Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

[vt]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

Israel has never threatened to destroy anyone; Iran has. Yes they have nukes, but have never threatened with them.

Jew were almost "ethnically cleansed" off the face of the earth in WW2, and don't want to ever face that threat, and neither would any other group.

I am amazed that left of center individuals like Woody stick up for Iran over the democracy Israel. Israel and Jews generally support the social agenda of liberals.

The Iranian mullahs subjugate women, want to kill homosexuals, promote terrorism, persecute Christians, torture dissidents, and trample on freedoms.

They are the closest thing to Nazis we've seen in this century, and would probably wipe out liberals and leftists in this country if they got in power.

These are the facts, Jack. I don't make them, only report them.

P.S. I'm not a Jew, a right winger, etc. I do have a keen understanding of geopolitics and freedom. Plus the absurd logic of the left

[Forrest]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

Your memory is a bit rusty, friend. It's not at all like the Cuban Missile Crisis, but for the sake of argument, who do you see playing the part of Russia/Cuba and who plays the part of the US?

Iran is a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty and has no weapons. Our own intelligence agencies say so. It has agreed to stop its uranium enrichment efforts and eliminate its stockpiles of uranium. It has agreed to on site inspections. This is good news and hopeful.

Israel is teeming with nukes in the ground, in the air and under the sea. It denies this, refuses inspections, and along with North Korea refuses to sign on to the global non proliferation regime. It has threatened to take the whole world down with it.

But Israel is the one under threat by Iran. Iran has no bomb, is surrounded by nuclear armed states, but it is the existential threat to humanity.

How does that work, exactly?

Iran may at the moment have a sweet appearance, speak in dulcet tones, and appear to submit peaceably to the world's demands, and that the Israeli's (all 6 million of them) appear to be an existential threat to all Muslims, but we must not forget that the Imam's that rule the country want only two things...Shiite Islam to rule the world, and Israel destroyed.

Both desires come from the long past...1)That Iran's pure religion is THE religion that was given by the Prophet Mohammed, and handed down to them through the appropriate lineage; and 2) that Ishmael should have inherited from Abraham; not Isaac, father of Jacob called Israel, the father of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

Both are inheritance concerns: Shiites to rule the Islamic world, rather than the Sunni's; and getting rid of the usurper Isaac's descendants.

These are beliefs that Iran will kill and die for, and Iran takes all of this a good deal more seriously than the West is prepared to admit, providing they could ever understand two such simple little things.

[photon555]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

Human Nature - the Beast says
I want
Human Reason - slave of the Beast says
I am entitled to what I want
Human "Free" Will - puppet of the Beast says
I will take what I want

Understand this and you understand the World of Humans

[Woodsman]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

Israel has never threatened to destroy anyone; Iran has. Yes they have nukes, but have never threatened with them.

Jew were almost "ethnically cleansed" off the face of the earth in WW2, and don't want to ever face that threat, and neither would any other group.

I am amazed that left of center individuals like Woody stick up for Iran over the democracy Israel. Israel and Jews generally support the social agenda of liberals.

The Iranian mullahs subjugate women, want to kill homosexuals, promote terrorism, persecute Christians, torture dissidents, and trample on freedoms.

They are the closest thing to Nazis we've seen in this century, and would probably wipe out liberals and leftists in this country if they got in power.

These are the facts, Jack. I don't make them, only report them.

P.S. I'm not a Jew, a right winger, etc. I do have a keen understanding of geopolitics and freedom. Plus the absurd logic of the left

Really vt, it's enough for me simply to let your "keen understanding of geopolitics and freedom" stand on its own for the world to see.

[Woodsman]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

It seems the sanctions, and the threat of war, are jeopardizing the ruling elite in Iran. On the other hand, nothing would unite the Iranians like a US-led military action.

As far as the Israels are concerns, this is their chief competitor for regional dominance, now that Iraq has been neutralized. Why shouldn't they be pissed off.

Ditto the Saudis, though their game is a bit more opaque, at least to me.

