June 24, 2008
Elaine Meinel Supkis
As global hyper-inflation increases, the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates which feeds this global inflation. Instead of understanding this, the Fed thinks it will fix this via the magic of free Funny Money™. Isn't that pathetic? 101 economists predict the Fed will keep interest rates at 2% or less for the foreseeable future and the Bank of Japan will keep theirs at 0.5% forever, too. And no one below the top 1% of both nations will see any benefits from this super-cheap lending. Instead, savings will continue to plummet in both Japan and the US. So the bankers are demanding the central bankers give them more billions to make up for lost savings. Eh? Gads. More inflation fun from the top two economies of this planet!
Bernanke Plays `Dangerous Game' Balancing Rate Talk With Action
(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, by voicing concern about inflation and the slumping dollar, has fanned investor expectations for an interest-rate increase as soon as August. He may regret it.Raising rates may exacerbate the economic slowdown and roil banks whose losses sent their stocks down the most in a decade this month. Forgoing a rate boost next quarter risks damaging the Fed's credibility and deepening its divisions. Already this year, three officials have dissented on rate decisions.
While Bernanke's warning that the Fed will ``strongly resist'' a jump in inflation expectations led traders to bet on a rate increase, economists are more skeptical. All 101 in a Bloomberg News survey said the Federal Open Market Committee will keep the benchmark rate unchanged tomorrow and most analysts this month predicted officials will stand pat until 2009.
101 Dalmatian economists are certainly calling this one right: Bernanke and company will not raise interest rates no matter what the hell happens to the dollar, to inflation, to anything. This is because the Depression Japan model is our template. The Bank of Japan utterly ignores inflation. They try to suppress inflation by reducing the domestic economy to the barest necessities and then try putting the lower population on a starvation diet. This can work in the short run. Then, using this endless pool of free Funny Money™ that near-zero percent loans provide only for the export industries, they can ruthlessly colonize the rest of the industrial planetary systems.
The US ruling elites see how this operates and they never, ever discuss it. People think that ruling elites hate depressions. They do! But they LOVE inflations. Everything they pass to us peons gets inflated and they collect the life savings of all the lower classes, the other 90% of the people. They even openly talk about how good it is for people to be forced to buy risky schemes cooked up by the elites rather than old fashioned savings in banks that, in turn, loan the savings to borrowers at a decent interest rate.
The dual lending system Japan runs is now our own system: interest rates to the wealthy 1% elites is set far below the rate of inflation. Interest rates to the middle class run at a good 400-600 basis points over the rates set for the ruling elites. And the poor pay 2000-100,000 basis points more in interest on credit cards, quickie street loans and other schemes. The lower working classes who need credit the most are put in perpetual financial jeopardy, the middle class pays the full real rate of inflation but the top 1% of the US economic classes get a special treat: super cheap loans!
This greases their economic wheels big time, doesn't it? The middle class is told, 'If we don't give super-cheap, sub-inflation level loans to the biggest investors, speculators and capitalists, YOU will suffer terribly!' So the middle class falls to its collective knees and begs the central bankers to please, please, please give the richest 1% of the population super-cheap loans. Of course, the traditional banking system that requires reserves and savings won't pay a decent return on savings if interest rates are artificially low. The traditional savers who are the backbone of all true capitalist democracies are suddenly unable to save any money at all since it has a ridiculous return that is far, far below the rate of inflation. So they cease saving money in banks. Instead, they hand this over to the richest 1% to 'invest' in various schemes.
Alas, when you put your money into these schemes, it is NOT PROTECTED. Whereas, if you put it in a FDIC insured bank, it is protected. The trick here is for the Fed and the richest 1% financiers to force everyone out of the FDIC protection system and into the shark pool of dark finances that are unregulated and very risky! This way, we can have a collapsing banking system but no banks go bankrupt because there are no runs on the banks because there are virtually no savings in the banks that are not really banks anymore, anyway. They are conduits for risky investments in dark pool finances that are unregulated and very, very dangerous and which can drop in value from a +12% growth rate to a -90% loss rate. Instead of merely losing the profits of an 'investment' one goes into losing the principal, too! We see this clearly today.
