Gold And Silver – Elites Want War. Front Man Obama Pushing Hard.

by Michael Noonan

The modus operandi of the elites is to create chaos, preferably in the form of [profitable
for them] war.  Their purpose is to create major headaches for governments and people.
The next step is to “offer solutions” to end the chaos.  Without fail, the solutions always
favor the elite who gain more control as part of the cost for the rescue.

Why war?  A simple diversion used to cover the total insolvency of the entire Western
banking system and the failure of all fiat currencies.  The only solution will be financial
destruction, and major economic life disruptions, especially in the ill-prepared United
States.  Previews of what is in store for the United States are found in Greece, Cyprus,
Ireland, Venezuela, Argentina.  The list grows.

There is only one head of state pushing for war against Russia, using Ukraine as a pawn,
and that is the elite front-man, Barack Obama.  What business does he have instigating
chaos in that part of the world?  None, quite simply, yet he leads the charge.

Are the citizens of the United States urging him on?   No.  What about the Europeans
who transact billions of dollars in business with Russia, depend upon Russia for 20%
to 35% to supply their natural gas needs?  Are individual European states urging him
on?  No.  Too much at risk, and European leaders do not want to bear the consequences
of yet more sanctions that can end up hurting them more than hurting Russia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Washington this weekend, giving the
appearance of being supportive of Obama but not offing it, directly.  Ms Merkel may
soon be saying auf weidersehen to her job within another year.  If the German people
are foolish enough to let the head Frau help decimate the German economy, through
risking hundreds of thousands of jobs, risking future contracts between major German
corporations and Russia, then like the docile Americans, the Germans will only have
themselves to blame.

If European states are opposed to more sanctions that will ending harming them, then
Obama has no other support, as he supports an illegal coup d’etat, the overtaking of an
elected government, and blames Putin for breaking rules.  Well, there is that unelected,
non-representative group, the IMF, which is in Obama’s hypocritical corner.  The IMF
promised Ukraine $17 billion in tranched loans, with one small catch in the not so fine
print: Ukraine, you must go to war against pro-Russian forces and take the eastern part
of Ukraine, or you do not get your money!

Now we have the IMF, [Rothschilds] telling one country to start a civil war and capture
the Eastern Ukraine.  This is how the elites work, and the Nobel Peace Prize recipient,
Barack Obama, is their front man, leading the charge, just like he did in Egypt, Libya,
Syria, Afghanistan.  Egypt was a purely political manuever.  Libya has oil, and prior to
the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, that country used to own gold, which was the first
order of business to ransack, just as the Ukrainian gold was the first thing to disappear,
into greedy Western thieving hands.  But always remember, according to Western
interests, gold has not useful value, at least not in your hands.  Syria is important for
Russian access to ship natural gas to Europe, and the US sees it as a threat to the petro-
dollar.   Afghanistan has heroin that supports the CIA drug trade and a huge source
of profitable money laundering for the Rothschild banking cartel.

What of Ukraine?  It may be just what the elite needs, once attempts to provoke war in
Syria failed.  Why is attacking and capturing Eastern Ukraine so important?  It has rich
farmland that produces income, unlike to poorer Western  Ukraine being exploited.
Without the income from the eastern farmland, how else will the IMF ever get repaid?

What has this to do with the price of gold and silver?  Both PMs need to be kept
suppressed and not viewed as an alternative to the world’s largest Ponzi scheme, the
Rothschild Western banking system, totally corrupt and insolvent to its core, but also
totally in charge of all Western governments.  The BRICS nations have created a fissure
that continues to grow and remains the most viable threat to the West.

Expectations are that more European companies will start aligning themselves with
Russia and China.  Germany remains a key player, in that regard.  Aligning herself
with Obama may be what costs Merkel her job.  Good riddance.

It seemed developing events would have already had an impact on gold and silver, but
last week’s yet another manipulation “take-down” delayed the inevitable.  It should be
an overt reminder to all of the control the elites have to do whatever is necessary in
order to maintain their power.  Maybe there will be more “suicided” events where mid-
tier bankers do their utmost best to defy gravity from varying heights of buildings.

