I was in a Halifax branch today helping an elderly relative transfer her savings somewhere else, anywhere else
There was an impressive queue of people all doing the same
A member of staff walked up to the queue and said...
'Anyone making a deposit please come to the counter over here. Anyone making a deposit?'
Everyone shook their heads
Got to the front of the queue, had a large withdrawal cheque printed and then the clerk tried to, persistently, flog us a fucking credit card
Says it all really
.
24 comments:
It had to happen. Matthias Chang whose last book in the furute fast forward trilogy “The Shadow Money Lenders”, predicted this turmoil a couple fo years ago, as did a reasonably diverse number of others including erligious scholars wise in the way of economics such as Umar Vadillo and Sheikh Imran Hosein, two activists advocating economic justice.
In Changs book, he includes amongst the appendicees charts and tables relating to the degree of derivative exposure. measured against real assets. Generally the greater the bank the more derivatives it holds. and at the top the derivatives can be 2 or three times the asset holdings.
The smooth voiced Mr Milton also predicted the end of the crazy system running rampant in the City and warned TPTB about it in the BoE.
I guess, those heading the doomed organisation knew it too.
A poster on the other thread mentioned Credit Default Swaps. What do you think the chance is that those who saw the writing on the wall had a number of these in place ready for the storm, and judging by the fact that Gold rose by over $100/oz the other day, I would image there just happened to be a number of potions on the Gold futures market.
Upshot is, We pay for the stinking system those bastards who speculated millions by usurous schemes will largely escape.
But it's not just the City speculators that are to blame. Oh no! Not by a long chalk. It's also the ordinary citizen who greedily poured their money into these investments without a care in the world how as to where it went or how those frauds worked and what wicknedness they would they manefest, as long as they would make some money. Only when the wickedness of what they did starts to effect them do they start to moan and winge.
Live by the sword 'n all that.
Sorry but that's how it is. Any inocents out there? Precious few I suspect.
In a strange way, seeing the little fish get fried would give me a certain sense of satisfaction, sad to say but why the hell not? But you know what, the temporary hardship (a new bubble to provide relief is beng created right now) those who htrew their money into these scams is nothing conpared to the hardship most of the planet has had to bear in the modern era.
Will the joe soap investors learn? Ha! Methinks not.
If anyones interested: P.S. You don't need to be a Muslim to use the Islamic system of economics.
Islam and the Int Monetary System
http://rapidshare.de/files/7432411/I...tem_1.wmv.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/7433024/I...tem_2.wmv.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/7433658/I...tem_3.wmv.html
Islam and Money 1
http://rapidshare.de/files/8132366/I...ey1_1.wmv.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/8133191/I...ey1_2.wmv.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/8133547/I...ey1_3.wmv.html
Islam and Money 2
http://rapidshare.de/files/8134176/I...ey2_1.wmv.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/8143144/I...ey2_2.wmv.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/8143883/I...ey2_3.wmv.html
Islam and Money 3
http://rapidshare.de/files/8276882/I...ey3_1.wmv.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/8277307/I...ey3_2.wmv.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/8277809/I...ey3_3.wmv.html
Islam and Money 4
http://rapidshare.de/files/8536724/I...ey4_1.wmv.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/8482287/I...ey4_2.wmv.html
I'm leaving what little I have in there.
some charts
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=GS#chart6:symbol=gs;range=ytd;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined
Morgan Stanley (MS)
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=MS#chart1:symbol=ms;range=1y;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined
Last week:
Hadron Collider switched on.
This week:
All banks collapse.
No coincidence
^best comment since the Big Bang^
Roland Arnall: Rapist, Murderer, Ambassador
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Arnall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtyMdQ44bL4
candy floss.
Today brings news that the Fed is providing the biggest central banks in the world with liquidity to injection in the financial markets. MarketWatch reports:
"The move will allow the European Central Bank to auction as much as $110 billion in one-day and other short-term dollar loans to commercial banks in the 15-nation euro zone, up from its current level of $50 billion. The amount available through the Swiss National Bank was increased to $27 billion, a rise of $15 billion.
"The Fed also authorized new swap facilities that will enable the Bank of Japan to provide $60 billion in dollar liquidity, $40 billion by the Bank of England and $10 billion by the Bank of Canada."
A few weeks ago, the feds bailed out the mortgage industry…by nationalizing Fannie and Freddie and promising to put up $200 billion. Congratulations fellow taxpayer; now we own the world's largest source of mortgage finance. This week, it was the insurance industry. They nationalized the biggest insurer in the world - AIG - with an injection of $85 billion. Congratulations again. Now we own 80% of AIG. Next in line is the auto industry, asking for $25 billion.
