California Slammed with Fukushima Radiation

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-13-30/california-slammed-fukushima-radiation

Iran and Israel: We Love You

Charles Eisenstein, "It Takes A Village"

Source: http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/79034

The Week Starts Here ---Sustainability--"..it takes a village.."
Host Veronica Faisant discusses sustainability strategies with Leo Buc of Common Vision and Charles Eisenstein shares his theory of Sacred Economics as a means of restoring lost community

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Doug Casey: It's A Dead-Man-Walking-Economy

source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-its-dead-man-walking-economy

By Doug Casey, Casey Research

In an interview with Louis James, the inimitable Doug Casey throws cold water on those celebrating the economic recovery.

[Skype rings: It's Doug Casey, calling from Cafayate, Argentina. He sounds tired, but pleased with himself.]

Doug: Lobo, get out your mower; it's time to cut down some green shoots again, and debunk a bit of the so-called recovery.

Louis: Ah. I have to say, Doug, the so-called recovery is looking more than "so-called" to a lot of smart folks. Even our own Terry Coxon says the recovery is real, albeit weak.

Doug: Terry's probably looking at it by the numbers, some of which are reported to be improving. But let's come back to the numbers later and start with fundamentals. The first order of business, as usual, is a definition: a depression is a period of time in which the average standard of living declines significantly. I believe that's what we're seeing now, whatever the numbers produced by the politicians may seem to tell us.

L: I was just shopping for food and noticed that the bargain bread was on sale at two for $5. My gas costs almost as much per gallon. That's got to hurt a lot of people, especially on the lower income rungs. I don't need to ask; a member of my family just got a job that pays $12 per hour – about three times what I made working for the university food service back when I was in college – and it's not enough to cover his rent and basic bills. If his wife gets similar work, they'll make ends meet, but woe unto them if anyone in their family crashes a car or requires serious medical treatment.

Doug: That's just what I mean. Actually, the trend towards both partners in a marriage having to work really started in the early '70s – after Nixon cut all links between the dollar and gold in August of 1971. Before then, in the "Leave It to Beaver" era, the average family got by quite well with only the husband working. If he got sick or lost his job, the wife was a financial backup system. Now, if something happens to either one, the family is screwed.

I think, from a very long-term perspective, historians will one day see the '60s as the peak of American prosperity – certainly relative to the rest of the world… but perhaps even in absolute terms, even taking continued advances in technology into account. Maybe the '59 Cadillac was the bell ringing at the top of that civilizational market.

My friend Frank Trotter, president of EverBank, was just telling me that the net worth of the median US citizen is only $6,000. That's the median, meaning that half of the people have less than that. Most people don't even have enough stashed away to buy the cheapest new car without going into debt. It used to be that people bought cars out of savings, with cash. Now they have to finance them over at least five years… or lease them – which means they never ever have even that trivial asset, but a liability in the form of a lease.

The bulk of the 49 percent below this guy don't even have that – with the concentration of wealth among the top one percent, most of those below average have seriously negative net worth, at least compared to their earning capacity. In other words, the US, Europe, and other so-called First-World countries are in a wealth-liquidation cycle that will be as profound as it will be protracted.

By that I mean that people are on average consuming more than they produce. That can only be done by living out of capital – consuming savings – or accumulating debt. For a time, this may drive corporate earnings up, and give this dead-man-walking economy the appearance of returning health, but it's essentially, necessarily, and absolutely unsustainable. This is an illusion of recovery we're seeing – the result of our Wrong-Way Corrigan politicians continuing to encourage people to do the exact opposite of what they should do.

L: Which is?

Doug: Save. People shouldn't be getting new cars, new TVs, and new clothes. They should be cutting expenses to the bone.

The Obama administration, just like the Baby Bush administration before it – there really is no great difference between the Evil Party and the Stupid Party – and its minions in the US and its cronies around the world, stubbornly stick to the bankrupt idea that economic growth is driven by consumption. This is confusing cause and effect. Healthy consumption follows profitable production in excess of consumption, resulting in savings – accumulated capital – that can either be spent without harm or invested in future growth.

Consumption doesn't cause an economy to grow at all. To paraphrase: "It's productivity that creates wealth, stupid!"

L: Policies aimed at encouraging consumption, instead of increasing production, are what turned the savings rate negative in the US and resulted in the huge sovereign debt issues we're seeing in supposedly rich countries…

Doug: Well, the governments themselves have spent way more than they had or ever will have, and that's par for the course when you believe spending is a virtue. However, it's the false signals government interference sends to the market that caused the huge malinvestments that only began to go into liquidation in 2008. That has to do with another definition of a depression: It's a period of time when distortions and malinvestments in the economy are liquidated.

Unfortunately, that process has barely even started. In fact, since the bailouts started in 2008, these things have gotten much worse. If the government had gone cold turkey back then, cut its spending by at least 50% for openers, and encouraged the public to do the same, the depression would already be over, and we'd be on our way to real prosperity. But they did just the opposite. So we haven't yet entered the real meat grinder…

L: Those false signals the government sends to the market being artificially low interest rates?

