"Most people that discuss the “economic collapse” focus on what is coming in the future. And without a doubt, we are on the verge of some incredibly hard times. But what often gets neglected is the immense permanent damage that has been done to the U.S. economy by the long-term economic collapse that we are already experiencing.
But because unprecedented levels of government debt and reckless money printing by the Federal Reserve have bought us a very short window of relative stability, most Americans don’t seem too concerned about our long-term problems.
They seem to have faith that our “leaders” will be able to find a way to muddle through whatever challenges are ahead. Hopefully the following 12 charts below will be a wake up call.
The last major wave of the economic collapse did a colossal amount of damage to our economic foundations, and now the next major wave of the economic collapse is rapidly approaching."
Marbux is right - this report is filled with stunning information!
"TEL AVIV – NATO countries are strongly considering the possibility of an international deployment to Syria if the Syrian opposition does not make major advances in the next few weeks, according to informed Middle Eastern diplomatic and security officials.
Egyptian security officials, meanwhile, outlined what they said was large scale international backing for the rebels attacking the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad – including arms and training from the U.S., Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia."
NATO war in Syria in March?
Meanwhile, according to the Middle Eastern diplomatic and security officials speaking to WND, the international community is considering launching NATO airstrikes on Assad’s forces as soon as March if the opposition does not make major strides toward ending Assad’s regime.
The NATO members, however, have been satisfied with the momentum of the opposition in the last few days, which saw a number of defectors from the Syrian military join the rebels, a move that also precipitated the downfall of Muammar Gadhafi’s regime before the NATO campaign in Libya.
Similar to Gadhafi, Assad’s regime has been accused of major human rights violations, including crimes against humanity, in clamping down on a violent insurgency targeting his rule.
Mass demonstrations were held in recent weeks in Syrian insurgent strongholds calling for the international NATO coalition in Libya to deploy in Syria.
Just yesterday, 50 foreign ministers from Western and Arab nations got together in Tunis to demand that Syria allow aid to be delivered to civilians in the absence of any international force to resolve the conflict.
Damascus officials claimed to WND that NATO troops are currently training in Turkey for a Turkish-led NATO invasion of Syria.
"U.S. President Barack Obama’s reaction to the videos of two American freelance journalists getting beheaded by Islamist militants gives me the uncomfortable feeling that the American people are getting punk’d — again.
The same thing happened 13 years ago last week, when a dozen and a half Muslim fundamentalists attacked our financial and political capitals using our own planes.
The hijackers got exactly the reaction that they wanted: overreaction.
"
To survive and expand, radical jihadists don’t need all, or even most, Muslims to join the fight.
But they do require the tacit consent of the governed in the areas they control, and the political sympathy that prompts donors to send them the financial contributions that allow them to our new recruits and hold their territory — factors that fuel legitimacy.
The official web site of Dr Judy Wood and her investigation into how the buildings came down on 911.
Forensic engineer and scientis Dr Judy Wood argues that the evidence of the 911 building collapse points to a directed energy source capable of turning the buildings to dust. Not thermal or heat. Not a thermal explosive style controlled demolition. Nor was it a structural collapse from the impact of the planes. Dr Wood rules out the official story and let's the facts speak for themselves and the facts point directly at Applied Research Associates, and Directed Energy Weapons having been used on 911 to bring down several buildings. What an incredible story.
There is an interview of Dr Judy Wood on CoasttoCoastAM.com. If you want to listen, leave me a note and I will send the link. If you have note heard this woman speak, or read her book, "What happened to the Buildings on 911?", you are in for one special, eye opening treat.
