Infinite Unknown

- Why Is The World Economy Doomed? The Global Financial Pyramid Scheme By The Numbers (Economic Collapse, March 20, 2013):

Why is the global economy in so much trouble?  How can so many people be so absolutely certain that the world financial system is going to crash?  Well, the truth is that when you take a look at the cold, hard numbers it is not difficult to see why the global financial pyramid scheme is destined to fail.  In the United States today, there is approximately 56 trillion dollars of total debt in our financial system, but there is only about 9 trillion dollars in our bank accounts.  So you could take every single penny out of the banks, multiply it by six, and you still would not have enough money to pay off all of our debts.  Overall, there is about 190 trillion dollars of total debt on the planet.  But global GDP is only about 70 trillion dollars.  And the total notional value of all derivatives around the globe is somewhere between 600 trillion and 1500 trillion dollars.  So we have a gigantic problem on our hands.  The global financial system is a very shaky house of cards that has been constructed on a foundation of debt, leverage and incredibly risky derivatives.  We are living in the greatest financial bubble in world history, and it isn’t going to take much to topple the entire thing.  And when it falls, it is going to be the largest financial disaster in the history of the planet.

The global financial system is more interconnected today than ever before, and a crisis at one major bank or in one area of the world can spread at lightning speed.  As I wrote about yesterday, the entire European banking system is leveraged 26 to 1 at this point.  A decline in asset values of just 4 percent would totally wipe out the equity of many of those banks, and once a financial panic begins we could potentially see major financial institutions start to go down like dominoes.

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Tags: Banking, Bonds, Collapse, Debt, Derivatives, Derivatives market, Economy, FDIC, GDP, Global News, Ponzi schemes, Society

- Secrets and Lies of the Bailout (Rolling Stone, Jan 4, 2013):

It has been four long winters since the federal government, in the hulking, shaven-skulled, Alien Nation-esque form of then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, committed $700 billion in taxpayer money to rescue Wall Street from its own chicanery and greed. To listen to the bankers and their allies in Washington tell it, you’d think the bailout was the best thing to hit the American economy since the invention of the assembly line. Not only did it prevent another Great Depression, we’ve been told, but the money has all been paid back, and the government even made a profit. No harm, no foul – right?

Wrong.

It was all a lie – one of the biggest and most elaborate falsehoods ever sold to the American people. We were told that the taxpayer was stepping in – only temporarily, mind you – to prop up the economy and save the world from financial catastrophe. What we actually ended up doing was the exact opposite: committing American taxpayers to permanent, blind support of an ungovernable, unregulatable, hyperconcentrated new financial system that exacerbates the greed and inequality that caused the crash, and forces Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to increase risk rather than reduce it. The result is one of those deals where one wrong decision early on blossoms into a lush nightmare of unintended consequences. We thought we were just letting a friend crash at the house for a few days; we ended up with a family of hillbillies who moved in forever, sleeping nine to a bed and building a meth lab on the front lawn.

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Tags: AIG, Bailout, Bank of America, Banking, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Bush administration, Citigroup, Economy, FDIC, Fed, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis, General Motors, George Bush, Global News, GM, Goldman Sachs, Government, Great Depression, Henry Paulson, Jamie Dimon, Larry Summers, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Neil Barofsky, Nomi Prins, Obama administration, Politics, Ponzi schemes, Sheila Bair, Society, TARP, Taxpayers, Timothy Geithner, U.S., Wachovia, Wall Street, Wells Fargo

- Geithner: Raise U.S. debt limit to infinity (Natural News, Dec 1, 2012):

The elaborate Ponzi scheme officially known as the U.S. financial system is set to completely transform into a Monopoly-style fantasy economy where money and debt are both meaningless and limitless. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has actually come out with a proposal that the American debt ceiling be completely eliminated, allowing the crooks that run the federal government to print as much phony debt currency as their hearts desire, and spend away into oblivion.

During a recent interview on Bloomberg TV, Geithner told Political Capital‘s Al Hunt that the Congressionally-established debt ceiling, which was specifically designed to establish reasonable limits on the amount of money the federal government can borrow, should be completely abolished. Even though Congress is the only entity that can make such a decision, Geithner expressed his belief that the limit be scrapped to avoid its being used as “a tool for political advantage.”

“It would have been time a long time ago to eliminate it,” said a nervous Geithner to Hunt, after being asked when he believed the debt ceiling should be eliminated. “The sooner the better.”

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Tags: Barack Obama, Debt, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Ponzi schemes, Timothy Geithner, U.S.

