Friday, July 12, 2013

Arab-American group claims bank discrimination

Detroit civil rights league sues bank for terminating accounts


Dearborn—The Arab-American Civil Rights League filed a class-action lawsuit against Huntington National Bank after allegations that accounts of more than a hundred people of Middle Eastern descent were closed without cause or explanation.
According to the complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, the bank’s actions suggest “racial, ethnic, national origin and religious discrimination,” which violate state and federal civil rights laws. Damages are estimated at millions of dollars, and the suit seeks a temporary restraining order barring Huntington from closing accounts for discriminatory reasons.
“It’s a shame,” said attorney Nabih Ayad, the group’s board chairman. “You feel victimized … as if you’re a second-class citizen.”
Maureen Brown, Huntington’s director of public relations, said the bank is “reviewing the information available to us at this time” but cannot comment.
The civil rights league earlier this year asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the bank and launched a complaint hotline for complaints.
Among the Huntington customers affected was Adnan Mouhajer, a businessman from Dearborn Heights. In March, he received letters from the bank saying his business accounts for enterprises in Detroit would close within two weeks, he said. No reason was given.
Unable to reach customer service representatives, Mouhajer sought answers at his local branch. But employees there “had no clue” about the situation, he said, and a manager who called a corporate office was told the decision would be final.
The Lebanese immigrant said he believes his background factored into the account targeting. “It’s ridiculous,” Mouhajer said Thursday. “We’re in 2013, and this is the reason why I immigrated to this country, because it’s a free country. ... Here I am 26 years later — I’m being picked on because of my race.”
The civil rights group has fielded more than 100 similar complaints, including from doctors, pharmacists and other professionals, Ayad said.
Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations–Michigan is asking the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates banks, to investigate similar complaints involving JPMorgan Chase. The group is considering legal action, executive director Dawud Walid said.
Emily Smith, a JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman, said in a statement: “On occasion, Chase determines it can no longer maintain a customer’s account, but those decisions are not based on the customer’s religion, ethnicity or any other similar basis.”

Inflation Is Too Low? Are You Kidding Us Bernanke?

by Michael Snyder
Bernanke
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said this week that inflation in the United States needs to be higher.  Yes, he actually came right out and said that.  It almost seems as if Bernanke is trying to purposely hurt the middle class.  On Wednesday, Bernanke told the press that “both sides of our mandate are saying we need to be more accommodative“.  Of course he was referring to the Fed’s dual mandate to keep unemployment and inflation low, but Bernanke has a very unique interpretation of that mandate.  According to Bernanke, inflation in the U.S. is now ”too low“.  The official inflation rate is currently sitting at about 1 percent, and Bernanke insists that such a low rate of inflation isnot good for the economy.  He would prefer that the rate of inflation be up around 2 percent, and he is hoping that more “monetary accommodation” will help push inflation up and the unemployment rate down.
But what Bernanke will never admit is that the official inflation rate is a total sham.  The way that inflation is calculated has changed more than 20 times since 1978, and each time it has been changed the goal has been to make it appear to be lower than it actually is.
If the rate of inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, it would be about 8 percent right now and everyone would be screaming about the fact that inflation is way too high.
But instead, Bernanke can get away with claiming that inflation is “too low” because the official government numbers back him up.
Of course many of us already know that inflation is out of control without even looking at any numbers.  We are spending a lot more on the things that we buy on a regular basis than we used to.
For example, when Barack Obama first entered the White House, the average price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.84.  Today, the average price of a gallon of gasoline has nearly doubled.  It is currently sitting at$3.49, but when I filled up my vehicle yesterday I paid nearly $4.00 a gallon.
And of course the price of gasoline influences the price of almost every product in the entire country, since almost everything that we buy has to be transported in some manner.
But that is just one example.
Our monthly bills also seem to keep growing at a very brisk pace.
Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row, and according to USA Todaywater bills have actually tripled over the past 12 years in some areas of the country.
No inflation there, eh?
Well, what about health insurance?
Yup, that has been going up rapidly as well.  Since 2010, employee health insurance premiums have been rising an average of between 8 and 9 percent a year.
So where is this low inflation that everyone has been talking about?
It certainly cannot be found in college tuition costs.  Since 1986, the cost of college tuition in the United States has risen by 498 percent.
What about at the supermarket?
We all have to buy food.  It sure would be nice if inflation was low there.

Unfortunately, anyone that shops for groceries on a regular basis knows exactly how painful food prices are becoming.
And over time, those increases really add up.  An article by Benny Johnson details how the prices of many of the things that we buy on a regular basis absolutely soared between 2002 and 2012.  Just check out these price increases…
Eggs: 73%
Coffee: 90%
Peanut Butter: 40%
Milk: 26%
A Loaf Of White Bread: 39%
Spaghetti And Macaroni: 44%
Orange Juice: 46%
Red Delicious Apples: 43%
Beer: 25%
Wine: 60%
Electricity: 42%
Margarine: 143%
Tomatoes: 22%
Turkey: 56%
Ground Beef: 61%
Chocolate Chip Cookies: 39%
So how in the world can Bernanke possibly come to the conclusion that inflation is too low?
Is he insane?
If you want to see a really good example of the impact that inflation has had on our economy in recent years, just check out this amazing chartwhich shows what Bernanke’s reckless policies have done to the prices of commodities during his tenure.
Meanwhile, paychecks are not rising at the same pace that inflation is.  In fact, median household income in the United States has fallen for four years in a row.  Overall, it has declined by over $4000 during that time span.
So the cost of living just keeps rising, but the middle class is making less money than before.
That certainly is not good news.
Of course a big reason for this is because the quality of jobs in Americacontinues to steadily decline.  Only 47 percent of adults have a full-time job at this point, and 53 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year.
Most families are just barely scraping by from month to month, and Bernanke has the gall to say that he needs to try to get prices to riseeven faster.
Is Bernanke also going to increase all of our paychecks in order to make up for the “inflation tax” that is being imposed on all of us?
Of course not.
And sadly, it appears that the number of Americans that are losing their jobs is starting to move upward again.  We just learned that initial claims for unemployment benefits rose to 360,000 last week.
That is getting dangerously close to the 400,000 number that I keep talking about.
The middle class in the United States is shrinking with each passing day, and Bernanke seems absolutely clueless.
His answer to every economic problem always seems to involve printing more money.  Thankfully, about 1.8 trillion dollars of that money is being stashed away at the Fed and has not gotten out into the real economy yet.
But someday that money will be unleashed on the real economy, and it will create crippling inflation.
Unfortunately, Bernanke doesn’t seem to really be too concerned about the mountains of cash that the big banks have parked at the Fed.  He is just happy that his reckless money printing has pumped up the stock market to new all-time highs.
He should enjoy this little period of euphoria while he can, because this bubble will burst like all false financial bubbles eventually do.
And when this bubble bursts, the foolishness of Bernanke and the Federal Reserve will be glaringly apparent to everyone.

Here Comes the Pain: Detroit To “Significantly Cut Vested Pensions” For Retirees

piggybank-breaks
During the summer of 2011, as Ben Bernanke and his mainstream propaganda arm convinced Americans that green shoots were cropping up all over the nation, warnings of the coming destruction of America’s pension funds had begun to emerge.
Government employees may currently enjoy higher salaries and benefits than the private sector, but they have been given a false sense of security.
Whether you are a police officer, fireman, school teacher, or utility worker, you could have serious problems down the road.
Chances are that every major metropolitan area in the country is heavily in the red. This means that the jobs and retirement futures of millions of people are under threat.
[The only] option will be for ex-Federal governments to start reducing benefits and firing workers.
Just two years on we’re seeing the warnings manifest in the real world.
Once again, we focus the microscope on Detroit, which to those paying attention, is America’s canary in the coal mine signaling what’s to come for the rest of the country.
With the threat of a city bankruptcy looming, Detroit city workers and retirees are pushing back against the state-appointed emergency manager, filing lawsuits to limit his options and refusing to accept demands to keep details of their discussions secret.
One lawsuit, filed in Ingham County Circuit Court in the state capital Lansing, seeks to stop Governor Rick Snyder from allowing the emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, to file Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy. That lawsuitclaims Orr’s plan to significantly cut vested pensions would violate strong protections in the Michigan constitution for retirement benefits of public-sector workers.

In his June 14 proposal to creditors, Orr listed pensions as unsecured debt of the city. Payment on pensions, retiree healthcare and $641 million of general obligation bonds all would be made from the city’s proceeds from $2 billion of notes Orr plans to sell as part of his restructuring plan.
The plan, if enacted, would be expected to result in significant cuts in pension payments. Although the city currently lists $643.7 million in unfunded pension liabilities, Orr in his report said the number is closer to $3.5 billion if “more realistic assumptions” are taken into account.

Pensions generally are considered off limits in bankruptcies, Nicholson said. “It’s very, very rare for any entity to go after people’s pensions because it puts people in the poor house,” he said.

The push back from labor groups is a new front in a growing resistance to Orr’s efforts.
Notice that everyone assumes the unfunded liabilities are $640 million, but in reality, once you start looking at the numbers, the city owes five times as much – $3.5 billion! That’s a significant miscalculation.
It’s very simple to figure out what happens here using basic arithmetic.
Labor unions and city employees can sue the city to their heart’s content. This will not change the facts:
There’s no money.
See, this is the problem at its root.  The unions bargained in bad faith, either knowing factually or being in possession of enough information to know that what they were asking for couldn’t be provided.  It was fiscally impossible given the projected increase in cost over the retiree lifetimes.
They didn’t care and they bludgeoned the city and its people into approving these “contracts” anyway.
The problem is that the only remaining options are to take some fraction of the original amount which can actually be paid or get nothing.  And the longer they wait and the harder they push the closer to zero their recovery becomes, as the cost of litigation takes from the recovery and in addition the city continues to decay and will keep doing so until it is fiscally restored to a sound foundation with its taxes and spending brought both into balance and to a competitive level.
Kevyn Orr doesn’t have to concede anything.  He holds the whip hand in that the city is a wasting asset and the longer the unions keep screwing around and screaming the less they get.
Karl Denninger’s Market Ticker
This is a nationwide problem.
If you are a government employee, a labor union member, or even a retiree from the private sector, you had better be looking for ways to protect your current retirement portfolio or find yourself a new source of income, because that money you’ve been promised is going to be wiped out.
The pain is coming and millions of Americans will end up in the poor house as a result.
BET ON IT:
We’ve discussed the coming wave of State and local defaults, and it appears that the end game is close…

Eventually, the Federal government will hit its (real) debt ceiling as well. That will happen when no one else but The Federal Reserve will buy the US Treasury’s debt issues, at which point the retirement accounts, 401k’s, savings and dollar denominated assets of every American will be completely and utterly destroyed.
No worries, right? Because they told you that YOUR retirement account is perfectly safe and those investments you’ve spent your entire life acquiring are in good hands.
Do you really want to keep pretending this isn’t happening?

MASSIVE VEGAS REAL ESTATE SCAM: Thousands Vacant Houses Kept Off Market by State Law, Reid’s fingerprints all over… AB 284 created another bubble? California: Real estate market has gone full Chinese!!!

