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"The Illuminati Were Amateurs" - Matt Taibbi Explains How "Everything Is Rigged"
From Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, back to his best, most floral of writing styles:
Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever
The Illuminati were amateurs. The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals the real international conspiracy: There's no price the big banks can't fix
Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything.
You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in which at least three – and perhaps as many as 16 – of the name-brand too-big-to-fail banks have been manipulating global interest rates, in the process messing around with the prices of upward of $500 trillion (that's trillion, with a "t") worth of financial instruments. When that sprawling con burst into public view last year, it was easily the biggest financial scandal in history – MIT professor Andrew Lo even said it "dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scam in the history of markets."
That was bad enough, but now Libor may have a twin brother. Word has leaked out that the London-based firm ICAP, the world's largest broker of interest-rate swaps, is being investigated by American authorities for behavior that sounds eerily reminiscent of the Libor mess. Regulators are looking into whether or not a small group of brokers at ICAP may have worked with up to 15 of the world's largest banks to manipulate ISDAfix, a benchmark number used around the world to calculate the prices of interest-rate swaps.
Interest-rate swaps are a tool used by big cities, major corporations and sovereign governments to manage their debt, and the scale of their use is almost unimaginably massive. It's about a $379 trillion market, meaning that any manipulation would affect a pile of assets about 100 times the size of the United States federal budget.
It should surprise no one that among the players implicated in this scheme to fix the prices of interest-rate swaps are the same megabanks – including Barclays, UBS, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and the Royal Bank of Scotland – that serve on the Libor panel that sets global interest rates. In fact, in recent years many of these banks have already paid multimillion-dollar settlements for anti-competitive manipulation of one form or another (in addition to Libor, some were caught up in an anti-competitive scheme, detailed in Rolling Stone last year, to rig municipal-debt service auctions). Though the jumble of financial acronyms sounds like gibberish to the layperson, the fact that there may now be price-fixing scandals involving both Libor and ISDAfix suggests a single, giant mushrooming conspiracy of collusion and price-fixing hovering under the ostensibly competitive veneer of Wall Street culture.
Why? Because Libor already affects the prices of interest-rate swaps, making this a manipulation-on-manipulation situation. If the allegations prove to be right, that will mean that swap customers have been paying for two different layers of price-fixing corruption. If you can imagine paying 20 bucks for a crappy PB&J because some evil cabal of agribusiness companies colluded to fix the prices of both peanuts and peanut butter, you come close to grasping the lunacy of financial markets where both interest rates and interest-rate swaps are being manipulated at the same time, often by the same banks.
"It's a double conspiracy," says an amazed Michael Greenberger, a former director of the trading and markets division at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and now a professor at the University of Maryland. "It's the height of criminality."
The bad news didn't stop with swaps and interest rates. In March, it also came out that two regulators – the CFTC here in the U.S. and the Madrid-based International Organization of Securities Commissions – were spurred by the Libor revelations to investigate the possibility of collusive manipulation of gold and silver prices. "Given the clubby manipulation efforts we saw in Libor benchmarks, I assume other benchmarks – many other benchmarks – are legit areas of inquiry," CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton said.
But the biggest shock came out of a federal courtroom at the end of March – though if you follow these matters closely, it may not have been so shocking at all – when a landmark class-action civil lawsuit against the banks for Libor-related offenses was dismissed. In that case, a federal judge accepted the banker-defendants' incredible argument: If cities and towns and other investors lost money because of Libor manipulation, that was their own fault for ever thinking the banks were competing in the first place.
"A farce," was one antitrust lawyer's response to the eyebrow-raising dismissal.
"Incredible," says Sylvia Sokol, an attorney for Constantine Cannon, a firm that specializes in antitrust cases.
All of these stories collectively pointed to the same thing: These banks, which already possess enormous power just by virtue of their financial holdings – in the United States, the top six banks, many of them the same names you see on the Libor and ISDAfix panels, own assets equivalent to 60 percent of the nation's GDP – are beginning to realize the awesome possibilities for increased profit and political might that would come with colluding instead of competing. Moreover, it's increasingly clear that both the criminal justice system and the civil courts may be impotent to stop them, even when they do get caught working together to game the system.
If true, that would leave us living in an era of undisguised, real-world conspiracy, in which the prices of currencies, commodities like gold and silver, even interest rates and the value of money itself, can be and may already have been dictated from above. And those who are doing it can get away with it. Forget the Illuminati – this is the real thing, and it's no secret. You can stare right at it, anytime you want.
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Rape, pillage, THEN burn.
"It's a double conspiracy," says an amazed Michael Greenberger, a former director of the trading and markets division at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and now a professor at the University of Maryland. "It's the height of criminality."...
Thanks for the update Greenberger, Now go home and get your fuckin' shinebox.
No doubt at all.
When i spoke of this over 7 years ago, I was scoffed at. Even by graduates of Stanford, Harvard, etc who could not understand the role of the Fed and that it was a private bank.
When they own the media and the crooks in the Governments around the Globe, it was a piece of cake.
Gangsters had their own limited territories. For the Banksters, the world was their playground.
Banksters are the lowest form of vermin life on this planet
Now the unwinding has started, as it surely must, let us ensure that action is taken to ensure that this never ever happens again.
Eric Holder , the man who said the the Banks are Too Big to Prosecute needs to named as an accessory to the crimes committed by them. Treason is cause enough, however.
So, my question to you is.....if this site, which serves the pm industry well, causes you to purchase said "commodity" and profits from it. Which side of the manipulation equation do the Tylers (if they're even the original Tylers) belong?
Being erased and banded in 3...2...1...
Why does everyone think that their shot at 'The Tylers" is going to be black-bagged?
You ain't no fuckin unique snowflake, now put your fuckin head down and row!
And if the internet "causes me" to do anything I will suck on a gun barrel.
Its a website. Not a cult.
If I am going to belong to a cult, I will be the leader.
pods
Pods if I were Tyler I would temporarily ban you right now just for the funny of it.
I might vote for pods - go for it!
:)
I am like herpes, I will just come back. Easy to spot too, just look for the new fish bloviating all over the comments section who signs his posts. (caught hell about that way back)
If it were up for a vote, I would probably vote against me too. Everyone needs a smackdown now and again. Keeps ya honest.
pods
... better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven ...
Ooo, proper lil Satanist you, Brindle, poor troll. Show us yer knickers, mate, just for a larf.
Better to laugh with the sinners than cry with saints ...
The Tylers have "nuts" and will address you instead of being some nameless pussy and scrub the boards. i appreciate your gall to state what you believe and FUCK YOU.
Marley, dope.
I have no problem with those that put their money where their mouth is. You're barking up the wrong tree...
Marley... You didn't read the full disclosure policy... Which may be because the link doesn't work anymore...
http://www.zerohedge.com/content/zero-hedge-conflictsfull-disclosure-policy
The difference is that whilst libor did not rely on any real trades to occur, for the ISDAFIX fixing to actually move it requres REAL trades. Real trades move markets. Pretty hard to say the thing was rigged when you are trading at the price.
Taibbi has done a good job for Rolling Stoners, but he is shocked SHOCKED that there is gambling going on in this Democrap establishment.
Nazionism, Matt. Deal with that awkward story.
He's REPORTING it as such. I didn't read the article (because it's all a broken record and as long as we keep running with the One Big Lie- perpetual growth on finite planet all else is dwarfed/moot), so I guess I cannot speak from firsthand knowledge, but did Taibbi state the HE HIMSELF was shocked, or was he framing it as though people/readers would/should be shocked?
He is shocked so he claims by his writing, and shocks his readers, so Rolling Stoners hope. That's their failed 60s politics coming back to bite them in the face, and they look to blame rather than explain their failed politics, economics, finance and social experiments.
Rolling Stone readers ... not the sharpest tool in the abandoned shed. That conclusion is the most half-assed thing I've read all week. "If true", "can be", "may be" ... grow some fuckin balls dude.
It's real. It always has been. Your were lied to. Get over it.
Both Rolling Stone and Taibbi were in the tank for Barry and Crew, RS running 3 covers in 2008 with Barry looking like Left Wing Jesus, and building him up to be America's messiah. For his first term Taibbi kept up his Journolist duties, attacking the Rethugs while protecting the Democraps. Now that Barry's safe, it's okay for him to channel the ghosts of William Greider and Hunter S. Thompson so that the magazine can pretend to Speak Truth To Power.