In Japan, if a middle class person wants to have any savings at all that beat inflation, they must take great risks. Some play the FX markets and place bets on that roulette wheel. Even if they watch the FX news very closely, they are behind the 8 ball compared to the upper 1% who have tons of insider information since these people socialize and control the central bankers who control lurches in currency values, etc. In other words, it is a chump's game. People at the top like Soros can get filthy rich this way. But ordinary people are lucky to get out of this particular casino with any of their original pool of betting money intact.
Then there is the stock markets: the ordinary person tries to make money when stocks go up. The experts at the top make money off of fools playing for positive returns. They make money on stocks falling! This is called 'hedging'. When the lower classes give their money to hedgers to protect themselves in their own ignorance, the hedgers then go out and play risky games that are totally stupid and are merely pirate raids on various locales or are attempts at tapping into the darkest parts of the Cave of Wealth and Death. When these go blotto, the money vanishes and the hedge funders commit suicide or flee to other countries to set up shop again. Some actually go to prison. Or so we hope.
The Federal Reserve is using the sword point of cheap loans for rich people to force us all to walk the economic plank. Then they have the temerity, after creating MORE Funny Money™ to tell us we must make huge sacrifices to kill inflation! We, not the rich, must pay the price of all this extra liquidity these credit lines create! We must lose all our savings so we can save the global economic system that benefits the rich more than us. End of story.
U.S. banks may need $65 bln new capital: Goldman
(Reuters) - U.S. banks may need to raise $65 billion of additional capital to cope with mounting losses from a global credit crisis that will not peak until 2009, Goldman Sachs & Coanalysts said on Tuesday. The new capital would be on top of $120 billion already raised by the industry, analysts led by Richard Ramsden said.
What is this capital, damn it? What the hell is it? When banks want 'capital' they are talking about SAVINGS! If the damn bankers want me and others to SAVE money rather than to beg for loans, all they have to do is RAISE THE INTEREST RATES ON SAVINGS and the billions of dollars will flow in like magic. THEY KNOW THIS. And they do NOT want to do this! This gives savers power! This also forces the Federal Reserve and the government to insure our savings via the FDIC method. This makes no one in the ruling elites richer. It makes THEM POORER. No, the last thing these clowns will do is the sensible, traditional thing: raise the rates they pay us to save our money with their banks. Gads. This just pisses me off more than anything. 101 Dalmatian economists should be shouting this in unison, not yelling for eternal sub-inflationary returns so we can grease the wheels of the Ferraris driven by rich hedge funders!
Gallup Poll: Confidence in U. S. Banks Down Sharply
The percentage of Americans saying they have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in U.S. banks has fallen to 32% -- down nine percentage points from June 2007 and 17 percentage points from June 2006 -- matching the 32% of March 1991 and near the three-decade low of 30% in October 1991.
Why trust a bunch of pirates, thieves, con artists and fakers? Why trust bankers who won't pay us a decent return on our savings? How can we trust rip off artists who use 101 Dalmatian idiot economists to keep us in the dark about this gigantic rip off scheme to suck up all our savings via inflation and super-low interest rate loans for only the very rich and very connected? Eh? Eh? I can't trust banks! NONE of us can thanks to the protection of criminals by the Federal Reserve that has worked insidiously since 1914 to destroy traditional banking and traditional values. Arrest them all.
Asian Clearing Union To Introduce Euro Alongside U.S. Dollar To Ease Payment Settlement
AHN) - Central bank chiefs of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) have agreed to introduce the Euro alongside the U.S. dollar for settlement of payments among the member countries beginning January, 2009.The decision was made at the 37th ACU board of directors meeting held in Nay Pyi Taw, administrative capital of Myanmar, on June 17-18, officials said in Dhaka on Sunday.
'The ACU board has agreed in principle to allow Euro as an alternative currency alongside the U.S. dollar from January, 2009 aiming to make the payment system easier,' Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country's central bank, Governor Salehuddin Ahmed told AHN along with a group of reporters in the capital, Dhaka on the day after returning from Myanmar.
As the majestic US dollar sinks to the bottom of the sea, let the captain tell the orchestra to strike up, 'Nearer My God To Thee' and maybe a Fox Trot or a Blue Danube waltz. The Nazis had their Jewish captives play that for the civilians being herded into death chambers, for example. This news should alarm Americans! We can't travel in the world much anymore if the dollar becomes useless. We will be trapped at home like the Japanese public is now trapped at home. In Japan, if you want to do business abroad, you must not use the yen. This keeps the yen weak and gives the rich owners of Toyota a huge business advantage overseas. Toyota executives can travel the world first class using their euros. Lower level Japanese, if they have any savings left after paying for food, fuel and housing, can also buy euros. So it will be for us: the dollar is obviously being replaced rapidly.
