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Alex also talks with film-maker, broadcaster and former broker and options trader Max Keiser. Keiser formerly hosted The Oracle with Max Keiser on BBC World News and currently hosts On The Edge with Max Keiser. Alex also covers the latest news and takes your calls. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – Arguably the most useful report to come out each quarter out of the Federal Reserve is the Z.1, or the Flow of Funds report, which was released minutes ago. And it’s a doozy: household net worth (assets less liabilities) in Q2 2010 plunged by $1.5 trillion, almost exclusively due to a plunge in Corporate Equities ($0.9 trillion) and Pension Fund holdings ($0.7 trillion). In other words, the net wealth of the US household continues to track the performance of the stock market tick for tick. And one wonders why the Fed, per Alan Greenspan’s admission, is only focused on ramping stocks up to all time highs. Total household financial assets declined by $1.7 trillion to $43.7 trillion, which was the biggest swing factor, as the tangible assets, or housing, was kept flat at $23.7 trillion. Read the rest of this entry »
(GATA) – On September 15 former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan made a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations. Some very interesting comments he made with respect to gold in response to a question were reported in an editorial in yesterday’s New York Sun, “Greenspan’s Warning on Gold�?:
On this occasion Greenspan, who has been famous for gobbledygook that leaves the audience guessing what he meant, did not mince his words. He said, “Fiat money has no place to go but gold.�?
He further commented that “if all currencies are moving up or down together, the question is: relative to what? Gold is the canary in the coal mine. It signals problems with respect to currency markets. Central banks should pay attention to it.�? Read the rest of this entry »
The government’s case against Goldman Sachs barely begins to target the depths of Wall Street’s criminal sleaze – Read More Here
(EconomicCollapseBlog) – Will The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill Be An Economic Disaster That The Gulf Coast Will Never Recover From? – Read More Here
(EconomicCollapseBlog) – How Is The U.S. Economy Supposed To Succeed When Our Politicians And The Big Banks Are Making Billions Of Dollars Betting Against It?
Most people around the globe think of America as a great “capitalist” economic machine, but the truth is that the U.S. financial system is essentially one massive betting parlor at this point. In fact, there has been a whole lot of easy money made in this betting parlor over the past several years by our politicians and by the big financial players down on Wall Street. So how did they make all of this money? They did it by betting against America. Read More Here
How convenient for Goldman Sachs. Just as most working people were demanding that the Goldman bosses and other Wall Street criminals either be massively fined, jailed or worse, the nation’s attention is suddenly forced to react to the racist immigration law in Arizona. And although the two incidents are not directly related, they represent a trend that is likely to increase in the months and years ahead. Read More Here
(YahooFinance) – Video: Congress Refuses to Outlaw Insider Trading For Lawmakers
Even a cynic can find Washington’s hypocrisy shocking at times. The Wall Street Journal reports today a House bill that would force lawmakers to make greater disclosures on financial transactions and disallow them from trading on nonpublic information is going nowhere fast.
That’s right. Members of Congress are currently allowed to profit on insider trading! View Video Here
(WashingtonPost) – Illegal Immigrants cost feds more than $10 billion a year
A report that found that illegal immigrants in the United States cost the federal government more than $10 billion a year — a sum it estimated would almost triple if they were given amnesty — has drawn criticism from immigration advocacy groups. Read More Here
(WashingtonPost) – Effort to expand audits of Fed picks up steam in Senate
A contentious effort to expand audits of the Federal Reserve that sailed through the House despite heavy criticism appears to be picking up steam as the Senate considers broad new financial regulations. Read More Here
(GlobalResearch) – Cutting Public Debt: Economic Science or Class War?
In The Bullet no.345, Ingo Schmidt showed how the credit rating agencies have sparked an assault by international bondholders on the sovereign debt of Greece, where workers are being made to pay heavily for the fiscal crisis of the state. Read More Here
(WashingtonsBlog) – The Fed Must Be Audited: The Fraudulent Practices of the Federal Reserve
In March 2004, when Alan Greenspan was Fed chairman, he suppressed the opinions of those Fed officials who knew that there was a housing bubble.
