Federal Reserve - search results

Paul Craig Roberts and Dave Kranzler As we documented in previous articles, the gold price is driven down in the paper futures market by naked short selling by the Fed’s dependent bullion banks. Some people have a hard time accepting…

The post The Federal Reserve Has No Integrity appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org.

Will this be the year when the Fed's quantitative easing program finally ends?  For a long time, many analysts were proclaiming that the Fed would never taper.  But then it started happening.  Then a lot of them started talking about how "the untaper" was right around the corner.  That hasn't happened either.  It looks like [...]

• former Fed chairman Paul Volcker;

• former ECB governor Jean-Claude Trichet;

• current ECB governor Mario Draghi;

• former Federal Reserve Bank of New York president/Goldman Sachs managing director E. Gerald Corrigan;

• current Federal Reserve Bank of New York president/former Goldman Sachs partner William Dudley;

• former Treasury secretary Larry Summers;

• former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo;

• former Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner;

• former Bank of England governor Mervyn King; and

• current Bank of England governor Mark Carney, among others with similar credentials.

The father of the theory that government stimulus is the way to fight severe downturns – John Maynard Keynes – famously said about inflation:

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke also admits that inflation is a tax on the American people:

Russia has offloaded a fifth of its holdings of US Treasury debt in March at a time of heightened speculation that its assets would be frozen as part of sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine.
It was the largest seller during the month while Belgium extended its big buying streak, according to US Treasury International Capital data released on Thursday.

A decline of $25.8bn in Russia’s Treasury holdings to $100.4bn involved the selling of short-term bills.

We know that Belgium didn’t have any money to buy $141 billion worth of bonds over a three month period. That sum comes to 29% of the Belgium GDP. So, they don’t have a surplus in their budget that is 29% of their GDP, and they don’t have trade or current account surplus in that amount. In fact, everything is in the red. Their budget deficit is in the red, and their trade and current accounts are in the red. So, Belgium didn’t have the money, and yet, they managed to pick up $141.2 billion in U.S. Treasuries over a three month period. So, where did they get the money?

[...]

We know their central bank couldn’t have printed euros to buy the bonds with because the Belgium central bank can’t print euros. Belgium is part of the euro system and has lost the ability to create its own money. So, the only source for that kind of money would have been the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve thought it needed to hide the fact it was buying $141 billion in bonds over a three month period when it was officially reducing or tapering the quantitative easing down to $65 billion. It didn’t want to have to admit it was really purchasing $112 billion a month, almost double the announced purchases.”

Dr. Roberts also says, “I think also the Fed did not want it to get out that some large country is unloading Treasuries. Somebody dropped over $100 billion in Treasuries in one week. If that was a large holder and that became known, it could panic smaller holders and you could see a stampede, and the Fed could lose control of interest rates. So, I think the Fed thought the best thing to do is launder its purchase through a different country; and, thereby, disguise what is actually happening.”

Timothy Alexander Guzman, Silent Crow News - The confidence in the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency since the US government shutdown has continued its rapid decline.  On October 14^th, started the third week of a US government shutdown reported that the US dollar fell against the Euro.  A deal involving a spending bill would most likely happen between both Democrats and Republicans by the October 17^th deadline.  But the damage was already done to the credibility of US dollar in the long-term.  The world has no confidence in Washington.  It is fair to say that they are holding the global economy hostage because of their political brinkmanship.

According to Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist recently warned that there could be major financial disaster throughout the world if the United States did not increase their “Debt Ceiling” to avoid a default on its financial obligations as it is in the midst of running out of money.  Raising the debt ceiling by October 17 only means they can continue to borrow money to fund its operations and pay interest on government securities held by China, Japan and other investors.  Blanchard stated “Failure to lift the debt ceiling would, however, be a major event. Prolonged failure would lead to an extreme fiscal consolidation and almost surely derail the U.S. recovery. But the effect of any failure to repay the debt would be felt right away, leading to potential major disruptions in financial markets, both in the United States and abroad.”  The United States government continues to borrow money to pay its debts is already at $16.7 Trillion.  Raising the debt ceiling can go over the $17 Trillion mark.  How long can this go on for?  The US government will continue to borrow money at the expense of many nations who hold US Treasuries that are worthless due to the Federal Reserves endless money printing.

There should be a concern for international investors that include governments, big and small businesses and individuals who own U.S. treasuries.  The Federal Reserve Bank’s endless Quantitative Easing (QE) continues to devalue the US Dollar as Fed chairman Ben Bernanke promised to continue buying $85 billion a month worth of US treasuries and mortgages that will lead to high inflation.  It’s an economic policy that is bound for failure.

China, the largest creditor to the US government has been purchasing assets in Africa Asia, Europe and Latin America to diversify out of the US dollar due to the Federal Reserve’s reckless monetary policy.  The International Business Times, an online news publication based in New York City published an article last month called ‘China Steps Up Farmland, Oil and Mining Assets Acquisitions Abroad’ about how countries in Africa benefit with Chinese investments in infrastructure and from much needed capital:

In 2013, Chinese companies have acquired minority mining-sector stakes in 16 deals totaling $696m outside China, according to Dealogic. The majority of the deals are located in Australia and the rest in Indonesia, Canada and the UK.

Africa is often regarded as the most attractive destination for Chinese outbound mining acquisitions. Chinese firms are benefiting from their reserves of cash unavailable to western competitors to scoop up assets at steep discounts.

“China needs access to natural resources while African countries need a lot of capital and infrastructure support. Therefore, it is very easy for Chinese businesses to gain access to the abundant natural resources in African countries by providing them with capital and infrastructure aid,” a respondent told accountants Deloitte during a 2010 survey.

The report also said that China has been acquiring oil and gas assets worth over $100 billion dollars.  China needs oil and gas for its manufacturing sectors.

Chinese companies have completed 83 overseas oil and gas purchases worth $100.7bn in the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Cnooc’s $15.1bn acquisition of Canada-based Nexen early in 2013 was China’s largest overseas acquisition.

Over the last five years, Sinopec and CNOOC, the country’s second and third-biggest oil and gas producers, spent $41bn and $26bn, respectively, on overseas assets.

China National Petroleum Corp has invested more than $9bn to purchase overseas assets in 2013, including the $4.2bn purchase of a stake in Mozambique’s Rovuma fields in July. The company is planning to double its overseas output by 2015.

PetroChina, China’s biggest oil and gas producer, is looking to invest $60bn on overseas acquisitions over the period to 2020. By that time, the company intends to raise its production abroad to more than 50% of its total.

How long before countries that hold a large amount of US treasuries such as China and Russia.  Can they start dumping US treasuries in the near future?  It won’t likely happen this year but within the next 2 years, it is possible.  China has been making crucial decisions to solve their economic problems concerning their $1.2 trillion in US treasuries they hold.  China has been accumulating multiple assets by investing in numerous regions in the world.  For example, China has made arrangements to swap Yuan’s for other currencies with Japan and Russia for their bilateral trade agreements.  China also has arraignments with Australia, Iceland, South Korea, Malaysia, Brazil, India and South Africa who will use their own currencies for trade.  China has built relationships with many countries in Africa for its much needed resources for its economy.  China has even invested in numerous infrastructure projects that spur economic opportunities for the African people that create jobs for both short and long-term projects.  It is a strategic move for China by building business relationships with African governments that seek to improve economic conditions for its own people.  China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) acquired the Canadian energy giant Nexen for $15 billion.  China also invested in oil and gas pipelines in Central Asia and mineral mines in Australia and Africa.  China also signed deals worth up to $5 billion for a 600-mile long railway to transport goods with the Kenyan government who recently suffered from a terrorist attack in Nairobi.  An online website dedicated to procurements and supply chain professionals worldwide called www.supplymanagement.com stated that “the line will stretch from the border town of Malaba in the west to the busy port of Mombasa, carrying Kenyan goods as well as freight from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”  Chinese investors have been snapping up vineyards in Bordeaux, France. A Chinese meat producer recently purchased one of the world’s largest pork producers Smithfield for $4.7 billion to meet the Chinese public’s demand for pork.  With $1.2 trillion in reserves, China would only be irresponsible if it did not to purchase hard assets for its future economic growth.  The world is closely paying attention to Washington’s political charade at the expense of its own public and the world’s investors.  With uncertainty breeds distrust.  With distrust of a government’s inability to assure investors that their purchases of US treasuries are fundamentally secure, then the confidence the world once had in the US dollar is lost.  Reuters just reported that the Japanese Yen is a safe-haven (at least in the short-term) until the US Congress come to an agreement before the October 17^th deadline.  “The U.S. dollar fell broadly early on Monday while the yen gained across the board as investors sold the U.S. currency in favour of the safe-haven yen as a deal to avoid a government default remained elusive ahead of a crucial deadline this week.”   China continues to buy gold as the US dollar continues its decline.  A Xinhua editorial in 2011 stated that “Should Washington continue turning a blind eye to its runaway debt addiction, its already tarnished credibility will lose more luster, which might eventually detonate the debt bomb and jeopardize the well-being of hundreds of millions of families within and beyond the U.S. borders.”

The dollar has lost 95% of its value since the Federal Reserve Bank was established in 1913 to control the money supply (See chart below).

Governments around the world are trying to ditch the dollar as an instrument for trade.  However, the US and its Western allies has declared wars and instigated coup d’états in the past against governments who were willing to use other forms of money including gold for trade.  One example was Iraq under Saddam Hussein (Once a US Patsy) tried to replace the petrodollar with the Euro.  Time magazine published an article in 2000 that openly admitted that Iraq’s president wanted to use the Euro instead of the dollar.  It was one of the main reasons that Bush administration invaded Iraq besides oil resources.  The article titled ‘Foreign Exchange: Saddam Turns His Back on Greenbacks’:

Europe’s dream of promoting the euro as a competitor to the U.S. dollar may get a boost from SADDAM HUSSEIN. Iraq says that from now on, it wants payments for its oil in euros, despite the fact that the battered European currency unit, which used to be worth quite a bit more than $1, has dropped to about 82[cents]. Iraq says it will no longer accept dollars for oil because it does not want to deal “in the currency of the enemy.

The assassination of Muammar Gaddafi is another example.  Gaddafi’s idea was to create a single African currency known as the “Gold Dinar” that would have undermined the US Dollar in Africa for all oil traded in petrodollars. It was a proposal that made Washington and its Western partners nervous.  It was also a concern that Gaddafi also called for the African Investment Bank that would have been an independent institution that would have given interest-free loans to African nations, eliminating the role of International Monetary Fund (IMF).  Gerald Pereira, an executive board member of the former Tripoli-based World Mathaba once said that “Gaddafi’s creation of the African Investment Bank in Sirte (Libya) and the African Monetary Fund to be based in Cameroon will supplant the IMF and undermine Western economic hegemony in Africa.”  The United States can no longer sustain their dollar policy, whether by force or economic coercion.  The US Dollar has lost its credibility due to the government’s actions.  Since World War II, the US government has increased its military spending over the years along with the Fed’s unlimited money printing with forever low-interest rates creating cheap money.  With the loss of its manufacturing base that produces products for export is a recipe for disaster. With a U.S. government shutdown added to the mix, projects a negative image on the world stage.  The Qatar based QNB Group (Qatar National Bank) issued a press release this past Sunday on what a default by the US government would mean for the American economy and the world.  It stated the following:

A default on US government debt would be catastrophic for the US and world economy. Ratings agencies would automatically need to classify all US government debt in default. This would force institutional investors around the world, including central banks, to sell their holdings of US government bonds, as they have statutory requirements to hold only investment- grade assets. The US government would then no longer be able to rollover a large portion of its debt, let alone issue new ones. For the US economy, the lack of debt instruments to finance government spending would mean reneging on its other obligations, including Social Security, medical payments, military deployments and food stamps. A large portion of the US economy would therefore grind to a halt. For the world economy, it would imply a loss of the reserve currency that anchors the global financial system, with severe instability in exchange and bond markets. This would inevitably result in a sharp global recession.

In light of these catastrophic consequences, QNB Group expects that Congress will pass a new budget and increase the debt ceiling in the coming days. Nevertheless, the political deadlock over the last couple of weeks has created an atmosphere of uncertainty that could affect confidence, investment and growth in the US. More importantly, the credibility of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency could be affected, as global investors seek to mitigate the risk of a future political deadlock. Overall, without political collective commitment, it is unlikely that the US dollar will continue to remain the world’s reserve currency.

The US government’s charade over the Republicans and Democrats failure to enact appropriations or a government spending bill and funding for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is seen as anything but dysfunctional.  The republicans want Obamacare defunded.  The irony is that Obamacare is similar to Romneycare which had the same mandate to force you to buy health insurance.  It was admitted by Jonathan Gruber, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who advised both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama on how to create their healthcare plans was upset to learn that Mitt Romney lied about how his plan was different than Obama’s.  He was interviewed by an online news website called Capital New York and said “The problem is there is no way to say that,” Gruber said “because they’re the same f***ing bill. He just can’t have his cake and eat it too. Basically, you know, it’s the same bill. He can try to draw distinctions and stuff, but he’s just lying. The only big difference is he didn’t have to pay for his. Because the federal government paid for it. Where at the federal level, we have to pay for it, so we have to raise taxes.”  We are facing global economic crises by Washington’s political theater.  It will allow countries to lose confidence in the US Dollar in the long-term.  It is a dangerous economic formula that can lead to a global economic depression.

China, Russia, Iran, Brazil and many others are diversifying out of the US Dollar monopoly.  There will be a global sell-off of US Treasuries if these political shenanigans continue in any future political crises between both Democrats and Republicans.  Confidence is waning as investors seek a way out.  It will be difficult period in time.  The world must seek a better economic system that is not reliant on the US Dollar.  A gold-backed currency or a basket of various currencies backed by either gold or silver would be a good start.  Right now the world is waiting to see what comes out of Washington.  No matter what happens, confidence in the US Dollar is at an all-time low regardless if the spending bill passes and they raise the debt ceiling.  The Question is how will they convince the world to re-invest in the US Dollar once again?

The decision of Germany’s Bundesbank to repatriate part of its Gold Reserves held at the New York Federal Reserve bank has triggered a frenzy in the gold market.

German news sources suggest that a large portion of the German gold stored in the vaults of the New York Fed and the Banque de France is to be moved back to Germany.

According to analysts, this move could potentially “trigger a chain reaction, prompting other countries to start repatriating the gold stored in London, New York or Paris…. “

--2014--

784. Oct. 6-9, speaker, Praxis Peace Institute conference, THE ECONOMICS OF SUSTAINABILITY-Emerging Models for a Healthy Planet, Cowell Theater, Fort Mason, San Francisco

783. Sept. 12-14, participant, RENY Rethinkecon conference, http://rethinkecon.com/, NY City

782. Aug. 20, interview with Rohan Freeman, ignoranti.org, 10 a.m. PST

781. July 29-Aug. 5. Moving Beyond Capitalism conference, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

780. July 9, speaker, 2014 Annual Conference of the Council of Georgist Organizations, Inc., Radisson Newport Beach Hotel, near the Orange County John Wayne Airport, 9:15 a.m. PT

779. July 2nd IT’S OUR MONEY WITH ELLEN BROWN – EMINENT DOMAIN TO THE RESCUE? – Progressive Radio Network. Listen to archive here.

778. June 29, interview with Stephen Golden, KABC radio, Pasadena, 7 pm PT

777. June 25, interview, Kerry Lutz - Financial Survival Network, 1 pm ET. Listen to archive here.

776. June 21, participant and speaker, General Assembly of the Green Party of California, http://www.cagreens.org/ga/2014-06/agenda-draft-to-counties, Santa Barbara

775. June 7, interview with Doug Bennett, Unspun: An Experiment in Truth-Telling, KKRN Community radio, 9 am PT Listen to archive here.

774. June 2, interview, Voice of Russia (pre-recorded, check their site).

773. May 31, interview, the Joe Whitehead Show, http://thejoewhiteheadshow.com/, 11:30 am, EDT

772. May 26, interview, Wealth DNA Radio Show, Blog Talk Radio, wealthdna.us, noon EST

771. May 26, Speaker at Occupy SF Forum, Unite HERE Local 2 Union Hall, 215 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco -- along with Laura Wells, Lt. Gov. candidate Jena Goodman, Sect. of State candidate David Curtis, and Congressional candidate Barry Hermanson, 6 pm

770. May 26, interview on the Wealth DNA Radio Show (Blog Talk Radio: wealthdna.us) noon ET

769. May 25, "Occupy Oakland" barbecue at Mike Wilson’s house: 3413 Belmont Ave., El Cerrito, 1:30 pm

768. May 25, interview, the Bob Charles Show, Web Radio Station http://www.kinetichifi.com/, 2 pm EST

767. May 24, Attend and speak at the Sacramento "March against Monsanto" anti-GMO event (starts at the North steps of the State Capitol building).

766. May 23, c. 11:00 am -- Speak to the "Campus Greens" at De Anza College, Cupertino

765. May 23. Ellen and Laura Wells will speak at the "Green Party Candidates Night" -- at the Richmond Progressive Alliance office, in the Bobby Bowens Progressive Center, 1021 Macdonald Ave., Richmond, 7 pm

764. May 22, Monterey Co. Green Party candidates forum, with Cindy Sheehan and Laura Wells, Monterey College of Law, 100 Col. Durham St., Seaside, CA 93955, 7 pm

763. May 20, interview with Sinclair Noe, Financial Review, MoneyRadio.com (pre-recorded, check for air time.)

762. May 15, interview with Alan Butler, Butler on Business, Liberty Express Radio, 10 AM EDT

761. May 14, interview with Stanley Montieth, The Doctor Stan Show, Radio Liberty, 7 am PST

760. May 13, interview with Robert Stark and Jeff Crow, Valley Talk Live, centralvalleytalk.com, Fresno, 4 pm PT. Listen to archive here.

759. May 11, Skype participant, Green Party candidate Q&A event, Lieblyl Proctor Library
6501 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, CA 94607
Between 65th and 66th St. 5 pm

758. May 10, United We Stand Festival, Pauley Pavilion, UCLA,
https://unitedwestandfest.com/confirmed-guests/

757. May 6, inteview with Rock Cash, The People Speak Radio. Listen to archive here.

756. May 1, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 9 a.m. PDT

755. April 29, moderator, Great Minds #66 with Nomi Prins, Los Angeles, CA., 7 pm PT

754. April 23, Ellen interviews Nomi Prins on It's Our Money. Listen to archive here.

753. April 21, interview with Robert Stark and Jeff Crow, Valley Talk Live, centralvalleytalk.com, Fresno, 4:30 PT

752. April 17, interview Dr. Rima Truth Reports, with Dr. Rima Laibow, 10 pm EST

751. April 17, interview with Greg Hunter, USAWatchdog.com, 11:30 EST

750. April 8, It's Our Money with Ellen Brown, interiews Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. Listen to archive here.

749. April 8, interview with Alan Butler, Butler on Business, Liberty Express Radio, 11:30 AM EDT

748. April 3, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 9 a.m. PDT

747. April 3, interview with James Banks, KGNU radio, Boulder, CO, 5 p.m. PT

746. April 2, interview, WHDTWorldNews, Nextnewsnetwork.com, 10:30 a. m. PDT

745. March 26, 1 pm PDT, It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown. Ellen interviews Prof. ROBERT HOCKETT--fascinating background material for understanding the banks' role in the foreclosure mess and the eminent domain solution. Listen to the archive here.

