iBankCoin
Joined Nov 11, 2007
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Jeremy Grantham Rips Yellen on Rates Policy

“Recent comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen signal she won’t raise interest rates to fight bubbles in financial markets, and that’s a mistake, asserts Jeremy Grantham, founder of money manager GMO.

“She will not use interest rates to head off or curtail any asset bubbles encouraged by the extremely low rates that might appear,” he writes in the firm’s quarterly commentary.

“History is clear: very low rates absolutely will encourage extreme speculation. But Yellen will, as Greenspan and Bernanke before her, attempt to limit only the damage any breaking bubbles might cause.”

“The evidence against this policy after two of the handful of the most painful burst bubbles in history is impressive,” he writes…..”

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Refis Help Out Mortgage Applications

“Mortgage rates didn’t move at all last week, but more borrowers made applications to refinance their home loans.

A weekly measure of loan volume by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed a 2.4 percent gain in total applications week-to-week, with a 4 percent jump in refinances leading the charge.

Refinancing has been languishing for more than a year, after rates jumped a full percentage point in the spring of 2013. Refinance application volume is still down over 40 percent from a year ago, despite slightly lower rates currently.

America’s 10 worst states to live in

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Loan applications to purchase a home are still languishing, up just 0.3 percent week-to-week, on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the MBA. They are down 15 percent from a year ago. This as the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) remained unchanged at 4.33 percent. The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 54.4 percent of total applications, the highest level since March 2014…..”

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SEC to Vote on Money Fund Withdrawls and ‘Breaking the Buck’

“Regulators are expected to vote Wednesday to end a longtime staple of the investment industry—the fixed $1 share price for money-market mutual funds—at least for some money funds used by big investors.

The idea is to minimize the risk of a mass withdrawal from the funds during a financial panic. The Securities and Exchange Commission may also vote to let money funds block withdrawals during periods of stress or impose new fees for withdrawals.

The “breaking of the buck” by a large money fund during the 2008 crisis stoked a run on some other funds and forced the government to intervene to restore confidence.

Joshua Roberts | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Under the new rules, the share prices of the funds involved will be required to “float,” just as with other mutual funds. Big institutional investors could lose principal if the value of the shares falls below $1. Individual investors likely won’t be affected.

The idea behind adopting floating prices for a portion of the $2.6 trillion money-market fund industry is to stress that while the funds are safer than stocks and many other investments, they still carry some risk. Regulators say greater awareness of the risk would reduce the potential for crippling runs on money funds because investors would have acclimated themselves to fluctuating prices….”

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Flowers: ‘I Guarantee We Will Have Another Banking Crisis’

“The bevy of regulation since the 2008 financial crisis has weakened the banking sector to the point that another meltdown is inevitable, says private equity star J. Christopher Flowers, CEO of J.C. Flowers.

“All the stuff that has happened, and all the rules we’ve introduced have depressed profitability. And that is a real vulnerability,” he tells the Financial Times. “Nobody is going to invest in an industry with returns of 5 percent.”

While Flowers has invested in banks in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and the Netherlands, he notes, regulators are engaged in a fool’s errand in trying to eliminate risk from the banking industry.

“How do you make something that lends money at risk a utility?” Flowers asks rhetorically…..”

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Real Gansters Run the World, Fuck What You Believe

Strategy of killing civilians in Gaza and eastern Ukraine has same culprits

By Wayne Madsen
Posted on July 18, 2014by Wayne Madsen

“(WMR)—The attack policy that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) has used in indiscriminately targeting civilians in Gaza mirrors the policy of the Ukrainian government in attacking civilians in eastern Ukraine. Moreover, the two operations, Israel’s “Protective Edge” and Ukraine’s “Anti-terrorist operation,” have something else in common. Both were developed by the same Zionist fascist elements who are calling the shots in Jerusalem and Kiev.

Ukrainian-Israeli billionaire Igor Kolomoisky, who has served as the governor of Dnepropetrovsk province in eastern Ukraine since March, has spent billions of dollars beefing up the Ukrainian army with advanced weapons used to target civilians in eastern Ukraine. The latest operation by Ukraine saw an airstrike on residential apartment buildings in Snezhnoe in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. A number of civilians, including women, the elderly, and children have been killed by Ukrainian forces financed by Kolomoisky. In addition, Kolomoisky has relied on the help of ex-IDF forces ever since he helped oust Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February. It is believed that Kolomoisky funded the arrival in Ukraine of a team of ex-IDF commandos, known as the “Blue Helmets of Maidan” and led by an Israeli commando code-named “Delta,” to fight alongside anti-Yanukovych forces in the Maidan Square uprising. The Israeli Blue Helmets of Maidan fought alongside a number of neo-Nazi units, including those from the Svoboda and Right Sector organizations…..”

