Leave it to Larry Summers, Killer of Kash

The electronic pixels had not even solidified on my last article about how the tide is turning against cash when Zero Hedge commented on an op-ed by Larry Summers, who has not surprisingly joined the Kill-Kash Kampaign.

Summers — once-upon-a-time chief economist of the World Bank, 71st Secretary of the US Treasury, 27th president of Harvard University (tossed on his head in a no-confidence vote that was fittingly over financial conflict-of-interest questions), 8th Director of the National Economic Counsel that advises the president of the United States, and all-around, hideous-looking jackass of a fellow — is like the Chucky doll that won’t die. When he smiles, worms wiggle between his teeth, begging to escape their captivity.

Larry “Killer of Kash” Summers could be counted on to launch the next salvo against cash. I spell things with a “K” in Larry’s case because he was also the lead adviser during the former Soviet Union’s kollapse, guiding it to privatize the dying socialist economy. Thanks to Larry’s good work, nothing went to the little people of Russia, but everything got divvied up into the hands of very few oligarchs who became Russia’s 1%. Larry is a hard-core one-percenter.

Says, Wikipedia,

 

The US government attempted to hold the Harvard players responsible for their clear conflicts of interest and undeniable misuse of government money [in their Soviet konsulting] but action was slow to ensue. The original GAO report was critical, and further funding was withdrawn from [the Harvard Institute for International Development] on the basis that as a contractor HIID has “abused the trust of the U.S. government by using personal relationships for private gain….” The episode became a factor in the dismissal of Larry Summers, who had set up the project as deputy secretary of the treasury under President Bill Clinton.

 

Set it up, and at the point referenced above, was president of the university running it. In settling the case, Harvard paid $26,000,000 to the federal government while Summers was president. Summers was accused of favoritism in allegations that he put the bill on the university in general and protected some of his economic colleagues in the scandal. Harvard paid Summers to get the heck out of the presidential office. In fact, they paid over a million dollars to get rid of him, but then hired him back as a professor. The Chucky doll that won’t go away.

Larry was also the architect of deregulation of the U.S financial system and a leader in the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. He is, in other words, directly involved in the death of the US economy, given that the abolishment of Glass-Steagall allowed banks to play in stock markets:

 

Summers hailed the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act in 1999, which lifted more than six decades of restrictions against banks offering commercial banking, insurance, and investment services (by repealing key provisions in the 1933 Glass–Steagall Act): “Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century,” Summers said. “This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy.” (Wikipedia)

 

Well, here you have it: the new economy, folks. We commonly call it the Great Recession. It has certainly been a great recession for Larry, who has made a fortune since it began.

Larry Summers’ deregulation created the perfect swampy environment for the slough of derivatives that spawned the Great Recession, too:

 

On July 30, 1998, then-Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Summers testified before the U.S. Congress that “the parties to these kinds of [derivatives] contract are largely sophisticated financial institutions that would appear to be eminently capable of protecting themselves from fraud and counterparty insolvencies.” At the time Summers stated that “to date there has been no clear evidence of a need for additional regulation of the institutional OTC derivatives market.” (Wikipedia)

 

Larry probably deserves more credit as architect of the Great Recession than Alan Greenspan. He should be credited with the general demise of the entire world because, in my never-so-humble my opinion, everything Larry touches turns to sewage.

Having wrecked the economy, Summers then went on to serve the Obama administration in saving the economy. He became Obama’s key economic advisor, and Obama was reportedly thrilled with Larry’s fine work. One of Larry’s early accomplishments was to see that infrastructure spending was largely removed from Obama’s original stimulus bill and replaced with tax breaks. (No sense actually giving the next generation something they can use in exchange for the extra taxes your imposing on them by handing them the bill as you cut yourself a tax break). Lovable Larry also asked for removal of the imposition of caps on the pay of executives at companies that benefited from the stimulus plan. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to use the stimulus to boost their pay after breaking their banks?

Wherever he goes, Larry winds up being the turd in the swimming pool.

 


[amazon_link id=”0060568550″ target=”_blank” ]Although famously brilliant, Summers was a high-stakes gamble for Harvard. In the 1990s he had crafted American policies to stabilize the global economy, quietly becoming one of the world’s most powerful men. But while many admired Summers, his critics called him elitist, imperialist, and arrogant beyond measure.[/amazon_link]


 

 

 

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, JAN 1997 - (fltr) Fred Bergsten, Director of the Institute for International Economics, USA; Peter Sutherland, Chairman and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs International; and Lawrence Summers, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury of the United States at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1997. Copyright World Economic Forum (http://www.weforum.org

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, JAN 1997 – (fltr) Fred Bergsten, Director of the Institute for International Economics, USA; Peter Sutherland, Chairman and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs International; and Lawrence Summers, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury of the United States at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1997. Copyright World Economic Forum By World Economic Forum [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Larry Summers’ salvo against cash

 

Having destroyed the known world and all hope of financial recovery, Summers now wants to destroy cash. This time he’s making a surgical strike, targeting just Benjamin Franklin. The hundred-dollar bill, he claims, is primarily a tool of the corrupt. (Now, I have to admit that Larry is not outside of his expertise when it comes to knowing about the corrupt.)  Summers claims that Ben and the 500-euro note are a “boon to corruption and crime.” He wants to see both eradicated.

In his national plea, Summers references former Standard Chartered CEO, Peter Sands, who said only a week ago that ditching Ben would “deter tax evasion, financial crime, terrorism and corruption.” In Larry’s own words, lynching ol’ Ben would “make the world a better place.”

