Ponzi Crackdown? Chilling Economic Report Is Getting Passed Around By CEOs

Business Insider
Dec 27, 2012

Over an early-morning coffee with the chief executive of an FTSE 100 business last week, talk turned to the outlook for 2013. Where I had expected some guarded optimism, instead I heard a chilling analysis.

The CEO said he had been reading a new paper from Boston Consulting Group headed “ Ending the era of Ponzi finance ”. The lessons he had taken from it were miserable.

The West was not going to find its way to the right economic path with a little tweaking at the edges, the CEO said. What is needed is a wholesale overhaul of the economic system to tackle record levels of public and private debt. Was anyone brave enough to do it, he wondered aloud.

I asked him to send me the report. He did.

The BCG study by Daniel Stelter which is doing the rounds of corporate C-suites does not pull its punches. In fact, its punches are really just a softening-up exercise for a barrage of kicks and painful blows aimed at anyone who thinks that kicking the can down the road is a suitable substitute for radical action.

At the heart of the analysis is the issue of debt. A report by the Bank of International Settlements, the study notes, found that the combined debts of the public and private sector in the 18 core members of the OECD rose from 160pc of GDP in 1980 to 321pc in 2010.

That debt was not used to fund growth – perfectly reasonable – but was used for consumption, speculation and, increasingly, to pay interest on the previous debt as liabilities were rolled over.

As soon as asset price rises – fuelled by high levels of leverage – levelled off, the model imploded.

The issue is brought into sharp focus by one salient fact. In the 1960s, for every additional dollar of debt taken on in America there was 59c of new GDP produced. By 2000-10, this figure had fallen to 18c. Even in America, that’s about a fifth of what you’ll need to buy a McDonald’s burger.

Coupled with the huge debt burden are oversized public sectors and shrinking workforces. The larger the part the Government plays in the economy, the lower the levels of growth.

A report by Andreas Bergh and Magnus Henrekson in 2011 – cited by BCG – found that for every increase of 10pc in the size of the state, there is a reduction in GDP of between 0.5pc and 1pc. Across Europe, the average level of government spending is 40pc of GDP or higher, and is as much as 60pc in Denmark and France. In emerging markets, it is between 20pc and 40pc. This gives non-Western economies an automatic growth advantage.

This material should be gripping politicians in Westminster, not just CEOs in central London. The size of the workforce is falling across the developed world, with the United Nations estimating that between 2012 and 2050 the working-age population in Western Europe will fall by 13pc. This comes at a time when we have a pension system not much changed since the era of the man who invented it – Otto von Bismarck.

What does the West need to do to right such fundamental imbalances?

Mr Stelter and his colleagues do offer some solutions. First, there has to be an acknowledgement that some debts will never be repaid and should be restructured. Holders of the debt, be they countries or companies, should be allowed to default, whatever the short-term pain of such a process.

In social policy, retirement ages will have to increase. People will have to work harder, for longer and should be encouraged to do so by changes in benefit levels that do little – at their present level – to reward work at the margin.

The size of the state should be radically reduced and immigration encouraged. Competition in labour markets through supply-side reforms should be pursued…

Read more

 

Sparkling Shame: Money Spent On Christmas Decor Could End US Homelessness

The spirit of Christmas isn’t just a good feeling, it’s a multi-billion dollar industry. Lights, tinsel, decorations all make for a pretty sight, but sometimes, they obscure those less fortunate.

BREAKING: Russia ‘Printing Money for Syria’ Claims Latest Report

By Alex Spillius

Russia is printing bank notes and sending them by the plane load to Syria to help the besieged regime pay its soldiers and civil servants, a new report suggests.

Flight records obtained by the investigative website ProPublica showed that at least 120 and up to 240 tons of bank notes were delivered during a ten-week period between July and September.

On eight round-trip trips between Moscow’s Vnukovo airport and Damascus International Airport, the “Type of Cargo” is listed as “Bank – Notes (30 Ton)”. Neither their denomination nor value was specified however.

Seven of the eight Syria Air flights were confirmed through international plane-tracking services, photographs from amateur plane-spotters and official air traffic control records.