The US has embargoed Iran partially because Iran opened their euros-only oil bourse. But the EU continues its mad growth by sucking in more and more of the former Soviet satellites and it is now a bigger economic entity than the US so it is now replacing the dollar. Thanks a lot, New World Order idiots. You did it. You killed the Golden Goose, you ninnies.
Bond insurers want $125bn of cover wiped out
Bond insurers such as Ambac, MBIA and FGIC are talking to banks about wiping out $125bn of insurance on risky debt securities in what could be the only way to limit the financial damage surrounding the bond insurers.Discussions about "commuting" these insurance contracts, which were sold by bond insurers to banks in the form of credit default swaps, have taken on a renewed sense of urgency amid a rash of ratings downgrades in the bond insurance, or monoline, sector last week.
Just as the FDIC has evaded protecting and insuring our savings, the monoline insurers want to weasel out of their own obligations. Just make it all vanish, they yell. Well, this monstrosity is directly connected to the fearful Derivatives Beast. They hope and pray that if the Federal Reserve and the Federal Government conspire to undo all their previous business promises and all their activities for the last dozen years, the collapse of the banking/investment system won't require them to pony up the money they promised.
For they have no money! Perhaps they will get the Fed to soak up this, too. Like the fake CDOs and SIVs the Fed has been squirreling away back in the Cave of Wealth and Death, so will all this. They want to go back on their promises. This means a huge hole in the financial systems. But if enough super-cheap loan Funny Money™ is created via government-insured and protected credit lines to all the financial houses, schemes and things created by pirates, why, there will be no hole, the Derivatives Beast won't suddenly go from totally invisible to the all-money-devouring monster it really is. It dwarfs the entire financial and asset values of the entire planet earth now. This stupid, hideous, nasty creature was made in order to protect risky investments. But it can't and won't: it will destroy everything in a F5 tornado of value destruction. For it has no base in reality. There are no savings supporting this monster. It doubles in size each year because it is a massive Ponzi scheme. Now, the effects of all this are showing up and the Derivatives Beast's owners are shown to be con men. Arrest them all. Don't give them another $200 billion in free money. Put them in PRISON.
Chinese agree 96% jump in ore prices
Global inflation fears deepened as Chinese steelmakers agreed to a record increase in annual iron ore prices in a move likely to boost the cost of cars, machinery and other products.Chinese millers agreed to pay Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto up to 96.5 per cent more for their ore supplies this year, the largest ever annual increase and well above the 9.5 per cent increase paid last year.
The rise suggests that demand for commodities from emerging economies remains strong, in spite of the US slowdown, fuelling fears that global inflation will continue to rise. The rise – an average 85 per cent – surpasses the record increase of 71.5 per cent agreed in 2005, when the commodities boom gathered pace.
“Commodity-led inflation risks appear to be growing,” said Tobias Levkovich, Citi chief strategist.
The Derivatives Beast is growing. US government debt is growing. The dollar is dying. Inflation is raging. The US and Japan are both seeking wealth and power by weakening their currencies, giving super-cheap loans to the top 1%, starving or destroying their workers and eating up all savings of the middle class. And of course, this destroys the global economy. The US is the ultimate destination of all world trade. And if our middle and lower classes die off and can't buy anything but food and fuel, world trade crashes. The world's two top economies can't run super-depressionary systems at the same time and not throw the entire planet into a hellish economic situation! The Chinese are looking to the future. They want to control the source of all commodity systems. This way, they will come out of the looming global depression as our rulers. The US hopes to bankrupt Iran, bankrupt China, bankrupt Russia, bankrupt OPEC. But we are doing this by shooting ourselves in the head.
Isn't that stupid or what? We imagine the rest of the planet doesn't want us to go bankrupt and will keep us afloat forever. This is beyond stupid. I assure everyone, China and Russia and probably Japan all hope we become economic slaves and lose everything. They hope we die. OPEC is in the same frame of mind. They know that a dead US can terrorize the planet with our huge nuclear arsenal. They hope to disarm us the same we we disarmed Russia. If we think this isn't the plan, we are fools.
