Filed under: bankruptcy, DEBT, Economic Collapse, economic crisis, federal spending, Great Depression, greece, Income Tax, italy, middle class, Paul Volcker, pelosi, Senate, slavery, Taxpayers, tea party, US Economy, VAT, White House | Tags: tax strike
Spend It Now! A Huge New Tax Is Coming…
Daily Wealth
April 9, 2010
Everything you buy is about to become 20% more expensive…
I’m not kidding. The latest idea out of Washington is to pay for its insatiable appetite for spending with what’s called a “Value-Added Tax.”
It’s like a huge new national sales tax, on everything. In simple terms, the difference is that with a sales tax, the consumer pays it. With a “VAT,” the manufacturer pays it. The consumer won’t see it in the price on the shelf or on their receipt.
Politicians love this tax because it’s a stealth tax… You can’t see it when you buy something, but they still get their money. And unless you make your voice known, chances are excellent we’ll eventually have a Value-Added Tax here.
The thing is, making things 20% more expensive here and giving that money to politicians won’t save America. It’ll make us less competitive. For Exhibit A, consider the state of European governments right now…
Greece, for example, has a VAT of 21%. Its government is bankrupt. The Value-Added Tax didn’t save Greece.
Italy and Portugal have a VAT of 20%, and they’re only a little less bankrupt than Greece.
Astoundingly to me, the Value-Added Tax in France has now crept up to a full 50% of France’s government revenues. So how are things going in France with a Value-Added Tax?
France is unable to compete in the world. Unemployment is terminally high. The unemployment rate is now 10% in France. In 2005, the unemployment rate was 10%. And back in 2000, unemployment stood at 11%. Like I said, it’s terminal…
Clearly, the system is not working. So why is the U.S. government in such a hurry to adopt it?
The Wall Street Journal explained it yesterday: “Taxes on the rich can’t begin to finance the levels of new spending that the current government has unleashed… ”
And foreign governments have been less willing to buy our government bonds lately. So the government needs a new source of a lot of money.
At first, a Value-Added Tax will be offered up by politicians as a small tax – just a temporary fix to get us over the hump on our current budget woes. But we know how it will go… Like all taxes (and parasites), it will become permanent in our lives and it will steadily grow. Remember, the VAT in France is now 50% of government revenue.
All we can do right now is let our politicians know we’re against more taxes… because we know down in our toes that governments spend every dollar that comes in… and then some.
Think about it this way: When your child has overspent on the credit card, you don’t hand over a new card to spend on.
We don’t want to give our politicians a new credit card to ring up charges. Reject their request for another massive credit card, in the form of a Value-Added Tax.
Oh, the other thing you can do is make all your big purchases soon, before a Value-Added Tax comes along and adds 10%-20% to the price of everything you buy…
VAT attack: Beware: ‘Value-added tax’ is an economy-killer
New York Post
April 12, 2010
 Paul Volcker |
One of President Obama’s top economic advisers, former Fed chief Paul Volcker, suggested this week that it’s time for America to adopt a VAT, or value-added tax. The White House yesterday downplayed the idea — but it’s sure to resurface: It’s an inevitable consequence of a government that’s too big now and likely to grow even bigger thanks to Washington’s reckless spending spree.
Don’t get me wrong: The VAT — on top of all the other taxes Washington imposes — is a terrible idea. Imposing it would pretty well finish the transformation of our country into a European-style slow-growth nation. The right way to close Uncle Sam’s gaping deficits is to reverse the continued explosion of federal spending.
The VAT is a type of national sales tax, levied on the value-added at each stage of production. Consider a piece of furniture: The VAT would be imposed when the raw timber is sold, when the sawmill produces lumber, when the manufacturer builds a chair, a tax at the wholesaler level and then when a retailer sells the chair to a consumer.
To avoid double taxation, each seller along the way gets a credit for taxes paid at earlier stages of the production process. So the final tax to the consumer, at least in theory, is the same as a retail sales tax of the same amount.
The VAT has its virtues: As a single-rate, consumption-based system, much like the flat tax or national sales tax, it would introduce far fewer economic distortions than today’s income tax — and a heckuva lot less paperwork.
