What does this mean?

Kenneth Schortgen Jr explains:
From a technical perspective, this is moving in line with Murray Rothbard's perspective on "bank deposit insurance," which he saw as a scam:


Thus, the removal of protection for large depositors is eliminating the scam at this tier. It is, in other words, cutting down on moral hazard.

However, I do not suspect that the world's governments have suddenly found Jesus/Rothbard. I suspect what is going on here is that the government is fully aware that this change will create a separation between bank deposits and government securities. Government securities, especially short-term paper, will become a safer investment than large banks deposits. This will drive funds away from banks and private sector lending and push funds into the direction of government sponsored debt (where there will be continued back up for such debt of the money printing presses).

It is with regret and sadness we announce the death of money on November 16th 2014 in Brisbane, Australia

‘A mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound
A buck or a pound
A buck or a pound
Is all that makes the world go 'round;
That clinking, clanking sound
Can make the world go 'round.’
“Money” from Cabaret by Kander & Ebb

In the musical Cabaret, Sally Bowles and the Emcee sing about money from the perspective of those witnessing its collapse in value in real terms in the great German hyperinflation of 1923.

Less than a decade later, and a continent away, a young lawyer from Youngstown, Ohio noted on July 25th 1932 how money’s value could also fall in nominal terms:

"A considerable traffic has grown up in Youngstown in purchase and sale at a discount of Pass-Books on the Dollar Bank, City Trust and Home Savings Banks. Prices vary from 60% to 70% cash. All of these banks are now open but are not paying out funds."
The Great Depression - A Diary: Benjamin Roth (first published 2009)

In Youngstown the bank deposit, an asset previously referred to as "money", had fallen by up to 40% relative to the value of cash. The G20 announcement in Brisbane on November 16th will formalize a "bail in" for large-scale depositors raising the spectre that their deposits are, as many were in 1932, worth less than banknotes. It will be very clear that the value of bank deposits can fall in nominal terms.

On Sunday in Brisbane the G20 will announce that bank deposits are just part of commercial banks’ capital structure, and also that they are far from the most senior portion of that structure. With deposits then subjected to a decline in nominal value following a bank failure, it is self-evident that a bank deposit is no longer money in the way a banknote is. If a banknote cannot be subjected to a decline in nominal value, we need to ask whether banknotes can act as a superior store of value than bank deposits? If that is the case, will some investors prefer banknotes to bank deposits as a form of savings? Such a change in preference is known as a "bank run."Each country will introduce its own legislation to effect the ‘ bail-in’ agreed by the G20 this coming weekend. The consultation document from the UK’s Treasury lists the following bank creditors who will rank ABOVE depositors in a ‘failing’ financial institution:

-Liabilities representing protected deposits (in the UK the government guarantee protects 100% of deposits up to the value of GBP85,000)
-any liability, so far as it is secured
-Liabilities that the bank has by virtue of holding client assets
-Liabilities arising with an original maturity of less than 7 days owed by the banks to a credit institution or investment firm
-Liabilities arising from participation in designated settlement systems
-Liabilities owed to central counterparties recognized by the European Securities and Markets Authorities… on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade depositaries
-Liabilities owed to an employee or former employee in relation to salary or other remuneration, except variable remuneration
-Liabilities owed to an employee or former employee in relation to rights under a pension scheme, except rights to discretionary benefits
-Liabilities owed to creditors arising from the provision to the bank of goods or service (other than financial services) that are critical to the daily functioning of its operations

The above list makes it clear that deposits larger than GBP85,000 will rank ahead of the bond holders of banks, but they will rank above little else. Importantly, both borrowings of the banks of less than 7 days maturity from other financial institutions and sums owed by banks in their role as counterparties to OTC derivatives will rank above large deposits.

Large deposits at banks are no longer money, as this legislation will formally push them down through the capital structure to a position of material capital risk in any "failing" institution. In our last financial crisis, deposits were de facto guaranteed by the state, but from November 16th holders of large-scale deposits will be, both de facto and de jure, just another creditor squabbling over their share of the assets of a failed bank.

Interestingly, HM Treasury uses the word ‘failing’ rather than "failed" in its consultation document and investors could find their large deposits frozen for a prolonged period in any "failing" institution while the courts unpick the capital structure and decide exactly where any losses should fall.

If we have another Lehman Brothers collapse, large-scale depositors could find themselves in the courts for years before final adjudication on the scale of their losses could be established. During this period would this illiquid asset, formerly called a deposit and now subject to an unknown capital loss, be considered money? Clearly it would not, as its illiquidity and likely decline in nominal value would make it unacceptable as a medium of exchange.

