Bank Failures Increase

July 2, 2008

Elaine Meinel Supkis

We are almost at the anniversary of the July 17th beginning of the international banking collapse. This was when the Japanese carry trade suddenly unwound, exposing the underbelly of international finances. 'Liquidity' vanished. Now the agents that neglected to supervise international banking are trying to fix this broken mess. They can't, of course, because they refuse to understand the nature of gnomes, sex, the Cave of Wealth and Death and other naughty matters. Bankrupt banks are in the news and the fixes are being played up as a solution not as desperation. Explaining all this is important because we cannot afford to fall into the deep pit we flung ourselves into this time around. Learning from the past is important! Or we are at the mercy of Fate.

The Economist: A credit downturn should be familiar territory for banks. Think again

THE credit crunch has been an alien landscape for many banks. Exotic products, new accounting rules and an unprecedented liquidity freeze have left them groping for handholds. The terrain is gradually changing, as attention switches away from falls in the market value of securities and towards actual credit losses. Citigroup expects to see lower write-downs, but higher credit losses, when it announces its second-quarter results in July.

Industry-watchers see some relief in this. “We will all feel more like we are in our comfort zones after a six-month period of firefighting on structured-credit blow-ups,” analysts at Merrill Lynch sighed in a recent note. Not so fast. In Britain and America, the countries with the biggest headaches, the credit downturn has plenty of unfamiliar features.

So far, I have been unable to detect any 'unfamiliar features' in this present banking collapse. True, the names of things have changed. The tools used to pull the scams and Ponzi schemes have changed. The clever dodges and goofy schemes that were hatched seem new to the young people who were born after the Great Depression. But in essence, there is literally nothing new under the sun. Except for perhaps the totally insane creation of the Derivatives Beast. Even that isn't all that new. The way it was nurtured and fed is old fashioned. But the elements that supported the creation of this dangerous and useless beast are very ancient. And the Security and Exchange Commission was created to prevent exactly this sort of thing being launched.

After going through news this week, it is obvious that several things are happening at the same time: the entire banking system of the planet earth has been wrecked by the crazy over-expansion of credit from top to bottom, global free trade has finally hit the wall since it was entirely predicated on the creation of too much credit and there is no international currency concert of powers that is functional anymore. We are in a transition stage very similar to the one we went through when the British Empire went bankrupt at the same time the German Empire was on the skids. This is why the similarities to the Great Depression are so strong. This raises obvious fears and concerns. How do we protect ourselves from a global banking/trade meltdown when this is caused by a collapsing empire dragging down everything in its wake?

For let us be frank: we are watching a transfer of power from England and America to Asians. This includes Russia for Russia's vast bulk is actually in Asia or the former Mongol Imperial areas of influence. All of the planet will see difficulties as things devolve but at the end of the day, the Asian nations will be in control of the Seven Seas and international trade rules and regulations. Europe is so frightened of this, the European Union decided to grow very, very fast so as to provide a united front to Asia. But this is obviously failing and is looking more and more like the Austro-Hungarian Empire which replaced the dead Holy Roman Empire. A mighty, seething mess of languages, religions, ethnic and tribal conflicts, a very bloody history of warfare between all of these, Europe can't be forged into an Empire strong enough to challenge the Han Chinese imperium. The recent series of failures to convince individual European countries to resign their sovereignty has hit a rock in Ireland and is encouraging others to resist this urge to merge.

Even in England, the people there are resisting their own rulers in this regard. There is very little support for the concept of merging sovereignty with Germany and France, two ancient foes. Any more than the Irish or the Scots want to be merged with England. The banking business in the news today is connected to all this! The smooth functioning of any empire is based on sound banking principles. All empires collapse when they dump this for Funny Money™ making.

ECB Is Martian, Fed Venusian, Says Deutsche Bank

(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve are reacting differently to the threat of faster inflation, with policy makers in Europe likely to backtrack after raising interest rates, according to Deutsche Bank AG economists.

``Recent and prospective differences between the Fed and the ECB in the conduct of monetary policy have been striking,'' the analysts, led by chief U.S. economist Peter Hooper, wrote in a report published yesterday. ``The ECB has launched a Martian frontal assault on inflation while the Fed has opted for a more cautious and patient Venusian approach.''

As usual, this article can't look at everything at once. The European Union's central bankers are raising rates? But so is China! And this article, like so many I see, leaves out the enablers of the world's biggest credit bubble: Japan! The inability to see Japan in this mess is nearly universal. This is, I am guessing, due to all the bankers, financiers and governments praying to continue this credit bubble to infinity! And to do this, they need to keep the Japanese carry trade moving! I see this all over the place: the desire to create liquidity is very intense. There is no stomach for mopping up the mess. The central bankers of Europe are trying to squelch the excessive housing market bubble's growth but NOT stop the buy-up/buy-out mania. They want that to continue while clipping consumer debt increases.

