November 24, 2007
Elaine Meinel Supkis
The banking crisis continues unabated. Just the other day, the Federal Reserve had to dump huge sums into our own system. Friday, the Bank of Europe did the same. Liquidity has dried up like the Sahara. Both gold and oil continue to ratchet each other upwards as the dollar dies And the Federal Reserve thinks there is no crisis, just a little bump in the road. I want to bump them off the road. And congratulations to Australia for overturning their government. Let's see if the new guy can do a better job. For Australia is having the same housing bubble and investment collapse as the US and England.
ECB set to pump cash into money markets
Fresh emergency action to pump funds into the money markets was announced on Friday night by the European Central Bank amid renewed fears that liquidity in the credit markets is again starting to dry up.On Friday night, the bank said it would inject an unspecified amount of extra liquidity next week, noting “re-emerging tensions” – and would do so until at least the end of the year.
This morning, I mocked the Federal Reserve report from last Halloween. They made light of the evolving banking and lending crisis we are now suffering through. The entire function of the Federal Reserve is to protect the banking system from fraud and speculative bubbles. The Fed failed in this mission quite spectacularly in 1929-1934. So the Roosevelt government imposed the Security and Exchange Commission on the banking system as well as the Senate implosing the Oxley-Sarbanes regulations. These were tossed out, the O-S rules just this last year. Bingo!
We get a full-fledged banking crisis right out of the Great Depression text books! This roomful of illustrious economic wizards and witches peered into their crystal balls and saw 'good news' which is no recession, just everything stagnating pretty much. The status quo will win! Brutally.
Only the status quo is continuing to collapse. The Fed had to feed a record amount which is only less than the huge infusion of M3 funds during the 9/11 crisis. Now, again, Europe is doing the same. No one can figure out the exact sum anymore and no media dares talk about it except in whispers but I sense we just passed the $500 billion mark and are heading to a trillion and this banking crisis is far from over!
Also, we know we are in trouble if these guys use code words like 're-emerging tensions.' Are they suggesting that the bankers are again yelling at their hell hounds who chewed up the carpets, peed in the wading pool and are now biting the master? Bad doggies! Shame on you.
Earlier, Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, had pledged continuing action to keep short-term money market interest rates in line with its main policy rate.The new promise of intervention came as three-month US interbank rates rose for the eighth day in a row to 5.04 per cent, more than half a point higher than the US Fed Funds target rate of 4.5 per cent.
Three-month money usually trades just above the Fed Funds rate which is 4.5 per cent. Europe and UK money markets are showing similar strains.
Ah! Proof that the Fed interest rate is FAKE. It doesn't reflect either risk or inflation. Money is pouring into the oddest places now. For example, fleeing risk, people are loading their loot into bonds that are dropping lower and lower since so many are clamoring to clamber aboard. Like that Antarctic tourist ship that sank yesterday, they don't care if the life rafts are drafty and uncomfortable. It is better than dying in the cold seas. On the other hand, the rates banks are charging each other for money as they play their fancy computer games of moving money and hedging money and lending money and creating money has broken down due to wild fluxing currencies. The assumptions of dollar value have collapsed and now, banks are increasingly unable to do business for even a few hours, particularly overnight. Ghosts and goblins abound.
Yesterday, I drew a bar graph that showed clearly, the US, the EU and Japan all had by far and away, the world's fastest growing M3 rates. The liquidity this represented, if I piled all the top big players one on top of the other, dwarfed China's growth rate. This signals to me that the belief that China is behind global inflation and the liquidity that is pouring all over the place is a false belief. The true story is, Japan is behind this liquidity pool and the US and Europe have overwhelmed it by sucking down too much.
The top three M3 producing markets together made nearly $34 TRILLION while China made a tiny amount, only $5 trillion. The US/EU/Japan troika made 7 times what China made. If we add the UK to this, it would be $37 trillion. If we took England's $4 trillion and China's $5 trillion and add them together, both are equal to all the rest of the world outside of the US/EU/Japan troika.
This, in a nutshell, is why there is a banking crisis now. Something between the US, Europe and Japan has gone very, very bad. And the central bankers of each market has refused to admit, what this 're-emerging TENSION' actually is. We know that Trichert and Bernanke and the Bank of Japan knows perfectly well, what is causing their neck muscles to tighten up and their shoulders to hunch forwards. It is the fear that the 'carry trade' has evaporated. Collapsed. And can't be easily revived. Not with China wanting a stronger yen.
Wall Street's money machine breaks down
Two things stand out about the credit crisis cascading through Wall Street: It is both totally shocking and utterly predictable.Shocking, because a pack of the highest-paid executives on the planet, lauded as the best minds in business and backed by cadres of math whizzes and computer geeks, managed to lose tens of billions of dollars on exotic instruments built on the shaky foundation of subprime mortgages.
