Many
are the events, signals, and telltale clues of a real live actual
systemic failure in progress. Until the last several months, such banter
was dismissed by the soldiers in the financial arena. But lately, they
cannot dismiss the onslaught of evidence, a veritable plethora of ugly
symptoms of conditions gone terribly wrong and solutions at best gone
awry and at worst never intended in the first place. My theory has been
steady from the TARP Fund scandal and the Too Big To Fail mantra of
deceit. The plan all along since the breakdown began in September 2008
has been to preserve power, to maintain intact the insolvent banks an
operational crew of zombies, to aid the financial sector bound in Wall
Street, to pay benign neglect to Main Street and businesses (expect for
symbols like General Motors), to expand the propaganda of a fictional
recovery, and to maintain the endless wars. The wars serve two purposes,
to enable significant fraud from overcharged services, and to hold open
the gateways for sizeable money laundering flows into the Wall Street
banks, those hollow structures that closely resemble a coke addict with
dark teeth, wretched bones, wasted organs, lost attention, and a
listless gait. The Greek showcase is coming to a neighborhood near you
in Western Europe and Great Britain, soon to feature debuts across North
America. No, the United States is not immune from the horrors of ruin
since its marquee billboards read Zero Percent. It only means the
wrecking ball works from the inside out, serving as the central needle
in the Black Hole. An outline of the End Game can be written. This
article is not comprehensive by any means. But it serves as a decent
posting on an outhouse wall. Consider the following as musings in
observation of Uncle Sam on death row. They bear no logical flow, just
random concepts.
OPERATION TWIST IS Q.E.
Operation
Twist cements ZIRP and closes the door on any Exit Strategy. Nothing
exists in the twist of substance, a mere shift of the shell game
movement. The most powerful effect of a maintained Zero Percent
Interest Policy is that it ensures a systemic failure with capital
destruction, rising costs, falling profit margins, and deterioration in
the USEconomy. It guarantees growing federal deficits without any
potential of resolution, and finally a USGovt debt default. Just one
year ago, the travesty of political failure was in full view with the
Super Committee charged with spending reduction. It folded like a cheap
tent. Deficits have been written in stone. The nation has moved from a
permanent housing decline and lost legitimate income (factory exodus to
China) as principal cause for systemic failure, to a failure based upon
capital decay and absent profitability. Absent legitimate income
fostered rot from within. The USFed in its growing desperation
(hardly infinite wisdom) has been attempting to control the rising cost
structure by means of a steady concerted effort to render deep harm to
final demand through economic damage. They will succeed, but cause a
downward spiral that cannot escape the powerful clutches of capitalism
gone into reverse. The central bank clowns will win a USTreasury Bond
rally to bring about the final collapse all in a Black Hole. As the
10-year TNX yield zips below 1.5% and heads toward 1.0% in the future
months, as the recession gallops along and enjoys recognition, the
systemic failure will be more evident.
TRILLION$ AS POCKET CHANGE
From
December 2011 to April 2012, the Dollar Swap Facility released $3.2
trillion for European bank aid. It accomplished nothing, since their
banks are a field of Greek-like ruins still. The money went into the
LTRO funds, the ill-planned knucklehead Draghi plan. The banks bought
overpriced government bonds, lifted in value by the Euro Central Bank
itself. The same banks are worse off than before the application of LTRO
funds. What irony! Draghi has no credibility left. Harken back to 2009
when a similar Dollar Swap Facility released over $1 trillion to the
same European banks. It solved nothing either. The tragedy is
accentuated by the realization that central bank clowns learn nothing,
attempt the same vacant solutions, only to repeat their errors at a
later date. The public seems incapable to recall the past failures,
holding out hope. Now we hear of a possible $2 trillion plan to recapitalize the European banking system. In Weimar terms, this is pocket change.
Counting the US fixes, the London fixes, and the previous DSFacility,
the total is closer to $6 trillion already wasted in a massive
debasement series of whiffs. So another $2 trillion is pissing in the
wind of Weimar flatulence, the stench to be noted by next year.