[As an aside for our foreign readers, suicide is the taking of one's life.  Use of the term
"suicided" implies that the official reports of suicide in the 14 deaths, to date,  may have
been, shall we say, involuntarily assisted, hence suicided.]

The French banker, a woman named Lydia, was considered to be the first female to
be “suicided,” by her attempt to defy gravity and leap to her death.  Somehow, Sumana
Sultana, 44, a banker for Rupali Bank escaped attention when she hung herself from her
bedroom ceiling fan, back in January.  That brings the sudden rash of banker “suicides”
to 15.

It is a function of the elites to create problems like Ukraine, and/or any other area in
which distractions can be used and keep people focusing on the wrong issues.  The
fundamentals for gold and silver are not connected to price because of Rothschild-like
efforts, as we have been saying for the past few months.  Until then, except for
accumulating physical gold and silver at these absurdly low, artificial levels, keep one’s
powder dry and use reasonably close stops if entering the paper market.

A look at the charts:

The monthly remains in a TR holding its 1200 area lows very well.

It is easier to see the sideways movement from the thin line connecting the swing highs
and swing lows.  Price needs to rally above the 1390 area to turn the near term trend up.

Notice how price sell-offs are labored, relative to the wide range rally bars.  It is an overall
positive sign in market activity, and it may set the stage for long positions in the futures
market.

The monthly shows silver still bottoming, and the word patience keeps coming to mind.

Price sell-offs continue to hold, but lower swing highs show an inability of buyers to wrest
control from sellers.  Another test of support could weaken it sufficiently for sellers to get
another new low, wiping out a lot of stops and weak longs.  Otherwise, recent lows may
provide an anchor for trading futures from the long side

The composition of the market activity shows selling dropped at Thursday’s recent new
lows.  This is a plus for buyers who will recognize that sellers were AWOL when they had
a clear opportunity to drive price lower.  Friday’s increased volume, wide range rally bar
reflects how buyers acted and took advantage of the market-generated information.

 

Malaysian Property is Still a Good Deal in 2014: E&O Tells Us Why

Last year, Malaysia announced new policies for foreign property buyers. We all braced for a bloodbath, predicting something to match Singapore’s cooling measures. But talk about an anticlimax – the new policy had less impact than Navy ads have on recruitment. Here’s why Malaysian property remains attractive:

Policy Changes in Malaysia

Starting from 1st May 2014, the minimum purchase price for foreigners will be RM 1 million (previously RM 500,000). In addition, there is now a Real Property Gains Tax (RGPT). This tax is applied to your capital gains, should you sell a property above the purchase price.
The RPGT rate is 30%, if the property is sold within the first five years. From the sixth year onward, RPGT is 5%. According to investor Howard Kong, who currently owns two properties in the Istana region:
“The RPGT is to prevent overheating in the property market. They don’t want people to flip houses, they want long term investors. But there is not much impact, because if you are investing in Malaysian property you are probably planning to hold for five years or more anyway. The market here has never been good for flipping.”
The sentiment was shared by property developers E&O, during their launch of Andaman East. Special thanks to Aileen Han, Country Manager of E&O Property (Singapore).

How Do the New Regulations Affect the Property Market in Malaysia Anyway?

“We believe that the latest cooling measures, which include an increase in the Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT), are unlikely to dampen real demand. It is worth noting that the RPGT is a tax on the upside that does not impact the cost of purchase.
Nonetheless, we believe that the appeal of the Malaysian market to Singaporeans and Singapore-based residents will endure due to our proximity, shared heritage and cultural similarities coupled by the relative affordability of Malaysian properties…”
Note that the policy change has almost no impact on owner-occupiers (e.g. the Singaporeans who aren’t looking for profit, but just want a living space they can’t spit across). The RPGT won’t raise the price of the house, and owner-occupiers aren’t too worried about profit from the resale anyway.
But what about investors?

Don’t the New Regulations Make Malaysian Property Less Attractive as an Investment?