But it ain't truth and they are the power. So fuck 'em. It's just more lies.
And yes Greider ain't dead, but he writes for The Nation, a rag that nobody reads, so he may as well be.
I quit reading RS when they got rid of the ads for baby woodrose seeds, roughly 1978, also about the time they changed their logo to a more corporate one. If you can't buy fucking baby woodrose seeds to get high on, because RS sold out and wont run the ads, then the rag is a bankster run sold out POS and who needs it.
Of course Matt doesn't tell you the whole story because after all, he's not a legal scholar and he's obviously cherry-picked the reactions of such per rules for yellow journalism. Kevin LaCroix does a pretty good job of it, though.
Most important sentence is at the end: Of course, Judge Buchwald’s rulings must also survive any appeal if they are to be of reliable comfort to the banks involved.
-------------------------------------------
FAIR USE from:
http://www.dandodiary.com/2013/04/articles/libor-scandal-1/big-news-consolidated-liborscandal-antitrust-and-rico-claims-dismissed/
Published ByKevin M. LaCroix A periodic journal containing items of interest from the world of directors & officers liability, with occasional commentary Home > Libor Scandal > Big News: Consolidated Libor-Scandal Antitrust and RICO Claims Dismissed Big News: Consolidated Libor-Scandal Antitrust and RICO Claims Dismissed Posted on April 1, 2013 by Kevin LaCroix
On March 29, 2013, in a ruling that she acknowledged some might find to be “unexpected” in light of the substantial regulatory fines and penalties that some of the defendants have paid, Southern District of New York Naomi Reice Buchwald granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss the antitrust and RICO claims in the consolidated Libor-based antitrust litigation. Judge Buchwald also dismissed the plaintiffs’ state law claims and some of the plaintiffs’ commodities manipulation claims. However, she denied the defendants’ motions to dismiss at least a portion of the plaintiffs’ commodities manipulation claims. A copy of Judge Buchwald’s massive 161-page opinion can be found here.
As detailed here, the consolidated litigation arises out of allegations that the banks involved with setting the Libor benchmark interest rate conspired to manipulate the benchmark. The plaintiffs – several municipalities, commodities traders and investors, bondholders and the Schwab financial firm, among many others – variously allege that suppression of the Libor benchmark reduced the amount of interest income they earned on various financial instruments. The various cases were consolidated before Judge Buchwald. The defendants moved to dismiss.
In her March 29 Opinion, Judge Buchwald granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss as to all of plaintiffs’ claims, except for a portion of the plaintiffs’ commodities manipulations claims. All of the dismissals were with prejudice, except for her dismissal of plaintiffs’ state law claims, over which she declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction and therefore she dismissed the state law claims without prejudice.
First, she dismissed the plaintiffs’ antitrust claims because the plaintiffs failed to allege an antitrust injury and therefore lacked standing to assert antitrust claims. In order to bring an antitrust claim, a plaintiff “must demonstrate not only that it suffered injury and that the injury resulted from defendants’ conduct, but also that the injury resulted from the anticompetitive nature of the defendants’ conduct.” Judge Buchwald found that “the alleged collusion occurred in an arena in which defendants never did and never were intended to compete.” Though the defendants allegedly “agreed to lie about the interest rates they were paying,” this presents allegations “of misrepresentation, and possibly fraud, not of failure to compete.”
She added that “the process by which banks submit LIBOR quotes to the BBA is not itself competitive, and plaintiffs have not alleged that defendants’ conduct had an anticompetitive effect in any market in which defendants compete.”
Second, Judge Buchwald denied the defendants’ motions to dismiss the commodities manipulation claims that had been raised by the so-called “Exchange-Based Plaintiffs,” who claimed that the defendants had manipulated Eurodollar futures contracts in violation of the Commodities Exchange Act. She found that the plaintiffs had adequately pled the manipulation claims – although she noted that she has “doubts about whether plaintiffs will ultimately be able to demonstrate that they sold or settled their Eurodollar contracts at a loss as a result of defendants’ conduct.” However, she found that, because press coverage in early 2008 had loudly raise concerns about problems with Libor, the plaintiffs were on inquiry notice about possible claims in May 2008. She concluded that the plaintiffs’ claims based on contracts entered before May 29, 2008 are time-barred. She raised a concern that claims based on contracts entered between May 29, 2008 and April 15, 2009 (two years before the plaintiffs filed their complaint) may also be time-barred but she declined to dismiss those claims at this point.
Third, in reliance on the PSLRA amendments to RICO, Judge Buchwald granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ RICO claim. The PSLRA bars plaintiffs from bringing a RICO claim based on predicate acts that could have been subject to a securities fraud action. Judge Buchwald concluded that the alleged wrongful acts underlying the RICO claims could have been the subject of a claim for securities fraud. She also found that the RICO claims were barred in any event as they impermissibly seek extraterritorial application of U.S. law; RICO applies only domestically, “meaning that the alleged ‘enterprise’ must be a domestic enterprise,” whereas here the “enterprise alleged by plaintiffs is based in England.”
Finally, Judge Buchwald dismissed all of the plaintiffs’ state law claims. She dismissed the plaintiffs’ state law antitrust claims with prejudice on the same grounds on which she had granted the motions to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims based on federal antitrust law. She declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the plaintiffs’ remaining state law claims, which she dismissed without prejudice.
In concluding her massive opinion, Judge Buchwald noted that “it might be unexpected that we are dismissing a substantial portion of plaintiffs’ claims,” given the massive regulatory settlements that several of the defendants have entered. These results, she said, are “not as incongruous as they appear,” noting that under the statutes invoked here, “there are many requirements that private plaintiffs must satisfy, but which government agencies need not.” The focuses of public and private enforcement differ, and “the broad public interest behind the statutes invoked here, such as integrity of the markets and competition, are being addressed by ongoing government enforcement.”
She added that the “private actions which seek damages and attorney’s fees must be examined closely to ensure that the plaintiffs who are suing are the ones properly entitled to recover and that the suit is, I fact serving the public purposes of the laws being invoked.” Although she is “fully cognizant” that several defendants have entered massive settlements, “we find that only some of the claims that plaintiffs have asserted may properly proceed.”
Discussion
As a result of Judge Buchwald’s rulings, only a small portion of some of the claimants’ claims will go forward. Only the claimants who asserted commodities manipulation in connection with exchange-based transaction have continuing claims, and then only a portion of those claims. All of the many other plaintiffs’ claims have been entirely dismissed. These plaintiffs can of course try to pursue their state law claims – which were dismissed without prejudice -- in state court; they can also appeal Judge Buchwald’s ruling. The might do both, appeal the rulings on their federal claims while separately pursuing their state law claims.
As Judge Buchwald noted at the outset of her opinion, Libor-related claims have continued to be filed even after the litigation was consolidated before her. She stayed these many more recently filed cases while she addressed the pending motions to dismiss in the earliest filed cases. The various legal rulings in her March 29 order presumptively will apply to all of these other cases that are also now before her.
Her rulings presumptively will affect other cases that had been filed elsewhere and not yet consolidated in her court. For example, her rulings undoubtedly will affect the Libor-related action that Freddie Mac filed on March 13, 2013 in the Eastern District of Virginia (about which refer here, second item). Though her decision, as a district court ruling, has no precedential impact, it does have persuasive effect, and given the incredibly painstaking nature of her rulings, they undoubtedly will have an impact on these other cases even if they are not consolidated in Judge Buchwald’s court. Of course, if these other cases are consolidated before Judge Buchwald, the litigants can look to her March 29 opinion to determine how their cases will fare in her court.
There are, however, at least some cases that will not be affected (at least not directly) by Judge Buchwald’s opinion. Not all of the Libor-related cases were asserted antitrust or other federal statutory claims. There have been Libor-related claims filed solely based upon state law theories of recovery -- for example, based on allegations of fraud (refer for example here). These claims may be subject to jurisdictional limitations and the state law claims may also be subject to their own sets of defenses. But these claims at least are not directly affected by Judge Buchwald’s rulings. The claims may also even be boosted by portions of her ruling, as for example, where she observed that the allegations that the defendants agreed to lie about the interest rates they are paying may support a allegations of “misrepresentation, and possibly of fraud, but not of a failure to compete.”
