A Complete And Systemic Breakdown

Second largest bank failure in US history has been duly noted, with a repeat bailout like Bear Stearns,  paying down debts still the better plan, PPT supplies another miracle rally for the Dow, but we fear they only delay the inevitable, Fannie and Freddie collateral now Toxic Waste, liquidity drains now wide open, watch for the downward spiral

What you are witnessing is the acceleration of a complete systemic breakdown of the US and world financial systems and economies.  It is happening right before your eyes.  It is in your face.  The Scylla and Charibdis of real estate finance, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are currently in possession of, or have insured, over 5 trillion dollars worth of mortgages, a good portion of which are nothing but toxic waste, have imploded and will now be nationalized in the most egregious example of moral hazard in the history of the world.  As this socialism for the rich transpires, IndyMac Bank has gone up in smoke.  This is the second largest bank failure in US history and the largest such failure in over 23 years.  Adding insult to injury, 10% to 20% of the FDIC’s insurance reserves have just gone up in smoke along with IndyMac just as the hundreds, and what may eventually turn out to be thousands, of bank failures that are anticipated get started in earnest.  What does that leave for future failures if only one bank failure wipes out a fifth of the FDIC’s reserves?  Next up on the chopping block may be Downey, First Federal, Wachovia and Washington Mutual, which are not small fry by any means.  Mattresses and freezers may soon be the savings vehicles of choice for those who can’t afford a home safety vault as Depression Era mentality becomes the psychology du jour.

If you keep more than $100,000 in any bank account, or if you keep anything of value in a safe deposit box at any type of bank whatsoever, you are simply an idiot.  You should use any cash you now have to pay off debt, including credit cards, car loans and mortgages.  Then your cash becomes someone else’s problem.  Trying to keep loans open so you can pay them with inflated dollars doesn’t work when your dollars get vaporized by losses suffered by profligate banks or you lose your job due to the implosion of our economy, which, by the way, is a lock.  Better to take money earning one or two percent and apply them to debts bearing much higher rates.  Keep your emergency cash at home.  The excess should be invested in gold and silver of which you take physical possession.  Swiss government bonds denominated in Swiss francs are cheap to buy and can cover your larger blocks of cash if you are sufficiently affluent.

We have told you repeatedly that the Illuminists care only about the suppression of precious metals and the viability of the bond market, which is their source of power, and the current proposed bailout of the twin titans of complete and utter financial death and destruction is the penultimate proof of our assertion.  These titans of disaster will not be reformed, but instead our government plans to give them equity injections in the form of preferred stock to be “owned” by you the taxpayers through your Treasury Department and/or loans through the Fed’s discount window to be supported by US treasuries as collateral.  This is supposedly a temporary arrangement of 18 months, but come on, so were the Fed’s various facilities for the bailout of the bankster fraudsters, which will be extended indefinitely or at least until the system implodes.  The government is not fooling anyone with such foolish drivel and poppycock, as demonstrated by default swaps on US government debt, which more than doubled from 9 to 20 basis points after the announcements by Hanky Panky and Buck-Busting Ben, something which has never happened before in our entire financial history.  Yields on treasuries increased even as people were fleeing the stock markets to buy those treasuries, with the Dow tumbling to as low as 10,827.71 on Tuesday before getting yet another miracle rally from the PPT.  Normally, flight to treasuries drives yields down, but not this time.  Hanky Panky Paulson says these supposedly temporary forms of relief have been set up in advance so he can have a bazooka instead of a squirt gun, thereby giving the market assurance against the collapse of Fannie and Freddie by heading off market panic, but the only bazooka we see is the one being pointed at the US taxpayer who will be taxed and inflated into oblivion as a result.  This is nothing less than doomsday for the US middle class, the final rip-off and destruction of both their retirement plans and real estate through hyperinflation, dollar destruction, and the eventual destruction of the real estate markets when the twin titans of financial devastation finally implode and the taxpayers are left holding the bill.  If they didn’t think they needed this relief in earnest, it would not have been forthcoming!  They are only delaying the inevitable.

