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LIKELY LARGEST JOURNALISM COLLABORATION IN HISTORY
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists today launches the next part of a multi-year project aimed at stripping away the biggest mystery associated with tax havens: the owners of anonymous companies.
Drawing from a trove of 2.5 million secret files, ICIJ led what may be the largest cross border journalism collaboration in history.
ICIJ’s investigation opens the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts and nearly 130,000 individuals and agents, exposing hidden dealings of politicians, con artists, and the mega-rich in more than 170 countries.
Secrecy For Sale: Inside The Global Offshore Money Maze is ICIJ’s largest investigative reporting project in its 15-year history.
https://www.indianexpress.com/news/global-media-investigation-finds-612-indian-firms-in-tax-havens/1097501/
Global media investigation finds 612 Indian firms in tax havens
===
https://www.rappler.com/nation/25473-imee-marcos-tied-to-secret-offshore-trustImee Marcos tied to secret offshore trust
MANILA, Philippines – Maria Imelda “Imee” Marcos Manotoc, the Princeton-educated eldest child of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and now a senior political figure in her own right, is beneficiary of a secret offshore trust.
The Philippines’ Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) is eager to find out if the entities connected to Imee Marcos might contain some of the estimated $5 billion that her father allegedly amassed through corruption. He too held offshore accounts, which the Philippine government has sought to freeze.
Imee Marcos’s role in the offshore entities uncovered by the ICIJ data raises questions on why a public official has need for offshore trusts and corporations in tax havens.
Philippine law requires public officials to list all assets in annual Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. This statement must include business interests and financial connections, including those located in other countries.
In addition, the Philippine Constitution requires that “members of the Senate and the House of Representatives shall, upon assumption of office, make a full disclosure of their financial and business interests.”
But the Sintra Trust and the two other offshore companies linked to Imee Marcos were not listed in the asset disclosure statements that she filed as lawmaker and provincial governor and which were examined by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.(Go to the link to get juicy details.)
https://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/03/offshore-secrets-offshore-tax-haven
Identities of the rich who hide cash offshore
Offshore financial industry leak exposes identities of thousands of holders of anonymous wealth from around the worldMillions of internal records have leaked from Britain’s offshore financial industry, exposing for the first time the identities of thousands of holders of anonymous wealth from around the world, from presidents to plutocrats, the daughter of a notorious dictator and a British millionaire accused of concealing assets from his ex-wife.
The leak of 2m emails and other documents, mainly from the offshore haven of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), has the potential to cause a seismic shock worldwide to the booming offshore trade, with a former chief economist at McKinsey estimating that wealthy individuals may have as much as $32tn (£21tn) stashed in overseas havens.
In France, Jean-Jacques Augier, President François Hollande’s campaign co-treasurer and close friend, has been forced to publicly identify his Chinese business partner. It emerges as Hollande is mired in financial scandal because his former budget minister concealed a Swiss bank account for 20 years and repeatedly lied about it.
In Mongolia, the country’s former finance minister and deputy speaker of its parliament says he may have to resign from politics as a result of this investigation.
But the two can now be named for the first time because of their use of companies in offshore havens, particularly in the British Virgin Islands, where owners’ identities normally remain secret.
The names have been unearthed in a novel project by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists [ICIJ], in collaboration with the Guardian and other international media, who are jointly publishing their research results this week.
The naming project may be extremely damaging for confidence among the world’s wealthiest people, no longer certain that the size of their fortunes remains hidden from governments and from their neighbours.
BVI’s clients include Scot Young, a millionaire associate of deceased oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Dundee-born Young is in jail for contempt of court for concealing assets from his ex-wife.
Young’s lawyer, to whom he signed over power of attorney, appears to control interests in a BVI company that owns a potentially lucrative Moscow development with a value estimated at $100m.
