Wednesday, July 31, 2013

MARTIN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST BLOG POSTS

Liechtenstein bank to pay $23.8M in NY tax case

The USA is on a quest to attract any foreign banks that deal with Americans. A Liechtenstein bank will now pay $23.8 million to end a probe into what the USA claims is their undeclared accounts that helped hundreds of U.S. taxpayers dodge taxes in the United States over a 10-year period. They are making past acts criminal violating the ExPost Facto Clause by simply interpretation claiming it always was illegal.
Effectively, they have applied US law internationally abandoning borders in this relentless hunt for money to keep the debt funded and the bankers happy. There will be nothing left and Americans are being eradicated from international expansion.Nobody will deal with Americans outside the USA anymore.

JP Morgan Electricity Manipulations

When I first came out and wrote about the “Club” and how there was an organized group of banks and some hedge funds that targeted individual markets to manipulate, they tried to pretend it was sour grapes. I had even hired Robert Howe who may have been the first African-American analyst in American History. Bob had a job at a major hedge fund in NYC. He applied for a job with our firm. I met him in the old Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel. He said he wanted to work for our firm because we were the only ones who were clean. The hedge fund he was at, told him if he wanted to rise in the firm he has to come up with “guaranteed trades”. I hired Bob and he joined our analytical team.
Salomon
The merger of the commodity side with Wall Street that took place in 1981 with PhiBro taking over Solomon Brothers, began the whole era of the BonFire of the Vanities. Insider Trading was purely an equity thing. It was Rudy Giuliani and his prosecution of Michael Milken that flipped insider-trading on its head and now makes no sense at all. Insider Trading began as a director in the ’30s who knew the company was going bust, withheld that info while he sold his shares, and then the news was released. Giuliani destroyed Drexel Burnham by claiming that if party A was buying a company with party B and the public was unaware, then that was Insider Trading because they profited unfairly since the public did not know. The US Attorney charged Milken and destroyed 50,000 non New York jobs threatening even his grandfather to prevent a trial by forcing a plea. Even back then Goldman Sachs was caught up in insider trading in 1989. They took real insider-trading and turned it upside down.
The Insider Trading theories have continued to expand as in SEC v Obus that as the NY Law Journal wrote “the court seemingly expanded the scope of potential liability for tippees who might lack actual knowledge that information was disclosed improperly or that the inside source provided information in exchange for personal benefit, even though proof of personal benefit is required to pursue the insider.”
Nevertheless, the whole insider trading nonsense applies ONLY in securities. The rest of the world relies on such info. They are routinely trying to figure out what the Fed will do next and what will be said at the next G20 meeting. So the blending of the other world with Wall Street has been a total nightmare.
HuntBrothers
The commodity side was ALWAYS about manipulation. This was the foundation of the big trading firms like PhiBro for decades in commodities prior to 1980. I knew of the Hunt Brothers buying silver from the late 1960s. How was it that they suddenly became a household word? Because that info was put into the press to get people to buy into the high and then the manipulators sold the high, changed the rules at the exchange so margins on longs were 2x a short, and the crash became history.
There was NO major rally in commodities that was void of their presence. Recently, there has been more and more exposure of these manipulations from the silver, LIBOR scandal, to Aluminum and even electricity price manipulation where now J.P. Morgan must pay $410 million fine but nobody ever goes to jail unless
  • (1) they are against NYC or
  • (2) they expose the government.
The interesting thing is they call someone like Snowden a traitor when he reveals to the people the illegal acts of government as if this is betraying the nation. Government is NOT the nation nor is it the people – it is a corrupt ruling class that is for sale. The nation is the people so how can it be a crime to expose corruption in government? Well that is the same thing about NYC and exposing the regular manipulations. They destroyed Princeton Economics because we had gathered evidence that exposed this trend and what they have been doing for decades.
Glenn
Alan Cohen was the receiver seizing control of Princeton Economics. His lawyer who went after all my lawyers to get the evidence that would have brought down Wall Street back then was Martin Glenn, who was rewarded for his valor by making him a judge, who then protected the banks again in M.F. Global and took depositor’s money creating the first BAIL-IN. Any one see a pattern here? And these people have the guts to shower themselves with titles such as “Honorable”. This is why we are collapsing. This is why the national debt exploded. This is why your taxes are rising and the Iron Curtain is coming down as we lose all our rights. Thank you New York New York.
Nobody bothers to connect the dots. They treat each manipulation as an isolated one-time event. Not even the press will tell the truth. The politicians will not really investigate because they too want money for their campaigns. Government is of the bankers not the people.
TR02022000
TR02072000 Tapes

