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Ron Paul’s Legacy: A Complete Audit Of The Secretive Banking Cartel?
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
They only bubble up rarely, these scandals at the Federal Reserve System, but when they do, they're doozies, involving huge amounts of money, massive conflicts of interest, all-out manipulation, collusion, favoritism, dizzying cronyism.... And yet, over the 100 years that the Fed has existed, it has done an excellent job in one of its other primary functions, maintaining the dollar, which has lost only 96% of its value—instead of 100%.
The latest scandal is the Libor fiasco that is spawning worldwide investigations of the largest banks, going back years. The New York Fed under its President Timothy Geithner knew of the manipulations as early as 2007, and knew it involved banks of which it was one of the regulators. There were some hush-hush contacts with British regulators, and that was it. Nothing changed. Status quo maintained.
Just about then, the financial crisis began to expose the house of cards that financial institutions had become. Bear Stearns was saved. During the ensuing bailout mania of 2007 – 2009, the New York Fed, under the same management, handed trillions of freshly printed dollars to the same banks that it knew were manipulating Libor. It was done in secret, and the public wouldn’t have known who got what, how the decisions were made, why Lehman wasn’t bailed out though Goldman was, had it not been for the audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) as authorized by the Dodd-Frank financial reform act [for some gory details, read... The GAO Audit of the Fed Doesn’t Call It ‘Corruption’ but it should].
During the peak of the financial crisis, Bloomberg sued the Fed to gain access to information relating to the trillions being passed out in secret and in all haste. It won! Finally, November 2011, the Fed dumped 29,000 pages of documents that revealed how many trillions its cronies had received.
The audit results and the revelations from the Fed’s data dump came way late. Popular anger had subsided into a low simmer. Other priorities had edged to the top. And once again, nothing changed at the otherwise hermetically sealed fortress of the Fed. Status quo was successfully maintained.
It remains a secretive banking cartel with unchecked powers. Bankers, top industrialists, and some economists get together with total impunity to engage in market manipulation and price fixing with impact across the globe, including interest rates that savers receive when they hand over their money to these banks—which is zero or just about zero (and negative after inflation).
Hence the need for regular audits—assuming that the country even needs a central bank of this type, though not everyone, including Congressman Ron Paul, thinks so. This audit would be different than the bloated “financial” audits done annually by Deloitte (2011 audit). It would be a complete audit by the GAO of the Federal Reserve System, including the FMOC.
Fed Chairman Bed Bernanke called it a “nightmare scenario” that would create “political influence” and have a “chilling effect.” Indeed, a nightmare for the banking cartel, with a chilling effect on the shenanigans being perpetrated.
Now, the Republicans have an opportunity. Ron Paul is retiring from Congress after 24 plus years of going after the Fed [read.... Ron Paul Slugs At The Fed One More Time]. But during his primary campaign, he gained a lot of supporters, and now it appears that there might be critical mass to push a complete Fed audit into the dynamics of the Republican National Convention on August 27—and elevate it to a plank in the platform.
“It’s good economics and it’s good legislation,” Paul said, “but it’s also good politics, because 80% of the American people agree with it.” But it will be an uphill battle against powerful interests:
Congress. It’s dependent on the Fed. The deficit will be around $1.3 trillion this year, a vote-buying scheme without peer. In a few weeks, gross national debt will exceed $16 trillion. This ballooning debt needs to be funded and rolled over at near zero cost, and the Fed has promised to make that happens—regardless of what it may do to the real economy. So Congress can’t afford to upset the status quo. And it doesn’t want a Fed audit.
Then there is the financial industry, including the TBTF banks, their stakeholders, and large corporations. Many of them were direct recipient of the Fed’s largesse. They want QE and status quo. They want to get bailed out next time. None of them want a Fed audit.
Mitt Romney has been dodging the issue, but given his private equity background, he is unlikely to be gung ho about a Fed audit. Resistance is bipartisan, however, and the White House certainly doesn’t want one.
But it brings together interesting bedfellows: the Tea Party, Ron Paul supporters, independents of all stripes, moderate democrats, liberal democrats, all the way out to the left wing. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who calls himself a socialist, is a vocal supporter of Fed audits. It’s a mirror of America. And so, if Republicans want to garner support where it would normally be difficult to find, a strong audit-the-Fed plank in their platform might do wonders.
Here is an insanely awesome and hilarious cartoon by Ben Garrison on how Ron Paul is shedding light on the horrid creatures “underneath” the Fed.
And here I am in a conversation with Max Keiser on the Keiser Report, discussing bubbles, central banks, NIRP, and “stupidity arbitrage” (video).
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Taking another flight of fantasy, AnAnonymous accumulates more frequent flyer miles:
What do you are next telling, beliefing in the Saint Claus, Teeths Faerie, Mister Hankey, or Easter Island Bunny? Made me laugh.
Waoooo, congratulatings, your flight of fantasy seating has being now promoted to first class with bonus the points. While spinning tales of imaginationary, next expostulating on great healthingness with vigour of big banks of Europe and US of A, as revealed by stress tests efficaciously.
Indeed.
When this happens, the answer is known: the audit was fixed, because a true audit would have given that the FED is riddled with malfunctions.
the "malfunctions" are obviously part of the "strategy".
The Fed does exactly what it was designed to do.
It has cost more lives and destruction over the last 100 years to the American people and the world, than any 'terrorist group'.
