Dog Poet Transmitting.......
‘May your noses always be cold and wet’.
We can’t see where the increments of change begin and end. All we can garner from the affair is that one day we are in another one, different than the one before. Sometimes the differences are dramatic and sometimes they are subtle but no one can argue against the fact that things are changing rapidly and no one can predict accurately what is going to happen next. This is due to the X Factor of the invisible side of things that plays into the field of action. Most feel they have no control over any of it, outside of their small sphere of influence. Then there are those who believe they have a great deal of control, followed by those who think they are in control. Every one of these groups are wrong, one way or another.
Several major newsgathering sites link to my work, or used to link to my work, on a regular basis. One of them hasn’t posted anything by me in several days and hasn’t responded to any of my emails. A couple of years ago, this same newsgathering site did not print my work for about one year. This happened after repeated efforts on my part to reach the person in charge, until I finally quit trying. At the end of the year I am referencing, I noted that this particular newsgatherer was experiencing some difficulty in disseminating his work. I wrote him to say that despite how he may feel about me, I wanted to give him some assistance. He wrote back to tell me that he had no idea what I was talking about and would like me to explain what I meant about the way he feels about me. He said he loved my work and that was all there was to it. Boy am I glad I never blamed him or spoke out against him (grin)
I had noted that my work would sometimes get linked at this site over that year but that was mostly due to a member of the newsgathering site, taking it upon himself to see that it was linked. I don’t know what happened but I assume it has something to do with Google mail and then with Yahoo mail, which I was using to inform newsgathering sites of a new posting.
Everything appeared to straighten out with this particular newsgathering site and I began to get linked there again. Then, recently, several times I was not linked and I inquired and was told that he hadn’t received any email from me. Now, I can’t get through at all again. I just heard from him at the most recent Smoking Mirrors before this, so... as you can see, something is afoot.
Meanwhile, another newsgathering site has begun to not receive my emails and when I inquire, I am told it didn’t get through. As it stands now, I haven’t been linked at either of these sites most recently and inquires that I have sent out have not been replied to. I just visited one of these newsgathering sites and I find that one of my recent posts has now gone up, along with a Patrick Willis rendering of my piece, “Should the Japanese apologize for Pearl Harbor. The latest Profiles in Evil has not gone up but that could be for any number of reasons.
Someone or several someone’s, with sophisticated access and abilities, is shutting down my ability to communicate with the people who account for the larger portion of my internet traffic. I am recommending that, if you want to keep following my work, you become a ‘follower’ with Google Friend Connect (irony alert). You’ll see the list and icon of followers in the right hand column of any of my blogs. I believe this means you get informed when I put something up. If that is not the case, then I hope some reader will suggest a medium by which I can inform the reader of new content. All of the blogs have been moved to ‘secure’ backup sites, in case the Zio-Ogres who control the media and most areas of information sharing, decide to employ some of the strategies that they took over or invented the mediums to control.
I will go on trying to stay in communication with these newsgathering sites but there’s no guarantee that I can pull this off. You’re on your own in terms of staying in touch with what I do, should that interest you. If some of you are receiving regular, automatic updates, I would appreciate your comment explaining how you do this.
A reader wrote me yesterday to tell me that it was getting really weird everywhere. He said that an old friend just unloaded on him with no explanation whatsoever. Yesterday I had the same thing happen but it was more subtle.
Humanity has a very serious enemy and that is whoever is behind the violent superimposition of the false country of Israel, over the former land of Palestine. This enemy has been behind all sorts of horrible events through history, including the World Wars, the slave trade, the millions of dead in the Russian gulags and the Ukraine, plus Armenian holocausts as well as some number of other holocausts. They were even behind the creation of their own holocaust, which they have presently turned into a religion of death worship. They control your politicians around the globe. They control the banks. They control the media and entertainment industries, Wall Street and many other things. They control the curriculum in the school systems and they control the record and perception of history. They make up a very small percentage of world population. They and those who serve them, make up a tiny minority of the population.
Israel has to go and she will be going fairly soon. The banks have to fail and they will. Control of the various industries must be removed from their hands and this is going to happen too. They are behind just about every major injury and insult against the human race at this time. They are the chosen offspring of the Prince of Darkness and it being a dark age, the appearance of their power is great. They are going down in every sense of the word and we are in the midst of the process that is bringing them there.
They lie about everything, while creating false flag events that they blame on those they seek to destroy. They are controlling Governor Walker and everyone like him and they also control the democratic side of it too. The unions are screaming out with another degree of self interest, not unlike those who operate the robot Governor Walker. Mostly they just want their pay checks and don’t care about who did 9/11 or all of the wholesale mass murder, being done around the world in the name of America and the UK/Crown colonies at the order of their controllers in Israel. Now the Pedophile Pope has just exonerated the Jews of killing Jesus. He's been compromised by those who falsely represent themselves as the actual people of the book, which is all the proof you need that the Bible has been altered to suit certain agendas, since soon after it was written. Anyone, who isn’t a Gnostic or an Essene, or someone of similar simplicity and character, is a dupe; a fool and a worshipper of The Dark Throne. This goes for all of the religions on the planet, which each have a splinter of truth buried in the midst of the bullshit.
At present there is no such thing as a democracy and no real difference between any of the representative political parties. The judiciary is uniformly corrupt, especially the higher judiciaries. Corporations rule the world in tandem with the bankers and these are the kind of people who will keep a kitten alive on life support, so that they can continue to stab it with a fork. These are the sort of people who will ask you if you know the difference between a whore and an onion. Then when you say you don’t, they will tell you they cried when they cut up the onion. It’s not a joke and they’re not waiting around for you to laugh. If they’re laughing, its not because they think it’s funny. They’re laughing because the awareness of evil fills them with mirth.
These alien entities are about to get what’s coming to them. This is going to happen because there is no alternative. There is no medical treatment for hydrophobia, after a certain stage of the process.
While there is still the opportunity, I suggest that the reader make arrangements for when my work will no longer be readily available in the places where you may have been accustomed to finding it. I can easily understand why any number of people may have no interest in hearing what I have to say, I am not addressing you and never have been.
Over the course of my time on the internet I have been excoriated by a number of information dissemination sites. One person felt I was teaching forbidden information. One group of people, claiming communication from other dimensions in time, trounced me for occasional use of psychotropics, while having no problem with alcohol use. I get regular letters from people, telling me about actions taken against them by this group of altruists. I’ve had large sites appear out of the blue, soliciting my material and then making me jump through hoops to get it to them, as if they were doing me a favor by making my work available, when I never asked them to. This is why I’ve never done this for money. The ad for ayurvedic treatment of kidney stones, newly on my sites, is because I believe the fellow has a cure. He doesn’t even know I put it up, although he may by now. People make all sorts of strange demands on me, as if I was employed by them and people say they don’t trust me when I never asked them to. People tell me I’m a Zionist agent; no doubt I will soon hear that I mistreat my dogs. Furthermore, I don’t debate, I state. I don’t argue or feel the need to prove my points. Take it or leave it.
I have also not mentioned the names of any of these sites and I don’t malign them, even though I could. I could say plenty. I don’t. I’d like to think I have more class than that. You know who the enemy is and, if you don’t, you’re under their spell or afraid of them. Neither of these applies to me. I wish all of you a good day, sincerely. The day will come when we shall all see with a great deal more clarity. That day is not yet here.
