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Chaos in the Land of Oz
Chaos in the Land of Oz
Wizard of Oz: [speaking in a booming voice into microphone] I am the great and powerful... [then, realizing that it is useless to continue his masquerade, moves away from microphone, speaks in a normal voice]
Wizard of Oz: ... Wizard of Oz.
Last week, Elliott and I interviewed Russ Winter of Winter Watch at Wall Street Examiner about his take on the markets and the economy. Here's part I. ~ Ilene
Ilene: Hi Russ. So, tell us about life in the world of finance.
Russ: Right now, I'm very much focused on a phrase I call "The Wizard of Oz." The Wizard of Oz is the Federal Reserve, the governments, the U.S. Treasury, and the "Troika." You need to understand these organizations to invest today. You need to hire old apparatchiks from the old Soviet Union, because the basis of the 2009-2011 bull market is massive government intervention.
For instance, the spending of the U.S. Treasury, the U.S. government, right now is 25% of GDP. The norm is 18%. So that means 7% of GDP can be attributed to the government propping up this economy. You have huge transfer payments used for paying off banksters and keeping the system going. A lot of the transfers go to the wealthy "kleptocrats." That's one of the reasons we had a 400% increase in the price of Tiffany's, while Wal-Mart is on it's butt. Is it any mystery that protests against Wall Street and kleptocrats are on the rise?
So that's the effect. You really have to be an old apparatchik Russian guy; those guys would do really well in an environment like this.
Elliott: I remember back in the 70s, there were people who were "Kremlinologists" and "Kremlin watchers" and so it seems now that in order to be an investor you have to be a "Fedologist."
Russ: Yeah, it's ridiculous. Everybody is extremely focused on the Fed, every utterance, every rumor, every shill that they run. And they end up being pump-and-dumps a lot of times.
Elliott: There's Jon Hilsentrath with the Wall Street Journal, Bernanke's favorite "sounding board."
Russ: Absolutely, and Steve Liesman. He's a shill, and you can actually quote me on that. They run the rumors, the pump-and-dumps, that they need to operate. The problem for investors, small investors especially, is that if you're too tied in to what they're saying, you end up being victimized by the gaming. For instance, CNBC is a good source for figuring out what the current pump-and-dump schemes are.
Scarecrow: I haven't got a brain... only straw.
Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
Scarecrow: I don't know... But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking... don't they?
CNBC spent the last six, nine months pumping up emerging markets and commodities, and look what's happened to the investors who followed that? Emerging markets are now down on the order of 30%. There's a good sized commodity correction going on. It doesn't pay to buy these guys hook, line and sinker. It's dangerous. As a result of pumping up a massive Treasury bubble, the system has been able to maintain this 7% extra spending. But neither the Bubble nor the spending can be sustained.
Government borrowing is highly dependent on the Fed. It's not a real market, it's rigged. The Fed is far too much of a presence, and now we have an enormous unsustainable debt. And everybody's trading around what the Fed says, what they're gonna do, how they will interfere with the market.
Another aspect of this treasury bubble is that the government is going to be subjected to credit downgrades. Same thing that happened in Europe. Look at European yields, two, three years ago, look at the yields of Portugal, Ireland and Greece. The yields were two and three percent. Now they're double digits. Nobody can convince me that the US is immune to that. These are debt traps. You get into a situation where you can't borrow any more at these low interest rates. Once the interest rates start spiking, they'll lose control of the situation. It's a major game-changer.
And so I think investors and speculators need to put this into their thinking, tattoo it on their foreheads: the potential exists for the United States government to completely lose control of these ultra-low interest rates. The low interest rates don't really do any good. They punish savers. It's not good policy anyway, and when you get into a debt trap and credit downgrades, it spirals out of control. I think that's on the horizon.
The key to helping Europe is to shrink the banking sector. The banking sector is too large in all these countries. It's a parasite. The large banks provide no social good. But these interests, the interests of "banksters," have captured governments. The banksters control the governments and loot them endlessly. That's what these bailouts are about.
The old-style, regional small banks aren't the problem. The problem is we have a "too big to fail" system, and they just run these dynamite strapped routines, and they own the government.
So if you look at the discussion going on in Europe, it centers around the idea of debt forgiveness, maybe starting with Greece, writing off debt. But the banksters won't go along with that. That's the political battle going on in Greece.
Elliott: It sounds like the immovable object running into the irresistible force.