The trick here is to have 'liquidity' while preventing it from going to 'the wrong places.' And where does Europe want liquidity to go?

To the US! They need the US to continue buying European goods. Asia wants this too. In fact, everyone wants the US to continue using easy credit. Japan, for example, provides nearly no credit to its own people. They can't make money saving money. They can't buy on time but must pay cash. They live in this depressed society that is cash and carry for them. But not for Americans! We get to go into debt. The American government and banking community would dearly love to keep this going, too. There is intense anxiety here about getting our consumers out of the house and shopping as irresponsibly as possible. This is why the US government is giving us these hand-outs that are timed carefully to keep injecting money into the system. This is why it is taking three months or more for the checks to be issued.

Europe's bankers can't offer 0.5% loans because consumers will get their paws on this. So they raise rates. They figure, the big players will get their credit from Japan. The average consumer in Europe can't. The point here is, the dynamics in Japan and Europe are aimed at preventing consumer purchases as much as possible while both are intent on getting the US to do the exact opposite. So it isn't just that the US is 'Venus', the US is to keep up insane trade deficits that increase the industrial and financial powers of Europe and Japan! So there is no mystery here why Germany and France are pushing for a 'Martian' solution. This is a TRADE WAR as well as a financial war.

Further Than Most Expect
By Paul Lamont

As we forecast last month, the regional banks have quickly brought about the next round of financial troubles. We expect a large decline in the broader stock market to be the next major issue. The Royal Bank of Scotland, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and even the Bank of International Settlements (the central bank’s central bank) have issued financial storm warnings. We referenced the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) last July in warning of the credit crunch last year. According to the Telegraph, they are now specifically warning of deflation.
*snip*
Shortly after the appointment of Chairman Ben Bernanke, ‘expert’ on the Great Depression, the Federal Reserve retired the reporting of M3. M3 is the broadest measurement of the money supply. Conspiracy theorists (usually gold bugs) believe that the Fed hides M3 so that it can ‘print money’ and secretly monetize the debts of the banking system. So John Williams (Shadowstats.com) began keeping track of M3 himself. Recently, money supply observers have been surprised: his measurement of M3 growth is slowing down. Instead of hiding ‘money printing’, the Fed is really covering up the extreme slowing in the growth of money. The velocity of money has slowed. No new real estate loans, no new money. To support this case, the annualized growth in loans and investments held at commercial banks has gone negative as well (chart below).

Mr. Lamont goes on to suggest the way to protect oneself is to...get this....buy US Treasuries! Eh? What? HAHAHA. With his organization as the conduit so they can clip some profits for themselves! Just as all articles written by gold sellers end with the same 'solution' many of the analysts trying to tell us what is going on want us to buy something so these same people can make a profit. The startling feature of all mega-banking/imperial collapses is this: there is no easy escape from the mess. None. Moving out of a country doesn't work, for example. Many an Englishman moved to say, Africa or Asia, the Pacific or the US or South America to escape the mess of that collapse. Didn't spare them from WWII or other hazards. Money that is parked in various 'safe' places gets hunted down by the demonic forces unleashed by the collapse of an empire and are destroyed.

What survives is human spirit, the human ability to rebuild, the indomitable will to survive. Despair in the face of such forces is not a refuge, either. Facing the storm is far better and healthier. We know that many things will change in the future. The free ride the US was given via the generation of a huge, huge mountain of lending, will end. This huge lending/buying spree was very bad for us, socially, economically and emotionally. It caused more harm than good. When it ends, we will be better off, oddly enough. The wealth we must protect is our sanity, our ability to love and our need to be generous and kind to our neighbors.

When the liquidators come calling

DAMIAN PALETTA
Wall Street Journal

In its role as receiver for failed banks, the FDIC acts as a SWAT team, playing equal parts secret agent, medical examiner, salesman and grief counselor. The first 48 hours are typically the most frantic, as the agency must turn a failed bank inside out and oversee its sale — or its orderly burial.

Secrecy is paramount to prevent a panic among the locals and a run on the bank. That could sink a bank and lead to runs on neighboring institutions. Banks only retain a percentage of their deposits in cash, and use the rest for things like loans, which means they don’t have enough money on hand if everyone demands their deposits back at once. Created after the Great Depression to prevent such scares, the FDIC insures deposits at more than 8,000 banks, covering up to $100,000 per depositor in most cases.

Not only does the government operate in secret, they also lie about things. Should people be in a 'panic'? OF COURSE! Instead, we are muffled in cotton and a blanket of silence is pulled over this evolving mess. This is probably why the Belgium article was pulled. They were ordered to not create a banking panic! People panic when they realize their bankers were liars and con artists. The good people of this tiny town should be up in arms over what their 'local' bank did! And what did it do?