Much love...
End Transmission.......
Friday, March 4, 2011
Inside Job Trailer: 'Merrill Trader Thought He Was Smart'
http://dailybail.com/home/inside-job-trailer-merrill-trader-thought-he-was-smart.html
Another trailer from Charles Ferguson's Oscar-winning documentary.
See the rest of the trailers here...
---
Debtris U.S. - Adding It All Up
http://dailybail.com/home/debtris-us-adding-it-all-up.html
Video - Produced by Information Is Beautiful...
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net...
directed by: David McCandless
animation by: Miles Tudor, Dom Del Torto
music: Daniel Pemberton
sources: NY Times, The Guardian, BBC
data here: http://bit.ly/debtris
---
Bank of America Snuffs Market Manipulation Suit
(CN) - Investors lost their fourth attempt to sue Bank of America for allegedly manipulating the $330 billion Auction Rate Securities market from 2006 until its February 2008 collapse, which left investors holding billions of dollars in essentially worthless securities. A San Francisco federal judge dismissed the suit with leave to amend for a fifth round.
Auction Rate Securities (ARS) are bonds based on underlying assets that have an interest rate determined by Dutch auction where the securities are sold to the investor willing to accept the lowest rate of return on the bonds being issued.
The class-action suit, originally filed in May 2008 by investors, alleged that Bank of America bought billions of dollars worth of ARS underwritten by an affiliate to prop up the market that was already collapsing. Investors were concerned about the risk of the underlying assets being traded, including tranches of student and home mortgage loans.
If there are insufficient buyers interested in the lowest rate being offered on the bonds in the auction, underwriters usually step in to offer the sellers participating in the auction a minimum-rate return.
The bank asked U.S. District Judge Jeffery White to dismiss the suit. It claimed that the investors could not allege fraudulent market manipulation because B of A, and other market makers and ARS issuers advised investors that they did intervene in auctions to meet prearranged minimums with ARS sellers.
White agreed in an unpublished opinion Thursday, quoting a document Bank of America posted on its website in 2006 after the Securities and Exchange Commission began to require greater disclosure of the mechanics of auctions to investors:
"In connection with any particular auction, [Bank of America] is permitted, but is not obligated to submit orders for its own account either as a bidder or as a seller, and routinely does so in its sole discretion; even after obtaining knowledge of some or all of the other orders submitted through it."
The judge dismissed the market manipulation claims with leave to amend, but he said the class cannot pursue claims that the bank made material misrepresentations and omissions in connection to the sale of ARS. Those claims "are not seperable from the manipulative conduct," White found.
"Although this is the fourth iteration of lead plaintiffs' complaint, it is the first time the court has ruled on the sufficiency of the allegations," the ruling states. "The court cannot say that lead plaintiffs could not remedy the defects identified herein, and the court shall permit Lead Plaintiffs one final opportunity to amend the market manipulation claims."
Auction Rate Securities (ARS) are bonds based on underlying assets that have an interest rate determined by Dutch auction where the securities are sold to the investor willing to accept the lowest rate of return on the bonds being issued.
The class-action suit, originally filed in May 2008 by investors, alleged that Bank of America bought billions of dollars worth of ARS underwritten by an affiliate to prop up the market that was already collapsing. Investors were concerned about the risk of the underlying assets being traded, including tranches of student and home mortgage loans.
If there are insufficient buyers interested in the lowest rate being offered on the bonds in the auction, underwriters usually step in to offer the sellers participating in the auction a minimum-rate return.
The bank asked U.S. District Judge Jeffery White to dismiss the suit. It claimed that the investors could not allege fraudulent market manipulation because B of A, and other market makers and ARS issuers advised investors that they did intervene in auctions to meet prearranged minimums with ARS sellers.
White agreed in an unpublished opinion Thursday, quoting a document Bank of America posted on its website in 2006 after the Securities and Exchange Commission began to require greater disclosure of the mechanics of auctions to investors:
"In connection with any particular auction, [Bank of America] is permitted, but is not obligated to submit orders for its own account either as a bidder or as a seller, and routinely does so in its sole discretion; even after obtaining knowledge of some or all of the other orders submitted through it."
The judge dismissed the market manipulation claims with leave to amend, but he said the class cannot pursue claims that the bank made material misrepresentations and omissions in connection to the sale of ARS. Those claims "are not seperable from the manipulative conduct," White found.
"Although this is the fourth iteration of lead plaintiffs' complaint, it is the first time the court has ruled on the sufficiency of the allegations," the ruling states. "The court cannot say that lead plaintiffs could not remedy the defects identified herein, and the court shall permit Lead Plaintiffs one final opportunity to amend the market manipulation claims."
Ex-Goldman Sachs director charged with insider trading
Rajat Gupta was a member of the Goldman Sachs board for three and a half years
A former Goldman Sachs board member has been charged with insider trading.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission said Rajat Gupta leaked details about Warren Buffett's $5bn (£3bn) investment in Goldman in 2008 to Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam.
The SEC said Mr Gupta had tipped Mr Rajaratnam by phone minutes before the investment by Mr Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway became public knowledge.
Mr Gupta's lawyer called the allegations "totally baseless".
A spokesman for Goldman declined to comment, as did Jim McCarthy, spokesman for Mr Rajaratnam.
'Betrayed trust'The investment from Berkshire Hathaway helped to ensure Goldman's stability during the financial crisis.
The financial watchdog said that Mr Rajaratnam used the tip-off about the investment from his "friend and business associate" to trade for Galleon funds, generating more than $18m for the hedge fund group.
It also said Mr Gupta invested in some Galleon funds.
"Gupta was honoured with the highest trust of leading public companies, and he betrayed that trust by disclosing their most sensitive and valuable secrets," SEC enforcement chief Robert Khuzami said.
However, Mr Gupta's lawyer denied the allegations.
"Mr Gupta has done nothing wrong," his lawyer Gary Naftalis said in a statement. "There is no allegation that Mr Gupta traded in any of these securities or shared in any profits as part of any quid pro quo."
'Preventing distraction'Rajat Gupta sat on the board at Goldman from November 2006 to May last year.
He is also charged with giving Mr Rajaratnam confidential earnings information from Goldman and Procter & Gamble, where he had served on the board since 2007.
Mr Gupta resigned from his position on the P&G board on Tuesday after the civil charges were announced.
"He's stepping down in the interest of the company, to prevent any distraction to the P&G board or our business," company spokesman Paul Fox said.
Galleon Group's Mr Rajaratnam has already been accused of generating profits of more than $50m after receiving inside information.
He faces a criminal insider trading trial, scheduled to begin on 8 March. He also faces SEC civil charges.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
US states prepare to axe social spending, attack government workers
States across the US are attacking the wages and jobs of public sector workers, and drastically reducing spending on education, health care, and all other forms of social spending, according to a new study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) that analyzes budget proposals from 41 states for fiscal year 2012.
Both Democratic and Republican governors are demanding the cuts, and in most cases they are collaborating with public sector unions to put them in place. Both parties openly and shamelessly insist that the working class must foot the entire bill for the economic crisis that was triggered by the parasitism of the financial elite.
