Thursday, September 12, 2013

MARTIN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST BLOG POSTS

German Elections

German Elections 2013
Germany’s parliamentary elections  will be held on 22 September 2013 to determine the 598 (or more, if overhangs are produced) members of the 18th Bundestag, the main federal legislative house of Germany. The elections may by no means bring the expected calm and stability to Europe. Indeed, the elections may well usher in a period of complete chaos and paralysis if not uncertainty for Europe as a whole. In German politics, division is rising between nationalism and Europeanism.  German politics seems to be transforming into an Italian version of fragmented coalitions. Germany is Europe’s biggest economy. A swing toward fragmentation with a protracted and difficult coalition negotiations that leads to political instability, could cripple Germany preventing a viable working government in Berlin.
The danger is that Berlin falls into political gridlock that will destabilize the European financial markets and the Euro. This will further complicate the doomed European reform projects such as the banking union that is unlikely to succeed anyway. If the German elections follow the polls that currently indicate that Angela Merkel’s CDU conservative party CANNOT form a coalition with the free-market Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei), abbreviated to FDP, is a liberal political party, then worse-case scenario emerges. Should the FDP to fail to get the 5 percent of the national vote it requires to get even into parliament, or the Alternative for Germany Party (German: Alternative für Deutschland), abbreviated to AfD, which is the new anti-euro party founded (early 2013) defies the odds and wins representation in the Bundestag, then things get really interesting. The AfD is a conservative, euro-currency-sceptic political party rising in Germany that is organising to compete in the German federal election in September 2013. The party states that it is anti-euro, but not anti-EU similar to the original British position articulated by Margaret Thatcher who insisted it was a economic union not political-monetary dictatorship. The AfD is not against European unity, but that the euro has failed as a currency and now threatens European integration by impoverishing countries with uncompetitive economies and burdening future generations. This is an absolutely correct position. Eventually the position of the AfD will emerge as the rational solution, however, for now, if they won this will make a parliamentary majority far more difficult to build in Germany.
The ability of the European Central Bank (ECB) to purchase government bonds has distorted the Euro and the institution’s actual purpose was supposed to be ensuring price stability and not financing governments. Of course this is still based upon Marxist-Keynesianism assuming government can manipulate demand to ensure price stability – something that is yet to be proven. German political party CDU center-right party states this position that the ECB was not intended to buy government bonds. This formal position asserts that the basic ability of theECB to purchase government bonds without limit if indebted countries fulfill the ESM conditions can only be a temporary instrument. How does one end such a program is never considered. The ECB was intended to be obligated to monetary stability,and was never an instrument for government financing that has emerged of late.
The grand coalition between Merkel’s CDU/CSU with the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) (SPD) would then be the fallback option. The SDP is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Germany, along with the conservativeCDU/CSU. That may appear to be a welcome change from a European perspective. However, a grand coalition such as this would enjoy a vast parliamentary majority without a doubt. This would tend to be marginally more pro-European. This may result in a policy that is less keen on forcing austerity on the euro zone’s periphery. The last CDU/SPD coalition, which Merkel formed during her first term up to 2009, did work rather successfully.
Nonetheless, the SPD has no desire to team up with Merkel once again. It was devastated back in the 2009 election that resulted in its worst electoral performance since 1930. The Social Democrats will thus be inclined to make the CDU pay a high political price for a new coalition experiment. Some believe the dislike runs so deep that they would insist that Merkel would not be the head. In such a situation, Merkel may start coalition negotiations with the Greens, which will create even more uncertainty for Europe.

Banks Warning if they Do not Trade with Other People’s Money Liquidity will Decline When Needed

