John Perkins: Economic Hit Man

[Windpower]

Perkins talks about the American Empire

CIA assinations, coup d'etat  etc

he must know where several skeletons are buried since he is still alive and talking ....


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21000.htm

[glenn kangiser]

One of my friends was in exactly what Perkins was talking about.  

He said our government is run by the most evil group in the world.  Don't Trust Them.  (His words... maybe cleaned up a bit- not mine).  

He declined the last time they asked him to go help take down another government.

He was a sniper among other things.

He knows because of things done to others, that we are not safe from them here or able to trust the things they are doing or telling us.  He said they are untrustworthy lying SOB's.  They do it for us.    If they do it for us they will do it to us.  Watch your back.

[Virginia Gent]

Bilderberg Group
Trilateral Commission
Council on Foreign Relations (C.F.R.)
Canadian/American/Mexican Government

This is the pipeline, by which, sh*t flows downhill. While most people worry about the lowest rung, thinking that fixing the base of this perverse pyramid will fix all, more and more are realizing that they need to be looking higher up on this pyramid to find those who really run the show. My tinfoil hat might be a little lose today, but over the last 10 years I've found most of my friends, who called me crazy, asking me more and more about this set-up I highlighted above. I feel confident that enough sheep are waking up that some serious damage can be done to the global elite.

[ScottA]

Bliderburg, trilateral, CFR are all part of the same beast "The club of Rome". They have created all these and other groups to manage different parts of their agenda which is Global government and to reduce the worlds population to somewhere around 1 billion people. 990+ million of which will be slaves if they get their way. They are in the process of a huge power grab and now control most of the planet. The few countries they don't control are being targeted for destruction or takeover such as Iran and N. Korea. The USA was finaly taken over fully while GWB was in office. The few rights you think you still have will be slowly eroded over the next few years. There is no way to stop them that I can see at this point and there is no where to run to so we may as well adapt until they finaly eat each other.

[glenn kangiser]

That is pretty well how it is - multiple levels of not to much consequence at the base and the power is at the top - above the governments.

I agree - you guys have a pretty good handle on it.

[Windpower]

I had 8 hours of windshield time yesterday

I am re-listening to the Confessions of an Economic Hitman I have on CD (last listened to it 4 years ago)


The 'riots' in Iran are no doubt a function of the 'jackals' -- CIA operatives

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/2218623/George-W-Bush-raised-400-million-for-action-against-Iran.html

-- afterall $400 M can buy a lot of unrest including snipers to kill a beautiful young woman

Bring in the suitable martyr

this new video is becoming the face of the 'revolution'
(warning gruesome)

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=149274



Bring in the  the crying son of the Shah


WASHINGTON (AFP) — The son of the late shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, was Monday carrying in his breastpocket a photograph of the slain protester known as Neda said to have been killed in the Tehran protests.

"I have added her (Neda) to the list of my daughters. She is now forever in my pocket," Pahlavi told AFP fighting back tears, after calling at a press conference for Western media and governments to stand strongly alongside the protest movement in Iran.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iBBlNJKLShgOHbXp4FonMDHACYoQ

[muldoon]

theres some damn dirty business afoot no matter how you look at it.

Also, seems Mousavi is no saint either .. 
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/spytalk/2009/06/mousavi-celebrated-in-iranian.html

the word just more turned upside down everyday.  follow the money. 

[harry51]

Re: The American Empire.............check this article out......

Washington is unable to call all the shots

By Michael Hudson

Published: June 15 2009 03:00 | Last updated: June 15 2009 03:00

Challenging the American empire will be the focus of meetings in Yekaterinburg, Russia, today and tomorrow for Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other leaders of the six-nation Shanghai Co-operation Organisation. The alliance comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajiki-stan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, with observer status for Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia.

The attendees (who will be joined on Tuesday by Brazil for trade discussions) have assured American diplomats that dismantling the US financial and military hegemony is not their aim. They simply want to discuss mutual aid - but in a way that has no role for the US or for the dollar as a vehicle for trade among these countries.

