WASHINGTON — South Korea is losing patience with North Korea and probably will take military action, former national intelligence director Dennis Blair said Sunday.
Blair, who just returned from the Korean peninsula, said he doesn't see a major war starting, but he believes recent aggression by the North will press South Korea into some lower level military confrontations.
He said there's support among South Koreans for their military to take a stronger stance, adding that "a South Korean government who does not react would not be able to survive there."
He told CNN's "State of the Union" that the North's recent moves to sink a South Korean ship and fire artillery rounds on a South Korean island near a disputed sea border have frayed Seoul's patience. The artillery attack killed four South Koreans, while 46 sailors died in the sinking of the ship.
Blair said that what is needed is a united Korea under Seoul's influence, but China would have to exert its influence on the North for that to happen, and Beijing prefers the two countries to remain divided.
Monday, December 13, 2010
« FLASHBACK: Whistleblower In JPMorgan Silver Trading Scandal Targeted In Mysterious Hit And Run »
This certainly has the appearance of a professional hit on Maguire and his wife. It occurred just days after his name was revealed in Congressional testimony, and the identity of the assailant still has not been released by London police.
---
A London-based precious-metals trader who had accused JPMorgan Chase of manipulating the gold and silver markets was involved in a bizarre weekend car accident that triggered a police chase before the suspect was nabbed.
Andrew Maguire, a metals trader at the London Bullion Market Association, and his wife were traveling in their car when a second car coming out of a side street struck their vehicle. That car then hit two more vehicles before fleeing.
London cops using helicopters and patrol cars chased the hit-and-run driver before nabbing that person, whose name has not been released by authorities.
Maguire and his wife were released from the hospital yesterday. London police would not comment on the accident investigation.
The hit and run occurred after Maguire's name came to light Thursday during a US Commodities Futures Trading Commission hearing on limiting gold and silver positions held by large market participants in order to prevent manipulation.
During the hearing, Maguire was identified as having sent e-mails to Bart Chilton, a CFTC commissioner, and Eliud Ramirez, head of the commission's enforcement division, alleging that JPMorgan had used its massive metals positions to manipulate the commodities markets.
In one e-mail, Maguire wrote, "It is common knowledge here in London among the metals traders that it is JPM's intent to flush out and cover as many shorts as possible prior to any discussion in March about position limits," referring to last week's CFTC hearings.
JPMorgan inherited the positions when it acquired Bear Stearns two years ago. When the allegations first surfaced last week, JPMorgan declined to comment.
---
Additional reading...
JP Morgan and the Great Silver Caper - Lew Rockwell
---
Defiant Charles and Camilla: we won't be cowed
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have made it clear they will not be cowed by last week's attack by rioters.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall's evening of Royal Variety entertainment was marred when their Rolls-Royce limousine was attacked by a protester Photo: AP Photo/Matt Dunham
The Sunday Telegraph understands that the royal couple want to carry on with "business as usual". Although they found the assault intimidating, they will not be scaling back their public engagements or abandoning walkabouts.
A royal aide said both the Prince and the Duchess would remain as "visible" as ever during public engagements.
"Their default position is to get out there and get on with the job. It is absolutely business as usual.
"The Prince will leave it up to the security people to make sure that they are secure and the public are secure wherever they go, but they will crack on," the aide said.
The Sunday Telegraph can also report that:
* Sources close to Buckingham Palace hope the violence will see off plans to scale back police protection for members of the Royal family.
* An internal Metropolitan Police report has highlighted the red tape that hinders preparations for public demonstrations.
* Police leaders are calling on the Government to consider making water cannon available for future protests.
Officers yesterday issued photographs of 14 individuals from last Thursday's protests, some of whom were wanted in connection with the attack on the royal convoy in Regent Street.
Royal sources said the couple maintained full confidence in the ability of the police to bring those responsible for the attack to justice.