The CBPP report catalogues the sorts of cuts that are being outlined. Taken together, they foretell a rising tide of human misery and a society in an advanced state of dissolution.
Among 36 states having so far made public the necessary data, 27 will reduce spending levels to lower levels than in 2008, adjusted for inflation, even though “in the 2012 budget year, there will be more children in public schools, more students enrolled in public colleges and universities, and more Medicaid enrollees than there were in 2008,” as the study notes. Aggregate state spending will be about 10 percent less than it was in 2008, and only two sparsely populated states, North Dakota and Alaska, have significantly increased spending since then.
At least 16 states will undertake “identifiable, deep” cuts to public education, according to the study, and at least 15 have proposed severe cuts to higher education funding.
A minimum of 14 states have proposed layoffs or wage and benefit cuts to state workers. These will come on top of the 426,000 job cuts in state and local government that have been put in place since August 2008.
At least 23 states have proposed major cuts to health care spending. Especially targeted is the joint federal-state health insurance coverage for the poor, Medicaid, which the Obama administration envisions absorbing millions of people as part of its “health care reform.” As the study notes, “Some 4 million more people are projected to receive subsidized health insurance through Medicaid in 2012 than were enrolled in 2008, as employers have cancelled their coverage and people have lost jobs and wages.”
Only three states—Minnesota, Illinois, and Connecticut—are combining cuts to social spending and attacks on state workers with modest increases in corporate tax rates and income tax rates for wealthy filers. Elsewhere, tax increases target the income of the working class through sales tax hikes, as well increased license and user fees for state services.
Seven states are exacerbating their budget crises by enacting major new tax breaks for corporations. Florida will lose $459 million in funding by cutting its corporate tax rate nearly in half, to 3.5 percent, if it adopts Governor Rick Scott’s budget proposal. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s move to reduce the estate tax on millionaires and slash the corporate tax rate will cost the state $700 million by 2016. Reductions in the estate and corporate tax rates in Maine will reduce revenues by $203 million and widen the two-year budget deficit by 25 percent, if Governor Paul LePage’s budget is enacted in full. In January, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker put in place business and individual tax cuts of $117 million. Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder has proposed abolishing the state business tax. He intends to pay for this by taxing workers’ pensions and doing away with the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income working families. The measure will nonetheless increase Michigan’s deficit by $254 million in 2012.
Like the unemployment rate, economists view the fiscal health of states and cities as a “lagging indicator,” as tax revenues remain low even after recoveries in the business cycle. Tax receipts have fallen because of high unemployment and wage cutting, driving down revenues earned through income and sales taxes, the two primary sources of funding for states. At least 31 states have less revenue in 2012 than they had in 2008, by an average of 8 percent. Meanwhile, joblessness and growing poverty place greater demands on state services.
The situation has been exacerbated by the decision of Congress and the Obama administration to cut off even the miserly amount of funding the government had afforded to the states in 2009 and 2010. The CBPP estimates that only about $6 billion in emergency relief will be extended to the states in 2011, a tiny proportion of their combined budget deficit of $125 billion.
Obama’s multi-year freeze on discretionary social spending will also severely impact budget crises, because about one third of this sort of spending is distributed through the states. Republicans have countered Obama’s freeze with a proposal for a 14 percent reduction in discretionary social spending. A “compromise” resulting in a substantial reduction is the likely result.
The CBPP report analyzes budget proposals in a number of states.
Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer’s budget would reduce funding for the university system by 20 percent, bringing funding down nearly 50 percent compared to what it was in 2008. These cuts have already resulted in 2,100 job cuts, spiraling tuition, and the merger or closure of 182 colleges, schools, programs and departments. Brewer is also proposing cutting half of the funding for community colleges. Her proposal eliminates Medicaid coverage for 280,000 people, and imposes a 5 percent cut to fees paid to doctors, clinics and hospitals that treat Medicaid recipients.
California Democratic Governor Jerry Brown is proposing slashing funding for the state Medicaid program, MediCal, by $1.7 billion. To come up with these savings, he would limit access to most prescriptions and certain medical devices, for example hearing aids, and he would reduce the number of covered doctor visits to six from ten. The budget also axes a program that helps elderly people stay in their communities and out of nursing homes. Brown is demanding savage cuts to the joint state-federal CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program), which aims to provide health insurance to children above the poverty level, but whose families cannot afford private insurance. He would eliminate eye care, including glasses, from coverage, and increase premiums and co-pays.
Brown’s budget also outlines $1.5 billion in cuts to CalWorks, the state’s “welfare to work” program. He would reduce the number of months families can receive benefits to 48 from 60, and cut the maximum monthly CalWorks stipend for a family of three from $694 to $604.
Brown’s budget would reduce funding to public universities by $1 billion. For the University of California system, “ the cuts would bring nominal spending down to the fiscal year 1999 level—when the system had 31 percent fewer students than it does today,” the study notes. Brown’s budget would also jack up community college fees by 38 percent, an average increase of $300 per student.
Washington Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire proposes cutting $1 billion in education funding and a further $345 million from public universities, which will be made up largely by tuition increases. She would eliminate health care coverage for more than 60,000 people currently insured by the state’s Basic Health Plan, axe a cash assistance program for 28,000 low-income disabled people, end medical assistance for 21,000 poor people with disabilities, cancel a program that provides health assistance to 27,000 children of undocumented workers, and roll back in-home care that benefits 45,000 people.
Texas The budget proposal in Texas, advanced by the Legislative Budget Board, would cut rates paid to Medicaid providers by 10 percent, end all funding for three community college campuses, cut funding for public colleges and universities by 16 percent, and eliminate a college scholarship program that benefits 87,000 low-income students. The proposal cuts funding for public education to 23 percent below the state’s own legally mandated level, and it ends funding for a learning program that serves about 40 percent of the pre-kindergarten population. According to the “state’s leading expert on school finance,” the cuts to education proposed in Texas would result in layoffs for as many as 100,000 teachers.
Colorado Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper’s budget proposal would cut public education spending by $497 per pupil and university spending by $878 per student. He would gut more than $13 million from state Medicaid services, mainly by reducing fees paid to medical care providers.
Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott would lay off 8,100 state workers, cut another 2,000 positions, and require $5,000 health insurance contributions from state workers. His budget would also reduce public education funding by 10 percent.
Georgia Republican Governor Nathan Deal would reduce the state workforce by 14,000. He would cut by 5.6 percent funding to public schools and by 10 percent funding to the university system. His budget would slash Medicaid by ending coverage of a number of services, including adult vision, dental, and podiatry services and by cutting payments to health care providers. The plan jacks up co-pays for inpatient hospital services by 400 percent, and by 15 percent for outpatient services. He would also drastically scale back funding for daytime childcare, reducing by as much as 10,000 the number of children served.
Nevada The budget of Republican Governor Brian Sandoval would cut teacher pay by 5 percent, reduce funding for the public schools by $270 per student, cut state funding for higher education by 18 percent, cut by $100 million aid to counties, and end all funding for protective services for the elderly and a program providing treatment for the mentally ill.