From November 16th 2014 the large-scale deposit at a commercial bank is, at best, a lesser form of money, and to many it will cease to be money at all as its nominal value can fall and it could cease to be accepted as a medium of exchange.

Fortunately, the developed world’s commercial banks are flush with central bank reserves and these are instantly convertible into the banknotes which they may need to meet demand from depositors. While the huge level of reserves on the balance sheet is a buffer, the funding of fractional reserve banks is still very negatively impacted by a shift from deposits to bank notes. With deflationary forces gathering momentum, this further impediment to the extension of commercial bank credit would be another factor preventing central bank monetary largesse translating into growth and inflation.

As the world’s smartest lawyer Charlie Munger is fond of saying, "Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome." Some simple mathematics reveals that the November 16th announcement will create a very major incentive for investors to change deposits into banknotes.

Consider that the standard pallet measures 1 metre by 1.2 metres and will take 84 piles of Euro 500 banknotes. The UK’s Health and Safety Executive recommends that the height of a pallet should not exceed the widest side of its base. A 1.2 metre high pile of banknotes contains 11,000 notes and thus each pallet can safely hold 84 piles of 11,000 banknotes. A pallet of safely stacked 924,000 Euro 500 banknotes is therefore worth Euro462m.

There is a small warehouse for rent near Newry, at the foot of the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland. Given its dimensions (16.5m x 9.0m x 5.6m) one could stack 468 pallets of 500 Euro notes representing Euro 216bn. At the current bank deposit rate of minus 50bp per annum, the cost of carry to have Euro 216bn on deposit with a commercial bank would be Euro 1,081m. The annual cost of the warehousing space is around Euro 7,000!

Now clearly this warehouse will need significant private security, but in Northern Ireland there is an over supply of such security due to a structural change in market conditions, and prices are reasonable. Anyway, just how much security could you afford if you charged clients 20bp to hold their Euro 216bn, and generated an annual fee of Euro432 million, with an annual saving to your clients of about Euro 648 million?

This represents both a yield improvement and a significant improvement in capital risk compared to bank deposits, as bank notes cannot be "bailed in." There is therefore an annual profit of around Euro432 million for the manager with a warehouse and friends in low places. Anyone for the "Mourne Or Newry Enhanced Yield Banknote Actively Guarded Security", or MONEY BAGS for short?

As ever, there is a first-mover advantage. There are only about 600 million 500 Euro notes available, though sizeable arbitrage profits still exist on warehouses full of 200 Euro notes. As the function of such warehouses is focused on the role of money as a store of value, a role no longer fulfilled by the large-scale deposit, one should expect a premium to develop, and potentially a secondary market in note-filled, well-protected warehouses. For warehouses full of German Euro notes --- those are the ones with a serial number beginning in X --- a particularly high premium may arise due to risks of a future Euro break-up.

Irish legend tells of an X at the end of the rainbow marking the position of a pot of gold. In our post- Brisbane world, investors may be content to find just a bundle of paper marked with an X.

Russia intends to have its own international inter-bank system up and running by May 2015. The Central of Russia says it needs to speed up preparations for its version of SWIFT in case of possible ”challenges” from the West.

"Given the challenges, Bank of Russia is creating its own system for transmitting financial messaging... It’s time to hurry up, so in the next few months we will have certain work done. The entire project for transmitting financial messages will be completed in May 2015," said Ramilya Kanafina, deputy head of the national payment system department at the Central Bank of Russia (CBR).

Calls not to use the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) system in Russian banks began to grow as relations between Russia and the West deteriorated over sanctions. So far, SWIFT says despite pressure from some Western countries to join the anti-Russian sanctions, it has no intention of doing so.

READ MORE: SWIFT: 'No authority' to suspend Russia, Israel from intl payments over sanctions

Ramilya Kanafina says the system will meet all the market requirements due to its security. A center for processing messages in SWIFT format is in the process of development. It is expected that all messaging options will be operating by December 2014, she added.

The National Payments Council, a non-profit partnership comprising members of the Russian national payment system, proposed establishing a Russian version of SWIFT 100 percent owned by Bank of Russia in September.

SWIFT, is currently one of Russia’s main connections to the international banking system, and if turned off, could hurt the Russian economy, in the short-term. Globally it transmits orders for transactions worth more than $6 trillion, and involves more than 10,000 financial institutions in 210 countries. According to SWIFT’s statute, the system has national groups of members and users in each country. In Russia it’s ROSSWIFT - the second biggest worldwide SWIFT association after the US.

