Financial Meltdown - The men who crashed the world

Keith Olbermann pointed out Wednesday night on Countdown that the major newspapers had been ignoring the five-day-long "Occupy Wall Street" protests, but would have scrambled to cover a similar-sized tea party protest.

"Why isn't any major news outlet covering this?" he asked. "If that's a tea party protest in front of Wall Street about Ben Bernanke putting stimulus funds into it, it's the lead story on every network news cast. How is that disconnect possible in this country today with so many different outlets and so many different ways of transmitting news?"

His guest, author Will Bunch, suggested the disconnect was caused in part by the news networks being out of touch with the pain of the 25 million Americans who are unemployed.

Wall Street has shown Americans how they feel about protests. This video shows unidentified occupants watching protests from the balconies of Wall Street in amusement while sipping champagne. Source Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/strugglevideomedia#p/u

Incredible Speech By Wall Street Protester "End The Fed" 2011 https://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhee

Financial Armageddon Imminent 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Si3MaH78rk

Banker Protesters Storm Brooklyn Bridge 2011 "The Youth Are Rising" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98EyKdn3gk

JP Morgan actually FUNDS The New York City Police Department: Source: http://theintelhub.com/2011/10/01/jp-morgan-funded-nypd-mass-arrests-over-700-peaceful-occupy-wall-street-protesters/

Occupy Wall Street: Mass Economic Riots Are Now Here And America Will Never Be The Same: http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/occupy-wall-street-mass-economic-riots-are-now-here-and-america-will-never-be-the-same

Obama Machine Prepares To Hijack 'Occupy Wall Street' http://www.infowars.com/obama-machine-prepares-to-hijack-occupy-wall-street/

JP Morgan Funded NYPD Mass Arrests! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCDXXgtN_Ko VIDEO REMOVED

The Marines are Coming to PROTECT the Protestors' http://globalnoncompliance.webnode.com/news/occupywallstreet-the-marines-are-coming-to-protect-the-protestors/

The Global Bailout?
Baghdad, 9 October / October (Rn) – The Iraqi government announced that it has signed a preliminary agreement on Sunday in Baghdad with the United Kingdom for the development of economic cooperation between the two countries and banking.

The Economic Adviser in the Iraqi government peace Qureshi, told the Kurdish news agency (Rn) that “the Iraqi and British governments concluded a preliminary agreement to develop cooperation in matters of economic, financial and banking between the two countries as a prelude to a final agreement will continue until the year 2016.”

He pointed out that “the agreement was concluded this afternoon (Sunday) in the capital Baghdad and signed by Iraq and the agents of the Ministry of Finance and by the British representatives of the British Treasury.”

Quraishi explained that “the agreement based on mutual benefit and mutual includes improving the economic situation in Iraq and the development of banks and convert them to the banks the advantage of a global financial specifications.”

He continued by saying that “the agreement focuses on transforming the work of government banks to the clearing and activating the electronic protection measures,” adding that “the Kingdom of the British Government will support Iraq in all economic fields.”

The Council of Ministers of new mechanisms to facilitate the opening letters of credit for less than four million dollars through activating the role of private banks, which aims to stimulate trade in the country.

The Iraqi government relies in its financial transactions on the government banks by up to 85 per cent.

The total capital of banks, Iraqi Special billion and $ 600 million currently, other than that owned by the branches of Arab and foreign banks operating in the country.

http://bit.ly/nqC5Rd
http://translate.google.com/translate?act=url&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ar&tl=en&u=http://www.aknews.com/ar/aknews/2/266087/

The seeds for President Obama’s demagogic press conference on Thursday were planted last summer when he assigned his right-wing Committee of 13 the role of resolving the obvious and inevitable Congressional budget standoff by forging an anti-labor policy that cuts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and uses the savings to bail out banks from even more loans that will go bad as a result of the IMF-style austerity program that Democrats and Republicans alike have agreed to back.

The problem facing Mr. Obama is obvious enough: How can he hold the support of moderates and independents (or as Fox News calls them, socialists and anti-capitalists), students and labor, minorities and others who campaigned so heavily for him in 2008? He has double-crossed them – smoothly, with a gentle smile and patronizing patter talk, but with an iron determination to hand federal monetary and tax policy over to his largest campaign contributors: Wall Street and assorted special interests – the Democratic Party’s Rubinomics and Clintonomics core operators, plus smooth Bush Administration holdovers such as Tim Geithner, not to mention quasi-Cheney factotums in the Justice Department.

President Obama’s solution has been to do what any political demagogue does: Come out with loud populist campaign speeches that have no chance of becoming the law of the land, while quietly giving his campaign contributors what they’ve paid him for: giveaways to Wall Street, tax cuts for the wealthy (euphemized as tax “exemptions” and mark-to-model accounting, plus an agreement to count their income as “capital gains” taxed at a much lower rate).

So here’s the deal the Democratic leadership has made with the Republicans. The Republicans will run someone from their present gamut of guaranteed losers, enabling Mr. Obama to run as the “voice of reason,” as if this somehow is Middle America. This will throw the 2012 election his way for a second term if he adopts their program – a set of rules paid for by the leading campaign contributors to both parties.

President Obama’s policies have not been the voice of reason. They are even further to the right than George W. Bush could have achieved. At least a Republican president would have confronted a Democratic Congress blocking the kind of program that Mr. Obama has rammed through. But the Democrats seem stymied when it comes to standing up to a president who ran as a Democrat rather than the Tea Partier he seems to be so close to in his ideology.

So here’s where the Committee of 13 comes into play. Given (1) the agreement that if the Republicans and Democrats do NOT agree on Mr. Obama’s dead-on-arrival “job-creation” ploy, and (2) Republican House Leader Boehner’s statement that his party will reject the populist rhetoric that President Obama is voicing these days, then (3) the Committee will get its chance to wield its ax and cut federal social spending in keeping with its professed ideology.

President Obama signaled this long in advance, at the outset of his administration when he appointed his Deficit Reduction Commission headed by former Republican Sen. Simpson and Rubinomics advisor to the Clinton administration Bowles to recommend how to cut federal social spending while giving even more money away to Wall Street. He confirmed suspicions of a sellout by reappointing bank lobbyist Tim Geithner to the Treasury, and tunnel-visioned Ben Bernanke as head of the Federal Reserve Board.