That would be a persuasive argument — if proponents wanted a VAT to replace the Internal Revenue code. But that’s not what’s intended by Volcker — or Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who’ve also been chatting up the VAT.
The politicians want a VAT, and they want to keep the income tax. (To be more accurate, they want a VAT and to raise other taxes as well.)
They want the cash, of course, so they can continue buying votes by spending other people’s money.
This decade already has seen a huge expansion of government. In the Bush years, federal spending rose from $1.8 trillion in 2001 to $3.5 trillion in the last Bush budget. Now President Obama is well on the way to doubling outlays yet again.
He has already saddled the economy with $800 billion of “stimulus” and a giant new health-care entitlement, and his proposals for next year will push the federal budget even higher.
Meanwhile, our aging population and the built-in growth in federal programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security has a dramatic expansion in the size of government set to occur automatically in coming decades.
Simply stated, there’s no way to finance all this new spending without an added broad-based tax. But this is exactly why we should vigorously resist a VAT.
Blocking a VAT may not be sufficient to control the size of government, but it’s necessary. Handing Washington a whole new source of revenue would be akin to giving keys to a liquor store to a bunch of alcoholics.
Chuck Norris: More Tyranny Plus More Taxes Equals More Protests
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: bankruptcy, California, Credit Crisis, DEBT, depression, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, Inflation, small business, US Economy
Small-business bankruptcies rise 81% in California
LA Times
December 28, 2009
The Obama administration’s new plan to give a boost to small businesses reflects continued trouble in that sector, which is facing new failures even as much of the nation’s economy is stabilizing.
As credit lines have shrunk and consumers have cut back on spending, thousands of small businesses have closed their doors over the last year. The plight of struggling firms has been aggravated by the reluctance of banks to lend money, said Brian Headd, an economist at the Small Business Administration’s office of advocacy.
“While bankruptcies are up, overall, small-business closures are up even more,” Headd said.
California has been particularly hard hit. The latest data show small-business bankruptcies up 81% in the state for the 12 months ended Sept. 30, compared with the previous year. Filings nationwide were up 44%, according to the credit analysis firm Equifax Inc.
The actual number of small businesses in trouble is probably higher, experts said, because many owners file for personal bankruptcy rather than seek
protection for the business.
Filed under: auto bailout, bailout, bankruptcy, Barack Obama, Bloggers, corporatism, Dictatorship, Empire, Fascism, free press, general motors, government control, government takeover, internet, Mainstream Media, Media, media bailout, mediaopoly, Neolibs, obama, socialism, tax, Taxpayers | Tags: los angeles times, The Newspaper Revitalization Act
Obama Supports Newspaper Bailout Bill
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
September 21, 2009
President Obama has stated that he is happy to consider bailing out the corporate media, expressing concerns that alternative internet based news outlets will grow in popularity as a result of the downfall of newspapers.
Obama told editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade that preserving the print media is “critical to the health of our democracy”.
“I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding,” Obama said.
He also indicated that readers should be made to pay for online news content in the near future:
“What I hope is that people start understanding if you’re getting your newspaper over the Internet, that’s not free and there’s got to be a way to find a business model that supports that.” he said.
Over the past year, scores of newspapers have gone out of business or shifted to online only output, due to the rise of the alternative media and the resulting loss of ad revenue. Several large newspaper corporations have filed for bankruptcy, including the Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.
Obama said he “would be happy to look at” legislation aimed at providing newspapers tax-breaks if they were to restructure as 50 (c) (3) educational corporations. Democratic Senator Ben Cardin has introduced the bill S.673 in this vain titled “The Newspaper Revitalization Act.”
Critics may point out that, far from being “critical” to democracy, a bailed out government subsidized media is the very antithesis of a “free press”.
Government Banking and Government Motors would effectively be joined by the Government Press if bailouts were to be granted.
Bailing out the corporate media would once again constitute rewarding outdated and failing monopolies with more taxpayer dollars, thus punishing innovative forward thinking competition.
Furthermore, there is absolutely no basis for bailing out the newspapers, given that they employ less than one percent of the labor force in the United States.
