If Ireland Doesn’t Take The Bailout . . .

Update I, below.

So a week ago as I write this, the Irish formally asked for a bailout from the European Union, acting in concert with the International Monetary Fund and the British government.

And now, a week after that request, the EU finance ministers just approved the bailout of the Republic of Ireland—

—however . . . However, in those seven days in between, a serious shitstorm broke out in Ireland—it has been one hell of a week, over there in the Emerald Isle.

And though the bailout has been approved by the EU finance drones, we still do not have an approval from the most important player of them all:

The Irish people.



Let’s recap:

On Monday, immediately after the announcement that the Irish government had formally asked for the bailout, the Greens—partners of Prime Minister Brian Cowen’s Fiana Fáil party—left the governing coalition, forcing Cowen to call for an election in January.

The Green’s leader, John Gormley, isn’t stupid: He knows that, in politics, association is the very definition of guilt—and the Greens are guilty of having been in bed with Cowen. So Gormley and the Greens want to put as much daylight between themselves and Fiana Fáil before the election.

Even members of Cowen’s own party are trying to put distance between him and them—they’re openly calling for his resignation. That’s gotta hurt.

But Cowen’s holding on like Nixon—barely, but tenaciously. And even though they’ve left the governing coalition, the Greens are saying that they’ll support Brian Cowen’s budget—including the austerity measures being imposed as part of the EU/IMF bailout.

They say that—now. But what about later? ‘Cause later’s gonna be bad for everyone associated with the Cowen government. The Donegal by-election on Thursday proved that.

Donegal—traditionally a safe seat for Fiana Fáil—saw them lose in humiliating fashion to Sinn Féin. How humiliatingly? By a margin of more than two-to-one. Irony of ironies, the seat became vacant when the Fiana Fáil MP for Donegal, Pat Gallagher, left to become a European Parliament minister. Now Gallagher is stranded in Brussels, and Sinn Féin has his old seat locked tight.

Speaking of Sinn Féin: On Friday, their leadership sent a couple of MP’s to talk to IMF representatives. The Sinn Féin told the IMF—literally—that “they are neither wanted nor needed in Ireland.”

Ominous words, those.

Finally, on Saturday, somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 Irishmen and women protested, marching on Dublin’s streets against the bailout. Even if it was only 50,000 people, that’s still about 1% of the population—imagine if 3 million people marched on the U.S. Capitol, protesting an upcoming budget deal: Get the picture? Big.

There wasn’t any violence in the protest—but there was anger, especially over the interest rate that the bailout is going to cost.

During the week, reports were that the bailout would come to around €90 billion, but with an interest rate of possibly 6.7%. You know that a country’s financial situation is dire when the tabloids start quoting bond market interest rates on the front page: The whole of Ireland was having a cow over that possible 6.7%. To top it off, the EU and the IMF negotiating position was that the Irish had to cut their fiscal budget deficit to no more than 3% of GDP by 2013—

—the Irish were pissed. No wonder they all marched on Dublin’s streets on Saturday afternoon in the freezing cold.

Tonight, Sunday night, the negotiations were supposed to be concluded and the bailout approved before Asian markets opened—and the Euro-drones did not disappoint: Brian Cowen went on TV and gave the hard-sell on the bailout package less than an hour before Asia opened.

The key details were: €85 billion total package (for comparison, Ireland’s 2009 GDP was €167 billion), with €10 billion available immediately to shore up the tottering Irish banks—which were the cause of this entire mess. Additional funds to prop up those banks would be made available on an as-needed basis, to a ceiling of €25 billion—that ought to prevent any near-term run on those banks. However, Irish pension funds would have to be raided to the tune of €17 billion. The Irish would have until 2015 to reduce their fiscal deficit to less than 3% of GDP, as per EU rules. And finally, the interest rate would be 5.8%.

This is what was negotiated. This is what the EU finance ministers approved. This is what’s on deck now.

However, we have a long week ahead of us—a very lo-o-o-o-ong week, to be sure. Because although this is the deal that’s been approved by the EU finance ministers, the deal negotiated by the Cowen government, there is one final hurdle to this bailout:

The Irish. Specifically, the Irish parliament.

The key date that’s coming up insofar as Ireland is concerned is December 7: “A date which will live in infamy!” really is living up to its moniker, because that’s the day the Irish are supposed to pass their budget—their budget with the EU/IMF bailout conditions: The Austerity Budget.

Now, here’s a question—the obvious question:

What if the Irish can’t—or won’t—pass the austerity budget?

What if the Irish don’t take the bailout?

Cowen’s government is teetering—the Greens could just as easily go back on their word and reject the austerity budget—or any of the other coalition parties could walk out—Sinn Féin wants no part of any IMF austerity deal—hell, just a couple of Fiana Fáil’s own MP’s could bolt and wreck Cowen’s parliamentary majority—

—and Fine Gael? Well, there’s the rub: Fine Gael, the center-left party which has traditionally been pro-European, stands to win huge in January. They currently have 51 seat in the Irish parliament, to Fiana Fáil’s 70; considering the Donegal results, it is not unreasonable to think that Fine Gael might win an outright majority in the 166-seat Dáil Éireann (lower house)—if they play their cards right.

Now, over the weekend, the Fine Gael finance spokesman, Michael Noonan, limited himself to urging Cowen’s governmet to take a “hard line” in negotiations with the EU and the IMF.

Clearly, Fine Gael realizes the mine field they’re traversing. They are pro-Europe, but they are Irish politicans too—with seats they have to win, and constituents they have to appease.

If push comes to shove, will they jump to the Irish side, or jump to the European side?

The question is no question at all—it’s obvious: They’ll jump to the Irish side. Fiana Fáil took the beating it did in Donegal because of the widespread perception that they’re the IMF’s lackeys—Fine Gael isn’t going to make that same mistake. Not with the noises Noonan is making on their behalf.

Therefore, the next week will be crucial, in Ireland. The next week could likely decide the fate of the Eurozone.

If the popular perception grows over the coming week that the Cowen government sold out the country to the IMF and the EU, then it is possible—very possible—that the austerity budget will not pass on December 7.

This would be a disaster to the European Union.

Is such an outcome likely? Will the Irish reject the austerity budget on December 7? Will they instead force the Irish banks to default on their debt?

There are already such calls. The Sunday Independent, the largest Sunday broadsheet in Ireland by a comfortable margin, has an editorial calling for an outright default. This call isn’t a lonely voice: The 50,000 march on Saturday proves that.

See, the problem in Ireland really isn’t so much the state’s deficits—rather, it’s the state’s guarantees of the Irish banks. That is what led to this mess. Yes, the Irish public sector is bloated, but it’s the banks that are busting the fiscal budget.

The Irish government allowed the banks to grow too big for too long, and to get mixed up in too many dicey deals—and so when the crisis hit in 2008, instead of letting them fail, Brian Cowen and his Fiana Fáil government backstopped those banks.

Much like in the United States in 2008, the Irish confused an insolvency issue with a liquidity issue. They thought their banks were having a cash crunch, when really, they were broke.

Cowen is reaping what he sowed: Even if the 2008 crisis had been a cash crunch and not an insolvency issue, Cowen never should have backstopped those banks—not when their combined liabilities were twice the GDP of Ireland. But that’s for another conversation.

Right now, the Irish people know that they are footing the bill so that British, German and American banks don’t suffer for having been foolish enough to be caught with Irish bank bonds. Here is a terrific breakdown of what the Irish owe, and to whom.

Rightfully, the Irish people are pissed. Now the question is, Will the various political factions in Ireland manage to maneuver Irish public opinion, and get them to accept the austerity budget?

This is what we spectators have to be looking at: Whether Irish public sentiment will go along with the deal—or turn against it.

