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AEOLUS International Banking Wipeout...Gone with the Wind Chapter 12 – The False Prophet by Doug Krieger
“The crisis in Greece poses the most significant challenge yet to Europe’s common currency, the euro, and the continent’s goal of economic unity. The country is, in the argot of banking, too big to be allowed to fail. Greece owes the world $300 billion, and major banks are on the hook for much of that debt. A default would reverberate around the globe.” (Wall Street played role in Greece crisis…Strategy to Manipulate Debt Stretched Over a Decade…by Louise Story, Nelson D. Schwartz and Landon Thomas Jr., New York Times, from the Sacramento Bee, February 14, 2010) How quaint the “deals” that kept Greece in compliance with the euro – Aeolus. “Some of the Greek deals were named after figures in Greek mythology. One of them, for instance, was called Aeolos (sic), after the god of the winds.” (Ibid.) Are we witnessing the Euro-IndyMac wheeling and dealing that only the Merchants of Tarshish can “package?” Indeed, please read the Market Oracle – similar to the Oracle of Delphi – and laugh your head silly pouring over contemporary Greek mathematicians; hardly the people who boast of Pythagoras or Archimedes. . . both of whom would have been astonished at today’s financial imbroglio created by the Greeks! So, where’s the answer my friend . . . it’s blowing in the wind? Hey, Goldman-Sachs can sure do math; check out the $16.9Billion in executive bonuses for just the first 9 months of 2009! Goldman-Sachs and JPM in 2001, via the now infamous “special
financial instruments” (aka derivatives, credit swaps, etc.) set up Greece’s
entry into Europe’s monetary union, securing billions of dollars (of course,
hidden from public view since it was created as a “currency trade” rather than
as a sovereign loan); and now it’s payback time but who’s picking up the tab? The Big Fat
Greek Meltdown is symptomatic to a host of euro-spendthrifts like Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Portugal, Italy
– and the list Since no one wants the banks to take a hit – that simply means the merchants of the earth get richer through saving Greece her much orchestrated collapse and ipso facto the enriched bankers save the euro. Meanwhile America’s anti-privatization of its banking system (financial socialism on the march) creeps, rather lunges, onward. This is not good for business (aka – the vanishing “private sector”). “Oh…why does this make US businesses LESS profitable? Well, it’s a marginal thing. But what we’re witnessing is a shift of economic power away from the private sector towards the public sector. Private businesses no longer borrow like they used to. Now, the feds do the borrowing and the spending. That leaves less capital…and less spending power…in private hands. Ergo, businesses will find it harder to make money.” (Will Bailing Out the Spendthrift Greeks Make American Businesses More Profitable?, Bill Bonner, OPTIONS, Wall Street Pit, Feb. 12, 2010) BANKRUPTING NATIONS – GONE WITH THE WIND?
For example, once thought financially invincible, the Dubai Tower of Power (aka Burj Khalifa) reached to the heavens – something about Minarets being higher than steeples or the WTT? Now, Dubai’s efforts to underwrite trillions based upon bogus oil reserves verges on bankruptcy, as their Tower shuts down. Defaulting on her “gold standard” government-issued bonds sent shock waves throughout the financial markets. “The immediate issue is Dubai's inability to come through on a $3.52 billion tranche due in mid-December. Yet, with some 400 property projects already reportedly frozen in Dubai, the news raised the specter of a gigantic default that would sink exposed creditors around the world . . . Dubai's inability to pay its debts is a heavy blow to an ego that easily dwarfs Dubai's gleaming new 160-story skyscraper.” (Dubai’s Woes a Blow to Ambitious Ruler Sheik Mo, by Scott MacLeod, Time.com, Dec. 1, 2009) Indeed, not since the great potato famine have so many left the Emerald Isle. Keeping company with the Irish are the Austrians, Belgians, Poles and, of course, the Italians where the Mafia lends a helping hand. Then there are always the Mexicans and the Brazilians – while the lights go out in Caesar’s Venezuela. The aforementioned are gagging on loans they have little intention of paying back. Even the British are having a time of it selling their debt. Here’s a Nanny State caught in the socialist grip of never-ending “programs” to equalize the House of Lords and House of Commons but achieving neither. Echoes of Lehman Brother’s implosion are now heard around the world. BANKS GAMBLE TRILLIONS AT INTERNATIONAL CASINO How is it that we American taxpayers gave trillions to the banks in bailouts and then waved goodbye as these characters head on out to gamble at the international derivative casinos? Mega banks like Bank of America, Citigroup, AIG and Wells Fargo – along with mortgage moguls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – have thrown caution to the wind and lost trillions in the insanity of derivatives; your money and their money. Never mind, let’s give the Fannie-Freddie Executive Club $25Million in bonuses for 2009 because they’ve been paid $110Billion in taxpayer TARP funds; besides, they could have taken upwards of $200Billion each, which was their original line of credit from the Feds/Treasury, then they could have had bonuses close to $100Million—that stands to reason. Sovereign debt instruments, loans and mortgages are going sour –
