Showing posts with label financial institutions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label financial institutions. Show all posts

Monday, April 19, 2010

Goldman Fraud Charges to Test Obama Administration Morality, Ethics & Transparency

.


The first salvo of taking America back from the clutches of greed and corruption was launched by the SEC with fraud charges against Goldman Sachs but this is just the opening salvo of what could be a long, drawn out legal battle to bring morality where it is needed most, in the financial affairs of Wall Street.

The reason is because cleaning up the mess entails more than making a few scapegoats out of corporate executives and the multi-million dollar bonuses. What is really needed is to expand the legal actions to include all of those former Wall Street executives who went to work for the government and led America down the path of self-destruction.



Greed was as much a motivator for government employees as it was for Wall Street crooks and campaign contributions and kickbacks were the tools that bought off government protection from these master thieves.

Even former President Bill Clinton had a mea culpa of sorts this weekend when he said he was wrong in letting his former Treasury Secretaries, namely Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, create the regulatory laws that opened the floodgates to corruption, fraud, conflicts of interest and ethics violations that brought about the collapse of the economy.



Just before Clinton left office his economic advisors, with the help of Wall Street, changed the rules of the game and created layer after layer of unregulated opportunities on Wall Street. The sub-prime mortgage market was just one of many. But it took more than Wall Street to hoodwink the public, it took government insiders and congressmen that could be bought off.



Then there was the curious case of Rahm Emanuel, yet the same Emanuel serving as the most important advisor to Barack Obama, who was also Clinton's chief fund raiser all the way back in 1992, who was hired by Clinton to raise money while being paid $3,000a month by Goldman Sachs for consulting.

The Emanuel, Rubin and Summers trio remained with Clinton throughout his presidency and were the movers behind the NAFTA treaty and Mexican Peso crisis, both of which lined the pockets of Goldman. This was before the secret regulatory reform by the same trio that opened the floodgates to derivatives and swaps used to fuel the sub-prime fraud.



Then Emanuel was placed on Freddie Mac's Board by Clinton where he was paid $350,000 as the two government funded housing programs put up the funds for the housing scam. The SEC action against Goldman is just the tip of the iceberg.

Senator Chris Dodd, the indignant Senator who is retiring because of the mess in DC is another player and cohort of the insiders who steered the government into the hands of Wall Street. In his case he benefitted from illegal mortgage loans at highly favorable rates and millions in campaign contributions from these same firms destroying our economy.



Yet we have only begun the process of cleaning out the mess. All the players are still inside the Obama White House as paid staff or key advisors. Many details about Obama's own relationship to Goldman Sachs are yet to be revealed.

Did he know his key advisors spent almost two decades putting in place the regulations and deals to destroy the housing market? What role did Emanuel and Goldman play in buying off Obama's two major challengers in the US Senate race in Illinois when both the top Democrat in the primary and top Republican in the general election mysteriously withdrew for personal reasons opening the door for the unknown State Senator to explode on the national political scene. Remember that the unknown Obama was the featured speaker at the Democratic Presidential convention in 2004 while he was the underdog candidate for Senate.



What about the secret meetings between Obama and Goldman executives in Chicago early in his presidential campaign, or the secret practice debate Goldman arranged with Tom Brokaw of NBC in NYC during the presidential campaign?

With Obama still surrounded by Goldman people should he protect his own integrity by ordering them to stay out of the investigations, and many more are to come, and recluse themselves from any action that might benefit Goldman and other Wall Street firms? It would seem to be the only way to clear the record and protect the public from them influencing actions by federal agencies as well as policy, programs and regulatory initiatives that might unfairly benefit the institutions.



At the same time someone honest in Washington, if there are such people left, should demand that any congressmen or Obama administration officials receiving funds for special interest campaigns or political campaigns should also recluse themselves from participating in any actions impacting on these firms if the firms are being investigated for fraud.

Money runs deep in DC. There is a direct deposit line between Wall Street and the offices of president and congress. The surviving financial institutions like Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley spent more than $21 million lobbying Congress last year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.



They also employed plenty of Washington's brand name lobbyists to work their influence, including: former House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt; Steve Elmendorf, a former top Gephardt staffer; Chuck Brain, former President Bill Clinton's top lobbyist; Ken Duberstein, a chief of staff in the Reagan White House; and Tony Podesta, a prodigious fundraiser close to the Obama administration and much of the Senate Democratic caucus.

As more charges are released and attention moves from housing to oil futures to credit markets to debt financing for foreign governments there will be pressure on the investigative agencies to plea bargain the cases, a standard practice in the past. This will amount to no more than a reward to these firms as they can avoid responsibility for what they are charged by not admitting guilt, thus protecting themselves to some degree from civil actions by the investors who lost billions of dollars.



For example, the SEC action against Goldman, if plea bargained, will not recover the $1 billion in investor losses that resulted from the fraud. If Goldman can afford to pay $25 billion in bonuses they can certainly repay $1 billion in losses.

The media thinks the Wall Street mess will be used for political advantage. Of course it will, it is a case of the politicians being just as guilty as the Wall Street executives. The politicians share the guilt and must not be overlooked.

But if the Obama administration agrees to plea bargains they will still be guilty of aiding and abetting the crooks. Obama, in the interest of his much ballyhooed transparency, needs to get transparent real fast and explain his role with Goldman and other financial institutions dating back to his Senate race, he needs to get transparent and release all documents, memos and emails from the Goldman gang in the White House including Emanuel, Summers, Rubin, and the many other staff in the White House and Treasury who worked for Goldman and were still benefiting from stock and dividend payments from the behemoth, and he needs to denounce the plea bargain as a tool for settling cases involving billions of dollars of damages from fraud.

