Latests:

Nov 13, 2011

Nazi Expert: ‘I Have Proof Hitler Died In 1960s’

From USAHitman:


“The biggest revelation is an authenticated secret German document which lists Hitler as one of the passengers evacuated by plane from Austria to Barcelona on April 26, 1945.”

Although official history contends Hitler committed suicide with his newlywed wife, Eva Braun, on April, 30 1945 and their corpses were burned by others in the Berlin bunker, Abel Basti claims proof the story is a fabrication.
According to Basti’s meticulous research, the leader of the Third Reich spent his last years as an art dealer and had facial plastic surgery to change his appearance.
Those are just two of the astounding revelations that respected Argentine journalist and historian Abel Basti documents in his book, Hitler’s Exile.

TIME magazine announces Hitler’s death in 1945
  While the book was a runaway bestseller across South America, it’s been suppressed in the United States and the Russian Federation. Those two countries still maintain that Germany’s Führer committed suicide during the last days of World War Two.
World newspapers report Hitler dead…were they wrong?

The claim that Hitler and some high-ranking Schutzstaffel (SS) officers escaped Germany and fled to South America is not new.
Nil Nikandrov observes (Strategic Culture Foundation, “All the Leaders of the Third Reich Fled to Latin America“): “In his well-documented, The Hitler Survival Myth (1981), Donald McKale identifies the earliest source of the myth of Hitler’s escape to the southern hemisphere as the unexpected surrender of a German submarine in early July 1945 at Mar del Plata, Argentina.
“Several Buenos Aires newspapers, in defiance of Argentine Navy statements, said that rubber boats had been seen landing from it, and other submarines spotted in the area.
“On July 16, 1945, the Chicago Times carried a sensational article on the Hitlers having slipped off to Argentina.”
July 16, 1945: Chicago Times reports Hitler fled to South America

The Hitler-in-Argentina tale first surfaced in a book  back in 1947
“Ladislao Zsabó, a Hungarian advertiser, witnessed the arrival of the U-530 and saw its crew disembarking. He had heard that the destination was the German Antarctica and, mistakenly, made a supposition that Hitler had escaped to Antarctica, and published the book Hitler está Vivo (Hitler is Alive), where he speaks about the possible location of Hitler, in Queen’s Maud properties, opposite the Weddel Sea, that was then renamed Neuschwabenland, when the area was explored in 1938/39 by the German expedition [led] by Captain Ritschter.
Brick from wall of Nazi complex in Patagonia

“Zsabó made the wrong assumption.
“Had he read the book by Professor Hugo Fernandez Artucio published in 1940, Nazis en el Uruguay, (Nazis in Uruguay) he would had discovered that there actually was a plan referring to German Antarctica, but this was nothing but the term they used for the Patagonia and that this information had been made public in New York in 1939.” [Nil Nikandrov]

‘Eagle’s Nest” stonework on wall of German complex, Argentina.

 
Basti doggedly digs deeper When there’s so much smoke there’s usually a fire. Basti tracked down that fire during seven years of sometimes grueling investigations.
He personally visited German compounds surrounded by security and stern-faced guards, interviewed surviving witnesses in villages near the strongholds, and even obtained authenticated photographs of Hitler and Braun during their exile years.
Alleged photo of Adolf and Eva with daughter Urich in Argentina

“Basti wrote that A. Hitler, E. Braun, and Führer’s closest aides flew from the burning Berlin to Spain… and then crossed the Atlantic Ocean by three submarines and reached Argentina.
“In July-August, 1945 Hitler and his clique landed in the Rio Negro province near the Caleta de los Loros village and moved on further into Argentine.
“Allegedly, the same secret route prepared by SS chief Himmler’s staff was later used by Bormann, Mengele, and Eichmann.
“Basti detailed the journey of A. Hitler and E. Braun across Argentina assisted by local Nazi sympathizers and described the couple’s family life during which—despite the hardships of hiding—they even had children.”

Alleged photo of Hitler in disguise, Buenos Aires meeting, 1952

Stonewalling Soviets
The Soviets weren’t helpful on the matter of the German leader’s death.
“The Soviets continued to be difficult. They refused to allow Westerners into Berlin even after the surrender of Dönitz’s government and the last armies in the field on May 7-9. On May 10, they announced the existence of the burned bodies in the Chancellory courtyard, but only allowed that one might be Hitler. The same report went on to say that his body might never be found.
“On June 6, a spokesman for the Soviet army in Berlin announced unequivocally that Hitler had committed suicide and that his body had been identified. Three days later, Marshall Zhukov, the head of the Soviet army gave a press conference with Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinski looking over his shoulder. ‘We did not identify the body of Hitler,’ he said. ‘I can say nothing definite about his fate. He could have flown away from Berlin at the very last moment.’” [Nil Nikandrov ]