But though the state law claims may remain, Judge Buchwald’s ruling on the antitrust claims have to provide substantial relief to the banks involved. One of the big concerns facing the banks has been the possibility that their entry into regulatory settlements could handicap them in the private antitrust litigation, which includes the possibility of treble damages. If the looming possibility of adverse effects in separate civil litigation is removed, it may be easier for the banks that have not yet resolved the regulatory actions to conclude the regulators’ actions. Of course, Judge Buchwald’s rulings must also survive any appeal if they are to be of reliable comfort to the banks involved.
UPDATE: In an excellent April 1, 2012 post on her On the Case blog (here), Alison Frankel has a very detailed analysis of what remains of these cases, what the implications are for the other cases before Judge Buchwald, and what the implications are for cases not yet before her.
Tags: Libor Scandal, Libor-related, antitrust, libor antitrust litigation Trackbacks (0)Links to blogs that reference this articleSo my take away is that the only restitution is violent popular revolution.
i would say violent and UNpopular revolution, but you're the doctor.
So then,
if you would like to salvage as much freedom as possible, that which you signed-up for, agreed to, and perhaps even died for,
the attention must be placed on a corrupt, defunct Congress.
It is a simple thing -- get it now, or forever regret it.
Do not flail around... Focus.
"...Interest-rate swaps are a tool used by big cities, major corporations and sovereign governments to manage their debt..."
the irswaps will topple jpm and their whale losses are still accruing....the pathology of zirp is going into the swaps - sweeping under the rug the size of the white house a pile of shit larger than mt mckinley....when the swaps go bad it will be a series of hydrogen bombs going off in a tent city....
if anyone is surprised that the bankster judge dismissed the case, i nominate him for fucktard of the day....the nazi state rules with an iron fist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZI_aEalijE
....meanwhile, FB P/E is 1790.
BUY!!!
Matt Taibbi is good, as far as he goes... but he refuses to go all the way. His ideological blindness prevents it.
He refuses to see that the government was not tricked into this stuff. It was not bought and forced into it. It volunteered. It opened the gates, on purpose. It signed on as a chartered member.
It did so for one simple reason: the government needs what the banksters are selling.
No advanced nation can afford itself anymore, and haven't been able to since at least the seventies. Every government relies on ever-increasing debt pyramids to finance itself. Every government needs hyperconsumption or the machine stops. Every government must create asset bubbles so as to withdraw cash from them like an ATM.
Sometimes they borrow on their own, sometimes they deficit-finance-by-proxy through loosening consumer credit... but the end product is the same -- more money for the government, to keep the promises made yesterday without bankrupting the middle classes of today.
Does Matt and his followers really believe that 40%+ of kids can go to college without the debt machine? The taxpayers and parents cannot afford that...
Do they really think the economy can create enough degree-worthy, middle income desk jobs for that many degree holders without the debt machine? Paper pushing ain't that valuable...
Do they really believe tens of millions of people can be warehoused in the underclass for three generations without the debt machine? No organic economy can afford that...
Do they really think 20% to 30% of a nations population can retire in comfort, and do so for 25 years... on ten to fifteen percent of taxable wages? The numbers don't add up...
I think its highly unlikely that Matt and the Rolling Stone crew understand how artificial their expectations are, and I know for sure they won't like what they find when the machine stops.
Corporatism: a vile compact between big government and biggest banks. All unconstitutional.
No wonder Democraps and Repugnants talk about progressive, forward, new world order etc bull$hit. They are thieves, telling everyone that traditional values are wrong.
Big Brother and Big Sister State wants the money now, and they don't care who pays for them or dies for their inner party of tax thieving warmongers.
They want the wealth. The only wealth they cannot steal, tax, confiscate, or plunder one way or another is the physical gold and silver you have in your posession.
http://www.jpmorgan.com/pages/jpmorgan/emea/local/za When you have a minute, take a look at this site. Is there something missing here? Or are we in a different hemisphere and therefore, not included on the list?
http://www.jpmorgan.com/tss/Home/Treasury_Services/1102086506985
Obviously, this has been an asset drain. A heist of biblical proportions.
there is no silver avaliable
in fairbanks alaska today
30 day back order...
at 4 $ over spot ...
strange days..
Yeah....
Gainseville is failing me as well- they've had a solid track record so far, but this last order is stinking to high heaven. Their excuse is high volume, but I think I smell some folks who sold inventory they didn't have this time.
Luckily, it was a miniscule order to begin with- if I had bought any real quantities, I'd be seriously pissed off right now.
mt paul,
In your area you have to dig it out yourself.
Any person in the position of power or influence in the United States of America should have a fairly easy time of restoring law and order. Compared to any time in the past.
But they would have to go into it for power rather than money in the beginning. Money nonetheless awaits their rise to power.
Take back America I dare you: F'ker whoever you are.
I say create the monad of self-sustaining human connectivity and have it replicate into a spontaneous arising of a new social order with Bitcoin as its exchange value of human worth.
Fuck politics.
That was weird.
q is a loveable eccentric on zh. Sometimes logical, sometimes not.
Anarchosyndicalism. Fuck serfdom.
OK, I looked up some words, so I think I can translate now...
"Barack Obama has more power than anyone else ever had had, and if he wanted to, he could end the Fed.
But he would have to be motivated from a place of either ideological purity or atavistic bloodlust, ie pyromania.
If he (Barack Obama or other leader type) were to develop a taste for filthy lucre, his will and power wil be sapped, and he will become an ineffectual puppet, like George Bush. The proximity of money to power gets closer as power increases, meaning temptation towards the root of all evil is almost impossible to avoid.
If you end the Fed, Barack, the fire will melt your gold and it will run down between the cracks in the stones of the Fed building, and you will never see it again. You're a pussy, Barack, and no longer the loveable pyro I voted for.
Since politics is corrupted by fiat money, I say we need to create our own mystical unified whole of loving interdependent humans, which will spread and spread until the banks and the fiat and the evil of it all are subsumed into the glorious wholeness of oneness and loving unity of virtual economics.
Fuck politics.
Dear Matt, here is one question you can ask the current Administration: Where are the fucking policy option memos from the Treasury Department? You know, the ones where they lay out the options? In a crisis? Itty-bitty wittle crisis?
Option A: Break up the big banks. Option B: Redeploy Federal officials into key executive and decisionmaking positions like the Reconstruction Finance Commission in the 1930s. Option C: Do nothing. Option D: Bail out the largest, wealthiest people and institutions in the world completely and with no consequences. Pros and cons, etc. for each.
Hint: The fucking memos were never written.
Now ask who should have done that, and why they didn't, and if they might have asked their bosses about it, perhaps in an email, meeting with minutes, or other written format.
K thx be looking forward to the next Rolling Stone with Jay-Z riding a purple ostrich or something on the cover.
Damn right, Jim. So many words written by the pretty pets of useless politics who spend little time with people who make things, make community, make money...and are sick and tired of people making excuses on the sidelines.
No doubt the unproductive whiners will scream most at their friends in high places when the money runs out, and their fix ends.
You're killing it tonight jim.
I must defend this guy. One of a few in mainstream america questioning the official narrative that gets play. I'm surprised he still has a job. He has done a bang up job explaining financial fraud to the masses since 2008 if they wanted to listen. And most did not.
I agree with you to some extent, Arkadaba. However, Rolling Stoners aid those they accuse. They are the overpaid chatterati.
I am not attacking him. I am just feeding him an idea for a story. And I do expect him to read this.
Go ahead Matt.....ask for the memos or an explanation of their absence. Really.
We are now in the 5th year of an 8 years project to fix the banking system by pumping money into an earth quake cracked financial system. The brains and powers that be, promised the great "O" that it could be fixed. Not wanting to ruffle any feathers and on the promise of support for universal healthcare he went along.
We have 3 yeasrs to go (unless we have a collapse.) He is on auto pilot on financial matters, focusing insted on his social agenda of illigal immigrants, gun control and expanding the democratic base through a policy of open borders.
Expanding democracy through open borders? You are joking or batshit crazy.
Look at the numbers on food stamps issued by JP Morgue.
Look at the poverty, the unemployment, the desperation of working people.
O'bomba has failed. CONgress has failed. And you defend them? You must be paid by them or taxpayers for your ridiculous comment.
As for your claim about an 8 year project, you clearly know nothing about business, finance nor economics, let alone country and genuine community.
