This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
The Financial Con Of The Decade Explained So Simply Even A Congressman Will Get It
Sometimes, when chasing the bouncing ball of fraud and corruption on a daily basis, it is easy to lose sight of the forest for the millions of trees (all of which have a 150% LTV fourth-lien on them, underwritten by Goldman Sachs, which is short the shrubbery tranche). Luckily, Charles Hugh Smith, of oftwominds.com has taken the time to put it all into such simple and compelling terms, even corrupt North Carolina congressmen will not have the chance to plead stupidity after reading this.
Of course, to those familiar with the work of Austrian economists, none of this will come as a surprise.
1. Enable trillions of dollars in mortgages guaranteed to default by packaging unlimited quantities of them into mortgage-backed securities (MBS), creating umlimited demand for fraudulently originated loans.
2. Sell these MBS as "safe" to credulous investors, institutions, town councils in Norway, etc., i.e. "the bezzle" on a global scale.
3. Make huge "side bets" against these doomed mortgages so when they default then the short-side bets generate billions in profits.
4. Leverage each $1 of actual capital into $100 of high-risk bets.
5. Hide the utterly fraudulent bets offshore and/or off-balance sheet (not that the regulators you had muzzled would have noticed anyway).
6. When the longside bets go bad, transfer hundreds of billions of dollars in Federal guarantees, bailouts and backstops into the private hands which made the risky bets, either via direct payments or via proxies like AIG. Enable these private Power Elites to borrow hundreds of billions more from the Treasury/Fed at zero interest.
7. Deposit these funds at the Federal Reserve, where they earn 3-4%. Reap billions in guaranteed income by borrowing Federal money for free and getting paid interest by the Fed.
8. As profits pile up, start buying boatloads of short-term U.S. Treasuries. Now the taxpayers who absorbed the trillions in private losses and who transferred trillions in subsidies, backstops, guarantees, bailouts and loans to private banks and corporations, are now paying interest on the Treasuries their own money purchased for the banks/corporations.
9. Slowly acquire trillions of dollars in Treasuries--not difficult to do as the Federal government is borrowing $1.5 trillion a year.
10. Stop buying Treasuries and dump a boatload onto the market, forcing interest rates to rise as supply of new T-Bills exceeds demand (at least temporarily). Repeat as necessary to double and then triple interest rates paid on Treasuries.
11. Buy hundreds of billions in long-term Treasuries at high rates of interest. As interest rates rise, interest payments dwarf all other Federal spending, forcing extreme cuts in all other government spending.
12. Enjoy the hundreds of billions of dollars in interest payments being paid by taxpayers on Treasuries that were purchased with their money but which are safely in private hands.
Charles' conclusion does not need further commentary as it is absolutely spot on:
Since the Federal government could potentially inflate away these trillions in Treasuries, buy enough elected officials to force austerity so inflation remains tame. In essence, these private banks and corporations now own the revenue stream of the Federal government and its taxpayers. Neat con, and the marks will never understand how "saving our financial system" led to their servitude to the very interests they bailed out.
The circle is now complete: in "saving our financial system," the public borrowed trillions and transferred the money to private Power Elites, who then buy the public debt with the money swindled out of the taxpayer. Then the taxpayers transfer more wealth every year to the Power Elites/Plutocracy in the form of interest on the Treasury debt. The Power Elites will own the debt that was taken on to bail them out of bad private bets: this is the culmination of privatized gains, socialized risk.
In effect, it's a Third World/colonial scam on a gigantic scale: plunder the public treasury, then buy the debt which was borrowed and transferred to your pockets. You are buying the country with money you borrowed from its taxpayers. No despot could do better.
As for part two of this epic con we are all living through, Charles explains as follows:
The Con of the Decade (Part II) meshes neatly with the first Con of the Decade. Yesterday I described how the financial Plutocracy can transfer ownership of the Federal government's income stream via using the taxpayer's money to buy the debt that the taxpayers borrowed to bail out the Plutocracy.
In order for the con to work, however, the Power Elites and their politico toadies in Congress, the Treasury and the Fed must convince the peasantry that low tax rates on unearned income are not just "free market capitalism at its best" but that they are also "what the country needs to get moving again."
The first step of the con was successfully fobbed off on the peasantry in 2001: lower the taxes paid by the most productive peasants marginally while massively lowering the effective taxes paid by the financial Plutocracy.
One Year Later, No Sign of Improvement in America's Income Inequality Problem:
Income inequality has grown massively since 2000. According to Harvard Magazine, 66% of 2001-2007's income growth went to the top 1% of Americans, while the other 99% of the population got a measly 6% increase. How is this possible? One thing to consider is that in 2001, George W. Bush cut $1.3 trillion in taxes, and 32.6% of the cut went to the top 1%. Another factor is Bush's decision to increase the national debt from $5 trillion to $11 trillion. The combination of increased government spending and lower taxes helped the top 1% considerably.
The second part of the con is to mask much of the Power Elites' income streams behind tax shelters and other gaming-of-the-system so the advertised rate appears high to the peasantry but the effective rate paid on total income is much much lower.
The tax shelters are so numerous and so effective that it takes thousands of pages of tax codes and armies of toadies to pursue them all: family trusts, oil depletion allowances, tax-free bonds and of course special one-off tax breaks arranged by "captured" elected officials.
Step three is to convince the peasantry that $600 in unearned income (capital gains) should be taxed in the same way as $600 million. The entire key to the U.S. tax code is to tax earned income heavily but tax unearned income (the majority of the Plutocracy's income is of course unearned) not at all or very lightly.
In a system which rewarded productive work and provided disincentives to rampant speculation and fraud, the opposite would hold: unearned income would be taxed at much higher rates than earned income, which would be taxed lightly, especially at household incomes below $100,000.
If the goal were to encourage "investing" while reining in the sort of speculations which "earn" hedge fund managers $600 million each (no typo, that was the average of the top 10 hedgies' personal take of their funds gains), then all unearned income (interest, dividends, capital gains, rents from property, oil wells, etc.) up to $6,000 a year would be free--no tax. Unearned income between $6,000 and $60,000 would be taxed at 20%, roughly half the top rate for earned income. This would leave 95% of U.S. households properly encouraged to invest via low tax rates.
