Search the Community

https://basedunderground.com/2021/07/14/blackrock-same-shady-people-who-own-pharma-and-media-want-your-house/ "BlackRock May Control the World’s Economic Future" "To put this into perspective, BlackRock, an investment firm, has more power than most governments on Earth, and it also controls the Federal Reserve, Wall Street mega-banks like Goldman Sachs and the WEF’s Great Reset, according to F. William Engdahl, a strategic risk consultant and lecturer who holds a degree in politics from Princeton University.13 Engdahl believes that, left unchecked, BlackRock will soon control the economic future of the world, and states, “BlackRock is the epitome of what Mussolini called Corporatism, where an unelected corporate elite dictates top down to the population.”14 For instance, three influential economic appointees of the current administration come from BlackRock." Home About Contact BlackRock: Same Shady People Who Own Pharma and Media Want Your House by Dr. Joseph Mercola July 14, 2021 Editor’s Commentary: The last time we covered BlackRock, it was the first time I had to deal with non-CCP bots and shills. The comments, hundreds of them, were filled with various defenses of the company. While I won’t accuse them directly of participating in the attempt to redirect or mislead, it’s conspicuous that of all the companies to have such an allegedly strong fanbase, it’s one of the most shrouded giant corporations in the land. This article by Dr. Joseph Mercola is both eye-opening and concerning. We often discuss globalist corporate agendas and how they both drive and are driven by an evil that is far more dangerous than greed alone. This deep dive into one of the many facets of the company should be spread far and wide. But first, here’s a video to set the stage… STORY AT-A-GLANCE In the first quarter of 2021, 15% of U.S. homes sold were purchased by corporate investors — not families looking to achieve their American dream The average American has virtually no chance of winning a home over an investment firm, which may pay 20% to 50% over asking price, in cash, sometimes scooping up entire neighborhoods at once BlackRock, one of the largest asset management firms, is among the firms buying up U.S. houses; they also control the media and Big Pharma If the average American is pushed out of the housing market, and most of the available housing is owned by investment groups and corporations, you become beholden to them as your landlord This fulfills part of the Great Reset’s “new normal” dictum — the part where you will own nothing and be happy; this isn’t a conspiracy theory — it’s part of WEF’s 2030 agenda Homeownership has long been considered an important tool for building financial security and wealth, but it’s becoming more difficult for Americans to achieve. Younger generations are less likely to own a home than those from older generations, with millennials’ homeownership rate 8% lower than that of generation X and baby boomers at the same age.1 If the rate had remained steady, about 3.4 million more people would own homes in the U.S. today but, instead, younger adults are increasingly choosing to either rent or live with their parents. There are a number of reasons why homeownership has become less attainable than it was decades ago, from rising debt in younger generations to increased cost of living. A report by the Urban Institute found half those aged 18 to 34 were spending upward of 30% of their income on rent, making them “rent-burdened.”2 Meanwhile, median housing prices increased 28% in the last two years,3 pricing some out of the market. However, the shift is not all happenstance. In the first quarter of 2021, 15% of U.S. homes sold were purchased by corporate investors4 — not families looking to achieve their American dream. While they’re competing with middle-class Americans for the homes, the average American has virtually no chance of winning a home over an investment firm, which may pay 20% to 50% over asking price,5 in cash, sometimes scooping up entire neighborhoods at once so they can turn them into rentals.6 BlackRock Is Buying Up US Houses BlackRock is one of a number of companies mentioned by The Wall Street Journal in a recent exposé. “Yield-chasing investors are snapping up single-family homes, competing with ordinary Americans and driving up prices,” they warned.7 The question is, why would institutional investors and BlackRock, which manages assets worth $5.7 trillion,8 be interested in overpaying for modest, single family homes? To understand the answer, you must look at BlackRock’s partners, which include the World Economic Forum (WEF),9 and their extreme political and financial clout. In a Twitter thread posted by user Culturalhusbandry, it’s noted:10 “Black Rock, Vanguard, and State Street control 20 trillion dollars worth of assets. Blackrock alone has a 10 billion a year surplus. That means with 5-20% down they can get mortgages on 130-170k homes every year. Or they can outright buy 30k homes per year. Just Blackrock. … Now imagine every major institute doing this, because they are. It can be such a fast sweeping action that 30yrs may be overshooting it. They may accomplish feudalism in 15 years.” If the average American is pushed out of the housing market, and most of the available housing is owned by investment groups and corporations, you become beholden to them as your landlord. This fulfills part of the Great Reset’s “new normal” dictum — the part where you will own nothing and be happy. This isn’t a conspiracy theory; it’s part of WEF’s 2030 agenda.11 The unstated implication is that the world’s resources will be owned and controlled by the technocratic elite, and you’ll have to pay for the temporary use of absolutely everything. Nothing will actually belong to you, including your home. All items and resources are to be used by the collective, while actual ownership is restricted to an upper stratum of social class. The wealth transfer has already begun. BlackRock’s Unrivaled Control The New York Times and a majority of other legacy media are largely owned by BlackRock and the Vanguard Group, the two largest asset management firms in the world, which also control Big Pharma. And it doesn’t end there. BlackRock and Vanguard are at the top of a pyramid that controls basically everything, but you don’t hear about their terrifying monopoly because they also own the media. You can watch all the details about BlackRock’s monopoly in this video, but Humans Are Free summed it up this way:12 “The power of these two companies is beyond your imagination. Not only do they own a large part of the stocks of nearly all big companies but also the stocks of the investors in those companies. This gives them a complete monopoly. A Bloomberg report states that both these companies in the year 2028, together will have investments in the amount of 20 trillion dollars. That means that they will own almost everything. Bloomberg calls BlackRock ‘The fourth branch of government,’ because it’s the only private agency that closely works with the central banks. BlackRock lends money to the central bank but it’s also the advisor. It also develops the software the central bank uses. … BlackRock, itself is also owned by shareholders … The biggest shareholder is Vanguard … The elite who own Vanguard apparently do not like being in the spotlight but of course they cannot hide from who is willing to dig. Reports from Oxfam and Bloomberg say that 1% of the world, together owns more money than the other 99%. Even worse, Oxfam says that 82% of all earned money in 2017 went to this 1%. In other words, these two investment companies, Vanguard and BlackRock hold a monopoly in all industries in the world and they, in turn are owned by the richest families in the world, some of whom are royalty and who have been very rich since before the Industrial Revolution.” BlackRock May Control the World’s Economic Future To put this