Here, I will share my research study into something called: The Great Reset.
I’m going to start by using the new Glenn Beck book “The Great Reset” with over 400 pages of source references created by those people who are members of the World Economic Forummeeting annually at Davos an Alpineresort town and a municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Ranges.
The Great Reset Lectures
By Glenn Beck (February 2022)
Preface
Preface
A Brave Terrifying New World
Never Let a Global Pandemic Go to Waste
Climate Change: The Catalyst for a “New World Order”
Modern Monetary Theory: Fuel for a Global Economic Takeover
Modern Monetary Theory: Fuel for a Global Economic Takeover
The Great Reset: Building a Twenty-First Century Fascism Machine (parts I and II)
The Glass-Steagall Act effectively separated commercial banking from investment banking and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, among other things. It was one of the most widely debated legislative initiatives before being signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in June 1933.
Roosevelt Signing the Glass-Steagall Act (Photo: Bettmann/Bettmann/Getty Images)
The emergency legislation that was passed within days of President Franklin Roosevelt taking office in March 1933 was just the start of the process to restore confidence in the banking system. Congress saw the need for substantial reform of the banking system, which eventually came in the Banking Act of 1933, or the Glass-Steagall Act. The bill was designed “to provide for the safer and more effective use of the assets of banks, to regulate interbank control, to prevent the undue diversion of funds into speculative operations, and for other purposes.” The measure was sponsored by Sen. Carter Glass (D-VA) and Rep. Henry Steagall (D-AL). Glass, a former Treasury secretary, was the primary force behind the act. Steagall, then chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, agreed to support the act with Glass after an amendment was added to permit bank deposit insurance.1 On June 16, 1933, President Roosevelt signed the bill into law. Glass originally introduced his banking reform bill in January 1932. It received extensive critiques and comments from bankers, economists, and the Federal Reserve Board. It passed the Senate in February 1932, but the House adjourned before coming to a decision. It was one of the most widely discussed and debated legislative initiatives in 1932.
Some background: In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash and the subsequent Great Depression, Congress was concerned that commercial banking operations and the payments system were incurring losses from volatile equity markets. An important motivation for the act was the desire to restrict the use of bank credit for speculation and to direct bank credit into what Glass and others thought to be more productive uses, such as industry, commerce, and agriculture.
In response to these concerns, the main provisions of the Banking Act of 1933 effectively separated commercial banking from investment banking. Senator Glass was the driving force behind this provision. Basically, commercial banks, which took in deposits and made loans, were no longer allowed to underwrite or deal in securities, while investment banks, which underwrote and dealt in securities, were no longer allowed to have close connections to commercial banks, such as overlapping directorships or common ownership. Following the passage of the act, institutions were given a year to decide whether they would specialize in commercial or investment banking. Only 10 percent of commercial banks’ total income could stem from securities; however, an exception allowed commercial banks to underwrite government-issued bonds. The separation of commercial and investment banking was not controversial in 1933. There was a broad belief that separation would lead to a healthier financial system. It became more controversial over the years and in 1999 the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act repealed the provisions of the Banking Act of 1933 that restricted affiliations between banks and securities firms.
The act also gave tighter regulation of national banks to the Federal Reserve System, requiring holding companies and other affiliates of state member banks to make three reports annually to their Federal Reserve Bank and to the Federal Reserve Board. Furthermore, bank holding companies that owned a majority of shares of any Federal Reserve member bank had to register with the Fed and obtain its permit to vote their shares in the selection of directors of any such member-bank subsidiary.
Another important provision of the act created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insures bank deposits with a pool of money collected from banks. This provision was the most controversial at the time and drew veto threats from President Roosevelt. It was included at the insistence of Steagall, who had the interests of small rural banks in mind. Small rural banks and their representatives were the main proponents of deposit insurance. Opposition came from large banks that believed they would end up subsidizing small banks. Past attempts by states to instate deposit insurance had been unsuccessful because of moral hazard and also because local banks were not diversified. After the bank holiday, the public showed vast support for insurance, partly in the hope of recovering some of the losses and partly because many blamed Wall Street and big bankers for the Depression. Although Glass had opposed deposit insurance for years, he changed his mind and urged Roosevelt to accept it. A temporary fund became effective in January 1934, insuring deposits up to $2,500. The fund became permanent in July 1934 and the limit was raised to $5,000. This limit was raised numerous times over the years until reaching the current $250,000. All Federal Reserve member banks on or before July 1, 1934, were required to become stockholders of the FDIC by such date. No state bank was eligible for membership in the Federal Reserve System until it became a stockholder of the FDIC, and thereby became an insured institution, with required membership by national banks and voluntary membership by state banks. Deposit insurance is still viewed as a great success, although the problem of moral hazard and adverse selection came up again during banking failures of the 1980s. In response, Congress passed legislation that strengthened capital requirements and required banks with less capital to close.
The act had a large impact on the Federal Reserve. Notable provisions included the creation of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) under Section 8. However, the 1933 FOMC did not include voting rights for the Federal Reserve Board, which was revised by the Banking Act of 1935 and amended again in 1942 to closely resemble the modern FOMC.
Prior to the passage of the act, there were no restrictions on the right of a bank officer of a member bank to borrow from that bank. Excessive loans to bank officers and directors became a concern to bank regulators. In response, the act prohibited Federal Reserve member bank loans to their executive officers and required the repayment of outstanding loans.
In addition, the act introduced what later became known as Regulation Q, which mandated that interest could not be paid on checking accounts and gave the Federal Reserve authority to establish ceilings on the interest that could be paid on other kinds of deposits. The view was that payment of interest on deposits led to “excessive” competition among banks, causing them to engage in unduly risky investment and lending policies so that they could earn enough income to pay the interest. The prohibition of interest-bearing demand accounts has been effectively repealed by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Beginning July 21, 2011, financial institutions became allowed, but not required, to offer interest-bearing demand accounts.
Endnotes
1Glass and Steagall also cosponsored the Banking Act of 1932, which was also commonly referred to as the Glass-Steagall Act prior to the passage of the Banking Act of 1933.
Friedman, Milton and Anna J. Schwartz. A Monetary History of the United States 1867-1960. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.
Meltzer, Allan. A History of the Federal Reserve Volume 1: 1913-1951. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Preston, Howard H. “The Banking Act of 1933.” The American Economic Review 23, no. 4 (December 1933): 585-607.
Shughart II, William. “A Public Choice Perspective of the Banking Act of 1933.” Cato Journal 7, no. 3 (Winter 1988).
Silber, William. “Why Did FDR’s Bank Holiday Succeed?” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, July 2009.
Wells, Donald. The Federal Reserve System: A History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2004.
White, Lawrence J. “The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999: A Bridge Too Far? Or Not Far Enough?” Suffolk University Law Review 43, no. 4 (August 2010).
Emergency Banking Act of 1933
March 9, 1933
Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 9, 1933, the legislation was aimed at restoring public confidence in the nation’s financial system after a weeklong bank holiday.
Roosevelt Signing the Emergency Banking Act (Photo: Bettmann/Bettmann/Getty Images)
“The emergency banking legislation passed by the Congress today is a most constructive step toward the solution of the financial and banking difficulties which have confronted the country. The extraordinary rapidity with which this legislation was enacted by the Congress heartens and encourages the country.”
– Secretary of the Treasury William Woodin, March 9, 1933
“I can assure you that it is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than under the mattress.”
– President Franklin Roosevelt in his first Fireside Chat, March 12, 1933
Immediately after his inauguration in March 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt set out to rebuild confidence in the nation’s banking system. At the time, the Great Depression was crippling the US economy. Many people were withdrawing their money from banks and keeping it at home. In response, the new president called a special session of Congress the day after the inauguration and declared a four-day banking holiday that shut down the banking system, including the Federal Reserve. This action was followed a few days later by the passage of the Emergency Banking Act, which was intended to restore Americans’ confidence in banks when they reopened.
The legislation, which provided for the reopening of the banks as soon as examiners found them to be financially secure, was prepared by Treasury staff during Herbert Hoover’s administration and was introduced on March 9, 1933. It passed later that evening amid a chaotic scene on the floor of Congress. In fact, many in Congress did not even have an opportunity to read the legislation before a vote was called for.
NY Financial District and President Franklin Roosevelt Fireside Chat (Photo: Associated Press)
In his first Fireside Chat on March 12, 1933, Roosevelt explained the Emergency Banking Act as legislation that was “promptly and patriotically passed by the Congress … [that] gave authority to develop a program of rehabilitation of our banking facilities. … The new law allows the twelve Federal Reserve Banks to issue additional currency on good assets and thus the banks that reopen will be able to meet every legitimate call. The new currency is being sent out by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to every part of the country.”
The Act, which also broadened the powers of the president during a banking crisis, was divided into five sections:
Title I expanded presidential authority during a banking crisis, including retroactive approval of the banking holiday and regulation of all banking functions, including “any transactions in foreign exchange, transfers of credit between or payments by banking institutions as defined by the President, and export, hoarding, melting, or earmarking of gold or silver coin.”
Title II gave the comptroller of the currency the power to restrict the operations of a bank with impaired assets and to appoint a conservator, who “shall take possession of the books, records, and assets of every description of such bank, and take such action as may be necessary to conserve the assets of such bank pending further disposition of its business.”
Title III allowed the secretary of the treasury to determine whether a bank needed additional funds to operate and “with the approval of the President request the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to subscribe to the preferred stock in such association, State bank or trust company, or to make loans secured by such stock as collateral.”
Title IV gave the Federal Reserve the flexibility to issue emergency currency—Federal Reserve Bank Notes—backed by any assets of a commercial bank.
Title V made the act effective.
In that Fireside Chat, Roosevelt announced that the next day, March 13, banks in the twelve Federal Reserve Bank cities would reopen. Then, on March 14, banks in cities with recognized clearing houses (about 250 cities) would reopen. On March 15, banks throughout the country that government examiners ensured were sound would reopen and resume business.
Roosevelt added one more boost of confidence: “Remember that no sound bank is a dollar worse off than it was when it closed its doors last week. Neither is any bank which may turn out not to be in a position for immediate opening.”
What would happen if bank customers again made a run on their deposits once the banks reopened? Policymakers knew it was critical for the Federal Reserve to back the reopened banks if runs were to occur. To ensure the Fed’s cooperation to lend freely to cash-strapped banks, Roosevelt promised to protect Reserve Banks against losses. In a telegram dated March 11, 1933, from Treasury Secretary William Woodin to New York Fed Governor George Harrison, Roosevelt said,
“It is inevitable that some losses may be made by the Federal Reserve banks in loans to their member banks. The country appreciates, however, that the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks are operating entirely under Federal Law and the recent Emergency Bank Act greatly enlarges their powers to adapt their facilities to a national emergency. Therefore, there is definitely an obligation on the federal government to reimburse the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks for losses which they may make on loans made under these emergency powers. I do not hesitate to assure you that I shall ask the Congress to indemnify any of the 12 Federal Reserve banks for such losses.”
Was the Emergency Banking Act a success? For the most part, it was. When banks reopened on March 13, it was common to see long lines of customers returning their stashed cash to their bank accounts. Currency held by the public had increased by $1.78 billion in the four weeks ending March 8. By the end of March, though, the public had redeposited about two-thirds of this cash.
Wall Street registered its approval, as well. On March 15, the first day of stock trading after the extended closure of Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange recorded the largest one-day percentage price increase ever, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 8.26 points to close at 62.10; a gain of 15.34 percent.
Other legislation also helped make the financial landscape more solid, such as the Banking Act of 1932 and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act of 1932. The Emergency Banking Act of 1933 itself is regarded by many as helping to set the nation’s banking system right during the Great Depression.
The Emergency Banking Act also had a historic impact on the Federal Reserve. Title I greatly increased the president’s power to conduct monetary policy independent of the Federal Reserve System. Combined, Titles I and IV took the United States and Federal Reserve Notes off the gold standard, which created a new framework for monetary policy.1
Title III authorized the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to provide capital to financial institutions. The capital injections by the RFC were similar to those under the TARP program in 2008, but they were not a model of the actions taken by the Fed in 2008-09. In neither episode did the Fed inject capital into banks; it only made loans.
Endnotes
1The gold standard was partially restored by the Gold Reserve Act of 1934. The United States remained on the gold standard until 1971.
History Matters, the U.S. Survey Course on the Web. “‘More Important Than Gold’: FDR’s First Fireside Chat.” Accessed September 30, 2013, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5199/.
This video begins with a long forgotten clip from the Sean Hannity Radio Show in 2010. This was the single most important moment on Hannity’s show ever and he didn’t even know it:
If you understand what we are presenting to you in this video it will impact your life and the lives of your family members for generations. We’ve known about this for many years and have actually spoken directly to individuals who were inside of the meetings back in the early 2000’s when many of the decisions on this historical event were first being planned. We have been quietly sharing this information through our platforms since the early 2010’s in hopes of helping Conservatives, Christians, Veterans, Charities, and pro-American Patriots use this as a way to bring hope and joy to millions across the nation and the world. Also, this is the absolute key for Independent, Alternative, and Conservative media outlets and journalists to launch their platforms into the stratosphere. Never again will you have to worry about authoritarian censorship, ads being pulled, lawsuit warfare, or being banned/shadow-banned on NWO platforms. YOU will now be in a position to lead, to create, to inform millions, and ultimately (#1 goal of all) help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Remember, after this event you will potentially have a great deal more influence on the world. You will be faced with unimaginable temptations to waste it away, hoard it, or to do immoral things that will ultimately lead to your demise. Look at how many sudden Crypto/Bitcoin “millionaires”, lottery winners, pro-athletes, and those who inherited large amounts of money simply wasted it away within a short period of time. We invite everyone to revisit the Story of the Talents in the Bible (Matthew 25:14-30) as you take this to the Lord in prayer.
Final note: We will not be answering any questions on this event after this video is published. We’ve done what we felt led to do the past several years and this will be our final post on the topic until after the event transpires. Take everything you learn here to the Lord in prayer.
Update (3-10-18): Interesting to note that this video began DROPPING in views overnight by the thousands. That means one day it had over 30,000 views and the next morning we awoke to it having 17,000 views. What does that mean? Why did they do it? Perhaps the video contains information someone does not want you to know. This is one of the many reasons we rarely post anything on YouTube anymore.
Update (3-14-18): Each time this video hits 30,000 views it drops back down by 10,000 or more. Last night it had 29, 990 views and today we checked it and it was back down to 20,007 views. Mass censorship continues for anyone who isn’t a nihilist or anti-American.
Update (6-9-18): On June 5th and June 6th of 2018 we experienced a massive anti-Trump bot attack. Within 24 hours the bots down-voted this video nearly 500 times (before it had fewer than 50 down-votes since it was uploaded months ago). The bots also left scores of spam/vulgar messages that thankfully were blocked by the “approving comment” feature. We have no idea of where the bot attack originated at this time. YouTube notified us of the attack also which was apparently picked up by their algorithm. Would be great to just be able to upload videos without shadow banning, censorship, or bot attacks like the old days of YouTube. Just another reason we have decided to use this platform so sparingly.
Note: We do not monetize our videos yet YouTube is running commercials on this video and claiming “copyright” despite the fact that we’re using ROYALTY FREE MUSIC. Last year we had a video getting 10k views an hour that, once it hit 90k views, they completely stopped it from going viral. Censorship is real, it is disturbing, and it is one-sided.
Disclaimer: Content contained on or made available through this channel is not intended to and does not constitute legal advice or investment advice and no attorney-client relationship is formed. Your use of the information on the website or materials linked from the Web is at your own risk.
The Crowns of the Beast and Our Spiritual Evolution
Sometimes I feel hopeless. The weight of our situation is so overwhelming that emotions overtake me and I suffer fleeting moments of despair. This is always brought on by the realization that we truly are born into a world of slavery. The beast system is all encompassing and has infiltrated all aspects of material and spiritual existence.
But there is hope, and when I remember this I spring back to life and feel empowered under the force of my own right-minded action and integrity.
In researching the history of the international monetary system and the rise and fall of empires, some interesting patterns begin to emerge. The full scope of human undertakings must be considered when compiling a true record of human history. All things are connected on multiple levels, and nothing stands in isolation to the total sum.
The series SDR and the New Bretton Woods which launched Philosophy of Metrics (POM) represented the first step towards full awareness about the machinations of world powers. Over the last four years we have covered a lot of ground and most of the predictions made have been accurate. Promoting understanding of the truth is not popular as the large majority of the disorganized masses have a natural aversion to the truth, and instead desire the false comfort of rumour and fantastical narratives which distract from the cruel reality around them. POM has continued researching and promoting full awareness about world powers and the incremental growth of readers around the world would suggest the hard work is achieving the outlined objectives.
This article is meant to bring together some of the different topics which we have covered. The SDR and monetary information is woven through it all. The first installment of what was meant to be an extended Antichrist series will be consolidated into this piece alongside the ongoing research about the double-headed eagle symbolism and World Adversarial Force. The esoteric themes represent the framework which holds it all together.
Perhaps we should categorize it all under the label “Law of Adversity”, for that is truly what we are learning about. The origins of modern law can be traced back to the Phoenician Empire. Versions of law were implemented from the very beginning of human history, but the Phoenician Empire organized and structured advanced systems of law which have evolved to become the complex legal frameworks which control the majority of the modern world.
Let’s take a quick look at some basics. Here in Canada all land is owned by the Crown. Now most Canadians think that the Crown is the Queen of England, but this is not the case. The British Royal Family serves a purpose and maintains their importance through serving the Crown in whatever capacity is required, as do other families and institutions.
Canadians (as well as Americans and citizens of most nations) are born and go about the business of getting an education and entering the workforce. The time and labor which is accumulated by each Canadian is likely to end up being paid to a bank for a mortgage on a property of some sort. This property can never be legally owned by the person who’s name is on the mortgage documents alongside the name of the banking institution. Even if the mortgage is completely paid in full, the person will still have to request that the banks named be removed from the land title.
But what no one ever really questions is the legal ownership status of the land as detailed on the title document. Here in Canada the terms Freehold Lease or Land Tenure are used. These legal terms mean that the person who spent half of their life, or more, paying a mortgage is now only leasing the land for free, and allowed tenure on the land which is in fact legally owned by the Crown. This legal land owning practice goes back to the Phoenicians and their implementation of systems of law to manage cultural and socioeconomic mandates for the purpose of controlling mass populations.
Legal names on government documents require all capitals. As an example, my legal corporate name is JARED COLLINS, and is required to be documented as such on all legal documents which serve as a contract between corporations. Contract law and corporate law are the frameworks which govern the world, and most people never stop to consider why they are instructed to use all CAPITALS when completing legal documents. The LEGAL you is a fabrication and serves to further enslave use under a system of perpetual taxation and wealth transference.
The purpose of this system is not about consolidating more wealth. It is about preventing the growth and consolidation of wealth outside of the system. This would be wealth which could be used to threaten the existence of the system from the outside. At times certain nations and small empires have been allowed to exist as long as they incorporated parts of the Beast system into their own internal frameworks.
Russia is a nation which has integrated aspects of the Beast system, but has not fully succumbed to the full force of the system itself. The Russian landmass accounts for 4.2 billion acres, which is 11% of the Earths total habitable land mass of 36.8 billion acres. This accounts for a huge Russian presence on the Eurasian continent.
Those who have been following the double-headed eagle articles will know that Russia is the one nation which has never been successfully conquered and enslaved by this outside system of legal influence. Throughout history empires such as Napoleons, as well as the Ottoman Empire, were used along with the German people in two world wars, to achieve the objective of invading and subjugating the Russian land mass. All failed, and the ongoing strategic moves by NATO and America, which constitute the Anglo-American establishment arm of the Crown, represent the continuation of this goal.
It is interesting that urban legend and some old prophecies tell us that both Napoleon and Hitler were previous antichrists as mentioned in the Book of Revelations. Both Napoleon and Hitler were used by powerful forces to attempt the invasion and subjugation of Russia. This comparison and pattern will be important as we move further into this material.
The Phoenicians also structured the governance of their empire around the concept of city states. In the modern world there are three city states which exist. They are the City of London, the Vatican, and Washington DC. I suspect that both Jerusalem and Hong Kong are being positioned for city state status also.
Located in the City of London, outside of banking and financial institutions, is the Crown Temple. The Crown Temple manages the systems of international law and is another corporation which is controlled by the Vatican.
The Vatican City itself, is the trustee of the Catholic Church, and is one of the most powerful and wealthiest organizations in the world. There is ample evidence and thought provoking cases made which support the thesis that the Catholic Church is the Beast and Antichrist from Revelations. Some of the evidence matches with our literal interpretations of the Bible and the Book of Revelations, such as:
It exists as both a church and a city. The Vatican is both a church and a city state.
It is seated upon seven mountains. The seven hills of Rome which the Vatican touches are Aventine, Caelian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Palatine, Quirinal, and Viminal.
It is arrayed with purple and scarlet, as well as gold and precious stones. The church is pretty flashy with all the purple and red cloaks, and idols adorned with gold and gems. Not to mention that purple was one of the important colours of the Phoenician priest class.
Asserts power over all the inhabitants of Earth. There is no doubt that the Catholic Church has immense power around the world.
It arose within a densely populated region with cultural diversity. Europe could be accurately described this way.
Eradicated other kingdoms and empires with its rise to power. The Catholic Church did wage war against existing empires in the region of Europe and the Mediterranean, including the Anglo-Saxons, the Vandals, the Visigoths, Heruli, Astrogoths, and Franks, plus others, but there is much more to this, as we will discover. It is interesting to note that there are no bloodlines which exist today which can be traced back to some of these kingdoms (Vandals, Visigoths and Heruli), as if “they were ripped out by the root”.
