Category Archives: Banking

The Populist Cry For Glass-Steagall

by Guest Writer KRISTINA BRUCE | CLEARNFO.com | July 16, 2015

The housing crash of 2008 wiped out over $6 trillion dollars in American assets and dropped household net worth by almost 40%. Not only that but the banking debacle also cost an additional $26 trillion in bailouts and another $3.6 trillion in Quantitative Easing. The latter was to keep interest rates low in an attempt to jump-start housing sales. We’ve frequently seen mention of the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act (GS) as the mechanism which could have averted the banking crisis and it’s making headlines again as a bill originally introduced in 2013 by the unlikely duo of Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ). It seems the memories of the American public like goldfish aren’t very long because what’s old seems to be new again.

Was Glass-Steagal actually doing the job of protecting the public from the evils of retail and investment banks interconnectedness, collusion and risk taking when it was still in place? No it wasn’t. Enacted in 1933, by the time a portion of it, yes only a portion was repealed in 1999 with the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the banks had long been involved in the very same activities which are once again being blamed for creating the crisis. Pay no attention to the fact that GS regulation would have had no effect on the failures of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac. Oh and please ignore the fact that in 2004 the SEC decided to raise banks debt-to-capital ratio from 12:1 to 30:1. Surely that had no effect on how much more risk they were able to take on. Right? No it was all Glass-Steagall the politicians proclaim!

The reality is that Glass-Steagall stopped doing anything to protect anybody at the very latest in the era of Harold Geneen and International Telephone and Telegraph Corp (ITT). Why this reference? Because that was sort of the most famous example of a wave of large mergers and acquisitions which certainly showed up in the finance sector around that time. It didn’t take nearly as long to recognize in the business sector how very destructive the way Geneen gobbled up companies into IT&T was, to form this weird conglomerate of unrelated businesses. Eventually it destroyed the core business and that is what people should keep in mind as we go down the rabbit hole. Hands in too many pies eventually lead to big mistakes and malinvestment.

The point of that example is to compare it to the reunification of the finance sector which began around the same time and it soon got to a point that commercial banks, investment banks and proprietary trading banks had no separation that could be overcome no matter what the goofball regulators did and we’re talking the 1970’s here! Forty years ago not; even in this century! It had been going on for so long that by 1999 it was argued Glass–Steagall was already “dead.” One of the latest incidents before GS was repealed was Citibank’s 1998 affiliation with Salomon Smith Barney, one of the largest US securities firms, was permitted under the Federal Reserve Board’s then existing interpretation of the Glass–Steagall Act. They just did whatever the hell they wanted to and they’ll do it again. It was not long after Citibank/SSB that Clinton publicly declared “the Glass–Steagall law is no longer appropriate.” All they did was once again codify illegal behavior by changing the law just as the current administration has codified all sorts of illegal acts through the National Defense Authorization Act, The Federal Grounds Protection Act, continually extending the Patriot Act, the Freedom Act and this horrid upcoming Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. They tell you that they’re protecting you then they change the law to benefit the banking corporate cartel and also strip you of your rights.

What’s more is that the politicians are being disingenuous and playing on the naiveté of the public when it comes to both their short memories and lack of attention as to how the banking industry works. In Warren’s opinion as stated in a New York Times article from 2012; when asked if GS had been in place at the time of the financial crisis if it would have averted it or reduced banking loses, her reply ;

“The answer is probably ‘No’ to both.”

Andrew Ross Sorkin who did the interview summed up Warren’s motives for pushing GS reinstatement at the time hit the nail on the head:

“In my conversation with Ms. Warren she told me that one of the reasons she’s been pushing reinstating Glass-Steagall — even if it wouldn’t have prevented the financial crisis — is that it is an easy issue for the public to understand and “you can build public attention behind.”

She added that she considers Glass-Steagall more of a symbol of what needs to happen to regulations than the specifics related to the act itself.”

Bingo! It resonates with the populace. It makes them feel as though someone is actually doing something even if it is meaningless. It’s pandering.

Is there more to this though? Is there possibly something here from which the banks might actually benefit? I think there is. Pandering alone is not usually motive enough for politicians like McCain who is so entrenched they’ll probably remove him from the senate in a body bag or Warren who has already become so popular that her political career is almost ensured for as long as she desires to remain in the senate.

