Thursday, October 27, 2011

New Money Paradigm Needed ASAP #ows #EndtheFed #EndtheIMF #EndtheWB #ehm

So the banks create a whole new market of derivatives and send the world into massive debt while evading taxes and flooding the market with USD through their wholly owned subsidiary THE FEDERAL RESERVE and other CENTRAL BANKS and then once everything has exploded and the credit tightens up, the money supply is tightened after 1) they have bought all our assets at deflated prices, 2) we are in debt up to our ears, and 3) our WAGES DECLINE because of long term systemic UNEMPLOYMENT.



Then it will be time to increase the money supply again and inflate all the assets and pay themselves great bonuses for advising their clients to buy and sell and buy and sell. And we will be stuck with PERMANENTLY LOWER WAGES.



Watch "The Money Masters", "Collapse" and Elizabeth Warren's "The Coming Collapse of the (American) Middle Class" and tell me I am not spot on.



Up and down, up and down. They win either way on their model.



Oh then the USA will be looking for World Bank and IMF funding and the economic hitmen will set the interest rate and the size of the project just right so we can never pay it back. Read the "Confessions of an Economic Hitman"

by John Perkins

Amplify’d from www.reuters.com

Nightmare scenario: U.S. deflation risks rising

U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing employee Lisimba Williams flips through a stack of newly printed bills at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington October 23, 2006. REUTERS/Jim Young

(Reuters) - Risks are rising that a moribund job market and potentially steep drop in inflation could push the United States into a downward spiral of falling wages and prices.


That nightmare scenario of deflation might seem remote considering a recent rebound in growth, and the Federal Reserve would almost certainly try to head it off, probably well before prices started to fall.

But some investors and economists say the risk is real.

Inflation is expected to more than halve over the next year as a spike in prices for goods like oil and grains unwinds. Unemployment, meanwhile, will likely hold at nearly double its pre-recession level well into next year, keeping incomes under pressure.

If forecasts are correct, that could present a dangerous combination the Fed might not allow to brew for very long.

"You run the models and that all points to deflation," said Joshua Dennerlein, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York. "Without some kind of monetary policy help you would definitely get deflation."

Already, many forecasts for price increases are lower than they were a year ago when the Fed announced it would pump $600 billion into the banking system to boost growth and counter fears of deflation, which were growing at the time.

The inflation rate, which hit a three-year high of 3.9 percent in September, could fall to 1.3 percent by October 2012, according to a measure of expectations calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

That would leave the rate below the U.S. central bank's 1.7 percent to 2 percent comfort zone.

FOUNDATION FOR ACTION

With this year's inflation surge as a backdrop, the Fed is not expected to make any move at its policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

But looking to mid-2012, when the central bank's current stimulus program known as "Operation Twist" is due to expire, a high jobless rate and slowing inflation could look worrisome, especially if inflation expectations decline further.

"That would provide more of a foundation for action both to try to reduce the probability of slipping into deflation and to try to provide some more support for economic growth," said Randall Kroszner, an economist at the University of Chicago who served on the Fed's board until 2009.

When Kroszner was a policymaker, deflation fears were perhaps their highest since the Great Depression, the last time U.S. prices and incomes sank in a vicious, self-feeding cycle.

To counter inflation, central banks can always raise interest rates. But the Fed's normal tool kit for countering falling prices is limited since it has already cut short-term borrowing costs nearly to zero.

The key would be to find a way to ensure a deflationary psychology does not take hold. If consumers and businesses put off purchases because they could be cheaper down the road, that could undercut the economy and push prices down further.

While growth likely accelerated to around a 2.5 percent annual pace in the third quarter, nearly double the second-quarter rate, several Fed officials have continued to talk about steps they could take to spur a stronger recovery.

Some of the third quarter's relative strength reflects a one-time bounceback from shocks caused by a spike in oil prices and an earthquake in Japan that disrupted manufacturing.

And dark clouds remain. Economists say a worsening of Europe's debt crisis could easily send the United States back into recession, further increasing deflation risks.

MONEY PRINTING

Already, nearly one fifth of Americans believe their family incomes will fall during the next six months, the highest level of wage pessimism since October 2009, according to data released on Tuesday by the Conference Board.

At the same time, consumer expectations for long-term inflation, as measured by a Thomson-Reuters/University of Michigan survey, fell this month to the lowest level since the Fed was readying a $600 billion bond-buying plan a year ago.

Growth in wages has slowed markedly since the recession and they could eventually start falling if the unemployment rate remains high, said Paul Ashworth, and economist at Capital Economics in Toronto. A Reuters poll of economists expects the jobless rate to edge down to just 9 percent in the second quarter of 2012 from 9.1 percent now.

