Possible proof the government knew we were entering a major recession clear back in 2007?

I was surfing around some various financial news sites, pretty much just speed reading the articles, when something I'd read a paragraph prior set off an alarm in my head. I re-read the sentence in question and it made me have to do some research to see what the hell the guy was talking about. I think I may have just stumbled across a smoking gun.

Here's the original article I was reading: www.mybudget360.com... y/

(This article itself is worth a discussion thread of it's own here at ATS. It is about the connection between the every lowering interest rates on bonds and how the government is using doublespeak to make saving your money sound good, but in actions doing everything they can to discourage you from saving)

Anyway, here's the offending quote:

This is simply one piece of the puzzle but in the middle of 2008, the U.S. Treasury suddenly lowered the ceiling of how much money could be invested in U.S. Savings I-Bonds for each calendar year from $30,000 to $5,000.

Being that I don't invest in bonds and this was the first I'd heard about this action, I assumed that few who don't buy bonds knew of it either.

Upon doing some searching on the web for more information, I found that the author of the previous article was incorrect in a significant way. Had this change in the ceiling of annual I-bond purchases actually occured in mid-2008 as he stated, this wouldn't be a huge deal. By July/August of 2008, we were already experiencing the bursting of the mortgage bubble and the general attitude, while nowhere near as serious as it became in September, was very doom & gloom. We'd had stimulus checks issued to encourage people to spend a little to boost the economy, in other words.

Then I found this: www.savingsbonds.gov...
The government's own information page about Bonds...

Effective January 1, 2008, the annual (calendar year) purchase limit applying to Series EE and Series I savings bonds is $5,000, issue price, for each series. The limit is applied per Social Security Number (SSN) or Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). Individuals or entities may purchase up to $5,000 worth of each series in paper form.

Bush publicised the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 near the end of January. Congress & the Senate signed the ultimate bill on Feb 7th. Granted, the credit markets were cited by Bernanke as being "troubled" in late December of 2007, but we were all told repeatedly that this was only a slowdown and nothing to worry excessively over. Time after time they said this.

I then found this: www.treasurydirect.gov...

Again, direct from the government in a posting dated December 3, 2007.

The annual limitation on purchases of United States Savings Bonds will be set at $5,000 per Social Security Number, effective January 1, 2008. The limit applies separately to Series EE and Series I savings bonds, and separately to bonds issued in paper or electronic form.

Now, to close this loop out, here's the shell casing that I found next to said smoking gun: An article dated December 1st, 2008
money.cnn.com...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy .

For 12 months we were blatently lied to by our own government. They vehemently denied that were in a recession, yet from almost day one of this recession, they demonstrate that they have known what was going on. They took an action over a year ago to make sure that as much money as possible would manage to somehow make its way back home to roost, within the banks of the country, where it could be locked away. They knew that by dropping the ceiling of bond investments by $25,000 a year, it would push more people to either spend their money or invest it into riskier, easier to essentially steal from, stocks & lesser bonds.

I feel like I need to go wash my hands after having visited that .gov site for some reason.

It is not often that I hand out the old S & F...but this is definitely an exception. Good research.

Let me add that the recent temporary increase of FDIC to $200,000 per account, the two economic stimuli under Bush and just last week Chase sent me a voucher for $100 for opening a checking account.

They do seem to want money to go into banks.

reply to post by burdman30ott6


Props to you for an excellent OP! Starred and Flagged!

I always suspected, from prior contributions, that you were among the many ATSers who were sensitive to the economic policy follies of our so-called 'Representatives.'

I suspect that the "secret" congressional meeting held early last year was a 'situation report' in this regard for the less-indoctrinated participants in the crippling of the nearly-sovereign United States of America.

I suspect that our entire economic shift from industry to 'services' was a ruse.

I could on and on, except, I think I'd be preaching to the choir.

Nice work!

reply to post by burdman30ott6


Great find

S & F.

If they knew this then...what do they know now?

This would be nothing new to some of us. But it is most certainly evidence of government manipulation. They've been stealing money and putting it in safer investments overseas for some time now. All the while creating a bond bubble that will burst when the dollar takes a serious plunge. It won't matter to them as they have already laundered the money they stole through gold and foreign investment.

My biggest cue was when the Fed dropped interest rates to 0 - .25% and t-bills went negative in December. If that's not evidence of theft I don't know what is. They are fleecing America before the disease makes the effort meaningless. They will launder their loot and leave the rest of us holding green toilet paper.

reply to post by projectvxn


I agree, This is not a surprise. In fact, if someone wanted to do the research, I'm sure we were talking about it here on ATS at that time, complete with links.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
I'm sure we were talking about it here on ATS at that time, complete with links.

