Tuesday 31 July 2012
Ben Fulford (July 31 2012) ~ Why The West Is Now Under Nazi Rule And Why The Elite Are In Denial
Benjamin Fulford
A visit to Canada and long conversations with bankers, newspaper editors and others still living inside the “mainstream” story about world events has exposed a deliberate state of factual denial about what is really happening in the Western terrorist states. The editor of a major North American newspaper, for example, made it clear to this writer that he needed to believe the official story about 911 and everything else the Western terrorist governments were saying because the alternative would be to radically restructure a world view he created over a lifetime. The bankers and other “elite” also fervently pushed the truth about things like “global warming based on CO2″ but immediately stopped the discussion and changed the subject when evidence was presented showing it was a fraud. The head of a major medical research laboratory, for his part, made it clear that openly researching subjects like bio-weapons (HIV, SARS, “bird flu” etc.) being spread by the cabalists would mean and end to his research institute’s grants and unemployment for him and his colleagues.What these highly intelligent and thoroughly indoctrinated Westerners all share in common is a financial interest (jobs, salaries and high social status), a family to support and a fear that openly discussing the fascist coup d’etat that took place in the West would lead to unemployment, poverty and ostracism. However,when certain key words and phrases are avoided (for example by discussing “oligarchs” instead of “cabalists”) it is clear their world view is beginning to fall apart despite their deep personal need to cling to the “official” Western story. They are like loyal lifetime card bearing communists speaking in wavering voices of their loyalty to communism just before the fall of the Soviet Union.
The coming autumn chaos will force people like this to finally confront reality.
The newspaper editor, for example, was, after much discussion, willing to agree that 911 might have been an inside job but that he had trouble conceiving such a massive conspiracy as being possible. However, when he was given the detailed financial historical background (Green Hilton Memorial, the BIS, the lawsuits against the Federal Reserve Board, the fact the Patriot act is nearly identical to the Nazi constitution etc.), he expressed a willingness to start exposing this stuff in his newspaper. This writer has agreed to provide the paper with fact-checkable articles that will expose the cabal. If all goes well, systematic exposure of the financial fraud behind the Federal Reserve Board and the European Central Bank etc. will begin being published by this paper starting in September. At that time, the paper will be named and links to the articles will be sent to readers. However, the editor of the paper may find that “pressure from above” may force him to back-pedal on his offer to help expose what is really happening.
The head of the medical research team, for his part, promised to discreetly check from a scientific standpoint, if it was really true that SARS and other recent diseases were man made bio weapons. However, he may find that too much diligent research will lead to a visit from alphabet agency heavies or from the people controlling his grants. We shall see. This award winning researcher and his team were one of many who had their funding cut off in recent years until they agreed to stop further research into life extension. Instead he is now being forced (by fear of losing financing) to do research into diseases that will require expensive drug therapy to “treat.” If his team can find alternative funding he says they will go back to life extension research.
The bankers were a harder case to deal with but they did admit that rampant greed and incompentence has thoroughly imperilled the entire banking system. They also expressed surprize that mass arrests of prominent bankers had not begun. Until that happens, they said they will continue to “follow the money.”
One thing that all these highly educated and intelligent “elitists” showed is that as soon as the ultimate source of money in the West changes, people with a strong financial interest in the status quo will change their stripes overnight. In other words, they will change their worldview or at least their public worldview to suit whoever controls their paychecks.
That is why the current ruling cabal is doing absolutely everything in their power to prevent the control of the creation and distribution of Euros and dollars to be taken away from them. They know that as soon as that happens, the entire house of cards they have built up will collapse. They will continue to fight, kicking and screaming, to preserve the status quo until the very last.
Nonetheless, as the saying goes, denial is not a river in Africa and the unavoidable fact remains that the historical rights to most of the world’s gold (the ultimate basis of the BIS and central banking in the West) do not belong to the cabalists who have been using them. Even if the Western central banks say they are no longer on a gold standard, they still do not have money because the Western countries as a whole have been borrowing from the rest of the world for the past 30 years. The line of credit that made this possible is now drying up and many Western countries have come to the realization they no longer make very much actual “stuff,” they can use to trade with the rest of the world.
In other words, the vast majority of the world’s money that is backed by physical reality (real estate, factories, commodities, manufactured goods) is no longer under their control and that their fraudulent derivative money is being shunned. The 150 nation BRICS alliance is holding almost all the cards now.
The best available intelligence at this point still indicates that this autumn will be a time of major change. The entire Western financial system may be held together with duct tape and rubber bands until the regime changes expected in China and the US in November. However, there is a big September financial deadline that may force changes sooner than then.
Next week this writer will be back in Asia and will be meeting with Chinese and North Korean officials and will report on these meetings. The Chinese have already said that new North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was “getting too big for his boots.”
There will also be detailed discussion on the nature and history of the Japanese secret society known as “yatagarasu” or the three legged crow based on information obtained during discussions with members of this group in Tokyo and Kyoto.