Each manifest detailed a circuitous route over Iran and Iraq, countries that are friendly to the Syrian regime, rather than the most direct route over Turkey, which has become a foe of President Bashar al-Assad.

The deliveries appear to have softened the damage caused to the Syrian regime by stiff European sanctions, which among other things annulled an agreement with an Austrian bank that had previously printed the Syrian pound.

The EU has passed 19 rounds of sanctions against the regime since pro-democracy protests in March 2011 descended into a civil war that has claimed an estimated 40,000 lives.

Russia has been Mr Assad’s key international ally throughout, blocking punitive resolutions in the UN Security Council on three occasions.

In the summer, it was reported that Russia had begun printing Syrian pounds and had already delivered its first shipment, while Damascus-based bankers said that new bank notes printed in Russia were circulating in trial amounts in the capital and Aleppo, the commercial capital.

Such reports were denied by the Syrian Central Bank, but in August the official Syrian news agency, Sana, quoted Syrian officials on a visit to Moscow as saying that Russia was printing money for Damascus.

Ibrahim Saif of the Carnegie Middle East Centre said that 30 tons of bank notes was a significant amount for a country of Syria’s size.

“I truly believe they are printing money because they need new notes. Most of the government revenue that comes from taxes, in terms of other services, it’s almost now dried up.

But, he added, “they continue to pay salaries”.

“They have not shown any signs of weakness in fulfilling their domestic obligations. The only way they can do this is to get some sort of cash in the market.”

Source: Telegraph

‘BANKING WITH DAVE’ COULD BE THE KEY TO UK FINANCIAL REFORM

What’s the deal with the ‘Bank of Dave’?

For starters, he’s still one of us…

The Money Changers: Rothschild Banking Dynasty Said To Be Worth $100 Trillion

Left Hook: ‘When The Rothschilds Dial 911’

By Dean Henderson

Since America’s inception…

… there has been a lingering notion that European Illuminati bankers seek to bring America to its knees and return it to the fold of the Crown of England, which centuries ago became the key political vassal for the Eight Families who own majority stock in every private central bank in the world- Rothschild, Rockefeller, Kuhn Loeb, Lehman, Goldman Sachs, Warburg, Lazard and Israel Moses Seif.

Many US Presidents warned of the intrigues of the cabal, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Quincy Adams; and later Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.  The latter two were assassinated for trying to nationalize the Federal Reserve via the issuance of Treasury Department-backed (publicly-issued) currency.  As cited in my Big Oil & Their Bankers… book and by others, the Eight Families own 52% of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, far and away the most powerful Fed Bank.  Their ownership is disguised under names like JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Do I exaggerate when I claim that there are Eight Families?  Well, yes, actually these oligarchs have interbred to the point that they are now, for all practical purposes, one big family, with the Rothschilds being the most powerful.  Their net worth alone is estimated at well over $100 trillion.

These people, whose latest justification for lording over us is that they are descended from Jesus Christ himself, are, for obvious reasons, counter-revolutionary.  In their collective if obtuse minds, there are no good revolutions.  Democracy is antithema.  Government is something that only gets in the way.  It must be discredited and bought.  The American Revolution really pissed these inbreds off.  In Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the Crown of England still holds sway via the Governor General.  Most European countries retained their monarchies.  In America, we had a revolution, democracy and government.

A medieval rollback of the American Revolution begins with the concept that “government is the root of all evil”.  This strain of thinking is promoted by the Saudi/Israeli-owned Fox News.  These nations are not “Islamic” and “Jewish”.  They are fronts for the Crown of England and the Rothschilds.  The well-paid corporate lackey leadership of the Republican Party pushes this anti-government agenda, while the idiocracy misnomer known as the Tea Party takes this monarchist argument to its fascist extreme.