Who are the winners and the losers in this scenario?  It should be pretty clear that Scylla’s and Charbdis’s stockholders are the losers, and that eventually their stock will be diluted to mere pennies per share by gargantuan government equity injections as losses mount geometrically, basically rendering Fannie and Freddie stock either worthless or nearly so.  The big winners are obviously the bondholders of Fannie and Freddie debt, who get a nice bailout like the bondholders of Bear Stearns when they should be taking huge losses for under-pricing what should have been obvious and monumental risk in an organization leveraged at anywhere from 60 to 1 to 200 to 1, which is the type of leverage normally reserved for suicidal madmen and psychopaths. And who are the bondholders?  Gee, what a coincidence, as it turns out they are central banks around the world, including those in the US, China and Japan, which each own hundreds of billions in both of the twin titans of financial murder and mayhem.  As we said, all the Illuminists care about is the support and viability of the bond markets.  The stock markets along with 300 million US citizens can drop off into a bottomless pit and into the fires of hell for all they care.

Aren’t you just brimming with excitement at the thought of becoming an unwilling “preferred” shareholder in a toxic waste, real estate Ponzi-scheme leveraged at 200 to 1?!  And how will the equity injections be funded for this preferred stock purchase, and where will the collateral for the Fed loans come from?  Why, they will come from “brandy new” treasuries created out of thin air by the US Treasury that will then be handed over to the Fed.  In the case of the equity injections, these treasuries will be immediately monetized in order to boost Fannie’s and Freddie’s capital positions, leading to further and immediate aggravation of what is now already hyperinflation and further undermining the dollar.  And what will happen to all the treasuries that were created out of nothing to serve as collateral for the Fed’s loans to Scylla and Charibdis?  These treasuries will be monetized to cover losses as they accrue, losses which will occur rapidly and geometrically as our economy and real estate markets implode.  Another possibility is that these treasuries might be exchanged for toxic waste held by the various bankster fraudsters through the Fed’s Term Securities Lending Facility for primary dealers and/or its Term Securities Auction Facility for investment banks and brokerage houses.  Now wouldn’t that be the ultimate in slime-ball financing if the Fed used Fannie’s and Freddie’s collateral as if these treasuries were part of the Fed’s general collateral?  Hey Congress, better jump on that one – and we mean pronto!

You must not allow these reprobates and sociopaths to steer our country in this direction.  Fannie and Freddie, like the Wall Street bankster fraudsters, must be allowed to fail, and their various shareholders and bondholders must suffer the consequences.  Otherwise, we have only been pretending to have markets that are run on capitalist principles.  What Paulson and Bernanke are proposing is the next step toward an evil, corporatist, fascist system of government which consists primarily of governmental partnerships with elitist transnational conglomerates where moral hazard is the market mantra, a system which would have made Hitler and Mussolini green with envy.  The Illuminati want to consolidate their power by bailing those they want to survive, and by allowing those they want to destroy to fail.  The failures which they allow to happen will be absorbed by surviving elitist companies, consolidating their power into fewer and fewer entities for easier and tighter control over resources and production.  The Illuminati also want a far greater grant and centralization of regulatory power in the Fed, or in any successor organization, which they might create if they decide to kill off the Fed with all the toxic waste from Fannie, Freddie and the Wall Street fraudsters.  Any such replacement organization will be a super entity that makes the Fed look like a paragon of virtue, and the excuse given for its creation will be a cessation to all the corruption, turmoil and abuse of which the owners of the Fed, or of the new super entity, have themselves been the main cause.  This is the Hegelian Dialectic on steroids.  Create the problem and suggest the solution.  And if the solution suggested is not desired by the people, stuff it down their throats anyway but whatever cunning and deceit is necessary in true Machiavellian fashion.
Everyone should listen to Jimmy Roger’s latest lambasting of the US government and the Fed regarding the Fannie-Freddie bailout and the bank failures.  He is the only source of truth in the fane-stream media.  He is like a breath of fresh air in an arena full of nothing but hot air, and we commend him for boldly speaking the truth.  How much longer he will be allowed to make such television commentaries is hard to say, but the longer the better.