Silly boy.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2012/06/29/world-bank-group-support-promote-growth-overcome-poverty-developing-countries-hits-nearly-billion-2012
World Bank - loans to developing nations
“This fiscal year MIGA saw an increase in demand for our guarantees,” said Izumi Kobayashi, MIGA’s Executive Vice President. “Amendments made to our convention last fiscal year expanded our ability to insure different kinds of investments and contributed to this uptick—as has continued global volatility that prompted investors to evaluate their risk mitigation and investment strategies and look increasingly to developing markets. Importantly, our portfolio was highly diversified this fiscal year, as MIGA-supported projects spanned all regions and sectors—especially complex infrastructure—with almost half our new projects supporting investments in the world’s poorest countries.”
Financial commitments provided by the World Bank Group to the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, a major priority for the institution, increased by $2.8 billion in FY12 to $12.2 billion and included $7.4 billion in IDA credits, grants, and guarantees to sub-Saharan Africa, (up from $7 billion from the previous year); $4 billion from IFC for private sector development projects; $147 million in IBRD lending; and $637 million in MIGA guarantees for projects in the region.
https://www.wbginvestmentclimate.org/results/results-of-our-work/investment-climate-annual-review-shows-strong-reforms-in-client-countries-with-world-bank-group-support.cfm Investment Climate, bitchez (lol)
The banks are lending, but not to 1st world nations. This is a ~transfer of wealth~
I concur!
edited: typo
Matt Taibi reminds me of Bob Woodward
He obtains "leaks". Somebody with kahunas is backing him up, otherwise he wouldn't have been able first to obtain the information and 2nd to be allowed to publish it.
Things are moving, bankers are losing.
The clue is in the name, and yes, connected. That's not a good thing. It is rather rotten that the hippy chicks of the progressive 60s go forward with fucking up anyone not in their inner circle...while pretending to be revolutionary critics of the system they inhabit, and rule.
Many people know but....
allowed to publish it..... That's another story
Check out Bob Woodward's Veil. You can get it for a buck on EBay. Brilliant chronicle/exposé of South Mediteranian geopolitics and how the fuck the Euro/US got into this shit.
If I remember correctly, Woodward started in Navy Intelligence.
Probably connected with the CIA ever since.
Establishment shill.
Correct.
But the so called 'ESTABLISHMENT' is not, I repeat is NOT, a monolithic thing.
Establishment is made up of very powerful but....COMPETING INTEREST. Intra-establishment fights are fierce and ruthless, since they are competing for the same pie.
The way I see it right now: Pharma and Banks are financing Democracts whereas Big Oil and Military complex are financing republicans. They've been fighting against each other for the same pie, however, alliances are very fluid.
Taibbi uses a style here that might be lost on those with a conspiratorial bent. He is actually making fun of the Rothschild/Illuminati/Freemason-believing crowd, though the believers are probably too deep in the weeds to get it.
What Taibbi is doing (thankfully) is separating the wheat from the chaff, trying to point out the REAL problems and REAL manipulations of markets, rather than all the fantasy that has become the religion of our New Dark Ages characterized by willful ignorance and embracing of superstition. The problem is not that there is some great cabal behind the scenes pulling the strings of visible political leadership, the problem is that political leadership wants to be re-elected and those who would seek their own favors know exactly how to feed the monster. The system itself (lobbying, lack of term limits) is the source of the problem.
Would that everyone concentrate on these actual issues hidden in plain sight (LIBOR, TARP, selective bailouts, AIG 100-cents-on-the-dollar payout, FASB nonsense, Fed leaks, excessive lobbying, Patriot Act, QE, etc.), instead of endless fantasies, perhaps the system could be saved, or at the very least the inevitable damage minimized.
Taibbi devotes his efforts in that direction. Thanks, Matt.
Who owns the central banks, and foisted LIBOR, TARP, bailouts, AIG, FASB nonsense etc on everyone, so that the owners of the central banks and their chosen commercial banks can live to thieve again?
Hey, pet? Matt serves Rolling Stoners belief in their failed 60s experiments, failed Democraps and failed Repugnants. He's a good lil wage slave. Musn't bite the hand of his feeder.
You are consistently heavy on your generational thing.
It doesn't read well,
and all that energy is going to waste.
And another thing...
if you zoom out a little, you might notice that we have an aversion to the truth...
why do you participate, and bite the hand that tries to feed it to you?
It is a 'generational thing'. Who owns the central banks? Rhetorical question.
Why do I bother commenting? Because I want my children to live in a better world, and I have enough time and money to spare.
Rolling Stoners are part of the problem; the 60s failed social experiment, failed finance, failed politics.
Trade on...
Rolling Stone. MK Ultra rag. Whatever.
At least a few are on LSD.
Who owns the central banks?
Who run Barter Town?
Read bolded text - Seems this customer attempted to refi her mtg she had with Chase at Wells Fargo...who turned her back to Chase.
From Consumer Affairs website:
Miguel of Yonkers, NY on March 28, 2013
I don't rate Chase with zero star because there is no choice for no star. I have been in a nightmare trying to refinance my home to a lower rate. It is possible Chase deliberately delays the process, asking for items they know are difficult to get; when you get them, they say it is too late and they have to start the process again. They never tell you how much time you have left to submit documentations. They claim they're trying contacting you. They make a lot of false promises that the rate won't change or there won't be any closing cost. They misinform you to the point that it is almost impossible to finalize refinance. At the end, it is your word against them. I have to restart the process for the third time.The processor covers himself behind the underwriter; he blames the underwriter for absurd requests. The bank officer makes promises that he will speak to the processor and underwriter; the processor tells you that you don't have anything to speak to the bank officer, so they look like they are from three different teams. They ask you for ridiculous items such as my 2012 income tax return when it is January; however, when you find that item in a week (which is the last request), they tell you one more time that you did not submit documents in a timely manner. The bottom line is that they find the way to keep you busy until your locked rate has expired; worse is that nobody tells you or gives a warning that your case will be closed in x amount of days if you don't submit this or that. They claim they have to follow regulations and policies. It has been so frustrating and I don't know what to do.
Other banks like Wells Fargo asked me for a letter from Chase stating that they can't provide me with the same service. When I went to Chase, they promise me they can do better and no letter should be provided.
That's when my nightmare begun. Shame on Chase. I thought it was a good bank with honest employees. Now they say I see things from my perspectives and they are willing to start over again. This will cost me an average of $56K more in the next 30 years, just because they did not do their job properly and misinformed me for more than 7 months. Also, my monthly payment would have been 900 dollars lower every month, during the last 7 months, if they had closed my case in a timely manner. Sooner or later, the bank and those who are responsible for this type of damage to customers will pay..
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/chase_mortgage.html
wow...that's just awful..i have heard similar from others..
no competition for mortgages between banks..
where is the regulator? flooded with similar problems or just couldn't give a shit..?
Obvious ...
A number of 'hippy chicks' turned him down.
Good instincts.
the problem is that political leadership wants to be re-elected and those who would seek their own favors know exactly how to feed the monster.
I say ol chap, rather nailed it didn't you?
The system you refer to was created by a cabal (whoever they are) to elect controlled, corrupt politicians who will do their bidding, because the cabal's money not only gets them elected, but enriches them with bribes, insider trades, and uses the cabal's media to promote them and cover up their sex and financial scandals. The people are compliant because they are dumbed down, taught false history, and conditioned by an Orwellian media and brainwashing tactics which they accept because, in the short term, they are rewarded by living in a country which is the engine which drives globalism. We enjoy a false and undeserved prosperity (becoming less prosperous every day)When we have served our purpose -when we have beeen used to destroy any independent countries that stand in the way of Globalism -we will be globalized also-we will suffer the consequences of our ignorance -we will become serfs in the Internationalist feudal system which seeks to enslave mankind for the benefit of our masters. If you do not understand this -you are a FOOL.
This system is 'coming like a ghost town: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slmb4ZZ5pkY
"we will become serfs" Hard to become when you already are?
To live any stressless life,food,housing,heat in the winter,maybe cooling in the summer you must have income.
To aquire income you must work.
If you work u must follow your masters rules, you employer,your locality,your state,your fed gov.
If you work your wages will be stolen to support your masters.
Failure to follow the rules will lead to prison and punishment to teach you a lesson. That the masters rules will be followed.
Unless of course you are the MASTER
We have been serfs for a very LOOOOOOOOONG fucking time
"The System", in its current form (of disgrace) should not in any way shape or form be saved.... We need to get back to the basics, like "Justice for all". Where the fuck is the justice in this system?
