“I’m pretty sure that someone out there wants the finance system to crack.”

[David Guyatt]

“I’m pretty sure that someone out there wants the finance system to crack.”
Carefully note the opening paragraph of Mark Mitchell’s latest post on his Deep Capture blog. I, too, think this entire financial crisis has been planned and carried out with cold, calculating precision.
But read on:

And the Beat Goes On…. (Jim Cramer, Joe Nocera, & Doug Kass)

March 1st, 2009 by Patrick Byrne

I’m pretty sure that someone out there wants the finance system to crack.
Not that anyone’s wrong to suspect it might crack: I’m the last guy on the planet that can be accused of being Dr. Pangloss. Not that they are wrong to decry the regulatory and political oversight of our finance system in general and the shenanigans of Wall Street in particular: the name of this blog is, after all, “DeepCapture.com”.

But for four years I’ve been eagerly flushing the handle while watching these guys circle the bowl. In that time I’ve developed a sense of how they move. I’m pretty sure now that their orders are, quite simply, to crack the system.
We have Joe Nocera’s Sunday New York Times piece, “Propping Up a House of Cards“, that basically says AIG has the financial world by the throat and that as they die they’ll take the rest of the world with them. Maybe so. But one would think Nocera would be able to draw on better sources than Donn Vickrey. From what is publicly known about Donn Vickrey, from what has been publicly alleged (in these three affidavits) then publicly admitted, Nocera’s continued use of him as a source (and the New York Times‘ tolerance thereof) is a disgrace. That Nocera quotes shamelessly from him signals that the gang is back in town.

Read more HERE

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Edit = please note that the above piece is by Patrick Byrne and not Mark Mitchell. My error. The Deep Capture blog is not "Mark Mitchell's" but Patrick Byrne's, although Mitchell posts pieces there regularly. Again my error. It's a whoopsie-daisy day for me today, it seems. Serves me right for taking a few days off.

[Magda Hassan]

Well, I will admit to wanting the financial system to crack, mainly to bring in something more sane and democratic but I can assure you David, I have nothing to do with these events mentioned :dontknow:

However, I think you, David and Patrick, may be right. Cold and calculated forethought. Beyond my capabilities. How will it play out though?

[Peter Lemkin]

You can bet someones have decided to cash in all their chips and let the chips fall where they may for everyone else! Planned to the finest detail. Just heard of a new entity buying up the bad mortages the USG now has, the board is all those who invented and sold them in the first place. They stand to gain more dirty money at homeowners expense...just one example. I also think this is a way of generally hobbling [disempowering] the Demos, so they can be better controlled, used, abused and disposed of. I think things will get VERY ugly in the next years - exceeding the Great Depression by far. Middle class will become poor and poor will be homeless, hungry and worse. Social unrest will be a weekly occurance soon, complete with new Police State measures and camps, spying on everyone over everything. Real ugly. The ultra rich will get richer until they face the firing-squad; if they ever do.

[Dawn Meredith]

This was my husband Erick's response to an email today. Pretty damn terrifying. I hope he is wrong but thus far he's been on the money.
Dawn


I read financial stuff constantly. I've seen this coming for years. When people ask me how bad it will get I tell them our great-grandparents got along just fine without electricity. That is literally how bad it will get. Millions will die from violence, hunger and disease in this country. It is almost too late to prepare. Stock up on canned food and dry food, water, guns and ammo, medicine and other essentials. Have several hundred in cash on hand and pure silver coins. There will be a complete breakdown of the social order and government services. All payments from the government will stop. We will be living in the 1830's again.
----- Original Message -----

[Peter Lemkin]

...but be sitting down...

http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...tcount=280

[Dawn Meredith]

Good God. This is simply terrifying. I just sent the article Peter reposted to three friends for comments. I sent Erick's words yesterday and only one commented and that was to the effect that poeple will balme Obama. And this person is a former CT guy who was part of the Assassination Information Bureau. People are just burying their heads, and I am as well as it reeks havok with my sleep. SInce there is NOTHING I can do about this nightmare I must protect my health at least. I wish the idiots in DC would listen to Ron Paul and get the troops out of every stinking coutry. Our "empire" days are long over. And that's a good thing.
Dawn

[Peter Lemkin]

on the original site, he included this cute little out-take from a movie....to stress the point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGWMs5cdQ...r_embedded

I guess he was trying to say, will make 911 seem like a nice day.....

[Dawn Meredith]

Pretty scary. I envy really old people. And fear for my young beautiful grandaughters. And my 37 year old daughter.

This may sound strange but ever since third grade I have believed the world would end in my lifetime. Just hope I'm very wrong.

Dawn

[Peter Lemkin]

I think we all have very tough times ahead of us. No one knows how this will play out and I think things are far more fluid and subject to very rapid change than in most times in history. People like Hudson, who I respect a lot, don't look too far into the future, but predicts a rather immediate -15 to -20% decline in living standard [on average] - obviously for the poor and lower middle class that is likely lethal....more so if one is to be one of the predicted 25% to 30% unemployed - and with little to NO social safety net - again lethal for many. That's the 'sunny side'. The darker side contains social unrest on mass scale and reaction to it [repression, not help] from the government. Let's hope society wakes up and does a one hundred eighty. If not, I hate to think of what could happen. One good thing - I think this will open the eyes of many who have not been paying 'attention'. I hope not too late! My own take is it is VERY late in 'the game', but a save play is still JUST possible!

