Nearly 20% of CNT Silver Inventories Withdrawn from COMEX Vaults Monday!

Epic drainage of physical silver inventories continued Monday, as Brinks’, CNT, and Scotia all reported massive withdrawals of silver from their COMEX depositories.
The biggest withdrawal came in the CNT vault, where 1.138 million ounces (including 737k REGISTERED oz) were withdrawn- an astonishing 17.3% of CNT’s entire physical silver inventory vaporized overnight!



and……it’s gone!

'I acted like a dictator to bring in the euro': Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl admits power-trip forced continent to accept single currency

Newly published 2002 interview reveals candid admission about euro project

Helmut Kohl says: 'Chancellor must be a man of power to achieve'

But also admits that he would have lost a referendum on the single currency

Helmut Kohl has admitted that he 'acted like a dictator' to bring the euro into Germany to replace the beloved D-Mark.
Germany's longest-serving postwar chancellor said that he would have lost any popular vote on the euro by 'an overwhelming majority'.
He said in an interview conducted in 2002 - but only just now published - : 'I knew that I could never win a referendum in Germany. We would have lost a referendum on the introduction of the euro. That's quite clear. I would have lost and by seven to three.'

'I had to be forceful': Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, pictured above in front of the Brandenburg Gate during a private walk in Berlin, has revealed he 'acted like a dictator' to bring in the euro

The interview was conducted by Jens Peter Paul in 2002 when the Deutsche Mark was subsituted by the euro.
Kohl said he adopted the euro as an 'emblem' of the European project which he believed prevented war on the continent.
'If a Chancellor is trying to push something through, he must be a man of power. And if he's smart, he knows when the time is ripe. In one case – the euro – I was like a dictator ... The euro is a synonym for Europe. Europe, for the first time, has no more war,' he went on.
What he did NOT address in his interview were the lies he and his ministers told to get the common currency in place across Europe - a decision now seen to have fatal consequences as the continent thrashes around in the sixth year of a financial crisis without end.

Friends in Europe: The then-West German chancellor Helmut Kohl pictured in 1989 with the then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who died yesterday

Hundreds of pages of German government documents from 1994 to 1998 and released last year stated clearly that Italy - now one of the floundering southern European euro states - should NOT have been allowed to join the euroclub. Later on the files bring up another country that was poised for catastrophe: Greece.
Aides warned Kohl - who, along with the French relentlessly drove the European Project onwards - that Italy's austerity measures taken at the time were merely 'window dressing.'
German media dubbed the information in the files as 'Operation Self Deception.' The German ruling class seemingly knew they were driving the continent into a fiscal cul-de-sac... but went ahead with it anyway.
The files show how on February 3, 1997, the German Finance Ministry noted that in Rome 'important structural cost-saving measures were almost completely omitted, out of consideration for the social consensus.'
'The documents that have now been released suggest that the Kohl administration misled both the public and Germany's Federal Constitutional Court,' said news magazine Der Spiegel when they came out last year.

Trader Loses Everything In MF Global Theft

"My life savings are frozen thanks to the snake Corzine."
Start watching exactly at the 6:45 mark.
A trader talks about having his life turned upside down by account theft at MF Global, and whether accounts anywhere are safe.  Cyprus, anyone?


Update:
BOMBSHELL: Eric Holder Was Partner In Firm That Represented MF Global

US Dollar Sold as Fed Chairman Bernanke Talks Down Asset Sales

The US Dollar fell after Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke said unwinding the central bank’s massive balance sheet would come “late” into a tightening cycle.

Talking Points

• US Dollar Sold After Bernanke Talked Down Asset Sales as Tightening Tool
• British Pound Unlikely to Find Volatility in Industrial Production Data
• Swiss Deflation Expected to Have Accelerate on Franc Increase in March

The US Dollar declined against all of its major counterparts after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said asset sales are expected happen “late” into the monetary policy tightening process. The central bank chief added that the Fed preferred to use the interest rate on excess reserves (IOER) as its principal tool for unwinding stimulus when the time to do so is at hand.

However, that approach has been painted as a less-impactful tightening technique by some skeptics including the Fed’s own Charles Plosser, President of the Philadelphia branch. It appears the markets opted to agree, interpreting Bernanke’s comments to mean that the greenback will find policy support slow to emerge even when the Fed eventually begins to reverse its accommodative posture.

UK Industrial Production figures headline a relatively lackluster economic calendar on tap in European trading hours. Expectations call for output to rise 0.4 percent in February, marking a narrow recovery after a 1.2 percent drop in the prior month. The result is unlikely to materially alter investors’ Bank of England policy outlook and thereby ought to carry relatively limited implications for the British Pound.

Meanwhile, Swiss CPI data is due to show deflation re-accelerated to the fastest pace in six months, which likely reflected a rise in the Franc amid renewed Eurozone crisis jitters (with Italy and Cyprus in focus). Indeed, SNB FX reserves rose to a record CHF483.3 billion, the Bloomberg Eurozone Financial Conditions Index (FCI) – a proxy gauge for the impact of the debt crisis in the currency bloc – fell to the lowest in five months, and EURCHF closed the month at the weakest level since November over the same period.

Want to see economic data releases directly on your charts? Try this App.