Where in the U.S. Constitution does it authorize the executive branch of government to go into the insurance business? We don't know…but no one cares anyway…
The French nationalized their auto companies after the war. Then, when the socialists took control of the government in the '80s, they nationalized the banks too. "Silly frogs," said American economists. "Don't they know that a free market works best?" And so you see, dear reader, in all time zones and all languages, people are the same - always hustling up something for nothing, whenever they can get away with it.
But wait. Where do the feds get an extra $300 billion or so? The federal budget is already in deficit, about $400 billion worth. The only choice for the feds is to borrow more. But even the full faith and credit of the U.S. government has its limits. The sub-prime crisis came about because people borrowed money they couldn't pay back. When investors realized what they had done, they dumped the packaged, AAA subprime credits…and ended a 26-year-old credit expansion. And what did they do with the money? They took refuge in the prime credits of the U.S. Treasury. The dollar rose. Bond yields fell.
Now they're having second thoughts. And if they're not…they should. The more the economy and financial sector weaken, the more money the feds must put up to rescue them. The more dollars they need, the more they must borrow. And the more they borrow, the more they don't pay back… Already the amount unpaid - the official national debt - is almost $10 trillion. The interest alone is nearly $2 billion per day. Meanwhile, tax revenues are falling. Social costs - as people need more unemployment compensation, more free food and medicine, more subsidies and giveaways - are rising. Some economists are predicting budget deficits of $1 trillion…others say it could go to $2 trillion…
Watching More 4 News right now - two 15 minute slabs of economic apocalypse sandwiched around a commercial filling of James Dyson flogging overpriced, poorly made vacuum cleaners as if they're the most important thing in the world and David Jason enthusing about M&S risotto as if it were the second most important thing in the world
This System so deserves to die
It gets even better. Now the Fed are going to create an 'entity' to dump all of the banks bad debts in. That entity is us isn't it? A massive millstone around the neck of at least 2 generations, by far the greatest transfer of wealth of all time.
audio "The Greatest Crime In History" Bud Burrell interview on collapse of the US economy.
This is a must hear
The Greatest Crime in History
Real Player:
http://www.netcastdaily.com/broadcast/fsn2008-0712-2.ram
WinAmp:
http://www.netcastdaily.com/broadcast/fsn2008-0712-2.m3u
Windows Media:
http://www.netcastdaily.com/broadcast/fsn2008-0712-2.asx
Mp3:
http://www.netcastdaily.com/broadcast/fsn2008-0712-2.mp3
http://www.financialsense.com/Experts/2008/Burrell.html
Mr. Bud Burrell has extensive experience working with major brokerage firms
on the trading desk and arbitrage desk with almost 30 years experience --
Industry authority, expert, Wall Street veteran. Love him or hate him, you
will always know where he stands - his no-holds-barred style and frank
honesty make his blogs a must read, from one of the originals. View his
landmark correspondences in The Bud Files
.
http://www.thesanitycheck.com/Resources/TheBudFiles/tabid/85/Default....
http://www.financialsense.com/Experts/2008/Burrell.html
I listened to that interview about naked shorting at the time
Of course, the recent FSA prohibition on shorting only applies to financials - most of the cases of predatory shorting I've heard about were not financial institutions
Come to think of it some of the financial institutions which have taken a pounding recently were not above a little predatory shorting themselves
The herd appears to be trundling back towards banking stocks again today
back and forth it goes, trying to pretend that there isn't a multi-trillion $ hole in the system
where will its fancy take it next week I wonder
Of course, the recent FSA prohibition on shorting only applies to financials - most of the cases of predatory shorting I've heard about were not financial institutions
/ forgot Bear Stearns
/ slaps forehead
let me rewrite my previous comment
"Of course, the recent FSA prohibition on shorting only applies to financials - most of the cases of predatory shorting of healthy companies I've heard about were not financial institutions"
Interestingly enough, the massive increase in shorting that supposedly led to the current situation started on 9/11 last week.
People in Wall St start talking about financial terrorism...
But surely if it was terrorism it must have been an insider job!
"Interestingly enough, the massive increase in shorting that supposedly led to the current situation started on 9/11 last week."
I was thinking something similar. Apparently The Sun named and shamed (to the ignorant and credulous) one of the short sellers. If they could do that with him ...
good analysis of the wallstreet madness,,I´ll post it in two parts.
I've never seen anything like it," said Capital & Crisis' Chris Mayer.
