Tag Archives: federal reserve

Federal Reserve Says Bank Bail-Ins Coming To The USA

26 Jun
Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

On April 1st, this blog broke the full story of how G20 Governments All Agreed To Cyprus-Style Theft Of Banks Deposits … In 2010.

In recent days, numerous alternate media outlets have reported that Federal Reserve board member Jeremy Stein has confirmed this at an IMF-sponsored conference.

From Anglo Far East:

Please find a review of some data from a recent speech by a central banker that reinforces the rapid approach of “bail-ins”.

Link to download PDF of Jeremy Stein speech

The speech by Federal Reserve Board Member Jeremy Stein at an IMF-sponsored conference focused on “too big to fail” (TBTF) banks and “systemically important financial institutions” (SIFIs).

Stein said: “First, and most obviously, one goal is to get to the point where all market participants understand with certainty that if a large SIFI were to fail, the losses would fall on its shareholders and creditors, and taxpayers would have no exposure.”

And from gold proponent Jim Sinclair:

Bail-in is coming faster then we know. For god’s sake protect yourself. Come to the Q&A.

Governor Jeremy C. Stein
At the “Rethinking Macro Policy II,” a conference sponsored by the International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.
April 17, 2013

“First, and most obviously, one goal is to get to the point where all market participants understand with certainty that if a large SIFI (Significantly Important Financial Institutions) were to fail, the losses would fall on its shareholders and creditors……”

It is worth reviewing this blog’s report of April 1st for the full details of the BIS-funded, FSB-directed plan to steal your bank deposits when our banks begin to go under.

To “enable authorities to resolve failing financial firms in an orderly manner without exposing the taxpayer to the risk of loss.”

Conveniently ignoring that bank deposit holders are taxpayers too.

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Federal Reserve Governor Confirms – Bank Depositors Will Be Cyprused

20 Apr

Recently your humble blogger pointed out the original source documents proving that G20 Governments ALL Agreed To Cyprus-Style Theft Of Bank Deposits … In 2010.

Today, we draw your attention to a speech from Governor Jeremy C Stein of the Federal Reserve Bank just 3 days ago, confirming that US bank depositors will be Cyprused:

I will focus my remarks today on the ongoing regulatory challenges associated with large, systemically important financial institutions, or SIFIs. In part, this focus amounts to asking a question that seems to be on everyone’s mind these days: Where do we stand with respect to fixing the problem of “too big to fail” (TBTF)? Are we making satisfactory progress, or it is time to think about further measures?

I should note at the outset that solving the TBTF problem has two distinct aspects. First, and most obviously, one goal is to get to the point where all market participants understand with certainty that if a large SIFI were to fail, the losses would fall on its shareholders and creditors, and taxpayers would have no exposure.

Errr … as we keep saying, creditors of banks (ie, the depositors) ARE taxpayers.

…if .. a SIFI does fail, the orderly liquidation authority (OLA) in Title II of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act now offers a mechanism for recapitalizing and restructuring the institution by imposing losses on shareholders and creditors.

Mohamed El-Erian was right.

Cash out while you still can.

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The Only Thing Preventing An End To World Poverty

9 Apr

There is only one (1) thing preventing an end to world poverty.

You.

Your ignorance. And your cowardice.

These are the facts.

According to UN special advisor Jeffrey Sachs, author of bestseller The End Of Poverty, described by Time magazine as “the world’s best known economist”, it would take $175 billion per year to end “extreme” poverty in the world.

According to the US Federal Reserve Bank, between 2007 and 2010 they created $1.7 Trillion per week out of thin air to prop up so-called “Too Big To Fail” banks around the world.

$1.7 Trillion per week is five hundred and twenty (520) times more than the amount of money needed to end world poverty.

Conclusion.

If, according to bankers and politicians, it was “urgent” and “necessary” for one central bank to create $Trillions per week ex nihilo just to bail out greedy, arrogant, reckless, parasitic bankers – The World’s Most Immoral Institution – then it is infinitely more urgent and necessary for you and I to demand that all central banks create ex nihilo the mere $billions needed per year to bail out every single human being living in poverty.

It is that simple.

Now, you know the facts.

You are no longer ignorant.

You are just a coward.

cow·ard [kou-erd]
noun
1. a person who lacks courage in facing danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc.; a timid or easily intimidated person.

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The World’s Most Immoral Institution Tells You How

1 Apr

To understand why The Banking System is The World’s Most Immoral Institution, you need only to understand how it actually works.

Not how it works in the lofty, rarefied atmosphere of incomprehensible acronyms like ARM and RMBS and CFD and CDO and QE and LTRO.

Just the basics of banking.

The works that you and I deal with every day, at our local bank.

Fortunately, The Banking System has grown so proud of its near God-like power, it is happy to tell us how the basics really work.

From Modern Money Mechanics – A Workbook on Bank Reserves and Deposit Expansion, a complete booklet originally produced and distributed free by the Public Information Center, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, now out-of-print (emphasis added):

Who Creates Money?

Changes in the quantity of money may originate with actions of the Federal Reserve System (the central bank), depository institutions (principally commercial banks), or the public. The major control, however, rests with the central bank.

The actual process of money creation takes place primarily in banks. As noted earlier, checkable liabilities of banks are money. These liabilities are customers’ accounts. They increase when customers deposit currency and checks and when the proceeds of loans made by the banks are credited to borrowers’ accounts.

In the absence of legal reserve requirements, banks can build up deposits by increasing loans and investments so long as they keep enough currency on hand to redeem whatever amounts the holders of deposits want to convert into currency. This unique attribute of the banking business was discovered many centuries ago.

NB: This is why governments the world over are so obsessed with maintaining public “con-fidence” in the banking system. It is why they so fear any hint of a “run on the banks”. As we have seen previously ( “Think You’ve Got Cash In The Bank? Think Again” ), the Australian banking system only has around $183.50 in stored ‘reserve’ cash for every employed person in the country.  According to Australia’s central bank, the RBA, there is only $53.2 billion in actual cash notes in existence (or $4,655 per employed person) … even though Australian households and non-financial businesses believe that they have a combined $986 billion in total Deposits. If 1 in every 19 Aussies insisted on withdrawing their bank “Deposits” at the same time … all the cash would be gone. To add injury to insult, The Banking System is “earning” (?!) interest (thus, profits) from a grand total $1.95 Trillion in “loans” created out of thin air, and “lent” to Australian households and businesses.  Interest on “money” that does not exist … except as a series of electronic digits that a banking clerk typed into a computer.

It started with goldsmiths. As early bankers, they initially provided safekeeping services, making a profit from vault storage fees for gold and coins deposited with them. People would redeem their “deposit receipts” whenever they needed gold or coins to purchase something, and physically take the gold or coins to the seller who, in turn, would deposit them for safekeeping, often with the same banker. Everyone soon found that it was a lot easier simply to use the deposit receipts directly as a means of payment. These receipts, which became known as notes, were acceptable as money since whoever held them could go to the banker and exchange them for metallic money.

Then, bankers discovered that they could make loans merely by giving their promises to pay, or bank notes, to borrowers. In this way, banks began to create money. More notes could be issued than the gold and coin on hand because only a portion of the notes outstanding would be presented for payment at any one time. Enough metallic money had to be kept on hand, of course, to redeem whatever volume of notes was presented for payment.

Transaction deposits are the modern counterpart of bank notes. It was a small step from printing notes to making book entries crediting deposits of borrowers, which the borrowers in turn could “spend” by writing checks, thereby “printing” their own money.

Consider what this really means.

A bank creates “money”, authorised by your signature on a loan document.

Your signature is your legally-binding agreement, to become the bank’s debt slave.

With a few taps on the keyboard and clicks of a mouse, the “loan” that you must pay back, with interest, is created right out of thin air.

