I'M CALLING FOR A GENERAL FINANCIAL MARKET STRIKE

Barnhardt ^ | Dec. 20, 2011 | Ann Barnhardt

[SatinDoll]

I have received a few emails asking if I was still content with my decision to shut down my brokerage. Not only am I content, but after seeing the news that broke over the weekend, I am of the considered opinion that the entire financial blogging community should formally call for a general financial market strike. And I’m not kidding. A couple of things have happened regarding the MF Global mess that I don’t think got the attention they should have because they broke over the weekend. So let me fill you all in.

First, all notions of personal property rights were essentially destroyed when the MF Global “trustee” began seizing customers’ gold and silver bullion held in storage if that bullion was purchased through contracts brokered by MF Global. In case you’re not following, let me restate. MF Global customers who traded in precious metals and actually took delivery and OWNED bullion, as in outright, free and clear OWNERSHIP, complete with a warehouse receipt (aka title) with SERIAL NUMBERS designating exactly which physical bars they OWNED, and were PAYING RENT to STORE their own property in a “secure” VAULT, complete with statements indicating that these storage fees were paid in full, are having THEIR PROPERTY THAT THEY OWN AND ARE PAYING RENT TO STORE CONFISCATED by the MF Global trustee in order to feed the gaping maw that is the MF Global “estate”.

This would be EXACTLY like if you rented a little storage space at one of the thousands of storage facilities that dot this nation, and stored a car there. I used to do exactly this when I had multiple cars. Imagine the owner of the storage facility went bankrupt. Now imagine that a “trustee” SEIZED YOUR CAR, sold it, and used YOUR PROPERTY to feed the storage franchise owner’s BK. Nevermind that you had an explicit RENTAL AGREEMENT and that you had receipts proving that you were paying monthly rent on said storage space, and that you could produce clear title to the car showing that you owned it, and that the VIN numbers matched.

Do you understand what is happening now? This is outright confiscation of personal property. After having their money stolen out of their accounts and being locked out of their accounts, unable to trade or even liquidate WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, these people are now having their PERSONAL PHYSICAL PROPERTY stolen and redistributed to the MF Global estate, in order to feed Corzine’s gambling debts – MADE ILLEGALLY WITH FUNDS STOLEN OUT OF THE CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS – to repay counterparties with J.P. Morgan at the fore.

So guess what? This is now establishing the precedent that ANY property held by a third party can be seized and confiscated to feed a bankruptcy of said third party. This includes BANK DEPOSITS. Now, please consider that all of the major banks in the United States are insolvent, and insolvent MULTIPLE TIMES OVER. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi, all of them. When these banks collapse – and they WILL collapse - any deposits they are holding WILL BE CONFISCATED and redistributed to their counterparties. Citation URL here at Market-Ticker.org:

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=199356

Oh, but there’s more.

Also announced over the weekend was the jaw-dropping, yet illuminating fact that the MF Global bankruptcy was fraudulently, nefariously and illegally drawn up as a Chapter 7 BK for a SECURITIES DEALER and NOT a commodity brokerage as it should have been. Look, MF Global was the second-largest non-bank FCM in the United States next to NewEdge which is the old FIMAT. If MF Global wasn’t an FCM, then there are no FCMs. Of course it was an FCM. It had $7.2 billion in customer seg funds as of August 31, 2011. And yet MF Global was immediately, from the get-go, put into Chapter 7 BK as a SECURITIES FIRM. This is fraud. MF Global’s BK should have OBVIOUSLY been established under Subchapter IV of the Chapter 7 code as a COMMODITY BROKERAGE.

Why wasn’t this done? Because in a Subchapter IV liquidation of a commodity brokerage firm, guess who is absolutely and unequivocally at the front of the line? You guessed it: the CUSTOMERS. In the Chapter 7 liquidation of a securities firm, guess who goes to the front of the line? Uh-huh. The “creditors”, aka the counterparties on the firm’s proprietary positions. As in . . . J.P. Morgan, et al.

Now we know why this unprecedented action of raping the customers has happened. It was set up that way. Now are you telling me that NO ONE at the CFTC appreciated the difference between the BK subchapters? Are you honestly telling me that Terry Duffy and NO ONE at the CME understood the difference between a securities firm liquidation and a Subchapter IV commodities firm liquidation and the massive consequences to the customers? Not a single one of them understood this massive difference? Bullshit. Of course they knew. They set it up that way from day one. And they continue to know. And this fricking charade just keeps going and going, and the rape and confiscation of the customers' property continues apace. The fix was in on the customers and J.P. Morgan was put at the front of the line willfully, intentionally and with extreme malice aforethought by all those parties concerned. Citation Hotlink here:

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/why-sipc-mf-global-customers-were-thrown-under-bus-day-1

And this is why I am now formally calling for the financial industry blogging community to officially push for and declare a general market strike. I call for all decent people of good will to withdraw ALL FUNDS from the financial markets and cease to trade in solidarity with the MF Global rape victims until such time as the MF Global BK is properly filed as a Subchapter IV commodity brokerage liquidation and their private property is FULLY RESTORED.

