This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
What Really Happened At The SNB Yesterday: One Person's Take
Via Reto Rietberg,
Here are a few theories on what really happened at the Swiss National Bank on January 15, 2015. That fateful day, the SNB suddenly decided to end suppressing the value of the Swiss Franc versus the Euro.
What happened at the SNB?
At the hastily arranged press conference on January 15, SNB's president, Jordan, looked like a red-faced school boy caught with the hand in the cookie jar. None of his explanations made any sense. The SNB was clearly caught by surprise itself and didn't have time to make up some better lies. But why this sudden change of heart, throwing in the towel causing book losses of somewhere around CHF 75bn (>10% GDP)?
Some theories:
a) SNB had to buy Euros by the billions every day, and the balance sheet was exploding. FX holdings, at almost 500bn at the end of 2014 might have reached 600bn or more (almost 100% of GDP). SNB is a listed bank with minority shareholders (like the German Theo Siegert, who holds 5.5%). So may be Swiss regulator was getting uneasy with leverage?
b) Foreign FX is not held at the SNB, but rather at an account at a foreign bank in name of the SNB. May be at the ECB itself. So the ECB probably knew exactly what was going on, and how many Euros the SNB was piling up. If the number was getting out of hand, ECB could have threatened to leak some info, inviting speculators to mount an attack on the SNB.
c) SNB had to hold the fort until after the gold referendum, since such a disaster would have undermined trust in the SNB and possibly have tilted a few towards voting "yes".
d) After the opinion of the ECJ on bond buying it has become pretty clear the ECB will go all-in at its next meeting and begin buying Euro-zone bonds in earnest. The SNB was running already into difficulties finding AAA Euro-zone bonds to buy with a positive yield (to "recycle" all the Euros bought). The SNB was forced further and further out on the maturity ladder, increasing DV01 (the risk should interest rates start rising).
e) ECB made an offer to the SNB to take those Euro-zone bonds off the SNB's balance sheet. In exchange, the SNB had to promise to stop buying Euros, effectively ending the peg. The ECB was never very fond of the SNB's interventions, since the large buying of Euros probably left the Euro stronger than it otherwise could have been, thereby working against the ECB's intentions. Letting the SNB know what is about to happen next week (and that the SNB would have been overwhelmed by Euro printing) left little choice. For the ECB killed two birds with one stone: it removed a large buyer of Euros, and it would give the ECB a large chunk of bonds they otherwise would have had to buy via the market.
f) The ECB told the SNB it couldn't care less about a "Grexit" (exit of Greece from the Euro-zone). The SNB would have to expect massive further inflows into the CHF in such a case.
g) Interestingly, an article appeared in the NZZ newspaper a few days before the cap fell ("Euro Mindestkurs - SNB-Doyen will neue Untergrenze", NZZ am Sonntag, January 11, 2015. In the article, Ernst Baltensperger, an "influential thinker in monetary policy", recommended giving up the 1.20 barrier as potential losses from the SNB's balance sheet were rising. He also floated the idea of replacing the Euro barrier with a cap versus a basket of currencies (50% Euro, 50% US Dollar).
The question remains how much of the SNB's equity is gone, and if it will be forced to resort to a rights issue. Instead of alienating Swiss Cantons with a cash call, the government might decide it is cheaper to buy out minorities, delist the stock and survive with an irrevocable government guarantee.
* * *
Of course, these are fictional narratives... but isn't the entire edifice of the world's markets 'fictional' where truth is stranger than any fiction one could have imagined just 7 short years ago...
»
- 128083 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
"The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank, in the hands of men like Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, Benjamin Strong of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Charles Rist of the Bank of France, and Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank, sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world."
Professor Carroll Quigley; Georgetown University Professor and mentor of William Clinton. Book - Tragedy & Hope; Page 324.
The PTB simply need a currency that can be trusted with their TRILLIONS and there is no better banking system (well they used to be) than the Swiss........so they decided to tell the SNB save your franc and the banks "we will need them soon"... think about it.....where would you go if you had a few hundred billion in cash/gold to store? And what banking system will announce this year a return to its "secret" banking and tell the U.S. to go foch itself.......that's right ....the Swiss... And what country is the last to get nuked or overun by ground troops? When you are worth a Trillion you just can't put that cash in any old banking system
"
The basic plan for the Federal Reserve System was drafted at a secret meeting held in November of 1910 at the private resort of J.P. Morgan on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia. Those who attended represented the great financial institutions of Wall Street and, indirectly, Europe as well. The reason for secrecy was simple. Had it been known that rival factions of the banking community had joined together, the public would have been alerted to the possibility that the bankers were plotting an agreement in restraint of trade— which, of course, is exactly what they were doing. What emerged was a cartel agreement with five objectives: stop the growing competition from the nation's newer banks; obtain a franchise to create money out of nothing for the purpose of lending; get control of the reserves of all banks so that the more reckless ones would not be exposed to currency drains and bank runs; get the taxpayer to pick up the cartel's inevitable losses; and convince Congress that the purpose was to protect the public. It was realized that the bankers would have to become partners with the politi- cians and that the structure of the cartel would have to be a central bank. The record shows that the Fed has failed to achieve its stated objectives. That is because those were never its true goals. As a banking cartel, and in terms of the five objectives stated above, it has been an unqualified success."https://archive.org/stream/CreatureFromJekyllIslandByG.Edward-G.EdwardGr...
They forgot this theory :
Some party is trying to force an event in CDS which they think might be recoverable by way of the Cromnibus bill.
