Financial Criminality: Wall Street Manipulates Energy Prices, Gold … and Every Other Market

By Washington's Blog

Global Research, January 04, 2015

The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says that JP Morgan hasmassively manipulated energy markets in  California and the Midwest, obtaining tens of millions of dollars in overpayments from grid operators between September 2010 and June 2011.

Pulitzer prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston notes today that Wall Street is trying to launch Enron 2.0:

The price of electricity would soar under the latest scheme by Wall Street financial engineers to game the electricity markets.

If regulators side with Wall Street — and indications are that they will — expect the cost of electricity to rise from Maine to California as others duplicate this scheme to manipulate the markets, as Enron did on the West Coast 14 years ago, before the electricity-trading company collapsed under allegations of accounting fraud and corruption.

The test case is playing out in New England. Energy Capital Partners, an investment group that uses tax-avoiding offshore investing techniques and has deep ties to Goldman Sachs, paid $650 million last year to acquire three generating plant complexes, including the second largest electric power plant in New England, Brayton Point in Massachusetts.

Five weeks after the deal closed, Energy partners moved to shutter Brayton Point. Why would anyone spend hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the second largest electric power plant in New England and then quickly take steps to shut it down?

Energy partners says in regulatory filings that the plant is so old and prone to breakdowns that it is not worth operating, raising the question of why such sophisticated energy-industry investors bought it.

The real answer is simple: Under the rules of the electricity markets, the best way to earn huge profits is by reducing the supply of power. That creates a shortage during peak demand periods, such as hot summer evenings and cold winter days, causing prices to rise. Under the rules of the electricity markets, even a tiny shortfall between the available supply of electricity and the demand from customers results in enormous price spikes.

With Brayton Point closed, New England consumers and businesses will spend as much as $2.6 billion more per year for electricity, critics of the deal suggest in documents filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

That estimate will turn out to be conservative, I expect, based on what Enron traders did to California, Oregon and Washington electricity customers starting in 2000. In California alone the short-term market manipulations cost each resident more than $1,300, a total burden of about $45 billion.

***

Public Citizen characterized the Energy partners explanation for the shutdown as absurd:

In the world of business, a firm announcing that an asset purchased just 5 weeks ago is actually uneconomical to operate would be called incompetent, and such a firm would have difficulty attracting capital and staying in business. But the managing partners of Energy Capital Partners are a highly sophisticated all-star crew of former Wall Street financiers: four of the five managing partners are Goldman Sachs veterans, and the firm’s vice-presidents and principals are alumni of JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Credit Suisse and other financial powerhouses. These are not your run-of-the-mill owners and operators of power plants. They are Wall Streeters highly motivated to exploit the intricacies of power markets to make as much money as possible for their Cayman Islands-based affiliates.

The record is clear that artificially reducing supply to jack up prices was the plan of Energy partners from the get-go. The strategy is obvious from auction records, as explained by Robert Clark of the Utility Workers Union of America Local 464.

“Almost immediately after acquiring ownership of the Brayton Point Power Station late last year,” Clark said, “[Energy partners] intentionally withheld all of Brayton Point’s capacity from [auction] for the purpose of reducing capacity supply and intentionally raising the market prices” that Energy partners and its competitors could charge for other New England generating capacity they already owned.

As shown below, Wall Street has manipulated virtually every other market as well – both in the financial sector and the real economy – and broken virtually every law on the books.

Interest Rates Are Manipulated

Bloomberg reported in January:

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc was ordered to pay $50 million by a federal judge in Connecticut over claims that it rigged the London interbank offered rate.

RBS Securities Japan Ltd. in April pleaded guilty to wire frauda s part of a settlement of more than $600 million with U.S and U.K. regulators over Libor manipulation, according to court filings. U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in New Haventoday sentenced the Tokyo-based unit of RBS, Britain’s biggest publicly owned lender, to pay the agreed-upon fine, according to a Justice DepartmentJustice Department.

Global investigations into banks’ attempts to manipulate the benchmarks for profit have led to fines and settlements for lenders including RBS, Barclays Plc, UBS AG and Rabobank Groep.

RBS was among six companies fined a record 1.7 billion euros ($2.3 billion) by the European Union last month for rigging interest rates linked to Libor. The combined fines for manipulating yen Libor and Euribor, the benchmark money-market rate for the euro, are the largest-ever EU cartel penalties.

Global fines for rate-rigging have reached $6 billion since June 2012 as authorities around the world probe whether traders worked together to fix Libor, meant to reflect the interest rate at which banks lend to each other, to benefit their own trading positions.