Consider that most of the US currency in use (in terms of value) is in the form of hundred-dollar bills. Zero Hedge points out that, “of the $1.4 trillion in total U.S. currency in circulation, $1.1 trillion is in the form of $100 bills.” If the US monetary system wanted to move toward making the US a cashless society, getting rid of the Benjamins would get us almost eighty percent of the way there in one swoop. So, I think you can see where this is leading.

As Zero Hedge says, that…

 

would achieve practically the entire goal of destroying the one paper alternative to digital NIRP rates, in the form of paper currency.

 

Bear in mind, Summers is a former US Treasurer and regular advisor to presidents. Why people listen to him when so much of what he touches turns corrupt or dies, I don’t know. But they do.

 

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 26JAN13 - Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University, USA, delivers a statement during the Session 'China's Next Global Agenda' at the Annual Meeting 2013 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 26, 2013. By World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 26JAN13 – Lawrence H. Summers, Professor, Harvard University, USA, delivers a statement at the Annual Meeting 2013 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 26, 2013. By World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Larry Summers, King against Krime

 

Says Summers, blithely,

 

“The fact that — as Sands points out — in certain circles the 500 euro note is known as the “Bin Laden” confirms the arguments against it. Sands’ extensive analysis is totally convincing on the linkage between high denomination notes and crime. He is surely right that illicit activities are facilitated when a million dollars weighs 2.2 pounds as with the 500 euro note rather than more than 50 pounds as would be the case if the $20 bill was the high denomination note. And he is equally correct in arguing that technology is obviating whatever need there may ever have been for high denomination notes in legal commerce.”

 

Yeah, that’s the key to fighting crime — increasing the weight of criminal baggage. Of course, the death of Ben will require the immediate sacrifice of Ulysses S. Grant, too, as a twenty-pound briefcase of Ben’s to pay a million dollars easily gets replaced with two twenty-pound briefcases of Grants. Not that much difference in inconvenience since most of us have two arms.

However, by the time you drop down to Andrew Jacksons, one presumably needs a hand truck to make a cash payment in a million-dollar crime. The next logical question, however, will be, if we can readily ditch the form of cash that makes up almost 80% of the value of all US currency in circulation, what do we really need the rest for?

Larry doesn’t suggest we try to rake in all the Ben’s right away, but just that the US Treasury, which he used to run, stop printing them and let them fade out of existence. That way there will be less public resistance.

 

…a moratorium on printing new high denomination notes would make the world a better place.

 

Ah yes, how sanguine the world would be if criminals could only play with Grants. Wouldn’t we just move from the Ben Laden of crime to government Grants for crime?

Larry notes that, if Europe would move on eliminating the €500 note, the rest of the world would likely slide right into place in ditching major bills. He’s glad to see that Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, has shown enthusiasm for the idea. As for the resistance, Larry opines,

 

I confess to not being surprised that resistance within the ECB is coming out of Luxembourg, with its long and unsavory tradition of giving comfort to tax evaders, money launderers, and other proponents of bank secrecy.

 

Maybe this is just sour grapes because this little city state has a corner on unsavory finance that Larry hasn’t had a hand in. They’re those European elitists who don’t want notoriously big-mouthed Americans in their little club … or cartel.

 

These are difficult times in Europe with the refugee crisis, economic weakness, security issues and the rise of populist movements. There are real limits on what it can do to address global problems. But here is a step that will represent a global contribution with only the tiniest impact on legitimate commerce or on government budgets. It may not be a free lunch, but it is a very cheap lunch.

Even better than unilateral measures in Europe would be a global agreement to stop issuing notes worth more than say $50 or $100.

 

Ah, there we go! I hadn’t even read that far in writing this article to this point (just writing as I read). I knew Larry would have to throw Grant to the lynch mob, too. And let’s make sure we go global with all of this at the same time. After all, haven’t I said the new cashless society needs to be global? Summers goes on,

 

Such an agreement would be as significant as anything else the G7 or G20 has done in years.

 

Yes, it would, as it would pretty well be the death-knell for all hard cash since getting rid of both Ben and Ulysses would take more than eighty-percent of monetary power out of the cash economy.

 

A global agreement to stop issuing high denomination notes would also show that the global financial groupings can stand up against “big money” and for the interests of ordinary citizens.

 

Ah, yes, there’s Larry the egalitarian, concerned as usual about the ordinary citizen. Your life and mine could be practically crime-free if the thugs didn’t have Franklins and Grants to work with. The little people would be so much better off. Thank you, Patron Larry. Now, please brush the manure off your teeth because you might eat this stuff, Larry, but we don’t. We know what you’re full of.

Said Bloomberg in delighted response to Larry’s article,

 

Summers’s call coincides with a review by the European Central Bank of its 500-euro ($558) note, whose future now looks increasingly uncertain. President Mario Draghi repeated this week that the institution was considering withdrawing the euro area’s most valuable bill to avoid aiding criminals…. Former Bank of England policy maker Charles Goodhart, an authority on money supply, told a conference last year that the central banks in Europe were “absolutely shameless” in issuing high-denomination notes. Peter Sands, previously the chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Plc, argued in a paper this month that such bills should be eliminated and also called for a G-20 accord. The next meeting of G-20 finance ministers is in Shanghai on Feb. 26-27.

 

Hope is on the immediate horizon. We could wrap this up this month!

I recently reported on how Bloomberg’s editors teamed up recently in their own campaign against cash, so it’s no surprise that the writer of this article refers to such official money printing as, “a practice alleged by police to abet crime and corruption.”

