21-06-2009, 12:28 PM
Pete, re the Vatican. Yes, in my experience they have some of the grubbiest hands of all sovereign nations when it comes to these sorts of financial shenanigans. There are dozens of stories out there where the IOR (or members of the Vatican hierarchy) have been deeply mired in financial criminality. This involves trading in fraudulent US securities back in the 1980’s (ish?), laundering Yugoslavian gold plundered by Ante Pavelic’s Crotatian nazi’s (the Ustache) at the conclusion of WWII, insurance scams and many more scams besides. The Vatican was also very heavily involved in helping their faithful Catholic, Ferdinand Marcos, launder some of the gold he recovered on the Philippines after the war. The list goes on and on, in fact.
So the Vatican news outlet angle is very interesting.
Also, Peter P, the point made in your most interesting post about Meyerhardt’s comments “based on the photographs we’ve seen online” says it all. Of course the Italians would’ve sent the US high quality and high resolution images of the securities for inspection. The fact that Meyerhardt choose to focus his comments only on the online images demonstrates his crafty elusiveness on this matter --- who knows what images he’s seen online? Fake ones the US Treasury posted to a closed website for example so that he could then utter these comments without openly lying?
I am also quite certain that the US has issued sub-rosa securities for specific purposes in the past. I further think that if someone were to undertake extensive research it will be found that the issuance of such securities are perfectly legal, if deeply secret -- and that many sovereign nations of the world are quite aware of these arrangements, and have benefited themselves in the past from such arrangements.
I am even fairly sanguine about there being “Kennedy Bonds” that bear images of the space shuttle of later decades, because I suspect that the term “Kennedy Bonds” refers to an agreement or understanding, and not a specific tranche of bonds per se.
So the Vatican news outlet angle is very interesting.
Also, Peter P, the point made in your most interesting post about Meyerhardt’s comments “based on the photographs we’ve seen online” says it all. Of course the Italians would’ve sent the US high quality and high resolution images of the securities for inspection. The fact that Meyerhardt choose to focus his comments only on the online images demonstrates his crafty elusiveness on this matter --- who knows what images he’s seen online? Fake ones the US Treasury posted to a closed website for example so that he could then utter these comments without openly lying?
I am also quite certain that the US has issued sub-rosa securities for specific purposes in the past. I further think that if someone were to undertake extensive research it will be found that the issuance of such securities are perfectly legal, if deeply secret -- and that many sovereign nations of the world are quite aware of these arrangements, and have benefited themselves in the past from such arrangements.
I am even fairly sanguine about there being “Kennedy Bonds” that bear images of the space shuttle of later decades, because I suspect that the term “Kennedy Bonds” refers to an agreement or understanding, and not a specific tranche of bonds per se.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14