To put the Libor interest rate scandal in perspective:

• The big banks have conspired for years to rig interest rates … upon which $800 trillion in assets are pegged

• This was the largest insider trading scandal ever … and the largest financial scam in world history

• Local governments got ripped off bigtime by the Libor manipulation

• Even though RBS and a handful of other banks have been fined for interest rate manipulation, Libor is still being manipulated. No wonder … the fines are pocket change – the cost of doing business – for the big banks

Indeed, the experts say that big banks will keep manipulating markets unless and until their executives are thrown in jail for fraud.

Why? Because the system is rigged to allow the big banks to commit continuous and massive fraud, and then to pay small fines as the “cost of doing business”. As Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz noted years ago:

“The system is set so that even if you’re caught, the penalty is just a small number relative to what you walk home with.

The fine is just a cost of doing business. It’s like a parking fine. Sometimes you make a decision to park knowing that you might get a fine because going around the corner to the parking lot takes you too much time.”

Experts also say that we have to prosecute fraud or else the economy won’t ever really stabilize.

But the government is doing the exact opposite. Indeed, the Justice Department has announced it will go easy on big banks, and always settles prosecutions for pennies on the dollar (a form of stealth bailout. It is also arguably one of the main causes of the double dip in housing.)

Indeed, the government doesn’t even force the banks to admit any guilt as part of their settlements.

Because of this failure to prosecute, it’s not just interest rates. As shown below, big banks have manipulated virtually every market – both in the financial sector and the real economy – and broken virtually every law on the books.

And they will keep on doing so until the Department of Justice grows a pair.

Currency Markets Are Rigged

Currency markets are massively rigged. And see this and this.

Derivatives Are Manipulated

The big banks have long manipulated derivatives … a $1,200 Trillion Dollar market.

Indeed, many trillions of dollars of derivatives are being manipulated in the exact same same waythat interest rates are fixed: through gamed self-reporting.

Oil Prices Are Manipulated

Oil prices are manipulated as well.

Gold and Silver Are Manipulated

Gold and silver prices are “fixed” in the same way as interest rates and derivatives – in daily conference calls by the powers-that-be.

Commodities Are Manipulated

The big banks and government agencies have been conspiring to manipulate commodities prices for decades.

The big banks are taking over important aspects of the physical economy, including uranium mining, petroleum products, aluminum, ownership and operation of airports, toll roads, ports, and electricity.

And they are using these physical assets to massively manipulate commodities prices … scalping consumers of many billions of dollars each year.  More from Matt Taibbi, FDL and Elizabeth Warren.

Everything Can Be Manipulated through High-Frequency Trading

Traders with high-tech computers can manipulate stocks, bonds, options, currencies and commodities. And see this.

Manipulating Numerous Markets In Myriad Ways

The big banks and other giants manipulate numerous markets in myriad ways, for example:

• Engaging in mafia-style big-rigging fraud against local governments. See this, this and this

• Shaving money off of virtually every pension transaction they handled over the course of decades, stealing collectively billions of dollars from pensions worldwide. Details here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here

• Charging “storage fees” to store gold bullion … without even buying or storing any gold . And raiding allocated gold accounts

• Committing massive and pervasive fraud both when they initiated mortgage loans and when they foreclosed on them (and see this)

• Pledging the same mortgage multiple times to different buyers. See this, this, this, thisand this. This would be like selling your car, and collecting money from 10 different buyers for the same car

• Cheating homeowners by gaming laws meant to protect people from unfair foreclosure

• Pushing investments which they knew were terrible, and then betting against the same investments to make money for themselves. See this, this, this, this and this

• Engaging in unlawful “frontrunning” to manipulate markets. See this, this, this, this, this andthis

• Engaging in unlawful “Wash Trades” to manipulate asset prices. See this, this and this

• Otherwise manipulating markets. And see this

• Participating in various Ponzi schemes

• Charging veterans unlawful mortgage fees

• Cooking their books (and see this)

• Bribing and bullying ratings agencies to inflate ratings on their risky investments

The criminality and blatant manipulation will grow and spread and metastasize – taking over and killing off more and more of the economy – until Wall Street executives are finally thrown in jail.It’s that simple …

Russia Accuses U.S. of Supporting the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria. “Seeding Disastrous Consequences”

By Kalyan Kumar

Global Research, January 03, 2015

International Business Times

Russia has accused the United States of having patronised the Islamic State radicals to grow into demonic proportions. Russia‘s chief of General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, on Wednesday lashed out at the U.S for being responsible in providing financial and technical assistance to the ISIS in Syria and elsewhere in the past.