< Le merde frappe' le ventilateur.
< Les poulets sont venus la maison au perchoir.
What happened yesterday.
When central banks make an oral contract to provide forward guidance so that their policies have the support of investing community and then commit financial crimes like this, it is another notice to all that your labour and surplus are their playthings. Ah! Freedom. They take and give at a whim and you have no recourse. Imagine if you owned a large portfolio of swiss bonds and options on the dramatic evaluation of the CHF. Beautiful magnified return. Strip the serfs. Recollect the Libor manipulations, look at the Yen back to 2012 and think, then the ruble, oil, the bracketing of Gold. Remember the divorce of dollar denominated paper assets from any fundamentals. See ZIRP and NIRP. There are NO market determined prices anymore. When do the incentives to work or invest cease?
How in the world does this huge lie and false-purposed scheme still continue? Money still moving into other currencies seeking safety? What's to keep the SNB from repegging or any central banker from undertaking these arbitrary punishing Diktats. Will investors now pour into the Swissie or the Dollar? What a perfect mousetrap. Not one honest economic region on the the entire blue sphere. All the flags are captured. All under demand of continual tribute, with occasional punishing seizures with actions like the Ruble crush, the oil defeat, the SNB demo derby. These tokens serve to remind that anyone could be made or ruined from moment to moment, and all at the caprice of financial power.
How are those efficient markets looking now?
We wish for markets, but governments and CBs are opposed to markets. How are those government and CB actions looking now?
Criminals of the worst kind, for they do not believe that they are criminals. They believe they are smarter than the rest of the world and deserve to run it.
The thing that raises eyebrows for me the most is this:
A foreign central bank which many zerohedge readers have nothing to do with - or their country, or with their banks, or with their people basically only farted and that single fart blew apart half a dozen brokerages half a world away..
- I have *yet* to read a single comment on Zerohedge that starts with 'I'm in <or from> Switzerland and...'
I mean prime from -0.25% to -0.75% and a currency depeg? When I was a young child and people muscled up their cars and boats and actually still went outside to the beaches they would get up in the morning and have Regan pop prime from 8% to 18% overnight! Yes it had a dramatic effect but society wasn't so weakend by the sweet tasting radiator fluid of debt we all ingest. Today if America did that it would be no less an effect than if we called Putin in our best sadomaschistic voice and said 'Yah, fire 10 MIRVS at us, no do it...'
If that is how our world runs now where one countries *cough* sets off financial bombs all over the world the place is rigged to blow apart. Don't party like it's 1999, prepare! like its 1999..
It worked. Stawks were saved and went up right at a sell trigger level.
These people are geniuses
Great piece Reto Rietberg!
My guess is that a big part of it was shrinking liquidity & ability to buy Euros (your option a) with possible sprinkling of a few of the others.
Looking at past examples of need to detach from some sort of peg or false support (US gold in ’71, Mexican peso ’94, support of real estate values in ’07, capital of Cyprus banks in ’12, & many others), cessation of support operations (i.e., cost outlays) occurred when one simply can’t do it anymore. Then SNAP! [Holders of any type of vehicle of indirect wealth (i.e., almost everybody) should examine this model and the past examples.]
This is Stein's Law. "If something cannot go on forever, it won’t”
Herbert Stein actually used similar examples as the Swiss situation when he postulated that, if balance of payments deficits cannot go on forever, there is no need for action or a program to make it stop, much less to make it stop immediately; it will stop of its own accord.
In lieu of any active central bank austerity, expect this to be the de facto end game.
Oral contact?
I know where that mouth has been... They can keep it.
It won't matter when your neighbors are trying to eat your brains. 95% of the population will die in the coming crash; you'll probably be one of them.
.
Currency pegs aren't contracts, they are plans and plans change depending on circumstances. Anyone that doesn't get that shouldn't be trading Forex or anything else for that matter.
Since your talking switzerland
Well, can't buttress this with any provable back up, but what I heard when i was privy to stuff was that at the table where things get divied up, (my term there), switzerland, and not all of it, and the part of italy that abuts it, were going to be protected by somebody, and also new england. I have no further info on that, and any other areas under a power family protection. Which to me, propelled me into being a bit of a prepper, because to rely on the state,feds, whatever govt wherever you are, is not what we want to do. Not that all areas will fail completely, but disruptions must be planned for. Just for the sake of those you love at least. A few short years ago, if you stood next to the statue of the catholic priest in the center of times square, and you looked around 360 degrees, everywhere you looked was colored lights and signs and billboards, ==exept== in the exact direction the priest was looking, and there, was a black and white biilboard in the far distance. And it said, dang, the exact quote is in storage, but I remember how it started... "WHEN" and here I paraphrase..when your world falls apart, will you be prepared.... I said "ok ok". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJzLGltxibw
I wish I had packed my refrigerator with Toblerone a few days ago.
Well one thing the Swiss could at least do right now to help calm the markets is to fill the holes in their cheese. Biting into more and more air in my sammiches was making me switch back to American Cheddar until I found out I was paying the same for 14oz as I was for 16oz plus the same deal was with Swiss cheese. I couldn't win these cheesy battles and being a person of some principle I threw in the Spider-Man towel.
So now I'm just taking good ol' Velveeta and spreading it around to all 4 corners of 2 Wonders. I can be pretty Krafty ya know.
But think of the Blessings you get when you eat Holy Cheese.
Big Ching-aso: I knew I recognized you! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXwvL7n7NCQ
Velveeta is not cheese and wonder is not bread, that shit will rot your guts and kill you.