New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo proposes to slash public education funding by 7.3 percent, funding to the State University of New York (SUNY) system by 9.1 percent, and support for the City University of New York (CUNY) by 5.2 percent. He is demanding nearly $1 billion in cuts to Medicaid funding.
South Dakota Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard is requesting a 10 percent cut in Medicaid provider rates, and a 10 percent cut to funding for public education system. “The cut is so large that the state’s largest school district says it would be unable to satisfy it even if it were to eliminate all school buses and remove all athletic and fine arts programs,” the CBP notes.
New Hampshire Democratic Governor John Lynch is pushing for a 23 percent cut in funding for the public universities, equivalent to $750 per student, and a 21 percent cut in state funding for community colleges, or about $400 per student. The budget would cut 1,100 state jobs and force 255 layoffs, and would eliminate state contributions to worker retirement accounts.
Oregon Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber is requesting an 11 percent cut in funding for community colleges and a 4.9 percent cut in support for the universities. He would reduce Medicaid fees by between 16 and 19 percent.
Connecticut Democratic Governor Dan Malloy would cut Medicaid costs by limiting to one per year adult dental exams, cleanings and x-rays. His budget relies on $2 billion in concessions from government workers to be wrung out of the workforce by the unions. Among options Malloy and the unions are considering are: “freezing state employee wages, moving state employees to a health plan similar to that provided to federal workers, extending 3-day-a-year furloughs until the end of the biennium, and raising the retirement age.” If these cuts are not accepted, Malloy is threatening thousands of layoffs.
Kansas Republican Governor Sam Brownback has targeted mental health for major cutbacks. His budget would end funding for community mental health centers that currently provide 24-hour emergency assistance for 70,000 uninsured and underinsured people. He is demanding the end of funding for mental health assistance for 850 families of children “with severe emotional disturbances.” He is also proposing a drastic 6 percent cut in per-pupil funding in the public schools.
Massachusetts Democratic Governor Deval Patrick has proposed a budget that would cut by 7 percent aid to local governments and reduce by $16.4 million aid for mental health services. This “would result in the elimination of 160 beds for mental health patients, a reduction of almost 25 percent.”
Minnesota Democratic Governor Mark Dayton’s budget calls for a 6 percent pay cut for all state workers and reductions of between 2 percent and 4.5 percent for Medicaid providers. He also demands the elimination of a subsidized health care plan that covers 7,200 adults.
Nebraska Republican Governor Dave Heineman is demanding a freeze in both government worker pay and in funding for public education. He would roll back Medicaid by reducing pay rates to providers by 5 percent, jacking up co-payments, and instituting a punitive system that would “bar welfare recipients who do not meet certain work requirements from receiving Medicaid.”
New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie would drastically increase state worker contributions for retirement and health. State workers would have to pay for 30 percent of their health insurance, around $4,500 per worker (instead of the 1.5 percent salary they currently pay), and retirement contributions could double. He is demanding an increase in the retirement age from 60 to 65, and would end cost of living increases for all retirees, current and future. He also calls for cutting Medicaid funding by $300 million.
JPMorgan Fighting 10,000 Lawsuits
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- JPMorgan Chase (JPM_) is a defendant in more than 10,000 legal proceedings and may be $4.5 billion short of reserves needed to cover those costs in a worst-case scenario, the firm said in a regulatory filing on Monday.
The New York-based bank's legal woes range from individual actions against JPMorgan Chase to class actions with "potentially millions" of litigants to "regulatory/government investigations." The suits include common law tort and contract claims, statutory antitrust claims, securities claims and consumer protection claims, the bank said in its 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
JPMorgan is the last of the four big U.S. banks to detail some of its exposure to litigation in its annual report. While the banks didn't say what their overall litigation reserves are, JPMorgan, Citigroup (C_), Bank of America (BAC_) and Wells Fargo (WFC_) outlined a potential $11.2 billion shortfall in litigation reserves altogether.
Last week, Citi said it might fall $4 billion short, while BofA said it might be $1.5 billion behind legal cost reserves and Wells Fargo said it might be $1.2 billion behind.
Banks' legal woes have gotten much attention ever since the so-called "robosigning" scandal erupted last fall. Banks made a practice of letting employees sign off on thousands of foreclosure affidavits without properly vetting the underlying information. In some cases, homes were seized and in others there is doubt over who rightly owns the property - both in terms of mortgage-bond investors and in terms of occupants.
Regulators and all 50 state attorneys general have been investigating big banks' mortgage practices. Federal agencies are trying to pull together a plan to settle with big mortgage servicers in a deal that may result in billions of dollars' worth of principal forgiveness for troubled borrowers. The result of private litigation is more difficult to predict.
In a conference call last month, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon predicted that securitization lawsuits alone will be a long, difficult battle.
"It is going to be years before this plays out and this litigation is going to be fought almost securitization by securitization," Dimon said. "There is almost no other way to do it."
Finding funds to fight fires has Lea Co. considering disaster declaration
The fire season in southeast New Mexico had its explosive start in late February, causing Lea County officials to consider declaring a state of emergency to find money to manage the situation.
The dry and windy conditions that fed a grass fire charring almost 65,000 acres (map) earlier this week has left a lasting impression on the land.
“Nearly every week we’ve had some sort of grass fire and with the high winds coming this weekend, I’m told we should be expecting some more,” said Lea County Manager Mike Gallagher.
Gallagher says the county commission will consider passing a resolution declaring the area a disaster. That would pave the way for emergency funding and other assistance. “The declaration helps inform and bring attention to the negative affect the fire had in this area," he explained.
Officials say more than 2,000 man hours were spent trying to get the massive fire under control.
Damage to properties and other costs associated with fighting fires also worry officials that it could be an expensive fire season.
“I think the county would be looking at funding from other agencies such as the state or federal level but the county will do its part in responding to the fires as necessary,” said Gallagher.
The Lea County Commission will discuss the disaster declaration on Tuesday. If approved, the declaration will head to the governor for consideration.
Watch video http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1999389.shtml?cat=504China “Attacks The Dollar” – Moves To Further Cement Renminbi Reserve Currency Status
Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
In a surprising turn of events, today’s biggest piece of news received a mere two paragraph blurb on Reuters, and was thoroughly ignored by the broader media. An announcement appeared shortly after midnight on the website of the People’s Bank of China.
The statement, google translated as “Pragmatic and pioneering spirit to promote cross-border renminbi business cum on monitoring and analysis to a new level” is presented below:
Reuters provides a simple translation and summary of the announcement: “China hopes to allow all exporters and importers to settle their cross-border trades in the yuan by this year, the central bank said on Wednesday, as part of plans to grow the currency’s international role. In a statement on its website www.pbc.gov.cn, the central bank said it would respond to overseas demand for the yuan to be used as a reserve currency. It added it would also allow the yuan to flow back into China more easily.”
To all those who claim that China is perfectly happy with the status quo, in which it is willing to peg the Renmibni to the Dollar in perpetuity, this may come as a rather unpleasant surprise, as it indicates that suddenly China is far more vocal about its intention to convert its currency to reserve status, and in the process make the dollar even more insignificant.
Read Full Article
Zero Hedge
In a surprising turn of events, today’s biggest piece of news received a mere two paragraph blurb on Reuters, and was thoroughly ignored by the broader media. An announcement appeared shortly after midnight on the website of the People’s Bank of China.