The Beast makes war with the saints. The war and violence the Church has committed against the true Christians, such as the Cathars, and centuries later the Protestants, can not be denied. The Inquisition is a stain upon human history, and is estimated the Beast had killed over 100 million of the those who sought spiritual freedom and evolution.
A single man acts and speaks for the whole. The Pope fills this role, and is the only spokesman for the entire Roman Catholic Church.
The “sovereign” of this kingdom exalts himself above God. The Pope is called the Father and does in fact exalt himself above God. As a side note on this point, The Sovereign is also another name for the Crown. Pope Leo XIII wrote “We hold upon this Earth the place of God Almighty.”
The name and number of the Beast is the name and number of a man, and this number is 666. The Pope’s “Crown” holds the inscription “Vicarius Filii Dei”. Translated from Latin this means “Vicar of the Son of God”. Vicar means “substitute”. So the Pope is the substitute for the Son of God upon the Earth. The numerical value of this Latin name is 666.
The Antichrist speaks pompous words and blasphemies. The claims of the Pope to be God on Earth serves as the ultimate blasphemy. The Church also claims to be able to forgive sins. That doesn’t sound right to me.
Changed the time and the law of God. The Catholic Church has modified the ten commandments, such as removing the 2nd commandment about idol worship, and along with changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, in fact reset the calendar to year zero 2017 years ago as a part of its efforts to hijack, halt and take control of the spiritual revolution which was taking place at the time. In addition, the Church created and implemented the Gregorian Calendar in the year 1582. It actually removed 10 days from existence. The Protestants resisted the new calendar and Ukraine and Russia never did use it.
Readers will note from other posts that the Protestant Reformation was started by the Knights Templar centuries before, who the Catholic Church arrested and murdered. The Templars used the double-headed eagle as its emblem, as did the Eastern Holy Roman Empire (not the Vatican) who supported and protected the Protestant Reformers. Russia and Ukraine have also use the double-headed eagle and supported the Eastern Holy Roman Empire.
It is clear from the above information that the Catholic Church is the best fit for the Beast and Antichrist. But there is so much more which needs to be considered. There is still the Dragon which gave the Beast its powers.
When it comes to owning land, the Church owns about 177 million acres. This amounts to around 0.5% of the total habitable land on Earth. It has other wealth, such as banks and other financial assets, along with gold and untold historical documents, but its not enough to suggest it alone has dominion over the whole Earth.
The Crown is referenced as owning 6.6 billion acres, which is 18% of the Earth. But the Crown in this regard is only referring to the land accumulated and owned by the British Empire. It doesn’t include the landmass of the United States, China, India, and Africa, all of which good cases can be made for ownership by the Crown. The fact that America, and each of the other regions use the system of international law which is managed by the Crown Temple in the City of London, would strongly suggest that the Crown, or Sovereign, would own those lands as well.
This would put Crown land ownership well over 50% of the Earth’s total habitable land mass.
We will explore that more in future articles.
Consider, the Beast that rises from the sea in Revelations represents the habitable land mass of the Earth. Empires and human weakness attempt to conquer and control this land. Is it possible that Russia is the only land mass which has not yet been conquered and subjugated by the Crown (Dragon), and as such, is the only nation (with perhaps Iran/Persia) which is preventing the full Beast/Antichrist system from being complete?
Russia makes up a huge part of the Eurasian continent. Eurasia has 80% of the worlds resources and contributes 80% to the global GDP. It also houses 85% of the worlds population. It can never be fully controlled as long as Russia is not completely subjugated. Russia has been, and continues to be, the great prize.
The Crown is not the British Empire. The British Royal Family are used by the Crown, much like other nations and people are used. It is my conclusion that the Crown is the reconstituted Phoenician Empire and its system of laws and city state governance structure. The Crown owns the vast majority of the world’s surface land and the people who dwell upon that land. All must be a part of the Beast system in order to participate in commerce and the purchase of goods.
Sounds familiar, right?
There is also building evidence that the Catholic Church was used to create the religion of Islam. It is probable that Islam was the tool used by the Crown (Phoenicians) to control the whole of the Middle East and its Arab peoples. Even the Seafaring People, who the Phoenicians used to invade and wage war against its enemies, evolved into the Jewish people of the modern world. The Hebrews, who absorbed much of the Babylonian religion, wandered without a homeland and were incorporated into the Phoenician forces as the mysteries Seafaring People of the Mediterranean.
Both the United Nations and the Catholic Church have called for there to be a new international monetary system, and the call for a world government is getting louder. The Pope is even working towards merging all religions into one and is openly promoting the tenets of Islam and worldwide liberalism and multiculturalism.
The Protestant Reformation was an attempt by the forces of right-mindedness to counter the Crown and its growing institutions in the world. The Crown went to work on a counter-reformation and began a centuries long campaign against Russia and those who supported right-minded action based on integrity and honour. This war continues today, and until the Russian land mass is successfully conquered there will always be a beachhead from which the battles can be fought.
All of the religions of the world suppress spiritual evolution. The Eastern religions still maintain some semblance of spiritual purpose, but the importing of these religions into the Western world is slowly corrupting them.
The ancient mystery schools also maintained the purpose and process of spiritual evolution, but these were corrupted a long time ago and little from within the esoteric and hermetic schools of the modern world should be trusted. The Crown has attempted to destroy the process of spiritual evolution in the material world. It wages war upon those who carry the double-headed eagle emblem, as the double-headed eagle represents the coming together of the material and spiritual bodies. Two become one.
It is interesting that it was the workers and craftsmen from Phoenician King Hiram of Tyre who assisted the Hebrews with the building of Solomons Temple in Jerusalem. Thousands of years later it was the Knights Templar (double-headed eagle) who excavated under the old temple and discovered something which forced the Catholic Church to turn on them.
Perhaps they discovered truth.
The divisions in this world begin within each one of us. It is the light and darkness which battle for control of our lives. We project this battle out into the material world. The adversity this battle creates encourages learning. We only learn through adversity. This is why no matter what the Dragon or Beast does, it will lose. The more of the world it controls, the more the people of the world are stricken with hardship and adversity. The more adversity, the more we learn how to spiritually evolve.
The World Adversarial Force is the Dragon. The Beast and Antichrist are its systems of governance and controls which manage and engineer the cultural and socioeconomics of the world. The Dragon exists within each one of us. It is the reptilian part of our evolution, just like we are part mineral, plant, and animal. We are also part reptile.
The Crown is the manifestation of the World Adversarial Force from within each one us. Those of us who have fallen victim to the narrative of one group or another controlling the whole of the world have been tricked to leave the trail of enlightenment and spiritual evolution.
Think on human weakness and the sin of greed. We want more of the material things and less of the spiritual. We need a balance of these two things in order for both matter and spirit to evolve together, and the Christ to return within each one us.
Monetary systems and the control of wealth is the greatest weapon used against us. It is why so many of us obsess on gold and currency.
Consider everything I have written here. The Pope wears the same headdress as the Phoenician priests. The Phoenician Empire is rising from the ashes of the mortal head would it suffered thousands of years ago. Its systems of law and governance cover the face of the Earth.
Now consider the cover from the Economist Magazine decades ago where it showed a Phoenix bird standing on a pile of burning dollars. Get ready for a world currency it said. The Phoenician Empire is coming back. But fear not. It has been destroyed on previous occasions and can be again. The Tower of Babel and the blasphemy of Nimrod against God ensured that the people were scattered across the face of the Earth and given different languages so they could never come together and scheme against God again.
But damn, didn’t we find a way.
A one world government and religion, along with a universal language app I’m sure, will not succeed either. Each of us are meant to walk the grail path and learn the Christ process of material and spiritual evolution. We are not a corporation. We are spiritual and material beings. Imbalances will not be allowed to continue towards one inevitable end. Both light and dark must exist in balance with one another.
What I’m about to tell you isn’t some wild conspiracy. Or fake news. It’s raw fact, based on publicly available data from the US Federal Reserve. This data shows a very simple but concerning trend:
Banks in the United States are becoming less safe. Again.
And they’re doing it on purpose. Again.
Few people ever give much thought to the safety and security of their bank. After all, banks go out of their way to instill an overwhelming sense of confidence that they’re rock solid.
They spend tons of money on ornate lobbies in giant buildings. They buy the naming rights to football and baseball stadiums. And hey, they’re insured by the government.
But it turns out that none of these elaborate distractions means anything when it comes to bank safety.
Safety is actually pretty easy to calculate.
Think about the business of banking– it’s simple. Banks take deposits, and then use that money to make loans and various investments.
For a bank, those deposits represent the amount of money they owe to their customers.
So obviously the total value of a bank’s loans and investments (i.e. its assets) should exceed its total deposits.
This is known as solvency. A solvent bank has SUBSTANTIALLY more assets than it owes in deposits.
That way, if a loan or investment goes bad, the bank will still be able to repay its depositors.
The other safety factor is liquidity, which basically means that, eventually the bank is going to have to give some of the money back.
Perhaps a depositor decides to initiate an electronic funds transfer to another bank… or makes a withdrawal at an ATM.
The bank should have sufficient cash on hand to be able to meet these needs.
Banks that lack proper liquidity can rapidly run into catastrophic problems, forcing them to fire sale assets in order to raise cash, which in turns could trigger a solvency crisis.
In both of these scenarios, solvency and liquidity, cash is king.
(Note that “cash” can mean both physical currency sitting in a vault, as well as a bank’s electronic deposits at Federal Reserve and other cash equivalents.)
For solvency, cash is about as risk-free as it gets.
Anything that a bank does with your money is going to carry some level of risk. Buying bonds. Car loans. Student loans. Business loans. Residential mortgages.
These all carry certain risk of default. Cash doesn’t.
So a bank with higher levels of cash will typically have much lower risk to its solvency.
Simultaneously, a bank with a strong cash position is also liquid, and hence more likely to be able to honor its customers’ transactional needs.
Bottom line, a safe, conservative bank maintains high levels of cash, especially relative to the total amount of deposits.
But that’s not happening in the Land of the Free.
The Federal Reserve’s most recent report on “Assets and Liabilities of Commercial Banks in the United States” published last Friday showed a continuing trend in the erosion of bank safety.
This is a weekly report, so there’s tons of data. And the trend goes back now at least 2.5 years.
Since late 2014, for example, Fed data show that total cash assets at US banks has been in steady decline, dropping roughly 25% over that period.
But at the same time, total deposits at the banks has actually increased around 15%.
So you can see the issue: cash is falling while deposits are increasing. This is the OPPOSITE of what a responsible bank should be doing.
A conservative bank seeks to INCREASE or at least MAINTAIN the level of cash it has on hand as a percentage of customer deposits.
Banks in the US have been doing the opposite– decreasing their cash holdings while deposits have been rising.
Proportionally, the aggregate cash-to-deposit ratio in the US has fallen by 32% since late 2014.
That’s a steep drop.
So what exactly have they been doing with that money, i.e. the money they should be holding in cash?
The truth is we’ll never know.
Banking is a giant black box. We are provided scant detail about what these people are actually doing with our money.
Sure, they’re making loans. But what loans? To whom? Are the borrowers creditworthy? Is there valuable, high-quality collateral? Does the interest rate make sense to compensate for the risk?
No one knows. Not even the banks themselves know.
When you have hundreds of billions (or even trillions) of dollars of assets on your books, it’s impossible to really know what you own.
So we’re basically all in the dark.
I’m not telling you this to suggest that there’s some major crisis looming or that you should yank all of your money out of the US banking system.
But it’s important to understand that banks are not as risk-free as they lead on.
This huge drop in the cash-to-deposit ratio is a conscious decision. It doesn’t happen by accident. Banks are choosing to hold less cash, i.e. be less safe.
(And the government which supposedly guarantees it all is itself insolvent to the tune of negative $60+ trillion. But that’s another story.)
Why take the chance? Why keep 100% of everything that you’ve ever earned locked up in a system that is actively making itself less safe…
… not to mention the industry’s uninterrupted history of fleecing its customers?
The US presidency will continue according to the philosophic and ideological guidelines of the new and constitutionally elected chief executive, Donald Trump. There is no credible evidence to support rumors of other unelected chief executives to succeed President Trump, including any such persons positioned by foreign powers (e.g., China, Russia, etc.).
President Donald Trump is reported to have purchased dinar along with many other speculative currencies. This has NOT been confirmed by any source, but it is considered possible as the highly speculative quality of this investment is no impediment to Trump. Further, there is no confirmation from any reliable source to the rumor that President Trump exchanged large amounts of dinar at any exchange rate.
There is no independent confirmation by any credible source that the character “zorra” except as partner of a guru who was dubbed by the “zorra” character as “one who knows”. Indeed, there is no credible confirmation from any credible or independent source that ANYTHING either of these characters have provided is anything but their own variations of new age religion and sci-fi fantasy.
Indeed, there is no independent or reliable confirmation of what is provided by ANY of the “usual” and popular dinarland sources. It has been observed publicly on many occasions over nearly a full year that all of the “intel” within dinarland (other than relayed factually news which is publicly available) has met the minimal threshold of accuracy, i.e., none of the “intel” has proved accurate. The primary response to attempts to note dozens of inaccurate predictions is dismissal, labeling as “cabal” agents, and ridicule. There is never – in fact, never – any argument that predictions of 800 number release have been accurate, no proof has been offered of the existence of even one “exchange center” or purported currency exchange (at “teaser” rates or other high rates), or that the fabled “Chinese elders” exist, to name only a few. A popular and convenient “refutation” is that these are secret matters and can’t be proved.
All confirmed sources agree that the “RV/GCR” is theoretic, at best, and much more likely, a useful story-line for sustaining dinarland reader interest. A score of references can be given to support this position, however, the only “sources” available to dinarland “gurus” is the internal and circular rumor mill of their guru community.
There was no relationship between an RV/GCR and the Congressional confirmation of the US President’s appointed Secretary of the Treasury. That has proven to be the case, despite so many predicting the swearing in would “flip a switch” or such a thing. This is an excellent example of dinarland gurus finding some semi-plausible basis for falsely stirring up excitement for the RV/GCR. The falsity of something happening due to these events being supposedly related to the RV/GCR can only be seen retrospectively, however, the dinarland culture has evolved to now where anyone pointing out such a failure is vilified while the falsity is carefully ignored.
All credible sources agree, there will be no simultaneous and sudden revaluation of currencies across the world. It is fully confirmed and documented that there has been NO treaty, ratified (as required by the US Senate), or otherwise, which requires gold backing of currency or revaluation of currencies. Of course, to anyone who has read the publicly available Paris Agreement on Climate Change, this is a known fact.
These are fully and publicly confirmed facts with easy access by any person.
After document review and a detailed analysis of the Paris Agreement, it has become completely clear that dinarland gurus have relied on investors’ trust to use this international accord (not a treaty) to falsely carry their story-line. There is no reference whatsoever in the accord which supports the idea of a GCR. The RV of IQD is neither mentioned or could it be realistically even influenced by the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement was merely another convenient current event which was used and its contents misrepresented to further the otherwise utterly factless story-line of popular gurus. Fortunately, simple fact-checking has fully debunked any dinar guru support of the Paris Agreement for their RV/GCR story-line.
On the subject of treaties and law, generally, be aware that all federal laws are included in the Federal Register, which is publicly available to anyone with internet access. There are no exceptions, if it is law, it is in full text in the Federal Register. Thus, it is extremely critical to note that there has never been passed a law called “NESARA” or anything like it in connection with “economic recovery”. It is not “secret”, it was not signed by a US President at the point of a gun (which would void the supposed law, anyway), and it was not authorized by some of the US Supreme Court (in which case, it would not be law, either). There is also no such thing confirmed anywhere but within new age religious websites and dinarland blogs as “GESARA”, this being a mutation of the acronym NESARA – swapping “global” in place of “national”.
The evolution and adaptation of NESARA is an interesting but unsurprising story. Multiple conspiracy theories have been combined to confuse and mystify a fairly simple story. “National Economic Security and Recovery Act (NESARA) was a set of proposed economic reforms suggested during the 1990s by Harvey Francis Barnard. Barnard claimed that the proposals, which included replacing the income tax with a national sales tax, abolishing compound interest on secured loans, and returning to a bimetallic currency, would result in 0% inflation and a more stable economy. The proposals were never introduced before Congress. … NESARA has since become better known as the subject of a cult-like conspiracy theory promoted by Shaini Candace Goodwin, doing business as “Dove of Oneness”, who claimed that the act was actually passed with additional provisions as the National Economic Security and Reformation Act, and then suppressed by the George W. Bush administration and the Supreme Court. Goodwin’s conspiracy emails have been translated into several languages and have a large following online.” http://investmentwatchblog.com/draining-the-swamp-monetary-and-fiscal-policy-reform-1996/
In a handful of recent posts by a popular guru, there was reference to “GESARA compliance regulations”. Of course, no reference was given. There could not be, as GESARA is a product of guru imagination, repeated often enough as to become a presumed truth – it is not. There are no “GESARA compliance regulations” because there is no such thing as “GESARA” associated with any governing body in the world. The preposterous quality of this make-believe set of rules or regulations places the burden of proof on anyone saying it is real. At very least, since it has been publicly mentioned, it is incumbent on the one who mentions it to offer a single legitimate and confirmable source for the existence of GESARA or its regulations. You can still buy the book which was written by Dr. Barnard (this is the 2005 edition, although the first edition was self-published in 1996): https://www.amazon.com/Draining-Swamp-Monetary-Fiscal-Policy/dp/0965112403
It’s interesting to note that Dr. Barnard urged economic policies somewhat similar to US Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, but Barnard’s book title ended up as a slogan for the Trump campaign, “Drain the Swamp”. Make of it what you will.
PLEASE NOTE: Do not burn your investment currency. Do not give away your investment currency. Do not even entrust your investment currency to anyone. Do not disregard the investment you have made – there is always a chance within a speculative currency investment that some profit can be made.
This intel is offered as a free and 100% uncompensated service. The motivation for relaying this intel is the hope that unsupported supposed “intel” does not become a part of your investment goals and objectives. You are always urged to do independent investment research. You are always cautioned that any representation that information is true “because you can’t find it elsewhere” is itself a deception. If you cannot confirm facts, it is not reliable. Reliance on information simply because it supports a conspiracy narrative is foolish and a simple manipulation. Integration of one’s own principles of faith is valuable, but can leave an investor open to manipulation when ordinary investment due diligence and personal research is neglected. Let us always reason together.
“Sources” are easy when you’re grounded in reality and you’re telling the truth.
As always, being and staying “grounded”, according to Merriam-Webster, means “mentally and emotionally stable; admirably sensible, realistic, and unpretentious.” Measure yourself against this standard and, with integrity, be brutally honest. Check to see if those whose advice you accept are in this way “grounded”.
President Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Mnuchin, tells the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that he expects a “frank and candid” exchange rate analysis. Frequent readers of my blog posts here, will not be surprised by this development.
With the Trump administration having gone radio silent in recent weeks on the issue of currency manipulation and whether it sees the dollar, or other currencies, as under- or over-valued, there was a notable if vague update from U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who spoke to the IMF’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Tuesday and told her that he expects the IMF to provide “frank and candid” analysis of exchange rate policies.
There was no elaboration of what the apriori US stance was coming into the conversation.
The spokesperson said that in a phone call to Christine Lagarde, Steven Mnuchin emphasized the importance that the administration places on boosting economic growth and jobs in the United States, and looked forward to robust economic policy advice from the IMF regarding its member countries, and the objective of tackling global imbalances.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke by phone today with Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In his conversation with Madame Lagarde, Secretary Mnuchin welcomed the key role the IMF plays in promoting global economic growth and stability and in preventing and responding to economic crisis. He noted the importance the Administration places on boosting economic growth and jobs in the United States, and looked forward to robust IMF economic policy advice on its member countries and tackling global imbalances. Secretary Mnuchin also underscored his expectation that the IMF provide frank and candid analysis of the exchange rate policies of IMF member countries.
Needless to say, a full transcript of the conversation would have been far more useful for all those wondering if the dollar is set to continue its recent growth spurt or if Mnuchin hinted that Trump would be happier with a lower dollar going forward.
How are you? Was a great inauguration… any comments,
I’d love to hear.
Have you lost any liberal friends, or do you steer clear from them??
Hugs,
Judith
Grace Awake
ANSWER:
Grace:
I’ve been trying for months to inform my liberal, socialist, police-state ideologists that the appearance and election of Donald Trump to the political stage of the world’s most powerful country is a geo-political move of global proportions in support of a new, multilateral currency system with the intent to revalue the currency of emerging nations and re-balance the global economic system. It is a move away from seven decades of unipolar USD based global reserve currency pushed by the Western banking system and American Corporate imperialism.
And, more specifically, the liberal mandates of open societies and left-leaning freedoms have crashed into the walls of rational thought and real-world functioning progressive ideals. This was one of the most predictable outcomes in our world for the simple fact that the liberal-left and its proposed values and virtues are based on a fraudulent position which was promised to empower the people and end the threat of totalitarianism, but in fact weakened the moral fiber of civilization and skewed the diametric truths.
It has long been declared that the alternative to the mandates of liberalism is authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fascism, and the scalable loss of freedoms as society moves further to the right. This gross mischaracterization has been embedded in our culture through left-funded media and education strategies which have both arrested and corrupted the minds of generations.