An electronic book-keeping entry is made under your name, as a new bank “Deposit”.

And another electronic book-keeping entry is made under the bank’s name, as an “Asset”.

Your legally-binding agreement to pay back the “loan” … with interest … is the bank’s “Asset”.

Every person, every business, every nation with a debt to a banking institution, is in plain truth a slave to their own wilful ignorance.

Working and slaving away, day after day, to pay back with interest something that came from nothing.

While the “Big Club” of elite bankers stride the earth like princes, on the back of everyone else’s daily toil and trouble.

Producing no thing.

Gaining every thing.

The Banking System.

It is the World’s Most Immoral Institution.

It is also the World’s Most Unnecessary Institution.

Here is my solution, for how we should do it.

Some of you, we all know, are poor, find it hard to live, are sometimes, as it were, gasping for breath. I have no doubt that some of you who read this book are unable to pay for all the dinners which you have actually eaten, or for the coats and shoes which are fast wearing or are already worn out, and have come to this page to spend borrowed or stolen time, robbing your creditors of an hour. It is very evident what mean and sneaking lives many of you live, for my sight has been whetted by experience; always on the limits, trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt, a very ancient slough, called by the Latins aes alienum, another’s brass, for some of their coins were made of brass; still living, and dying, and buried by this other’s brass; always promising to pay, tomorrow, and dying today, insolvent; seeking to curry favor, to get custom, by how many modes, only not state-prison offences; lying, flattering, voting, contracting yourselves into a nutshell of civility or dilating into an atmosphere of thin and vaporous generosity, that you may persuade your neighbor to let you make his shoes, or his hat, or his coat, or his carriage, or import his groceries for him; making yourselves sick, that you may lay up something against a sick day, something to be tucked away in an old chest, or in a stocking behind the plastering, or, more safely, in the brick banks; no matter where, no matter how much or how little.

I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both North and South. It is hard to have a Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself.

– Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or, a Life in the Woods, 1854

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The People’s NWO: Every Man His Own Central Banker

7 Jul

** 7 October 2014:  The concept described in the following essay has since been developed further — visit beta website deror.org for more information.

“To radically shift regime behavior we must think clearly and boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us and discover technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears could not.”

– Julian Assange, Conspiracy As Governance (2006)

There is nothing more dangerous than personal initiative: if it has genius behind it, such initiative can do more than can be done by millions of people among whom we have sown discord.

– Protocol V

Are you seeking profit, or protection from the storm?  This is not for you.  Are you here because misery loves company, or to impress with wit?  This is not for you.

This is written for those who have moved to a place beyond fear, and preservation.  Beyond greed, and accumulation.  This is for those who have moved beyond, to a place the Sovereign Man knows not of.

It is the place where un-selfish thoughts roam freely; where the forces of greed and fear are “not of this world”.

If you are seeking comfort in confirmation of existing ideas and beliefs, then I encourage you to look elsewhere.  Here you may be challenged to reconsider.  To research and study.  To think outside the square.  And to take uncommon action.

In the introduction to the movie V For Vendetta, we are reminded that “an idea can still change the world”.  I will share my idea to change the world with you today.  I hope you may have an even better one.

First, an apology.  The basis of my idea challenges common precepts that you may hold as gospel truth.  In the interests of brevity I cannot author a supporting thesis.  So I encourage you to simply adopt a certain mind-flex; to entertain the underlying rationale for the moment, in order to consider the main idea in context.

My idea will particularly challenge those who conflate the concept of a “currency” with a “store of value”.  We have been trained to do this.  We have been taught to identify both of these different concepts, with the singular label of “money”.  This is the first and greatest delusion to be overcome.  If “money” is ever to be made a servant of mankind, and not continue to be his master, then we must begin by taking great care to distinguish clearly between “money” as “store of value”, and “money” as “currency”.

A “store of value” can be anything real, tangible, and (in relative, human lifetime terms) lasting.  Gold, silver, some art, property, gemstones, all these and more may be considered a store of value.

A “currency”, by contrast, should serve only as oil for the wheels of the economy.  To aid the proper, efficient, and right moral function of commerce and industry, in its pivotal role within civilised human society.  To achieve this, our chosen form of currency should have no intrinsic value whatsoever.  Moreover, in the interests of true social justice, the ideal form of currency should be destroyed at a modest, fixed annual rate.  Why?

For an in-depth understanding of the answer, I encourage you to read up on the concept of Freigeld (“Free Money”), as elaborated in the Natural Economic Order by Silvio Gesell.  Before rushing to dismiss this little known genius as some kind of crackpot, you may first wish to consider carefully the profound success of Gesell’s demurrage currency concept during the Great Depression.  The Miracle of Wörgl, Austria is an excellent example.  You will also discover how this alternative monetary “experiment” was promptly shut down; tellingly, at the behest of the Austrian Central Bank.  And how American economist Irving Fisher unsuccessfully petitioned Roosevelt to implement a similar monetary system, as a solution to America’s woes in the Great Depression.

The reason why a demurrage currency is essential for true social justice is this:  The product of labour – the sweat and effort of ordinary people – is subject to the natural laws of entropy.  The farmer’s produce spoils. The manufacturer’s product too has a “shelf life”.  It deteriorates, or is superseded.  The product of labour is compelled by the natural laws of entropy to find a buyer promptly.  If it does not, the producer – who has no personal use for surplus – inevitably suffers loss.  He wears the “carrying cost” of deteriorating product if it remains unsold.

The possessor of currency, by contrast, has an unfair advantage, if his currency is not likewise subject to entropy.  Simply by means of the unspoken threat to “shut his wallet” and withdraw temporarily from the marketplace, taking his non-deteriorating currency with him, he may force the producer – compelled as he is by the law of entropy – to lower the price of his ever-deteriorating goods.

This is the inevitable – and inequitable – consequence of adopting a form of currency that can also be perceived as a “store of value”.  The Supplier of currency (the buyer) is granted an unjust and unfair power over the Demander of currency (the producer/seller).  The very form of currency itself naturally encourages its possessor to mistreat and humiliate his fellow man, by taking advantage of the relative weakness of his bargaining position.  And arguably worst of all, the one who is disadvantaged is the producer of goods.  The engine, the very heart and soul of commerce and industry.  Simply by virtue of the possessor choosing to “save” his currency – since he also perceives it as a “store of value” – the  producer is forced by necessity to continually and ever more urgently lower the asking price for his goods, until the point at which the possessor becomes willing to enter the marketplace and buy.  While many may see this as “good business” or “driving a hard bargain”, it is hardly “to love thy neighbour as thyself”.

In the people’s NWO economy, there will never be a shortage of oil for the wheels of commerce.  Neither will there be an excess.  As with your car, too little and too much oil both are highly damaging.  One starves the engine of lubricant until the mechanism seizes.  The other causes a build up of excessive pressures, until the weakest part blows.

If you will accept this basic premise concerning a “natural currency” – even just for entertainment purposes for now – then the rationale for my idea will follow.

Before introducing it however, a disclaimer for context.  I am vehemently anti debt, and anti usury.  Since early this century, a significant proportion of my own modest material net “worth” has been in physical gold and silver bullion.  Stored beyond the reach of the banking system.  Yet, this choice is predicated by external circumstance, and not by ideology.  My research leads me to conclude that gold and silver “bugs”, “sound money” advocates, and “Constitutional money” proponents, are all most subtly, yet most profoundly, deceived.  There is a very logical and ancient reason why ancient occult (secret) society symbology is a persistent feature of the founding relics of the USA, of Washington DC, and indeed, of the Federal Reserve Note.  To return to a precious metal standard would achieve nothing more than to take one small step backwards – straight into the previous stage of the monetary trap laid for humanity by “the powers that be” (TPTB) over many centuries.

