Please enjoy “Bail-In’s Are Coming” from the 5th Issue of The Hard Truth Magazine
There has been a great deal of speculation about a new global currency.
Various theories have been advanced, and “exposés” have revealed the coming conversion of dollars to a mysterious Red currency emerging from Asia like some enigmatic fiscal Phoenix.
None of these hidden agendas have ever materialized. But a new global currency is coming. It is on the march as we speak, but it is not quite what you think.
This New Financial World Order is driven by the fact that, after a 70-year run, the dollar is exiting the world stage as the lead in that often misunderstood play, The Global Reserve Currency.
There are of course people and institutions behind this, not the least of which is that icon of global financial manipulation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF). So it is no surprise that the new global currency will be the SDR.
SDR stands for Special Drawing Rights. It is the currency— created by the CIA in 1969—that is issued by the International Monetary Fund.
INCREASING LIQUIDITY
Trade won’t be able to grow, and the system will remain vulnerable to speculation unless there is regular growth in the international money supply.
Gold can’t provide the needed increase: industrial and speculative demand is too high. U.S. payment deficits can’t either: foreigners are unwilling to hold more dollars when we run large deficits and unable to increase net reserves by accumulating dollars when our deficits are small.
Our strategy is to supplement gold and dollars with a new international asset, Special Drawing Rights (SDR).
–Wolfe, Crisis by Design
What does all of this mean?
The dollar being the world’s reserve currency means that this is the currency that has been held—is held—by the central banks of the world to facilitate international trade.
The Japanese want to buy oil from Venezuela. They sell yen and buy dollars or just use dollars to hand and pay for the oil in dollars. Venezuela keeps the dollars and uses them to buy wheat from Russia. If
Venezuela had no dollars, they would have to convert some bolivars to dollars and then buy the wheat.
Dollars were (and, to a declining extent, still are) the currency of international trade. This circumstance originated in 1971 when Nixon, the U.S. hemorrhaging dollars like a pig in a slaughter house, closed the gold window—no more gold to foreign central banks in exchange for dollars.
This had been the arrangement, which emerged from the re-structuring of the global financial system in 1944 at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire: dollars, turned into the U.S by foreign central banks, could be exchanged for gold.
The dollar was as good as gold.
In 1971, Dick said, “No more.”
But Nixon, who wasn’t the brightest star in the human rights sky, did have some negotiating chops. He made a deal with the House of Saud: The U.S. would protect Saudi Arabia’s oil fields, if they would
require dollars for the sale of their oil.
Thus was born the term “Petro Dollar.”
This spread to all trade in oil and then to virtually all international trade.
The Petro Dollar deal in place, enabled the U.S. government to continue to deficit spend and gush greenbacks around the planet as if the Treasury had sprung some kind of colossal leak.
It also meant that the central banks of the world would need to continue to keep dollars on hand for the purchase of oil and other goodies.
Then, after a four-decade run, the Boys from Basel (the Bank for International Settlements) decided to lower the curtain.
(Note: If one were to sketch out an organizational chart of the power structure of international finance, it would include—roughly in order of ascending importance—the European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of England, the World Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) with its newly anointed hit man, the Financial Stability Board).
These are the Dons of the global financial mafia, and the BIS is The Godfather.
The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008-09 marked the beginning of the end of dollar dominance. Like Al Pacino in The Godfather, who quietly joined in the baptism of his godson in the cloistered environment of a lavish cathedral when he had unleashed the Corleone assassins on his enemies, the Global Financial Crisis was the signal from the Financial Stability Board, perched in their lavish offices at the BIS, to commence the attack on the dollar—to remove it as the global reserve currency. This was the unstated purpose of the GFC.
Since April of 2009, a growing amount of international trade has been conducted in currencies other than the dollar. Russia, China, India, Brazil and others are increasingly conducting this trade in their own currencies.
Such conduct would have been unheard of a decade ago.
As the dollar continues to get bypassed by the yuan, the ruble, the rupee and others in international trade, its status as the global reserve currency—the currency being held by central banks—is being slowly replaced by the SDR.
At a pace that does not alarm the markets, the SDR will fully replace the dollar as the global reserve currency. This is happening now and will continue at an increasingly rapid pace until the SDR is formally crowned.