‘Batman’ Shooter-LIBOR Connection Comes Under Fire
Silver Doctors went live on Sunday with the
following post, suggesting James Holmes’ father had intimate connection with the
global financial system, and was playing the role of whistle blower. The folks
at Dollar Vigilante pointed SV towards the Daily Paul, where
users debated the validity of the
story. The link cited by Silver Doctors, in turn,
does not corroborate its claim. SV
is open to new information regarding the matter.
Shocking
details have emerged over the weekend regarding the alleged Colorado Batman
shooter James Holmes.
Holmes’ father, Robert Holmes, reportedly is a senior lead analyst with FICO, and was scheduled to testify as a whistle-blower in the coming weeks regarding the LIBOR scandal, was was reportedly ready to NAME BIG NAMES involved in the massive global fraud as well as provide evidence to the Senate Banking Committee linking the high level executives to their crimes!
Holmes’ father, Robert Holmes, reportedly is a senior lead analyst with FICO, and was scheduled to testify as a whistle-blower in the coming weeks regarding the LIBOR scandal, was was reportedly ready to NAME BIG NAMES involved in the massive global fraud as well as provide evidence to the Senate Banking Committee linking the high level executives to their crimes!
Robert
Holmes, the shooting suspect’s father, is a senior lead scientist with FICO,
the American credit score company. He was scheduled to testify in the next few
weeks before a US Senate panel that is investigating the largest bank fraud
scandal in world history. This banking fraud threatens to destabilize and
destroy the Western banking system.
Robert
Holmes not only uncovered the true intent of the massive LIBOR banking fraud,
but his “predictive algorithm model” also traced the trillions of
“hidden”dollars to the exact bank accounts of the elite classes who stole it.
In other words, Robert Holmes could NAME NAMES!
Those names WOULD AWAKEN THE WORLD to the depth of government and corporate corruption which could include members of Congress, Wall Street, Federal Reserve and EU executives and could even include US Presidential candidates and the British Royal family.
Those names WOULD AWAKEN THE WORLD to the depth of government and corporate corruption which could include members of Congress, Wall Street, Federal Reserve and EU executives and could even include US Presidential candidates and the British Royal family.
The motives
for the massacre are:
1) To
silence whistle-blower Robert Holmes whose son is now facing a possible death
sentence
2) To
influence the upcoming vote on the UN Global Small Arms Treaty which could
result in gun confiscation and disarming world citizens. The UN treaty could
override national sovereignty and give a license to federal governments to
assert preemptive gun control powers over state regulatory powers.
Thursday 26 July 2012
Wednesday 25 July 2012
Ron Paul Finally Gets His Fed Audit
Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” bill passed the House of Representatives today by an overwhelming margin: 325-99. As Kate Nocera of Politico notes, the bill has come a long way from being one of Ron Paul’s lonely crusades to being a measure with broad bipartisan support.
Even though the audit doesn’t directly constrain the Fed’s power -- or abolish it, as Paul would really like to do -- the Fed has been resistant because it sees an audit as undermining its independence from Congress. The key question is, how independent do we want the Fed to be?
The point of central bank independence is to allow the bank to make good policy decisions that politicians might object to. In the early 1980s, this meant keeping interest rates high in order to bring down inflation, despite businesses and politicians who would have liked cheaper borrowing in order to encourage more investment in the short term.
While the common worry is politicians demanding inappropriately loose monetary policy, today we have the opposite problem: politicians, including Paul, demanding that the Fed tighten when it ought to be loosening more. Unfortunately, Ben Bernanke and the Fed governors have not been willing to stand up to these voices; they have failed even to meet the Fed's 2 percent inflation target, let alone to raise it, or to adopt a policy like nominal GDP targeting, which would call for higher inflation when it is needed (like today).
On one hand, I wonder what good an independent Fed is when it won't use its independence to undertake unpopular but correct policy. On the other hand, I worry that a Fed more closely overseen by Congress would have allowed even more disinflation over the last few years.
But it doesn't have to be the case that Congress is a voice for bad monetary policy. After Ben Bernanke, the most blame for the Fed's insufficient action belongs with liberal politicians. While conservatives in Washington have demanded hard-money policies that would drive unemployment even higher and GDP growth lower, liberals have been nearly silent on monetary policy.
Looser money and higher inflation (again, not forever, but in our current circumstances) would be good for the economy as a whole, but it would be especially good for the unemployed and the indebted, constituencies that are disproportionately Democratic. It should have fallen to Democrats to counter Republican pressure for hard money, but all the way up to President Obama, they have not done so. So, even if Bernanke had wanted to loosen more aggressively, he would have lacked political cover for doing so.
I expect more Congressional oversight of the Fed to simply mean more opportunities for hard money advocates to use it as a punching bag. That political pressure might mean tighter money and even worse monetary policy. But if liberal members of Congress -- or conservatives who have been reading Ramesh Ponnuru and David Beckworth -- started insisting that the Fed has been too tight, some more Congressional meddling might be a good thing.