This is a small town bank in MINNESOTA!

In late April, Walker flew to Minneapolis to plot a strategy in case the bank failed. The FDIC knew First Integrity was in trouble because its capital reserves had evaporated, and the delinquent loans on its books more than doubled in 12 months. Many of the bad loans were tied to Florida real estate. The FDIC is still sorting through the bank’s records and wouldn’t elaborate. David Duhn, the former president of First Integrity, didn’t return calls for comment.

I remember the post-Great Depression laws. Local small banks had to work within severe geographical/financial restrictions. But when the US gave up the battle to protect the gold standard in the early 1970's, the banking system collapsed. To restart it, they changed all the rules and threw out many Great Depression restrictions. Usury laws were dumped and banks were allowed to expand across the nation and then the planet. Then, a blind eye was turned towards all those British Crown pirate coves. Banking slipped its leash and took off running in all directions. So we get the stupid sight of this tiny bank in the far north where bankers were supposed to be grumpy and careful and where the villagers assumed their bankers who knew them personally, was protecting their deposits....NO!

Instead, these bankers were granting endless loans to FLORIDA???? Sight unseen, of course! No social networks, no connections. The bankers wanted profits. Now, the Feds move in to fix things by papering it over with tax-payer support systems that are going bankrupt! The US taxpayer ceased trying to pay for anything back when we dropped the gold peg. Now, the FDIC depends on no one noticing that it, too, has lost credibility. The FDIC itself is bankrupt. But if they pretend they are not, they can come in and reassure everyone that all their savings are protected.

But this is a lie! For inflation is burning away all the value of these savings. And the false interest rates offered for these precious savings is false. Instead, we are forced to move savings into government bonds to get minimal protection. This, in turn, gives the government some money to continue running in the red. Now we go to this month's Bank of International Settlement's latest cri de coeur: A special commission was assembled that laid out the desire for basically, the same banking systems set up by Roosevelt after England and Germany's collapse.

BIS REPORT: Principles for Sound Liquidity Risk Management and Supervision

Principle 1: A bank is responsible for the sound management of liquidity risk. A bank should establish a robust liquidity risk management framework that ensures it maintains sufficient liquidity, including a cushion of unencumbered, high quality liquid assets, to withstand a range of stress events, including those involving the loss or impairment of both unsecured and secured funding sources. Supervisors should assess the adequacy of both a bank's liquidity risk management framework and its liquidity position and should take prompt action if a bank is deficient in either area in order to protect depositors and to limit potential damage to the financial system.

The problem is, no bank ever does this. The need to make profits drives all banks into creating infinite loans because this makes them rich. The recent banking collapse in the West was due to bankers passing off these bad loans to other parties so they could cynically continue to churn out more loans! The regulators of banks will always be outsiders and this usually is a government of some sort. Governments can fail! As we see all too often. For the true fundamental basis of all systems is the people themselves. If a government is allowed to either run out of control or be corrupted by the bankers, systems fail. The financial houses and bankers of the West have thoroughly corrupted the US government. And the media has done a spiffy job of this, too! People have been propagandized to believe that DEBT IS GOOD and SAVINGS IS BAD. Even if they tell us to save, they really don't tell us.

Examples abound! My favorite still is the push to convince people that they lose money if they pay off their mortgages. This is so unbelievably stupid. I have no mortgage on my property, thank the gods. For my husband's illness has wrecked both of our incomes. But we are free and clear. My family and friends who paid off their mortgages discover this wonderful thing: instead of dumping over $1000 a month into some banker's hands, they have $1000 in SAVINGS which they can invest in some fashion! Wow. What a concept! The media never mentions this 'windfall' when they tell people to go into debt and then use the mortgage to invest. This is very bad. I know a number of people who lost their homes doing this! The push to convince us all that debt improves our lives has been a very powerful force here. Debt is good for young families, for people beginning things. It is a terrible life-plan if one expects to be constantly in debt! The ethos of debt building has taken over our minds and has corrupted us to the point, we can't live any other way. We want more and more debt and are unwilling to even pretend to live within our means.

Some people fear the BIS is a front of the international bankers and will 'take over' everything. Well, this happened already when the US decided to live totally off of credit and debts! The BIS is fearful we will go bankrupt. All the international bankers do not want us to go bankrupt. This is obvious. But they don't want us to be savers, either. This is the fearful 'Horns of Dilemma' which is what happens in the Cave of Wealth and Death when one gets to the center and finds the Minotaur waiting there to gouge everyone.

