Gold To Be Remonetized

Interesting interview with John Butler over the future and eventual re-monetization of Gold. Butler claims there is a massive financial earthquake to come with paper currencies are repudiated. 2008 was only a fore-shock.

The German Bundesbank under the Constitution can go to court if it feels the German currency (i.e euro) is under threat from the ECB. In that case the markets would immediately react negatively and the “shit would hit the fan”. In other words, the future of the euro may well be in the German Bundesbank’s hands.

NASA Finds Carbon Dioxide Acts As A Coolant

Far from CO2 causing global warming, a report from NASA in 2012 confirms that CO2 it is in fact a coolant. But hey, there is money to be made in Carbon taxes so shhhhhh.

March 22, 2012:  A recent flurry of eruptions on the sun did more than spark pretty auroras around the poles.  NASA-funded researchers say the solar storms of March 8^th through 10^th dumped enough energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere to power every residence in New York City for two years.

“This was the biggest dose of heat we’ve received from a solar storm since 2005,” says Martin Mlynczak of NASA Langley Research Center.  “It was a big event, and shows how solar activity can directly affect our planet.”

Mlynczak is the associate principal investigator for the SABER instrument onboard NASA’s TIMED satellite.  SABER monitors infrared emissions from Earth’s upper atmosphere, in particular from carbon dioxide (CO₂) and nitric oxide (NO), two substances that play a key role in the energy balance of air hundreds of km above our planet’s surface.

“Carbon dioxide and nitric oxide are natural thermostats,”

explains James Russell of Hampton University, SABER’s principal investigator.  “When the upper atmosphere (or ‘thermosphere’) heats up, these molecules try as hard as they can to shed that heat back into space.”

That’s what happened on March 8^th when a coronal mass ejection (CME) propelled in our direction by an X5-class solar flare hit Earth’s magnetic field.  (On the “Richter Scale of Solar Flares,” X-class flares are the most powerful kind.)  Energetic particles rained down on the upper atmosphere, depositing their energy where they hit.  The action produced spectacular auroras around the poles and significant¹ upper atmospheric heating all around the globe.

“The thermosphere lit up like a Christmas tree,” says Russell.  “It began to glow intensely at infrared wavelengths as the thermostat effect kicked in.”

For the three day period, March 8^th through 10^th, the thermosphere absorbed 26 billion kWh of energy.

Infrared radiation from CO₂ and NO, the two most efficient coolants in the thermosphere, re-radiated 95% of that total back into space.

In human terms, this is a lot of energy.  According to the New York City mayor’s office, an average NY household consumes just under 4700 kWh annually. This means the geomagnetic storm dumped enough energy into the atmosphere to power every home in the Big Apple for two years.

“Unfortunately, there’s no practical way to harness this kind of energy,” says Mlynczak.  “It’s so diffuse and out of reach high above Earth’s surface.  Plus, the majority of it has been sent back into space by the action of CO₂ and NO.”

During the heating impulse, the thermosphere puffed up like a marshmallow held over a campfire, temporarily increasing the drag on low-orbiting satellites.  This is both good and bad.  On the one hand, extra drag helps clear space junk out of Earth orbit.  On the other hand, it decreases the lifetime of useful satellites by bringing them closer to the day of re-entry.

The storm is over now, but Russell and Mlynczak expect more to come.

“We’re just emerging from a deep solar minimum,” says Russell.  “The solar cycle is gaining strength with a maximum expected in 2013.”

Source: NASA

Bilderberg: Global Tax => Global Governance

With so much in the media lately regarding multinational corporations avoiding tax, is Bilderberg to propose a Global Tax to the G8 with Global governance to administrate? The Telegraph has already called for such a solution.

The cascade of revelations in recent months showing multinational companies doing a huge amount of business here and yet paying virtually no corporation tax has provoked widespread public demands for something to be done. But people tend to be rather hazier on what that “something” should be.

To define a solution we first need to grasp the nature of the problem: a global tax loophole. In our age of liberalised cross-border trade and free capital flows, multinational companies find themselves with a considerable level of freedom to choose where they pay tax on profits.

……….

The natural solution is to secure an agreement by all the world’s governments to tax the profits of multinational firms collectively and to divide up the revenues fairly between them. This division could be based on the amount of business done by the multinational in their various territories as revealed by their turnover and number of employees.

It sounds complicated, but American states have long operated a system designed along these lines known as “apportionment”. Another name used is “unitary taxation”. Those names are a bit of a turn-off to the layperson. What’s required is a reform banner that the general public can easily understand. I suggest: “Global Profit Tax”. After all, doesn’t it make sense that global companies should be compelled to pay global taxes?

I’m sure under this Hegelian dialect we will hear more of this proposed solution, but this implies that you need a Global Administration to ensure taxes are collected and distributed. The G8 meeting later in June will be closely watched.

Although happy to float such a revolutionary idea in the media in advance of back-to-back Google and Bilderberg summits at the Grove Hotel, and later at the G8, one thing which global taxation advocates fail to mention here is that if you institute a global taxation system then you would then need a global government to administrate it. Yes, you heard that right: global taxation = global government.

It would be naive to think that any tax could be levied without a government standing behind it. That is, after all, part of the definition of a tax. Campaigners will deny it exists, but the reality is that global governing bodies have already been put into place long ago.

UK Column Editor Mike Robinson explains, “I think that the embryonic global institutions are already in place, and we’re going to see them being given more and more real ‘jobs’ to do as time goes on, and collecting corporation tax is clearly going to be one of those”.

Post-Bilderberg: G8 Summit

Following the ratification of Bilderberg’s 2013 agenda in Watford on June 6–9th, the next step is normally to disseminate this same agenda on to the G8 heads of state. Conveniently, this year’s G8 summit will held June 17-18 at the Lough Erne golf resort in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. David Cameron and George Osborne’s new plan for Google is already expected to be very high on the agenda at the G8 meeting, where world leaders including Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin will be in attendance. Henceforth, ahead of the G8, the UK government is expected to play their key role in promoting the new global tax system, by publically advocating, “new strong international standards to make sure that global companies pay the tax they owe.”

…….

Other recent attempts at a global tax

The financial component of this global tax and government equation is actually already in place, and that is the World Bank. The first administrative working model for a global taxation structure was originally unveiled in 2009 at the United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen. Delegates at that event floated their plan for a global carbon tax that would be collected and then deposited into a slush fund which was to be administered by the World Bank. There plan also entailed the poorer, developing nations footing most of the bill for this operation, while the wealthier nations would receive a free pass. The secret plan was thwarted at the last minute thanks to the infamous Danish Text Leak, which were serialized in the Guardian newspaper at the time.