Source - Bloomberg
Even though the audit doesn’t directly constrain the Fed’s power -- or abolish it, as Paul would really like to do -- the Fed has been resistant because it sees an audit as undermining its independence from Congress. The key question is, how independent do we want the Fed to be?
The point of central bank independence is to allow the bank to make good policy decisions that politicians might object to. In the early 1980s, this meant keeping interest rates high in order to bring down inflation, despite businesses and politicians who would have liked cheaper borrowing in order to encourage more investment in the short term.
While the common worry is politicians demanding inappropriately loose monetary policy, today we have the opposite problem: politicians, including Paul, demanding that the Fed tighten when it ought to be loosening more. Unfortunately, Ben Bernanke and the Fed governors have not been willing to stand up to these voices; they have failed even to meet the Fed's 2 percent inflation target, let alone to raise it, or to adopt a policy like nominal GDP targeting, which would call for higher inflation when it is needed (like today).
On one hand, I wonder what good an independent Fed is when it won't use its independence to undertake unpopular but correct policy. On the other hand, I worry that a Fed more closely overseen by Congress would have allowed even more disinflation over the last few years.
But it doesn't have to be the case that Congress is a voice for bad monetary policy. After Ben Bernanke, the most blame for the Fed's insufficient action belongs with liberal politicians. While conservatives in Washington have demanded hard-money policies that would drive unemployment even higher and GDP growth lower, liberals have been nearly silent on monetary policy.
Looser money and higher inflation (again, not forever, but in our current circumstances) would be good for the economy as a whole, but it would be especially good for the unemployed and the indebted, constituencies that are disproportionately Democratic. It should have fallen to Democrats to counter Republican pressure for hard money, but all the way up to President Obama, they have not done so. So, even if Bernanke had wanted to loosen more aggressively, he would have lacked political cover for doing so.
I expect more Congressional oversight of the Fed to simply mean more opportunities for hard money advocates to use it as a punching bag. That political pressure might mean tighter money and even worse monetary policy. But if liberal members of Congress -- or conservatives who have been reading Ramesh Ponnuru and David Beckworth -- started insisting that the Fed has been too tight, some more Congressional meddling might be a good thing.
Source - Bloomberg
Tuesday 24 July 2012
Extraterrestrial UFO Are Real : Ben Rich Lockheed Skunk Works Director Admitted In His Deathbed Confession
Ben Rich Lockheed Skunk Works director had admitted in his Deathbed Confession that
Extraterrestrial UFO visitors are real and the U.S. Military travel among
stars.
According to article published in May 2010 issue of
the Mufon UFO Journal- Link - Ben Rich, the “Father of the
Stealth Fighter-Bomber” and former head of Lockheed Skunk Works,had once
let out information about Extraterrestrial UFO Visitors Are Real And U.S.
Military Travel To Stars
What he said might be new to many people today, but
he revealed the information before his death in January 1995. His statements
helped to give credence to reports that the U.S. military has been flying
vehicles that mimic alien craft.
The article was written by Tom Keller, an aerospace engineer who has worked as a computer systems analyst for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
1 : “Inside the Skunk Works, Lockheads secret research and development entity
, we were a small, intensely
cohesive group consisting of about fifty veteran engineers and designers and a
hundred or so expert machinists and shop workers. Our forte was building
technologically advanced airplanes of small number and of high class for highly
secret missions.”
2 : “We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects, and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity. Anything you can imagine, we already know how to do.”
3 : “We now have the technology to take ET home. No, it won’t take someone’s lifetime to do it. There is an error in the equations. We know what it is. We now have the capability to travel to the stars. First, you have to understand that we will not get to the stars using chemical propulsion. Second, we have to devise a new propulsion technology. What we have to do is find out where Einstein went wrong.”
The article was written by Tom Keller, an aerospace engineer who has worked as a computer systems analyst for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
1 : “Inside the Skunk Works, Lockheads secret research and development entity
, we were a small, intensely
cohesive group consisting of about fifty veteran engineers and designers and a
hundred or so expert machinists and shop workers. Our forte was building
technologically advanced airplanes of small number and of high class for highly
secret missions.”2 : “We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects, and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity. Anything you can imagine, we already know how to do.”
3 : “We now have the technology to take ET home. No, it won’t take someone’s lifetime to do it. There is an error in the equations. We know what it is. We now have the capability to travel to the stars. First, you have to understand that we will not get to the stars using chemical propulsion. Second, we have to devise a new propulsion technology. What we have to do is find out where Einstein went wrong.”
4 : When Rich was asked how UFO propulsion worked, he said, “Let me ask you. How does ESP work?” The questioner responded with, “All points in time and space are connected?” Rich then said, “That’s how it works!”