Once again folks, America’s realtor crooks at the NAR (Nat’l Assoc Realtors), have managed a sleight of hand in the desert destination of adult fantasies.
By a crooked legislature, they have kept banks & lenders from formally foreclosing on over 60,000 vacant houses since 2011.
But the out-and-out ROT is now reaching a fever pitch, and Vegas’ economy is NOT coming BACK—-nowhere strong enough to absorb all this phantom inventory
LAS VEGAS, AMERICA’S NEWEST ‘CHINESE GHOST CITY’
Let’s face it, the Las Vegas real estate market has gone full Chinese.  By full Chinese I mean a centrally planned bubble has been created that is just asking to blow up.  I’ve covered the renewed insanity of the Las Vegas market before, but this article from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal provides even more detail.  In a nutshell, as a result of Assembly Bill 284, which essentially made foreclosures impossible in Nevada, extremely delinquent homes are not coming for sale, and this phony market signal is leading to rampant overbuilding and price speculation.
Here are some numbers. Utility data showed nearly 64,000 vacant homes in Las Vegas at the end of last September, only 8,000 of which are on the market. Meanwhile, new home sales are up 87% and new building permits are up 52% this year. What’s the end result? Another bubble, but this time one where Blackstone and other private equity firms are pricing out average citizens with elevated all cash bids.  USA! USA!  From the WSJ:
http://www.zerohedge.com/node/476281
Chinese buyers heavily focused on California real estate: 70 percent of purchases made by Chinese buyers are all cash purchases.
The amount of all cash offers being made across the country is deep into record territory.  Once again, the real estate market is crawling intounchartered waters here.  We all know about the flood of money coming from hungry Wall Street investors ravenously chasing yields in the rental game.  What about foreign money floating into the market?  Data on this is hard to come by but anecdotally we know that money from China is flooding into California.  How much?  Hard to say but some good data was recently released regarding the buying habits of foreigners.  Some will remember when Japan lived through their boom and money flooded into California then as well.  The big difference this time is that China has more than 1.3 billion people versus 127 million for Japan.  In other words, the potential for a high volume of activity is now starting to be seen in dramatic fashion.

Chinese purchases focused on prestige locations
One of the most interesting figures regarding international demand is with the typical amount spent on a purchase:
foreign demand
Source:  CNN Money
“(CNN Money) At a median price of $425,000, the Chinese are also buying more expensive homes than other foreign buyers, who spent a median of nearly $276,000 on U.S. homes. And nearly 70% of those pricey Chinese deals were made in all cash.
Nowhere is the influx of Chinese homebuyers felt more strongly than in California, where more than half of the homes sold to foreign buyers went to Chinese nationals.”
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/chinese-real-estate-buying-china-housing-california-purchases/

Real Estate shortages???? Wow who would’ve thought!!!
This is getting interesting… Buyers accross the country are having difficulty finding good homes!!! LOL what a flip from even a year ago!!! Rents have gone up accross the country!!!
In June 2011, we wrote a column entitled “Are we headed for a housing shortage?”
One year later, in June 2012, we sounded the bell again, with a column called “Is a housing shortage just around the corner?”
Now that we’re closing in on June 2013, it looks like that housing shortage is at our doorstep.
Back in that 2011 article, we laid the foundation for what appeared to be the basis of an impending shortage. Specifically, we said:
What most people fail to recognize is that our population is constantly growing. Right now, the United States has about 310 million people. We’re the third largest population in the world, behind China and India. In the 2000 Census, the U.S. population was 281 million, so we’ve grown by 10 percent in the last 10 years.
Some might think that as the baby boomers begin to die off, our population could actually decline. But that’s not true. Our population will continue to grow, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. It is estimated that by 2030, we’ll be up to 364 million people, and by 2043, the number of Americans will push over the 400 million mark.
http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/business/columnists/realities_real_estate/the-realities-of-real-estate-here-comes-the-housing-shortage/article_8eaebd99-fd8e-5f0e-8fc8-1e3c2e629d04.html
AB 284 Update – April 2013


AB 284 winners and losers in the Las Vegas Real Estate Market
AB 284 Las Vegas Real Estate Update for March 2012 Assembly Bill 284 indicates that there are winners and losers in the local economy relating to new law AB 284. The Las Vegas resale home inventory is near a record low. Who are the winners and losers? Is now the time to buy a home in Las Vegas? How is the new law affecting prices GLVAR Realtor Steve Hawks provides valuable information about the current Las Vegas Real Estate market conditions? Call Steve 702-458-3999 http://www.shortsaleczar.comshould your short sale or live for free? walk away or don’t pay and stay reduce mortgage principal las vegas short sale / henderson short sale agent
Has AB 284 created another Las Vegas real estate bubble?
AB 284 has created the best market for new home builders since 2005 and we have seen the making of the AB 284 bubble some Las Vegas homes have appreciated over 30% since January the home on millcroft was purchased off the mls for 88,000 dollars it was sold in less than 30 days for 130,500 wow over 35% profit in 30 days that’s better returns then the 2005 bubble the new law AB 284 has created its own real estate bubble just like 2005 popped so will the AB 284 bubble pop. This is the tax credit on steroids after the tax credit prices plummeted 5 consecutive quarters when notice of defaults or judicial foreclosures return then prices will fall to pre AB 284 prices just like the tax credit prices fell to the pre tax credit price. All major analysts have reported that AB 284 has delayed the recovery and had forced current home buyer to pay higher AB 284 bubble prices and when the current buyers need to sell in the near future they will be known as the AB 284 short sale sellers.http://www.shortsaleczar.com has this law helped bank America? Has this new law helped short sales?
http://lasvegasrealestate-stevehawks.com/videos/34-ab-284-las-vegas-real-estate-winners-and-losers-short-sale.html

D.C. Lawmakers Pass Minimum Wage Mandate Despite Walmart’s Threats To Pull Stores


Walmart’s efforts Tuesday to deter Washington D.C’s city council from passing a bill that would require certain large retailers to pay their employees at least $12.50 — a significant bump above the city’s minimum wage of $8.25 — didn’t work. Despite the big box company telling lawmakers it’d scrap plans for three stores in the area and take a close look at the three already underway, council members passed the bill by a vote of 8 to 5 yesterday.
“The question here is a living wage; it’s not whether Walmart comes or stays,” council member Vincent B. Orange, a proponent of the bill, told the Washington Post. “We’re at a point where we don’t need retailers. Retailers need us.”
The future of the bill as law is uncertain, however, as it still needs the signature of Mayor Vincent C. Gray. He expressed some concern about what not having those stores in the area will do to the communities they were planned in, saying Tuesday he might have to veto the bill.
He’d argued that the company would bring jobs in areas where they’re sorely needed, and provide retail stores to those underserved neighborhoods as well.
“The cancellation of three planned stores will surely set us back,” he said before the vote. After it, he said again that he has “serious concerns over the lost jobs and retail opportunities for District residents that the bill will cause.”
It doesn’t appear as though Walmart will ease up on its threats, either.
“Nothing has changed from our perspective,” Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo said in a statement after the vote, saying again that those three unbuilt stores will stay that way, and that the company will  “review the financial and legal implications” of not finishing up the three others under construction.
It wouldn’t be just Walmart — the bill requires all retailers with corporate sales of $1 billion and operating in spaces 75,000 square feet or larger to pay employees no less than $12.50.
D.C. Council approves ‘living wage’ bill over Wal-Mart ultimatum [Washington Post]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren Introduces ’21st Century Glass-Steagall Act’ To Rein In Too-Big-To-Fail Banks

In response to the stock market crash of 1929, the Banking Act of 1933, also known as the Glass-Steagall Act, put up a wall between commercial banking and investment firms. That wall stood for more than 60 years until it was torn down by the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bilely Act, which allowed commercial banks to reap huge profits, but also resulted in financial institutions that were so large that, had they failed, they would bring down the entire economy with them. So when those banks began to crumble following the collapse of the housing bubble, we taxpayers were left with little option but to bail them out while our federally insured deposits were put at risk. Thus, Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts has introduced legislation that would reenact the regulations that were stripped away 14 years ago. To make no bones about the nature of the bill, Sen. Warren has titled it the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act [PDF], and states clearly in the introduction that the legislation is intended “To reduce risks to the financial system by limiting banks’ ability to engage in certain risky activities and limiting conflicts of interest, to reinstate certain Glass-Steagall Act protections that were repealed by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and for other purposes.”
The bill already has a bipartisan group of co-sponsors in Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Sen.Angus King, an independent legislator from Maine.
In simple terms, the new Glass-Steagall Act would separate banks with FDIC-insured savings and checking accounts from “riskier financial institutions” like investment banks, insurers, hedge funds, and private equity firms.
The bill also specifies what activities are considered the “business of banking” to prevent national banks from engaging in risky activities, and bars non-banking activities from being treated as “closely related” to banking. In the decades leading up to the end of Glass-Steagall, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had allowed the divide between traditional banking and investment banking to be blurred by institutions who claimed that things like credit default swaps were simply part of the business of banking and not securities.
“Since core provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act were repealed in 1999, shattering the wall dividing commercial banks and investment banks, a culture of dangerous greed and excessive risk-taking has taken root in the banking world,” said Sen. McCain in a statement. “Big Wall Street institutions should be free to engage in transactions with significant risk, but not with federally insured deposits. If enacted, the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act would not end Too-Big-to-Fail. But, it would rebuild the wall between commercial and investment banking that was in place for over 60 years, restore confidence in the system, and reduce risk for the American taxpayer.”
Sen. Warren concedes that recent efforts to rein in banks’ risky actions have been fruitful, but she contends that the nation’s largest banks still present a hazard to the economy.
“The four biggest banks are now 30% larger than they were just five years ago,” says the Senator, “and they have continued to engage in dangerous, high-risk practices that could once again put our economy at risk. The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act will reestablish a wall between commercial and investment banking, make our financial system more stable and secure, and protect American families.”

Rick Santelli Rages: "Who Is Bernanke Working For?"


What Covered California Thinks of Anti-Obamacare Ad–Will use Tax $$ to Mislead Public

folks are buying ads on TV in favor and against ObamaCare.  That is what the First Amendment is about.  Starting in August the State of California, using tax dollars is going to promote ObamaCare by misleading the public.  The State will not tell about the doctor shortage, the long waiting times, the bureaucrats running the Death Panels (the Panels will decide who can get treatment and medicine and who should make out their wills).
Nor do they tell the public that in California individuals will pay 146% MORE for their health care insurance. Then again, this is government; do you expect it to tell the truth?
090611-acorn vote early-sm

What Covered California Thinks of Anti-Obamacare Ad

Lisa Afferis,  KQED,  7/9/13
You would think there was an election coming, judging by the way political ads are starting to air.
But this is no election. The big political story is the rollout of Obamacare. In the last few days, we’ve seen a point-counterpoint between the pro-Obama Organizing for Action’s ad and one from the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity.
Both ads feature a mother talking about treatment for a young child’s devastating illness. The pro-Obamacare ad is a relatively straightforward — and accurate — discussion of the elimination of lifetime caps on coverage.
But the AFP ad raises some questions:
In the ad, “Julie,” identified as a “mother of two,” says her young son began having seizures two years ago and his medical care “meant the world to me.” Then she goes on to say she has questions about Obamacare: “If we can’t pick our own doctor, how do I know my family is going to get the care they need? And what am I getting in exchange for higher premiums and a smaller paycheck?”
Although the ad does not explicitly say so, it certainly seems that Julie already has insurance. Yet, little is expected to change for the 80-plus percent of Americans who already have insurance on the Jan. 1, 2014, rollout of the Affordable Care Act — whether their insurance is employer-based, Medicare or Medicaid.
Dana Howard, spokesman for Covered California, sounded decidedly displeased when I talked to him about the ad Tuesday afternoon. “Covered California is not going to affect rates of insurance through (an) employer,” or have any effects on choice of providers, he said. He stressed that “80 percent of physicians in California will be within a network” offered by Covered California.
“I’m sorry if I sound a bit strident,” he added, “but the Affordable Care Act and Covered California have been dealing with misinformation. … I implore people to take a look at our website, look at our plans and look at the cost.”
He readily pointed out that some people with higher income — above $100,000 — who buy their own insurance on the individual market may see their premiums go up, but for most people, premiums are “likely going to go down … and women with children, who are low income, definitely will not” be paying more, he said.
While Cover Oregon unveiled its quirky ads over the weekend, Covered California’s own TV ads won’t come out until late August or early September, Howard said, adding that the agency needs to be “prudent about funds we have available.” Enrollment in the marketplace starts Oct. 1.
The Washington Post’s Fact Checker gave the AFP ad “Two Pinocchios,” meaning it had “(s)ignificant omissions and/or exaggerations.”

