Snobby Illiterati to Protest Wall St. ‘Hippies’ With Champagne Toast

As the first week of the #occupywallstreet protest against corporate stuff draws to a close, some classy capitalists have decided to dust off their favorite Nixon-era jargon and hold a champagne-soaked counter-protest of their own. Free laxative-enriched muffins for all "hippies," LOL.
A "pro-business Democrat" tipster sent us some screenshots of the Facebook event page for today's corporate counter-protest, titled "Anti Hippy Protester Champagne Toast on Wall Street." It starts at 4 PM—a full hour before the work day officially ends! Don't these hard-working realists have jobs or something? Well, maybe yes, maybe no—but the hippies most definitely aren't employed, and by choice! So let's focus on how lazy they are.
Under the "More Info" heading is more info, written in some sort of odd rich-people English:

"Let's toast to all the jobless hippies protesting on wall street and the enitre financial distric about god knows what. They have shown vallient effort and even though we hate them lets give them a free shower! (they havent showered in weeks) So... Tomorrow at 4pm we will be having a byob champagne toast/shower to welcome all the protesters and bathe them in good riddence."

Good Riddence, in case you're wondering, is a brand of high-end champagne. That said, wouldn't a true aristocrat supply all the party refreshments for their guests? Perhaps the organizer is just another wealthy-person wannabe with poor etiquette, or simply doesn't want to seem too socialist. Then again, he is baking for the special occasion! In a comment to his own events page, he writes:

These guys are so pathetic and it was awesome watching them get dragged around and whooped by cops. Hey dumb non tax paying hippies.. You are costing people who actually have jobs more money by making 400 extra police occupy lower manhattan for two weeks ... Can't wait to see you Guys tomorrow - I'll be the guy handing out hippie muffins for free with laxatives baked in so after you shit yourselves uncontrollably we will spray you with champagne like we won a championship game. Only if you haven't been arrested for being a duche before that"

Full size

Pretty sure the protesters did not ask for all those cops to hang out with them, guy! Also pretty sure that treating the abuse of other humans is way more pathetic than eating pizza, wearing masks and protesting corporate hegemony. But maybe I've been liberal-blogging from my mom's basement for too long.
And as for those muffins: Not gonna touch that one. [Thanks to our pro-business tipster!]

Multi-trillion plan to save the eurozone being prepared

European officials are working on a grand plan to restore confidence in the single currency area that would involve a massive bank recapitalisation, giving the bail-out fund several trillion euros of firepower, and a possible Greek default


German and French authorities have begun work on a three-pronged strategy behind the scenes amid escalating fears that the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis is spiralling out of control.

Their aim is to build a “firebreak” around Greece, Portugal and Ireland to prevent the crisis spreading to Italy and Spain, countries considered “too big to bail”.

According to sources, progress has been made at the G20 meeting in Washington, where global leaders piled pressure on the eurozone to fix its problems before plunging the world back into recession. In a G20 communique issued on Friday, the world’s leading economies set themselves a six-week deadline to resolve the crisis – to unveil a solution by the G20 summit in Cannes on November 4.

Sources said the plan would have to be released as a whole, as the elements would not work in isolation.

First, Europe’s banks would have to be recapitalised with many tens of billions of euros to reassure markets that a Greek or Portuguese default would not precipitate a systemic financial crisis. The recapitalisation plan would go much further than the €2.5bn (£2.2bn) required by regulators following the European bank stress tests in July and crucially would include the under-pressure French lenders.
more
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8786665/Multi-tr...

SUNLIGHT FOUNDATION - Ask Your Representative To Co-Sponsor The Super Congress Transparency Bill

Congress created the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction to pass on the responsibility of deciding where to cut $1.5 trillion from the national deficit. The 12 lawmakers selected to make this decision have been given incredible power, one that will have a monumental impact on our country for years to come. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that the decisions the Committee makes -- and the people and organizations who try to influence those decisions -- be known to the public.

• Click HERE to Contact Your Rep

Representative Loebsack recently introduced HR 2860, the Deficit Committee Transparency Act, to help implement common sense measures that will guarantee that the interests of the American people are being placed first and foremost in this process. But this bill needs support if it's ever going to become law.
Already, Representatives Quigley, Renacci, Conyers, and Pingree have decided to cosponsor this bipartisan initiative. What about your elected officials?
Call now to ask your representatives to acosponsor HR 2860 -- or congratulate them if they've already done so. Without support from the Hill and your elected officials, there’s little hope that the interests of the American people will be placed first and foremost in this process.
To get started, enter your zipcode in the box on the right.