They also insisted that the couple remained "extremely supportive" of their police protection officers, and blamed the incident on the rioters, and not the police.
The Prince is said to be awaiting the results of an inquiry by Scotland Yard before making any further decisions about his security.
There has been speculation that the Prince may have overruled his security staff concerning the route taken to the Royal Variety Performance, but this newspaper understands that he accepted decisions made by his security team.
Scotland Yard earlier this year suggested cutting millions of pounds from the budget for protecting the Royal family, but last week's attack is likely to be used as leverage by those opposed to the cuts.
A source close to Buckingham Palace said: "We were very concerned about the proposals to cut back on protection. If one good thing comes out of this ghastly incident, let it be that those proposals are dropped."
The Sunday Telegraph can also disclose that police tackling public disorder are facing an unwieldy bureaucracy involving committees of senior officers, community liaison teams and lawyers. An internal report, distributed the day before the protests, exposes how the Metropolitan Police's specialist CO11 Public Order team is mired in red tape.
The document, written by Lynne Owens, an assistant Met commissioner, highlights how at least nine separate commands within the police service have to give their views when planning how to deal with any potential disorder.
Police leaders have urged the authorities to consider making water cannon available for the first time on the British mainland.
One senior source at the Police Federation said the rioting in central London would have come to a much earlier conclusion if protesters had been given a "good soaking".
Julie Spence, a former chief constable, agreed that the use of water cannon should be part of any public order review.
Paul Davies, who heads the Police Federation's operational policing committee, said the measure "would certainly be controversial but it comes back to protecting members of the public and allowing police officers to do their jobs".
Questions remain about why the royal couple were driven to the Royal Variety Performance in a conspicuous, 20ft-long limousine.
A senior security source said: "We may make recommendations for the future that will say 'safety first' and in these situations use a more manoeuvrable, more secure car."
The route taken by the royal convoy was checked by motorcycle outriders for an hour before the Prince and the Duchess left Clarence House, the source said. But once the route had been decided there was a period of "minutes" when the riders returned to Clarence House to collect the convoy, meaning no officers were keeping tabs on developments in Regent Street.
Alan Johnson, the former home secretary, yesterday told BBC Radio 4 he was "amazed" by yesterday's report in The Daily Telegraph that protection officers guarding the royal couple were using radios on a different channel from those dealing with the student riots.
"In my experience they are really meticulous about ensuring that the route ahead is well known and that they avoid these kinds of incidents," he added.
Police Mock Owners of Dogs They Executed – Exclusive Interview
Sunday on The Intel Hub Radio Show Shepard interviewed Eric and his cousin who had their dogs killed during a SWAT raid by trigger happy law enforcement officials.
Several topics were raised in the interview such as the fact that in some states if a police dog is killed, the suspect could serve 5 or more years in prison. There should be a more humane way that SWAT could conduct their operations to minimize harm to innocent people and animals. One suggestion that was raised in the interview was that SWAT should maintain an animal handling professional to secure such animals as soon as the house is cleared. SWAT teams are outfitted with padding and body armor.
Obviously small, midsize and even large pets should be a minimum threat to armored officers.
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J.P. Morgan’s Time May Be Up
Over the last few weeks there’s been an increasing chatter on the internet and in the news media about the precious metals markets. Most of the talk has been about J.P. Morgan and their manipulation of the price of silver. According to the rumors, J.P. Morgan has accumulated a massive short position in silver.
SFGate.com has written that, “J.P. Morgan holds a giant short position in silver. Furthermore, some observers are accusing the bank of acting as an agent for the Federal Reserve in the market(i.e. a lower silver price helps maintain the value of the US dollar).”
SFGate continues, “By selling massive amounts of paper silver in the futures market J.P. Morgan has been able to suppress the price of the precious metal. It is believed that these short positions are naked (i.e. they are not backed by any physical silver).”