the contagion is spreading. The derivative fraud – some say upwards of $950
Trillion and counting – continues, unabated, spurred on by “honest government”
– right? Wrong again – even the Bank of
International Settlements (Switzerland) which functions as a
clearing house for these “special financial instruments” openly admits that a
“lack of transparency” is rife in this prone-to-fraud industry. AIG’s failure
(now propped up by nearly $180B by
taxpayer infusions), along with Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, gleefully
played with our money in the most opaque manner only to have their exposures
unravel before the general public. No biggie, we’ll just Governmental transparency is an oxymoronic expression. Mega-Banks and Mega-Government (Feds et al) have joined forces in continuing the biggest rip off of private funds in the history of the world. Here’s where we out rob the Robber Barons! The financial condition of the planet is so appalling, so terribly distorted, that the truth simply must be hid to protect an utter collapse of the financial systems of the earth. “In early 2005 the outstanding volume of over the counter derivatives alone amounted to $248 trillion, while the annual turnover of exchange-traded derivatives is close to $900 trillion. If so, because exchange-traded derivatives account for about 22% of the total, the total of annually traded derivatives stands at more than $4 quadrillion, with some $3.2 quadrillion OTC.” (IAS 39 and the Recognition of Derivatives Risk, Fair Value and Corporate Governance, International Financial Reporting Standards, 2010) I don’t think we’re listening – and as a dear friend of mine once said: It’s not that you can’t hear – you don’t want to hear! And, I might add, even if you did hear it, you just went deaf from the blast! The IFRS just dropped a financial hydrogen bomb – it’s so huge there’s no way to get your brain around it – $4,000 Trillion Dollars! America’s entire GDP is a miserly $15 Trillion and world’s GDP is around $60 Trillion – so, we’re only talking 67 times more than the world’s GDP involved in these spurious special financial instruments – all the real estate valued at top dollar and all the mineral (e.g., oil) reserves from here to eternity are not enough collateral to bank role this preposterous figure! How much have these gamblers lost? What’s our desperation level? How far off is financial meltdown or have we seen the blinding light of this bomb and await the sound wave and the blast furnace? The Feds – the world banking system – simply cannot absorb these staggering figures – not even 1/100th. What would total panic look like? You and I just might get a snowball’s chance to view this furnace of affliction. Guaranteed – dollars and precious metals – that’s about it, all that’s left, if that. The much-touted bailouts in light of these absurdities are so miniscule, it astounds, simply astounds. The money lost at the international derivatives casino compared to these TARP/stimulus funds (and the rest of the world is following suit) is akin to the mouse that squeaked before the elephant who roared. Could it be that our fearless leaders knew TARP funds were mouse-like in comparison? Could it be that government authorities conspired with Wall Street bandits and now find themselves in the world’s most massive Ponzi scheme ever perpetrated upon the hapless earthlings? The plot thickens – forbid that the trillions in derivatives be revealed to the populous. Best to change the standards of our accounting. With derivative values plummeting up to 90% of their original values; but no matter, you may avoid market pricing . . . just use the full deceptive value (FDV). Ah, the vicissitudes of bureaucratic finagling! Trillions went pouring back into the banks thanks to FDV, giving the illusion of financial credibility and soundness. So, the banks lose trillions and still need bailouts – go figure; and we’re the gift that just keeps on giving. Ostensibly, your bank deposit exists as a figment of your imagination. In this distorted sense, we all benefit (for a while) from FDV – (aka – the Great Financial Farce!). Set asides rule – they’re off the books – while still losing trillions; therefore, keep the bailouts coming. Bank liquidity is a mirage in a dry and thirsty land where no water is; therefore, awash in a dream, wherefore shall we thirst? Dying of thirst, we are relieved by the bureaucrats – hope, change and survival, as our thirst for monetary gain is quenched, assuaged. Now, go, invest your TARPs into the same black hole which swallowed your previous fantasies—but be sure to leverage the daylights out of it for good measure, say 1 to 10 will do! The only difference will be the toxicity levels. You may return to your vomit, refreshed via FDV; for we know full well it is impossible to cure the incurable; sober the financial alcoholics. These be the life-support systems that keep the masses from diving into the local mirages . . . keep your ponds open, fear alone is our foe; visualize abundant streams in the desert of our affliction – and where there is no fear things abide as if all were lush. Therefore, the Fed and the Treasury wrought this modern-day miracle upon the hapless earthlings and the earthlings grinned a puzzled relief and moved on hearing nothing extraordinary; for by now they were going deaf.