Above $60,000, then unearned income would be taxed the same as earned income, and above $1 million (the top 1/10 of 1% of households) then it would be taxed at 50%. Above $10 million, it would be taxed at 60%. Such a system would offer disincentives to the speculative hauls made by the top 1/10 of 1% while encouraging investing in the lower 99%.
Could such a system actually be passed into law and enforced by a captured, toady bureaucracy and Congress? Of course not. But it is still a worthy exercise to take apart the rationalizations being offered to justify rampant speculative looting, collusion, corruption and fraud.
The last step of the con is to raise taxes on the productive peasantry to provide the revenues needed to pay the Plutocracy its interest on Treasuries. If the "Bush tax cuts" are repealed, the actual effective rates paid on unearned income will remain half (20%) of the rates on earned income (wages, salaries, profits earned from small business, etc.) which are roughly 40% at higher income levels.
The financial Plutocracy will champion the need to rein in Federal debt, now that they have raised the debt via plundering the public coffers and extended ownership over that debt.
Now the con boils down to insuring the peasantry pay enough taxes to pay the interest on the Federal debt--interest which is sure to rise considerably. The 1% T-Bill rates were just part of the con to convince the peasantry that trillions of dollars could be borrowed "with no consequences." Those rates will steadily rise once the financial Power Elites own enough of the Treasury debt. Then the game plan will be to lock in handsome returns on long-term Treasuries, and command the toady politicos to support "austerity."
The austerity will not extend to the financial Elites, of course. That's the whole purpose of the con. "Some are more equal than others," indeed.
h/t Andrew
»
- 76342 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
I don't bend over! They overpower me.
Bigots...erm Gentleman, Kykes don't like to be called Jews just like Greasers don't like to be called Wops and Patties don't like to be called Micks. Also make sure you don't call them chicks a name like broad, they lose their mind on that.
you think all jews like whats going on? thats like saying all blacks like the obama sock puppet. don't say stupid , hurtful things.
I'm waiting on the inevitable "Virginian's were not really Virginian's" diatribe.
They were JEWS!!! disguised as Virginian's...LOL.
Pavlovian much?
We have a virtually monoethnic financial community, as well as entertainment/media community and nobody is permitted to say anything about it!
If it were all european "caucasians," someone would be up in arms about the lack of diversity.
Very obviously, clan nepotism is in FULL effect in these professions and at the top of the power foodchain; it does us no good if you try to browbeat anyone who points the FACTS out by playing the race card on them
nobody is permitted to say anything about clan nepotism being in FULL effect in these professions and at the top of the power foodchain
Those doing so are labeled"anti-semetic" and "holocaust tm supporters" by the hired hit-bloggers from learsi.
Good.
:-)
Don't be a Dick...maybe try to help posters instead of flaming them...but NO, no one in the ENTIRE fucking world right now tries to HELP anyone. just BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH...
I am not Chumba Bumba Numba Rotumba or anyone else...
Thanks. That was helpful. Thank you for guiding the way.
Gah Dammit! Before you click save, make sure you don't leave extra spaces below! You disrupt the flow of the thread.
Haven't you ever heard of a dramatic pause?
We take just a moment longer than expected.
That makes it more
exciting.
Fucker!
_
_
Oh!
Please post more, even more open?
Velo?
We're all honest people !
(I wish I had such an avatar.)
"(I wish I had such an avatar)"
be a trend-setter mike, find a pic of a huge hanging ball sack & get it to bounce for us. . . oh, make it one with a tiny tiny penis too!
lulz guaranteed!
Muir is beautiful but please look at 463357 and talk to me about that .. ?
A thought that flitted thru my mind too. Just don't want to sink to that level. We live in a male dominated world and blog. If ya did that, that would probably get ya banned. Or, like in Iran, stoned. They always stone the woman, not the man in the adulterous situation.
I realise this is a boys club blog, but seriously, SOME of the guys here love to think they're better than the "sheeple", smarter than the "average joe6p" - yet they've absorbed porn-perspectives of half the human race, and expect to be thought of as more "enlightened" than most?
*meh* group-think is group-think. . . you post tits 'n' crotch shots for the attention of your fellow boys, to be like 'em, get their attention, impress?
mostly I scroll past 'em, today I didn't, oh wells, eh. . . overall, this blog has more smarts than most other places on the internets, hmm.
Get firefox and adblock plus. Right click on the image. Scroll down to ad-block. Do block image on this page. Scroll up to a numbered image not the full list of avatars. And bam it's gone.
Then you will have no image postings in the thread and you know who the assholes are.
you sir ROCK.
many thanks for the advice, taken, works, pleased.
I owe ya one, *nods*
How easily we get distracted! A troll couldn't have done better. I replied to Muirs post because it was intelligently done after the comment of Sandi.
Im not here for the pictures. In fact those of Leo I always find unpleasant as tho the ladies he shows were touched by violence. Those of Robo are OK tho.
Im here for the articles. This one gives an impression of the power and scope of the force-lords how they are sweeping us onto the rubbish heap.
Cognitive Dissonance
I notice you seem very selective in your Internet etiquette and posting advice. Yet you espouse some form of equality. Why don't you practice it? Either critique and advise everyone, or no one.
By the way the family every impliment your goofy child rearing advice? Someone knew what a Skinner box was, right?
I'd love to meet you in person. People who are as sarcastic, condescending, snarky, and passive aggressive as you on line tend to be far different in person. And keep your own side of the street clean before calling out the opposite; "someone" is a word, whereas "some one" is awkward and, likely, an error. Perhaps you can consult the person you're attacking in the above quote regarding editing.
Buy gold. Buy gold. Buy gold. Buy more gold. Buy even more gold. By God...
what? no miners?
90% of the silver ever mined, has been consumed. (used up). buy silver.
maybe so. but i gotta go with j.p.: gold is money and nothing else. but bryan had his appeal.
There will be a panic, a crisis...slow or fast, I don't know. When push comes to shove, the bankers, the central banks, the HNW individuals, the funds and the public will flee to gold. Everyone will lust after gold. Reputation! The slogan is "Gold is Money"; J.P. Morgan himself said it in 1910. No one is going to protest in the streets shouting "Silver is Money!"...
Silver? It's tableware...
(But you will probably do quite well in either...!)