Congressman Alan Grayson points out that – because the Fed unilaterally decided to hand out half a trillion to foreigners without any Congressional oversight, and that Bernanke testified that he didn’t know who got the loot – the Fed must be subject to an audit. Read More Here
(GlobalResearch) – Greece: Poverty and Social Implosion in the Wake of the Financial Bailout – Finian Cunningham
“This is not our debt, but we are being made to pay for it,�? said one angry Greek worker, explaining why he like thousands of other Greeks are taking to the streets in protest at their country’s bail-out plan.
The so-called rescue package of €110 billion ($143 billion) facilitated by the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) is not just aimed at shoring up Greece from total economic collapse. At stake too is the solvency of several other Eurozone countries – Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain – and even the euro currency itself. Read More Here
(USAWatchdog) – Inflation and Bailouts Go Hand in Hand
Pick a financial fire and you can be sure the U.S. government will hose it down with gallons of money. AIG, General Motors, Chrysler, insolvent states, FDIC, Fannie, Freddie and all the banks are just a few of the blazes Uncle Sam has sprayed money on
Now, the Federal Reserve is printing up another $105 billion to send to Greece to help with its debt problem. Is the bailout cycle getting ready to take another turn bailing out the Banks? Read More Here
(CNBC) – European Union, Currency Are Headed for Collapse: Gartman
The current European debt crisis likely will not end until the euro collapses as a currency and takes the entire European Union with it, said Dennis Gartman, hedge fund manager and author of “The Gartman Letter.” “I think the whole thing will go down to defeat, the whole thing will eventually unravel,” Gartman said in an interview with CNBC.com.Read More Here
(SmirkingChimp) – US Government Now 96.5% of the Mortgage Market Q1, 2010
If You Were NOT Paying for Your Neighbor’s Mortgage, How Many Home Sales Would There Be?
The US government IS the US housing market. Read More Here
(ABC30) – Video: City of Fresno Declares Fiscal Emergency
The city of Fresno is facing a $30.6 million budget shortfall and the mayor announced she wants to cut hundreds of city jobs. Video Link Here
(RussiaToday) – This time Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert look at the scandals of financial crisis show trials in America; Citigroup alleges they could not possibly have predicted the collapse of a very obvious housing bubble; and former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan, tells the show trial commissioners that the financial world is far too complex for mere mortals. In the second half of the show, Max talks to economist Dean Baker about Citigroup’s alleged profits. Read the rest of this entry »
(WashigntonsBlog) – As I have repeatedly pointed out, the economy cannot stabilize unless the fraud which led to the crisis (see this, this, this and this) is openly discussed.
(EconomicPolicyJournal) – Goldman Sachs Continues to Receive Enormous Assistance from Taxpayers Read More Here
(Examiner) – Schwarzenegger axes low-cost auto insurance program as state & feds fleece impoverished public Read More Here
(BusinessInsider) – Goldman Again Tries To Dispel Notion That It Bets Against Its Clients Read More Here
(BobChapman) – The US dollar is vulnerable because of a staggering public debt
Almost every day in almost any currency your purchasing power in terms of gold is less and less. Thus, these currencies in which you save the fruits of your labor are cheating you out of your savings. Read More Here
(GlobalResearch) – Shadow Banking: Going After the Banksters. Then and Now Read More Here
(GlobalResearch) – Billions of Dollars of Stolen Money; Key Findings on the Wall Street Bank Bailout Tally Read More Here
(KurtNimmo) – Former Fed Mob Boss Calls for VAT and Carbon Taxes
One thing is certain. If Obama and his “economic advisers�? have their way, you will be paying significantly higher taxes directly to the banksters. Since payroll taxes are already egregiously high, the preferred method is either a sales tax or a so-called value added tax, also known as VAT. Glenn Beck is a fan of this form of government fleecing while his “conservative�? counterpart Bill O’Reilly prefers a straight sales tax to pay down the national debt. Read More Here
(CNNMoney) – Fed Says “Recovery�? May Lose Steam
Federal Reserve policymakers are worried that the economic recovery may lose steam going forward, despite recent moderate improvements, according to minutes from their recent policy meeting released Tuesday. Read More Here
(AFP) – Murdoch Says “People Will Start Paying�? for His Newsites “When They Have Nowhere Else to Go�?