• Click HERE to Contact Your Rep

On Scientific Management of the Economy and Going For Broke

Maneuvering the Financial System Off a Cliff
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke should never have left Princeton.  He’s much better suited for a lifetime of pontification than real work.  Not that chairing the Federal Reserve is real work.  Yet, even so, at least as a professor his theories would’ve been mostly harmless.
But the world doesn’t always operate in the ideal; where politics is concerned this is rarely the case.  Idiots become president practically every election.
Congressmen take digital photos of their most private parts and blast them across the internet.  Maxine Waters casts her vote…this is nearly always problematic.  But, in the end, their actions don’t largely affect people.
The worse kind of central planners are the ones that actually believe in their powers; that, somehow, they have the ability to control the world and make it a better place.  They are the most dangerous.  And they will not stop carrying out their splendid plans until they’ve totally destroyed the world around them.
No doubt, the most ardent central planner always has the best of intentions.  In their dense skull they believe that if people would just behave how they wanted the money problem would be solved, there’d be full employment, and the coming of the new utopia.
Throughout history, grand experiments in paper money have always ended in tears.  We don’t think the current affection with Federal Reserve Notes will end any different…that it has gone on so long is what’s truly astounding.
Eventually, Bernanke or one of his predecessors, having the best of intentions to save the economy, will maneuver the financial system off a cliff.  In the meantime, there’s no escape.
Bernanke will continue to use his role as the central planner extraordinaire – the central banker of the world’s reserve currency – to meddle in the lives of millions.
Extending A Little More Rope
For example, on Wednesday, Bernanke announced his latest scheme to improve the world by monkeying with credit markets.  In a rehash of the 1961 “Operation Twist,” the Fed will cash in $400 billion in short term treasuries to buy longer term treasuries with the goal of lowering long term interest rates.
Upon Bernanke’s utterance of the plan, the DOW promptly fell over 250 points.  Then, on Thursday it dropped nearly 400 points more.
Even more remarkable was the action in treasuries, where yesterday bond traders rushed in to beat the Fed to the punch – driving yields on the 10-Year Note down to 1.69 percent.  This must be, without a doubt, the lowest they’ve been in living memory…if not ever.
From what we gather, the move to lower rates will make it cheaper for individuals and businesses to borrow money.  But more importantly, after they borrow the money, the Fed wants them to spend it.  Since consumer spending makes up 70 percent of the economy, the Fed is hoping to engineer a cheap credit induced spending boom to goose the economy.
Here at the Economic Prism we understand the mechanics of the plan.  Yet we don’t comprehend its functionality.  Are not interest rates already at historic lows?
Is not the economy’s current malady the result of too much debt…not too little?  How the heck will giving people a little more rope to hang themselves with do anything but make things worse?
Apparently, the Fed doesn’t get it.  The consumer has enough debt.  They don’t want more.  They no longer want to spend.  They want to save.
On Scientific Management of the Economy and Going for Broke
The Fed, with its latest plan, is rewarding spendthrifts when it should be rewarding savers.  Particularly since real economic growth comes from saving and investment not borrowing and spending.  But saving and investment takes discipline, prudence, and patience.  It takes work.
Of course, there’s no need for such inconveniences when there’s scientific management of the economy.  Unfortunately, scientific management of the economy is not conducive with a free market economy…of which we haven’t had for nearly a century.
Obviously, this goes counter to the popular ideal that espouses the grand virtues of free markets and democratic capitalism.
Yet how can the Federal Reserve be anything but a revulsion to free markets when they control the economy through fixing the price of money?  And how can the Federal Reserve be democratic when it’s run by an unelected – appointed – Board of Governors?
If the Soviets, armed with their Five-Year Plans and the Theory of Productive Forces, were unable to come up with the proper price of toothpaste and toilet paper does a board of appointments somehow have the omnipotent insight to properly fix the price of an economy’s most important commodity – its money?
Nonetheless, that’s what they’re doing.  If they can lower the price of money by reducing interest rates just a little bit more, they surmise, the people will spend everything they can borrow and, before you know it, the good times will be here again.
Maybe this worked in the past to quickly rebound from a typical garden variety recession.  But this economic lethargy is everything but typical.  For the economy’s not being dragged down by an oversupply of goods; rather, it’s being dragged down by an oversupply of debt.
That’s why encouraging people to add more debt to the already existing ocean of debt is not helping the economy…it’s hurting it.
“I don’t think he [Bernanke] will ever give up,” said Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder.  In other words, he’ll go for broke.
[MN Gordon (send him email) is the editor of the Economic Prism.  Visit Economic Prism.  The Economic Prism is published by Direct Expressions LLC.  Subscribe Today to the Economic Prism E-Newsletter at http://www.economicprismletter.com]

