Iconic NY Steakhouse ‘Gallagher’s’, Which Survived The Great Depression, Is Closing

Iconic NY Steakhouse “Gallagher’s”, Which Survived The Great Depression, Is Closing (ZeroHedge, Oct 25, 2012):

The Department of Labor’s WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) website may have been exempt from layoff notices related to the fiscal cliff, but it still provides a sufficiently (bleak) complete picture about the real nature of layoffs and business cycle in general in America’s busiest city. Which is why it was precisely using the WARN website that we learned that one of New York’s most historic steakhouses, “NY’s Prime Steakhouse since 1927” Gallagher’s, located on 52nd street, and which survive the great depression, is shutting down on January 16. Surely neither the surging price of meat, nor the ability of patrons to spend charge $46.95 for an 18 ounce sirloin, has had any impact on the decision to close this iconic restuarant which survived the Great Depression, but failed to survive Tim Geithner’s “recovery“.

From WARN:

Date of Notice: 10/23/2012

Read moreIconic NY Steakhouse ‘Gallagher’s’, Which Survived The Great Depression, Is Closing

US Treasury Admits It Conducted A Circular Ponzi Scheme For Years

US Treasury Admits It Conducted A Circular Ponzi Scheme For Years (ZeroHedge, Aug 17, 2012):

While one may wonder about the implications of the just announced “accelerated windown” of the GSEs, predicated in no small part by the surge in animosity between Tim Geithner and the FHFA’s Ed DeMarco, there is one aspect of the announcement that is completely and utterly unambigious: as part of its justification to demand faster liquidation of Fannie and Freddie’s “investment portfolio” Tim Geithner gave the following argument:

This will help achieve several important objectives, including… Ending the circular practice of the Treasury advancing funds to the GSEs simply to pay dividends back to Treasury

In other words not some fringe blog, not some “partisan” media outlet, not some morally conflicted whistleblowing former employee seeking immunity, but the US Trasury itself just admitted it had been engaged in circular check kiting scheme, which essentially has all the components of a Ponzi scheme in it, ever since the nationalization (about which there is no now doubt and which means the GSE’s $6 trillion in debt is now fully on the Treasury’s balance sheet) of Fannie and Freddie in 2008.

Transfer one more conspiracy theory into the conspiracy fact bin.

U.S. Treasury’s Secretive $2.4 TRILLION Fund Guarantee (CNBC)

Treasury’s Secretive $2.4 Trillion Fund Guarantee (CNBC, Aug 9, 2012):

Details about a secretive government program to bail out money-market mutual funds are finally coming to light.

Acting without any explicit Congressional authority, the U.S. Treasury guaranteed in excess of $2.4 trillion of money market funds after the giant Reserve Primary Fund “broke the buck” following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. The program, which ended on Sept. 18, 2009, seems to have successfully prevented a panicked run by money-market fund investors.

But until now the Treasury has kept the identities of the funds that received government backing and the amounts guaranteed secret. It was not clear how many funds obtained backing or for how much taxpayers were on the hook during the program’s duration.

Read moreU.S. Treasury’s Secretive $2.4 TRILLION Fund Guarantee (CNBC)

Banksters Arrested In Iceland, Ireland, UK, USA, Switzerland, India, France, Russia, Austria … (Video)


YouTube Added: 29.07.2012

Description:

The rest of the story:

Read moreBanksters Arrested In Iceland, Ireland, UK, USA, Switzerland, India, France, Russia, Austria … (Video)

‘Eurozone Crisis: The Bankers Are Happy To Play Nero As Europe Burns’ (Guardian)

Not just one generation will be thrown into poverty.


To prop up the euro – whose survival is vital only for the banks’ balance sheets – a generation is thrown into poverty


In Athens, Angela Merkel is seen handcuffed on the cover of the magazine Crash. The headline demands that European leaders be ‘tried for genocide of the Greeks’. Photograph: Thanassis Stavrakis/AP

Eurozone crisis: the bankers are happy to play Nero as Europe burns (Guardian, July 31, 2012):

While Rome burned, Nero put on fancy dress, stood on a tower and played his lyre. He sang of the Sack of Ilium and roasted Christians at the stake to light up his party. The people were taxed to pay for his extravagance, but he appeased them with games of ever increasing spectacle and sadism. He clad slaves in deerskins and had lions eat them. It was immensely popular. When Nero duly fell from grace and committed suicide, he cried: “What an artist dies in me.”

I like the Olympics now that athletes have taken over from fatcats on centre stage, but the media coverage is disproportionate, idiotic and Orwellian. Never has the BBC in particular purveyed such nationalistic opium to the people. Is it really necessary to ignore all news of the city burning for the duration?

Last weekend a small island off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein saw the American treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, and the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, attempt a feat as yet unknown to the Olympics. It is called “save the euro”. This marathon is being played simultaneously and in real time by bankers and politicians in all Europe’s capitals, while a claque shouts “two weeks to save the euro” over and over again.