We have not even begun to scratch the surface of the depth of the moral bankruptcy in America and we need to move fast and furious to make sure it does not engulf our politicians in an ever growing web of deceit and deception. We can not let them forget the millions of lives hurt by the actions, the billions of dollars lost to them, and the pain and suffering from people around the world who were victims.

.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Obama Fiddles, Congress Procrastinates and Rome Burns while Goldman, Morgan & the Rothschilds Reap Profits



It is early summer, one year since the oil price crisis nearly destroyed the world economy. Back then the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) disclosed a six month investigation of oil price manipulation was underway. A year later and the CFTC disclosed oil speculators controlled over 80% of all the oil derivatives contracts sold.

Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citibank and Bank of America control the world derivatives market for major commodities. JP Morgan also controls the world gold futures market, which true insiders long considered a subsidiary of the Rothschilds, both the gold market and Morgan. So once again the boys on Wall Street have decided to drive up the prices.


Who really controls these markets? Take oil futures as an example. Successful manipulation would require control of several elements of the complex financial manipulation. These elements include being the recognized market expert or maker, having the funds to speculate in the market, and having the will to gamble by buying into the market. Goldman Sachs has played all three roles.

The research center of Goldman Sachs, the energy analysts and darlings of the media used a series of predictions last year to drive up the price of oil futures, revising the price predictions continuously until Goldman said oil would reach $200 a barrel. In spite of negative market forces and no justification for oil price increases the price spiraled to $147 a barrel.

Funds managed by Goldman provided the fuel to spark market activity while a wholly owned subsidiary of Goldman, J. Aron & Company, was the vehicle to buy and resell the oil futures contracts. Add to this the fact Goldman, and Morgan are major owners of the very oil futures market in London that sets prices and one wonders what the hell our government is covering up by refusing to attack the financial giants.


We know special interest money can buy a lot of influence in our nation's capitol but Obama and Pelosi are creating a whole new standard for proving the buying of politicians can be a most profitable investment. Look what happened when Goldman was about to lose $30 billion in loans to AIG for derivative purchases made by Goldman for AIG. Congress and the President gave AIG the biggest bailout in history and Goldman recovered 100% of the money owed it from the federal bailout.

Now bondholders and stockholders in Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GM, Chrysler and a host of other companies certainly didn't recover 100% of their money and most lost all of their money. Why did Goldman and Morgan recover 100%? Ask our new president who long ago was taken in by Goldman executives at secret meetings in 2006 and 2007, whose employees gave Obama more Wall Street money than any other candidate and whose former employees are strategically placed throughout the new administration.


Goldman Sachs is the only financial company whose stock nearly tripled in value since Obama got elected. Goldman stock reached a low of $53.31 a share last November, by the March crash it climbed to $73.95 a share and today is over $150.00 a share, an astounding 281% increase in value.

Not even JP Morgan of the big four derivative traders achieved the same although Morgan was far ahead of most banking and investment houses. Morgan went from $23.38 when Obama was elected to a low of $15.90 in the March madness to $35.00 today, an increase of 49%.

Bank of America was at $11.47 last November, $3.14 in March and today is $11.98, a 4% increase leaving it slightly above where they started. Citigroup Chase was $3.77 in November, $1.02 in March and $3.41 today, a loss of about 10%.

The Obama Factor (since his election in November):

Goldman Sachs - 281% increase in value
JP Morgan - 49% increase in value
Bank of America - 4% increase in value
Citigroup Chase - 10% loss in value


Dow Jones - 16% increase since election in November
Oil Prices - 138% increase since December low
Home Values - 21% loss of value from a year ago
Gold prices - 33% increase since Obama election

Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to master manipulating. There is the case of the 25-35 oil super tankers leased by oil producers and financial houses at a cost of about $63,000 a month each. These giant ships can carry up to 20 million barrels of oil per ship. If a ship was filled and parked in March the oil in that ship has already increased $700 million in value.

Then there is the potential for financial houses like Goldman and Morgan to use the information provided to them for due diligence by corporations seeking financing to call loans and options and virtually squeezing the distressed companies into bankruptcy. This gives them the opportunity to acquire the assets at fire sale prices like Morgan did with Bear Stearns and Goldman did with oil pipeline giant Semgroup.

Finally there is the potential conflict of interest I raised nearly three years ago of Goldman and Morgan being founders and major investors in ICE, the international company that now owns the London oil futures market.

One thing none of our illustrious politicians seem to be talking about is the long promised campaign reform to close all the loopholes in financing political campaigns. Nearly $1 million was poured into Obama's campaign by Goldman employees. Special interest money flowed at a record rate into all campaigns although some was disguised as individual contributions.


Obama shattered all records spending about $750 million while political parties and special interest groups spent a couple of hundred more million for his campaign, making him the first billion dollar candidate in our history. Apparently he raised so much money that the source of over $88.6 million cannot even be identified. To date and in spite of his promises, there has been no effort to introduce legislation to limit federal fund raising or to expose such massive unidentified contributions in future races.





Friday, May 08, 2009

Coltons Point Times Financial Articles



Because of interest in the financial articles previously posted and the fact they are running on dozens of other web sites including Ron Paul's home page the following is a listing of all the previously released stories from the Coltons Point Times on Wall Street, Capitol Hill, the White House, the Rothschilds, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, the trillionaires, oil price conspiracy, credit crisis, bank bailout, sub-prime mortgages and related actions causing our economic meltdown and recovery.
A painting of prayers with the Rothschilds.

Click on the link and enjoy the articles that tens of thousands of people have been reading.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

WILL THE REAL OBAMA PLEASE STAND UP?