Bringing Back Honest Money Might Bring Back a Moral and Just Society

   If we look back on history when we had a moral and just societies. Also when we had an immoral and unjust people in our nation. What brings in the immorality and the corruption. What brings about tyranny and political turmoil. Bankers have long known if they can control the monetary system they can control the morals of a people. The Apostle Paul said it best in his epistle" The love of money is the root of all evil" So what can be traced to the moral decline of a nation? Our moral decline is directly linked to the Federal reserve system.

                 When there is honest money outside the bankers control with the people controlling it. There is a just society, because the currency can not be manipulated and debased. Government cannot use a central bank's printing press to buy votes and create a dependency class. When there is easy money and easy credit issued by the central bank. Societies tend to decline being in awash in Fiat money that can be to root of corruption in our government, business and society. Under an honest money system, corruption is not eliminated completely. But it is kept in check when there is an honest monetary policy.

                   When President Nixon took us off the gold standard, we started to see a sharp decline in our society were political corruption reigns and the welfare state is in full swing. As long the US government can go to the Federal reserve and ask to print more money out of thin air to buy votes. The single mother will see the welfare check taking the place of the wage earning father. Farms are discouraged to grow crops because the government pays for them not to produce. It corrupts the tax code changing the behavior of people. The power to tax is the power to control. Fiat money interferes with the economy and stands in the way of the free markets working because central economic planning by the Federal Reserve Bank.

                  For those social conservatives who are concerned about the moral decline in America and how the family is being attacked by big government policies. If they want reform the schools in dire straits our education system is in. When we see freedom being attacked by a bloated federal government. The root cause is a dishonest money we have today. If they end the Federal reserve system returning to an honest monetary policy. We can start to see a reverse in our national character. Under the current system the US Government was able at will go to the Federal Reserve bank and print money out of thin air with no backing by a commodity like gold and silver. We can see immoral things happen. When we have money backed by gold and silver outside the control of a private central bank to manipulate the value. We might have a chance to reverse the moral decline in America.

Can We Invent A World Based On Moral, Ethic And Empathy?

Years ago, a term was constantly on the lips of people in Marxist circles to describe the United States. America was called “the heart of the beast”, and identified as such as the center of capitalism. But, the Marxist colorful imagery doesn’t portray today’s reality at all. Capitalism doesn’t have a conscience even less a heart, it has become a hydra, a giant octopus, with no heart, many twisted brains and countless tentacles reaching across the planet.
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2011/08/17/can-we-invent-a-world-based-on-moral-ethic-and-empathy/

On the Money: Russia for Sale

10 million more mortgages set to default, expert says

Roughly 10.4 million mortgages, or one in five outstanding home loans in the U.S., will likely default if Congress refuses to implement new policy changes to prevent and sell more foreclosures, according to analyst Laurie Goodman from Amherst Securities Group.
At the end of the second quarter, more than 2.7 million long-delinquent loans, others in foreclosure and REO properties sat in the shadow inventory, more than double what it was in the first quarter of 2010 (Click to expand the chart below). With the market averaging roughly 90,000 loan liquidations per month, it would take 32 months, nearly three years, to move through the overhang.
And that number is contingent on no other loans going into default.
"Many analysts looking at the housing problem mistakenly assume it is limited to loans that are currently non-performing (or 60-plus days past due). Such borrowers have a high probability of eventually losing their homes. However, the problem also includes loans with a compromised pay history; these are re-defaulting at a rapid rate," Goodman told a Senate subcommittee Tuesday.

