There Will Be No Double Dip - It Will Be A Lot Worse

More Truth.

This article contains a lot of good economic information that everyone should know.

We all need to take it one step further – and not assume that the governments and banks of the world are trying to prevent a collapse.

As I’ve said many times – a global economic collapse is part of a plan for world government and world domination.  There’s no way to sugar-coat this truth.

If you don’t think it’s possible - it’s time to learn how the world’s economy really operates.  It’s all about debt – and control of the world’s population.

http://endtimediscussions.blogspot.com/2006/09/our-monetary-system.html

Get ready – a global stock market collapse is coming – and soon.

jg – August 16, 2010

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www.zerohedge.com

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/matterhorn-asset-management-there-will-be-no-double-dip-it-will-be-lot-worse

THERE WILL BE NO DOUBLE DIP…..

by Egon von Greyerz – Matterhorn Asset Management

No, there will be no double dip. It will be a lot worse. The world economy will soon go into an accelerated and precipitous decline which will make the 2007 to early 2009 downturn seem like a walk in the park. The world financial system has temporarily been on life support by trillions of printed dollars that governments call money. But the effect of this massive money printing is ephemeral since it is not possible to save a world economy built on worthless paper by creating more of the same. Nevertheless, governments will continue to print since this is the only remedy they know. Therefore, we are soon likely to enter a phase of money printing of a magnitude that the world has never experienced.  But his will not save the Western World which is likely to go in to a decline lasting at least 20 years but most probably a lot longer.

The End of an Era

The hyperinflationary depression that many western countries, including the US and the UK, will experience is likely to mark the end of an era that has lasted over 200 years since the industrial revolution.  A major part of the growth in the last 100 years and especially in the last 40 years has been built on an unsustainable build-up of debt levels. These debt levels will continue to swell for another few years until the coming hyperinflation in the West leads to a destruction of real asset values and a debt implosion.

In the last 100 years the Western world has experienced a historically unprecedented growth in production, in inventions and technical developments leading to a major increase in the standard of living. During the same period government debt, as well as private debt have grown exponentially leading to a major increase in inflation compared to previous centuries.

Until the early 1970s the growth in credit to GDP had been going up gradually since the creation of the Fed in 1913.. But from 1971 when Nixon abolished gold backing of the dollar, virtually all of the growth in the Western world has come from the massive increase in credit rather than from real growth of the economy. The US consumer price index was stable for 200 years until the early 1900s. From 1971 to 2010 CPI went up by almost 500%. The reason for this is uncontrolled credit creation and money printing. Total US debt went from $9 trillion in 1971 to $59 trillion today and this excludes unfunded liabilities of anywhere from $70 to $110 trillion. US nominal GDP went from $1.1 trillion to $14.5 trillion between 1971 and 2010.  So it has taken an increase in borrowings of $50 trillion to produce an increase in annual GDP of $13 trillion over a 40 year period. Without this massive increase in debt, the US would probably have had negative growth for most of the last 39 years.

Total US debt to GDP is now 380% and is likely to escalate substantially.

The coming hyperinflationary depression and the credit and asset implosion that is likely to follow will most probably lead to the end of a 200 year era of growth for the Western world. If only the excesses from the 1970s were corrected we might have a circa 20 year decline. But more likely we will correct the era all the way back from the industrial revolution in the 18^th century and this could take 100 years or more.

So after the tumultuous and very painful times that we are likely to experience in the next few years, the West will have a sustained period of decline. All the excesses in the economy and in society must be unwound. These abnormal and unreal excesses are not just corporate executives, bankers, hedge fund managers or sportsmen earning $10s to $100s of millions but also a total collapse of ethical and moral values as well as a breakdown of the family as the kernel of society.

Most people believe and hope that this major trend change could not happen today with all the measures that governments have at their disposal. But very few people comprehend that it is precisely the government interference, controls and regulations as well as money printing that have created the problems in the first place. Power corrupts, and the more pressure a government is under the more they intervene. Because they believe that their interference in the economy will save the country – read Obama, or the world – read Gordon Brown. Little do they understand that each interference, each regulation or each dollar or pound or Euro printed will exacerbate the problems of the economy manifold.