Doug: Yes, and Helicopter Ben's foolish leadership in the wholesale printing of trillions of currency units all around the world – I don't really want to call dollars, euros, yen, and so forth money anymore. When individuals and corporations get those currency units, they think they're wealthier than they really are and consume accordingly. Worse, those currency units flow first to the state – which feeds it power – and favored corporations, which get to spend it at old values. It's very corrupting. There is also an ongoing regulatory onslaught – the government has to show it's "doing something" – which makes it much harder for entrepreneurs to produce.

In addition, keeping interest rates low encourages borrowing and discourages saving – just the opposite of what's needed. I don't believe in any state intervention in the economy whatsoever, but in the crisis of the early 1980s, then-Fed Chairman Paul Volcker headed off a depression and set the stage for a strong recovery by keeping rates very high – on the order of 15-18%. They can't do that now, of course, because with the acknowledged government debt at $16 trillion, those kind of rates would mean $2.5 trillion in annual interest alone – more than the government takes in taxes.

At this point, there's no way out. And there's much more tinkering with the system ahead, at the hands of fools who remain convinced they know what they're doing, regardless of how abject their past failures have been.

L: And yet, the interventions seem to be working. The "orderly default" in Greece seems to have saved the Eurozone for now, and critically important employment figures in the US show definite signs of improvement.

Doug: Perhaps, but let's take a closer look. I advocate the Greek government defaulting, overtly and immediately, on 100% of its debt, for several reasons. First, it would punish those who lent it money to do all the stupid and destructive things it's done. Second, it would ensure that the Greek government wouldn't be able to borrow again for a very long time. Third, it would liberate young and yet unborn Greeks, who are being turned into serfs by all that debt. It would also mean that most European banks would fail. Tough luck for those who relied on them. When new banks are established, it will serve as a lesson to people to be more careful about where they put their capital.

Anyway, it would be much less of a catastrophe than the way we're currently heading.

Here in the US, the twelve-month fiscal deficit is still over $1.2 trillion, an extreme situation that is gutting the value of the dollar, because it's mostly financed by the Fed buying US debt. It's temporarily expanded the eye of the storm we're in, but it's done nothing to dissipate the storm itself. Their easy-money policies may have bought them a little more time, but they will only make it worse when we do exit the eye of the storm.

There's a third definition of a depression that I use: a depression is the end phenomenon of an inflation-caused business cycle. Inflation is the sole cause of business cycles, and inflation is caused by governments and their central banks printing money. The government – the state – is 100% responsible for society's economic problems. But it arrogantly represents itself as the cure. And people believe it. There's no hope until the psychology of the average person changes.

L: As Bob LeFevre used to say: "Government is a disease masquerading as its own cure." Want to update us on when you think the economy will return to panic mode?

Doug: Earlier this year, I was expecting it sooner than I do now. Unless some black-swan event upsets the apple cart suddenly, I would not expect us to exit the eye of the storm at least until after the US presidential elections this fall. Maybe not until early 2013, as the reality of what's in store sinks in. I pity the poor fool who's elected president.

In a way, I hope it's Obama who wins, mainly because the worthless – contemptible, actually – Republican candidates yap on about believing in the free market, which means if one of them is somehow elected, the free market will be blamed for the catastrophe. Too bad Ron Paul will be too old to run in 2016, assuming that we actually have an election then…

L: So, what about those numbers, then? Employment is up, and the oxymoronic notion of a "jobless recovery" was one of our criticisms before…

Doug: Yes, but look at the jobs that have been spawned; they are mostly service sector. Such jobs can create wealth for certain individuals – it looks like we've put more lawyers to work again, as well as waiters and paper-pushers – but they don't amount to increased production for the whole economy. They just reshuffle the bits around within the economy.

L: Unlike my favorite – mining – which reported 7,000 new jobs in the latest report, if I recall correctly.

Doug: Yes, unlike mining, which was more of an exception than the rule in those numbers. But that's making the mistake of taking the government at its word on employment figures. As we've discussed before, if you look at John Williams' Shadow Stats, which show various economic figures as the US government itself used to calculate them, unemployment has actually reached Great Depression levels.

The US government is dishonestly fudging the figures as badly as the Argentine government – which is, justifiably, viewed as an economic laughingstock in most parts of the world. One reason things are going to get much worse in the US is that many of those with economic decision-making power think Cristina Fernandez Kirchner is a genius. A little while ago, there was an editorial in the New York Times – the mouthpiece for the establishment – written by someone named Ian Mount. Get a load of this. I've got it in front of me.

If you can believe it, the author actually says: "Argentina has regained prosperity thanks to smart economic measures." The Argentine government "intervened to keep the value of its currency low, which boosts local industry by making Argentina's exports cheaper abroad while keeping foreign imports expensive. Argentina offers valuable lessons … government spending to promote local industry, pro-job infrastructure programs and unemployment benefits does not turn a country into a kind of Soviet parody."

Well, no, I guess it turns it into something the US can ape. He goes on: "Argentina is hardly a perfect parallel for the United States. But the stark difference between its austere policies and low growth of the late 1990s and the pro-government, high-growth 2000s offers a test case for how to get an economy moving again. Washington would do well to pay attention."