They'll have to pry my silverware out of my cold, dead fingers.
Pass the chicken please.
Dude! The Fuck!?
Dr. Sandi resembles the trust fund babies this article is pointing to... don't you get it?
20 pc. Chicken Buckets?... Silverware?... Colonel Sanders?
Lloyds algos are sparking away on that one!
Think the correct term is "sporking" away. : )
I thought you said "buy God." Buy God, the ultimate inflation hedge!
But Americans are mad and they're not gonna take it anymore! They're gonna take all those unions and liberals down and make damn sure these power elites get their interest payments, goddamnit! While they're at it, they'll shut up all those pussy liberals to make sure those same power elites have plenty of stupid knuckle-dragging jarhead cannon fodder to beat up the rest of the world with!
American populism: http://www.theodoresworld.net/pics/0608/backwardgImage1.jpg
Oh, and if lefty populism catches on, they'll make sure the anger is directed at the "little" rich people (the value creating ones who actually earned it) and the upper middle class rather than at the global superclass. It'll be the have-a-fucking-shitloads using the have-nots to beat up and loot the haves.
In a nutshell, we are allowing con men to take over our entire planet. We are becoming, in essence, a planet ruled by organized crime.
in essence.
in reality
For ever and ever amen.
Same as it ever was.
God save the king.
Only difference is that we believed that it WAS different this time. And they were lying to us again, as always.
"Hey Satch, school's out."
That's it. I'm kickin' you in the nutz!
First time posting here but that first paragraph contains almost the exact words my 2-minimum wage job, barely putting food on the table for three kids, brother-in-law stated yesterday evening. His tirade started with "Obama's fault", of course.
I'm stunned...totally and completely stunned by the reaction of the masses, both right and left. Do they see honor or safety in being used as slaves and/or henchmen? Their complete control appears no more difficult than waving "Ol' Glory" on occasion while throwing imagined threats to their belief systems and promising plenty of "free stuff" be it SSI, Medicare, or food stamps. Meanwhile the paid media firehoses the panic story of the day to keep our remaining 401K roulette wheel players distracted while the house magnets are activated.
This is like living in a 1940's gangster movie where the syndicate takes over the neighborhood while witnesses become ever better at ignoring what crimes they've seen.
This is like living in a 1940's gangster movie where the syndicate takes over the neighborhood while witnesses become ever better at ignoring what crimes they've seen.
Or like your grandparents who stay in the old neighborhood as it becomes worse and worse and they seemingly don't notice and won't consider moving.
As Orwell's villain said in 1984, the proles have no mind. They think in cultural signifiers and can easily be manipulated with vapid symbolism.
Note that there's a cadre of lefty proles for whom the same thing is true, hence my second paragraph.
hahahahh, what a brilliant cartoon visual that sentence paints, right up to and including the punchline "house magnets"!
+100 laughtracks OldSouth, cheers!
The "conservative" white trash never got over the civil rights era. The Republican sociopaths (politicians) have been using the "those people" story for 40+ years now to confuse their tiny brains.
There's way too many dumbasses - on the "left" and "right" - to fix America. The peasants are getting exactly what they desire.
Dark Helmet
"In a nutshell, we are allowing con men to take over our entire planet. We are becoming, in essence, a planet ruled by organized crime."
I suggest you read some History. Your observation is only new to you, but well known for centuries.
Dark: Do you have a real solution?
Re: we are allowing con men to take over our entire planet
The nobility purchases sociopaths (politicians) to manipulate the dumbasses with stories of fright. "Those people" is the story of choice for the "conservative" dumbasses. Oddly enough, "those people" is the story of choice for the "liberal" dumbasses.
While the dumbasses are fighting, the nobility run off with the loot.
In the UK we should sell everything to the highest bidder,then when we have sold everything we should buy Gold and Silver with the profit and then lend at extortionate interest rates and within 10 years we would own the entire world.
In retrospect, it seems the end was nigh when Goldman et al had to resort to the absurdity of synthetic CDO's, because everyone with a pulse---albeit not necessarily any income---had already been issued a mortgage and the issuer had already sold it off for packaging and onward stuffing up the arse of a German bank. The last (home) buyer had bought, so all that was left was to manufacture risk for the sake of risk.
Though we all know these points very well, what is not stated by the author is that the citizens are perfectly willing to accept the theft/rape/pillaging, and despite the admonition of Dylan Thomas, go gentle into that good night.
We get what we are willing to accept. They win. And if anybody thinks the answer is via the ballot rather than the bullet, just look at Scott Brown's banksta pandering, or hear how hoarse is the voice of that other Dylan (Ratigan).
Reminds me of an old (I believe Portuguese) saying: if shit was worth money, the poor would be born without assholes. And the folks in the Hamptons could let a valet at the club back a Hummer up their butts.
How to con the con men with a sting of your own: American citizens default.
Got Gold?
REVOLT THROUGH DEBT DEFAULT
The fastest route is a good old fashion bank run. We just need to convince about 10% of the depositors to request their full deposit in cash.
A general strike usually gets their attention.
Sweeet! Nothing like tearing up a bill from a collection agency. Change your phone number, then make a different number to give out using google voice, block any debt collectors and you're good to go (for now). I never receive a call anymore and I still get the joy of tearing apart all those bills.
ozziindaus
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/07/rich-defaulting-at-highest-rate.html
Rich Defaulting on Mortgages At Highest Ratehttp://washingtonindependent.com/91135/what-the-rich-say-about-strategic...
What the Rich Say About Strategic DefaultThe New York Times and CoreLogic examined the data, and found that the rich are more likely to purposefully default on their mortgages — to “strategically default” — than lower-income homeowners:
Revolt through executions.
REVOLT THROUGH DEBT DEFAULT
Please elaborate or point to a link.
if you guys aren't loading your magazines, getting right mentally for what's about to go down, you're doing yourselves an injustice. it's crystal clear what these people want... so be it. bring it.
yeah.. it's all been a build up for a 15 minute movie ending firefight
and once you 'show em what for' they will back down and go get regular jobs
and enough with the "got gold?" bullshit already. got 7.62?
Yup.
Got 5.56, 7.62X39 (Euroammo) for the AK's and my prize weapon, my genuine MG 43.