I believe that the current system will collapse.  By accident, or by design.  Waiting for it, and scheming/hoping to profit during or after the collapse, is a fool’s game.  Those who pull all the monetary strings, who have this exclusive “money issuance” power over us now, will have it then too.  Only more so.  Because whatever system is suggested by the authorities to replace the present one, you may rest assured that it will be their system.  Of their design.  For their benefit.  Ordo ab chao – Order out of Chaos.

Unless We The People beat them to it.  By introducing our own monetary system.  Not by waiting on “democracy” so-called.  By exercising our “dangerous” personal initiative.

My idea for a new monetary system, to undermine and ultimately take over from the collapsing present order, is simple.  Build a complementary currency system.  Starting right now.  One where you, me, and every participant assumes the basic human right to become their own central banker.

After all, if it’s ok for a tiny minority to create their own currency out of thin air – and then enslave us for the privilege of using it – then what is to stop all of us – the great majority – from simply going out and doing exactly the same thing … but with un-selfish intentions?

Here’s how I picture NEO – a Natural Economic Order for the digital age, and a true people’s currency.  Imagine some genius has exercised personal initiative, and created an encrypted software program that you can download.  It functions using peer-to-peer networks (thus, that much more difficult for TPTB to close down).  Let’s imagine that it is called “Jubileeus”.

The Creator.

And the Deliverer from debt slavery.

Using this program, you can create your own digital currency, right out of thin air.  Just like the central banksters.  There’s no cost.  No fees.  No interest charged.  Ever.  But (unlike the banksters’ system) there are encrypted, pre-programmed limits and conditions.  To ensure the system is functionally stable, and socially just.  And most importantly, to encourage right behaviours that are conducive to a stable, just, and equitable society.

You choose the initial amount you wish to create.  This will be your positive bank balance, denominated in “Jubileeus” currency.  When you create new currency, you will automatically have a second, linked account too – showing a negative balance, in the same amount.  That’s because you have taken up the solemn privilege – a future Human Right – of creating your own “credit” for yourself.  In other words, you “borrowed” currency out of thin air, to aid your dealings in the marketplace.  But that’s ok.  Everyone should have appropriate access to (not free “money” but) free currency.  So that everyone is empowered to contribute equally to oiling the wheels of commerce and industry.

In most respects, this currency system functions just like the familiar cash transaction (ie, positive credit) and loan accounts that you might have with your local bank.  Spending your Jubileeus to purchase goods and services will decrease your positive bank balance towards zero, just as you would expect.  When you sell something, or otherwise earn more Jubileeus, there is a subtle difference though.  You do not have a choice to not pay down your negative (“loan”) balance first.  Why?  The system designer believed it best to encourage people to learn to reduce their negatives, before giving thought to increasing their positives.  So any Jubileeus received automatically pays down your negative balance first, reducing it towards zero, rather than simply increasing your positive balance.  Having any income automatically applied in full to your “loan” account first, will create no hardship for anyone – if you are ever short of currency in your positive (“credit”) balance to pay the bills or buy groceries, you simply “borrow” (ie, create) some more currency.

I suspect that there are “sound money” advocates screaming about now, that such a system is ignorant, insane, and doomed to failure.  For many there will be an automatic negative emotive response, because even this kernel of the idea instantly evokes the spectre of free, unlimited “money” supply, and fears of hyperinflation.  Doubtless some will be recalling the many historical incidents of excessive currency issuance by spendthrift dictators and politicians, and recoiling in horror or laughing in derision.  Patience, friend.  Your fears will be addressed by the end.

Two points to consider.  First, the fact of excessive currency issuance in the past does not logically necessitate tying currency issuance to physical commodities (eg, gold/silver).  In point of fact, doing precisely this has been the first stage tactic employed by TPTB over many centuries for gaining control over kings and peoples.  Linking currency issuance to a physical commodity does not limit your ability to expand or contract the total of available currency, if you already control the stocks, and/or the supply, and/or the  public reporting of reserves of that particular commodity.  On the contrary, encouraging, coercing, and/or bribing kings and politicians to pass laws linking currency issuance to a commodity that you already control, actually increases your ability to manipulate the currency irresponsibly, fraudulently, or indeed, nefariously.  It provides another layer of deception. Another curtain behind which to hide, while you pull the levers of power.

Secondly, you are quite correct.  Excessive currency issuance is indeed a real danger to be avoided.  Too much oil in the car eventually blows up the engine. The question is, How to avoid it?  Historical precedent suggests that the real challenge lies not only in the form of currency chosen, but also in the matter of Who has power to control its issuance.

Our “people’s currency” could address this danger simply and effectively, by way of a built-in, automated Honour rating system.  Don’t laugh.  I’m serious.

Let’s imagine again.  You’ve downloaded the Jubileeus software.  You decide to create an initial “loan” to yourself of 50,000 Jubileeus.  You now have a positive “credit” balance of 50,000, and a negative “loan” balance of 50,000.  The system automatically flags your account with a publicly visible Honour rating.  Of just 50%.

Every time you conduct a peer-to-peer transaction with another participant, they can see your Honour rating before proceeding.  And just as with eBay’s feedback system, some will decline to trade with you if they have doubts about your character, integrity, and indeed, your honour, as implied by your Honour rating.  In the people’s NWO of the future, in light of our experiences of the terrible outcome of permissive attitudes to financial corruption, immorality, selfishness and fraud, I suspect that any question mark over your financial “honour” will weigh far more heavily on others’ thoughts and social consciences than we have seen in recent decades.  Having an Honour rating of xx% or worse may result in your becoming a pariah in a society that has, through great pain and suffering, come to see the value of a strong social conscience.

The automated Honour rating system therefore encourages you to carefully consider whether you really need 50,000 Jubileeus.  After all, are you really going to spend it all now?  Since you can create currency for yourself whenever you need it, perhaps it is wiser to just create an initial balance of 5,000 Jubileeus.  And have a 95% Honour rating instead.

How do you improve your Honour rating?  Go out and work.  Create something.  Build something.  Sell something.  Ask for payment in Jubileeus.  After all, every other guy can also create new Jubileeus to pay you with.  (Just as in Wörgl, Austria, how rapidly might Depression-level unemployment rates fall towards zero, if everyone had access to a free people’s currency such as this?)  As you earn more “money” currency, your negative balance is automatically reduced, ever nearer to that perfect zero point.  And your Honour rating improves accordingly.

The zero point is perfect?  Yes.  Having zero represents the perfect moral and social position on personal use of free currency.  And the only way to have a 100% Honour rating, is to have a zero bank balance.

Just because you may completely pay down your previous (interest-free) “loan” balance – or, perhaps you never needed one – this does not mean that it is ok to start hoarding currency.  It is the oil on the wheels of commerce, and is supposed to constantly circulate, remember?  By hoarding currency, you are indulging in anti-social behaviours.  You could and should be passing currency ever onwards, in exchange for the fruits of others labour, thus doing your part to provide employment and opportunity for all your fellow men.  If you truly have no need or desire for more of others products or services right now, then you could and should be investing for the longer term. Perhaps in dividend-paying shares in a sound and ethical public (or private) company.  Or, perhaps simply in a true “store of value”.

So in the same manner as a negative balance, a positive balance is also penalised automatically with a reduced Honour rating.  Should there be a difference between your positive (“credit”) balance and negative (“loan”) balance, then the Honour rating is based on the larger – thus the “worst” – of the two balances.  For example, if you have 10,000 in positive, along with a 5,000 negative balance, your Honour rating will be 90%.  Not 95%.  But pay off your 5,000 negative “loan” balance with 5,000 from your positive “credit” balance, and you will be rewarded with that 95% Honour rating.