What happens if the new and improved GS 2.0 is passed? Well within 5 years the retail banks will have to divest themselves of all activities deemed exclusive to investment banks and vice versa. In some cases the government will also reserve the right to force cessation of certain activities in an even shorter time frame where it feels there is imminent risk to the public. That means a lot of shifting of business will have to be done in a very short matter of time. Do you reckon that retail banks are just going to hand over that portion of their business to investment banks and the investment banks will do so in kind? Not likely. On top of that, there are portions of assets each hold which neither would even want to dirty their hands with.

It is likely that toxic assets are becoming so burdensome and eminently destructive that the major banks would actually welcome a superficial break-up at this point. It would give them an opportunity to spin some of the absolutely worthless portions of the $1.2 QUADRILLION holdings of completely unregulated derivatives market. This of course would be shoveled into smaller entities which could later be allowed to implode and without implicating the parent companies. It would also give them plausible deniability for the offload if it was government mandated too!!!

They’ve got $TRILLION$ in bad derivatives bets which are going to eventually go sour no matter how much money they print and infuse the banks with. There’s a global economic slowdown and a currency devaluation war going on right now which ensures it’s going to happen at some point in the not too distant future. You bet your bottom dollar they’d love to get a huge portion of that off the books sooner than later! If they spin-off these toxic assets themselves everyone’s going to blame Goldman Sachs, Chase, HSBC and myriad other “too big to fails” for having done so. If government *snickering* “forces” them to become smaller, then the heat is off the parent entities when these bets do go bad for their spun-off children.

It doesn’t matter a whit if these banks create new separate entities to handle portions of business they will be precluded from engaging in. Most of what will be spun off are bets on junk and holdings in the grossly overvalued stock market; which is becoming more and more difficult to prop up, not just here in the U.S., but globally. The Chinese stock market was falling so precipitously that last week the government had to place stringent controls on selling by major holders for the next 6 months. They initiated discounts on transaction fees and decreased margin requirements to encourage buying. At the same time the NYSEX was halted for half a day which still is somewhat mysterious. At the same time the Euro zone is in a tremendous mess with Greece, which if it doesn’t go Germany’s way could set off a domino effect of similar defaults and send their markets into a tail spin. Doesn’t it seem awfully convenient that simultaneous to this all of the sudden, a 2-year-old bill which had been lost in the shuffle is suddenly in vogue again? The banks want to take out the trash and this is the perfect cover to do it under.

The general populist cry is understandable. The banks are robbing them blind and they want it to stop. The problem is that Glass-Steagall isn’t going to do much of anything other than give the banks an opportunity to stick it to them again. Say it publicly though and most folks’ hair bristles and spit flies out their mouths as they scream, “It’s better than nothing!” They want so badly to believe that some politician somewhere is doing something, ANYTHING on their behalf that when you gore the sacred ox of Glass-Steagall they lose all logic. The problem is that economics is a dismal science which even a goodly portion in the industry of trading and finance don’t fully understand. How are we to expect a public whose economic education on the subject generally amounts to the cumulative sound bites they’ve heard on the evening news and a blurb or two from the likes of FOX News, MSNBC and their endless parade of bobble head commentators, to really have a grasp on what’s being proposed? At best it will do little to nothing. At worst it may be a Trojan Horse leaving another swath of destruction which the banking industry will casually walk away from relatively unscathed.

Note: The Glass-Steagall Act was enacted in 1933 to limit commercial bank securities activities and affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms. In short it was a wall of separation between commercial and investment banking. The 1999 repeal permitted Wall Street investment banking firms to gamble with their depositors’ money that was held in affiliated commercial banks.

By Guest Writer Kristina Bruce ⋅ July 16, 2015
Read more from Kristina Bruce at Cutting the Gordian Knot

Joe Plummer’s ‘Dishonest Money’ – Now in German (Deutsch)

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | July 13, 2015

Dishonest Money

The information contained in ‘Dishonest Money’ is critical to any accurate understanding of money and banking, period. Having studied these topics for years, I am familiar with most of what Mr. Plummer discusses, but I have yet to see all the disparate pieces of this –sometimes confusing—puzzle come together so nicely in one easy to read and easy to understand book. It is easy and understandable because Mr. Plummer takes you step by step in a very thoughtful process meant to communicate not impress. ‘Dishonest Money’ will surly help even the expert clear out a few cobwebs and misunderstandings while being extremely approachable to the novice.

