Our Bankers’ Casino Royale – “Carbon Permits” Really Means “A Licence To Print”

I was right.

It is a scam.

A huge scam.

A clever, complicated scam.

But a scam, nonetheless.

In previous articles, I identified the two key details of the Green-Labor Alliance’s proposed “carbon pricing” scheme. The only two details that matter. Because they are the two key details which confirm whether this really is “a tax” / “like a tax”. Or, whether this is just a European ETS-imitating scheme scam:

Will the carbon permits:

(1) have an unlimited expiry date?

(2) be bankable from the commencement of the scheme?

If you’ve not read the previous articles I’ve posted about this – including my online brawl with Opposition Climate Action Onanist Greg Hunt MP about it – then you may wish to recap by reading this, this, and especially, this.

Now, if you just want the quick answers to those 2 key questions, then here’s the 30 second summary. All you need to know. Without bothering to check and understand the detail for yourself.

1. YES, carbon permits will have an unlimited expiry date.

2. NO, carbon permits issued during the “fixed price period” can not be banked. Although there will be unlimited banking after 3 years, when the “flexible price” period begins.

BUT … and (like Gillard’s) it’s a very big but … all “freely allocated” carbon permits can be traded. And – here’s the real biggie, ladies and gentlemen – from Day 1 the Government will allow securitisation of carbon permits (the creation of carbon derivatives, in other words). AND, the Government will set up an “auction” system in advance of the “flexible price period” – an advance-auction system that effectively creates a carbon Futures trading market, allowing banksters (and the lucky 500 “polluters”) to speculate gamble on the future price of the “flexible price” permits, that will replace the “fixed price” permits after 3 years.

I was right.

It is NOT a “tax”.

From Day 1, it operates as an ETS by stealth.

It is the bankers’ CPRS by another name.

And what “carbon permits” really means, is “permitted to profit”.

Or perhaps more accurately … A Licence To Print.

Want to know more? To see the proof with your own eyes … and understand it too?

Ok. Let’s get into the details.

Now that GilBrown’s Grand Design has finally been released, let’s take a look at the Government’s freshly-minted cleanenergyfuture.gov.au website. There we can see exactly what they have to say about those two key details that I identified previously.

Note that the answers are buried in the fine print.  Naturally.  You have to read the Appendices.

In this case, the “devil in the detail” is hidden in Appendix A.

First, let us look for the answer to my point #1 – Will there be unlimited expiry dates for carbon permits?

We find the answer in Appendix A, Table 6  (emphasis added):

Table 6 Compliance

Carbon permits

The domestic unit for compliance with the carbon pricing mechanism will be the ‘carbon permit’.

Each carbon permit will correspond to one tonne of greenhouse gas emissions.

The creation of equitable interests in carbon permits will be permitted, as will taking security over them.

In addition, carbon permits will:

* be personal property;

* be regulated as financial products;

* be transferable (other than those issued under the fixed price or any price ceiling arrangements);

* have a unique identification number and will be marked with the first year in which they can be validly surrendered (‘vintage year’);

* not have an expiry date; and

* be represented by an electronic entry in Australia’s National Registry of Emissions Units.

I was right.

The carbon permits will have no expiry date.

They are an artificial construct – “an electronic entry” – that is deemed by government decree to be a new “financial product”.

And, they are a personal property right (see first asterisk) of the holder of the permit. Exactly as I argued with that onanist shill for the green cargo cult, Greg Hunt MP.

Moreover, note carefully the sentence I have bold underlined.

The “creation of equitable interests”, and “taking security over them”, simply means this.  The carbon permits can be used as the basis for bankers to create other, new financial “securities”.

Carbon derivatives, in other words.

Derivatives (or “securities”) are the toxic, wholly-artificial financial “products” that were at the heart of the GFC.  The same bankster-designed “widgets” that the world’s most famous investor, Warren Buffet, spoke of as “a mega-catastrophic risk”, “financial weapons of mass destruction”, and a “time bomb”.

You can stop reading this piece right now if you like.

Because from that Table 6 alone, you now have conclusive proof that this is nothing whatsoever to do with the climate.

It is all – and only – about global bankster profits. At the direct expense of the common people of planet earth.

Now, what about my point #2. The key question of whether there will be unlimited banking of permits.

That is covered in Appendix A as well.  But we must take a bit of a journey here, as it’s a little more complicated to get to the bottom of this one.

If you are interested to understand how this scam really works more fully, then do bear with me here (emphasis added):

Scheme architecture

Table 1: Starting price and fixed price period

Fixed price period

The carbon pricing mechanism will commence on 1 July 2012. There will be a three year fixed price period.

The fixed price

The carbon price will start at $23.00 per tonne in 2012‑13 and will be $24.15 in 2013‑14 and $25.40 in 2014‑15.

The prices in the second and third year reflect a 2.5 per cent rise in real terms allowing for 2.5 per cent inflation per year (the midpoint of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s target range).