Ben Rich Lockheed Former Director knew of extraterrestrial UFO visitors
Lockheed "Skunk Works" former director
knew the Roswell extraterrestrial UFO influenced designs of Testor model kits
for Roswell UFO models, and U.S. top secret aircraft. According to a CNI News
report by Colorado resident Michael Lindemann, the design information was
derived from forensic illustrations and numerous witness testimonies about the
Roswell UFO, provided by William L. “Bill” McDonald.
In an e-mail, dated July 29, 1999, apparently addressed to Lindemann, McDonald referenced an excerpt of a discussion with Harold Puthoff, founder of the highly classified U.S. “remote viewing” program.
In an e-mail, dated July 29, 1999, apparently addressed to Lindemann, McDonald referenced an excerpt of a discussion with Harold Puthoff, founder of the highly classified U.S. “remote viewing” program.
McDonald said: “Well Hal, you asked for it! Now
that legendary Lockheed engineer and chief model kit designer for the Testor
Corporation, John Andrews, is dead, I can announce that he personally confirmed
the design connection between the Roswell Spacecraft and the Lockheed Martin
Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs), spyplanes, Joint Strike Fighters, and
Space Shuttles.
Andrews was a close personal friend of "Skunk
Works" director Ben Rich -- the hand-picked successor of Skunk Works
founder Kelly Johnson and the man famous for the F-117 Nighthawk
"Stealth" fighter, its "half-pint" prototype the "HAVE
BLUE", and the top-secret F-19 Stealth Interceptor. Before Rich died of
cancer, Andrews took my questions to him.
Dr. Ben R. Rich former Lockheed Skunk Works
director confirmed:
1. There are 2 types of UFOs -- the ones we build and ones 'they' build. We learned from both crash retrievals and actual "hand-me-downs." The Government knew and until 1969 took an active hand in the administration of that information. After a 1969 Nixon "purge", administration was handled by an international board of directors in the private sector…
2. Nearly all "biomorphic" aerospace designs were inspired by the Roswell spacecraft -- from Kelly's SR-71 Blackbird onward to today's drones, UCAVs, and aerospace craft…
3. It was Ben Rich's opinion that the public should not be told [about UFOs and extraterrestrials] . He believed they could not handle the truth -- ever. Only in the last months of his decline did he begin to feel that the "international corporate board of directors" dealing with the "Subject" could represent a bigger problem to citizens' personal freedoms under the United States Constitution than the presence of off-world visitors themselves.”
Lindemann added that “Bill McDonald received the
above information from Andrews from 1994 until their last phone call near
Christmas in 1998.” Lindemann also noted “It should also be known that Dr. Ben
R. Rich attended a public aerospace designers and engineers conference in 1993
before his illness overwhelmed him in which he stated -- in the presence of
MUFON Orange County Section Director Jan Harzan and many others that – ‘We’
(i.e., the U.S. aerospace community/military industrial complex) had in it's
possession the technology to "take us to the stars".
See the complete letter in May, 2010 MUFON UFO
Journal from John Andrews and the hand written reply from Dr. Ben Rich. Hear
more revealing testimony from Disclosure Project whistleblowers. NASA can not deny secrets discovered by UK hacker Gary
McKinnon and many astronauts if it expects full funding from the
Obama White House administration.
Lockheed Skunkworks Engineer USAF, and CIA Contractor Admitted : UFO Are Real
Don Phillips, "These UFOs were huge and they
would just come to a stop and do a 60 degree, 45 degree, 10 degree turn, and
then immediately reverse this action". During the Apollo landing, Neil
Armstrong says, "They're here.They are right over there and looking at the
size of those ships., it is obvious they dont like us being here”. When I was
working with the Skunkworks with Kelly Johnson, we signed an agreement with the
government to keep very quiet about this.
Anti-gravitational research was going on. We know that there were some captured craft from 1947 in Roswell, they were real. And, yes, we really did get some technology from them. And, yes, we really did put it to work. We knew each other from what we call an unseen industry. We can term it black, deep black, or hidden.
The knowledge I have of these technologies came from the craft that were captured here. I didn`t see the craft, nor did I see the bodies, but I certainly know some of the people that did. There was no question that there were beings from outside the planet.
And if alien were hostile, with their weaponry they could have destroyed us a long time ago .We got these things that are handhold scanners that scan the body and determine what the condition is. We can also treat from the same scanner.
I can tell you personally that we've been working on them. And we have ones that can diagnose and cure cancer. One of the purposes I had for founding my technology corporation in 1998 was to bring forth these technologies that can clean the air and can help get rid of the toxins, and help reduce the need for so much fossil fuel. Yes, it is time. I can tell you personally that it has already started. pp. 375 ,383.
Disclosure Military and Government
Anti-gravitational research was going on. We know that there were some captured craft from 1947 in Roswell, they were real. And, yes, we really did get some technology from them. And, yes, we really did put it to work. We knew each other from what we call an unseen industry. We can term it black, deep black, or hidden.