Farm Bill passes in House, without food stamp funding


(AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File) The Washington Post – by Ed O’Keefe
House Republicans successfully passed a Farm Bill Thursday by splitting apart funding for food stamps from federal agricultural policy, a move that infuriated the White House and congressional Democrats who spent most of the day trying to delay a final vote.
Lawmakers voted 216 to 208 make changes to federal agricultural policy and conservation programs and end direct subsidy payments to farmers. But the measure says nothing about funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, which historically constitutes about 80 percent of the funding in a Farm Bill.  
No House Democrat voted for the measure. Twelve Republicans also opposed it. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) voted in favor of it, even though speakers traditionally don’t vote.
The vote made clear that Republicans intend to make significant reductions in food stamp money and handed Republican leaders a much-needed victory three weeks after conservative lawmakers and rural state Democrats revolted and blocked the original version of the bill that included food stamp money.
Several Democratic lawmakers rose in opposition to the plan early Thursday as debate began, with several of them repeatedly saying that the new bill “hurts the children of America” or “increases hunger in America.
Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) mockingly made a parliamentary inquiry, saying he had just obtained a copy of the 600-page bill.
“It appears to have no nutrition title at all, is this a printing error?” Butterfield asked.
The nutrition title is the portion of the bill that sets food stamp funding.
Republicans attempted to tamp down the opposition by assuring Democrats that they will hold votes on a separate measure dealing with food stamp funding later in the month.
Current federal farm and food aid policy expires on Sept. 30 and failure to pass a new bill in time means American farmers will fall back to a 1949 law governing the industry, which could lead to steep price increases on items such as milk.
Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio), a member of the House Agriculture Committee, said moving forward Thursday makes sense in order to ensure that negotiations between the House and Senate on a final Farm Bill can begin later this summer.
House Republican leaders rushed late Wednesday to set up Thursday’s vote after securing sufficient support among rank-and-file members. The decision comes as many rural-state Republicans are facing pressure from constituents for so far failing to approve the legislation.
The White House said late Wednesday that President Obama would veto any Farm Bill that fails to comprehensively address federal farm and food aid policy. In a statement, White House officials said they had insufficient time to review the bill.
“It is apparent, though, that the bill does not contain sufficient commodity and crop insurance reforms and does not invest in renewable energy, an important source of jobs and economic growth in rural communities across the country,” the statement said.  “Legislation as important as a Farm Bill should be constructed in a comprehensive approach that helps strengthen all aspects of the Nation.”
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) blasted Republicans for violating their own rules on waiting three days before voting on major legislation.
Hoyer called the new Farm Bill “a bill to nowhere,” and said that Senate Democrats would reject the House version even if it passes. “This dead-on-arrival messaging bill only seeks to accomplish one objective: to make it appear that Republicans are moving forward with important legislation even while they continue to struggle at governing,” Hoyer said.
Conservative organizations closely aligned with dozens of House Republicans also cast doubt on the new bill.
The Club for Growth said that while it supports splitting up farm and food policy, the new farm-only bill “is still loaded down with market-distorting giveaways to special interests with no path established to remove the government’s involvement in the agriculture industry.” The group also faulted House GOP leaders for proceeding with what it calls a “rope-a-dope exercise” that likely will result in House and Senate negotiators restoring commodity and food stamp funding opposed by Republicans.
Heritage Action said the new bill would wrongly make permanent several programs, including aid to sugar producers that would drive up costs for customers and taxpayers.
Conservative GOP lawmakers joined with Democrats last month to defeat a broad, five-year farm bill, in the latest rebuke to House GOP leaders, who have struggled to control the chamber to pass major legislation.
Conservatives objected to the bill’s spending levels, while Democrats opposed a $20.5 billion cut to food stamps.
The surprise defeat signaled the difficulty congressional leaders face in the coming months in passing legislation on the budget and immigration that is expected to be debated this month and in the fall.

The debt reckoning has arrived: Total debt owed now approaches $60 trillion while Fed wrestles with interest rate confidence game.

Some people may be oblivious to the recent historical interest rate moves being experienced in the bond markets.  Many on Wall Street probably assumed that the Fed had an unlimited ability to pull the wool over the eyes of the American public.  Yet the reaction with interest rates concludes an interesting chapter in American central banking policy.  The Fed can no longer preach for a lower interest rate.  After the brutal reaction, the Fed has softened its rhetoric on the “taper” of quantitative easing even though there is really no evidence showing the Fed is tapering anything at all.  The quick reversal in interest rates signifies a strong reaction by the market.  It is fascinating to see how much outside money is now flowing back into the US to purchase stocks, real estate, and other real tangible goods.  In other words, global investors are now demanding payment for all that cheap credit lent out.  The era of cheap debt is now reversing and the piper is demanding to be paid.

Total debt owed
The total US debt markets are now over 3 times our annual GDP:
total debt
We have largely become a nation built on debt.  There were a few recent headlines championing the growth in household sector debt ex-mortgage debt but the reporting failed to acknowledge that the bulk of debt growth has come at the hands of student loan debt.  And why would this be a problem?  The problem arises from the record level of student debt delinquencies:
student-loan-bad-debt
In other words, one of the most problematic debt sectors is seeing the largest growth at a time when many are unable to pay it back.  Yet somehow, this passes as a good sign for the recovery.  Even though the $1 trillion in student debt is enormous, it is merely one part of the bigger debt market that now approaches close to $60 trillion.  The interest rate move is significant in the bond markets because a bond is merely a promise to pay a loan back with a fixed rate of interest and all initial principal.
What we are seeing however, is a reversal of cheap debt coming back to flood the markets at the expenses of a dwindling middle class.
Fed confidence game
The Fed is walking a fine line when it comes to the psychological confidence game.  After the massive reaction in the bond markets the Fed quickly softened its stance:
“(CSMonitor) Federal Reserve Board Chairman Bernanke spoke at an economic conference near Boston Wednesday, saying the Fed will continue to pour stimulus into the US economy — at least until unemployment and inflation improve.”
This is an incredibly quick change of heart here and the statement provides a vast window in which the Fed can act.  While the Fed talks about easing QE and other programs, the evidence shows nothing to this effect:
fed balance sheet
The Fed’s balance sheet which remains unaudited in any significant way shows no sign of tapering or slowing down.  We are quickly on our way to seeing the Fed’s balance sheet hit $4 trillion.  The Fed is essentially serving as the one giant bad bank but is also the key player (only player) in the mortgage markets.  Without the unprecedented intervention in the housing market, real interest rates would be around 6 to 7 percent for a typical mortgage.  We have no way of finding out the real rate since an artificial market has been created.
The chart above shows a very clear pattern.  The Fed since the crisis hit in 2007 has expanded its balance sheet from roughly $800 billion of liquid items to $3.5 trillion of questionable securities and artificially low mortgages (via QE and the MBS program).
Yet as many of you are well aware, the US is increasingly borrowing money from the world.  The world realizes that the Fed is merely bluffing so guess what?  Money is now flowing back into US markets to purchase stocks, real estate, and other goods pushing up prices while the middle class is literally living paycheck to paycheck.  This is one of the reasons how it is possible to have a booming real estate market, a record in the stock market, while the middle class shrinks, and 47 million Americans are on food stamps.  To sum it up, global investors are calling the Fed’s bluff and are now diving into the US market to buy it up on the cheap with a growing erosion of US dollars.
Interest rates react
The markets once realizing the Fed was reaching a reckoning when it comes to debt, decided to react as you would imagine:
fed 10 year
The above move pushes the 10-year Treasury rate to its highest level since 2011.  Keep in mind the debt markets and Fed balance sheet have continued to grow since that time.  While this is a blow to domestic financial institutions leveraging the daylights out of low rates, it will also hit consumers who are on a razor’s edge when it comes to their finances.  In reality, the stock market gains from many large companies are not trickling down to Americans because many of the large companies are adding jobs outside of the US:
jobs abroad
There is simply too much debt floating in the market and the Fed is backed into a corner.  Global investors realize this and are choosing to drive dollars back into the US by buying up real estate, stocks, and other tangible investments.  So you have inflation coming from outside forces while the middle class essentially has watched the Fed assist banks and Wall Street in parceling off pieces of the domestic economy to global buyers.  The underlying key to remember is this is happening at the expense of the middle class given that the top echelon of our society has benefitted mightily from this arrangement.  The reckoning is here and there is a limit to how much debt you can have while not adding any value domestically.

Gerald Celente - "The Toilet Paper Job Report ... Part Time Jobs & Walmart"


'Pothole Robin Hood' Steals Asphalt, Fixes Potholes


A man dubbed the "pothole Robin Hood" is under police investigation for taking asphalt from the city of Jackson, Miss., and filling in potholes on city streets.
Ron Chane admits that he takes the asphalt and repairs potholes, and then signs the filled-in holes with the message "citizen fixed," he told ABC News.
"It's sort of like Robin Hood. Once we saw that people were appreciating what we did, we went out again and made a goal of fixing 100 potholes. We've actually filled 101 potholes, so our mission has been completed," Chane said.
"Jackson is like any other state capital, but we've got a big infrastructure problem," Chane said.
"It's hard to have a good city without good infrastructure," Chane added. "And our city simply does not have the budget."
The Jackson Police Department is looking into how Chane got the asphalt and has not yet made a decision about pressing charges.
"This is all still under investigation. We're just trying to get more information," Officer Colendula Greene told ABC News.
Chane says he is not committing a crime.
"We're not trying to be thieves, or steal from the city," Chane said. "We're just trying to put the asphalt to use."
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumbaba responded to Chane's actions in a statement to ABC affiliate WAPT.
"We do not accept any use of the city's resources without going through the proper legal channels," the statement said.
The mayor's office did not return repeated requests for comment from ABC News.
Lumbaba, who was elected mayor on July 1, included repairing and developing Jackson's streets in his platform, according to his campaign website.
"Hopefully our new mayor and his administration will be aggressive in addressing this problem," Chane said. "He's got a tough road ahead."
"We're sending a message that as citizens you have to sometimes take matters in your hands, in a creative and constructive way," Chane added.
Potholes are a disruptive and dangerous problem in Jackson.
"People joke that Jackson is a Six Flags because the roads are so bumpy," Zachary Boozer, a Jackson resident, told ABC News.
"The potholes are pretty widespread in all areas of the city. They make cracks in the streets, which are already crumbling," Boozer said.
"And it's not just potholes," Boozer continued. "We've also got sinkholes. People have been falling in them. A car fell in one too."
Jackson has a pothole hotline residents can call to report damaged roads.
"The problem is that they don't respond immediately," Boozer said. "After you call, they put you on a waitlist. The city is too backed up with requests to fix potholes. This is definitely raising tensions."
"I was approached by the Mississippi Department of Transportation," Chane said. "They said that while they do not condone or endorse what we did, they were indeed on the understanding side. They said the asphalt is the people's asphalt."
Jarrod Ravencraft, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, refutes this account.
"Nobody from the D.O.T. has spoken to Mr. Chane in an official capacity. We have never met with him. This situation is strictly an issue for Jackson. We have no jurisdiction over the city," Ravencraft said.

