RT Interviews GATA Member Adrian Douglas

Remember when I posted two stories about the upcoming interview that Russia Today would conduct with GATA member Adrian Douglas.

http://mercurytoona.blogspot.com/2009/03/38-adrian-douglas-was-it-all-just.html

http://mercurytoona.blogspot.com/2009/03/36-message-from-gata-member-adrian.html

Well, lo and behold, they did conduct the interview, which follows below. I often think when I see these spectacular moments where truth prevails, what is the motive of news reporters who work for the corporate media? What's up their sleeve? Anything? Nothing? Still, thankfully, we have this two part interview.

States Rights & Some Other Shit

It's been a good while since I've been posting here on MercuryToona on a regular basis. With college in full swing I really don't have the time to commit to any thoughts on a myriad of socio-political issues that frequent me when I should be studying and not failing my math class, so I'm going to continue to post videos occasionally just to maintain somewhat of a presence on the blog.

Oh, and here's another video of that redneck I like.

Stanlie Hunt Interviews GATA Member James Turk

Just a quick post. Over at Kitco, there's a radio interview of Stanlie Hunt Interviewing GATA Member James Turk.

http://www.kitco.com/ind/kitcoradio/index.html

if only it actually happened this way

economic meltdown equals power grab for big bank(er)s

I just finished reading an interesting piece over at Alternet by Matt Taibbi. In the article he breaks down the massive bailouts that we have recently been seeing on Wall Street and gives his take on what it all means for us. It's a long damn read, but in my opinion well worth the time. To summarise, we have been ripped off, cheated and scammed. This bailout business wasn't needed to save any banks or insurance providers, it was needed to consolidate power within an already merger happy financial industry. Many small banks are going to be squeezed out of existence and everyone will just have to suffer through with whatever mega bank happens to be left standing. Taibbi also writes about the unbelievable state of regulation that was supposed to be watching AIG and others, it basically didn't exist and was so badly underpowered it never mattered. It's so hard to tell which direction we are headed as a country during all of this, nationalised banks not ran by the government but ran by an asshole oligarchy of snotty wall street scum. Whatever, I just hope they treat us well, since we apparently have no control over the outcome anyway.

Here's the first paragraph of the article.

It's over - we're officially, royally fucked. No empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline - a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire.

That should give you a feel for the article, it's good and a bit pointed and mean spirited as well it should be.

Having Trouble Searching Through Ebay and Craigslist?

Found this website through a frequent poster on Ultimate Guitar 311ZOSOVHJH
It can be extremely helpful if you want to search Ebay or Craigslist but you don't want to sift through all of the junk, or being over specific when it comes to searches.
http://jaxed.com/cgi-bin/mash.cgi?cat=mus



This site is quite helpful for searching music gear, and PA equipment at used prices but in stock at specific stores.
http://musicgoround.com

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann Grills Geithner and Bernanke

I should've posted this yesterday. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann from Minnesota pressures Treasury Secretary Timonthy Geithner and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke with some great questions.

As your watching, notice how after Congresswoman Bachmann asks the question about a world currency Bernanke shifts his eyes away from her. In the game of poker, this is called a tell. He's lying hiss ass off.

Also, the rest of the clip is good since she does have other great questions.

Where was Ron Paul in all of this?

Wattgrinder - Tone Grinder

Many guitarists find themselves debating which tubes to use for optimal performance of their amplifiers, NOS, Russian, Chinese, and brands which make specific tubes.

WattGrinder has created a solid state, non glass, non deteriorating tube for consistant performance throughout the life of your amp... not your tubes.

All the King's Aiders and Abetters

Over at RaptureAlert, there's a blog that's been posted which I commented on. You can read the blog post, its called All the King's Men. The author, Mike Mickey, states that he's no conspiracy theorist, but that "I don't think you have to be to have an eyebrow raised". He addresses such topics as the Bilderbergers and global currency in his response to the politico article which I myself will likely address.

I wanted to address his blog post because these subjects are of great interest to me. Christians like Mike Mickey tend to be Zionists: cheerleaders for Israel who believe her establishment in the world scene is part of biblical prophecy and is essential for the return of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. These are people that are usually found tacitly approving Israel's mass slaughter of the Palestinian people. To me, a student of conspiracies, World Zionism is just another tentacle of the World Order octopus that must be addressed and exposed for the entire world to see.

This brings me to a message left in the comment section of the blog article. Posted anonymously, the writer states:

Bible prophecy tells us that a world government, religion, and currency are in this earth's future. These types of people and organizations are necessary for these things to come about. I say, just more signs of the times.

This kind of fevered hatred for the freedoms of all people everywhere is abundantly found in the Christian Zionist community. The Christian Zionists blatantly produce more pro-Israel propaganda than even the Zionist Jewish community. In their belief system, the Christian Zionists believe that in order for Jesus Christ to return, all of these prophecies have to be fulfilled: global government, ecumenicalism, one global currency, and an international dictator.

Now the First Amendment to the Constitution talks about "freedom of religion" but these people take it to a whole new level. American Christian Zionists revere the Bible above the Constitution, and not in a good way, because for them to act on their belief, the Constitution has to be violated.

Where does the Constitution grant the power to take money from the taxpayer so that the United States Government can send it to Israel in the form of foreign aid? No where! Dumbass!!!

I believe it is treasonous for Americans to participate in the movements of World Zionism and Globalism, just as Senator Joseph McCarthy felt that it was treasonous under Constitutional law to be a practicing communist. And here you have Christian Zionists endorsing traitorous criminality as necessary instruments that will help make conditions right for the return of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as so eloquently expressed in the comment statement made in Mike G. Mickey's posted article, All the King's Men.

It must be their "final solution" to the "Arabic question".

Barack Obama Laughs About Economy

I don't think the state of the economy is a laughing matter, President Obama. But I guess you don't take the problems of the economy too seriously if you're going to spend taxpayers money on a luxurious swingset for your children.

A Playground You Can Believe In
By Mithridate Ombud
March 23, 2009 - 04:38 ET

Steve Kroft caught Barack Obama "laughing and chuckling several times while discussing the perilous state of the economy", at one point asking "Are you punch-drunk?" Politico says "his awkward laughter highlighted an issue Obama has faced dating back to the campaign, a sense that he sometimes is too 'cool' and detached to fully grasp the public anxiety over mounting job losses and economic worries."

We learn in the 60 minutes interview that Mr. President has time off in the afternoon to see his kids, have dinner with the family, and takes weekends off after poking his head in to see what's going on. So basically, the POTUS puts in less hours per week than I do. Kroft also fawns over the first family's playground. What Kroft won't tell you is that while millions of Americans wonder how their next mortgage payment is going to be made, and while their father demonizes Americans for having a culture of greed, the Obama children are literally playing in a castle.

The Obama's went with a Rainbow Play System which Obama himself called "the Rolls Royce of swingsets", specifically the model is Supersized Monster Castle Package IV with a Double Bubble on the Penthouse, which retails for $14,799 plus $1500 install, not including the surface it sits on. Taxpayer money well spent in a down economy. What, don't your children have a penthouse on their swingset?

60 Minutes Interviews Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke: Disingenuous and Sanctimonious

Recently there was an interview CBS's 60 Minutes conducted with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. And after watching the interview, it was pretty clear to me why this unprecedented event was greenlit. There's a lot of mainstreet animosity being directed towards Wall Street right now. Even though the mainstream media hasn't been reporting on the End the Fed marches that have been taking place, the Eastern Liberal Establishment is very much aware that main street has had enough.

This interview was damage control. It was an act of legerdemain. The questions were constructed to be softball. Bernanke gave answers that were framed to elicit sympathy from the viewer. Nothing was chanced. You get this sad image that when the markets were crashing he was sweating profusely, furrowing his brows, his shirtsleeves rolled up past his elbows, and his shirt unbuttoned down below his sternum as he thought critically like the Good Samaritan that he is, while he mops up the sweat from his face with his double breasted pocket handkerchief. At one point, he even makes the attempt to alleviate panic by predicting that we'll be out of the recession by the end of the year. What audacious foresight!!!

