Jersey Banksters and the 'Yes, No, Maybe' World Order - Max Keiser with Leah McGrath Goodman

Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert the new world order called Yes, No, Maybe in which secret downgrades and confiscation plans are certain only to a few insiders whilst chaos and confusion reigns for the rest of the population.

CLUBMED AUSTERITY: Quantifying the lies + Eurozone basks in Cyprus victory

How Schäuble and Barroso lied about Cypriot sustainability, and Draghi lied about eurozone wage differentials

The Slog: I’m indebted to an Irish Slogger for pointing out to me this piece from 2011 providing strong statistical evidence of Brussels-am-Berlin mendacity on the subject of Cypriot bank viability. Talking of the (then) latest Athens bailout and bond uncertainties, the report states very clearly:

‘The global loan-to-deposit ratios of Bank of Cyprus and Hellenic are largely satisfactory….[but]…The major factor affecting bank stability and operations in 2011 has been the impairment and write-down of Greek Government Bonds. Laiki has the largest nominal value of GGB on its books, at EUR 3.084 bln, followed by the Bank of Cyprus with EUR 2.088 bln.’

So here we see vindication of The Slog’s assertion that the only reason a ‘largely satisfactory’ banking system got into trouble was because of B-am-B’s insane policies towards Greece. What’s more, like good complaint little boys, the Nicosian banks listened closely to the results of the mid-2011 European Banking Association (EBA) second stress test results: as a result of this stress test, the two banks BoC and Laika agreed to recapitalise with the objective of reaching core tier 1 capital of 9% by 2012.
In due course, the Bank of Cyprus implemented a recapitalisation in 2011, bringing core tier 1 capital to EUR 2.9 billion (after a Greek bonds write-down) and thus achieving a ratio of 9.6%. Laiki had a core tier 1 rate of 8.2%, but then its 50% Greek bonds write-down screwed up the valiant attempt….another consequence of dick-brained B-am-B obsessions. More detail on that one:
‘On October 26th 2011, the Eurozone partners, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank  (ECB) agreed to a second bail-out package for Greece worth EUR 130 billion. This includes EUR 30 bln to facilitate the 50% PSI deal.’
As a direct result of this, the report concludes under Evident Risks and Risk Analysis:

‘Cyprus finds itself in the eye of a short-term financial shock….

Cyprus And The Eurozone Bank Bailout Hypocrisy

By Wolf Richter: Cyprus didn’t prick the Eurozone bailout bubble, the notion that bank investors who took enormous risks to gain financial rewards would always be made whole by taxpayers. That bubble had been pricked in February. But it was the first time that the international bailout cabal, the Troika, stuck its needle into it—while Germany quietly bailed out all investors in one of its own rotten banks.
The bailout deal was pretty slick; it dodged the Cypriot parliament which had demolished the prior package. Well-honed Eurozone tactics: don’t allow voting to mess up the plans. Uninsured depositors would eat €4.2 billion—much of it Russian money. Junior and senior bondholders would kiss their €1.7 billion goodbye. That even senior debt, albeit only €200 million, was destroyed was a first in Eurozone history. Eurozone taxpayers would pick up the remaining €10 billion—still a lot for such a tiny country, but at least it wouldn’t be pocketed by some hedge funds, or worse apparently, Russian depositors.
In return, the country won’t go bankrupt. Not for the moment, at least. But no one knows how Cyprus can rebuild its economy without its outsized banking sector. The Russian money—what’s left of it—will be leaving. Years down the road, production of natural gas might kick in. Until then, Cyprus will be force-fed the Troika’s sacred medicine of “structural reforms,” so austerity, and privatizations of state-owned enterprises.
Markets soared when the deal was announced. But then a new reality interfered: Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Dutch Finance Minister and since January, President of the Eurogroup, said in an interview what should have been said years ago. Markets tanked.

"We would rather die standing than live in debt!" Cypriot students protest AGAINST the bailout

RT: The Cypriot students have gathered at the presidential palace, chanting slogans and waving banners. The eurozone bailout has heightened frustration at the government.