Whether you consider the development of these diametric left and right political ideologies as chance or engineering matters less than the need to understand the path civilization takes as it shifts between one and the other. The human mind demands opposition as a method of advancement and learning. This foundational principle is hardcoded into our world and the human powerbase has mastered the art of harnessing it for the purpose of socioeconomic engineering. The diametric exists in spite of the human need for oneness and brotherhood.
The truth of the matter is that the extreme of the left or the right both act as catalysts for a return to the other. A civilization surrendered to extreme right authoritarianism will build an inner momentum for a return to the freedoms inherent in the center. This momentum becomes an unstoppable train which overshoots the center and reengineers culture and governance towards the far left. Equally so, a civilization weakened to extreme left openness and unaccountability will develop an outer momentum for a return to decency, strength and personal responsibility. The overshoot is just as dramatic.
The all or nothing approach of the liberal-left towards a full open society establishes a need for totalitarianism in the same manner that the extreme right presents its own justification. Harsh loss of personal freedoms and strong authoritarianism are required to hold both the left and the right in their extreme diametric positions. Neither can use the risk of authoritarianism as the justification to prevent the other from arising as the end result will always be the same.
The frequency of executive orders by the Obama administration and the use of regulations are examples of what we are discussing. The momentum towards a full open society built on the mandates of the liberal left has destroyed itself in the same manner that an extreme right ideology would have.
Those in the world who can grasp and understand the mechanics and methodology of this shifting diametric have an opportunity, and in fact a responsibility, to plan staged cultural and socioeconomic interceptions which would be meant to manage the return momentum and create a structural framework at the center which would hold the weight of a civilization with a growing self-awareness.
The dogma of “do what thou wilt” is the built-in weakness of the far liberal left in the same manner that “do what we tell you to do” is with the far right. The extreme of either ideology emerges near and at the end of civilizations. Other ancillary factors such as monetary policy and war act as further catalysts but the corruption begins within first, such as it does in our personal lives.
The road from fascist Germany in World War Two to liberal-left Germany today which has enacted self-destructive governance policies is a perfect example of this swing between extreme left and extreme right. The open borders and open society framework has failed not just in Germany and Europe, but across the world and political spectrums. The governed populations are beginning to accept that there is an ideological disease which has pushed western civilization to the brink of an identity collapse just out there on the edge of the extreme liberal-left platform.
The response is the “new modern nationalism” which we have discussed and is represented by the election of Donald Trump, the BREXIT vote, and the emergence of strong conservative-right candidates in nations around the world.
But with the death of worldwide liberalism also comes the end of American unipolar imperialism which has functioned as an extension of the international reserve status of the dollar and by default the once influential liberal-left culture which has dominated in varying degrees since the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. The shift towards a multilateral (or multipolar) monetary framework is releasing American culture from the death grip of this responsibility and allowing for a restructuring of the US financial system, the function of the Federal Reserve, and the geopolitical world.
The geopolitical transformation has been manifesting with shifting alliances in the Pacific as once America allies, such as the Philippines, are moving closer to China. The orientation of Eastern Europe is also a place where further changes can be expected as Ukraine remerges as a strong Russian partner. As an extension, we can assume that once important regions and nations, such as the American military presence in South Korea because of the North Korean threat will be reversed and new balances and borders sought.
Recent statements by Trump would suggest that he has communicated to China that the time has come to address the North Korean situation. Whether the eroding American establishment has indirectly supported the North Korean regime as a pretext to justify its presence in the South matters little now as the script unfolds and China cleans up the mess in its own backyard.
All of this does not bode well for the ideological objectives of worldwide liberalism. But we need to be cautious that authoritarian rulers do not emerge who would take advantage of this swing towards the new modern nationalism. Such rulers can care little for ideological allegiances as long as their rule is enforced and maintained.
The liberal-left and the conservative-right are tools for maintaining the momentum in the pendulums swing arc. The time may be past to prevent the emergence of an extreme right as the world shifts and liberalism is crushed under the weight of the new modern nationalism. But let these words settle upon us as we observe and learn the pattern of human nature and the unseen forces in this world. This is the rational approach and the logical end to that which is illogical and irrational.
With Donald Trump, we are moving this nation toward a multi-lateral global currency system without the old American establishment and their imperialistic form of democracy.
Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans and people of the world, thank you.
We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our people.
Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for many, many years to come. We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done.
Every four years we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power.
And we are grateful to President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition.
They have been magnificent.
Thank you.
Today’s ceremony, however, has a very special meaning because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.
For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have bore the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed.
The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.
That all changes starting right here and right now, because this moment is your moment. It belongs to you.
It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America. This is your day.
This is your celebration.
And this, the United States of America, is your country.
What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.
January 20th, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.
The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now. You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before.
At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction that a nation exists to serve its citizens. Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families and good jobs for themselves.
These are just and reasonable demands of righteous people and a righteous public. But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists.
Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation.
An education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.
And the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.
We are one nation, and their pain is our pain.
Their dreams are our dreams, and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home and one glorious destiny.
The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans.
For many decades we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military.
We’ve defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own. And we’ve spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.
We’ve made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon.
One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind.
The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world. But that is the past, and now we are looking only to the future.
But that is the past and now we are looking only to the future.
We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital and in every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first — America first.
Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs.
Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I will fight for you with every breath in my body. And I will never, ever let you down.
America will start winning again, winning like never before.
We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth, and we will bring back our dreams. We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation. We will get our people off of welfare and back to work rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor. We will follow two simple rules — buy American and hire American.
We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world.
But we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone but rather to let it shine as an example. We will shine for everyone to follow.
We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones. And unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.
At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.
The Bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreement honestly but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.
There should be no fear. We are protected, and we will always be protected. We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement. And most importantly, we will be protected by God.
Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving. We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action, constantly complaining but never doing anything about it. The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.
Do not allow anyone to tell you that it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America. We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again. We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the earth from the miseries of disease and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow. A new national pride will stir ourselves, lift our sights and heal our divisions. It’s time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget — that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots.
We all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American flag.
And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams and they are infused with the breath of life by the same Almighty Creator.
So to all Americans in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words — you will never be ignored again.
Your voice, your hopes and your dreams will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way. Together, we will make America strong again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And yes, together, we will make America great again.
A pattern is beginning to emerge in the first days after the election. The reactions by the Democratic Party and liberal left regarding the election results have taken on a new and problematic pattern. This pattern is one of desperation as the full nature of what just happened begins to sink in and those in the American establishment have their control framework threatened for the first time in centuries.
But first it is important to understand the nature of the left and right. These two seemingly diametric political positions have been culturally and politically engineered with great precision and cunning to take advantage of the natural instincts and behavior of the disorganized masses. Both at one time represented the organic duality within each one of us. This duality is best understood by accepting that there is an inner battle taking place within each one of us.
This battle is one between bridled and unbridled virtues. The self-control and lack of self-control, best illustrated by the application of self-discipline towards the betterment of individual development, or the lack of self-discipline, either of which will either corrupt civilization, or enhance the qualitative aspects of civilization.
It is reasonable to consider the right to represent the action of self-discipline, as it provides a limited framework on self-destructive human behavior. Equally, it is reasonable to consider the left to represent the lack of self-discipline, as its merits and philosophies result in the degradation of virtues and values.
Both ideals can be maintained in balance within the individual and within the state. This best serves the overall development of both the individual and the state, as it provides the necessary room and adversity for growth and self-evolution to expand and contribute to the betterment of a cultural unification.
Within the United States over the last century a self-serving establishment has developed. This establishment has been allowed to capitalize on the international importance of the US dollar and consolidate much wealth and power within itself. This wealth and power has been prevented from being distributed to the disorganized masses through the psychological technique known as cognitive dissonance.
Most readers will already have a fundamental and workable understanding of cognitive dissonance. The action of creating two opposing positions, the dialectic, and promoting the utter extremes of both, the mass population becomes confused and accepts an undefined and complex center which only benefits the establishment and its redistribution of wealth.
All are forced to live and function within this manufactured center but are conditioned to align and associate themselves with one of the left or right extremes. At times the establishment will use the right to further its objectives and at other times it will use the left to further its objectives. The back and forth at no time benefits the disorganized masses.
The election of Donald Trump is important in regards to topic being discussed here. It is not a coincidence that Trump has been at times associated with both the right and left. This is not important. It has been satisfactorily proven here that Trump was a long-term strategy which was meant to remove the American establishment from the positions of power when the time came. The post How Rothschild Inc. Saved Donald Trump explains this strategy and is becoming more relevant and provable with each passing day.
That post reviewed the history of how Wilbur Ross of Rothschild Inc. ensured that investors stayed with Trump during the trouble years of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. It is now being suggested that Wilbur Ross could be the Secretary of Commerce in the Trump Administration. Interesting.
Additionally, it is important to understand that Donald Trump doesn’t really align himself with either the false right or left paradigm. The use of the right-leaning Republican Party was only the vehicle which he used to infiltrate the halls of power and overthrow the establishment from within.
It can be expected that the ongoing tension and violence between the left and right in America, more coming from the intolerable left, will build the consensus that something must be done to bridge the gap and bring about the unification and consolidation of the one American demographic.
No doubt the establishment now only has the liberal left framework from which it will attempt to regain control back from the external international banking interests. Trump has completely taken over the reins of the republican mandates and is in the process of making them his own. The Republican Party will be the vehicle which is used to shift the American population to a more simple and well-defined center. This center will then be used to re-align American cultural interests within the developing international governance framework.
The division within the American masses remained relevant as long as the establishment wished to keep the nation divided and under the spell of a false and corrupt nationalism. The new America which is now beginning to emerge will be unified and positioned to implement enhanced diametric thought-forms within a larger and more macro international governance methodology.
Unbeknownst to the establishment, which grew up around the American order, a process of esoteric transformation was implemented a long time ago. This establishment was used to create and promote the opposing diametric patterns which would force and result in the alchemical transmutation of America. Some people may recognize and know that now; others will not. But international powers greater than those held by the American establishment have never been out of control, and always capable to direct the esoteric and masonic destiny of America.
When Trump announced his candidacy a year and half ago, JC Colins (Philosophy of Metrics) stated that Trump would win. The reasons given included his platform as being fully aligned with the broader and more macro mandates of the international transformation. Some readers considered it to be far-fetched that Donald Trump would be able to overcome the American establishment and take control of the nation’s levers and gears.
The Implosion of American Culture written by JC Colins about two years ago is now happening. The cognitive dissonance which has been used against the masses for so long will not consolidate within the new America and it will be replaced with a more international cognitive dissonance. All is meant to continue the process of alchemical transmutation.
The ancient mystery schools and esoteric mandates promote the alchemical process within each of us. It is our individual purpose and pathway. But this process is also meant to transform nations and the world. America is now, after WW1 (first initiation) and WW2 (second initiation), nearing the end of the third initiation where the transmutation within is completed. The final transmutation of the world is still in the future and a new cognitive orientation within America will now work towards this end. The third initiation is always about re-birth and not death. America is being reborn.
All The Presidents’ Bankers is a groundbreaking narrative of how an elite group of men transformed the American economy and government, dictated foreign and domestic policy, and shaped world history.
Culled from original presidential archival documents, All The Presidents’ Bankers delivers an explosive account of the hundred-year interdependence between the White House and Wall Street that transcends a simple analysis of money driving politics, or greed driving bankers.
The author, Nomi Prins, ushers the reader into the intimate world of exclusive clubs, vacation spots, and Ivy League universities that binds presidents and financiers. She unravels the multi-generational blood, intermarriage, and protege relationships that have confined national influence to a privileged cluster of people. These families and individuals recycle their power through elected office and private channels in Washington, DC.
All the Presidents’ Bankers sheds new light on pivotal historic events, such as why, after the Panic of 1907, America’s dominant bankers convened to fashion the Federal Reserve System; how J.P. Morgan’s ambitions motivated President Wilson during World War I; how Chase and National City Bank chairmen worked secretly with President Roosevelt to rescue capitalism during the Great Depression while J.P. Morgan Jr. invited Roosevelt’s son yachting; and how American financiers collaborated with President Truman to construct the World Bank and IMF after World War II.
Prins divulges how, through the Cold War and Vietnam era, presidents and bankers pushed America’s superpower status and expansion abroad, while promoting broadly democratic values and social welfare at home. But from the 1970s, Wall Street’s rush to secure Middle East oil profits altered the nature of political-financial alliances. Bankers’ profit motive trumped heritage and allegiance to public service, while presidents lost control over the economy, as was dramatically evident in the financial crisis of 2008.
The unprecedented history of American power illuminates how the same financiers retained their authoritative position through history, swaying presidents regardless of party affiliation. All the Presidents’ Bankers explores the alarming global repercussions of a system lacking barriers between public office and private power. Prins leaves the reader with an ominous choice: either we break the alliances of the power elite, or they will break us.
Economic Collapse, Bailout & All The Presidents’ Bankers with Nomi Prins
BuzzSaw interview (September 5, 2014)
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / the associated press Wall Street executives Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, John Mack and Brian Moynihan (from left) are sworn-in prior to testifying before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Wednesday.
NIXON’S BANKERS:
When What Was Good for Wall Street Was Good for the President
Wall Street’s War
While the protests against the Vietnam War intensified in the first years of the Nixon administration, the financial elite was fighting its own war—over the future of banking and against Glass-Steagall regulations. National City Bank chairman Walter Wriston was a steadfast warrior in related battles, as he fought with Chase chairman David Rockefeller for supremacy over the US banker community and for dominance over global finance.
Rockefeller’s sights were set on a grander prize, one with worldwide implications: ending the financial cold war. He made his mark in that regard by opening the first US bank in Moscow since the 1920s, and the first in Beijing since the 1949 revolution.
Augmenting their domestic and international expansion plans, both men and their banks prospered from the emerging and extremely lucrative business of recycling petrodollars from the Middle East into third world countries. By acting as the middlemen—capturing oil revenues and transforming them into high-interest-rate loans, to Latin America in particular—bankers accentuated disparities in global wealth. They dumped loans into developing countries and made huge amounts of money in the process. By funneling profits into debts, they caused extreme pain in the debtor nations, especially when the oil-producing nations began to raise their prices. This raised the cost of energy and provoked a wave of inflation that further oppressed these third world nations, the US population, and other economies throughout the world.
Bank Holding Company Battles
When Eisenhower signed the 1956 Bank Holding Company Act banning interstate banking, he left a large loophole as a conciliatory gambit: a gray area as to what big banks could consider “financially-related business,” which fell under their jurisdiction. In practice, that meant that they could find ways to expand their breadth of services while they figured out ways to grow their domestic grab for depositors. On May 26, 1970, the “Big Three” bankers— Wriston and Rockefeller, along with Alden “Tom” Clausen, chairman of Bank America Corporation—appeared before the Senate Banking and Currency Committee to press their case for widening the loophole.
During the proceedings, Wriston led the charge on behalf of his brethren in the crusade. Tall, slim, elegantly dressed, and the most articulate of the three, he dramatically called on Congress to “throw off some of the shackles on banking which inhibit competition in the financial markets.”
The global financial landscape was evolving. Ever since World War II, US bankers hadn’t worried too much about their supremacy being challenged by other international banks, which were still playing catch-up in terms of deposits, loans, and global customers. But by now the international banks had moved beyond postwar reconstructive pain and gained significant ground by trading with Cold War enemies of the United States. They were, in short, cutting into the global market that the US bankers had dominated by extending themselves into areas in which the US bankers were absent for US policy reasons. There was no such thing as “enough” of a market share in this game. As a result, US bankers had to take a longer, harder look at the “shackles” hampering their growth. To remain globally competitive, among other things, bankers sought to shatter post-Depression legislative barriers like Glass-Steagall.
They wielded fear coated in shades of nationalism as a weapon: if US bankers became less competitive, then by extension the United States would become less powerful. The competition argument would remain dominant on Wall Street and in Washington for nearly three decades, until the separation of speculative and commercial banking that had been invoked by the Glass-Steagall Act would be no more.
Wriston deftly equated the expansion of US banking with general US global progress and power. It wasn’t so much that this connection hadn’t occurred to presidents or bankers since World War II; indeed, that was how the political-financial alliances had been operating. But from that point on, the notion was formally and publicly verbalized, and placed on the congressional record. The idea that commercial banks served the country and perpetuated its global identity and strength, rather than the other way around, became a key argument for domestic deregulation—even if, in practice, it was the country that would serve the banks.
The Penn Central Debacle
There was, however, a fly in the ointment. To increase their size, bankers wanted to be able to accumulate more services or branches beneath the holding company umbrella. But a crisis in another industry would give some legislators pause. The Penn Central meltdown, the first financial crisis of Nixon’s presidency, temporarily dampened the ardency of deregulation enthusiasts. The collapse of the largest, most diverse railroad holding company in America was blamed on overzealous bank lending to a plethora of non-railroad-oriented entities under one holding company umbrella. The debacle renewed debate about a stricter bank holding company bill.
Under Wriston’s guidance, National City had spearheaded a fifty-three-bank syndicate to lend $500 million in revolving credit to Penn Central, even when it showed obvious signs of imminent implosion.
Penn Central had been one of the leading US corporations in the 1960s. President Johnson had supported the merger that spawned the conglomerate on behalf of a friend, railroad merger specialist Stuart Saunders, who became chairman. He had done this over the warnings of the Justice Department and despite allegations of antitrust violations called by its competitors. With nary a regulator paying attention, Penn Central had morphed into more than a railroad holding company, encompassing real estate, hotels, pipelines, and theme parks. Meanwhile, highways, cars, and commercial airlines had chipped away at Penn Central’s dominant market position. To try to compensate,
Penn Central had delved into a host of speculative expansions and deals. That strategy was failing fast. By May 1970, Penn Central was feverishly drawing on its credit lines just to scrounge up enough cash to keep going.
The conglomerate demonstrated that holding companies could be mere shell constructions under which other unrelated businesses could exist, much as the 1920s holding companies housed reckless financial ventures under utility firm banners.
Allegations circulated that Rockefeller had launched a five-day selling strategy of Penn Central stock, culminating with the dumping of 134,400 shares on the fifth day, based on insider information he received as one of the firm’s key lenders. He denied the charges.
In a joint effort with the bankers to hide the Penn Central debacle behind a shield of federal bailout loans, the Pentagon stepped in, claiming that assisting Penn Central was a matter of national defense.5 Under the auspices of national security, Washington utilized the Defense Production Act of 1950, a convenient bill passed at the start of the Korean War that enabled the president to force businesses to prioritize national security–related endeavors.
On June 21, 1970, Penn Central filed for bankruptcy, becoming the first major US corporation to go bust since the Depression. Its failure was not an isolated incident by any means. Instead, it was one of a number of major defaults that shook the commercial paper market to its core. (“Commercial paper” is a term for the short-term promissory notes sold by large corporations to raise quick money, backed only by their promise to pay the amount of the note at the end of its term, not by any collateral.) But the agile bankers knew how to capitalize on that turmoil. When companies stopped borrowing in the flailing commercial paper market, they had to turn to major banks like Chase for loans instead. As a result, the worldwide loans of Chase, First National City Bank, and Bank of America surged to $27.7 billion by the end of 1971, more than double the 1969 total of $13 billion.
A year later, the largest US defense company, Lockheed, was facing bankruptcy, as well. Again bankers found a way to come out ahead on the people’s dime. Lockheed’s bankers at Bank of America and Bankers Trust led a syndicate that petitioned the Defense Department for a bailout on similar national security grounds. The CEO, Daniel Haughton, even agreed to step down if an appropriate government loan was provided.
In response, the Nixon administration offered $250 million in emergency loans to Lockheed—in effect, bailing out the banks and the corporation. To explain the bailout at a time when the general economy was struggling, Nixon introduced the Lockheed Emergency Loan Act by stating, “It will have a major impact on the economy of California, and will contribute greatly to the economic strength of the country as a whole.” After the bill was passed, not a single Lockheed executive stepped down.
It would take several years of political-financial debate and more bailouts to sustain Penn Central. One 1975 article labeled the entire episode “The Penn-C Fairy Tale” and condemned the subsequent federal bailout: “While the country is in the worst recession since the depression and unemployment lines grow longer every day, Congress is dumping another third of a billion dollars of your tax payer dollars down the railroad rat hole.” (The incident was prologue: Congress would lavish hundreds of billions of dollars to sustain the biggest banks after the 2008 financial crisis, topped up by trillions of dollars from the Fed and the Treasury Department in the form of loans, bond purchases, and other subsidies.)
More Bank Holding Company Politics
Despite the Penn Central crisis, the revised Bank Holding Company Act decisively passed the Senate on September 16, 1970, by a bipartisan vote of seventy-seven to one. The final version was far more lenient than the one that Texas Democrat John William Wright Patman, chair of the House Committee on Banking and Currency, or even the Nixon administration had originally envisioned. The revised act allowed big banks to retain nonbank units acquired before June 1968. It also gave the Fed greater regulatory authority over bank holding companies, including the power to determine what constituted one. Language was added to enable banks to be considered one-bank holding companies if they, or any of their subsidiaries, held any deposits or extended any commercial loans, thus broadening their scope.
President Nixon signed the bill into law without fanfare on New Year’s Eve 1970. In fact, his inner circle decided against making a splash about it. They didn’t think the public would understand or care. Plus, they realized that there was a prevailing attitude that the Nixon administration had favored the big banks, and though it had, this was not something they wanted to draw attention to.
The End of the Gold Standard
The top six banks controlled 20 percent of the nation’s deposits through one-bank holding companies, but second place in that group wasn’t good enough for Wriston, who noted to the Nixon administration that his bank was really the “caretaker of the aspirations of millions of people” whose money it held. Wriston flooded the New York Fed with proposals for expansion. His applications “were said to represent as many as half of the total of all of the banks.” The Fed was so overwhelmed, it had to enlist First National City Bank to interpret the new law on its behalf.
