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Financial Tsunami: The End of the World as We Knew It
- Text size
F. William Engdahl
Global Research
October 1, 2008
The unexpected rejection by the US Congress of the Bush Administration financial rescue plan, TARP on September 29 has opened up the spectre for the first time of a 1931-style domino wave of worldwide bank failures. That is already underway across the US banking spectrum with the failure, nationalization or forced liquidation in the past two weeks of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, of the giant Washington Mutual mortgage lender, of the nation’s fourth largest deposit bank, Wachovia. That was on top of a wave of smaller bank failures that began with IndyMac in the spring. For some it is appealing and more simple to grasp the magnitude of these titanic events in the US-centered financial world by assuming it is all part of a pre-planned grand conspiracy by the Money Masters, what in the 1920s in the USA was termed the Money Trust, to control the entire financial world.
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| Paulson’s plan, the one essentially rejected on September 29 by the House of Representatives, would have done nothing to recapitalize the troubled banks. That recapitalization could cost an added hundreds of billions on top of the $700 billion toxic waste disposal. | |
As the details of the present crisis reveal, there are huge ideological fault lines making for chaos and a potential meltdown of the Laissez Faire financial system. That present system, which was built on the back of Wall Street financial and banking deregulation since 1987 when Alan Greenspan, a devout follower and close friend of radical individualist Ayn Rand, became Wall Street’s man at the Federal Reserve for almost 19 years, is over now with the failure of the Henry Paulson $700 billion bailout scheme. Governments worldwide now face no alternative but to begin the painful process of putting the financial genie back in the bottle and re-regulating an out-of-control financial system. The failure of the UK Government and the US Government to address that fundamental issue is behind the present crisis of confidence.
A brief look at history
The Great Depression in Germany in 1931 began with a seemingly minor event—the collapse of a bank in Vienna, Creditanstalt, that May. For readers interested in more on the remarkable parallels between that crisis and that of today, I recommend the treatment in my earlier volume, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order.
That Vienna bank collapse in turn was triggered by a political decision in Paris to sabotage an emerging German-Austrian economic cooperation agreement by pulling down the weakest link of the post-Versailles system, the Vienna Creditanstalt. In the process, Paris triggered a series of tragic events that led to the failure of the German banking system over a period of several weeks. The post-1919 Versailles System, much like the post-1999 US Securitization System, was built on a house of cards with no foundation. When one card was removed, the entire international financial edifice crumbled.
Then, in 1931, there was an inept Brüning government in Germany, which believed severe austerity was the only solution, merely feeding unemployment lines to pay the Young Plan German reparations to the new Bank for International Settlements in Basle.
Then, in 1931 George Harrison, a Germano-phobe, was the inexperienced Governor of the powerful New York Federal Reserve. Harrison was a member of the anglophile Skull & Bones, the elite Yale University secret society which also included George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush as initiates. Harrison, who went on to coordinate the secret Manhattan Project on the development of the Atomic bomb under fellow Skull & Bones member, War Secretary Henry Stimson, believed the crisis had started not from abroad but with German bankers trying to make a profit at the expense of others.
Within weeks of rumor and jitters, the New York Bankers Trust, ironically today a part of Deutsche Bank, announced it would be forced to cut the credit line to Deutsche Bank and by July 1931 began to pull its deposits from all big Berlin banks. Harrison insisted the Reichsbank dramatically raise interest rates to stabilize things, only turning bad into worse as a credit crisis across the German economy ensued.
The Bank of England Governor, Montagu Norman, while somewhat more supportive of Luther argued that his friend Hjalmar Schacht was better suited to manage the crisis. On July 13, 1931, a major German bank, Darmstädter-und Nationalbank (Danat) failed. That triggered a general a depositors’ run on all German banks. The Brüning government merged the Danat with a weakly capitalized Dresdner Bank, and made large state guarantees in an effort to calm matters. It didn’t.
New York Fed governor, Harrison, who was personally convinced it was a ‘German’ problem, barked orders to Reichsbank chief Hans Luther on how to manage the crisis according to archival accounts. A foreign drain on Reichsbank gold reserves ensued.
The rest is history, the tragic history of the greatest most destructive war of the 20th Century, with all the suffering that ensued. At that time in history, the American banking elite saw itself, despite a stock market crash and Great Depression in America, as standing at the dawn of a new American Century.
The decline of the American Century
Today, in 2008, some 77 years later, a German Finance Minister stands before the Bundestag announcing the end of that American Century. Today the German government encourages a fusion of Dresdner with Commerzbank. Today Deutsche Bank, which some years ago acquired Bankers Trust in New York in a merger wave, appears to be in a stronger position than its American counterparts as Wall Street investment banks, some more than 150 years old as the venerable Lehman Bros., simply vanish in a matter of days. The American financial Superpower crumbles before our eyes.
In March 2008 there were five giant Wall Street investment banks, banks which underwrote Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS), corporate bonds, corporate stock issues. They were not deposit banks like Citibank or Bank of America; they were known as investment banks—Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns.
The business of taking deposits and lending by banks had been split during the Great Depression from the business of underwriting and selling stocks and bonds—investment banking—by an act of Congress, the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. The law was passed amid the collapse of the banking system in the United States following the bursting of the Wall Street stock market bubble in October 1929.