Another is jailed fraudster Achilleas Kallakis. He used fake BVI companies to obtain a record-breaking £750m in property loans from reckless British and Irish banks.As well as Britons hiding wealth offshore, an extraordinary array of government officials and rich families across the world are identified, from Canada, the US, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran, China, Thailand and former communist states.
The data seen by the Guardian shows that their secret companies are based mainly in the British Virgin Islands.
Sample offshore owners named in the leaked files include:
• Jean-Jacques Augier, François Hollande’s 2012 election campaign co-treasurer, launched a Caymans-based distributor in China with a 25% partner in a BVI company. Augier says his partner was Xi Shu, a Chinese businessman.
• Mongolia’s former finance minister. Bayartsogt Sangajav set up “Legend Plus Capital Ltd” with a Swiss bank account, while he served as finance minister of the impoverished state from 2008 to 2012. He says it was “a mistake” not to declare it, and says “I probably should consider resigning from my position”.
• The president of Azerbaijan and his family. A local construction magnate, Hassan Gozal, controls entities set up in the names of President Ilham Aliyev’s two daughters.
• The wife of Russia’s deputy prime minister. Olga Shuvalova’s husband, businessman and politician Igor Shuvalov, has denied allegations of wrongdoing about her offshore interests.
•A senator’s husband in Canada. Lawyer Tony Merchant deposited more than US$800,000 into an offshore trust.
He paid fees in cash and ordered written communication to be “kept to a minimum”.
• A dictator’s child in the Philippines: Maria Imelda Marcos Manotoc, a provincial governor, is the eldest daughter of former President Ferdinand Marcos, notorious for corruption.
• Spain’s wealthiest art collector, Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, a former beauty queen and widow of a Thyssen steel billionaire, who uses offshore entities to buy pictures.
• US: Offshore clients include Denise Rich, ex-wife of notorious oil trader Marc Rich, who was controversially pardoned by President Clinton on tax evasion charges. She put $144m into the Dry Trust, set up in the Cook Islands.
It is estimated that more than $20tn acquired by wealthy individuals could lie in offshore accounts. The UK-controlled BVI has been the most successful among the mushrooming secrecy havens that cater for them.
The Caribbean micro-state has incorporated more than a million such offshore entities since it began marketing itself worldwide in the 1980s. Owners’ true identities are never revealed.
Even the island’s official financial regulators normally have no idea who is behind them.
The British Foreign Office depends on the BVI’s company licensing revenue to subsidise this residual outpost of empire, while lawyers and accountants in the City of London benefit from a lucrative trade as intermediaries.
They claim the tax-free offshore companies provide legitimate privacy. Neil Smith, the financial secretary of the autonomous local administration in the BVI’s capital Tortola, told the Guardian it was very inaccurate to claim the island “harbours the ethically challenged”.
He said: “Our legislation provides a more hostile environment for illegality than most jurisdictions”.
Smith added that in “rare instances …where the BVI was implicated in illegal activity by association or otherwise, we responded swiftly and decisively”.
The Guardian and ICIJ’s Offshore Secrets series last year exposed how UK property empires have been built up by, among others, Russian oligarchs, fraudsters and tax avoiders, using BVI companies behind a screen of sham directors.
Such so-called “nominees”, Britons giving far-flung addresses on Nevis in the Caribbean, Dubai or the Seychelles, are simply renting out their names for the real owners to hide behind.
The whistleblowing group WikiLeaks caused a storm of controversy in 2010 when it was able to download almost two gigabytes of leaked US military and diplomatic files.
The new BVI data, by contrast, contains more than 200 gigabytes, covering more than a decade of financial information about the global transactions of BVI private incorporation agencies. It also includes data on their offshoots in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Cook Islands in the Pacific.Massive offshore tax haven account leak includes names of 450 wealthy Canadians
The names of at least 450 wealthy Canadians are contained on a massive leaked list of offshore tax haven account holders, according to the Washington, DC-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The list, taken from a cache 2.5-million leaked digital files, exposes the identities of nearly 130,000 people world-wide with savings stashed in hidden accounts as well as bank sales agents, the ICIJ said in a release that went out Wednesday evening.
