In Bankers We Trust -or- Financial Socialism for Dummies, page 1

For every person who has ever criticised the principles of socialism or confused those principles or characteristics with those of communism;

For every person who has ever pointed a finger at other countries or individuals and accused them of being "pinko commie traitors" (or the like);

For every person who thinks that there has ever been such a thing as pure free market capitalism or any form of pure [insert economic theory here] for that matter;

For every person who has been brainwashed to hate in the name of the artificial divide & conquer paradigm of capitalism v. socialism;

For every person who has ever committed an act of aggression in the name of whatever patriotic ideal you have subscribed to since WWII...

... I hope you are taking a good long look in the mirror today and realising just how well you have been punked by the Powers That Be (PTB) for the last 60 years - comrade.


By their action/deeds/fruits ye shall know them.


Has their ever been a time when the PTB have not followed the principle of "socializing the risk/loses and privatizing the profits"?

The last time the PTB put the squeeze on us is remembered as "The Great Depression".

Anybody who has studied the causes of the great depression is bound to have run into the "conspiracy theories" revolving around the deliberate imposition of those economic conditions amounting to the consolidation of economic power on the United States and other Central Bank Cartel territories shortly after they regained control of their wayward child in 1913 beginning with the "Roaring Twenties" and ending in the Great Depression.

Have you noticed that the spectre of the great depression is being thrown around an awful lot lately?

Many recent articles discuss things that have not been done since that time period. Powers that lay dormant for decades have been revived and legislation protecting society from the ravages of the robber barons has been repealed (e.g. Glass-Steagall Act) and replaced with more centralization and control over the finances of countries and through co-ordination, the world.

Some excerpts from recent articles to illustrate my points:

Free-ma rket thinking takes hit from US economic crisis

...deepening economic crisis has led to unprecedented actions by US policymakers that raise questions about how far government regulation should go in a free-market economy...

The Federal Reserve, in addition to dramatically cutting interest rates, has opened up its massive reserves to Wall Street securities firms for the first time since the Great Depression...

"This action transferred potential losses from the market to the taxpayers," he said. "I do not believe the present system can remain if the bankers make the profits and the taxpayers share the losses."

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke "made monetary history" by opening the discount window and "crossed even further over to the dark side of financial socialism" by allowing the firms to pledge illiquid mortgage debt as collateral.

"Comrade Ben is determined that there will be no financial meltdown and no depression while he is in command," Yardeni said. "Given the initial positive reaction in stock prices last week, I suppose this means that on Wall Street, we are all financial socialists now."

More bailouts to follow Bear Stearns?

Even President George W. Bush ... On March 14, he inveighed against government bailouts. "The temptation of Washington is to say that anything short of a massive government intervention in the housing market amounts to inaction. I strongly disagree with that sentiment," ...

But, a week later, Bush applauded the series of dramatic government interventions undertaken by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, claiming they had "acted swiftly to promote stability in our financial markets at a crucial time." He even thanked Bernanke for "working over the weekend."

The Central Banks are not the only players in on the act:

Fannie and Freddie cleared to buy more

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the US government-chartered mortgage financiers, could each raise up to $10bn of new capital as part of an agreement that allows them to buy and guarantee more mortgages, their regulator said on Friday.

OFHEO last week reduced surplus regulatory capital requirements for the mortgage companies from 30 per cent to 20 per cent, freeing up $2.3bn and $2.6bn of capital at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac respectively.

Sources familiar with the agreement were surprised at the $5bn-$10bn range that Mr Lockhart proposed on Friday, however.

The companies did not say last week how or when they would seek to raise the new capital.

Shares in Fannie Mae fell 4.9 per cent in early afternoon trade on Friday, while Freddie Mac was 3.84 per cent lower.

So we have Government sponsored agencies, already suspected to be bankrupt, buying up bad mortgages with money freed up by lowering their reserve requirements and who are expected to raise new capital in an environment where their share prices are falling? Yeah, good luck with that.