Read more‘Eurozone Crisis: The Bankers Are Happy To Play Nero As Europe Burns’ (Guardian)

AND NOW: The Fed’s Gold Is Being Audited … By The US Treasury

The Fed’s Gold Is Being Audited… By The US Treasury (ZeroHedge, Aug 2, 2012):

When we started reading the LA Times article reporting that “the federal government has quietly been completing an audit of U.S. gold stored at the New York Fed” we couldn’t help but wonder when the gotcha moment would appear. It was about 15 paragraphs in that we stumbled upon what we were waiting for: “The process involved about half a dozen employees of the Mint, the Treasury inspector general’s office and the New York Fed. It was monitored by employees of the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm.” In other words the Fed’s gold is being audited… by the Treasury. Now our history may be a little rusty, but as far as we can remember, the last time the Fed was actually independent of the Treasury then-president Harry Truman fired not one but two Fed Chairmen including both Thomas McCabe as well as the man after whom the Fed’s current residence is named: Marriner Eccles, culminating with the Fed-Treasury “Accord” of March 3, 1951 which effectively fused the two entities into one – a quasi independent branch of the US government, which would do the bidding of its “political”, who in turn has always been merely a proxy for wherever the money came from (historically, and primarily, from Wall Street), which can pretend it is a “private bank” yet which is entirely subjugated to the crony interests funding US politicians (more on that below). But in a nutshell, the irony of the Treasury auditing the fed is like asking Libor Trade A to confirm that Libor Trader B was not only “fixing” the Libor rate correctly and accurately, but that there is no champagne involved for anyone who could misrepresent it the best within the cabal of manipulation in which the Nash Equilibrium was for everyone to commit fraud.

Far more importantly, for all those financial novices who fail to grasp the simplest relationship between assets and liabilities, the allegation expounded by the “conspiracy theorists”, as the LA Times calls them, has never been that the gold at the NY Fed is not there. It is by all means there: after all what safer place to keep it than 80 feet below the Federal Reserve itself, the same Fed which has exclusive access to the 1000+ strong Federeal Reserve Police whose “primary duty is to provide force protection to Federal Reserve facilities. Secondary responsibilities, depending on the particular location, may include liaison work with other law enforcement agencies and/or investigative work related to administrative matters.”

And not only the gold belonging to the US: it is well known that the bulk of Europe’s sovereign gold is also contained deep under downtown Manhattan: we wish them all the best when they attempt to repatriate the physical when they need it, such as the day after the EUR finally collapses.

No – what the “conspiracy theorists” allege is that claims existing in paper format on the physical gold held under Liberty 33 are orders of magnitude greater than the actual physical gold these claims supposedly have recourse to. Indeed, this too was a conspiracy theory until the failure of MF Global proved it to be a conspiracy “fact” and the entire asset-liability rehypothecation daisy-chain threatened to begin unwinding in November of 2011, at which point forced delivery of hard assets would expose the entire facade of the modern financial system to be a hollow sham.

So unless the Treasury will also conduct a full “audit” of every single paper trail and every physical bar is mapped to all of its existing obligors, then the entire operation is absolutely meaningless and simply a waste of taxpayer money. Because the physical gold may well be there (and furthermore it is the gold at Ft. Knox that was questionable; never the gold held by the Fed, but who cares about details). The problem is if the paper claims on this gold are far greater than the actual deliverable physical gold for that moment when the latest attempt to kick the can down the rehypothecated road finally fails.

Read moreAND NOW: The Fed’s Gold Is Being Audited … By The US Treasury

GREECE EXCLUSIVE: Geithner Envoy ‘Assured Athens Of US Support On Return To Drachma’ – Sources

GREECE EXCLUSIVE: Geithner envoy ‘assured Athens of US support on return to drachma’ – sources (The Slog, July 29, 2012):

Meanwhile, the EFSF robs Petros to pay Pavlos

The US Treasury’s Assistant Secretary for International Finance Charles Collyns had a meeting with Greek Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras in Athens on Wednesday morning. The official Greek media version was that Collyns ‘expressed the support of US-Finance Secretary Tomothy Geithner to Greece and his confidence in Greek efforts. Yinannis Stournas briefed Collyns on the situation of the Greek fiscal condition, and the key challenges of the Greek economy’.

In fact, Washington sources told The Slog last night BST that Collyns – a confidante of both Geithner and Stournas – was on a specific mission to impress on Greek Finance bosses the US Treasury’s sincerity in offering Greece “almost unqualified support in the event of a return to the drachma”. The White House is betting on the strong likelihood of Greece becoming formally insolvent before any more bailout monies are available from Berlin-am-Brussels.

Read moreGREECE EXCLUSIVE: Geithner Envoy ‘Assured Athens Of US Support On Return To Drachma’ – Sources

Neil Barofsky On Timothy Geithner: ‘We Should See People In Handcuffs’ (Video)

Barofsky On Geithner: “We Should See People In Handcuffs” (ZeroHedge, July 26, 2012):

There is no point in recapping the ongoing vendetta between former SIGTARP Neil Barofsky and former head of the NY Fed, and current Treasury secretary and resident TurboTax expert Tim Geithner. One need but follow the former on Twitter for a quick and concise sampling of the sentiments harbored vis-a-vis the latter. However, in the following interview Barfosky does touch on some points which in the context of the recent Liborgate, should be brought front and center, especially since the increasingly apathetic US audience seems to not care about one bit (as opposed to their distant cousins across the Atlantic for whom Lieborgate has become a daily distraction). Namely, what Barofsky says is that Geithner and other regulators who allowed Lieborgate to proceed should not only lose their job but we should see [Geithner] in handcuffs.”  Sadly that will never happen as it would actually be a deterrent to future crime among the highest echelons of America: something which is just not allowed to happen in a system whose very survival is increasingly reliant on rampant criminality.