Although popular in socialist circles, few have dared reveal the true picture of a global tax regime for fear of triggering a public backlash. Another such tax proposals have been pushed into the public sphere through the Occupy Movement in 2011, with called for a global tax on financial transactions, or a global “Robin Hood Tax”. As was the case in Copenhagen two years earlier, proponents called for a tax structure without borders, yet few dared mention who would be in charge of administering and distributing the revenues. Such plans pose the very real danger of further centralizing power into the international banking community who would be asked to handle and perhaps hypothecate on these enormous slush funds.

Which brings us back to this latest global ‘google tax’ proposal, which ultimately begs the question: when will their global government structure be unveiled?

Serving the global collective

Plans for erecting an entirely new global tax system should worry anyone who values the concept of national sovereignty because any solution that entails the collection of  tax by way of elite international “collective”  of nations, and where “revenues are to divided up fairly between them” is suggesting a form of global collectivism, or communism. This is also the fundamental problem with EU plans to levy new taxes on member nations – for any citizen it’s simply another master to serve.

Shocking as that may be, these issues are exactly what is being discussed behind closed doors at each of these global summits taking place in May and June of 2013.

What’s worse, is that this entire construct could be ushered in without any vote being cast by an citizen in the individual countries – which is about as undemocratic as it gets. This remains one of the fundamental flaws at the heart of the ultra-liberal utopian ideal which is global government.

Source: The Telegraph,  GlobalResearch.ca

 

Whistleblower Says World Bank Corruption Centered on Federal Reserve

Karen Hudes was a former employee of the World Bank and has since turned whistleblower on its activities. Remember Joseph Stiglitz (Chief economist) resigned from the World Bank in protest with its policies. Below is Hudes interview with The New American.

A former insider at the World Bank, ex-Senior Counsel Karen Hudes, says the global financial system is dominated by a small group of corrupt, power-hungry figures centered around the privately owned U.S. Federal Reserve. The network has seized control of the media to cover up its crimes, too, she explained. In an interview with The New American, Hudes said that when she tried to blow the whistle on multiple problems at the World Bank, she was fired for her efforts. Now, along with a network of fellow whistleblowers, Hudes is determined to expose and end the corruption. And she is confident of success. 

Citing an explosive 2011 Swiss study published in the PLOS ONE journal on the “network of global corporate control,” Hudes pointed out that a small group of entities — mostly financial institutions and especially central banks — exert a massive amount of influence over the international economy from behind the scenes. “What is really going on is that the world’s resources are being dominated by this group,” she explained, adding that the “corrupt power grabbers” have managed to dominate the media as well. “They’re being allowed to do it.”

According to the peer-reviewed paper, which presented the first global investigation of ownership architecture in the international economy, transnational corporations form a “giant bow-tie structure.” A large portion of control, meanwhile, “flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions.” The researchers described the core as an “economic ‘super-entity’” that raises important issues for policymakers and researchers. Of course, the implications are enormous for citizens as well.

Hudes, an attorney who spent some two decades working in the World Bank’s legal department, has observed the machinations of the network up close. “I realized we were now dealing with something known as state capture, which is where the institutions of government are co-opted by the group that’s corrupt,” she told The New American in a phone interview. “The pillars of the U.S. government — some of them — are dysfunctional because of state capture; this is a big story, this is a big cover up.”

At the heart of the system are a small number of companies (exposed by the Swiss study) and central banks with massive influence that run the world.

At the heart of the network, Hudes said, are 147 financial institutions and central banks — especially the Federal Reserve, which was created by Congress but is owned by essentially a cartel of private banks. “This is a story about how the international financial system was secretly gamed, mostly by central banks — they’re the ones we are talking about,” she explained. “The central bankers have been gaming the system. I would say that this is a power grab.”

The Fed in particular is at the very center of the network and the coverup, Hudes continued, citing a policy and oversight body that includes top government and Fed officials. Central bankers have also been manipulating gold prices, she added, echoing widespread concerns that The New American has documented extensively. Indeed, even the inaccurate World Bank financial statements that Hudes has been trying to expose are linked to the U.S. central bank, she said. 

“The group that we’re talking about from the Zurich study — that’s the Federal Reserve; it has some other pieces to it, but that’s the Federal Reserve,” Hudes explained. “So the Federal Reserve secretly dominated the world economy using secret, interlocking corporate directorates, and terrorizing anybody who managed to figure out that they were having any kind of role, and putting people in very important positions so that they could get a free pass.”

The Bank of International Settlements acts to coordinate Central Bank policy to dominate and rule the global financial system.

The shadowy but immensely powerful Bank for International Settlements serves as “the club of these private central bankers,” Hudes continued. “Now, are people going to want interest on their country’s debts to continue to be paid to that group when they find out the secret tricks that the group has been doing? Don’t forget how they’ve enriched themselves extraordinarily and how they’ve taken taxpayer money for the bailout.”

As far as intervening in the gold price, Hudes said it was an effort by the powerful network and its central banks to “hold onto its paper currency” — a suspicion shared by many analysts and even senior government officials. The World Bank whistleblower also said that contrary to official claims, she did not believe there was any gold being held in Fort Knox. Even congressmen and foreign governments have tried to find out if the precious metals were still there, but they met with little success. Hudes, however, believes the scam will eventually come undone.

“This is like crooks trying to figure out where they can go hide. It’s a mafia,” she said. “These culprits that have grabbed all this economic power have succeeded in infiltrating both sides of the issue, so you will find people who are supposedly trying to fight corruption who are just there to spread disinformation and as a placeholder to trip up anybody who manages to get their act together.… Those thugs think that if they can keep the world ignorant, they can bleed it longer.”

Of course, the major corruption at the highest levels of government and business is not a new phenomenon. Georgetown University historian and Professor Carroll Quigley, who served as President Bill Clinton’s mentor, for example, wrote about the scheme in his 1966 book Tragedy And Hope: A History Of The World In Our Time. The heavyweight academic, who was allowed to review documents belonging to the top echelons of the global establishment, even explained how the corrupt system would work — remarkably similar to what Hudes describes.

The system has been created to enable private hands to control the global financial and political systems but there is hope that this will be exposed and cleared up.