Economist and Geopolitical analyst Peter Koenig talks to Asad Ismi

1. Is BRICS (Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa) a viable alternative to the present U.S.-dominated world economic system and does it have the potential to replace it? Are we witnessing the birth of a new international economic order in BRICS and the Russia-China energy deal?

The BRICS have a great potential to become a viable alternative to the dollar dominated economic system. The creation of the BRICS development bank is an indication in this direction. The bank could temporarily even act as a BRICS Central Bank and when the time comes issue a new BRICS currency, for example the Bricso. Together the BRICS account for almost 30% of world GDP and for about 45% of the world population. However, the US is using any means they can to destabilize the BRICS one by one. Take Brazil, though Dilma Rousseff has won easily the first round of elections, but after Washington’s slandering her government for corruption and high indebtedness – the usual non-substantiated arguments – her campaign had to work hard until reason prevailed. I’m confident, people’s trust will confirm her in the second round.

There is a massive effort of de-dollarization going on by the BRICS, led by Russia and China, the two strongest BRICS members. Since June 2014 regular and sizable ruble – yuan swaps have taken place to free the two countries from the traditional trading currency, the US dollar. In early July this year, after meeting with Vladimir Putin, Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Russian Central Bank, declared in an international media event, just before her impending meeting with the Governor of the Central Bank of China in Beijing, “We are discussing with China and our BRICS partners the establishment of a system of multilateral swaps that will allow to transfer resources to one or another country, if needed. A part of the currency reserves can be directed to [the new system]“, – thus announcing the emergence of an international anti-dollar alliance.

This signals the beginning of a new monetary system which eventually will issue its own currency, possibly a basket of currency, akin to the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) of the IMF that could gradually replace the dollar as a reserve currency. This is in fact already happening. Ten years ago, the world’s reserves consisted to about 90% of dollar denominated securities. Today that figure has shrunk to 60%.

Indeed it is high time that a new monetary and economic system replaces the current FED-BIS (Bank for International Settlement)-Wall Street dollar denominated predatory casino scheme that has in the last 100 years alone largely contributed to – and benefitted from – two world wars, impoverished our planet, socially and environmentally. This system is at the verge of a larger abyss than the depression of the 1930s.

The global amount of outstanding derivatives is estimated way above 700 trillion dollars – global GDP is about US$ 72.6 trillion (est. 2014). Five of the largest US banks alone have each more than 40 trillion in derivative exposure. If they decide to call in their debt at one or in part, it would for sure create a worldwide tsunami with a resulting collapse of our western monetary system. Today 6 US banks control two thirds of all banking assets (in 2008 the figure was just over 40%).

Add to this calamity that in 2008 the too-big-to-fail banks were ‘bailed out’ by public money, according to the new Todd-Frank banking Act, future insolvent banks have to rescue themselves by ‘bail-ins’ – confiscating money from depositors and shareholders. A similar law has recently been approved by the European Commission (EC). – The world at large can only hope that a new monetary system will emerge soon to reign in the atrocities of our western greed economy.

2. How will the BRICS system be better for the Global South than the U.S. one?

A “BRICS system” would offer a healthy alternative to the highly indebted and defunct dollar system, where money is printed at will. It would be detached from the Wall Street – BIS clearing system (SWIFT) and would allow trading in countries’ own moneys with currency swap arrangements between respective central banks. Today, though steadily declining, most trading is still denominated in dollars and has to transit through a US bank and the BIS clearing system. Under the FED-BIS-WS banking system currencies – and gold – are subject to exchange rate and interest manipulations.

For example, the ruble has lost 22% of its value since the beginning of 2014 and 15% in the last quarter alone. There is no economic reason for that, other than anti-Russia propaganda and currency manipulation, since the Russian economy is despite the ridiculous ‘sanctions’ on more solid ground than that of the US. Call it ‘sanctions’ – if you will – for not bending to the political demands of Washington on Ukraine. The western MSM would like you to believe that this is the result of the Russian caused Ukraine crisis which is driving investors away. Western media continue to ignore that Kiev’s gang of thugs, a Nazi government, was created and is supported and funded by Washington and its western puppets.

In the meantime, the BRICS and some other countries, including Argentina, have started denominating their contracts and trading in local currencies already some time ago, thereby considerably circumventing exposure to the fraudulent dollar system. A solid alternative currency may also become an alternative reserve currency – a deed for which countries around the world, especially China, Russia and India, have called for years.