744. March 24, interview with Kevin Zeese JD and Margaret Flowers MD, Clearing the FOG on We Act Radio, 1480 AM Washington, DC, 8 a.m. PDT

743. March 23rd, "Banking for the People—Not for Wall Street," Agenda for a Prophetic Faith Lecture Series, Claremont United Methodist Church, 211 W. Foothill Blvd., Claremont, CA 91711, http://www.claremontumc.org/, 7 pm PT

742. Apr. 13, Interview with Chris Moore, KDKA Pittsburgh, 5 pm EST

741. March 18, 2 pm, Democratic Club, Friendly Valley Conference Room, Newhall, CA.

740. March 13, interview with Fred Smart, American Underground Network, 8 pm, CDT

739. March 12, 12 pm PDT, It's Our Money radio show with Ellen Brown, featuring Prof. TIM CANOVA on the Federal Reserve. Listen to archive here.

738. March 4, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report, 4:30 PST

737. Feb. 23, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST

736. Feb 20, interview with Bill Deller, 3CR radio, Melbourne, Australia, 3 pm, PST

735. Feb. 17, interview, Strike Debt Bay Area, KPFA, Berkeley, 2 pm (?) PST

734. Feb16, interview with Gary Dubin, The Foreclosure Hour (http://www.foreclosurehour.com/the-host.html), 5 pm PST

733. Feb. 11, interview with Clint Richardson, RBN 5 pm PST

732. Feb 9, interview with Stephen Golden, DEFENDING THE AMERICAN DREAM, KABC Los Angeles, 6 am, PST Listen to the archive here.

731. Feb. 6, interview, Move to Amend Reports, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/movetoamend, 5 pm PST

730. Feb. 5, interview with Sinclair Noe, Financial Review, MoneyRadio.com, 9:30 am PST

729. January 30, interview, Kerry Lutz - Financial Survival Network, 12 pm EST

728. January 30, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report, 4:30 PST

727. January 29, interview on Latin Waves, 8 pm PST

726. January 28, Green Party Shadow Cabinet response to State of the Union Speech. http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus 6 pm PST

725. January 26, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST. Listen here.

724. January 23, interview, The Tim Dahaney Show, 12 noon PST. Listen here.

723. January 22, interview with Utrice Leid, "Leid Stories,", PRN.FM, 1 pm EST

722. January 21, interview, Independent Underground Radio LIVE, 9:15 PST. Listen here.

721. January 12, Open Forum with Green Party candidates Luis Rodriguez, Laura Wells and Ellen Brown, hosted by LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) 11277 GARDEN GROVE BLVD., Garden Grove, CA. 2-4 pm

720. January 11, interview with Bill Still on running for California Treasurer. Watch it here. And see another one here.

719. January 8, interview, The Tim Dahaney Show, 12 noon PST. Listen here. (It's the one labelled "Take the Fed Reserve Public.")

718. Jan 7, interview, The Burt Cohen Show, 12 noon ET

--2013--

717. Dec. 30, interview, Stuart Vener Tells It Like It Is, see http://stuartvener.com for stations, 11:30 am EST

716. Dec. 26, interview Dr. Rima Truth Reports, with Dr. Rima Laibow and Ralph Fucetola, 10 pm EST

715. Dec. 21, interview, KPRO Radio San Francisco, 9:30 am PST

714. Dec. 18, interview, The Power Hour with Joyce Riley, 8 a.m. CT

713. Dec. 18, interview, Unwrapped Radio, WRFG, http://www.tuneinradio.com/, 12:40 EST

712. Dec. 15, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST, listen here.
711. Dec. 15, presentation, A Public Bank for Mendocino, at the Crown Hall in Mendocino, Ca., 7 pm

710. Dec. 15, presentation, Why We Need to Own Our Own Bank, Mendocino Environmental Center
106 West Standley, Ukiah, CA 95482, 2 pm

709. Dec. 14, presentation, Why We Need to Own Our Own Bank, Little Lake Grange, Willits, Ca. 7 pm

708. Dec. 13, interview on All About Money, KZYX radio, 9 a.m. PST

707. Dec. 13, interview, Radio Islam, WCEV 1450 AM, 12:05 pm, CST

706. Dec. 12, appearance with Doug McKenty, "The Shift," Mendocino TV, 4:30 pm PST

705. Dec. 11, interview on WHDT World News, http://NNN.is/on-WHDT, 5:30 and 11:00 pm EST. Watch the archive here.

704. Dec. 11, interview, WORT Community Radio, Madison, Wisconsin, 6:10 a.m. PST

703. Dec. 11, interview with Sinclair Noe, Financial Review, MoneyRadio.com, 10:30 PST

702. Dec. 9, UnWrapped Radio, Atlanta, 1 pm PST.

701. Dec. 9, GOHarrison, KPFK Los Angeles, 3:30 pm PST.

700. Dec. 9, interview, Air Cascadia show, KBOO radio, Portland, 10 am PST

699. Dec. 5, interview, WHDT World News TV, 2 pm PST

698. Dec. 4, interview with David Swanson, talknationradio, 7pm PST

697. Dec. 4, interview with Rob Kall, The Rob Kall Bottom-Up Radio Show, 1360 AM, 7:30 pm EST

696. Dec. 3, interview with Kim Greenhouse, It's Rainmaking Time, listen here.

695. Dec. 2, interview with Val Muchowski, Women's Voices, KZYX, 7 p.m. PST

694. Nov. 29, interview with Gregg Hunter, USAWatchdog.com, 11:30 PST

693. Nov. 16, interview This is Hell! radio show, WNUR 89.3 fm, thisishell.com/live, 11.20 a.m. EST. Listen to archive here

692. Nov. 15, interview with George Berry, The Financial News Network Show, truthfrequencyradio.com, 1 pm PST

691. Nov. 14, interview with Stanley Montieth, The Doctor Stan Show, Radio Liberty, 4 pm PSTf

690. Nov. 14, interview with Neil Foster, Reality Bytes show, Awake Radio (UK), Shazziz Radio (US), 8 pm UK time.

689. Nov. 13, interview with Bonnie Faulkner, KPFA, Los Angeles. Listen to archive here.

688. Nov. 12, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report, 4:30 PST

687. Nov. 11, interview, Between the Lines News Magazine, WPKN radio, Bridgeport, CT, 9 p.m. ET. Listen to archive here

686. Nov. 10, skype participant, forum at the Putrajaya International Islamic Arts and Cultural Festival, "Global Economic and Monetary Crisis: What Needs to be Done?" Putrajaya, Malaysia, 11 a.m. MYT, 7 pm, Nov. 9 PST

685. Nov. 3, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST

684. Oct. 31, interview with Voice of Russia radio, American edition, 2:30 pm, CET (Central Europe Time.) Listen to archive here.

683. Oct. 23, interview with Daniel Estulin on RT tv

682. Oct. 16, interview with Per Fereng, KBOO radio, Portland, 11 am PST

681. Oct. 15, presentation, "The Public Banking Forum in Ireland," 7-9 PM, Hudson Bay Hotel, Athlone, Ireland.

680. Oct. 14, presentation, Cork, Ireland

679. Oct. 12, presentation, "The Public Banking Forum in Ireland," 2-4 PM, Springfield Hotel in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland. Information on these three events here.

678. October 4, interview with Bill Deller, 3CR radio, Melbourne, Australia, 2:30 pm, PST

677. Oct. 3, interview with Joyce Riley, the Power Hour. Listen to archive here.

676. Oct. 1, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report 7:30 EST

675. Sept. 29, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST

674. Sept. 27, interviw with Kevin Barrett, AmericanFreedomRadio.com, NoLiesRadio.org:
http://TruthJihadRadio.blogspot.com, 2 pm PST

673. Sept. 19, interview, The Gary Null Show, 9:30 a.m. Pacific

672. Sept. 19, Interview on the Global Research News Hour with Michael Welch--check site for time and archive.

671. Sept. 18, interview with David Sierralupe, Occupy Radio, KWVA, 88.1 FM, Eugene

670. Sept. 15, interview with Niall Bradley, Sott Talk Radio, sott.net, 2 p.m. EST

669. Sept. 14, interview FDLBookSalon, firedoglake.com, 5pm EST

668. Sept. 10, "Turning Hard Times into Good Times" with Jay Taylor, VoiceAmerica, 12:30 pm PST. Listen to archive here.

667. Sept. 9, interview with Ken MacDermotRoe and Del LaPietro, In Context Report, 9 am PST. Listen to archive here.

666. Sept 7, interview with Valerie Kirkgaard, WakingUpInAmerica.com, 6 am, PST. Listen here.

665. Sept. 6, Interview with Al Korelin, The Korelin Economics Report, 12:30 pm PST

664. Sept. 5, discussion of how to bring public banking to Colorado on "It's the Economy, Stupid," KGNU, Boulder, 5 p.m. PST

663. Sept. 5, interview with Patrick Timpone, oneradionetwork.com, 8 a.m. PST

662. Sept. 3, interview (along with Elliott Spitzer?), "Turning Hard Times into Good Times" with Jay Taylor, VoiceAmerica, 1 pm PST Listen to archive here.

661. Sept. 3, interview with Jeanette LaFeve, The People Speak, 6 pm PST

660. Aug. 25, Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT

659. Aug. 22, interview with Christopher Greene, AMTV Radio, simulcast in audio/video over GoogleHangouts and American Freedom Radio, 1 p.m. PST

658. Aug. 22, interview, TheAndyCaldwellShow.com,
CalChronicle.com, 3 pm PST

657. Aug. 21, interview with Merry and Burl Hall, blogtalkradio.com/envision-this, 5 pm PST

656. Aug. 21, interview with Lori Lundin, America's Radio News Network, 10:30 a.m. ET.

655. Aug. 16, interview with Sinclair Noe, Moneyradio.com, 4 pm PST

654. Aug. 15, interview with Justine Underhill, Prime Interest, Russia Today TV, 1:30 pm PST

653. Aug 14, interview with Jim Goddard, This Week in Money, 4 pm, PST. Listen to archive here, starting at minute 32.

652. Aug. 14, interview with Mary Glenney, WMNF 88.5, 10 a.m. PST

651. Aug. 14, interview with Chuck Morse, irnusaradio.com, 8 am, PST

650. Aug. 13, interview with Thomas Taplin, Dukascopy TV, Switzerland, 9 am PST

649. Aug 7-11, Madison Democracy conference, https://democracyconvention.org/

648. Aug. 6, radio interview, INN World Report with Tom Kiely, http://feeds.feedburner.com/INNWorldReportRadio 4:30 PST

647. Aug 5, interview with Arnie Arnesen, 94.7 fm, Concord, NH, 9 am PST

646. Aug 3, interview with Diane Horn, Mind Over Matter show, KEXP radio, 90.3 FM, Seattle, 7:00 a.m. PST

645. July 31, interview with Mike Beevers, KFCF Fresno, 4:30 pm PST

644. July 28, Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT

643. July 2, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PDT.

642. July 2, interview with Arnie Arnesen, 94.7 fm, Concord, NH, 12:30 EST.

641. June 30, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT. Listen to archive here.

640. June 24, interview on RT tv re student debt, 10:30 am PST

639. June 17, interview on The Andy Caldwell Show, 3:30 pm PST

638. June 16, interview with Jason Erb, 5 pm Pacific

637. June 13, interview with Paul Sanford, "Time 4 Hemp-LIVE," http://www.AmericanFreedomRadio.com, 10 am, PST

636. June 6 presentation with Jamie Brown at the Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center in Walnut Creek. Info at Favors.org, 7 to 9 pm

635. June 1, interview with Kris Welch, KPFA Los Angeles, 10 am PST

634. May 28, interview with Malihe Razazan, "Your Call" radio, KALW, San Francisco, 10 am PST.

633. May 26, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT

632. May 23 interview with Simit Patel, InformedTrades.com (youtube) 3:30 pm PST

631. May 22, Thousand Oaks, 3 expert panel, "A Parachute For the Fiscal Cliff," University Village 2-4 pm

630. May 22, interview with Jack Rasmus, 11 am PST. Enjoy the interview here.

629. May 22, Guns and Butter show, KPFA, http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/91790

628. May 14, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PDT.

627. May 13, live appearance on RTTV, 3 pm PST Watch it here.

626. May 8, interview with Valli Sharpe-Geisler, Silicon Valley Voice, KKUP, 3 pm PST

625. May 8, interview, the Meria Heller Show, 11 am PST

624. May 4, interview, Latin Waves with Sylvia Richardson, 10 am PST

623. April 30, Jay Taylor, VoiceAmerica, 1 pm PST

622. April 29, interview with Rob Kall, Bottom Up Radio, 9 am Pacific
Listen to archive here.

621. April 28, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT

620. April 25, interview, the the Dr. Katherine Albrecht Show, 5 pm EDT

619. April 17, interview with Mike Harris, rense.com, 1 pm PDT

618. April 16th, speaker, Valley Democrats United (Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley), Van Nuys, Ca. 7-9pm

617. April 13, interview with Darren Weeks, Govern America, noon Eastern, listen here

616. April 9, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PDT.

615. April 6, phone conference, Justice Party, http://www.justicepartyusa.org/public_banking_conference_call, 9 a.m.

614. April 5, interview, Butler on Business, 11 a.m. EDT

613. April 3, interview with Michael Welch, Global Research News Hour, 8:30 a.m. PDT

612. April 2, interview with Jay Taylor, VoiceAmerica, 12:30 PDT. Listen here.

611. April 1, interview with Brannon Howse, www.worldviewradio.com, 11 a.m. PDT

610. April 1, interview with Scott Harris, Counterpoint,
WPKN Radio, 8:30 pm, ET Listen to archive here.

609. April 1, interview with Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. Watch and listen to archive here, starting at minute 50. Articles based on the interview are at Truthout.org.

608. March 31, interview with Jason Erb, Exposing Faux Capitalism, Oracle Broadcasting, 11 a.m. Pacific

607. March 31, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT Listen to the archive here.

606. March 29, interview, The Gary Null Show, 9:30 a.m. Pacific

605. March 28, interview with Stan Monteith, radioliberty.com, 9 pm PDT

604. March 28, radio interview, INN World Report with Tom Kiely, http://feeds.feedburner.com/INNWorldReportRadio 4:30 PDT

603. March 27, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PdT.

602. March 27, interview with Jack Rasmus on PRN, 11 a.m. PDT

601. March 25, interview on the Richard Kaffenberger show, KTOX, Needles, CA. 3:15 PDT

600. March 22, newly available archived radio interview, Mandelman Matters. Listen here.

599. March 22, interview with James Fetzer, The People Speak Radio, 5-7 pm PDT

598. March 22, interview , Our Times With Craig Barnes, KSFR radio, Santa Fe, 10 a.m. MST

597. March 12, interview, Crisis of Reality with Doug Newberry, oraclebroadcasting.com, 1pm EST.

596. March 11, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PST

595. March 9, Interview with Sylvia Richardson, Latin Waves, CJSF 90.1FM, 9:30 am PST

594. March 6, interview with Charlie McGrath, wideawakenews.com, 6pm PST. Watch and listen here.

593. March 3, interview with Lateef Kareem Bey, Fix Your Mortgage Mess, 4 pm PST

592. March 2, Interview with Stuart Richardson, Latin Waves, CJSF 90.1FM, 11 am PST

591. Feb. 27, interview with Jim Banks, KGNU, Boulder, 12 pm PST

590. Feb 27, interview with Sinclair Noe, Financial Review, 10 am PST

589. Feb. 25, interview, Crisis of Reality with Doug Newberry, oraclebroadcasting.com, 1pm EST.

588. Feb. 6, Interview with Phil Mackesy, This Week in Money, TalkDigitalNetwork.com, 11 am PST. Listen to the archive here: http://talkdigitalnetwork.com/2013/02/this-week-in-money-70/

587. Feb. 4, interview with Ken Rose, What Now radio show, KOWS RADIO OCCIDENTAL 107.3 FM, 11 am PST.

586. Jan. 31, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Radio Report, 5:00 pm PST

585. Jan. 27, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio
network, 10 am PST

584. Jan. 23, interview on KPFK, 8pm PST

583. Jan. 22, interview, Crisis of Reality with Doug Newberry, oraclebroadcasting.com, 1pm EST.

582. Jan. 3, interview with Mary Glenney, WMNF 88.5, Tampa, 3 pm EST

581. Jan. 2, interview, The Bev Smith Show, thebevsmithshow.net, 5 pm PST

--- 2012 ---

580. Dec. 27, video interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, listen and watch here.

579. Dec. 24, October talk at First Unitarian Church in Portland aired on KBOO radio, http://kboo.fm/, 8:00 am PST

578. Dec. 24, interview with Ron Daniels, the WWRL Morning Show with Mark Riley, wwrl1600.com, 5:05 am PST

577. Dec. 21, interview with Andy Caldwell, TheAndyCaldwellShow.com, KZSB AM1290 Santa Barbara / Ventura and KUHL AM1440 Santa Maria / San Luis Obispo, 3:30 pm PST

576. Dec. 20, interview with Fred Smart, aunetwork.tv, 9 pm EST

575. Dec. 19, interview, Crisis of Reality with Doug Newberry, oraclebroadcasting.com, 1pm EST. Listen here.

574. Dec. 19, interview with Dr. Jack Rasmus, Alternative Visions, Progressive Radio Network, 2 pm EST

573. Dec. 17, The Bev Smith Show, thebevsmithshow.net, 4 pm PST

572. Dec. 15, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST. Listen here.

571. Dec. 14, interview with Craig Barnes, Our Times With Craig Barnes, KSFR radio, 9 am PST Listen to the archive here.

570. December 9th, speaker, Mayo Arts Center (10 Mayo Street) in Portland, ME
http://mayostreetarts.org/about-us/where-we-are 7:30-9pm

569. Dec. 7, Vermont's New Economy conference, Vermont College of the Find Arts, Montpelier, VT, 9 am to 4 pm and reception at 4:30. $25
www.global-community.org/neweconomy to register

568. Dec. 5, speaker, Pennsylvania Public Bank Project's Forum on Public Banking, at the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, 7pm

567. Nov. 26-27, 3rd Annual World Conference on Riba, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

566. Nov. 22, presentation before Royal Scottish Academy -- "A Public Bank for Scotland" (here), Riddle's Court, 322 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2PG Scotland, 6 pm

565. Nov 8, Healthy Money Summit, speaking with Hazel Henderson at 1-2 pm PST, information here.

564. Sunday, Oct. 28, Keynote Speaker; The Buck Starts Here, 2:00pm, sponsored by the Kairos Occasional Speakers Series & OFOR, Kairos Milwaukie UCC, Milwaukie, OR.

