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  1. An American institute dismantles the Chinese puzzle in Iraq: Beijing's investments are supported by factions loyal to Iran Reports And AnalyticsBreakingChinaUnited States Of AmericaInvestment In Iraq 2023-06-08 // 08:24 Shafaq News / The American "Middle East Institute" considered that China's role is growing in the Iraqi energy sector, and that Chinese companies are in a good position to engage in efforts to expand Iraq's capacity, with its active participation in various energy-related projects. For the dominant player in the Iraqi economy, it would be a target that is likely to be difficult to achieve given Iraq's difficult business and controversial politics. And after confirming the report, which was translated by Shafaq News Agency; He must follow up on whether the roots of China's intervention in Iraq will extend deeper and longer. He noted that if the Iraqi Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia' al-Sudani, is to achieve his declared goals, he must not be satisfied with supporting the coalition supporting his government because of the differences between its parties, and he must also deal with With Muqtada al-Sadr's camp. While the American Institute said that the World Bank estimates that oil revenues constitute more than 99% of Iraq's exports, 85% of the government budget, and 42% of GDP, it indicated that the long-term economic prospects for Iraq are facing challenges due to its lack of diversification. Limited investment, a weak private sector, and rampant corruption. However, since the formation of the Sudanese government, Iraq has moved forward with its plans to increase oil production capacity, develop domestic gas supplies, and repair and expand refineries. The report pointed out that Chinese companies are in a good position to engage in efforts to expand Iraq's energy capacity, adding that oil represents the main pillar of the bilateral relationship between Iraq and China, as China represents about 30% of Iraqi oil exports. China's purchases of oil from Iraq, its third largest supplier, increased by about 50% in 2022 compared to the previous year. Despite this, the report said that China's relations with Iraq in the field of energy extend far beyond trade in oil, as Chinese state-owned energy companies have established a strong foothold in the exploration, production and refining market in Iraq, adding that despite the recent downturn in investment Outside of China's Belt and Road Initiative, China's engagement with Iraq in Iraq has continued to grow, mostly in energy and transportation infrastructure. The report reviewed the major Chinese companies that have been active in Iraq for years, such as the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), and the China Petrochemical Company, indicating that Chinese companies are working to deepen their participation in exploration, production and refining operations in Iraq, and to strengthen Its shares are as in the fields of Al-Ahdab, Rumaila, Halfaya, West Qurna, Al-Hawiza, Al-Sinbad, and others. In addition, the report said that the Chinese presence in the Iraqi energy sector also includes many service companies engaged in exploration and production activities such as drilling, supply, construction of surface facilities, pipelines and field management. He noted that the Chinese company (CPECC) and other Chinese contracting companies maintained positive growth momentum in the past year, as they won 87% of all contracts for oil, gas and energy projects awarded by Iraq, at a value of $3.35 billion. In this context, a Chinese consortium was awarded a contract to develop a refinery in Dhi Qar Governorate and to the state-owned China National Chemical Engineering Corporation (CNCEC) to establish a new integrated refining and petrochemical complex, to be fully funded by the Chinese government, on the Faw Peninsula. The Chinese puzzle in Iraq The report indicated that several factors contributed to the expansion of China's presence in the energy sector in Iraq, adding that Chinese state-owned companies have demonstrated their willingness and ability to take advantage of the reluctance of their Western counterparts to invest in Iraq, and in some cases push to liquidate their assets in Iraq. However, the report saw that controversial policies in Iraq are at least partly responsible for the success achieved by Chinese companies and the obstacles they still face in obtaining shares and undertaking energy-related projects, as control of Iraqi energy wealth was the main point of political infighting among the elite. The report stated that former Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi publicly called for Iraq to look east to get rid of Western influence and portrayed China as a champion of "the peoples of the developing world." He added that the "oil-for-reconstruction" agreement that Abdul-Mahdi concluded with China in mid-2019 sparked controversy, with critics and opponents concerned that the terms of the agreement risked mortgaging the country's heritage and exacerbating corruption and waste. On the other hand, the report said that Mustafa Al-Kazemi, the "consensual candidate" who succeeded Abdul-Mahdi, sought to diversify the energy sector partners in Iraq, adding