August 15, 2008 5:54 am
Last week, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had just announced record losses, and so had most reporting corporations. Unemployment was mounting, the foreclosure crisis was deepening, state budgets were in shambles, and massive bailouts were everywhere. Investors had every reason to expect the dollar and the stock market to plummet, and gold and oil to shoot up. Strangely, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 300 points, the dollar strengthened, and gold and oil were crushed. What happened?
Read more . . .
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/wag_the_dog.php
Posted by Ellen Brown
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There seems to be a problem with the “Read more…” link. Eager to read the rest of the article!
By Brad on August 15, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Ah! You’re right. I just fixed it. Thanks.
By Ellen Brown on August 15, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Once again…great article, Ellen.
I don’t know if you are aware of this little joke played on us by the movie makers. Disney’s “Touchstone” film’s name has an interesting history…HIS STORY.
Touchstone is a character in Shakespeare’s work, “As You Like It”. Touchstone was the “clever fool”. A fool could get away with saying anything in the King’s court, because everyone thought he was just a fool, and never took anything he said seriously.
It was a wise fool who could speak the truth in an entertaining way, even mocking the king…but never have anyone realize that he spoke the truth.
I dare say that today, we are as society, are that King’s court. I wonder if the Tavistock Institute came up with that name for Disney!
By pandora on August 15, 2008 at 3:11 pm
OOPS…typo in the last sentence!
should be “we as a society”
sorry!
By pandora on August 15, 2008 at 3:15 pm
This article does an amazing job of putting the pieces of the puzzle together. The question in my mind is just how “surprised” the US and Israel were of the quick and effective Russian response. Influencing our elections could be a master stroke to get the most aggressive candidate (McCain) elected. And “bombing gold and silver” seems a little bit too coincidental.
Next up… the “Poland Missile Crisis”.
By Roger on August 15, 2008 at 3:46 pm
To Roger — Thanks! Yes, it’s either diabolical or desperate.
To Pandora — I did my senior thesis on Shakespeare but hadn’t recalled that about “Touchstone.” Interesting – thanks!
By Ellen Brown on August 15, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Here is an excellent piece on the Georgia subject by Pat Buchanan of all people:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72405
By Birdseye on August 16, 2008 at 3:09 am
Yes I saw that — good one!
By Ellen Brown on August 16, 2008 at 3:50 am
As a direct descendant of Dr Franklin I feel that the only way out of this company of thieves called the MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA is by taking possession of our certificate of live birth away from the Treasury and Federal Reserve to re establish our status as living breathing people – sovereign entities. Currently we are corporate instruments – capita diminutio maxima – we are slaves, and have been ‘volunteered’ against our will at birth to be liable for the national debt. This has allowed a foreign power (the Central Banks and Federal Reserve ) to increase that debt as they rule over us with corrupt politicians with no oversight; to put the world in the current situation. I for one endorse violating House Resolution 1955 (the violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism act of 2007) and overthrow this corporate madness to re establish what my ancestor and his friends had in mind – a Republic under the common law. I propose that arrest and prosecution of the Zionist infiltrators and dual US/Israeli citizens orchestrating this global collapse is long over due. My great great great grandfather Ben and General Washington warned us about this possibility at the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention of 1787. (google it y’all)
Dr Franklin: “In less than 200 years our descendants will be working in the fields to furnish them substance, while they will be in the counting houses rubbing their hands”
General Washington: “It is much to be lamented that each state, long ago, has not hunted them down as pest to society and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America.”
Their fear has come to reality and exists in our Nation at this writing. A new paradigm is in order, doing the same thing over and over expecting different results is……well……..quite mad.
By August Franklin on August 16, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Yes, indeed, all things are not always what they seem. For more complete coverage of the Russian side of the British Foreign Office initiated outbreak of war in the Caucasus, see Russia Today, providing English language coverage of news from the CRS. And for critical commentary from an organization whose print publication was recently banned by the Russians, see The eXiled.
Per alleged American involvement, one should not reasonably claim such things without expressing grave concern for the manner in which both political parties in the U.S. (particularly the leadership) more or less are thoroughly penetrated by a treasonous element FDR once described as American “Toryism.” Hence my reference to the British Foreign Office. Ever skilled in the art of deception, we see the Empire’s butt kissers shouldering the blame for allowing — indeed, encouraging — a massacre in South Ossetia, when in fact the intellectual authors make their bed in the City of London (having branch offices located in lower Manhattan).