563. Saturday, Oct. 27, Keynote Speaker; OFOR Saturday Symposium: The Buck Starts Here, 10am - 3pm, Molalla, OR

562. Friday-Sunday, Oct. 26-28, Keynote Speaker; Oregon Fellowship of Reconciliation Fall Retreat - The Buck Starts Here, Camp Adams, Molalla, OR, Friday, 5pm- Sunday 12 noon

561. Friday, October 26, Invited Commentator; screening of “HEIST” (new documentary about the roots of the American economic crisis), sponsored by First Unitarian Church of Portland's Economic Justice Action Groups, Alliance for Democracy, KBOO, Move to Amend, 7:00pm, First Unitarian Church, Portland, OR

560. (Oct. 25-28, Bioneers Conference, Portland, OR)
Oct. 25, Keynote Speaker; sponsored by Portland Fellowship of Reconciliation (PFOR) and the First Unitarian Church of Portland's Economic Justice and Peace Action Groups, 7:00-8:30pm, First Unitarian Church, Portland, OR

559. Oct. 24, interview with Per Fagereng, KBOO radio, Portland, 9 am PST

558. Oct. 24, KPFA "Guns and Butter" interview. Listen to archived show here.

557. Oct. 21, speaker at BBQed Oysters and Beer Fundraiser Party for PBI, San Rafael, CA, 4 pm PST

556. Oct. 14, Live Gaiam tv interview appearance. Watch it here free at 7pm EST.

555. Oct. 12, interview with Matt Rothschild of The Progressive, 10 a.m. Central time

554. October 11-14, speaker, Economic Democracy Collaborative, Madison, Wisconsin

553. Oct. 11, radio interview with Norm Stockwell, WORT, 12 pm CST

552. Oct. 9, interview with Kevin Barrett, No Lies Radio, listen to archive here.

551. Oct. 8, interview, "Mountain Hours Revolution Radio" with Wayne Walton, on RBN, 12-1 pm PST

550. Oct. 7, interview with Lloyd D'Aguilar, "Looking Back Looking Forward", http://lookingbacklookingforward.com/, 2 pm EST

549. Sept. 26, interview with Douglas Newberry, markettoolbox.tv, 1pm EST. Listen here.

548. Sept. 25, interview with Dr. Stanley Montieth, radioliberty.com, 3pm PST

547. Sept. 24, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PST.

546. Sept. 22, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST

545. Sept. 17 interview along with Hazel Henderson, National Teach In for Occupy Wall Street, http://www.livestream.com/owshdtv 5pm EST

544. Sept. 10, interview with Thomas Taplin, Dukascopy TV (Switzerland), 7 am PST Watch and listen here

543. Sept. 7, interview with Mike Harris, republicbroadcasting.org, 6 am PST

542. Sept. 6, interview with Douglas Newberry, markettoolbox.tv, 1pm EST. Listen here.

541. Aug 28, interview, the Meria Heller Show, 11 am PST. Listen to archive here. And listen to excellent Meria Heller show here.

540. Aug 26, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, listen to archive here.

539. August 21, interview with Charlie McGrath, wideawakenews.com. Listen to archive here.

538. Aug 20, interview with Kim Greenhouse, It's Rainmaking Time, listen here.

537. Aug 16, interview with Mike Harris, republicbroadcasting.org, 6 am PST

536. Aug. 14, interview, TheAndyCaldwellshow.com, 4:30pm PST

535. August 13, interview with American Free Press, 1 pm PST

534. July 24, interview along with Victoria Grant, The People Speak, 6pm, PST

533. July 24, interview with Kevin Barrett, NoLiesRadio.org, 9 am PST

532. July 23, interview with Charlie McGrath, wideawakenews.com, 6 pm PST

531. July 22, interview with Dave Hodges, The Common Sense Show, 7 pm PST

530. July 22, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST. Listen to archive here.

529. July 19, interview with Mike Beevers, KFCF Fresno, 4:30 pm PST

528. July 10-12, Speaker, Conference on Social Transformation, Faculty of Economics, Split University, Split Croatia

527. July 10, video interview with Max Keiser, the Keiser Report, on the ESM. Watch it here.

526. July 7, Interview with Phil Mackesy, This Week in Money, TalkDigitalNetwork.com, 3 pm PST

525. July 6, video interview with Dr. Mercola, see it here.

524. June 23, Interview with Al Korelin, The Korelin Economics Report, 1 pm PST. Listen to archive here.

523. June 21, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Radio Report, 4:30 pm PST

522. June 21, interview on the Gary Null Show, 9:20 am PST

521. June 18, interview with Ken Rose, What Now radio show, KOWS RADIO OCCIDENTAL 107.3 FM, 1 pm PST. Listen to archive here.

520. June 17, interview with Bill Resnick, KBOO radio, 9 am PST

519. June 16 interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST. Listen to archive here.

518. June 9, interview with Sylvia Richardson, Latin Waves, 9:45 am PST. Listen to archive here.

517. June 5, interview, Truth Quest With Melodee, KHEN radio, 7pm PST

516. June 2, interview about Web of Debt, Our Common Ground,http://www.blogtalkradio.com/OCG, 7pm PST

515. June 1, interview with Robert Stark, The Stark Truth listen here.

514. Newly available video of interview on "Moral Politics" -- see it here

513. May 30, interview, The Tim Dahaney Show, ll am PST

512. May 28, interview with Pedro Gatos, "Bringing Light into Darkness", KOOP.ORG, 6 pm CST

511. May 24, interview, Make It Plain With Mark Thompson, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, 2pm PST

510. May 20, interview, Women's View Radio, blogtalkradio.com, 10 am Central Time. Listen here.

509. May 13, interview, www.Blogtalkradio.com/fixyourmortgagemess, 4:15 pm PST

508. May 12, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST Listen here.

507. May 9, seminar, Re-imagining Money and Credit, Art bldg. rm 103, El Camino college, Torrance, Ca. 5-7:30 pm

506. May 8, interview with Mike Harris, republicbroadcasting.org, 9 am EST

505. May 7, radio discussion on "The Myth of Austerity", Connect the Dots, KPFK Los Angeles, 7 am PST. Listen here.

504. May 4, interview The Unsolicited Opinion, republicbroadcasting.org, 8 am PST

503. April 27-28, speaker, Public Banking Institute Conference, Friends Center, Philadelphia. Listen here.

502. April 25, speaker Global Teach-In (globalteachin.com), 12 noon EST

501. April 17, Interview with Leo Steel, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lasteelshoworg, 8:30 pm EST. Listen here.. 31 minutes in.

500. April 14, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST

499. April 14, interview with Al Korelin, The Korelin Economics Report

498. April 10th-12th Speaker at Claremont Conference, “Creating Money in a Finite World” Claremont, CA . See video here.

497. April 5, interview , This Week In Money with Phil Mackesy (howestreet.com) 12:30 PST. Listen to the archive here.

496. April 3, speaker at COMER with Paul Hellyer, "Escape From the Web of Debt," Toronto, 7:30 pm

495. March 27, speaker on "Why are we so Broke? New ways to look at the Finances of our State and City," League of Women Voters luncheon, San Diego, 12 noon

494.5 March 24, radio interview, Mandelman Matters. Listen here.

494. March 17, speaker via skype, SCADS conference, London

493. March 15, interview with Per Fagereng, Fight the Empire, KBOO radio, 9:30 am PST

492. March 15, speaker, San Rafael City Hall 6 pm

491. March 13, speaker at Sergio Lub's house, Walnut Creek, info at Favors.org, 6pm

490. March 11, speaker, TedxNewWallStreet. See it here.

489. March 10, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST

488. March 6, interview with Melinda Pillsbury-Foster, http://radio.rumormillnews.com/podcast/, 11 am PST

487. Feb. 25, interview with Martin Andelman, http://www.mandelman.ml-implode.com, 9:30 am PST

486. Feb. 25, interview, This Week In Money with Phil Mackesy (howestreet.com), 3 pm PST

485. Feb. 25, interview on CIVL Radio, Latin Waves, How Greece Could Take Down Wall Street, 11:30am PST

484. Feb 23, interview with Thomas Kiely, INN World Report Radio, 7:30 pm EST

483. Feb. 17, featured speaker, Public Banking in America weekly call, 9 am PST

482. Feb. 11, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST

481. Feb. 8, interview with Mike Beevers, KFCF Fresno, 4:30 pm PST

480. Feb. 7, interview with Kevin Barrett, NoLiesRadio.org, 9 am PST; listen to archive here

479. Feb. 6, participant, Occupiers and Wells Fargo Executives Gather to Discuss the American Foreclosure Crisis, The Center of Nonprofit Management at California Endowment Building 1000 N. Alameda, Los Angeles, meeting 3 pm and press conference 5:30 pm

478. Feb. 2, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report Radio, 7:30 pm EST

477. Feb. 2, interview with Patrick Timpone, oneradionetwork.com, naturalnewsradio.com. Listen to archive here

476. Jan. 31, interview, Liberty Coins and Precious Metals, 9 am PST

475. Jan. 27, interview KPFA, Project Censored, 8:30 am PST

474. Jan. 27, FILMS4CHANGE-INSIDEJOB, panel speaker, Edye Second Space, Santa Monica Performing Arts Center, 7:30 pm

473. Jan 22, interview with Dave Hodges, The Common Sense Show, 7:30 pm PST. Listen live here.

472. Jan. 20, interview with Mike Harris, The Republic Broadcasting Network, 7 am PST

471. Jan. 16, interview with Rob Lorei, WMNF fm, Tampa, 2 pm PST

470. Jan. 14, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST

469. Jan. 11, interview with Jeff Rense, rense.com, 8pm PST

For years, homeowners have been battling Wall Street in an attempt to recover some portion of their massive losses from the housing Ponzi scheme. But progress has been slow, as they have been outgunned and out-spent by the banking titans.

In June, however, the banks may have met their match, as some equally powerful titans strode onto the stage.  Investors led by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and PIMCO, the world’s largest bond-fund manager, have sued some of the world’s largest banks for breach of fiduciary duty as trustees of their investment funds. The investors are seeking damages for losses surpassing $250 billion. That is the equivalent of one million homeowners with $250,000 in damages suing at one time.

The defendants are the so-called trust banks that oversee payments and enforce terms on more than $2 trillion in residential mortgage securities. They include units of Deutsche Bank AG, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, HSBC Holdings PLC, and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. Six nearly identical complaints charge the trust banks with breach of their duty to force lenders and sponsors of the mortgage-backed securities to repurchase defective loans.

Why the investors are only now suing is complicated, but it involves a recent court decision on the statute of limitations. Why the trust banks failed to sue the lenders evidently involves the cozy relationship between lenders and trustees. The trustees also securitized loans in pools where they were not trustees. If they had started filing suit demanding repurchases, they might wind up suedon other deals in retaliation. Better to ignore the repurchase provisions of the pooling and servicing agreements and let the investors take the losses—better, at least, until they sued.

Beyond the legal issues are the implications for the solvency of the banking system itself. Can even the largest banks withstand a $250 billion iceberg? The sum is more than 40 times the $6 billion “London Whale” that shook JPMorganChase to its foundations.

Who Will Pay – the Banks or the Depositors?

The world’s largest banks are considered “too big to fail” for a reason. The fractional reserve banking scheme is a form of shell game, which depends on “liquidity” borrowed at very low interest from other banks or the money market. When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in 2008, triggering a run on the money market, the whole interconnected shadow banking system nearly went down with it.

Congress then came to the rescue with a taxpayer bailout, and the Federal Reserve followed with its quantitative easing fire hose. But in 2010, the Dodd Frank Act said there would be no more government bailouts. Instead, the banks were to save themselves with “bail ins,” meaning they were to recapitalize themselves by confiscating a portion of the funds of their creditors – including not only their shareholders and bondholders but the largest class of creditor of any bank, their depositors.

Theoretically, deposits under $250,000 are protected by FDIC deposit insurance. But the FDIC fund contains only about $47 billion – a mere 20% of the Black Rock/PIMCO damage claims. Before 2010, the FDIC could borrow from the Treasury if it ran short of money. But since the Dodd Frank Act eliminates government bailouts, the availability of Treasury funds for that purpose is now in doubt.

When depositors open their online accounts and see that their balances have shrunk or disappeared, a run on the banks is likely. And since banks rely on each other for liquidity, the banking system as we know it could collapse. The result could be drastic deleveraging, erasing trillions of dollars in national wealth.

Phoenix Rising

Some pundits say the global economy would then come crashing down. But in a thought-provoking March 2014 article called “American Delusionalism, or Why History Matters,” John Michael Greer disagrees. He notes that historically, governments have responded by modifying their financial systems:

Massive credit collapses that erase very large sums of notional wealth and impact the global economy are hardly a new phenomenon . . . but one thing that has never happened as a result of any of them is the sort of self-feeding, irrevocable plunge into the abyss that current fast-crash theories require.

The reason for this is that credit is merely one way by which a society manages the distribution of goods and services. . . . A credit collapse . . . doesn’t make the energy, raw materials, and labor vanish into some fiscal equivalent of a black hole; they’re all still there, in whatever quantities they were before the credit collapse, and all that’s needed is some new way to allocate them to the production of goods and services.

This, in turn, governments promptly provide. In 1933, for example, faced with the most severe credit collapse in American history, Franklin Roosevelt temporarily nationalized the entire US banking system, seized nearly all the privately held gold in the country, unilaterally changed the national debt from “payable in gold” to “payable in Federal Reserve notes” (which amounted to a technical default), and launched a  series of other emergency measures.  The credit collapse came to a screeching halt, famously, in less than a hundred days. Other nations facing the same crisis took equally drastic measures, with similar results. . . .

Faced with a severe crisis, governments can slap on wage and price controls, freeze currency exchanges, impose rationing, raise trade barriers, default on their debts, nationalize whole industries, issue new currencies, allocate goods and services by fiat, and impose martial law to make sure the new economic rules are followed to the letter, if necessary, at gunpoint. Again, these aren’t theoretical possibilities; every one of them has actually been used by more than one government faced by a major economic crisis in the last century and a half.

That historical review is grounds for optimism, but confiscation of assets and enforcement at gunpoint are still not the most desirable outcomes. Better would be to have an alternative system in place and ready to implement before the boom drops.

The Better Mousetrap

North Dakota has established an effective alternative model that other states might do well to emulate. In 1919, the state legislature pulled its funds out of Wall Street banks and put them into the state’s own publicly-owned bank, establishing financial sovereignty for the state. The Bank of North Dakota has not only protected the state’s financial interests but has been a moneymaker for it ever since.

On a national level, when the Wall Street credit system fails, the government can turn to the innovative model devised by our colonial forebears and start issuing its own currency and credit—a power now usurped by private banks but written into the US Constitution as belonging to Congress.

The chief problem with the paper scrip of the colonial governments was the tendency to print and spend too much. The Pennsylvania colonists corrected that systemic flaw by establishing a publicly-owned bank, which lent money to farmers and tradespeople at interest. To get the funds into circulation to cover the interest, some extra scrip was printed and spent on government services. The money supply thus expanded and contracted naturally, not at the whim of government officials but in response to seasonal demands for credit. The interest returned to public coffers, to be spent on the common weal.

The result was a system of money and credit that was sustainable without taxes, price inflation or government debt – not to mention without credit default swaps, interest rate swaps, central bank manipulation, slicing and dicing of mortgages, rehypothecation in the repo market, and the assorted other fraudulent schemes underpinning our “systemically risky” banking system today.

Relief for Homeowners?

 Will the BlackRock/PIMCO suit help homeowners?  Not directly.  But it will get some big guns on the scene, with the ability to do all sorts of discovery, and the staff to deal with the results.

Fraud is grounds for rescission, restitution and punitive damages.  The homeowners may not have been parties to the pooling and servicing agreements governing the investor trusts, but if the whole business model is proven to be fraudulent, they could still make a case for damages.

In the end, however, it may be the titans themselves who take each other down, clearing the way for a new phoenix to rise from the ashes.

___________________

Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including the best-selling Web of Debt. In The Public Bank Solution, her latest book, she explores successful public banking models historically and globally. Her websites are http://EllenBrown.com, http://PublicBankSolution.com, and http://PublicBankingInstitute.org.

Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary Tagged: | Black Rock, housing crisis, PIMCO, public banking, USBank

Finance is the new form of warfare – without the expense of a military overhead and an occupation against unwilling hosts. It is a competition in credit creation to buy foreign resources, real estate, public and privatized infrastructure, bonds and corporate stock ownership. Who needs an army when you can obtain the usual objective (monetary wealth and asset appropriation) simply by financial means?                                                                                       — Dr. Michael Hudson, Counterpunch, October 2010

When the US Federal Reserve bought an 80% stake in American International Group (AIG) in September 2008, the unprecedented $85 billion outlay was justified as necessary to bail out the world’s largest insurance company. Today, however, central banks are on a global corporate buying spree not to bail out bankrupt corporations but simply as an investment, to compensate for the loss of bond income due to record-low interest rates. Indeed, central banks have become some of the world’s largest stock investors.

Central banks have the power to create national currencies with accounting entries, and they are traditionally very secretive. We are not allowed to peer into their books. It took a major lawsuit by Reuters and a congressional investigation to get the Fed to reveal the $16-plus trillion in loans it made to bail out giant banks and corporations after 2008.

What is to stop a foreign bank from simply printing its own currency and trading it on the currency market for dollars, to be invested in the US stock market or US real estate market?  What is to stop central banks from printing up money competitively, in a mad rush to own the world’s largest companies?

Apparently not much. Central banks are for the most part unregulated, even by their own governments. As the Federal Reserve observes on its website:

[The Fed] is considered an independent central bank because its monetary policy decisions do not have to be approved by the President or anyone else in the executive or legislative branches of government, it does not receive funding appropriated by the Congress, and the terms of the members of the Board of Governors span multiple presidential and congressional terms.

As former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan quipped, “Quite frankly it does not matter who is president as far as the Fed is concerned. There are no other agencies that can overrule the action we take.”

The Central Bank Buying Spree

That is how “independent” central banks operate, but it evidently not the US central bank that is gambling in the stock market. After extensive quantitative easing, the Fed has a $4.5 trillion balance sheet; but this sum is accounted for as being invested conservatively in Treasuries and agency debt (although QE may have allowed Wall Street banks to invest the proceeds in the stock market by devious means).

Which central banks, then, are investing in stocks? The biggest player turns out to be the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the Chinese central bank.

According to a June 15th article in USA Today:

Evidence of equity-buying by central banks and other public sector investors has emerged from a large-scale survey compiled by Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), a global research and advisory group. The OMFIF research publication Global Public Investor (GPI) 2014, launched on June 17 is the first comprehensive survey of $29.1 trillion worth of investments held by 400 public sector institutions in 162 countries. The report focuses on investments by 157 central banks, 156 public pension funds and 87 sovereign funds, underlines growing similarities among different categories of public entities owning assets equivalent to 40% of world output.

The assets of these 400 Global Public Investors comprise $13.2 trillion (including gold) at central banks, $9.4 trillion at public pension funds and $6.5 trillion at sovereign wealth funds.

Public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are well known to be large holders of shares on international stock markets. But it seems they now have rivals from unexpected sources:

One is China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), part of the People’s Bank of China, the biggest overall public sector investor, with $3.9 trillion under management, well ahead of the Bank of Japan and Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), each with $1.3 trillion.

SAFE’s investments include significant holdings in Europe. The PBoC itself has been directly buying minority equity stakes in important European companies.

Another large public sector equity owner is Swiss National Bank, with $480 billion under management. The Swiss central bank had 15% of its foreign exchange assets – or $72 billion – in equities at the end of 2013.

Public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds invest their pension contributions and exchange reserves earned in foreign trade, which is fair enough. The justification for central banks to be playing the stock market is less obvious. Their stock purchases are justified as compensating for lost revenue caused by sharp drops in interest rates. But those drops were driven by central banks themselves; and the broad powers delegated to central banks were supposed to be for conducting “monetary policy,” not for generating investment returns. According to the OMFIF, central banks collectively now have $13.2 trillion in assets (including gold). That is nearly 20% of the value of all of the stock markets in the world, which comes to $62 trillion.

From Monetary Policy to Asset Grabs

Central banks are allowed to create money out of nothing in order to conduct the monetary policies necessary to “regulate the value of the currency” and “maintain price stability.”  Traditionally, this has been done with “open market operations,” in which money was either created by the central bank and used to buy federal securities (thereby adding money to the money supply) or federal securities were sold in exchange for currency (shrinking the money supply).

“Quantitative easing” is open market operations on steroids, to the tune of trillions of dollars. But the purpose is allegedly the same—to augment a money supply that shrank by trillions of dollars when the shadow banking system collapsed after 2008. The purpose is not supposed to be to earn an income for the central bank itself. Indeed, the U.S. central bank is required to return the interest earned on federal securities to the federal government, which paid the interest in the first place.