that during Al-Kazemi's tenure between (May 2020 - October 2022), Iraq rejected several times proposals New Chinese investment amid concerns of Oil Ministry officials that Beijing's tightening control over the oil industry could lead to an acceleration of the migration of Western companies. The report pointed specifically to the joint venture with "Lukoil" to develop the West Qurna-2 field, and the attempt to acquire ExxonMobil's share in the West Qurna-1 field. Also, Iraqi officials persuaded the "British Petroleum" company not to sell its share in the Rumaila oil field to the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation. The report indicated that these dynamics, although evident in all parts of Iraq, appear more clearly in the south, where the contrast between the country's wealth and the destitution of its population is stark and where local political and non-state actors compete for economic resources in service of the network of patronage and regional players. He pointed out that the dispute over the Al-Faw Grand Port project is an example of this, as while the militias allied with Iran, such as Kata’ib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, called on Chinese companies to win the project, the coalition led by Muqtada al-Sadr al-Din favored the Korean “Daewoo” engineering and construction company. He pointed out that when Daewoo won the contract, pro-Iranian parties and militias mobilized protest demonstrations in Basra and Baghdad. The report added that there are supporters of China in Iraq, including the "Silk Road" coalition in Parliament, in addition to the popular campaign called the People's Movement for the Silk Road, which supports more strong economic relations with China in exchange for Western, Korean and Saudi investments. He added that Chinese economic activities in Iraq are protected by militias allied with Iran. In addition, the report indicated that Al-Sudani, after assuming office, set an ambitious agenda to face the many challenges he inherited, including the need to improve health services and educational facilities, increase electricity production, and enhance job opportunities, in addition to developing policies related to the oil industry, adding that the government Al Sudani got off to a fast start, signing six out of 11 oil and gas sector deals in February, and three other promising developments followed. First, the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government reached an agreement on oil export and revenue management through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, and second, Iraq concluded a deal with the French company "Total Energy" to move forward with the long-delayed multi-billion dollar integrated gas development project. And thirdly, the Qatar Energy Company and the Saudi company ACWA Power were invited. And after the report said; "Iraq is in a good position to benefit from the melting of regional geopolitical tensions resulting from the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran that Baghdad helped facilitate," he said. Conclusion The report stated that after more than 6 months of his term, the Sudanese government proceeded with its efforts to address economic problems, with energy security at the heart of the agenda, adding that Al-Sudani encouraged the participation of foreign companies in the oil and gas industry. With the activation of the oil-for-reconstruction agreement, Chinese companies deeply involved in the energy sector in Iraq have emerged as a strong competitor. The report added that the principles guiding the Sudanese administration and the restrictions it faces in engaging Chinese and other trading partners were determined by the parties that support his presidency, and they reflect the controversial policies and contradictory compromises that brought him to power, a situation that continues. The report indicated that there is fierce competition between the elite under the surface, adding that the great coalition of the forces of the coordination framework and the Kurdish and Sunni parties that together formed the Sudanese government suffer from fragility, adding that the Shiite parties and factions in the coalition are themselves torn apart by rivalries and tensions. Therefore, the report says that al-Sudani, "in order to rule in line with his declared goals and priorities for the state, must not only maintain the support of this divided coalition, but must deal with al-Sadr's camp, which despite its withdrawal from the political process can mobilize thousands of demonstrators against the government." The report concluded by saying that under these circumstances, it remains to be seen whether the Sudanese administration will perform better than its predecessors, or whether it will be fully able to benefit from oil revenues to improve the welfare of Iraqis instead of enriching the ruling elite, observing whether the roots and branches of interference China in Iraq will extend deeper and longer. https://shafaq.com/ar/تقارير-وتحليلات/معهد-مريكي-يفكك-اللغز-الصيني-في-العراق-استثمارات-بكين-مدعومة-من-الفصا-ل-الموالية-ل-يران