Some analysts think the Fed's extraordinary actions to help the economy -- it has already pumped $2.3 trillion into the banking system -- make it nearly impossible for a sustained deflation to take hold.

While much of that money has not seeped into the wider economy because of weak demand and tighter lending standards, eventually it will, greasing the gears of growth and fueling inflation, said Richard Burdekin, an economist at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.

"There is a legitimate concern about deflation," he said. "But to have a deflation when you have the sort of money growth we're seeing would be unprecedented."

Yet investors who believe most ardently that deflation is coming see evidence in the declines in the values of a number of asset classes. U.S. housing prices have fallen about a third since their pre-recession peak, while the Standard & Poor's stock index is down about a fifth. The Reuters-Jefferies CRB commodities index has also dropped about a third since its 2008 peak, and nearly 15 percent since April of this year.

"When you have deflation in all these other areas, it's kind of difficult to see how goods and services are going to resist the trend," said Gary Shilling, who formerly worked on the staff of the San Francisco Fed and as an economist at several Wall Street firms.

Read more at www.reuters.com
 

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Obama Clearly Works for the Banks, Not the People #ows

The Obama healthcare plan did not address the costs, it simply expanded coverage to more people.  Arguably better than what we had before.  However, the true cost increases to healthcare are in medical liability insurance, super leveraged medical institutions increasing the price of service with new technology, the cost of real estate for hospitals and clinics, the cost of drugs to treat, and the big one is the 30-40% administrative overhead created by the PPO processes.

The banking regulations have yet to put any prominent bankers in jail for FRAUD.  Sidelines folks such as Bernie Madoff could no longer be ignored.

The HAMP and homeowners refinancing plans allow homeowners who are underwater to REFINANCE, creating additional interest charges and INCREASING the overall cost of the home.  This way the banks don't have to take writedowns.  With no prospects for growth in the economy, the value of the homes will not grow in the near future so what's the point of owning? At the same time the mortgage interest deduction is slated for elimination.

The student loan deal actually took the banks out of education costs so that was good for us, but what about the trillion dollar education debt bubble that is ALREADY out there.  With no prospects for growth, jobs are slim, but student debt cannot be avoided.

Can anyone point to ANY Obama legislation that actually REDUCED the debt burden or inflationary burden the American middle class is facing?

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Scientific Proof the 1% "Bilderberg" Control the World's Wealth #nwo #infowars #ows

When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.



Cross reference this with the TARP bailout

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/200904_CREDITCRISIS/recipients.html



Conspiracy theorists have called this the Bilderberg Group

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bilderberg_participants

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bilderberg

Amplify’d from www.newscientist.com




Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world

AS PROTESTS against financial power sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters' worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.

The study's assumptions have attracted some criticism, but complex systems analysts contacted by New Scientist say it is a unique effort to untangle control in the global economy. Pushing the analysis further, they say, could help to identify ways of making global capitalism more stable.

The idea that a few bankers control a large chunk of the global economy might not seem like news to New York's Occupy Wall Street movement and protesters elsewhere (see photo). But the study, by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power. It combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world's transnational corporations (TNCs).

"Reality is so complex, we must move away from dogma, whether it's conspiracy theories or free-market," says James Glattfelder. "Our analysis is reality-based."

The 1318 transnational corporations that form the core of the economy. Superconnected companies are red, very connected companies are yellow. The size of the dot represents revenue <i>(Image: </i>PLoS One<i>)</i>

The 1318 transnational corporations that form the core of the economy. Superconnected companies are red, very connected companies are yellow. The size of the dot represents revenue (Image: PLoS One)

Previous studies have found that a few TNCs own large chunks of the world's economy, but they included only a limited number of companies and omitted indirect ownerships, so could not say how this affected the global economy - whether it made it more or less stable, for instance.

The Zurich team can. From Orbis 2007, a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide, they pulled out all 43,060 TNCs and the share ownerships linking them. Then they constructed a model of which companies controlled others through shareholding networks, coupled with each company's operating revenues, to map the structure of economic power.

The work, to be published in PLoS One, revealed a core of 1318 companies with interlocking ownerships (see image). Each of the 1318 had ties to two or more other companies, and on average they were connected to 20. What's more, although they represented 20 per cent of global operating revenues, the 1318 appeared to collectively own through their shares the majority of the world's large blue chip and manufacturing firms - the "real" economy - representing a further 60 per cent of global revenues.

When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.

John Driffill of the University of London, a macroeconomics expert, says the value of the analysis is not just to see if a small number of people controls the global economy, but rather its insights into economic stability.

Concentration of power is not good or bad in itself, says the Zurich team, but the core's tight interconnections could be. As the world learned in 2008, such networks are unstable. "If one [company] suffers distress," says Glattfelder, "this propagates."