The Russian general was speaking at a meeting of foreign military attaches in Moscow. Gerasimov correlated the rise of the ISIS with “Western interference in the region”. He said the USA and some “leading Western countries” had been seeding “disastrous consequences” in a number of countries, including Libya and Syria. Their game of overthrowing the legitimate authorities in those states has endangered deeper instability in the region, reported RFEL news.

The Russian military head said it was the agenda of Washington and European for a regime change in Syria that created the current turmoil. He said the U.S and allies were “pumping foreign aid to armed opposition groups, and applying international political and media pressure on the Syrian leadership.”

Free Syria Is Terror Group

Echoing the statement of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Gerasimov said there can be no distinction between the Islamic State group and Syrian armed opposition groups including the Free Syrian Army. He said Moscow’s position is that all armed opposition groups in Syria are illegal terror groups. Russia has been a strong ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and had been opposing efforts of the United States and allies to arm anti-Assad groups like Free Syrian Army.

Gerasimov noted that there were “up to 70,000 militants of various nationalities” fighting with Islamic State. The rapid growth of ISIS would not have been possible without the financial and technical assistance provided by the U.S. to fight and topple the Syrian government. The Russian general described the air strikes by Washington and allies in Syria and Iraq as inadequate and ineffective. He also expressed doubts about a hidden agenda behind the recent White House statements, harping on the need for a ground war to crush the ISIS group.

Baby Of West

Meanwhile, “End Times” broadcaster Rick Wiles also aired suspicion that there is a U.S hand behind the rise of ISIS. He said it is hard to believe that the U.S.-led coalition had carried out 1,000 airstrikes against ISIS. In his blog at the Right Wing Watch, he said, “I seriously doubt the theory that ISIS is being attacked because it is the creation of Western intelligence agencies and I will not be surprised to find the Israeli Mossad also having its hands in the creation of ISIS.”

KKK’s ‘white pride’ billboard stirs controversy in Arkansas

Published time: January 02, 2015

No stranger to controversy regarding the Ku Klux Klan, the town of Harrison, Arkansas is making headlines across the United States after a new billboard promoting “white pride” and the KKK’s radio station went up earlier this week.

Placed on Highway 65 near Harrison’s city limits, the new billboard reads, “It’s NOT Racist to [heart] Your People.” It also describes Harrison by saying, “Love Lives Here,” and depicts a young white girl holding a puppy in her arms.

The advertisement – which officially went up on Monday, according to the Harrison Daily Times – goes on to promote a website called WhitePrideRadio.com.

If typed into an internet browser, the link redirects viewers to another page encouraging people to tune into KKK Radio for programs aimed at “the entire family.” Alongside music and old time radio shows, the station’s schedule lists programs titled “Sword of Truth” and “The White Side,” as well as “This is the Klan.”

“A lot of people recognize that there is an ongoing program of genocide against white people,” the website reads. “There are websites, newsletters, videos, and radio shows, but too many talk about family without including the family.”

Describing its own programming, the KKK Radio site states: “These are free of race mixing themes and the exploits of homosexuals – the kind of entertainment that is popular on television today.”

“It has always been our mission to not just promote the white family, but to make them a part of this cause of white Christian revival,” it continues.

As soon as the billboard arrived, it was met with criticism from residents and others around the country. On Facebook, some users commenting on the Daily Times’ story posted intense criticisms of the ad while others said there was nothing particularly wrong about it.

“I don't know what makes me more sick to my stomach: That the sign company keeps allowing this in the name of ‘freedom of speech’ or that these sorry excuses for people keep trying to disguise their twisted views as a message of love,” wrote one user.

Another user stated: “Nothing wrong with being proud of one’s color. Black people can boast black pride, Hispanics can boast their pride, but honestly, when white people boast white pride, everyone screams racism.”

Thomas Robb, the director of the Knights Club of the Ku Klux Klan who confirmed that his group was behind the advertisement, insisted that the billboard is not racist.

“The message is that white people have the right to be proud of who they are. Everybody else has the right to be proud, and I don’t deny that,” he said to local news station KLOR.

Mayor Jeff Crockett, however, said the sign is not a true reflection of the town’s values. He added that the billboard could potentially keep people away from the town and damage its economy.

Notably, this isn’t the first time Harrison has become home to a provocative KKK advertisement. In October 2013, a different billboard featured a sign that read: “Anti-Racist is a Code Word for Anti-White.”