  2. KRG Invested $2bn in 89 Investment Projects 1st January 2023 in Construction & Engineering In Iraq, Investment, Iraq Public Works News 89 investment projects worth over $2 billion have been implemented this year The implementation of investment projects in various sectors was one of the priorities of the Ninth Cabinet of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). In 2022, the implementation of 89 investment projects began, with a capital of 2 billion and 135 million and 418 thousand 819 dollars on an area of 2,395 dunams of land throughout the Kurdistan Region. Most of the projects were implemented through local capital and investors. The sectors and numbers of investment projects: Most of the investment projects in 2022 were in both the commercial and industrial sectors. The distribution of investment projects according to sector and capital was as follows: 26 projects were implemented in the commercial sector with a capital of 227 million and 285 thousand 811 dollars One project was implemented in the bank sector with a capital of 4 million and 100 thousand dollars 10 projects were implemented in the health sector with a capital of 76 million and 797 thousand and 187 dollars 26 projects were implemented in the industrial sector with a capital of 577 million and 561 thousand and 701 dollars 7 projects were implemented in the tourism sector with a capital of 153 million and 255 thousand and 550 dollars 7 projects were implemented in the education sector with a capital of 74 million and 736 thousand and 212 dollars 6 projects were implemented in the residential sector with a capital of 922 million and 383 thousand and 905 dollars One project was implemented in the sports sector with a capital of 3 million and 29 thousand and 553 dollars 5 projects were implemented in the agriculture sector with a capital of 96 million and 268 thousand and 900 dollars 87 of the projects were invested in by local investors and implemented with a capital of 2 billion and 79 million 121 thousand and 19 dollars. One project was implemented with a capital of 48 million and 97 thousand 800 dollars through a Lebanese investor while another one was through a Turkish investor with a capital of 8 million and 200,000 dollars. 97.36% of investment projects were implemented with local capital while only 2.64% were implemented with foreign capital. Projects capital and their ratio The following ratios of public capital have been used to implement projects for the below sectors: The commercial sector with a capital of 227 million and 285 thousand and 811 dollars, accounting for 10.64% The banking sector with a capital of 4.1 million dollars, accounting for 3.60% The health sector with a capital of 76 million 797 thousand and 187 dollars, accounting for 3.60% The industrial sector with a capital of 577 million 561 thousand and 701 dollars, accounting for 27.05% The tourism sector with a capital of 153 million 255 thousand and 550 dollars, accounting for 7.18% The education sector with a capital of 74 million 736 thousand and 212 dollars, accounting for 3.50% The agriculture sector with a capital of 96 million 268 thousand and 900 dollars, accounting for 4.51% The residential sector with a capital of 922 million 383 thousand and 905 dollars, accounting for 43.19% The sports sector with a capital of 3 million 29 thousand and 553 dollars, accounting for 0.14% https://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2023/01/01/krg-invested-2bn-in-89-investment-projects/ (Source: KRG)
  3. This was very interesting for me as this is more in line in the field of my expertise and where my second career was geared - How every thought creates an action or reaction and the consequences -- as in "emotions" - This article really was well done in my opinion and covered a very interesting topic so close to all of us in this investment - UNEEK The Biology of Risk By John Coates June 7 2014 Photo Credit Jonathon Rosen SIX years after the financial meltdown there is once again talk about market bubbles. Are stocks succumbing to exuberance? Is real estate? We thought we had exorcised these demons. It is therefore with something close to despair that we ask: What is it about risk taking that so eludes our understanding, and our control? Part of the problem is that we tend to view financial risk taking as a purely intellectual activity. But this view is incomplete. Risk is more than an intellectual puzzle — it is a profoundly physical experience, and it involves your body. Risk by its very nature threatens to hurt you, so when confronted by it your body and brain, under the influence of the stress response, unite as a single functioning unit. This occurs in athletes and soldiers, and it occurs as well in traders and people investing from home. The state of your body predicts your appetite for financial risk just as it predicts an athlete’s performance. If we understand how a person’s body influences risk taking, we can learn how to better manage risk takers. We can also recognize that mistakes governments have made have contributed to excessive risk taking. Consider the most important risk manager of them all — the Federal Reserve. Over the past 20 years, the Fed has pioneered a new technique of influencing Wall Street. Where before the Fed shrouded its activities in secrecy, it now informs the street in as clear terms as possible of what it intends to do with short-term interest rates, and when. Janet