Showing posts with label taxpayers fleeced. Show all posts
Showing posts with label taxpayers fleeced. Show all posts
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Your Tax Dollars At War
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Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
US Fed loaned Libya-backed bank billions
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| Dees Illustration |
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Federal Reserve lent a Libyan state-backed bank billions of dollars during the financial crisis, documents made public on Thursday have revealed.
The Arab Bank Corporation, which is today 59.3 percent owned by the Libyan government, borrowed in slices as big as $1.175 billion from the US central bank.
At the time the bank was not majority owned by the Tripoli government; other shareholders included the Kuwait Investment Authority and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Arkansas Declared Disaster Area Due To Drought
According to press releases from all of the state's congressional delegations, farmers are now eligible for emergency loans from the Farm Service Agency to help cover the losses to their crops.
The clock is now ticking on the eight-month window of opportunity to apply for those loans and for the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program.
How Farm Subsidies Harm Taxpayers, Consumers, and Farmers, Too
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Friday, November 19, 2010
This bail-out blackmail must be stopped
Taxpayers cannot be expected to pay for all the banks’ bad debts
Jeremy Warner
Telegraph
In a slip of the tongue two years ago, Gordon Brown claimed to have “saved the world” by galvanising his fellow leaders into a collective bail-out of the banking system. As is now ever more apparent, all he did was administer a little bit of roadside pain relief. The underlying injuries still fester.
What’s happening in Ireland right now is not, at root, a sovereign debt crisis, but another banking crisis. The reason it has spilled over into a problem of national solvency is that it has overwhelmed the country’s capacity to afford further bail-outs.
By the same token, the reason European policymakers are trying to force a rescue package on a reluctant Brian Cowen, the Irish prime minister, is not because Ireland has run out of money: in fact, its debt is fully funded until the middle of next year. It is because they fear Ireland’s banking crisis will become their own, as bad loans to Irish banks trigger a wave of insolvencies across Europe. They also worry that excessive use by Irish banks of European Central Bank liquidity, as everyone else dashes to get their money out, is undermining the ECB’s integrity, and therefore that of the euro as a whole.
The problem is that you cannot ultimately fix an underlying solvency problem by forcing a country to borrow even more. That only further reduces the chances of the debt ever being repaid. And if markets begin to believe that the countries on the periphery of the eurozone will be permanently underwritten by the rest, it will weaken the creditworthiness of the core: there is already some evidence of this in German bond yields.
In any case, constantly having to bail out the insolvent fringe will eventually become politically unacceptable among those forced to pick up the tab. In Germany, the EU’s bail-out fund is already subject to legal challenge, while in Britain, there is understandable horror at being roped into the Irish rescue. Why should our highly taxed businesses be forced to subsidise super-low rates of corporation tax in Ireland? It’s unfair and objectionable. Small wonder that senior officials at the Bundesbank have come round to the view that strong countries would do better to concentrate on shoring up their own banks against debt defaults in weaker countries, rather than propping up the weaker economies.
Is there any way out of this mess? One thing is for sure: taxpayers can no longer be expected to pay the costs of all this rotten lending. That game of “bail us out or suffer the consequences” has been played for long enough. It’s not just intolerable, but has become a major part of the problem.
Read Full Article
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It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!
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 |
| Getty image |
Telegraph
In a slip of the tongue two years ago, Gordon Brown claimed to have “saved the world” by galvanising his fellow leaders into a collective bail-out of the banking system. As is now ever more apparent, all he did was administer a little bit of roadside pain relief. The underlying injuries still fester.
What’s happening in Ireland right now is not, at root, a sovereign debt crisis, but another banking crisis. The reason it has spilled over into a problem of national solvency is that it has overwhelmed the country’s capacity to afford further bail-outs.
By the same token, the reason European policymakers are trying to force a rescue package on a reluctant Brian Cowen, the Irish prime minister, is not because Ireland has run out of money: in fact, its debt is fully funded until the middle of next year. It is because they fear Ireland’s banking crisis will become their own, as bad loans to Irish banks trigger a wave of insolvencies across Europe. They also worry that excessive use by Irish banks of European Central Bank liquidity, as everyone else dashes to get their money out, is undermining the ECB’s integrity, and therefore that of the euro as a whole.