The Federal Reserve has been charged with the pursuit of price stability and maximum employment. Price stability is uniquely in the control of the central bank over long periods, and it is a prerequisite for the economy performing efficiently over time. The welfare costs of inflation result from many factors: the potential costs to households and firms that result from efforts to insure themselves against inflation or from confusion regarding real and nominal prices; distortions to the financial system related to inflation; imperfect indexation of the taxation, especially of capital income, and the related distortions to economic activity; and the costs associated with a slow adjustment of nominal prices and wages. The costs of inflation imply that central banks should aim for low measured inflation. Moreover, many of the costs of inflation--such as those associated with misconceptions regarding inflation, efforts to insure against inflation, and distortions to the financial system--are associated with the rate of change in the entire set of prices of goods and services facing households or firms, suggesting that measured inflation should be gauged by the rate of change in a broad set of prices. Accordingly, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has been emphasizing that it gauges price stability over the long-term by the behavior of the overall personal consumption expenditures price index.
The Federal Reserve is not supposed to deal with mere prices. They are to deal with BANKING. And a banking system that can't attract savings is a sick, sick, sick puppy. A banking system that attracts savings is healthy. Got that, Mr. Stupid Federal Price Regulator? Since the Fed pretends it is responsible for prices, ARREST THEM FOR FRAUD. Ever since they came into existence, the value of the dollar has plunged. It falls nearly all the time except during the Great Depression. Then, prices fell! Eh? What? And this is their model: to make prices fall? Isn't this how we have depressions?
So they won't do that! They encourage inflation but try to 'control' it but it was controlled by fake means. Fake policies. Fake analysis. A refusal to look at their own FRED graphs. Since Mr. Kohn claims that ultimately the central bankers control inflation, the fact that we have out of control inflation is his fault. And what we do when people screw up so badly that they destroy whole nations is, we arrest them, accuse them of treason and hang them. Right? Of course!
But what he wants is for us to let him continue to ravage us! He hopes to fix all this via letting in a flood of Chinese goods. And destroying all attempts at protecting our savings via FDIC insured banks. Isn't that criminal? Of course it is! He is a THIEF, a CON MAN and a fool. Arrest him.
California's unemployment rate rises to 6.8 pct
California's unemployment rate jumped to 6.8 percent in May and the state lost 10,900 more payroll jobs than it generated during the month, state officials said Friday.The unemployment rate was 6.2 percent in April and 5.3 percent in May 2007, the Employment Development Department said.
The banking collapse, the inflation spiral all began during full employment. Why is this?
The US chose the Japanese model. The workers have not have pay raises in a long, long time. Inflation has ravaged them for years and years. Wealth has declined while the cost of borrowing has shot upwards. There have been fewer and fewer usury laws since the Floating Currency was introduced in 1974. The floating currency is sinking, by the way. What a shock, eh? Now we enter the really nasty spiral of declining jobs as well as declining wages. THIS IS DEFLATIONARY. This is the ideal state for the very rich. Labor is cheap, people are desperate and they get to have more slaves. Fun for them, hell for us. They must be stopped.
Chaos Erupts As Storm Victims Try To Get Food Stamps
Dozens Wait For Hours Outside Offices
The FSSA office at 4720 Keystone Avenue was overwhelmed by demand, and several people got confrontational. Lines began forming as early as 5 a.m."I was seriously affected by the storm. I lost everything, and I'm listening to people in line and they really didn't even need it," said Nikki Loyd. "They weren't even affected by the storm."
The calm broke when employees told them that they would take applications for people who live in eight zip codes in Lawrence and Warren townships -- areas most affected by storm damage.
The working class, pressed hard in the area of food and fuel, are now rushing to any opportunity to get a hand out. I saw this in the seventies and it is happening again. The foodstamp program was launched to deal with inflation in food. Over the last 30 years, it has not been raised much vis a vis the rate of inflation in food prices and now barely augments the finances of the very poor. Soon, it will end. By becoming totally worthless. This is how the ruling elites deal with inflation: we get to eat cake but we starve to death. Marie Antoinette knew this. Our present rulers know this. For some odd reason, they forget what happened next.