To wit:

While Geithner pushed for broader reforms of LIBOR, he did not explicitly warn of possible rate manipulations and neglected to notify U.S. regulators at the Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission to the wrongdoing, notes Barofsky.

It was a “message to the banks ‘if we commit fraud, we break the rules, don’t worry, we’re too big — they’ll never bring the appropriate steps against us,'” Barofsky says in an interview with The Daily Ticker. “And that is why we’ve had scandal after scandal after scandal.”

This was a “global conspiracy to fix one of the most important interest rates in the world,” Barofsky continues. “[Geithner] heard this information and looked the other way. Geithner and other regulators should be held accountable, they should be fired across the board. If they knew about an ongoing fraud, and they didn’t do anything about it, they don’t deserve to have their jobs. I hope we see people in handcuffs.”

Full clip:

There is no point in recapping the ongoing vendetta between former SIGTARP Neil Barofsky and former head of the NY Fed, and current Treasury secretary and resident TurboTax expert Tim Geithner. One need but follow the former on Twitter for a quick and concise sampling of the sentiments harbored vis-a-vis the latter. However, in the following interview Barfosky does touch on some points which in the context of the recent Liborgate, should be brought front and center, especially since the increasingly apathetic US audience seems to not care about one bit (as opposed to their distant cousins across the Atlantic for whom Lieborgate has become a daily distraction). Namely, what Barofsky says is that Geithner and other regulators who allowed Lieborgate to proceed should not only lose their job but we should see [Geithner] in handcuffs.”  Sadly that will never happen as it would actually be a deterrent to future crime among the highest echelons of America: something which is just not allowed to happen in a system whose very survival is increasingly reliant on rampant criminality.

To wit:

While Geithner pushed for broader reforms of LIBOR, he did not explicitly warn of possible rate manipulations and neglected to notify U.S. regulators at the Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission to the wrongdoing, notes Barofsky.

It was a “message to the banks ‘if we commit fraud, we break the rules, don’t worry, we’re too big — they’ll never bring the appropriate steps against us,'” Barofsky says in an interview with The Daily Ticker. “And that is why we’ve had scandal after scandal after scandal.”

This was a “global conspiracy to fix one of the most important interest rates in the world,” Barofsky continues. “[Geithner] heard this information and looked the other way. Geithner and other regulators should be held accountable, they should be fired across the board. If they knew about an ongoing fraud, and they didn’t do anything about it, they don’t deserve to have their jobs. I hope we see people in handcuffs.”

Full clip:

This Is The Government: Your Legal Right To Redeem Your Money Market Account Has Been Denied – THE SEQUEL

This Is The Government: Your Legal Right To Redeem Your Money Market Account Has Been Denied – The Sequel (ZeroHedge, July 19, 2012):

Two years ago, in January 2010, Zero Hedge wrote “This Is The Government: Your Legal Right To Redeem Your Money Market Account Has Been Denied” which became one of our most read stories of the year. The reason? Perhaps something to do with an implicit attempt at capital controls by the government on one of the primary forms of cash aggregation available: $2.7 trillion in US money market funds. The proximal catalyst back then were new proposed regulations seeking to pull one of these three core pillars (these being no volatility, instantaneous liquidity, and redeemability) from the foundation of the entire money market industry, by changing the primary assumptions of the key Money Market Rule 2a-7. A key proposal would give money market fund managers the option to “suspend redemptions to allow for the orderly liquidation of fund assets.” In other words: an attempt to prevent money market runs (the same thing that crushed Lehman when the Reserve Fund broke the buck). This idea, which previously had been implicitly backed by the all important Group of 30 which is basically the shadow central planners of the world (don’t believe us? check out the roster of current members), did not get too far, and was quickly forgotten. Until today, when the New York Fed decided to bring it back from the dead by publishing “The Minimum Balance At Risk: A Proposal to Mitigate the Systemic Risks Posed by Money Market FUnds“. Now it is well known that any attempt to prevent a bank runs achieves nothing but merely accelerating just that (as Europe recently learned). But this coming from central planners – who never can accurately predict a rational response – is not surprising. What is surprising is that this proposal is reincarnated now. The question becomes: why now? What does the Fed know about market liquidity conditions that it does not want to share, and more importantly, is the Fed seeing a rapid deterioration in liquidity conditions in the future, that may and/or will prompt retail investors to pull their money in another Lehman-like bank run repeat?

Here is how the Fed frames the problem in the abstract:

Read moreThis Is The Government: Your Legal Right To Redeem Your Money Market Account Has Been Denied – THE SEQUEL

More On LIBOR: Plus, Eliot Spitzer Takes On Bartiromo In Japanese Monster-Movie Epic

More on LIBOR: Plus, Spitzer takes on Bartiromo in Japanese Monster-Movie Epic (Rolling Stone, July 17, 2012):

Was on Viewpoint with the inimitable Eliot Spitzer last night and joined Dennis Kelleher from Better Markets in discussing some of the more upsetting recent revelations from the LIBOR banking scandal — including most notably the not-so-surprising revelation that Tim Geithner was apprised of the rate-rigging as far back as 2008.