When I got out of the Army in 1969 I went to work as a salesman for Kraft Foods - they use to call me "Krafty" - some still call me "Krafty"
((thread-piggy-back acknowledged))
as is the "Tyler" authored sentence where the number "7" is not spelled out but does stand out.
*dog whistle*
as is the "Tyler" authored sentence where the number "7" is not spelled out but does stand out.
as is the "Tyler" authored sentence where the number "7" is not spelled out but does stand out.
oopsie
Of course, these are fictional narratives... but isn't the entire edifice of the world's markets 'fictional'
Of course, these are fictional narratives... but isn't the entire edifice of the world's markets 'fictional'
No, financial markets are not fictional narratives. Somewhere in there is actual money. Did the computer itself make the trade? Certainly "terrorists" started appearing on the news screen everywhere and always.
This looks like a hi tech heist to me...but I'm not a criminal so you'd have to talk to someone who is.
The supply chain is deep enough to take a few days of ZeroHedge-inspired chocolate addict buyers at pre-peg-lift prices. Costco, here I come :-)
"At the hastily arranged press conference on January 15, SNB's president, Jordan, looked like a red-faced school boy caught with the hand in the cookie jar. None of his explanations made any sense. The SNB was clearly caught by surprise itself and didn't have time to make up some better lies. But why this sudden change of heart, throwing in the towel causing book losses of somewhere around CHF 75bn (>10% GDP)?"
Of course Jordan was red-faced, he's a healthy Swiss guy with apple cheeks - remember when bankers didn't look like thugs with 5 o'clock shadows and arrogant mouths? No? Then you've been seeing too much of the Goldman show.
The SNB stepped away from the table - it's that simple. You ever try it?
""c) SNB had to hold the fort until after the gold referendum, since such a disaster would have undermined trust in the SNB and possibly have tilted a few towards voting "yes". ""
Some Fuckin Folks At The SNB Told Lies To Their People???
well you know how it is, when things get serious bankers gotta lie
They are always lying.
It is serious when they have to lie about their lies.
The banksters need to repay us.
"when things get serious bankers gotta lie"
And since banks deal with money, it is always serious.
Therefore, banks always lie.
Friggin banksters
How a country of only 8 million residents in the heart of Europe can bring down the USD in 5 minutes...
".....where would you go if you had a few hundred billion in cash/gold to store?"
Storing your gold in a bank. LOL.
Banks are for amateurs. Pros use Cayman-island shell corporations to hold real estate, corporate stock, and private business ownership.
are island corps vulnerable to anything?
Yes.
Hurricanes, tsunamis, and bank runs.
"Storing your gold in a bank. LOL."
Not everyone has access to a heavily guarded salt mine in Silesia asshole.
You have a point there, it sounds like they are setting the PTB are getting ready to move their money and assets into a secure system that they can control and making sure that the Swiss banks say we are back to being a hidden banking system. I'm getting scared now, the system must be close to imploding.
"The powers of financial capitalism ..."
It is absurd to use the word "capitalism" in your sentence.
This has absolutely nothing to do with capitalism.
These are people that are using the power of the State to enrich themselves.
If you are using the power of the State to enrich yourself then you are no longer operating as a private citizen in a free market. You are, basically, a government official enriching yourself.
It is, generically, called "mercantilism".
quigley wasn't exactly what you would call a austrian supporter. anything that doesn't have an official central Ministry of Economics is capitalism.
Capitalism IS Mercantilism, with a Corporate Logo. And it's all controlled by the Capitalist Banking System in concert with their lackey, "The State".
You are a weiner. Seriously, you have no idea what you are talking about. Go back to OFA or whatever acronym is paying you and give back the money they are paying you.
"It is, generically, called "mercantilism"."
If involves aggression or is backed by aggression, it is treason.
The banksters need to repay us.
I know EXACTLY where the US military is located.
When last I checked it was inside the USA.
As far as I know we only have a few thousand active duty military personnel.
there is no such thing as capitlism. nor communism. both words coined to describe the nonsense 'systems' which were nothing more than evolution of previous ways of doing thing.
mercantilism is also a lie. it doesn't exist. you know why? because "ISMS' are generally lies meant to decieve you into thinking a proper noun is something other than a collection of changing verbs and ambigous adjectives which are clumbed together under the changing venn diagram of perception we call our world view.
it's not about nouns and isms---it's about seeing the VERBS AND ADJECTIVES.
the tenets of capitalism can be flexibly used to describe ANY system. including communism. same way you can describe the sun going around the earth using MODERN up to date gravitational diagrams. it's possible, it's just very messy and even if it makes sense, the alternative ways of describing things (heliocentricity versus geo-centricity) are much more USEFUL for making quick explanations.
for example. in communism, you can ssay, it is a version of monopoly capitalism where the cartel of monopolies agress to function under the auspices of the 'state' by nominally merging with it.
of course the ownership class then have to get titles in the government and become members of the governing class, but the pretense of what they DO , what their RISK is , and how they go about their business under 'communism' can very well be described with tenets of capitalistic description modified to explain the particularities of their full cartel capitalism. fascism, communism, capitalism, endless arguments about what these things 'are' are besides the point of the underlying task of accurately describing how human beings behave towards one another in groups as economic and political units. even the very separation of economics from politics as a field is itself another one of these nountacular mind fucks; creating more venn diagramms for people to argue about.
the issue is that as homo sapiens, beyond basic primates, the gift of language is also the curse of compulsively naming things. to name is to give power, but it is also to take away someone else's power to name. it is a way of confining thought, implicitly, by taking the vague and obscure ( our perception of how why and when ) and then labeling it with the big static WHAT.