Mr Murdoch, in an interview with journalist Marvin Kalb for The Kalb Report on Tuesday, also said he believed most US newspapers would eventually end up charging readers online, like he does with The Wall Street Journal and plans to do with his other properties beginning with The Times of London. Read More Here
(WSJ) – Bernanke Says Americans Must Pay Off “Public�? Debt
The U.S. must start to prepare for challenges posed by an aging population with a credible plan to gradually reduce a soaring public debt, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday. Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – The Latest Gold Fraud Bombshell: Canada’s Only Bullion Bank Gold Vault Is Practically Empty Read More Here
(DailyCaller) – IRS chief: Buy health insurance or lose your tax refund
Individuals who don’t purchase health insurance may lose their tax refunds according to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. After acknowledging the recently passed health-care bill limits the agency’s options for enforcing the individual mandate, Shulman told reporters that the most likely way to penalize individuals that don’t comply is by reducing or confiscating their tax refunds. Read More Here
(MailOnline) – How £300 million was squandered on swine flu jabs that we didn’t need Read More Here
(Reuters) – Volcker: Taxes likely to rise eventually to tame deficit
The United States should consider raising taxes to help bring deficits under control and may need to consider a European-style value-added tax, White House adviser Paul Volcker said on Tuesday. Read More Here
(NYTimes) – Automaker Pensions Underfunded by $17 Billion
The pension plans at General Motors and Chrysler are underfunded by a total of $17 billion and could fail if the automakers do not return to profitability, according to a government report released Tuesday. Read More Here
(AP) – Atlantic City casinos struggling with economy Read More Here
(Globe&Mail) – GM posts $4.3-billion loss Read More Here
(MarketOracle) – Protect Your Wealth From Exploding Debt as States Implode
The world is breathing a sigh of relief now that the financial crisis in Greece is “over.�? Yeah, right. Greece’s financial misdeeds — the country has racked up a lot of debts it can’t pay — will probably come back to haunt Europe, and soon. Read More Here
(MarketWatch) – ‘Wall Street’ sequel is an omen of U.S. collapse
Yes, Oliver Stone is suddenly America’s hottest market timer, as well as the voice of the inner “American Soul,” warning investors of a collapse. Remember the Crash of 1987? One-day 23% drop. Happened just before his 1987 “Wall Street” film hit the theaters. Read More Here
(MoneyNews) – Report: Panicky Investors Pull Cash Out of Greek Banks
Greek banks are being hit by a wave of redemptions as rich citizens and companies look to move their money to big global banks or offshore as the country’s debt crisis rages, the Telegraph newspaper reported on its Web site. Read More Here
(Telegraph) – Fed boss Greenspan says no one saw the crisis coming. Really?
Only in America. Only in America would it be possible to spawn a financial crisis so devastating that it would collapse the entire world economy. Read More Here
(LondonEveningStandard) – Riots in Athens as thousands protest against cutbacks
Masked youths stoned police outside Greece’s parliament today in protest at cutbacks proposed to try to end the country’s debt crisis. Read More Here
(TheNewspaper) – Federally Funded “Ticket Blitz�? in Virginia
A federally funded ticketing blitz in the state of Virginia landed a total of 6996 traffic tickets this weekend. The blitz, dubbed “Operation Air, Land & Speed�? coincided with frantic efforts by state officials to close a$2.2 billion budget deficit. Read More Here
(YahooFinance) – U.S. Taxpayers on Hook for $5 Trillion of Fannie, Freddie Debt… No Matter What Barney Frank Says
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank caused a bit of an uproar Friday when he suggested the U.S. government does not guarantee the debts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Read More Here
(HuffingtonPost) – Stop the Federal Reserve From Shredding Its Records
Should the policymaking committee of the most powerful peacetime entity in the United States government be allowed to destroy their source records? The Federal Open Market Committee of the nation’s central bank, an intricate part of the United States government may be continuing to destroy its source records, a policy it began in 1995 with an unrecorded vote -no fingerprints – conducted by then Chairman Alan Greenspan. Read More Here
(NYTimes) – Program Will Pay Homeowners to Sell at a Loss
In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave. Read More Here
(BobChapman) – Structural Weakness of the US Dollar. The Dollar Rally will not last
Every important factor we see is working against the dollar and we believe that trend is irreversible. That means the present dollar rally probably cannot endure and it could well be the time to short the USDX. Read More Here
(RussiaToday) – Video: No Bailouts in Iceland
People in Iceland have rejected their government’s pledge to repay a debt of more than US$5 billion left by the collapse of Icesave Internet bank. 93 per cent of people voted “no�? in a referendum. Video Link Here
(BBC) – Britain: Fake Storefronts Soothe Consumers During Recession
Fake businesses are to be used to lessen the impact of the recession on high streets in North Tyneside. Read More Here
(WSJ) – U.S. Monthly Budget Deficit Balloons to a Record $651.60 billion
