Last 5 days:
Previous 5 years:
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 President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act.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.
Basically. Really more like your dog emptied out your checking account with his constant demands for food, toys, grooming, and state-of-the-art veterinary care. If he only ate the checkbook, and you were solvent before he did that, then you’re still solvent — just very temporarily illiquid. The check will be in the mail as soon as you get the checkbook replaced, and for creditors who don’t want to wait that long, funds could be wired out the very same day the dog at the checkbook.
It’s called watching your FRiends back? Don’t you have that in your world?
That's one of the weakest arguments I've ever seen; it is also a logical fallacy. You've proven nothing. Claiming that something couldn't be happening just because the "Euro was never kept a secret" doesn't dismiss all the other parallels. Europeans are not Americans and they don't think the way Americans do. That's like saying it couldn't happen here because we don't speak the same kind of English in America as they do in England.
All you’re doing is typical conspiracy theory methodology. Any proof that something doesn’t exist, you simply transfer into proof that it does.
Besides if it is all true, what can I do about it? Sounds to me like, if what you’re saying is true, we’re all f**ked anyway, might as well enjoy the ride before we put bullets to our heads.
It's a continuation of the same problem. Our sovereignty.
Last 5 days:
Previous 5 years:
and being ridiculous.
If it were the Clinton Administration in power right now, either Bill or Hitlery, probably the FR threads would seethe and bubble over with widespread agreement over the premise of this foreboding article.
However with a Republican (some would say a "RINO" but that is a different thread!) firmly at the White House helm, you see a preponderance here of dismissing this kind of projection and prediction.
I can tell you from independently watching things here in Japan, watching the USA, Brit and Asian markets, taking temperatures everywhere, and talking with tons of people, this is an extremely serious global situation the likes we have not seen in many of our lifetimes.
I for one am not particularly optimistic about things right now. We had heard the warnings about such things as these Too-Good-To-Be-True "No Interest Loans" and other packages and products. It is all about the sub-prime borrowers, not a few of them illegal aliens, itinerant, untrustworthy, irresponsible, illiterate and the like, simplistically thinking they could base their payback ability on ever rising domestic U.S. real estate values. Freely and of their own volition, ignorance, greed or whatever they went out on a limb (again, their foolishness) and the mortgage companies and shady financial organizations also going out on a limb (again, their foolishness, too).
Wait till the other shoe drops. It AIN'T going to be pretty. Democrat or Republican in the White House. No difference!!
Your post revealed who you are. ANd it is as I expected.
Nice try, but I said the following: I'm a loyal patriotic American who puts country before anything and everything else, save God and my children.
yes, of course it will (and already has).
OH MY GOD!! A 0.008 DROP! WE’RE DOOMED!
Doesn’t look very healthy. Thank you for the chart.
As did your, and yours was also expected.
There have never been “No Interest Loans.”
I have noticed it too. Every bloody thread has to have something about illegal aliens on it. Some of it can be quite racist.
Why do you need your back watched?
It actually looks more like you ping one another to come and reinforce what each is posting. And to give the appearance of support.
OK, but the problem here is that you have no proof that any of this happening. So why not focus on those things that ARE happening and we can do something about?
yeah.....the “expert” Mike Whitney lives in Washington state.
You assume that everyone is stupid and is up to their ears in debt. 40% of homeowners have no mortgage debt. Many of the ones that do have mortgages are not stupid and don’t sign up for interest only loans or ARMS that they can’t afford.
Are there people out there that are stupid? Yes! Are they going to be in trouble? Only if the government doesn’t step in a pull their bacon out of the fire, which they will probably do.
Doom, gloom we’re all going to die! If I wanted that news I’d watch CBS,ABC,CNN or Shepard Smith.
You seem to put yourselves in this exclusive little club where only the members have brain cells.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.