Under a reasonable estimate, which is calculated with more conservative market conditions than what is currently being experienced, Goodman found nearly 2 million re-performing mortgages would default again and another 3.6 million already troubled loans to default as well.
The rest of the 10.4 million estimate is made of always-performing loans at various stages of negative equity. Of the 2.5 million always-performing mortgages with loan-to-value ratios above 120%, nearly half will default. Even 5% of the always-performing mortgages that have some equity left will default, as well, Goodman said.
In August, the Obama administration asked the housing industry for ideas on how to more efficiently sell or unload this overhang, and the Senate heard testimony from various housing players Tuesday. Each, including Goodman, said the government should target private investors.
Robert Nielsen, chairman of the National Association of Homebuilders, said government programs should be revamped to assist small and local businesses in rehabbing and unloading these properties.
Nielsen said Fannie, Freddie and the FHA should avoid bulk sales to large investors that have no stake in the neighborhoods in which these properties are located.
"Local and small businesses that have a stake in the future of the affected communities should be the driving force behind the disposition of the REO inventory. This will result in the creation of jobs and the stabilization of neighborhoods," Nielsen said.
NAHB also urged Congress to extend the current conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA, which are due to be lowered on Oct. 1.
Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow, said the rental market is currently booming and would be able to handle a mass conversion of foreclosures into rentals by investors, but the government, he said, would be wrong in upsetting this dynamic.
"Investors smell a distinct opportunity in this situation: The chance to buy an asset cheaply and rent it out dearly. In fact, close to one-third of the purchases of existing homes this year have gone to all-cash buyers, the bulk of whom are real estate investors," Humphries said. "Any plan that may upset this balance – such as Fannie and Freddie getting into the rental market and creating competition – will have a chilling effect on private investment in the one segment of the housing market that is performing well."
But with a Congress currently gridlocked on nearly every issue, none of the panelists so clearly described the looming housing problem and the consequences of continued inaction like Goodman.
"To solve the housing crisis you must create 4.1 million to 6.2 million units of housing demand over the next six years," she said.
Write to Jon Prior.
Follow him on Twitter @JonAPrior

Occupy Wall Street Day 8: 100+ Arrested for Peaceful, Legal Protest; Nets & Pepper Spray Used.

Lady Liberty Wrapped in American Flag Talks to NYPD by Global Revolution
7:30 PM - Dark now.  Above Lady Liberty (name unknown) wrapped in an American Flag and Betsy Ross wig makes impassioned appeal to NYPD officers, "We're fighting for you pension, we'er fighting for your social security, we're fighting for you children and your children's children.  We're fighting for liberty.  We're peaceful."
LINK: Don't Stop Now: 13 Things You Can Do NOW to Support OWS
7:00 PM - General Assembly decides half of Liberty Plaza protesters to remain and keep the occupation. The of 1/2 of the protesters will be marching to One Police Plaza to demand information and medical care for those arrested.

6:00 PM - 2000 occupiers remain in Liberty Plaza.  They are being surrounded with NYPD fencing.  Many more protesters have evacuated.  
4:25 PM - 60 plus protesters arrested at Union Square many pepper sprayed.  Details as they become available.  Orange nets used.
At Liberty Plaza:  NY Police: "The use of an Umbrella is a safety Hazard. Put it down!"
Police stopped marchers in street with barricades.  Marchers chanted, "let them go!  Let them go!" referring to those already arrested.  Police picked a few protesters, who were not in the street but standing on the sidewalk out of the crowd and arrested them."
One eyewitness at the scene said she heard police officers saying: "Rough her up."
Call+demand protestors be released 728-520-9311
LINK: 13 Things You Can Do to Support Occupy Wall Street

Union Square OWS March/Police by Yousef B. September 24, 2011
Media team arrested. Rain on way & police demand removal of umbrella protecting gear in media tent.
Media Team Arrested: Live Stream Continues.

 1  |  2  |  3

'Occupy Wall Street' - Dylan Ratigan Show: "Wall Street Protests over We...

'US budget cuts won't affect military aid to Israel'

White House, Congress officials clarify that financial crisis won't affect aid; "Obama authorized sale of bunker bombs to Israel," 'Newsweek' reports.

    Senior US officials clarified during a series of meetings with Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz Washington has no intention of downsizing military aid to Israel, despite the drastic cuts in the US budget, according to a Finance Ministry statement Friday.

Steinitz met with the senior White House and Congress officials in Washington, where he was attending an International Monetary Fund conference, during which he was expected to meet with finance ministers from all over the world.

RELATED:
NYC ads call to end US military aid to Israel
Barak: US military aid at risk if no peace deal reached

The announcement comes as a report said that US President Barack Obama secretly authorized significant new aid to the IDF in 2009, including the sale of 55 deep-penetrating bombs known as bunker busters.