The meeting is an opportunity for China, Russia and India to "build an increasingly multipolar world order", as Mr Medvedev put it in a St Petersburg speech this month. What he meant was this: we have reached our limit in subsidising the US military encirclement of Eurasia while also allowing the US to appropriate our exports, companies and real estate in exchange for paper money of questionable worth.

An "artificially maintained unipolar system", Mr Medvedev said, was based on "one big centre of consumption, financed by a growing deficit, and thus growing debts, one formerly strong reserve currency, and one dominant system of assessing assets and risks".

Keen observers of America, if not effective managers of their own economies, these countries argue that the root of the global financial crisis is that the US makes too little and spends too much. Especially upsetting is US military expenditure - such as military aid to Georgia or the presence in the oil-rich Middle East and central Asia - using money that foreign central banks recycle.

Overconsumption by US citizens, US buy-outs of foreign companies and dollars the Pentagon spends abroad all end up in foreign central banks. These governments face a hard choice: either recycle the dollars back to America by buying US Treasury bonds or let the "free market" force up their currencies relative to the dollar - thereby pricing their exports out of world markets, creating domestic unemployment and business failures. US-style free markets hook them into a system that forces them to accept unlimited dollars. Now they want out.

This means creating an alternative. Rather than making merely "cosmetic changes as some countries and perhaps the international financial organisations themselves might want", Mr Medvedev concluded his St Petersburg speech: "What we need are financial institutions of a completely new type, where particular political issues and motives, and particular countries, will not dominate."

For starters, the six countries intend to trade in their own currencies so as to get the benefit of mutual credit, rather than give it to the US. In recent months China has struck bilateral deals with Brazil and Malaysia to trade in renminbi rather than the dollar, sterling or euros.

Many foreigners see the US as a lawless nation. How else to characterise a country that holds out a set of laws for others - on war, debt repayment and the treatment of prisoners - but ignores them itself?

The US is the world's largest debtor, yet has avoided the pain of "structural adjustments" imposed on other debtor nations. US interest rate and tax reductions in the face of exploding trade and budget deficits are seen as the height of hypocrisy in view of the austerity programmes that the "Washington consensus" has forced on other countries via the International Monetary Fund and other vehicles. The US tells debtor economies to sell off their public utilities and natural resources, raise their interest rates and increase taxes while gutting their social safety nets to squeeze out money to pay creditors.

It is no mystery to other countries how the US remains above the law. Foreigners see a financial system backed by American aircraft carriers and military bases encircling the globe. The IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organisation and other Washington surrogates are seen as vestiges of a lost American empire no longer able to rule by economic strength, left only with military domination.

The countries that are gathering today are convinced that this hegemony cannot continue without adequate revenues and are attempting to hasten the bankruptcy of the US financial-military world order. If China, Russia and their allies have their way, the US will no longer live off the savings of others, nor have the money for unlimited military spending.

US officials wanted to attend Yekaterinburg as observers. They were told no. It is a word that Americans will hear much more in the future.

The writer is professor of economics at the University of Missouri


Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

[Sassy]

The curtain has been removed....

[glenn kangiser]

I have been saying this would happen for years.  It only makes sense.

[Windpower]

Several sources are predicting a dollar crash/hyperinflation starting as early as this fall and accelerating into 2010 - 2013

$500 a barrel oil !!

$50 a gallon milk

I wonder what happens to salaries in hyperinflation ... If you are lucky enough to have a job


Sources   GEAB  subscription 250 Euros (they have been spot on since 2006)

http://www.leap2020.eu/June-2006-Beginning-of-phase-2-of-the-global-systemic-crisis-the-phase-of-acceleration-Consequences-for-economic-and_a121.html

Peoplenomics   $40 year

UrbanSurvival.com

[muldoon]

"Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajiki-stan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, with observer status for Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia."

sounds like a terrifying superpower...   They may indeed create a non petro-dollar based currency, and it will be the end of their economies respectively.   China is the only "strength" in that grouping - and their strength comes from the export economy.  Do you think the fine folks in Uzbekistan will be the consumers that the US was?  How many cheap plastic dvd players and flat screens will the average Mongolian buy?