Yeah, that’s what the legitimate printing of money is. The article further notes

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 26JAN07 - Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University, USA captured during the session 'Is Freedom overrated?' at the Annual Meeting 2007 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 26, 2007. Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by E.T. Studhalter +++No resale, no archive+++

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 26JAN07 – Lawrence H. Summers,  captured during the session ‘Is Freedom overrated?’ at the Annual Meeting 2007 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by E.T. Stud halter.

that…

 

President Mario Draghi [of the European Central Bank] repeated this week that the institution was considering withdrawing the euro area’s most valuable bill to avoid aiding criminals.

 

So, just days after I said cash will soon be treated as if it is criminal, there you have it. The take-down of cash starts with stating that it is technologically obsolete and dirty money for dirty people.

 

[amazon_image id=”B005Y4F4EE” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Gods of Money[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”B004R15SIW” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Inside Job[/amazon_image]

36 Comments

  1. Ping from Auldenemy:

    You are the kind of writer on the Western banking-political cabal that I have longed for down the years. There are others out there who do a good job but few have your biting perception and wit. Really you are Jim Willie minus the mad side of his character (where he simply gets too carried away). Bill Holter is good but veers off into conspiracy theories too much (any bomb that explodes anywhere on the planet leads back to US hidden forces at work). While I have no doubt the US gets up to all manner of dirty tricks, it is important to focus on the dirty tricks of the Fed lead monetary madness policies which are ruining Western economies. Main St won’t take the truths of our completely corrupted banks and thus their systematic looting of entire economies, if writers denouncing them veer off into Conspiracy Theory speculation. Anyway, this description of Summer’s by you is bloody brilliant:

    ‘hideous-looking jackass of a fellow — is like the Chucky doll that won’t die. When he smiles, worms wiggle between his teeth, begging to escape their captivity.’

    • Ping from Knave_Dave:

      I did try awfully hard with Larry Summers not to go over the top with the description. I just feel bad for the worms. Maybe PITA will warn Larry to stop smiling because it only taunts them with their freedom ; )

      • Ping from Auldenemy:

        You made my day with your Top 10 Scalia Conspiracy Theories (and the hilarious and brilliant idea of then combining them all together so that everyone’s favourite won out…..LOL). It was exactly what I needed after my struggle on GoldSeek, with hostile replies to my comments about Holter’s habit of over indulging in conspiracy theories. So I agree with all you say, and was saying exactly the same on GoldSeek, but obviously failing miserably. They just didn’t get it that speculation about the death of a high profile Judge undermines any serious discourse about out of control central banks, commercial banks and all their ruination of our monetary systems.

  2. Ping from any-mouse:

    Greenspan, Council on Foreign Relations [the Union of the Rich Elite] , Summers,Council on Foreign Relations, Rubin, Council on Foreign Relations, Clintons, Council on Foreign Relations–NOTICE A PATTERN–THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO DROVE THE REMOVAL OF GLASS-STEAGALL WHICH PROTECTED YOUR SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS–NOW THE WALL STREET SHARKS CAN GAMBLE WITH YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY–THEY CAN ALSO BAIL IN YOUR DEPOSITS–THEY ALSO FIXED IT SO YOU RECEIVE NO INTEREST—WAKE UP PEOPLE–THIS IS A DRACONIAN REALITY…

    It is so crystal clear, Financial repression, Zero
    interest rate policy, why are the expected returns still being calculated at
    7,8,even 10% at some of these large pension funds….the system is completely
    corrupt…how many of these money managers know that these returns are blue sky
    and never to be achieved, and are just another tentacle of a corrupt wall
    street. Duh! conflict of interest, D’you think…..

    1998 two acts of treason were perpetrated against the
    American people–The Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act which allows the big
    banks to gamble with the savings and investments of the American people, to
    borrow and lose and not be held accountable–to hypothecate and
    re-hypothecate…Your Money and they just get huge bonuses on Derivatives that
    even CFR Bill Clinton eventually acknowledged serve No Useful Purpose–just to
    enrich the Bankers and Wealthy Elite–of which he and Hilary are members…Even
    Warren Buffett stated these Financially Engineered Derivatives are Financial
    Weapons of Mass Distruction…

    What does it take people!! You need credibility–Dont the
    words of Woodrow Wilson, Henry Ford, Dwight Eisenhower, Bill Clinton, and
    Warren Buffett qualify as a credible warning? There is no Conspiracy, what is
    happening is a Financial Black Operation…

    The second act was that the workers handling the gold at
    Ft Knox were all retired. Those were the people who knew what gold we had and
    where it was. Since 1998 the gold markets have undergone many strange
    machinations in leases, transfer of bullion. Why in the world is there a tunnel
    underground connecting the gold storage of the NY Fed and JP Morgan.??

    Why in the world can we not give Germany back its bullion
    in 24 hours??

    Why in the world is there constant refusal to have an
    independent audit of the FED and the Ft Knox Gold Reserves??

    Frank Veneroso and James Turk did independent research in
    the early 2000’s finding that there was a 15000 ton shortage in the world gold
    markets/reserves The results of their studies were within a few hundred tons of
    each other.

    Why in the world have the bullion banks and the COMEX
    been allowed to sell “Paper Gold” representing 150X the amount of physical
    existing to settle those contracts??

    Why in the world when persons who bought gold bars years
    ago and stored them in Allocated storage accounts, get newly minted bars with
    inconsistent serial numbers [from the original bars] when they take delivery?