Just below that billboard was another that welcomed visitors to Harrison by pointing out “Beautiful Town. Beautiful People. No Wrong Exits. No Bad Neighborhoods.” Alongside these words was a picture of a white family.

Despite the bad press, Robb said there are no plans to take down the ad before its one-year lease expires. In fact, he told the Daily Times that the group will “probably redo the lease” by the time 2016 rolls around.

Palestinian Authority submits documents to UN to join International Criminal Court

Published time: January 02, 2015

The Palestinian delegation has delivered signed documents to the UN seeking to join the ICC. Its accession process was thus formally launched, which in turn could see the Palestinian Authority seeking war crimes charges to be brought against Israel.

Chief Palestinian observer, Riyad Mansour, has confirmed that the documents had been passed on in statements to reporters at the UN.

"We are honoured that we are to be the 123rd state party to join the ICC, which will become effective about 60 days from now," Mansour said at the UN as quoted by Al Jazeera.

"It is a very significant step which we will be taking. It is a legal option, it is a peaceful option, it is a civilized option and it is an option that anyone who upholds the law should not be afraid of."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed the Rome Statute, the founding treaty to join the International Criminal Court, on Tuesday, a day after the UNSC failed to adopt the Arab coalition’s bid for the creation of a Palestinian state.

The ICC has already recognized Palestine’s “observer” status at the UN General Assembly, and the dispatch of the signed documents marks the final step in the process of consolidating its membership in the court.

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out against the move saying that: “It is the Palestinian Authority – which is in a unity government with Hamas, an avowed terrorist organization that, like ISIS, perpetrates war crimes – that needs to be concerned about the International Criminal Court in the Hague.”

He added they would rebuff the attempt, according to a statement published on the PM's website.

Warning 2015 -16! Soon A Huge Change Will Take Place, And You Will Be Affected

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Dr. A. H. Krieg

Happy New Year to you all! 

I have written 17 books and over 3,000 articles, of those the most poignant to this article are the in 2,000 written “July 4^th 2016 the Last Independence Day” ISBN 0-87319-047-5; the 2006 written, “Money a primer” ISBN 0-9748502-6-8 then 2010 OZ in the New Millennium” ISBN  978-0-9824963-2-9 and finally in 2014 “The System” ISBN 978-1-937553-06-7. I am not telling you this to blow my own horn but to make you understand that I am knowledgeable on monetary issues. 

Expanded from the introduction of “OZ in the New Millennium”.

From the Introduction:

[The Original Wonderful Wizard of OZ was written at the end of the 19^th century and was published in 1900. There had already been two attempts by the bankers to take over America’s monetary system thanks to president Andrew Jackson, the last attempt was derailed in the 1830’s. From the 1830’s forward to 1913 and then in the 1920-21 depression; more exactly termed a “deflationary depression”, America had enjoyed unprecedented prosperity for 83 years. This prosperity was due to the total omission of private banksters economic interference and usury, in the American economy. While most people think of Oz as a children’s book, Frank Baum’s tomb is anything but.] 

[From my book] Oz is the abbreviated symbol for ounce, and what is sold by the ounce? Gold and silver. How are large quantities of god and silver sold? In bricks. So follow the yellow brick road, follow the mammon in biblical terms. Or in modern terms “follow the money”. Who in reality is the straw man? Allegorically speaking, a straw man is a fictitious individual (scarecrow) or in judicial terms a corporation, which takes the place of an individual person in law. (to hold harmless the individual) The straw man in fact is government. What did the straw man want from the Wizard? Brains! Why? Because no government agency has brains; legally it is a fictional entity that has no brains no life no soul, and no heart. What did the straw man get in place of brains from the Wizard? He was given a certificate (Social Security #) for his newly created persona. The Straw Man was proud of his newly acquired status, becoming the personification of brainless without common sense government: OZ then gave him a diploma and he was enthralled.

    Then there was the Tin Man. What do the letters TN mean? Taxpayers Identification Number. The miserable taxpayer—Oh, I meant Tin Man—simply labored until his joints froze. Today taxpayers are worked to death, with many holding two or more jobs and paying half of their earned income in taxes, fees, licenses, tolls and permits. (Roman slaves did better) The average government bureaucrat currently earns about $72,400 per year while the private sector workers has to make do with $36,000. (The income level in the private sector has in real spendable income been falling since the late 1950’s) Taxpayers are the collective, the Tin Man who lacks both heart and soul, as he is but the chattel of state, kept in intellectual isolation by an uncompromising media, football, pro-wrestling, beer, TV, and video games is the oil that is designed to lubricate him. All the Tin Man wanted was a heart; needles to say none was available, he got a testimonial. 