"Parliamentary records confirm that the British government considered using cirrus clouds as a means of climate modification as early as 1970. In those days, climatologists thought that the climate was cooling and sought ways to warm it. Geoffrey Johnson Smith MP said:
‘to counteract the cooling effect of atmospheric dust the more jets there are in the atmosphere emitting heat-producing carbon dioxide the better, but some scientists, not all, hold the view that jet contrails—vapour trails as we usually call them—because they can lead to the extensive formation of cirrus clouds, could increase the cloud cover and thus effectively cut off the sun’s rays and reduce the earth’s temperature’.1
The military already had secret devices for creating contrails as early as the 1950s, as the National Archives at Kew reveal. One document is called ‘Artificial Contrail Generator’. It includes information on ‘Artificial vapour trails: contrail suppression equipment; vapour trails from Hunter aircraft at 50,000ft as seen from the ground, and from another aircraft flying at 8,000ft’.2
Think about it. Fake contrails could be made at altitudes as low as 8,000 ft. Disturbingly, the contrail generators were tested at the UK’s biochemical warfare laboratory, Porton Down, which sprayed chemicals on the British public intermittently from 1940 to 1979 in ‘trials’.3"
"'Failing Expectations: Fourth Amendment Doctrine in the Era of Total Surveillance' is a thought-provoking essay written by a Fordham University law professor about how the reasonable expectation test for privacy is failing to protect us. Add into our networked world the third-party doctrine and we have little protection against unreasonable searches and seizures."
"As economist Julian Simon observed, people always produce more than they consume and always better the human condition of themselves and their neighbors – if they are free to do so. Why was Simon able to make this observation based on American experiences and other more brief episodes in human history?
The answer to this question is elegantly described by George Gilder in his book “Knowledge and Power: The information Theory of Capitalism and How It is Revolutionizing Our World.” Gilder teaches us about the “economics” of human advance.
Establishment economics is, of course, a somewhat murky forest of “supply” and “demand” and “micros” and “macros” and all sorts of other abstractions. Within economics has arisen a sort of political contest as to whether “demand” or “supply” is most important. Does the market respond to “demands” for certain sorts of goods, or are goods unexpectedly “supplied” to the market by inventors and entrepreneurs – as surprises which then create market demand themselves?
It is clear that the “supply” side trumps the “demand” side in this controversy. As George Gilder elucidates, potential advances – products and other goods – arise first in the minds of entrepreneurs who, using information, existing tools and skills in assembling and utilizing capital, bring these advances to the market. If the entrepreneur is right about the demand that will arise when his new product becomes available, he is rewarded with the fun of providing it and with profits.
In order to do this, the entrepreneur needs a relatively quiet, noise-free environment, where the information comprising his innovation can express itself. His environment needs easily available capital in the hands of free men, so that he has rich opportunities to seek that capital and utilize it.
The entrepreneur also needs a system of justice that protects his efforts and his coworkers. He needs a system of individual liberty where the capital he needs is not confiscated by oppressive taxation and regulation. He needs an environment that is free from corruption, so that he can do his work. And, he needs a free market where people can chose to use his product if it pleases them.
In short, the supply of new unexpected goods from innovators requires a stable, fertile socio-political environment in which these goods can be created, produced and used.
It needs freedom. It needs liberty. It needs an environment like the one protected by America’s Founding Fathers in our Constitution and Bill of Rights and perpetuated by an ethical government populated by men and women of integrity who obey these rules."
The massive consolidation of wealth, combined with the removal of any limits on money in campaigns, has allowed for the purchase of our government.
Today I am publishing a comprehensive and important guest essay, The Purchase of Our Republic, by longtime correspondent Y. Falkson.
Americans know that something is wrong, deeply wrong. They see signs of the problem everywhere: income inequality, growing concentration and power of mega corporations, political donations/corruption, the absence of jobs with decent salaries, the explosion of the US prison population, healthcare costs, student loan debt, homelessness, etc. etc.
However, the true causes and benefactors behind these problems are purposely hidden from view. What Americans see is Kabuki Theater of a functioning form of capitalism and democracy, but beyond this veneer our country has devolved into the exact opposite.
Those who benefit from this crony capitalist state go to extreme lengths to paper over the reality and convince Americans that the system works, the American Dream is still a reality and that American democracy is in fact democratic.
Below I hope to begin to outline some of the underlying dynamics and trends that have evolved in recent decades and led us so far from what we once were. As fun as it would be, the answer is not some evil conspiracy by the Illuminati, but rather the unfortunate result of three long term and mutually reinforcing components that have been attacking the fundamental roots of the structure of our Republic.