The guy has obviously never been here, though he admits that "Argentina is far from perfect." His modest concession is that the taxes to imports and exports have "scared away some foreign investment, while high spending has pushed inflation well over 20 percent. And it would be laughable to suggest that the United States follow its lead and default on its debt."

When I first read the article, I thought I was reading a parody in The Onion. I love Argentina and spend a lot of time down here. It's a fantastic place to live – but not because of the government's economic policies. Its only competition in state stupidity is Brazil, which regularly destroys its currency.

Fortunately, though, the Argentine government is quite incompetent at people control, unlike the US. It leaves you alone. And there's a reasonable chance the next president down here won't be actively stupid, which isn't asking much. But it's amazing that the NYT can advocate Argentine government policy as something the US should follow. A collapse of the US economy would be vastly worse than that of the Argentine economy – the US dollar is the world's currency.

Here in Argentina they're used to it and prepared for it to a good degree. Very unlike in the US.

L: In the US, the welfare state has bloated beyond imagination. The damage already done is less visible because where there used to be private charity soup kitchens, there are now "food stamps" that look like ordinary credit cards, making the destitute among us look like everyone else at the supermarket. There are 50 million recipients, and that number is growing, not declining.

By the way, John Williams is a speaker at the Casey Research Recovery Reality Summit we have coming up, April 27-29 in Weston, Florida. Perhaps this would be a good time to invite our readers down to hear John's take on what the numbers really are – and to meet us. We'll both be there.

L: What are the investment implications if the Crash of 2012 gets put off until the end of the year, or even becomes the Crash of 2013?

Doug: There are potentially many, but generally, the appearance of economic activity picking up is bullish for commodities, especially energy and raw materials like industrial metals and lumber. That's not true for gold and silver, so we might see more weakness in the precious metals in the months ahead. I wouldn't count on that, however, because government policy is obviously inflationary to anyone with any grasp of sound economics. That will keep many investors on the buy side.

Plus, the central banks of the developing world – China, India, Russia, and many others – are constantly trading their dollars for gold. There are perhaps seven trillion dollars outside the US, and about $600 billion more are sent out each year via the US trade deficit.

L: I know I bought some gold and silver in the recent dip and would love to have a chance to do so at even lower prices ahead.

Doug: That's the logical thing to do, given the fundamental realities we started this conversation with, but a lot of people will be scared into selling if gold does retreat. A good number will sell low, after buying high – happens every time, and is a big part of why commodities have such a tricky reputation.

Most investors just don't have the strength of conviction to be good speculators. Instead of looking at the world to understand what's going on and placing intelligent bets on the logical consequences of the trends, regardless of what anyone else says or does, they go with the herd, buying when everyone else is buying and selling when everyone else is selling. This inverts the "buy low and sell high" formula. They let their thoughts be influenced by newspapers and the words of government officials.

L: In other words, everything you see calls for gold continuing upward for some time – years – making any big retreats along the way great buying opportunities for those with the guts to act on them. Same for silver, and doubly so for the precious-metals mining stocks, and triply so for the junior stocks.

Doug: Just so. I look forward to the day when I can sell my gold for quality growth stocks – but we're nowhere near that point. But silver might correct less than gold if gold corrects due to the appearance of economic recovery – silver is, after all, an industrial metal as well as a monetary one.

L: Agreed. And I can see the positive implications for energy as well, but Marin – Casey Research's chief energy investment strategist – was just saying that natural gas has dropped below $2. That's apparently starting to force oil and gas companies to remove reserves from their books – because reserves need to be economic, not just exist – which the market isn't going to like. He sees some great bargains on solid companies ahead, and not just "gas" companies as many oil companies, including the major ones, produce both. Marin said one major company gets half its top line from gas sales. This is a huge shift.

Doug: The devil is always in the details – it's dangerous to oversimplify things, painting with a broad brush, as in, "A recovering economy will be bad for gold" or "A recovering economy will be good for energy." You have to understand these markets well enough to really see how different forces and factors will affect them.

Marin is unquestionably one of the sharpest analysts I've met in my life. He's actually something of a genius, both academically smart and very street smart, in addition to being a workaholic. He runs a lot of my money. He's done spectacularly well, and I expect him to do even better, because he constantly learns. Not much gets by him.

L: Good reminder. So, if we're looking at signs of economic recovery for a time, would you buy into copper, nickel, or other base-metal plays?

Doug: Well, just because we might see signs of a temporary economic recovery, that doesn't mean we will – and even if we do, they could easily be swept aside by any number of events, such as Europe taking another turn for the worse, or Japan or China starting to come apart at the seams. But, as a hedge, some near-term bets on industrial metals might not be a bad thing.

L: How about agriculture?

Doug: That's one thing for which demand can never go down. Economic upturns or downturns may affect the mix of what people eat, but they won't stop people from eating – or, if they do, we'll have more pressing concerns than which way to play the markets. I remain especially bullish on cattle.

L: Anything else?