Among the Canadian names is high-profile class action lawyer Tony Merchant, according to the CBC, one of a number of media outlets in several countries that acquired the information from the ICIJ.
According to The Guardian, one of the media groups participating in the planned reporting of the leak, the confidential information came mainly from the British Virgin Islands. The leak contained two million emails and other documents.
The leak may be the largest ever of offshore bank data. Over the past six years there have been numerous such files exposed beginning with a computer disk from a Liechtenstein bank sold by a former employee to tax authorities in dozens of countries as well as Canada.
Similar lists of account holders from UBS, Credit Suisse and HSBC have also been circulating, providing a treasure trove for cash strapped governments particularly in the United States where authorities estimate the country loses US$100-billion a year due to tax payers hiding money in offshore banks.After a lengthy investigation, the ICIJ said it found that among the biggest users of offshore banks are “government officials and their families and associates in Azerbaijan Russia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Canada, Mongolia and other countries.”…
… “I think it’s a good thing, it draw attention,” said Mr. Howlett. “This data comes from relatively small tax havens like the Cook Islands but none of the major ones like the Caymans or Barbados where most of the money is going. So this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Mr. Howlett, who said the ICIJ has shared some of its information with him, said the plan is to release the leaked names of account holders gradually over time.CBC TV “the national” is running a documentation.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/04/03/merchant-offshore-trust.html
Senator’s husband put $1.7M in offshore tax havens
Class action lawyer Tony Merchant sought secrecy for trust account
If you have more information on this story, or other investigative tips to pass on, please email investigations@cbc.ca. You can also send mail to: CBC Investigations Unit, 205 Wellington St. W., Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3G7Re.:
Everyone … coming to the realization that deposits in their local bank are not ‘safe’ places to put their spare cash, but are in fact loans to extremely leveraged businesses.
What is happening has been planned.
Its a troika experiment.
Now we get to see what happens when the central banks do the right thing and don’t start up the printing press.
The objective is to get a default and gather the data from the resulting chaos.
All doomers should pay attention.
Coming To a Town Near You
Keep watching. Keep gathering your own data.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-25/word-out-place-sends-europe-tumbling
A Word Out Of Place Sends Europe Tumbling
“Cyprus a Template For EU”
(Banks would love to be able to operate on leveraged cash flow and not have to share it with anyone, (depositors).)
… its no good reading a few books and having an idea about it if you can’t put it into practice.
Yep!
Start somewhere.
Keep a cactus alive.
Keep a close eye on what happens here next because if the only remaining “good” Cypriot bank is shuttered, then the entire European bailout package, cobbled in the last hours of Sunday, goes poof.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-26/cyprus-last-remaining-big-bank-set-unexpected-liquidation
Is Cyprus’ Last Remaining Big Bank Set For An Unexpected Liquidation?
What is happening has been planned.
Its a troika experiment.
Now we get to see what happens when the central banks do the right thing and don’t start up the printing press.
The objective is to get a default and gather the data from the resulting chaos.
All doomers should pay attention.
Coming To a Town Near You
Keep watching. Keep gathering your own data.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-25/word-out-place-sends-europe-tumbling
A Word Out Of Place Sends Europe Tumbling
“Cyprus a Template For EU”
The banks never had 28 billion euros of the russian money sitting in the banks.
It was lent to the Greeks.
Bankrupt is bankrupt, and we’re not talking about a person, or a company or even a government, but an entire system.
None of us have the real wealth to live how we have been living.
I can only repeat.
What is happening has been planned.Its a troika experiment.
Now we get to see what happens when the central banks do the right thing and don’t start up the printing press.
The objective is to get a default and gather the data from the resulting chaos.
All doomers should pay attention.
