Four Horsemen - Documentary - Part 1

FOUR HORSEMEN - DOCUMENTARY NOTES - To:  44:22 Ruling elites seek to maintain power by controlling the 'cognitive map' / what we think. What matters is what is left undebated.  1971 USA off Gold Standard adopted: fiat = So Be It  {Latin} $, £ + € = govt fiat >only govt has power to issue fiat currency >Banks 'create' it thru lending Fiat money = currency that derives its value from government regulation or law. Adoption of fiat currency = greatest growth of supply of money in HISTORY. Who benefits: 1>those that issue $$ (govt) 2>banks 3>Also benefit: >companies & individuals who get this money early b/c spend it prior increase in prices by $$ in circulation inflated prices = increase gains for asset holders (real estate or shares) - WITHOUT improvements > 'speculative bubble' Fiat currency system just redistributes money from the BOTTOM to the TOP (the monied elite). Gulf b/w rich & poor widens. Fiat currency system + fractional-reserve banking system = compounding DEBT faster than you can produce to support debt = DEBT SLAVERY Result: > for every $1 of GDP in #USA, create something like $5.50 debt Of all the money in the WORLD today, 97% of it is DEBT!!!!!!!!!!  America has existed on the assumption that resources can be expanded. But resources limited. Cannot expand pie (like you could in early American history); must divide pie.  America not prepared. Last 40 years, capitalism has taken an extreme form. Goes back to economist Milton Friedman (Chicago School), Ronald Reagan, Thatcher etc. encouraged: >HUGE amounts of debt >privatisation >smaller 'govt' >bigger military (so bigger spending) >deregulation (esp. corporations = Gods) Milton Friedman (Chicago School) neo-classical approach beat the classical approach to economics & became framework for today's capitalism. Classical = favours less govt interference, more personal autonomy & recognition that cannot function w/out natural resources neo-classical = >dismissive of natural resources >govt to rule economy & solve social probs >free market to distribute wealth neo-classical school emerged about 100 years ago, due to vested interests desire to protect assets neo-classical mathematical models & assumptions divorced from reality vs classical models, based on what actually *is* Neo-classical models of economics, championed by Reagan & Thatcher, have been used to legitimise financialisation of the global economy. 1932 aftermath of stockmarket crash Glass–Steagall Act protection intro'd to separate ordinary high street banking from investment banking. Glass–Steagall Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Legislation 1999 Clinton repealed Glass–Steagall Act Banks could take ordinary depositors money & speculate on it = 'casino' Unfettered banker gambling resulting from 1999 Glass–Steagall Act repeal pushed global financial system to near collapse. Banks with balances & debt obligations larger than GDP of entire countries, banks had become too big to fail. West unprepared for financial meltdown. Govts reeling. Banks: you have to bail us out. What are you to do with tens of millions of ppl who have lost everything in bank accounts. Bank to govt: cautions you'll have revolution on your hands.  Urged:  borrow money. Create it out of nothing & give it back to us. $700-b needed from US Congress. 2008 banking crisis exposed Western economic system divided as: >socialism for the rich (ie govt bailing banks ...( & therefore obligating the taxpayer to pay off this borrowing to bail out banks)) & >capitalism for the poor. Taxpayer paying 4 misplaced speculation of bankers = economy not serving human = human in perpetual service 2 amoral financial organisations. $8.5 trillion bail-out. Post 9-11 Federal Reserve Head, Alan Greenspan slashed interest rates to encourage lending / bankers needed cash flowing into global pyramid scheme Newly created money entered housing market, creating unprecedented inflation. Huge home loans. Double-income a necessity. #USA Banks got together to exploit minorities /charge more for loans. Wells Fargo targeted urban minorities. Predatory lending. *Not about race; it's about PROFIT. #USA Lobbyists for banking industry amount to x5 per Congress-person, to persuade them to pass legislation favourable to financial industry. Democracy = uneven playing field: the devastated poor cannot afford lobbying equal to that of the