Also have some .308 for the M1917 Springfield and for the Garand M1, along with over 1,000 old 8-round clips for the same.
And don't forget a plentiful supply of 3.5" 12 Ga double-ought magnum for the final-defense sawed-off Remington pump. Cut a man in half at ten meters.
Plus, I need to mention my new Hornady reload line, plentiful supply of primers and propellant, and my next door neighbor has a casting set for bullets. Plus, he and I have surrounded the fields around our home with home-designed "Bouncing Bettys" and as the only drive to the redoubt has by design a lot of curves and switchbacks, at every curve are homemade- remote-fired claymores.
But the key piece of the home-defense system is the mortar pit in the back yard with two tubes and over 1,000 rounds of 81mm HE and HEAP....
Just gettin' ready to rock n' roll...
God, does that make YOUR dick as hard as it does mine?
You butt-fucking son-of-a-bitch! This isn't a porn site!
This is fun. Two cartoon characters whacking at each other.
You both secretly want to get it on and have some cartoon kids.
This is bullshit and this UGLY cartoon has ruined my night. Screw you guys... I'm goin home
Got real Combat experience.? Have you faced the elephant repeatedly? No? You ain't got shit. They'll just take it from you and blow your ass out theirs. Docuhebags and their gun collections, save me. If you mentioned suicide belts for your kid, and IEDs then I would be concerned.
As it is, there are millions of combat veterans out there now and the chances of you facing down a diciplined combat experinced platoon is zero. It doesn't matter who they are working for, if they want what you have , they'll get it, sans one scartch.
In the French Revolution, it was when the king's men crossed over the lines that shit really began. Why did they king's men cross? Because they were 'regular peeps'. And when these regular peeps' families started to starve, they suddenly saw the light.
Thank you for brining reality back into the picture.
Further, where the hell are people going to get food?
All those folks with the automatic weapons are going to fight among themselves, stealing each other's MREs!
If you've got food that requires more than a can opener (or, in the case of all these macho fools, use your firepower [to open up the cans]) you'll be left alone.
Got farming/hunting skills?
I've got tons of combat experience and it's overated. Numbers and motivation count for a lot. Still, if you ZH folks want some real good gun and shooting advice read this
http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=89544&highlight=CHITTUM
It's Sgt. Skull's Basic Combat Shooting Course. I'm Sgt. Skull.
Thanks for the first-hand insight, Sgt. Skull.
Now that's news we can use! Thanks.
Are you Chittum too, the guy who wrote CWII and then got into conspiracy theories?
nix platoon; insert fire team
Can't stay on alert 24/7/52
- Ned
[Ed. strikeout not coming through]
I would be curious to read the first hand experience of the farmers (along with hired help) who thought they were prepared for SHTF in Zimbabwe.
It must not have occurred to this guy that this is a 3-dimensional world. The gov has these flying machines
And biological agents and chemical agents. They may not overtly kill you, just contaminate or destroy your water supply, air (they have bombs that don't blow up things just suck all the oxygen out of the air), food production (Agent Orange, GOM oil spew). Don't think because you have a well that you are safe, they could contaminate the whole aquifer. They may release nanorobots to destroy you (think the newer "day the earth stood still" ending).
Personally, it's the nanorobots I'm worried about.
They probably won't use real people at all to kill you. Drones, genetically modified micro or macro life forms. This is not sci-fi folks. Many engineers and scientists, for generations, work to devise new ways to kill people, make war every day.
If they really want us all dead, we are dead.
indeed.
if they're playing tic-tac-toe in the sky above you today, breathe this in:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19047
if you're not sure about what chemtrails look like, here's a link to get you up to speed - WARNING - loud music accompanies the clip, I'd advise turning down the speakers. . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEFITGpXwZk&NR=1&feature=fvwp
people, all the guns 'n' golds in the world won't "save" your life if they continue to poison the air we breathe. . . and it's safe to say it's "our own" that are spraying us, for at least the past 10 years, worldwide. . . still think they're on "your" side?
I am sorry, but it seems like they'd need a huge amount of 'chemtrail' to make any difference before it was dispersed in the wind.
not sure about your "point" here - the nanoparticles inherent in chemtrailing are indeed meant to be "dispersed in the wind". . . if you bother to look up the technology, and understand the end result desired - it's all about layering the atmosphere with this crap, then inhaling becomes inevitable. . .
"disperse" just means to spread, not "disappear". . .
In the history of modern warfare, what you say (except for Viet Nam and perhaps Afghanistan) is probably quite true. But a mobilised, armed populace in excess of 100 million, motivated by a desire to protect their homes and families against a limited number of professional soldiers, is an untested scenario whose outcome is uncertain.
DBurn:
Sorry to pop your bubble, but I DO have the relevant experience - I am a retired US Navy submariner (SCSN) with 23 years 4 months seven days active service, including serving in the "brown-water navy" as an individual augmentee during the first Gulf War.
Of course I know that in a straight uphill infantry assault on my position I would eventually be overrun - but many many many of them would die in return.
In fact, almost any competent group of defenders in a well dug in high-ground position with proper overlapping fields of fire and sufficient ammunition should inflict casualties of almost 10 to 1.
But it's not really the "gubmint" that I'm worried about - it's the starving hordes of unprepareds fleeing the cities who would be bent on stealing anything that they can.
Think it can't happen here? Don't you remember New Orleans after Katrina when thousands moved out along I-10 looking for anything they could eat or steal.
When the collapse comes, think Katrina multiplied by a hundred.
Just sayin'
What's your "broken arrow" plan? A homemade H-bomb?
"When the World Ends .....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxQFYeS5DoI
We'll be burnin one, we'll be makin love...."
Try shooting an Abrams or Apache with a 7.62.
Are you kidding? If either of those had even a passing interest in me I would be digging for China, hiding or running frantically or trying to do all of those at once. If I had a 7.62 I would fling it into the nearest bush hoping to retreive it later lest it slow me down.
You could mess up a tank pretty good if you made some metal containers with magnets glued to them. Toss some thermite into it use serveral magnesium sparklers as a fuse. Light it. Toss it on a tank preferebly right over the engine. Or toss it down the main gun if you get a chance and 5 minutes later tank is stopped. Just like welding railroad track together only your welding the top of the engine compartment to the engine. If you're in a war zone and don't care about surviving anyway. You can make mercury amalgam bombs. Just like a water baloon only when it hit's it turns aluminum armored bradleys into goo.