This is very, very possible—after all, the Irish have already flipped off the EU once before, on a very big-ticket item: They gave The Big Middle Finger to the EU Constitution back in 2008, by a margin of 53% to 47%—and that’s when times were good and everybody wanted to be European. Now? Not so much.

What happens in the streets of Ireland will likely not be the deciding factor in the continuation of the EU and the Eurozone; not in my estimation. I still think, as I have argued, that Spain is the key to the Eurozone’s survival.

But if the Irish reject the austerity budget on December 7, it is obvious that the Spanish problems will come to a head a lot faster.

An Irish rejection of the bailout would send the bond markets into a frenzy—Spanish debt would immediately come under pressure, likely crashing before Christmas. Italy would come immediately next. The whole Eurozone could be ablaze by the New Year’s.

Therefore, the EU needs to make the December 7 budget vote go smooth—they need to pull out all the stops and make the Irish understand the situation. They need to make them see the wisdom of making sacrifices for the well being of British and German banks.

After all, as everyone knows, the Irish have always loved the British. And the Germans.

Pension reserve funds to be spent on banks

UP to €15 billion from the National Pensions Reserve Fund, set aside when the Celtic Tiger was still roaring, is likely to be used to recapitalise three of the country’s banks.

Amid speculation last night that the rate of interest to be charged on the EU/IMF bailout could be as much as 6.7%, Fine Gael’s finance spokesman Michael Noonan said that kind of rate was "far too high" and unaffordable on any reasonable projection of growth.

The Department of Finance said the interest rate had still not been finalised, but given that much of the loan would be repayable over nine years the rate could be higher than the 5.2% charged to Greece but would not be as high as the 6.7% being quoted by some brokers.

Meanwhile, Anglo Irish Bank, which was downgraded to junk status yesterday evening, is expected to be closed swiftly, together with the Irish Nationwide Building Society, under the EU/IMF loan plan.

Officials hope to finalise the details of the €85bn package later today and have EU finance ministers approve it tomorrow.

The emphasis in the plan is to avoid drawing down money from the bailout and rely in the first place on money from the Pension Reserve Fund for the banks, and on the €20bn the state borrowed earlier this year to part-fund next year’s national budget.

Economist at the Economic and Social Research Institute, John FitzGerald, said he believed it would be a good idea to use the money in the pensions fund to recapitalise the banks, and keep the EU/IMF funds in reserve in case they needed further money later.

"Using the €20bn in cash we have first would be good for the country in the short run. It would leave the opening debt for 2012 €20bn lower and interest payments would be €1bn less. It would also leave the national debt lower than forecast at the end of next year," he said.

About €35bn of the total EU/IMF loan was being earmarked last night for the banks.

The Government would prefer not to tap this sum but keep it in reserve for contingencies during the three-year programme.

Instead, they will use the €15bn available to them in the pension fund to recapitalise Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland and the Educational Building Society. They have already used the remaining €10bn from the pension fund to buy shares in AIB and BoI.

The Government had planned to split Anglo Irish Bank, which has already received €22.9bn of state money, into a bad bank destined to be shut down relatively quickly and a good bank that would hold the deposits Anglo still had.

The European Commission, however, said while the good bank could hold the deposits, it could not operate as a bank and must be shut down over the next decade. Now, however, under the terms being worked out with the EU/IMF/ECB team, the entire operation is likely to be shut down but it could still cost several more billions of euro to do so.

The Irish Nationwide Building Society, into which the state pumped €2.7bn, will also shut.

Since Allied Irish Bank has been unable to raise the €10.4bn it needs to recapitalise, the pension fund money will be used instead, while strengthening the also nationalised Bank of Ireland will cost about €1.5bn.

About €50bn is expected to be available from the EU- IMF package to cover the country’s funding needs over the next three years. But it is likely that the Government will first use the €20bn it raised on the markets over the summer.

If the markets have calmed and reduced Ireland’s borrowing costs closer to the 4.8% it averaged this year and last, the exchequer may decide to return to the markets rather than tap what could be more expensive money from the EU/IMF bailout.

Picture: Fine Gael’s finance spokesman Michael Noonan

The Big Lie: Governments Have to Save the Big Banks

Many of the world's top economists and financial experts have said that the too big to fail banks are destroying the world economy, that they must be broken up in order to restore stability, and that small banks can easily pick up the slack and make all of the loans which are needed needs. See this, this and this.

And yet many people still believe the myth that the giant banks have to be saved at all costs.

How could that be?

Well, as Adolph Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf:

All this was inspired by the principle--which is quite true in itself--that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.

Similarly, Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, wrote:

That is of course rather painful for those involved. One should not as a rule reveal one's secrets, since one does not know if and when one may need them again. The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.

Science has now helped to explain why the big lie is effective.

As I've previously pointed out in another context:

Psychologists and sociologists show us that people will rationalize what their leaders are doing, even when it makes no sense ....

Sociologists from four major research institutions investigated why so many Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11, years after it became obvious that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

The researchers found, as described in an article in the journal Sociological Inquiry (and re-printed by Newsweek):

• Many Americans felt an urgent need to seek justification for a war already in progress

• Rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief, people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe.

• "For the most part people completely ignore contrary information."

• "The study demonstrates voters' ability to develop elaborate rationalizations based on faulty information"

• People get deeply attached to their beliefs, and form emotional attachments that get wrapped up in their personal identity and sense of morality, irrespective of the facts of the matter.
  

• "We refer to this as 'inferred justification, because for these voters, the sheer fact that we were engaged in war led to a post-hoc search for a justification for that war.

• "People were basically making up justifications for the fact that we were at war"

• "They wanted to believe in the link [between 9/11 and Iraq] because it helped them make sense of a current reality. So voters' ability to develop elaborate rationalizations based on faulty information, whether we think that is good or bad for democratic practice, does at least demonstrate an impressive form of creativity.

An article yesterday in Alternet discussing the Sociological Inquiry article helps us to understand that the key to people's active participation in searching for excuses for actions by the big boys is fear:

Subjects were presented during one-on-one interviews with a newspaper clip of this Bush quote: "This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al-Qaeda."

The Sept. 11 Commission, too, found no such link, the subjects were told.

"Well, I bet they say that the commission didn't have any proof of it," one subject responded, "but I guess we still can have our opinions and feel that way even though they say that."

Reasoned another: "Saddam, I can't judge if he did what he's being accused of, but if Bush thinks he did it, then he did it."

Others declined to engage the information at all. Most curious to the researchers were the respondents who reasoned that Saddam must have been connected to Sept. 11, because why else would the Bush Administration have gone to war in Iraq?

The desire to believe this was more powerful, according to the researchers, than any active campaign to plant the idea.

Such a campaign did exist in the run-up to the war...

He won't credit [politicians spouting misinformation] alone for the phenomenon, though.

"That kind of puts the idea out there, but what people then do with the idea ... " he said. "Our argument is that people aren't just empty vessels. You don't just sort of open up their brains and dump false information in and they regurgitate it. They're actually active processing cognitive agents"...

The alternate explanation raises queasy questions for the rest of society.

"I think we'd all like to believe that when people come across disconfirming evidence, what they tend to do is to update their opinions," said Andrew Perrin, an associate professor at UNC and another author of the study...

"The implications for how democracy works are quite profound, there's no question in my mind about that," Perrin said. "What it means is that we have to think about the emotional states in which citizens find themselves that then lead them to reason and deliberate in particular ways."

Evidence suggests people are more likely to pay attention to facts within certain emotional states and social situations. Some may never change their minds. For others, policy-makers could better identify those states, for example minimizing the fear that often clouds a person's ability to assess facts ...

The Alternet article links to a must-read interview with psychology professor Sheldon Solomon, who explains:

A large body of evidence shows that momentarily [raising fear of death], typically by asking people to think about themselves dying, intensifies people's strivings to protect and bolster aspects of their worldviews, and to bolster their self-esteem. The most common finding is that [fear of death] increases positive reactions to those who share cherished aspects of one's cultural worldview, and negative reactions toward those who violate cherished cultural values or are merely different.