The BIS report:

Principle 13: A bank should publicly disclose information on a regular basis that enables market participants to make an informed judgement about the soundness of its liquidity risk management framework and liquidity position.

Principle 14: Supervisors should regularly perform a comprehensive assessment of a bank’s overall liquidity risk management framework and liquidity position to determine
whether they deliver an adequate level of resilience to liquidity stress given the bank’s role in the financial system.

Principle 17: Supervisors should communicate with other supervisors and public authorities, such as central banks, both within and across national borders, to facilitate effective cooperation regarding the supervision and oversight of liquidity risk management. Communication should occur regularly during normal times, with the nature and frequency of the information sharing increasing as appropriate during times of stress.

The SEC and FDIC have been rendered nearly useless in preventing credit bubbles. This week, I went over random Federal Reserve speeches which clearly shows that the Fed knew its job was to PREVENT credit craziness. And the Fed would make occasional stabs at this. But not too many. Gradually, the effort to stop the flood of easy credit faded and by 1974, vanished. Volcker did make one frantic stab at this by hiking interest rates ruthlessly. Both he and President Carter were dumped for this. And the easy credit lunatics took over under Reagan. Clinton tried to stop this by balancing the budget and was nearly impeached for this. It wasn't the sex, stupid. It was the restrictions on credit growth. Clinton was replaced with free spending/wild credit building Bush and off the cliff it all went.

The American people wanted this! Bush's easy money system was very popular. The idea we could go to war and have easy credit and wild spending was very popular. There is no banking system that can fight this force! It is purely political. When one person says, 'I will give you easy street' and another says, 'We have to work harder', guess who wins? The BIS knows perfectly well, there is great communication going on, by the way. Asking for more is useless if the 'communicators' are pirates, con artists and New World Order lunatics who want to have more money, not restrict money! The BIS has to look at its own masters to see who is ultimately at fault here.

BIS report:

Financial derivatives

38. A bank should incorporate cash flows related to the repricing, exercise or maturity of financial derivatives contracts in its liquidity risk analysis, including the potential for
counterparties to demand additional collateral in an event such as a decline in the bank’s credit rating or creditworthiness or a decline in the price of the underlying asset. Timely confirmation of OTC derivatives transactions is fundamental to such analyses, because unconfirmed trades call into question the accuracy of a bank’s measures of potential exposure.

So, the BIS wants the wild gnomes in their golden chariots to stop chasing women around Mt. Olympus and take charge of the Derivatives Beast these gnomes created so they could tap into infinite money and have no risk? HAHAHA. It can't happen. Undoing this whole business is difficult but has to be done. The Derivatives Beast must be ANNIHILATED. For all it is is an infinity machine. And this always ends up destroying the very thing it supposed to protect: wealth. The fine talk here about 'call into question the accuracy..' business is all about secrecy, the occult and lying. Since all of this was set up in order to create infinite wealth for the Derivative Beast's owners, of course it is based on being able to hide things. A bank can run forever if they hide everything totally. Who needs honest accountants? They are too much like Libra.

Danger: Open Trench
BY FRANK BARBERA, CMT

Things continue to take a dim turn for the worse, and it is a story that is getting more and more difficult to chronicle with each passing week. To the casual observer, the stock market is not doing well, the economy is not doing well, but perhaps there is still some ray of hope. Perhaps there won’t be a recession, perhaps things will be getting better sometime soon. We sincerely wish we could be that hopeful, that detached from what is truly taking place. As an observer of the stock market, it is crucial to understand the environment within which one is attempting to operate. In order to do this, a strong dose of stone cold reality is needed. One cannot conveniently ignore facts, brush past unseemly data, and only look at the rosy side of the fence. To do so is suicide – an invitation to let Wall Street and the markets separate you from your hard earned money, not to mention what this could do to your client’s accounts and their hard earned capital.

This article has the graphs of a number of huge banks that clearly show all of them have fallen off the same cliff. It is a very informative article and we can see that this is a fundamental mess, not a specific problem. It is across the board, not confined to this manager or that bank officer making mistakes. It is obvious that bank profits that drive bank stocks upwards were actually bubbles that were unsustainable.

Fed must prevent wage-price spiral: Lockhart

(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve must "react decisively" to stop inflation pushing up wages, one of its top policy-makers said on Tuesday, dropping a clear hint about the possibility of interest-rate hikes ahead.

"Let me emphasize that I'm taking the recent inflationary pressures very seriously," Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said in prepared remarks to a panel discussion on the U.S. economy at Georgetown University.