Interview with Basti
In an interview on Deadline – Live, an Argentine news program, journalist Santiago Romero interviewed Abel Basti about Hitler’s escape, life in Patagonia, and the events that followed World War Two. ["Hitler huyó a la Patagonia en un submarino que zarpó desde Vigo" Edited.]
Romero: What is your opinion on Hitler’s escape?
Basti: ”Hitler escaped via air from Austria to Barcelona. The last stage of his escape was in a submarine, from Vigo, heading straight to the coast of Patagonia. Finally, Hitler and Eva Braun, in a car with a chauffeur and bodyguard—a motorcade of at least three cars—drove to Bariloche (Argentina).
“He took refuge in a place called San Ramon, about 15 miles east of that town. It is a property of about 250,000 acres with a lake-front view of Lake Nahuel Huapi, which had been German property since the early twentieth century, when it belonged to a German firm by the name of Schamburg-Lippe.”
Romero: ”On what basis do you claim that Hitler was in Spain after leaving his Berlin bunker?”
Basti: ”I was able to confirm the presence of Hitler in Spain thanks to a—now elderly—Jesuit priest, whose family members were friends of the Nazi leader. And I have witnesses that allude to meetings he had with his entourage at the place where they stayed in Cantabria.
“In addition, a document of the British secret services reveals that in those days, a Nazi submarine convoy left Spain, and after stopping in the Canary Islands, it continued its journey to the south of Argentina.
“Hitler and Eva Braun traveled onboard one of these submarines, which later arrived in Patagonia between July and August of 1945, under the de facto President Edelmiro Farrell and later Juan Domingo Peron, then his Minister of War. There is also another important document mentioning that the FBI was looking for Hitler in Spain after World War II.”
Romero: ”From where did he leave to Patagonia?”
Basti: ”All the evidence points to the Galician coast, which was a significant base of supplies for Nazi submarines during the Battle of the Atlantic, to the extent that Churchill considered the possibility of invading it—an action that was scrapped when they built the code-breaking “Enigma” machine and managed to decipher Nazi submarine fleet messages and the course of submarine warfare was reversed.
“There is the possibility that he left from Vigo or Ferrol, but it is almost certain that he did from Vigo, according to Britain’s MI6.”
Romero: ”What was Hitler’s life in Argentina like?”
Basti: ”Hitler lived as a fugitive with his wife and his bodyguard. His first years were in Patagonia, and then he lived in the more northern provinces [of Argentina].
“In the early years, he held meetings in different parts of Argentina, and with other Nazis in Paraguay, as well as with sympathizers from foreign countries.
“He shaved his head and mustache, so he was not easily recognizable. He lived away from large urban areas, although he had a few meetings in Buenos Aires. He died in the sixties in Argentina.
“I’m currently investigating where he was buried and how he lived his last days.”
Romero: ”Did you have access to documents from the former Soviet Union?”
Basti: ”Until his death in 1953, Stalin always believed that Hitler had escaped. In 1945, Stalin told the Allies this same information. There are three different shorthand writings in which Stalin mentioned that the German leader had fled.
“In Argentina, I have interviewed people who had seen and met with Hitler. In the Russian archives, there is abundant documentation that shows that Hitler had escaped.”
Romero: ”How did your book impact the official story of Hitler’s death?”
Basti: ”Despite the recent investigations that proved that Hitler’s remains at the Kremlin in Russia did not belong to him, most Russians have always rejected the theory that he escaped. The same applies to the nations involved in the war.
“The U.S. has just reclassified [under national security auspices] for 20 [more] years all official material related to this story, and when that deadline is met, it will probably be reclassified.
“The British reclassified all related documentation for 60 more years. The researchers cannot access that information.”

Read More Of The Interview Here  (Spanish)

The West's tragedy of capital

From MWC News, 11 November 2011
by Pepe Escobar

Here's a crash course on global finance 2.0. The debt is in the Atlanticist, wealthy North. The resources are in the global South. And the (reluctant) supreme banker of the last resort is the Middle Kingdom, as personified by the Almighty Hu (Jintao). 
The name of the game - Marx revisited by Occupy the World - is class struggle. It's casino capitalism, aka finance turbo-neoliberalism, as practiced by a liquid modernity elite of one per cent, versus the have-a-little-something, have-nots and have-nothing, aka the 99 per cent.

There could not be a more graphic demonstration than last week's Greek tragedy takeover of the Cannes debt festival of Slavoj Zizek's thesis that the marriage of capitalism and democracy is over.

If there is something capable of terminally terrorising the European Union (EU) oligarchy it is the concept of a popular referendum.

How dare you consult the "rabble" about our Austerity Forever policy, the only one capable of satisfying the financial markets!

This is enough to make unelected zombies such as European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi (formerly vice-president of Goldman Sachs International), European Council President Herman van Rompuy (member of the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg club) and European Commission (EC) head Joao Manuel Barroso to dream of a drone-heavy, Special Forces-filled, NATO no-fly zone to enforce their will.

Surrender or else

The made in Frankfurt ECB screenplay is brought to you by the TINA ("there is no alternative") school. The dull, monochromatic action predictably mixes savage privatisations with social devastation.

"Democratic" Europe functions just like in good old Brezhnev times; a troika - IMF, ECB, UE - exercising totalitarian rule, even if in a shambolic way.

"'Merkozy' - that mongrel/robotic cross-pollination... can only emit a baleful cry: 'Coon ... traaaact'."
 "Merkozy" - that mongrel/robotic cross-pollination of German Prime Minister Angela Merkel and neo-Napoleonic French President Nicolas Sarkozy - can emit only a baleful cry: "Coon .... traaact". "Coon ... traaaact" - as in EU-prescribed endless monetary and fiscal contraction.

It doesn't matter that Italy has a primary surplus. It doesn't matter that Italy's combined private and public debt is 250 per cent of its GDP - much lower than France, the UK, the US and Japan.

Italy is now under the volcano because the EU "Cooon ... traaact" monster has thrown it into recession.

And regime change won't make it any less different.

No wonder the top candidate for succeeding Prime Minister Silvio "bunga bunga" Berlusconi is Mario Monti; a former top director at the EC, European president of the Trilateral Commission and a member of the Bilderberg group. Yet another quintessential one per cent luminary.

"Europe" - as in a sub-sect of Franco-German oligarchies - thought the eurozone could be saved by the Orwellian-named European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

But now even that blob - which is nothing but a bunch of "guarantees" lavished on a shell company in Luxembourg - is about to be devoured by the Supreme Zombie, the God of the Market.

So a monster bailout fund set up as a Goldman Sachs-style racket now risks being in dire need of a bailout itself. You can't make this stuff up - even in Hollywood.

Meanwhile, the IMF's bag lady, the sartorially irreprehensible Christine Lagarde, is currently hitting BRICS members Russia and China for some pocket money.

But Madame Lagarde, mired in soliloquy with her Dior buttons, knows very well this won't fly, and it won't be enough to "save" the model the IMF, the ECB and "Merkozy" insist on applying.