I would arguably that the fact that the governments of the world have given trillions to the giant banks has invoked the same mental process - and susceptibility to propaganda - as the war in Iraq.

Specifically, many people assume that because the government has launched a war to prop up the giant banks, it must have a good reason for doing so.

Why else would trillions in taxpayer dollars be thrown at the giant banks? Why else would the government say that saving the big boys is vital?

And I would argue that the fear of another Great Depression (an economic death, if you will) is analogous to the fear of death triggered in many Americans by 9/11.

This creates a regression towards old-fashioned thinking about such things as banks and the financial system, even though the giant banks actually do very little traditional banking these days.

In other words, the big lie appears to be as effective in financial as in military warfare.

Citizens of Europe Rage Against the Machine

Austerity measures drive 100,000 protesters to the streets of Ireland, another 100,000 in Italy as Europeans continue to rage against the international banking machine.

The international bankster machine seeking to colonize Western nations through debt is now meeting resistance from Greece, to France, to Ireland, to Italy, to Spain, to Portugal, and to the U.K.

These new protests in Ireland and Italy follow a crippling 2-week strike in France where citizens took over fuel refineries and other vital infrastructure, more strikes in Greece which took over the Acropolis, and a massive student protest in the UK that caused physical damage to government buildings. All of these protests were sparked by governments reducing benefits or increasing fees and taxes on a population that had little to do with the private gambling of banks.

These European protests are intensifying as the international bankers move to collect their "pound of flesh" through austerity and sale of public assets. As Europeans are becoming acutely aware of the dubious plan to loot them and the anger at their corrupt elected officials for bowing to banks has reached a boiling point. In all cases the governments are enforcing austerity measures on the people after the private banks over-leveraged themselves to the breaking point, threatening to bring down entire nations.

For years the bankers churned out easy credit to these nations while they invested public and private funds into worthless credit default swaps and derivatives. As if orchestrated to perfection, they pulled the plug on those toxic assets, essentially bankrupting the more fragile developed countries, followed by calling their debts due. Now they're demanding that European governments be forced into IMF bailouts that impose drastic austerity measures on the populace.

By forcing tax increases and reducing benefits for the citizens of sovereign nations, the IMF is essentially rewriting their laws. Well, it appears that the citizens of Europe have had enough. The massive protests, strikes, and riots that have swept through the streets of many European countries have resulted in growing calls to reject the bailout money used to prop up failed banks and corrupt governments. The Irish people prefer to default on the debt which drove the EU 'completely mad'.

The protesters are getting support from someone who is experiencing the outcome of resisting public bailouts of private banking debts. The President of Iceland recently remarked that they're in much better shape than Ireland because they let the private banks fail and their currency naturally devalued, allowing them to regain some competitiveness relative to their neighbors:

“The difference is that in Iceland we allowed the banks to fail,” Grimsson said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Mark Barton today. “These were private banks and we didn’t pump money into them in order to keep them going; the state did not shoulder the responsibility of the failed private banks.”

UK's Libertarian politician, Nigel Farage, once viewed as a fringe player, is now getting international recognition for forewarning his European comrades about the troubles in the system. He's quickly becoming a hero to the banker resistance as his credibility reaches new heights for being proved right -- much like his U.S. counterpart Congressman Ron Paul. His rants in the European Parliament are going viral on YouTube as the people are waking up to their servitude to banks and a lack of true democracy and sovereignty.


Nigel Farage speaks with such confidence against the EU, as he should, given that a recent mainstream media poll showed 99% of UK citizens want out of the Euro. The battle against the banking cartel is clearly happening with Europe as the spearhead. As Europeans continue to fight back against corrupt international banksters, lazy Americans continue to live with a much lower standard of living and do nothing to challenge the system.

The rage in Europe and quiet streets in America is causing the euro to fall against the dollar. The dollar was all but declared dead in the lead-up to the Fed's QE2, but now the eurozone debt crisis has taken center stage. The European Council is set to meet again this December to amend the Lisbon Treaty to essentially legalize more bailouts. Some insiders are calling it an impossible mission to get all European countries to agree on fair amendments. The outcome of these December meetings will assuredly be pivotal in determining whether the euro "experiment" will survive.

If it crumbles, so then does the structure for a global currency. Indeed, the front lines in the battle to conquer plans for a global currency and the end of sovereign nation states is being waged by the angry citizens of Europe. Bravo comrades, keep up the fight!

Dan Boyle pushes for 'financial treason' Bill

Green Party finance spokesperson Dan Boyle is to introduce a Seanad Private Members Bill to define the crime of “financial treason”.

Senator Boyle said: "Among the many reasons why there has been no action taken against known individuals working in Irish financial institutions – whose greed and recklessness have brought us to where we are – is that properly defined legislation seems to be lacking in defining this kind of white collar crime and fraud."

"I believe that there should be an offence of financial treason, carrying a mandatory sentence and huge fines, that would be applicable to defined individuals working in financial institutions licenced by the Irish State," said Boyle.

Boyle, chairman of the junior coalition partner, said he believes there should be an offence of financial treason in relation to individuals working in financial institutions licensed by the Irish State and those found guilty should be punished with a mandatory sentence and huge fines.

“There would be convictions on foot of any decision made knowingly by such individuals that result in reputational damage for the country, an unacceptable economic cost, or a loss of economic sovereignty," he said.

He added: "While much public anger has a political focus, and much of this is justified, the inability to bring to justice those whose self interest and greed so undermined our national wellbeing, is something that must end – and end soon."

EU forced Ireland to cut minimum wage - Gormley

The government was forced into cutting the minimum wage by the European Commission, according to the leader of the Green Party .

The rate is to be cut by one euro an hour under the four year €15bn austerity plan published by the government on Wednesday.

The Department of Finance has denied Mr Gormley's claim, maintaining that the commission did not have prior sight of the plan or make demands of it.

John Gormley said the cut to €7.65 an hour was one of the conditions set down by economics commissioner Olli Rehn.

Criticising Fine Gael's vow to reverse the cut, Mr Gormley told the Dáil that the pledge was "completely nonsensical because this was the first demand of Olli Rehn and others that this had to be in the plan."

The Department of Finance has denied Mr Gormley's claim, maintaining that the commission did not have prior sight of the plan or make demands of it.

In a statement, the department said: "The EU/IMF/ECB saw an outline of the plan over the weekend and indicated their broad approval.

"The Cabinet have had long intensive meetings on the plan in recent weeks and nothing was taken out or added to the plan on the instigation of these international bodies."

A spokesperson for Mr Rehn also denied the claim.

"This is not our plan," he said. "It is the government's plan and it is up to the Government to put into it what they wish."

The spokesperson would not say, however, whether reducing the minimum wage would be a condition of the EU-IMF bailout when it is agreed with the Government.

« John Boehner Says In Order To Pay For The Wars, We Need To Raise The Social Security Retirement Age To 70 (VIDEO) »

http://tinyurl.com/2v4kytu

Flashback from earlier this year. The man who would be King.

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Video: Boehner on fixing Social Security -- June 29, 2010

According to the source, Boehner said the following:

Ensuring there's enough money to pay for the war will require reforming the country's entitlement system, Boehner said. He said he'd favor increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement, tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation and limiting payments to those who need them.

"We need to look at the American people and explain to them that we're broke," Boehner said. "If you have substantial non-Social Security income while you're retired, why are we paying you at a time when we're broke? We just need to be honest with people."

If this is what we have to look forward to from Republicans if they regain power, I'm giving it all up. Continuing the expensive and illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan makes very little sense unless your goal is simply to support the military-industrial complex. Strategically, Al Qaida and terrorism are regional problems, requiring regional solutions. Victories in Iraq and Afghanistan won't help against Al Qaida of Yemen, but they might cost us an additional trillion, and Boehner seems to have no problem with that possibility.