L. Yellen, the chairwoman of the Fed, declared this new transparency, called forward guidance, a revolution; Ben S. Bernanke, her predecessor, claimed it reduced uncertainty and calmed the markets. But does it really calm the markets? Or has eliminating uncertainty in policy spread complacency among the financial community and actually helped inflate market bubbles? We get a fascinating answer to these questions if we turn from economics and look into the biology of risk taking. ONE biological mechanism, the stress response, exerts an especially powerful influence on risk taking. We live with stress daily, especially at work, yet few people truly understand what it is. Most of us tend to believe that stress is largely a psychological phenomenon, a state of being upset because something nasty has happened. But if you want to understand stress you must disabuse yourself of that view. The stress response is largely physical: It is your body priming itself for impending movement. As such, most stress is not, well, stressful. For example, when you walk to the coffee room at work, your muscles need fuel, so the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol recruit glucose from your liver and muscles; you need oxygen to burn this fuel, so your breathing increases ever so slightly; and you need to deliver this fuel and oxygen to cells throughout your body, so your heart gently speeds up and blood pressure increases. This suite of physical reactions forms the core of the stress response, and, as you can see, there is nothing nasty about it at all. Far from it. Many forms of stress, like playing sports, trading the markets, even watching an action movie, are highly enjoyable. In moderate amounts, we get a rush from stress, we thrive on risk taking. In fact, the stress response is such a healthy part of our lives that we should stop calling it stress at all and call it, say, the challenge response. This mechanism hums along, anticipating challenges, keeping us alive, and it usually does so without breaking the surface of consciousness. We take in information nonstop and our brain silently, behind the scenes, figures out what movement might be needed and then prepares our body. Many neuroscientists now believe our brain is designed primarily to plan and execute movement, that every piece of information we take in, every thought we think, comes coupled with some pattern of physical arousal. We do not process information as a computer does, dispassionately; we react to it physically. For humans, there is no pure thought of the kind glorified by Plato, Descartes and classical economics.Our challenge response, and especially its main hormone cortisol (produced by the adrenal glands) is particularly active when we are exposed to novelty and uncertainty. If a person is subjected to something mildly unpleasant, like bursts of white noise, but these are delivered at regular intervals, they may leave cortisol levels unaffected. But if the timing of the noise changes and it is delivered randomly, meaning it cannot be predicted, then cortisol levels rise significantly. Uncertainty over the timing of something unpleasant often causes a greater challenge response than the unpleasant thing itself. Sometimes it is more stressful not knowing when or if you are going to be fired than actually being fired. Why? Because the challenge response, like any good defense mechanism, anticipates; it is a metabolic preparation for the unknown. You may now have an inkling of just how central this biology is to the financial world. Traders are immersed in novelty and uncertainty the moment they step onto a trading floor. Here they encounter an information-rich environment like none other. Every event in the world, every piece of news, flows nonstop onto the floor, showing up on news feeds and market prices, blinking and disappearing. News by its very nature is novel, adds volatility to the market and puts us into a state of vigilance and arousal. I observed this remarkable call and echo between news and body when, after running a trading desk on Wall Street for 13 years, I returned to the University of Cambridge and began researching the neuroscience of trading. Sources: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Standard & Poor’s Graph Go to link below to view http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/opinion/sunday/the-biology-of-risk.html?action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&region=Marginalia&src=me&pg In one of my studies, conducted with 17 traders on a trading floor in London, we found that their cortisol levels rose 68 percent over an eight-day period as volatility increased. Subsequent, as yet unpublished, studies suggest to us that this cortisol response to volatility is common in the financial community. A question then arose: Does this cortisol response affect a person’s risk taking? In a follow-up study, my colleagues from the department of medicine pharmacologically raised the cortisol levels of a group of 36 volunteers by a similar 69 percent over eight days. We gauged their risk appetite by means of a computerized gambling task. The results, published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that the volunteers’ appetite for risk fell 44 percent. Most models in economics