The Road to Perdition

The G7 financial, central bank and banking regulators are in full battle mode trying to prevent the bankruptcy of the financial system. Since last Monday, almost 1 trillion Dollars of financial band aids have been applied. Investment banks have been included as participants at the discount window. And the investment banks, such as GOLDMAN SACHS, Merrill lynch and Morgan Stanley, quickly took advantage of the liquidity by shoving over $50 billion Dollars in CRAPPY paper into the window. The Term Auction Facility is now regularly OVERSUBSCRIBED and the Term Securities Auction Facility opens today. Fannie and Freddie were allowed to expand their balance sheets by over $200 billion Dollars. The ECB is shoving funds out the door. The bank of England did so and is preparing to accelerate doing so to rescue the mortgage market in the UK. The federal home loan banks were given expanded lending authority.

Under rhetorical disguise the Federal Reserve has begun to BUY mortgage securities. Even though the Treasury and Federal Reserve claim the Bear Stearns bailout and buyout by JP Morgan Chase, which included a $30 billion cash injection, was just a loan for impaired liquidity of the mortgage securities; the fine print of the deal signals something MORE.

The actions taken last week were only the beginning of the bailouts; we now know that the Monolines, Money Center, Investment and Super Regional Banks will not be allowed to fail as they are as entwined in the financial system, as was Bear Stearns if not more.

In conclusion, the socialization of the risks and the bailout in the banking and financial system has just begun. They need to move faster and many in the government support this. They support it not because it’s the right thing to do or they have knowledge of history/economics but because it is an election year and nothing will be allowed to get between them and their thirst for more power over others.

BTW my prediction is a period of stability and seemingly good economic news as a result of the wait and see attitude the markets will take toward the new initiatives. It is after the US elections and probably into 2009 when the real crunch will begin IMO. By that time people will be able to blame the economic woes once again on one side of the artificial political divide in US society (guess which one ) and you will begin to see more and more articles like this one: As Jobs Vanish and Prices Rise, Food Stamp Use Nears Record

Oh, and speaking of Goldman Sachs (quoted here from an article in Barron's):

Goldman: Total Leveraged Credit Losses = $1.2 trillion

We hate to add to what we consider a pretty gloomy prospect, but Tilton takes care to note that the $460 billion that Goldman expects to go down the drain is "only part of total credit losses," which it anticipates will reach a tidy $1.2 trillion. However, he explains, the leveraged losses are especially critical, as they cause a significant tightening of credit as institutions curb their lending to conserve shrinking capital. Which, for us, anyway, makes the tunnel a lot longer and the light a lot dimmer."

A trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money . . .

Don't forget that Goldman Sacks basically runs the central bank cartel for both the US and Canada: www.abovetopsecret.com... They will not be allowed to fail and will be bailed out if they get into real trouble.

Back to the topic:

Bleakonomics

Since the bank runs of the 1930s, federal protection of retail depositor institutions has been a hallmark of American capitalism. The Federal Reserve, in a sweeping extension, has now extended the privilege to gilt-edged investment firms.

Its flurry of interventions has prompted a double dose of unease. The central bank offered a lifeline to Wall Street investors who, seemingly, deserved a worse fate.

Government interventions always bring disruptions, but when Washington meddles in financial markets, the potential for the sort of distortion that obscures proper incentives is especially large, due to our markets’ complexities.

Capitalism isn’t supposed to work like this, and before the advent of modern finance, it usually didn’t. Market values fluctuate, but — in the absence of fraud — billion-dollar companies do not evaporate. ...

Once, investors could get a read on financial firms’ assets and risks from their balance sheets; those days are history.

Firms now do much of their business off the balance sheet. The swashbuckling Bear Stearns was a party to $2.5 trillion — no typo — of a derivative instrument known as a credit default swap. Such swaps are off-the-books agreements with third parties to exchange sums of cash according to a motley assortment of other credit indicators.

To question intervention is not to dispute that markets need rules. But for nearly two decades, Washington has trimmed its regulatory sails. The repeal of Glass-Steagall, which once separated banks from securities firms, and the evolution of new instruments that circumvent disclosure rules have loosened the market’s moorings.

So what does this plan look like?