"It's disconcerting to see how connected things really are," agrees George Sugihara of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, a complex systems expert who has advised Deutsche Bank.

Yaneer Bar-Yam, head of the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI), warns that the analysis assumes ownership equates to control, which is not always true. Most company shares are held by fund managers who may or may not control what the companies they part-own actually do. The impact of this on the system's behaviour, he says, requires more analysis.

Crucially, by identifying the architecture of global economic power, the analysis could help make it more stable. By finding the vulnerable aspects of the system, economists can suggest measures to prevent future collapses spreading through the entire economy. Glattfelder says we may need global anti-trust rules, which now exist only at national level, to limit over-connection among TNCs. Sugihara says the analysis suggests one possible solution: firms should be taxed for excess interconnectivity to discourage this risk.

One thing won't chime with some of the protesters' claims: the super-entity is unlikely to be the intentional result of a conspiracy to rule the world. "Such structures are common in nature," says Sugihara.

Newcomers to any network connect preferentially to highly connected members. TNCs buy shares in each other for business reasons, not for world domination. If connectedness clusters, so does wealth, says Dan Braha of NECSI: in similar models, money flows towards the most highly connected members. The Zurich study, says Sugihara, "is strong evidence that simple rules governing TNCs give rise spontaneously to highly connected groups". Or as Braha puts it: "The Occupy Wall Street claim that 1 per cent of people have most of the wealth reflects a logical phase of the self-organising economy."

So, the super-entity may not result from conspiracy. The real question, says the Zurich team, is whether it can exert concerted political power. Driffill feels 147 is too many to sustain collusion. Braha suspects they will compete in the market but act together on common interests. Resisting changes to the network structure may be one such common interest.

When this article was first posted, the comment in the final sentence of the paragraph beginning "Crucially, by identifying the architecture of global economic power…" was misattributed.

The top 50 of the 147 superconnected companies







1. Barclays plc
2. Capital Group Companies Inc
3. FMR Corporation
4. AXA
5. State Street Corporation
6. JP Morgan Chase & Co
7. Legal & General Group plc
8. Vanguard Group Inc
9. UBS AG
10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc
11. Wellington Management Co LLP
12. Deutsche Bank AG
13. Franklin Resources Inc
14. Credit Suisse Group
15. Walton Enterprises LLC
16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp
17. Natixis
18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc
19. T Rowe Price Group Inc
20. Legg Mason Inc
21. Morgan Stanley
22. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc
23. Northern Trust Corporation
24. Société Générale
25. Bank of America Corporation
26. Lloyds TSB Group plc
27. Invesco plc
28. Allianz SE 29. TIAA
30. Old Mutual Public Limited Company
31. Aviva plc
32. Schroders plc
33. Dodge & Cox
34. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc*
35. Sun Life Financial Inc
36. Standard Life plc
37. CNCE
38. Nomura Holdings Inc
39. The Depository Trust Company
40. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
41. ING Groep NV
42. Brandes Investment Partners LP
43. Unicredito Italiano SPA
44. Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan
45. Vereniging Aegon
46. BNP Paribas
47. Affiliated Managers Group Inc
48. Resona Holdings Inc
49. Capital Group International Inc
50. China Petrochemical Group Company









* Lehman still existed in the 2007 dataset used

Read more at www.newscientist.com
 

Map the Fall of Predatory Capitalism in Europe #ows

Remember the fall of western Communism in 1989-1991? USSR fell after the Cold War. Eastern Europe was on fire then.



Now its western Europe and the US that's on fire.



Oh and the middle east and Africa, they were on fire in the 1960's and 1970's after we created their nation states after WW1.



And Europe can pretty much blame the US government and US banks and the Federal Reserve for their misery. That is the root cause of this crisis.

Amplify’d from twitpic.com

@LeilaLaTresSage


Leïla la très sage
October 14, 2011


Map of #Occupy Europe, tomorrow #oct15. @OccupyBritain
See more at twitpic.com
 

Monday, October 24, 2011

FBI Announces Gangs Have Infiltrated Every Branch Of The Military

Think this will lead to more drugs and weapons flooding the streets? Think this has anything to do with the drug war in Mexico? Think this will go ignored like the 9/11 warnings the FBI provided the Whitehouse and the CIA?

Amplify’d from www.businessinsider.com

The FBI Announces Gangs Have Infiltrated Every Branch Of The Military

The FBI has released a new gang assessment announcing that there are 1.4 million gang members in the US, a 40 percent increase since 2009, and that many of these members are getting inside the military (via Stars and Stripes).


The report says the military has seen members from 53 gangs and 100 regions in the U.S. enlist in every branch of the armed forces. Members of every major street gang, some prison gangs, and outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) have been reported on both U.S. and international military installations.