Recently Beijing has offered the EU to deal with China directly through respective central banks’ currency swaps, thereby avoiding the oppressive claws of the dollar. Outrageous penalties, like the 9 billion dollar ‘fine’ to the French BNP-Paribas for dealing with sanctioned Iran might not have happened if the US would not have had a claw on the French bank because of its obligation to transit – and hold accounts – in the US banking system.

3. What is the potential for a BRICS currency to replace the U.S. dollar?

The chances are good that a BRICS currency, or let’s call it a solid alternative currency based on the combined economy of sound nations will eventually displace the dollar as ‘world currency’ – in other words as currency of reference and major reserve currency. Once the new money is established with a secure exchange and transaction system, replacing SWIFT, it is very likely that many countries that so far do not dare abandoning the dollar – for fear of sanctions – might join the new money pool, thereby strengthening it. As I said before, it is high time that the currency of worldwide theft, abuse and exploitation – the US dollar – financial instrument for endless wars and economic terrorism, be replaced with a currency of peaceful endeavors that respects national sovereignty – a currency that works for the people, not for the elite of a few.

4. To what extent will the recent Russia-China energy deal undermine the U.S. dollar? Will China pay for Russian gas in
Yuan and not the dollar?

The Russia –China US$ 400 billion energy deal, signed in May this year will by 2018 have some 38 billion cubic meters of gas flow through the so-called ‘Holy Grail’ pipeline from the largest gas producer, Russia, to the largest energy user, China – is many things at once: it is, of course a symbolic step in the process of decoupling hydrocarbon trading from the dollar, as it foresees payments in local currencies, rubles and yuan. It sidesteps the traditional dollar denomination for hydrocarbon trading. It is symbolic, because Russia’s total hydrocarbon trading per year alone amounts to about one trillion dollars. But it is a demonstration to the world that Russia and China, at the verge of war in the 1960s, are morphing into a strong alliance in trade, politics and defense. In that sense yes, the gas deal is clearly undermining the dollar.

Prior to the signing of this gas treaty, during a special meeting on 24 April, Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Shuvalov, declared that in the future Russian enterprises will be subject to a “currency switch executive order”, under which a certain percentage of contracts will be denominated in rubles. Whether and when the level will reach 100% is largely a question of the partners’ willingness to deal in ruble. This directive has been enhanced by Russiya Bank’s parallel declaration that the ruble is fully backed by gold.

5. What is the significance of the $100 billion development bank set up by BRICS? Can it replace the World Bank? How will it be better for the Global South than the World Bank?

For now it is a symbolic step away from the Washington Consensus of the WB and IMF neoliberal approach to development financing – away from privatizing of public goods and services, like water supply and health and education services – I would hope.

The development bank is not yet operational, but from my understanding will likely concentrate on infrastructure development and enhancement (transportation, energy distribution, telecommunication and so on), energy exploration and exploitation, including alternative clean energy – and social services.

The BRICS development bank may initially also serve as a BRICS central bank, especially in case of issuing a combined currency; and perhaps also take over some of the roles pertaining to the IMF, like balance of payment assistance – hopefully with human rather than with the IMFs draconian conditions.

Remember, today China is clearly in the BRICS driver’s seat with an interest to harvest the benefits of the group’s synergies and comparative advantages, a collection of countries geographically and culturally apart and distributed around the globe. Their relationships and trading among each other may make the benefits for each larger than the sum of its parts.

Whether the new BRICS development bank will eventually replace the WB and maybe the IMF depends largely on the way the new bank sees economic development, whether their policies and fields of action are attractive to borrowers and address their people’s demands. – That means that people clearly do not like to see their corrupt leaders becoming richer, while their water and sanitation services are being privatized, their natural resources being exploited by foreign corporations for a pittance and their government operations being ‘structurally adjusted’, leaving masses of people jobless, their social safety nets being abolished or stolen, with reduced wages and pensions. These neoliberal pro-cyclical policies should definitely not be part of the new BRICS economic development bank.

6. Please comment on the significance of the recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and its expansion to include India, Pakistan and Iran.

The 13th annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization – SCO – held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on 11-12 September, may be a hammer for the west. It was attended by the heads of state of Russia, President Putin, China, President Xi Jingpen and Iran, President Rouhani. The group’s membership, currently consisting of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan is poised to be expanded to include India, Pakistan and Iran. Mongolia is another likely candidate.