60 Minutes charts his life's history heretofore. Everything is precautioned for the purposes of the common man's identification with this financial luminary. He grew up in Dillon, South Carolina, his father emigrated from Eastern Europe, arrived at Ellis Island, and nestled in Dillon where he opened a drug store! Bernanke understands what main street is going through and that's why he cares... because he grew up on Main Street, USA. Nothing but altruism is this man's motive!

The interview was possibly one of the most fraudulent interviews I've ever seen. Disingenuous and sanctimonious to the hilt.

Freedom Watch and InfoWars Simulcast!

Something unique, a first of firsts, FoxNews has simulcasted with InfoWars.

A word about Alex Jones. I don't like to rely on just him. He's a good source but like any news outlet don't take everything you hear for granted. Do your own research. Find out what the debunkers have to say. Check other sources like Daryl Bradford Smith. Eustace Mullins is a VERY GOOD SOURCE, probably the best. He was Senator McCarthy's research assistant when The Good Senator was fighting his war against World Communism. And he also, under the tutelage of political prisoner Ezra Pound, produced his best work, the book on the Fed of which I have reproduced the first chapter of for this blog. And I'll continue posting it in pieces.

One of the reasons I don't trust Alex Jones is that he had Eustace Mullins on his radio program once, and never again. Eustace appeared on Morton Downey, Jr's television talk show and afterwards the sponspors pulled their support and Downey's talk show was brought to its end.

Here's the clip. There's six parts. Here's the YouTube link

The Jekyll Island Hunt Club

Be warned, reader. Long post.

Before I get started, I'd like to explain that Eustace Mullins wrote the first book on the Federal Reserve, so anyone who wrote a book on the Federal Reserve afterwards had to rely on his penetrating exposé.

Something I'd like to clear out the way before I move any further into this are a few things that Ed Winston has stated on his website. Btw, this post has not been in any way created to defend Peter Joseph, as previously expressed in another post. Peter Joseph made two different documentaries. Zeitgeist and Zeitgeist: Addendum. Ed has dedicated his website to debunking Peter Joseph and all that he promotes. However, in Joseph's second documentary, the uninitiated researcher is led into the slaughterhouse like a lamb by presenting the Venus Project as a solution, and since Joseph is a self-professed technocrat, he feels that the credibility of Technocracy, Inc has been compromised by its association with Peter Joseph. We comiserate with you, Ed.

Ed makes a very revealing statement in his introduction to debunking Zeitgeist: Addendum. Relieving himself of the duty of addressing the Venus Project brought up by Joseph, Ed makes this very insightful admonition. Pay attention class.

Firstly, untried economic and political ideas are essentially opinions and anyone, from any side, can debunk anything else from any opposing side -- so it's a waste of time; you can find a million free marketers, libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, and so forth that will disprove technocracy with what they believe to be evidence -- but when it comes to politics and economics, it's really a severe waste of time to debunk anything.

Yes, Ed, it really is a severe waste of time to debunk anything when it comes to politics and economics. Too bad you didn't think of this before you created your website. You could've saved yourself a lot of time and effort. You seem to have forgotten, though, that's what arguing conspiracy theories are all about: politicking. Do try and let Pat of Screw Loose Change be aware of this most insightful wisdom.

I'll give Joseph the benefit of the doubt, though I shouldn't. Documentaries like these are produced for a wide target audience range. Keeping this in mind, the filmmakers have to think about timing and pace so that the audience doesn't lose interest in the subject matter.

In debunking Zeitgeist, Ed makes the following argument:

The film claims it was "bankers, not lawmakers", when the first two, or at least the first, would be considered as such. It makes perfect sense as well, considering as I already talked about, the whole idea was Nelson Aldrich's and he wanted help drafting a plan. That is, the help of people who knew about Banks and the help of the Treasury Department to set up the plan for a central bank in the US.

Mr. Winston inaccurately argues that "the whole idea was Nelson Aldrich's" implying that Aldrich wrote the Federal Reserve Act. Ironic to note, he cites for this argument, the Griffin book. Griffin acknowledges the Federal Reserve Act was written by Paul Warburg. In fact, former 2008 presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul recommends the book in a reading list in his book The Revolution: A Manifesto.

Mr. Winston continues:

The whole mystery of it can be attributed to Forbes magazine, who published an article several years later of a bunch of bankers skipping town in the middle of the night to some island -- sounds more like some horrible John Grisham rip-off, rather than what actually happened. What's next? Are you going to tell me they were speeding away from Jekyll Island in a speed boat with monocles, bags of money with dollar signs, and their canes propped up against stacks of property deeds while they stroke their mustaches mincingly?

Addressing the issue of the secrecy of the Jekyll Island meeting, Mr. Winston argues that it couldn't have been too secretive because we know who the atttendants were and then he lists them. He forgets to mention, or perhaps doesn't care to mention, that the list he gives was compiled from the research Eustace Mullins did in 1948 when he was researching the topic for his book. The identities of the meeting weren't disclosed until his book was published.

Another glaring mistake Winston makes is attributing "the whole mystery" to an article published by Forbes magazine. Forbes Magazine wasn't established until September 15th, 1917. The article Mr. Winston is referring to was published in Current Opinion in December of 1916 on page 382, almost ten months earlier!!!

Let's look at what the first chapter of Mullins' book has to say about the Jekyll Island meeting. It follows in bold.

On the night of November 22, 1910, a group of newspaper reporters stood disconsolately in the railway station at Hoboken, New Jersey. They had just watched a delegation of the nation's leading financiers leave the station on a secret mission. It would be years before they discovered what that mission was, and even then they would not understand that the history of the United States underwent a drastic change after that night in Hoboken.

The delegation had left in a sealed railway car, with blinds drawn, for an undisclosed destination. They were led by Senator Nelson Aldrich, head of the National Monetary Commission. President Theodore Roosevelt had signed into law the bill creating the National Monetary Commission in 1908, after the tragic Panic of 1907 had resulted in a public outcry that the nation's monetary system be stabilized. Aldrich had led the members of the Commission on a two-year tour of Europe, spending some three hundred thousand dollars of public money. He had not yet made a report on the results of this trip, nor had he offered any plan for banking reform.

Accompanying Senator Aldrich at the Hoboken station were his private secretary, Shelton; A. Piatt Andrew, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Special Assistant of the National Monetary Commission; Frank Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank of New York; Henry P. Davison, senior partner of J.P. Morgan Company, and generally regarded as Morgan's personal emissary; and Charles D. Norton, president of the Morgan-dominated First National Bank of New York. Joining the group just before the train left the station were Benjamin Strong, also known as a lieutenant of J.P. Morgan; and Paul Warburg, a recent immigrant from Germany who had joined the banking house of Kuhn, Loeb

Six years later, a financial writer named Bertie Charles Forbes who later founded the Forbes Magazine wrote:

Picture a party of the nation's greatest bankers stealing out of New York on a private railroad car under cover of darkness, stealthily hieing hundred of miles South, embarking on a mysterious launch, sneaking onto an island deserted by all but a few servants, living there a full week under such rigid secrecy that the names of not one of them was once mentioned lest the servants learn the identity and disclose to the world this strangest, most secret expedition in the history of American finance. I am not romancing; I am giving to the world, for the first time, the real story of how the famous Aldrich currency report, the foundation of our new currency system, was written . . . .