MARTIN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST BLOG POSTS

Liechtenstein bank to pay $23.8M in NY tax case

The USA is on a quest to attract any foreign banks that deal with Americans. A Liechtenstein bank will now pay $23.8 million to end a probe into what the USA claims is their undeclared accounts that helped hundreds of U.S. taxpayers dodge taxes in the United States over a 10-year period. They are making past acts criminal violating the ExPost Facto Clause by simply interpretation claiming it always was illegal.
Effectively, they have applied US law internationally abandoning borders in this relentless hunt for money to keep the debt funded and the bankers happy. There will be nothing left and Americans are being eradicated from international expansion.Nobody will deal with Americans outside the USA anymore.

JP Morgan Electricity Manipulations

When I first came out and wrote about the “Club” and how there was an organized group of banks and some hedge funds that targeted individual markets to manipulate, they tried to pretend it was sour grapes. I had even hired Robert Howe who may have been the first African-American analyst in American History. Bob had a job at a major hedge fund in NYC. He applied for a job with our firm. I met him in the old Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel. He said he wanted to work for our firm because we were the only ones who were clean. The hedge fund he was at, told him if he wanted to rise in the firm he has to come up with “guaranteed trades”. I hired Bob and he joined our analytical team.
Salomon
The merger of the commodity side with Wall Street that took place in 1981 with PhiBro taking over Solomon Brothers, began the whole era of the BonFire of the Vanities. Insider Trading was purely an equity thing. It was Rudy Giuliani and his prosecution of Michael Milken that flipped insider-trading on its head and now makes no sense at all. Insider Trading began as a director in the ’30s who knew the company was going bust, withheld that info while he sold his shares, and then the news was released. Giuliani destroyed Drexel Burnham by claiming that if party A was buying a company with party B and the public was unaware, then that was Insider Trading because they profited unfairly since the public did not know. The US Attorney charged Milken and destroyed 50,000 non New York jobs threatening even his grandfather to prevent a trial by forcing a plea. Even back then Goldman Sachs was caught up in insider trading in 1989. They took real insider-trading and turned it upside down.
The Insider Trading theories have continued to expand as in SEC v Obus that as the NY Law Journal wrote “the court seemingly expanded the scope of potential liability for tippees who might lack actual knowledge that information was disclosed improperly or that the inside source provided information in exchange for personal benefit, even though proof of personal benefit is required to pursue the insider.”
Nevertheless, the whole insider trading nonsense applies ONLY in securities. The rest of the world relies on such info. They are routinely trying to figure out what the Fed will do next and what will be said at the next G20 meeting. So the blending of the other world with Wall Street has been a total nightmare.
HuntBrothers
The commodity side was ALWAYS about manipulation. This was the foundation of the big trading firms like PhiBro for decades in commodities prior to 1980. I knew of the Hunt Brothers buying silver from the late 1960s. How was it that they suddenly became a household word? Because that info was put into the press to get people to buy into the high and then the manipulators sold the high, changed the rules at the exchange so margins on longs were 2x a short, and the crash became history.
There was NO major rally in commodities that was void of their presence. Recently, there has been more and more exposure of these manipulations from the silver, LIBOR scandal, to Aluminum and even electricity price manipulation where now J.P. Morgan must pay $410 million fine but nobody ever goes to jail unless
  • (1) they are against NYC or
  • (2) they expose the government.
The interesting thing is they call someone like Snowden a traitor when he reveals to the people the illegal acts of government as if this is betraying the nation. Government is NOT the nation nor is it the people – it is a corrupt ruling class that is for sale. The nation is the people so how can it be a crime to expose corruption in government? Well that is the same thing about NYC and exposing the regular manipulations. They destroyed Princeton Economics because we had gathered evidence that exposed this trend and what they have been doing for decades.
Glenn
Alan Cohen was the receiver seizing control of Princeton Economics. His lawyer who went after all my lawyers to get the evidence that would have brought down Wall Street back then was Martin Glenn, who was rewarded for his valor by making him a judge, who then protected the banks again in M.F. Global and took depositor’s money creating the first BAIL-IN. Any one see a pattern here? And these people have the guts to shower themselves with titles such as “Honorable”. This is why we are collapsing. This is why the national debt exploded. This is why your taxes are rising and the Iron Curtain is coming down as we lose all our rights. Thank you New York New York.
Nobody bothers to connect the dots. They treat each manipulation as an isolated one-time event. Not even the press will tell the truth. The politicians will not really investigate because they too want money for their campaigns. Government is of the bankers not the people.
TR02022000
TR02072000 Tapes

