and his family. Later in the day David Cohen, Treasury's acting
undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said that $30
billion had been seized. I’ve not seen the details of which banks are
holding this wad of dough.
It’s not hard to conclude that with this much money comes power. It’s a
fair question to ask if the US banking system did not aid and abet the
Colonel’s long run as a Potentate. At a minimum, they appear to be the
depositories of his theft. What to make of this?
I’m certain that the CIA was all over this and knew the details pretty
close. The Executive Order to seize the loot was first drafted a long
time ago. With that in mind you could make the case that the money was
better in the US banking system versus outside. The US gets to monitor
the flows for intelligence purposes and can also close the door on any
significant capital movements when desired. What’s not to like about that? Plenty!
I’m surprised that there has not been more of a response from the Press
on this issue. This comes pretty close to the thorny issue of money laundering. I've been looking for some Congressperson to step up and say, “This is wrong.” Much to my surprise, precisely the opposite has happened.
25 of our best and brightest just signed a letter to the President
urging him to withdraw proposed legislation that would end the
confidentiality/tax protected status of non-resident accounts. I think some of these folks are going to have egg on their face.
When the Supreme Court decided that corporations (banks) could donate to political campaigns it was really the end of any pretense that U.S. Citizens have any rights remaining.
The Supreme Court and the powers that be were openly proclaiming in not so many words that the individual citizen of the U.S.A. had now become the new peasantry of the Western World.
Bad enough that the Supremes decided it was o.k. for a corporation and municipality to not only rescind but TRAMPLE property rights simply to increase tax revenues (KELO decision).
Oh no...they had to put the whipped cream on the cow pie served up for the U.S. citizen...your vote is REALLY meaningless now because it is legal for both sides of the aisle to be BOUGHT - lock, stock, and barrel - by Wall Street.
TIME FOR REVOLT PEOPLE
It's still "the City of Washington DC." That city needs food and when last I checked "the railroad lines terminate in New Orleans and points West" on the food front. We shall see if the "termination of debt monetizing" is sudden and violent. As we now know "all options are on the table."
None of the Critters care about egg on their faces...they only care about financial lobbyist bucks in their pockets. Thus it has been. Thus it will always be.
Nice to know the Congresspersons are watching out for us.
ROTFL.
Bruce, you had a post about the coming massive inflation in the USA about 10 weeks ago. I'm buying bread, milk for the same prices and when I purchase t-shirts at wholesale for silkscreening ( broder ) prices not moving that much. Cotton. Hanes beefy t's under $3.00 ....
The middle east oil move does not count you posted before that issue.
Do you have an update on when this massive inflation starts ? Did you think about the China peg and her influence / thirst on commodity prices ... ?
No, I did not see the blowup that has happened and the consequence on crude.
Is higher oil inflationary or deflationary? Both is the answer. Oil at 175 would be a game changer for me. Deflation would be the only possible outcome.
For what it is worth I think I have been more or less on the right track with the notion that inflation would be rising. I'm happy you're buying Tees at last years price. But it won't last (or they will cut the thread count)
What do you think just happened in silver over the past few weeks? There are shortages of "stuff". PM's and wheat and rubber and cooking oil. Surely you see that? If not, you will.
#24 The budget that the Obama administration has submitted for fiscal 2012 assumes that the U.S. government will bring in about 2.1 trillion dollars in income this year (mostly by taxing all of us), and by 2021 Obama’s budget assumes that the U.S. government will be able to increase that figure to 4.9 trillion dollars. Can anyone figure out how in the world the U.S. government is going to get over twice as much tax money out of all of us ten years from now?
http://www.prisonplanet.com/25-bizarre-examples-that-show-that-the-u-s-government-is-absolutely-brimming-with-idiots-incompetents-and-incredibly-corrupt-politicians.html
Can anyone figure out how in the world the U.S. government is going to get over twice as much tax money out of all of us ten years from now?
Easy. It's called (hyper?)inflation.
10 yrs from now it won't be 4.9 trillion, more like 49 trillion, worth about 2 trillion in today's dollars.
... or maybe worth nothing at all, the dollar may collapse and die before then.
... if Bernokio gets his way.
Of course not. All budgets put together by politicians are lies designed to accomplish a personal and selfish goal.
IMO, the system is set-up to induce politicians and bankers to be parasites and NOT servants of the people as they lyingly claim to be.
I can't believe anyone generally listens to Bruce. Amazing. Bruce Krasting must be the author of the book on "Unintended Consequences."
As long as you're not an American, the US is one of the best tax havens in the world. It attracts a ridiculous amount of capital because it protects foreign investors. There's clearly a market demand for tax havens in the world--the ones Americans hear about are the ones that target Americans. Much of the world goes to the US.
Krasting's argument is similar to the "if we can just save one child, it's okay if everyone's is monitored, tracked, and assumed guilty of everything" idea. The VAST majority of foreign investment and investors are not interested in being poked, prodded and tracked like dogs. The VAST majority are not Gaddafi--that's the headline (by definition, the "news" cannot be commonplace--it has to be an exception to the common place). Let's punish everyone with even more oversight.
If he could have been there, I'm betting Bruce Krasting would have supported the Income Tax so that the "rich" would be soaked and the world would be more equitable. Now the middle class carries the burden because the rich always have the resources to avoid these problems--and that is never, ever, ever going to change.
Isn't our problem today too much government, too many rules, too much control by the powerful, etc? How does turning away foreign investment help that problem? How does supporting an ever increasing police state that tracks people's finances like animals help? Perhaps the problem isn't that foreigners have confidentiality--perhaps the problem is that Americans don't. Only the citizens are treated like dirt, which is, unfortunately, the way of the world for every country.