The dinosaur corporate media is dying because it has proven itself to be almost wholly untrustworthy, acting as an unquestioning mouthpiece for the establishment.
Denouncing all blog based media as unreliable or without context is laughable in the face of the mainstream media’s recent track record.
Filed under: Alabama, army, Bank of America, bankruptcy, Big Banks, Communism, Conditioning, Credit Crisis, DEBT, deflation, Dictatorship, Dollar, domestic terror, domestic terrorism, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, Fascism, global economy, global government, Great Depression, Greenback, Hegelian Dialectic, housing market, hyperinflation, illinois, Inflation, intimidation, jefferson county, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Martial Law, Military, Military Industrial Complex, national guard, Nazi, New World Order, NWO, Police State, Posse Comitatus, Problem Reaction Solution, socialism, Stock Market, u.s. soldiers, u.s. troops, urban warfare, US Economy, Wall Street, War On Terror, world government
National Guard Might Take Over Police Duties in Alabama
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
August 5, 2009
The implementation on martial law in America advanced a step further yesterday when the sheriff of Alabama’s most populous county said he would probably have to bring in National Guard troops to perform law enforcement duties due to budget cuts.
Plans to slash $4.1 million from the budget of Sheriff Mike Hale by Jefferson County commissioners in order to head off a municipal bankruptcy filing were approved by Circuit Judge Joseph L. Boohaker.
“A spokesman for Hale, Randy Christian, said the sheriff told Riley after the ruling that state assistance may be needed to perform basic law enforcement tasks once the department’s current funding is exhausted in early September,” reports the Associated Press.
“We will certainly be looking at calling in the National Guard,” said Christian.
Jefferson County has 640,000 residents and includes the state’s largest city, Birmingham.
Moves to replace traditional law enforcement with National Guard troops have been replicated in other parts of the country, including in Schenectady New York, where budgetary constraints were not even cited as a reason for the changeover.
After a handful of police officers were accused of assaulting citizens, Mayor Brian Stratton proposed declaring martial law and replacing the city’s entire roster of cops with National Guardsmen.
“It may be that as a stopgap measure, that you would need military forces – State Police, National Guard.” the Mayor said.
The use of military assets in civilian law enforcement is still illegal under Posse Comitatus, unless a clear state of emergency exists. The misbehavior of a few cops or the inability of a Sheriff to manage a budget cut does not constitute a state of emergency.
In this context, without the justification of an existing crisis that mandates National Guard intervention, the threat to replace police officers with troops on a whim is a sad reflection of how America is turning into a Soviet style military police state, as law enforcement increasingly shifts over to Homeland Security and Northcom controlled military assets.
Possible National Guard Deployment in Alabama Result of Bankster Scam
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
August 5, 2009
Earlier today, Paul Joseph Watsonn reported on the expected deployment of National Guard troops in Jefferson County, Alabama, to perform law enforcement duties in violation of Posse Comitatus due to budget cuts. “Plans to slash $4.1 million from the budget of Sheriff Mike Hale by Jefferson County commissioners in order to head off a municipal bankruptcy filing were approved by Circuit Judge Joseph L. Boohaker,” Watson wrote.
As it turns out, Jefferson County’s financial woes are a direct result of a bankster derivative scam.
“A few years ago Jefferson County, Alabama bought 17 interest rate swaps from JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers and Bank of America with the intention of hedging interest rate risk,” writes Moe Tkacki for the Business Insider’s Clusterstock. “In a sequence of events that played out in state capitals, city halls, and school and public utility boardrooms throughout the country , Jefferson County officials bought into complex interest rate swap contracts they didn’t understand, at much higher prices than the going rate, only to face hundreds of millions of dollars in sudden collateral calls when the subprime mortgage crisis began.”
Credit default swaps are a mega-scam perpetuated by the major banks. Last year, there was more than 70 trillion dollars in the so-called credit default swap market, a sum larger than the GDP of the world. “If only 1 to 2 percent ’service fee’ were charged in these transactions (which are based on illusory assets), we’re talking nearly three-quarters to one-and-a-half trillion dollars in real term fees being siphoned off (i.e. hijacked from) the global economy for no productive, but merely parasitic, purpose,” writes Zeus Yiamouyiannis. “One thing of which I am convinced, we have just been ripped off trillions of dollars and 700 billion of even real money won’t fix the problem.”