Does one not detect a note of utter desperation here or there? Surely the “Black Hole Casino” will be merciful and spare us. Let us trust in the economic Keynesians to spend us out of this nightmare; if not, then a prolonged and enduring conflict or two or three will distract. The system of banking must survive at all costs – but, frankly, the patient is suffering from an irrecoverable malady; it is terminal. Do Not Resuscitate (DNR)! And, that may be the contract we’ve signed with the devil in the first place. There’s no way to reverse the depressed real estate markets upon which these derivatives based their habit. Government Motors could double their sales and elephants, once again, shall fly! And, flying along with them would be our commercial properties awaiting takeoff, but, then again, have you ever seen a rhino fly? Of course you have! The 9,500 businesses in the Capital Region (Sacramento, CA) which have recently shuttered would miraculously reopen to greet the hoards of hearty consumers anxious to release their pent-up demands – ready to shop until they drop as they relish the abundance of credit released from the hoards of newly-found funds derived from derivatives heretofore so out of reach but now made close by the friendly Feds who’ve arranged for our liberality. Astounding recovery awaits! Some 25 million jobs in less than a year – replacing our awful losses and then an additional 330,000 monthly atop that staggering improbability. Don’t know if you’ve grasped the phantasmagoric nature of these impossibilities? Now, just let your mind wonder to heights of pure fancy, and then you can approach this fairy tale to claim it as your own. And, stop being negative; just because America hasn’t created one new job for the past ten years! Here’s where transcendental meditation could come in handy – then again, maybe a deep sleep will do. Oh, and be careful – don’t amuse yourself of bureaucratic skullduggery. I can assure you that stock markets are properly manipulated by artificial infusions of cash to inflate bank stocks as needed – if not by outright TARP, then leveraged to the hilt to impress the unsuspecting investors, especially those hedge fund hogs and other sophisticated fools who dream of a better day. Don’t worry – there ain’t that many of them left to play the game. Can you tell if my sarcasm is bleeding through this morass or not? I can’t tell; I’m in a dream world of Lilliputians and I’m Gulliver, strapped down by little people trying to inhibit my investment portfolio . . . so let’s move on. I’M FOREVER BLOWING BUBBLES
Thus it was, how well we remember the banking crisis of March, 2009. Descending into the abyss in ever increasing numbers were the Lehmans, Countrywides and IndyMacs, while our beloved Dow went from 14,000 to 6,500. This descending spiral was deplorable; it had to be stopped. Time to blow another bubble in the form of hyperventilating bank stocks - which is exactly what happened – just when we should have entered the Great Depression. Why in the world would the stock market more than double in less than a year (back up to around 11,000)? Think about it. Obama said it right the first time: This is a lot worse than I thought it was . . . got to stop the hemorrhaging; clamp a tourniquet on this thing before I completely lose it. We couldn’t in our wildest witness a full-blown real estate collapse and lose millions more jobs. Japan, here we come! Those damnable derivatives will wipe us out by the trillions – money, quite frankly, the banks have already blown. A nearly 250-year international banking system was about to implode in a most unfashionable manner. We’ve got to get trillions into those institutions before the lot of them is subsumed by that black hole of a casino . . . and these trillions are atop the TARP trillions. But, the people won’t tolerate more bailouts – Paulson and Geithner blew the last rape and pillage of the public trust, so we can’t use that ruse again . . . whither shall we turn? The Robber Baron Bankers and their multi-million bonuses (which just keep coming) are blatantly telling the public who’s bailing them out to fly that kite as high as you wish and don’t you dare start rioting in the streets and making a run on the banks. Stop griping; it’s bonus time again. The same guys who put us into this mess are getting a whooping $145 billion in bonuses for 2009, up 18% from 2008! Look at this chart – stop weeping – from 6,500 to nearly 11,000 in less than a year; and, no, your eyes aren’t misleading you, your banker is (with a little help from Sam). So these bankers are pulling out all the money they can now, because when the Feds do a total take over and then have to dump these properties at fire sale prices, these sharks will jump back into the water and scarf up the depressed properties for pennies on the dollar – Amerika, what a country! (said with a strong Russian accent).