Deutsche Bank: born of of the Third Reich, now influencing the European Super State plan

Key to this revolutionary rollback is that seminal event- 911- which was used by Windsor family country cousin George Bush Jr. to dismantle our Bill of Rights, bankrupt our nation and destroy our image throughout the world via two oil-grab, narco-stimulant, contractor-friendly wars.  In the weeks before 911 the financial weekly Barons reported that Deutsche Bank had purchased huge put options (betting that a stock will go down in price) on American & United Airlines, and WTC reinsurance giants Munich RE, Swiss RE and the French Axa.

Deutsche Bank, historically owned by the Nazi-funding Warburg family, bought Bankers Trust in 1999 to become the world’s largest bank with $882 billion in assets.  Bankers Trust, as its name indicates, had been the Eight Families’ US wealth repository and is the largest shareholder of the Four Horsemen- Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, BP Amoco and Royal Dutch/Shell- who later reaped the Iraq/Afghanistan oil bonanza.

In 2001 Sen. Carl Levin’s (D-MI) Banking Committee fingered Banker’s Trust as a major player in drug money laundering.  On August 28th, just two weeks before 911, Deutsche Bank executive Kevin Ingram pled guilty to laundering heroin proceeds and arranging US weapons sales to parties in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  A June 15, 2001 New York Post article said Osama bin Laden was the likely buyer.  Kevin Ingram is a close friend of Clinton Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sachs insider Robert Rubin, now a board member at Citigroup.  Ingram had worked at both Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.

Alvin Bernard “Buzzy” Krongard: Israel’s agent in the C.I.A.

Banker’s Trust purchased the fast-growing Alex Brown investment bank in 1997 before the two merged into Deutsche Bank.  Alex Brown took its name from founder A. B. “Buzzy” Krongard who served as chairman until the 1997 Bankers Trust buyout.  Krongard is now the #3 man at CIA.  On September 15th, four days after 911, the New York Times reported that Deutsche Bank Global Private Banking Chairman Mayo Shattuck III had suddenly resigned.

Mohammed Atta and two of other alleged hijackers had accounts at the Deutsche Bank Hamburg headquarters.  There were reports that bin Laden’s family had taken a large stake in Deutsche Bank with help from Carlyle Group financial advisor George Bush Sr.  The bin Laden’s had $2 million invested in Carlyle Group.  They held big stakes in Microsoft and Boeing, and had extensive business dealings with Citigroup, GE, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Fremont Group (recently spun-off by Bechtel). Within twenty days of 911, Deutsche Bank had hired away (effectively silencing) SEC lead investigator Richard Walker, whose main task would have been to delve into the mysterious shorting of airline and insurance stocks prior to 911.

The final phase of counter-revolution can be accomplished through the withdrawal of Eight Families’ funding of America’s $11 trillion debt, which has mostly accrued due to the US military’s role as mercenary praetorian guard of the Illuminati global empire, coupled with a devastating US military defeat in Afghanistan.

Grand Master of Scottish Rite Freemasonry and NWO  visionary Albert Pike

On August 15, 1871 Sovereign Grand Commander of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry General Albert Pike, who later founded the Ku Klux Klan and prosecuted the Indian Wars, wrote a letter to Italian P-1 33rd Degree Grand Commander and Mafia founder Guiseppe Mazzini.  In the letter Pike talked of a Brotherhood plan for three World Wars.  The first, he said, would destroy czarist Russia and create a Communist “bogeyman” which the bankers could employ to justify their foreign interventions around the world.  The second, Pike said, would be used to create Israel, which would become a mercenary force for the international bankers, protecting Middle Eastern oil interests for Rothschild and Rockefeller combines.

The Third World War, stated Pike’s letter, would pit Arabs against Zionists, and would culminate in a New World Order completely controlled by the international bankers and their secret societies.  Pike described the events that would unfold as pretext for WWIII, “We must provoke a social cataclysm which in all its horror…everywhere the citizens obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries…will receive the true light through the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out into public view.

In June 2001, a female Russian doctor stated in a Pravda column that the US would be subject to a massive terrorist attack in late August 2001.  She was then asked what she believed was coming next.  She suggested selling dollars and buying Russian rubles, saying that the secret group behind 911 was the most powerful force in the world, worth over $300 trillion.  She said this group would soon “strike America in the back” while it was down and that the next shoe to drop would be the decimation of the US economy.  This “secret group” could only be the Illuminati Rothschild-led Eight Families.