In my view, ‘Dishonest Money’ should be a vital part of any standard curriculum in public / private schools and universities interested in educating their students. With this knowledge in the hands or rather the minds of the public, the Central bankers would likely never have another restful night’s sleep and would be looking over their shoulders with every step they take.

Dishonest Money – Book Review

Putting this rabid dog down

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | July 13, 2015

US/NATO/IMF – endless global wars

Is the gig up for the rabid hegemonic, tyrannical USA and all its vassal states in tow? Is the world finally tired of endless global wars and the global mass murders directed by the USA? Is the world fed up with the lies and the deceit of US/NATO/IMF? We shall see. Our would-be masters are attempting to stitch together 1) the North American Union and 2) the Trans-Pacific Partnership using secret, illegal ‘Agreements’ –that are in fact treaties— into new extra-constitutional, stateless unions to be fused into the currently failing 3) European Union (EU). The EU’s eminent unraveling and resultant implosion may give the BRICS the opening they need to displace this evil, warmongering, corrupt Western power structure created from the Bretton Woods System and the Petrodollar. Even if the EU is somehow able to limp along for a few more years, the BRICS will offer up an alternative to the Anglo-American Unipolar Power-Structure which is the undeniable root cause of world-wide financial dislocations, mass-murder and terrorism. Make no doubt about it, Economic Sanctions against Russia ARE an Act of War, but unlike Japan during WWII, Russia has not taken the bait. Despite –or perhaps because of– a much weaker military hand, Russia plays chess whilst the morons at the corrupt and totally owned U.S. Pentagon play checkers. In case you haven’t noticed, America has been captured by international bankers who can only continue as long as the lies their media spew are believed; or until the music stops, and we all realize there are no chairs on the good ship Fascism. These international monied powers have corrupted our Congress, have corrupted our Judiciary and have corrupted our Executive; none of which comply with their oath of office to uphold the U.S. Constitution: Rather they wipe their smelly arses with it daily and rub our faces in it. With or without a countervailing force, the current corrupt system cannot last, because all corrupt systems eventually fall of their own weight.

“The US debt market (US Treasuries) is toast. The institutions that support US power are crumbling before our very eyes. The BRICS have had enough; enough war, enough Wall Street, enough meddling and hypocrisy and austerity and lecturing.” — Mike Whitney

Putin Leads BRICS Uprising
By Mike Whitney
Global Research (July 13, 2015) / CounterPunch (10 July 2015)

Even The Players Are Losing Faith In Their Own Shenanigans
By Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge (07/13/2015)

How U.S. Economic Warfare Provoked Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor
By Robert Higgs
The Independent Institute (July 13, 2015)

The Mess that Nuland Made
By Robert Parry
Consortiumnews (July 13, 2015)

The Eurasian Big Bang
How China and Russia Are Running Rings Around Washington
By Pepe Escobar

From ClearNFO:

A Real Greek Tragedy

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | July 3, 2015

Acropolis, Euro, Greece, Grexit

Good article below from ‘naked capitalism‘ … and don’t forget to read the excellent comments below the article to get a real sense of the Greek Tragedy unfolding now in Greece. All their options are very bad. Sounds like the SOP (standard operating procedures) of the ‘Economic Hit Men‘ normally reserved for 3rd World Nations as implemented by the likes of the IMF and USAID; though in this case it is the Troika (International Monetary Fund, European Union and the European Central Bank). This gives one a real sense of the absolute power of the money masters. Many implications here: 1) What will the Greek crisis mean to the other EU members, esp. Portugal, Ireland, Italy, France and Spain and the EU as a viable entity? 2) Is this a beta test for when they do Italy and France and others? 4) What will this mean to the average Greek citizen? 3) Will Greece be forced to sell their islands and other valuable resources at a bargain to the banksters to satisfy their debt? This SOP is known as Asset Stripping by the economic hit men who do this for a living. 4) Who will be next after Greece? 5) Will the same strategy be used against the USA when the time comes to pay the piper? 6) What will the Greek military (who are well armed) do?, 7) Would the Iceland option work for Greece? etc. etc.