Predictable because whether it's junk bonds or tech stocks or emerging-market debt, Wall Street always rides a wave until it crashes. As the fees roll in, one firm after another abandons itself to the lure of easy money, then hands back, in a sudden, unforeseen spasm, a big chunk of the profits it booked in good times.
"The fee engine becomes so huge that these products take on a life of their own," says Tiger Williams, CEO of Williams Trading, a leading financial services firm for hedge funds. "Everyone rationalizes that it's safe because they're making so much money. But it's far from safe."
So, the overnight rate keeps trying to shoot through the roof. The Federal Reserve and the Bank of Europe must keep pumping in money which makes the M3 rates shoot ever higher. And on top of this, they have done it now to the tune of how many billions? How about over half a trillion? This article from CNN is correct about fund managers and others going wild, trying to generate fees and bonuses for themselves. This is the whole 'We love RISKY because she gives us lots of sex even though this also means syphilis.'
What irks me the most about the Federal Reserve is, they seem to pretend they have only two functions: to control prices in the same sense that communist governments dictate prices. The other is to keep us employed and the stock market up. Alas, these functions have gotten so out of whack with reality, the true primary function of the Federal Reserve which is to have a RESERVE, has been totally lost. This loss has benefited many people but it is rapidly destroying our nation as well as our economic base. Also, note that the wilder games by executives seeking fees and goodies for themselves comes right on the heels of huge tax cuts for them as well as the US allowing English tax havens to protect the wealth of these very rich people. This is, by definition, unbalanced. And is the rot at the heart of our economic system.
The blow to shareholder wealth is staggering. Since June 29, Citi's share price has dropped 35%, from $51 to $33, while Merrill's stock has slid from $84 to $54, a 36% swoon. In the same period, the dozen biggest Wall Street firms and the commercial banks with the largest investment arms - a list that includes Bank of America , J.P. Morgan Chase , and Credit Suisse have lost more than $240 billion in market value. Dozens of smaller companies in the mortgage business have suffered huge losses or folded completely.
Ah, more numbers! Let's see: the super-rich and super-well-connected have lost around $250 billion? And the banking system needed around half a trillion to be saved? I would suggest the true losses are probably half a trillion so far since the babysitters for these rich Masters of the University of Greed had to pump that much into the system to make up for missing 'liquidty.' I am glad my children, when teenagers, didn't ask for 'liquidity.' But then, they knew I would give them a glass of milk. Not more money.
Gold Has Biggest Weekly Gain Since July 2006 on Dollar's Slump
Gold jumped 3.3 percent, capping the biggest weekly gain since July 2006, as the dollar's decline to a record against the euro and climbing energy costs sparked demand for the metal as a hedge against inflation.The price of gold has surged 29 percent this year, and the dollar is down 10 percent to the lowest ever against a basket of six currencies, including the euro and the yen. Crude oil closed above $98 a barrel, and heating oil climbed to a record.
The new status quo hatched 2 years ago when gold woke up to find her companion, Black Gold, aka, oil, was surging to super-highs. So, as usual, both are now galloping in tandem ever upwards. The dollar is dying and this is a new paradigm. The old carry trade system has fallen apart. The new system features rising inflation even as this is ignored in the three market communities which I charted above. The US/EU and Japan are all studiously ignoring all this and pretending the queer financial data changes that are now relentlessly chopping apart the old status quo, are unreal. Or unimportant. Time to dump another load of money down the banking crisis toilet!
Who benefits and suffers from record-high crude isn't always so obvious
When the price at the pump doesn't rise as fast as the price of the raw material going into the refinery, refining margins shrink. That's been the case almost across the board since the summer, at Exxon Mobil and Chevron and right on down the line.
The instability of the dollar is making life difficult for the oil merchants as well as our top trade partners like Mexico and Canada. The recent rush upwards with the Canadian dollar still mystifies, it jumped to nearly $1.10 to the US dollar then fell back to $1.03. It has been much weaker than the dollar for years and years! Now it is fluctuating so violently, anyone holding contracts that had FX hedges protecting future sales or buys are now in total chaos and lord knows, how much money is being lost now that the loonie is constantly well above its historic relationship with the dollar.
Rising gas prices also spell trouble for automobile manufacturers, who face falling sales and slowly swelling inventories of unsold trucks and SUVs. Much of this has to do with the crisis in residential building, since contractors aren't buying new trucks, but the combined effect is producing some major concerns in Detroit, especially following GM's big third-quarter loss. And GM's share price has declined nearly 40% in just six weeks.But mileage is a rising concern chipping steadily away at light-truck sales, forcing the industry to fall back on dreaded incentives. Even Toyota is using incentives to lure customers to its big, slow-selling Tundra pickup, which is starting to look like a rare misstep by the Japanese manufacturer.