That Glass-Steagall act was a prudent attempt by Congress to end the uncontrolled speculative excesses of the Roaring Twenties by New York finance. It established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to guarantee personal bank deposits to a fixed sum that restored consumer confidence and ended the panic runs on bank deposits.
In November 1999, after millions spent lobbying Congress, the New York banks and Wall Street investment banks and insurance companies won a staggering victory. The US Congress voted to repeal that 1933 Glass-Steagall Act. President Bill Clinton proudly signed the repeal act with Sandford Weill, the chairman of Citigroup.
The man whose name is on that repeal bill was Texas Senator Phil Gramm, a devout advocate of ideological free market finance, finance free from any Government fetters. The major US banks had been seeking the repeal of Glass-Steagall since the 1980s. In 1987 the Congressional Research Service prepared a report which argued the case for preserving Glass-Steagall. The new Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, just fresh from J.P. Morgan bank on Wall Street, in one of his first speeches to Congress in 1987 argued for repeal of Glass-Steagall.
The repeal allowed commercial banks such as Citigroup, then the largest US bank, to underwrite and trade new financial instruments such as Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) and Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) and establish so-called structured investment vehicles, or SIVs, that bought those securities. Repeal of Glass-Steagall after 1999, in short, enabled the Securitization revolution so openly praised by Greenspan as the "revolution in finance." That revolution is today devouring its young.
That securitization process is at the heart of the present Financial Tsunami that is destroying the American credit structure. Citigroup played a major part in the repeal of Glass–Steagall in 1999. Citicorp had merged with Travelers Insurance company the year before, using a loophole in Glass-Steagall that allowed for temporary exemption. Alan Greenspan gave his personal blessing to the Citibank merger.
Phil Gramm, the original sponsor of the Glass-Steagall repeal bill that bears his name, went on to become the chief economic adviser to John McCain. Gramm also went on to become Vice Chairman of a sizeable Swiss bank, UBS Investment Bank, in the USA, a bank which has had no small share of troubles in the current Tsunami crisis.
Gramm as Senator in 2000 was one of five co-sponsors of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. A provision of the bill was referred to as the ‘Enron loophole’ because the it was later applied to Enron to allow them unregulated speculation in energy futures, a key factor in the Enron scandal and collapse. The Commodity Futures Modernization Act, as I described in my earlier piece in May, Perhaps 60% of Today’s Oil Price is Pure Speculation, allowed investment bank Goldman Sachs (coincidentally the former bank of Treasury Secretary Paulson), to make a literal killing in manipulating oil futures prices up to $147 a barrel this summer.
Paulson’s impressive interest conflicts
The actions of Treasury Secretary Paulson since the first outbreak of the Financial Tsunami in August of 2007 have been directed with one apparent guiding aim—to save the obscene gains of his Wall Street and banking cronies. In the process he has taken steps which suggest more than a mild possible conflict of interest. Paulson, who had been chairman of Goldman Sachs from the time of the 1999 Glass-Steagall repeal to his appointment in 2006 as Treasury head, had been one of the most involved Wall Street players in the new securitization revolution of Greenspan. Naming him to head the Government agency now responsible for cleaning up the mess left by Wall Street greed and stupidity was tantamount to putting the wolf in charge of guarding the hen house as some see it.
Paulson showed where his interests lay. He is by law is the chairman of something called the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, the Government’s financial crisis management group that also includes Fed Chairman Bernanke, the Securities & Exchange Commission head, and the head of the Commodity Futures Exchange Commission (CFTC). That is the reason Paulson, the ex-Wall Street Goldman Sachs banker, is always the person announcing new emergency decisions since last August.
Two weeks ago, for example, Paulson announced the Government would make an unprecedented $85 billion nationalization rescue of an insurance group, AIG. True AIG is the world’s largest insurer and has a huge global involvement in financial markets.
AIG’s former Chairman, Hank Greenberg—a close friend of Henry Kissinger, a former Director of the New York Fed, former Vice Chairman of the elite New York Council on Foreign Relations and of David Rockefeller’s select Trilateral Commission, Trustee Emeritus of Rockefeller University—was for more than forty years Chairman of AIG. His AIG career ended in March 2005 when AIG’s board forced Greenberg to resign from his post as Chairman and CEO under the shadow of criticism and legal action for cooking the books, in a prosecution brought by Eliot Spitzer, then Attorney General of New York State.
In mid September, in between other dramatic failures including Lehman Bros., and the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Paulson announced that the US Treasury, as agent for the United States Government, was to bailout the troubled AIG with a staggering $85 billion. The announcement came a day after Paulson announced the Government would let the 150-year old investment bank, Lehman Brothers, fail without Government aid. Why AIG and not Lehman?
What has since emerged are details of a meeting at the New York Federal Reserve bank chaired by Paulson, to discuss the risk of letting AIG fail. There was only one active Wall Street banker present at the meeting—Lloyd Blankfein, chairman of Paulson’s old firm, Goldman Sachs.
Blankfein later claimed he was present at the fateful meeting not to protect his firm’s interests but to ‘safeguard the entire financial system.’ His claim was put in doubt when it later emerged that Blankfein’s Goldman Sachs was AIG’s largest trading partner and stood to lose $20 billion in a bankruptcy of AIG. Were Goldman Sachs to go down with AIG, Secretary Paulson would have reportedly lost $700 million in Goldman Sachs stock options he had, an interesting fact.