Most of my colleagues still think outsourcing makes sense---even the ones whose jobs were and are impacted the most.They brag about the cheap tools they get from
Harbor Freight (W.Coast Chain) and brag about going to the Millionaire Club and hiring down and outers for next to nothing in
order to get some distastful yard labor done.
"Under the spreading Chestnut tree
I sold you
and you sold me"....Geo Orwell
Posted by: Gary | June 24, 2008 at 10:18 AM
Bernanke thinks decimating Americans living standards will thwart inflation. I disagree. I agree with you Elaine, its so over for Americans. The days of living large and producing zero is ending so fast. How will the youth take this? Can a 60's repeat of peace and love happen? Can you please comment on what a post dollar situation in America will look like, after the hyperinflation, and total economic chaos? Thank you. Ralph
Posted by: Ralph | June 24, 2008 at 11:13 AM
I support Ralph's request. Please try to describe for us, if you will, what are the most likely scenarios.
Posted by: Ron | June 24, 2008 at 11:32 AM
Ralph, Ron you can read something similar on http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9437
Posted by: PJSV | June 24, 2008 at 12:11 PM
What, you want either the Bataan Death March II or do you want 'Cockroaches Are People Too'? How about 'Vote For The Solyent Green Party'?
Or 'The Sun Rises In the West' choreographed by Madame Mao?
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | June 24, 2008 at 01:09 PM
bataan death march
Posted by: Ralph | June 24, 2008 at 01:12 PM
bataan death march 2 - yeah only seems fair to me...
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 01:37 PM
My understanding is that Haiti has sent out "feelers" to America and Japan and some other countries about the possibility of exporting millions of mud cookies to satisfy future demand. Some Haitians have already bought up all the stock in a trucking company that brings the mud down from the high plains to be made into cookies by local workers near the coast.
Perhaps someday we will be obliged to recognize "worms as people too".
Posted by: DeVaul | June 24, 2008 at 01:37 PM
of course this time, the ones marching are going to be different that last time...
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 01:38 PM
ain't it grand!
Peace,
Ken
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 01:38 PM
Hi DeVaul...bye DeVaul
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 01:39 PM
Somewhere elso somebody said something to me about "four one-liners in a row", and here I am doing it again...shall i stop for awhile? Yeah. I guess i ought to....
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 01:53 PM
Hey Elaine,
I hope you won't kick me off this site like they did at the other one....
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 01:53 PM
OK, sorry for distracting from the "conversation"....i'll be shutting up for awhile....ken
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 01:55 PM
Ken,
I'm just curious. Do you smoke?
Peace,
DeVaul
Posted by: DeVaul | June 24, 2008 at 01:58 PM
Speaking of outsourcing/downsizing, I recall the story I read in The Wall Street Journal. It was about this manager who was tasked with reducing headcount in his department. He thought he was gonna get himself a gold star for suggesting that HIS position could be safely eliminated. SURPRISE!! They booted him out the door without so much as a "Thank you" let alone a big job promotion. Oh well, at least the investors are happy, and really, that's all that matters. Gotta keep that stock price up.
Posted by: Paul S | June 24, 2008 at 02:11 PM
That is unbelievably idiotic! Thanks for sharing that story.
I wonder if anyone learned anything from that?
Posted by: DeVaul | June 24, 2008 at 02:16 PM
DeVaul - yes I do. In fact, I have a sign up in my office saying as such. All who enter ought be informed.
Stock prices are neglible compared to derivatives----who plays with those? I wanna know.
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 02:18 PM
who like in ACTUAL names....you know...we need names to start coming out so that the dust can eventually settle
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 02:21 PM
He did ask a question so I had standing. Any more questions?
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 02:23 PM
Good, then I really need to go, but you should know I will be checking in.
Local Bufflalo Ken of the "trignitillion" (easier to spell this way....)
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 02:26 PM
Well, thanks for letting us know, and yes, you had "standing" to answer the question.
Using the return key could save you some time, but whatever makes you happy -- go for it!
D.
Posted by: DeVaul | June 24, 2008 at 02:34 PM
what return? I hadn't seen much of that lately at least when it comes to investments...all I've ain't nothing but a bunch of spoiled "elite" few and getting fewer gambling. I'm tired of it. What about you - I guess you are too....why else would you be here?
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 02:39 PM
To be clear: I'm tired of the so-called elite gambling with The People. "Of, by and for" was said after a wrenching battle - this means something to me.