The GBU-28 Hard Target Penetrators were delivered to Israel in 2009, according to American weekly magazine Newsweek.

According to the report, the military sale was arranged behind the scenes when political ties were tense as Obama tried to stop settlement building in the West Bank.

Israel first put in a request for the bunker busters in 2005, but it was rebuffed by the Bush administration.

In 2007, Bush informed former prime minister Ehud Olmert that he would order the bunker busters for delivery in 2009 or 2010, according to the magazine.

The Marine Corps general who served until August as the vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, James Cartwright, told Newsweek that the military chiefs had no objections to the sale.

According to Cartwright, there was a concern about “how the Iranians would perceive it,” and “how the Israelis might perceive it.”

Greek Crisis Comes 24 Centuries After First Default

History’s first sovereign default came in the 4th century BC, committed by 10 Greek municipalities. There was one creditor: the temple of Delos, Apollo’s mythical birthplace. Twenty-four centuries later, Greece is at the edge of the biggest sovereign default and policy makers are worried about global shock waves of an insolvency by a government with 353 billion euros ($483 billion) of debt -- five times the size of Argentina’s $95 billion default in 2001. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-22/greece-on-edge-of-biggest-insolvency-24-centuries-after-first-city-default.html

Ohio Becomes First State To Sell Off A Prison, Giving It To Prison Director’s Former Private Employer

After John Kasich won the Ohio gubernatorial election last fall, one of his first appointments was Gary Mohr to be the state Director of Rehabilitation and Corrections. Prior to his appointment, Mohr worked as managing director for the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a company that not only pushes states to build more private prisons, but also lobbies lawmakers to put more people in jail in order to fill the new supply of prison beds.
In his first nine months on the job, Mohr has already made one major shift in Ohio correctional policy. This month, Ohio became the first state in the nation to sell off a public prison to a private company:

A lockup along the shores of Lake Erie has become the first state prison in the nation to be sold to a private company.
Lake Erie Correctional Institution in northeastern Ohio’s Ashtabula County is the only one of five state prisons up for sale that will be sold, state officials said Thursday. Corrections Corporation of America will buy it for $72.7 million, more than the $50 million needed from the privatization effort to balance the state’s prison budget.

The CCA said it plans to add 304 prison beds to the prison.
Though Mohr recused himself from the selection process of which corporation would buy the prison, Ohio lobbying records show that the CCA met with Mohr to lobby him just one month into Kasich’s tenure:

In addition, as the AP notes, the CCA’s Ohio lobbyist, Don Thibaut, “served as Kasich’s chief of staff when he was in Congress.” The CCA has retained the services of Thibaut’s firm, The Credo Company, which also employed Mohr as a consultant for five years. The CCA’s lobbying and connections paid off when it was awarded the newly-privatized Lake Erie Correctional Institution this month.
Even though Kasich has declared his goal of reducing the overall number of prisoners in Ohio, his administration has now sold one of the state’s prisons to the CCA, a company that profits by incarcerating people.

Dow Destruction & Gold Super Highway

• Our leaders’ answer to all economic problems is printing and lending more money. Is that a solution, or a denial that there even is a problem?

• Our own fed promises a dollar-destroying low interest rate, for another two years. Overspending governments are not interested in a strong currency. They want your currency and purchasing power to be as weak as possible.

• Technically, the counter trend rally that the dollar is enjoying looks to be headed into mid-October. The move looks to be an oversold bounce and nothing more. A byproduct of the strengthening dollar is a stock market that is in great danger.

• My technical work continues to point to new lows for the stock market with a mid-October timeline, and that fits with my dollar bear rally timeline. http://www.321gold.com/editorials/sfs/hubbartt092311.html

CME Group Raises Comex Gold Margins By 21.5%, Silver Margins By 15.6%

(Kitco News) - The CME Group is raising the margins needed to trade Comex gold and silver futures are being increased by 21.5% and 15.6%, respectively, and the change will take effect after the close of business on Monday, the exchange said late Friday in a press release.  http://www.kitco.com/reports/KitcoNews20110923DeC_CME.html

Jon Stewart On Wall Street Bonuses

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The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Wall Street Bonuses
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Daily Show Video:  Clusterf*ck to the Poor House - Stewart on Wall Street bonuses:

• "I guess the only real difference between bankers and movie stars is when Nick Cage lost all his money, I didn't have to bail him out."