That brings us to the cowardly lion. He was a bully against anyone smaller, but as with all bullies, he was a cowardly at heart. He represents the Judicial and Police authority of the state. What did he want? He desired courage and wisdom. The Wizard gave him a medal and thus he attained a false appearance of courage and bravery. Not unlike the shysters (esquires) who now predominate our Legislative and judicial branches of government; who lord it over the citizens, at the pleasure of the banksters that keep the cowards in office. 

And then there’s Dorothy. [in the book she had green slippers changed in the film to ruby red because it hit too close to home, they were green because the dollar is green]; where was Dorothy going? To the Emerald City (emeralds are green) the Emerald City is an acronym for the later created Federal Reserve System, the private banking monopoly wherein the Wizard (governor of the FRS is located).

Then there was the tornado that brought all this to happen. What is the acronym for the tornado?  The planned for in 1910 at Jekyll  Island and enacted in 1913, 16^th amendment and the subsequent Big Daddy Warbucks Federal Reserve Act, allowing banksters to control all of American finance, and bankster created depressions of 1918,  1920,  1923,  1924,  1929, 1937, 1945, 1953, 1957, 1960, 1969, 1973, 1981,   1990, 2001,  2007 to 2015. The entire time, from its formation in 1910 to 1913 and its enactment, the argument of the banksters was that the FRS would bring order out of chaos, an end all those wild market fluctuations. [From 1913 to 2014 they in fact engineered 16 depressions for fun and profit.]

And poor Dorothy, all she ever wanted was to go home to Kansas (the Heartland or fruited plain) for peace and freedom from oppressive government.

The Witch wanted the Green (film red) slippers, because they represented money as unobstructed by government, [and the ability to go to the emerald city and rake in the cash.]

And OZ the Wizard, all he ever wanted was the Witches broom so he could ride away from it all. 

Did you notice in the film they went through the field of Poppies (heroin) and they were not affected by it, no heart, no brains no feelings. Think about the boxer rebellion in China, or more recently the Taliban in Afghanistan (deposed by the West because they had shut down heroin production…) Afghanistan is once again the world’s leading producer of heroin. 

That bring us to the emerald City—no Donnie not the one you live in —the Federal Reserve System. (This private corporation (FRS) incorporated in the State of NY Sept 23, 1913, is not federal has no reserves, and is not a system but is a corporation) They are the indirect producers of the fiat dollar (that I have called funny money for decades) They alone drive the political class to spend more money and borrow from them, (only book entry’s) then charge the taxpayers interest (for book entries) to the point where with the present national debt of over $ 18 trillion, (at 0.25% interest) the banksters collect over 1/3^rdof all collected federal taxes. If the interest rate climbs to over 3% it will consume the entire collected tax-base. The Wizard is no more real than the dollar, both are figments of imagination. No independent auditors have  audited the FRS or Treasury in 64 years. 

The Wizard is exposed, but by whom? The little dog Toto, whose name in Latin means total. What did the wicked Witch want after Toto bit her? Everything! The Witch represents the Illuminati the parasite always hidden from obvious exposure (the Bonesmen Bankers) whose actions are implemented by the Wizard (FRS) and that phony Republocrat system from behind the curtain. 

Now that you have an idea where I’m coming from, lets quickly look at the upcoming presidential race for 2016. The fractured DNC after the Obama debacle has come upon what they think will be a winning strategy. They will run a progressive woman for the 2016 election. There are two likely candidates as of Dec. 2014, Progressive Fabian socialist Elisabeth Warren (inheritor of the entire Obama machine) a hardline progressive (socialist) and Hillary Clinton an in the closet serious communist. The DNC has gone so far left, through control of the party by 70+ legislative progressives (socialists) that no Democrat of the 60’s would even recognize the party, which like the Republicans is experiencing a full scale civil war. The Republicans have no plan, they never do. The RINO candidate most likely will be Jeb Bush, opposed by Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio, who will unsuccessfully challenge him from the conservative right. (the left has all the money.) Logical others are Scott Walker, and Bobby Jindal both certainly better than Bush. Based on statistical numbers the Democrats have it right, they would probably come out on top. 