All things that help us cope with high oil prices are seeing huge inflation. All things depending on cheap oil are seeing deflationary prices. Since the geniuses running the central banks won't admit this is what is happening, we get to suffer some of the whackiest financial whipsawing ever. For example, I was at Central Tractor buying tractor stuff. I noticed their log splitters there. Last year, we paid $650 for one. Today, they are going for $1,100. This is nearly double last year's price! Talk about inflation. Wood stoves are going for much more than last year Gas miser cars that get over 40mpg are at much higher prices than even last year. You couldn't give them away three years ago when we bought ours! Cheap!
Generally speaking, the more expensive gas misers go for the same as the cheaper SUVs and trucks. As for Toyota's Tundra. Anyone using that will probably be living in an igloo since they won't be able to afford heating their homes once they spend $100 filling the tank.
ICBC Overseas Assets `Insufficient,' Seeks Acquisition Targets
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. has ``insufficient'' assets overseas and seeks more investments abroad, President Yang Kaisheng said, even as he denied the lender plans to buy a stake in Standard Chartered Plc.``ICBC will pursue a combined strategy of acquisitions and new projects in expanding overseas,'' Yang said today at a finance conference in Beijing. ``Overseas diversification is an important way for Chinese banks to spread risks against cyclical economic downturns.''
Instead of making lots and lots of M3 stuff, the Chinese have built up their huge FOREX reserves and are also now taking money outside to invest it. They want to have some say over our systems. They want to own us. Of course. We handed them the keys to the front door and the Toyota Tundra we bought from the Japanese carry trade. Now they will drive over us with this.
China’s biggest steel group adds voice to global chorus against Rio-BHP deal
China has condemned BHP Billiton’s plan to take over Rio Tinto, its rival mining giant, as the creation of “an even bigger monopoly”.The steelmakers of the People’s Republic have added their voices to a worldwide chorus of protest against BHP Billiton’s project, which they fear would enable the two companies to corner the Asian trade in iron ore.
Mounting alarm in Beijing came after warnings on Monday in Tokyo and in Brussels, where European steelmakers lobby urged the European Commission to block the takeover.
Well, well, well. Seems there is a huge amount of 'liquidity' still floating about. And it is moving into commodities, not the other fund destinations. And this is causing problems for everyone. All periods of inflation leads to consolidation of industries or resources. This is why oil giants have all merged or joined themselves with national systems, seeking bigger and bigger sizes. Bottling companies, breweries, restaurants, drug stores, media, you name it, they are being made bigger and bigger and competition is vanishing. This leads to inflation, of course. Inflation feeds this force.
Fresh protests are dogging the progress of Marius Kloppers, the BHP chief executive, as he tours Far Eastern capitals.He is on a charm offensive, hoping to quell the increasing anxiety of BHP’s Asian customers that the mining mega-merger would leave them at the mercy of a single Anglo-Australian supplier.
This news reminds me to mention, the conservative government of Howard has fallen and is being replaced. This will mean a change of direction. Many in Australia have been unhappy with the relations with the US and our endless oil wars which are now driving up the price of oil so high.
PM Howard concedes Australia poll
Mr Howard said he had telephoned Labor leader Kevin Rudd "to congratulate him on an emphatic victory".In his victory speech, he thanked Mr Howard for his "dignity" in defeat and for his "extensive contribution to public service".He promised to "forge a new consensus" by ending the "old battles of the past" between business and unions, and between economic growth and environmental concerns.
During the campaign, Labor sought to capitalise on the Howard administration's refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol on climate change.
The effects of global warming on Australia is pretty strong. Also, all over the world, people are getting fed up with their status quo. In England, there is unhappiness with Labour who has sold out its constituents in the working classes and has irritated the upper classes by forbidding fox hunting, for example. I have hunted foxes but this is because they hunt my chickens and bother the bees. So we will see what course Australia charts in all this. They are having the exact same housing bubble the US and England and much of Europe have been experiencing this last 5 years.
Merrill predicts 2% Fed funds rate, dismal economic outlook
The Federal Reserve will slash its target rate for overnight loans to 2% by the end of the second quarter of 2009, Merrill Lynch economists predict in a new report.“For much of this past year, we thought the Fed would be cutting rates faster and deeper than the markets were anticipating in response to the dramatic unwind of the housing and credit bubbles,” Merrill’s David Rosenberg and four colleagues wrote in the report.
The economists said in the report that they did not believe inflation would stand in the way of rate cuts.
Inflation will be here with a vengeance if we keep consuming oil and keep threatening wars in oil pumping nations or if we force everyone to boycott the Iranians or whoever we finger next. A host of Muslim nations are on the long list of nations we can embargo. As for 2% interest rates: the Japanese haven't budged above 0.5% for YEARS now and have no intention of moving. So we might as well be as stubborn and stupid. Why bother with the fiction of a just return on savings? Who needs savings when the US/EU and Japan simply make up money out of thin air? Rev up the helicopter, Ben!
And the idea that we fix housing bubbles by making loans super-cheap is utter insanity. Many people got 2% teaser rate loans which have gone into arrears LONG BEFORE RESETTING to a higher rate! So the problem isn't low loans, it is housing set too high. If house prices are too high, even 0% loans are impossible. So why kill savings just to make more people buy houses at higher and higher valuations?