- Judge Napolitano on Social Security: ‘If It’s Not a Ponzi Scheme, I Don’t Know What Is’ (FOX News, Oct 17, 2012):

The cost of living increase for Social Security recipients will go up by 1.7% next year, one of the smallest jumps since the automatic adjustment for inflation was adopted in 1975.Never hesitant to express a strong opinion on the role of the federal government, Judge Andrew Napolitano weighed in on the current state of the Social Security system this morning on Fox Business Network.

First going back through the history of the Social Security law, Napolitano said, “The money that is deducted from our pay here every week is spent immediately by the federal government. But the money that is paid to our parents and grandparents is borrowed. So, if that’s not a Ponzi scheme, I don’t know what is.”

The judge credited Rep. Paul Ryan for at least addressing the unsustainability of the current system in his budget proposal.

He summed up the state of the entitlement system and the tough decisions that will eventually have to be made by saying, “There are too many people dependent on the federal government and now the federal government is about to run out of cash. What do we do?”

Tags: Andrew Napolitano, Global News, Government, Politics, Ponzi schemes, Social Security, Society, U.S.

- The Truth Behind Juncker’s Lies: In The Second Largest Greek City, 1250 Companies Have Shuttered In 2012 (ZeroHedge, Aug 22, 2012):

European viceroy of various neo-colonial territories Jean-Claude Juncker, best known for being a self-professed pathological liar, just concluded a press conference in which he did what he does best: lie. Here is a sampling of the soundbites along with our commentary:

• EU’S JUNCKER SAYS TRUTH IS GREECE SUFFERS CREDIBILITY CRISIS – coming from a pathological liar, this one is our favorite
• EU’S JUNCKER SAYS CONVINCED GOVERNMENT WILL TAKE ALL MEASURES. “all measures” = “all gold”
• EU’S JUNCKER: FULLY CONFIDENT GOVERNMENT TO TAKE ALL EFFORTS “all efforts” = “all gold”
• EU’S JUNCKER SAYS GREECE MUST OPEN UP CLOSED PROFESSIONS.  Chimneysweep? Bootblack? Telegraph Operator? Tax Collector? Prosecutor? Uncorrupted muppet?
  
• EU’S JUNCKER SAYS BALL IS IN GREEK COURT; IS LAST CHANCE. The ball will be repoed to the ECB shortly
• EU’S JUNCKER SAYS NOT SAYING THERE WON’T EVER BE A 3RD PROGRAM or 33rd program
• EU’S JUNCKER SAYS GREEK EURO EXIT WOULD BE RISK TO EURO AREA and Obama’s reelection
• EU’S JUNCKER SAYS BALL IS IN GREEK COURT; not for long: ball will soon be repoed to the ECB

And much more propaganda. Here is the truth. According to Greek Thema, in Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, so far in 2012, an unprecedented 1,250 companies have shut down. This means no jobs, no tax revenues, no money in circulation. A complete and total economic collapse.

So let us explain: while Greece and Europe may engage in endless check kiting Ponzi schemes: such as the most recent one, whereby Greece promises to pay Germany by issuing bills, bought by its banks, which in turn are repoed to the ECB via the ELA, with the cash used by the country to pay Germany and the ECB, even as Germany’s contingent liabilities get more massive by funding the ECB’s capital, the reality is that unless someone does some work, and creates real wealth, real money, instead of merely shuffling electronic cash from Point A to Point B, while the only thing increasing are German contingent liabilities, aka systemic debt, absolutely nothing will change.

Tags: Collapse, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Germany, Global News, Greece, Jean-Claude Juncker, Politics, Ponzi schemes, Society, Thessaloniki

- What To Do When Every Market Is Manipulated (ZeroHedge, Aug 16, 2012):

Hint: cut the strings

If you don’t know who the sucker at the card table is, it’s you.

~ old gambler’s saying

What do the following have in common?

LIBOR, Bernie Madoff, MF Global, Peregrine Financial, zero-percent interest rates, the Social Security and Medicare entitlement funds, many state and municipal pension funds, mark-to-model asset values, quote stuffing and high frequency trading (HFT), and debt-based money?

The answer is that every single thing in that list is an example of market rigging, fraud, or both.

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Tags: Banking, Economy, Fraud, Gold, Goldman Sachs, Government, Libor, MF Global, Oil, Oil Prices, Ponzi schemes, SEC, Society, Standard Chartered, U.S.

- Aaaand It’s Gone: This Is Why You Always Demand Physical (ZeroHedge, Aug 14, 2012):

We have said it over and over, we’ll say it again. For all those who for one reason or another would like to boycott the broken markets, yet trade gold in paper form, please understand that all the invested capital is at risk of total loss and can and will be lost, commingled and rehypothecated, not necessarily in that order, with little to zero recourse and the residual claim on liquidating assets pushed to the very end of the queue. Because if Lehman, MF Global, Peregrine, and countless other examples were not enough, here comes Amber Gold: a gold-based investment ponzi scheme out of Poland, in which it is likely needless to say that the gullible investors never had actual possession of the gold. And when they tried, it was gone. All gone.