Treasury and the Fed dumped a bundle of currency into the biggies: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, GE, GMAC – literally, trillions. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury acted like clients – i.e., the bankers “serviced” these clients by purchasing on their behalf immense amounts of stock indexes via over-the-top leveraging. A 1:10 ration cooked up $20Trillion; hence, the stock market soared – it was and is beyond belief! Imagine, the whole economy’s collapsing and the stock market is booming. As the financial institutions soared, they issued more shares which the Treasury and the Feds purchased. Imagine – flat broke but now the Fed’s look flush with net assets over $2Trillion. Hidden within the Fed’s Financial Statement below are the various “assets” – we’ll never know the mysteries surrounding precisely what they are, will we? I’m not sure even the Congress knows what they are and probably doesn’t want to know, and couldn’t figure them out even if they did know! Now you know how the banks made a record profit last year and why all their newest bonuses are forthcoming and well deserved – I mean, didn’t these rascals make a bundle of fees to pull off this caper? You bet they did. There you go again. How in the blazes can the economy tank and the bankers make out like banditos? Investment banking had its worst year ever – no one was loaning money – can’t imagine why. No mergers, no acquisitions, no public offerings – but profits galore . . . tell me I’m dreaming this up? And, like most dreams, the chart below doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to anyone but those who play with our money . . .
Wow! The Dow resurfaced with a vengeance. Took nine months to pile up 4,000 points. The largest growth rally in the history of the Dow and occurring in the midst of our worst depression since the ‘30s. Look closely; did you see any foreign buyers, mutual or hedge funds playing around in there? Nope. Companies didn’t buy stocks – they sold them. If you were an investor, tell me, were you dumb enough to play the market when everything around you was collapsing? I don’t think so. and, if you call a whopping $110B (from April 2009 through October 2009) of foreign investment substantial when the market grew 60 times that figure (i.e., over $6Trillion) then maybe I’m missing something here. Again, pension and hedge fund managers scarcely lifted a financial finger. Meanwhile, banks went econo-ballistic – shares of bank stocks rose three to five times and even more. But who was buying their shares? Uncle Sam, that’s who, and at prices as high as that Dubai Tower – but what do you expect in a rigged market. Listen, these banks are broke; haven’t made a dime with a gazillion foreclosures, bad loans, credit defaults and on and on—but their stock is off the charts? Go figure – I took “finance” – one tough course but I can assure you, we never studied anything near to this manipulation, not even close. And all this is going down while the devastating derivatives keep wiping out. None of this makes any difference to Babylon’s Treasury. Take $2Trillion – blow up the balloon by leveraging it to $20Trillion and presto, you’ve got a booming stock market. Smoke and mirrors? Duh! Now, do you understand why the inside traders are still making out like bandits with their huge bonuses. Listen, they caught Madoff after years of his Ponzi scheme; now the lot of them is in on the scheme. Turns out that Citigroup who got hundreds of billions in bailouts, while losing trillions of dollars, wound up paying its big shot executives $5.2B in bonuses over the past two years (i.e., $10.4B). Why not; these guys broke that company fair and square and are well-deserving of these bonuses, aren’t they? Forbid a Congressional investigation is launched, lest this farce be known and the whole corrupted system come to a close! But time’s running out on the banks and profits in the last quarter of 2009 are plummeting . . . something big’s comin’ down and I think you know what it is. TARP & NATIONALIZATION
Again, think about it. How did these guys pull off this caper? They’re losing money like gangbusters and making billions in bonuses. Great – the more I lose the more I make – now that makes a lot of sense, right? Who in the world would buy this bogus paper; and I mean paper, that’s all? Literally trillions of dollars in bogus financial stocks were purchased by the mysterious purchaser who paid top dollar for nothing. And, whose money did this mysterious entity use to invest in such a worthless venture? Here, we’re faced with perhaps the greatest depression since the ‘30s – so let’s bid up the market to the extreme and keep the scheme alive. Meanwhile the public is totally oblivious to this high stakes charade where Uncle Sam creates this hallucination that TARP funds are being repaid in lickety-split turnaround time; all the while the banks are leveraging the daylights out of their TARPs and gambling as per normal – so much for a successful 12-step program at Gamblers Anonymous. Right about now those verses from The Message Version of the Bible keep coming to me: “Do
you expect me to overlook obscene wealth They’ve
all become experts in evil. (Excerpts from Micah 6 & 7 – “The Message”)