Russ: They control these governments. Even though there are popular movements, which may eventually vote these guys out, at the present time, we'll send Turbo Timmy Geithner over to Europe and he'll just run the same programs. He's totally corrupt, dangerous, and he'll pressure these guys to save the banking sector. That's a "dynamite straps" theory. They'll show up and say, "If you don't bail us out and save us, we'll blow up the world."
Ellott: Right, they were saying that back in '08, how if we didn't do the bailouts, we'd end up with martial law.
Russ: So here we are, three years later repeating the pattern. Now we have sovereign debt problems that are out of control. There has to be a major restructuring of debt in Europe, probably not just Greece, but also the other peripheral countries. Sure there has to be some austerity and some reform, but make the banksters take losses. If we don't see some major banks shutting down in this next six months, look out. We're heading a lot lower. Countries that do it right, laying the pain at the banksters' doorsteps, will start healing. There will be some pain, but there's pain already, and eventually they'll recover.
Ilene: So you see some hope that countries will restructure their debts and force the banks to take losses? It seems the 2008-09 meltdown and subsequent events showed that the law doesn't apply to these special bankster people. They got bailouts, loans from the Fed, outrageous sums of money for "bonuses", and only a token few were prosecuted. I wonder on what basis the Federal government and Fed had the legal authority to plunge the country so deeply into debt - to be extracted from taxpayers - for the purpose of bailing out private too-big-to-fail entities? If the situation was so dire that the world would end if the banks failed, the government should have taken them over, not saved them. So back to the question, what gives you hope that anything has changed?
Russ: I don't think it's going to be done politically. There are popular movements, people who hit the streets. The German perspective is probably the best. The country has a triple-A rating. The German people don't want to be dragged down into a tar pit, bailing out all these countries around Europe. If they stand up to these guys then there's hope, but I don't invest on hope. (See Russ's "Is Germany the Great Savior of Europe?")
I hate these kind of rallies, where they float a rumor that there's going to be another bailout and these "boys in the sandbox" get out and drive stocks up 6%. You'll notice that these rallies don't last because it's not sound economics.
Elliott: One of the things I'm trying to figure out is the Dollar. It ran in a channel between 73 and 76 for the last six months, and then in the last three weeks it broke out in a big way, and now it's trading in the 78 to 79 range.
Russ: A lot of that is probably technical. Many of these carry trades that have gone on around the world are all in dollars, you remember the cost of borrowing in dollars is nothing, if you do it right. So if you're a speculator you're borrowing dollars and jumping into emerging markets, or gold or commodities, or whatever, and then once those trades come undone, it's a technical factor that causes the dollar to rally.
Elliott: Do you see the Dollar breaking back down to the 73-76 range or below?
Russ: I don't know. The Dollar could go up, if this carry trade continues to unwind. I have a feeling right now that, for people out there in trouble, they keep running these rumors, to try to help them out.
Ilene: Do you mean the Banksters are running rumors to drive the Dollar down and the stock market up?
Russ: Yes, the people who run the trades, finance the trades, benefit from the fees and commissions, who skim the fractions off the trade, the pump and dumpsters, it all ties together. If you invest or speculate, you better understand the big picture.
There's also a lot of shorts in the market. People are classically over-trading the market. People have to, there's no return on their money, so they're in there playing something. You gotta play something, you gotta be short something, or you gotta be long something, or you gotta be doing a carry trade. That's because the banking sector is too large. It dominates our economy. The real economy has shrunken while these monkeys play these games.
The most bullish thing that could happen is for this system to come to a final end. Until that happens, I would not be a long term investor. Really, you can only gamble with the rest of these guys, and with a clear understanding of what is transpiring. To turn long-term bullish, we need to see these banking systems shrink, and a lot of debt get forgiven.
I could go on and on about moral hazard and the apparatchik Soviet Union Russian type behavior it engenders. Ultimately it comes back to shrinking the banking sector, making them take the hit, starting to forgive the debt - restructuring the debt, and resetting the plate for the whole economy. That means wiping out banksters, taking their equity, closing down their banks, taking their bondholders and wiping them out. That absorbs a lot of the debt out there and properly places it. To take that debt and put it on the back of Germany and France now is insane.