BBC top ten severance payments: how many TV licence fees?

MPs are grilling BBC execs over a £25m severance pay bill, including £5.3m for its top ten managers. How many of our TV licences were spent on the payouts? The whole of Weston-Super-Mare for starters.

The report into BBC payouts was published last month, but the BBC is still feeling the heat as MPs delve further into the detail.
The Public Accounts Committee did not hold back on Wednesday when they interviewed BBC director general Tony Hall and BBC Trust Chairman Lord Patten, among others.
The payment that caused the most outrage was the highest payment of £949,000 given to former deputy director Mark Byford. But overall, the National Audit Office report found that severance pay to the top ten BBC managers amounted to £5,298,900.
With TV licences costing £145.50 each, it would have taken the purchase of 36,472 to make up the payouts to these ten senior managers.
Among the British population who have televisions, there is about one license for every 2.3 people.
And by Channel 4 News reckoning, that amounts to the total spent by all of Weston-Super-Mare on their BBC fee.
As for the whole £25m sum, that would take the licence fees paid by Stoke-on-Trent's nearly 400,000 people.
No wonder MPs had something to say about it all.
Former BBC director-general Mark Thompson is next in the line of fire, after it was suggested that he approved a controversial £375,000 payout to former BBC2 controller Roly Keating, who later returned the money after realising it wasn't authorised.
For their part, Mr Hall and Mr Patten have already announced a £150,000 cap on future severance payments to senior managers.
But it may be some time before they are allowed to move on from previous payouts.

Why Government Robs You Blind: Because It Can — They Make and Enforce the Laws and Frighten You into Submission

Between pass-throughs and rate hikes and surcharges and transfers to other uses, you might have noticed your bills for water and power have been soaring for years.
You ain’t seen nothing yet — utilities are the certain cash cow for government at all levels, a reservoir of money that can be used just about anyway your elected officials want if they are lucky enough to operate their own water and/or power systems like the LADWP.com (a web address that makes clear it’s a business, not a government agency).
What with the Colorado River supply evaporated and the Owens Valley in revolt against being dried out for the benefit of LA and the state incapable of resolving the endless water wars between north and south, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is your broker, your advocate, your protector.
Not an honest one to be sure but it’s all you got to be confident that when you turn the tap, water of a heavily chemicalized nature will flow.
This is a desert after all and if you were down to your last drop of the precious fluid, you would pay just anything for it.
That’s the viewpoint adopted by public and private agencies increasingly in recent years to drive up your water rates dramatically with even sharper increases on the table and planned for years to come with the likelihood that more of your water will come from recycled what you flush down the the toilet and other reuses that require even more chemical treatment.
Now the MWD like the LADWP and other water agencies have decided to squeeze every cent they can from you under threat that you will be left high and dry if you don’t pay up.
Of course, you know nothing about this.
MWD is as obscure as a critically important public agency could be. It supplies most of the water to nearly 20 million people who are represented by political appointees from six counties of Southern California.
The MWD is awash in your money. Here’s the annual percentage increases imposed  since 2008: 6%, 14%, 20%, 7.5%, 7.5%, 5% and 5% more come Jan. 1.
Wow, you might say, water is getting really expensive. But that isn’t the case. The main problem is you are using less water even in these dry times when rainfall and snowpack are low.
The MWD supplied 2.26 million acre feet of water in 2008, 2.16 million in 2009, dropping to 1.77 million in 2010 and staying in that range with 1.70 million acre feet anticipated this year and next.
It is the charges to cities and water companies that have soared while the MWD budget itself has remained more or less the same at $1.8 billion a year.
What has changed is the reserve fund, the rainy day water fund to deal with the unforeseen.
The 7.5% rate hike in 2012 produced a surplus of $97 million but that didn’t stop the MWD Board — dominated by LA and its satellite cities sort of like the Soviet Union and its satellite countries — from rejecting calls for a modest 3 % hike this year, imposing a 5 % increase instead.
The result is a windfall surplus of $217 million in the 12 months ending June 30 and a reserve fund so awash in cash that it has $549 million in the bank — $75 million more than it is allowed to have in reserve by its own rules and state law despite metrics on debt, costs and infrastructure needs that are as healthy as they have ever been.
So why does the MWD want to hoard even more money by changing the rules they made and sticking to a 5% rate increase that will add even more money?
And why does the LADWP which fought for nearly 50 years to eliminate property taxes as a major source of revenue rather than water sales now want  to slug homeowners and businesses with increased charges when LA has by far the highest property valuations?
It’s politics, all part of a back room deal you’re not supposed to know anything about, part of a grand scheme being hatched in smokeless rooms by the governor, legislators and power brokers in our cities and counties.
All they want is your money anyway they can get it even as in this case they don’t even know what to do with it.
Only one major organization is fighting this, the San Diego County Water Authority, whose paid “Get the Facts” advertisement outlining its long war over MWD policies is in the upper right hand corner of this page.
You can read the letter they sent to MWD officials here (2013-0605_MWD Board Items 8-1 and 8-2-1) and you can read the MWD board’s motions here (06112013 BOD 8-1 B-L-1) and here (06112013 BOD 8-2 B-L-1).
What San Diego wants is to have the $75 million in surplus charges returned to the agencies — all of which are seeking higher and higher rates for water as well as power — and could use the money to reduce the burden on their ratepayers.
It would mean a 21 percent refund or nearly $16 million to LA, nearly 22 percent or more than $16 million to San Diego that has long-standing grievance over MWD’s unfair  charges for transferring its water supply from the desert and relative amounts to all the cities and agencies that rely on MWD that offers no serious explanation of why it wants to hoard the public’s money. Here’s the chart:



This entry was posted in City Hall, DWP, Glendale-Burbank, Hot Topics, Los Angeles and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Masked Semi-Automatic Rifle-Toting Paramilitary Unit Targets Environmental Protesters at Wisconsin Mining Site

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
paramilitary7 112Actual hired paramilitary "guard" at northern Wisconsin mining site. (Photo: Jim Limbach, Blue Cheddar)According to The Chippewa Harold, heavily armed and masked guards have been removed from an exploratory mine in northern Wisconsin, but it appears only temporarily. The use of disguised, camouflaged "security consultants" with high-powered weaponry has raised concerns in the Badger State, as two state legislators officially raised objections to their prescence.
Talking Points Memo (TPM) also wrote an article simply entitled, "Rent-a-Paramilitaries Freak Out Wisconsin":
There's been a battle royale up in Wisconsin over an effort to establish a big iron mining operation near Lake Superior, to be owned and operated by a company called Gogebic Taconite. The Republican legislature approved the mine in March over environmentalists’ objections. Some protests have been staged since the operation got started. But people started to get freaked out over the weekend when the company brought in what the Wisconsin State Journal calls “masked security guards who are toting semi-automatic rifles and wearing camouflaged uniforms.”
Gogebic Taconite "is conducting test drillings for an eventual 4½-mile-long open-pit iron ore mine."  Environmental protests have been continuing against the mine, including a June "flash mob" romp through the work site.
TPM Editor Josh Marshall has personally been following the story and identifies the "security" firm as Bulletproof Securities, headquartered in Arizona. Its website, Marshall notes, brags of its role in Mexican border security and lists its capabilities as including:
"BPS has at its disposal the latest cache of specialized equipment for border security operations, not typically found in the private sector. As example, BPS owns heavily armored Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV’s), Tactical All Terrain Vehicles (T-ATV’s), FLIR (mobile thermal systems), mast equipment (eye in the sky), and many other state-of-the-art assets … The presence of BPS will prevent criminal organizations from posing a threat to your personnel or your mission.”
If your needs are different, Bulletproof can also provide “a QRF (quick reaction force) tactical unit to secure a manufacturing plant during a heated worker strike.” [Wisconsin Governor Scott "Crush the Unions" Walker must be salivating to hire Bulletproof Securities.]
The State of Wisconsin yesterday temporarily forced Bulletproof Securities to leave the mining property because it does not have a state permit. But The Chippewa Herald cites a Gogebic Taconite spokesperson as saying that Bulletproof will be back, and that in the meantime another security (mercenary force) will be hired.
Josh Marshall makes the point: "Now masked guards in camouflage carrying assault rifles do seem a bit more mid-80s Latin American death squad than protecting some mining equipment in Wisconsin."
Marshall is a superb political analyst, but he has his dating of paramilitary units in South America caught in a time warp.  Currently, it is quite common south of the US border for the mining "extraction industry" to use armed guards to scare off and shoot protesters in Latin American nations.  This is particularly true for the relatively large number of mining operations owned by Canadian firms south of the border.
So what is happening in northern Wisconsin with mercenary personnel is not that different from what is happening to locals who see mines as contaminating their drinking water, polluting their environment, and despoiling their land in Latin America.
The only difference is that no one has been shot in the area near Lake Superior by a paramilitary squad, not yet that is.

Bernanke Loses Control of the Fed, the Markets, and His Legacy With Once Sentence

by Phoenix Capital Research

Ben Bernanke has lost any last shred of credibility he might have ever had.

The Fed no longer believes in QE. And for good reason. We’ve seen QE 1,2,3,& 4 and yet we’ve not seen any meaningful uptick in employment or GDP growth. Indeed, since Bernanke took the reins at the Fed we’ve not seen a single year of 3+% GDP growth.

In this light, several Fed members are no longer fans of QE. Some of them want it tapered soon. In fact HALF of them want QESTOPPED completely by the end of 2013.

And yet, Bernanke decided that despite this dissent, he should make a speech stating that “highly accommodative policy” should continue along with the usual claims that inflation is under control.

These were the words of one man, not the Fed.
The markets exploded higher on Bernanke’s comments while the Dollar collapsed. And Bernanke now has a mutiny on his hands (one Fed Governor has already resigned in the last 24 hours).

Given that the Fed has been the primary driver of just about everything for the last five years, a fractured Fed is very bad news for the markets. Sure, we will see prices spike in the near term on Bernanke’s comments, but he has made it clear, point blank, that he has lost control of the market and really doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.

This man knows only one thing: bubbles. Congratulations Bernanke, you’ve created an even bigger bubble than that of 2007. Your latest statements about providing liquidity have destroyed completely destroyed your credibility as Fed Chairman. And they’ve bought you at most a brief pause before this whole mess comes crashing down.

The entire environment feels just like 2007 again. The only difference is that this time everyone knows that we’re on shaky ground and has an eye for the exits. And in this mess, Bernanke announced nothing new, but simply stated that he remains a money printer.

For more market insights and Special Reports on preparing for the inevitable stock market bubble bursting, visit us atwww.gainspainscapital.com

Best
Graham Summers

History of banks, and the corruption of money (no video, just text)

A lot of reading, scroll to the headlines. I enjoyed all of this, but I know liveleak members get bored easily. To the ones who value knowledge read on...

Tell someone you are going to a convention of accountants and you might get a few yawns, yet money and how it works is probably one of the most interesting things on earth.

It is fascinating and almost magical how money appeared on our planet. Unlike most developments we enjoy, which can be traced back to a source, civilisation or inventor, money appeared in places then unconnected all over the world in a remarkably simular way.