The Oriental Review, an Open Dialogue Research Journal, reports, “The reasoning behind the need for expansion is obvious. If the SCO is to have real weight on the international arena and become a truly prestigious organization that is able to rival NATO, it requires additional members. If India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia were all to become permanent members, which looks likely, the group would then control 20 percent of the world’s oil and half of all global gas reserves. On top of that, the bloc would represent about half of the world’s population. This would fortify SCO’s reputation as a dominant organization. Additionally, Turkey could become a member as well. Its leadership has long been seeking to join and Turkish-speaking governments are likely to support their petition.”

If Turkey, a NATO member, would join the SCO, this would clearly be a conflict and nail in NATO’s coffin – a blow to western powers.

The journal goes on – “The aggressive nature of Western actions towards Russia has certainly united the SCO members. What links them all – whether members or observers – is the rejection of Western-dominated institutions, such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund, which are all US-based. The SCO, like the BRICS with their Development Bank, sees itself as a forum against the Western dominated global order.”

The SCO summit concluded that economic cooperation between members should be enhanced, which includes further economic integration. The concept bodes particularly well for China’s idea of a new Silk Road Economic Belt that might expand westwards to include Germany, as per a personal proposal of President Xi to Madame Merkel in March 2014.

Hence, the Oriental Review concludes and I concur, the ambition to create a truly dominant organization free of any Western influence may become a reality in the near future. I would like to add – this cannot happen fast enough in order to stop US-led western aggressions and financial terrorism around the world.

7. Are the recent U.S. war moves in Syria, Iraq and Ukraine and the U.S. pivot to Asia aimed at preventing the consolidation of alliances such as BRICS?

These moves – or rather military aggressions – have multiple purposes. A primary purpose is ‘regime change’ of all those governments which do not align with Washington’s imperial ideology. In the Middle East, and elsewhere for that purpose, the idea is to sow chaos and strive between different ethnic groups and religions. Make no mistake, the ISIS, the latest so-called ‘terror caliphate’, and all its predecessors – were and are all created and funded by Washington. Their purpose is to destabilize countries and then to justify US intervention to ‘salvage’ what’s left of the mess.

In other words, to bring about ‘regime change’ – just see the recent turmoil in Iraq and Syria – and to some extent also Ukraine. In Ukraine the White House literally orchestrated a coup in February this year and installed, financed and armed a regime of Nazi thugs in Kiev which is now committing the most atrocious war crimes in the eastern Ukraine Donbass area, killing thousands of civilians – so far more than 3,700 – mostly women and children and causing a flood of so far more than 1.2 million refugees into Russia. In this latter case the ‘pivot’ to Asia is expanding NATO basis ever closer to Moscow’s doorstep – and to take over – like in looting – an extremely resource rich country that has been the cradle of historic Russia. Obviously, Mr. Putin, the Kremlin and the Russian people do not like to see this vicious take-over of their brothers and sisters and their ancient lands.

But there is more to destabilizing the BRICS and the pivot to Asia — practically maneuvering of Ukraine into civil war, planting chaos in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria — than meets the eye. It is the end game, full spectrum dominance – the full achievement of the PNAC (Plan for a New American Century) – meaning complete control of the world’s resources, people and economies. Already in the 1970s Henry Kissinger, one of the patriarchs of elitist and neoliberal thinking and perhaps the greatest war criminal still alive, spoke these infamous words, “Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world”. These words resonate today stronger than ever.

8. How fragile is the U.S. economy? ls it in danger of collapsing soon due to its heavy debt load?

The US economy is as fragile as can be. It is basically a balloon of hot air, ready to implode. This is partly due to its enormous debt – 105% of GDP (US$ 17 trillion, est.2014) – and unmet obligations – 127 trillion, about 8 times GDP; no other country in the world has this level of actual debt and foreseen but uncovered obligations.

Today the economy of the United States is a mere house of cards. It consists to more than 50% of the war and security industry and related services and industries. In other words, the US has a GDP of destruction – with the hope that after a country has been destroyed to rubble, its citizens killed or reduced to misery – US corporations will be called to rebuild and rescue what’s left. As per Robert Zoellick, former World Bank President ….. “As in Iraq, we hope to be part of rebuilding Libya, when the war ends” – and we all know who controls the World Bank.

As the world at large takes gradually note of the emptiness of the US economy, of the nakedness of the US emperor, so to speak, people and countries are wishing and hoping – some are even calling – for an alternative monetary and economic system, as their reserves and international contracts are in peril.