William Blum: That Most Charming of Couples: Nationalism and Hypocrisy

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35698.htm

Unlimited power in the hands of psychopaths. My own country truly scares me.

DEJA VU: People Are Using Borrowed Money To Buy Stock Like It's 2007 Or 1999

http://www.businessinsider.com/deja-vu-on-margin-debt-2013-7

“A rising stock market encouraged more investors to go into debt to buy stocks, sending margin debt levels past their all-time high”.
“The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) has asked members to review their lending requirements in a sign of increasing concern that rising levels of margin debt could exacerbate a stock market plunch. (sic)”
Read more: http://pragcap.com/de-ja-vu-on-margin-debt-2013-repeats-1999-2007#ixzz2acpIXJ4V

Read more: http://pragcap.com/de-ja-vu-on-margin-debt-2013-repeats-1999-2007#ixzz2acpBO8IS

COMEX Registered Gold Inventory Continues To Decline

COMEX Registered Gold Inventory Continues To Decline 30 JULY 2013
clip_image002 clip_image004

PAUL FARRELL: 4 reasons capitalism is morally bankrupt, dying

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/4-reasons-capitalism-is-morally-bankrupt-dying-2013-07-31?dist=beforebell

 America’s big banks are self-destructing

Warning: “Capitalism as we knew it is dead.” What an indictment: “Capitalism ... dead.” Just a few years ago. A grabber in the Economist. But even if Wall Street banks ran that message as a public admission, in flashing neon lights racing around Morgan Stanley’s Times Square ticker every day for the past three years ... it wouldn’t matter.
Adam Smith
Why? Wall Street has lost its soul, has no sense of public responsibility, cares little about the rest of America. Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” established capitalism with a moral code for economic behavior, a secular theology in the Age of Reason.

Once a moral code for individuals and nations, capitalism has been distorted, manipulated and degraded by our too-greedy-to-fail banks, the Goldmans, Morgans and their co-conspirators who now care only about making short-term profits for a narrow base of shareholders and insiders, with no care for America as a whole. 

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

CCR released the following statement today in response to the verdict in the Bradley Manning trial


