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From World Press Network
Dollar Slides; U.A.E. Says Selling U.S. Currency, Buying Euros
- The world survived 2006 without a major economic catastrophe but the year produced warning signs for the future of the global economy.
The E Coli Outbreaks in the US Are Not Random ......... And The Government Knows This
- Be careful what you eat if it isn't cooked or re-washed on the premises.
- Comment by Mike Rivero at whatreallyhappened
- The E Coli outbreaks always seem to hit companies being aggressively "acquired" by larger corporations. The outbreaks always force the sale and lower the purchase price at the same time. - M. R.
US Dollar can fall a lot further. Isn't it time for the US Federal Reserve to be nationalized ?
Israel's Balance of Payments Surplus - New Record
- Export surplus reached $400m in Q3 and $1.5b over the past six months. According to the figures, Israel is owed $30b by various countries, an increase of 50% from the preceding quarter
WPN Note : And the reason why Israel still receives huge annual subsidies, and free loan guarantees (which never get paid back) from the US is ......... ? Shouldn't it be the other way round ?
Real U.S. shortfall: $4.6 trillion in red
- 'Taxing 100% of all wages, salaries, corporate profits would not eliminate a deficit of this magnitude'
WPN Note : The above report shows the GAAP accounting numbers reported in the 2006 Treasury report. One of the figures seen in the table is the $53.1 Trillion GAAP Federal Negative Net Worth.
That is $530,000 debt for every one of the 100 million males between 15-64 years old in the US. And this is ignoring the huge state level debts, corporate and private debts (including mortgages). What a house of cards built on monopoly money. No wonder Americans abroad are giving up their citizenship now, before the Fed's private owners come to collect (see article below).
THE UNITED STATES IS INSOLVENT
More Americans abroad giving up citizenship for lower taxes
- She is a former U.S. Marine, a native Californian and, now, a former American who prefers to remain discreet about abandoning her citizenship. After 10 years of warily considering options, she turned in her U.S. passport last month without ceremony, becoming an alien in the view of her homeland.
- "It's a really hard thing to do," said the woman, a 16-year resident of Geneva who had tired of the cost and time of filing yearly U.S. tax returns on top of her Swiss taxes. "I just kept putting this off. But it's my kids and the estate tax. I don't care if I die with only one Swiss franc to my name, but the U.S. shouldn't get money I earned here when I die."
- According to this Senior source, China told the U.S. delegation they no longer have faith in U.S. Currency for several reasons:
- 1) The Federal Reserve Bank ceased publishing "M3" data in March, making it nearly impossible for anyone to know how much cash is being printed. China said this act made it impossible to tell how much a Dollar is worth.
- 2) The U.S. Dollar has lost upwards of thirty percent (30%) of its value against other foreign currencies in the recent past, meaning China has lost almost $300 Billion simply by holding U.S. Dollars in its reserves.
- 3) The U.S. has no plans whatsoever to reduce deficit spending or ability pay down any of its existing debt without printing money to pay it off.
- In a strange twist of fate, Arabs and OPEC may come to the rescue of the U.S.!
- Senior officials in OPEC made clear that they too would be severely harmed if the U.S. Dollar collapsed, and hinted they "would not be inclined to sell oil to any particular nation that intentionally caused such a collapse."
- The OPEC officials even went so far as to say "Since China lacks the ability to project their military power, OPEC nations need not worry about any Chinese military response to an oil cut-off."
- Such brutally candid remarks will not sit well with China; and signal ominous things for the U.S. .
Argentina and Brazil plan to stop using the U.S. dollar in trade from mid 2007
- Argentina and Brazil plan to stop using the U.S. dollar from mid 2007 as a mediator currency for its trade exchange. The import-export-traffic between the largest Mercosur-partners is supposed to use the local currencies from then on. The last details are supposed to be cleared in a conference taking place on Friday of the Mercosur-countries.
