Capitalism, Bail-Outs & Free Markets
A lot of the people within the “99%” recognize that something’s wrong with today’s economy. But pin-pointing exactly what the causes of the problems have been is a bit more challenging. As a result, many find premature targets for their demonstrations. Before casting blame for the ills of society, it’s important to educate one’s self on basic terms, such as capitalism and free markets and how government intervention and bail-outs corrupt the underlying institutions by rewarding a few elites at the expense of the consumer majority. The following (short) video explains, in simple terms with real examples, why being pro-business is not the same thing as being a supporter of free markets.
America is Not the Greatest Country in the World Anymore
“The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.”
Ponzi Economics
Casey Research provides a lucid interview with David Stockman, former Reagan administration budget director and author of The Triumph of Crony Capitalism. Stockman explains that in today’s economy, companies are reporting profits today that are “based on a debt-bloated economy that isn’t sustainable.” Furthermore, “This market isn’t real. … the 2% on the 10 year, 90 basis points on the 5 year, 30 basis points on the 1 year – those are medicated, pegged rates created by the Fed, and which fast money traders trade against as long as they’re confident the Fed can keep the whole market rigged. Nobody in their right mind wants to own the ten year bond at a 2% interest rate, but they’re doing it because they can borrow overnight money for free … put it on Repo, collect 190 basis points on the spread and laugh all the way to the bank.”
“The Fed has destroyed the money market, it’s destroyed the capital markets. They have something you can see on a screen called an interest rate – that isn’t a market price of money…. that is an administered price that the Fed has set and that every trader watches by the minute to make sure that he’s still in a positive spread. … You can’t have capitalism if the capital markets are dead, if the capital markets are simply a branch office (a branch casino) of the central bank and that’s essentially what we have today.”
The 12 members of the FOMC are the western world’s Monetary Politbureau – “monetary central planners who are attempting to use the crude instrument of interest rate pegging and yield curve manipulation and essentially buying debt that no one else would buy in order to keep this whole system afloat. It’s Ponzi Economics!!”
Jon Stewart on LIBOR
Presented without further comment, in two parts below….
The New Great Depression
CNBC’s European Squawk Box had an interesting interview session with author and economist, Richard Duncan. Looking back over the last 40 prosperous years, ever since the last remaining link between the US dollar and gold was removed, the world has evolved into a form of financial creditism. Duncan notes that the central banks of the world have been able to provide easy credit and the world has greatly benefited. However, there comes a point where borrowers are unable to take on more debt. If the government does not step in and provide QE or some other kind of spending programs, there will be another Great Depression. Duncan even goes on to say that, in fact, a depression is unavoidable and inevitable, but it can be delayed if the government decides to benefit society further by spending on 21st century technologies in the nano science and medical fields, for example.
Another interesting part of this segment that should be noted is where the panel brings up the comparison of the present situation with the past, where central banking policy was to raise interest rates rather abruptly in order to curb reckless borrowing. “When you throw money into the system ….. the good guys out there won’t borrow and spend because they’re too cautious. It’s the bad guys who come in and borrow and spend. … There’s lots of bad guys around, we can see them all over the place – we know they’re there!” Touché.
Where are the Regulators?
Is this a matter of sensationalism by all the media outlets? Or is the financial industry really this crooked? Sounding eerily similar to the MF Global scandal, now we have another example of a firm taking its clients’ funds to use for their own gain, or in this case, loss. Peregrine Financial Group Inc. apparently has a $200 million shortfall in its client accounts, according to CFTC regulators, who are now only involved after the National Futures Association brought to light the irregularities at PFG and the attempted suicide of its CEO and founder, Russell Wasendorf Sr. The FBI is also probing into the firm’s activities.
As Lauren Lyster’s Capital Account segment at RT reports, these fraudulent activities affect legitimate businesses, such as Treasure Island Coins Inc. Bullion dealers typically buy physical bullion which they resell to customers. In order to protect themselves from severe price fluctuations in the gold and silver markets, these companies hedge their physical bullion with contracts in the futures markets. As things went sour at PFG, its clients saw their spot-metals futures positions fall into the control of PFG’s primary credit facility – guess who… JP Morgan. Those positions are presumably being liquidated causing further losses to PFG clients, but possibly benefiting JP Morgan, enabling them to profit from the lion’s share of suspected commercial short positions.