Morgan’s (alleged) short position would be praised as being brilliant if the silver’s price were to fall. But since the metal’s price continues to go up their (alleged) position looks far less attractive.
« INSIDE JOB -- How Wall Street Became A Criminal Enterprise And Took Over Government (Feature Film Trailer, Winner At Cannes 2010) »
http://tinyurl.com/22ud77u
Film opened today in New York City and Los Angeles.
Further reading:
Bonus clip:
Director's Statement
This film attempts to provide a comprehensive portrayal of an extremely important and timely subject: the worst financial crisis since the Depression, which continues to haunt us via Europe’s debt problems and global financial instability. It was a completely avoidable crisis; indeed for 40 years after the reforms following the Great Depression, the United States did not have a single financial crisis.
However, the progressive deregulation of the financial sector since the 1980s gave rise to an increasingly criminal industry, whose “innovations” have produced a succession of financial crises. Each crisis has been worse than the last; and yet, due to the industry’s increasing wealth and power, each crisis has seen few people go to prison.
In the case of this crisis, nobody has gone to prison, despite fraud that caused trillions of dollars in losses. I hope that the film, in less than two hours, will enable everyone to understand the fundamental nature and causes of this problem. It is also my hope that, whatever political opinions individual viewers may have, that after seeing this film we can all agree on the importance of restoring honesty and stability to our financial system, and of holding accountable those to destroyed it.
More Foreclosures Expected in 2011
Brace yourself for another rough year in housing: The number of foreclosures is expected by many to increase in 2011 as more troubled mortgages work their way through the pipeline.
![[sun1212mw]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-LH151_sun121_DV_20101211155708.jpg)
Tom Bloom Next year could very well be a peak year for foreclosures, says Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties. The market is expected to tally about 1.2 million bank repossessions in 2010, up from 900,000 in 2009, he says. "We expect we will top both of those numbers in 2011."
That's partially due to issues the industry has faced with foreclosure processing that began in the fall and delayed a portion of foreclosures from being completed this year, he says. In the so-called robosigning controversy, some lenders halted foreclosures after learning procedures for signing off on foreclosure documents might not be in accordance with the law.
Continued high unemployment also is expected to exacerbate the foreclosure problem in the year ahead, as will upcoming interest-rate resets on adjustable-rate mortgages that will increase monthly payments for some homeowners, Mr. Sharga says.
In the meantime, data on the volume of loan modifications from the Treasury Department indicate that fewer borrowers were being approved for permanent modifications in recent months, says Greg Hebner, chief executive of MOS Group, a loss-mitigation service provider to mortgage lenders and servicers.
What's more, there's a growing feeling that modifying mortgages doesn't get to the heart of the housing crisis: "There is the perception that the answer to this involves trying to get job growth," which will help homeowners pay their loans and enable others to buy homes, said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, during a recent conference call with reporters.
For the longer term, however, the outlook for the foreclosure market is better since fewer homeowners are becoming delinquent on their mortgage payments. Thirty-day delinquencies are down 11% since the height of the recession in the first part of 2009, according to Mr. Brinkmann.
And loans 60 or more days past due are expected to fall nearly 20% by the end of 2011, to about 5% of all mortgages from an expected 6.2% at the end of 2010, according to a forecast released Tuesday from credit-reporting company TransUnion. Delinquency numbers are expected to continue to improve as unemployment slowly declines. (For its numbers, TransUnion uses a random sample of 27 million records from its database.)
"It's good progress, but we are by no means out of the woods yet," says Steve Chaouki, group vice president in TransUnion's financial-services business unit. In a more normal market, 60-day delinquencies would be in the 1.5% to 2% range, he says.
So how does all this bode for housing prices?
High housing inventory, along with high unemployment, will likely add up to continued depressed home prices in the year ahead in many markets, says Nichole Jordan, banking and securities industry practice leader for Grant Thornton, an accounting and business advisory firm.
"It's going to take several years to work through the excess inventory," she says.