Asia Session:

GMT	CCY	EVENT	ACT	EXP	PREV
0:00	NZD	QV House Prices (YoY) (MAR)	6.5%	-	6.3%
1:30	AUD	NAB Business Conditions (MAR)	-7	-	-3
1:30	AUD	NAB Business Confidence (MAR)	2	-	1
1:30	CNY	Consumer Price Index (YoY) (MAR)	2.1%	2.5%	3.2%
1:30	CNY	Producer Price Index (YoY) (MAR)	-1.9%	-1.9%	-1.6%

Euro Session:

GMT	CCY	EVENT	EXP/ACT	PREV	IMPACT
5:45	CHF	Unemployment Rate s.a. (MAR)	3.1% (A)	3.1%	Medium
5:45	CHF	Unemployment Rate (MAR)	3.2% (A)	3.4%	Medium
6:00	EUR	German Trade Balance (€) (FEB)	16.8B (A)	13.6B	Low
6:00	EUR	German Current Account (€) (FEB)	16.0B (A)	9.7B	Low
6:00	EUR	German Exports s.a. (MoM) (FEB)	-1.5% (A)	1.3%	Low
6:00	EUR	German Imports s.a. (MoM) (FEB)	-3.8% (A)	3.3%	Low
6:00	JPY	Machine Tool Orders (YoY) (MAR P)	-21.6% (A)	-21.5%	Low
7:15	CHF	Consumer Price Index (MoM) (MAR)	0.3%	0.3%	Medium
7:15	CHF	Consumer Price Index (YoY) (MAR)	-0.5%	-0.3%	Medium
7:15	CHF	CPI – EU Harmonised (MoM) (MAR)	-	0.3%	Low
7:15	CHF	CPI – EU Harmonised (YoY) (MAR)	-	0.1%	Low
7:15	CHF	Retail Sales (Real) (YoY) (FEB)	2.5%	1.9%	Low
8:30	GBP	Industrial Production (MoM) (FEB)	0.4%	-1.2%	Medium
8:30	GBP	Industrial Production (YoY) (FEB)	-2.8%	-2.9%	Medium
8:30	GBP	Manufacturing Production (MoM) (FEB)	0.4%	-1.5%	Low
8:30	GBP	Manufacturing Production (YoY) (FEB)	-1.4%	-3.0%	Low
8:30	GBP	Visible Trade Balance (£) (FEB)	-8600M	-8195M	Medium
8:30	GBP	Trade Balance Non EU (£) (FEB)	-3650M	-3280M	Low
8:30	GBP	Total Trade Balance (£) (FEB)	-2800M	-2362M	Low
13:30	-	IMF Releases World Economic Outlook Update	-	-	High

Critical Levels:

CCY	SUPPORT	RESISTANCE
EURUSD	1.2968	1.3079
GBPUSD	1.5213	1.5325

--- Written by Ilya Spivak, Currency Strategist for Dailyfx.com

To contact Ilya, e-mail ispivak@dailyfx.com. Follow Ilya on Twitter at @IlyaSpivak

To be added to Ilya's e-mail distribution list, please CLICK HERE

Gold gets a lift from US dollar weakness

Gold is up $14 today to $1588 and the technical picture is beginning to brighten. The driver today is general dollar weakness.
In what’s perhaps a counter-sentiment indicator both UBS and Deutsche Bank cut 2013 gold price forecasts today. DB lowered its forecast 12% to $1637 while UBS lowered its estimate to $1740 from $1900.

“The forces which have propelled gold returns higher over the past decade, namely a weakening U.S. dollar, falling real interest rates and a rising U.S. equity risk premium have all moved into reverse since the end of last year,” Deutsche Bank said.

The critical factor on the longer-term chart is that $1522 remains unbroken. Given the fall from $1800, there might be scope for a further rebound.

The daily chart is also pointing higher after the break of the 61.8% retracement, something I highlighted on Friday.

The Tunnel People That Live Under The Streets Of America

by Michael

Did you know that there are thousands upon thousands of homeless people that are living underground beneath the streets of major U.S. cities?  It is happening in Las Vegas, it is happening in New York City and it is even happening in Kansas City.  As the economy crumbles, poverty in the United States isabsolutely exploding and so is homelessness.  In addition to the thousands of “tunnel people” living under the streets of America, there are also thousands that are living in tent cities, there are tens of thousands that are living in their vehicles and there are more than a million public school children that do not have a home to go back to at night.  The federal government tells us that the recession “is over” and that “things are getting better”, and yet poverty and homelessness in this country continue to rise with no end in sight.  So what in the world are things going to look like when the next economic crisis hits?
When I heard that there were homeless people living in a network of underground tunnels beneath the streets of Kansas City, I was absolutely stunned.  I have relatives that live in that area.  I never thought of Kansas City as one of the more troubled cities in the United States.
But according to the Daily Mail, police recently discovered a huge network of tunnels under the city that people had been living in…

Below the streets of Kansas City, there are deep underground tunnels where a group of vagrant homeless people lived in camps.
These so-called homeless camps have now been uncovered by the Kansas City Police, who then evicted the residents because of the unsafe environment.
Authorities said these people were living in squalor, with piles of garbage and dirty diapers left around wooded areas.

The saddest part is the fact that authorities found dirty diapers in the areas near these tunnels.  That must mean that babies were being raised in that kind of an environment.
Unfortunately, this kind of thing is happening all over the nation.  In recent years, the tunnel people of Las Vegas have received quite a bit of publicity all over the world.  It has been estimated that more than 1,000 people live in the massive network of flood tunnels under the city…

Deep beneath Vegas’s glittering lights lies a sinister labyrinth inhabited by poisonous spiders and a man nicknamed The Troll who wields an iron bar.
But astonishingly, the 200 miles of flood tunnels are also home to 1,000 people who eke out a living in the strip’s dark underbelly.
Some, like Steven and his girlfriend Kathryn, have furnished their home with considerable care – their 400sq ft ‘bungalow’ boasts a double bed, a wardrobe and even a bookshelf.

Could you imagine living like that?  Sadly, for an increasing number of Americans a “normal lifestyle” is no longer an option.  Either they have to go to the homeless shelters or they have to try to eke out an existence on their own any way that they can.
In New York City, authorities are constantly trying to root out the people that live in the tunnels under the city and yet they never seem to be able to find them all.  The following is from a New York Post article about the “Mole People” that live underneath New York City…

The homeless people who live down here are called Mole People. They do not, as many believe, exist in a separate, organized underground society. It’s more of a solitary existence and loose-knit community of secretive, hard-luck individuals.