Yet More Financial Fraud
The latest example of financial fraud comes from Barclays recent admission that they manipulated the Libor & Euribor benchmark interest rates. To avoid further legal action and bad publicity, the firm will pay $200 million dollars to the CFTC, $160 million to the US Department of Justice, and another $93 million to Britain’s Financial Services Authority. But these fines are insignificant sums when compared to the array of financial instruments derived from just the Libor rate – an estimated $800 trillion of securities, loans and derivatives. The average “Joe” has been unknowingly affected through vehicles like adjustable rate mortgages, stocks and pension funds. Financial firms such as Barclays and others suspected to be involved in this latest scandal – Citigroup, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Lloyds, and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi – have a tremendous motive to keep these benchmarks aligned favorably with their more profitable, proprietary derivatives trades.
Just how much more evidence is necessary to convince the public that the bankers of the world are quickly losing control of the financial system? Their legal box of tools are failing them and they must now resort to illegal means like the mobsters we read about in Dick Tracy strips. It’s worse now, though, because the too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks have most of our politicians in their back pocket, which means their criminal activities won’t be considered criminal, but rather normal operating procedures. Hence the minor slap on the wrist for public appeasement. Investors need to be aware of what’s happening and take actions to protect their wealth from being taken over by the mob.
Here’s Max Keiser and Michael Krieger discussing this latest scandal on RT.
Central Banks Buying Gold At Levels Not Seen Since 1965
Up until a few years ago, Central Banks of the world were selling their gold because they didn’t think they needed the ‘barbaric relic.’ But with all the money printing activities plunging the value of all fiat currencies around the world to their intrinsic value (=0), they’re now buying gold in substantial amounts. Here’s Simon Constable of the Wall Street Journal further explaining why they’re expected to be the buyers of at least 10% of the available gold in the coming years.
Central Banks Manipulate the Gold Markets: Chris Powell
Here’s Chris Powell of GATA explaining the motivation for central banks to keep the gold price under control. Powell also notes that potential gold investors should only buy physical gold, which they can actually hold in their hands. He estimates that 70-80% of all the gold people think they own doesn’t really exist! The paper forms of ‘investment gold’ such as ETFs or unallocated accounts likely do not have the physical gold supporting all the paper claims. Through rehypothecation schemes, gold leasing and swaps arrangements, there is simply not enough physical metal to back all the paper claims.
Operation Twist II & Rent Seekers
Here’s Jim Rickards explaining the Fed’s intentions behind Operation Twist, expectations on future gold prices, and the logistics behind the Currency Wars of the economic world today. Also, with Jamie Dimon & JPMorgan filling the latest headlines, Rickards gives his take on the parasitic institution of Rent Seeking, which has invaded both parties – Republicans and Democrats. Rent Seekers have taken the form of:
- On the Democratic side, Public Sector Unions, who are inflating their latter years’ pay in order to retire earlier with better benefits than those in the private sector.
- On the Republican side, Wall Street Bankers like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have been profiting from their proprietary trading and derivative schemes, while at the same time ensuring losses are covered by the taxpayers.
- On both sides of the isle, though Rickards doesn’t specifically mention them, there are the Crony Capitalists. Solyndra, Enron, Halliburton to name but a few examples. As we slip into the future, the Rent Seekers are even able to manipulate the legal system, making it tougher to actually prosecute the cronies that are caught in the act (see MF Global).
Things are getting bad out there, folks. If you’ve worked hard all your life and have accumulated wealth, please see our Protect Your Assets series to learn how you can protect your wealth from being destroyed by this rigged economic casino.
US Government Allows JP Morgan to Manipulate Silver Market: Ted Butler
Finally, after years of analyzing the silver market and studying Commitment of Traders (COT) data, Ted Butler has concluded that the CFTC won’t prosecute JP Morgan for their silver market manipulation because the U.S. government is intentionally allowing the suppression of precious metals prices. (It’s about time! Glad to finally have you aboard, Mr. Butler!)