Governments now have two options; continue to spend and print money like the US or introduce austerity programmes like Europe. Whichever way they chose will not matter since they have reached the point of no return. The economy of the West cannot be saved by any means. But governments both in the US and in Europe will still apply the only method they know which is to print money.

Government is Stealing from the People

Very few people understand that money printing is a form of robbing the citizens of their money and their work. Money is supposed to be a medium of exchange for goods and services equalling the value of the good or the service produced.  For example, an individual works extremely hard to earn an annual wage of say $40,000 which he receives in the form of paper money. The government, due to its mismanagement and incompetence simultaneously prints $40,000 in order to cover its deficits. So the government has by pressing a button produced the same amount of money that a man had to work a year for. This is what is currently taking place all over the world and which will accelerate in coming months and years leading to a total destruction of paper money. Paper money has completely lost its function as a medium of exchange or a store of value. This is why gold is gaining and will continue to gain value against perishable paper that is called money.

Deflation Inflation or Hyperinflation

The only reason that the US could build up such a major debt is that the US dollar has been the reserve currency of the world and therefore the US has been able to finance its debts and deficits internationally. The US has now reached a point when debts have to increase dramatically for the country just to standstill. Like all Ponzi schemes this one will also come to an end – and this very soon. The US dollar will decline dramatically and lose its reserve status and the US government will be unable to finance its deficit in any market. This process will lead to endless money printing, collapsing treasury bonds (substantially higher interest rates) and the dollar becoming worthless in a hyperinflationary black hole.

Let us just reiterate that hyperinflation arises as a result of money printing leading to a currency collapse and not from demand pull. The slight deflation that we are experiencing currently is a prerequisite for hyperinflation. The fear of a deflationary implosion forces governments to print money, leading to a collapsing currency which historically has always been the cause of hyperinflation.

Real M3 (source: Shadow Government Statistics) is falling at an unprecedented rate. This is the precursor to economic decline, quantitative easing and inflation (see early 1970s in the chart).

Many “experts” make the analogy between the deflationary period in Japan since the 1990s and the US today. In our view the US is in a totally different situation for the following reasons:

• In the early 1990s Japan could still export their production to the rest of the world.
• In the current downturn all countries (even China and India) will suffer and there will be no one to export the problems to.
• The ability to export made Japan a creditor nation with major payment surpluses.  US are a major debtor and have been for 25 years.
• Japan had a very high personal savings ratio at the time (which has now disappeared). US has had a declining savings rate for years (the US savings rate is now going up which it always does in a downturn).
• The balance of payments and the personal savings surpluses made it possible for Japan to finance their budget deficit without resorting to QE. Very soon he US will only be able to finance their deficits with QE and so will most of the rest of the Western world.
• Japanese unemployment in 1992 was 2% and went slowly up to 5% by 2000 where it is now. Real US unemployment is 22% and increasing.
• Many major sovereign states are now virtually bankrupt and the financial system is on life support. This was not the case in the 1990s.

The above are some of the reasons why the current US situation is totally different to Japan. QE will accelerate in the US and worldwide.

What will make this process so much more complex than the world has ever experienced is that the same development is likely to take place in many countries around the world simultaneously. It will most probably happen in the UK, the rest of the EU and most other European nations. Due to the total interdependence of the world financial system, it will be difficult to forecast which countries can withstand the coming worldwide tsunami of money printing but many Asian countries probably stand a good chance.

Can we be wrong in our forecast of a hyperinflationary depression? Yes, of course we can. But the alternative can only be a deflationary collapse which would be unacceptable to (dropping money from) helicopter Bernanke and deficit demagogue Obama as well as most other governments.

Conventional wisdom and most experts say that we will not have inflation but deflation. The problem with most conventional wisdom is that it is only conventional without an ounce of wisdom. When have the world’s so called experts, politicians etc ever been right on the current crisis? They will be wrong this time again.

The “conventional wisdom experts” also say that it will be years before we can see inflation or hyperinflation. In our view it can happen a lot faster. The world economy is resting on a foundation of matchsticks. All that is needed is a change in confidence or psychology for this fragile foundation to crumble.Falling currencies, rising bond yields and falling stock markets could very quickly result in a vicious and fast spinning hyperinflationary circle. The frailty of the financial system could make this happen like a flash fire.