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State of the Union: The Criminalization of Homelessness

Source

“An American activist warns about the growing problem of homelessness in the United States, saying a larger degree of people are to lose their homes in the coming years due to wrong economic policies adopted in the country.

“The problem of homelessness in the United States is going to be a growing problem for various reasons,” said Abayomi Azikiwe, the editor of Pan-African News Wire in an interview with Press TV Sunday.

He described the massive foreclosure crisis which coincided with the so-called great recession which began in 2007-2008 as one of the reasons.

“Millions upon millions of residents of the US lost their homes as the result of predatory lending by the banks. Of course these lending schemes were backed up by some of the larger insurance companies and bond holders.”

This trend threatened the US economy and consequently the world capitalist economy in general with collapse, added Azikiwe who is also an organizer of the Workers World Party in Detroit.

According to Azikiwe, the US economic decision makers failed to stabilize the country’s economy despite approving bailout packages through extending of liquidity by the US Federal reserve bank.

“This of course is causing an increase in evictions and resulting in a greater degree of homelessness for people inside the United States.”

He made the remarks as more American cities are criminalizing sleeping in public places including parks and even in personal vehicles.”

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More on the criminalization of homelessness

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Rebel Leader Gives Bizarre Account of Plane Crash, Says “Bodies Were Not Fresh”

“A top pro-Russia rebel commander in eastern Ukraine has given a bizarre version of events surrounding the Malaysian jetliner crash — suggesting many of the victims may have died days before the plane took off.

The pro-rebel website Russkaya Vesna on Friday quoted Igor Girkin as saying he was told by people at the crash site that “a significant number of the bodies weren’t fresh,” adding that he was told they were drained of blood and reeked of decomposition….”

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Documentary: Beyond Reason

Cheers on your weekend!

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8fqMtd0ALk 450 300]

buddha_stars1

 

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB2f6-U72Zk 450 300]

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Is Germany Steering Itself and the EU to Exit the Dollar ?

“It is finally happening in full view, in unmistakable manner, in a way that the awake, the aware, and the conscious can perceive in alarming stunning terms. The central force of Europe, the industrial juggernaut, the stable core, has begun to pivot East. The Germans have had enough, fed up with destructive US activities of all kinds. For the last few months, they have been laying out their indictment, their justification, their reasons to abandon the corrupt US-UK crowd. The bank wreckage, the market rigging, the endless wars, the sanctions which backfire, the sham monetary policy, the economic sabotage, the spying, the gold gimmicks, it has finally reached a critical level.

Germany has begun to move East in full view. Only the deaf dumb and blind cannot notice, and they will probably never notice. They are fodder. The awaited signals seen by the Jackass have finally arrived. The grand stage leans East for the European players, with steps taken to the right, the weight having shifted, the messages suddenly more angry, more filled with disgust, more loaded with open confrontation. The commercial forces aligned with Russia are coming to the fore. The departure after a recent re-election by Chancellor Merkel should serve as the final slam of the hammer. She stood in the wrong camp, the banker and politician camp. They do not run Germany.

The marriage is over, the glow gone, the lawyers in the room, the bitterness in the open. Those exciting Saturday nights with the Germans and French enjoying a good ride with Mustang Sally are over. The once vivacious peppery exhilarating relationship with steamy back room sessions has turned ugly, old, nasty. She has lost her appeal, and worse, has turned vicious and destructive. Sally has stolen the jewelry, wrecked the credit lines, undermined the day job, and backstabbed the neighbors. As time passes, more joint accounts are seen as drained. Sally must go. The once thrilling tosses replete with the excitement of a bucking mare have turned into a kick to the head, a broken bed, as the acidic Buck has fallen from grace and burns holes everywhere. The lascivious flow has turned blood red, hardly a monthly matter. The only thing holding the relationship and tight liaison together is the heavy narcotics flow through NATO bases and major European banks. Regardless, Sally must go. Her devious devices, tools, ploys, nasty friends, and antics threaten to wreck the European industry supply lines and heated homes. The nation’s accounts are depleted. Sally must go. Her ride is more like a kicking old hag with warts where a sexy smile once resided. Her trust is nowhere. She is wrecking the European house. Sally must go. When Germany turns away from Sally, and shows her the door, it will be clear in the global country club that Sally is gone. Then eastern winds will blow some fresh air on the putrid parlors.