In case you’re wondering about the strength or backing of the SDR, it too is a fiat currency; the IMF just prints them. Like the dollar, the yuan, the euro or any other national currency, the SDR is nothing more than printing press money—or, these days, digital money. It is not backed by gold or any tangible asset.
The dollar will continue to be used on a rough par with the euro and the yuan, but, like some A-list celebrity who overdosed on heroin to the point of collapse, it will still work, but will no longer command the power, influence or respect it once had.
Meanwhile, the central banks of the world will be packed with SDRs minted by the IMF. Those same central banks will also be increasingly controlled by the despotic dictates of the Bank for International Settlements—the 900-pound gorilla orchestrating this coup from behind its towering curtain in Basel, Switzerland.
What does this mean at the street level?
For one thing, the U.S. government will have to stop its deficit spending. Congress will have to balance the budget and stop overspending and spewing dollars around the planet. Why? Because central banks won’t have to hold them any longer—not like they have been.
That is what anyone with the intelligence God gave a grape would do.
Will Congress do it?
Of course not. They will continue to overspend. And they will continue to borrow the shortfall, forcing the interest rates on U.S. debt (Treasury Bills and Bonds) to escalate.
No more 2.9% auto loans and 4% home loans, to name a few.
Moreover, as the dollar declines, foreign products will get more expensive—think German cars, Japanese cars, Japanese electronics, clothing made in China, agriculture from South America.
But higher interest rates and more expensive foreign goods are not the primary point here.
There are other aspects of this coup that one needs to understand.
Of particular concern is the plan by the Bank of International Settlements to protect the major banks from collapse during the next Global Financial Crisis–and to do so at the expense of depositors.
The next crisis is imminent: Quadrillions in Mickey Mouse derivatives* on the balance sheets of the world’s major banks; trillions in government debt here, there, everywhere; printing presses gone mad in the U.S., Europe, Japan and China.
(*The vast majority of derivatives are nothing more than bets banks place on the direction of interest rates. They have this fancy, often confusing, name but they amount to little more than a bank using depositor’s funds at a roulette table in Vegas to place a bet on red or black [are rates going up or down?]. These bets are structured in the form of securities like stocks or bonds.)
The crisis is coming. And the global banks would likely implode when it hits …except that the Financial Stability Board, the BIS’s Luca Brasi, has formulated regulations that enable banks
to recapitalize themselves by garroting the depositors—taking the funds from their bank accounts.
I wrote about this in issue #3 of The Hard Truth in an article entitled “Cypress and the Global Banking Mafia.” I encourage you to read it if you haven’t done so.
THE HARD TRUTH MAGAZINE
ISSUE NO. 03 | 2014
I know this sounds self-serving, but it’s important.
The article reveals the background of the “bail in” strategy that was piloted with the banking crisis in Cyprus last year. A bail-in is the activity of a bank taking its depositor’s money when it goes insolvent and converting those funds to bank stock.
The depositor has no say in this.
This is opposed to a “bail out” where the government or some external entity covers the bank’s losses. What brings this to our attention again is the communiqué issued November 16, 2014 from the G-20 meeting in Brisbane, Australia.
The G-20 is an international organization made up of the 20 leading industrial nations on the planet. If Earth has a Board of Directors, it is the G-20. But even the G-20 takes its orders from the BIS and its council in crime.
As one of the key items in their communiqué, the G-20 forwards the Financial Stability Board’s agenda to establish bail-ins as an operating basis for what they call Global Systematically Important Banks when they experience severe losses.
International bankers love names like this. In their memorandums they refer these dominant global banks as G-SIBs.
Sounds like some kind of South American virus.
These are banks that regulators claim would cripple the financial system if they collapsed. So if they get in trouble (having made bad investment decisions), then new rules permit them to take their depositor’s money to protect themselves.
Unbelievable.
The BIS knows these banks are buried in high-risk derivative ordure, and their first priority is to protect them. While business losses have traditionally always come from the firm’s capital, its stock, this new structure puts the depositor’s at risk.
You can find a list of G-SIBs here. For those of you in the U.S., you should note the inclusion (among others) of Bank of American, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Goldman Sachs on the list.