The first is the increased concentr
Incredible. Since 2009, the Fed has been pumping $85 Billion per month into the Wall Street hedge funds of it's member banks. Economist Paul Craig Roberts noticed some funny business the past few months regarding the Fed's numbers. It turns out that while the Fed has been trying to convince the world that they are tapering off on their $85 Billion per month debt printing spree, the truth is just the opposite. They have increased the debt spree to $112 Billion per month; with the help of a secret money laundering operation involving Belgium!
Incredible!
From November 2013 through January 2014 Belgium with a GDP of $480 billion purchased $141.2 billion of US Treasury bonds. Somehow Belgium came up with enough money to allocate during a 3-month period 29 percent of its annual GDP to the purchase of US Treasury bonds.
Certainly Belgium did not have a budget surplus of $141.2 billion. Was Belgium running a trade surplus during a 3-month period equal to 29 percent of Belgium GDP?
No, Belgium's trade and current accounts are in deficit.
Did Belgium's central bank print $141.2 billion worth of euros in order to make the purchase?
No, Belgium is a member of the euro system, and its central bank cannot increase the money supply.
So where did the $141.2 billion come from?
There is only one source. The money came from the US Federal Reserve, and the purchase was laundered through Belgium in order to hide the fact that actual Federal Reserve bond purchases during November 2013 through January 2014 were $112 billion per month.
In other words, during those 3 months there was a sharp rise in bond purchases by the Fed. The Fed's actual bond purchases for those three months are $27 billion per month above the original $85 billion monthly purchase and $47 billion above the official $65 billion monthly purchase at that time. (In March 2014, official QE was tapered to $55 billion per month and to $45 billion for May.)
Why did the Federal Reserve have to purchase so many bonds above the announced amounts and why did the Fed have to launder and hide the purchase?
Some country or countries, unknown at this time, for reasons we do not know dumped $104 billion in Treasuries in one week.
"Date: 05-07-14
Host: George Noory
Guests: Catherine Austin Fitts, Gerald Celente, George Ure, Robert Zimmerman
This special panel discussion on the economy and related topics featured investment advisor Catherine Austin Fitts, trends analyst Gerald Celente, and consultant George Ure. Currently, the financial system is still being pumped with cheap money, such as $45 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities, and interest rates remain at record lows-- but once those interest rates go back up, the economy will tumble, said Celente. Fitts cited the continued inequality and centralization in the economy as hampering growth, while Ure noted that we're in the bottoming process with the Fed, which is trying to print money fast enough so we don't drop into something like the Great Depression.
While the US continues its behind-closed-doors propping up of the economy, "I still believe we're going to see something like a panic level by the end of the second quarter," Celente remarked. America used to be the land of opportunity, but now the wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few, he added. Globalization is lowering the wealth of the middle class, and the reality is "we're automating or outsourcing jobs, and putting people on government checks," Fitts commented. Ure, who studies cyclical patterns of the economy or "long waves," said right now we're seeing a "war on cash," with a huge effort to get people into an electronic system, where all their transactions and investments can be tracked.
The revelations by Edward Snowden about America's surveillance state has had a depressing effect on US economic growth, as well as inspiring other countries around the world to pull out of the system, Fitts suggested. "We live in a country where the system of creating money has basically been sublet from Congress to the Federal Reserve...and government is wholesale now, in the business of granting different franchises such as in communications and money operations," Ure detailed. "I think the future is with a self-sustained economy," Celente stated, though if the economy slides further down, we may see militaristic attempts to control an unruly populace."
Comment:
Excellent discussion with a stunning summation. These experts all agreed that that world's elite ruling class has few options left and they will select a devastating World War as the preferred means of flushing out the mess they've made and starting from a clean slate - with them still in control.