    Can it be our gold, the gold belonging to the American
    People has been misappropriated?? Stolen?? The gold markets are obviously being
    manipulated…This is not a conspiracy theory. This is reality.

    Accounting for the bogus inflation statistics of the administrations,
    the Gold price should be in excess of $2500 an ounce. If you use Check Book
    inflation -check the increases in prices YoY in your checkbook- the inflation
    rate should be 7-9% a year since 2009,,,

    The non elected Government sycophants are now acting like
    the property of the American People is theirs to play with in concert with
    their Wall Street play mates..

    Catherine Austin Fitts stated that there has been a coup
    in our Government where the Banks have assumed power. What is troubling is that
    the elected Government is showing their attitude that they own the people and
    not vice versa…

    The FEDeral Reserve is not Federal and is a treason
    against the American people–it is the instrument of the wealthy elite the
    owners of the big banks who own the FED and use its power to steal the wealth
    of the middle and working classes and shift it to the .1%, How? The UNION of
    the wealthy elite, the Council on Foreign Relations, determines the policies
    used to steal the wealth of America–Zero interest rate policy–Greenspan, CFR
    member, Rubin, Summers, Clintons, Bushes–all members of the CFR.

    This is no conspiracy theory, it is happening—even the
    FED recognizes that 70% of jobs come from main street small business. If the
    FED wants to increase jobs then why does it print money and give it to big
    banks and corporations who only provide 15% of jobs…IT IS A BIG LIE BY FED,
    CONGRESS, AND THE ADMINISTRATION BACKED
    BY THE Loaded SUPREME COURT.

    Interest rates at 5% support the savings of the middle
    class, retirees, and workers with CDs which supply financing to small
    business-JOBS-. It was reduced to zero specifically to force savers into the
    stock market to support the rich who pay off congress, the administration et
    al. THE GOVERNMENT IS NO LONGER OF AND FOR THE PEOPLE. IT IS NOW ORGANIZED
    CRIME AND FRAUD FOR THE WEALTHY ELITE..

    It takes Savings to create wealth. It takes Savings to
    create Jobs. I think that most of the business world agrees that 70% of US jobs
    are created by small business Mainstreet. Those savings come from the little
    people, the middle class, and pensioners who put their savings into local
    credit unions and local/regional banks CD’s. When interest rates were 5%
    [according to Sidney Homer’s History of Interest Rates the average interest
    rate for the US is 6%] , that gave a reasonable yield for people to get by on
    with their social security, and others to grow their savings. Those Savings
    were the dollars invested into prudent investments in small businesses which
    provided the jobs for the 94 million now not in the work force and those
    dollars which were placed in self liquidating loans to businesses that made a
    profit [created wealth]….I used the Past tense.

    The reason is that wealth creating sector of our economy
    was willfully destroyed by the Fed acting for its owners, the big banks, and
    the owners of the big banks, the wealthy Elite, by enacting Financial
    Repression –Zero Interest Rate Policy, to shift the middle and working class
    wealth to the Large Banks, Large Corporations, and ultimately to the Wealthy
    elite which is unionized in the Council on Foreign Relations, whose members have
    given us this mess [Greenspan, Rubin, Summers, Bushes, Clintons, Geithner].

    The savings [looking for yield] were coerced into the
    hands of the wolves of Wall Street [Jacking up the Stock Markets] by the Zero
    interest rates policies of the Elites, and their powerful sycophants who
    repealed the protections of the taxpayers and pensioners, the Glass-Steagall
    Act. The Treasonous FED printed trillions in order to lend to the Banks to
    protect their imprudent and foolish derivative positions.

    And then insult to injury required the Big Banks to place
    hundreds of billions With the FED in reserves that the FED pays much higher
    interest on to the Banks—and it is the taxpayers who will ultimately cover
    the cost of all these machinations. Like Henry Ford said, if the people could
    understand how the financial system is run, there would be a revolt the next
    day…not to mention all of the huge debts run up by corporations taking on
    huge “almost free” debt to do imprudent stock buybacks to make low
    quality earnings look ever higher and drive up the stock market even further.

    After destroying the wealth creating sector of the
    economy and stealing the wealth of the middle class [at least 40% of it] our
    economy has to rebuild that sector and it will cause the 90% of the US to
    suffer greatly in the next years until we can bring back 5% and above interest
    rates and people can begin saving again. And all that suffering so the .1% can
    get a few per cent richer and grab more political power and damage the
    Constitution.

  3. Ping from tjb323:

    I know a Financial Crimes Detective in a City of about 1.3 million people. According to him the “we are trying to stop money laundering crimes, ect.” is pure crap. Maybe for super huge drug dealers, but not for the majority of money related fraud and crimes and ID theft (at least not in the US). You would not believe what these criminals do with all the digital tools and electronic money. They launder money now digitally, it has become even easier than counterfeit money printing. Even though it is traceable (depending), they still do it anyway. Criminals don’t care. Now I don’t know about super big time crooks that the FBI goes after, but I bet it is a lot of the same. People he arrests never have much cash on them, if any. So he feels and I agree that all this “going cashless” in order to keep the cash money crime down is just a rouse to get us all on board with being controlled for the sake of keeping us safe from all the money crime. HA! Fat Chance!! With more and more digital lives, it just makes it easier for criminals to steal from you or steal your identity and screw up your life. In fact going back to using more cash would actually help the normal person. Keep them from loosing money via fraud. Funny turn of events, but not funny too. Keep up the great work Dave!!