The statement, google translated as “Pragmatic and pioneering spirit to promote cross-border renminbi business cum on monitoring and analysis to a new level” is presented below:
Reuters provides a simple translation and summary of the announcement: “China hopes to allow all exporters and importers to settle their cross-border trades in the yuan by this year, the central bank said on Wednesday, as part of plans to grow the currency’s international role. In a statement on its website www.pbc.gov.cn, the central bank said it would respond to overseas demand for the yuan to be used as a reserve currency. It added it would also allow the yuan to flow back into China more easily.”
To all those who claim that China is perfectly happy with the status quo, in which it is willing to peg the Renmibni to the Dollar in perpetuity, this may come as a rather unpleasant surprise, as it indicates that suddenly China is far more vocal about its intention to convert its currency to reserve status, and in the process make the dollar even more insignificant.
Read Full Article
The 2008 Financial Crisis Was NOT Caused By Terrorists Unless By Terrorist You Mean Hank Paulson
Check out the Dartmouth football finger.
How Paulson caused the crisis...
We saw this report a few days ago, but it was such an incompetent hack job that we didn't bother covering it. That hasn't stopped Glenn Beck, Maria Bartiromo and Fox News, however.
In a nutshell, the author of the report claims that Islamists, the Russians, the Chinese, or even Osama Bin Laden himself, may have been responsible for the financial crisis and economic collapse of 2008-2009. No evidence is offered, of course, but how do we know for sure?! If we don't have proof the terrorists didn't do it, then maybe they did, right?
You can read for yourself and decide what this "study" is worth. After all, the Department of Defense commissioned it and you paid for it.
--
Global Financial Fraud, Global Hope
The world financial system is one gargantuan Ponzi scheme...
An Address to the International UFO Congress, Fort McDowell Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona, Saturday, February 26, 2011 by Hon. Paul Hellyer, P.C. Former Canadian Minister of National Defence
An Address to the International UFO Congress, Fort McDowell Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona, Saturday, February 26, 2011 by Hon. Paul Hellyer, P.C. Former Canadian Minister of National Defence
The world financial system is a total fraud. It is one gargantuan Ponzi scheme, no better than the one Bernie Madoff used to swindle his friends and neighbors, and thousands of times worse if you add up the total number of victims it has ripped off over countless generations.
The principal difference between the two schemes is that Madoff was acting outside the law while the international banking cartel has persuaded generation after generation of monarchs, presidents and prime ministers to provide legislative protection for their larceny.
The banks Ponzi scheme is alarmingly simple. They lend the same money to several people or institutions at the same time and collect interest on it from each. What the banks really lend, however, is their credit, and what they take back in compensation for that privilege is a debt that must be repaid with interest.
The number of times they lend the same money is called leverage. The practice is as old as the hills but for our purposes we can start with the goldsmiths of Lombard Street in London, England, who accepted deposits for which they issued certificates redeemable on demand. They paid their depositors a nominal interest rate on the understanding that they could lend the money to their customers at higher interest rates. They soon found that they could lend more than they had in their vaults because only a few depositors came in to redeem their gold or silver at any one time. It was a scam. It was illegal. Nevertheless they got away with it for a long while and the scam was legitimized when the Bank of England was chartered to help King William finance his war. Rich people subscribed £1,200,000 in gold and silver, as capital, to found the bank, which then was lent to the government at 8 percent. To show his appreciation the King allowed the bank to print £1,200,000 in banknotes and lend them at high interest rates. In effect, the bank was allowed to lend the same money twice – once to the government and once to the people.
Over the years, due to the avarice of the banks and the complicity of the politicians, that ratio has increased dramatically. In the early days of the 20th century, federal chartered U.S. banks were required to keep gold reserves of 25 percent. That means they were allowed to lend the same money four times. I remember when Canadian banks were required to maintain a cash reserve of 8 percent. That means they were allowed to lend the same money 12½ times.
Today, thanks to Milton Friedman’s irrational flip-flop from being a proponent of 100% cash reserves to the opposite extreme of zero reserves, and the adoption of his ideas by the major central banks of the world in 1974, multiples have increased dramatically – in some cases to as much as 20 to 1 or more. Banks only keep enough cash to meet day-to-day demands for those few customers who go in and request it, and consequently the fraud is virtually total.
The system works this way. Suppose that you want to borrow $35,000 to buy a new car. You visit your friendly banker and ask for a loan. He or she will ask you for collateral – some stocks, bonds, a second mortgage on your house or cottage or, if you are unable to supply any of these, the co-signature of a well-to-do friend or relative. When the collateral requirement is satisfied you will be asked to sign a note for the principal amount with an agreed rate of interest.
When the paperwork is complete, and the note signed, your banker will make an entry on the bank’s computer and, presto, a $35,000 credit will appear in your account which you can use to buy your car. The important point is that seconds earlier that money did not exist. It was created out of thin air – so to speak.
The banking equation is a species of double-entry bookkeeping where your note becomes an asset on the bank’s books, and the new money that was deposited to your account is a liability. The profit for the bank comes from the difference between the low rate of interest, if any, you would be paid on your deposit if you didn’t spend the borrowed money immediately, and the much higher rate you would be obliged to pay on your note – the technical term is “the spread.”
At some point, however, you have to pay off your note and any interest owing. And not only you but everyone else who has borrowed “money” from banks – including governments which, by the way, own the right to print money but that have irresponsibly handed the right over to an elite group of private bankers. Anyone who defaults is in big trouble. Individuals who default will have the assets they pledged as collateral seized by the bank. A government that is in danger of defaulting, will be forced to borrow from the International Monetary Fund, which will then tell that government how to run its affairs including cutting back on services and selling off public assets to the international vulture capitalists.
In reality, then, the banks have turned the world into one humongous pawn shop. You hock your stocks, bonds, house, business, rich mother-in-law or country and the bank(s) will give you a loan based on the value of the collateral.
A world system where all the money is created as debt is a perpetual disaster in the making. It is like a giant balloon that the banks pump full of debt. The balloon gets larger and larger until the debt load becomes too heavy to carry, and then it is like a balloon with a pin stuck in it. The system crashes and thousands or sometimes millions of innocent people lose their jobs, homes, farms and businesses.
Not surprisingly, there have been 25 recessions and depressions in the United States since 1890. In several cases, including the Great Depression of the 1930s and the current Great Recession, the evidence indicates that the meltdown was anticipated by a few insiders who helped trigger the catastrophe.
In the wake of the Great Depression, the U.S. Senate Banking and Currency Committee Report that became widely known as the Pecora Report on the Practices of Stock Exchanges, indicated that there were insiders who benefitted from the crash. “Legal chicanery and pitch darkness were the banker’s stoutest allies,” Pecora wrote in his memoir. Similar allegations were evident in Charles Ferguson damning documentary “Inside Job,” relating to the 2007-2008 meltdown. These reports, and other historical evidence prove beyond any doubt that much of Wall Street is rotten to the core. It has become one gigantic millstone around the neck of both the American and world economies.