Fed eyes Nordic-style nationalisation of US banks

The US Federal Reserve is examining the Nordic bank nationalisations of the 1990s as a possible interim solution to the US financial crisis.

A senior official at one of the Scandinavian central banks told The Daily Telegraph that Fed strategists had stepped up contacts to learn how Norway, Sweden and Finland managed their traumatic crisis from 1991 to 1993, which brought the region's economy to its knees.

Scandinavia's bank rescue proved successful and is now a model for central bankers...

Norway ensured that shareholders of insolvent lenders received nothing and the senior management was entirely purged. Two of the country's top four banks - Christiania Bank and Fokus - were seized by force majeure.

"The law was amended so that we could take 100pc control of any bank where its equity had fallen below zero. Shareholders were left with nothing. It was very controversial," he said.

...Sweden's Riksbank, ... passed an act so it could seize banks where the capital adequacy ratio had fallen below 2pc. Efforts were also made to protect against "blackmail" by shareholders.

Did you get all that?

The new model for central bankers is to nationalise the banking system by seizing troubled banks by force majeur and making sure shareholders get nothing. The purge of senior management sounds great, but I'm willing to bet the US doesn't implement that part of the model.

By the way, in case you think this is only a US centric development, think again:

Mervyn King ready to rock Bank of England's foundations

The severity of the financial crisis has at last shaken the Bank of England out of its complacency to prepare the biggest reappraisal of its role and purpose in living memory.

Appearing before the Treasury Select Committee during the week, King appeared to admit as much, saying the Bank was seeking out a "longer-term solution". This is putting it lightly. The Bank is now gearing up for the biggest overhaul of its financial market controls in decades. After conferring last week with the heads of the five big banks - Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS - it has undertaken to find new, potentially radical ways to kickstart the frozen asset-backed security markets at the heart of the crisis.

So the Bank of England is in on the act. Notice they consulted the five big banks to come up with their own solutions and plans? Yep! the public will be protected and "rescued" in that situation.

I wonder how many more members of the Central Bank Cartel will be recruited to the cause?

I know this is getting long but just a few more points to illustrate.

The politicians are on side as well:

Bush and Brown in push to deal with crisis

George W. Bush, US president, and Gordon Brown, UK prime minister, have agreed to step up co-operation over the crisis in financial markets. They are setting up a joint working group which will develop plans to monitor and regulate the banking system.

At the heart of the proposals, agreed on Wednesday by Hank Paulson, US Treasury secretary, and Alistair Darling, UK chancellor, is the creation of a body made up of senior Treasury and regulatory figures from London and Washington.

Mr Brown and Mr Bush will discuss greater UK-US co-operation in tackling the financial crisis when they meet at a Nato summit in Bucharest this week and a Washington summit next month.

Whitehall officials say the new UK-US working group, whose membership and terms of reference are being finalised, will seek to establish a common approach on how to respond to the crisis before next month’s meetings of the Group of Seven, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

However, officials say that, given the huge role that London and New York play in financial markets, the significance of the new body will go beyond that.

Great! Just what we need, another committee. Doesn’t all this centralisation of power and rule by committee remind you of something?

London and Washington are heading up the Cartel's efforts and will likely impose their will at the upcoming meetings. BTW do people think that Cheney's recent visit to Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with the petrodollar and world finances?

What about the "little guy" you ask?

A couple of headlines will illustrate that some are seeing the light but some will not be so lucky.

Investors pull almost $100bn out of equity funds

Investors worldwide pulled close to $100bn (€63.3bn) out of equity funds in the first three months of this year – a record shift that accelerates a longer-term trend away from US and western European stock markets.

Equity funds suffered outflows of $98bn in the quarter ending March 28, according to Emerging Portfolio Fund Research, which tracks retail and institutional flows. The funds had inflows of $19bn during the same period last year and inflows of $49bn in the same period for 2006.

If You Can’t Sell, Good Luck

WHERE’S my bailout?

That’s what thousands of individual investors, stuck with auction-rate securities that brokers had told them were “as good as cash,” might have wondered as they watched the Federal Reserve take on $29 billion of malodorous assets from the balance sheet of Bear Stearns.