Look South, young man


The global indignados - from Greece and Spain to the US and beyond - at least are very much aware of the one per cent's machinations.

As in learning about the astonishing performance of Goldman Sachs' commodities index - the top traded across the world. This quintessential one per cent index doubles and even triples the cost of wheat, rice and corn, thus plunging hundreds of millions among the 99 per cent across the globe into terminal hunger.

How not to think that another world must be possible?

The Occupy the World 99 per cent are dreamers in a very May 1968 sense - "be realist, demand the impossible". Dreamers in a refreshingly horizontal - not vertical or pyramidal - way.

They want to rescue politics - when politicians have lost all legitimacy - as a debate of ideas, not egos or ideology. The pathetic G20 farce last week showed once again they're right.

They want a Republic of common sense. They want a popular assembly in every neighbourhood and every village. Against money as a moral value and casino finance as an irate God, they want to rescue the power of collective intelligence.

What they need now is to reach critical mass all across the world.

In a sense, it's as if there's been a collective reading of Albert Camus's The Rebel, published six decades ago. The one per cent of the time very much despised what they saw as a little Algerian, son of a domestic worker and without a diploma, posing as a philosopher.

But way before the Google and Twitter generation Camus showed how revolt inevitably migrates from the individual to a collective response, enshrined in his beautiful formulation "I revolt, therefore we are".

Yet make no mistake. Turbo-capital's one per cent counter-revolution is already on - and it will be beyond ruthless. History shows that every crisis of capitalism is "solved" by outright repression.

What's pressing is the search for effective strategies. This includes everything from calls for a general strike to the debate preceding the creation of new political groups.

We are all responsible


South America, which has outlived torrents of IMF's dreadful "structural adjustments" and is now slowly forging its integration and independence, always denied by the neocolonial one per cent and their local satraps, can be quite helpful.

In a very enlightening discussion with leaders of the Brazilian MST - the Landless Peasant Movement, one of the most important social movements in the world - they explained to me how they have adjusted from fighting for an agrarian reform to fighting a much more nuanced battle against the current, powerful transnational agro-business interests who have forged an intricate alliance with the Lula government.

"[For the] irresponsible citizenship... the exercise of political rights is just a ceremony of renouncing political will."
- Alvaro Garcia Linera
This shows how even a broad social movement with an enormous popular base has to be constantly calibrating its strategic struggle.

On a parallel front, there must be an urgent English translation of La Potencia Plebeya ("The Plebeian Power"), a collection of essays by Bolivian vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera, one of the most crucial intellectuals at work in Latin America.

Linera essentially charges how the one per cent and its minions have "sold" the concept of public interest as a separate sphere of civil society. And how civil society can only exist as political if subordinated to mediators or political priests.

This, Linera argues, is an archaism that goes back to Hobbes and Montesquieu. And the 99 per cent should be aware of it - and fight it.

Linera coins the concept of "irresponsible citizenship" to describe the discombobulated voting masses under the spell of a neoliberal farce.

For the "irresponsible citizenship", the "exercise of political rights is just a ceremony of renouncing political will, and will to govern, to place it in the hands of a new caste of private proprietors of politics, which attribute to themselves the knowledge of sophisticated and impenetrable techniques of ruling and governing".

So the crucial fight is against these "private proprietors of politics" - and their one per cent masters, be it in Cairo or Manhattan, Madrid or Lahore. G20? Forget it; it's more like G7 billion. If we are truly indignados towards a system that must be toppled, we are all responsible.


Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times. His latest book is named Obama Does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).
___________-

Related:

The Euro Is Dead


European Ponzi Goes Full Retard As EFSF Found To Monetize... Itself


From ZeroHedge,

We have long mocked and ridiculed the Fed for being the ultimate ponzi instrument: after all, why worry, when your central bank will buy up almost three trillion in US paper in about 2 years (a very comforting fact for US politicians who never have to fear that those trillions in new porkbills, pardon fiscal stimulus programs, may end up without funding). Well, as it turns out those wily veteran bankers from across the Atlantic have just one upped America yet again. According to the Telegraph, the abysmal, and barely successful, 3 EUR billion issuance of EFSF bonds (which was originally supposed to be 10 EUR billion, on its very very gradual climb to 1 EUR trillion) had one more very curious feature to it, aside from confirming that it is Dead On Arrival as expected. It turns out that in addition to being the most convoluted and complex creation ever conceived by JPM which is advising Europe on coming up with structured finance products that are so complex nobody will ask any questions and will automatically assume someone else has done the homework, it is also the quintessential ponzi instrument. The Telegraph reports that the already reduced 3 EUR billion "target was only met after the EFSF resorted to buying up several hundred million euros worth of the bonds." You read that right: in its first bond issuance since its transformation to the European Bank/Soveriegn Bailout Swiss Army Knife, the EFSF not only failed to raise a minimum token amount, but also had to... buy its own bonds. We can assume that the money the EFSF needed to fund said purchase came from the money growing tree, as at last check the ECB was still not funding the EFSF with crisp, new zEURq.PK equivalent binary 1s and 0s. But at least we all know what happens when the global ponzi goes full retard.

More on this surreal story which will be promptly buried in the barrage of Monday headlines because an international advisor to Goldman Sachs is now in charge of Italy.

Sources said the EFSF had spent more than € 100m buying up its own bonds to
help it achieve its funding target after the banks leading the deal were
only able to find about €2.7bn of outside demand for the debt.


The revelation will be seen as a major failure and a worrying sign of future buyers strike after EFSF officials and their bankers had spent recent weeks
travelling the world attempting to persuade key investors, including China's national wealth fund and Japanese government funds, to buy its bonds.