[Peter Lemkin]

Civil Unrest in America?

by José Miguel Alonso Trabanco


Global Research, March 9, 2009

Eurasia is currently experiencing serious problems derived from financial and economic difficulties such as unemployment, GDP negative growth, currency depreciation, overall economic slowdown and so on. Several members of both the European Union and NATO (Poland, Hungary, Iceland come to mind) are already dealing with a considerable deal of domestic discontent. Some States from the Former Soviet Union (notably Ukraine, Belarus and the Central Asian Republics) and even Russia itself are facing similar problems. Even Chinese government officials acknowledge protests in the Chinese mainland, as pointed out by Professor Michael Klare, which means that East Asia is by no means an exception. As we shall see, financial and economic conditions are equally grave in the American hemisphere, if not more so.



Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor and early supporter of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, has warned that civil unrest on American soil is a possibility that should not be dismissed. Brzezinski explains that "[the United States is] going to have millions and millions of unemployed, people really facing dire straits. And we’re going to be having that for some period of time before things hopefully improve. And at the same time there is public awareness of this extraordinary wealth that was transferred to a few individuals at levels without historical precedent in America..." Brzezinski concludes with this noteworthy remark "...hell, there could be even riots".


The aforementioned means that the upper echelons of the American political elite have realized that the current financial and economic turmoil is much worse than what many experts had foreseen, and that things could really spiral out of control if the present situation deteriorates even further. Indeed, optimistic signs are nowhere to be found. Quite the contrary.


The full magnitude of the financial tsunami is clearly reflected in a piece written by Barry Ritholtz, who states that the bailout plan promoted by former US Secretary of the Treasury Henry "Hank" Paulson amounts to a sum of money that is superior to the Louisiana Purchase, the New Deal, the Marshall Plan, the Apollo Lunar Project, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the invasion of Iraq and other large government expenditures - combined (!). This illustrates that America's top policymakers (both Democratic and Republican) hold serious concerns about the health of the American financial system and the American economy.


Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy (the largest in American history) was merely the tip of the iceberg and economic and financial conditions have dramatically worsened ever since. On January 22 2009, the Christian Science Monitor published that the four largest U.S. banks "have lost half of their value since January 2." Moreover, in the period from summer 2008 to March 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index has decreased more than 50%. Furthermore, during February 2009 alone, more than 651 000 jobs were lost in the US, whose unemployment rate has now reached 8.1 %, the highest in 26 years. Also, some US car manufacturers (such as Ford, General Motors and Chrysler), once the pride of America's industry, are practically on life support.


Steve Lohr, from the New York Times, writes that "Some of the large banks in the United States, according to economists and other finance experts, are like dead men walking." Indeed, there were only two investment banks left: Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs and their condition is not exactly solid because they have managed to survive by becoming ordinary commercial banks. The Guardian reproduces an assessment by Bill Isaac, an experienced financial expert; he claims that the transformation of both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs is "a shame because this country [the US] was built, in part, on risk-taking by Goldman and Morgan and by a whole bunch of firms before them." Karl West, from the Daily Mail mentions that financial specialists warn that mammoth bank Citigroup "could collapse".


All of the above indicates that the much-feared financial meltdown is no longer a distant and remote possibility because in fact it is already taking place. However, this chaos might trigger some very serious and preoccupying consequences. In order to have a clear understanding of these implications, it is vital to take into account some reports that were not given the proper amount of attention they deserved when they were first published.


Professor Michel Chossudovsky observed that the US Army 3rd Infantry's 1st Brigade Combat Team returned from Iraq some months ago. That information is extremely disturbing because such military unit "may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control", according to official sources. Now, what scenario could possibly require the operational deployment of said units on American soil? Professor Chossudovsky puts forward an intriguing hypothesis that must be borne in mind. He argues that "Civil unrest resulting from from the financial meltdown is a distinct possibility, given the broad impacts of financial collapse on lifelong savings, pension funds, homeownership, etc".


Shortly afterwards, the Centre for Research on Globalization website posted an article written by Wayne Madsen. Mr. Madsen claims that a highly confidential official report has been circulating among senior members of the US Congress and their top advisors. The report has been allegedly nicknamed as the "C & R document". The author stipulates that those letters stand for none other than "conflict" and "revolution" because those scenarios are supposedly regarded by America's policymakers as plausible consequences triggered by a financial meltdown. According to Mr. Madsen, the content of the document reveals that severe financial chaos could spark a major war if Washington refuses to honor its foreign debt and/or massive riots in US cities if the American population does not accept a considerable tax increase.


For decades, overall political stability in the US was taken for granted. However, as it has been pointed out, even senior American statesmen are taking into consideration that financial volatility could fuel a wave of discontent which could easily reach troubling proportions. It seems that America itself is not immune from "regime-threatening instability" as the Pentagon and the American intelligence community terms it. It is likely that American government officials have not dismissed the worst-case scenario. Indeed it looks like they have been preparing accordingly.


Therefore, as has been scrutinized here, once one proceeds to connect the dots a very dark picture begins to emerge, to say the least. An all-encompassing cloud of uncertainty prevents us from formulating an accurate forecast regarding what developments will occur and how they will unfold during the next few months, let alone years. The only thing that can be taken for granted and that one can be sure of is that the unthinkable has now become thinkable.



José Miguel Alonso Trabanco is an independent writer based in Mexico specialising in geopoltical and military affairs. He has a degree in International Relations from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies, Mexico City. His focus is on contemporary and historic geopolitics, the world's balance of power, the international system's architecture and the emergence of new powers.