The problem is that you cannot ultimately fix an underlying solvency problem by forcing a country to borrow even more. That only further reduces the chances of the debt ever being repaid. And if markets begin to believe that the countries on the periphery of the eurozone will be permanently underwritten by the rest, it will weaken the creditworthiness of the core: there is already some evidence of this in German bond yields.
In any case, constantly having to bail out the insolvent fringe will eventually become politically unacceptable among those forced to pick up the tab. In Germany, the EU’s bail-out fund is already subject to legal challenge, while in Britain, there is understandable horror at being roped into the Irish rescue. Why should our highly taxed businesses be forced to subsidise super-low rates of corporation tax in Ireland? It’s unfair and objectionable. Small wonder that senior officials at the Bundesbank have come round to the view that strong countries would do better to concentrate on shoring up their own banks against debt defaults in weaker countries, rather than propping up the weaker economies.
Is there any way out of this mess? One thing is for sure: taxpayers can no longer be expected to pay the costs of all this rotten lending. That game of “bail us out or suffer the consequences” has been played for long enough. It’s not just intolerable, but has become a major part of the problem.
Read Full Article
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Sunday, October 24, 2010
10 Ways You're Being Fleeced by Banks
Activist Post
Taxpayers are rightfully angrier than ever before about the state of the U.S. economy and the government's handling of the financial crisis; perhaps even more so than the Colonists at the original Tea Party. After all, it appears that the only group benefiting during this painful slide into recession are the very people who caused the crisis -- The Banks.
3. Credit Cards -- From marketing to teenagers with "Happy Meal-style" gifts and toys at sign-up, to Mafia-style loansharking with usury interest rates, banks use credit cards to further enslave the public. According to the credit card repayment calculator, if you owe $6,000 on a credit card with a 20 percent interest rate and only pay the minimum payment each time, it will take you 54 years to pay off that credit card. During those 54 years you will pay $26,168 in interest rate charges in addition to the $6,000 in principal that you are required to pay back. (Source)
5. Pensions/401(k) -- Although severely weakened by stock market manipulation and other fraudulent behavior, Pensions and 401(k) retirement savings plans still represent a large portion of the people's remaining liquid wealth -- and the banks want it. Nearly $4 trillion worth of retirement savings was wiped out in the first weeks of 2008, where half of the losses were traditional pension plans, while another 46 million people were riding the stock market with 401(k). It was estimated in 2009 that two-thirds of public sector pension plans were underfunded to the tune of $430 billion. Long term, these public pensions are reportedly underfunded by $3.5 trillion due to banks using the contributions to prop up toxic junk.
8. Commodity Prices -- Banks use the commodity casino to manipulate food prices as another way to line their pockets and starve the public. There is a direct correlation between food costs and oil prices, so when they drive up oil on speculation, food tends to follow suit. During oil's record run up to $147 per barrel in 2008, the price of rice tripled in six months. Between the ominous signs of food shortages and predictions of $200/bbl oil in the near future, you can expect to pay much more of your hard-earned crippled dollars to eat. Obviously, inflation -- especially hyperinflation -- also causes commodity prices to spike, since they trade in U.S. dollars.
10. Wars -- When the original reasons for wars don't pan out, and the secondary reasons don't add up, you can bet the real reason in the first place was money. Indeed, wars are the biggest moneymakers for the banks and the fastest way for them to imprison countries with debt. Wars have historically been manipulated by the banks funding both sides, much like they fund both political parties. In fact, some historians suggest that the American Civil War was actually a battle between Lincoln's Greenback vs. the "oligarchy of high finance." Ultimately, Lincoln was killed along with his Greenback and the private banking cartel ruled America once more.
All of this is leading to a loss of financial independence -- The masters of manipulation -- the money changers -- have rigged the system from every angle and continue to loot all of us. We would be wise to learn about the history of money and banking
in our economy, which is a compendium of booms and busts orchestrated by private banks. Wars, fiat currencies that lead to inflation, and obscure financial instruments are their tools of the trade to consolidate wealth at the top, while the foundation of the pyramid scheme -- the hardworking taxpayers -- are fleeced again and again.