into perspective, BlackRock, an investment firm, has more power than most governments on Earth, and it also controls the Federal Reserve, Wall Street mega-banks like Goldman Sachs and the WEF’s Great Reset, according to F. William Engdahl, a strategic risk consultant and lecturer who holds a degree in politics from Princeton University.13 Engdahl believes that, left unchecked, BlackRock will soon control the economic future of the world, and states, “BlackRock is the epitome of what Mussolini called Corporatism, where an unelected corporate elite dictates top down to the population.”14 For instance, three influential economic appointees of the current administration come from BlackRock. “There is a definite pattern and suggests that the role of BlackRock in Washington is far larger than we are being told,” Engdahl says.15 The Campaign for Accountability also released a report in 2019 detailing how BlackRock “implemented a strategy of lobbying, campaign contributions, and revolving door hires to fight off government regulation and establish itself as one of the most powerful financial companies in the world.”16,17 BlackRock founder and CEO Larry Fink also has close ties to WEF’s head Klaus Schwab, and joined WEF’s board in 2019. According to Engdahl: “Fink … now stands positioned to use the huge weight of BlackRock to create what is potentially, if it doesn’t collapse before, the world’s largest Ponzi scam, ESG [Environment, Social values and Governance] corporate investing. Fink with $9 trillion to leverage is pushing the greatest shift of capital in history into a scam known as ESG Investing. The UN ‘sustainable economy’ agenda is being realized quietly by the very same global banks which have created the financial crises in 2008. This time they are preparing the Klaus Schwab WEF Great Reset by steering hundreds of billions and soon trillions in investment to their hand-picked ‘woke’ companies, and away from the ‘not woke’ such as oil and gas companies or coal. … Oil companies like ExxonMobil or coal companies no matter how clear are doomed as Fink and friends now promote their financial Great Reset or Green New Deal … And we can expect that the New York Times will cheer BlackRock on as it destroys the world financial structures.” Blackstone Is the Largest Landlord in the US Another giant private equity firm, Blackstone, is also deeply entrenched in U.S. real estate. Blackstone is the largest landlord in the U.S. as well as the largest real estate company worldwide, with a portfolio worth $325 billion.18 In June 2021, Blackstone agreed to buy Home Partners of America, a company that rents single-family houses, and its 17,000 houses, for $6 billion. Blackstone and BlackRock sound alike for a reason. Blackstone’s co-founder, billionaire Steve Schwarzman, said during an interview on Squawk Box that he and Fink “started in business together. We put up the initial capital.” BlackRock used to be called Blackstone Financial, but Fink went off on his own. Schwarzman said, “Larry and I were sitting down and he said, ‘What do you think sort of about having a family name with ‘black’ in it,'”19 and BlackRock was born. Blackstone became notorious for swooping in after the housing bubble burst and buying tens of thousands of homes at deeply discounted prices. They then turned them into single-family rentals, taking advantage of the recession. In 2017, Bloomberg reported:20 “Blackstone built its rental-home business with an advantage few if any other buyers could match: billions of dollars in credit from large banks. Its Invitation Homes subsidiary quickly became the largest single-family home landlord in the U.S., with 50,000 properties. Altogether, hedge funds, private-equity firms and real estate investment trusts have raised about $20 billion to purchase as many as 200,000 homes to rent.” Now, with many struggling due to yearlong business shutdowns and lockdowns, and home prices rising, many Americans are having difficulty finding affordable single-family homes to buy.21 BlackRock Owns Your House, Gates Owns Your Farmland Both BlackRock CEO Fink and Bill Gates are pushing for “net zero” carbon emissions.22 But as BlackRock is busy buying up houses, Gates is hard at work amassing farmland and is now the largest owner of farmland in the U.S.23 By 2030, Gates is pushing for drastic, fundamental changes, including widespread consumption of fake meat, adoption of next generation nuclear energy and growth of a fungus as a new type of nutritional protein.24 The deadline Gates has given to reach net zero emissions is 2050,25 likely because he wants to realize his global vision during his lifetime. But according to Vandana Shiva, in order to force the world to accept this new food and agricultural system, new conditionalities are being created through net zero “nature-based” solutions. Navdanya’s report, “Earth Democracy: Connecting Rights of Mother Earth to Human Rights and Well-Being of All,” explains:26 “If ‘feeding the world’ through chemicals and dwarf varieties bred for chemicals was the false narrative created to impose the Green Revolution, the new false narrative is ‘sustainability’ and ‘saving the planet.’ In the new ‘net zero’ world, farmers will not be respected and rewarded as custodians of the land and caregivers, as Annadatas, the providers of our food and health. … ‘Net Zero’ is a new strategy to get rid of small farmers in first through ‘digital farming’ and ‘farming without farmers’ and then through the burden of fake carbon accounting. Carbon offsets and the new accounting trick of ‘net zero’ does not mean zero emissions. It means the rich polluters will continue to pollute and also grab the land and resources of those who have not polluted — indigenous people and small farmers — for carbon offsets.” A New Wave of Colonization Ultimately, we’re heading for a new wave of colonization in the name of sustainability and net zero carbon emissions. The solutions are complex. Some have suggested that one solution is to make building homes less expensive, so that new construction homes become less expensive. This, in turn, would drive down the cost of existing homes.27 The video at the top of this article goes into detail about another solution: ending the Federal Reserve to stop the central planning of our money supply and interest rates, which are artificially suppressed in a way that is most taken advantage of by the top 1%, contributing to growing wealth inequality.28 This engineered pandemic has catalyzed the transfer of wealth to the rich and, while the major players pushing for the Great Reset are still emerging, BlackRock and Blackstone are names to keep your eye on. 1, 2 CNBC November 25, 2020 3, 4 Slate June 19, 2021 5, 27, 28 YouTube June 10, 2021 6, 7 The Wall Street Journal April 4, 2021 8, 9 World Economic Forum, BlackRock 10, 21 Bitcoin.com, News June 11, 2021 11 Forbes November 10, 2016 12 Humans Are Free May 5, 2021 13, 14, 15, 17 WilliamEngdahl.com June 18, 2021 16 Campaign for Accountability September 5, 2019 18 ZeroHedge June 22, 2021 19 Yahoo Finance June 22, 2017 20 Bloomberg January 3, 2017 22 YouTube June 25, 2021 23 Fortune March 13, 2021 24 ZeroHedge February 16, 2021 25 Fox Business February 21, 2021 26 Navdanya, Earth Rights Are Human Rights. Page 14