And just in case one monetization vertical was not enough, Europe used, well, all the other ones it could:

Other European Union funds are also understood to have supported the EFSF's bond sale. The failure of the EFSF will increase pressure on the European Central Bank to effectively become the lender of last resort for the
eurozone, a move it has strongly resisted.


At a private breakfast organised by PI Capital last week, Mark Hoban, the Treasury minister, said: "What it doesn't do is provide the next stage of the solution, which is how do you stop this from happening again?"
he said.


The move, by the European Investment Bank, will cause more disquiet among non-eurozone EU members who have become concerned about their growing exposure to the cost of rescuing the currency bloc.

The explanation, for anyone whose brain just exploded, is that despite the marionette rotation at the top, the math of Europe is still not only absolutely hopeless, not to mention meaningless, but somehow just got even worse, because take away the magical powers of modern finance to be one with the ponzi, and Europe would have already imploded.

It also means that our earlier observation that the EFSF is an AA+ equivalent credit instrument has to be revised: pro formaing out the ponzi, means it is at best AA if not A, and most likely D if one takes away all the magic bells and Keynesian whistles, unicorns and other end of the western financial world loopholes that modern finance is forced to resort to every single day to mask the fact that every country in the developed world is now 100% bankrupt.
__________


Related:

EFSF Denies It Is An Illegal Pyramid Scheme


EFSF Bail-Out Fund Buys Its Own Debt Because Not Enough Others Will

 

"Sold To You": European Banks Quietly Dumping €300 Billion In Italian Debt

 

Europe’s Economic Crash Landing 

 

ROUBINI: The Endgame For The Eurozone Has Begun

 

Don’t Be Distracted By Eurozone Drama

 

 

The Great Carbon Credit Deception


From NewDawnMag, 12 November 2011
By Richard K. Moore 


In an era of economic growth, the dynamics of competition, innovation, and entrepreneurial investment were important elements of the game. In a non-growth era, the game will be based on entirely different dynamics. The mechanisms of production will become relatively static. Instead of corporations competing to innovate, we’ll have production bureaucracies. They’ll be semi-state, semi-private cartels, concerned about budgets and quotas rather than growth, somewhat along the lines of the Soviet model.
We can already see steps being taken to shift the corporate model towards the bureaucratic model, through increased government intervention in economic affairs. In the US for example, with the Wall Street bailouts, the forced restructuring of General Motors, the call for centralised regulation of banking and industry, and the mandating of health insurance coverage, the government is saying that the market is to be superseded by government directives. Not that we should bemoan the demise of exploitive capitalism, but before celebrating we need to understand what it is being replaced with.
In the era of capitalism and growth, the focus of the game was on the production side of the economy. The game was aimed at controlling the means of growth: access to capital. In an era of non-growth, the focus of the game will be on the consumption side of the economy. The game will be aimed at controlling the necessities of life: access to food and energy. Carbon limits and carbon trading provide the mechanisms that will enable the banksters to micromanage the necessities of life on a global scale.
As regards financial budgets, the IMF is doing the micromanaging, using the leverage of debt. For carbon budgets, it will be the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) that will do the micromanaging, using the excuse of global warming. How this will work is explained by the Herald Sun, 10 July 2011, discussing Australia’s new carbon legislation:
“An emissions trading scheme is where the government sets a cap on the total amount of pollution [CO2] that can be released each year. Businesses compete for permits and can trade permits, within that cap. The price can vary but the amount of pollution is fixed. Each year the Government could lower the cap – meaning Australia’s emissions will fall.”
In terms of propaganda, this carbon-credit regime is being sold as a solution to global warming and peak oil. The propaganda campaign has been very successful, and the whole environmental movement has been captured by it. In Copenhagen, demonstrators confronted the police, carrying signs in support of carbon taxes and carbon credits. But in fact the carbon regime has nothing to do with climate or with sustainability. It is all about micromanaging every aspect of our lives, as well as every aspect of the economy.
If the folks who are running things actually cared about sustainability, they’d be investing in efficient mass transit, and they’d be shifting agriculture from petroleum-intensive, water-intensive methods to sustainable methods. Instead they are mandating biofuels and selling us electric cars, which are no more sustainable than standard cars.
As the new global regime is consolidated, the IPCC will dole out a mandatory annual carbon cap to each nation. Each government will then budget out its allocation in some way, as Australia is doing. With smart meters, energy use can be micromanaged all the way down to the number of minutes people spend in showers, or at what temperature people choose to do their laundry.
Whether these kinds of measures will significantly reduce CO2 levels is open to considerable doubt. Creating a tree plantation in the third world can be ‘traded’ for continued emissions, even if a rain forest is cut down to make room for the plantation – and this overall transaction actually increases global CO2 levels. And there will surely be special cases, such as favoured industries, or government and military applications, where exceptions to the cap will be permitted. And in general, enforcement of industrial regulations tends to be notoriously lax.
Although reduction of CO2 levels may be in doubt, there is one thing that is not in doubt: carbon caps will limit access to the necessities of life and will greatly increase the cost of those necessities. Every industry that burns fossil fuels will have an additional cost added: the cost of obtaining carbon permits – by being the highest bidder. Those costs, plus profit margins, will be passed on to the consumer. Fossil alternatives, such as wind power and biofuels, will be only marginally lower in price: it is IPCC-imposed fossil fuel scarcity that will set the price in each market segment, as we already see with world grain prices. All of this will encourage speculative investment in futures markets, which will increase prices still further – and this is already happening with global food prices.
With food prices linked to energy prices, and agriculture land being converted from food production to fuel production, the result can only be a massive increase in third world starvation. Depopulation has long been a stated goal in elite circles, and the Rockefeller dynasty has frequently been involved in eugenics projects of various kinds over the past century. Genocide through imposed poverty is already a model being pursued successfully in Africa, and biofuels are systematically expanding that program.


© Copyright New Dawn Magazine, http://www.newdawnmagazine.com. Permission granted to freely distribute this
 article for non-commercial purposes if unedited and copied in full, including this notice.
  