By mid-1971, the Fed had approved thirteen and rejected seven of Wriston’s applications. His biggest disappointment was the insurance underwriting rejection. The possibility of converting depositors for insurance business had been tantalizing. It would continue to be a hard-fought, ultimately successful battle.
Around the same time, New York governor Nelson Rockefeller (David Rockefeller’s brother) approved legislation permitting banks to set up subsidiaries in each of the state’s nine banking districts. This was a gift for Wriston and David Rockefeller, because it meant their banks could expand within the state. Each subsidiary could open branches through June 1976, when the districts would be eliminated and banks could merge and branch freely.
Several months later, First National City Bank was paying generous prices to purchase the tiniest upstate banks, from which it began extending loans to the riskiest companies and getting hosed in the process; a minor David vs. Goliath revenge of local banks against Wall Street muscle.
By that time, the stock market had turned bearish, and foreign countries were increasingly demanding their paper dollars be converted into gold as they shifted funds out of dollar reserves. Bankers, meanwhile, postured for a dollar devaluation, which would make their cost of funds cheaper and enable them to expand their lending businesses.
They knew that the fastest way to further devalue the dollar was to sever it from gold, and they made their opinions clear to Nixon, taking care to blame the devaluation on external foreign speculation, not their own movement of capital and lending abroad.
The strategy worked. On August 15, 1971, Nixon bashed the “international money speculators” in a televised speech, stating, “Because they thrive on crises they help to create them.”16 He noted that “in recent weeks the speculators have been waging an all-out war on the American dollar.” His words were true in essence, yet they were chosen to exclude the actions of the major US banks, which were also selling the dollar. Foreign central banks had access to US gold through the Bretton Woods rules, and they exercised this access. Exchanging dollars for gold had the effect of decreasing the value of the US dollar relative to that gold. Between January and August 1971, European banks (aided by US banks with European branches) catalyzed a $20 billion gold outflow.
As John Butler wrote in The Golden Revolution, “By July 1971, the US gold reserves had fallen sharply, to under $10 billion, and at the rate things were going, would be exhausted in weeks. [Treasury Secretary John] Connally was tasked with organizing an emergency weekend meeting of Nixon’s various economic and domestic policy advisers. At 2:30 p.m. on August 13, they gathered, in secret, at Camp David to decide how to respond to the incipient run on the dollar.”
Nixon’s solution, pressed by the banking community, was to abandon the gold standard. In his speech the president informed Americans that he had directed Connally to “suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold or other reserve assets.” He promised this would “defend the dollar against the speculators.” Because Bretton Woods didn’t allow for dollar devaluation, Nixon effectively ended the accord that had set international currency parameters since World War II, signaling the beginning of the end of the gold standard.
Once the dollar was no longer backed by gold, questions surfaced as to what truly backed it (besides the US military). According to Butler, “The Bretton Woods regime was doomed to fail as it was not compatible with domestic US economic policy objectives which, from the mid-1960s onwards, were increasingly inflationary.”
It wasn’t simply policy that was inflationary. The expansion of debt via the joint efforts of the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve was greatly augmented by the bankers’ drive to loan more funds against their capital base. That established a debt inflation policy, which took off after the dissolution of Bretton Woods. Without the constraint of keeping gold in reserve to back the dollar, bankers could increase their leverage and speculate more freely, while getting money more easily from the Federal Reserve’s discount window. Abandoning the gold standard and “floating” the dollar was like navigating the waters of global finance without an anchor to slow down the dispersion of money and loans. For the bankers, this made expansion much easier.
Indeed, on September 24, 1971, Chase board director and former Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon (chairman of the Brookings Institution and, from 1972 to 1975, the Rockefeller Foundation) told Connally that “under no circumstances should we ever go back to assuming limited convertibility into gold.” Chase Board chairman David Rockefeller wrote National Security Adviser (and later Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger to recommend “a reevaluation of foreign currencies, a devaluation of the dollar, removal of the U.S. import surcharge and ‘buy America’ credits, and a new international monetary system with greater flexibility . . . and less reliance on gold.”
With the dollar devalued, investors poured money into stocks, fueling a rally from November 1971 led by the “Nifty Fifty,” a group of “respectable” big-cap growth stocks. These were being bought “like greyhounds chasing a mechanical rabbit” by pension funds, insurance companies, and trust funds. The Chicago Board of Trade began trading options on individual stocks in 1973 to increase the avenues for betting; speculators could soon thereafter trade futures on currencies and bonds.
The National Association of Securities Dealers rendered all this trading easier on February 8, 1971, when it launched the NASDAQ. The first computerized quote system enabled market makers to post and transact over-the-counter prices quickly. With the stock market booming again, NASDAQ became a more convenient avenue for Wall Street firms to raise money. Many abandoned their former partnership models whereby the firm’s partners risked their own capital for the firm, in favor of raising capital by selling the public shares. That way, the upside—and the growing risk—would also be diffused and transferred to shareholders. Merrill Lynch was one of the first major investment bank partnerships to go “public” in 1971. Other classic industry leaders quickly followed suit.
Meanwhile, corporations were finding prevailing lower interest rates more attractive. Instead of getting loans from banks, they could fund themselves more cheaply by issuing bonds in the capital markets. This took business away from commercial banks, which were restricted by domestic regulation from acting as issuing agents. But bankers had positioned themselves on both sides of the Atlantic to get around this problem, so they were covered by the shift in their major customers’ financing preferences. While their ability to service corporate demand was dampened at home, overseas it roared. Currency market turmoil also led many countries to the Eurodollar market for credit, where US banks were waiting. Thus, the credit extended through international branches of major US banks tripled to $4.5 billion from 1969 to 1972.
The market rally, cheered on by the media, was enough to bolster Nixon’s fortunes. In the fall of 1972, Nixon was reelected in a landslide on promises to end the Vietnam War with “peace and honor.” Wall Street reaped the benefits of a bull market, and more citizens and companies were sucked into new debt products. The Dow hit a 1970s peak of 1,052 points in January 1973, as Nixon began his second term.
“Hillary is the Candidate of Yesterday – We Are the Movement of Tomorrow” ~ Donald J. Trump
Republican President Donald J. Trump
As these words are being w ritten, we all are in the middle of election day American Presidential vote of 2016. The historic energy surrounding this event is evident to all who have been paying attention. Those who haven’t can still acknowledge that something of interest and importance has been taking place in their peripheral.
The results will now determine the path forward not just America, but also for the world. Trump’s statement “Hillary is the candidate of yesterday – we are the movement of tomorrow” was chosen as a method of penetrating the collective consciousness of the masses and make the mental shift towards the new and emerging world.
The message itself is reminiscent of the direction that Clinton represents (and the establishment she affilliates with); the old political order and someone should have told her, and the shifting new American establishment, that this transformation was taking place.
It has never been considered by the alternative media that the international banking interests would use populist and nationalist movements to transform the world into a more consolidated and centralized system. It was always assumed, and heavily promoted, that a one world governance framework would mean the loss of national sovereignty. But one must consider the nature of sovereignty and national identity to begin with.
What is a nation?
The understanding principle in how the world is structured can be best interpreted by grasping the scalable nature which exists. This scalable micro and macro bi-transitioning can be applied. Let’s use the concept of nation as our baseline. Within a nation the land is divided into states and provinces. Within each of these there are counties and municipalities. Each serves as corporations of some form or another, with tax revenue and a local governance framework, which is meant to produce a revenue stream and profit.
The land is also divided into farm sections. These sections have been traditionally owned and operated by land owners, both small and large. Each farm has its crop and herd of cattle, pigs, chickens, etc.. The animals on each farm do not understand that they serve the same purpose as the animals on other farms. Each segmented parcel of farm land and municipal governance structure serves as the micro-framework within the larger national macro-framework.
As we shift our understanding above the baseline the nation becomes the micro-framework, just like the farm and municipality, while the larger international structure becomes the macro-framework. All would appear to be operating independently from one another but connected through logistical and management processes.
Pride of ownership and participation at all levels throughout the governance architecture exists. There is national pride which is evident in the Make America Great Again movement. There is also pride and participation in the states and cities. These levels below the national baseline are encouraged by sports teams and other methods of rallying the masses around a support structure.
This scalable control methodology provides us some valuable insights. The need and purpose of intentional fragmentation provides important levers and gears for the operation of the larger macro machine. As such, the idea that these engineered-fragments would be removed from the control grid and process would appear to be counter-intuitive. In simple terms, national identity and perceived sovereignty serves a very unique and misunderstood purpose.
When Zbigniew Brzezinski made the “a universal awakening of mass political consciousness” statement back in 2012 it was interpreted by the alternative media as an expression of concern by the elite that the disorganized masses were awakening. On the internet there little discussion that this “awakening” was being engineered with the use of the alternative media, and movements such as Anonymous, to re-position the mass consciousness and transform the world into a new governance framework.
For most people, it was always assumed that this governance framework would eliminate sovereignty and national identity. It was never considered that the nationalist and populist movements which are now sweeping the globe would be the Trojan horse for international transformation.
The engineered threat to national sovereignty was a masterful design and the alternative media was created and slowly expanded to promote the reaction to this false-threat. It would appear that the intention all along was to use the new modern nationalism to implement the new world governance structure. The mass populations within each fragment would demand the new modern nationalism which was engineered to facilitate and accommodate the emerging global governance framework.
Confusion is removed from this methodology when we realize that the destruction of national sovereignty was never meant to be a part of the new world governance. The best example of what is expressed here can be found in the potential solution to the Eurozone challenges. The EU common market should be considered a test run for the larger macro global governance structure.
One of the lessons from this test run can be found in the use of a supra-sovereign currency. Use of the euro created further imbalances in the EU. More accurately, it amplified the deficiencies and imbalances which already existed in the system. The contrast between the surplus members and the deficit members reacted in a specific manner to the use of the euro. This provided valuable lessons and insight on how to restructure the larger macro international system.
The EU member nations could very well return to using their domestic currencies while continuing to use the euro to balance trade among themselves. This would be the same principle which would be implemented internationally.
The supra-sovereign asset, such as the I.M.F.s Special Drawing Rights (SDR), can be used as the international reserve asset while nations continue to use their national currencies for domestic use. National sovereignty can continue to be promoted while the pathways and processes of a larger international governance framework are constructed. Much like the individual states and municipalities exist within the framework of their larger whole.
Since Trump announced his candidacy, his platform has been designed to transition America’s position from the unipolar dominance it has maintained for a long time (7 decades since Brenton Woods Conference 1944) to the more multilateral position which is meant to re-balance the international system. It serves as only one aspect of the emerging governance framework and is being packaged as a new American nationalism.
The results of the election will be extremely telling of this process following the Trump landslide for the American Presidency.
“Hillary is the Candidate of Yesterday – We Are the Movement of Tomorrow”
And the alternative media is all on-board the Trump train.
African Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians, Asians, and all Americans which make up the composition of the disorganized masses need to read and understand the following.
The existing political platforms which both the Democrats and Republicans have maintained and utilized for generations are no longer effective. In reality, the differences in the platforms are illusionary. The establishment has carefully crafted the perception of variation and choice, but the masses should consider both platforms to be a part of the same machinations used to divide and conquer, while transferring wealth from the bottom to the top.
The simple nature of wealth and wealth transference is never taught or discussed in school curriculums. The diametric system itself is designed to avoid self-exposure and prevents the development of an informed population. The masses are kept disorganized and in a state of confusion. The very nature of the system takes advantage of the human predisposition for externalization and division while promoting a false hope to fight the hopelessness it has created.
The core meaning of wealth, in the human context, is the accumulation of time and labor. Human beings spend their time working hard to improve their rate of survivability. The foraging of primitive man consumed the time and labor afforded during daylight hours. At night man had to hide from predators.
But with the advancement and evolution of spirit and mind, the nature of wealth shifted and the amount of time and labor which human beings were allotted in one lifetime expanded. Rates of survivability exploded and the ruling classes of the developing cultures were forced to manufacture methods of controlling the increasingly bored masses.
The agricultural revolutions served as both the means to free man from the everyday toil of foraging as well as the means to enslave and control him. The ruling elites used this advancement and consolidation of food production to control the distribution and pricing of food, which is the number one contributor of survivability.
These early generations of humanity did not understand that real wealth was the accumulation of their time and labor. The growth of frivolous entertainment and distraction industries took hold of the human imagination and the machinations of elitism took on a foggy un-realization in the minds of the disorganized masses.
Methods of funneling wealth and preventing the lower classes from accumulating their time and labor were developed. Banking, credit and labor systems began to be widely used and became even more complex and intrusive as the industrial revolution provided more freedom and escape from the chains of foraging.
The false prime status of the ruling class was contrasted with the false subprime status of those it meant to control and herd. Existing methods of ensuring wealth transference had to be maintained while new and more effective methods would have to be continuously developed and implemented to balance with the inevitable cultural evolution of the disorganized masses. This evolution would always represent a threat which would force the elites to maintain a pronounced vigilance and watchfulness.
The culture of the disorganized masses would therefore have to be engineered and maintained as a breathing living entity. This entity would ensure all organic improvements and cultural enrichments of the disorganized masses could be harnessed as negative diametric machinations which would contribute to the transference of wealth.
Human time and labor are dramatically different between the ruling elite classes and the disorganized masses. The large population mass are afflicted with hidden measures and tools to eat their time and drain their labor. These distractions and methods of transference are promoted by the same elitism which accumulates the wealth at the top. The fact that the disorganized masses are unable to make this observation is a testament to the effective nature and engineering of the machinations themselves.
The subprime crisis, and subsequent foreclosures, is a perfect example of these machinations. The transfer of wealth from the inner cities and poor neighborhoods in America was massive. This transfer is still continuing and the mass population has yet to fully awaken to the process. Subprime lending will morph into another machination and the disorganized masses will forever remain behind the eight ball because the educational curriculums which are forced into use will never teach and inform about the methods themselves.
The truth-speak of Donald Trump has injected the organic evolution of the disorganized masses with the energy the ruling establishment has forever attempted to dampen. Trump may be running as a Republican but the very nature of his campaign has taken on a new purpose. It is tearing away the illusion of the diametric and providing all with the alternative which has been long hidden.
All American’s now have the opportunity to take back control of their nation and future. The establishment has declared all out cultural war on Donald Trump. The threat of his rise to power within the American establishment should be an indicator that we are witnessing history unfold in real time. Do not let the establishments’ methods of division continue for another moment. This division has been injected along the lines of race, religion, and class. All Americans and all people around the world should be welcoming the election of Trump to the highest office in one of the most powerful nations.
Unfortunately that will only be the beginning of the fight, as human nature will always externalize and self-destruct. What Trump leaves behind could develop into another ruling class which will create new and improved methods of wealth transference. But it’s worth the chance.
Some nations say: America Has Lost! This is about War, the Vietnamese dong, and the Eurasian Union
The recent statement by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte regarding the countries relationship with the United States puts a fine point on the transition markers of the international monetary transformation. This point should now be considered the counter pivot to Obama’s Asian pivot and the first moment when China has fundamentally geopolitically gained the upper hand in the South China Sea.
Duterte was in China for a state visit. While there he said the following:
“In this venue, your honors, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States. Both in military, not maybe social, but economics also. America has lost.”
The impact of saying this in front of 200 business people interested in new commercial alliances is one of the most profound and straight forward statements regarding the nature of the multilateral transformation. This should build confidence in other Asian nations to disconnect from the United States and align future geopolitical and socioeconomic strategies with China.
America has been busy projecting strength in regions around the world. In Eastern Europe it has taken the form of a NATO buildup along Russia’s borders. In the Middle East it has been injected into the Islamic groups, both terrorists and rebels, attempting to overthrow the Syrian government and re-take Iraq. In the South China Sea it has been expressed by maintaining a naval presence in opposition to the Chinese man-made islands. And in the East China Sea American power is justified by the tension between South Korea and North Korea.
In all areas American power is being challenged by the emerging powers. The alliance between Russia, China, Iran, Syria, and growing to include India, the Philippine’s, and soon Vietnam and other ASEAN members, will be the final catalyst to force the American establishment to back down and align with the larger multilateral mandates.
The world will have to turn against the United States at the same time the existing American establishment is overthrown domestically. The ongoing election drama between Clinton and Trump is reflective of this internal power struggle. The international banking interest which now desire a multilateral framework, as opposed to a unipolar framework, are externally pushing back against the American establishment around the world. At the same time Trump is attempting to take control of the establishment’s power base internally.
How far the American establishment is willing to go in order to stay in control of a world which no longer wants its hand holding will have to be seen. At some point the power base supporting the America establishment will shift and the fragmentation process will take place. There is no doubt that the next few weeks and months represent a danger zone and a period of elevated risk.
The move by the Philippines will be the first among many such moves in the region. The larger Eurasian Union and ASEAN+3 mandates will override all American strategies and new trade agreements will be made.
Vietnam is one such nation which will eventually follow the Philippines and re-negotiate its relationship with the United States. They have openly expressed in the past the need to end the currency peg with the dollar and peg to the currency of their largest trading partner, which is China. They have also suggested that they could peg the dong to a basket of currencies. This could be a reference to the SDR but is more likely a reference to the Asian Currency Unit.
The whole region acts as an optimum currency area. Europe also serves as an optimum currency area, which provided the basis for the European Currency Unit, a currency basket which later became the euro currency.
As such, the optimum Asian area will develop an Asian Currency Unit. The Vietnamese dong will end the decade’s long peg to the US dollar and maintain multiple pegs with the Asian Currency Unit and the Chinese renminbi. This will begin the process of dong appreciation which will align with the larger ASEAN+3 trade agreements and geopolitical relationships.
The European Union will eventually join the Asian Union as members of the larger Eurasian Union. Each individual region will develop currency units which will be sequentially integrated within the larger macro currency baskets. The end objective is to consolidate piecemeal all regions and currencies in to the SDR basket. The SDR, decades from now, will be transformed into a true international currency.
This is the logical path forward on global economic and financial consolidation.
The statement “America has lost” is loaded with intrigue and intent. It is sending a message to both the American establishment and other nations around the world. The message is straight forward. The time is now to fight back against the American establishment. The first major transition point of the global transformation is about to take place. Please have a seat everyone. This is about to get interesting!
Ever since reading G. Edward Griffin’s expose on the creation of the Federal Reserve I have been fascinated with the inner workings of the international monetary system. Though the Creature from Jekyll Island was more about the Federal Reserve, the eventual evolution of the USD as the primary reserve currency used in international trade added a whole new dimension to the covert Congressional shenanigans taking place on that particular Christmas Eve in 1913.
Since the inception of the central banking system back in the 1600’s fiat currencies have been expanding with few limitations. The expansion of debt even funded the industrial revolution and pushed human development to new heights. With that being said the expansion of debt, or more accurately the expansion of credit-based national currencies, will have to come to an end and be reversed at some foreseeable point in the future.
As recently reported by the International Monetary Fund, global debt now stands at an all-time high. This statement is somewhat redundant as the nature of credit-based national currencies, and the central bank system as a whole, is the continued expansion of debt. Each day the amount of global debt will always grow larger. Debt will only reverse when the system begins to change.
The best way to look at this is that all money in circulation has been issued through debt. Likewise, all money in circulation is reflective of the amount of credit-based national currency in circulation, as the currency itself is issued through debt/credit. As the amount of debt decreases so does the amount of currency in circulation.
As the new SDR multilateral framework expands and takes over from the existing USD unipolar based framework the amount of credit-based national currency will begin to decrease. This will take years and perhaps even decades.
The sovereign debt solutions which are being developed should be considered the first movements towards the ending of credit-based national currencies. Foreign exchange reserves will be exchanged and substituted for SDR. This will correlate with larger issuances of SDR based on increased quota amounts.
Initially the substitution process will appear to be the exchange of credit-based fiat currency with a representation of a basket of credit-based fiat currency, being the SDR. In that regards little will change. The fundamental change will take place as the amount of SDR which is allocated to each nation will be based on more than foreign reserve substitution.
In the coming years the amount of SDR allocated to member nations will not be based on the amount of credit-based national currency which exists. The amount of national currency which will be allowed to exist will be based on the amount of SDR allocation.
The future SDR allocations of each member nation will be measured on such factors and weightings as GDP, trade volume, existing reserves, population, and financial share in the world market. These metrics will help establish the amount of SDR allocated to each nation. This SDR allocation will determine the amount of national currency which can be put into circulation.
Eventually the amount of the SDR-based national currency in circulation will outnumber the amount of credit-based national currency in circulation and the fiat money described in The Creature from Jekyll Island will vanish into the monetary past. When this time comes all currency in circulation will be reflective of the factors and weightings stated above. These will not be fiat currency as they will be based on actual, real, and measurable fundamentals.
Perhaps in time gold and other precious metals and commodities will be added to the SDR as well.
What has been described here is the transformation of the International Currency System (ICS) which will be required to facilitate the macro transformation of the International Monetary System (IMS) on a whole. The transformation of both will be completed decades down the road when the SDR basket itself is transformed into the actual bancor global currency which was first suggested during the original Bretton Woods negotiations back in 1944.
Money Base Growth, the Vietnamese dong, and No More QE
By JC Collins
Each week the monetary world is moving closer to a fundamental change. The lack of money base growth, or money based creation, being overall liquidity in the system, is beginning to deepen the global deflationary period which began in 2008, and hasn’t experienced a sustainable shift towards growth since.