• "Let me get this straight, the only people who have recovered from the financial meltdown... are the people who caused this financial meltdown."

Pointing to the "we had to" argument for bailout supporters -- i.e. the line of thinking that says "we had to bail out the financial sector or our economic system would collapse" -- Stewart wondered why so many bankers furiously resisted placing any conditions on receiving bailout funds. Wall Street leaders, including former Treasury Chief Hank Paulson and current Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Stewart noted, argued that placing even the smallest requirements on bailout recipients such as the requirement to lend, would have been disastrous.
"I'm not an economist, but these are some fragile f$#@ing businesses. No, don't look the bank in the eye, it will fail! What, are our banks made out of balsa wood held together by baby tears?" Stewart joked.

London Trader - Massive Physical Floor in the Gold Market

With gold hovering near the $1,800 level, a trader out of London told King World News, “China is trading gold at a $17 premium today vs COMEX futures.  Silver is trading at a premium of $2.48 vs futures price (COMEX).  What this tells you is that these people in China are willing to pay the equivalent of roughly $12,500 more per contract than what silver is being traded for on the COMEX.”

London Trader continues:

“As soon as China closes trading each day, that is when the selling starts in the paper markets.  These raids on the price are designed to get weaker players flushed out of the futures markets so they (commercials) can cover some of their short positions.

If there is that strong of a bid for gold out of the Eastern hemisphere, what that tells me is that all of the heavily leveraged paper manipulation in the West will not have much more downside impact.  All the manipulators are doing at this point is compressing a spring, but at some point this market is eventually going to gap up incredibly hard against them.

Two weeks ago there were some indications that the gold market was going to be taken down, an example being the sharp drop in lease rates.  You know how this works, a central bank(s) are selling some gold into the market and the bullion banks, which act as agents for the central banks, take that gold and sell it into the market and even use leverage at weak technical points....

“They also do this when trading is thin, such as during the access market when no one is around, and they drive the price lower in an attempt to create panic by the longs.

After lease rates had dropped and the gold market was attacked, we find out after the fact that the central banks decided to raise dollars by leasing gold.  The central banks had not done that for two years.  Central banks have been preserving central bank gold and overall the central banks have been net buyers, and then all of the sudden they lease it, thus selling it into the market. 

For what it is worth, this gold goes right into an Asian vault and it is gone from the West permanently.  This is having the effect of transferring Western solid assets over to the East, in size.  This has the appearance of desperation because in the end this is really an attempt to save the too big to fail banks that are on the wrong side of a derivative play yet again.  That is the reason this is being done. 

Western central banks don’t really want that gold to disappear like that, they don’t want to sell that gold.  They had to raise dollars in a hurry to pump liquidity into the system, but in the end, as I said, the gold is gone.  In the old days the gold would be floating around the LBMA system, there would be a little bit of erosion, but today that gold is being sucked into the East.

This price action has had the effect of creating bearish sentiment, but meanwhile the physical buyers are just sitting there and constantly accumulating physical gold.  There are massive orders for tonnage of gold, incredible amounts between $1,715 and $1,760.  This has the effect of putting a physical floor under the price of gold.  If they make a push to the $1,715 level that would be suicide in my opinion.  There are simply too many massive orders for physical gold down to that level for that to be breached.

During this quarter this leased gold is supposed to be paid back, but how?  As the central banks come to grips with the reality that the leased gold is gone, there may be a religious experience to the upside in gold and you will see the gold price break the $2,000 level.

As far as silver goes, the paper price is becoming increasingly irrelevant.  It is possible there could be a spike to $37 or $38 in thin access trading, but the bottom line is that serious physical buying will be taking place anywhere below $40, so this is a losing game for the paper manipulators.”

This is the same trader that told King World News on August 10th with gold trading near the $1,800 level, “The physical buyers still have not been filled and they are getting nervous.  The buyers in size have not been filled and they are underpinning this gold market.  If gold pulls back the buyers will get some fills, if not they are going to have to start chasing this market.  In fact, don’t be surprised to see a $100 move in gold if they lose patience.”

Within days the price of gold spiked more than $100, breaking the $1,900 level.  Now the London Trader is telling King World News to expect this massive physical floor on gold to hold and that we should also look for gold to take off to the upside through the $2,000 level.  If sentiment is any indicator, the pessimism in gold could be signaling this market is in fact ready to turn, let’s see what happens.