Tsipras Accepts Most Creditor Terms as Merkel Insists on Referendum
Posted on July 1, 2015 by Yves Smith

The Latest On Greece
The Market Ticker ® – Commentary on The Capital Markets
2015-07-12 16:32 by Karl Denninger

It Starts: Greeks Rebel Against Bailout, Risk Collapse by David Stockman – July 13,2015

Even The Players Are Losing Faith In Their Own Shenanigans

Joe Plummer’s ‘Leaving the Illusion’ (2015 Edition)

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | June 29, 2015

Leaving the Illusion | Joe Plummer

For years I’ve struggled with the problem of how to communicate the real documented history of the Western world against a huge sea of misinformation, propaganda and out right lies promulgated by our all-encompassing power structures which envelop our lives. There seemed to be but one course; and that was to read, read, read and study. With work and family commitments, most people just don’t have time to read the tens of thousands of pages necessary to bring this orchestrated mirage into sharp focus; so the propagandists win the NFO-War by default, simply because they own the major media organs of the state and corporate controlled entertainment and news media, which is all most people ever see.

This fabricated field of acceptable assumptions is what I term the ‘walled-garden of history and politics’; this is where our trusted pundits live, battling their truth-claims: whether they be on the right or the left, or somewhere in between; the game is always played within the confines of these walls, and we who live within the ‘Walled Garden’ are never, ever to reexamine the assumptions which form the foundation of the walls, because if the assumptions prove faulty, then the entire wall might come tumbling down. These are the rules that must be observed for acceptance and success. This contrived reality sets the rules of the game and of permissible discourse: woe be it to anyone who dares look over these walls of prefabricated assumptions, built by the power-elite in their comfy ivory towers of perfect knowledge of right and wrong; truth and falsehoods. This garden –surrounded by walls– represents the establishment’s consensus, group-think and therefore absolute, inviolable truth to the majority of people. This hoax, is their true power.

So how to penetrate the impenetrable without the personal desire or the luxury of years reading and studying the actual documented facts of history exposed by the likes of Carroll Quigley, Antony C. Sutton, Joe Plummer and others?

Unlike many who pontificate based on the assumptions of the power-elite, Joe Plummer has paid his dues. Joe has spent much of his life studying the thousands of pages which document the real history of the Anglo-American Establishment, and now you can be the beneficiary of Joe’s amazing journey. As you read Joe’s three excellent books, the scales will fall from your eyes and you will see clearly perhaps for the first time in your life. The unintelligible will now make sense when placed in its proper context.

Leaving the Illusion by Joe Plummer is his first and only Novel which though fanciful is based solidly on detailed research and fact. This book, I believe, is one of the keys to the problem I identified above of unlocking and freeing the masses from the social engineering that has been so successful in the West and around the globe. Please read and enjoy Joe’s excellent book and maybe you too can leave the illusion. But don’t stop there, the facts upon which this book rests are summarized, documented and condensed in Joe’s other two books: ‘Dishonest Money and Tragedy and Hope 101′.

Full Text of Leaving the Illusion

Leaving the Illusion (2015 Edition)
Source: JoePlummer.com

“Imagine for a moment what it would be like; ten years worth of hard work and a life-long dream, gone. Your self respect and dignity, in shambles. As you question what you’re made of, and as you wonder how you’ll ever claw your way back to the top, an incredible opportunity presents itself. There is only one catch: It will cost you everything you know about the world around you.

Leaving the Illusion delves into the darkness of an unseen world; a world where the “dominant few” do as they please to the “inferior many” that live beneath them. For the insiders, there is unimaginable wealth, power and privilege. For all others, there is only deception, theft and violence. Given a choice, which group would you join? Are you sure? The price of admission might be more than you can afford.”

Related Reading and Viewing at ClearNFO:

U.S. Cedes Sovereignty To New Authority

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | June 23, 2015

Using the same template that created the EU (European Union), globalists and their hired technocrats are swiftly neutering the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Constitution and the American people with the recent ‘fast-tracking’ of secretive Obamatrade deals; which have amazingly passed both houses of Congress without so much as a whimper from any but Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL).