    • Ping from Knave_Dave:

      Thanks. Good points. Truth be known, digital money is probably a far greater crime risk. Hackers will find ways to skim millions. Major terrorist like ISIS will have their own hackers to find their way into the systems. I know I’m leery about Bitcoin because how do I know there isn’t some built-in back door for nefarious purposes?

      Besides, if criminals couldn’t get away with their crimes using digital money they’d just switch to gold or diamonds or whatever.

      Good to hear from another source that it is just a ruse, as I am thinking it is. I see a lot of people are realizing that, but it is being said often enough now from different sources that it will probably convince a lot of people who are easily persuaded and don’t care to think more deeply about the argument.

      It will be a huge sacrifice of personal autonomy and anonymity (even if they do claim it is a cryptocurrency, how can you be sure?) in exchange for a little fake security and convenience.

      –David

      • Ping from Auldenemy:

        Also, HSBC is well known for laundering Colombian drug cartel money. So how is doing away with higher denomination notes going to stop that exactly? It is the damn banks who are the BIGGEST crooks out there, and unless Main St. wakes up to this and starts demanding an end to unelected bankers running our countries then it is game over for us all. We will be chained to banker digital money chip world. First they took gold away from backing bits of paper, now we are going to end up not being able to buy a chocolate bar without it being recorded on Too Big To Jail bankster computers.

        • Ping from Knave_Dave:

          I have to wonder if it is really that much harder to launder electronic transactions. Open a temporary bank account, pass the money through to another temporary bank account, shuffle it through Switzerland, and it probably spins out pretty clean. If not, there’s always gold or jewels with plenty of corrupt assayers in the black market to determine the quality and value of either. Heck, they’ll probably just switch to trading US bonds.

          The idea that criminal activity is going to decline because the easiest form of cash is no longer available is … well … it’s amazing to think that most of America will probably buy that reasoning, and that’s why it’s being used. They don’t think past the point where their ears meet their brains.

  4. Ping from Davebee:

    The Dow seems to be well insulated from any form of Kash worries….it’s up a healthy 241 points today Fed 17 2016.

    • Ping from Knave_Dave:

      From MarketWatch today:

      “But even as stocks climbed, some analysts weren’t convinced that the sharp rally over the past three days is sustainable. The S&P has leapt more than 5% since Thursday’s close.

      “This price action is typical of bear markets and is driven by short-covering,” said Michael Antonelli, equity sales trader at R.W Baird & Co.

      “It is clear that when high-beta cyclicals and momentum shorts, such as energy and banks, are sharply outperforming markets, it is due to covering short positions. We expect this rally to fail at about 1,950-1,970 level on the S&P 500, the same levels it failed in January,” Antonelli said.”

      The market is retesting its last ceiling.

      In another article, MarketWatch says,

      “Wild market gyrations early Thursday, highlighted by gold futures GCJ6, -0.36% rocketing more than $50 higher in a single session and flirting with a close above $1,250 an ounce, and benchmark yields on the 10-year note tumbling to TMUBMUSD10Y, +3.36% 1.57% earlier Thursday morning in New York, before coming back somewhat, show that a rush to haven assets is in full throttle.”

      I’m quoting other sources that are not known to be biased toward a bearish view because I know it’s not going to mean much to you if I make the arguments on my own. Point is that pro-market, pro-investment people out there are looking at the present dynamics and saying the upswing doesn’t appear to be much and the underlying current is still very bearish.

    • Ping from Auldenemy:

      The PPT isn’t a knitting circle; it goes right in when the market wobbles and pumps it up. Deutsche Banks $64 trillion derivative time bomb stands against German GDP of just over $3.4 trillion, and the entire GDP of the Eurozone is only $13 Trillion. When panic set in recently and Deutsche’s share price sank again, out came its CEO to announce the bank would spend $5 billion on buying back some of its own bonds (in truth that is the equivalent of pissing on an inferno). That, plus Goldman quickly announcing folk should short gold, plus PPT intervention is what calmed the markets. Nothing changes reality. The US is broke, Europe is broke, Japan is broke and China is going broke! TPTB can keep lying, keep can kicking, keep doctoring all economic and employment stats, wriggle, hide, press QE buttons and go full tilt NIRP. Nothing will change the outcome.

      • Ping from Knave_Dave:

        Exactly. The Fed is past the point where anything it does is going to have much effect. It reached the damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don’t point that I said it would last fall. If it steps in with intervention, it proves the past six+ years of its program were a failure. If it doesn’t, things are already swiftly on their way down. Moreover, it can be counted on to respond too late because it wants to show its program worked and will hate to cave in on that notion. And, as you say, the scale of the debt and faulty bond problem they and many others have piled up is far beyond healing.

        Things MAY level off for a bit in the stock market as the market catches its breath from the first horrible forty days of the year. Then the flood waters will start to rise again, a few banks will find themselves underwater on more of these bad oil bonds, and finally the first bank will fold, triggering panic in the market that makes the first forty days look like a warm-up routine. We won’t know until the day it happens which bank is going down, just as we didn’t in 2008. In fact, we may not know until after the fact this time, as the Fed will step in with silent rescue programs and forced sale to another bank, and we’ll learn after the attempted bailout or break-up has been transacted.

  5. Ping from Knave_Dave:

    No cash. No gold. That’s where this is going. Just follow his argument out. Are criminals going to stop being criminals because they don’t have convenient bank notes? Of course not. They’ll just switch to using gold. So, then the next step in the argument chain has to be that the government needs to do as it did under FDR and make gold illegal, too. The same argument will be recycled — that gold is the currency of the black market. So, to put a stop to terrorists all gold needs to be turned in to the government at market value. That way gold is also not available for you to use to escape the cashless system.