© 2011 by King World News®. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.  However, linking directly to the blog page is permitted and encouraged.

Sprott Money Temporarily Runs Out of Physical Silver

With gold and silver prices plunging, King World News sources are reporting massive physical demand.  One example is Sprott Money, which completely ran out of physical silver.  Larisa Sprott, President of Sprott Money told KWN, “It’s been pretty wild, especially the last three or four days because of the price drop.  People are trading in their paper money for gold and silver, but we are seeing more purchases of silver net.  In fact the buying has been really skewed in favor of silver, there is tremendous demand.”

Larisa Sprott continues:

“We have completely run out of physical silver, so we are temporarily out of stock.  You have to remember, Eric, that like Dubai, we only sell product that is on our shelves, that we have in stock.  We do expect a shipment later today, which will allow us to restock and give us more product to sell.  

Our clients are very savvy, sophisticated and when a price drop of this magnitude occurs, they step in and buy very aggressively.  Right now there is dramatically increased volume and what we are seeing is buying across all spectrums in terms of the size of the orders.

To clarify, we may have some client buying a single tube of silver maples, while at the same time, another client is buying $5 million of 100 ounce silver bars or gold maple leafs.  The bottom line here is the drawdown in price is creating a tremendous amount of demand.” 

© 2011 by King World News®. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.  However, linking directly to the blog page is permitted and encouraged.

Moody’s Downgrades 8 Greek Banks To Junk Status Citing Run On Bank Deposits

Moody’s cuts the credit rating of 8 Greek banks to junk status citing a run on their deposits while putting long-term deposits and credit ratings on negative outlook.

The Great Depression style run on European bank deposits continues to gain inertia as the critical mass of the global financial crisis spins beyond control.
The run on deposits in the European banks started in Greece and then spread to all of the European banks.
Yesterday brought confirmation that the 4 major Chinese banks have been hit with a run.  It was also coupled with news that major Institutions – including Siemens And Lloyd’s – along with the Bank of China have joined in on the run against the Eurobanks.

Greeks Protest In Mass Against Austerity Measures As Banks Downgraded To Junk To Deposit Run

Moody’s has now marked the 8 Greek banks as the first victims of credit rating downgrades, issuing junk ratings specifically due to the run on the banks deposits.

Moody’s downgrades 8 Greek banks

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Moody’s ratings agency downgraded eight Greek banks by two notches Friday due to their exposure to Greek government bonds and the deteriorating economic situation in the debt-ridden country, whose government has struggled to meet the terms of an international bailout.
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded National Bank of Greece, EFG Eurobank Ergasias, Alpha Bank, Piraeus Bank, Agricultural Bank of Greece and Attica Bank to CAA2 from B3. It also downgraded Emporiki Bank of Greece and General Bank of Greece to B3 from B1.
The agency said the outlook for all the banks’ long-term deposit and debt ratings was negative.
Moody’s cited “the expected impact of the deteriorating domestic economic environment on non-performing loans” and “declines in deposit bases and still fragile liquidity positions” in its reasoning for the downgrade.
Greece has angered its international creditors by lagging behind in its commitments to implementing reforms and carrying out pledges it has made to secure funds from its euro110 billion ($149 billion) bailout from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.
In a rush to secure the disbursement of the vital next batch of loans, worth euro8 billion, and heading toward a fourth year of recession, the government this week announced another round of tax hikes and pension cuts, angering an already austerity-weary public which has responded with strikes.
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BofA sued by shareholder over $10 billion AIG loss

(Reuters) - A Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) shareholder sued the bank on Friday for what he said was a failure to disclose it potentially owes more than $10 billion to American International Group Inc (AIG.N) in connection with mortgage-backed securities.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, seeks class action status on behalf of purchasers of Bank of America stock between February 25 and August 5 this year.
AIG, which was bailed out by the government in the 2008 financial crisis, suffered losses of more than $10 billion from the securities, known as RMBS, between 2005 and 2007. The losses occurred after Bank of America and two companies it bought -- Countrywide Financial Corp and Merrill Lynch -- and subsidiaries sold AIG more than $28 billion in RMBS.
"Throughout the class period, defendants repeatedly informed investors about the claims of other entities for RMBS losses but not about the massive losses suffered by AIG," the lawsuit said.
Lawrence Grayson, a spokesman for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America, said he had not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment.
The court document said the shareholder losses occurred on August 8 as Bank of America's stock dropped more than 20 percent to $6.51 per share from $8.17 per share after AIG sued the bank in New York state court seeking to recover the RMBS losses.
"This decrease was a result of the artificial inflation caused by the defendants' misleading statements coming out of the price," Friday's lawsuit said.
In a footnote, the court document adds that the plaintiff, shareholder David Lawrence, "asserts only that BofA should have disclosed AIG's losses and potential claims to investors and takes no position on whether those claims will ultimately be found to have merit."
Lawrence asks the court to declare the lawsuit a class action under anti-fraud provisions of federal securities law and seeks unspecified damages for all members of the class.
The case is David Lawrence et al v Bank of America Corp, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 11-6678.
(Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Who in US “leadership” today will declare the “emperor has no clothes” facts?