Commodity and energy costs will weigh heavily on corporate profitability, the economists said. Merrill is forecasting that S&P operating earnings will grow 4% in 2007, decline 2.4% in 2008 and rise 2.3% in 2009.In addition, the economists forecast “very anemic” GDP growth of 1.4% in 2008. And 2009 will not be much better, said the economists, with GDP growth at 2%.
So all the experts are expecting slow growth? How will we do this with a constant banking crisis creeping up on us and demanding increasingly bigger and bigger bail outs? If the Fed wants super-growth, will they be tempted to cheat and lower rates to Japanese levels again like Greenspan did when he thought we would go into a recession in 2000? What happens with this bubble then busts? We will be TWICE AS MUCH in debt!
Moody’s says PE shops bolster corporate governance, but heavy leverage trumps any benefit
Support for private equity funds came from an unlikely source late Tuesday when Moody’s Investors Service issued a report claiming buyout firms actually “bring some governance strength” to their targeted companies, such as active boards, strong financial controls and pay for performance culture.Private equity firms have long been cast as a threat to bondholders because a company’s bonds tend to fall in price when a private equity firm attempts to buy it. And Mark Watson, managing director and head of the corporate governance specialist team at Moody’s, pointed out to Financial Week that high leverage is still the “dominant force” and trumps any governance benefits.
The price of having someone 'dynamic' to come in and ruthlessly cut, dice up, sell off or eliminate things means your wealth will increase so why hate these pirates and hell hounds? But of course, the issue of 'leverage' arises. These creeps use carry trade debts to do these miracles. They don't use their own money. Nor do they pay up if things go wrong. They take their golden parachute and drift back to earth, much richer, while the other, real investors, are stuck with the delinquencies.
EverBank World Markets
OK.. I've got to share this with you... A reader sent me a note last night that goes... "On tonight's nightly biz report, someone said that Bernanke won't let down Xmas shoppers and celebrations--ergo, another rate decrease. So now it's being pegged on the need to protect Xmas!And then that was followed by one of the funniest things I've seen lately... It's a spoof, but a very funny one... You take a cereal box, and instead of seeing Tony the Tiger on the front of the box, you see Big Ben Bernanke's face... And the name of the Cereal is called... "Credit Crunch" I'm laughing out loud here, but there's more! Then here are the funny adds all over the box... "A free helicopter inside", "Fortified with Hedge Funds", "now with sugar coated derivatives" LOL!
The Daily Pfenning can be quite amusing. And yes, there are childish demands for Bernanke to play Santa this Xmas. He is going to save everything by showing up with many toys wrapped in foil. Toys from Asia. Even as our banking system dies, it still works hard to bring us good cheer even if our savings accounts are being wrecked.
Culture of Life News Main Page
From the article cited by Elaine: It's the thrid act, and Risky takes the stage:
Posted by: Frank | November 25, 2007 at 02:06 AM
Yep we finally got rid of that george dubya lovin jackboot johnny howard!!! thank god!
Posted by: Greg | November 25, 2007 at 02:42 AM
About time, mate!
Posted by: OC | November 25, 2007 at 02:59 AM
and his policies of exclusion!!! in areas of health, education, social conscience/justice ......a bush clone, any bloke that bush calls a mate must be a prick!!!!!!!
Posted by: Greg | November 25, 2007 at 05:11 AM
Just to correct you slightly: Australia hasn't experienced anywhere near the housing correction of the US or the UK. In fact, we are still talking about "mortgage stress" here (high mortgage payments as a proportion of income due to still very high house prices). We desperately need a bursting of the housing "bubble" but it hasn't happened (yet) due to continued low interest rates and the traditional Aussie practice of buying property. No-doc home loans have infected our market too with predictable results - speculative purchases of investment properties. Whilst the new government may be welcomed for other reasons, some (ironically) welcome the possibility of substantially higher interest rates, as the only solution to the housing "crisis" we have here.
Posted by: Timbo | November 25, 2007 at 06:02 AM
Hi Elaine, congratulations on the blog, not sure you are right about the housing bubble in Australia, I sold my house here recently due to fears about a bubble, but prices continue to rise. One buffer against a bubble on the coast here is that there is very limited new development and there just arent any home sitting around waiting for people to fill them. Rental vacancies are only a couple of percent and 50 people will line up to look through an apartment in Sydney. So there is little chance of excess supply, even a 5% "correction" over one year would be a huge movement if the "bubble" burst.
Posted by: Craigd | November 25, 2007 at 06:55 AM
Greg said....
"Yep we finally got rid of that george dubya lovin jackboot johnny howard!!!"
Now we should follow suit here in Canada and get rid of our Prime Minstrel, Stephen Harper, who is also a "George Dubya Lovin' Jackboot" to the nines! Harper needs a good dick punch as he echoes most of what Bushco flings upon U.S. citizens.