When
the paper mache artisans start talking about a total of $10 to $12
trillion for Western Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States
combined, then they will be seriously planning a banking system
recapitalization. They prefer the futile incremental approach, with the
proviso of not liquidating the big banks. The hilarious factor is that even $10 trillion would not work, but it would indeed buy another couple years, maybe three years. So if
an alcoholic has the Delirious Tremens, the consensus stupidity calls
for feeding him a higher proof Jack Daniels whisky and from a vat for
intravenous application, which will revive him, when a mere few liters
would not. It is utterly amazing that Bernanke and Draghi are given any
respect at all. This is utterly absurd, since the wrong-footed solution
is going to be simply higher volume of what does not succeed in reviving
the system. WHEN THEY START TALKING ABOUT BIG BANK LIQUIDATION AND A
NEW GOLD-BACKED MONETARY SYSTEM, THEN EXPECT SOME TRACTION. But such a
plan would involve plowing the system under and removing the bankers
from power. Until then, plan for a bigger killing field. The great
tragedy is that the killing field is the entire Western monetary system,
attached at the hip to the Western Economic system. Witness the gradual
collapse.
BASEL RULES LOOKS TO GOLD
If
the Basel castle dwellers decide to make Gold a Tier-1 asset, banking
capital adequacy ratios would be adjusted by a dictated order. In
response to the global banking crisis, based upon paper foundation
turned toxic, the Basel rule changes have aggravated the banking woes.
As rules are tightened according to assets held and their type, the move
could potentially be favorable toward Gold. New encouraging rules that
declare Gold to be a reserve asset could result in between 1700 and 2000
tons in purchase. Think of it as bank ballast in a storm of toxic seas.
The issue is the so-called Basel III rules. The ultimate central bank is on the verge of declaring Gold to be a Tier-1 asset for commercial banks with 100% weighting.
Curiously, it is currently a Tier-3 category with just a 50% risk
weighting. Like gold is only half money, how absurd!! It took a 50%
downgrade of sovereign bonds to bring about such progress. They are set
to increase the amount of capital banks also must set aside, a double
win potentially. The incentive away from Gold toward risky assets such
as stock, currency, and debt-related assets resulted in disasters. A category upgrade in Gold would effectively drive up its value relative to other competitive qualifying assets.
By elevating Gold to a bank reserve asset, stability would enter the
equation, since the yellow stable metal moves inversely to the risky
paper assets that have crumbled. Gold is ideal as it bears no credit
risk, and has no counter-party risk, only theft risk (due to
desirability) and shell game risk (from certificate games).
An
upgrade to Tier-1 asset would make a triple win: 1) An endorsement of
wealth preservation and store of value from the syndicate penthouse, 2)
inducement for significant gold purchases by major financial
institutions, and 3) reappraisal of gold's value with respect to other
Tier-1 capital such as quality sovereign debt. Under the new rules, Gold could find a significantly larger proportion of a reserve pool pushed into sudden growth.
The Bank For Intl Settlements might turn chicken, as time will tell.
The calculus is appealing. If 2% of total current Tier-1 capital held by
commercial banks globally were to be converted into gold, a suggested 2% of the $4,276 billion would amount to $85 billion in gold purchases.
That comes to the neighborhood of 1700 tons of gold bullion. Hence
banks would be encouraged to hold gold with similar motives to central
banks, which hold 16% of reserves in gold. One might wonder if the BIS
is tightening slowly in order to swing the wrecking ball left and right,
with more technocrats in wait to fill prime minister posts like Monti
in Italy. But politics is not an area for the Jackass to wander.
EFFECT OF ABSENT GOLD ON BIG U.S. BANKS
A
hidden massive sinkhole effect like seen many times in Florida could be
close at hand. The financial press reports absolutely nothing on the
tremendous loss of gold bullion in Western banks since February. Heck,
the gold community seems largely unaware also that around 6000 metric
tons of gold bullion have departed Western banks (mostly London) in
recent months. The effect will be felt somewhere and soon, by sheer laws
of nature. The big US banks might have only one asset of undeniable
value, Gold. As they lose that asset during the process by which Eastern
entities strip gold via forced demands during margin calls in
off-exchange transactions with extreme pressure applied, some big US
banks are being pushed closer to a death event. A string of bank
failures could be nearby. These banks are far more hollow as structures
than perceived. Continued television advertisements, sports
sponsorship, and billboard lights do not demonstrate solvency, only
zombie activity that lacks vigor. Begin the death watch for Morgan
Stanley, which has endured the debt downward. As is the usual mantra by
shamans, it was not as bad as expected. All hail.