Coming To a Town Near You
Good day Nassim
I can think of various mechanisms from the pre-bank failures.
ie. Loans sold to hedge fund for pennies and settled by Greece for pennies.But since the meltdown, those rules no longer apply and new rule are being invented every day.
( As of the end of January Greek banks used €122bn of collateral to borrow €31bn via ELA, i.e. an implied haircut of 75%.)
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-22/jpmorgan-inevitability-europe-wide-capital-controls
JPMorgan On The Inevitability Of Europe-Wide Capital Controls
ELA is limited by the availability of collateral and the haircuts that the central bank applies to this collateral. The Greek case is the most characteristic example of how punitive haircuts on ELA collateral can be. As of the end of January Greek banks used €122bn of collateral to borrow €31bn via ELA, i.e. an implied haircut of 75%. In contrast, they borrowed €76bn via normal ECB operations posting collateral of €97bn, i.e. the implied haircut on their normal ECB borrowing was 22%. The higher haircut on ELA collateral i.e. is mostly the result of the lower quality of this collateral, typically credit claims, vs. that accepted in normal ECB operations, typically securities. But it perhaps also reflects the higher riskiness the ECB sees with its counterparty, i.e. the national central bank and eventually the sovereign, when a country’s banking system has to resort to ELA.
What is the maximum ELA borrowing for Cypriot banks? Looking at their assets, Cypriot banks had €72bn of loans to non MFIs as of the end of January, roughly equal to total non-MFI deposits of €68bn. Assuming that all these loans are acceptable as ELA collateral with the same average haircut as in the case of Greek ELA, i.e. 75%, results to only €18bn of total ELA. Given that Cypriot banks have already €9bn via ELA, this leaves them with another €9bn of potential additional ELA. Of course the ECB could be more lenient with its ELA haircuts with Cypriot banks relative to Greek banks, and indeed even in the case of Greek banks, ELA haircuts appear to have been as low as 50% at certain points of time during 2012. But we doubt that total ELA could exceed €30bn, which represents more than 40% of the loan assets of Cypriot banks. In the case of Greek banks ECB reliance never exceeded 40% of total loan and security assets. So further liquidity support from the ECB seems limited, and not enough to offset the €21bn of non-euro area deposits with Cypriot banks, largely Russian (80%) and British (20%) and the €5bn of deposits with other euro area residents outside Cyprus.
Its a troika experiment.
Now we get to see what happens when the central banks do the right thing and don’t start up the printing press.The objective is to get a default and gather the data from the resulting chaos.
All doomers should pay attention.The main benefit will be Greece who will not need to pay back the money lent to them by the Cyprus banks who have gone bankrupt.
Lets wait and see how financially dumb everyone is.
The “WHALE” lost $6B for JPM.
Cyprus needs ONLY $10B to kick the can down the road.
It does not make sense.
Religions like to portray that the forces of evil are always battling the forces of good.
I disagree!
The forces of evil are battling each other for dominance.
These battles have already caused more suffering than the previous WW. and its only starting to hurt.It will become increasingly difficult to avoid the battle fields and to avoid being trampled.
Here is how a Brit. taxi driver expressed himself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDXtHsz2q6Q
The Great Cyprus Bank Robbery by Financial Terrorists
Ilargi said “Something doesn’t add up here.”
There is a war going on.
We don’t understand the weapons.
We don’t know who is fighting who.
Alliances are made and changed for reasons we cannot fantom.
Attacks and defenses are only apparent long after they happened.The battle fields are leaving 50% of those under 30 yrs. as collateral damage throughout the Mediterranean and will never be able to find a way to put food on the table.
49 million people are on food stamp in the USA.Assets are being abandoned and mother nature is reclaiming the territory.
Growth is already dead.
Here is a look at the USA.