"The Red Line and the Rat Line:
Seymour M. Hersh on Obama, Erdoğan and the Syrian rebels
excerpt/intro: In 2011 Barack Obama led an allied military intervention in Libya without consulting the US Congress. Last August, after the sarin attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, he was ready to launch an allied air strike, this time to punish the Syrian government for allegedly crossing the ‘red line’ he had set in 2012 on the use of chemical weapons.＊ Then with less than two days to go before the planned strike, he announced that he would seek congressional approval for the intervention. The strike was postponed as Congress prepared for hearings, and subsequently cancelled when Obama accepted Assad’s offer to relinquish his chemical arsenal in a deal brokered by Russia. Why did Obama delay and then relent on Syria when he was not shy about rushing into Libya? The answer lies in a clash between those in the administration who were committed to enforcing the red line, and military leaders who thought that going to war was both unjustified and potentially disastrous.
Obama’s change of mind had its origins at Porton Down, the defence laboratory in Wiltshire. British intelligence had obtained a sample of the sarin used in the 21 August attack and analysis demonstrated that the gas used didn’t match the batches known to exist in the Syrian army’s chemical weapons arsenal. The message that the case against Syria wouldn’t hold up was quickly relayed to the US joint chiefs of staff. The British report heightened doubts inside the Pentagon; the joint chiefs were already preparing to warn Obama that his plans for a far-reaching bomb and missile attack on Syria’s infrastructure could lead to a wider war in the Middle East. As a consequence the American officers delivered a last-minute caution to the president, which, in their view, eventually led to his cancelling the attack."
Published on Feb 11, 2014
http://usawatchdog.com/united-states-... - Can we pull the world out of this economic calamity? Former World Bank Attorney Karen Hudes says, "It may be that we don't, in which case, we end up in what happened just before we went into the dark ages, when gold went into hiding . . . . We can bring this gold that belongs to humanity out of its cloak of secrecy and out of hiding or we can go back into the dark ages. And we can have pestilence and starvation. . . . Civilization breaks down. We cannot pay for our international trade. Either we take back our gold, our legality, and we tell this group that thinks it's above the law that it is not above the law, or we can kiss ourselves goodbye. Humanity will not continue, we will have World War III. Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with former World Bank Attorney Karen Hudes.
Okay. The Bank of England finally fesses up and tells the truth about banking and government. Incredible!
Part ONE "by David Stockman
Remarks To The Committee For The Republic, Washington DC, February 2014 (Part 1 of 6 Parts)
[From David Stockman's Contra Corner.]
Flask in hand, Boris Yelstin famously mounted a tank outside the Soviet Parliament in August 1991. Presently, the fearsome Red Army stood down—an outcome which 45 years of Cold War military mobilization by the West had failed to accomplish.
At the time, the U.S. Warfare State’s budget— counting the pentagon, spy agencies, DOE weapons, foreign aid, homeland security and veterans—-was about $500 billion in today’s dollars. Now, a quarter century on from the Cold War’s end, that same metric stands at $900 billion.
This near doubling of the Warfare State’s fiscal girth is a tad incongruous. After all, America’s war machine was designed to thwart a giant, nuclear-armed industrial state, but, alas, we now have no industrial state enemies left on the planet. The much-shrunken Russian successor to the Soviet Union, for example, has become a kleptocracy run by a clever thief who prefers stealing from his own citizens.
Likewise, the Red Chinese threat consists of a re-conditioned aircraft carrier bought second-hand from a former naval power—-otherwise known as the former Ukraine. China’s bubble-ridden domestic economy would collapse within six weeks were it to actually bomb the 4,000 Wal-Mart outlets in America on which its mercantilist export machine utterly depends.
On top of that, we’ve been fired as the world’s policeman, al Qaeda has splintered among warlords who inhabit the armpits of the world from Yemen to Somalia and during last September’s Syria war scare the American people even took away the President’s keys to the Tomahawk missile batteries. In short, the persistence of America’s trillion dollar Warfare State budget needs some serious “splainin”.
The Great War and Its Aftermath
My purpose tonight is to sketch the long story of how it all happened, starting precisely 100 years ago in 1914. In that year the Fed opened-up for business just as the carnage in northern France closed-down the prior magnificent half-century era of liberal internationalism and honest gold-backed money.