 

Towards Economic Collapse: Europe’s Debt Crisis has Spiraled out of Control


 by Bob Chapman
Global Research, November 12, 2011

 
As Chancellor Merkel and PM Sarkozy search for a solution that doesn’t exist they continue to lose credibility. Nothing of substance has been agreed upon that is legal and can be implemented. At the IMF Christina LeGarde is frantically waving her arms like a cheerleader telling anyone that will listen that if the six sovereigns in financial trouble are not aided the euro will fail and peace in Europe will disappear. The elitists are frantic because they cannot find a solution. LeGarde says without help there will be ten years of depression. She obviously hasn’t done her homework. Try 30 or more years. Sarkozy, Merkel and Jans Weidmann council member of the ECB has said the ECB cannot bail out governments by printing money. He is also head of the Bundesbank and said a key lesson of what is being proposed is the hyperinflation in Weimer Republic, which followed WWI. Over in Italy PM Berlusconi, who looks and acts like Benito Mussolini has been unseated and as a result the Italian bond market is on the edge of collapse. There is big pressure downward in stock and bond markets as a result and the US Treasury again attacks gold and silver hoping they can keep gold from breaking about $1,800. The PPT’s ability to achieve this is more than questionable.

At Cannes PM Sarkozy and President Obama discuss what a liar Israel’s PM Netanyahu is. Their candor was accidentally picked up by a supposedly muted speaker. What is now realized is that euro zone government bonds contain unexpected credit risks. All the European politicians and bureaucrats want to save the euro, but their promises and solutions are not worth the paper they are written on. They are so believable that China won’t lend them money. These characters have been kicking the can down the road since last spring with little or no long-term solutions, and no solutions to affect a recovery and create jobs. Austerity has replaced growth and that is expediting a failing economy, even in Germany. If economies don’t grow tax receipts fall and the ability to service debt is impaired. Big euro zone banks are broke just as their counterparts in NYC are. As this proceeds we ask how long can the ECB buy Italian and Spanish bonds?

In Greece a coalition has been made and Mr. Samaras has shown his true colors by backing Trilateral-Bilderberg Lucas Papademos, as interim PM. We hope Greek citizens realize that Papademos will sell them out. It is only a matter of when. The debt deal will probably be ratified, but at what price? Will it bring revolution or a coup? Who knows, but under the circumstances anything goes. 60% to 65% of Greeks oppose the bailout, but 71% want to stay in the euro, which is impossible.

If further austerity measures are taken in Italy there will be demonstrations and violence. In the meantime bond market yields climb; Italy’s access to the bond market lessens and as a result stock markets fall. There is no coordination between the ECB and its members. The French banks and others are selling bonds, which the ECB is being forced to buy. All of these factors lend to political, financial and economic uncertainty. This is a major full-blown crisis and the US realizes that. Why else would they be strongly trying to suppress gold and silver prices? Europe is in disarray and Germany has to come to terms with cutting loose the six loser countries. That means leaving the euro and perhaps the EU. We see no other choice in this unnatural association.

Europe’s banks are leveraged 26 to 1, whereas 9 to 1 is normal. A 4% fall in asset prices will wipe out equity. Debt to equity for corporations is 145% in Portugal, 135% in Italy; 113% in Ireland, Greece 218%, Spain 152% and 89% in the UK. In Germany it is 105% and in France 76%. EU financial problems are endemic not just in the six countries in trouble. Europe is an accident waiting to happen, which we have pointed out for some time. We are now seeing failed bond auctions even in Germany. The sale of EFSF bonds had to be put off due to lack of interest. If it hadn’t been for the ECB buying the bonds of Italy, Spain and Portugal the bond market would have already collapsed. Europe is the catalyst and eventually it probably will take the financial system down. The ECB probably has already bought close to $300 billion in just these countries alone.

European banks are howling that they have to increase capital reserves to 9% by June 30, 2012. In the wings we see $610 billion allocated to bailout by sovereigns, which they believe will be stretched to $1.4 trillion via the use of derivatives. That may never happen if the German Federal Court disallows it. On the other hand more savings would allow further business expansion but are we going to see that in a falling economy?

This last recovery as an example in Germany was caused in great part by an increase in government debt from 74% in 2009 to 83% in 2010, in France 79% to 82% and in Greece and Italy 130% to 160% versus 116%. Thus, it is fair to assume that the recent recovery came from an extension of money and credit. This leveraging now leads to de-leveraging, which may bring balance, but is not good for growing an economy. It diminishes the ability of the economy to generate capital. That means the economies statuses are going to worsen. This results in lower manufacturing activity, which we already see falling. Year-on-year the PMI has already fallen from 54.6 to 47.3 in Germany. The service index is 47.2. Both have been and will continue to fall in tandem. At the same time the ECB has monetized $300 billion by purchasing bonds and that is inflationary. Worse yet the ECB has lifted monetary growth from 9.5% in June to 23% in October. Loose monetary policies cause these problems, but debt is so onerous that they have to continue or they will fall into a deflationary depression. In the meantime inflation grows. There can be no real healthy growth until de-leveraging has ended. The banks and the governments won’t do that for fear of losing control. That means more debt and higher inflation and perhaps even hyperinflation.

In Italy Silvio Berlusconi is off again, on again, as to whether to resign as PM. His closest coalition ally Umberto Bossi of the Northern League, has told him he should resign.

There is no question that Europe’s debt crisis has spiraled out of control. That is something we predicted would happen long ago. Finally, Germany and France are discussing a breakup of the euro zone to allow the six weak countries to exit the euro, but stay in the EU. Italy and Spain show signs of serious trouble and they are simply too big to rescue, because that would bankrupt the solvent countries.

Italy’s 10-year T-notes traded as high as 7.5% and are now back below 7%, but the ECB and other countries, plus perhaps the Fed, were buyers.