The New York Post followed one homeless man known as “John Travolta” on a tour through the underground world.  What they discovered was a world that is very much different from what most New Yorkers experience…

In the tunnels, their world is one of malt liquor, tight spaces, schizophrenic neighbors, hunger and spells of heat and cold. Travolta and the others eat fairly well, living on a regimented schedule of restaurant leftovers, dumped each night at different times around the neighborhood above his foreboding home.

Even as the Dow hits record high after record high, poverty in New York City continues to rise at a very frightening pace.  Incredibly, the number of homeless people sleeping in the homeless shelters of New York City has increased by a whopping 19 percent over the past year.
In many of our major cities, the homeless shelters are already at maximum capacity and are absolutely packed night after night.  Large numbers of homeless people are often left to fend for themselves.
That is one reason why we have seen the rise of so many tent cities.
Yes, the tent cities are still there, they just aren’t getting as much attention these days because they do not fit in with the “economic recovery” narrative that the mainstream media is currently pushing.
In fact, many of the tent cities are larger than ever.  For example, you can check out a Reuters video about a growing tent city in New Jersey that was posted on YouTube at the end of March right here.  A lot of these tent cities have now become permanent fixtures, and unfortunately they will probably become much larger when the next major economic crisis strikes.
But perhaps the saddest part of all of this is the massive number of children that are suffering night after night.
For the first time ever, more than a million public school children in the United States are homeless.  That number has risen by 57 percentsince the 2006-2007 school year.
So if things are really “getting better”, then why in the world do we have more than a million public school children without homes?
These days a lot of families that have lost their homes have ended up living in their vehicles.  The following is an excerpt from a 60 Minutes interview with one family that is living in their truck…

This is the home of the Metzger family. Arielle,15. Her brother Austin, 13. Their mother died when they were very young. Their dad, Tom, is a carpenter. And, he’s been looking for work ever since Florida’s construction industry collapsed. When foreclosure took their house, he bought the truck on Craigslist with his last thousand dollars. Tom’s a little camera shy – thought we ought to talk to the kids – and it didn’t take long to see why.
Pelley: How long have you been living in this truck?
Arielle Metzger: About five months.
Pelley: What’s that like?
Arielle Metzger: It’s an adventure.
Austin Metzger: That’s how we see it.
Pelley: When kids at school ask you where you live, what do you tell ‘em?
Austin Metzger: When they see the truck they ask me if I live in it, and when I hesitate they kinda realize. And they say they won’t tell anybody.
Arielle Metzger: Yeah it’s not really that much an embarrassment. I mean, it’s only life. You do what you need to do, right?

But after watching a news report or reading something on the Internet about these people we rapidly forget about them because they are not a part of “our world”.

Another place where a lot of poor people end up is in prison.  In aprevious article, I detailed how the prison population in the United States has been booming in recent years.  If you can believe it, the United States now has approximately 25 percent of the entire global prison population even though it only has about 5 percent of the total global population.
And these days it is not just violent criminals that get thrown into prison.  If you lose your job and get behind on your bills, you could be thrown into prison as well.  The following is from a recent CBS News article…

Roughly a third of U.S. states today jail people for not paying off their debts, from court-related fines and fees to credit card and car loans, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Such practices contravene a 1983 United States Supreme Court ruling that they violate the Constitutions’s Equal Protection Clause.
Some states apply “poverty penalties,” such as late fees, payment plan fees and interest, when people are unable to pay all their debts at once. Alabama charges a 30 percent collection fee, for instance, while Florida allows private debt collectors to add a 40 percent surcharge on the original debt. Some Florida counties also use so-called collection courts, where debtors can be jailed but have no right to a public defender. In North Carolina, people are charged for using a public defender, so poor defendants who can’t afford such costs may be forced to forgo legal counsel.
The high rates of unemployment and government fiscal shortfalls that followed the housing crash have increased the use of debtors’ prisons, as states look for ways to replenish their coffers. Said Chettiar, “It’s like drawing blood from a stone. States are trying to increase their revenue on the backs of the poor.”

If you are poor, the United States can be an incredibly cold and cruel place.  Mercy and compassion are in very short supply.
The middle class continues to shrink and poverty continues to grow with each passing year.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately one out of every six Americans is now living in poverty.  And if you throw in those that are considered to be “near poverty”, that number becomes much larger.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 146 million Americans are either “poor” or “low income”.
For many more facts about the rapid increase of poverty in this country, please see my previous article entitled “21 Statistics About The Explosive Growth Of Poverty In America That Everyone Should Know“.
But even as poverty grows, it seems like the hearts of those that still do have money are getting colder.  Just check out what happened recently at a grocery store that was in the process of closing down in Augusta, Georgia…

Residents filled the parking lot with bags and baskets hoping to get some of the baby food, canned goods, noodles and other non-perishables. But a local church never came to pick up the food, as the storeowner prior to the eviction said they had arranged. By the time the people showed up for the food, what was left inside the premises—as with any eviction—came into the ownership of the property holder, SunTrust Bank.
The bank ordered the food to be loaded into dumpsters and hauled to a landfill instead of distributed. The people that gathered had to be restrained by police as they saw perfectly good food destroyed. Local Sheriff Richard Roundtree told the news “a potential for a riot was extremely high.”