The collateral damage from the recent meltdown has been staggering. The U.S. Bureau of Labor estimated that 8.4 million jobs were lost in the U.S. alone. Most countries experienced similar dramatic losses. The reduction in asset values worldwide has been estimated at $20 trillion U.S. dollars, yet not a single one of the culprits is in jail. You would think that someone would have had the decency to launch a class action for at least $10 trillion against every individual and every organization that contributed to the catastrophe in any way.
It boggles the mind that a system so vulnerable to manipulation would ever have come into existence in the first place. The evolution did not happen by accident. It was not guided by the mythical invisible hand of Adam Smith. On the contrary, for more than a century-and-a-half, it was engineered by the barely visible hand of the Rothschild family and its allies, and since World War II by the Rockefeller family. The two dynasties combined forces to exercise influence on many fronts sheltered by the cloak of secrecy established by the Bilderberg Group.
The long term influence of the banking cartel is incalculable. Their biggest coup was the establishment of the Federal Reserve System in the United States. The big New York banks really didn’t like the idea of genuine competition, so a small group held a secret meeting at the private resort of J.P. Morgan on Jekyll Island, off the coast of Georgia. Their scheme, devised by Paul M. Warburg, and subsequently adopted by Congress, is a legal private monopoly of the U.S. money supply operated for the benefit of the few under the guise of protecting and promoting the public interest.
It is a tribute to the skill of the international bankers that they were able to draft a bill, revise it, change its name and make the few window dressing compromises necessary to get it adopted by Congress just before Christmas when quite a few Representatives must have been dreaming of sugar plum fairies instead of exercising due diligence. Only Charles Lindberg Sr. seemed to grasp the essence of what was going on.
To put it bluntly, the Congress transferred its sovereign constitutional right to create money to the sole custody of a group of private bankers. The magnitude of the hoist is unprecedented in the history of the world – the numbers now are in the high trillions.
Soon after the bill was passed the magnitude of the tragedy began to be recognized. William Jennings Bryan, who acted as Democrat whip, later said: “In my long political career, the one thing I genuinely regret is my part in getting the banking and currency legislation (Federal Reserve Act of 1913) enacted into law.” President Woodrow Wilson, just three years after passage of the Act, wrote: “A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated (in the Federal Reserve System). The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men…. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world.” But the bill was not repealed; almost 100 years later the sell-out is still the law. This makes you wonder what the people’s representatives have been doing to earn their salaries.
The people in charge of the original deception were very far-seeing. They realized that when future governments had to borrow from them they would need a constant income stream to pay the interest on the bonds. So they persuaded the government to introduce income taxes, first as a temporary measure, but later permanently, so it would be able to meet its obligations to the bondholders. In fiscal year 2005 total individual income taxes in the U.S. totalled $927 billion. Of that amount $352 billion, or 38%, was required just to pay interest on the federal debt. The figure would be higher now.
The banksters, as they were often called, then decided that an independent press might catch on to the chicanery. Oscar Callaway is reported in the Congressional Record of February 9, 1917 as follows.
“In March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding, and powder interests, and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world, and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press of the United States… They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. The 25 papers were agreed upon; emissaries were sent to purchase the policy, national and international, of these papers; … an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies, and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers [and to suppress] everything in opposition to the wishes of the interests served.” It has been suggested that the Bilderberger Group may have taken a leaf from the Morgan precedent to protect their interests in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. That is impossible to prove because its members are sworn to secrecy, and the press won’t report on its meetings. Could it be mere coincidence that the monetary system, the downside of globalization and the decades-long cover-up of the extraterrestrial presence and technology (especially the clean energy sources that would impact the value of oil stocks), the three subjects of most direct beneficial interests of the banksters, are the three subjects that are avoided like the plague by the mainline press?
I am not willing to go so far as to say that the men behind the international banking system are evil men because their thoughts are private. But Sir Josiah, later Baron Stamp, a former director of the Bank of England, has given us a rare snapshot of the truth.
“Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with a flick of the pen they will create enough money to buy it back again. However, take that power away from them and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers, and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money.”
In the latest meltdown of 2007-2008, the Fed acted quickly to prevent the Ponzi pyramid from collapsing completely. It printed trillions of dollars to bail out the banks and a few industries that were highly indebted to banks.
But what did the Fed do for the taxpayers whose money was so wildly diluted to save the banks? Nothing! They were left to fend for themselves. Millions of people lost their jobs, their farms, their houses, their hopes, and their dignity as a result of circumstances beyond their control. The taxpayers bailed out the banks, but got nothing in return.
The same is true of governments who came so quickly to the rescue. As a result of the meltdown their revenues were decreased so they were forced to incur or increase their deficits, as well as to start cutting back on essential services.
The Fed pretended to be helping stimulate the economy by reducing interest rates to near zero. It would be an interesting exercise to find out what happened to all of this low-cost money. It would be a good subject for Congressional attention. How much did the banks use to buy up domestic and foreign assets at fire-sale prices? Was any of it used by financial institutions to try to corner world food markets and raise prices at a time when millions are starving?
No doubt some taxpayers did take advantage of the low interest rates available but were they warned about the old bait and switch game? Anyone who acquires assets with cheap money runs the risk of losing their property when the Fed ultimately raises rates. It’s all part of the boom-bust cycle inherent in our infinitely silly monetary system.
The Economics Profession
What does all this have to say about the economics profession? What it really says isn’t fit to print. Someone once said that if you put 20 economists in a room you will get 21 opinions.
That is not my experience. If you get 20 economists together they are likely to give you one stock answer, or at most two. And if there is one dissenter he or she is likely to be drowned out by the 19, squawking like a flock of parrots the words memorized from what their professors taught them.
I have witnessed this herd-like mentality firsthand. When I was first elected to the House of Commons in 1949 there were only a handful of Keynesians in Ottawa. Twenty years later nearly everyone was a Keynesian including, I am told, Richard Nixon.
At that time there were only a few monetarists around. But they spread like mushrooms and soon dominated the economic landscape. It reached the stage when Keynes was anathema, and it was almost impossible to get a tenured position in a school of economics unless you were part of Milton Friedman’s monetarist revolution.
Apparently little if any thought was given to the possibility that neither Keynes nor Friedman had got it right. The former was a bit closer to reality than the latter, but both theories foundered on the rocks of one inescapable truth. Both assumed that the economic system is self-correcting, yet more than two centuries of experience has demonstrated clearly that it is not! Someone has to be at the tiller charged with steering clear of the shoals and rocks of economic disaster and that person has to be someone who is responsible to the people and not the self-serving boom-busters.
Global Warming
While bank reform is the most urgent problem facing the world today, it is global warming that has equally or even greater long term consequences. It is a total fraud to pretend that we have thirty, forty or fifty years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There are reputable scientists who think we may already have crossed the Rubicon. Even if that is true, we can’t roll the clock back; we can only influence the present and the future. Each of the past three decades has been the hottest on record, according to a report released in July 2010 by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The report pulled together data from ten climate change indicators, measured by 160 research groups in 48 countries.
The data shows sea levels are rising; snow cover in the Arctic melts earlier; the average air temperature is rising; ocean surface temperatures have also been rising; the summer sea ice cover is declining; sea air temperature has been rising; for 19 years glaciers have lost mass; land air temperature has been rising – a global trend.
