Belgian Muslim State? Islamists vow campaign after election win - Philip Klaas is terrified

A Muslim party in Belgium says it's preparing to campaign for setting up an Islamic state there. Two candidates from the newly-established Islam party won seats in a recent municipal election. RT discusses this with xenophobe Philip Klaas, a Belgian Euro MP. Source

Give Us Your Money, Or You’re Dead! - Max Keiser with John Logan Jones

Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss a mortgage 'hustle' that brings on yet another 'civil' lawsuit for Bank of America and a mysterious 'Triple A' buyer of a swaption written in ancient gibberish in Britain where the dead cat is bouncing thanks to Queen Latifah Tower. Max Keiser talks to John Logan Jones, a candidate for Maine State Congress, about civil liberties as an economic issue, soldiers trapped in the military by debt and how the price of lobster indicates an imminent financial market crash. Source

EU Ship of State heads for the rocks, captain urges full steam ahead

By Richard Cottrell: Italy’s legendary bunga-bunga premier Silvio Berlusconi is back with a bounce. Consigned by nearly all mainstream media commentators to the great political beyond, he is now about to pull the plug on the US/Bilderberg techno-government in charge of the country since last fall.
If he does rat on the smug Mario Monti and his fellow technocrats, then the scene is set for new elections next year which may well provoke the break of the entire European ice flow.
You don’t have to like, still less admire Berlusconi in order to stand back in admiration at his political savvy. He is the one who said there was no crisis of any gravity over Italy’s public debt in the first place. Now he’s spotted an avenue not only for his own political resurrection but payback for those who humiliated him out of the premiership. First in the line is Angela Merkel.
Deploying his numerous political skills, Berlusconi has sensed a new political avenue opening to the Right. He is willing to sacrifice his present creature of convenience, the PDL ‘House of Freedoms’ to jumpstart a new force which will then mop up the votes of the Partito Democratico (socialists, ex-communists)  leaving the comeback kid once again in a commanding position to call the shots.
Monti will have no option but to go to the elderly president, Giorgio Napolitano, surrender his mandate and give way to elections early next year, probably in February or March. If Berlusconi emerges as head of the largest party – whatever he calls it – then he would be the favorite to become premier once again. This would be quite an incredible achievement for a near-octogenarian mired by endless scandals with underage consorts and the famous bunga-bunga parties in his official mansion.

The Fiscal Cliff and Peak Government - Charles Hugh Smith

Six critical dynamics will trigger the devolution of Peak Government.

With the fiscal cliff looming, it's time to check in on the Peak Government thesis.
Chris and Adam at peakprosperity.com asked me to revisit my Peak Government thesis, which describes how the expansive Central State has come to dominate both private society (i.e., the community) and the marketplace, to the detriment of the nation’s social and economic stability.
Let's start by examining the six critical dynamics that lead to the inevitable devolution of Peak Government.

Massive Borrowing

In a misguided attempt to maintain an unsustainable Status Quo, the Federal government is borrowing unprecedented amounts of money that then must be serviced.  And the Federal Reserve is expanding its balance sheet by trillions of dollars (“printing money”) and intervening in stock, bond, and other markets for the purposes of managing perception (“the recovery is here!”)
These government funds are not just paying the government’s bills – they are being used to guarantee loans and mortgages that subsequently enter default, transferring what was private debt to the public and subsidizing politically powerful special interests.
Guarantees and subsidies both incentivize what is known as moral hazard: the separation of risk from consequence.  This can be summarized very simply.  People who are not exposed to risk act completely differently than those who are exposed to risk.  When risk has been transferred to the taxpayers by guarantees, give-aways, and subsidies, then speculation and mal-investment are incentivized.  If the bet pays off, I get to keep the gain, but if it loses, then I personally lose nothing, as the loss is transferred to the taxpayers.

Public School Prepares You for Prison Life

The U.S. Department of Justice sued several government agencies in Mississippi last week, saying they systematically violated the due process rights of juveniles and are thus operating a "school-to-prison" pipeline in the area.

The Justice Department said children in Meridian, Miss., are routinely jailed for minor offenses, including school discipline incidents, and are punished disproportionately without due process. Black students and students with disabilities are especially affected.

Turkish Banks Go for Gold to Lure $302 Billion Hoard

By Sibel Akbay: Deniz Kalkan, a 32-year-old housewife in Istanbul, is ready to move her gold. “I’ll put these in a deposit account as soon as I get the time,” Kalkan said of the half-dozen gold coins she has collected and stashed in her apartment. “It’s much safer to keep them in the bank than at home.” (Poor deluded person!)
When Kalkan brings in her coins, she’ll be joining a wave of Turks responding to a drive to lure an estimated $302 billion of hidden gold into the economy to help ease the nation’s current-account deficit, the world’s biggest after the U.S. Gold-based deposit accounts surged 15 percent this year through the end of July, three times the increase in standard savings accounts, according to the central bank.
The gold accounts give customers an amount in Turkish lira equivalent to the weight of the precious metal they turn over to the bank. They can then withdraw cash or take out loans, while the lender is able to sell or hold onto the gold.
At Yapi Kredi Bankasi AS (YKBNK), owned by UniCredit SpA (UCG) and Koc Holding AS (KCHOL), deposits in gold-based mutual funds, which invest at least 51 percent of their money in precious metals and offer a guaranteed return on capital, increased 62 percent in 2012. Turkiye Is Bankasi AS (ISCTR), Turkey’s largest bank by assets, said gold deposits increased 10-fold in the two years through June.
The campaign by Turkey’s banks, featuring ads for “golden age” accounts and products such as gold gift checks, is targeted at Turks who traditionally give gold coins or jewelry as presents at weddings, births and circumcision ceremonies. The custom gained popularity a decade ago as Turkey’s inflation rate topped 70 percent, making gold an attractive store of wealth.

