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 President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act.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.
;)
Pres Bush is “not a loyal patriotic American” in your view?
That is mighty extreme if you look at it.
I certainly think it's within the realm of possibilities that an Amero could be in the works or even planned for.
To say it's outside the realm of possibilities, given the pattern that we see (the parallels between the events and treaties and agreements leading up to the EU and the desire for a North American Community) now, in this continent, I think one would be foolish to dismiss this outright.
I'm assuming you've not read this informative article:
The EU and the NAU ~ Two Peas In A Pod!
By Daneen G. Peterson, Ph.D.
May 20, 2007
Updated August 31, 2007
Not as extreme as what Bush is doing himself to this country, her sovereignty, her people, language, culture, and values.
Heya Todd.
The conspiracy nuts are out in full force tonight. It’s a regular kookfest.
you and nicmarlo need to get a room ,,you post to each other so much.
Except the EU exists and the NAU does not.
Maybe they’ll put that handsome face on the new Amero coins? I’ll bet Jorge is personally overseeing the stamping of them in the basement of the White House right this second. LOL!
Indeed.
This sure is what we knew was coming... :(
OK, I take back my “my bad.” You’re definitely one of them.
It’s a done deal - started by Clinton and pushed by Bush. Cintra and Zachry Construction in Texas has had a $1.3 BILLION dollar contract since last year for 40 mile extension of 130-state toll road from Austin to San Antonio. First 600 mile section to include tollways, freight-rail and truck only lanes will “run parallel to the cramped north-south I35 from Laredo to Oklahoma. 2nd phase - west edge of Mexico border to east Texas - 8 stateexpansion of Interstate 69 and run through Indianapolis, Port Huron, Michigan, to Canada.
WHAT A CROCK!
First, we can count up how many subprime loans there are that have been securitized.
Second, about 5% have or will go bad.
Third, DON’T BAIL OUT THE BORROWERS!
” What lenders are going to do refinance deals today?”
Gee I don’t know, I have 3 closing tomorrow.
There are plenty of options for many people out there....
The European Union (EU) began as a Coal and Steel Free Trade Agreement in 1951.The NAU began as NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.
Then the EU morphed into the European Economic Community (EEC).
Before the U.S. Congress, CFR member Dr. Robert Pastor calls for a North American Community.
Once the EEC became established, it then morphed into the Common Market.
Now that NAFTA is established, it has morphed into the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).
Britain joined the so called 'Common Market' in January, 1973 which then morphed into the European Union (EU). The Security and Prosperity Partnership, begun in March 2005, is morphing into the North American Union (NAU).
The EU already has a single currency called the Euro. The plan is for our single currency to be called the Amero.
The EU's UNELECTED and UNACCOUNTABLE 'leaders,' are an elite plutocracy, who 'answer' to NO ONE!
Yeah, that Steve Previs...sure looks and talks like some kind of tinfoil hat wearing nutjob conspiracy theorist. I’m simply amazed that he gets away with talking such nonsense and has managed to keep his job as VP of Jefferies. s/off
How do you know “its coming”? You got a spam e-mail which confirmed your deepest darkest thoughts? Well cheer up! Microsoft is paying $1 for everytime you forward a particular e-mail. I’ll send it to you shortly.
FRiends talk to one another. Isn’t that how it works in your world?
I’m proud to be “one of them”: a loyal patriotic American who puts country before anything and everything else, save God and my children.
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