Doug: [Laughs] Many things. The right technology companies should do well; finding ways to do things faster-better-cheaper always adds value. Select mainstream equities in currently profitable sectors might do well as well – but I'd be very careful there. I can't stress enough how close to the edge of collapse the global economic house of cards is – it could take another year or more to topple, or it could be starting today.

L: Which leads to the other reason for owning precious metals – not as a speculation on skyrocketing prices, nor as an investment for good yield, but for prudence.

Doug: Yes. Gold remains the only financial asset that is not simultaneously someone else's liability. Anyone who thinks they have any measure of financial security without owning any gold – especially in the post-2008 world – is either ignorant, naïve, foolish, or all three.

Look, we saw it coming, but everyone in the world could see Humpty Dumpty fall off the wall in 2008. Now we're just waiting for the crash at the bottom, and no amount of wishful thinking otherwise is going to change that. It's a truly dangerous world out there, and blue chips are no longer the safe investments they once seemed to be. You don't have to be a gold bug to see the wisdom of allocating some capital – and not just a token amount – to cover the possibility that I'm right about what's coming.

There's some opportunity cost associated with taking out this kind of insurance, but it's not catastrophic if I'm wrong, and the cost of failing to do so if I'm right is catastrophic. That really is the bottom line.

L: Financially. If you're right about the coming Greater Depression, people also need to take steps to batten down the hatches on their physical life arrangements.

Doug: Right. As we've said many times now, your government is the greatest threat to your well-being these days. If at all possible, you should be taking steps to diversify your political risk. Foreign bank accounts are not illegal for most people in most countries, though they need to be reported. Getting one is a good start.

Buying real estate I like in various countries is one of my favorite ways to diversify risk in my life. That's partly because I like speculating in real estate, but much more so because whichever government thinks you're its tax slave can't force you to repatriate real estate you own abroad. Most of all, it's because it's good to have places to go if things get ugly wherever you happen to be.

L: Very well. Any particular triggers you think we should watch out for – warning signs that we really are about to exit the eye of the storm?

Doug: In the US, the Fed being forced to raise interest rates would be one, or inflation getting visibly out of control – which would force a change in interest rates – would be another. Who knows – Obama getting reelected could tip the scales. War in the Middle East could do it, or, as we already mentioned, China or Japan going off the deep end. The ways are countless. Black swans the size of pteranodons are circling in squadron strength. A lot of them are coming in for a landing.

People will just have to stay sharp – sorry, there's no easy way to survive a depression. As my friend Richard Russell says, "In a depression, everybody loses. The winner is the guy who loses the least." It will take work and diligent attention to what's going on in the world and around us. We at Casey Research will do our best to help, but each of us is and must be responsible for ourselves.

L: Okay then, thanks for the guru update. No offense, but in spite of the investments I've made betting that you're right, I hope you're wrong, because the Greater Depression is going to destroy many lives, and the famines and wars it spawns even more – millions, I'm sure. Maybe more. The mind balks.

Doug: Oh, I agree. I only wish I could believe otherwise, because I'm sure it's going to be even worse than I think it will be… although I hope to be watching it in comfort and safety on my widescreen TV, not out my front window.

L: I think we need to find something more upbeat to talk about next time.

Doug: [Chuckles] Maybe. If there's something important in the news, we should cover it. It's sure to be fodder for comedy – at least black comedy.

L: As you say. 'Til next week then.

9/11: Insider Trading and the CIA

source: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/10_09_01_krongard.html

(One of a series of stories on CIA foreknowledge
of the WTC attacks.)

SUPPRESSED DETAILS OF CRIMINAL INSIDER TRADING LEAD DIRECTLY INTO THE CIA's HIGHEST RANKS

CIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR "BUZZY" KRONGARD MANAGED FIRM THAT HANDLED "PUT" OPTIONS ON UAL

by

Michael C. Ruppert

[© COPYRIGHT, 2001, Michael C. Ruppert and FTW Publications, www.copvcia.com. All Rights Reserved. - May be reprinted or distributed for non-profit purposes only.]

FTW, October 9, 2001 - Although uniformly ignored by the mainstream U.S. media, there is abundant and clear evidence that a number of transactions in financial markets indicated specific (criminal) foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the case of at least one of these trades -- which has left a $2.5 million prize unclaimed -- the firm used to place the "put options" on United Airlines stock was, until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three Executive Director position at the Central Intelligence Agency. Until 1997 A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard had been Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown. A.B. Brown was acquired by Banker's Trust in 1997. Krongard then became, as part of the merger, Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust-AB Brown, one of 20 major U.S. banks named by Senator Carl Levin this year as being connected to money laundering. Krongard's last position at Banker's Trust (BT) was to oversee "private client relations." In this capacity he had direct hands-on relations with some of the wealthiest people in the world in a kind of specialized banking operation that has been identified by the U.S. Senate and other investigators as being closely connected to the laundering of drug money.

Krongard (re?) joined the CIA in 1998 as counsel to CIA Director George Tenet. He was promoted to CIA Executive Director by President Bush in March of this year. BT was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. The combined firm is the single largest bank in Europe. And, as we shall see, Deutsche Bank played several key roles in events connected to the September 11 attacks.