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-04/better-cash-alliance-has-orwellian-plan The "Better Than Cash Alliance" Has An Orwellian Plan 06/04/2015 15:24 -0400 Federal Reserve Federal Tax Reality inShare1 Submitted by Seth Mason The "Better Than Cash Alliance" Has An Orwellian Plan In the fall of 1910, under the pretense of a duck hunting trip, a group of powerful bankers, political figures, and businessmen met at Jekyll Island, GA to plan the creation of a central bank for the United States. The “game” that this elite group of “hunters” brought back to their ivory towers of Lower Manhattan and Capitol Hill was the blueprint for one of the most destructive financial institutions in modern history, the Federal Reserve. One-hundred years later, another group of powerful bankers, political figures, and businessmen have converged to promote a cashless society, an economic system that would compel every man, woman, and child to utilize proprietary, government-monitored electronic systems to make purchases of any kind. This group, which calls itself the Better Than Cash Alliance, is as dangerous as the group of “outdoor enthusiasts” that met at Jekyll Island that fateful early-20th Century November. And, just like the Jekyll Island group sold their grand plans based on a lie (they claimed that the Fed would guarantee liquidity in times of financial panics), the Better Than Cash Alliance is selling the idea of a cashless society based on the farce that eliminating cash would stimulate entrepreneurship among the poor. In reality, the elimination of cash would reduce a great many opportunities for entrepreneurship for people of few means. Gone would be the informal businesses the working poor often operate: roadside produce stands, street performances, handicraft tables, and day labor. Contrary to the assertions of the BTCA, a cash-free society would limit entrepreneurship to those with the means to incorporate a business, afford the proprietary system required to accept payments, and understand the local, state, and federal tax burden the payment system would create. Although they won’t admit it, the 12 central governments that currently support the BTCA (the U.S. is one of them) do so because a cashless society would enable them to track and tax every purchase made with sovereign currency within their borders. In addition to producing new government revenue streams, the payment systems would increase governments’ social engineering capabilities: They would compel consumers to purchase goods and services from tax-paying, licensed organizations. Freelance service providers such as barbers, music teachers, and tutors would be forced to either jump through the hoops of incorporation or seek work with licensed businesses (which would inevitably take a cut of their earnings and subject the remainder to payroll taxes). The black market would also be squeezed, escalating the War on Drugs, and subjecting every “sin” and self-defense purchase to government scrutiny. Under the guise of “national security”, of course. A number of financial institutions, including, but not limited to, Citi, Visa, and MasterCard, support the BTCA, for obvious reasons. In a cash-free world, these institutions would not only make profits on the front end by selling electronic payment devices and charging a fee for every transaction, but they would also make money on the back end by compelling everyone to deposit all of their earnings and cash holdings into their coffers. The BTCA claims that a cashless society would enable the poor to “participate in the financial system”. In reality, it would compel everyone to patronize banks. And, while a cashless society would be a windfall for the banking industry, it would place a heavy burden on the elderly, who often hold large amounts of cash and are hesitant (and, in some cases, incapable) of making electronic financial transactions. Among the numerous social problems the BTCA’s plan for cashless society would create, incidences of elder abuse would certainly increase. Inevitably, some people would find a way to circumvent a government-mandated electronic payment system, at least for some purchases. Some would find ways to barter or use non-government-issued crypto or de facto currencies. (Interestingly, some black market circles use liquid Tide laundry detergent as a currency.) For some, the elimination of cash would have little material effect on their lives. But, for most, the BTCA’s agenda is a tremendous threat to their individual and economic liberties. Like the Jekyll Island duck hunters, the Better Than Cash Alliance is a cabal of powerful people who are pushing a dangerous agenda that would harm average Americans while increasing the elite group’s power over them. Like Georgia mallards, the BTCA’s plans must be shot down. Average:

Long, but incredible read on how one family came to control nearly everything on the planet... way too much to bring over: http://www.iamthewitness.com/DarylBradfordSmith_Rothschild.htm The History of the House of Rothschild

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-23/ron-paul-bernankes-farewell-tour Ron Paul On "Bernanke's Farewell Tour" Tyler Durden on 07/23/2013 12:56 -0400 Submitted by Ron Paul via The Free Foundation blog, Last week Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered what may well be his last Congressional testimony before leaving the Federal Reserve in 2014. Unfortunately, his farewell performance was full of contradictory comments about the state of the economy and the effects of Fed policies on the market. One thing Bernanke inadvertently made clear was that the needs of Wall Street trump Main street, the economy, and sound money. Quantitative easing (QE) and effectively zero interest rates have created paper prosperity, but now the Fed must continuously assure Wall Street that the QE spigot will not be turned off. Otherwise even the illusion of recovery will disappear. So Bernanke made every effort to emphasize that the economy was not doing well enough to end QE, while lauding the success of Fed policies in improving the economy. Bernanke was also intent on denying that Fed policies directly boost financial markets. However, the money the Fed creates out of nothing in order to buy mortgage-backed securities and government debt for the QE3 program, benefits first and foremost the big banks and the financial class — those people who are invited to the Fed auctions. This new money then fuels stock bubbles, bond bubbles, agricultural land bubbles, and others. The consequences of this are felt by ordinary savers, investors, and retirees whose savings lose value because of the Fed’s zero interest rate policy. As if Wall Street favoritism and zero returns for savers isn’t bad enough, the Fed wants the rest of America to bear a greater inflation burden. The Fed thinks you should lose two percent of the value of your dollar this year. But Bernanke is not satisfied with having reduced purchasing power by ten percent since the 2008 recession. The inflation picture is actually much worse if we look at the old consumer price index —the one that did not assume that ground beef is a perfect substitute for steak. Using the old CPI metric, as calculated by John Williams at Shadow Government Statistics, we’ve lost close to 50 percent of the purchasing power of our money in just the last five years. So what you were able to buy with the $20 in your pocket before the financial crisis costs more than $30 today. That might be peanuts to Wall Street, but that’s real money for working Americans. And it’s theft by the Fed. It is a direct consequence of the trillions of new dollars the Fed has “not literally” printed—as Bernanke put it. Bernanke’s final testimony before Congress confirms that the Fed has blatant disregard for the extra costs and the new bubbles it is creating. The Fed only understands paper prosperity, not how middle class Americans and the poor suffer the consequences of higher prices, resources misallocations, and distortionary bubbles as well as insidious unemployment. The only way out of this tailspin of monetary favoritism is to restore sound money, which would end the Fed’s ability to manipulate currency and put Wall Street first. The Fed has proven over and over again that it has no respect for the real money that preserves the value of people’s labor, their wealth, and their ability to live free and prosperous lives. It is beyond time for the Fed, Wall Street, and the federal government to stop manipulating money and stealing from the American people under the false guise of paper prosperity.