This lack of money based creation is most profound in the developed G20 nations and will continue as long as the central banks of the other emerging nations maintain a currency peg to the US dollar. The fact that nations such as China, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Angola, and Azerbaijan, among others, have devalued their domestic currencies against the USD in recent months and years, is a testament to the direction which the monetary world is shifting.
There are multiple methods of expanding the international money base. The main central banks could once again begin a quantitative easing program. Some central banks have in fact started these programs, but no real effect can be made until the Federal Reserve restarts a QE program, since most nations are connected to the USD through an exchange rate regime.
The obvious draw backs to QE programs is a loss of confidence in the dollar and further erosion of the ability to create domestic jobs in America. Something which will be high on the agenda this election cycle.
Another method of increasing money base growth would be for the monetary authorities in the US to willingly devalue the USD by 20% to 30% against the currencies of its major trading partners, and those nations maintaining dollar pegs. This is a sticky issue because though that is the desired outcome, the political will is likely lacking for such a drastic move, and the majority of the American population would understand the larger benefit of increased exports and job creation. It would be considered further weakening of America’s hegemonic position in the world.
The option with the greatest potential at this point in time is for the central banks of other nations, specifically the emerging nations, such as China, Vietnam, and others, to not just devalue their currencies against the dollar, but to actually end and de-peg their currencies from the USD.
China, and the others listed above, have begun this process by devaluing the existing peg, but this is only producing marginal results, as the dollar itself has been strengthening over the last few years.
The USD does not provide an optimum currency area for the rest of the world. As such, its use as the primary reserve currency and exchange rate mechanism is problematic and needs to end. The US monetary authorities, at this time, appear to be unwilling to devalue the dollar to the benefit of itself and the rest of the world.
The world is move around this road block, with some support from within the US system, and further devaluations and outright de-pegging from the USD will continue and pick up pace during the remainder of this year. The September 4th G20 meetings in China could mark the beginning of this time period. The effective date of the new SDR, which includes the Chinese renminbi, will be October 1, 2016. This will mark the next period of transition and will likely spark a renewed effort by emerging nations to devalue against the dollar and end pegs altogether.
East Asia, and Asia as a whole, provides an excellent optimum currency area, which could use the growing role of the renminbi as a new pegging mechanism which will provide fundamental money base creation.
Vietnam expressed a few years ago that they would need to end the dollar peg and peg the dong to the currency of their largest trading partner, China, or to a basket of currencies, which could be the SDR or a regional currency unit used by the ASEAN+3, which has yet to be announced. All would be supported by the expanding role of the renminbi as a reserve currency.
The dollar de-facto and unsustainable optimum currency area, abstract as it is, will be further eroded in the coming months. This by no means suggests that the dollar is dying or will crash. A modest depreciation of the dollar, such as the 20% to 30% suggested above, would be a positive for the American economy. Whether this depreciation is forced on the US or it is enacted willingly as official policy, means little at this point. The transition is happening and any additional devaluations by the emerging nations against the USD will only force the hand and eventually lead to the upward valuation of those currency as the monetary world rebalances from decades of dollar abuse and overuse.
Quantitative easing and other counterproductive monetary policies will not be enacted by the Federal Reserve. It would produce the opposite result of what the American monetary authorities are planning.
Sustainable money base creation can no longer be provided but the USD alone. That more than anything else, is the conclusive evidence that a shift is upon us. – JC
Vietnam has achieved a truly remarkable thing. While being a dumping ground for U.S. dollar inflation and having its own currency consistently devalued, Vietnam has managed to produce one of the fastest economic expansions and modernizations in the history of the world. It’s a model of modernization built upon the experience and lessons of China, Korea, and other Asian countries which developed before it.
The modernization of Europe and the Americas took centuries. The modernization of China was achieved in approximately 50 years. Compare that to the astonishing modernization which only began in Vietnam in the mid 1990’s. In less than 20 years, the country has turned from a destitute population on the verge of starvation to an expanding middle class that is considered by all economic indicators to be the fastest such expansion in the world.
In true Confucian fashion, Vietnam utilized the tactics of economic warfare deployed against it as a tool of economic development. The exchange rate of the dong was devalued on a continually basis to encourage use of the U.S. dollar within the country. This ensured another market for the dollars inflation to be sent to avoid a hyper-inflation situation back home.
In addition, the Vietnamese understood the economic potential of their resources and trade capability. The strategy was one of patience and long term gain for short term detriment.
Vietnam is much more than the story of an American war of aggression or gold theft. For our purposes here, we will start our brief history with the Multilateral Co-Operation Agreement made between the NATO Countries (except Ireland) in January of 1950. The purpose of this agreement was to control the type and level of trade between the western world and the communist world.
South Vietnam held the largest agricultural potential while the North held most of the heavy industry, such as coal, steel, tin, and phosphate fertilizer. The full potential of the offshore oil and gas fields was still unknown.
There were many reasons for the western involvement in Vietnam which began many years before, with the French, and later America. The threat of communism was a smoke screen for something else which we will not touch on here as the scale of it will only serve to dwarf this essay on currency revaluation. There is also the Yamashita gold theft and recovery attempt which we touched on inAmerica’s Karma and World War Two Gold Theft. During the time period between WW2 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991, Vietnam depended on economic subsidies from the larger communist state. When these subsidies ended, trade with the United States became very important for Vietnam.
Over the years there have been many variations of the dong currency with varying exchange rates. The different forms of structure to the dong have been the following:
Commercial Currency
Non-Commercial Currency
Official Rate
Convertible Currency
Effective Rate
Auction Fixing (this structure becomes important in 1991)
It’s too much too breakdown and cover each currency type and its value fluctuations over the years so we will focus in on the important dates and valuations.
On December 18, 1971, after the U.S. dollar devaluation, the official exchange rate of the dong was 2.71 per 1 dollar.
On February 13, 1973, after another U.S. dollar devaluation, the official exchange rate was 2.44 per 1 dollar.
On May 3, 1978, a uniform dong was introduced at an exchange rate of 2.17 per 1 dollar. It’s interesting to note that during this time period the dong to dollar exchange rate was maintained within a narrow margin while the SDR rate for the dong was allowed to fluctuate. This SDR fluctuation was a foreshadowing of things yet to come in our present time. See SDR’s and the New Bretton Woods.
On July 6, 1981 the exchange rate was VND 9.045 per 1 dollar.
On Sept 14, 1985, the State Bank of Vietnam was authorized to issue a new dong currency and withdraw the old ones from circulation. One old dong got you 10 new dong. The new exchange rate was set at 15 dong to 1 dollar.
Devaluation of the dong continued throughout the 1980’s which was actually encouraging what little trade Vietnam participated in.
On March 13, 1989 the multiple currency structure as outlined above was ended and a unified currency structure was put in place. The commercial dong and non-commercial dong were merged and the exchange rate was set at 4500 dong per 1 dollar. This was 9 months before the Berlin Wall began its fall which lead to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. Remember that Vietnam depended on subsidies from the U.S.S.R. Perhaps this constitutes a slow transition from subsidies to light import and exports.
On August 30, 1991 there was put in place a method of foreign exchange auction, which was only allowed in U.S. dollars, to support banks and trade organizations helping economic interests needing such foreign exchanges. This move created the inflation dumping grounds for the U.S. dollar.
The rate of the dong today is approximately 21,000 to 1 dollar.
Back in the year 1975 Vietnam wanted to exploit its rich agricultural and timber resources in the South and develop its coal production in the North, as well as producing oil and gas from its offshore fields. Unfortunately for Vietnam they were under a trade embargo from the United States. The Export Administration Act of 1969, amended in 1979, restricted the export and/or re-export of technology which originated in America. The embargo was only on North Vietnam at first but was extended to the South in 1975.
Post war Vietnam is one of only a handful of countries that did not experience a reconstruction boom after hostilities ended. In fact, they experienced a drastic economic deterioration. Through economic sanctions, a ban on imports to Vietnam produced a shortage of foreign exchange capital required for the reconstruction process. Sanctions also lead to extremely high unemployment in the export industries and a reduced industrial capacity.
A similar ban on exports deprived the country of the essential commodities required for development and growth. It also denied Vietnam access to foreign capital markets to raise funds for building factories and other industrial facilities.
Exports to communist countries were considered a violation of America’s strategic interest. The embargo even blocked aid from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Vietnam, to its credit, did the only thing it could do by focusing on exporting natural resources and cheap labor to a handful of countries that stood in violation of the embargo. This was a bare sustenance strategy by Vietnam which did not eliminate starvation and destitution in the country.
Throughout this time period Vietnam was subjected to typhoons, floods, and droughts which served to severely hinder its attempts at food grain production. This weather caused considerable damage to Vietnam’s agricultural lands.
It brings into question the use of weather manipulation weapons which may have been used against the country. For those who doubt the reality of such weapons, I suggest you ask yourself why Defense Secretary William Cohen stated the existence of weather and earthquake causing weapons in his speech given at a 1997 Conference on Terrorism in Athens, GA. I will leave this area to the reader for further exploration.
When the Cold War finally ended many American business interests wanted the sanctions lifted immediately so as to capitalize on the virgin market. But the U.S. would not lift them.
But with the low exchange rate of the dong to dollar, other countries couldn’t resist the lure of doing business in Vietnam and making the windfall on the other end. Countries that began investing in Vietnamese imports and exports were:
Britain
France
Australia
Belgium
The Netherlands
Sweden
South Korea
Taiwan
Hong Kong
Thailand
Japan (unofficially)
It got to be that the United States was the only country that still imposed sanctions on Vietnam. The U.S. dollar was being side stepped in trade by the above countries in areas such as:
Oil
Fishing
Seafood Processing
Textiles
Garment Making
Tourism
Hotels
Telecommunications
It wasn’t long before the United Stated used its influence and power within the International Monetary Fund to devalue the dong even further while lifting the sanctions. The intent of this move was to ensure that Vietnam’s trade would be balanced in dollars and that the value of the dong would stay low encouraging the Vietnamese people to use the dollar instead of their own currency. This is the blueprint for dollar inflation dumping throughout the world.
The sanctions themselves were lifted in stages:
December, 1991, travel to Vietnam was allowed.
October, 1992, allowed for telecommunication links with Vietnam, commercial sales for necessities, as well as lifting restrictions on non-profit organizations and authorized the signing of pre-embargo lifting contracts. (read back door deals for American companies)
On January 27, 1994, the U.S. Senate voted to lift sanctions by a vote of 62 to 38. Clinton officially ended the embargo on February 4, 1994. The reason given was the 2238 MIA soldiers from the war. This was an absurd position as Vietnam itself had over 100,000 missing in action and the country itself was left bombed and destitute.
On October 14, 1994, forex markets began trading the dong against 6 other currencies within a range set by the State Bank of Vietnam. This in essence is the structure that the dong trades within today.
It was a combination of events that lead to the dropping of sanctions. First the collapse of the Soviet Union created an opportunity for Vietnam to get off subsidies and begin real trade. This process was painful but the end results lead to the rest of the world recognizing Vietnam’s true economic growth and development potential, which in turn forced America to lift the embargo for the purpose of ensuring that the dollar wasn’t left out of the trade balancing.
Vietnam in turn accepted the devaluations of the dong as a tactic to attract the foreign investment in its exports and imports. Vietnam’s number one goal was development, modernization, and integration into the world economy.
Today, Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It has the fastest growing middle class and its GDP to debt ratio has been maintained within the 30% to 35% range for years. Its oil and gas fields are being developed, it’s the second largest exporter of rice in the world, Samsung is moving its factories into the country, Starbucks is opening locations, and in fact McDonald’s just opened their first location in the country just last weekend.
The list of economic milestones for Vietnam is growing by the day. The amount of U.S. dollars held in the country’s foreign reserves has been decreasing for the past few years and the import of gold is staggering. As we presented previously, the Shanghai Gold Exchange through agreements with China will increase the gold holdings in many Asian countries by way of gold vault storage and trade agreements. The Vietnamese government itself is making known its intent to monetize all the private gold in the country to support the value of the dong.
The hard working Vietnamese people will require a strong and stable currency to ensure reliable labor energy wealth storage. It’s only a matter of time now before the I.M.F. 2010 Code of Reforms are passed through the U.S. Congress and the Executive Board of the I.M.F. is restructured to reflect the economic reality of the world today. When this happens the dollar will lose its reserve currency status and the dong will be released from it peg. When this happens I would suspect that the value of the dong, not officially recognized today as it has been stretched like elastics, due to the economic growth and develop, and will snap back to its true economic value, which is reflected in those very same growth and development indicators.
What will the rate be? Based on the upcoming SDR composition and allocation system of the International Monetary Fund, who can say with any measure of reliability, there are too many factors which need to be considered and weighed against others factors.
There is one other area where Vietnam has far advanced on the United States. And that is in limiting the rent seeking abilities of the small ruling elite within the country. Trade and business between the provinces within Vietnam have been cleared of corruption for the most part and a system of contested politics is in place. This system of contested politics is very real and not the side show circus of the western world’s political buffoonery. At the end of 2013 Vietnam executed two of the top bankers in the country for corruption and crimes against the people. – JC Collins
7 THOUGHTS ON “WHY THE VIETNAMESE DONG WILL RESET”
“At the end of 2013 Vietnam executed two of the top bankers in the country for corruption and crimes against the people.”
Coming to a country near you.
Not soon enough in Canada to avoid a bankrupt nation I’m afraid.
Very informative article. Please could you explain what you mean by ‘inflation dumping ground’ – excuse my ignorance. Also can you direct me to a website that explains what you allude to as the real reasons for the Vietnam. So enjoy your writing. Thank you
The images you attach to this excellent article are haunting and are direct in revealing just some examples of Western aggression in its most egregious form. It’s time all of America honor Vietnam and its amazing and resilient people.
Wow, great article, how can one be so evil, what a turn around for this country, this was really back against the wall. As humans we are not to let poverty take place, when we can help!
Autonomous monetary policies cannot provide efficient means of directing the financial destiny of any nation. The interconnectedness of the international financial and monetary systems are such that changes in one area will have a dramatic and sometimes negative reaction in another area.
The dynamic between America’s negative balance of payments and China’s huge trade surplus are signs of this relationship. The large imbalances in the international framework from using the national currency of one nation as the global reserve asset has been the leading cause of poverty and ineffective income distribution worldwide.
The necessary reforms to address this global poverty and disparity in income distribution could be considered multilateral monetary reforms. These reforms are focused on three main areas, which are:
Exchange Rate Adjustments
Money Supply Adjustments
Adjustments to Controls on Foreign Capital Flows
Foreign capital flows are the main mechanisms which transfer capital between trade deficits and trade surpluses. The other two components are used in conjunction to determine the volume and pace of the third.
For any one nation to enact autonomous monetary policies would be counterproductive to the realities of the world today. At any one time only two of the three areas above can remain autonomous. This means that there will always be one monetary policy which cannot be autonomous and will remain connected to the larger macroeconomic multilateral framework.
It is this one area which will influence and force change on the others.
An example of this dynamic can be explained by considering the condition of interest parity. Any nation which holds its domestic currency at a fixed exchange rate with an outside currency, or other exchange rate arrangement, while maintaining a balanced mobility of capital, will find that its interest rate policy will be decided through arbitrage activity.
This condition of interest parity functions across borders and prevents any one nation from maintaining autonomous monetary policies. The recent interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve and its corresponding effects upon the international monetary system can be considered proof of this dynamic.
As such, it is impossible for any nation to maintain independence and autonomy on:
Fixed Exchange Rates
Money Supply Adjustments
Unregulated International Flows of Financial Capital
Being that the United States dollar has held the title of international reserve unit of account since the end of WW2, it was problematic and inevitable that massive global imbalances would take place. These imbalances have led to enhanced poverty around the world and caused inefficient income distribution between nations.
Not to mention the large trade deficit which America now holds, and the massive loss of domestic jobs.
Each nation can be interdependent in that its domestic fiscal policies are aligned to capitalize on the effective arrangement and implementation of macroeconomic monetary policies. Such changes are good for the Unites States and other nations. The toll which ineffective monetary policy has had on the US is obvious in the loss of factories and jobs, and the huge trade deficit.
This will change with adjustments to the international framework through the implementation of the three monetary policies described above:
Exchange Rate Adjustments
Money Supply Adjustments
Adjustments to Controls on Foreign Capital Flows
Any analysis and prediction on domestic economies or the international economy must consider these larger monetary adjustments in order to be considered accurate or thorough.
The US political establishment understands that the dollar will need to depreciate and that this will bring back factories and jobs as American made goods become affordable once again. This will boost domestic growth and lower the debt-to-GDP ratio.
Monetary policy reform is not just good for the United States. It is meant to be good for all nations. The transition from the unipolar dollar based framework to the multilateral monetary reform based framework will be volatile. We have already experienced this over the last year or so, and will experience more yet before the transition is complete.
Understanding the dynamics of monetary reform is fundamental to understanding the transition itself. – JC Collins
“A Federal Reserve Bank is a regional bank of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. There are twelve in total, one for each of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts that were created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.” – From Wikipedia
“The number twelve frequently occurs among ancient peoples, who in nearly every case had a pantheon consisting of twelve demigods and goddesses presided over by The Invincible One, who was Himself subject to the Incomprehensible All-Father. This use of the number twelve is especially noted in the Jewish and Christian writings. The twelve prophets, the twelve patriarchs, the twelve tribes, and the twelve Apostles – each group has a certain significance, for each refers to the Divine Duodecimo, or Twelvefold Deity, whose emanations are manifested in the tangible created Universe through twelve individualized channels.”
-Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages
In the ancient mysteries there is a ritualistic procession which describes the path from confusion and despair to enlightenment and exultation. This process places the individual, or groupings of individuals, such as nations, on a journey of hardship and suffering, only to come out the other end liberated and illuminated.
It is perhaps symbolic of the birth into the material world and onset of suffering and confusion which ensues. When the righteous path is followed through life the spirit is able to rise up out of the ashes of despair and ignorance, and become one with the universal power of creation.
Or so the story goes.
In the song Carry on Wayward Son, the band Kansas sings:
“Once I rose above the noise and confusion, just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion, I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high.”
Patience with the process of initiation in this life is a key element of the journey itself. When we reach too high, and too far, we falter and fall victim to the entrapments of the false self. Most stumble through this life never realizing that life itself is an initiation.
When we come to understand, and accept the reality that life is an initiation, the pieces begin to fit and purposeful meaning fills our hearts and minds with a quiet wisdom which does not need to be spoken.
Adolescence (Ages 12 to 20) : Passion and Rebellion
Early Adulthood (Ages 20 to 35): Enterprise
Midlife Ages (Ages 35 to 50): Contemplation and Seeking
Mature Adulthood (ages 50 to 80): Benevolence
Late Adulthood (Age 80+): Wisdom
Death and Dying: Life and Knowing, otherwise Gnosis
The obvious and immediate pattern which jumps out at us is that each subsequent period in the procession becomes longer in duration, when measured in years, or orbits around the Sun. Each period also becomes deeper and richer in experience. But only when we’re paying attention.
Whether Armstrong intended this as a structural component of his thesis is not known, but I would like to add my own thesis – that consciousness is not allegorically static, in that consciousness perceives each period within the same volume of space. Or each period takes up the same volume of conscious space as the period before and the period after.
Allow me to explain.
When we’re children the days pass as fast as a dragonfly. But as we age the days, months, and years are perceived to be moving at an ever quicker pace. Life speeds up and goes by faster and faster as we get older and older.
But is time really speeding up? Or is this the way consciousness breaks down and perceives each of the twelve periods in a person’s life cycle procession?
The older we get the longer each period lasts in years. But if consciousness can only perceive each period in the same volume of space, then it is conceivable that as each period becomes longer in years, consciousness will perceive that period in the same volume of space as the ones which came before it. Thus, time appears to be speeding up.
The other obvious point which can be made from Armstrong’s life structure is that each of the twelve segments make up the one whole. Each segment contributes to the completion of the Great Work.
This structure of twelve segments, or channels, making up the one whole, can be found throughout history and different cultures. It is as if consciousness subliminally understands the meaning of this structure and we work it into all human frameworks and machinations.
Pythagorean philosophy considered the dodecahedron to be the foundation of the material world. A dodecahedron is a twelve faced symmetrical geometric solid. All twelve sides make up the one whole solid.
In order to accept that this concept of twelve plus one has real symbolic meaning, I offer the following:
Twelve Signs of the Zodiac (procession of the Sun)
Jesus and 12 disciples
King Arthur and the Twelve Knights of the Roundtable
Twelve tribes of Israel
Twelve apostles spreading the church
Twelve kings of Israel
Twelve old testament prophets
Twelve great patriarchs
Twelve judges of Israel
Twelve brothers of Joseph
Twelve knights of Charlemagne
Twelve followers of Quetzalcoatl
Twelve followers of Buddha
Twelve Bedesmen
Zeus and twelve Olympians
Pan and twelve Lupercal Priests
Romulus and twelve sons
Odin and his twelve holy and ineffable names
Alexander and his twelve Cheders
Twelve great adventures of Izubar of Ancient Babylon
Hercules and his twelve labours
Himmler and his twelve SS knights
Twelve Masonic signs of recognition
Twelve months of the year
Twelve hours of the day
Twelve hours of the night
Twelve inches in a foot
Twelve days of Christmas
Twelve grades in school
Twelve jurors
Twelve notes before the octave
Twelve in a dozen
There are endless more, but let’s not forget the twelve Knights Templar who escaped arrest in 1307 and made their way to Switzerland with the famed treasure. Followed by twelve more, just like day follows night.