As usual, the Fed 'fixes' these credit messes by forcing workers to eat all the pain, eat all the inflation and get nothing back. This is a great way to restore wealth to the upper classes. What about raising taxes on the obscene incomes and wealth of these weasels? Why do workers have to eat all the bad inflation effects? Executive incomes have risen at what? 30% a year during this bubble? And above 10% a year since Reagan's tax cuts for the rich? The rich are richer and the workers, after inflation, have seen their wages drop ALREADY? So of course, the Fed attacks the workers, not the multi-million bonuses of the bosses. As I said, all of this is political. The solution lies in the hands of the workers. Will they put up with this?

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Comments

[Anthony]

blow by blow event during the yen carry trade winding down in July

http://www.safehaven.com/article-8254.htm

The US Treasury - Tokyo Connection

In today's brave new world of global investing, the PPT leans heavily on Tokyo's financial warlords, to help manage the "yen carry" trade. The sharp unwinding of "yen carry" trades from July 19th thru August 16th, highlighted by the US dollar's slide from 123.50-yen to as low as 112.10-yen, contributed significantly to the downfall of the Dow Jones Industrials from the 14,000 level to as low as 12,500. It could also be argued, that the DJI-30 slide triggered unwinding of "yen carry" trades, which in turn, made the stock market plunge more violent.

Between the Fed's $12 billion repo injection last Thursday afternoon, and the discount rate cut on Friday morning, at 12:30 am EST, Japan's new FX chief, Naoyuki Shinohara, made his first public comment since taking up the job, "As always we are watching currency markers carefully." Currency traders understand the code words "watching carefully" as a threat of intervention in the market.

At 9:14 am on Friday morning, just minutes before the opening of the NYSE, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported, without quoting sources, that the Bank of Japan would likely to hold off from raising interest rates at its policy board meeting on August 23rd. The Kyodo report lifted the US dollar by 1-yen to 114.30-yen. On Sunday night at 7:22 pm EST, Japanese Finance Minister Koji Omi told the media, "I am watching developments closely," lifting the dollar further to 115.20-yen.

Japanese Finance Minister Koji Omi said he agreed with PPT chief Henry Paulson in a phone conversation on August 21st that the two sides would closely watch market developments for a while. "We held frank discussions on market and economic conditions. We agreed that we will watch market developments carefully for a while." The dollar was trading at 114.80-yen when Omi spoke to the media.

[anthony]

the what if, and what's next start to play out...I love this thing

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JG02Dj04.html

Even if ECB intervention could slow the dollar's decent, what possible reason would they have for doing so? The ECB is already concerned about inflation and is preparing to raise rates as a result. Intervention to support the dollar will only worsen Europe�s inflation problem and run counter to these efforts. This is because to buy dollars the ECB must increase its own money supply. That is exactly what is happening in countries like China and Saudi Arabia, which is why inflation in those nations is already much higher than it is in Europe.

Further, since the ECB is asking Europeans to endure higher interest rates to fight their inflation battle, why should they have to make additional sacrifices to help Americans fight their own inflation? Especially when our own central bank has held interest rates at the ridiculously low level of 2%, and has effectively excused Americans from the conflict.

Since we can't count on any help from our friends, the only option would be for the Treasury to intervene unilaterally. However, the US government should think twice about bringing a knife to a gunfight. The Treasury has only about US$75 billion in foreign currency reserves with which to intervene. The war chest is just a spit in the ocean.

To put this number in perspective, Poland has $77 billion, Turkey has $78 billion, and Libya has $79 billion. On the other end of the spectrum, China has $1.7 trillion (not counting Honk Kong�s $150 billion) Japan has $1 trillion, Russia has $550 billion, India and Taiwan each have about $300 billion. Singapore, a nation with fewer than five million people, has $175 billion.

In fact, the United States holds just about 1% of the world's $7.6 trillion of foreign currency reserves, and our total position amounts to just 2.5% of the total daily volume of foreign exchange trading.

[RobG]

Regarding:
"Clinton tried to stop this by balancing the budget and was nearly impeached for this."

I believe he did that by raiding the Social Security funds and having all new funds go directly into the Treasury. So it was a one-shot deal. So even that "accomplishment" was to pile up more debt.

[Ed-M]

RobG,

They ALL raided the SS trust fund. Ever since Johnson, to hide the deficit caused by war spending in Vietnam.

[Anthony]

Merrill says GM bankruptcy possible, shares drop

There goes GM.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080702/bs_nm/gm_dc_2

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N) will need to raise as much as $15 billion in cash to shore up liquidity and bankruptcy is "not impossible" if the U.S. auto market continues to slump, Merrill Lynch said on Wednesday.

Although other analysts have suggested GM needs to raise funds to ride out the downturn in the U.S. auto market through 2009, Merrill's estimate of GM's financing needs was the highest yet. It also carried the most stark warning of the bankruptcy risk for the largest U.S. automaker.

Shares of GM, which have lost more than half of their value over the past two months, fell more than 7 percent to $10.88 in early trading.