Well, let’s put it in context: less attractive compared to where? Every other country has its own regulations too. And many are comparable, or even stricter, than Malaysia’s. Aileen says that:
“With countries around the world trying to strike a balance between helping their citizens achieve home ownership and welcoming foreigners…property cooling measures do appear to be the new norm. It is no exception in Malaysia.”
Among the points Aileen raises are the fact that “Malaysia has foreigner-friendly property investment policies, which allow foreigners to own freehold and landed properties.” Note that it’s a fairly rare practice, for a country to allow foreigners to buy freehold.
“In general, Malaysia offers positive returns in both capital and rental yields. One may expect to enjoy healthy capital appreciation when purchasing directly from the developer. The margin of appreciation however depends on the timing of the investment, the exact location of the property and the strength of the developer.“
Take note about the “strength of the developer”. It’s different from Singapore, where land scarcity means that even mediocre properties sometimes luck out and deliver a good return. Stick with high-end properties when investing in Malaysia – mass market units are a dime a dozen there, and you’d be speculating on them.

But What Impact will the Regulations have on Rental Yield, Resale Value, etc?

Aileen remains confident about prospects in Malaysia:
“Demand for prime urban locations will always remain for those who can afford the exclusivity of such addresses as well as for those who aspire to do so. In fact, such properties are viewed as the prized “family inheritance” within investment portfolios as they have proven to hold their own even during tough times.“
As a private investor, Howard mostly agrees, with one caveat:
“From my experience rental yields are around 4%, and the new regulations aren’t really relevant to that. The main worry is finding a property with good management and location – there is a significant oversupply risk, with regard to mass market properties in Malaysia. But for high-end properties, potential gains are still high.”

How did MAS track MH370? There’s an app for that

KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 — Malaysia Airlines (MAS) had believed Flight MH370 was over Cambodia hours after it turned around and flew west across peninsular Malaysia because it uses a common flight tracker programme similar to those available for smartphones.
MAS CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the flight tracker only used secondary data and projections, and had not been able to reliably determine the exact location of the MAS jetliner.
“It’s something that many of you have on your iPads and iPhones,” Ahmad Jauhari told a press conference on the missing plane here today.
Putrajaya yesterday issued the preliminary report on Flight MH370 that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak pledged last week to release, along with other information regarding the missing flight.
But the release has renewed scrutiny over Malaysia’s response to the flight that disappeared in the early hours of March 8 while on its way to Beijing, China with 239 people on board.
Among others, it revealed that MAS’s operations centre told Kuala Lumpur air traffic controllers that it believed the plane to be in Cambodian airspace after it disappeared from civilian radar.
When Malaysian authorities brought this information to their Vietnamese counterparts, however, the latter pointed out that MH370’s plotted route would not have brought into Cambodian territory.
MAS operations also subsequently provided coordinates of where it believed the plane to be, and only conceded later on that the flight tracker it used was not reliable for aircraft positioning.
Searchers scouring the vast swathes of the remote Indian Ocean off the coast of Perth in Australia have yet to find any evidence of MH370, and have begun scaling back the search for the plane that has been missing for nearly two months.

Banksters Pretend that Prosecuting Wall Street Crime Will Blow Up the Economy

by WashingtonsBlog

Wall Street Criminals Threaten that Economy Will Blow Up If They’re Prosecuted

The Department of Justice is “considering” initiating criminal charges against 2 banks.

In response, the normal cast of characters is saying – as they have for years – that prosecuting banks will cause a meltdown of the economy.

The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York recently mocked the silly claims of gloom and doom:

“Companies, especially financial institutions, will do almost anything to avoid a tough enforcement action and therefore have a natural and powerful incentive to make prosecutors believe that death or dire consequences await,” he said. “I have heard assertions made with great force and passion that if we take any criminal action, the skies will darken; the oceans will rise; nuclear winter will be upon us; and the world as we know it will end.”

As we’ve repeatedly noted, this is wholly untrue.

Indeed, prosecuting the individual Wall Street executives who knowingly committed criminal fraud won’t harm the economy.  After all, the main driver of economic growth is a strong rule of law. And numerous Nobel prize winning economists have said that prosecuting Wall Street white collar is necessary for a prosperous economy.