From the report:


Through transfers and deployments, military-affiliated gang members expand their culture and operations to new regions nationwide and worldwide, undermining security and law enforcement efforts to combat crime. Gang members with military training pose a unique threat to law enforcement personnel because of their distinctive weapons and combat training skills and their ability to transfer these skills to fellow gang members.


The report notes that while gang members have been reported in every branch of service, they are concentrated in the U.S. Army, Army Reserves, and the Army National Guard.


Many street gang members join the military to escape the gang lifestyle or as an alternative to incarceration, but often revert back to their gang associations once they encounter other gang members in the military. Other gangs target the U.S. military and defense systems to expand their territory, facilitate criminal activity such as weapons and drug trafficking, or to receive weapons and combat training that they may transfer back to their gang. Incidents of weapons theft and trafficking may have a negative impact on public safety or pose a threat to law enforcement officials.


The FBI points out that many gangs, especially the bikers, actively recruit members with military training and advise young members with no criminal record to join the service for weapon access and combat experience.


The full assessment is definitely worth checking out, if only for the pictures.

Read more at www.businessinsider.com
 

Friday, October 21, 2011

Confessions of an Economic Hitman (POTUS) #peakoil #energy #obama #EHM @collapsenet #OWS

Read the book entitled "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins and you will understand part of this. then listen to the lectures of Michael Klare and watch the documentary "Collapse" with Michael Ruppert.



Then once you've puked and recovered start paying attention to #OWS and @maxkeiser on the Keiser Report on RT.com.



Are the jackals at work in your hometown? If they fail, expect a visit from Special Forces. If they fail, expect the US Military to knock down your door because you are a TERRORIST and a THREAT to SOCIETY.



Bitter yet?

The White House, Washington
Good evening,
I'm writing to tell you that all US troops will return home from Iraq by the end of December. After nearly nine years, the American war in Iraq will end. It's not because we won necessarily but because we were thrown out.  Our servicemen and women will be with their families for the holidays.
The war in Iraq came with tremendous cost but also had its benefits for the military industrial complex that we are all familiar with. More than a million Americans served in Iraq, and nearly 4,500 gave their lives in service to the rest of us. Today, as always, we honor these patriots and servants of predatory capitalism.
When I came into office, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end. As Commander in Chief, I ended our combat mission last year and pledged to keep our commitment to remove all our troops by the end of 2011. To date, we’ve removed more than 100,000 troops from Iraq.
This is a significant moment in our history. For more information, including video, please visit WhiteHouse.gov/BringingTroopsHome



The end of the war in Iraq reflects a larger trend of American imperialism around the world. The wars of the past decade are drawing to a close and we must move on to the next battlefield or the American economy will collapse.   You see, for many years we have been debasing our currency by printing trillions of dollars and spending it frivolously in order to create a new world order, one in which the wise capitalists that run our shadow government headquartered in the NY & Dallas Federal Reserves, have been able to consolidate their wealth.   We have been able to successfully distract the people from the real issues of global overpopulation and resource depletion with wars justified by acts of violence like 9/11, which we so cleverly disguised as a war with the middle eastern Islamic extremists.  Since they are so different from the rest of the capitalist gluttons, it was easy to place the blame on them while we continued to rape, pillage, and plunder the planet.  We even opened AFRICOM the Imperial military command post in Africa that will help us secure their resources for the next 30-40 years.
As we have removed troops from Iraq, we have refocused our fight against al Qaeda and secured major victories in taking out its leadership–including Osama bin Laden which has provided vital protection to our national interests in the area (oil). And we’ve begun a transition in Afghanistan, where there are trillions of dollars of virgin gold, silver, and mineral deposits.  Also, we must protect our vital national interests of the Caspian Sea, which are BP, Shell, and Unocal oil and natural gas.
On the first day of my Administration, roughly 180,000 troops were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. By the end of this year that number will be cut in half, and we’ll continue to draw it down.  
As we welcome home our newest veterans, we’ll enlist their talents in meeting our greatest challenges as a nation—restoring our economic strength at home. Because after a decade of war, the nation that we need to build is our own.
Today the United States moves forward, from a position of strength despite the fact that everyone says we lost the war. 
Please honor our soldiers for they know not what our true objectives are.
Thank you,
President Barack Obama
Read more at twistedpolitix.blogspot.com
 

Letter from President Barack Obama - CEO of USA Energy Inc.