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Video: Boehner on health care

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« What Good Is Wall Street? »

Scroll down for VIDEO...

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Much of what investment bankers do is socially worthless.

Excellent takedown by John Cassidy for the Nov. issue of The New Yorker.

A few months ago, I came across an announcement that Citigroup, the parent company of Citibank, was to be honored, along with its chief executive, Vikram Pandit, for “Advancing the Field of Asset Building in America.” This seemed akin to, say, saluting BP for services to the environment or praising Facebook for its commitment to privacy. During the past decade, Citi has become synonymous with financial misjudgment, reckless lending, and gargantuan losses: what might be termed asset denuding rather than asset building. In late 2008, the sprawling firm might well have collapsed but for a government bailout. Even today the U.S. taxpayer is Citigroup’s largest shareholder.

The award ceremony took place on September 23rd in Washington, D.C., where the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to expanding economic opportunities for low-income families and communities, was holding its biennial conference. A ballroom at the Marriott Wardman Park was full of government officials, lawyers, tax experts, and community workers, two of whom were busy at my table lamenting the impact of budget cuts on financial-education programs in Vermont.

Pandit, a slight, bespectacled fifty-three-year-old native of Nagpur, in western India, was seated near the front of the room. Fred Goldberg, a former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service who is now a partner at Skadden, Arps, introduced him to the crowd, pointing out that, over the years, Citi has taken many initiatives designed to encourage entrepreneurship and thrift in impoverished areas, setting up lending programs for mom-and-pop stores, for instance, and establishing savings accounts for the children of low-income families. “When the history is written, Citi will be singled out as one of the pioneers of the asset movement,” Goldberg said. “They have demonstrated the capacity, the vision, and the will.”

Pandit, who moved to the United States at sixteen, is rarely described as a communitarian. A former investment banker and hedge-fund manager, he sold his investment firm to Citigroup in 2007 for eight hundred million dollars, earning about a hundred and sixty-five million dollars for himself. Eight months later, after Citi announced billions of dollars in writeoffs, Pandit became the company’s new C.E.O. He oversaw the company’s near collapse in 2008 and its moderate recovery since.

Clearly, this wasn’t the occasion for Pandit to dwell on his career, or on the role that Citi’s irresponsible actions played in bringing on the subprime-mortgage crisis. (In early 2007, his predecessor, Charles Prince, was widely condemned for commenting, “As long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance.”) Instead, Pandit talked about how well-functioning banks are essential to any modern society, adding, “As President Obama has said, ultimately there is no dividing line between Wall Street and Main Street. We will rise or we will fall together as one nation.” In the past couple of years, he went on, Citi had rededicated itself to “responsible finance.” Before he and his colleagues approved any transaction, they now asked themselves three questions: Is it in the best interests of the customer? Is it systemically responsible? And does it create economic value? Pandit indicated that other financial firms were doing the same thing. “Banks have learned how to be banks again,” he said.

About an hour later, I spoke with Pandit in a sparsely furnished hotel room. Citi’s leaders—from Walter Wriston, in the nineteen-seventies, to John Reed, in the nineteen-eighties, and Sanford Weill, in the late nineteen-nineties—have tended to be formidable and forbidding. Pandit affects a down-to-earth demeanor. He offered me a cup of coffee and insisted that I sit on a comfortable upholstered chair while he perched on a cheap plastic one. I asked him if he saw any irony in Citi being commended for asset building. His eyes widened slightly. “Well,” he said, “the award we are receiving is for fifteen years of work. It was work that was pioneered by Citi to get more financial inclusion. And it’s part of a broader reform effort we are involved in under the heading of responsible banking.”

Continue reading...

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This one pretty much speaks for itself.

Song - Jump You Fuckers - By Gene Burnett

• "Hey Mr. Wall Street on the 50th floor..."

More bailout songs...

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Song - Original Version - Visit GeneBurnett.com for artist information...

« Hamilton & Jefferson Discuss The Founding Of The United States Treasury (Video From HBO Series John Adams) »

http://tinyurl.com/2c3hdrp

Very, very interesting 3-minute scene. Which one do you think lobbied for the creation of of the United States Treasury and argued that a national debt was healthy and in fact crucial to our financial growth as a nation.

Alexander Hamilton believed in big government, a large federal debt, and a national bank to administer the debt and to help establish international credit for global trade. Jefferson was not of the same mind.

Two more clips are below.

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Video: Everyone hates Hamilton -- John Adams HBO

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Video: Adams and Jefferson differ over faith in human nature

Related clips:

• Jefferson's Best Moments (HBO's John Adams)

• I Have Looked For Our Rights (John Adams Pt. 2)

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Screenshot

The day my faith in America and Americans...

Was Brutally Beaten and Left for Dead

“Because of what appears to be a lawful command on the surface, many Citizens, because of their respect for what appears to be law, are cunningly coerced into waiving their rights due to ignorance.”
U.S. Supreme Court, US v Minker, 350 US 179 at 187

But, what of the situation when one is told of the Law, and then one elects to ignore it because it “will get them in trouble?” This is no longer behaving due to ignorance but to fear.

What of those that look at you as if you are crazy or call you unpatriotic or inform you it doesn’t matter what the Law is, that one must do as they are told by “the government.”

What of those that one gives them printed out Law and statutes/ordinances with the intents of such and, although the recipients declare they will read the documents - do not?

Or, those that refuse to even read what the Law is and instead goes by what some bureaucrat or whatever tells them?

What of attorneys that tell bold faced lies as being “truth”, and ignores the Law for misapplication of statutes and other regulatory de facto laws, completely ignoring our Law laid down by the reflections of God’s Law in the Magna Charta, “unanimous Declaration of Independence of the thirteen united States of America”, the Constitution for the united States of America, and the constitutions for the many states united as America. And - indeed - the very statutes meant to regulate all artificial entities, including those forming the various governments and chartered entities treated as “governments”?

What of legislators that consider themselves as “lawmakers” and subsequently violate every premise this land was founded on for want of control and creation of revenue, and then blatantly create entities (enforcers of “law”) to force compliance to their dictates? It is as if they believe themselves as the rulers of the people, and not those given the sacred trust of protecting the rights of the people.

What of judges/justices that rule from the bench, making up law as they go, ignoring what is Law and using the criminally acting law enforcers to coerce abeyance of their edicts as if they are God Almighty himself?

What of those in executive branches of government that act as if they have the authority to make laws on the people, that lie to defend their actions against the People rather that assuring the rights of free people are not violated?

And, what of the People that would rather believe the lies rather than the truth, or argue that what they believe is right but then refuse to read the Law that is both understood through common law sense and in clear, easy to read writing?

What of all those, whether in government or not, that ignore the Law in fact and substance, relying instead on hearsay and utterances by others that are based on arbitrary interpretations that are not permissible or valid?

What of those millions of veterans, politicians, and other elected/appointed officials that swear by Oath to uphold the Constitution for these united States of America and then ignore it for want of revenue, wages, and the lust for power over their fellow Americans? Is it that they do not know the meaning of the Oath they subscribed to or affirmed or is it because they do not care about the meaning of our Law laid down as described above?

So, what does all the above have to do with the “day my faith in America and Americans was brutally beaten and left for dead”?

Everything.

You know, one can spend literally thousands upon thousands of hours studying the real America - the way it is supposed to be - and the country that now exists, the false America that is more aptly called “Ameri-Ka”.

One can then tell friends, family, associates, acquaintances, and people one is having just a casual conversation with, or become an accepted writer and/or speaker informing thousands of people a week about the truth.

What truth do I write of? The truth of the factual relationship between the American people and the elected/appointed people put in office for one primary purpose - to protect and preserve the rights of the people.

That is, Good Folks, the only legitimate purpose of government.