[ScottA]

The real problem here is that we have nothing to sell back to them but our debt. What use is money to them that they can't buy anything with except oil? If we had products to sell to China for our dollars we paid to them then they would have something of value as it stands now all we offer is more paper.

[Windpower]

"Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajiki-stan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, with observer status for Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia."

sounds like a terrifying superpower...   They may indeed create a non petro-dollar based currency, and it will be the end of their economies respectively.   China is the only "strength" in that grouping - and their strength comes from the export economy.  Do you think the fine folks in Uzbekistan will be the consumers that the US was?  How many cheap plastic dvd players and flat screens will the average Mongolian buy?

Now why on earth would they want to create a non-petro based currency

I think that a syndicate of about 45% of the world population would have some genuine 'clout' as they say in Chicago


plus 5 of the 9 nuclear weapons capable nations (I put NK in there too -- basically a puppet of China) 

[muldoon]

The real problem here is that we have nothing to sell back to them but our debt. What use is money to them that they can't buy anything with except oil? If we had products to sell to China for our dollars we paid to them then they would have something of value as it stands now all we offer is more paper.

Yes, our lack of production certainly creates a disadvantage.  However, it is not a matter of us not having something to sell to them to buy our debt but the inverse.  As we send dollars overseas and buy their stuff - they in turn return those same dollars by purchasing us denominated debt.  The money has use other than just purchasing oil.  It feeds their people, and keeps production up. 

Consider this, everyone knows the US is in trouble with social security and medicare.  Imagine the shape true communist countries are in.  The social involvemnt and responsibilities of China and Russia are far higher.  Literally the entire country is on welfare.  They NEED those dollars or the face revolt of their populace. 

Now why on earth would they want to create a non-petro based currency

I didnt say non-petro currency, I said petro-dollar - referring to the global standard by which oil is bought or sold in us dollars.  Those us dollars are thus in demand to settle contracts and debt obligations which.  This in turn has lead to the entire world having debt denominated in us dollars.  This is the demand for us dollars today.  The only way to have a hyperinflationary moment is for a global debt default where EVERYONE defautls on the us dollar.  This in turn has a net affect of all countries devaluing together, which not only is unlikely, but if it did occur the US would still be in better shape than the rest of the world. 

I think that a syndicate of about 45% of the world population would have some genuine 'clout' as they say in Chicago

plus 5 of the 9 nuclear weapons capable nations (I put NK in there too -- basically a puppet of China) 

I would not say they have no clout, I would say that they have no resources to purchase the exports from china - thus the chinese economy would crumble.  If china falls, those 5 countries economic strength would look be nominal.   

[Windpower]

After the dollar collapses the vacuum in world (oil) currency will be filled by something. I suspect it will be the Euro in the West and the Yuan (or it's new sucessor, let's call it the BRIC) for the east

I think it likely that this consortium of 45 % of the popoulation of the earth will find that they can do just fine without the U.S. dollar.

If this coalition were to create a gold backed or partially gold backed currency for almost half of the population of that planet (the BRIC) certainly others would jump onto the band wagon as well

notably oil rich Venezuala, Brazil's neighbor to the north (then in domino fashion the rest of South America)

Iran has already locked in one of the largest oil and gas contracts ever with China. Iran will go willingly into the  "BRIC" oil trading currency as well. They already have very close ties with Russia, too.

Next to join might be  Indonesia with their huge oil reserves.

Japan has not fared well under western banksters (note Basel 1 that collapsed the Nikkei from 38000 to 9000)
and created their 'lost decade')

Even though there is great animousity between Japan and China I think Japan would see this as a way out.
financially.

And if Japan can secure it's oil from this new block they won't need our North slope crude from Alaska



Since the US oil companies have stupidly let our refineries on the west coast lag, we don't have refining capacity on the west coast for the Alaska heavy crude.  We will be forced to sell our heavy north slope oil for a bargain price --with the added financial burden of having to trade it in the new oil currency, the BRIC (or the Euro)

China and Japan own a huge amount of our dollar debt. Clearly they want to get out of this financially intact

The US will probably be forced to buy back the our debt from China and Japan using the BRIC (or Gold --- confiscation of privately held gold in the US like FDR did in April 1933 maybe. or maybe US real estate as collateral...)

and WhirlyBen Bernanke will be hung by his own petard  (along with the late great USA) now just a part of the NAU with a nicely equalized standard of living somewhere between Canada and Mexico (if we're lucky)

And personally I think we have run out of luck....