This is all shown in graphics, I don't know how to bring that kinda stuff over, so just follow the link folks: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-11/visualizing-uncle-sams-missing-money

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-01/36-tough-questions-about-us-economy-everyone-should-be-asking 36 Tough Questions About The U.S. Economy That Everyone Should Be Asking Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/01/2013 18:34 -0400 Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog, If the economy is improving, then why aren't things getting better for most average Americans? They tell us that the unemployment rate is going down, but the percentage of Americans that are actually working is exactly the same it was three years ago. They tell us that American families are in better financial shape now, but real disposable income is falling rapidly. They tell us that inflation is low, but every time we go shopping at the grocery store the prices just seem to keep going up. They tell us that the economic crisis is over, and yet poverty and government dependence continue to explode to unprecedented heights. There seems to be a disconnect between what the government and the media are telling us and what is actually true. With each passing day the debt of the federal government grows larger, the financial world become even more unstable and more American families fall out of the middle class. The same long-term economic trends that have been eating away at our economy like cancer for decades continue to ruthlessly attack the foundations of our economic system. We are rapidly speeding toward an economic cataclysm, and yet the government and most of the media make it sound like happy days are here again. The American people deserve better than this. The American people deserve the truth. The following are 36 hard questions about the U.S. economy that the mainstream media should be asking... #1 If the percentage of working age Americans that have a job is exactly the same as it was three years ago, then why is the government telling us that the "unemployment rate" has gone down significantly during that time? #2 Why are some U.S. companies allowed to exploit disabled workers by paying them as little as 22 cents an hour? #3 Why are some private prisons allowed to pay their prisoners just a dollar a day to do jobs that other Americans could be doing? #4 Why is real disposable income in the United States falling at the fastest rate that we have seen since 2008? #5 Why do 53 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year? #6 Why are wages as a percentage of GDP at an all-time low? #7 Why are 76 percent of all Americans living paycheck to paycheck? #8 Why are so many large corporations issuing negative earnings guidance for this quarter? Does this indicate that the economy is about to experience a significant downturn? #9 Why is job growth at small businesses at about half the level it was at when the year started? #10 Why are central banks selling off record amounts of U.S. debt right now? #11 Why did U.S. mortgage bonds just suffer their biggest quarterly decline in nearly 20 years? #12 Why did we just witness the largest weekly increase in mortgage rates in 26 years? #13 Why has the number of mortgage applications fallen by 29 percent over the last eight weeks? #14 Why has the number of mortgage applications fallen to the lowest level in 19 months? #15 If the U.S. economy is recovering, why is the mortgage delinquency rate in the United States still nearly 10 percent? #16 Why did the student loan delinquency rate in the United States just hit a brand new all-time high? #17 Why is the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars of municipal bonds being postponed? #18 What are the central banks of the world going to do when the 441 trillion dollar interest rate derivatives bubble starts to burst? #19 Why is Barack Obama secretly negotiating a new international free trade agreement that will impose very strict Internet copyright rules on all of us, ban all "Buy American" laws, give Wall Street banks much more freedom to trade risky derivatives and force even more domestic manufacturing offshore? #20 Why don't our politicians seem to care that the United States has run a trade deficit of more than 8 trillion dollars with the rest of the world since 1975? #21 Why doesn't the mainstream media talk about how rapidly the U.S. economy is declining relative to the rest of the planet? According to the World Bank, U.S. GDP accounted for 31.8 percent of all global economic activity in 2001. That number dropped to 21.6 percent in 2011. #22 Why is the percentage of self-employed Americans at a record low? #23 What are we going to do if dust bowl conditions continue to return to the western half of the United States? If the drought continues to get even worse, what will that do to our agriculture? #24 Why is the IRS spending thousands of taxpayer dollars on kazoos, stove top hats, bathtub toy boats and plush animals? #25 Why did the NIH spend $253,800 "to study ways to educate Boston’s male prostitutes on safe-sex practices"? #26 Why do some of the largest charities in America spend less than 5 percent of the money that they bring in on actual charitable work? #27 Now that EU finance ministers have approved a plan that will allow Cyprus-style wealth confiscation as part of all future bank bailouts in Europe, is it only a matter of time before we see something similar in the United States? #28 Why does approximately one out of every three children in the United States live in a home without a father? #29 Why are more than a million public school students in the United States homeless? #30 Why are so many cities all over the United States passing laws that make it illegal to feed the homeless? #31 Why is government dependence in the U.S. at an all-time high if the economy is getting better? Back in 1960, the ratio of social welfare benefits to salaries and wages was approximately 10 percent. In the year 2000, the ratio of social welfare benefits to salaries and wages was approximately 21 percent. Today, the ratio of social welfare benefits to salaries and wages is approximately 35 percent. #32 Why does the number of Americans on food stamps exceed the entire population of the nation of Spain? #33 The number of Americans on food stamps has grown from 32 million to 47 million while Barack Obama has been occupying the White House. So why is Obama paying recruiters to go out and get even more Americans to join the program? #34 Today, there are 56 million Americans collecting Social Security benefits. In 2035, there will be 91 million Americans collecting Social Security benefits. Where in the world will we get the money for that? #35 Why has the value of the U.S. dollar fallen by over 95 percent since the Federal Reserve was created back in 1913? #36 Why has the size of the U.S. national debt gotten more than 5000 times larger since the Federal Reserve was created back in 1913?