The knowledge I have of these technologies came from the craft that were captured here. I didn`t see the craft, nor did I see the bodies, but I certainly know some of the people that did. There was no question that there were beings from outside the planet.
And if alien were hostile, with their weaponry they could have destroyed us a long time ago .We got these things that are handhold scanners that scan the body and determine what the condition is. We can also treat from the same scanner.
I can tell you personally that we've been working on them. And we have ones that can diagnose and cure cancer. One of the purposes I had for founding my technology corporation in 1998 was to bring forth these technologies that can clean the air and can help get rid of the toxins, and help reduce the need for so much fossil fuel. Yes, it is time. I can tell you personally that it has already started. pp. 375 ,383.
Another Lockheed Martin senior research scientist Boyd Bushman : Extraterrestrial UFO visitors are real
In the past we had posted about UFOs landing in front of former U.S. President Eisenhower at Holloman Air force Base and how US State representative confirms that US President Eisenhower met Aliens .
We had also been reported about Eisenhower`s great granddaughter`s claim too, in which she has exposed her attempted recruitment into a secret Mars colony project.
In recent confessions from UK, France, China Admitted that UFO are real and of ET origin
And NASA in its own continuous disclosure style informed the word that they had found few more New Earth sized planets.
All above incidents and individuals testimony clearly showed that "We Are Not Alone, Never Were Actually"
Update : Hour back we have received the email, according to which "Johan Andrews had sent a Letter to Ben Rich regarding his belief in "Manmade UFOs" and "Extraterrestrial UFOs." on July 10, 1986
"I believe with certainty in manmade UFOs. I am tending to believe there are also extraterrestrial UFOs."--John Andrews
Johan Andrews claimed that above document was hand written by Ben Rich according to it "Yes, I'm a believer in both categories." -Ben Rich July 21, 1986 source
Andrews relayed Rich’s responses to questions from UFO investigator William McDonald which confirmed:
There are two types of UFOs:
the ones we build
ones THEY buildWe learned from both crash retrievals and actual "Hand-me-downs."The Government knew, and until 1969 took an active hand in the administration of that information. After a 1969 Nixon "Purge", administration was handled by an international board of directors in the private sector.Former astronaut, Dr Edgar Mitchell recently confirmed an incident in 1997 where the Head of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff was supplied the code names of UFO related projects, but was denied need-to-access. The first to report the incident was UFO researcher, Dr Steven Greer, who in 2001 revealed that Admiral Wilson was furious over his failure to gain access.
On a July 4, 2008 CNN interview, Dr Mitchell confirmed Greer’s version of events when he said that Admiral Wilson,“had found the people responsible for the cover-up and for the people who were in the know and were told, I'm sorry, admiral, you do not have need to know here and so, goodbye.”
A reliable source furthermore revealed to UFO researcher Richard Dolan that Admiral Wilson was frustrated by attorneys of a corporation that denied him access. I interviewed an active duty U.S. Navy officer in October 2008 who confirmed the powerful role of corporations involved in UFO projects.
Monday 23 July 2012
Wednesday 18 July 2012
Tuesday 17 July 2012
Ben Fulford (July 17 2012) ~ It Is Time To Look At The Big Picture Again
Benjamin Fulford
When historical events are taking place, the daily rush of news events can fog the vision. We have entered such a time of fog now, so it is a good time to stand back and look at the big picture. The European “crisis,” the US “fiscal cliff,” and the ongoing war-mongering by the NATO terrorist states in the Middle East are all part of a fundamental and unstoppable shift in the way this planet is ruled. No amount of propaganda in the Western corporate media and no amount of number inputting in central bank “black screens,” is going to change that reality. The vast majority of the world’s money is now controlled by non-Westerners who have a very different agenda from that of the people who have been ruling the West and most of the world since at least 300 years ago.The best analogy for what is happening to the West is the fall of the Soviet Union. It started with a ship-yard strike in Gdansk Poland and ended with the fall of the Soviet Union in what in retrospect seems like no time whatsoever. At the time, though the several years in between those two event seemed to last an eternity.
Right now in the West, the regime change against bankster controlled criminal government has started with Iceland but it will end with the United States and the Vatican.
It is something like a Titanic hits the iceberg type of moment where technicians and the ship’s top crew know the vessel is doomed even if they cannot say exactly how long people have to get onto the lifeboats.
What happened to make the fall of the Soviet Union inevitable was not, as we are told, the economic failure of the Soviet model. Instead, it turns out it was the theft of the Soviet Union’s foreign exchange reserves that made the collapse a matter of time.
What we are seeing in the West is the same. The money making machine at the Federal Reserve Board has been closed down so collapse is inevitable.
Think of it as following: a high flying Wall Street Trader has been fired. He has enough money from his “golden handshake” and savings to keep on going as if nothing has happened. However, you notice that he has begun to sell off his sports cars and art collection.
He has also been borrowing money from banks but he is now fully mortgaged out so he has had to borrow from friends. That has also hit bottom so he has begun hitting non-bank financial companies and loan sharks for money. He has also been writing checks that he knows will bounce (think of the 19 announcements that the “euro crisis” has been solved).