Now, the other aspect that's going on is that China has been a huge story. China is a disaster waiting to happen. I noted that on September 12 there was a story out of Shanghai where seven of these large operators, businesses, manufacturers just shut down the same day, leaving huge amounts of debt unpaid. Most of these guys fled the country. Now there are more and more of these stories involving hundreds if not thousands of firms. They haven't paid their workers. It's a slash and burn economy. There's totally inefficient development, waste, building unoccupied cities - vanity projects. Yet when you step back and look at China, 35% of their sewage is untreated. So they do everything out of order, everything is "big splash," something that could collect a fee or loot and steal, and put it in the ratlines rather than really solving the problem. I think that's very much what's happening in China.
Elliott: You know, it's kind of unfortunate to use the phrase "35% untreated sewage" and "big splash" in the same sentence.
Russ: (laughs) You got that right. It's a very, very unstable system. We have a boom/bust economy. When you print money the way they have, you distort the economy, you get strange things happening. You get a boom, and then all of a sudden, nine months later, you have a bust. It is not based upon proper development. It amazes me how this slash-and-burn mentality has taken hold. One of the stories you'll hear right now in the market is "buy big-cap multinationals. Cheap stocks." They sell at really low PE's, especially relative to treasuries. Well, you know, there's actually some truth to that, until you actually start digging down into the groups that constitute these multinationals. And I saw a great quote. I want to pass this on, from the CEO of Sanofi-Aventis (SNY). Sanofi is a major French drug company. His name is Christopher A. Viehbacher and he says "I am a bit envious of companies whose products have been accused of contributing to health problems. I'd like to have the same P/E as the people who make soda pop and potato chips." Then the article goes on to say that the soft drink sector now has an average P/E ratio of 16, according to Thomson Reuters, and Sanofi is 7.5. I think that illustrates what's going on. Companies are rewarded for irresponsible activity in our global economy.
Elliott: Well, there's definitely been a trend over the last 30 years. 30 years ago, corporations were expected to have a duty to the community, to their employees, as well as their investors. And now it's like the investors are completely paramount and everybody else isn't even on the radar.
Russ: It's just a mentality out there that you can get away with giving people diabetes, and get rewarded with a high P/E ratio and a great growth story, while a company like Sanofi (SNY) struggles to come up with a medicine to heal these people. Then the government comes in and controls drug prices, and tries to dictate to them. Yet they let these other guys run amok.
Why is it that Pepsi's at 16 times earnings, why is McDonald's at 16 times earnings, why are these drug companies selling for nothing? It's because the system is set up all wrong. Can it be reformed? I don't know. I think you just have to be very cynical about what you do. Try to invest as much with angels as much as you can. Don't try to stoop down to behaviors that everybody else is involved in, even though its very popular. As an investor, I'd look at a Sanofi over a Pepsi or a McDonalds. It's investing with angels.
Ilene: What other companies, besides Sanofi, do you like?
Russ: I have a theme called the third Industrial Revolution that relates to energy transformation away from fossil fuels (especially oil). I was doing some buying below SPY 1100 (but not now) in names like FWLT, COP, SHAW, GTAT, ASYS. I also like some other drug companies like AMGN and LLY. If I see names - I have a watch list - selling for under 5 times enterprise value to EBITDA in what I call "doing God's work" sector (the non-criminals), I take a look. I am shorting luxury retailers like TIF, WFM and ANF, and also XRT via selling naked calls (the premiums are high) at the upper end of the range. I am also short 2 and 5 year Treasury futures. My moves are covered in my Actionable Subscription service.
Elliott: In other words, try to find the people who are creating true value, real wealth and doing it without destroying everything around them.
Russ: Yeah, exactly.
Elliott: Well, we have to start thinking about what this economy is supposed to be doing again. Does the economy exist to serve the human race, or does the human race exist to serve the economy?
Russ: Or does the economy exist to serve a group of kleptocrats and crooks?
Elliott: Remember Dave Chappell and his interviews with Rick James, when Rick would say "Cocaine is a hell of a drug"? Dave would ask Rick about his bizarre behavior, the insane things that went on, and Rick would reply with "cocaine is a hell of a drug." I find myself thinking if you were to interview some of these people and they were to be as honest as Rick James, when you start asking them why were you doing this, the answer would be "money is a hell of a drug."
Ilene: In addition to money-lust, I think a quest for power goes along with it too.