Yet on Wednesday, October 4, the president tried to represent the OccupyWallStreet movement as support for his efforts. He pretended to endorse a pro-consumer regulator to limit bank fraud, as if he had not dumped Elizabeth Warren on the advice of Mr. Geithner – who seems to be settling into the role of bagman for campaign contributors from Wall Street.

Can President Obama get away with it? Can he jump in front of the parade and represent himself as a friend of labor and consumers while his appointees support Wall Street and his Committee of 13 is waiting in the wings to perform its designated function of guillotining Social Security?

When I visited the OccupyWallStreet site on Wednesday, it was clear that the disgust with the political system went so deep that there is no single set of demands that can fix a system so fundamentally broken and dysfunctional. One can’t paste-up a regime that is impoverishing the economy, accelerating foreclosures, pushing state and city budgets further into deficit, and forcing cuts in social spending.

The situation is much like that from Iceland to Greece: Governments no longer represent the people. They represent predatory financial interests that are impoverishing the economy. This is not democracy. It is financial oligarchy. And oligarchies do not give their victims a voice.

So the great question is, where do we go from here? There’s no solvable path within the way that the economy and the political system is structured these days. Any attempt to come up with a neat “fix-it” plan can only suggest bandages for what looks like a fatal political-economic wound.

The Democrats are as much a part of the septic disease as the Republicans. Other countries face a similar problem. The Social Democratic regime in Iceland is acting as the party of bankers, and its government’s approval rating has fallen to 12 percent. But they refuse to step down. So earlier last week, voters brought steel oil drums to their own Occupation outside the Althing and banged when the Prime Minister started to speak, to drown out her advocacy of the bankers (and foreign vulture bankers at that!).

Likewise in Greece, the demonstrators are showing foreign bank interests that any agreement the European Central Bank makes to bail out French and German bondholders at the cost of increasing taxes on Greek labor (but not Greek property and wealth) cannot be viewed as democratically entered into. Hence, any debts that are claimed, and any real estate or public enterprises given sold off to the creditor powers under distress conditions, can be reversed once voters are given a democratic voice in whether to impose a decade of poverty on the country and force emigration.

That is the spirit of civil disobedience that is growing in this country. It is a quandary – that is, a problem with no solution. All that one can do under such conditions is to describe the disease and its symptoms. The cure will follow logically from the diagnosis. The role of OccupyWallStreet is to diagnose the financial polarization and corruption of the political process that extends right into the Supreme Court, the Presidency, and Mr. Obama’s soon-to-be notorious Committee of 13 once the happy-smoke settles from his present pretensions.


Michael Hudson is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

This stunning factoid was reported in DS News last week and appears not to have gotten the attention it deserves. A mid-September survey ascertained that a full one third of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, and if they lost their job, they would not be able to make their next rent or mortgage payment. And the article stresses this was not a function of being in or near the poverty line (hat tip reader May S):

Despite being more affluent, the poll found that even those with higher annual household incomes indicate they are not guaranteed to make their next housing payment if they lost their source of income.

Ten percent of survey respondents earning $100K or more a year say they would immediately miss a payment….

Sixty-one percent of those surveyed said if they were handed a pink slip, they would not be able to continue to make their mortgage or rent payment longer than five months.

The implications are grim. The odds of an economic recovery any time soon are close to non-existent. Many large companies (like Bank of America) have announced layoffs. Flagging top lines and a likely to be weak Christmas season, if Chinese shipping volumes are any guide, means more cuts are likely go be announced next year. And that’s before you factor in the impact of a strengthening dollar, state and local government belt tightening and a possible financial crisis.

With so many citizens on a knife’s edge financially, a slackening of demand will have a more severe impact than usual. I strongly suspect that most macroeconomic models don’t allow for the shock of job losses leading so quickly to the loss of the primary residence or extremely rapid curtailment of spending (as regular readers once know, once a homeowner misses a mortgage payment or two, pyramiding late fees pretty much assure they are on a path to foreclosure). In other words, if we have another economic leg down, it will feed on itself in a more pernicious manner than most experts foresee.

As Americans begin pouring into the streets with dissatisfaction, there seems to be some confusion as to who the source of their problem is. That 'who' is a corporate-financier oligarchy that has been destroying America

Contents

Introduction
1. The Federal Reserve Directors
2. The Group of Thirty
3. President Obama's Cabinet, Past & Present
4. America's Unelected Policy Makers & Their Corporate Sponsors
5. Solutions

Introduction

As Americans begin pouring into the streets with dissatisfaction, there seems to be some confusion as to who the source of their problem is. That 'who' is a corporate-financier oligarchy that has been destroying America for nearly a century and until now, has done a good job of parasitically feeding from America in the shadows. They are not the "1%."

They are the 1% of the 1%. They are billionaire banksters the Rothschilds, the Federal Reserve and the directors and chairmen of many of the largest corporations on earth including big oil, the military industrial complex, big pharma, big agri, and the corporate media which combine their resources and collective agenda in self-contrived institutions, think-tanks, and working groups to dominate humanity. Some of these include the Brookings Institution, the International Crisis Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Foreign Policy Initiative, and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Below you will see a growing list of these names, companies, corporations, institutions, their agendas and how they interrelate. One thing that should be abundantly clear as one reaches the bottom, is that most of these names are reoccurring and the solution is self-evident. Many of these names are corporations, banks, and institutions we pay into on a daily basis. The solution of course, should we conclude they are indeed the problem, is to no longer pay into them with our time, money, energy, and attention.

1. The Federal Reserve Directors

The Federal Reserve is an unelected, private cartel of bankers who dictate to America, including its elected representatives, the United States' monetary policy. They generally do so with little or no oversight, lie to those charged with inquiring into their activities, and literally conspire against the American people through an additional corporate cartel their associations afford them that uses its vast power, influence, and operational capabilities to lord over the American public.
....