If you are watching all this from the sidelines, you will know that it is not long before the Wall Street high flier will be moving out of his fancy digs.
The situation in the Western world is very much like what has been described above. For the past 30 years the United States and Europe (as a whole) have been running a trade deficit with the rest of the world.
The financial leaders in the West have been secretly financing this deficit by making promises they could not keep. That is why, for example, a $300,000 bond backed by a lifetime of labor is issued every time an American citizen is born. That is why the Chinese have been secretly issued liens on much of US real estate as well.
These maneuvers have bought time and created the appearance that all is well, especially in the US. However, just like Wall Street junkie above, you can deny reality for a certain time but it always catches up with you.
This is the case with the West.
What is now happening is that the creditor nations have stopped issuing new credit.
That is why there is now a 147 nation alliance, led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and Africa that is telling the Western nations they will not buy their bonds or other “financial products.”
The Western nations, however, have prevented the creditor nations of the world from investing their earnings in trade with the West in buying real things, like multi-national corporations, in the West.
The result has been what appears to be a Mexican stand-off, with two people pointing guns at each other while sitting across from each other on a table.
However, in this case, time is on the side of the 147 nation alliance. The big problem for the West is that the Western nations have “out-sourced” most of their industrial infrastructure. These nations made the arrogant assumption that the rest of the world would make real stuff while the Western world gave them orders through the banks and other financial institutions.
Now they find though, the money being earned at Chinese or ASEAN export factories is not being spent on Western IOUs. The Chinese have been taking their dollars and spending them all over the world on “real” things like real-estate, commodities and factories. Other countries have begun to do the same.
What this means is that both the EU as a whole and the United States are bankrupt but are refusing to admit it.
In the case of the EU, the member countries have been announcing they will print “Euros” in order to get themselves out of their crisis. The problem, of course, is that the European central bank does not have the legal right to print Euros any more Euros.
There is a similar situation with the US.
Many readers, at this point, will object and say that both the US Federal Reserve Board and the European Central Bank have announced massive money printing schemes. The question is then, “where did all this money go?” The answer is that it was blocked every time.
Who is doing the blocking? The answer is the 147 nations that are tired of NATO mass murder and invasion. They can tell the Bank for International Settlements, the BIS, to block the money and they do.
In the case of the United States, a slightly different situation exists. The US is in deeper debt to the rest of the world than the European Union. So far, the Chinese have been keeping them going because a US trade deficit with China is in China’s long term geopolitical interest. The more US dollars they get that they can spend in Asia, Africa or South America (but not Europe and the US) the more friends and influence they get around the world.
The result already has been that Chinese are perceived by the rest of the world as arriving with bags of money and business plans while Western nations arrive with guns and plans for mayhem. Guess who is losing and who is making friends in these circumstances(hint: not the Westerners).
The big blockage remains on Asians and other countries being allowed to spend their money in Europe and the US without impediment. If that becomes possible, Europeans and Americans will be hired in large quantities to engage is a massive campaign to end poverty, stop environmental destruction and start a new age.
Monday 16 July 2012
U.S. Is Building Criminal Cases in Rate-Fixing
NY Times
As regulators ramp up their global investigation into the manipulation of interest rates, the Justice Department has identified potential criminal wrongdoing by big banks and individuals at the center of the scandal.
The department’s criminal division is building cases against several financial institutions and their employees, including traders at Barclays, the British bank, according to government officials close to the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. The authorities expect to file charges against at least one bank later this year, one of the officials said.
The prospect of criminal cases is expected to rattle the banking world and provide a new impetus for financial institutions to settle with the authorities. The Justice Department investigation comes on top of private investor lawsuits and a sweeping regulatory inquiry led by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Collectively, the civil and criminal actions could cost the banking industry tens of billions of dollars.
Authorities around the globe are examining whether financial firms manipulated interest rates before and after the financial crisis to improve their profits and deflect scrutiny about their health. Investigators in Washington and London sent a warning shot to the industry last month, striking a $450 million settlement with Barclays in a rate-rigging case. The deal does not shield Barclays employees from criminal prosecution.
The multiyear investigation has ensnared more than 10 big banks in the United States and abroad. With the prospects of criminal action, several firms, including at least two European institutions, are scrambling to arrange deals, according to lawyers close to the case. In part, they are trying to avoid the public outcry that stemmed from the Barclays case, which prompted the resignation of top executives.
The criminal and civil investigations have focused on how banks set the London interbank offered rate, known as Libor. The benchmark, a measure of how much banks charge one another for loans, is used to determine the borrowing costs for trillions of dollars of financial products, including mortgages, credit cards and student loans. Cities, states and municipal agencies also are examining whether they suffered losses from the rate manipulation, and some have filed suits.
