Music by The Refusers

Thursday, December 31, 2015

A Crisis Worse than ISIS? Bail-Ins Begin by Ellen Brown

A Crisis Worse than ISIS? Bail-Ins Begin


by Ellen Brown

Web of Debt Blog,   29 December 2015


While the mainstream media focus on ISIS extremists, a threat that has gone virtually unreported is that your life savings could be wiped out in a massive derivatives collapse. Bank bail-ins have begun in Europe, and the infrastructure is in place in the US.  Poverty also kills. 
At the end of November, an Italian pensioner hanged himself after his entire €100,000 savings were confiscated in a bank “rescue” scheme. He left a suicide note blaming the bank, where he had been a customer for 50 years and had invested in bank-issued bonds. But he might better have blamed the EU and the G20’s Financial Stability Board, which have imposed an “Orderly Resolution” regime that keeps insolvent banks afloat by confiscating the savings of investors and depositors. Some 130,000 shareholders and junior bond holders suffered losses in the “rescue.”
The pensioner’s bank was one of four small regional banks that had been put under special administration over the past two years. The €3.6 billion ($3.83 billion) rescue plan launched by the Italian government uses a newly-formed National Resolution Fund, which is fed by the country’s healthy banks. But before the fund can be tapped, losses must be imposed on investors; and in January, EU rules will require that they also be imposed on depositors. According to a December 10th article on BBC.com:
The rescue was a “bail-in” – meaning bondholders suffered losses – unlike the hugely unpopular bank bailouts during the 2008 financial crisis, which cost ordinary EU taxpayers tens of billions of euros.
Correspondents say [Italian Prime Minister] Renzi acted quickly because in January, the EU is tightening the rules on bank rescues – they will force losses on depositors holding more than €100,000, as well as bank shareholders and bondholders.
. . . [L]etting the four banks fail under those new EU rules next year would have meant “sacrificing the money of one million savers and the jobs of nearly 6,000 people”.
That is what is predicted for 2016: massive sacrifice of savings and jobs to prop up a “systemically risky” global banking scheme.
Bail-in Under Dodd-Frank 
That is all happening in the EU. Is there reason for concern in the US?
According to former hedge fund manager Shah Gilani, writing for Money Morning, there is. In a November 30th article titled “Why I’m Closing My Bank Accounts While I Still Can,” he writes:
[It is] entirely possible in the next banking crisis that depositors in giant too-big-to-fail failing banks could have their money confiscated and turned into equity shares. . . .
If your too-big-to-fail (TBTF) bank is failing because they can’t pay off derivative bets they made, and the government refuses to bail them out, under a mandate titled “Adequacy of Loss-Absorbing Capacity of Global Systemically Important Banks in Resolution,” approved on Nov. 16, 2014, by the G20’s Financial Stability Board, they can take your deposited money and turn it into shares of equity capital to try and keep your TBTF bank from failing.
Once your money is deposited in the bank, it legally becomes the property of the bank. Gilani explains:
Your deposited cash is an unsecured debt obligation of your bank. It owes you that money back.
If you bank with one of the country’s biggest banks, who collectively have trillions of dollars of derivatives they hold “off balance sheet” (meaning those debts aren’t recorded on banks’ GAAP balance sheets), those debt bets have a superior legal standing to your deposits and get paid back before you get any of your cash.
. . . Big banks got that language inserted into the 2010 Dodd-Frank law meant to rein in dangerous bank behavior.
The banks inserted the language and the legislators signed it, without necessarily understanding it or even reading it. At over 2,300 pages and still growing, the Dodd Frank Act is currently the longest and most complicated bill ever passed by the US legislature.
Propping Up the Derivatives Scheme
Dodd-Frank states in its preamble that it will “protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts.” But it does this under Title II by imposing the losses of insolvent financial companies on their common and preferred stockholders, debtholders, and other unsecured creditors. That includes depositors, the largest class of unsecured creditor of any bank.
Title II is aimed at “ensuring that payout to claimants is at least as much as the claimants would have received under bankruptcy liquidation.” But here’s the catch: under both the Dodd Frank Act and the 2005 Bankruptcy Act, derivative claims have super-priority over all other claimssecured and unsecured, insured and uninsured.
The over-the-counter (OTC) derivative market (the largest market for derivatives) is made up of banks and other highly sophisticated players such as hedge funds. OTC derivatives are the bets of these financial players against each other. Derivative claims are considered “secured” because collateral is posted by the parties.
For some inexplicable reason, the hard-earned money you deposit in the bank is not considered “security” or “collateral.” It is just a loan to the bank, and you must stand in line along with the other creditors in hopes of getting it back. State and local governments must also stand in line, although their deposits are considered “secured,” since they remain junior to the derivative claims with “super-priority.”