Wealth Creation

Banks and the financial industry have throughout history existed in order to finance production and trading of goods. But in the last 100 years and especially in the last 20-30 years it has become a major industry in its own right and an important but unproductive part of the economy in many countries. Today, the financial industry is too a great extent involved in trading for its own and clients’ accounts, creating a raft of obscure instruments that only benefit the banks and as well as financing consumption rather than investment. All of these areas are totally non-productive and the only beneficiaries are the participants in the financial industry. And the rewards have been absolutely astronomical. In investment banking, hedge funds and private equity in particular, the most massive wealth has been created. Many players have become billionaires or created fortunes of tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in the last 10-15 years just by shuffling money around. In the past fortunes were created by building factories and industries. But today any normal employee working in Wall Street or the City in London will, by just showing up to work, make hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. This is the proof of a world totally out of balance when people dealing in money become the richest segment of society. Since this activity contributes very little to the prosperity of a nation (but very much to its participants) it is not sustainable. The biggest reason why it exists is the massive amount of money that governments have created or printed and the fact that the financial industry has developed into a fractal wealth creation machine for the benefit of its participants.

For the last 40 years in particular the rich are getting richer and the average person has seen very little increase in real income. In the US, the real annual income of the bottom 90% of US families has increased by only 10% since 1970. And in the expansion between 2002 and 2007, median US household income dropped $2,000. The perceived increase in wealth for the majority of Americans derives from an increase in their debt level not from an increase in real earnings. So the improvement in living standards that the average American and many other Western countries have enjoyed in the last 40 odd years is primarily based on debt – debt that can never be and will never be repaid with normal money.

On the other hand, management has achieved a major increase in income and wealth. In 1973, chief executives in the US earned 26 times the median income. Today they earn 300 times. This enormous widening of the gap between the top few percent in society and the masses is morally and socially unacceptable. When the bad times start in earnest, this is likely to lead to major social unrest and violence directed against the privileged.

The Focus will Shift

For a major part of 2010 the focus has been on the problems within the EU starting with Greece, then Spain, Portugal, Italy etc. The problems in Europe are major and many European countries as well as the European financial system will lead to massive money printing. Although the problems in Europe are very serious, the US economy is in a much worse state. The diversion of the focus away from the problems in the US economy onto Europe has suited the US Administration perfectly. It can hardly be a coincidence, for example, that US rating agencies downgrade the Sovereign debt of Greece and Spain on the same days as Treasury auctions are held. But the problems in the US economy are deteriorating at a rapid rate; factory orders, consumer confidence, existing home sales, retail sales, the ECRI index (Economic Cycle Research Institute) are all falling more than expected and real unemployment, personal bankruptcies (will exceed 1.6 million in 2010), trade deficit, state and federal deficits are all increasing.

The ECRI index is an important leading indicator. It has now fallen for 10 straight weeks.

There are three insurmountable problems in the US economy that are of a magnitude and gravity which can only be remedied by money printing:

• Federal and state deficits will soon escalate at an exponential rate. The US Federal debt has increased from $ 8 trillion in 2006 when Bernanke took office to soon $ 14 trillion. Many forecasts expect this debt to go up to nearer $ 20 trillion in the next 5 years. In our view it will be substantially higher. Add to that interest rates of 15% or higher and the American people will work just to pay taxes that don’t even cover the interest payments on the federal debt. This is why the US will either default or more likely print unlimited amounts of money.

• The real unemployment rate is now 22%. Since 2007 over 8 million Americans have lost their jobs and it will get a lot worse.  Non-farm unemployment in the 1930s reached 35% and we would expect this level to be reached in the next few years.

• The financial system is bankrupt. Banks are failing at a much faster rate than last year. To date circa 110 banks have failed. More seriously the assets of the failed banks are only worth an estimated 30-50% of their balance sheet value. Banks are valuing their toxic debt at phoney values with the blessing of the government. But even debt that today is considered safe will soon turn toxic with the consumer coming under enormous financial pressure. Add to that the OTC derivatives held by US banks of at least $ 400 trillion. A big percentage of these are worthless and there are virtually no reserves to cover potential losses.

Within the next few years, the three areas above are likely to result in the biggest money printing programme in world history and simultaneously lead the US (and many other countries) into the abyss.