Cecil Rhodes: Architect of the globalist ‘Round Table’ steering group.

Cecil Rhodes, the Rothschild protégé who founded the Business Roundtable in the early 20th century wrote his last will and testament in 1877.  Rhodes’ vision was implemented through the establishment of the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London.  Rhodes founded the Standard Chartered Bank, whose UAE Dubai branch supplied the 911 hijackers with the funds needed to carry out the attack.

Rhodes last will and testament said he hoped, “to establish a trust, to and for the establishment and promotion and development of a secret society, the true aim and object whereof shall be the extension of British rule throughout the world…and the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire.”

Dialing all American Revolutionaries!

Dean Henderson is the author of four books: Big Oil & Their Bankers in the Persian Gulf: Four Horsemen, Eight Families & Their Global Intelligence, Narcotics & Terror Network, The Grateful Unrich: Revolution in 50 Countries, Das Kartell der Federal Reserve & Stickin’ it to the Matrix.  Subscribe free to his weekly column Left Hook

$43 Trillion Bankster Lawsuit – and the mystery of two NY toddlers murdered

If you haven’t yet seen this story, it’s worth checking out now…

Last week, a horrific scene was discovered in a Manhattan apartment as the mother of two toddlers found her children dead in a bathtub and the nanny who was supposed to be caring for them began stabbing herself.

Marina Krim, wife of Kevin Krim senior vice president and general manager of digital media at CNBC, had entrusted the care of her two small children to Yoselyn Ortega, a newly naturalized US citizen from the Dominican Republic. Ortega had worked for the Krim family for just 2 years before this violent incident.

Although the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has not been able to interview Ortega because she apparently slashed her own throat and slit her wrists, she remains the main suspect in the slaying of the Krim’s 2 year old son and 6 year old daughter.

Just prior to the murders, Ortega had begun seeing a psychologist. After investigations into Ortega’s background, there were no criminal records and no history of psychiatric issues. Yet those closest to Ortega told the NYPD that she had suddenly lost a considerable amount of weight and was showing visible signs of stress.

According to Paul Browne, spokesman for the NYPD explains that: “Apparently over the last month she was not herself. There were financial concerns. She was seeking professional help and people noticed she wasn’t herself.” Other reports about Ortega’s mental state in the weeks prior to the murders reveal that she felt as though she were losing her mind. Ortega also had some financial difficulties which forced her out of her apartment with her son in the Bronx, and led to her moving in with her sister in Harlem. Yet despite these reports, Ortega never showed signs of personal problems with the Krim family.

Raymond Kelly, NYPD police commissioner, confirmed that Ortega was in a medically induced coma at the Weil Medical Center, which rendered her unable to speak with police. The NYPD are baffled as to why this beloved nanny would brutally murder her two charges.

Charlotte Friedman, a neighbor who lived in the same building remarked that Ortega “looked normal” just prior to the murders. “She had a poker face. There was no indication that something like this was going to happen.” Freidman went on to say that Ortega “She wasn’t warm. Usually when you smile at a nanny and the kids, the nanny smiles back. It’s instinctive. But she had a poker face. I didn’t get the sense she was evil, just cold.”

Earlier this month, Scott Cohn, correspondent for CNBC, reports on a lawsuit filed by Eric Schneiderman, one of 10 New York State Attorney General citing JPMorgan Chase as profiteering from the mortgage-back securities which led to the stock market crash of 2008. Since Schneiderman filed the suit, eleven US prosecutors and 3 attorneys with the Civil Division of the Justice Department have assisted in the cases’ development for the purposes of using the lawsuit for future reference against other Wall Street financial firms.

In January of this year, Krim was employed by JPMorgan Chase as a strategy consultant for only 3 months. This happened just prior to his employment with CNBC.