Bankers
The Bankers have the Fed investigating the regulations in a very clever bid to trade wildly once again your and other people’s money. They are claiming that in the bond markets “Regulations have created multiple constraints likely to curtail liquidity when it is really needed.” This is the statement made by the ill-fated Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, which is a  group of bankers and investors. The implication is government will be screwed unless they can trade as we like because when it comes time to sell your debt, you will have great difficulty unless they can trade whatever, whenever, and without prosecution.
Bankers Testify
The bankers are using the collapse in liquidity by 50% that is global ever since 2007. This is NOT limited to bonds and it is not caused by the bank regulations. First of all, this group works on paying bribes and inside information that is by no means illegal EXCEPT in equities. Because of this rigging the game, the people of this group are absolutely NOT professional traders. They seek to create the trades – never analyze the markets. They follow each other and this is why they blow themselves out of the water every time and then run to government with their hand out.
ft-1998
Government is a fool. The bankers are telling them they need to trade with other people’s’ money to keep up “liquidity” or else in a crisis the government will shut down because they will be unable to sell their debt. Our computer model has accurately forecast EVERY single debacle. We have never missed one yet. That is NOT accomplished by my personal opinion nor do I “manipulate the world economy” as alleged in court papers. It is accomplished with sophistication of modeling that they do not grasp because they are too busy rigging the game with bribes and stuffing key government positions with their alumni.
This latest cry to get rid of the regulations by the bankers will destroy what is left of our free society for whenever they lose, they get the rubber-stamp from government to cover their losses. The next time these people blow-up again after 2015.75, government will hunt-down every dime in a parking lot and then they will authorize the bankers to just take accounts of innocent people – the new BAIL-INS. This is simple – Government allows these bankers to trade with other people’s money at the expense of our entire way of life and economic freedom. When they lose, we lose rights and pay higher taxes. There will be ZERO freedom left thanks to this failure of government to really be independent and not for sale to the highest bidder. We do NOT need bankers trading with depositor’s money. We do NOT have a Democracy where we can even make our voice heard. This is all about rigging the game – there is nothing left.


US Seizing Russian Assets in NYC

Hermitage_Capital_Management
The US prosecutors filed a civil complaint and are looking to seize luxury apartments and other property they allege Russian companies used to launder proceeds from a $230 million tax fraud in Russia. The alleged scheme was uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer who died in a Russian prison. The complaint alleges the organization stole corporate identities belonging to the Hermitage Fund that was the scheme of Edward Safra, an investment fund operating in Russia, and used them to make fraudulent claims for tax refunds.
ft-1998

To make this perfectly clear, this is the very fund that Republic National Bank organized and were soliciting me to bring over $10 billion from Japan to invest in. I had a meeting with the President of Republic Dov Schlien and sent an email with their proposal back to our Tokyo office. This is the same fund Safra then invited me to a IMF dinner he threw in Washington hiring the entire National Gallery to demonstrate how they had the IMF in their pocket and that the loans to Russia were secured. I warned them Russia would collapse. They would not listen. The London Financial Times attended a seminar I did in London. They then wrote I was warning about the collapse of Russia. When that took place, the first major bailout was required – Long Term Capital Management.
The government is now alleging that the Russians sought to launder some of its billions in ill-gotten in Russian rubles through the purchase of pricey Manhattan real estate. How exactly defrauding Russia out of taxes results in an action in New York I do not know. The organization included officials at two Russian tax offices, Olga Stepanova and Yelena Khimina, who approved the refunds of approximately $230 million, according to the complaint. Stepanova and Khimina could not be immediately reached for comment.
The US Attorney Office in New York said: “While New York is a world financial capital, it is not a safe haven for criminals seeking to hide their loot, no matter how and where their fraud took place.” The complaint said Magnitsky, who was hired by Hermitage to investigate, faced retaliatory criminal proceedings in Russia after uncovering the scheme and the involvement of Russian officials. He died on November 16, 2009, while in pretrial detention. They later put him on trial after his death and found him guilty in Russia.
The US Congress in turn passed the Magnitsky Act, which bars Russians believed to have been involved in his death or other severe human rights abuses from entering the United States. Obama actually signed the legislation in December. However, Magnitsky was involved with the Safra deals. 
The whole thing is anything but what it may seem.

Beware November 13 & 14

Airraid Drills
The US government intends to keep up the pressure to support the NSA. To keep kids sacred during the 1950s, they had drills as if this would have done anything in a nuke attack. Then there was the directive that every one should be a shelter in their basement. Wonder whose brother-in-law profited off of that one.
Now on November 13 and 14, they are going to simulate a complete power grid failure as the result of a terrorist attack simultaneously on 150 different computers. Good luck. That could never be done in the real world. These morons could take down the grid and suddenly discover it will not turn back on so easily. That would actually make the USA more vulnerable. If someone wanted to launch a nuke, that is the perfect time.

NSA Routinely Violated Court Orders

NSA
Reuters has reported that the NSA violated court orders routinely between 2006 and 2009. Out of 17,835 phone searches, only 2,000 met the legal authorization. Those that assume they will not violate your rights – yeah – good luck. This impacts American national security destroying our way of life far more than Syria. If you violate court orders, you can be sent to prison for life under contempt with no limitation on a judge. These people do as they like and nobody can do anything to stop it – not even Congress

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