  6. Ping from Zaphod Braden:

    Cash free society means the BANKSTERS get a “fee” for every single tiny transaction (and record it for their data bases)
    ———— It is the duty of the government to provide a fee free MEANS of trade with NO record.—
    otherwise it IS the MARK of the BEAST.

    • Ping from Knave_Dave:

      There will be no end to the fees. Like you say, you’ll get dinged with a minor transaction fee for every transaction you make. First there won’t be, then it will be minor. Over time, it will become status quo and may be a dollar per transaction of 1-3% like credit cards charge to merchants on each transaction. And, of course, there will be the negative interest charged for holding your “money” in that particular bank. Banks will compete for who charges the least interest on your account. You’ll have to decide, “Hmm, do I want the bank that charges the lowest transaction fees or the bank that charges the lowest interest for holding my money for me?” What a horrible new world these greedy PIGS are cooking up.

      • Ping from Auldenemy:

        So we the people are powerless to stop it which means they have already won……is that what you are saying?

        • Ping from jakartaman:

          Yes!
          They have been winning for years
          Not Tying to be sarcastic – but you need to pay attention.

          • Ping from Knave_Dave:

            We have all the power necessary to stop it IF we had the will. What we lack is the public consensus and will to move. If the entire populace stormed Washington, D.C., and said, “We’ll rip this place to shreds,” it would stop before we even had to start ripping. If we’d even get smart enough to give congress a clean flush and vote every incumbent out for having failed to do enough to date, it could make a difference. But we have too many people who solely blame the other party or who ascribe to the standard conservative or liberal ideologies that were built to keep from damaging the actual status quo.

            Until people are ready to end all services that they do not immediately pay for, end all military intervention in situations that do not pose a clear and present danger on the US, stop pretending we have unlimited wealth, cancel all debts in a reboot, put Glass-Stegall back into being, and rewrite laws to make certain that all the assets of CEOs, board members and top managers are at risk if they are involved in corrupt plays, etc. … i.e., tackle the truly HUGE problems that are presently designed into our economic system, it’s not going to happen.

            For now, the people still have the power if they rose up in sufficient number and outrage, but most are reading about Kim Kardashian and don’t even know for sure who the vice president is. (They only know who the president is because he’s a celebrity.)

            • Ping from Auldenemy:

              Oh God, that is so damn true. I am in the UK and have friends in America who don’t know who Janet Yellen is, Ben Bernanke etc. They don’t even know what the Federal Reserve is! It is the same here and in Europe; a public so dumbed down by Internet trivia that they know nothing about things which are right now changing their lives and the future of their children. We are witnessing what happens to democracy when the people in democratic countries think it is fine to assume TPTB in banking,politics and big corporations can just be left un monitored. It is a mistake that will cost us all dearly. Democracy is not cement, but rather a very precious rose that needs feeding and pruning. The rose of Western democracy is now covered in the black spot and green fly of banking-political corruption. Meanwhile their ravenous greed for power and wealth is matched by big Corporations who have grown around the root of the democratic rose like fungus.

            • Ping from jakartaman:

              Totally agree – However, we have 52% of this country’s voters for Obama and now they will vote for a admitted socialist.
              The problem is we have found the enemy and it is US!
              A divided house cannot stand!

          • Ping from Auldenemy:

            I assure I have been paying attention! I have read and studied the entire financial system for years now (not just the US, but here in the UK, also Japan and China, plus Russia). I also read daily, all political events and views (both Left and Right). The point I am making is that if the end game is gold will be illegal, maybe silver too and we are all trapped in a banker cyber world of digital currency only (and the huge charges they will inflict on us), then it means every site extolling the virtues of gold and silver are all wrong.

            • Ping from Knave_Dave:

              I agree that gold and silver are not the perfect safe havens they are often extolled to be. Gold has been confiscated before (at fair-market value), and silver and other metals could be, too. Even if the government doesn’t confiscate it, the central banks own enough to control the price in order to protect their own money. That said, it has usually recovered its value to where it is a fair store of wealth if someone wants to diversify; but you’re right.

              I say all the time that there is no safe asset. Stocks will definitely crash (are crashing). High-yield bonds will definitely crash (are crashing), and that may spill over to some other bonds. Cash in banks can be lost if that particular bank goes down. Money market funds may be a little safer because they are usually diversified between multiple banks, so may take a hit but probably won’t fail completely unless most banks fail.

              US bonds are probably the safest, as most of the world is likely to flee in that direction. They will ultimately face failure, too, but I have no idea how far off that will be. Sooner or later, people will stop fleeing to US bonds, and the interest rate on our $20 trillion debt will rise and become unpayable. If and when the US defaults on its own bonds, then all bets are clearly off for everything in the world.

              So, store your money in the assets that are likely to remain safest longest to give yourself time to see how the lay of the land changes. There are also collectibles, and real estate. There will be another big drop in real estate, and it won’t recover as well as it did after 2008 because that was a juiced recovery intended to reinflate real estate, and I don’t think the capacity to do that all over again exists. Still, it will recover over time, and it has intrinsic value, so it won’t lose all of its value. A little good Ag land can’t hurt.

              In the end, you’ll take losses, but should be able to protect yourself from losing everything. Some gold as a part of that makes sense to me for myself, though I don’t own any gold yet; but I could see it playing a role.

            • Ping from Auldenemy:

              You are without doubt the best commentator on the whole bankster and their political puppets, Ponzi scheme (and believe me I have read endless commentaries down the years by the well known writers in this area).