In late 2008, then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson attempted to cover-up this scam and protect his bankster masters. Now the damage is coming home to roost in places like Jefferson County, Alabama. Expect the rot to spread and troops to be called out in other parts of the country.
It really is a genius plan on the part of our globalist rulers. First, they hijacked the economy with their scam. Second, they created an economic crisis of fantastic proportion (and are now demanding world government as the cure). Third, in response to the social and political disintegration caused by their scam cash-strapped government tells us they have to lay-off the police and send out the troops because “anarchy” will rule if they don’t.
It is problem-reaction-solution on steroids.
For now, reports the Associated Press, “sewer system is still operating normally” — sewers are one of the hallmarks of an advanced civilization — but the county has closed four satellite courthouses and residents are standing in line for hours at the main courthouse to do routine business like renewing car tags.
It doesn’t take much imagination to speculate what will happen when the sewers stop working and normal government operations — fire and ambulance service, county hospitals, trash collection, the maintenance of the public water system, etc. — come crashing to a halt.
Jefferson County will need the National Guard to stop the plebs from revolting.
Photo of Combat Vehicles on the Streets of Springfield, Illinois
Infowars
August 3, 2009
On July 30, Infowars reported on an Illinois Army National Guard plan to put Armored Security Vehicles on the streets. “A Springfield-based military police company will be training with a new armored vehicle in the area this week,” the Associated Press reported. “The Illinois Army National Guard says training with the new Armored Security Vehicles will start Thursday and run through Sunday.”
An Infowars reader captured an image of the combat vehicles over the weekend. “Here is a picture of the Illinois National Guard driving the new armored military police vehicles through the streets of Springfield, Illinois.”
Staff Sgt. Daniel Becker told the AP people shouldn’t be afraid of the vechicles. “No, they shouldn’t be afraid — they need to let the idea sink in that it is normal for armed troops to be on the streets. After they get used to military vehicles on the roads, they will need to get accustomed to military checkpoints like the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan,” we wrote at the time.
Filed under: Afghanistan, bailout, bankruptcy, Congress, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, George Bush, global economy, Great Depression, Greenback, House, hyperinflation, Inflation, Iraq, Military, nation building, national debt, neocons, occupation, Pentagon, Senate, Stock Market, Uncategorized, US Economy, us national debt, Wall Street, war funding, war spending, weapons trade
House Passes $1 Trillion Defense Budget
Alternet
September 28, 2008
On Wednesday, the House passed a mammoth defense bill by a 392-39 vote. It’s expected to clear the Senate with little difficulty next week.
It was part of a trillion-dollar stop-gap measure to keep programs running through next March, allowing lawmakers to skip town without passing a final budget. The Associated Press reports, “The legislation came together in a remarkably secret process that concentrated decision-making power in the hands of a few lawmakers.”
In keeping with the tradition of recent years, Bush held a gun to his own head and threatened to pull the trigger if his demands weren’t met. According to the AP, “To earn President Bush’s signature rather than a veto, House and Senate negotiators dropped several provisions he opposed. They include a ban on private interrogators in U.S. military detention facilities and what would have amounted to congressional veto power over a security pact with Iraq.”
In other words, Congress also maintained recent tradition, swearing not to give Bush a blank check and then whipping out their pens and signing a blank check.
The number that the House sent to the Senate for “defense” — $612 billion for the coming year — is eye-popping. Imagine a stack of 612,000 million-dollar bills. Quite a pile.