It has no authority whatsoever to regulate any behavior that is based on the exercise of rights that are “inherent and unalienable”.

Our Law is the only Law we are under. It is the de jure law (in respect of constitutional law, which must always preserve and protect the inherent, unalienable rights of the people) we people are under. No government has the authority to regulate this, turning it into a de facto oppressive rights denying tyrannical oligarchy in which the many are “ruled” by the few.

Normally, when one has gone through the “de-indoctrination” process, it is very painful psychologically speaking, and sometimes physically when one encounters an irate self-hater that will not accept that his value system is wrong and reacts with violence. Luckily, the writer has never encountered one of these people. Either that, or they controlled their desire to smash this man’s face.

As the truth enters one’s mind, it must be assimilated with existing mental structures or accommodated forming a new structure. What happens is that one’s belief system must essentially collapse, as beliefs we have been taught are eventually recognized and accepted as being falsehoods.

For example, we have no national flag. We never have had a national flag. The US Flag most Americans adore is a military flag that is authorized by statute to fly only over executive offices of the United States, US military bases, and other bona fide federal enclave, territories under US control, and States of the United States, which are the island states that were taken through force or treaties (to end forceful actions). The United States it represents is NOT the many states united but only the District of Columbia and federal jurisdiction as described.

That is what the Title 4 statute says. Furthermore, anytime the flag with the gold-fringe around is displayed inside, it signifies a military court martial. It may also be displayed during military parades and other military functions.

Each state, being an independent nation in and of itself even though united in common need, has its own flag that must fly in the dominant position.

Of course, people get irate if told this, as if one commits treason by not paying homage to a piece of cloth that represents military supremacy. That is, Christians, honoring a false god - idolatry.

After 13 years of intensive research and study, encountering folks as described above, the writer’s resolve to keep writing became seriously threatened. After all, if people do not want the truth and would rather remain in servitude to a bunch of bureaucrats, who is the writer to fight against this at great mental strife to himself, as he watches his land - America - go down the tubes.

Why keep trying when redress when corrupt bodies politic ignore the Law, denying redress against them and their own?

But, he kept writing in spite of the fact he began to believe he was just preaching to the choir, that he had had no effect on helping additional people learn the truth, let alone the desire to act on it.

Then one day in the first week of January 2007, my three brothers and I were together following the death of our step-dad. As often happened, they were talking about driving laws, taxes, and what I knew were false beliefs. So, I told them the facts about something or another and offered to show them the statutes and how such violated our Law.

One brother slammed something down on the table and said quite vehemently, “I don’t want to hear that shit.”

What shit? The truth, as based on the facts.

The other two brothers’ reaction was silence. They did nothing to support me showing them what the statutes and other sources say. The presumption I made is that they didn’t want to hear that shit either.

That was the straw that broke this camel’s back, preventing him from writing anything of substance for a year and a half. Faith in America and Americans lay dying on the cold kitchen floor, writhing in agony.

Here were three men that grew up in the same time period, the same parents, church groups, many friends, and so on that had no desire to hear the truth. I say truth because the Declaration of Independence, God’s Laws reflected in the Ten Commandments, the Constitution, and the various state constitutions, along with thousands of Supreme Court decisions all state the same. We are free to do as we wish, so long as we do not intentionally interfere with the rights of others and that any laws written contrary to the rights of man are null and void.

All four of us took the same Oath when enlisting in the Air Force, an Oath to protect and defend our land against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

But, they did not want to hear nor read the anything that showed that their beliefs were wrong, that they were in essence indoctrinated to the lies and would rather be ruled and controlled by fear. Maybe it reflects an “ignorance is bliss” attitude.

That, right or wrong, is how I perceived the situation.

Since then, it has been a battle getting up off the floor. However, for the last four or five months, as my wounds began to heal, I once again came to realize that it is my responsibility - my duty - to do all I can to right the wrongs forced upon us by de facto government entities. They are our enemies, not some faceless terrorist or group of faceless nobodies.

And, my fellow Americans, they - our enemies - are not at the gate. They are within and they are dead set on destroying America, no matter what it takes, including genocide of the American people and our culture.

Published on The Federal Observer, July 21, 2008. Ed Lewis is a columnist at Liberty For All. Contact Mr. Lewis at ofthepeople@cvalley.net.

Source: Liberty For All.net

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The Stench Of Growing Economic Decay Grows Stronger

On Thanksgiving Eve, the English language China Daily and People's Daily Online reported that Russia and China have concluded an agreement to abandon the use of the US dollar in their bilateral trade and to use their own currencies in its place. The Russians and Chinese said that they had taken this step in order to insulate their economies from the risks that have undermined their confidence in the US dollar as world reserve currency.

This is big news, especially for the news dead Thanksgiving holiday period, but I did not see it reported on Bloomberg, CNN,New York Times or anywhere in the US media. The ostrich's head remains in the sand.

Previously, China concluded the same agreement with Brazil.

As China has a large and growing supply of dollars from trade surpluses with which to conduct trade, China is signaling that she prefers Russian rubles and Brazilian reals to more US dollars.

The American financial press finds solace in the episodes when sovereign debt scares in the EU send the dollar up against the euro and UK pound. But these currency movements are just measures of financial players shorting troubled EU-denominated debt. They are not a measure of dollar strength.

The dollar's role as world reserve currency is one of the main instruments of American financial hegemony. We haven't been told how much damage Wall Street fraud has inflicted on EU financial institutions, but the EU countries no longer need the US dollar for trade between themselves as they share a common currency. Once the OPEC countries cease to hold the dollars that they are paid for oil, dollar hegemony will have faded away.

Another instrument of American financial hegemony is the IMF. Whenever a country cannot make good on its debts and pay back the American banks, in steps the IMF with an austerity package that squeezes the country's population with higher taxes and cuts in education, medical and income support programs until the bankers get their money back.

This is now happening to Ireland and is likely to spread to Portugal, Spain, and even to France. After the American-caused financial crisis, the IMF's role as a tool of US imperialism is less and less acceptable. The point could come when governments can no longer sell out their people for the sake of the American banks.

There are other signs that some countries are tiring of America's irresponsible use of power. Turkey's civilian governments have long been under the thumb of the American influenced Turkish military. However, recently the civilian government moved against two top generals and an admiral suspected of involvement in planning a coup. The civilian government further asserted itself when the prime minister announced on Thanksgiving day that Turkey is prepared to react to any Israeli offensive against Lebanon. Here is an American NATO ally freeing itself from American suzerainty exercised through the Turkish military. Who knows, Germany could be next.

Meanwhile in America, the sheeple remain content with, or blind to, their role as sheep to be slaughtered to feed the rich. The Obama administration has managed to come up with a Deficit Commission whose members want to pay for the multi-trillion dollar wars that are enriching the military/security complex and the multi-trillion dollar bailouts of the financial system by reducing annual cost-of-living increases for Social Security, raising the retirement age to 69, ending the mortgage interest deduction, ending the tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance, imposing a 6.5% federal sales tax, while cutting the top tax rate for the rich.

Even the Federal Reserve's low interest rates are aimed at helping the banksters.

The low interest rates deprive retirees and those living on their savings of interest income. The low interest rates have also deprived corporate pensions of funding. To fill the gap corporations are issuing billions of dollars in corporate bonds in order to fund their pensions. Corporate debt is increasing, but not plant and equipment that would produce earnings to service the debt. As the economy worsens, servicing the additional debt will be a problem.

In addition, America's elderly are finding that fewer and fewer doctors will accept them as patients as a 23% cut looms in the already low Medicare payments to doctors. The American government only has resources for wars of aggression and bailouts of rich banksters. The American citizen has become a mere subject to be bled for the ruling oligarchies.

The police state attitude of the TSA toward airline travelers is a clear indication that Americans are no longer citizens with rights but subjects without rights. Perhaps the day will come when oppressed Americans will take to the streets like the French, the Greeks, the Irish, and the British.

