Saturday, February 4, 2012

Russell Blake - Blogs and Books

Russell Blake is a fine writer and he is a friend of mine.  Russell is also a member of the Writers and Reader's Tribe on Triberr.  Unfortunately, his blog, Looting Uncle Sam didn't make it into the Triberr Stream for dissemination, so, without his permission, I went to his site and copied the blog.  Note, clicking on the blog title will take you to Russell's real site.  
Just before I turned out the lights, early this morning, I found a blog, on writing, written by Russell, and posted on Wendy Young's Blog - Wendy L. Young, Writer. It is a great read and super information for all writers.  I don't know Wendy well enough to steal a blog post from her site so here's a link to the post:   The Power of Polish - Guest Blogger Russell Blake
_______________________________________________________________


I got an e-mail the other day from a friend who knows I follow events in the U.S. with some fascination – especially the financial situation, which in my opinion is moving from dire to bleak. If you aren’t shocked and furious after reading the following editorial, I can’t imagine what would do it.

The Federal Reserve just created more money than ever in the history of the US, and gave it to for-profit banks, many of which aren’t American. How much? $16 trillion. You are reading that right. Trillion. The money went to US and foreign banks – Citigroup got $2.5 trillion, Goldman (which isn’t a bank in any sense) got $800 billion Banks in the UK, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium… Everyone got hundreds of billions or trillions, bailouts which were never authorized by Congress or anyone but the Fed. Free money, from the American taxpayer, at unprecedented levels, for use however they felt like – and I’m guessing, it was to make big profits.

Here’s the eerie part. None of this was reported. The GAO report linked in the article was ignored. Or if it was, it was so low key as to be invisible. I spent an hour online scouring the news services and couldn’t find anything. No, instead I found the same blurb over and over – that the Fed was going to be handing the Treasury a check for $85 billion, the largest amount of interest ever. Apparently the US media didn’t think it was noteworthy to point out that $85 billion was pennies, whereas the banks it had passed the money to made 2%, 3% or more. It was a news blackout that would have made Stalin-era Russia proud.

To put it all into perspective, the US total GDP is roughly $14 trillion. That’s everything, including what companies like Microsoft, Apple, Ford, Amazon, Ebay, etc. all collectively generate. Every business in the US. Real estate. You name it. And the Fed created well over a year’s total GDP worth of money for the express benefit of its bank friends, at the direct cost to the US population. The country paid to keep Barclays and Credit Suisse and Goldman profiting while it struggles to make ends meet. And there was no coverage. It’s as though it never happened.

This is the biggest financial boondoggle in history. And it went unreported.

How scary is that, and what does it tell you about the media, as well as the government? Think long and hard.

The GAO report I have linked to below via the article says that the loans were repaid. Want to bet that means that the original term of the loan was repaid…with yet another loan from the Fed, but a “new” loan? That’s what crooks typically do in rigged games, where they limit audits – as the Fed did with the GAO. It’s Enron accounting – the “old” loan was “repaid” with the proceeds from a “new, different” loan. The boys on Wall Street invented dodgy tricks. Which is why they won’t allow a real audit. Simple. If you have something to hide, you bluster and obfuscate and deny access. Why anyone would believe that the Fed is any different is beyond me.

I write conspiracy thrillers where a flawed protagonist fights insurmountable odds, usually against a system run amok. They’re racing reads, but in the end we all know, or hope, that they’re fiction. How much is actually fiction I never disclose – I prefer to leave that to readers to decide. Like Robert Ludlum, the line between reality and fantasy is blurry. Deliberately so. But this isn’t a solicitation for you to buy my books. It’s an alarm. A wake up call.


This is real. This is your future. And nobody is telling you. You’re being conned by the largest, most powerful, richest cartel the world has ever known – and you are paying for it. While most can’t keep their heads above water, and are effectively indentured servants for the government’s taxes, the mortgage bank, the car lender, and the insurance company, US and foreign banks were handed more money than anyone can reasonably imagine to use to make even more money.

If this sickens you, or if you didn’t know this, please hit the Stumbleupon button (little green one below) and e-mail this blog URL to everyone you know. It’s about time someone told you the truth, even if it hurts. Or do nothing, and wonder why your children will live in relative squalor.

Disclosure: I live in Mexico, a country with its own corruption problems, which are pervasive and non-trivial. But compared to what just happened with the Fed, Mexico is a Swiss bank in terms of integrity, and the Fed is a Moroccan rug merchant. No exaggeration. None required. So don’t attack me. I’m just alerting you to the biggest story of your lifetime, and your children’s lifetimes. What you do from here is up to you. Most will likely try to pretend it didn’t happen, or doesn’t matter. That didn’t work so well for the Romans.

Regarding the Writers and Readers Tribe - we have twelve openings left and we would love to have you.  Read my blog post The Indie Writer Two-Step to Success and let me know if you'd like to join us.



