2009/02/06

Fox host: 9/11 truthers are 'mentally ill'

Fox host: 9/11 truthers are 'mentally ill'

Crazy about truth?....You Betcha!
HWS
 

On Thursday's Fox and Friends, Greg Gutfield, provocative host of Fox's late night program Red Eye, called individuals like Sunjata, who question the events of 9/11, "mentally ill."

"[Sunjata] believe that 9/11 was a preemptive strike by a neoconservative government," said Gutfield. "I think that means Bush. What angers me about this is people are treating it with respect."

The 9/11 issues are major plot lines in the first 10 episodes of Rescue Me season 5, set to air in April.
 
Complete Story:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Fox_host_911_truthers_are_mentally_0205.html

Larry Silverstein's 9/11 investments are "Pulled" in Madoff Ponzi Collapse

How many 9/11 accomplises also invested and lost money with Madoff.?
HWS
 

Silverstein held the lease to the World Trade Center's office space when the twin towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, and is building three towers to replace it. A spokesman said in a statement that "losses incurred by Larry Silverstein and his family absolutely pale in comparison to those innocent investors who lost their life savings as a result of this scheme."
 
Complete Story
http://911blogger.com/node/19307

Gainesville Gets 9 Minutes of 9/11

VIDEO:  http://911blogger.com/node/19306

Gators911Truth.org members, Harold Saive, Eduardo Arenas Reyes and Bob Tuskin use their allotted 3 minutes each to update the commission and community on recent progress on the biggest unsolved crime in American History.

Each Commissioner and the City manager were given a copy of the letter to the FBI, a copy of the response from the FBI's Michael J. Heimbach and a video DVD containing the evidence submitted to the FBI. "9/11:BLUEPRINT FOR TRUTH" by Architect, Richard Gage, AIA.
LINKS:
http://gators911truth.org/PDF/FBI-CD-...
http://gators911truth.org/
http://ae911truth.org

9/11 Production: WAG the WTC

What you will discover here will shatter any illusions you have about the reasons behind the World Trade Center attack. This 'Wag the WTC' blockbuster is making a pile of money for some.
 
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/psyopnews1.htm

Gainesville Gets 9 Minutes of 9/11

 
Gainesville Gets 9 Minutes of 9/11
Gators911Truth.org members, Harold Saive, Eduardo Arenas Reyes and Bob Tuskin took their allotted 3 minutes each to update the Gainesville City commission and television community on recent progress in the biggest unsolved crime in American History.

Each Commissioner and the City manager were given a copy of the letter to the FBI, a copy of the response from the FBI's Michael J. Heimbach and a video DVD containing the evidence submitted to the FBI: "9/11:BLUEPRINT FOR TRUTH", by Architect, Richard Gage, AIA.

LINKS:
http://gators911truth.org/PDF/FBI-CD-FF.pdf
http://gators911truth.org/
http://ae911truth.org
     
 
 

 

2009/02/05

FT.com / Middle East - Lieberman set to be Israel’s kingmaker

Lieberman set to be Israel's kingmaker

By Tobias Buck

Published: February 4 2009 17:57 | Last updated: February 4 2009 17:57

Avigdor Lieberman has been called a racist and a fascist, ridiculed as a former nightclub bouncer and branded a threat to Israeli democracy.

He is under investigation for alleged corruption, and the target of torrents of abuse from his political opponents. Yet Mr Lieberman, the leader of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party and a political bruiser of the first order, may yet have the last laugh. With just a week to go until Israel's general election, his party looks certain to emerge as one of the big winners.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5aee19a-f2e2-11dd-abe6-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

2006 Article: Following Zakheim and Pentagon trillions to Israel and 9/11

Following Zakheim and Pentagon trillions to Israel and 9-11

By Jerry Mazza

Online Journal Associate Editor

Jul 31, 2006, 00:19

Think of this as part two of Recherche du trillions perdu, my Online Journal article on Dov Zakheim, former Bush appointee as Pentagon Comptroller from May 4, 2001 to March 10, 2004. At that time he was unable to explain the disappearance of $1 trillion dollars. Actually, nearly three years earlier, Donald Rumsfeld announced on September 10, 2001 that an audit discovered $2.3 trillion was also missing from the Pentagon books. That story, as I mentioned, was buried under 9-11's rubble. The two sums disappeared on Zakheim's watch.

Yet on May 6, 2004, Zakheim took a lucrative position at Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the most prestigious strategy consulting firms in the world. One of its clients then was Blessed Relief, a charity said to be a front for Osama bin Laden. Booz, Allen & Hamilton then also worked closely with DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is the research arm of the Department of Defense. So the dark card was shifted to another part of the deck.