This now brings us to the crux of this article, Money! The FRS has painted itself into a corner, they have reduced the prime interest rates to 0.25 % they can not go lower, collected taxes from all of America cannot sustain an interest rate above 2.5% because the interest on the outstanding debt of over $ 18 trillion will be higher than collected taxes. (the $5 + trillion in “Quantetive Easing” is not even listed in the national debt clock figure and neither is the over $100 trillion in off book entries.)  We have the highest corporate tax rate in the world so increasing taxes on corporations is out; in the last six years Obama has added over 350+ new or increased taxes on individuals, the average American taxpayer now spends more on taxes than housing, food and fuel combined. Roman slaves were allowed to keep half of what they produced the average American is now at that place. The debt accumulated by Obama and his Bankster buddies is not only unsustainable it can never be paid back, it is in fact fictional because it is not based on any substantive value basis. The entire American economy produces only $ 14.7 trillion per year. 

What will they do? Historically banksters have an incredible survival instinct. There is no one they will not stick it to, they will start wars and finance both sides, they will cheat, steal, anything, of course with the approval of the political class whose re-elections they finance and this to an 87% success rate, providing at least 75% of the money needed by incumbents for re-election.  In the past the FRS, acting though their puppet the president, have eliminated gold and silver as legal tender. (May 1, 1933 FDR forced all Americans to turn in their gold based on the value the government gave them—Gold at $20.67—then the government let gold float and it went up to $33.85 by 1940 in just 7 years, and by 1975 it was almost $200 per oz.) in other words the government  did very well and the people got screwed. Then to get out of the “great Depression” FDR created a circumstance with Japan that forced their attack on Pearl Harbor, an attack that FDR had been well apprised of two weeks before it took place. It was only through WWII that America came out of the Great Depression. Let that sink in! The Ziocons are beating the drums of war and have been for over 10 years. War against Iraq, Iran, Serbia, Libya, Syria, and all supported by the Zionists and banksters (I am being redundant?) 

I think that two issues are close to happening. (#1) I think we will be at war with Iran within the coming 26 months. (#2) I think we will go to a cashless society. 

In regards to (1), Hillary Clinton in 2010 wrote a paper in which she proposed her disastrous Middle East policies she called “The Arab Spring” based on that policy America lost its great friend Mubarak in Egypt, which fell to the Muslim Brotherhood, we lost Gadhafi (Libya) who had been working with the CIA against al Qaida our mutual enemy, replacing Gadhafi with al Qaida. In Syria the Alawite Assad government had protected the over one million Syrian Christians, (now all refugees) and kept secular peace in Syria for over 50 years. Hillary’s Arab Spring with the aid of the IDF and Mossad managed a civil war and the development of the Caliphate (ISIL or ISIS), which is our most sever adversary and now controls half of Syria and 3/4^th of Iraq. In the mean time, the war mongers mostly Zionists and right wing Republicans repeat the same lie about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, every 90 days for 8 years we have been told that Iran will have a nuclear weapon in three months. That’s at least 26 times. 

On (2) the situation is not all that complicated. The FRS has been monitoring the dollar since the W. Bush administration. Between bank bailouts (and lets all be honest that is all they were), Obama’s shovel ready jobs (just another lie) and “Quantitative Easing”, they have pumped over $7 trillion of funny money into the dollar base. In fact they wont even tell us how many dollars are in circulation. The dollar value (issued fiat money) is eroding at about 10.7% per year. You can bet that every banker and government in the world is apprised of that!  They know that they cannot repay the national debt never mind the additional $ 7 trillion not reported. In March 2012 they began buying their own debt at a rate of $ 85 billion per month, because they were unable to sell and T-Bills or T-Notes, never mind Savings Bonds. By March 2013 they were up to $ 1.02 trillion, in summer 2013 they reduced that to $55 billion per month or an additional $700 billion by the end of 2014. Government (the corporate state) is producing electronic money 160 times faster that ever before. (That’s real inflation!)

The gold depositories at Fort Knox and in the NYC Fed are basically empty. We can be sure of that on two grounds, A) the aggressive opposition of the FRS to an audit, and B) The widely reported inability to repay European gold held by the FED to Holland, Belgium, France Germany and Switzerland. Again they are in a corner. How will they work their way out? 

First we will go cashless. Any authoritarian state will peruse this with a vengeance. The elimination of cash will give government the NSA, (building for this purpose the Bluffdale Utah intelligence storage facility largest group of buildings in the world) absolute control over all Americans, they are listening to your telephone, e-mails, what you do, what you write, who your friends are, what magazines you subscribe to, what you do on the Internet, and now with a cashless society there will be nothing that you can hide From Big Brother. Don’t think it not happening. I flew with a minor airline last month, the airline would not take cash, the airport parking lot would not take cash, its already in the works. NSA is now the largest and most covert and abusive intelligence agency of world history and they work hand in glove with the banksters  and politicians. 