6 comments:

  1. Say what? Can we wait until November to put a stop to these shenanigans? I'm not just talking about a new President. I'm talking about cleaning out the whole damn city!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You have more faith in the answer coming from a political party than I do - I guess I'm jaded because it seems the system caused all the problems.

      Delete
  2. Jo: Yes, it is. And it's even more appalling that nobody has heard about any of it. It's a media blackout on the story - total. It would make Stalin-era Russia proud, and the Chinese green with envy. Spread the word - that's part of the solution, if there is one.

    Jack: I'm afraid that this has been going on for a century or more. The Federal Reserve was set up by the most powerful banking families of the era, including the Roosevelts, Rothschilds, JP Morgan, the Warburgs, etc. - as their privately-owned central bank. They also created the IRS in the same bill, to remove the money the bank created from the system, so it wouldn't cause runaway inflation. A privately owned central bank always results in two things - the creation of a de facto monopoly for its members/founders, and the leaching of value from the national worth. Otherwise, just create a nationally-owned central bank. Of course, the ostensible purpose is always to "create stability." Because it's hard to put "control the country" on the ballot and get it passed. So this isn't this year's doing, or even this generation's. It's a systematic heist that's been going on for longer than any of us has been alive.

    My new favorite is how the 5 largest US banks hold 97% of the Credit Default Swaps on Greek debt, and also control the committee that decides what gets called a "default" that will trigger them having to pay out on the CDS' - a form of insurance against default they've been paid billions to issue. Want to bet that committee determines that a 70% haircut on the bonds doesn't constitute a default, enabling the banks to keep all the money they received, and triggering a financial crisis for all the banks and investors who bought the CDS' in good faith, believing that they were now properly hedged against Greek debt becoming essentially worthless?

    The system is out of control. Completely. And it's no longer an American problem. The banks are defrauding the world, the US included, out of most of its net worth, and the population is apathetic and stupid about it all.

    That didn't end well for the Romans, either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The financial system is scary, too big for its own good, greedy beyond belief: it neatly fits the definition of 1% used by Occupy Wall Street and we, poor guys, are the rest, the 99%... However, let's not mix a central banking issue with the shenanigans of private banks - all those speculators who are attacking sovereign debt around the world (especially in Europe - especially the Greeks) with the help of the American Credit Ratings Agencies.

      All this for what purpose? To make a quick profit, dammit!

      First it is noteworthy that Greek debt bonds are mostly held by European banks and NOT by Americans. Just one number to show what I mean: German banks hold €40 billion of the Greek debt, and the latter amounts to a total of about €120 billion! Do the % calculation: it's simply not possible for American banks to hold 97% of Greek debt.

      You know what the real problem is? People confuse a Sovereign State's balance sheet with their own private balance sheets - I'm referring to one's "home" budget,i.e. expenses to eat and live compared to job earnings: we have to balance them each month, a State does not. The two are not the same thing.

      Why? To make a complex story simple: it's the currency itself that is the object of a central bank's care - and the currency is not something a private individual worries about. You Americans have all been born with the Greenback Dollar and can't imagine a world without it. When the Federal Reserve indulges in "quantitative easing" (that's what our friend Russel is referring to here) it's NOT done with the American taxpayers'money.

      No, it's done with no one's money at all: it's PRINTED!

      The objective of a "quantitative easing" policy such as pursued by the Feds is clear: defense of the US dollar in international trade AND keeping interest rates low so that American entrepreneurs can get loans from their banks at attractive rates (if they can't, that's not the Feds' fault, but the banks who prefer to play on Wall Street rather than do the job a good bank is supposed to do: help support local businesses). Which is why the Feds has maintained interest rates at around zero - a basic US monetary policy goal - and has recently announced it plans to do so at least into... 2014!

      We're not out of the woods yet. These are exquisitely technical questions and no change in government nor a new party in power ever will be able to intervene in an intelligent fashion. Politicians understand zilch about central banking!

      Everyone knows - that's a statistical fact - that American debt stands around 110% of GNP (or more, depending on when you measure). That's one of the highest % in the world, as high as Greece's! So yes, 14 trillion is about right, and yes, it is rolled over year after year. No tricks here, nothing hidden from anyone, just normal management from a central bank.

      Much more astonishing than this is the fact that...the US dollar still holds up! It hasn't fallen flat on its face! The US Treasury still easily raises money without any difficulty and without having to pay the absurdly high interests (around 25%) slapped on Greek debt.

      No, international finance is full of surprises and this one is certainly the biggest. The explanation? The entire world views America as THE reference economy. The dollar can't go under, right? It can NEVER go under because if it did, international trade would collapse, the world as we know it would come to an end.

      And then, see how much you'll pay when you fill up your car at the gaz station! It'll cost you a bomb!

      Delete