It is sure a good thing our new president is a people's president ready to return the White House to focusing on the needs of the "little people". Of course there are a few contradictions in what he has done to date that raise eyebrows but his loyal staff seem able to sugar coat these actions with the adoring media and thus deflect attention from the contradictions.


I mentioned in an earlier article how he vowed to keep lobbyists out of government and then violated his own executive order and hired lobbyists. There are the seven senior executive nominees who owed back taxes, quite significant sums in some cases. He promised to bring reform to campaign laws which are yet to be seen while his people's campaign shattered spending records more than doubling the most ever spent in a presidential campaign.


He has given no explanation to his secret relationship with Goldman Sachs other than to help them remain the dominant investment banking house in the world, keeping their stock value at a level far beyond their closest competitors, and even giving billions to AIG of which $30 billion were passed on to Goldman Sachs. That is quite a return on their investment of a few millions into his campaign. More important, in spite of his highly publicized ranting and raving about the greed of bankers and Wall Street, he has never mentioned the biggest and greediest of all Wall Street, Goldman Sachs.

This Ivy League by product, we are now in the 21st straight year of having an Ivy League president and will reach 24 straight years by the end of his first term, has little in common with the little people. He attended Columbia and Harvard, his wife attended Princeton and Harvard. Both spent under-graduate and graduate years in the Ivy League at the most expensive schools in the world. Today it would cost about $435,000 for the law degree, meaning Michelle and Barack spent nearly $1 million ($868,000 in today's dollars plus other expenses) for their Ivy League educations.




Since he entered public service as a community organizer and state senator, both quite low paying jobs, one wonders how all those education loans got paid. I don't remember anyone in the media asking who paid the million dollars during the campaign. Still, even with the huge debt they were able to spend another $1.6 million for a home when he was first elected to the US Senate. His close advisor who arranged that deal is now in jail, Tony Rezko, a Chicago multi-millionaire fixer who lived across the street.






Then Obama enters the White House promising to change things, clean out the old Washington and bring in new people. His top advisor is a hand-me-down investment banker from Clinton and his top five White House advisors are all multi-millionaires. Again it seems rather unusual for a people's president to be surrounded by millionaires. Of course when his daughters toured their new home in the White House and found the Jonas brothers recording stars in their bedroom, it once again seemed rather unusual for a populist.


Now that he has been in office a couple of months he has added a couple of trillion dollars to our budget and his first budget increased government cost by another trillion. At the rate he is spending he will double our national debt in about three years, twice as fast as Bush did in spite of 911 and two wars. In fact our taxes for his budget next year only pay for 44% of the cost. Where in the world is the rest coming from?

Okay, so there are a few conflicts, but what about the dog. After the election he promised his kids a dog and the family promptly decided to set an example by getting a pound pup. Three months later it turns out there will be no pound pup but a Portuguese Water Dog from one of the most exclusive breeders in the world where the dogs can cost over $2,500. Did I mention the Texas breeder where he is getting the dog is the same who breeds Portuguese Water Dogs for the Ted Kennedy family?


Tonight, Good Friday, one of the holiest days in Christianity, he is throwing a party for 140 of his closest friends at the White House and having Chicago deep dish pizza brought in from St. Louis, not Chicago, which I suppose is the Ivy League way of honoring the death of Jesus.


Finally there is the mysterious selection of Joe Biden, resident pit bull and bionic tongue and godfather to America's credit card companies and their insane interest charges as Vice President. You do understand he is a heartbeat away from the presidency? With his tongue he is the time bomb of the Obama team. Now to be fair, he did predict a major international crisis within a few months of Obama taking office. I guess the attempted hijacking of the American cargo ship by Somalia pirates and taking the captain hostage qualifies.

Does anybody know just who we elected to be president?






Friday, March 20, 2009

What is the Economy Going To Do?








Now that is the biggest question facing the world today as the Obama Administration has been mired in deflection of the economic problems to Bush saying they inherited the mess. Of course the Democratic controlled Congress passed the bail out bill, with Obama's support, then passed the second and all subsequent packages and bailouts. The new budget is also Obama's, not Bush.

If the economic plans fail they will be because of Bush. So if they succeed they should also be because of Bush but of course that is not politics as usual and we have seen how the agent-of-change has taken great comfort in maintaining politics as usual. It matters not, who can believe them anyway? Fact is none of the experts can be believed because all of them collectively, Democrats, Republicans, politicians, Wall Streeters and the financial institutions of the world were responsible for the mess.


The Coltons Point Times has been far more accurate than Wall Street or Washington in predicting the future trends and problems of the economy over the past three years. We are now going to give our newest round of predictions and we tend to take a much more optimistic approach than all those guys trying to "capitalize on the crisis."

Once again we turned to our legion of experts and consulted the shamans, psychics, channels, spirits (both the ethereal and bottled kind), illegal aliens, extra-terrestrial aliens and itinerate preachers for advice. We did not consult Wall Street, economists, stock analysts, bankers, brokers, politicians or media for they lived the lies that got us here in the first place and that they are condemning even now. If they looked in the mirror they could identify the bad guys.

So here are the 2009 economic predictions of the CPT. First the recession will end during the 3rd quarter of this year and a sustained growth will commence in September. By then the Dow Jones should be flirting with 9,000. Real Estate will turn around the second quarter and by the third quarter the value of homes will start increasing again. Congress better watch the lenders to make sure they are not sticking it to us in hidden fees.


While America will be back to business almost as usual next fall it will take six months more before the European markets start to stabilize, like in the spring of 2010. If you can go to Europe and other places while the prices are dirt cheap. The unemployment rate will stabilize by the fourth quarter of this year but will take several years to return to a 6% level. That's okay because if people see the value of their homes and stocks increasing many older workers will not need to return to work making more jobs available for younger people.