To
prevent the sinkholes from causing the next damage, in a hidden
desperate maneuver, many cartel banks will attempt to move gold bullion
from private executive accounts to save themselves. They will surely
continue the illicit practice of raiding allocated accounts, replacing
them with gold paper certificates. They will complete the trifecta by
draining the SPDR Gold Trust, removing inventory by privileged shorting
practices. The entire migration of gold creates an extreme risk for the Western banks, the true asset evacuated.
They have many assets on their balance sheets, mostly toxic paper from
USTreasury Bonds, Euro sovereign bonds, mortgage bonds, mortgage loan
assets, corporate bonds, commercial paper, and commitments tied to
derivatives. The great majority of such assets on balance sheets is
toxic paper, in a fast-paced process of imploding in value. Those
balance sheets also used to contain gold bullion in high volume. That is
no longer the case, the bullion having been leased & sold in past years and raided in a massive systematic scale in recent months.
The bank balance sheets have been thus hollowed out, leaving their
structures to stand on toxic paper, and much less on sturdy inert gold
metal. Recall that insolvency plus illiquidity forces bank failure. The
many bank runs are like a grand final hollowing process that affects the
entire banking sector in lost reserves, large and medium sized banks
alike. The absent reserves remove liquidity, amplified by the fractional system.
The
big US banks are left vulnerable to failures. The event is coming.
Continue the death watch on Morgan Stanley despite their continued
walking status. Zombies walk too, but they look funny and have ugly skin
with many ghastly blemishes. The extreme risk for Morgan Stanley is
two-fold, never having gone away. 1) They are a primary
executor of the high-risk Interest Rate Swaps that defend the USTBond
artificially low yields. 2) They have significant European sovereign
bond exposure. They extended a huge private USDollar swap to big European banks until the USFed stepped in a few months ago.
STRANGE EXTREME STORIES AS WARNING WIND
Numerous
stories are circulating of vast cyber bank thefts. The locations appear
initially to be European. The volume is reported as EUR 2 billion so
far. The authorities will not discuss it in the open. The bank glitches
might be more about kiting of funds at best, or cover for internal raids
of accounts at worst. The much juicier story pertains to 600 highly paid accountants on a Wall Street assignment.
It is too large to be kept a secret, since it is draining the sector of
its accounting staff for hire. The rumors are as thick as black clouds.
They are busily attempting to determine the financial status of a
large Wall Street bank loaded with a mountain of complex derivative
contracts. The toxicity is openly mentioned. No secrets can be
maintained. It is surely Morgan Stanley. The next Lehman Brothers event
is just around the corner. One is reminded of an incident several years
ago, where Ashanti Gold had to hire a battalion of financial accountant
experts in order to assess the value of their crippled balance sheet
overloaded by complex gold forward sale derivatives. In other words,
they needed to conduct a formal study to determine if they were indeed
dead. The same is happening with Morgan Stanley, dragged down by a
mountain of financial derivatives. The better question is who ordered
the accounting to be done, to determine if a Wall Street firm was dead?
And why?
CHINA RECASTS GOLD BARS
China
is well along an ambitious plan to recast large gold bars into smaller
1-kg bars on a massive scale. A major event is brewing that will disrupt
global trade and assuredly the global banking system. The big gold
recast project points to the Chinese preparing for a new system of trade
settlement. In the process they must be constructing a foundation
for a possible new monetary system based in gold that supports the trade
payments. Initally used for trade, it will later be used in
banking. The USTBond will be shucked aside. Regard the Chinese project
as preliminary to a collapse in the debt-based USDollar system. The
Chinese are removing thousands of metric tons of gold bars from London,
New York, and Switzerland. They are recasting the bars, no longer to
bear weights in ounces, but rather kilograms. The larger Good Delivery
bars are being reduced into 1-kg bars and stored in China. It is not
clear whether the recast project is being done entirely in China, as
some indication has come that Swiss foundries might be involved, since
they have so much experience and capacity.