Well, all this excitement has sent gold and silver to much higher levels as we predicted, and now the cartel is back to their old tricks as they clutch their chests and reach for their nitroglycerine pills.  Up go gold and silver as the dollar crashes, and just like clockwork, the yen goes ballistic and oil nosedives.  The liquidity drains are now wide open as the yen has been strengthened since early last Friday by 3 yen per dollar and by 3.5 yen per euro.  Protective derivatives such as stock index puts, yen calls and oil shorts that we have recommended are now doing their stuff again to keep the specs from having to liquidate their metals to meet margin calls on carry trade positions.  Oil has been blasted big time as the Illuminist banks have been forced to give up some of their speculative gains to hit precious metals, which is JOB ONE at the Fed and for the cartel.  It would be interesting to see whether any of these banks acquired a greater short position in oil just before the takedown.  Monday’s sell-off is now giving the dollar some support as is cheaper oil, and the markets are rallying on Tuesday due to the two big drops in oil prices over the past two days as well as huge boosts from the PPT and “massaged” balance sheets that were better than expected for Wells Fargo.  This won’t last, and the dollar is headed for 67-68 after breaking 72 over the past two days.  Support at 72 cannot go on in the face of 1.8% monthly PPI (21.6% annualized), 1.1% CPI (13.2% annualized), nationalizations of Fannie and Freddie and bank failures such as IndyMac, which is just the beginning.  Get ready for some more wild action as the undisputed King of Currencies reigns supreme while economies implode around the world and threats of war and conflict continue to abound.

All world stock markets are now in Bear Market Territory.  The FTSE 100 finally caved in, and now all major stock exchanges are off by more than 20% from their highs.  This is just the beginning of woes.  Like the dollar, stocks worldwide will continue their downward spirals, abbreviated by bear rallies that will be little more than dead cat bounces.

http://theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/A_Complete_And_Systemic_Breakdown

Robert Gates warns

of unilateral strikes on Pakistan

Saudi-Arabia the next US military target

LAHORE: The United States has warned that it can conduct unilateral strikes inside Pakistan if it Pakistan does not take measures to stop Taliban activities, Aaj TV reported on Thursday. According to the channel, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that action in the Pak-Afghan border area was direly needed to mount pressure on the Taliban. He said it would be better if Pakistan exerted more pressure to check militant activities.

daily times monitor

Link

_______________________________________________________

An attack on Pakistan mean future attack on saudi-arabia. Why ?

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have concluded a secret agreement on defense cooperation. US must down Pakistan before  stole gold and oil in Arabian peninsula,  weakness military countries.Maybe the first US target is not Iran but Saudi-Arabia ?  controlling  saoudi-oil  before an attack against Iran, before the total collapse of the US and all the West economy.

————————————————-

Nationalization, Fiasco, USDollar, Gold

Jim Willie CB, editor of the “HAT TRICK LETTER” 

An historically unprecedented mess has been created by compromised central bankers and inept economic advisors, whose interference has irreversibly altered and damaged the world financial system, urgently pushed after the removed anchor of money to gold. Analysis features Gold, Crude Oil, USDollar, Treasury bonds, and inter-market dynamics with the US Economy and US Federal Reserve monetary policy.

A grotesque grandiose nationalization initiative is gradually being forced upon the USEconomy, US financial system, US political system, and the hapless US citizenry. Its crucible for construction comes from the desperate situation unfolding for the banks, the mortgage holders, and homeowners. Rising costs, falling incomes, failing banks, declining home values, eroding mortgage bonds, interfered financial markets, corruption in Congress, endless war, destructive economic counsel, an unconstitutional USDollar without gold backing, these factors all contribute toward a crisis without remedy. The only possible response will be an implosion with greater state assumption of losses, responsibility for operations, and extended power. Systemic failure, credit seizures, profound job loss, severe supply disruptions, and violence in public places will force a more urgent solution. The irony is that the agents and mechanisms that produced systemic failure will next be granted almost total power as reward for their ineptitude, corruption, and connection to the power centers. Reaction to systemic failure, orders for nationalization, and other desperate measures ensure the USDollar will fall significantly, leading to gold rising toward 1500 and silver rising toward 40.

WE ARE BEGINNING THE ACUTE PHASE OF BANK AND BOND BREAKDOWN NOW, WHOSE EPICENTER HAS EXTENDED FROM WALL STREET BANKS TO FANNIE MAE. THESE GROUPS ARE THE PRIMARY CENTERS FOR CRIMINAL FRAUD, ALL TO BE BAILED OUT. A broad bank asset liquidation in several weeks will exacerbate the crisis and invite immediate action, some of which might be well orchestrated in a power grab. The solutions will all appeal to the current devices, which tend to mean greater state controls. The authorities seem totally lacking any list of alternative methods. With bailouts come controls. If truth be told, the failure is of economic policies, the scummy relationships between the USGovt, the US Federal Reserve, the Dept of Treasury, the regulatory agencies, the Wall Street bankers, several giant banks, debt rating agencies, certain private equity firms, and the media news networks. Some wonder why media networks would be so subservient, not report stories of substance. Check their advertisers, which pay the bills, and also check where they obtain much of their international information. The USGovt supplies data, interviews, video clips, and stories for reasons of efficiency, safety to correspondents, which tends to permit a gradual slant that has turned absurd over the years. Many stories just are not covered at all, like recent foreign summit conferences among banking groups, in Asia and South America.