Markets

There has probably never been a period in world history which has caused the amount of wealth destruction that we are likely to see in the next few years. If we are correct in our assumption that the West will see a correction of the excesses of the last circa 40 years but more probably of the last 200 years, since the start of the industrial revolution, we could see a total annihilation of the assets that have been fuelled by the credit bubbles. The spike in asset values in the last 100 years, which is unprecedented in history, is likely to be corrected by a waterfall which could start at any time. We will issue a separate report in the next 10 days covering our market predictions and the importance of physical gold for wealth preservation purposes.

16th August

Egon von Greyerz

While the World Is Listening, Brown Touts Global Oversight

As the financial crisis continues to get worse – we are going to see more and more world leaders telling us that the world’s financial system needs a ‘global’ solution. Last week we heard the Prime Minister of Italy mention a ‘global’ solution – this week it’s the Prime Minister of England. Very soon – everyone will be singing the same song.

jg – Oct 15, 2008
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OCTOBER 15, 2008

While the World Is Listening, Brown Touts Global Oversight

By ALISTAIR MACDONALD
Wall St. Journal

LONDON -- As the British bank-bailout plan becomes a model for Europe and the U.S., U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is using his new platform as financial statesman to push what he sees as the next step: a global system of financial supervision.

Risk from financial markets has become global but the way to supervise financial institutions and their products hasn't, and needs to be, Mr. Brown says. "You can't deal with the problems of global financial markets within national systems of regulation," he said at a news briefing.
Among other measures, Mr. Brown wants to empower international bodies including the International Monetary Fund to monitor global markets and act as early-warning systems.

Mr. Brown first proposed the idea after the Asian financial crisis in 1998, when he was Treasury chief under Prime Minister Tony Blair, and returned to it after the start of the credit crisis last year.

Mr. Brown said Tuesday that progress has been slow.

Though he may now have the attention of other leaders, getting them to act is more difficult. Moreover, warnings from central banks ahead of the credit crunch that there was too much leverage in the system were ignored. And the IMF's current global financial stability reports get little traction.

But in the U.K., Mr. Brown's handling of the credit crisis is lifting his popularity from its historic lows. He has a lot of ground to cover: his Labour Party trailed the rival Conservative Party by a wide margin in opinion polls before this week.

The U.K. leader's bailout approach -- injecting capital to bolster bank balance sheets as well as guaranteeing loans to unfreeze lending markets -- got its strongest endorsement Tuesday when the U.S. took similar steps.

Mr. Brown and his team looked for other options to help the country's banks after concluding that the massive amounts of liquidity that central banks had been pumping into the system weren't addressing the central problem that banks didn't trust each other so they weren't lending, Mr. Brown said.

"We defined the problem as the strengthening of our banks with more capital so they could deal with any bad assets," coupled with a need to guarantee some of their lending, he said. Taking stakes in banks also meant the government could dictate tough terms because taxpayers are footing the bill, he has said.

"I am very pleased that a large number of countries across the world, from Australia and New Zealand, to Sweden, to the euro area have moved towards the proposals that seem to me to be now the common ground for the way forward," he said.

While Mr. Brown calls for greater global supervision, the U.K.'s markets regulator, the Financial Services Authority, was criticized for failing to spot and react to the risks associated with some of the country's banks. Now, Mr. Brown's increased credibility and the fresh urgency of the global crisis may move it along.

"We need an effective global early-warning system for the world economy to alert us to the risks ahead. We need globally accepted and supervised standards of regulation applied equally in all countries. We need stronger arrangements for cross-border supervision of global firms," Mr. Brown said.

He talked with President George W. Bush on Tuesday about the crisis. Mr. Brown said he will push global regulation at the European Council meeting Wednesday, and he said he has talked to Chinese, Australian and other leaders this week about the idea.

An IMF spokesman didn't return calls seeking comment.

Write to Alistair MacDonald at alistair.macdonald@wsj.com

Brown Expects Support for a Global Crisis Fund

Here we see Gordon Brown talking once again about ‘coordinated responses’ to the ongoing financial crisis.

jg – November 3, 2008
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NOVEMBER 3, 2008

Brown Expects Support for a Global Crisis Fund

By LAURENCE NORMAN
Wall St. Journal

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he believes there is support for a global fund to help stem the spread of the financial crisis.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal at Riyadh Airport before boarding his plane bound for Qatar Sunday.