Posted by: Blunt Force Trauma | November 25, 2007 at 08:24 AM
Next year the American citizens have a chance to turn things around. His name is Ron Paul and if Dr. Paul is elected the NWO and North American Union plans will be dealt a deadly blow. We can only hope!
Posted by: jsragman | November 25, 2007 at 11:48 AM
I didn't say the Aussie bubble has burst, it EXISTS. And alas, will burst the same as England. Australia is right behind all of us more reckless economies. There is a property bubble in China, too, as well as Russia, of all places.
Everywhere but Germany, it seems.
Anyway, congratulations, OZ!
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | November 25, 2007 at 11:53 AM
You know, I am tired already of this "let's elect Ron Paul" stuff. He has no real solution to the problem that vexes us. If you think that he will get away with banishing the Federal Reserve, then you need to read about what happened to JFK when he did the same thing.
He was assassinated in a brutal manner on live television.
As soon as Ron Paul signs any document that terminates the Federal Reserve or its money making powers, he will have only days to live.
I have not heard him talk about how he intends to prevent that from happening. When he openly acknowledges it and puts forth a plan to prevent it, then I will listen to what he has to say.
I believe Hitler once said: "There you stand with your books, and here I stand with my bayonets. We shall see who prevails."
The bayonets prevailed in all cases for many years. Fortunately, we had more bayonets than the Germans had at that time, but this will not always be so. Even Mao understood this.
When the Federal Reserve and those it serves realize that Ron Paul will sign a document eliminating their monopoly to create money and thus control all of mankind, what do think they will do? We already know from the past what they will do.
What is Ron Paul's plan to deal with this?
Posted by: DeVaul | November 25, 2007 at 01:30 PM
I second the motion by DeVaul.
It's interesting to watch what's happening in Venezuela, and the mainstream media's consistent attacks on Hugo Chavez.
Even Keith Olbermann is spouting the rhetoric that he is ruining the country and he is a madman.
Venezuela is an experiment funded by oil, which has wealth redistribution, empowerment of the people, healthcare, and education at its core.
Now, if you look at Chavez and think about the powers he wants to have, and ask would you give them to Bush/Cheney, the answer is a resounding NO. Why?
Because Bush has and will continue to abuse the powers he has and it is dangerous to give him more...actually he needs less.
But...if you looked at Kucinich as President and say...here have the same powers as Chavez.. I would say..sure. Why?
Kucinich and Chavez need the increased power to affect positive change. The rich who have had a strangle hold over Venezuela are not happy with this, and so they try to buy off, cheat, steal, lie, manipulate the media to try to keep what they have.
The only real issue I have with Chavez, is his militarist bent. But then again, realistically he has more to worry about than mainland U.S....and look at how much we spend on the military.
Progressives in this country need someone like Chavez...not the man...but someone to really shake things up. ( and not get shot in the process).
Posted by: Big | November 25, 2007 at 02:35 PM
I wasn't aware of Sarbanes-Oxley being repealed, but perhaps it has. However, that only came into existence after the 2000 crash. I believe it was Glass Stegall that was enacted at the same time as the SEC was created, in the wake of the 1929 crash, and repealed in 1999?
Posted by: John | November 25, 2007 at 02:59 PM
And don't forget that Ron Paul is a social conservative.
The definition is here:
http://www.counterpunch.org/green11242007.html
Posted by: Big | November 25, 2007 at 03:01 PM
And BTW, DeVaul, I'm going right now to sign the delegate petition for Ron Paul in my state.
EFF the monitary elite.
Posted by: John | November 25, 2007 at 03:04 PM
So...... what's the plan, John?
Assuming, for the sake of argument, he is elected in a landslide. He signs a document allowing the US Treasury to print its own money and NOT charge interest on it to the American people.
Of course, the Federal Reserve will then be out of business, unless something happens to the good doctor. After that "something" happens, what then?
Yes, there will be weeping and wailing and maybe even a slow train ride for his coffin from DC to Texas and lots of sympathy for his poor wife and his loyal followers, etc. But what of it?
Ron Paul is old. He lives in a fantasy world that claims that the late 1800's were a Golden Era in America and that returning to the original constitution will solve all our problems (let's just ignore the Civil War for now). He has nothing to lose and might even relish the idea of being remembered as some kind of "martyr" for the Republic.
That is not enough for me to drag my ass to the polling booth. I am not interested in more of the same, no matter how spectacular it will appear on TV.
At some point, we must all throw our lot in with someone whether we like it or not. That is the way life is. I will wait for someone who at least has a plan to take us where we need to be now and not 200 years ago.
Posted by: DeVaul | November 25, 2007 at 03:38 PM
Well said Devaul
Posted by: Oops | November 25, 2007 at 03:45 PM
As for Kucinich, he withdrew from the race. His statement that he saw a UFO or whatever was his way of ensuring that he would not be considered a viable candidate.