Mint bans melting coins now worth more as liquid than loot
- A nickel is 25 percent nickel and 75 percent copper. The metal in one coin costs 6.99 cents for each 5-cent coin.
WPN note : If melting them is banned, how about just storing them ? As the value of the US$ depreciates in terms of real assets, the "nickels" (5-cent-coin) are likely to be worth even more than the current 40% premium over face-value. I wonder if the US government will limit how many nickels are produced ? Previously it was not illegal to melt the coins. This is a further sign of devaluation of the purchasing power of the dollar. In addition, new rules have also just been brought in to limit to $5 how much travelers going out of the US can carry in nickels and cents.
Dollar collapse: what should contrarian investors do?
- Contrarians who believe that when everyone else is bearish on the dollar, they should take a contrarian view.
Rogers: Sell U.S. dollar, buy real and yuan
- It's only a matter of time before the beleaguered U.S. dollar loses its status as the world's reserve currency and medium of exchange, U.S. fund manager and author Jim Rogers told Reuters in an interview.
- "The dollar is a terribly flawed currency," said Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum hedge fund with billionaire investor George Soros in the 1970s.
Analysts: Dollar collapse would result in 'amero'
- Think deep recession likely regardless of Fed's actions
- Two analysts who have reconstructed money supply data after the Fed stopped publishing it argue a coming dollar collapse will set the stage for creating the amero as a North American currency to replace the dollar.
- Rate of increase in M3 Money Supply accelerating.
Commentary on Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article
- WSJ's defense correspondent, Gregg Jaffe, reported that US Army officials have told the White House they are broke. Worse than broke actually. The Army, despite its $168 billion budget, is out of money and being forced to cannibalize operations, here and in the war zone, just to keep the lights on.
- I have no idea why this story was not on the front page of every newspaper and at the top of every newscast yesterday, but it wasn't. The story ran on only one front page, that I'm aware of. And that was on the paper that broke the story, the Wall Street Journal.
WPN note: The Main Stream Media (MSM) is again letting down their readership. No wonder people prefer the internet to highlight what are the important, under-reported, events occurring in the world.
- Our arrogant government has its imperial army stretched over 150 out of 193 countries in the world and, most remarkably, are using the entire world's resources to do it - while in return handing them a bunch of worthless IOUs.
British Troop shortages 'a clear danger'
- A personnel shortage is creating a "clear danger" that the military will be unable to maintain its commitments in the near future, MPs have warned.
- With major deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, and forces working in a total of 28 countries, the committee found the services were operating "in insufficient numbers and without all the equipment they need".
TOP-LEVEL INSIDERS SELLING THEIR STOCK
- December 7, 2006 -- America's corporate chiefs are unloading their own stocks at one of the boldest paces in 20 years.
- Analysts say a take-the-money-and-run flight from their own companies signals a growing lack of confidence in the economy's future course, as well as fears of a possible global meltdown if the Iraq crisis escalates across borders.
- Just before the worst of the 2000 recession, insider sales were also at a near record.
Alarm Bells should be ringing about this. At the stock market peaks, the insiders tend to be selling (because they realise the stock prices are too high), and the naive retail client is buying because he doesn't realise he is paying too much, and is jumping in on the bandwagon way too late in the cycle.
The Decline and Fall of American Conservatism
- When state and local taxes (controlled in the majority of places by Republicans) are added to federal taxes, Americans worked for the government eight hours a day, five days a week, from January 1 until July 12, meaning they worked full-time for the government for more than half the year. As Tom Feeney, a congressional Republican put it: “I remember growing up and reading in some school textbooks that if more than half your paycheck went to the government, then you were living in a socialist society.” Just so, Mr. Feeney.
Iran plans to reduce use of dollar in trade
- Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter, plans to reduce its use of the US dollar in world trade and increase use of the euro, two Tehran-based newspapers reported.