The White House, Washington
 
Good evening,
I'm writing to tell you that all US troops will return home from Iraq by the end of December. After nearly nine years, the American war in Iraq will end. It's not because we won necessarily but because we were thrown out.  Our servicemen and women will be with their families for the holidays.
The war in Iraq came with tremendous cost but also had its benefits for the military industrial complex that we are all familiar with. More than a million Americans served in Iraq, and nearly 4,500 gave their lives in service to the rest of us. Today, as always, we honor these patriots and servants of predatory capitalism.
When I came into office, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end. As Commander in Chief, I ended our combat mission last year and pledged to keep our commitment to remove all our troops by the end of 2011. To date, we’ve removed more than 100,000 troops from Iraq.
This is a significant moment in our history. For more information, including video, please visit WhiteHouse.gov/BringingTroopsHome

The end of the war in Iraq reflects a larger trend of American imperialism around the world. The wars of the past decade are drawing to a close and we must move on to the next battlefield or the American economy will collapse.   You see, for many years we have been debasing our currency by printing trillions of dollars and spending it frivolously in order to create a new world order, one in which the wise capitalists that run our shadow government headquartered in the NY & Dallas Federal Reserves, have been able to consolidate their wealth.   We have been able to successfully distract the people from the real issues of global overpopulation and resource depletion with wars justified by acts of violence like 9/11, which we so cleverly disguised as a war with the middle eastern Islamic extremists.  Since they are so different from the rest of the capitalist gluttons, it was easy to place the blame on them while we continued to rape, pillage, and plunder the planet.  We even opened AFRICOM the Imperial military command post in Africa that will help us secure their resources for the next 30-40 years.
As we have removed troops from Iraq, we have refocused our fight against al Qaeda and secured major victories in taking out its leadership–including Osama bin Laden which has provided vital protection to our national interests in the area (oil). And we’ve begun a transition in Afghanistan, where there are trillions of dollars of virgin gold, silver, and mineral deposits.  Also, we must protect our vital national interests of the Caspian Sea, which are BP, Shell, and Unocal oil and natural gas.
On the first day of my Administration, roughly 180,000 troops were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. By the end of this year that number will be cut in half, and we’ll continue to draw it down.  
As we welcome home our newest veterans, we’ll enlist their talents in meeting our greatest challenges as a nation—restoring our economic strength at home. Because after a decade of war, the nation that we need to build is our own.
Today the United States moves forward, from a position of strength despite the fact that everyone says we lost the war. 

Please honor our soldiers for they know not what our true objectives are.
Thank you,
President Barack Obama

 

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Leveraged EFSF Violates Terms of Post WW2 Maastricht Treaty - Europe's Worst Nightmare

Remember hyperinflation lead to the rise of Hitler and the results were catastrophic. The ECB cannot print money like the US Federal Reserve has or the planet will be thrusted into WW3, making the current economic, trade, and currency wars look like piddlesticks.

Steen Jakobsen, chief economist of Saxo Bank in Denmark just pinged me with the following email comments "Leveraged EFSF deemed violation of Maastricht. The Master Plan is coming apart!"

Steen offers additional background:

AIDLER and CHARLES FORELLE

BRUSSELS—European officials debating ways to increase the effectiveness of their bailout fund are focusing on using the fund to provide collateral to back up bond issues by troubled countries, according to people familiar with the matter.

Lawyers for governments and European institutions have warned that using the bailout fund to provide direct guarantees would violate the European Union's restrictions on bailouts, pouring cold water on the widely circulated notion that the European Financial Stability Facility on its own could simply stand as a guarantor for euro-zone bond issues.

Instead, under versions of the plan being discussed ahead of a critical weekend summit, these people said, countries who want to avail themselves of insurance would borrow an additional amount from the EFSF when they need to tap markets for financing. That extra amount would be kept aside to provide some compensation to creditors in the event of a default.

The collateral scheme would serve a similar purpose as the direct guarantee might have: giving investors an incentive to buy bonds from potentially-wobbly countries that need financing. The difference is that it would increase the volume of borrowing that those countries need to do.

An insurance plan of some variety would boost the effectiveness of the EFSF. That's because insuring, say, 20% of a country's bond issue consumes less of the EFSF's resources than buying 100% of the issue outright. Such a boost is a key pillar of a comprehensive package of crisis measures that European leaders are trying to forge at a meeting here this weekend. French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew Wednesday to Frankfurt to meet with his German counterpart and other top European officials to try to reach a consensus.

France has favored a different method of boosting the fund—allowing it to act as a bank and finance itself through the European Central Bank. But the ECB and Germany have rejected that option. That leaves an insurance scheme as the main contender.

The other major pillars of the weekend package are a new bailout for Greece and a broad call for recapitalization of European banks. The countries appear closer on the bank issue, but it is not clear that they'll be able to reach an accord on Greece.
"Merkozy" Master Plan Comes Unglued

The Merkel-Sarkozy "master plan" was nothing more than hot air all along. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy hoped to put together a big bazooka by October 23 that would shock-and-awe the world.

