Weekly News Wrap-Up 7/29/11

Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

The debt ceiling impasse is a monster story and, once again, it tops our Weekly News Wrap-Up (WNW) on USAWatchdog.com.  I have been saying for more than a week Congress is going to miss the August 2nd deadline for getting a deal done to avoid default.  Yesterday did not change my mind.  The two parties are as far apart as ever.  The U.S. will not default on Treasury debt, but many bills are not going to be paid.  The big worry is a credit downgrade, and that will surely spike interest rates.  Other stories in the WNW:  the real amount spent on the 2008 meltdown to prop up foreign and domestic banks and companies, more houses showing up in shadow inventory of the banks, and why gold is not in a bubble.

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Comments
  1. Sam

    Dear Greg,

    And, not a mention of further gun controls in the wake of the violence in Norway! For shame! Turn in your press credentials, as you are a LINO (Liberal In Name Only)!

    Okay, earlier on Drudge Report I saw a chilling headline, on how the Dagong wants to lower this country’s credit rating, possibly as early as this coming Monday. They cite that investor’s are “nervous” (do tell!).

    It seems nearly everyone and his cousin is nervous. Earlier this week the Duke of Lies (there, I SAID IT!) told banks not to default, so we all know that BHO will do the opposite. We could very well have a bank holiday. Now, given how this individual LOVES to procrastinate (how many vacations did he have during the BP oil spill?), a bank holiday COULD last for a while, possibly a MONTH or two. If you don’t have precious metals or a stockpile of supplies, AT LEAST have some cash in reserve. Things could really get ugly as workers can’t deposit/cash their paychecks, and business income slows down to a trickle (cash only transactions).

    I really believe that this individual is doing all this just to buoy up his sagging poll numbers, and take down the GOP. This individual is a repeat law-breaker, he does not care as long as his agenda gets advanced, and will stop at NOTHING in order to force people to love him.

    As Charlie Chaplin put it, “It’s the passage of greed” (“The Great Dictator”).

    • Greg

      You are right Sam. I should have put something in about Norway. Sorry.
      Greg

      • Sam

        LOL!

        • Greg

          Sam,
          I don’t know what is so funny. I made a mistake. Thank you for pointing it out.
          Greg

          • Skip

            Sam’s gun control remark was in jest, I believe

          • R. Cronk

            Greg, you can not please some of the people any time. You admitted your mistake, it`s done. The problem with an open site is you will get people who reply who you will never be able to please. That is their problem , not yours. Anyone can be a critic, but few can lead. Thanks for you for you efforts.

            Randall

            • Greg

              Thank you Randall for your support and comment!!
              Greg

      • A Concerned Citizen

        Dear Greg
        We all should demand that Congres and Senate Reinstate the Original 1933 Glass Steagall act this would eliminate all of the Debt that the Federal Reserve has piled onto our national Debt through the creation of their Derivative’s scam Obama says that he will veto the Glass Steagall Bill if it comes to him for him to sign into law but we all need to tell congress that if Obama refuses to sign it he should and must be removed from from office immediately here is a video on the Glass Steagall Act that everyone should watch it’s very interesting and informitave http://youtu.be/cOIk7-uQlVg

        • Greg

          A Concerned Citizen,
          Amen to that!!!! While we are at it, let’s also stop the phony accounting at the banks and stop their ongoing bailouts!!!
          Greg

    • Timmer

      BHO is NOT going to sink the banks! They are his friends and he needs them for re-election! Look at all the Goldman Slax faces in the administration past and present. If anything he will use the 14th Amendment to keep them afloat along with US Treasury printing press. Get REAL this guys slick and not going to throw away re-election.

      He’s bringing REAL CHANGE as he promised…it’s just not the change most expected:(

  2. Eric

    The banking cartel knew exactly what was going to happen when they repeatedly asked to deregulate financial markets since the beginning of the 80’s. They also exactly knew what was going to happen when they deliberately allowed a worldwide exponential money/debt expansion under Greenspan and his follower Bernanke. These criminals are in control of central banks since several generations. They knew exactly what were to be the consequences of these loose monetary policies and market deregulations. This was all orchestrated with the aim placing another milestone in the construction of what they call “The New World Order”.