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-10/guest-post-smoke-and-mirrors-running-out Guest Post: The Smoke And Mirrors Are Running Out Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/10/2013 13:17 -0400 Originally posted at Monty Pelerin's World blog, Those who believe the economy is recovering are ignorant of the facts. Other than the Great Depression no US recovery (and I don’t believe we are in a recovery) taken longer. Eventually it may take more than a decade like the 1930s. Or perhaps it will be like Japan which is in its third decade of “recovery.” Politics and Economics The truth is that our economy is spent, exhausted and filled with misallocations and distortions made much worse by government interventions. There is no recovery, nor will there be one until a massive purge (usually referred to as a depression) occurs. This event will result in bankruptcies that release scarce, misallocated physical capital from unproductive and unwanted areas to places where it is needed and can be utilized efficiently. Rather than allow this pre-condition to an economic recovery and a growing, efficient economy, politicians want to prevent it. They use smoke, mirrors and propaganda (lies) to hide the reality of our sick economy. Their obfuscations continue, but the effective life is limited. What politicians do to the country beyond their term in office means nothing to them. Their concern is only for themselves and the short-term that exists between elections. As a result they rob from the future to hide the true conditions of the present. Those still unborn will be paying for their criminal economic charade. Economic Conditions So how bad is the economy? Michael Shedlock, “Mish” is among the more prolific as well as more incisive financial analysts on the web. His site is always worth reading, but a recent post is essential. To impress upon you the seriousness of the situation and to encourage you to read his post, I quote some of his points (anything in red is my emphasis): … we’re doing the same thing that led to the 2008 blowup — we’ve learned exactly nothing. In real terms our GDP is in fact contracting by about $500 billion a quarter, after adjusting for debt expansion — that’s $2 trillion a year, more or less. In terms of debt and inflation, Mish determined that: … we’re contracting in purchasing power adjusted for new debt at more than 10% over the last four quarters. The debt to GDP ratio reached the highest in history just before the 2008 collapse. It remains in this record territory and is just as unsustainable now as it was in 2008: … the absolute level of debt to GDP, however, refuses to go under 350%; it has now started rising again but is entirely coming from two sectors — business credit and the Federal Government. Consumers reduced their debt levels, although probably not enough. They are still strapped with more debt than many can properly service. Consumption, as a result, has dampened as more income goes to debt service and less debt is added. That appears to be a condition that should prevail for several more years. Remember, the announced reason for the loose Fed policy was to drive consumption. As Mish observed: … this so-called “expansion” driven by ZIRP and deficits has a use-by date that has expired and we are now trying to evade the fact that the fish is well into the “stinks up the joint” stage. Obviously, it has not worked. Read Mish’s article to view most of his observations in chart format. Desperate Government Although Mish does not make this point, I believe it is a relevant one. Government continues to borrow and spend in an effort to hide the truly rotten condition of the economy. This action was begun under the guise of stimulating a recovery. It is obvious that it has not worked. It was obvious to some that it could never work. Despite its obvious failure, theft from future generations continues. There are two main reasons for this, in my opinion: To hide from the people how desperate the economic situation truly is. To enable government to continue its current level of spending which cannot be funded via tax revenues or real market Treasury sales (certainly not at current interest rates; perhaps at no reasonable interest rate). Government has exhausted its faux solutions. Nothing they do, except reduce spending, can help the economy. Reducing spending means another Great Depression and the exposure of the economic scam they have been running. Thus, spending will likely continue as will the Federal Reserve enabling, euphemistically called quantitative easing. A Fly In The Ointment There is a limit on how long the fraud continues. The government is in what is known as a debt death spiral. They must borrow money to repay prior debts. It is as if they are using their Visa Card to make an American Express payment. The rate of new debt additions dwarf any rate of growth the economy can possibly achieve. The end is certain, only its timing is unknown. Once interest rates begin to rise, and they will, it is game over. Short-term Treasury interest rates are normally 3% with no inflation. In an inflationary environment, a premium for expected inflation is tacked on to that 3%. Under today’s conditions, ST Treasuries could easily rise to 6 – 9%. The low end of the range represents a rise in rates of more than 5.5%. If the debt outstanding, most of which is short-term, is $17 Trillion, that would been a rise in interest expense of close to a Trillion dollars annually. That would be added to deficits which are expected to be around a Trillion dollars per year. The high end of the range would produce a deficit in excess of $2.5 Trillion per year. At the low end of the interest rate range, deficits would exceed more than 10% of GDP, putting us right up there with the sick European countries. At the high end, we would be like Greece without its glorious history and climate. It gets worse than the above numbers convey. When interest rates rise, the economy will contract and probably severely. Then cries for more stimulus would be heard. An additional Trillion dollars or so would likely be added to the deficit, although many would want multiples of that. In either case, we become Greece on steroids. Another Fly In The Ointment There are those who say the US government cannot go broke because it has a printing press. They argue that the level of deficits don’t matter because the US can just print more money. Monetary fraud, which this is, also has a limit. Only paper and ink limit the amount of currency the government can print. However, government does not control the value of the money which is determined by the public. Printing money depreciates the value of money (otherwise known as inflation). Market forces (economic actors) determine what this value is via supply and demand interaction. When money is expected to buy less tomorrow than it does today, people will spend it sooner. This drives inflation even higher. Ludwig von Mises described this end phase as a crack-up boom: Credit expansion can bring about a temporary boom. But such a fictitious prosperity must end in a general depression of trade, a slump. The boom produces impoverishment. But still more disastrous are its moral ravages. It makes people despondent and dispirited. The more optimistic they were under the illusory prosperity of the boom, the greater is their despair and their feeling of frustration. Mises spent much of his life studying money, the business cycle and inflation. He correctly identified the choice that now stands before our political class (my emboldening added): There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit (debt) expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit (debt) expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. In the event of the total catastrophe, savings and fixed income become worthless. The middle class of a country is wiped out in terms of wealth. Poverty abounds except at the top where those with large wealth and insider information are able to protect themselves and enhance their real wealth. Inflation does not destroy wealth; it merely redistributes it. How Does It End? Neither ending is attractive, but opportunities for one or the other have been squandered. Sadly, the decision as to which route is taken is in the hands of our criminal political class. Their behavior suggests that they will do whatever it takes to continue the charade. They want to maintain their scam for as long as they can.. If they are successful, a crack-up boom is coming. History shows this ending in most all countries in our condition.