“The powers of financial capitalism had a 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,” wrote Prof. Quigley, who agreed with the goals but not the secrecy. “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 Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations.”

But it is not going to happen, Hudes said — at least not if she has something do to with it. While the media are dominated by the “power grabber” network, Hudes has been working with foreign governments, reporters, U.S. officials, state governments, and a broad coalition of fellow whistleblowers to blow the entire scam wide open. There has been quite a bit of interest, too, particularly among foreign governments and state officials in the United States.

Citing the wisdom of America’s Founding Fathers in creating a federal system of government with multiple layers of checks and balances, Hudes said she was confident that the network would eventually be exposed and subjected to the rule of law, stopping the secret corruption. If and when that happens — even if it may be disorderly — Hudes says precious metals will once again play a role in imposing discipline on the monetary system. The rule of law would also be restored, she said, and the public will demand a proper press to stay informed.

“We’re going to have a cleaned-up financial system, that’s where it is going, but in the meantime, people who didn’t know how the system was gamed are going to find out,” she said. “We’re going to have a different kind of international financial system…. It’ll be a new kind of world where people know what’s going on — no more backroom deals; that’s not going to keep happening. We’re going to have a different kind of media if people don’t want to be dominated and controlled, which I don’t think they do.”

While Hudes sounded upbeat, she recognizes that the world is facing serious danger right now — there are even plans in place to impose martial law in the United States, she said. The next steps will be critical for humanity. As such, Hudes argues, it is crucial that the people of the world find out about the lawlessness, corruption, and thievery that are going on at the highest levels — and put a stop to it once and for all. The consequences of inaction would be disastrous.     

Source: The New American

Irish Finance Minister Noonan Proposes Bail In Policy

Noonan’s gesture to depositors

Under the presidency of the EU, the Irish finance minister Michael Noonan(2012 Bilderberg attendee) has proposed making the Cyprus theft “bail in” using deposits over €100k policy for future bank collapses. The BIS sets the banking agenda and they want depositors raped when banks collapse along with using “bail ins” to pay for bankers remuneration (big bonuses) according to a recent paper. Judging by the state of European banks, a lot of people are going to have their wealth wiped out and everyone will be at the same wealth level in the Orwellian EUSSR.

Deposits of over €100,000 are likely to be hit in the event of future European bank collapses, according to a proposal put forward by the Irish presidency of the European Council ahead of a key meeting of finance ministers next week.

Discussions on the controversial bank resolution regime, which is likely to see savers with deposits over €100,000 “bailed in” as part of future bank wind-downs, are due to intensify this week in Brussels, ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, which will be chaired by Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan.

“We will try to get some guidance from Ministers about the possible design of the bailout tool,” one EU official said yesterday.

Under a compromise text proposed by the Irish presidency, uninsured deposits of over €100,000 would be bailed in in the event that a bank is resolved, but depositors would rank higher than other creditors in the event of a wind-down.

In this scenario – known as “deposit preference” – depositors would rank at the very end of the process, with other creditors first absorbing losses.

However, some member states have not ruled out the possibility that insured deposits, i.e. deposits under €100,000, would be forced to bear losses in the event of a bank collapse even though these deposits would be likely to be protected by the deposit guarantee scheme.

However, the explicit exclusion of insured deposits from future “bail-ins” could in fact be included in the final text, according to some sources, with some MEPs in particular keen to include such a provision.

Significant differences still remain between states on the issue, with some countries calling for greater flexibility as regards the application of the new rules on a national basis, including the possibility that individual countries could be permitted to exempt large depositors from losses if a bank fails.

The introduction of an EU-wide bank resolution process, which would govern how banks are wound down, is a key strand of the EU’s plan for a pan-European banking union, which was endorsed by EU leaders at last June’s summit.

However, the chaotic Cyprus bailout instilled the issue with greater urgency, with EU lawmakers now keen to provide clarity around bank collapses.

Moving the burden
This year Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the group of 17 euro zone finance ministers, said that losses on bondholders and depositors could form part of future bank bailouts as euro zone officials seek to move the burden of bailouts away from taxpayers – as was the case in the Irish bailout – and on to private investors.

The European Commission argues that this switch from so-called “bailouts” to “bail-ins” would result in an allocation of losses that would not be worse than the losses that shareholders and creditors would have suffered in regular insolvency proceedings that apply to other private companies.

While the inclusion of large savers in future bank bailouts is now widely accepted, significant differences still remain between member states.

While the new rules governing bank resolution were first intended to come into place in 2018, since the Cypriot bailout there have been calls from senior EU figures such as European Central Bank president Mario Draghi and EU economics affairs commissioner Olli Rehn to introduce the new regime as early as 2015.

The Irish presidency of the European Council is hoping to reach a common position by the end of next month.

Noonan demonstrates how much the EU/Banks intend you will be left with under the plan

 

 

 

 

Source: Irish Times, BIS

Geoengineering – The Cheaper Alternative To Carbon Taxes

I think most people at this stage are waking up to the fact that “Global Warming” (sorry, now called Climate Change) was just a scam myth used to introduce Carbon Taxes. The clip below shows David Keith (Geoengineer) at TED explaining how Climate Engineering could use numerous CHEAPER alternatives to carbon taxes to affect the planet. Might explain the strange weather we experienced in March.

So is our strange weather geo engineered or as a result of man made carbon ? Maybe the table below and the video above might help you make up your mind.  But one thing is clear for me, if you want to help stimulate the economy, GET RID OF CARBON TAXES !!!!!!

TABLE 4a. Anthropogenic (man-made) Contribution to the “Greenhouse
Effect,” expressed as % of Total (water vapor INCLUDED)

Based on concentrations (ppb) adjusted for heat retention characteristics	% of Greenhouse Effect	% Natural	% Man-made
Water vapor	95.000%	94.999%	0.001%
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)	3.618%	3.502%	0.117%
Methane (CH4)	0.360%	0.294%	0.066%
Nitrous Oxide (N2O)	0.950%	0.903%	0.047%
Misc. gases ( CFC’s, etc.)	0.072%	0.025%	0.047%
Total	100.00%	99.72	0.28%

Source: http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html

50 Ways To Starve The Beast

What a great idea “Starve the Beast”. Although at times hard to do, its still useful to practise as much on the list as possible. 

“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi.