P.S. I advise everyone to check out the Godzilla-v.-Mothra death-battle between Spitzer and Maria Bartiromo from last Friday on her show on CNBC. Maria’s always been a little nuts, but this latest crusade to rewrite history and cleanse ex-AIG chief Hank Greenberg of culpability in a fraud scandal that at the time led to the biggest financial settlement ever paid is an absolute head-scratcher.

Read moreMore On LIBOR: Plus, Eliot Spitzer Takes On Bartiromo In Japanese Monster-Movie Epic

Federal Reserve Admits It Knew Of Barclays Libor ‘Problems’ In 2007 And 2008

From the article:

Via Reuters:

According to the calendar of then New York Fed President, Timothy Geithner, who is now U.S. Treasury Secretary, it even held a “Fixing LIBOR” meeting between 2:30-3:00 pm on April 28, 2008. At least eight senior Fed staffers were invited.

It is unclear precisely what was discussed at this meeting or who attended. Among those invited, along with Geithner, was William Dudley, who was then head of the Markets Group at the New York Fed and who succeeded Geithner as its president in January 2009. Also invited was James McAndrews, a Fed economist who published a report three months later that questioned whether Libor was manipulated.


Federal Reserve Admits It Knew Of Barclays Libor “Problems” In 2007 And 2008 (ZeroHedge, July 10, 2012):

Last Tuesday we suggested thatNow The Fed Gets Dragged Into LiEborgate when we observed that “Barclays also cited subsequent research by the New York Federal Reserve staff members that, according to the lender, concluded that banks’ Libor quotes were systematically below their borrowing rates by 39 basis points after the Lehman bankruptcy. “Barclays own submissions for tenors of 1 month to 1 year Libor were higher than actual Barclays trades on 97% of the occasions when Barclays had actual trades during the financial crisis,” the lender said.” It seems that unlike the BOE, which had no idea of any Barclays problems and was merely calling up Diamond now and then to make sure the bank’s money market risk mechanisms were operational and to chit chat about the weather (as per the BOE at least), the Fed has decided to take the high road and openly admit it was well aware of Barclays’ LIBOR “problems.” And like that the Senatorial circus just got exciting, while that popping noise is bottles of Bollinger going off at every class action lawsuit legal firm.

From Bloomberg:

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York was aware of potential issues involving Barclays Plc and the London interbank offered rate after the financial crisis began in 2007, according to a statement from the district bank.

“In the context of our market monitoring following the onset of the financial crisis in late 2007, involving thousands of calls and e-mails with market participants over a period of many months, we received occasional anecdotal reports from Barclays of problems with Libor,” New York Fed spokeswoman Andrea Priest said in an e-mailed statement.

In the spring of 2008, following the failure of Bear Stearns and shortly before the first media report on the subject, we made further inquiry of Barclays as to how Libor submissions were being conducted,” the statement said. “We subsequently shared our analysis and suggestions for reform of Libor with the relevant authorities in the U.K.”

Read moreFederal Reserve Admits It Knew Of Barclays Libor ‘Problems’ In 2007 And 2008

QBAMCO: ‘Another Perspective’ (Must-Read)

Related article:

Charlie Munger: Gold Is For Holocaust-Era Jewish Families To Sew Into Their Garments; Civilized People Don’t Buy Gold

Got gold and silver?


Must Read: “Another Perspective” (ZeroHedge, May 14, 2012):

From Paul Brodsky and Lee Quaintance of QBAMCO

Another Perspective (pdf)

Two weeks ago, before Jamie Dimon’s thoughtful diversion, Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway instructed viewers of CNBC that “civilized people don’t buy gold, they invest in productive businesses”. Munger was right in that civilized people invest in productive businesses and was right to imply that gold is a non-productive rock, but, in our humble opinion, he was wrong to suggest that gold does not have significant upside as an investment currently (even more than BRK/A?).

Read moreQBAMCO: ‘Another Perspective’ (Must-Read)

Famous Investor Jim Rogers: Riots Are Coming To America – ‘Mr. Bernanke Has Zero Credibility As Far As I’m Concerned. The Federal Reserve Has Zero Credibility’

Jim Rogers’ Warning: Riots Coming To America (ETF Daily News, May 2, 2012):

Dominique de Kevelioc de Bailleul: Speaking with the Wall Street Journal on Friday, commodities trader Jim Rogers of Rogers Holdings said riots such as the ones witnessed in Greece and reported as widespread in China will hit the United States and again in Europe as the next leg down in the financial crisis takes shape (after the election, he speculates in previous interviews).

“I’m more worried about those kind of problems [rioting] in the U.S. and Europe; this is where social unrest is going to be worse,” Rogers told the Journal.  “I would suspect that, when economic conditions get worse here and get worse in Europe, we’re going to see . . . you’ve seen governments fail in Europe; you’ve seen countries fail in Europe. I suspect you’re going to see more of it [rioting], yes.

“We saw it in London; we’ve seen it in several countries in Europe in the last year or two.  Yes, I expect to see it here, too.  If you don’t, look out your window”

When asked about Bernanke’s credibility regarding his latest FOMC public statement, in which he said the Fed will be able to contain inflation, Rogers became noticeably irritated.