Ken
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 02:40 PM
Things that will ends this funny money party:
1. Saudi un-peg Real
2. China decide to flip the switch on their exchange rate regime
3. Japan moving from zero interest rate
4. We actually has sane fiscal policy.
... ok. none of them might happen anytime soon. so party on people.
Posted by: Anthony | June 24, 2008 at 02:41 PM
"Depression Japan model is our template"
Squeezing the internal consumer market to fuel their export market, while suppling the credit markets with cheap liquidity to finance the purchasing of their exports - it works for Japan, but how is it to work for the US with nothing but guns and butter to export?
Posted by: Jojo | June 24, 2008 at 03:12 PM
Jojo - good one. In the US I know of several plants that used to make something but now are shuttered. I think they could re-open -- locally from the get go.
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 03:48 PM
I have a feeling that our trees, our coal, our water, our grain, and our food will be what we export, unless we declare bankruptcy and then use our nukes to hold off our creditors.
If we do that, then we will become an international pariah and be isolated, but we might survive as a country with people and not an environmental wasteland like Haiti.
A lot also depends on how we handle the top 1% of Americans who are betraying us and who owe no allegiance to anyone but themselves.
Posted by: DeVaul | June 24, 2008 at 03:54 PM
We could export all our lawyers, bankers and economists. And Congress and the President. Exile them to China and Russia. Then both empires will collapse.
Only they won't do that. They will put them in a zoo or something. Let's hope there are no aliens watching us. We might be their 'reality show.'
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | June 24, 2008 at 04:05 PM
The US is totally fked: the inputs costs are too high now with our weak currency to compete with the chinese.
You don't see Argentina leading the way in manufacturing, do you???
Posted by: Phil the thrill | June 24, 2008 at 04:46 PM
"ARREST THEM ALL!!!!!"..... a recurring theme here. I'm trying to get situated for the big correction with a new vocation and was wondering: what are the qualifications for said arresting job? And, is it a growth industry?
Posted by: Roberto | June 24, 2008 at 05:36 PM
Arrest Obama before he can screw us with the "audacity of
hope" ! Charge him with Pre-Crime like "Minority Report" (based
on a Phillip K Dick sci-fi novel)
He's already said he was just BS'ing us Yahoos by saying NAFTA was a bad thing. He's loaded up all his advisors with neo-liberal/cons and warmongers. He's now one of the Pod People. The old Obama was taken out and dumped in the garbage.
Screw Americans....they are beyond the audacity of hope
Posted by: Gary | June 24, 2008 at 06:17 PM
The Lichtenstein Chronicles continue. Have pepto bismol on hand as the journalists, and I use that word loosely, have injected a compassionate side to the tax cheats and uber rich.
Secret Lives of the Super Rich
By John Goetz, Conny Neumann and Barbara Schmid
Prosecutors and tax investigators are once again going after millionaires who have hidden their assets in foundations with Lichtenstein's LGT Treuhand in what has become the biggest tax-evasion scandal in German history. After years of hide-and-seek,
....In their latest series of raids in Munich, investigators focused on several "especially hard nuts to crack." The names on the list are not part of the Bavarian capital's flashy jet set, but instead belong to the more dignified, inconspicuous old-money aristocracy (off with their heads! screamed the Proletariate)
...But Karl Michael Betzl, the Bavarian government's commissioner for privacy protection, can expect to face a more lengthy investigation. Betzl, one of the most respected senior government officials in Bavaria, is alleged to have hidden about €700,000 in assets in a family foundation under the LGT Treuhand umbrella. (Tsk, tsk, a government official that took bribes?, I'm shocked!, pass the popcorn.)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,561746,00.html
Posted by: rockpaperscizzors | June 24, 2008 at 06:29 PM
As the MSM blacks out news of Iraq from the mainstream, Der Spiegel reports a surge of Iraqis seeking asylum in Europe.
EU Countries Move to Stop Flood of Iraqi Refugees
The ongoing terror in Iraq is driving an increasing number of refugees to Europe. Now the EU is being forced to make some tough decisions: Who will be allowed to stay in Europe, and will Iraqi Christians have greater chances here than Muslims?