A term coined in 1985 by an unnamed staffer of the Reagan administration was “Starve the Beast”.  This referred to a fiscally conservative political strategy to cut government spending by paying less in taxes.  So, in the original sense, “the Beast” was the government, and people were to starve the beast by spending less and using loopholes, therefore paying less in taxes.

These days the Beast has a lot more tentacles than just the government.  The system now consists of the government and all aspects of Big Business.  Big Agri, Big Pharma, Big Medicine, Big Food, Big Banking and Big Oil, to name a few.  It seems that now it’s the Beast doing the starving, as small businesses close because they can’t compete with Wal-Mart, the family farm is on it’s way out because it can’t compete with the huge, subsidized Monsanto mega-farms, people are going bankrupt because they can’t pay the outrageous medical bills…

Perhaps it’s time for another financial revolution – one where people group together and use the power of the boycott to starve all the arms of this Beast that would swallow us whole.  If we vote with our dollars, eventually there will, of a necessity, be a paradigm shift that returns us to simpler days, when families that were willing to work hard could make a living without selling their souls to the corporate monoliths.

Every penny you spend with small local businesses is a penny that the big box stores won’t have.  Everything that you buy secondhand or barter for is an item on which you won’t pay sales tax.  Disassociate yourself completely with “the system” that is making Western civilization broke, overweight and unhealthy.  Starve the Beast by taking as many of these steps as possible…

1. Grow your own food (this starves Big Agri and Big Pharma both)
2. Shop at local businesses with no corporate ties
3. Use natural remedies instead of pharmaceuticals whenever possible
4. Homeschool your children
5. Walk or bike instead of driving when possible
6. Get care from naturopaths and healers instead of doctors
7. Make paper logs from scraps for free heat if you have a wood-burning fireplace or stove
8. Boycott all processed foods
9. Shop at local farmer’s markets
10. Boycott corporate stores: Wal-Mart, Costco, Best Buy, Home Depot
11. Give vouchers as gifts for an evening of babysitting, a homemade meal, walking the dog, doing a repair, or cleaning
12. Join a CSA or farm co-op
13. Ditch television (and all the propaganda and commercials)
14. Participate in the barter system – if no money changes hands, no tax can be added
15. Buy secondhand from yard sales, Craigslist and thrift stores
16. Sell your unwanted goods by having a yard sale or putting an ad on Craigslist
17. Repair things instead of replacing them
18. Avoid fast food restaurants and chain restaurants
19. Dine at locally owned establishments if you eat out
20. Brew your own beer and wine
21. Read a book, purchased second-hand or borrowed
22. Grow or gather  medicinal herbs
23. Give homemade gifts
24. Attend free local activities: lectures, concerts, play days at the park, library events
25. Dumpster dive
26. Play outside: hike, bike, picnic
27. Mend clothing
28. Invite someone over for dinner instead of meeting at a restaurant
29. Throw creative birthday parties at home for your kids instead of renting a venue
30. Camp instead of staying at a hotel
31. Bring your coffee with you in a travel mug
32. Do all of your Christmas shopping with small local businesses and artisans
33. Reduce your electricity usage with candles, solar power and non-tech entertainment
34. Drop the thermostat and put on a sweater
35. Bring your snacks and drinks in a cooler when you go on a road trip
36. Stay home – it’s way easier to avoid temptation that way
37. Pack lunches for work and school
38. Make delicious homemade treats as a hostess gift
39. Close your bank account or at the very least, strictly limit your balance
40. Visit u-pick berry patches and orchards, then preserve your harvest for the winter
41. Use precious metals stored at home as your savings account
42. Raise backyard chickens for your own eggs
43. If you are a smoker, roll your own cigarettes – if possible go one step further and grow tobacco
44. Live in a smaller, more efficient home
45. Use solar power for lighting or cooking
46. Collect rainwater for use in the garden
47. Learn to forage
48. Buy heavy, solid, handmade furniture instead of the flimsy imported stuff
49. At the holidays, focus on activities and traditions instead of gifts.  Go for a walk or drive through the neighborhood to look at lights, get into your PJs and watch a special movie together on Christmas Eve and make certain treats that can always be expected
50. Make your own bath and body products using pure ingredients like coconut oil, essential oils, and herbal extracts

Source: The Organic Prepper

How Big Companies Avoid Taxes

spread the message, hands off our resources

Bankrupt Governments Always Fall Back On Tried and Trusted Playbook

More and more bankrupt governments are slowly turning towards various controls. As the global financial system worsens will governments resort to the playbook of old?

Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog,

Throughout history, bankrupt governments in decline almost ALWAYS fall back on a time-tested playbook.

This includes imposing controls on EVERYTHING– wage and price controls, trade controls, capital controls, border controls, people controls. Everything. And this idea goes back to the dawn of human civilization.

The Third Dynasty of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia, for example, built a very early version of a commodities future exchange. People would commit to terms of trade on clay tablets for the future delivery of agricultural crops, then trade the tablets in a secondary market. It was genius.

But when the economy started to turn in earnest, the government set up a bizarre, complex, and increasingly bureaucratic system of regulating such trade and collecting taxes from it. They even started rationing resources and regulating irrigation.

It was debilitating. The market could no longer function, and the society soon collapsed.

Later, in the 4th century AD, Roman Emperor Diocletian infamously failed to control runaway inflation by fixing the prices of everything from labor to food to articles of clothing.

In the 1790s, the post-Revolution French government tried the same trick whilst inflating away their new paper currency. French farmers could no longer grow their crops profitably, and the 1793 ‘Law on Maximum’ created severe shortages of staple foods in the country.

In our modern times, Argentina has become the poster child for these tactics; the government has fixed prices at the grocery stores, banned advertising, prevented people from holding precious metals and foreign currency, nationalized pensions, and restricted beef exports.

Needless to say, these policies have been a complete disaster for the country. But as the rest of the world looks on, people in ‘rich’ countries foolishly believe that ‘it can’t happen here.’

This is wishful, ignorant, dangerous thinking. It can happen. It is already happening.

Just in the past week in the Land of the Free, for example, two pieces of legislation have been quietly introduced.

One, S.435, is an appalling bill that proposes to BAN the exportation of crude oil or refined petroleum products that originate in the United States.

The second bill would follow the European model and introduce a financial transactions tax (FTT) in the US. Like all taxes, they start with a small sum (0.03% in this case). And, like all taxes, we can be certain that this one would rise as well.

The FTT would apply to nearly all financial instruments– stocks, bonds, options, derivative contracts, etc. Everything except, of course, US government debt purchased directly from the Treasury.