The entire list of Federal Reserve directors can be found on their website, and includes the following perpetrators; James 'Jamie' Dimon of JP Morgan, James S. Tisch of the Loews Corporation, Lee C. Bollinger President of Columbia University, Michael F. Camardo formally of Lockheed Martin, Thomas I. Barkin of McKinsey & Company, Richard H. Anderson of Delta Airlines, Michael A. Cook of Walmart, Patricia E. Yarrington of Chevron, and many more.

2. The Group of Thirty

The Group of Thirty describes itself as "a private, nonprofit, international body composed of very senior representatives of the private and public sectors and academia," that aims to "deepen understanding of international economic and financial issues, to explore the international repercussions of decisions taken in the public and private sectors, and to examine the choices available to market practitioners and policymakers." A list of the group's members can be found on their website. (Click on the images below to enlarge.) http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27000

In reality, these are the policymakers; unelected, unaccountable bankers and corporate heads that literally write the destiny of the West and an increasing proportion of the developing world. The average person, saturated by lies, puppet politicians, crass entertainment, and false political choices most likely hasn't seen a single face that makes up the Group of Thirty. This is the entire idea behind the corporate media and the parade of spectacles and distractions brought before the American public - so that you never take time to notice the Group of Thirty. Should the American people notice them, and the amount of unwarranted power they have illegally accumulated within their hands, the people would mobilize to dethrone these self-appointed arbiters of America's destiny.

3. President Obama's Cabinet, Past & Present

"Obama's a Muslim." "Obama's a Marxist." "Obama's a socialist." None of these are true. Obama is a puppet for Wall Street, and most likely doesn't even select the tie he wears on a daily basis. A quick look at his presidential cabinet shows how deeply rooted it is with Wall Street mega-banks and Fortune 100 corporations involved in everything from lobbying and law, to the military industrial complex. Realizing this, those leading calls of "Obama the Marxist" can now be written off as either careless in their research or intentionally misleading, with those in the corporate media, such as News Corporation's Fox News, amongst the latter.

Get the DVD @
http://infowars-shop.stores.yahoo.net/obdedvd.html
The Obama Deception is a hard-hitting film that completely destroys the myth that Barack Obama is working for the best interests of the American people.

The Obama phenomenon is a hoax carefully crafted by the captains of the New World Order. He is being pushed as savior in an attempt to con the American people into accepting global slavery.

We have reached a critical juncture in the New World Order's plans. It's not about Left or Right: it's about a One World Government. The international banks plan to loot the people of the United States and turn them into slaves on a Global Plantation.

Covered in this film: who Obama works for, what lies he has told, and his real agenda. If you want to know the facts and cut through all the hype, this is the film for you.

Watch the Obama Deception and learn how:

- Obama is continuing the process of transforming America into something that resembles Nazi Germany, with forced National Service, domestic civilian spies, warrantless wiretaps, the destruction of the Second Amendment, FEMA camps and Martial Law.

- Obama's handlers are openly announcing the creation of a new Bank of the World that will dominate every nation on earth through carbon taxes and military force.

- International bankers purposefully engineered the worldwide financial meltdown to bankrupt the nations of the planet and bring in World Government.

- Obama plans to loot the middle class, destroy pensions and federalize the states so that the population is completely dependent on the Central Government.

- The Elite are using Obama to pacify the public so they can usher in the North American Union by stealth, launch a new Cold War and continue the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.


4. America's Unelected Policy Makers & Their Corporate Sponsorship https://2img.net/i/fa/wysiwyg/text_bold.png

(From "Naming Names") This is your real government; they transcend elected administrations, they permeate every political party, and they are responsible for nearly every aspect of the average American and European's way of life. When the "left" under Obama is carrying the torch for two "Neo-Con" wars, starting yet another in Libya based on the same lies, peddled by the same media outlets that told of Iraqi WMD's, the world has no choice, beyond profound cognitive dissonance, but to realize something is wrong.

What's wrong is a system completely controlled by a corporate-financier oligarchy with financial, media, and industrial empires that span the globe. If we do not change the fact that we are helplessly dependent on these corporations that regulate every aspect of our nation politically, and every aspect of our lives personally, nothing else will ever change.

The following list, however extensive, is by far not all-inclusive. However after these examples, a pattern should become self-evident with the same names and corporations being listed again and again. It should be self-evident to readers of how dangerously pervasive these corporations have become in our daily lives. Finally, it should be self-evident as to how necessary it is to excise these corporations from our lives, our communities, and ultimately our nations, with the utmost expediency.

International Crisis Group
www.crisisgroup.org

read list and more at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27000

Remember that $400 billion increase in debt recently enacted? Well it is gone and it only took six weeks. Washington has quite a talent for spending debt, which is other people’s money. Not satisfied the Senate, as we reported, added in another $500 billion. The media covered up the increase in debt by making a major issue of the President’s speech concerning jobs.

The enabling super committee is at work cutting $2 trillion from the budget. This supposedly will be concluded by November. These cuts were not designed as such, but they will help slow any recovery, as will any tax increase. As the CBO says, the wrong thing at the wrong time. Even with cuts and tax increases about half of federal government spending will be borrowed. Worse yet, most of any cuts will come from Social Security and Medicare, which are not entitlements, but are benefits the public paid for. Government wants to play Robin Hood, take from those who sacrificed and paid for the benefits and give to those who paid nothing into the system. As the enabling committee works behind closed doors the administration tries to use the debt problems in Europe, particularly in Greece, as a cover to shroud the problems in the US, which are potentially much worse. The US has no greater prospect of paying off its debt then does Greece or any of the other five close to insolvent nations. As serious as Europe’s problems are the focus should really be on America’s debt problems, because they will exert a greater impact worldwide, if for no other reason than the US dollar is the world’s reserve currency.

As in America, Europeans are being railroaded into bailing the banks out and will as the sick six sovereigns. That process could take ten years of subsidies and $6 trillion, which could unfairly bankrupt all of Europe. On top of all this financial horror waiting in the pipeline are carbon taxes. Including VAT the average taxation is 70%. We wonder how long it will take for revolution?