Jeff Sessions: TPP Cedes U.S. Sovereignty Permanently To New Authority: “Same Language Used To Start EU”

Curious why any U.S. Congressman would vote so eagerly to limit their own power while permanently damaging the financial vitality of what is left of the American middle class; but the “yea” votes received almost $200 million and of course most have not even bothered to read the trade agreement, since it is assumed by ‘the powers that shouldn’t be’ a fait accompli. The American middle class, once represented the strength and vitality of the United States, but no more. Gone are the remnants of the free market or honest price discovery in our markets, replaced by the crony capitalism of insider elites and their privileged, government-protected and sustained monopolies; whose purpose is to drive out any and all honest competition. But like Obamacare before it, one must pass the trade bill to find out what is in it. These secret trade agreements –taken together– paint a very worrisome picture for the future vitality and independence of the average American worker and put another nail into the coffin of the U.S. as a nation-state. Additionally, these so called free trade agreements further shred the US Constitution by imposing an extra-constitutional, unelected body that as in the EU will effectively create law and pass judgement on anything having to do with trade of products, services or the movement of people. One need look no further than the Trilateral Commission or the Bilderberg Group to understand the genesis or the end goal of these secret agreements: Total world domination bringing together under one control structure the EU, The North America Union and the Trans Pacific including Oceania.

Apparently some holdouts against the hegemony of this Unipolar world structure still believe in the nation-state and are therefore not as eager as the U.S. Congress to auction off their nations to the globalists: These include China, Russia, Iran, Syria and other hold-outs. To counter this Unipolar world, Russia and China are building their own financial global infrastructure and trade agreements as fast as they can. To bring Russia into compliance, the U.S. and NATO are threatening a hot war on Russia’s doorstep, just itching for a fight. The propaganda against Putin and for war in the West is thick as molasses, yet after all the recent pointless wars, many Americans are eager to believe this latest false narrative.

Over the years, the U.S. Constitution has been a major thorn in the side of the globalists, but no more. This week’s vote by both houses of congress to bypass the U.S. Constitution in full view of the American people fully demonstrate there is no fear by our elected leaders of public backlash. Already the 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th Amendments are under serious assault; and with UN Agenda-21 (2030 Agenda) in full swing in almost every county in the USA, private property rights may soon succumb to the social engineering of a people asleep.

There is a long history of missteps leading up to this week’s silent coup d’état of America. Major pivot points would be handing over the supply and control of this nation’s money to a few private bankers in the 1913 Federal Reserve Act; the ingestion of Nazis into the OSS/CIA after WWII; mission creep of the U.S. Federal Government though the constant abuse of the 10^th Amendment, the assassination of JFK, the attacks of 9/11 and countless illegal, undeclared wars. There are many other pivot points including U.S. bankers’ and political leaders’ support for the likes of Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Hitler; Operation Gladio, the repeal of the Glass–Steagall legislation, etc. but the biggest failure rests solely with the ignorance of the American people and their willingness to continually believe the lies promulgated by the U.S. Government and its state propaganda organs in the news and entertainment media. But to be fair, most Americans work all day and therefore have little time left to discover the facts for themselves.

The acronym NET THAT CAPTURED AMERICA:

Additional Free Trade Agreements: The United States has free trade agreements in force with 20 countries. These are:

Australia
Bahrain
Canada
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Israel
Jordan
Korea
Mexico
Morocco
Nicaragua
Oman
Panama
Peru
Singapore

Office of the United States Trade Representative

OUSTR: Trade Agreements

UPDATE (11/21/2015) : TMR 126 : Dr. Paul Craig Roberts : Paris, TPP & the NWO

UPDATE: (12/06/2015) Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: TPP & the New World Order

NORTH AMERICAN UNION EXPOSED on Lou Dobbs w/ Marcy Kaptur & Bill Tucker

A one of a kind interview with the head of the Russian Government’s foreign intelligence service

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | June 1, 2015

A one of a kind interview with the head of the Russian Government’s foreign intelligence service.

Lieutenant General Leonid Reshetnikov (Rtd) – Director of Russia’s Institute of Strategic Research

“A few weeks ago Colonel General Igor Sergun, the Head of the Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, gave a brief interview in which he publicly linked the U.S. to jihadi terrorism. Now it is the turn of Lieutenant General Leonid Reshetnikov, Director of the Russian Institute of Strategic Research (RISR), the Russian government’s chief centre for foreign policy analysis.”

Q – That is, the joint Russian-American fight against terror, in particular, against ISIS – is a fiction?

“Of course. America creates terrorists, feeds them, trains them, and then gives an order to the whole pack: “catch”. Perhaps, they can shoot one “rabid dog” in the whole pack, but the other dogs will be set even more actively.”

Q – Some European leaders already lament that the USA effectively forced sanctions on them. Europe may break out of the “friendly” American embrace?

“Never. America holds her on several chains: the Federal Reserve printing press, the threat of color-coded revolutions and of the physical elimination of unwanted politicians.”

