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Les banques centrales se préparent au prochain crash mondial / Fukushima s'enfonce & 25 nouvelles censurées de 2012
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L'Autre Monde 28 janvier 2013 : Les banques centrales se préparent au prochain crash mondial / Fukushima s'enfonce & 25 nouvelles censurées de 2012
L'Autre Monde 28 janvier 2013
90 min / Radio de l'UQAM, CHOQ FM
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Nombre d'émission: 220 Diffusion en direct : Lundi à 15:00h
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Au programme cette semaine:
Les banques centrales du monde se préparent au prochain crash mondial et une guerre des monnaie, plusieurs d'entres elles demandent à ce que leur métaux précieux leur soit retournés.
Nous discutons des nouvelles les plus importantes qui ont été censurées par les grands médias corporatifs en 2012. Découvrez ce qui aurait dû faire la manchette mais que les médias traditionnels ont refusé de vous rapporter, ne jugeant pas souhaitable que vous soyez convenablement informés.
Nous passons en revue les plus importants développements du mois de janvier dans le dossier de nucléaire de Fukushima, un désastre qui n'a pas fini d'hanter la planète entière.
C'est en rendez-vous le lundi dès 15h pour l'émission la plus écoutée de CHOQ FM, la radio officielle de l'Université du Québec à Montréal !
C'est en rendez-vous le lundi dès 15h pour l'émission la plus écoutée de CHOQ FM, la radio officielle de l'Université du Québec à Montréal !
***Hyperliens vers les sources des informations discutées sur l'émission d'aujourd'hui:
Fukushima:
NHK: Radiation levels increasing at Fukushima plant — “No solution to tainted water” — Hundreds of tons flowing into reactor buildings every day (VIDEO)
Newspaper: Workers dumping radioactive waste from Fukushima into rivers (PHOTOS)
New law to force stores to sell produce from Fukushima?
Study: Radioactive cesium in 25 of 26 food samples from Fukushima prefecture
Gov’t Map: Fukushima fallout transported directly to U.S. — Canada, Mexico avoided much of contamination after 3/11 (VIDEO)
Analysis of how far corium penetrated underneath Fukushima reactor (IMAGES)
Title: Severe Accident Analyses of Fukushima-Daiich Units 1 to 3Source: Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES)
Authors: Harutaka Hoshi and Masashi Hirano
56th IAEA General Conference, Sep 17, 2012
h/t SimplyInfo
“It is assumed that the whole molten fuel fell into containment in Unit 1.”
Full analysis here
Japan sees its largest population drop ever recorded (VIDEO)
Report: Turkey begins testing all food from Japan for radiation — Imports suspected to be contaminated
Gundersen: Contamination levels that would be considered radioactive waste in U.S. were ubiquitous on Tokyo streets when I visited — Niigata’s river sediment loaded with radiation as well (AUDIO)
Almost entire ground-level of Northern Hemisphere covered in radioactive fission product after 3/11 (GRAPHIC) — Study: “The impact of Fukushima radioxenon releases on the worldwide Xe-133 background must be investigated”
Title: Analysis of Radionuclide Releases from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident Part IISource: Pure and Applied Geophysics
Authors: Pascal Achim, Marguerite Monfort, Gilbert Le Petit, Philippe Gross, Guilhem Douysset, Thomas Taffary, Xavier Blanchard, Christophe Moulin
Date: September 2012
[...] In this study, the emissions of the three
fission products Cs-137, I-131 and Xe-133 are investigated.
[...] worldwide industrial Xe-133 background
could be modified by Fukushima radioxenon release affecting the performances of
the CTBT radionuclide monitoring network.
[...] during the couple of months after the
Fukushima Dai-ichi accident, monitoring capabilities of the network could have
been affected by the large amount of radioxenon released by the accident. The
impact of Fukushima radioxenon releases on the worldwide Xe-133 background must
also be investigated. [...]
The maps below show the
activity concentration of Xe-133 at ground-level on March 31, 2011 (top) and May 10,
2011 (bottom)Full analysis in here
Over 1,000,000 Bq/kg of cesium near Fukushima plant — 10 times higher than highest measurement in prior soil survey
Asahi: Death rate spikes among elderly Fukushima evacuees
‘First Time’: Radioactive rice with more than double gov’t cesium limit found outside Fukushima Prefecture
Asahi: Almost entire city of 300,000 people has radiation levels high enough to get decontaminated by gov’t
Source: Chemistry World
Author: Rebecca Brodie
Date: 25 January 2013
While the Japanese tsunami of March 2011 was
devastating in its own right, the long term health consequences because of the
damage to the nuclear reactor at Fukushima Daiichi are also of serious concern.
[...]
Jan Beyea, from the US expert consulting service
Consulting in the Public Interest, together with fellow colleagues has been
analysing previous calculations of the subsequent nuclear accident in Japan,
and believes that the number of predicted future mortalities from cancer is
higher than originally predicted. [...] the mid-range, predicted number of
future mortalities from cancer is closer to 1000 than the 125 figure calculated
without considering long-term groundshine [gamma radiation emitted from
radioactive materials deposited on the ground].’ [...]
Lynn Anspaugh, from the University of Utah, US,
who works in the field of radiology and reconstructing radiation doses and who
analysed the Chernobyl accident, agrees that Beyea’s research points out
several inaccuracies in the previous work. However, he feels that the real
question this work raises regards the future of nuclear power itself. [...]
Read the study’s abstract here
TV: Radiation levels nearly doubled in Fukushima soil sample over 5-month period (VIDEO)
Actualité:
Sudden stratospheric warming responsible for UK's icy blast
Tell you what. Put a pan of water on the stove at low heat and when it freezes over, get back to me.
Around 5,000 schools closed amid snow chaos across Britain
• Heathrow forced to cancel 175 flights• Two people killed in severe weather
• Severe delays affecting at least eight rail networks
Latest: Snow causes travel chaos in France
Heavy snowfall hit large parts of France on Sunday, putting Paris under a picturesque blanket of white stuff but causing major disruptions to air, road and rail transport.