[Buffalo Ken]

GM deserves what it gets. GM sabatoged mass transport at the beginning of the century. Karma never forgets.

[Buffalo Ken]

The 20th century that is.

[blues]

GM has been in deep trouble for years. And they have been very, very slow to move away from the hulking gas guzzlers.

On yet another front, see:

The Industry Standard

Second Life users spending more time in world, but are they paying?
by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira
07/01/2008

((----- Copy & Paste - W/O The Line Breaks -----))

http://thestandard.com/news/2008/07/01/second-life-users

-spending-more-time-world-are-they-paying

«In the numbers, the average price for land shares in Second Life dropped from 3.23 Linden dollars (L$) to 2.86 L$ per acre. But an even greater concern for Linden Lab is the ratio of user hours to premium subscribers. Paid subscribers (those who pay a monthly fee for the privilege of spending more money on land rights) have been on a steady decline since December 2007, while the total number of hours users spend in-world has been on a steady upswing over the same period.»

[Buffalo Ken]

But lets not dismuss what GM did. They sealed thier own fate if you really think about it. They got cocky. Thought they could call all the shots.

They ended up fat, overextended, and most likely soon to be broke. They deserve it for what they did. Seems that way to me.

Seems like this is the case for many entities. Un-Alive corporate entities if you know what I mean.

[Buffalo Ken]

i swear i typed dismiss....oh well...typos they happen.

[Buffalo Ken]

I did a quick search and this is what came up (I didn't see the old reference that I know I have printed up somewhere around here)

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/gm.html

Anyhow, if not for GM, then perhaps not so much oil, then perhaps we might not be facing the wrath of mother nature (so to speak). Really one thing leads to another.

Peace,
Ken

[Paul S]

GM also scuttled battery powered cars. For years, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and others wiped the floor with GM in the much touted "free market". Look at GM now. Just like the neo cons, no amount of failure taught these smug, arrogant #%!& a thing. They will be looking for a Chrysler-type bailout soon. It's pathetic to watch these Titans of free enterprise turn into Das Kapital style Marxists when it's THEIR neck on the chopping block. I wonder if GM management will lay all of the blame on Union wages and benefits this time around. They are going to default on their retiree pension obligations anyway.

[Blake K]

Perhaps a note for GM ... from www.futurescenarios.org:

"One of the characteristics of a robust, enduring and mature civilization is the capacity to consider the longer term, aim for desirable but achievable futures, but have fallback strategies and insurance policies to deal with surprise and uncertainty. Given the globalised nature of culture, knowledge and wealth, our industrial civilisation should have been able to devote resources to serious redesign strategies at the technological, infrastructural, organisational, cultural and personal levels which are able to respond to the potentials of all four long term scenarios. Instead we see remarkably short term behaviour and a cavalier disregard of the fate of future generations.

While this is often explained as 'human nature' of fallible individuals, this explanation should not apply to institutions such as corporations -- let alone governments. History and systems theory suggest that powerful and long-lived human institutions should embody longer-term cultural wisdom and capacity.

We can interpret the short-sighted nature of information and decision making in our largest organisational structures as one of the many signs of cultural decay, reflecting the fact that our stocks of human capital may be declining, just as is our stock of natural capital."

[hakan with the reindeer]

Elaine, have you thought of this:
Number 8 in Chine is considered a real lycky number, in regional dialects the words for 8 and fortune or wealth is the same.

The Olympics start 08/08/08 08:08.

[PLovering]

No new loans?! And no new money?!!

Oh My God! Lay Me Down!

Here come the Depression, right on schedule.

Death to Christians.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

8 is also infinity, by the way. The Japanese, Chinese, Siberians, and American Indians all think the number 4 is very sacred and 8 is doubly sacred. This has to do with the 4 directions in the Heavens namely, the ecliptic and the sidereal. As well as north/south/east/west and the 4 elements and the 4 seasons, etc.

This is part of 'good earth magic' and comes out of the yin/yang cycle of light and dark, male and female. Both needing to be in balance.

GM: I had to go off to help a friend with his diesel tractor and other diesel problems and didn't see the news after 10 am. As per usual when I go off, all hell breaks loose. I want to thank everyone here for giving me the hard news fast! Thank you!

Isn't is just pathetic about GM? I have owned both GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Volkswagen, Massey-Fergesson, Dodge, a huge number of vehicles of all sorts and types. Imported and native. All have had their pluses and minuses.

I hate to see competition fail. I like selections! I hate recessions because they cut off choices. The number of choices diminish as the recession grinds on. Eventually, we have virtually none and the winners, far from being improved by all this, get very nasty.

