michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Sept 6, 2008 6:54:16 GMT 4
The Rich Man's Michael Moore February 23, 2008 Jamie Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, used to be an accepted member of the New York elite, with a trust fund, a top education and loads of old-money friends. Now, thanks to his film career, he's not as welcome. "I'll walk into a social event where there are a number of people who I grew up with and they'll treat me apprehensively," says Mr. Johnson, 28. His relationship with his family, especially his father, has also cooled. "There was a sense that 'If you go too far with these [films], you won't be welcome in your own home,'" he says. Mr. Johnson is getting used to being an outcast among the upper class. After the 2003 release of his first film, "Born Rich," which looked at the lives of the silver-spoon set, and now his second, "The One Percent," which focuses on the American wealth gap, Mr. Johnson has become the rich man's Michael Moore -- a trust-fund populist who's not afraid to attack the wealthy and powerful. While his wealth has helped him gain access to the people he's filming, it's also carried personal costs. He has learned the hard way that the biggest betrayal for the rich is to talk publicly about their riches. "I think most wealthy people want to live with this myth of equal opportunity and equality in this country," he says. "I don't think they want to question their right to this wealth." With "The One Percent," Mr. Johnson wanted to show ... that today's wealthy have become an increasingly isolated elite. He says rather than using their wealth for good, they have used it to restructure the economy, lower their taxes, cut social programs for the middle and lower classes, and amass ever more wealth. "We have an aristocracy in this country that has convinced everybody else that they don't exist," Mr. Johnson says.Entire Article Here: online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120371859381786725.html
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Sept 19, 2008 10:41:13 GMT 4
"Tantamount to Treason"; Bailout of Fannie and Freddie Wednesday, September 10, 2008 The following brief reports from Lyndon LaRouche and the EIR intelligence staff on the insane actions of US Treasury Secretary Paulson in committing the US government to bailing out trillions of dollars of useless speculative junk in the US banking system through the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will be compiled into an emergency pamphlet within the next 24 hours, for circulation worldwide. Without emergency action to repeal the Congressional authorization for this lunacy, the world financial system will not survive the coming months. Please circulate this report widely. Mike Billington"Tantamount to Treason"; Bailout of Fannie and FreddieSeptember 6, 2008 (LPAC)--The Bush Administration and the Federal Reserve are moving to put mortgage-lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under Federal control this weekend, in a move economist Lyndon LaRouche bluntly described as “tantamount to treason.” The government's claim that this is being done to protect housing is a fraud--this is bailout of the banking system, pure and simple. Fannie Mae was created by Franklin Roosevelt in 1938, as a government agency to buy mortgages from lenders, as a way of funding the purchase of homes in the Great Depression. In more recent years, Fannie Mae and its sibling Freddie Mac, were taken over by what FDR attacked as the “economic royalists” and turned into vehicles for derivatives speculation. Under the great Greenspan bubble, Fannie and Freddie were turned into money machines to feed the run-up in real estate values to provide assets--in the form of mortgage debt--as fuel to the derivatives markets. This scheme was bound to fail, as it spectacularly has, leaving Fannie and Freddie, and the U.S. banking system, bankrupt. However, Fannie and Freddie are at the heart of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's insane scheme to bail out the banks by dumping all their bad mortgage paper into the two government-sponsored enterprises, effectively transferring the banks' losses to the government, and ultimately to the taxpayer. The government is not really bailing out Fannie and Freddie, but merely funding their conversion into the largest toxic waste dumps in history. Far from being saved, Fannie and Freddie are being destroyed. The government has already spent trillions of dollars in the attempt to save the banks, in schemes ranging from the economic stimulus program to the ongoing and accelerating loan programs to the banks from the Fed. None of this has worked, but rather than realize the folly of their ways, the idiots in Washington and Wall Street are cranking the spigots wide open. Some estimate that the bailout will cost $20-$30 billion, but these estimates are meaningless, since the government is effectively committing itself to an unlimited bailout. Essentially, the government is bailing out the debt by doubling it, creating a even bigger pile of debt that will have to be bailed out, doubling again in a geometric progression. Since there isn't enough money in the world to make this scheme work, it cannot succeed, and the attempt to do it will trigger a hyperinflationary explosion reminiscent of Weimar Germany, such that the very value of the dollar itself will vaporize. Not only is this scheme insane, LaRouche stressed, but it is “tantamount to treason” in that it puts an attempt to save the parasitic financial system ahead of the welfare of the nation and its people. What is required, instead, is the immediate passage of LaRouche's economic national-defense package, beginning with a hike in the U.S. discount interest rate to 4 percent to halt the outflow of capital from the country, followed by the enactment of the Homeowners and Bank Protection Act, to protect the population while we put the financial system through bankruptcy, and begin the process of rebuilding what these parasites have destroyed. This process will be financed through a two-tiered credit system, in which government credit is issued at low interest rates of 1-2 percent to fund specific classes of development projects, and other borrowing occurs at the higher-tier rate. Having taken these steps, we could then work with other nations, notably Russia, China, India, Brazil and others, to implement such a system worldwide, defeating the Anglo-Dutch Liberal system parasites, and leading the world into a new era of freedom and prosperity. We cannot bail out the dead system, and we should not try. What we must do instead, is build our way out of this mess by returning to the principles of the American System. To do otherwise is not only insane, it is fatal. LaRouche Demands Immediate Repeal Of Dodd-Frank September 8, 2008 (LPAC)--Lyndon LaRouche today responded to the Hank Paulson illegal trillion-dollar taxpayers' bailout of the speculators holding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac paper, by demanding the immediate repeal of the Dodd-Frank bill, which gave the Bush Administration ostensible Congressional approval to pull off this biggest swindle in Federal government history. ``This bill must be immediately ripped up,'' LaRouche demanded. ``It flagrantly violates the U.S. Federal Constitution, which specifically defines the general welfare as the law of the land. This bailout of speculators, at the expense of current and future taxpayers, is illegal. As I have warned for more than a year,'' LaRouche continued, ``this entire global dollar-based financial system is hopelessly bankrupt. The system cannot be saved. It entered its final collapse phase in July 2007, just as I identified at the time.'' LaRouche also warned that, ``once the American people figure out what Paulson, Dodd, Felix Rohatyn, `Bailout Barney' Frank and Pelosi have done, they will be out for blood. I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of any member of Congress who signed their name onto the Dodd-Frank bill, which had nothing to do with relief for homeowners facing foreclosure. It was all about the bailout that Paulson just announced. Nobody knows how big an illegal, unauthorized tax is going to be imposed on American families to bail out these swindlers and speculators, but I do know that it can very likely run into the tens of trillions of dollars.'' LaRouche concluded: ``I have spelled out the solution to this crisis, in my Homeowners and Bank Protection Act (HBPA) and my three-step solution. A Constitutionally viable solution is known, and available. Therefore, the authors of this swindle are not only violating the Constitution. They have committed an act that is tantamount to treason.'' Lyndon LaRouche will be delivering an international webcast, "Now, More Than Ever, The Big Four", on Oct. 1, 2008, at 1 PM EDT. It will be broadcast live at www.larouchepac.com. Now Comes The Chain-Reaction: Blowing Up The World by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. September 10, 2008 —————————————————————————————————— So far, the world's press had considered only some of the relatively less significant effects of what have become the treasonous implications of the actions of Senator Chris Dodd, Congressman Barney Frank, and Treasury Secretary Paulson. Now, those in the British Empire who may have been gloating, momentarily, should also recognize that the U.S. bomb over which they have gloated, was the bomb on which they have been already sitting at that time. —————————————————————————————————— Senator Chris Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank showed nothing as much as both stupidity and cupidity in setting up the situation for the implicitly treasonous implications of Secretary Paulson's blowing out the U.S. dollar on the eve of the Autumn Presidential election-campaign. The dollar which Secretary Paulson has just blown up, by detonating the explosive charge created by Felix Rohatyn dupe Dodd's initiative, is also that U.S. dollar on which the present world market depends absolutely, still today. One needs only to consider what only a damned fool would overlook, as the exemplary case of China's relationship to the valuation of the dollar, to see that connection. China's economy depends, both financially and materially, on the valuation of the U.S. dollar. That is typical of the effects of so-called "globalization" and the WTO lunacy on the world as a whole. So, much of the rest of the world, such as Germany and other nations of western and central Europe, for example, depend, directly or indirectly, upon the condition of the physical economy of China. The entire system of so-called "globalization," has been a financial-economic time-bomb, which Secretary Paulson has just detonated. The many of you out there who had thought I was either unfair, or exaggerating about the Baby-Boomer problem, had better rethink their opinions, if they expect to continue to be viewed kindly among those who they had hoped to consider as being their friends and neighbors. To say that typical products of the systemic political impact of the Baby-Boomer era, Dodd, Barney Frank, Paulson, and President George W. Bush, Jr., are public menaces, is to give them, and most of the complicit Baby Boomers and Buppies generally, a monstrously large benefit of the doubt. To you, the dim-wits who authored this national tragedy, I say, "You could not have pulled off anything as wildly stupid and corrupt as you have done, while my generation was still dominating the leading positions in our government. Turn government over to the next generation coming up now, while popular opinion of the coming weeks might still regard you merely as fools, rather than as treasonous monsters." A little more than a year ago, in my July 25, 2007 international webcast, I had warned that the present world system had entered a phase-shift into an implicitly hyperinflationary breakdown-crisis. On that occasion, I had proposed a measure, the Homeowners and Bankers Protection Act of 2007, which would have been the first step to bringing the presently skyrocketing world-crisis under control. Shortly after that, I presented two additional measures of reform of both the Federal Reserve System and international treaty-arrangements for a New Bretton Woods system. Through those three measures, we could have brought the present crisis under control. Many of you supported some important parts of my proposals, but through the actions of such people as Senator Christopher Dodd, a publicly avowed dupe of financial predator Felix Rohatyn, who acted in concert with frankly silly Congressman Barney Frank, the way was cleared for a frankly unconstitutional, virtually treasonous piece of Federal legislation which has now been used by Secretary Paulson and a lame-brained President George W. Bush, Jr., to blow out both the U.S. dollar and also, in effect, to detonate that bomb which is the entire world's present monetary-financial system, into something worse than the kind of hyperinflationary breakdown-crisis which hit 1923 Weimar Germany, into a breakdown-crisis comparable to that which plunged Fourteenth-Century Europe into a prolonged, genocidal "new dark age." Many citizens, including elected officials, on the level of state and local government, supported my proposed emergency action on the housing and banking crisis. Therefore, if those among you on the Federal level, who acted to sabotage my proposed emergency actions, such as Dodd and Frank, among others, must now repudiate your actions in sabotaging my proposals. Otherwise, if you are moral individuals, you will resign your present offices. We must also take note of the fact, that both Senators Barack Obama and John McCain have reacting as consenting adults to the national perversions launched by Christopher Dodd, Barney Frank, Secretary Paulson, and President George W. Bush, Jr. Clearly, as an immediate first step, some of those named persons should begin the chain-reaction of simply resigning (ritual suicide is not recommended). The editors of the shameful New York Times, by the way, should also utter their own mea culpas (on the way out of their present positions) for their part in the related virtual crimes against humanity which they have perpetrated in their shameless corruption of attempting, fraudulently, to bully Rep. Charles Rangel, the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, into caving in to what is in fact the treasonous actions of Dodd. Frank, Paulson, Bush, et al. Senators Obama and McCain, should reconsider their toleration of an implicitly treasonous action, or prepare to enjoy the rising public wrath of those who come to recognize the nature of the swindle, against them, which you have condoned. Obama, by the way, is likely to suffer much more than McCain, from associating himself with the actions of Dodd, Frank, Paulson, and Bush. (Senator Obama need merely address relevant experts who can explain this to him, blow by blow.) Meanwhile, those who care will join me in the urgently needed actions to save civilization from the monstrous, virtually treasonous action which Dodd, Frank, Paulson, President Bush, and others have perpetrated in promoting this betrayal of our republic to a foreign financier power, the enemy of, in fact, all present and future humanity. To ordinary concerned citizens who have just been looted beyond belief by the swindlers I have pointed out here, I say: "You know whose doorbell to ring on this matter." LPAC Fact Sheet: Who Sold You Out?09 Sep 2008 Hank Paulson's Trillion Dollar Taxpayer Bailout of Speculators 1. What Is It? What Hank Paulson announced over the weekend is an unlimited, Federal Treasury, taxpayer-funded credit line, to guarantee banks and financial funds all over the world 100% of the value of their mortgage-backed securities. It is a Federal bailout promise which will completely dwarf the $30 billion Federal Reserve bailout of the mortgage-backed securities of Bear Stearns in May. It will steal from American citizens and taxpayers on a scale they have never seen before, to the benefit of financial firms. This makes the bailout unconstitutional, a direct violation of the leading "General Welfare" clause of the U.S. Constitution. This taxpayer bailout of banks and hedge funds, is called by Paulson's Treasury the "Secured Credit Lending Facility." It has been publicly presented as a takeover and rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the huge government-sponsored mortgage companies. But the bailout credit will pass through Fannie and Freddie to the holders of the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) they've issued--that is, to international banks, investment banks, hedge funds, foreign central banks, etc. A clear tipoff that this bailout is not actually a rescue of Fannie and Freddie? The Treasury's "Secured Credit Lending Facility" will also go through the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. Nobody's claiming the Home Loan Banks are being "rescued"; but they've been doling out big loans to bail out bankrupt subprime mortgage lenders like Countrywide Financial. 2. How Big Is It? "Unlimited"--the Treasury Department insisted on that. The only limitation on the size of this bailout, temporarily, is the U.S. Federal debt ceiling. And at the Treasury's frantic demand in July, the Congress raised the Federal debt ceiling, for this purpose, from $9.6 trillion to $10.4 trillion. So this bailout could rapidly use $800 billion of Federal borrowing, raising Treasury interest rates (it's already doing that) and piling on you, the taxpayer, another $40-60 billion a year in Federal debt interest charges. To give one indication of how big it could get, a memo has been recently circulating among economists at the Federal Reserve, according to one source, that warns that the Federal debt could reach $23 trillion by mid-2010, if the unchecked bailout goes forward. That is one warning of how big it could get, but no one can actually place a limit on how big this bailout could be. There are $7 trillion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) held by banks, hedge funds, "investors," etc. They are the means by which these investors bought collection rights on risky mortgage by the millions. They could and should be frozen and written off for the duration of the financial crisis; instead, Paulson's Treasury is guaranteeing them at 100% face value. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, between them, issued about $2 trillion of these, and bought another $1 trillion from other financial firms. 3. Who Authorized This Bailout? The answer is The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, or HR 3221, passed into law in July, and known as the Dodd-Frank bill--for Rep. "Bailout Barney" Frank of Massachusetts, and Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, who was the chosen Presidential candidate of fascist New York banker Felix Rohatyn. The bill was a Federal bailout of mortgage lenders to begin with. But in July, just before Congress was going to pass it, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson insisted that the Congress add to this bill, the `unlimited' authority to bail out Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's mortgage-backed securities. Hank Paulson "delivered" the end of President Bush's threat to veto the Dodd-Frank bill, in exchange for adding this unlimited bailout. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 doesn't even go into effect until October 1; but this part went into effect immediately when the bill was signed into law in July. Here are the primary sponsors: * Rep. "Bailout Barney" Frank (D-MA) * Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House--her economic policies are set by Felix Rohatyn, fascist New York banker, speculator and drug legalizer George Soros, and Al Gore. * Rep. Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader * Rep. Rahm Emanuel, (D-Ill.) * Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT)--head of the Banking Committee, "Senator from Wall Street," his Presidential campaign was pushed by Felix Rohatyn, fascist New York banker. * Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) also participated, along with * Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) 4. Who Designed and Backed This Bailout? The idea for the Dodd-Frank bill was put in circulation by British-linked anti-FDR economists at the New York Council on Foreign Relations: "world currency" promoter Ben Steil, neo-Conservative Amity Schlaes, former Federal Reserve governor Thomas DeLilio. The bill was specifically designed by Wall Street and London financiers--by Credit Suisse Bank in particular--working with the staffs of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, and with Paulson's Treasury. It was also pushed by Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd--he lost his job in the big bailout push this weekend, but will probably leave with a very "golden parachute." The direct bailout of mortgage-backed securities by the Federal government was also pushed by Morgan Stanley investment bank, and it's CEO John Mack. Morgan Stanley became the Treasury Department's adviser in the bailout. And it was pushed on the Congress by chief economist Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com, run by Moody's Investors Service--the rating agency which helped trigger the mortgage bubble blowout by over-rating many billions in mortgage-backed securities. Paulson's Sept. 7 bailout announcement was backed completely by Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain. Obama probably didn't know when he voted for the Dodd-Frank bill in July, that it would lead to an `unlimited' bailout--now he does, and he says, "It had to be done." McCain wasn't present in the Senate when the Dodd-Frank bill was voted. Now he says of Paulson's mega-bailout, "It had to be done." Source: rolandsanjuan.blogspot.com/2008/09/tantamount-to-treason-bailout-of-fannie.html
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Sept 21, 2008 17:35:40 GMT 4
The global melt-down is here We didn't start the fire!
Barely two weeks after the bailout of Bear Stearns Co. by the Federal Reserve, the second-largest bank failure in US history became public as federal regulators seized IndyMac Bancorp Inc. following a run by depositors. Then, astonished investors looked on while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell into financial insolvency, were taken over by the United States government which doubled the US national debt, guaranteeing the eventual financial burn out of the US government. Merrill Lynch just plummeted into financial disaster and was rescued by Bank of America. Washington Mutual Bank is also ready for sale due to lots of 'Liar's Loans.' There's the emergency bailout of American International Group, Inc. [AIG] by the United States Government and the Federal Reserve. Wachovia is reportedly about to plummet as well or merge with Morgan Stanley. One can only think that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the only major independent broker-dealers left standing, will sink too.
There's talk that Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest independent U.S. securities firm, may sell a larger stake to China Investment Corp. But funny things are happening in China:Three Trillion Dollars Evaporate From China’s Stock Market Close to half of surveyed investors suffered a 70 percent lossEpoch Times Staff Sep 18, 2008 en.epochtimes.com/n2/china/dollars-evaporate-china-stock-market-4461.htmlChina’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has lost two thirds of its value from the market’s peak of 6,124 last October. The combined loss of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets has reached 21 trillion yuan (approx. US$3 trillion). Shanghai Security News teamed up with stockstar.com to conduct an online survey, the result showed that 48 percent of investors suffered more than a 70 percent loss. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed at 2,017 on November 20, 2006. Since then China’s stock market continued to shoot up, and the stock index tripled within one short year. By October 16, 2007, the Shanghai A-Share Index hit its peak at 6,124. During that period, tens of millions of ordinary Chinese resolutely invested all of their life savings in the stock market, hoping to get a piece of the pie while the stock market rally continued.
The stock market, however has continued to decline ever since, dropping over two thirds of its previous value. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index sank another 2.9 percent to 1,929 on September 17, after a 5 percent drop the day before. The combined market value of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges dropped to 12.64 trillion yuan (approx. US$439 million), suffering a loss of 352 billion yuan (approx. US$51.5 billion) from the previous close. Compared to the combined market value at its peak of 33.62 trillion yuan (approx. US$4.92 trillion), the stock market shrank by 21 trillion yuan (approx. US$3 trillion), suffering a 62.4 percent drop. Over 5,000 investors participated in this online survey. The result showed that only 23 percent were able to exit the stock market, 11 percent had a low percentage (below 50 percent) of their stock left, 20 percent still had a high percentage (over 50 percent) of stock in hand, and as many as 45 percent held all stock they purchased on hand. Some analysts pointed out that China’s market is now in an unprecedented bear market which has caused greater damage to investors than never before. The survey showed that during this round of the crash, only 21 percent of investors suffered a loss below 50 percent, and 48 percent of investors suffered a loss of greater than 70 percent.Among those who took the survey, 47 percent thought that the index will drop to 1,500; 32 percent thought that it will drop to below 1,000, and only 21 percent thought that it will stop falling after it reaches 2,000. Original article in Chinese:http://epochtimes.com/gb/8/9/18/n2266957.htm Last Updated Sep 19, 2008 As many Americans are practically in a financial panic, they look to the the FDIC save them....It is foolish to believe the FDIC can save your money; there's no possible way it can cover the cascade of financial failures ricocheting through Wall Street right now. When the Federal Reserve creates money out of thin air and use it to bail out financial institutions strapped American workers foot the bill through skyrocketing inflation. The US is bankrupt; the FDIC is bankrupt. Foreign central banks will not keep buying worthless U.S. debt; they won't, they can't. On Sept. 20, the WSJ quoted Alex J. Pollock of the American Enterprise Institute: "If you would like an empirical law of government behavior, it is that in a panic or threatened financial collapse, governments intervene -- every government, every party, every country, every time." And remember what was stated in the previous post here:One needs only to consider what only a damned fool would overlook, as the exemplary case of China's relationship to the valuation of the dollar, to see that connection. China's economy depends, both financially and materially, on the valuation of the U.S. dollar. That is typical of the effects of so-called "globalization" and the WTO lunacy on the world as a whole. So, much of the rest of the world, such as Germany and other nations of western and central Europe, for example, depend, directly or indirectly, upon the condition of the physical economy of China. The entire system of so-called "globalization," has been a financial-economic time-bomb, which Secretary Paulson has just detonated.That puts the article about 3 trillion disappearing from China's stock market in perspective, doesn't it? And there's these announcements from other countries:Russia Gives Banks Cash, Halts Stock Trading to Head Off Crisis By Alex Nicholson and William Mauldin www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=apkUIIiQMF9s&refer=homeSept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Russia halted stock trading for a second day, poured $44 billion into its three largest banks and relaxed restrictions on lenders to stem the worst financial crisis since the nation defaulted a decade ago. The central bank slashed reserve requirements for banks, freeing up as much as $12 billion, and the Finance Ministry allowed OAO Sberbank, VTB Group and OAO Gazprombank to borrow the $44 billion for three months. The benchmark Micex index plunged as much as 10 percent, bringing its three-day decline to 25 percent. Russia's markets are facing the biggest test since the government defaulted on domestic debt in 1998. The decade-long economic boom is fading, foreign investors have pulled at least $35 billion from the nation's stocks and bonds since the five-day war in Georgia last month, and the collapse this week of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and American International Group Inc. prompted a flight from emerging markets. ``I will tell my clients today to continue to abstain from buying Russian assets'' until economic problems are solved, said Zina Psiola, who manages a $1 billion Russian equities fund at Clariden Leu AG in Zurich. The cost of lending has soared to a record, with the MosPrime overnight rate reaching 11.1 percent today, deterring speculative bets in equities. Russian stocks have lost more than $425 billion in value since reaching an all-time high May 17. The Moscow-based brokerage KIT Finance said it's in talks with investors to sell a stake after failing to meet some financial obligations related to repurchase agreements. `Heightened Risk' ``Heightened counterparty risk means that the only place to raise cash is the equity market,'' said Julian Rimmer, head of sales trading at UralSib Financial Corp. in London. ``Every time the market opens we have selling to meet margin calls, which triggers stop-losses, more margin calls and redemptions.'' The cost of protecting bonds sold by Sberbank from default jumped 60 basis points to 3.55 percentage points, according to CMA Datavision prices at 3 p.m. in London. Credit-default swaps on OAO Gazprom, the gas export monopoly, fell 38 basis points to 421. Contracts on VTB Group declined 35 basis points from an all-time high to 6.53 percentage points, according to CMA. Credit-default swaps, contracts conceived to protect bondholders against default, pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a company fail to adhere to its debt agreements. A rise indicates deterioration in the perception of credit quality. A basis point on a credit-default swap contract protecting $10 million of debt from default for five years is equivalent to $1,000 a year. `Necessary Measures' President Dmitry Medvedev met Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today to discuss developments surrounding the economy. ``The situation is being followed very closely,'' Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in a phone interview. ``Necessary measures are being taken.'' Central Bank Chairman Sergey Ignatiev said the cutting of banks' reserve requirements by 4 percentage points will free up about 300 billion rubles. The rate for individual liabilities will fall to 1.5 percent, the rate for foreign bank liabilities will fall to 4.5 percent and the requirement for other liabilities will decrease to 2 percent. ``This is a bigger cut than we expected,'' Natalia Orlova, chief economist at Alfa Bank in Moscow, said by telephone. ``This is very good news.'' Ignatiev said the central bank will keep the ruble stable and he has ``no doubt'' stocks will rebound. He forecast inflation may accelerate to about 12 percent this year because of the extra cash in the system before slowing to between 7 percent and 8.5 percent next year. Economic Woes The ruble has lost 4.8 percent against the dollar since Aug. 8, when Russia sent troops and warplanes into Georgia for a military campaign that led to the worst relations with NATO since the Cold War. Investors have pulled at least $35 billion out of the country since the war, according to BNP Paribas SA estimates. Oil production, the government's biggest source of revenue, and accelerating inflation are adding to concerns. Crude output is falling for the first time since 1998 and the inflation rate advanced more than expected in August to 15 percent. Industrial output grew more slowly than economists expected in August and economic growth in the second quarter slowed to an annual 7.5 percent from 8.5 percent in the previous period. Still, unlike 1998, Russia is ``pretty well prepared'' to weather the turmoil, the World Bank's chief representative in Russia, Klaus Rohland, said today. The economy has grown every year for a decade and its international reserves have surged in the period by almost 50 times to $574 billion. Banking Investors International banks have entered the Russian market in recent years. Societe Generale, France's second-largest bank, owns OAO Rosbank, a top 10 retail bank. Commerzbank AG, Germany's second- biggest lender by assets, owns a 15 percent stake in Promsvyazbank and Unicredit SpA, Europe's fourth-biggest bank, recently purchased Moscow International Bank. Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG is the largest foreign bank by assets in Russia. The Finance Ministry yesterday added $20 billion to the interbank lending market. Sberbank, VTB and Gazprombank ``are market-making banks capable of insuring the liquidity of the banking system,'' the ministry said in a statement today. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said the measures should ``smooth over the shock changes'' in the markets. ``With foreign borrowing stopping, we must soften the impact with additional funds,'' he said on state television. The ruble-denominated Micex Stock Exchange suspended trading indefinitely at 12:10 p.m. after its index plunged as much as 10 percent within an hour. The benchmark fell 17 percent yesterday, the biggest decline of the 88 indexes tracked by Bloomberg. The dollar-denominated RTS halted trading after similar declines. ``The primary objective of these measures is to inject liquidity to calm nervousness,'' Alexander Morozov, chief economist at HSBC Bank in Moscow, said by telephone. To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Nicholson in Moscow at anicholson6@bloomberg.net Last Updated: September 17, 2008 12:03 EDT Lloyds TSB to Buy British Bank HBOS for $22.2 Billion (Update2) By Jon Menon and Ben Livesey www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aSBLbz9wTrQ4&refer=ukSept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Lloyds TSB Group Plc agreed to buy HBOS Plc for 12.2 billion pounds ($22.2 billion) after Britain's biggest mortgage lender lost half its market value in the past week and the government backed a deal. Lloyds TSB, the U.K.'s biggest provider of checking accounts, fell 3.5 percent today in London trading after saying it will pay 232 pence a share in stock for HBOS, 58 percent more than yesterday's closing price of 147.1. The combined bank will sell ``non-core'' assets, pay a second-half dividend in stock and reduce the payout ratio in 2009 to 40 percent of earnings, officials told reporters. Edinburgh-based HBOS lost almost half its market value this week on concerns about a shortage of funds to back its mortgages, leaving the company in the same predicament that led to the government-backed bailout of Northern Rock a year ago. Prime Minister Gordon Brown discussed the fate of HBOS with Lloyds TSB Chairman Victor Blank as recently as four days ago, according to a person familiar with the meeting. ``They are buying a bank at significantly below its tangible book value,'' said Simon Maughan, a London-based analyst at MF Global Securities Ltd. ``In the coming weeks it will prove to be a highly attractive deal.'' HBOS, which gets about half its funding from capital markets, has been under pressure since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed the biggest bankruptcy in history on Sept. 15 and New York-based insurer American International Group Inc. needed an $85 billion loan from the U.S. government to avoid failing. `Intervention Notice' Lloyds TSB fell 9.75 pence to 270 pence at 8:11 a.m. in London trading, valuing the company at 15.3 billion pounds. HBOS shares surged 30 percent to 190.5 pence, giving the company a market of 10.1 billion pounds. The government will ``issue an intervention notice in the proposed merger of HBOS and Lloyds TSB on public interest grounds to ensure the stability of the U.K. financial system,'' it said in a separate statement. Together, Lloyds TSB and HBOS will have a 28 percent share of Britain's mortgage market and a consumer banking network with more than 3,300 branches. Both companies earn more than 70 percent of their revenue from the U.K. Lloyds TSB Chief Executive Officer Eric Daniels will be head of the enlarged company, and the bank's Victor Blank will be chairman. The combined company will add 1 billion pounds in pretax earnings by 2011, the company said. `Shotgun Marriage' ``There should be no impression that this is a shotgun marriage,'' Daniels told reporters today. ``Very clearly we are concerned about funding and liquidity. Who wouldn't be. We'll be managing our balance sheet and liquidity with extreme care.'' The combined bank will be based in London and will cut an unspecified number of jobs as the company integrates administrative services and sells assets. ``This is the right transaction for HBOS and its shareholders,'' HBOS Chairman Dennis Stevenson said in the statement. ``Against the backdrop of the very high levels of volatility our industry is experiencing, the combined group will be one of the strongest players.'' Leading institutional shareholders in HBOS have threatened to oppose Lloyds TSB's bid for the lender, the Daily Telegraph reported today, without saying where it got the information. Richard Buxton, head of U.K. equities at Schroders Plc, said he was ``completely bemused why HBOS is entertaining this prospect,'' according to the Telegraph. Back to 1695 HBOS, which employs about 72,000 people in the U.K., was created in 2001 in the 9.7 billion-pound merger of Yorkshire-based mortgage lender Halifax Plc and Edinburgh-based Bank of Scotland, whose roots date back to 1695. Lloyds TSB employs about 58,000. Daniels said in July the bank will consider acquiring weakened lenders. It weighed a bid for Northern Rock 12 months ago, before the lender needed emergency funding from the Bank of England following the first run on a British bank in more than a century. ``The last thing they want is a Northern Rock re-run,'' said Julian Chillingworth, chief investment officer at Rathbone Brothers Plc, which owns shares of HBOS and Lloyds TSB, before the deal was announced. ``It is sad to see HBOS lose its independence in this way, but we needed a good market-driven solution,'' said Richard Lambert, director-general of the London-based Confederation of British Industry. ``Lloyds TSB is a strong, well-capitalized institution, and the new entity will be well placed to withstand the current turbulence.'' HBOS raised 4 billion pounds two months ago in a share sale to shore up capital depleted by asset writedowns and the worst U.K. housing market since the early 1990s. To contact the reporters on this story: Jon Menon in London at jmenon1@bloomberg.net; Ben Livesey in London at blivesey@bloomberg.net Last Updated: September 18, 2008 03:20 EDT So, it seems nobody in the global economy is able to bale the US out...or themselves. Once the other nations of the world stop lending money to the United States government, the whole system collapses. The FDIC bailed out the banks...the FED is bailing out the FDIC...Who's gonna bail out the Fed? Of course the US will walk away from their debt, leaving the lenders with the burden of all the losses. In this case, the lenders are the central banks of countries like China, Japan and the United Arab Emirates....Too bad for them, but we're all in this together. This is how crazy it is: Reserve Primary money market fund breaks a buck Updated 3d 20h ago By John Waggoner, USA TODAY www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/basics/2008-09-16-damage_N.htmIf you want to know how severe the financial industry crisis is, here's further proof: The share price of the Reserve Primary fund, a money market mutual fund, has fallen below the sacred $1 mark, thanks to the Lehman Bros. meltdown. Money market funds have been the fund industry's haven for more than three decades, and investors often view them the same way they do bank checking accounts. The funds' safety record has attracted more than $3.5 trillion in assets. Until now, no money fund open to the general public has ever allowed its share price to dip below a dollar — "breaking the buck," as it's called. (A small institutional money fund, Community Bankers Money fund, broke the buck in 1994.) Money market funds have long feared that if they broke the buck, thereby shrinking investors' principal, people would shift their money into bank money market accounts or ultrasafe Treasury securities. The question now is whether other money funds will follow the Reserve fund in dipping below $1. The $64.8 billion fund held $785 million in short-term IOUs, called commercial paper, issued by Lehman Bros., which filed for bankruptcy protection Monday. Investors Flood Out of Money Markets and Banks to T-BillsWednesday, September 17, 2008 12:23 PM By: Greg Brown moneynews.newsmax.com/headlines/money_market_t_bill/2008/09/17/131686.html?s=al&promo_code=6AAF-1As new evidence emerges that major money market funds have significant exposure to the collateralized debt obligation (CDO) crisis, worried investors are withdrawing billions from their banks and money market funds and pouring them into government-backed Treasury Bills, or T-Bills. As news spread today that the Reserve Primary Fund fell below $1 a share in net asset value because of its losses on debt issued by Lehman Brothers Holdings, cash depositors across the banking and investment sector have been flocking to safer havens. Early Wednesday, the rate on U.S. Treasurys had fallen to as low as 0.23 percent on three-month T-bills, the lowest since 1954, reports Bloomberg News. And 30 day T-bills on Wednesday dipped briefly to a zero percent return. Editor's Note: Monster Financial Disaster. We Warned You First! Read More Just over a week ago the 90-day T-bill rate stood at 1.71 percent. But huge demand is driving investors into the vehicle, even if the interest rate paid is close to nil. "The panic going round the money market world is what they've been investing in is not as safe as they thought it would be,'' Dominic Konstam, the head of interest-rate strategy in New York at Credit Suisse Securities, told Reuters. "If the banks don't want to lend to each other they don't want to lend to the banks. That means where else are they going to put their money — they're going to put it in T-bills for safety.'' As Moneynews.com reported more than a year ago, many major market funds are vulnerable to the CDO crisis and it would be doubtful they could hold their value at $1 per share. Though many money markets hold their $2.5 trillion under management in super-safe T-bills, a number of major funds had veered off into exotic, credit-backed securities. Bloomberg magazine first detailed an alarming number of big-name funds that had been investing in collateralized debt obligations backed by subprime mortgage loans. At the time, subprime had grown to represent $11 billion worth of supposedly safe money market funds. Bloomberg cited Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Fidelity, and Morgan Stanley among such funds, noting they had more than $6 billion worth of subprime debt as of June 2007. Now comes the news that Reserve Primary Fund, a money-market mutual fund in New York, has "broken the buck," falling to 97 cents a share Tuesday afternoon. The fund is reportedly making investors wait a week to take out money. Primary Fund assets have fallen to $23 billion, down from $65 billion just a few weeks ago, reports Reuters. Although the fund was not necessarily directly invested in CDOs, it held debts from Lehman Brothers Holdings, which went into bankruptcy due to subprime lending problems. Bruce Bent, the chairman and founder of Reserve Primary Fund and the "father" of the money market mutual fund industry, warned the wire service a year ago that too many funds were being managed like stock and bond funds, not as safe cash havens. "The people who have been managing many of these funds are not money fund managers, not cash managers," Bent said then. "They are asset managers of different classes of assets, and they have imposed the psychology of managing stocks and bonds on money funds, and they are wrong," Bent said. But Bent also claimed that his funds had not gone down that track and were immune to the credit crisis. Bent in 1970 created the first money market fund, The Reserve Fund. No money market fund should invest in subprime debt, he said a year ago. "It's inappropriate," he said. "It doesn't have a place in money market funds.” Now, Bent’s Reserve Primary Fund is the first domino to fall. And like I said whose going to buy up the US debt?:Bloomberg warns of possible 'next wave' crisisWednesday September 17, 7:53 pm ET By Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer Bloomberg says 'next wave' of financial crisis may be foreigners no longer buying US debtbiz.yahoo.com/ap/080917/economy_bloomberg.html?.v=3WASHINGTON (AP) -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned Wednesday a "next wave" of financial pain may come from overseas if foreign entities stop buying U.S. debt. The billionaire mayor spoke before an audience at Georgetown University, telling them it's not clear who is going to continue buying U.S. debt as financial firms try to cope with a crisis of confidence on Wall Street. The mayor is scheduled to meet Thursday morning with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Chris Cox. Before becoming mayor, Bloomberg made a fortune by launching a financial information company that bears his name, and he has more credibility than most politicians on economic matters. Bloomberg said he was concerned that the credit crisis in the United States may scare off foreign investors that, until now, have been willing to buy debt that the U.S. uses to maintain a deficit. "It's not clear who's going to be buying our debt," said Bloomberg. "It may very well be that the next wave is going to come back and bite us." The mayor, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned independent, regularly criticizes both parties, the Congress, and the White House for what he says is their lack of foresight. He said the current economic crisis is the latest example of the same problem. "We have on both sides of the aisle, on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, thrown caution to the wind. We pay lip service to responsibility," he said, as he sat onstage in an armchair, fielding questions from Georgetown President Jack DeGioia. Bloomberg had originally planned to give a speech about the economy, but amid the fast-moving events on Wall Street, he scrapped the speech and went with a question-and-answer session instead. "The systemic problem is we've all gotten into a situation where we want it now, there's no pain ... We keep saying we want to have it, we don't want to pay for it. You can't go on forever not addressing the key issues in this country," like health care and immigration, he said. Asked about government regulation of the U.S. economy, he said that while some complain it is excessive, the United States has a competitive advantage because in many other countries "you would think that most (corporate financial statements) are just made up." In fact, just last year the mayor and New York Senator Charles Schumer issued a lengthy report decrying what they saw as overreaching and overly demanding regulation of business. Back then, Bloomberg and Schumer wrote that enforcement of a 2002 law toughening business reporting requirements "produced far heavier costs than expected (and) has only aggravated the situation," putting the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage with other financial centers like London. Fast forward to 2008 -- and the meltdown of confidence in U.S. financial markets -- and Bloomberg had many nice things to say about regulation, including the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act that separated commercial and investment banking, and was scrapped in 1999. As the modern financial sector has struggled, many Wall Street watchers have suggested resuscitating the old law. Bloomberg did, though, continue to argue for a reordering of the current regulatory thicket. "The real world has changed," he said, and old government agencies no longer are equipped to monitor companies that offer a combination of services, like insurance and investments and banking. "All of these industries, the participants all do the same thing so there's a mishmash and there's too many places for things to slip through the cracks. I don't know that the regulators are asleep at the switch. The structure is not suitable for the real world." Speaking of "companies that offer a combination of services, like insurance and investments and banking," and "and old government agencies no longer are equipped to monitor companies," we didn't even know who AIG was until now...I don't feel so hot about this deal; do you?:Will AIG plan cost taxpayers money, or just sleep?By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Business Writer Wed Sep 17, 7:17 PM ET news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_bi_ge/aigWASHINGTON - American taxpayers awoke Wednesday to learn they may end up owning one of the world's largest insurers. They might now lose some sleep wondering whether the government's $85 billion loan to American International Group Inc. was a wise investment. If the gamble succeeds, the company nurses itself back to health, unhinged financial markets calm down and taxpayers turn a profit. If it fails, the American public feels the hit — and possibly finds itself rescuing other major financial institutions, swelling the deficit and potentially driving up interest rates on mortgages, student loans and other debt. Analysts said Wednesday the odds are pretty high that the rescue will be a good investment for taxpayers, with AIG paying off the loan at a relatively high interest rate and the government potentially making money off its nearly 80 percent equity stake in the company. In 1979, the U.S. guaranteed $1.2 billion worth of loans to the struggling automaker Chrysler. When the company rebounded four years later, the government reaped more than $300 million in profits. While relatively unknown on Main Street before Wednesday, AIG is a colossus on Wall Street and financial districts around the globe, with operations in more than 130 countries and $1 trillion in assets on its balance sheet. Besides life, property and other insurance offerings, AIG provides asset-management services and airplane leases. Its myriad businesses are also linked to mutual funds, annuities and other retirement products held by millions of ordinary Americans. But perhaps the biggest concern about AIG is the dizzying array of complex financial instruments it structured for commercial banks, investment banks and hedge funds around the globe — many of which were directly or indirectly linked to the value of U.S. mortgages.