That is a tiny glimpse into the man who crafted the largest bailout in US or world financial history some days ago, the failed TARP—Troubled Asset Relief Program—a proposed $700 billion financial stabilization scheme which, in Paulson’s original version would have allowed him or his Treasury successor to use $700 billion, with no oversight or accountability, to buy bad or worthless assets from financial institutions he deems worthy of help.
As respected economist, Nouriel Roubini pointed out, in almost every case of recent banking crises in which emergency action was needed to save the financial system, the most economical (to taxpayers) method was to have the Government, as in Sweden or Finland in the early 1990’s, nationalize the troubled banks, take over their management and assets, and inject public capital to recapitalize the banks to allow them to continue doing business, lending to normal clients. In the Swedish case, the Government held the assets, mostly real estate, for several years until the economy again improved at which point they could sell them onto the market and the banks could gradially buy the state ownership shares back into private hands. In the Swedish case the end cost to taxpayers was estimated to have been almost nil. The state never did as Paulson proposed, to buy the toxic waste of the banks, leaving them to get off free from their follies of securitization and speculation abuses.
Paulson’s plan, the one essentially rejected on September 29 by the House of Representatives, would have done nothing to recapitalize the troubled banks. That recapitalization could cost an added hundreds of billions on top of the $700 billion toxic waste disposal.
Serious conservative banker friends I know who went through the Scandinavian crisis of the 1990’s are scratching their head trying to imagine how crass the Paulson TARP scheme was. That crass and politically obvious bailout of Wall Street by the taxpayers, what some refer to as ‘Bankers’ Socialism—socialize the costs of failure onto the public, and privatize the profits to the bankers—is a major factor behind the defeat of the TARP compromise version.
But there is an added element. John McCain decided to boost his flagging Presidential campaign by trying to profile himself as a ‘political Maverick’ one who opposes the powerful Washington vested interests. He flew into Washington days before the TARP was to be approved by a panicked Congress and conspired with a handful of influential Republican Senate friends, including Banking Committee ranking member, Senator Shelby, to oppose the Paulson TARP. What emerged, with McCain’s backing, was a political power play that may well have brought the United States financial system to its knees, and McCain’s Presidential hopes with it.
Power and greed are the only visible juice driving the decision-makers in Washington today. Acting in the long-range US national interest seems to have gotten lost in the scramble. As I wrote last November in my Financial Tsunami five part series on the background to today’s crisis, all this could be foreseen. It is what happens when elected Governments abandon their public trust or responsibility to a cabal of private financial interests. It will be interesting to see if anyone in Washington realizes that lesson. Whatever next comes out of Washington, however, one thing is clear, as reflected in what German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück told the Bundestag. This is the end of the world as we knew it. The American financial Superpower is gone. The only important question will be what and how will the alternative be.
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October 1st, 2008 at 9:17 am
Bloomberg are reporting that the calls made to congressmen are now FOR the bailout.
“There has been a massive reversal” in the tone of the calls, they say. Seems as though the FAKE REJECTION has made eveyone think they have won.
WE MUST ALL CALL AND CONTINUE TO CALL AND TELL THEM WE ARE AGAINST THIS BAILOUT.
CALL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO DO THE SAME. NOW.
NOW!
October 1st, 2008 at 9:17 am
Why are you Americans not out in the millions protesting?!
October 1st, 2008 at 9:26 am
How can the USA ever be trusted again as a world financial hub?
October 1st, 2008 at 9:36 am
1, well if we were all out protesting no one would be at work making money to pay the bills. I hope you note the sarcasm. Well Americans really do not get out and do much until they are really having hard times, as long as they still have food in their mouths, or someone is not at their door trying to take their guns, well they will not do much.
Many have just become so lazy that they sit and talk, but when it comes to doing anyting they are plain yellow, afraid of jail, losing their homes, comfort,and all the rest.
The only communities that seem to protest anymore are the minorities, some will even go so far as to bun their own neighborhoods, which is silly because they know that they are still on the government welfare train and will get a new place to live.
Now I am not racist, but you do not see whites burning their own neighborhoods, you do not see the Italians burning their neighborhoods, you do lnot see the Chinese Burning their own Neighborhoods, Irish, Spanish, Indian, Just more or less the blacks in the ghettos, but at least they protest. Hell if they have an issue the7y go to church, the church gets busses they go protest, some riot, and many times they get someting done.
Now for the rest of America they just do not organize, they do not take the time, they will not work together, and that is due to the public school system and fear.
Now to be fair to much of America, many who are always out on the protest lines do not have jobs, so the poor guy working to feed his family stays at work, dos not protest so that he can keep that roof over their heads. There is no job security here in america and many jobs have in at will states, meaning that they can fire you for any reason.
We have a screwed up system and too many of our working poor are caught in the prison of slave labor and unable to really protest because if they do they lose the ability to feed their families.
for the middle class which is shrinking well they are busy trying to keep a roof over their heads and buyng all the toys, and taking loans that they will never be able to pay back.