More than 2 million Iraqis have already left the country. One in ten refugees flees to other parts of Iraq, such as the north, which has remained relatively calm until now. The scale of the Iraqi refugee crisis already dwarfs the number of Palestinian refugees created by the Israeli war of independence in 1948. According to a UN report published last week, last year saw a record number of people fleeing from violence and war worldwide. The number of refugees increased by 15 percent over the previous year, to 11.4 million, mostly as a result of the conflicts in Afghanistan and especially Iraq.
...Last year, one in 12 of close to 650,000 applications for asylum came from an Iraqi refugee -- a 98-percent increase over the previous year. This puts Iraq at the top of the list of countries producing refugees, ahead of the troubled East African countries of Somalia and Eritrea.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,561674,00.html
Posted by: rockpaperscizzors | June 24, 2008 at 06:37 PM
Elaine,
"Of course, the traditional banking system that requires reserves and savings won't pay a decent return on savings if interest rates are artificially low."
I'm afraid the traditional banking system that requires reserves and savings is long gone.
It has been replaced by casino banking, a form of gambling in which the "bank" borrows capital (from other banks, not from you) and leverages it an unlimited amount of times so that any returns are hugely magnified. They can't do this with capital obtained from traditional savings deposits, because the FDIC insurance on those deposits restricts their capacity to leverage. So, they raise capital outside the old-fashioned savings deposit route - they manufacture and sell their own bonds and derivatives of other people's leveraged junk loans (including bad mortgages), and derivatives of the derivatives. This has the added benefit of providing enormous fees for all the processing they do.
And one of the best features of this "modern banking" is that they get to conduct all this gambling without writing any of it on their official banking account books, because it's NOT traditional reserve-based deposit banking and thus exempt from such finicky requirements as transparent accounting.
Sure, it's enormously risky, like all gambling, but when the s**t hits the fan and they lose money by the billions, they simply borrow more from the Fed.
When they're forced by someone (one of their commercial lenders, not the FDIC or the Fed) to bring their worthless loans and derivatives back onto their account books and everybody's screaming for them to "raise capital" they simply either 1)print and sell more common stock 2)go to the arabs and sell them preferred stock or 3)merge with another bank that has (at the moment) more capital - getting the Fed to put its own money up to safeguard the deal, if need be.
This "modern" banking model has been replacing the "old-fashioned" banking model for 25 years. It has resulted in hundreds and hundreds of bank failures, bailouts, and forced mergers. There are now 1/10th as many commercial "banks" in the U.S. as there were in 1982. In another 25 years there will be 1/10th as many "banks" as there are now.
The banks disappear, and the casino capitalists just keep getting richer; why would they ever want to go back to the old way? In other words, do not expect reserve and savings based banking to EVER return as a genuine economic force in this country.
Posted by: Michael | June 24, 2008 at 07:11 PM
In other words do not EVER expect reality to return to this nation.
Do not expect Americans to ever re-gain their emotions and rebelliousness. Do not ever expect Americans to understand the
world at large anymore.
As Jean Baudrillard said we are now "entering the simulation that
is more real than reality it replaced. That is the unconscious desire of our system.
To replace reality itself with a more sanitized, safe,and deathless version. This new "reality" is surrounding us so well that we have lost the points of reference that have in the past given us the ability to criticize things.
It is surrounding us so well that we can no longer step back and view it from a distance. It smothers us. It has hemetically sealed us off. Its impossibe to understand things when you cant have the ability to find a gap, a critical distance, moments of silence etc. to reflect on things. We run about doing our shitty little jobs much like termites in a mound on the savannah.
"Welcome to the Desert of the Real".....Jean Baudrillard quote which was lifted into the movie, "Matrix"
Posted by: Gary | June 24, 2008 at 07:50 PM
I screwed up that quote
Jean Baudrillard said, "we are now entering the simulation that
is more real than the reality it has replaced"
A very interesting book by him is simply called, "America"
Baudrillard is at first quite hard to read. But if you give up on trying
to understand every point he makes. If you realize that what he is
talking about is so different that he has to make up some new
vocabulary, then he is quite an incredible read.
He passed away last yr I think. A great post-modern philosopher
Posted by: Gary | June 24, 2008 at 07:56 PM
Why even bother arresting them? When the shit hits the fan, find them, and put a bullet in their heads.
Posted by: JZ | June 24, 2008 at 08:44 PM
JZ - that sounds a bit harsh even though I suspect it is warrented.
Lets just start the trials. Convict, convict, convict.