Speaking to the British Broadcasting Corp. from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Mr. Brown said he has found support in the region for his proposal. "The Saudis will, I think, contribute like other countries, so that we can have a bigger fund world-wide to avoid the contagion, to avoid this spreading to different parts of the world," he said.

Mr. Brown last week said the roughly $250 billion in funds available to the International Monetary Fund to help stem the crisis isn't enough. He called on oil-rich nations and other countries with large foreign-exchange reserves to boost the resources.

Mr. Brown said he hopes to win support for an expanded fund in time for the Nov. 15 summit of world leaders in Washington. "I see the world moving closer together to work to solve these problems, and the reason I'm here is to make sure that all countries in the world, those with big resources like the Gulf states, those with big surpluses like China are working with Europe and America to find a solution to these problems, which are global," he said.

He said the world economy will get through the downturn much faster if there is "common action and coordinated responses" to the crisis.

He suggested further monetary-policy easing in the U.K. and elsewhere is appropriate. "Now that inflation is brought under control, we are going to see -- as we have seen -- two cuts in interest rates, and I believe that the trend around the world...is to respond to the fall in oil price and the falling food prices that we're seeing at the moment," he said.

Mr. Brown said the Nov. 15 summit would see further "coordinated" policy response to the financial crisis.

The Bank of England cut its benchmark interest rate by one-half percentage point on Oct. 8, part of a coordinated cut by several central banks. The Monetary Policy Committee meets again Nov. 5-6. The Bank of England is expected to make another 0.5 percentage-point cut, to 4%, when it announces the results of its monthly rate-setting meeting Thursday.

Mr. Brown, who met with Saudi King Abdullah on Saturday, reiterated his call for low and stable oil prices.

"There's a determination that we have a more stable energy market, not this volatility, not this really bad time when so many people saw the petrol prices go up so quickly," he said. "I want to see more stability as well as lower prices."

He also called on U.K. companies to respond more quickly to the sharp fall in oil prices by cutting prices. "I hope we'll see the companies that haven't yet followed the faster move down doing so in the next few days," he said.

Mr. Brown also commented on reports of a possible second bidder for U.K. bank HBOS PLC, which is set to be merged with Lloyds TSB Group PLC.

He said the government would consider any new offer. However, he noted that had the government not intervened to encourage a merger with Lloyds, the company "would have fallen altogether."

"Of course we'll look at every offer, and of course that's part of the process of shareholders sorting out what the future is," he said, "but let's remember the problems that HBOS had and why we had to intervene with so much money in the first place."

Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@dowjones.com

UK's Brown: Now is the time to build global society

I guess it’s easy to label people like myself as ‘conspiracy theorists’. It’s much easier to ignore what is happening in the world than to face the truth – and then actually do something about it. When Karen and I first moved to Knoxville in 2000 – I got to know someone I worked with who occasionally mentioned that I should look into an organization he referred to as the ‘Illuminati’.

It sounded too far-fetched to be real – so for almost 5 years – I ignored the information he occasionally talked about. Then, on a random Saturday in May of 2005 – I was sitting in an MBA class bored out of my mind – and I decided to do some research into the things he mentioned. I fully expected to spend 30 minutes looking at a few things, prove that he was crazy, and get on with my life. I ended up spending weeks studying what these people are doing – because once I started researching – it became clear that I was staring at something truly evil. My friend didn’t have much Biblical knowledge – he only knew that there was a global organization that had somehow infiltrated the world’s government and the world’s financial system. Since I did have some knowledge of Bible prophecies – I turned my attention to the Bible and what it really had to say about end time events – antichrist, the beasts, the mark, etc. It was then – once I could see God’s prophecies lining up perfectly with current events – that my life changed. I could see that almost everyone (Christians included), had allowed our spiritual enemy to deceive them – just like the Bible tells us would happen. I asked God for His plan for me – because I was ready to lead a nice, quiet life - but the answer had nothing to do with a nice, quiet life.

The article below by Chris shows us the true character of our political and corporate leaders. I guess it doesn’t surprise me that people with almost absolute power – have been corrupted to such a degree. What does surprise me is how fast all of this is happening. I mentioned a couple of months ago that we’d start seeing world leaders talking about a ‘global’ solution to this financial crisis. I think that the degree to which the world’s economy is failing has startled even them – so the rhetoric regarding a global financial solution and a new international order is speeding up (see the Reuters article at the bottom of this email).