Ms. Jordan and others are looking to 2012 for anything resembling a recovery in housing. Even then, it's going to be a long journey to stabilization; it historically takes five to seven years for prices to stabilize after a deep correction, Ms. Jordan says.
"Realistically, you're not going to see home prices appreciate next year," says Jason Kopcak, head of whole loans at financial-services firm Cantor Fitzgerald. In fact, many in the industry are expecting prices to fall another 10% next year on a national basis, he says. RealtyTrac's Mr. Sharga says the national decline could be around 5%. Other economists are expecting prices to remain flat.
Next year "is going to be a wash, in terms of any meaningful recovery, and we're looking toward 2012," said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, during a conference call with reporters. And that's assuming there are no other major problems or delays to contend with, he says.
A Real Jaw Dropper at the Federal Reserve
At a Senate Budget Committee hearing in 2009, I asked Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to tell the American people the names of the financial institutions that received an unprecedented backdoor bailout from the Federal Reserve, how much they received, and the exact terms of this assistance. He refused. A year and a half later, as a result of an amendment that I was able to include in the Wall Street reform bill, we have begun to lift the veil of secrecy at the Fed, and the American people now have this information.
It is unfortunate that it took this long, and it is a shame that the biggest banks in America and Mr. Bernanke fought to keep this secret from the American public every step of the way. But, the details on this bailout are now on the Federal Reserve's website, and this is a major victory for the American taxpayer and for transparency in government.
Importantly, my amendment also required the Government Accountability Office to conduct a top-to-bottom audit of all of the emergency lending the Fed provided during the financial crisis to be completed on July 21, 2011, which will take a hard look at all of the potential conflicts of interest that took place with respect to this bailout. So, in many respects, details that the Fed was forced to divulge on Wednesday about the $3.3 trillion in emergency loans that until now were totally kept from public scrutiny, marked the beginning, not the end, of lifting the veil of secrecy at the Fed.
After years of stonewalling by the Fed, the American people are finally learning the incredible and jaw-dropping details of the Fed's multi-trillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street and corporate America. As a result of this disclosure, other members of Congress and I will be taking a very extensive look at all aspects of how the Federal Reserve functions and how we can make our financial institutions more responsive to the needs of ordinary Americans and small businesses.
What have we learned so far from the disclosure of more than 21,000 transactions? We have learned that the $700 billion Wall Street bailout signed into law by President George W. Bush turned out to be pocket change compared to the trillions and trillions of dollars in near-zero interest loans and other financial arrangements the Federal Reserve doled out to every major financial institution in this country. Among those are Goldman Sachs, which received nearly $600 billion; Morgan Stanley, which received nearly $2 trillion; Citigroup, which received $1.8 trillion; Bear Stearns, which received nearly $1 trillion, and Merrill Lynch, which received some $1.5 trillion in short term loans from the Fed.
We also learned that the Fed's multi-trillion bailout was not limited to Wall Street and big banks, but that some of the largest corporations in this country also received a very substantial bailout. Among those are General Electric, McDonald's, Caterpillar, Harley Davidson, Toyota and Verizon.
Perhaps most surprising is the huge sum that went to bail out foreign private banks and corporations including two European megabanks -- Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse -- which were the largest beneficiaries of the Fed's purchase of mortgage-backed securities.
Deutsche Bank, a German lender, sold the Fed more than $290 billion worth of mortgage securities. Credit Suisse, a Swiss bank, sold the Fed more than $287 billion in mortgage bonds.
Has the Federal Reserve of the United States become the central bank of the world?
The Fed said that this bailout was necessary to prevent the world economy from going over a cliff. But three years after the start of the recession, millions of Americans remain unemployed and have lost their homes, life savings and ability to send their kids to college. Meanwhile, big banks and corporations have returned to making huge profits and paying their executives record-breaking compensation packages as if the financial crisis they started never happened.