Consider the American Indians using Wampum, West Africans trading in decorative metallic objects called Manillas and the Fijians economy based on whales teeth, some of which are still legal tender; add to that shells, amber, ivory, decorative feathers, cattle including oxen & pigs, a large number of stones including jade and quartz which have all been used for trade across the world, and we get a taste of the variety of accepted currency.

There is something charming and childlike imagining primitive societies, our ancestors, using all these colourful forms of money. As long as everyone concerned can agree on a value, this is a sensible thing for a community to do.

After all, the person who has what you need might not need what you have to trade. Money solves that problem neatly. Real value with each exchange, and everyone gaining from the convenience. The idea is really inspired which might explain why so many diverse minds came up with it.


BUT ALL IS NOT WELL


"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance."
President James Madison

Money, money, money, it's always just been there, right? Wrong.

Obviously it's issued by the government to make it easy for us to exchange things. Wrong again!

Truth is most people don't realise that the issuing of money is essentially a private business, and that the privilege of issuing money has been a major bone of contention throughout history.

Wars have been fought and depressions have been caused in the battle over who issues the money; however the majority of us are not aware of this, and this is largely due to the fact that the winning side became and increasingly continues to be a vital and respected member of our global society, having an influence over large aspects of our lives including our education, our media and our governments.

While we might feel powerless in trying to stop the manipulation of money for private profit at our expense, it is easy to forget that we collectively give money its value. We have been taught to believe printed pieces of paper have special value, and because we know others believe this too, we are willing to work all our lives to get what we are convinced others will want.

An honest look at history will show us how our innocent trust has been misused.

Let's start our exploration of money with:


JESUS FLIPS (many coins) 33 A.D.


Jesus was so upset by the sight of the money changers in the temple, he waded in and started to tip over the tables and drive them out with a whip, this being the one and only time we ever hear of him using force during his entire ministry.

So what caused the ultimate pacifist to become so aggressive?

For a long time the Jews had been called upon to pay their temple tax with a special coin called the half shekelshekel. It was a measured half ounce of pure silver with no image of a pagan emperor on it.

It was to them the only coin acceptable to God.

But because there was only a limited number of these coins in circulation, the money changers were in a buyers market and like with anything else in short supply, they were able to raise the price to what the market would bear.

They made huge profits with their monopoly on these coins and turned this time of devotion into a mockery for profit. Jesus saw this as stealing from the people and proclaimed the whole setup to be. "A den of thieves". 1

Once money is accepted as a form of exchange, those who produce, loan out and manipulate the quantity of money are obviously in a very strong position. They are the "Money Changers".


1. King James NT, Mt 21:13, Mr 11:17, Lu 19:46


MEDIEVAL ENGLAND (1000 - 1100 A.D.)


Here we find goldsmith's offering to keep other people's gold and silver safe in their vaults, and in return people walking away with a receipt for what they have left there.

These paper receipts soon became popular for trade as they were less heavy to carry around than gold and silver coins.

After a while, the goldsmith's must have noticed that only a small percentage of their depositor's ever came in to demand their gold at any one time. So cleverly the goldsmith's made out some receipts for gold which didn't even exist, and then they loaned it out to earn interest.

A nod and a wink amongst themselves, they incorporated this practice into the banking system. They even gave it a name to make it seem more acceptable, christening the practice 'Fractional Reserve Banking' which translates to mean, lending out many times more money than you have assets on deposit.

Today banks are allowed to loan out at least ten times the amount they actually are holding, so while you wonder how they get rich charging you 11% interest, it's not 11% a year they make on that amount but actually 110%.


THE TALLY STICKS (1100 - 1854)


King Henry the First produced sticks of polished wood, with notches cut along one edge to signify the denominations. The stick was then split full length so each piece still had a record of the notches.

The King kept one half for proof against counterfeiting, and then spent the other half into the market place where it would continue to circulate as money.

Because only Tally Sticks were accepted by Henry for payment of taxes, there was a built in demand for them, which gave people confidence to accept these as money.

He could have used anything really, so long as the people agreed it had value, and his willingness to accept these sticks as legal tender made it easy for the people to agree. Money is only as valuable as peoples faith in it, and without that faith even today's money is just paper.

The tally stick system worked really well for 726 years. It was the most successful form of currency in recent history and the British Empire was actually built under the Tally Stick system, but how is it that most of us are not aware of its existence?

Perhaps the fact that in 1694 the Bank of England at its formation attacked the Tally Stick System gives us a clue as to why most of us have never heard of them. They realised it was money outside the power of the money changers, (the very thing King Henry had intended).

What better way to eliminate the vital faith people had in this rival currency than to pretend it simply never existed and not discuss it. That seems to be what happened when the first shareholder's in the Bank of England bought their original shares with notched pieces of wood and retired the system. You heard correctly, they bought shares. The Bank of England was set up as a privately owned bank through investors buying shares. Even the Banks resent nationalisation is not what it at first may appear, as its independent resources unceasingly multiply and dividends continue to be produced for its shareholder's.

These investors, who's names were kept secret, were meant to invest one and a quarter million pounds, but only three quarters of a million was received when it was chartered in 1694.

It then began to lend out many times more than it had in reserve, collecting interest on the lot.

This is not something you could just impose on people without preparation. The money changers needed to created the climate to make the formation of this private concern seem acceptable.

Here's how they did it.

With King Henry VIII relaxing the Usury Laws in the 1500's, the money changers flooded the market with their gold and silver coins becoming richer by the minute.

The English Revolution of 1642 was financed by the money changers backing Oliver Cromwell's successful attempt to purge the parliament and kill King Charles. What followed was 50 years of costly wars. Costly to those fighting them and profitable to those financing them.

So profitable that it allowed the money changers to take over a square mile of property still known as the City of London, which remains one of the three main financial centres in the world today.

The 50 years of war left England in financial ruin. The government officials went begging for loans from guess who, and the deal proposed resulted in a government sanctioned, privately owned bank which could produce money from nothing, essentially legally counterfeiting a national currency for private gain.

Now the politicians had a source from which to borrow all the money they wanted to borrow, and the debt created was secured against public taxes.

You would think someone would have seen through this, and realised they could produce their own money and owe no interest, but instead the Bank of England has been used as a model and now nearly every nation has a Central Bank with fractional reserve banking at its core.

These central banks have the power to take over a nations economy and become that nations real governing force. What we have here is a scam of mammoth proportions covering what is actually a hidden tax, being collected by private concerns.

The country sells bonds to the bank in return for money it cannot raise in taxes. The bonds are paid for by money produced from thin air. The government pays interest on the money it borrowed by borrowing more money in the same way. There is no way this debt can ever be paid, it has and will continue to increase.

If the government did find a way to pay off the debt, the result would be that there would be no bonds to back the currency, so to pay the debt would be to kill the currency.

With its formation the Bank of England soon flooded Britain with money. With no quality control and no insistence on value for money, prices doubled with money being thrown in every direction.

One company was even offering to drain the Red Sea to find Egyptian gold lost when the sea closed in on their pursuit of Moses.

By1698 the national debt expanded from £1,250,000 to £16,000,000 and up went the taxes the debt was secured on.

As hard as it might be to believe, in times of economic upheaval, wealth is rarely destroyed and instead is often only transferred. And who benefits the most when money is scarce? You may have guessed. It's those controlling what everyone else wants, the money changer's.

When the majority of people are suffering through economic depression, you can be sure that a minority of people are continuing to get rich.

Even today the Bank of England expresses its determination to prevent the ups and downs of booms and depressions, yet there have been nothing but ups and downs since its formation with the British pound rarely being stable.

One thing however has been stable and that is the growing fortune of:


THE ROTHSCHILDS (1743)


A goldsmith named Amshall Moses Bower opened a counting house in Frankfurt Germany in 1743. He placed a Roman eagle on a red shield over the door prompting people to call his shop the Red Shield Firm pronounced in German as "Rothschild".

His son later changed his name to Rothschild when he inherited the business. Loaning money to individuals was all well and good but he soon found it much more profitable loaning money to governments and Kings. It always involved much bigger amounts, always secured from public taxes.

Once he got the hang of things he set his sights on the world by training his five sons in the art of money creation, before sending them out to the major financial centres of the world to create and dominate the central banking systems.

J.P. Morgan was thought by many to be the richest man in the world during the second world war, but upon his death it was discovered he was merely a lieutenant within the Rothschild empire owning only 19% of the J.P. Morgan Companies.

"There is but one power in Europe and that is Rothschild."
19th century French commentator 1

We will explore a little more about the richest family a little later, after we've had a look at:


1. Niall Ferguson, THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD, Money's Prophets, 1798-1848


THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1764 - 1781)


By the mid 1700's Britain was at its height of power, but was also heavily in debt.

Since the creation of the Bank of England, they had suffered four costly wars and the total debt now stood at £140,000,000, (which in those days was a lot of money).

In order to make their interest payments to the bank, the British government set about a programme to try to raise revenues from their American colonies, largely through an extensive programme of taxation.

There was a shortage of material for minting coins in the colonies, so they began to print their own paper money, which they called Colonial Script. This provided a very successful means of exchange and also gave the colonies a sense of identity. Colonial Script was money provided to help the exchange of goods. It was debt free paper money not backed by gold or silver.

During a visit to Britain in 1763, The Bank of England asked Benjamin Franklin how he would account for the new found prosperity in the colonies. Franklin replied.

"That is simple. In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Script. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers.

In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one."
Benjamin Franklin 1

America had learned that the people's confidence in the currency was all they needed, and they could be free of borrowing debts. That would mean being free of the Bank of England.

In Response the world's most powerful independent bank used its influence on the British parliament to press for the passing of the Currency Act of 1764.

This act made it illegal for the colonies to print their own money, and forced them to pay all future taxes to Britain in silver or gold.

Here is what Franklin said after that.

"In one year, the conditions were so reversed that the era of prosperity ended, and a depression set in, to such an extent that the streets of the Colonies were filled with unemployed."
Benjamin Franklin

"The colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction. The inability of the colonists to get power to issue their own money permanently out of the hands of George III and the international bankers was the PRIME reason for the Revolutionary War."
Benjamin Franklin's autobiography

By the time the war began on 19th April 1775 much of the gold and silver had been taken by British taxation. They were left with no other choice but to print money to finance the war.

What is interesting here is that Colonial Script was actually working so well, it became a threat to the established economic system of the time.

The idea of issuing money as Franklin put it "in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry" and not charging any interest, was not causing any problems or inflation. This unfortunately was alien to the Bank of England which only issued money for the sake of making a profit for its shareholder's.


1. Congressman Charles G. Binderup of Nebraska, Unrobing the Ghosts of Wall Street


THE BANK OF NORTH AMERICA (1781-1785)


If you can't beat them, join them, might well have been his argument when arms dealer, Robert Morris suggested he be allowed to set up a Bank of England style central bank in the USA in 1781.

Desperate for money, the $400,000 he proposed to deposit, to allow him to loan out many times that through fractional reserve banking, must have looked really attractive to the impoverished American Government.

Already spending the money they would be loaned, no one made a fuss when Robert Morris couldn't raise the deposit, and instead suggested he might use some gold, which had been loaned to America from France.

Once in, he simply used fractional reserve banking, and with the banks growing fortune he loaned to himself, and his friends the money to buy up all the remaining shares. The bank then began to loan out money multiplied by this new amount to eager politicians, who were probably too drunk with the new 'power cash' to notice or care how it was done.

The scam lasted five years until in 1785, with the value of American money dropping like a lead balloon. The banks charter didn't get renewed.

The shareholder's walking off with the interest did not go unnoticed by the governor.