The Plunge Protection Team | |||
---|---|---|---|
Ben Bernanke | Mary Schapiro | Gary Gensler | Tim Geithner |
Chairman of the Federal Reserve | Chairman of the SEC | Chairman of the CFTC | Treasury Secretary |
Specifically, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets was created in 1988 by the Reagan administration in order to prevent another market crash like that seen in October of 1987. This Working Group, sometimes referred to as the “Plunge Protection Team” consists of four members (today’s members pictured above): The Chairman of the Federal Reserve; The Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC); The Chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC); The Treasury Secretary.
Their mission is to intervene in the markets whenever they feel it is in the best interests of the banking powers. Strong precious metals prices mean a weakened U.S. dollar. The paper futures markets are used to suppress the prices of gold and silver in order to maintain the illusion of a stronger dollar. As Chris Powell of GATA always says, “There are no markets anymore…only interventions.”
Butler noted that even though Chairman Gensler of the CFTC likely understands that citizens are “being screwed” by the manipulation, he’s unable to do his duties and enforce existing commodity laws against JP Morgan because this powerful Working Group has alternate goals.
Find more information about precious metals price suppression here.
JP Morgan in the Spotlight
As JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon testifies before the Senate Banking Committee, ZeroHedge has noted that most of the questions will likely be soft on the chief because many of the panel’s members are beneficiaries of generous political donations from JPM.
In fact, many of the questions seemed to set Mr. Dimon up perfectly to expound on the banking institution’s view on the Dodd-Frank legislation. God forbid that position limits and the definition of proper ‘hedging’ should ever interfere with the bank’s ability to gamble with the people’s money, assured that losses are covered by the taxpayers, while gains are reaped only by banking insiders. Lauren Lyster of RT’s Capital Account gives a good behind-the-scenes account of today’s Senate Banking Committee interaction with the JP Morgan chief.
This is only today’s example of Crony Capitalism at work and it seems like every day it’s even more in-your-face than it was the day before. To see just how corrupt JP Morgan is thought to be, the RT Keiser Report is given below for review. As we get closer to the end game, when investors lose their wealth through less-than-honest financial firms, time is running out. Please see our Protect Your Assets series to learn how you can protect your hard-earned wealth.
Major Support At These Levels
Sprott Asset Management has issued a Gold Alert, showing six “key developments in the physical gold market” in the past couple weeks which indicate that there is strong demand for precious metals at these levels. One of those developments is the huge increases of Hong Kong gold exports to China.
The End Game
“We have around 6 months left of trading in Western markets to protect ourselves,” according to Raoul Pal, founder of Global Macro Investor and former Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager. “The problem is not Government debt per se. The real problem is that the $70 trillion in G10 debt is the collateral for $700 trillion in derivatives.” See entire presentation below.
It’s now more important than ever to protect your hard-earned wealth from being destroyed by inflation or even outright theft by financial and government institutions. Please see our Protect Your Assets series to learn about ways to secure your wealth in the coming economic collapse.
End of the Road: How Money Became Worthless
Here’s a documentary published recently describing our current horrific economic state.
Gold Becoming Widely Recognized as a Collateral Asset
Gold may not “do anything but just sit there on the shelf” but it is becoming more recognized as a safe haven for investors and now, it seems, for bankers too! There is so much outstanding debt in the global banking system that finding ‘good’ collateral to back it is becoming more difficult. Furthermore, as the debt increases, and maturing debt is rolled over into new debt, traditional asset-backing collateral becomes more scarce. The Basel Committee for Bank Supervision (BCBS) is considering making gold a Tier-1 asset, which would escalate the desire for banks to hold more of it in their vaults to provide backing for all their debt activities. Read more at SafeHaven.
Is More QE Coming, Or Not?
With the Fed purchasing 61% of all the US debt, it’s somewhat confusing why potential precious metals investors want to see more QE before making their move. And as the following chart from the St. Louis Fed shows, the money supply is still at uncharted, nose-bleed levels and showing no signs of decreasing.
Nevertheless, analyzing a derivative of the TIPS Spread to identify when the Fed might reintroduce even more easing is what the economists over at Agora Financial have been doing. As the chart below shows, the Fed may be waiting for the “Breakeven Inflation Rate” to drop below 2.2% prior to accelerating those printing presses.
The Fraud Behind MF Global Exposed (Again)
Here’s Chris Whalen of Tangent Capital explaining the blatant fraud that happened at MF Global and is still happening with the court proceedings.
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