And much of Europe will just keep doing the Euro thing -- with the exception of the UK they will be just fine

imo

[rwanders]

   When these "predictions" do not come to pass, I assume we will be receiving an equally vociferous announcement of the next discovery of a vast conspiracy-------I can hardly wait, but I remain hopeful----surely the hundreds of devotees who have been making these prophesies for centuries can't all be wrong------eventually the world will end. Meanwhile, the world is surely a dangerous place----no one has made it out of here alive yet!

[Windpower]

Hyperinflation Nation

http://www.lebed.biz/hyperinflationnation.html

[muldoon]

After the dollar collapses the vacuum in world (oil) currency will be filled by something. I suspect it will be the Euro in the West and the Yuan (or it's new sucessor, let's call it the BRIC) for the east

You build no case for why the dollar will collapse, you literally seem to just take it for granted.  It most definitely is not a given, and there is a strong case to be made for it to not happen at all.   We wont know what our own or other governments will do, but a collapsing dollar is not guarenteed at this point. 

This is from a London paper The Telegraph - out yesterday.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5675198/Chinas-banks-are-an-accident-waiting-to-happen-to-every-one-of-us.html

a few quotes from it:

"China's banks are veering out of control. The half-reformed economy of the People's Republic cannot absorb the $1,000bn (£600bn) blitz of new lending issued since December. "

""Future losses on stimulus could turn out to be larger than expected, and it is unclear what share the central and/or local governments ultimately will be willing or able to bear."

Note the phrase "able to bear". Fitch's "macro-prudential risk" indicator for China threatens to jump from category 1 (safe) to category 3 (Iceland, et al). This is a surprise to me but Michael Pettis from Beijing University says China's public debt may be as high as 50pc-70pc of GDP when "correctly counted".

The regime is so hellbent on meeting its growth target of 8pc that it has given banks an implicit guarantee for what Fitch calls a "massive lending spree".

Bank exposure to corporate debt has reached $4,200bn. It is rising at a 30pc rate, even as profits contract at a 35pc rate.

Fitch traces the 2009 bubble to the central bank's decision to cut interest on reserves to 0.72pc. Bankers responded to this "margin squeeze" by ramping up the volume of lending instead. Over half the new debt is short-term. Roll-over risk is rocketing. China's monetary stimulus since November is arguably more extreme than the post-Lehman printing of the US Federal Reserve, though less obvious to the untrained eye. " 


-- now please explain - if they are doing the same thing as us, and indeed perhaps much worse than us, why would the world want their currency over ours? 

Oh yeah - the euro.  This is from June 24th, just last week.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2d9300c0-60a2-11de-aa12-00144feabdc0,dwp_uuid=70662e7c-3027-11da-ba9f-00000e2511c8.html?nclick_check=1

"The European Central Bank has pumped a record €442.2bn into the eurozone banking system in a first-ever offer of unlimited one-year funds as it battles continental Europe's severe recession."

"At the same time as cutting official borrowing costs, the ECB also expanded its armoury substantially by agreeing to match in full eurozone banks' demand for liquidity for periods of up to six months.

Although such steps have attracted less attention, ECB policymakers argue the effects on the recession-hit eurozone economy have been similar to "quantitative" or "credit" easing measures unveiled by the Bank of England and US Federal Reserve. "


-- again - if currencies are valued based on their measure against other currencies - and all currencies are doing the same thing, why is the dollar destined to fall while they are not?   I am not trying to be argumentative here.  This is a real question, why would the US dollar crash when we are not necessarily in worse shape than any other currency?  For the US dollar to crash, the wealth would have to go "somewhere".  What is the alternative? 

I think it likely that this consortium of 45 % of the popoulation of the earth will find that they can do just fine without the U.S. dollar.