“People wake up, they are sucking your blood,” said one sign. “Death to Merkel,” said another.

The country’s youth are also expressing concerns about their future: “‘Troika’ will bring us to the point that we have no future. We cannot find a job,” a Cypriot student told RIA Novosti.
As protesters took to the streets on Tuesday, Bank of Cyprus Chair Andreas Artemis submitted his resignation in opposition to plans to restructure the bank.

Unrest has widened following the $13-billion bailout deal which has seen the freezing of deposits over €100,000. A withdrawal limit has been imposed on ATMs, and capital controls are in place to prevent the movement of funds.

The eurozone bailout did not alleviate the island nation's worries. Residents who have not taken to the streets in anger are also feeling the pinch, especially with the central bank remaining closed. Cypriots feel that a line has been crossed, and are worried about cash flow, jobs and savings.

Slovenia Next In Line For Cyprus Style Bankster Robbery

By Boris Cerni & Agnes Lovasz: Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek’s Cabinet must quickly carry out a plan to revamp the country’s ailing lenders, the central bank said yesterday. The former Yugoslav nation needs about 3 billion euros ($3.9 billion) of funding this year, while banks need 1 billion euros of fresh capital, the IMF (International Money Fraudsters) said last week. 

European Union officials are striving to contain a debt crisis that prompted Cyprus to join Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain in agreeing on a bailout. Slovenian banks such as Nova Ljubljanska Banka d.d. are struggling with surging bad loans that equal a fifth of economic output, fueling investor concern that it may be next to seek aid.
“If the government starts implementing the plan, in the end they can avoid going to the EU for a bailout,” Lutz Roehmeyer, a fund manager at Landesbank Berlin Investment, who oversees 10 billion euros in assets including Slovenian government and corporate bonds, said yesterday by phone. 
“If they don’t move and do nothing, I think we’ll have the next crisis in Slovenia in a few months.”

Why the British Banking Industry has become identical with an Organised Criminal Enterprise

By Rowan BosworthDavies: 

1.     The British banking sector has become an organised criminal enterprise which has been allowed to develop because of the criminogenic environment in which it functions, which has resulted from the absence of any meaningful regulation which those who control and manage the banks would fear.

2.     In this organised criminal category I include the various mis-selling cases, including pensions, PPI Insurance and interest rate swap derivatives; the criminal manipulation by Barclays and other banks of the LIBOR interest rate structures; the institutionalised level of money laundering as identified in the HSBC case; the serial abuse of the US sanctions provisions as indicated in the Standard Chartered Bank case; as well as many other examples of criminal actions such as theft of client funds, teeming and lading, abuse of client instructions, insider dealing, front running, churning, and market manipulation which have become the subject of international regulatory interventions.

AfriCON: 'US applies genocide policy in Africa'

Press TV: Colonial France has sent some 350 death squad troops to the Central African Republic to counter the Seleka fighters, who have allegedly taken control of the capital city of Bangui. According to a senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity on Sunday, some 150 French military personnel were dispatched from Libreville, the capital of Gabon, a day after 200 French troops arrived in Bangui. There are many mineral resources, including gold and diamonds, in the Central African Republic. However, the country is extremely poor and has faced a series of rebellions and coups since it gained independence in 1960. Source

"Free Market" definition changed

silverfuturist: "The Fountain of Gold - The Three Monkey Record of Money" by Munehisa Homma