All of this puts the lie to the propaganda of the oil industry aimed at creating doubt about the reliability of scientific data. Taking a leaf from the tobacco industry, which managed to create doubt about the safety of their products years after they privately knew the facts, the oil industry has been attempting to raise doubt about the urgency of replacing fossil fuels with clean energy, and with considerable success. In their case, however, the stakes are higher. It was a tragedy that so many people lost their lives through lack of sound information about the consequences of smoking. In the case of global warming, however, many times more people will have their lives put at risk.
Still the oil cartel is making plans as if nothing is going to change, and that we are going to be stuck with a fatal oil economy for decades until the damage is irreversible. It is too late to begin more offshore drilling. It is too late for new developments in the Alberta oil sands. It is too late for more noisy windmill farms. The transition must start now, with a 10-year deadline.
Is that possible? Of course it’s possible but only with the kind of mobilization essential to win a war for survival. One excuse for inaction has been the lack of money due to government deficits and debt. But that obstacle can be overcome in less than a year if governments and legislatures change the system and exercise their sovereign right to make what is physically possible financially possible. Heaven knows there are millions of unemployed workers worldwide waiting to rise to the challenge.
The other major obstacle has been a lack of consensus on the form of clean energy to use to replace fossil fuels. And that brings me, finally, to the subject of the day, the extraterrestrial presence and technology.
The Extraterrestrial Presence and Technology
It is a fraud for the U.S. government to pretend that it is not interested in UFOs. In fact, it has been a matter of high and probably pre-eminent interest for decades.
An early Canadian ufologist, Wilbert Smith, who was a senior employee at the Department of Transport, where I became minister not long after his retirement, wrote a top secret memorandum to the Controller of Communications dated November 21, 1950 asking permission to set up a group to study the geomagnetic aspects of UFOs propulsion systems.
As part of his memorandum Smith said that he had made discreet enquiries through the Canadian embassy staff in Washington where he obtained the following information.
(a) The matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States Government, rating higher even than the H-bomb. (b) Flying saucers exist. (c) Their modus operandi is unknown but concentrated effort is being made by a small group, headed by Doctor Vannevar Bush. (d) The entire matter is considered by the United States authorities to be of tremendous significance. So, Dr. Vannevar Bush, one of America’s pre-eminent scientists, and a team of experts he had assembled, were already working on back-engineering by 1950. (Back-engineering is the combined art and science of analyzing an object, in this case parts of a crashed vehicle, in order to determine its characteristics for possible replication or adaptation.)
Many people who are interested in the subject of UFOs use one of the Roswell crashes of July 1947 as their starting line. Recent evidence, however, confirms that the U.S. Army Air Corps was in the crash retrieval business before that. Paola Harris, on July 5, 2010 interviewed two men, Jose Padilla and Reme Baca, aged 9 and 7 at the time, who witnessed a saucer crash on Padilla land near San Antonio, New Mexico, in August 1945. In her new book Exopolitics: Stargate to a New Reality, Paola gives the detailed account of what these men saw as children, the actual crash, the creatures’ appearance, the pieces of the craft they took, the military clean up, and an in-depth analysis of the significance of the case.
I had the opportunity to chat with Reme Baca by telephone recently and the thing that stuck in my mind was that when Sgt. Avila came to ask Mr. Padilla’s permission to enter his land to retrieve the “object,” he referred to it as “an experimental weather balloon.” That was exactly the same ruse that Brigadier General Roger Ramey used in reference to the Roswell incident two years later. Apparently there was a considerable lack of imagination on the Army’s part.
In later years the Air Force, that had succeeded the Army Air Corps, became much more sophisticated in its misinformation and disinformation techniques. These include having the Star Visitors portrayed in movies as sinister beings that we should be fearful of – probably without justification.
Another fascinating case that Paola brought to my attention not long ago was that of Charles Hall, the physicist and information technology professional, who worked as an airman meteorologist at the USAF bombing and gunnery range at Indian Springs, Nevada, in the 1960s.
Charles worked in close contact with Tall Whites, a species that I had been previously unfamiliar with. Over a period of months he learned to lose his fear of the aliens who lived, worked and played on Air Force property.
In a two-hour telephone conversation he gave me many of the characteristics of the Whites, described the scout ships in which they travelled and said most of them were assembled in the U.S. Furthermore, he talked about the mother ship arriving on the nights of the full moon and sliding into its hangar cut into the side of a mountain nearby.
It was all fascinating stuff that included the fact that the Tall Whites were working closely with the USAF and exchanging technology in the mid-1960s. So it is very difficult to imagine how much has been achieved in 60 years of back-engineering alien technology that was much more advanced than our own. There is no doubt that myriad scientists, technicians, and many of America’s most advanced aircraft and weapons corporations must have achieved what would have been classified as miracles just a few years ago.
It is alleged that the U.S. engineers working in one of the vast underground facilities have built vehicles that are virtually indistinguishable from those of other planets. If this is true, to what purpose will they be put, and will it be for good purposes or military purposes?
The area of discovery that is most relevant to this presentation, however, is the question of exotic energy sources. Years ago it was reported that both zero point and cold fusion energy had been developed. These are energy sources that could facilitate the 10-year target date and not only revolutionalize the world for the better, but help preserve it as a happy habitat for Earthlings.
In the unlikely event that these sources are not yet commercially viable, all we would have to do is ask one of the friendly species to help us and they would because they are deeply concerned about our stewardship. In the event that we are still treating them as enemy aliens, and doing our best to shoot them down, we would have to curb our lust of conflict and adopt an acceptable level of intergalactic civility.
Better People
The third essential change is for us as individuals. A just and peaceful world is not possible when it is riddled with graft, fraud and corruption of all kinds. Greed is king and mammon rules the world.
Institutions have to change too. For centuries major religions have been selling their alleged superiority or exclusiveness at the point of a sword, leading to the deaths of thousands of innocents. The three Abrahamic religions, for example, all claim the inside route to paradise. Mathematically that is impossible. It is far more probable, mathematically, that they are all wrong and that the truth is larger and more inclusive.
Ancient and modern history both suggest that there is no hope of a just and peaceful world unless all religions, and those with no religion, forget their differences and start working together to build the Kingdom of God on Earth. I define this as a world where every child can expect food to eat, clean water to drink, adequate clothing to wear, a roof overhead, access to medical support and enough education to be able to determine how best he or she can serve humankind positively, with dignity and self-fulfillment.
What a wonderful world that would be! But it would require a 180-degree change in policies and priorities and a serious effort to apply the Golden Rule that all religions claim as a common thread.
The application of the Golden Rule would mean an end to empire building, and the pursuit of military power and advantage. The U.S., for example, would have to stop being its own worst enemy. The declaration of the war on terror was the biggest strategic blunder I have seen.
On the 11th day of September 2001, following the attacks on the World Trade Center, the United States enjoyed the sympathy of the world, including Arab states and populations. The threat from al-Qaeda was limited and quite within the potential of police and intelligence operations to cope with.
The situation changed dramatically with the launch of a war on Iraq. The goodwill began to evaporate overnight. Soon, instead of a few dozens insurgents the numbers of young Muslims willing to die for their cause multiplied to thousands and a great chasm of hate and mistrust enveloped much of the world.