In the recent G-7 meeting in Marseilles, France, the members couldn’t identify the problems, much less analysis and solutions. The only cogent comment of value from their point of view was the banks would be bailed out no matter what the cost. So what else is new? We noticed there was little or no reporting on the conference, probably because they accomplished nothing. Of course, they were all for economic growth, strong financial markets and accommodative monetary policy. This lack of success was in part the reason of the plunge in the stock markets that followed. That is the state of world leadership.

Several months ago we predicted the administration would have a very hard time raising funds for stimulus. The enabling super committee is trying to raise taxes and cut the budget for a total of $1.5 to $2 trillion over the next ten years, which is a drop in the bucket, but will come mostly from Social Security and Medicare. It looks like the President’s jobs bill will be lucky if it is passed and the stimulus could only be on the order of $200 billion.

The simple answer to increase employment is to have banks lend out part of the $2 trillion they have on deposit at the Fed. They have cut back loans to small and medium sized businesses 30% over the past two years. If loans were forthcoming there would be a boom in employment, as these companies crate 70% of all jobs. That is the least they could do after the government and the banks’ made a deal in which the banks are relieved from any legal liability for their fraudulent securitization practices. It really is enough to make you sick. These crooks should be in jail.

We recently saw a $500 billion swap package to lend money to European banks, which were the victims of money market and other institutional funds pulling their funds out of Europe. The funds supposedly came from four central banks, when in reality the Fed was the only lender - lies, lies and more lies.

As the Federal Reserve lends trillions of dollars to banks, transnational corporations, and foreign banks and governments the average American cannot get a loan. Many Americans are living constantly under financial stress wondering how they can make it week to week. It is certainly a struggle. There are soon to be 45 million people on food stamps and unemployment remains at 22.4%.

One of the main reasons for this state of affairs is that in 11 years 11.7 million good paying jobs have been shipped to foreign low wage countries in the name of free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing. That includes the loss of 450,000 companies to foreign lands and no one ever talks about it, especially our Congress. This gutting of the US economy goes on daily and it is expected that we will lose 20 million more jobs in the next ten years, and 20 million more in the following ten years. That means very few able bodied men will have jobs. Is it any surprise that American men and women live in fear of losing their jobs. Will they be included in the next layoffs? These fears have caused families to sell things they don’t need to raise cash to live on. Anything is up for sale. In this past year 2.6 million more Americans were thrown into poverty, the biggest increase in 52 years. Six million Americans between 25 and 34 are living with their parents and at the rate jobs are being lost to China and other countries that figure will grow over the next 20 years.

The average income after taxes is about $3,000 a month and for a family of four that is not very much to live on. We see college graduates working for $2,400 a month in the black economy and at the same time collecting unemployment trying to make ends meet. What happens when unemployment runs out? Compounding the problems we have 15 million illegal adult illegal aliens fighting those college grads for those jobs.

Costs continue to escalate as a matter of public policy, as inflation reaches 11.4% in the real world. Now government even admits to 3.8%. How do Americans cope with costs growing over 10% a year? How about retirees who haven’t had a COLA increase in more than two years, as government lies about inflation? At the same time the super Congress enabling committee wants to cut $400 billion each from Social Security and Medicare. Those are funds that have been paid in by citizens for more than 50 or 60 years. What kind of a government is it that does such things? Yes, the government is the enemy. The young families simply cannot make it without help from their parents, even those in there 40s. How can anyone afford health care? There are 50 million Americans without health care due to perpetually rising costs. Layoffs are up 14% and unemployment rises again. How can a man support a family on $10.50 an hour? His $30.00 an hour job is now in China, India or Mexico. In order to make ends meet, debt has been brought to staggering levels. The average American household has income of $26,000 and debt of $75,000. The entire situation gets worse every day as consumers cut back. For almost 12 years Washington has had no jobs policy or growth policy for that matter. It is bail out the financial sector and the government. There is nothing for people – no solutions.

What the Fed and the Treasury have been doing to resurrect the economy hasn’t worked and they knew it wouldn’t work. The idea is to extend the time line. This is the same thing that is being done in Europe. For those of you who missed it the Bundestag voted overwhelmingly 523 to 85, to approve the expansion of the European bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, EFSF, in spite of the fact that 75% of Germans were against it. Our calculations are that if $5 trillion is needed to bail out the six insolvent countries, Germany’s part will be $1.3 trillion. This debt crisis will lead to an economic slump and the contributing nations will have to print money and monetize in order to fill their commitments, which in turn will drive up inflation. In this process Greece in all likelihood will default by a minimum of 50% and perhaps totally, and that in turn will bring major losses to banks and participating central banks. At that juncture the Greeks will leave the euro zone to be followed by Ireland and Portugal. Others will follow. That will bring further recession and financial turmoil, along with civil unrest particularly in Germany. All might add that it took three months of dithering by euro-area lawmakers to create and overhaul their rescue fund, probably to allow the banks time to withstand and further market unrest. As this transpired the EU economy lost traction and was sinking into recession. Market volatility continues with Spain and Italy extending their bans of short selling of financial shares.

It is now the intent of bankers and politicians to allow the EFSF to leverage lending in violation of the German Constitution. The Greek rescue package is to be implemented and the banks taken off the hook and be recapitalized, at the public’s expense. These are the very same banks that caused all the problems in the first place. These same private creditors are angered that they may be asked to take a larger than 21% loss on their Greek holdings.

The Greeks protest and demonstrate almost every day. The public is not going to cooperate with the current government. PASOK, the party in power, is still trying to find a way to take away taxi driver medallions, which are worth lots of money, and turn the taxi business over to a Germany company. This past week they passed legislation adding a penalty charge of several percent to real estate taxes and worse yet, they now want to make it retroactive to 2001. These are taxes the people are incapable of paying. The results are continual strikes.

Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble says there is no secret plan to leverage the EU’s bailout plan from $595 billion to $2.7 trillion. This increase, illegal in Germany, would cause a downgrade in the sovereign debt rating of the solvent states. If there is a secret master plan put together with the help of the Fed, it will destroy Germany’s constitution and democracy. Social Democrats denounced the back-room dealing and the secrecy. The real implications of such a deal is to put Germany’s domestic finances under the control of the EFSF and eventually the European Monetary Union, the EMU. German citizens are being taken to the cleaners, they do not know about these back-room deals. It could lead, once exposed, to a referendum and a new constitution, which would destroy Germany’s democracy in order to form government by bureaucrats, who would prepare the EU for the new world order. The current Congress does not have the legal right to sign away German sovereignty. The Bundestag cannot abdicate its fiscal responsibilities to accommodate the banking elitists. This sordid relationship will lead to resistance by the people and could end up in revolution, if the bankers are stupid enough to push the issue. The EU is already in the clutches of supra-national bodies, which are not elected and accountable only to the bankers. They have already usurped tax and spending and want to extend that to domestic fiscal matters, which will destroy the sovereignty of all of the 27 EU countries. Mr. Schäuble is lying. There is a secret elitist deal. This exposure will lead to the breakup of the euro zone and the EU and cause a banking collapse. That won’t be difficult because the banks are already broke. The future for Europe is not pretty. Smart Europeans are moving their wealth to gold and silver related assets. The Fed cannot rescue Europe indefinitely. European financial problems are going to get worse because they are trying to save the banks at any cost and it isn’t going to work.

Bob Chapman is a frequent contributor to Global Research. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26878

Many see China's currency policy as a big factor in the flood of Chinese imports that has led to American factories shutting down and workers getting laid off.

[Personal note: What a crock. Big Business moved their factories to China to take advantage of cheap Chinese labor and to reap a bigger profit margins. To blame China when the same thing happened with Japan back in the 50s and 60s is just ignorant.]

The 63-35 vote Tuesday evening shows the growing anger over the U.S. trade relation with China. The Asian nation built up a $273 billion surplus last year bolstered by monetary policy that makes its exports cheaper and American sales to China more expensive.

But the bill to punish China is likely to hit a dead end in the House. [Let's hope this is the case]




THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below....

The Senate is trying to slow China's economic juggernaut with threats of higher tariffs on Chinese products made cheap through an artificially undervalued currency, which lawmakers blame for destroying American jobs. The House, though, is unlikely to take up the bill, which some American businesses warn could trigger a trade war.

Congress is also on the final lap of completing legislation that could put some new life in the U.S. economy by approving free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.

The currency legislation, expected to pass the Senate easily on Tuesday, has both strong advocates, who say it will make American goods more competitive and support more than 1 million new jobs, and critics who warn that will provoke Chinese retaliation and hurt Americans in one of their fastest-growing markets.

The bill could die in the House, where a companion measure has the sponsorship of more than half the members but lacks the support of the GOP leadership.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, like the many large multinational companies that oppose the legislation, has said it would be dangerous to dictate another country's currency policies, and he can prevent the bill from ever being considered.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Tuesday that the White House should make its position clear before the House acts. The White House and President Barack Obama have not come out against the bill but have shown they are not comfortable with it, saying they are concerned about any legislation that might violate international trade rules.

Regardless of the outcome, the debate and the vote are giving senators a chance to make clear to the Chinese their frustrations over trade policies that have seen China's trade surplus with the United States go from $10 billion 20 years ago to $273 billion last year, delivering painful blows to U.S. manufacturers and their employees.

"This is a country manipulating its currency for an advantage in the export market," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. "The Chinese manipulation of the yuan has cost this country at least 2 million jobs - 41,000 in South Carolina - and it is an unfair trade practice in another name."

The Chinese currency, the yuan, is undervalued against the dollar by 25 to 30 percent, according to most estimates, with some economists putting the difference at up to 40 percent. That means that Chinese goods sold in the United States have a 25 to 30 percent price advantage, while U.S. items sold in China become that much more expensive.

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, whose state of Ohio has been hit hard by Chinese competition, cited a tool and die shop in Brunswick, Ohio, that was about to sign a $1 million contract until the Chinese came in at the last moment with a bid 20 percent lower.

"That meant I don't know how many jobs that didn't stay in America but went to China and that 20 percent was given to them because of currency," he said.

The trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama are also intended to remove the disadvantages faced by U.S. exporters by eliminating or reducing the tariffs they must pay in those countries. Goods from the three countries already enter the United States with little or no tariff. Administration economists say the three deals could boost U.S. exports by $13 billion annually.

The House begins debate Tuesday on the bills and legislation to help workers displaced by foreign trade that the administration and Democrats insisted must be part of the trade agenda. The Senate Finance Committee considers the trade bills Tuesday and both chambers plan to vote on them on Wednesday.

The currency legislation would set in motion the imposition of higher tariffs on a country - China is not specifically mentioned in the bill - if Treasury decides that its currency is "misaligned" and the country does not act to correct it. Currently, Treasury must resolve that a country is willfully manipulating its currency, a higher bar to reach, before sanctions can be considered.

The bill also makes it easier for specific industries to petition the Commerce Department for redress if they believe an exchange rate is giving a foreign competitor the equivalent of an export subsidy.

The drive to punish China for its currency practices has been going on for years, led by conservatives such as Graham and Democratic liberals such as Brown and Chuck Schumer of New York. They have generally been discouraged by the Obama administration, and the Bush administration before it, which cautioned against unilateral sanctions and appealed for time to bring about Chinese cooperation through diplomatic channels.

There has been some appreciation of the yuan in the past year, but not enough to satisfy those who say it is still heavily undervalued in China's favor.

The Chinese have made their opposition to the Senate bill clear, saying in numerous statements that the trade imbalance is a result of U.S. economic policies and not the exchange rate, and that unilateral actions against China could damage the entirety of U.S.-China relations. Those range from efforts to better protect U.S. intellectual property rights in China, ending the theft of American technology, assuring the security of Taiwan and keeping the Korean Peninsula peaceful.

But Schumer said those warning that his bill will lead to a trade war miss the point. "When we see the trade deficit in 10 years triple with a country that is not playing by the rules, it is pretty clear there is a trade war going on and they are winning in so many ways," he said.

Opponents argue that the currency sanctions would do little to help the U.S. job market because more expensive Chinese goods would simply be replaced by goods from other low-wage countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh. And they say companies such as Wal-Mart ( WMT - news - people ) would continue buying Chinese items because they are deeply involved in investment in China, a fast-growing export market.