To be clear, neither of these is law yet. But both give a very clear idea of how far the political elite is willing to go.

So, again, if you think that gold criminalization, price controls, and IRA/pension confiscation could NEVER happen where you live, think again. The chances of something happening are clearly greater than zero… which begs the question: why take the risk?

If you diversify internationally– establish a foreign bank account, form a Global Self-Directed IRA, store gold overseas, etc.– you substantially mitigate these risks. And no matter what scenario plays out, you won’t be worse off for having done these things.

Source: ZeroHedge

dghjfgj

The One People’s Public Trust’s (OPPT) UCC Filing of Foreclosure

I have been researching this topic for a number of years now by never posted on it until I recently started to see it come more mainstream. Max Keiser ran a piece regarding the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filing by The One People’s Public Trust (OPPT) pointing a story in the Guardian Express. The background to all this is all English-speaking countries use the Common law system. Put simply there needs to be a victim to your crime. Governments have implemented taxation and administrated their own system using commercial laws (Admiralty law) whereby a person through their ignorance cedes their power to commercial courts. In other words, taxes are voluntary. One explanation is

Unfortunately, the actual law, the common law has been usurped by another system run by the legal industry and supported by the mass media – civil law which is ALL commerce based. We are compelled to live under Admiralty Law or the law of the sea without even realising it ! And without realising that all commerce is based in the concept of bilateral contract. Think about this. Because you won’t read it in newspapers and you won’t get it from the mass media. Thus all statutes and ALL Acts of Parliament (I repeat, ALL Statutes and ALL Acts of Parliament from Parliament) are only given the ‘force of law’ by the individual consent of the governed. They are NOT THE LAW OF THIS LAND. PARLIAMENTS DO NOT MAKE LAWS. Stop believing the nonsense ! You are tricked into commerce because the legal system of this nation has devised a language of its own called LEGALESE – the language of a Society called the Law Society. Legalese is nothing but the forked tongue of COMMERCE. You unwittingly contract with the state without even realising it and because ignorance is not a defence, you sell yourself into slavery.

Astonishing as this story is, I did manage to gather some proof to this. Dun & Bradstreet maintains a database of over 213 million companies globally. I did a search and managed to find many Irish government departments themselves are registered as corporations. Indeed, Ireland itself is a corporation. Many groups have set up in recent years including the lawfulrebellion.org in the UK which aim to awaken people.

The Guardian Express has reported on an open letter by The One People’s Public Trust (OPPT) to the Swedish Government as follows :

The members of a group calling themselves The One People’s Public Trust (OPPT) have been in the news lately, because of  recent UCC filings, with regards to the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).

The UCC is not a U.S. law, rather a uniform code of conduct for Intra-State and Global commerce, drafted and approved by private organizations, to be enacted by the individual U.S. States, and World Governments.

It has been approved by all 50 States in the U.S., Washington, D.C., The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and The U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as all major World Governments.

What follows is a Press Release of a letter sent to the Prime Minister of Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt.

>>>Press Release – For Immediate Distribution<<<

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt,
Regeringskansliet
103 33 Stockholm

February 20, 2013

Open Letter to the Prime Minister and the Ministers of THE GOVERNMENT OF SWEDEN

Dear Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt,

I am writing this letter to you to inquire about a very pressing issue, an issue that touches every human being on this planet, at this very moment.

I stand in my honor before you. My request to you has no other motive but my human desire to uncover the truth, and bring remedy and hope to the rest of my broken hearted brothers and sisters.

It has recently come to my attention, that we, the people of this beautiful country, had a corporate government. This implies that we actually did not have a government serving the needs of its people but a corporation, acting as a government.

*SEC lists SWEDEN KINGDOM OF as a corporation.

The difference between the real, active and lawful government and the corporate government that was operating in its place is enormous. We the people, had, by an act of deception, become commercial commodities; our lives had a monetary value to the corporation and we were considered cargo or chattel. Our personal possessions could be seized from us, our children taken from us, our lives lost and our dreams stolen by it.

We belonged to the CORPORATION. We were its slaves.

This is very important information for all of us; information that we the people of this planet are waking up to.

~~

On December 25th 2012 the world changed, but not the way we were told it would though. No cataclysmic destruction, no planetary upheaval, no “End of the World” prophecy came true. Still, the world has changed more than anyone could ever imagine, let alone dream of….

After long years of legal investigations, through a series of UCC filings, and an extensive list of legal notification processes, all the corporate entities around the world were foreclosed upon and duly notified on December 25th 2012 by the One Peoples Public Trust (OPPT).
As the only Law that governed our legal systems was Corporate Admiralty-Maritime Law (Law of Water or Law of Commerce) and not Common Law (Law of the land and the people) these corporate judiciary systems are now foreclosed upon as well.

Since late December 2012 millions of people around the world have been introduced to our new Trust. All of us, including you, are the beneficiaries of this Trust. The funds that were kept in “safekeeping” for the people of this planet by the corporate commercial entities are now being kept for us by the One People’s Public Trust (OPPT).

Every man, woman and child of this world can now step out of the old slavery system that kept us in lack, ignorance, fear and injustice, and finally walk into the new era of personal freedom, abundance, love and compassion.

I know of hardly anyone who enjoyed the old world of oppression, control, poverty and war; the world where the biggest danger to the well-being and the freedom of the people were often their own governments; the world where a self-selected few had the power to control by fear, intimidation, theft, murder and torture the people they were supposed to protect, serve and help.

That world is today in its last, dying days….and it is better this way……

We have reached the end of this mad, destructive and cruel parody. For the first time ever, we are legally free as the divine beings that we truly are, and not the commercial commodity that we had become by the force of deception by a few.

With joy in my heart, I notify you today, that the time of slavery and blind obedience to any and all “authority” and the use of force towards any and all peoples for the purpose of control, be it financial, spiritual, physical or any other, in order to obtain profit, power and dominance over our Divine and Universal rights, is now over.

We, the inhabitants of this planet, are now legally free, equal and abundant!

I urge you to read the attached material. You, along with the rest of us, stand to benefit immensely from this historic change…. in every way imaginable!

For every man and woman alive, there comes a moment when the biggest choice in life has to be made, the choice that will forever change the stream of events to follow.

We all recognize when such a moment is upon us. We are defined by its presence and power. Sometimes our awareness of its might and its consequences isn’t immediate but the result of a rather slow process that ends with a complete transformation and the final awakening to our true essence.