“Mr. Bernanke has zero credibility as far as I’m concerned.  The Federal Reserve has zero credibility,” Rogers said forcefully.   “Simon, go back at everything Mr. Bernanke has said in the last seven or eight years he’s been in Washington.  He’s never been right about anything.  The man has zero credibility for anyone who would take the time to look at his history.”

As far as further inflation down the road, Rogers stated inflation is already in the pipeline, and will manifest in higher commodities and consumer prices—of which, historically, have lagged money supply expansion by six months to one year.

Read moreFamous Investor Jim Rogers: Riots Are Coming To America – ‘Mr. Bernanke Has Zero Credibility As Far As I’m Concerned. The Federal Reserve Has Zero Credibility’

Tim Geithner Glitch In The Matrix Special: Will America Become Greece In Two Years – ‘No Risk Of That’

Flashback: Quotes from the Great Depression


Tim Geithner Glitch In The Matrix Special: Will America Become Greece In Two Years – “No Risk Of That” (ZeroHedge, April 14, 2012):

Geithner April 2011: “Is there a risk that the United States could lose its AAA credit rating? Yes or no?” – Tim Geithner: “No risk of that.”

….

Geithner April 2012:  “If we don’t deal with these debt problems we are going to be Greece in two years” – Tim Geithner: “No risk of that.”

On Friday we learned that in 2011, the president paid a less than “fair” 20.5% in taxes on his joint income, substantially less than pretty much most Americans who listen to the now virtually daily sermons on the fairness of class warfare. It prompted us to wonder if the president has not been taking tax advice from the likes of the Treasury secretary, best known not for destroying the US economy, but for having some tax “underpayment” issues of his own, which however TurboTax was delighted to take the blame for. Which explains why now that the president may appear just somewhat disingenuous when discussing tax “fairness”, it is up to the lackey who made tax evasion cool all over again, to defend the “fairness” of the Buffett Rule (shown graphically here) in today’s episode of 60 Minutes. Oddly enough we were expecting Timmy to tell everyone to just use TurboTax… and some creative imagination when it comes to reporting income: he did not, instead he said “If we don’t push for things that make sense, then we’re not governing“. No comment there.

But wait there’s more: in a disastrous attempt to prevent the repeat of last August, when a 3 month showdown over the US debt limit ended up crashing the stock market, and culminated with the downgrade of America’s AAA rating, Geithner, who previously said there is no risk of the US ever being downgraded (4 months before it was), urged Congress against repeating last year’s “very damaging” debate over the debt limit, adding that the economy is stronger than at any time in the past several years. We wonder though – very damaging to whom exactly: the liars who claim that ‘America’s economy is stronger than ever’, courtesy of well over $2 trillion in debt in the past two years? Or that the debt ceiling will be breached all over again before the presidential election, confirming that the Treasury secretary can’t even budget the worst case scenario one year in advance? Finally, since there will be a protracted debt ceiling fight, certainly during the tail end of the presidential campaign, is Geithner’s plea really just to prevent Congress from making him into a running gag punchline for the second year in a row (all the while blaming the Bush presidency as usual)?

But the absolute kicker, and here we flashback to April 2011 when Timmy said there was “No risk” of a US downgrade, was Geithner using his favorite catchphrase, this time in response to whether the US may become Greece in two years: “No risk.”

And scene.

From Bloomberg:

It would be good for the country, if this time, they did it with less drama and less politics and less damage to the country than they did last summer,” Geithner said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program today, referring to lawmakers’ reluctance to raise the debt ceiling until an 11th-hour agreement with the Obama administration in August.

Actually it would be far gooder for the country if the debt ceiling debate did not have to arise ever 6 months or so. But since the US economy is now terminally broken, and the Treasury generates more cash from debt issuance than from tax refunds, only idiots could possibly fall for the outgoing Treasury secretary’s sad platitudes at this point.

Geithner has said the U.S. won’t hit its debt limit again until late in the year.

Which means the debt limit will be breached in a few short months as calculated here.

Americans generally should feel much more confident about the basic strength of the economy than they would have felt any time in the last four or five, six years,” Geithner said. Still, “it’s a very tough economy.”

Well if they were drinking nothing but the same hopium and KoolAid dispersed by the administration over the past 3 years, they would. Alas, they no longer do. And the reality is diametrically opposite.

When all else fails, blame it on Europe and evil, evil speculators who drive oil prices higher, but never on saintly stock speculators who do the same with equities:

“Obviously, we’ve got a lot of challenges ahead and some risks and uncertainty ahead,” Geithner said on ABC. Those risks include the European debt crisis and oil prices, he said.

Finally, for those who wonder why Geithner gets paid the big bucks:

Geithner, asked what the U.S. jobless rate will be on election day, told CBS that “if the economy continues to gradually strengthen like it’s been doing, then the unemployment rate will be lower.”

Actually, it is not the economy strengthening, it is the labor pool imploding. So yes, if civilian labor force ratio drops to 58% or less (a divergence that can be seen perfectly here), the unemployment rate will not only be lower, it will be negative – something which every treasury secretary is all too aware of in an election year.