'US Zombie Empire: Re-distributed bailout would mean $350,000 per American'

Click this link ....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txClbDet40o

1912 Warning About The Federal Reserve: “A government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations”

“Then we shall have only corporate currency, and a government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations—a “soulless” corporate republic.” U.S. Money vs. Corporation Currency by Alfred Owen Crozier, 1912

The Banking Octopus

Rule of the Rothschilds

Division of the Progressives

Spitzer is back! The man who was politically assassinated for his sub prime accusations in 2006 now says the FED is a ponzi scheme. He's right. Again.

"The current 'global meltdown' can be summed up in one word: Mortgage, the glue that holds usury together at every level." - Tom Dennen 'Grand Theft, Planet"

You get into a mortgage at around twenty-five years of age and get out at around forty-five, twenty years later, those twenty years being the best, most productive years of your life, mostly spent working like a donkey.

This system is a not-so-subtle theft of wealth, and we accept it 'just because it's the system'. But if, as 'Hidden Hand' economist Adam Smith has it in his 'Wealth of Nations', "Work is the basis of all wealth, all well-being, while monopoly and cartels are obstacles for the beneficial processes,” then most of us have been robbed of a lifetime of well-being.

And Donkey's Years are too long for investors - the acceleration in the rate of change today is reflected on an asymptotic curve and no one waits twenty years anymore for returns - Getting your money now is much more fun.

So we change some rules.

Your mortgage has now become a 'structured' commodity and commodities are what drive sales on the exchanges of the world.

I get my money today and take a smaller, but immediate, profit.

TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN

The next buyers make money, everyone doubles their money, but the next guys also want an immediate return, rename the package and sell it off again.

And that's where it started: Debts were renamed, repackaged and turned into garbage commodities that were sold, over and over again throughout the investment world.

If you belong to a school board in a small town in Iceland , you may have invested some of that board's money in one of those sub prime ‘derivatives'.

Crunch time:

“Where's my return?” cries the prefect in the little Icelandic School Board.

“There is none,” reply Northern Rock, Lehman Brothers, Freddy and Fannie Mac et al holding bailout bags full of a future that can no longer be derived from bad debt.

All deliberately organized and implemented. With the collusion of the Bush Administration and the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank: Alan Greenspan, in the early 2000s, brought The Fed's interest rate down to one percent.

The lenders grabbed as much of that cheap money as possible, lent it out on sub-prime ARMS deals and hoarded against the sup prime foreclosure crisis at which point they (still are) buying vast tracts of residential properties at fire sale prices. The same is happening with the Fed's interest so low it's almost free money, in fact trillions of dollars of ‘bailout' money is free, and the banks are hoarding again without saying anything about what's been done with the money, instead of lending the money into the market to ‘restart' the economy.

That this is all orchestrated and planned is hidden in the unexamined truth behind the sudden disappearance from the American scene of the Governor of the State of New York, the man accused and charged by the U.S. Federal government of transgressing the Mann Act, which makes illegal the transport of people from one State to another (across State Lines) for “thepurposes of prostitution.”

Former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer was cleared in the first week of November, 2008 of a serious offense against the Mann A ct, a much more serious Federal Offense as opposed to a State Offense against prostitution laws.

Well, they didn't really clear him; they just 'declined to prosecute'.

Why? The Bush administration's job was done: It has been universally accepted that the political assassination of Elliot Spitzer was engineered by the Bush administration because of his public accusations against the United States Federal Reserve Bank (Lincoln, Kennedy, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan et. al.) and the top Wall Street bankers and lending institutions of a predatory lending practice called 'sub-prime' mortgaging.

Spritzer and most of the other fifty state governors were watching their constituents being robbed by Wall Street through this lending practice, losing their livelihoods, losing their houses, losing their pensions, losing their lifetime accumulation of wealth.

Once this practice was integrated into the banking system, it was - many believe deliberately - allowed to escalate into trillions of dollars of international Triple- A securities loans backed by massively (unknown to global purchasers) defaulting loans and sold to the European and other global bankers who are reported to be 'furious' with Wall Street and (right now, Europe, China and a host of others) are pulling out of the dollar.

China and Arab Emirates are clubbing together supporting the Yuan as the world's default currency, but I would add, “watch the Yen.”

Russia and Iran are coupled on the tote in the sense that the A mero/Israeli insanity of attacking Iran – by definition an attack on Russia – would precipitate WW3.

Because the bankers love money more than life itself - yours. - Tom dennen from Grand Theft, Planet.

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The Luck of the Irish Runs Out

theodp writes "Looks like threatening to take their ball and leave paid off for US tech firms. The Irish government announced plans this week to tap the welfare state and working class for much of the $20B in savings they've pledged to find over the next four years, but the austerity measures will not touch large businesses like Microsoft, Intel, Google, HP, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pfizer, which created jobs and fueled exports in Ireland after being lured by low corporate tax rates. More than 100,000 Dubliners took to the streets to protest the bailout plan, calling for the Irish government to default on the country's debts, and demanding an immediate election. 'We should default,' said a retired union worker, 'the idea that the workers of this country should pay for the gambling of the billionaires is disgusting.'"

Ireland bailout protest draws 100,000 to Dublin streets

Demonstrators protesting austerity measures throw fireworks at gardaí protecting the Dáil from anarchist groups

Sionnach Langan, aged three, was taken on the march. Photograph by Niall Carson/PA

One of the largest demonstrations in the Irish Republic's history brought more than 100,000 people on to Dublin's streets in protest over the international bailout and four years of austerity ahead.

As European officials thrashed out the finer details of an €85bn rescue package, huge crowds braved freezing temperatures to demonstrate against the cuts, aimed at driving down Ireland's colossal national debt.

The main march to O'Connell Street passed off peacefully but there was an uneasy standoff outside the Irish parliament as two lines of Garda Siochána officers hemmed in around 100 leftwing demonstrators who had broken away from the union-organised protest. Fireworks were thrown at gardai outside the gates of the Dail as protesters shouted: "Burn it down, burn it down." Extra police were rushed to the scene to surround the ad hoc demonstration by leftwing and anarchist groups, who also set fire to a picture of the taoiseach, Brian Cowen.

Among those on the main march there was deep anger that most of the €80bn-plus from the EU and IMF will be used to shore up Ireland's ailing banks.

Mick Wallace, who has had to lay off 100 of his workers due to the crash in the construction industry, said it was time the Irish became more militant: "We are far too quiet. We should be more like the French and get on to the streets more often. Because our politicians go over to Europe and tell the EU that our people do not demonstrate, they don't take to the streets. It's time we changed that and openly opposed what is going on."

Jimmy Purdy, 77, was at the demonstration outside Dublin's General Post Office – the scene of the 1916 Easter Rising. "I have lived through three recessions and I think this could be the worst one yet," he said. "I'm here because I'm angry that the EU are telling us to cut euros off the minimum wage and boss Irish workers around while the people that caused this crisis get off scot-free."

As the protesters took to the streets, sources said negotiators were keen to announce a rescue deal in time for the opening of financial markets on Monday.

Britain's share of the bailout is likely to be close to £10bn, although Whitehall insiders say the money will not add to the Treasury's budget deficit; instead a bilateral loan to Ireland will be treated as a "financial transaction".

Finance ministers from across Europe will converge on Brussels on Sunday for an emergency gathering of European finance ministers to agree the final terms of Ireland's bailout, which is expected to amount to around €85bn. An announcement could be made as early as Sunday night, before the markets open on Monday.

George Osborne will join representatives from the 16 eurozone nations plus those from the three countries that have agreed to provide bilateral loans as part of the rescue plan – Britain, Sweden and Denmark. This will be followed by a larger conference of ministers from all 27 EU countries.

