Figured.
Posted on 09/20/2007 4:55:46 PM PDT by NYer
"According to some US experts, some US$ 20 trillion in worthless securities exist, putting US and European banks are at risk. Asia should avoid the worse. A new North American currency, the Amero, is making news.">
According to US financial analyst Mike Whitney[1], a mountain of unfunded, unregulated paper worth more than US$ 20 trillion might be out there [2]. Apparently, no one, neither the general public nor professionals on Wall Street, has yet to realise the extent of the hole, a hole of 20 trillion dollars with no market, nor value.
Even if the Federal Reserve were to ease bank reserve and capital requirements, the existing financial system would still be moving towards its worst crisis in 80 years because the problem is not liquidity, but solvency. The situation is such that banks are even scared to lend to one another uncertain about each other’s solvency. Even the London interbank market is not going beyond day to day lending.
Greenspan and speculative financing
The problem arose in the United States where, starting in 1987, the bank lobby—by means of US$ 300 million in contributions—got Congress to do away with the Glass-Steagall Act (officially the Banking Act of 1933) that had been adopted in the wake of the 1929 Wall Street Crisis. President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act.
The original law had been introduced to avoid conflicts of interests between banks and companies that sell stocks and bonds.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was the main proponent of financial liberalisation. Before his appointment to the post, he had served as a corporate director for J.P. Morgan, the first bank to take advantage of liberalisation.
Under his 18-year chairmanship he oversaw the greatest expansion of speculative financing in world history. But now the chicken are coming home to roost like a would-be train wreck that no one can stop, not even the Fed.
If Mike Whitney’s numbers are right, we are on the verge of a meltdown like that of 1929-1930, perhaps worse because of the world’s greater economic interconnectedness.
Lately, the big US financial and banking groups have tried to protect themselves by selling their junk bonds in Europe and Asia.
In Asia equity in most banking and financial institutions is in US securities and US dollar denominations. Most banks are ranked AA or even AAA by so-called independent agencies like Standard & Poors, Moody’s and Fitch. Securities with such ratings are, or perhaps we should say, were considered virtually risk-free.
Theoretically, US pension funds, insurance companies and big foundations are exposed to the uncontrolled offer of atypical securities of the past decades; so should the US financial and banking institutions which created them.
Yet we should not be surprised if those who hold the keys to the corporate are not, nor will ever be, held accountable for their wrongdoing.
Central banks, especially the Federal Reserve, are at the root of the problem because they have known about the overall situation for quite some time. But whomever is in charge of the Fed knows that a solution cannot be had from within.
Amero, North America’s new currency
With a bank crisis looming on the horizon, an odd piece of information is becoming news. As unlikely as it may seem, the United States along with Canada and Mexico, appears to be getting ready to launch a new single currency: the Amero.
With the monetary bubble on the verge of bursting, one solution would be getting rid of the dollar, replaced by a currency, the Amero, to serve a would-be North American Union.
In addition to the United States, Mexico should join such a union and in principle might be even in favour of it. Canada, too, might join, setting aside its aversion to losing its monetary sovereignty, out of concern that its equity in US dollars might simply lose its value.
When US President George W. Bush met then Mexican President Vicente Fox and then Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, in March 2005, they discussed a North American union.
The idea resurfaced the same year in a report released by the powerful US Council on Foreign Relations, a group that has influenced most US presidents, both Democrat and Republican, and a tri-national task force involving ministerial-level officials.
Wikipedia already sports a page dedicated to the Amero with the photos of prototypes.
A news report on the Amero broadcast on CNBC is also available on Youtube [3].
Similarly, 20 Amero coins can be seen on the Hal Turner Show webpage, with a small D visible, D as in ‘minted in Denver.’ Curiously, the Denver Mint is currently closed to the public, ostensibly for restoration work, till September 28 [4].
Whilst AsiaNews is unable to determine whether there is any basis to such claims, it does seem certain that a plan for a North American union is being developed [5].
Such an entity would have a population almost the size of the European Union, and could adequately respond to the current bank crisis that is bound to end up in a monetary crisis.
However, far from being a simple monetary union, the operation is likely to mean a de facto US annexation of the rest of North America.
For Asia the real point of interest would be economic rather than political since the Americas have been the United States’ backyard for a long time.
Firstly, the Amero would be definitely weaker than the US dollar because it would include the Mexican pesos, which was insolvent not so long ago.
A weaker North American common currency would quickly push the value of the currencies of China and the whole of Asia, which have hitherto been reluctant to do so.