Judicial Inc's bio of Dov (linked below) tells us Zakheim was/is a dual Israeli/American citizen and an ordained rabbi and had been tracking the halls of US government for 25 years, casting defense policy and influence on Presidents Reagan, Clinton, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. He is, as I described him earlier, the bionic Zionist. In fact, Judicial Inc points out that most of Israel's armaments were gotten thanks to him. Squads of US F-16 and F-15 were classified military surplus and sold to Israel at a fraction of their value.

Judicial Inc also points out that Israel, a country of 4.8 million Russian and Polish Jewish émigrés, flies on one of the biggest Air Forces in the world, thanks to Dov. Conflict of interest here? Depends on what you're interested in. That is, in 2001 Dov was CEO of SPS International, part of System Planning Corporation, a defense contractor majoring in electronic warfare technologies, including remote-controlled aircraft systems, and the notorious Flight Termination System (FTS) technology that could hijack even a hijacked plane and land or crash it wherever.

More from the resume: Wikipedia points out that Zakheim is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and in 2000 a co-author of the Project for the New American Century's position paper, Rebuilding America's Defenses, advocating the necessity for a Pearl-Harbor-like incident to mobilize the country into war with its enemies, mostly Middle Eastern Muslim nations.

As to Dov's hell-raiser lineage, Judicial Inc points out that Grandpa Zakheim was born in 1870, Julius Zakheim (Zhabinka), in the Ukraine, a Russian rabbi who married a relative of Karl Marx. He was a Menshevik/Bolshevik and played a leading role in the 1905 turmoil that paved the way for the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The Bolshevik master plan called for the state of Israel, which was chosen for its proximity to the world's oil and an area of religious significance.

Dov's Father, Rabbi Jacob I. Zakheim was born in 1910 and reared in Poland's swarm of Zionist hard guys, read assassins and bombers. His Polish town, near Bilaystok, also brought us Yitzhak Shir, and family friends included Menachem Begin and Moshe Arens. Dov's father was an active member of Betar, formed in 1923 in Riga, Latvia. Its goal was to control the Middle East (and its oil). It was known that the Jewish people needed their own country and they chose Palestine and claimed it a Jewish state "on both sides of the Jordan."

Betar was in essence a terrorist organization formed because Zionists were sick of being chased from and arrested in country after country. They wanted both a place to escape and a base for their power. Betar joined forces with the Haganah, Irgun, and Stern gangs. With no prospect of a Jewish state in sight, they argued that armed struggle against the British was the only way. Since Britain occupied Palestine and was containing them they went on a blood feast of bombings that killed hundreds of British soldiers. The British pulled out, but the Zionists continue to maul the Arabs to this day.

For a concise history on the Formation of Israel in 1947, I suggest this link to theocracywatch.org.

For an interesting look at "The United States and the Recognition of Israel: A Chronology" compiled from Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel by Michael T. Benson, link above. For a rounded look at Israel, see Wikipedia.

Returning to Dov: he was born in Brooklyn in 1943 and attended exclusive Jewish schools, spent summers in Israel Zionist camps, which trained the Zionists of the future. As to Dov's formal education, he graduated from Columbia University in 1970 and the University of Oxford in 1972. From 1973 to 75, he attended the London school of Jewish studies, described as a "Harry Potter" type cauldron; among the subjects Jewish supremacy, Advanced Bible, Talmud, Jewish Mysticism, Holocaust, Anglo-Judaica, and Zionism. After, he was ordained a Rabbi. From 1975 to 80, Zakheim was an adjunct professor at the National War College, Yeshiva University, Columbia University and Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.

As he stepped into the Reagan administration, he talked them into funding development of the Lavi Fighter at a cost of $3 billion. The Lavi was a total flop and Israel dropped it, though it owed $450 million in contract fees that were cancelled. Israel, according to Judicial Inc, also created a story that China was eager to buy the Lavi. Zakheim convinced Reagan that China had to be sandbagged. Reagan gave Israel $500 million for its lost contracts. Reagan then threw in a wing of F-16's as a bonus and sign of good will. Do we see a pattern here, personal, familial, career-wise, of over-the-top Israeli advocacy?

Again, during Zakheim's tenure as Pentagon controller from May 4, 2001, to March 10, 2004, over $3 trillion dollars were unaccounted for. Additionally, military Information was jeopardized and military contractors billed the US for Israeli items: $50 million dollar fighter jets were rated as surplus and the list rolls on. As the scandal of the missing trillion dollars surfaced and Dov resigned, Israel was handed the finest fighter jets in the US inventory while 15 percent of US jets were grounded for lack of parts. In whose best interest was this?

But Dov is not alone. He is one of an elite group of Jewish Americans/Israelis who inter-marry and enter government. They and their Christian counterparts are called neocons and their sole purpose is directing US policy. Most of them are dual citizens and few serve in the US military. Think of Paul Wolfowitz, Elliot Abrams, Richard Perle, Ben Wattenberg, to mention a few. Whether their motivation is anger at the Muslim world, seen as a religious and territorial enemy, or a deep-rooted reaction to the Holocaust, the culmination of European anti-Semitism, their reactionary militarism becomes a world-threatening force unto itself. Hence our concern.