The Great War was self-evidently an epochal calamity, especially for the 20 million combatants and civilians who perished for no reason that is discernible in any fair reading of history, or even unfair one. Yet the far greater calamity is that Europe’s senseless fratricide of 1914-1918 gave birth to all the great evils of the 20th century— the Great Depression, totalitarian genocides, Keynesian economics, permanent warfare states, rampaging central banks and the exceptionalist-rooted follies of America’s global imperialism.
Indeed, in Old Testament fashion, one begat the next and the next and still the next. This chain of calamity originated in the Great War’s destruction of sound money, that is, in the post-war demise of the pound sterling which previously had not experienced a peacetime change in its gold content for nearly two hundred years.
Not unreasonably, the world’s financial system had become anchored on the London money markets where the other currencies traded at fixed exchange rates to the rock steady pound sterling—which, in turn, meant that prices and wages throughout Europe were expressed in common money and tended toward transparency and equilibrium.
This liberal international economic order—that is, honest money, relatively free trade, rising international capital flows and rapidly growing global economic integration—-resulted in a 40-year span between 1870 and 1914 of rising living standards, stable prices, massive capital investment and prolific technological progress that was never equaled—either before or since.
During intervals of war, of course, 19th century governments had usually suspended gold convertibility and open trade in the heat of combat. But when the cannons fell silent, they had also endured the trauma of post-war depression until wartime debts had been liquidated and inflationary currency expedients had been wrung out of the circulation. This was called “resumption” and restoring convertibility at the peacetime parities was the great challenge of post-war normalizations.
The Great War, however, involved a scale of total industrial mobilization and financial mayhem that was unlike any that had gone before. In the case of Great Britain, for example, its national debt increased 14-fold, its price level doubled, its capital stock was depleted, most off-shore investments were liquidated and universal wartime conscription left it with a massive overhang of human and financial liabilities.
Yet England was the least devastated. In France, the price level inflated by 300 percent, its extensive Russian investments were confiscated by the Bolsheviks and its debts in New York and London catapulted to more than 100 percent of GDP.
Among the defeated powers, currencies emerged nearly worthless with the German mark at five cents on the pre-war dollar, while wartime debts—especially after the Carthaginian peace of Versailles—–soared to crushing, unrepayable heights.
In short, the bow-wave of debt, currency inflation and financial disorder from the Great War was so immense and unprecedented that the classical project of post-war liquidation and “resumption” of convertibility was destined to fail. In fact, the 1920s were a grinding, sometimes inspired but eventually failed struggle to resume the international gold standard, fixed parities, open world trade and unrestricted international capital flows.
Only in the final demise of these efforts after 1929 did the Great Depression, which had been lurking all along in the post-war shadows, come bounding onto the stage of history."
Everything you know about FDR, The New Deal and the Great Depression Banking Crisis is wrong!!!! "From David Stockman’s Contra Corner. Remarks to the Committee For The Republic, Washington DC, February 2014 (Part 4 in a 6-Part Series) Go to Part 1.
The Great Depression thus did not represent the failure of capitalism or some inherent suicidal tendency of the free market to plunge into cyclical depression—absent the constant ministrations of the state through monetary, fiscal, tax and regulatory interventions. Instead, the Great Depression was a unique historical occurrence—the delayed consequence of the monumental folly of the Great War, abetted by the financial deformations spawned by modern central banking.
But ironically, the “failure of capitalism” explanation of the Great Depression is exactly what enabled the Warfare State to thrive and dominate the rest of the 20th century because it gave birth to what have become its twin handmaidens—-Keynesian economics and monetary central planning. Together, these two doctrines eroded and eventually destroyed the great policy barrier—-that is, the old-time religion of balanced budgets— that had kept America a relatively peaceful Republic until 1914.
To be sure, under Mellon’s tutelage, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover strove mightily, and on paper successfully, to restore the pre-1914 status quo ante on the fiscal front. But it was a pyrrhic victory—since Mellon’s surpluses rested on an artificially booming, bubbling economy that was destined to hit the wall.
The Hoover Recovery of 1932
Worse still, Hoover’s bitter-end fidelity to fiscal orthodoxy, as embodied in his infamous balanced budget of June 1932, got blamed for prolonging the depression. Yet, as I have demonstrated in the chapter of my book called “New Deal Myths of Recovery”, the Great Depression was already over by early summer 1932."