Turning Bankruptcy on Its Head
 Under the old liquidation rules, an insolvent bank was actually “liquidated” – its assets were sold off to repay depositors and creditors. Under an “orderly resolution,” the accounts of depositors and creditors are emptied to keep the insolvent bank in business. The point of an “orderly resolution” is not to make depositors and creditors whole but to prevent another system-wide “disorderly resolution” of the sort that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. The concern is that pulling a few of the dominoes from the fragile edifice that is our derivatives-laden global banking system will collapse the entire scheme. The sufferings of depositors and investors are just the sacrifices to be borne to maintain this highly lucrative edifice.
In a May 2013 article in Forbes titled “The Cyprus Bank ‘Bail-In’ Is Another Crony Bankster Scam,” Nathan Lewis explained the scheme like this:
At first glance, the “bail-in” resembles the normal capitalist process of liabilities restructuring that should occur when a bank becomes insolvent. . . .
The difference with the “bail-in” is that the order of creditor seniority is changed. In the end, it amounts to the cronies (other banks and government) and non-cronies. The cronies get 100% or more; the non-cronies, including non-interest-bearing depositors who should be super-senior, get a kick in the guts instead. . . .
In principle, depositors are the most senior creditors in a bank. However, that was changed in the 2005 bankruptcy law, which made derivatives liabilities most senior. Considering the extreme levels of derivatives liabilities that many large banks have, and the opportunity to stuff any bank with derivatives liabilities in the last moment, other creditors could easily find there is nothing left for them at all.
As of September 2014, US derivatives had a notional value of nearly $280 trillion. A study involving the cost to taxpayers of the Dodd-Frank rollback slipped by Citibank into the “cromnibus” spending bill last December found that the rule reversal allowed banks to keep $10 trillion in swaps trades on their books. This is money that taxpayers could be on the hook for in another bailout; and since Dodd-Frank replaces bailouts with bail-ins, it is money that creditors and depositors could now be on the hook for. Citibank is particularly vulnerable to swaps on the price of oil. Brent crude dropped from a high of $114 per barrel in June 2014 to a low of $36 in December 2015.
What about FDIC insurance? It covers deposits up to $250,000, but the FDIC fund had only $67.6 billion in it as of June 30, 2015, insuring about $6.35 trillion in deposits. The FDIC has a credit line with the Treasury, but even that only goes to $500 billion; and who would pay that massive loan back? The FDIC fund, too, must stand in line behind the bottomless black hole of derivatives liabilities. As Yves Smith observed in a March 2013 post:
In the US, 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 depositors to fund derivatives exposures. . . . The deposits are now subject to being wiped out by a major derivatives loss.
Even in the worst of the Great Depression bank bankruptcies, noted Nathan Lewis, creditors eventually recovered nearly all of their money. He concluded:
When super-senior depositors have huge losses of 50% or more, after a “bail-in” restructuring, you know that a crime was committed.
Exiting While We Can
How can you avoid this criminal theft and keep your money safe? It may be too late to pull your savings out of the bank and stuff them under a mattress, as Shah Gilani found when he tried to withdraw a few thousand dollars from his bank. Large withdrawals are now criminally suspect.
You can move your money into one of the credit unions with their own deposit insurance protection; but credit unions and their insurance plans are also under attack. So writes Frances Coppola in a December 18th article titled “Co-operative Banking Under Attack in Europe,” discussing an insolvent Spanish credit union that was the subject of a bail-in in July 2015. When the member-investors were subsequently made whole by the credit union’s private insurance group, there were complaints that the rescue “undermined the principle of creditor bail-in” – this although the insurance fund was privately financed. Critics argued that “this still looks like a circuitous way to do what was initially planned, i.e. to avoid placing losses on private creditors.”
In short, the goal of the bail-in scheme is to place losses on private creditors. Alternatives that allow them to escape could soon be blocked.
We need to lean on our legislators to change the rules before it is too late. The Dodd Frank Act and the Bankruptcy Reform Act both need a radical overhaul, and the Glass-Steagall Act (which put a fire wall between risky investments and bank deposits) needs to be reinstated.
Meanwhile, local legislators would do well to set up some publicly-owned banks on the model of the state-owned Bank of North Dakota – banks that do not gamble in derivatives and are safe places to store our public and private funds.
_____________________
Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including the best-selling Web of Debt. Her latest book, The Public Bank Solution, explores successful public banking models historically and globally. Her 300+ blog articles are at EllenBrown.com. Listen to “It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown” on PRN.FM.
Source:

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

The Gaian Dragon I Ching Calendar For Week 53 -Week of Thinking by James Clair Lewis



The Gaian Dragon I Ching Calendar


Thinking is required to understand Truth
Split away from negative thinking. Push towards clarity. Approach simplicity. Do not give up. Use the Power of reason. Adopt Grace.

Strive to bring Increase. Disperse naysayers. Move steadily and Gradually. Ask for help when you are Stuck. Split Apart what is useful from what is not. Love is greater than thinking.

Contemplation begins with observation.

The Image

Accept the world as it is.

Know the desires of your heart.

Think logicly.

Grow in Wisdom

The Inside

Wait & be aware! Stall until you can locate & understand the problem. Be sensible. The Bees are practical. Content is more important than form. Great Good Fortune! Do not relax & allow things to fall apart by becoming too comfortable. Pay Attention. Success comes after difficulties are resolved. Be patient & persevering. Success comes from striving to maintain harmony in your business. Be Fair. A simple clear form is the fullness of Grace. Be Clear.

The Outside

Use your good fortunes to further the advancement of humanity. Good Luck. The Bees are cooperative. When the causes of separation lie within yourself, disolve the patterns of narrow thinking which perpetuate the problem. Get Wise! Do not quarrel. State your case, & let things develop naturally. Pay attention. Do not assume authority without general consent. Be realistic. Strive to be the center of union when everything is splitting apart. Good luck. Do your best. If you lose your head, then you may have lost it all! Misfortune!

The Lines

Top : Only when you know yourself, can you see the world as it is. Be Realistic!

5 : If you truly know yourself, you will be able to live without blame. Good Luck!

4 : The Butterfly lives in Harmony. Assist the development of wisdom among your friends. Great Good Fortune!

3 : Observe the results of your actions to decide which Path you will follow. Think!

2 : The Bees are cooperative. Contemplate the letter of the law, when dealing with bureaucrats to smoothly accomplish your goals. Pay Attention!

1 : Understand the difference between seeing things as they are, and being able to do something about it. Get Wise!



Thinking's Circle of Friends


The Outside

The Inside
LoveGrace
The SplitPower
StuckOppression
GraduallyApproach
DispersionThe Push
IncreaseThe Split




These animated Moving Mandalas are very large files. Please click on the pic, and wait for it to load. The Contemplation will be very enabling, carrying your Mind beyond the mundane world...