"AIG is in this mess because they got leveraged up to their eye balls," said Professor John Coffee of Columbia University Law School.AIG is required to post capital as collateral to back the securities and derivatives it issues, and those requirements increase if its credit rating is downgraded, as happened on Monday night. AIG "essentially became the insurer of the financial industry," said Barry Ritholtz, chief executive of FusionIQ, a research firm. "As we've seen, that turned out to be not such a great trade." The company's staggering reach, combined with the speed with which it faltered, is what forced the government to intervene after private rescue attempts fell apart and pushed the company to the edge of bankruptcy. "A failure was seen as having catastrophic implications. It met the threshold of too big and too intertwined to fail," said former Federal Reserve economist Brian Sack now at Macroeconomic Advisers. Over the weekend, the government refused to pony up taxpayer money to rescue troubled investment bank Lehman Brothers. That was seen as drawing a line in the sand after the Fed financially backed JPMorgan's takeover of Bear Stearns and then the Bush administration seized control of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But that turned out to be wrong. The government agreed to loan up to $85 billion to AIG over two years in exchange for the right to buy 79.9 percent of the company. The hope is that the money will give the company enough time to reorganize and sell assets to repay the loan. The interest rate the government is charging AIG for the loan is high — 11.5 percent. Because the government can borrow money right now at around 3.4 percent, taxpayers stand to make a handsome profit if all goes well. The government is first in line to be paid back on the loan, which is backed by the assets of the entire company. Key to the U.S. being repaid for its loan is whether AIG can sell its assets, how quickly and for what price. For the company, that might mean putting some of its profitable, noncore assets, such as its aircraft leasing business, on the block. AIG's breakup value could top $150 billion, according to a preliminary estimate from FBR Capital Markets. "The odds are pretty high that it will end up being a good investment for taxpayers," said Mark Klock, finance professor at George Washington University. "I think that AIG will be able to dispose of assets in an orderly fashion in the next year or so and the government will actually get back the money lent out — and more — in interest," he said. It will be up to AIG to decide which assets to sell and the timing, which some analysts said should be done quickly because the publicized difficulties at the company could begin to turn customers away. The government does, however, have veto power. One unit that analysts said will likely be sold is the International Lease Finance Corp., which leases out more than 900 aircraft with asset values topping $44 billion at the end of the second quarter. This division has been a moneymaker for AIG, tallying $873 million in operating income in 2007 and $555 million in the first half of this year, according to securities filings. Another possibility for sale is AIG's foreign life insurance business, with profits of $1.5 billion in the first half of this year on top of earnings of $6.19 billion in 2007. Gary Ransom, an analyst with Fox-Pitt Kelton, pegged the value of that business at as much as $50 billion. But Ransom also noted the foreign life insurance business is also probably the hardest to sell because it includes many different divisions operating across many countries. "I would say everything is on the table," Ransom said. "At this point, the goal isn't to keep AIG as the owner of businesses." If AIG is keeping some operations, the commercial lines and property and casualty operations are possibilities because they are among the divisions that are most closely associated with the company. "They would love to sell off the bad stuff, but the only option they have is to sell off the good stuff," said Kent Smetters, an associate professor insurance and risk management at the Wharton School of Business. The government is betting that two years will give AIG enough time to find buyers for its assets at good prices, avoiding a fire sale if it were forced to unload them quickly. But it is far from a sure thing. "Two years may seem like a long time, but it doesn't give AIG all that long to resolve its problems. Some issues can't be put back into Pandora's box," said Kathleen Shanley, an analyst at the corporate bond research firm Gimme Credit. AP Business Writers Christoper S. Rugaber in Washington, Stephen Bernard and Rachel Beck in New York and Ieva M. Augstums in Charlotte, N.C., contributed to this report.I don't know what else to tell you, folks. There's plenty of people out there with advice on how to make money while the banks are crash...Me, I've been livin' on nothin' for so long, ask me if I care. Besides, what if the global money system implodes...the people who run it have been the source of most of humanity's suffering almost forever. If, however, you feel you must do something other than watch it happen, We the People Foundation filed a lawsuit to stop federal government from using taxpayers' money to bail out AIG, a private insurance company. Good luck to them and you too if you want to sign their petition:September 18, 2008 WTP Brings Federal Lawsuit to Stop AIG Bailout
U.S. Lacks Constitutional Authority for LoanOn the day following the 221st anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, WTP Chairman and constitutional activist Robert Schulz today filed a federal lawsuit in United States District Court in Albany seeking to halt the execution of the emergency bailout of American International Group, Inc. (AIG) by the United States Government and the Federal Reserve. The lawsuit asserts that the commitment of public funds and credit for the direct benefit of privately owned AIG is an ultra vires action by the United States Government and Federal Reserve, i.e., beyond the limited legal authority granted by the Constitution. The lawsuit asks for a "show cause" hearing demanding that the Government produce evidence of its legal authority to commit public funds for such a purpose, as well as emergency and permanent injunctions halting the bailout transaction. Beyond the Constitutional deficiencies, the bailout establishes a dangerous precedent enabling the Fed and/or Government to nationalize virtually any business or property within the United States without legal authority or congressional approval. The defendants include the Federal Reserve System, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanki, the U.S. Treasury, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson Jr. and the United States Government. The WTP Foundation today issued a press release citing Schulz: "Beyond the moral hazard and dangerous precedent established by this action, it is of vital importance that the American people recognize that the present financial crisis is a direct and predictable result of decades of constitutional violations by the Federal Government. Through a long-standing policy of disinformation and collusion with the Federal Reserve and Wall Street financial elite, the United States Federal Government has denied public access to information about the secretive operations of the privately owned and operated Federal Reserve and its monopoly control of America’s money system. "This monopoly control of our currency by a private banking cartel has resulted in increasing distortion, volatility and cyclical (boom and bust) economic conditions in the U.S. and abroad. America’s fiat currency (produced from thin air) is manipulated by the Federal Reserve for the benefit of its owners, major Wall Street financial institutions and the Federal Government and is not unaccountable to the taxpayers. These abuses of the Constitution have taken our financial system to edge of the abyss. The chickens have come home to roost." Click here to read the Complaint, the Memorandum of Law supporting the TRO, and Schulz's Declaration which includes several recent articles from the New York Times. Revolution Resources: Please go to www.GiveMeLiberty.org/revolution to: Join the WTP Congress -- Support us for just $7 / month! Read & Sign the Petitions for Redress of Grievances Click here for the YouTube video about the Right to Petition: PART 1 and PART 2 Go to: www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/Update/Update2008-09-18.htmFolks, this is history in the making. In the future, we'll all look back at this as the beginning of the end of world domination. As a Lightworker, I was told of this happening nearly two decades ago. I'll be putting up new info at my thread, Wake Up World, on how we Lightworkers are to ride this one out. If you're remotely interested, I will return with a link to that post here.
Yours in the Light, MichelleWe Didn't Start The FireArtist: Billy Joel Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe
Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye"
Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye
CHORUS We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire Though we did ignite it But we tried to fight it
Josef Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez
We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire Though we did ignite it But we tried to fight it
Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California Baseball, Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide
Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo
We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire Though we did ignite it But we tried to fight it
Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land, Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say
We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire Though we did ignite it But we tried to fight it
Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan
Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore
We didn't start the fire It was always burning since the world's been turning. We didn't start the fire But when we are gone It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on...
We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire Though we did ignite it But we tried to fight it
We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire Though we did ignite but But we tried to fight it
We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire...UPDATE: Here's the link to today's Wake Up World post that I mentioned:Re: WAKE UP WORLD « Reply #144 Today at 10:20pm » [glow=red,2,300]The Economy is Engulfed in Flames![/glow] Another Transitional Stage for Planet Earth, Putting Out Your Own Fear Fire airdance.proboards50.com/index.cgi?board=solutions&action=display&thread=138&page=10#3120
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Sept 22, 2008 7:14:39 GMT 4
More on yesterday's post and white men who speak with forked tongues: " Bush administration seeks 'dictatorial power unreviewable by the third branch of government, the courts' "....and U.S. Treasury to Bail Out Foreign Banks!!!Treasury Seeks Authority to Buy $700 Billion Assets (Update1) By Alison Fitzgerald and John Brinsley Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration asked Congress for unchecked power to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from U.S. financial companies in what would be an unprecedented government intrusion into the markets. The plan, designed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, is aimed at averting a credit freeze that would bring the financial system and economic growth to a standstill. The bill would bar courts from reviewing actions taken under its authority. ``It sounds like Paulson is asking to be a financial dictator, for a limited period of time,'' said historian John Steele Gordon, author of ``Hamilton's Blessing,'' a chronicle of the national debt. ``This is a much-needed declaration of power for the Treasury secretary. We can't wait until the next administration in January.'' As congressional aides and officials scrutinized the proposal, the Treasury late today clarified the types of assets it would purchase. Paulson would have authority to buy home loans, mortgage-backed securities, commercial mortgage-related assets and, after consultation with the Federal Reserve chairman, ``other assets, as deemed necessary to effectively stabilize financial markets,'' the Treasury said in a statement. The Treasury would also have discretion, after discussions with the Fed, to make non-U.S. financial institutions eligible under the program. Bigger Than Pentagon The plan would raise the ceiling on the national debt and spend as much as the combined annual budgets of the Departments of Defense, Education and Health and Human Services. Paulson is asking for the power to hire asset managers and award contracts to private companies. Most provisions of the proposal expire after two years from the date of enactment. A failure by the government to support the U.S. financial system could lead to ``a depression,'' Senator Charles Schumer told reporters in New York. ``To do nothing is to risk the kind of economic downturn this country hasn't seen in 60 years.'' The Treasury is seeking authority to step in as buyer of last resort for mortgage-linked assets that few other financial institutions in the world want to buy, following government takeovers of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and insurer American International Group Inc. ``Democrats will work with the administration to ensure that our response to events in the financial markets is swift,'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. Fast Track The majority party will seek to reduce mortgage foreclosures and create ``fast-track authority'' for an overhaul of financial regulation, Pelosi said. Democrats will ensure ``the government is accountable to the taxpayers in any future actions under this broad grant of authority, implementing strong oversight mechanisms.'' The proposal will include curbs on executive pay for the companies whose assets the government will be buying, Steve Adamske, a spokesman for Representative Barney Frank, said today in an interview. Democrats also will include a plan to stem foreclosures, which may involve tapping the loan-modification abilities of the Federal Housing Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Adamske said. Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. ``The consequences of inaction could be catastrophic,'' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement. `Serious Issues' ``While the Bush proposal raises some serious issues, we need to resolve them quickly,'' he said. ``I am confident that, working together, we will.'' House minority leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said today he is reviewing the proposal but didn't say whether he was inclined to support it. ``The American people are furious that we're in this situation, and so am I,'' Boehner said in a statement. ``We need to do everything possible to protect the taxpayers from the consequences of a broken Washington.'' Congress, which may pass legislation as soon as Friday, needs to ``make sure there are protections built in for taxpayers,'' said Schumer, a New York Democrat on the banking committee. Lawmakers should ensure ``taxpayers who gave the money will be put ahead of the stockholders, bondholders and others.'' Paulson is seeking an expansion of federal influence over markets that hasn't been seen since the Great Depression, said Charles Geisst, author of ``100 Years of Wall Street'' and a finance professor at Manhattan College in New York. Hoover Era Geisst likened the plan to the Reconstruction Finance Corp., which was chartered by Herbert Hoover in 1932 with the goal of boosting economic activity by lending money after credit markets seized up. President George W. Bush said he called leaders in both houses of Congress and ``found a common understanding of how severe the problem is and how necessary it is to get something done quickly.'' ``This is going to be a big package because it's a big problem,'' Bush said following a meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at the White House. ``We need to get this done quickly, and the cleaner the better.'' Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said in a radio address that he ``fully supports'' Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's efforts to stabilize the financial system. The plan, however, should benefit both main street and Wall Street, he said. Republican Presidential nominee John McCain ``looks forward'' to reviewing the proposal while focusing at least in part on ``minimizing the burden on the taxpayer,'' said Jill Hazelbaker, communications director for the McCain campaign. Ban Legal Challenges The ban on legal challenges of actions by Treasury is ``distasteful, it's unfortunate and it's bad precedent, but this is an emergency and you have to act,'' said Jerry Markham, a law professor at Florida State University and author of ``A Financial History of the United States.'' ``What you don't want happen is to have lawsuits that will slow things down and cause problems,'' he said. The proposal would raise the nation's debt ceiling to $11.315 trillion from $10.615 trillion and require the Treasury secretary to report back to Congress three months after Treasury first uses its new powers, and then semiannually after that. Paulson would gain discretion to act as he ``deems necessary'' to hire people, enter into contracts and issue regulations related to a revival of U.S. mortgage finance, according to a three-page proposal. The Treasury would ``take into consideration'' protecting taxpayers and promoting market stability. Hiring Authority The Treasury plans to hire managers to purchase the assets through so-called reverse auctions, seeking the lowest prices, a person briefed on the proposal said yesterday. The document specifies that Treasury may buy only assets from U.S.-based financial institutions issued or originated on or before Sept. 17. The House will pass legislation to implement the plan by the end of next week, and the Senate will act soon after, Frank said yesterday in an interview on Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital with Al Hunt.'' Bush today said he's unconcerned that the price tag on the package may seem high. ``I'm sure there are some of my friends out there that are saying, I thought this guy was a market guy, what happened to him,'' the president said. ``My first instinct was to let the market work, until I realized, while being briefed by the experts, how significant this problem became.'' The Bush administration seeks ``dictatorial power unreviewable by the third branch of government, the courts, to try to resolve the crisis,'' said Frank Razzano, a former assistant chief trial attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission now at Pepper Hamilton LLP in Washington. ``We are taking a huge leap of faith.'' To contact the reporter on this story: Alison Fitzgerald in Washingtont ; John Brinsley in Washington at jbrinsley@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: September 20, 2008 21:14 EDT Source: www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1hr1v2FUeAg------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Exclusive: Foreign banks may get helpBy MIKE ALLEN | 9/21/08 7:24 AM EDT In a change from the original proposal sent to Capitol Hill, foreign-based banks with big U.S. operations could qualify for the Treasury Department’s mortgage bailout, according to the fine print of an administration statement Saturday night. The theory, according to a participant in the negotiations, is that if the goal is to solve a liquidity crisis, it makes no sense to exclude banks that do a lot of lending in the United States. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson confirmed the change on ABC's "This Week," telling George Stephanopoulos that coverage of foreign-based banks is "a distinction without a difference to the American people." "If a financial institution has business operations in the United States, hires people in the United States, if they are clogged with illiquid assets, they have the same impact on the American people as any other institution," Paulson said. "That's a distinction without a difference to the American people. The key here is protecting the system. ... We have a global financial system, and we are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world and encouraging them to do similar things, and I believe a number of them will. But, remember, this is about protecting the American people and protecting the taxpayers. and the American people don't care who owns the financial institution. If the financial institution in this country has problems, it'll have the same impact whether it's the U.S. or foreign." The legislative outline that went to Capitol Hill at 1:30 a.m. Saturday had said that an eligible financial institution had to have “its headquarters in the United States.” That would exclude foreign-based institutions with big U.S. operations, such as Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS.But a Treasury “Fact Sheet” released at 7:15 Saturday night sought to give the administration more flexibility, with an expanded definition that could include all of those banks: “Participating financial institutions must have significant operations in the U.S., unless the Secretary makes a determination, in consultation with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, that broader eligibility is necessary to effectively stabilize financial markets.”The major change in the suggested eligibility requirements is the biggest change that Treasury publicly made after a day of briefings and conversations with Capitol Hill, and is likely the first of many. Aspects of the $700 billion, two-year proposal that are still under negotiation include what, if anything, will be added to the administration’s simple but sweeping proposal. And the parliamentary route, such as what committees or hearings might be involved, has not been finalized. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has a hearing scheduled for Wednesday that is likely to focus on the proposal. Under what congressional officials called a likely scenario, the measure could go to the House floor on Thursday, with passage expected the same day. The Senate could take the package up as soon as Friday and send it to President Bush for his signature, although the Senate schedule is less predictable and had not been determined. Officials expect passage by huge margins in both chambers because Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have told congressional leaders the country’s financial stability depends on it.House Democrats plan to insist on adding protections for homeowners facing foreclosure. They also want to add a measure to help homeowners facing bankruptcy and an executive compensation restriction designed to prevent golden parachutes for the heads of troubled institutions.Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who was supportive of the bailout concept in a statement released Friday, believes that “whatever gets done in Congress has to protect Main Street,” senior adviser Stephanie Cutter said on MSNBC on Saturday. On “Fox News Sunday,” Paulson told Chris Wallace that he would resist the Democrats' desired limits on executive compensation."If we design it so it's punitive and institutions aren't going to participate, this won't work the way we need it to work," Paulson said. "Let's talk executive salaries: There have been excesses there. I agree with the American people. Pay should be for performance, not for failure. We've got work to do in that regard. We need to do that work. But we need this system to work. And so reforms need to come afterwards. My whole objective with the plan we have is to give us the maximum ability to make it work.” And the secretary told NBC’s Tom Brokaw on “Meet the Press” that he doesn’t want new regulations simultaneously: “That's not doable to do that immediately. But we very much need new regulations.” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) told Stephanopoulos on ABC: “If we’re going to spend taxpayer money to get rid of bad debt in these places, what is the reciprocal obligation … from the firms? … I think there’s going to be a strong interest to deal with the Main Street aspects.” Appearing with him, House Republican Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio retorted: “We’ve already dealt with that, when we had the housing bill last summer. I didn’t vote for it, because it’s $300 billion bailout for scam artists and speculators and others around the housing industry. But there are a lot of tools in there to help the Federal Housing Administration deal with the foreclosure problem that’s out there. We need to rise above partisan politics … and deal with this as adults.” Source: www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13690.html
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Sept 24, 2008 14:12:34 GMT 4
This should be interesting...I'll post his update when I get it....MichelleSubject: Protecting the public interest in any economic "bailout" Date: 9/23/2008 11:57:56 AM Eastern Daylight Time Dear Friend,The U.S. government has been turned into an engine that accelerates the wealth upwards into the hands of a few. The Wall Street bailout, the Iraq War, military spending, tax cuts to the rich, and a for-profit health care system are all about the acceleration of wealth upwards. And now, the American people are about to pay the price of the collapse of the $513 trillion Ponzi scheme of derivatives. Yes, that’s half a quadrillion dollars. Our first trillion dollar compression bandage will hardly stem the hemorrhaging of an unsustainable Ponzi scheme built on debt "de-leverages." Does anyone seriously think that our public and private debts of some $45 trillion will be paid? That the administration's growth of the federal debt from $5.6 trillion to $9.8 trillion while borrowing another trillion dollars from Social Security has nothing to do with this? Does anyone not see that when we spend nearly $16,000 for every family of four in our society for the military each year that we are heading over the cliff? This is a debt crisis, not a credit crisis. Just as FDR had to save capitalism after Wall Street excesses, we have to re-invigorate our economy with real - not imaginary - growth. It does not address the never-ending war on the middle class. The same corporate interests that profited from the closing of U.S. factories, the movement of millions of jobs out of America, the off-shoring of profits, the out-sourcing of workers, the crushing of pension funds, the knocking down of wages, the cancellation of health care benefits, the sub-prime lending are now rushing to Washington to get money to protect themselves. The double standard is stunning: their profits are their profits, but their losses are our losses. This bailout will not bring real jobs back to America. It will not bring back jobs that make things. It does not rebuild our schools, streets, neighborhoods, parks or bridges. The major product of this financial economy is now debt. Industrial capitalism has been destroyed. In the next few days I will push for a plan that includes equity for every American in any taxpayer investment in this so-called bail-out plan. Since the bailout will cost each and every American about $2,300, I have proposed the creation of a United States Mutual Trust Fund, which will take control of $700 billion in stock assets, convert those assets to shares, and distribute $2,300 worth of shares to new individual savings accounts in the name of each and every American. I will also insist that all of the following issues be considered in whatever Congress passes:Reinstatement of the provisions of Glass-Steagall, which forbade speculation Re-regulation of the finance, insurance, and real estate industries Accountability on the part of those who took the companies down: a) resignations of management b) givebacks of executive compensation packages c) limitations on executive compensation d) admission by CEO's of what went wrong and how, prior to any government bailout Demands for transparencey a) with respect to analyzing the transactions which took the companies down b) with respect to Treasury's dealings with the companies pre and post-bailout An equity position for the taxpayers a) some form of ownership of assets Some credible formula for evaluating the price of the assets that the government is buying. A sunset clause on the legislation Full public disclosure by members of Congress of assets held, with possible conflicts put in blind trust. A ban on political campaign contributions from officers of corporations receiving bailouts A requirement that 2008 cycle candidates return political contributions to officers and representatives of corporations receiving bailouts And, most importantly, some mechanism for direct assistance to homeowners saddled with unreasonable or unmanageable mortgages, as well as protection for renters who have lived up to their obligation but fall victim to financial tragedy when the property they live in undergoes foreclosure. These are just some thoughts on the run. You will hear more from me tomorrow. Dennis J Kucinichwww.kucinich.us/216-252-9000 877-933-6647
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Sept 28, 2008 3:13:21 GMT 4
The Whole Stinking System Has to Collapse Part 1 of 2I can't follow every news story out there on the economic meltdown, and I won't try to. What I've got for you today are some articles I found very interesting. [/color] Here's the FH Forum link to Dennis Kucinich's plan:Re: Kucinich for President! « Reply #130 Today at 1:47am » Follow-ups to previous post. I'd think we'll hear more, soon.... From Dennis:Subject: Kucinich's Main Street Recovery Plan airdance.proboards50.com/index.cgi?board=news&action=display&thread=180&page=9#3131Notice where Dennis states: "Of course, this is a plan that has not only economic implications, but also moral and spiritual implications as well. The social, economic, and political divisions in our nation must be healed. We can make a new beginning, seizing this moment of crisis and transforming it into a moment of rebirth for our nation." I said in my last post here, we Lightworkers were told of this collapse years ago....Are you ready to believe us now? I'll be posting at Wake Up World again today and be back with the link to that when done...follow me there if you will. One of the people I read and have attended a channelling of is Lee Carol who channels the higher being, Kryon.....I just got this message from him:KRYON QUOTE: "Ten years ago if I had told you that the largest businesses in this great land of yours would fall over and expire due to "integrity issues," would you have believed me? ... Well, look out the window and read your news. It's called pruning." ~BOOK 10 PAGE 152~Anyway, here's some noteworthy articles I found, if dollars and cents is all you're interested in, plus a surprise article at the end....Me, I'm riding this one out by unplugging from the world as much as possible...PAY TOO MUCH ATTENTION TO THE NEWS AND YOU MIGHT LOOSE YOUR MIND!!!