Snowpocalypse Russia: 'Snow tsunami' swallows streets, cars, buildings (PHOTOS)
Russia snowed under. (World Wide Daily Snow and Ice Cover Map, Source: NOAA)
Record Cold From Maine to Florida
A blanket of arctic air has temperatures dropping across the nation.
Underwater footage of BP Deepwater Horizon disaster site — “Officials are still trying to identify the makeup of white droplets spotted in the water” (VIDEOS)
Top 25 Stories of
2012 Subjected to Media Censorship
1. Signs of an Emerging Police State
President George W. Bush is remembered largely for his role in curbing
civil liberties in the name of his "war on terror." But it's
President Obama who signed the 2012 NDAA, including its clause allowing for
indefinite detention without trial for terrorism suspects. Obama
promised he would "interpret them to avoid the constitutional
conflict" — leaving us adrift if and when the next administration chooses
to interpret them otherwise. Another law of concern is the National Defense
Resources Preparedness Executive Order that Obama issued in March 2012. That
order authorizes the President, "in the event of a potential threat to the
security of the United States, to take actions necessary to ensure the
availability of adequate resources and production capability, including
services and critical technology, for national defense requirements."
Sources: Spencer Ackerman and Noah Shachtman, “Read the FBI Memo: Agents Can ‘Suspend the Law,’” Wired,
March 28, 2012, James Bamford, “The
NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center,” Wired, March 15, 2012,
Chris Hedges, “Why I’m Suing Barack Obama,” Truthdig, January 16, 2012, .
2. Oceans in Peril
The collapse of our oceans could compromise life itself. In a haunting
article in Mother Jones reporter Julia Whitty paints a
tenuous seascape — overfished, acidified, warming — and describes how the
destruction of the ocean's complex ecosystems jeopardizes the entire planet,
not just the 70 percent that is water. Whitty compares ocean acidification,
caused by global warming, to acidification that was one of the causes of the
"Great Dying," a mass extinction 252 million years ago. Life on earth
took 30 million years to recover. In a more hopeful story, a study of 14
protected and 18 non-protected ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea showed
dangerous levels of biomass depletion. But it also showed that the marine
reserves were well-enforced, with five to 10 times larger fish populations than
in unprotected areas. This encourages establishment and maintenance of more
reserves.
Sources: Julia Whitty, “The End
of a Myth,” OnEarth, February 27, 2012, Richard Gray, “Warming Oceans Cause Largest Movement of Marine Species in Two
Million Years,” Telegraph (UK), June 26, 2011, David A. Gabel, “Overfishing
the Mediterranean,” Environmental News Network, March 8, 2012.
3. US Deaths From Fukushima Not Reported
A plume of toxic fallout floated to the US after Japan's tragic Fukushima
nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011. The US Environmental Protection Agency
found radiation levels in air, water, and milk that were hundreds of times
higher than normal across the United States. One month later, the EPA announced
that radiation levels had declined, and they would cease testing. But after
making a Freedom of Information Act request, journalist Lucas Hixson published
emails revealing that on March 24, 2011, the task of collecting nuclear data
had been handed off from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the Nuclear
Energy Institute, a nuclear industry lobbying group. And in one study that got
little attention, scientists Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman found
that in the period following the Fukushima meltdowns, 14,000 more deaths than
average were reported in the US, mostly among infants.
Source: Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman, “14,000 U.S. Deaths Tied to Fukushima Reactor Disaster Fallout,”
International Journal of Health Services, December 19, 2011, Alex Roslin, “What Are Officials Hiding about Fukushima?” Straight.com
(Vancouver), October 20, 2011, Danny Schechter, “Beyond
Fukushima: A World in Denial about Nuclear Risks,” Common Dreams, March 21,
2011.
4. FBI Informants Carried Out Terrorist Plots Under FBI Direction
We know that FBI agents go into communities such as mosques, both undercover
and in the guise of building relationships, quietly gathering information about
individuals. This is part of an approach to finding what the FBI now considers
the most likely kind of terrorists, "lone wolves." Its strategy:
"seeking to identify those disgruntled few who might participate in a plot
given the means and the opportunity. And then, in case after case, the
government provides the plot, the means, and the opportunity," writes Mother
Jones journalist Trevor Aaronson. 508 cases classified as terrorism-related
have come before the US Department of Justice since the 9/11 terrorist attacks
of 2001. In 243 of these cases, an informant was involved; in 49 cases,
an informant actually led the plot. And "with three exceptions,
all of the high-profile domestic terror plots of the last decade were actually
FBI stings."
Sources: Trevor Aronson, “The Informants,” Mother Jones, September/October
2011, FBI Organizes Almost All Terror Plots in the US,” RT.com,
August 23, 2011
5. Federal Reserve Secretly Loaned Over $1 Trillion to Major Banks
The Federal Reserve, the US's quasi-private central bank, was audited for
the first time in its history this year. The audit report states, "From
late 2007 through mid-2010, Reserve Banks provided more than a trillion dollars
... in emergency loans to the financial sector." These loans had
significantly less interest and fewer conditions than the high-profile TARP
bailouts, and were rife with conflicts of internet. The audit was
restricted to Federal Reserve lending during the financial crisis. On July 25,
2012, a bill to audit the Fed again, with fewer limitations, authored by Rep.
Ron Paul, passed the House of Representatives. HR459 was expected to die in the
Senate, but the movement behind Paul and his calls to hold the Fed accountable,
or abolish it altogether, seem to be growing.
Source: Matthew Cardinale, “First
Federal Reserve Audit Reveals Trillions in Secret Bailout,” Inter Press
Service, Common Dreams, August 28, 2011.
6. Small Network of Corporations Run the Global Economy
A landmark study by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute in Zurich
hardly registered a blip on the media radar screen. The Swiss
researchers found that, of 43,060 transnational companies, 147 control 40
percent of total global wealth. The researchers also built a model
visually demonstrating how the connections between companies — what it calls
the "super entity" — works. Some have criticized the study, saying
control of assets doesn't equate to ownership. True, but as we clearly saw in
the 2008 financial collapse, corporations are capable of mismanaging assets in
their control to the detriment of their actual owners. And a largely
unregulated super entity like this is vulnerable to global collapse.