Forget shopping, this could turn into a crash
- As the dollar's fall continues, the US must decide between growth or curbing inflation.
- Sterling's devaluation in 1992 and four points off interest rates coupled with a tighter fiscal policy helped rebalance the UK economy, boosting production at the expense of consumption. A similar rebalancing is long overdue in the US.
- it is obvious the dollar had to fall.
- Bernanke's problem, however, is that there is the world of difference between a gentle but steady decline in the dollar and a pell-mell crash. A controlled depreciation would ease strains caused by global imbalances - US trade deficits, Asian trade surpluses - and insulate the US economy a little from the impact of a severe housing market downturn. A crash in the dollar would lead to turmoil on the world's markets, an increase in long-term US interest rates and a vastly increased risk of a hard landing.
Why further dollar weakness is inevitable
- Further dollar decline is not only inevitable, but also likely to be more severe than even the most pessimistic forecasts. For his seven reasons for further dollar decline,
Dollar falls further on fears of downturn in America
Pound hits 14-year dollar high
Schiff: Worse Than Holding US Dollars Is Holding Bonds; $ 'will keep falling';
- The long term prognosis for the US Dollar is very negative whilst the twin trade and budget deficits are maintained. Indeed, waging war (with associated costs) is not conducive to a strong currency due to the extra strain on both deficits.
M3 becomes a liability for the Fed Isn't it time for the US Federal Reserve to be nationalized ?
On March 23, 2006, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ceased publication of the M3 monetary aggregate. The Board ceased publishing the following components: large-denomination time deposits, repurchase agreements (RPs), and Eurodollars.
- Until M3 Money Supply statistical figures are re-published by the US Federal Reserve, we have to worry what really is "under the bonnet". The fear is the "printing presses" (literally or metaphorically) are running 24x7, which is devaluing the US Dollar and causing a number of asset bubbles. What is worse, the US government has to pay "interest" on this paper (or "electronic" money) which they could avoid by bringing the Federal Reserve back under government ownership.
- If you know of any major country (other than the USA) which would tolerate the central bank to be owned by the private sector, please let us know. Since the central bank has the right to issue unlimited amounts of the currency (and thus have control over the value of the currency), it would seem logical that sovereign nations would want the central bank to under government (and thus ultimately voters) control.
Isn't it time for the US Federal Reserve to be nationalized ? You can leave your comments on the discussion page.
Comment by Mike Rivero at whatreallyhappened
- Our nation was started with a treasury that had the sole legal right to coin money, and that money was based on metals of known and agreed-upon values, not subject to tampering. There was no income tax. The nation grew prosperous.
- Then, right at the start of the 20th century, the Federal Reserve, a private bank, was created and control over the money supply handed to it. The dollar was delinked from a metals-based unit of value and became a unit of promissory debt. An income tax quickly followed, and ever since then, our nation has descended into uncontrollable debt.
- Shouldn't we go back to what worked?
U.S. warns of possible Qaeda financial cyber attack
- As the dollar starts to slide (see above) Bush and co look for a scapegoat to blame the crash on. - M. R.
Economics and the Al-Qaeda attack lie
- One has to be a total fool or completely ignorant of current network infrastructure hardware and security technology to believe that an attack of any magnitude could affect every financial service provider.
Are we being set up for another "Fear Propaganda" "false flag" operation
Is the United States Bankrupt?
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, July/August 2006, 88(4), pp. 235-49
- Is the United States bankrupt? Many would scoff at this notion. Others would argue that financial implosion is just around the corner. This paper explores these views from both partial and general equilibrium perspectives. It concludes that countries can go broke, that the United States is going broke, that remaining open to foreign investment can help stave off bankruptcy, but that radical reform of U.S. fiscal institutions is essential to secure the nation’s economic future. The paper offers three policies to eliminate the nation’s enormous fiscal gap and avert bankruptcy: a retail sales tax, personalized Social Security, and a globally budgeted universal healthcare system.