Foodstamp Recipients Hit Record, Alongside Record Dow Jones And Record Debt: 20% Of Eligible Americans On EBT
Once more, record number of Americans on foodstamps. According to the USDA, an all time high of 47,791,966 Americans closed 2012 in possession of the highly desired Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, managed by who else but JPMorgan. And with a civilian non-institutional population of 244.4 million in December, this means that a record 19.56% of eligible Americans are on Foodstamps.
https://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/visualizing-large-numbers-and-your-holiday-car-trip
Imagine driving all day, every day, for 31 days. That relentless line of people standing heel-to-toe passes by at 60 miles per hour for an entire month. When you have reached your destination 15,500 miles away, the 47,000,000 people you will have passed is the number of people lining up for a meal every day in America’s breadline, also known as food stamps, or SNAP.
Its even worst than that.
If you include everyone who will not try to live on average monthly benefit of $277.09.
Those would be everyone who are borrowing money to live today, the students with loans must also be included in this long line.I cannot visualize the worst line for Italy or the other EU countries.
… the choir is well aware of the score…
“In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries.”
– Ezra PoundBut, BUT, … Nothing is different this time around.
Somehow, the saying
“KNOWLEDGE IS POWER”
does not seem to apply to this choir or to any other ancient choir.
On another note, the more I read illiteracy rate related headlines, the more J.T Gatto makes sense. Not questioning so much what the “educated” don’t know, but asking what they have been taught that just ain’t so.
I have forgotten more than what I remember.
“If we fail, we’re headed for violence in the street. Half the population can’t take it anymore.
… Everything started in Italy.”
Hummm!
Let’s see,
During the roman empire the slaves revolted and almost got Rome.The bankers won that battle.
Slaves got slaughtered.The slaves in Haiti revolted and won.
The bankers are saying you made your bed and we are going to make sure that you lie in it.
What about Cuba? They have been fighting the bankers for 50 years.
Then lets look at the accomplishments of some of the powerful and influential people that knew “THE SCORE”.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Robert Hemphill
Henry Ford
and many moreNOTHING CHANGED.
KNOWING WHAT IS HAPPENING AND CHANGING WHAT IS HAPPENING IS NOT THAT EASY.
Those who control the printing press have the advantage.
@ TheTrivium4TW
Re.:
Napoleon Bonaparte
Robert Hemphill
Henry Ford
and many moreI have not verified the quotes. However, I have seen them, and others, on the blogs. ( I accept the fact that they knew “the score”.)
What is there that is different this time?
When these powerful men were passing on their wisdom to other educated men, their efforts proved to be sterile.
The bankers won.Why should the fact that the web is making it possible for the average person to be aware of present and past stealing make any difference?
Re.: factual data
Central banks have never cared about anyhing except their well being. Meaning … the well being of those having and controlling the assets and wealth.
It has always been so.
Somehow, the rich still need ordinary people to make babies to serve the few.
All my worries have been for nothing.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-05/last-time-dow-was-here
The Last Time The Dow Was Here…Dow Jones Industrial Average: Then 14164.5; Now 14164.5
Regular Gas Price: Then $2.75; Now $3.73
GDP Growth: Then +2.5%; Now +1.6%
Americans Unemployed (in Labor Force): Then 6.7 million; Now 13.2 million
Americans On Food Stamps: Then 26.9 million; Now 47.69 million
Size of Fed’s Balance Sheet: Then $0.89 trillion; Now $3.01 trillion
US Debt as a Percentage of GDP: Then ~38%; Now 74.2%
US Deficit (LTM): Then $97 billion; Now $975.6 billion
Total US Debt Oustanding: Then $9.008 trillion; Now $16.43 trillion
US Household Debt: Then $13.5 trillion; Now 12.87 trillion
Labor Force Particpation Rate: Then 65.8%; Now 63.6%
Consumer Confidence: Then 99.5; Now 69.6
S&P Rating of the US: Then AAA; Now AA+
VIX: Then 17.5%; Now 14%
10 Year Treasury Yield: Then 4.64%; Now 1.89%
EURUSD: Then 1.4145; Now 1.3050
Gold: Then $748; Now $1583
NYSE Average LTM Volume (per day): Then 1.3 billion shares; Now 545 million shares“… the solutions that our leaders will present to us will involve even more debt and even more money printing. And each time, those “solutions” will only make our problems even worse. Right now, events are unfolding in Europe and in the United States that are pushing us toward the next major crisis moment. I sincerely hope that we have some more time before the next crisis overwhelms us, but as you will see, time is rapidly running out.