THE SCOPE OF KNOWN INSIDER TRADING

Before looking further into these relationships it is necessary to look at the insider trading information that is being ignored by Reuters, The New York Times and other mass media. It is well documented that the CIA has long monitored such trades - in real time - as potential warnings of terrorist attacks and other economic moves contrary to U.S. interests. Previous stories in FTW have specifically highlighted the use of Promis software to monitor such trades.

It is necessary to understand only two key financial terms to understand the significance of these trades, "selling short" and "put options".

"Selling Short" is the borrowing of stock, selling it at current market prices, but not being required to actually produce the stock for some time. If the stock falls precipitously after the short contract is entered, the seller can then fulfill the contract by buying the stock after the price has fallen and complete the contract at the pre-crash price. These contracts often have a window of as long as four months.

"Put Options," are contracts giving the buyer the option to sell stocks at a later date. Purchased at nominal prices of, for example, $1.00 per share, they are sold in blocks of 100 shares. If exercised, they give the holder the option of selling selected stocks at a future date at a price set when the contract is issued. Thus, for an investment of $10,000 it might be possible to tie up 10,000 shares of United or American Airlines at $100 per share, and the seller of the option is then obligated to buy them if the option is executed. If the stock has fallen to $50 when the contract matures, the holder of the option can purchase the shares for $50 and immediately sell them for $100 - regardless of where the market then stands. A call option is the reverse of a put option, which is, in effect, a derivatives bet that the stock price will go up.

A September 21 story by the Israeli Herzliyya International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism, entitled "Black Tuesday: The World's Largest Insider Trading Scam?" documented the following trades connected to the September 11 attacks:

-        Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 put options on United Airlines, but only 396 call options. Assuming that 4,000 of the options were bought by people with advance knowledge of the imminent attacks, these "insiders" would have profited by almost $5 million.

-        On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines were bought on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls. Again, there was no news at that point to justify this imbalance; Again, assuming that 4,000 of these options trades represent "insiders," they would represent a gain of about $4 million.

-        [The levels of put options purchased above were more than six times higher than normal.]

-        No similar trading in other airlines occurred on the Chicago exchange in the days immediately preceding Black Tuesday.

-        Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 2,157 of its October $45 put options bought in the three trading days before Black Tuesday; this compares to an average of 27 contracts per day before September 6. Morgan Stanley's share price fell from $48.90 to $42.50 in the aftermath of the attacks. Assuming that 2,000 of these options contracts were bought based upon knowledge of the approaching attacks, their purchasers could have profited by at least $1.2 million.

-        Merrill Lynch & Co., with headquarters near the Twin Towers, saw 12,215 October $45 put options bought in the four trading days before the attacks; the previous average volume in those shares had been 252 contracts per day [a 1200% increase!]. When trading resumed, Merrill's shares fell from $46.88 to $41.50; assuming that 11,000 option contracts were bought by "insiders," their profit would have been about $5.5 million.

-        European regulators are examining trades in Germany's Munich Re, Switzerland's Swiss Re, and AXA of France, all major reinsurers with exposure to the Black Tuesday disaster. [FTW Note: AXA also owns more than 25% of American Airlines stock making the attacks a "double whammy" for them.]

On September 29, 2001 - in a vital story that has gone unnoticed by the major media - the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Investors have yet to collect more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the stock of United Airlines before the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks, according to a source familiar with the trades and market data.

"The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors - whose identities and nationalities have not been made public - had advance knowledge of the strikes." They don't dare show up now. The suspension of trading for four days after the attacks made it impossible to cash-out quickly and claim the prize before investigators started looking.

"October series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly unusual volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total outlay of $2,070; investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100 shares, for 90 cents each. [This represents 230,000 shares]. Those options are now selling at more than $12 each. There are still 2,313 so-called "put" options outstanding [valued at $2.77 million and representing 231,300 shares] according to the Options Clearinghouse Corp."

"The source familiar with the United trades identified Deutsche Bank Alex Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, as the investment bank used to purchase at least some of these options." This was the operation managed by Krongard until as recently as 1998.

As reported in other news stories, Deutsche Bank was also the hub of insider trading activity connected to Munich Re. just before the attacks.

CIA, THE BANKS AND THE BROKERS

Understanding the interrelationships between CIA and the banking and brokerage world is critical to grasping the already frightening implications of the above revelations. Let's look at the history of CIA, Wall Street and the big banks by looking at some of the key players in CIA's history.

Clark Clifford - The National Security Act of 1947 was written by Clark Clifford, a Democratic Party powerhouse, former Secretary of Defense, and one-time advisor to President Harry Truman. In the 1980s, as Chairman of First American Bancshares, Clifford was instrumental in getting the corrupt CIA drug bank BCCI a license to operate on American shores. His profession: Wall Street lawyer and banker.

John Foster and Allen Dulles - These two brothers "designed" the CIA for Clifford. Both were active in intelligence operations during WW II. Allen Dulles was OSS station chief in Berne, Switzerland, where he met frequently with Nazi leaders and looked after U.S. investments in Germany. John Foster went on to become Secretary of State under Dwight Eisenhower and Allen went on to serve as CIA Director under Eisenhower and was later fired by JFK. Their professions: partners in the most powerful - to this day - Wall Street law firm of Sullivan, Cromwell.