However, that bazooka quickly turned into a pea shooter as noted in Bailout Campaign Bogs Down in Bickering; Dead Before Arrival?

Assuming the "Leveraged EFSF" idea is now dead, not only is there no bazooka, there is no pea shooter either.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List
Read more at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
 

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Global Opportunity for a Paradigm Shift #transition #ows #greece #germany #revolution #usa #china #russia

Does the world really have to be driven by megabanks and infinite growth without respect for the planet and its inhabitants (including the us, the 99%) in order to be considered successful and happy? Why can't we shift to localization without war and indentured servitude? Why does capitalism have to mean limitless expansion and growth? Why is our economic model predicated on never-ending consumption of the earth's finite resources?



What if we had more time to enjoy our lives and our families.

What if we had more time to participate in our democracies?

What if we had more time to contribute to our communities?

What if we had more time to exercise instead of working 40+ hrs a week?

What if we had more time to learn and teach others?



But we can't under the current model because we must WORK, PRODUCE and CONSUME until we are fat, stressed, and unhealthy, and in DEBT.



We must change the economic model NOW. Globally

Amplify’d from www.telegraph.co.uk

Europe's lost decade as $7 trillion loan crunch looms


Europe’s banks face a $7 trillion lending contraction to bring their balance
sheets in line with the US and Japan, threatening to trap the region in a
credit crunch and chronic depression for a decade.



8:30PM BST 16 Oct 2011




Comments261 Comments




The risk is "Japanisation" without the benefits of Japan: without a
single government, or a trade super-surplus, or 1pc debt costs, or unique
social cohesion.



Even today, the jobless rate for youth is near 10pc in Japan. It is already
46pc in Spain, 43pc in Greece, 32pc in Ireland, and 27pc in Italy. We will
discover over time what yet more debt deleveraging will do to these
societies.



Stephen Jen from SLJ Macro Partners says the loan to deposit (LTD) ratio of
Europe’s lenders is 1.2, much like Japanese banks in the early 1990s at the
onset of the country’s Lost Decade (now two decades).



How Europe allowed this to happen will no doubt be the subject of many
enquiries. Suffice to say that it was an intellectual failure by everybody:
lenders, economists, regulators and the European Central Bank. The ECB
misread the implications of the global capital surplus in the middle of the
last decade (like the Fed) and gunned the M3 money supply at double-digit
rates (like the Fed).



This great error further juiced the fatal flood of lending from North Europe
to Club Med. Interestingly, it is what US lending did to Germany in the late
1920s. When the music stopped -- when Wall Street cut off loans, as Germany
has now cut off loans to Spain -- trouble ensured within two years. Weimar
limped on, but not for long.


The Japanese eventually trimmed their LTD ratio to the current safe level of
0.7pc, the same as US banks. It is a fair bet that new bank rules and market
pressure will force Europe to do likewise. Mr Jen said this means slashing
the loan book from $19 trillion to nearer $12 trillion, given the dearth of
fresh deposits.


It will be an ice-cold douche for the world. European banks have $3.4 trillion
of cross-border loans to emerging markets (BIS data), three-quarters of the
total. They account for 46pc in Asia, 63pc in Latin America, and 90pc in
Eastern Europe.


Either these banks will cut funding to Eastern Europe, or they will curtail
loans at home. Most likely they will do both. Mr Jen said a lot of nasty "feedback
loops" will blight the whole European region for a long time.


The sheer scale of Europe’s bank excesses -- roughly equal to Alan Greenspan’s
household bubble in America -- shows what EU leaders are up against as they
thrash out their latest "Grand Plan" to save Euroland.


Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have bowed to pressure from Washington and
the International Monetary Fund for bank recapitalizations, by compulsion if
necessary. Lenders must raise core Tier I capital ratios to 9pc or 10pc.


This is a wise precaution given that Germany plans to impose a Greek default
on Europe’s banking system. But it is also "pro-cyclical".
It tightens credit further. Lenders threaten to shrink their loan books to
meet the target rather than dilute their share base by raising money in a
hostile market.


If governments are forced to step in, it will not be much prettier. The IMF
pitches fresh capital needs at €200bn, but what if Credit Suisse is nearer
the mark at €400bn? Such sums would push the public debt of several states
over the danger line, intensifying the vicious circle as banks and
sovereigns drag each other down.


Indeed, it you look at each component of the Grand Plan, every one creates a
secondary chain of consequences that may ultimately prove self-defeating. It
is why I fear there may be no plausible solution to Europe’s crisis. The
structural damage has already gone too far.


We are told the Franco-German plan will offer Greece debt-relief worth having,
perhaps a 50pc haircut for banks. Investors are understandably furious. This
unpicks the voluntary accord for 21pc haircuts agreed in July. "A deal
is a deal," said Charles Dallara from the Institute of International
Finance (IIF). Moreover, 50pc is not enough. It creates a banking panic
without actually solving Greece’s problem.