In response to the sky-is-falling spouting banking apologists, professor of law and economics – and chief S&L prosecutor – William Black  explains:

First, no banker is “too big to jail.” They are easily replaceable and removing a fraudulent bank CEO from power is the single most productive act that regulators and prosecutors can accomplish. [The Department of Justice's chief of criminal prosecutions] Breuer and Attorney General Eric Holder were involved in a con when they claimed that their failure to prosecute the senior bank officers leading the frauds was in any way related to “too big to fail.” Hilariously, they even applied the “rationale” for non-prosecution to former bank officers – as if a bank would fail “because” its former officers were prosecuted. It is a testament to the weakness of the reportage that this claim was not treated with ridicule.

Second, valid fraud prosecutions do not “cause” a business to fail. The fraud causes them to fail. They should fail when their “profits” arise from fraud. In particular, they should fail in the case of accounting control fraud because their “profits” are the fictional product of accounting fraud. The markets and the economy are greatly improved when fraudulent enterprises are destroyed. ***

Third, very little is actually “destroyed,” when we place a fraudulent bank in receivership, fire the crooked CEO, and sell the bank to an acquirer of integrity and competence. The new bank will, net, be greatly improved because it has been freed from control by the fraudulent leadership that was “looting” the bank (George Akerlof and Paul Romer, 1993, “Looting: The Economic Underworld of Bankruptcy for Profit”).

Fourth, there is rarely a need to prosecute a bank. In virtually every case in which the bank’s frauds cause serious harm senior officers of the bank will have led the fraud and profited from it. Everyone in law enforcement realizes that any effective deterrence will come from prosecuting those officers and not only removing their fraud proceeds but also imposing fines that will leave the officers bankrupt.

Fifth, the bank’s controlling officers are in an immense conflict of interest when their frauds are detected. They control the bank and its resources. Their first priority is to prevent their own prosecution. Their second priority is to prevent any substantial “claw back” of their compensation. Their third and fourth priorities are to do the same for less senior officers. This isn’t altruism (though it certainly has an aspect of class-based affinity). Fraudulent CEOs realize that it is risky to allow the prosecutors to gain any leverage over more junior officers who may “flip” and testify against the CEO. The fraudulent officers controlling the bank, therefore, will gladly trade seemingly huge fines in exchange for obtaining their top four priorities.

[Finally, the government's policy of not prosecuting Wall Street criminals] produceswhat Akerlof and Romer warned was the “sure thing” of CEO “looting” through accounting control fraud plus the assurance that the CEO will not be prosecuted, forced to surrender his fraud proceeds, or forced to pay fines that bankrupt him.Unsurprisingly, the result has been unprecedented accounting control fraud by elite banksters.***

None of this explains why they don’t prosecute bankers (much less ex bankers)

Indeed, the whole if-y0u-prosecute-the-economy-dies scam is like the 2008 bailouts. As we wrote at the time:

Congressmen Brad Sherman and Paul Kanjorski and Senator James Inhofe all say that the government warned of martial law if Tarp wasn’t passed.

***

As Karl Denninger wrote yesterday:

[S]ounds like “Bail me out or I will crash everything.”

Isn’t that analagous to walking into a bank, opening one’s coat to reveal an explosives-laced belt, and saying “gimme all the money or everyone dies!”

I noted in November:

In the 1974 comedy Blazing Saddles, Cleavon Little plays the new sheriff in an old Western town. The sheriff is African-American, and when he rides into town for the first time, the [racist] townspeople pull out their guns and are about to shoot him.

But he quickly puts a gun to his own head, pretends he’s scared of his own gun, and says “BACK OFF OR THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN GUY GETS IT!!!” The townspeople are dumb and fall for it, suddenly terrified that he’ll kill himself. Here’s the scene.

That’s what Wall Street is doing with the bailout.

The fat cats on Wall Street are saying “give us a lot of money, and buy all of our bad debt for a lot more than its worth, or Wall Street will get it and we’ll go into a depression!”

Are Americans stupid enough to fall for it?

In a recent interview, William K. Black uses the exact same Blazing Saddles sheriff-bank analogy.

***

Any way you look at it, the too big to fails are not needed and they are dragging our economy into a black hole. Like the sheriff in Blazing Saddles … they are playing us for fools.