According to court documents regarding the lawsuit, the purpose for seeking legal remedy is:

1. The deceptive coercive methods employed by mega-banks to facilitate injured parties’ participation in loans and mortgages
2. The fraudulent and illegal use of MERS
3. Breach of plaintiff’s statutory rights
4. Purposeful violation of consumer and homeowner protect statues
5. Processing money from unknown sources in contravention of the Patriot Act of 2001
6. Foreclosing upon and accepting monies for assets that do not exist

The lawsuit states that there was a “a systemic fraud on thousands of investors” concerning the mortgage-backed securities first purvey by Bear Stearns, who was later acquired by JPMorgan Chase as part of the US governmental bailout of the banks after the 2008 crash. These securities were sold, according to the lawsuit, willfully and with intent by the seller to defraud and deceive investors. Because the securities were a combination of home mortgages, credit card debt and student loans which were bundled together and sold on the global markets after given a fake triple A rating.

Some of the mega-banks named in the lawsuit are:

• JPMorgan Chase
• Wells Fargo
• Wachovia
• Citigroup
• US Bancorp
• Ally Financial
• GM Acceptance Corporation
• One West (owned by George Soros)
• HSBC
• Deutsche Bank
• PNC Bank
• Bank of America
• Bear Stearns

Many foreign and overseas banks were named in the suit in conjunction with the mega-banks – pointing to the fact that financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, and others were using offshore banks to hide their monies acquired by the mortgage-backed securities scam. In essence, these financial institutions took monies from mortgage-holders, funneled it to offshore bank accounts and then after securitizing the loans, took the actual property from the individuals.

The complaint states that the Ponzi scheme concocted by the banksters was “the largest scheme in US history where domestic banking institutions – on an international basis” conspired together with the common purpose of engaging in a “worldwide scheme to steal, rob and convert the personal property, money and proceeds of such assets of each Plaintiff herein” with the obvious purpose of a conspiratorial “decade-long systematic conversion . . . that damaged millions of borrowers across the US.”

This massive money laundering scheme was fostered by the Obama administration who gave the biggest bailout to the technocrats in the US. Indeed, Bank of America is instrumental in prospects that involved foreign countries in the largest global Ponzi scheme with the intention to steal and covert billions of dollars from millions of homeowners across America.

This lawsuit and the tragic death of two children are connected. The truth of this lawsuit would bring down the greatest financial hoax of this century. The technocrats are willing to murder two innocent babies of a man who published the lawsuit on CNBC, because keeping the truth hidden is worth more to them than the lives of anyone possibly connected to the truth.

Pay attention to the developments of this lawsuit. This may be our diamond in the rough.

Source: Occupy Corporatism

U.S. to pull the plug on USAID operations in Russia

September 20, 2012
Kommersant

The scandal over the agency’s work has become the most serious conflict in U.S.-Russia relations since Vladimir Putin’s inauguration.

The United States announced on Sept. 18 that its Agency for International Development (USAID) would wrap up its operations in Russia. USAID is the largest sponsor of Russian NGOs, providing more than $100 million in funding annually.

Washington has blamed the Russian government for the move, although the Kremlin has made no specific decision on ousting USAID, according to Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He later said that Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that USAID was trying to influence the country’s politics to a certain extent.

Department of State spokeswoman Victoria Nuland made the announcement about USAID winding down its operations in Russia.

“We have recently learned of the decision of the Russian Government to end USAID activities in the country. The United States is extremely proud of what USAID has accomplished in Russia over the last 20 years, and we will work with our partners and staff to responsibly end or transition those programs,” Nuland said.

According to Nuland, Russian authorities forced the United States to shut down USAID work in Russia; the Kremlin has denied this.

“Like all foreign agencies that finance Russian NGOs, USAID has to comply with Russian legal norms. It stands to reason that, as long as the Americans comply with these regulations, we cannot make any decision to end their activities in our territory,” Peskov said.

On issues of democracy and human rights in Russia, this USAID walkout has caused the biggest rift between Moscow and the West in the past five years.

The last time a government entity of a comparable level left Russia was in 2007 — the British Council shut its doors in the country, after Russian authorities accused it of evading taxes and breaching Russian law.