It is a complex situation.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:36 am
hey gretel, the reason why they are not out in there in the millions is because most people do not believe in this conspiracy that there are money masters at work here.. most people will call you a quack or looney. I live in california and i can tell you the media hypes this stuff up and makes it look like doom and gloom. people are either not acustomed to madness or they simply do not want to hear about it. they want to keep their life simple and follow the straight and narrow. I have a hard time talking about this with my family and some friends. They do not want to hear about they think its just not possible or it does not make sense. for example i was talking about how they want to make us slaves and then wipe us out completely well the other persons arguement was this:
they need us (middle class) to keep the money flowing in, to pay taxes, and contribute to society. I said yea that makes sense but what about the fact that these people whoever they are dont need us to make money and pay taxes, they dont care they dont need it, still cant convince people just to try and get them to think out of the box.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:43 am
people calling and emailing their state legislators that they fear the system will crash or so they say. not to worry us minorites disabled unemployed citizens will fight for you so you don’t have too.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:43 am
gretel, it’s our National Lobotomy. We’ve been drugged in the air, water and food. We’ve been mesmerized by T.V., radio, and computer. We are the Living Dead.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:52 am
ATTENTION ALL IDOLATORS, YOUR IDOLS WILL FAIL YOU!
THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL.
EXODUS 20:3 THOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER gods BEFORE ME.
REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND!
DON’T FEAR A DEPRESSION, DON’T FEAR THE ELLITE, DON’T FEAR A BULLET,
FEAR THE ONE WHO HAS THE POWER TO CAST YOU INTO HELL AND LAKE OF FIRE!
WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED!
CALL UPON THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!
October 1st, 2008 at 9:55 am
Karl (POST #3)…
Location(USA) has nothing to do with appearances.. a bank is loyal to no nation… Itis a business..and it’s loyalty is bought by depositors who trust them with their money..
Your money goes away.. their concern goes away..Just business..
October 1st, 2008 at 9:57 am
ATTENTION ALL IDOLATORS, YOUR IDOLS WILL FAIL YOU!
THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL.
EXODUS 20:3 THE LORD STATES “THOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER gods BEFORE ME.”
REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND!
DON’T FEAR A DEPRESSION, DON’T FEAR THE ELLITE, DON’T FEAR A BULLET,
FEAR THE ONE WHO HAS THE POWER TO CAST YOU INTO HELL AND LAKE OF FIRE!
WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED!
CALL UPON THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!
October 1st, 2008 at 10:08 am
Like in the movie ‘escape from New York’ do we leave the money prisoners to run the money prison? I know my Senators are getting calls today about 300 to 1 against this socialization of the U.S. finacial markets. I have no clue how my Senators will vote today. When the FISA bill came a couple months ago they split. My guess is that Bush has Cheney on the phone threatening the Senators to vote (YEA) for the bogus bailout. It’s an answer to prayer that the House grew some backbone to oppose Monday’s vote. They NEED to listen to Reps. Peter DeFazio and Marcy Kaptor to vote (YEA) on a free market solution!
We live in perilous times. Pray that congress makes the right choice!
October 1st, 2008 at 10:15 am
#2 why aren’t americans out protesting in the millions? Because the majority of people don’t even know what any of this means. Most people I have spoken to have no clue what the situation is, and if they should be for or against the bailout.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:33 am
For all the non-U.S. citizens, people from other countries, etc.:
Don’t criticize the U.S. like we’ve created all of the worlds misery. France helped create the second world war in which millions upon millions of people were murdered. England runs the U.S. empire in secret and the bankers run England and every other western country.
The responsibility falls upon all of our shoulders, all regular people who are controlled and intimidated by their governments, not just the U.S. citizens.
What about the Zionists? They created communism as way to balance the western worlds power, in order to create a false paradigm of fear so they could better control all peoples on both sides of the fence. Israel is at the heart of the worlds problems, more so then the U.S., but I don’t hear any major outcry from any countries concerning Israel.
We’ve all been played for fools and that is because we are fools. They manipulate us on a daily basis. This whole financial crisis is fake, as fake as fake can get! The people on top are making money, not losing money.
We will be fooled into reacting instead of acting. We will be like a hive of bees being hit by a large baseball bat. We will fly around stinging anything or anyone who we “think” has caused the problem, not really understanding what the hell is going on. How do you think they got us to go into the middle east?
Problem (that they, the powers that be, created) Reaction (the bees wanting revenge for the upset of the hive) Solution (what the powers that be fooled us into supporting even though they created the original problem.)
We’re simply ignorant and unintelligent puppets dancing because they are pulling our strings.
We no longer have any real industrial base to speak of, no real industry is left in this country. We’re ripe for foreign invasion. The funny thing is the powers that be will make it appear to be something it is not. No invading country need worry about our nukes because the nukes are not in the hands of our military, they are under the control of the powers that be.
No matter what happens, we’re going to get screwed, unless we stand up together, in all countries, and kick the s--- out of the liars and politicians that have created every bad situation in the history of the world.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:00 am
SOLUTION FOR THOSE WANTING TO STOCK UP NOW:
Max out your credit cards in order to purchase survival gear and then subsequently, file Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The bankruptcy court will have to approve it as long as you wait 6 months (180 days) after your last major purchase and not make it look fraudulent.
If you still have credit during the 6 month period, you can use your credit cards to buy groceries, pay rent, utilities, gas and car maintenances during this “waiting” period—just no major purchases. The key is using the right strategy and doing it smart!
As a caveat, my sage advice is to transfer—title ownership only—your house, car, etc. to someone else during the meantime so that the court cannot relegate them. A friend of mine purposely maxed out his credit cards up to $60K then filed Chapter 7 successfully last year, even with the new bankruptcy laws. He still has everything and is now $60K richer in survival gear including guns, ammo, storable food, bunker, etc.