"The rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest. They always did. They always will... They will have the same effect here as elsewhere, if we do not, by (the power of) government, keep them in their proper spheres."
Governor Morris 1


1. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787, 7/2


FIRST BANK OF THE UNITED STATES (1791-1811)


It worked once, it will work again. It's been six years. There are a lot of new hungry politicians. Let's give it a try. And so there it was, in 1791, the First Bank of the United States (BUS). Not only deceptively named to sound official, but also to take attention away from the real first bank which had been shut down.

Its initials however gave a clear indication that Americans were once again being taken for a ride. And true to its British model, the name of the investors was never revealed.

Having gotten away with it a second time, some of them probably wished Amshall Rothschild had picked a different time to make his pronouncement from his private central bank in Frankfurt.

"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws."
Mayer Amschel Rothschild, 1790

Not to worry, no one was listening, the American government borrowed 8.2 million dollars from the bank in the first 5 years and prices rose by 72%. This time round the money changer's had learned their lesson, they had guaranteed a twenty year charter.

The president, who could see an ever increasing debt, with no chance of ever paying back, had this to say.

"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution - taking from the federal government their power of borrowing."
Thomas Jefferson, 1798

While the independent press, who had not been bought off yet, called the scam "a great swindle, a vulture, a viper, and a cobra."

As with the real first bank, the government had been the only depositor to put up any real money, with the remainder being raised from loans the investors made to each other, using the magic of fractional reserve banking. When time came for renewal of the charter, the bankers were warning of bad times ahead if they didn't get what they wanted. The charter was not renewed.

Five month later Britain had attacked America and started the war of 1812.

Meanwhile a short time earlier, an independent Rothschild business, the Bank of France, was being looked upon with suspicion by none other than:


NAPOLEON (1803 - 1825)


He didn't trust the bank saying:

"When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes... Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain."
Napoleon Bonaparte, 1815

For both sides of a war to be loaned money from the same privately owned Central Bank is not unusual. Nothing generates debt like war. A Nation will borrow any amount to win. So naturally if the loser is kept going to the last straw in a vain hope of winning, then the more resources will be used up by the winning side before their victory is obtained more resources used, more loans taken out, more money made by the bankers; and even more amazing, the loans are usually given on condition that the victor pays the debts left by the loser.

In 1803, instead of borrowing from the bank, Napoleon sold territory west of the Mississippi to the 3rd President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson for 3 million dollars in gold; a deal known as the Louisiana Purchase.

Three million dollars richer, Napoleon quickly gathered together an army and set about conquering much of Europe.

Each place he went to, Napoleon found his opposition being financed by the Bank of England, making huge profits as Prussia, Austria and finally Russia all went heavily into debt trying to stop him.

Four years later, with the main French army in Russia, Nathan Rothschild took charge of a bold plan to smuggle a shipment of gold through France to finance an attack from Spain by the Duke of Wellington.

Wellington's attack from the south and other defeats eventually forced Napoleon into exile. However in 1815 he escaped from his banishment in Elba, an Island off the coast of Italy, and returned to Paris.

By March of that year Napoleon had equipped an army with the help of borrowed money from the Eubard Banking House of Paris.

With 74,000 French troops led by Napoleon, sizing up to meet 67,000 British and other European Troops 200 miles NE of Paris on June 18th 1815, it was a difficult one to call. Back in London, the real potential winner, Nathan Rothschild, was poised to strike in a bold plan to take control of the British stock market, the bond market, and possibly even the Bank of England.

Nathan, knowing that information is power, stationed his trusted agent named Rothworth near the battle field.

As soon as the battle was over Rothworth quickly returned to London, delivering the news to Rothschild 24 hours ahead of Wellington's courier.

A victory by Napoleon would have devastated Britain's financial system. Nathan stationed himself in his usual place next to an ancient pillar in the stock market.

This powerful man was not without observers as he hung his head, and began openly to sell huge numbers of British Government Bonds.

Reading this to mean that Napoleon must have won, everyone started to sell their British Bonds as well.

The bottom fell out of the market until you couldn't hardly give them away. Meanwhile Rothschild began to secretly buy up all the hugely devalued bonds at a fraction of what they were worth a few hours before.

In this way Nathan Rothschild captured more in one afternoon than the combined forces of Napoleon and Wellington had captured in their entire lifetime.


XAT3

THE HISTORY OF MONEY PART 2


The 19th century became known as the age of the Rothschild's when it was estimated they controlled half of the world's wealth. While their wealth continues to increase today, they have managed to blend into the background, giving an impression that their power has waned. They only apply the Rothschild name to a small fraction of the companies they actually control. Some authors claim that the Rothschild's had not only taken over the Bank of England but they had also in 1816 backed a new privately owned Central Bank in America called The Second Bank of The United States, causing huge problems to the American president.


ANDREW JACKSON (1828 - 1836)


When the American congress voted to renew the charter of The Second Bank of The United States, Jackson responded by using his veto to prevent the renewal bill from passing. His response gives us an interesting insight. "It is not our own citizens only who are to receive the bounty of our government. More than eight millions of the stock of this bank are held by foreigners... is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a bank that in its nature has so little to bind it to our country?...

Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence... would be more formidable and dangerous than a military power of the enemy. If government would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favour alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. In the act before me there seems to be a wide and unnecessary departure from these just principles."


Andrew Jackson 1 In 1832 Jackson ordered the withdrawal of government deposits from the Second bank and instead had them put into safe banks. The Second Banks head, Nicholas Biddle was quite candid about the power and intention of the bank when he openly threatened to cause a depression if the bank was not re-chartered, we quote. "Nothing but widespread suffering will produce any effect on Congress... Our only safety is in pursuing a steady course of firm restriction - and I have no doubt that such a course will ultimately lead to restoration of the currency and the re-charter of the bank."


Nicholas Biddle 1836 By calling in existing loans and refusing to issue new loans he did cause a massive depression, but in 1836 when the charter ran out, the Second Bank ceased to function. It was then he made these two famous statements: "The Bank is trying to kill me - but I will kill it!" and later "If the American people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system - there would be a revolution before morning..."


Andrew Jackson When asked what he felt was the greatest achievement of his career Andrew Jackson replied without hesitation "I killed the bank!" However we will see this was not the end of private financial influence passing itself off as official when we look at...


1. Andrew Jackson, Veto of the Bank Bill, to the Senate, (1832)


ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE CIVIL WAR (1861 - 1865)


With the Central Bank killed off, fractional reserve banking moved like a virus through numerous state chartered banks instead causing the instability this form of economics thrives on. When people lose their homes someone else wins them for a fraction of their worth. Depression is good news to the lender; but war causes even more debt and dependency than anything else, so if the money changers couldn't have their Central Bank with a license to print money, a war it would have to be. We can see from this quote of the then chancellor of Germany that slavery was not the only cause for the American Civil War. "The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the US, if they remained as one block, and as one nation, would attain economic and financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over the world."


Otto von Bismark chancellor of Germany 1876 On the 12th of April 1861 this economic war began. Predictably Lincoln, needing money to finance his war effort, went with his secretary of the treasury to New York to apply for the necessary loans. The money changers wishing the Union to fail offered loans at 24% to 36%. Lincoln declined the offer. An old friend of Lincoln's, Colonel Dick Taylor of Chicago was put in charge of solving the problem of how to finance the war. His solution is recorded as this. "Just get Congress to pass a bill authorising the printing of full legal tender treasury notes... and pay your soldiers with them and go ahead and win your war with them also."


Colonel Dick Taylor When Lincoln asked if the people of America would accept the notes Taylor said. "The people or anyone else will not have any choice in the matter, if you make them full legal tender. They will have the full sanction of the government and be just as good as any money; as Congress is given that express right by the Constitution."


Colonel Dick Taylor 1 Lincoln agreed to try this solution and printed 450 million dollars worth of the new bills using green ink on the back to distinguish them from other notes. "The government should create, issue and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the government and the buying power of consumers..... The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Government's greatest creative opportunity. By the adoption of these principles, the long-felt want for a uniform medium will be satisfied. The taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest, discounts and exchanges. The financing of all public enterprises, the maintenance of stable government and ordered progress, and the conduct of the Treasury will become matters of practical administration. The people can and will be furnished with a currency as safe as their own government. Money will cease to be the master and become the servant of humanity. Democracy will rise superior to the money power."


Abraham Lincoln 2 From this we see that the solution worked so well Lincoln was seriously considering adopting this emergency measure as a permanent policy. This would have been great for everyone except the money changers who quickly realised how dangerous this policy would be for them. They wasted no time in expressing their view in the London Times. Oddly enough, while the article seems to have been designed to discourage this creative financial policy, in its put down we're clearly able to see the policies goodness. "If this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains, and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe."


Hazard Circular - London Times 1865 From this extract its plan to see that it is the advantage provided by the adopting of this policy which poses a threat to those not using it. 1863, nearly there, Lincoln needed just a bit more money to win the war, and seeing him in this vulnerable state, and knowing that the president could not get the congressional authority to issue more greenbacks, the money changers proposed the passing of the National Bank Act. The act went through. From this point on the entire US money supply would be created out of debt by bankers buying US government bonds and issuing them from reserves for bank notes. The greenbacks continued to be in circulation until 1994, their numbers were not increased but in fact decreased. "In numerous years following the war, the Federal Government ran a heavy surplus. It could not (however) pay off its debt, retire its securities, because to do so meant there would be no bonds to back the national bank notes. To pay off the debt was to destroy the money supply."


John Kenneth Galbrath The American economy has been based on government debt since 1864 and it is locked into this system. Talk of paying off the debt without first reforming the banking system is just talk and a complete impossibility. That same year Lincoln had a pleasant surprise. Turns out the Tsar of Russia, Alexander II, was well aware of the money changers scam. The Tsar was refusing to allow them to set up a central bank in Russia. If Lincoln could limit the power of the money changers and win the war, the bankers would not be able to split America and hand it back to Britain and France as planned. The Tsar knew that this handing back would come at a cost which would eventually need to be paid back by attacking Russia, it being clearly in the money changers sights. The Tsar declared that if France or Britain gave help to the South, Russia would consider this an act of war. Britain and France would instead wait in vain to have the wealth of the colonies returned to them, and while they waited Lincoln won the civil war. With an election coming up the next year, Lincoln himself would wait for renewed public support before reversing the National Bank Act he had been pressured into approving during the war. Lincoln's opposition to the central banks financial control and a proposed return to the gold standard is well documented. He would certainly have killed off the national banks monopoly had he not been killed himself only 41 days after being re-elected. The money changers were pressing for a gold standard because gold was scarce and easier to have a monopoly over. Much of this was already waiting in their hands and each gold merchant was well aware that what they really had could be easily made to seem like much much more. Silver would only widen the field and lower the share so they pressed for...


1. Lincoln By Emil Ludwig 1930, containing a letter from Lincoln, also reprinted in Glory to God and the Sucker Democracy A Manuscript Collection of the Letters of Charles H. Lanphier compiled by Charles C. Patton.
2. Abraham Lincoln. Senate document 23, Page 91. 1865.


THE RETURN OF THE GOLD STANDARD (1866 - 1881)


"Right after the Civil War there was considerable talk about reviving Lincoln's brief experiment with the Constitutional monetary system. Had not the European money-trust intervened, it would have no doubt become an established institution."