Q – Are you exaggerating about the physical elimination part?
“Not at all. The Central Intelligence Agency of the USA is not even an intelligence service based on the level of the tasks set before it. The PGU KGB or the SVR of the RF are classical intelligence services: information gathering and reporting to the leadership of the country. In the CIA these traditional features of an intelligence service are at the end of the list of its problems. The main goals are: elimination, which included physical elimination, of the politicians and the organization of coups. And they do this in real time.”

Q – Leonid Petrovich, you think that the USA and the American presidents are just an instrument. Who do you think determine their policy?

“There are communities of people who are effectively unknown to the public, which not only determine the American presidents but also determine the rules of the whole “big game”. In particular, these are the transnational financial corporations. But not only them.”

Russia’s Chief Intelligence Analyst Comes Out of the Shadows
Lieutenant General Reshetnikov of the Russian Institute of Strategic Research gives a wide-ranging interview on threats Russia faces from the West, to militant Islamic groups, to the conflict in Ukraine — by Alexander Mercouris Thu, May 28 | 3,003 6

Memorial Day – 2015

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | May 25, 2015

Fort Hood has put a boot on the ground for every American life lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. A powerful memorial. Yet, another way to honor the war dead is to put a stop to all these pointless, unconstitutional wars.

If you have time to read the three well-researched and documented books by Antony C. Sutton listed here …

1) Wall Street & the Rise of Hitler; 2) Wall Street and FDR; 3) Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution: The Remarkable True Story of the American Capitalists Who Financed the Russian Communists … the self-righteous myths that tell us the USA is all about the spreading of democracy and the protecting of freedom will become an obvious, painful hoax to you. Yes, I too believed in these myths, but after the JFK assassination, the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the obvious coverup concerning the attacks on 9/11, it was finally time for me to dig in, invest some time and take a closer look at what our government was actually doing. Do I disparage our brave soldiers who fight to protect this country; who believe they are fighting for truth, justice and the American way? Not at all. I honor their well-intended sacrifices. But I am now aware of the deals made behind closed doors, as documented by Carroll Quigley (Anglo-American Establishment), Sutton and other top historians that base their research — not on official establishment propaganda– but on the facts as they find them; thereby removing the political spin and propaganda that we have all grown up believing. This is the critical point for me: If we care to regain the honorable ideals of a free and prosperous people, we must confront the evil that has infiltrated our government and surreptitiously controls the money system and therefore the government and all its machinery. This can not be done by pretending that facts are not facts. So if you choose to take this brave journey to the truth, buckle your seat-belts, it going to be a bumpy ride.

Here is just one example how our vaulted sultans of American Foreign policy honor our military:

“Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”

― Henry Kissinger

P.S. And to all my fellow patriotic citizens: Before you go about bashing my head against the wall with your fists, please read the above mentioned three books by Sutton and then we can sit down as adults and talk –not fight– about solutions and the sad predicament we all find ourselves and our beloved America in now on this May 25th, 2015 Memorial Day.

More reading on this topic here:

U.S. Soldiers Died for Empire and Hegemony
by Jacob G. Hornberger May 25, 2015

America: The Greatest Force for Good? (ClearNFO)

Is the U.S. a force for good or evil? (ClearNFO)

From Wikipedia: Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country’s armed forces. The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May, originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans — established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. By the 20th century, competing Union and Confederate holiday traditions, celebrated on different days, had merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service. It typically marks the start of the summer vacation season, while Labor Day marks its end.

War Is A Racket (text)
By Major General Smedley Butler

War is a Racket (Video) by Smedley Butler is a famous speech denouncing the military industrial complex. This speech by two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient exposes war profits that benefit few at the expense of many. Throughout his distinguished career in the Marines, Smedley Darlington Butler demonstrated that true patriotism does not mean blind allegiance to government policies with which one does not agree. To Hell with war.

Eisenhower warns us of the military industrial complex.

The Death of Money

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | May 17, 2015

James Rickards

Brilliant analysis by Rickards in the video below. Regrettably, I own his book, but have not read it. Great explanation of complexity theory and complex systems and the operations of the IMF; however, Rickards is also acting –possibly unwittingly– as a gatekeeper of the establishment’s mythology. Not sure he intends to be a gatekeeper or if he is just too focused on his own work to look at the documented evidence of past and present real conspiracies, but he definitely needs to reexamine some of his assumptions.