The Great Gold Scam

By Jeff Nielson: A recent question from an inquisitive reader on gold “leasing” got my mind focused upon that topic again, as the question involved the actual mechanics of these transactions, and my answer dealt with issues of legal title to that gold. This, in turn, led me to consider to what purpose/use all of this leased gold has been dedicated.

Many commentators (including myself) have generally assumed that the gold being leased by undisclosed entities was being funneled to traders to be shorted onto the market – as part of the general manipulation operations of the bullion banks. We know that vast amounts of gold are being ‘leaked’ out of gold stockpiles in this manner, since lease rates are always near-zero, and frequently negative. This encourages those desiring legal possession (but not title) of gold to lease heavily.

But what if all this leased gold is not being used as simple collateral to back trading positions? Could there be another (nefarious) purpose in these gold-leasing operations?

We know there isn’t any other legitimate purpose for all this leasing, since (apart from using it in trading) there are no legitimate business reasons for wanting mere temporary possession of gold bullion. As the gold-bashers themselves frequently observe, gold “generates no income” itself; so this leased gold must be used (for something) or there would be no purpose at all to these transactions.

Until recently, it would have been hard to conceive of even any other nefarious uses for all this leased gold, since there simply are not a lot of ways to capitalize on mere temporary possession of gold bullion. This all changed , however, in 2009. That was the year that the world’s central banks flip-flopped from being (massive) net-sellers of gold to net-buyers.

As of 2012, the world’s central banks are now massive, net buyers of gold; on pace to add more gold to their reserves than any other year in history. GFMS Ltd (formerly Gold Fields Mineral Services), the quasi-official record-keeper for the gold industry estimates that total purchases will approach 500 tons this year alone.

This begs an obvious question. Where is all this gold coming from?

The Virtual Recovery - Paul Craig Roberts

Since mid-2009 the US has been enjoying a virtual recovery courtesy of a rigged inflation measure that understates inflation. The financial Presstitutes spoon out the government’s propaganda that prices are rising less than 2%. But anyone who purchases food, fuel, medical care or anything else knows that low inflation is no more real that Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction or Gadhafi’s alleged attacks on Libyan protesters or Iran’s nuclear weapons. Everything is a lie to serve the power-brokers.
During the Clinton administration, Republican economists pushed through a change in the way the CPI is measured in order to save money by depriving Social Security retirees of their cost-of-living adjustment. Previously, the CPI measured the change in the cost of a constant standard of living. The new measure assumes that consumers adjust to price increases by lowering their standard of living by substituting lower quality, lower priced items. If the price, for example, of New York strip steak goes up, consumers are assumed to substitute the lower quality round steak. In other words, the new measure of inflation keeps inflation down by reflecting a lowered standard of living.

LIBOR: Barclays Can Be Sued!

Barclays can be sued for mis-selling interest rate swaps while rigging the Libor rate, in a landmark claim seen as a test case for thousands of businesses, a London judge rules.

The case will be the first of its kind and is being closely watched by thousands of small and medium enterprises that may decide to file similar claims, the Federation of Small Business said in a statement today. The Financial Services authority estimates 44,000 interest rate swaps - effectively insurance to protect companies from interest rate changes - have been wrongly sold to UK companies since 2001.

"It is simply wrong that with one hand a bank is aggressively selling a highly complex financial product designed to protect someone against an interest rate rise, while the other hand is manipulating the rate for its own benefit," Gary Hartland, GCH chief executive, said in a statement.

Widespread ramifications

It is the first time that a UK court will determine whether damages should be awarded in a case linked to allegations of Libor rigging, and it could have widespread ramifications for Barclays and other banks involved in Libor probes by financial regulators worldwide.
Barclays agreed in June to pay £290m in fines to UK and US regulators to settle allegations that it manipulated Libor. The bank also set aside £450m to compensate customers mis-sold interest rate swaps. But the Financial Services Authority said not all businesses will be owed redress. Among those that are, the exact redress will vary from customer to customer.

Truth Exposed About Missing Central Bank Gold - Embry

Some unbelievably stupid comments from people that should know better.  I mean CNBC senior editor, John Carney, when this all broke stated that ‘It doesn’t matter whether Germany’s gold exists, provided that everybody  just pretends and acts as if it does exist.’ 

‘As long the Fed says it is there, it is as good as there for all practical purpose to which it might be put.  It can be sold, leased out, used as collateral, employed to extinguish liabilities, and counted as bank capital just the same as if it exists or not.’

I can’t believe he said that.  I mean that is so astoundingly stupid I had to read it three times.  But he did say it....
“It does matter whether it’s there because the people that recognize what’s going on, and this includes the Chinese, Indians, Russians, etc., they are not faking it.  They are buying what available physical gold there is, whatever they can get their hands on.

The revelation of this central bank conspiracy will make the Libor scandal pale in comparison.”

Mike Maloney's Dire 2005 Warnings Come True - Silver Summit Presentation

By whygoldandsilver: If you enjoyed the 'Peter Schiff Was Right' videos, then check out these predictions from Mike Maloney way back in 2005. He was one of the elite few to publicly warn of the housing crisis well before the crash of 2008. Mike Maloney is the founder and CEO of GoldSilver.com, one of the world's most trusted precious metals dealers and financial educators.