Bill Casey - Ronald Reagan's CIA Director and OSS veteran who served as chief wrangler during the Iran-Contra years was, under President Richard Nixon, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. His profession: Wall Street lawyer and stockbroker.

David Doherty - The current Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange for enforcement is the retired General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency.

George Herbert Walker Bush - President from 1989 to January 1993, also served as CIA Director for 13 months from 1976-7. He is now a paid consultant to the Carlyle Group, the 11th largest defense contractor in the nation, which also shares joint investments with the bin Laden family.

A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard - The current Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency is the former Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown and former Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust.

John Deutch - This retired CIA Director from the Clinton Administration currently sits on the board at Citigroup, the nation's second largest bank, which has been repeatedly and overtly involved in the documented laundering of drug money. This includes Citigroup's 2001 purchase of a Mexican bank known to launder drug money, Banamex.

Nora Slatkin - This retired CIA Executive Director also sits on Citibank's board.

Maurice "Hank" Greenburg - The CEO of AIG insurance, manager of the third largest capital investment pool in the world, was floated as a possible CIA Director in 1995. FTW exposed Greenberg's and AIG's long connection to CIA drug trafficking and covert operations in a two-part series that was interrupted just prior to the attacks of September 11. AIG's stock has bounced back remarkably well since the attacks. To read that story, please go to http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/part_2.html.

One wonders how much damning evidence is necessary to respond to what is now irrefutable proof that CIA knew about the attacks and did not stop them. Whatever our government is doing, whatever the CIA is doing, it is clearly NOT in the interests of the American people, especially those who died on September 11.

SEE ALSO: 

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NC21Dj05.html 

The Truth and Lies of 9/11

Why Won't Obama Mention Peak Oil? Blame Rush Limbaugh

Original article: http://transitionvoice.com/2012/03/why-wont-obama-mention-pe

by Erik Curren

Assuming Obama wanted to talk about peak oil in the first place, in today's hyper-partisan environment, could a big speech about it just backfire? Photo: IowaPolitics.com.

Earlier this month, the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear accident came and went with barely a whimper.

Now, with the two-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon spill coming up in April, the media probably won’t do much better. Instead, all the talk these days seems to be about drill-baby-drilling our way back to the $2 per gallon gas promised by Newt, Rick and Mitt.

But even before the start of the season of extreme pandering on oil prices that precedes any presidential election, last year at this time I should’ve known better than to think 2010′s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could still get any news coverage. So it was a sign of my naïveté to suggest a petition drive last year to urge President Obama to mark the anniversary of the worst environmental disaster ever in the US by talking frankly to the American people about peak oil and recruiting the public in a moonshot effort to get our economy off of fossil fuels.

A couple of worthy peak oil groups signed on with Transition Voice to sponsor the petition, which got a few hundred signatures. The result? We may have garnered a few Facebook shares and Tweets, but we didn’t move the president.

As you know, Obama didn’t give a major speech on April 20 about energy or do much of anything else to remember the Deepwater Horizon. As you also know, he didn’t mention peak oil then. He hasn’t mentioned it since. And he’s not likely to mention it ever.
The best explanation may not be the most obvious one.

Fool, liar, scoundrel or coward

First, maybe Obama isn’t aware of peak oil or convinced that it’s a serious problem? Unlikely, given what a brainy guy he is. And what a brainy guy his secretary of energy, Steven Chu, also is. After the International Energy Agency came out of the closet on peak oil in 2010, no one who knew much about energy could remain blind to the world-changing implications of reaching the peak of world oil production.

Peak oil would mean more than a Florida Congressman angry that it now costs $70 to gas up his Hummer. In the longer term, fossil fuel depletion could also bring distress for a whole raft of industries utterly dependent on cheap energy — from tourism to Big Ag to Big Pharma — and even put an end to two centuries of global economic growth. Having access to all the best data, Obama and Chu have got to know the real story.

Second, Obama could be a scoundrel who doesn’t much care about the survival of the American Republic but just wants to take care of his own and get out while the getting’s good. But this story sounds like a cheap cop-out if you think for thirty seconds about how much more hassle you get in politics than you would in business. There are much easier ways of feathering one’s nest than by submitting oneself to the indignity of a modern presidential campaign just to have to present your birth certificate on demand and explain at every cocktail party why somewhat-less-expensive health insurance isn’t the first step towards a Stalinist dictatorship.

Third, Obama could be afraid that panic would ensue if he uttered the dreaded words in public. That, like an “open sesame” to conjure the apocalypse, just saying “peak oil” would send the Dow Jones into a 1929-style tumble, push today’s teetering banks over the edge and unleash an army of looters to strip Safeway shelves clean and break windows on Rodeo Drive before setting Washington Square and Dupont Circle aflame.

But of course Obama wouldn’t talk about a problem without a solution. And no doubt any plan he’d come up with would be one to “create American jobs,” a phrase which always means that there will be plenty of pork for big corporations.