Dov and the World Trade Center

Perhaps not coincidentally in May 2001, when Dov served at the Pentagon, it was an SPS (his firm's) subsidiary, Tridata Corporation, that oversaw the investigation of the first "terrorist" attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. This would have given them intimate knowledge of the security systems and structural blueprints of the World Trade Center. From the '90s through 2001, WTC Security was handled by Securacom, a Kuwait-American firm, on whose board Marvin Bush, the president's brother, sat. After 9/11, Securacom was let go, changed its name to Stratosec, and was delisted from the Stock Exchange in 2002.

According to Conspiracy News.net writers Shadow and 'Pax' in Dov Zakheim and the 9/11 Conspiracy, (and I suggest you look at this link) "According to the SPC website (4), a recent customer at that time was Eglin AFB, located in Florida. Eglin is very near another Air Force base in Florida-MacDill AFB, where Dov Zakheim contracted to send at least 32 Boeing 767 aircraft, as part of the Boeing /Pentagon tanker lease agreement. (5)

"As the events of September 11, 2001 occurred, little was mentioned about these strange connections, and the possible motives and proximity of Dov Zakheim and his group. Since there was little physical evidence remaining after the events, investigators were left only with photographic and anecdotal evidence.

"There is a photograph of the Flight Termination System module, from their site.(5). Note it has a cylindrical shape, and is consistent with the size and shape of the object observed under the fuselage of flight 175.

"The Boeing lease deal involved the replacement of the aging KC-135 tanker fleet with these smaller, more efficient Boeing 767s that were to be leased by Dov Zakheim's group. The planes were to be refitted with refueling equipment, including lines and nozzle assemblies."

(Remember both Flight 175, that hit the South Tower, and Flight 11, that hit the North Tower, were Boeing 767s. Flights 77 and 93 were 757s.)

"In the enlargement of flight 175's photo, we can clearly see a cylindrical object under the fuselage, and a structure that appears to be attached to the right underside of the rear fuselage section.

"When seen in comparison, it is obvious that the plane approaching the Trade Center has both of these structures-the FTS module and the midair refueling equipment, as configured on the modified Boeing 767 tankers. Of particular interest is the long tube-like anomalous structure under the rear fuselage area of flight 175-this structure runs along the right rear bottom of the plane, as it also does on the Boeing 767 refueling tanker pictured.

"After considering this information, I [the author/s] am convinced that flight 175, as pictured on the news media and official reports, was in fact a refitted Boeing 767 tanker, with a Flight Termination System attached. Use of this system would also explain the expert handling of aircraft observed in both New York and Washington investigations, which has been officially credited to inexperienced flight school students.

"Since the refitted 767s were able to carry both passengers and a fuel load, as shown in this photo, it is likely that the plane designated Flight 175 was in fact a refitted 767 tanker, disguised as a conventional commercial passenger plane.

"As shown in this photo of a 767 being serviced, the FTS unit, when in position, would be small and unobtrusive enough to be fairly innocuous (at least to casual observers, such as passengers). The smallest circle indicates the size and position of the anomaly depicted in the photos of Flight 175. The larger circle, which is the size of the engine housing, shows the size of the anomaly in relation to the engine. Note the size and position of the open hatches on the engine housing, which would tend to discredit the widely held theory that the anomaly is an open hatch or cargo door.

"As the . . . diagram shows, all flights involved in the events traveled very near many military installations, and appear to have traveled in a manner suggesting guidance and possible transfer of the control of the planes among the bases.

"Since the evidence from the World Trade Center site was quickly removed, there is little concrete evidence of the involvement of Dov Zakheim, who has since left his position at the Pentagon. However, the proximity of Eglin AFB to MacDill AFB in Florida and Dov Zakheim's work via SPC contracts and the Pentagon leasing agreement on both of these installations, combined with SPC's access to World Trade Center structural and security information from their Tridata investigation in 1993, is highly suspicious. Considering his access to Boeing 767 tankers, remote control flight systems, and his published views in the PNAC document, it seems very likely he is in fact a key figure in the alleged terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001."

EDITORIAL RESPONSE TO READERS' COMMENTS:

"In response to some of our readers who have questioned our premise that it was Rabbi Dov Zakheim who 'called for' the Pearl Harbor type of incident, we here at Conspiracy News Net acknowledge that the PNAC document was written by the likes of William Kristol and Donald Kagan, and therefore as the real brains behind the agenda they are the ones calling for it in a literal sense. However, we do stand by our assertion that the Rabbi called for it as well, insofar that he signed his name onto this document. If he signed it he agrees with it and therefore he is calling for it.