CCR Information Update
Dear CCR Supporter:
CCR released the following statement today in response to the verdict in the Bradley Manning trial:
“While the 'aiding the enemy' charges (on which Manning was rightly acquitted) received the most attention from the mainstream media, the Espionage Act itself is a discredited relic of the WWI era, created as a tool to suppress political dissent and antiwar activism, and it is outrageous that the government chose to invoke it in the first place against Manning. Government employees who blow the whistle on war crimes, other abuses and government incompetence should be protected under the First Amendment.
We now live in a country where someone who exposes war crimes can be sentenced to life even if not found guilty of aiding the enemy, while those responsible for the war crimes remain free. If the government equates being a whistleblower with espionage or aiding the enemy, what is the future of journalism in this country?  What is the future of the First Amendment?
Manning's treatment, prosecution, and sentencing have one purpose: to silence potential whistleblowers and the media as well. One of the main targets has been our clients, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, for publishing the leaks. Given the U.S. government’s treatment of Manning, Assange should be granted asylum in his home country of Australia and given the protections all journalists and publishers deserve.
We stand in solidarity with Bradley Manning and call for the government to take heed and end its assault on the First Amendment.”
CCR represents WikiLeaks and Julian Assange in the U.S. and filed a case challenging the lack of transparency around the Manning trial.  The charges of which Manning were accused represent an ongoing assault on dissent and an attempt to chill any voices seeking transparency and accountability from government officials. Manning's prosecution is also a portent of the potential threat to anyone who uses the internet to share information.  We will keep you updated on further developments, and appreciate the support which makes this work possible. 
Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Annette Warren Dickerson
Director of Education and Outreach

What Cop T-Shirts Say About Police Culture

 What Cop T-Shirts Say About Police Culture

And none of it good.
original-1

Marc Faber On Central Banker Actions: "Insane People Don't Realize They're Insane"

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-30/marc-faber-central-banker-actions-insane-people-dont-realize-theyre-insane

While we know that the Fed will be forced to taper in the short-term as it desperately avoids the 'appearance' of outright monetization that a falling deficit will create, Marc Faber sums up the endgame perfectly in this clip: "I don’t think they will come to their senses for the simple reason that insane people don't realize that they are insane." Faber adds, "they think they’re doing a great job," and in fact they believe - in general - that "if anything, we need to do more, not less." The 'forced-taper-to-plunge-to-untaper' progression means it's going to get worse; as Faber notes, QE/printing will continued indefinitely "until the system breaks down." Having printed this much money with such dismal results, Faber concludes, "the Fed is completely clueless."

Bankers Own The World

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-24/guest-post-bankers-own-world

In every era, there are certain people and institutions that are held in the highest public regard as they embody the prevailing values of society. Not that long ago, Albert Einstein was a major public figure and was widely revered. Can you name a scientist that commands a similar presence today?
Today, some of the most celebrated individuals and institutions are ensconced within the financial industry; in banks, hedge funds, and private equity firms. Which is odd because none of these firms or individuals actually make anything, which society might point to as additive to our living standards. Instead, these financial magicians harvest value from the rest of society that has to work hard to produce real things of real value.
While the work they do is quite sophisticated and takes a lot of skill, very few of these firms direct capital to new efforts, new products, and new innovations. Instead they either trade in the secondary markets for equities, bonds, derivatives, and the like, which perform the 'service' of moving paper from one location to another while generating 'profits.' Or, in the case of banks, they create money out of thin air and lend it out  at interest of course.

Jacob G. Hornberger: WHY NOT JUST ABOLISH THE NSA?

http://fff.org/2013/07/30/why-not-just-abolish-the-nsa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-not-just-abolish-the-nsa

Notice that all the public discussion about the NSA’s super-secret, massive surveillance scheme assumes that the NSA has become a permanent part of American life. The debate revolves around what restrictions, if any, should be placed on the NSA’s authority to spy on people.
But the real question that Americans should be debating is: Why not simply abolish the NSA?

WEINER NAMES NEW CAMPAIGN MANAGER

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—One day after his campaign manager quit, the mayoral candidate Anthony D. Weiner named his penis to the post, telling reporters, “He was already making most of the major decisions, anyway.”
In announcing the new appointment, Mr. Weiner lavished praise upon his penis, calling him “a tough hombre” who “cares about the struggles of ordinary, middle-class New Yorkers.”
After one reporter questioned the wisdom of naming his penis to such an important role in the campaign, Mr. Weiner dismissed that concern, saying, “Look, he’s gotten me this far.”
While Mr. Weiner’s decision to give the top job to his controversial appendage raised eyebrows among political observers, insiders said the move merely reflected his headline-grabbing member’s already prominent role in the campaign.
“He [Mr. Weiner’s penis] has been calling the shots for weeks now,” one source said, adding that clashes between the former campaign manager Danny Kedem and the mercurial body part had led to Mr. Kedem’s exit.
“There was a power struggle between Danny and the package, and Danny lost,” said one campaign source. “Danny would try to talk sense to Anthony, but at the end of the day, the penis had his ear.”