Can you imagine watching that happen?
But of course handouts and charity are only temporary solutions.  What the poor in this country really need are jobs, and unfortunately there has not been a jobs recovery in the United States since the recession ended.
In fact, the employment crisis looks like it is starting to take another turn for the worse.  The number of layoffs in the month of March was 30 percent higher than the same time a year ago.
Meanwhile, small businesses are indicating that hiring is about to slow down significantly.  According to a recent survey by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, small businesses in the United States are extremely pessimistic right now.  The following is what Goldman Sachs had to say about this survey…

Components of the survey were consistent with the decline in headline optimism, as the net percent of respondents planning to hire fell to 0% (from +4%), those expecting higher sales fell to -4% (from +1%), and those reporting that it is a good time to expand ticked down to +4% (from +5%). The net percent of respondents expecting the economy to improve was unchanged at -28%, a very depressed level. However, on the positive side, +25% of respondents plan increased capital spending [ZH: With Alcoa CapEx spending at a 2 year low]. Small business owners continue to place poor sales, taxes, and red tape at the top of their list of business problems, as they have for the past several years.

So why aren’t our politicians doing anything to fix this?
For example, why in the world don’t they stop millions of our jobs from being sent out of the country?
Well, the truth is that they don’t think we have a problem.  In fact, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson recently said that U.S. trade deficits “don’t matter”.
He apparently does not seem alarmed that more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities have been shut down in the United States since 2001.
And since the last election, the White House has seemed to have gone into permanent party mode.
On Tuesday, another extravagant party will be held at the White House.  It is being called “In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul”, and it is going to include some of the biggest names in the music industry…

As the White House has previously announced, Justin Timberlake (who will be making his White House debut), Al Green, Ben Harper, Queen Latifah, Cyndi Lauper, Joshua Ledet, Sam Moore, Charlie Musselwhite, Mavis Staples, and others will be performing at the exclusive event.

And so who will be paying for all of this?
You and I will be.  Even as the Obamas cry about all of the other “spending cuts” that are happening, they continue to blow millions of taxpayer dollars on wildly extravagant parties and vacations.
Overall, U.S. taxpayers will spend well over a billion dollars on the Obamas this year.
I wonder what the tunnel people that live under the streets of America think about that.

The #1 Reason That Jon Corzine Is Not In Prison

Corzine and Obama campaign ad.
A match made in donation bundling Heaven.
This clip from a 2010 Jon Corzine for Governor campagin ad is exhibit A in the cesspool of DOJ corruption that has resulted in Jon Corzine not currently residing in prison for stealing $1.6 billion from segregated client accounts during the collapse of MF Global, a collapse that was brought on by at least $6 billion of massively-leveraged bets on European debt.

---
James Koutoulas: "If anyone still thinks Obma has kept his promise to clean up Wall Street please review the following video."


Justice For Sale
President Obama took over $49 million in campaign donations from Wall Street, his Justice Department is full of former white collar defense lawyers, and 4 years after our financial collapse, not a single senior Wall Street executive has been charged with a crime.
CORZINED - Urban Dictionary
When something of value is stolen, and everyone who was in charge of safeguarding the valuable claims ignorance of just about anything. People in charge who confronted with questions about the valuable items usually answer, "I just dont know where it is" or claim that the valuables were "vaporized" when it was their job to know.

--
Wall Street justice brought to you by Eric Holder and Covington & Burling:

• Cronyism Is Preventing Prosecution In The Corzine Case

• Reuters Investigation: Holder, DOJ Lawyers Were Partners With Big Banks

• Financial Fraud Conviction Scorecard: Bush: 1300+, Clinton: 1000+, Obama: 0.0

• REPORT: Five Senior Goldman Sachs Execs Gave $130K To 'Obama Victory Fund' WHILE Eric Holder Was Deciding Whether To File Criminal Charges

Who is Jon Corzine - CNN:


Good clip exposing Corzine's Obama connection.  A look at the career of former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine as he moved from Goldman Sachs titan to Washington power broker.

These two links search for the missing funds:
Janet Tavakoli - Analyzing the Fraud at MF Global
Email Ties Corzine to Missing Funds - WSJ

Dollar higher at noon

THE Australian dollar was higher at noon, climbing above 105 US cents in response to better-than-expected Chinese imports data.
At 12.20pm AEST today, the Australian dollar was at 105.11 US cents, up from yesteray's local close of 104.24 US cents. The local currency soared to its intraday high of 105.17 US cents after Chinese data showed imports grew 14.1 per cent in March, more than double economists' forecasts of a six per cent rise.

"That surprise 14 per cent jump in imports is really encouraging, considering the figure from the prior month was down over 15 per cent," FOREX.com research analyst Chris Tedder said.

"Considering the intention of Beijing to shift towards a more domestic demand based economy, we want to see those improvements in imports."

Exports also rose 10 per cent in March, but the result was well down from a 21.8 per cent rise the previous month and slightly below expectations of an 11.7 improvement. It was the first time in four months Chinese exports had come in below estimates. Trading conditions had been light ahead of the Chinese figures, with the Australian dollar little changed in response to a surprising fall in consumer confidence and an upbeat assessment of the local economy from the central bank.

Mr Tedder said the Australian dollar was expected to consolidate above 105 US cents during the rest of the Asian trading session.

Meanwhile, the Australian bond market was weaker. At 12.20pm AEST, the June 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 96.745 (implying a yield of 3.255 per cent), down from yesterday's local close of 96.760 (3.24 per cent). The June three-year bond futures contract was at 97.210 (2.79 per cent), down from 97.220 (2.780 per cent).

KingCast sees YouTube up to their old habit of censoring the wrong people while protecting a Revere, MA slumlord and his slandering friends.

OK so here's the latest bullshit from YouTube: Just because someone appears in a YouTube video who doesn't want to be in it, they can make YouTube strike your video.... which is complete and utter fucking bullshit, particularly when you are covering a goddamn public court event, right. So what I did was, I went into the video and made some gross edits that addressed their purported concerns, and put it right back up there. 