"Date: 03-16-14
Host: George Knapp
Guests: Joseph P. Farrell, Brad Olsen
In the first half, George Knapp was joined by author Joseph Farrell, who detailed his research into the possibility that a secret, breakaway civilization was formed by American elites following World War II. He explained that, after the war, the United States was faced with three formidable challenges: escaped Nazis bent on recreating their empire elsewhere, the Cold War, and the UFO phenomenon. In turn, Farrell surmised, a secret system was put into place to develop defenses against these dangers facing the country. He theorized that, in order to surreptitiously fund such a massive undertaking, the United States used the vast wealth that had been plundered by Japan during WWII to bankroll various projects. Farrell suggested that, over time, similar secret infrastructures were created by other technologically advanced countries such as England, Russia, and China.
In the ensuing years since its creation, Farrell said, the American organization likely developed amazing technological capabilities far beyond what is known to the general population, hence the concept of a 'breakaway civilization,' which shares our planet but exists within a world of knowledge far different from our own. Manmade UFOs, weather control, and zero point energy may be achievements that have secretly been accomplished, but remain classified for fear of revealing technologies which could be weaponized and used against the United States. Farrell pointed to the emergence of 3D printing and the push for mining in space as potential signs of previously accomplished breakthroughs which are now slowly being introduced to the public.
---------------------------------
In the latter half, author Brad Olsen discussed flaws in modern history and how conspiracy theories, esoteric insights, and fringe subjects can be used to help change a dead-end course for humanity. He contended that nearly every facet of human life, from science, government, and banking to farming, water treatment, and even spirituality, have been manipulated by nefarious forces to ensure control over the population. "As we awaken to truth," he observed, "we're realizing that the beneficial information in all these areas has been suppressed and revised in order to keep us enslaved." Behind this agenda, Olsen said, are wealthy families which propagate global wars and control essential resources.
"We have to take the bold steps of rethinking of who we are and what the history is on this planet," Olsen declared. To that end, he noted the Great Pyramids of Egypt as one area which encapsulates this concept of "rethinking our history." Olsen observed that the landmarks display an uncanny level of early technological sophistication, but also reveal a strange devolution in later abilities of the Egyptian culture. Similar to the seemingly spontaneous emergence of the Sumerian culture, Olsen posited that both civilizations constitute a "legacy of something previous," which remains hidden from the historical record. By opening our minds to this 'forbidden' history, Olsen mused, humanity may learn the true heritage of our world and begin to free itself from the 'powers that be' controlling the planet.
Website(s):
gizadeathstar.com
bradolsen.com
Book(s):
Covert Wars and Breakaway Civilizations
Modern Esoteric
Future Esoteric"
Incredible investigative journalism uncovers the Bankster plot to destroy the USA Dollar as a currency, and replace it with a World Currency. Extensive discussion about how the Bankster Billionaires control elections, playing both sides against the middle, and always getting their way. Contact me if you need download access.
| Date: | 03-15-14 |
| Host: | Richard Syrett |
| Guests: | Greg Palast, Douglas Hagmann |
Guest host Richard Syrett welcomed New York Times bestselling author Greg Palast for a discussion on his investigation into election fraud and corruption in the financial world.
First hour guest, investigative author Douglas Hagmann of the Northeast Intelligence Network, commented on the recent spate of mysterious banker deaths.
"While the FT promptly retracted an article on precisely the topic of gold manipulation from earlier this week (recorded for posterity here), Bloomberg appears to not have had the same "editorial" concerns and pressures, and today released an article once again slamming the final conspiracy theory that while every other asset class is manipulated, gold is in a pristine class of its own, untouched by close-banging, price fixing traders or central bankers, and reports that "the London gold fix, the benchmark used by miners, jewelers and central banks to value the metal, may have been manipulated for a decade by the banks setting it, researchers say."
Of course, over the past 5 years we have reported time and again how official gold manipulation started in earnest some time in the 1960s (who can forget the "reshuffle club") but we will start with a decade.