Harken back to my first article in January. It is worth a quick review read. In “Enter 2008: The System Breaks” (click here) numerous systemic factors were listed. Many are infesting our doorsteps, fouling our economic winds, and dampening national psychology to the point that the nation had best prepare for change that will rival those ordered at the tail end of the Great Depression. This economic depression will be different. It will be called a recession. The losses incurred will be an order of magnitude larger. Instead of Wall Street bankers jumping out of windows, they will take top USGovt agency spots for wresting control. The nation is not ready to institute national infrastructure programs like the TVA back in those day. Hurricane Katrina and the Endless War amply demonstrate that priorities have shifted toward private profiteering and corruption being the primary priority for national leaders. People will not stand in bread lines, but rather break into supermarkets in search of food. Home ownership was not at any lofty figure back seven decades ago. People now will continue to lose their homes at the tune of 7000 per day due to foreclosure in the Untied States, the current tragic pace. The housing market will continue down, led by endless growth in unsold inventory. The advent will dawn on the bankers, lawmakers, and key investors that Fannie Mae is sitting on a treasure trove of income potential, IF ONLY the acidic agency can rent its foreclosed properties instead of attempt to sell them on an already depressed bloated market. The Fannie Rentals will emerge as a business segment.

NATIONALIZATION TREND

The following industries are on a clear path toward nationalization, in order of likelihood:

* Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac (mortgage finance)
* major banks
* airlines
* Detroit automobiles
* gasoline & diesel refineries
* some transportation systems including trucks, railroads
* home rental (limited to Fannie Mae properties)
* steel industry

Already, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) will guarantee bank losses on accounts up to $100k. Another federal agency guarantees bond & brokerage accounts up to $500k. Already, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp will pledge to provide up to 35% of pension income for anyone whose corporate pension is lost or reneged upon. In the absence of any insight, imagination, or independent thought, the nation will resort to the state to underwrite the losses, and thus to institute measures toward remedy. Enter Big Brother with a checkbook, or better described as a credit card, no no a printing press!!! However, most solutions will simply be patchwork with restoration of order the main theme. The system will turn to the same broken apparatuses that killed the system, ensuring degradation and more need for control. Eventually martial law will fit like a glove. The result will be an ugly outcome a few years from now, marred by shortages, and eventually managed shortages, as in rationing and price controls. This fits perfectly with the next chapter of the Fascist Business Model. That would be a broader tighter state control with the collusion of bankers. The selective enforcement of law will be much worse than simply limiting short selling against financial stocks.

We have begun to see what finally has been labeled as ‘Financial Triage’ among the financial firms. The authorities are probably unable to price Fannie Mae bonds, heavily tied in spread contracts to USTreasurys. The USFed, Dept of Treasury, and Wall Street control agents have been forced to decide which firms must be rescued immediately, which are too big or important to fail, which can be permitted to die without unduly harming the system, and which cannot be tended to as in benign neglect. The resemblance is to the soldier battlefield. The theme that strikes very clearly is that the US Federal Reserve and its agents will continue to bail out bondholders, but let stockholders wither and die. Bonds are typically held by the elite, while stocks are usually held by commoners. The usual arguments are used when the bankers trot their easels, promotional byline notes, and weak reasoning before the dimwitted and angry legislators. They talk of systemic risk, and hordes of innocent being trampled among the public if action is not taken. The rescue initiatives are very tilted to aid the wealthy, and to deliver price inflation to all. However, one must note that the wealthy have never taken such enormous losses in modern history, as they are today. Their woes are nowhere ended. Look for Union Bank of Switzerland to fail in Europe. Look for Royal Bank of Scotland to fail in England. Look for Commerzbank to fail in Germany. Look for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to fail in Canada. Look for numerous to fail in the US, the epicenter of the big bank bust.