World Bank Insider Blows Whistle on Corruption, Federal Reserve Wednesday, 22 May 2013 A former insider at the World Bank, ex-Senior Counsel Karen Hudes, says the global financial system is dominated by a small group of corrupt, power-hungry figures centered around the privately owned U.S. Federal Reserve. The network has seized control of the media to cover up its crimes, too, she explained. In an interview with The New American, Hudes said that when she tried to blow the whistle on multiple problems at the World Bank, she was fired for her efforts. Now, along with a network of fellow whistleblowers, Hudes is determined to expose and end the corruption. And she is confident of success. Citing an explosive 2011 Swiss study published in the PLOS ONE journal on the “network of global corporate control,” Hudes pointed out that a small group of entities — mostly financial institutions and especially central banks — exert a massive amount of influence over the international economy from behind the scenes. “What is really going on is that the world’s resources are being dominated by this group,” she explained, adding that the “corrupt power grabbers” have managed to dominate the media as well. “They’re being allowed to do it.” According to the peer-reviewed paper, which presented the first global investigation of ownership architecture in the international economy, transnational corporations form a “giant bow-tie structure.” A large portion of control, meanwhile, “flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions.” The researchers described the core as an “economic ‘super-entity’” that raises important issues for policymakers and researchers. Of course, the implications are enormous for citizens as well. Hudes, an attorney who spent some two decades working in the World Bank’s legal department, has observed the machinations of the network up close. “I realized we were now dealing with something known as state capture, which is where the institutions of government are co-opted by the group that’s corrupt,” she told The New American in a phone interview. “The pillars of the U.S. government — some of them — are dysfunctional because of state capture; this is a big story, this is a big cover up.” At the heart of the network, Hudes said, are 147 financial institutions and central banks — especially the Federal Reserve, which was created by Congress but is owned by essentially a cartel of private banks. “This is a story about how the international financial system was secretly gamed, mostly by central banks — they’re the ones we are talking about,” she explained. “The central bankers have been gaming the system. I would say that this is a power grab.” The Fed in particular is at the very center of the network and the coverup, Hudes continued, citing a policy and oversight body that includes top government and Fed officials. Central bankers have also been manipulating gold prices, she added, echoing widespread concerns that The New American has documented extensively. Indeed, even the inaccurate World Bank financial statements that Hudes has been trying to expose are linked to the U.S. central bank, she said. “The group that we’re talking about from the Zurich study — that’s the Federal Reserve; it has some other pieces to it, but that’s the Federal Reserve,” Hudes explained. “So the Federal Reserve secretly dominated the world economy using secret, interlocking corporate directorates, and terrorizing anybody who managed to figure out that they were having any kind of role, and putting people in very important positions so that they could get a free pass.” The shadowy but immensely powerful Bank for International Settlements serves as “the club of these private central bankers,” Hudes continued. “Now, are people going to want interest on their country’s debts to continue to be paid to that group when they find out the secret tricks that that group has been doing? Don’t forget how they’ve enriched themselves extraordinarily and how they’ve taken taxpayer money for the bailout.” As far as intervening in the gold price, Hudes said it was an effort by the powerful network and its central banks to “hold onto its paper currency” — a suspicion shared by many analysts and even senior government officials. The World Bank whistleblower also said that contrary to official claims, she did not believe there was any gold being held in Fort Knox. Even congressmen and foreign governments have tried to find out if the precious metals were still there, but they met with little success. Hudes, however, believes the scam will eventually come undone. “This is like crooks trying to figure out where they can go hide. It’s a mafia,” she said. “These culprits that have grabbed all this economic power have succeeded in infiltrating both sides of the issue, so you will find people who are supposedly trying to fight corruption who are just there to spread disinformation and as a placeholder to trip up anybody who manages to get their act together.… Those thugs think that if they can keep the world ignorant, they can bleed it longer.” Of course, the major corruption at the highest levels of government and business is not a new phenomenon. Georgetown University historian and Professor Carroll Quigley, who served as President Bill Clinton’s mentor, for example, wrote about the scheme in his 1966 book Tragedy And Hope: A History Of The World In Our Time. The heavyweight academic, who was allowed to review documents belonging to the top echelons of the global establishment, even explained how the corrupt system would work — remarkably similar to what Hudes describes. "The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole,” wrote Prof. Quigley, who agreed with the goals but not the secrecy. “This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations." But it is not going to happen, Hudes said — at least not if she has something do to with it. While the media are dominated by the “power grabber” network, Hudes has been working with foreign governments, reporters, U.S. officials, state governments, and a broad coalition of fellow whistleblowers to blow the entire scam wide open. There has been quite a bit of interest, too, particularly among foreign governments and state officials in the United States. Citing the wisdom of America’s Founding Fathers in creating a federal system of government with multiple layers of checks and balances, Hudes said she was confident that the network would eventually be exposed and subjected to the rule of law, stopping the secret corruption. If and when that happens — even if it may be disorderly — Hudes says precious metals will once again play a role in imposing discipline on the monetary system. The rule of law would also be restored, she said, and the public will demand a proper press to stay informed. “We’re going to have a cleaned-up financial system, that’s where it is going, but in the meantime, people who didn’t know how the system was gamed are going to find out,” she said. “We’re going to have a different kind of international financial system.... It’ll be a new kind of world where people know what’s going on — no more backroom deals; that’s not going to keep happening. We’re going to have a different kind of media if people don’t want to be dominated and controlled, which I don’t think they do.” While Hudes sounded upbeat, she recognizes that the world is facing serious danger right now — there are even plans in place to impose martial law in the United States, she said. The next steps will be critical for humanity. As such, Hudes argues, it is crucial that the people of the world find out about the lawlessness, corruption, and thievery that are going on at the highest levels — and put a stop to it once and for all. The consequences of inaction would be disastrous. http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/economics/item/15473-world-bank-insider-blows-whistle-on-corruption-federal-reserve?utm_source=feedly