This is how it kills you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCzT1yuau_4
This is what it does to aluminum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Ilxsu-JlY&feature=related
If your a precious metal freak keep it away from your silver. It'll eat it too.
That's right... One could make all kinds of explosives, using simple household items...
And now, Mister Wizard is here to show us how to do it at home.
Be SURE you ask your mom before you use any chemicals from under the kitchen sink or the garage, kids.
I'm sure you're great at children's parties.
Interesting and relevent except for the last part. Sell treasuries to hike up interest rate then buy them back at the higher interest rate with out driving down yields?? Dont think this is quite possible.
You're kidding, right? If you have enough clout to move the market, and you act in a co-ordinated fashion, regardless of its illegality, you can easily start the process of dumping treasuries. The central bankers in China and Japan will take considerably longer to react, but since they own even more, their selling will drive the price down even farther, at which point the squid et al start to buy again, at much lower prices, and much higher yields.
However, since much of this trading will be in the secondary market, it won't have any effect on the Fed or the American public (except to the extent that some new issuances might have to be at higher rates). What this will actually do is result in a massive transfer of wealth from foreign central banks to the squid.
Agreed. This doesn't seem too intelligent.
And it's missing something very important: other countries exist and hold onto trillions of UST. This theoretical banking elite cabal still has competition within their ranks and with other elitists around the world. The past 9 months have seemed like a repositioning by all of them.
Besides, they know the dollar isn't worth shit. Oh my god! They'll take all our dollars with treasury interest. Who gives a shit? The banks have the ability to create money out of thin air.
"Besides, they know the dollar isn't worth shit. Oh my god! They'll take all our dollars with treasury interest. Who gives a shit?"
All this material wealth is based on complete BS. I mean, SUVs in a world of declining oil, granite counter top laden homes when people won't have food that they can cook, electronic crap that's so rapidly obsoleting itself that it now ships pre-broken (iPhone crap)?
It's THE big fucking recall. All our toys are being called back. Experiment over. Let those elites have it all back, it's worthless and will only become moreso!
People need to see that this is a big paradigm shift. Stop trying to hang on to all that material crap in the face of ths storm, it's only acting as an anchor around your neck!
There is NO "fixing" this system. If you're looking to fix the injustices then abandon the System. By doing so we'll get more entertainment value than we could ever imagine, we'll get to see the elite have to work to survive! (people ever remember Geroge H. Bush's romp through the grocery store checkout where he got to see a price scanner in operation? Not only was it likely the first time he'd seen one, but it was probably the first time that he'd EVER been in a grocery store!)
Unfortunately everyone I know (except Kyle) will never understand this. I don't know why but they'll NEVER understand something this obvious. Maybe we need to dumb it down more... we could draw pictures and make it into a little story book or something...
Done:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Economy-Grows-Why-Crashes/dp/047052670X/ref=sr...
Yup, got my girlfriend to buy this book. Crash Proof was more like a sleeping aid for her but she's coming along nicely with Schiff's new book.
Big boned Eric--you must be joking...the elected officials get it... they are captured by the cartel and writing the legislation that supports and legalizes so much that should be criminal.
I was just thinking if more people understood what was happening they might be more inclined to do something about it. If everyone was as pissed as I am, we'd be preparing for a revolution!
Many Americans are.
Sorry Eric, i must have misunderstood you! I completely agree. But the only revolution that can really help us is new people in government who are ethical and not captured by the cartel. Sadly, there is no tellying how deep this goes, and maybe some of the elected officials actually have acted out of fear of this legalized organized crime syndicate...whatever the case I just pray for a peaceful resolution and return to justice for all.
It's okay. I too hope we can take this country back but like you point out, it won't be easy! I'm ready...
1935-1972:
The Bureau of Investigation (BI) changes its name to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) but, the Bureau is still the personal instrument of control, revenge and repression of megalomaniacal transvestite and gay basher, J. Edgar Hoover, whose personal crime wave against the people of the United States will continue unabated until his long overdue death in 1972.
Wealthy friends, including leading Mafia figures, give Hoover and his gay lover, FBI Assistant Director Clyde Tolson, lavish hospitality and investment "tips". In return, Hoover protects them from criminal investigation and denies the very existence of the Mafia.
Media critics are terrorized and/or blackmailed into silence.
Under Hoover, the FBI will keep files on every politician who makes it to to Capitol Hill, providing a rich source of blackmail material with which to control American politicians.
Hoover's appearances before the House Appropriations Committee are, therefore, not too stressful.
From 1924 to 1971, there will not be a single public hearing into the ever-escalating FBI budget.
Throughout his reign, Hoover will fake crime statistics, misrepresent responsibility for the solution of crimes and terrorize FBI agents and employees who know they must do Hoover's bidding or else.
The FBI under Director J. Edgar Hoover conducts headline-grabbing manhunts during the mid-thirties but can't seem to get around to going after the Mafia which operates in the U.S. with no interference from the FBI.
The mob is run nationally by Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky who had divided up the country among the various Mafia families at a meeting in Atlantic City in 1929.
J. Edgar Hoover and and his lover, FBI Assistant Director Clyde Tolson, frequent the Stork Club in New York, owned by Mafia kingpin Frank Costello. The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation actually sits with Costello in the Stork Club and meets him at other times for coffee or drinks and also in the barber shop at the Waldorf Hotel.
Costello's main occupation is the gambling racket, especially fixing horse racing in the U.S. Chuck Giancana, brother of Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana, will later tell a journalist,
"Hoover didn't want an envelope each month, we gave him something better, tips on fixed races. He could bet ten thousand dollars on a horse that showed twenty to one odds if he wanted…and he has."
But the Mafia doesn't use just carrots with Hoover, they have a big stick hanging over him too.
On New Year's Eve 1936, Hoover and Tolson are seen holding hands in the Stork Club. The Mafia-owned Stork Club reportedly has two way mirrors in the toilets and hidden microphones at certain tables. Later, mob figures will tell journalists that Meyer Lansky had photographs of Hoover and Tolson performing homosexual acts with each other. Hoover's homosexuality was well known to the Mafia and they reputedly had blackmail material on him extending back to the 1920s and Hoover's supposed arrest on charges of homosexuality in New Orleans.