and finance assume that risk preferences are a stable trait, much like your height. But this assumption, as our studies suggest, is misleading. Humans are designed with shifting risk preferences. They are an integral part of our response to stress, or challenge. When opportunities abound, a potent cocktail of dopamine — a neurotransmitter operating along the pleasure pathways of the brain — and testosterone encourages us to expand our risk taking, a physical transformation I refer to as “the hour between dog and wolf.” One such opportunity is a brief spike in market volatility, for this presents a chance to make money. But if volatility rises for a long period, the prolonged uncertainty leads us to subconsciously conclude that we no longer understand what is happening and then cortisol scales back our risk taking. In this way our risk taking calibrates to the amount of uncertainty and threat in the environment. Under conditions of extreme volatility, such as a crisis, traders, investors and indeed whole companies can freeze up in risk aversion, and this helps push a bear market into a crash. Unfortunately, this risk aversion occurs at just the wrong time, for these crises are precisely when markets offer the most attractive opportunities, and when the economy most needs people to take risks. The real challenge for Wall Street, I now believe, is not so much fear and greed as it is these silent and large shifts in risk appetite. I consult regularly with risk managers who must grapple with unstable risk taking throughout their organizations. Most of them are not aware that the source of the problem lurks deep in our bodies. Their attempts to manage risk are therefore comparable to firefighters’ spraying water at the tips of flames. THE Fed, however, through its control of policy uncertainty, has in its hands a powerful tool for influencing risk takers. But by trying to be more transparent, it has relinquished this control. Forward guidance was introduced in the early 2000s. But the process of making monetary policy more transparent was in fact begun by Alan Greenspan back in the early 1990s. Before that time the Fed, especially under Paul A. Volcker, operated in secrecy. Fed chairmen did not announce rate changes, and they felt no need to explain themselves, leaving Wall Street highly uncertain about what was coming next. Furthermore, changes in interest rates were highly volatile: When Mr. Volcker raised rates, he might first raise them, cut them a few weeks later, and then raise again, so the tightening proceeded in a zigzag. Traders were put on edge, vigilant, never complacent about their positions so long as Mr. Volcker lurked in the shadows. Street wisdom has it that you don’t fight the Fed, and no one tangled with that bruiser. Under Mr. Greenspan, the Fed became less intimidating and more transparent. Beginning in 1994 the Fed committed to changing fed funds only at its scheduled meetings (except in emergencies); it announced these changes at fixed times; and it communicated its easing or tightening bias. Mr. Greenspan notoriously spoke in riddles, but his actions had no such ambiguity. Mr. Bernanke reduced uncertainty even further: Forward guidance detailed the Fed’s plans. Under both chairmen fed funds became far less erratic. Whereas Mr. Volcker changed rates in a volatile fashion, up one week down the next, Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Bernanke raised them in regular steps. Between 2004 and 2006, rates rose .25 percent at every Fed meeting, without fail... tick, tick, tick. As a result of this more gradualist Fed, volatility in fed funds fell after 1994 by as much as 60 percent. In a speech to the Cato Institute in 2007, Mr. Bernanke claimed that minimizing uncertainty in policy ensured that asset prices would respond “in ways that further the central bank’s policy objectives.” But evidence suggests that quite the opposite has occurred. Cycles of bubble and crash have always existed, but in the 20 years after 1994, they became more severe and longer lasting than in the previous 20 years. For example, the bear markets following the Nifty Fifty crash in the mid-70s and Black Monday of 1987 had an average loss of about 40 percent and lasted 240 days; while the dot-com and credit crises lost on average about 52 percent and lasted over 430 days. Moreover, if you rank the largest one-day percentage moves in the market over this 40-year period, 76 percent of the largest gains and losses occurred after 1994. I suspect the trends in fed funds and stocks were related. As uncertainty in fed funds declined, one of the most powerful brakes on excessive risk taking in stocks was released. During their tenures, in response to surging stock and housing markets, both Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Bernanke embarked on campaigns of tightening, but the metronome-like ticking of their rate increases was so soothing it failed to dampen exuberance. There are times when the Fed does need to calm the markets. After the credit crisis, it did just that. But when the economy and market are strong, as they were during the dot-com and housing bubbles, what, pray tell, is the point of calming the markets? Of raising rates in a predictable fashion? If you think the markets are