It's Just Us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8bMk-VwrQc
Mutabaruka, 'The System Is A Fraud', live 1984. He chats a bit first. But what a tight band.
to see the justice in the system you need to step back to get a bigger picture. The system has always been the same; the world (greek: kosmos; current, evil world system). It's being concentrated today or brought to a head in that sin and sinners are increasing. It was always the same system of corruption since Satan fell.
Learn the meaning of the word vector.
vectors are organisms that transmit infections from one host to another?
Is that you, Eigenvalue?
I confess that I still watched the State of the Union address for any mention of corruption or the continuing drag on the economy due to the Big Policy Call of no bond haircuts and Japanification....or really anything on finance and Wall Street...nope. Not a squeak.
The President has no moral standing due to corruption. He is delegitimizing his own authority every single day by his silence. I am not saying this to be partisan. You are correct. But, how yawning is the chasm of denial, how warped is the bubble of unreality, or just how great is the daily pressure to continue the willful silence....the pretense that a recovery could happen, that wages or disposable income could grow....just tell us the truth, or some sliver of truth.
Markets and the rule of law......the core of what we hold dear.....held under the water day after day.
The problem is not that there is some great cabal behind the scenes pulling the strings of visible political leadership,
************
From the man who left tabbi/rolling stone with big shoes to fill
************
“If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”
Hunter S thompson
Ha, ha, bullshit! No, Taibbi is admitting Mel Gibson was right!
Lefty Matt Taibbi took his sweet time to poke his head down the rabbit hole to see a little bit of reality. And even Taibbi can grasp that the enormity and scale of what is going on must have taken decades to achieve and has clearly been going on for a long time, unnoticed, under the cover of a better economic times.
Only now that the Ponzi Banks are falling apart is their massive criminality becoming so obvious that even Taibbi can see it.
The MSM world is full of Matt Taibbis -- so the question is, why aren't the rest of them reporting this greatest story never told?? That's another fucking peanut inside of the big conspiracy. It is what it is.
Matt Taibbi is controlled opposition.
He denies too many alternate realities by labeling "conspiracy theory".
Don't blame it on Illuminati because its banksters? One and the same
9/11 was too big to be carried out by the government but the rigging the world financial systems is not?
Don't look here look over here.
If Matt Taibbi was a threat he'd be dead that goes for Alex Jones too.Their on the payroll.
The Pauls too, sadly.
Here's how I think that would really work...
There are a lot of 'controlled' opposition, terrorists, and such, in place just doing what they normally would do. There is no need to create them. Gatekeepers can simply allow them opportunity to complete their respective tasks as needed.
No need to train people to do dirty deeds when true believers are standing in line to be used for free. All you have to do is clear their path surreptitiously.
Information overload, folks. All the journalists are able to do is publish what sells papers or online content. Wikilieaks, and all the other exposes on fraud, what percentage has hit law enforcement yet? They are laughing, uproariously....
Information overload, folks. All the journalists are able to do is publish what sells papers or online content. Wikilieaks, and all the other exposes on fraud, what percentage has hit law enforcement yet? They are laughing, uproariously....
.... Collusion and Corruption by and for the big Banks, approved by and for the "Government". No "Market" is too big to rig. Any questions?
DIN: DO IT NOW party. 5ASE's per donor. Let's get this party started. There are 600K deerhunters in WI, 500K in MI and 5 to 6 hundred K in PA alone. That would be a DIN. It can however be a silent party which is preferable. No hunters needed really. We need a party of Americans who have had enough of government looking the other way when it comes to enforcing the laws that matter. We need to return to a sound currency. We need to demand 30 hours of community service work from all except the mentally or physically disabled to earn EBT or food stamp money. Pull all troops home from around the world and put them on the borders that matter, Canada and Mexico. The world hates us anyway why don't we live down to our bad reputation? 2 terms max as Senator or Congressman. One as president. Congressman and Senators to be paid average annual salary of a 5 year garbageman. Congress to have same health insurers as private businesses. No insurance benefits for gays and lesbians partners from municipal employers unless two straight men or straight women sharing a home also get benefits from their municipal employer. This new DIN party can make some noise if we are willing to pool our resources and take back what this country was supposed to be in the first place. No taxation without representation. Anyone here feel represented by their congress critter. We can talk or we can do. We can shrug our shoulders and bitch about the path we are on or we can change paths. This country was worth fighting for once and it can be worth doing so now. But the time to affect change is fading away. If not me: who? If not now: when? Justice, truth, freedom, opportunity, strength, honor. Do these things mean anything? Are they already a memory of a distant past. We have a common enemy and it is indifference. It is silent and it is deadly. Don't be silent any more. DIN DO IT NOW.
All are Equal,
but some are more equal than others.
Demand, yes, demand that there are no ( ) benefits for those who are not like us.
Do it now.
Little hitler, or is it pol pot?
fuckwad
This makes the "Godfather" and the mafia look like amateurs!
Their only enemies...are themselves
Greed
redacted
I'm not shocked. The world is fucking retarded.
Banking is all about skimming.
But nice article.
it's all about the vig.
99% of the population are theives or idiots.
If not for the rigging, there would be no order at all.
0.1% exists because 1% support them and top 5% give them credibility....
said by another poster earlier.
I would even go so far as to say the 1.0% are supported by, and envy, the 0.1%
The 0.1% are the truly wealthy, the 1% are those who, with leverage and insider trading, have come closest. But they couldn't have done it without the ability to lever up and trade on insider information. Hence, they are still beholden to the top 0.1% IMO, both for loans, and for insider info.
Another double or triple fix:
Gold lease rates: based on LIBOR and GOFO
GOFO: Gold forward rates are calculated by the LBMA (the precious metals BBA equivalent) using submissions from the 8 market makers who are JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, UBS, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Societe Gererale and Scotia Mocatta.
The rates are submitted each morning at 11am via a Reuters screen to the LBMA. At least 6 quotes are needed for each rate. The mean of the middle 4 is used as the quote.
So these banks are not colluding on GOFO? Nothing to see here...
The LBMA IS these 8 banks give or take a few other participants
The GOFO rates are entered a half hour after the London morning Gold Fix which begins at 10.30am.
Five of the above 8 amigos do the fix. Barclays, HSBC, Deutsche, Scotia and SocGen. The Bank of England regularly intervenes into the gold fix using its reserves to hold back the price when demand exceeds supply.
The BoE them buys back when markets have calmed down. The BoE sometimes sells and sometimes lends its gold reserves to the Five fixers who all have gold accounts at the BoE.
And these prices and rates are not rigged you tell me.
Bart Chilton will have nothing to do in London. Maybe just go and visit Buckingham Palace then. But don't ask the queen about the gold being fed into the market.
Now I understand what the Bernank meant by "coordinated action"
ALL statements from the MSM and the PTB/W is from THEIR perspective.
Matt, good follow on would be the MSM ownership by very few players who control the financial system and political system. Another good article would be the Monsanto bill just signed.
Once upon a time we hoped the populace would wake up and see the system for what it truly is; I can tell you that ain't gonna happen. From my experience around 3% understand. Most on food stamps and disability just want to get money under the table and not lose their freebies. The corporate workers and goverment workers (?) just want to assume everything they are told, and plan their yearly vacations, and hope to not get layed off. Wall Street and DC Beltway just want to loot to oblivion.
So many I come across quote Foxnews, MSNBC etc showing no creativity, as Alan Watt said 'you just have to give up on them, it's too late, try finding someone who does not give the standard programmed TV answers'.
Is this anything like the collusion of lowlife from the far corners of the globe? Everybody is playing the same game.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/store-owner-arrested-for-using-food-stamps...
We would love to rehabilitate the banktards, but thats expensive, and we just don't have the funds. We could save a few bucks if we just hang the fuckers. Rope is cheap.
I want them all to have real trials, not show trials, and certainly not the type of trial that sees them get off the hook. But the reason rehabilitation is not an option... No sociopath or psychopath has EVER been successfully rehabilitated. They just don't have a conscience, and you can't teach them to have one either. Instead they will learn to mimic the therapist and tell them what they want to hear, effectively becoming even better manipulators.
Anyone remember the chief fucktard's inauguration back in 2009? Remember how he went on and on and on about how he, as chief fucktard, was going to put an end to all of this bullshit?