Why did he do this? Who knows? Maybe he woke up and found a dead horse head in his bed. We will find out in about 50 years.
Now, Ron Paul, to his credit, would not be afraid of a dead horse head. He would probably mount it on the wall and invite everyone to come see it. But this is irrelevant.
Our ancestors did not stand in an open field shoulder to shoulder against British Regulars so that they could have another king. They were fighting for a whole NEW GOVERNMENT.
One that would exclude all kings, aristocrats, bankers and moneylenders. It would also be decentralized, having three separate branches that could veto the excesses of the others.
That government failed and was replaced by the current system, so what is Ron Paul's plan?
Posted by: DeVaul | November 25, 2007 at 03:51 PM
I will write in Kucinich precisely because he said he saw a UFO. I've never seen one, but I like the UFO concept. It's very popular at the moment!
Posted by: blues | November 25, 2007 at 04:15 PM
Seeing an unidentified flying object isn't exactly like seeing green aliens. The question was meant to embarrass Kucinich, and summarily discount his positions and ACTUAL PLANS to improve human life in this country.
Of course , if they asked Ron Paul or any other candidate:
Do you believe in virgin births, or dead people rising from the grave, or healing by touch?
The answer would be yes and credible. Ha.
Kucinich cannot get elected because he looks like Kucinich and he would attack the owners of this country if elected. His policies, however, embrace humanity and aim to repair what has been lost over the years.
This UFO thing is red-herring. For budding constitutionalists out there, they should spend their effort helping to uphold the constitution by supporting Kucinich's call to impeach the criminals in office now.
Posted by: Big | November 25, 2007 at 05:21 PM
Elaine,
The Europeans are thinking of imposing currency controls - check out this article:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/business/ambrosevanspritchard/nov07/europe-exchange-control.htm
Will Europe impose exchange controls to head off disaster? Posted by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Euro dollar is buckling..
Posted by: OC | November 25, 2007 at 05:27 PM
Big re: Chavez
I agree with your comments regarding Chavez. Among the many things not getting a lot of coverage here, he only wants to extend his rule for another year, a 7th. what seems to be upsetting the Venezuelan upper classes more than the term extension is the delegation of a lot of the decision making process to the municipality level.
Posted by: Al | November 25, 2007 at 06:20 PM
Dear Elaine, do not ever stop your blogging, 'nuf said.
Have you read this great article by Antal E Fekete: http://www.professorfekete.com/articles%5CAEFTheShadowPyramid.pdf
"Derivatives made easy.
We have the Chinese puzzle wrapped in mystery inside of an enigma to solve. I would certainly count the Chinese among not just the biggest, but the shrewdest and most skillful bond speculators ever, backed up by their unprecedented kitty of well over one trillion dollars in T-bonds. I would even go so far as suggesting that a large part of this kitty has originated, not so much in trade surplus but, rather, in bond speculation. After all, the Chinese have been active players at the blackjack table where the chips are U.S. bonds, since the early 1980s. They have played their hand quite adroitly. It would be out of character if they all of a sudden turned into dummies."
Take care
/H
Posted by: Hakan with the reindeers | November 25, 2007 at 06:39 PM
Al,
The wealthy don't like true representative democracy, and they surely don't like worker's rights.
It's tough to know what's happening on the ground..but will all of the news brushing aside the true dictatorship of Pakistan ( nuclear weapons and all), they choose to focus on Venezuela...and leave out the positive things that have happened since Chavez came to power.
One of the biggest things that irks me is when the wealthy own all of land, preventing the population from farming, so they have to import expensive food from other countries. Venezuela was a prime example. A naturally rich country, with extremely poor population.
Posted by: Big | November 25, 2007 at 07:39 PM
Thanks for all the links, everyone. And yes, the Chinese have been playing FX games for a while, after all, they figured out international money exchanges right in front of me. I watched the process with fascination. Once they figured out the post-Bretton Woods II game, they loved it.
This is why everyone yaps at them about the yuan but the battle between them and Japan over the yen/yuan values is so amusing and horrible at the same time.
About the Glass-Stegall Act: you are CORRECT, John! 100%. I goofed. But the other act has been repealed, too, just this last month! I wrote about it. They removed it just in time for everything to collapse. The wretches.
Posted by: Elaine Supkis | November 25, 2007 at 11:25 PM
devaul: You seem to think you have the answers. What would your plan be? Dr. Paul isn't perfect but he is infinitely better than anyone else in the hunt. Who are you behind in this race?
Posted by: ragman | November 26, 2007 at 08:50 AM
Ragman,
Please do not make assumptions about me. If you do not like me, then say so, but do not attack me from behind.
I have said before and I will again: I do not know the solution, and I am NOT the only person who has said this. While I do not know the solution, I do know that traveling the same road again is pointless. We will find nothing new on that road, so why not try a different road?
As for me not being the only person who wondered if there even was a solution, I give you Exhibit A: Johnny Silver Bear. The man who runs the Silver Bear Cafe.