The Irish government is likely to get a loan contingency of about €50bn and a further €35bn will be extended to support the country's ailing banks. "It will be a long-term facility offering the Irish the opportunity to draw down funds over a number of years," said a source.

The money will be provided through a variety of routes. A chunk of it will be from the IMF, a further sum from a eurozone fund and from a Europe-wide stability mechanism, plus bilateral lines of credit offered by Britain and Sweden. But there were objections in Dublin at the prospect of a punitive interest rate. Ireland's RTE broadcaster reported that the country may have to pay a rate as high as 6.7% on some of the money, a price described as "very disturbing" by the opposition finance spokesman, Michael Noonan.

"This rate is too high and is unaffordable," Noonan told the Irish Independent newspaper. A source said the rate would be lower than 6.7%, but above the 5.2% paid by Greece for its €145bn bailout.

The Psychopathy of International Banker Scum.

Dog Poet Transmitting.......

One of the worst personal shortcomings a person can have is a lack of capacity to be embarrassed by their own behavior. Alex Jones is a classic example. When I heard what he said, I couldn’t believe it at first. It’s the sort of thing that only gets said by absolutely sold out hacks without conscience, principles or a brain. In Alex’s case it’s a form of career suicide. You can’t take something like that back and only a Tea Party supporter or a southern Baptist fundamentalist would believe it. I expect Alex Jones to be a Fox commentator in six months. He said that Hezbollah was training Mexican drug gangs. That’s laugh out loud funny.

I’m one of a small percentage of people who actually understands the mindset of Mexican gangsters. Their sense of humor alone would never permit something like this; much less their innate machismo. Somebody ordered Jones to say that because the bad guys are getting desperate. I’m not talking about Hezbollah because, in the scheme of things as they stand today, they are not bad guys and neither is Hamas. I’ve got a lot of respect for both groups, given that they walk the talk.

It’s a day by day thing as to when the world wakes up to the reality of the bankers. You can see the reality of their agenda being discussed in a wider format than before. People now know something about money printed out of thin air and then loaned out for the purpose of enslaving and impoverishing countries. I expect to see bankers getting offed shortly. I can only hope that those driven to such actions will direct their attention to the real rat shit operators like high end Goldman Sachs employees, hedge fund managers and people like David Rockefeller. Of course I’m not suggesting anyone go out and do this, I’m only saying if you can’t stop yourself from doing it, make it count.

Years ago I was in the paraphernalia business and I used to sell handmade smoking pipes made out of wood, seashells and semi-precious stones. You probably saw one of them back in the day because they were popular, unique and got around. I did trade shows and also craft shows in large malls. I was at a high end New Jersey mall on the day Nelson Rockefeller died with his metal rod supported penis buried in Megan Marshak. I promptly went out to a greensward by a turnoff to the freeway and did a little dance while singing, “Ding dong the witch is dead”. Then I went back to my booth and put a folded card on the display table that said something about how glad I was that that sonofabitch was in Hell.

People got outraged by it and a couple of guys wanted to kick my ass, which I wasn’t too concerned about because I like to spar with amateurs. I’m not like that anymore but I used to take a lot of enjoyment from going up against self styled hard guys who lose their cool in combat and like to throw roundhouse haymakers like that was an effective weapon; for me, yeah (grin). I had the respect of a lot of Hawaiian mokes and it doesn’t get better than that. At this time I had yet to go to Hawaii. But this is about how intensely I disliked the Rockefellers and this was even before I knew what I came to know about them. I just knew they were big time scum and remembered well how Nelson was received on his tour of South America. I also was aware of Chase Manhattan’s policy of foreclosing on the mortgages of war widows. It was something of a specialty of theirs.

It’s said that The Rothschild’s set a table for Satan when they sit down to eat. Lately certain Rothschild’s have said some interesting things. One of them was bragging about how many mistresses he has and how he would never run for political office when he can control the ones who are in them. You’ve basically got one of them admitting to what they are routinely accused of. They got no shame either. It’s hard to have compassion for someone who has no shame and no restraint in the areas where most of us do. You could eliminate a lot of the things that we collectively call evil and perhaps not make as much of an impact on the world as you might think but… eliminating the international banking population would certainly transform the world. No group of people has more to do with the day to day suffering of the world than they.

Of course the Rothschild’s have one of those purchased titles that rich people like to have. It makes then think they are distinguished. Whenever I see that an actor or any other celebrity has accepted a title I lose all respect for them. There’s no chance I’m ever going to be presented to the Queen of England or any other royalty because I have no respect for them and I would be compelled to let them know that in some way. When I see any member of any royal family, I think to myself how nice they would look standing next to a guillotine; not that I would ever be engaged in bringing them to such a pass but… just for the image and the appearance of the matter, I do occasionally envision such things.

I hope ‘when’ people really start to lose it they will keep Monsanto in mind and all the other consortiums that are making a less than subtle war upon the human race, which they are not members of but then… neither are a lot of people. Many people have opted out for the domesticated animal kingdom. That may be understandable for an animal but not for one whom, at one time, had the pretensions of being human before it became too damn difficult a feat to spend any time on. It’s not easy being a human being in these days. You lose a lot of opportunities that others snatch up instead. You have difficult choices forced upon you and certain responsibilities that carry a great deal of seeming danger.

I’d never be comfortable living a life of privilege. I would then think I was in greater danger than I ever am in real life. I marvel at people who can walk about in an aura of self importance and accept titles and wear them with a straight face. The only people impressed by that sort of thing are not the kind of people they want to hang out with. I wonder what it must be like to have to recognize that your biggest fans, all your fans in fact, are composed of the most ignorant people on Earth.

I’ve read about the lifestyles and character of the aristocrats during the period preceding the French Revolution. They were a lot like our modern day banking and corporate elite. Some of them had dozens of young boys around, all made up with wigs and cosmetics. I suppose some of them had young girls too but there were fewer of those for some reason. France is a mining country for young girls. Hundreds of them disappear on a regular basis. They’re candies and party mints for the upscale connoisseur in all lands, as are young boys. There’s something about defiling innocence that makes these cosmic felons get extra hard. The destruction of innocence is a mainstay of Satanism. It comes with the territory.

There’s got to be some kind of a sexual charge to mass murder also because a lot of these people are into it big time. They laugh about it among themselves. Some of them kill more people with a fountain pen than any famous serial killer ever managed. That’s probably one of the most deadly weapons on Earth. Three piece suits are the uniforms of these killers and if you’ve been around these people, as I have on certain rare occasions, you can smell the death on them and see the murder in their eyes. They are immensely angry under the patina of bonhomie and the only thing that gives them as much pleasure as ruining the lives of generic humanity is double crossing and destroying each other. They laugh about this too and it doesn’t dawn on some number of them that they are next.

Very soon we are going to see a lot of them throwing each other under busses. Very soon we are going to see a lot of surprising things because what’s coming is not going to be what a lot of people imagine it will be. All of it is under control and part of a repeating theme that comes around every so often. The masks are going to come off to reveal the entity beneath.

This is a time of summing up and of judgment. Some very nasty characters have been pushed out of the invisible dimensions into physical form by the approaching avatar. In some cases they were born into it and in other cases, as a matter of necessity, they have hijacked susceptible people and are using their bodies like stolen cars. Some of these entities can migrate from body to body like that character in the movie, “Fallen”. Their time is coming. All of our times are coming for good and for ill. It’s something we need to be mindful of.

End Transmission.......

There will be a radio show tonight at 7:30 Central Time. Look in the right hand menu for Feet2thefire radio or download the show tomorrow by going to Visible's Radio Shows. That link is also in the right hand menu

Down the Roads

The New Shangri-La (over 3500 members)

Stop ripping our country apart, say Irish protesters

• 

• Marchers rallied outside Dublin’s General Post Office.

Almost 50,000 people marched through Dublin yesterday in protest at harsh austerity measures designed to haul Ireland out of its financial crisis.