"Some of you have argued that we are singling out Rabbi Zakheim because he is Jewish, implying that we are pushing some sort of twisted anti-Semitic agenda while noting that he is not the only one who signed the PNAC document and therefore wondering why our article is about him and not the others. We do not mean to imply that the Rabbi acted alone, our article simply points out that Rabbi Zakheim had access to things like structural integrity, blueprints and any number of important facets of information about the WTC through his work with TRIDATA CORPORATION in the investigation of the bombing of the WTC in 1993.

"That he had access to REMOTE CONTROL Technology through his work at System Planning Corporation (SPC). That he had access to BOEING AIRCRAFT through a lease deal HE BROKERED while working at the Pentagon.

" . . . Finally that he was part of a group of politically radical Straussian Neo-Conservatives, who, through their association with PNAC, called for restructuring of the Middle East, noting that a Pearl Harbor type of event MAY BE NEEDED to foster the frame of mind required for the American public to accept such a radical foreign policy agenda. In light of all this information we here at Conspiracy News Net stand by our statement that Mr. Zakheim not only called for the slamming of the WTC Towers on 9-11, but he activity took part in their demolition by providing the logistics necessary for such an attack to occur."

Coda, a Bitter Frosting on the Cake

Whether or not you agree in whole or in part with these findings, here is an eye-opening article originally from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Milan Simonich. It is titled Army unit piecing together accounts of Pentagon attack, and from it comes this striking information in paragraph six . . ."One Army office in the Pentagon lost 34 of its 65 employees in the attack. Most of those killed in the office, called Resource Services Washington, were civilian accountants, bookkeepers and budget analysts. They were at their desks when American Airlines Flight 77 struck."

Apart from the question of whether it was F 77 that struck the Pentagon, it is more than ironic that accountants, bookkeepers and budgets analysts, the very people who could pick up the financial frauds were struck. Especially since the hit was directed supposedly at the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Nevertheless, Dov is busy at his Booz Allen job, involved in Strategic Services and who knows what other dark plans as we speak, even as the Middle East is under heavy fire once again from Israel and its fervid ally, the US government.

source: http://www.onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1047.shtml

 
 
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FBI acknowledges evidence for CONTROLLED DEMOLITION by Architect, Richard Gage as:  "backed by thorough research and analysis."  
See what Gage calls "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" in:  9/11: BLUEPRINT FOR TRUTH: http://gators911truth.org/PDF/FBI-CD-FF.pdf
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 

 

U.S. dollar's status weakens amid global crisis

 
 
 [NEW GLOBAL FINANCIAL ORDER (1)]U.S. dollar's status weakens amid global crisis

The following is the first in a series of articles analyzing the impact of the global financial crisis on the international currency market. - Ed.

The current global financial crisis seems to be a turning point in the world financial order.

The financial system is realigning itself with fewer financial players due to the collapse of many major investment banks and tighter financial supervision while the U.S. economy recedes. In light of raw material price hikes and the weakness of the U.S. dollar in international currency markets last year, it is still an open question whether the greenback will maintain its dominance as the preferred international currency.