FIRST FACE OF MELTDOWN

I CONTEND THAT FANNIE MAE IS THE PRIMA FACIE OF THE END OF THE US FINANCIAL EMPIRE. Fannie Mae, the national US secondary mortgage supplier and vast agent to assist in controlling interest rates, is failing. Their high jinks maneuvers a few years ago to buy their own debt securities constituted self-dealing and self-propelled Ponzi methods, doomed to disaster. Denials are thin. All talk about not nationalizing the firm is confirmation of eventual nationalization. All talk about its equity not being destroyed is confirmation of an eventual zero stock price for FNM shares. All claims that Fannie Mae remains structurally sound are about as false as a claim that USGovt statistics are accurate. All denials of their insolvency serve as confirmation that they are indeed badly over-burdened by debt obligations in excess of assets. All claims that their implosion, meltdown, and failure are unlikely should be heard as clear confirmation of precisely that risk.

Removal of the short rule on upticks on the US-based stock exchanges has contributed to this mess, opening the gates of corruption. Fannie Mae might be the biggest lynchpin involved in such short practices. It has $500 billion in short-term rollover debt commitments, around $10 billion per day. It might be on the verge of illiquidity, with insolvency masked in the background. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been given authority to aid Fannie & Freddie directly. Its $2.25 billion credit limit is inadequate by a factor of one hundred. Fannie & Freddie own over half the entire US home loan mortgage market. What we are witnessing is Wall Street in increasingly public demonstrations of desperation trying to rig the rules to favor themselves, and reduce the risk of a total death episode, sure to inflict additional tremendous personal loss for the conmen bank executives. Still they are not even required to sidestep criminal investigations and court defense for billion dollar fraud.

The focus of attention inside the distressed US system has been on US banks and investment banks for a long time. Fannie Mae has avoided attention, well hidden within the bowels of the USGovt. The bank deposit runs, like has begun with Indymac, coincide with the renewed attention for the Fannie Mae national disaster. They are related. If Fannie & Freddie go bust, then we could see dozens of banks suffer sudden death overnight. Nothing in the insanity of the US mortgage morass epitomizes better the recklessness, risk acceptance, and criminality than Fannie Mae. It is also the object of intense, pervasive, systematic, and very deep crime syndicate activity, some linked to USGovt agencies. In my opinion, few have given serious consideration that Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac (F&F) must be bailed out, or else a large cast of ugly dangerous people will be exposed for two decades and hundreds of billion$ of fraud, theft, corruption, and crime syndicate activity. More can be said on this point, perhaps even touching past presidents. F&F cannot be liquidated with full disclosure and resolution of colossal criminal fraud.

CHANGING TRENDS

The precious metals mining stocks have vastly outperformed in the last two months time. Since June, the HUI has risen much more than the XOI, the energy stock index. Energy had its big run, and now it is the turn for gold & silver miners. Much crude oil money will flow into gold. The green circle highlights the recent rise in mining stocks over energy stocks.

Since the springtime, a pronounced negative correlation is vividly clear between the HUI and the mainstream S&P500 stock index. As the banks and most every other sector drags down the stock market, during that time the precious metal mining stocks have benefited. This rare negative alignment is ridiculously favorable for mining stocks, and very welcome news. Por fin! (finally!) The mining sector is receiving positive press, more respect, and some recognition as a viable hedge from the prevalent deep price inflation witnessed on a global basis. Wait until the bank runs come in force! The flight into gold will be profound. The green circle highlights the recent rise in mining stocks over mainstream S&P500 stocks.

THE KEY TO GOLD

In my view, that key is the bank system bailouts, including most importantly Fannie Mae. Since last August, when the bank crisis began, gold launched into record territory, only to continue soon into higher record territory. Their USGovt federal guarantee will open the door to other bailouts and nationalization movements. The most profound of the upcoming socialist actions will be the assumption of the Detroit carmakers. This event will be promoted in order to save jobs, to prevent enormous supply chain damage, even to assist in some military supply contracts. An argument will be made that its assumption under the national umbrella will offer stronger support for the steel industry. One by one, the sectors listed will see nationalization, pressed by urgent need as the system continues to break. The seminal event was the bust of subprime mortgages that led to gigantic bank losses. The bank & bond contagion, unlike what Bernanke has said, is total, absolute, and deep. In fact, USFed Chairman Bernanke has not made a single correct economic or banking forecast, par for the course on a university Economics Dept chairman. Back to the gold issue. The nationalization movement, especially its first step with a Fannie Mae and continued big bank bailout, will heighten the risk for the USDollar. Get the printing press ready. Everything is going the wrong way for these conmen control freaks!