Further, as noted earlier, it is not the US Federal Reserve that has been massively investing in the stock market.  It is the PBoC, which arguably is in a different position than the US Fed. It cannot print dollars or Euros. Rather, it acquires them from local merchants who have earned them legitimately in foreign trade.

However, the PBoC has done nothing to earn these dollars or Euros beyond printing yuan. It trades the yuan for the dollars earned by Chinese sellers, who need local currency to pay their workers and suppliers. The money involved in these transactions has thus doubled. The merchants have been paid in yuan and the central bank has an equivalent sum in dollars or Euros. That means the Chinese central bank’s holdings are created out of thin air no less than the Federal Reserve’s dollars are.

Battle of the Central Banks?

Western central banks have generally worked this scheme discreetly. Not so much the Chinese, whose blatant gaming of the system points up its flaws for all to see.

Georgetown University historian Professor Carroll Quigley styled himself the librarian of the international bankers. In his 1966 book Tragedy and Hope, he wrote that their aim was “nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.” This system was to be controlled “in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements,” central banks that “were themselves private corporations.”

It may be the Chinese, not acting in concert, who break up this cartel. The PBoC is no more transparent than the US Fed, but it is not an “independent” central bank. It is a government agency accountable to the Chinese government and acting on its behalf.

The Chinese have evidently figured out the game of the “independent” central bankers, and to be using it to their own advantage. If the Fed can do quantitative easing, so can the Chinese – and buy up our assets with the proceeds. Owning our corporations rather than our Treasuries helps the Chinese break up US dollar hegemony.

Whatever power plays are going on behind the scenes, it is increasingly clear that they are not serving we-the-people. Banks should not be the exclusive creators of money. We the people, through our representative governments, need to be issuing the national money supply directly, as was done in America under President Abraham Lincoln and in colonial times.

_______________________________

Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute and the 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.

Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary

Have you noticed that prices are going up rapidly?  If so, you are certainly not alone.  But Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, the Obama administration and the mainstream media would have us believe that inflation is completely under control and exactly where it should be.  Perhaps if the highly manipulated numbers that they quote us [...]

The movement to break away from Wall Street and form publicly-owned banks continues to gain momentum. But enthusiasts are deterred by claims that a state-owned bank would violate constitutional prohibitions against “lending the credit of the state.”

California’s constitution is typical. It states in Section 17: “The State shall not in any manner loan its credit, nor shall it subscribe to, or be interested in the stock of any company, association, or corporation . . . .”

The language sounds prohibitive, but what does it mean? Hundreds of state and local government entities extend the credit of the state. State agencies make student loans, small business loans, and farm loans. State infrastructure banks explicitly leverage the credit of the state. Legally, state and local governments are extending their credit to private banks every time they deposit their revenues in those banks. When money is deposited, it becomes the property of the bank by law. The depositor becomes a creditor with an IOU or promise to be repaid. The state or local government has thus lent its money to the bank.

How can these blatant extensions of the state’s credit be reconciled with the constitutional prohibitions against the practice?

North Dakota’s constitution has particularly strong language. Article 10, Section 18, provides:

The state, any county or city may make internal improvements and may engage in any industry, enterprise or business, not prohibited by article XX of the constitution, but neither the state nor any political subdivision thereof shall otherwise loan or give its credit or make donations to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation except for reasonable support of the poor, nor subscribe to or become the owner of capital stock in any association or corporation.

Yet this prohibition has not prevented the state from establishing its own bank. Currently the nation’s only state-owned depository bank, the Bank of North Dakota has been a stellar success and has been going strong ever since 1919. In Green vs. Frazier, 253 U.S. 233 (1920), the US Supreme Court upheld the bank’s constitutionality against a Fourteenth Amendment challenge and deferred to the state court on the state constitutional issues, which had been decided in the state’s favor.

In the nineteenth century, Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, and Indiana all had their own state-owned banks. Some were extremely successful (Indiana had a monopoly state-owned bank). These banks, too, withstood constitutional challenge at the US Supreme Court level.

Were the prohibitions against “lending the credit of the state” simply ignored in these cases? Or might that language have meant something else?

The Constitutional Ban on “Bills of Credit”: Colonial Paper Money

Constitutional provisions against lending the state’s credit go back to the mid-nineteenth century. California’s is in its original constitution, dated 1849. There was then no national currency, and the National Bank Act had not yet been passed.

Several decades earlier, the states had been colonies that issued their own currencies in the form of paper scrip. Typically called “bills of credit”, these paper bills literally involved the extension of the colony’s credit. They were credit vouchers used by the colony to pay for goods and services, which were good in trade for an equivalent sum in goods or services in the marketplace.

Prior to the constitutional convention in the summer of 1787, the colonies exercised their own sovereign power over monetary matters, including issuing their own paper money. After the collapse of the Continental currency during the Revolutionary War, largely due to counterfeiting by the British, the framers were so afraid of paper money that they expressly took that power away from the colonies-turned-states, and they failed to expressly give it even to the federal government. Article I, Section 10, of the U.S. Constitution provides:

No State shall . . . coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; . . . .

Congress was given the power “To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.” But language authorizing Congress to “emit Bills of Credit” was struck out after much debate.

The Supreme Court ruled in the Legal Tender Cases after the Civil War that the power to coin money implied the power to print money under the Necessary and Proper Clause, legitimizing the Greenbacks issued by President Lincoln. But in 1850, no state government had the power to extend its own credit in the form of bills of credit or paper money, and whether the federal government had that power was a subject of debate.

However, the expanding economy needed a source of freely-expandable currency and credit, and when local governments could not provide it, private banks filled the void. They issued their own “bank notes” equal to many times their gold holdings, effectively running their own private printing presses.

Was that constitutional? No. The Constitution nowhere gives private banks the power to create the national money supply – and today, private banks are where virtually all of our circulating money supply comes from. Congress ostensibly delegated its authority to issue money to the Federal Reserve in 1913; but it did not delegate that authority to private banks, which have only recently admitted that they do not lend their depositors’ money but actually create new money on their books when they make loans. In the Bank of England’s latest Quarterly Bulletin, it states:

Whenever a bank makes a loan, it simultaneously creates a matching deposit in the borrower’s bank account, thereby creating new money.

This broad exercise of the money power by private banks is nowhere to be found in our federal or state constitutions, but courts have managed to get around that wrinkle. In Constitutional Law in the United States, Emlin McClain summarizes the case law like this:

A state cannot, even for the purpose of borrowing money, exercise the sovereign power of emitting paper currency (Craig v. Missouri). But this prohibition does not interfere with the power of a state to authorize banks to issue bank notes in the form of due-bills or of similar character, intended to pass as currency on the faith and credit of the bank itself, and not of the state which authorizes their issuance.

The anomalous result is that state-chartered banks are able to issue credit that passes as currency, while state governments are not. But so the cases hold, and they apply to public banks as well as private banks.

Public Banks Held Constitutional

John Thom Holdsworth wrote in Money and Banking (1937) that in the mid-nineteenth century, “several of the states established banks owned entirely or in part by the state. There was some question as to the right of these state institutions to issue circulating notes, but the Supreme Court held that such notes were not ‘bills of credit’ within the meaning of the constitutional prohibition.”

In Briscoe v. Bank of Kentucky, 36 U.S. 257 (1837), the Court observed that the charter of the challenged Kentucky state bank contained “no pledge of the faith of the state for the notes issued by the institution. The capital only was liable; and the bank was suable, and could sue.” The Court “upheld the issuance of circulating notes by a state-chartered bank even when the Bank’s stock, funds, and profits belonged to the state, and where the officers and directors were appointed by the state legislature.”

The Court narrowly defined the sort of “bill of credit” prohibited by Article 1, Section 10, as a note issued by the state, on the faith of the state, designed to circulate as money. Since the notes in question were redeemable by the bank and not by the state itself, they were not “bills of credit” for constitutional purposes. The Court found that the notes were backed by the resources of the bank rather than the credit of the state. Moreover, the bank could sue and be sued separate from the state.

These cases are still good law. A state bank – or city bank or county bank – is not in violation of state constitutional prohibitions against lending the credit of the state.

Other Ways to Avoid Constitutional Challenge

In light of those Supreme Court cases, it hardly seems necessary for a city to become a chartered city before establishing its own publicly-owned bank; but that is another way to circumvent this debate. The California Constitution gives cities the power to become charter cities; and while General Law Cities are bound by the state constitution, cities organized under a charter have broad autonomy. They can bypass large swaths of state law, including asserting their independence from the state’s supposed restrictions on lending.

For county-owned banks, the case is not as clear. In California, Government Code 23005 forbids counties from giving their “credit to or in aid of any person or corporation. An indebtedness or liability incurred contrary to this chapter is void.” But the US Supreme Court rulings validating state banks should be equally applicable to county banks; and in any case, enabling legislation can be crafted to allow public banks at any level of government.

There is another way to bypass this whole legal debate: by pursuing the initiative and referendum process pioneered in California. It allows state laws to be proposed directly by the public, and the state’s Constitution to be amended either by public petition (the “initiative”) or by the legislature with a proposed constitutional amendment to the electorate (the “referendum”). In California, the initiative is done by writing a proposed constitutional amendment or statute as a petition, which is submitted to the Attorney General along with a modest submission fee. The petition must be signed by registered voters amounting to 8% (for a constitutional amendment) or 5% (for a statute) of the number of people who voted in the most recent election for governor.

Before sufficient signatures could be collected, a widespread educational campaign would need to be mounted; but just informing the public on this little-understood subject could be worth the effort. Recall the words of Henry Ford:

It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.

When enough people understand that private banks rather than governments create our money supply, imposing interest and fees that constitute an enormous unnecessary drain on the economy and the people, we might wake up to a new day in banking, finance, and the return of local economic sovereignty.

______________________________

Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and a candidate for California State Treasurer running on a state bank platform. She is the author of twelve books, including the best-selling Web of Debt and her latest book, The Public Bank Solution, which explores successful public banking models historically and globally.

Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary

The Great Deceiver — The Federal Reserve Paul Craig Roberts and Dave Kranzler Is the Fed “tapering”? Did the Fed really cut its bond purchases during the three month period November 2013 through January 2014? Apparently not if foreign holders…

The post The Fed Is The Great Deceiver — Paul Craig Roberts and Dave Kranzler appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org.

--2014--

761. Oct. 6-9, speaker, Praxis Peace Institute conference, THE ECONOMICS OF SUSTAINABILITY-Emerging Models for a Healthy Planet, Cowell Theater, Fort Mason, San Francisco

760. July 29-Aug. 5. Moving Beyond Capitalism conference, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

759. July 9, speaker, 2014 Annual Conference of the Council of Georgist Organizations, Inc., Radisson Newport Beach Hotel, near the Orange County John Wayne Airport, 9:15 a.m. PT

758. May 26, interview, Wealth DNA Radio Show, Blog Talk Radio, wealthdna.us, noon EST

757. May 10, United We Stand Festival, Pauley Pavilion, UCLA,
https://unitedwestandfest.com/confirmed-guests/

756. May 1, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 9 a.m. PDT

755. April 29, moderator, Great Minds #66 with Nomi Prins, Los Angeles, CA., 7 pm PT

754. April 23, Ellen interviews Nomi Prins on It's Our Money. Listen to archive here.

753. April 21, interview with Robert Stark and Jeff Crow, Valley Talk Live, centralvalleytalk.com, Fresno, 4:30 PT

752. April 17, interview Dr. Rima Truth Reports, with Dr. Rima Laibow, 10 pm EST

751. April 17, interview with Greg Hunter, USAWatchdog.com, 11:30 EST

750. April 8, It's Our Money with Ellen Brown, interiews Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. Listen to archive here.

749. April 8, interview with Alan Butler, Butler on Business, Liberty Express Radio, 11:30 AM EDT

748. April 3, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 9 a.m. PDT

747. April 3, interview with James Banks, KGNU radio, Boulder, CO, 5 p.m. PT

746. April 2, interview, WHDTWorldNews, Nextnewsnetwork.com, 10:30 a. m. PDT

745. March 26, 1 pm PDT, It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown. Ellen interviews Prof. ROBERT HOCKETT--fascinating background material for understanding the banks' role in the foreclosure mess and the eminent domain solution. Listen to the archive here.

744. March 24, interview with Kevin Zeese JD and Margaret Flowers MD, Clearing the FOG on We Act Radio, 1480 AM Washington, DC, 8 a.m. PDT

743. March 23rd, "Banking for the People—Not for Wall Street," Agenda for a Prophetic Faith Lecture Series, Claremont United Methodist Church, 211 W. Foothill Blvd., Claremont, CA 91711, http://www.claremontumc.org/, 7 pm PT

742. Apr. 13, Interview with Chris Moore, KDKA Pittsburgh, 5 pm EST

741. March 18, 2 pm, Democratic Club, Friendly Valley Conference Room, Newhall, CA.

740. March 13, interview with Fred Smart, American Underground Network, 8 pm, CDT

739. March 12, 12 pm PDT, It's Our Money radio show with Ellen Brown, featuring Prof. TIM CANOVA on the Federal Reserve. Listen to archive here.

738. March 4, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report, 4:30 PST

737. Feb. 23, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST

736. Feb 20, interview with Bill Deller, 3CR radio, Melbourne, Australia, 3 pm, PST

735. Feb. 17, interview, Strike Debt Bay Area, KPFA, Berkeley, 2 pm (?) PST

734. Feb16, interview with Gary Dubin, The Foreclosure Hour (http://www.foreclosurehour.com/the-host.html), 5 pm PST

733. Feb. 11, interview with Clint Richardson, RBN 5 pm PST

732. Feb 9, interview with Stephen Golden, DEFENDING THE AMERICAN DREAM, KABC Los Angeles, 6 am, PST Listen to the archive here.

731. Feb. 6, interview, Move to Amend Reports, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/movetoamend, 5 pm PST

730. Feb. 5, interview with Sinclair Noe, Financial Review, MoneyRadio.com, 9:30 am PST

729. January 30, interview, Kerry Lutz - Financial Survival Network, 12 pm EST

728. January 30, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report, 4:30 PST

727. January 29, interview on Latin Waves, 8 pm PST

726. January 28, Green Party Shadow Cabinet response to State of the Union Speech. http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus 6 pm PST

725. January 26, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST. Listen here.

724. January 23, interview, The Tim Dahaney Show, 12 noon PST. Listen here.

723. January 22, interview with Utrice Leid, "Leid Stories,", PRN.FM, 1 pm EST

722. January 21, interview, Independent Underground Radio LIVE, 9:15 PST. Listen here.

721. January 12, Open Forum with Green Party candidates Luis Rodriguez, Laura Wells and Ellen Brown, hosted by LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) 11277 GARDEN GROVE BLVD., Garden Grove, CA. 2-4 pm

720. January 11, interview with Bill Still on running for California Treasurer. Watch it here. And see another one here.

719. January 8, interview, The Tim Dahaney Show, 12 noon PST. Listen here. (It's the one labelled "Take the Fed Reserve Public.")

718. Jan 7, interview, The Burt Cohen Show, 12 noon ET

--2013--

717. Dec. 30, interview, Stuart Vener Tells It Like It Is, see http://stuartvener.com for stations, 11:30 am EST

716. Dec. 26, interview Dr. Rima Truth Reports, with Dr. Rima Laibow and Ralph Fucetola, 10 pm EST

715. Dec. 21, interview, KPRO Radio San Francisco, 9:30 am PST

714. Dec. 18, interview, The Power Hour with Joyce Riley, 8 a.m. CT

713. Dec. 18, interview, Unwrapped Radio, WRFG, http://www.tuneinradio.com/, 12:40 EST

712. Dec. 15, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST, listen here.
711. Dec. 15, presentation, A Public Bank for Mendocino, at the Crown Hall in Mendocino, Ca., 7 pm

710. Dec. 15, presentation, Why We Need to Own Our Own Bank, Mendocino Environmental Center
106 West Standley, Ukiah, CA 95482, 2 pm

709. Dec. 14, presentation, Why We Need to Own Our Own Bank, Little Lake Grange, Willits, Ca. 7 pm

708. Dec. 13, interview on All About Money, KZYX radio, 9 a.m. PST

707. Dec. 13, interview, Radio Islam, WCEV 1450 AM, 12:05 pm, CST

706. Dec. 12, appearance with Doug McKenty, "The Shift," Mendocino TV, 4:30 pm PST

705. Dec. 11, interview on WHDT World News, http://NNN.is/on-WHDT, 5:30 and 11:00 pm EST. Watch the archive here.

704. Dec. 11, interview, WORT Community Radio, Madison, Wisconsin, 6:10 a.m. PST

703. Dec. 11, interview with Sinclair Noe, Financial Review, MoneyRadio.com, 10:30 PST

702. Dec. 9, UnWrapped Radio, Atlanta, 1 pm PST.

701. Dec. 9, GOHarrison, KPFK Los Angeles, 3:30 pm PST.

700. Dec. 9, interview, Air Cascadia show, KBOO radio, Portland, 10 am PST

699. Dec. 5, interview, WHDT World News TV, 2 pm PST

698. Dec. 4, interview with David Swanson, talknationradio, 7pm PST

697. Dec. 4, interview with Rob Kall, The Rob Kall Bottom-Up Radio Show, 1360 AM, 7:30 pm EST

696. Dec. 3, interview with Kim Greenhouse, It's Rainmaking Time, listen here.

695. Dec. 2, interview with Val Muchowski, Women's Voices, KZYX, 7 p.m. PST

694. Nov. 29, interview with Gregg Hunter, USAWatchdog.com, 11:30 PST

693. Nov. 16, interview This is Hell! radio show, WNUR 89.3 fm, thisishell.com/live, 11.20 a.m. EST. Listen to archive here

692. Nov. 15, interview with George Berry, The Financial News Network Show, truthfrequencyradio.com, 1 pm PST

691. Nov. 14, interview with Stanley Montieth, The Doctor Stan Show, Radio Liberty, 4 pm PSTf

690. Nov. 14, interview with Neil Foster, Reality Bytes show, Awake Radio (UK), Shazziz Radio (US), 8 pm UK time.

689. Nov. 13, interview with Bonnie Faulkner, KPFA, Los Angeles. Listen to archive here.

688. Nov. 12, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report, 4:30 PST

687. Nov. 11, interview, Between the Lines News Magazine, WPKN radio, Bridgeport, CT, 9 p.m. ET. Listen to archive here

686. Nov. 10, skype participant, forum at the Putrajaya International Islamic Arts and Cultural Festival, "Global Economic and Monetary Crisis: What Needs to be Done?" Putrajaya, Malaysia, 11 a.m. MYT, 7 pm, Nov. 9 PST

685. Nov. 3, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST

684. Oct. 31, interview with Voice of Russia radio, American edition, 2:30 pm, CET (Central Europe Time.) Listen to archive here.

683. Oct. 23, interview with Daniel Estulin on RT tv

682. Oct. 16, interview with Per Fereng, KBOO radio, Portland, 11 am PST

681. Oct. 15, presentation, "The Public Banking Forum in Ireland," 7-9 PM, Hudson Bay Hotel, Athlone, Ireland.

680. Oct. 14, presentation, Cork, Ireland

679. Oct. 12, presentation, "The Public Banking Forum in Ireland," 2-4 PM, Springfield Hotel in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland. Information on these three events here.