If you are "afraid" you might be convicted, maybe you should just help the convictors! You probably will be forgiven this way.
Thats what I'd do if I was inside, but I'm just hanging out here on the sidelines. What a show.
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 24, 2008 at 09:48 PM
What is this captial thing anyway? Check out
http://davidharvey.org/
Seriously, Elaine, do it.
Posted by: OldNorth | June 24, 2008 at 10:18 PM
Throughout history, capital was the profit left over after paying land taxes, labor and cost of materials and wear and tear on machines. Today, profits have displaced capital. For capital is labor and infrastructure. Now, it is currency advantages and credit.
The confusion of credit with capital is at the heart of our economic collapse. and this is due to the concept of a floating currency.
By the way, thanks for all the comments. Lots of thoughts there that need to be digested.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | June 24, 2008 at 10:41 PM
The coming Sci-Fi financial reality based on meta-money will soon be our destiny. All desires will be fulfilled by virtual expenditures of self-generated non-real capital, labor will be executed by non-wage robots and artificial intelligence after the last of the poor perish from the plagues of poverty.
The financial crisis we are now in is only part of the evolutionary process. Our future heirs on this earthly plane will chuckle in their synthetic well-medicated cocoons at our present archaic methods of groveling for money to satisfy our desires.
Now don't we all feel a tad bit better seeing the big picture?
Posted by: Jojo | June 24, 2008 at 11:45 PM
Terminate them? No one should mourn the loss of these banking thieves, but there is a more effective solution. Throw 'em in Attica or San Quentin or some other max prison for thirty years. I love the thought of these guys in prison orange. And make sure their "roommate" in prison is 'Big Daddy' or some such type. I bet they stop thinking they are Masters of the Universe REAL quick.
Posted by: Paul S | June 25, 2008 at 12:33 AM
But the temptations remain. It isn't just a matter of punishing people, it requires understanding the temptations and then figuring out how to prevent these. For example, the need to raise money to run for office and to appease the mainstream media corrupts all politicians totally. Fixing this is hard as hell.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | June 25, 2008 at 02:16 AM
We have already seen the courts are not a way that works. Enron was quickly forgotten by starting a profiteering war.
The new elite tactic is food and energy hording
Could the patriots in 1776 simply arrest the British, try them, and throw them in Jail?
Could the Jews do same with the Nazis?
No, it does not, and will not work that way.
If it did, it would be already done.
Posted by: JZ | June 25, 2008 at 09:49 AM
"Temptations remain..." To borrow a phrase from the 60's: Right on! The REAL problem in Washington is a nearly total lack of ethics and/or integrity amongst our elected representatives. To reform this,we as a nation have to be willing to embarass ourselves--and endure the spectacle of seeing our elected reps being sent to prison, up to and INCLUDING the President if warranted. (We have such low respect in the world community as it is, this won't be too tough.) JZ is correct: the system as currently configured will NOT allow this to happen. We need a new model. Also: we as a nation need to spend less time worrying about Angelina Jolie's baby collection and be more educated about our pols in Washington. Example of what I mean about people needing to raise their knowledge: people who call in to Limbaugh's and Hannity's "shows"saying stuff like, "mega dittos, Rush!" Sheesh, are you kidding me? I have to marvel at how easily these guys, Limbaugh and Hannity, can bunch multiple lies in one sentence and do it consistently. Apologize for continuing to bring these morons up in posts. It's just they are perfect example of what is wrong with this country.
Posted by: Paul S | June 25, 2008 at 12:10 PM
JZ - I'll be the first to admit that "I don't know". But I think there could be a relatively "bloodless" revolution. That would be preferable.
Posted by: Buffalo Ken | June 25, 2008 at 05:11 PM
i remember avacados at 10 for a buck not more than 13 years back ands now one for a buck, and have planted those seeds for years and did hundreds of seedlings in at 2 feet tall and have a few more at two feet now, whats with chestnut seedlings?
Posted by: milo | June 25, 2008 at 05:32 PM
i see how one could starve with compound rapid inflation like that...what of 10 d0llar an avacado? like 200,000 housing averages........
Posted by: milo | June 25, 2008 at 05:35 PM
burley tobbaco seeds are available thru the internet and oddly enough they are farmable in berlin n.y. if placed properly////
Posted by: milo | June 25, 2008 at 05:40 PM