My conjecture is that recent Wall Street stress tests revealed that the most important piece was Fannie Mae. The FDIC list of troubled banks, which incidentally did not list Indymac, might have included some investigation to reveal that 20 to 40 banks might be ready to dump a bunch of Fannie Mae bonds in order to improve their cash balance sheets. Perhaps China has been dumping some of their reported $400 billion in Fannie & Freddie bonds, and JPMorgan is under strain to buy them all up quietly, before news breaks beyond their hardened corrupted walls. Regardless, the big risk with bailouts is the USDollar breakdown. No way in Hades can the USGovt sell a new mountain of USTreasurys to finance such bailouts. No way in Shangrila can the USGovt appeal to altruistic multi-billionaires in the Arab world to foot the bill. The answer is the printing press finally, which to date has not been used too much. Oil it up! This has been boasted to be the great American advantage. Hardly!

Gone is the positive sentiment that the USFed would indeed follow though on inflation vigilance. Gone in fact are all the USFed and US banking system options. Options are gone. The euro stands as the primary beneficiary of US$ extreme duress. The Euro Central Bank has wrested leadership from the inept destructive bubble engineers in the Untied States. The euro managed to give back roughly half of its gain from the previous breakout above 149 to 159. Next it should make a move to 164, my target. This is analyzed more fully in the July Hat Trick Letter. Gold will follow the euro lead, as the gold price, the silver price, and the euro exchange rate might all march to new record highs together.

HAS ANYONE NOTICED THAT THE DOW IS UP, BANK STOCKS ARE UP BIG TODAY (THURSDAY), OIL IS DOWN, THE 10-YEAR TREASURY IS BEING SOLD OFF SOME, BUT GOLD IS UP $13 WHILE SILVER IS UP 20 CENTS !!! Gold & silver are up despite the flagship Dow rebound, despite the bank sector rebound, which is 90% short covering and vaporous.

Gold has distinctly different markets in the different continents. Gold has broken out into record territory in Japanese yen terms. This is a very significant event. The Asian continent is where the big savings are accumulated, outside the oil trade from the Middle East. Among the North Americans, Europeans, and Asians, the Japanese gold price is first to register an all-time high this summer. As Japan exits its seemingly endless period of price deflation that began back in 1990, times have changed for its citizens. Prices are rising, and investors have turned clearly to hedge that inflation. The same Cup & Handle reversal pattern is clear, evident with the euro currency. It indicates a price target of 11.50 to pursue. The yen gold price is negotiating the right side handle, where hesitation, doubt, change of hands, and debate occur. Its momentum will move gold higher in Asia. Never under-estimate the power of quiet hidden Chinese gold buying.

INSTITUTIONAL CRIME & DISHONESTY

My claim has been for four years that the US financial system in its entirety represents institutionalized dishonesty, the latest example of a US-style Fascist Business Model, made easier by control and ownership of the world reserve currency, unbacked by gold. Anyone who denies it cannot be observing the developments too numerous to count. Listen to Bud Farrell (click here or here) at the Financial Sense Newshour, interviewed by Jim Puplava. Farrell shares his insider experience on vast pervasive naked shorting of stocks, which he claims is just the tip of the iceberg. The broadcast is a follow-up of a Bloomberg research piece several months ago, and is entitled “The Crime of the Century.” Unsound money invites pervasive corruption from those close to the printing press, a principle that traces back to Ludwig Von Mises from his fiat money teachings. My maintained list of crimes of the century is long, starting with the Greenspan monetary drug dealer actions to create the failed bank condition (while taking a second Swiss paycheck), the Clinton-Rubin raid of the US Treasury gold supply (near zero cost leasing), the ongoing suppression of key prices (gold & silver in the futures market), the price capping of long-term USTBond yields (in futures market and credit derivatives managed by JPMorgan), the continued Enron accounting in the hidden banking system (see off balance sheet charade in defiance of BIS & G7), then the export of fraudulent US-based mortgage bonds worldwide (Wall Street handiwork). Let’s not forget the purchase of FDA approval of certain lethal drugs, such as is rumored for Nutra-Sweet. Then there is the entire story of gold heist, bond obliteration, insurance fraud, interruption of Pentagon fraud investigation, rumored to have motivated certain events in a big financial center NorthEast city about seven years. Few seem to realize that a raft of 30-year USTreasury Bonds dated before autumn 1971 were to come due in late 2001, all redeemable in gold.