Jefwane talked about it in August of 08 here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

I posted about it in December of 07 here: www.abovetopsecret.com...



Nice opening post Burdman.
.

Those of us that catch this stuff have been talking about it FOR YEARS, if not on ATS then with friends and family or online blogs like I have. But you don't need me to tell you this. California is collapsing as we speak. 7th largest economy in the world has more fortune 500 companies than any other state, highest taxes of any state, and yet they are in for default. They will drag the rest of the economy down with them. And then the fleecing will stop because there will be nothing of value left to steal. Except for land and infrastructure. Which they will sell to China and Russia.

reply to post by Ahabstar


I didn't even think about the FDIC limit adjustment. Great point. It really does all tie together and I just can't find any logical conclusion that doesn't point towards a direct knowledge of what was to come by the feds.

reply to post by Maxmars


Max, I'm not too proud to admit that I didn't really see this coming until it was way too late. I was a little bit peeved about that first round of stimulus checks, mostly because of semantics, though. It made me mad to see them continue to apply the word "rebate" onto it after modifying it to actually give some people more of a "rebate" than they actually had paid into the system the prior year. The rest of the goings on, I pretty much ignored. I remember laughing at the idea of a recession, let alone a depression then. The idea that the whole thing was manufactured from within was instantly ridiculed by me. (which I'm sure you remember since you were one of the people here I butted heads with.) It wasn't partisan, but it was definitely a case of "That's ridiculous, we're America and our leaders may be a little shady, but they're nowhere near that level of dispicableness."

It wasn't until they started handing our money over to the banks by the trillions that I realized that something was majorly wrong. I also remember driving my wife, my dad, my neighbor, and a couple of people at work absolutely nuts with a slew of "Did you know..." items of knowledge I gleaned in that first week of "waking up" to this. (My dad just told me the other day that he wishes I'd kept a lot of that information to myself as he now is beginning to understand what I told him in October & November and has also connected the dots and come to the conclusion that we've all been set up from inside.)

reply to post by Gools

Thanks for those links, Gools. I did a quick ATS search for "I-bonds" before I posted this and didn't come across anything, but I figured this was way too unusual an action by the treasury back then to have gone unnoticed by someone here.

I think alot of people knew we were entering a major recession back in 2007. Most finacial experts predicted it and although many people didnt want to admit it, deep down they knew. My only question is now that the government has preferred shares in everything from banks to the car industry what happens when those stocks rebound. If they do you are looking at a possiblity of 100%-300%, possibly more, increase in stock price. Not to mention the 8% annual percentage rate some of these companies are paying on those loans. The US can actually make a major profit from their "investment" in these companies. Maybe they can cut the deficit some. And all of you have to remeber that this isnt only a US problem, it is global. In fact, the USA may very well come out of this recession in a better position financially then it has been in years. Of course there is always the other side too. That none of this will work and the US and the rest of the world will be screwed.

[edit on 20-1-2009 by tide88]

[edit on 20-1-2009 by tide88]

Any one that was paying attention knew it. If you let greed get in the way your judgment is clouded. I went all cash on October 15, 2007 and am not sorry.

Since we are in a DEPRESSION one can conclude that the recession issue is a moot point. Congress started paying for all of the Bush military operations while the Chinese were financing the majority of the US debt obligations. Years ago Bush bribed the entire US population by issuing a $500.00+ check not long after he became president. This was based on the idea that there was a SURPLUS.

What sort of accounting practices swing from a surplus to the biggest debt of all time ever?? CRIMINAL ACCOUNTING. For Clinton to have somehow created a surplus was a problem. It is like working a shift at the gas station and after doing the shift sheet you have an "EXTRA" few $100.00 so you put it in your pocket. Creative accounting!

What we have is the fall of Rome! Honest politicians are so far and few between that it is impossible to trust the government again unless we clean house. At some point folks are going to have to assemble to address the government and list our grievances. Shortly after they (government) insist they are not going to get out of our public buildings those assembled shift to the 2nd Amendment and become armed militias. Then it is by hook or crook but they all go. We elect a new government or create a new government from scratch.

What is it that you all think the 1st two Amendments are about?? Ejecting tyranny!