What this disclosure tells us, among many other things, is that despite this huge taxpayer bailout, the Fed did not make the appropriate demands on these institutions necessary to rebuild our economy and protect the needs of ordinary Americans.
For example, at a time when big banks have nearly a trillion dollars in excess reserves parked at the Fed, the Fed did not require these institutions to increase lending to small- and medium-sized businesses as a condition of the bailout.
At a time when large corporations are more profitable than ever, the Fed did not demand that corporations that received this backdoor bailout create jobs and expand the economy once they returned to profitability.
I intend to investigate whether these secret Fed loans, in some cases, turned out to be direct corporate welfare to big banks that used these loans not to reinvest in the economy but rather to lend back to the federal government at a higher rate of interest by purchasing Treasury Securities. Instead of using this money to reinvest in the productive economy, I suspect a large portion of these near-zero interest loans were used to buy Treasury Securities at a higher interest rate providing free money to some of the largest financial institutions in this country. That is something that we have got to closely examine.
At a time when Wall Street executives are now making more money than before the financial crisis, how many big banks that paid back TARP funds in 2009 to avoid limits on executive compensation received no-strings-attached loans from the Federal Reserve?
At a time when millions of Americans are paying outrageously high credit card interest rates, why didn't the Fed require credit card issuers to lower interest rates as a condition of the bailout?
The four largest banks in this country (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup) issue half of all mortgages in this country. We now know that these banks received hundreds of billions from the Fed. How many Americans could have remained in their homes, if the Fed required these bailed-out banks to reduce mortgage payments as a condition of receiving these secret loans?
We have begun to lift the veil of secrecy at one of most important agencies in our government. What we are seeing is the incredible power of a small number of people who have incredible conflicts of interest getting incredible help from the taxpayers of this country while ignoring the needs of the people.
5 Signs the End is Near for the Criminal Banks
When will we get justice from the banksters? HINT: As soon as we demand justice and not a moment sooner.
Activist Post
Could it be any more clear? The international banks are proven criminal entities -- everyone knows it, and everyone is beginning to openly say it. Yet they are still apparently considered "Too-Big-to-Jail" by our public legislators.
Politicians from around the world continue to bow to the will of the banksters, whether they be in the private sector, privately-owned central banks, or global private banks, while the people continue to be brazenly looted to fund their criminal enterprise.
Our leaders are being forced by the international banks to give them public pensions and demand higher taxes without the consent of the voting public. So much for sovereign countries making their own laws. This, after these very bankers brought the nations of the world to their knees in the first place. The emperor is nearly naked for all to see; however, the final curtain to be pulled will thrust the angry populace well over the tipping point when they realize their servitude was purchased with fraudulent money.
It's all an illusion to enslave us. This insanity is about to end. We have the power to change our reality, but only if we have the collective awareness, courage and will to take it. The time for liberty and justice is here for free humans to live in a lawful society. We must immediately demand justice: seize the criminals' assets, release all debt prisoners, and reform our monetary system.
Here are 5 signs that the end is near for the criminal banks:
1. Global Awareness is growing among the peasants: Bloomberg recently reported that more than half of Americans polled want the Fed reined in or abolished. This poll indicates tremendous expansion of the public's knowledge of the Fed in America. This tipping point of awareness has already turned to rage in Europe.
2. Wikileaks to release Banking file: Regardless of what these new cables actually reveal, the WikiLeaks saga has hit center stage and will undoubtedly reveal a further wealth of criminal activity. This soap-opera-like, headline-grabbing story is guaranteed to penetrate even the laziest of mainstream news viewers.
3. Defaulting on Debt as a form of protest: The global awareness of the Greatest Bank Robbery of both individuals and governments already has led to a major shift in mentality regarding debt and one's obligation to pay it back. People are refusing to pay their credit cards (or not using them); walking away from mortgages; and are suing banks in the fraudulent mortgage scam. This is a movement that is beginning to recognize the system itself as an immoral one, so there is no moral obligation to further support criminality by participating. This is a massive paradigm shift which will have a "trickle-up" effect, as this mentality eventually asserts itself on governments to stop cooperating with the proven thieves of the banking industry. Governments will have to make the choice either to throw the banksters under the bus, or face their own possible collapse.