I thought this was a great article to send to folks who aren't up to speed on how our bankers have been systematically stealing from us for a century...this is put in very simple terms, and may hopefully wake up some who haven't realized this yet. Pass it on!! thx all http://www.rickackerman.com/2012/04/why-the-global-banking-system-is-a-scam/ Why the Global Banking System Is a Scam BY RICK ACKERMAN ON APRIL 18, 2012 1:48 AM GMT · 60 COMMENTS [We have argued here before that it is lies, systematic fraud and blatant duplicity by the central banks that have kept the global economy afloat in recent years. In the essay below, a regular in the Rick’s Picks forum who goes by the handle ‘Buster’ provides as succinct and elegant an explanation of this as we have seen. His thoughts were originally published in the forum, but we are reprinting them below because they deserves a wider audience. RA] America is a great country. As with any business, its success is based on the balance of its assets against its liabilities. Its assets are a plentiful supply of natural resources; land & minerals, plus 300 million specimens of the most creative creature on planet Earth. These assets are hindered by one main liability, a ruling class who imported a monetary system of theirs from Europe a while ago. It is a non-free market system which is enough of a hindrance to negate all the positives of any country in time. A simple enough system to understand, yet very seldom understood, even by the most intelligent among us, it would seem. It operates on the simple rule that currency is borrowed into existence with interest bearing on it at a given rate. The critical point to recognise is that the interest owing is not issued by the lender, only the principal, thereby meaning that the interest either has to be paid out of the sum of principal borrowed, or by confiscation of real physical assets, i.e. “real wealth”. The only thing keeping this eventuality from occurring is if a new borrower adds more money, borrowed as yet more debt, into the economy. This is why such a monetary system requires ever more investing manias to perpetuate itself. After exhausting the supply of manias of things of no real consequence such as tulips, the wizards of this system centered mostly around a company known as Goldman Sachs, moved on to turning very critical wealth into the biggest mania in history, i.e. the buildings we all live in. Once this mania had run its course to the extreme by changing the rules or committing outright financial fraud as we now know, and no new borrowers could be dragged in off the street, the “flaw” in the system became manifest, as the interest payments were not being covered by new money borrowed into the economies of the world. Boiling of the Frog Now things got interesting. Since not enough currency is in existence to cover all the debt owed to the lender, then the assets, real things or “real wealth,” are now owed to the lenders. The problem with this is that if the lenders acted upon this fact the populations of the developed world would quickly realise that they are all in fact broke, as all property would get consumed by the Banksters as repayment, leading no doubt to a world-wide revolt against the secret overlords of this system. So, instead of this, things have been manoeuvred to allow a more gradual slow “boiling of the frog,” or austerity programs coupled with placing ex-Goldman Sachs employees into key government positions across the western world. On an accounting level, huge bail-outs will continue to be necessary to keep the system’s head above water, or rather to keep those within “the club” in the lifestyles they have become accustomed to, perpetually unless or until a new bigger mania is devised that could add enough borrowed debt currency into the system to cover the current interest payments, but bringing more burden in so doing. The carbon credit system is possibly such a new mania? Greenspan Detected a ‘Flaw’ Alan Greenspan famously said that they found a flaw in their financial model. Yeah, right! The flaw was the very foundation of the model deliberately designed so centuries ago. Understanding of this “flaw” is the last thing the powers that be wish for the masses to acquire. Simply put, due to the fact that only the principal is borrowed into existence, not the interest, the result is never-ending debt allowing that the real wealth of miners, farmers, builders, engineers, fisherman and any other positive endeavour to be taken for free by those in “the club” via theft or fraud. Some, educated to think just as the Wizards have designed, will argue that this is a simplistic way of seeing things, citing their training in financial models and graphs, yet all deliberately designed to confuse and hide the simplicity of it all. As Ricks Hidden Pivot Method [of technical analysis] no doubt demonstrates, the intelligent see just the complexity, but the wise find the simplicity. America, as every country exists in a world of unimaginable abundance and we humans are blessed with the minds to realise it. We’re just presently snookered by a self-seeking “liability” that thwarts it. May we all one day realise that abundance.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-29/qbamco-precious-metals-and-coming-great-resetQBAMCO On Precious Metals And The Coming 'Great Reset' Authored by Lee Quaintance and Paul Brodsky of QBAMCO, Volume Triage Last Sunday we closed the macroeconomic portion of “Imperial Constraint” with the following: “So we ask again, are there really unpredictable market shocks or are investors paid not to care? To us, all signs point towards the next currency reset. We think monetary authorities are compulsively destroying the current global monetary system; they simply have no choice if they are to keep it afloat in the short term. We further think they will have no choice but to replace it with a gold exchange standard they oversee (i.e., a gold-standard-light, “Bretton Woods” type reset). Perhaps this explains the current redistribution away from unreserved paper gold to physical gold? We would not be surprised if, in 2014, someone like Larry Summers or Tim Geithner takes control of the Fed and oversees such an operation.” Two days later the Fed announced Ben Bernanke would not attend the Jackson Hole summit, for the first time in twenty five years. A couple days after that the New York Times (on the first page, no less) ran an in depth profile of Janet Yellen, the heir apparent to run the Fed. Beneath her profile there were three other candidates “being discussed:” Roger Ferguson, Tim Geithner and Larry Summers. We normally do not spend time handicapping presidential appointments. In this case; however, we think the choice for next Fed Chair may have profound economic implications, and that it would not require expertise in econometric modeling, credit policy management, and maintaining the public perception of economic stability. As we wrote last week, we think the next Fed Chairman will oversee a conversion of the global monetary regime. A thick skin, diplomatic skills, and strong relationships with global banks and monetary policy makers will be the skill set most needed. We think Tim Geithner (with Bill Dudley as an alternative) will take over the Fed when Ben Bernanke steps down next January, and it seems by all indications that the table is already being set. We attended a small dinner party a few years ago at which an iconic financier (and major Obama supporter) let it slip that he questioned one of Obama’s most senior aides just prior to the 2008 Democratic convention about taking over the economy when it was imploding. The aide waived it off and exclaimed; “oh don’t worry, Bobby has it covered!” Most of the table was relieved that Bob Rubin still had their backs and that banks would keep priority. Such was, and remains, US economic policy. Neither growth nor austerity nor gloom of night will stay these currencies from their appointed devaluations. Bank balance sheets must be preserved; ergo sufficient inflation must be manufactured. We think the dull but persistent economic malaise amid increasingly aggressive monetary intervention policies will soon engender fear among the not-so-great washed – net savers. This happier band of brothers cannot maintain an edge when the real economy contracts and interest rates are already at zero. Base money is already being manufactured in the form of bank reserves and the total money stock is not growing because there is very little natural economic incentive among the rest of us to consume (much) or take risk. Something and someone new is needed. Ben Bernanke seems like a brilliant political economist and a decent guy, the top of his field in terms of comportment, academic credentials and specific competence in understanding historical monetary policies during a counter-cyclical (i.e., de-leveraging) period. Perhaps Janet Yellen is too? But such qualities are not what we think will be preferred by the powers that be now that global resource producers are openly questioning US, British, Euro and Japanese monetary policies and reserve holders are realizing their stash is being methodically turned to trash. Meanwhile, aggregate leverage is growing and real economies are withering. Does anyone believe that Ben or any other monetary authority has been proactive, or that any fiscal authority has enacted legislation that promises to help achieve “escape velocity?” Can’t we all agree that the rationale for economic policy may be boiled down to the counterfactual: “yes, but imagine if they withdrew liquidity or enforced true austerity – it would be worse!”