If this is how they’re going to play, I say let’s shut the whole damn thing down. Let’s show these rat bastards how we do things in the Civilized World. Molon Labe.

[ngat]

“Barnhardt’s recent publicity campaign is starting to affect her ego and her reasoning skills.”

OK. I take it you disagree with the author of the article. You may be a financial market professional and have good reason to disagree with the point of the article (that legalized theft of private property is occurring). Could you explain how thw author is wrong to us laymen?

[Peter from Rutland]

Okay, it was amusing and cool when she ranted about muslim Satanists (which I agree with) but this is just looney bin material.

Jumped the shark.

[silverleaf]

It does sound like if the company that holds your IRA or 401K goes bankrupt or engages in hanky panky, the precedent is set to blame you for it, since you chose to do business with them ... then seize your account as if it was ill-gotten gains

Or at best, offer you the chance to avoid seizure of your private accounts by converting them a govt-run investment plan (taxed of course to provide similar plans for “the poor” who put nothing in but take benefits out)

After all, in the view of the marxist in the WH and those advising him, accumulated wealth is only evidence of “the rich” exploiting “the poor”, and govt-directed redistribution is the only way to achieve fairness and social justice. And 40 million indigent, envious or outright stupid people will all agree with this

[battletank]

“but this is just looney bin material.

Jumped the shark.”

How so?

[silverleaf]

at least this lady put her money where her mouth is and closed down her financial firm rather than continue to expose her customers to a rigged corrupt market

of course one could argue she is protecting her own assets, if any, from clawback in event of a future catastrophe that sucked in her firm

But still...

No one is talking about seizing Corzine’s personal wealth, ala Madoff, are they? The guy is still living the high life
while his firm’s customers assets are decimated

[WhiskeyX]

If your money is in your pocket, they’ll confiscate the cash without due process of law by claiming it could only be the proceeds of illicit drug trade, instead of your life’s savings from your salary. They’re boxing in the herd of sheep for the slaughter.

[WhiskeyX]

If your money is in your pocket, they’ll confiscate the cash without due process of law by claiming it could only be the proceeds of illicit drug trade, instead of your life’s savings from your salary. They’re boxing in the herd of sheep for the slaughter.

[mewzilla]

Meanwhile....

Fed May Inject Over $1 Trillion To Bail Out Europe 

[mpreston]

Then consider:

Trustee to Seize and Liquidate Even the Stored Customer Gold and Silver Bullion From MF Global
17 December 2011
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2011/12/attempt-to-seize-and-liquidate-customer.html

“The bottom line is that apparently some warehouses and bullion dealers are not a safe place to store your gold and silver, even if you hold a specific warehouse receipt. In an oligarchy, private ownership is merely a concept, subject to interpretation and confiscation.

Although the details and the individual perpetrators are yet to be disclosed, what is now painfully clear is that the CFTC and CME regulated futures system is defaulting on its obligations. This did not even happen in the big failures like Lehman and Bear Sterns in which the customer accounts were kept whole and transferred before the liquidation process.

Obviously holding unallocated gold and silver in a fractional reserve scheme is subject to much more counterparty risk than many might have previously admitted. If a major bullion bank were to declare bankruptcy or a major exchange a default, how would it affect you? Do you think your property claims would be protected based on what you have seen this year? .......”

[algernonpj]

Thanks for the link. Loved this toon:

[phockthis]

smart move to cash out...

I did that over a year ago

[kevkrom]

Heck, if this is accurate reporting, I might join up with OWS.

The problem with OWS is one of the problems with liberalism/progressivism in general, which is that on the whole, they're pretty smart about identifying a problem (though in many cases the problem may be exaggerated or entirely manufactured). However, they infallibly promote exactly the wrong idea of the problem's root causes and therefore the exactly wrong solution to the problem.

With OWS, their fundamental flaw stem from two basic problems:

1. The problem isn't the "1%" per se, it's the unholy symbiosis between certain people/corporations and the government, where they cyclically feed each other at the expense of the general public. OWS would believe that making the government stronger would stop this problem when it would only make it worse -- the stronger the government is, the more it has the power to "pick winners and losers", which means the incentive to foster those insidious relationships simply increases.

2. By demanding that the so-called "1%" fund their education, basic income guarantee, etc., all they do is increase their dependency on them. "Too big to fail" becomes ever more a reality when so many people are sucking on that teat that despite it seeming like they are "punishing" the "1%" when in actually, they will become slaves to it. They will have to turn a blind eye to any fraud, bribery, and coercion, because the alternative will be to lose all of the "goodies" that they granted themselves.

[Vendome]

I was aware of this but have wondered why we don’t see anyone on TV scared witless for their future and crying out loud.

I keep thinking it’s a matter of time.

[FreedomPoster]

Ping. More background on why Ann is so pissed, and acting as she is.

[FrogMom]

I have heard this before but don’t understand how it works.

Can you explain, please?

[Bon mots]

It’s simple.
Hyperinflation.

We are headed in that general direction, but nobody knows when.