Love, Light, and Abundance to You, In Gratitude, MichelleHow the Masters of the Universe ran amok and cost us the earthDate: 16 September 2008 By Bill Jamieson SLAM. Slam. Slam. Slam. Like a scene from a gathering of Mafia dons, the doors of 30 black Lincolns slammed shut as their besuited occupants stepped out into a Manhattan downpour – and into a global financial storm.That storm broke yesterday, with stock markets tumbling around the world. In London, the FTSE 100 plunged almost 4 per cent to 5204.2. Scotland's banking giants were among the biggest victims. HBOS slumped 17.5 per cent; Royal Bank of Scotland lost 12.2 per cent. In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average suffered its biggest fall since 9/11. The collapse effectively began at 6pm last Friday. The place: the offices of the New York Federal Reserve. The occasion: an emergency meeting of the most powerful figures in American banking and finance aimed at staving off a massive bank collapse. Those who stepped from their limousines to be present included Richard Fuld, the chairman and chief executive of Lehman Brothers; John Mack, the head of Morgan Stanley; Jamie Dimon, of JP Morgan Chase; Vikram Pandit, of Citigroup; Lloyd Blankfein, of Goldman Sachs; Bob Diamond, the head of Barclays Capital; and senior representatives from Mellon Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland. "We are the biggest overseas bank in America", explained an RBS spokeswoman. "There was an 'all points bulletin' from the Fed and they called us in". Awaiting them along one side of the boardroom table was the United States Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke – nicknamed Helicopter Ben for having slashed interest rates and showered Wall Street with money earlier this year to avoid the very disaster that was about to unfold. Flanking him was Hank Paulson, the US treasury secretary, and Tom Geithner, chairman of the New York Fed. It was Geithner who opened the meeting – and presented Wall Street's finest with the fright of their lives. Either there was a Wall Street rescue for Lehman, or the investment bank would have to face the consequences. An eerie silence ensued. An analyst at RBS Greenwich in New York summed up the most dramatic meeting of America's top bankers thus: "I thought last weekend was crazy, but this one was even more chaotic. "Everyone expected to hear by early Sunday evening that the Fed/Treasury had managed to arrange a shotgun wedding for Lehman with someone – Bank of America, Barclays, private equity. A funny thing happened on the way to a deal. "The New York Fed called in all of the head honchos and said that they had a great deal for them. One lucky participant would get to buy Lehman's business and their 'good' assets for a bargain price. "The others would get a consolation prize: a chance to contribute their own precious capital to fund a bank of Lehman's 'bad' assets. The Fed and Treasury were said to be 'adamant' that public money would not be involved in any bail-out. "No government money? OK, no deal." The meeting set the tone for the weekend. By Saturday morning, more than 100 bankers were involved. Paulson refused to budge on pleas for government underpinning of the Lehman "bad bank" proposal: $41.8 billion (£23.3 billion) of property and up to a further $40 billion of "toxic" assets that had been infected by subprime mortgage loans or derivatives. Cookies and coffee arrived. Then ghoulish crowds began to gather, reminiscent of those that had assembled in Wall Street 80 years ago as the stock market crashed. The last of the meetings broke up late on Sunday, by which time there were no fewer than three separate frenzied huddles of investment bankers. One comprised credit traders trying to agree an orderly unwinding of Lehman's default swaps to avoid utter mayhem yesterday morning. Another room was full of regulators trying to put a floor under AIG, the world's biggest insurer, whose shares had crashed the previous week. The third was putting together a massive $50 billion rescue takeover by Bank of America of Merrill Lynch – the investment bank to broking giant that is famous for its "raging bull" logo. The United States is now in the throes of its biggest banking crisis in 70 years, stirring terrible memories of panics, bank failures, bankruptcies and mass unemployment. First Bear Stearns had to be rescued. Then the government had to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest US mortgage providers. Now Lehman Brothers. Dick Fuld, who threatened to break the legs of any partner caught shorting Lehman stock – gambling on the value of shares falling – is now just another name on a lengthening list of the "Masters of the Universe", a phrase made famous by Tom Wolfe in his 1987 novel of Wall Street ambition and greed, The Bonfire of the Vanities, who have crashed to earth. AND as Fuld crashed, his personal shareholding in the bank tumbled by more than $500 million. The list of the investment banking world's fallen giants already reads like a Who's Who of money: Charles "Chuck" Prince, the chief executive of Citigroup; Jimmy Cayne, the chief executive of Bear Stearns (RIP); Peter Wuffli, the UBS chief executive, and Marc Ospel, its chairman. How has it come to this? What caused America's fourth-largest investment bank to crash and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy? It is unctuously described by some as a "venerable, 158 year-old" institution. In truth, there is nothing particularly venerable about Lehman Brothers – and its elevation to "greatness" is recent. It began in 1844 as a small shop in Montgomery, Alabama. It developed as an investment company, had a rocky ride in the 1970s, and in the early 1980s was bought by American Express, which sold it in 1993, when Fuld became chief executive. Lehman floated on the stock market as a minnow boutique bank, with earnings of only $75 million. But Fuld, a Lehman lifer, was already getting used to life in the "bulge bracket" (a group of investment banks considered the world's most powerful). Before he took up the top post at Lehman, he found himself in a Las Vegas casino when a bad gambler blew $4 million. The gambler was following a classic strategy: when the cards go against you, double up the bet, because eventually things are sure to turn your way. Fuld took notes on a cocktail napkin as the gambler imploded, reaching the conclusion that bad luck can always continue longer than seems reasonable. "I don't care who you are," he wrote later. "You don't have enough capital." How prophetic that was to prove. From 2004, Fuld's fortunes were transformed as Lehman's profits surged. The bank rode what an earlier generation would have seen as a convergence of utter improbables: a wave of deregulation, typified by the scrapping of the Glass-Steagall Act (which kept retail and investment banks separate); low interest rates; and a wave of financial innovation that turned the most toxic loans into fancy credit products. Sky-high bonuses and share-option packages poured fuel on this fiery concoction. Lehman embarked on massively leveraged property acquisitions and expansion. Equity trading soared. And the bank plunged heavily into subprime lending. Indeed, just ahead of the market collapse, Lehman underwrote more mortgage-backed securities than any other firm. IT built up a staggering $88 billion portfolio, 44 per cent more than Morgan Stanley and four times the $22.5 billion of shareholder equity the bank had as a buffer against losses. But losses? What were they? Mortgage lending had a low default record. And the bank was on a roll, creating ever more ingenious financial products that bonus-driven salesmen sold to bedazzled clients. The group posted record profits, the shares soared towards $70 and bonuses and stock options gushed forth. Fuld joined the bulge bracket. He was paid $34.5 million in 2005, comprising a base salary of $750,000, a $13.8 million cash bonus, and stock and options worth $19.94 million. So how does his demise compare with the other fallen idols who have now fled the crashing debris in Wall Street? They may have driven their banks – and their shareholders – into enormous losses. But the former Masters of the Universe will never know what it's like to live in a subprime home. By the end, 62-year-old Fuld was Lehman's biggest individual stockholder. Despite the crash, he stands to leave with about $65 million, based on Lehman's Friday morning stock price of $3.73. This tally includes 8.6 million unrestricted shares worth some $32.1 million as of Friday morning – though they had been worth $582 million last November before the credit crunch hurricane struck. Chuck ("I'm still dancing") Prince left Citigroup with a package said to be worth $40 million. He also received a pension of $1.74 million and another one million stock options – worthless at the time of his departure. Merrill Lynch's Stan O'Neal spent much of last summer perfecting his golf swing, confident that his trusty lieutenants at Merrill could avoid those subprime bunkers. It turned out to be a bad call. HE WAS ousted last October as the first waves of the credit crunch struck, with a retirement package reckoned at more than $160 million. Jimmy Cayne, 15 years at the top of Bear Stearns, was said to be on the golf course in June 2006 just as the bank dropped the first of many clangers, with a 10 per cent dive in profits. Worse followed, with the bank having to put up $3.2 billion to try to rescue its imploding hedge fund. By mid-March last year, when the bank collapsed, Cayne, who would rush from Wall Street by chopper to the private Hollywood Golf Club in New Jersey to play 18 holes before dark, had already relinquished the reins, handing over the chief executive's role to Alan Schwartz. When Schwartz went cap in hand to the New York Fed for a $30 billion bail-out, Cayne was said to be competing in the North American Bridge Championship in Detroit. Cayne and his wife, Patricia, sold all their 5.6 million shares in Bear Stearns – worth as much as $1.2 billion in January 2007 – for $61.3 million at the end of March this year. The couple recently bought two adjacent apartments in New York's plush Plaza building for $28.2 million. He left with a $30 million "golden goodbye" – enough to do up his Park Avenue property and a mock Tudor mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. But it emerged that the mansion, set in 2.3 acres of land, was surplus to requirements. "It no longer meets his needs,'' said the local estate agent, trying to sell it for $6.15 million. He was forced to cut the asking price. That's how tough it gets at the top in Wall Street. Scots bank giants shudder as shockwaves cross AtlanticSHARES in global businesses plunged and analysts warned of a prolonged recession yesterday after leading investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. The move prompted Merrill Lynch, another of the top four US investment houses, to agree a £28 billion takeover bid from the Bank of America. And it came after insurer American International Group approached the Federal Reserve for £22 billion of short-term financing. The misery spurred the Bank of England to pump an extra £5 billion into the markets to improve liquidity for frightened banks, and the Fed to accept stocks in exchange for cash loans for the first time. And MPs on the Treasury select committee said the Bank of England should be given greater powers to call for failing banks to be nationalised in the wake of Northern Rock. Analysts warned the "whole of the international financial system" was at risk and, if it recovered, would be ensnared by far tighter regulation than in the past. The FTSE finished 4 per cent lower, the Dow Jones plunged by almost 4 per cent, or 500 points, and shares dropped across the board. Edinburgh-based banking giants RBS and HBOS were among the worst-hit firms. HBOS reached a yearly low when its stocks almost halved in value at one point in trading. They later rallied to end with a 17.55 per cent drop. Lehman, a 158-year-old company with about 25,000 staff worldwide, including about 5,000 in the UK, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US, which puts its operations under the ward of the courts. Its share price tumbled 90 per cent last week after it reported a £2.2 billion loss precipitated by a £3.9 billion "hit" from commercial property and subprime mortgage losses. The collapse came after Barclays Bank pulled out of a buy-out deal, reportedly because the US government had refused to issue guarantees. The government's refusal to get involved is seen by analysts as a turning point following the use of public money in high-profile bail-outs of failing organisations including Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Ten of the world's biggest banks committed to establish a £39 billion borrowing facility to bolster global liquidity. Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said the situation was "very grave". He said there would be intervention to stop banks failing because the "whole of the international financial system" was at risk. "I think the least we are going to have to learn from this is that the whole of the financial sector simply cannot return to where it was before. It is going to have to be much more tightly regulated in the public interest." When the markets opened in the wake of the collapse, UK banks were worst hit. However, Angela Knight, chief executive of the British Bankers' Association, said "no UK bank was in a similar position to Lehman", which does not take retail deposits. A spokesman for Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said the Treasury, Bank of England and Financial Services Authority were in "very close contact" with their US counterparts. The funds released by the Bank were almost five times oversubscribed by banks. The European Central Bank also made undisclosed funds available to financial institutions. But the Fed refused to step in with direct assistance. Professor William Perraudin, of Imperial College Business School in London, said banks would again become suspicious of lending to each other, leading to another plunge in the already fragile property market. In the UK, administrators PWC said Lehman Brothers, the principal UK trading company in the Lehman group, was one of four firms in administration. Refugees of financial storm flee with golf clubs and fine winesCLUTCHING golf clubs, branded umbrellas and what appeared to be a box of fine Languedoc wines among other office knick-knacks, bewildered ex-employees yesterday streamed out of the Lehman Brothers' European headquarters at Canary Wharf in London. Of the collapsed US investment bank's 4,500 UK-based staff, about 24 were made redundant immediately, with the majority due to find out where they stand today or tomorrow. Staff were sent e-mails telling them the bank was filing for bankruptcy and to report for work at 7am. Watched by a row of security guards, those who turned up were handed a printed sheet warning them not to engage in any financial transactions. Tony Lomas, a lead administrator for PricewaterhouseCoopers, which took over the financial firm after it filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday morning, said the "extraordinarily complex" company could take six years to wind up and he was uncertain whether they would be able to pay the £42 million monthly wage bill this Friday. After staff were given the choice simply to go home yesterday, some of them cried. Others were on the phone to headhunters and recruitment agencies. Elsewhere in the building, employees tried to use up credit on their canteen cards and others consoled themselves with a drink in the company canteen. Many spent the morning clearing their desks and swapping contact details. Edouard d'Archimbaud, 24, from Paris, arrived in Canary Wharf for his first day of work but did not even make it as far as his desk. Mr d'Archimbaud, who was due to start a £45,000-a-year job as a trader, said he was told on arrival that everybody had lost their jobs. He said: " I've taken out a six-month lease on a flat and I don't know how I will pay for it." Graduate trainee Jack Reynolds, with the company for only a week, said: "My career has been halted at the first hurdle." Kirsty McCluskey, 32, who worked on the trading floor, said: "It is terrible. Death. It's like a massive earthquake. It's final. Everybody is just finishing up." One banker, who is expecting twins, was among the staff laid off. Marion Guilbert, 36, said: "I have been there for seven years. It's even more emotional for a pregnant woman, but you have to take the positives out of it." Source: thescotsman.scotsman.com/latestnews/-How-the-Masters-of.4494032.jp------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Who Will Speak For Us?Jim Kirwan 9-21-8 The short answer is "no one" because we have chosen to abstain from speaking for ourselves. As a result; the government no longer fears the people; so the people having chosen not to have a voice, are increasingly used and abused to further the takeover that has now become impossible to escape. The government is saying among themselves, that this meltdown will encompass credit cards, student loans, all the pension funds, social security and virtually everything else including our non- existent jobs programs-not to mention the fact that we're looking at real job loses this year of over a million people. This is part of their defense for saddling the public with more than $11 TRILLION in debt, without any relief for the public that is expected to pay for this obscene crime. When Ronald Reagan initiated the idea of "Morning in America" people had forgotten that he came to office from a failed governorship in California and from his stint on "Death Valley Days" both of which had more to do with his policies than anything like his vision of America as that "Shining City on the Hill." What Reagan instituted was "Greed is Good" and 'Americans ought to have whatever they want, no money down, and to hell with tomorrow,' (the core of that un-checked capitalism that created the housing-bubble). One of the unspoken principle planks in the platform of Capitalism Inc. is that 'Yes there is a free-lunch, and that every citizen is entitled to it"! The second plank in un-regulated Capitalism is that congress and the laws are meaningless. And as the decades have passed what we see now where the congress used to be, is just a privileged compound apart from the public's real concerns, where a bunch of toothless mongrels prowl in luxury among themselves and bark incessantly at the shadows in the world, well beneath their lavish perks. Now we come to a crisis the like of which the world has never seen before: Because this global event has dwarfed all other previous financial and political events, since those dark days when public records first began to be kept. The stand-in theorhetorically responsible for the Treasury who appeared this morning to be in the middle of a series of heart-attacks, keeps trying to tell the public that "We MUST do this quickly," despite the fact that he has no real numbers as to cost or duration! He has also assured the nation that there should be nothing in this for the taxpayers, those individuals who are expected to pay for these failures. From Paulson we also learned that both parties plan to remain bi- partisan (no opposition from within the government), regarding this draconian step. Paulson freely admits that there are many components to this massive failure brought on by several privately-held corporate and offshore interests that have FAILED, yet he sees his measure as the only way out of this global mess. People might have forgotten that the entire premise for private- enterprise rests upon the risks that the so-called privatized- interests take, which include the right to fail, in order to remain free to profit hugely! The right to FAIL is part of their sacred circle of rights that no one else can have-that is until they fail-bigtime-because then as now those same private companies then demand a bailout by none other than the public they so vastly screwed in the first place! To cap this all off, now the government is telling the public that we have no choice but to capitulate to these obscene demands-this is governance at the point of a gun, and this demands that we change the government according to the ideas laid out in the Declaration of Independence, which says in part: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. . ." This so-called government in Washington no longer represents the people of this land, they only represent the corporations and the global interests of the ancient New World Order that seek to enslave Americans along with everyone else. In this case the idea is to create a fire-sale out of a once thriving economy in order to buy up what's left of this country at bargain prices, before they declare themselves the sole owners of the world. The second amendment was placed in the Constitution in order for the public to have the means to form militias that could take back the nation, if that ever became necessary. Apparently the time has come for the public to begin to give more than idle thought to this crisis that threatens to literally remake the entire structure of this nation and the world. If the congress cannot put monetary and legal limits on this legislation, and if the congress and the White House are allowed to pass something that does not insure the survival of the general public which they shall have so freely and unconditionally taxed beyond all bounds of sanity: then we must have a revolution in the streets! The government needs to come again, to fear the public, because they have proven beyond all doubt that they are unfit to lead anyone anywhere, ever again! Their list of on-the-record failures is staggering, and to any sentient being it is "unbelievable" even before they have added this final insult to the pending total collapse! "Capitalism must be checked, and leashed forever, so that these crimes can never-again be repeated in the public's name. The laws on the books must be enforced, and everyone involved in creating this hijacking must have everything they own confiscated and go to jail at the very least: because to do less would be to encourage these new-old Robber-Barons to continue with business as usual. Please remember: What is at stake is EVERYTHING monetary, all pensions, retirement funds, social security, credit cards, bank loans of any kind, not to mention the total lack of any funds for legitimate business costs or expansions-the jobs don't matter because they're gone already! Offshore-anything must be heavily taxed or forbidden outright. No person with a hyphenated nationality ought to be allowed to hold any high office in this nation: at the very least our representative offices must be reserved for Americans only: and all foreign interest groups must be registered as such including AIPAC; that way whatever they do can be traced back to those who are directing their actions and their influence will at least be on-the- record. The choice is simple, we must clean house because virtually everything that has been running everything, at the highest levels, is corrupt! If we can't do this, then we shall become the slaves that those on top, have now decided, that we should be! So either we find our long unused voices and our bodies to demand an end to all of this, or we shall set precedent, by caving in to tyranny at the point of those guns that we gave them with our long-held silence about everything they have done; both to us and to the rest of the planet! kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net BACKGROUND: Hard Pressed American Taxpayers forced to bailout Zionist Gangsters behind 911 judicial-inc.biz/89bollyn.htm Source: www.rense.com/general83/whowill.htm------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Interesting to say the least: The unknown 20 trillion dollar company 2003-10-30 17:37 by Flemming Funch There is a busy little private company you probably never have heard about, but which you should. Its name is the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. See their website. Looks pretty boring. Some kind of financial service thing, with a positive slogan and out there to make a little business. You can even get a job there. Now, go and take a look at their annual report. Starts with a nice litte Flash presentation and has a nice message from the CEO. And take a look at the numbers. It turns out that this company holds 23 trillion dollars in assets, and had 917 trillion dollars worth of transactions in 2002. That's trillions, as in thousands of thousands of millions. 23,000,000,000,000 dollars in assets. As it so turns out, it is not because DTCC has a nice website and says good things about saving their customers money that they are trusted with that kind of resources. Rather it is because they seem to have a monopoly on what they do. In brief, they process the vast majority of all stock transactions in the United States as well as for many other countries. And - and that's the real interesting part - 99% of all stocks in the U.S. appear to be legally owned by them. In the old days, when you owned stocks you would have the stock certificates lying in your safe. And if you needed to trade them, you needed to get them shipped off to a broker. Nowadays that would be considered very cumbersome, and it would be impractical to invest via computer or over the phone. So the shortcut was invented that the broker would hold your stocks instead of you. And in order for him to legally be able to trade them for you, the stocks were placed under their "street name". I.e. they're in the name of the brokerage, but they're just holding them in trust and trading them for you. And you're in reality the beneficiary rather than the owner. Which is all fine and dandy if everything goes right. Now, it appears the rules were then changed so the brokers are not allowed any longer to put the stocks in their own name. Instead, what they typically do is to put the stocks into the name of "Cede and Company" or "Cede & Co" or some such variation. And the broker might tell you that it is just a fictitious name, and will explain why it is really more practical to do that than to put it in your name. The problem with that is that it appears that Cede isn't just some dummy name, but an actual corporation that DTCC controls. And, well, if you ask anybody about this, who actually knows about it, they will naturally tell you that it is all a formality. To serve you better, of course. And, well, maybe it is. DTCC seems like a nice and friendly company. It is a private company, owned by the same people (major U.S. banks) who own the Federal Reserve Bank. And if they all stick to their job, and just keep the money and your stocks flowing smoothly, I'm sure that is all well and good. But if somebody at some point should decide otherwise, and there's a national U.S. emergency and/or the U.S. government becomes unable to pay its debts, well, they might just not give you your stocks back. Because legally they own them. Something to think about. An fascinating article about this whole thing is here. I will include it at the bottom too, in case it should disappear. Not that I can vouch for or agree with everything the guy is saying, and some of it is a little whacko, but obviously he's been researching this quite a bit. You'll find very little about it on the net otherwise. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Unknown $19 Trillion Depository Trust Company by Anthony Wayne Part I of II This exclusive report is a compilation of interviews and background research from October 1995 through April 1999. The Depository Trust Company (DTC) is the best kept secret in America. Headquartered at 55 Water Street in New York City, the average American has no clue that this financial institution is the most powerful banking corporation in the world. The general public has no knowledge of what the DTC is or what they do. How can a private banking trust company hold assets of over $19 trillion and be unknown? In a recent press release dated April 19, 1999, the Depository Trust Company stated: The Depository Trust Company (DTC) is the world's largest securities depository, holding nearly $19 trillion in assets for its Participants and their customers.... Last year, DTC processed over 164 million book-entry deliveries valued at more than $77 trillion. In dealing with the trust department of Midlantic Bank, N.A. in New Jersey [now PNC Bank, N.A.], this writer was authorized, as trustee and power of attorney, to transfer original trust assets comprising of common stocks and bonds to a new trust set up in another jurisdiction. An Assistant Vice President from the Trust & Financial Management Office of Midlantic Bank said to me "it will take at least 6 weeks to do this as the majority of the stocks and bonds are not held in the name of the trust". This same Midlantic Bank Assistant V.P. also stated in a letter dated November 17, 1995, "Of the 11 municipal bonds, 8 are held in book entry only. This means they cannot be physically re-registered with a certificate sent to the new trustees." (* these are not the actual figures quoted in the letter in order to protect the privacy of the account holder, at their request. Also, we were asked not to name the Midlantic Assistant V.P. in order to protect her privacy Rights. We respect these requests with full moral compliance). In disbelief, I brought this matter to the attention of our research assistants at the Christian Common Law Institute [formerly the North Bridge News] and we began our lengthy investigation into the matter. After 3 years, the can of worms we've opened up should frighten every American. With the advent of reported Y2K computer glitches and the possible collapse of our 'paper asset' economy, every person who has a stock or bond in their portfolio had better read this report and act on the information we are disclosing here. In November 1995, after encountering numerous "no comments" and a myriad of "that's not my department" excuses via telephone, I eventually spoke with Mr. Jim McNeff who told me his position was Director of Training for the DTC. He said he'd been employed there for 19 years and was "very proud" of his employer. During my initial telephone interview, either Jim's employer or some other unknown person or persons were illegally listening or taping our telephone conversation according to the electronic eavesdropping equipment we have installed on our end. Why did anyone feel it was necessary to illegally record our conversation without advising us? Was some federal alphabet agency monitoring DTC calls to safeguard National Security? That in itself is suspicious enough to warrant a big red warning flag. Jim informed me back then (1995) that "the DTC is the largest limited trust company in the world with assets of $ 9.1 trillion". In July 1998, I spoke with Ms. Rose Barnabic of the DTC Finance Department who said that "DTC assets are currently estimated at around $11 trillion". As of April 19, 1999, the DTC itself has stated that their assets total "nearly $19 trillion" (see above). Mr. McNeff had also stated "the DTC is a brokerage clearing firm and transfer center. We're a private bank for securities. We handle the book entry transactions for all banks and brokers. Every bank and brokerage firm must secure their membership with us in case they become insolvent, so your assets are secure with DTC". Yes, you read that correctly. The DTC is a private bank that processes every stock and bond (paper securities) for all U.S. banks and brokerage houses. The big question is this; Just who gave this private bank and trust company such a broad range of financial power and clout? The reason the public doesn't know about DTC is that they're a privately owned depository bank for institutional and brokerage firms only. They process all of their book entry settlement transactions. Jim McNeff said "There's no need for the public to know about us... it's required by the Federal Reserve that DTC handle all transactions". The Federal Reserve Corporation, a/k/a The Federal Reserve System, is also a private company and is not an agency or department of our federal government, according to the 1998 Federal Registry. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors is listed, but they are not the owners. The Federal Reserve Board, headed by Mr. Alan Greenspan, is nothing more than a liaison advisory panel between the owners and the Federal Government. The FED, as they are more commonly called, mandates that the DTC process every securities transaction in the US. It's no wonder that the DTC (including the Participants Trust Company, now the Mortgage-Backed Securities Division of the DTC) is owned by the same stockholders as the Federal Reserve System. In other words, the Depository Trust Company is really just a 'front' or a division of the Federal Reserve System. "DTC is 35.1% owned by the New York Stock Exchange on behalf of the Exchange's members. It is operated by a separate management and has an independent board of directors. It is a limited purpose trust company and is a unit of the Federal Reserve." -New York Stock Exchange, Inc. Now, let's see how this effects the average working American family. If you're not aware how the system works, you should visit or call a stock broker or bank and instruct them you want to purchase some shares of common stock or a small municipal bond, for example. They will set up a brokerage account for you and act as your agent with full durable power of attorney (which you must legally sign over to them) to conduct business on your behalf, upon your buy or sell instructions. The broker will place your stock or bond purchase into their safekeeping under a "street name". According to Mr. McNeff of the DTC, no bank or broker can place any stock or bond into their firm's own name due to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations. The broker or bank must then send the transaction to the DTC for ledger posting or book entry settlement under mandate by the Federal Reserve System. Remember, since your bank or broker can't use their name on the certificate, they use a fictitious street name. "Since the DTC is a banking trust company, we can't hold the certificates in our name, so the DTC transfers the certificates to our own private holding company or nominee name." states Mr. McNeff. The DTC's private holding company or street name, as shown on certificates we have personally examined from numerous certificate holders, is shown as either "CEDE and Company", "Cede Company" or "Cede & Co". We have searched every source known to learn who CEDE really is, but have been unable to get any background information on them. Is Cede Company fictitious or is their identity perhaps a larger secret than DTC? We must presume that the information Mr. McNeff gave us was correct when he confirmed that Cede Company was a controlled private holding company of the DTC. We have now found the following proof that CEDE is real from the Bear Stearns internet site: NEW YORK, New York - March 16, 1999 - Bear Stearns Finance LLC today announced that it will redeem all of the 6,000,000 outstanding 8.00% Exchangeable Preferred Income Cumulative Shares, Series A ("EPICS") of Bear Stearns Finance LLC, liquidation preference of $25.00 per Series A Share, CUSIP number G09198105. All of the Series A Shares are held by Cede & Co., as nominee of The Depository Trust Company, and the payment of the redemption price will be made to Cede & Co. by ChaseMellon Shareholder Services, LLC, as paying agent, whose address is: 85 Challenger Road, Ridgefield Park, New Jersey 07660. The banks and brokers are merely custodians for their clients. By federal law (SEC), they cannot hold any assets in the customer's name. The assets must be held in the name of DTC's holding company, CEDE & Co. That's how DTC has more than $19 trillion dollars of assets in trust... or is it really in "trust" if the private Federal Reserve System is technically holding it in their "unknown" entity's name? Obviously, if stock and bond certificates you've purchased aren't in your name, then the "holder" (the Federal Reserve System) could theoretically refuse to surrender them back to you under a "national emergency" according to the Trading with the Enemy Act (as amended). Is this the collateral being held by the private Federal Reserve System to pay off the national debt owed to them by our federal government, first initiated by Lincoln's debt bonds of 1864? According to Mr. McNeff, the DTC was a former member of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and "Our sister company is the National Securities Clearing Corporation... the NSCC" (they have since merged). He was correct since we now know that the NYSE holds 35.1% of the "ownership" of the DTC on behalf of their NYSE members. Simply put, the Depository Trust Company absolutely controls every paper asset transaction in the United States as well as the majority of overseas transactions, and they now physically hold (as of April 1999) 99% of all stock and bond book-entrys in their street name, not the actual owner's names. If you have stock or bond certificates in your name buried in your back yard or under your mattress, we suggest you keep them there. If not, it might be very wise to cancel your brokerage account and power of attorney status, re-register the stocks and bonds in your name (if you still can), and keep them hidden where only you know their location. Otherwise, you have absolutely no control over them (see Part II of our exclusive research report on the DTC for more information on beneficial ownership status). However, getting a stock or bond certificate these days is not so easy if possible at all: "For the most part, issuers know little about the role of the Depository Trust Company (DTC). The DTC was created in 1973 as a user-owned cooperative for post-trade settlement. Our members are banks and broker/dealers, whom we refer to as participants. We handle listed and unlisted equities, including 51,000 equity issues and 170,000 corporate debt issues, equating to more than 78% of shares outstanding on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). We also have more than 95% of all municipals on deposit. In the 1980s, the "Group of 30" [business leaders] recommended that stock certificates be eliminated, because physical certificates create risk. The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a concept release in 1994 to gradually decrease certificates, providing optional direct registration on the books of the issuer instead of a certificate.... this enhances the portability of shares between transfer agents and brokerage accounts. With the direct registration system, brokers transmit instructions to purchase through DTC, which the issuer or transfer agent then registers, so shares can be delivered electronically." -John D. Faith, Manager, Corporate Trust Services, The Depository Trust Company (1996) Now we're about to reveal to you the most shocking discovery we came across during our research into this matter. Most of us remember a few years back the purported computerized selling of stocks that resulted in Wall Street's "Black Monday": Dow Dives 508.32 Points in Panic on Wall Street "The largest stock-market drop in Wall Street history occurred on "Black Monday" -- October 19, 1987 -- when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508.32 points, losing 22.6% of its total value. That fall far surpassed the one-day loss of 12.9% that began the great stock market crash of 1929 and foreshadowed the Great Depression. The Dow's 1987 fall also triggered panic selling and similar drops in stock markets worldwide" -Source: Facts on File World News CD ROM The stock exchanges had dramatic record losses, and a record volume of shares were traded on that infamous Monday in October 1987. We all asked ourselves how computers could have done this by themselves without someone knowing about it. After all, someone has to program a computer to tell it what to do, what not to do, or even when to do or not do it. During my telephone conversation, Mr. McNeff was trying to assure me that they [the DTC] have "never lost a certificate or made a mistake in a book ledger transaction". In attempting to give me an example of how trustworthy the DTC is when I asked him how he could back up such a statement, he replied "DTC's first controlled test was 4 or 5 years ago. Do you remember Black Monday? There were 535 million transactions on Monday, and 400 million transactions on Tuesday". He was very proud to inform me that "DTC cleared every transaction without a single glitch!". Read these quotes again: He stated that Black Monday was a controlled test. Black Monday was a deliberately manipulated disaster for many Americans at the whim of a controlled test by the DTC. What was the purpose of this test? Common sense tells you that you test something before you intend to use it. It's quite obvious that the stock markets are going to 'crash and burn' at some future date and for some 'unknown' reason since the controlled test was so successful. Was this just one of the planned tests for a Y2K internationally planned worldwide economic meltdown? The Great Depression is about to be repeated, and it will be as deliberate and manipulated as the first one that began with the stock market crash of 1929. We are, without a doubt, on the brink of the Mother of all economic Depressions. As of May 3, 1999, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) went above a record 11,000 points. Just prior to the 1929 stock market crash, Wall Street was posting record prices, record earnings, and record profits.... just like the scenario we are experiencing today. Will Y2K be a manipulated and deliberate a financial meltdown? Too many facts already support this probability. On June 7, 1995, the federal government issued a new regulation requiring stock and bond certificate transfers to be cleared in three days instead of the previous five day time period. It coincided with the infamous Regulation CC that purportedly gave us faster three day availability of funds from deposited checks. This means that brokers and banks must get your stock or bond transaction into the street name (Cede & Co.) of the DTC within 3 working days. That's hard to do considering banks claim it takes 3 or more days to clear a check that you've submitted to pay for a stock purchase. But, there's a reason for this new regulation and it coincides with the introduction of the new FRS "dollars". On February 22, 1996, "the DTC will flip the switch" according to Mr. McNeff. "What switch?", I asked. "This is the day that clearing house funds will no longer be accepted for stock or bond transactions" was my reply from Jim. "Instead, only Fed Funds will be accepted". Fed Funds, or a Fedwire, are electronic computer ledger debit transfers between Federal Reserve System member banks. No checks or drafts have been allowed from that day, just as Mr. McNeff accurately stated. This is more commonly called a 'cashless transaction'. I call it the reality of the mark of the beast. This is the manifestation of the new international god, the New World Order .