This moment is here now… for all of us. We get to be the generation with enough courage, knowledge, compassion, love and understanding to make this historic leap from darkness into the light, from “reason” to “heart”, from service-to-self to service-to-others.

This letter is to let you know that this historic moment of choice has now arrived for you as well.

My humble request is that you read carefully the attached documents and become acquainted with their authenticity, the love for each of us conveyed in them and the poetry of the manner by which we have all been liberated from our collective imprisonment, be it physical, spiritual, intellectual, financial or moral.

I invite you to join the rest of humanity on this path to love, compassion, freedom, abundance and endless co-creation. Take a long, close look at all of us, including yourself, and your personal struggle towards the betterment of this fragile but beautiful world and see the future that now stands ahead for us all.

Isn’t it glorious!

Come and join us. The world is waking up to our true nature and unlimited potential. There is nobody else who can give value to us and our experience but us.

We now have a permanent legal standing which enables us to turn away from the slavery system and we humans, the incredible beings of unbelievable potential and grace, finally get to dream the dream and build the kind of world that we want to leave for future generations, with pride and a true sense of accomplishment.

The wave of freedom is now visible on the horizon. The veils of the sad, dark and cruel illusion that dominated us for thousands of years are lifting and the bright light of the dawn of the new era is shining upon us! For the first time in history we can dream the dream that our brothers and sisters of times long gone never dared.

The corporate system in which a divine human was a commercial commodity is no more.

The old corrupt entities are falling and their grotesque symbols are being swept away along with them.

History scholars will try to explain the insanity and cruelty that ruled by force throughout the long centuries of suffering and bloodshed. They will try to understand why humanity accepted such abuse of the weak by the force of the strong.

They will find no answers to our history of madness….
.
You will be making a choice now along with the rest of us. This choice stands to affect you and us equally.

I ask you to take time and to listen carefully to that silent voice inside your soul. Only the most attentive of us ever get to hear it. Only the best of us will heed it.

Ask yourself under what liability you will be acting from now on and in whose and what authority.

What “laws” do you intend to enforce from now on and in whose name?

What “authority” do you serve and who do you represent?

The end of this story is now becoming clear and known to more and more of us. Let us hope that the decisions taken from now on by you, and all of us, in light of this historic action taken by the One People’s Public Trust 1776 (OPPT), will be made in accordance with this legally and lawfully enforceable act.

From this moment onward, your actions, as well as the actions of every human being alive on this planet, now and in the future, will carry with them complete personal responsibility and liability as we begin to act in absolute truth, aware of who we really are: divine beings with equal rights and obligations towards one another in perpetual freedom to create.

Endlessly.

Forever.

I invite you to join the rest of us during these historic times. I extend to you my hand in invitation to become part of the solution and not part of the problem; part of the momentous act of the creation of the new world and not part that supports the old, sad, dark world that is no more….. It is no more.

With all my honor, respect and love, I stand in truth and I salute you,

With the utmost sincerity,

Oliver Troll

SEC (U.S. Sequrities and Exchange Commission) Corporate Registered Number
0000225913 SWEDEN KINGDOM OF SIC: 8888
Business Address: Box 16 306
Riksgäldskontoret
103 26 STOCKHOLM
Sweden

http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse
________________________________________________________________________
Links to the original documents: http://peoplestrust1776.org/ <<<

It remains to be seen what happens but my guess is it will be ignored by governments and the MSM but maybe a few more people will have awakened to how the system really works.

Sources:

1.  Max Keiser
2. Guardian Express
3. The One Peoples Trust
4. Dun and Bradstreet

 

 

This Time Its Different

ZeroHedge posted the following chart looking at the relationship between ISM new orders and unemployment rates. Of course this time its different 😉

Venezuela Devalues By 46%

Venezuela was ahead of the rest when Chavez repatriated the country’s gold. Now it looks to have stolen a lead in the currency wars. If history has thought us anything it’s that those who devalue fair best. The question remains who will be next to devalue so openly or will nations continue to do so via stealth mode via money printing.

While the rest of the developed world is scrambling here and there, politely prodding its central bankers to destroy their relative currencies, all the while naming said devaluation assorted names, “quantitative easing” being the most popular, here comes Venezuela and shows the banana republics of the developed world what lobbing a nuclear bomb into a currency war knife fight looks like:

• VENEZUELA DEVALUES FROM 4.30 TO 6.30 BOLIVARS
• VENEZUELA NEW CURRENCY BODY TO MANAGE DOLLAR INFLOWS
• CARACAS CONSUMER PRICES ROSE 3.3% IN JAN.

And that, ladies and gents of Caracas, is how you just lost 46% of your purchasing power, unless of course your fiat was in gold and silver, which just jumped by about 46%. And, in case there is confusion, this is in process, and coming soon to every “developed world” banana republic near you.

From Bloomberg

Venezuela devalued its currency for the fifth time in nine years as ailing President Hugo Chavez seeks to narrow a widening fiscal gap and reduce a shortage of dollars in the economy.

The government will weaken the exchange rate by 32 percent to 6.3 bolivars per dollar, Finance Minister Jorge Giordani told reporters today in Caracas. The government will keep the currency at 4.3 per dollar for some products, he said.

A spending spree that almost tripled the government’s fiscal deficit last year helped Chavez win his third term. Chavez ordered the devaluation from Cuba, where he is recovering from cancer surgery, Giordani said. Venezuela’s fiscal deficit widened to 11 percent of gross domestic product last year from 4 percent in 2011, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

The move can help narrow the budget deficit by increasing the amount of bolivars the government gets from taxes on oil exports. While a weaker currency may fuel annual inflation of 22 percent, it may ease shortages of goods ranging from toilet papers to cars.

In the black market, the bolivar is trading at 18.4 per dollar, according to Lechuga Verde, a website that tracks the rate. Venezuelans use the unregulated credit market because the central bank doesn’t supply enough dollar at the official rates to meet demand.

Source: ZeroHedge, Bloomberg

World Gold Council: Gold Supression Has Failed

The World Gold Council latest report admits that the gold suppression undertaken by Western elites has failed and gold is poised once again to play a pivotal role in the monetary system.

Commissioned by the gold industry’s market development body the World Gold Council, the new 44-page report from the London-based Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) finds that “Western economies have attempted to dismantle gold’s monetary role. “[But] this has failed.”