From the WSJ:

This week’s collapse of a gold-derivatives business that Polish regulators say was a Ponzi scheme has hit tens of thousands of customers, shaken confidence in the effectiveness of the nation’s financial regulation, and is roiling national politics in the European Union’s largest emerging economy.

On Monday, the company, Amber Gold, Sp. z o.o., which sold a gold-indexed investment of its own design and offered higher interest rates than banks, said it was halting operations. It pledged eventually to repay about $24 million it said it owed to roughly 50,000 clients in Poland.

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Tags: Amber Gold, Derivatives, Derivatives market, Economy, Global News, Gold, Poland, Ponzi schemes

- Mark Grant And Rick Santelli On Europe: “It’s A Ponzi Scheme To Be Honest With You” (ZeroHedge, Aug 14, 2012):

As Simon Hobbs noted this morning, Olli Rehn confirmed ahh that err “both the European Union and the ECB are ready to take action” but only conditional upon requests for aid. What is perhaps missed by most observers is what Rick Santelli and Mark Grant discuss in more detail in the short clip below. Greece managed to sell EUR4 billion short-dated bills this morning at remarkably low yields – not exactly the kind of thing that incentivizes political leaders to request aid – but how did they do it? Who bought it? Well, we suspect you know the answer but Mark Grant’s clarifying response to Santelli’s question concluded simply that the ECB-to-Greek-Banks-to-The-Bank-Of Greece-to-ECB circle-jerk is “in a sense, a kind of Ponzi scheme.” Santelli’s response that “it really is a rigged game” and that our reflexive response to the signaling of bond yields is remarkable given the manipulation; Grant agrees adding that “the real money guys are either out of Europe, getting out of Europe, or have cut back as much as they can” since simple math shows you that at some point Europe will have it’s ‘moment’.

Hobbs introduces, discusses Greece at around 3:00 and then Santelli and Grant take over at 3:40…

Tags: Bonds, Debt, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Greece, Italy, Mario Draghi, Politics, Ponzi schemes, Rick Santelli, Spain

- Peregrine Financial CEO Indicted On 31 Charges (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2012):

It only took 20 years, a trail of counterfeit documents, superficial and failed audits, dubious tax returns and one unsuccessful suicide attempt, but in the end they got him: the CEO of failed commodity brokerage Peregrine aka PFG, Russell Wasendorf has been indicted on 31 charges of lying to government regulators regarding the failed brokerage’s operations. He faces a maximum sentence of 155 years’ imprisonment on the charges and fines of about $7.75 million, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa. There is also that whole $215 million in commingled and subsequently stolen client money but that’s another matter. In other words, just like Bernie Madoff, Wasendorf is going away for a long, long time for doing precisely what everyone else does: the first one for engaging in a ponzi even as now everyone acknowledges the entire system is one big ponzi – does that make it better and legitimate: apparently so; the second one for commingling client cash for personal benefit. As a reminder, this is what JPM did with $350 billion in excess deposit cash as part of its London whale trading fiasco, and broadly what every bank in the post Glass-Steagall world does with the roughly $8 trillion in total US bank deposits.More from the WSJ:

Mr. Wasendorf was arrested July 13 on charges of lying to regulators following a suicide attempt on July 9 that included a confession that authorities say detailed a nearly 20-year fraud against Peregrine’s customers. Regulators have estimated that about $215 million in customer money is missing. Continue reading »

Tags: Banking, Crime, Economy, Global News, JPMorgan, Ponzi schemes, Russell Wasendorf, U.S.

- Bayou’s Ponzi, Vodka And Cocaine, Murder, And Frontrunning The Fed’s “Secret” Bond Market (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2012):

Think the attempted fake suicide by Bayou Capital’s Sam Israel which dominated the headlines for a few days in 2008 was strange? You ain’t seen nothing yet: as the following excerpt of Octopus, The Secret Market And The World’s Wildest Con by Guy Lawson via the Daily Mail explains, that was merely the anticlimatic culmination of an amazing tale of bogus London traders, ‘secret’ Bond markets, frontrunning the Fed, fake CIA and MI6 spies, ponzi schemes and staged murders. Continue reading »

Tags: Assassination, Bonds, CIA, cocaine, Crime, Debt, Donald Trump, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Government, IMF, MI6, Politics, Ponzi schemes, Society, U.K., U.S., Vodka