Keep in mind that even though I am a YouTube partner there have been times when I could not post videos from my primary KingCast65 or Christopher King account, for no reason whatsoever.... in addition to the Supertramp fiasco (see more at Pink Floyd Network) in which I was twice cleared by the record company but still got my videos yanked from YouTube. The only reason I changed the video is that I just don't have time to litigate this shit but they are completely in violation of the Hudgens/Pruneyard analysis and I may one day come back and sue them, but right now I am too busy for their little games.

Here is your back story. Don't worry there will be litigation and it will be restored, and there will be more videos on this very subject. To date I have had now two video taken down out of nearly 700 posted. This is complete and absolute bullshit. Here is one woman's story about how she won.

YouTube has a habit of making it impossible to reply to them when someone issues a privacy complaint so your video gets a strike and a take down even though the person who issued the complaint in this case clearly defamed the tenant who is being unlawfully evicted. They can go to hell because I wrote their attorneys before on another censorship issue and I am putting this video right back up and going right back at them, and I will indeed sue them over this nonsense and sent them a Hudgens warning before: 

The subject of this video concerns a PUBLIC COURT CASE with public allegations..... meanwhile the complaining party uttered comments on the video that accused the tenant of being promiscuous and a drunkard and using public money to buy booze and illicit drugs. Eventually there will be a lawsuit over this and YouTube had goddamn better be ready to turn over the original files or there will be some heat like they can't believe because I won't stand for this bullshit.

Secret FDIC Plan to Loot Bank Accounts

Stephen Lendman
Activist Post

It shouldn't surprise. It's already policy. Market analyst Graham Summers explained. Depositor theft is coming. Europe is banker occupied territory. So is America.

Finance is a new form of warfare. It's more powerful than standing armies. Banking giants run things. Money power has final say.

Economies are strip-mined for profit. Communities are laid waste. Ordinary people are impoverished. Even their bank accounts aren't safe.

Cypriot officials agreed to tax them. Canada, New Zealand, and Euroland member states plan doing the same thing. So does America.

Officially they're called "bail-ins." It's code language for grand theft. Instead of breaking up, nationalizing, or closing down failed banks, depositor funds will keep them operating.

Money printing madness can't go on forever. Regulators, like FDIC, haven't enough money to insure depositors. It's simple mathematical logic.


Ordinary people and richer ones have trillions in bank accounts. It's low-hanging fruit. It's a treasure trove begging to be looted. Legislative shenanigans legitimize it.

It's happening offshore. It's approved in Canada. It's coming to America. "What happened in Cyprus isn't a 'one-off,' " said Summers. When systemic crisis hits, things happen "FAST and FURIOUS."

Cpyriot bailout talks continued for months. "And then the entire system came unhinged in one weekend."

Banks closed. Capital controls were imposed. People couldn't write checks. They lost access to their money. Limited amounts only were permitted. Insiders were tipped off. They exited early. Others uninformed now suffer.

Think it can't happen here? Think again. It's coming. Proposed FDIC legislation lets it "TAKE CONTROL OF BANKS IT DEEMS SYSTEMATICALLY IMPORTANT AND WRITE DOWN YOUR SAVINGS (AND OTHER BANK ACCOUNTS) AS PART OF THE BAIL-IN."

Dodd Frank financial reform capitulated to Wall Street. It did so at the expense of the economy, states, local communities, and ordinary people hit hardest.

It's wrongheaded. It provides a veneer of regulatory cover. It's a scam. It's laden with false diagnoses and fatal flaws. It lets Wall Street continue business as usual.

It's secret provision permits looting depositor bank accounts. Four months ago, formal strategy was drafted. It's ready when America's next crisis hits. Graham outlined three steps:

(1) Designate systematically important banks.

(2) Control those deemed at risk of default.

(3) Write-down depositor savings in value. In other words, loot them. Money thought safe is gone.

Few Americans understand. It's not publicly acknowledged. Legislation already was drafted. FDIC implementation rules are ready. Eventual crisis is virtually certain. Only its timing is unknown.

Now's the time to protect assets too important to lose. Forewarned is forearmed.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/

The Day The Government Seized Americans' Gold

FDR pulled a Cyprus on the American people 80 years ago this week.
April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Alix Steel reports on the 1933 Presidential order by FDR requiring citizens to turn in their gold.

Texas Wants Its Gold Back From The Fed

CHART - Inflation Adjusted Gold Price (1970-2011)

We still have a long way before we catch up with the 1979 inflation adjusted highs.
Since Nixon's move, the U.S. dollar has fallen from 1/35th of an ounce of gold to 1/1750th of an ounce of gold today.
Here's another view.


---

Bizarre clip.  Profanity warning.

Further reading:

Tungsten Plated Gold Bars - Bob Chapman Implicates Rubin & Summers
Gold Bar Testing With Ultrasound (VIDEO)
Video: Counterfeit Engelhard 100 Ounce Silver Bars
The Gold Confiscation Act Of 1933

Texas Wants Its Gold Back From The Fed

Watch Tricky Dick End The U.S. Gold Standard (1971)

The Clear Signs of a Global Inflationary Tsunami Are Already Visible Around the World

by Phoenix Capital Research

Since the Financial Crisis erupted in 2007, the US Federal Reserve has engaged in dozens of interventions/ bailouts to try and prop up the financial system. Now, I realize that everyone knows the Fed is “printing money.” However, when you look at the list of bailouts/ money pumps it’s absolutely staggering how much money the Fed has thrown around.