You can do it too but do it now before the imminent collapse of the United States of Hysteria!
October 1st, 2008 at 11:04 am
# 12
Because all of the news sites we visit everyday are not giving us answers. As sad as it may seem, Americans have to look to someone for the answer. Most of us who visit infowars look to Alex for answers. Alex is the only one brave enough to publish a good point of view about the pros and cons of having a bailout. People just want the financial crisis to end, so they will push for a bailout, not looking at the repercussions. The simple, predictable, American Idiot.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:05 am
it has been three months since i seen the light-i have spent hundreds of hours watching video and researching on the web-it makes my whole life a lie-i am screaming to family and friends-some have seen the light-my boss is telling me to calm down-he said if anything was going on-it would be on fox news-he said they could not hide something that big-i told him he is the reason they are getting away with treason and the fall of america-[made up his mind an refuse to look at the truth-cause fox news says it aint real-we are all dead
October 1st, 2008 at 11:18 am
we need a revolution now it’s a shame 70% of Americans are idiots and swear the goverment is there savior stop relying on other people for help help yourselves stop listening to bs on fox and all the major networks teach yourself the truth but wait thats right Americans are to lazy it’s true i see it everyday in my school we are screwed with a capital S
October 1st, 2008 at 11:21 am
How come the price of silver keeps going down? How can they manipulate it this much?
October 1st, 2008 at 11:24 am
After deep and careful thought.. I know I am reaching way out there.. But this finacial thing could become so bad that the focus would have to be on humanity and being decent for a change…
Instead of maintaining a “perpetual war position” on a global scale….
This is about control and power… Money is easy to print… These people want to play God… of course with themselves being the beneficiary in mind.. Their minds at any rate…
October 1st, 2008 at 11:24 am
1pm go to http://www.larouchepac.com and listen to the live international webcast in regards to the state of the world financial system, and the proposed steps to take, and even check out the Home Owners & Bank Protection Act to lobby to your elected officials!
October 1st, 2008 at 11:27 am
#15 go to larouchepac.com and look @ the Home Owners and Protection Act its a piece of legislation to lobby elected officials with in regards to our current economic system… it’s the only sane option @ this point in time
October 1st, 2008 at 11:28 am
I wish I had a better comment to post…but I think the Senate will pass this very poor excuse of a bill. Because you have 100 senators who each serve 6 years, and only 33 are up for re-election in a few weeks, I don’t think they will be as quick to capitulate as the House was. I really hope I’m wrong on this, so we’ll see.
There’s a very good site called urbansurvival.com. They interpret the work of the Web Bot Project (a complex series of projections that look at language used on the Internet) and thinks that a global market collapse occurs October 7…next Tuesday. I’m no financial expert, but that can’t sound too good. I’ll let others put the proper weight on that phrase.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:28 am
I am not looking for answers, I am looking for retribution. Everything since 1933 has been theft, none of us have been paid anything. We get coupons from the Federal Reserve, promissory notes, with debt attached.
The fiat money system has to crash, one reporter on CNN last night actually said: “The reason for this crisis was too much easy credit and the only solution is to free up the credit markets so businesses and people can get the credit needed to get out of this.”
WTF? Credit is the problem and the solution is more credit?
And Ford sales are down 33%, so what does the news say: “Thats because people who want to buy cannot get credit to buy.”
This is the mentality of our coporate controlled media.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:47 am
It’s a sad time for the sheepal out there mindless following a box with pictures inside of it. Following its every word unquestioning whats going on. Forget the sheep all they need is a shepard. We need to open there eyes to the real world.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:53 am
I notice some people are focused on the price of gold and silver and other “precious metals”…
If the price of an .oz of gold goes up to 10,000 a .oz.. What is it worth and how will you obtain the value? Fiat money(paper) guaranteed? Yopu will have to forfeit ownership of the gold at some point… Those who want it are not going to allow you to maintain custody of the gold while they secure your “loan value”..
Gold..when you come down to it is an elusion created over time..
Gold has no practical value except as electrical and electronic parts..
People priase and literally worship the value of gold and don’t even know why. I know this.. You can’t eat it…
I would rather be a man with the comfort of food when hungry than a starving man with no food and all the gold in the world…
October 1st, 2008 at 12:49 pm
new video
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=3rrWRNJ2lOs
October 1st, 2008 at 12:59 pm
1of300: I’m with you! Simple, to the point and right on.
October 1st, 2008 at 1:28 pm
It would seem minimally prudent to urge the nationalization of the Federal Reserve Bank, since here is the spear point for a fascists consolidation of financial power away from the ability of the people to influence financial policy for the foreseeable future. I wish Engdahl would have stated his preference for what to do about the Federal Reserve. Does he support nationalization or would he support Ron Paul’s bill to abolish the Federal Reserve altogether?
Its remarkable how similar what is happening here is to what transpired in Russia in the early 90’s. Bernanke, Paulson, Goldman Sacks, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac etc. are the analogues to the Jewish oligarchs and investment Houses that looted Russia back then. Is it irrelevant that virtually all the key players are Zionists?
At any rate, it is urgent we must instruct the senate not to pass a bailout package. But I suspect they will stab us in the back and readily sell out our freedom financial independence.