Adding to the fragility of the US economy is its banking system. As mentioned before, it is again at the verge of a collapse – this time with considerably more serious consequences than in 2008 of which repercussions are still felt today around the globe – 6 years later. – Many ‘expert’ estimates predict a stock market slump of up to 70% in the very foreseeable future, vs. about 50% in 2008. Consequences of unemployment, housing dispossessions, hunger and disease – sheer misery are unfathomable.

However, there is a strong feeling that these cyclical economic collapses and disasters are not just unpredictable random events inherent in our economic system. They are rather planned events – planned by the masters of the system – the FED, Wall Street, BIS, the financiers of this world – so that the rich can get richer and the poor will get poorer. This phenomenon was already observed during the economic slump of the 1930s. The middle class is diminishing. The abyss between rich and poor grows worldwide – towards a world of a distinct corporate and finance elite and a mass of serfs to scurry about complying with the wishes and desires of the masters.

But it’s not too late. We the People can stop it. We must wake up and become conscious.

9. Is there anything else you consider important and would like to add?

People beware of the Mass Media and their outrageous lies!

The Mainstream Media, or commonly called MSM, is a weapon as criminal and killing as the US / NATO war machine with its European puppets. The MSM are in the hands of 6 giant Judo-Anglo-Saxon media corporations. They literally control 90% of the information officially dished out to the common citizen. Their news are copied and replicated throughout the world, translated into whatever language is suitable and needed.

They work and are paid for the financial and corporate elite, especially the military / security and financial complex. – They dupe people into believing that they are in pursuit of peace, protecting you from terror, preventing villains like Russia and China from taking over the world, when in reality it is thanks to Russian and Chinese diplomacy and economic pressures that the world has so far escaped WWIII.

Already Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, said – A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth.

That’s the level of lying we are exposed at today – far surpassing Orwell’s 1984 doomsday scenario. Our thinking has been brainwashed and manipulated to the point where a lie is more comfortable and easier to believe than the truth.

There are few media that are worth watching or listening to. One of them is TeleSur of South America, with home in Venezuela. It broadcasts around the world, has top reporters and journalists stationed and reporting directly from the hotspots, with in-depth analyses, connecting the dots and areas of interest – something that is hard to find these days. TeleSur can be seen in most of the Southern Hemisphere, including in parts of the US, and everywhere on internet.

We have to wake up – awaken to a consciousness of peace and solidarity – seeking the truth from uncommon sources, like the present one, TeleSur and others on internet, rather than submitting to the steady drip of indoctrination by the mainstream media.

Becoming conscious of people, societies, the environment – the truth around us – that’s my wish for humanity.

"There are two ways to conquer and to enslave a nation. One is by the sword. the other is by DEBT." John Adams

The purpose of war, according to this brief documentary by radio host Michael Rivero, is to force central banks on countries that try to issue their own money. He makes a compelling argument, illustrated by numerous historical examples. The film’s main value, in my view, is in dispelling common misconceptions about where money comes from. Contrary to popular belief, western democracies don’t issue the money they use to run government services. They borrow the money at interest from privately owned central banks. In the US, this private central bank is called the Federal Reserve.


The American Revolution

Rivero begins by quoting Benjamin Franklin, who saw George III’s Currency Act as the main trigger for the American Revolution. The Currency Act prohibited colonists from using colony-issued currency. Instead they were required to use English bank notes. The latter were borrowed at interest from the England’s private central bank, the Bank of England. This interest payment amounted to a de facto tax on each and every financial transaction.

After the Revolution, the new American government returned to issuing its own currency. This ended in 1791, when Alexander Hamilton persuaded Congress to appoint a private central bank to finance government services. The First Bank of the United States was funded (at interest) by the Bank of England, which was controlled by Nathan Mayer Rothschild.


The War of 1812

Plagued by inefficiency and corruption, the First Bank of the United States was so unpopular that Congress ignored Rothschild’s threats and refused to renew its charter in 1811. Rothschild, whose control over British money enabled him to control both the economy and Parliament, had warned that Britain would declare war to re-colonize the US unless Congress renewed the charter. Although the US won the War of 1812, they were forced to charter the Second Bank of the United State in 1816 to repay their massive war debt. American’s second central bank lasted until 1832, when voters returned Andrew Jackson to a second term based on a campaign promise to shut it down.


The Civil War

From 1832-1862, the so-called “free banking era,” all banks were state charted. In 1862 Lincoln created a national system of banks to fund the federal government and issue currency.
When he authorized the US Treasury to issue $150 million in interest-free “greenbacks,” the London Times called for the destruction of the US because of the major threat this posed to the global economy (i.e. international bankers). To punish Lincoln, England and (and France) would provide financial and material support to the southern Confederacy.