Failure of All Retirment Assets is Next


Reprinted from MARKET TICKER

HERE IT COMES
By Karl Denninger
Wednesday, 04 February 2009
We stand on the edge of the failure of all of American's retirement assets.  Literally all of them.  
The road ahead is a rough one.  Our nation faces an unprecedented economic mess of which we have only seen the beginning, but that mess is of our own making.  We have "enjoyed" false prosperity for more than a decade fueled by intentionally-overinflated asset prices that represented not real wealth but rather a chimera grown from ridiculous and outrageously fraudulent actions by many throughout our credit, banking and regulatory systems.
http://carolynbaker.net/site/images/collapse%20building.jpg
I've noted that a few people have cast questioning eyes at my triangle, and the 210 target off it.
Some have claimed that I should be using a log scale on that chart.
Yeah, yeah.  I've heard that.
Now let's look at what we've learned the last few days, weeks and months:
  • California appears to be functionally insolvent.  As in now.  How far is the state from widespread inability to pay police officers and firemen, and how long does it take before widescale riots break out when those who leach off the government teat for a living have their checks interrupted?
  • It is increasingly clear that there is absolutely no way that the "big banking system" comprised of firms like Citi, Bank America, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo, along with a handful of others, can make it through this without one trillion or more in additional funds.  Yes, it really is that bad.
  • It is also increasingly clear that there are literally hundreds of midsize and smaller banks that are perfectly fine.  They did not lever up, they did not write a bunch of crap commercial or residential construction paper that cannot be serviced and they most certainly did not drink the KoolAid of securitized synthetic garbage debt.  Even in bad economic times traditional banking is a very profitable business - so long as you lend money to people who can pay you back or you have sufficient collateral so that if they default you don't lose your shirt.  These sound banks have been frozen out of the "money fountain" and also out of the opportunity to be rewarded for their prudence.  The Fed's policies have made it impossible for them to attract capital at any reasonable deposit or CD interest rate and yet their capital ratios are very healthy.  These firms should and must stand and yell NOW.  There is nothing wrong with the banking system.  There is plenty wrong with a handful of big banks who engaged in outrageous and possibly even criminal conduct.
  • Speaking of possible criminal conduct, it has now been revealed that Indymac was not the only bank that improperly booked funds and violated reporting standards - there were four more.  The government has refused to identify them.  Gee, can you think of four Thrifts that got in trouble in the last year and disappeared?  It's not difficult is it?  FOIA's anyone?  Speaking of which, where's that new President Obama "transparency" in government?
  • Ben Bernanke's neoclassical monetary theories have been proved incorrect.  He has doubled base money in the last few months.  Under neoclassical monetary theory this should have immediately produced inflation as the increase in base money would have spurred an increase in credit money (cash and credit are not the same thing, although they spend the same.)  However, neoclassical monetary theory relies on a false premise - that the existence of additional base money causes the creation of credit - that is, the monetary tail wags the credit dog. In fact it is the other way around - credit is the dog and the tail cannot wag the dog.  When worthy borrowers refuse to take out additional loans and unworthy borrowers cannot borrow additional base money has no effect, because each dollar of credit money must be matched by a dollar of debt.  No new debt issue, no credit money expansion.  Debt cannot expand because the carrying capacity for it in the economy has been reached, ergo absent Weimar-quantity printing of raw cash (on the order of $20 trillion dollars!) deflation cannot be halted until the bad debt is forced from the system.  This excess came about because of knowingly unsustainable leverage - that is, credit-to-money ratios.  Unfortunately until the total leverage in the system is reduced to sustainable levels there is nothing that can be done to halt demand destruction and economic contraction.  Transferring leverage from the private sector to the government cannot change this outcome.  In an economic system where most monetary exchange is in fact credit deleveraging always produces deflation which cannot be halted until leverage ratios return to sane and sustainable levels economy-wide.
  • A nation's standard of living is not based on its ability to borrow in aggregate, but by its ability to produce.  Therefore, we cannot borrow our way to prosperity nor can attempts to "spur lending" lead us out of recession.  Rather we must produce actual goods and services - not push paper - to grow our way out.  Over the last 20 years we have replaced production with false claims of "wealth creation" that are nothing more than the creation of additional credit through intentional mispricing of risk.  That scam has now come to an end as the true lack of value has been exposed. All major busts in reasonably-modern time (e.g. back to TulipMania) have come from credit excess.
  • Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan before him had the responsibility and authority to regulate the credit system, as did the OTS, OCC, SEC and Congress.  ALL abdicated that responsibility; Congress in particular appears not to understand how these functions work, but the other institutions do and their abdication was willful.
  • There are all sorts of theories about why prices of both stocks and bonds fell this last couple of weeks.  They are all wrong.  There is only one reason - supply and demand.  Treasuries are being rained into the market like a monsoon and this is depressing price; what's worse is that it is sucking up money from the system which then causes a supply:demand imbalance in stocks.  In order to issue the sort of supply necessary to fund the grand schemes of former Treasury Secretary Paulson, the last and present Congress and President Obama, as well as "keeping the promises made" by the previous administration (some $7 trillion worth!) the amount of supply that must be issued will literally destroy both stock and bond prices. 