- Conclusion : Countries can and do go bankrupt. The United States, with its $65.9 trillion fiscal gap, seems clearly headed down that path. The country needs to stop shooting itself in the foot. It needs to adopt generational accounting as its standard method of budgeting and fiscal analysis, and it needs to adopt fundamental tax, Social Security, and healthcare reforms that will redeem our children’s future.
The United States Is In Deep Doodoo!
- United States Congressional Record - March 17, 1993 - Vol. #33, page H-1303 - Speaker- Rep. James Traficant, Jr. (Ohio) addressing the House: "Mr. Speaker, we are here now in chapter 11. Members of Congress are official trustees presiding over the greatest reorganization of any Bankrupt entity in world history, the U.S. Government. We are setting forth hopefully, a blueprint for our future. There are some who say it is a coroner's report that will lead to our demise."
Documentary Films Rattle Business World
U.S. legislator warns of Bush plot to merge Canada, the U.S. and Mexico
- Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo, revered by some U.S. conservatives for his efforts to staunch the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico, said this week that Bush is a dangerous internationalist.
- "I know this is dramatic, or maybe somebody would say overly dramatic. But I’m telling you that everything I see leads me to believe that this whole idea of the North American union, it’s not something that’s just written about by right-wing fringe kooks "
Dollar Fall Is Catalyst For Predatory Global Government
- Americans remain ignorant to 35% devaluation of their bank savings as skids are greased for introduction of Amero, North American Union
- But fear not, because the very predatory globalism that caused all this calamity in the first place has yet another answer to our prayers! It's the Amero, the North American currency that will unify the States, Mexico and Canada
Why a national service program is a bad idea
In past times of economic crisis, leaders have either created social programs or they went to war. During the Great Depression, the government created work for people (the WPA). This alone couldn’t reverse the downward economic spiral, even though it did alleviate suffering. WWII came to the rescue and became the engine that rebuilt this economy.
Today, Americans face an economic crisis on a similar scale as the Great Depression.
User Feedback :
US Dollar can fall a lot further. Isn't it time for the US Federal Reserve to be nationalized ?
Absolutely!
And that is the Central Banker's WORST NIGHTMARE - An America that is FINALLY FREE of their GREEDY LITTLE MACHINATIONS.
The Fed should be nationalized because it has defaulted on its Federal Reserve Notes! Section 16 of the Federal Reserve Act provides that Federal Reserve Notes "shall be redeemed in lawful money on demand at the Treasury Department of the United States, in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, or at any Federal Reserve bank." The 12 Federal Reserve Banks and the U.S. Treasury have all closed their public windows, thus making it impossible to redeem Federal Reserve Notes for "lawful money." Those notes have all been defaulted on and are technically worthless!
On June 4, 1963 President Kennedy signed Executive Order 11110 with the authority to virtually strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the United States Federal Government at interest. With that stroke of a pen, President Kennedy declared that the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank would soon be out of business.
The Christian Law Fellowship has exhaustively researched this matter through the Federal Register and Library of Congress. We can now safely say that this Executive Order has never been repealed, amended, or superseded by any subsequent Executive Order. In simple terms, it is still valid.
WPN Note : The following 3 comments are from the same individual
Nationalizing the FED will only allow congress to act with wild extremes in monetary policy. Because the Fed is already a Trust it should remain that way and continue operations to lend money to the private sector. The trustees of the fed should become the people of this land. the trust should be taxed at 96%, with the balance used to fund its own operation. The tax revenue should be shared among the individual states according to their populations. The central government would be funded by apportionment from the states. The central government may only borrow with a 75% approval of the states for emergency purposes only. Because a trust has limited powers and cannot be manipulated by congress the money will not be inflated. It is US government borrowing that is the single greatest source of inflation, nothing else! Consumer spending does not inflate the currency because it is paid back, taking it out of circulation.