W.Cleon Skousen. Even after his death, the idea that America might print its own debt free money set off warning bells throughout the entire European banking community. On April 12th in 1866, the American congress passed the Contraction Act, allowing the treasury to call in and retire some of Lincoln's greenbacks, With only the banks standing to gain from this, it's not hard to work out the source of this action. To give the American public the false impression that they would be better off under the gold standard, the money changers used the control they had to cause economic instability and panic the people. This was fairly easy to do by calling in existing loans and refusing to issue new ones, a tried and proven method of causing depression. They would then spread the word through the media they largely controlled that the lack of a single gold standard was the cause of the hardship which ensued, while all this time using the Contraction Act to lower the amount of money in circulation.

It went from $1.8 billion in circulation in 1866 allowing $50.46 per person, to $1.3 billion in 1867 allowing $44.00 per person, to $0.6 billion in 1876 making only $14.60 per person and down to $0.4 billion only ten years later leaving only $6.67 per person and a continually growing population.

Most people believe the economists when they tell us that recessions and depressions are part of the natural flow, but in truth the money supply is controlled by a small minority who have always done so and will continue to do so if we let them. By 1872 the American public was beginning to feel the squeeze, so the Bank of England, scheming in the back rooms, sent Ernest Seyd, with lots of money to bribe congress into demonetising silver. Ernest drafted the legislation himself, which came into law with the passing of the Coinage Act, effectively stopping the minting of silver that year. Here's what he said about his trip, obviously pleased with himself. "I went to America in the winter of 1872-73, authorised to secure, if I could, the passage of a bill demonetising silver. It was in the interest of those I represented - the governors of the Bank of England - to have it done. By 1873, gold coins were the only form of coin money."


Ernest Seyd Or as explained by Senator Daniel of Virginia "In 1872 silver being demonetized in Germany, England, and Holland, a capital of 100,000 pounds ($500,000.00) was raised, Ernest Seyd was sent to this country with this fund as agent for foreign bond holders to effect the same object (demonetization of silver)". 1

Within three years, with 30% of the work force unemployed, the American people began to harken back to the days of silver backed money and the greenbacks. The US Silver Commission was set up to study the problem and responded with telling history: "The disaster of the Dark Ages was caused by decreasing money and falling prices... Without money, civilisation could not have had a beginning, and with a diminishing supply, it must languish and unless relieved, finally perish. At the Christian era the metallic money of the Roman Empire amounted to $1,800,million. By the end of the fifteenth century it had shrunk to less than $200,million. History records no other such disastrous transition as that from the Roman Empire to the Dark Ages..."


United States Silver Commission While they obviously could see the problems being caused by the restricted money supply, this declaration did little to help the problem, and in 1877 riots broke out all over the country. The bank's response was to do nothing except to campaign against the idea that greenbacks should be reissued. The American Bankers Association secretary James Buel expressed the bankers attitude well in a letter to fellow members of the association.

He wrote: "It is advisable to do all in your power to sustain such prominent daily and weekly newspapers, especially the Agricultural and Religious Press, as will oppose the greenback issue of paper money and that you will also withhold patronage from all applicants who are not willing to oppose the government issue of money. To repeal the Act creating bank notes, or to restore to circulation the government issue of money will be to provide the people with money and will therefore seriously affect our individual profits as bankers and lenders. See your congressman at once and engage him to support our interest that we may control legislation."
James Buel American Bankers Association 2 What this statement exposes is the difference in mentality between your average person and a banker. With a banker 'less really is more' and every need an opportunity to exploit. James Garfield became President in 1881 with a firm grasp of where the problem lay. "Whosoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce... And when you realise that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate."


James Garfield 1881 Within weeks of releasing this statement President Garfield was assassinated. The cry from the streets was to...


1. Senator Daniel of Virginia, May 22, 1890, from a speech in Congress, to be found in the Congressional Record, page 5128, quoting from the Bankers Magazine of August, 1873
2. from a circular issued by authority of the Associated Bankers of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston signed by one James Buel, secretary, sent out from 247 Broadway, New York in 1877, to the bankers in all of the States


FREE SILVER (1891 - 1912)


Fleecing of the flock is the term the money changers use for the process of booms and depressions which make it possible for them to repossess property at a fraction of its worth. In 1891 a major fleece was being planned. "On Sept 1st, 1894, we will not renew our loans under any consideration. On Sept 1st we will demand our money. We will foreclose and become mortgagees in possession. We can take two-thirds of the farms west of the Mississippi, and thousands of them east of the Mississippi as well, at our own price... Then the farmers will become tenants as in England..."


1891 American Bankers Association as printed in the Congressional Record of April 29, 1913 The continued gold standard made this possible. William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic candidate for president in 1896, campaigning to bring silver back as a money standard. (free Silver) "We will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labour this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."
William Jennings Bryan Of course the money changers supported his opposition on the Republican side so long as he wanted the gold standard maintained. The factory bosses were somehow convinced to tell their work force that business would close down if Bryan was elected, and everyone would lose their jobs. The Republicans won by a small margin. Bryan tried again in 1900 and in 1908 but lost both times. He became secretary of state under Wilson in 1912 but became disenchanted and resigned in 1915 under suspicious circumstances connected with the sinking of the Lusitania which drove America into the First World War.


J.P.MORGAN AND THE CRASH OF 1907


If you want to work out the cause of the crash of 1907, checking who benefited is where you might like to look first. With the stock market slump causing most of the over extended banks to falter, in steps J.P. Morgan offering to save the day. People will do strange things when in a panic, and this might explain why Morgan was authorised to print $200 million from nothing, which he then used to prop things up. Some of the troubled banks with less than 1% in reserve had no choice. It was accept this solution or go under. Even if they had worked out that their problems had been caused by the same people now offering the solution, there is not a lot they could have done about it. J.P.Morgan was hailed a hero. "All this trouble could be averted if we appointed a committee of six or seven men like J.P.Morgan to handle the affairs of our country."


Woodrow Wilson But not everyone was fooled. "Those not favourable to the money trust could be squeezed out of business and the people frightened into demanding changes in the banking and currency laws which the Money Trust would frame."


Rep. Charles A. Lindbergh (R-MN) Apart from making a small number rich at the expense of the many, in this case the instability also served the second purpose of encouraging the public to believe that they would be better off living under a Central Bank and a Gold Standard. Desperate people have little time for logic.


LINCOLN WATCHES


In Washington the statue of Lincoln sitting in his chair is facing a building called the Federal Reserve Headquarters. This institution would not be there if Lincoln's monetary policy had been adopted by the USA. It is not Federal and it has doubtful reserves. The name is an open deception designed to give this private bank the appearance that it is operating in the public's interest, when in fact it is run solely to gain private profit for its select stock holders. It came into being as the result of one of the slickest moves in financial history. On 23rd December 1913 the house of representatives had past the Federal Reserve Act, but it was still having difficulty getting it out of the senate. Most members of congress had gone home for the holidays, but unfortunately the senate had not adjourned sene die (without day) so they were technically still in session. There were only three members still present. On a unanimous consent voice vote the 1913 Federal Reserve Act was passed. No objection was made, possibly because there was no one there to object. Charles Lindbergh would have objected. "The financial system has been turned over to... the federal reserve board. That board administers the finance system by authority of... a purely profiteering group. The system is private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other peoples money."


Rep Charles A, Lindbergh (R-MN) Louis T. McFadden would have objected. "We have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board... This evil institution has impoverished... the people of the United States... and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through... the corrupt practice of the moneyed vultures who control it."


Rep. Louis T, McFadden (R-PA) Barry Goldwater would also have objected. "Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders... The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and... manipulates the credit of the United States."


Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) Most Americans would object if they knew. The Federal Reserve is the largest single creditor of the United States Government, and they are also the people who decide how much the average persons car payments are going to be, what their house payments are going to be, and whether they have a job or not. The three people who passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, knew exactly what they were doing when they set up this private bank, modelled on the Bank of England and the fact that THE BANK OF ENGLAND had been operating independently unopposed since 1694 must have given them a great deal of confidence.


WHERE THERE'S WAR THERE'S MONEY


War uses up more materials more quickly than most anything else on earth. In war expensive equipment doesn't wear out slowly, it gets blown up. (It's interesting to note that during the 119 year period from the founding of the Bank of England to Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, England had been at war for 56 years, while the rest of the time preparing for it. In the process the money changers had been getting rich.) So there it was, the newly formed Federal Reserve poised to produce any money the U.S. Government might need from thin air with each dollar standing to make a healthy interest. Nine days after its formation the Federal Reserve founders were wishing each other a Happy New Year. What good fortune might 1914 bring?


XAT3
THE HISTORY OF MONEY PART 3


WORLD WAR I (1914-1918)

The Germans borrowed money from the German Rothschilds bank, the British from the British Rothschilds bank, and the French from the French Rothschilds.

American super banker J.P. Morgan was amongst other things also a sales agent for war materials. Six months into the war his spending of $10 million a day made him the largest consumer on the planet.

The Rockefeller's and the head of president Willson's War Industries Board, Bernard Baruch each made some 200 million dollars while families contributed their sons to the bloody front lines, but profit was not the only motive for involvement.

Russia had spoiled the money changers plan to split America in two, and remained the last major country not to have its own central bank.

However, three years after the start of the war the entire Russian Royal Family was killed and Communism began.

You might find it strange to learn that the Russian Revolution was also fuelled with British money. Capitalist businessmen financing Communism?

Author Gary Allen gives his explanation:

"If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth programme, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of super-rich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead, it becomes logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs.

Communism or more accurately, socialism, is not a movement of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite."
Gary Allen, Author

W.Cleon Skousen wrote in his book 'The Naked Capitalist'.

"Power from any source tends to create an appetite for additional power... It was almost inevitable that the super-rich would one day aspire to control not only their own wealth, but the wealth of the whole world.

To achieve this, they were perfectly willing to feed the ambitions of the power-hungry political conspirators who were committed to the overthrow of all existing governments and the establishments of a central world-wide dictatorship."
W.Cleon Skousen

Extreme revolutionary groups were controlled by being financed when they complied and cut off, with money sometimes being given to their opposition, when they didn't.

If you find this hard to believe, listen to what the so called dictator of the new Soviet Union had to say.

"The state does not function as we desired. The car does not obey. A man is at the wheel and seems to lead it, but the car does not drive in the desired direction. It moves as another force wishes."
Vladimir Lenin 1

Rep. Louis T. McFadden, chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee throughout the 1920-30s explained it this way.

"The course of Russian history has, indeed, been greatly affected by the operations of international bankers... The Soviet Government has been given United States Treasury funds by the Federal Reserve Board... acting through the Chase Bank. ...

England has drawn money from us through the Federal Reserve Banks and has re-lent it at high rates of interest to the Soviet Government... The Dnieperstory Dam was built with funds unlawfully taken from the United States Treasury by the corrupt and dishonest Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks." Rep. Louis T.McFadden (D-PA) 2

Even when Communism collapsed in the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin revealed that most of the foreign aid was ending up, we quote. "straight back into the coffers of western banks in debt service."


1. Wurmbrand, "Marx and Satan," p. 49
2.United States Congressional Record, June 15, 1934


WORLD DOMINATION


With Russia down the money changers now had control of every major national economy. Like a steam roller moving and a wolf gathering its pack, there was only one thing left to do and that was to go global. The first attempt was the proposal at the Paris Peace Conference after WWI to set up the League of Nations. Old habits die hard, and even what they called 'the war to end all wars' was not enough to convince nations to dissolve their boundaries. The League died.

If politicians really were being controlled, you would think at least one would break ranks and cry out against it. Many did. One was no less than former New York City Mayor John Haylan

"These international bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of the newspapers and magazines in this country. They use the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of office public officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government....