  • We now know that not only Tim Geithner evaded taxes but in addition Tom Daschle, Obama's Health and Human Services nominee, failed to pay $100,000 in back taxes and interest.  What's worse is that those taxes were incurred due to a car and driver provided Mr. Daschle by a private equity firm raising very serious conflict of interest issues.  Where is my "change that we can believe in" Mr. President?  I see only the very same corruption and influence peddling that Washington DC has been known for.
  • There is a tremendous amount of anger rising in America.  You don't see it - yet - in public, but it is there, simmering just under the surface.  President Obama made note of it when it was revealed that nearly $20 billion was paid out in bonuses to Wall Street firms this year - after they took $70 billion of taxpayer money in direct assistance.  That's about 30% of the total that went right out the door as bonuses.  In effect, we are now paying taxes so that Wall Street can hand it out to the very people who got us into this mess!
  • Government tax receipts on all levels are cratering.  Income tax and sales tax numbers are frightening with many state governments reporting double-digit drops in the last month. All these handouts and bailouts sound good but where is the money going to come from?  When the money runs out the game is over in truly-spectacular fashion.
  • Speaking of which The Bond Market issued its statement of displeasure over the last two weeks on the idea that we'll just blow money left and right.
  • Finally, that taxpayer anger and falling tax receipts, plus the government continuing to hand money to people who demonstrably not only made bad bets but engaged in outrageous and perhaps even illegal and fraudulent conduct, yet have returned nothing of what they stole sets up a very real risk of a tax revolt by Americans.  It would be ruinous and nearly impossible to control if Americans decided en-masse to simply refuse to pay and to the extent possible went "off grid" through barter and underground transactions, or started modifying W4s to greatly limit withholding and then simply didn't file.  Anecdotes related to this occurring are already popping up. I realize this is extremely illegal but at some point the American public is going to reach it's breaking point with the government literally stealing their money to bail out those who robbed them in the first place!
There are rumors of a "big bang" financial cleanup coming next week from the Administration:
The "big bang" approach reflects the belief of Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, and Lawrence Summers, National Economic Council director, that the Bush administration was wrong to dribble out policy initiatives. Mr Geithner intends to present a "comprehensive" plan that policymakers hope will command market confidence.
Details of the financial overhaul are being finalized and have yet to be approved by President Barack Obama, but it may include both the purchase of toxic assets by a "bad bank" and insurance-style guarantees for problem assets remaining on bank balance sheets.
Anti-foreclosure efforts are likely to focus on subsidizing programmes that reduce unsustainable monthly mortgage payments, though there may also be support for schemes that subsidise the partial writedown of loans that exceed the value of the home. Treasury may also unveil new efforts to revitalise dysfunctional securitisation markets.
If this is all they intend to do it will fail spectacularly and the odds of a full-on market meltdown become very high because in fact this is nothing different, in reality, than what has been done thus far - and has failed.
I want to expand on the bond market problem because it is absolutely critical to understand this, and for the Obama administration to put an immediate halt to it.
Prices respond to only one thing in "reality" - supply and demand.  Both can be illusory which produces short-term distortions but the truth always pokes its head through and when it does, the direction becomes clear.
Treasury, The Fed and Congress (the previous one) have in aggregate promised some seven trillion dollars in spending they do not have.  This of course will eventually require issue of debt to find it in one place or another.  The current spending plans of both Treasury and Congress are guaranteed to require upwards of $2 trillion of issue this fiscal year (running through September 30th.) 
This last couple of weeks Treasury has been issuing bonds like crazy and as they have bond prices have taken a dive into the mud.  Why?  Because the supply has to be taken up by someone so that Treasury can fund the nation's promises, and as that supply is taken up money is sucked out of the system to buy those bonds.  This then upsets the supply and demand picture in equities.
Reality has started to intrude into the market and it's not a pretty picture.  FCBs sold Treasury and so did Primary Dealers in the most recent week.  This is new, it is ominous, and it signals that market participants in the bond market have detected smoke in the room.  Should they all rush the door at once the bond market dislocation that I have been warning of for months will gather steam and cut off federal funding, along with kneecapping the stock market.  The Fed cannot possibly absorb this supply as it will not be limited to Treasuries; they would have to print up literally $20 trillion dollars to halt the collapse and should they attempt it the dollar would collapse instead as that would be a literal ten times over expansion of the monetary base.  This would produce a monetary and market implosion twice as bad as what occurred in Iceland overnight.
This is where neoclassical monetary theory meets reality.  In the real world credit leads, it is the dog and money supply is in fact the tail.  When regulation of credit is abdicated to the degree we have seen in the last five years the resulting credit collapse cannot be avoided through diddling monetary and fiscal policy as the tail cannot wag the dog. 
We stand on the edge of the failure of all of American's retirement assets.  Literally all of them.  Buried in some of the earnings reports of the last quarter are the fact that half of the market capitalization of some firms was wiped out in the last year due to pension fund shortfalls as a consequence of the stock and credit market swoon.  CALPERS and other funds are rapidly going from being adequately capitalized to critically undercapitalized.  If the Treasury and Stock market both sell off as I believe both can and is likely to happen if the current policies are continued essentially ALL American Retirement Assets will be destroyed - 401ks, IRAs and both private and public Pension systems.  Total losses through these systems is likely to reach 80-90%, and the Boomers start retiring "en-masse" just a few years from now.