4. Ron Paul to chair Fed oversight: Author of End The Fed
, Ron Paul, was named chairman of the House subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy that oversees the Fed. He openly and repeatedly refers to the bankers as criminals in nearly every interview. This is clearly a sign that the Fed's days of running the plantation are coming to an end. Over 25 years in the making, Ron Paul finally will have his platform.
5. After-the-Fed debate heats up: The focus until this point has been to End The Fed. Now the focus has shifted to the assumption that the Fed's days are truly numbered. The time has arrived for groups advocating a new monetary policy to fiercely debate what type of system should replace the current private central bank. This preparation and debate indicates that a collapse of the current banking structure is a foregone conclusion.
The above points are being addressed simultaneously as discussion is increasing about the fact that it is mathematically impossible ever to pay off the fraudulent debt that has been created. Once this is realized by the majority, the end of the criminal banks will be seen not only as a near-term possibility; it will be seen as a self-evident necessity. It is, in fact, The Bankers or Us:
Could it be any more clear? The international banks are proven criminal entities -- everyone knows it, and everyone is beginning to openly say it. Yet they are still apparently considered "Too-Big-to-Jail" by our public legislators.
Politicians from around the world continue to bow to the will of the banksters, whether they be in the private sector, privately-owned central banks, or global private banks, while the people continue to be brazenly looted to fund their criminal enterprise.
Our leaders are being forced by the international banks to give them public pensions and demand higher taxes without the consent of the voting public. So much for sovereign countries making their own laws. This, after these very bankers brought the nations of the world to their knees in the first place. The emperor is nearly naked for all to see; however, the final curtain to be pulled will thrust the angry populace well over the tipping point when they realize their servitude was purchased with fraudulent money.
It's all an illusion to enslave us. This insanity is about to end. We have the power to change our reality, but only if we have the collective awareness, courage and will to take it. The time for liberty and justice is here for free humans to live in a lawful society. We must immediately demand justice: seize the criminals' assets, release all debt prisoners, and reform our monetary system.
Here are 5 signs that the end is near for the criminal banks:
1. Global Awareness is growing among the peasants: Bloomberg recently reported that more than half of Americans polled want the Fed reined in or abolished. This poll indicates tremendous expansion of the public's knowledge of the Fed in America. This tipping point of awareness has already turned to rage in Europe.
2. Wikileaks to release Banking file: Regardless of what these new cables actually reveal, the WikiLeaks saga has hit center stage and will undoubtedly reveal a further wealth of criminal activity. This soap-opera-like, headline-grabbing story is guaranteed to penetrate even the laziest of mainstream news viewers.
3. Defaulting on Debt as a form of protest: The global awareness of the Greatest Bank Robbery of both individuals and governments already has led to a major shift in mentality regarding debt and one's obligation to pay it back. People are refusing to pay their credit cards (or not using them); walking away from mortgages; and are suing banks in the fraudulent mortgage scam. This is a movement that is beginning to recognize the system itself as an immoral one, so there is no moral obligation to further support criminality by participating. This is a massive paradigm shift which will have a "trickle-up" effect, as this mentality eventually asserts itself on governments to stop cooperating with the proven thieves of the banking industry. Governments will have to make the choice either to throw the banksters under the bus, or face their own possible collapse.