Do the math – do the NEW math. The banks get twice the funds selling these bogus stocks to Uncle Sam as they had to pay to get the TARP to begin with. So while you weren’t looking you actually gave the banks twice as much as you gave them in the first place – SUCH A SHELL GAME! This is known as B to the second power or Bailout Squared. That brings me to some other outstanding observations by the Almighty: “God’s Message came to me, “Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, ‘This is what God, the Master, says: “‘Your heart is proud, (Ezekiel 28:1-5 – “The Message”) Don’t you just love the way the Bible nails these characters – sparing nothing! But, meanwhile, these inflated bank stocks held by the government – who no doubt is trying to package them to sell to other sovereign dupes – will implode because of their worthlessness (i.e., bubbles tend to pop at certain elevations – especially, toxic bubbles). So – get ready for the grandiose rip-off ever. When the government takes it in the shorts – we’re going to take it as well. Here’s a chart showing the major banks and just how much stock we, through the government, purchased from them at inflated dollars (again, keep in mind, everything’s collapsing while bank portfolios are soaring; thereby inflating the entire stock market)… Actual Market Value of Leading Banks March-December, 2009
The mirage you are beholding above is just that. The banks are ostensibly broke – bailing them out like this simply adds insult to injury. The more we give, the more they’ll lose. Notice, stimulus is over – the stock market is going nowhere fast. Foreclosures are accelerating and are about to once again crescendo – let the so-called shrewd investors beware. Holding a bunch of empty houses ready to collapse is about to bring your house of cards down, down, down; but, no matter, investing in depressed markets makes one healthy, wealthy, and wise… “Sure” said the spider to the fly.
As banks keep losing, the cries for bank “reform” ascend – but, as you readily know – Washington is “bought and sold” at a whim; and, like the Psalmist, we cry: “I said in my haste, all men are liars!” (Psalm 116:11) – or as Paul cried out: “Let God be true but every man a liar!” (Romans 3:4) And just why do you think the Obama Administration pulled Paul Volker out of mothballs in this high stakes reality show? Volker is well adept at “reconfiguring bogus derivatives” wherein instead of the banks and brokers getting stuck with these special financial instruments – guess who’s going to get stiffed? That’s right – and I hate to sound churlish here, but we depositors and taxpayers await a most abysmal day! Never mind, Paul’s going to make it sound like we’re getting banks out of the stock investment business while bringing us back to the Glass-Steagall Act wherein banks can no longer “invest” (i.e., gamble) in these “special financial instruments” – instead, we’ll be stuck with their losses! Thank you, Paul Volker. So, when the banks begin to implode – here comes the Fed with Treasury pursuing in close second. By nationalizing the banks and, eventually, other financial institutions (viz. taking over all the portions they haven’t already gobbled up), the vast financial exchange will have been orchestrated. But think of it: We’ll all own the banks! We’ll be assured of taxation without representation for the next foreseeable generations of Americans and earthlings throughout the globe will get the hit as well . . . so great will be the losses. Remember how much the taxpayers made on nationalizing General Motors and Lehman Brothers – grief; we made a bundle on those deals, didn’t we (especially on those “cash for clunkers!”)? Listen up; these incestuous derivatives are giving birth to a global economy. Yes, a one-world “economic system” in our immediate future wherein to “buy and sell” will be impossible, without Big Brother overseeing your every move. Herein is the “Mark of the Beast” – and now do you see how this Mark actually plays out? For
you see, we’re all in this together whether you want to be or not—at least at
this stage. Government’s broke – there’s no more bailout dollars. So the
Obama Administration declares a spending freeze (except for
virtually every entitlement, military, etc., program within the budget – ipso
facto there is no freeze). That sounds logical. But what sounds even more
logical is an extreme makeover in banking regulations wherein you, the
taxpayer, simply inherit all these bogus derivatives these gamblers Actually, I like the way Dick Morris and Eileen McGann in CATASTROPHE sum it up: “Any lingering doubt about Obama’s intentions toward the financial sector should have been dispelled on March 24, 2009, when the Washington Post reported that ‘the Obama Administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury Secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy. At present, the government has the right to seize banks but not other financial institutions. The power the administration seeks is, literally, the ability to impose—unilaterally and without legislative approval—a socialist economy on the United States. It comes as close as anything we have seen to a legislative equivalent of the Bolshevik Revolution. “So why does Obama persist in his aggressive rhetoric? Why does he continue to treat Wall Street as something out of Dante’s Inferno? Because he wants the public-private partnerships to fail—and he plans to use that failure to justify