The story of recasting in London is confirmed by my best source. It
seems patently clear that the Chinese are preparing for a new system
for trade settlement system, to coincide with a new banking reserve
system. They might make a sizeable portion of the new 1-kg bars
available for retail investors and wealthy individuals in China. They
will discard the toxic USTreasury Bond basis for banking. Two messages
are unmistakable. A grand flipped bird (aka FU) is being given to the
Western and British system of pounds and ounces and other queer ton
measures. But perhaps something bigger is involved. Maybe a formal
investigation of tungsten laced bars is being conducted in hidden
manner. In early 2010, the issue of tungsten salted bars became a big
story, obviously kept hush hush. The trails emanated from Fort Knox, as
in pilferage of its inventory. The pathways extended through Panama in
other routes known to the contraband crowd, that perverse trade of white
powder known on the street as Horse & Blow, or Boy & Girl.
MONEY & DEBT ARE FAILING
The
rabid rapid creation of new money and new debt are failing in the
system finally. The perpetual Quantitative Easing has arrived, with
failed traction. It is failing just like perpetual 0% and the slipped
stimulus, which has no traction since the USEconomy lacks a critical mass of industry and factories,
those value added centers forfeited eagerly to Asia for three decades.
Diminishing returns on bond yield support dictates that bond
monetization must accelerate more quickly. The effects are turning nil
on short maturity bonds, but still minor on effect with long maturity
bonds. The concept perversely goes parallel to negative returns on Gross Domestic Product from new debt application to the system.
Not only is debt failing, but debt monetization is failing. Slippage is
broad and becoming worse. Quantitative Easing like the ZIRP are tools
to apply sparingly since they are toxic tools. The 0% policy wrecks
capital broadly and alters all pricing models. The bond monetization
discourages creditors, inducing them to leave the room. As both are
needed in increasing exponential quantities, the paper shamans cannot
keep pace. They lose the battle from inability to apply ever growing
magnitude, while attempting to conceal their high volume activity. In
time, like now, traction is lost and benefits vanish. The USFed is
stuck, and cannot stop expanding the money supply to cover bond sales. The USFed intervention in the form of bond monetization can never stop, period.
Arguments on the other side as illusory, meaningless, and distracting.
To claim that the size of their balance sheet is irrelevant, whether 10
billion or $10 trillion, is truly contaminated thinking. However, almost
all teachings and dogma from the central bank has been toxic since
2007, founded in pure heresy, acclaimed by all authorities.
Consider
a Goldman Sachs analysis of the benefits of Quantitative Easing along
the yield curve. An analysis was done to identify the effect at
individual maturities, using a flexible approach to protect from other
marginal effects. See the graphic for the results, which should send
shivers to readers. An insignificant effect is seen on short and intermediate maturities, like up to 20 years,
but negative and statistically significant estimates at the ultra-long
end of the curve with 21-30 years maturity. Flow effect from bond
monetization is felt only on the ultra-long end. The results suggest
that a $1 billion purchase at the ultra-long end of the curve tends to
lower bond yield by 3.3 basis points at that part of the curve.
Robustness checks resulted in similar results with a simple split of
1-10 year maturities and 11-30 year maturities in two test groups.
Another check was done that removed the 1-3 year maturities since so
bound by FedFunds control and guidance language. The results were
unchanged.
OPERATION TWIST DECEPTION
An
asterisk is required for the analysis. Results are somewhat confounded
(mixed, confused) with stock market shifts and European crisis
developments. Lastly, do not be fooled by arguments that QE has
targeted the long maturities in Operation Twist, scheduled to phase out
at end June. The QE program never ended, as it went global. The QE to
Infinity has been ON for over a year. It affects all bond
maturities and does so month in and month out, even if only to provide
replacement demand. The twist story painted a phony billboard, as usual.
The real story is that Operation Twist was designed to help the Asians
diversify in risk decisions on their massive portfolios. The Chinese and
Japanese wanted to shift their long-dated USTBonds into shorter
maturities. Also, a solid argument can be made that Operation Twist was designed to buy ALL of all auctioned 30-year USTreasurys ever issued, from inception. Cute trick! A
review of the volume for bond buys and past bonds issued bears this
out, as the figures are almost exact. Prior to the Oliver Twist fast
hand chicanery, the invisible hand was buying most of them in a visible
manner anyway. The program merely made the task official. The actions
have turned more bold, with official bond purchases done by the USFed
immediately before auctions on the same day. That reeks of pure
desperation.