Consider this my fellow Christian Americans: All pension funds and other institutional 'managed funds' are comprised of paper asset investments such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. These certificates are technically in the name of DTC's private holding company, CEDE and Company. The DTC is owned by the private Federal Reserve System owners (Click for a complete list of names). Congress has attempted, on no less than two occasions since 1995, to pass legislation allowing pension funds to be used by the government as purported 'loans'. All the Federal Reserve System has to do is hand it over. But, what happens to the people counting on those pension fund investments in order to feed themselves in their retirement? Too bad for them.... they're out of luck because for the 'good of the nation', they may be forced to share or relinquish their lifetime of hard-earned wealth. This can be done without the consent of Congress under an Executive Order based on the War and Emergency Powers Act and a state of National Emergency, just like we are already under (See further Executive Orders). Since the Federal Reserve System already holds our stocks and bonds in their fictitious DTC "street name", CEDE, then perhaps they'll cash them in for the federal government's failure to repay the loans that have become way overdue. Heck, some of Lincoln's gold backed bonds from 1864 have not been repaid yet.... and for a reason.
On March 6, 1933, all bullion gold and gold coins were forcibly taken from the hands of private citizens (see New York Times). Under the War Powers Act, President Roosevelt declared a national emergency touted as a "Banking Holiday". It was declared due to the deliberately calculated stock market crash that preceded the Great Depression. Where did this gold end up? Into the hands of the Federal Reserve System owners. The majority is stored in the impervious rock vaults they own beneath New York City. Is it any surprise that the DTC physically holds all the remaining non-book entry issued stock and bond certificates in the same place?
Technically, our entire nation is still under the Executive Order declaration of the War Powers Act and in a continual state of national emergency (See Clinton's 1994 Executive Order 12919). The President can enforce any new emergency at any time under Executive Order or Presidential Directive. In 1995, we [the former North Bridge News] published that we expected a new national "dollar" emergency to be declared within a year or two. Just like we thought at the time, they have now blamed it on the purported drug dealers who are allegedly destroying our currency by money laundering schemes.
Since late 1996, old U.S. $100 FRB notes issued by the Federal Reserve Bank are being exchanged for new $100 FRS issued by the Federal Reserve System. These new notes have scanable magnetic platinum encryption on the plastic strips embedded inside the bills. The U.S. Treasury claims this is for "the blind". Now, new $20 and $50 FRS's are replacing the older notes as well. What people don't realize is that very soon, the older FRB notes will no longer be 'legal' and there will be a penalty for hoarding them. This is what happened to those Americans holding gold and gold coins after 1933.
"We are most gratified with the successful introduction of the new $100 and $50 notes and look forward to the same success with the new $20s," Chairman Greenspan said. For the first time, a machine-readable capability has been incorporated for the blind. A new feature in the $20 will facilitate the development of convenient scanning devices that could identify the note as a $20. -U.S. Treasury, Office of Public Affairs, RR-2449 released May 20, 1998.
Why new paper 'money' and for what purpose? Because the new FRS notes in your pocket can be scanned and whoever scans them can know exactly how much money you have on you. The older FRB notes are not encoded to do this. This writer knows firsthand of at least one machine, manufactured by Diebold, Inc. (a/k/a InterBold) that scans the money in your pockets, wallet or purse no different in theory than a credit card scanner, but much more sophisticated. I participated in a 'test' of this machine at a U.S. international airport in 1998. To me, it looks much like the standard metal detector scanners you walk through at all airports. I was asked (by who I believe was a U.S. Treasury Agent, as he introduced himself and flashed his ID quickly in my face so I couldn't read it) if I had any of the new $100 or $50 bills in my pockets. I looked in my wallet and saw I had one new $100 FRS note. I told him "yes", then he said "Good, but don't tell me how much". After saying he would "really appreciate it" if I would help them with a test, he asked me to walk through what looked like a typical airport scanner. No beeps. No noise. No sound at all. He looked at a computer screen and said "Do you have a new $100 bill?". When I confirmed that was true, he thanked me and told me to please move on. I tried to ask him how the machine knew that, but he ignored my question. I took a good look at the scanning system and believe I have now spotted them at Kennedy, Atlanta, Miami and Los Angeles airports.
The odd part about this is that these machines seem to all be located in the customs areas where you enter the U.S. from a foreign country. Obviously, they want to know if someone is carrying more than $10,000 into the U.S. Common sense dictates that they should be more concerned about people leaving with more than $10,000 if they're really trying to thwart the drug dealers.... until you begin to realize that there must be some other hidden agenda: They are apparently going to stop money from entering the U.S. for a reason.
Will the President call for the confiscation of all gold bullion and bullion coins as Roosevelt did? Who will end up with it? The Federal Reserve System owners, just like before. Since June 1998, international gold supplies have been so low that some private Swiss Banks have been paying a premium above the market wholesale value for gold bullion. This was confirmed to us by a gold and diamond mining Chief Executive from Rex Mining in Guinea, West Africa, who supplies raw gold to a major Swiss Banking company smelter and processor The spot gold market has been manipulated to keep the price low so that the Federal Reserve System owners can purchase all that is available through their various trusts and corporations. World gold availability on the open market is now at a record low and mining production of gold is also at a record low output.
What happened to 'supply and demand' with gold and silver? Normally, when supply is high the price decreases. When supply is low, precious metal prices increase. Perhaps the private FED will peg the new dollar to gold prices, as many experts have already speculated. What will stocks and bonds purchased with old dollars be worth then? Pennies to the dollar, so to speak. Who ends up being the only winner? The Federal Reserve System stockholders. They control the circulation amounts of paper money in the U.S. Combine that with the new scanner to stop large amounts from entering into the U.S., and the scenario amounts to a planned shortage of paper FRS notes, the banning of the older FRB notes, and the soon to be astronomical price of gold which most Americans will be forbidden to have or hoard, once again. The facts we've presented in this report all point to this.
People will be at the mercy of the federal government for daily food and for jobs. Checks are soon to be totally phased out. Banks issue ATM debit cards and tell you they must charge more for your account if you use a real live human teller instead of the machine. The switch is being turned on. This is not speculation. This is the truth of reality. It's already been tested, and their new system works. Just ask Jim McNeff of the DTC.
The day has come when you must decide to accept or reject the beast and the New World Disorder.
Continued......
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Sept 28, 2008 3:17:17 GMT 4
...continued from previous post:The Whole Stinking System Has to Collapse Part 2 of 2 The unknown 20 trillion dollar company by Flemming Funch Part II of II-
You don't own your Stocks....or any of your Bonds...The Depository Trust Company does. by Anthony Wayne In Part I of this series, excerpts of which were first published in November 1995 by the former North Bridge News, we exposed The Depository Trust Company (DTC) as the Unknown $ 9.1 Trillion Company. It appears that our startling discoveries of the inner-workings of the DTC had only scratched the surface. We'd like to add more fuel to this blazing fire by further exposing the DTC and those behind it. The Depository Trust Company has grown since October 1995. On July 1998, this amount was estimated by a DTC employee at more than $11 Trillion. As of April 19, 1999, the DTC itself has stated in a press release that their asset value is nearly $19 trillion. In 3 1/2 years, their assets increased nearly $ 10 Trillion. That's a lot of stocks and bonds supposedly held in trust. The latest trend over the past ten years is for stock and bond brokers to offer "book-entry ownership" only. Every book-entry stock or bond is literally owned by the DTC. Since 1985, most bond and many stock issuers have converted from the issuance of certificates to book-entry systems administered and controlled by the DTC. As of March 1999, the National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) and the Participants Trust Company (PTC) are now merged into the DTC. Practically, there isn't one stock or bond issued that is not controlled by the DTC. If you purchase any stock or bond through a broker, it is being held for you under a "street name" by the DTC unless you have specifically requested to hold the certificate yourself. If you have a book entry stock or bond, you won't be issued a certificate. It's important to note that you have purchased that particular stock or bond without becoming a registered holder of the actual stock or bond certificate. Instead, you have become a beneficial owner. The difference between the two is like night and day. Take the time to absorb and understand the following definitions: REGISTERED HOLDER- A Registered Holder literally possesses, owns, and holds, his stock or bond with his name appearing on the face of the certificate. The company that issued the certificate has registered the owner's (holder's) name on their official books. This is the safest way to own a paper asset. You literally possess the fully registered certificate and only you can transfer or sell it. By all Rights and definition of law, you are the owner. You have it, you hold it, you possess it, and you keep it. You have the complete control over it. BENEFICIAL OWNER- A Beneficial Owner is nothing more than a beneficiary, "One who is entitled to the benefit of a contract"- A Dictionary of Law, 1893. All book-entry stocks and bonds you purchase make you the beneficial owner, not the registered holder. The owner of a book-entry stock or bond is the entity or name that it is registered under. The DTC owns that bond or stock, not you. Rather than in your name, it's registered (as the legal Registered Owner or agent) in their "street name", Cede & Company. (In the past, it may have been registered in your broker's street name, but this is no longer allowed). The DTC is the Registered Owner - holder - of your stock or bond. The DTC is the legal property-holder, share-holder, stock-holder, owner and purchaser. Your name appears nowhere on the book entry or certificate as the actual owner. Instead, you have been designated by the legal registered owner, the DTC, as the Beneficial Owner. This means that your lawful Rights in that stock or bond are confined to that of a successor or heir. At the University of Utah College of Law, we found the following examination question about Cede & Co.: The common stock of LargeCo, Inc. is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Over 2/3rds of the shares are registered on LargeCo's books in the name of Cede & Co. Cede is a depository company which holds the shares as nominee on behalf of brokerage firms, mutual funds and other active traders. The brokerage firms in turn are also nominees with respect to some of the shares, which they hold on behalf of their customers. Nominees, such as Cede and brokerage firms holding for customers, view the customer as the beneficial owner of the shares and consider the customer to be the one with the right to vote the shares; mutual funds, however, view the fund as the owner of the shares it holds and vote the shares themselves. Most of the remainder of LargeCo's stock (26% of the total) is held by the Large family, which is still actively involved in management. LargeCo is aware that the beneficial owner of about half the stock registered in Cede's name is the Small family, who live next door to the Larges in downtown Rome, and that the remainder of the Cede stock is beneficially owned by several well known mutual funds. According to the DTC, under the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules, you only have the right to "receive proceeds or other advantages as the beneficiary". You are not the owner... you are the consignee, "One who has deposited with a third person an article of property for the benefit of a creditor"- A Dictionary of Law, 1893. In legal terms, you are considered the heir presumptive or heir at law to the stock or bond you paid for. The DTC controls, possesses as creditor, holds and owns your book-entry stock or bond. This is a difficult pill to swallow for those who have placed their assets in stocks and bonds over the past decade. Your broker sends you a fancy accounting every month of your purported holdings, along with dividend and interest payments paid. The fact is, you only receive the benefit of ownership (interest and dividends) without holding title to your property. You are at the mercy of the registered owner, the DTC. If you don't believe this is true, then call your broker right now and ask them who's name is listed as the Registered Holder of your book-entry stocks and bonds. If you're lucky, the broker will tell you "why of course you're the Beneficial Owner", then you'll know the truth. He may emphasize to you that the stocks and bonds are being held in "safe keeping" for your own protection. This is broker language for "your stocks and bonds are held by the DTC in their street name as the creditor". From J.P. Morgan's internet site: Registered and beneficial shareholders There are two types of shareholders: registered, who hold an ADR in physical form, and beneficial, whose ADRs are held by third-parties and are listed under a "nominee" or "street" name. Registered shareholders are listed directly with the issuer or its U.S. transfer agent. The transfer agent handles the record-keeping associated with changes in share ownership, distribution of dividend payments, and investor inquiries; it also facilitates annual meetings. An issuer's depositary bank can provide the identities of registered shareholders on a regular basis. However, this may not provide the level of shareholder identification required for a successful investor relations effort. Registered shareholders are typically individual investors who have physical possession of their share certificates, generally in lots of 100 shares or fewer. The registered list also includes nominee names such as Cede & Co., which represent the aggregate position of the Depository Trust Company (DTC), the primary safekeeping, clearing, and settlement organization for securities traded in the United States. DTC uses electronic book-entry to facilitate settlement and custody rather than the physical delivery of certificates. Beneficial shareholders, which can include individual as well as institutional investors, do not have physical possession of their certificates; third-party broker-dealers or custodian banks hold their securities on their behalf. These shares are said to be held in street name because they are kept with the DTC in the name of the broker-dealer or the custodian bank - not the underlying shareholder. Lists of beneficial shareholders who do not object to disclosing their holdings are available from banks and broker-dealers. These lists, called NOBO for Non-Objecting Beneficial Owner, typically provide the names of individual investors. To help identify institutional investors, who do not usually disclose their holdings, issuers use publicly available filings. Large holders, including investment managers, are required to make periodic filings - such as 13-F, 13-G, and 13-D - with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosing the name and value of the positions in their portfolios. Which brings us to the street name used, registered, and designated by the DTC as the registered owner of over $19 Trillion (USD) of our stocks and bonds... CEDE & Co. Everyone in the brokerage business keeps pronouncing this name as "See Dee" and Company, but it's spelled C-E-D-E and pronounced "Seed". This is where the real irony comes. According to Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, 1990, the word Cede is defined as "To yield up; to assign; to grant; to surrender; to withdraw. Generally used to designate the transfer of territory from one government to another". In the Black's 1951 Fourth Edition, it lists the following as supportive case law; Goetze v. United States, C.C.N.Y., 103 Fed. 72. Have you made the connection yet? Your book-entry stocks and bonds and all stock and bond certificates purchased through your broker and held by them under your brokerage account are owned by CEDE & COMPANY (the DTC) as the registered owner. You have surrendered, assigned and granted ownership to someone else other than yourself. Their name says it all. How ironic and sarcastic can they be? "CEDE- To surrender possession of, especially by treaty. See Synonyms at 'relinquish'." -American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 3rd Edition of 1992 If Americans had any idea that they have relinquished the lawful ownership of their stocks and bonds to someone or something else, there would be a revolution. In a sense, that's why we are exposing this paper asset scam to you. The point is, now that you know the truth, do something about it and get your assets back into your name. Our suggestion to you is this: If you don't literally have every stock and bond registered certificate in your possession, then promptly call your broker and tell him you want all your securities transferred and re-registered into your name as the Registered Holder and Owner. If he says he can't do that because your stock or bond is a book-entry transaction only, we strongly suggest, for your own security, that you sell your book-entry assets immediately. Don't let the broker tell you that it's "safer" for you if they keep your certificates. Remember, you know the truth. Even if all your stock and bond certificates were burned in a fire, the process to have them replaced is simple. If someone were to steal your certificates, you simply report them stolen to the company that issued them and they're automatically cancelled, just like a stolen credit card. Replacement certificates are then issued to replace the lost or stolen originals. Most people don't realize that when they open a brokerage account, they have entered into an contractural agreement allowing the broker to assign the stocks and bonds to an undisclosed creditor, the DTC. (We suggest you read the small print on your brokerage agreement). This gives the broker your express written permission to place all your securities into the ownership of the DTC. Your broker is an agent for the DTC through mandatory Securities and Exchange Commission regulations and mandates by the Federal Reserve System private bank. Your broker represents them, not you. Your brokerage account is nothing more than a ledger of accounting. It reflects no assets held in your name. The assets are registered in a "street name" that is not you or your name. Sure.... you receive the interest and dividends, but you do so as a beneficiary to the real owner. Your brokerage account in no way, shape, or manner reflects who literally owns your securities. What you own is a brokerage account and nothing more. A greater consideration is just exactly who does the DTC hold these securities for? As the owner, who has the DTC pledged these securities to? Our research points to the Federal Reserve System, an international private banking cartel with major offices found in Moscow, London, Tokyo, and Peking. By treaty with the United Nations and in compliance with the Bretton Woods Agreement, the DTC under regulation of the Federal Reserve System has pledged all those stocks and bonds to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These are the same paper securities found in your IRA and pension fund accounts, as well as in your brokerage account. Remember, you don't own them.... you're just a beneficiary. The truth is, the securities you purchased and paid for with your hard earned money is collateral for the United Nations which is backed by the Federal Reserve System and it's associated agencies, such as the International Monetary Fund. Is it any wonder that the UN can operate year after year with increasing budgets, but without sufficient funds? The UN has nearly $19 Trillion of backing and reserves, thanks to millions of duped Americans. We are financing the New World Dis-Order with our stocks and bonds. Source: ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-000923.htm------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keiser: US dollar "backed by bananas" Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:17:25 GMT Press TV interviewed Paris-based financial analyst Max Keiser on the US financial meltdown on September 20. What follows are his free-wheeling comments on the US government bailout of Wall Street and the potential consequences for America. "We have a treasury secretary in America - Hank Paulson. I'm afraid he's gone insane. He's become like the Colonel Kurtz of Treasury Secretaries. He's gone native. He's co-opted trillions of dollars of American taxpayers' money and he's playing hedge fund like a rogue trader. We have got a rogue trader in the Treasury Secretary's office. He's being aided and abetted by Ben Bernanke who's been discredited as the entire Federal Reserve Bank has been utterly discredited. We're looking at a possible inflationary depression in America and the worse is yet to come, much worse is yet to come." "To pay for all this insanity from Hank Paulson, they have two options. They can either raise taxes or they can inflate the money supply. They can destroy these things US dollars [waves a dollar bill at the camera]. Dollars 30 years ago used to be backed by this stuff - gold [waves a gold coin at the camera]. Now thanks to Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke US dollars are backed by these - bananas [waves a banana at the camera]. They're absolutely worthless. Anyone buying US dollars today is going to lose money." "For the average American, this is what they will experience. The price of food and oil are going to skyrocket due to hyperinflation. The only way they can possibly pay for all these bailouts is to inflate the money supply. This means hyperinflation in America like you had in Germany in the 1920s. This is what the average American will experience: destitution, poverty, social unrest due to flagrant bank mismanagement - and it could have been avoided. But unfortunately the banks in the USA are run by greedy, insane private marketeers and this is the result." "It's not really a doomsday scenario for the rest of the world. Take Iran for example, you've got a lot of oil and gas. Those prices are going to go up. China has huge savings. The Indian people have huge gold reserves. For the rest of the world this is actually a fantastic thing. Only the US and Britain are going to experience this horrible disconnection with the rest of the world economy. So it's a doomsday for them but there's a certain symmetry here. They spent 20 or 30 years with this neoliberal model hoisting trillions of dollars of debt onto themselves and now it's gone belly up." "Well if you go back to the 1970's when a similar inflationary spike hit the country you had Paul Volker who was an excellent Fed Chairman, probably the best of the past 100 years - much better than Alan Greenspan or Ben Bernanke who have really discredited the Federal Reserve Bank. Paul Volker at that time did what had to be done which was which was to raise interest rates. You've got to force the recession's last depression onto the American economy but it's necessary. This is what the next president is going to face - a choice which is not going to be tenable for the American people. They're going to have to experience a severe economic contraction so that there is some balance restored to the economy." "Unfortunately the fear at this point is that is that the laws have been changed. Hank Paulson has done a power grab. When George Bush came into office he did a power grab. When 9-11 happened they did another power grab. They have dictatorial powers now. So now you've got this lunatic, Hank Paulson with a multi-trillion dollar hedge fund who's basically running the economy like a rogue trader." "Hank Paulson has a multi-trillion dollar hedge fund and he doesn't appear to be in control of his own mental faculties. He appears to have gone insane." "There wasn't really ever a strong American economy. There was a lot of debt over the past 30 years and this debt has built up. Just look at the average American. They weigh 300 pounds, they waddle around the malls shopping all day. They're not healthy. This is because there's too much debt in the system, too much easy money. Cheap money is what created this problem and it's been going on for 20 or 30 years. Unfortunately the labor movement in America has been decimated. They've been told for 20 or 30 years that it's a trickle down economy and that everyone can get rich in America." "The problems are here but the people who created this nightmare are gone. Cheney has already got his Halliburton corporation headquartered in Dubai. He's already out of the picture. All these crooks are going to be leaving this country. They're not going to stay for all of the rioting there's going to be in America." "Remember in Karachi a few weeks ago there was rioting at the Stock Exchange because of the very same thing that Paulson and Bernanke are doing today on the New York stock Exchange, imposing price-fixing and government intervention." WY/HAR Source: www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=70069§ionid=3510302------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keating Five Ring a Bell?Thursday 25 September 2008 by: Rosa Brooks, The Los Angeles Times McCain's past collides with the present Wall Street debacle. Once upon a time, a politician took campaign contributions and favors from a friendly constituent who happened to run a savings and loan association. The contributions were generous: They came to about $200,000 in today's dollars, and on top of that there were several free vacations for the politician and his family, along with private jet trips and other perks. The politician voted repeatedly against congressional efforts to tighten regulation of S&Ls, and in 1987, when he learned that his constituent's S&L was the target of a federal investigation, he met with regulators in an effort to get them to back off. That politician was John McCain, and his generous friend was Charles Keating, head of Lincoln Savings & Loan. While he was courting McCain and other senators and urging them to oppose tougher regulation of S&Ls, Keating was also investing his depositors' federally insured savings in risky ventures. When those lost money, Keating tried to hide the losses from regulators by inducing his customers to switch from insured accounts to uninsured (and worthless) bonds issued by Lincoln's near-bankrupt parent company. In 1989, it went belly up - and more than 20,000 Lincoln customers saw their savings vanish. Keating went to prison, and McCain's Senate career almost ended. Together with the rest of the so-called Keating Five - Sens. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), John Glenn (D-Ohio), Don Riegle (D-Mich.) and Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), all of whom had also accepted large donations from Keating and intervened on his behalf - McCain was investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee and ultimately reprimanded for "poor judgment." But the savings and loan crisis mushroomed. Eventually, the government spent about $125 billion in taxpayer dollars to bail out hundreds of failed S&Ls that, like Keating's, fell victim to a combination of private-sector greed and the "poor judgment" of politicians like McCain. The $125 billion seems like small change compared to the $700-billion price tag for the Bush administration's proposed Wall Street bailout. But the root causes of both crises are the same: a lethal mix of deregulation and greed. Today's meltdown began when unscrupulous mortgage lenders pushed naive borrowers to sign up for loans they couldn't afford to pay back. The original lenders didn't care: They pocketed the upfront fees and quickly sold the loans to others, who sold them to others still. With the government MIA, soon mortgage-backed securities were zipping around the globe. But by the time many ordinary people began to struggle to make their mortgage payments, the numerous "good" loans (held by borrowers able to pay) had gotten hopelessly mixed up with the bad loans. Investors and banks started to panic about being left with the hot potato - securities backed mainly by worthless loans. And so began the downward spiral of a credit crunch, short-selling, stock sell-offs and bankruptcies. Could all this have been prevented? Sure. It's not rocket science: A sensible package of regulatory reforms - like those Barack Obama has been pushing since well before the current meltdown began - could have kept this most recent crisis from escalating, just as maintaining reasonable regulatory regimes for S&Ls in the '80s could have prevented that crisis (McCain learned this the hard way). But, despite his political near-death experience as a member of the Keating Five, McCain continued to champion deregulation, voting in 2000, for instance, against federal regulation of the kind of financial derivatives at the heart of today's crisis. Shades of the Keating Five scandal don't end there. This week, for instance, news broke that until August, the lobbying firm owned by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac, one of the mortgage giants implicated in the current crisis (now taken over by the government and under investigation by the FBI). Apparently, Freddie Mac's plan was to gain influence with McCain's campaign in hopes that he would help shield it from pesky government regulations. And until very recently, Freddie Mac executives probably figured money paid to Davis' firm was money well spent. "I'm always in favor of less regulation," McCain told the Wall Street Journal in March. These days, McCain is singing a different tune. "There are no atheists in foxholes and no ideologues in financial crises," Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week, explaining the sudden mass conversion of so many onetime free marketeers into champions of robust government intervention. Fair enough. But as you try to figure out what and who can get us out of this mess, beware of those who now embrace regulation with the fervor of new converts. Source: www.truthout.org/article/keating-five-ring-a-bell------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Talk about Spiritual repercussions!!!!Sunday, September 14, 2008 Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation warned Lehman Brothers of consequences of mining sacred Black Mesa By Brenda Norrell UN OBSERVER & International Report NEW YORK -- A delegation of Navajo, Hopi and Lakota warned Lehman Brothers stockholders of the dire consequences of their actions in 2001. In a rare move, censored by most media, the Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation warned Lehman Brothers, after it acquired the financial interests of Peabody Coal, of the spiritual consequences of mining coal on sacred Black Mesa and the aftermath of Peabody Coal's machinations that led to the so-called Navajo Hopi Land Dispute. Lehman Brothers is now in the midst of financial collapse, with its bankruptcy producing a rippling effect throughout the world's economy. At the time of the Lehman Brothers stockholders meeting in 2001, Arlene Hamilton bought two shares of stocks in Lehman Brothers to pave the way for the delegation to address the stockholders. Hamilton said her life was threatened because of this action. Shortly afterwards, Hamilton was killed in a car crash. Longtime Navajo relocation resister Roberta Blackgoat died in San Francisco at Hamilton's memorial. A traditional Hopi was among those addressing the Lehman Brothers stockholders. His admonitions followed those of the late Hopi Sinom elders Thomas Banyacya and Dan Evehema, among the Hopi elders who warned of dire consequences, including natural disasters and worldwide consequences, if Peabody mined coal on Black Mesa and Navajos were relocated from this sacred region. The Hopi Sinom never authorized the establishment of the Hopi Tribal Council, which they referred to as a puppet government of the United States. The traditional Hopi in the delegation told stockholders, "Lehman Brothers, even though we are just a few here, we speak for the Creator, who is the majority.“Therefore we demand you stop the Peabody coal mining and the slurry. We demand again,” said the Hopi elder who asked that his name not be published in the media. "Traditional and priesthood people don't want this mining. The Hopi prophecies say that we have to protect land and life. If we don't protect our beautiful Earth --our Heaven, our Mother, we will suffer with her." He told stockholders that Hopis never signed a treaty with the United States and the current Hopi Tribal Council is not legitimate since it was created by less than 30 percent of the people. Referring to the beginning of the turmoil, he said, "John Boyden was a lawyer who worked for Peabody Coal. He was instrumental to the creation of the Hopi Tribal Council. "Our ancestors warned that someday this would happen. White men will say that it is our own people that sold this land. I will not accept this. "Our roots are rooted in our villages and it goes up to the whole universe. If we break these roots the world will get out of balance. "I pray for you and hope that we open your eyes and you find the majority in your heart.” Roberta Blackgoat, longtime resister and sheepherder from Cactus Valley, told stockholders the region of San Francisco Peaks is holy to the Navajo people. Mining in the area of this sacred mountain is the same as desecrating an altar and church. It is making the people sick."We can not go away to other places," Blackgoat said, adding that livestock confiscation is “starving the people.” "When you have a pinprick on your finger, just take it off and the pain will go away. But there are too many pins on the Mother Earth. Barbed wire is all over the country, dividing the people." Blackgoat was among the families resisting forced relocation. After Peabody orchestrated the so-called Navajo Hopi Land Dispute, more than 12,000 Navajos were relocated to make way for Peabody's coal mining. Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., was among those responsible for Navajo relocation. Leonard Benally, Navajo from Big Mountain on Black Mesa in Arizona, said the delegation told Lehman Brothers that it is time to transform operations to renewable forms of energy, including solar and wind power. "It was like opening this marble door to the Lehman Brothers. We got our foot in there. They were willing to listen. By going there, the delegation touched their hearts.” Benally said the delegation also dispelled myths. "They say it's a land dispute, but it is not. The traditional Hopi and Navajo are standing together, they are the original inhabitants of Black Mesa. We are the caretakers."Benally said the people have been struggling for 32 years because of the turmoil created by Hopi and Navajo tribal leaders intent on making money from the 92 billion tons of coal beneath the ground at Black Mesa. But, he said, the resistance actually goes back 500 years to the Spanish invasion, followed by the European invasion. Finally there was the Kit Carson invasion. "That's when the people were put in the death camps." While Navajos were incarcerated at Fort Sumner, he said, "The military made promises, mountains of promises they never kept."While the Navajo Nation government in Window Rock celebrated Sovereignty Day in April (2001), Benally said tribal leaders force their own people to suffer respiratory disease and death from coal mining, sacrificing them for mining royalties. "Sovereignty Day? That's a joke. For us, we live it. They oppress their own race. They make them bleed."In the 1970s, the Four Corners region was considered a National Sacrifice area, but Benally said it is time to change that classification to a National Historic Site. "The sacredness is still here. Mother Earth is still here. She still breathes. As long as the air blows, the rivers run, Indigenous people will be out here." Benally said the Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation moved in solidarity with the Zapatistas whose caravan through Mexico gave them hope in 2001. "We felt the wind, it came from the South. It is telling the Indigenous people to rise up for their beliefs, their culture. These things are not being respected by anyone but the Indigenous people." In New York, Joe Chasing Horse, Sundance Chief at Big Mountain, addressed the protest rally and spoke to Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking Fund stockholders.“You have taken all of our land, now we have come to show you how to take care of it,” Chasing Horse said. “The traditionalists have the wisdom, we are the wisdom keepers.” Glenna Begay, Navajo protesting in New York, said, "I traveled 3,000miles to be here and to voice my concern about what's happening to us out there on the land. I want the mining to stop." Louise Benally of Big Mountain said, "We need to hold the owners accountable by letting them know the hardship we live with every day." Arlene Hamilton, coordinator of the Weaving for Freedom project and wife of Leonard Benally, personally bought two shares in the corporation to ensure entrance into the stockholders meeting. She and Benally negotiated with Lehman Brothers to allow the elders time to address stockholders. "These were some of the richest men and women in the world. The delegation was so beautiful, and so with the truth. Their presence was holy." Back in Flagstaff in 2001, Hamilton said Lehman Brothers and Peabody Coal now have the opportunity to make a difference in the future of mankind. "We want the dehumanizing and militarizing to stop. There is a lot of suffering going on. We want to make sure the ceremonies are not surrounded by guns and the people have clean drinking water. “There is no life without water." Hamilton said Navajo elders resisting relocation often become dehydrated during the hot summer months because of the scarcity of clean water, while Peabody Coal pumps 10,000 gallons of water a minute to slurry coal.She has taken human rights concerns to Peabody management for years, but she said they have done little to improve the quality of living as promised. "It's really just diversion and distraction while the people are suffering out there. Everything is based on making way for mining." The delegation presented a list of demands to Lehman Brothers, demanding that Peabody leave the water and coal alone because they are the lungs and liver of Mother Earth. They called for a halt to mining and the initiation of a solar project, availability of clean drinking water, and a halt to military over flights and the intimidation of elders and youths by armed rangers. Hamilton said the Weaving for Freedom project is a collective of Dine' weavers in resistance struggling for religious freedom to practice their ancient craft while protecting their sacred land. Hamilton said, "This work is very risky now. We protect each other by traveling in large groups." Leonard Benally said, “The whole thing is about materialism, money. In our culture, money doesn’t matter. It is about how you live in harmony with nature, in harmony with your prayers. “That’s why we are fighting for our lands, even though the media and politicians are telling us we don’t have a right to exist." Meanwhile, Bill Ahearn, spokesman for Lehman Brothers, said the protesters were welcome to speak at the meeting but said the firm would be unable to help them. He said the issues must be resolved by the tribes and BIA. "We're very sympathetic and we feel badly for them, but there's nothing we can do for them because it's not a problem with us." Read: Hopi statement to Lehman Brothers Listen to Democracy Now! Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation to Lehman Brothers in 2001 Source: bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/09/navajo-hopi-and-lakota-delegation.htmlNOTE: Link to newest Wake Up World post: ***be back when I'm done...M*** HERE IT IS; 2 Parts, scroll down for #2:Re: WAKE UP WORLD « Reply #146 Today at 6:10am »The SHIFT/The ECONOMY/FIRST CONTACT... More news:Part 1 of 2[/b] airdance.proboards50.com/index.cgi?board=solutions&action=display&thread=138&page=10#3134
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Oct 1, 2008 17:31:04 GMT 4