Government-issued currency ended for good in when the Wall Street banks conspired with Woodrow Wilson to create a permanent (private) central bank. The Federal Reserve Act was written in secret by the US banking establishment and rammed through Congress during the 1913 Christmas recess.


World War I and II

According to Rivero, World War I was also a banker’s war, intended to punish Germany for the strict limitations it imposed on its central bank. At the end of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to repay all the war debts of the other European countries, even though Germany hadn’t started the war.

Crushed by this war debt, the only way Hitler could salvage the German economy was to abolish Germany’s central bank and return to interest-free government-issued currency. This move, which infuriated international bankers, resulted in rapid Germany re-industrialization when the rest of the developed world was mired in deep economic depression. It was lauded internationally as the “German miracle.”

Meanwhile in 1933, American bankers and industrialists plotted a “Bankers’ Putsch,” an attempted military coup against Roosevelt. Their goal was to install corporate fascism in the US, along the lines of Mussolini’s government in Italy. General Smedley Butler, the war hero they enlisted to lead the coup, foiled it by exposing it to the House McCormick-Dirkson Committee. The largely pro-business committee instituted a cover-up, until journalist John Spivac uncovered their secret report in 1967.


Breton Woods

In 1946, following World War II, forty-four nations signed an agreement at Breton Woods New Hampshire for the US dollar to replace the British pound as the world’s reserve currency. This was done with two stipulations: 1) that the US dollar would be redeemable for gold at a price of $35 an ounce and 2) that the Federal Reserve wouldn’t issue more dollars than they could redeem in gold.

Because the Federal Reserve is a private banking network, the federal government has no control whatsoever over the quantity of US dollars they issue. In 1971, it became obvious that the Fed was issuing far more dollars than it could redeem (the vast majority of money the Fed creates is electronic money – only about 3% is in notes and coins*). When France asked to redeem its dollar reserves for gold, Nixon unilaterally suspended the gold standard agreed at Breton Woods.


The Birth of the Petrodollar

At this point the US dollar became a “fiat” currency, theoretically back by nothing. In reality, it was backed by oil, through a complex agreement whereby the US agreed to “defend” countries (i.e. not destabilize or declare war on them) if they committed to buying and selling oil in dollars, aka “petrodollars.”

According to Rivero, the US invasion against a long list of Muslim countries is an indirect result of this agreement. Islam prohibits lending money at interest. As Rivero points out, none of seven Muslim countries retired General Wesley Clark has identified as targets for US military aggression (Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon) had private central banks prior to US invasion and occupation.**
Historical Inaccuracies

Apart from several minor historical inaccuracies (eg the purpose of Executive Order 11110 that John Kennedy signed in 1961 and Nixon’s alleged pledge of the National Park system as security on US debt), the film serves as an excellent introduction to the hidden role played by private banks in issuing and controlling the global money supply.

Very few people understand what Putin is doing at the moment. And almost no one understands what he will do in the future.

No matter how strange it may seem, but right now, Putin is selling Russian oil and gas only for physical gold.

Putin is not shouting about it all over the world. And of course, he still accepts US dollars as an intermediate means of payment. But he immediately exchanges all these dollars obtained from the sale of oil and gas for physical gold!

To understand this, it is enough to look at the dynamics of growth of gold reserves of Russia and to compare this data with foreign exchange earnings of the RF coming from the sale of oil and gas over the same period....

Thus, in exchange for Russian oil, gas and uranium, the West pays Russia with dollars, purchasing power of which is artificially inflated against oil and gold by the efforts (manipulations) of the West. However, Putin uses these dollars only to withdraw physical gold from the West in exchange at a price denominated in US dollars, artificially lowered by the same West.

This truly brilliant economic combination by Putin puts the West led by the United States in a position of a snake, aggressively and diligently devouring its own tail....

How long will the West be able to buy oil and gas from Russia in exchange for physical gold?

And what will happen to the US petrodollar after the West runs out of physical gold to pay for Russian oil, gas and uranium, as well as to pay for Chinese goods?

No one in the west today can answer these seemingly simple questions.

And this is called "Checkmate", ladies and gentlemen. The game is over.

In a key foreign policy address to the Central committee of the ruling CPC, Chinese President Xi Jinping has underlined the importance of Beijing championing the cause of the developing countries.