A third of Greece’s €364bn debt is owed to the IMF, EU, and ECB. That is
deemed untouchable. Angela Merkel has so far managed to deflect popular
anger over bail-out loans by insisting that they have not cost German
taxpayers one Pfennig.


Stephane Deo from UBS said Greece might have to "repudiate its debt
entirely" with a 100pc haircut for banks to give itself enough oxygen
to breathe again. This would be an earthquake.


No sane investor believes this will stop with Greece. Portugal is in much the
same trouble, despite the heroic austerity drive of premier Pedro Passos
Coelho -- a latter day Marques de Pombal. The country’s total debt will top
360pc of GDP next year, and its current account deficit is stuck near 10pc
of GDP. This mix is worse than in Greece. It is untenable.


We all told too that the EU’s €440bn bail-out fund (EFSF) -- at last approved
after high drama in Slovakia -- will be ramped up with "leverage".
It is assumed that German lawmakers will tamely go along with this, a mere
three weeks after finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble seemed to promise that
no such that leverage would occur.


The proposal du jour is Allianz’s "Achleitner Plan", letting
the EFSF guarantee the first tranche of losses on bonds: 40pc for Greece,
Portugal, and Ireland; 25pc for Italy and Spain. This would boost coverage
to nearly €3 trillion of debt issuance.


This plan is dangerous. It concentrates risk, like a Lloyds spiral syndicate,
or the "CDOs" and other instruments of legerdemain in the US
subprime bubble. There is a high chance that this bluff would be called if
Europe tips into a double-dip recession.


Credit markets have already begun to issue their verdict. Yield spreads on the
EFSF’s 10-year bonds have almost doubled over Bunds since July. French
spreads jumped last week to a post-EMU record of 92 points. Remember that
France’s banking liabilities are 409pc of GDP (ECB data), compared to 338pc
for Spain, 331pc for Germany, 250pc for Italy, 213pc for Greece.


Any such leverage must inevitably cost France its `AAA’ rating, with parallel
effects in Austria as it struggles with a wave of fresh woes in Hungary,
Ukraine, and the Balkans. This sets off its own treacherous dynamic.


Even if the IMF and the China-led `BRICS’ were to step with in half a trillion
or so, this would create a fresh problem. Foreign purchases of EMU bonds
would force up the value of the euro. The effect would tighten the trade
noose even further on Spain, Italy, and France. Perhaps that is why Brazil’s
Guido "currency war" Mantega likes the idea. It is exchange
manipulation behind diplomatic cover.


There is much talk of EMU fiscal union, most recently the "Soros Plan".
But what Germany means by EU economic government is better policing of Club
Med budgets, not debt-pooling or eurobonds. It should be clear after the
ruling of the German constitutional court last month and the fiery debates
in the Bundestag that Berlin will not alienate its sovereign fiscal powers
to the EU.


Merkozy’s Grand Plan may buy time. It may shift the stress point from one part
of the unworkable structure to another. But it cannot conjure away the 30pc
gap in competitiveness between Germany and Latin Europe that has built up
over fifteen years. It is this intra-EMU currency misalignment that is
asphyxiating Club Med and destroying the banks.


The ECB can of course save Euroland, if it is willing to launch stimulus a
l’outrance with bond purchases near 20pc of GDP -- like the Bank of England.
A reflation policy would undoubtedly lift the South off the reefs, perhaps
by targeting M3 growth of 5pc in Italy and Spain for three years. It would
allow EMU laggards to claw their way to back to viability.


Any such attempt to correct North-South imbalances from both ends requires an
inflationary boom in Germany. That is the price that Germany must pay. But
as events have made all too clear over recent months, this runs smack into
German ideology and the Teutonic granite of the Bundesbank.


So perhaps there is no solution for EMU after all. Kultur is the ultimate
economic fundamental.

Read more at www.telegraph.co.uk
 

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Restore America Plan from Ron Paul



Dear Jeremy,

My staff and I have put together a bold proposal to remove the burden of out-of-control government from off the taxpayers’ backs and restore our nation’s prosperity.

And I want you to be among the very first to get the details of this plan.

On Monday, October 17, I’ll be in Las Vegas, Nevada, for a major press conference to introduce my Restore America budget plan.

This budget will slash federal spending, cut taxes and regulation, and help reestablish limited government, free markets, and sound money in America.

In short, this budget will put our country back on track.

The press conference starts at 3pm and will be held in the Venetian Resort’sCasanova Room.

While this event is free and open to the public, I fully expect it to be packed.