complacent, then unnerve them. Over the past 20 years the Fed may have perfected the art of reassuring the markets, but it has lost the power to scare. And that means stock markets more easily overshoot, and then collapse. The Fed could dampen this cycle. It has, in interest rate policy, not one tool but two: the level of rates and the uncertainty of rates. Given the sensitivity of risk preferences to uncertainty, the Fed could use policy uncertainty and a higher volatility of funds to selectively target risk taking in the financial community. People running factories or coffee shops or drilling wells might not even notice. And that means the Fed could keep the level of rates lower than otherwise to stimulate the economy. IT may seem counterintuitive to use uncertainty to quell volatility. But a small amount of uncertainty surrounding short-term interest rates may act much like a vaccine immunizing the stock market against bubbles. More generally, if we view humans as embodied brains instead of disembodied minds, we can see that the risk-taking pathologies found in traders also lead chief executives, trial lawyers, oil executives and others to swing from excessive and ill-conceived risks to petrified risk aversion. It will also teach us to manage these risk takers, much as sport physiologists manage athletes, to stabilize their risk taking and to lower stress. And that possibility opens up exciting vistas of human performance. John Coates is a research fellow at Cambridge who traded derivatives for Goldman Sachs and ran a desk for Deutsche Bank. He is the author of “The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind.” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/opinion/sunday/the-biology-of-risk.html?action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&region=Marginalia&src=me&pg
  4. Bank Of North Dakota: America's Only 'Socialist' Bank Is Thriving During Downturn (VIDEO)(Click on link at bottom of post to go to site to watch video) (AP) The Bank of North Dakota - the nation's only state-owned bank - might seem to be a relic. But now officials in other states are wondering if it is helping North Dakota sail through the national recession. Gubernatorial candidates in Florida and Oregon and a Washington state legislator are advocating the creation of state-owned banks in those states. A report prepared for a Vermont House committee last month said the idea had "considerable merit." Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore promotes the bank on his Web site. "There's a lot of hurt out there, a lot of states that are in trouble, and they're tying the Bank of North Dakota together with this economic success that we're having right now," said the bank's president, Eric Hardmeyer. Hardmeyer says he's gotten "tons" of inquiries about the bank's workings, including questions from officials in California, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio and Washington state. North Dakota has the nation's lowest unemployment rate at 4.4 percent, soaring oil production and a robust state budget surplus - but Hardmeyer says the bank isn't responsible for the prosperity. "We are a catalyst, perhaps, or maybe a part of it," he said. "To put this at our feet is flattering, but it frankly isn't true." WATCH: Exclusive sneak-peak of a DVD extra from Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story,' on the Bank of North Dakota. The DVD comes out March 9th. (There is another video besides one above - link to Huffington Post at Bottom) The Bank of North Dakota serves as an economic development agency and "banker's bank" that lessens the loan risks of private banks and helps them finance larger projects. It offers cheap loans to farmers, students and businesses. The bank had almost $4 billion in assets and a $2.67 billion loan portfolio at the end of last year, according to its most recent quarterly financial report. It made $58.1 million in profits in 2009, setting a record for the sixth straight year. During the last decade, the bank funneled almost $300 million in profits to North Dakota's treasury. The bank has the advantage of being the repository for most state funds, which can be used for loans and occasional relief for private banks that need a jolt of cash during sluggish credit markets. "We think of ourselves as kind of a little mini-Federal Reserve," Hardmeyer said. The state earns roughly 0.25 percent less interest than state agencies would get from a commercial institution. The bank also pays no state or federal taxes and has no deposit insurance; North Dakota taxpayers are on the hook for any losses. The Bank of North Dakota was a cornerstone of the agenda of the Nonpartisan League, a farmers' political insurgency spawned by anger about outside control of North Dakota's credit and grain markets. Founded in 1915 by A.C. Townley, who became a Socialist Party organizer after he went broke raising flax in western North Dakota, the NPL advocated state-owned banks to provide low-interest farm loans, along with state flour mills, grain elevators, meatpacking houses and hail insurance. Supporters gained control of the legislature and the governorship within five years. The movement's power quickly waned, but two of its state-owned businesses survived - the Bank of North Dakota