About USAID

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was established on November 3, 1961, under John F. Kennedy’s administration. A federal agency, it operates subject to the guidance of and in coordination with the U.S. Department of State. USAID has 87 missions worldwide. Two-thirds of its 8,500 employees work in overseas offices. The agency has been present in Russia since 1992.

Deputies from Russia’s ruling party United Russia and pro-Kremlin youth movement activists have repeatedly criticized USAID activities in Russia.

Attacks on the agency intensified after last December’s State Duma elections and the subsequent opposition rallies. USAID has been accused of distributing grants to many human rights organizations, as well as to the Golos election-monitoring group.

According to the American government websiteforeignassistance.gov, USAID and the State Department have spent $861.8 million on projects in Russia since 2006. In 2011, the agency spent $127.6 million in Russia, including $70 million on “promoting democracy and human rights.” Overall, however, Russia is a peripheral area for USAID. In 2012,  for instance, the country will still rank only 40th in terms of allocated funding.

In July 2012, the Russian State Duma passed a new law on foreign-agent NGOs, largely to restrict the activities of entities in the country that existed on USAID grants. Under the law, NGOs receiving “money or property from foreign states, international or foreign organizations, foreign citizens or stateless persons” while engaging in “political activity” are to be given the status of a foreign agent.

The law requires that “foreign agents” apply to the Ministry of Justice to be placed on a special NGO register. Organizations in this category must also note their foreign agent status in every media or web-based publication they produce. A refusal to supply this information is subject to up to 1 million rubles ($32,000) in fines, while NGO managers responsible for repeated violations are liable to face up to three years in prison.

Sources close to the U.S. Government have noted that there was a direct link between the passing of the NGO law and the shutdown of USAID operations in Russia. 

First published in Russian in Kommersant Daily.  Aleksandr Gabuev, Ilya Barabanov, Yelena Chernenko contributed to the article.

Gold Counterfeiting Goes Viral: 10 Tungsten-Filled Gold Bars Are Discovered In Manhattan

Zero Hedge

A few days ago, our report on the discovery of a single 10 oz Tungsten-filled gold bar in Manhattan’s jewelry district promptly went viral, as it meant that a tungsten-based, gold-counterfeiting operation, previously isolated solely to the UK and Europe, had crossed the Atlantic. The good news was that the counterfeiting case was isolated to just one 10 oz bar. This morning, the NYPost reports that as had been expected, in the aftermath of the realization that the sanctity of the gold inventory on 47th Street just off Fifth Avenue has been polluted, and dealers promptly check the purity of their gold, at least ten more fake 10-ounce “gold bars” filled with Tungsten has been discovered.

The Post has learned as many as 10 fake gold bars — made up mostly of relatively worthless tungsten — were sold recently to unsuspecting dealers in Manhattan’s Midtown Diamond District.

The 10-oz. gold bars are hugely popular with Main Street investors, and it is not known how many of the fake gold bars were sold to dealers — or if any fake bars were purchased by the public.

As is to be expected, the Post story is weak on details: after all, any dealer who admits to having allowed Tungsten to enter his or her inventory can kiss their retail business goodbye, as customers will avoid said Tungsten outlet like the plague, for the simple reason that suddenly counterparty risk has migrated from Wall Street to the Diamond District. The one named dealer is the same one who already made an appearance in the previous story on Tungsten in gold’s clothing.

One gold dealer discovered that four of the 3-inch-by-1-inch gold bars he bought — worth about $72,000 retail — were counterfeit.

“It has the entire street on edge,” said Ibrahim Fadl, 62, who has been the owner of Express Metal Refining, a Midtown gold-refinery business, for the last 11 years. “I and the others on the street work off of trust; now that trust is strained.”

Fadl, a Columbia University graduate with a master’s degree in chemical engineering, and who has more than 40 years in the industry, purchased the four fake bars from a well-known Russian salesman with whom he has done business.

Ah yes, those pesky Russians: always happy to do the Fed’s bidding, because who really gains from the loss of confidence in physical gold?

Fadl became suspicious when he offered the salesman a deep discount for the investment-grade gold bars and he quickly accepted it, a source tells The Post.