Ford and a stripped down General Motors will emerge this fall much more competitive with the Japanese car manufacturers who stole the American market from them. Health costs will increase making health and wellness companies good investments as Obama will struggle with lowering costs. No matter how much money they pour into education it will not improve until they create a whole new educational system. In both health and education it is the system that is flawed. More money and people cannot make incompetent or outdated systems better.

At some point in the next 24 months people are going to suddenly have a divine awakening when they realize that if we spent all the money currently spent on health, insurance and treatment on the simple strategy of rebuilding our immune system, maybe we wouldn't need that massive health care industry. Didn't the Bible even say "heal thyself"?


Remember when you were a kid and ate mud patties, dirty snow, unwashed garden vegetables and even half-cooked burgers if the barbeque chef was half-lit? That stuff didn't kill you. Most times it didn't even make you sick. Our immune system could handle it. Well even since you were a kid you have been busy destroying your immune system with our societal addiction to prescription drugs, atrocious eating habits, and over-the-counter remedies to every problem you didn't even know you had!

For the richest and most advanced society in the world we are pretty sick physically, mentally and spiritually. If you choose to maintain the status quo when it comes to your health and habits including the diagnosing and treatment of our many illnesses and diseases, then you will stay sick. If you want to get well, you change what made you sick in the first place. That is the future of improved health. Many old and even ancient treatments never should have been forgotten. They cured the problems. Today's treatment is intended to prolong the problem and make you more susceptible to more prescriptions.


Physically, health maintenance is the best cure for the physical body. Mental health can be cured when we wake up and realize a greed-driven society breeds the many tentacles of stress which manifest into your sicknesses. Spiritually, well that is a test. You could find or go back to religion or adopt some discipline that helps you find inner peace.

That is all the advice I have to offer on this at the moment.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Election Wrap up - Democrats - What Now?



Suppose you made a wish list last New Years and you got everything you could ever dream for all in one year. Well that was the fate of the Democrats as they swept the presidency while taking much stronger control of the House and Senate, a politicians delight. But remember the caution, be careful when you wish as you may get what you want. Add to that be specific as well.

The Democrats got control of the government, filling Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barney Frank's stockings to the top. Unfortunately, they were not clear enough in their request and they forgot to say no recession, Wall Street collapse, credit crisis, auto collapse, war in Iraq, war in Afghanistan, violence in the Middle East and overall pretty bleak domestic and world economic, political and military situations.


The new president will inherit all these and untold more situations that have been kept hidden from the public for good reason. Had we known about the crooks on Wall Street and Washington, D.C. earlier in the year, not to mention throughout the nation and the world, most of our incumbent politicians who got elected would have been taken to the woodshed and lashed.


In addition there were all those many campaign promises, health coverage for all, tax reductions for 95% of the people, clean green cars, more unions, more social programs, more abortions, mortgage forgiveness and restructuring, more genetic engineering, well, more promises than I have room to spell them out, still what will happened to all those promises? The last time a Democrat made such promises was when Pelosi said we would be out of Iraq in a couple of weeks and a laundry list of other promises back in 2004 if we gave Democrats control of Congress and they got it but we didn't. So I guess this is déjà vu all over again.

Did anyone hear the victorious Democrats say they would pursue prosecutions against all the Wall Street crooks who caused the economic collapse or did they all take too much campaign money from them to get serious? Any word about how we will get meaningful campaign reform or was that also buried under the avalanche of special interest campaign contributions? Why are they going to extend health care to everyone when our medical system is broken down already? Shouldn't it be fixed first?


How can we believe Barney Frank and the Democrats that they are going to fix the mess when they were the ones that caused the mess in the first place? How many politicians will be leading the nation who stood by and watched the economy go up in flames in recent years? And how many staff and elected officials were personally involved in many of the crooked deals but remain in power?

We are just at the beginning of the reform promised by Obama. First he had to get elected. Now he has to drive out the demons of government and Wall Street and that will be a much more difficult task. I believe all those liberal groups and hardcore Democrats will be in for a shock when the Obama program is finally disclosed and it will not be fully disclosed until 2010 when the next round of Congressional elections takes place. That will be the first chance he gets to go after the patron saints of corruption still leading Congress.

You can always count on a rambunctious time when the Democrats take control of the government and I expect we will see more of the same. Still, something tells me Obama is a lot more than a politician but someone really committed to changing the nation for the better knowing full well the amount of pain that will cause in the short term. My prediction is a very short honeymoon for the new president as it will not take long for the crooks in Congress to realize they are the targets of the new Administration and when they see the truth they will fight Obama every step of the way against reform. Let's hope they are so drunk with greed they miss the warning signs.


Pictured in the article are Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank and Pelosi with Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader. These are the people we have entrusted with our government and our future. Yes, Pelosi and Hoyer are from Maryland though Pelosi long ago moved to California.
For those interested in history, the Democratic office holders in line to become president are 1. Joe Biden, Vice President, 2. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, and 3. Robert Carlyle Byrd, President Pro Tem of the Senate (at 92 years old this year he would be the oldest president in history).



Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Letter to the Editor

Seems Anonymous has decided to write again this time in defense of the internet. Now since I normally let all responses stand without comment I shall change from past practice since there is a clear misunderstanding on the part of Anonymous as to what I know.

Anonymous said:

You shouldn't be so tough on Internet advertising: this blog you spread your message on is given to you for free as a result of it. Just several years ago you would have had to pay to host an expensive server and rent a domain name to get your message out. Not to mention that Google has taken on the likes of Microsoft with their free suite of Google Doc publishing tools. Yeah, they even let you store your created documents on their servers also for free. And if you choose you can do all this in complete anonymity. Google and Internet advertising, albeit annoying, has changed the world for the better.