Russ: Well, the system has been set up for the kleptocrats and crooks. There's no prosecution. Nobody has gone to jail for the 2008 scandals, unless it's just blatant, like Bernie Madoff. My big criticism of Presidente Hopium is that no one's gone to jail. He didn't have to deal with Republicans on this. He could have beefed up the Department of Justice and hired prosecutors. Why has he not laid a glove on these people? It's not an excuse he can lay at the foot of the Republicans, it's too late for that.
Ilene: Where are we headed?
Russ: There are people realizing this is not a sustainable system, but they've gotten so trapped into it. I don't think they can do more than "at the margin" type things. Geithner might go because Obama might decide that to get re-elected, he'll need more of a populist agenda, so he'll get rid of Geithner. They'll just replace him with another crony capitalist. I don't think the outcome is good. In Europe, I'm kind of interested to see if maybe they do some debt forgiveness there, for instance in Greece.
Elliott: Well, we've heard a lot about the possibility of "debt contagion" in Europe, if Greece were to default. I think what they're really afraid of is the idea of a debt forgiveness contagion spreading.
Russ: Well, that's what's required.
Elliott: Because once one guy gets forgiven over a giant debt, the next guy standing next to him goes "hey, wait, how come he got his debt forgiven, and I still have to carry this giant burden? Screw that! I want to get forgiven too!"
Russ: Right, well, these countries are trapped, they're in debt traps, and who loaned them the money? Typically this debt is held by the banking system.
But an indebted country has a moral obligation to default on that loan if paying it would mean starving its people. Extreme austerity is a trap. Defaulting is not that big of a deal. They did it in the 1980's with the Brady bonds. They did it in Brazil, in Argentina. Those countries got re-established, and here we are 20 years later. It's not the end of the world. Banks have been going out of business for centuries. Look at the United States, the British were constantly loaning money for railroad construction, canal construction, there were booms and busts. They lost money. And they'd come back two years later and do it all over again. So the idea that because some big banks go under its the end of the world is bullshit. It's not how banking and economic history has worked.
Wizard of Oz: You, my friend, are a victim of disorganized thinking. You are under the unfortunate impression that just because you run away you have no courage; you're confusing courage with wisdom.
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Bill Still's "The Money Masters" also goes into detail of money in society's history....its long, and very detailed, and very dense. But you learn a ton about how the Knight Templars where the first to come up with a branch banking concept, how goldsmiths in middle ages used fiat money to over leverage their control over governments, as well as the cronyism that has existed in America since its first national bank in 1809.
The air is dense. There's a reason. People's asses are against the wall.
One of the problems with Bill Still is that he is a Greenbacker, a firm believer in the very type of money that got us into this problem in the first place: FIAT. There are two types of fiat currency, both are nothing more than money substitutes, one is the type that is generally used today, that being a dual-tier system where bonds secure the currency and where the currency secure the bonds that secure the currency...both securities are nothing more than promises to pay without a real asset behind them. Bill Still supports a single-tier fiat currency system, one that has been tried many times before, each time it was tried it collapsed under hyper-inflation. A single-tier system is just printing money directly with no asset backing it but the promise to pay by some government, but as we know, governments cannot be trusted with the power to print because they end up printing, and printing and printing, in the end they not only destory the currency, but the economy as well.
If you want a far more substantial video to watch, I suggest this one:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-466210540567002553&hl=en
Thank you for bringing The Oz's politcal background to readers.
The scare crow is thought to be William R Hearst, who sold free coinage silver to the Feds for $1 per OZ, and paid $.47 per Oz on the open market. Ripping off the US taxpayor. Then not supporting the silver backed currency after amassing a fortune in dollars. The "crime of 1873" took away silver as money and halved the money supply, causing the depression that repo'ed Dorthy's family farm.
Some more interesting facts:
The Rosetta stone (known only for language translation) described routine debt forgiveness during the change in Kings. Debt slaves were freed. Creditors had to pay taxes.
Forgiveness translates to return to mother. It concerns debt slave forgiveness and contolling creditors, not bad behavior, or Christians or God. Religion is a distraction from the truth that creditors need to be controlled, not debtors.
The reason Islam expanded was by granting debt forgiveness to conquered societies. Islam was welcomed as a relief to creditor control over gorvernment. Over throwing the government=debt relief. It isn't about religion. Its about debt.
Lombard (the old word for creditor/pawnshop) Street in San francisco, was named such, because it is the most crooked steet in the world.
Student loans create modern debt pawns.
The polically controlled media is hiding the true history of debt forgiveness. Its coming and TPTB are scared.