Finally, what about the demurrage aspect?  Recall that our basic premise is that the ideal “people’s currency” should be designed to automatically deteriorate if not used to conduct transactions.  Gesell’s original innovation of applying a “carrying cost” to currency – hence Stamp Scrip – is the primary means to encourage proactive circulation of currency rather than hoarding.  (My Honour rating idea is supplemental, but importantly, it also serves to discourage greed in the initial act of creating new currency by appealing directly to our sense of public reputation, personal integrity, and self-worth).

How do you make a purely electronic currency deteriorate?  I imagine some genius out there could simply pre-programme the software to automatically reduce all account balances – positive and negative – towards zero by a fixed percentage, calculated weekly and summed since last log-on.  How much should this fixed percentage be?  Gesell advocated an annual “carrying cost” rate for currency of 5.2%, or 1/10th of 1% per week.  I have no idea if this is an appropriate figure – though it would appear that it certainly worked a treat in Austria until the banksters had it shut down.  Perhaps some free-thinking economist (oxymoron?) will read this, and be interested enough to research and offer advice.

Once again, the system encourages you to use your Jubileeus.  If you have it and don’t use it, it slowly but surely fades away.  Back towards the zero point.

Such a system not only encourages productivity (ie, hard work).  It encourages creativity and innovation (ie, what new product can I make? what new service can I offer?).

It eliminates poverty. No one need ever again have insufficient “money” to purchase the basic necessities of life, when every person is their own central banker.

It also applies natural limits to global “growth”.  And thus, to the impacts on our environment and natural resources.

Under a Jubileeus system, no longer are there cabals of greedy banksters’ creating endless “credit” – at interest – in order to finance the Ponzi scheme of “capitalist” perpetual economic growth. And enslaving humanity to debt servitude in the process.

Instead, Jubileeus means that “growth” is naturally limited by the total number of human beings on the planet, multiplied by the sum of their collective willingness to “Honour” each others’ Jubileeus. Not only are there pre-programmed rules on the amount of currency that an individual can create. There is also a natural limit on how much public “disHonour” that people are willing to take upon themselves by creating more currency than they actually need at any time. And, there is a natural limit on how much “disHonour” that people are willing to accept in others, when choosing whether or not to buy or sell with other individuals.

Jubileeus means a true declaration of individual independence from those who control each and every one of us, through their exclusive control over the creation, and issuance, of  “money”.

Jubileeus means that every day, is independents’ day.

There you have it.  That’s my Big Idea.  I hope it inspires you to think about what is really happening to us all, and what (if anything) you are going to do about it.

For my part, I look forward to reading your thoughts, constructive criticisms, and insights.  Because I’d like to do something more than just ponder all this.  I’d welcome contacts from any who may be of like mind, and wish to get involved in a real project to bring this idea – or something better – to fruition.  Truth be told, I have the time and motivation, but lack the necessary technical skills to realise this alone.

I’d also welcome feedback from anyone who may be inspired to independently try something similar.

There’s plenty of alternative currency ideas out there – the Ripple Project, and more prominently Bitcoin, are two that spring to mind.

There’s also free-spirited genius software developers such as “Jaromil“, who has developed a tool that allows you to connect your computer with your neighbours – essentially bypassing the telecomms infrastructure – using the wireless card in computers and creating an effective “new net.”

Just imagine the revolutionary power of such brilliantly simple low-technology – combined with any number of possible hardware solutions such as One Laptop Per Child, or even just reuse of abundant, “redundant”, discarded-but-functional Western consumer PC hardware – in helping every human being worldwide, especially in developing nations, to each become their own central banker too.

Imagine too, the effect of such a system on human relations and solidarity. In Jaromil’s Dyne:Bolic example, you become reliant on your neighbour to break out into the network.  Inherent in this system is the expression of “love thy neighbour” – we must share, before we can benefit. Imagine how we would all feel about our neighbours, if they were the only way we could connect to (and buy-sell with) the rest of the world.

There’s also the grassroots network of hackers at ‘digital foundry’ dyne.org, and the researchers and developers at dyndy.net. These are all doing sterling work as they “Imagine the Future of Money”.

Unfortunately, in the words of Henry David Thoreau, “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil for every one striking at the root”.  My research suggests to me that all the complementary currency systems currently out there are flawed in key aspects, and so represent a less-than-ideal solution if we are to have a sustainable, tamper-proof, boom-and-bust proof, truly egalitarian system of free “money” to serve the human race.  But that’s just my viewpoint, and I wish everyone the best who may have a mind to try setting up a new and better currency in competition with TPTB.

The system that I have proposed here, a “mutual company” so to speak, or a “commonwealth of stewardship”,  represents a singular threat to the #1 weapon which those who would continue to reign over us possess.

Fear.

Their current plan to address the fear of global systemic banking risk – a fear which they have created through control of the boom-and-bust “cycle”, of which the GFC is only the most recent example – is to divorce the transactional currency system from the store of wealth system.

This is precisely what my idea would achieve … without the centralised control.

Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, gave a speech at the Buttonwood Gathering in New York on October 25, 2010. His speech was titled “Banking: From Bagehot to Basel, and Back Again.”

Here’s an excerpt from the speech (emphasis added)*:

Another avenue of reform is some form of functional separation. The Volcker Rule is one example. Another, more fundamental, example would be to divorce the payment system from risky lending activity – that is to prevent fractional reserve banking (for example, as proposed by Fisher, 1936, Friedman, 1960, Tobin, 1987 and more recently by Kay, 2009).

In essence these proposals recognise that if banks undertake risky activities then it is highly dangerous to allow such “gambling” to take place on the same balance sheet as is used to support the payments system, and other crucial parts of the financial infrastructure. And eliminating fractional reserve banking explicitly recognises that the pretence that risk-free deposits can be supported by risky assets is alchemy. If there is a need for genuinely safe deposits the only way they can be provided, while ensuring costs and benefits are fully aligned, is to insist such deposits do not coexist with risky assets.

Straight from the mouth of Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King. Separating the “store of value” system, from the “currency” system. In its effect, precisely what the system I propose would achieve.

But with the banksters still in control of both systems.

Unless We The People beat them to it.

But first, we need to wake up.

We need to understand the true and proper nature of “money”, and “currency”. So that we are not hoodwinked by the next stage of the global bankster scam.

Many are aware of the evils of “fractional reserve banking”. And it is these who will be the first to sing “Hallelujah!” and fall for the trap, when TPTB suggest doing away with fractional reserve banking as a “solution” to the global systemic banking crisis that they have created.

The only way that “money” can truly be rendered a servant to mankind, is with a decentralised system.

One that no one controls. And every one shares.

A “Natural Economic Order”.

With the writing on the wall ever clearer, and financial doomsday drawing nearer, I honestly reckon that we all have little to lose – and everything to gain – by trying to exercise some “dangerous” personal initiative.

Will yours be the one with genius behind it?

Our integrity sells for so little, but it is all we really have.  It is the very last inch of us, but within that inch, we are free.

– Valerie

Beneath this mask there is more than flesh.  Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr Creedy.  And ideas are bulletproof!

– V

* Acknowledgement – reference to Mervyn King speech originally cited and brought to this author’s attention by Dave Harrison http://tradewithdave.com/?p=5310

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Liberal Party’s Sneaky Plan To Steal Your Super To Pay Labor’s Debt

7 Jun

From the Liberal Party’s website, Latest News, 3 June 2011:

The Coalition will relieve the red tape burden from Australia’s small businesses by giving them the option to remit the compulsory superannuation payments made on behalf of workers, directly to the ATO.

Small business will be given the option to remit superannuation payments to the ATO at the same time as they remit their PAYG payments.

This will require only one payment to one agency – rather than multiple cheques to multiple superannuation funds. The ATO will be responsible for sending the money to superannuation funds directly.