Note From Michelle: The House is limiting e-mails from the public to prevent its websites from crashing due to the enormous amount of mail being submitted on the financial bailout bill. As a result, some constituents may get a 'try back at a later time' response if they use the House website to e-mail their lawmakers about the bill defeated in the House on Monday in a 205-228 vote. Stocks plunge on Wall Street as bailout fails in CongressBy Bill Van Auken, Socialist Equality Party vice presidential candidate 30 September 2008 Wall Street suffered its biggest one-day point fall in history amid panic selling, as the proposed government bailout of the major banks and finance houses went down to defeat Monday in the US House of Representatives. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 777 points, or 7 percent. The other major indexes fell even further, in percentage terms, with the Nasdaq Composite Index plunging more than 9 percent and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index falling 8.8 percent. A total of $1.2 trillion, or 9 percent, of total market value was wiped out. The decline on Wall Street was already well under way before the vote was cast in the House, and there is ample reason to suspect that if the bill had passed, the news headlines would have read, “House Approves Bailout, Market Collapses Anyway.”In Europe and Asia, where it was widely assumed that the bailout would be passed and markets ceased trading before the vote was taken Monday afternoon, there were across-the-board losses amid fears that the credit crunch would yield a new wave of bank failures in the US and internationally, irrespective of the $700-billion-plus proposal’s fate. Before the markets in the US opened Monday, European governments and major financial institutions were forced to organize the bailout of three major banks.The governments of the three Benelux countries carried out a $16 billion bailout of the Fortis Bank, while Banco Santander, Spain’s biggest bank, bought out Bradford & Bingley Plc, Britain’s biggest lender to landlords. In Germany, the government and major banks were compelled to intervene with a $51.2 billion line of credit to prevent the collapse of Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, one of Europe’s largest real estate and local government lenders.In the US, bank lending rates rose to their highest levels in nearly a quarter century, with widespread warnings that credit markets were seizing up to the point where major companies might be forced to shut down. This was the implication of remarks made by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in the White House driveway Monday afternoon after the failure of Congress to approve the bailout. “Markets around the world are under stress, and that reduces the availability of credit that businesses across America depend on to meet payroll and to purchase inventories,” said Paulson. The specter of depression, mass layoffs and deep cuts in living standards hangs over the US and world economy. However, there is no reason to believe—and evidently scant confidence in the financial markets—that Paulson’s bailout scheme will prevent such a calamity. The proposal is directed not at alleviating the deterioration of conditions of life for millions of working people, but at salvaging the fortunes of the top layers of the American financial aristocracy.The naked class character of the proposal being promoted by the leadership of both major parties was spelled out by Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein, who insisted that those opposed to the scheme would have to come “to the understanding that the only way to get out of these situations is to have governments all around the world borrow gobs of money and effectively nationalize large swaths of the financial system so it can be restructured, recapitalized, reformed and returned to private ownership once the crisis has passed.” In other words, “gobs of money” are to be seized from the people to protect the wealth of the major shareholders and investors and place the big banks under the wing of the government until they are profitable enough to be turned back to these same financial oligarchs.To call this a “plan” is a gross misrepresentation. It is nothing more than a decision to hand over more than $700 billion in taxpayers’ money to Treasury Secretary Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, to use as he sees fit in buying up worthless paper assets from his former colleagues on Wall Street. Never in history has one US official been granted such sweeping powers. Even the staggering figure attached to this proposal is viewed by most analysts as only a first installment, as the totality of worthless assets on the books of the major financial institutions is many times higher. As for the “concessions” that the Democratic congressional leadership claims to have extracted from the Bush administration, all of them amount to verbal window dressing, placing no binding restraints on this breathtaking transfer of wealth, nor providing any relief for average working people who are suffering the brunt of the economic crisis.Despite the unity of the leadership of both parties and their respective presidential candidates behind this scheme, popular opposition to the proposal is overwhelming and ultimately led to its defeat. In nearly every case, those in Congress facing tight races in November—both Democrats and Republicans—voted against the measure, fearing retribution at the polls if they supported it. The administration and the congressional leadership indicated that they would push for reconsideration of the package as soon as possible, though a second vote appears unlikely before Thursday. Both Wall Street and the White House appeared stunned by the defeat of the legislation, which had the backing of the president, the Democratic majority and Republican minority leaderships in Congress, and Barack Obama and John McCain. “We’ve got a big problem,” a dazed looking George W. Bush said during an appearance at the White House with the president of Ukraine. On Wall Street, the mood in the major finance houses after the House vote alternated between panic and seething anger towards the opposition of the American people to the bailout. Some spoke darkly of the people “waking up” when they could no longer use their credit cards or get cash from their ATMs.As for the media, the pretense of objective reporting was cast aside. Television news announcers voiced the anger and concern of the major financial interests and sought to apportion blame for what was universally presented as the irrational defeat of an indispensable measure. The bailout proposal was rejected by a vote of 228 to 205, with 60 percent of the House Democrats voting for it and 67 percent of the House Republicans voting against. Once again, the Democrats emerged as the most consistent and loyal defenders of Wall Street’s interests.Obama delivered a speech Monday calling for the plan’s approval. He echoed the remarks of Bush, delivered hours earlier on the White House lawn, aimed at blackmailing the American people into supporting the plan. The bailout, he declared, is “our best and only way to prevent an economic catastrophe.” Neither Obama nor anyone else, however, was able to explain how this proposal would benefit the American people. On the contrary, he has already admitted that its passage will force the rescinding of the paltry promises he has made in his election campaign and necessitate greater fiscal discipline. This will inevitably translate into an attack on essential social programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. After the bill was voted down, Obama delayed making a statement until he could consult with Paulson. Then he insisted that the proposal was “required for us to stabilize the markets.” He continued: “Democrats and Republicans in Washington have a responsibility to make sure an emergency rescue package is put forward that can at least stop the immediate problems that we have.” For his part, McCain issued no immediate statement, while a campaign aide echoed the ludicrous claim of the Republican House leadership that the measure’s defeat was a response to a partisan attack in the remarks of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the vote was taken. The major congressional opposition to the bailout came from the most right-wing sections of the Republican Party, who cast the attempt to effect a vast transfer of public resources to the wealthiest interests in the country as “socialism.” Representative Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan went so far as to invoke the October 1917 Revolution in Russia, saying that the bailout plan recalled the Bolshevik slogan of “bread, peace and land.” This right-wing ideology is infused in many cases with racist overtones, scapegoating minority homebuyers, who were disproportionately victimized by subprime mortgages, for the crisis created by Wall Street’s parasitism. In the end, the program of these opponents of the bailout is one of even more tax cuts for the rich and the destruction of what little remains of a social safety net in America, transferring all public monies to big business, albeit by a different route. If these imbecilic demagogues are able to exploit the popular opposition that exists to the bailout, it is only because the leadership of the Democratic Party is so solidly unified behind the interests of finance capital and so indifferent to the concerns of the masses of working people. They are utterly incapable of offering the slightest substantive alternative to the demands of Wall Street.A way out of the crisis—the deepest to confront American and world capitalism since the Great Depression of the 1930s—requires a rejection not only of the bailout, but of the entire framework in which the debate in Washington is being conducted. The capitalist system has failed, and there is no reason to doubt the warnings from Bush, Paulson, Obama and others that it is preparing a social catastrophe. Finding an answer to this crisis begins with asking the question: Who is to pay for it? Whatever their tactical differences on the bailout, the answer of the Democrats and Republicans is clear: Working people must give up their jobs, living standards and social interests in order to rescue the financial parasites who created the disaster.The working class must put forward its own solution. The banks and major financial institutions which now threaten to drag down the economy and plunge millions into poverty must be nationalized, without compensation to their executives and big shareholders.These institutions should be transformed into public utilities, controlled democratically by the people, with their resources utilized not for the creation of profits for the rich, but rather for productive purposes, including the creation of jobs, a halt to foreclosures and evictions, the rebuilding of the social infrastructure and the funding of education, health care and other vitally needed social programs.Those directly responsible for this crisis, the Wall Street executives who oversaw fraudulent forms of financial manipulation that generated multi-million-dollar compensation packages for themselves, must be held accountable. Their assets should be confiscated and they themselves should be subject to criminal prosecution.The struggle for this program is possible only through the mobilization of working people in their own independent political party, fighting to replace the political rule of the banks and big business defended by both Democrats and Republicans with a workers’ government. These are the policies fought for by Socialist Equality Party and its candidates for president and vice-president. Jerry White and I are participating in the 2008 election to bring this program to the widest possible audience of working people, students and youth. We urge all of those who see the need for this socialist alternative to support us in this campaign and to join the SEP. To find out more about the SEP campaign, visit www.socialequality.com or contact us. Source: www.wsws.org/articles/2008/sep2008/bail-s30.shtml------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Senate To Vote On Financial Rescue Plan Dow Mounts Huge Comeback After Record DropPOSTED: 12:38 am PDT September 30, 2008 UPDATED: 7:27 pm PDT September 30, 2008 In a surprise move to resurrect President George W. Bush's $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan, Senate leaders slated a vote on the measure for Wednesday -- but added a tax cut plan already rejected by the House.Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky unveiled the plan Tuesday. The Senate plan would also raise federal deposit insurance limits to $250,000 from $100,000, as called for by the two presidential nominees only hours earlier. The move to add a tax legislation -- including a set of popular business tax breaks -- risked a backlash from House Democrats insisting they be paid for with tax increases elsewhere. But by also adding legislation to prevent more than 20 million middle-class taxpayers from feeling the bite of the alternative minimum tax, the step could build momentum for the Wall St. bailout from House Republicans. The surprise move capped a day in which supporters of the imperiled multibillion-dollar economic rescue fought to bring it back to life, courting reluctant lawmakers with a variety of other sweeteners including the plan to reassure Americans their bank deposits are safe. Before Reid and McConnell's move, lawmakers, President Bush and the two rivals to succeed him all rummaged through ideas new and old, desperately seeking to change a dozen House members' votes and pass the $700 billion plan. Monday's House vote was a stinging setback to leaders of both parties and to Bush. The administration's proposal, still the heart of the legislation under consideration, would allow the government to buy bad mortgages and other deficient assets held by troubled financial institutions. If successful, advocates of the plan believe, that would help lift a major weight off the already sputtering national economy. But the proposal ignited furious responses from thousands of Americans, who flooded congressional telephones, and the deal went down. Some lawmakers reported a shift in constituent calls pouring into their offices Tuesday after the record stock market decline. Many callers, they said, want Congress to do something without "bailing out Wall Street." Bush renewed his efforts, speaking with Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama and making another statement from the White House. "Congress must act," he declared. Though stock prices rose, more attention was on credit markets. A key rate that banks charge each other shot higher, further evidence of a tightening of credit availability. Bush was talking about everyday Americans on Tuesday, not banks or other financial institutions. And no supporters were using the word "bailout." The president noted that the maximum $700 billion in the proposed bill was dwarfed by the $1 trillion in lost wealth that resulted from Monday's stock market decline. "The dramatic drop in the stock market that we saw yesterday will have a direct impact on retirement accounts, pension funds and personal savings of millions of our citizens," Bush said. "And if our nation continues on this course, the economic damage will be painful and lasting." Republicans said the FDIC proposal might attract lawmakers on the left and right who want to help small business owners and avert runs on banks by customers fearful of losing their savings. Another possible change to the bill would call on regulators to modify "mark to market" accounting rules. Such rules require banks and other financial institutions to adjust the value of their assets to reflect current market prices, even if they plan to hold the assets for years. Some House Republicans say current rules forced banks to report huge paper losses on mortgage-backed securities, which might have been avoided. There was a note of irony in that proposal. One Republican familiar with the discussions conceded it amounted to step toward deregulation at a time when Obama, McCain and House members in both parties are clamoring for greater controls on the financial industry. Liberal Democrats who opposed the bill were suggesting other changes. Their ideas include banning some forms of "short selling," in which investors bet that a stock's value will drop. Republicans showed little interest. The rescue package was Topic A on the presidential campaign trail. "The first thing I would do is say, 'Let's not call it a bailout. Let's call it a rescue,"' McCain told CNN. He said, "Americans are frightened right now" and political leaders must give them an immediate solution and a longer-term approach to the problem. Obama issued a statement saying that significantly increasing federal deposit insurance would help small businesses and make the U.S. banking system more secure as well as restore public confidence. The bill's defeat in the House came despite furious personal lobbying by Bush and support from House leaders of both parties. But ideological groups on the left and the right organized against it. Even pressure in favor of the bill from some of the biggest special interests in Washington, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Realtors, could not sway enough votes. Dow Enjoys Third-Largest Point GainOne day after the biggest point drop in its history, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 485 points, or more than 4½ percent -- the latest in a string of extraordinarily volatile days in the stock market. It was third biggest point gain in the Dow's history and the biggest percentage climb in the Dow in six years. The Dow recovered about two-thirds of its record 778-point drop from Monday, but the action in stocks was almost a sideshow against the growing alarm about the credit market, relied on by companies large and small to pay for everyday expenses, from basic supplies to employee salaries. The benchmark rate that banks charge to lend each other money rose sharply, making it more expensive for everyone to borrow. Credit card debt and many mortgages are tied to the rate, too, so everyday Americans will feel the pinch. At the close, the Dow was up 485.21, or 4.68 percent, to 10,850.66. It had fallen almost 7 percent on Monday to its lowest close in nearly three years -- though the drop was far shy of the 20-plus-percent drops of the 1987 stock market crash and the Great Depression. Broader stock indicators also bounced higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose more than 5 percent for the day, and the Nasdaq composite index was up almost 5 percent. It was another day of remarkable volatility on Wall Street. Since the night of Sept. 14, when word spread that investment house Lehman Brothers would be forced into bankruptcy, all but one of the 12 trading days has ended with the Dow up or down by more than 100 points. For the month of September, 15 of the 21 trading days saw triple-digit swings in the Dow. The blue chip index ended the month down about 695 points. On Wall Street, many traders likely will proceed cautiously while they gauge prospects for resurrecting the bailout effort, which was backed by leaders of both parties. Source: www.kirotv.com/save-money/17587265/detail.html------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: ACT NOW: Fair Deal--No Bail Out Date: 10/1/2008 8:37:27 AM Eastern Daylight Time Tell them No Wall St. bailout; we want a Fair Deal for Main St. ACT NOW--The Senate will probably vote TODAYIn an amazing turn of events Monday,the Wall St. Bailout bill was defeated, because members of Congress are listening to angry phone calls from their constituents and activists rallying in the streets. PDA, Democrats.com and Michael Moore were out in front of the vote on Monday initiating immediate action. Thousands of PDAers responded! But, it’s not over; the Senate may vote on the same or a very similar bill Thursday, and the House will probably vote again on Friday. We don’t want a Wall Street bailout. We want a fair deal for Main Street. We’re joining with the Institute for Policy Studies in their call for a sensible plan that will: Provide a Stimulus for Main Street--Aid to the Real Economy Make Wall Street Speculators Pay for the Bailout--No More Debt Shut down the Casino: Rein in the Unregulated Financial Sector Provide limits on CEO pay and Prohibitions on Profiteering from the Bailout In addition, we're calling for: Reform of Bankruptcy Laws We need to keep the heat on--inside and outside--Congress. Send an email to Congress and tell them “No bailout for Wall Street--we want a Fair Deal for Main Street!” capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=11985901&PROCESS=Take+ActionCall your Senators and Representative at the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121, with the same message. Organize or attend an action on Wednesday or Thursday in your area using this easy organizing tool: truemajority.wiredforchange.com/event/distributedEventCalendar.jspEngage the Media and influence the conversation--write letters to the editor, call talk radio shows, send op-eds, add comments and links to blogs, online articles, and youtube videos. Pass this on to your family and friends. Please take action now, while Congress is still listening. capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=11985901&PROCESS=Take+ActionYours in the movement, Tim Carpenter National Director P.S. Find and sign up for October conference calls here: www.thedatabank.com/dpg/309/mtglist.asp?formid=meetProgressive Democrats of America is a grassroots PAC that works both inside the Democratic Party and outside in movements for peace and justice. Our goal: Elect a permanent, progressive majority in 2008. PDA's advisory board includes seven members of Congress and activist leaders such as Tom Hayden, Medea Benjamin, Thom Hartmann Jim Hightower, and Rev. Lennox Yearwood. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fed Pumps Further $630 Billion Into Financial System (Update3) By Scott Lanman and Craig Torres Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve will pump an additional $630 billion into the global financial system, flooding banks with cash to alleviate the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression. The Fed increased its existing currency swaps with foreign central banks by $330 billion to $620 billion to make more dollars available worldwide. The Term Auction Facility, the Fed's emergency loan program, will expand by $300 billion to $450 billion. The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are among the participating authorities. The Fed's expansion of liquidity, the biggest since credit markets seized up last year, came hours before the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a $700 billion bailout for the financial industry. The crisis is reverberating through the global economy, causing stocks to plunge and forcing European governments to rescue four banks over the past two days alone. ``Today's blast of term liquidity will settle the funding markets down, and allow trust to slowly be restored between borrowers and lenders,'' said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. On the other hand, ``the Fed's balance sheet is about to explode.'' The MSCI World Index of stocks in 23 developed markets sank 6 percent, the most since its creation in 1970. Credit markets deteriorated further as authorities tried to save more financial institutions from collapse. European Rescue European governments have rescued four banks in two days and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said today it helped Citigroup Inc. buy the banking operations of Wachovia Corp. after its shares collapsed. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 3.8 percent and the cost of borrowing dollars for three months rose to the highest since January. The rate for euros hit a record. ``If people think the authorities may give in to fears, they are wrong,'' Financial Stability Forum Chairman Mario Draghi said today in Amsterdam, where the international group of regulators and finance officials is meeting. ``There is willingness and determination on winning the battle to restore confidence and stability.'' Banks and brokers have slowed lending as they struggle to restore their capital after $586 billion in credit losses and writedowns since the mortgage crisis began a year ago. The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. also sparked fears among banks they wouldn't be repaid by counterparties, driving up the cost of short-term loans between banks. Funding Risk ``By committing to provide a very large quantity of term funding, the Federal Reserve actions should reassure financial market participants that financing will be available against good collateral, lessening concerns about funding and rollover risk,'' the central bank said. The Bank of England and the ECB will each double the size of their dollar swap facilities with the Fed to as much as $80 billion and $240 billion, respectively. The Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan will also double their dollar swap lines, while the central banks in Australia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Canada tripled theirs. All the banks extended their facilities until the end of April 2009. The Fed is also increasing the size of its three 84-day TAF sales to $75 billion apiece, from $25 billion. That means the Fed will make a total of $225 billion available in 84-day loans. The central bank will keep the sales of 28-day credit at $75 billion. Special Sales In addition, the Fed will hold two special TAF sales in November totaling $150 billion so banks can have funding available for one or two weeks over year-end. The exact timing and terms will be determined later, the Fed said. The TAF program began in December, totaling $40 billion. The bank-rescue plan being debated by Congress today would give the Fed more power over short-term interest rates by providing authority as of Oct. 1 to pay interest on reserves held at the central bank by financial institutions. That would make it easier for the Fed to pump funds into the banking system. Paying interest on reserves puts a ``floor'' under the traded overnight rate, which would allow a central bank ``to provide liquidity during times of stress'' without affecting the rate, New York Fed economists said in a paper last month. To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Lanman in Washington at slanman@bloomberg.netCraig Torres in Washington at ctorres3@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: September 29, 2008 14:28 EDT Source: www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a9MTZEgukPLY------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fed makes billions available to battle crisis By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer Mon Sep 29, 4:20 PM ET WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve and foreign central banks moved Monday to pump billions of dollars to cash-strapped banks at home and abroad in a dramatic bid to break through a credit clog and spur lending. The Fed said the action is intended to "expand significantly" the cash available to financial institutions, its latest effort to relieve the worst credit crisis since the Great Depression. The goal is to boost the amount of quick cash available to banks and other financial institutions so that they'll feel more confident and inclined to lend not only to each other but also to people and businesses. Credit is the economy's lifeblood. The global credit clog — which started a year ago and grew much more severe in the past few weeks — has made it increasingly difficult for people and businesses to borrow money. The crisis — if it persists — could plunge the economy into a recession, President Bush and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke have warned. The Fed action came hours before the House defeated a $700 billion financial bailout plan, ignoring urgent pleas by Bush and Bernanke to move swiftly. The plan was designed to break through a dangerous credit clog that has threatened to freeze up the entire financial system and throw the economy into a recession. At the heart of the plan, the government would buy bad mortgages and other dodgy debts held by banks and other financial institutions. By getting those rotten assets off their books, financial institutions should be in a better position to raise capital and boost lending, supporters contend. The Fed's action on Monday expands programs already in place. It is unclear whether it will break through the credit bottlenecks. Its previous actions — including steps along these lines — have provided relief, but haven't halted the crisis. Against this backdrop, central banks will continue to work closely and are prepared to take "appropriate steps as needed" to ease the crisis and get banks lending again, the Fed said. On Wall Street, stocks dropped sharply even after the Fed's announcement. The Dow Jones industrials plunged 777 points — their largest point drop ever — or almost 7 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index declined 8.51 percent and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 9.14 percent. Under one new step, the Fed will boost the amount of 84-day cash loans available to U.S. banks. The Fed is increasing the amount to $75 billion, up from the current $25 billion starting on Oct. 6. Banks bid on a slice of the loans at an auction. That move will triple the supply of 84-day loans to $225 billion, from $75 billion, the Fed said. Meanwhile, the Fed will continue to make $75 billion worth of shorter, 28-day loans available to banks. All told, the total amount of cash loans — 84-day and 28-day — available to banks will double to $300 billion from $150 billion, the Fed said. Moreover, the Fed made an extra $330 billion available to other central banks. That boosted to $620 billion the total amount available to the central bank through currency "swap" arrangements, where dollars are traded for their currencies. That total is up from $290 billion previously being made available through such arrangements. The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the central banks of Denmark, Norway, Australia and Sweden are involved in those swap arrangements. "We are experiencing a massive credit implosion," said T.J. Marta, a fixed-income strategist at RBC Capital Markets. The move comes as the U.S. financial meltdown's tendrils have ensnared banks in Britain, the Benelux and Germany. By pledging to provide "a very large" cash infusion, the Fed hopes the actions will "reassure financial market participants." Source: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080929/ap_on_bi_ge/fed_credit_crisis------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note From Michelle: Please see new info from Rep. Dennis Kucinich:Subject: The Bailout and What's Next Date: 9/30/2008 4:07:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time airdance.proboards50.com/index.cgi?board=news&action=display&thread=180&page=9#3142And, another from the spirit world and we at the Wake Up World thread, here at the FH Forum:A significant Kryon Quote...this one was recorded at a Laguna Hills, California channelling about 10 months ago. Laguna Hills, California - Dec 2, 2007 Predictions for the next generation Web audio: www.kryon.com/financial28 minutes into the channelling "There is a possibility, a potential, that looms very, very strong, that one of your financial institutions; one with the most money on the entire continent, is going to fail. And it's called INSURANCE. Watch for problems; they are already there... how the money is collected, the integrity of where it goes... who gets it and who doesn't, and why... what it's really for... is it helpful, is it not... most don't even know the extent of the enormity of money these companies have! Let me tell you what's going to happen... they are not going to fail because of something they do. They are going to fail because the energy of the consciousness of this planet is going to change and make them responsible for what they have done. Watch for it."~KRYON CHANNELLING~
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Oct 8, 2008 13:02:24 GMT 4
Is the Federal Reserve the new Third Reich? Fed is creating 'Monopoly Money' Why is the Fed committing acts of economic warfare against the United States of America?
I've got a very detailed report, brand new, from Mike Adams@ www.NaturalNews.com He's covered so much of what I've wanted to post, but haven't because I find the flood of articles overwhelming. A rather long article, but well worth your time to read. Before we get to that, I'd like to share a few CLIPS from another article, published a few days ago, before the 2nd House vote and eventual approval for the bailout....You know, capitalists are such dirt bags; it's unfettered capitalism on the way up and a call for socialism on the way down....Socialism for the big guys, that is, not you or I. Anyway, here's a few items to keep in mind:From: The Credit Squeeze ScareThursday 02 October 2008 by: Dean Baker, The Center for Economic and Policy Research www.truthout.org/100308JCLIPS: The Federal Reserve Board chairman described the credit squeeze as being "as severe as any supply-induced constraint ever, other than from policy actions." That statement should help to prompt Congress into quick passage of the bank bailout bill, except this quote is from February of 1991, and the chairman at the time was Alan Greenspan. (1) The economy is in a recession and banks always tighten up on credit in a recession. When the economy's growth prospects are in question, it puts the health of any particular business into question. Therefore, banks will be far more hesitant to make loans during a period of economic weakness. There were literally hundreds of news stories about the credit squeeze in the 1990-1991 recession. While the story of the big Wall Street banks teetering and/or crashing may be unique to the current downturn, the stories we are hearing of the main street credit squeeze could be cut and pasted from the news coverage of the 1990-1991 recession. There is little reason to believe that the current tightness is any worse than what we have seen in prior recessions....... Of course this past history doesn't mitigate the pain being suffered by families and businesses trying to make ends meet. But it is important to put the problem in context. No one told us that the world would collapse if we didn't cough up $700 billion for the Wall Street banks in the 1990-1991 recession.The bottom line is that we have badly over-leveraged banks who are on the edge of collapse and we have a credit tightening due to an economic downturn. These problems are related, but even if we could snap our fingers and make the banks healthy again tomorrow, we would still have a serious credit problem due to the recession. In other words, many of the businesses and people who have been appearing on news shows because they could not get credit would still not be able to get credit. (Although they probably will not be appearing on the news shows once the bailout passes.)....... Just to remind everyone, the cause is the loss of more than $4 trillion in housing equity due to the collapse of the housing bubble. The collapse of this bubble has not only devastated the construction and real estate market, it also has forced consumers to cut back. Tens of millions of homeowners no longer have any equity against which to borrow. Even those who still have equity realize that they will have to increase their savings to support themselves in retirement.
And all this came about because the experts who are now insisting that we need a bailout had previously insisted that there was no housing bubble and that everything was just fine. It is always important to keep things in context.END Here's some CLIPS from another; keep all this in mind as you compare statements being thrown out at us. Then consider what Mike Adams has laid out for us below:$700B Wall Street bailout passed, Bush signs itBy JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS AND DAVID ESPO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Last updated October 3, 2008 12:03 p.m. PT From: seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/381680_bailout04.htmlCLIP: The final vote, 263-171 in the House, capped two weeks of tumult in Congress and on Wall Street, punctuated by daily warnings that the country confronted the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression if lawmakers failed to act. There were 58 more votes for the measure than an earlier version that failed on Monday. "We all know that we are in the midst of a financial crisis," House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said shortly before casting his vote for a massive government intervention in private capital markets that was unthinkable only a month ago. "And we know that if we do nothing, this crisis is likely to worsen and to put us into an economic slump like most of us have never seen," he said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the bill was needed to "begin to shape the financial stability of our country and the economic security of our people." Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pledged to begin using his new authority quickly, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank would work closely with the administration. Wall Street welcomed the action, but investors also were buffeted by a bad report on the job market. The Labor Department said employers slashed 159,000 jobs in September, the largest cut in five years and further evidence of a sinking economy.At its core, the bill gives the Treasury Department $700 billion to purchase bad mortgage-related securities that are weighing down the balance sheets of institutions that hold them. The flow of credit in the U.S. economy has slowed, in some cases drying up, threatening the ability of businesses to conduct routine operations or expand, and adversely affecting consumers seeking financing for mortgages, cars and student loans. Some state governments have also experienced difficulty borrowing money. END Now, keep in mind the statements listed above as you view the following:Rep. Brad Sherman Martial Law'There would be martial law in America if we voted no.' --Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif., 27th District) says Congress threatened with Martial Law if bill is not passed --Posted by saluki420 02 Oct 2008 Transcript: The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. That atmosphere is not justified. Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday, that the sky would fall, the Market would drop two or three thousand points the first day-another couple thousand the second day-and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no. That's what I call fearmongering. Unjustified. Proven wrong. And thanks to our governmental boot licking corporate lackeys, we have this to look forward to:Pensions lose $2 trillion Congressional budget analyst says many workers may need to delay retirement.Last Updated: October 7, 2008: 3:23 PM ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months, Congress' top budget analyst estimated Tuesday. The upheaval that has engulfed the financial industry and sent the stock market plummeting is devastating workers' savings, forcing people to hold off on major purchases and consider delaying their retirement, said Peter Orszag, the head of the Congressional Budget Office. As Congress investigates the causes and effects of the financial meltdown, the House Education and Labor Committee has heard from retirement savings and budget analysts on how the housing, credit and other financial troubles have battered pensions and other retirement funds, which are among the most common forms of savings in the United States. "Unlike Wall Street executives, America's families don't have a golden parachute to fall back on," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the panel chairman. "It's clear that their retirement security may be one of the greatest casualties of this financial crisis." More than half the people surveyed in an Associated Press-GfK poll taken Sept. 27-30 said they worry they will have to work longer because the value of their retirement savings has declined. Orszag indicated the fear is well-founded. Public and private pension funds and employees' private retirement savings accounts - like 401(k)'s - have lost some 20% overall since mid-2007, he estimated. Private retirement plans may have suffered slightly more because those holdings are more heavily skewed toward stocks, Orszag added. "Some people will delay their retirement. In particular, those on the verge of retirement may decide they can no longer afford to retire and will continue working," Orszag said. A new AARP study found that because of the economic downturn, one in five workers 45 and older has stopped putting money into a 401(k), IRA or other retirement savings account during the past year, and nearly one in four has increased the number of hours he works. With so much talk of a disaster on Wall Street, are you nervous about your retirement? Tell us how your golden years are shaping up. You could be profiled in an upcoming CNNMoney.com story. First Published: October 7, 2008: 2:02 PM ETSource: money.cnn.com/2008/10/07/news/economy/retirement_meltdown.ap/index.htmAnd finally, here's the article from Mike Adams....If we the populace haven't learned anything from history, the PTBs certainly have.....MichelleIs the Federal Reserve Engaged in Acts of Economic Warfare Against America?by Mike Adams Wednesday, October 08, 2008 (NaturalNews) In 1942, German intelligence officers rounded up skilled Jewish prisoners and launched Operation Bernhardt, a clever scheme designed to counterfeit hundreds of millions of dollars worth of British Pounds and destroy the British economy by flooding it with counterfeit money. Located in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Operation Bernhardt was, even by modern standards, a runaway success that resulted in the creation of forged bank notes worth 132 million British Pounds. This "economic warfare" operation resulted in a devastating economic effect on the British economy. You can read the true history of this operation here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_... It is important to note that Operation Bernhardt was an act of war, specifically pursued for the purpose of destroying Britain's economy by creating so much new money that the value of the money already in circulation would plummet. This was considered a strategic attack, just as effective as carpet-bombing tank factories or mowing down soldiers on the field with German-made MG42 machine guns. What does all this have to do with the Federal Reserve?Today, the Federal Reserve is engaged in an eerily similar operation, counterfeiting trillions of dollars in U.S. bank notes and flooding the U.S. money supply with money created from nothing. The result, of course, is the same as was intended by Operation Bernhardt in 1942: The economic destruction of the target nation. Only this time, the target is the United States of America.Hilariously, the Fed claims it's doing this to save the economy. Yet the laws of economics tell us that flooding the money supply with trillions of dollars in new money actually harms the economy. And the Fed has been hard at work causing this harm: $250+ billion two weeks ago, $600+ billion last week and $900 billion earlier this week! It's beginning to crank up the printing presses to the tune of a trillion dollars a week, and by doing so, it's contributing to the destruction of the U.S. economy at a pace the Third Reich could have barely imagined.Has the Fed declared war on the working class?If the actions pursued by the Federal Reserve were being masterminded by Al-Qaeda, they would be denounced as acts of war. In World War II, such actions were deliberate acts of war. Targeting the economy for destruction by flooding the money supply with counterfeit currency is, by any measure, a threat to any nation.So why is the Federal Reserve engaged in actions that, if committed by other nations, would warrant a military response? This is not an idle question. I'm not asking this in a satirical way. I'm quite serious about this: Why is the Fed committing acts of economic warfare against the United States of America? (The Fed, by the way, is a private company. It is not, as you've been led to believe, part of the U.S. government.) The answer is obvious. You've probably already figured it out: The Federal Reserve is at war with America. It's an economic war, of course, not a bombs-and-bullets war. The casualties, though, are just as real: Savings accounts, retirement funds, bank accounts, jobs, businesses, pensions and much more.By counterfeiting trillions of dollars like a Sachsenhausen operation on steroids, the Fed is carpet-bombing the U.S. economy with an unprecedented flood of fiat currency, causing the exact same economic destruction intended by the Nazis in World War II (but on a much more devastating scale). And it's doing this as part of a new economic war. Class warfare has begunWhat war? The war between the wealthy elite and the working class. The Fed is working hard, of course, to protect the wealthy elite. Over a trillion dollars of taxpayer money has already been earmarked to bail out the rich, elite bankers who lost other people's money in a series of idiotic bets on fictitious financial instruments. And what are these bankers doing with this taxpayer money? According to an Associated Press report published yesterday, executives of the failed insurance company AIG were sent on a $440,000 retreat "to a posh California resort" less than one week after the U.S. government bailed them out. At the spa, AIG executives enjoyed spa treatments, massages, organic food buffets and bodywork therapy, all while the American taxpayers footing the bill were slaving away in real jobs, doing real work.