and a state flour mill and grain elevator in Grand Forks. From the 1940s until the early 1960s, the bank served mostly as a public funds depository and municipal bond buyer, said Rozanne Enerson Junker, author of a 1989 history of the bank. Its economic development activity has greatly expanded since. Gary Petersen, president of the Lakeside State Bank of New Town, a community on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in northwestern North Dakota, said the state bank is often willing to take a stake in local development projects. "In my experience, you make a contact with the (Bank of North Dakota), and their question is, 'How do we get this done?'" Petersen said. "They're not looking at ways to knock it down." Alerus Financial, a Grand Forks bank, has sold about $115 million of its $600 million loan portfolio to the Bank of North Dakota, both to spread its risk and provide itself with additional loan money, said Karl Bollingberg, Alerus' director of banking services. "If you're left to find other participating banks, that can be very challenging," he said. "They don't have the same interest that the Bank of North Dakota has in helping you to do deals." Mauro Guillen, a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, said it is unlikely other states would open similar banks, in part because "the political culture here is very much against that kind of a thing." Some state and federal agencies, such as the Small Business Administration, already have economic development programs similar to those at the Bank of North Dakota, Guillen said. Bollingberg said the idea of other state-owned banks would also likely rouse opposition from private banks that wanted to keep their share of state deposits. "Because the (Bank of North Dakota) has been here so long, no banks know what it was like to have those deposits," he said. Hardmeyer said he, too, was always doubtful others would take up North Dakota's model, but now he's not so sure. "When I see what's going on around the country, it's not quite as far a leap as I thought it once was," he said. ___ On the Net: Bank of North Dakota: http://www.banknd.nd.gov/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/16/bank-of-north-dakotasocia_n_463522.html
  5. Banking On The Status Quo – Perhaps it is time to rethink which banks you want to deal with, and while you are at it - consider what happened in Cyprus recently. As you know if you have watched the news, banks in Cyprus were closed to prevent a run on the banks. Why? Because the government, together with the banks came up with a plan to remove up to 9.9% of a depositor’s money to help the banks pay the EU for bailout money to cover bank mistakes . . . 13 billion in mistakes. While it was voted down due to public furor, it was a watershed moment in banking history. In reaction it caused numerous articles to be written about how this could happen anywhere and it caused the price of gold to go up. What is the price you might be asked to pay, for putting your money in a bank for safe keeping? These are capital controls and if it works for one central bank it will be become the solution for others. See link If you have been following the recent activities in the US Senate, you are likely to be incensed at the responses (or should I say lack of adequate response?) given by the government regulators. As Senator Jeff Merkley put it to the head of the regulatory commission “So in effect you are telling me that these banks are too big to fail and the minor fines you impose are just a cost of doing a highly profitable business, is that correct?” This is a paraphrase but accurate enough so you’ll know the videos are worth watching. See link Take Elisabeth Warren’s questions about when the last time the regulators took anyone to court or imposed a single jail sentence for money laundering drug cartel money or al Qaeda’s? Fidgety comments that were reduced to “not while I have been a regulator.” See link So HSBC for example, laundered illegal money for ten years, made billions paid a few million in fines and has never stopped a lucrative business. Meanwhile Warren pointed out that if you or I had an ounce of cocaine we would be serving time. But no one seems to care. See links What are your reactions to announcements that the Fed is printing money like crazy but huge amounts of it have been given to foreign banks operating in the US that are in financial trouble from buying Wall Street junk mortgages and derivatives. So does that mean first the taxpayers bailed out Wall Street, AIG, Fannie Mae and other private groups like the banks and now we are bailing out the foreign banks – thanks to the same generosity of the private banking institution called the Federal Reserve - which charges the US taxpayers for the right to print money for their banking friends? Isn’t that nice for their little banking system that so many of the taxpayers put money in their big banks, and work hard to pay off all that debt created by someone else as they foreclose on taxpayers homes. Lucky for the Federal Reserve, the government and especially the biggest US banks, that the taxpayers in this country are not as smart as the people of Iceland. Icelandic taxpayers threw the politicians out of office and voted to make the banks