USDOLLAR BACKWARDATION
A
fascinating but challenging concept has been put forth. A USDollar
backwardation might soon show itself. It would precede and preview a
violent removal of the USDollar as global reserve currency. Contract
commitments might be avoided and shunned, in favor of hard cash. Demand
for the physical paper bills is likely to reach acute levels, as the
USDollar approaches the day of actually losing its privileged global
reserve currency status. That privilege has been abused in historically
unprecedented manner, with a climax of bond fraud, central bank hidden
loan grants, a financed endless war, even construction of underground
cities (see Virginia, Denver).
Keith
Weiner is senior advisor at the Gold Standard Institute. He anticipates
an important and highly disruptive split between physical USDollars
(paper) and electronic USDollars (computer or contract), a very
plausible development. His opinion has merit. As people begin to panic
and exhibit desperation, they will attempt to cope with the enormity of a
collapse. At first, sellers of real goods may accept electronic
credit money, but demand a higher price in compensation for the inherent
US$ risk. An unusual price spread on the electronic USDollar might then widen, with the bid from real goods falling. At the same time, a fast growing demand for the real paper might cause the bid on the paper USDollar to rise.
Refer to paper currency folded into wallets. Demand should grow on an
unlimited basis as the crisis peaks, and the recognition of the US$
losing its prized global supremacy is widely known. People might
continue accepting paper USDollars out of longstanding habit. An
unstable situation will eventually lead to collapse. Unlike Gold, the
paper USDollar has no value other than the promises, most of which have
been broken with protected impunity. Weiner dubbed the concept with differentials building with the name USDollar Backwardation.
The concept is well understood in the metals world, but has never been
extended to the currency world. It will as the tangible paper is
demanded out of growing distrust. Contracts like savings accounts in
banks will do vanishing act.
LTRO: DRAGHI STILLBORN BABY
The
story not told adequately is the extreme failure of the LongTerm
Refinance Operation installed by Mario Draghi as his first act and deed
at the Euro Central Bank. He has in the process lost all credibility
before his first year of tenure is over. The Southern European
sovereign bonds did not take well to the LTRO solution at all. It caused
an immediate vomiting episode that continues to this day. The
solution wrecked the banks further, applying a supposedly better quality
elixir of fiat paper bonds to replace a dismissed toxic bond. The
Draghi solution of LTRO funding was a stillborn baby. The Spanish Govt
Bond yield is stuck at alert levels. The Italian Govt Bond is fast
approaching the panic levels, while experts attempt to explain that
Italy is in much better condition. The failure of bond auctions in Rome
will put aside such silly notions. The bond yield in Spain will remain
near 7% to keep the pressure on. The bond yield in Italy will push past
6% to apply renewed pressure. Nothing changed, nothing fixed, and worse,
no real attempt to remedy or reform. As long as big bank liquidation is
avoided, the supposed solutions are all empty cans of hope and heretic
games.
Clearly
to anybody with a good solid mental pulse, Italy is next on the big
bailout trail. My German banker source assured me back in February that
it was the failing prospect of Italy, and its totally unmanageable
volume of debt, that led the German bankers to obstruct all additional
aid to Southern Europe. Italy is next, and even the Austrian finance
minister Maria Fekter admitted as such. Her words angered Monti in
Italy, a confirmation of their validity. The stakes in the European debt
crisis are rising fast. Italy is the EuroZone's third largest economy.
Reality bites, as Europe is far from ending its credit crisis turmoil.
BANK RUNS SPREAD, NOT YET LIKE WILDFIRE
Europeans
are seeing scattered and growing bank runs, in at least four nations.
The United States and London have not seeing anything similar. The bank
run phenomenon has hit Great Britain though, in their colonial bastion
of Northern Ireland. The three identified locations of bank runs,
complete with anecdotal evidence, can be delineated. It includes Bankia
in Spain, which is a well-publicized story of halted withdrawals,
followed by a nationalization plan, then an absurd display of honesty.
The bank revised the full 2011 fiscal year to overturn a small profit,
and announced instead a gargantuan loss in the $billions. One should
suspect all big Spanish bank balance sheets as a shelf of dishonest
accounting, hiding their grotesque insolvency and wreckage, with deep
rot in the cupboards. Banks in Central America shine by comparison.