banking industry. Ideological control, the cornerstone of Washington-Wall Street corridor: >finance good >more finance better >unregulated finance is best Q. Who controls Washington? > Lehman Bros collapse - 80% population against bail-out > Notwithstanding, Congress passed bail-out A. Banking. Not good reflection on democracy when a group of companies says 'our interests are more important than national interests'. How can corporations control Washington in a democracy? >Campaign contributions >Lobbying >American political structure = flawed democracy Fed Reserve to regulate Wall Street but ... >Wall Street has veto over who is head of Fed Reserve  >Regulators are from banking industry itself As long as this stands, this is not regulation. It is *deregulation* (but called 'regulation', using Orwellian doublethink) Democracy is 'government by the people' Plutocracy is 'government by the rich' Equal voting rights movement early 20thC abolished system where rich have more votes than poor, but lobbying negates that. Lobbying has reduced American political system to mere clearing house for the concerns of the rich. Goldman Sachs machine = >use profits to buy influence in WA >to change laws / easier to make money on Wall Street >use to buy influence WA Famous for claiming it did God's work, Goldman Sachs = one of most influential investment banks in world.  Golden sachs alumni often occupy positions of great influence in governments and central banks. 2008, 1mth prior collapse, Goldman changed GS status from investment to commercial (meaning eliglble for state protection). = socialism for the rich Riding the 'big short' (selling soured securities) in 2008, Goldman Sachs made BILLIONS of dollars & they're back BIGGER & RICHER. ***  Don't think I really know what a 'big short' is. Short selling & collecting insurance might not be the whole story? *** Short selling explained: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shortselling.asp   Money also made on insurance; so it's a WIN, WIN, WIN, WIN etc http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/24/goldman-sachs-emails-big-short_n_550547.html LINK TO DOCUMENTARY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5fbvquHSPJU#t=319 COMMENT Other (non-banking) example lobbying: *********  Sheldon Adelson & wife spent around $70 million in 2012 trying to defeat #Obama. http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/02/cory_booker_biggest_democratic_recipient_of_pro-is.html  *********  While the world was in financial meltdown in 2008, I barely noticed.  It just didn't interest me. Watching this documentary has been a catch-up for me. Got through only about three-quarters of a hour, so I'll have to make the time to watch the rest while it's still fresh in my mind. The link to the political lobbying article above (Senator Corey Booker, Democrat with the biggest pro-Israel donation -- that mentioned $70-million spent by the Adelsons in effort to prevent Obama gaining the Presidential seat -- was just a random article that was topical today.  But it's a good fit on the subject matter of democracy, money and lobbying (even though it is outside of the banking subject). Was blown away by the amount of money the Adelsons spent. The term 'big short' isn't clear to me.  All I know is there's money to be made from lending and selling and insuring (I think).  And no matter what, it's a win-win for the banker ... especially if when it all goes belly-up, the banker is covered by a government bail-out. An article I read yesterday fits in with this capitalism gone rogue theme: The Root of all Evil "The world's richest person (Bill Gates) has a personal wealth of $78.7 billion. This is higher than the (nominal) GDP of 130 countries ..." LINK:  http://99998271.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-root-of-all-evil.html?spref=tw The details about how much the wealthy few have compared to the rest of the world are sobering. Will revisit the article and have another read, as it takes me a while to absorb information. Looked at a heap of other odds and ends, but I think this is it in relation to capitalism, currency and banking. ***** Just did a quick edit, as the lobbying link I'd placed in the documentary summary could maybe have been confused for having appeared in the documentary (it didn't).  Anyway, it's been shifted to avoid confusion. SUMMARY - PART 2 - HERE.