In turn, any response of this ilk, even one so bogus as to be clearly inadequate to the scale of the problem, like more electric cars, would send the signal to the plutocratic powers-that-be that This Doesn’t Really Change Anything. There will still be bank bailouts, fat defense contracts and lots more military interventions (thanks “Kony 2012″!) to open foreign markets up to Wall Street’s hungry asset liquidators — er, job creators.

Or, consider an even more nefarious explanation.

Partisanship punctures president

Let’s start by assuming the best about Obama — that he knows about peak oil and gives it its proper due. Even more, that he’s willing to put his political capital on the line to start America on the road to peak oil prep. For example, he’s ready to ask the leaders of the G-8 industrial nations to sign onto the Oil Depletion Protocol and commit to voluntarily cut their use of oil by 2% every year from now on.

Assuming that best-of-all-possible Obamas, what should he do to accomplish his goal?

Should he use the bully pulpit of the presidency to make a huge speech about peak oil that would dazzle Democrats and Republicans alike, ending the partisan gridlock that has stalled most of his big energy and environment initiatives so far? That’s what we called for in our petition drive last year.

But judging by his piece in the latest New Yorker, “The Unpersuaded: Who listens to a president?” veteran Washington reporter Ezra Klein would say that we were wrong and that if Obama wanted to do something about peak oil, the last thing he should do is make a lot of noise about it.

As Klein explains, Obama’s ability to connect with voters helped him win the White House but that John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan are less impressed with Obama’s speechifying.

“When you’re running for President, giving a good speech helps you achieve your goals,” Klein writes. “When you are President, giving a good speech can prevent you from achieving them.”

Because our political system has become so polarized in the last few decades, Klein’s argument goes, if Obama comes out in the open and shows that he really wants something, the Republicans are almost required to oppose it out of party loyalty. It doesn’t matter what the idea is, the GOP will want to kill any major initiative whether they agree with it or not just because it comes from the leader of the Democrats.

And the Dems would do the same if the president was a Republican.

Though only Rush Limbaugh was honest enough to say openly that he wanted Obama’s presidency to fail — and thus, by extension, he wanted the nation to suffer — the whole GOP clearly feels the same way, even if they won’t admit it. Why? Because they’re less focused on governing the nation than on winning the next election.

Cynics should remember that it wasn’t always this way. Back in the day, each party hosted a range of conservative and liberal opinion. Members of Congress would vote with members of the other party and against members of their own on a regular basis. But no more. Now, we live in an era of strict party discipline, where 90% of votes in Congress are on strict party lines.

That’s a recipe for gridlock, argues Klein, because, unlike the parliamentary systems of Europe where the party that controls the legislature also provides the head of government, in Washington the three branches of government can be controlled by different parties. In a split government, which the US nearly always winds up with, Congress can block the White House, and the White House can block Congress.

But hyper-partisanship also strips the president of his ability to exert any public influence over the opposing party — essentially, taking away the president’s leadership of the nation and reducing him to just another party hack.

No bully pulpit for peak oil

So, back to Obama and peak oil.

In today’s hyper-partisan environment, a president who cared about fossil fuel depletion should probably just shut up about it. If he really wanted to get anything done about peak oil, he’d have better success just resigning himself to working quietly to pass some good-enough laws behind the scenes by negotiating with Republicans in the proverbial smoke-filled rooms that are the only place in Washington where government seems to work anymore.

And that’s incredibly depressing to me. It means that participatory democracy is broken, perhaps beyond repair, at least at the national level. It means that the president can’t go to the people and ask for their support to get something big and historic done in Washington that might just save America’s collective bacon.

I believe that Obama understands peak oil and for years I’ve been hoping that he would finally take leadership on energy. But if Klein is right, then even if Obama were a card carrying member of ASPO-USA, in today’s partisan hell, the most powerful man on Earth might be nearly helpless to make any difference on peak oil.

And that means when it comes to peak oil, help is not on the way. At least not from the White House.

The upside?

Realizing that we’re on our own may just cut that final thread of false hope that has been keeping some of us from getting down to resilience projects in our own communities.

– Erik Curren, Transition Voice

Comments that further the conversation:

Tom

With respect to President Carter - Approximately one year ago I attended President Carter's Sunday school class and then the church service at the Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia.

Background: Carter was "mentored" in his early naval career by Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the nuclear navy. Rickover was one of the first high level people in the U.S. government who understood that oil would peak and decline. He gave a rather famous talk to Congress in the aftermath of the Arab oil embargo laying out the critical nature of oil availability to the winning of numerous battles during WWII, oil's overwhelming importance to the rapid industrialization that helped win the war, and also discussed the future peaking of world oil supply. Rickover was well acquainted with M. King Hubbert's work. In any case, it is hard to believe that Rickover did not drive this future reality into all of his young naval subordinates.

After the church services, Carter and his wife allow each and every person that so desires to have their picture taken with him. the conditions are that you do not converse with either of them or touch them. Secret service agents are immediately adjacent to the couple to enforce these rules.