The utmost secrecy was enjoined upon all. The public must not glean a hint of what was to be done. Senator Aldrich notified each one to go quietly into a private car of which the railroad had received orders to draw up on an unfrequented platform. Off the party set. New York's ubiquitous reporters had been foiled . . . Nelson (Aldrich) had confided to Henry, Frank, Paul and Piatt that he was to keep them locked up at Jekyll Island, out of the rest of the world, until they had evolved and compiled a scientific currency system for the United States, the real birth of the present Federal Reserve System, the plan done on Jekyll Island in the conference with Paul, Frank and Henry . . . . Warburg is the link that binds the Aldrich system and the present system together. He more than any one man has made the system possible as a working reality.

The official biography of Senator Nelson Aldrich states:

In the autumn of 1910, six men went out to shoot ducks, Aldrich, his secretary Shelton, Andrews, Davison, Vanderlip and Warburg. Reporters were waiting at the Brunswick (Georgia) station. Mr. Davison went out and talked to them. The reporters dispersed and the secret of the strange journey was not divulged. Mr. Aldrich asked him how he had managed it and he did not volunteer the information.

Davison had an excellent reputation as the person who could conciliate warring factions, a role he had performed for J.P. Morgan during the settling of the Money Panic of 1907. Another Morgan partner, T.W. Lamont, says: "Henry P. Davison served as arbitrator of the Jekyll Island expedition."

I'm interrupting here because it's important to cite the quote about Davison: T.W. Lamont, Henry P. Davison, Harper, 1933. Continue on.

From these references, it is possible to piece together the story. Aldrich's private car, which had left Hoboken station with its shades drawn, had taken the financiers to Jekyll Island, Georgia. Some years earlier, a very exclusive group of millionaires, led by J.P. Morgan, had purchased the island as a winter retreat. They called themselves the Jekyll Island Hunt Club, and at first the island was used only for hunting expeditions until the millionaires realized that its pleasant climate offered a warm retreat from the rigors of winters in New York, and began to build splendid mansions which they called "cottages" for their families' winter vacations. The club building itself, being quite isolated, was sometimes in demand for stag parties and other pursuits unrelated to hunting. On such occasions, the club members who were not invited to these specific outings were asked not to appear there for a certain number of days. Before Nelson Aldrich's party had left New York, the club's members had been notified that the club would be occupied for the next two weeks.

The Jekyll Island Club was chosen as the place to draft the plan for control of the money and credit of the people of the United States, not only because of its isolation, but also because it was the private preserve of the people who were drafting the plan. The New York Times later noted, on May 3, 1931, in commenting on the death of George F. Baker, one of J.P. Morgan's closest associates, that "Jekyll Island Club has lost one of its most distinguished members. One-sixth of the total wealth of the world was represented by the members of the Jekyll Island Club." Membership was by inheritance only.

The Aldrich group had no interest in hunting. Jekyll Island was chosen for the site of the preparation of the central bank because it offered complete privacy, and because there was not a journalist within fifty miles. Such was the need for secrecy that the members of the party agreed, before arriving at Jekyll Island, that no last names would be used at any time during their two week stay. The group later referred to themselves as the "First Name Club", as the last names of Warburg, Strong, Vanderlip and the others were prohibited during their stay. The customary attendants had been given two week vacations from the club, and new servants brought in from the mainland for this occasion who did not know the names of any of those present. Even if they had been interrogated after the Aldrich party went back to New York, they could not have given the names. This arrangement proved to be so satisfactory that the members, limited to those who had actually been present at Jekyll Island, later had a number of informal get-togethers in New York.

Why all this secrecy? Why this thousand mile trip in a closed railway car to a remote hunting club? Ostensibly, it was to carry out a program of public service, to prepare banking reform which would be a boon to the people of the United States, which had been ordered by the National Monetary Commission. The participants were no strangers to public benefactions. Usually, their names were inscribed on brass plaques, or on the exteriors of buildings which they had donated. This was not the procedure which they followed at Jekyll Island. No brass plaque was ever erected to mark the selfless actions of those who met at their private hunt club in 1910 to improve the lot of every citizen of the United States.

In fact, no benefaction took place at Jekyll Island. The Aldrich group journeyed there in private to write the banking and currency legislation which the National Monetary Commission had been ordered to prepare in public. At stake was the future control of the money and credit of the United States. If any genuine monetary reform had been prepared and presented to Congress, it would have ended the power of the elitist one world money creators. Jekyll Island ensured that a central bank would be established in the United States which would give these bankers everything they had always wanted.

As the most technically proficient of those present, Paul Warburg was charged with doing most of the drafting of the plan. His work would then be discussed and gone over by the rest of the group. Senator Nelson Aldrich was there to see that the completed plan would come out in a form which he could get passed by Congress, and the other bankers were there to include whatever details would be needed to be certain that they got everything they wanted, in a finished draft composed during a onetime stay. After they returned to New York, there could be no second get together to rework their plan. They could not hope to obtain such secrecy for their work on a second journey.

The Jekyll Island group remained at the club for nine days, working furiously to complete their task. Despite the common interests of those present, the work did not proceed without friction. Senator Aldrich, always a domineering person, considered himself the chosen leader of the group and could not help ordering everyone else about. Aldrich also felt somewhat out of place as the only member who was not a professional banker. He had had substantial banking interests throughout his career, but only as a person who profited from his ownership of bank stock. He knew little about the technical aspects of financial operations. His opposite number, Paul Warburg believed that every question raised by the group demanded, not merely an answer, but a lecture. He rarely lost an opportunity to give the members a long discourse designed to impress them with the extent of his knowledge of banking. This was resented by the others, and often drew barbed remarks from Aldrich. The natural diplomacy of Henry P. Davison proved to be the catalyst which kept them at their work. Warburg's thick alien accent grated on them, and constantly reminded them that they had to accept his presence if a central bank plan was to be devised which would guarantee them their future profits. Warburg made little effort to smooth over their prejudices, and contested them on every possible occasion on technical banking questions, which he considered his private preserve.

Another citation appears in his book. "In all conspiracies there must be great secrecy." [Clarendon, Hist. Reb. 1647]

The "monetary reform" plan prepared at Jekyll Island was to be presented to Congress as the completed work of the National Monetary Commission. It was imperative that the real authors of the bill remain hidden. So great was popular resentment against bankers since the Panic of 1907 that no Congressman would dare to vote for a bill bearing the Wall Street taint, no matter who had contributed to his campaign expenses. The Jekyll Island plan was a central bank plan, and in this country there was a long tradition of struggle against inflicting a central bank on the American people.

It had begun with Thomas Jefferson's fight against Alexander Hamilton's scheme for the First Bank of the United States, backed by James Rothschild. It had continued with President Andrew Jackson's successful war against Alexander Hamilton's scheme for the Second Bank of the United States, in which Nicholas Biddle was acting as the agent for James Rothschild of Paris.

The result of that struggle was the creation of the Independent Sub-Treasury System, which supposedly had served to keep the funds of the United States out of the hands of the financiers. A study of the panics of 1873, 1893, and 1907 indicates that these panics were the result of the international bankers' operations in London. The public was demanding in 1908 that Congress enact legislation to prevent the recurrence of artificially induced money panics. Such monetary reform now seemed inevitable. It was to head off and control such reform that the National Monetary Commission had been set up with Nelson Aldrich at its head, since he was majority leader of the Senate.

The main problem, as Paul Warburg informed his colleagues, was to avoid the name "Central Bank". For that reason, he had decided upon the designation of "Federal Reserve System". This would deceive the people into thinking it was not a central bank. However, the Jekyll Island plan would be a central bank plan, fulfilling the main functions of a central bank; it would be owned by private individuals who would profit from ownership of shares. As a bank of issue, it would control the nation's money and credit.

In the chapter on Jekyll Island in his biography of Aldrich, Stephenson writes of the conference:

How was the Reserve Bank to be controlled? It must be controlled by Congress. The government was to be represented in the board of directors, it was to have full knowledge of all the Bank's affairs, but a majority of the directors were to be chosen, directly or indirectly, by the banks of the association.