Sources: Rob Waugh, “Does One ‘Super Corporation’ Run the Global Economy? Study
Claims it Could be Terrifyingly Unstable,” Daily Mail, October 20,
2011, Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, and Stefano Battiston, “The Network of Global Corporate Control,” Public Library of
Science, October 26, 2011.
7. The International Year of the Cooperative
The corporate media barely mentioned the UN declaring 2012 to be the
International Year of the Cooperative, based on the coop business model's
stunning growth. The UN found that, in 2012, one billion people worldwide are
coop member-owners, or one in five adults over the age of 15. The largest is
Spain's Mondragon Corporation, with over 80,000 member-owners. The UN
predicts that by 2025, worker-owned coops will be the world's fastest growing
business model. Worker-owned cooperatives provide for equitable distribution
of wealth and, just maybe, a brighter future for our planet.
Sources: Jessica Reeder, “The Year of the Cooperative,” Yes! Magazine, Feb.
1, 2012, Monique Hairston, “American Dream 2.0: Can Worker-Owned Coops End Poverty?” Rebuild
the Dream, March 9, 2012.
8. NATO War Crimes in Libya
In January 2012, the BBC "revealed" how British Special
Forces agents joined and "blended in" with rebels in Libya to help
topple dictator Muammar Gadaffi, a story that alternative media
sources had reported a year earlier. NATO admits to bombing a pipe factory in
the Libyan city of Brega that was key to the water supply system that brought
tap water to 70 percent of Libyans, saying that Gadaffi was storing weapons in
the factory. Background knowledge and historical context confirming Al-Qaeda and
Western involvement in the destabilization of the Gadaffi regime are essential
for making sense of corporate news narratives depicting the Libyan operation as
a popular "uprising."
Sources: Michael Collins, “NATO War Crimes: The Wanton Destruction of Sirte,” Global
Research, October 15, 2011, Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, “NATO War Crime: Libya Water Supply,” Pravda, July 23, 2011,
Franklin Lamb, “Where Have Libya’s Children Gone?” Counterpunch, August 8,
2011.
9. Prison Slavery in the US
On its website, the UNICOR manufacturing corporation proudly proclaims
that its products are "made in America." That's true, but they're
made in places in the US where labor laws don't apply, with workers
often paid just 23 cents an hour to be exposed to toxic materials with no legal
recourse. These places are US prisons. The majority of products
manufactured by inmates are contracted to the Department of Defense. Inmates
make complex parts for missile systems, battleship anti-aircraft guns, and landmine
sweepers, as well as night-vision goggles, body army, and camouflage uniforms.
Of course, this is happening in the context of record high imprisonment in the
US, where grossly disproportionate numbers of African Americans and Latinos are
imprisoned, and can't vote even after they're freed. This system of slavery,
like that which existed in this country before the Civil War, is also racist,
as more than 60 percent of US prisoners are people of color.
Sources: Sara Flounders, “The
Pentagon and Slave Labor in U.S. Prisons,” Workers World, June 6, 2011,
James Ridgeway and Jean Casella, “Cruel and Usual: US Solitary Confinement,” Al Jazeera, Mar.
19, 2011.
10. HR 347 Would Make Many Forms of Nonviolent Protest Illegal
In March 2012, President Obama signed into law HR 347, the Federal
Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act. The law specifies as criminal
offenses the acts of entering or remaining in areas defined as “restricted.”
Although pundits have debated to what extent the new law restricts First
Amendment rights or criminalizes Occupy protests, it does make it
easier for the Secret Service to overuse or misuse existing laws to arrest
lawful protesters by lowering the requirement of intent in the
prosecution of criminal activity.
Sources: Danny Weil, “Many Forms of Occupy Protests Subjected to New Bill Making
Protests Illegal,” TheDaily Censored (blog), March 5, 2012, Oskar Mosquito,
“NDAA: Limiting Protesters’ Rights,” Media Roots, March 5,
2012, Brian Doherty, “Bill Passes House,” Reason (blog), March 1, 2012.
More of the Top 25 Media Censorship Stories of 2012
11. Members of Congress Grow Wealthier Despite Recession
The net worth of the members of Congress continues to rise regardless of
the economic recession. An analysis of financial disclosure forms, using the
minimum valuation of assets, showed that members of the House and Senate in
2010 had a collective net worth of $2.04 billion, a $390 million increase from
the $1.65 billion held in 2008. Disclosure forms do not include
non-income-producing assets.
12. US Joins Forces with al-Qaeda in Syria
The US, Britain, France, and some conservative Arab allies have funded and
armed the Syrian rebellion from its start in 2011. In fact, the US has been
funding groups against Bashar al-Assad since the mid-1990s. However, the
anti-Assad ranks include members of al-Qaeda, Hamas, and other groups that the
United States lists as terrorist organizations.
13. Education “Reform” a Trojan Horse for Privatization
Public education is the target of a well-coordinated, well-funded campaign
to privatize as many schools as possible, particularly in cities. This campaign
claims it wants great teachers in every classroom, but its rhetoric demoralizes
teachers, reduces the status of the education profession, and champions
standardized tests that perpetuate social inequality. The driving logic for
such reform is profits.
14. Who Are the Top 1 Percent and How Do They Earn a Living?
The richest 1 percent of the country now owns more than 40 percent of the
wealth and takes home nearly a quarter of national income. Evidence based on
tax returns indicates that this superelite 1 percent consists of nonfinancial
executives, financial professionals, and members of the legal, real estate, and
medical professions. While the 99 percent deal with the direct consequences of
that crisis, the 1 percent increasingly have left behind deteriorating
neighborhoods in favor of wealthy enclaves, further isolating themselves.
15. Dangers of Everyday Technology
Recent research raises compelling concerns about two commonplace
technologies, cellular phones and microwave ovens. Heavy, long-term exposure to
cell phone radiation increases risks for certain types of cancer, including
leukemia, and in males impairs sperm production. Prenatal exposure to cell
phone radiation has been shown to produce blood-brain barrier leakage, and
brain, liver, and eye damage. The microwave radiation that heats food also
creates free radicals that can become carcinogenic. Most studies indicating
minimal or no health risks are, in fact, industry-sponsored.