BERLIN INDICTMENT CHARGES

Berlin is outraged by clear USGovt spying, and in process of conducting a Gold audit among their population. Germany is building motives to split from the Euro Monetary Union (common Euro currency) by forging stronger open ties with Russia & China. The justification is becoming plainly laid out, in four perceived indictment charges. The Jackass believes Germany will break from US/UK and its USDollar fiat currency regime over four primary thorny issues. The four are major indictments, all extremely serious, all indicative of a decayed system and morally bankrupt leadership. The charges are coming into view, highlighting fundamental commercial, philosophical, and ethical conflicts that distinguish the two nations (considering US/UK a single entity). The issues center on the following key differences:

  1. Good relations with Russia and continued energy supply from Gazprom
  2. Displeasure over planned Draghi Euro Central Bank bond monetization
  3. Disgust over NSA espionage by USGovt, with benefit for US corporations
  4. Damage to German population from gold price suppression.

The damage began with the refusal to repatriation German official gold by the New York Fed. The damage ends with the USGovt NSA espionage. Germany is very angry, sufficiently motivated to part ways with the US/Anglo camp. The plan to make distance from the British & Americans appears to be well along in execution. The critical stake in the ground was the prosecution, investigation, and forced actions during the Deutsche Bank actions. The trained eye and informed view notices the intense activity for the last two years, as closing all the back doors from the gold halls. Some major eruptions can no longer be brushed aside as simple anomalies. The boils, open sores, and deep rashes are visible everywhere. The London Fix is being abandoned, Deutsche Bank forfeiting its seat, regulatory bodies in the deeply corrupted London Centre concluding nothing askew and all is well. The LIBOR scandal has some German ignition points, with no prosecutions anywhere in sight. The FOREX and Gold derivatives are under intense scrutiny, again with a German hand to unwind the corrupted arenas, with massive naked short raids continuing in the last two weeks.

EXIT USDOLLAR, ENTER GOLD STANDARD

The plan seem obvious for Germany, to exit the USDollar, but first to embrace the Euro as a caretaker currency platform before the Eurasian Trade Zone comes together and offers a gold-backed continental currency with broad shoulders. All of Europe will rally around the Euro flagpole, hunker down during the other financial HAARP-like storm (bearing Weimar nameplate), and ride the storm until the Russian-Chinese hard asset currency arrives. The BRICS have invaded the mainstream Western stage and hold a banner for all to see. The stage has been altered, its weight shifted, leaning to the East. Tremendously important historical events are occurring. The King Dollar is wounded mortally, having fallen off the throne, looking weakened, haggard, and ashen. Sympathy for the US-UK corrupt violent vindictive crew has vanished. Next comes the assaults on the European Commission, that corrupt den.

The path to the Gold Trade Standard is becoming visible, the key break being the divorce between Germany and the US/UK fascists. It complements the divorce between the US and Saudis which has occurred since March. That break has been detailed in public Jackass essays. The German break is the new event, with current episodes absolutely mesmerizing for their importance and shock. Some US press sources are awakening. The United States Govt has treated France and Germany like adversaries, even enemy camps. The BNP Paribas case was atrocious for its devious ploys, giving old line Europeans a kick to the head. The US rats have infiltrated with organized networks of espionage agents. The press prefers to describe them as merely eavesdropping. In reality they are gathering information on Germany strategic planning, on Germany corporate contracts in development, and on German political functions. The consequence is a coordinated indictment taking shape which will result in the final steps coming to pass in the Global Paradigm Shift. The USDollar will be chucked into the dustbin of history, but first, it will be kicked to the used car scrap heap where it awaits finally processing. That processing consists of the conversion of USTreasury Bonds into Gold bullion on a massive scale at numerous offices. The BRICS Banks are ready to do business. They are two, the Development Bank and the Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA). In time the CRA will be known as the New IMF for its function, while the Development Bank will be known as the Central Bank housing gold.

ESPIONAGE AGAINST ALLY

The attention has gone from Sally to Ally, the relation turned quietly hostile. Not the queer conversion of GMAC into an empty bag lending institution, but rather the key Central European Ally in NATO. In the past Hat Trick Letter essays, items #1 and #2 have been addressed, focus having been on the deteriorated Ukraine situation and the antagonistic Bundesbank position. The US fictional output from destructive fracking and deceptive shale projects has been pledged to Europe, in a massive ruse that is vacant on its face. Huge 95% writedowns of shale oil reserves like by Monterey in California, combined with departures of fracking firms like Medallion in Western Pennsylvania, testify to the fact that the USGovt strategy is a ruse with empty tube. The German central bank has challenged the Draghi EuroCB not to embark on destructive unsterilized bond monetization. In the past, the EuroCB policy disagreements on phony bond patches and bond monetization have been the source of great conflict, even with German high court rulings against the EuroCB. The LTRO (Long Term Refinancing Operation) is but another device from the same Weimar laboratory, a mere banker con game with super seniority rights to favor the elite investors.