How will this all work? Soon john Q public will see the easy path accorded by plastic. The government (FRS) will burst out money supply and increase government spending, all based on funny money. The concept is Fabian economics providing for spending by the people, through forced economic growth, and while doing so, increase government control of everything. They anticipate that all this will force economic growth, but its all a myth, where is the value?  The Republocrat “Free Trade” initiatives have decimated American manufacturing to the point where little is left. When a nation is forced to purchase their commodities from overseas they become the colony of the supplier nations. We will be forced into an ever greater and expanding self-indulgent society. Usury has been made a public conveyance for the benefit of the operators of the “System.” As Helicopter Ben Bernanke said “We simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account!” Or better yet Harvey Hahn, “The Fed doesn’t really have the money, (I.E> there are no hard assets backing anything) the Fed just makes it up!” 

The American economy is a fairy tale and we will not see any change, remember they said when unemployment fell to under 6% they would increase interest rates. (can’t in fact be done, not enough taxes are collected to do it) So, which of their statistics for unemployment will they use?  The present system in U-3 at just about 6%, but before that in the early W. Bush admin. They used the U-6 statistic which is about 14%, then there’s ShadowStats ® the actual unemployment number with is 23%. Oh, it’s so easy to fool the people, remember Jonathan Gruber on Obamacare? 

    The fed has pumped so much electronic money into the economy that it has created a huge bubble. This bubble is about to explode. Those holding debt instruments will be badly hurt and that includes government paper. 

But aside all that, if you have been paying attention, you are well aware of the BRICS. They are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, not exactly lightweights; are on a push against the dollar as world reserve currency, that’s just another bubble about to break. (So far beside the BRICS, Venezuela, and Iran are also trading outside the dollar.) Remember the wars against Iraq, Libya, and now the aggression against Iran, none of it had anything to do with weapons of mass destruction or nuclear issues,  it deals with those nations refusal to sell oil for dollars.  Petrodollars are one of the major dollar trade issues. 

I only wish I had some good news, not much. Silver was a good investment until the big banks got in on the silver market. Just until recently J. P. Morgan Chase held silver short positions larger that the entire annual silver mining production, this depressed the market, they have now reversed and are long on silver, but that wont last. Gold was good until the big banks got into the fray with UBS already fined and over a dozen banks in regulators’ sights. When we go cashless the government and merchants will need a huge electronic network to handle the enormous traffic, investing in companies that do that might be a good bet. Water is in short supply in many places, there is a new technology Lockheed Martin has a new patent for a filter that can desalinate and purify water called Perforene Membrane it is many times faster and cheaper than what is now used, they have already cut contracts with India and Pakistan for multi-million dollar deals. It will be huge in the coming decade. Cyber security will become a major factor as we become cashless. Large players in cyber security especially ones that can effectively protect corporate retailers will be big winners. Statistical abstracts indicate that 97% of all organizations have seen their systems partially compromised, 25% of all corporations have seen cyber attacks on their systems, three quarters have had active control and command communications breached, even after the attack was exposed the majority saw continued breaches. There is always one constant, people need food and water, the largest player in food in the world in Nestles ® unless people stop eating it’s a good bet. Above all you must be diversified, not only in products but also in locations, your investment must be international. 

I wish all a very Happy New Year. All the best!

Adrian 

Freedom Rider: Cuba in the American Imagination

By Margaret Kimberley

Global Research, December 31, 2014

Black Agenda Report

“There are no benevolent motives behind the Obama administration’s actions.”

On December 17, 2014, the Obama administration announced changes in relations with Cuba which broke with over fifty years of foreign policy decisions. The United States will open an embassy in Havana for the first time since 1961. All of the Cuban Five [5] political prisoners are now free. While Congress must approve a complete end of the trade embargo, some trade restrictions have already been loosened.

Of course, Yankee imperialism gave with one hand, and took with the other. The day after the Cuba announcement, president Obama signed legislation imposing sanctions against the Venezuelan [6] government. Instead of asking why the United States would help Cuba but punish its biggest benefactor, Americans are celebrating what they hope is a return to Cuba’s status as a de facto American colony.