Blah blah blah. We already knew all that. These details were leaked in advance, in typical Green-Labor fashion.

Let’s get to the nitty gritty. The characteristics of the carbon “permits” themselves, and what you can (and cannot) do with them.

Especially during the initial 3 year, so-called “fixed price period”.  The period in which the government (and Opposition) have been telling you that this scheme scam “is a tax” or “will operate like a tax” (depending on what day it is):

Fixed price permits

Liable entities will be able to purchase permits from the Government at the fixed price, up to the number of their emissions for the compliance year.

Any permits purchased at the fixed price will be automatically surrendered and cannot be traded or banked for future use.

Ok.

So, the lucky 500 “polluters” can not trade, or bank, any permits that are purchased at the fixed price.

Now, that appears to eliminate point #2 of those key points that I identified, doesn’t it? The question of unlimited banking of permits.

But does it really?

Hold your horses, dear reader. There’s more to it than that.

Let us peel back the multiple layers of deception.

Yes, permits that are purchased can not be banked.

But what about permits that are handed out for free?

Permits freely allocated may be either surrendered or traded until the true-up date for the compliance year in which they were issued. They cannot be banked for use in a future compliance year.

Right.

So, just like “purchased” permits, “freely allocated” permits also can not be banked during the “fixed price period”. (However, all permits will have unlimited banking after 3 years, when the “flexible price period” begins – see Appendix A, Table 3)

But note this well.

Freely allocated permits can be traded “until the true-up date for the compliance year in which they were issued”.

In other words, with respect to “freely allocated” permits in particular – which will be handed out to “trade exposed” industries rent-seekers – this IS an emissions trading scheme.

It’s right there.  In black and white.

I was right.

“The Carbon Tax Is Not A “Tax” … It Is The Bankers’ CPRS By Another Name”.

Now, did you notice that other little word back there?

“surrendered”?

What happens when “freely allocated” permits are “surrendered”?

Is that just a case of handing back something that you got for free?

Or … is there another profit-making opportunity for our lucky “polluters” there too?

That is, a profit-making opportunity over-and-above the profit-making opportunity they have been granted, to simply jack up their prices and use the “cost” of permits as an excuse – whether they actually paid for all their “permits” or not. Just like the lucky “polluters” have done in the European scheme scam (from Green-Left Weekly May 1, 2011):

The first phase of the ETS ran from 2005 to 2007. It made no dent in emissions. But power companies made about 19 billion euros by charging customers for the “cost” of permits they were given for free. Manufacturers made about 14 billion euros in windfall profits with the same trick.

So, let’s take a look shall we, and see if there might be yet another profit-making opportunity for our hand-picked lucky 500 “polluters”, on all those “freely allocated” carbon permits (emphasis added):

Buy‑back of freely allocated permits

The holders of freely allocated permits will be able to sell them to the Government from 1 September of the compliance year in which they were issued until 1 February of the following compliance year.

Got that?

You get some-thing for nothing.

You increase your costs to customers, using the government-decreed “price” of that “some-thing” as your excuse – a windfall profit.

And then, you either trade that free “some-thing” to someone else, or, you sell it back to the government – for another windfall profit.

Brilliant!

Now that’s what I would call “transitional assistance” too, if I were one of those lucky 500 “big polluters”.

Money for nothing.

How much will you get paid for selling back your free permits … you lucky big “polluter” you?

The price paid by the Government will be equal to the price of the fixed price permits for that year, discounted to 15 June of the compliance year by the latest available Reserve Bank of Australia index of the BBB corporate bond rate, so that the buy‑back price reflects the present market value of the permit.

From 15 June onwards, the price paid will be equal to the fixed‑price permits for that vintage.

What does that mean?

It’s very simple.

Those lucky “polluters” receiving “freely allocated” permits (to profit), can either:

(a) trade them (as we saw earlier), OR

(b) sell them back (ie, “surrender” them) to the Government.

If they can’t pull a big enough profit from trading their free permits … the fall-back plan is to resell them to the Government.

Now, who do you think is going to benefit the most from all the transactions of these carbon permits?

Who is going to make money for nothing via fees and commissions, each time a “freely allocated” permit is traded, or bought from/sold back to the government?

Banksters.

The same despicable scum, the parasites who created the GFC, and have been driving the global push for CO2 emissions trading from Day 1.

Our government’s scheme scam will achieve exactly the same result as the benchmark European ETS.

Huge profits for a few.

Raped wallets for the many.

And absolutely bugger-all impact on global CO2 “emissions reduction” –

Want more?

There IS more.

Is there anything interesting to note about the subsequent “Flexible Price Architecture” (ETS)?

That wonderful “market-based” scheme scam that comes after the so-called “fixed price period” (in which trading of freely allocated permits can happen anyway, meaning it is an ETS from Day 1)?

The final destination of the scheme scam that Gillard spoke of in these words just days ago – “I have always been determined to create an emissions trading scheme … for our nation’s future”.