Here’s a recap of some of the larger Fed moves during the Crisis:

• Cutting interest rates from 5.25-0.25% (Sept ’07-today).
• The Bear Stearns deal/ taking on $30 billion in junk mortgages (Mar ’08).
• Opening various lending windows to investment banks (Mar ’08).
• Hank Paulson spends $400 billion on Fannie/ Freddie (Sept ’08).
• The Fed takes over insurance company AIG for $85 billion (Sept ’08).
• The Fed doles out $25 billion for the automakers (Sept ’08)
• The Feds kick off the $700 billion TARP program (Oct ’08)
• The Fed buys commercial paper from non-financial firms (Oct ’08)
• The Fed offers $540 billion to backstop money market funds (Oct ’08)
• The Fed agrees to back up to $280 billion of Citigroup’s liabilities (Oct ’08).
• $40 billion more to AIG (Nov ’08)
• The Fed backstops $140 billion of Bank of America’s liabilities (Jan ’09)
• Obama’s $787 Billion Stimulus (Jan ’09)
• QE 1 buys $1.25 trillion in Treasuries and mortgage debt (March ’09)
• QE lite buys $200-300 billion of Treasuries and mortgage debt (Aug ’10)
• QE 2 buys $600 billion in Treasuries (Nov ’10)
• Operation Twist reshuffles $400 billion of the Fed’s portfolio (Oct ’11)
• QE 3 buys $40 billion of Mortgage Backed Securities monthly (Sept ‘12)
• QE 4 buys $45 billion worth of Treasuries monthly (Dec ’12)

The Fed is not the only one. Collectively, the world’s Central Banks have pumped over $10 trillion into the financial system since 2007. This money printing has resulted in a massive expansion of Central Bank balance sheets as the below chart indicates (BoE= Bank of England, Fed= US Federal Reserve, ECB= European Central Bank, SNB= Swiss National Bank, BoJ= Bank of Japan).

This money printing has unleashed inflation in the financial system. In the emerging markets, where consumers can spend as much as 50% of their income, this has resulted in food riots and even revolutions as we saw with the Arab Spring in 2011.

This situation is far from over. Higher food prices continue to be a source of civil unrest throughout the emerging market space. Recently Saudi Arabia banned the exporting of poultry to halt prices which rose by as much as 40%:

Saudi Arabia has banned the export of chickens in an attempt to curb an online public campaign to boycott poultry consumption due to high prices.

The Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Industry decided Wednesday to halt the export of chicken until the domestic market is stabilized, Emirates 24/7 reported.

The decision followed a campaign launched by Saudis on Twitter to boycott buying and eating chicken in the country whenprices for poultry rose 30-40 percent, the Financial Times reported.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/10/05/Saudi-bans-chicken-export-after-price-hike/UPI-46681349468924/#ixzz2JIyjOaEB

In the US, a series of droughts and biofuel policies have resulted in corn prices skyrocketing. This has crushed some Latin American markets such as Guatamala:

In the tiny tortillerias of this city, people complain ceaselessly about the high price of corn. Just three years ago, one quetzal — about 15 cents — bought eight tortillas; today it buys only four. And eggs have tripled in price because chickens eat corn feed…

In a globalized world, the expansion of the biofuels industry has contributed to spikes in food prices and a shortage of land for food-based agriculture in poor corners of Asia, Africa and Latin America because the raw material is grown wherever it is cheapest.

Nowhere, perhaps, is that squeeze more obvious than in Guatemala… With its corn-based diet and proximity to the United States, Central America has long been vulnerable to economic riptides related to the United States’ corn policy. Now that the United States is using 40 percent of its crop to make biofuel, it is not surprising that tortilla prices have doubled in Guatemala, which imports nearly half of its corn.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/science/earth/in-fields-and-markets-guatemalans-feel-squeeze-of-biofuel-demand.html?hp&_r=1&

As the cost of living increases around the globe fueled by the Central Banks money printing, wage protests and strikes have become commonplace:

South Africa - A total of 26 people were arrested overnight in connection with farmworkers’ protests for higher wages, Western Cape police said on Wednesday.

At least 180 people had been arrested in connection with the protests since Wednesday last week…

http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/more-arrests-in-farm-wage-protests-1.1453090#.UQbnCo7pRgM

Indonesia: Thousands of workers took to the city’s main thoroughfares on Wednesday to protest delays in the increased minimum wage and hikes in electricity rates.

The workers from industrial areas in Bekasi, Bogor, Depok, Jakarta and Karawang belonging to the Indonesian Metal Workers Federation (FSPMI), the All-Indonesia Workers Union (KSPSI) and the Indonesian Workers Assembly (MPBI), demanded that Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo instruct companies to immediately comply with the 44 percent raise of the provincial minimum wage to Rp 2.2 million (US$228) for 2013.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/01/17/workers-protest-against-minimum-wage-delays.html

China-Sanitation workers’ salaries will be increased by 10 percent this year in
Guangzhou, the capital of South China’s Guangdong province, following
recent protests demanding higher pay…

“The salary of sanitation workers will be increased by 10 percent this year and the government will also boost other subsidies, for example, housing allowances,” Huang said…

Guangzhou has an estimated 38,840 sanitation workers, who earn an average of about 1,300 yuan ($209) a month, almost equal to the city’s minimum wage.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2013-01/22/content_27756710.htm

Germany-Germany’s major public services trade union Verdi had called for a daylong strike on Friday at Hamburg Airport, impeding security operations and delaying flights as passengers struggled to get to their gates.

The union is calling for an hourly wage of 14.50 euros for its members, who currently earn 11.80 euros per hour.

Only one of 20 security checkpoints had opened, with approximately 95 percent of the passenger security-check staff walking off the job.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/20/284554/german-airport-workers-go-on-strike/

These wage protests and the political instability they create have dramatically changed the investment landscape. Historically, precious metals mining companies have been excellent inflation hedges. Not anymore.