Timmy “TurboTax” Geithner on tax fairness:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And the same soon to be employee of the Goldman-Morgan banker complex on the debt issue:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

But the absolute punchline: Tim Geithner on whether there is a risk America could become Greece in two years: “No Risk

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And from April 2011, when asked if the US will be downgraded: just watch the first 15 seconds…

The only thing inquiring minds want to know is whether the dollar-drachma exchange rate be 1:1?

US Debt Ceiling D-Day: September 14, 2012 – Pathological Liar Timothy Geithner Exposed (Once More)

US Debt Ceiling D-Day: September 14, 2012 (ZeroHedge, MAr 28, 2012):

Earlier today, outgoing Treasury Secretary and tax challenged part-time pathological liar (see here) Tim Geithner said that any worries of the US debt ceiling are misplaced, and that at best such an event would occur “late in the year” (and to think the August 2011 extended $16.394 trillion debt ceiling was supposed to last well into 2013). Naturally, coming from Geithner, it meant this statement was a flat out lief the second it left his mouth, which is why we decided to do our own analysis of just when the latest and greatest debt ceiling would be breached. The answer is that at the current rate of debt issuance, which incidentally is going to accelerate sharply due to the recent extension of the payroll tax cuts which will require an incremental $100-150 billion total debt to be funded, and extrapolating future issuance solely on historical patterns, the US debt ceiling D-Day will be September 14, 2012. This means that there will be just over 6 weeks for the GOP to hijack each and every presidential debate before the November election with just this topic. Because there will hardly be anything more humiliating for Obama than to have to defend his platform even as the country is once again past the verge of insolvency, and forced to “commingle” retirement funds to keep Treasury operations running. Which incidentally is just as we predicted would happen when we explained why the GOP fast shelved the payroll tax debate so rapidly. It was nothing but a prelude to precisely this. Because once it is raised, and it will be raised of course, next up will be yet another ratings downgrade by S&P and this time, Moody’s as well. All of which will most likely happen before November.

‘Trillion Dollar Terror Exposed’: ‘Bush, Fed, Europe Banks in $15 Trillion Fraud, All Documented’ (Veterans Today)

Related:

Transcript and video (and link to a speech by Lord James of Blackheath on Foundation X in 2010) here:

Lord James Of Blackheath, House Of Lords, February 16, 2012 (Video): FOUNDATION X UPDATE!!!

Looks like this is going viral now …



LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH, EXPOSING “TRILLION DOLLAR TERROR”

Intel Exclusive: Trillion Dollar Terror Exposed (Veterans Today, Feb. 21, 2012):

Bush, Fed, Europe Banks in $15 Trillion Fraud, All Documented

Below is one of the strangest stories in financial history, one involving the US government lying about hundreds of thousands of tons of imaginary gold, illegal wire transfers and loans totalling $15 trillion.  The video, from the House of Lords, is amazing in itself.

What it doesn’t express is where the money came from though Lord James of Blackheath proves conclusively that an effort was made to say it came from a gold reserve in Brunei that, in fact, never existed.

At surface, it appears we have stumbled upon the largest terrorist organization in the world and have found original documents tracing its funding to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, two of the top financial officers in the US.  A cursory review of terrorism statues in the US indicate that all transactions we will learn about are, in fact, to be assumed “terrorist money laundering” and that the only thing preventing the immediate arrest of hundreds of top financial officials is their political connections alone.


YouTube Added: 17.02.2012

We will be able to offer an alternative, more insights, some hard intelligence and some very valuable background that we hope will offer insightful and realistic perspectives on this amazing story.

Read more‘Trillion Dollar Terror Exposed’: ‘Bush, Fed, Europe Banks in $15 Trillion Fraud, All Documented’ (Veterans Today)

Lord James Of Blackheath, House Of Lords, February 16, 2012 (Video): FOUNDATION X UPDATE!!!

Highly recommended!

Flashback:

Nov. 1, 2010: Lord James of Blackheath, Speech on Foundation X (House of Lords, 01/11/2010) (Video)



YouTube Added: 17.02.2012

Description:

Lord James of Blackheath, House of Lords February 16 2012

Breaking news Lord James of Blackheath has spoken in the House of Lords holding evidence of three transactions of 5 Trillion each and a transaction of 750,000 metric tonnes of gold and has called for an investigation.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201212/ldhansrd/text/120216-0002.htm:

16 Feb 2012 : Column 1016

5.20 pm

Lord James of Blackheath: My Lords, I hope the minute that that has taken has not come off my time. I do not wish noble Lords to get too encouraged when I start with my conclusions but I will not sit down when I have made them. I will then give the evidence to support them and, I hope, present the reasons why I want support for an official inquiry into the mischief I shall unfold this afternoon. I have been engaged in pursuit of this issue for nearly two years and I am no further forward in getting to the truth.

There are three possible conclusions which may come from it. First, there may have been a massive piece of money-laundering committed by a major Government who should know better. Effectively, it undermined the integrity of a British bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland, in doing so. The second possibility is that a major American department has an agency which has gone rogue on it because it has been wound up and has created a structure out of which it is seeking to get at least €50 billion as a pay-off. The third possibility is that this is an extraordinarily elaborate fraud, which has not been carried out, but which has been prepared to provide a threat to one Government or more if they do not make a pay-off. These three possibilities need an urgent review.