I also agree with his characterization of the government being too inept to construct a conspiracy on its own, but this is the proverbial ‘straw horse’ since no serious person would ever dispute this claim. The real conspiracies can be found in the elite’s own writings and by their actions. It’s not the inefficient and inept government organ itself, but rather those in positions of power and influence who manipulate the government.

He seems to be afraid of the CIA-weaponized term ‘Conspiracy’. Please See: CIA Document 1035-960; yet he apparently doesn’t know the definition of a conspiracy.

Interesting to note, that he says “this is not conspiracy stuff”, and then goes on to describe several conspiracies.

Legal Definition of Conspiracy:
An agreement between two or more persons to engage jointly in an unlawful or criminal act, or an act that is innocent in itself but becomes unlawful when done by the combination of actors.

The Elements of Conspiracy Agreement:
The essence of conspiracy is the agreement between two or more persons. A single person acting alone cannot be guilty of conspiracy.

James Rickards – The Death of Money – 04-30-15

Show Notes:
Published on May 7, 2015

04-30-15 – James Rickards is Chief Global Strategist at the West Shore Funds, Editor of Strategic Intelligence, a monthly newsletter, and Director of The James Rickards Project, an inquiry into the complex dynamics of geopolitics + global capital. He is the author of New York Times best seller, The Death of Money (Penguin, 2014), and national best seller, Currency Wars (Penguin, 2011). He is a portfolio manager, lawyer, and economist, and has held senior positions at Citibank, Long-Term Capital Management, and Caxton Associates. In 1998, he was the principal negotiator of the rescue of LTCM sponsored by the Federal Reserve. His clients include institutional investors and government directorates. He is an Op-Ed contributor to the Financial Times, Evening Standard, New York Times and Washington Post, and has been interviewed on BBC, CNN, NPR, CSPAN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox, and The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Rickards is a visiting lecturer in globalization at the Johns Hopkins University and the School of Advanced International Studies, and has delivered papers on risk at Singularity University, the Applied Physics Laboratory, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is an advisor on capital markets to the U.S. intelligence community and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Rickards holds an LL.M. (Taxation) from the NYU School of Law; a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School; an M.A. in international economics from SAIS, and a B.A. (with honors) from Johns Hopkins.

The New Bipolar World Order

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | May 14, 2015

India’s Ambassador to China, Ashok Kantha

As Russia and China move closer together both strategically and economically to counterbalance U.S. aggression, other nations are following. As Russia and China setup the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), BRICS, the SWIFT analog, and the conversion of RMB into an international reserve currency based on the introduction of its gold standard, other nations follow. Here are a few unanswered questions about this move to a new bipolar NWO:

Will these efforts of China and Russia actually work?
Will the New, NWO offer a counterbalance to the existing ‘Anglo-American’ NWO? or
are the existing global elites merely hollowing out America to transfer their vast wealth into the new China-Centric NWO structure?

CCTVNews: Speaking to CCTV, India’s Ambassador to China, Ashok Kantha, has said that the two countries need to take their economic relationship forward. He expects the two sides to sign more than 20 business deals during Indian PM Narendra Modi’s visit to China: China & India likely to ink over 20 deals during Modi’s visit

US anger at Britain joining Chinese-led investment bank AIIB US statement says of UK membership that it is ‘worried about a trend of constant accommodation’ of China, in a rare public breach in the special relationship

Photo by REX/HAP/Quirky China News (3205531a)
Geoerge Osborne talking to Ren Zhengfei, president of Huawei Company – George Osborne trade visit to China – 16 Oct 2013

Important to note that the IMF and the World Bank resulted from the Bretton Woods system designed to rebuild the international economic system while World War II was still raging (1–22 July 1944). Since 1944, the IMF and the World Bank have transmuted into economic weapons used to asset-strip targeted countries for the benefit of a few multinational corporations and then control sovereign nations. (See Confessions of an Economic Hit Man). BTW, it has been estimated that there will be a 40% drop in the overall living standard in the USA when the US Dollar loses its reserve currency status. From my perspective, it appears that U.S. bullying of Russia to surrender their sovereignty to the Anglo-American financial structure has backfired and caused China and Russia to make plans to replace the US and it’s vassal states in tow. Many of these vassal states are in a process of abandoning the good ship USA while joining the new China-Russia paradigm; keeping one foot in the old system and one in the new, to hedge their bets.

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