In extreme focus in the past month is item #3, the nefarious NSA espionage. Those who call it eavesdropping miss the point. It is not about catching juicy information on politician affairs. It is not to grab a lead on Merkel’s next luncheon for tabloid display. It is to seize information on Russian and Chinese developments and plans, on the commercial front and financial sector respectively. It is to infiltrate the German computer systems and communication systems, probably to plant Trojan Horses for later leverage in blackmail at the state level. The Berlin officials are well aware. The entire NSA espionage chapter appears to be exploding on the scene. In fact, word has come that Russian Intelligence offices tipped off the Berlin officials about the USGovt NSA activity before arrests were made last week. The Snowden files are being used in important ways. The Central European source stated briefly, “The comical part in all this is that Russian intelligence FSB and GRU tipped the German authorities off by providing the leads.” The Germans followed up quickly, so quickly that a divorce is the conclusion. In the meantime, the German-Russian cooperation with trust develops while the German-Anglo trust withers away. The break between the Germans and the Fascists from US-UK-EU may be closer than ever, as history is turned on its head since World War II. The entrenched Fascists on the global financial war front are the Americans and British accomplices, the big corrupt banks being the pillboxes. They will be abandoned, or toppled. At risk is the NATO Alliance. If and when Germany pivots fully eastward, the NATO membership will be rendered empty chair with a speaker phone attached.

GOLD ROOM CRIME….”

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The CIA’s Style Guide

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Foreclosure Activity Crawls to an 8 Year Low

“Foreclosure activity has been falling steadily for the past few years as the housing market recovers, but the latest reading shows it has hit a new milestone.

According to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure sales and analytics company, 107,194 U.S. properties had a foreclosure filing in June—the lowest level since July 2006, before the housing price bubble burst.

“Over the next six to nine months, nationwide, foreclosure numbers should start to flat line at consistently historically normal levels,” said RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist in a release.

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Improvement, however, does not mean the level of distressed housing is back to normal; not by a long shot. There continues to be a wide discrepancy between states that require a judge in the foreclosure process and those that do not…..”

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Putin: “US Sanctions Will Boomerang And Cause Very Serious Damage”

“It took just a little over an hour for Vladimir Putin to respond to the latest, most provocative and toughest round of US sanctions yet. The response, appropriately enough, came just after the BRICS summit in Brazil, where the world’s developing countries yesterday announced the formation of both a BRIC bank and a $100 billion currency reserve to provide a liquidity alternative to the insolvent developed world’s central banks. Here Vladimir Putin was asked to comment on the new package of sanctions against Russia announced just minutes earlier by Obama.

Putin’s response: “We aren’t the ones introducing sanctions, you should ask them.”

“Sanctions have a boomerang effect and without any doubt they will push U.S.-Russian relations into a dead end, and cause very serious damage, and it undermines the long term security interests of the US State and its people.” he said to reporters while elaborating that said he needed to see the details of the sanctions to understand their full scope Reuters added.

And as was largely expected, Putin’s next jab was right where it hurt: energy.

“This means that U.S. companies willing to work in Russia will lose their competitiveness next to other global energy companies.”

Putin said the sanctions will hurt Exxon Mobil Corp which has been given the opportunity to operate in Russia. “So, do they not want it to work there? They are causing damage to their major energy companies,” he said.

While we don’t know for sure, we are confident that following the press conference Putin sat down with the rest of the BRICS, which command a population of just over 3 billion not to mention the world’s fastest growing economies, and realized that for all the posturing, it is really a game of reserve fiat vs energy, with the US controlling the former, while the BRICS, and especially Russia, dominating the latter…..”

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Global sanctions hurt markets overnight

 

 

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$MSFT Pink Slips 18k Jobs

“Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced plans to cut 18,000 jobs, the largest in history.

In a memo to employees Nadella, said the majority of the cuts — 12,500 — will come from newly acquired Nokia.

As for the timing of the cuts, he says, “We are moving now to start reducing the first 13,000 positions, and the vast majority of employees whose jobs will be eliminated will be notified over the next six months.”

Microsoft’s highest ever jobs prior to this were 5,800 in early 2009 during the low point of the recession….”

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