Infinite Unknown

Commentary:

“In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. … This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists’ tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists’ antagonism toward the gold standard.”
- Alan Greenspan

“By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
- John Maynard Keynes

Quantitative easing = printing money = creating money out of thin air = increasing the money supply = inflation = hidden tax on monetary assets = theft!

- Where Humor & Reality Meet: Quantitative Easing Explained (Video):

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda

- BOJ to pump $1.4 trillion into economy in unprecedented stimulus (Reuters, April 4, 2013):

The Bank of Japan unleashed the world’s most intense burst of monetary stimulus on Thursday, promising to inject about $1.4 trillion into the economy in less than two years, a radical gamble that sent the yen reeling and bond yields to record lows.

New Governor Haruhiko Kuroda committed the BOJ to open-ended asset buying and said the monetary base would nearly double to 270 trillion yen ($2.9 trillion) by the end of 2014, a dose of shock therapy officials hope will end two decades of stagnation.

The policy was viewed as a radical gamble to boost growth and lift inflation expectations and is unmatched in scope even by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s own quantitative easing program.

The Fed may buy more debt, but since Japan’s economy is about one-third the size of the economy, Kuroda’s plan looks even bolder.

“This is an unprecedented degree of monetary easing,” a smiling Kuroda told a news conference after his first policy meeting at the helm of the central bank.

Continue reading »

Tags: Banking, Bonds, Central Bank, Debt, Economy, Europe, Global News, Government, Japan, Politics, Quantitative Easing

- Oooops… (ZeroHedge, March 29, 2013)

After reading this memo from the Central Bank of Cyprus sent to bank CEOs on February 11, arguably to put them at ease, all we can say is “Oooops”…

We’ll ignore the contents of the memo, including such statements that “restricting the property rights of depositors” is unconstitutional – that is after all for the people of Cyprus to opine on (we did however have a hearty laugh upon learning that there is a European Convention of Human Rights),

As for the FT article referenced? The following, from February 10, which references a “confidential memo” which foretold the events from two weeks ago with absolute precision :

Continue reading »

Tags: Banking, Bonds, Central Bank, Cyprus, Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Politics, Society

- Cyprus Church Loses EUR100 Million, Curses Those Responsible (ZeroHedge, March 25, 2013):

Perhaps it was their comment last week that “with the brains in Brussels… the Euro can’t last,” but the Orthodox Church of Cyprus has lost over EUR100 million reacted to its holdings in Bank of Cyprus. Church leader Archbishop Chrysostomos II, in comments on TV, noted that “Cyprus asked for ‘crumbs’ compared to large size of Europe’s budget,” and that those responsible in Cyprus should be punished (he blames the outgoing government, Ministers of Finance, the Central Bank, and the Executive Directors of Banks) – “those that brought the place into this mess, should sit on the stool.” He noted that people will lose jobs and the state will be poorer but that the Church is prepared to help; and his first step – to send invitations to the heads of various Russian companies on the island.

Via Church of Cyprus,

Heads of Russian companies operating in Cyprus will call a working lunch, next Thursday, March 28, 2013, His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos Mr. to encourage them to remain in Cyprus.

Continue reading »

Tags: Banking, Central Bank, Cyprus, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, Global News, Government, Politics, Society

From the article:

The WSJ reports that, “the U.S. is applying money-laundering rules to “virtual currencies,” amid growing concern that new forms of cash bought on the Internet are being used to fund illicit activities. The move means that firms that issue or exchange the increasingly popular online cash will now be regulated in a similar manner as traditional money-order providers such as Western Union Co. They would have new bookkeeping requirements and mandatory reporting for transactions of more than $10,000. Moreover, firms that receive legal tender in exchange for online currencies or anyone conducting a transaction on someone else’s behalf would be subject to new scrutiny, said proponents of Internet currencies.

- US Begins Regulating BitCoin, Will Apply “Money Laundering” Rules To Virtual Transactions (ZeroHedge, March 21, 2013):

Last November, in an act of sheer monetary desperation, the ECB issued an exhaustive, and quite ridiculous, pamphlet titled “Virtual Currency Schemes” in which it mocked and warned about the “ponziness” of such electronic currencies as BitCoin. Why a central bank would stoop so “low” to even acknowledge what no “self-respecting” (sic) PhD-clad economist would even discuss, drunk and slurring, at cocktail parties, remains a mystery to this day. However, that it did so over fears the official artificial currency of the insolvent continent, the EUR, may be becoming even more “ponzi” than the BitCoins the ECB was warning about, was clear to everyone involved who saw right through the cheap propaganda attempt. Feel free to ask any Cypriot if they would now rather have their money in locked up Euros, or in “ponzi” yet freely transferable, unregulated BitCoins.For the answer, we present the chart showing the price of BitCoin in EUR terms since the issuance of the ECB’s paper: Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Big Brother, Bitcoin, Central Bank, Cyprus, Dictatorship, Dollar, ECB, Fascism, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Government, New World Order, Obama administration, Politics, Surveillance, U.S.

- Cyprus Popular Bank To Be Shuttered (UPDATE: Central Bank Denies) (ZeroHedge, March 21, 2013):

UPDATE: Cyprus Central Bank says hasn’t been informed of closure (and then back-pedals)…

• *CYPRUS CENTRAL BANK HASN’T BEEN INFORMED, TAKEN SUCH DECISION
• *CYPRUS CENTRAL BANK SAYS REORGANISATION NOT SAME AS CLOSURE

Refuting earlier comments from the regulator that Cyprus Popular Bank would not be shuttered, CYBC is reporting (following the failure to sell it to the Russians) that the bank is to be shut down, split into good-bank-bad-bank, and that deposits under EUR100,000 will be protected.