We have to laugh as all these bureaucrats and politicians try to save six countries, as their own countries are in serious trouble. Mrs. Merkel, German Chancellor, says it is all so unpleasant. Lady, it is a lot worse than unpleasant. Europe is in a defining moment as they face collapse.

As the world economy slows the EU is focusing on growth, because if it doesn’t it will fall behind in a very competitive world. Europe, England and the US, as well as others are facing inflationary depression and then deflationary depression.

There is not from our viewpoint at this time, enough time to make treaty changes. All efforts have to be pointed toward immediate financial solutions and to allow those six nations to exit the euro zone, but allow them to stay in the EU. Recession is fast closing in on the world, just not Europe. If they have to increase money and credit on the short term so be it.

Bob Chapman is a frequent contributor to Global Research.   



How Goldman Sacked Greece

by Greg Palast for In These Times:
20111109-141233.jpg
Here’s what we’re told:
Greece’s economy blew apart because a bunch of olive-spitting, ouzo-guzzling, lazy-ass Greeks refuse to put in a full day’s work, retire while they’re still teenagers, pocket pensions fit for a pasha; and they’ve gone on a social-services spending spree using borrowed money. Now that the bill has come due and the Greeks have to pay with higher taxes and cuts in their big fat welfare state, they run riot, screaming in the streets, busting windows and burning banks.
I don’t buy it. I don’t buy it because of the document in my hand marked, “RESTRICTED DISTRIBUTION.”
I’ll cut to the indictment: Greece is a crime scene. The people are victims of a fraud, a scam, a hustle and a flim-flam. And––cover the children’s ears when I say this––a bank named Goldman Sachs is holding the smoking gun.
********
This is an adaptation of an excerpt from Vultures’ Picnic, Greg Palast’s new book, out next week, an investigator’s pursuit of petroleum pigs, power pirates and high-finance fraudsters. Read the first chapter or just get the book here.
********
20111109-141552.jpg
In 2002, Goldman Sachs secretly bought up €2.3 billion in Greek government debt, converted it all into yen and dollars, then immediately sold it back to Greece.
Goldman took a huge loss on the trade.
Is Goldman that stupid?
Goldman is stupid—like a fox. The deal was a con, with Goldman making up a phony-baloney exchange rate for the transaction. Why?
Goldman had cut a secret deal with the Greek government in power then. Their game: to conceal a massive budget deficit. Goldman’s fake loss was the Greek government’s fake gain.
Goldman would get repayment of its “loss” from the government at loan-shark rates.
The point is, through this crazy and costly legerdemain, Greece’s right-wing free-market government was able to pretend its deficits never exceeded 3 percent of GDP.
Cool. Fraudulent but cool.
But flim-flam isn’t cheap these days: On top of murderous interest payments, Goldman charged the Greeks over a quarter billion dollars in fees.
When the new Socialist government of George Papandreou came into office, they opened up the books and Goldman’s bats flew out. Investors’ went berserk, demanding monster interest rates to lend more money to roll over this debt.
Greece’s panicked bondholders rushed to buy insurance against the nation going bankrupt. The price of the bond-bust insurance, called a credit default swap (or CDS), also shot through the roof. Who made a big pile selling the CDS insurance? Goldman.
And those rotting bags of CDS’s sold by Goldman and others? Didn’t they know they were handing their customers gold-painted turds?
That’s Goldman’s specialty. In 2007, at the same time banks were selling suspect CDS’s and CDOs (packaged sub-prime mortgage securities), Goldman held a “net short” position against these securities. That is, Goldman was betting their financial “products” would end up in the toilet. Goldman picked up another half a billion dollars on their “net short” scam.
But, instead of cuffing Goldman’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein and parading him in a cage through the streets of Athens, we have the victims of the frauds, the Greek people, blamed. Blamed and soaked for the cost of it. The “spread” on Greek bonds (the term used for the risk premium paid on Greece’s corrupted debt) has now risen to — get ready for this––$14,000 per family per year.
Euro-nation, the secret Geithner memo, and the Ecuador connection
Why did the Greek government throw its nation’s fate into Goldman’s greasy hands? What the heck was in the “RESTRICTED” document? And why did I have to take it to Geneva, to throw it down in front of the Director-General of the WTO for authentication, a creepy French banker I otherwise wouldn’t bother to spit on, and then tear off to Quito to share it with the grateful President of Ecuador?
To give you all the answers would require me to write a book. I have: Vultures’ Picnic––in Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates and High-Finance Fraudsters.
It’s really quite important to me that you read it, that you get it now. That’s a funny statement, I suppose, from an author. But if you’ve been reading my stories in The Guardian or watching my reports on BBC Newsnight, you’ve gotten the facts; but I really want to let you inside the investigations, to cross the continents with me and follow down the leads so that you can get a full picture of The Beasts. The Beasts and their trophy wives, intelligence agency go-fers, political concubines and bone-breakers. And besides, it’s enormous fun when it’s not scary as sh*t.
********
Here’s a taste of Chapter 12 – The Generalissimo of Globalization – from the film-enhanced eBook edition. [And more on the 1% Greece-ing us, check out the upcoming issue of In These Times.]

UN Report Offers Smoking Gun Proof of NATO and US Lies about Libya



Here is a type of “smoking gun” proof that NATO and the U.S. has been operating through a smokescreen of lies, as well as intimidation. Please read the following January 4, 2011 report of the 16th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review:


Before NATO and the U.S. started bombing Libya, the United Nations was preparing to bestow an award on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and the Libyan Jamahiriya, for its achievements in the area of human rights. That’s right–the same man, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, that NATO and the United States have been telling us for months is a “brutal dictator,” was set to be given an award for his human rights record in Libya. How strange it is that the United Nations was set to bestow a human rights award on a “brutal dictator,” at the end of March.

So, I ask a question. Who is this “brutal dictator” that the United Nations General Assembly Human Rights Council was preparing to bestow an award to, for human rights, sometime at the end of March? So, they would have us believe that they knew that he was a “brutal dictator,” yet decided to give him an award for human rights?! Astounding! Astounding the lies that we’re being told by the media, NATO and the U.S. government. Absolutely astounding! Not surprising, but astounding! But more astounding still, is the fact that, time after time after time, much of the American public–without questioning–believes every single word that comes from the “news” media.

It is noteworthy to read the following couple of sentences from the General Assembly’s report:

“Several delegations also noted with appreciation the country’s commitment to upholding human rights on the ground. Additional statements, which could not be delivered during the interactive dialogue, owing to time constraints, will be posted on the extranet of the universal periodic review when available.”


In a footnote of that report, there is a list of countries that praised Colonel Gaddafi and the Libyan Jamahiriya (state of the masses), in support of the General Assembly Human Rights Council’s decision to bestow this award upon Colonel Gaddafi.I simply present the list. The reader can look at the list and make his or her own judgement regarding the credibility level, or perceived credibility level, of any of the particular countries listed:

Denmark, China, Italy, The Netherlands, Mauritania, Slovenia, Nicaragua, The Russian Federation, Spain, Indonesia, Sweden, Norway, Ecuador, Hungary, South Africa, The Phillippines, Maldives, Chile, Singapore, Germany, Australia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Angola, Nigeria, Congo, Burundi, Zambia, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Zimbabwe.


If you have been paying any attention to the news, you will note that a few of the above-listed countries suddenly made an about-face, and decided to start supporting NATO and the U.S. in their war of aggression. Why? Why else!? Money. That’s always the bottom line, and there’s no doubt that it will all be exposed, at some time in the future, just as was exposed the lies that the U.S. government told its citizens, and the world, about “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq. And those same countries were just about to bestow an award on Colonel Gaddafi, for human rights, after having carefully studied Libyan society. So, what’s this about the “brutal dictator?”It’s what my big brother would call it: CHEWED UP GRASS [Bullshit!! For the delicate amongst you, pardon my colorful language].

If you have been paying any attention to the news, you will note that a few of the above-listed countries suddenly made an about-face, and decided to start supporting NATO and the U.S. in their war of aggression. Why? Why else!? Money. That’s always the bottom line, and there’s no doubt that it will all be exposed, at some time in the future, just as was exposed the lies that the U.S. government told its citizens, and the world, about “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq. And those same countries were just about to bestow an award on Colonel Gaddafi, for human rights, after having carefully studied Libyan society. So, what’s this about the “brutal dictator?” It’s what my big brother would call it: CHEWED UP GRASS [Bullshit!! For the delicate amongst you, pardon my colorful language].

(source: nsnbc)
___________


Related:

Libya’s new Liberation Front organizing in the Sahel


Military map shows who controls which area in Libya



Armed clashes intensify in divided Tripoli

 

Death of GADDAFI: Questions still unanswered: Mahmoud Jibril blames it on “unknown”

 

Alex Callinicos (SWP) asks us to celebrate NATO's war on Libya

 

Biggest success? NATO proud of Libya op which killed thousands

 

NATO-rebel atrocities in Libya: photo and video evidence


Libya: Checkpoint and small Nato mercenary base wiped out in Tajoura

 

Libya – French soldiers killed next to Ajdabiya

 

Deadly clashes erupt in Libyan city

 

Libya – 300 inmates of the Warfal tribe were released by the fighters of the Liberation Army in Zawiya (11 November 2011)

 

Libya – The rebel camp No. 27 between Zawiya and Tripoli was attacked with heavy weapons – see video (11/11/2011)

 

Libya – NATO helicopters still flying over Tripoli (November 9, 2011)

 



