Infinite Unknown

- Godfrey Bloom of UKIP: Central Bankers Should be Arraigned as “War Criminals” (Liberty Blitzkrieg, May 7, 2013):

Coming off the heels of a fantastic performance in recent local elections, the UKIP under the leadership of Nigel Farage continues to make waves in both the UK and the Continent itself. In this case, I refer to a recent powerful performance at the European Parliament courtesy of Godfrey Bloom (UKIP), member of the European Parliament.

For many years, I have stated that Ben Bernanke was and is committing crimes against humanity, and would one day stand trial much like the war criminals at Nuremberg. It appears I am no longer alone in echoing such sentiments, as Mr. Bloom has just done so before the European Parliament.

I once said that Nigel Farage is Category 5 political hurricane.  That hurricane has landed.

Tags: Bank of England, Banking, Central Bank, Cyprus, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Godfrey Bloom, Government, Mario Draghi, Neuroscience, Nigel Farage, Politics, Quantitative Easing, U.K., UKIP

YouTube Added: 03.05.2013

Tags: Banking, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Bonds, Central Bank, Collapse, Debt, Dollar, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Fed, Federal Reserve, Gerald Celente, Global News, Government, Inflation, Ireland, Jean-Claude Trichet, Mario Draghi, Obama administration, Politics, Quantitative Easing, Retailers, Society, U.S., Unemployment

YouTube Added: 29.04.2013

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!

Tags: Bank of England, Ben Bernanke, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Mario Draghi, Mark Carney, Quantitative Easing, U.S.

- Which Country’s Gold Will Be Sold Next? (ZeroHedge, April 15, 2013):

The first time the Status Quo/Troika tried to force a (not so) stealthy gold confiscation on an insolvent European country was back in early 2012, when as part of the most recent Greek bailout MOU, it was disclosed that “Greece’s lenders will have the right to seize the gold reserves in the Bank of Greece under the terms of the new deal.” However, the public outcry was so loud that the Troika had no choice but to shelve its plans and proceed with a full scale bondholder restructuring instead. Fast forward to last week, when Europe’s appetite for physical gold came back with a bang, this time as part of the Cyprus “Debt Sustainability Analysis“, and subsequent comments from Mario Draghi, demanding that tiny Cyprus, whose opposition, already weakened by the confiscation of uninsured deposits would be far less vocal than Greece’s, sell off €400MM, or virtually all of its sovereign gold, over 10 of its 13.9 total tons, to cover the excess costs of its ever ballooning sovereign bailout. Continue reading »

Tags: Bailout, Cyprus, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Gold, Goldman Sachs, Greece, Mario Draghi

- Cyprus Central Bank In Shambles Following Third Board Member Resignation (ZeroHedge, April 12, 2013):

Perhaps the most underfollowed story of the day is the blatant takeover of the Cypriot Central bank by the ECB, which as we reported earlier, has been ordered to sell their gold by the ECB’s Mario Draghi, even though the disposition decision of the “independent” central bank of the now insolvent nation is supposedly theirs. First it was this:

• PANICOS DEMETRIADES SAYS CYPRUS CENTRAL BANK INDEPENDENCE UNDER ATTACK,
  
• DEMETRIADES SAYS GOVT WANTS TO SELL GOLD WITHOUT CONSULTATION.

And now we learn that not one, not two, but three board members of the central bank have called it a day:

• THIRD BOARD MEMBER OF THE CYPRUS CENTRAL BANK RESIGNS – CYBC
  

We are sure there are at least a few more board members who can resign topped off by Panicos himself bailing, before the entire central bank implodes, and there is nobody left in charge of the now obsolete monetary policy apparatus. What happens then: will Goldman appoint a new “technocratic” Board and governor, or will the country finally confirm that all European lies about member bank Independence is just one big lie?

Tags: Bank of Cyprus, Banking, Cyprus, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Gold, Government, Mario Draghi, Politics, Society

- Mario Draghi Orders Cyprus To Sell Gold To Cover Bailout “Shortfall” (ZeroHedge, April 11, 2013):

Update, and sure enough:

• PANICOS DEMETRIADES SAYS CYPRUS CENTRAL BANK INDEPENDENCE UNDER ATTACK,
• DEMETRIADES SAYS GOVT WANTS TO SELL GOLD WITHOUT CONSULTATION.
• CYPRUS CENTRAL BANK GOV DEMETRIADES SAYS HE AND HIS FAMILY RECEIVED DEATH THREATS

As a reminder, Panicos holds the now obsolete position of head of the Cyprus Central Bank.

* * *

As was noted two days ago (so certainly not the news catalyst for today’s gold sell off as some are trying to make it appear) as part of its bailout expansion by 35%, Cyprus announced, then refuted, then re-admitted, it would need to fund a portion of the incremental €7 billion in cash demands by selling €400 million, or nearly all 13.9 tons, of its central bank gold. Today, we learn that this demand came from none other than the head of the ECB Mario Draghi. Bloomberg reports: “European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the profits of any gold sales by the Cypriot central bank must be used to cover losses it may sustain from emergency loans to Cypriot commercial banks.”