"The reason Islam expanded was by granting debt forgiveness to conquered societies. Islam was welcomed as a relief to creditor control over gorvernment. Over throwing the government=debt relief. It isn't about religion. Its about debt."
Do you have a source for that? Or, better yet, multiple sources?
Jews=usery; just look at your credit card interest rate. Islam: U want it, U pay for it. Now who's evil? Oh, I forgot. The Jews will let you drown your debt slavery in alcohol.
If I had to choose between a beer with Bibi Netanyahu, or a gay sex romp with the late Arafat....
Um, tough choice. Not.
Keiser Report: Dog & Pony Show (E196)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d8PCox-kUY
Uploaded by RussiaToday on Oct 13, 2011
This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, talk about the Sarkozy-Merkel dog and pony show announcing the plan without a plan and about when an asset isn't really an asset. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser interviews Ellen Brown, author of Web of Debt, about the German Landesbanks and a Swiss community currency.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2ui7VmMYv4&list=FLbRZZAixeFXZfqszvKisEdQ&index=3
CBS News: The Canadian Civil Liberties Association report, "Breach of the Peace," notes concerns that POLICE INFORMANTS may have supported the vandalism. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/02/27/g20-report.html
G20 activists say they feel "betrayed" by 'Orwellian secret police'
http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/119050--g20-activis...
Some G20 activists held a press conference Tuesday claiming they were "betrayed" by undercover police officers as part of an "Orwellian" infiltration in the lead-up to the international summit last June. The activists, led by Centre for Police Accountability founder Davin Charney, outlined instances in which undercover cops posed as protest organizers. One young woman from Guelph expressed anger over the fact she was unknowingly roommates with an officer pretending to be an activist.
http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/119050--g20-activis...
Flashback: Be aware of Infiltration of Protest groups.
Report: Police Infiltrated Protest Groups
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/06/24/g20-report-police-infiltr_n_883839.html
CBC News: G20/G8 summit opponents infiltrated by police
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/02/27/g20-report.html
Federal Reserve Private banking system which answers to no one not even the government, as stated by Allan Greenspan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g1UtFDytfk
Credit/Source footage used : Into The Fire - Full Film by PressForTruth.ca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zejD0UkMGGY
Stephen Harper Met G20 finance banking heads then says "Its a loss of national sovereignty for Canada"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97FX5QU07j8
Quebec police admit going undercover at montebello protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg
G20 Police spotted in Black Bloc clothing -Toronto G20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QD3C7cgpW4
Video Report: Tactics, Agent Provocateurs?/Undercover Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUInlsNkebw
BBC News: G20 London Agent Provocateurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi3HI5xa_BI
Gov. Scott Walker called for Provocateurs/Black Bloc to Disrupt Protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Tr6zX1Z6sI
There is no time left to be complacent. The world is changing now. Not tomorrow. Be part of the change for good. Embrace The love. Not the fear. Let go your attachment to the old world and embrace the new.
BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE - Join Occupy WallStreet
http://www.facebook.com/OccupyWallSt
"Before this victory is won, some will have to get thrown in jail some more, but we shall overcome. Don't worry about us before the victory is won, some of us will lose jobs, but we shall overcome. Before the victory is won, some will be misunderstood and called bad names and dismissed as rebel-rousers and agitators But we shall overcome.
And I'll tell you why.
We shall overcome because the arch of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." - Martin Luther King
Law enforcement types should be reached out to by protesters. Give them flyers, talk to them rather than shout at them. They will have a conversation with you if you are not confrontational. A lot of them just dont know.
I wonder sometimes if Steve Liesman is guilty of some kind of criminal act? I know misleading an investor as a financial advisor is criminal.
Same question would apply to Uncle Warren Buffett, who encouraged the sheeple to jump into BAC at $8, now trading in the $5-$6 range and headed for Insolvency, Round 2.
Why should it be that only a few people on the earth know that silver is probably the most precious metal known to mankind? I think their big secret is getting out.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road, Follow the Yellow Brick Road (GOLD)
Land of OZ (ounces)
Get it?
I'm certain some of you already have the tip of the Millenium and have acted accordingly.
the origional slippers in the book were silver symbolizing the free silver movement unlike the great oz's emerald city.
derp
Same ol' same ol' without a clue.