But he promised... Hahaa! It's so fucking sad that sheeple think there's a difference between the 2 parties. We're fucked left and fucked right! They don't hide it anymore, it's out and they don't care.
Fuck you all,
I am gonna live my life happy, alone and totaly self-sufficient,
Again, Fuck you all.
My time is too precious.
I suspect the vile Bankster-politician are laughing because the Conspiracy theories about don't go nowhere near far enough.
I doubt that there is anywhere in the USA that isn't systemically corrupt. From judges supporting corrupt Bank corruption, as we just saw, to your top legal Rep. the Attorney General telling all that he won't prosecute blatant Bankster corruption.
Just wait, it wont be long before a elite Bankster can rape and kill your daughter and wont be charged or a judge will let them off.
Think I am joking?
Corrupt Bankster-politicians are now emboldened as they now control the legal system and know that no law applies to them unless they will it or decide to offerup a Sacrifice of their own.
America, as you were watching TV, being all riled up to hate Muslims and Arabs, and fighting some imaginary war on terror, thereal criminals were at home stealing America. Doing worse than any terrorist could ever do, and that is steal your country from you.
Viv la Bankster mafia. Your new owners.
I suspect that you are correct about the systemic corruption, but the worst part of it is that, as I also suspect, the large if not overwhelming majority of those corrupted by the system do not even realize that they have been corrupted by the system. To them, their corrupt and establishment-supporting actions are just "business as usual", "upholding the law", or "in the interests of national security".
Or even just 'staying in line', 'not wanting to stick out', 'doing what I gotta do', 'looking out for number 1'...
Collusion instead of competeing just means that one of them convinced one other bank to help with convincing the rest of them who haven't figured out that they are being set up to be suicided. The 2nd bank thinks it's going to be the one left over to "compete" witih the originator of the scheme, but little does it know that the originator is going to suicide that bank as soon as it's no longer needed. Collusion, HA HA!, it's just another way to say "I'm going to fucking eat your babies when this is over".
There's always one motherfucker that wants to be #1. Always.. and forever.
Kind of like doing a robbery with the Joker?
Matt can apologize again because the players haven't changed. The bankers and the other groups are all the same. The head bankers are members of secret societies. Money is only one of the tools to try to crush people. They aren't interested in simply living on an island and owning a garage full of Ferraris. This is a battle for control. I'm sure he knows that. Ask yourself why these masons etc are determined to hide their activities as a group? Why do their ways resemble a mafia? In all actuality they are the weakest of men, eager to follow pyramid schemes. But they are willing to act when most Americans are sheep. It is all perpetuated by false fear. Next time you see the pyramid on the dollar think pyramid scheme because that sums it up. Political pyramid, financial pyramid, legal pyramid schemes.
until now, I was interested in Matt Taibbi's articles. No more.
Bankers may be guilty of some crimes but not this one.
This is not new, it is a problem at least 25 years old that users, regulators and a bunch of other have conveniently ignored until now.
It's plain and simple; it is the problem of ANY CASH SETTLED derivatives, or alike!!!
If cash settled, what is THE REFERENCE? IS IT RELEVANT AND CONSISTENT?
Are those providing the reference committing in some ways?
* signing a contract?
* being paid for this?
* committing to trade on that price or bid-ask?
* committing to trade for a size relevant to what this benchmark is used for ?
NO, NO, NO, NO
So what is expected from them?
Some are just dreaming and the US court was 100% right.
What about those who mis-represented the reliability of those (free of charge) data and got paid (through licensing) ?
Any equity derivative structurer that has worked on "corporate finance" type equity derivative trade in Asia knows that. For a "cash settled derivative", what is the reference? Market close? ok what's the liquidity on THE CLOSE? compatible with th size of the trade? If no, may be an average is needed, may be an average of VWAP over several days-weeks-months-years. No mercy. If you overlook those details, you sweat A LOT on expiry.
If the "Reference" is not compatible with the purpose it is used for , then it's the tail wagging the dog!!
And there are plenty of examples like that.
For instance expensing employee stock options is as absurd.
If a company has employee stock options outstanding for 25% of its capital, putting a "fair value" on those for expensing purposes DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE AT ALL.
Can somebody dynamically hedge plain equity call options on 25% of the capital of a listed company? NO, because that would CHANGE VERY SERIOUSLY the IMPLIED and the HISTORICAL VOLATILITY.
Dynamic hedgers massively long vanilla options would collapse historical volatility through dynamic hedging.
Dynamic hedgers massively short vanilla options would very seriously increase volatility through dynamic hedging.
Some equity derivative traders have experienced that for sure :)
In short, it's the EISENBERG principle for derivatives ! I am in the market, so I change the market ...and the assumptions behind dynamic hedging go through the window.
For B&S, and the rest to apply, one has to be the small fish in the ocean, not the elephant in the china shop.
Also employee stock options are typically long dated (10 years), so how can somebody find a decent reference for TEN YEARS VOLATILITY on a stock?
When there are listed stock options, there are probably not longer than 2-3 years and the trading volume tiny relative to the employee stock options that are expensed, so perfectly irrelevant!!
On top, some could trade actively the short dated listed options in order to impact the valuation of the employee stock options ...and the rest...of the listed entity.
Anyway, back to MT's article.
this is a very general problem that can be found in many places (where it is not practical or not possible to have PHYSICAL SETTLEMENT) not exactly a surprise,
so whoever uses an instrument without trying to understand the rules of the game is taking his own risks.
Matt Taibbi is a true American Hero.
Not a hero by a long shot yet.
Maybe, if Taibbi would ever start going after evil individuals and naming names, like Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, Eric Holder, and Obama. So far, he comes off as a Latter-day Occupy-Wall-Street type still shaking his fist at a nameless economic 'machine' that has merely run amok.
Before we get into silly arguments, lets first review how the bill of Rights is doing
Summary of the Bill of Rights (Amendments 1 through 10)
Amendment 1, Freedom of Speech, Raped
Amendment 2, Guns, In process of Being Raped
Amendment 3, Soldiers in Houses, Not applicable
Amendment 4, Unreasonable Search and Seizure, Raped
Amendment 5, Without Due Process of Law, Raped and Droned
Amendment 6, Criminal Prosecutions, Raped
Amendment 7, Right to Jury Trial, Raped
Amendment 8, Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Raped and Tortured
Amendment 9, You have all the rights that aren’t mentioned, No Data
Amendment 10, State Hold all Power Except that Specifically Granted to Feds, Raped
Details and backup are here.
http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/2013/04/bill-of-rights-summary-of-c...
Welcome to the Bizarro Mirror World, Folks! People who did not believe in "conspiracy theories" had been brainwashed to believe in the biggest bullies' bullshit!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDADLpg1UXo#!
Starting at about the 5:30 mark into that video, Mark Crispin Miller discusses what he found out when he was researching his 2005 book, Fooled Again. The most interesting point that he made is that there is a DECLASSIFIED CIA document, from back in the 1960s, which explicitly states that they directed their operatives in the mass media to use the derogatory "conspiracy theories" style argument, in order to discredit theories about the assassination of President Kennedy.
Although Matt Taibbi does great journalism, and I enjoy his writing style, (and I like the irony that some of the best reporting on financial matters is being published in the Rolling Stone, of all places), in my opinion he still does NOT take the original "conspiracy theories" seriously enough. Therefore, Taibbi does not appear get remotely close to understanding the deeper problems:
Government IS organized crime, while the best organized gangsters, the banksters, were able to covertly apply the methods of organized crime, in order to be able to originally make and maintain the fundamentally fraudulent financial accounting systems that we have. Unless one addresses those social facts, then one is not recognizing the real problem, and therefore, can not propose any solutions which are theoretically sufficient because one is still denying the real reasons WHY those problems exist.
IN FACT, MONEY IS BACKED BY MURDER. The banksters have been able to privatize the debt controls, which means that they have effectively privatized the death controls. Thus, our banking system has become runaway social robbery. The banksters were able to apply the methods of organized crime to take over the sovereign powers of states, which powers in turn were originally forged in the crucible of conflicts, through the history of militarism, where success in warfare was based on deceits.
Through that history, the War Kings made sovereign states, which then chartered corporations, such as banks, which then were able to covertly corrupt the powers of government, in order for those banks to become the Fraud Kings that actually control our civilization, through their power to control the money supply, because they are legally allowed to counterfeit money, since the banks have the privatized ability to make fiat money out of nothing, as debts.