That's how this new class warfare is taking shape: YOU (the working class) get all the debt, all the losses, and all the financial burden. THEY (the wealthy elite) get all the profits, all the luxury spa treatments, all the tax breaks and billions of dollars in free money from the Federal Reserve.In the 1942 Operation Bernhardt, the Germans literally planned to load hundreds of millions of dollars in British Pound bank notes and air-drop them over London. The resulting chaos, it was believed, would shut down the British economy, halting the flow of money needed by Britain to fund its war effort. In the United States today, the Fed is taking a different approach: Air-dropping trillions of dollars into the laps and bank accounts of wealthy bankers and financial institution CEOs, concentrating the massive creation of fiat currency into the hands of less than 1% of the population. And just to make sure the economic carpet-bombing is a complete success, the Federal Reserve and U.S. government are conspiring to create more than a trillion dollars in new money each week, then flood those funds into banks, businesses and insurance companies. This will, of course, devastate the value of the dollars being saved, held or earned by the wage slaves who labor their lives away under this economic regime. (That would be you and me.)
It's a brilliant plan... if you're interested in destroying a nation. This kind of attack would bring almost any nation to its knees. It's an act of war that requires no violence, no bombs and no destruction of real infrastructure. And yet it achieves what every war in history has ever sought to achieve: The transfer of power from the hands of the many to the hands of the few.
The Federal Reserve, in effect, has become a modern-day economic Third Reich, and it has set its sights on the U.S. economy.Acts of economic terrorism?Perhaps a more accurate metaphor here would be that the Fed's creation of trillions of dollars of new money is "an act of economic terrorism" against the United States. In fact, the terrorists who masterminded 9/11 are no doubt watching this whole thing with a great sense of satisfaction. The U.S. government is now doing to its own people what the terrorists could never have accomplished: The destruction of a large portion of its economy, its currency and the savings of its people. The economic losses of 9/11 pale in comparison to the financial destruction that has been unleashed onto America by the Federal Reserve. Two days ago, the market reaction resulted in the wipeout of $2 trillion in retirement savings of the American people. Yesterday's market drop added another $2 trillion (or so) in losses. And this is possibly just the very beginning. There is no limit to the economic destruction that can now be unleashed upon America by the Fed's counterfeiting operation.Yet, amazingly, it wasn't "terrorists" who put this plan into place. Who was it, exactly? Your Congressional representatives! In a grand, historical betrayal of the American people, members of your own U.S. House of Representatives and Senate voted to unleash this economic assault on America, violating the wishes of 99% of the American people (who are aligned against bailing out the rich on the backs of the poor).Of course, to hear them explain it, their actions are meant to save the taxpayers. Yep, that's their plan: To save YOU, the taxpayer, by confiscating your money and handing it over to the wealthy elite. And whatever money can't be stolen from the taxpayers will be counterfeited by the Fed's money-creation machine. The Real Agenda: A Massive Transfer of WealthWe are not watching an economic rescue, friends. We are watching an economic coup. Creating and dumping trillions of dollars into the money supply is an act of war. But it's a war with a specific purpose. What's happening right now is that the United States is being taken over by King Henry and his accomplices. More than fifty percent of the housing and nearly twenty percent of the entire U.S. economy is now controlled by one person -- Henry Paulson -- and that person answers to no one. He isn't elected, he can't be removed from office, and he's subject to no law.
King Henry controls unlimited funds. He can print any amount of money, or confiscate any amount from the taxpayers (by spending taxpayer dollars to bail out his rich friends). If the Federal Reserve is the new Third Reich, King Henry is its Hitler.
The economic war has already been lost by the People. It was lost on September 30, 2008, when Congress surrendered the U.S. economy to King Henry. The People now own nothing but paper money and ephemeral digital account numbers, all of which could be turned into worthless digits overnight by a single decision from King Henry.
In this economic bailout and the Fed's unlimited creation of new money, America has suffered the greatest act of economic terrorism in our nation's history. Note carefully that it wasn't conducted by the Nazis, Saddam Hussain or Al Qaeda. It was, in fact, put into place by 172 Democrats and 91 Republicans in the House, and a similar majority in the U.S. Senate. (See the complete list below.)So what can YOU do right now?A system of exchange is not dependent on the dollar alone. Commerce will survive the collapse of one currency. Trade will go on after this economic chaos passes, and businesses will continue to be an important part of our economic future.People will still need food, clothing, nutritional supplements, fuel, services, computers, tutoring, services, pet products, children's products, cars, MP3 players and much more. The end of the U.S. dollar is NOT the end of the world. It is simply the end of one empire...In my view, the best way to financial survive this economic warfare being conducted by the Federal Reserve against the People is to create your own economic abundance by owning (or launching) your own independent income sources. In fact, I've written an entire report on how to accomplish this. It's called How to Build Your Financial Safety Net. Due to this economic crisis, I've decided to release it at no charge, and it's available right now at: www.naturalnews.com/report_finan... Read it if you want to be empowered, informed and insulated from the demise of the dollar. Using the strategies you'll find in that report, you can drastically limit your losses in this economic carpet-bombing of the U.S. economy. In fact, I believe you can emerge with greater wealth than you had when it all started. You probably won't be getting paid in dollars, however. Expect a new currency to be the future system of exchange in America. But building reliable income streams now is a smart way to survive the coming economic implosion that will put corporations, governments and non-profits out of business. (If you work for a paycheck, your paycheck may be in danger right now.) What's Really RadicalBy the way, do you think this article is radical? Some people have told me that my reporting on the economic situation is "radical." You know what I told them? I said imagine two households. One household balances its budget, spends only what it brings home in income and has no debt. The other household spends twice as much as it earns. It owes $50,000 on credit cards and borrows money from loan sharks to meet the minimum payments on its credit cards. Which household is "radical?"Now consider this: The second household sneaks into the first household and steals money to pay its own debts. On top of that, it has a counterfeit cash printing machine in the basement, and it's cranking out thousands of dollars a week just to attempt to pay off its credit cards. It's immune to the law because it buys off the local police for criminal immunity. Which household is headed towards financial disaster? Which household has a real future, and which one doesn't? That second house, of course, is the United States government. My reporting on the U.S. financial situation is downright tame compared to what's really going on behind the scenes. I can't get radical enough to accurately describe the degree of deception and outright theft that's taking place in Washington right now. History will show that not only were my warnings accurate, they were understated by a wide margin. Reporting the truth is a delicate thing. People can only stomach so much truth at any one time. Few people can handle the whole truth, which is why I usually refrain from reporting it. There are things stated in this article that only hint at much bigger stories that will someday be told by others. Only the most open-minded, skeptical thinkers can even mentally consider the real truth of what's happening in our world today. Most people have been brainwashed into living in a fictional world, and they are unable to even consider truths that threaten their grip on reality. As Morpheus explained, "The mind has trouble letting go." As a result, the public has to be led by the hand from one realization to the next, little by little, until they attain the ability to see the world as it really is rather than the illusion that has been constructed for them by the very people running this financial scam. Below, I have a riddle for you. Here you'll find an anagram. If you can figure out what this means (and if these words mean something to you), then you're probably among the very few who are truly informed. Advice Kid, Free Snef J., Jean Loxes Video: How Money Creation Actually WorksCheck out this video to see how the Fed (and the fractional-reserve banking system) creates money out of nothing: www.naturalnews.com/News_000340_... How Congress VotedHere is the list of those Congressional representatives who surrendered your economic future to King Henry. A "Y" means a "Yes" vote (in favor of the financial bailout legislation). This is, in essence, a list of those who have betrayed the People by conspiring to instigate acts of economic warfare against We the People. ("N" means they voted No. "Y" means they voted Yes.") ALABAMA Democrats - Cramer, Y; Davis, Y. Republicans - Aderholt, N; Bachus, Y; Bonner, Y; Everett, Y; Rogers, Y. ALASKA Republicans - Young, N. ARIZONA Democrats - Giffords, Y; Grijalva, N; Mitchell, Y; Pastor, Y. Republicans - Flake, N; Franks, N; Renzi, N; Shadegg, Y. ARKANSAS Democrats - Berry, Y; Ross, Y; Snyder, Y. Republicans - Boozman, Y. CALIFORNIA Democrats - Baca, Y; Becerra, N; Berman, Y; Capps, Y; Cardoza, Y; Costa, Y; Davis, Y; Eshoo, Y; Farr, Y; Filner, N; Harman, Y; Honda, Y; Lee, Y; Lofgren, Zoe, Y; Matsui, Y; McNerney, Y; Miller, George, Y; Napolitano, N; Pelosi, Y; Richardson, Y; Roybal-Allard, N; Sanchez, Linda T., N; Sanchez, Loretta, N; Schiff, Y; Sherman, N; Solis, Y; Speier, Y; Stark, N; Tauscher, Y; Thompson, Y; Waters, Y; Watson, Y; Waxman, Y; Woolsey, Y. Republicans - Bilbray, N; Bono Mack, Y; Calvert, Y; Campbell, Y; Doolittle, N; Dreier, Y; Gallegly, N; Herger, Y; Hunter, N; Issa, N; Lewis, Y; Lungren, Daniel E., Y; McCarthy, N; McKeon, Y; Miller, Gary, Y; Nunes, N; Radanovich, Y; Rohrabacher, N; Royce, N. COLORADO Democrats - DeGette, Y; Perlmutter, Y; Salazar, N; Udall, N. Republicans - Lamborn, N; Musgrave, N; Tancredo, Y. CONNECTICUT Democrats - Courtney, N; DeLauro, Y; Larson, Y; Murphy, Y. Republicans - Shays, Y. DELAWARE Republicans - Castle, Y. FLORIDA Democrats - Boyd, Y; Brown, Corrine, Y; Castor, N; Hastings, Y; Klein, Y; Mahoney, Y; Meek, Y; Wasserman Schultz, Y; Wexler, Y. Republicans - Bilirakis, N; Brown-Waite, Ginny, N; Buchanan, Y; Crenshaw, Y; Diaz-Balart, L., N; Diaz-Balart, M., N; Feeney, N; Keller, N; Mack, N; Mica, N; Miller, N; Putnam, Y; Ros-Lehtinen, Y; Stearns, N; Weldon, Y; Young, N. GEORGIA Democrats - Barrow, N; Bishop, Y; Johnson, N; Lewis, Y; Marshall, Y; Scott, Y. Republicans - Broun, N; Deal, N; Gingrey, N; Kingston, N; Linder, N; Price, N; Westmoreland, N. HAWAII Democrats - Abercrombie, Y; Hirono, Y. IDAHO Republicans - Sali, N; Simpson, Y. ILLINOIS Democrats - Bean, Y; Costello, N; Davis, Y; Emanuel, Y; Foster, Y; Gutierrez, Y; Hare, Y; Jackson, Y; Lipinski, N; Rush, Y; Schakowsky, Y. Republicans - Biggert, Y; Johnson, N; Kirk, Y; LaHood, Y; Manzullo, N; Roskam, N; Shimkus, N; Weller, Y. INDIANA Democrats - Carson, Y; Donnelly, Y; Ellsworth, Y; Hill, N; Visclosky, N. Republicans - Burton, N; Buyer, N; Pence, N; Souder, Y. IOWA Democrats - Boswell, Y; Braley, Y; Loebsack, Y. Republicans - King, N; Latham, N. KANSAS Democrats - Boyda, N; Moore, Y. Republicans - Moran, N; Tiahrt, N. KENTUCKY Democrats - Chandler, N; Yarmuth, Y. Republicans - Davis, N; Lewis, Y; Rogers, Y; Whitfield, N. LOUISIANA Democrats - Cazayoux, N; Jefferson, N; Melancon, Y. Republicans - Alexander, Y; Boustany, Y; McCrery, Y; Scalise, N. MAINE Democrats - Allen, Y; Michaud, N. MARYLAND Democrats - Cummings, Y; Edwards, Y; Hoyer, Y; Ruppersberger, Y; Sarbanes, Y; Van Hollen, Y. Republicans - Bartlett, N; Gilchrest, Y. MASSACHUSETTS Democrats - Capuano, Y; Delahunt, N; Frank, Y; Lynch, N; Markey, Y; McGovern, Y; Neal, Y; Olver, Y; Tierney, Y; Tsongas, Y. MICHIGAN Democrats - Conyers, N; Dingell, Y; Kildee, Y; Kilpatrick, Y; Levin, Y; Stupak, N. Republicans - Camp, Y; Ehlers, Y; Hoekstra, Y; Knollenberg, Y; McCotter, N; Miller, N; Rogers, N; Upton, Y; Walberg, N. MINNESOTA Democrats - Ellison, Y; McCollum, Y; Oberstar, Y; Peterson, N; Walz, N. Republicans - Bachmann, N; Kline, Y; Ramstad, Y. MISSISSIPPI Democrats - Childers, N; Taylor, N; Thompson, N. Republicans - Pickering, Y. MISSOURI Democrats - Carnahan, Y; Clay, N; Cleaver, Y; Skelton, Y. Republicans - Akin, N; Blunt, Y; Emerson, Y; Graves, N; Hulshof, N. MONTANA Republicans - Rehberg, N. NEBRASKA Republicans - Fortenberry, N; Smith, N; Terry, Y. NEVADA Democrats - Berkley, Y. Republicans - Heller, N; Porter, Y. NEW HAMPSHIRE Democrats - Hodes, N; Shea-Porter, N. NEW JERSEY Democrats - Andrews, Y; Holt, Y; Pallone, Y; Pascrell, Y; Payne, N; Rothman, N; Sires, Y. Republicans - Ferguson, Y; Frelinghuysen, Y; Garrett, N; LoBiondo, N; Saxton, Y; Smith, N. NEW MEXICO Democrats - Udall, N. Republicans - Pearce, N; Wilson, Y. NEW YORK Democrats - Ackerman, Y; Arcuri, Y; Bishop, Y; Clarke, Y; Crowley, Y; Engel, Y; Gillibrand, N; Hall, Y; Higgins, Y; Hinchey, N; Israel, Y; Lowey, Y; Maloney, Y; McCarthy, Y; McNulty, Y; Meeks, Y; Nadler, Y; Rangel, Y; Serrano, N; Slaughter, Y; Towns, Y; Velazquez, Y; Weiner, Y. Republicans - Fossella, Y; King, Y; Kuhl, Y; McHugh, Y; Reynolds, Y; Walsh, Y. NORTH CAROLINA Democrats - Butterfield, N; Etheridge, Y; McIntyre, N; Miller, Y; Price, Y; Shuler, N; Watt, Y. Republicans - Coble, Y; Foxx, N; Hayes, N; Jones, N; McHenry, N; Myrick, Y. NORTH DAKOTA Democrats - Pomeroy, Y. OHIO Democrats - Kaptur, N; Kucinich, N; Ryan, Y; Space, Y; Sutton, Y; Wilson, Y. Republicans - Boehner, Y; Chabot, N; Hobson, Y; Jordan, N; LaTourette, N; Latta, N; Pryce, Y; Regula, Y; Schmidt, Y; Tiberi, Y; Turner, N. OKLAHOMA Democrats - Boren, Y. Republicans - Cole, Y; Fallin, Y; Lucas, N; Sullivan, Y. OREGON Democrats - Blumenauer, N; DeFazio, N; Hooley, Y; Wu, Y. Republicans - Walden, Y. PENNSYLVANIA Democrats - Altmire, N; Brady, Y; Carney, N; Doyle, Y; Fattah, Y; Holden, N; Kanjorski, Y; Murphy, Patrick, Y; Murtha, Y; Schwartz, Y; Sestak, Y. Republicans - Dent, Y; English, N; Gerlach, Y; Murphy, Tim, N; Peterson, Y; Pitts, N; Platts, N; Shuster, Y. RHODE ISLAND Democrats - Kennedy, Y; Langevin, Y. SOUTH CAROLINA Democrats - Clyburn, Y; Spratt, Y. Republicans - Barrett, Y; Brown, Y; Inglis, Y; Wilson, Y. SOUTH DAKOTA Democrats - Herseth Sandlin, N. TENNESSEE Democrats - Cohen, Y; Cooper, Y; Davis, Lincoln, N; Gordon, Y; Tanner, Y. Republicans - Blackburn, N; Davis, David, N; Duncan, N; Wamp, Y. TEXAS Democrats - Cuellar, Y; Doggett, N; Edwards, Y; Gonzalez, Y; Green, Al, Y; Green, Gene, N; Hinojosa, Y; Jackson-Lee, Y; Johnson, E. B., Y; Lampson, N; Ortiz, Y; Reyes, Y; Rodriguez, N. Republicans - Barton, N; Brady, Y; Burgess, N; Carter, N; Conaway, Y; Culberson, N; Gohmert, N; Granger, Y; Hall, N; Hensarling, N; Johnson, Sam, N; Marchant, N; McCaul, N; Neugebauer, N; Paul, N; Poe, N; Sessions, Y; Smith, Y; Thornberry, Y. UTAH Democrats - Matheson, N. Republicans - Bishop, N; Cannon, Y. VERMONT Democrats - Welch, Y. VIRGINIA Democrats - Boucher, Y; Moran, Y; Scott, N. Republicans - Cantor, Y; Davis, Tom, Y; Drake, N; Forbes, N; Goode, N; Goodlatte, N; Wittman, N; Wolf, Y. WASHINGTON Democrats - Baird, Y; Dicks, Y; Inslee, N; Larsen, Y; McDermott, N; Smith, Y. Republicans - Hastings, N; McMorris Rodgers, N; Reichert, N. WEST VIRGINIA Democrats - Mollohan, Y; Rahall, Y. Republicans - Capito, N. WISCONSIN Democrats - Baldwin, Y; Kagen, N; Kind, Y; Moore, Y; Obey, Y. Republicans - Petri, N; Ryan, Y; Sensenbrenner, N. WYOMING Republicans - Cubin, Y. Source: www.naturalnews.com/024427.htmlEnd Note From Michelle: The above items bring you all the bad news of late. Mike Adams has given a proposal through his endorsement of one option for you to consider. In the coming posts, I will offer more options from others who see the end of The Empire as a new beginning for us:
"Empire organizes by domination, brings fortune to a few, and condemns most to misery and servitude.
"Earth Community organizes by partnership, unleashing human potential for creative cooperation, and shares resources and surpluses for the good of all.
"The future is in our hands... We have the power. We are the ones we have been waiting for."
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Oct 17, 2008 0:08:10 GMT 4
Zeitgeist AddendumAlso posted at:Re: My God is Bigger and Better than Yours! « Reply #2 Today at 12:00am »Go to:airdance.proboards50.com/index.cgi?board=solutions&action=display&thread=193&page=1#3159UPDATE!...ZEITGEIST — THE MOVIE New: Zeitgeist Addendum - released free online Oct. 3, 2008As promised here is the newest update to ZEITGEIST — THE MOVIE. You can read the Interactive Transcript on religion from Part One: The Greatest Story Ever Told, here:airdance.proboards50.com/index.cgi?board=solutions&action=display&thread=193&page=1#2921Zeitgeist Addendum - released free online Oct. 3, 2008From: ZeitgeistMovie Added: March 14, 2008 You can view Zeitgeist for free online:www.zeitgeistmovie.com*The failure of our world to resolve the issue of war, poverty, and corruption, rests within a gross ignorance about what guides human behavior to begin with. 'Zeitgeist-Addendum' addresses the true source of the instability in our society, while offering the only fundamental, long term solution. Welcome to the Official Site for 'Zeitgeist, the Movie' (2007) & its sequel 'Zeitgeist: Addendum' (2008). Since the emergence of the project in late June, 2007, many other websites, organizations and posts have fallaciously claimed connections to the works. Please note that these two productions are our only media expressions. Likewise, Zeitgeistmovie.com and its developing activist site: TheZeitgeistMovement.com are the only web entities we have produced.
'Zeitgeist, The Movie' and 'Zeitgeist: Addendum' were created as Not-for-Profit expressions to communicate what the author felt were highly important social understandings which most humans are generally not aware of. The first film focuses on suppressed historical & modern information about currently dominant social institutions, while also exploring what could be in store for humanity if the power structures at large continue their patterns of self-interest, corruption, and consolidation.
The second film, Zeitgeist: Addendum, attempts to locate the root causes of this pervasive social corruption, while offering a solution. This solution is not based on politics, morality, laws, or any other "establishment" notions of human affairs, but rather on a modern, non-superstitious based understanding of what we are and how we align with nature, to which we are a part. The work advocates a new social system which is updated to present day knowledge, highly influenced by the life long work of Jacque Fresco and The Venus Project.
More coming soon.
Source/Go To: www.zeitgeistmovie.com/statement.htm
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Oct 29, 2008 15:16:18 GMT 4
How much bribe money does it take to transfer $700 Billion taxpayer dollars to Wall Street's elite? Info For You To Pass on to Your Friends and Neighbors The Human Fallout And....Some Really Nice News First up, some info you can spread around. And then, news which lifts us up. You know, people are committing suicide over home foreclosures; some taking their families along with them. Remember that as you read over the contribution lists below. I end this compilation with some uplifting news and something for us all to think on if you find yourself in a moment where you can help another soul....Michelle Goldman Sachs Bribed Senate to Pass Bailoutuk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek7zc0lJxbMHow much bribe money does it take to transfer $700 Billion taxpayer dollars to Wall Street's elite?
GOLDMAN SACHS CONTRIBUTIONS:Obama, Barack (D-IL) $691,930
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) $468,200
Romney, Mitt (R) $229,675
McCain, John (R-AZ) $208,395
Himes, Jim (D-CT) $114,748
Giuliani, Rudolph W (R) $111,750
Dodd, Christopher J (D-CT) $105,400
Edwards, John (D) $66,450
Specter, Arlen (R-PA) $47,600
Emanuel, Rahm (D-IL) $32,950
Reed, Jack (D-RI) $30,100How much money did your Representative get from Big Bankers to look the other way and pass a bill that the American people clearly do not want?Complete CONTRIBUTION LIST:www.washingtonyourefired.com/goldman_sachs_2008_contributions.html[glow=red,2,300]HELP SPREAD THE WORD...[/glow] www.WashingtonYoureFired.com------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It is with great sorrow that I post the following. I know where these people are coming from. I too have lost a job and my home...One night, I threw myself across the hood of my car as the repo men were taking it away. You can't imagine the despair I felt as all that supported me was lost. I had no family near as I went through all this. However, thanks to a few caring people, I managed to hang on until my family came and brought me home. This all happened to me back in 1991....I'm still alive and kicking, relatively happy, with much to enjoy in life and to be grateful for.
I can't help but wonder as I read about the following people: Didn't they have anyone to turn to for support? No family? No friends? No neighbors?
People, if you find yourself in a situation where you can help someone, do so! Maybe you can't help them save their home but you can be there for them to listen, to give temporary shelter, to give advice or help with paperwork...Whatever, because when you go through something like this, you are numb, frozen with fear, and walk through life as if dead.....
Help each other....All we've got is each other.......MichelleThe Rising Body Count on Main Street: The Human Fallout From the Financial CrisisSunday 19 October 2008 by: Nick Turse, Tomdispatch.com On October 4, 2008, in the Porter Ranch section of Los Angeles, Karthik Rajaram, beset by financial troubles, shot his wife, mother-in-law, and three sons before turning the gun on himself. In one of his two suicide notes, Rajaram wrote that he was "broke," having incurred massive financial losses in the economic meltdown. "I understand he was unemployed, his dealings in the stock market had taken a disastrous turn for the worse," said Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Michel R. Moore. The fallout from the current subprime mortgage debacle and the economic one that followed has thrown lives into turmoil across the country. In recent days, the Associated Press, ABC News, and others have begun to address the burgeoning body count, especially suicides attributed to the financial crisis. (Note that, months ago, Barbara Ehrenreich raised the issue in the Nation.) Suicide is, however, just one type of extreme act for which the financial meltdown has seemingly been the catalyst. Since the beginning of the year, stories of resistance to eviction, armed self-defense, canicide, arson, self-inflicted injury, murder, as well as suicide, especially in response to the foreclosure crisis, have bubbled up into the local news, although most reports have gone unnoticed nationally - as has any pattern to these events. While it's impossible to know what factors, including deeply personal ones, contribute to such extreme acts, violent or otherwise, many do seem undeniably linked to the present crisis. This is hardly surprising. Rates of stress, depression, and suicide invariably climb in times of economic turmoil. As Kathleen Hall, founder and CEO of the Stress Institute in Atlanta, told USA Today's Stephanie Armour earlier this year, "Suicides are very much tied to the economy." With predictions of a long and deep recession now commonplace, it's not too soon to begin looking for these patterns among the human tragedies already sprouting amid the financial ruins. Troubling trends are to be expected in the years ahead, especially as hundreds of thousands of veterans of the Iraq and Afghan Wars, their families often already under enormous stress, are coming home to scenarios of joblessness and, in some cases, homelessness. Consider this, then, an attempt to look for early anecdotal signs of the fallout from hard times, the results, in this case, of a review of local press reports from across the nation, some tiny but potentially indicative of larger American tragedies, and all suggesting a pattern that is likely to grow more pronounced. Extreme Evictions In February, when a sheriff's deputy went to serve an eviction notice on a home owner in Greeley, Colorado, he found the man had slashed his wrists and was lying in a pool of blood. Rushed to a nearby hospital, the man survived, while the Sheriff's office tried to downplay economic reasons for the incident, saying, according to the Denver Post, that "it wasn't linking the suicide attempt to the eviction because the man had known for a week that he was to be kicked out." In March, Ocala, Florida resident Roland Gore killed his dog and his wife, set fire to his home which was in foreclosure, and then killed himself. In April, Robert McGuinness, a 24-year-old process server, arrived at the Marion County, Florida doorstep of Frank W. Conrad. According to an article in the local Star Banner, the 82-year-old Conrad was reportedly "cordial" at first. When McGuinness produced the foreclosure notice, however, Conrad got angry and left the room. He returned with a .38 caliber pistol and announced, "You have two seconds to get off my property or you will go to the hospital." Marion County sheriff's deputies later arrested Conrad. On June 3rd, agents of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) set out to inform New Orleans resident Eric Minshew that he would be evicted from his "Katrina" trailer. After Minshew threatened them, the FEMA employees called the police. When they arrived, Minshew allegedly threatened them as well and "locked himself in his partially-gutted home, adjacent to his trailer." A SWAT team was called in and tear-gassed the man. Interviewed by the Times-Picayune, local resident Tiffany Flores said, "Some SWAT members told my husband they had never seen anyone withstand that much tear gas." The standoff went on for hours before "an assault team of tactical officers" invaded the home. Though Minshew opened fire, they eventually cornered him on the upper floor. When - they claimed - he refused to drop his weapon, they gunned him down. That same day, in Multnomah County, Oregon, sheriff's deputies served an eviction notice on a desperate tenant. According to Deputy Travis Gullberg, the Multnomah County Sheriff's Public Information Officer, the evictee promptly pulled a gun from his pocket and pointed it at his head before being disarmed by the deputies. Hard Times Recently, according to the Los Angeles Times, Rich Paul, a vice president at ValueOptions Inc., which handles mental health referrals, said that over the last year stress-related calls arising from foreclosures or financial hardship had gone up 200% in California. Similarly, Dr. Mason Turner, chief of psychiatry at Kaiser Permanente's San Francisco Medical Center, reported "a fourfold increase in psychiatric admissions at his hospital during August, with roughly 60% of patients saying financial stress contributed to their problems." Of course, many victims of the linked economic crises never receive treatment. In July, Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy Mark Habecker told the Sacramento Bee that twice this year "homeowners about to be evicted have committed suicide as he approached to do a lockout." In another case, he said, "a fellow Sacramento deputy found a note in the home that told him where to find the foreclosed homeowner's body." The Bee reported that such cases "received no publicity when they happened," which raises the question of just how many similar suicides have gone unreported nationwide. In July, when police delivered an eviction notice at the Middleburg, Florida home of George and Bonnie Mangum, the couple barricaded themselves inside. Eventually, George Mangum was talked into surrendering and was arrested. "He did the only thing he knew to do, protect his family, all he did was sit on the other side of the door and say I have a gun, I have a gun and that's why he's going to jail because he threatened the police," said Bonnie. The couple's daughter Robin added, "This is my home, this is all our home and I don't think it's right. My dad was a Green Beret, he's sick, how are you going to kick him out?" Pinellas Park, Florida resident Dallas Dwayne Carter was a 44-year-old disabled, single dad who lost his job, fell into debt, and was faced with eviction. "He always talked about needing help - financially and help with the kids," neighbor Kevin Luster told the St. Petersburg Times. On July 19th, Carter apparently called the police to say he was armed and disturbed. When they arrived, Carter fired his pistol and rifle inside the apartment, before emerging and pointing his weapons at the officers on the scene. Police say they ordered him to drop them. When he didn't, they killed him in a 10-round fusillade. On July 23d, about 90 minutes before her foreclosed Taunton, Massachusetts home was scheduled to be sold at auction, Carlene Balderrama faxed a letter to her mortgage company, letting them know that "by the time they foreclosed on the house today she'd be dead." She continued, "I hope you're more compassionate with my husband and son than you were with me." After that, she took a high-powered rifle and, according to the Boston Globe, shot herself. In an interview with the Associated Press, Balderrama's husband John said, "I had no clue." His wife handled the finances and had been intercepting letters from the mortgage company for months. "She put in her suicide note that it got overwhelming for her," he said. In the letter, she wrote, "take the [life] insurance money and pay for the house." The day after Balderrama took her life, 50 miles away in Worcester, Massachusetts, a 64-year-old man, who had already been evicted, barricaded himself inside his former home. Police were called to the scene to find him reportedly prepared to ignite four propane tanks. "His intention was to burn the house down with him in it," Sgt. Christopher J. George told the Telegram & Gazette. With the man becoming "even more despondent" as "a moving van arrived on the street," police stormed the house to find him "holding a foot-long knife to his own chest" as a piece of paper burned near the propane. The man was disarmed and the fire extinguished. That very same day, in Visalia, California, a Tulare County sheriff's deputy tried to serve an eviction notice to Melvin Nicks, 50. Nicks responded by stabbing the deputy with a knife and barricading himself in the house for several hours. He later surrendered. No Way Out Bay City, Michigan residents David and Sharron Hetzel, both 56, "lost their home to foreclosure and filed for bankruptcy protection. But they did not follow through with the Chapter 13 proceedings." On August 1st, say police reports, David Hetzel mailed a letter of apology to his family members. Later that night, according to the local police, he attacked his sleeping wife, striking her in the head with a golf club and repeatedly stabbing her with a kitchen knife. After that, he began setting fires throughout the house before crawling into bed beside his wife and killing himself with "a single, fatal wound to his torso." On August 12th, sheriff's deputies arrived at the Saddlebrook, New Jersey home of 88-year-old Beatrice Brennan, another victim of the mortgage crisis, who had refinanced her home and fallen behind on payments. Refusing to stand idly by while his mother was put out on the street, her 60-year-old son John pulled a .22 caliber handgun on the lawmen. That sent the movers, waiting for a court-imposed 10 a.m. deadline, scurrying for their van. Brennan was able to delay the eviction briefly before a SWAT team arrested him and his mother lost her home. "I'm heartbroken over this," Vincent Carabello, a longtime neighbor, told the local paper, the Record. "How could this happen?" Roseville, Minnesota resident Sylvia Sieferman was under a great deal of stress and beset by financial difficulties. She worried about how she would care for her two 11-year-old daughters. On August 21st, according to police reports, Sieferman "repeatedly stabbed the girls and herself." "She reached her limit," her friend Carrie Micko told the Star Tribune. "She couldn't cope anymore... she felt that her daughters were suffering because she was failing to provide for them." As Micko further explained, "After a series of financial mishaps, she just couldn't see her way through. She was under extreme financial, emotional and spiritual distress and didn't want to fail them." By Any Means Necessary The Boston Globe reported that, on September 5th, "[f]our protesters trying to prevent the eviction of a Roxbury woman from her home were arrested... after they chained themselves to the steps of her back porch." As 40 protesters chanted in the street, officials from Bank of America ordered Paula Taylor out of her house. "This is our eighth blockade and the first time there have been arrests," said Soledad Lawrence, an organizer with City Life, a non-profit organization seeking to halt the large numbers of foreclosures and evictions in Boston neighborhoods. "They can be more aggressive and we'll be more aggressive," she added. On September 25th, as politicians in Washington tried to hash out a massive bailout package for financial institutions, six Boston police officers confronted about 40 City Life activists in front of the home of Ana Esquivel, a public school employee, and her husband Raul, a construction worker, both in their fifties. The Globe reported that four protesters were arrested as police shoved their way through in order to allow a locksmith into the house to bar the Esquivels from their home. "We've been destroyed by the bank," Ana Esquivel said, sobbing. "The bank is too big for us." While the Esquivel blockade failed, Steven Meacham, a City Life organizer, told a Globe reporter that "the protests have helped to stop about nine evictions. In the successful blockades, the homeowners were given additional time by their mortgage holders to negotiate alternatives to foreclosure." Two days earlier, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies came to the Monrovia home of 53-year-old Joanne Carter and her 67-year-old husband John to serve an eviction notice. Joanne Carter refused to accept it. According to "Monrovia spokesman" Dick Singer, as reported in the Pasadena Star-News, she "told deputies she had guns in the house and showed them a shotgun." The next day, Monrovia police officers showed up at the home after being informed that the woman "may have made threats to a workers compensation agency." Police Lieutenant Michael Lee said that Carter told them if they "tried to come in, she would defend her house at any means necessary." She and her husband then reportedly barricaded themselves inside, after which a shotgun was fired. Police from other local departments were called in. Following an hours-long standoff, the Carters surrendered and were arrested. That same day, in northern California, Cliff Kendall, Petaluma's chief building official, shot himself with a rifle. A week earlier, Kendall had learned that he was being laid off. "He was afraid we'd lose our home, and we probably will because I can't afford to keep it," his wife Patricia, who is on disability with a back injury, told the Press Democrat. "He was extremely upset about it and hurt." On October 3rd, the day before Karthik Rajaram's mass murder/suicide in Los Angeles, 90-year-old Addie Polk was driven to extremes by the financial crisis. With sheriff's deputies at the door, Polk evidently took the only measure she felt was left to her to avoid eviction from her foreclosed home. She tried to kill herself. Her neighbor Robert Dillon, hearing loud noises from her home, used a ladder to enter the second floor window. He found Polk lying on her bed. "Then she kind of moved toward me a little and I saw that blood, and I said, 'Oh, no. Miss Polk musta done shot herself.'" While she was in the hospital recovering from two self-inflicted gunshot wounds, Fannie Mae spokesman Brian Faith announced the mortgage association had decided to forgive her outstanding debt and give her the house "outright." On October 6th, in Sevier County, Tennessee, sheriff's deputies, with police in tow, arrived to evict Jimmy and Pamela Ross from their home. They heard a shot and entered the home to find 57-year-old Pamela dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. Neighbor Ruth Blakey told WVLT-TV, "I know she really hated to leave that house. She did not want to leave that house." Wanda Dunn told neighbors she would rather die than leave her home. On October 13th, the day she was to be evicted, the 53-year-old Pasadena, California native apparently set fire to the home "where her family had lived for generations" before shooting herself in the head. "We knew it was going to happen," neighbor Steve Brooks told the Los Angeles Times. "It was nobody's fault; it was everybody's fault." Outsourcing Suicide In September, readers at Slate's "Explainer" column asked the following question: If the financial crisis was so dire, "how come we aren't hearing about executives jumping out of windows?" Writer Nina Shen Rastogi dutifully answered: "Because the current situation hasn't had nearly as devastating an effect on people's personal finances. The Great Crash of 1929 - and, to a lesser extent, the crash of 1987 - did lead some people to commit suicide. But in nearly all of those cases, the deceased had suffered a major loss when the market collapsed. Now, due in large part to those earlier experiences, investors tend to keep their portfolios far more diversified, so as to avoid having their entire fortunes wiped out when stocks take a downturn." Perhaps this is true. So far, at least, Wall Street's suicides seem to have been outsourced to places that its executives have probably never heard of. There, on the proverbial main streets of America, the Street's financial meltdown is beginning to be measured not only in dollars and cents, but in blood. Right now, there are no real counts of the many extreme acts born of the financial crisis, but assuredly other murders, suicides, self-inflicted injuries, acts of arson and of armed self-defense have simply gone unnoticed outside of economically hard-hit neighborhoods in cities and small towns across America. With no end in sight for either the foreclosures or the economic turmoil, Americans may have to brace themselves for many more casualties on the home front. Unless extreme economic steps, like mortgage- and debt-forgiveness, are implemented, the number of extreme acts and the ultimate body count may be far more extreme than anyone yet wants to contemplate. -------- Nick Turse is the associate editor and research director of Tomdispatch.com. His work has appeared in many publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde Diplomatique (German edition), Adbusters, the Nation, and regularly at Tomdispatch.com. His first book, "The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives," an exploration of the new military-corporate complex in America, was recently published by Metropolitan Books. His website is Nick Turse.com.Source: www.truthout.org/102008CSome comments from readers at this article's source:Looks like Grapes Of Wrath Mon, 10/20/2008 - 22:00 — Anonymous (not verified) Looks like Grapes Of Wrath time for many in our nation. How sad and heartbreaking.