List of systemically important banks
You will no longer be assured of the return of your principal when you deposit money in the bank. Once placed in your account, the money is technically no longer “yours.” You have lent it to the bank and you are a creditor. The bank owes you the money as if you had laid the carpet in the new branch lobby.
If the bank goes insolvent, they will be able to take some of your deposit and make themselves whole. Of course you get some of the bank’s stock in lieu of your deposits. Who could ask for more? Stock in a failed bank instead of the money in the college fund you saved for your child’s education.
These regulations also have a new basis in U.S. law. The ability of the FDIC to take your deposits in the case of a failed bank is set forth in the Obama administration’s infamous Dodd-Frank Act, shepherded through Congress in 2010 by those icons of legislative befuddlement, Chris Dodd in the Senate and Barney Frank in the House.
Dodd and Frank both got out of Dodge after passage of the legislation—Frank to a teaching position at Harvard on gay and lesbian history and Dodd to the $3.3 million paycheck as the chief lobbyist for the movie industry.
The point being that the machinations of the druids at the BIS are now memorialized in U.S. law.
LOST AND FOUND
Legal Information Institute
One simply needs to follow the dots.
1. This operation started in 2005. It was then that a revision of the U.S. bankruptcy laws placed holders of derivatives in a senior position to bank depositors.
In other words, if a bank goes insolvent, first dibs on the bank’s assets belong to holders of derivatives. They are ahead of the depositors.
The following is from attorney and financial writer, Ellen Brown, as quoted in the Huffington Post:
“In the U.S., depositors have actually been put in a worse position than Cyprus deposit-holders, at least if they are at the big banks that play in the derivatives casino. The regulators have turned a blind eye as banks use their depositaries to fund derivatives exposures. And as bad as that is, the depositors, unlike their Cypriot confreres, aren’t even senior creditors. Remember Lehman? When the investment bank failed, unsecured creditors (and remember, depositors are unsecured creditors) got eight cents on the dollar. One big reason was that derivatives counterparties require collateral for any exposures, meaning they are secured creditors. The 2005 bankruptcy reforms made derivatives counterparties senior to unsecured lenders.
This put derivatives on top.
2. Step two occurred in 2010 when Congress passed the Dodd-Frank bill, which states explicitly that depositors are unsecured creditors
3. In 2012, in a joint resolution, the FDIC and the Bank of England set forth the operating basis for financial regulators in their respective countries, that insolvent banks may take depositor’s funds and convert them into bank stock.
Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important
(Remember, money deposited in the bank is no longer yours. It now belongs to the bank. You are a creditor).
4. The following year, 2013, as a pilot, the European Central Bank enforced this exact operating basis on two insolvent banks in Cypress. A senior regulator with the ECB issued a statement at the time that bail-ins would be the template used in future bank failures. (He later got his hand spanked, but he had revealed the planning.)
Here’s the gloss on those Dutch minister’s Cyprus comments
5. On November, 2014, the G-20 confirmed the Financial Stability Board’s regulations that depositor funds were subject to confiscation and conversion to bank equity (stock) by insolvent banks.
You think the BIS, the IMF and their surrogates in the U.S. Congress know something is coming? What really prompted these laws and regulations and why now?
U.S. banks currently hold $227 trillion dollars worth of derivatives. Over 90% of these are held by four major U.S. banks (G-SIBs): Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citibank. Wells Fargo is also a significant holder of derivatives.
Does it raise anyone’s eyebrows that depositors are being set up to take the fall in the next financial crisis?
What to do?
1. If you maintain deposit accounts at any of the major global banks mentioned above, I suggest you move them. You are safer in a smaller, independent bank.
Even better, in most cases, a credit union can be a safer place to bank. This is generally true, though individual institutions, of course, vary.
Membership in most credit unions is very flexible.
You can check out the strength of your bank at Bankrate.com or at Weiss Ratings.
Bank Rate is free. Weiss Ratings charges $19.95 for its analysis.
If you need or want an in-depth professional analysis of your current bank or a bank or credit union you are considering, or want help locating a bank or credit union to move to, contact the author (bruce@thehardtruth.com) to discuss services and fees.