“We are firm in our position that all countries, regardless of their size, strength and level of development, are equal members of the international community and that the destiny of the world should be decided by people of all countries. We should uphold international justice and, in particular, speak up for developing countries,” said Xi.

In 2014, China has launched a new Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) with 21 Asian nations, a $100 billion BRICS Bank and a $40 Silk Road investment fund, all geared towards giving a bigger say to BRICS and emerging economies in international economic affairs.

The Chinese President was speaking in Beijing on Friday and Saturday at a conference on foreign affairs presided over by the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

“We should advance multilateral diplomacy, work to reform the international system and global governance, and increase the representation and say of China and other developing countries,” Xi was quoted by Chinese state agency Xinhua.

Developing economies like the BRICS have long alleged that the IMF and World Bank impose belt-tightening policies in exchange for loans while giving them little say in deciding terms.

The IMF reforms have hit a serious roadblock with the Barack Obama administration failing to push IMF quota reforms through the US Congress till now.

Apart from Xi, the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and top Communist leaders, China’s ambassador to the US also spoke at the conference.

The Chinese President also pledged to push for a world free of domination by any superpower, without mentioning the US.

“We should be fully mindful of the complexity of the evolving international architecture, and we should also recognize that the growing trend toward a multi-polar world will not change,” Xi said on Saturday in Beijing.

“We should be keenly aware of the protracted nature of contest over the international order; on the other hand, we need to recognize that the direction of reform of the international system will remain unchanged,” said the Chinese leader.

China has reservations about a much-hyped Asia pivot as Washington seeks to expand American interests in Asia as a counterpoint to China’s growing influence.

In efforts to boost China-South Korea trade and increase the use of the yuan in Korea, the two countries on Monday launched an offshore trading hub in Seoul for China’s yuan currency.

The two currencies can now trade directly, cutting out the US dollar.

Monday’s establishment of the won-yuan market is expected to help reduce appreciation pressure for the Korean currency against the US dollar by curbing inflows.

“The won-yuan direct trading market is like a new start-up with high potential. We will nurture this start-up into a world-class competitive hidden champion,” South Korean Finance Minister Choi Kyung- hwan said in Seoul on Monday at the opening.

China is South Korea’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade amounting to $230 billion in 2013.

China is promoting the use of its currency as an alternative to the dollar in global trade and finance and more and more nations now want to capture the fast-growing market for offshore trade in yuan, also known as the renminbi.

The Chinese currency is already traded directly against the US dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen, the British pound, the Aussie and New Zealand dollars, Russia’s rouble, the Singapore dollar and Malaysia’s ringgit. Yuan settlement in trade surging from 2.06 trillion yuan in 2012 to 3.01 trillion yuan in 2013 worldwide.

Earlier this year, South Korea won an 80 billion yuan ($12.9 billion) quota for domestic investors to buy securities in China under the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program.

Well, maybe some of what you copy and paste here has some validity. I just heard on the news that China has surpassed the U.S. as the, and I forgot the exact term he used, but something like the leading nation.

This “seven times” of dominion extended from 607 B.C. to 1914 A.D. But instead of ending, as one would normally expect, we saw the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank, which extended our captivity for another century to the present time. The Federal Reserve Act was passed on December 23, 1913, and its hundredth anniversary is due in about two weeks on December 23, 2013.

The reason for the “extension of life,” prophesied in Daniel 7:12, is because Judah and Jerusalem were independent of beast rule from 163 to 63 B.C. after Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the temple. The Judeans threw off the rule of Syria (part of the Grecian beast) in 163 B.C. and remained independent until Rome took Jerusalem in 63 B.C. Thus, the 2,520-year contract was suspended for a century, on account of Antiochus’ desecration, and this time had to be added at the end from 1913/14 to 2013/14.

It appears that we are now at the end of this time period. Of course, keep in mind that Jerusalem was originally captured by Babylon in 604 B.C., which was three years after Babylon became an empire in 607. If we date things from 604 B.C., then the 2,520 year contract should have ended in 1916/1917, and the added century would take us to 2016/2017. So in the big picture, we will probably see some sort of 3-year transition in the fall of Babylon.”

News? On the Mainstream Media (MSM) News? I am surprise that you heard something like that there. Maybe it was a guest who expessed his opinion, but that wasn't MSM's opinion right? My expectation of MSM is they will lie till the end. But I may be wrong.

but from what I'm understanding from their spokeperson it will take another 2-3 years before Babylon's corrupt Banking system will totally be replaced with the new....
I see this lining up perfectly with