Reports
circulated a couple weeks ago of blocked withdrawals from Banque
Postale in France. Online bank wire transfers were completely halted.
The Hat Trick Letter reported in May that high wealth accounts had been
vacating Paris in search of Scandinavian safer grounds. The run has
continued. Other reports have come that BNI
depositors in Italy were told of blocked withdrawals. The bank went
bust, without any decency to give any warning to its own clients.
Instead it cut off its depositors from accessing their money. The
Bank of Italy (cental bank) authorized the suspension of payments by
Bank Network Investments without communicating anything to the
depositors. They are mere pawns in the process, whose interests are
secondary to supplying banks. The Bank of Italy extended receivership of
the bank. Compulsory clean-up exercises followed. In addition to BNI,
depositors of Banca MB were also affected.
Bank
runs have finally begun in Spain, Italy, and Greece in earnest. The
savings accounts are being depleted within a broad vanishing act.
Argentina is the lesson few learn. The latest is a report that NatWest
within the RBS Group in the UK has suffered computer meltdown. Millions
of customers had been unable to move or withdraw money from their
accounts. A widening suspicion has come that the supposed technical
glitch was instead a disguised kiting scheme designed to save the big
bank conglomerate million$ in delays while clients were denied access to
their money. It is theft by another name. The Ulster and Belfast bank
interruptions blocked over 100 thousand account holders from access in
Northern Ireland.
GREEK FLASH POINT FUSE
The
Greek debt default is inevitable. It lies somewhere between tragic and
funny to watch the futile extraordinary measures to stave off the day
when big European (and London) banks must suffer their losses. The
tragic comedy continues to turn pages. The Germans will not fund
anything more, period. If another bailout is fashioned, it will be a
pure shell paper game concocted in Brussels. When the inevitable Greek default comes, it will be like a Lehman Brothers crash times ten.
A default is best for the Greek nation, unless they prefer to see the
entire national wealth shipped to foreign lands. A default is a dreaded
event for the bankers, naturally. So they spin the story about popular
benefit, stated in pure backwards form. The extreme risk is being
recognized for its contagion across borders, a process begun. To think
that Greece would topple the larger nations of Southern Europe was a
laughable concept two years ago, but that was the Jackass forecast
clearly stated without hesitation, only early.
Companies
must be cautious not to enter into binding contracts, thereby
aggravating the recession in Greece. If not the poison pill of austerity
to satisfy bailout demands, then caution on contracts will send the
nation into a halt. The government deficits recorded in Athens are
making the history books. And a strange footnote, businesses are
springing up in Bulgaria across the border, owned by Greek interests,
simply to avoid the toxic Euro currency. A smooth transition with a
Greek Govt debt default would cause a 20% to 25% devaluation in assets
in Greece, from bank accounts to home values to business value. That
level of downgrade is what the new Drachma would require upon conversion
from Euros. A disorderly transition could result in a 50% devaluation. Expect disorder.
Thus the motive for capital flight, bank runs, and smuggling cash
across borders. No officials are pursuing solutions in the best interest
of the citizens. The other larger PIGS nations are not strong. France
is an unrecognized PIGS nation. It is a PIGS dancer falsely posing in
Teutonic clothing. It has been acting like a strong German banking
resource, in a pretender’s role. By extending so deeply in PIGS loans,
it became a PIGS nation.
DEBT CONTRADICTED AS WEALTH
The
Western monetary system is built upon debt. That debt is crumbling, the
process having begun with mortgage bonds, and extended to sovereign
bonds. Recall the nitwit USFed Chairman Bernanke’s words in 2007, that
the bond contagion was contained. It was not, and it spread to an
absolute bond fiasco exactly as the Jackass forecasted. Debt is not
wealth. The wealth of Western nations is evaporating. The illusion
easily promotes a fantasy.
Recall the 1980 decade where access to credit was perversely considered
wealth. It ended in ruin and tears and bad health. The United States is
on the verge of being plowed under, just like Greece, just like Spain.
The dominos are lined up to fall, including Italy and England.
The
industrialized nations are the primary abusers of debt, in order to
sustain their standard of living even as they have discarded or
forfeited their industrial base. No need to work, just invest and
speculate, all clean industry. It is no coincidence that Germany remains wealthy, since it made a concerted effort not to lose its industry to Asia.