Thus the proposed Federal Reserve Bank was to be "controlled by Congress" and answerable to the government, but the majority of the directors were to be chosen, "directly or indirectly" by the banks of the association. In the final refinement of Warburg's plan, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors would be appointed by the President of the United States, but the real work of the Board would be controlled by a Federal Advisory Council, meeting with the Governors. The Council would be chosen by the directors of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, and would remain unknown to the public.

The next consideration was to conceal the fact that the proposed "Federal Reserve System" would be dominated by the masters of the New York money market. The Congressmen from the South and the West could not survive if they voted for a Wall Street plan. Farmers and small businessmen in those areas had suffered most from the money panics. There had been great popular resentment against the Eastern bankers, which during the nineteenth century became a political movement known as "populism". The private papers of Nicholas Biddle, not released until more than a century after his death, show that quite early on the Eastern bankers were fully aware of the widespread public opposition to them.
Paul Warburg advanced at Jekyll Island the primary deception which would prevent the citizens from recognizing that his plan set up a central bank. This was the regional reserve system. He proposed a system of four (later twelve) branch reserve banks located in different sections of the country. Few people outside the banking world would realize that the existing concentration of the nation's money and credit structure in New York made the proposal of a regional reserve system a delusion.

Another proposal advanced by Paul Warburg at Jekyll Island was the manner of selection of administrators for the proposed regional reserve system. Senator Nelson Aldrich had insisted that the officials should be appointive, not elected, and that Congress should have no role in their selection. His Capitol Hill experience had taught him that congressional opinion would often be inimical to the Wall Street interests, as Congressmen from the West and South might wish to demonstrate to their constituents that they were protecting them against the Eastern bankers.

Warburg responded that the administrators of the proposed central banks should be subject to executive approval by the President. This patent removal of the system from Congressional control meant that the Federal Reserve proposal was unconstitutional from its inception, because the Federal Reserve System was to be a bank of issue. Article 1, Sec. 8, Par. 5 of the Constitution expressly charges Congress with "the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof.". Warburg's plan would deprive Congress of its sovereignty, and the systems of checks and balances of power set up by Thomas Jefferson in the Constitution would now be destroyed. Administrators of the proposed system would control the nation's money and credit, and would themselves be approved by the executive department of the government. The judicial department (the Supreme Court, etc.) was already virtually controlled by the executive department through presidential appointment to the bench.

Paul Warburg later wrote a massive exposition of his plan, "The Federal Reserve System, Its Origin and Growth" of some 1750 pages, but the name "Jekyll Island" appears nowhere in this text. He does state (vol. 1, p. 58):

But then the conference closed, after a week of earnest deliberation, the rough draft of what later became the Aldrich Bill had been agreed upon, and a plan had been outlined which provided for a "National Reserve Association", meaning a central reserve organization with an elastic note issue based on gold and commercial paper.

On page 60, Warburg writes,

The results of the conference were entirely confidential. Even the fact there had been a meeting was not permitted to become public.

He adds in a footnote,

Though eighteen [sic] years have since gone by, I do not feel free to give a description of this most interesting conference concerning which Senator Aldrich pledged all participants to secrecy.

B.C. Forbes' revelation of the secret expedition to Jekyll Island, had had surprisingly little impact. It did not appear in print until two years after the Federal Reserve Act had been passed by Congress, hence it was never read during the period when it could have had an effect -- that is, during the Congressional debate on the bill. Forbes' story was also dismissed, by those "in the know," as preposterous and a mere invention. Stephenson mentions this on page 484 of his book about Aldrich:

This curious episode of Jekyll Island has been generally regarded as a myth. B.C. Forbes got some information from one of the reporters. It told in vague outline the Jekyll Island story, but made no impression and was generally regarded as a mere yarn.

The coverup of the Jekyll Island conference proceeded along two lines, both of which were successful. The first, as Stephenson mentions, was to dismiss the entire story as a romantic concoction which never actually took place. Although there were brief references to Jekyll Island in later books concerning the Federal Reserve System, these also attracted little public attention. As we have noted, Warburg's massive and supposedly definite work on the Federal Reserve System does not mention Jekyll Island at all, although he does admit that a conference took place. In none of his voluminous speeches or writings do the words "Jekyll Island" appear, with a single notable exception. He agreed to Professor Stephenson's request that he prepare a brief statement for the Aldrich biography. This appears on page 485 as part of "The Warburg Memorandum". In this excerpt, Warburg writes, "The matter of a uniform discount rate was discussed and settled at Jekyll Island."

Another member of the "First Name Club" was less reticent. Frank Vanderlip later published a few brief references to the conference. In the Saturday Evening Post, February 9, 1935, p. 25, Vanderlip wrote:

Despite my views about the value to society of greater publicity for the affairs of corporations, there was an occasion near the close of 1910, when I was as secretive, indeed, as furtive, as any conspirator. . . . Since it would have been fatal to Senator Aldrich's plan to have it known that he was calling on anybody from Wall Street to help him in preparing his bill, precautions were taken that would have delighted the heart of James Stillman (a colorful and secretive banker who was President of the National City Bank during the Spanish-American War, and who was thought to have been involved in getting us into that war) . . . I do not feel it is any exaggeration to speak of our secret expedition to Jekyll Island as the occasion of the actual conception of what eventually became the Federal Reserve System.

In a Travel feature in The Washington Post, March 27, 1983, "Follow The Rich to Jekyll Island", Roy Hoopes writes:

In 1910, when Aldrich and four financial experts wanted a place to meet in secret to reform the country's banking system, they faked a hunting trip to Jekyll [Island] and for 10 days holed up in the Clubhouse, where they made plans for what eventually would become the Federal Reserve Bank.

Vanderlip later wrote in his autobiography, "From Farmboy to Financier":

Our secret expedition to Jekyll Island was the occasion of the actual conception of what eventually became the Federal Reserve System. The essential points of the Aldrich Plan were all contained in the Federal Reserve Act as it was passed.

Professor E.R.A. Seligman, a member of the international banking family of J. & W. Seligman, and head of the Department of Economics at Columbia University, wrote in an essay published by the Academy of Political Science, Proceedings, v. 4, No. 4, p. 387-90:

It is known to a very few how great is the indebtedness of the United States to Mr. Warburg. For it may be said without fear of contradiction that in its fundamental features the Federal Reserve Act is the work of Mr. Warburg more than any other man in the country. The existence of a Federal Reserve Board creates, in everything but in name, a real central bank. In the two fundamentals of command of reserves and of a discount policy, the Federal Reserve Act has frankly accepted the principle of the Aldrich Bill, and these principles, as has been stated, were the creation of Mr. Warburg and Mr. Warburg alone.

It must not be forgotten that Mr. Warburg had a practical object in view. In formulating his plans and in advancing in them slightly varying suggestions from time to time, it was incumbent on him to remember that the education of the country must be gradual and that a large part of the task was to break down prejudices and remove suspicion. His plans therefore contained all sorts of elaborate suggestions designed to guard the public against fancied dangers and to persuade the country that the general scheme was at all practicable. It was the hope of Mr. Warburg that with the lapse of time it might be possible to eliminate from the law a few clauses which were inserted largely at his suggestion for educational purposes.

Now that the public debt of the United States has passed a trillion dollars, we may indeed admit "how great is the indebtedness of the United States to Mr. Warburg." At the time he wrote the Federal Reserve Act, the public debt was almost nonexistent.

Professor Seligman points out Warburg's remarkable prescience that the real task of the members of the Jekyll Island conference was to prepare a banking plan which would gradually "educate the country" and "break down prejudices and remove suspicion". The campaign to enact the plan into law succeeded in doing just that.