678. October 4, interview with Bill Deller, 3CR radio, Melbourne, Australia, 2:30 pm, PST

677. Oct. 3, interview with Joyce Riley, the Power Hour. Listen to archive here.

676. Oct. 1, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report 7:30 EST

675. Sept. 29, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST

674. Sept. 27, interviw with Kevin Barrett, AmericanFreedomRadio.com, NoLiesRadio.org:
http://TruthJihadRadio.blogspot.com, 2 pm PST

673. Sept. 19, interview, The Gary Null Show, 9:30 a.m. Pacific

672. Sept. 19, Interview on the Global Research News Hour with Michael Welch--check site for time and archive.

671. Sept. 18, interview with David Sierralupe, Occupy Radio, KWVA, 88.1 FM, Eugene

670. Sept. 15, interview with Niall Bradley, Sott Talk Radio, sott.net, 2 p.m. EST

669. Sept. 14, interview FDLBookSalon, firedoglake.com, 5pm EST

668. Sept. 10, "Turning Hard Times into Good Times" with Jay Taylor, VoiceAmerica, 12:30 pm PST. Listen to archive here.

667. Sept. 9, interview with Ken MacDermotRoe and Del LaPietro, In Context Report, 9 am PST. Listen to archive here.

666. Sept 7, interview with Valerie Kirkgaard, WakingUpInAmerica.com, 6 am, PST. Listen here.

665. Sept. 6, Interview with Al Korelin, The Korelin Economics Report, 12:30 pm PST

664. Sept. 5, discussion of how to bring public banking to Colorado on "It's the Economy, Stupid," KGNU, Boulder, 5 p.m. PST

663. Sept. 5, interview with Patrick Timpone, oneradionetwork.com, 8 a.m. PST

662. Sept. 3, interview (along with Elliott Spitzer?), "Turning Hard Times into Good Times" with Jay Taylor, VoiceAmerica, 1 pm PST Listen to archive here.

661. Sept. 3, interview with Jeanette LaFeve, The People Speak, 6 pm PST

660. Aug. 25, Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT

659. Aug. 22, interview with Christopher Greene, AMTV Radio, simulcast in audio/video over GoogleHangouts and American Freedom Radio, 1 p.m. PST

658. Aug. 22, interview, TheAndyCaldwellShow.com,
CalChronicle.com, 3 pm PST

657. Aug. 21, interview with Merry and Burl Hall, blogtalkradio.com/envision-this, 5 pm PST

656. Aug. 21, interview with Lori Lundin, America's Radio News Network, 10:30 a.m. ET.

655. Aug. 16, interview with Sinclair Noe, Moneyradio.com, 4 pm PST

654. Aug. 15, interview with Justine Underhill, Prime Interest, Russia Today TV, 1:30 pm PST

653. Aug 14, interview with Jim Goddard, This Week in Money, 4 pm, PST. Listen to archive here, starting at minute 32.

652. Aug. 14, interview with Mary Glenney, WMNF 88.5, 10 a.m. PST

651. Aug. 14, interview with Chuck Morse, irnusaradio.com, 8 am, PST

650. Aug. 13, interview with Thomas Taplin, Dukascopy TV, Switzerland, 9 am PST

649. Aug 7-11, Madison Democracy conference, https://democracyconvention.org/

648. Aug. 6, radio interview, INN World Report with Tom Kiely, http://feeds.feedburner.com/INNWorldReportRadio 4:30 PST

647. Aug 5, interview with Arnie Arnesen, 94.7 fm, Concord, NH, 9 am PST

646. Aug 3, interview with Diane Horn, Mind Over Matter show, KEXP radio, 90.3 FM, Seattle, 7:00 a.m. PST

645. July 31, interview with Mike Beevers, KFCF Fresno, 4:30 pm PST

644. July 28, Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT

643. July 2, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PDT.

642. July 2, interview with Arnie Arnesen, 94.7 fm, Concord, NH, 12:30 EST.

641. June 30, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT. Listen to archive here.

640. June 24, interview on RT tv re student debt, 10:30 am PST

639. June 17, interview on The Andy Caldwell Show, 3:30 pm PST

638. June 16, interview with Jason Erb, 5 pm Pacific

637. June 13, interview with Paul Sanford, "Time 4 Hemp-LIVE," http://www.AmericanFreedomRadio.com, 10 am, PST

636. June 6 presentation with Jamie Brown at the Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center in Walnut Creek. Info at Favors.org, 7 to 9 pm

635. June 1, interview with Kris Welch, KPFA Los Angeles, 10 am PST

634. May 28, interview with Malihe Razazan, "Your Call" radio, KALW, San Francisco, 10 am PST.

633. May 26, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT

632. May 23 interview with Simit Patel, InformedTrades.com (youtube) 3:30 pm PST

631. May 22, Thousand Oaks, 3 expert panel, "A Parachute For the Fiscal Cliff," University Village 2-4 pm

630. May 22, interview with Jack Rasmus, 11 am PST. Enjoy the interview here.

629. May 22, Guns and Butter show, KPFA, http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/91790

628. May 14, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PDT.

627. May 13, live appearance on RTTV, 3 pm PST Watch it here.

626. May 8, interview with Valli Sharpe-Geisler, Silicon Valley Voice, KKUP, 3 pm PST

625. May 8, interview, the Meria Heller Show, 11 am PST

624. May 4, interview, Latin Waves with Sylvia Richardson, 10 am PST

623. April 30, Jay Taylor, VoiceAmerica, 1 pm PST

622. April 29, interview with Rob Kall, Bottom Up Radio, 9 am Pacific
Listen to archive here.

621. April 28, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT

620. April 25, interview, the the Dr. Katherine Albrecht Show, 5 pm EDT

619. April 17, interview with Mike Harris, rense.com, 1 pm PDT

618. April 16th, speaker, Valley Democrats United (Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley), Van Nuys, Ca. 7-9pm

617. April 13, interview with Darren Weeks, Govern America, noon Eastern, listen here

616. April 9, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PDT.

615. April 6, phone conference, Justice Party, http://www.justicepartyusa.org/public_banking_conference_call, 9 a.m.

614. April 5, interview, Butler on Business, 11 a.m. EDT

613. April 3, interview with Michael Welch, Global Research News Hour, 8:30 a.m. PDT

612. April 2, interview with Jay Taylor, VoiceAmerica, 12:30 PDT. Listen here.

611. April 1, interview with Brannon Howse, www.worldviewradio.com, 11 a.m. PDT

610. April 1, interview with Scott Harris, Counterpoint,
WPKN Radio, 8:30 pm, ET Listen to archive here.

609. April 1, interview with Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. Watch and listen to archive here, starting at minute 50. Articles based on the interview are at Truthout.org.

608. March 31, interview with Jason Erb, Exposing Faux Capitalism, Oracle Broadcasting, 11 a.m. Pacific

607. March 31, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT Listen to the archive here.

606. March 29, interview, The Gary Null Show, 9:30 a.m. Pacific

605. March 28, interview with Stan Monteith, radioliberty.com, 9 pm PDT

604. March 28, radio interview, INN World Report with Tom Kiely, http://feeds.feedburner.com/INNWorldReportRadio 4:30 PDT

603. March 27, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PdT.

602. March 27, interview with Jack Rasmus on PRN, 11 a.m. PDT

601. March 25, interview on the Richard Kaffenberger show, KTOX, Needles, CA. 3:15 PDT

600. March 22, newly available archived radio interview, Mandelman Matters. Listen here.

599. March 22, interview with James Fetzer, The People Speak Radio, 5-7 pm PDT

598. March 22, interview , Our Times With Craig Barnes, KSFR radio, Santa Fe, 10 a.m. MST

597. March 12, interview, Crisis of Reality with Doug Newberry, oraclebroadcasting.com, 1pm EST.

596. March 11, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PST

595. March 9, Interview with Sylvia Richardson, Latin Waves, CJSF 90.1FM, 9:30 am PST

594. March 6, interview with Charlie McGrath, wideawakenews.com, 6pm PST. Watch and listen here.

593. March 3, interview with Lateef Kareem Bey, Fix Your Mortgage Mess, 4 pm PST

592. March 2, Interview with Stuart Richardson, Latin Waves, CJSF 90.1FM, 11 am PST

591. Feb. 27, interview with Jim Banks, KGNU, Boulder, 12 pm PST

590. Feb 27, interview with Sinclair Noe, Financial Review, 10 am PST

589. Feb. 25, interview, Crisis of Reality with Doug Newberry, oraclebroadcasting.com, 1pm EST.

588. Feb. 6, Interview with Phil Mackesy, This Week in Money, TalkDigitalNetwork.com, 11 am PST. Listen to the archive here: http://talkdigitalnetwork.com/2013/02/this-week-in-money-70/

587. Feb. 4, interview with Ken Rose, What Now radio show, KOWS RADIO OCCIDENTAL 107.3 FM, 11 am PST.

586. Jan. 31, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Radio Report, 5:00 pm PST

585. Jan. 27, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio
network, 10 am PST

584. Jan. 23, interview on KPFK, 8pm PST

583. Jan. 22, interview, Crisis of Reality with Doug Newberry, oraclebroadcasting.com, 1pm EST.

582. Jan. 3, interview with Mary Glenney, WMNF 88.5, Tampa, 3 pm EST

581. Jan. 2, interview, The Bev Smith Show, thebevsmithshow.net, 5 pm PST

--- 2012 ---

580. Dec. 27, video interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, listen and watch here.

579. Dec. 24, October talk at First Unitarian Church in Portland aired on KBOO radio, http://kboo.fm/, 8:00 am PST

578. Dec. 24, interview with Ron Daniels, the WWRL Morning Show with Mark Riley, wwrl1600.com, 5:05 am PST

577. Dec. 21, interview with Andy Caldwell, TheAndyCaldwellShow.com, KZSB AM1290 Santa Barbara / Ventura and KUHL AM1440 Santa Maria / San Luis Obispo, 3:30 pm PST

576. Dec. 20, interview with Fred Smart, aunetwork.tv, 9 pm EST

575. Dec. 19, interview, Crisis of Reality with Doug Newberry, oraclebroadcasting.com, 1pm EST. Listen here.

574. Dec. 19, interview with Dr. Jack Rasmus, Alternative Visions, Progressive Radio Network, 2 pm EST

573. Dec. 17, The Bev Smith Show, thebevsmithshow.net, 4 pm PST

572. Dec. 15, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST. Listen here.

571. Dec. 14, interview with Craig Barnes, Our Times With Craig Barnes, KSFR radio, 9 am PST Listen to the archive here.

570. December 9th, speaker, Mayo Arts Center (10 Mayo Street) in Portland, ME
http://mayostreetarts.org/about-us/where-we-are 7:30-9pm

569. Dec. 7, Vermont's New Economy conference, Vermont College of the Find Arts, Montpelier, VT, 9 am to 4 pm and reception at 4:30. $25
www.global-community.org/neweconomy to register

568. Dec. 5, speaker, Pennsylvania Public Bank Project's Forum on Public Banking, at the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, 7pm

567. Nov. 26-27, 3rd Annual World Conference on Riba, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

566. Nov. 22, presentation before Royal Scottish Academy -- "A Public Bank for Scotland" (here), Riddle's Court, 322 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2PG Scotland, 6 pm

565. Nov 8, Healthy Money Summit, speaking with Hazel Henderson at 1-2 pm PST, information here.

564. Sunday, Oct. 28, Keynote Speaker; The Buck Starts Here, 2:00pm, sponsored by the Kairos Occasional Speakers Series & OFOR, Kairos Milwaukie UCC, Milwaukie, OR.

563. Saturday, Oct. 27, Keynote Speaker; OFOR Saturday Symposium: The Buck Starts Here, 10am - 3pm, Molalla, OR

562. Friday-Sunday, Oct. 26-28, Keynote Speaker; Oregon Fellowship of Reconciliation Fall Retreat - The Buck Starts Here, Camp Adams, Molalla, OR, Friday, 5pm- Sunday 12 noon

561. Friday, October 26, Invited Commentator; screening of “HEIST” (new documentary about the roots of the American economic crisis), sponsored by First Unitarian Church of Portland's Economic Justice Action Groups, Alliance for Democracy, KBOO, Move to Amend, 7:00pm, First Unitarian Church, Portland, OR

560. (Oct. 25-28, Bioneers Conference, Portland, OR)
Oct. 25, Keynote Speaker; sponsored by Portland Fellowship of Reconciliation (PFOR) and the First Unitarian Church of Portland's Economic Justice and Peace Action Groups, 7:00-8:30pm, First Unitarian Church, Portland, OR

559. Oct. 24, interview with Per Fagereng, KBOO radio, Portland, 9 am PST

558. Oct. 24, KPFA "Guns and Butter" interview. Listen to archived show here.

557. Oct. 21, speaker at BBQed Oysters and Beer Fundraiser Party for PBI, San Rafael, CA, 4 pm PST

556. Oct. 14, Live Gaiam tv interview appearance. Watch it here free at 7pm EST.

555. Oct. 12, interview with Matt Rothschild of The Progressive, 10 a.m. Central time

554. October 11-14, speaker, Economic Democracy Collaborative, Madison, Wisconsin

553. Oct. 11, radio interview with Norm Stockwell, WORT, 12 pm CST

552. Oct. 9, interview with Kevin Barrett, No Lies Radio, listen to archive here.

551. Oct. 8, interview, "Mountain Hours Revolution Radio" with Wayne Walton, on RBN, 12-1 pm PST

550. Oct. 7, interview with Lloyd D'Aguilar, "Looking Back Looking Forward", http://lookingbacklookingforward.com/, 2 pm EST

549. Sept. 26, interview with Douglas Newberry, markettoolbox.tv, 1pm EST. Listen here.

548. Sept. 25, interview with Dr. Stanley Montieth, radioliberty.com, 3pm PST

547. Sept. 24, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PST.

546. Sept. 22, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST

545. Sept. 17 interview along with Hazel Henderson, National Teach In for Occupy Wall Street, http://www.livestream.com/owshdtv 5pm EST

544. Sept. 10, interview with Thomas Taplin, Dukascopy TV (Switzerland), 7 am PST Watch and listen here

543. Sept. 7, interview with Mike Harris, republicbroadcasting.org, 6 am PST

542. Sept. 6, interview with Douglas Newberry, markettoolbox.tv, 1pm EST. Listen here.

541. Aug 28, interview, the Meria Heller Show, 11 am PST. Listen to archive here. And listen to excellent Meria Heller show here.

540. Aug 26, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, listen to archive here.

539. August 21, interview with Charlie McGrath, wideawakenews.com. Listen to archive here.

538. Aug 20, interview with Kim Greenhouse, It's Rainmaking Time, listen here.

537. Aug 16, interview with Mike Harris, republicbroadcasting.org, 6 am PST

536. Aug. 14, interview, TheAndyCaldwellshow.com, 4:30pm PST

535. August 13, interview with American Free Press, 1 pm PST

534. July 24, interview along with Victoria Grant, The People Speak, 6pm, PST

533. July 24, interview with Kevin Barrett, NoLiesRadio.org, 9 am PST

532. July 23, interview with Charlie McGrath, wideawakenews.com, 6 pm PST

531. July 22, interview with Dave Hodges, The Common Sense Show, 7 pm PST

530. July 22, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST. Listen to archive here.

529. July 19, interview with Mike Beevers, KFCF Fresno, 4:30 pm PST

528. July 10-12, Speaker, Conference on Social Transformation, Faculty of Economics, Split University, Split Croatia

527. July 10, video interview with Max Keiser, the Keiser Report, on the ESM. Watch it here.

526. July 7, Interview with Phil Mackesy, This Week in Money, TalkDigitalNetwork.com, 3 pm PST

525. July 6, video interview with Dr. Mercola, see it here.

524. June 23, Interview with Al Korelin, The Korelin Economics Report, 1 pm PST. Listen to archive here.

523. June 21, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Radio Report, 4:30 pm PST

522. June 21, interview on the Gary Null Show, 9:20 am PST

521. June 18, interview with Ken Rose, What Now radio show, KOWS RADIO OCCIDENTAL 107.3 FM, 1 pm PST. Listen to archive here.

520. June 17, interview with Bill Resnick, KBOO radio, 9 am PST

519. June 16 interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST. Listen to archive here.

518. June 9, interview with Sylvia Richardson, Latin Waves, 9:45 am PST. Listen to archive here.

517. June 5, interview, Truth Quest With Melodee, KHEN radio, 7pm PST

516. June 2, interview about Web of Debt, Our Common Ground,http://www.blogtalkradio.com/OCG, 7pm PST

515. June 1, interview with Robert Stark, The Stark Truth listen here.

514. Newly available video of interview on "Moral Politics" -- see it here

513. May 30, interview, The Tim Dahaney Show, ll am PST

512. May 28, interview with Pedro Gatos, "Bringing Light into Darkness", KOOP.ORG, 6 pm CST

511. May 24, interview, Make It Plain With Mark Thompson, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, 2pm PST

510. May 20, interview, Women's View Radio, blogtalkradio.com, 10 am Central Time. Listen here.

509. May 13, interview, www.Blogtalkradio.com/fixyourmortgagemess, 4:15 pm PST

508. May 12, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST Listen here.

507. May 9, seminar, Re-imagining Money and Credit, Art bldg. rm 103, El Camino college, Torrance, Ca. 5-7:30 pm

506. May 8, interview with Mike Harris, republicbroadcasting.org, 9 am EST

505. May 7, radio discussion on "The Myth of Austerity", Connect the Dots, KPFK Los Angeles, 7 am PST. Listen here.

504. May 4, interview The Unsolicited Opinion, republicbroadcasting.org, 8 am PST

503. April 27-28, speaker, Public Banking Institute Conference, Friends Center, Philadelphia. Listen here.

502. April 25, speaker Global Teach-In (globalteachin.com), 12 noon EST

501. April 17, Interview with Leo Steel, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lasteelshoworg, 8:30 pm EST. Listen here.. 31 minutes in.

500. April 14, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST

499. April 14, interview with Al Korelin, The Korelin Economics Report

498. April 10th-12th Speaker at Claremont Conference, “Creating Money in a Finite World” Claremont, CA . See video here.

497. April 5, interview , This Week In Money with Phil Mackesy (howestreet.com) 12:30 PST. Listen to the archive here.

496. April 3, speaker at COMER with Paul Hellyer, "Escape From the Web of Debt," Toronto, 7:30 pm

495. March 27, speaker on "Why are we so Broke? New ways to look at the Finances of our State and City," League of Women Voters luncheon, San Diego, 12 noon

494.5 March 24, radio interview, Mandelman Matters. Listen here.

494. March 17, speaker via skype, SCADS conference, London

493. March 15, interview with Per Fagereng, Fight the Empire, KBOO radio, 9:30 am PST

492. March 15, speaker, San Rafael City Hall 6 pm

491. March 13, speaker at Sergio Lub's house, Walnut Creek, info at Favors.org, 6pm

490. March 11, speaker, TedxNewWallStreet. See it here.

489. March 10, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST

488. March 6, interview with Melinda Pillsbury-Foster, http://radio.rumormillnews.com/podcast/, 11 am PST

487. Feb. 25, interview with Martin Andelman, http://www.mandelman.ml-implode.com, 9:30 am PST

486. Feb. 25, interview, This Week In Money with Phil Mackesy (howestreet.com), 3 pm PST

485. Feb. 25, interview on CIVL Radio, Latin Waves, How Greece Could Take Down Wall Street, 11:30am PST

484. Feb 23, interview with Thomas Kiely, INN World Report Radio, 7:30 pm EST

483. Feb. 17, featured speaker, Public Banking in America weekly call, 9 am PST

482. Feb. 11, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST

481. Feb. 8, interview with Mike Beevers, KFCF Fresno, 4:30 pm PST

480. Feb. 7, interview with Kevin Barrett, NoLiesRadio.org, 9 am PST; listen to archive here

479. Feb. 6, participant, Occupiers and Wells Fargo Executives Gather to Discuss the American Foreclosure Crisis, The Center of Nonprofit Management at California Endowment Building 1000 N. Alameda, Los Angeles, meeting 3 pm and press conference 5:30 pm

478. Feb. 2, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report Radio, 7:30 pm EST

477. Feb. 2, interview with Patrick Timpone, oneradionetwork.com, naturalnewsradio.com. Listen to archive here

476. Jan. 31, interview, Liberty Coins and Precious Metals, 9 am PST

475. Jan. 27, interview KPFA, Project Censored, 8:30 am PST

474. Jan. 27, FILMS4CHANGE-INSIDEJOB, panel speaker, Edye Second Space, Santa Monica Performing Arts Center, 7:30 pm

473. Jan 22, interview with Dave Hodges, The Common Sense Show, 7:30 pm PST. Listen live here.

472. Jan. 20, interview with Mike Harris, The Republic Broadcasting Network, 7 am PST

471. Jan. 16, interview with Rob Lorei, WMNF fm, Tampa, 2 pm PST

470. Jan. 14, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST

469. Jan. 11, interview with Jeff Rense, rense.com, 8pm PST

The similarities between 2007 and 2014 continue to pile up.  As you are about to see, U.S. home sales fell dramatically throughout 2007 even as the mainstream media, our politicians and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke promised us that everything was going to be just fine and that we definitely were not going to experience [...]

Sixteen of the world’s largest banks have been caught colluding to rig global interest rates.  Why are we doing business with a corrupt global banking cartel?

United States Attorney General Eric Holder has declared that the too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks are too big to prosecute.  But an outraged California jury might have different ideas. As noted in the California legal newspaper The Daily Journal:

California juries are not bashful – they have been known to render massive punitive damages awards that dwarf the award of compensatory (actual) damages.For example, in one securities fraud case jurors awarded $5.7 million in compensatory damages and $165 million in punitive damages. . . . And in a tobacco case with $5.5 million in compensatory damages, the jury awarded $3 billion in punitive damages . . . .

The question, then, is how to get Wall Street banks before a California jury. How about charging them with common law fraud and breach of contract?  That’s what the FDIC just did in its massive 24-count civil suit for damages for LIBOR manipulation, filed in March 2014 against sixteen of the world’s largest banks, including the three largest US banks – JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup.   

LIBOR (the London Interbank Offering Rate) is the benchmark rate at which banks themselves can borrow. It is a crucial rate involved in over $400 trillion in derivatives called interest-rate swaps, and it is set by the sixteen private megabanks behind closed doors.

The biggest victims of interest-rate swaps have been local governments, universities, pension funds, and other public entities. The banks have made renegotiating these deals prohibitively expensive, and renegotiation itself is an inadequate remedy. It is the equivalent of the grocer giving you an extra potato when you catch him cheating on the scales. A legal action for fraud is a more fitting and effective remedy. Fraud is grounds both for rescission (calling off the deal) as well as restitution (damages), and in appropriate cases punitive damages.

Trapped in a Fraud

Nationally, municipalities and other large non-profits are thought to have as much as $300 billion in outstanding swap contracts based on LIBOR, deals in which they are trapped due to prohibitive termination fees. According to a 2010 report by the SEIU (Service Employees International Union):

The overall effect is staggering. Banks are estimated to have collected as much as $28 billion in termination fees alone from state and local governments over the past two years. This does not even begin to account for the outsized net payments that state and local governments are now making to the banks. . . .

While the press have reported numerous stories of cities like Detroit, caught with high termination payments, the reality is there are hundreds (maybe even thousands) more cities, counties, utility districts, school districts and state governments with swap agreements [that] are causing cash strapped local and city governments to pay millions of dollars in unneeded fees directly to Wall Street.

All of these entities could have damage claims for fraud, breach of contract and rescission; and that is true whether or not they negotiated directly with one of the LIBOR-rigging banks.

To understand why, it is necessary to understand how swaps work. As explained in my last article here, interest-rate swaps are sold to parties who have taken out loans at variable interest rates, as insurance against rising rates. The most common swap is one where counterparty A (a university, municipal government, etc.) pays a fixed rate to counterparty B (the bank), while receiving from B a floating rate indexed to a reference rate such as LIBOR. If interest rates go up, the municipality gets paid more on the swap contract, offsetting its rising borrowing costs. If interest rates go down, the municipality owes money to the bank on the swap, but that extra charge is offset by the falling interest rate on its variable rate loan. The result is to fix borrowing costs at the lower variable rate.

At least, that is how they are supposed to work. The catch is that the swap is a separate financial agreement – essentially an ongoing bet on interest rates. The borrower owes both the interest onits variable rate loan and what it must pay on its separate swap deal. And the benchmarks for the two rates don’t necessarily track each other. The rate owed on the debt is based on something called the SIFMA municipal bond index.  The rate owed by the bank is based on the privately-fixed LIBOR rate.

As noted by Stephen Gandel on CNNMoney, when the rate-setting banks started manipulating LIBOR, the two rates decoupled, sometimes radically. Public entities wound up paying substantially more than the fixed rate they had bargained for – a failure of consideration constituting breach of contract. Breach of contract is grounds for rescission and damages.

Pain and Suffering in California

The SEIU report noted that no one has yet completely categorized all the outstanding swap deals entered into by local and state governments.  But in a sampling of swaps within California, involving ten cities and counties (San Francisco, Corcoran, Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Oakland, Oxnard, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Riverside, and Sacramento), one community college district, one utility district, one transportation authority, and the state itself, the collective tab was $365 million in swap payments annually, with total termination fees exceeding $1 billion.

Omitted from the sample was the University of California system, which alone is reported to have lost tens of millions of dollars on interest-rate swaps. According to an article in the Orange County Register on February 24, 2014, the swaps now cost the university system an estimated $6 million a year. University accountants estimate that the 10-campus system will lose as much as $136 million over the next 34 years if it remains locked into the deals, losses that would be reduced only if interest rates started to rise. According to the article:

Already officials have been forced to unwind a contract at UC Davis, requiring the university to pay $9 million in termination fees and other costs to several banks. That sum would have covered the tuition and fees of 682 undergraduates for a year.

The university is facing the losses at a time when it is under tremendous financial stress. Administrators have tripled the cost of tuition and fees in the past 10 years, but still can’t cover escalating expenses. Class sizes have increased. Families have been angered by the rising price of attending the university, which has left students in deeper debt.

Peter Taylor, the university’s Chief Financial Officer, defended the swaps, saying he was confident that interest rates would rise in coming years, reversing what the deals have lost. But for that to be true, rates would have to rise by multiples that would drive interest on the soaring federal debt to prohibitive levels, something the Federal Reserve is not likely to allow.

The Revolving Door

The UC’s dilemma is explored in a report titled “Swapping Our Future: How Students and Taxpayers Are Funding Risky UC Borrowing and Wall Street Profits.” The authors, a group called Public Sociologists of Berkeley, say that two factors were responsible for the precipitous decline in interest rates that drove up UC’s relative borrowing costs. One was the move by the Federal Reserve to push interest rates to record lows in order to stabilize the largest banks. The other was the illegal effort by major banks to manipulate LIBOR, which indexes interest rates on most bonds issued by UC.

Why, asked the authors, has UC’s management not tried to renegotiate the deals? They pointed to the revolving door between management and Wall Street. Unlike in earlier years, current and former business and finance executives now play a prominent role on the UC Board of Regents.

They include Chief Financial Officer Taylor, who walked through the revolving door from Lehman Brothers, where he was a top banker in Lehman’s municipal finance business in 2007. That was when the bank sold the university a swap related to debt at UCLA that has now become the source of its biggest swap losses. The university hired Taylor for his $400,000-a-year position in 2009, and he has continued to sign contracts for swaps on its behalf since.

Investigative reporter Peter Byrne notes that the UC regent’s investment committee controls $53 billion in Wall Street investments, and that historically it has been plagued by self-dealing. Byrne writes:

Several very wealthy, politically powerful men are fixtures on the regent’s investment committee, including Richard C. Blum (Wall Streeter, war contractor, and husband of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein), and Paul Wachter (Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s long-time business partner and financial advisor). The probability of conflicts of interest inside this committee—as it moves billions of dollars between public and private companies and investment banks—is enormous.

Blum’s firm Blum Capital is also an adviser to CalPERS, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which also got caught in the LIBOR-rigging scandal. “Once again,” said CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Joseph Dear of the LIBOR-rigging, “the financial services industry demonstrated that it cannot be trusted to make decisions in the long-term interests of investors.” If the financial services industry cannot be trusted, it needs to be replaced with something that can be.

Remedies

The Public Sociologists of Berkeley recommend renegotiation of the onerous interest rate swaps, which could save up to $200 million for the UC system; and evaluation of the university’s legal options concerning the manipulation of LIBOR. As demonstrated in the new FDIC suit, those options include not just renegotiating on better terms but rescission and damages for fraud and breach of contract. These are remedies that could be sought by local governments and public entities across the state and the nation.

The larger question is why our state and local governments continue to do business with a corrupt global banking cartel. There is an alternative. They could set up their own publicly-owned banks, on the model of the state-owned Bank of North Dakota. Fraud could be avoided, profits could be recaptured, and interest could become a much-needed source of public revenue. Credit could become a public utility, dispensed as needed to benefit local residents and local economies.

__________________

Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and a candidate for California State Treasurer running on a state bank platform. She is the author of twelve books, including the best-selling Web of Debt and her latest book, The Public Bank Solution, which explores successful public banking models historically and globally.

Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary

Today’s guest on “It’s Our Money” is Nomi Prins, speaking on her blockbuster new book All the Presidents’ Bankers. Listen to the archive here.

Also check the archives for Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers on the burgeoning activist movement; Prof. Robert Hockett on the use of eminent domain to help underwater homeowners; and Prof. Timothy Canova on the Federal Reserve.

Great fun interviewing our favorite experts, on topics we think will interest you!

Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary

Taxpayers are paying billions of dollars for a swindle pulled off by the world’s biggest banks, using a form of derivative called interest-rate swaps; and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has now joined a chorus of litigants suing over it. According to an SEIU report:

Derivatives . . . have turned into a windfall for banks and a nightmare for taxpayers. . . . While banks are still collecting fixed rates of 3 to 6 percent, they are now regularly paying public entities as little as a tenth of one percent on the outstanding bonds, with rates expected to remain low in the future. Over the life of the deals, banks are now projected to collect billions more than they pay state and local governments – an outcome which amounts to a second bailout for banks, this one paid directly out of state and local budgets.

It is not just that local governments, universities and pension funds made a bad bet on these swaps. The game itself was rigged, as explained below. The FDIC is now suing in civil court for damages and punitive damages, a lead that other injured local governments and agencies would be well-advised to follow. But they need to hurry, because time on the statute of limitations is running out.

The Largest Cartel in World History

On March 14, 2014, the FDIC filed suit for LIBOR-rigging against sixteen of the world’s largest banks – including the three largest US banks (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup), the three largest UK banks, the largest German bank, the largest Japanese bank, and several of the largest Swiss banks. Bill Black, professor of law and economics and a former bank fraud investigator, calls them “the largest cartel in world history, by at least three and probably four orders of magnitude.”

LIBOR (the London Interbank Offering Rate) is the benchmark rate by which banks themselves can borrow. It is a crucial rate involved in hundreds of trillions of dollars in derivative trades, and it is set by these sixteen megabanks privately and in secret.

Interest rate swaps are now a $426 trillion business. That’s trillion with a “t” – about seven times the gross domestic product of all the countries in the world combined. According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, in 2012 US banks held $183.7 trillion in interest-rate contracts, with only four firms representing 93% of total derivative holdings; and three of the four were JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America, the US banks being sued by the FDIC over manipulation of LIBOR.

Lawsuits over LIBOR-rigging have been in the works for years, and regulators have scored some very impressive regulatory settlements. But so far, civil actions for damages have been unproductive for the plaintiffs. The FDIC is therefore pursuing another tack.

But before getting into all that, we need to look at how interest-rate swaps work. It has been argued that the counterparties stung by these swaps got what they bargained for – a fixed interest rate. But that is not actually what they got. The game was rigged from the start.

The Sting

Interest-rate swaps are sold to parties who have taken out loans at variable interest rates, as insurance against rising rates. The most common swap is one where counterparty A (a university, municipal government, etc.) pays a fixed rate to counterparty B (the bank), while receiving from B a floating rate indexed to a reference rate such as LIBOR. If interest rates go up, the municipality gets paid more on the swap contract, offsetting its rising borrowing costs. If interest rates go down, the municipality owes money to the bank on the swap, but that extra charge is offset by the falling interest rate on its variable rate loan. The result is to fix borrowing costs at the lower variable rate.

At least, that is how it’s supposed to work. The catch is that the swap is a separate financial agreement – essentially an ongoing bet on interest rates. The borrower owes both the interest onits variable rate loan and what it must pay out on this separate swap deal. And the benchmarks for the two rates don’t necessarily track each other. As explained by Stephen Gandel on CNN Money:

The rates on the debt were based on something called the Sifma municipal bond index, which is named after the industry group that maintains the index and tracks muni bonds. And that’s what municipalities should have bought swaps based on.

Instead, Wall Street sold municipalities Libor swaps, which were easier to trade and [were] quickly becoming a gravy train for the banks.

Historically, Sifma and LIBOR moved together. But that was before the greatest-ever global banking cartel got into the game of manipulating LIBOR. Gandel writes:

In 2008 and 2009, Libor rates, in general, fell much faster than the Sifma rate. At times, the rates even went in different directions. During the height of the financial crisis, Sifma rates spiked. Libor rates, though, continued to drop. The result was that the cost of the swaps that municipalities had taken out jumped in price at the same time that their borrowing costs went up, which was exactly the opposite of how the swaps were supposed to work.

The two rates had decoupled, and it was chiefly due to manipulation. As noted in the SEUI report:

[T]here is . . . mounting evidence that it is no accident that these deals have gone so badly, so quickly for state and local governments. Ongoing investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the California, Florida, and Connecticut Attorneys General implicate nearly every major bank in a nationwide conspiracy to rig bids and drive up the fixed rates state and local governments pay on their derivative contracts.

Changing the Focus to Fraud

Suits to recover damages for collusion, antitrust violations and racketeering (RICO), however, have so far failed. In March 2013, SDNY Judge Naomi Reece Buchwald dismissed antitrust and RICO claims brought by investors and traders in actions consolidated in her court, on the ground that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the claims. She held that the rate-setting banks’ actions did not affect competition, because those banks were not in competition with one another with respect to LIBOR rate-setting; and that “the alleged collusion occurred in an arena in which defendants never did and never were intended to compete.”

Okay, the defendants weren’t competing with each other. They were colluding with each other, in order to unfairly compete with the rest of the financial world – local banks, credit unions, and the state and local governments they lured into being counterparties to their rigged swaps. The SDNY ruling is on appeal to the Second Circuit.

In the meantime, the FDIC is taking another approach. Its 24-count complaint does include antitrust claims, but the emphasis is on damages for fraud and conspiring to keep the LIBOR rate low to enrich the banks. The FDIC is not the first to bring such claims, but its massive suit adds considerable weight to the approach.

Why would keeping interest rates low enrich the rate-setting banks? Don’t they make more money if interest rates are high?

The answer is no. Unlike most banks, they make most of their money not from ordinary commercial loans but from interest rate swaps. The FDIC suit seeks to recover losses caused to 38 US banking institutions that did make their profits from ordinary business and consumer loans – banks that failed during the financial crisis and were taken over by the FDIC. They include Washington Mutual, the largest bank failure in US history. Since the FDIC had to cover the deposits of these failed banks, it clearly has standing to recover damages, and maybe punitive damages, if intentional fraud is proved.

The Key Role of the Federal Reserve

The rate-rigging banks have been caught red-handed, but the greater manipulation of interest rates was done by the Federal Reserve itself. The Fed aggressively drove down interest rates to save the big banks and spur economic recovery after the financial collapse. In the fall of 2008, it dropped the prime rate (the rate at which banks borrow from each other) nearly to zero.

This gross manipulation of interest rates was a giant windfall for the major derivative banks. Indeed, the Fed has been called a tool of the global banking cartel. It is composed of 12 branches, all of which are 100% owned by the private banks in their districts; and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has always been the most important by far of these regional Fed banks. New York, of course is where Wall Street is located.

LIBOR is set in London; but as Simon Johnson observed in a New York Times article titled The Federal Reserve and the LIBOR Scandal, the Fed has jurisdiction whenever the “safety and soundness” of the US financial system is at stake. The scandal, he writes, “involves egregious, flagrant criminal conduct, with traders caught red-handed in e-mails and on tape.” He concludes:

This could even become a “tobacco moment,” in which an industry is forced to acknowledge its practices have been harmful – and enters into a long-term agreement that changes those practices and provides continuing financial compensation.

Bill Black concurs, stating, “Our system is completely rotten. All of the largest banks are involved—eagerly engaged in this fraud for years, covering it up.” The system needs a complete overhaul.

In the meantime, if the FDIC can bring a civil action for breach of contract and fraud, so can state and local governments, universities, and pension funds. The possibilities this opens up for California (where I’m currently running for State Treasurer) are huge. Fraud is grounds for rescission (terminating the contract) without paying penalties, potentially saving taxpayers enormous sums in fees for swap deals that are crippling cities, universities and other public entities across the state. Fraud is also grounds for punitive damages, something an outraged jury might be inclined to impose. My next post will explore the possibilities for California in more detail. Stay tuned.

______

Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and a candidate for California State Treasurer running on a state bank platform. She is the author of twelve books, including the best-selling Web of Debt and her latest book, The Public Bank Solution, which explores successful public banking models historically and globally.

Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary Tagged: | FDIC, interest rate swaps, JPMorganChase, LIBOR manipulation

By Susan Duclos

In the video below from Finance And Liberty.com, Elijah Johnson interviews Jim Willie, but there is a quote at the very beginning which I will transcribe here and then just let the video interview speak for itself... it is powerful and encompasses the events we are seeing in the world today.

"For thirty years we've been exporting price inflation. Now we're going to import 200% price inflation... this is going to be a nightmare of price inflation and product shortages... and then you get the violence at the supermarkets, at the gas stations, and at the ATM machines... society is going to have a hard time managing it, Martial Law's a guarantee." - Jim Willie

Via the video details

The credit card business is now the banking industry’s biggest cash cow, and it’s largely due to lucrative hidden fees. 

You pay off your credit card balance every month, thinking you are taking advantage of the “interest-free grace period” and getting free credit. You may even use your credit card when you could have used cash, just to get the free frequent flier or cash-back rewards. But those popular features are misleading. Even when the balance is paid on time every month, credit card use imposes a huge hidden cost on users—hidden because the cost is deducted from what the merchant receives, then passed on to you in the form of higher prices.

Visa and MasterCard charge merchants about 2% of the value of every credit card transaction, and American Express charges even more. That may not sound like much. But consider that for balances that are paid off monthly (meaning most of them), the banks make 2% or more on a loan averaging only about 25 days (depending on when in the month the charge was made and when in the grace period it was paid). Two percent interest for 25 days works out to a 33.5% return annually (1.02^(365/25) – 1), and that figure may be conservative.

Merchant fees were originally designed as a way to avoid usury and Truth-in-Lending laws. Visa and MasterCard are independent entities, but they were set up by big Wall Street banks, and the card-issuing banks get about 80% of the fees. The annual returns not only fall in the usurious category, but they are returns on other people’s money – usually the borrower’s own money!  Here is how it works . . . .