Fadl said he did his due diligence “by X-raying the bars to ascertain the purity of the gold and weighing the bars, and the Swiss markings were perfect.”

Tungsten is an industrial metal that weighs nearly the same as gold but costs a little over $1 an ounce. Gold closed Friday at $1,774.80 an ounce.

We wish Fadl all the best in his liquidation sale. Others, for logical reasons, are far less willing to step forward:

A second 47th Street refiner, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was burned recently when he bought six gold bars that turned out to be mostly tungsten, with just a gold veneer. He would not comment, though, on who sold him the bogus bars.

The counterfeiting so far appears to have impacted solely PAMP (Produits Artistiques Métaux Précieux ) gold bars, madeby MTB, whose CEO can hardly be too happy that some “Russian” has made it a life mission to destroy the credibility of any gold stamped with the PAMP stamp.

Raymond Nassim, CEO of Manfra, Tordell & Brookes, the American arm of the Swiss firm that created the original gold bars — with their serial number and purity rating stamped clearly into them — said he reported the situation to the US Secret Service, whose jurisdiction covers the counterfeiting of gold bars.

He said his company “is supporting and cooperating with authorities any way we can.”

Nassim thought the culprit must be a professionally trained jeweler to have pulled off the caper.

“The forger had to slice the original bar along the side, hollow out the gold and insert the tungsten ingot, and then reseal and polish the bar, Nassim said.

The case of gold counterfeiting has already taken NYC by storm:

At an industry dinner Thursday night hosted by Comex, the New York-based metals exchange, the room was abuzz with talk about the bogus gold bars, according to Fadl.

Which was also to be expected. What is also to be expected is that as more and more stories of Tungsten making it into broader gold circulation, that retail sales of physical gold will certainly be impaired as end consumers become far more cautious about what they buy.

And while we await more information, especially from the Secret Service, who is “on top” of this case, which we assume implies that gold is after all money, we leave readers with our conclusion from Tuesday: “with false flags rampant these days, we would not be surprised if this is merely yet another attempt to discredit gold, this time physical, as an undilutable medium of warehousing wealth. So buyer beware: in a time when everyone is broke, triple check before exchanging one store of wealth for another.”

For those curious what a fake 10oz bar looks like, here it is again:

The Beginning of the End for the U.S. Dollar as the World Reserve Currency

Michael Payne
OpEd News 

Dark times lie ahead for the U.S. dollar as its future as the world’s reserve currency looks to be in great jeopardy. For more than 50 years the U.S. dollar has been the chief monetary instrument used by the nations of the world to facilitate trade involving commodities such as petroleum, manufactured products, and gold. But the times are changing and many of these nations, with China at the forefront, are finalizing trade agreements that utilize only their own currencies.

So it appears that the reign of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency will, quite likely, be coming to an end within the next ten years. It is certainly no surprise that China, widely considered to be the premier economic power of the future, is wasting no time in exerting its growing power and influence in these matters. China is actively working with nations in Asia, the Middle East and other regions of the world to bring dramatic changes to the way world commerce is conducted and money is exchanged.Many of these countries who are moving away from the dollar no longer view America as a stable and reliable force on the world economic stage and they are seeking alternatives as a hedge against a severe future decline in the dollar’s value.That China is the main facilitator of these moves to do away with the dollar is without question; the evidence is everywhere. Here are some specific examples of the various agreements that have been between China and other nations in recent times:*China and Iran are creating a barter system by which Iranian oil will be exchanged for Chinese imported products. This is, quite obviously, an agreement designed to counter U.S. sanctions against Iran since China has no intention of discontinuing the importation of Iranian oil. Besides the barter system the two countries will also conduct trade using the Chinese yuan, the Iranian rial and gold.*China and Japan announced plans to bypass the dollar and use their own currencies in their trade relations. Discussions involving a partnership between South Korea and China to exchange their currencies also have taken place. This is a huge development as China, Japan and South Korea are the dominant economic powers in that Asian region.

China and Russia have, for more than a year, been conducting trade using rubles and the yuan.