Winston is wrong in thinking the Jekyll Island Conference was common knowledge, but in the documentary Joseph didn't do too much to explain this. As documented in the first chapter of Mullins's book, Warburg named the location of the conference in "The Warburg Memorandum" which appeared in Stephenson's biography on Aldrich. Warburg even admitted in his own book on the Federal Reserve that the fact that there had been a meeting taken place to conceptualize what would later become the Fed had been kept from reaching the public. Critics of this conspiracy will argue that the press itself had talked about Jekyll as evidenced in Mullins's book, but as Mullins has argued the mention of Jekyll Island was too infrequent to have had any effect.

Unions, for or against?

I don't think we have had any sort of conversation on this blog regarding unions. I'm not entirely convinced that they are indeed a good thing. I suspect this is due to never ending propaganda that permeates the media regarding unions. My intuition tells me that unions are in fact generally good and very much needed. The media always tells me that some union is on strike and that is the cause of a work stoppage or slowdown. They never really present the flip side of that coin in which some corporation is refusing to treat it's employees fairly and THAT is the cause of a work stoppage or slowdown. I don't have any personal experience with unions so I can only base my opinions of them through anecdotal evidence given to me by friends who are involved with a union. One such friend had previously worked for the state on two separate occasions and generally had a good experience with both jobs. He has since left those jobs and moved on to a unionised job where he has much better health care, much better vacation time, much better sick time, a much improved retirement plan and brings in more than twice as much money as the two previous jobs combined(the work is not significantly more difficult nor complex now). That tells me that unions are pretty damned good to be involved with. Of course he does have to pay union dues, there is no option for not joining, it is compulsory, but the amount of money that he now makes dwarfs that piddly union due into obscurity. The company that he now works for is also very successful, a Fortune500 company, and seems to be doing reasonably well even in our current economy. So with all that said, can anyone give me a reasonable argument for why unions are actually bad for people and business? And no a video like the following does not convince me.

Which brings me to this Americans Are Raring for a Fight Against Corporate Power which I found at Alternet. The article discusses the EFCA, Employee Free Choice Act, and how that law would make it much easier for labor to organise and stiffens the penalties for those companies who would try and stifle labor organisation. Are we really ready to re-embrace unionisation in America, and if so is that a good thing? I think it is.

one of my favorites

March 13, 2009

The Honorable Edolphus Towns, Chairman

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

U.S. House of Representatives

2157 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Towns:

As you may already be aware, recent media reports indicate that investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh, while answering questions before a public audience at the University of Minnesota divulged information about what he calls an “executive assassination ring” operating under the George W. Bush Administration.

If substantiated, the allegation would have far reaching implications for the United States. Such an assertion from someone of Hersh’s credibility that has a long and proven track record of dependability on these issues merits attention. Mr. Hersh is within a year or more of releasing a book that is said to include evidence of this allegation. However, we cannot wait a year or more to establish the truth. As such, I request that the Full Committee immediately begin an investigation to determine the facts in this matter.

Mr. Hersh made the allegation before an audience at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, March 10, 2009. He stated, “Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving.”

Mr. Hersh continued, “It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently," he explained. "They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office ... Congress has no oversight of it.”

If true, these operations violate longstanding U.S. policy regarding covert actions and illegally bypass Congressional oversight. Current statute governing covert action (50 U.S.C. 413b) requires a presidential finding and notification to the appropriate congressional committees. Additionally, Executive Order 12333 clearly states that “[n]o person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in or conspire to engage in assassination.”

I urge the Committee to explore Mr. Hersh’s allegation. Please do not hesitate to call on me or my staff if we can be of assistance.

Sincerely,

Dennis J. Kucinich

Member of Congress

Kucinich is right on top of things again. He is one of our better Representatives in this country. Found at Alternet.

I Say Resign AND THEN Commit Suicide.

Good ol' Jesse has made another excellent post over at his own blogsite.

Senator Grassley: Throw AIG to the Wolves (and Ignore Us)

Senator Grassley is a ranking member of the Senate Finance Committe. As such, he presided over a decade of erosion of safeguards and balance in our financial system.

He is also a member of a political party and a government that had the lead in ruining our country, undermining the Constitution, and allowing financial racketeers like AIG to flourish.

The fellows at AIG are indeed amoral pigs, and they make no pretentions to be otherwise, whereas Chuck Grassley and his ilk are venal hypocrites who are attempting to deflect attention from their own significant role in the current financial crisis, and a disastrous foreign policy conducted under false pretenses for the enrichment of private interests and corporations.

Those who take his pious pronouncements seriously are born to be shorn, over and over, again and again.

"I don't know whether the [$165 million in bonuses] is an issue as much as just the chutzpah of the people running AIG," Grassley said. "That they could thumb their nose at the taxpayers, it's more that.

"The attitude of these corporate executives and bank executives, and most of them are in New York, that somehow they're not responsible for their company going into the tank," he said.

"I suggest, you know, obviously maybe they ought to be removed, but I would suggest that the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them [is] if they would follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I'm sorry and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide."

Can the AIG bonuses be undone

AIG must be completely unaware of reality. AIG just received an absolute ton of money from the taxpayers and apparently AIG thinks it is ok to give that money away as bonuses to the geniuses that forced them to need a bailout. Call me crazy but shouldn't they be handing out pink slips and walking papers and not multimillion dollar bonuses. Besides the fact that AIG is now a nationalised entity, they shouldn't really be worried about potential lawsuits concerning not paying the bonuses that were promised, the good ole U S of A's lawyers can get ya out of that obligation I'm sure. Govt lawyers vs sleazy wall street types over unearned bonuses, I'm picking the lawyers in this one. Somewhere on this blog was mention of a certain person and his timely award due to his position on nationalisation, and while I can see where the author was coming from, I cannot agree. I think nationalisation is needed. It may not work out well and all the fears of going to the bank being like going to the DMV might end up being correct but hopefully these ridiculous institutions that paraded around like banks can be gutted, burned, and set out on a fresh start. Is it 100% capitalist and the 'way we do things'? Of course not but not much in this country is 100% like the way we think it is. So here's to nationalisation comrades, see you in the bread lines.

welcome to nationalized citibank

The New F***ing Citibank - watch more funny videos

enjoy.

quite possibly greatness via youtube mashup

This is pretty amazing. Someone has taken several probably marginally ok youtube clips and made something altogether brilliant out of them. Not exactly my genre of choice musically, but, hot damn that's some good shit. Found on boingboing.

Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 1

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

For the past fifteen years, CNBC has been aiding and abetting Wall Street criminality by constantly preaching the virtuous insight of all these CEOs and bureaucrats. This is the news station people all over America trusted for their financial advice. They don't deserve our trust anymore.

Addressing Zeitgeist. By Way of Deception, Thou Shalt Do War

In preparing my response to the counterargument made by Edward L Winston and Pat @ Screw Loose Change about the Federal Reserve System, I wanted to clarify my position on the documentary Zeitgeist that is the subject of the debunking.

Zeitgeist, as a source for information, is not to be trusted. Peter Joseph is a fraud who has been attacked even by Alex Jones, a frequent victim himself of attacks by people like the blog authors of SLC.

My biggest gripe with Joseph, aside from him being the vassal for the Venus Project, an anarcho-communist program which delivers the world into the hands of the Illuminati by advertising them as the saviors of the world, is the source he uses for his argument against the Federal Reserve. The Fed whose currency ironically funded the production of this documentary.

Be careful, debunkers, I didn't say the Federal Reserve financed the film. I said its currency did.

In his source list, Peter Joseph used for his film a rip-off book written by establishment journalist William Greider who wrote for Rolling Stone. The book is called Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country.

In an interview with Tom Valentine, Mullins discredited Greider as a source to be trusted. Mullins revealed:

when Simon and Schuster put out a rip-off of my book called Secrets of the Temple: The Federal Reserve, they even stole my title. And they sold 300,000 of 'em. And Forbes magazine reviewed it and said, "This book has no secrets." William Greider, who was a Washington editor of Rolling Stone, an establishment journalist, actually wrote this book. And he "pooh-poohed" any conspiratorial notion that there had ever been a meeting at all.