Senator Barnaby Joyce writing for The Punch, 13 May 2011:

On Tuesday night’s budget, Labor sneaked in an Amendment of the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911. Here is the most telling statement for where our nation is going under this Green-Labor-Independent Alliance. Under Part 5 Section 18 subsection 1 “omitting ‘$75’ and substituting ‘250’ ”.

Now that is in billions ladies and gentlemen and it is real money that really has to be paid back. If we have all this money stashed away under the lower net debt figure that is always quoted by Labor, then why not use some of this mystery money to pay off what we owe to the Chinese and others who we are hocked up to the eyeballs to.

The reason why we can’t is at least $70 billion that makes up ‘net’ debt is tied up in the Future Fund and student loans.

Of course, the public servants will not be happy when we use their retirement savings, put aside in the Future Fund, to pay off some of Labor’s massive debt.

So you won’t vote for the Coalition then?

There’s no salvation on the Left.

Labor has already introduced legislation in the 2011-12 Budget that aims to grab your super too.

In fact, Labor’s Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Bill Shorten, published an op-ed a month ago stating that he views your super as “our sovereign wealth fund”.

There is a wave of government confiscations of private retirement savings rolling around the Western world right now.  The first ripples have quietly rolled onto our shores already.

Your super savings are not safe.

From either party.

Learn the full story, in “No Super For You!!”

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No Super For You!!

6 Jun

* Extended update of original article published 18 May 2011. Includes details of a disturbing new Liberal Party policy, announced Friday 3 June.


What will you do when they take away your super?

From the Washington Post, 17 May 2011:

Treasury to tap pensions to help fund government

The Obama administration will begin to tap federal retiree programs to help fund operations after the government lost its ability Monday to borrow more money from the public, adding urgency to efforts in Washington to fashion a compromise over the debt.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has warned for months that the government would soon hit the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling — a legal limit on how much it can borrow. With that limit reached Monday, Geithner is undertaking special measures in an effort to postpone the day when he will no longer have enough funds to pay all of the government’s bills.

Geithner, who has already suspended a program that helps state and local government manage their finances, will begin to borrow from retirement funds for federal workers.

The USA is taking public servants’ pension funds, to pay government bills.

Note that well.

Because just over 3 weeks ago – and 4 days before that Washington Post story hit the wires – our own Senator Barnaby Joyce made a very disturbing revelation (below).

Think it could only happen in America?

From Reuters, 21 October 2008:

Argentina’s center-left President Cristina Fernandez on Tuesday signed a bill for a government takeover of the $30 billion private pension system in a daring and unexpected move that rocked domestic markets.

From Bloomberg, 26 November 2010:

Hungary is giving its citizens an ultimatum: move your private-pension fund assets to the state or lose your state pension.

Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy announced the policy yesterday, escalating a government drive to bring 3 trillion forint ($14.6 billion) of privately managed pension assets under state control to reduce the budget deficit and public debt. Workers who opt against returning to the state system stand to lose 70 percent of their pension claim.

“This is effectively a nationalization of private pension funds,” David Nemeth, an economist at ING Groep NV in Budapest, said in a phone interview. “It’s the nightmare scenario.”

But Argentina and Hungary are not like us, right? That couldn’t ever happen in a Western economy like ours, could it?

From eFinancialNews, 29 November 2010:

France seizes €36bn of pension assets

Asset managers will have the chance to get billions of euros in mandates in the next few months for the €36bn Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites (FRR), the French reserve pension fund, after the French parliament last week passed a law to use its assets to pay off the debts of France’s welfare system.

Oh, but that’s France. They’ve got hangover problems from the Global Financial Crisis, right? That couldn’t happen in a really strong economy like ours, one that sailed through the GFC without even having a recession … right?

Wrong.

Poland was the only economy in the European Union to achieve economic growth through the GFC. It then doubled economic growth in 2010. It is the sixth largest economy in the EU, and is considered “Europe’s new economic superstar“.

Despite this apparent success, Poland too has just passed new laws to steal more of its citizens’ private retirement savings.

From Warsaw Business Journal, 9 May 2011:

The government’s controversial pension reform plan, which slashes the percentage of workers’ salaries going to private pension funds (OFEs) from 7.3 to 2.3 percent, became law on May 1. OFEs will start receiving the reduced amounts from June.

The changes mean that the state-controlled social security and pension fund, ZUS, will now receive 17.22 percent of workers’ salaries…

Critics have said the changes were nothing more than some creative accounting by the government to shore up its budget deficit…

And from Global Pensions, 6 May 2011:

It appears moving backwards on pension reforms has become the thing to do on both sides of the Atlantic.

Hungary last year moved much of its private pension assets to the state. Last month, new rules came into effect in Poland diverting 5% of the 7.3% of salary going to private pension funds to the state.

… another recent reversal we’ve seen has come from Latin America. In the 1990s, Bolivia’s decision to move its pension assets from the state to private managers placed it among the most advanced pension systems in the region. However, the current government has decided to nationalise the assets once more claiming it is creating a pension system that is equal for all.

Oh yes, but Poland is really just a Central European economy, not long removed from communism. Something like that couldn’t ever happen in a mid-level, “advanced Western economy” like ours … right?

From Business Insider, 10 May 2011:

Irish Bombshell: Government Raids PRIVATE Pensions To Pay For Spending

“The various tax reduction and additional expenditure measures which I am announcing today will be funded by way of a temporary levy on funded pension schemes and personal pension plans.”

But the Irish had a really big housing bubble, didn’t they? No way anything like that could happen here … right?

From the Sydney Morning Herald, 4 March 2011:

Australian house prices remain the most overvalued in the world, according to the latest quarterly ranking of global house prices by The Economist magazine.

But our housing market could never fall. Not like it did for Ireland … or the USA … or the UK … or Spain … right?

From AAP, 29 April 2011:

Capital city home prices have posted their biggest quarterly fall in at least 12 years, as more stock in the housing market allows prospective buyers to wait for bargains, a survey shows.

Capital city dwelling values fell by a seasonally adjusted 2.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year, according to the latest RP Data-Rismark Home Value Index.

The quarterly change was the steepest since the index series began in June 1999, RP Data research director Tim Lawless said.

And from the Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May 2011:

Real estate slump will leave banks in pain too

Australian real estate, long the subject of global concern, bears all the symptoms of a market that simply has run out of puff.

Ever since America’s housing bubble burst in 2007, setting off a chain reaction in Britain and across Europe – which then infected the global financial system – international pundits have been warning of a similar catastrophe here.

Do you remember what our government did the last time our real estate market began to fall sharply?

It was during the 3-month peak of the GFC, in late 2008 / early 2009:

Steve Keen's Debtwatch

The Labor Government guaranteed to use taxpayers’ future earnings to underwrite our banks’ trillions in foreign liabilities. Poured $20 billion in borrowed money into Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS). And borrowed billions more to prop up the housing market. How? By bribing thousands of young people into massive debt, thanks to the government’s double-trouble First Home Owners Grant.

About that $20 billion in RMBS that Wayne Swan purchased.  With borrowed money. Just how safe is that $20 billion “investment” looking?

From the Sydney Morning Herald, 26 May 2011:

Arrears on mortgage repayments spiked to a record high in the first three months of 2011, as more Australians struggle with rising costs, Fitch ratings agency says.

Arrears on prime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) of 30 days or more hit a record high of 1.79 per cent in the first quarter, from 1.37 in the final quarter of 2010, the group said, as Christmas spending and the Queensland floods forced more Australians to struggle in repaying their mortgages.

RMBS are home loans which are bundled together and sold to institutional investors by banks and mortgage lenders. Misrated RMBS were at the heart of the subprime crisis in the US which lingers to today.