The marches came after a week in which an €85 billion (£72bn) bail-out loan was lined up and the Irish government set out a four-year plan of spending cuts and tax rises.

Although organisers had called for “family friendly” protests, a hard-core of activists broke off from the main march and led an assault on police outside the Irish parliament, Dail Eireann.

Protesters with their faces covered with scarves lobbed bottles, eggs and fireworks at police lines and burned posters of Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

Police managed to keep the protesters under control and arrested one man for throwing firecrackers.

The march was organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), which warned that spending cuts and tax rises “will do irreparable damage and turn this country into a social and economic wasteland”.

Protesters marched from the River Liffy to a rally at the General Post Office, the focal point of the battle between Irish Republican rebels and British troops during the 1916 Easter Rising.

Vicky Langan, 24, a single parent and student travelled to the protest from Cork with her three-year-old daughter.

She said: “I’m worried about my child’s future as an Irish citizen and I’m seriously considering leaving the country if things take a turn for the worse.”

Hospital porter Brian Condra, 39, said he would struggle to feed and clothe his three young children after the budget.

He said: “Brian Cowen said three days ago people should pull together. I think he has a neck because he is ripping this society apart. He’s destroying this country to protect the banks.”

Independent Socialist MEP Joe Higgins held a second, smaller rally under the statue of 19th century politician Daniel O’Connell. Higgins said: “Our plan is that the working class people of Ireland will not pay for a single cent of the tens of billion of euros that was strangled in bad debt.”

The drastic cuts lined up by the Irish government could see 25,000 public sector jobs axed – about one in 10 of the workforce. There will also be four years of tax increases and spending cuts. Details will be revealed in an austerity budget on December 7, when €6bn of cuts will be announced.

The Irish communications minister, Eamon Ryan, said he expected to reach a deal on a bail-out loan with the European Union and International Monetary Fund within 24 hours.

The Irish electorate appears to be losing trust in the government, which suffered a major blow after a by-election defeat to Sinn Fein last week, leaving it with a Dail majority of just two seats.

Sinn Fein candidate Pearse Doherty won the Donegal South West seat with a more than 39% share of the vote.

How secure is your cash in Irish banks

The economic crisis in Ireland is causing near-panic among the 2.3 million British savers who have billions of pounds on deposit in bonds and accounts with the country's banks. Protection schemes are in place, but concerns are growing over whether the Irish scheme would have sufficient cash to pay out in the event of a bank default.

Even if it does, some experts believe savers should not be taking risks, especially if better rates can be found elsewhere with traditional British banks and building societies.

It now looks likely Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank will be part or fully nationalised. Anglo Irish was nationalised in September after its collapse. It is expected Allied will be fully nationalised with Dublin taking an 85 per cent stake in Bank of Ireland. This should mean a default is unlikely but the guarantee is only as strong as the Irish government itself.

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With fears that the crisis may spread to Portugal and even Spain, savers in other foreign-owned banks are being urged to consider moving their money to safer organisations.

What has gone wrong in Ireland?

Dublin accepted a £77 billion bailout by the EU last week. The cash was needed to shore up the nation's economy and banking system. But the rescue package has done little to assure markets across Europe. Dublin's financial state is still fragile. There are now worries of a knock-on effect with Portugal, Greece and Spain all seemingly close to requiring a bailout. Greece had an EU handout earlier this year.

So are my Irish savings safe?

Ireland's three biggest banks all operate savings accounts in Britain. But the protection offered savers, and the limits of such protection, vary between providers.

Due to its link-up with the Post Office, the bank has more than two million British customers with accounts worth more than £10 billion. Since the start of November the Post Office has offered protection under the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme rather than the Irish Deposit Protection Scheme.

This means in the event of Bank of Ireland collapsing, UK savers would apply to the FSCS. The limit is £50,000 per person - or £100,000 for a joint account.

This will rise to the equivalent of 100,000 euros (about £84,000) per person from the start of next year. The bank also offers Post Office savers with instant and easy-access accounts a 100 per cent 'guarantee' on amounts above the £50,000 limit due to the 'unlimited' protection provided by Dublin under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme until June 30 next year.

Fixed-term bonds opened between January 11, 2010 and next June have the guarantee until their bond matures.

Depositor protection is provided in Ireland. It is estimated that about 100,000 UK savers have accounts with Anglo Irish, primarily fixedrate bonds. Protection varies so savers need to be on their guard.

Easy-access accounts and fixed-rate bonds taken out before January 28 this year are covered up to 100,000 euros under the Irish protection scheme. But accounts and bonds opened after this date have 100 per cent protection - backed by the Dublin government.

This ' unlimited' guarantee is in place for new savers until the end of next June and will remain in force on fixed-term bonds until they mature.

Patrick Connolly, an independent adviser with AWD Chase de Vere in Bath, Somerset, says: 'Savers should not panic, but stick within the limits of the protection schemes - either £50,000 or 100,000 euros.

'Savers should not rely on the ''unlimited'' protection guarantee provided by Dublin. Equally those who have all their savings in Irish banks should diversify and spread cash around with UK-based banks and building societies.'

Should I be worried about my savings with Anglo Irish?

Rebecca Taylor, independent adviser at Dunham Financial Services in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, says she would be 'surprised' if the Irish compensation scheme was unable to meet any future payout. But she says: 'To be safe, money should be held with a UK bank or building society, but mass withdrawals could cause more problems.'

Connolly says: 'Savers with maturing Anglo Irish bonds should look to roll their cash into bonds with UK providers. There are better deals with UK-based institutions, so there is no need to take further risk.'

Anglo's one-year bond rate is currently 2.45 per cent fixed. This compares with 3.11 per cent offered by robust Coventry Building Society.

Fixed-rate bond holders with Anglo Irish who want to get out now will lose interest if they quit before their bond matures. For example, someone with a bond that has between one and two years to run would lose 90 days of interest. However, some savers will think this is a price worth paying for peace of mind.

IT operates in Britain through an authorised subsidiary so depositor protection is the same as any other UK-based bank - that is, a maximum of £50,000 through the FSCS.

What about savings in other European banks?

The troubles in Ireland have sent shock waves through other EU economies, not least Portugal, Greece and Spain.

Millions of British savers have cash in foreign-owned banks, including Spanish-run Santander, Bank of Cyprus and Dutch-owned ING Direct and Triodos Bank. Non-EU banks operating in Britain, such as Bank of India and ICICI, are required to subscribe to the UK's FSCS.

Many European-owned banks such as Santander also use the FSCS, but others, including ING Direct, Triodos and Bank of Cyprus, choose to use the depositor protection scheme in their home nation (the Netherlands for ING and Triodos and Cyprus for Bank of Cyprus).

Under EU law, protection is a maximum of 100,000 euros per person. But it means British savers would have to apply to a scheme overseas in the event of a bank default.

Regulators are looking at changing the system so that in the event of a default British savers would apply via the FSCS, which would then pursue the cash from the relevant compensation scheme on their behalf. But this is not expected to change until early 2012.

Protection - How the schemes in London and Dublin compare

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme is funded by a levy on all deposit takers registered in Britain and authorised by the Financial Services Authority.

This includes High Street and online banks and building societies. The levy, designed to cover the cost of compensation and scheme management, is based on a group's volume of deposits.

In 2008, more than £3.5 billion was paid out to 300,000 UK savers after the failure of Icelandic savings provider Icesave.

The Irish Deposit Protection Scheme is funded by a fee, which all regulated banks must pay.

The current protection level is 100,000 euros per saver. In addition, the Irish government, through its Eligible Liabilities Guarantee, provides 100 per cent cover for deposits until June 30 next year.

This guarantee could also be extended to the end of 2011, dependent on EU approval. It is not known whether the scheme, or even Dublin, would have sufficient funds to cope with compensation claims if it decided to allow a big bank to fold.