'Deep State' USA - Mike Lofgren Article

'DEEP STATE' - USA Essay: Anatomy of the Deep State February 21, 2014 by Mike Lofgren Link:  http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/ Below are key points /extracts / summary (as learning aid for blogger): Visible government & the Shadow government Without due processes, President can: liquidate American citizens  detain prisoners indefinitely without charge conduct dragnet surveillance on the American people (without judicial warrant) engage in witch hunts against federal employees (the so-called “Insider Threat Program”) In USA, power is typified by: displays of intimidating force by militarized  federal; state; &  local; law enforcement.  Overseas, US can: start wars at will; & engage in virtually any other activity whatsoever  without Congress approval. 2011 political warfare over the debt ceiling, WA allocated funds on: overthrow Muammar Ghaddafi’s regime in Libya overt & covert assistance to French intervention in spill-over Mali $115 million to keeping a civil war going in Syria £100 million (min) to UK's GCHQ (spy agency) $1.7 billion constructing mammoth structure in Utah -- for NSA to archive digital surveillance data Meanwhile, in USA:  bridges carrying interstate highways have collapsed due to inadequate maintenance of infrastructure. Shadow Government (the 'Deep State') is a "hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country" and this shadow government is only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose." The Deep State government has its failures: Iraq Afghanistan Libya and is therefore not invincible.   The Deep State protects inept higher-ranking personnel. Cultural assimilation  >  “Groupthink”  - adoption of views of superiors & peers. Executive Office of the President via National Security Council CO-ORDINATES the activities of the Deep State, which is a hybrid of the following: national security  law enforcement agencies Department of State Department of Homeland Security Central Intelligence Agency Justice Department Deep State key areas of Judiciary: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Vital federal trial courts (eg Eastern District of Virginia & Southern District of Manhattan) - where NSA cases conducted. Department of the Treasury (financial flows; international sanctions; SYMBIOSIS with WALL STREET) 'Rump' Congress - congressional leadership & some (but not all) members of the defence &  intelligence committees.  Rest of Congress "submits to a few well-chosen words from the State’s emissaries". Eg. Passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act of 2008: retroactively legalised Bush’s illegal & unconstitutional surveillance and indemnified telecommunications companies for their cooperation in these acts. No problems: submission & passing of bill leveraged with trump card :  “terrorism” "What is euphemistically called “private enterprise” is an integral part of its operations." Now "854,000 contract personnel with top-secret clearances — a number greater than that of top-secret-cleared civilian employees of the government." The Corporate Arm of the Deep State Membrane between government and industry is highly permeable:  See National Security and Booz Allen Hamilton, (one of the government’s largest intelligence contractors, 99% dependent on govt business).  Contractors now set: political and social tone of Washington; and  increasingly setting the direction of the country and are "doing so quietly, unrecorded in the Congressional Record or the Federal Register, and are rarely subject to congressional hearings." Wall Street -- the cash -- keeps the political machine dormant & "operating as a diversionary marionette theatre." "The executives of the financial giants even have de facto criminal immunity": " ... institutions so mammoth that prosecutions would have "negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy". "Wall Street may be the ultimate owner of the Deep State and its strategies, if for no other reason than that it has the money to reward ..." Harvard: Ivy League is .. the preferred bleaching tub & charm school of the American oligarchy.  [LOL] White House advisers contractor-connected think tank experts economic gurus (pro-globalization and deregulation) preferred pose is that of the politically neutral technocrat offering .. profound expertise "deeply dyed in the hue of the official ideology of the governing class" Domestically:  invariably believe in the “Washington Consensus”: financialisation, outsourcing, privatization, deregulation and the commodifying of labour. Internationally, they espouse 21st-century “American Exceptionalism”: the right and duty of the US to meddle in every region of the world with coercive diplomacy and boots on the ground Silicon Valley is a vital node of the Deep State (Snowden exposure) Important engine of the nation’s economy Indulged by Washington: “jailbreak” smartphone (ie modify for use with other service provider)> receive a fine of up to $500,000 + several yrs prison "... libertarian pose of the Silicon Valley moguls, so carefully cultivated in their public relations, has always been a sham" Silicon Valley - commercial purposes - tracking activities of electronic device users. Deep State - emulate the Valley -- for own purposes.  Deep State conscripts the Silicon Valley’s assistance. 21st century:  drone strikes data mining secret prisons Panopticon-like (all-seeing) control Yet, visible parliamentary institutions of self-government declining to status of a banana republic amid gradual collapse of public infrastructure. [ summary incomplete ]

UKRAINE - WALL STREET & IMF OWNED

❌ G O O G L E SUCKS UKRAINE WHO'S YOUR DADDY? ▼ UKRAINE ❌ G O O G L E SUCKS ▼ ▼  Outrageous Censorship  ▼ GOOGLE SUCKS ❌ From the names of the files, I would say that this was an image of the US military in Ukraine, followed by an image of Petro Poroshenko made up like a painted whore ... along with an image of the Yankee dollar & Poroshenko cupping his lips, calling out something like: "Yoo-hoo, Yankee, love you long time!" Big Finger to the CIA Coup in Ukraine Finger to Poroshenko Finger to Google Censorship ❌ G O O G L E SUCKS

Argentina - Injustice?

Updated August 1, 2014 3:29 PM The Justice of Argentina’s Default A federal judge in New York has ruled that Argentina must pay a small group of creditors in full — about $1.5 billion — even though it got 93 percent of its other bondholders to accept partial payment in a debt restructuring after its 2001 default. Now it faces default again because the judge has refused to let it pay any other creditors until it pays these hedge-fund investors, whom critics call “vultures.” Critics of the ruling say it will encourage other creditors to demand full payment, scuttling the debt deal and make future debt restructurings elsewhere impossible. Is it fair to make Argentina choose between defaulting and paying some of its past creditors in full? Could that help prevent struggling countries from recovery economically? Source - New York Times - here.

Hmmmm ... I'm a tad confused.

Argentina didn't choose to default, if the bank Argentina paid the money into was barred from making the transfer.