It's too bad I didn't know about ATS until about Nov this last year.
It was a little over two and a half years ago, so May of 2006, that a friend of mine from wall street tipped me off. At the time, I was making good money and didn't care, but I didn't see the bigger picture.
First of all, he has retired from wall street. He was very high up the food chain in making these multiple billion dollar loans and one of the biggest was GE. His friends owned seats on the New York Stock Exchange.
Anyways, this is someone that I was speaking with on a daily or every other day at the time on a possible deal. He disapeared for a about a week, and told me he was at a secret conference about crude oil.
He told me then that they were going to manipulate the system to drive it way up. He said there where alot of other factors including bad mortgage notes, but didn't want to go into that.
I guess they have all gotten what they wanted as oil went from 30 or so to almost 150 a barrel.
The MSM has warned us this last week as well. These same speculators are holding vast quantities of crude off shore in tankers that they bought options on. They are drying up the crude and gasoline reserves util the prices jump up past 100 a barrel again. They want it at around 175 to 200 and let it drop again. When they play yo you with the price, they found they can make killing on up swing and gently let it back down.

This by the way was meeting with the government involved.

So when things start to turn a corner this early spring, the gas prices will go crazy even worse than before and that will set up our hyperinflation.
Didn't you notice that everything went up with gas prices, and have not really come back down? The greed of these people. It's just unbelieveable.
They just don't care what so ever. They steer and drive us in ways you would not think and they plan it long ahead of time.



Edit for spelling




[edit on 20-1-2009 by j2000]

Did anyone take notice of how many long term and formerly powerful senators have stepped down in the last few years? How about the supposed container of canned butter that was reportedly bought up by the feds? maybe that was just a rumor. It's probably a good year for everyone to plant a garden.

Yep no surprise here.... the government probably predicted a recession well before then I would guess, maybe I would go so far back as 2005.

Some of the worlds top economists work in co-operation with whitehouse officials (obviously) and with the cost of the war coupled with the Bush tax cuts following both his 2000 and 2004 elections he did get multiple warnings... but yes.. with the "global warming and recessions are myths" attitude among the rightwing.. well nobody could take these warnings seriously. Heck we saw how stubborn the Bush administration, Republican party and some of its supporters were up until October last year, still in denial.

Amazing conservative contrarians... .... I admit that atleast Ron paul had the balls to actually stand up and state the obvious in 2007.... I dont agree with the man on everything but I give him credit for speaking out in 2007, despite the denial of his libertarian conservative counterparts.

Again well researched.... but nothing folks here should be too surprised about.

Originally posted by j2000
So when things start to turn a corner this early spring, the gas prices will go crazy even worse than before and that will set up our hyperinflation.
Didn't you notice that everything went up with gas prices, and have not really come back down? The greed of these people. It's just unbelieveable.
They just don't care what so ever. They steer and drive us in ways you would not think and they plan it long ahead of time.

I am not so sure it is an overt act or conspiracy going on. I think it is the natural progression of democratic capitalism. All systems, as great as they are, will go corrupt over time. Our system helped propel the USA into the global spotlight and our country flourished because of the power of capitalism. Over time business realizes that it can purchase policy by throwing money around, greed steps in and the system starts to collapse. Add in a few tablespoons of corporate bailouts and white-collar welfare and you have big business meets government. No surprise there...

The big question is 'where to now'? Who holds hand right now, and how are they going to play it out? Sure, a good chunk of America is starting to wake up to the nonsense but I think it is too late. The power grab is complete and the dollar is on the way to its funeral.

What now? As this whole clusterf*** of world banks and failing economies becomes more transparent to the sheeple, what is the next step? It is becoming clear that the past 3 years has really been a big $/power grab, but why?

To usher in a new cycle? What will that cycle be?

It must be more terrror or a MUCH bigger threat. Maybe a global threat? It must.
Our economic cycle demands it to happen in order for TPTB to remain in power.

Good going Burdman!

I watched you make that about-face, when you no longer could deny that all of this was happening. This was really an amazing moment on ATS, when you and Rockpuck started to realize that all of this really was happening. Hope Rockpuck forgives me for throwing him into this.

What happens now, though? Well... It seems all we can do is watch, and wait.

reply to post by nydsdan


If the system is corrupt then the people that the system is comprised of are corrupt. Those that are elected are people so it is safe to say that PEOPLE have become corrupt.

What a no brainer! It was obvious to me 5 years ago.

Well I was going through some videos.... And while this one I found appears to have been uploaded to Youtube for it's humour value, it made me think of you, and this thread...

This was in 2006, "Trustees" having a meeting about "money issues" and trying to cut the budget by 2008.


Well, I guess it is a funny video. And may have NOTHING to do with the "money issues" being faced today. Still, felt like sharing.