09th Jun2011
0 Comm
13th Apr2011
FBI Raids Chuck E. Cheese For “Undermining U.S. Currency”
The FBI and the Secret Service showed their willingness today to utilize the expanded definitions of “counterfeit currency” and “domestic terrorism” brought about by the recent conviction of Bernard von NotHaus of the alternative currency outlet “Liberty Dollar” when the agencies initiated a surprise raid on an unsuspecting Chuck E. Cheese establishment in Des Moines, Iowa.
Chuck E Cheese is charged with violations of 18 U.S.C. § 514, which covers the counterfeiting of Federal instruments, including currency, as well as 18 U.S.C. § 486, which states:
Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes, or attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
The statute phrases “intended for use as current money”, as well as “of original design” are extremely vague and wide open for any number of unconstitutional interpretations. Traditionally, the concept of “resemblance” or “similitude” in terms of counterfeiting has been considered to mean an attempt to make an exact copy or near exact copy of a unit of U.S. currency with the intent to illegally replicate its appearance as well as its value. However, the FBI found that the Liberty Dollar decision, and the “precedent” set by it, actually expanded the definition of “resemblance and (more…)
24th Mar2011
Fed Intervenes; Buys Dollars, Sells Yen In New York Trading
The Federal Reserve intervened in the currency market Friday, buying dollars and selling yen as part of a coordinated effort by Group of Seven nations to weaken Japan’s currency.
It was the first coordinated currency intervention since 2000. The intervention began in Tokyo with the Bank of Japan intervening. The Bank of England, Bundesbank, Banque de France and Bank of Italy all intervened during European trading, and the Bank of Canada also intervened.
The initial intervention from the Fed came right at 8 a.m. EDT, the start of the New York trading day. Three U.S. banks familiar with the intervention told Dow Jones Newswires the Fed’s trades early in the New York day totaled about $50 million.
The initial intervention by the Fed was symbolic to show the central bank stood with the Bank of Japan in the coordinated effort, said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon in New York. But he added that it was also a “warning shot across (more…)
23rd Jul2010
Modern Money Mechanics: Why Your Money = Debt Before You Touch It
You can view the document in PDF format below
FULL VIDEO BELOW…
19th Jul2010
Money Crunch! How Can An Economy Built On Debt Function If Nobody Can Get Loans?
Over the past several decades, the U.S. economy has become increasingly reliant on debt. The vast majority of people take out a mortgage when they purchase a home, the vast majority of people require a big loan in order to buy a vehicle, and the number of Americans who use credit cards to make purchases at retail stores has skyrocketed over the years. It has gotten to the point where credit is the life blood of the U.S. economic system. Unless your business is a convenience store or a fast food joint, being able to accept credit cards or arrange credit for your customers is absolutely crucial. In fact, the economic boom that the United States has experienced over the last 30 years has been largely due to a rapidly expanding pool of credit. Americans have gone deeper and deeper in debt with each passing year as they pursue the American Dream. But now that so many lending institutions have substantially tightened their lending standards and now that so many Americans have such low credit scores, how is the U.S. economy going to function?
That is a very good question.
The truth is that U.S. economic growth is very highly dependent on consumer spending, and consumer spending is very highly dependent on the ability to get credit.
But today there is a money crunch.
Banks and lending institutions, having been burned so badly by the reckless lending during the early and middle part of the past decade, have really, really tightened their standards.
So now it is much harder to get a home loan, a car loan or even a credit card.
In addition, as a recent USA Today article pointed out, a record number of Americans now have very low credit scores….
Figures provided by FICO show that 25.5% of consumers — nearly 43.4 million people — now have a credit score of 599 or below, marking them as poor risks for lenders. It’s unlikely they will be able to get credit cards, auto loans or mortgages under the tighter lending standards banks now use.
Historically, only about 15 percent of Americans have had credit scores that low.
That means that the number of “bad credit risk” Americans is getting pretty close to doubling.
And that is very bad news for the economy.
If Americans can’t get loans then the U.S. economy is going to grind to a standstill.
Just consider this quote from that same USA Today article….
“I don’t get paid for loan applications, I get paid for closings,” said Ritch Workman, a Melbourne, Fla., mortgage broker. “I have plenty of business, but I’m struggling to stay open.”