his nationalization of the banks. We believe that’s his real goal. His intent to force a nationalization of banks is obvious in the way he is regulating banks. He is adopting rules that literally force a government takeover.” (Catastrophe . . . How Obama, Congress, and the Special Interests are Transforming…A Slump into a Crash, Freedom into socialism, and a Disaster into a Catastrophe . . . and how to fight back, Dick Morris and Eileen McGann, Harper Collins Publishers, New York City, 2009, pp. 86-7) Economist Nouriel Roubini, who saw this whole crisis coming years ago, sums up the reality of the already multi-trillion dollar government involvement with the financial system like this: “The U.S. financial system is de facto nationalized. The only issue is whether banks and financial institutions should be nationalized de jure” (that’s as in “it’s already law, live with it”) (The U.S. Financial System Is Effectively Insolvent, Nouriel Roubini, Forbes.com, March 5, 2009). Are you ready for a freeze on deposits – your deposits? Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you because there’s a “financial emergency” and we wouldn’t want your money to be lost, now, would we, especially in the great financial meltdown coming down the pike? Yes, and those who claim hidden investor secrets to weather this inevitability are the culprits who prey on the unsuspecting as well. As I viewed the pecking order of who partakes of the buffalo carcass – the bear, the wolves, the coyotes, the fox, the birds of the air and finally, the insects – but we all share in the spoils, except, some share more than others! Listen,
foreclosures And, according to Housing Predictor, just add another 10 million foreclosures through 2012 to the already 4.2 million foreclosed upon already (June, 2009 – old info., so throw in another 1 million and you just about got it). We have the largest number of vacant homes ever in U.S. history; along with the most empty apartments and rental properties. Demand for new and used homes is at an all-time low (except for the investor sharks). Where have all the children gone? . . . gone everyone . . . into one another’s apartments and homes like sardines squashed together in a can; piled up together in socialist block houses a la Moscow, but without dachas. Folks, you can kiss the middle-class goodbye! Banks are supposed to foreclose on residential properties if they’re 90 days past due – but they don’t. Why? Because they’d have “hell to pay” and their balance sheets, which look awful anyway (if you take out the artificial inflated TARP resuscitation), would completely collapse. Listen, banks are so good at hiding bogus loans – imagine if their depositors ever found out, whoops, just like the TV add: It’s my money, and I need it now! Take Citigroup with its announced multi-billion-dollar loss and down goes their share value. Retirements, home equities – all wiped out by those who claim the Midas touch. Just think, real estate in the third quarter of 2009 in the USA allegedly gained 3.1% (asking – overall 2009 US values fell 12% and are expected to drop another 12% in 2010) – but just ask the folks in Las Vegas, Nevada, where values have plummeted some 37 consecutive months and are now 55.4% off their highs. Grief, go read the “Subprime Mortgage Crisis” in Wikipedia and you’ll utterly despair – I’ve never witnessed such exquisite balderdash, ever (must have been written by Geithner, with Paulson as ghost adviser)! By the time you finish this mysterious amalgamation of intricate financial falderal, you’re simply exhausted – fully aware that something big, very big, is coming down that will completely change the entire global economic system as we’ve known it. Oh, and by the way, Geithner and Paulson will be writing their memoirs, with a forward by President Obama, entitled: WIPEOUT…A Legacy of Fiction, Fraud and Federalism. I’ve been told that a personal signature by Bernie Madoff will accompany the first 10,000 copies sold! However, free copies will be handed out to the following: The nearly 10 million Americans who’ve lost their jobs since December, 2007 through February 2009. Here it is in a glaring nutshell – the “losses” are so staggering that it simply boggles the mind: “There is a direct relationship between declines in wealth, and declines in consumption and business investment, which along with government spending represent the economic engine. Between June 2007 and November 2008, Americans lost an estimated average of more than a quarter of their collective net worth. By early November 2008, a broad U.S. stock index the S&P 500, was down 45 percent from its 2007 high. Housing prices had dropped 20% from their 2006 peak, with futures markets signaling a 30-35% potential drop. Total home equity in the United States, which was valued at $13 trillion at its peak in 2006, had dropped to $8.8 trillion by mid-2008 and was still falling in late 2008. Total retirement assets, Americans' second-largest household asset, dropped by 22 percent, from $10.3 trillion in 2006 to $8 trillion in mid-2008. During the same period, savings and investment assets (apart from retirement savings) lost $1.2 trillion and pension assets lost $1.3 trillion. Taken together, these losses total a staggering $8.3 trillion. Since peaking in the second quarter of 2007, household wealth is down $14 trillion.