The recent action to prosecute naked short stock selling is more blatant corruption on its face. The US regulators are trying to halt short selling of 19 financial stocks, led by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley. Near collapse of their stock prices is wrongly blamed largely on short sellers. Regulators do not care about non-financial stocks right now, curiously. They seem to deny that banks are insolvent, calling the diverse troubled bank cases isolated. The villains are trying to fend off panic in the bank stocks. They want to stop false rumors, when Goldman Sachs is guilty of similar tactics. GSax is under investigation for doing exactly that in London before the Bear Stearns death. Regulators want to extend the tight requirements on short selling between July 21 and July 29, through the month of August. Removal of the short rule on upticks has contributed to this mess, opening the gates of corruption. Fannie Mae might be the biggest lynchpin involved as an object of stock shorts. It has $500 billion in short-term rollover debt commitments, around $10 billion per day. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been given authority to aid Fannie & Freddie directly. Its $2.25 billion credit limit is inadequate. Fannie & Freddie own half the entire US home loan mortgage market. What we are witnessing is Wall Street in increasingly public demonstrations of desperation trying to rig the rules to favor themselves, and reduce the risk of a total death episode, and tremendous personal loss for the conmen bank executives. Their efforts have earned some criticism.

After the stress working through the entire system becomes even more acute, a big factor will favor gold & silver. The ability for the Powers to control USTreasury long-term yields, to control the USDollar, to bring the crude oil price to heel, to manage the interest rate swaps and other overgrown credit derivatives, that control will diminish. They will be forced, just like under the triage tents, to decide what they must let go. The agents to control prices, rig those prices, and distort those markets will be under huge strain themselves. They might be burdened by the mundane task of survival. My full expectation is that gold & silver will be released from control, by expedience. It will be too costly and unprofitable to attempt control anymore. JPMorgan will continue to manage its ‘Garbage Can’ free from the nuisance of accounting disclosure. But they too will become too distracted by the credit derivative mess that they contributed in building.

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08/willie071708.html

Russian paratroopers arrive in North Caucasus for combat drills.

(RIA Novosti) – Paratroopers from Russia’s 76th Airborne Division arrived Wednesday in North Ossetia to participate in the active stage of large-scale military exercises in the North Caucasus.

The exercise, dubbed Caucasus 2008, involves units of the North Caucasus Military District, mainly the 58th Army, the 4th Air Force Army, Interior Ministry troops, and border guards.

“The personnel, equipment and ammunition are being unloaded at the town of Mozdok” in North Ossetia, a spokesperson for Russia’s Ground Forces said Wednesday.

The paratroopers will make a forced march to the assigned zone of operation in the mountains, where they will conduct a series of tactical exercises, including live-fire drills.

The Pskov paratroopers will be later joined by units from an air assault regiment based in the Volga region, which will be transported to the Krasnodar Territory by rail and conduct a forced march to the exercise zone.

The exercise is taking place on the territory of Chechnya, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Karachayevo-Circassia.

Lt. Col. Andrei Bobrun, an aide to the commander of the North Caucasus Military District, earlier said the exercise involves some 8,000 military personnel, about 700 combat vehicles and more than 30 aircraft.

The main goal of the exercise, according to the Russian military, is to work on interoperability between federal troops, Interior Ministry troops, border guards, and the Air Force in special operations against militants and in the defense of Russia’s state borders, and to practice support of Russian peacekeepers in Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Georgia protested Wednesday against the Russian military exercise near its borders, saying it was another manifestation of aggression against Tbilisi.

Georgia’s parliament approved Tuesday a presidential initiative to increase the armed forces by 5,000 personnel to 37,000 amid growing tensions with Russia over two breakaway provinces.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080716/114129465.html

Saudis Bribe Russia Against Iran? No

Are the Saudis trying to buy of Russia? That is what Kommersant reported yesterday:

Currently the well known Saudi weapon dealer Prince Bandar is in Moscow and is said to have specified the offer to pay Russia for distancing itself from Iran.

A Kremlin spokesperson denies the rumors:

In this case I tend to believe the Kremlin spokesperson. The rumor might fit U.S. or Israeli intentions but it does not fit the real releations.

The weapon deal in preparation between the Saudis and Russia has a volume of some $2.3 billion over several years. That is less in financial volume than two days of oil production each for Saudi Arabia and for Russia. Such a modest bribe is certainly not big enough for Russia to give up on a strategic partnership with Iran. For comparison, the recent Saudi deal with Britain to buy Eurofighter planes is worth some $20 billion.

The Saudis will buy some weapons from Russia, T-90 tanks, BMP infantry carriers and helos, to have fun driving around and flying over their dunes. The helicopters may be useful for this or that ride of a prince to some foreign whorehouse but not for war. The Saudis don’t fight their wars. They pay others to fight for them.