              For myself I am not worried. I am 57 and my life is mainly done. I nearly died of cancer in my mid 30s, so I have had extra time that many better people than me don’t get. I watched my soul mate slowly die of cancer over a period of 18months. So I understand how short life is and how precious it is. I don’t even own my own home (it is rented). I could never get a mortgage after a stage C cancer. In fact I only managed to get funeral insurance once I reached 50 (no medical history report required). I almost count myself lucky that I don’t have any extra money so as to worry about where to hide it from the banking system. I have come to loathe the greed not only of the bankster fraternity but how they threw that out among the people; the endless debt spree to anyone with a pulse. I have a modest collection of old and new silver coins but I never see them as my property because none of us really own anything, it is all on loan and death proves it. The history in old coins fascinates me.

              So, my worry is for the world I will leave behind. I suppose it will get through, it always has despite endless wars. My father fought all the way through WWII from the age of 17 and his eldest brother was killed during it, aged 27. It must have seemed to that generation an un ending hell, and yet despite the death of 60 million people in total, those that survived started over. Life does have a great habit of overcoming truly terrible things. Let us all hope that this coming financial ‘apocalypse’ (truly the best word you could have used for it David), does not end up in red buttons being pressed. That of course will be the ultimate, ‘End Game’.

              To try and end this little monologue in an up beat way, the one good thing about nuclear weapons (if such a disgusting means of destruction could ever be described as, ‘good’), is that unlike conventional warfare, TPTB who so love their wealth and power won’t have anything to rule over from their nuclear bunkers, which should mean none of them will be in any hurry to press those red buttons.

              I live in hope……we surely all must.

            • Ping from Knave_Dave:

              Thanks for sharing your story, Auldfriend (and for your appreciation of the blog). Nice to be hearing from another in the UK to help broaden perspectives.

              –David

            • Ping from Auldenemy:

              I am so glad I found your blog. I am getting tired of some of the Bible Belt writers on Gold/Sillverseek. I have often acknowledged the sensible bits in Bill Holter’s articles but I feel he is now using his status to indulge his conspiracy theories and extreme Right Wing views. No doubt he will be voting for Trump (who also claims to be a Christian). Of course if you say things like that then you get accused of being a Communist (which I am certainly not). I seem to be in a minority of one when it comes to a post on Goldseek of Feb 18, ‘Questions and Answers With Bill Holter and Jim Sinclair’. All the replies, minus mine, agree with Holter’s latest conspiracy theory (the recent death of Scalia). Well, I have stood my ground but I realise it is probably a waste of time.

              I like your incisive mind along with your biting humour. All the best people I ever knew in this life have had a great sense of humour. My soul mate was way more intelligent than me and she had your wicked sense of humour. I miss that so much. So never let any fools who have none of your integrity, intelligence and humour, ever stop you from writing. You are a true writer by the way, not just someone who can string words together to make a legible argument (which is what even the best commentators on Gold/SilverSeek are). This is not false flattery. I have slammed poor Andy Hoffman sometimes for his appalling grammar (he was at one time using more semi colons than full stops!). When something stands right out as being special, I will say so and when something is badly written or facts are twisted I will say so. I am also keenly aware of my own and continual failings in life.

            • Ping from Knave_Dave:

              The problem on the Americas side of the pond is we don’t have any candidates in the US to vote for.

              Our options on the Republican side are: Vote for the most arrogant, blustering buffoon on the planet in order to tip over the establishment; or vote for the establishment that loves Wall Street and believes capitalists are inherently noble, so need no regulation and who believe the best way to save the poor is to help the rich.

              On the Democratic side: Vote for a self-avowed Socialist (practically a communist) who can think clearly about the establishment and is solidly against cronyism, but who also has a poor grasp on budgeting; or vote for someone who has left a trail of slime wherever she has walked, who shrieks like a banshee, and whose smile looks like she is about to eat you.

              Don’t know why the nation just can’t seem to field a Lincolnesque candidate who is rational-minded, calm and reserved in judgement, who has a half-decent heart and who isn’t sold out to the Wall St. establishment.

              –David

            • Ping from Auldenemy:

              I just read this from you David (as I posted a far too long reply to Jak). I am smiling because you have actually said what I have just tried to expressed to Jak (but in a too long winded way). I do so agree with you and him, that if only there was someone of courage but also balance to vote for, someone who had genuine integrity. It is the same over here, there is NO ONE who fills the brief we are all crying out for.

            • Ping from Knave_Dave:

              I can only think that, for reasons unknown, the good people who read here just don’t run for office. ; )

            • Ping from jakartaman:

              You sound like a very decent man –
              I differ from you politically
              It is my opinion that we need a strong leader not a bought and paid for politician.
              Bernie Sanders has never had a real job
              Hillary Clinton never had a real job
              We need to get back to our roots -the constitution
              We need a leader who tells it like it is and stops all the PC BS

            • Ping from Auldenemy:

              I have to be honest Jak and admit that I am not a member of any political party here in the UK. They all seem the same: insincere, out of touch, and none of the politicians in power having ever done manual work on the minimum wage, so have no actual life experience. I do understand all the reasons why Trump has such a big following. Jeb Bush seems so wishy-washy and yes, Hilary Clinton is far too crafty. The Americans are quite rightly done with another Clinton or Bush as their President. I don’t know enough about Bernie Saunders – other than he looks pretty old – to come to any conclusions as to his suitability for the top job in the entire world. I must admit that from what I have heard him say, I don’t know how he intends to fund all his grand ideas and his statements about sorting out Wall St. and big banking seem hollow. I don’t think any President will ever control the bankster fraternity (it is, after all, the other way around!).