“To offset this decline in consumption and lending capacity, the U.S. government and U.S. Federal Reserve have committed $13.9 trillion, of which $6.8 trillion has been invested or spent, as of June 2009. In effect, the Fed has gone from being the "lender of last resort’ to the ‘lender of only resort’ for a significant portion of the economy. In some cases the Fed can now be considered the ‘buyer of last resort.’” (Wikipedia – Financial Crisis of 2007-2010) Help me understand: You buy this house for $400,000 in 2003. Your value in 2005 goes up to $600,000. So you refinance your mortgage and take out a second to fix the place up, pay off debt, cars, etc., and now you owe $450,000 with a First and Second mortgage with payments around $4,000.00 monthly (Note: You pulled your original $50,000 down payment out during the refinancing.). So, now your home in 2010 is valued at $400,000 – you’re $50,000 “upside down” in the home—it owns you…not too much incentive to keep making payments. If you “walked” from the home you’d have no equity to take out. You can abandon your First but you’re stuck with your $50,000 Second. That’s what’s happening out there and it’s only getting worse because in 2010 you’re going to drop another $50,000 while making nearly $50,000 in payments to nowhere. Of course, you could rent and get the same home in California for $2,000 p/mo. but it’s so much more fun to keep making huge payments for NOTHING! Oh, and remember, it’s only going to get worse until you’re sitting in this “palace” with a value (if you’re in Vegas) of only a third of its high value – go figure, $200,000! You’re a slave to your pride. Don’t think it can’t happen to you. You’re like the frog in the boiling pan…you have no idea that you’re gradually being roasted!
We are headed for the worst calamitous financial disaster the world has ever known; and most certainly, the total wipeout of the middle class that has grown throughout the world, especially in North America, India and China, let alone Europe and Australasia. You still refuse to believe – I said total wipeout! Hold on to your dollars! On the other hand, ever wonder why the Feds don’t have to print new money? The world is abandoning all their currencies and dumping them for dollars by buying all the US government securities known to man and at the lowest rates ever – that’s what happens when the world goes broke…Come to Mama; you’ll be “safe” here – after all, if you can’t trust the US, then who can you trust? Behold, the bloated figure of one, Babylon the Great, struts upon the world scene, high steeping, secure in her contemptuous appearance – little wonder, therefore, that the Apostle John when he saw her he exclaimed: “I marveled with great amazement” – lit. “I was flabbergasted!” (Rev. 17:6) As the False Prophet maneuvers the masses, we shall behold a god-like figure who is able to make sense of all this. As Ezekiel 28:4-5 so aptly reveals: “With your wisdom and your understanding you have gained riches for yourself, and gathered gold and silver into your treasuries; by your great wisdom in trade you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches.”
Sorry, this is not your local Christian radio station spewing forth financial advice to the Laodicean Church invested in this present economic fiasco; figuring out how I can make a buck off what little you may have left after this bubble bursts. Furthermore, the next scoundrel who tries to sell you on gold – tell him to take a hike – that’s the biggest rip off happening! But I will enjoin you if you are a believer to remember this from the Apostle to the Gentiles: “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in UNCERTAIN RICHES but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (I Timothy 6:17-19).
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are about to go off the charts – nationally, we’ve already lost on
average 30% of real estate values and in some places much higher (California
close to 50% and counting - 