Of course, to make it seem that the Cyprus central bank is “independent”, the “European creditors today left a possible gold sale in the hands of the Cypriot central bank, which manages 13.9 metric tons of the metal, according to the World Gold Council.” Naturally, it would not be very politically correct to give the impression that it is none other than the collateral and asset-starved European central bank that is effectively running local monetary policy of its member states, and certainly would not make Cypriots, already devoid of their uninsured bank deposits, happy that the next demand by the ECB for the privilege of staying in the EUR is for them to hand over the only real asset their country has.

More from Bloomberg:

“The decision is going to be taken by the central bank,” Draghi said after a meeting of euro-area finance officials in Dublin. “What’s important, however, is that what is being transferred to the government budget out of the profits made out of the sales of gold should cover first and foremost any potential loss that the central bank might have from its ELA.”

Continue reading »

Tags: Bank of Cyprus, Banking, Cyprus, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Gold, Government, Mario Draghi, Politics

YouTube Added: 19.03.2013

Tags: Alex Jones, Bank of England, Banking, Cyprus, Dictatorship, ECB, EU, Europe, Fascism, Gerald Celente, Global News, Goldman Sachs, Government, Henry Paulson, Mario Draghi, Mark Carney, New World Order, Robert Rubin

- Rampapalooza As Cyprus-Troika Reach Deal (Updates) (ZeroHedge, March 24, 2013):

UPDATE: It appears the ‘deal’ to default/restructure the banks has been designed to bypass the need for parliamentary votes, since it is theoretically not a tax.

While we have little color on what kind of carnage the President of Cyprus had to accept to his fellow countrymen, the news is that :

• *CYPRUS, TROIKA REACH AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE, EU OFFICIAL SAYS
• *DEAL MADE AT DINNER WITH DRAGHI, LAGARDE, VAN ROMPUY, BARROSO

The terms, unsurprisingly what zee Germans wanted, are:

i) Laiki to be wound down;

ii) Bank of Cyprus to survive but with deposit haircuts, and

iii) deal would see secured deposits in Laiki moved to Bank of Cyprus.

In other words, a deal far worse then the original on proposed by the Eurogroup last week – when the banks still existed. The key appears to be the ‘saving’ of the insured depositors (crucial to avoid a pan-European bank run) and the crushing of the ‘whale’ depositors.

Continue reading »

Tags: Bailout, Christine Lagarde, Cyprus, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Herman Van Rompuy, IMF, Jose Manuel Barroso, Mario Draghi, Politics Edit

- 150,000 Greek Public Sector Job Cuts Pending As Greece Launches Another Grexit “Plan B” Movement (ZeroHedge, March 12, 2013):

The eye of the hurricane over Southeast Europe may soon be shifting, exposing Greece to the same 150 mph gale turmoil everyone has grown to love and expect over the past three years as soon as this month, when a new proposal by Greece is due on how to cut a massive 150,000 public sector jobs: a move which will result in an immediate surge in public unrest, and an exponential jump in strike activity. As Bloomberg reports, “Greece is locked in talks with international creditors in Athens about shrinking the government workforce by enough to keep bailout payments flowing. Identifying redundant positions and putting in place a system that will lead to mandatory exits for about 150,000 civil servants by 2015 is a so-called milestone that will determine whether the country gets a 2.8 billion-euro ($3.6 billion) aid installment due this month. More than a week of talks on that has so far failed to clinch an agreement.”

Continue reading »

Tags: Collapse, Economy, EU, Europe, Germany, Global News, Greece, Mario Draghi, OMT, Politics, Society

- First Monte Paschi Banker Arrested With $54mm Stash (ZeroHedge, Feb 14, 2013):

Unfortunately for the apparently not quite big enough to not fail Italian bank’s former leaders, the Monte Paschi derivative debacle just won’t go away. As Reuters reports today, the first (or many) arrests have been made. Gianluca Baldassarri and four other people suspected of criminal conspiracy to commit fraud were arrested after police seized EUR40mm of apparently ill-gotten gains. The alleged fraud and bribery case charges Baldassarri (who left shortly after the arrival of the new CEO in Jan 2012) of misleading regulators over the true nature of a secret derivative contract that was found in a safe by the bank’s new management in October 2012. Echoing JPM’s London Whale, they uncovered a ‘systematic overshooting of risk limits’ in the management of the group’s EUR24bn prop book. Baldassarri was arrested quickly after the police found evidence that he was trying to cash in securities worth over EUR1mm soon after the funds were seized. Continue reading »

Tags: Banking, ECB, Economy, Global News, Italy, Mario Draghi, Monte Paschi