[Yves Smith] shared another analogy with me: a man with 15lbs. of Semtex strapped to his waist. She says “any surprise people in the vicinity are very attentive to his desires?”

Indeed, it’s the old protection racket.

This Chart Is A Hair-Raising Picture Of Canadian Home Prices That Makes The Torrid Excesses Of The US Housing Bubble Look Banal

Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter

For years, home prices in Canada tracked those in the US, including during the crazy bubble years. But as US home prices peaked in 2006 and then skidded downhill unglamorously, Canadian home prices, after a brief swoon during the financial crisis, just continued to soar, unperturbed by reality and unhampered by any sense of gravity.

Now the average home price in Canada is $400,000, according to an analysis by BMO, one of the largest Canadian banks. In the US, where price bubbles are forming once again in a number of cities, the mean home price is $250,000. OK, we’re comparing average and mean, which aren’t the same thing, but the trends speak volumes (chart by OtterWood Capital Management):

The gap between Canadian and US home prices is at an all-time record, with the average price in Canada now 66% higher than the mean price in the US. Even when the prices are adjusted for fluctuations in the exchange rate, BMO points out, Canadian homes are still 50% more expensive than the already expensive US homes. What gives?

Ripples are already appearing. Housing starts and building permits in Canada have been lousy. Bubbles have the self-propagating effect of attracting ever more resources and jobs and assuming an ever larger role in the economy. Until they implode. Then it all reverses, often suddenly. During the housing bubble in the US, that’s exactly what happened. And when it popped, millions of people lost their jobs in the housing sector, investors lost money, banks got bailed out…. You know the story.

Canada has experienced the same shift of jobs and resources into the housing sector. The more the housing bubble grew, the more it has attracted jobs and resources which further inflated it. And so the bubble ballooned even more insanely that in the US. In the process, the economy has become much more dependent on housing-related activity and jobs than in the past – and has become more vulnerable to a correction in housing. A 20% downdraft in home prices, BMO’s senior economist Sal Guatieri warned, could throw the Canadian economy into a recession.

So can we already hear the distinct popping sound from the housing bubble in Canada? “Not just yet,” according to OtterWood Capital Management. But the housing market is “overpriced,” and a “bubble” it is. Now all it takes to keep it going forever is a miracle, and a big one at that, but miracles are rare in the housing sector, and if they do occur, they don’t last long, and eventually, all bubbles do the same thing: the hot air hisses out of them, and the bigger the bubble, the worse the consequences.

In the US, they’re not even trying to blame the weather this time. “Housing affordability is really taking a bite out of the market,” is how the chief economist for the California Association of Realtors explained the March home sales fiasco. “We haven’t seen this issue since 2007.” Read…. Housing Bubble 2.0 Veers Elegantly Toward Housing Bust 2.0

Almost 3 Times As Many People DROPPED OUT of Labor Force As Joined It

“Rarely Does A Monthly Report On The United States Job Market Look So Terrific On The Surface While Being So Disappointing Underneath”

The New York Times’ Neil Irwin gives a balanced view of the new jobs numbers:

Rarely does a monthly report on the United States job market look so terrific on the surface while being so disappointing underneath.
***

Employers added a whopping 288,000 jobs, the most in two years.

***

The number of people in the labor force fell by a whopping 806,000, wiping out the February and March gains and a bit of January as well. The labor force participation rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 62.8 percent, returning to its December level.

And the number of people reporting they were unemployed fell by 733,000, which sounds good on its surface, but paired with the similar-sized decline in the labor force points to job seekers giving up looking rather than finding new employment.

In other words, 288,000 jobs were created, but 806,000 fell out of the labor force and gave up looking for work altogether.  So 2.8 times as many people dropped out as found jobs.
As CBS notes:

The unemployment rate dropped to 6.3 percent in April from 6.7 percent in March, the lowest it has been since September 2008 when it was 6.1 percent. The sharp drop, though, occurred because the number of people working or seeking work fell. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not count people not looking for a job as unemployed.
***
The amount (not seasonally adjusted) of Americans not in the labor force in April rose to 92,594,000, almost 1 million more than the previous month.