In short, if policies are not changed now there will be no retirement for Americans and the currently-retired who rely on these funds will find them gone and be forced back into the workplace.  Unemployment in that scenario is likely to reach and may exceed 20%, and what's worse, Medicare funding will be severely curtailed at the same time due to the inability of the government to fund it.
It is absolutely critical that Obama and Congress understand these  facts (and they really are simple; we have $53 trillion in public and private debt - that is, credit - and yet the monetary base is just shy of $2 trillion up from the "normal" $800 billion or so) - it is not mathematically possible for a $2 trillion dollar thing to control the outcome of a $53 trillion thing, especially when you are threatening to add $7 trillion to it.
Let me put forward a different view of what should be done, and hope that President Obama and his cabinet direct Geithner and company to take these actions.  I fully realize that parts of this call for Geither to "turn on" some of his banking buddies, but irrespective of his desire not to, if he does not then the plan will fail.
Specifically, we need to, here and now today:
  • Make at least $100 billion dollars available to existing good banks in additional capital so they can take on the good assets of banks that cannot survive in their current form with their current losses and balance-sheet garbage.  (This, by the way, includes the off-balance-sheet junk that has magically "disappeared" from the public's radar, but you can be certain it IS still there.)  This is essential so that the banking system, as opposed to individual banks, remains operational now and into the future.  The "your ATM card doesn't work" scenario must not be allowed to occur.
  • The "bad banks" that created this mess must not be further rewarded.  The public simply won't stand for it. This is no longer an option and if President Obama and the rest of the government is too tone-deaf to understand this they will make a monumental mistake.  Americans tolerated the first $350 billion going to these clowns because we were told that they would use it to restart lending and that it was necessary to prevent an all-on economic collapse.  The money was spent on bonuses, acquisitions, and stuffed in The Fed's vault where it now earns interest, proving beyond a doubt that the original claim was a lie.  If Washington thinks they'll get away with this a second time they are sadly mistaken.
  • The "promises" made to backstop the failed credits represented in Freddie, Fannie, AIG and elsewhere cannot be kept.  Read back through the above - if Government continues to attempt to issue Treasuries into the market they will precipitate both a bond and stock market collapse.  This is a mathematical reality and the market has been issuing warnings now since the beginning of the month.  January was the worst "first" month of a year for the market ever and yet the new issue from Treasury was a tiny fraction of the refunding and new issue that is currently scheduled for the next few months.
  • To deal with the "bad banks" we have only two choices - we can either:
    • Strip them of their good assets and sell those off to the good banks, then cut them off from all public assistance and let them fend for themselves, having protected the good assets (and deposits) by placing those with sound institutions OR
    • "Cram down" their equity and debt structures and resolve their balance sheet issues in this fashion.
  • ALL debts must be settled - either reaffirmed with capital adequacy and ability to pay proved up or those debts must be forced into the open and restructured or defaulted.  The game of "hide the sausage" among financial institutions cannot be allowed to continue; confidence must be restored and it cannot happen until and unless everyone knows that all balance sheets fairly represent a firm's assets and liabilities.  The lying has gone on for long enough that nobody trusts anyone; only FULL TRANSPARENCY resolves this problem.  This includes, by the way, the garbage held by The Federal Reserve - it must be forced into the open and valued with 100% transparency today, tomorrow and every day thereafter.
  • President Obama has said that he intends to try to create "4% Mortgages" to "help the housing industry."  Such a move will do no such thing; the market will not permit 4% mortgage rates when the cost of long money is higher than that by any mechanism other than direct subsidy.  Since housing is a $30 trillion (roughly) value proposition and roughly 40% of all homes are mortgage-free even providing one percent in subsidy would cost about $150 billion a year and the worse news is that adding this to the debt load of the government would likely drive the differential much higher.  At 3% such a move would run $450 billion, or more than the entire first half of the TARP - annually!  This is clearly unsustainable and President Obama must stop drinking this KoolAid.  The solution to housing affordability is lower home prices, not higher ones.
  • There must be a public statement and immediate follow-up action from the Obama Administration on the massive fraud and abuse of the public that has occurred over the last ten years with regards to securitization, mortgage fraud, appraisal fraud and other various ENRONesque acts by the giants of Wall Street.  The public wants blood and Washington had better pay attention on this point; you have hundreds of thousands of Americans who have lost their homes and close to five million who are on the continuing unemployment rolls as a direct and proximate result of this nonsense.  The government cannot contain five million angry Americans with platitudes or, for that matter, anything else.  There are in fact lots of "bad actors" in this mess who at minimum profited from intentional deceit in the pricing, securitization and intentional blowing of this credit bubble, and it is unjust that they are allowed to get away with it.  Everyone is entitled to a fair trial but the public must know that the investigations are in process and prosecutions will be forthcoming as is appropriate.  Government must not be seen as the felon in the eyes of the people or it's authority, both moral and legal, will be lost.
  • Government must not act in any fashion that may cause confidence in Treasuries to be lost.  This means that the trash-taking games of Treasury and The Fed must be halted now.  We may be too late to prevent this and the market has issued a clear and loud warning of the potential consequences over the last month.  Should the dislocation that I have warned about over the previous year occur government's funding model would be effectively cut off, forcing an immediate termination of Social Security, Medicare, and half or more of all military spending.  This in turn would cause a spiraling collapse of tax receipts which in turn would squeeze government finances even further.  Government must have contingency plans in place for what it will do if 75% of its financing capability simply disappears.  It both can and may happen.