Important deals were struck in the 1990 and 2000 decades, to preserve
jobs, to cut pay, and to refuse outsourcing and offshoring. The United
States embraced both practices, and has suffered a systemic failure as a
result. The final chapter is playing out. The financial markets
perversely treat debt as an asset, trading it actively in many forms,
like sovereign bonds, corporate bonds, mortgage bonds, and municipal
bonds. Now enter LTRO bonds, more toxic junk paper. The process of
downgrading the bond paper is well along, not yet having hit climax. The
home foreclosure chapter will be followed by a sovereign debt default
chapter, complete with numerous debt restructure events. It will play
out in a series of falling dominos.
The
climax will be the fall of the House of Morgan, as JPMorgan fails and
the USGovt debts default. Many regarded the concepts as unthinkable in
2008. Not anymore. The JPMorgan fortress of USTBonds and Interest Rate
Swap supporting structure will surely topple, as the Credit Default Swap
contract shop floor erodes and disintegrates, as the sovereign debt
tied to it crumbles. The JPMorgan episode will bring down the house of cards, with the Interest Rate Swap machinery caving in.
The wreckage process started with the weakest nations in Greece,
Portugal, and Ireland. It will end in France, London, and the United
States.
The
advanced nations carry between three and ten times as much total debt
as they have economic activity, as measured by Gross Domestic Product.
The worst offender is the United Kingdom, whose debt is about 9.5 times
its annual economic activity. With a string of bank welfare programs and
endless empty economic stimulus (little more than reshuffling taxes and
extending doles), the UK piles more debt upon debt without a remote
hint of remedy and solution. The United States is piling up debt at an
extremely rapid rate, as is Europe. Notice the Japanese debt at over six
times GDP after two decades of Quantitative Easing and endless
stimulus. The cost of 0% policy is heavy but hidden. The pervasive systemic problem is founded in the misconception that debt is wealth. Debt can be used as collateral. Debt
is securitized into bonds that are avidly traded on exchanges as items
of value. With such transfer of debt to securities, the cancer is spread
from the banking industry under its regulatory oversight. To support
debt valuations, and to prevent massive writedowns during the global
financial crisis in its fourth year, the central banks of the world have
been willing to swap out bad debt for good money. The counter-party
risks have been overlooked and shoved under the carpet. As conversion of
debt to hard assets continues, with a gold wave included, the asset
downgrade will be conducted until its conclusion.
GOLD, THE LAST ASSET STANDING
In
no way can the current ambushes and nasty schemes conclude quickly
within the Gold market. The desperation of the gold cartel and their
partner big bankers is visible. The naked shorting of Gold & Silver
is done more openly. Their oversized positions cannot stand simple
scrutiny as being hedges. The timing of attacks is clear, to coincide
with vast expansions of the money supply or USFed public appearances
with speeches made. The imbeciles that cry outward about Deflation
are pathetic, as they fail to comprehend much of any of the formidable
factors at work. They observe but one table, while at least seven are
bustling with movement. The time honored correlation between the Gold
price and the money supply is being strained, much like the USTBond
tower and its supporting Interest Rate Swap buttresses. The game is
futile. The bankers will play it to the end. They will soon be forced to
play without much of any gold in their arsenals. Not until the Western
banking and bond system is fully wrecked will the new Eastern Coalition
system of trade settlement be put into place with trumpets blasting to
herald arrival. The Eastern architects do not want the blame of ruining
the Western fiat paper system. Until that day, the Gold price will be
subjected to openly criminal activity, fully permitted illegal steps to
keep the game going, and nothing but lipservice to maintain the rule of
law. Some powerful events are coming, which will provide such incredible
disruption, that they will make history. Do not expect justice to
handle the criminals. Expect the new gold-based system to sweep them
aside. They will vanish with a dragon’s breath. When the new day dawns,
the Gold price will be multiples higher, as will the Silver price. A
grand divergence between the paper Gold price and the physical Gold
price is happening exactly now, with great forces at work to pull them
apart. The events in between contain the mystery and intrigue and
confusion. A day will come before long when the paper discovery Gold
price will not be reported at all, because their market will contain no
gold, as in zero gold!Source
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