Best Regards,
Graham Summers

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CRACKS SHOWING in the PHYSICAL Silver Market: Tulving Runs OUT of 2013 Silver Eagles As The U.S. MINT Begins Rationing Ag

MF Global, QE to infinity, Cyprus, Italy, France, Japan, Derivatives, hundreds of trillions of debt… If it weren’t for the criminal paper market, silver would be north of $100 per ounce today.
Think it can’t happen? Look at Bitcoin. From $18 to $190 (as of this writing) in two months. And you can’t use a Bitcoin to build a cellphone, a solar panel or an LED television. Bitcoin will not conduct electricity and it hasn’t been used as money for the past 5,000 years. The ONLY reason that one troy ounce of PHYSICAL silver sits below $30 today is because of the coordinated effort of the criminal banking cartel, which sells BILLIONS OF PAPER OUNCES of what it calls “silver” into the market every single month. So we stack the real stuff – PHYSICAL silver: A REAL, valuable, useful commodity – at heavily discounted prices.
Meanwhile, the fragile physical market is increasingly showing signs of stress – and insatiable demand. The U.S. Mint reported all-time record sales of American Silver Eagles in January AND February, and the Mint has now been forced to RATION future sales due to unprecedented demand. Miles Franklin recently reported they were nearly out of junk silver. And now Tulving, which requires a 500 coin MINIMUM purchase, is completely out of 2013 American Silver Eagles. By the way, Tulving is out of junk silver too. Can you see the cracks widening?
Got PHYSICAL?

Winner Takes All: The Super-priority Status of Derivatives

Cyprus-style confiscation of depositor funds has been called the “new normal.”  Bail-in policies are appearing in multiple countries directing failing TBTF banks to convert the funds of “unsecured creditors” into capital; and those creditors, it turns out, include ordinary depositors. Even “secured” creditors, including state and local governments, may be at risk.  Derivatives have “super-priority” status in bankruptcy, and Dodd Frank precludes further taxpayer bailouts. In a big derivatives bust, there may be no collateral left for the creditors who are next in line.   

Shock waves went around the world when the IMF, the EU, and the ECB not only approved but mandated the confiscation of depositor funds to “bail in” two bankrupt banks in Cyprus. A “bail in” is a quantum leap beyond a “bail out.” When governments are no longer willing to use taxpayer money to bail out banks that have gambled away their capital, the banks are now being instructed to “recapitalize” themselves by confiscating the funds of their creditors, turning debt into equity, or stock; and the “creditors” include the depositors who put their money in the bank thinking it was a secure place to store their savings.

The Cyprus bail-in was not a one-off emergency measure but was consistent with similar policies already in the works for the US, UK, EU, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, as detailed in my earlier articles here and here.  “Too big to fail” now trumps all.  Rather than banks being put into bankruptcy to salvage the deposits of their customers, the customers will be put into bankruptcy to save the banks.

Why Derivatives Threaten Your Bank Account

The big risk behind all this is the massive $230 trillion derivatives boondoggle managed by US banks. Derivatives are sold as a kind of insurance for managing profits and risk; but as Satyajit Das points out in Extreme Money, they actually increase risk to the system as a whole.
In the US after the Glass-Steagall Act was implemented in 1933, a bank could not gamble with depositor funds for its own account; but in 1999, that barrier was removed. Recent congressional investigations have revealed that in the biggest derivative banks, JPMorgan and Bank of America, massive commingling has occurred between their depository arms and their unregulated and highly vulnerable derivatives arms. Under both the Dodd Frank Act and the 2005 Bankruptcy Act, derivative claims have super-priority over all other claims, secured and unsecured, insured and uninsured. In a major derivatives fiasco, derivative claimants could well grab all the collateral, leaving other claimants, public and private, holding the bag.
The tab for the 2008 bailout was $700 billion in taxpayer funds, and that was just to start. Another $700 billion disaster could easily wipe out all the money in the FDIC insurance fund, which has only about $25 billion in it.  Both JPMorgan and Bank of America have over $1 trillion in deposits, and total deposits covered by FDIC insurance are about $9 trillion. According to an article on Bloomberg in November 2011, Bank of America’s holding company then had almost $75 trillion in derivatives, and 71% were held in its depository arm; while J.P. Morgan had $79 trillion in derivatives, and 99% were in its depository arm. Those whole mega-sums are not actually at risk, but the cash calculated to be at risk from derivatives from all sources is at least $12 trillion; and JPM is the biggest player, with 30% of the market.
It used to be that the government would backstop the FDIC if it ran out of money. But section 716 of the Dodd Frank Act now precludes the payment of further taxpayer funds to bail out a bank from a bad derivatives gamble. As summarized in a letter from Americans for Financial Reform quoted by Yves Smith:

Section 716 bans taxpayer bailouts of a broad range of derivatives dealing and speculative derivatives activities. Section 716 does not in any way limit the swaps activities which banks or other financial institutions may engage in. It simply prohibits public support for such activities.

There will be no more $700 billion taxpayer bailouts. So where will the banks get the money in the next crisis? It seems the plan has just been revealed in the new bail-in policies.

All Depositors, Secured and Unsecured, May Be at Risk

The bail-in policy for the US and UK is set forth in a document put out jointly by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Bank of England (BOE) in December 2012, titled Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions.
In an April 4th article in Financial Sense, John Butler points out that the directive does not explicitly refer to “depositors.”  It refers only to “unsecured creditors.”  But the effective meaning of the term, says Butler, is belied by the fact that the FDIC has been put on the job. The FDIC has direct responsibility only for depositors, not for the bondholders who are wholesale non-depositor sources of bank credit. Butler comments:
Do you see the sleight-of-hand at work here? Under the guise of protecting taxpayers, depositors of failing institutions are to be arbitrarily, de-facto subordinated to interbank claims, when in fact they are legally senior to those claims!