redemption
We agree on nationalizing not only the function but the profit of the FED. However this 'nationalizing' must be insulated from the democratic process, as a trust is. The redemption is not the issue if the currency is not or cannot be inflated to the point of being worthless. Money borrow by the private sector against its future production is a wonderful concept and is vital to a growing and productive economy. If sufficient gold or silver existed it could be used to fund a fiduciary currency. But a fiat system based borrowing for production followed by repayment of the loans by credit worthy individuals is very acceptable.
debt event
The FED does not have the right to issue limitless amounts of money. As the publication by the Chicago Federal Reserves says; 'No money is created until there is a debt event'. The creation of money is limited to the borrower! The inflation of a currency is a factor of money lent and dead beats who do not pay back the loan. Since the Federal government is the largest borrower and the biggest dead beat it is in fact causes inflation of the currency. The Federal reserve is of course guilty of irrational lending only if the borrower refuses to pay back or has insufficient collateral to cover the loan amount. So far the central government is making interest only payments on the loan. Hence if the central government cannot borrow except by permission from the states then the currency could be saved. The interest collected by the FED should be taxed and then apportioned to the states according to there populations.
WPN Feedback to "debt event" comment above
- There are already legal limits (ceiling) on how much the central government can borrow. These are already state controlled via the senators and representative in Congress. But the debt ceiling is routinely extended when it is approached. No amount of "control" on the borrowing of the central government could compensate for the other current major shortcomings of the Fed structure (e.g. "who controls the Fed decision making" and the Central Government shouldn't pay interest on its own "borrowing" from the Fed).
- We agree about the need to tax the profit of the Fed (so as to avoid unfairly and unreasonably enriching the shareholders of the Fed from the interest received on electronic or printed money which "costs" the Fed virtually nothing). However profits can be manipulated, e.g. who controls how much salary / bonuses to pay executives ?
- Placing Citizen Trustees in the Fed might help, but the problem is most citizens can be manipulated or "convinced" to act a certain way (especially in the face of heavy lobbying). Also, trustees have to follow a rule book .. so who sets the rule book, who can challenge the interpretation or implementation of that rule book. Therefore maintaining the Fed as a trust adds an extra layer and complexity to the situation, which cries out instead for simplicity. Maintaining the Fed as a Trust introduces another branch of government, which might be unconstitutional. Constitutionally, it is Congress who should have control over the coining of money.
- A core issue is the Federal Reserve can lend to private borrowers. As such, who decides the maximum amount these "private" borrowers can borrow, at what interest rates, and for what duration ? Imagine all the shareholders of the Fed decide to borrow 1,000,000,000 Trillion dollars. As shareholders, they can control the decision of the Fed. Effectively, the shareholders can "borrow" (in effect "make"/"print") unlimited US$, thus devaluing US$ held by individuals proportionately to the amount of money "printed". Eventually asset prices will compensate by "inflating" in nominal US$ terms, but the "trick" is by then, most citizens would have either sold their assets for near-worthless US$, or find they couldn't afford the interest THEY have to pay on any loans, or even to pay taxes for the Government so it can pay interest on it's debt to the Fed (which costs the Fed NOTHING). To compound the misery, interest rates would likely skyrocket when people realize it is just paper money and either convert to other currencies (causing a drop in the US$ like we are seeing now}, or when investors demand more interest to compensate for the risk of currency devaluation and/or interest. Thus most citizens could find themselves either owning near worthless US$s, or being bankrupt (in both cases, the citizen is in the same position).