Get it together. This is nonsense.
Much of the world goes to the US... why? because they have dollars to plant somewhere, not Euros, not Yuan, not Shekels ... but dollars and dollars are only really useful as a deposit and investment in the US. That is the way the system, at the insistance of the US military, has been established.
I will buy your argument on two conditions:
1. You admit that this statement is an assumption that CAN change: "Now the middle class carries the burden because the rich always have the resources to avoid these problems--and that is never, ever, ever going to change." Under your defeatist attitude there is no hope other than "eating the rich" (as the saying goes)... because gosh darn it people are inherently selfish, evil and they will always take advantage of others... which may be true, but I am not about to admit that more than our western culture is inherently corrupt and evil (why? because there are no consequences for be total self absorbed jerkwads... and people have assumed that only regulation will bring accountability, which of course is a fallacy.).
2. You find a solution for the total destruction of the rule of law, whereby those in power are completely unaccountable and those without power are treated like dirt.
All your argument does for me is say that there should be armed revolution in the US(A) to correct the problems....
The western "democratic" governments keep stealing our rights and ratcheting up tax rates. One way they accomplish this is by pointing the finger and other governments that are only marginally worse, then tightening the screws. This goes on and on and on and we keep getting raped by more, higher taxes and ever more stringent financial regulation.
Bruce, the solution is not more government monitoring and intrusion, but much, much less government. We need a competition between countries to provide the most freedom and the lowest taxes. Your desire for more regulation takes us in the opposite direction.
ConfederateH
Why do you think the West loves China and eventually NKorea? Can even hear our political classes pointing to China and saying "Well they can do it there. It's not fair we don't have the same controls over the masses as Communist China". Race to the bottom and the idiot masses have no idea.
Let me get you guys straight. You think it is perfectly fine for a thug like ghadaffi to have the US capital markets as his storehouse for ill gotten gains?
Are you forgetting that this was the prick who blew up a plane full of americans at 30K feet? That he has been a sponsor of terror all over the globe, for decades? That he repressed his own people?
You think shit heels like this should be welcome at the Chase Bank? I don't. Everyone of those signatures is a result of a lobbiest from a bank pushing strings to get what they want. Basically you think the banks should ride free and do whatever the fuck is in their best interests? What side of this fence are you on? If you side with secret banking and scummy Potentates you're in a small crowd.
A lot of those signatories are from Florida. What's that all about? Venezualans and Hugo Chavez? Cocaine? Both?
So if a person kills people they should not be allowed to bank? Ok cool. Bush ordered a bunch of killings in ME and drone attacks killing innocents spiked after Obama came into office. So when are we going to seize their accounts?
If we had rules and followed them, fine. But what we have Bruce is laws for the little guys and only honoring laws or "morality" when it benefits the big boys.
I'm all for the US taking dictators money. Maybe those dictators will learn not to trust the US.
They will learn to trust the Swiss, and plenty of dirt rubs off when you deal with these people. I think what Bruce is driving at is this. Below the top levels, American banks and financial institutions are remarkably clean. We should try to preserve that, but it's getting harder all the time.
I think shit heels like this are welcomed with open arms by the shit heels at Chase Bank. I don't know why you expect shit heels in DC to do anything about.
it wasn't right then but that doesn't make it "wrong" now in the sense that this "dough" if it is actual money represents the "downpayment for the next regime." that's more than can be said of Iraq which despite sky high oil prices is "still rebuilding." Shall we even begin with Egypt and Tunisia and "what their needs are"? This price of oil is only going higher--and perhaps dramatically so--and it could have the added "kicker" of a food price shock which it would appear is what "precipitated a fruit vendor to set himself...and by extension the entire planet alight." The question is really "what are the Americans going to do." To say the USA doesn't have it's own problems right now is like saying "it's nothing but the gravy train now that Mubarrak is gone."
if we had 1 world government your argument holds weight but this our govt NOT gadaffys govt, so take the money cuz our govt been given out money all over the world. unless you're for a one world govt where by we have the ultra rich and we the financial slaves of the ultra rich thinkin we free
You are sooo right.
My first impression is "the damn hypocrites", but what else is new. The risk to the solvency of the financial system though, well that's ludicrous. Who's not insolvent in the TBTF group? How about a reality tv show about some of the unenforced or unenforceable regulations being mocked by the rich 'n infamous
1099 them Dano
Spot on, Bruce, and how about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (bribery). That one has some shark teeth in it.
damn lag
meanwhile e-gold accounts still frozen for ... "money laundering"
What did Ghadaffi do to justify seizing his assets?
he de-friended Obama from facebook...
That would do it! LOL!
He must have told one of the central banks to go to hell.
Not a chance, Wachovia/Wells Fargo and Money Laundering - they got caught and recieved a slap on the hand, the corruption runs deep and wide. ZIRP, TARP and the host of bankster bailouts all endorsed by the MSM and the political class and what do we get not one bankster in jail or even charged. You've got a JPM Chicago machine alum running the white house and bailout lottery winner (GE's Immelt) overseeing the economy.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870405900457512806283548429...
slap on the hand, absolutely haven't the last few years shown us that cheating, lying, lawbreaking banks just get fined = cost of doing business until they can get the laws changed. The government is bought and paid for and the buyers call the tune.
'Inmelt running the white house' Is that why Bambi is called anti-business.
Simple really. Bank roll Obama's campaign you get preferential treatment. Goldman, JPM and GE come to mind. No coin for his campaign, you're singled out for condemnation.