Even as government receipts posted a rare increase in February, soaring outlays pushed the country’s year-to-date deficit up to a record $651.60 billion. Read More Here
(MSNBC) – Financial reform tips toward bankers
As Congress this week inches toward a new set of rules to avert another global financial collapse, it is focused on two conflicting goals: reforming the banking system to protect consumers while still giving lenders the freedom to take risks. Read More Here
(WSJ) – Treasury Plans to Take Social Security from Elderly for Unpaid Loans
A little–noticed law could soon result in smaller Social Security checks for hundreds of thousands of the elderly and disabled who owe the U.S. money from defaulted loans and other debts more than a decade old. Read More Here
(AP) – Budget deficit sets record in February
The government ran up the largest monthly deficit in history in February, keeping the flood of red ink on track to top last year’s record for the full year. Read More Here
(CNN) – Welcome to the United States of Iceland
It’s time to start paying attention to the financial sinkhole that Iceland is trying to climb out of — the view from inside of it is eerily similar to our own. Read More Here
(InfoClearingHouse) – Economist Lewis Black Tells It Like It Is
ADULT CONTENT WARNING: If you’re not familiar with Lewis Black, I’d turn back if I were you.
Lewis Black is funny. Dangerously funny. That he has such a large audience and still packs plenty of politics in his shtick gives one hope for the fate of our sorry species. So I figured it’s time I learned something from him. Read More Here
(TheKansan) – RHOADES: State revenue has another $108 million shortfall – Read More Here
(WashingtonsBlog) – Unemployment: Better, Worse or Less Bad? – Read More Here
This time Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, look at the scandals behind: ‘the owner of Great Britain’ bouncing a $54 million check for a pile of dirt in the Persian Gulf; a currency speculator in Monaco moving currency markets with an ‘accidental Jim Rogers press release’ while Colonel Gaddafi calls for jihad against Switzerland and receives zero market impact; and Alan Greenspan wins major award for causing up global financial markets to explode. Keiser also talks to David DeGraw about his new book, “The Economic Elite versus the People of the United States of America.” Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – A week ago Ron Paul asked Ben Bernanke a series of questions, which the Chairman and pundits immediately dismissed as “bizarre�? and an indication that the potential presidential candidate has finally lost it (among these was a very nuanced question whether or not the Fed is buying sovereign debt, something which Bernanke disclosed in 2002 is a distinct possibility and an action the Fed is permitted to do). Chief among these were queries arising from the work of U of T professor Robert Auerbach, and specifically his book “Deception and Abuse at the Fed�? (not available on Kindle), which seek information on whether the Fed was involved in the Watergate scandal and, subsequently, in Iraqi weapons purchases. Read the rest of this entry »
(WashingtonsBlog) – Greenspan just said that the current credit crunch is “by far the greatest financial crisis, globally, ever” — including the 1930s Great Depression.
Greenspan said that while the economy was in worse shape in the Great Depression, the recent financial crisis was potentially more harmful than that in the 1930s because “never had short-term credit literally withdrawn.�?
It’s one of those numbers that’s so unbelievable you have to actually think about it for a while… Within the next 12 months, the U.S. Treasury will have to refinance $2 trillion in short-term debt. And that’s not counting any additional deficit spending, which is estimated to be around $1.5 trillion. Put the two numbers together. Then ask yourself, how in the world can the Treasury borrow $3.5 trillion in only one year? That’s an amount equal to nearly 30% of our entire GDP. And we’re the world’s biggest economy. Where will the money come from? Read the rest of this entry »
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan answered that he had placed his trust in a flawed theory when he was called before Congress to explain why he, Goldman Sachs Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Deputy Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, prevented Brooksley Born, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Corporation, a government regulatory agency, from doing her job of regulating over-the-counter derivatives Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – Mr Bernanke’s in-house Fed economists have found that the Fed wasn’t responsible for the boom which subsequently turned into the biggest bust since the 1930s. Are those the same Fed staffers whose research led Mr Bernanke to assert in Oct. 2005 that “there was no housing bubble to go bust�?? The reasons for the US and the UK central banks inflating the bubble range from incompetence and negligence to just plain spinelessness. Let me propose an alternative thesis. Did the US and UK central banks collude with the politicians to ‘steal’ their nations’ income growth from the middle classes and hand it to the very rich?Read the rest of this entry »
(WSJ) – Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said in prepared testimony the threat to U.S. fiscal stability is larger than ever, mostly because of rising medical costs. Read the rest of this entry »
Evidence that the US is a failed state is piling up faster than I can record it.