• *CYPRUS POPULAR BANK TO BE SHUT DOWN, STATE-RUN CYBC SAYS
• *CYPRUS POPULAR BANK TO BE SPLIT IN GOOD, BAD BANKS: CYBC
• *CYPRUS POPULAR BANK ASSET PROCEEDS TO BE RETURNED TO DEPOSITORS
• *CYPRUS POPULAR BANK DEPOSITS OF LESS THAN EU100,000 GUARANTEED

Of course, we await the re-refutation but for now it seems the latest news trumps the regulators ‘lies’ earlier.

Tags: Banking, Central Bank, Cyprus, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News

MUST-SEE!

March 19 (Bloomberg) — Anthanasios Orphanides, former Central Bank of Cyprus Governor, considers the proposed Cyprus bank depositor tax a form of blackmail against the government of Cyprus. He speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

Tags: Anthanasios Orphanides, Banking, Bonds, Central Bank, Cyprus, Debt, Dictatorship, Economy, EU, Europe, Fascism, Global News, Government, New World Order, Politics

Sprott had its origins in Sprott Securities Ltd., a brokerage firm founded in 1981 by Eric Sprott. Today, Sprott manages approximately $10 billion in assets and operates through four businesses:

• Asset Management
• Physical Bullion
• Private Equity and Debt
• Wealth Management

– China’s Gold Reserves: Watch What They Do, Not What They Say (ZeroHedge, March 18, 2013):

Yi Gang, Vice Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), recently made the headlines with his comments on Chinese gold reserves. On Wednesday, Mr. Yi stated that China’s gold reserves remain static at 1,054 tonnes, and suggested that a sizeable increase in those reserves would be unlikely in the future. “We need to take into account both the stability of the market and gold prices,” Mr. Yi stated, adding that as the world’s largest gold producer and importer, China produces about 400 tonnes of gold annually, and imports an additional 500 to 600 tonnes of gold every year. “Compared with China’s 3.3-trillion-U.S.-dollar foreign exchange reserves, the size of the gold market is too small,” Yi said, rejecting speculation that China would further diversify its foreign reserve investments into the precious metal. “If the Chinese government were to buy too much gold, gold prices would surge, a scenario that will hurt Chinese consumers … We can only invest about 1-2 percent of the foreign exchange reserves into gold because the market is too small,” Yi stated.

If Yi’s comments are to be believed, he is implying that the Chinese government has not added a single gold bar to its reserves since 2009 – which was the year the Chinese government officially announced its gold reserve increase to 1,054 tonnes. Given the production and import numbers stated above, we find that extremely hard to believe.

Mr. Yi’s comments stand in stark contrast to earlier comments made by Chinese government officials regarding the need to increase China’s gold reserves to ensure economic and financial safety, promote yuan globalization and act as a hedge against foreign-reserve depreciation. In 2009, a State Council advisor known as “Ji” said that a team of experts from Shanghai and Beijing had set up a task force to consider expanding China’s gold reserves. Ji was quoted as saying “we suggested that China’s gold reserves should reach 6,000 tons in the next 3-5 years and perhaps 10,000 tons in 8-10 years”.

Continue reading »

Tags: Central Bank, China, Eric Sprott, Eric Sprott Management, Global News, Gold, Government, People's Bank of China, Politics

Must-see!

- Incredible Video: Beppe Grillo Dissects the Financial System…in 1998 (Liberty Blitzkrieg, March 9, 2013):

“Whom does the money belong to?  Who does its ownership belong to?  To the State fine…then to us, we are the State. You know that the State doesn’t exist, it is only a legal entity.  WE are the state, then the money is ours…fine.  Then let me know one thing.  If the money belongs to us…Why…do they lend it to us??”

- Beppe Grillo in 1998

If you really want to know why Beppe Grillo is causing Central Planners throughout the European continent to wet themselves, this video will show you.  There’s a real revolution happening in Italy.  This guy is the real deal and he understands the heart of the whole issue plaguing the world.  All I can say is:  WOW.

Tags: Beppe Grillo, Central Bank, Dictatorship, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, IMF, Italy, New World Order, Politics, Society, World Bank

- China Central Bank Says It Is “Fully Prepared For Looming Currency War” (ZeroHedge, March 2, 2013):

Just in case Lagarde (and everyone else except for the Germans, who have a very unpleasant habit of telling the truth), was lying about that whole “no currency war” thing, China is already one step ahead and is fully prepared to roll out its own FX army. According to China Times, “China is fully prepared for a looming currency war should it, though “avoidable,” really happen, said China’s central bank deputy governor Yi Gang late Friday.” We look forward to the female head of the IMF explaining how China is obviously confused and that it is not currency war when one crushes their currency to promote “economic goals.” Of course, that same organization may want to read “Zero Sum for Absolute Idiots” because in this globalized economy any attempt to promote demand (by an end consumer who has no incremental income and stagnant cash flow) through currency debasement has no impact when everyone does it. But then again, this is the IMF – the same organization that declared Europe fixed in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and so on.

More on China’s FX troop deployments: Continue reading »

Tags: Central Bank, China, Currency War, Global News, Government, People's Bank of China, Politics

- Gold And The Potential Dollar Endgame Part 3: Backwardation And Gold (ZeroHedge, Feb 22, 2013)

Tags: Backwardation, Central Bank, Contango, Dollar, Economy, Gold, Quantitative Easing, U.S.