responsible for their poor judgment and greed. Caused no end of trouble for the players at the top. They were appalled at the nerve of the people trying to hold the responsible officials accountable. It was hushed up and not in the media much since no one wanted that idea to become popular. The real insults to the us taxpayer were the recent remarks made by the head of that private banking cartel Mr. Bernanke. For those of you that did not read his remarks or failed to understand what he was saying. I t was essentially that the money wasn’t real, it was electronic digits and the bonds and treasuries that were being sold could be taken back by them and vanish the way it had been created. So while it might create inflation, and the Fed would essentially get paid three times on this made up money, no one should worry since the whole thing was being made up by them. This was the gist of the ‘mysterious remarks’ made by Bernanke. See link The taxpayers and congress don’t get it and even if they do figure it out. . . what can they do about it – we own the system. Here is the link to that Bloomsberg article if you want to do some critical reading. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-11/bernanke-provokes-mystery-over-fed-stimulus-exit.html So when you run for WF and the other big banks that want to give you great deals to cash out and keep your money. . . think about what those banks were and are up to. They caused you and every US citizen the recent huge increases in national debt. Now about $40,000.apiece for every man woman and child in this country. Want to play their game? Use them, if they give you the best rate by a worthwhile amount, make sure they agree to promptly give you an official CCC statement upon receipt of your dinar. Get the private banker to agree to this BEFORE you finally hand your dinar to them. This allow you to access your money promptly, and prevents them from sitting on it for weeks while you wait for them to release your cash (digits) back to you so you can finally use it. They were using it when you couldn’t. Now comes the fun part. If you have done your homework in advance you will have researched which of your local private banks and credit unions are not only in good financial shape (they didn’t make a bunch of bad loans) but would love to work with you. These are the financial institutions that invest locally and if properly managed will not be adversely affected by the crazy policies and risks the Big Banks play with. Do not put everything with one bank if you have a substantial amount to invest/hold. Big or small this, as has been already counseled, is asking for trouble. Why risk having all your funds frozen, stolen, seized whatever the reason or circumstance. Flexibility comes from diversity. Diversity certainly does not mean having all your eggs in one basket. That does not mean following the international advice of the big US brokerage houses Like Schwab or Goldman Sachs. Instead try talking with the people at Q Wealth - they will tell you that having everything invested in one country, one currency, amounts to one basket. Now they are not the only ones to say that – that belief is echoed by numerous other good financial advisors that take a big picture or international perspective. The various Casey Reports offer loads of ways to diversify your holding and reduce your risks according to your mindset. The trick with both these advisory groups and others is taking the first steps. What we all have learned, if we have been following this investment for more than an hour… is that what we read, hear, and think is not always accurate. If we have hopefully learned anything from the dinar amusement ride, it is - prepare for the unexpected and do not count on politicians to have your best interests as their top priority. That said, we have, as humans, a major predisposition to believe and trust in things that we are familiar with. The unwillingness to leave your comfort zone could be the biggest threat to holding onto or growing your investment. This translates into the well-known story of placing the frog in cold water and gradually heating it to a boil. Lulled to sleep anyone can miss the approaching danger. Every link in this article proves that point. You have taken the initial step of investing in a foreign currency, now might be the time to research what your other options are besides handing your money to the paragons of virtue and sound management – Big Banks! Raise questions in your chat rooms and talk shows, discover what other options might be safer and a better fit. you tube of Merkley asking about too big to fail? price of doing business Warren on why no legal action despite ties to Al Qaeda who have the regulators taken to trialhttp://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/17/us-eurozone-cyprus-risk-idUSBRE92G0BG20130317 confiscating depositors’ money to bail out the banks http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204464404577118682763082876.html?mod=googlenews_wsj. Bailout of European banks by Fed http://www.zerohedge.com/article/exclusive-feds-600-billion-stealth-bailout-foreign-banks-continues-expense-domestic-economy- submitted with permission from the blog by Chase Carlton
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