It's the Banks, Stupid!

Let's all face it (once and for all!): We Americans have been bamboozled; deceived; denied; defaulted; robbed; repossessed; dispossessed and all the rest!

Once upon a time -- 1910 to be exact -- Rockefeller and Morgan banking representatives, along with government officials, boarded a luxurious railcar owned by Nelson Aldrich, Senator from Rhode Island, who became quite wealthy representing the interests of the moneyed class. They were journeying from New Jersey to Jekyll Island, Georgia for a secret conference at which "the Federal Reserve was conceived; the birth of a banking cartel to protect its members from competition; the strategy of how to convince Congress and the public that this cartel was an agency of the United States government." The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin is a chilling and brilliant analysis of the vast implications of this cabal.

Since then bankers have somehow convinced everyone that any bailouts the banks ever need would be covered by the taxpayers! Hence, among others:

The Savings and Loan industry's bailout by us is easily, technically, the greatest bank heist in all of history! The only problem was that the bankers were doing the heisting! Today, as the monster of sly lending practices looms and lurches and grows, hundreds of millions of dollars are being plundered by the unmasked banker bandits who are whistling all the way FROM the bank!

President John F. Kennedy was wise to the game, saw that private banks in fact were controlling more than they should -- with global ramifications, among them the ease with which monetary control can instigate pre-conditions for war, from which bankers and their ilk greatly profit.

So, what do we do about it?

Comments

[mmckinl]

Indeed , the whole financial system has been corrupted.

John Bogle , Founder and former CEO of Vanguard:

“This country is moving to a world where we’re no longer making anything,” Mr. Bogle says. “We’re merely trading pieces of paper, swapping stocks and bonds back and forth with one another, and paying our financial croupiers a veritable fortune.”

In other words : The banks and financial institutions are looting the economy.

[knosiswar]

Mr. Belzer, Great post. I'm glad the truth has found you. I suppose you already have your evac plan for yourself, Good Luck. Since you are aware of the past, you likely see the patterns and are aware of the future. I was equally impressed with Ron Paul and his effort to expose the dismantling of our national soveriegnty for the purpose of the New World Order and the establishment of a one world bank and government. The information is all out there, but the masses are unfit to be educated and this will all pass very soon for sure. But to those who are unaware and curious, it is your right to know. I recommend the book 'Rule by Secrecy' by Jim Marrs. He and his material have been used by the History Channel, A&E, Discover and others. What's striling is they obviously are aware of the bigger context and scope of what they present but instead choose to shadow and fortell and omit the implications. Check out this website for more about our fiancial system and what are forefathers fought and died to prevent. The Habsburgs will have us all slaves before long now.

http://www.fdrs.org/banking_history.html

[Kzb]

What do we do about it? Start by not electing any republicans ever again.

[Sundialsvc4]

I suspect that even these bankers' ghosts would shudder at the crimes that are now being perpetrated at the largest world banks ... crimes that have brought those banks to, and beyond, the edge of bankruptcy itself.

USURY: The charging of excessive interest. Consumer credit-card loans now have effective APRs beyond fifty percent, when fees and penalties caused by "those miraculously 'one day late' payments," or of conveniently diddling with the timing of the posting process (FRAUD), are figured in.

PONZI SCHEMES: Let's call the mortgage backed security market, just for once, what it really is, and leave it at that.

EMBEZZLEMENT: Supposedly the money placed on deposit with a bank is merely in the bank's custody. But where is that money now? Banks have routinely breached their fiduciary duties to borrowers and depositors alike.

BRIBERY: With all those billions of dollars floating around, skids are easy to "grease." So are palms. Real investigation never happens, and (as a quick review of past annual-reports will show) what I am describing has been status quo for many, many years.

It's coming home to roost at last. And yet the bankers and their legislative pals seek continuously to exonerate themselves; to get bail-outs that will let them cash out and walk -- knowing that the looted banks will fall anyway.

No, I think that even these banker's ghosts would haunt their successors, if they could.

[Henry]

Richard:
Are you aware that in post WWII the central banks of Germany and Japan were recreated in the form and substance of the USA Federal Reserve System? (the secret plot thickens)
Have you ever wondered about the occupation Iraq banking system. Do you believe that the Bremer and boys batallions of secular evangelical republicanism are busy setting up an Iraqi central banking system in the carbon copy of the USA Federal Reserve System? (money travels at the speed of light everywhere soon)

[darker]

What to do about it?

Just shoot whoever tries to fix this mess [like JFKennedy] so the banks and their war-profiteer corporate welfare queen pals of Bush-Cheney can
continue to have windfall profits!!

[Hugo de Balsac]

did you just call me stupid?

[splashy]

Everyone should watch "Money as Debt" to really get a grasp on just how this has been done.

The best thing to do is stop borrowing. Don't have credit cards. Don't play their game.