Here is what BBG finds:
Unusual trading patterns around 3 p.m. in London, when the so-called afternoon fix is set on a private conference call between five of the biggest gold dealers, are a sign of collusive behavior and should be investigated, New York University’s Stern School of Business Professor Rosa Abrantes-Metz and Albert Metz, a managing director at Moody’s Investors Service, wrote in a draft research paper.
“The structure of the benchmark is certainly conducive to collusion and manipulation, and the empirical data are consistent with price artificiality,” they say in the report, which hasn’t yet been submitted for publication. “It is likely that co-operation between participants may be occurring.”
The paper is the first to raise the possibility that the five banks overseeing the century-old rate -- Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of Nova Scotia, HSBC Holdings Plc and Societe Generale SA -- may have been actively working together to manipulate the benchmark. It also adds to pressure on the firms to overhaul the way the rate is calculated. Authorities around the world, already investigating the manipulation of benchmarks from interest rates to foreign exchange, are examining the $20 trillion gold market for signs of wrongdoing.
Tell us something we didn't already know. Then again, this time may be different, because one of the authors, Abrantes-Metz, advises the European Union and the International Organization of Securities Commissions on financial benchmarks. According to Bloomberg, her 2008 paper “Libor Manipulation?” helped uncover the rigging of the London interbank offered rate, which has led financial firms including Barclays Plc and UBS AG to be fined about $6 billion in total. She is a paid expert witness to lawyers, providing economic analysis for litigation. Metz heads credit policy research at ratings company Moody’s.
By way of background, the history of gold price fixing is well-known and is one of the longest running traditions in banking:
The rate-setting ritual dates back to 1919. Dealers in the early years met in a wood-paneled room in Rothschild’s office in the City of London and raised little Union Jacks to indicate interest. Now the fix is calculated twice a day on telephone conferences at 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. London time. The calls usually last 10 minutes, though they can run more than an hour.
So what exactly did this "erudite" authority on manipulation uncover?
Abrantes-Metz and Metz screened intraday trading in the spot gold market from 2001 to 2013 for sudden, unexplained moves that may indicate illegal behavior. From 2004, they observed frequent spikes in spot gold prices during the afternoon call. The moves weren’t replicated during the morning call and hadn’t happened before 2004, they found.
There’s no obvious explanation as to why the patterns began in 2004, why they were more prevalent in the afternoon fixing, and why price moves tended to be downwards, Abrantes-Metz said in a telephone interview this week.
“This is a first attempt to uncover potentially manipulative behavior and the results are concerning,” she said. “It’s down to regulators to establish why there are such striking patterns but banks have the means, motive and opportunity to manipulate the fixing. The results are consistent with the possibility of collusion.”
And the punchline:
Large price moves during the afternoon call were also overwhelmingly in the same direction: down. On days when the authors identified large price moves during the fix, they were downwards at least two-thirds of the time in six different years between 2004 and 2013. In 2010, large moves during the fix were negative 92 percent of the time, the authors found.
Unpossible - the bank prop traders manipulating gold and the central banks for whom precious metals are the holy water that can destroy their fractional reserve ponzi scheme would never lie. Because otherwise the historic silver slam from May 1, 2011, in which silver cratered by $6, or about 15%, in milliseconds and ended the parabolic rise higher in the metal could be... gasp... criminal."
A series of eleven pages discussing Bitcoin and the extraordinary impact it will have on the world economy. Excellent article and a worthy follow up to the previous Marc Andressen discussion of Bitcoin.
. In this research paper we hope to explain that the bitcoin currency itself is ‘just’ the next phase in the evolution of money – from dumb to smart money.
It’s the underlying platform, the Bitcoin protocol aka Bitcoin 2.0, that holds the real transformative power. That is where the revolution starts. According to our research there are several reasons why this new technology is going to disrupt our economy and society as we have never experienced before:
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Subset list for the "End of the American Dream" Group. The American Dream group started with a focus on liberty vs tyranny alignment of ideologies surrounding arguments about the US Constitution, capitalism vs. socialism, limited vs. big central government and so on. Now i know it's all about th...
Updated on Apr 16, 15
Created on Jul 25, 11
Category: Government & Politics
URL:
