Crime

Good riddance to “professional” politicians

It appears that the “traditional” and “vitally important” political parties and cohorts will be ousted from their comfort zone on Saturday 29th.

Before, in, and after the “meltdown” voters found their public servants somewhat lacking when it came to serving the public, and actually that they had reversed the roles, i.e. that the public should serve them and of course pay for the deliberate, callous and premeditated (reptilian) crimes committed by their sponsors.

It will be most gratifying to see politicians join the common people on the dole queue and thus share with the people what their “vitally important” brilliance has accomplished.

“playing with their minds gives me such a pleasure”
x-Æ

William K. Black

The “F” Business Plan: Mathematically Proven Formula to enrich CEO’s and? impoverish everyone else.

1. Grow like crazy
2. Bad loans – high yields
3. Extraordinary leverage
4. No meaningful loss reserves

Never “Fuzzy” & No “Boundaries”: The Best Way to Rob an Icelandic Bank Was to Own One
(Discussions)

Holding Abusive and Fraudulent Elites and Enablers Accountable
(Discussions)

Quotes from “The Truth Report”

National Newspapers Editor:

” I’ve been monitoring this for 50 years. It’s a disgusting society, it’s all disgusting. There are no principles, there are no ideals, there is nothing. It is just opportunism and power struggle.”

Kaupthing Bank HQ:

“Hi Magnus, We didn’t finalize our bonuses for last year. I suggest 1 million euros. What say you. Bye. Se. ”

Sigurdur Einarsson email to Magnus Gudmundsson, date. 9th July 2008.

Kaupthing Bank Luxembourg:

“Thank you more than enough :-).”

Responses to Magnus Gudmundsson, date. 9th July 2008, to the above Email from Sigurdur Einarsson.
. . .
” The largest owners of all the big banks had abnormally easy access to credit at the banks they owned, apparently in their capacity as owners.”

” Unfortunately, it seems to be unavoidable to conclude that the state’s budget policy increased in fact the imbalance.”

” The Board of Governors of the CBI was more often in favour of less restraint than the chief economist of the Bank had proposed.”

” All the banks purchased their own shares on a large scale in automatically matched trades in the Stock Exchange.”

” During the meetings of the Board of Governors of the CBI with ministers, the bank would not be in the habit of handing out documents with summarised information, along with the bank’s review of that information and proposals for actions, where applicable.”

” In statements by ministers and representatives of the governmental institutions before the SIC, each pointed a finger at the other concerning positive obligation and no one assumed responsibility.”

” On 15 April 2008 Mr. David Oddsson sent a formal request for a currency swap agreement to the Bank of England. Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, replied to Mr. Oddsson’s letter on 23 April and rejected the request by the CBI. However, he declared that foreign central banks could help Iceland find an effective way to reduce the size of its banking system. In his opinion, this was the only practical solution to the problem. In closing, King said that he offered all the help he could provide to tackle the issue at hand. The CBI did not accept this offer.”

” The aforementioned procedures by the authorities with regard to contingency plans for protecting the financial system of the country, and other fundamental interests of state and the nation, were unacceptable. These methods were not in keeping with the manner in which nations with developed financial markets and administration operate in general.”

” In its supervisory duties the FME was lacking in firmness and assertiveness, as regards the resolution of and the follow-up of cases. The Authority did not sufficiently ensure that formal procedures were followed in cases where it had been discovered that regulated entities did not comply with the laws and regulations applicable to their operations.”

” However, when the size of the financial system of a country is nine times its gross domestic product the roles are reversed. This was the case in Iceland. It appears that both the parliament and the government lacked both the power and the courage to set reasonable limits to the financial system.”

” … the Commission was not expected to address possible criminal conduct of the directors of the banks in their operations. …
the SIC is of the opinion that Mr. Geir H. Haarde, then Prime Minister, Mr. Árni M. Mathiesen, then Minister of Finance, and Mr. Björgvin G. Sigurðsson, then Minister of Business Affairs, showed negligence, within the meaning of Article 1(1) of Act No 142/2008, during the time leading up to the collapse of the Icelandic banks, by omitting to respond in an appropriate fashion to the impending danger for the Icelandic economy that was caused by the deteriorating situation of the banks.
The SIC is also of the opinion that Mr. Jónas Fr. Jónsson, then Director General of the FME, and Mr. Davíð Oddsson, Mr. Eiríkur Guðnason and Mr. Ingimundur Friðriksson, then Governors of the CBI, showed negligence, within the meaning of Article 1(1) of Act No 142/2008, in the course of particular work during the administration of laws and rules on financial activities, and monitoring thereof.” …

The Truth Report
Press conference 12.04.2010 in English

The School of Lies

The Bankster School of Lies has a tried and tested technique, “give them something repugnant to deny”,  thus displacing any blame, works every time and while psychopaths have no difficulty with this, normal people do.

Liar(s) could be distinguished by these traits: 1.) Consistent destructive, scapegoating behavior, which may often be quite subtle. 2.) Excessive, albeit usually covert, intolerance to criticism and other forms of narcissistic injury. 3.) Pronounced concern with a public image and self-image of respectability, contributing to a stability of lifestyle but also to pretentiousness and denial of hateful feelings or vengeful motives. 4.) Intellectual deviousness, with an increased likelihood of a mild schizophrenic-like disturbance of thinking at times of stress.

The mass-media owned by the “Temple” drums the message, “You Owe Us Money!” (equivalent to the older, “You Are a Sinner!”) not specifying the: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. If we are stupid enough to ask for specifics, they respond with broad generalities. It appears that the “extortionists” have conveniently forgotten the insolvency law which states that recourse can only be made to the estate of the bankrupt and not to unrelated parties.

In The Battle For Our Minds we have been treated to the standard diet of: threats of isolation, fatigue, tension, uncertainty, financial jargon (econo-speak) of unintelligible terms, and of course no humor (debt is deadly serious).

Governments, lobbied by the finance industry, have removed all effective regulations including those for crime and fraud, all supposedly made right by the sacred and infallible market, finally shrouding it all in bank secrecy and international treaties, and still corrupt governments and private banks are our penance.

As we go up the hierarchy in organized power structures this pattern becomes even more prevalent and damaging. As the Banksters have through the ages claimed to be the “Treasurers of The Gods.” and to be “Doing God’s Work”, I can’t but include the videos from the Intelligence Squared Debate, due to the obvious parallels in hypocrisy, pride and prejudice, here are Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens.

People have been grappling with this curious lack of ‘humanness’ for a very long time, here is more on the subject:

The Mask of Sanity
People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil
Snakes In Suits: When Psychopaths Go To Work
The Lost Science of Money: The Mythology of Money, The Story of Power
The story continues
People with Power Are Better Liars

Twelve Nominees for Bankrupting a Nation

.

After news of the “Truth Commission” sending twelve letters to people indicated in the “Truth Report”, the press is guessing the price categories to be:

.

For Gross negligence in:

Government:

  • The Prime Minister
  • The Foreign Minister
  • The Finance Minister
  • The Minister of Economic Affairs

Civil Service:

  • The Permanent Secretary for The Prime Minister’s Office
  • The Permanent Secretary for The Ministry of Finance
  • The Permanent Secretary for The Ministry of Economic Affairs
  • . . . . . . . Acting Secretary for The Ministry of Economic Affairs

Central Banking:

  • The three Central Bank Managers

Financial Supervisory:

  • The Director General

All but one have now been replaced, but according to the rhetoric, “people failed, nothing wrong with the policy” ?

The “Truth or Black Report” is due at the end of the month, we will then see who gets the actual ‘price’.

Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time

“I used to think of Wall Street as a
financial center.
I now think of it as a crime scene.”

– Filmmaker Danny Schechter, Plunder (2009)

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men,
they create for themselves in the course of time,
a legal system that authorizes it,
and a moral code that glorifies it.”

– Political economist Frederic Bastiat, The Law (1850)

Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time

Financial Crime: Did white collar crime and fraud trigger the meltdown?
Above the law? Thinking Allowed investigates white collar crime
Suite Violence: Why managers murder and corporations kill
Robin Hood (Toibin) Tax

Prophecies

In 1848 Karl Marx predicted that “Capitalism would collapse on its own weight because the repetition of business cycles would eventually bring the economy past the point of no return”

In 2007 Niño Becerra wrote: “This is not a crisis like the ones we’ve known for the past 30 years, this is the beginning of the end of the economical system that startet with the Industrial revolution by 1820s.”

Niño Becerra goes on to give this timetable:

  • September 2007 to October 2009: Prelude to the crisis. Governments would take measures to avoid “things going worse” (we are seeing some of them by now, October ’08)
  • October 2009 to May 2010: The believe that “things are not working the way they should” starts to spread out.
  • May 2010: The Crisis starts with all its force.
  • 2011: The worst and hardest year of the crisis.
  • 2012-2015: Governments regulate the economy and people accept it because they are in shock after what happened.
  • 2015-2018: Slowly and not without problems the economy starts to pick up and improve slightly.
  • End of 2018: End of the crisis.

Artículos de Santiago Niño Becerra (spanish)

Is this what happens when we let the criminals write the law?
Ex-Lehman-Banker bekommen Milliarden-Boni

Coup d’etat

Our massively unpopular president (whose ill fated support of bankers and business people in the lead-up to the crash was more than embarrassing), has decided singlehandedly to change his office to resemble more the American or French presidencies, thus giving him an active political role. – Is he a villain or a hero?

He does this of-course in the name of democracy, by putting to a referendum, this simple question. Would you rather pay for the crimes of my former banker friends or be ostracized from the international community?

By the way, glittering generalities such as: “the international community”, “will honor obligations” sound sincere but they really mean nothing, which is the first rule of propaganda.

Due to the nature of the paraphrased question, I oscillate between the impossible options. Somehow, this referendum reminds me of children playing “Would you rather”.