  • Government must be prepared to provide the basic necessities of life for at least five to ten million Americans and possibly as many as fifty million - one in six.  As I have noted before this means barracks-style places to sleep, food, clothing and basic medical care.  Hungry, homeless and unemployed people are dangerous.
  • Government must deal with the illegal alien issue.  We simply cannot have tens of millions of illegal aliens consuming public resources at a time like this in our nation - period.  Americans will pick strawberries if they're unemployed; that we have illegal immigrants doing this sort of work with 5 million Americans out of work is an outrage.  Again, if government does not act there is a high probability that the American people will, with disastrous consequences.
Finally, for those who think that SPX 200 and DOW 2,000 is a "pipe dream" let me point out that the DOW was at 2000 in as we turned into 1988 and the SPX was at 250.  Pipe dream?  Not at all.  When did the insane credit creation antics begin?  Shortly after the 1987 crash, that's when.  Here's a long-term chart - you tell me what "mean reversion" takes us back to.
Oh, and yet another basic technical analysis principle is that an "M" formation (otherwise known as a "double top") usually retraces the at least the entire run that produced the left-side of the "M".  We can argue over whether that's 200 or 450 - either is really, really bad.
President Obama must decide - he either stands for this nation, the Constitution (as he pledged when he took the oath of office) and its citizens or he stands for the fraud, abuse, and raw theft that has been perpetrated against us all.
The markets have sent a clear signal over the last month - attempting to "borrow and spend" to prop up failed institutions and shield them from the consequences of their bad decisions, when those bad decisions exceed in aggregate the federal budget, cannot be done.  If Treasury attempts to issue the amount of supply necessary to fund this it is virtually certain to cause a major meltdown in both the stock and bond markets, and this may be right around the corner as the quarterly refunding is upon us.
There is no middle ground and President Obama must choose.
Our new President was elected to office by the people who were tired of Washington DC influence peddling, pervasive fraud and theft and the economic damage it has wrought on this land.  President Obama now has two high-level appointees he has continued to support after they were revealed to have "ethics issues" (at best.)  If President Obama does not choose here and now to stand with American citizens and against the fraud and corruption of the previous twenty years he will at best be a one-term President and at worst there won't be an economy or nation worth being President of within the next year or two.  The situation really is this grim and neither the markets or the people are going to sit still for any more of "business as usual."  Words will not cut it - it is only deeds that count now.
This is not the time for "bipartisanship" or any such thing.  It is time for President Obama to demonstrate that he is the leader the people elected and to stand up for the common man - not through "paying back" organized labor with things like "card check" and ordering the removal of disclosure statements of union worker rights related to the ability to "opt out" of political activity, but rather by standing with the common man against the pervasive fraud, abuse, theft and lies that have been perpetrated by Wall Street, K Street and Washington DC in general over the previous twenty years.
The road ahead is a rough one.  Our nation faces an unprecedented economic mess of which we have only seen the beginning, but that mess is of our own making.  We have "enjoyed" false prosperity for more than a decade fueled by intentionally-overinflated asset prices that represented not real wealth but rather a chimera grown from ridiculous and outrageously fraudulent actions by many throughout our credit, banking and regulatory systems.
The blame for this cannot be laid at the feet of either political party to the exclusion of the other.  Both sides of the aisle are to blame, as both have held the reins of power during this period of time.  There are dozens of Senators and Representatives who have dirty hands, including many who personally profited from "special deals" doled out by some of these firms, in many cases to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.  Reported frauds have been intentionally ignored and both lawmakers and regulators have not only looked the other way but in many cases have been actively complicit.
Our nation truly stands on the precipice of history.  We cannot borrow and spend our way out of this mess, we cannot pass $800 billion dollar "stimulus bills" that do not actually stimulate the economy and we cannot rob Peter to pay Paul.  Asset prices must contract to reasonable, supportable values, and they will - whether we like it or not.  Those who are overlevered and in debt up to their eyeballs will and must default, and have that debt cleared.  Transparency must not be a word, it must be a deed throughout our financial system and markets. 

2009/02/04

Central Florida VFP Peace Action 2/15

Central Florida Chapter 136
Veterans For Peace
Demonstration
Social Meeting

When: Sunday, February 15th, 2009 – 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM

Where: Daytona 500 – Daytona International Speedway
Industrial Pkwy and Intl Speedway Blvd in Daytona Beach
(Across from Speedway, 0.1 mile East of Pedestrian Overpass)

What: Peaceful Antiwar Protest and Iraq War & 9/11 Truth Public Awareness
Sign-waving and, hopefully, plenty of civil and intelligent public discourse
Tabling with free literature, DVD's and a forum for Questions & Answers

After: Post-Rally Social & Movie at the Seabreeze Coffee Connection, Daytona Beach
Film screening at 6:00 PM; alternative activities for children will be available.
 
Source: http://www.cflveteransforpeace.org/calendar.shtml  

 
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FBI acknowledges evidence for CONTROLLED DEMOLITION by Architect, Richard Gage as:  "backed by thorough research and analysis."  
See what Gage calls "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" in:  9/11: BLUEPRINT FOR TRUTH: http://gators911truth.org/PDF/FBI-CD-FF.pdf
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