October 1st, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Matthew.. DO AWAY WITH THE FEDERAL RESERVE ALTOGETHER…
We have a US Treasury SPECIFICALLY designed to manage finaial affairs for the US and it can be held ACCOUNTABLE…
That is where the problem began.. when our politicians around 1900 began to set up the takeover by the FRB.. now the GVt workd FOR the FRB instead of the citizen…
Pull the parasite off the host and send it to another country…
Why argue to change the name of the problem, absorb it further into the country by “nationalizing” it and expecting things to get better?
The FEDRB is the disease….. The economy is presently a symptom of the disease…
October 1st, 2008 at 1:50 pm
God, I hope so.
October 1st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
a good article, about half way through i was like, wow this is getting a little garrulous but its really not, I just don’t read as much as i probably should. Yup, no real information or opinion to add just a mere orbiter dictum.
October 1st, 2008 at 2:32 pm
was inside a UP SIDE DOWN PYRAMID, burried in the ground. The head of pyramid was deep down in the ground and us , at the other side of pyramid , living in comfortable apartments inside pyramid , which was at surface onteh ground. The pyramid had ancient walls , and there was a stair case leading us to the bottom , where it was DARK.
Well guys if you beleive in dreams , then beleive in yourselves us the people.
The message of this dream is very clear. things are gone out of control and people are going to overcome this satanic agenda. This is my 2nd important dream since 15th of Septmeber. I posted the first message and here i share the 2nd .
People keep your hopes , and don’t shut your mouths. Fight for your rights.
We are the power since God is in us , and EVIL is always a looser. Don’t panic…they have no chance.
Well guys if you beleive in dreams , then beleive in yourselves us the people.
The message of this dream is very clear. things are gone out of control and people are going to overcome this satanic agenda. This is my 2nd important dream in this very historical time. The first dream was as important as this dream.
People keep your hopes , and don’t shut your mouths. Fight for your rights.
Well guys if you beleive in dreams , then beleive in yourselves us the people.
The message of this dream is very clear. things are gone out of control and people are going to overcome this satanic agenda. This is my 2nd important dream in this very historical time. The first dream was as important as this dream.
People keep your hopes , and don’t shut your mouths. Fight for your rights.
October 1st, 2008 at 2:35 pm
jeez wiered, sorry for the spawn, but i cant figure out how did that happen!!! 3 times the same sentence!! wiered!! so sorry people
October 1st, 2008 at 2:44 pm
damn… we’re feelin it out here
October 1st, 2008 at 2:54 pm
#1
“why are not americans out by the millions protesting?”
or other variances of
“why aren’t you DOING ANYTHING?” or “WHY AREN’T YOU AWAKE?!”
Here is the reason: The very structure of the US. Most of our states, are rural. We have relatively few cities, and a very large number of Americans still live in rural/suburban locations, and as you know, taking to the streets with signs accomplishes nothing.
Though we are not “out by the millions” I assure you we are awake by the millions. Though we seem to be “asleep” it is only because we have a constant domestic military presence in our faces 24/7. (How many of you live in close proximity, or ON military bases?). The feeling of oppression is real! It is as though we live under an iron curtain.
Resistance will not come in the form of mass protests on the streets. Alert Americans will be more effecient in their resistance to corporatism/ government-military corruption/ the NWO. The US economy is not collapsing by chance. There is a real “BUY NOTHING” grass roots effort going on to collapse the economy. Why? Because we are totally disempowered and it seems the only way to GET THIS COUNTRY UNDERWAY and WAKE THE MAJORITY UP TO THE SINISTER AGENDA OF THE POWERS THAT BE is to have them directly experience the effects of it.
Consider the layout of the US.
Consider the financial situation in the US, with millions barely making ends meet. Hard to resist when you have hungry children and rent to pay!
Cut Americans some slack, they will throw off the chains of tyranny when the time is appropriate to do so. Resistance is alive and well.
October 1st, 2008 at 2:55 pm
It can’t got any worse…or can it? Looks like we’re about to find out…May God help us.
October 1st, 2008 at 4:49 pm
__________________________________________
http://www.ExposingChristianity.com
The pen is mightier than the sword.
- Everything in Christianity has been stolen from religions predating it by hundreds to thousands of years.
- Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all programs to keep spiritual knowledge away from the populace in order to keep humans enslaved by the global elite.
- Nearly everything in the bible consists of symbolism, allegories and twisted truths that are to be taken literally by the masses.
- Contrary to what most people have been indoctrinated with, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are relatively new religions. Humanity goes back tens of thousands of years. These three have worked relentlessly to keep us from spiritual knowledge and using this power, of which all of us have.
- The survival and prosperity of this vicious hoax on humanity requires only ONE thing- A LACK OF KNOWLEDGE!
http://www.ExposingChristianity.com
October 1st, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Keep in mind it is all the liberals’ fault with their easy credit scheme. Remember when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was founded in the 90s. There was no regulations controlling their business. I knew something funny was up with all this easy money.
October 1st, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Someone needs to begin putting forth petitions to RECALL every member of Congress or the Whitehouse who votes for any bill, regardless of what they call it, that bails out these greed mongers. Fire Paulson, who dared to “threaten” Congress of a retaliation by Wall Street against America with doom and gloom lies and propaganda. I never thought I’d see the day when America would be sold out to the bankers and more like Nazi Germany than the land of the free and home of the brave. It is time to RECALL everyone of these bastards. I live in Florida. If you are interested in starting a petition, please let me know. Our current politicians are bought, paid for, and marionettes for the Wall Street elite. That is the reason they have no problem ignoring the will of the people. It is high time we show them again exactly who is the boss in this country. If any of you have the means, run for office so we can return this country to a Constitutional Republic, like when it began. I will be running for a local position here in Florida in 2010.