Everything else since then was merely more and more layers built on top of that foundation: the power to tax is based on the power to rob, with the power to kill to back up the power to tax. The power to tax, and to enforce legal tender laws, transformed fiat money made out of nothing into the central symbol of our state religion, which is our monetary system, built on faith-based money, which is actually force backed fraud.
There are no genuine solutions which could operate outside of the central social fact that MONEY IS BACKED BY MURDER. The real history was conspiracies of bribery, intimidation, and assassination of politicians that refused to be bribed or intimidated, so that today almost all the successful politicians are puppets for the banksters. As well, the banksters were easily able to control the corporations that grew up around them, including the mass media.
That is how we ended up in the REAL situation where "Everything Is Rigged ... And those who are doing it can get away with it," BECAUSE triumphant runaway organized crime, through legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, manifests as the currently "unstoppable corruption."
The ONLY theoretical ways to perhaps fix these kinds of problems is for enough people to understand and agree with the basic reality that MONEY IS BACKED BY MURDER, and therefore, the REAL solutions to these problems must necessarily be different death controls, to back up different debt controls.
Matt Taibbi jokingly stated: "Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right." However, the way that Taibbi does that still does not come within a light year of understanding the deeper truths about what he is thereby stating.
One can not understand the monetary system unless one understands the context of the militarism that the money system evolved within, as more symbolic expressions of the same basic phenomena. Therefore, there are no good resolutions to these problems that are not based on profound paradigm changes in militarism.
Banks ARE organized crime, which HAVE taken control over governments, while the vast majority of people have been conditioned to not want to understand that. As long as too few people continue to understand and agree with the basic fact that MONEY IS BACKED BY MURDER, then they continue to not understand the monetary systems enough to be able to actually change them. Unless, or until, enough people go through the perceptual paradigm shifts of political science sufficient to understand these problems, then there can not be be any adequate solutions to those problems.
He's kinda like Jon Stewart and Colbert. He is poking around the edges and making jokes. Stewart and Colbert are much too reliant on those who run the television industry to go further than they currently do, but Taibbi can still mend his ways.
As for 'conspiracies', if anyone ever tells you its not possible to keep a secret 'that big' you just mention two words, Mafia, and Manhattan (Project). Those were two massive undertakings that were effectively kept secret for a long time. The existence of the Mafia was a RUMOR until the mid 60s. The secret is, keeping people compartmentalized, but also the threat of death to themself or harm to a family member.
Imagine you had proof, of something like 9/11 being an inside job, or who killed JFK. Do you come out and say "I have proof"? You will be killed, or more likely die in an 'accident' or 'commit suicide' (with two shots to the back of the head, of course). You would try to hint to people "Look at this a little deeper". How the truth emerges in these cases is far from simple, just for kicks add intentional disinformation from covert agents into the mix.
Yes, Herd redirectio, only the jesters are allowed to somewhat speak truth to power in the mass media ... There often appears to be a coded subtext in some TV and movies, where more radical social truths are presented inside the context of being preposterous. It is surreal that the only place one hears some crucial facts in the mass media is in the context of comedy.
As I said, Welcome to the Bizarre Mirror World, Folks!
What the mass media reports as the "facts" often tend to be absurd jokes, while the only way that they tell us some of the facts which are more true is that they present those as being jokes. However, it is still the case that the most important social facts the mass media lie by omission about the most.
I'm guessing from Matt Taibbi's piece that perhaps he no longer thinks the 2nd Amendment is just about hunting. If not, then he's still brain damaged and part of the problem.
http://sreaves32.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/the-big-wall-street-banks-are-about-to-enter-a-death-spiral-the-derivatives-tsunami-and-the-dollar-bubble/
"...that's exactly what the elite want." (Dr. Paul Craig Roberts)
I really like Paul Craig Roberts. He's very succinct, and very knowledgeable. He does not pull any punches.
unfortunately the same cannot be said for you; you don't have his acumen, so your pugnacity is displaced.
Hating people who have written history is not an answer; hating their crimes yes! But that needs proof and facts not emotional affirmations.
That's the divide between mediocrity and semblance of factual rationality. Pedophiles have to be proven in the face of history; and even then, in some bygone times a girl past her prime menstrual cycle, post puberty, was considered marriagable woman! So some criteria have to be applied in context.
The history of medieval times is about young post pubescent princesses married to kings to ensure peace or advantageous alliance. Vitor Hugo had a mistress who was a minor and she was very happy with their love affair. By our standards it was not legal. In those days it was what custom said, not law! Jefferson was no different.
The illuminati NWO may be psychotic amatuers but they sure are dangerous.
http://americanholocaustcoming.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/navy-seal-sniper-reveals-nwo-nuke-plan.html
For sure, q99x2, articles discussing the possibilities of severe atomic weapon false flag attacks in the USA are very disturbing! That article gives the date of May 5, 2013, ... WHO KNOWS? Obviously not me, EXCEPT it IS plausible, and would be quite guaranteed to succeed with starting martial law. So far, I have found that almost all predictions fail to ever then happen. But nevertheless, the theory of using a false flag atomic weapons attack to start an irreversible martial law going seems to be overwhelmingly obvious. A couple such events would make 9/11 appear like NOTHING in comparison!
Here is another article speculating about such things, which would push us all off the edge of the currently known world ...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19598.htm
But then, bio-weapons are a "poor country's atomic bomb" and the social consequences of that could have almost as much knock on effect. There is really no way to wrap one's head around how totally insane the world becomes AFTER one adds false flag attacks with weapons of mass destruction into the picture. The straight up old-fashioned atomic weapons race between the USA and the USSR was insane enough:
http://www.rense.com/general83/reinv.htm
Russia & USA combined have around 97% of the world's atomic weapons (with an estimated 27,000 world total) more than enough to destroy the planet many times over.
However, after one adds the ideas about some more covert criminal gangs, who could be psychotic enough to use weapons of mass destruction, within some some plot whereby a series of false flag attacks could advance their real agenda, then the world becomes way, way too dangerously deranged! ... Banksters' frauds would become trivial in comparison, since like 9/11, only much more so, disappearing $trillions would be left disappeared, and financial crimes even less likely to be prosecuted, after some major deployment of weapons of mass destruction triggered runaway imposition of martial law in the USA.
Please send her some fiat, she is living out of her car!
I guess her Navy seal friend can't spare some room in his basement?
debt: it's what's for dinner
This is an excellent article but quite frankly I cannot make it to the end because it's just so disheartening.
The level of corruption and criminality beggars belief.
I really do commend people like Matt, Keiser, and others who expose this system, but I believe it is as futile as ranting against a terminal cancer that has infected a loved one.
There is no fixing this. Of that I am absolutely certain. A collapse like we have never known is imminent.
So if you can get your mind around that (I know it is difficult because our normalcy bias is working against us) the question is what can we do to deal with what is coming.
How do you ensure that you and your family have at least some sort of cushion when this thing hits.
I've struggled with this and I have concluded that the only thing that makes sense is to own physical gold. For 5000 years it has held its value - in times of strife it has proven to be a portable method of storing wealth.
Stocks, bonds, cash - they will all go to zero. You can of course live in your house so that makes sense to retain.
But all other wealth is going to evaporate.
China is buying record amounts of gold each and every month - what do they know???
There is only one thing to conclude here - you MUST own physical gold.
Is that going to be a hedge against what is coming? Nothing is certain - governments could seize your gold - or someone could steal it.
But unfortunately there are no safe options - gold is simply the only asset class that has any chance of surviving the blood bath that is coming.
It is the only insurance policy against war and economic collapse.
You need to own it. For your sake. For the sake of your family
"It's about a $379 trillion market, meaning that any manipulation would affect a pile of assets about 100 times the size of the United States federal budget."
WRONG WRONG WRONG.
Volume = / = Assets
The standard of journalism on ZeroHedge is dropping off a cliff.
Agreed, a bridge too far!
That being said, I am long gold and silver coins because all this may, could, will end badly, very badly ..Weimared!
and central (printers) banks as well as big commercial banks have vested interests to undermine the credibility of ANY alternative to the fiat currency system (Greenspan ?) to tax their way out while keeping everybody in.
Once something appears as a credible alternative and can trigger a run from the masses (Rollover the return but without Jane Fonda) , then ..... Silver ~ $50 remember ?
Gold ETF may just become unsecured paper claims based on outdated (low) gold prices.