Shouldn't the headline read:  'The injustice ... "

GIF - Wall Street Hedge Funds vs Argentina

❌ G O O G L E SUCKS  ❌ _____ ❌ WALL STREET HEDGE FUNDS Vulture Funds vs ARGENTINA   ❌  GIF Vultures swooping on a carcass | Wall Street street sign G O O G L E SUCKS  ❌ Wall Street Sucks Harder

BLAVATNIK'S WALL STREET HISTORY - SHALE REVOLUTION - UKRAINE, RUSSIA & US GRAB FOR SUPPLY OF EUROPE'S ENERGY NEEDS

Forbes

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7/30/2014 @ 6:00AM |672 views

How One Billionaire's Bet On LyondellBasell Turned Into The Greatest Deal In Wall St. History
This story appears in the August 18, 2014 issue of Forbes.

Billionaire financier Len Blavatnik’s bet on LyondellBasell has netted him a personal profit of nearly $8 billion. He says there’s more to come.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2014/07/30/the-greatest-deal-of-all-time/?utm_campaign=forbestwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Confused Len Blavatnik (Warner Music guy) for the Black Wednesday guy that 'Broke the Bank of England' (George Soros) and I thought, no way, how could he have done it again.

If I've got this straight, some guys were selling stock in LyondellBasell; Blavatnik bought stock in LyondellBasell when everyone thought he shouldn't have and shares rose by over 50% since his last batch bought.

Since its bankruptcy - 4 years ago - shares in LyondellBasell have risen to return 500%.

Forbes says Blavatnik's investment ... of $10 billion [SORRY, I'M NOT GOOD AT FINANCIALS ... READ ARTICLE ... LOL] ... generated $8 billion in "mostly unrealized personal profits".

By 'mostly unrealised', I'm guessing they mean he hasn't cashed up what's due to him.

The transaction's described as 'historic'.

Here's some info about Blavatnik from Forbes:

A Ukrainian-born American citizen who grew up in Russia and immigrated to the U.S. in 1978 at the age of 21, he later got his M.B.A. at Harvard.

Blavatnik made his first fortune with a former classmate in Russia, Viktor Vekselberg, in oil and aluminum deals during the anything-goes post-Soviet days. 

Blavatnik’s biggest scores in Russia were oil company TNK-BP, a joint venture with British Petroleum that was eventually bought by Rosneft for $55 billion, and Sual, an aluminum producer that merged with the larger Rusal.

Chemical companies that had nothing to do with Russia would be his next big thing. He paid full price, putting down $1.1 billion to purchase Basell in a $5 billion leveraged buyout in 2005. Then he tried, and failed, to buy other chemical companies, including Huntsman International.

Just as my brain was about to go into snooze mode, I spotted this:

The revolution that changed everything for Blavatnik ... and LyondellBasell originated in the thin fissures of shale rock filled with oil and natural gas reserves throughout the United States. Throughout the last decade drillers pioneered new techniques of exploiting rock formations with hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to draw out the petrochemicals trapped within. As a result, the U.S. became one of the world’s largest sources of cheap natural gas almost overnight, with prices falling from highs of $13 per million British thermal units to a $3 to $4 range today. This dramatic drop in prices proved a huge boon to dozens of industries, none more so than the chemical business–and few more than LyondellBasell.

LyondellBasell is a top producer of ethylene, which it upgrades into the plastic known as polyethylene, used in everything from food packaging to trash bags and hard hats. The company operates six facilities (known as “crackers”) to produce ethylene in the U.S. and four in Europe. Profits from ethylene and its derivative chemicals and coproducts are the core of LyondellBasell’s earnings.

Ethane, refined from natural gas, and naphtha, a crude oil derivative, are the prime raw materials used to produce ethylene. Starting in 2007, U.S. drillers were finding natural gas everywhere. By 2012 the price of ethane had fallen from 90 cents per gallon to 30 cents, giving U.S. chemical producers a huge advantage over foreign competitors in Europe and Asia that are dependent on pricey oil-based naphtha as a feedstock. The gap between the two supercharged LyondellBasell’s profitability.

LyondellBasell’s decades-old crackers in Clinton, Iowa and Morris, Ill., for example, are the only ones in the Midwest–and are situated near natural gas liquid pipelines and a hub in Kansas, home of some of the cheapest ethane in America. Almost overnight they were transformed, churning out profit margins of 32 cents per pound compared to European naphtha-based ethylene, which is barely even profitable. “It’s improbable that anyone could have foreseen the full impact of the shale revolution,” says Blavatnik. “But Jim had some experience and insight through his work at ConocoPhillips that I think helped.”

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So the US presence in Ukraine isn't just about Ukraine.  It's about supplying Europe with gas.

Although this was said in this or that blog or whatever I'd come across, it hadn't really sunk in properly.

Reading this, I got a really sick feeling in my stomach because the US need for a market is tangible -- it's not just someone speculating about US motives.  It's real.

OMG!  I feel like I've just discovered another planet!