All of that makes sense, although I'd quibble about how neutral we can expect Iraq to be in the future. Maybe this is our first recognition of something more long term, re Saudi and Israel, perhaps the start of a geopolitical realignment. It might account for some of the hysteria exhibited by Bandar and Bibi , but I'm just speculating.

[don]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

now that Iraq has been neutralized

not for all time . . .

[shiny!]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

Israel has never threatened to destroy anyone; Iran has. Yes they have nukes, but have never threatened with them.

Jew were almost "ethnically cleansed" off the face of the earth in WW2, and don't want to ever face that threat, and neither would any other group.

I am amazed that left of center individuals like Woody stick up for Iran over the democracy Israel. Israel and Jews generally support the social agenda of liberals.

The Iranian mullahs subjugate women, want to kill homosexuals, promote terrorism, persecute Christians, torture dissidents, and trample on freedoms.

They are the closest thing to Nazis we've seen in this century, and would probably wipe out liberals and leftists in this country if they got in power.

These are the facts, Jack. I don't make them, only report them.

P.S. I'm not a Jew, a right winger, etc. I do have a keen understanding of geopolitics and freedom. Plus the absurd logic of the left

Exactly. But just to be clear, the Iranian desires to destroy Israel and have Islam rule the world come mostly from the religious leadership of the country. The average people there have no axe to grind and just want peace. This is especially true among the westernized, college-educated young people of Iran. They were truly baffled and hurt when Bush called them the Axis of Evil.

Iran Loves Israel

[vt]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

Perhaps half the Iranians are pro western and want to end control by the Mullahs. We need to support their efforts and help Iran to be a productive, peaceful nation.

[TBBNF]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

I believe there is more to the US deal with Iran than meets the eye. China may price oil futures in yuan all they want, but until they get an oil exporter to take payment in yuan, it's just a fantasy. Iran was moving closer to China, but now has powerful incentives to side with the Anglo-American sphere.

I agree. I think the resolution in Syria that totally P.O.ed the Saudis and Israelis also has to do with this situation. I think the Saudi's Oil reserves and thus Petro Dollars for the US are drying up much faster than we know. Iran, Qatar and others with Natural Gas tied to Syrian Pipelines are needed and Saudi Arabia is on the way out. We cannot keep driving those nations into China and Russia's hands. Not quite sure what Israel's role is in this and why they are against these deals in Syria and with Iran? They usually are right with us on this and are part of the western financial system.

Interesting take on Syria from Jim 'a little bit crazy' Willie
http://www.silverdoctors.com/jim-wil...-the-usdollar/

[don]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

Not quite sure what Israel's role is in this and why they are against these deals in Syria and with Iran? They usually are right with us on this and are part of the western financial system.

Keep in mind that Israel, the tail wagging the dog, is a myth. As long as the US and Israel's interests coincide, everything's good. When they don't, we see who is the puppy and who is the master.

[Woodsman]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

Exactly. But just to be clear, the Iranian desires to destroy Israel and have Islam rule the world come mostly from the religious leadership of the country. The average people there have no axe to grind and just want peace. This is especially true among the westernized, college-educated young people of Iran. They were truly baffled and hurt when Bush called them the Axis of Evil.

Iran Loves Israel

"No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue."

[shiny!]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

"No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue."

What a fascinating, wonderful documentary! Iranians are a lovely people who have a lot to be proud of. Thank you for sharing this.

[don]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

Donner Party reportedly eating savers . . .


The Money Changers Serenade: A New Plot Hatches — Paul Craig Roberts


Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, a protege of Treasury Secretaries Rubin and Summers, has received his reward for continuing the Rubin-Summers-Paulson policy of supporting the “banks too big to fail” at the expense of the economy and American people. For his service to the handful of gigantic banks, whose existence attests to the fact that the Anti-Trust Act is a dead-letter law, Geithner has been appointed president and managing director of the private equity firm, Warburg Pincus and is on his way to his fortune.