October 1st, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I’m surprised Henry Paulson is still alive with all this treachery.
October 1st, 2008 at 6:02 pm
#36 Thank you, couldn’t have said it better.
We are not buying, and our children are not suffering. We pay our bills, and it takes all of our time to earn the money to do so. I don’t see how people have time to go stand a street corner all day long carrying a sign that won’t mean squat to anyone. Some passers-by will agree, some will only laugh. But not one of them would stop their car and join in. Because they are either on their way to work, or looking for work. Who the hell has the resources to be able to afford to take the day or the week off to do this? I don’t, but God himself knows our household is ready when tshtf.
I am here to stay informed of what is really going on, and i am sure as all who come here are that we will be some of the first to know when it’s time to do our part.
#1 we are more ready than you know. If you can’t see it, then you are in for the suprise of your life.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:02 pm
#33 ADREAMTOSHARE
I too had a very vivid dream about a pyramid a while back! The pyramid was big and black and made of polished stone with large roots hanging from the base. It was lying at an angle in a huge field, and was badly damaged and cracked. People were fleeing in all directions.
Weird huh?
October 1st, 2008 at 8:22 pm
i think a major difficulty with most widespread issues is that people who get into any powerful position are the ones who strive for it, get good at manipulating whatever needs manipulating and really want more power. (enter valid exceptions argument here) so it should be obvious that things such as laws and bills and contracts etc are designed to keep them in power, undermine everyone else’s and allow them to gain the most. usually i’ve some retort that helps alter and answer my negative views but i’m stumped on this one.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:24 pm
to #41
I agree, however, I would exchange your “RECALL petitions” with:
a. ROPE
b. 2x 2×4’s
c. a sign that says “public lynching today at 10″
October 1st, 2008 at 8:42 pm
great fantastic article !!!!!!!!!!!! tha athor got him some brains in writing !!!!!!!!! fantastic job !!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCF0FBdcicE
October 1st, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Its time our so called Govt. does the right thing and give the bailout money to the american people. $700 Billion would give 300 million people $233 Thousand to pay off bills. Pay for the houses that where sold at prices that where over inflated. People could retire that are near retirement now and open the job for someone else youger to take over. People could by “made in america” only products. Which would make the economy rebuild itself. Like Rob says fire anyone who wants to bail out Wall Street. Let the companies fail who ripped us off with the housing industry. There should be no polliticians that have Stock in War Companies, Health or Pharmacutical Companies or Housing. It makes me sick that our govt. gives us $600 when they could give us a real fix and give the american people $233 thousand each and bail out the american people. Write or call your congressman now and tell them to give us the money. Then watch them say. We can’t do that. The Evil Bastards. And Oh Yea it don’t matter if you vote, Don’t waste the gas the Bilderbergers already now who their next puppet is going to be. Stop the New World Order! That is right run for office. Lets see you run for President, it is so stupid that you have to be a millionaire to run for any office these days. Sorry Rob but local office is not going to do any good at all. You need to get all the rich out of the White House, How can a man like me ever run for President on a $30 thousand a year salary. Its time to over throw and start over. Grow food in so much abundance that it is the cheapest commoditiy. Change all american houses over to Solar Power, It will pay for itself in no time. Give House loans to all americans at a fair rate. $350 dollars a month and just pay more years determined by the size of your house you want. Instead of high payments. Our govt. needs to help and not bury us.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Ok, I am going to tell you people the same thing I tried to encourage the Paul campaign to do and they had the cash to do it…
Remeber the Ross Perot infomercials? It gave him TONS of exposure. So, why can’t we do it? Even though the media whores will not give us equal time they will sell us time. ALEX, Let’s do this. WE NEED TO AWAKEN THE MASSES…
Just a few simple history lesson 5 minute infomercials on tons of cable channels. With info like: Federal Reserve facts and one or 2 more. Not too deep but enough for everone to s--- little pebbles.
All in favor please say AYE!!!!!!!!!!
October 1st, 2008 at 9:17 pm
This article blames free markets and individualism(Ayn Rand) for a problem created by Central Bank manipulation.
Its true that Greenspan was a friend of Rand, but he then denied everything he had ever believed in when he became the FED chairman.
This article is a fraud, its author knows nothing about the causes of this meltdown or economics in general.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:37 pm
ALEX!!! The bill sent to the house thet was voted on on Monday and failed was 106 pages. The bill just passed by the senate on wednesday is 451 pages. It is bloated with all kinds of new energy tax incentives and basically they are going to phase out our gas outos and they are to be replaced with electric and alternative fuel vehicles. All the money is going to coal, oil and alternative fuel sources. I only skimmed through it over about 15 minutes but I can not believe this is BLOATED with energy provisions, not to mention you have to know what language they are speaking to read it.
They are trying to pass a fast one on us and swindle us again…SOMEONE PLEASE GET ON THIS AND SEND IT AROUND THE WORLD. OUR CONGRESS MUST BE MADE AWARE BEFORE THEY VOTE ON IT. THIS IS INSANE!!!