Nothing is free on the internet. I refuse constant attempts by Google and others to insert their advertising and that of their millions of advertisers. Any day they will require it and I will lose the ability to give you an ad free source of information. I have my own domain names and servers in place for the day the intenet is no longer free which will be very soon. Besides, we all pay to access the "free" information. There is no free distribution of my stories on the internet either by Google or anyone else. In spite of the fact I am a long time registered journalist any distribution of the stories short of extremely hard work and constant networking is at a very high cost as the Googles of the world along with the internet media refuse to run stories without payment. Just posting on the internet gets one nothing, including exposure.

Automated banking? Are you talking Internet banking? Just think about all those dummies recently standing in line to get their money out of failed banks. The fools should have been sitting at home moving their dough to safer institutions with their mouse and a few clicks.The biggest injustice we face hasn't changed, it's the use of media companies to further political agendas. At least the Internet is helping anyone who chooses to do so to harpoon those institutions.

You know those dummies standing in line at banks, well they got every cent they had deposited. The bigger dummies on the internet lost about $500 billion to fraud directly or indirectly related to the internet and credit cards last year. The cell phone users were losers as well with over $20 billion in losses. And even ATM machines were looted by hacking bank records to the tune of billions of dollars. If you add the other ramifications of identity theft from the internet the losses could be approaching a trillion dollars and guess whose internet, credit card and cell phone fees are adjusted to cover the losses, you!

Don't like what others say? Start a newspaper and put it in everyone's mailbox. The County Times should come to mind. Finally, some food for thought. No better tool has ever existed to expose corruption and find the truth than the Internet. Everything is archived and searchable. You've got the library of the world right at your desk 24/7. Just imagine how it would have changed your life had it been there in your youth.

The problem with the internet is there is no test of truth to what is posted. When it was originally started it was as a research tool with real institutions verifying the information. Now anyone can say anything with no relationship to truth and the gullible public believes much of what is posted. Just look at the vicious campaign rumors about both Obama and Palin that never went away, even after the truth had been established. As an entertainment tool the internet is great. As a source of truth it has led to the destruction of journalism as a source of true information and that is a sad commentary on life in general.

I was a newspaper reporter for a real newspaper and we had to have multiple sources, survive editing and fact checking and be able to capture the public attention before our stories were even published. Too bad such standards are not possible on the internet.

Finally, if the internet was such a valuable tool to protect us from corruption why is fraud and corruption using the internet and electronic trading, swaps and derivatives thriving, why did it just cost trillions of dollars in losses to unsuspecting people throughout the world, why has it destroyed our economy, and why can't anyone stop it?

Jordan Christopher

Friday, October 24, 2008

The worldwide financial meltdown. Are the players, analysts and media guilty as well?


Why does Obama surround himself with them?

If there is anything we have learned this election cycle it is that the experts in the fields of economics, banking, housing, defense, automobiles and a host of other industries have been dead wrong for years and as a result there may be nothing left of the economy for the next president to inherit. Make no mistake, they have been wrong over and over again and yet the media gave them credibility so like just like the Pied Piper, we have followed them down the path to self-destruction.

Now we are faced with a choice for president between well meaning but relatively inexperienced people and we are about to entrust them with our future in perhaps the most difficult period of our history so what lessons have we learned? Ironically, many in America continue to blindly follow the Pied Pipers, the very same people who taught us the meaning of greed.

Thanks to the overwhelming lack of humility of the media I feel a little uncomfortable saying it but wasn't it Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount who said; "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). What a shame when quoting Jesus can result in condemnation from the very media who is supposed to be telling us the truth.

Well this very media has been engaged in a financial conspiracy dedicated to establishing greed, desire and possession as the virtues of American society as they have bombarded us for decades with all the things we had to own to keep up with the Jones's or to be a leader. Fancy cars, clothes, country club memberships, spas, lattes, you name it, there is not enough money on earth to acquire everything they want you to buy and the more expensive the better.

Oh yes, the media had to attract the billions in advertising dollars from the greed mongers in order to brainwash an unsuspecting public into following a path of economic moral bankruptcy. But the day would come when the excesses of corporations and the lies and deceits of the experts would finally bleed the last drops of blood money from the public and that day has now come not just here but around the entire world.

The American public could see this coming and the experts didn't. Public opinion poll after public opinion poll showed the people no longer trusted politicians, Congress, financial experts and the media as their credibility ratings dropped to the lowest levels ever recorded. What was the difference? Well the experts relied on the philosophy of the products of the best businesses schools in the world while the meek relied on the Bible and the teachings of a humble man named Jesus.

What is the result, economic chaos. What is the conclusion, the experts were wrong. So if they were wrong, why does the media continue to embrace them, give us their latest version of what is going to happen, and expect the public (the fools in the world according to the media) to still follow?

Barach Obama, the least experienced of the candidates, did the only thing he could and used an enormous war chest of money to surround himself with the best, most experienced experts in the world, a Whose Who of Policy experts. These are the very same experts who caused the economic destruction of the world we now face and make no mistake, we are only feeling the beginnings of the fruits of deception and greed.

Look at the record. My last article detailed how the executives of Goldman Sachs recruited Obama to run for president and have helped finance the most expensive campaign in history. To give himself the benefit of others experience Obama surrounded himself with former Goldman executives as his key advisors and endorsers including Robert Rubin (former Goldman CEO), New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine (former Goldman CEO) and a host of fund raisers from Goldman's that gave over $800,000 and raised millions more.