A Warburg in-law financed Woodrow Wilson’s presidential campaign. Part of the reward was Wilson’s appointment of Paul Warburg to the first Federal Reserve Board. The symbiotic relationship between presidents and bankers has continued ever since. The same small clique continues to wield financial power.

Geithner’s career is illustrative. In the 1980s, Geithner worked for Kissinger Associates. In the mid to late 1990s, Geithner served as a deputy assistant Treasury secretary. Under Rubin and Summers he moved up to undersecretary of the Treasury.

From the Treasury he went to the Council on Foreign Relations and from there to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). From there he was appointed president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he worked to make banks more profitable by allowing higher ratios of debt to capital, thus contributing to the financial crisis.

Geithner arranged the sale of the failed Wall Street firm of Bear Stearns, helped with the taxpayer bailout of AIG, and rejected saving Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy in order to create the crisis atmosphere needed to more fully subordinate US economic policy to the needs of the few large banks.

Rubin, a 26-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, was rewarded by Citibank for his service to the banks while Treasury Secretary with a $50 million compensation package in 2008 and $126,000,000 between 1999 and 2009.

When a person becomes a Treasury official it is made clear that the choice is between serving the banks and becoming rich or trying to serve the public and becoming poor. Few make the latter choice.

As MIchael Hudson has informed us, the goal of the financial sector has always been to convert all income, from corporate profits to government tax revenues, to the service of debt. From the bankers standpoint, the more debt the richer the bankers. Rubin, Summers, Paulson, Geithner, and now banker Treasury Secretary Jack Lew faithfully serve this goal.

The Federal Reserve describes its policy of Quantitative Easing — the creation of new money with which the Fed purchases Treasury debt and mortgage backed securities — as a low interest rate policy in order to stimulate employment and economic growth. Economists and the financial media have parroted this cover story.

In contrast, I have exposed QE as a scheme for pumping profits into the banks and boosting their balance sheets. The real purpose of QE is to drive up the prices of the debt-related derivatives on the banks’ books, thus keeping the banks with solvent balance sheets.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal (“Confessions of a Quantitative Easer,” November 11, 2013), Andrew Huszar confirms my explanation to be the correct one. Huszar is the Federal Reserve official who implemented the policy of QE. He resigned when he realized that the real purposes of QE was to drive up the prices of the banks’ holdings of debt instruments, to provide the banks with trillions of dollars at zero cost with which to lend and speculate, and to provide the banks with “fat commissions from brokering most of the Fed’s QE transactions.” (See: www.paulcraigroberts.org )

This vast con game remains unrecognized by Congress and the public. At the IMF Research Conference on November 8, 2013, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers presented a plan to expand the con game.

Summers says that it is not enough merely to give the banks interest free money. More should be done for the banks. Instead of being paid interest on their bank deposits, people should be penalized for keeping their money in banks instead of spending it.

To sell this new rip-off scheme, Summers has conjured up an explanation based on the crude and discredited Keynesianism of the 1940s that explained the Great Depression as a problem caused by too much savings. Instead of spending their money, people hoarded it, thus causing aggregate demand and employment to fall.

Summers says that today the problem of too much saving has reappeared. The centerpiece of his argument is “the natural interest rate,” defined as the interest rate at which full employment is established by the equality of saving with investment. If people save more than investors invest, the saved money will not find its way back into the economy, and output and employment will fall.

Summers notes that despite a zero real rate of interest, there is still substantial unemployment. In other words, not even a zero rate of interest can reduce saving to the level of investment, thus frustrating a full employment recovery. Summers concludes that the natural rate of interest has become negative and is stuck below zero.

How to fix this? The way to fix it, Summers says, is to charge people for saving money. To avoid the charges, people would spend the money, thus reducing savings to the level of investment and restoring full employment.

Summers acknowledges that the problem with his solution is that people would take their money out of banks and hoard it in cash holdings. In other words, the cash form of money provides consumers with a freedom to save that holds down consumption and prevents full employment.

Summers has a fix for this: eliminate the freedom by imposing a cashless society where the only money is electronic. As electronic money cannot be hoarded except in bank deposits, penalties can be imposed that force unproductive savings into consumption.