Killing all the banksters tomorrow might be fun won't solve anything. The debt is irrelevant, as long as the Treasury continues to borrow, service costs will be minuscule and can be monetized for longer than you will be alive. What matters is that none of it matters.
I love these broad brush 'statements of hope' that installing a gold standard of getting rid of the TBTF banks will 'let the economy heal'. Bullshit, the economy itself is the problem, healing it makes it more destructive. Consequently, it cannot be healed. Hello!
Inputs are being repriced: long overdue! Fuel and waste-carrying cost are rising, cutting labor costs has proven itself counterproductive and profits are sacrosanct (no profits no businesses) what can be done? Borrow or cut inputs. The economy is saturated with debt, there is nothing left but to cut inputs which is next.
Americans better get ready: the trucks that carry 'food' from the shit-factories to your grocery store run on diesel fuel ... diesel roulette.
LOL! At least we'll have something to eat after killing the banksters when those trucks stop showing up (as you predict). At the end of the day, that is still moving forward.
Nothing changes until the entire monetary system is based in reality and a certain class of fucknuts are no longer simply allowed to "print" prosperity for themselves while adding NO REAL value to the system. We will end up there eventually regardless. Whether or not we get there via a very bloody or less bloody path is up to the TPTB and the size of the haircut they take. Lots of folks consider themselves part of TPTB and "rich", this is one massive illusion that comes crashing down very quickly as fiat races to the bottom.
Hedge accordingly.
Decent article, however it falls woefully short in that I'm kinda surprised it didn't mention into the heroin-injected white elephant in the room: derivatives. Derivatives and their extent of system destabilizing influence puts the present situation in a different category than in the past. They are indeed unregulated financial weapons of mass destruction. Unwinding them without tipping the entire global economic cart over into the sewer-water ditch is monumentally challenging. And this is one main reason the TBTF banks are being kept afloat by any means necessary.
TBC
This country has enjoyed unimaginable luxuries for decades, so long that we have forgotten the differences between needs and wants. From an old country boy's perspective, we are on an unalterable path that will test us on this knowledge. Many will fail the test.
I always enjoy reading ilene's stiff...brief,yet poignant.
Dorothy would have been smart to have gone into the shelter (bug out place) with the rest of the family, but she fell asleep (?) and had a dream. The tornado is the financial vortex we find ourselves in now, some living in a dream and some in reality below ground.
The wise forsees the evil and hides himself (Proverbs).
Wide is the road that leads to destruction and many there be who turn into it, but narrow the way that leads to life. Who said this?
Follow him.
this is America so it better be a hollywood ending. Here's one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83czSxkK46I&feature=player_detailpage
This won't come to an end until we don't know anyone, who knows anyone, that has a job that pays a living wage.
Great interview, except . . .
Investing with the allotropic pharmaceutical drug companies is "investing with angels?" WTF?
The problem with the Greenbacks, Ellen Brown, return-printing-money-power-to-the-CONgress movement (solution offered by Bill Still's "Secret of Oz" film) is that the economic and financial collapse of the U.S. and the Western economies is a fundamental problem rooted in greed and the darker side of human nature. This also applies to those advocating the gold standard such as Gary North and the Austrian school disciples as the holy grail of solving all problems.
Until the masses, i.e., citizens or ordinary people, change themselves and subjugate their own greed and the other dark sides of human nature, it doesn't matter if money is printed by government or backed by gold. Sooner or later it will always end up the way it is right now.
Ask not, what your country can do to you, ask what you can do to your country.
Geithner might go because Obama might decide that to get re-elected, he'll need more of a populist agenda, so he'll get rid of Geithner. They'll just replace him with another crony capitalist.
I am guessing the only place this will be posted is on the Goldman Sachs in house job opportunity board for employees and alumni.
Is Blythe the Wicked Witch of the West?
He he hee! I'll short you all my pretties!!!
III
"Steve Liesman. He's a shill, and you can actually quote me on that."
Fine interview, Ilene. "The Wizard of Oz." I recall the scene when those dreary-looking apple trees -- actually, they had the very same long, drawn, sulking faces as John Kerry ( pre-Botox ) -- begin pelting our intrepid band with apples. A sour lot. I wonder if Liesman likes Macintosh or Granny Smith ?
now continue to stack, now go!,
Could have at least acknowledged Bill Still's "The Secret of Oz",runs to about 1hr 50 and well worth watching,gives an alternative to the current debt based money system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U71-KsDArFM&feature=player_embedded
My Favorite..."Steve Liesman. He's a shill, and you can actually quote me on that. They run the rumors, the pump-and-dumps, that they need to operate."