[mmckinl]

Underlying this whole mess is a leveraged banking system based on debt , not assets.

The privately owned and operated Federal Reserve practices fractional banking ... that is leveraged banking based on debt. For each dollar of deposits the bank creates $10 , but the knock on effect is that the $9 left over go to other banks and so on in the system. After this one dollar has been leveraged through the system it becomes over $90!

So , when too many loans go bad and eliminate over 90 times their worth of money in the system, the banks default on their 10% reserves, and it causes the whole system to crash. Leverage works both ways , it creates excess inflation on the way up and debilitating deflation on the way down.

We need a Public Central Bank that is based on the full faith and credit of the United States' assets and economy not on piles of debt.

[Bobleblah1]

Woodrow Wilson in the worst president ever.
Its not even close. As bad as Bush is, Woodrow Wilson is 50 times worse. Wilson actually destroyed his own government...... Just grasp that for a minute.

PS
BELZER; YOU GOT BALLS

[BadChristian]

"So, what do we do about it?"
=========

Pay your bills.

Pay your bills and don't do anything, ANYTHING that could land you in jail. Keep your mouths shut and your palms up.

Or you could resist, go to jail and become a big hero for the hunger-strike that sweeps across the country in honor of the great solidarity that the Democratic Opposition has fostered while they decided to run the longest bar brawl... I mean Presidential campaign, in American history.

That Bush is one heck of strategerizer

[robinhood1]

There is a lot of blame to go around. Why not blame the Florida Local Investment Fund which bought some (billions of dollars?) of these exotic, or should I say toxic, mortgage investments? Chances are the municipality you live in has some of its pension money and cash reserves invested in this kind of toxic stuff as well, either directly or perhaps through a state investment fund. If you own bank stocks or a mutual fund in your IRA or 401K plan that own bank stocks, you're part of the problem as well. It's the American way to close the door only after the horse has left the barn. Why not blame all those Democrat politicians who passed the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977 (when both houses of congress and the presidency were in the hands of Democrats)? CRA encouraged Federally regulated banks to make loans to inner city residents (read: blacks), so it's not surprising that many of the borrowers being caught up in this mortgage mess are minorities. Many really didn't qualify for credit in a traditional sense but got loans anyway. The banks improved their CRA scores, lots of service providers earned commissions and other fees and politicians of both parties were happy that home ownership rates were rising. Of course, not many people worried about what would happen when the interest rates on these horrible loans would reset.

Now if we can only find a woman, two Jews and a cripple to blame. Remember Interior Secretary James Watt's famous quote about his talented staff?

[coolkraft]

these banks knew these borrowers were not qualified for these mortgages, ie no down payment, low balloon payments, interest only payments, they were greedy and so you have big business screwing all of us

[particleswaves]

What to do? Only hope in my view is to elect Ron Paul, warts and all. He has consistently called for abolition of the cabal of financial terrorists we dupes fondly refer to as the Federal Reserve. Every central bank in history has failed, leaving the bankers with the wheat and the populace with the chaff. Why does anyone think this miserable asset- sucking central bank will be any different? Under the Fed's "management", the dollar has already lost 97% of it's purchasing power and 42% of our outrageous national debt is owed to these fucks as "interest" for draining our economy. What's wrong with this picture?

[WDW]

Okay LandLords - For-sale by owners - Builders

Here what the banks - mortgage companys were doing.


These three above - some others - were financing - 10 -
15 - a lot of times more homes - The banks backed the mortgage
companys - for these more then one mortgage's.

They were playing the game - we buy today - then dump these homes
off - with a great mark-up - with another mortgage - to a home-owner
- or if the forclosure goes to auction - you then add on outrages fees
- to the original mortgage - and set your base price of bidding there.

This is how they inflated the housing market.

Okay let just take one house - say they mortgages it for 30,000 - the
for-sale by owner then - sold it under contract of 47,000 - the person
fixes that house and then the for-sale by owner - defaults on there mortgage
- The person on contract moves out due to high pressure tactics - to drive
them out - fake apprasials - thugs sent over - then mortgage company add's
on there high fees - and it goes to auction - The forsale by owner - places
there bid - Gets the house back - that house price is driven up - everybody
divides up the equity - and does it again.

Take a house that has 24,000 left on the mortgage - of 30,000 A forclosure
on the for-sale by owner - You then add on fees driving the price up to 34,000
- You then take it to auction - and starting bid is 34,000 - You then sell it back to
the for-sale by owner - a mortgage of 34,000 - The house is then passed back to the market
as a recent sale.

You then have pocketed 6 thousand - plus driven the price up by they diff of 30,000
to 34,000 - thus driving up housing prices.

This example is just for a simple house - now go up to the 100,000 dollar house's
- the 200,000 dollar house's.

You then created a market driven by fees and stolen equity.