It only gets worse though:

The increase in arrears for the most fragile band of mortgage borrowers, low-doc loans, with payment delays of 30 days or more hit 6.74 per cent in the first quarter, up from 5.7 per cent in the final quarter of 2010, a higher level than December 2008 quarter, when the financial crisis hit and the Reserve Bank began rapidly lowering rates.

Low-doc mortgages are written for riskier borrowers than prime mortgages, which are written for customers who have a reasonably safe ability to borrow.

Delinquencies of three months or more on conforming low-doc mortgages, which are used by people who are self-employed for example, soared past 5 per cent in the March quarter, from about 3 per cent the December 2010 quarter.

Would our Wayne have “invested” any of that borrowed $20 billion in low-doc RMBS?  Or, did he stick with prime RMBS?

From the Australian Office Of Financial Management website:

Purchase of RMBS – Program Update

Minimum Eligibility Requirements

* Low documentation loans, that is loans underwritten using alternative income verification procedures, may be included in mortgage pools.

Well done Wayne.

$20 billion worth of RMBS. With low-doc loans included. A brilliant government “investment” in keeping our property bubble inflated. And now that investment too, is failing, with record-high arrears on the mortgages backing those “securities”.

But there’s nothing really to worry about, because we’ve got the “strongest banking system in the world”, right? Even if the property bubble does pop, our government would never need to go looking for even more money, to bail out our banks … right?

On 17 May 2011, leading credit rating agency Fitch’s downgraded 54 ‘tranches’ of Australian Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities, indicating that “cash-strapped borrowers and tight-fisted mortgage insurers are a greater threat to Australian banks than previously thought“.

The next day, another leading credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded our Big Four banks.

From the Sydney Morning Herald, 18 May 2011:

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the long-term debt ratings of Australia’s big four banks to Aa2 from Aa1, citing their relatively high reliance on overseas funds rather than local deposits.

Moody’s explanatory paper effectively stated that our banks are Too Big Too Fail.  That the Big Four’s liabilities must continue to be supported by the Australian Government Guarantee For Large Deposits And Wholesale Funding that Labor “decisively” introduced (like Ireland) in response to the GFC. And if the guarantee is removed, Moody’s indicated that the Big Four’s long-term debt ratings will be downgraded by at least two further ‘notches’.

Meaning?

Moody’s has just placed our government on notice.  Australian taxpayers are now effectively on the hook – permanently – to bail out our banks when our housing bubble bursts.

Exactly the same thing that happened in the USA, UK, Ireland, Spain et al.

Don’t believe that we have a housing bubble?  Think the nightmare housing-driven bank collapse scenario that is throttling the rest of the Western world won’t ever happen here?

Fine.

If the housing-collapse trigger event is not enough to bother you, then take a moment to think about derivatives.

Those “exotic” financial instruments that were at the heart of the Global Financial Crisis. The ones that famously prudent investor Warren Buffet referred to as “a mega-catastrophic risk”, “financial weapons of mass destruction”, and a “time bomb”, way back in 2003.

The same kind of exotic instruments that lauded economist Saul Eslake also referred to just a few days ago, in an argument with me on my blog over my criticism of his public lobbying for a carbon dioxide “pricing” scheme (emphasis added):

“And while it is true that banks might make money from an emissions trading scheme, they could just as likely lose (as many banks have done from trading other ‘derivatives’”.

Do our banks have much exposure to derivatives now – even before an emissions trading scheme is introduced?

Sure do.

Prepare to be shocked.

According to RBA statistics at December 2010, Australia’s banking system has $15 Trillion in Off-Balance Sheet “Business”, versus a mere $2.66 Trillion in On-Balance Sheet “Assets”.

And exactly what kind of “business” makes up 92.3% of that “Off-Balance Sheet” $15 Trillion – more than 10 times our nation’s annual GDP?

You guessed it. Derivatives.  Those “financial weapons of mass destruction” which so nearly blew up the whole world in 2008-09.

Finding it a bit difficult to get your head around these huge numbers?  Pictures often help.

Take a look at this simple chart comparing our “safe as houses” banks’ On-Balance Sheet “Assets” (blue line) – which are 66% loans – versus their Off-Balance Sheet “Business”, 92.3% of which is derivatives (click to enlarge):

$2.66 Trillion in "Assets" versus $15 Trillion in Off-Balance Sheet "Business"

Still feeling confident about our banking system?

There’s more.

Australia’s banking system only just dodged a bullet in 2008-09, thanks almost entirely to the government (taxpayer) guarantee which is still in place today.

“Almost” entirely thanks to the government guarantee, you say?

That’s right. Something else helped save our banking system too.

The Australian public remains blissfully unaware that during the GFC, two of our Big Four banks, and our very own central bank, the RBA, all obtained secret emergency loans from the US Federal Reserve – which is simply printing new money, Zimbabwe-style.

From Business Spectator, 3 December 2010:

National Australia Bank Ltd, Westpac Banking Corp Ltd and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) were all recipients of emergency funds from the US Federal Reserve during the global financial crisis, according to media reports.

Data released by the Fed shows the RBA borrowed $US53 billion in 10 separate transactions during the financial crisis… according to a report in The Australian Financial Review.

NAB borrowed $US4.5 billion, and a New York-based entity owned by Westpac borrowed $US1 billion, according to The Age.

If you think “it could never happen here”, if you think that our government would never take away your super to pay for its massively wasteful spending, its crappy “investments”, or to bail out our Too Big Too Fail, very recently downgraded, multi-Trillion derivatives-laden banking system, then it’s time for you to think again.

Were you one of the many who ridiculed Barnaby Joyce’s warnings in late 2009, about the possibility of a US debt default (“Barnaby Warns Of Bigger GFC“)?

That’s coming to pass right now. Trying desperately to avoid a default is the reason why the US Treasury has now resorted to stealing federal workers’ retirement savings, to pay government bills.

So pay close heed to another prescient warning from Barnaby, given on 13 May 2011:

On Tuesday night’s budget, Labor sneaked in an Amendment of the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911. Here is the most telling statement for where our nation is going under this Green-Labor-Independent Alliance. Under Part 5 Section 18 subsection 1 “omitting ‘$75’ and substituting ‘250’ ”.

Now that is in billions ladies and gentlemen and it is real money that really has to be paid back. If we have all this money stashed away under the lower net debt figure that is always quoted by Labor, then why not use some of this mystery money to pay off what we owe to the Chinese and others who we are hocked up to the eyeballs to.

The reason why we can’t is at least $70 billion that makes up ‘net’ debt is tied up in the Future Fund and student loans.

Of course, the public servants will not be happy when we use their retirement savings, put aside in the Future Fund, to pay off some of Labor’s massive debt.

!??!

That is exactly what is happening in America. Right now.

And Barnaby is warning that it could happen here too.

The first steps in that direction have already begun.

From Global Custodian (Australia edition), 11 May 2011:

The Gillard government’s 2011-12 budget has proposed a raft of initiatives aimed at encouraging superannuation fund and private investment in infrastructure projects.

In light of the botched “school halls” program, and the stalled white elephant NBN – which so far has only achieved a 12% takeup rate, versus their predicted 58% – would you really trust this government to wisely and prudently invest your super in Government infrastructure projects?

Others have their doubts.

From The Australian, 12 May 2011:

The government’s plan to use tax incentives to encourage superannuation funds to invest in new infrastructure could be thwarted by inadequate returns on projects and a reluctance by the states to take on project risk, experts say.

First, a little “encouragement” for super funds to invest in government spending programs.

Then, when the costs blow out, or when the government debt becomes unmanageable … or when the banks need bailing?

“No super for you!”

Barnaby is the only one on the ball.

And, he is the only politician in Australia with the honesty, decency, and courage, to (once again) try to forewarn the public about the risks of debt, and where this debt train is taking us.

Still not convinced there’s anything to worry about?