In the story, The Emperor’s New Clothes, a single clear voice broke the public’s confusion. At once, the public recognized what was before their eyes. The illusion of the emperor and minions was over.
The United States is in a similar condition. The public knows something is terribly wrong with what appear to be unlawful wars and related War Crimes, economic looting in the trillions, and corporate media who lie and distract. Public confusion is lifting as literally millions of Americans now have sufficient command of the “emperor has no clothes” facts to explain, document, and prove the Orwellian crimes of the American emperors and minions.
And just as with our analogy, when critical mass of public understanding provides sufficient voice, the illusion of US “leadership” behaving lawfully will be over in an instant. They, and their minions, will face criminal and civil prosecution from a public that outnumbers them over a hundred to one, will have law enforcement on their side, and will be outraged by the massive crimes that annually murdered millions, attacked and harmed billions, and looted trillions of our dollars every year.

This condition brings an urgent and poignant choice upon “leadership” and their minions: given that the illusion will soon be over, who will stand with the public and the facts now (better late than never), and who will stand for the empire’s ongoing murder, misery, and plunder?
The advantages of standing with humanity:

• The choice of connectedness and love is more attractive (literally) than murderous disconnected selfishness.
• Many of us offer a Truth and Reconciliation process to resolve these crimes (here and here). Those who cooperate now and contribute to bringing the crimes to light and termination are in stronger positions to receive Truth and Reconciliation instead of prosecution for egregious crimes against humanity.
• It’s a much cooler story to be like Darth Vader or Severus Snape in ultimate heroism than ignominious death like the emperor and Voldemort. Those like me will seek to protect you.

The millions of awakened Americans know from the facts that “leadership” acts against public interest. For example, as I wrote with California passing a bill to fully understand the benefits of a state-owned bank:

Governor Brown, so far, has upheld the current criminal political and economic “leadership,” and requires a “Scrooge conversion” before he becomes a partner of the people. We know this is true because he does not declare his support for the people with other “emperor has no clothes” obvious crimes of “leadership”:

1. Congressional reports disclose that all “reasons” for war with Afghanistan and Iraq were known to be lies as they were told.
2. Orwellian unlawful wars, including using depleted uranium weapons to damn victims with continuous misery and death.
3. Obfuscation and silence of the obvious answer of ending an Orwellian "debt supply" and replacing it with money. This is the national solution for our so-called “monetary” system.
4. Silence while the US allows a million children a month to die of preventable poverty, even though historically ending poverty reduces population growth rate, the investment is less than 1% of the developed nations' gross national incomes (GNI), and the US has promised this amount and reneged multiple times.
5. Torture, extrajudicial assassinations (including against American citizens) and indefinite detentions. 
6. Destruction of the US Constitution as the US devolves into a form of government closest to fascism and nowhere near a constitutional republic.
7. Literally throwing Americans onto the streets rather than take any of a dozen acts to allow them to stay in their homes.
8. Intentional unemployment, crime, infrastructure decay, fear, anger, depression (both economic and psychological) rather than create money for full employment.
9. US corporate media complicity to lie by omission and commission to keep the above facts unrecognized by the American public.
10. You should also know this area of Truth: the King family's civil trial found the US government guilty of Dr. King's assassination. US Corporate media refused to cover the trial or interview Dr. King's wife. His family's opinion is that the US government murdered Dr. King to end his protests against unlawful US wars and his call to end poverty.

For my archive of published articles, I’m Examiner.com’s Nonpartisan Examiner.
For my best comprehensive article to explain, document, and prove unlawful US wars all based on known lies and criminal economic fraud that costs American trillions every year: Open proposal for US revolution: end unlawful wars, parasitic economics. 1 of 4.