With civil actions, regulators can impose fines and force banks to overhaul their internal controls. But the Justice Department would wield an even more potent threat by bringing criminal fraud cases against traders and other employees. If found guilty, they could face jail time.
The criminal investigations come at a time when the public is still simmering over the dearth of prosecutions of prominent executives involved in the mortgage crisis. The continued trouble in the financial sector, including the multibillion-dollar trading losses at JPMorgan Chase, have only further fueled the anger of consumers and investors.
But the Libor case presents a potential opportunity for prosecutors. Given the scope of the problems and the number of institutions involved, the rate-rigging investigation could provide a signature moment to hold big banks accountable for their activities during the financial crisis.
“It’s hard to imagine a bigger case than Libor,” said one of the government officials involved in the case.
The Justice Department has jurisdiction over the London bank rate because the benchmark affects markets in the United States. It could not be learned which institutions the criminal division is chasing next.
According to people briefed on the matter, the Swiss bank UBS is among the next targets for regulatory action. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is pursuing a potential civil case against the bank. Regulators at the agency have not yet decided to file an action against the bank, nor have settlement talks begun. UBS has already reached an immunity deal with one division of the Justice Department, which could protect the bank from criminal prosecution if certain conditions are met. The bank declined to comment.
The investigation into the global banks is unusually complex and it could continue for years, and ultimately end in settlements rather than indictments, said the officials close to the case. For now, regulators are building investigations piecemeal because the facts of the cases vary widely. That could make it difficult to compile a global settlement, although some banks would prefer an industrywide deal to avoid the harsh glare of the spotlight, said a lawyer involved in the case.
American authorities face another complication as they build cases. Investigators still lack access to certain documents from big banks.
Before gathering some e-mail and bank records from overseas firms, the Justice Department and American regulators need approval from British authorities, according to the people close to the case. But officials in London have been slow to act, the people said. At times, British authorities have hesitated to investigate.
By contrast, the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have spent two years building cases together. Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice department’s criminal division, has close ties with David Meister, the former federal prosecutor who runs the commission’s enforcement team.
In the Barclays case, the British bank was accused of reporting false rates to squeeze out extra trading profits and fend off concerns about its health. During the crisis, banks feared that reporting high rates would suggest a weak financial position.
Lawmakers in London and Washington are examining whether regulators looked the other way as banks artificially depressed the rates. On Friday, it was disclosed that a Barclays employee notified the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in April 2008 that the firm was underestimating its borrowing costs. Despite the warning signs, the illegal actions continued for another year.
But in April 2008, a senior enforcement official at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Vincent McGonagle, opened an investigation. He directed the case along with another longtime official, Gretchen Lowe.
At first the case stalled as the agency waited months to receive millions of pages of documents when Barclays pushed back against the American regulators, according to the officials close to the case. By the fall of 2009, the trading commission received a trove of information, providing a broad view into the wrongdoing.
A series of incriminating e-mail and instant messages, regulators say, laid bare the multiyear scheme. In one document, a Barclays employee said the bank was “being dishonest by definition.”
The case gained further traction in early 2010, when the agency’s enforcement team engaged the Justice Department. The department’s criminal division, led by Mr. Breuer, agreed that regulators had a strong case. The investigation continued until January 2012, when the trading commission notified Barclays lawyers that they were entering the final stages before deciding about an enforcement action.
As part of the deal, regulators pushed the bank to adopt new controls to prevent a repeat of the problems. Among other measures, the bank must now “implement firewalls” to prevent traders from improperly talking with employees who report rates.
The bank says that it provided extensive cooperation during the three inquiries, and has spent around $155 million on its own three-year investigation. Because it agreed to settle with British authorities, Barclays received a 30 percent fine reduction.
In the United States, Barclays offered to pay a fine of $200 million to the C.F.T.C., slightly below the initially proposed range, according to government officials close to the case. Mr. Meister’s team soon accepted the offer, securing the biggest fine in the commission’s history.
On June 27, British and American authorities announced the deal with Barclays, which agreed to pay more than $450 million total. “For this illegal conduct, Barclays is paying a significant price,” Mr. Breuer said then.
Susanne Craig contributed reporting.
By BEN PROTESS and MARK SCOTT
As regulators ramp up their global investigation into the manipulation of interest rates, the Justice Department has identified potential criminal wrongdoing by big banks and individuals at the center of the scandal.
The department’s criminal division is building cases against several financial institutions and their employees, including traders at Barclays, the British bank, according to government officials close to the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. The authorities expect to file charges against at least one bank later this year, one of the officials said.
The prospect of criminal cases is expected to rattle the banking world and provide a new impetus for financial institutions to settle with the authorities. The Justice Department investigation comes on top of private investor lawsuits and a sweeping regulatory inquiry led by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Collectively, the civil and criminal actions could cost the banking industry tens of billions of dollars.
Authorities around the globe are examining whether financial firms manipulated interest rates before and after the financial crisis to improve their profits and deflect scrutiny about their health. Investigators in Washington and London sent a warning shot to the industry last month, striking a $450 million settlement with Barclays in a rate-rigging case. The deal does not shield Barclays employees from criminal prosecution.