16. Sexual Violence Against Women Soldiers on the Rise and Under
Wraps
The 2005 death of US Army Private LaVena Johnson was officially ruled
suicide by the Dept. of Defense. Johnson’s autopsy revealed wounds inconsistent
with suicide, including chemical burns that many believe were intended to
destroy DNA evidence of rape. The Pentagon has tried to intimidate reporters
working on stories about her. At least twenty other female soldiers have died
under suspicious circumstances. According to the Department of Defense, in
2010, there were 3,158 total reports of sexual assault in the military. The DOD
estimates that this number represents only 13.5 percent of the actual assaults.
17. Students Crushed By One Trillion Dollars in Student Loans
In April 2012, US student loan debt topped one trillion dollars, more than
credit card debt. Although corporate media dutifully reported this milestone,
they underplayed its significance and ignored one promising solution. Student
loan debt is the only form of consumer loan debt that has increased
substantially since 2008. The threat of massive student loan defaults requiring
another taxpayer bailout is a systemic risk as serious as the bank failures
that brought the US economy to the brink of collapse in 2008.
18. Palestinian Women Prisoners Shackled during Childbirth
Female Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons are treated inhumanely and
often denied medical care, and legal representation, and are forced to live in
squalid conditions. The conditions and violations faced by women in Israeli
jails need to be addressed from a gender perspective, according to CEDAW, the
United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
19. New York Police Plant Drugs on Innocent People to Meet Arrest
Quotas
A host of stories document how the New York Police Department operates
outside the very laws it is charged with enforcing. In October 2011, a former
NYPD narcotics detective testified that he regularly saw police plant drugs on
innocent people as a way to meet arrest quotas. The NYPD’s controversial “stop
and frisk” program has invested seventy-five million dollars to arrest suspects
for possessing minimal amounts of marijuana. Each arrest costs approximately
$1,000 to $2,000.
20. Stealing From Public Education to Feed the Prison-Industrial
Complex
A systemic recasting of education priorities gives official structure and
permanence to a preexisting underclass comprised largely of poor people of
color. The rise of corporate-backed charter schools and privatized prisons
cannot be understood apart from the record closures of public schools across the
country.
21. Conservatives Attack US Post Office to Break the Union and
Privatize Postal Services
The US Postal Service has been under constant assault for years from
conservative Republicans who aim to eviscerate the strongest union in the
country. Under a 2006 postal act, USPS must fully fund retiree health benefits
for future retirees—including the retirement packages of employees not even
born yet. No other organization, public or private, has to pre-fund 100 percent
of its future health benefits. Thus, the post office’s oft-reported
nine-billion-dollar deficit is largely a result of government-imposed
overpayments.
22. Wachovia Bank Laundered Money for Latin American Drug Cartels
Between 2004 and 2007, Wachovia Bank handled funds totaling $378.4 billion
for Mexican currency-exchange houses acting on behalf of drug cartels. The
transactions amount to the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an
anti-money-laundering law, in US history. This case is not exceptional;
Wachovia is just one of several US and European banks that drug cartels have
used to launder money.
23. US Covers up Afghan Massacre
Although the March 2012 massacre of sixteen unarmed Afghan civilians, nine
of whom were children, received a great deal of news coverage, independent news
sources have focused on whether one US solider acting alone—as US officials
have insisted—or multiple US soldiers—as Afghan witnesses and Afghan President
Hamid Karzai contend—bear direct responsibility for the killings.
24. Alabama Farmers Look to Replace Migrants with Prisoners
Alabama’s expansive anti-immigrant law, HB56, has been so economically
devastating that farmers in the state sought legislation to force hard labor on
prison inmates eligible for work release programs, to “help farms fill the gap
and find sufficient labor.” The state’s Department of Corrections opposed the
legislation, noting that its approximately 2,000 prisoners eligible for work
release already have jobs, and that “the prison system isn’t the solution to
worker shortages caused by the law.”
25. Evidence Points to Guantánamo Dryboarding
In June 2006, three Guantánamo prisoners were found dead in their cells,
hanging from what appeared to be makeshift nooses. Although the Department of
Defense declared the deaths suicides, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service
(NCIS) inquiry found evidence inconsistent with suicide—including the fact that
the prisoners’ hands were bound behind their backs. The NCIS evidence suggests
that the prisoners died from lethal interrogations that included dryboarding, a
technique using controlled suffocation.
Note: Project Censored also recognizes the importance of defining and protecting the “Commons” as essential to a meaningful future. The Media Freedom Foundation, which includes the board that oversees Project Censored, has created another site for this purpose: Fair Share of the Common Heritage. See their inspiring and informative website at http://www.fairsharecommonheritage.org.
Unemployment to break all-time record in 2013
The number of unemployed workers worldwide has boomed by 28 million people in the five years since the global financial crisis began, leaving 197 million people without jobs last year, according to a new report.
The numbers show a “crisis in labour markets of both advanced economies and developing economies,” according to new data from the International Labour Organization.
In 2012 alone, 4 million people joined the unemployment ranks. The figure will swell by another 5.1 million workers this year to 202 million unemployed job seekers, soaring past the all-time record of 199 million jobless people in 2009.
Hundres hold demonstration in Athens to say no to privatization of state banks
The new Greek coalition government initially announced plans to sell off national banks, such as HPB, in early September.
CHART SHOCK: The REAL Inflation Rate Is 10%
UPDATE - The chart above has been updated to include data for December, showing the true CPI at just under 10%.
Takes 2 seconds to see the truth - From Shadow Government Stats.
Source - Shadow Stats
The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living. Further definition is provided in our CPI Glossary.
US banks shaken by biggest deposit withdrawals since 9/11
US Federal Reserve is reporting a major deposit withdrawal from the nation’s bank accounts. The financial system hasn’t seen such a massive fund outflow since 9/11 attacks.
The first week of January 2013 has seen $114 billion withdrawn from 25 of the US’ biggest banks, pushing deposits down to $5.37 trillion, according to the US Fed. Financial analysts suggest it could be down to the Transaction Account Guarantee insurance program coming to an end on December 31 last year and clients moving their money that is no longer insured by the government.
