The Real War
June 25, 2012 by Bob Livingston
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke continued the Fed’s war on and destruction of American savers and retirees last week with a continuation of Operation Twist.
As Bloomberg notes, “The continuation of Operation Twist ‘should put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative,’ the Federal Open Market Committee said today in a statement at the conclusion of a two-day meeting in Washington.”
In other words, Bernanke has announced that the Fed is going to keep shuffling the same money piles back and forth to continue the charade that it is doing something constructive for the American people. But the truth is much different.
Keeping interest rates low helps the banksters and keeps government’s fictional “debt” low, which allows it to spend more money. But it is devastating to savers and people living on fixed incomes, pensions and retirement funds. The Fed says this will continue at least through late 2014. By then, interest rates will have remained at or near zero for six years, and just slightly higher for much longer.
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This continues the great rape of the American people for the benefit of the banksters who borrow money from the Fed for almost nothing then loan it out for a return of between 2.75 percent (home mortgage) and 20 percent (credit card). It’s really quite a racket, when you think about it. Especially considering that when you are no longer able to repay the loans because of the economic conditions created by the Fed and bankster criminals, the banks can then confiscate your property—or, as is the case in some instances, the government will steal money from those who are working and still able to make their payments and use it to pay the banks on behalf of the homeowners.
Low interest rates also keep the interest paid on savings accounts at near zero and far below the rate of inflation. Government-fudged numbers say inflation is at 1.7 percent, but real inflation as it was measured in 1980 is 9.3 percent, according to Shadowstats.com. By using fudged inflation numbers, government doesn’t have to make cost-of-living increases on Social Security payments. This puts a tighter squeeze on those who struggle to pay for their groceries—again those on fixed incomes, living off savings or Social Security.
All of this is done under the pretense that the American government is in debt. This is utter hogwash.
There is in reality no U.S. debt. It is delusion and fraud. The Federal Reserve can print money to infinity.
If you had your own money-printing machine, would you be in debt? Of course not, because if you accumulated debt you could just print more money to pay for it. The same with the Federal government. Yet the elites and the media constantly wail and cry over the U.S. “debt.”
This is a ruse to get the American public in the mood to accept higher taxes. There is never any serious talk in the beltway of cutting government spending or eliminating government programs. Anyone who dares suggest that cuts be made is derided as a heartless soul who wishes to starve the old and the poor, abuse the disabled and allow corporations to run amok. Yet it is government policies that are abusive. Sadly, most remain completely unaware.
Congress and the President, regardless of party label, are constantly on the lookout for ways to spend more money on behalf of its favored constituency and to the benefit of corporatocracy. This is fascism under the sweet-sounding name of democracy.
There are now more than 46 million people on food stamps. Each of them is now eligible for a taxpayer-funded cellular telephone which, apparently is now as essential as food and water for life. Almost half the population is on some sort of government assistance. Unemployment benefits have been extended ad nauseum.
Government actions are always designed to benefit the elites in government and on Wall Street. Fed policies created the bubble that burst in 2007-2008, which saw banksters and Wall Street speculators play fast and loose with mortgages and derivatives, knowing that when the bubble burst they would be saved from their irresponsibility and criminal behavior. Efforts by the States to crack down on bankster criminals were blocked by the Feds.
A recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office shows how the game is rigged against the American people for the benefit of the elites. The report revealed that the Fed gave money in the form of almost zero percent loans to more than a dozen financial institutions that had current or former directors on the boards of the regional Fed banks. The total amount doled out to these people of privilege exceeded $4 trillion.
And nothing demonstrates the absurdity of the game more than the recent appearance before Congress by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. The appearance was a veritable love-fest.
That’s because of JPMorgan’s connections to the House Financial Services committees, the Senate Banking Committee and the alphabet soup “watchdog” agencies that are paid to look the other way. Former Congressmen and Congressional staffers who once worked for committee members now lobby for JPMorgan and work for JPMorgan. Enforcement heads for the Securities and Exchange Commission are former JPMorgan employees. Dimon sits on the board of the New York Federal Reserve. JPMorgan is a major contributor to a number of the committees’ members. All of this was revealed in a report by Propublica.
Bernanke is desperate to stave off collapse until after the November election. He’s facing quite a headwind of lousy job reports (real unemployment in May was 22.7 percent, according to Shadowstats.com), a continued housing slump, flat retail sales reports and a decline in manufacturing.
In making the announcement about Operation Twist, the Fed also revealed that (official) unemployment would remain above 8 percent through the end of 2012, which really means more than one in five Americans will remain out of work through the end of the year. American unemployment has never been this high for this long. There are 4 million fewer people working today than just five years ago. And President Barack Obama just compounded the unemployment situation by dumping hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens into the legitimate job market.
Of course, Bernanke has been proven to be either an incompetent boob or a pathological liar. Just prior to the collapse, he maintained that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were sound and in no danger of failure. He has at various times over the course of the last four-plus years said all was well, warned of a recession, promised a recovery, warned of a double-dip recession, predicted low inflation and high inflation and lower unemployment and higher unemployment and that he knows what must be done to start a recovery and has no idea what to do next. Last June I wrote that he was all three of the Three Stooges rolled into one. Unfortunately his act is not funny.
The European situation is also hanging over the U.S. economy like the sword of Damocles. The Eurozone is back on the hook for Greece’s debt, and Spain’s and Italy’s debt problems are yet to be addressed. Unfortunately, the Fed is in the Eurozone to the tune of about $16 trillion, and that doesn’t count the U.S. commitment through the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick says we are nearing a danger zone and on the verge of a crash that could be as bad as the Lehman Brothers crash in 2008. On the heels of this announcement, a market rumor exploded that Pimco, JPMorgan and other financial institutions had cancelled summer vacations for employees so they could prepare for a collapse.
There is much afoot. The “Great Reset”—the economic collapse that will lead us back to Constitutional governance and a new gold standard—that I have predicted is coming. Bernanke and company will do all they can to stave it off as long as they can. But they are running out of options.
The evidence is in the increasing controls on money exchange and increasing hostility toward expatriation, the growing power of the police state and multiple efforts to censor and control the Internet. The elites are dismayed that they no longer control the message and that more people are growing wise to their criminal behavior.
It’s almost too late to buy gold and silver. If you do, hold it in your possession. Store food, water and ammunition. Determine what skills you have that you can barter, and get the tools necessary to make it happen.
Our hope is the collapse, once it begins, occurs quickly. Otherwise, things will get very ugly for the unprepared. Look to Weimar Germany as an example. Mothers were prostituting themselves to put food on the table.
We must go through the fire, but I believe we will come out the other side better for it.
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