Sadly enough. With automobiles and other vehicles like my tractors and beat up old trucks, getting parts is HELL if the parent company folds! Often, only junk yards are available. So it makes me very nervous and annoyed to see them go under.

[Michael]

Dear Elaine ~

My husband spends a lot of quality time reading and emailing your blog. We are different in some ways and we appreciate that, so although he is fascinated with your blog, my big question are: does your depiction of a dog and a cat with the stars and stripes lady have anything to do with your involvement with animal welfare? I hope so, and if so what do you do about it? Thank you for the wonderful photograph today.

Sincerely,

Erica Seelig

[Christian W]

Heh number 8. The Chinese realize that too much of a good thing leads to disaster, extremes are to be avoided. The number 8 configuration dreamt up by the Olympic committee is actually seen as a bad omen by the wise Chinese...

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

All of the rulers love magic numbers! This is across the board. Each have their own magic spells they want to express this way. It is a very fascinating subject and in the Other Realm there is intense interest in all this for They over There are elemental creatures that can become real via numbers.

I like to think that the Creation of the Universe was when Lady Luck was playing with numbers and probabilities. When She used up all possible combinations of chance number cycles and systems, She tackled all the improbable possibilities. Then, using up these, She had only one recourse: to create an impossible number system that can't exist. This caused a massive explosion Astronomers call 'The Big Bang.' She called it 'The Big Accident...Oops!'

If we read the history of math and the creation of numbers, we quickly find ourselves in the middle of some of the queerest religious thought systems of them all. And these are queer because they are so ALIEN yet interface with describing Nature.

How is that, I asked, as a child. My father said, 'You can't understand the universe unless you understand how numbers are the way reality is written.' So I tried...from the opposite side. Not via being a great genius using numbers and formulas but via the opposite side of the reality system: via dreams and understanding the underbelly of the psyche. To my shock, these things merge there.

Erica: my cats and dogs hang out in my office when I write. They sit on my lap, the cats have a perch next to the keyboard, both dogs have beds under the desk at my feet and sleep there except in summer when it is too hot except if I air condition the office.

Animals are what keeps us real. They see right through us yet will love us anyway. A human has to be a total jerk to not be loved and tolerated by a cat or a dog.

[Richard]

Anthony, thanks for that 'blow by blow' reference, I used it in my 7-2-2008 article 'Yen Carry Trade Massively Unwinds As Investors Trade Out Of Stocks For Commodities', where I related that there was a massive unwinding of the yen carry trade, which complemented two others that occurred on June 6, 2008, and June 20, 2008, which can be seen in the BRICs, EEB, falling 3.8%.

EUR/JPY, FXE:FXY, closed at 1.69.

It's going to be just like July 2007 all over again. The weekly chart of EUR/JPY, FXE:FXY shows a double top: we have three weeks now of 1.68 or above, which makes for the second double top that matches the former top in July 2007.

I recommend that one be invested in gold.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

The yen carry trade has been stumbling along now for a year. Every time it looks like it will restart, all the players rush over, panting, to get it going and then the yen strengthens against the dollar. The hopes of driving it down again to the 120 yen to the dollar range is fading fast, I think.

[Roberto]

I'd imagine Bush's dog whimpers when Bush actually deems it time for "attention".

[Buffalo Ken]

yeah, but "we" ain't bush's dog are "we", although the democrats collectively sure have been acting as if they are. I feel sorry for that damn dog, but not the democrats. They will get what they deserve. All of made up city of DC is corrupt to the core.

The rest of the country would be so much better off without it. Same goes for stinking texas -- no make that Tejas. Thats what it ought to be.

[Buffalo Ken]

Did you know that in the early history of the republic of "t", a "peace meeting" was called with the Comanche. All were to come to the table free of weaponry. The Comanche honored this agreement.

Well, what do you think happened? The "t" fuckers pulled out some guns and killed the Comanche chiefs. After that day, all Comanche became chiefs (or so I've heard).

Anyhow, this tells you all you really need to know about that state. No wonder the current "white" house occupier as well as many of the oil shit-fucks originate from the place. It is tainted and has been now since the mid-1800's. The rest of the country would be better off without it.

Or better yet, lets split that state up. It is too damn big. Either that or let the lone star bastards be by their lonesome. That state is a liability.

California ain't far behind. I don't want to be paying for it when California has their big earthquake. You know.

Just my humble opinion.

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

Warning: Long post.

From: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/26/9915/

(Post by "Native Son" June 26th 2008 1:49 pm)

**
Very good article and right on target. The need for a “leader”, a “president, king, emperor, or prophet, messenger, or representative of a GOD” is very strong in human history—-and a failed doctrine as history will attest.