For me – it’s a little like Frodo in the Lord of the Rings movie. Everything is nice in the shire – until one day you’re given a glimpse of evil overtaking and destroying everything. Suddenly, you’re faced with a choice – stay in the shire and pretend evil doesn’t exist – knowing that you’ll be overtaken someday – or arm yourself and do something about it. Three years ago I chose to get in the game and do something about it. It’s a decision that all of us will be faced with in the very near future.

John

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US Taxpayers are Violated - the Looting Operation Continues

Monday, November 10, 2008, 5:31 pm, by cmartenson

-->I am trying to maintain a very level-headed approach to the changes that we are seeing. However, from time to time the looting operation becomes just a bit too obvious, a bit too overt, and I find my level of cool slipping.

This is one of those times.

Here are the dots that I am connecting that have me concerned, if not angry.

Remember, even prior to its passage, I called the bailout the greatest looting operation of our time. I did so because the language of the Bailout Act, as originally proposed by the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, er, I mean the Treasury Secretary, requested three things: unitary power, no review, and no limits.

Frankly, it was the most plainly-worded document of theft that I had ever seen, and probably ever will see, in my life (because it was too blatant and such mistakes are rarely made again).
After that draft was defeated in the House, the Senate immediately attached a much denser 300+ page version of the bailout bill to an existing piece of legislation and passed it. The house caved after an intense week of lobbying by both banks and the people of the land, who were diametrically opposed on the issue. Naturally, they caved to the banking interests.

But We The People won some symbolic victories in that battle, including the explicit promise of complete transparency in the use of that money.

Now it turns out that We The Payers won nothing at all, and that we are not even being afforded the most basic right of being able to view how that money is being spent.

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

This is a complete outrage. Here we have been told that we cannot see how our money is being spent, and that we cannot have insight into whether this money is being used to enrich cronies of the system.

So far, the data is not encouraging. Failed institutions have been spared (at great expense), lies and prevarications have been our signposts along the way, and each new "program" has been an affront to common sense and decency.

The common element has always been 'telling the public the least amount possible.'

I wish there were a second currency in operation in this country, so that I could vote on this plan by dishoarding every single Federal Reserve Note and piling into a better-run currency.
And here’s your second lesson in “why larger bills with more pages are better for looting than small bills.” It turns out that the Treasury quietly slipped in a bit of language that handed a massive, unprecedented $140 billion tax give-away to major banks.

A quiet windfall for U.S. banks

The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.
The sweeping change to two decades of tax policy escaped the notice of lawmakers for several days, as they remained consumed with the controversial bailout bill. When they found out, some legislators were furious. Some congressional staff members have privately concluded that the notice was illegal. But they have worried that saying so publicly could unravel several recent bank mergers made possible by the change and send the economy into an even deeper tailspin.
I just want you to think of this when Congress agonizes over and finally determines that the nation “cannot afford” to undo the $85 billion in middle class AMT tax hikes later this year.
I want you to also think of the amount of time that Congress agonized over $14 billion in alternative energy tax credits before grudgingly passing them. Ten times that amount was handed to big banks without, to my knowledge, even a single open-floor comment or objection from a single congressperson.

Simply outrageous. We’ve been looted.

Next, as this article in The Nation makes clear, the “deals” that the Treasury department has been making on your behalf under the mandate to “protect the taxpayer” have been running roughly 100% over fair market value. In other words, a gigantic handout to the biggest banks at the worst possible price (for taxpayers), with practically no strings attached.

Paulson's Swindle Revealed

The swindle of American taxpayers is proceeding more or less in broad daylight, as the unwitting voters are preoccupied with the national election. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson agreed to invest $125 billion in the nine largest banks, including $10 billion for Goldman Sachs, his old firm.
But, if you look more closely at Paulson's transaction, the taxpayers were taken for a ride--a very expensive ride. They paid $125 billion for bank stock that a private investor could purchase for $62.5 billion. That means half of the public's money was a straight-out gift to Wall Street, for which taxpayers got nothing in return.

But that’s okay – there’s a big G20 meeting coming up. Perhaps the world’s leaders will come up with a sensible plan for returning some of the power back to We The People?