The Dow rose more than 400 points. Gold was up $46 at the close of the day. The dollar is falling…oil is holding steady.
We're hosting a meeting of financial analysts here at our conference center in Normandy. Last night, after dinner, we all gathered around a computer screen - amazed, aghast and appalled.
"I can't believe it…" "Incredible…" "What will they think of next?"
Your Daily Reckoning editor loved it. He didn't know what to laugh at first!
From England came word that the financial regulators had banned short selling of financial stocks. What did they think…that they could keep prices up by decree?
But the Americans did the same thing, only dumber. The SEC issued an emergency edict prohibiting "abusive" short selling. What the heck is that, we wondered?
Maybe it's when you sell a company when the share price has already fallen more than 10%… Like kicking a man when he's down; it's not very sporting.
The feds announced a program of coordinated intervention…with $250 billion to be made available to the financial industry to cover its bad debts…
And get this…CNBC: "Bad Debt Plan May Cost up to a Half a Trillion Dollars."
Where do the feds get that kind of money? Ha…ha…ha…
But we're not the only ones… Russia is new to the ways of late, degenerate capitalism. But it's getting the hang of it fast. It too is manipulating markets with a $20 billion injection "to boost the stock market."
And then, there's this item from Bloomberg:
The latest crises "expose the flaws" and "tarnish the image" of the U.S. economy.
They're missing the point completely. It is not "flaws" that are being exposed - it's the whole consumer economic model and the whole generation of jackass economists who created it. They rejected the insights of classical economics. Instead of encouraging saving and capital formation, they thought they could nurture growth by luring consumers to spend more money.
"Tarnish the image?" No, this crisis will eventually destroy the image altogether, not tarnish it.
But let us return to the story as we've been telling it. There's a war going on…a battle between a natural market correction…and an artificial attempt to avoid it. On the one hand, Mr. Market wants to correct the excesses of the boom/bubble period that began in 1982. On the other, Misters Bernanke and Paulson want to prevent him. Mr. Market takes down asset prices. Mr. Market Manipulators push them back up.
We know who the ultimate victor will be. Mr. Market never loses. One way or another, real prices must come down. That's just the way it works. Night follows day…whether you like it or not. Stocks, bonds, property, art become expensive…and then they become cheap. Recently, they've been expensive…soon, they will be cheap.
cont,
As recently as a few months ago, it looked like the feds might be able to hold off a correction. Government-caused inflation was pushing up prices all over the world. Oil hit $147. Gold shot over $1000. Investors were getting rich in Chinese stocks and London property. Consumer price inflation was rising everywhere. Back then, it looked like consumers would be the big casualties of this war. They were facing much higher prices…with declining incomes.
But then, financial institutions began to take incoming…and pretty soon…the whole battalion of investors, worldwide, were getting beaten back. Stock market investors suffered flesh wounds in the United States; the Dow is down about 17%. In China, investors have practically had their heads blown off; the Shanghai index has lost 67%. Commodity investors got whacked too. Oil is down a third from its high. Yesterday, it closed at $97. Gold lost a quarter of its value, from the high. And investors in many of the safest, surest and smartest companies on earth - investment banks, mortgage lenders, and other financial institutions - have been wiped out.
But this week reminds us that the war isn't over. The feds still have some ammunition left. The Fed has 200 basis points left to zero; it can cut rates further. The government can intervene directly in markets; it can seize companies; it can lend to anyone at half the rate of inflation; it can send out checks… In fact, judging on recent evidence, it can do anything…
…but the one thing it cannot do is create real money. Every intervention costs money. And money is the one thing the feds don't have. Not real money. They only have phony money. And when investors finally realize the difference - between real money and funny money - that's when things will get very, very interesting.
So far, only one major asset class has escaped Mr. Market's correction: bonds. U.S. Treasury bonds have gone up (meaning, yields have gone down) as investors sought the safety of what used to be, and should be, the surest credit on earth. But bonds depend on not only on the ability of the issuer to repay…but also the value of the money in which they are calibrated. And if that money starts to sink in value, bonds take a hit.
U.S. Treasury bonds are unique. They depend on the value of the dollar…which the issuer itself controls. But as the war between Mr. Market and the feds continues, the U.S. Treasury will have a harder and harder time maintaining the value of the dollar. Because wars are costly. The feds will have to stretch the dollar farther and farther in order to meet the expense. Eventually, the elastic dollar will snap…and bonds investors will have their turn. Bonds will crumple over too…
"Is the United States no longer the global beacon of unfettered, free-market capitalism?" asks the International Herald Tribune.