. . . [C]onsider the brutal, unjust irony of the entire proposal. Remember, its stated purpose is to solve the problem revealed in 2008, namely the existence of insolvent TBTF institutions that were “highly leveraged and complex, with numerous and dispersed financial operations, extensive off-balance-sheet activities, and opaque financial statements.” Yet what is being proposed is a framework sacrificing depositors in order to maintain precisely this complex, opaque, leverage-laden financial edifice!
If you believe that what has happened recently in Cyprus is unlikely to happen elsewhere, think again. Economic policy officials in the US, UK and other countries are preparing for it. Remember, someone has to pay. Will it be you? If you are a depositor, the answer is yes.

The FDIC was set up to ensure the safety of deposits. Now it, it seems, its function will be the confiscation of deposits to save Wall Street. In the only mention of “depositors” in the FDIC-BOE directive as it pertains to US policy, paragraph 47 says that “the authorities recognize the need for effective communication to depositors, making it clear that their deposits will be protected.” But protected with what? As with MF Global, the pot will already have been gambled away. From whom will the bank get it back? Not the derivatives claimants, who are first in line to be paid; not the taxpayers, since Congress has sealed the vault; not the FDIC insurance fund, which has a paltry $25 billion in it. As long as the derivatives counterparties have super-priority status, the claims of all other parties are in jeopardy.
That could mean not just the “unsecured creditors” but the “secured creditors,” including state and local governments. Local governments keep a significant portion of their revenues in Wall Street banks because smaller local banks lack the capacity to handle their complex business. In the US, banks taking deposits of public funds are required to pledge collateral against any funds exceeding the deposit insurance limit of $250,000. But derivative claims are also secured with collateral, and they have super-priority over all other claimants, including other secured creditors. The vault may be empty by the time local government officials get to the teller’s window. Main Street will again have been plundered by Wall Street.

Super-priority Status for Derivatives Increases Rather than Decreases Risk 

Harvard Law Professor Mark Row maintains that the super-priority status of derivatives needs to be repealed. He writes:
. . . [D]erivatives counterparties, . . . unlike most other secured creditors, can seize and immediately liquidate collateral, readily net out gains and losses in their dealings with the bankrupt, terminate their contracts with the bankrupt, and keep both preferential eve-of-bankruptcy payments and fraudulent conveyances they obtained from the debtor, all in ways that favor them over the bankrupt’s other creditors.
. . . [W]hen we subsidize derivatives and similar financial activity via bankruptcy benefits unavailable to other creditors, we get more of the activity than we otherwise would. Repeal would induce these burgeoning financial markets to better recognize the risks of counterparty financial failure, which in turn should dampen the possibility of another AIG-, Bear Stearns-, or Lehman Brothers-style financial meltdown, thereby helping to maintain systemic financial stability.
In The New Financial Deal: Understanding the Dodd-Frank Act and Its (Unintended) Consequences, David Skeel agrees. He calls the Dodd-Frank policy approach “corporatism” – a partnership between government and corporations. Congress has made no attempt in the legislation to reduce the size of the big banks or to undermine the implicit subsidy provided by the knowledge that they will be bailed out in the event of trouble.
Undergirding this approach is what Skeel calls “the Lehman myth,” which blames the 2008 banking collapse on the decision to allow Lehman Brothers to fail. Skeel counters that the Lehman bankruptcy was actually orderly, and the derivatives were unwound relatively quickly. Rather than preventing the Lehman collapse, the bankruptcy exemption for derivatives may have helped precipitate it.  When the bank appeared to be on shaky ground, the derivatives players all rushed to put in their claims, in a run on the collateral before it ran out. Skeel says the problem could be resolved by eliminating the derivatives exemption from the stay of proceedings that a bankruptcy court applies to other contracts to prevent this sort of run.

Putting the Brakes on the Wall Street End Game

Besides eliminating the super-priority of derivatives, here are some other ways to block the Wall Street asset grab:
(1) Restore the Glass-Steagall Act separating depository banking from investment banking. Support Marcy Kaptur’s H.R. 129.
(2) Break up the giant derivatives banks.  Support Bernie Sanders’ “too big to jail” legislation.
(3) Alternatively, nationalize the TBTFs, as advised in the New York Times by Gar Alperovitz.  If taxpayer bailouts to save the TBTFs are unacceptable, depositor bailouts are even more unacceptable.
(4) Make derivatives illegal, as they were between 1936 and 1982 under the Commodities Exchange Act. They can be unwound by simply netting them out, declaring them null and void.  As noted by Paul Craig Roberts, “the only major effect of closing out or netting all the swaps (mostly over-the-counter contracts between counter-parties) would be to take $230 trillion of leveraged risk out of the financial system.”
(5) Support the Harkin-Whitehouse bill to impose a financial transactions tax on Wall Street trading.  Among other uses, a tax on all trades might supplement the FDIC insurance fund to cover another derivatives disaster.
(5) Establish postal savings banks as government-guaranteed depositories for individual savings. Many countries have public savings banks, which became particularly popular after savings in private banks were wiped out in the banking crisis of the late 1990s.
(6) Establish publicly-owned banks to be depositories of public monies, following the lead of North Dakota, the only state to completely escape the 2008 banking crisis. North Dakota does not keep its revenues in Wall Street banks but deposits them in the state-owned Bank of North Dakota by law.  The bank has a mandate to serve the public, and it does not gamble in derivatives.
A motivated state legislature could set up a publicly-owned bank very quickly. Having its own bank would allow the state to protect both its own revenues and those of its citizens while generating the credit needed to support local business and restore prosperity to Main Street.
For more information on the public bank option, see here. Learn more at the Public Banking Institute conference June 2-4 in San Rafael, California, featuring Matt Taibbi, Birgitta Jonsdottir, Gar Alperovitz and others.