The number of women not in the labor force has risen to an all-time high.  there was a loss of jobs in the 25-54 age group,  And – in 20% of American families – no one works.
Despite what you may have heard, the huge numbers of people dropping out of the labor force can’t be attributed to retiring baby boomers.
In reality, throwing money at the big banks has led to a  “jobless recovery” – a permanent destruction of jobs – which is a redistribution of wealth from the little guy to the big boys. (And see this.)
And most of the new jobs being created are low-wage or temporary jobs.

Gold Up On Friday, A Sustained Rally? — Chart This!

Gold prices were up on Friday, but is this a sustainable rally? Gary Wagner is on Kitco News to talk about the charts and where he sees the metal headed. “Everybody was eyeing the nonfarm payroll report that came out this morning,” he says. “Last time we spoke, I was looking for the beginning of a sustained rally in terms of the gold market…to be honest, I’ve been disappointed.” Wagner also comments on the silver market and shares some of his key technical trading tools with the viewers. Tune in now to learn more about trading, the gold market and more! Kitco News, May 2, 2014.

Join the conversation @ The Kitco Forums and be part of the premier online community for precious metals investors:http://kitcomm.com – Or join the conversation on social media: @KitcoNewsNOW on Twitter: http://twitter.com/kitconews — Kitco News on Facebook: http://facebook.com/kitconews — Kitco News on Google+: http://google.com/+kitco — Kitco News on StockTwits:http://stocktwits.com/kitconews

Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/gold-up-on-friday-a-sustained-rally-chart-this/#0XGeuCMMGQF6XjYW.99

Job Numbers Collapse BIG TIME

10 Reasons Why the Economic COLLAPSE is Here!

#1 The homeownership rate in the United States has dropped to the lowest level in 19 years.
#2 Consumer spending for durable goods has dropped by 3.23 percent since November.  This is a clear sign that an economic slowdown is ahead.
#3 Major retailers are closing stores at the fastest pace that we have seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
#4 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of all families in the United States do not have a single member that is employed.  That means that one out of every five families in the entire country is completely unemployed.
#5 There are 1.3 million fewer jobs in the U.S. economy than when the last recession began in December 2007.  Meanwhile, our population has continued to grow steadily since that time.
#6 According to a new report from the National Employment Law Project, the quality of the jobs that have been “created” since the end of the last recession does not match the quality of the jobs lost during the last recession…
#7 After adjusting for inflation, men who work full-time in America today make less money than men who worked full-time in America 40 years ago.
#8 It is hard to believe, but 62 percent of all Americans make $20 or less an hour at this point.
#9 69 percent of the federal budget is spent either on entitlements or on welfare programs.
#10 As I wrote about the other day, there are now 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity.

Sources:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04…

Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/10-reasons-why-the-economic-collapse-is-here/#VqJ5ZoiE4KQCeUW4.99

Peter Schiff: Creating Poverty by Fighting Poverty

6 Years After the Financial Crisis Hit, The Big Banks Are Still Committing Massive Crimes

by WashingtonsBlog

Preface: The “Great Recession” started in December 2007.  More than 6 years later, the big banks are committing more crimes than ever.

You Won’t Believe What They’ve Done …

Here are just some of the improprieties by big banks over the last century (you’ll see that many shenanigans are continuing today):

• Laundering money for terrorists (the HSBC employee who blew the whistle on the banks’ money laundering for terrorists and drug cartels says that the giant bank is still laundering money, saying: “The public needs to know that money is still being funneled through HSBC to directly buy guns and bullets to kill our soldiers …. Banks financing … terrorists affects every single American.” He also said: “It is disgusting that our banks are STILL financing terror on 9/11 2013“. And see this.  This has been going on for decades.  For example, Bank of America funneled massive amounts of money to BCCI – itself connected with the CIA – and, according to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, BCCI in turn funneled huge sums of money to Bin Laden and other terrorists)

• Financing illegal arms deals, and funding the manufacture of cluster bombs (and see this and this) and other arms which are banned in most of the world

• Handling money for rogue military operations

• Laundering money for drug cartels. See this, this, this, this and this (indeed, drug dealers kept the banking system afloat during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis). A whistleblower said: “America is losing the drug war because our banks are [still] financing the cartels“, and “Banks financing drug cartels … affects every single American“. And see this.  This is actually a decades-old practice)