Each of the above stories are symbolic and allegorical tales which provide hints on the path and procession of our individual initiation in this life cycle – the completion of the Great Work. As such, each segment within the twelve has occult significance. The word occult is loaded with misunderstanding, and should be considered a process of thought. Each of the twelve segments creates a thought field.
In all cases the twelve are combined to make the one whole. This whole is the 13th and purposeful dodecahedron, which is represented as the completion of a process and the attainment of the whole. Hercules had to complete his twelve labours to ascend further. King Arthur and the twelve knights went on a quest to find the Holy Grail. The Grail was said to have held the blood of Christ. Christ and the twelve disciples describe a process which is meant to help us understand the ascent of consciousness and the completion of the cycle.
Like the Sun completing its cycle through the Zodiac.
After twelve hours of night the Sun rises.
Oh, I almost forgot, the Holy City has twelve foundations and twelve gates. The Tree of Life bears twelve fruit.
Moving on.
The Federal Reserve (you thought I’d never get to it) is structured in the same allegorical and symbolic way which has been described above. There are twelve Federal Reserve Districts with Federal Reserve Banks. They are:
Boston
New York
Philadelphia
Cleveland
Richmond
Atlanta
Chicago
St. Louis
Minneapolis
Kansas City
Dallas
San Francisco
And of course all twelve make up the Federal Reserve itself. Just like the Sun acts as the 13th culmination of the twelve with dominion over the whole Earth, the Federal Reserve has dominion over wealth accumulation.
In the picture which accompanies this post, we see the Federal Reserve Gold Symbol Seal embedded in the wall of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas. This symbol shows a bird sitting above twelve stars. We can assume that the twelve stars represent the twelve district banks and the bird represents the Federal Reserve System as a whole.
This close up picture of the seal gives us a better image of the stars and the bird. The bird can be interpreted as the American eagle, but can just as easily be interpreted as the phoenix, the mystical bird which rises from the ashes of its previous self. Regeneration.
But that is not all it represents. If it was all that innocuous than the above information would not exist. The reality and frequency of twelve plus one throughout history and vastly different cultures is not a coincidence.
Manly P. Hall wrote in The Secret Destiny of America:
“Philosophy teaches that the completion of the great work of social regeneration must be accomplished not in society but in man himself.”
Do you see?
“Once I rose above the noise and confusion, just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion, I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high.”
Let us see if I’m getting these story lines, right:
Platinum’s integrity has been unquestionable, accurately reporting the completion of banks receipt of necessary codes for exchange,
Bruce is expecting to to do a celebration call on Tuesday night,
Iko says Monday night is the final push,
Martha says, “We’ll be in the bank this week,
MillionDay has outlined multiple articles, leaders, and activated laws that all imply we’re on the cusp of a rate change,
Poppy3 says we’re 5 months away from Economic reform being completed implying the RV/GCR is at any moment,
BGG has said that the rate change could be within 7-10 days,
not sure what Mountain Goat is saying because I stop reading as soon as I see, “and still no RV.” But, I’m sure he knows more and is smarter than everyone else because he writes with an arrogance that only comes from predicting events that have already occurred,
KTFA/Frank 26 is also among the elite as he continually promotes his intel by passive agressively pointing out that, “his team is not like other teams.”
Dr. Clark AKA. Mountain Goat’s alter ego is saying…well who cares what he is saying, because his intel is based largely on validating Mountain Goat which seems to be a creation of his need to feel appreciated, which is truly genious and in line with the superiority complex seen in the Goat’s posts.
All news seems to point to an eminent revaluation of world currencies, economic indicators seem to reveal a definitive need for such action, ships are reported to be moving out of Iran (which I believe is good) Iran’s currency saw a 33% rise this past week, China’s doing…stuff, that I think leads us to a GCR, Awake in 3D says 800 numbers won’t be posted on websites, but will be available on conference calls, and Prime Minister Abadi made an announcement that may have implied Iraq is moving to an International/Marke/Global economy.
Meanwhile, according to Rayren, (Bless his heart) banks seem to think we’ll be exchanging “this week”, for the past several weeks, and Dalred said, this past weekend was our last weekend (of waiting for the RV I’m assuming).
Oil is above $32,
Dow opened down,
Shanghai closed up,
Chinese are infusing Billions into the market,( which means something) various astrological, numerological, spiritual, and religous prophetic predictors are aligned to indicate massive changes,
aliens are our ancestors and secretly controling the Earth,
and United States government is an illegal corporation/shadow government, that is being taken out of control by the real Republic of the United States which will free us all from the bondage of public slavery created by illusionary debt.
In addition, massive humanitarian efforts are about to be launched world wide as soon as funds are released from the bonds, or the GCR, or the Elders, or the “Powers that Be.” These claims are backed by declarations made by the UN to “abolish poverty” in the next 15 years, various actions by the Chinese government to forgive massive amounts of debt, and lengthy discussion by world leaders to create new peaceful environments.
New technologies which have been held back until this time will soon be released for the good of all mankind, and everything we ever suspected about corrupt politicians has been drastically underestimated.
This combination of events all leading us to a spiritual awakening of a new global reality where “good” people, or at least people with good intentions will be the new “One Percenters” with the awesome responsibility of reshaping the world into a Utopia of abundance rather than a fake depiction of lack and starvation.
Like you, I desire to believe it. All of it, cautiously. After all, it is just too ridiculous to be contrived from the minds of mortal men.
So, I am ready to do my part. And once my family is taken care of, I’ll gladly pay-it-forward (PIF). I’ll dedicate my life to the service, testimony, and manifestation of the highest good in Jesus name. And, I’ll do it with all humility, knowing how little I really know.
IMF’s Executive Board Completes Review of SDR Basket, Includes Chinese Renminbi
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the regular five-yearly review of the basket of currencies that make up the Special Drawing Right (SDR). A key focus of the Board review was whether the Chinese renminbi (RMB) met the existing criteria to be included in the basket. The Board today decided that the RMB met all existing criteria and, effective October 1, 2016 the RMB is determined to be a freely usable currency and will be included in the SDR basket as a fifth currency, along with the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound. Launching the new SDR basket on October 1, 2016 will provide sufficient lead time for the Fund, its members and other SDR users to adjust to these changes.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF, stated:
“The Executive Board’s decision to include the RMB in the SDR basket is an important milestone in the integration of the Chinese economy into the global financial system. It is also a recognition of the progress that the Chinese authorities have made in the past years in reforming China’s monetary and financial systems. The continuation and deepening of these efforts will bring about a more robust international monetary and financial system, which in turn will support the growth and stability of China and the global economy.”
The value of the SDR will be based on a weighted average of the values of the basket of currencies comprising the U.S. dollar, euro, the Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen, and British pound. The inclusion of the RMB will enhance the attractiveness of the SDR by diversifying the basket and making it more representative of the world’s major currencies. The SDR interest rate will continue to be determined as a weighted average of the interest rates on short-term financial instruments in the markets of the currencies in the SDR basket. Authorities of all currencies represented in the SDR basket, which now includes the Chinese authorities, are expected to maintain a policy framework that facilitates operations for the IMF, its membership and other SDR users in their currencies. The paper presented to the Board will be released soon.
The Special Drawing Right (SDR) is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement its member countries’ official reserves. Its value is currently based on a basket of four major currencies (U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen, and pound sterling). The basket will be expanded to include the Chinese renminbi (RMB) as the fifth currency, starting on October 1, 2016 once the new basket of currencies takes effect.
SDRs are allocated to IMF members from time to time, based on each country’s quota in the Fund. A total of 204.1 billion SDRs have been allocated to date, most recently in 2009 when SDR 182.6 billion was allocated.
The SDR is neither a currency, nor a claim on the IMF. Rather, it is a potential claim on the freely usable currencies of IMF members. Holders of SDRs can obtain these currencies in exchange for their SDRs in two ways: first, through the arrangement of voluntary exchanges between members; and second, by the IMF designating members with strong external positions to purchase SDRs from members with weak external positions.
In addition to its role as a supplementary reserve asset, the SDR serves as the unit of account of the IMF and some other international organizations. It is also used in the IMF’s financing arrangements with its member countries.
The composition of the SDR basket is typically reviewed every five years by the Executive Board to enhance the attractiveness of the SDR as a reserve asset. These reviews cover the key elements of the method of valuation of the SDR and seek to ensure that the valuation reflects the relative importance of currencies in the global trading and financial system. This includes the criteria used in selecting SDR basket currencies, the number of currencies in the basket, and the methodology for determining currency weights. The financial instruments comprising the SDR interest rate basket are also covered.
In the review concluded in November 2015, the Executive Board decided that the Chinese renminbi is determined to be a freely usable currency, effective October 1, 2016, and will then be included in the SDR basket as a fifth currency, along with the U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen and pound sterling. The weighting formula was also revised to address longstanding shortcomings.
Q3. What are the criteria for SDR basket inclusion?
The current criteria for inclusion were adopted by the IMF’s Executive Board in 2000. They established that the SDR basket comprises the four (expanded to five, effective October 1, 2016) currencies that are issued by members or monetary unions whose exports had the largest value over a five-year period, and have been determined by the IMF to be “freely usable”.
The export criterion, which acts as a “gateway,” aims to ensure that currencies that qualify for the basket are those issued by members or monetary unions that play a central role in the global economy. This criterion has been part of the SDR valuation methodology since the 1970s.
The requirement for currencies in the SDR basket to also be freely usable was incorporated in 2000 to allow the currency selection criteria to formally reflect the importance of financial transactions.
The Decision adopted by the Board at the 2015 SDR Review reconfirmed the existing two substantive criteria (exports and freely usable) while expanding the size of the basket from 4 to 5 currencies effective on October 1, 2016. In doing so, the Board considered that a five-currency basket would be both more stable and more representative, while the administrative burden of a larger basket would be manageable.
Q4.How do you define a freely usable currency?
A “freely usable” currency is defined in the IMF’s Articles of Agreement as a member’s currency that the Fund determines is, in fact, widely used to make payments for international transactions, and is widely traded in the principal exchange markets.
The concept of a freely usable currency concerns the actual international use and trading of currencies, and is different from whether a currency is either freely floating or fully convertible.
A currency can be widely used and widely traded even if it is subject to some capital account restrictions (in the past, currencies such as the pound sterling and Japanese yen were determined freely usable when some capital account restrictions were in place). On the other hand, a currency that is fully convertible may not necessarily be widely used and widely traded.
The freely usable concept plays a central role in the IMF’s financial operations. In particular, members receiving Fund financial assistance have the right to receive such assistance in a freely usable currency. Indeed, IMF lending operations are, in practice, conducted in freely usable currencies or SDRs, and in the latter case, borrowing members have the right to exchange SDRs into freely usable currencies. In the financial operations context, the freely usable concept seeks to ensure that a member can use the currency received from the IMF either directly or indirectly (by exchanging it into another currency without disadvantage) to address a balance of payments financing need.
Q5. What was the focus and outcome of the 2015 SDR review?
The IMF recently concluded the quinquennial review of the SDR currency basket. As China continues to meet the export criterion for SDR inclusion, the review focused on assessing whether the Chinese renminbi (RMB) could be determined to be a freely usable currency, which is the other criterion for inclusion in the basket. This criterion requires an Executive Board determination that the currency is, in fact, widely used to make payments for international transactions and widely traded in the principal exchange markets.
The Executive Board at its meeting on November 30, 2015 decided that, effective October 1, 2016, the Chinese renminbi is determined to be a freely usable currency and will be included in the SDR basket, as a fifth currency, along with the U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen and pound sterling. The weights of the currencies in the SDR basket were also revised in line with a new weighting formula based on the value of the issuers’ exports, the amount of reserves denominated in the respective currencies that were held by other members of the IMF, foreign exchange turnover, and international bank liabilities and international debt securities denominated in the respective currencies.
Q6. Why did the IMF staff recommend the inclusion of the Chinese renminbi into the SDR basket of currencies?
Increasing international use and trading. Since the last SDR review in 2010, the use of the Chinese renminbi (RMB) in international payments has risen substantially. In addition, RMB activity in foreign exchange markets covering two of the three major trading time zones has increased significantly and can accommodate transactions of the magnitude involved in IMF operations. This provided, in the judgment of staff, a basis for the RMB to be considered “widely used” to make payments for international transactions and “widely traded” in the principal exchange markets.
Operational considerations. While operational issues are not formal requirements for SDR inclusion, staff’s assessment that the IMF, its members, and other SDR users are now able to conduct operations in RMB without substantial impediments means there are reasonable assurances that IMF related operations can be conducted smoothly. This is the direct result of recent reforms implemented by the authorities, principally their decision to grant full access for official reserve managers and their agents to the onshore fixed-income and foreign exchange markets. The authorities have also undertaken key reforms to advance their broader agenda to support the international use of the RMB and strengthen macro-financial stability, such as full liberalization of domestic interest rates, steps toward a more market-determined exchange rate, and implementation of a new cross-border interbank payment system.
Complementary steps to enhance data disclosure. While data disclosure is not a formal criterion for a currency’s inclusion in the SDR basket, issuers of these currencies generally meet high transparency standards. The authorities have recently taken very welcome steps to increase data disclosure and enhance their commitment to multilateral data initiatives.
Q7. Why did the Board support the inclusion of the Chinese renminbi in the SDR basket?
The decision on whether the RMB should be determined a freely usable currency and included in the SDR basket rested with the IMF’s Executive Board. Since there are no pre-set thresholds or benchmarks, the decision ultimately required policy judgment by the Executive Board, framed by the definition of freely usable under the IMF’s Articles of Agreement and informed by quantitative indicators.
The report prepared by staff provided a rigorous technical assessment with a clear recommendation in order to inform Executive Directors.
The Board endorsed staff’s analysis and recommendation to determine the Chinese renminbi freely usable and include it in the SDR basket, as a fifth currency, along with the U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen and pound sterling, effective October 1, 2016.
Q8. When will the Chinese renminbi be officially included into the SDR basket?
The new basket including the Chinese renminbi will take effect on October 1, 2016.
The Executive Board previously extended the current basket to end-September 2016 in response to feedback from SDR users. The decision reflected the desire to avoid changes in the basket at the end of the calendar year (when trading volumes are low), facilitate the continued smooth functioning of SDR-related operations amid a higher than-usual level of uncertainty generated by the ongoing SDR review, and to allow sufficient lead time to adjust in the event that a new currency is added to the SDR basket.
Q9. Why will the Chinese renminbi only become freely usable on October 1, 2016?
The Chinese renminbi (RMB) has met all conditions and operational requirements for being determined freely usable and to be added in the SDR basket. However, if the Fund’s determination of free usability was to become effective as of the date of the review (November 30, 2015), it would allow the immediate use of the RMB as a freely usable currency in Fund financial transactions, when the Fund and its members are not yet operationally ready. The delayed inclusion of the RMB in the SDR basket also allows SDR users time to adjust their operations. Therefore, the Fund’s determination of the RMB as a freely usable currency and the RMB’s inclusion in the SDR basket will only come into effect on October 1, 2016.
Q10. Why has the weighting formula been changed and what are the major changes?
The Executive Board has long recognized the shortcomings of the previous method for determining currency weights in the SDR basket, in particular, the relatively low weight and narrow scope of financial variables, and the endogenous weighting of flows (exports) and stocks (reserves).
At the conclusion of the 2010 SDR Basket review, Directors welcomed a work program that would, among others, consider the relative roles of trade and financial indicators.
The new formula endorsed by the Board is one of the two alternatives presented in the 2010 Review and expands the share and representativeness of the financial variables and moves away from the endogenous weights implied by the old formula. In the new formula, exports and the financial variable are given equal weight and the coverage of the financial indicator has been expanded to better capture different financial transactions.
Q11. What are the new weights of each currency in the SDR basket?
Under the new formula, the respective weights of the SDR currencies are: 41.73% for the U.S. dollar; 30.93% for euro; 10.92% for the Chinese renminbi; 8.33% for the Japanese yen; and 8.09% for the pound sterling. This basket of currencies will take effect on October 1, 2016.
After these weights are used on September 30, 2016 to establish the new fixed amounts of currencies that comprise the SDR basket, the share of each currency in the valuation of the SDR on any particular day going forward will depend on the exchange rates prevailing on that day.
Q12. What are the implications of the inclusion of the RMB into the SDR basket for the SDR itself and for the IMF operations?
The inclusion of the Chinese renminbi (RMB) is the first major change to the SDR basket composition since 1980 when the basket size was reduced from 16 to 5 currencies (also, in 1999, the euro replaced the Deutsche mark and the French franc).
The RMB’s inclusion will enhance the attractiveness of the SDR as an international reserve asset. It diversifies the basket and makes its composition more representative of the world’s major currencies.
Operationally, the inclusion of the RMB into the SDR basket means that an RMB instrument will be included in the calculation of the SDR interest rate, along with changes to the procedures for exchange of currency between China and the Fund. It will also impact the conduct of future Fund transactions which can be carried out in RMB once the determination of the RMB as a freely usable currency becomes effective on October 1, 2016.
Q13. How will the Chinese renminbi’s inclusion impact the global monetary system and the financial system in general?
Put into a broader context, the inclusion of the Chinese renminbi (RMB) in the SDR basket could be seen as an important milestone in the process of China’s global financial integration. It also recognizes and reinforces China’s continuing reform progress.
As this integration continues and further deepens, and is paralleled in other emerging market economies, it could bring about a more robust international monetary and financial system, which in turn would support the growth and stability of the global economy.
The RMB’s inclusion will also enhance the attractiveness of the SDR as an international reserve asset, as it diversifies the basket and makes its composition more representative of the world’s major currencies.
Q14. What are the implications of the inclusion of the Chinese renminbi into the SDR basket of currencies for the renminbi and for China?
The inclusion recognizes a significant increase in the internationalization of the Chinese renminbi (RMB) in recent years, underpinned by policy reforms to achieve China’s transition to an increasingly open and market-based economy.
Inclusion in the basket will also support the already increasing use and trading of the RMB internationally.
Q15. What are the implications of the RMB’s inclusion in the SDR interest rate basket?
The RMB will be added to the basket on October 1, 2016, and its impact on the SDR interest rate will depend on the rates prevailing at that time. This effect is uncertain; nevertheless, since the interest rates in China are currently above the other rates in the SDR interest rate basket, it is likely that the SDR interest rate would rise when the RMB is included in the basket.
The various effects of a likely higher SDR interest rate on Fund borrowers, creditors, and the Fund’s own income position will be considered in the context of the next review of the Fund’s income position that is scheduled for April 2016
James G. Rickards is the editor of Strategic Intelligence,the newest newsletter from Agora Financial. He is an American lawyer, economist, and investment banker with 35 years of experience working in capital markets on Wall Street. He is the author of The New York Times bestsellersCurrency Wars and The Death of Money. Jim also serves as Chief Economist for West Shore Group.
The fatal conceit of central bankers…
A hair-raising admission you weren’t meant to hear…
Then James G. Rickards reveals the idiotic mathematical mumbo jumbo Janet Yellen relies on to set Fed policy…
Central banks operate under the false belief that they can fine-tune economies. If things get too hot (inflation), they dial down the thermostat. If things get too cool (deflation), they dial it up.
But reality is quite different…
The economy is not a linear system that can be adjusted like a thermostat. It’s a complex dynamic system, more like a nuclear reactor. Once it starts to melt down, no amount of playing with the controls can stop it.
The world is sinking into recession, dragged down by sagging growth in China. Meanwhile, central banks are fiddling with the thermostats by printing money.
James Rickards has had private conversations with central bankers for years in which they admitted they had no idea what they were doing. They have described monetary policy to me as an “experiment” (their word, not mine). They didn’t use the phrase “guinea pig,” but that’s how they treat investors.
But until now, He has never heard a Fed official admit this in public. At this point, the whole charade is too obvious to deny. Reuters has a story on a central banker speaking on the record admitting they are making up policy on the fly. And don’t really understand how the economy works today.
Today, Jim Rickards reiterates his forecast — Janet Yellen will not raise rates this year. I said that categorically in late 2014. It wasn’t a wild guess. And he is not making a wild guess this year, either. Read on below for the math that backs up his forecast…
The one equation that shows why Yellen won’t raise rates: [S2=S1(1-S1)r]…
Yellen’s (Federal Reserve Board) Feedback Loop
What is popularly called a “feedback loop” is technically known to applied mathematicians as a recursive function. In plain English, the output of an equation becomes the input for the next iteration of the same equation.
Running numerous iterations of the same equation with computers, “numerous” can mean millions of times. And when computers produce graphical representations of the outputs, one gains insights into the nature of the process represented by the equation.
Some graphs move to a value and stay there forever, what complexity theorists call a “fixed point attractor.” Some graphs are utterly chaotic.
Some others replicate almost mystical patterns at increasing and decreasing scale, such as the famous scale-invariant Mandelbrot set, shown below.
Each graph reveals a different dynamic.
A simple, but useful version of this is the equation S2 = S1 (1 – S1) r.
If you set values of S1 = 0.75, and r = 0.1 and solve for S2, the result is 0.01875.
Next, take this value for S2, and plug it into the right hand side of the equation in place of S1. Then solve it again to get S3.
Repeat the process (each output = next input), and you’ll observe an interesting phenomenon.
The graph of the outputs moves to zero and stays there forever. There is no escape from the feedback loop. Zero is the fixed-point attractor.
While mathematics can be an end in itself, one purpose is to provide models of real-world dynamics in ways that help one understand those dynamics. Recursive functions (a basic tool of complexity theory) are useful if one sees capital markets and economic processes as complex dynamic systems.