In April and May 2009, the situation started with the alleged transfer of $5 trillion to HSBC in the United Kingdom. Seven days later, another $5 trillion came to HSBC and three weeks later another $5 trillion. A total of $15 trillion is alleged to have been passed into the hands of HSBC for onward transit to the Royal Bank of Scotland. We need to look to where this came from and the history of this money. I have been trying to sort out the sequence by which this money has been created and where it has come from for a long time.

It starts off apparently as the property of Yohannes Riyadi, who has some claims to be considered the richest man in the world. He would be if all the money that was owed to him was paid but I have seen some accounts of his showing that he owns $36 trillion in a bank. It is a ridiculous sum of money. However, $36 trillion would be consistent with the dynasty from which he comes and the fact that it had been effectively the emperors of Indo-China in times gone by. A lot of that money has been taken away from him, with his consent, by the American Treasury over the years for the specific purpose of helping to support the dollar.

Read moreLord James Of Blackheath, House Of Lords, February 16, 2012 (Video): FOUNDATION X UPDATE!!!

‘Supercommittee That Runs America’ Urges End To The ‘Zero Bound’, Demands Issuance Of NEGATIVE YIELD BONDS!

You can’t make this stuff up!


“Supercommittee That Runs America” Urges End To The “Zero Bound”, Demands Issuance Of Negative Yield Bonds (ZeroHedge, Feb. 1, 2012):

One of the laments of the uberdoves in the world over the past several years has naturally been the fact that interest rates are bound by Zero on the lower side, and that the lowest possible rate on new paper is, by definition, 0.000%. Which is what led to the advent of QE in the first place: in lieu of negative rates, the Fed was forced to actively purchase securities to catch up to a negative Taylor implied rate. This may be about to change, because as the just released letter from the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, or as we affectionately called the JPMorgan/ Goldman Sachs Chaired committee, the “Supercommittee That Runs America”, simply because it alone makes up Tim Geithner’s mind on what America needs to do funding wise, demand, “It was broadly agreed that flooring interest rates at zero, or capping issuance proceeds at par, was prohibiting proper market function. The Committee unanimously recommended that the Treasury Department allow for negative yield auction results as soon as logistically practical.” And what JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs want, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs get. And once we get the green light on negative yields at auction, next up will be the push for the Fed to impose negative rates on all standing securities, which means that coming soon savers will be literally paying to hold cash. And that will be the final straw.

Not only that, but beginning in just 4 short months, the Treasury may launch a brand new product: a Floating Rate Bond. From the TBAC:

Read more‘Supercommittee That Runs America’ Urges End To The ‘Zero Bound’, Demands Issuance Of NEGATIVE YIELD BONDS!

EU Iran Oil Embargo Sanctions ‘Unprecedented’, Freezes Iranian Central Bank Assets

Flashback:

Ron Paul: Sanctions Against Iran Are an ‘Act of War’:

… Ron Paul told voters in Iowa that western sanctions against Iran are “acts of war” that are likely to lead to an actual war.

Paul said that Iran would be justified in responding to sanctions by blocking the Straits of Hormuz, adding that the country blocking the strategically important strait is “so logical” since they have no other recourse.

He then compared the situation to China blocking off the Gulf of Mexico to trade.

War with Russia and China, anyone?

China To Protect Iran Even If It Means World War III

Russian Military Chief Warns NATO: ‘Under Certain Conditions Local And Regional Conflicts May Develop Into A Full-Scale War Involving Nuclear Weapons’

Expect another (Israeli) staged false flag attack and we have WW III.


EU Iran Oil Embargo Sanctions ‘Unprecedented’ (Huffington Post, Jan. 23, 2012):

BRUSSELS — The European Union and Iran raised the stakes Monday in their test of wills over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program, with the bloc banning the purchase of Iranian oil and Iran threatening to retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s crude is transported.

The escalating confrontation is fraught with risks – of rising energy prices, global financial instability, and potential military activity to keep the strait open.

The EU’s 27 foreign ministers, meeting Monday in Brussels, imposed an oil embargo against Iran and froze the assets of its central bank, ramping up sanctions designed to pressure Iranian officials into resuming talks on the country’s nuclear program.

Read moreEU Iran Oil Embargo Sanctions ‘Unprecedented’, Freezes Iranian Central Bank Assets

US Treasury Raids Federal Pension Funds To Cover Debts

U.S. treasury raids federal employee pension funds to cover debts (Natural News, Jan. 25, 2012):

There is a saying, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” Roughly, it’s an expression that’s meant to be reassuring, conjuring up an image of a true statesman-like leader who is preparing to do whatever is necessary to lead the masses out of danger.

Of course, the expression doesn’t have the same connotation when applied to the Obama administration in its futile struggle to balance the nation’s books. Left to fend for itself by a hapless Congress that couldn’t agree on the color of red bricks, let alone pass a budget that actually curbed spending and lowered the national debt, the administration has taken to theft as a way to pay the country’s bills. Specifically, the Treasury Department is stealing cash from federal employees pension funds so the government can obtain more credit to pay its debts.

Read moreUS Treasury Raids Federal Pension Funds To Cover Debts

Thrive (Documentary – Full Length)

For your information.

The elitists vs. the people.