He stated, and I quote: "What purpose would a revolution serve? Who among us has a solution?"
That was several years ago, but it appears now from his website that he has found his man: Dr. Ron Paul. I find this to be a major cop-out. The question asked was pertinant -- extremely so. To then grab at something like Ron Paul's campaign and propose this as a "revolution" of some kind is just ridiculous. We have been down this road before, and we know where it ends.
Here is something to ponder, Ragman. After the Russian revolution had swept away the old aristocracy and the Czar and the white Russians, Lenin, the intellectual leader of this revolution, asked a simple question: "Was tun?" (What to do?)
If Lenin can ask questions like that and not be ridiculed for it, then so can I.
Posted by: DeVaul | November 26, 2007 at 10:47 AM
I did not know Sarbanes-Oxley had been repealed. We still get books and publications on that here in the library. I am very surprised by this. That was a major law. Things really are moving fast (assuming this news is true).
Posted by: DeVaul | November 26, 2007 at 10:58 AM
devaul: I'm not attacking anyone "from behind". It is really none of my business what you stand for, everyone is entitled to a n opinion, which I may or may not agree with. I respect your opinion even if I disagree with it, which I do. None of us know what a Ron Paul administration will do. Neither you nor anyone else can predict what will happen five minutes from now, let alone a year or two into a new administration. However, I do firmly believe that in the context of this election Ron Paul is the best choice for a CHANGE. I'm willing to give the man a chance.
Posted by: ragman | November 26, 2007 at 12:15 PM
In our present landscape, Ron Paul IS a 'revolution.' Let's not misunderstand this simple fact. I disagree with a lot of his positions. He doesn't take into account things like my husband, hurt at work and unable to be a professional photographer due to brain injury caused by chemical poisoning (this was before electronic cameras, alas).
He thinks everyone should sink or swim. Well, the Pentagon has been hammering soldiers with obvious brain injuries as 'not disabled' even as they are unable to work. The price people pay who are at the forefront of the work/war force is considerable. Doctors like Paul may make sacrifices, etc. But he didn't have his hand hacked off or brain battered while delivering babies unless the wails of the babies in Congress has caused him some brain damage.
But he does cut to the chase here and few are doing this. Certainly, the top candidates being pushed by the media are not telling us anything at all. The presumption is, they will maintain this status quo.
Both I and Ron Paul say, this is no longer possible. Kucinich is a good candidate who will never see the light of day and he is busy so he can't push very hard and the left is, unlike the libertarian right, totally disorganized and demoralized.
For much of the left wants the STATUS QUO. Ergo: Ron Paul really is a 'revolutionary.' Or 'reactionary' since unlike me, he wants a mythical past. One that he barely understands.
As a lady who lived an actual Victorian lifestyle with horses, oxen, kerosene lamps and no electricity. Cooking on a wood stove, by god, I'll tell you, those years were HARD WORK. Try carrying pails of water or boiling down snow for water! For years and years!
Heh. Ouch.
Anyway, the past may be our future but right now, few Americans want this .
Posted by: Elaine Supkis | November 26, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Ragman,
Your statement: "None of us know what a Ron Paul administration will do." is the very problem that I have with Ron Paul.
What point is there in voting for someone who will not say what they will do once in office? This has been our system for years now, ever since I was born. It must stop.
If Ron Paul were to say the following:
"I will move quickly to abolish the Federal Reserve and all its member banks, arrest their officers, and arrest all other bankers who used this system to make money off of American taxpayers for 100 years and incarcerate them in a private cell and then toss the keys into the sea," I would vote for him, for this is the first step towards a lasting "solution" to our current problems.
If his platform is to sign some papers and then get his head blown off like Kennedy did... well, I think I will just pass.
The last piece of the puzzle fell into place for me the other day. It was not here, but that does not matter. I can see the whole picture now thanks to Elaine and others who did so much in-depth research.
Unless the Fed is torn to shreds and eradicated along with all its supporters and clients, there is no solution that will work in this country -- mythical or otherwise.
There. That would be the first step in "my plan", if I had one. If it is not Ron Paul's first step, then I will not vote for him.
Posted by: DeVaul | November 26, 2007 at 12:55 PM
DeVaul: I'm kinda new to Elaine's website. She is one incredible writer! She has certainly opened my eyes on a lot of topics. I'll try to find a reference on Ron Paul and the fed. I know he has said in the past that he would abolish it. I was in High School when Kennedy was shot. The point you make linking his death with issuing notes directly from the Treasury is spot on. Our Masters will attempt to preserve the status quo at all costs.
Posted by: ragman | November 27, 2007 at 09:04 AM
I learned about this information recently from an article on the Silver Bear Cafe, which is the only other website I visit besides Elaine's. Of all the conspiracy theories I have heard during my lifetime, this was the only one that made sense. It was a long time coming and it also has a long precedent in America.