One conclusive hallmark of a failed state is that the crooks are inside the government, using government to protect and to advance their private interests. Read the rest of this entry »
In 2000, America was described as the sole remaining superpower – or even the world’s “hyperpower”. Now we’re in real trouble (at the very least, you have to admit that we’re losing power and wealth in comparison with China).
How did it happen so fast? Read the rest of this entry »
(TimesOnline) – Alan Greenspan, the former US Federal Reserve chairman blamed in some quarters for not doing enough to prevent the financial crisis, has predicted that more crashes are inevitable. Read the rest of this entry »
“Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value —- zero.�? – Voltaire
I’ve read and witnessed various pundits during the Presidential campaign describe Ron Paul as crazy. The corrupt tax and spenders in Congress know their days would be numbered if they followed his vision of government. After reading his tremendously sane rebuke of Ben Bernanke and the policies of his Federal Reserve, I’m reminded of a classic scene from Seinfeld. Read the rest of this entry »
As global leaders struggle to rescue their nations from economic breakdown, the legitimacy of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency is under attack. Perhaps the problem lies with the Fed. Read the rest of this entry »
Why has the stock market been on a 3-month tear when the economy is undergoing the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression? The S&P 500 has shot up 40% from its low on March 9 and the Dow Jones Industrials have followed close behind. Is this a typical bear market rally or is the invisible hand of the Fed goosing the markets? Read the rest of this entry »
For over 14 years, Daniel Estulin has investigated and researched the Bilderberg Group’s far-reaching influence on business and finance, global politics, war and peace, and control of the world’s resources and its money. Read the rest of this entry »
When, during the invasion of Iraq, the United States Government issued its famous deck of playing cards with the 52 arch villains of the Iraqi police state, Saddam Hussein’s face adorned the Ace of Spades. If the Obama Administration wanted to engage in a similar public relations campaign for the real estate crisis, the top card should be reserved for Alan Greenspan. Read the rest of this entry »
By throwing money at the problem, all the government is creating is inflation. Although this can often look like growth, it is no more capable of creating wealth than a hall of mirrors is capable of creating people. Read the rest of this entry »
Nobel prize-winning economist George Akerlof co-wrote a paper in 1993 describing the causes of the S&L crisis and other financial meltdowns. As summarized by the New York Times: Read the rest of this entry »
CDS are like an insurance contract, where the purchaser buys “insurance” that a company won’t go out of business from a seller. If the company stays in business, the purchaser pays premiums to the seller, but if the company goes belly up, the seller has to pay the face value of the CDS “policy”.
As usual, I put on an adult-sized diaper and my tinfoil hat in careful preparation to look at the change in Total Fed Credit last week, and it is a good thing I did, too, because the Federal Reserve (as expressed in their secret motto “We Are Evil”) created, out of thin air, a new US$29 billion in bank credit! Wow! Read the rest of this entry »
Since taking office, Obama, wittingly or otherwise, has headed the largest criminal enterprise in history – the mass looting of national wealth to enrich his Wall Street benefactors. He assembled a rogue economic team of Clinton/Robert Rubin retreads – to fix the current crisis they engineered. Read the rest of this entry »
(Reuters) – An author who saw the global financial crisis coming fears the next bubble will come in the form of inflation and has little confidence U.S. President Barack Obama’s team is up to the challenge ahead. Read the rest of this entry »
Indicators of avoidance are what come to mind while absorbing the various rescue, recovery, stimulus and guarantee programs coming out of the Obama Administration to slow and reverse a splintering and shattering economy. If the Obamites do not act now when the political time is ripest, to put into motion forces of deterrence and prevention, the casino capitalists of tomorrow will again be able to de-stabilize our economy. Read the rest of this entry »
In a near complete reversal of his comments on Tuesday, when he told a Congressional hearing that there were no plans to move towards a global currency to supplant the dollar, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sought to please the elitist CFR by assuring them that he was “open�? to the notion of a new global currency system.