Even way back during Carter's administration, I was aware of M. King Hubbert's work and believed in its projections. Even then, I considered it extremely courageous of Carter to attempt to set our nation on a changed course, but it was not to be. No president before or sense has received such harsh and unrelenting criticism for a speech than did Carter for his famous energy speech.

So here's the story. When I got next to the Presidential couple, risking who knows what consequence, I said these words to the President. "Mr. President , thank you for having the courage to raise the issue of oil depletion to the American people while we still had the opportunity to do something about it."

While secret service agents were about to pounce upon me, Carter lit up into a beautiful smile, reached across his wife, grabbed and vigorously shook my hand, and expressed his thanks. His single short comment to me before I advanced away was this, "It's going to get a lot worse."

Boy don't I, President Carter, and those here and on The Oil Drum know.


earth2chad

Misleading Headline - It is not because of Rush Limbaugh that the Obama won't mention Peak Oil. It is the same reason that no politician will mention it.

To paraphrase the commentator on 'Oil, Smoke and Mirrors'...

" Ladies and Gentlemen, Peak Oil is a life changing problem, and ...that's all we have for you tonight. Goodbye." What the HELL do you think they are going to say? There is no real solution for the industrial civilization to continue as is? All your investments are going to go south with our statements about Peak Oil?

Look at what they are doing instead.. they are preparing for serious crackdown on freedoms and martial law. That is their solution.

The Most Important Film in the World

source: http://collapsenet.com/free-resources/collapsenet-public-access/item/6817-the-most-important-film-in-the-world

March 7, 2012, 1300 PST, SEBASTOPOL -- There will never be a more important film made... ever.

 

In all of my 35 years of dedicated research and digging, with all of my access to good information, I had never heard of Onkalo until yesterday. That gives monumental testimony to the evil done by mainstream, corporate-owned media as it has kept perhaps billions of like-minded, aware, and competent people in the dark as to each others' existence. All corporate-owned, publicly-traded media is our first and most immediate enemy. It is also the most vulnerable point in the control of The Powers That Be. It can and it must be recognized and removed as the murderous and lethal obstacle that it is.

 

This film was released in 2010, a year before Fukushima. It shows that there are many who understand that safely shutting down all nuclear reactors and storing the waste safely... for 100,000 years... is mankind's number one priority. 100,000 years is twenty times longer than the pyramids have existed and roughly five times longer than any kind of human civilization at all has existed. How can we guarantee that something will stayed sealed that long?... Did the pyramids?

 

How long did it take us to learn to read hieroglyphics?

 

Given the collapse that is underway, how much "money" will there be to do this in every nuclear nation? How many oil-powered drills, generators,and dump trucks will there be... even in 2013? What about Japan?

 

Into Eternity is an eternal tribute to the honor and maturity of the Finnish people. And as you watch this film, bear in mind that Onkalo is only big enough to house the nuclear waste generated in Finland.

 

... Until we deal with this problem, almost everything else we attempt is futile or moot.

 

And until we change the way money works, we change nothing. -- MCR (Michael C. Ruppert)

 

 

The Joe Rogan Experience: Wake Up Call Teaser

source: http://www.oilfreefun.com/

An Open Letter to my Father, a Wealthy Republican/Neo-Conservative "Free-Marketeer"

(note: Far from being grammatically concise, the following was written briefly in less than 10 minutes as a stream of thought that was quickly fired off as an email to my father, a recalcitrant conservative)

I Have Seen the Light

I cant believe that I have been thinking and acting from a totally distorted worldview! Today I received a visit from someone among the Dark Brotherhood, they said that per your instructions that I am ready, that it is my time to become an initiate. This weekend I am going up to the Russian River, for the Spring Sacrifice. I am so excited, I heard that the Great One, Dick Cheney is going to perform the sacrifice this year!

I also am going to receive a job as a guard at one of the new FEMA camps that all of the political dissidents are going to be taken to (at first, then the rest of the "excessive masses", unfortunately these will be death camps)!

They also told me that I am going to be safe and secure when the great one decides that "it is time".

For the sake of secrecy, I still don't know what is going to occur then, but a nuclear holocaust seems likely as they told me that we're going to be living underground for upwards of 10 years while the "Conversion Process" commences.

How could I have gotten it so wrong?! Now I know how great it is! They gave me all the money that I need, they said laughingly that it doesn't really mean anything, and that the biggest joke is that the "excessive masses" have been programmed to idolize it, and that we can thank another Dark Brother, Sigmund Freud's nephew Edward Bernays for this amazing feat of Darkness.

May Darkness Prevail, may we convert the living planet into a barren sphere so that we may live eternally as gods!

May the rightful Masters lead the heathens to a glorious future for the Masters!

All praise Milton Friedman, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Ronald Reagan, John Wayne and Buffalo Bill!

(I apologize for the overly dramatic ending to this email, as an initiate I must sign in this manner "or else", the Patriot Act ensures my full compliance and obedience, if I fail to comply I will be "transformed" into a service robot after the Conversion Process described above and not a director robot, yes that is the glorious future that awaits Mankind, to be reduced to machines, predictable and controllable at last, Praise the Great One)