This small weapon deal is a simply a mild snub to the U.S. by the Saudis with the additional value of getting some access to Russian thinking. Russia has no reason to give up its good relations with Teheran. Iran is their direct land access route to the Gulf. For several reasons such access might be very useful in the future.

The Saudis are more or less under U.S. control since Roosevelt signed a pact with King Ibn Saud 63 years ago. Unless the U.S. gives up fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan against those radical Salafi movements instead of going against their Saudi Wahabbi financiers the Saudis are safe and the old pact will hold.

The Kremlin is certainly able to understand that.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2008/07/saudis-bribe-ru.html

Marine’s graphic interview describes killing of prisoners in Iraq

Marine’s graphic interview describes killing of prisoners in Iraq. Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, in a tape-recorded interview, says he and a fellow sergeant were ordered to kill the prisoners during a sweep through a Fallouja neighborhood in 2004.

By Tony Perry

CAMP PENDLETON — A graphic, vulgarity-laced interview in which a Marine described how he and two other Marines killed four unarmed prisoners in Iraq was played today during a preliminary hearing in the case.

Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, in a tape-recorded interview with a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent, said he and Sgt. Ryan Weemer were ordered by Sgt. Jose Nazario to kill the prisoners as the Marines swept through a neighborhood in Fallouja in late 2004.

Several minutes of the tape were played at the hearing for Weemer, who faces murder and dereliction of duty charges. Nelson faces similar charges, and Nazario faces manslaughter charges in federal court in Riverside.

Nelson told the investigator that Nazario told him, “I’m not doing all this expletive by myself. You’re doing one and Weemer is doing one.”

Nelson said that he watched in shock as Nazario shot a kneeling prisoner at point-blank range: “He hit the dude in the forehead, the dude went down and there was blood . . . all over his Nazario’s boots.”

Weemer then used his service pistol to shoot one of the prisoners, Nelson said. “He shot him and the dude was on the ground and rolling and Weemer was shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting.”

The case began when Weemer, who had left the Marine Corps, told a job interviewer from the Secret Service about the killings. The Marine Corps recalled him to active-duty so he could be charged.

Nelson and Weemer, in their interviews, said that Nazario ordered the killings after getting a radio message from a superior that ordered the Marines not to take time to process the prisoners according to the rules. The Marines were needed to support other Marines sweeping through the insurgent-held city, Weemer said in his interview.

A hearing officer, at the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, will recommend to Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland whether the case should go to court martial, be dropped or be handled through an administrative procedure.

After seeing Weemer and Nazario shot prisoners, Nelson said he lost his reluctance to join in the killings. “I said expletive and I shot my dude.”

Study: Aussies preconditioned to kill turban wearers

——————–

“People learn negative stereotypes from their parents, their peers, their education and the media”

A MUSLIM-style turban is seen as a threat by the average Australian, even those who think they are free from racial prejudice, psychologists have found.

A study of university students playing a computerised shoot ‘em up game has revealed strong stereotyped bias against Muslim-looking people.

Innocent figures in the game were more likely to be shot at if they were wearing turbans or hijabs, the University of New South Wales researchers said.

Dubbed the “turban effect”, the trend was seen in both male and female shooters.

“People learn about negative stereotypes from their parents, their peers, their education and the media,” psychology researcher Dr Tom Denson said.

“Muslims tend to be portrayed negatively in the media so the findings make sense, even in an otherwise tolerant western society like Australia.”

Dr Denson said he expected the stereotype would be even stronger in countries such as the US and Britain.

“As Australia has not been subject to Muslim terrorist attacks on its territory, other countries in the forefront of Muslim terrorism such as the USA and Britain may show an even stronger ‘turban effect’ than the one we demonstrated here,” he said.

“However, based on the present data, we cannot distinguish whether this turban effect is due to negative stereotypes associated with Muslims or obvious negative stereotypes associated with terrorists – that is, a person with a turban holding a gun.”

The study found that male figures were far more likely to be shot than women, regardless of whether they wore headdress or not.

It also showed that angry participants shot more frequently at everybody, but happy people shot more at Muslims compared with angry or neutral-mood participants.

The researchers said happy people tended to rely more heavily on stereotypes.

“They are known to be less critical thinkers than people in negative moods,” Dr Denson said.

He said that although the findings demonstrate stereotyping, the research, did not assess actual aggressive behaviour.

The study, involved 66 people, is published in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24029480-5005961,00.html