Then consider the words of Labor’s PM-in-waiting, the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Bill Shorten. He already thinks of your super as a “significant national asset” … a kind of “sovereign wealth fund”.

From Shorten’s op-ed published in The Australian, 4 May 2011:

Superannuation is our sovereign wealth fund

This week marks 12 months exactly since the government announced plans to take compulsory superannuation from 9 per cent to 12 per cent.

… our superannuation savings place Australia fourth in the world. Its $1.3 trillion in funds under management through superannuation significantly boosts national savings and provides greater retirement security for millions of Australians. Superannuation is also a significant national asset because it strengthens our financial sector.

Superannuation “strengthens our financial sector”? Can you see where this is going?

Shorten and his cohorts already have their eyes on our $1.3 Trillion in super savings. In Labor’s view, your retirement savings are “our sovereign wealth fund”.

When our Too Big Too Fail, derivative-laden banks inevitably run into trouble again – as indeed they are right now with a falling housing market – you should have no doubt that our government will follow the lead of the USA, France, Ireland, Poland, and all the rest, and simply take your super to prop up our “financial sector”.

After all, they have “guaranteed” our banks.  Your future taxes … and if necessary, your super … are the collateral for those guarantees.

But if the Coalition wins government everything will be fine, right?  They’re far better economic managers, right?  We can all trust the Liberal Party not to put their hands on our super, to pay down Labor-incurred debts … right?

Wrong.

Just this past Friday 3 June 2011, the Liberal Party announced a new policy that they will take to the next election. Loaded with weasel words, it is yet another harbinger of the super theft to come, sneakily disguised as a helpful “reform”.

From the Liberal Party website:

Further relief for small business

The Coalition will relieve the red tape burden from Australia’s small businesses by giving them the option to remit the compulsory superannuation payments made on behalf of workers, directly to the ATO.

Small business will be given the option to remit superannuation payments to the ATO at the same time as they remit their PAYG payments.

This will require only one payment to one agency – rather than multiple cheques to multiple superannuation funds. The ATO will be responsible for sending the money to superannuation funds directly.

Can you see the cunning plan here?

Billions and billions of dollars in compulsory superannuation payments, going directly from our employers’ bank accounts to the government’s tax department , every 3 months. And we have to simply trust the government of the day, that every cent of it will immediately be passed on to our private super funds. Not siphoned off into special “investments”, or government accounts.  Or simply “sat on” for a month or so, in order to prop up the government’s weekly cashflow needs.

Oh, but not to worry … it will just be an “option” for “small” businesses to do this, of course.

Right. If you believe that, then I’ve got an air-backed derivative called a “carbon permit” to sell you. Ever heard the old saying, “It’s the thin end of the wedge”?

A final thought.

Our government is presently considering the Garnaut proposal for introduction of a carbon dioxide “pricing mechanism”. A key part of this proposal that has (surprise surprise) drawn strong public support from economists employed by the banking sector, is the suggestion that the billions of dollars raised should be administered by an “independent” Carbon Bank. One that …

…could be allowed to borrow money to invest in renewable energy projects against the future revenue of Labor’s proposed carbon tax and emissions trading scheme.

In other words, a Carbon Bank run by unelected, unaccountable parasites – chosen from the banking sector, no doubt – with the government … meaning taxpayers … acting as the final guarantor for any losses made on their “green” “investments”.

Does that prospect concern you?

Can you see where this is all heading?

We have a government that has already racked up nearly $200 billion in gross debt.

Is running a “forecast” $50 billion annual budget deficit.

Is presently borrowing at a rate of over $2 billion per week.

And – like an America’s “Mini-me” – has now moved to raise our debt ceiling by another $50 billion (ie, a 25% increase), to a new record quarter of a Trillion dollars.

This is the same government of completely unqualified economic incompetents behind a string of costly disasters – killer ceiling insulation, overpriced school halls, “green scheme” rorts, subsidised Toyota hybrids (that noone except government is buying), the problem-plagued Nation Bankrupting Network … and their latest rort-ridden debacle, “free” set-top boxes.

Do you honestly believe that this government would not end up burying taxpayers with even bigger losses from their carbon dioxide “air tax” scheme too?

Do you honestly believe that this government would never follow the lead of Argentina, Hungary, Bolivia, France, Poland, Ireland, and now the superpower USA … and steal your super to pay for massive debts that they have racked up?

These are just some of the many sound reasons why Senator Joyce has persistently tried to raise public awareness of the real and grave peril of ever-increasing government debt and deficit, in a (supposedly) post-GFC world.

Your retirement savings depend upon your taking notice of his warnings.

Barnaby is right.

If like me you are under 50 years old – indeed, if you are under 60 years old – then I’m willing to bet you all of my super that you will never see all of yours.

And unlike our bank(st)ers and government … I never bet.

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RBA Screws Up Again, Loses $6bn

19 May

From The Australian:

The RBA faces losses of $6 billion due to the strength of the dollar and will not pay dividends to the government for several years.

The value of the bank’s foreign exchange reserves has plunged since the end of the last financial year as the Australian dollar has emerged as one of the strongest currencies in the world.

The losses threaten to wipe out the bank’s $6.1bn reserve fund, which the board said last year was already below a level they thought “desirable”.

Although government sources indicated yesterday that Treasury did not expect it would be required to make a capital injection, the losses will slash more than half the bank’s capital base.

The commonwealth budget has traditionally relied upon about $1.4bn a year in dividend payments from the Reserve Bank.

The Reserve Bank flagged that after it made a $2.2bn loss last year, dividends would be reduced while its reserve fund was rebuilt, but it is unlikely now that there will be any dividends across the budget forward estimates.

Great.

Another multi-billion dollar black hole in the government’s “forward estimates”.

This time, thanks to the RBA’s incompetence.

This latest news follows another revelation recently, that the RBA needed US$53bn in emergency loans from the US Federal Reserve during the GFC.

Now consider.

The “independent” RBA is worshipped by our politicians and the media – and thus, by average Australians too – as some kind of ultimate authority on our economy. In particular, the RBA is regarded as the final authority on what is the “right setting” for interest rates.

The reality is, the RBA robs us by stealth.  For decades, the RBA has utterly failed to achieve their very first legal duty to the Australian people.

Their own data proves it.

In addition, RBA Governor Glenn Stevens failed to foresee the on-rushing GFC during 2008.

The RBA kept raising interest rates month after month in 2007-08.  Right into the teeth of the GFC storm.  Despite clear warning signs out of the USA for well over a year prior.

It could also be argued that the RBA’s actions directly contributed to a change of government, thanks to an unprecedented interest rate rise in the middle of the 2007 election campaign.

Stevens is by far the highest paid “public servant” in Australia.  Conveniently for him, the RBA Board has the power to decide their own salaries:

The Remuneration Committee is a committee of the Reserve Bank Board. Its membership is drawn from the non-executive members of the Reserve Bank Board.

Which helps explain why Stevens is pulling over $1 million per annum.  And why he was able to get away with taking a $234,000 pay rise in the middle of the GFC.

The RBA’s failures are manifest.

So, why do we continue to prostrate ourselves at the Altar of the Reserve Bank?

The RBA has been robbing Australia blind for decades.

They have proven themselves unable to foresee clear economic warning signs.

They did not disclose to anyone that they borrowed US$53 Billion from the Federal Reserve.  It took a US Supreme Court action forcing the US Fed to reveal information about its actions during the GFC, for us to learn about the RBA’s secret emergency loans.

And despite being supposed “experts” on interest rates and currencies, they’ve now managed to blow $6 billion in foreign exchange losses.

How is this possible?

Our main street banks manage to hedge against foreign exchange rate volatility through purchasing Foreign Exchange Swaps & Forwards. Is the RBA too incompetent to manage FX risk, in the same way the Big 4 banks manage to do?

