Gold beta” leverage of 2.36. “The market is likely to be shocked at how much cash the major Golds generate at $700 an ounce,” it said.
It certainly looks as if gold has at last “decoupled” from the stock markets, regaining its role as the ultimate store of value. Whether the mining equities have decoupled is another matter.
If Wall Street takes a beating this autumn, the safest play is pure metal.
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Filed under: 2-party system, Alan Greenspan, Alex Jones, Bank of England, Big Banks, Bohemian Grove, central bank, Child Abuse, child sex slavery, DEBT, Dyncorp, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, engineered recession, Federal Reserve, Fema Camps, George Bush, global elite, Globalism, Greenback, halliburton, Hillary Clinton, homosexual prostitution, imf, Inflation, International Bankers, John Atchison, liquidation, neocons, New World Order, Police State, Sex Scandal, War On Terror, White House
Alan Greenspan’s Role in US Dollar Collapse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MMLozhEYPA
noworldsystem.com 