Obama was seduced into supporting the Wall Street bailout, in fact was a leader in bringing it about according to the Democratic party press releases, a bailout designed by yet another former Goldman CEO Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen. Finally, Obama says billionaire Warren Buffet is his close friend and closest advisor on the economy. Buffet also is now one of the largest stockholders in Goldman Sachs with over $5 billion in the company. There is an old Chicago motto that comes in to play as Buffet not only propped up Goldman but went public to tell Congress to get the bailout done! That motto, "Ubi Est Mea" means "Where's mine?"



To establish his foreign policy credentials Obama got the endorsement of Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State. This was another beneficiary of Goldman largess and was the one who personally took the case to the United Nations to justify the invasion of Iraq, a war Obama says he opposed from the beginning though he was only a young state senator with no involvement in world wars at the time. In housing, there are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac people throughout his campaign.

So does surrounding oneself with the very people who have led the nation down the path of destruction give one the experience necessary to lead us through the worst period of our history? Judgment is a very interesting thing when selecting people to prove you have credentials as having experience is not nearly as important as learning from experience. If the very people that brought on these deceptions and mistakes are the people you rely on, then not only do you rely on the wrong experience but you demonstrate bad judgment as well.

It would seem the Obama cabinet might as well meet in the Goldman Sachs boardroom as the faces of his team already line the walls of former executives, benefactors and stockholders of the company whose corporate motto is proudly proclaimed as, "Long Term Greed!" Now maybe it is time to update the motto and add, "Take the Money and Run!".

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Obama versus McCain or Goldman Sachs versus The Rothschilds



A Clash of the Titans for Control of the Presidency

News the media won't report!

Did it ever occur to you that perhaps your vote really doesn't matter because whatever happens in America is being orchestrated by more powerful sources? Few people understand the power and financial influence of two of the most powerful international financial houses in world history and it may very well be they are heavily involved in cutthroat competition for control of our next president. Yet the media has not even begun to question the relationship between these international bankers and our candidates for president.

Well they should before it is too late. Some would argue it may already be too late as the Congress, the White House, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and the two candidates have already joined forces to adopt the most comprehensive bail out of Wall Street and the banking community every seen in American history and followed it with similar action in every major nation throughout the world.

While Congress and the candidates talk about a $700 billion bailout that was necessary to save the economy, the Federal Reserve and Treasury were quietly adopting new programs and regulations to provide direct assistance to the financial markets bringing the total bailout to nearly $3 trillion. As if that is not enough, the Democratic leadership in Congress also intends to offer a future bribe to the taxpayer of another $300 billion stimulation program if Obama gets elected.

How in the world did the Democrats and Republicans, the liberals and conservatives and the media of this nation all agree to such a massive commitment to save the very institutions that cheated, committed fraud, bent regulations and out-smarted the best minds in government and finance? How did people with opposing philosophies who were bitter political rivals bury the hatchet in the midst of one of the most contentious presidential campaigns in history, just a few weeks before the dramatic climax?

Well perhaps the quiet involvement of Goldman Sachs and the Rothschilds may explain as these global powerhouses have been getting their way with governments since long before most modern governments even existed.

In 1750, 26 years before the American Declaration of Independence the Rothschild family began their journey to become the most powerful financial family in world history and though to this day the vast majority of their holdings are privately held, estimates of their family holdings are as much as $167 trillion dollars. Strategic actions over the 258 year continuous evolvement of the Rothschilds has led to control of much of the world supply of gold, oil, diamonds and many other assets.

As for Goldman Sachs, they were founded in 1869, shortly after the end of the US Civil War and at the dawning of the industrial revolution in America joining yet another family firm still around today, J.P. Morgan whose work to save the Union during the Civil War earned it many privileges during the explosion of growth in America including the opportunity to finance the Rockefeller Standard Oil empire with Rothschild money.


In time the three factions would appear to undertake the most intense competition between them for control of the global financial system ever seen but in the end, though all three groups remain the sole survivors today in terms of American influence, it became known that Morgan was serving as a front for the Rothschilds in order for the Rothschilds to maintain a low profile in America. But low profile or not they dominated what happened and how it happened.

As for the involvement in this election cycle, Goldman Sachs and the Rothschilds have again taken on each other with the Rothschilds jumping onto the McCain bandwagon late in the campaign while Goldman Sachs has been imbedded in the Obama campaign since the beginning. While the Rothschilds have seemingly played a much smaller role in McCain's efforts much remains to be disclosed of the Goldman role with Obama.

This much can be reported. Back when Obama was a freshman candidate for Senator he was selected to be keynote speaker for the Democratic national convention in 2004. A nobody from Chicago was plucked from midair and cast into the most important slot in the convention. How he would up there remains to be revealed.

Just a little over one year after being elected as a junior senator, in 2006 Obama was the featured guest before a private gathering of the Goldman Sachs executives in Chicago, an honor unheard of for someone that politically insignificant, speaking before the most powerful financial firm on Wall Street and one of the most powerful in the world. This was quietly reported in Bloomberg News.

It was the launch of his presidential campaign and Goldman executives soon gave over $800,000 to jump start the Obama presidential bid along with collecting millions of dollars from their fellow Wall Street firms and clients. Oh yes, Robert Rubin became the Obama economic expert, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs. Billionaire Warren Buffet became his most trusted economic advisor, a man who was to invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs in the height of the economic meltdown. Yet Buffet was also a personal guest of Lord Rothschild at a private conference at his English estate.

The story only gets better. On May 3, 2007, Barack Obama attended an event at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan that was not on his public schedule and is only now surfacing. The exclusive private dinner was for Goldman Sachs traders and featured a discussion on issues by Obama moderated for the Wall Street firm by NBC's Tom Brokaw. Once again the circumstances are strange as a year later Brokaw would be moderating the second presidential debate between Obama and McCain and the economy and Wall Street were the main points of discussion. Of course the debate commission and McCain were unaware that Obama and Brokaw had already held a practice session the year earlier.