UK's Brown: Now is the time to build global society

LONDON (Reuters) - The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech on Monday.

In his annual speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, Brown -- who has spearheaded calls for the reform of international financial institutions -- will say Britain, the United States and Europe are key to forging a new world order.

"The alliance between Britain and the U.S. -- and more broadly between Europe and the U.S. -- can and must provide leadership, not in order to make the rules ourselves, but to lead the global effort to build a stronger and more just international order," an excerpt from the speech says.
According to a summary of the speech released by his office, Brown will set out five great challenges the world faces.

These are: terrorism and extremism and the need to reassert faith in democracy; the global economy; climate change; conflict and mechanisms for rebuilding states after conflict; and meeting goals on tackling poverty and disease.

Brown will also identify five stages for tackling the economy, starting with recapitalizing banks so they can resume lending to families and businesses, and better international co-ordination of fiscal and monetary policy."

Whoa. Hold on there! Lots of warning signals are flashing for me here. First, rather than a new world order, I think we need to understand how we can return to the old world order – you know, where international trade is balanced, and people save, and debt growth matches economic growth. .

I definitely think it's way too early to be proclaiming that now is the right time to set off on a big building project.

From my vantage point, it rather looks like our McMansion has fallen to the ground in a jumble, and now the same architect is trying to sell us on a bigger design.

Second, I am deeply uncomfortable with the language and intent expressed by “the need to reassert faith in democracy.” What in the heck does that mean? Seriously. What exactly is he trying to imply?

I was not aware that democracy was in need of additional faith. I rather thought it ran on such things as laws, fairness, and its own merits.

This line smacks of demagoguery, and I am deeply cautious of the messenger who hails from the country with the most security cameras and intrusive domestic government spying policies of any “democracy” out there. If Gordon Brown is selling democracy, I am suddenly no longer buying.

Worse, it is the financial crisis that is being used to peddle this tripe. A crisis that has been used to advance the power and reach of the banks, using the most overt looting and legalized theft ever seen or envisaged.

Now I am more than a little concerned about what is coming next. The decisions emanating from this G20 meeting deserve more than a little scrutiny.

Oddly, Obama is not attending, only Bush (and by extension Cheney). All the more curious.
But one thing is for dead certain - if a new world order is being planned, I don't want Brown or Bush or Cheney anywhere near it.
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UK's Brown: Now is the time to build global society

Sun, Nov 09 19:03 PM EST

LONDON (Reuters) - The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech on Monday.

In his annual speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, Brown -- who has spearheaded calls for the reform of international financial institutions -- will say Britain, the United States and Europe are key to forging a new world order.

"The alliance between Britain and the U.S. -- and more broadly between Europe and the U.S. -- can and must provide leadership, not in order to make the rules ourselves, but to lead the global effort to build a stronger and more just international order," an excerpt from the speech says.
Brown and other leaders meet in Washington next weekend to discuss longer term solutions for dealing with economic issues following a series of coordinated moves on interest rates and to recapitalize banks in the wake of the financial crisis.

"Uniquely in this global age, it is now in our power to come together so that 2008 is remembered not just for the failure of a financial crash that engulfed the world but for the resilience and optimism with which we faced the storm, endured it and prevailed," Brown will say in his speech on Monday evening.

"...And if we learn from our experience of turning unity of purpose into unity of action, we can together seize this moment of change in our world to create a truly global society."
According to a summary of the speech released by his office, Brown will set out five great challenges the world faces.

These are: terrorism and extremism and the need to reassert faith in democracy; the global economy; climate change; conflict and mechanisms for rebuilding states after conflict; and meeting goals on tackling poverty and disease.

Brown will also identify five stages for tackling the economy, starting with recapitalizing banks so they can resume lending to families and businesses, and better international co-ordination of fiscal and monetary policy.

He also wants immediate action to stop the spread of the financial crisis to middle-income countries, with a new facility for the International Monetary Fund, and agreement on a global trade deal, as well as reform of the global financial system.

"My message is that we must be: internationalist not protectionist; interventionist not neutral; progressive not reactive; and forward looking not frozen by events. We can seize the moment and in doing so build a truly global society."

(Reporting by Jodie Ginsberg; Editing by Janet Lawrence)