The U.S. has consistently refused to be even-handed in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and the Israelis deceive themselves, and the world, when they claim to be the victims. For a long while peace has been within their grasp if they could have agreed to a just settlement, and establishment of a vibrant Palestinian state. But a handful of fundamentalists have always succeeded in disrupting the peace process because they are not willing to accept the great Rabbi Hillel’s admonition. “So always treat others the way you would like them to treat you; that is the message of the Law and the Prophets.” Meanwhile the peace and stability of the world remains in jeopardy.
The world community must adopt principles and practices that override fundamentalists of any stripe whether they be Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Economic. In addition, religious people should pay more attention to their holy books. There is nothing in the Bible that would legitimize a preventive war, with its carpet bombing, or the launch of a drone or missile intended to kill one person when there is risk that innocent bystanders will also die. Similarly, there is nothing in the Qur’an that would justify suicide bombing that results in the random death of innocents.
Global Hope
If you get the impression that the world is going to hell in a hand basket you have heard me correctly. But it doesn’t need to be so. There are remedies but they involve massive change in the areas discussed – none of which are even on the political radar at present. There is light at the end of the tunnel but, as Sir John Quinton, a former chairman of Barclay’s Bank said, “Bankers sometimes look on politicians as people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, order more tunnel.”
What we are really talking about is restoring democracy to countries that not only claim they have it, but also take pride in trying to export it, even though they don’t really qualify as democratic as defined in the dictionary. In Webster’s it is: “government in which supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them or their elected representatives.” To begin, Wall Street has been the dominant power in the U.S. for decades, and still is. Add to that the fact that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the President of the United States, does not have the security clearance for a number of projects controlled by troops under his command, and you have to conclude that the U.S. is not really a democracy.
The same can be said about Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and myriad countries that are really puppets of the International Financial System. In each case the real interests of citizen voters is subjugated to the demands of international finance.
There is a sad irony in reading U.S. history of the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary days. Historians often attribute the revolution to the tax on tea. On the other hand, “[Benjamin] Franklin cited restrictions upon paper money as one of the main reasons for the alienation of the American provinces from the mother country.” The U.S. won the revolutionary war but then lost the next critical one when it adopted the British banking system instead of pursuing the better model their provinces had been experimenting with.
For the U.S. now to inflict the British practice on countries around the world, using the International Monetary Fund and World Bank as enforcers, is comparable to the King’s edict that gave birth to the United States. So the financial chains of oppression have to be broken and freedom restored to citizens everywhere.
It’s time to forget the tea party and address the critically important issues facing the U.S. and the world. All of these issues are non-partisan by definition and deserve the attention and support of all genuine patriots without distinction of race, color, religion or political affiliation – both in the U.S. and worldwide. We must unite to preserve and enhance the beautiful satellite that is our birthright.
An Agenda for Action
The first and most urgent project is to clip the wings of the bankers and democratize the money-creation function. In the U.S. the Federal Reserve System must be abolished and its alleged function of regulating the money supply be assumed by the federal government or an agency under its direct control. The most powerful and valuable tool in the economic arsenal must be available to the representatives of the people who can be held responsible for their success or failure.
Some monetary reformers recommend that governments create 100% of new money in a debt free form, greenbacks or equivalent. In the interests of a fast and smooth transition I am suggesting that a ratio of 34% government-created money to 66% bank-created money would work satisfactorily. Banks would be required to maintain 34% cash reserves against their deposits.
The important thing is that governments must immediately create the large sums necessary to balance their budgets and get their economies running at maximum output again. I am talking about an infusion of perhaps $10 trillion U.S. dollar equivalent to start and more if needed to get economies up to speed and to reduce unemployment worldwide by at least half, with the creation of millions of new jobs. Is this likely to cause massive inflation, as the financial cartel will immediately allege, because it is one of its longest running and most successful bugbears? The answer to their phony phonetics is a resounding “no.” As any economist should know, it is the amount of money that is created that influences prices, and not who prints it. So as long as governments limit what economists call “the multiplier effect” there will be no problem.
Certainly the present system has been inflationary. A 1950 U.S. dollar is only worth 7.5 cents today. A common sense monetary system should produce better results than that. So there is no reason why the banking system should not be fundamentally reformed – at once!
There are four other actions that I think we, the people of the world should demand of our politicians.
1. A law must be passed at once to prohibit all politicians, candidates for political office and political parties from accepting money from any financial institution as well as make it a criminal offense for any such institution either directly or indirectly to offer it. 2. World leaders must adopt a 10-year time frame to reduce greenhouse emissions by 90 percent. 3. That will only be possible if the U.S. discloses its knowledge of the ET presence and technology, and what has been accomplished in 60 years of back-engineering. 4. The U.N. should declare 2012 the year of forgiveness and reconciliation – a new era of cooperation and (agape) love between races, tribes, religions, nations, and regions both mondial and intergalactic. We have so much to learn from our star visitors in many areas including medicine and food production.
So the U.S. must relinquish its privileged position as the center of “the loop” as part of a new kind of leadership in creating the better world we all dream of.
International Finance vs. The People of the World
None of this vision of a just and peaceful world will be possible unless the all-pervasive power of the international banks has been broken. In 1999 I wrote a book in which I said the next world war would be between the banks and the people of the world. There have been skirmishes for centuries and, so far, the banks have always come out on top. They are now taking advantage of the recent meltdown, and the resulting sovereign debt crisis to line up their heavy artillery including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Federal Reserve System and the Bank for International Settlements for a final conclusive battle.
As always the aim of the game is to rob the people of the world of their sovereign right to govern their own affairs, and to entrench the power of the international banks, their elite industrial allies and a small cabal of military insiders who run the world as their private fiefdom. The word “unjust” is too small a word by far to describe what they are up to.
I entered politics more than 60 years ago because I thought recessions were quite unnecessary. They were monetary phenomena with a relatively easy fix. I have made hundreds of speeches on the subject and convinced a few thousand people. But never the movers and shakers. And the mainline press were less than helpful. They were so jaundiced that they were not interested in a maverick speaking truth to power. So it was always a case of David vs. Goliath, to use a Biblical analogy.
Now, for the first time, the power exists to turn the tables and go for the jugular. The internet is providing power to the people that they have never enjoyed before. The young people of the world, in concert with the thousands of their parents and others who care about the state of the world can use the power of social networking to effect a miracle on their own behalf and that of succeeding generations.
The valiant people of Tunisia and Egypt have shown the way by achieving what was believed to be impossible. We share their euphoria. At the same time they, and we, must acknowledge that it is only the beginning. Real freedom will only be possible when they have escaped from the tyranny of international banks, and Wall Street is no longer able to manipulate the price of their daily bread.
A good start might be to distribute a million copies of this speech and translate it into a number of languages.
At a press conference on March 29, 2001 announcing the U.S. was backing out of the Kyoto Protocol, President George W. Bush said, “A friend is someone who tells you the truth.” That is what I have been doing today. It is a message of global hope for every race, color, religion and nationality in the world and of peaceful relations with visitors from other realms.
| |
Global Research Articles by Paul Hellyer | |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)