There is no such thing as a Teslaberry. That means you must be a dingleberry.
"Fach off... we're the People's Front of Judea!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb_qHP7VaZE
You're addressing a problem that I've sensed for quite a while.
People have all these lables without using a standard definition, which is quite useful if the purpose is to violently polarize people. Emotions flare and perceived insults linger long after the original arguement is a non issue. Com, cap, soc, dem, pub - bwhat are these things but arguements are quarrels about how resources and taxes are used.
Somehow the bankers win every time.
I'll take a stab at this.
There are only two ways to make money; work for it or steal it.
When the compounding really gets serious, the bankers are the first to forget this.
In any casino, there are thieves on both sides of the table. It isn't always easy to
tell when a market becomes a casino. The names don't change.
Correction:
CAPITALISM AND FREE MARKET ECONOMY ARE NOT THE SAME:
- Capitalism is just way and/or mean to control and direct a capital flow.
- Free market economy is based up on ways for price discovery using supply/demand free market forces
Karl Marx was correct when he stated that "his time capitalistic economic system" was disproportionally enriching capitalists who control capital flow. Karl Marx did not have in mind a genuine free-market economy where "proletariate" using free-market means could influance wealth distribusion getting its fair share of created goods and prosperity.
Consequently, the present World Banking Mafia is controling the entire capital flow and, at the same time, destroying any free-market economies/relashionships.
There is a good name for such system: it is fascism. Finally, there is no big difference between real fascism and communism. They are just different sides of the same coin.
Mercantilism occurred in a Feudal era, hence the line...
"This system was to be controlled in a feudalistic fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert"
It's FEUDAL MERCANTILISM. With political, banking and clerical elite working in harmony (by active agreement, or by discreet silence and inaction).
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism#Mercantilism for more info on the different forms of Capitalism.
The "American" version is just one of many, and even it has morphed from a "Free Market" economy into Crony Capitalism and Electronic Casino Capitalism, where multinational corporations (with a global footprint) dominate, and whose global ambitions exceed the National interests of any Sovereign and its People.
"These are people that are using the power of the State to enrich themselves."
That, my friend, is known as fascism.
"ever wonder how lowly paid lawmakers leave office filthy rich?
Sen. Dianne Feinstein is showing how it’s done.
The US Postal Service plans to sell 56 buildings — so it can lease space more expensively — and the real estate company of the California senator’s husband, Richard Blum, is set to pocket about $1 billion in commissions.
Blum’s company, CBRE, was selected in March 2011 as the sole real estate agent on sales expected to fetch $19 billion. Most voters didn’t notice that Blum is a member of CBRE’s board and served as chairman from 2001 to 2014."
so in your face, corzined and btw they are jews. well they call themselves that but I call them yews..the people of the reptile, THEY LIVE.
...Tragedy & Hope; Page 324.
Great quote, but the key thing is that we, the people, do not need to put up with it.
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.-"
First steps is to just Stop paying into their scheme.
The most powerful weapon the American people have is Rejection.
The system of fraud and theft that has been built up upon the backs of the American people is dependent upon our backs. Withdraw our backs, and the whole scheme collapses. This is our greatest weapon.
Stop Paying--Put it into food, and precious metals, etc. They stole whatever "debt money" they loaned you in the first place (fractional reserve banking) and soon you won't be able to pay them anyways, so Stop Paying.
Stop Playing--Stop being a tool for them to use, mock, and call "stupid." Stop Playing.
Stop Obeying--If they are in violation of the Constitution then they are not legitimate anyways, so Stop Obeying their unlawful dictates.
The Four Rs
Rejection: Stop Paying. Stop Playing. Stop Obeying.
Revolution: It is inevitable, so prepare, as they are.
Retribution: The guilty must answer for their crimes against the American people and the Constitution.
Restoration: Restore the American people, country and Constitutional republic.
The banksters need to repay us.
Truth and Reconciliation trials, its not just for history textbooks any more.
@hchrisc,
Here are just some of the changes everyone on these boards can do immediately.
Copy & Paste and begin educating others. For starters "We" collectively must begin starving the Beast. Peaceful Non Compliance / Non Participation into the Criminal Fraud UNITED STATES, CORP. INC. System of Debt Bondage & Enslavement.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, INC.
Non-profit Delaware Corporation
Incorporation Date: 4/19/89
File No. 2193946
The corporation is registered in the state of Delaware.
-STOP CONSENTING (Black's Laws Dictionary) either by Silence or Contracting with the Criminal Fraud.
-Stop paying Taxes.
-Stop buying their GMO Poison. Fast foods, sodas, Sucralose etc...
-Take your $ out of the Criminal TBTFBANKSTERS CIA drug money laundering Banks & transfer it to your Local Credit Union,
-Buy Local.
-Stop Voting or revoke your voters registration cards.
-Stay out of their Criminal Fraud Maritime / Admiralty Courts.
-Stop Contracting (CONSENT) via signature with the State.
-Educate, educate, educate.
-Home School. Stop the Indoctrination.
And, most importantly.
It's been proven time & time again on ZH the markets are manipulated. It's one huge Global Ponzi Scheme.
-Cash out. It's eventually going to collapse. Cripple the Criminal Fraud System as much as it's Crippled you.
-Store your wealth. Purchase food, precious metals, barter items. You'll need them.