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/01/news/pdf/index.htm
October 1st, 2008 at 11:32 pm
can the fed bailout these banks and then crash them later? essentially double dipping?
October 1st, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Max Keiser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1mk6MIMiCk
Enjoy, get your passports
October 1st, 2008 at 11:58 pm
MAGNIFICENT SIR OR MADAM!
Thank you for the most concise, “comprehensive” (immigration coined term), analysis ever written.
I found your purported piece! You are consistent! The Greenburg remarks were extrordinarily well founded.
Atlas Shrugged is a work of twisted self tormented ideological rage GONE MAINSTREAM TODAY. Their headquarters, photographed from air, is a swastika!
Read it and weep Sheep you are to be enslaved, raped and slaughtered by the Andrea Mitchels and Micca Brezenskis (and JOE SCARBOROUGH REDNECKS), of the world
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:13 am
To michael:
You’ve hit the nail on the head my friend…Now all you have to realize is that they’ve been “double dipping” since 1913 when they manipulated Woodrow Wilson into signing the Federal Reserve Act, which was written by Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and other power hungry financiers. They had a secret meeting where the men gathered represented nearly half of all the wealth in world. Now they’re sitting pretty cause the government will let them run away with all the profits and bail out their companies so they can continue to suck us dry. Check out “The Creature From Jeckyll Island”. Really, everyone please do that.
October 2nd, 2008 at 6:13 am
What we Americans did to help create this meltdown bailout scheme, was to keep re-electing people like Harry Reid back into office so far for twenty six years. and votes against the 95% of the countries wishes.
We need to get real serious with our voting, and get the whole bunch of potomac two- step gang removed from power. If they won’t listen to us, then we don’t need them there!!
VOTE THIRD PARTY. BREAK THEIR BACKS!
October 2nd, 2008 at 6:14 am
This crap CANNOT BE LET TO CONTINUE. FULL STOP.
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** GET THE POWER OR SHUT UP **
Impotentes defendere libertatem non possunt (”Those without power cannot defend freedom”) – G. Edward Griffin
October 2nd, 2008 at 6:18 am
If the sky is falling then why is Jesse ‘the body’ Ventura in the process of setting up a programme named TruTv? Does anyone have any idea how much time, preparation and money is necessary to set-up a legitimate tv program for broadcast? This does not happen overnight, it requires several months of preparation, funding (investors who require proof for ratings on their investment), liquid capitol assets and a show schedule with prearranged contacts, show descriptions and dialogue.
If s--- was about to hit the fan any time in the foreseeable future then Jesse would be consolidating his resources and remaining in Mexico at his compound with his family like any intelligent person would do. Is this happening? A… that is a big Negative, do you copy that? Americans need to stop thinking with emotion and start using their brains and think in logical terms.
Is there a change in the economy, yes but it has been evolving for the past 60 years and will continue to retract. Every business owner knows that sales must exceed product costs and if that cost rises, so too must the cost of goods/services. This can be achieved only to the point that the customer refuses to pay for the product then change must take place. Either the business merges with another, sells out or relocates to an area where labour or the cost of material and distribution has real cost effect.
Once a socio-economic society has been built up to a level that no longer allows for the times of ‘good deals’ for both the consumer and the seller then prices must drop, so businesses are forced to relocate to Asian and African block countries were the populous live below the economic level of its customer base. The alternative to this would be for the companies to remain within the US and just raise there costs which would drive the consumer to spend less in the market place and scaling back production which brings about job loss, higher taxes to cover the ill consumption of goods and services. Either way Americans loose because possessions are everything to Americans ‘the land of plenty’. More, more, more… Buy, buy, buy… Gimmy, gimmy, gimmy… Americans boast about giving, but mostly only when they are receiving as well.
If you want to lower inflation then stop spending like there is no tomorrow! Save your money and plan for the future. Just because a bank waves a hundred dollar bill in front of your nose does not mean you must take it. Learn to live within your means, stop taking loans for everything under the sun from huge houses to new vehicles to boats to vacation homes to rental properties to easy money making schemes. Get rid of those credit cards that are used to buy all sorts of needless crap. If Americans ran their home using the business model, the country would be in a much safer condition. SURE, people would own less, but sometimes less is more!
October 2nd, 2008 at 7:00 am
NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE ARE CONTACTING THEIR CONGRESSPERSON. THE BILL WILL PASS IF WE DO NOT IMMEDIATELY CONTACT AND TELL THEM TO VOTE NO!
I understand that some people may feel uneasy about contacting them, but it is your DUTY.
You must tell all your family and friends, heck go out in the street and get people you don’t even know and tell them to CONTACT THEIR CONGRESSPERSON…NOW.
NO BAILOUT. PASS THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE IMMEDIATELY.
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 am
Truth disguised as conspiracy theory is the order of the day. Check out pnac and global depopulation agendas. The global elite have quite a plan for us in america. The website whatdoesitmean.com is the largest english speaking newswire on the planet and un censored. bush announced unprecidented defcon alert on or about Oct. 5 2008. Whereever you live, get in your car and drive the neighborhoods near you. Look for forclosed/empty properties, overgrown lawns, etc. Then check out the number of factory direct, new expensive vehicles parked there. I confirmed with local police that homeland security is in place and awaiting martial law. How do I know, read story of the day 2 at stevequayle.com dated Sept. 30 08. I am Sandra . Blessings, Ann
October 2nd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
POST 39
WRONG, ALL OF IT