              I know that Americans are deeply fed up with this ghastly Political Correctness which has swamped Europe too. It is absurd that the term, ‘Christmas’ must now be changed to, ‘holiday’ for fear of upsetting Muslims.

              The reason I have a big problem with Trump is that he hasn’t had to live in the real world either Jak. He was born into massive wealth, his father was a very rich estate agent (I think in the US, it is, ‘realtor’?). Trump went to an elite, private school but was expelled at 11 for bullying. His father then put him into a military boarding school. After graduating from school, Trump then began his working life running some of his father’s business interests (by then Trump senior was expanding into property development and large scale construction). While never having any known serious medical conditions, The Donald managed to escape conscription for the Vietnam war (exactly as George Bush junior did!). It just goes to show how the privileged can escape anything if their rich daddy can buy them out of it.

              So you see Trump doesn’t truly represent all the Americans who feel un represented, down trodden and betrayed by the ever growing wealth gap between them and the super rich politicians and bankers who rule over them. Trump is actually part of that club but like all deeply crafty tacticians he knows there is no better way to attract support than to bang on and on about being a true patriot who will make sure a huge wall is built between the US and Mexico, stop all immigration and spend billions more on a US military that already has eye watering sums spent on it and is anyway, still by far the most powerful military in the entire world.

              One of my all time heroes is a man called Samuel Johnson (an English philosopher known for being down to earth and having both great compassion and wit). It was in fact Johnson who produced the first English dictionary (a truly massive undertaking which took him 9 years). He was not born to wealth and in fact though precociously intelligent he could not complete his degree at Oxford university because he was simply too poor. So perhaps that is why, even in later years when he was showered with praise and invitations by some of the richest aristocrats in England, he never changed into some pompous, self important oaf. One of Johnson’s greatest sayings is, ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel’, and I am afraid Trump is a perfect example of that. If you look at the worst leaders and dictators all through history, they do nothing but beat the drum of patriotism so as to excite the masses into a fever of nationalism. Don’t get me wrong here, there is nothing wrong with being proud of ones country and culture (and Johnson was certainly proud of his English heritage). However, fervent nationalism is extremely dangerous – especially so in this much more interconnected world with ever faster communication technology, vast amounts of lethal conventional weapons and enough nuclear weapons to destroy this planet many times over. We see fervent nationalism in North Korea, in Russia, in China along with a fervent religious nationalism all over the Middle East, so we sure know how dangerous it is. For the most powerful nation on earth, America, to have a president that all his life has been a well known bully with extreme right wing views, is not going to be an asset either to America or the rest of the world.

              Please Jak, I am not the Left Wing twat some on Goldseek make me out to be. I also despise extreme Left Wing principles, many of which are presented like a great big, wobbly jelly, that has no substance but looks great cos it is coated in the sickly spray cream of Political Correctness.

              So yes, I understand the hunger in America for a strong President, but being a loud mouthed, bigoted thug who by his obscene amounts of wealth has spent his life every bit as isolated from reality as the Clinton or Bush mob, is not strength but rather an over inflated ego that employs an army of lawyers and spin doctors to aid him in his great desire, which is not to serve America but to have control over it, and to use that control in ways that will at the very least add to an already politically unstable world. Control is not strength, but rather a black hole that sucks everything into its epicentre, that turns even positive energy into something completely negative. America, as the most powerful nation on earth, deserves much better than Trump and so do all your NATO allies over here in Europe.

              I think the reason David Haggith’s observations stand right out (along with the photos he chooses for his articles), is that in his, ‘apocalyptic’ vision of what is to come, he is writing about something I have sensed for many years (and I mean prior to the 2008 financial crisis), but could not express because I didn’t understand where or what was making me sense this terrible time to come. I really don’t want to be a, ‘Gloom and Doomer’, but each age does have its cycles and from about 1970 onwards, the West has been living in an ever increasing fantasy (made possible by too much easy debt to waste on many gadgets and material toys none of us actually need). ‘Stuff’ and never having enough of it has been the clarion call for decades, and indeed Western nations have, quite literally, started to stuff themselves to death by consuming vast amounts of junk foods and sugary drinks. The US and UK have an obesity and diabetic crisis as a result of this.

              So I think in that horrible way that bad things have, as in a nasty habit of coming together very slowly and then all at once, Trump running America with an equal bully, Putin, running Russia, along with the Middle East falling apart and Europe buckling under millions of refugees and economic migrants, and all this set against every major nation bankrupt and global industrial contraction, is a truly potent and terrible mix. It is looking more and more like the perfect conditions that David has summed up so perfectly in his articles and in the word he uses to sum up what is coming, ‘apocalypse’.

              Apologies for such a long monologue. I seem to have incessant insomnia these days. I will shut up and go away (before I get banned from this site!).

  7. Ping from Sha Moses Jack:

    So how many $20 bills will the US government need to print now to pay THEIR bills if they can’t print $100’s anymore? QE and all that ya know…just sayin’…

  8. Ping from jakartaman:

    Well thank goodness we have such noble men looking out for the little mans interest against criminals. These crooks would make the Godfather look like a saint.
    I do not see anyone or any organization with power that will stop this criminal act.
    It just screams of a cast system and servitude to the Governments. The concept of Democracy will finally be dead. Its on life support now

  9. Ping from renda blue:

    PIG

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