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Taxpayers are rightfully angrier than ever before about the state of the U.S. economy and the government's handling of the financial crisis; perhaps even more so than the Colonists at the original Tea Party. After all, it appears that the only group benefiting during this painful slide into recession are the very people who caused the crisis -- The Banks.
On the verge of bankruptcy in 2008, the banks are now once again making record profits and paying record bonuses, while nearly every other industry struggles to keep their head above water. The banks seem to have designed the system where all businesses and individuals are dependent on them for credit, and without new lending industry grinds to a halt. Given that banks can make risk-free profits by front running the stock market and selling $600 trillion of worthless derivatives for monster gains, there seems to be little motivation for them to lend money at today's record-low interest rates.
Average Americans continue to be looted by this bank-controlled economic system through taxation and other more subtle ways:
1. Bailouts/TARP -- The major banks warned in 2008 that their massively over-leveraged Ponzi scheme was about to take down the world financial system, and demanded a taxpayer bailout or else the sky would fall. Well, they got their bailout which may be upwards of $23 trillion between direct cash infusions and accounting write-downs, which amounts to around $76,667 for every citizen. The Federal Reserve also secretly bailed out foreign economies to at least the tune of $500 billion.
2. Predatory Lending -- The banks have long practiced predatory lending to Third World countries, private businesses, and individuals. This strategic over-lending creates a situation where banks anticipate and manufacture default to obtain real assets. Since banks lend money they don't have by making accounting adjustments, private bankers and their cohorts could conceivably, over time, own everything "real" in the world from money they created out of thin air.
4. Stock Market -- The Goldman Sachs-dominated scheme called "front running" is where brokers use computer programs with intricate algorithms to buy or sell nanoseconds before large orders from the public. Originally designed to prevent this activity, these programs have been hijacked to "Beat the Street." It's the ultimate in insider trading, likened to a poker player being able to see his opponent's cards. Is it any wonder why four of the largest U.S. banks (Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup) had zero days of trading losses during the first quarter of 2010?
6. Social Security -- Social Security represents a $40 trillion unfunded liability. It is estimated that taxes must be raised substantially and benefits must be slashed to cover this gap. Through no fault of Social Security contributors and recipients, the government has completely mismanaged the program while other debts eat up any chance of actually making good on the entitlements promised to the working public. According to their "austerity" playbook, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommends that the U.S. squeeze Social Security to cover their ever-growing debts to banks.
7. Inflation -- The Federal Reserve's shadowy printing presses have created an estimated $23.7 trillion in credits, grants, loans and guarantees, and that is just the paper backed by taxpayers. The fractional reserve banking system is one where banks can create loans (money) based on a fraction of their reserves, which inherently weakens the strength of the dollar. Inflation ends up being a hidden tax on those who worked hard, played by the rules, and saved their pennies. You have been paying for this hidden tax ever since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, coincidentally the same year the income tax was passed. To make matters worse, many experts now predict that America is headed toward hyperinflation. For an in-depth education on how money creation creates a tax on every dollar printed please watch The Money Masters and Money as Debt.
9. Debt and Deficits -- Banks make it easy for politicians to love credit as much as everyone else, only their shiny new toys are things like pork projects for their states, wars, and mandated private healthcare. You can almost see the commercial: "You can have all this today, get re-elected tomorrow, and in a decade your successor can figure out how to pay for it." Recent reports show continued record deficits, while total debt and unfunded liabilities are figured to be $138 trillion -- around ten times annual GDP. Furthermore, the U.S. national debt has already surpassed the IMF default threshold of 90% GDP which will trigger austerity measures on the American public.
All of this is leading to a loss of financial independence -- The masters of manipulation -- the money changers -- have rigged the system from every angle and continue to loot all of us. We would be wise to learn about the history of money and banking
in our economy, which is a compendium of booms and busts orchestrated by private banks. Wars, fiat currencies that lead to inflation, and obscure financial instruments are their tools of the trade to consolidate wealth at the top, while the foundation of the pyramid scheme -- the hardworking taxpayers -- are fleeced again and again.Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)
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