The following are 12 things that just happened that show the next wave of the economic collapse is almost here…Sadly, most people will continue to deny that anything is wrong until it is far too late.
Many areas of Europe are already experiencing economic depression, and it is only a matter of time before the U.S. follows suit.
Time is running out, and I hope that you are getting ready.
So what do you think?
How much time do you believe that we have left before the next wave of the economic collapse strikes?”The Canadian [strike]bank[/strike] band is still playing music as the ship is sinking.
There are not enough life jackets for everyone.Will putting on a life jacket really help to save your life?
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/bmo-lowers-five-year-fixed-mortgage-rate-1.1179702
The Canadian Press
Published Sunday, Mar. 3, 2013 2:32PM ESTBMO lowers five-year fixed mortgage rate
TORONTO – The Bank of Montreal is lowering its rate for a five year fixed mortgage amid concerns about a cooling housing market.
Effective immediately the rate will drop to 2.99 per cent from the current 3.09 per cent.
The other big banks could follow suit.The AUTOMATIC EARTH is doing a great job.
Here is a similar site.
With enough good data, it is possible to increase the reliability of of projected trends.
B)
:whistle:https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/asteroid20130214.html
The NASA Near Earth Object Observation (NEOO) Program detects and tracks asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using ground- and space-based telescopes. The network of projects supported by this program, commonly called “Spaceguard,” discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.
Asteroid 2012 DA14 is about 150 feet (45 meters) in diameter. It is expected to fly about 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface at the time of closest approach, which is about 11:25 a.m. PST (2:25 p.m. EST) on Feb. 15. This distance is well away from Earth and the swarm of low Earth-orbiting satellites, including the International Space Station, but it is inside the belt of satellites in geostationary orbit (about 22,200 miles, or 35,800 kilometers, above Earth’s surface.) The flyby of 2012 DA14 is the closest-ever predicted approach to Earth for an object this large.
NASA Moderator: Asteroid 2012 DA14 is small, so even though it will make a close flyby of Earth, the asteroid’s apparent magnitude is expected to peak at about only 7.4 – too dim to be viewed by the naked eye. To view the asteroid, you will need a good pair of binoculars, or even better, a moderately powered telescope. During the closest approach, and depending on local weather, the asteroid will be visible from parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. The asteroid will appear to be moving relatively quickly as it crosses the sky from the south to the north.
NASA statement on Russian meteor:
“According to NASA scientists, the trajectory of the Russian meteorite was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, making it a completely unrelated object. Information is still being collected about the Russian meteorite and analysis is preliminary at this point. In videos of the meteor, it is seen to pass from left to right in front of the rising sun, which means it was traveling from north to south. Asteroid DA14’s trajectory is in the opposite direction, from south to north.”
If you thought that the accountants, auditors and regulators were the gate keepers protecting the interest of ordinary people then you need to read the following.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/01/davos-still-pushes-failed-global-vision.html#comment-1046487
Bill Black: Why the World Economic Forum and Goldman Sachs are Capitalism’s Worst Enemies
The ability of the SDIs, (systemically dangerous institutions), to commit fraud with impunity from the criminal laws is a defining element of crony capitalism. The impunity and implicit national subsidies to SDIs combine to make “free markets” an oxymoron. The SDIs’ economic power translates easily into dominant political power. Crony capitalism cripples markets and democracy.