However, the collaborated crimes of bank$ters and governments in the respective countries, allowing banks to operate without proper supervision, and agreeing only on cloaking their actions behind bank secrecy and then insisting, under threats and duress (Shock Doctrine), that the public committed the crime and should pay for it. This form of government by far surpasses Orwellian Nightmares.

Sheldon Filger, is less torn than I when he writes:

” What is now occurring in Iceland is a foretaste of what may become more common throughout the developed world. Taxpayers have been told by policymakers that they must bear the financial costs of failed decisions made by private business, no matter how steep the price, or accept even more horrendous economic consequences. For the first time, an aroused public in at least one country has rejected the dictates being imposed by the political establishment. No wonder that the Dutch and British governments reacted so swiftly with a condemnation of Iceland’s citizens for having the audacity to think they have the right to exercise their democratic rights in deciding for themselves what is in the best economic interests of their nation. ”

And Martin Wolf the chief economics commentator at the Financial Times writes.

“This is not about cutting a running deficit, which is, indeed, unavoidable. It is about forcing innocent people to assume gigantic liabilities for which they have no legal or moral responsibility. How would UK citizens feel if they were forced to assume a debt of £400bn because of HSBC’s failure to meet deposit insurance liabilities in Asia? Let the UK take the bank’s assets and leave it at that.”

“If the assets of the bank are that valuable, why not write off the debt, in return for the claims on these assets? That would be a generous gesture. It is, more importantly, one that would do much to improve the morale of a battered and vulnerable little country. Threatening such a country with destruction, as Lord Myners has done, is simply shameful. The UK and the Netherlands should stop this self-righteous bullying at once.”

“Yet they – and everybody else – must learn the really big lesson here. The combination of cross-border banking with generous guarantees to creditors is unsustainable. Taxpayers cannot be expected to write open-ended insurance on the foreign activities of their banks. It is bad enough to have to do so at home.“

Ann Pettifor and Jeremy Smith, estimate this figure to be €12,000 in damages per capita. Michael Hudson’s estimate is $20,000 for each Icelandic citizen. Multiply this figure with your own census and make up your own mind about how you would vote, – if you where even asked.

The president puts this figure in context: “May I remind that if you take the sum that the Icelandic taxpayers are asked to shoulder and you transform it in to the British economic system to get the relative size, this is equal to the British taxpayers being asked to pay £700 billion ($1.1 trillion) for the years and decades to come.”

In a TV interview Alain Lipietz one of the authors of EU’s Directive on Financial Services Supervision, states categorically, that the responsibility for supervising banks from outside the EU is with the host country. And that since 1789 governments can’t confiscate money from their citizens to pay to someone else (Money-archy vs. Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, ou la mort).

To get reelected, J. M. Barroso promised 500 million Europeans a new “social Europe”. He is now closely watched by member- and aspiring member states suffering from predatory creditors. Will he live up to his promise?

The story from:

Greece
Hungary
Ireland, – “bankers exposed”
Latvia, – “Swedish banks”
etc.

.

.

The “political class” is franticly trying to abort the referendum in Iceland because of the dangerous precedence it would set for other plebeians, and God save our “principal men” from Democracy.

And finally:
Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe by Peter Stufford tells the story of Francesch Castello a failed banker who was beheaded in front of his bank in 1360. (y) Obviously this was before the “Money Masters” bought (into) the Democratic process. (n)

Without social justice there is no future for Europe: by Dr. M. Elvira Méndez-Pinedo.
White-collar crime fighter Eva Joly takes on IceSave
We’re all Icelanders now By Robert Peston
Why do we trust the financial priests? By Robert Peston
Media literacy. why is Peston excemt? BBC rebukes Sally Magnusson
Iceland sees the first anti-bailout revolt by Allister Heath
Iceland has no clear legal obligation to pay up By Dr Michael Waibel
Unjust for Iceland to take sole responsibility By Ms Ann Pettifor and Mr Jeremy Smith
Leading article: Iceland should not be bullied
Iceland can refuse debt servitude By Michael Hudson
The Oligarchs’ Escape Plan By Michael Hudson

The New Spirit (is getting Old)

Our betters are getting in to the Christmas spirit.
After a year of “damage control” they are now testing the waters for the release of a censored ‘truth’ report by adding an 80 year ‘ban’ on the really sensitive stuff. Some of them are furious to be under investigation, others are not being investigated at all.

Smaller fish are offered to be fried but as usual ‘names’ are nowhere to be found.

The propaganda machine continues spreading the gospel truth that a well-behaved public must fund the bill. They call it Scandinavian welfare, except in Scandinavia people get something in return while we only get to appease the angry creditors of private corporations.

Or as they say, this inspired ‘Crash’ is shared with you by the _______. Corporation

Walt Disney – The New Spirit

The crisis: a year on

After the economic collapse and a year of corruption revelations, not a single kleptocrat has been arrested.

Do we simply have to take Herbert Marcuse’s quote as given, that, “Law and order are everywhere the law and order which protect the established hierarchy.” ?

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