Then comes the financial meltdown which can be traced back to a couple of major events. The first major change to the regulatory framework that opened the door to Enron and the sub-prime crisis occurred in 1991, when Goldman Sachs, through a subsidiary called J. Aron, argued that even though it was an investment bank it should be granted the same exemption given to commercial traders in the commodity markets because it was in the business of buying commodities as a middleman. It was granted by the CFTC.

A second turning point came when Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, that formally allowed investors to trade energy commodities on private electronic platforms outside the purview of regulators. Critics have called this piece of legislation the "Enron loophole," saying Enron played a role in crafting it. In the months after the act was passed, private electronic trading platforms sprang up across the country, challenging the dominance of NYMEX.

Investment banks like Goldman's had been frustrated with the established exchange because they really were never able to get control of it according to Michael Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland and a former staff member at the CFTC. The new law allowed them to create a private trading platform. The most successful of the private platforms was InterContinental Exchange, or ICE, founded by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and a few other big brokerages in 2000. ICE soon opened a trading platform in London, allowing its founders to trade vast quantities of U.S. oil overseas without being subject to regulation. This opened the floodgates to oil price speculation.



Suddenly comes the current economic chaos and the president calls a meeting of Congressional leaders, Treasury, Federal Reserve staff and the presidential candidates. Obama, who was staying away from Washington during the crisis got the call and at the meeting he spoke about economic issues that reportedly had been prepared by the Republicans and was being reviewed by Treasury yet wound up in the Obama campaign. Of course the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulsen was a former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs as is the new head of the $700 billion Treasury bailout program.

Do we really know anything about the long term relationship between Obama and Goldman Sachs other than their massive fund raising for him? Since he has been secretly guided and financed by Goldman people from the very beginning of his presidential campaign were they influential in his economic platform? Obama never questioned the role of Goldman in the sub-prime fiasco nor in manipulating the oil futures prices. When Goldman specialists tried to drive the price of oil up to $200 a barrel this year Obama never said a word.

Long before this time the Goldman Sachs Foundation had quietly channeled funds to Colin Powell's new group, America's Promise and Powell himself was collecting honorariums from $50,000 to $100,000 for speaking to various groups including Goldman sponsored events. At some point between the time he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then left government, only to come back as Bush Secretary of State, Powell acquired between $1 million and $5 million of stock in giant defense contractor General Dynamics, a firm in which the Roshschilds have extensive ownership. Powell eventually would be converted from a McCain financial contributor and friend to endorser of Obama in less than a year.

As for the Rothschilds and McCain, it was not until this year that they held a fund raiser for him in London hosted by Lord Jacob Rothschild and his son, Nathaniel Rothschild in the posh London Spencer House on March 28, 2008. As I said at the beginning, the Rothschilds are the oldest, biggest and most powerful of all financial houses and have long chosen to remain in the background while other firms fronted their interests.

Although they compete with firms like Goldman they also cooperate often on international mergers and acquisitions, have been partners in the oil futures exchange, and recently both sought to expand their influence in Asia with the Rothschilds selling a 20% interest in one of their companies to the Bank of China. The Shanghai and Hong Kong-listed commercial bank will pay $341 million for the stake in the French arm of the La Compagnie Financière. It is the first strategic investment by a leading Chinese bank in the eurozone.

In spite of being foreign based the Rothschilds have been one of the chief beneficiaries of the economic crisis in America as J.P. Morgan and Barclays, firms with significant equity held by the Rothschilds, were able to gobble up Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual in sweetheart deals for a fraction of their asset values in the midst of the crisis.

So what control do we really have over the election, over the president and over the Congress? We know control has been lost of the economy, of world trade and of international finance. Most government institutions seem to be operating at the whim and call of the financial giants. Can we expect more after this election? Is America for sale to the highest bidder and is Obama's $500 million campaign the highest bid? All this bodes ill for the liberal, left wing groups and unions rallying around Obama as they may very well be discarded when they have served the purpose of winning the elections.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The World Economic Meltdown - The Hopi Purification of Mankind?

My Friend Grandfather Martin Gashweseoma, Hopi Elder, Spiritual Leader and Guardian of the Sacred Stone Tablets of the Fire Clan standing before the Sacred Hopi Prophecy Stone.

For a few thousand years the original inhabitants of America have had prophecies and oral histories talking about the future coming of the White man and the eventual destruction of America as the future rulers did not listen to the pleads of the natives to change our ways by honoring Father Creator, showing respect for Mother Earth and demonstrating love for fellow man.

These prophecies told how a lust for power, a hunger for possessions and an obsession for what others had would corrupt civilization, bankrupt our morality, and in the end, if mankind was incapable of correcting those flaws then divine intervention would be necessary to protect Mother Earth. For thousands of years Native American nations like the Hopi have patiently worked to protect Mother Earth and awaken humankind.

At the end of the present cycle of civilization there would come a quickening of time, everything would seem to be moving faster and faster as the frequency of Earth increased in order to achieve a lighter density in preparation for the planet Earth to separate into two worlds, with the New World moving to the next higher frequency or dimension.


Ancient Hopi Petroglyths:



The Old World would remain behind with all those who refused the opportunity to become enlightened and refuse to remember our original mission on Earth. Those who thrived on the control and misery of others, who sought material gratification, and forgot how to love all God's creatures, would remain.