? Is there a serious analyst who still believes economies can grow their ways out of being over-levered without leveraging further? Whether or not contraction has to come-a-knocking prior to a monetary reset is anyone’s guess, but it would be difficult to imagine monetary system change without a generally-recognized economic tragedy that precedes it. This implies disappointing GDP prints, declining corporate revenues and maybe even a swoon in stock and real estate markets. We have already begun to experience the first two. Now that we read global central banks have begun buying equities, perhaps equity prices may be controlled too (as are the level of interest rates via large scale asset purchases like QE and relative currency exchange rates via timed interventions)? Negative output growth and asset price busts would certainly open the door for our hero to enter. The role of a central banker in the late stages of de-leveraging seems to be volume triage, as they say in intelligence circles – reacting to an increasing barrage of events as they occur, wherever they may occur. In economics as in policing, the bad guys always get to take the first shot. From the central banker’s perspective, the bad guy in the current regime is the real economy. If it continues to shrink, as we think it must, then TPTB must change the way they do business. We think the box we drew in Imperial Constraint is the key metric in understanding the forces behind economic growth and market pricing. An inflationary leveraging perpetuates imbalances while deflationary deleveraging threatens the survival of the banking system at large. Hopes for organic credit growth, which would promote the former, are now fleeting. This, in turn, engenders the threat of the latter. Continued ZIRP, increasing asset purchases and a steep decline in the universal efficacy of it all suggests the time to press the reset button is quickly approaching. May to December 2013 may turn out to be the darkness before the dawn; a time we look back upon and choose to forget. All in all we think the most efficient Fed Chair in advance of a reset would be Paul Krugman. He seems willing to destroy the current global monetary system with swift dispatch, without consultation, declaration (or second drafts). Alas, capitalist economies in liberal democracies require level-headed responses to market forces. There is no place for rogue pro-actionists. Institutions like the Fed are meant to appear as first responders working on behalf of the societies their banks serve. And so we think that circa 2070, our children will write and read (140-word) biographies about how Timothy Geithner saved the world from economic darkness. Geithner will save the day and bring glory to the Obama presidency by reducing the burden of debt repayment while maintaining the nominal integrity of debt covenants and bank balance sheets. The only way to accomplish this would be by destroying the currencies in which those debts are owed. Net debtors will rejoice and net savers (all 1% of them?) will suffer, finally realizing their unreserved currencies and levered financial assets were never sustainable wealth in the first place. Our little narrative could certainly turn out to be wrong, but we discuss it here (against all political wisdom) because we cannot find another one that better fits current macro and market pricing trends. If we are wrong about Mr. Geithner, we think it would imply that TPTB (raise your hand if you think the Fed’s shareholders do not choose/approve the Fed Chairman) believe a clear-headed and decent academic political economist can figure out what all past ones could not: how to support asset prices beyond ZIRP and central bank asset purchases. (Ben is gone, long reign Janet!) That is not our projection. When and if it becomes clear that Tim Geithner will ascend the steps at Eccles, we think it would already be too late to buy physical gold and resources. The only play remaining for financial asset investors looking to get full value after the reset would be shares in precious metal miners and natural resource producers holding reserves in nature’s vault. Properly held bullion and shares in precious metal miners would act as the most efficient store of purchasing power over the course of the devaluation and conversion. (Worst to first? Get ‘em while they’re cold!) Futures, ETFs, unallocated bullion holdings and other fractionally reserved claims on physical reserves easily replaced with cash would not participate. If our scenario comes to pass, then bank, government and consumer balance sheets would be quite healthy following the reset and would be ready to expand. We would think consumable commodities and shares in their producers would lead equity markets higher and that interest rates would remain low, as further inflation would be mitigated by the discipline of a full or partial peg to precious metals. We think all should question whether we are 100% wrong. If not, then prudence dictates some allocation to properly held precious metals. (Presently, it is less than 1% of all global pensions.)

* http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/4/3_Former_US_Treasury_Official_-_Fed_Desperate_To_Save_System.html (added by moderator) Today a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury warned King World News that the Federal Reserve’s recent market interventions are a clear sign that there is something desperate going on behind the scenes. Former Assistant of the US Treasury, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, also cautioned KWN that the Fed is trying to maintain control so the whole scheme doesn’t blow up. Below is what Dr. Roberts had to say in the first part of two extraordinary interviews which will be released today. Dr. Roberts: “As I have explained, the orchestrated move against gold and silver is to protect the exchange value of the US dollar. The Federal Reserve is creating one trillion new dollars per year, but the world is moving away from the use of the dollar for international payments and, thus, as a reserve currency. The result is an increase in supply and a decrease in demand. That means a falling price. The orchestration against bullion cannot ultimately succeed. It is designed to gain time for the Federal Reserve to be able to continue financing the federal budget deficit by printing money and also to keep interest rates low and debt prices high in order to support the banks’ balance sheets. When the Federal Reserve can no longer print due to dollar collapse which printing would make worse, bank deposits and pensions will be grabbed in order to finance the deficit.... “The manipulation of the bullion market is illegal, but as government is doing it the law will not be enforced. It is an act of desperation. If bullion were not a threat, the government would not be attacking it. The fact that the Federal Reserve is short selling bullion means that there is something desperate going on, and I assume it’s related to the US dollar. If the dollar drops sharply in exchange value the Fed can’t control the interest rate and the bond price and so all of the bubbles would blow up. All of the recent reports of countries moving away from the dollar to settle their international payments has most likely caused a great many countries to look at getting out of dollars. We not only have the BRICS moving away from the use of the dollar, but also China, Japan, and all of the East Asians. Recently we have even seen reports out of Australia that they are going to deal directly with China in their own currency. So this drop in demand for dollars when the Fed is creating one trillion new dollars every year means the exchange value of the US dollar is untenable. The first move out of the dollar is in to gold. In fact this has been going on since the beginning of the 21st century. But the Fed doesn’t want that because if the price of gold rises too rapidly in terms of dollars it scares everyone. Also, if you had a sharp movement out of dollars you would in fact see a sharp fall in the exchange value. At that point the Fed has lost control and the whole scheme blows up. So that is what the situation is. They are desperate. They are having to drive down the obvious alternative to the dollar, which is gold, in order to affect the psychology of people throughout the world. But China sits on the largest collection of dollars in the world and they have to be worried about it. In fact they have been lecturing us for years about our irresponsible monetary and financial policies. So they will be very glad to get out. Now I don’t think this attack on gold on the part of the Fed can last much longer because the Indians will buy gold here as well. The BRICS will also use this opportunity to get rid of dollars. But what this is designed to do is break up the sentiment among Americans and gold bugs. It scares them. It is designed to stop the flow of money from ordinary citizens into gold. The Fed is also hoping the offsetting run of the central banks buying gold won’t be enough, at least any time soon, to push the price of gold back above where the Fed has capped it. The Fed has been at this for a long time. First they capped the gold price (at around $1,900), and then they drove it below $1,750. Gold would come back to and even above the $1,750 level and the Fed would drive it back down. But now they have it even lower. I think the last couple of days there has been an amazing amount of selling on the part of the Fed. It’s paper shorts, not actual people selling bullion. But they are trying to bust up the momentum in gold so they can hold on to their low interest rates, high bond prices, and continue printing money. You see if the Fed can’t print money they can’t finance the federal budget deficit. Printing money is also how the Fed buys the bonds to drive up the derivative debt-related instruments on the banks’ books. It makes the banks look solvent. If the Fed can’t print money they can’t buy the bonds to keep the banks solvent and buy the bonds to keep the Treasury operating. The rising gold price is a threat to that. So the Fed is taking desperate action against gold. I agree with you that this will be temporary. I don’t know how long this will last, how long they can get away with it, but certainly not for very long.”