This link is about how the US$ is steadily, slowly, taken out of the world trade equation by China.
http://www.swift.com/assets/swift_com/documents/products_services/RMB_tracker_April_2013.pdf
So US debt, in relative number, may look funny at some point.
But the referencing for swaps owes much more to regulators and alike than to bankers. Sorry MT!
But it's human nature that MT after getting fame on stuff he correctly pointed out would like to please its fans and is looking for more.
Bankers are very good at optimizing to maximize their own personal profit under a set of rules and constraints set by regulators, accounting boards or lawmakers!
Copying the title, I think Enron guys were a bit shy in comparison to what happened later with SIVs
but of course that was blessed by regulators, accounting boards,...trying to mark-to-market the whole world. "Just an illusion"
Anyway, don't expect higher standards from bankers when the rest leave loopholes wide opened like that or even encourage them !!!
http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/presidents/barack-obama-net-worth/
oops
http://sreaves32.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/the-big-wall-street-banks-are-about-to-enter-a-death-spiral-the-derivatives-tsunami-and-the-dollar-bubble/
They don't ignore CT anymore simply because they turned it into big business to make money from and they get to harness above average intelligences worldwide for free via it.
You see the old 'Tin Foil Hat' attack didn't quite cut it anymore when they discovered alot of people they tried to discredit actually knew what they where talking about it like the Tylers for example.
All you can do is roll with it.
"..The only reason this problem has not received the attention it deserves is because the scale of it is so enormous that ordinary people simply cannot see it. It's not just stealing by reaching a hand into your pocket and taking out money, but stealing in which banks can hit a few keystrokes and magically make whatever's in your pocket worth less. This is corruption at the molecular level of the economy, Space Age stealing – and it's only just coming into view."
m.t.
Matt describes discovering what common people all over the world have always known.
British colonial victims, Vietnamese villagers, and Russian peasants have always known paper money is used to cheat the people. That's why paper currencies are forced upon conquered people at gunpoint. I am appalled Taibbi has been so ignorant for so long.
ISDA,
'Safe, Efficient Markets'
Welcome to the real world Matty!
He still hasn't connected all the dots. He hasn't had that wake up moment, yet. Or maybe he has but isn't willing to publish.
Cloward/Piven strategy: Get on board and take your cut of the corruption, till the maggot ridden corpse that was western civilisation collapses in on itself. Accelerate the process and make sure that you and yours are prepared for the result. Surf the fall of the west.
I think that is a global sickness.
the age of global neo feudalism is here to wash out the first world welfare state; create mountains of wealth in elitist hands, have a matrix of regulatory capture via its Google type, big brother eyed, space mapped mantra. Data banks and laser thunderbolts on the upcoming menu to control and "pin point neutralise" you anywhere, everywhere.
Top down crony legislative/judicial/executive spinal power chord to control its pervasive hold on society so that it all fits into place and then USE their own private FIRE asset garden concoction of manipulated capital markets, now HFT/OTC derivative pumped in shadow banking and under banksta oligarchy control; to ensure that their Caymanista parked wealth NEVER dissolves like that of the middle class sheeple, down the vortex of fiat inflation and toxic debt debasement like in club Med today, awesome sacrifice of ex first world sheeple now assimilated as second rate.
As for extractive empire capture and RM/land expropriation, its now an awesome grab as grab can game played behind the curtain of MIC shadow boxing of continental empires; all the while part of the globally integrated oligarchy; but rivals like European nation states of old to pillage and colonise the lands of second rate people; the fallen breed.
You can see the conquistador (state) cum conditori (private) army excroissance of "guns for hire" in third world. To do the dirty work of empire builders, both nation state and private transnational corporate behemoth categories.
False flags galore and "remember the Lusitania" logic or "Custer's last stand" indignation as the rallying cry to justify "Q-daffy" or Iran imminent nuclear capability type bashing or droning down of smaller fry in targeted killings à la carte, serving the interests of these callous, criminal first world oligarchs and their local surrogates.
History repeats bigtime : Renaissance chimes of Internet age and imperially fixated and inquisitorially initiated ideological cries of the universal empire Habsburgs, or their rival Valois and Ottoman counterpart designs.
Lets head for Lepanto and Pizarro's conquest of of Incas Peru. The killing fields of oligarchy logic red with blood of innocents in Syria or Bengladesh today; where tomorrow?
One thing is sure these Oligarchs will provide the rope to hang themselves just like their predecessors did. They either die in "thieves fall out" incestuous logic or they get obliterated by their own malinvestment and subsequent popular ire and reset.
Always at an inordinate price to the people. Our blood feeds their recurrent hubris.
If the robin sings in the bush,
Then the weather will be coarse.
thats coming from the horse's mouth or is it a stinger missile off course?
"They Live",,a b grade movie which got under the radar of TBTF/elite..a good view for those who still don't get it..we are fodder for the hidden elite, sheep and cows in their field. NWO, crazy right? false flags, nuts right? a ruling class of "reptiles" impossible I say..
wonder when the regulators/press will discover that valuations for bonds are based on non-traded activity via a pricing matrix and then...ta da...single listed securities like equities and index futures are "ramped" into the close (up or down) by algos where someone (individual bank, broker or hedge fund) somewhere (US UK or Europe or anywhere) can see the weaknesses in market depth that can be exploited. Let's not even start on FX markets whose forward points are determined by LIBOR but whose spot prices are determined only by banks.
seems to me that:
a) the issue is that small (tail wags the dog) "transactions" are used to determine large market values in generic securities where there is little liquidity
b) fund managers, hedge funds and bankers fees/bonuses are based on "theoretical" values, rather than "crystallized - cash in the bank" profits (i.e. on unrealized rather than realized gains)
b) there is no way to "correctly" price every swap and LIBOR price, without reference to banks' books and last trades. If a bank has a full book of "longs" in 180 day swissie, that bank will price a quote to avoid further longs - the bank does not want the money and cannot be compelled to take it at another banks rate (who could be short 180-day swissie).
c) all markets are supposed to be "rigged" in terms of setting prices by market participants (banks and brokers) that is the point of having markets. Large holders prices (like index funds and ETF's) cannot deal the entire volumes of their inventories at the prices on exchanges (or ISDA priced markets). the "market" simply could not absorb the size of positions at the bids/offers in the markets.
d) the answer is..ummm..have independent price setters..detached from the "market" who calculate prices for all securities by observation of market action...and not the government or the regulators, who don't have the resources or abilities to price securities..
I subscribed to the Rolling Stone about 20 years ago, the first copy I received had ads with cologne fragrances in it. I cancelled after one copy. Give me a break.
If you own gold and are a gold bug, you want to hold it and not sell. You're a gold bug.
If you sell, you want to sell at a high price, take the money and run, wait for the price to fall, buy back the gold that you sold, then wait for the price to rise, then sell once again the gold you once owned, wait for the price to fall, then buy the same gold again, then wait for the price to rise, again, then sell the same gold, again, for some more gain.
If you have one ounce of gold, sell it, then buy it, realize a profit from the sale, and when and if you do it over and over, then you can earn enough fiat profit to buy another ounce of gold and begin the process all over again, only with 2 ounces this time. You can double your profits and ride the wave up and down with the price change.
But if you have gold and only receive a twenty dollar bill for your gold that has 'gold certificate' in bold, fancy lettering at the top of the bill, then your days of profiting on gold trading are over. Honest money doesn't allow for shenanigans. Accountability is there, by force of nature of the beast.
Fiat will transform banksters into banksters and they love being banksters playing with fiat. Bidness is good.
I am not a gold bug, I do not have gold fever, I like silver and would rather stack silver than gold. Don't ask me why I am a silver bug and not a gold bug. I can't figure it out. I have some junk gold, I know what is in there, but that's all I really want for gold ownership.
I haven't trusted banks ever since I took eight silver dollars I had saved to the bank, deposited them, and, much to my chagrin, never saw them again. That was over 50 years ago. Banks are good at taking from you and giving something of lesser value in return. They're banks, that's what they do.
I got plenty of junk silver hangin around, cheap too, i lug most it on my back because my mule split a hoof a year back and wanted to retire. the mule store said they only take gold for payment and now I can't my dealer to make the trade. They said he caught fever during a full moon but would be back in a week, that was over a year ago and now I think his illness was fatal. Let me know if you want to buy.
Rolling Stone??????
I stopped reading there.......as they are a bastion of Support for the Obowel Movement