BRICS Nations Plan New Bank to Bypass World Bank, IMF

By Mike Cohen & Ilya Arkhipov: The biggest emerging markets are uniting to tackle under-development and currency volatility with plans to set up institutions that encroach on the roles of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The leaders of the so-called BRICS nations -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are set to approve the establishment of a new development bank during an annual summit that starts today in the eastern South African city of Durban, officials from all five nations say. They will also discuss pooling foreign-currency reserves to ward off balance of payments or currency crises. 
“The deepest rationale for the BRICS is almost certainly the creation of new Bretton Woods-type institutions that are inclined toward the developing world,” Martyn Davies, chief executive officer of Johannesburg-based Frontier Advisory, which provides research on emerging markets, said in a phone interview. “There’s a shift in power from the traditional to the emerging world. There is a lot of geo-political concern about this shift in the western world.”
The BRICS nations, which have combined foreign-currency reserves of $4.4 trillion and account for 43 percent of the world’s population, are seeking greater sway in global finance to match their rising economic power. They have called for an overhaul of management of the World Bank and IMF, which were created in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944, and oppose the practice of their respective presidents being drawn from the U.S. and Europe.

World’s First Bitcoin ATM Is Announced... In Cyprus! + BitPay Surpasses $2M Monthly Volume + Devils Advocate

By Jeff Berwick: While European politicos negotiate in Brussels, deciding the fate of other people’s money in Cyprus, the free market has already moved in to help Cypriots get access to their money via other means…
Banks have been closed for the last week in Cyprus and if they do re-open on Tuesday, it has now been announced that daily withdrawal limits at ATMs will be 100 euros per day.  
As the Cypriot Drama unfolds before our very eyes, I began pondering what tangible solutions there are to bank holidays and bank runs. What could I do to help in Cyprus and all other countries (like Spain, Greece and Italy) for which, as we have predicted at TDV, bank closures are coming?  The answer wasn’t hard to come up with. If these people had simply bought bitcoins with their savings, not only would they currently have 100% access to their funds, but also they would have enjoyed a parabolic move to the upside over past months.
ENTER THE WORLD’S FIRST OPERATIONAL BITCOIN ATM
Upon examination of the marketplace and many discussions with Justin O’Connell (TDV Newsletter & Gold Silver Bitcoin), as well as another key strategic partner of ours, I have decided to move forward with that I believe could be the next multi-billion dollar business venture: Bitcoin ATM.
But that isn’t all. It is wholly our intention at Bitcoin ATM to put the company in the right position to open its very first ATM in Cyprus. If we did this now, and we are moving quickly to make this so, we would be the only functioning ATM on the island.

Epic Feature Film In War On Banksters - First ever feature film to be fully bitcoin-funded - Max Keiser To Star In BAILOUT 2

By John Titus: The award-winning documentary Bailout, which minces no words about how fraud has driven nearly all economic misery since 2008, was birthed in the comments section of this website one drunken night in late 2010.
Unlike all other films about the financial crisis, Bailout shows the direct cause-effect relationship between the rash of criminal frauds perpetrated by Wall Street banks and the severe economic hardships on Main Street. Rather than upholding the Rule of Law, our government has rewarded the criminals with trillions in bailout money instead of jailing them.
The narrative driving Bailout is a road trip to Las Vegas by me and some unemployed friends, one of whom—comedian John Fox—narrated the trip and the film.
That wasn't exactly the idea in the original draft Fox and I cobbled together. Instead, we were just going to act our way through a series of wild capers on the road trip part of the film, playing ourselves. Here I will reveal an insider's tip on making a film: it needs a person called a “director,” not only to handle stuff like cameras but to make sure everything makes sense.
Fox and I immediately thought of Sean Fahey, who’d abandoned us at a bar five years earlier. Or an OTB. Whatever, Sean had somehow made quite a name for himself, even without our help, directing slews of badass music videos and high-end TV commercials.
“This is really great, guys. There’s only one problem,” Sean said as he flipped through the script. “You guys aren’t actors.”