Summers’ scheme, of course, is a harebrained one. With governments running huge deficits, who would purchase bonds at negative interest rates? How would pension and retirement funds operate? Would they also be subject to an annual percentage confiscation?

We know that the response of consumers to the long term decline in real median family income, to the loss of jobs from labor arbitrage across national borders (jobs offshoring), to rising homelessness, to cuts in the social safety net, to the transformation of their full time jobs to part time jobs (employers’ response to Obamacare), has been to reduce their savings rate. Indeed, few have any savings at all. The US personal saving rate is currently 2 percentage points, about 30%, below the long term average. Retired people, unable to earn any interest on their savings from the Fed’s zero interest rate policy, are being forced to draw down their savings in order to pay their bills.

Moreover, it is unclear whether the savings rate is an accurate measure or merely a residual of other calculations. With so many people having to draw down their savings, I wouldn’t be surprised if an accurate measure showed the personal savings rate to be negative.

But for Summers the plight of the consumer is not the problem. The problem is the profits of the banks. Summers has the solution, and the establishment, including Paul Krugman, is applauding it. Once the economy officially turns down again, watch out.

[Forrest]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

Donner Party reportedly eating savers . . .


The Money Changers Serenade: A New Plot Hatches — Paul Craig Roberts


Once the economy officially turns down again, watch out.

I'd like to know what the 'official' marking of a slowing economy is, particularly since I thought we were already there.

[lektrode]

Re: Paul Craig Roberts on the death of the dollar

Donner Party reportedly eating savers . . .

and there isnt even much snow up there yet - gives ya the idea theys really gittin desparate now, eh mr don?

The Money Changers Serenade: A New Plot Hatches — Paul Craig Roberts.....

..........
How to fix this? The way to fix it, Summers says, is to charge people for saving money. To avoid the charges, people would spend the money, thus reducing savings to the level of investment and restoring full employment.
...........
Summers acknowledges that the problem with his solution is that people would take their money out of banks and hoard it in cash holdings. In other words, the cash form of money provides consumers with a freedom to save that holds down consumption and prevents full employment.

(HUH???? that rat bastard, or - as i prefer to put it: that demorat-bastard...)

Summers has a fix for this: eliminate the freedom by imposing a cashless society where the only money is electronic. As electronic money cannot be hoarded except in bank deposits, penalties can be imposed that force unproductive savings into consumption.

heres a couple of telling/revealing graphix for ya....





ANY QUESTIONS?
on just which bunch of thugs is running The United States of America
straight into the dirt, right down into the same sitch that resulted in the biggest conjob of all time
ANY QUESTIONS AT ALL, **** N O W ****

Summers’ scheme, of course, is a harebrained one. With governments running huge deficits, who would purchase bonds at negative interest rates? How would pension and retirement funds operate? Would they also be subject to an annual percentage confiscation?

THE NEXT BIGGEST CON/BLOWJOB OF ALL TIME?

that the demorat party is 'looking out for the working class'
sure they are - the 'working class' that occupies the upper floors of lower manhattan

my ole man - a life-long FDR dem, ww2 vet, self-empl etc - was onto em in the '70s, when good ole taxachusettes politix drove him outa biz and outa state -
HE WAS RIGHT THEN - and everything thats happened since 1993 confirms it!

and i wont even get into whats happened since 1995 - never mind since 2008 -

guess its just another co-incidence, huh?

uh huh - meanwhile the lib-dem-run lamestream media JUST IGNORES IT ALL!!!!!!
while using gun control and - syriasously - 'marriage' rights as merely the latest distractions...

....

But for Summers the plight of the consumer is not the problem. The problem is the profits of the banks. Summers has the solution, and the establishment, including Paul Krugman, is applauding it. Once the economy officially turns down again, watch out.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

the DNC/TBTF,inc's main media mouthpiece/frontman/cheerleader 'supports the establishment' ???

yeah, WHEN ITS HIS TEAM THATS RUNNIN IT!!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!