If you have tried to get a home loan over the past year, then you know how frustrating that can be. On our sister site, a reader named John (who actually has very good credit) described the infuriating experience that he went through when he tried to get a mortgage….
I was just turned down for a home loan. My credit score is 799, my wife’s 804. We had $40,000.00 to put down, which was almost 30%. BUT! Our bank turned down our application! Why? They required us to have 6 months “operating expenses” in the bank after all closing costs were covered. They came up with an arbitrary number on their own, based on our bills and such. We had that amount and more on top of our closing monies. Then why were we denied the loan? Several thousand dollars were from “cash” and the bank required that “cash” be in the bank for at least 60 days or they wouldn’t consider it fluid funding. Needless to say we didn’t make the closing date and are hiring an attorney to avoid being sued (by the seller).
Can you imagine?
Now remember, this is someone with a credit score of 799.
If the process is that frustrating for him, what is it going to be like for the rest of us?
The truth is that the credit markets are broken.
In an attempt to rectify the mistakes of the past, the lending pendulum has swung all the way from “anyone can get easy credit” to “virtually nobody can get a loan”.
So now we are facing a massive money crunch.
If people can’t get loans, homes won’t be purchased, car dealerships will close, retail stores will have a horrific holiday season and the economy will come to a standstill.
The sad thing is that this is exactly the kind of thing that happened at the beginning of the Great Depression. Credit was severely tightened and all of a sudden nobody seemed to have any money and the economy seized up.
Could history be repeating itself?
06th Jun2010
Conspiracy of Silence: Who are the Bilderberg Group?
Can you really call it a conspiracy if its true?
28th May2010
Fed Audit Under Fire
It doesn’t come as too much of a surprise that the measure to audit the Federal Reserve is coming under continuous fire from the central bank and its cronies. For the first time since the Federal Reserve was created nearly a century ago, they have hired an actual lobbyist to pound the pavement on Capitol Hill. This is a desperate effort to hang on to the privilege of secrecy and lack of accountability they have enjoyed for so long. Last week showed they are getting their money’s worth in the Senate.
At the very last minute on the floor of the Senate, supposed compromise language was agreed to and substituted in the Sanders Amendment to the Financial Reform Bill. This language was acceptable to the administration, committee leadership, and to the Fed. The trouble is, while it is better than no audit at all, it guts the spirit of a truly meaningful audit of the most crucial transactions of the Fed. In fact, rather than still calling the Sanders Amendment an audit, maybe it should instead be called more of a disclosure at this point. (more…)
16th May2010
American Taxpayers Looted To Bail Out The Euro
American taxpayers have been freshly liberated of hundreds of billions more dollars as part of the IMF’s new bailout package which is principally going straight to European banks, in addition to the Federal Reserve program to ship U.S. dollars to Europe, in a move that represents little more than a desperate effort to save the Euro and rescue the credibility of economic global governance.
“The Federal Reserve late Sunday opened a program to ship U.S. dollars to Europe in a move to head off a broader financial crisis on the continent,” reports the Associated Press.
“The Fed’s action reopens a program put in place during the 2008 global financial crisis under which dollars are shipped overseas through the foreign central banks. In turn, these central banks can lend the dollars out to banks in their home countries that are in need of dollar funding to prevent the European crisis from spreading further.”
As we reported last time this program was enacted, the Federal Reserve refused to say which foreign banks had received an estimated half a trillion dollars in credit swaps. The program is unconstitutional under Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution which states, “No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law.” (more…)
04th May2010
Bankers Prepare To Assault Americans With VAT, Transaction Taxes
The global banking elite are preparing to assault Americans with two huge new tax increases as President Obama contradicts the assurances of White House aides and his own campaign trail promise by asserting that a VAT tax is still on the table, as the IMF outlines a new tax on financial transactions that is being hailed as a blow to the banks yet represents another stealth tax on the people.
“President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that a new value-added tax on Americans is still on the table, seeming to show more openness to the idea than his aides have expressed in recent days,” reports the Associated Press.
Obama’s signal that he may embrace a European-style VAT tax follows former Fed chairman Paul Volcker’s call for a value-added tax. In response, the U.S. Senate passed a nonbinding “sense of the Senate” resolution labeling any such move, “a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back America’s economic recovery.” (more…)