http://www.alternet.org/story/100801/
’If we don’t cut back military spending, the bankruptcy of the United States is inevitable’
http://www.tomdispatc..nson_the_pentagon_bailout_fraud
The Pentagon Bailout Fraud
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/8379
Bush Administration Adds $4 Trillion To National Debt
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/09/29/couricandco/entry4486228.shtml
Filed under: AIG, bankruptcy, bernanke, Big Banks, Central Banks, CNN, Cold War, Congress, corporatism, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dictatorship, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, Euro, fannie mae, Fascism, FDIC, Federal Reserve, foreign aid, freddie mac, George Bush, georgia, glenn beck, global economy, gold, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Greenback, henry paulson, House, housing market, hyperinflation, Inflation, Lehman Brothers, liquidation, Media, middle class, Military, morgan stanley, mortgage, mortgage companies, mortgage lenders, nationalization, Nazi, Paulson, real estate, Ron Paul, Russia, Senate, silver, Stock Market, subprime, subprime lending, Taxpayers, US Constitution, US Economy, US Treasury, Wall Street, war funding, WW3, ww4 | Tags: john roberts, run on banks
Ron Paul: This Bailout Won’t Be the Last
Ron Paul on CNN w/ John Roberts
Ron Paul Blasts “Secret Government” Running Economy
Filed under: AIG, bankruptcy, Big Banks, Britain, Credit Crisis, DEBT, ECB, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Europe, european central bank, european union, Federal Reserve, foreign aid, foreign banks, foreign investors, global economy, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, Inflation, interest rate cuts, london, rate cut, Stock Market, Taxpayers, United Kingdom, US Economy, Wall Street | Tags: run on banks, swiss national bank
U.S. Taxpayers Paying To Bail Out Foreign Banks
George Washington’s Blog
September 21, 2008
We all know that the Fed is trying to stick the American taxpayers with trillions of dollars in debt (direct or through inflation) to bail out the Wall Street robber barons.
But did you know that they are also trying to get you to bail out foreign gamblers?
An article in the Telegraph states:
“The Fed has also just offered another $125bn of liquidity to banks outside the US that are desperate for dollars and can’t access America’s frozen credit markets”
“Another” $125 billion? How much has the Fed already given to foreign banks?
Why are American taxpayers who are already drowning in debt due to U.S. gamblers also being asked to also bail out foreign speculators?
This isn’t a pro-America anti-everyone-else post. If I lived in England, or Canada or Japan, I would resent being asked to bail out America, too.
Central Banks Offer Extra Funds to Calm Money Markets
Bloomberg
September 18, 2008
The Federal Reserve almost quadrupled the amount of dollars central banks can auction around the world to $247 billion in a coordinated bid to ease the worst crisis facing financial markets since the aftermath of the 1929 Wall Street crash.
The Fed increased the amount of dollars that the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and other counterparts can offer from $67 billion “to address the continued elevated pressures in U.S. dollar short-term funding markets.’’ The Bank of England, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank also participated. Several of them lent funds in their own currencies as well with the Fed adding a record $105 billion in temporary reserves.
Policy makers have struggled to revive confidence in markets this week as investors stockpiled money on concern more financial institutions would fail after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the U.S. government bailout of American International Group Inc. The cost to hedge against losses on U.S. government debt climbed to a record yesterday.
“There’s a complete lack of faith in the markets,’’ said Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in London. “There’s a lot of cash hoarding and people losing trust in banks, so the central banks are acting to relieve that. This might not be the last time they have to act.’
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080921/bs_nm/financial_bailout_paulson_dc
Bailout Eligibility Expanded to Foreign Institutions
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/..oreign.html
Filed under: bankruptcy, bear sterns, Big Banks, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, FDIC, global economy, Great Depression, Greenback, housing market, hyperinflation, Inflation, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, mortgage, mortgage companies, mortgage lenders, real estate, Stock Market, subprime, subprime lending, US Economy, Wall Street | Tags: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., run on banks
Lehman Brothers Bank Files For Bankruptcy
AP
September 15, 2008
Lehman Brothers, a 158-year-old investment bank choked by the credit crisis and falling real estate values, filed for Chapter 11 protection in the biggest bankruptcy filing ever on Monday and said it was trying to sell off key business units.
The filing was made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the bank’s holding company. The case had been assigned to Judge James M. Peck.
Lehman fell under the weight of $60 billion in soured real estate holdings, and the credit market’s dislocation ultimately forced it to seek court protection. The credit crisis has caused global banks to write down more than $300 billion in asset value since last year, and caused the shotgun sales of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Bear Stearns Cos.