Another citation in Joseph's sources is another book on the Fed, but strangely not the one Mullins wrote. This one is The Creature From Jekyll Island written by child actor G. Edward Griffin. Mullins has argued that as punishment for drawing back the curtain that reveals who the conspirators are, the World Order financed countless plagiarizations. Coming from Mullins, this isn't an extreme argument. He was followed relentlessly by the FBI -- spied on -- for 33 years. Mullins documents this in his book A Writ for Martys. The cross dressing homosexual, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, revealed in Mullins' book, ordered the government to abduct Mullins and place him in a mental ward where he would remain in perpetuity. Thankfully, their terror campaign launched against this aging patriot never achieved success.

Peter Joseph is a disinformation agent. There's no other conclusion to draw. If he was honest he wouldn't have mucked up the Federal Reserve argument by associating it with ecumenicalism and humanism. He provides enough truth to lure the gullible in and then snatches the observer away into the World Order. And what truths he does provide are made in very weak arguments.

Always remember the Motto of the Mossad: By Way of Deception, Thou Shalt Do War.

Bush's War on the Sick and Dying: A thought from the late Robert Anton Wilson

Bush's War on the Sick and Dying
13 Hephaistis 82 p.s.U.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
United States Constitution, 10th Amendment

As most of you know by now, my photo went all over the country as the first patient to receive medical cannabis from the city officials of Santa Cruz on September 17; I assume the organizers pushed me up front because of my age, my white beard, my wheelchair and my general resemblence to a colorful Gothic ruin.

I've had a lot of experence with civil disobedience, dating back to Vietnam War days, but this occasion seems unique, in that the mayor, the former mayor, the city council and various other local officials participated [not as patients, but as supporters.] In fact, we all acted perfectly in accord with local and state law: Californians voted to legalize medical cannabis by a 55% majority, and Santa Cruz County by a 75% majority. The TSOG [Tsarist Occupation Government], however, has thrown the tenth amendment into the same garbage heap with the first nine. The Bill of Rights exists now only as a historical curiosity, although you can still find it in the back of a good fat dictionary.

I suggest that you check this out by looking into your own dictionary before His Royal Fraudulency George II has this subversive document removed and thrown down the memory hole.

What will Tsarism in America engulf and devour next? Having invaded medicine -- not only in the present case, but in banning stem cell research-- will the TSOG move on physics next and allow the pointy-headed bureaucrats to decide which of the eight theories of quantum mechanics professors may discuss in class? Will they issue dogmas about mathematical set theory? Will they raid Chinese neighborhoods, indefinetly "detaining" those who prefer herbal meds to allopathic ones? Nothing seems impossible: Tsarist governments use a special logic with deuces, eights and one-eyed jacks wild.

I wonder how many of the serfs even remember that the founders intended to create a free country here.

Debunking Christian Apologetics: "Scholars say..."

A video that expresses some of the feelings I've been developing concerning the field of Christian Apologetics, and why it shouldn't be trusted.

3/8: Adrian Douglas, "Was It All Just An Honest Mistake?"

Another article from GATA sent to me by a family member.

Was It All Just an Honest Mistake?

By Adrian Douglas

From time to time I have what I call a 2 by 4 moment…this is when I read something and suddenly it like some one hit me over the head with a 2 by 4! I had a 2 by 4 moment this week when this news piece hit the tape…

http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2009/03/06/business/OUKBS-UK-IMF-LESSONS-CRISIS.php

QUOTE

IMF gives self an 'F' in spotting financial crisis

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - The IMF gave itself a scathing review for its mistakes in spotting the roots of the global crisis and acknowledged it fell short in its job as the world's main financial system supervisor.

In a series of papers that look at the initial lessons from the crisis, the IMF said a patchwork of uncoordinated oversight and ineffective messaging failed to spot and call attention to the risk that a global credit boom could burst spectacularly, triggering the worst global slump in decades.

The IMF said warnings before the crisis, including its own, were too scattered and unspecific to force policy-makers to act, let alone prompt collective policy action.

In the long list of its failings, the IMF acknowledged its surveillance either missed or underestimated risks, while complacency was encouraged by its optimistic bottom-line assessments and hedged messages.

END

It was just like someone had hit me with a 2 by 4! This was just the most implausible excuse I had ever heard! How ridiculous is this? Do they mean that no one at the IMF reads the Wall St Journal? All they had to do was pick up a copy of the WSJ on Jan 31 2008 and they wouldn’t have missed the signs of financial crisis because GATA spelled it out for anyone with an IQ bigger than a grapefruit! They could have got an A++ if they just paid attention to us!

They got an "F" for spotting the signs of financial crisis but they get an A++ for looking the other way while their buddies in the Gold Cartel were looting the world’s financial system.

This mea culpa is outrageous.

After my blood pressure had returned to normal I recognized the pattern. For a long time I had wondered why the American public is not outraged that they have been robbed blind, and that their productive economy, that was once the envy of the world, has been destroyed by a monstrous, parasitic banking Cartel. Why aren’t the people on the streets burning tires? Why is there no march on the Federal Reserve? Why are there no angry crowds in front of the Congress? Why are there no barricades in front of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Why is no one demanding accountability? Why is no one protesting that the Constitution requires a Government of the People FOR THE PEOPLE not for a group of Bankers?

The answer is that it appears that it has all been an honest mistake! And who can not find compassion in his heart to forgive an honest mistake?

I did some research and to my astonishment there is a long litany of pathetic admissions of incompetency. The white collar thugs who have looted the world’s financial system for their own enrichment are all claiming it was just an honest mistake. I am included below just a fraction of the examples I found:

http://www.insurancenetworking.com/news/insurance_AIG_senate_house_financial_services_systemic_risk11979-1.html

QUOTE

Some regulators even acknowledged making mistakes in overseeing AIG.

Polakoff said that even though the OTS had the authority to oversee the activities of an AIG subsidiary that others had said was technically unregulated, the agency failed to exercise its authority properly. "We were clearly responsible, as the consolidated regulator" for Financial Products, the business that witnesses said caused many of the problems that led to a bailout for the company. "We, in 2004, should have taken an entirely different approach than what we wound up taking regarding the credit default swaps," he said.

END

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122476545437862295.html

QUOTE

Alan Greenspan, lauded in Congress while the economy boomed, conceded under harsh questioning from lawmakers that he had made mistakes during his long tenure as Federal Reserve chairman that may have worsened the current slump.

END

http://www.wcbs880.com/pages/3509645.php?contentType=4&contentId=3225347

QUOTE

``I am gravely concerned by the apparent multiple failures over at least a decade to thoroughly investigate these allegations or at any point to seek formal authority to pursue them,' Cox said in a written statement.

The SEC chairman said Madoff kept several sets of books and false documents, and provided false information involving his investment advisory activities to investors and to regulators.

END

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E1DE1430F933A05753C1A9659C8B63

QUOTE

Fannie Mae announced yesterday that it had corrected errors in its most recent financial results, which in some cases varied from the correct amounts by more than $1 billion. The company attributed the errors to flawed application of new accounting standards.

END

http://mises.org/story/2627

QUOTE

The latest tally will have Fannie Mae restating its earnings to the tune of $11 billion. Flagrant accounting errors go back to at least the 1990s, when the company was improperly deferring expenses in order to boost reported net income as it paid out huge bonuses to top executives. Upon being hit by the scandal in 2004, Fannie Mae stopped filing its financial statements with the SEC.

END

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977476138

QUOTE

Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregulaties in Fannie Mae's accounting activities. At the time of his departure The Wall Street Journal noted, " Raines, who long defended the company's accounting despite mounting evidence that it wasn't proper, issued a statement late Tuesday conceding that "mistakes were made" and saying he would assume responsibility as he had earlier promised.