Life Is Really Simple......The Wisdom of Confucius




Monday, December 28, 2015

New Irish Documentary Exposes the Lie of HPV Vaccine Safety by Jeffery Jaxen




New Irish Documentary Exposes the Lie of HPV Vaccine Safety


by Jefferey Jaxen


Ireland introduced the HPV Gardasil Vaccine to teenage girls in 2010. It didn’t take long for parents to begin recognizing the severe adverse reactions that soon followed. As the numbers grew, it was clear a support group and activism was needed to assist families in their search for answers — REGRET.IE was formed soon after to meet such needs.
Fast forwarding to present day, Irish mainstream media and a handful of aware, courageous politicians have taken up the call to spotlight the truth and search for answers. Behind the push at every turn are the members of R.E.G.R.E.T. Unlike American media, who has a running blackout of any and all unfavorable vaccine-related reporting, Irish journalists appear to have more autonomy to tackle the hard questions with real investigation. Months of radio, television, and publications running stories about growing numbers of Irish teenage girls enduring severe adverse reactions directly after their Gardasil injections has culminated to the new documentary titled “Cervical Cancer Vaccine: Is it safe?”. Recently aired on mainstream television, the documentary has Ireland buzzing. The country is now awake and staring at the realization that their healthcare system coupled with political apathy and incompetence may have allowed this continued damage to occur straight through to today.
The documentary follows four teenage girls and their families as they struggle to find answers within an Irish health care system with few to offer. The stories told directly from the girls and their parents show glaring similarities not only in symptoms and timelines of injuries after the Gardasil vaccine, but also in raw emotions and frustration.
When asked if she ever has had a day with energy and no pain since the severe adverse reaction from the Gardasil shot, Kelly Power, one of the four girls the documentary centers around commented:
No…..I take a lot of pain killers. The pain killers are really bad on my stomach…I’m prescribed 240 something a month. I try to take them as little as I can but I need something for the pain.
Another girl featured in the documentary was Abby Colohan. Receiving two shots in each arm at school, Abby’s severe adverse reaction to the Gardasil vaccine began immediately after injection. Her father was called by the school to come pick her up and bring her home. Abby’s mother describes the scene:
She arrived home and I just couldn’t believe what came through the door. It was a completely different child than what went to school that morning. She wasn’t able to speak. She was a funny color, like a purple-grey color. Her eyes were dilated, you could barely see the whites. Her joints, her wrists, her elbows and her knees were swollen and stiff. She had this terrible twitching, this jerking thing.”
Ireland now joins scores of other countries that are sounding the alarm. Parents in several countries know something is not right and they are all collectively making noise in their own ways now. The recent Irish documentary marks the third international documentary created in a short time centering directly around HPV vaccine damage. “Cervical Cancer Vaccine: Is it safe?” acknowledges the May 2015 documentary out of Denmark titled “De Vaccinerede Piger (The Vaccinated Girls)” by commenting:
Denmark is one of the many countries where Gardasil has proven controversial. This documentary told a story remarkably similar to the one in Ireland and elsewhere. Girls whose lives are in ruin, parents who want answers, and doctors who can’t provide them.
The HPV vaccine comes in three different forms Gardasil, Gardasil 9, and Cervarix. All three have at least one commonality — whatever country the shots are introduced in sees parents rise up to protest the injury the vaccine is causing to their girls. The complaints, activism, and whistle blowers are rapidly piling up against not only the safety of the shots, but also the inability of individual country’s medical systems to respond rationally and appropriately to the influx of severe adverse events. In an attempt to assist families with nowhere to turn for answers, the Global HPV Advocacy Symposium has been launched. Set to take place May 25-29, 2016 in Chicago, the symposium aims to bring together doctors, lawyers, and individuals from around the world to advance the conversation towards solutions in the wake of political inactivity and  lethargic mainstream medical systems consistent inability to respond rationally to mounting evidence of vaccine injury.
Source Of Video & Article:
Jefferey


Friday, December 25, 2015

For, Now In Your World........A Discourse by M.N. Hopkins

Art by John Finn

For now in your world the opposite is true and few can see the truth of this.  Those of darkness proclaim to be those of Light and those of Light are not even given a voice within your communities.  Men truly pay a great deal of currency to hear evil consul while those with words of wisdom have their words go unheard.

There has been such a concentration on the darker side of human thought and emotion than that which is healing and builds up strength within the human personality structures goes unnoticed.  So, the sick care for the sick and only those who abandon or are abandoned by your human systems become well and whole again.

Now, in your world the voices of fear sense a change of concentration and gather their forces to maintain their disorderly order.  Mankind acts in a self-destructive  manner as if caught within their own traps. 

No longer will lies and falsehood bind together human community.  Mankind now seeks a better way and one that will insure a future that allows for a creativity and expression of what is best within your humanity.  No longer will the hollow words be accepted while actions are allowed to be reactive rather than proactive.

A great awakening will occur over time and those who survive the dark times will come to understand that it was the lack of honesty and integrity and ethical behavior that brought Mankind to these perilous times and no longer will those of limited power be allowed to assume positions of power and responsibility.

Leaders in the future will be true leaders with the gifts and talents necessary to lead Mankind back to Itself.  No longer will Mankind be driven by lies and empty words, but by those of true inspiration and direction.  No longer driven by fear, but directed by loving kindness which will be an outward expression of an inward hearts-light.

Have faith in yourselves and believe that one day Mankind will again have direction and systems in place that actually work and that have a co-ordination of actions with words. 


Then, will this chaos and confusion no longer exist and men will free their minds and emotions to be used in a way that will allow for the building of strong and healthy mental, emotional, and physical structures.

©  M.N. Hopkins

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

50 Paulo Coelho Quotations


HPV E VACCINI: UN’ALTRA VITA SPEZZATA IN NORVEGIA

Maria

HPV E VACCINI: UN’ALTRA VITA SPEZZATA