He’s back and in denial in a March 11 Wall Street Journal op-ed headlined: “The Fed Didn’t Cause the Housing Bubble.” He lied, the way he did throughout his career and for 18.5 years as Fed chairman. How else could he have kept the job, be knighted in the UK for his “contribution to global economic stability, wisdom and skill,” then afterwards be extolled by the Money Trust he enriched. Read the rest of this entry »
This text by Catherine Austin Fitts is a response to an article entitled “The Fed Didn’t Cause the Housing Bubble�? by Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, published in the Wall Street Journal Read the rest of this entry »
Indicators of avoidance are what come to mind while absorbing the various rescue, recovery, stimulus and guarantee programs coming out of the Obama Administration to slow and reverse a splintering and shattering economy. If the Obamites do not act now when the political time is ripest, to put into motion forces of deterrence and prevention, the casino capitalists of tomorrow will again be able to de-stabilize our economy. Read the rest of this entry »
Jim Rogers: Listen, we have to face reality, George. I have. If you don’t face reality and you sit there and twiddle along and believe Mr Bernanke that everything is OK, you are going to get hit by a two-by-four and it’s going to hurt very, very, very badly, so I would urge you to be prepared. Read the rest of this entry »
When it comes to economics, many Americans need an education, and if not, at least an explanation of current problems, trends, and just plain what’s going on.
Christine Bowman writes a comprehensive pre-State of the Union Analysis of what’s going on, what Americans are thinking, but perhaps are afraid to ask, namely, “Will someone please just tell us what happened, what’s coming, and what we have to do now?” She says the President would not have to be the Econ Professor in Chief if the Business Media had done a decent job, but it seems to her that only Paul Krugman has been trying to describe today’s problems in real terms. Read the rest of this entry »
It is now a mantra in the corporate media — the only way to fix the banking system is to “nationalize�? the banks. “A touchy word has entered the public debate about the future of America’s economy. It’s a word that would shock the nation in normal times, but as even Republicans begin to whisper it, temporary ‘nationalization’ of troubled banks is increasingly seen as our last best hope for fixing our financial system,�? declares Thomas Kelley, writing for Yahoo News. Read the rest of this entry »
The financial “wealth creation�? game is over. Economies emerged from World War II relatively free of debt, but the 60-year global run-up has run its course. Finance capitalism is in a state of collapse, and marginal palliatives cannot revive it. The U.S. economy cannot “inflate its way out of debt,�? because this would collapse the dollar and end its dreams of global empire by forcing foreign countries to go their own way. There is too little manufacturing to make the economy more “competitive,�? given its high housing costs, transportation, debt and tax overhead. Read the rest of this entry »
The Bush/Obama bailout/stimulus plans are not going to work. Both are schemes hatched by a clique of financial insiders. The schemes will redistribute income and wealth from American taxpayers to the shyster banksters, who have destroyed American jobs, ruined the retirement plans of tens of millions of Americans, and worsened the situation of millions of people worldwide who naively trusted American financial institutions. The ongoing theft has simply been recast. Instead of using fraudulent financial instruments, the banksters are using government policy. Read the rest of this entry »
The US government may have to nationalize some banks on a temporary basis to fix the financial system and restore the flow of credit, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, has told the Financial Times. Read the rest of this entry »
Eight months after he predicted the worst was over and the threat of recession receding, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said the current global recession will “surely be the longest and deepest” since the 1930s. Read the rest of this entry »
European banks face an entirely new wave of losses in coming months not yet calculated in any government bank rescue aid to date. Unlike the losses of US banks which derive initially from their exposures to low-quality sub-prime real estate and other securitized lending, the problems of western European banks, most especially in Austria, Sweden and perhaps Switzerland arise from the massive volumes of loans they made during the 2002-2007 period of extreme low international interest rates to clients in eastern European countries. Read the rest of this entry »
The Oligarchs’ Escape Plan – at the Treasury’s Expense