The warning of Theodore Roosevelt has much timeliness today, for the real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over City, State, and nation... It seizes in its long and powerful tentacles our executive officers, our legislative bodies, our schools, our courts, our newspapers, and every agency created for the public protection...

To depart from mere generalisations, let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller-Standard Oil interest and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as the international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes.

They practically control both parties, write political platforms, make catspaws of party leaders, use the leading men of private organisations, and resort to every device to place in nomination for high public office only such candidates as will be amenable to the dictates of corrupt big business...

These international bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspapers and magazines in this country."
John Hylan, Mayor of New York 1927, 1

These warnings fell on deaf ears, drowned out by the music and excitement of the roaring 20's. People don't tend to complain much in times of prosperity, so the money changers used this boom time they had created to defuse any complaints about their growing control.


1. (Former New York City Mayor John Haylan speaking in Chicago and quoted in the March 27, 1927, New York Times)


DEPRESSION IN 1929


Stack in front of you the biographies of all the Wall Street giants, J.P. Morgan, Joe F. Kennedy, J.D Rockefeller, Bernard Baruch, and you'll find they all marvel at how they got out of the stock market and put their assets in gold just before the crash.

Non mention a secret directive, since revealed, sent by the father of the Federal Reserve, Paul Warburg, warning of the coming collapse and depression.

With control of the press and the education system, few Americans are aware that the Fed caused the depression. It is however a well known fact among leading top economists.

"The Federal Reserve definitely caused the Great depression by contracting the amount of currency in circulation by one-third from 1929 to 1933."
Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist

"It was not accidental. It was a carefully contrived occurrence... The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so that they might emerge as rulers of us all."
Rep. Louis T.McFadden (D-PA)

"I think it can hardly be disputed that the statesmen and financiers of Europe are ready to take almost any means to re-acquire rapidly the gold stock which Europe lost to America as the result of World War I."
Rep. Louis T.McFadden (D-PA)

40 billion dollars somehow vanished in the crash.

It didn't really vanish, it simply shifted into the hands of the money changers. This is how Joe Kennedy went from having 4 million dollars in 1929 to having over 100 million in 1935.

During this time the Fed caused a 33% reduction of the money supply, causing deeper depression.


HOW THE FED CREATES MONEY


We've been talking about how the privately owned Federal Reserve can produce money from thin air. Here's how it's done.

1. The purchase of bonds is approved by the Federal Open Market Committee.

2. The Fed buys the bonds which it pays for with electronic credits made to the sellers bank. These credits are based on nothing.

3. The receiving banks then use these credits as reserves from which they can loan out ten times the amount.

To reduce the amount of money in the economy they simply reverse the process.

The Fed sells bonds to the public and money is drawn from the purchasers bank to pay for them.

Each million withdrawn lowers the banks ability to loan by 10 million.

The Federal bank in this way has overall control of the US money supply, as each country's central bank does in the same way. The bankers, through the magic of fractional reserve banking have been delegated the right to create 90% of the money supply. This control makes a mockery of any elected government. It places so called leaders behind a toy steering wheel, like the plastic ones, set up to amuse small children.

Or as Rep.Charles Lindbergh father of famous aviator Lucky Lindy puts it when commenting on the Federal Reserve Act:

"This act establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalised.

The people may not know it immediately, but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed... The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking bill."
Rep. Charles Lindbergh (R-MN)

Or as Woodrow Wilson put it:

"We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled governments in the civilised world - no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by... a vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.

Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organised, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."
Woodrow Wilson

In order to clearly establish that this is not a conspiracy theory, but is actually how things are controlled, we further quote Charles Lindbergh. From the house of representatives, Lindbergh was well placed to see exactly what was happening back then and continues to happen today.

"To cause high prices all the federal reserve board will do will be to lower the re-discount rate..., producing an expansion of credit and a rising stock market; then when... business men are adjusted to these conditions, it can check... prosperity in mid-career by arbitrarily raising the rate of interest.

It can cause the pendulum of a rising and falling market to swing gently back and forth by slight changes in the discount rate, or cause violent fluctuations by greater rate variation, and in either case it will possess inside information as to financial conditions and advance knowledge of the coming change, either up or down.

This is the strangest, most dangerous advantage ever placed in the hands of a special privilege class by any Government that ever existed.

The system is private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money.

They know in advance when to create panics to their advantage. They also know when to stop panic. Inflation and deflation work equally well for them when they control finance..."
Rep. Charles Lindbergh (R-MN)


ADOLF'S BANKERS


Most all will be aware of Hitler's rise to power. What they probably don't know is that he was almost completely financed by money drawn from the privately owned American Federal Reserve.

"After WWI, Germany fell into the hands of the international bankers. Those bankers bought her and they now own her, lock, stock, and barrel. They have purchased her industries, they have mortgages on her soil, they control her production, they control all her public utilities.

The international German bankers have subsidised the present Government of Germany and they have also supplied every dollar of the money Adolph Hitler has used in his lavish campaign to build up threat to the government of Bruening.

When Bruening fails to obey the orders of the German International Bankers, Hitler is brought forth to scare the Germans into submission...

Through the Federal Reserve Board over $30 billion of American money has been pumped into Germany. You have all heard of the spending that has taken place in Germany...

Modernistic dwellings, her great planetariums, her gymnasiums, her swimming pools, her fine public highways, her perfect factories. All this was done on our money. All this was given to Germany through the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board has pumped so many billions of dollars into Germany that they dare not name the total."
Congressman Louis T.McFadden (D-PA) who served twelve years as Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency.


FORT KNOX


In 1933 new President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill forcing all the American people, to hand over all their gold at base rate. With the exception of rare coins. He disowned himself from the bill claiming to not have read it and his secretary of the treasury claimed this was "what the experts wanted".

Bought at bargain basement price with money produced from nothing by the Federal Reserve, the gold was melted down and stacked in the newly built bullion depository called Fort Knox. Once collected in 1935 the price of gold was raised from $20.66 up to $35 per ounce, but only non American gold qualified to be sold. This meant those who had avoided the crash by investing in gold they had shipped to London could now nearly double their money while the rest of America starved.

But that's not all folks. By the end of WWII Fort Knox did hold 70% of the world's gold, but over the years it was sold off to the European money changers while a public audit of Fort Knox reserves was repeatedly denied.

Rumours spread about missing gold.

"Allegations of missing gold from our Fort Knox vaults are being widely discussed in European circles. But what is puzzling is that the Administration is not hastening to demonstrate conclusively that there is no cause for concern over our gold treasure - if indeed it is in a position to do so."
Edith Roosevelt

Finally in 1981 President Ronald Reagan was convinced to have a look into Fort Knox with a view to re-introducing the Gold Standard. He appointed a group called The Gold Commission. They found that the US Treasury owned no gold at all.

All the Fort Knox gold remaining is now being held as collateral by the Federal Reserve against the national debt. Using credits made from nothing. The Fed had robbed the largest treasure of gold on earth.


WORLD WAR II (1939-1945)


World War II saw the US debt increased by 598%, while Japan's debt went up by 1,348%, with France up by 583% and Canada up by 417%.

When you hear this, what is your first impression? Do you automatically think this is bad or this is good? Most of us feel a well programmed sense of desperation when we hear figures like this, but remember, to the money changers, this is music to their ears.

With the hot war over, the cold war began, the arms race causing more and more borrowing. Now the money changers could really concentrate on global domination.

Step one, the European Monetary Union and NAFTA.

Step two, centralise the global economy via the World Bank, the IMF and GATT (now the WTO).


THE WORLD CENTRAL BANK (1948 - Present)


In Washington, the headquarters of both the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) face each other on the same street. What are these organisations, and who controls them?

To find out we need to look back to just after WWI. At this point the money changers were attempting to consolidate the central banks under the guise of peacemaking. To stop future wars they put forward the formation of a world central bank named the Bank of International Settlements, a world court called the World Court in the Hague, and a world executive for legislation called the League of Nations.

In his 1966 book entitled Tragedy and Hope, president Clinton's mentor Carroll Quigley writes about this.

"The powers of financial capitalism had [a] far-reaching [plan], nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.

This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences.

The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations.

Each central bank... Sought to dominate its government by its ability to control treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world."
Carroll Quigley, Professor, Georgetown University

They got 2 out of 3. The league of nations failed largely owing to the suspicions of the people and while opposition concentrated on this, the other two proposals snuck their way through.

It would take another war to wear the public resistance down. Wall street invested heavily to rebuild Germany, as the Chase bank had propped up the Russian revolution.

Now the Chase merged with the Warburg's Manhattan Bank to form the Chase Manhattan which would later merge with the Chemical Bank to become the largest bank on Wall Street.

In 1944 the US approved its full participation in the IMF and the World Bank. By 1945 the second League of Nations was approved under the new name 'The United Nations'. The war had dissolved all opposition. The methods used in the National Banking Act of 1864 and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 were now simply used on a Global scale.

The Federal Reserve Act allowing the creation of Federal Reserve notes is mirrored by the IMF's authority to produce money called Special Drawing Rights (SDR's). It is estimated the IMF has produced $30 billion dollars worth of SDR's so far. In the United States SDR's are already accepted as legal money, and all other member nations are being pressured to follow suit. With SDR's being partially backed by gold, a world gold standard is sneaking its way in through the back door, which comes with no objection from the money changers who now hold two-thirds of the worlds gold and can use this to structure the worlds economy to their further advantage.

We have gone from the goldsmith's fraud being reproduced on a national scale through the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve, to a Global level with the IMF and the World Bank. Unless we together stop giving these exchange units their power by our collective faith in them, the future will probably see the Intergalactic Bank and the Federation of Planets Reserve set up in much the same way.

This radical transfer of power has taken place with absolutely no mandate from the people.

Nations borrow Special Drawing Right from the International Monetary Fund in order to pay interest on their mounting debts. With these SDR's produced at no cost, the IMF charges more interest. This contrary to bold claims does not alleviate poverty or further any development. It just creates a steady flow of wealth from borrowing nations to the money changers who now control the IMF and the World Bank.

The permanent debt of Third World Countries is constantly being increased to provide temporary relief from the poverty being caused by previous borrowing.

These repayments already exceed the amount of new loans. By 1992 Africa's debt had reached $290 billion dollars, which is two and a half times greater than it was in 1980. A noble attempt to repay it has caused increased infant mortality and unemployment, plus deteriorating schools, and general health and welfare problems.

As world resources continue to be sucked into this insatiable black hole of greed, if allowed to continue the entire world will face a simular fate.

As one prominent Brazilian politician, Luis Ignacio Silva,ðput it.

"Without being radical or overly bold, I will tell you that the Third World War has already started - a silent war, not for that reason any the less sinister. This war is tearing down Brazil, Latin America and practically all the Third World. Instead of soldiers dying there are children, instead of millions of wounded there are millions of unemployed; instead of destruction of bridges there is the tearing down of factories, schools, hospitals, and entire economies . . . It is a war by the United States against the Latin American continent and the Third World. It is a war over the foreign debt, one which has as its main weapon interest, a weapon more deadly than the atom bomb, more shattering than a laser beam . ."1

If a group or organisation had used its hard earned money to help these developing nations, then we might sympathise that there should be a real effort to repay these loans. But the money used was created from fractional reserve banking. The money loaned to the Third World came from the 90% the banks allow themselves to loan on the 10% they actually held. It didn't exist, it was created from nothing, and now people are suffering and dying in an effort to pay it back.

This has gone beyond clever financing, it's whole sale murder and it's time we stopped it. We can!

1. Luis Ignacio Silva, at the Havana Debt Conference in August 1985, quoted by Susan George, A Fate Worse Than Death p 238

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