"We have the irony of a free-market administration doing things that the most liberal Democratic administration would never have imagined itself doing in its wildest dreams," says Ron Chernow, a leading American financial historian.
Where has he been? Where have they all been? They might as well be a spider watching a couple make love; he sees the action but has no idea what is going on.
The Bush Administration has been the most liberal administration since Franklin Roosevelt. It has added more debt, more restrictions, more jackass programs, wars, spending, humbugs and bamboozles than any U.S. government in half a century. The one thing it hasn't done is raise taxes to increase federal revenues; thank God. But it spent the money anyway!
How does it work? How do people come to think such things? We don't know, but we have a theory:
People come to think what they must think when they must think it.
In other words, history follows certain patterns. Not predictable. Not exact. But broadly reflecting the inherent blockheadedness of the race…and generally in line with historical precedents.
America is in a period of imperial decline. Its economy is slipping. It citizens are getting poorer, both absolutely…and relative to the rest of the world. The "smart" thing to do would be to hunker down, cut costs, bring troops home, reduce Medicare and Medicaid, raise interest rates, encourage saving and give the country time to get back on its feet economically…so it could enjoy its relative decline with good grace.
But that's not the way history works. Did Alexander stop at the Hellespont? Did Napoleon stop at the Rhine? Did Hitler stop at the Oder? George Bush I stopped at the border of Iraq. But George W. Bush, under the sway of the neocons, kept going. His mission: to destroy the U.S. empire.
No, of course…he doesn't know that's his mission. He's an agent of change…a useful idiot, as Lenin would have said…a stooge…willing to do what isn't so smart, but what helps the course of history along to its end.
And now, we have a financial crisis. Does the government respond like Andrew Mellon in the '20s? "Liquidate labor…liquidate the banks…liquidate the farmer…" said Mellon, willing to let the chips fall where they may. No. That would be smart. Get it over with. Move on. But because the U.S. economy is in a long-term decline, moving on is the last thing people want. In the '20s, the United States could let chips fall…because it had a growing, dynamic economy. Other chips would rise up quickly. But now it must try to keep the chips from falling…because it is mature…aging…decaying. It wants to hold on…to keep things together…to avoid change.
That's why socialism is so attractive to Americans…it offers the illusion of safety and stability.
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/
Im not kidding you,,I think it´s Bush and the neocons plan to fuck up the entire planet,,,I notice oil is fucking heading North again at $104 dollars a barrel.
Just wait when the euphoria is by from Bush and cos great dumb fuckin plan,,,the shit will knock the fan off the ceiling and come crashing down on everyones heads,,,we aint seen nuttin yet.
It's the greatest transfer of wealth of all time, condemning ourselves and our children to a lifetime of debt serfdom to pay it back. It's not just a mass default of their debt by the banking system, its a default on democracy. Nobody has asked us if we want to sell off our children's future to pay for bailing out these criminals, it was just done without permission. Let nobody ever claim we live in democracy again. It's fascism purer and simple.
When fan,still spinning, comes off the ceiling, its going to decapitate quite a few below.
All part of the 'too big to fail' mechanism.
They should round up wall street and stick them in those nice new FEMA camps halliburton are building and prosecute them under the old fangled fraudulent conveyance laws.
It's fascism purer and simple.
Apparently, I keep reading, it's Communism
though, personally, my understanding of communism was always that it socialises profits as well as losses
fellow conspiraloons,,here is a theory.
The economic meltdown is no accident.
Given recent events, prior predictions (observations, really) appear to be coming to fruition:
* I warned of the coming economic problems and their implications, as well as why they were planned here. (July 14, 2007)
* The reasons for the planned destruction of the dollar were given here. (February 27, 2008)
* The collapse of the dollar was discussed here. (March 6, 2008)
* Ron Paul warned of worldwide economic collapse here. (March 13, 2008)
* Congress was warned, via a very rare closed-door session, of the exact events that are happening today, and those that are about to happen here. (March 17, 2008)
* The intentional consequences of the Federal Reserve scam were revealed here. (March 18, 2008)
* Dick Cheney was betting on the the collapse here. (March 27, 2008)
* The current inflationary recession was observed and the coming hyperinflationary great depression was predicted here. (July 1, 2008)
* The goal of this staged collapse was discussed here. (July 15, 2008)
link here
http://disinter.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/the-economic-meltdown-is-no-accident/
10 outa 10 for conspiraloonery.
I think that theory is reasonably supported by real world events. The aggregation of the financial system into fewer, impregnable, 'entities' and its property, us, being returned to it.
There's always a silver lining
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