But the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a labor-management partnership that supports the bill, says a 28.5 percent appreciation in the yuan would create 2.25 American jobs and reduce the annual trade deficit by $190.5 billion. "China responds to consequences, and this legislation will make a real difference for American workers and businesses," said the group's executive director, Scott Paul.


http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/10/11/general-us-china-currency_8729394.html

Personal note to self: Buy Chinese yuan as an investment as it's bound to revalue at a higher rate in the future.

Thank-you for posting all of this, Carol. I have looked at some of it, but I need to go through all of it. I also need to rewatch 'The Money Masters'. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936# That, and 'The Ring of Power'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w-A54h_GQ8&feature=player_embedded Eric Jon Phelps is also quite interesting, regarding who has crashed what, throughout the past few centuries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbOI3uRggJE&feature=rellist&playnext=1&list=PLC364B04CAAA298D6 Watch these three links, in their entirety, for a real education. There are probably some glaring errors, but even if just half of this is true, it is absolutely mind-boggling. The interesting thing is, the more I expose myself to this sort of thing, the less hostile I feel. You'd think it would be just the opposite, wouldn't you? I just want to understand the problems, and solve them, with the least drama and trauma possible...

This is from Lindsey Williams who explained what is going on in the Middle East which helps one understand why the regimes are being removed.

Very briefly as background, Henry Kissinger made a deal with the Middle East some decades ago that we would make them wealthy beyond their expectations by buying their oil. In return, they were to take a portion of their income from oil sales and buy our debt by purchasing Treasury securities, T-Bills, etc..

The U.S. would then produce but a pittance of oil in this country although the U.S. has literally enough oil in this country to last 200+years. Now the elite are going to double cross the Middle East and OPEC.

The current crisis was initiated by the CIA using paid agitators in Egypt. The crisis will spread to the ENTIRE Middle East. Although they did not initiate current events, the Muslim Brotherhood is being supported by the elite in the crisis areas in the aftermath. Once Iran and Saudi Arabia fall, oil will soar.

Between the ongoing crisis and the continued decline of the dollar oil will go to $150-200 within nine months. When it gets close to the $200 level, the U.S. will cease to purchase Middle East oil. At that time the U.S. will produce oil from Gull Island in Prudhoe Bay and ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) in Alaska, the Bakken Formation in the Dakotas and the Rocky Mountain shale oil. (He said "Below the Rocky Mountains are two trillion barrels of oil.)

The elite will then sell OUR $200 oil to us at the gas pump for $ 6-7. This will further devastate the American economy as Americans will be hard pressed to drive long distances to work, Truckers and airlines will be hard pressed to operate. The military will be badly affected.

Once we cease to purchase oil from the Middle East the Arab nations and Iran will go broke. The billions or trillions of Treasuries, dollars etc. held by the Middle East will become worthless when the dollar collapses next year.

China is not reliant on Middle East oil. Russia has surpassed Saudi Arabia as the Number 1 oil producing country in the world. This was accomplished by Russia drilling mega-wells (can’t remember the industry term) down to 40000 + feet and discovering essentially unlimited supplies of oil. Now Russia and China have entered into an agreement whereby Russia will supply ALL of China’s oil. The U.S. will not be able to buy from Russia forcing us to rely on our own oil production.

Again, there will be no food shortages in this country but the decline of the dollar will create hyper-inflation making food extremely expensive. He cited garlic as a recent example which doubled in price in one week. Have six-twelve months supply of emergency food (dehydrated) on hand. (As a side note to this FEMA has been buying dehydrated foods for a couple of years. Now one of the largest dehydrated food producers in the country announced last week they will no longer sell to the public as FEMA is buying 90% of their production.)

Lindsey said that Bush, Sr., CFR, was ambassador to China when China was a closed society and a closed market. Subsequently, Bush opened up China and it is now destined to replace the U. S. as the world’s super power. As a side note to the non-believers, Bush’s opening line in his speech after Desert Storm was “We now have a New World Order.” I (Lindsey) almost fell out of my chair to hear the leader of the world’s super power admit it.

China now produces 80% of all components for the U. S. military. When Caterpillar and other U.S. companies open plants in China they MUST turn over ALL patent rights to China. That’s but one of the costs of doing business in China. China is now using its excess dollars to quietly buy controlling interest in American corporations.

Essentially they own this country because money talks. Watch China and no one else to see what will happen.

The end game is to bring the U.S. into the NWO. This has been accomplished by shipping jobs and factories overseas and destroying the dollar. China will replace the U.S. as the world power. The Renminbi will no doubt replace the dollar in that regard. China will NOT dump the dollar or Treasuries but is co-operating with the U.S. to steadily depreciate the dollar.

Most of this will NOT happen in 2011. But the dollar will be dead by the end of 2012 at which time Lindsey believes a gold backed global currency will come into place along with a One World Government and the New World Order.

Lindsey asked that this info be passed to as many as possible in order that they might prepare.



Personal note to self: Purchase electric car and solar car port.

And today there is this.

The US Senate has passed a bill to punish China for alleged currency manipulation, a move Beijing slammed as a "time-bomb" that could start a trade war between the world's top two economies.

Long frustrated at the alleged job-killing impact of China's forex regime, Democratic and Republican senators came together Tuesday to pass the bill, but it faces bleak prospects in the Republican-led House of Representatives.

"We are in trade war. But today we're fighting back," said Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, one of the bill's champions, defying the White House's refusal to back the bill at a time of renewed global economic unease.

The proposal, powered by a tide of US voter frustration at a sour economy and high unemployment ahead of November 2012 elections, envisions retaliatory duties on Chinese exports if the value of the yuan is unfairly "misaligned".

But Republican House Speaker John Boehner has signaled that he will not bring the legislation to a vote, calling it "dangerous" to economic relations.

China, accusing the US senators of scapegoating it during an election year, said the bill flouted World Trade Organization rules and would "seriously" harm relations between the world's number one and number two economies.

"It is a serious breach of WTO rules, which cannot solve the US's own economic and employment issues, and will... seriously interfere with Sino-US economic and trade relations," said foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu.