People, and the leaders of corporations, are realizing that money is no longer really safe in US banks, and for a number of complex reasons, but the following Appellate Court decision may well be one of them.
In June of 2012, Eric Bloom, former chief executive, and Charles Mosely, head trader of Sentinel Management Group (SMG) were indicted for stealing $500 million in customer secured funds. Both Mosely and Bloom were accused of “exposing” customer segregated funds “to a portfolio of highly risky derivatives.” These customer funds were used to “back up personal investments” which were part of “collateral for a loan from Bank of New York Mellon” (BNYM). This loan derived from stolen customer monies was “used to purchase millions of dollars worth of high-risk, illiquid securities, including collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, for a trading portfolio that benefited Sentinel’s officers, including Mosley, Bloom and certain Bloom family members.” Fast forward to August 9th of 2012, and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals (CCA) rules that BNYM can be moved to first in line of creditors over the customers that had their funds stolen by SMG. When a banking customer deposits their money into their bank account, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SPIC) are in place to protect the customer from fraud or theft. The ruling from the CCA means that these regulatory systems will not insure customer funds, investments, depositors and retirees who hold accounts in banks. In fact, the banking institution is now legally allowed to use those customer funds deposited as collateral, payment on debts for loans made, or free use on the stock market to purchase investments as the bank sees fit. Fred Grede, SMG trustee, explained that brokers are no longer required to keep customer money separate from their own. “It does not bode well for the protection of customer funds.”
IF there is an economic collapse in this country, your funds could well be frozen by your bank to pay off, or be applied to, their debts and financial obligations.
So the reasonable advice would be to stay as liquid as you can, and leave only as much money as necessary to pay your bills, but not one penny more. IF you can acquire physical gold or silver, that's not a bad idea also right now.
Goldman Made About $400m in 2012 Betting on Food Prices as Millions Starve
Christine Haigh of the WDM said: "While nearly a billion people go hungry, Goldman Sachs bankers are feeding their own bonuses by betting on the price of food.
Pour l’or allemand il semble que ce soit 7ans pour la France et
l’Allemagne. Tout est parti de ce rapport du Patron de la BUBA => Voir page
17 (c’est en allemand mais pas besoin de traduire cette partie)
Une intro de la BUBA en anglais ici :
Où a tu eu les infos pour les 5 ans de la France, je ne trouve rien
sur la page des LNI car l’accès a WRH nécessite un mot de passe.
The Real Reasons that Germany Is Demanding that the U.S. Return Its Gold
Why Is Germany Demanding 300 Tons of Gold from the U.S. and 374 Tons from France?
The German’s are demanding that the U.S. return all of the 374 tons of gold held by the Bank of France, and 300 tons of the 1500 tons of bullion held by the New York Federal Reserve.Some say that Germany is only demanding repatriation of its gold due to internal political pressures, and that no other countries will do so.
But Pimco co-CEO El Erian says:
In the first instance, it could translate into
pressures on other countries to also repatriate part of their gold holdings.
After all, if you can safely store your gold at home —
a big if for some countries — no government would wish to be seen as one of the
last to outsource all of this activity to foreign central banks.
As we noted last November:
Romania has demanded for many years that Russia return
its gold.
Last year, Venezuela demanded the return of 90 tons of gold from the
Bank of England.
***
As Zero Hedge notes (quoting Bloomberg):
Ecuador’s government wants the nation’s
banks to repatriate about one third of their foreign holdings to support
national growth, the head of the country’s tax agency said.
Carlos Carrasco, director of the tax agency known
as the SRI, said today that Ecuador’s lenders could repatriate
about $1.7 billion and still fulfill obligations to international clients.
Carrasco spoke at a congressional hearing in Quito on a government proposal to
raise taxes on banks to finance cash subsidies to
the South American nation’s poor.
Four members of the Swiss Parliament want Switzerland
to reclaim its gold.
Some people in the Netherlands want
their gold back as well.
(Forbes notes that Iran and Libya have recently
repatriated their gold as well).The Telegraph’s lead economics writer – Ambrose Evans Pritchard – argues that the German repatriation demand shows that we’re switching to a de facto gold standard:
Central banks around the world bought more
bullion last year in terms of tonnage than at any time in almost half a
century.
They added a net 536 tonnes in 2012 as they
diversified fresh reserves away from the four fiat suspects: dollar, euro,
sterling, and yen.
The Washington Accord, where Britain, Spain,
Holland, South Africa, Switzerland, and others sold a chunk of their gold each
year, already seems another era – the Gordon Brown era, you might call it.
That was the illusionary period when investors
thought the euro would take its place as the twin pillar of a new G2
condominium alongside the dollar. That hope has faded. Central bank holdings of
euro bonds have fallen back to 26pc, where they were almost a decade ago.
Neither the euro nor the dollar can inspire full
confidence, although for different reasons. EMU is a dysfunctional construct,
covering two incompatible economies, prone to lurching from crisis to crisis,
without a unified treasury to back it up. The dollar stands on a pyramid of debt. We all know that
this debt will be inflated away over time – for better or worse. The only real
disagreement is over the speed.
***
My guess is that any new Gold Standard will be
sui generis, and better for it. Let gold will take its place as a third reserve
currency, one that cannot
be devalued, and one that holds the others to account, but not so dominant that
it hitches our collective destinies to the inflationary ups (yes, gold was
highly inflationary after the Conquista) and the deflationary downs of global
mine supply.
***
A third reserve currency is just what America
needs. As Prof Micheal Pettis from Beijing University has argued, holding the
world’s reserve currency is an “exorbitant burden” that the US could do
without.
The Triffin Dilemma – advanced by the Belgian
economist Robert Triffin in the 1960s – suggests that the holder of the
paramount currency faces an inherent contradiction. It must run a structural
trade deficit over time to keep the system afloat, but this will undermine its
own economy. The system self-destructs.
A partial Gold Standard – created by the global
market, and beholden to nobody – is the best of all worlds. It offers a store
of value (though no yield). It acts a balancing force. It is not dominant
enough to smother the system.