Enjoyed the interview Ilene
Thanks
Me too. Thanks Ilene. I also love anyone who can cite Dave Chappelle. That man was the funniest guy on TV.
"People are classically over-trading the market."
Point taken.
Great article, absolutely perfect. I just love seeing other people know the truth too.
Fantastic interview. This guy has hit a nail in the head.
Great article!!! I absolutely have to rewatch the "Wizard" Milestones
As long as dorothy doesn't give up her silver, the witch is powerless. Great story.
Hippies watch it with Pink Floyd 'Dark side of the moon' playing, cue it up when Dorothy sees munchkinland. Sposed to be weird.
The tin man is the factory workers, The scarecrow is the farmers and the lion is the politicians.
The Wizard of Oz is a metaphor for the Christian path, I always thought.
The yellow brick/Golden road.
The Emerald city is Wall street,
The wicked witch of the west is Bernanke,
The Flying Monkeys are his banker pal's.
OZ is probably of the house of the red shield.
Scarecrow is Bush,
Tin man is Obama,
Cowardly Lion is the American people?
The Pink horse must be Bwaney Fwank and the blue horse must be Dodd.
The lollypop guild is Z.Her's.
Fishin for metaphores, but they are there, must watch it again.
Dorothy is ???????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_CAs3q7G48
Dorothy is Liberty, as in the statue: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=wizard+of+oz,dorothy.&hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&biw=1024&bih=653&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=dgduJDd0e11VCM:&imgrefurl=http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/25/wizard-of-oz-dakota-fanning&docid=BsWxgwvobuTTSM&imgurl=http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2009/8/25/1251210632018/Judy-Garland-as-Dorothy-i-001.jpg&w=460&h=276&ei=y46WTqOcFbKPigKf9tC7DQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=84&vpy=367&dur=668&hovh=174&hovw=290&tx=144&ty=202&sig=116077338499847321814&page=1&tbnh=133&tbnw=177&start=0&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0
Scarecrow the farmer. Tinman the symbol of production. And OZ is the ounce. I have many OZ's.
Redundant post, I since see.
-1 self imposed.
Proper self governance, bitchez.
Wow, and it's a guy from the Wall Street examiner. And there I thought all market journalists were retarded.
There's quite a few "establishment" types who are actually undermining the System. Today Limbaugh spent his entire show attacking "Republican oligarchs" (by name) and driving a wedge between TP and Repubs. If TP goes 3P, that'll re-elect B.H. ...and precipitate Civil War. First Tuesday in November, 2012. Then: 60 days to Fort Sumter.
You're thinking of Lee Adler. Russ has a pretty good head on his shoulders. Adler should go back to being a home inspector.
And I apologize for that last statement, but, I'm just not quite in a forgiving mode when it comes to Lee. He made some very unkind remarks about Ron Paul that still stick in my craw.
Awesome interview and says everything as trueful as can be said the only thing I can say is that there is little hope of a good outcome when it would require the people in charge to take a hit and the people in charge are the banks so I think first there is pain 100% and a lot of pain and panic then maybe something goood can come of it.
I like my long term Silver/Gold and my shorts the whole market then when things are crashing and everyone is freakin out I will probably start readjusting everything but for now just going to hunker down and wait for the fireworks.
Did you know that in the Original Wizard of OZ, Dorothy's slippers were made of sliver and not Ruby? Silver oz, get it? Anyway, usless information. Carry on.
III
O.K 'Ilene' Still smart as hell and I love your break it down as you see it take.
I maintain my view which is that the garbage 'politicians' need to swing on this.
They are like lying, cheating, spouses.
Garbage.
Free markets would be unlikely to allow the triple xxx degree of risk we look at today.
REAL, marvelous, lovely, individual humans get fucked up by these stupid attempts to avoid short term pain.
M.Scott Peck. The road less travelled.
Grow up time.
HT to Bill Still's Secret of Oz here?
Does this mean Barry & Timmy & Ben will give Bankfein another Billion in Bonus Money this year?
Financial-tErrorists bitchez, as Max-the-Axe Keiser makes clear even the Police-State is WAY too brainwashed to realize it's been continually robbed, and their families stabbed repeatedly in the back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zpp3BNUgGM&feature=player_embedded