If this coalition were to create a gold backed or partially gold backed currency for almost half of the population of that planet (the BRIC) certainly others would jump onto the band wagon as well

notably oil rich Venezuala, Brazil's neighbor to the north (then in domino fashion the rest of South America)

Do you trust china to pay you gold?  Do you trust South Africa to provide the world enough gold yearly?  The largest producers of gold are South Africa, the United states, and Australia.  Why would China want to use that?   You do know that we were on the gold standard during the great depression right - it is not a magical solution to financial crises, because generally they are derived from credit disruption and dislocation  - not usually a monetary base event.  (In the last century or so at least)

Iran has already locked in one of the largest oil and gas contracts ever with China. Iran will go willingly into the  "BRIC" oil trading currency as well. They already have very close ties with Russia, too.

Next to join might be  Indonesia with their huge oil reserves.

Japan has not fared well under western banksters (note Basel 1 that collapsed the Nikkei from 38000 to 9000)
and created their 'lost decade')

Even though there is great animousity between Japan and China I think Japan would see this as a way out.
financially.

And if Japan can secure it's oil from this new block they won't need our North slope crude from Alaska



Since the US oil companies have stupidly let our refineries on the west coast lag, we don't have refining capacity on the west coast for the Alaska heavy crude.  We will be forced to sell our heavy north slope oil for a bargain price --with the added financial burden of having to trade it in the new oil currency, the BRIC (or the Euro)

China and Japan own a huge amount of our dollar debt. Clearly they want to get out of this financially intact

The US will probably be forced to buy back the our debt from China and Japan using the BRIC (or Gold --- confiscation of privately held gold in the US like FDR did in April 1933 maybe. or maybe US real estate as collateral...)

Having the debt denominated in us dollars is perhaps our greatest strength.  Why would we pay back in BRIC or gold? 

[Windpower]

Thanks for replying to my musings, Muldoon


here are a couple sites that, I think, tend to make the above more plausible

Hyperinflation (dollar collapse)

This guy has 'reconstructed' M3, since the Fed has been 'disinclined' to report it. Kinda has that 'hockey stick' look to it -- hyperinflation ?, even if you are a dyed in the wool Keynesian, our economy is certainly not growing as fast as M3  by a long shot 

http://nowandfutures.com/key_stats.html


Of particular interest to me, also,  was the world map at the bottom compared to the proposed 'BRIC' alliances

http://www.wtnrradio.com/news/story.php?story=361

You also mentioned S. Africa as a major gold producer. China has been courting close ties with a number of African countries including S Africa.

It would be a major win-win if SA decided to throw in with the BRIC alliance

The wild card in my speculations is WWIII - if the west refuses to 'play fair'

and I don't really want to go there figuratively or in reality but I could see the battle lines queuing up along the east -west aliances (Euro vs 'BRIC')


(more later, I have to go fix a Mass Spectrometer)

[Windpower]

From GEAB 36 (just released)


Indeed, this first BRIC Summit (which it is not difficult to imagine how difficult it was to organize), is the
first sign of dislocation of the current international system. The US probably did everything it could to
prevent it from taking place; moreover they were refused the status of observers inside it, indicating
clearly that what was to be discussed had nothing to do with diplomacy. The main topic was not a military
and strategic issue, but a monetary and financial one: what to do with the hundreds of billions of US
dollars (in the form of US Treasuries in particular) accumulated by these four countries in the past few
years?

Chinese and Russians have already noticed that their dollars are not always welcome in the United States,
Europe or Australia when they try to use them for investing in "strategic" assets66. With the Brazilians and
Indians, they have therefore entered into a large number of swap agreements in their own currencies (a
trend that will gain momentum after this summit) and they are trying to buy everything they can with
their Dollars as long as some countries are still ready to sell their riches for this currency. But all of them
are aware that they have far too many Dollars to be able to spend them usefully now that the US
economy is contracting and that the Fed has undertaken to print hundreds of billions of new Dollars. Now
suspicion surrounds this currency and all related assets. For this reason, they have decided to buy each
other's treasury bonds, thus reducing their dependence on US T-Bonds67. At this stage, the aim is not yet
to sell US T-Bonds, but it has dealt a severe blow to future T-Bond sales.