YouTube Added: 13.11.2011

For more information: Thrive

MEGA BAILOUT: Federal Reserve Now Backstopping $75 TRILLION Of Bank Of America’s Derivatives Trades

Insanity just hit RECORD HIGHS!


HOLY BAILOUT – Federal Reserve Now Backstopping $75 Trillion Of Bank Of America’s Derivatives Trades (The Daily Bail, Oct 18, 2011):

This story from Bloomberg just hit the wires this morning.  Bank of America is shifting derivatives in its Merrill investment banking unit to its depository arm, which has access to the Fed discount window and is protected by the FDIC.

This means that the investment bank’s European derivatives exposure is now backstopped by U.S. taxpayers. Bank of America didn’t get regulatory approval to do this, they just did it at the request of frightened counterparties.  Now the Fed and the FDIC are fighting as to whether this was sound.  The Fed wants to “give relief” to the bank holding company, which is under heavy pressure.

This is a direct transfer of risk to the taxpayer done by the bank without approval by regulators and without public input.  You will also read below that JP Morgan is apparently doing the same thing with $79 trillion of notional derivatives guaranteed by the FDIC and Federal Reserve.

What this means for you is that when Europe finally implodes and banks fail, U.S. taxpayers will hold the bag for trillions in CDS insurance contracts sold by Bank of America and JP Morgan.  Even worse, the total exposure is unknown because Wall Street successfully lobbied during Dodd-Frank passage so that no central exchange would exist keeping track of net derivative exposure.

This is a recipe for Armageddon.  Bernanke is absolutely insane.  No wonder Geithner has been hopping all over Europe begging and cajoling leaders to put together a massive bailout of troubled banks.  His worst nightmare is Eurozone bank defaults leading to the collapse of the large U.S. banks who have been happily selling default insurance on European banks since the crisis began.

BofA Said to Split Regulators Over Moving Merrill Derivatives to Bank Unit (Bloomberg, Oct 18, 2011):

Bank of America Corp. (BAC), hit by a credit downgrade last month, has moved derivatives from its Merrill Lynch unit to a subsidiary flush with insured deposits, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

Read moreMEGA BAILOUT: Federal Reserve Now Backstopping $75 TRILLION Of Bank Of America’s Derivatives Trades

Geithner: US To Play ‘Very Major Role’ In Helping Europe

From the article:

“Geithner said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has “very substantial” resources to fund a device that could look like the Troubled Asset Relief Program,…”

!!! Here is a  different truth directly from the head of the IMF: !!!

Christine Lagarde: IMF May Need A BAILOUT

Elite puppet Geithner also told you this …

Welcome to the Recovery (New York Times, by Timothy Geithner, August 2, 2010)

… yet:

Tim Geithner Admits … US Economy Is In ‘An Early Stage’ Of A Crisis

Underwater Mortgages Could Sink America Without A Trace

US Poverty Rate Swells To Nearly 1 In 6

Record Number Americans, Or 46.3 Million, Lived In Poverty Last Year; 49.9 Million Without Health Insurance

Bank of America Cutting 30,000 Jobs – ‘Welcome to the Recovery’

‘Welcome To The Recovery’: The US Jobs Crisis Worsens – Unemployment Report Bleak On All Counts

‘Welcome To The Recovery’: California Employment at RECORD LOW

‘Welcome To The Recovery’ – Collapse: Dying Detroit Looting Itself – Unemployment Estimated At Up To 50 % – Officials: More People In Poverty Than Cars On The Street – Capital Of Scrap

Welcome to the Recovery’: Why Another 11 Million Mortgages Will Go Bad

Back to the article:

Illuminati headline: ‘Geithner: US To Play ‘Very Major Role’ In Helping Europe’

Translation: Geithner: US To Play ‘Very Major Role’ In DESTROYING Europe

This is what is really going on:

The greatest financial collapse in world history is coming:

Gerald Celente On Yahoo! Finance: The REAL Crash Is Coming! (Video – Sep 15, 2011)

More Than 1 In 3 International Investors Expect GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN Within The Next 12 Months – Eurozone Teeters On The Verge Of A ‘Euroquake’ If Greek Default Is Bungled

This is the (intentionally created) ‘Greatest Depression’.

Prepare for collapse (Physical gold & silver, food, water etc.)



Elite puppet Timothy Geithner at the Council on Foreign Relations

US to Play ‘Very Major Role’ In Helping Europe: Geithner (MSNBC, Oct. 14, 2011):

The U.S. plans on being an active partner as efforts intensify to get Europe get back on its feet financially, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNBC Friday.

With global leaders preparing for next month’s Group of 20 nations (G20) summit in Cannes, France, the International Monetary Fund — of which the U.S. is the greatest contributor — is being relied on to help underwrite whatever efforts are needed to backstop toxic European sovereign debt .

Geithner said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has “very substantial” resources to fund a device that could look like the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which helped navigate American financial institutions through the crisis in 2008 and 2009.

“Through the IMF, of course, we’re already playing a very major role,” he said in a live interview in Paris. “We’re happy to see the IMF continue to play that role in support of a more forceful, comprehensive strategy where Europe’s own resources—very ample resources—are deployed on a much more substantial scale.”

Read moreGeithner: US To Play ‘Very Major Role’ In Helping Europe