Another longtime Hoover/Mafia hangout is Joe's Stone Crabs Restaurant in Miami, frequented by Costello, Al Capone and Meyer Lansky.
The wife of the owner remembers J. Edna and Clyde sitting in the restaurant having a fine old time as some of the FBI's "Most Wanted" ate undisturbed a few tables away.
Staff at Gatti's Restaurant in Miami remember Hoover and Meyer Lansky being in the restaurant together, sometimes sitting at adjoining tables.
In 1946, the owner of a major racing wire service begins telling the FBI all he knows about the mob and their connections "which lead to very high places". Hoover refuses to provide protection and James Ragen is soon murdered.
After Ragen is killed, Hoover orders all investigations into his allegations dropped.
Agents knew perfectly well that it was FBI policy to ignore the Mafia and to suppress information about it.
Hoover actually claimed on numerous occasions that the Mafia did not exist.
Agents who received information about the mob simply filed it away, without once using the word "Mafia". Overeager agents, who actually attempted to get the goods on the mob, were transferred to hardship posts in the middle of nowhere.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers conducting a wiretap on a Canadian mob figure's conversation with Meyer Lansky listened to Lansky reading from an internal FBI report which had been written only the day before, indicating a very high level connection inside the FBI.
There was never any serious attempt to indict Lansky until 1970 and then the IRS went after him for income tax evasion.
After a lifetime of crime, Lansky died peacefully, wealthy and unprosecuted in 1983.
What is unfortunate? For some people, this is news. So many lies told and the trusting nature of people, a nature essential to well ordered civilization, continues to be used against them.
It is the nature of certain people to take advantage and profit at the expense of others. It is the nature of some people to give to and help their fellow man. It is the nature of some people to want to enjoy their families, grow their children, and enjoy retirement with a minimum of interference from their government.
Has government ever NOT taken advantage of its' citizens? Has a treasury ever NOT resorted to debasement of its' currency? Has bribery of officials ever NOT worked?
Humans are capable of great beauty and great destruction. Great sacrifice and great treachery. Great honor and great debauchery.
You can only live your own life, protect your own family, raise your children the best way you know how. You live with yourself and cannot escape your decisions.
In the end, it would be nice if we could rise above our humanity. I am still waiting... in the meantime, there is beauty in every day. There is art that feeds my imagination, there are neighbors that return a smile and a wave, there is the tastes of a well cooked meal. Enjoy the glories of this life, they may be fleeting in the days ahead.
Economics? The Austrians are right- too bad we don't have free markets or free government. The elites will use the FED as a tool to gain all the control they can- until it blows up in their faces through revolution and decay. Then they will build upon the destruction, like a phoenix rises from the ashes and start again.
This is our path. All we can do is answer for ourselves. Educate, prepare and save enough of your humanity to remember that laughter is the best medicine. We have this life for sure- everything else is gravy.
Until the Jews took over in 1973...
Dec. 23, 1913, actually.
Here you will find some interesting facts about he mob.
http://users.mo-net.com/mlindste/jewmafia.html
"If you just answer the questions, everything will be just fine. We don't want anybody to get hurt."
They can't save the nation's environment from total devastation so they're going to do the next best thing...
Send FBI agents to your home to question you about your "activities" if you have the audacity to express your opinion.
FBI - Federal Bureau of Intimidation (or attempted intimidation)
Actually their full name - to be entirely accurate about what they were designed to do from Day One - is this:
The Federal Bureau of Citizen Intimidation and Evidence Suppression
If you are a high level government criminal, these people will not only never be a threat to you, they'll also be at your service to cover up your crimes and intimidate your critics.
A shame because a lot of decent but naive people join the FBI thinking that they've be serving their country.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/879.html
Yup
That was nice. So easy a cave-voter could understand.
I have a bet: How many days go by before someone Joe Stack's their ass ?
Anyone ?
Anyone ?
How many Americans will off themselves this year to avoid estate tax bite...?
i'm guessing not nearly so many as are offed.
That would be a stupid, or at least unnecessarily violent, thing to do. Anyone who stands to get screwed should "_blank">buy Austrian bullion. No paper trail, no taxes.
literally or figuratively? literally about 10,000 days. figuratively about 100 days.
It gets even BETTER.
Go over to TF and watch the Douchingites BLEAT for "privatization"! That means sell off public assets, roads, bridges, power plants, everything, to these SAME interests, who you let BORROW from the Fed at 0% to purchase public assets using kickbacks and banana republic bribing and back scratching. This turns those with access to the Fed spigot into permanent RENTIER class plutocrats. They can use their leverage as bondholders to translate paper wealth into real productive assets. WTF does it matter what these assets are denominated in?? The money you pay into a power plant in terms of utility rates represents a fraction of YOUR productive work.
Then, jack up fees, rates, charges, everything, to squeeze every ounce of production out of the little serfs and put it into your own pockets, into cocaine for your hookers, into Mercedes automobiles for your spoiled brat children, and into more yachts and mansions. You think all those fuckin Rothschild palaces all over the world built themselves??! That was OFF THE BACKS of every taxpayer to every sovereign that ever "borrowed" fictitious capital from these vile bankers that they never actually had in the first place.
The Fed is ENABLING its member institutions to take eventual control of ALL public assets, all utilities, all infrastructure, under the guise of "austerity."
Look around you, what did austerity mean to Argentina? It meant fire sales of gas, oil, roads, cellphone towers, everything, to foreign corporations and private interests for which the politicians in Argentina were caught RED HANDED with bribes to work the deals. What has it meant to Greece? Fucking people are cheering for Greece to sell of its islands and nation to "repay" foreign bankers. And if they don't? Who loses? Oh yeah, all the little people in Germany and France who have their DEPOSITS in those scumbag banks.
Shakespeare was wrong - you have to first kill all the BANKERS. This phenomenon is what these people DO. It's what they're ABOUT. It is the Shylock in ALL of them now expecting their pound of flesh.
At the end, money does not matter. Dollars do not matter. What matters is having you work yourself to the bone to keep silver spoons in their kids' mouths and keep their mansions heated and cooled and keep their yachts running.