Secondly, converting dollars used outside the United States would raise problems since in Asia as well as in many countries around the world payments in dollars are more common than one might think. In this case the impact of a North American union would also be very significant.
Now care to expound on your point?
We sure got our share of black eyes and friends banned back before it was "popular".
Hey! I agreee with you. So what do my comments mean now?
It is ‘Your’ not ‘you’re’.
I don’t think illegals are ruining the country. I think that is an exaggeration of a problem into a catastrophe.
You know what absolutely makes the open borders lobby here turn people off?
It is they reference to the President of the United States as “jorge”. And the constant racism and hate directed at people who for the most part are working for the yankee dollar just like all of us do.
I don’t want to give away this country. But I don’t want to have my views represented by people who are racist and disrespectful of the institutions of this country. And appeal to the lowest kind of discourse.
This is pure SPAM...sensationalism at it’s worst..download and pop it into the Spam Bucket...
In the first place, yes there is a problem in the sub-prime market but the orderly workings of the real world will resolve the problem. The core problems of the sub-prime market are several but the solution to this is not to have a severe recession or a depression worse than 1929, where unemployment grew and the money stopped flowing. The solution lies in keeping up the increases in new jobs, increases in wages, keeping a lid on prices through good cost control, stable tax policies,and the banks and the homeowners working together to keep the people in their homes through good banking practices......one solution that would have immediate effect would be lower the mortgage rates back to where they started, allow a 1 % increase after 1 year and then after 5 or 10 years cap the rates at a maximum of 3 % over their original rate..Some mortgages had a 6 or 7% max cap over the original rate—too wide a margin...and also- stop the interest accrual on a daily basis which is the hidden knife in the back to the homeowner..The banks would howl but let them- they are still making Billions through their fees and ATMs and credit cards !...Meanwhile the working families would be able to stay in their homes and continue to make their reasonable monthly payments.
The government is also at large fault by stating that inflation is under control at 2 or 3 %..That’s baloney...more SPAM...Any fool can tell that a $50,000 house that is sold for $175,000 has certainly had an inflated value..That’s price inflation...Add to that huge increases in many other areas- homeowners insurance, property taxes, college tuitions, private school tuitions, incredible malpractice insurance rates, sky high auto repair prices and in all this the govt looks the other way...
As for the Amero..and America annexing Mexico and Canada, dream on kiddo..America has enough problems and doesn’t need to add 50 million more....annexation won’t happen and any “Amero” would take 10 to 20 years to take effect, just like the Euro..The writer of this article needs to go back to school and take a few more courses in Economics and History and knock off the creative writing. This is trash.
I enjoy it on this side of the screen. ;)
Not really.
The obvious? You mean like the secret arrangements to create the Amero? I’ve always been against illegal immigration, as have the vast majority of conservatives. Just because you don’t like illegal immigration doesn’t mean I should listen to you when you post nonsense about a North American currency.
Because you don’t have one.
I wasn’t aware that this was an English grammar forum. I worked for 12 hours today, sorry I made a typo that set you off. lol.
What you think illegals are doing to this country, and what the reality is (they are) aren’t even on the same page. Too bad that it hurts your feeeeeeelings about what people call Bush. BTW, did you know he named a company with a Spanish version of his name? If it doesn’t hurt his feelings to use Spanish versions of his name, don’t know why it would hurt your feelings.
In any event, we’re used to your name-calling, because, as I said, it’s been going on for yeeeeeeears.
Figured.
You’re right of course.
If you are posting on a thread about, say, underwear, the open borders lobby shows up to say it is a problem somehow associated with illegals who are busy murdering and rapiing and ruining the country. They are followed shortly by some who always say “The answer is Homeschooling” and they are followed by the haters of big pharma who think every new advance is an insult to the Bible.
Sickening and narrow and disruptive. You can’t even talk about underwear with them all showing up en masse hawking their latest.
Uh, no. This is what I said: It doesn’t matter that he had nothing to do with the article, the argument stated therein, the content, or the source.
to which the comment was related. Try to keep up, k?
ping
Kind of like a three-ring circus...can be very entertaining....you sort of know what’s coming, and we’re never disappointed.
You figured right. I acquiescence to your superior intellect.
He is President Bush. Not Bush, not Jorge, not George.
I didn’t call you names. ANd those who call Pres Bush ‘Jorge” are not doing so in affection. Nor are they Hispanic. You know very well how base it is.
And that is where way too Americans find themselves today. And it's not going to be pretty.
It won't come as a shock to me.
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