4. Ron Paul to chair Fed oversight: Author of End The Fed
, Ron Paul, was named chairman of the House subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy that oversees the Fed. He openly and repeatedly refers to the bankers as criminals in nearly every interview. This is clearly a sign that the Fed's days of running the plantation are coming to an end. Over 25 years in the making, Ron Paul finally will have his platform.5. After-the-Fed debate heats up: The focus until this point has been to End The Fed. Now the focus has shifted to the assumption that the Fed's days are truly numbered. The time has arrived for groups advocating a new monetary policy to fiercely debate what type of system should replace the current private central bank. This preparation and debate indicates that a collapse of the current banking structure is a foregone conclusion.
The above points are being addressed simultaneously as discussion is increasing about the fact that it is mathematically impossible ever to pay off the fraudulent debt that has been created. Once this is realized by the majority, the end of the criminal banks will be seen not only as a near-term possibility; it will be seen as a self-evident necessity. It is, in fact, The Bankers or Us:
Market alarm as US fails to control biggest debt in history
US Treasuries last week suffered their biggest two-day sell-off since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. The borrowing costs of the government of the world’s largest economy have now risen by a quarter over the past four weeks.
Liam Halligan
Telegraph
Such a sharp rise in US benchmark market interest rates matters a lot – and it matters way beyond America. The US government is now servicing $13.8 trillion (£8.7 trilion) in declared liabilities – making it, by a long way, the world’s largest debtor. Around $414bn of US taxpayers’ money went on sovereign interest payments last year – around 4.5 times the budget of America’s Department of Education.
Debt service costs have reached such astronomical levels even though, over the past year and more, yields have been kept historically and artificially low by “quantitative easing (QE)” – in other words, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s virtual printing press. Now borrowing costs are 28pc higher than a month ago, with the 10-year Treasury yield reaching 3.33pc last week, an already eye-watering debt service burden can only go up.
Few on this side of the Atlantic should feel smug. The eurozone’s ongoing sovereign debt debacle has pushed up Germany’s borrowing costs by 27pc over the last month – to 3.03pc. The market has judged that if Europe’s Teutonic powerhouse wants the single currency to survive, it will ultimately need to raise wads of cash to absorb the mess caused by other member states’ fiscal incontinence.
While the UK isn’t ensnared in monetary union, gilt yields have also spiralled 18pc since the start of November – to 3.55pc. British Government debt is officially £1.05 trillion. We are fast approaching a debt-to-GDP ratio of 100pc, compared to 30pc just a decade ago. If you add off-balance-sheet liabilities to Government estimates, including the bank bail-outs which disgracefully remain “off the books”, the UK already owes more than an entire year’s national income. In the medium-term, this is surely incompatible with a Triple AAA credit rating.
Even with gilt yields ultra-low, courtesy of British QE, the UK is still spending £42bn a year servicing sovereign debt – up 50pc since 2008. The Coalition is talking tough about reining-in the annual budget deficit, but our burgeoning debt stock means interest payments are anyway set to reach £70bn – twice the defence budget – by 2015. And those numbers rest on low gilt-yield assumptions that will be blown out of the water if this recent bond market implosion is the start of a trend.
Read Full Article
Telegraph
Such a sharp rise in US benchmark market interest rates matters a lot – and it matters way beyond America. The US government is now servicing $13.8 trillion (£8.7 trilion) in declared liabilities – making it, by a long way, the world’s largest debtor. Around $414bn of US taxpayers’ money went on sovereign interest payments last year – around 4.5 times the budget of America’s Department of Education.
Debt service costs have reached such astronomical levels even though, over the past year and more, yields have been kept historically and artificially low by “quantitative easing (QE)” – in other words, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s virtual printing press. Now borrowing costs are 28pc higher than a month ago, with the 10-year Treasury yield reaching 3.33pc last week, an already eye-watering debt service burden can only go up.
Few on this side of the Atlantic should feel smug. The eurozone’s ongoing sovereign debt debacle has pushed up Germany’s borrowing costs by 27pc over the last month – to 3.03pc. The market has judged that if Europe’s Teutonic powerhouse wants the single currency to survive, it will ultimately need to raise wads of cash to absorb the mess caused by other member states’ fiscal incontinence.