Carlos Slim doesn't care what the "peso" is worth. He earns a share of everyone's usage of his cellphone infrastructure. Money only allows him to translate that share into real things for his own enjoyment, real cars, real yachts, real pussies. If the peso "falls," he will raise prices and because HE controls the bridge, you either pay his price or else you go fuck yourself.
If private interests control the power plant...pay their price or sit in the fucking dark; it's that simple. Austerity will strip every bit of "public" or commonwealth ownership of the things WE ALL PAID tax and bond money to build away from our ownership.
I hope more folks start to understand that there are as many reasons to oppose austerity than there are against stimulus.
#462688
Your theory is based on the assumption that in either austerity or excess stimulus outcomes, the financial oligarchy will have unlimited access to zero cost money. One can more convincingly make the claim that in a new stimulus environment thr oligarchy will have access to even lower cost funding/fiat (QE2.0 will mean excess reserves will go from 1 trillion to $3 trillion - that will buy a lot of cell phone towers and bridges), thus making supply demand curves for any cash generating assets meaningless. Yes, in austerity you will have firesales of formerly public assets, but in stimulus you will have an environment where those who wish to acquire said public assets can bid their price up to essentially infinity. In other words, the transfer of wealth will continue regardless of whether we are in an austerity or stimulus regime. The only thing that will stop this transfer is the end of zero cost capital, and thus the forced end of the enabler of this massive con game, the Fed itself. People will have to realize their fate lies in their own hands to end the Fed; the economic regime has little to no bearing.
In an environment of "business as usual" then yes but any new stimulus plan must take into account the largest economic stimulator, small business, and I doubt small business has the megalomanic ambition of taking over public assets.
I've said it too many times before. Austerity only bolsters the banks current position since they already have the money through QE1. Further deflation will ensue the economy raising the value of their dollars. Public desperation and hopelessness will open the floodgates to further public plundering by the bankers.
I doubt small business has the megalomanic ambition of taking over public assets.
Or the financial firepower. We are outgunned and I'm sick of this feeling of powerlessness. The web of money and influence is too strong to fight against with our limited resources. At this point, I'm just praying they self destruct sooner rather than later.
You know what is funny about that is it is really the other way around. Most of their resources are just paper. But I understand what you mean, illusion is very powerful.
Well, what do you suggest our options are at this point?
Recently I was watching a video of a F-16 or such doing a flyover at a Sports Event (some football game), people were cheering, and national anthems being sung. Seemed everything was in order.
Then I come here, and read this(the article + your comments) and then I get to the see the other half of the "reality". You just making a point about illusion did get me to think something.
This 'illusion' - do TPTB really control everything? I mean if it was such a surefire thing, why would they operate within the guise of anonymity. I mean, why make the best effort to remain anonymous?
Sometimes I think, it really is about "thinking". To better explain, if people think that they are free then it really IS THE CASE. On the other hand, if people think that they control nothing, well then that becomes "reality". So in a way, it "reality" depends on what the people "think".
I hope I made sense, if not - I can try to explain later. I know what I think in my head, but its hard putting it into words, because of so many interconnected elements.
I butcher animals on occasion. Beef, pig, goat, whatever. I use the same technique on all of them. Hand feed them for quite some time, in a very clean, quiet, off pasture spot for several weeks, minimum. Use a Pavlovian signal to get them to associate my coming with their eating. Introduce the tractor at some point so that the presence of the tractor becomes normal. Add the chains. When the time comes, they are peaceful, distracted, and sated when the hollow tip enters their brain cavity at 1400 feet per second, they're stunned/dead when I open their throats with a 10" knife that's as sharp as a straight razor, and their 4 feet don't move 3" from where they were grounded when the whole shebang got under way. Hook the chains on, skinned and gutted within 20 minutes.
Of course, I could, instead, run around the pasture with my pistol firing off the occasional warning shot, being loud, hitting a few animals with sticks, and so on, but then I'd end up having to kill the things with a 30 ought six from 20 yards away, not get it bled right, fight through shit and muck to get it hung proper, and have every other animal on the doomstead get a front row seat for the whole sordid affair, and let me tell you the pigs are smart enough to GTFO after that and good luck getting a straight on shot with the next one.
Something like that.
Kinda like being offered a shower after a long train ride in a box car?
.
Taleb, author of "The Black Swan" cites such an an anology as you explain about the animal slaughter. The animals being trained thru positve reinforcement are tranquil on the day of death, and thus experience the unexpected shock. It was a black swan for them, but not for you, who fully expected the event.
Who knows what shocking event that will create the next fat tail for the stock market and/or the human race. One thing is for certain, it will be shocking for the majority because they have been trained by main stream media, maybe not as much for Zero readers.
Consensus reality is reality in a lot of ways. If the crowd you are in sees a giant purple elephant coming down the street and starts to panic, it doesn't matter whether or not it exists. That being said, if a real elephant is coming down the street and nobody else sees it, they will get crushed and you will not.
The problem is, in most cases running with the crowd works, that is why we are wired that way. Standing on your own and thinking for yourself has at least two major problems:
1. It is slow
2. If you start explaining how your reality diverges from consensus reality, people with think you are off and you risk being ostracized.
2. If you start explaining how your reality diverges from consensus reality, people with think you are off and you risk being ostracized.
I have never cared what people think. What is it to be ostracized from a group of asswipes anyway? That is like a bunch of children calling you doodoohead.
I've never cared much either. Makes me unpopular :)
you've hit a vein you'd do well to explore /mine, BurritoGas. . .
"thinking" is perspective, and it shapes behaviours. . . you write of observing the "reality" of a military airshow, with people cheering, national anthems, etc. - then contrasting that "reality" with posts here at Zero Hedge. . . both are real, coexist simultaneously, yes?
ponder the billions of realities coexisting simultaneously in this moment. . . then adjust yours accordingly. . . and keep challenging that "comfort zone" mind buffer.
best of luck to you. (genuinely)
Perception is reality. To Zerohedgers, armageddon is imminent. To Wall Street, more profits are imminent.
Dammit, don't you GET IT?
WE are the RESOURCES. Nothing happens without us. People, humans, citizens, grunts.
Money doesn't make things happen.
Weapons don't make things happen.
Petroleum doesn't make things happen.