The ability of the SDIs’ senior officers to commit massive frauds with impunity from the criminal laws makes “control fraud” a “sure thing.” Control fraud will make the largest banks’ senior officers exceptionally wealthy very quickly – but it will also cause severe harm to the public (and often the bank). Control fraud occurs when the persons who control a seemingly legitimate entity use it as a “weapon” to defraud. In finance, accounting is the “weapon of choice.” It is important to remember, however, that other forms of control fraud maim and kill hundreds of thousands and cause grave environmental damage. We must always remember the infant formula scandal in China where 300,000 infants were hospitalized with kidney stones due to consumer frauds that drove every honest manufacturer out of business.
Large, individual accounting control frauds cause greater financial losses than all other forms of property crime – combined. Accounting control frauds are weapons of mass financial destruction. Epidemics of accounting control fraud drove the national crises that produced the Great Recession. We have reliable information on this in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Iceland. Spain has kept the facts about lending too opaque to determine reliably what caused their bubble to hyper-inflate, but the lending pattern is consistent with accounting control fraud. These accounting control fraud epidemics drove crises that caused a loss of over $20 trillion in wealth and cost roughly 20 million workers their jobs.
These epidemics of accounting control fraud were not random “black swan” events. Criminogenic environments produce such intense and perverse incentives that they generate epidemics of control fraud. Our financial policies have been so criminogenic for decades that we are suffering recurrent, intensifying financial crises. WEF is one of the important architects and engineers that have made our financial system so criminogenic.ps.
Liar loans are still happening. They are necessary to prevent the system from crashing NOW.Tomorrow never comes.
The past is ignored.
example: +$1T in student loans.
re. preparedness
At the individual, or any size of community, the answer will be the same.
Position yourself to be able to produce a surplus which can be exchanged with other/communities that are producing surpluses which you do not have.
For now, learn how others, (Haiti, N. Korea, Greece etc.) are doing it and decide how you can use that knowledge for your own situation.
Your ability and willingness to change your lifestyle will determine your outcome.
Most of “Luck” will be determined by your preparedness.
All pension fund managers are trying to protect themselves from the anger of the grey swans.
They are the black swan of the bankers and the politicians.
They hold “the pool of wisdom.” (Pass and future)
They are more powerful that “the woman behind the throne.”
They are more powerful than the bankers.
Their organizations are in the open but can operated clandestine and swiftly.
They are only 3 phone calls away from any decision maker.
They can cause a bank run.
They can “starve the beast”.
They can make the members of parliament “quake in their boots”
They are immune to the tools of crowd control. Tear gas, batons, and physical force.
They have the ability to write modifications to any bill passed by governments and get it passed.
They are stirring and waking up from their nap.
They are learning to communicate with computers by the thousands.
They are getting informed on how they have been conned and used by the bankers and the politicians.
They are unbeatable, when they decide to act/work as one.
They will be obeyed, when they speak.
They are growing stronger by the day.
“They’ve been there, done that.”
“They can do the walk and they can do the talk.”
“They’ve seen it all and done it all.”BEWARE!!!!!
IGNORE THEM AND YOU WILL PERISH.
THEY ARE THE GRANS AND GREAT-GRANS.You might be able to do “selective hearing” with your wife.
You might be able to ignore your mother.
BUT, when gran calls you had better be listening if you do not want the black swan swooping down upon your house.
JALDoes scale matter?
If you did not use natural gas to extract oil from the oil sands would it be available for exporting via a pipeline to the coast or south to the USA?Toshiba Nuclear Reactor For Oil Sands To Be Operational By 2020: Reports
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/01/18/toshiba-oil-sands-reactor_n_2505738.html
While the news of nuclear reactors potentially dotting the oilsands landscape is already raising concerns among some environmentalists, the technology could actually prove greener than current methods. Oilsands producers typically use natural gas to power bitumen extraction, which contributes significantly to Canada’s carbon emissions.