The official Xinhua news agency said "what the US Senate did planted a ticking time-bomb that may ignite a potential trade war between the world's two largest economies."

read more at link above...

and read between the lines...

I don't necessarily have a problem with globalism, central-banks, and international-bankers. I do have a problem with corrupt and destructive globalism, central-banks, and international-bankers. This world is more corrupt than hell itself. In fact, what if this is hell itself??? My next car will be an electric car, even if it's an old golf-cart! If I ever move to the City of London, I'll buy an electric black cab, and drive myself around London! I might even become initiated into 'The Knowledge' as a 33rd Degree Cabbie! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlMMK_PIzUs The London Cabbies have blood oaths, secret handshakes, secret rituals, secret signs (the blown-horn and the raised middle-finger)! Just kidding! Or am I?

The country I'm very curious about these days is China. I had some friends who visited a number of years back and said we should go just to see how fast they are developing.

Then I read this earlier and have to agree. "Europe, and the Middle East, respectively, are much more important trading partners in terms of exports, to China.
Second, exports are about 35% of China's GDP. That puts US's 'US consumer is the be all and end all of China' importance in terms of trade at about 7% of China's GDP.

China's biggest growth market is intra-asia right now in terms of exports, which it is focusing on. China will be fine if it loses 3% of GDP annually if the US boycotts. European trade is way more important. And, even, Middle East trade (as a whole) is way more important. Between all this (and the fact exports are roughly 35-38% of GPD), the US portion would mean very little to China if it vanished overnight.

The bottom line these days is that China is far more important to the US then the US is to China (other then all the US debt China bought but then China is also likely to be paid off in IDQ that when it revalues will be worth billions or more importantly to China - Iraqi oil).

October 11, 2011 - When the Asians decided to wage financial war against the criminal cabal that has taken over the West and was plotting unprecedented genocide, the cabalists were warned that it would just be a matter of time before they faced lynch mobs in their own countries. That time is fast approaching. The non-stop protests against the cabalists in the US and the impending doom of the Euro are just the visible part of a global movement to remove these parasitic scum from the body politic of the West. The invisible part involves control of codes and high tech “black screens,” that are used to manage the international financial system. Here multiple sources say that bank accounts meant for the use of humanity as a whole but taken over by private interests will be seized. As a part of this move, the control of the US dollar will be taken away from the privately owned Washington D.C. Corporation and moved to Switzerland. There it will be managed by the nations of the earth. Given these circumstances, the United States would be well advised to create a new greenback for their own use.

The latest twist in this financial war is the news that David Eisenhower, the son of president Eisenhower, has been a key front man for the cabal within the Bank of International Settlements.

October 3, 2011 - The process of removing the cabal that has controlled most of the world for the past 300 years is almost complete, according to sources directly involved in the takedown. The takedown is being done by the world’s military, police and intelligence agencies. The group being taken down is the Thule Society, Skull&Bones Nazi conglomerate headed by George Bush Senior. This group was trying to start world war 3 in order to reduce the world’s population by 85% and start a fascist world government. Instead, they will be bankrupted and put in jail. Evidence of the takedown is now becoming visible for all to see. For example the IMF, supposedly the world’s lender of last resort, is saying they have no money to help the Euro. This is publicly available evidence that the post war power structure is ending. The best way to understand what is happening is to take a look at this map:
There are many signs available in both the corporate propaganda media and the people based independent media that some sort of end-game crisis is approaching for the criminal cabal in charge of the G7 countries and their shrinking coterie of slave states. With the Pentagon and the Russian military aligned against the cabal, their downfall is close. For that very reason the cabalists are attempting to stage some sort of game changing atrocity, probably in either the US or Europe.

To read more one has to be a member of Fulford's website: http://benjaminfulford.net/

The ongoing global financial war is reaching its final stages. Multiple reliable sources in three continents are all now reporting that a major breakthrough in the financial logjam is imminent. We can confirm from our own sources (including MI6 and Japanese military intelligence) that a large delegation descended on Washington last week and read the riot act to the Washington D.C. establishment. They have been informed the Federal Reserve Board must be shut down immediately and the new financial system must be implemented or else the United States would be totally cut off from the world. The military is also close to open revolt with more than half of the military supporting a total clean up of Washington D.C., according to a CIA source. The Washington establishment therefore faces a choice between stepping aside and facing a truth commission or else arrest, civil war,chaos and eventual death for all members of the ruling cabal. We believe that sane minds will prevail in such a situation and that a peaceful resolution is imminent. However, it is not over until it is over.

Last week the Chinese were on the verge of helping the US government kill the supporters of the new financial system in Washington until the Japanese government intervened to provide protection. There were then discussions with the Chinese where they were given an explanation of the inner workings of the international financial system. They were also made an offer.

What was told to them was that over 90% of the dollars ever created were not owned by Americans. The people who own those dollars do not want them to become worthless paper when the Federal Reserve Board implodes. Instead, all dollars earned through honest work (i.e. not through derivates and other types of fraud) would be backed by gold. These gold backed dollars would then be renamed. The Chinese want to call it the Renminbi. The Rothschilds want to call it the Hong Kong dollar. Our proposal is to call it the Hong Kong yen (pronounced yuan in Chinese). Many details will have to be worked out by experts. However, it is certain that never again will it be possible for private individuals to manipulate the world through the creation of money. The Chinese insist the creation of new money should be a job run by the government and this was agreed to by the concerned parties.

A high powered Japanese government delegation will be going to the Philippines towards the end of the year to deliver Chinese gold taken there in the 1930’s to China to be used for the purposes of backing up their dollar holdings. The Japanese delegation, led by the Japanese government& rsquo;s number two man, Hajime Ishii will also be given presentations about suppressed technology.

I will also be going there to give them some ideas about a new structure of global governance.

The Chinese want to move the UN headquarters to Laos because it is the site of some of the most ancient and pristine Asian culture. This seems like a nice idea. Of course the UN is now an extremely dysfunctional organization and will have to be totally revamped. It now serves as a global control mechanism for the victors of World War 2. This will be fundamentally changed.