Hayek vs Krugman – Cyprus’ Capital Controls

Submitted by Steve Hanke: Hayek v. Krugman – Cyprus’ Capital Controls

Nobelist Paul Krugman has a propensity to spin and conceal. This allows for deception – the type of thing that hoodwinks some readers of his New York Times column. While deception doesn’t qualify as lying, it also fails to qualify as truth-telling.
Prof. Krugman’s New York Times column, “Hot Money Blues” (25 March 2013) is a case in point. Prof. Krugman sprinkles holy water on the capital controls that will be imposed in Cyprus. He further praises to the sky the post-1980 capital controls that were introduced in a number of other countries.
Prof. Krugman then takes a characteristic whack at all those “idealogues” who might dare to question the desirability of capital controls:

But the truth, hard as it may be for ideologues to accept, is that unrestricted movement of capital is looking more and more like a failed experiment.

Fine. But, not once did Prof. Krugman mention that there just might be a significant cost associated with the imposition of capital controls – a cost with which Prof. Krugman is surely familiar.
Before more politicians fall under the spell of capital controls, they should take note of what another Nobelist, Friedrich Hayek, had to say in his 1944 classic, The Road to Serfdom:

EC rape of Cyprus gets into gear….AFTER the Russian money has left + The Longest Bank Closures Ever... No1. Cyprus!

Stand by for further wealth transfer to Asia

The Slog: Some of the unresolved questions about the Cyprus episode seem to be sorting themselves out – if you’re prepared to join up the dots. At the link in that last sentence, I tried to explain the likelihood of what the Cyprus bank heist was really about, and I’ve seen nothing since to change my mind. But the one dimension I couldn’t bottom out concerns why Russia seemed happy to let a lifetime opportunity to get into to Med with bases at the trifling cost of €18 billion euros wither away.
The sky may well be clearing on that one.  Zero Hedge had an interesting piece last night confirming what I’d been told: that most of the Russian money quietly seeped away over the last week – prior to haircuts and capital controls. ZH reports:
‘While ordinary Cypriots queued at ATM machines to withdraw a few hundred euros as credit card transactions stopped, other depositors used an array of techniques to access their money. No one knows exactly how much money has left Cyprus’ banks, or where it has gone. The two banks at the centre of the crisis – Cyprus Popular Bank, also known as Laiki, and Bank of Cyprus – have units in London which remained open throughout the week and placed no limits on withdrawals. Bank of Cyprus also owns 80 percent of Russia’s Uniastrum Bank, which put no restrictions on withdrawals in Russia. So while one could not withdraw from Bank of Cyprus or Laiki, one could withdraw without limitations from subsidiary and OpCo banks, and other affiliates. Just brilliant.’

The empire strikes back: Luftwaffe bombs Cyprus

By Richard Cottrell: The EU commissioned a precision raid on Cyprus over the weekend. Furhina Merkel ordered an initial reconnaissance in a specially hired state of the art jet equipped with sensors to detect deposits of off-shore funds ripe for taking out by follow-up guided missiles.
Working on the ground, trained spotters dropped by moonlight or slipping ashore unseen in small craft, guided the incoming raiders to their targets.
Cypriots awoke to the wail of air raid sirens over the capital Nicosia and every town and village in the tiny island state. Then came the thunder from the skies, with all the terrible force of a Wall Street bunker-busting bomb. Wham! Laiki (‘Popular’) bank took a direct hit, blown to smithereens.
Ground-to-vault guided missiles took out most deposits over 100,000 euros, fortunately leaving smaller amounts only slightly singed, at least for the time being.
Specially tipped weapons designed to detect hot Russian money found their targets with exquisite precision. (Not)
Air Marshall Mario Draghi at ECB Fiscal Bomber Command in Frankfurt declared the mission ‘a complete success.’
‘We have taken a small and defenseless country and bombed it back to the fiscal Stone Age, just to show that we mean business.

‘Of course it is a salutary lesson that when it comes to the might of the euro squadrons, resistance is useless.
‘Other so called ‘nation states’ and assorted back-sliders who may be tempted to the path of rebellion should survey the ruins of Cyprus and think again, long and hard. The imperial squadrons will in future strike hard and fast before there are any time-wasting pretexts at negotiations.
‘From now on, no savings are safe. From now on, no deposit account, no deep armored vault will resist the imperial raiders.