The government cannot simply keep on printing up money, but they almost have no other choice now. This has happened throughout history and now all checks and balances have been removed since the dollar is a fiat currency.

So they will print money, thereby diluting the value of the currency - in effect, robbing all who hold anything of value, but especially banknotes.

Prices will rise dramatically, but so will incomes - at some point your big mortgage and debts will be at about the price of a loaf of bread.

The problem usually is that during a severe hyperinflationary crisis such as that, or the one that occurred in Weimar Germany, property often becomes worthless too as the tax thieves begin to steal the property of anyone who has property.

During the hyperinflation in Weimar Germany, property taxes and wealth taxes went up so drastically (theft by government) that landlords would often just hand over the keys to tenants to escape it.

Obama has already done this to GM and Chrysler bondholders... stolen their property and turned it over to the Autoworkers unions. Something that heretofore had only occurred under Communism.

The next grand theft just happend at MF Global, where nobody has yet gone to prison, yet peoples’ private property was stolen - to the benefit of the big crooks at JP Morgan. People had gold bars with serial numbers in storage there, and these bars were looted to pay off Corzine’s gambling debts. This is as if you had a car in paid storage at the neighbor’s garage, and when he went bankrupt, they took your car when he defaulted on his garage loan. MF Global was a commodities broker holding customer property, but the bankruptcy papers were fraudulently filed as if it were a brokerage house - hardly a mistake, since JP Morgan made sure that this fraud took place - thereby stealing the property of the little guys who should have been protected, and making sure the JP Morgan did not lose a fortune.

The system is broken, and badly so.
This will end in war as it always does.
The next t

[FrogMom]

Understand all of that. It’s the “You’ll be able to pay your mortgage and/or debt off for next to nothing” that I don’t understand.

[TigersEye]

Could you explain how thw author is wrong to us laymen?

{{{crickets chirping}}}

[TigersEye]

Jumped the shark.

It should be easy to explain how she is wrong then.

[Bon mots]

Understand all of that. It’s the “You’ll be able to pay your mortgage and/or debt off for next to nothing” that I don’t understand.

It's simple if you think about it...
Hyperinflation basically wipes out all debt as the value of currency collapses.

Money becomes almost worthless - the second picture on the top right shows that in Weimar, Germany the hyperinflation devalued the German Mark so much that it was more economical to burn the banknotes than use them to buy firewood or coal. The woman in the picture is doing just that.

Suppose you have a $100,000.00 mortgage.
The dollar becomes so devalued, that a loaf of bread costs, say, $100,000.00 - so you are on your way to the store to buy two loaves of bread... you can simply opt out of one and use the money to pay off your $100,000.000 mortgage on the way to the store.

This has happened not just once in Weimar, Germany, but periodically throughout the world, most recently and famously in Zimbabwe.

---

Hyperinflation Has Occurred in 21 Countries Over the Past 25 Years.That’s nearly 1 country every year!

This time, it is setting up to be a global catastrophe, as all currencies have long ago become 'fiat currencies', and all banks under Basel II are allowed to be technically insolvent - with accounting tricks allowing them to bend and stretch to reach a disturbing 8% capital to overinflated assets ratio.

It can't happen here...
Hyperinflation has recently occured here:

1. Angola (1991-1999) - new kwanza = 1,000,000,000 pre-1991 kwanzas.
2. Argentina (1975-1991) - 1 new peso = 100,000,000,000 pre-1983 pesos.
3. Belarus (1994-2002) – 1 new ruble = 2,000 old rublei.
4. Bolivia (1984-1986)
5. Brazil (1986-1994) - 1 (1994) real = 2,700,000,000,000,000,000 pre-1930 reis.
6. Bosnia-Herzegovina (1993) – the highest denomination was 10,000 dinara in 1992 and 10,000,000,000 dinara in 1993.
7. Bulgaria (1991-1997) – A currency board established in July 1997 slashed three zeroes off the currency.
8. Ecuador (2000)
9. Georgia (1995) – 1 new lari was exchanged for 1,000,000 laris.
10. Madagascar (2004)
11. Mexico (1994)
12. Nicaragua (1987-1990) – 1 old Cordoba = 5,000,000,000 pre-1987 cordobas.
13. Peru (1984-1990) – 1 nuevo sol = 1,000,000,000 pre 1985 soles de oro.
14. Poland (1990-1993) – 10,000 old zlotych were exchanged for 1 new zloty.
15. Romania (2000-2005) - 10,000 old lei = 1 new leu
16. Russia (1992-1994) - In 1993 the annual rate was 840%
17. Turkey (1990′s) - New Turkish Lira; 1 was exchanged for 1,000,000 old lira.
18. Ukraine (1993-1995) – 100,000 karbovantsivi = 1 hryvnya
19. Yugoslavia (1989-1994)one novi dinar = 1,300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pre-1990 dinars (that’s alot of zeros there).
20. Zaire (1989-1996) – One 1997 franc = 300 billion pre-1989 dinars.
21. Zimbabwe (1999 – present) - no new currency is introduced yet. As shown in last blog they are considering gold backed currency.