 

 

For full report:

http://www.gold.org/download/pub_archive/pdf/gold_renminbi_multi-currency_reserve_system.pdf

Precious Metal Purchasing Act – SB3341

The Precious Metals Purchasing Actis a very disturbing move which is recently introduced by Illinois to keep a close eye on precious metal buyers and sellers.

So let me get this straight.  First they want gun registration and now precious metal registration?  I’m sure the government would only use such information in our best interests, because as we all know: Your Government Loves You.  Sounds reasonable, after all, only “terrorists” buy guns and gold anyway.

Meet the ” Precious Metal Purchasing Act” or SB3341, brought to you by the lovely folks at the Illinois 97th General Assembly:

Synopsis As Introduced
Creates the Precious Metal Purchasing Act. Provides that a person who is in the business of purchasing precious metal shall obtain a proof of ownership, create a record of the sale, and verify the identity of the seller. Provides that a person who is in the business of purchasing precious metal shall not pay for the precious metal in cash and shall record the method of payment. Requires the purchaser to keep a record of the sale for one year or, if the purchase amount is over $500, for 5 years.

Read more on the bill here.

Click here to get Rick Santelli’s reaction (always interesting).

Source: libertyblitzkrieg.com

Bill Gross: Fort Knox Gold A Fairy Tale

Bill Gross (PIMCO) has penned an article entitled “Money for nothin’ writing checks for free”. In it he criticizes the Fed for creating money out of thin air using the fairy tale of gold in Fort Knox as a backup.

Long term creation of debt has serious consequences through inflation. In other words the Governments may have found a way of creating debt for free but ultimately the people pay the price.

It was Milton Friedman, not Ben Bernanke, who first made reference to dropping money from helicopters in order to prevent deflation. Bernanke’s now famous “helicopter speech” in 2002, however, was no less enthusiastically supportive of the concept. In it, he boldly previewed the almost unimaginable policy solutions that would follow the black swan financial meltdown in 2008: policy rates at zero for an extended period of time; expanding the menu of assets that the Fed buys beyond Treasuries; and of course quantitative easing purchases of an almost unlimited amount should they be needed. These weren’t Bernanke innovations – nor was the term QE. Many of them had been applied by policy authorities in the late 1930s and ‘40s as well as Japan in recent years. Yet the then Fed Governor’s rather blatant support of monetary policy to come should have been a signal to investors that he would be willing to pilot a helicopter should the takeoff be necessary. “Like gold,” he said, “U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”

 

Mr. Bernanke never provided additional clarity as to what he meant by “no cost.” Perhaps he was referring to zero-bound interest rates, although at the time in 2002, 10-year Treasuries were at 4%. Or perhaps he knew something that American citizens, their political representatives, and almost all investors still don’t know: that quantitative easing – the purchase of Treasury and Agency mortgage obligations from the private sector – IS essentially costless in a number of ways. That might strike almost all of us as rather incredible – writing checks for free – but that in effect is what a central bank does. Yet if ordinary citizens and corporations can’t overdraft their accounts without criminal liability, how can the Fed or the European Central Bank or any central bank get away with printing “electronic money” and distributing it via helicopter flyovers in the trillions and trillions of dollars?

 

Well, the answer is sort of complicated but then it’s sort of simple: They just make it up. When the Fed now writes $85 billion of checks to buy Treasuries and mortgages every month, they really have nothing in the “bank” to back them. Supposedly they own a few billion dollars of “gold certificates” that represent a fairy-tale claim on Ft. Knox’s secret stash, but there’s essentially nothing there but trust. When a primary dealer such as J.P. Morgan or Bank of America sells its Treasuries to the Fed, it gets a “credit” in its account with the Fed, known as “reserves.” It can spend those reserves for something else, but then another bank gets a credit for its reserves and so on and so on. The Fed has told its member banks “Trust me, we will always honor your reserves,” and so the banks do, and corporations and ordinary citizens trust the banks, and “the beat goes on,” as Sonny and Cher sang. $54 trillion of credit in the U.S. financial system based upon trusting a central bank with nothing in the vault to back it up. Amazing!

Basically the Governments fund their debt for free.

But the story doesn’t end here. What I have just described is a rather routine textbook explanation of how central and fractional reserve banking works its productive yet potentially destructive magic. What Governor Bernanke may have been referring to with his “essentially free” comment was the fact that the Fed and other central banks such as the Bank of England (BOE) actually rebate the interest they earn on the Treasuries and Gilts that they buy. They give the interest back to the government, and in so doing, the Treasury issues debt for free. Theoretically it’s the profits of the Fed that are returned to the Treasury, but the profits are the interest on the $2.5 trillion worth of Treasuries and mortgages that they have purchased from the market. The current annual remit amounts to nearly $100 billion, an amount that permits the Treasury to reduce its deficit by a like amount. When the Fed buys $1 trillion worth of Treasuries and mortgages annually, as it is now doing, it effectively is financing 80% of the deficit for free.

 

The BOE and other central banks work in a similar fashion. British Chancellor of the Exchequer (equivalent to our Treasury Secretary) George Osborne wrote a letter to Mervyn King, Governor of the BOE (equivalent to our Fed Chairman) in November. “Transferring the net income from the APF [Asset Purchase Facility – Britain’s QE] will allow the Government to manage its cash more efficiently, and should lead to debt interest savings to central government in the short-term.” Savings indeed! The Exchequer issues gilts, the BOE’s QE program buys them and then remits the interest back to the Exchequer. As shown in Chart 1, the world’s six largest central banks have collectively issued six trillion dollars’ worth of checks since the beginning of 2009 in order to stem private sector delevering. Treasury credit is being backed with central bank credit with the interest then remitted to its issuer. Should interest rates rise and losses accrue to the Fed’s portfolio, they record it as an accounting liability owed to the Treasury, which need never be paid back. This is about as good as it can get folks. Money for nothing. Debt for free.

Investors and ordinary citizens might wonder then, why the fuss over the fiscal cliff and the increasing amount of debt/GDP that current deficits portend? Why the austerity push in the U.K., and why the possibly exaggerated concern by U.S. Republicans over spending and entitlements? If a country can issue debt, have its central bank buy it, and then return the interest, what’s to worry? Alfred E. Neuman for President (or House Speaker!).

So whats the problem of issuing debt for free?