Let us have three world currencies, a tripod with
a golden leg. It might even be stable.
How Much Gold Is There?
It’s not confidence-inspiring that CNBC’s senior editor John Carney argues that it doesn’t matter whether or not the U.S. has the physical gold it claims to hold.In fact, many allege that the gold is gone:
Cheviot Asset Management’s Ned Naylor-Leyland
says that the Fed and Bank of England will never return
gold to its foreign owners.
Jim Willie says that the gold is gone.
***
Others allege that the gold has not been sold
outright, but has been leased or encumbered, so that the U.S. does not own it
outright.
$10 billion dollar fund manager Eric Sprott
writes – in an article entitled “Do
Western Central Banks Have Any Gold Left???“:
If the Western central banks are indeed leasing
out their physical reserves, they would not actually have to disclose the
specific amounts of gold that leave their respective vaults. According to a document
on the European Central Bank’s (ECB) website regarding the statistical
treatment of the Eurosystem’s International Reserves, current reporting
guidelines do not require central banks to differentiate between gold owned
outright versus gold lent out or swapped with another party. The document
states that, “reversible transactions in gold do not have any effect on
the level of monetary gold regardless of the type of transaction (i.e.
gold swaps, repos, deposits or loans), in line with the
recommendations contained in the IMF guidelines.”6 (Emphasis theirs). Under current
reporting guidelines, therefore, central banks are permitted to continue
carrying the entry of physical gold on their balance sheet even if they’ve
swapped it or lent it out entirely. You can see this in the way Western central
banks refer to their gold reserves.
Indeed, it is now well-documented that the Fed has leased
out a large chunk of its gold reserves, and that big banks borrow gold
from central banks and then to multiple parties.As such, it might not entirely surprising that the Fed needs 7 years to give Germany back its 300 tons of gold … even though the Fed claims to hold 6,720 tons at the New York Federal Reserve Bank alone:
Even Pimco co-CEO Bill Gross says:
When the Fed now writes $85 billion of checks to buy Treasuries and mortgages every month, they really have nothing in the “bank” to back them. Supposedly they own a few billion dollars of “gold certificates” that represent a fairy-tale claim on Ft. Knox’s secret stash, but there’s essentially nothing there but trust.. When a primary dealer such as J.P. Morgan or Bank of America sells its Treasuries to the Fed, it gets a “credit” in its account with the Fed, known as “reserves.” It can spend those reserves for something else, but then another bank gets a credit for its reserves and so on and so on. The Fed has told its member banks “Trust me, we will always honor your reserves,” and so the banks do, and corporations and ordinary citizens trust the banks, and “the beat goes on,” as Sonny and Cher sang. $54 trillion of credit in the U.S. financial system based upon trusting a central bank with nothing in the vault to back it up. Amazing!
And given that gold-plated tungsten has turned up all over the world, and that a top German gold expert found fake gold bars imprinted with official U.S. markings, Germans may have lost confidence in the trustworthiness of the Fed. See this, this, this and this.
This may especially be true since the Fed refused to allow Germans to inspect their own gold stored at the Fed.
Currency War?
The gold repatriation is – without doubt- related to currency.As Forbes notes:
Officials at the Bundesbank … acknowledged the move is “preemptive” in case a “currency crisis” hits the European Monetary Union.
***
“No, we have no intention to sell gold,” a Bundesbank spokesman said on the phone Wednesday, “[the relocation] is in case of a currency crisis.”
Reggie Middleton thinks that Germany’s demand for its gold is part of a currency war.
Jim Rickards has previously said that the Fed had plans to grab Germany gold:
Jim Rickards has outlined possible plans by the Federal Reserve to commandeer Germany’s and all foreign depositors of sovereign gold at the New York Federal Reserve in the event of a dollar and monetary crisis leading to intensified “currency wars” and the ‘nuclear option’ of a drastic upward revision of the price of gold and a return to a quasi gold standard is contemplated by embattled central banks to prevent debt deflation.
Is that one reason that Germany is demanding its gold back now?
China is quietly becoming a gold superpower, and China has long been rumored to be converting the Yuan to a gold-backed currency.
The Telegraph’s James Delingpole points out:
Back in the mid-1920s, the head of the German Central Bank, Herr Hjalmar Schacht, went to New York to see Germany’s gold. However the NY Fed officials were unable to find the palette of Germany’s gold bullion. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Benjamin Strong was mortified, but to put him at ease Herr Schacht turned to him and said ‘Never mind, I believe you when you when you say the gold is there. Even if it weren’t you are good for its replacement.’ (H/T The Real Asset Company)
But that was then and this is now. In the eyes of the Germans – and who can blame them? – America has lost its mojo to such a degree that it can no longer be trusted honour its debts, even in the unlikely event that it were financially capable of doing so. Which is why, following in the footsteps of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez (who may be an idiot but is definitely no fool), Germany is repatriatriating its gold from the US federal reserve. It will now be stored in Frankfurt.
***
[Things] may look calm on the surface, but this latest move by the Bundesbank gives us a pretty good indication that beneath the surface that serene-seeming swan is paddling for dear life.
If you want a full analysis I recommend this excellent summary by Jan Skoyles. The scary part is this bit:
Every few months there is a discussion regarding what China are planning on doing with the gold they both mine and import every year, with many believing they are hoarding the metal as an insurance against the billions of US Treasury bonds, notes and bills they hold. Many believe they will issue some kind of gold-backed currency in the short-term and dump its one trillion dollars’ worth of US Treasury securities. Whilst, at the moment the US seem to take their monopoly currency for granted, should the Chinese or anyone else behave in such a manner, the US will need to respond – most likely with gold, which on its own it does not have enough of.
Anyone who thinks this isn’t going to happen eventually should read Peter Schiff’s parable How An Economy Grows And Why It Crashes. If something can’t go on forever, it won’t.
In other words, Rickards and Skoyles appear to argue that Germany may be repatriating gold in the first round of musical chairs in which China is preparing to roll out a gold-backed Yuan. Under this theory, the rest of the world’s currencies will sink unless their nations’ can scramble to get their hands on enough gold to lend credibility to their paper.