If you stop paying taxes you will go to jail. It won't hurt them in the least bit anyway. They are already spending far more than they receive in taxes, they don't need taxes in order to spend and maintain control. You would be better off to stay out of trouble and then take care of yourself and family when it falls apart. Buffet and Soros can keep it going far longer than you can stay out of the system.
Just Buy Physical GOLD, That Will Help You The Most When We Are In The Home Stretch Of CB Bankers Folly...
AND Always Remember, You Are Actually Buying The Rare Element #79, Which Was Produced By The Violent Collision Of 2 Neutron Stars A Billion Or So Years Ago...
TuPhat I disagree. I am sure to get slammed for this comment but WTF the red is flying all week. If you do not officially work the government will collect nothing and you will get all the generous handouts. Unofficially you can do any work you like for cash to supplement your handouts. Millions do it every day. I wonder who is the smartest from time to times Me, busting my ass making a living giving up 50% of my income when it is all said and done to local, state and federal tax collectors or not working getting handouts, bartering and working under the table for cash.
Millions of people in almost every developed nation get by this way and never pay a dime in income tax. Now we all pay sales tax!
Having said all of that yes you can do this as long as they can.
This Inc. thing comes down to five things:
1) The Constitution's ink, overrides any Inc.--US Ink over US Inc.
2) A company's charter is law. The Constitution would still be the so-called US Inc.'s charter, and its law, and therefore the US, or US Ink., must adhere to its charter, the Constitution--the "Law of the Land."
3) If you agree and acquiesce to their machinations of having created a US Inc., then you are woefully close to becoming complicit in their crimes--crimes against you. Reject their machinations, and nonsense. Don't be wowed by it, as it is a crime against you, and your neighbors, the American people.
4) The Constitution has not been deratified, so it is still the "Law of the Land," unless We the People allow it not to be.
5) Most importantly--the Constitution and its Restoration as the "Law of the Land" is the only unifying goal that the American people have against the DC US' and Zionists' tyranny. We should unite to Restore the Constitutional republic. From there, we can discuss, and debate, a new course.
To not have the Constitution as a goal, is to be set adrift on the vast sea in a multitude of lifeboats against an armada of tyranny. We need, and shall unite, or We shall all sink, and perish.
Do not become complicit in tyranny's crimes by reproducing their machinations and divisions, and becoming their spokesman. Be a teacher to the people on the Constitution, and their guide back to the republic which it created; created for them, you, us, We.
The banksters need to repay us.
well, bless you for your optomism.
The banksters need to repay us.
The banksters need to repay us, in blood. There fixed it for ya.
This is probably the most important, because it is the most revealing, paragraph in the whole book. One only has to see the massive "progress" that the owners of the world's central banks have made in achievng the goals outlined in this one paragraph to know that Quigley wasn't just blowing smoke.
What idiot would give this revelation a red arrow?
I just finished all 1100 pages of Tragedy & Hope. Very good insight into the formation of monopoly capitalism in industrial nations in the 1800's. Carroll also gives an excellent (for 1966) overview of the impending destruction of the middle class, including the downside of boys raised primarily by mothers. Slow growing but worth a read for the serious Truther.
Very interesting reference, Thomas Aquinas. Real history tends to be more complex and less black & white when examined deeply. Hidden agendas should be revealed, nonetheless:
https://www.tragedyandhope.com
I'll take C for the mother-fucking win.
Switzerland, the former bastion of gold and secrecy, has made the jump to mega bytes and sound bites.
I'm a long term gold buyer, but I don't believe that to be the case. A strong Swiss Franc would be bad for any gold referendum. Why worry about a gold backed currency, if your currency is so strong?
It isn't going to stay strong for long.
Switzerland is being brought low by the UK and the USA.
There is a war going on, if you haven't noticed.
Another newsflash: Many of the bankers in Switzerland do not have the best intersts of the Swiss in their hearts.
Yes I have noticed, but the Swiss have always had a problem with a strong currency. keeping it weak to match the Euro is a boon for people who believe in a gold backed currency. This particular move here is more likely due to the fact that they had to purchase so many reserves to maitain the peg.
The Swiss people?
Really?
I disagree.
Oceania and its banks only recently have a problem with a strong Swiss currency.
However, it it appears to me that they now have it well in hand.
Anyone that thinks this [temporary] move up is epic, just wait for the [much more permanent] move down.
Don't think so?
The Swiss have been duped into thinking a strong currency is bad, so as to volunteerally give up everything good that caused their currency to be strong. Gold reserves, banking secrecy, and finally, now, trust in the Swiss Central Bank.
Please, argue the counter point.
I am no PhD, or economist, but as someone that has herded a few head of cattle, I do know enough to be wary of which choices I am "given" by others. Apparently, the wise Swiss cattlemen of the past are long gone.
I will bet you a fondue dinner for two, on Lake Geneva, that in two years the CHF is lower, vs. the USD and GBP, than it was a week ago.
I'll bet you a home frown personally cooked steak dinner that in two years none of this will matter.
It will for the Swiss.
Why?
,,,cause everyone will be dead from the Ebola Pandemic
2 years???????????????????????????????????? there isn't anything currently seen in market or mayhem, that will be remotely the same 2 years from now. we will all be grateful to be standing 2 years from now, economies????? governments ???????????? neither will be in existence in 2 years being anything close to identifiable.
"The Swiss have been duped into thinking a strong currency is bad, so as to volunteerally give up everything good that caused their currency to be strong. Gold reserves, banking secrecy, and finally, now, trust in the Swiss Central Bank. "
I could not agree with that statement more, HH.