- Once the Central Bank is nationalized (either directly or via keeping it as a Trust with citizens as trustees), we do not believe it should be allowed to continue lending to the private sector. All these existing loans should be called in at the first legal opportunity. Maintaining this authority to lend to private sector gives the government (or trustees) HUGE control over the private sector .. indeed, effectively TOTAL control since they could determine how much money any private sector organization can borrow and on what terms --- giving the "favored" private sector borrowers a HUGE unfair advantage over others. Instead, these private sector borrowers should be forced to do what all other private sector organizations do when they need money : go to the markets to issue bonds or shares, or go to regulated banks for loans since the regulated banks already have strict regulations and risk management controls (including following Basle Capital Adequacy rules). This will make the "playing field" much more level than it currently is. The "favored" private sector referred to here are not poor citizens, but likely to be the most successful and largest corporations who want to apply leverage to increase their existing huge profitability. There are already federal and state institutions for lending and supporting the needy in society, and these are under the rightful control of Congress. So why can certain favored private sector organizations borrow unlimited amounts from an unregulated "private" central bank in which they may be a shareholder? Can anyone say "conflict of interest ?"
On a further note, does any of these private loans have to be publicly declared or noticed in light of M3 Money Supply figures not being published since March 23, 2006 ? In stock market equivalence, trades are declared since "transparency" in the markets reduces the chance of market abuse and mispricing. The effect of withholding M3 Money Supply figures COULD allow the shareholders of the Fed to borrow unlimited amount of money and the time to buy EVERY ASSET in sight BEFORE the markets realize what is happening [so before "inflation" REALLY takes off]. The scary thing is there is no level of high asset price which, in the above scenario, is "too much" for the shareholders of the Fed (since to them, it is effectively "monopoly" money). A major risk is instability of the US$ when people globally realize it is of little value, but if this happens, interest rates will rise in US$, making the Fed even more money from interest which the Government pays (or rolls over) on its debt. It is a WIN-WIN for the Fed .. unless it is either nationalized (either directly or via keeping it as a Trust with citizens as trustees as suggested by some readers), or taxed heavily -- but taxation is "historic", and the real control is who to lend to and at what rates .. i.e. profits can be manipulated. i.e. The real issue isn't just "taxation", it is who can manipulate this level of profit, and who can make the decisions on how much to lend, to whom, and on what terms. High taxation alone won't be enough. In a democracy, the voters need to be able to effectively control what the central bank can do, and not be left to private shareholders.
debt ceiling
□ The big difference is that the FED shall not lend to the central government and the central government shall not have the power to borrow from any US bank or foreign bank. Therefore debt ceiling is not an issue. □ The central government cannot borrow except from the states, the terms of the loan are up to the states. Interest, if any, would be unnecessary since the central government would be paying its debt to the states from income that the states provided. □ Banking only profits come from two sources, interest or foreclosures. There would be no bonuses paid to anyone, however, salaries maybe adjusted at the will of the Trustees. The ‘citizen trustees’ are actually appointed for a term of service by the state legislatures to oversee the operation of the trust. As you said trusts have rules trustees have to follow a rule book. Challenges to the operation of the trust should be very limited because the bank only lends to the private banking sector under fixed banking standards. While this trust may appear as a branch of government it is very isolated and limited in scope. If you wish to call it a ‘branch’ fine, it is the function that is important. □ Since, as we agree the FED has now been ‘nationalized’, there are no longer any share holders. I think you would agree they have been more than compensated for their ‘investment’ and do not need to be paid per share. If these former share holders which to borrow money they can go to a local bank and fill out an application like everyone else. As you said; ‘ Instead, these private sector borrowers should be forced to do what all other private sector organizations do when they need money : go to the markets to issue bonds or shares, or go to regulated banks for loans since the regulated banks already have strict regulations and risk management controls (including following Basle Capital Adequacy rules).’ □ The possibility of manipulation of profit is a function of the interest rate and foreclosure rate which standards are established before hand by the trust and over seen by the state appointed trustees. Trustees are controlled by the state legislatures which are controlled by the people of their jurisdictions. Interest rates are primarily adjusted to offset the inflation of any currency. Since the private sector must pay back its loans the currency is effectively removed from circulation and reduces or eliminates inflation. This, therefore, removes the need for interest rate adjustments.
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