Postscript: Michael Rivero thinks that the war in Mali is connected:
Mali is one of the world’s largest gold producers. Together with neighboring Ghana they account for 7-8% of world gold output. That makes them a rich prize for nations desperate for real physical gold. So, even as Germany started demanding their gold back from the Bank of France and the New York Federal Reserve, France (aided by the US) decided to invade Mali to fight “Islamists” working for “Al Qaeda.” Of course, “Islamists” has become the catch-all label for people that need to be killed to get them out of the way of the path to riches, and the people being bombed by France (aided by the US) are not “Al Qaeda” but Tawariqs, who have been fighting for their independence for 150 years, long before the CIA created “Al Qaeda”. Left to themselves, the Tawariqs could sell gold to whoever they want for whatever they want, and right now China can outbid the US and France.
Pacific Group to Convert 1/3 of Hedge-Fund Assets to Gold
The Pacific Group Ltd., founded by a former PaineWebber Inc. trader, is converting one-third of its hedge-fund assets into physical gold, betting that prices will go up as governments print more money to pay off debt.
Or that one more nation demanding their gold back from the New York Fed and getting the stall treatment will trigger a gold run on the bank and send gold prices right through the roof.
Pacific Group Becomes Latest Hedge Fund Converting Assets to Physical Gold
Sweden’s central bank hasn’t carried out any physical checks of its gold reserves deposited with central banks abroad and relies on the respective authorities to do so, Dagens Industri reported, citing the Riksbank.
Central banks internationally, from Ireland to Germany and now in Sweden, are being forced to answer legitimate questions about their gold reserves by concerned citizens.
Swedish gold reserves are 126 metric tonnes and are valued at almost 45 billion Swedish krone.
The Riksbank confirmed that the majority of Swedish gold reserves are located abroad.
Another respected hedge fund, the Pacific Group, has decided to convert one third of its hedge-fund assets into physical gold.
The Pacific Group Ltd., which manages over a $100 million worth of assets, believes that gold will continue to rise as governments print more money to pay off debt, according to Bloomberg.
HSBC Buys $876 Million Worth of Silver
HSBC has quietly moved into acquiring large amounts of silver bullion.
The bank has secured another deal to buy silver bars from KGHM which brings their total purchases of silver from KGHM alone in the last 12 months to $876 million or PLN 3.65 billion.
KGHM is one of the largest producers of silver in the world and is the second-largest producer of refined silver in the world.
Repatriation Avalanche Gaining Momentum: Azerbaijan to Withdraw All Gold From JP Morgan Vaults
The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan has withdrawn the first ton of its physical gold from JP Morgan vaults, and placed it in their own Central Bank vaults in Baku.
The Fund has announced it will withdraw all of its physical gold assets from JP Morgan warehouses in London.
The game of musical chairs known as bullion banking allocated (rehypothecated) gold storage appears to be rapidly coming to an end.
CEO of JPMorgan says you don’t need to know how banking works, it’s like an airliner engine, too complex to explain, just shut up and pay us.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/CEO_of_JPMorgan_says_you_don%E2%80%99t_need_to_know_how_banking_works%2C_it%E2%80%99s_like_an_airliner_engine%2C_too_complex_to_explain%2C_just_shut_up_and_pay_us./23795/0/0/0/Y/M.htmlVOIR VIDÉO
Jamie Dimon in Davos Switzerland today explaining why people don’t need to know what’s going on in the banking world. It’s too “complex.” Just know that their fee comes from managing this ball of financial confusion. And that’s all you need to know.
There, don’t you feel better? I mean it’s not like the world bailed out the whole banking system or anything. We should have faith.
I told you; modern banking isn't science, it is a religion.
And we do understand how it works.
France sends troops to secure Niger uranium mines
Barely two weeks after invading Mali with over 2,000 troops of the Foreign Legion, France has dispatched special forces troops to neighboring Niger to secure uranium mines run by the French state-owned nuclear power company Areva.
The new French military intervention in northwest Africa was first reported by the weekly magazine Le Point and confirmed by military sources contacted by other sections of the French media. Le Point reported that French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had quickly agreed earlier this week to a "major innovation" in ordering the Special Forces Command to send troops to protect the Areva uranium production sites in Imouraren, and 80 kilometers away in Arlit. The magazine noted that this is the first ever use of the French commandos to directly defend the assets of a corporation.
Military protection of corporate assets in foreign countries: this will set a trend, as long as those countries being invaded by foreign armies don't have the will or capability to prevent it.
Huge Explosion at Iran Nuclear Site Not Confirmed
Published:
January 27th, 2013
Yediot Ahronot reported. on Friday that former Iranian intelligence
officials who defected to the West claim that Iran’s underground Fordo uranium
enrichment facility has been almost completely demolished, and hundreds of
staff members are at this moment trapped underground, This has to be the worst
blow to Iran’s nuclear ambitions so far.WND, an American news website affiliated with the right, reported Friday that a mysterious explosion has destroyed a significant portion of Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility – considered Tehran’s most fortified facility.
Report of huge explosion at nuclear facility in Iran — Major news networks dismiss claim
Source: Haaretz Daily NewspaperAuthor: Anshel Pfeffer
Date: Jan. 27, 2013
The Internet has been abuzz over the last couple
of days with an uncorroborated report regarding a huge explosion in the
underground uranium enrichment plant at Fordow in Iran. [...]
The main problem with the report is that no
supporting evidence has appeared so far from any reliable sources to
corroborate it, nor has a statements been released from an official source in
Iran or any other country. All the main Western news organizations with
contacts and sources in the intelligence community have steered well away from
the story. (In Israel, only the tabloid Yedioth Ahronoth, which splashed the
story on the front page of its Sunday edition, took notice of the story.)
Perhaps it’s the identity of the report’s author
which leads to the disbelief: Reza Kahlili, an Iranian exile with an
interesting past who is well known to many reporters covering intelligence and
Iranian affairs. He published the report on the explosion, which apparently
took place on Monday, the eve of the Israeli elections, on World News Daily, a
veteran website with close contacts to the far-right in the United States.