The RBA Board of “experts” are hugely overpaid, demonstrated failures.

Worse, as an “independent” body, they are effectively unaccountable to the Australian people for anything they do.

Now, we have the green lobby arguing for an “independent” Carbon Bank modelled along similar lines to the RBA.  With the power to borrow against the future earnings of taxpayers!

Given the RBA’s track record, this is clearly a very bad idea.

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Tick Tick Tick – Aussie Banks’ $15 Trillion Time Bomb

6 May

*This post follows up on my August 2010 post, “Aussie Banks’ $14.2Trillion Time Bomb”. Please read the article for detailed background to this update.

How safe are Australia’s banks?

Previously we saw that our “safe as houses” banks have a massive disconnect between their On-Balance Sheet Assets, and their Off-Balance Sheet “Business” (specifically, OTC derivatives).  Last time we checked, they held $2.62 Trillion in Assets, and a new record $14.2 Trillion in Off-Balance Sheet “Business”.

The disconnect has widened even further.

First, let’s take a look at a chart of their “Assets”.

In the chart below, the yellow line represents the total value of Personal Loans. The green line represents Commercial Loans.  The red line represents Residential Loans.  And the blue line represents the grand Total of Bank Assets (click to enlarge):

$1.77 Trillion of Total "Assets" = Loans

The total value of Bank Assets has barely moved – $2.66 Trillion. It has still to regain the peak of $2.67 Trillion in Dec 2008.

It’s worth noting that $1.77 Trillion (66%) of the banks’ $2.66 Trillion in “Assets”, is the value of Loans – personal, commercial, and residential.  That’s right.  Your debt to the bank is considered their “Asset”.  Slavery is still a thriving business in the 21st Century.  It’s how bank(ster)ing works.

What about their Off-Balance Sheet “Business”?

It has blown out by another $1.3 Trillion at its recent peak ($15.5 Trillion), and as at December 2010 sits at just under $15 Trillion.

To give an idea of the vast disconnect between our banks’ “Assets” (66% of which are loans), and their exposure to OTC derivatives, the following chart shows their total Assets – blue line from the above chart – versus a red line of total Off-Balance Sheet “business” (click to enlarge):

$2.66 Trillion in "Assets" versus $15 Trillion in Off-Balance Sheet "Business"

What are derivatives?

Derivatives are the exotic financial instruments at the very heart of the GFC.

Back in 2003, the world’s most famous investor, Warren Buffet, famously called derivatives “a mega-catastrophic risk”, “financial weapons of mass destruction”, and a “time bomb”.

Take note of the sharp dip in the near-parabolic rise in the red line on the chart. This coincides precisely with the late 2008 / early 2009 impact of the GFC on our banking system.

Our banks reduced a little of their exposure to OTC derivatives at that time (down $1.4 Trillion from Sep ’08 to Jun ’09) but quickly resumed their old ways.

At least, until September last year.  Again we see a sharp dip forming through the December quarter of 2010.

A final thought to consider.

If our banks were really so safe, why did two of our Big 4 (Westpac and NAB) both quietly borrow billions of dollars directly from the US Federal Reserve during the GFC?  And never advised shareholders, the prudential regulatory authority (APRA), the RBA, or the public?

An even bigger question – why did the RBA borrow $53 billion from the Federal Reserve without informing anyone?

National Australia Bank Ltd, Westpac Banking Corp Ltd and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) were all recipients of emergency funds from the US Federal Reserve during the global financial crisis, according to media reports.

Data released by the Fed shows the RBA borrowed $US53 billion in 10 separate transactions during the financial crisis, which compares to the European Central Bank’s 271 transactions, according to a report in The Australian Financial Review.

NAB borrowed $US4.5 billion, and a New York-based entity owned by Westpac borrowed $US1 billion, according to The Age.

All is clearly not as safe as we are told in our “safe-as-houses” banking system.

UPDATE:

Still have confidence in our banks – especially the two that had to borrow from the US Federal Reserve?

Westpac, Australia’s second-largest bank, suffered a catastrophic IT meltdown yesterday when its entire banking system collapsed after an air-conditioning failure.

The bank’s ATM and eftpos facilities were useless for about six hours and its internet banking website was offline for 10 hours.

Customers reacted with fury over the system collapse, which came days after Westpac reported a record $3.96 billion net profit, up 38 per cent for the first half of the year…

Many Westpac customers flocked to Twitter to vent their anger, but the bank’s outage pales in comparison to the National Australia Bank‘s recent IT problems.

In late November, software issues at NAB lasted for more than a week and brought other financial institutions to their knees. The incident forced chief executive Cameron Clyne to issue an unprecedented public apology in major newspapers.

Three weeks ago, workers could not access their pay when a 24-hour IT failure affected employers who used NAB for their payroll processing.

The Commonwealth Bank has also had its share of IT glitches, from its internet banking going offline to ATMs discharging incorrect amounts of cash.

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Bankers – The Root Of Evil

11 May

Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. The Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take away that power, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear — as they ought to in order to make this a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let them continue to create deposits.

Sir Josiah Stamp (1880-1941), one time governor of the Bank of England, in his Commencement Address at the University of Texas in 1927. Reportedly he was the second wealthiest individual in Britain.

Bankers have become even more ‘sophisticated’ in the many decades since Sir Josiah Stamp let the cat out of the bag. Now, not only do they create ‘money’ out of thin air by signing you up to a loan – which is entered into a computer as a brand new “deposit” for you to spend – they also ‘manufacture’ all kinds of ‘synthetic’ money substitutes too.

They’re called “derivatives”. Or, as Warren Buffet called them, “Financial weapons of mass destruction”.

And bankers can create as many of them as they wish, because there is absolutely zero regulation of the derivatives markets. To give you some idea, at the peak of the first wave of the GFC in 2008, there was around 1.44 Quadrillion $USD worth of OTC (“Over The Counter”) derivatives in existence.

Why is this important?

Because the $1 Trillion funding to save the Eurozone announced yesterday is meaningless.  The Eurozone cannot be saved, no matter how much money the EU tries to beg, borrow, steal… or print.  Because banksters like Goldman Sachs can simply create ever greater mountains of ‘synthetic’ derivatives with which to attack debt-laden countries, one by one, starting with the weakest.

From ZeroHedge:

Jim Rickards: “Goldman Can Create Shorts Faster Than Europe Can Print Money”

Jim Rickards, who recently has gotten massive media exposure on everything from the JPM Silver manipulation scandal, to the Greek default, was back on CNBC earlier with one of the most fascinating insights we have yet heard from anyone, which demonstrates beyond a doubt why any attempt by Europe to print its way out of its current default is doomed: “Look at what Soros did to the Bank of England in 1992 – he went after them, they had a finite amount of dollars, he was selling sterling and taking the dollars, and they were buying the sterling and selling the dollars to defend the peg. All he had to do was sell more than they had and he wins. But he needed real money to do that. Today you can break a country, you don’t need money you just need synthetic euroshorts or CDS. A trillion dollar bailout: Goldman can create 10 trillion of euroshorts. So it just dominates whatever governments can do. So basically Goldman can create shorts faster than Europe can create money.“

The world is not ruled by politicians.  It is ruled by banksters.  Most of us simply don’t quite understand that, because we don’t understand how they do it.

It is very simple.  Well before most of us were born, bankers were given the exclusive power to create ‘deposits’.  Which you and I know as ‘debt’.  And which is now called ‘credit’ … because it appeals to our Pride, and sounds so much nicer, to delude ourselves that we have been given ‘credit’.

When in reality, what we have been given is a Debt.  By accepting the offer of ‘credit’ (Debt), we sell ourselves as slaves to the bankers.

They know it.  They’ve always known it.

Now you do too.

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