China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have announced an agreement which will use the yuan for oil trades. The Chinese National Bank said that this agreement, worth around $5.5 billion, was made to “strengthen financial cooperation, to promote trade and investments, and to mutually assure regional financial stability.”

*Russia and Iran have agreed to use rubles as a means of currency in their trades. Russia has joined China in opposing U.S. sanctions against Iran and fully intends to maintain a close relationship with Iran.

*China will pursue bilateral trades with Russia and Malaysia using the yuan, the ruble and the ringgit, respectively.

*The nations comprising the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) recently agreed at their summit meeting in Sanya, China, to establish mutual lines of credit in local currencies. This, again, is a very significant development since this group of nations represents a very powerful economic bloc going into the future.

*The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has stated that “the current system of currencies and capital rules which binds the world economy is not working properly and was largely responsible for the financial and economic crises.” Further that “the dollar should be replaced with a global currency.”

*The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently issued a statement about replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency with a system of Special Drawing Rights called SDR’s, an international type of currency created in 1969 which is, in effect, a “basket of national currencies” backed by the full faith and credit of the member countries’ governments.

It seems like everyone is jumping on the bandwagon to do away with the dollar as the reserve currency. This could be termed as “payback time” as many countries that either have lost respect for America, or who fear its military outreach, have found a way to combat physical force with economic power. That may well be the case when we consider that this movement is being strongly promoted by China, Russia, and Iran, no real friends of the U.S.

When the dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency the effects on America will be very severe. It will have monumental negative effects on the economy and its ability to conduct trade with other nations. In many cases nations will simply stop using the dollar. In other cases they may use the dollar but only at heavily discounted rates. Such actions will cause the Fed to run the Treasury Dept. printing presses non-stop, creating massive inflation and making the dollar the modern-day version of Fiat Money.

And yet, in every dark cloud there is a silver lining. If the dollar loses world favor, if it is severely devalued, there will be an opportunity for the government and the business community to take advantage by working together to rebuild American manufacturing, since exports to other countries will be at much lower prices. When that time comes we’ll see if each of them has the capacity to respond to the changing times and the new opportunities.

The demise of the dollar will also bring radical changes to the American lifestyle. When this economic tsunami hits America, it will make the 2008 recession and its aftermath look like no more than a slight bump in the road. It will bring very undesirable changes to the American lifestyle through massive inflation, high interest rates on mortgages and cars, and substantial increases in the cost of food, clothing and gasoline; it will have a detrimental effect on every aspect of our lives.

Such a revolutionary event in the world’s reserve currency poses a far greater threat to America’s security than any of those many fabricated terrorists that the Washington-based facilitators of war have created to keep the American people in a state of fear. This is a real threat and danger that America will be powerless to defeat with any form of military might. This will be a battle involving economic survival.

The U.S. government obviously can see what is going on, how these nations are rapidly moving away from the dollar. But is it doing anything to respond to the challenge? Time and time again this nation’s dysfunctional government has been warned that it is going in the wrong direction and must change course. It has been warned that it must stop pouring hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars into its war machine and downscale it vast worldwide military empire; it has not heeded those warnings.

This government knows that it is imperative that it significantly reduces its monumental national debt, that is must take steps to restore its manufacturing sector and rehire its workers, the foundation of America’s economy. But the corrupted politicians who answer only to the dictates of Corporate America have refused to respond to those warnings and they continue to follow a course that will eventually lead to financial insolvency.

And now time is running out for the U.S. dollar as the world community of nations has seen enough of America’s incapability in dealing with its most critical problems. It has now become evident that many of the nations of the world no longer have faith or confidence in either the U.S. dollar or in America itself.

Michael Payne is an independent progressive activist. His articles concentrate on social, economic and political matters as well as American foreign policy. He is a U.S. Army veteran and a graduate of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

September 11th: 10 Years Later

Zero Hedge
September 11, 2011

No doubt September 11, 2001 changed everything.  But the business of actually measuring those changes has been as overlooked by most as the nationalities of the hijackers.  The following is presented in the interest of truth, justice and the American way.

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

~Benjamin Franklin

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