By Risk Averse Alert on August 18, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Thanks. If I had more information on how the RFC was funded, I would write a whole article on it; but I’ve researched it and could only find that one article, which has no footnotes. I just now went to the public library and the only relevant-looking book had been checked out. I do think the RFC model may be the answer to the whole problem though. The opposing theory is that Roosevelt kicked off the spiraling national debt that we’re drowning in now — and that may be true; but my argument would be that what the RFC “borrowed” was its capital base, which was then leveraged 6 times (and ultimately up to 15 times) as “credit.” The whole problem could be avoided if you skipped the capital base and just lent national credit through a truly national bank. Why do you need “reserves” if the national money supply consists of nothing more than the “full faith and credit of the United States,” and you ARE the United States? Why do you need to borrow money from banks that create it out of nothing, to form the “reserves” for lending your own credit? Roosevelt could hardly take that radical step, since he had just taken the dollar off the gold standard, which was controversial enough; but it seems to me that a sovereign government should be able to lend its own sovereign credit without “reserves” or “backing” of any kind. A government need not and should not borrow; it should issue. I get all kinds of flack when I raise that argument, and I’ve presented it more compellingly in my book; but it takes a number of pages to do, and that’s my short response. Ellen
By Ellen Brown on August 19, 2008 at 2:33 am
I’m sorry, but, what is RFC?
By Brian on August 20, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the wholly government-owned bank that advanced the credit to fund the New Deal and World War II. It advanced many more times the money it held as reserves, just as private banks do — the only time this was done by a wholly government-owned bank in our history as a nation.
By Ellen Brown on August 20, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Which financial instraments are the “quadrillion derivities about to implode” ?
Ellie
By Ellie Emmet on August 26, 2008 at 6:54 pm
The figure given by the Bank for International Settlements for all outstanding derivatives trades was $1.1 quadrillion as of June 2008.
By Ellen Brown on August 26, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Great article Ellen…..certainly the Fed and banks are scrambling around chasing their tails. Every solutions ends up creating more problems in the long run–they just can not believe that their ‘system’ is based on a flawed premise–therefore it has to finally come crashing down….
But even if it does–as we’ve seen from the first Depression/RFC, etc., after the collapse, we just start all over again…here we are about 100 years later in the same soup. That’s because we never widen the lens far enough to look at the over-riding ‘value’ system on which we build our systems–and that’s the dominator system that Riane Eisler discusses in her book, Real Wealth of Nations..creating a caring economy.
The dominator value system–a belief that overrides every major system–men over women, rich over poor, white over black, first world over third world….everything is a hierarchy of a top down–and who ever is on top controls it all. Thus, the Fed and the top 2% honestly believe that what t hey’re doing is right–because in a dominator value system world–its either dominate or be dominated. Since they’re in the domination position–they can’t possibly believe that there’s anything wrong with this…and so they work to perpetuate it.
This value system has been operating for at least 2000 years….going so long that we all accept it as the way it is. Only…we made it up…so we can actually change it once we recognize how flawed it is–because it only works for a very few at the top.
Real Wealth of Nations shows how we could transition our economy….and certainly what you’re doing Ellen, via Web of Debt is one piece on how we switch the money system from domination to caring.
Ann
By Ann on August 27, 2008 at 4:40 pm
“but it seems to me that a sovereign government should be able to lend its own sovereign credit without “reserves” or “backing” of any kind.”
I agree with you on that, Dr. Ellen. If that is the case, why don’t we give every citizen a money priting machine, so that every citizen is able to print the money whenever they need it.
By Keener on September 29, 2008 at 7:31 am
Why on earth did the US goverment give the right to print money to a group of private bankers?
And the private bankers lend the money to US goverment. ANd the US goverment have to pay the private bankers with US tax payers money. And the US goverment is forever in debt. And so do the US citizens.
I agree that the US goverment should have the sole right and responsibility to print money and to distribute money to people who can create goods and services and technology that will help mankind throughout the world.
Ideally, the wealth of a nation is limited by their natural resources such as land, minerals and brains of their citizen.
But realistically in this world, many countries are ruled by people who does not possess the long term view of utilizing the nation’s wealth. Man selfishness to rule and dictate over their own people is the cause of today’s world stupidity.
This come back to the question, why human race would empower another human to rule over them?
By Keener on September 29, 2008 at 8:03 am