One can argue the necessity and/or prudence of instituting the Euro peg in the first place, ( I thought it a damned stupid thing to do. ); but, repeatedly pulling the rug out from under the citizens of the nation from which your seigneurage right is derived from, your international investors and business partners, clients, etc. is plain fucking stupid.
Lies, double-dealing and debasement are no basis for any kind of financial relationship.
The SNB has further damaged the credibility of the Swiss Nation which has foolishly debased not just it's monetary system but it's once vaunted traditions of privacy, mutual respect, honor, and general neutrality in dealings with other nations and with individuals vis-a-vis the concept of personal sovereignity.
No grand invasion was required; Switzerland has finally been destoyed -from the inside by the Swiss Banksters and Bureaucrats.
sounded like, in the ptb everything-goes demolition derby, another one just bite the dust, no?
swiss are humans too. they are suseptable to the same shit(lies) and if pounded into their head they "come around". the swiss are no different in the end. they are losing their sovereign rights due to the same shit the bankers are pulling off worldwide.
iceland is still the model. arrest them and give them a trial by jury of informed citizens.
look deeper -- Iceland is a full blown subsidiary of the IMF. the trials are occuring to give the appearance of a working model and to keep people off the scent.
it's all a facade.
All these pegs create artificial demand for the currencies they are pegged against. Either way- by buying Euros which were constantly depreciating or by removing the peg- the Swiss were screwed.
A stronger USD- up, what 25% ? against the Euro is a disaster for the USA. Airbus vs Boeing, for example. So long as the Fed is content to turn American industry entirely into manufacturing FRN's then party on...
I'm wondering when the China peg ends.
"I'm wondering when the China peg ends. "
I have been talking about the China peg for years.
If you think this Swissy Fit is a big deal just wait until the Yuan speculative/carry bubble blows up.
Both Japan and China watching what is happening with this situation. Govenments and financial industry alike...
We have heard from some of the western institutions but most of the asian and latin outfits have been pretty quiet... Intelligent and determined people should be paying attention to that fact transparency being what it is these days...
The true extent of the damage will take time to surface. Some of it will be hidden via accounting subterfuge, forwards and derivatives contracts of various kinds -for years. It's safe to assume that there are bankrupts hidden in our midst that will hide the fact as long as possible hoping to trade out of insolvency before discovery.
But, to the point: bigger problems are embedded into the system. This is small time shit.
Yuan or Yen blows up and the TBTF/.GOV backstop construct will be sorely tested again and, IMHO, will be seen as pure fictional folly as per 2008.
What do you mean fictional folly?
It's not like our government would change the accounting standards from mark-to-market to mark-to-unicorns-rainbows-and-pixie-dust.
Right?
You and I understand what is real and what is fiction.
-The general populace hasn't yet been woken from the slumber of iPads, HD sports tv and situation comedies.
The sleeping giant has not heard the alarm bell yet.
I think Swiss were just trying to be friendly neighbors, since they are surrounded by ony EU neighbors.
Friendships break up.
Marriages break up.
People move.
People die.
Its..life ! Get over it !!
Swiss made a go of it and it just flopped. Its OK. But it does open huge contagion issues for Greece, Portugal and Spain...as they are on the outs.
While I'm inclined to agree with both of you, I just cannot agree entirely because I don't think it's as simple as that. ( I confess up front my "sins": that I'm an American and was a MD of a Swiss bank).
The Swiss banks have expanded world-wide and are primary dealers in US Treasuries, FFS. They have to have the co-operation of the Fed and the ECB and other regulators or they cannot do business. Period.
Swiss companies are big exporters and operate world-wide. Many are in regulated industries (pharma, food). They cannot operate in a political vacuum.
The SNB has been fucking up for years, first with the sale of their gold at the bottom of the market; second, with letting CS and UBS get too large and take too many risks; third, with this stupid Euro peg.
These mistakes have been a by-product of the Swiss policy of economic integration with the US and the Eurozone. They made the affirmative choice to give up the "old Swiss" model, for which you guys have so much nostalgia. They chose integration as the better path for Switzerland.
The Swiss public supported these policies so long as they appeared to be working. In the wake of the crisis, these policies are now found wanting. Why is this a surprise? The same polemic is taking place all over Europe, Japan and the US too!
Good stuff!
Who is the, "They," that made these choices?
Honestly?
Think about it.
Did not the Swiss people elect to stay out of the EU and the Euro?
Captain Willard
Great great post.
Love your Key-Words that are worth repeating:
inclined to agree, just cannot agree entirely.
Swiss banks expanded world-wide and are primary dealers in US Treasuries, FFS. They have to co-operation or they cannot do business. Period.
Swiss are big exporters and operate world-wide. They cannot operate in a political vacuum.
These mistakes have been a by-product of the Swiss policy of economic (neoclassical) integration: first with the sale of their gold at the bottom of the market; second, with letting CS and UBS get too large and take too many risks; third, with this stupid Euro peg. And fourth, give up the "old Swiss" model, for integration as the better path for Switzerland.
Anyway, not that you don’t know what I am going to say:
I find astounding that many here still carrying the flaw that the General-Pupation of blue and white collar workers, being that Swiss, Japanese, European, and so on can, or could connect the dots (understand this big picture).
Get this inside of your heads: The people will never, ever get it. And if you try to tell them, they will walk away.
However, what will happen will be when their lifestyle and security start collapsing around them, then, they will react.
But please, have NO illusion; these sheeple will be reacting not because that, at suddenly, they are capable of understanding any of the facts. To the contrary.