The New World would return to the original mission of humankind on Earth living in service, peace, harmony and being free of evil or illness. The survivors would inherit the New World and begin a new cycle of civilization in a higher dimension. These are the people who recognized the quickening and took action to remain open and calm as the frequency storm hit Earth. Many signs are given to awaken the people. Not all people will notice them. Some will choose to ignore them as they are trapped in the dark side of humanity.

At the end of the quickening comes the purification as taught by ancient Hopi prophecy. Many believe this is another version of the Christian Rapture. Of course the Hopi prophecy pre-dated Christianity by many thousands of years but many indigenous peoples and cultures have similar prophecies of the time of the purification. If we were to judge a little less and listen a little more we could see the many common truths in all the Creation, Purification and End Times prophecies.

So what if we are in the time of the quickening that precedes the purification as many peoples believe? Some of the more common signs among cultures is that the institutions of the Old World, those that have controlled people, corrupted economies and marketed immorality with an astonishing degree of success, will suddenly fail. There will be signs to make people aware. Perhaps the potential collapse of the financial system throughout the world is one of these signs.

If you wanted to send a message and get the attention of the people of the world, all at once, then destroying the global economic system would be far more obvious than a remote war. The world is addicted to an economic system that epitomizes all that is bad from corruption to greed, possession to power, and lust to jealousy. The domino effect this would have on all the other corrupt institutions of the world would be amazing from religion to politics, government to banks, media to medical care, pharmaceuticals to entertainment. Things would rapidly ground to a halt.

If there is a silver lining in the dark clouds on the horizon they are this. Many people have studied the ancient prophecies or the more recent body of prophecies by the Holy Mother Mary. Very specific ways to prepare for the purification are provided if your intent is to raise your level of consciousness and move on to the New World. We are taught to visualize ourselves in the eye of the hurricane where there is peace and calm in the middle of the chaos and destruction.

When you open your eyes and see what is happening to our world today, you must seek out those who are here and can help you. Call them adepts or enlightened, they have heard the warnings, have studied the signs, and can help you if you choose the path to the New World. Seek them out among your neighbors and friends. They will be the ones not caught up in the hysteria of the moment, not shocked by the speed at which our institutions are failing, and not bound to any dogma except serving and helping people find their way.

If the prophecies are right we must be prepared to let go of everything we know and remember everything we forgot. We must remember the power of unconditional love and the strength of giving. We must not judge but embrace empathy and hope. Most of all, we must pray in whatever manner allows us to be comfortable, but pray with the right intentions.

Albert Einstein with the Hopi:



If the prophecies are wrong, well they might just be delayed a bit because some people are working to bring good to the world. And that would still give us time to try and heal our institutions and Earth before it is too late. The continued economic chaos and the blinding speed with which things change gives one cause to think that maybe the prophecies are right. Are you prepared for the quickening and purification?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The Big Bailout - Free Market Socialism or Government Regulated Capitalism?


Somewhere between the wildly vacillating stock market, the global economic response and the confusion in Congress there is a presidential campaign nearing a conclusion. As the market soars down 2,000 points one week then up 1,000 the next day and governments around the globe step in to fix crisis after crisis it is no wonder the American public has no clue what just happened. Well certain aspects of the market have been repaired and a lot of manipulation has been covered up. The American public will now be a major shareholder in banks and other companies and a whole lot of hidden losses by the greed mongers will be paid off by the feds.

What price did we just pay for stabilization of the stock market? Did we just take a giant leap into the abyss of Free Market Socialism or Government Regulated Capitalism, either of which has never been a part of the American capitalist system? Even more important, did it fix the problems? Since the raid on the US Treasury went so smoothly don't be surprised if more demons of past behavior don't surface in the near future that also have to be addressed to save the struggling economy.

What hasn't been done? For one, the Congress and other elected officials must be banned from taking campaign money from all special interests from the corporations of Wall Street to the labor unions. This bailout is the best evidence yet that campaign contributions from those with a conflict of interest have no place in America. Beyond that lobbying by any group or organization benefiting from any of the many packages to bailout Wall Street or Main Street must be prohibited. Blood money from lobbyists has contaminated our political process to a degree never seen before. Does anyone think Congress and the new president will have the guts and honesty to do this?

Second of all, why has there been no discussion of the hidden debt or losses already incurred by the Wall Street titans in terms of unregulated derivatives and swaps I have discussed in previous articles? I believe there are about $62 trillion more in hidden losses directly attributable to greed, a level of losses far greater than what we have already dealt with in this crisis. If I am right, the economy could go into a severe recession or even depression and if the losses are any larger the consequences could be unimaginable.


In an earlier article about the resilience of the American economy I said the rest of the world cannot afford to let us fail. Recent events demonstrated just what I meant as a problem in the American housing market nearly destroyed the world economy. Perhaps I need to rethink my conclusion as we just were witness to a world teetering on the brink of economic destruction because of a little greed in the way mortgages were approved. It just might be that the world no longer has the ability to help America if we collapse and the interdependence of world markets and speed of world communications will bring down everyone within days.

One thing is certain, our economic system and congress are permeated with people who hold greed to a higher standard than honesty, with people who believe taking is more important than giving, and with people who place far more faith in the almighty dollar than the Almighty God. The foundation of our nation's existence is that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights. We are a nation that puts "In God We Trust" on currency and "One nation under God" in our national anthem. Somehow the Christian values so important to the formation of this nation have been lost in Washington, in Wall Street, in the media and in the overwhelming desire for more power, wealth and control.


What could happen? Read Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged and you will see as the mysterious John Galt led the disappearance of the little people who were the foundation for the wealth accumulated by the rich and greedy and all the puppets who served them. Fascism, socialism and communism were all targets of her failures of civilization and a couple of them could still be around today. Come to think of it, after the great nationalization efforts this dark October things may not be all that different.