What these stories have in Mon, 10/20/2008 - 21:49 — john visher (not verified) What these stories have in common is that the victims are acting alone, or with a few family members. There is no community response. I hope if my neighbor is being evicted, even if I don't particularly like him, I assist him in his struggle against the landlord and the banks. I suggest we all be that kind of a friend to those in distress. Peace, and power to the people.
This is the true story of Mon, 10/20/2008 - 20:49 — doubter (not verified) This is the true story of the financial meltdown and there is STILL no discussion of helping the homeowners many of whom are victims of our "buy more pay later" consumer culture, yes some over bought but the majority would keep paying and staying in their homes given the opportunity to work out a reasonable payment plan. Where is this discussion in Congress, at the debates, the rally's, at the Fed? Nowhere. Greed Rules America.
The economic happy-talk of Mon, 10/20/2008 - 19:57 — MyLeftOne (not verified) The economic happy-talk of the last decade helped cause this. Our media touts the winners in our Wild West economy while we far more numerous losers wonder where our piece of the pie went. It is important to re-adjust our expectations, despite the continued happy-talk about the 'bottom' of the recession and the subsequent 'recovery', because if we don't, more will suffer. Oh man. This was hard to
Mon, 10/20/2008 - 19:41 — Disturbed (not verified) Oh man. This was hard to read. Being forced to leave your home has got to be one of the worst things that can happen to a person, or a family second only to loosing your or a loved ones life. It infuriates me that the main stream media has not been reporting these stories. Mortgage and debt-forgiveness is the solution. The financial system as it exists has to end, because clearly its not working. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ;D Here's an example of one human helping many.....What a courageous, kindhearted official!!!Sheriff in Ill. county won't evict in foreclosuresOct 8, 2:19 PM (ET) CHICAGO (AP) - Residents of foreclosed properties in Chicago and other parts of Cook County don't have to worry about deputies forcing them out. Sheriff Tom Dart says that starting Thursday his office won't take part in evictions.
Dart says he's concerned that many of the people being evicted are renters who were unaware that their landlords have been failing to pay their mortgages. He says his deputies have no way of knowing whether they're removing someone who has defaulted on a loan or someone who has been faithfully paying rent.
Dart says he thinks he's the first sheriff in a major metropolitan area to stop such evictions during the ongoing foreclosure crisis.
Dart says the number of mortgage foreclosures in Cook County has skyrocketed and will probably keep rising.Source: apnews.myway.com/article/20081008/D93MFL900.htmlPonder on This:Subject: I Believe God Wants You to Know Date: 10/29/2008 6:32:20 AM Eastern Daylight Time From: today@nealedonaldwalsch.com On this day of your life, dear friend, I believe God wants you to know...
....that challenges are what you came for. And you are
never, ever, given a challenge you cannot overcome.
The purpose of life is to give you a chance to be the
grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held
about Who You Are. When challenges arrive, then,
move straight to clarity: This is what you came for.
Now rise to this occasion, and know that you have
every resource with which to create the right and
perfect outcome.
You will not have to think but a second to know
exactly why you received this message today.
Love, Your Friend....
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Nov 19, 2008 14:27:35 GMT 4
We Will Watch Obama Like A HawkNovember 5 2008 International Forecaster Weekly Summary: USA now the Obamanation, Illuminati and elites are always the real winners in elections, politicians ruled behind the scenes by the powerful, gold and silver futures have been suppressed, more economic bubbles coming, stock market losses to reduce global wealth by trillions Congratulations, America. You are now officially the Obamanation. Not that you had any other realistic choices. And the only other viable alternative, McCain, was no better than Obama. He will now be forced to do as he is told under threat of exposure, and will have no independent latitude to make decisions concerning anything which the Illuminati care about. Biden will be his handler just as Cheney was, and continues to be, Caligula's handler. In fact, that's why Biden, a fervent and hardened Illuminist, was chosen as VP. The October Surprise also explains why Palin was chosen as VP for McCain. McCain and Palin were never seriously in contention due to the coming October Surprise, so this gave the Illuminists a chance to cater to the Christian Right without any worries about Palin ever becoming President in the event that McCain could no longer serve in that capacity. Once again, the naive and fawning Christian Right got all excited over being patronized in yet another false-flag overture to Christians. The Palin nomination was intended as a plug for incumbent traitors in Congress who had electorates filled with Christian voters. The idea was to energize these Christian voters so as to help these incumbents get reelected. In this manner, the evil Illuminists attempted to keep the best government officials that money could buy in office, while the government officials who were up for reelection attempted to keep their established system of embedded graft and corruption going. Apparently, despite all that has happened, the Christian Right still can't recognize a wolf in sheep's clothing, nor are they able to perceive when they are being led down a garden path. With that kind of gullible leadership, Christianity is doomed in the US. In time, we will become just like Europe, unless God intervenes with an Exodus-like series of miracles to spark a Christian revival, because that is what it will probably take to wake up our sleeping Christian leaders. We would like to rejoice with our black citizens about the election of our first black President, but we believe that this victory will be bittersweet, or perhaps even Pyrrhic in nature. Had Martin Luther King been elected, we could have rejoiced with you. But in case you hadn't noticed, Mr. King, whose thoughts and philosophy were the antithesis of those held by the Illuminati, ended up being assassinated by them, while by contrast, Mr. Obama, an elitist bootlicker who surrounds himself with upper tier Illuminist advisors like Brzezinski, Buffett, Volcker, Rubin and Anderson, and who kow-tows to the same evil Illuminist scum who are financing his Jimmy-Carter-like campaign out of obscurity, ended up being elected President of the United States. This shows you, in no uncertain terms, how corrupt the system really is. We judge people by the content of their character as Dr. King suggested, and based on Mr. Obama's campaign associations alone, we would have to conclude that his character is not a good one. His support of Fannie and Freddie in the face of their obvious bankruptcy, and his number one spot as the target of Fannie and Freddie campaign contribution largesse, puts the icing on the cake, as does his support of Mr. Odinga, whose attempted coup in Kenya has resulted in the destruction of 800 Christian churches and the murders of hundreds of Christian Kenyans, events which were totally suppressed by the fane-stream media. He is not Dr. King. In fact, he is the precise opposite of Dr. King, who preferred peace over militancy. Worse yet, we note that the current group of Illuminati are the most virulent racists of all time. They make Hitler look like a civil rights leader. What may be happening here is that these fiends are trying to associate what will be the worst economic, social and political times ever suffered by Americans, which these elitists have malevolently and intentionally orchestrated to bring America to its knees and to pave the way for world government, with a black Presidency. In one brilliant master stroke, they will take all the misery they have created to push us into a corporatist, fascist police state, and place it on the head of a black President. In addition, they will make sure that his Presidency is a disaster and that it does not succeed. Obama will be in over his head, and due to his compromised position regarding his citizenship, he will do whatever they tell him to do, and none of it will work. That is because it is not supposed to work. They want to bring you to your knees so you will bow down to the new self-proclaimed masters of the universe as the old Goldilocks Matrix is discarded and the new corporatist, fascist police state is substituted in its place. Our question is: Does Obama know this, or is he about to get the surprise of his life? Is he a patsy, or is he a player? If he is trying to be a player, we can assure him he will never be accepted by the masters of virulent racism. Note how well this association of national disaster with a black Presidency will play into the rhetoric of white supremacists. White supremacists will be in state of nirvana. Like Pavlov's dogs, the sheople are conditioned to come bleating to the voting polls on Election Day to cast their vote for reprobate A, or for reprobate B. They think they are making a choice, but for most part, in the important campaigns like President of the US and many other major state and federal elective positions, the choice has already been made for them. Pick Illuminist Skull and Bones candidate A, or pick Illuminist Skull and Bones candidate B, ala Bush against Kerry. Either way, we win. Candidate A will promote items "a" through "m" of our agenda, and candidate B will promote items "n" through "z" of our agenda. Thus, ergo, our agenda is always moving forward, no matter who gets into office. Come, come, our little sheople. Come into the voting booths and choose your poison, errrrrrr, politician. (Bah-ah-ah-ah-ah). Come, come, our little sheople. Pick the person who will slaughter you. (Baaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!) Oh, how silly of us. Did we say "slaughter?" Oh, we are so very sorry, we meant to say "water." That's right, pick the person who will water you. Please forgive us for that little Freudian slip. (Bah-ah-ah-ah-ah). The candidates will always tell you what you want to hear, and then they will do exactly as they are told by their Illuminist handlers, which is usually quite different from what was promised during campaign rhetoric. That is why there is not a dime's bit of difference between Jackasses and Dumbos. They must do as they are told, or they are sent on a trip to Dallas, or on a plane ride over Martha's Vineyard. Politicians blab away, talking about what is on their party's agenda, and then they are told what to do by those in our shadow government who run the whole agenda, which is of course divided between the two parties. We promise Mr. Obama that we will never listen to what he says, but will we watch what he does like a hawk. We will burn away all the Illuminist lies and webs of deceit which are woven around his actions to obscure and to obfuscate their true nature and purpose. We will give him a chance like anyone else and we will be his supporter if he is honest and forthright. But we will be his worst nightmare if he tries to get "cute" with the American people. We will expose what he is doing and lay it bare to the American public. If he is not being honest we will see right through it, and then tell you, our subscribers, how things really are. This is what we have done over the course of the past ten Presidential Administrations preceding Obama's coming Administration, and is what we will continue to do. Remember, Mr. Obama, we have been doing this for over 50 years and we know their agenda and how they operate far better than you do. We can also assure you that they are not telling you everything they plan to do. You could not take the shock. You might even be enraged. They will tell you what is coming on an as-needed basis. Obama will now put the finishing touches on the destruction of America which was started in earnest under the previous trilogy of traitors, or triad of trouble, which commenced with the Administration of Bohemian Bush, Sr., continued with vigor under Slick Willie Clinton, and then was nearly completed during the epically catastrophic Caligula administration, which we note is still not finished with its skullduggery, and won't be until Caligula leaves office, if ever. Could it be that Obama be booted out based on his citizenship issues, thus enraging black citizens by dispossessing them, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and leading to riots, civil unrest and martial law, which would mean that Caligula would get to stay in office until Biden took over. Perhaps it turns out that Biden, and not McCain or Obama, was the real Manchurian Candidate after all. What happens when a standing President declares martial law, the President-elect is ousted, and the Vice-President-elect takes the President-elects place? Who prevails? Bush or Biden? Either way, we lose. We note that the last thing Bush wants is to leave power and not have the ability to stop another Administration, or a people's committee, from conducting a real 911 investigation. The above are just a few of the possible scenarios, which the Illuminists could force on us in order to implement martial law and a feudal, Orwellian police state. Who knows what could happen as long as these Illuminist sociopaths are running our shadow government? Never underestimate the cleverness of these megalomaniacal, satanic trillionaires, whose intelligence is powered by supernatural forces of evil and darkness. Next comes another major war to distract us from the destruction of our economy, and to destroy our military so we have no defense against foreign troops or against both foreign and domestic mercenaries. We also note that Obama has promised a new national draft so that your children get to be cannon fodder for the fun and profit of the US military-industrial complex and so they also get to become the objects of persecution and terrorist retribution overseas as they are forced to stick their noses into everyone else's business where they do not belong. Even if they end the war in Iraq and divvy it up with big oil while retaining a mercenary force, rest assured that they will move on to the next war or escalation in Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, in the Balkans, or on the Russian border. Who knows with these maniacs? This is the end of our society as we know it. This is the Fall of the House of Usher. The prices of gold and silver futures have been suppressed to such an extent by the Illuminists within the Treasury Department that there is a stampede out of gold and silver futures, an event that could lead to default. As you all know physical gold and silver are in short supply and we are seeing higher premiums. At the same time the rigged futures market is just the opposite. All throughout history good money, gold, has driven out bad, fiat, and that is why the gold and silver futures market will either collapse because no one will play anymore, or they will default as a result of inability to deliver. Gold is a 2-edged sword. Gold and silver go up with inflation and hyperinflation and gold also goes up or holds its own in deflation in a flight to quality. We have been in the credit crisis for 15 months and the US and world economies are headed at breakneck speed into deep recession. We have stagflation, inflation and stagnation and it is going to get considerably worse as we head toward eventual deflation. Personal consumption expenditures are falling, as is GDP, which in the third quarter finally entered the minus column. We have a rigged rally in the dollar as consumption falls and government expenditures climb. Long before this is over the part of GDP consisting of personal consumption will fall from 70% to 72% to the long-term mean of 64.5% and that alone will cripple the economy. Although we see it going into the 50s as depression takes hold a few years from now. Our government and Wall Street are orchestrating a less severe recession to keep you spending and to keep you in the rigged stock market. As a result you are talked into a bailout package for banks and Wall Street. It doesn’t work and over 80% of Americans are against the package because they know what is going on. They are listening to alternative radio and reading what is on the Internet. In spite of that a purchased or compromised Congress give the corrupt Illuminists what they wanted. It must also be remembered the administration told congressmen that if we didn’t have such legislation that they’d impose Martial law. That is what corporate fascist government is all about. We are already in a severe recession. All of our government’s statistics are bogus. The bailout was for the most part for money center banks, the big financial conglomerates and transnational corporations. Those funds went to the insiders, not to smaller institutions. They were for the crime syndicate, the corrupt Illuminist mafia. The next step after the election is the monetization of money and credit and horrible hyperinflation. Soon the dollar short covering will be history. Libor has already fallen and is back in its normal place. Credit derivatives and credit default swaps has produced a demand for dollars for settlement payouts. That will soon end as well. Fifteen months ago these derivatives began to fail and that systemic failure is ongoing. It will end in the complete collapse of the dollar. This is the same barbaric horde that just sent the commodity market down almost 60%. They are now waiting to take it back up again to plunder the public once more. They bashed commodities and gold and silver because the rush for real assets had to be destroyed even though it was temporary. As a result there was a rush into physical gold and silver products, a resultant shortage developed. The elitists saw that and not wanting more physical gold in the publics’ hands the mints in Johannesburg, Canada, the US and Mexico shut down. Do you really think that was coincidence? They do not want gold and silver attractive because they are going to hyper inflate. At least for the next two to three years inflation is going to rage. Money and credit are still expanding at 12-1/2% and inflation is 12-1/2%. What deflationists do not seem to grasp is that the elitists will keep the system running because they do not want a crash until they can get a major war underway, as a distraction; another way of adding wealth, and for getting a tighter grasp on power and to further exercise population control. The question is when will the viability of America debt be questioned? Will the failure to deliver US treasuries break the market and not nonparticipation? We do not know but it is surely possible. This is why we have not for some time recommended US Treasuries, but instead Swiss franc Treasuries for those who prefer a partial cash position. It is very simple. The more debt the US government creates and the more money and credit the Fed creates the more the value of the dollar depreciates. Worse yet, the collateral being presented for the exchange of Treasuries is essentially worthless. We also believe Treasuries are being created and not being reported in order to satisfy the perceived flight to quality. Remember, these people do not tell the truth about anything and they believe as the Illuminated ones that they can do anything they please. That is why we continue to tell you to be out of US government and debt paper as well as the stock market. The only exceptions are gold, silver and oil and gas stocks. Cash out your retirement plans if you can and move them into gold and silver related assets. We can promise you two things, hyperinflation and eventual Treasury default. Why do you think on 11/15 major nations are meeting to form a new monetary unit? It will take several months. But it is about to happen. The dollar as a reserve currency and as a store of value is finished and many other currencies will follow. Remember 64.5% of world central bank reserves are in US dollars. No country is going to survive this unscathed. There will be a trigger as there always is. It probably will be an economic event or a string of events that begins the dollar collapse. There are things going on we know nothing about, but which we will soon find out about. We have another couple of bubbles coming. There is a pension bomb that is in process and the credit card bubble-bomb. Lenders wrote off about $21 billion in bad credit card loans in the first half of 2008, and they haven’t even scratched the surface yet. Companies are laying off millions of workers and it is currently conservatively estimated that by the end of 2009 they’ll lose another $55 billion. Currently losses are 5.5% of debt outstanding and probably will easily exceed 8%. As lenders rethink their lending rules our credit-hooked nation is rethinking their credit habits. It is about time lenders smartened up and stopped being greedy and it is about time Americans started paying for gas, food and other items with cash. You should only be using credit cards for emergencies and you should pay off your debit every month. In 2005 mortgage extractions were $595 billion, in 2007 they fell to $470 billion and the second quarter of 2008 saw $9.5 billion. At that rate we’ll see a 90% drop from 2005. Total loans from commercial banks grew by $89 billion yoy to December. Of that $61 billion was credit card debt. That means banks only lent $28 billion to business or to individuals. These numbers show you how stressed consumers are, amid accelerating job loss, low wages and high inflation, home price deflation, the effects of illegal immigration and the losses in equity in stocks, never mind having their retirement accounts clobbered. Credit card debt is up – it has risen more in the recent 10 weeks than it has in the previous 10 months. The increase is annualized at 48.3%. American Express delinquencies on credit payments rose to 4.1% in the third quarter, up from 2.5% yoy, their pool of uncollectible loans to a high of 6.7%. If it weren’t so sad the following would be laughable. The second largest credit card merchant vendor is McDonalds. This is a sign of very serious distress. This level of credit card usage is unsustainable. All this comes as stock market losses worldwide reduced global wealth by $16 trillion. A good part of which was in retirement accounts. This coming year government will admit to unemployment of more than 9%. That puts U6 at 14% and long-term at 17% using government figures. The duration of current unemployment is nine months or 38 weeks. That will be at least 14 months at the end of 2009. Unless unemployment benefits are expended an additional six months they’ll be lots of people in serious financial trouble. That means less consumption, which will feed recession. Incidentally, that will widen the budget deficit. Unemployed don’t pay taxes and that means less revenue. We see a 2009 budget deficit of $1.2 trillion plus, as the recession deepens. The only thing keeping the end of 2009 out of depression will be massive injections of money and credit and that will cause the dollar to fall and inflation, gold and silver to rise. With all this in the mix we see would-be newsletter writers, economists and analysts predicting already slow recovery by the end of 2009. In order to be politically acceptable they didn’t recognize recession until a few months ago, a year and one-half behind the curve. This in spite of massive welfare during the year. Source: tinyurl.com/5rlcc6
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Dec 12, 2008 16:12:14 GMT 4
Money and the Crisis of CivilizationYou know, I've done my share of posting all the bad news concerning the economic meltdown....It's time to start sharing a different insight to all this. Many of us see the collapse of the monetary systems as a door to building a better society. The following article is an educational one describing, in a simplified manner, how the current system works, but it also offers a message envisioning a better future. The author states: You see, the gathering crisis presents a tremendous opportunity. Deflation, the destruction of money, is only a categorical evil if the creation of money is a categorical good. However, you can see from the examples I have given that the creation of money has in many ways impoverished us all. Conversely, the destruction of money has the potential to enrich us. It offers the opportunity to reclaim parts of the lost commonwealth from the realm of money and property. Do yourself a favor and read the following article, especially if you are in any type of fear due to the economy. You might look at it this way: The banking system is the keeper of most dreams for humanity at this time. Dreams can be equated to anything that one chooses to do from taking a trip via the train, plane or automobile, to purchasing a house, to remodeling the house that one has, to purchasing a car or some furnishings. Even the dreams for entertainment are held by the banks as one uses the credit card to pay for the concert, movie or drinks and dinner out at a restaurant. Today the banks control almost the entire dream of humans founded upon credit, mortgages and loans.
Now, wouldn't you rather be in charge of your own dreams?