Everybody knows, though, that only big guys get bailouts. Long-suffering small investors, unable to sell these supposedly liquid securities, have to look elsewhere for satisfaction.

Unfortunately, satisfaction is elusive for these investors. They have two choices: They can hope that the issuer of the auction-rate security will buy it back. Or they can sue the brokers who sold the securities, in many cases making verbal promises that they could be cashed in weekly. Such suits cost money that many investors do not have.

And so they sit and wait with no access to their money.

Now perhaps the most important article of all from an ATS perspective.

Two major points to be raised in this one. The first is that after Paulson announces the plan on Monday he has a little trip scheduled. Can you guess where?

Treasury unveils plans for regulatory shake-up

A second feature of the plan, which Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary, will outline in a speech on Monday before he travels to China...

I love how they just throw that in there. Right after his speech about a major shake-up affecting the entire financial system of the United States he will not be sticking around to oversee the fallout in the US. Oh no. He will be travelling to China for a "visit". I'd love to be a fly on the wall in THAT meeting!

BTW, what of Chinese businessmen? Well they no longer want to touch US dollars. Chinese exporters shun flagging dollar

Oh yeah... the second point from that article?

Treasury unveils plans for regulatory shake-up

The Treasury Department on Monday plans to unveil a series of recommendations that would radically reshape the regulation of the US financial services industry, giving broad new powers to the Federal Reserve...

The US Treasury had been working on its “blueprint” for regulatory reform since March 2007, in an effort to bolster US capital markets amid growing competition from overseas.

The Fed on Saturday said: “The Treasury’s report presents a timely and thoughtful analysis and is an important first step in the complex task of modernizing our financial and regulatory architecture.”

Timely?

Centralization of powers?

*** FIRST STEP?! ***

But, did you catch perhaps the most important point?

The Powers That Be have been working on this latest consolidation/centralization of financial power or “blueprint” for AT LEAST A YEAR!!! (and I'll wager a lot longer)




There are two main viewpoints of History held by most people in the world. The first is that everything in history is a coincidence and nobody can predict much less orchestrate events which happen spontaneously with people simply reacting to them. This is often referred to as the catastrophic or accidental view of history. This is the view that is taught in the public school system and easily adopted by linear thinkers as well as anybody who never questions what is spoon fed to them.

The other view is that History is conspiratorial in nature. In other words groups of powerful people take advantage of situations/trends/influence to nudge History into specific directions and effect some measure of control or at least influence over the outcomes of events or the probability of certain events taking place under specific circumstances manipulated where they can be.

The mainstream media has openly admitted that this latest step in the socialisation of the financial system and the application of the "socialise risk/loss, privatise profits" principle has been in the works for at least the last year (and I would bet everything I own on a much longer period than that) and is a co-ordinated event with other central banks. The same year where we have been repeatedly assured that everything was fine and that we had nothing to worry about. In fact we are still being told that things are not as bad as those in the know are trying to alert us about.

Like lambs to the slaughter we are being led down a garden path.

But hey, don't tell that to anyone because they might call you a crazy conspiracy theorist.

Right?
.

Chaos on Wall Street

(Fortune Magazine) -- What in the world is going on here? Why is Washington spending billions to bail out Wall Street titans while leaving struggling homeowners to fend for themselves? Why are the Federal Reserve and the Treasury acting as if they're afraid the world may come to an end, ...

...I'm more nervous about the world financial system now than I've ever been in my 40 years of covering business and markets.

... I fear that the Wall Street enablers of the biggest financial mess of my lifetime will escape with relatively light damage, leaving the rest of us - and our children and grandchildren - to pay for their misdeeds.

And before you ask: It's irrelevant whether or not we're in a recession, ... What matters is that we're in a dangerous and messy situation that has produced an economic slowdown unlike those we're used to seeing.

How is this slowdown different from other slowdowns? Normally the economy goes bad first, creating financial problems. In this slowdown the markets are dragging down the economy - a crucial distinction, because markets are harder to fix than the economy.

A leading political economist, Allan Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon, calls it "an unusual situation, but not unprecedented." When was the last time it happened in the U.S.? "In 1929," he says. And it touched off the Great Depression.