The Ultimate Shell Game

Economist Hyman Minsky observed that anyone can create money; the trick is to get it accepted. The function of the credit card company is to turn your IOU, or promise to pay, into a “negotiable instrument” acceptable in the payment of debt. A negotiable instrument is anything that is signed and convertible into money or that can be used as money.

Under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, when you sign the merchant’s credit card charge receipt, you are creating a “negotiable instrument or other writing which evidences a right to the payment of money.” This negotiable instrument is deposited electronically into the merchant’s checking account, a special account required of all businesses that accept credit.  The account goes up by the amount on the receipt, indicating that the merchant has been paid.  The charge receipt is forwarded to an “acquiring settlement bank,” which bundles your charges and sends them to your own bank. Your bank then sends you a statement and you pay the balance with a check, causing your transaction account to be debited at your bank.

The net effect is that your charge receipt (a negotiable instrument) has become an “asset” against which credit has been advanced.  The bank has simply monetized your IOU, turning it into money.  The credit cycle is so short that this process can occur without the bank’s own money even being involved. Debits and credits are just shuffled back and forth between accounts.

Timothy Madden is a Canadian financial analyst who built software models of credit card accounts in the early 1990s. In personal correspondence, he estimates that payouts from the bank’s own reserves are necessary only about 2% of the time; and the 2% merchant’s fee is sufficient to cover these occasions. The “reserves” necessary to back the short-term advances are thus built into the payments themselves, without drawing from anywhere else.

As for the interest, Madden maintains:

The interest is all gravy because the transactions are funded in fact by the signed payment voucher issued by the card-user at the point of purchase. Assume that the monthly gross sales that are run through credit/charge-cards globally double, from the normal $300 billion to $600 billion for the year-end holiday period. The card companies do not have to worry about where the extra $300 billion will come from because it is provided by the additional $300 billion of signed vouchers themselves. . . .

That is also why virtually all banks everywhere have to write-off 100% of credit/charge-card accounts in arrears for 180 days. The basic design of the system recognizes that, once set in motion, the system is entirely self-financing requiring zero equity investment by the operator . . . . The losses cannot be charged off against the operator’s equity because they don’t have any. In the early 1990′s when I was building computer/software models of the credit/charge-card system, my spreadsheets kept “blowing up” because of “divide by zero” errors in my return-on-equity display.

A Private Sales Tax

All this sheds light on why the credit card business has become the most lucrative pursuit of the banking industry. At one time, banking was all about taking deposits and making commercial and residential loans. But in recent years, according to the Federal Reserve, “credit card earnings have been almost always higher than returns on all commercial bank activities.”

Partly, this is because the interest charged on credit card debt is higher than on other commercial loans. But it is on the fees that the banks really make their money. There are late payment fees, fees for exceeding the credit limit, balance transfer fees, cash withdrawal fees, and annual fees, in addition to the very lucrative merchant fees that accrue at the point of sale whether the customer pays his bill or not. The merchant absorbs the fees, and the customers cover the cost with higher prices.

A 2% merchants’ fee is the financial equivalent of a 2% sales tax – one that now adds up to over $30 billion annually in the US. The effect on trade is worse than either a public sales tax or a financial transaction tax (or Tobin tax), since these taxes are designed to be spent back into the economy on services and infrastructure. A private merchant’s tax simply removes purchasing power from the economy.

As financial blogger Yves Smith observes:

[W]hen anyone brings up Tobin taxes (small charges on every [financial] trade) as a way to pay for the bailout and discourage speculation, the financial services industry becomes utterly apoplectic. . . . Yet here in our very midst, we have a Tobin tax equivalent on a very high proportion of retail trade. . . . [Y]ou can think of the rapacious Visa and Mastercharge charges for debit transactions . . . as having two components: the fee they’d be able to charge if they faced some competition, and the premium they extract by controlling the market and refusing to compete on price. In terms of its effect on commerce, this premium is worse than a Tobin tax.

A Tobin tax is intended to have the positive effect of dampening speculation. A private tax on retail sales has the negative effect of dampening consumer trade. It is a self-destruct mechanism that consumes capital and credit at every turn of the credit cycle.

The lucrative credit card business is a major factor in the increasing “financialization” of the economy. Companies like General Electric are largely abandoning product innovation and becoming credit card companies, because that’s where the money is. Financialization is killing the economy, productivity, innovation, and consumer demand.

Busting the Monopoly

Exorbitant merchant fees are made possible because the market is monopolized by a tiny number of credit card companies, and entry into the market is difficult. To participate, you need to be part of a network, and the network requires that all participating banks charge a pre-set fee.

The rules vary, however, by country. An option available in some countries is to provide cheaper credit card services through publicly-owned banks. In Costa Rica, 80% of deposits are held in four publicly-owned banks; and all offer Visa/MC debit cards and will take Visa/MC credit cards. Businesses that choose to affiliate with the two largest public banks pay no transaction fees for that bank’s cards, and for the cards of other banks they pay only a tiny fee, sufficient to cover the bank’s costs.

That works in Costa Rica; but in the US, Visa/MC fees are pre-set, and public banks would have to charge that fee to participate in the system. There is another way, however, that they could recapture the merchant fees and use them for the benefit of the people: by returning them in the form of lower taxes or increased public services.

Local governments pay hefty fees for credit card use themselves. According to the treasurer’s office, the City and County of San Francisco pay $4 million annually just for bank fees, and more than half this sum goes to merchant fees. If the government could recapture these charges through its own bank, it could use the proceeds to expand public services without raising taxes.

If we allowed government to actually make some money, it could be self-funding without taxing the citizens. When an alternative public system is in place, the private mega-bank dinosaurs will no longer be “too big to fail.” They can be allowed to fade into extinction, in a natural process of evolution toward a more efficient and sustainable system of exchange.

____________

Ellen Brown is an attorney, chairman of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including the bestselling Web of Debt. In her latest book, The Public Bank Solution, she explores successful public banking models historically and globally. She is currently running for California State Treasurer on a state bank platform.

Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary

On Tuesday, new Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen went before Congress and confidently declared that "the economic recovery gained greater traction in the second half of last year" and that "substantial progress has been made in restoring the economy to health".  This resulted in glowing headlines throughout the mainstream media such as this one from [...]

This time, the Federal Reserve has created a truly global problem.  A big chunk of the trillions of dollars that it pumped into the financial system over the past several years has flowed into emerging markets.  But now that the Fed has decided to begin "the taper", investors see it as a sign to pull [...]

How Economists and Policymakers Murdered Our Economy Paul Craig Roberts The economy has been debilitated by the offshoring of middle class jobs for the benefit of corporate profits and by the Federal Reserve’s policy of Quantitative Easing in order to…

The post How Economists and Policymakers Murdered Our Economy — Paul Craig Roberts appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org.

What is Money?

The Sucker, the Conman and the Shill

The Script

December 23rd, 2013, marks the 100^th anniversary of the Federal Reserve, warranting a review of its performance.  Has it achieved the purposes for which it was designed?

The answer depends on whose purposes we are talking about.  For the banks, the Fed has served quite well.  For the laboring masses whose populist movement prompted it, not much has changed in a century.

Thwarting Populist Demands

The Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913 in response to a wave of bank crises, which had hit on average every six years over a period of 80 years. The resulting economic depressions triggered a populist movement for monetary reform in the 1890s.  Mary Ellen Lease, an early populist leader, said in a fiery speech that could have been written today:

Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street. The great common people of this country are slaves, and monopoly is the master. . . . Money rules . . . .Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us. . . .

We want money, land and transportation. We want the abolition of the National Banks, and we want the power to make loans direct from the government. We want the foreclosure system wiped out.

That was what they wanted, but the Federal Reserve Act that they got was not what the populists had fought for, or what their leader William Jennings Bryan thought he was approving when he voted for it in 1913. In the stirring speech that won him the Democratic presidential nomination in 1896, Bryan insisted:

[We] believe that the right to coin money and issue money is a function of government. . . . Those who are opposed to this proposition tell us that the issue of paper money is a function of the bank and that the government ought to go out of the banking business. I stand with Jefferson . . . and tell them, as he did, that the issue of money is a function of the government and that the banks should go out of the governing business.

He concluded with this famous outcry against the restrictive gold standard:

You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

What Bryan and the populists sought was a national currency issued debt-free and interest-free by the government, on the model of Lincoln’s Greenbacks. What the American people got was a money supply created by private banks as credit (or debt) lent to the government and the people at interest. Although the national money supply would be printed by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, it would be issued by the “bankers’ bank,” the Federal Reserve. The Fed is composed of twelve branches, all of which are 100 percent owned by the banks in their districts. Until 1935, these branches could each independently issue paper dollars for the cost of printing them, and could lend them at interest.

1929: The Fed Triggers the Worst Bank Run in History

The new system was supposed to prevent bank runs, but it clearly failed in that endeavor. In 1929, the United States experienced the worst bank run in its history.

The New York Fed had been pouring newly-created money into New York banks, which then lent it to stock speculators. When the New York Fed heard that the Federal Reserve Board of Governors had held an all-night meeting discussing this risky situation, the flood of speculative funding was retracted, precipitating the 1929 stock market crash.

At that time, paper dollars were freely redeemable in gold; but banks were required to keep sufficient gold to cover only 40 percent of their deposits. When panicked bank customers rushed to cash in their dollars, gold reserves shrank. Loans then had to be recalled to maintain the 40 percent requirement, collapsing the money supply.

The result was widespread unemployment and loss of homes and savings, similar to that seen today. In a scathing indictment before Congress in 1934, Representative Louis McFadden blamed the Federal Reserve. He said:

Mr. Chairman, we have in this Country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks . . . .

The depredations and iniquities of the Fed has cost enough money to pay the National debt several times over. . . .

Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United  States  Government  institutions.  They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money lenders.

These twelve private credit monopolies were deceitfully and disloyally foisted upon this Country by the bankers who came here from Europe and repaid us our hospitality by undermining our American institutions.

Freed from the Bankers’ “Cross of Gold”

To stop the collapse of the money supply, in 1933 Roosevelt took the dollar off the gold standard within the United States. The gold standard had prevailed since the founding of the country, and the move was highly controversial. Critics viewed it as a crime. But proponents saw it as finally allowing the country to be economically sovereign.

This more benign view was taken by Beardsley Ruml, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in a presentation before the American Bar Association in 1945. He said the government was now at liberty to spend as needed to meet its budget, drawing on credit issued by its own central bank. It could do this until price inflation indicated a weakened purchasing power of the currency. Then, and only then, would the government need to levy taxes—not to fund the budget but to counteract inflation by contracting the money supply. The principal purpose of taxes, said Ruml, was “the maintenance of a dollar which has stable purchasing power over the years. Sometimes this purpose is stated as ‘the avoidance of inflation.’”

It was a remarkable realization. The government could be funded without taxes, by drawing on credit from its own central bank. Since there was no longer a need for gold to cover the loan, the central bank would not have to borrow. It could just create the money on its books. Only when prices rose across the board, signaling an excess of money in the money supply, would the government need to tax—not to fund the government but simply to keep supply (goods and services) in balance with demand (money).

Ruml’s vision is echoed today in the school of economic thought called Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). But after Roosevelt’s demise, it was not pursued. The U.S. government continued to fund itself with taxes; and when it failed to recover enough to pay its bills, it continued to borrow, putting itself in debt.

The Fed Agrees to Return the Interest

For its first half century, the Federal Reserve continued to pocket the interest on the money it issued and lent to the government. But in the 1960s, Wright Patman, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, pushed to have the Fed nationalized. To avoid that result, the Fed quietly agreed to rebate its profits to the U.S. Treasury.

In The Strange Case of Richard Milhous Nixon, published in 1973, Congressman Jerry Voorhis wrote of this concession:

It was done, quite obviously, as acknowledgment that the Federal Reserve Banks were acting on the one hand as a national bank of issue, creating the nation’s money, but on the other hand charging the nation interest on its own credit—which no true national bank of issue could conceivably, or with any show of justice, dare to do.

Rebating the interest to the Treasury was clearly a step in the right direction. But the central bank funded very little of the federal debt. Commercial banks held a large chunk of it; and as Voorhis observed, “[w]here the commercial banks are concerned, there is no such repayment of the people’s money.” Commercial banks did not rebate the interest they collected to the government, said Voorhis, although they also “‘buy’ the bonds with newly created demand deposit entries on their books—nothing more.”

Today the proportion of the federal debt held by the Federal Reserve has shot up, due to repeated rounds of “quantitative easing.” But the majority of the debt is still funded privately at interest, and most of the dollars funding it originated as “bank credit” created on the books of private banks.

Time for a New Populist Movement?

The Treasury’s website reports the amount of interest paid on the national debt each year, going back 26 years. At the end of 2013, the total for the previous 26 years came to about $9 trillion on a federal debt of $17.25 trillion. If the government had been borrowing from its own central bank interest-free during that period, the debt would have been reduced by more than half. And that was just the interest for 26 years. The federal debt has been accumulating ever since 1835, when Andrew Jackson paid it off and vetoed the Second U.S. Bank’s renewal; and all that time it has been accruing interest. If the government had been borrowing from its central bank all along, it might have had no federal debt at all today.

In 1977, Congress gave the Fed a dual mandate, not only to maintain the stability of the currency but to promote full employment.  The Fed got the mandate but not the tools, as discussed in my earlier article here.

It may be time for a new populist movement, one that demands that the power to issue money be returned to the government and the people it represents; and that the Federal Reserve be made a public utility, owned by the people and serving them. The firehose of cheap credit lavished on Wall Street needs to be re-directed to Main Street.

__________________________

Ellen Brown is an attorney, president of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including the bestselling Web of Debt. In The Public Bank Solution, her latest book, she explores successful public banking models historically and globally. Her blog articles are at EllenBrown.com. She is currently running for California State Treasurer on the Green Party ticket.

Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary Tagged: | End the Fed, Federal Reserve, populist movement, public banking

Manipulations Rule The Markets Paul Craig Roberts The Federal Reserve’s announcement on December 18 that beginning in January its monthly purchases of mortgage-backed financial instruments and US Treasury bonds would each be cut by $5 billion is puzzling, as is the financial press’s account of the market’s response. The Federal Reserve conveys a contradictory message.…

The post Manipulations Rule The Markets — Paul Craig Roberts appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org.

• margin debt hitting new all-time highs;

• bearish sentiment at all-time lows;

• market leaders peaking or approaching it;

• declining market breadth;

• earnings are falling; and

• equities "diverg(ing) dramatically from earnings and revenues.

• ahead of potential Y2K trouble; and

• post-9/11.

The unelected central planners at the Federal Reserve have decided that the time has come to slightly taper the amount of quantitative easing that it has been doing.  On Wednesday, the Fed announced that monthly purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds will be reduced from $45 billion to $40 billion, and monthly purchases of mortgage-backed securities [...]

Timothy Alexander Guzman, Silent Crow News – A major economic crisis is looming in the Caribbean.  Puerto Rico, a US Commonwealth will be the center of attention in the world of finance in the coming months ahead.  Puerto Rico’s economy has been in a recession since 2006 and its bonds are close to junk status.  Puerto Rico is facing an alarming economic downturn that is clearly unsustainable.  The economy is headed for a major collapse, one not seen since the great depression, this time it could be far worse.  Puerto Rico has $70 billion in debt and an underfunded government pension system that will be eventually face cuts which only adds to more economic uncertainties for the population.  Unemployment levels are at 14.7 percent and a mass migration of the Puerto Rican people to the United States in search of better opportunities has taking hold.  Puerto Rico’s economy is dependent upon the United States government and its corporations, which many are pharmaceutical conglomerates.  It is politically and socially a “Colonial Possession” of the United States since the Spanish-American war of 1898.  However, Puerto Rico is not alone.  The United States has other colonial possessions namely Guam, American Samoa in the Pacific and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  France and Great Britain also has “Colonial Possessions” or “Overseas Territories” in a number of regions throughout the world.  Puerto Rico is no exception to the rule; it is a colony that has been exploited politically and economically for more than a century under US rule.

Puerto Rico’s economy is in a dire situation. As of October 2013, the official number of people who are unemployed is at 14.7 percent, perhaps a lot higher if you count those that have dropped out of the labor force because they are no longer looking for employment opportunities.  The Public debt is currently at $70 Billion and increasing daily. Early this month an article written by Justin Velez-Hagan who is executive director of The National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce for Forbes magazine titled ‘Default: Puerto Rico’s Inevitable Option’ describes what lead to Puerto Rico’s debt crises:

With triple tax exemption (federal, state, and local), combined with higher-than-average yields, Puerto Rican bonds became so popular in recent years that it was able to rack up $70 billion of debt now held by institutional investors and mutual funds alike. The debt-to-GDP ratio is now nearly 70% and growing, not including pension obligations, which raises the ratio to over 90%. With a per capita debt load of $19,000 and growing, Puerto Ricans shoulder almost 4 times the burden of U.S. leader Massachusetts which carries a deficit of $5,077 per citizen

Puerto Rico’s debt is 4 times larger than Massachusetts who Velez-Hagan acknowledges as the most indebted state per citizen with $19,000. The Washington Post also sounded alarm bells concerning Puerto Rico’s economic crises. In ‘Puerto Rico, with at least $70 billion in debt, confronts a rising economic misery’ Michael A. Fletcher describes what the commonwealth faces with cuts to pensions and government jobs and a rise in taxes all across the board including small and big businesses causing a migration of Puerto Ricans to major US cities:

The economy here has been in recession for nearly eight years, crimping tax revenue and pushing the jobless rate to nearly 15 percent. Meanwhile, the government is burdened by staggering debt, spawning comparisons to bankrupt Detroit and forcing lawmakers to severely slash pensions, cut government jobs and raise taxes in a furious effort to avert default.

The implications are serious for Americans outside Puerto Rico both because a taxpayer bailout would be expensive and a default would be far more disruptive than Detroit’s record bankruptcy filing in July. Officials in San Juan and Washington are adamant that a federal bailout is not on the table, but the situation is being closely monitored by the White House, which recently named an advisory team to help Puerto Rican officials navigate the crisis.

The island’s problems have ignited an exodus not seen here since the 1950s, when 500,000 people left for jobs on the mainland. Now Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens, are again leaving in droves.  They are choosing the uncertainty of the job market in Orlando or New York City or Philadelphia over what they view as the certainty that their dreams would be crushed by the U.S. territory’s grinding economic problems.

Bloomberg Businessweek also published an article with concerns affecting the “Muni-Bond Market” that can rattle Wall Street’s Mutual Fund companies. ‘Puerto Rico’s Borrowing Binge Could Rock the Muni-Bond Market’ stated the facts:

The island’s plight affects almost anyone with a mutual fund invested in the municipal-bond market. Exempt from local, state, and federal taxes in the U.S., Puerto Rican bonds are held by 77 percent of muni funds, according to research firm Morningstar (MORN). About 180 funds, including ones run by OppenheimerFunds, Franklin Templeton Investments (BEN), and Dreyfus (BK), have 5 percent of their assets or more in Puerto Rican bonds.

General-obligation bonds, or GOs, which account for about 15 percent of the commonwealth’s public debt, carry the lowest investment-grade rating from Moody’s Investors Service (MCO) and S&P. A downgrade could force many mutual funds to sell part of their Puerto Rican holdings, flooding the market. “Puerto Rico could represent a systemic issue for the municipal-bond market,” says Carlos Colón de Armas, an economist and former official of the Government Development Bank, which conducts the island’s capital-markets transactions. “We are now in a situation where the bonds are trading like junk. I think the ratings agencies have been careful not to lower the GOs further, to avoid creating havoc in the muni-bond market.”