Monday, July 29, 2013

80 Percent Of U.S. Adults Face Near-Poverty, Unemployment: Survey

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35682.htm

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

MARTIN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST BLOG POSTS

The Aluminum Scandal

goldman-sachs-logo
Goldman Sachs & the Aluminum Scandal
The tide has turned against the bankers and there will not be a rock big enough to hide under. The market is starting to wise up to the commodity game of controlling the warehouses and trading on the same commodities after 31.4 years. I have reported previously that the “club” has been staging manipulations of numerous markets that include currency and commodities. Everything from silver spikes and rhodium to the latest being aluminum. These are often manipulation spikes that run the course of 3 to 9 months. Decades of gathering evidence and recording phone conversations were seized by the receiver who was later hired by Goldman Sachs and made a board member – Alan Cohen.
GetOutOfJail

The whole manipulation scandal has been around for a long-term by the regulators and Congress have protected the bankers giving them the name the “Untouchables”. As the commentator in the following piece jokes – they should take the Got to Jail block out of the Monopoly Game since it never applies to New York unless you compete with them.

Economic Insecurity – The Great Motivator For 2016

The studies have been illustrating that what we face is the collapse of society thanks to the Marxist Agenda that has sent jobs fleeing and it now takes two incomes to support a family rather than one. The great divide between race has diminished and as the once minorities are poised to assume the role of the majority, the poverty among whites has risen sharply thanks to taxation.
The latest studies claim 4 in 5 in US face near-povertyChildren graduating college are finding it harder to find jobs for which the amassed huge student loans. The entire social structure is decaying and this is the source of discontent for the 2016 elections where we will begin to see a rise in third party activity. This is not going to be politics as usual for we are looking at serious change ahead.

HYPERINFLATION – Chicken or the Egg

Iran, North Korea, Argentina, Venezuela, Egypt and Syria have all one thing in common – the collapse in the confidence of their currencies. This is where we will see hyperinflation and this is what it is all about. HYPERINFLATION is by no means related to the quantity of money, it is directly related to the confidence in the currency. This is the chicken or the egg scenario. The hyperinflation takes placeBECAUSE of the decline in trust and confidence in government. It is not the other way around. Governments do not hyperinflate for no reason. They hyperinflate because people lose confidence and they cannot issue bonds for nobody will buy them. This is what we will see in these countries.

Glass-Steagall Returns by Default

QUESTION: If Europe is imploding, general global economy slowing and there is a liquidity crunch, Why in heaven is the Fed going to start taper in september?
Because of political pressure are they going to taper/rise rates and leave the Banks on their own with prop.trading? Has the Fed decided to really clean the system?
Thank you very much.
ANSWER: Proprietary trading is indeed coming to an end. We are seeing that in Europe and the Fed is taking that position. This is essentially the restoration of Glass-Steagall. Central Banks are not in charge of interest rates no matter what you may think. As long as people are willing to buy debt, then rates remain low. When capital begins to shift, rates rise. The flip-side of this is that pension funds are going insolvent. Without fixed income in the 5-8% level, they cannot meet future obligations. The low interest rates have not helped anyone but the banks. They pay 0.5% for 3 years money and want 4% when they lend it out fully secured. Capital shifts to equities because it has to see higher returns. This is why the DOW has been rising. QE has helped only the banks. They failed to pass on the stimulus and ending proprietary trading will be beneficial to the economy for they will have to start leaning to make a profit and that expands the economy whereas proprietary trading destroys the economy when carried out by bankers. The system is being cleaned-up for politically the bankers will not be bailed out this time. Proprietary Trading began 31.4 years ago and it is coming to an end precisely on the cyclical target of PI.