The multiyear investigation has ensnared more than 10 big banks in the United States and abroad. With the prospects of criminal action, several firms, including at least two European institutions, are scrambling to arrange deals, according to lawyers close to the case. In part, they are trying to avoid the public outcry that stemmed from the Barclays case, which prompted the resignation of top executives.
The criminal and civil investigations have focused on how banks set the London interbank offered rate, known as Libor. The benchmark, a measure of how much banks charge one another for loans, is used to determine the borrowing costs for trillions of dollars of financial products, including mortgages, credit cards and student loans. Cities, states and municipal agencies also are examining whether they suffered losses from the rate manipulation, and some have filed suits.
With civil actions, regulators can impose fines and force banks to overhaul their internal controls. But the Justice Department would wield an even more potent threat by bringing criminal fraud cases against traders and other employees. If found guilty, they could face jail time.
The criminal investigations come at a time when the public is still simmering over the dearth of prosecutions of prominent executives involved in the mortgage crisis. The continued trouble in the financial sector, including the multibillion-dollar trading losses at JPMorgan Chase, have only further fueled the anger of consumers and investors.
But the Libor case presents a potential opportunity for prosecutors. Given the scope of the problems and the number of institutions involved, the rate-rigging investigation could provide a signature moment to hold big banks accountable for their activities during the financial crisis.
“It’s hard to imagine a bigger case than Libor,” said one of the government officials involved in the case.
The Justice Department has jurisdiction over the London bank rate because the benchmark affects markets in the United States. It could not be learned which institutions the criminal division is chasing next.
According to people briefed on the matter, the Swiss bank UBS is among the next targets for regulatory action. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is pursuing a potential civil case against the bank. Regulators at the agency have not yet decided to file an action against the bank, nor have settlement talks begun. UBS has already reached an immunity deal with one division of the Justice Department, which could protect the bank from criminal prosecution if certain conditions are met. The bank declined to comment.
The investigation into the global banks is unusually complex and it could continue for years, and ultimately end in settlements rather than indictments, said the officials close to the case. For now, regulators are building investigations piecemeal because the facts of the cases vary widely. That could make it difficult to compile a global settlement, although some banks would prefer an industrywide deal to avoid the harsh glare of the spotlight, said a lawyer involved in the case.
American authorities face another complication as they build cases. Investigators still lack access to certain documents from big banks.
Before gathering some e-mail and bank records from overseas firms, the Justice Department and American regulators need approval from British authorities, according to the people close to the case. But officials in London have been slow to act, the people said. At times, British authorities have hesitated to investigate.
By contrast, the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have spent two years building cases together. Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice department’s criminal division, has close ties with David Meister, the former federal prosecutor who runs the commission’s enforcement team.
In the Barclays case, the British bank was accused of reporting false rates to squeeze out extra trading profits and fend off concerns about its health. During the crisis, banks feared that reporting high rates would suggest a weak financial position.
Lawmakers in London and Washington are examining whether regulators looked the other way as banks artificially depressed the rates. On Friday, it was disclosed that a Barclays employee notified the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in April 2008 that the firm was underestimating its borrowing costs. Despite the warning signs, the illegal actions continued for another year.
But in April 2008, a senior enforcement official at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Vincent McGonagle, opened an investigation. He directed the case along with another longtime official, Gretchen Lowe.
At first the case stalled as the agency waited months to receive millions of pages of documents when Barclays pushed back against the American regulators, according to the officials close to the case. By the fall of 2009, the trading commission received a trove of information, providing a broad view into the wrongdoing.
A series of incriminating e-mail and instant messages, regulators say, laid bare the multiyear scheme. In one document, a Barclays employee said the bank was “being dishonest by definition.”
The case gained further traction in early 2010, when the agency’s enforcement team engaged the Justice Department. The department’s criminal division, led by Mr. Breuer, agreed that regulators had a strong case. The investigation continued until January 2012, when the trading commission notified Barclays lawyers that they were entering the final stages before deciding about an enforcement action.
As part of the deal, regulators pushed the bank to adopt new controls to prevent a repeat of the problems. Among other measures, the bank must now “implement firewalls” to prevent traders from improperly talking with employees who report rates.
The bank says that it provided extensive cooperation during the three inquiries, and has spent around $155 million on its own three-year investigation. Because it agreed to settle with British authorities, Barclays received a 30 percent fine reduction.
In the United States, Barclays offered to pay a fine of $200 million to the C.F.T.C., slightly below the initially proposed range, according to government officials close to the case. Mr. Meister’s team soon accepted the offer, securing the biggest fine in the commission’s history.
On June 27, British and American authorities announced the deal with Barclays, which agreed to pay more than $450 million total. “For this illegal conduct, Barclays is paying a significant price,” Mr. Breuer said then.
Susanne Craig contributed reporting.
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