They will be reacting because of all the capitalist lies they were told bankrupted them, because of their kid’s indoctrination masquerade as education becomes useless once there is no one left to exploit, and their religion’s faith becomes irrelevant as human misery grows exponentially.
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning" - Henry Ford – “New York World” newspaper, 1920
I will bet you a fondue dinner for two, on Lake Geneva, that in two years the CHF is lower, vs. the USD and GBP, than it was a week ago.
Nice, a clever non-statement.
From a Swiss economy point of point they could care less about the GBP exchange rate. And while the USD has some meaning to them, other issues such as US "regulatory" handling of UBS and CS have much bigger leverage.
You have not even mentioned the EUR.
Why didn't you tilt the bet more in your favor by ingeniously choosing in two years the CHF is lower vs. the RUB and RMB
Don't eat the red herring.
This isn't about the Euro.
This is about the Petrol Dollar and its ugly old wife, the Pound Sterling.
Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia (now including Switzerland).
And the EUR (and EU) is not dancing to the tune of the US?
Of course it does, just like the Yen.
WW2 ring a bell?
Bretton Woods?
And even more recently the attempt to let the ECB initiate their own QE?
Of course the Euro will continue to be debased to achieve synchronized diving with the Petrol Dollar and Pound Sterling.
This isn't about the Euro.
I need to stress that you still haven't made a statement what the SNB's decision really is about, and why that specific decision in some way would help the Swiss in such a conceived scenario.
- The Swiss want to start outright economic war with the US, exactly now?
- Somehow this peg ending supports (or undermines?) the petrol dollar which is already on life support due to many other unconnected reasons, in Europe especially with its precarious nat gas situation? (I hope you are aware the Swiss dependency on Russian nat gas is relatively low.)
- The Swiss refuse to achieve synchronized diving with their CHF because they love to take the brunt of competitive devaluation costs?
I noted my current working theory here first: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-15/margin-calls-eurchf-breaks-back...
...the fact that the SNB simply can no longer afford to peg to the Euro as it tanks?
The Swiss cuckoo clock industry only generates so much money to piss away on ForeEx manipulation.
the SNB simply can no longer afford
Now that's funny. For an entity that can change the rules mid-game, with a population that has just voted for continued unconditional surrender to the money printers.
Thanks for the good laugh!
I know you were just being facetious so didn't down vote you, but the Swiss research, develop, and manufacture some of the highest tech equipment around. Leica is a good example!. 0.1mm accuracy and to the second angle readings from hitting a prism KM's away is not childs play. Not by a long shot.
I guess it comes down to how you think the voters think.
Your idea is rational, but what if the gold referendum was defeated more on the grounds of the SNB and government telling the people, "We are the experts here and you need to trust us and not some ragtag group of outsiders whose leader didn't even turn up for the televised debate!"
If it is an authority to defer to that people desire then abandoning the peg earlier might have led to a loss of confidence in the authorities.
On the other hand, I posted below, the Swiss seem to be nodding knowingly for their central banks, "tough but necessary decision".
Currency Wars my friends... queue the SDR
Doc - C'mon ... negative interest rates for one. And ... the CB could change (or forced to be changed) by an exterior force.
Gold Referendum: "How do ya like me now?"
Gold, for the Swiss, still requires about the same number of currency units as it did during the smash immediately before the referendum.
I agree that vote had a big part of it
how... barbaric. ounces. blah! go and change them to metric, will you? "nobody that cares for gold cares for ounces" <- a generalization, yes. a statistically significant one, though ;-)
I prefer weighing in troy stones myself.
isn't that a Scottish measurement? but of course I'd expect WC to prefer the Imperial system to the metric
Makes no difference to me Ghordo,had both at school.
I do prefer it to the US bastardized version.
14lbs, by the way, if you didn't know..
19 Stone
= 266lbs
= WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE!
Tell me you do not love the Blowup!
--------------------------------------
Wanna tell you a story
'bout a woman I know
When it comes to lovin'
Ooh, she steals the show!
She ain't exactly pretty,
She ain't exactly small
Forty-two, thirty-nine, fifty-six,
You could say she's got it all!
Yeeeaah!!!
Never had a woman
Never had a woman like you
Doing all the things
Doing all the things you do
Ain't no fairy story,
Ain't no skin and bone,
But you give it all you got
Weighing in at nineteen stone!
You're a whole lotta woman
A whole lotta woman
Whole lotta Rosie
And you're a whole lotta woman
Oh honey you can do it
Do it to me all night long
Only one to turn
Only one to turn me on
All through the night time
And right around the clock
To my surprise
Rosie never stops
i prefer the metric shit ton measurement myself
The metric system is a tool of the devil! My car gets 40 rods, to the hog's head, and that's the way I like it!
How many countries using the metric system have landed on the moon?
None, zero...
Does not explain a panic move ! important yes .
Long Coo coo clocks
Short.
7 days ago
This entire article is speculation. Oh wait.....
Answer: C
Add "Swissied" to the fraud lexicon, right next to "Corzined."
I once asked a girl for a swissy. she said that it would cost extra.
Aaaaand we're back to a basket of currencies within ten years from today.
Float those babies.
July this year, with or without the USD in it.
Please try to keep up.
Daddy-O keeps talking about September.
Can't we all just get along?
July - announce it.
September - implement it.
"The question remains how much of the SNB's equity is gone... " SHILL. I don't care who this Reto Rietberg is, but whoever starts with a discussion about equity and a central bank is a shill
there is no such thing as a problem of equity for a national bank. Of FX Reserves, sometimes, but not of equity
example: the national bank of Zimbabwe. it's still there. it killed it's currency, though
Bingo! How does you have losses when your cost of buying is zero?