The future price tag of printing six trillion dollars’ worth of checks comes in the form of inflation and devaluation of currencies either relative to each other, or to commodities in less limitless supply such as oil or gold. To date, central banks have been willing to accept that cost – nay – have even encouraged it. The Fed is now comfortable with 2.5% inflation for at least 1–2 years and the Bank of Japan seems willing to up their targeted objective to something above as opposed to below ground zero. But in the process, zero-bound yields and their QE check writing may have distorted market prices, and in the process the flow as well as the existing stock of credit. Capital vs. labor; bonds/stocks vs. cash; lenders vs. borrowers; surplus vs. deficit nations; rich vs. the poor: these are the secular anomalies and mismatches perpetuated by unlimited check writing that now threaten future stability.

Ben Bernanke has publically acknowledged these growing disparities. “We are quite aware,” he said in November 2011, “that very low interest rates, particularly for a protracted period, do have costs for a lot of people… I think the response is, though, that there is a greater good here, which is the health and recovery of the U.S. economy… I mean, ultimately, if you want to earn money on your investments, you have to invest in an economy which is growing.”

That growth now is to be measured each and every employment Friday via an unemployment rate thermostat set at 6.5%. We at PIMCO would not argue with that objective. Yet we would caution, as Bernanke himself has cautioned, that there are negative consequences and that when central banks enter the cave of quantitative easing and “essentially costless” electronic printing of money, there may be dragons.

Investment conclusions
Investors should be alert to the longterm inflationary thrust of such check writing. While they are not likely to breathe fire in 2013, the inflationary dragons lurk in the “out” years towards which long-term bond yields are measured. You should avoid them and confine your maturities and bond durations to short/intermediate targets supported by Fed policies.

Source: PIMCO

Austrian Business Cycle Explained

REALITY BLOG

————-

The Big Lie

Over the past weekend, Gov. Jerry Brown of California took to the safety of YouTube to reveal that the Golden State’s budget deficit is now $15.7 billion, far greater than the original $9.2 billion estimate in January. (CNN, May 15, 2012)

————-

The Simple Truth

The State Government of California has $100’s of billions in liquid investments and assets, could easily pay off all of its debt tomorrow, and would have $100’s of billions left over.

————-

What if I could show you over $577 billion in investment fund balances that aren’t being reported by the California State Government on its budget report?

Well that is what I’m about to do…

In this article we will once again show the purposeful omission of massive amounts of wealth by your government. If you live in California, this may well be the most important thing that you read…

View original post 4,009 more words

Talking Union

The One Percent is not only increasing their share of wealth — they’re using it to spread millions among political candidates who serve their interests. Example: Goldman Sachs, which gave more money than any other major American corporation to Barack Obama in 2008, is switching alliances this year; their employees have given $900,000 both to Mitt Romney’s campaign and to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future. Why? Because, says the Wall Street Journal, the Goldman Sachs gang felt betrayed by President Obama’s modest attempts at financial reform.

On this week’s Moyers & Company (check local listings), Bill is joined by two veteran journalists to discuss how the super-rich have willfully confused their self-interest with America’s interest. Guests are Chrystia Freeland, author of the new book Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else; and Rolling Stone magazine’s Matt Taibbi, who…

View original post 10 more words

21 Signs Of Global Crisis To Worsen

The following are 21 signs that the global economic crisis is about to go to a whole new level….

#1 Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer says that the global economy is “awfully close” to recession.

#2 It was announced last week that the unemployment rate in Greece has reached an all-time high of 25.1 percent.  Unemployment among those 24 years old or younger is now more than 54 percent.  Back in April 2010, the unemployment rate in Greece was only sitting at 11.8 percent.

#3 The IMF is warning that Greek debt may have to be “restructured” yet again.

#4 Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg says that it is “probable” that Greece will leave the euro, and that it might happen within the next six months.

#5 An angry crowd of approximately 40,000 angry Greeks recently descended on Athens to protest a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel…

From high-school students to pensioners, tens of thousands of Greek demonstrators swarmed into Athens yesterday to show the visiting German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, their indignation at their country’s continued austerity measures.

Flouting the government’s ban on protests, an estimated 40,000 people – many carrying posters depicting Ms Merkel as a Nazi – descended on Syntagma Square near the parliament building. Masked youths pelted riot police with rocks as the officers responded with tear gas.

The authorities had deployed 7,000 police, water cannon and a helicopter. Snipers were placed on rooftops to ensure the German leader’s safety.

#6 The debt crisis is Argentina is becoming increasingly troublesome.

#7 The government debt to GDP ratio in Italy is expected to hit 126 percent this year.  In Greece, it is expected to hit 198 percent.  In Japan, it is expected to hit a whopping 237 percent.

#8 Standard & Poor’s has slashed the credit rating on Spanish government debt to BBB-, which is just one level above junk status.

#9 Back in the year 2000, the ratio of total debt to GDP in Spain was 192 percent.  By 2011, it had reached 363 percent.

#10 Record amounts of money are being pulled out of Spanish banks, and many large Spanish banks are rapidly heading toward insolvency.

#11 Manufacturing activity in Spain has contracted for 17 months in a row.

#12 It is being projected that home prices in Spain will fall by another 15 percent by the end of 2013.

#13 The unemployment rate in France is now above 10 percent, and it has risen for 16 months in a row.

#14 There are signs that Switzerland may be preparing for “major civil unrest” throughout Europe.

#15 The former top economist at the European Central Bank says that the ECB has fallen into a state of “panic” as it desperately tries to solve the European debt crisis.

#16 According to a recent IMF report, European banks may need to sell off 4.5 trillion dollars in assets over the next 14 months in order to meet strict new capital requirements.

#17 In August, U.S. exports dropped to the lowest level that we have seen since last February.

#18 Economics Professor Barry Eichengreen is very concerned about what is coming next for stocks in the United States…

“I’m worried that stock markets in the United States in particular have gotten ahead of economic growth”

#19 During the week ending October 3rd, investors pulled more than 10 billion dollars out of U.S. mutual funds.  Overall, a total of more than 100 billion dollars has been pulled out of U.S. mutual funds so far this year.

#20 As I wrote about the other day, the IMF is warning that there is an “alarmingly high” risk of a deeper global economic slowdown.

#21 When shipping companies start laying off workers, that is one of the best signs that economic activity is slowing down.  That is why it was so troubling when it was announced that FedEx is planning to get rid of “several thousand” workers over the coming months.  According to AFP, “its business is being hit by the global economic slowdown”.

Source: theeconomiccollapseblog.com