END

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7486692.stm

QUOTE

Paulson admits regulatory errors.

Mr Paulson held talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday. The impact of the global credit crunch could have been minimized by better regulation of US banks, US Treasury Secretary has admitted.

END

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/transportation/gm-makes-case-americans-admits-mistakes/

QUOTE

General Motors needs $18 billion from the government and taxpayers and wants the American people to know why.

In an open letter titled "GM’s Commitment to the American People" which ran in Automotive News, a trade journal ready by industry executives, lobbyists and other insiders, the beleaguered car maker candidly acknowledged it has disappointed U.S. consumers and pledged to do better. It said recent strides to improve the company have been hurt by the economic downturn, which is why it needs the loans.

"We are in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," said GM in the missive. "Just like you, we have been severely impacted by events outside our control. Despite moving quickly to reduce our planned spending by over $20 billion, GM finds itself precariously and frighteningly close to running out of cash."

Still GM acknowledged that while the economy is hurting the car company, it has made missteps it only has itself to blame.

END

http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2009/Mar/3/BoA_boss_admits_Merrill_Lynch_aid_was_%22tactical_mistake%22.html

QUOTE

Bank of America's (BoA) decision to ask for $20 billion in public funding from the US Treasury to prop up its takeover of Wall Street brokerage Merrill Lynch was a "tactical mistake" that made the company appear as weak as the stricken Citigroup.

END

http://www.smartmoney..com/breaking-news/smw/?story=20081006110122

QUOTE

Lehman CEO Admits Errors, Defends Conduct:

In his testimony, Fuld portrayed Lehman Brothers as mistaken in its assumptions about the health of mortgage markets, but also the victim of happenstance and financial markets that eroded too quickly for Lehman executives to contain the firm's losses.

With the benefit of hindsight, I can now say that I and many others were wrong," Fuld said in his testimony.

END

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2300933

QUOTE

Lay admits mistakes

But he tells the judge he didn't mean to break law and defraud banks

Former Enron Chairman Ken Lay told a federal judge Monday that he repeatedly violated the banking regulations he's accused of flouting but he didn't realize he was doing it at the time

END

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/050411/11aig.htm

QUOTE

AIG fesses up

The mega-insurer admits to a slew of accounting no-nos, ensnaring Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway

END

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE50P67020090126

QUOTE

"Secretary-designate Geithner ... admitted that he'd made honest mistakes that could and should have been avoided," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a briefing. "He made amends by paying the back taxes and interest that he owes."

END

http://www.mls-real-estate.com/2008/05/06/countrywide-admits-mistakes-not-wrongdoing/

QUOTE

Mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., which is under investigation for inflating certain borrowers' fees, acknowledged Tuesday that it has made errors and pledged to take steps to improve its operations.

END

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=admits+mistakes+bank&start=10&sa=N

QUOTE

The CEO of Deutsche Bank, Josef Ackermann, has admitted that he made judgment errors regarding the global financial crisis.

END

http://www.topnews.in/ubs-admits-mistakes-subprime-mortgage-crisisb-237604

QUOTE

The worst hit of its global rivals, Zurich-based UBS has been forced to make more than 37 billion dollars write-downs in assets stemming from the US housing shakeout, which has set shock waves across the world financial sector.

"We have made mistakes, and we have learned our first lessons from them," Ospel told the 4,000 angry shareholders attending the meeting in Basel. "Our future management will continue to learn from the things we did wrong."

END

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article1356470.ece

QUOTE

Stephen Green, the chairman of HSBC, conceded that mistakes had been made as the bank faced the fallout yesterday from the first profit warning in its 142-year history.

Mr Green, speaking to The Times, said that the American consumer finance business at the heart of HSBC’s current troubles had not been properly supervised and had sold the wrong products. "The truth is we didn’t get it all right, to put it mildly," he said.

END

http://www.efinancialnews.com/privateequity/index/content/3352938241/restricted

QUOTE

Ex-Glitnir chief repays severance and admits mistakes in Iceland

The chief architect of Icelandic bank Glitnir's heady international expansion has paid back his severance pay of Ikr370m (€2.2m) and admitted anger with himself for building a bank that relied on an unsustainable model that ultimately led to its collapse and nationalization.

END

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/ideyeykfid/

QUOTE

AIB’s chief executive is unlikely to look for a bonus or a pay rise for the rest of his career, after he admitted the bank has made mistakes.

END

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=434613&in_page_id=2

QUOTE

The Government's City watchdog today owned up to glaring errors in its handling of the Northern Rock crisis.

The Financial Services Authority said it had failed to see the warning signs and that its supervision of the bank was 'unacceptable'.

END

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iTlbxqsJZJ0_oYfCcQMDM-9LeDOA

QUOTE

Troubled financial group Fortis admitted on Monday that past errors had triggered the crisis that required the Benelux nations to hammer out a 11.2-billion-euro bailout over the weekend.

END

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/4929018/Alistair-Darling-We-made-mistakes-on-the-economy.html

QUOTE

Ministers must have the "humility" to admit that mistakes have been made by the Government in the lead up to the financial crisis, Chancellor Alistair Darling admits.

END

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/watchdog-admits-serious-errors-over-anglo-irish-scandal-1601027.html

QUOTE

Watchdog admits serious errors over Anglo Irish scandal

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority has said there was a serious breach in its office in overlooking the directors' loans at Anglo Irish Bank.

It also admitted the controversy had hit public confidence in the work of the watchdog.

END

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message552385/pg1

QUOTE

Moody's awarded incorrect AAA ratings to billions of dollars worth of a complex debt product - constant proportion debt obligations - due to a bug in its computer models, the Financial Times reported.

Internal Moody's documents seen by the newspaper show that some staff within the credit agency knew early in 2007 that products rated the previous year at AAA should, after a computer coding error was corrected, have been cut by up to four notches.

END

http://abajournal.com/news/was_bear_stearns_guarantee_a_mistake_by_wachtell_lipton/

QUOTE

Legal tongues are wagging over a report that raised questions about whether lawyers at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz made a mistake in JPMorgan’s original contract offer to buy Bear Stearns for $2 a share.

A person briefed on contract talks told the New York Times that a clause inadvertently included in the agreement required JPMorgan to guarantee Bear Stearns’ liabilities even if shareholders voted down the deal. JPMorgan CEO James Dimon was reportedly "apoplectic" after learning of the clause, the newspaper said. As it became more likely that shareholders would block the purchase, JPMorgan came up with its new offer of $10 a share.

END

You have probably read enough of these pathetic admissions of incompetence but this is only just a small sample! Can we really believe that the world somehow came to be run by the dumbest people on the planet and that their Keystone Cop bungling of the world economy and the financial sector has accidentally led to the biggest crisis in human history? On the contrary, these were some of the smartest people on the planet. But smart people, no matter how smart they are, are not immune to the temptations of greed. But the system should have been able to recognize smart greedy people doing the wrong things and stopped them. Except that these smart greedy people got together and thought they were so smart they could enrich themselves at the expense of others without ever getting caught. Once this happens there is by definition a conspiracy. All those that are involved are beneficiaries and they have no interest in stopping it.

Incompetency is not an acceptable defense. A massive quadrillion dollar derivatives market grew up in the space of 15 years from virtually nothing. Could any of the big players in the financial world have been so smart that they could have bet more than 15 times the total annual GDP of the world that their view of the world was correct? There is no rational business case defense for betting more money than exists in the whole world! But there is a logical explanation. If someone knows that the market is rigged such that certain outcomes will never happen he will place the highest leveraged bets that he can get away with.

The majority of the Quadrillion dollars of derivatives were taken out against interest rates and credit default swaps. This means the writers of these pseudo insurance contracts were very confident they knew the future direction of interest rates.