Lehman’s bankruptcy filing marks the end of a Wall Street firm that started the U.S. cotton trade before the Civil War and financed the railroads that built a nation.
Filed under: Alabama, bankruptcy, Big Banks, brazil, California, central bank, Congress, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dollar, Dow, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, FDIC, georgia, global economy, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, indymac, Inflation, Merrill Lynch, Stock Market, US Economy, Wachovia, World Bank | Tags: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Integrity Bank of Alpharetta, run on banks
10th Bank Collapse This Year
Bloomberg
August 29, 2008
Integrity Bank of Alpharetta, Georgia, was closed by U.S. regulators today, the 10th bank to collapse this year amid a surge in soured real-estate loans stemming from the worst housing slump since the Great Depression.
Integrity Bank, with $1.1 billion in assets and $974 million in deposits, was shuttered by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Regions Financial Corp., Alabama’s biggest bank, will assume all deposits from Integrity, which was run by Integrity Bancshares Inc. The failed bank’s five offices will open on Sept. 2 as branches of Regions, the FDIC said.
“Depositors will continue to be insured with Regions Bank so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship to retain their deposit insurance,’’ the FDIC said.
Banks are being closed at the fastest pace in 14 years as financial companies report more than $505 billion in writedowns and credit losses since 2007. California lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc., which had $32 billion in assets, was closed July 11 in the third-largest bank seizure, contributing to a 14 percent drop in the U.S. deposit insurance fund that had $45.2 billion at the end of the in the second quarter.
FDIC may borrow money from Treasury to see it through an expected wave of bank failures: report
August 27, 2008
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) might have to borrow money from the Treasury Department to see it through an expected wave of bank failures, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The borrowing could be needed to cover short-term cash-flow pressures caused by reimbursing depositors immediately after the failure of a bank, the paper said.
The borrowed money would be repaid once the assets of that failed bank are sold.
“I would not rule out the possibility that at some point we may need to tap into (short-term) lines of credit with the Treasury for working capital, not to cover our losses,” Chairman Sheila Bair said in an interview with the paper.
Bair said such a scenario was unlikely in the “near term.” With a rise in the number of troubled banks, the FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund used to repay insured deposits at failed banks has been drained.
In a bid to replenish the $45.2 billion fund, Bair had said on Tuesday that the FDIC will consider a plan in October to raise the premium rates banks pay into the fund, a move that will further squeeze the industry.
The agency also plans to charge banks that engage in risky lending practices significantly higher premiums than other U.S. banks, Bair said.
The last time the FDIC had borrowed funds from the Treasury was at nearly the tail end of the savings-and-loan crisis in the early 1990s after thousands of banks were shuttered.
The fact that the agency is considering the option again, after the collapse of just nine banks this year, illustrates the concern among Washington regulators about the weakness of the U.S. banking system in the wake of the credit crisis, the Journal said.
Bankruptcy Filings Surge 29%
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/08/bankruptcy-filings-surge-29.html
FDIC: Bank Profits Fell By 86% In 2nd Quarter
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/busi..webbanks26.html
World Bank: More People In Poverty
http://www.reuters.com/article/worl..=RSS&feedName=worldNews
Dow Falls Another 240 Points
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2..=1;_ylt=ArOpbuqd64sBzkF3Xyx3zOxv24cA
Merrill, Wachovia in Danger of Failing: Strategist
http://www.cnbc.com/id/26262..Cquote%7Ctext%7C&par=yahoo
Large U.S. bank collapse seen ahead
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSSP21695020080819
Deepening economic crisis ‘may trigger family breakdown’
http://www.dailymail.c..onomic-crisis-trigger-family-breakdown.html
Auto industry seeks $50B in loans from Congress
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/23/news/economy/auto_bailout.ap/index.htm
Living the American dream in Brazil
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2008/08/200881884358873790.html
Illegal Immigrants Returning to Mexico in Record Numbers
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,409221,00.html
FDIC: Highest Level Of Troubled Banks Since 2003
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20..s;_ylt=AiX6b2alma.c4GBC5tc9LJqs0NUE
FDIC Increasing Staff for Expected Increase in Bank Failures
Japan’s Mitsubishi takes over US bank
noworldsystem.com 