Anyone who depended on the inane exultations from the corporate media and so-called leftists would think that Cuba ceased to exist from January 1, 1959 until now. They speak as if it has remained in a state of suspended animation, not waking up until the United States woke it with a kiss, as if in a fairy tale. While Americans think that Cubans exist as relics like cars from the 1950s, that nation has succeeded in achieving a number of accomplishments which Americans refuse to acknowledge. Of course that is easy to do if revolutionary Cuba isn’t thought of as a real nation, which is as much as the average American mind can fathom.

“The day after the Cuba announcement, president Obama signed legislation imposing sanctions against the Venezuelan government.”

Cuban soldiers hastened the end of South Africa’s apartheid system. The victory at Cuito Cuanavale [7] in Angola proved that the South African army was not invincible. While the United States sent troops to build only one paltry hospital during the most recent Ebola epidemic [8], Cuba sent over 400 doctors to treat patients in the affected areas. Cubans have an excellent health care system which compares quite well to the private and astronomically expensive system in the United States.

Cuba is a nation with its own interests and a history of fighting first against Spanish colonialism and then United States control. Yet in the popular mind Cuba is still a mafia outpost from the 1950s where Americans went to soak up sun and sin. The corporate media helps with ludicrous wishful thinking about expropriated property [9] being returned fifty years after the fact.

Even supposedly serious thinkers succumbed and revealed more about their own fantasies [10] than any insight about Cuba. Liberal pundit David Corn could only think of his stereotypes in a startling missive posted on twitter. “Cuba’s a swell place to visit. Beaches, rum, baseball, music. It’ll be great for more USers to visit-& that could counter repression there.” If there were a prize awarded for truly stupid twitter posts, Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin should win with these words, “Obama spoke with Raul Castro yesterday. The ice is melting. Mojitos for all!”

It is difficult to know where to begin in analyzing such nonsense. It isn’t clear what Corn means by repression, but surely the presence of Americans having fun has never made people safe anywhere in the world. As for Benjamin, anyone whose response to a foreign policy decision includes references to a cocktail should be ignored now and forever.

“Cuba’s history and its politics mean nothing to the right or to liberals who may espouse somewhat higher motives.”

The foolishly excited liberals are outdone by people who revel in vulgarity but who expose a lot by doing so. Blogger Matt Forney opined [11], “What Russia was to Generation X, Cuba will be for the Millennials: a land where the white man is God.”

That is the crux of the matter. Cuba’s history and its politics mean nothing to the right or to liberals who may espouse somewhat higher motives. Cuba is a dream for white people who want a place where they can be well, white. They can fantasize about having a good time while their government controls a largely brown skinned and subservient group.

The lovers of empire may have celebrated too soon however. While even a partial end to the embargo will benefit Cubans, their government made it clear they will not return to subservience. President Raul Castro stated in no uncertain terms that Cuba will remain socialist and will not extradite Assata Shakur or anyone else granted asylum by the government.

Obama said himself, “The whole point of normalizing relations is that it gives us a greater opportunity to have influence with that government.” None of the cognoscenti dared ask what those words meant. Imperialism is on the march as never before. United States and Saudi Arabian machinations have succeeded in lowering oil prices and crippling Russia, Venezuela and Iran. Sanctions and market manipulations can succeed where sending troops cannot.

No one can argue against the end of a 16 year-long ordeal for the Cuban Five, but there are no benevolent motives behind the Obama administration’s actions. The United States did not suddenly give up its plan for unipolar domination. Indeed we must assume that these latest moves are part of the larger plan to bring every nation to heel.

Cuba is a nation which has suffered and struggled to be free from domination. It doesn’t matter if it is a psychological after thought for Americans. They may try to pretend that the last fifty years never happened but there is no turning back. People in the United States may have selective amnesia, but surely Cubans do not.

Margaret Kimberley‘s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com [12]. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.

Notes:

[1] http://www.blackagendareport.com/category/americas/cuba
[2] http://www.blackagendareport.com/category/americas/venezuela
[3] http://www.blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/democrats
[4] http://www.blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/obamarama
[5] http://www.freethefive.org/
[6] http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11093
[7] http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/march-23-anniversary-beginning-apartheids-end-battle-cuito-cuanavale
[8] http://www.blackagendareport.com/node/14470
[9] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/world/cuba-seizures-now-present-opportunities.html?action=click&contentCollection=Americas&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article
[10] https://cienflamingos.wordpress.com/2014/12/17/diplomacy-is-shit-the-president-is-evil-the-left-is-trash/
[11] https://twitter.com/Mobute/status/545732150474321920/photo/1
[12] http://freedomrider.blogspot.com
[13] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackagendareport.com%2Fnode%2F14589&linkname=Freedom%20Rider%3A%