In addition, the functions of the World Bank will be moved to China, probably to Hong Kong. All current World Bank employees will have their track records examined and only those who have contributed positively to the planet will be re-employed.

The IMF will be disbanded because it has only caused misery and poverty throughout the world. It has functioned mainly to steal resources and property from the people of the world. In its place the Japanese will set up a new institution that will function to ensure the safety and stability of the global financial system. Hopefully it will be headquartered in Osaka.

All of these institutions will be set up as meritocracies. Anybody will be allowed to take the exam to join them. In addition, there will no longer be places at the top reserved for people of specific ethnic backgrounds.

The new organizations will all be very busy because the entire commercial structure of the planet will be changed. The industries that are expected to vanish or shrink dramatically include: petroleum, war, nuclear power and pharmaceuticals and automobiles. Companies in these industries will need substantial help to transform themselves. The petroleum industry, for example, could be changed into a geo-engineering industry. The armaments folk will move into space exploration. The automobile industry will start to manufacture anti-gravity scooters. The transformation of all the obsolete industries needs to be carried out in a manner that causes as little social disruption and dislocation as possible.

In addition all countries will have to agree to submit to the international court of Justice. Disputes between countries should be settled through negotiations or else in court.

However, it might be possible for countries to also agree to settle disputes through ritual warfare. They could, for example, each send 10 of their best martial artists to a desert island to duel it out but no killing will be allowed. The winning country will then get a more advantageous settlement of whatever the dispute was.

In any case, humanity is about to be freed from the grips of a horrific cult that has killed hundreds of millions of people over the years. Most of the 800 US military bases world-wide may well be shut down. The US military will have to be transformed into an entirely different organization dedicated to planetary defense and big projects for humanity.
We are headed for an unprecedented historical transformation. Hang on to your hats.

http://benjaminfulford.net/sample-report/

When we attempt to cast out the existing demons, we need to be very careful that we don't replace them with a new crew who are just as bad or worse than the original demoniacs. If there are several factions fighting for power, they might all be bad! Perhaps the good guys and the bad guys are bad!! I often wonder whether I am good or bad. Really. How many truly righteous individuals are in this solar system? There might not be very many. We might be in a helluva lot of trouble for a very long time. I'm preparing for lifetime after lifetime of trouble. I'm sorry to be negative, but I'm trying to be realistic. When we find out how corrupt and bad things really have been, and are presently, most of us might suffer severe psychological and spiritual problems. I keep thinking that if what I think I want actually gets implemented, that I will not be gloating or jumping up and down. I would frankly be terrified. A lot of religious people have been told lies for thousands of years, and when they find out the truth, a lot of them might go insane. Seriously. I don't have things figured out, but I don't like what I see on the horizon. Things might have to get worse, even if there is a regime change for the better. There might be too much negative momentum to just turn things around in a couple of years. One more thing. In connection with my internet activities, I was told, by someone who should know, that I was lucky to be alive. Perhaps I've done enough damage for one lifetime. Perhaps I really should stop...

The U.S. plans on being an active partner as efforts intensify to get Europe get back on its feet financially, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNBC Friday. With global leaders preparing for next month's Group of 20 nations (G20) summit in Cannes, France, the International Monetary Fund — of which the U.S. is the greatest contributor — is being relied on to help underwrite whatever efforts are needed to backstop toxic European sovereign debt. Geithner said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has "very substantial" resources to fund a device that could look like the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which helped navigate American financial institutions through the crisis in 2008 and 2009.

"Through the IMF, of course, we're already playing a very major role," he said in a live interview in Paris. "We're happy to see the IMF continue to play that role in support of a more forceful, comprehensive strategy where Europe's own resources—very ample resources—are deployed on a much more substantial scale."

read more at link above.


Please note the inconsistency at the local level.

U.S. consumer sentiment unexpectedly slumped in early October as worries about declining incomes drove consumer expectations back down to the lowest level in more than 30 years, a survey released Friday showed. he Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment sagged to 57.5 from 59.4 the month before. It fell short of the median forecast of 60.2 among economists polled by Reuters. Consumers' outlook also deteriorated with the gauge of consumer expectations falling to its lowest level since May 1980 at 47.0 from 49.4. The index had fallen to this level in early September before being revised up at the end of the month. Overall, the data indicate that a recessionary downturn is likely to occur," survey director Richard Curtin said in a statement.

"Even if the economy manages to avoid the formal recession designation by (The National Bureau of Economic Research), real consumer expenditures will not be strong enough to enable the more robust job growth that is needed to offset the negative grip of economic stagnation on consumer behavior."

Thirty-nine percent of consumers cited income declines as the reason why their finances have recently worsened, while 65 percent of all households expected no income increase during the year ahead. Both levels were the highest ever recorded by the survey.

The survey's barometer of current economic conditions dipped to 73.8 from 74.9.

read more at link http://www.cnbc.com/id/44902710


Personal note: We don't even buy anything on credit anymore. Credit card interest rates are outrageous and only tend to feed the beastly financial institutions and make us poorer. Lesson learned and noted.

The U.S. economy is likely to experience a period of stagflation worse than the 1970s, which would cause bond yields to spike, commodity bull Jim Rogers told CNBC on Friday in Singapore. Rogers said governments were lying about the inflation problem and the recent rally in Treasurys was a bubble. "As the inflation numbers get worse and as governments print more money and as governments have to issue many, many more bonds - somewhere along the line we get to the point when (bond prices) go down." Rogers believes inflation will get much worse this time because, he said, in the 1970s only the Fed was printing money, whereas now many global central banks have been easing monetary policy. Rogers' view is at odds with others such as economist Nouriel Roubini who have been talking about a depression . Other economists have said the U.S. is experiencing a "balance sheet recession", just as Japan did in the 1990s, and that means the U.S. risks a long period of falling prices and asset values.

read more at link above...

Personal note: A house that we own in Oregon was recently appraised on September 16th at $204,000. More then a 50% drop from the value 5 years ago. The ranch with 69 acres dropped from one million to $410,000. Property values are declining while the risk for losing ones home to inflation is increasing. And some folks wonder why there are protests?