But there’s one way you can guarantee you have a seat for the unveiling of the Restore America plan.

Along with the press conference, I’ll also be in town for a couple of receptions my campaign is hosting on Monday night at Capo’s Italian Steakhouse.

Our Private VIP Reception starts at 6pm.  Tickets to this very exclusive event are $1,000 and extremely limited.

But anyone who buys a ticket to this reception will get VIP seating at my press conference.

We’ll also be hosting a separate Dinner Reception at Capo’s at 7pm, and anyone who buys tickets to the VIP reception will also gain access to the Dinner Reception.

Purchase your tickets for one or both events here
.

Every dollar raised at these events will go toward further strengthening and growing this campaign.

There’s no denying that these are trying times for our country.

But I firmly believe that you and I can save our Republic if we’re willing to make the tough choices necessary to implement fundamental changes.

I’m excited about tackling these challenges with the Restore America budget’s key reforms, and I’ll hope you’ll join us for the 3pm press conference on Monday so you can be among the first to hear the details of this bold proposal.

Remember, all those who purchase tickets to the Private VIP Reception will get VIP seating at the press conference, and they will also get access to our separate Dinner Reception.

And if you’ll be in town on Tuesday, October 18, I would love to see you again as we officially open our Las Vegas Campaign Office at 7:30pm.

The details of the press conference, the campaign receptions, and the Las Vegas Office Grand Opening are as follows. 

Monday, October 17, 2011

3:00pm
Restore America Plan Press Conference
Casanova Room – Venetian Hotel
3355 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Directions are available HERE.

6:00pm
Private VIP Reception
Capo’s Italian Steakhouse
5675 West Sahara Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89146

Tickets are available HERE.

7:00pm
Dinner Reception
Capo’s Italian Steakhouse
5675 West Sahara Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89146
Tickets are available HERE.  Remember, purchasing a ticket to the Private VIP Reception also gains you entry to the Dinner Reception.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
7:30pm
Las Vegas Campaign Office Grand Opening
Las Vegas Headquarters
19 South Stephanie Street, Suite 110
Henderson, NV 89012

Directions are available HERE.

For more information about the press conference, the receptions, or the Campaign Office Grand Opening, click HERE or call my Nevada office at 702-900-2520 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            702-900-2520      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

I hope to see you at one or more of these events!


For Liberty,


Ron Paul

P.S.  I’m hosting several events in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Monday, October 17, and Tuesday, October 18 – and I wanted to personally invite you to attend as many as you can.

On Monday, I’ll be unveiling my Restore America plan to get America back on track at a press conference I’m holding at the Venetian Resort at 3pm.

Later that day, my campaign is hosting two receptions at Capo’s Italian Steakhouse.  Tickets are very limited, and you can purchase them HERE.

Then, on Tuesday, October 18, I’ll attend the Grand Opening Celebration at my new Las Vegas Campaign Office at 7:30pm.

For more information about the press conference, the receptions, or the Campaign Office Grand Opening, click HERE or call my Nevada office at 702-900-2520 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            702-900-2520      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.



Paid for by Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee

www.ronpaul2012.com

Friday, October 7, 2011

Inside Job or Externally Driven Change

Can nations change from the inside out or must it be forced upon the people, companies, and governments ny an outside force such as resource depletion, trade and currency wars, or worse, military wars, organized crime, or terrorism?

Certainly it can be either way, it just depends on how perceptive, persistent, and persuasive our public figures are.

It should not be based in which one side has greater access to capital, but that is the way things have been for thousands of years.

Athens, Rome, Babylon, Tripoli, Kyoto, Leningrad.  All were centers of great empires at some point in human history.  Each one has been raped, pillaged, and plundered after their fall, which is happening now.  Foreign robber barons from around the world have been buying up our assets and institutions since we lost of sovereignty in 2012.

Just as the USSR changed its name after the fall of communism, so will the United States of America after the fall of the fedral reserve system, the banking oligarchy, and the USD.

Then it will be time for patriots, citizens, consumers, politicians, employees, employers, professors, police, nurses, teachers, and even ex bankers to tuck their tail in shame and begin rebuilding a more balanced and sustainable model. 

6 years will be the key.  Every six years the people will vote for their representatives, not just in the Whitehouse, but also the congress, the treasury, the courts, etc.  From local levels to national.

On the same cycle so we as a collective group of citizens will judge our representatives as a whole AMD individually.  There will be retrospective workshops held every cycle where debates will be held about how well the previous administration did. They will detemine what went.well and didn't work. 

They will be measured by gross national happiness which is polled on a regular basis.

Laws and regulations will be adjusted, appealed, or renewed on a local basis depending on how well they functioned.

Their will be good will and debt but they must be balanced on a an annual basis with no more than 6 years accumulation beyond the zero plus