The Obama administration is sending a team of economic advisors according to Bloomberg News last month “With a $70 billion debt load and a substantially underfunded government pension system, the island has fueled market speculation it may need a bailout from Washington.” The report also stated what was on the agenda:

Most of the group’s work will focus on improving Puerto Rico’s management of federal funds to ensure officials are getting the amounts they are entitled to and putting them to effective use, according to the officials.  “There is less here than some people think,” said Jeffrey Farrow, who served as the Clinton White House’s liaison on Puerto Rican affairs. “This is pretty straightforward and an extension of what they have been doing in the past, but more intense, formalized and public.”

The first team of officials was scheduled to be from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Health, Education and Housing and Urban Development departments, officials said.  Puerto Rico’s education, health and housing departments are among of the biggest recipients of federal funding and have also been responsible for past Puerto Rico budget shortfalls.

The EPA’s intervention may stem from concerns regarding the ability of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to comply with new federal air quality regulations that take effect in 2015.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one of the agencies participating under Washington’s request. Washington has required that the Puerto Rico government and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) comply with new federal air quality regulations by 2015. The online news source Caribbean Business reported back on July 11th, 2013 ‘PREPA falling behind on 2015 EPA Deadline’ that Puerto Rico is in a race to meet Washington’s air-quality standards by 2015:

A high-ranking regulatory official is concerned that the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (Prepa) isn’t moving fast enough to comply with strict federal air-quality standards taking effect in two years, as industry sources told CARIBBEAN BUSINESS that key decisions on the compliance process won’t be taken until next spring.  Prepa plans to either close or convert most of its oil-firing units to natural gas to comply with the new air-quality standards, but it won’t select a liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier and decide on a method to deliver the gas to north-coast plants until March 2014, according to industry sources. That means the final contracts would probably not be enacted and finalized until the fourth quarter of 2014, they added.

Meanwhile, Prepa has an agreement with Texas-based Excelerate Energy to construct an offshore LNG terminal to feed the massive Aguirre powerplant in Guayama. A formal application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was filed in April and the project remains in the permitting phase. Excelerate officials have said they expect the facility to be in service in early 2015, but that outlook depends on getting timely federal approval on its environmental impact statement and several permits.

Puerto Rico’s plan to convert most of its oil-firing units to natural gas will have an impact on its economy. Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) does not have the economic capacity to invest in the construction of new plants that would supply natural gas. “While the cash-strapped public utility can’t afford to build its own plants, there is interest from large energy companies to construct new generation units through public-private partnerships (P3s)” the report stated. “That is especially the case because the move to natural gas isn’t just about compliance, but about bringing down power costs.” Caribbean Business said that Edgardo Fábregas, a former member of PREPA’s board confirmed that the public utility is considering a plan to construct a gas-fired plant “The former Prepa board member said the public utility was considering a longer-term plan to construct, through a P3 initiative, a massive natural gas-fired plant, probably on the site of Arecibo’s Cambalache plant, which is rarely used.” The report also said that Fábregas admitted to the costs associated with the project:

To do a project right, building a plant that could “flex up or down” rapidly and would have the capacity to power the entire north coast, would cost $7 billion, and take six years to build. The project would allow for the elimination of the Palo Seco and San Juan plants, Fábregas said. “We have to move to natural gas as soon as we can, but at the end of the day, you have to renew your system. I understand the cost and time implications involved, but if we don’t start, we will never finish,” he added.

According to Robert Bryce, a senior fellow with the Center for Energy Policy and the Environment at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative think tank based in New York City produced a report called ‘The High Cost of Renewable-Electricity Mandates’. He wrote about the effects of Washington’s new air-quality proposal:

Motivated by a desire to reduce carbon emissions, and in the absence of federal action to do so, 29 states (and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) have required utility companies to deliver specified minimum amounts of electricity from “renewable” sources, including wind and solar power. California recently adopted the most stringent of these so-called renewable portfolio standards (RPS), requiring 33 percent of its electricity to be renewable by 2020.  Proponents of the RPS plans say that the mandated restrictions will reduce harmful emissions and spur job growth, by stimulating investment in green technologies.

But this patchwork of state rules—which now affects the electricity bills of about two-thirds of the U.S. population as well as countless businesses and industrial users—has sprung up in recent years without the benefit of the states fully calculating their costs.  There is growing evidence that the costs may be too high—that the price tag for purchasing renewable energy, and for building new transmission lines to deliver it, may not only outweigh any environmental benefits but may also be detrimental to the economy, costing jobs rather than adding them.  The mandates amount to a “back-end way to put a price on carbon,” says one former federal regulator. Put another way, the higher cost of electricity is essentially a de facto carbon-reduction tax, one that is putting a strain on a struggling economy and is falling most heavily, in the way that regressive taxes do, on the least well-off among residential users.

To be sure, the mandates aren’t the only reason that electricity costs are rising—increased regulation of coal-fired power plants is also a major factor—and it is difficult to isolate the cost of the renewable mandates without rigorous cost-benefit analysis by the states.

The new mandate is called Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) that automatically “require electricity providers to supply a specified minimum amount of power to their customers from sources that qualify as “renewable,” a category that includes wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal.” The report clarified what the results of the new energy plan would bring:

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is similarly bullish on the state programs. The RPS rules are designed “to stimulate market and technology development,” the agency says, “so that, ultimately renewable energy will be economically competitive with conventional forms of electric power. States create RPS programs because of the energy, environmental, and economic benefits of renewable energy.”[4]

Although supporters of renewable energy claim that the RPS mandates will bring benefits, their contribution to the economy is problematic because they also impose costs that must be incorporated into the utility bills paid by homeowners, commercial businesses, and industrial users. And those costs are or will be substantial. Electricity generated from renewable sources generally costs more—often much more—than that produced by conventional fuels such as coal and natural gas. In addition, large-scale renewable energy projects often require the construction of many miles of high-voltage transmission lines. The cost of those lines must also be incorporated into the bills paid by consumers.

What Edgardo Fábregas forgets to mention is that Bryce’s analysis on the price of producing electricity through renewable energy sources can be astronomical. It is an amazing prediction given by the EPA under the Obama administration’s directives. It is important to note that the major players in the RPS programs are connected to Wall Street and major banks that includes Goldman Sachs who is one of President Obama’s major campaign contributors. Author and journalist Matt Taibbi wrote an article on the history of Goldman Sachs and the US government’s relationship for Rolling Stone magazine called ‘The Great American Bubble Machine’. Taibbi explains how Goldman Sachs would benefit from Washington’s air-quality mandates:

The new carbon credit market is a virtual repeat of the commodities-market casino that’s been kind to Goldman, except it has one delicious new wrinkle: If the plan goes forward as expected, the rise in prices will be government-mandated. Goldman won’t even have to rig the game. It will be rigged in advance.

Here’s how it works: If the bill passes, there will be limits for coal plants, utilities, natural-gas distributors and numerous other industries on the amount of carbon emissions (a.k.a. greenhouse gases) they can produce per year. If the companies go over their allotment, they will be able to buy “allocations” or credits from other companies that have managed to produce fewer emissions. President Obama conservatively estimates that about $646 billion worth of carbon credits will be auctioned in the first seven years; one of his top economic aides speculates that the real number might be twice or even three times that amount.

The feature of this plan that has special appeal to speculators is that the “cap” on carbon will be continually lowered by the government, which means that carbon credits will become more and more scarce with each passing year. Which means that this is a brand new commodities market where the main commodity to be traded is guaranteed to rise in price over time. The volume of this new market will be upwards of a trillion dollars annually; for comparison’s sake, the annual combined revenues of all electricity suppliers in the U.S. total $320 billion.

One other important factor to consider regarding Puerto Rico’s energy demands in the future is the supply of natural gas. Puerto Rico is hoping to secure a steady supply of natural gas from the United States for the next 100 years. “A key part of the plan is to secure a long-term LNG contract with the U.S., which has the most economical prices in the world, the result of a boon in U.S. natural gas exploration, which has unearthed a supply that experts say will last a century” according to the Caribbean Business report.  In the 2012 State of the Union Address, US President Barack Obama said “We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years, and my administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy.” F. William Endahl, a research associate at Global Research wrote a ground breaking report, ‘The Fracked-up USA Shale Gas Bubble’ wrote that the 100 year supply of natural gas is in fact an inaccurate prediction:

In a sobering report, Arthur Berman, a veteran petroleum geologist specialized in well assessment, using existing well extraction data for major shale gas regions in the US since the boom started, reached sobering conclusions. His findings point to a new Ponzi scheme which well might play out in a colossal gas bust over the next months or at best, the next two or three years. Shale gas is anything but the “energy revolution” that will give US consumers or the world gas for 100 years as President Obama was told.

Berman wrote already in 2011, “Facts indicate that most wells are not commercial at current gas prices and require prices at least in the range of $8.00 to $9.00/mcf to break even on full-cycle prices, and $5.00 to $6.00/mcf on point-forward prices. Our price forecasts ($4.00-4.55/mcf average through 2012) are below $8.00/mcf for the next 18 months. It is, therefore, possible that some producers will be unable to maintain present drilling levels from cash flow, joint ventures, asset sales and stock offerings.” [16]

Berman continued, “Decline rates indicate that a decrease in drilling by any of the major producers in the shale gas plays would reveal the insecurity of supply. This is especially true in the case of the Haynesville Shale play where initial rates are about three times higher than in the Barnett or Fayetteville. Already, rig rates are dropping in the Haynesville as operators shift emphasis to more liquid-prone objectives that have even lower gas rates. This might create doubt about the paradigm of cheap and abundant shale gas supply and have a cascading effect on confidence and capital availability.” [17]

What Berman and others have also concluded is that the gas industry key players and their Wall Street bankers backing the shale boom have grossly inflated the volumes of recoverable shale gas reserves and hence its expected supply duration. He notes, “Reserves and economics depend on estimated ultimate recoveries (EUR) based on hyperbolic, or increasingly flattening, decline profiles that predict decades of commercial production. With only a few years of production history in most of these plays, this model has not been shown to be correct, and may be overly optimistic….Our analysis of shale gas well decline trends indicates that the Estimated Ultimate Recovery per well is approximately one-half the values commonly presented by operators.” [18] In brief, the gas producers have built the illusion that their unconventional and increasingly costly shale gas will last for decades.

However, Caribbean Business says that “Prepa has invited several suppliers to bid on a project to supply the north-coast plants with natural gas. It is spelling out its gas needs at its Palo Seco and San Juan plants, letting the energy companies decide the best way to supply the natural gas” and that “Prepa has made some progress on its natural gas conversion plan, which energy experts say is the only way to bring down the high cost of electricity.” Allowing energy companies decide how to supply gas would add to the price in the long run. Russia Today recently reported that “fracking technology” is causing major environmental problems within the United States. Since 2008, the state of Texas has been experiencing more earthquakes than ever before:

Between 1970 and 2007, the area around the Texas town of Azle (pop. 10,000) experienced just two earthquakes. The peace and quiet began to change, however, at the start of 2008, when 74 minor quakes were reported in the region. Now an increasing number of people, including scientists, are speculating that natural gas production by fracking – a process that forces high pressure water and chemicals into rock in order to extract natural gas reserves – is the culprit. The problem, however, is proving the claims.

Cliff Frolich, earthquake researcher at the University of Texas, said waste water injection wells from fracking could be responsible for the recent spate of earthquake activity. “I’d say it certainly looks very possible that the earthquakes are related to injection wells,” he said in an interview with KHOU television.

Frolich left room for doubt when he said thousands of such wells have operated in Texas for decades with no quakes anywhere near them. Frolich co-authored a 2009 study on earthquake activity near Cleburne, just south of Azle, which concluded: “The possibility exists that earthquakes may be related to fluid injection.” A recent government study lent credence to Frolich’s findings.

There have been Anti-fracking protests around the world. Fracking or “hydraulic fracturing” is a water-intensive process where millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals combined are injected underground with intensive pressure to fracture rocks that surround an oil or gas well. This process then releases extra oil and gas from the rock which flows into the well. “Fracking Technology” is proving to be environmentally dangerous for the health and safety of communities located in close proximity to these well sites. It causes many problems for the air we breathe and long-term environmental damage. For example, water can become contaminated from the toxins fracking has caused. It is an environmental hazard.

EPA rules and regulations also have the potential to impose a “carbon tax option” for states according to The Hill, A Washington D.C. based daily newspaper reported last month that Brookings Institution economist Adele Morris said that a carbon excise tax can be imposed on states:

Morris, a carbon tax supporter, argues that a carbon excise tax could be part of the “menu of specific approaches” that the agency gives states that will craft plans to meet the federal guidelines. Morris suggests that the EPA could “allow states to adopt a specific state-level excise tax or fee on the carbon content of fuels combusted by the power plants regulated under this rule.”

In other words, an excise tax associated with renewable energy supplies can be added only leading to higher energy costs for households, businesses and major industries. It would also allow Puerto Rico to contribute to the environmental degradation because of its future demands of natural gas which has no guarantee of supplies for the next 100 years. It is a recipe for disaster for both the economy and the environment.

 Will new EPA rules bankrupt farmers?

It is estimated that Puerto Rico imports at least 85% of the food supply from the United States according to the Latin American Herald Tribune. ‘Puerto Rico Imports 85 Percent of Its Food’ stated that “Puerto Rico imports 85 percent of the food its residents consume due to the lack of competitiveness among companies in this U.S. commonwealth, Agriculture Secretary Javier Rivera told Efe.” Agriculture Secretary Rivera admits that the majority of food is imported from the United States even though Puerto Rico has the capability to produce its own food, but cannot compete with US food suppliers. Rivera continued “Although we have the technical capacity, we’re not able to produce competitively” Why? “The secretary attributed the drop in production to the high operating costs of growing food on the island, which are, in turn, a result of high labor costs, as well as rising energy and fertilizer prices. Rivera acknowledged that therefore many farmers – of which there are fewer than 2,000 on the island, according to recent statistics – have come to depend on government subsidies to stay in business.” With new EPA regulations, remaining farmers will bear higher-energy costs because of the EPA’s new federal air quality regulations that will start in 2015. Agriculture on the island would be affected and farmers would be economically bankrupt when energy prices begin to rise.

From the 1929 Great Depression to the Recession of 2014

Looking back to the 1930’s, Puerto Rico was in economic despair due to the effects of the Great Depression. In 1940, the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) under the leadership of Washington’s puppet governor Luis Munoz Marin came to power with 37.9% of the vote compared to 39.2% of the Republican-Socialist coalition. The PPD also won the 1944 elections with 64.8% of the vote. The PPD was determined to transform Puerto Rico’s economy from an Agricultural farm-based to an export-driven modern industrial economy.

The US and Puerto Rico governments wanted to fast track the urbanization in many areas from a rural society to a modern, industrial urban center that would resemble New York City’s economy. For a short period of time, the project did increase living wages, improved housing conditions, health care and education. It also led to equitable land reforms,. At the same time the plan increased unemployment rates because many Puerto Ricans were unqualified for the types of jobs the new Industrial economy provided. It increased the migration levels to the United States, namely New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Puerto Rico became more dependent on U.S. markets and created more public and private debts. The most important aspect of US economic and political control of Puerto Rico was the cultural transformation of the population. It became what sociologist call “Americanization”. They were subjected to American culture, media, laws, and even its foods under Washington’s economic and social plan. In ‘Economic History of Puerto Rico: Institutional Change and Capitalist Development’ by James L. Dietz, professor of economics and Latin American studies at California State University wrote:

Industrialization and the accompanying decline of agriculture after the late 1940s did nothing to expand and make permanent the relative autonomy of the early 1940s. Instead, the PPD program had just the opposite result: it laid the foundation for increased dominance by U.S. capital from the 1950s to the present. The PPD’s goal of eventual political independence, after the attainment of social justice and a solution to the island’s economic problems, faded further into the future and eventually disappeared altogether. It may be that Munoz and the PPD never really were committed to independence, as many have suggested, but it is more likely that, as the PPD’s redirection of the economy under Munoz’s leadership tied its destiny ever closer to that of the United States, what they had became what they wanted as what they had wanted slipped further and further from their grasp

In ‘How an Economy Grows and why it Crashes’ author and economist Peter Schiff stated that “The evidence supporting these claims is largely emotional. What is far more certain is that the government’s monopoly control of public projects and services almost always leads to inefficiency, corruption, graft, and decay.” Puerto Rico’s economy was under US control then as it is now. Dietz says that “From 1941 to 1949, the government followed a program of land reform, control over and development of infrastructure and institutions, administrative organization, and limited industrialization through factories owned and operated by the government.” Comparing to what Peter Schiff said the Puerto Rican government’s control of certain economic sectors led to numerous “inefficiencies” and “Decay.” The bleak economic growth of Puerto Rico did not improve through a program called ‘Operacion Manos a la Obra’ or ‘Operation Bootstrap’ in English. It was known as “Industrialization by Invitation” to attract foreign investment. It failed in the long-run. Dietz further wrote:

“Yet Operation Bootstrap made it difficult for Puerto Ricans to improve their standard of living through their own efforts, since it put control over that process in the hands of U.S. firms, whose interests did not necessarily coincide with those of the majority on the island. It is likely that no one consciously intended such results from a development program that seemed so promising, but Puerto Rico’s colonial relation with the United States prevented, or at a minimum made more difficult, a more independent existence for the economy and society”

Puerto Rico’s dependence on the US mainland became evident as the years went by, but right from the beginning of World War II, Puerto Rico’s economy suffered.  “The war shut Puerto Rico off from its primary export market and source of imported goods, and meanwhile, there were no war industries to absorb surplus labor; consequently, unemployment increased” according to Dietz.  Today, Puerto Rico is suffering from a recession that started in 2006. In another report by Caribbean Business ‘PR reverses growth forecast, now predicts another year of recession’ and stated the dire predictions by the government of Puerto Rico, “The Puerto Rico government has dropped expectations for economic growth this fiscal year as the island struggles to pull out of a marathon downturn dating back to 2006. The Planning Board said Friday it is now projecting that the economy will shrink by 0.8 percent in fiscal 2014, dropping its previous forecast for razor-thin growth of 0.2 percent.” Puerto Rico’s economy will continue to decline as the US economy continues with its own economic problems. It will become more difficult as time progresses for Puerto Rico.

The Collapsing US Dollar and the Fall of Rome   

The US Dollar as a the world’s reserve currency is in its last stages because the US owes trillions of dollars in household, corporate and financial debt and future underfunded welfare liabilities.  The demand for U.S. dollars kept prices and interest rates low. It allowed the U.S. government to acquire the economic power it needed to dominate the world economically. It allowed the Federal Reserve Bank to print dollars unconditionally. Although the US dollar is still dominate with more the 50% of foreign currency reserves in the world, a gradual transition for other currencies is coming in the near future. The dollar will eventually lose its value. Interest rates on every loan and credit card will rise.

This is a recipe for disaster, because if a country such as Puerto Rico cannot produce its own food and is dependent on a foreign source that is the most indebted nation in world history with more than $17 trillion dollars in debt which continues to increase each passing day is a serious problem for Puerto Rico’s future. Tyler Durden of zerohedge.com provided a chart in 2012 to show the fiscal danger the United States faces in the near future. Durden explains:

We present the following chart showing total US Federal debt/GDP as well as Deficit/(Surplus)/GDP since inception, or in this case as close as feasible, or 1792, which appears to be the first recorded year of historical fiscal data. We can see why readers have been so eager to see the “real big picture” – the chart is nothing short of stunning.