Is there anything about the detail of the “flexible price architecture” that might give us further evidence – if any were needed – that this really is the bankers’ CPRS by another name?

Indeed there is.

Take a look at Appendix A, Table 3 (emphasis added):

Table 3: Flexible price architecture

Price ceiling

A price ceiling will apply for the first three years of the flexible price period.

The price ceiling will be set in regulations by 31 May 2014 at $20 above the expected international price for 2015‑16 and will rise by 5 per cent in real terms each year.

If the world is on a 450 parts per million carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) trajectory or higher, this will be reflected in international prices and the price ceiling will automatically be $20 above this price. The level of the international price will be examined closer to the point of transition to a flexible price period to ensure that the price ceiling reflects a $20 margin above its expected level.

In other words, our Green-Labor Alliance would (if still in power) not only allow, but indeed, “ensure”, that the CO2 price in Australia could be traded at a $20 per tonne premium to the international price.

Economic planking indeed.

And, a Paradise Now bonus for banksters.

Because this detail tells us that this is a scam whereby the government will “ensure” that there is “flexibility” for the banksters’ – market manipulators extraordinaire – to use the many dodgy means at their disposal to push the Australian CO2 trading price up, by as much as $20 more than the international market price.

In other words, if the international market price for CO2 permits (again) fell to near-zero – let’s say, $0.10 – then our Green-Labor Alliance would still happily allow our nation to suffer under a $20.10 price for CO2 permits, and the flow-on effects of that to the prices on everything.

Insanity.

But there’s more:

Price floor

A price floor will apply for the first three years of the flexible price period.

The price floor will start at $15 and rise at 4 per cent in real terms each year.

Also highly significant.

And insane.

If still in power, our Green-Labor Alliance would force the so-called “free market” price to be at least $15 per tonne. And, they would force that price to rise at a rate of 4% per annum.

Ummmmm … hello?!

That’s NOT a “free market” mechanism.

That is quite simply, a Communist-style command-economy.  Wearing a very thin veil of “free market” respectability (if you’re idiot enough to believe it, that is).

But here’s the part I really love, dear reader.

The part that – once again – confirms that this is a bankers’ CPRS by another name.

Banking and borrowing

Unlimited banking of permits will be allowed in the flexible price period.

There will be limited borrowing of permits such that, in any particular compliance year, a liable entity can surrender permits from the following vintage year to discharge up to 5 per cent of their liability.

Auctions of permits

Permits will be allocated by auctioning, taking into account transitional assistance provisions for key sectors.

The policies, procedures and rules for auctioning will be set out in a legislative instrument.

The Government will advance auction future vintage permits. There will be advance auctions of flexible price permits in the fixed price period.

Note that bit about “transitional assistance provisions” for “key sectors”. That’s Orwellian doublespeak for “freely allocated permits” for “big ‘polluters’ with the best lobbyists”.

If you are a “polluter” in need of “transitional assistance” – meaning, everyone – then you will get lots and lots of freely-allocated permits. To help you “transition” (wink wink, nudge nudge).

Now, why have I bold underlined “borrowing“?

And why have I bold underlined “advance auctions of flexible price permits…”?

Because these are the key words from the “banking and borrowing” section. The words that tell you all you need to know.

That this SCAM is nothing whatsoever to do with the global climate.

And that it is 100% about creating a new, global, CO2 derivatives-trading market for the banksters.

The world’s biggest-ever financial cesspool.

Of toxic, intrinsically-worthless, humanity-raping financial “instruments” called derivatives.

Non-existent, digital “widgets”.

That can be borrowed from the future – ie, before these artificial carbon “widgets” are even issued – and leveraged by scum-of-the-earth banksters.

And then, traded by these parasites at multiples of hundreds and thousands of times more than the underlying, artificially-created “value” of the carbon permit.

Furthermore, the “advance auctions of flexible price permits in the fixed price period” proves beyond all shadow of doubt, that I was right.

That this “carbon pricing mechanism” is the bankers’ CPRS by another name. From Day 1.

Why does it prove it?

The advance auctions of flexible price permits “in the fixed price period” means this.

From Day 1, the government is effectively allowing the setting up of a futures trading market, for Australian CO2 permits.

Futures trading of nothing. Before the nothing is even created.

The banksters’ wet dream.

Australia – you have been monumentally conned.

The Green-Labor-Independent Alliance’s plan to “save the planet”, is a gigantic scam.

It is the bankers’ Casino Royale.

Where “carbon permits” really means, “A Licence to Print”.

UPDATE:

Stock broker and licensed securities and derivatives dealer Andy Semple recognises the same point that I did above – that this is not a “free market” mechanism at all, but a Soviet-style command-and-control scheme. He has deconstructed the Government’s carbon trading scam, from a trader’s perspective. A must read –

The Clayton’s Emissions Market – “The Market You Have When You’re Not Having A Market”

Tags: banksters, carbon tax, carbon trading, casino, clean energy future, cprs, derivatives, emissions trading, ets, Goldman Sachs, julia gillard, speculation