Stay above it all, MichelleMoney and the Crisis of CivilizationCharles Eisenstein Suppose you give me a million dollars with the instructions, "Invest this profitably, and I'll pay you well." I'm a sharp dresser -- why not? So I go out onto the street and hand out stacks of bills to random passers-by. Ten thousand dollars each. In return, each scribbles out an IOU for $20,000, payable in five years. I come back to you and say, "Look at these IOUs! I have generated a 20% annual return on your investment." You are very pleased, and pay me an enormous commission. Now I've got a big stack of IOUs, so I use these "assets" as collateral to borrow even more money, which I lend out to even more people, or sell them to others like myself who do the same. I also buy insurance to cover me in case the borrowers default -- and I pay for it with those self-same IOUs! Round and round it goes, each new loan becoming somebody's asset on which to borrow yet more money. We all rake in huge commissions and bonuses, as the total face value of all the assets we've created from that initial million dollars is now fifty times that. Then one day, the first batch of IOUs comes due. But guess what? The person who scribbled his name on the IOU can't pay me back right now. In fact, lots of the borrowers can't. I try to hush this embarrassing fact up as long as possible, but pretty soon you get suspicious. You want your million dollars back -- in cash. I try to sell the IOUs and their derivatives that I hold, but everyone else is suspicious too, and no one buys them. The insurance company tries to cover my losses, but it can only do so by selling the IOUs I gave it! So finally, the government steps in and buys the IOUs, bails out the insurance company and everyone else holding the IOUs and the derivatives stacked on them. Their total value is way more than a million dollars now. I and my fellow entrepreneurs retire with our lucre. Everyone else pays for it. This is the first level of what has happened in the financial industry over the past decade. It is a huge transfer of wealth to the financial elite, to be funded by US taxpayers, foreign corporations and governments, and ultimately the foreign workers who subsidize US debt indirectly via the lower purchasing power of their wages. However, to see the current crisis as merely the result of a big con is to miss its true significance. I think we all sense that we are nearing the end of an era. On the most superficial level, it is the era of unregulated casino-style financial manipulation that is ending. But the current efforts of the political elites to fix the crisis at this level will only reveal its deeper dimensions. In fact, the crisis goes "all the way to the bottom." It arises from the very nature of money and property in the world today, and it will persist and continue to intensify until money itself is transformed. A process centuries in the making is in its final stages of unfoldment. Money as we know it today has crisis and collapse built into its basic design. That is because money seeks interest, bears interest, and indeed is born of interest. To see how this works, let's go back to some finance basics. Money is created when somebody takes out a loan from a bank (or more recently, a disguised loan from some other kind of institution). A debt is a promise to pay money in the future in order to buy something today; in other words, borrowing money is a form of delayed trading. I receive something now (bought with the money I borrowed) and agree to give something in the future (a good or service which I will sell for the money to pay back the debt). A bank or any other lender will ordinarily only agree to lend you money if there is a reasonable expectation you will pay it back; in other words, if there is a reasonable expectation you will produce goods or services of equivalent value. This "reasonable expectation" can be guaranteed in the form of collateral, or it can be encoded in one's credit rating. Any time you use money, you are essentially guaranteeing "I have performed a service or provided a good of equivalent value to the one I am buying." If the money is borrowed money, you are saying that you will provide an equivalent good/service in the future. Now enter interest. What motivates a bank to lend anyone money in the first place? It is interest. Interest drives the creation of money today. Any time money is created through debt, a need to create even more money in the future is also created. The amount of money must grow over time, which means that the volume of goods and services must grow over time as well. If the volume of money grows faster than the volume of goods and services, the result is inflation. If it grows more slowly -- for example through a slowdown in lending -- the result is bankruptcies, recession, or deflation. The government can increase or decrease the supply of money in several ways. First, it can create money by borrowing it from the central bank, or in America, from the Federal Reserve. This money ends up as bank deposits, which in turn give banks more margin reserves on which to extend loans. You see, a bank's capacity to create money is limited by margin reserve requirements. Typically, a bank must hold cash (or central bank deposits) equal to about 10% of its total customer deposits. The other 90%, it can loan out, thus creating new money. This money ends up back in a bank as deposits, allowing another 81% of it (90% of 90%) to be lent out again. In this way, each dollar of initial deposits ends up as $9 of new money. Government spending of money borrowed from the central bank acts a seed for new money creation. (Of course, this depends on banks' willingness to lend! In a credit freeze such as happened this week, banks hoard excess reserves and the repeated injections of government money have little effect.) Another way to increase the money supply is to lower margin reserve requirements. In practice this is rarely done, at least directly. However, in the last decade, various kinds of non-bank lending have skirted the margin reserve requirement, through the alphabet soup of financial instruments you've been hearing about in the news. The result is that each dollar of original equity has been leveraged not to nine times it original value, as in traditional banking, but to 70 times or even more. This has allowed returns on investment far beyond the 5% or so available from traditional banking, along with "compensation" packages beyond the dreams of avarice. Each new dollar that is created comes with a new dollar of debt -- more than a dollar of debt, because of interest. The debt is eventually redeemed either with goods and services, or with more borrowed money, which in turn can be redeemed with yet more borrowed money... but eventually it will be used to buy goods and services. The interest has to come from somewhere. Borrowing more money to make the interest payments on an existing loan merely postpones the day of reckoning by deferring the need to create new goods and services. The whole system of interest-bearing money works fine as long as the volume of goods and services exchanged for money keeps growing. The crisis we are seeing today is in part because new money has been created much faster than goods and services have, and much faster than has been historically sustainable. There are only two ways out of such a situation: inflation and bankruptcies. Each involve the destruction of money. The current convulsions of the financial and political elites basically come down to a futile attempt to prevent both. Their first concern is to prevent the evaporation of money through massive bankruptcies, because it is, after all, their money. There is a much deeper crisis at work as well, a crisis in the creation of goods and services that underlies money to begin with, and it is this crisis that gave birth to the real estate bubble everyone blames for the current situation. To understand it, let's get clear on what constitutes a "good" or a "service." In economics, these terms refer to something that is exchanged for money. If I babysit your children for free, economists don't count it as a service. It cannot be used to pay a financial debt: I cannot go to the supermarket and say, "I watched my neighbor's kids this morning, so please give me food." But if I open a day care center and charge you money, I have created a "service." GDP rises and, according to economists, society has become wealthier. The same is true if I cut down a forest and sell the timber. While it is still standing and inaccessible, it is not a good. It only becomes "good" when I build a logging road, hire labor, cut it down, and transport it to a buyer. I convert a forest to timber, a commodity, and GDP goes up. Similarly, if I create a new song and share it for free, GDP does not go up and society is not considered wealthier, but if I copyright it and sell it, it becomes a good. Or I can find a traditional society that uses herbs and shamanic techniques for healing, destroy their culture and make them dependent on pharmaceutical medicine which they must purchase, evict them from their land so they cannot be subsistence farmers and must buy food, clear the land and hire them on a banana plantation -- and I have made the world richer. I have brought various functions, relationships, and natural resources into the realm of money. In The Ascent of Humanity I describe this process in depth: the conversion of social capital, natural capital, cultural capital, and spiritual capital into money. Essentially, for the economy to continue growing and for the (interest-based) money system to remain viable, more and more of nature and human relationship must be monetized. For example, thirty years ago most meals were prepared at home; today some two-thirds are prepared outside, in restaurants or supermarket delis. A once unpaid function, cooking, has become a "service". And we are the richer for it. Right? Another major engine of economic growth over the last three decades, child care, has also made us richer. We are now relieved of the burden of caring for our own children. We pay experts instead, who can do it much more efficiently. In ancient times entertainment was also a free, participatory function. Everyone played an instrument, sang, participated in drama. Even 75 years ago in America, every small town had its own marching band and baseball team. Now we pay for those services. The economy has grown. Hooray. The crisis we are facing today arises from the fact that there is almost no more social, cultural, natural, and spiritual capital left to convert into money. Centuries, millennia of near-continuous money creation has left us so destitute that we have nothing left to sell. Our forests are damaged beyond repair, our soil depleted and washed into the sea, our fisheries fished out, the rejuvenating capacity of the earth to recycle our waste saturated. Our cultural treasury of songs and stories, images and icons, has been looted and copyrighted. Any clever phrase you can think of is already a trademarked slogan. Our very human relationships and abilities have been taken away from us and sold back, so that we are now dependent on strangers, and therefore on money, for things few humans ever paid for until recently: food, shelter, clothing, entertainment, child care, cooking. Life itself has become a consumer item. Today we sell away the last vestiges of our divine bequeathment: our health, the biosphere and genome, even our own minds. This is the process that is culminating in our age. It is almost complete, especially in America and the "developed" world. In the developing world there still remain people who live substantially in gift cultures, where natural and social wealth is not yet the subject of property. Globalization is the process of stripping away these assets, to feed the money machine's insatiable, existential need to grow. Yet this stripmining of other lands is running up against its limits too, both because there is almost nothing left to take, and because of growing pockets of effective resistance. The result is that the supply of money -- and the corresponding volume of debt -- has for several decades outstripped the production of goods and services that it promises. It is deeply related to the classic problem of oversupply in capitalist economics. The Marxian crisis of capital can be deferred into the future as long as new, high-profit industries and markets can be developed to compensate for the vicious circle of falling profits, falling wages, depressed consumption, and overproduction in mature industries. The continuation of capitalism as we know it depends on an infinite supply of these new industries, which essentially must convert infinite new realms of social, natural, cultural, and spiritual capital into money. The problem is, these resources are finite, and the closer they come to exhaustion, the more painful their extraction becomes. Therefore, contemporaneous with the financial crisis we have an ecological crisis and a health crisis. They are intimately interlinked. We cannot convert much more of the earth into money, or much more of our health into money, before the basis of life itself is threatened. Faced with the exhaustion of the non-monetized commonwealth that it consumes, financial capital has tried to delay the inevitable by cannibalizing itself. The dot-com bubble of the late 90s showed that the productive economy could not longer keep up with the growth of money. Lots of excess money was running around frantically, searching for a place where the promise of deferred goods and services could be redeemed. So, to postpone the inevitable crash, the Fed slashed interest rates and loosened monetary policy to allow old debts to be repaid with new debts (rather than real goods and services). The new financial goods and services that arose were phony, artifacts of deceptive accounting on a vast, systemic scale. Obviously, the practice of borrowing new money to pay the principal and interest of old debts cannot last very long, but that is what the economy as a whole has done for ten years now. Unfortunately, simply stopping this practice isn't going to solve the underlying problem. A collapse is coming, unavoidably. The government's bailout plan will at best postpone it for a year or two (who knows, maybe until 2012!), long enough for the big players to move their money to a safe haven. They will discover, though, that there is no safe haven. As the US dollar loses its safe-haven status (which will happen all the more certainly when the government takes over Wall Street's bad debts), you can expect capital to chase various commodities in an inflationary surge before a deflationary depression takes hold. If a credit freeze overpowers the government's inflationary measures, depression will come all the sooner. The present crisis is actually the final stage of what began in the 1930s. Successive solutions to the fundamental problem of keeping pace with money that expands with the rate of interest have been applied, and exhausted. The first effective solution was war, a state which has been permanent since 1940. Nuclear weapons and a shift in human consciousness have limited the solution of endless military escalation. Other solutions -- globalization, technology-enabled development of new goods and services to replace human functions never before commoditized, and technology-enabled plunder of natural resources once off limits, and finally financial auto-cannibalism -- have similarly run their course. Unless there are realms of wealth I have not considered, and new depths of poverty, misery, and alienation to which we might plunge, the inevitable cannot be delayed much longer. In the face of the impending crisis, people often ask what they can do to protect themselves. "Buy gold? Stockpile canned goods? Build a fortified compound in a remote area? What should I do?" I would like to suggest a different kind of question: "What is the most beautiful thing I can do?" You see, the gathering crisis presents a tremendous opportunity. Deflation, the destruction of money, is only a categorical evil if the creation of money is a categorical good. However, you can see from the examples I have given that the creation of money has in many ways impoverished us all. Conversely, the destruction of money has the potential to enrich us. It offers the opportunity to reclaim parts of the lost commonwealth from the realm of money and property. We actually see this happening every time there is an economic recession. People can no longer pay for various goods and services, and so have to rely on friends and neighbors instead. Where there is no money to facilitate transactions, gift economies reemerge and new kinds of money are created. Ordinarily, though, people and institutions fight tooth and nail to prevent that from happening. The habitual first response to economic crisis is to make and keep more money -- to accelerate the conversion of anything you can into money. On a systemic level, the debt surge is generating enormous pressure to extend the commodification of the commonwealth. We can see this happening with the calls to drill for oil in Alaska, commence deep-sea drilling, and so on. The time is here, though, for the reverse process to begin in earnest -- to remove things from the realm of goods and services, and return them to the realm of gifts, reciprocity, self-sufficiency, and community sharing. Note well: this is going to happen anyway in the wake of a currency collapse, as people lose their jobs or become too poor to buy things. People will help each other and real communities will reemerge. In the meantime, anything we do to protect some natural or social resource from conversion into money will both hasten the collapse and mitigate its severity. Any forest you save from development, any road you stop, any cooperative playgroup you establish; anyone you teach to heal themselves, or to build their own house, cook their own food, make their own clothes; any wealth you create or add to the public domain; anything you render off-limits to the world-devouring machine, will help shorten the Machine's lifespan. Think of it this way: if you already do not depend on money for some portion of life's necessities and pleasures, then the collapse of money will pose much less of a harsh transition for you. The same applies to the social level. Any network or community or social institution that is not a vehicle for the conversion of life into money will sustain and enrich life after money. In previous essays I have described alternative money systems, based on mutual credit and demurrage, that do not drive the conversion of all that is good, true, and beautiful into money. These enact a fundamentally different human identity, a fundamentally different sense of self, from what dominates today. No more will it be true that more for me is less for you. On a personal level, the deepest possible revolution we can enact is a revolution in our sense of self, in our identity. The discrete and separate self of Descartes and Adam Smith has run its course and is becoming obsolete. We are realizing our own inseparateness, from each other and from the totality of all life. Interest denies this union, for it seeks growth of the separate self and the expense of something external, something other. Probably everyone reading this essay agrees with the principles of interconnectedness, whether from a Buddhistic or an ecological perspective. The time has come to live it. It is time to enter the spirit of the gift, which embodies the felt understanding of non-separation. It is becoming abundantly obvious that less for you (in all its dimensions) is also less for me. The ideology of perpetual gain has brought us to a state of poverty so destitute that we are gasping for air. That ideology, and the civilization built upon it, is what is collapsing today. Individually and collectively, anything we do to resist or postpone the collapse will only make it worse. So stop resisting the revolution in human beingness. If you want to survive the multiple crises unfolding today, do not seek to survive them. That is the mindset of separation; that is resistance, a clinging to a dying past. Instead, allow your perspective to shift toward reunion, and think in terms of what you can give. What can you contribute to a more beautiful world? That is your only responsibility and your only security. The gifts you need to survive and enjoy will come to you easily, because what you do to the world, you do to yourself. Source:www.realitysandwich.com/money_and_crisis_civilization
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Dec 19, 2008 17:36:04 GMT 4
Dubai The New Switzerland For The EliteI'm addressing the following for any residents of Dubai who do not wish to be destroyed in the cleansing that is surely to come to this area. If any are reading here that are native to the area and feel pain over the human changes to the landscape and ways of living, then this post is for you.
As a child, I was intrigued by the lifestyles of peoples from the desert areas of the Middle East. I marveled at how they adapted and learned to live in harmony with what nature provided within the desert.
Now as I watch so-called progress rise in these areas, I can't help but wonder what would happen to the native residents of these areas if human development collapsed completely due to natural disasters and lack of resources. Again, I speak here to the original natives, not those who are drawn to the area for money or power. Do you remember how to live on the land, do you remember how the desert spoke to your people?
People who remember, these are those who have taken over your home; let them have their 'Mideast Disneyland' for it would be in your best interest to move to more natural areas....I will tell you why shortly.......Dubai The New Switzerland For The EliteExclusive to Rense.com 12-13-8 In the last two days, two separate people have engaged me in separate conversations without my inducing them to do so. One was a visiting Swiss national. The other a Pakistani American dentist. The conversations got so hot I purposely did not ask their names, and nor did they ask mine. Both were in Dubai to respectively move assets out of the USA and Europe. They both independently said they're getting very bad feelings as to what is happening globally. Neither really new about the globalists or the New World Order agenda, but knew of the coming important role of Dubai for the wealthy of the world. To me, they seemed to be just two shrewd people who trust their gut feelings. When I told them what is going down with the globalist financial agenda and the unfolding NWO, they needed no convincing. It was as if all the pieces of the puzzle came together for them. Their eyes were wide open saying "I knew it, I knew it......." Interestingly, the response was the same from both of them.he same response from both. I know a Dubai lawyer who tells me their firm is being contacted daily by people from the US and elsewhere wanting desperately to get out of their home countries. The Dentist said he'd been to French banks but they asked 'too many questions' once they found out he is an American. They were spooked. They told him to go to Dubai. Dubai has no taxes and there is total freedom of funds movement. The word amongst the real estate locals is that low level Russian Oligarchs have been laundering money in the Dubai property market. Russian prostitutes are all over the town. Lord Rothschild was here last month with Gordon Brown for meetings with banking authorities under the cover of global crisis financial talks. The World Bank has pumped $250 billion in loans into the Dubai. Why? The main gold and silver trading exchange is soon tipped to move from the COMEX to the local Dubai exchange currently being set up. The Emire of Dubai has said he doesn't want a middle class. They can all leave. He only wants monied elites. He made this statement in a BBC interview. They locals are fully aware of his plan. The first wave of property flippers are being cleaned out. They have served their purpose. The provided cover for the crazy initial construction phase of Dubai. CNN is here. A huge building. As usual, I expect it's an intel base station for the usual spooks. Legal firms in the city are currently writing global banking laws for a Free Trade banking zone being established here. These new laws are based on City of London banking codices. I met some lawyers who are writing them. They know what is going down. A flood of UK banking and legal type wealth managers are moving here from the City of London. Why? We know what is happening with lay offs in the UK, but why Dubai? Take a guess? The more I see, the more I can see the global elites are going to use Dubai as their Switzerland. As you know, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are currently under pressure from the EU. CNBC ran a story this week reporting these two former money stashing locals for world elites are being pressured by Brussels to loosen their secrecy laws. They don't want both the EU and the coming global taxation regimes openly undermined. The Globalists are clearly signaling to their elite friends to move. Dubai was set up for this purpose. The globalists would not leave themselves without a replacement wealth haven. Dubai loves secrecy. There is no pesky democracy. The Emire is foreign bank-owned and knows on which side his bread is buttered. As much as all this sounds incredible, this is the riddle which is Dubai. It's been carved out as a globalist free zone for the elite who will be residents there, but will not necessarily live there. Halliburton are already here. Word has it the Emire wants the Burj Dubai (worlds' tallest tower) finished asap and it may not be completed inside. I find this hard to believe as there seems no shortage of money for 'his' projects. This is in contrast to private projects, which are reported to be struggling. Condo prices have pulled back by 30%-40%. UK banks have funded much of the mortgage money here. They have reduced their LTV to 50%, so deals from the 'uncouth' Londoners are drying up. Hotel occupancies are currently at 33%, despite this being their peak season. Usually, it's impossible to get a quality hotel room at this time of year. New laws decreed in August now prevent the Indian, Pakistani and Filippino workers from sharing lodgings. They must rent on their own. You can imagine the unrest this is causing. The Emire has just cancelled residency visas for new property buyers. Very strange you would think. It's in line with his new elites only policy. I expect he'll announce the new rules shortly to attract a more wealthy resident class. I can confirm people are sensing the hardening of financial borders under the uncertain cloud which will be a globalized and tracked financial system. The moderately wealthy (up to $100 million) seem to roaming the world looking for safety. I'm hearing the same thing in Hong Kong and Singapore as I saw in Dubai. Source: rense.com/general84/dee.htmHearst Media, Dubai and others are banning Rense.com news site By the way, now news “reporters” from main stream media will not be allowed to access alternative sites. While it is true that most of the material published at Rense.com can be found through search engines, the point is one needs to know what to look for. This site is one of a very few that consolidate information from many sources and that present information and viewpoints contrary to what mainstream media provides its customers. Here's some CLIPS from:Hearst News Bans Rense Hearst Ban Confirms Rense.com As World's Premier Independent News Service12-9-8 www.rense.com/general84/hearst.htmFirst, the US State Department names Rense the world's number one source of 'misinformation'
and now the Hearst Corporation bans Rense outright.
We also have been informed that many US Military bases ban Rense as do...you're not gonna believe this...some US libraries. We also hear that France bans the site in several areas. Oh, and let's not forget to mention that fading Mideast Disneyland, Dubai, is also afraid of Rense.com content and has banned the site, as well. Here's the actual page in Dubai announcing the ban...Screen print images at link above.In my introduction to this post, I spoke of a future cleansing that is surely to come to this area. The days are coming when all that is not in harmony with Earth will cease to exist. First off, I should mention that each of Dubai's residents uses up more of the world's resources than any other person in the world. Where one or a population use much or most, another lacks. This is not in keeping with Earth's future dream. Without participating in earth’s dream, man is always “outside” of earth.
Nature disasters often put humans in great fear of nature. Humans being outside of earth’s dream cannot likewise sense when the dream is calling for earth movement, flood, tornado or hurricane to cleanse a particular region of a particularly dense and stuck energy. In not sensing the impending movement, humans are caught in a disaster that might be avoided otherwise. This too is due to a separation of dreams. Humans further build cement structures in regions that are bound to be hit by such forces over time, and the very nature of cement calls the disaster to the regions; for cement creates the very dense energy that requires the cleansing.
Cement or anything seemingly permanent is not a good foundation to build any home with, as earth is continually changing her surface to meet the needs of her own ascent. Into the future, such earth changes will speed up, and if one fails to pay attention, one could build a home today only to discover it destroyed by earthquake or flood tomorrow.
Much of the natural disasters ahead are simply the result of the nature of cement, and in particular, the cement used to construct your cities and suburbs. Cement and rebar collects radiation and electricity. Earth is purging electricity and radioactivity at an ever-increasingly greater speed in her own ascension. Those regions that continue to collect such vibrations will become increasingly dense against the backdrop of rising vibration of the countryside; the increasing density will draw a natural disaster to “move the energy” in such stuck points global wide. This will call earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods to such cities and suburbs. As humanity learns to build in alliance with earth and in natural materials that are resonant, such a dance will be avoided into the future.
As humans recognize their innate power as ascending beings, one will see that one can be at home wherever one is, and learn to work again with the divas and elements to provide for one’s garden, oneself, one’s family and one’s community. However one may wish to move out of the cities and be in the country in order to allow nature to dance with oneself. Nature cannot dance with those living within the cities; one will have to leave and find a new means of living from the land again. Those that choose this path will be greatly rewarded and supported by all kingdoms upon earth. One shall not starve or be harmed in the years ahead as a result; and one will be guided to move as the earth changes make one’s current residence soon to be uninhabitable for whatever reason. In so doing, one will survive the coming times of change ahead.
Turn inward and call upon your ancestor's memories of how to live within your natural environment; the land spoke to them and led communities to places of water and vegetation. Your ancestor's respected the Earth and did not beat her into submission, but lived upon her graciously in gratitude accepting her support and honoring her for such. Find like minded others in your area and leave your cities; they will not be places of wonder in the future......Nature is a place of wonder and where ascending humans will find 'home.'
Italics above are from:From the Heart of the Honu or Turtle Blessings for Living in Harmony with Earth
The Turtle Kingdom through Karen Danrich “Mila”June 7, 2002 www.ascendpress.org/articles/nature/Nature14.htmIf you are drawn to these messages, please visit The Spiritual School of Ascension. The purpose of the organization is to bring forth human ascension and support the global ascension of Earth.
I have yet to find any other group who speaks so deeply to me. I found them through a process I was going through where I began to question previous messages from various new-age groups that I had been reading. The articles and information that is presented at The Spiritual School of Ascension's website filled in much of the information I was searching for. You are invited to study with them if you wish to. If not, as a 'school,' they offer more information to the public, freely given, than any other organization I've come across. I myself, plan to purchase their Complete Ascension Workbooks: www.ascendpress.org/products/Workbook/Workbook.htm Their homepage is: www.ascendpress.org/index.htm
I do not know how the SSOA would feel about me linking to their website; so much of what I have posted here in the past is what they have omitted from their lives. If the founders of the SSOA find their way here, I wish to tell them that their work has affected me profoundly and has supplied the impetus I have been searching for to turn this forum [of sorts] around to one which supports human ascension and the global ascension of Earth. I do not plan to delete past work here as most of our readers [which come from all parts of the globe] arrive here through Internet searches. It is my intent that their searches will bring them to newer articles which reflect the next step in the FH Forum's evolution towards a place of unity based consciousness.
If I fall below SSOA's endeavors, it is only because I am learning and have been much on my own throughout my spiritual evolution. It is my intent that I support the global ascension of Earth to the best of my ability, at each stage of my progress. I thank The Spiritual School of Ascension's founders and students for the information and support that they have so far provided me with....Michelle
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Dec 21, 2008 16:36:30 GMT 4
Weimar-style Hyperinflation?Sock It To The Holidays! A Timely Christmas CarolFederal Reserve sets stage for Weimar-style Hyperinflation (December 15, 2008)www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11401The Federal Reserve has bluntly refused a request by a major US financial news service to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from US taxpayers and to reveal the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral. Their lawyers resorted to the bizarre argument that they did so to protect 'trade secrets.' Is the secret that the US financial system is de facto bankrupt? The latest Fed move is further indication of the degree of panic and lack of clear strategy within the highest ranks of the US financial institutions. Unprecedented Federal Reserve expansion of the Monetary Base in recent weeks sets the stage for a future Weimar-style hyperinflation perhaps before 2010. (...) As well, the Federal Reserve's panic actions since September, by their explosive expansion of the monetary base, has set the stage for a Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation. The new money is not being 'sterilized' by offsetting actions by the Fed, a highly unusual move indicating their desperation. Prior to September the Fed's infusions of money were sterilized, making the potential inflation effect 'neutral.' That means once banks begin finally to lend again, perhaps in a year or so, that will flood the US economy with liquidity in the midst of a deflationary depression. At that point or perhaps well before, the dollar will collapse as foreign holders of US Treasury bonds and other assets run. That will not be pleasant as the result would be a sharp appreciation in the Euro and a crippling effect on exports in Germany and elsewhere should the nations of the EU and other non-dollar countries such as Russia, OPEC members and, above all, China not have arranged a new zone of stabilization apart from the dollar. The world faces the greatest financial and economic challenges in history in coming months. The incoming Obama Administration faces a choice of literally nationalizing the credit system to insure a flow of credit to the real economy over the next 5 to 10 years, or face an economic Armageddon that will make the 1930's appear a mild recession by comparison.Leaving aside what appears to have been blatant political manipulation by the present US Administration of key economic data prior to the November election in a vain attempt to downplay the scale of the economic crisis in progress, the figures are unprecedented. For the week ended December 6 initial jobless claims rose to the highest level since November 1982. More than four million workers remained on unemployment, also the most since 1982 and in November US companies cut jobs at the fastest rate in 34 years. Some 1,900,000 US jobs have vanished so far in 2008.As a matter of relevance, 1982, for those with long memories, was the depth of what was then called the Volcker Recession. Paul Volcker, a Chase Manhattan appendage of the Rockefeller family, had been brought down from New York to apply his interest rate 'shock therapy' to the US economy in order as he put it, 'to squeeze inflation out of the economy.' He squeezed far more as the economy went into severe recession, and his high interest rate policy detonated what came to be called the Third World Debt Crisis. The same Paul Volcker has just been named by Barack Obama as chairman-designate of the newly formed President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, hardly grounds for cheer. CLIP America's Dollar Denominated "Toilet Paper"How to Deflate the US Superpower and Restore Economic Sovereignty (December 17, 2008)www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11423It may have made some sense, post-World War II to dollarise international trade when the so-called “Free World” was supposedly threatened by the “Communist Bloc” and the Imperial United States was offering “protection” in exchange for financial dominance. The imperial design for financial dominance was the Bretton Woods dollar reserve currency scheme. Since those days, the US has been abusing its financial power by the use of its greatest invention, the “toilet paper printing press” (now, the modern “electronic printing press”) to issue irredeemable fiat money. Now the world is flooded with trillions of this toilet paper, namely US dollars. The US Superpower is at the very precipice of the abyss and a wrong move will plunge it into the black-hole of financial Armageddon. The world will not face Armageddon, only the US. The rest of the world will suffer pain, deservedly so, for being so stupid in believing in the use of US toilet papers as money! To avoid this catastrophe, Ben Bernanke and Paulson as directed by their Shadow Money-Lender masters have devised an insidious scheme. The ultimate con-game!Basically, what they have done is to try to turn a weakness into perceived strength. Let me explain. Countries have been so used to trading in dollars that they cannot think otherwise. They continue to borrow dollars to finance their imports. Their corporations continue to borrow dollars to finance their business expansion. It is as if the world is addicted to dollars, as a drug addict is addicted to cocaine and or crack! The world has been brainwashed into thinking that without the US toilet paper, their global economy would come to a grinding halt. How stupid! Yet this is exactly the state of mind of governments and central banks all over the world. China is a case in point: blind reliance on the US dollar. But fortunately, they have other strengths which will see them through this painful period. Taking advantage of this temporary idiotic global mindset, the Fed and the US Treasury have deliberately triggered a credit crunch for US dollar denominated toilet papers. The major global banks are hoarding the toilet papers and with-holding cross-border financing of every kind. There is an ocean of toilet paper (literally in the trillions) but there is now created, a deliberate shortage of these very same toilet papers. But where is the money? There is no money. It is an illusion! CLIP IMF chief issues stark warning on economic crisis (December 16, 2008) www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11417The head of the International Monetary Fund urged governments to step up action to stem the global economic crisis or risk delaying a recovery and sparking violent unrest on the streets.Using a speech last night in Madrid to issue his stark warning, Dominique Strauss-Kahn argued that government efforts to tackle the economic downturn so far have been uncertain and largely insufficient, which could lead to severe consequences. He singled out the eurozone nations as he attacked the inadequate global response.His hard-hitting comments came as fears of a prolonged slumped intensified after China showed signs that its economy could be in more trouble than initially expected next year. Factory output in the rapidly growing economy registered the weakest growth in almost a decade last month.The IMF's managing director said such news signalled that a world recovery may not take place until late next year or into 2010 unless swift action is taken. "A lot remains to be done, and if this work is not done it will be difficult to avoid a long-lasting crisis that everyone wants to avoid," he said. Governments in leading economies have been called upon by the IMF to commit a combined 2% of global GDP, equivalent to £1.075bn, to try combat the dangers of a global recession. But the IMF chief blamed governments, saying they were unwilling or unable to use more public funds to jump-start economic activity. "If we are not able to do that, then social unrest may happen in many countries - including advanced economies," Strauss-Kahn said. He added that violent protests could break out in countries worldwide if the financial system was not restructured to benefit everyone rather than a small elite. CLIP Unstable Forex Markets: When will the dollar bubble pop? (December 15, 2008) www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11406In "The New Bubble: Cash", I argued that there was a bubble in U.S. dollars and treasuries.Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of the world’s largest bond fund, now says: “Treasuries have some bubble characteristics . . . . The government and the Fed cannot continue to talk about trillions of dollars of financing and expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet without the dollar going south”. Many others are saying the same thing. But how do we know when the dollar bubble will pop? In other words, when should we get out of dollars? An article in Bloomberg might provide some insight: The biggest foreign-exchange strategists and investors say the best may be over for the dollar after a four-month, 24 percent rally. The dollar will go to new lows as the U.S. attacks its currency,” said John Taylor, chairman of New York-based FX Concepts Inc., which manages about $14.5 billion of currencies. CLIP Dollar No Longer Haven After Fed Moves Rate Near Zero (Dec. 17)www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601083&sid=aSmEfH_9_GxE&refer=currency(Bloomberg) -- The world’s biggest currency-trading firms say the dollar’s appeal as a haven amid the financial crisis all but evaporated. The U.S. currency slid to a 13-year low against the yen today and had its biggest one-day decline versus the euro after the Federal Reserve reduced its target interest rate yesterday to a range of zero to 0.25 percent, the lowest among the world’s biggest economies. CMC Markets said today the currency’s prospects appear “ominous.” State Street Global markets said the dollar’s outlook has been “undermined.” “The dollar has been under heavy downward pressure,” said Robert Minikin, a senior currency strategist in London at Standard Chartered Bank Plc. “This move is very well-justified and has a long way to run.” Standard Chartered is preparing to cut its dollar forecasts, Minikin said. '75% in US bear the brunt of recession' (17 Dec 2008) www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=78781§ionid=3510213A new poll conducted by The Washington Post indicates that nearly two-thirds in the US have been hurt by the economic meltdown. Almost 63 percent of those surveyed said the recession had hurt them financially, while 66 percent expected their standard of living to decline (up from 51 percent a year earlier). In almost one home in five (18 percent) someone has lost a job in recent months, and in more than a quarter (27 percent) a worker has had his or her pay cut or working hours reduced, the poll found. Half of those surveyed said they did not have money in case they need to help a family member or for health care costs. The poll captures the widening fallout from the faltering economy that policymakers are struggling to contain. CLIP Homelessness, Hunger on Rise in US Cities: Reportwww.truthout.org/121408CAgency France-Presse: "Homelessness and hunger increased in an overwhelming majority of 25 US cities in the past year, driven by the foreclosure crisis and rising unemployment, a survey showed Friday. Out of 25 cities across the United States surveyed by the US Conference of Mayors, 83 percent said homelessness in general had increased over the past year while 16 cities, or nearly two-thirds of those polled, cited a rise in the number of families who had been forced out of their homes." Chrysler Shuts For A Month and Chevy Volt Delayed (December 17) THE BEGINNING OF THE END?www.businessweek.com/autos/autobeat/archives/2008/12/chrysler_shuts.htmlChrysler LLC said Wednesday that it will shut down all its North American production for at least one month starting December 19. Both Chrysler and GM are having to cut deeply into expenses as they await news on a government loan package from the White House. GM said today that it will delay completion of the engine factory meant to supply the Chevy Volt extended range electric vehicle the automaker hoped to have in showrooms by late 2010. The Volt has been held up as a symbol of GM’s future and its innovation. It has run TV ads and bought billboards touting it even though it is two to three years off from being sold to customers. Both companies are cutting to the bone as they try to avoid reaching such a low cash position that they have to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. GM is hoping for an immediate infusion from the Treasury of $4 billion, and a total of $8 billion to $9 billion, while Chrysler is hoping for around $6 billion to $7 billion. Ford is not applying for an immediate loan, though it wants to secure a $9 billion line of credit from the Feds in 2009. CLIP Foreclosures Soar 76 Percent to Record 1.35 Millionwww.truthout.org/120608YTami Luhby, CNNMoney.com: "A record 1.35 million homes were in foreclosure in the third quarter, driving the foreclosure rate up to 2.97%, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Friday. That's a 76% increase from a year ago, according to the group's National Delinquency Survey. At the same time, the number of homeowners falling behind on their mortgages rose to a record 6.99%, up from 5.59% a year ago, the association said." Jim Rogers calls most big U.S. banks "bankrupt" (Dec 11, 2008) www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE4BA5CO20081211NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jim Rogers, one of the world's most prominent international investors, on Thursday called most of the largest U.S. banks "totally bankrupt," and said government efforts to fix the sector are wrongheaded. Speaking by teleconference at the Reuters Investment Outlook 2009 Summit, the co-founder with George Soros of the Quantum Fund, said the government's $700 billion rescue package for the sector doesn't address how banks manage their balance sheets, and instead rewards weaker lenders with new capital. (...) "What is outrageous economically and is outrageous morally is that normally in times like this, people who are competent and who saw it coming and who kept their powder dry go and take over the assets from the incompetent," he said. "What's happening this time is that the government is taking the assets from the competent people and giving them to the incompetent people and saying, now you can compete with the competent people. It is horrible economics." CLIP Citibank's computers down, blocking account info news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081217/ap_on_bi_ge/citibank_outage_2NEW YORK - Customers of New York City-based Citibank have lost access to much of their account information because of a computer outage. Many of the troubled bank's clients haven't been able to retrieve account details online or by telephone since Tuesday afternoon. Others can access only parts of their account profiles. Citibank telephone representatives say they don't know what caused the outage but technicians are working to fix it. They've been telling customers to call back after Wednesday morning. A Citibank spokeswoman hasn't replied to a phone message or an e-mail sent after business hours. Citibank is a division of Citigroup Inc., which is struggling to survive the global financial crisis with billions of dollars in aid from the government. Toronto Stock Exchange Suffers Daylong Trading Halt - A CYBER ATTACK?www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=ad9KWCf_xj.E&refer=canadaAlternative Currencies Grow in Popularity (Dec. 14, 2008)www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1865467,00.html Most of us take for granted that those rectangular green slips of paper we keep in our wallets are inviolable: the physical embodiment of value. But alternative forms of money have a long history, and appear to be growing in popularity. It's not merely barter, or primitive means of exchange like, say, seashells or beads. Beneath the financial radar, in hip U.S. towns or South African townships, in shops, markets, and even banks, throughout the world people are exchanging goods and services via thousands of currency types that look nothing like official tender. Alternative means of trade often surface during tough economic times. "When money gets dried up and there are still needs to be met in society, people come up with creative ways to meet those needs," says Peter North, a senior lecturer in geography at the University of Liverpool, author of two books on the subject. He refers to the "scrips" issued in the U.S. and Europe during the Great Depression that kept money flowing, and the massive barter exchanges involving millions of people that emerged amidst runaway inflation in Argentina in 2000. "People were kept from starving [this way]," he says. (Find out 10 things to do with your money.) Closer to home, "Ithaca Hours," with a livable hourly wage as the standard, were launched during the 1991 recession to sustain Ithaca, New York's local economy and stem the loss of jobs. "Hours," which are legal and taxable, circulate within the community, moving from local shop to local artisan and back, rather than "leaking" out into the larger monetary system. The logo on the Hour reads: "In Ithaca We Trust". CLIP
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