Labels

"backyard" "bank holiday" "Change" "Jewish Achievements" 1st Amendment 2nd amendment 4GW 4th Reich 7/7 9/11 abiotic oil abuses of power ACTA Afghanistan AfPak Africa AFRICOM agenda 21 al-CIAduh alternative currencies American revolution anarchy apocalypse Argentina ARTICHOKE Asia Asian Energy Security Grid assassinations asteroids austerity AWOL ballistic missiles B/S backfire bad cops bailout bailout scam bank nazionalization banksters big oil big pharma Bilderberg Bin Laden biofuels biological warfare biological weapons biological weapons research bioterrorism bird flu bitcoins black ops Blackwater Brazil BRICs Brzezinski bubbles cap and trade capitalism carbon credits carbon tax carbon trade cash nexus cass sunstein casus belli CDS Central Asia central banks CFR Cheney China CIA CIA assets civil wars class conflicts class structure class warfare climategate COINTELPRO collapse Color revolutions COMEX default communism community currencies Congo conspiracies conspiracy theories Constitution Copyright corporate "personhood" corporate law corporatocracy corruption countercoup counterinsurgency Coup D'etat covert agents covert operations covert ops covert war covert warfare coverup crazy lone gunmen crimes against humanity currencies currency war dancing israelis David Kelly dead microbiologists death squads debt debt bondage debt bubble debt monetization debtors' prisons deep politics default deficit deflation deglobalization deindustralization deja vu delocalization democracy depleted uranium depopulation depression deregulation derivatives detentions Detroit devaluation devolution dictatorship Dimitri Khalezov dirty tricks dirty wars disaster capitalism disaster management discovery disinformation dissent diy diy currencies DMCA drones drugs trade DU dystopias eastern europe ECB eco-fascism economic cycle economic hitmen economic warfare Egypt electromagnetic weapons electronic surveillance elite consensus elitist propaganda Ellen Brown emerging markets end game energy engineered clusterfuck Ethiopia EU EU666 eugenics euro eurocracy eurocrats europe fake bonds fake democracy fake gold fake revolutions fake terrorism false flags fascism fascism 2.0 FED FEMA FEMA death camps fiat money Finance Capitalism forecasts ForeclosureGate foreclosures FOREIGN TRADE ZONES Fort Detrick fractional reserve banking France fraudclosures fraudonomics frauds Free books free money free speech freedom Fukushima funny money G20 gatekeepers Gaza genocides geoengineering Geopolitics Germany Ghana ghost towns Gladio global currency Global warming hoax globalization GMO gold gold manipulation gold standard Goldman Sachs golpe google Grand Chessboard great depression 2.0 great game Greece Green shoots greenbackers Guantanamo Gulf of Tonkin gun ban gun control Guns H.R. 45 HAARP habeas corpus hackers Haiti Halliburton happiness health health care bill health care reform hemp heroin high frequency trading historical cycles history hitler hoaxes Honduras House Bill 1796 how-to human organs trafficking human rights Hungary hunger hyperinflation ICC Iceland Illuminati IMF imf riots immigration imperialism incoherence income distribution income tax India inequalities infiltration inflation inflationary depression information war insider trading insolvency instability insurgency intelligence International Criminal Court international political economy internet censorship internet warfare ior IP IPCC Iran Iraq Ireland IRS Israel israeli assets Israeli firsters Israeli killers israeli lobby Israeli Organ Harvesting israeli terrorism italy Ivory Coast jesuits jews JFK Jim Willie JPM k-waves Kazakhstan Keynesianism Kissinger kleptocracy Kosovo Krugman KUBARK Kurt Sonnenfeld Kyrgyzstan Land Grab Large Hadron Collider Larry Summers Latin America LBMA Lee Harvey Oswald legitimacy crisis legitimation lesser evilism Libya lies Limited Hang Out Lincoln Lisbon Treaty lobbying local currencies Lockerbie Logan Act lol looting lsd mafia Mali Manchurian candidates Mandatory vaccinations maquiladoras market manipulations martial law Martin Armstrong Medicare meltdown MENA Mend mercenaries Mexico MI5 Michael Chertoff Michael Hudson Middle East migrations Military Industrial Complex military research military spending military tribunals militias mind control mind tricks Minerva Research Initiative Minot missing nukes missile defense missing pathogens MKDELTA MKNAOMI MKSEARCH MKULTRA money money as debt money laundering money supply Mongolia monsanto Montenegro morgellons mossad msm Mumbai narco-states narcodollars narcotics national debt National Emergencies Act national emergency native Americans NATO NDAA neo-Malthusians neocolonialism neocons neofeudalism neuroscience NGOs Nigeria NLP Non-lethal Weapons Noriega North Korea Norway NSA NSPD-51 nuclear demolition nukes NWO odious debt Oil OKLAHOMA CITY bombing oligarchy OOTW Operation Ajax operation CONDOR Operation Fast and Furious operation Mockingbird Operation Northwoods operation paperclip Operation Strange Man opium Orwell outrages p2p currencies Pakistan Palestine Panama Panarin pandemics paper money Paraguay paranoia paranoia pimping patents Patriot Act patsies pauperization peak oil pearl harbor Pennsylvania pensions Pentagon persuasion Peru pervs philippines Phoenix program piigs pimping Pipelinestan piracy Pirates plagues planned disasters Plum Island plutocracy PMCs PNAC poison pills Poland police state political economy political fakeries polls ponzi schemes pork Posse Comitatus Act pot poverty poverty business power elite pr0n predictive programming prepping primitive accumulation prison industrial complex prison population private debt privatizations problem-solution prohibitionism Project Artichoke Project Bluebird Project Censored Project MK/NAOMI Project Mockingbird project monarch Prompt Corrective Action Law propaganda prostitution protests provocateurs psy-ops psycho-police psychotronic warfare Ptech public policies qe qe2 R2P rabbis crackdown real wages regime change regulations relative disadvantage religion renditions renewable energy reserve currency resistance revolution revolution (how to) revolutions riots robots Rockfeller Roman Empire Rothschilds Rumsfeld Rupert Murdoch Russia Rwanda s510 sabbateans Salvador Option samson option saudi arabia sayanim SCADs scams scandals scares schemes SCO SDR secrecy secret algorithms Secret services sedition self-employment self-reliance serial killers sex scandals sheeple shock capitalism SHTF silver sixties slavery slums social conflicts social currencies social movements social research Social Security social spending socialization of costs somalia Soros sound money South Africa South Caucasus South Korea Southern Poverty Law Center Sovereignty Sovereignty Resolutions spain special economic zones spin spyware stagflation state of exception state secrets state terrorism statistics stimulus stuxnet submarines subprime Sudan suicides superbugs superimperialism suppressed technologies supremacist racist genocidal apocalyptic cults surveillance Survivalism SVADs sweden Swine Flu syria Taliban Tamiflu TAPI taxes tea party technocracy Tennessee TEOTWAWKI terrorism Thailand The Fourth Turning the left The Mogambo Guru Thirdworldization TIPS tiranny torture totalitarism toxic assets toxic waste trade deficit trade war treason Treasuries Bubble Tri-Border Area Trickle down trolls tsa tunisia Turkey uganda UK Ukraine UN underclass upper class US $ US army US bonds seized US debt US elections US gulags US hunger US secessionists US Treasuries US666 useful idiots vaccines VAT vatican Venezuela vets vietghanistan Vietnam violent conflicts virii Voodoo war war crimes WAR CRIMINALS war on drugs war party war pimps war propaganda warfare warfare state wars water WB wealth distribution web bot weed Weimar weird welfare white collar criminals White phosphorous WHO who rules Wikileaks wikipedia witch hunt WMD working poors world bank world economy world hegemony world reserve currency world trade WTF WTO WW3 xe Xinjiang Yemen Yuan Yugoslavia Zimbabwe zionism zionist trolls zious
Protect Your ASSets: Buy Gold or Silver NOW - If you wait you will be late.
(He who panics first, just may salvage something.