[...]
In a phone-interview with Haaretz (Kahlili used a
voice-distorting device), he insisted that his information was accurate [...]
Read the report here
Despite the purely speculative nature of the reports, former Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter, who is Acting Israeli Defense Minister while Ehud Barak is overseas, cheered the reports, saying any explosions inside Iran would be “good news.”
Though US and Israeli saboteurs have repeatedly targeted the nation’s civilian nuclear program, this would be by far the single largest attack, and it is hard to imagine that such an incident, particularly timed ahead of planned P5+1 talks with Iran, would be kept secret for so long.
Israel threatens Syria strike if rebels get chemical arms
Any sign that Syria's grip on its chemical weapons is slipping as it battles armed rebels could trigger Israeli military strikes, Israel's vice premier said on Sunday.
The hired mercenaries in Syria already have chemical arms. Israel is just looking to escalate the wars to distract the world from their crimes against Palestine.
Attack on Syria would be seen as attack on Iran: Tehran
Iran would consider any attack on Syria an attack on itself, a senior government official was quoted as saying on Saturday, in one of Tehran's most assertive defenses of its ally yet.
Iran is a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who is fighting a near two-year-long revolt. Tehran has already repeatedly warned the West against intervening in the conflict against Assad.
Tehran sees Damascus as part of an axis of opposition to Israeli and Western influence in the Middle East.
I wish to heck this guy hadn't said that: this statement nearly guarantees an ultimate overt attack against Syria, to which Iran must respond militarily, giving the US and Israel a casus belli to attack it.
Barak: US plans 'surgical strike' if Iran sanctions fail
Ehud Barak is certain the US has plans for surgical strikes against Iran as a last-ditch measure if Tehran refuses to stop its development of a nuclear weapons capability.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, which was published over the weekend, the defense minister was asked if there were any way Israel could go to war with Iran that did not drag in the US.
Israeli reporter admits suppressing images of ‘piles of bodies of civilians’ when Israel went ‘crazy’ in Gaza
"I came into possession of shocking material. The kind of material that sends you to a psychologist. I have never shown it. Children who were shot. Piles of bodies of civilians... I came into possession of material about very grim events relating to the idea that Israel was deliberately 'going crazy.' Testimonies, images and much more. So many people were killed there."
SAS and spy planes set for Mali as Britain offer more support in battle against 'terrorist scourge' of Al Qaeda
Britain is to send spy planes, unmanned drones and special forces to Mali to ‘find and dismantle’ the Al Qaeda network behind the slaughter in Algeria.
‘Al-Qaeda threat used by NATO as smoke screen for re-colonization of Northern Africa’
With more western countries getting indirectly involved in the conflict in Mali, there’s increasing speculation about their motives. Journalist and broadcaster Neil Clark told RT, that the intervention has ‘only economic reasons’.
Several western countries have already offered France, which is to boost its force to 2,500 soldiers next week, aid in Mali.
The UK is providing logistical air assistance, while the United States is providing surveillance and other intelligence help.
Washington also announced it will supply transport planes for French forces and consider sending refueling tankers for French warplanes.
France aiming for 'total reconquest' of Mali, French foreign minister says
France says the goal of its military action in Mali is to retake control of the entire country from Islamist militants who have seized the north.
Prime Minister says fight against Islamist terrorism in North Africa will last for decades
France imposes media blackout on Mali war
On January 11, France launched the war under the pretext of halting the advance of fighters in Mali. However, as Paris has stepped up its ground offensive and aerial strikes in Mali few images of the conflict have come out of the African country.
French networks TF1 and France Televisions have also sent several teams to Bamako, but a media blackout on images of the clashes has confined all journalists to the city.
This comes as French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said the number of French troops on the ground in the West African country could top the initially-planned number of 2,500.
“Two thousand five hundred is what was initially announced, maybe that will be exceeded," Le Drian said in a Saturday television interview.
Panetta: US Has to 'Fight Back' Against Al Qaeda After Attack
The terrorist attack in Algeria, which resulted in the death of three Americans and 34 other hostages, highlights that al Qaeda is “committed to creating terror" worldwide and that America has "got to fight back," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.
Since it now known that the "Al Qaeda" that carried out the attack included Canadians, French, and at least one Mossad agent, are you planning on nuking France, Canada, and Israel, Leon?
Who was the white jihadi? Algerian forces find 'two Canadians and at least one Frenchman' among bodies of gas plant gunmen
Westerners including two Canadians and possibly a Frenchman were among the Al Qaeda terrorists responsible for the bloody Algerian hostage crisis, it was claimed today.
Mossad have a long history of using Canadian passports for cover.
Was the West Involved in the Algeria Attack … and How?
Terror in North Africa: are Westerners pulling the strings? English-speaking jihadis seen in Mali, as a Canadian is reported to have co-ordinated Algeria attack … Canada is investigating an allegation by the Algerian Prime Minister that one of its citizens co-ordinated the terror raid at the Saharan gas plant in which dozens of hostages were killed.
Westerners, including a man with blond hair and blue eyes, are believed to have been among the Islamist militants who launched last week’s attack on the Tigantourine complex near Algeria’s border with Libya. A French jihadist, previously unknown to authorities, and two Canadians are suspected to have been involved in the hostage-taking, and reports also claim that a man with a Western accent was among the extremists who lured terrified gas workers from their rooms during the hostage crisis. – Guardian
US assassination drone kills 5 in northeastern Afghanistan
At least five civilians have been killed in a US assassination drone strike carried out in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunar, Press TV reports.
Villagers say all the victims were civilians and had no links to any militant group.
US Drone Strike Kills at Least 14 in Eastern Afghanistan
According to provincial officials in the eastern Afghan province in Nuristan, US drones fired multiple missiles against the Kamdish District late Monday, causing “around 35” casualties, with others reporting at least 14 deaths in the strike. Local officials termed all the slain suspects.
Oddly, NATO officials insisted they had no information about any operations ongoing in the region, and they declined to speculate whether there was a strike at all, though not all drone strikes are necessarily coordinated through NATO.