• Funding the Nazis (while we’re referring to funding the original Nazis many decades ago, the U.S. is now backing the neo-Nazis in Ukraine, and banks are undoubtedly involved in some of the support)

• Launching a coup against the President of the United States (an old – but vital – story)

• Engaging in mafia-style big-rigging fraud against local governments. See this, this and this

• Shaving money off of virtually every pension transaction they handled over the course of decades, stealing collectively billions of dollars from pensions worldwide. Details here, here, here, here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here and here

• Manipulating aluminum and copper prices

• Manipulating gold prices … on a daily basis

• Charging “storage fees” to store gold bullion … without even buying or storing any gold . And raiding allocated gold accounts

• Committing massive and pervasive fraud both when they initiated mortgage loans and when they foreclosed on them (and see this)

• Pledging the same mortgage multiple times to different buyers. See this, this, this, this and this. This would be like selling your car, and collecting money from 10 different buyers for the same car

• Cheating homeowners by gaming laws meant to protect people from unfair foreclosure

• Committing massive fraud in an $800 trillion dollar market which effects everything from mortgages, student loans, small business loans and city financing

• Manipulating the hundred trillion dollar derivatives market

• Engaging in insider trading of the most important financial information

• Pushing investments which they knew were terrible, and then betting against the same investments to make money for themselves. See this, this, this, this and this

• Engaging in unlawful “frontrunning” to manipulate markets. See this, this, this, this, this and this

• Engaging in unlawful “Wash Trades” to manipulate asset prices. See this, this and this

• Manipulating corporate bonds through derivatives schemes

• Otherwise manipulating virtually every market

• Participating in various Ponzi schemes. See this, this and this

• Charging veterans unlawful mortgage fees

• Helping the richest to illegally hide assets

• Cooking their books (and see this)

• Bribing and bullying ratings agencies to inflate ratings on their risky investments

• Violently cracking down on peaceful protesters

The executives of the big banks invariably pretend that the hanky-panky was only committed by a couple of low-level rogue employees. But studies show that most of the fraud is committed by management.

Indeed, one of the world’s top fraud experts – professor of law and economics, and former senior S&L regulator Bill Black – says that most financial fraud is “control fraud”, where the people who own the banks are the ones who implement systemic fraud. See this, this and this.

Even the bank with the reputation as being the “best managed bank” in the U.S., JP Morgan, has engaged in massive fraud. For example, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report today quoting an examiner at the Office of Comptroller of the Currency – JPMorgan’s regulator – saying he felt the bank had “lied to” and “deceived” the agency over the question of whether the bank had mismarked its books to hide the extent of losses. And Joshua Rosner – noted bond analyst, and Managing Director at independent research consultancy Graham Fisher & Co – notes that JP Morgan had many similar anti money laundering laws violations as HSBC, failed to segregate accounts a la MF Global, and paid almost 12% of its 2009-12 net income on regulatory and legal settlements.

But at least the big banks do good things for society, like loaning money to Main Street, right?

Actually:

• The big banks no longer do very much traditional banking. Most of their business is from financial speculation. For example, less than 10% of Bank of America’s assets come from traditional banking deposits. Instead, they are mainly engaged in financial speculation and derivatives. (and see this)

• The big banks have slashed lending since they were bailed out by taxpayers … while smaller banks have increased lending. See this, this and this

• Virtually all of the banks’ profits comes from taxpayer bailouts. For example, 77% of JP Morgan’s net income comes from taxpayer subsidies

• The big banks are looting, killing the economy … and waging war on the people of the world

• And our democracy and republican form of government as well

Indeed, top experts say that fraud caused the Great Depression and the 2008 crisis, and that failing to rein in fraud is dooming our economy.

We can almost understand why Thomas Jefferson warned:

And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies ….

John Adams said:

Banks have done more injury to religion, morality, tranquillity, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation than they have done or ever will do good.

And Lord Acton argued:

The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.

No wonder a stunning list of prominent economists, financial experts and bankers say we need to break up the big banks.