    The move away from the US dollar as the international reserve currency to the IMF’s SDR is what the Banking Cartel wishes to do. Once they get that, it will be almost impossible to free ourselves from them. The day the SDR becomes the world reserve currency will be the day Big Brother will come to reality.

    The whole theatre going on with the puppets in Congress and at the Whitehouse about rising or not the debt ceiling might just be a smoke screen to help precipitate the US dollar faster than it would otherwise. The loss of confidence in the US dollar will accelerate the international debate about an alternative world reserve currency and of course the savior of the 11th hour (the IMF) will come to the rescue with the SDR proposal, which is centrally controlled and manipulated by the central banks.

    I think that the whole western world economy is on the verge of a major financial collapse and the only way out for the Banks is to reset the system with the SDR. The SDR would give them more power and control than they ever had before. They would become like untouchable Gods in the world economy. They could quickly suffocate any country that would not want to enter the SDR agreement. And once a country enters the SDR then it is done. Such countries will have given their national autonomy to a supra national body that doesn’t respond to anything or anybody. The great era of a world centrally planed economy may be closer to us than we think.

    By the way, chances are that Gold and silver will be left rotting in the dust if this would ever to happen for the banking cartel will have absolute power over money creation and exchange rates. The intrinsic defect of their “money as debt” and excessively leveraged fractional reserve monetary system does not allow for a return to a gold standard. Plus the banking cartel cannot control all the gold that is on the earth anyway therefore they will fight against anything they cannot establish an absolute monopoly over. The banking cartel will fight until their last day against a return to a gold standard.

    • Greg

      Thank you Eric and Mitch!
      Greg

      • Eric

        Running out of money

        http://www.economist.com/blogs/buttonwood/2011/07/debt-ceiling-crisis-1

        There is no question that a new world monetary system will emerge. The question is what will it be and who will it benefit. And as far as I can see, the banking cartel is now more powerful than it has ever been in history. It has totally corrupted the system and is untouchable by any laws or regulators. The Fraudclosure and robotsigning scandal is just an example of what they can do.

        • Greg

          Eric,
          This is good stuff. Thank you for the comment and content.
          Greg

  3. Mitch Bupp

    Thank You for the Weekly News Wrap-up Greg, I was waiting for someone to breakout the numbers of how much the banksters really scammed us for. I agree with you on the MERS issue. This has cost local governments millions of dollars. And gold, well we both understand what deflation of the sinking dollar really is and where it comes from. Helicopter Ben and the FED are just screwed as the debt ceiling crisis continues. I hope that people realize exactly how the FED is operating and that their super monopoly on the US money supply created the too big to fail banks and the financial crisis. This whole crisis is either intentional or out right incompetence by the FED.

  4. Art Barnes

    Greg, nice work but I must disagree with you about the debt ceiling timeline and the doomsday scenero you present as to any downgrade. Your interest “spike” you stated will be about 1 percent, which will not lead up to $6.00 gas, credit for the average middle class is allready high. A downgrade should have been done a long time ago. If you have 4 credit cards with 1000 owed on them, paying them on time, but then you add another 1000 to each, even though you are still paying them on time your FICA credit rating is subject to lowering because with more debt there is a stronger change of default. The Governement should not have had a AAA rating for the last 12 years or so, since 911 when President Bush start spending like a drunk sailor on leave just after the event. You remember, every day Mr. Bush gave away another 20 billion as he criss-crossed the country telling everybody to go shopping. Yes Greg, the AAA rating has not been AAA in my mind for a while now. I guess our esteemed elite are just waking up about that and finding out you can’t spend you way to wealth.