It's US. You, me and that asshole neighbor of yours. Eventually we either stand up to the fear or we die in the dark.
Elections are coming up again. And while I don't believe in elections or tooth fairies anymore, it's a great opportunity to scare the shit out of their future owners.
It's time to start scaring the asshole candidates of all parties with rude, well-reasoned, leading questions that show you know they're all useless pieces of shit who don't deserve your civility, let alone your vote.
This isn't about Democrat versus Republican. This is about criminal versus Citizen.
Elections: Heads they win, tails you lose.
Years ago this essay/rant helped me kick the voting habit. It is dated but timely still. The quote is the last few paragraphs of a medium-sized essay.
"Every politician’s “platform” is a scaffold. Which of two fungible fakers assumes a particular office is a matter of decreasing relevance to reality. A voter is far more likely to be hit by a car on the way to the polls than s/he is of affecting the outcome of an election, to say nothing of changing real life.
How much lower will the vote totals go before the “winners” are ashamed or afraid to take office?
People aren’t as stupid as the politicians think. More and more of us are laughing off our “civic duty” to vote, rejecting the role of compulsory constituent."
What if they gave an election and nobody came? We’ll find out pretty soon.
http://www.inspiracy.com/black/abolition/electing.html
I had a (decidely non-Marxist) economics prof in university. I liked to get coffee with him after class and shoot the breeze. He was into game theory, and said that his research indicated that in any quasi-capitalist system - he didn't think there were any true capitalist systems in the world, with maybe HK and Singapore being the closest - the game was inevitably tilted in favour of those who had money, and that they would eventually have all (or virtually all) the money.
"Well" I asked "What happens then?".
"Forced redistribution, and then the game starts again".
Let's all welcome the day when FRN means "Forced redistribution notes"!
Your anaysis makes a lot of sense. But it is not entirely clear to me how QE2.0 created reserves can end up buying public assets. Not without the politicians and all they care about is the next election. Getting rid of the Fed would be nice. A first step might be creating gridlock and fear in Washington this November by turning over the control of Congress from the Democrat bums to the Republican bums?
no.. the only way to stop this is to be ready to eat rats... the host most die to kill the parasite at this stage
Starve them to death? We'd better be willing to resort to cannibalism.
It sounds like we've passed the tipping point. No matter what course the system takes they get richer and more powerful. They now own the system.
The only way to stop it is to end it... reset the whole system.
Just visualize Carlos Slim game plan...for latin america...voila!!!
One can make the claim, but it is not convincing.
Inflationary environments do not cause the government to need to "belt-tighten" as they have access to apparently unlimited funding and are not threatened with insolvency.
The route to private ownership of state assets is always through a default or austerity measure. Always. If the State borrows its own money, there is no de jure insolvency until the point of total collapse when the system deflates to 0.
Witness the trend today - governments who can inflate are seeing zero cost "capital" go to purchase bonds. What these are are a ticket to the upcoming liquidation. During stimulus or inflation environments, elite interests are content to acquire growing bond portfolios. During deflation or austerity, they invariably translate these into real assets.
Iceland is a classic example, in fact it has played out precisely as I just described. During Iceland's inflationary boom, nobody used cheap money to buy geothermal plants. They bought debt. After the system inflected (deflation), the powers are using these debts as entitlement claims to something of value. Their paper debt claims can *no longer* be satisifed with ponzi growth mechanics. Iceland cannot expect to creditgrow its way out of the mountain of claims. Outright printing is unacceptable to bondholders because it represents a default.
So the bondholders of Greece, Argentina, Iceland, who gorged themselves on debt claims during the time of cheap money and stimulus, now are asking for islands, gas assets, geothermal plants, etc.
The CB/sovereign spread trade is a global abomination. In essence, it gives free pass to any elite interest who has access to cheaper "money" from the CB to CAUSE inflation, buy gov't access, and with it bonds to "fund" the expansion, all while earning a nominal profit. Then when expansion can no longer be maintained, those same elites have a mountain of claims against the real productive capacity of the region.
This is in fact how the BOE and its agents wielded the Sterling Bill for centuries as a weapon of Empire. The global carry trade is merely an artifact.
The transfer of paper wealth will continue unabated in a stimulus environment; the elites will continue to stockpile claim tickets.
the solution is repudiation and a replacement of the entire monetary regime with Real Bills. Yes, end the Fed, end the carry trades, end the spread trades.
"the transfer of wealth will continue regardless of whether we are in an austerity or stimulus regime."
Again, I say let them have it all! It's clearly all worthless. It's a system that predicated on resources that will not be able to support it!
If people want to be free then they should just walk away from it all and not look to "fix the System" or punish the "greedy" (they'll get their comeuppance).
Glad you are so confident that they will get their comeuppance. I am not so sure. The same people/families who have been perpetrating this fraud through the millennia are still here. How many millions died in WWII, the killing fields in SE Asia, etc. The little people are gone, but the power brokers behind the scenes are still here. Not so sure there is an "escape". Total environmental collapse may be the only way out, but not sure any of us will survive that. 95% of all species that ever existed on Earth have gone extinct. We are in the middle of a mass extinction event now. Top of the food chain at the times of those events usually don't survive.
l'd still rather die as a human than live as a cockroach.
"the transfer of wealth will continue regardless of whether we are in an austerity or stimulus regime."
"THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES"
http://www.flagline.com/images/pirates/beatings-continue-shirt.jpg
Great Post, and this is why JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley financed ELX Futures (involved with Treasury futures).
Your theory is ALSO based on the "absolute NEED, or requirement, of FLOW... If you desire to label this "V" (velocity), so be it...
If, (and/or "when"), J6P REALLY decides to say "f*** it"... there won't be much recourse for them (the "rail" owners) with regards to "The DISTRIBUTION Nut" (which is all it's really about anyway)...
Is that "fees" I heard you say? Or did I mis-interpret?
That reply was based on the...
on Sun, 07/11/2010 - 00:03
post... I don't know why it showed up here... "But if I find out... I'LL KILL YOU" -Francis Soyer#462747
Bankers, lawyers...same difference.
Thank you Mr. Smith!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And, dearest Tyler, would you please consider making a permanent place on your home page for this, Mr. Smith's full circle detail list of the con that is destroying our country?
Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!