... the Fed has tried to reassure the markets by inventing three new ways to inundate the financial system with staggering amounts of short-term money. This is in addition to the Fed's existing mechanisms, which are vast.

The three newbies - the term auction lending facility, the primary-dealer credit facility, and the term securities lending facility - total more than half-a-trillion dollars, with more if needed [NOTE: this is US only]. Much of this money is available not only to commercial banks but also to investment banks, which normally aren't allowed to borrow from the Fed.

How can the Fed afford this largesse? Easy... in effect creating banking reserves out of thin air and lending them out at interest.

Then there's the Treasury. ... unleashed Fannie Mae .. and Freddie Mac .. and the Federal Home Loan Banks to buy hundreds of billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities.

Many of the same points explained in greater detail. I recommend you read the whole two page article.

Is there good news here? Indeed, there is. Sooner or later, all this money being thrown at the debt markets will stabilize things.

Really?
.

Originally posted by Gools
The same year where we have been repeatedly assured that everything was fine and that we had nothing to worry about. In fact we are still being told that things are not as bad as those in the know are trying to alert us about.

Like lambs to the slaughter we are being led down a garden path.

For example: "The Recession is a Media Myth"

See what I mean?

Unbelievable...
.

reply to post by Gools

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Thanks. A long and interesting read. Could it be boiled down to a summary? My head is still reeling. But basically, what I read out of this is "Socialism for the Rich, Capitalism for the Poor," as Chomsky said.

reply to post by Gools

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First off, excellent post. I've been reading and watching a hell of a lot lately about our banking and monetary system lately. I have just now begun to realize exactly how horribly managed our economic system is. Banks create money out of thin air to lend out and then charge interest on that loan. This to me should be a crime, which it used to be, called Usury. How have we allowed the banks to be so deregulated that they have been allowed to do this? They are completely unaccountable for their actions. But, people must also bear their share of the responsiblity. Those who(myself included) have gotten into debt by being uneducated about the dangers of credit cards. I am doing much better now. I have one credit card which is through my bank, others are paid off. I am working my way out of debt, payed off my car, and don't own a home.

What we need to do is to start educating people about the dangers of credit. This is the largest problem, and while people are responsible for their own actions, so should banks be. Unsolicited credit card offers that almost everyone receives in the mail, should be outlawed, as well as offering a credit card to a college freshman for over $500. This is how I got into trouble by being uneducated about the trouble of getting into debt, and also being duped with this 0% interest for 6 months and being told all sorts of other rif-raf. It was a load of crap. Kids need to be educated by their PARENTS about this sort of thing before they go to college and it needs to be taught in public schools. But in the end the responsibility still lies with the individual.

Got to love the constitution. it allows people to say anything want.

Sorry, but completely disagree with you!!!!!!!

Long live the US Economy!!!!!!

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Why is everyone complaining, I am making tons of good trades out there. Not flipping stocks, but shorting and holding and buying and holding. Do you homework people. It is easy to make money from BOTH sides of any market.

reply to post by ChrisJr03

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Chris. hope you have been buying financials. I got long LEH at $23.89. How insane is that????? Of course I protected my self through options, as it was a risky trade then. Gotta love America!!!!!

reply to post by traderonwallst

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amazing.

When you're selling at $0.001 cents per share, comeback and tell me all is well. America hasn't been pure capitalist in almost all of it's history, and certainly not since 1913 (Wilsonian BS). Get a grip, open your eyes, and brace yourself.

Originally posted by Arcane Demesne
reply to post by traderonwallst

---

amazing.

When you're selling at $0.001 cents per share, comeback and tell me all is well. America hasn't been pure capitalist in almost all of it's history, and certainly not since 1913 (Wilsonian BS). Get a grip, open your eyes, and brace yourself.

See...people like you who complain and complain about the way things never get ahead in life. I guess thats why you complain so much.

I have tried on many posts to educate people about investing and all I get is people screaming at me.... Maybe everyone else should get their heads out of the sand and start doing something about it and not just writing about it on blogs.

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