2. If you don’t have any, get some precious metals. I know: the metals are in a bear market. I have recommended silver from the time that it was $5.00 per ounce all the way up to $40+ and also as it has trended down to the current $16 per ounce range. And gold from $300 an ounce up to $1,900 and as it has declined to the current price of about $1,200.
If you have some metals, I would not recommend acquisition of any more at this time. But do hang on to what you have.
However, if you don’t, you should acquire some. Yes, even in a declining market. Put 10 – 20% of your assets into silver and gold.
Having some metals to hand remains as sound insurance.
Despite the fact that central banks are avariciously acquiring gold “as we speak” and the printing of dollars is beyond imagining, the precious metals markets continue to decline and the dollar—unbelievably—has entered a new bull market.
How could this be?
It is no longer a secret that these markets are manipulated.
The major banks that the BIS is so intent on protecting from insolvency are manipulating both the currency and the precious metals markets and raking in billions in profits as they do so.
If you think the manipulation of the currency and precious metals markets are some kind of conspiratorial unreality, let me introduce you to the largest financial scandal in human history, which occurred just two years ago: the manipulation of Libor interest rates. (“Libor” stands for the London interbank offer rate, which essentially is the base interest rate on which trillions of dollars of loans and investments are made in both the U.S. and abroad.)
You will recall the earlier description of derivatives as being banks “betting” on the direction of interest rates. This global crap game deals in hundreds of trillions of dollars. What if those rates were being controlled? What if the gamblers—big banks—were placing the bets and then were able to manipulate the rates in their favor?
Because Libor is used in US derivatives markets, an attempt to manipulate Libor is an attempt to manipulate US derivatives markets, and thus a violation of American law. Since mortgages, student loans, financial derivatives, and other financial products often rely on Libor as a reference rate, the manipulation of submissions used to calculate those rates can have significant negative effects on consumers and financial markets worldwide.
In court documents filed in Singapore, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) trader Tan Chi Min told colleagues that his bank could move global interest rates and that the Libor fixing process in London had become a cartel. Tan in his court affidavit stated that the Royal Bank of Scotland knew of the Libor rates manipulation and that it supported such actions.
It has been reported since then that regulators in at least ten countries on three different continents are investigating the rigging of the Libor and other interest rates. Around 20 major banks have been named in investigations and court cases.
So, don’t think for a second that the precious metals or currency markets are not manipulated. Indeed, in James Rickard’s new book, The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System, he documents the behind the scenes manipulation of the gold market in stunning detail by major gold trading banks (think J.P Morgan), central banks, and facilitating it all, the Bank for International Settlements.
The same holds true for the stock market, which (based on buying and manipulation of stocks by central banks) is soaring to record highs almost daily.
Current estimates for the foreseeable future, despite all fundamentals to the contrary, are that the dollar will continue to rise, precious metals will continue to decline and the Dow Jones Industrial Average will continue in its bull market ride into uncharted territory.
These conditions make no economic sense unless one understands that these markets are like puppets on strings. We can shake our heads in disagreement with the logic, but these are the current directions in which the strings are being pulled.
Still, make sure you have some precious metals.
3. Finally, acquire some real estate in the following categories: (A) multi-family real estate (duplex, triplex, etc.). It will provide income, tax benefits, and a home, if needed in the future. (B) If you have the opportunity, buy some agricultural land land that is producing food. You can rent it out for the time being.
If you can do both, do so.
4. Stay liquid. Cash is king in times like these. Keep the money in safe financial institutions, and some in a good safe at home.
So, for now then: relocate savings out of any of the large banks mentioned above; acquire or retain precious metals; acquire income and agricultural producing real estate; stay liquid—cash.
There is, of course, no guarantee with any of these recommendations. They are simply my best estimate of the situation at this time, based on my evaluation of the information to hand in a rapidly moving financial landscape.
That said, I don’t expect Basel to pull the plug yet. My guess, and it is only a guess, is 18-24 months.
Maybe sooner. Maybe later. But be prepared.✒
John Truman Wolfe is an award winning writer and business consultant. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Barbara.
Subscribe now to get an annual subscription and save 17%!
Related articles:
Bail-Ins Are Coming: Recent Speculation about Global Currency