Andrew Jackson, one of the first presidents after the Founding Father generation, was brutally attacked by the media even though a majority of the population supported him. His crime? He opposed the establishment of a national bank with powers to print money (i.e. bills of credit). He survived, but he and his wife were traumatized for life.
A judge in Alabama ruled that the Federal Reserve was unconstitutional because it emited bills of credit without giving consideration in return for such. He was assassinated two weeks later. His ruling was then overturned with little comment.
JFK was the last president to oppose the moneymakers. He signed an order granting the US Treasury the right to print its own money and not charge the American people interest on it. It would be backed by the silver and gold holdings of the US Treasury.
He was shot dead sometime later, the huge silver holdings were sold off completely over time, and the gold was sold off as well until Nixon put a stop to it. We all know what happened to him after that.
Robert Kennedy advocated a return to silver certificates and the reintroduction of silver coinage. He was assassinated, again on live TV.
It would not surprise me one bit to learn that Martin Luther King was murdered because of some threat he posed to the moneymakers, and the same goes for the attempt on Reagan's life by someone who, again, had no connection whatsoever to the intended target. Notice the assassins are all considered to be "crazy" and when not, they are assassinated themselves.
The Secret Service no longer protects presidents from assassination, it spends its time tracking down counterfeiters.
Are there any more dots to connect?
The silver is all gone, so there is no possibility of returning to silver coinage. The gold will soon be gone also, so there is no possibility of a gold back currency. That leaves only the moneymakers and their complicated moneymaking machine.
Many people have found out their names, their various organizations (Illuminati, Counsel on Foreign Relations, Masons, Fabions, etc.), the fact that they are all interrelated by marriage and business ties, but these things are not the link that holds them together. These links are tenuous at best.
What holds them together and allows them to fight as one entity is their desire to preserve their hard won right to create money and wealth out of thin air, using only a pen and a piece of paper. By this mechanism they do not need to work or produce anything, they need only rule those who do.
If you had achieved the power to buy anything in the world, using only a pen and a piece of paper, and someone was demanding that this power be taken away from you, what would you do?
Who has a solution to this problem and a plan to implement it?
Who?
Posted by: DeVaul | November 27, 2007 at 09:55 AM
Very good, De Vaul.
The ruling elites rule via the sword. Justice holds the sword as well as the scales.
The elites try to get along. Note that Gore went to the White House to visit our dictator this week. And so it goes: everyone gets along even as they contest over the steering wheel of our Good Ship Even Keel and as it lurches into a terrible typhoon, they squabble with each other but all don't care if the guys in the hold shoveling coal into the blast furnace drown.
And this is why we have history: when the working masses begin to do something or follow some leader, we see actual violence. King was assassinated because he was supporting a municipal worker's strike when some garbage collectors were crushed to death during a storm when their bosses, who were white, locked them out of the office because they were black. So they took shelter in a dump truck rear and when it was started, it crushed them.
I once witnessed such an accident years ago. It was horrible. The man was cut in two. This started a strike, King went there to force the media to see what was happening and then he was shot.
I was in Germany at the time and things were very tense on the military bases there as black soldiers were very angry. The military base in the American sector shut down.
Posted by: Elaine Supkis | November 27, 2007 at 10:44 AM
DeVaul&Elaine: If they continue to "create money" out of thin air ad infinitum, won't this creation ultimately result in a dollar that is worth ZERO? Then what? Maybe too many questions without answers.
Posted by: ragman | November 27, 2007 at 12:48 PM
Dr King was a great man. You can read his speeches, and he knew exactly what was going on in the world. Race relations, US foreign policy. Other civil rights leaders cautioned him on his opposition to the war, knowing the Dem leaders were tolerant of civil rights activism but not Dr King's antiwar stance. His death, his murder, was a terrible loss.
Posted by: Al | November 27, 2007 at 05:20 PM
Quite right, Al.
Posted by: Elaine Supkis | November 27, 2007 at 11:49 PM
It is a simple matter that banks are reluctant to lend to one another because people cannot make mortgage repayments which the banks use in turn to profit from selling on and re-lending to private customers. But this means they have no money to honour savings accounts. Then there is money tied up in property that cannot be easily sold, which is equivalent to taking money out of circulation. One may think that this is anti-inflationary, but because of increases in oil prices and staple food supplies, this cites supplementary inflation. The answer to the main question of financial market instability lies with oil and gold. Let America be less selfish and contribute to world oil production, then this would stabilize oil prices. If governments were to invest in gold and use the returns to support the banking system short term, this too would be a stabilization factor. Stable oil prices would mean guaranteed customs revenue from petroleum products; consumers would feel far better if they are to suffer from financial insecurity via duties rather than from taxes at source. Why not use the most demanded commodities to support world economies? It is possible; the wealth is out there - we should not be thinking a myriad of home repossessions and extension of hardship - the whole of the oil and gold markets are open to buyers and investors; there is no restriction.
Posted by: DAVID COX | October 07, 2008 at 08:09 PM