In fact, capital markets pass the four tests of complex systems — diverse agents, connectivity, interaction, and adaptive behavior — with flying colors. Complexity theory is a far more useful way to understand capital markets than the obsolete, and ultimately harmful stochastic equilibrium models in use for the past eighty years.
Those stochastic equilibrium models assume complete markets — a grossly false assumption — and are unable to account for the extremely nonlinear dynamics of economic phenomena. Willem Buiter of the London School of Economics has described this type of macroeconomic modeling as “a privately and socially costly waste of time and resources” that “may have set back by decades serious investigations of aggregate economic behavior and economic policy-relevant understanding.”
What does this mathematical digression have to do with Federal Reserve interest rate policy? The issue is whether the Fed, by intervening in markets to a greater extent than ever, has created a feedback loop between itself and the markets from which there is no escape.
The Fed policy rate has been stuck at zero for seven years. For the past two-and-one-half years, the Fed has expressed its desire to raise rates. But “desire” is not analysis, it’s wishful thinking. Analysis reveals that whenever the Fed talks tough on rates, the dollar strengthens, the U.S. imports deflation, exports slow, the economy weakens, and the Fed is ultimately deterred from pulling the trigger on a rate hike.
Then the Fed goes dovish. This happened in September 2013 when Bernanke shocked markets by not starting the taper.
It happened again in September 2015 when Yellen shocked markets by not raising rates. This surprise was followed by a dovish press conference, more dovish minutes, and super-dovish speeches by Fed Governors Lael Brainard and Dan Tarullo.
Markets then rallied in anticipation of continued zero rate policy. This stabilization caused the Fed to go hawkish again. You get the idea. Wash, rinse and repeat.
Based on the October employment report, market expectations of a rate hike in December are at the highest level since the “taper tantrum” of May 2013. Now it’s November. Fed officials are reading the market rallies as an all-clear sign and are signaling that the rate hike is back on the table. But markets (at least for the moment) have had a different reaction from a few months back.
The dollar is still strong, and emerging markets are still in the doldrums.
They’re reading the new Fed hawkishness as a sign of economic strength and bidding up stocks even with cheap money while it lasts. The dollar is still strong, and emerging markets are still in the doldrums. A December rate hike might be a done deal in a linear system where good news is followed by good news in ways easy to extrapolate into a predictable outcome.
Yet, in complex systems with recursive functions, good news on employment can turn into the bad news of a strong dollar, imported deflation, slower exports, etc. in ways we’ve seen before. That’s the feedback loop at work. In fact, the strong October employment report finds little confirmation in other data. On balance, recession indicators still have the upper hand.
Can the Fed break out of this feedback loop just by raising rates without regard to economic fundamentals? Not really. Raising rates into weakness will amplify the weakness, and force the Fed to cut rates in 2016. It’s back to zero with greater amplitude.
Central banks operate in the false belief that they can “fine tune” economies. If things get too hot (inflation), they dial down the thermostat. If things get too cool (deflation), they dial it up. The reality is different. The economy is not a linear system that can be adjusted with a thermostat. It’s a complex dynamic system, more like a nuclear reactor. Once it starts to meltdown, no amount of playing with the controls can stop it. A global recession has begun and central banks are fiddling with the thermostats by printing money.
James Rickards has had private conversations with central bankers for years in which they admitted they had no idea what they were doing. They have described monetary policy to me as an “experiment” (their word, not mine). They didn’t use the phrase “guinea pig” but that’s how they treat investors.
The only way out of this systemic feedback loop is to alter the system. This cannot be done with monetary policy. A structural problem requires structural solutions. These involve fiscal, and regulatory policies within the purview of the White House and Congress. Given the current political dysfunction in the United States, there is no prospect of that.
Perhaps Yellen will raise rates in December. But I doubt it.
Her equilibrium models tell her one thing. But the complexity models used by James Rickards tells another.
People Choose Free Candy Bar over Free 10 oz Silver Bar (Worth $150) in Experiment
Media analyst Mark Dice offers random people their choice of a Hershey chocolate bar or a 10 oz silver bar (Worth $150) in an experiment. You have to see what happened next!
Born nearly 2,000 years ago, Leonidas holds the record as the greatest sprinter of all time, winning more Olympic titles than anyone else in human history.
At four straight Olympic games, Leonidas dominated all three sprinting events– the Stadion (roughly 200 meters), Diaulos (roughly 400 meters), and the bizarre Hoplitodromos– a 400 meter dash carrying 50 pounds of military gear.
Bear in mind that he competed at a time when there was only a prize for first place. Second place was first loser.
(And they didn’t hand out medals to all the kids just for participating.)
As such, Leonidas was a legend in his own time and was decorated accordingly.
Just like today, in fact, many ancient Greek athletes were rewarded by their city-states for an Olympic victory.
In Athens, the government would award prize money that was equivalent to about 500 sheep.
This was a highly coveted back then; livestock was considered a symbol of wealth and power, so a vast flock of sheep in Ancient Greece may have been the Maserati of its day.
I was particularly interested when I read this because I own some sheep in Chile; they cost the equivalent of about fifty to sixty US dollars in the marketplace.
It’s roughly the same price in the United States for young lamb and slaughter ewes (female sheep) based on USDA data.
But what really floored me was when I found out that the United States Olympic Committee hands out $25,000 in prize money to gold medal winners– roughly the amount necessary to buy a flock of 500 sheep today.
So over 2,000 years later, the prize money for champions is more or less the same.
Now, let’s consider which of these two is more valuable: $25,000 worth of sheep, or $25,000 worth of fiat money (paper currency).
Fiat money sits in a bank account earning a yield of 0.5%.
(Or if you’re really unlucky, you might even have the privilege of paying your bank interest like they do here in parts of Europe.)
Sheep, on the other hand, yield… more sheep.
Depending on breed, the typical conception rate for sheep is between 65% to 95%, with a gestation period of about 5 months.
So a herd can expand dramatically in a typical breeding season, producing meat, milk, and wool along the way.
Fiat money produces nothing. At least, not for you.
It remains in the hands of the bank where they make the most bonehead financial decisions with it, parking it whatever risky investment fad gets them the biggest annual bonus.
They’ll further act as unpaid agents of the government, freezing you out of your own savings in a heartbeat.
And if you request to withdraw your own money, they treat you like a criminal terrorist.
Now, I’m not trying to convince you to empty your bank account and go buy a flock of sheep.
The point is that productive assets stand the test of time. Paper currency does not.
Always remember that history is inflationary. And while there may be some aberrant years, holding cash will gradually erode your savings.
It’s imperative to make smart, long-term financial decisions. Seek stores of value that can stand the test of time.
In fairness, that’s easier said than done in an environment where every conventional asset class is in a bubble.
Stocks are at all-time highs. Bonds are at all-time highs (earning negative yields in some cases). Banks are perilously illiquid. Many real estate markets are frothy once again.
So it’s a tall order to find safety and stability– at least, within conventional finance.
Outside the mainstream, though, there are plenty of compelling options.
An heirloom Patek Phillipe wristwatch will likely be a much better store of value to pass on to your grandkids than the usual gift of a US government savings bond.
Productive real estate (including agriculture) can also be a much better alternative than letting money sit in a bank account. It’s like gold, with yield. And the added benefit of providing a place to stay, or even food on the table.
Privately held businesses can also be a great option as they can often be purchased at very low multiples on their earnings, generating instant yields of 40% or more.
And even though most stock are hovering at bubble levels, there are some deep value options available where you can buy shares of a well-managed, profitable business for less than the value of its net assets.
The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them. It’s easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar.
But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1. The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of creation, and the result is something fresh and strange.
Zero to One is about how to build companies that create new things. It draws on everything Peter Thiel has learned directly as a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and then an investor in hundreds of startups, including Facebook and SpaceX. The single most powerful pattern he has noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas.
Ask not, what would Mark do? Ask: WHAT VALUABLE COMPANY IS NOBODY BUILDING? “– “Thiel starts from the bold premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by our new mobile devices to notice.
Progress has stalled in every industry except computers, and globalization is hardly the revolution people think it is. It’s true that the world can get marginally richer by building new copies of old inventions, making horizontal progress from “1 to n.” But true innovators have nothing to copy.
The most valuable companies of the future will make vertical progress from “0 to 1,” creating entirely new industries and products that have never existed before.
Zero to One is about how to build these companies. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique. In today’s post-internet bubble world, conventional wisdom dictates that all the good ideas are taken, and the economy becomes a tournament in which everyone competes to reach the top.
Zero to One shows how to quit the zero-sum tournament by finding an untapped market, creating a new product, and quickly scaling up a monopoly business that captures lasting value. Planning an escape from competition is essential for every business and every individual, not just for technology startups. The greatest secret of the modern era is that there are still unique frontiers to explore and new problems to solve.
Seven Questions Every Startup Business Must Answer
Since 2012, many companies in the “CleanTech Industry” have crashed; gone out of business or filed for bankruptcy because they neglected one or more of the following seven questions:
The Engineering Question
Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?
A great company should have proprietary technology an order of magnitude better than its nearest substitute. Companies must strive for 10x better because merely incremental improvements often end up meaning no improvement at all for the consumer. Only when your product / service is 10x better can you offer the customer transparent superiority.
2. The Timing Question (chapter 2)
Is now the right time to start your particular business?
Entering a slow-moving market can be a good strategy, but only if you have a definite and realistic plan to take it over.
3. The Monopoly Question (chapter 3)
Are you starting with a big share of a small market?
Exaggerating your business’s own uniqueness is an easy way to botch the monopoly question. You can’t dominate a submarket if it’s fictional, and huge markets are highly competitive, not highly attainable.
4. The People Question (chapter 9 and 10)
Do you have the right team?
Never invest in a tech CEO that wears a suit. The best sales is hidden. There’s nothing wrong with a CEO who can sell, but if he actually looks like a salesman, he probably bad at sales and worse at tech.
5. The Distribution Question (chapter 11)
Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your product?
The world is not a laboratory: selling and delivering a product / service is at least as important as the product / service itself. Technical challenges can be overcome successfully, but its the other obstacles that can not be overcome.
6. The Durability Question (chapter 6)
Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?
Every entrepreneur should plan to be the last mover in her particular market. That starts with asking yourself: what will the world look like 10 and 20 years from now, and how will my business fit in?
7. The Secret Question (chapter 8)
Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?
Great companies have secrets: specific reasons for success that other people don’t see.
“Zero to One shows how to pursue them using the most important, most difficult, and most underrated skill in every job or industry: thinking for yourself”– Peter Thiel
Conclusion: Stagnation or Singularity?
If even the most farsighted founders cannot plan beyond the next 20 and 30 years, is there anything to say about the very distant future? We don’t know anything specific, but we can make out the broad contours. Philosopher Nick Bostrom describes four possible patterns for the future of humanity.
The ancients saw all of history as a never-ending alternation between prosperity and ruin. Only recently have people dared to hope that we might permanently escape misfortune, and it’s still possible to wonder whether the stability we take for granted will last.
However, we usually suppress out doubts. Conventional wisdom seems to assume instead that the whole world will converge toward a plateau of development similar to the life of the richest countries today. In this scenario, the future will look a lot like the present.
Given the interconnected geography of the contemporary world and the unprecedented destructive power of modern weaponry, it’s hard not to ask whether a large-scale social disaster could be contained were it to occur. This what fuels our fears of the third possible scenario: a collapse so devastating that we won’t survive it.
The last of the four possibilities is the hardest one to imagine: accelerating takeoff toward a much better future. The end result of such a breakthrough could take a number of forms, but any one of them would be so different from the present as to defy description.
Which of the four will it be?
Recurrent collapse seems unlikely: the knowledge underlying civilization is so widespread today that complete annihilation would be more probable than a long period of darkness followed by recovery. However, in case of extinction, there is no human future of any kind to consider.
If we define the future as a time that looks different from the present, then most people aren’t expecting any future at all; instead, they expect coming decades to bring more globalization, convergence, and sameness. In this scenario, poorer countries will catch up to richer countries, and the world as a whole will reach an economic plateau. But even if a truly globalized plateau were possible, could it last? In the best case, economic competition would be more intense than ever before for every single person and firm on the planet.
However, when you add competition to consume scarce resources, it’s hard to see how a global plateau could last indefinitely. Without new techology to relieve competitive pressures, stagnation is likely to erupt into conflict. In case of conflict on a global scale, stagnation collapses into extinction.
That leaves the fourth scenario, in which we create new technology to make a much better future. The most dramatic version of this outcome is called the Singularity, an attempt to name the imagined result of new technologies so powerful as to transcend the current limits of our understanding. Ray Kurzweil, the best-known Singularitarian, starts from Moore’s law and traces exponential growth trends in dozens of fields, confidently projecting a future of superhuman artificial intelligence. According to Kurzweil, “the Singularity is near,” it’s inevitable, and all we have to do is prepare ourselves to accept it.
But no matter how many trends can be traced, the future won’t happen on its own. What the Singularity would look like matters less than the stark choice we face today between the two most likely scenarios: nothing or something. It’s up to us. We cannot take for granted that the future will be better, and that means we need to work to create it today.
Whether we achieve the Singularity on a cosmic scale is perhaps less important than whether we seize the unique opportunities we have to do new things in our own working lives. Everything important to us — the universe, the planet, the country, our company, your life, and this very moment — is singular.
Our task today is to find singular ways to create the new things that will make the future not just different, but better — to go from 0 to 1. The essential first step is to think for yourself. Only by seeing our world anew, as fresh and strange as it was to the ancients who saw it first, can we both re-create it and preserve it for the future.
During his lifetime, Andrew Carnegie became one of the wealthiest men on the planet. Before he began giving away his wealth, his net worth was valued at $475 million — the equivalent of about $75 billion in today’s dollars.
It’s been almost 100 years since Carnegie died. Today, he is remembered most for building Carnegie Hall in New York City and establishing the modern U.S. library system. Both are still in existence today, a remarkable testament to Carnegie’s legacy.
But did you know Carnegie created something else before he died that’s helped tens of thousands of people to secure their retirements?
Carnegie had a soft spot for American educators. He wanted to help provide professors at schools like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and Columbia with financial security in their old age. So in 1905, he gave $10 million to set up America’s very first variable annuity.
From $10 Million to $279 Billion…
Carnegie’s fledgling variable annuity started with $10 million. Today it is worth an astounding $279 billion. It is now called the Teacher’s Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund, or TIAA-CREF for short.
Think about that. The TIAA-CREF was started in the year 1905 and it still exists today.
That means it survived the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed. It survived Black Monday in 1987. And it survived the more recent financial meltdown of 2008 and 2009.
In fact, it has survived all the booms and busts of the last 110 years! That’s an amazing track record.
The only reason Carnegie’s annuity has survived so long is because annuities make conservative investments in order to fulfill promises to its investors. Therefore, annuities don’t gamble or make risky investments. They play it safe so they can continue paying out guaranteed payments every single year.
Ben Bernanke’s Shocking Retirement Secret
Before Ben Bernanke became the chairman of the Federal Reserve, he taught economics at Princeton University. While there, he set up two annuities through the annuity company Carnegie founded.
Apparently, Bernanke’s retirement strategy didn’t change a bit when he took over at the Fed because his two largest assets are still the annuities he set up while working at Princeton. Each of these annuities are currently valued between $500,001 and $1 million.
While other experts have criticized Bernanke’s conservative approach to retirement investing, maybe the better approach is to ask a question: Why would the man who was head of the most powerful financial institution in the world choose to invest in annuities?
The answer to this question will become clear when you compare average retirement savings to one particular group of people.
The Surprising Reason Why College Professors Have More Saved for Retirement than You
Ben Bernanke isn’t the only one who is benefiting from annuity investments. Many college professors and other higher education professionals have invested in the same annuity fund originally set up by Andrew Carnegie.
And the proof is in the pudding.
In a recent study conducted by TIAA-CREF, they discovered that “83 percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty felt very or somewhat confident they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement years, compared to 55 percent of workers overall.”
And there’s a good reason for their confidence. According to surveys, higher education employees who participate in retirement plans have average account balances that are 43% to 46% higher than average Americans.
The 8th Wonder of the World
Famous academic Albert Einstein once said, “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it… he who doesn’t… pays it.”
Einstein put his money where his mouth was by investing in annuities way back in 1933 when they were still a relatively new investment vehicle.
Annuities exist to provide people with safe and predictable investment returns every single year during retirement. Many of them come with guaranteed rates of return.
Just one year bad year in the stock market can take years to recover from. But safe and predictable compound growth — like that provided by annuity funds — can provide investors with a stable retirement and peace of mind.
That’s why Einstein invested in annuities. It’s why Ben Bernanke is invested in annuities. And it’s why thousands of higher education professionals invest in annuities every year. Maybe annuities are worth a closer look after all.
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 18 APR, 4:40 AM
ECONOMY GLOBAL NEWS
The world’s top finance leaders warned Friday that currency volatility, low inflation and high debt levels threaten to undermine an already uneven global economic recovery.
In an official statement after two days of meetings, finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 largest economies backed more easy-money policies in wealthy nations as critical accelerants for growth.
“In many advanced economies, accommodative monetary policies are needed to anchor inflation expectations and support recovery,” said the G-20 statement.
The G-20, which acts as the world’s economic executive board, affirmed its support for central bank stimulus in Europe, Japan and the US Officials are increasingly worried that the global economy could get stuck in a long period of anemic output, given the slowdown in many of the largest emerging markets that have been key drivers of global growth.
But as the US Federal Reserve contemplates when it should start raising borrowing costs for the first time in nearly a decade, the G-20 expressed concern that an easy-money exit could send shock waves through markets across the globe.
“In an environment of diverging monetary policy settings and rising financial-market volatility, policy settings should be carefully calibrated and clearly communicated to minimize negative spillovers,” the group said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — World finance officials said Saturday they see a number of threats on the horizon for a global economy still clawing back from the deepest recession in seven decades, and a potential Greek debt default presents the most immediate risk.
After finance officials wrapped up three days of talks, the International Monetary Fund’s policy committee set a goal of working toward a “more robust, balanced and job-rich global economy” while acknowledging growing risks to achieving that objective.
The Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, held a series of talks with finance officials on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the 188-nation IMF and World Bank, trying to settle his country’s latest crisis.
Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, said it was “urgent” to resolve the dispute between Greece and its creditors.
A default, he said, would send the global economy into “uncharted waters” and the extent of the possible damage would be hard to estimate. He told reporters that he did not want to even contemplate the chance of a default.
Earlier in the week, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde had rejected suggestions that her agency might postpone repayment deadlines for Greece. On Saturday, she cited constructive talks with Varoufakis and said the goal was to stabilize Greece’s finances and assure an economic recovery and “make sure the whole partnership hangs together” between Greece and its creditors.
In its closing communique, the policy-setting panel for the World Bank expressed concerns about the unevenness of global growth and pledged to work with the IMF to provide economic support for poor nations that have been hit hard by falling commodity prices.
But international aid group Oxfam expressed disappointment that the IMF and World Bank did not devote more time to exploring ways to lessen widening income gaps.
“Given that rising inequality continues to make the headlines everywhere in the world, it is surprising how the issue remained almost totally absent from these spring meetings,” said Nicolas Mombrial, head of the Washington office of Oxfam International.
Greece is in negotiations with the IMF and European authorities to receive the final 7.2 billion euro ($7.8 billion) installment of its financial bailout. Creditors are demanding that Greece produce a credible overhaul before releasing the money.
The country has relied on international loans since 2010. Without more bailout money, Greece could miss two debt payments due to the IMF in May and run out of cash to pay government salaries and pensions.
Fears that Greece could default and abandon the euro currency group sent shockwaves through global markets Friday. After being down nearly 360 points, the Dow Jones industrial average recovered a bit to finish down 279.47.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said that a Greek default would “create immediate hardship” for Greece and damage the world economy.
In a speech Saturday to the IMF panel, Lew urged South Korea, Germany, China and Japan to do more to increase consumer demand in their own countries instead of relying on exports to the United States and elsewhere for growth.
“We are concerned that the global economy is reverting to the pre-crisis pattern of heavy reliance on U.S. demand for growth,” Lew said. “As we all know, such a pattern will not lead to strong, sustainable and balanced global growth.”
The negotiations over Greece’s debt have proved contentious but all sides have expressed optimism that the differences can be resolved.
A number of countries directed criticism toward the U.S. for the failure of Congress to pass the legislation needed to put into effect IMF reforms that would boost the agency’s capacity to make loans and increase the voting power of such emerging economic powers as China, Brazil and India.
Agustin Carstens, the head of Mexico’s central bank and the chair of the IMF policy panel, said that “pretty much all of the members expressed deep disappointment” that a failure of Congress to act is blocking implementation of the reforms. The IMF panel directed IMF officials to explore whether any interim reforms could be put into effect pending congressional action.
The finance ministers urged central banks including the Federal Reserve to clearly communicate future policy changes to avoid triggering unwanted turbulence in financial markets.
Lagarde told reporters Saturday that the Federal Reserve had made it clear that it planned to “always communicate and help everybody anticipate” its future moves on interest rates.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen along with Lew represented the U.S. at the finance meetings.
___ Associated Press writer Luis Alonso contributed to this report.
Group of 20 leaders back more easy-money policies German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, right, and U.S. Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen at the IMF/World Bank spring meetings in Washington on Friday. ENLARGE German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, right, and U.S. Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen at the IMF/World Bank spring meetings in Washington on Friday.
WASHINGTON—The world’s top finance leaders warned Friday that currency volatility, low inflation and high debt levels threaten to undermine an already uneven global economic recovery.