—
List of small nuclear plants under research/development
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_small_nuclear_reactor_designsControl is out of my hands.
(I would like to have the day of reckoning delayed for another 30 years.)
B)
What I see happening, is that the cost of necessities of life going up faster than wages.
All of that money printing is making everyone want some of it to line their nest.Right now most of the money is flowing into “student loans”, (+ $1T, which will end up being forgiven since it cannot be repaid). Secondly, into bankers hands to cover the cashflow short falls from their bad investments, (Now being held by F&F), to avoid recognizing deflation of those assets.
Thirdly, its going for lots and lots of “PORK”.I’m shaving off all my hair if my barber raises prices for the second time this year. I’ll need the money saved to buy a can of beans.
Insightful… as usual.
For those who are not aware of small towns/communities dynamics, the “pecking order”, and the resulting dynamics of bullying, shunning, and exploitation by others will be present and obvious.
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“Malign Hand of the Markets”, by John Staddon.This book presents the information concerning the financial crash which should be understandable to most people.
Review …
Due to human nature/behaviors, predators can make ponzi schemes work.
The financial system crash resulted in the greatest theft of money ever.
The theft is still continuing.The system will not be changed because those benefiting are in power/control.
There is only one answer.
Today, a chocolate bar costs, $1.00.
I remember when that chocolate bar cost $0.05.
Boil baby boil.
(If you don’t understand what I’m saying, read the archives of the AE.)
So the vigilantes have been crowded out by central banks the world over.
They are keeping the interest rates at zero. End of story.
The vigilantes are so old school.
Its a good thing that they have erectile disfunction and are left impotent. Otherwise, their action would crash the system.
Ops!
They used to be be in the drivers seat.
Now all they can do is grit their teeth and hang on for the ride.Why do you think China is running around the world trying to exchange its US money for assets that they can use to generate more cash flow/real wealth.
Good luck to all!
I admire the perseverance of bloggers that continuously point out the trends of our social/economic system.
(A few people are listening)
@ davefairfax
I assume that you realize that its “Anything goes to save the rich”
Of course, the average person will be the ones suffering.Geeee!
Look at Greece.
The printing press will keep operating for the benefit of the rich.We had 30 years of demand stimulus, and we can expect (IMO) at least 10 years of demand contraction, and quite possibly longer (although I would expect fluctuation and cycles with that overall contraction). A demand undershoot is on the cards – ie demand decreases at least to below what it was when our expansion began in the early 1980s.
Darn!!!
That 10 year will probably coincide with the end of my life cycle.Then, there will be a new and different social/economic environment.
Hopefully, my gran-son will have been prepared.
Thank you very much for all your articles. I have followed your work for two years plus. This site has helped me understand things I knew next to nothing about. I value your opinions very highly as well as everyone who contributes.
My limited education taught me next to nothing about $ and the economy. This site has made a positive difference in my life. Thank you.
Ditto … for so many of the regular readers.
By now almost everyone is aware that the financial system DID collapse.
When we think back, the glass was perceived to be full.
Now, its half full.
There is not much that we could do about the “spilt milk”.
I concentrate on the fact that the glass is still 1/2 full.
I find fewer and fewer people who are willing to discuss our present situation.Its as if “if you don’t talk about it, it doesn’t matter.”
My biggest challenge is and will remain to prepare my 2 yr. old grand-son to be able to accept change and to function in a different social and economic structure.
Its nice to see all the info in one Place. The info that you gathered does demonstrate that “handfuls of power hungry nutcases seek personal satisfaction.”
Their preoccupation is not your granny’s welfare.
… No US Recovery
Who is his right mind would want a recovery!!
By having inflation with bubbles?
By printing more money to cover the theft done by the bankers?
Oppps!
The financial system want to go back to the way it was and have a recovery.
Its not going to happen.
Japan was lucky to be able to do it for as long as they did.
Now watch what happens to the EU countries as they try to get the printing press rolling.