How could anyone be so confident of the direction of interest rates that the bets could mount up to more money than is in the whole world? The answer lies in Summers & Barsky’s Paper "Gibson’s Paradox and the Gold Standard". Summers concluded that in a freely traded gold market real interest rates and the gold price move in inverse relationship. In other words if real interest rates are low the gold price should be high and vice versa. But for most of the 1990’s and this decade we have seen low gold prices (not even keeping pace with inflation) AND low interest rates. This means the gold market was NOT freely traded. This was at the core of Robert Rubin’s strong dollar policy. By suppressing the gold price interest rates could be low and the dollar remain strong allowing the US to live beyond its means and grow M3 money supply from 4 T$ to 15T$ in just 14 years. The US was able to import far more than it exported and pay with over valued dollars which were then exchanged for overvalued Treasury Bonds and kept as reserve assets by foreign countries.

If anyone was aware that the system was rigged in such away they would be prepared to bet all that they could. In the stock market the best way to know that investors are trading on insider information is to see an explosion in volume BEFORE a key news release that could not have been anticipated. The explosion in derivatives to levels that do not even make logical sense is a neon sign that the system was rigged any many people knew about it, betting to such insane levels that it could only be an insider trade.

Gold is not the "barbarous relic" in the financial world. Manipulation of the gold price was key to suppressing interest rates and boosting the exchange value of the dollar and knowledge of this scam allowed those in the know to bet the farm that they could not be wrong. Once the bets got bigger than the house and defaults on sub-prime mortgages occurred, the implosion started, and, it is not finished yet!

So for those who don’t believe in conspiracies I would like to know why interest rates were the focus of most of the derivatives and how more money could be bet than exists on the planet! And please don’t come with "It was just an honest mistake" otherwise I will you hit you on the head with my 2 by 4!

Adrian DouglasMarch 7, 2009

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3/6: Message from GATA Member Adrian Douglas. "GATA Bombshell"

Family member sent me an email copy of a GATA article dated 3/6. I'd like to reprint it here for everyone to read.

GATA BOMBSHELL

GATA Board Member Adrian Douglas

I am really excited to report on a GATA BOMBSHELL. Two weeks ago I was contacted by Marina Portnaya of Russia Today TV. This is an International 24/7 English news channel. They are broadcast in over 100 countries and are broadcast in the New York area on channel 135 on Time Warner Cable TV. Apparently is is also broadcast in Washington D.C., and San Francisco. You can check out their website http://www.russiatoday.ru/.

Marina asked to interview me on camera about the surge in gold demand, my predictions of a bond market collapse, and my thoughts on the Obama stimulus package. This seemed like a mega opportunity for GATA so I re-organized my schedule so that I could go to their New York studio for an interview.

The interview was filmed March 5. We had planned 45 minutes together but the cameras were rolling for almost 90 minutes! Marina was enthralled and shocked by the biggest Ponzi scheme in human history. I had sent her several pages of background information before the interview and would not have been surprised if I was classified as "too hot to handle" and that the interview was cancelled. It was not. When I met Marina Portnaya I quickly understood that despite being young she is a journalist of the old school. She is passionate about reporting facts and reporting truthfully. She is a true patriot deeply concerned about the way the US has been brought to its knees by the misdemeanors of the powerful elite.

We got into all the background information about how the manipulation of the gold market is at the center of the destruction of the financial system. How switching off the fire alarm allowed interest rates to be artificially low and the dollar M3 money supply to be promiscuously increased without most people noticing there was anything wrong before it was too late. It allowed the US to live beyond its means for so long and to abuse its responsibility of managing the world’s reserve currency.

I don’t know how much will be left on the cutting room floor but taking any ten minutes out of the 90 minutes of film will be a major coup for GATA and a huge exposure of the scam that the gold cartel has perpetrated on the world.

The interview will air next week. Marina was very pleased with the interview and said that her producer will love it. I hope so.

I will notify you when I get confirmation of when it will be aired. I have also been promised a DVD of the interview.

Isn’t it ironic that the spirit of free press is not with US networks but with those of Russia! How the world has changed!

Cheers
Adrian

Cattle Decapitation- The Gardeners of Eden

Search Querries Yield Attempts to Debunk the Federal Reserve Conspiracy

Everyone by now who has read this blog faithfully knows I have a fascination with the Federal Reserve System and its relative topics (i.e. 16th Amendment, tax law, IRS, the Constitution, Ron Paul, Eustace Mullins, etc). Because I am so fascinated with the topic and have clearly voiced my informed opinions about the Federal Reserve Conspiracy, I am also well aware there are those who try to debunk the claims. These people fail miserably. Their arguments are laughable.

Recently I've been paying attention to Screw Loose Change: The Blogspot. The authors of this blogspot pride themselves in debunking the 9/11 Conspiracy Theories, so I wanted to know if they covered anything beyond that. My field of interest is, of course, the Federal Reserve System. I did a search: "Eustace Mullins" "Federal Reserve" "Ron Paul". Not surprisingly, the search querries yielded the typical tired warn out arguments that keep popping up like the puppets in a game of Whack-A-Mole! Once you knock down one of their arguments, another one pops up. When this fails them, they resort to name calling and deliberate misrepresentation.

I don't endorse her because she's an excuser of the crimes committed by the Bush Administration, but before you talk to these types of people consider some of the valuable lessons in Ann Coulter's instruction manuel (How to Talk to A Liberal (If You Must). ) and apply your arguments accordingly. Her one redeeming feature is her defense of Senator McCarthy, possibly the greatest Republican Senator that ever lived.

The "Federal Reserve" search querry yielded Pat's recommendation to read Conspiracy Science's Dissertation on why critics of the Federal Reserve are wrong. The kind of flawed logic-cum-flawed arguments is prevelent in the Anti-American Party.

I'm going to catch a lot of hellfire for the term "Anti-American" but when I scroll down to read another post related to the search querry I find the following:

By no means do all believers in either the “Illuminati” or demonized “bankers” hate Jews. Many do not. Some are even Jews themselves. However, these ideologies are historically intertwined with and closely parallel classic Jew-hating myths. For example, some anti-Illuminists have claimed that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious anti-Jewish forgery, is entirely true and accurate if you just substitute “Illuminati” for “Jews.” And a lot of the rhetoric we’ve been hearing in the alternative media about the Federal Reserve System is derived from writings such as Secrets of the Federal Reserve by Eustace Mullins, a notorious Jew-hater who also believed that Jews ritually kill Christian children. Speaking of ritual murder, there’s also the “Satanic Ritual Abuse” scare, which often goes hand-in-hand with anti-Illuminism.

I emboldened parts of the quote shown above because I wanted to ask a few questions. 1) If the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are a forgery, then what happened to the original copy that the plagiarized copy is committing forgery against? and 2) does calling Eustace Mullins a Jew-hater constitute character assassination since the term carries a deliberately negative connotation? Because if so then I think Mullins should bring a libel suit against this NYCActivist. He's brought lawsuits against the United States government so many times he's probably scheduled to appear in court tomorrow.

My final comment is this: the opposite of anti-Illuminism is pro-Illuminism. The use of this word here insinuates we should be supporting the Illuminati, a traitorous suggestion to anyone who believes in America and the Constitution. And yes, there have been Jews who believe in the Illuminati. Myron Fagan, anyone? Fagan was Eustace's earliest supporter.

Benjamin Freedman is also another Jew -- sorry Ben -- "former Jew" as Freedman referred to himself as. Freedman and Mullins shared a really close friendship. Mullins even lived with Freedman. Guido Roeder is also another Jew who used his own money to promote the work of Eustace Mullins.

I'll be debunking the Federal Reserve "debunkers" in another post. Their arguments are too ridiculous to patronize here.

Happy Birthday Eustace!

Born March 9th 1923, Eustace Mullins is 86 today!!

Happy Birthday Eustace!!!