In an official statement after two days of meetings, finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 largest economies backed more easy-money policies in wealthy nations as critical accelerants for growth.
“In many advanced economies, accommodative monetary policies are needed to anchor inflation expectations and support recovery,” the G-20 said.
The G-20 affirmed its support for central-bank stimulus in Europe, Japan and the U.S. Officials are increasingly worried that the global economy could get stuck in a long period of anemic output, given a weak recovery in some rich countries and a slowdown in many of the largest emerging markets that have been key drivers of global growth.
The International Monetary Fund warned this past week that if the Federal Reserve raised short-term rates sooner or more quickly than markets anticipate, it could cause a rapid jump in longer-term interest rates and a whirlwind of volatility as investors adjust their portfolios across assets and markets.
The IMF noted the large gap between the Fed’s expectations for rate increases and market expectations.
Renewed G-20 support for easy-money policies—essentially backing currency depreciation as a tool for promoting growth—underscores concern about the global economy getting stuck in a low-growth rut. It also marks an implicit acknowledgment of the failure across the globe to enact longer-lasting structural overhauls to major economies after years of relying on short-term spending and other temporary stimulus programs.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, in a statement prepared for the IMF’s policy-setting committee, warned that long-standing efforts to rebalance the global economy are at risk given the reliance of key economies on exports. Some economies “appear increasingly dependent on external demand to boost growth, rather than pursuing more balanced policies to catalyze domestic demand,” Mr. Lew said. “We are concerned that the global economy is reverting to the precrisis pattern of heavy reliance on U.S. demand for growth.”
The dollar has surged in the past year as the U.S. economy has shown signs of strengthening and markets expect the Fed to raise rates. Combined with weak growth and aggressive easy-money policies in Europe and Japan, the U.S. currency has experienced one of the fastest and strongest surges in decades.
Still, U.S. officials are concerned enough about a prolonged stagnation in its leading trading partners that they have encouraged easy-money policies overseas even though the subsequent dollar strengthening weighs on American exports and growth.
In its latest outlook published this week, the IMF said global economic growth will accelerate only marginally this year as slowing output in major emerging markets and a feeble expansion in wealthier countries drag down near-term prospects.
The low-growth worry is also trumping other risks fomenting in global markets amid the accelerating divergence in exchange-rate values and interest rates. For example, many emerging markets bulked up on dollar-denominated debt, a liability that increases with the rise of the dollar’s value, especially for emerging-market governments and firms whose revenue are in local currencies. Some countries have also pegged the value of their currencies to the dollar, damping their competitiveness and growth prospects.
Those competing pressures are putting authorities in policy binds, and could “trigger a cascade of disruptive adjustments,” the IMF said.
Retire On The Iraqi Dinar And Vietnamese Dong (Forbes Hit Piece)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlaura/2015/03/24/retire-on-the-iraqi-dinar-and-vietnamese-dong/2/It’s a 3 page article so you have to click the link above to see the restI often get calls asking about the Iraqi dinar. Initially, I just dismissed the questions and put-off the requests, informing clients and other investors that we don’t employ or recommend currency-based strategies. At the time, this was the result of only superficial research. However, after a recent question about another foreign currency, the Vietnamese dong, I felt it was time to truly dig into what’s going on and write the definitive article on where these currency strategies fit into both retirement and overall investment portfolios.In my opinion, they don’t fit anywhere! Let me reiterate that; the Iraqi dinar and the Vietnamese dong do not fit into a retirement portfolio in any way, shape, or form. Both monetary units are often referred to as “scam” currencies for good reason. Countless warnings and blood soaked war stories are prevalent online, but to my surprise investors continue to fall for it, throwing good money at a very bad idea.
A street money exchange (RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images)
As it turns out, the scams success is based on a powerful combination of greed, apparent inside information, and the ability to see, feel, and touch the currency. In fact, the most compelling part of situation is that both the Iraqi and Vietnamese currencies are legitimate and tangible. Investors can not only hold them, but also show their spouse, friends and even fold them up and put them in their wallets. Furthermore, they are part of a regulated industry and available for purchase at a few major US Banks. All factors that seem to make investing in either of them a very credible and enticing opportunity to outsmart Wall Street, best fellow investors, and get rich quick by uncovering secrets the government doesn’t want us to know.
Yet, as you already know, if it sounds too good to be true…investors should run like heck. I reached out to several currency exerts to help me explain the ins and outs of this ridiculous business in an effort to help retirees and other investors avoid falling victim to this and similar currency scams going forward.
Reid Kirchenbauer of InvestAsian.com says, “The dinar and dong, along with many other thinly traded currencies, are hard to get at a fair price in the United States.” One US bank Kirchenbauer called was offering one million Vietnamese dong for $56.90, which works out to 17,574 VND per dollar. However, he found the exchange rate much higher at Vietnam’s Agribank. It will sell 21,420 dong per U.S. dollar (not including ordinary fees). Right off the bat, then, there’s a discrepancy representing a more than a 20% decrease in value.
Kirchenbauer goes on to say, “It’s difficult for most people to receive the actual value that these currencies trade at. If banks in the US choose to trade them, they make the spreads very wide so that they can make a large enough profit to justify the potential holding period.”
Scott Smith, Senior Market Analyst for Cambridge Global Payments highlighted another reality facing investors in these currencies. “The biggest challenge to recouping your initial investment is finding someone to buy those currencies back. It’s like shopping for a house cat, but buying a tiger instead, and then finding out you are allergic to cats. It might be easy to find someone to buy your house cat, but finding a suitable home for a tiger would be much more difficult.”
Billionaires Decry Blatant Wall Street Theft of Retirement Assets
In a shocking interview with PBS, billionaire mutual fund icon Jack Bogle, revealed that Wall Street is unapologetically stealing from millions of hard-working Americans. Bogle showed how “70% of your market returns” go straight to the pockets of Wall Street, and only 30% actually goes to you, the investor.
And Bogle should know.
Bogle, who founded the Vanguard Group in 1974, has had a decades-long insider’s view of the entirely corrupt fee structure on Wall Street.
So he knows how American retirees are being fleeced by hidden fees that most investors never see.
And at a recent private event, Steve Forbes echoed this same shocking claim.
Forbes pointed out that these fees are compounding, and over time are devastating to retirement nest eggs.
The typical Wall Street 2% management fee, compounded over the long term, will “cut your returns in half or more. If you would normally have $100,000, you could end up with, say, $30,000 or $40,000 because of what fees eat up.”
Of course Bogle and Forbes aren’t the only industry icons sounding the alarm.
Warren Buffett made it clear that the only way to make money over the long term is to invest “without paying fees to a mutual fund manager.”
Forbes took these comments even further when he and industry veteran John Shubert exposed the biggest threat to your retirement during the exclusive Investment Crisis Summit held by Newsmax Finance.
During the summit, Forbes and co-host Shubert revealed groundbreaking research that proves Wall Street’s compounding fees are only part of a larger “flaw” in the financial system.
It’s this “flaw” that makes it completely legal for Wall Street to siphon off up to 70% of your profits.
Editor’s Note:Forbes and Shubert Give Proof on Wall Street’s Loophole for Legally Grabbing Your Profits.
Before you dismiss the notion that Wall Street could legally take your profits as a matter of course, consider the facts Forbes and Shubert revealed during the summit.
Citing new research from the Harvard Business School and London School of Economics, they pointed out that this industry “flaw” is a “permanent condition” of the market.
Meaning it can’t be fixed.
And investors who don’t take steps today to overcome this flaw could lose more than just 70% of their profits. They could end up losing their ability to retire altogether.
At the summit, attendees also discovered how outdated regulations actually force Wall Street fund managers to underperform their benchmarks.
Shubert showed how 80% of the stocks held in mutual funds are nothing more than dead-weight stocks, providing no excess return for investors.
That means for every $100 you invest, only $20 is actually working for you to generate market-beating returns. The remaining $80 is simply fodder for Wall Street’s fee machine.
To drive the point home, Forbes and Shubert clearly illustrated how dead-weight stocks and fees make it mathematically impossible for fund managers to beat the market.
Summit attendees were fuming after learning how the system is working against them. But they became overwhelmingly confident once they learned how to take simple steps to avoid the financial carnage that unwitting mutual fund investors could experience in their retirement years.
Shubert said, “It’s a clear and actionable blueprint that sidesteps Wall Street fees and makes sure all of your money is put to work.”
“When we first held the summit, people were outraged by what they learned and asked us to make the recording of the summit public so they could share it with friends and family,” said Newsmax Financial Publisher Christian Hill.
“The real concern,” Hill added, “is that more than 96 million people own mutual funds. And the ones who have no idea they’re being fleeced will be the hardest hit when they need the money the most, at retirement.
“It’s scary to think so many Americans will end up with a lot less money than they thought at retirement. But we want the average American to be prepared, and that is why we will continue to push the exclusive video recording from the Investment Crisis Summit to as many outlets as we can. We want the word to spread.”
At VivaTropical, we’ve talked a lot about the benefits of owning an offshore bank account.Moving at least a portion of your portfolio overseas can help protect your assets from threats of litigation and the whims of the U.S. government.
Diversifying into international markets can also open wide the doors for a whole host of non-traditional investments that might not otherwise be available to you with a domestic bank or brokerage firm.
But with a whole world of options out there (literally), how do you choose which bank, or even which jurisdiction, to trust with your savings? And by what criteria should you judge the candidates you’re considering?
Well, that depends largely on your particular needs and investment goals. To some (even those doing business honestly), privacy is of the utmost necessity. To others who might be looking for income-earning opportunities overseas, favorable tax laws may be the most important factor.
Below, in no particular order, are what are considered to be some of the best overall offshore banking jurisdictions. We can’t say which characteristics might be most beneficial to you and your financial situation, but this list should give you a good idea of where to start your search.
Panama
Panama has long been a key player in the international banking industry, and the country’s recent economic growth has further solidified its place as a financial leader. With over 80 international banks, it has one of the world’s largest banking sectors.
The country has a good balance of stringent privacy guidelines combined with adequate controls to prevent money laundering. As a result, the industry is highly competitive, yet better monitored than many more peripheral jurisdictions.
Panama enjoys favorable tax laws, such as exemptions for foreign income, so you won’t be double-taxed. It’s also a great place to do business, invest in the growing tourism industry, or take advantage of great deals on Panama real estate. Many tax advantages exist for each of these types of investment.
Additional benefits to opening an offshore bank account in Panama are its close proximity to the U.S. if travel is needed to set up or maintain the account. English is widely spoken there. Plus, the dollarized economy eliminates any foreign exchange risks.
Seychelles
A rising star on the international scene, Seychelles scores big points for its high level of bank secrecy. Its long-standing privacy policy protects the identity of the beneficial owners of companies and corporations. As a result, it’s one of the world’s best places to set up a closely-held offshore corporation.
The nation is a bit lax about reporting interest income to foreign tax authorities, although it does maintain tax treaties with 46 countries, in compliance with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Interestingly, much of the local population of Seychelles has no access to banking services, and most of its businesses have virtually no way of borrowing capital. However, the country has been rapidly building its banking sector and has one of the fastest improving economies in the world.
Hong Kong
A number of key factors are working together to make Hong Kong one of the fastest growing offshore havens in the world today. It’s located near a rapidly-growing China, not to mention the rest of Asia. It’s also become the chosen destination of those who’ve moved their European and North American accounts due to the privacy crackdowns in those jurisdictions of late.
A perk to banking in Hong Kong is the ability to hold funds in a wide range of currencies and even change currency with the flip of a switch. Savings accounts can even be held in gold.
Interest rates are impressive, and tax laws are favorable for foreigners. There are no taxes on capital gains, inheritances, dividends, or deposit interest. Only local income is taxable. Even profits from overseas trades that pay to Hong Kong-managed accounts are usually exempt.
Singapore
Although Singapore regrettably earned its place as a top financial center by turning a blind eye to illegal foreign activity, it certainly hasn’t hurt this offshore haven. It’s currently one of the world’s fastest growing wealth management industries, expected to rival Switzerland by 2020.
It benefits greatly from its location as a hub for southeast Asia, and has a major advantage over rival Hong Kong whom many view as being too heavily influenced by China. Singapore’s tax rates are among, if not the lowest in Asia. A wide range of currencies, including gold, are available to account holders.
Today Singapore’s banking sector is much more compliant with banking regulations. However, due to the industry’s size, it exerts a high level of influence over the government, resulting in very little political opposition to its privacy practices.
Switzerland
It’s hard to think of offshore banking without Switzerland coming immediately to mind. While it’s far from the picture most people have of James Bond making a withdrawal from an anonymous numbered bank account, Switzerland still offers some of the world’s strictest confidentiality.
The country is stable and politically neutral. The financial services industry is also protected by a strong consensus against any political changes that might affect the all-important offshore sector. As a result, Swiss banks offer a reliable, secure offshore banking environment.
Because of these benefits, Switzerland holds banking assets estimated to be roughly 820 percent of the country’s GDP. Switzerland has also been a leader in technology, with secure encryption, internet banking, electronic funds transfers, and electronic signatures.
United Arab Emirates
The UAE city of Dubai first emerged as an important financial center when it found itself lacking in some of the oil and gas reserves that some of its neighbors possessed. As a result, it shifted its focus to the flow of massive amounts of money circulating among its oil-rich neighbors and beyond.
It serves as a politically and financially stable banking option, amid a region plagued with turmoil. It’s also situated strategically along an all-important East to West trade route.
Benefits to banking in the UAE include low taxes, a number of tax-free zones, and a level of privacy that rivals that of Swiss banks. Due to its ask-no-questions philosophy, it’s home to considerable illegal activity. Much of the industry’s incoming funds are in the form of cash or gold.
Cayman Islands
The offshore choice of political candidate Mitt Romney, the Cayman Islands benefit from the added support of being a territory of the United Kingdom. So, while still essentially autonomous politically and economically, it has a safer feel for those who are skeptical of international markets.
Like many of its competitors, the Caymans offer a number of tax-free incentives and little financial regulation and oversight. The nation has long held the opinion that savvy investors are perfectly capable of taking responsibility for their own compliance and that the markets always know best.
Today the country is the world’s fifth largest financial services center, taking on business from the world’s biggest banks and corporations. It plays host to over 10,000 mutual funds (only Luxembourg has more), over 200 banks, over 90,000 companies, and 140 trust companies. It’s the world’s top home for hedge funds and captive health insurance companies.
Lebanon
Lebanon is often hailed as the “Switzerland of the Middle East” for its tight bank secrecy laws. Banking privacy in Lebanon is “absolute” and guaranteed by law, with violations being subject to criminal prosecution.
It’s also a tax haven, much like most of its competitors. Foreigners pay no local income tax on interest and revenues earned in Lebanese banks. Likewise there are no inheritance taxes, stamp duties on contracts, corporate income taxes, or taxes on dividend distributions or capital gains.
The country has a stable banking system, as well as measures in place to prevent money laundering.
Luxembourg
With over 12 percent of the world’s market for offshore banking, Luxembourg is a major player in the global financial sector. Like other banking secrecy jurisdictions, it’s full of tax loopholes and loose financial regulations.
It’s also extremely stable due to it political neutrality and the strong influence its financial sector holds over the nation’s political leanings. It’s central (both politically and geographically) to the heart of Europe and was a founding member of the European Union, giving it better access to European and international markets.
Its tight banking secrecy policies are based more on the principle behind professional lawyer-client relationships, with even more privacy laws in the works. The country is also reportedly setting up a high-security storage facility where clients can keep assets like paintings and gold with no fear of having these possessions reported to tax authorities in their home countries.
Whether you’re looking for a place to stow a Picasso or simply wanting to transfer your self-directed IRA where you’ll have a better variety of investment options, offshore bank accounts can open up a whole new world of possibilities.
Belize
Although only in its 3rd decade of international banking, Belize has been steadily growing its financial services industry since it first emerged on the scene in the early 1990s. Today it offers a myriad of products and services to international investors from all over the world.
It’s a popular choice among North Americans, due largely in part to its proximity and the fact that it’s an English-speaking nation. It’s also modeled after British (rather than Spanish) law, making a lot of legal processes much more familiar.
Belize is in close runnings with its international competitors in terms of the variety of its offerings. Clients can easily set up a corporation, trust, or limited liability partnership.
Before you choose a jurisdiction, do some additional research to determine the requirements for opening an account and to make sure the particular country or bank offers the best incentives to help you achieve your financial goals.
And, whatever you do, don’t forget to follow through with all of the latest forms the U.S. requires for offshore account holders. It doesn’t matter if your jurisdiction doesn’t report you. The IRS can and will find you.
On RAI with Paul Jay, Chris Hedges discusses the psychology of the super rich; their sense of entitlement, the dehumanization of workers, and mistaken belief that their wealth will insulate them from the coming storms:
According to prosecutors, a group of men behind an Iraqi currency scheme created a pitch that included war hero tales to lure potential investors.
“You have someone who is out there … who is soliciting millions and millions of dollars from people just making stuff up,” said Steven Dettelbach, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
The opportunity was pitched as a way to profit from a nearly worthless Iraqi dinar. Scammers promised profits were nearly guaranteed if investors bought dinars at today’s values, and then exchanged the dinars back for dollars at a later date once the dinar exchange rate presumably improved.
Saad Shalash | Reuters
A customer counts Iraqi dinars at a money changer in Baghdad.
Investors bought the currency through the firm BH Group, which charged a 20 percent markup on average, according to prosecutors. Some of the scammers also touted false military achievements, prosecutors say.
By the time the scheme unraveled, federal officials say victims handed over nearly $24 million to the con men for the Iraqi currency they thought would make them rich.
![President Roosevelt signs the Glass-Steagall Act alongside the bill"s co-sponsors, Senator Carter Glass and Representative Henry Steagall, and others.](https://www.federalreservehistory.org/-/media/images/essays/great_depression/glass_steagall.jpg "President Roosevelt signs the Glass-Steagall Act alongside the bill"s co-sponsors, Senator Carter Glass and Representative Henry Steagall, and others.")
The US presidency will continue according to the philosophic and ideological guidelines of the new and constitutionally elected chief executive, Donald Trump. There is no credible evidence to support rumors of other unelected chief executives to succeed President Trump, including any such persons positioned by foreign powers (e.g., China, Russia, etc.).
All confirmed sources agree that the “RV/GCR” is theoretic, at best, and much more likely, a useful story-line for sustaining dinarland reader interest. A score of references can be given to support this position, however, the only “sources” available to dinarland “gurus” is the internal and circular rumor mill of their guru community.
The existing political platforms which both the Democrats and Republicans have maintained and utilized for generations are no longer effective. In reality, the differences in the platforms are illusionary. The establishment has carefully crafted the perception of variation and choice, but the masses should consider both platforms to be a part of the same machinations used to divide and conquer, while transferring wealth from the bottom to the top.
All American’s now have the opportunity to take back control of their nation and future. The establishment has declared all out cultural war on Donald Trump. The threat of his rise to power within the American establishment should be an indicator that we are witnessing history unfold in real time. Do not let the establishments’ methods of division continue for another moment. This division has been injected along the lines of race, religion, and class. All Americans and all people around the world should be welcoming the election of Trump to the highest office in one of the most powerful nations.
In all areas American power is being challenged by the emerging powers. The alliance between Russia, China, Iran, Syria, and growing to include India, the Philippine’s, and soon Vietnam and other ASEAN members, will be the final catalyst to force the American establishment to back down and align with the larger multilateral mandates.
Ever since reading G. Edward Griffin’s expose on the creation of the Federal Reserve I have been fascinated with the inner workings of the international monetary system. Though 
in income distribution could be considered multilateral monetary reforms. These reforms are focused on three main areas, which are:
“A Federal Reserve Bank is a regional bank of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. There are twelve in total, one for each of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts that were created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.” – From Wikipedia
All news seems to point to an eminent revaluation of world currencies, economic indicators seem to reveal a definitive need for such action, ships are reported to be moving out of Iran (which I believe is good) Iran’s currency saw a 33% rise this past week, China’s doing…stuff, that I think leads us to a GCR, Awake in 3D says 800 numbers won’t be posted on websites, but will be available on conference calls, and Prime Minister Abadi made an announcement that may have implied Iraq is moving to an International/Marke/Global economy.
At four straight Olympic games, Leonidas dominated all three sprinting events– the Stadion (roughly 200 meters), Diaulos (roughly 400 meters), and the bizarre Hoplitodromos– a 400 meter dash carrying 50 pounds of military gear.
During his lifetime, Andrew Carnegie became one of the wealthiest men on the planet. Before he began giving away his wealth, his net worth was valued at $475 million — the equivalent of about $75 billion in today’s dollars.
“At the end of 2013 Vietnam executed two of the top bankers in the country for corruption and crimes against the people.”
Coming to a country near you.
Not soon enough in Canada to avoid a bankrupt nation I’m afraid.
Very informative article. Please could you explain what you mean by ‘inflation dumping ground’ – excuse my ignorance. Also can you direct me to a website that explains what you allude to as the real reasons for the Vietnam. So enjoy your writing. Thank you
Here’s a link to to a free e-book download. The chapters that cover the Vietnam Travesty (er… War} are very illuminating. http://libcom.org/library/untold-history-united-states
The images you attach to this excellent article are haunting and are direct in revealing just some examples of Western aggression in its most egregious form. It’s time all of America honor Vietnam and its amazing and resilient people.
Wow, great article, how can one be so evil, what a turn around for this country, this was really back against the wall. As humans we are not to let poverty take place, when we can help!