Bingo! I was wondering that same thing when JPM, Wells, BofA all declared larger then expected losses this week. Smells like 2008 all over again to set up the taxpayers for the Mother of all bailouts.
sdshack - NO!! i was there. i was on the trading floor of one of these banks in 2008. (maybe i should not have been?). listen to cramer. it's OVER - it's bottom. the legal fees and fines are gone. citi and bac and gs and ms and jpm are all back into unbelievable profit now. hit the bottom. BUY!
i remember bank earnings coming out 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 billion dollar loss - stock hits the moon. it's over. bottom, earnings now going back on track.
right. that's why for 5 years running, fed printed 85 billion a month. over, green shoots.
we will see.
Jeff Macke explains the situation...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79HLnTPxMho
Sorry, not "Bingo" It is true the COST of issuing fiat currencies is close to zero, but in today's context those fiat liabilities still have buying power. The distinction here is between value and price (or cost). Remember the adage about the man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing....that's central banking ca. 2015.
Those currency units are accepted b/c someone attaches a value to them, a value that in part rests on credibility of the issuing entity and the quality of the assets that back up those currency units. Capital (the difference between assets and liabilities) is a tangible reflection of that credibility. Furthermore, that capital also reflects the owners' share of the entity (i.e., what's owed to owners vs. what's owed to outsiders). When capital is gone, so is the firm (it's insolvent) and so are its owners' ownership positions.
Central banks cannot avoid insolvency by multiplying their liabilities. Doing so actually hastens their inevitable insolvency. The Zimbabwean central bank had to be recapitalized.
I think in the long run..they will be proven it was the right move
I agree
They are either going to use the euros they have to import shit they already import at no loss to them, or use the euros they have to buy back francs.
I still don't see simply explained how this is bad for the swiss. It only screwed over FX traders, and well....screw em anyway
Very interesting analysis, and very plausible. Only wish I had heard about the article in the NZZ. I held a lot of francs in 2013-2014 but gave them up. The gold referendum might have gone much differently. I wonde rif it will reappear or you will see soem Cantons up in arms about the loss of business of their industries.
So..... Blond Swan?
To paraphrase Officer John McClane, "Yoe-dee-lay-hee-fuckin'-hoo, motherfuckers!"
I made some effort to search Swiss media on this story, especially the articles with comments. This one pretty much sums up the coverage:
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/newspapers-condone-swiss-national-bank-s-dec...
Not a single mention of that gold referendum which is interesting to me because as I understood it, the "Yes" side went from a probable win to crushing defeat on the back of the SNB's dire warnings of a rocketing Franc, crashing stock market and crippled export business if Gold was foolishly reintroduced into SNB policy.
Yet the Swiss appear to be totally incapable of connecting what happened yesterday to what was said just one month ago. Moreover, look how the press and the public continue to defer to the "experts". The same thing will happen here when the time comes to close the markets.
Perhaps this is too philisophical for this time of day, but I don't believe the world comes down to Liberal vs Conservative or Religion vs Science so much as it comes down to some miniscule percentage of people who know how to think vs everyone else.
We could have a stock market down 90%, new world money and gold at $50,000 in todays terms and almost no one you know in real life would be terribly surprised by any of it. Nor would they think of it as a reason to start asking questions.
Yes. As history shows time and time again the majority of people do not pay any mind to these things until the supply lines break in earnest. Unfortunately, by that time, it is always too late. I will only add that history is also full of examples where "low prices", especially in essential commodities, turns into "shortages" pretty damn quickly.
Gold? Silver?
Yep, I wish I had a place to store oil. You just know the banksters are filling up tankers and plan on parking them somewhere for a few years. Anybody sees them or knows where they are, chime in.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/
Agreed. See my reply above.
The Swiss public justifiably look at the results of policies, not the polcies themselves. There was minimal outcry when the SNB sold most of its gold many years ago.
The Swiss public was happy with tighter economic and poltical cooperation with the EU and the US. The benefits were clear. The costs are now coming into sharp focus.
the Tages Anzeiger is not known for its acumen when it comes to things financial. in fact its financial news is usually squeezed in with the sports section and the lonely heart ads. it was (TA), like the NZZ, strongly against the gold initiative. neither newspaper holds an independent editorial position. additionally both are patently russophobic. reading either newspaper will only give you the news the sheeple should hear.
just to put the swiss news into perspective for you.
Cool, thanks!
Time is so limited sadly
upvote basho.
would that all put "the news" they read into perspective(s). absolutely none of it is not filtered by
some one else's agenda.
I don't think it was the referendum... the timing is not right... The referendum was how long ago? Why the rushed announcement yesterday then?
I would suggest that many Swiss people are able to make the connection and do remember what was said one month ago. The Swiss media, on the other hand, may well be like the US media, and never connect anything.
Yet the Swiss appear to be totally incapable of connecting what happened yesterday to what was said just one month ago.
We're so lucky that only applies to the Swiss!
Yet the Swiss appear to be totally incapable of connecting what happened yesterday to what was said just one month ago. Moreover, look how the press and the public continue to defer to the "experts".
You know nothing of the Swiss people/public. Everything in your post is based on a very limited reading of the Swiss press available to you in English.
On the plus side, a trip to Davos is gonna be pretty expensive this year.
Ask me about Robinson Crusoe or Pride and Prejudice. I'm not paid to understand this stuff.