The financial “wealth creation�? game is over. Economies emerged from World War II relatively free of debt, but the 60-year global run-up has run its course. Finance capitalism is in a state of collapse, and marginal palliatives cannot revive it. The U.S. economy cannot “inflate its way out of debt,�? because this would collapse the dollar and end its dreams of global empire by forcing foreign countries to go their own way. There is too little manufacturing to make the economy more “competitive,�? given its high housing costs, transportation, debt and tax overhead. A quarter to a third of U.S. real estate has fallen into Negative Equity, so no banks will lend to them. The economy has hit a debt wall and is falling into Negative Equity, where it may remain for as far as the eye can see until there is a debt write-down. Read the rest of this entry »
February 11, 2009 “Counterpunch” — – Tuesday’s announcement of the Obama-Geithner recovery plan is basically an extension of the Bush-Paulson plan – yet more giveaways to financial insiders, with a view to concentrating the U.S. banking system into a cartel of just a few large banks. This is not altogether bad news for the still relatively healthy part of the banking system (healthy in the sense of still avoiding negative equity). Smaller, less troubled banks will be bought out by the large “troubled�? ones, to the personal financial benefit of their stockholders. This cannot solve today’s financial problem: the fact that the debt overhead far exceeds the economy’s ability to pay. In fact, it will spread the distortions that the large banks have introduced, until the entire system presumably looks like Citibank, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. Read the rest of this entry »
We first posted this article on 13th August 2007 when it appeared to us that the US Dollar along with the economy was heading into such dangerous waters that gold would be the beneficiary. At the time gold was trading at around $670/oz and it closed yesterday at $834.80 for a gain of $164.80 or 24%. Read the rest of this entry »
New Rule: neomercantilists, neoconservatives, and statists are no longer allowed to call themselves “free marketers.” People who call themselves free marketers such as Bush, Paulson, Greenspan, and Bernanke are the primary threat capitalism faces. These false prophets of capitalism are the greatest friends that proponents of socialism have.
The greed of some of the Wall St. banksters, and the Fed’s inept policies, like condoning deregulation, are the real causes of the current financial meltdown. Nevertheless, the U.S. Congress has given them a green light to rake in trillions of dollars in taxpayers’ bailout money, with little or no public disclosure. The Fed’s functions should be taken over by the Treasury Dept. Main St. needs to be Congress’ prime concern, not Wall Street.
The Fed
“Wall Street has hijacked the economy for the last twenty some years.” – Richard L. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO Read the rest of this entry »
A strong economy must be built on a solid foundation of steadily rising wages. If wages don’t keep pace with production, the only way the economy can grow is through the expansion of debt, which leads to disaster. Read the rest of this entry »
Recent scandals in America reveal a value system that puts the wealth of a few before the welfare of many
‘What an ideology is, is a conceptual framework with the way people deal with reality,” Alan Greenspan told the Congressional House oversight and government reform committee on 23 October. “Everyone has one. You have to – to exist, you need an ideology. The question is whether it is accurate or not.” As the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, from 1987 to 2006, Greenspan stood at the helm of US monetary policy during the time conditions for the current meltdown were being created.
“And what I’m saying to you,” he continued, “is, yes, I found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is, but I’ve been very distressed by that fact … [I found a] flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works.” Read the rest of this entry »
OTN covers the End the Fed demonstration outside the Dallas Federal Reserve building on November 22nd, 2008. Alex Jones and Ron Paul’s brother were in attendance.
We can defeat enslavement by global financial crime if we all can agree on what their crime have been, and what those crimes have cost us, and if we can disconnect from their programmed deceit and move as one mass, in every city and village in united opposition to the debt slavery, wage-slavery, monopoly-slavery, dumb-down slavery, rigged-election slavery, monetary slavery systems that are our chains.
I think I understand the entire Kelptastrophe crime and can explain it to you clearly enough that everyone will have sufficient reason to come together for whole-population resistance and liberation. Read the rest of this entry »
Congressman says civil unrest after meltdown could lead to martial law
Congressman Ron Paul says that the bailout bill is likely to pass, heralding a 10-year plus economic depression for America and the potential for martial law should civil unrest arise as the financial meltdown worsens.
Speaking on The Alex Jones Show, Paul said of the bailout, “They want dictatorship, they want to pass all the penalties and suffering on to the average person on Main Street,�? adding, “We will have a depression or recession, it’s locked in place due to previous Federal Reserve actions.�? Read the rest of this entry »
Kuwait de-pegged its currency from the dollar last year. Now Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are considering following suit. Read the rest of this entry »