The Fed is the largest Terrorist group in the world. Compared to Bernanke, the Devil is actually a really nice guy.
Federal Reserve audit discussed by Harry Reid in 1995 as he addresses the Senate.
http://blogsmithconsulting.blogspot.com/2012/07/harry-reid-in-1995-about-auditing-fed.html
If I had to guess.
Regarding the Financial Times headline that the CFTC was dropping it's 4 year investigation into the most obvious of obvious price suppression of the Silver price.
"What did you expect?"
Bart Chilton had some decisions to make if this headline turns out to be correct.
Three different sources say that they had either spoken to or received e-mails from Bart Chilton completely denying the FT article and saying that no CFTC decision had been made. Mr. Chilton says different things to different people and was only playing good cop but ultimately is not truthful. Until Bart throws us under the bus, he is one of the good guys. Naive? Maybe, but...
Bart deserves the benefit of the doubt. He and he alone was the reason Bill Murphy got to testify before the CFTC, he was the reason that Adrian Douglas (a brilliant human being) who was not scheduled to testify was allowed to speak from the audience AND the reason Andrew McGuire's evidence and e-mails were read into the testimony.
Bart Chilton in no way was obligated to push for any of this. He has been under no obligation to publicly say that he believed something illegal was occurring in the Silver pits. Actually he has been FULFILLING his obligations to the public while Gary Gensler has tried to put a muzzle on it and fulfill his obligations to his masters.
We will very soon (hopefully) find out what exactly the CFTC plans to do as they must make an actual announcement as opposed to allowing a newspaper to just run the headline and be done with it. It is even possible that Bart himself got thrown under the bus by Gary (Goldman) Gensler. It is possible that Gensler has already formed the votes needed to drop this and contacted the Financial Times himself or through back channels and Mr. Chilton has no knowledge of it.
Has "our" one hope for justice turned out to be like all of the rest?
Mr. Chilton really only has 3 choices if the investigation is dropped. He can remain silent, he can speak out, or he can resign AND speak out.
The sad thing is that SO MUCH evidence has been dropped in the lap of the CFTC by Bill Murphy, Chris Powell, Andrew McGuire, Ted Butler, David Morgan and many more. Even the briefest of looks under the hood using the bare minimum of common sense would lead to the finding of price suppression. The CFTC really didn't need to do much digging because they were GIVEN the evidence for years before the investigation finally got started and since then. They have been able to actually watch, first hand, as prices were suppressed. They were given the road map, told when it would happen, been told afterwards "see, just as we told you it would happen", yet...it took over 4 years. ...to still not find anything?
There is a paper trail for EVERYTHING, for every single TRADE. All the CFTC would have to do is pull all of the trades for any day that Silver "water-falled". Then, pick any other "waterfall day" and ...see if the same names pop up as sellers. Are these sellers really "hedging"? Yes? OK, show us the long positions please. This is really REALLY simple stuff, so simple that a 2nd grader could head the investigation and within a week's time start pointing fingers screaming fire!
Imagine the fines, the jail time, the forced bankruptcies (think Hunt bros.), if anyone outright BOUGHT Silver and MADE it's price rise? Would it even matter if the buyer paid all cash for all physical, no paper or contracts involved, just bought tonnes and tonnes of metal...do you think the MIB might show up at his front door?
Back in 2005, George Bush signed an executive order allowing (call this "immunizing" under the interest of National Security NSA) any institution that was acting under National Security interests. Financial institutions have not had to report various losses and been allowed to falsify their books amongst other "wrongs" in the interest of national security. This executive order would obviously pertain not only to institutions, it would cover regulatory bodies and the regulators themselves, exchanges and their principals, who knows, maybe even judges themselves have immunity?
Could it be that this is the reason that day is now night and black is now white?
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com
probably like many other things, the federal government can't properly investigate wrong doing because it is the federal government that is doing the wrong. we are becoming a police state in truth.
the exchange stabilization fund (http://www.marketskeptics.com/2011/06/the-esf-and-its-history.html) is likely the source of the market manipulations (and hardly just precious metals). imo blythe masters is telling the truth when she says j p morgan does not have enormous silver short positions of its own. these are likely held for its client, the u.s. government. please see http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/08/lauren-lyster-interview...
I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief the Ron has no children
A Romney and Ron Paul ticket would win in a landslide, but, Ron Paul wouldn't accept it, and Romney isn't smart enough to think of it.
I wish. Instead, he dropped a turd in Kentucky.
Really? And you base that on what vote, dummy? Take that bag off your head.
yes rand ain't the man his daddy is. still, there are many worse in the republican party.
ron paul has garnered many followers and influenced the thinking of many more. for instance, gary johnson is a relatively attractive ex new mexico governor and 2012 libertarian presidential candidate.
these political currents are eddying toward the mainstream.
Johnson is about as libertarian as Oblamebush.
The Criminals have control of the printing press, and they have 10,000 layers of well paid criminal thugs protecting them. The war continues, but they are enslaving our children at younger ages than ever. We need to counter attack by telling the truth to our children at younger ages than ever, to prevent them from taking out interest bearing loans and becoming enslaved to the Banker Gods for life. Good vs Evil. The Bankers vs the People. Citizens vs the Criminals. Truth vs Lies. Main stream vs Higher Consciousness. Hell, they're even using subtle mind control in childrens cartoons. FIGHT BACK!