In 1840 the newly formed “Republic of Texas” called all of the Plains Tribes “Chiefs” in Texas (mostly Comanche) together for a “peace conference”. When they were gathered in the “Council House” the Texans changed the rules of negotiations and when the Comanches protested and desired to withdraw, the Texans opened up on them with newly acquired Colt Revolvers, killing more than thirty Comanche Chiefs, who had arrived as agreed, unarmed. This began what history would later record as the most bloody period in the history of both the Texans and the Comanches. It also altered the Comanche leadership approach. From that day forward, no man was called a Chief by the Comanche, from that day forward ALL Comanches were chiefs. They learned from the “Council House Massacre”. They were successful and in 1868 after forty eight additional years of bloody war, the US capitulated at the Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek—-they surrendered to the Comanche, in every way. The Comanche were later defeated by the fact that they had allowed themselves to be confined on relatively small tracts of land,(which later became even smaller, and then disappeared altogether) disarmed and dismounted. They made the same mistake TWICE ( a deadly formula when dealing with Americans/Christians/Civilized People) but they succeeded where no other tribes had, by realizing that there is no real need for leaders—–only those who carry out the decisions of the majority, FOR the majority. Something modern humanity if it ever learned, has abandoned for the present aberration in “leadership” which has lead to destruction and disaster except for a few.
The USA never has been an “example for all to follow”, but it could be—simply by learning from the mistakes of the past, and change the mistaken behavior.
It could be a refreshing change from history’s long accounting if the present US administration were to become the negative example for all time——-it’s up to us all.
There may not be enough time left for any more mistakes like these.
A political system that has always been under the control of “special interests” as the USA has been from the beginning.—- In the eighteenth century is was slavery/agriculture and the beginning of the industrial revolution; in the nineteenth century it was the Rail Road “tycoons” and industrial “Robber Barons”, in the twentieth century it was Big Oil and Big Business.

The American people in the twenty first century can either make the choice to be the “negative” or the “positive” example for history—by making very important and essential changes in the leadership technique——which would be an example true power.

Or they can piss it all away and wait for Jesus to rescue them—–from themselves.

I am one of the descendants of one of those Comanches present for the 1868 Medicine Lodge Creek Treaty———–I still do not have a “Chief”………nor do I need one.
**

[Buffalo Ken]

P.S. - the history of Tejas and the whole time period around the 1830's in the US of A is when (in my opinion) a whole bunch of seriously bad precedent was firmly established that set the country on its trajectory. Sam Houston, that Jackson dood, the Cherokee, the Seminole, the railroads, etc. In my opinion, a bunch of bad decisions were made (especially in stinking DC) and now we are paying the piper. You reap what you sow - don't you know? Is there going to be some learning or not?

I used to have a whole website dedicated to discussing the history of the 1830's and thereabouts, but not anymore. That story is no longer publically available, but if you are interested I'll be happy to send you a copy of the site I had made. Just send me an e-mail.

Regardless, the "accurate history" is out there for those who care enough to search, who have empathy for others, and whose minds are broad enough and humble enough to understand.

I'll say this. Peace is what we need, and time is of the essence, but time don't play around and our time is running mighty low. Don't you think? Momma earth is getting fed up with our species. We are losing all of our value and destroying more than we are creating, thus setting the stage for our own destruction. Complete and utter destruction.

Too bad because our brains can store so much. We could be so valuable to life in general, but if we can't do it, another species will eventually come along that can. Just now we seem to me to be led by a bunch of fools who are dumber than fungus (no offense to any actual fungus out there).

Peace,
Ken

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Ah...yes. The native Indians who tried to negotiate things rapidly discovered these were all cover for imperial expansions. This continued to this very day.

Revenge came when Indians found out they could imitate Nevada.

[jm]

a perspective on the irish 'no' vote to the
integrating european lisbon treaty --
the european constitution was designed to lock into a founding document the right-wing neoliberal policies espoused by berlusconi, merkel, blair (now brown?) and sarkozy.

The idea of a european superstate isn't what frightened the chickens, it was the fact that this new superstate would be entirely unlike the social europe we've come to expect, with high-quality public health, education, transport and communications free or subsidised for all.

The european constitution, drafted largely in secret, was rejected by the dutch, then by the french; after this, they rejigged the text as a series of amendments to existing treaties, so as to bypass the dutch and french rejections!!

But despite thier best efforts to railroad in a rightwing economic agenda, ireland voted no.

Ever since, the media here has been busy spinning deciet and deception, pretending that no-voters were all catholic-taliban anti-abortionists, stalinist commies, loony anarchists, or goosestepping nazis; that no-voters were scared of somthing they couldn't understand.

My favorite bits of the lisbon treaty:
" .. workers' right to srike NOT guaranteed .."
" .. countries must increase military spending .. "
" .. privatise services .. " (health, education, ... !!)