While the UK isn’t ensnared in monetary union, gilt yields have also spiralled 18pc since the start of November – to 3.55pc. British Government debt is officially £1.05 trillion. We are fast approaching a debt-to-GDP ratio of 100pc, compared to 30pc just a decade ago. If you add off-balance-sheet liabilities to Government estimates, including the bank bail-outs which disgracefully remain “off the books”, the UK already owes more than an entire year’s national income. In the medium-term, this is surely incompatible with a Triple AAA credit rating.
Even with gilt yields ultra-low, courtesy of British QE, the UK is still spending £42bn a year servicing sovereign debt – up 50pc since 2008. The Coalition is talking tough about reining-in the annual budget deficit, but our burgeoning debt stock means interest payments are anyway set to reach £70bn – twice the defence budget – by 2015. And those numbers rest on low gilt-yield assumptions that will be blown out of the water if this recent bond market implosion is the start of a trend.
Read Full Article
MADOFF; THE MOB; MOSSAD; 'MURDER'
In 2008, Mark, his brother Andrew and their father Bernie were revealed to be linked to a $50 or $175 billion 'Ponzi' fraud scheme.
Mark and his brother had top positions in the business but said they had no knowledge of the fraud.
Kohn and Madoff.According to Irving Picard, the lawyer recovering money for the fraud victims, Austrian banker Sonja Kohn was a "criminal soul mate" of Bernard Madoff for 23 years. (Austrian banker Kohn key to Madoff crimes)
Allegedly, Kohn ran an international network of banks and funds in order to help carry out the fraud.
Reportedly, Madoff secretly paid Kohn at least $62 million in secret kickbacks.
Kohn, a 60-year-old Austrian ultra-Orthodox Jew, had 'billionaire mobster clients'. (Financier's Life Becomes Crazy Spy Movie)
"With Russian oligarchs as clients," said an Austrian banker, "she might have reason to be afraid." (Movie)
Where is the real Madoff?Fraud examiner Harry Markopolos (or Makropoulos) said of the Madoff scheme, "When you're that big and that secretive, you're going to attract a lot of organized crime money, and which we now know came from the Russian mob and the Latin American drug cartel. And when you're zeroing out mobsters, you have a lot to fear."
HSBC and its staff have been accused of receiving "kickbacks for looking the otherway while legitimising BLMIS (Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities) through their name and brand, making it attractive to investors". (HSBC 'took kickbacks to keep Madoff in business'.)
Allegedly, Madoff was 'the chief money-launderer for the Mossad's espionage unit in America'. (Cached)
Ken Lay lives in Paraguay and Bernie Madoff and Mark Madoff will join him?
Journalist Taki Theodoracopulos wrote the following (GstaadLife: Taki: Madoff's people):
In May of 1999, a very nice Greek-American by the name of Harry Makropoulos, the world’s greatest expert on derivatives, sent a report to the SEC’s Boston office calling the Madoff operation the ‘world’s largest hedge fund fraud’.
My fellow Greek stipulated that ‘my name not be released to anyone other than the Branch Chief and Team Leader in the New York Region without my express permission. I am worried about the personal safety of myself and my family. The report has been written solely for the SEC’s internal use.’
Whom was he afraid of?
Those in the know say Mossad and Israel;
I say rogue Mossad agents acting alone with Madoff.
Makropoulos nailed Madoff, listing the back-door marketing and financing schemes as if he were an insider. But the SEC did not respond.
Powerful political voices ordered the SEC not to proceed. I am not naming names because libel laws mostly favour the criminal in Europe, and their names will never get past the libel lawyers.
The largest investors were not Jewish charities as was reported by Jewish-owned newspapers in New York, but French, Spanish and Swiss private banks. It was Sonia Kohn, of the Medici bank of Vienna, a woman who makes Midge Dexter look like Ava Gardner, who involved Charles Fix...
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