    • Greg

      Art,
      Thank you for your perspective and analysis.
      Greg

  5. g.johnson

    so, if these realty securities are debt instruments (real money) then isn’t recreating them actual counterfeiting? isn’t actual counterfeiting an actual hard core felony? if these people want to negotiate, let them do it during the plea bargain phase of their trials. and let us (for once) keep a close eye on the process.

    attorney generals negotiating immunity for the perpetrators of high crimes against the people would seem, to me, to make accessories out of those same attorney generals.

    how much would you like to bet that no key players are going to get voted out of office next time around. still a large majority of voters who believe that their party is the solution to the evil of the other party. (it doesn’t matter which party they pull for, it works the same both ways).

    i guess it is going to take predator drones flying over out country looking for malcontents and having to clear three checkpoints to get to grandmas house before most of “we the people” figure it out.

    • Baja Bryan

      Well stated. The entire left vs. right, Republican vs. Democrat paradigm is a long-standing hoax that has been perpetrated upon Americans for the purpose of dividing and conquering us.

      • Art Barnes

        yes, I agree, and they are setting the stage again for the next election to solve all the problems, just vote for us again etc., and the MSM continues to play the band for the hoaxed staged play. However, each day I must believe thousands if not tens of thousands are waking up and seeing that the two party system is one beast with two heads used as you said to divide and conquer. I’ll vote again when they add “none of the above” on the ballot. None of the above couldn’t do any worst than what we have now.

  6. nm

    To Greg or anyone else:

    I had a question about buying junior gold mining stocks. Has anyone done it or does anyone have any advice on how to go about doing it?

    Greg:

    Also, the friends company I was talking about was purchased by a different software company that took out a loan and paid cash to buy it. A $300 million dollar loan. Very smart to insist on a cash payout because if the transaction doesn’t work out, my friend will still have his cash and bad luck to them. They’re the one’s who’ll be stuck paying back the loan.

    • Greg

      Thank you NM for the update.
      Greg

    • MasterLuke

      I knew a professor who was real big on buying gold mining stock. He liked the liquidity factor.

  7. Will Swanson

    Greg, still trying to figure this one out.

    BHO “I will not let the half of Americans that pay no taxes bear the burden of thoses that are not paying their fair share”

    It’s short but I still get lost.

    • Greg

      Me too Will. Thank you for the comment.
      Greg

  8. Frank Brady

    Here are the options.

    1. If the debt limit is not increased, the U.S. will default, its credit rating will be downgraded, and interest rates will rise causing economic disaster.
    2. If the debt limit is increased, deficit spending will grow, the debt will increase, the U.S. will default, its credit limit will be downgraded, and interest rates will rise causing economic disaster.

    See the difference?

  9. M SMITH

    I was one those sailors who may walked like a drunk after 6 months at sea, it takes time to get your land legs back, so please don’t compare sailors to these thieves of DC & Wall Street! Now back to the weekly rap up!

    I just read a very important lesson that Obama & congress, all corporate leaders should read, they will see that all this in fighting only cost all us of more. The SEC & CFTC never agree on important issues, just like Obama & congress. They end up adding some costly agencies that adds to the cost of doing business be it a corporation or government. Competition between department inside of corporations and our government at all levels only leads to more infighting & nothing ever gets done as we see daily on every news outlet. The Declaration of Independence shows us a complaint: He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat their substance! Does this sound like what has & is occurring right now in DC, Wall Street & the Federal Reserves Cartel of Bankers who’s teamed up with the U.S. Sec of Treasury’s ESF and its many covert operators world wide?

    Explaining ‘Vertical Isolated Core Structure’ and understanding how it has cost all of us dearly. http://armstrongeconomics.files.wordpress.com/2001/07/armstrongeconomics-restructuring-the-world-072811.pdf.

    Also we have to look deep inside the BIS, the amount of people who have hidden billions of others peoples money they took as governments defaulted on pensions, contracts with companies, gains from proceeds from the drug trade where the money passed through U.S. Mega Banks where it was cleaned & sent to the heads of State around the globe, even after the BIS was known to be the place the Nazi’s used to hide the wealth it had stolen from all the people & Nations to fund its war machine, many wanted it shuttered for good but the Keynesian’s saw a use to keep it open, now it holds the wealth of millions of Americans & others who have fell victim to the Cartel of the worlds bankers. If this home for the the central bankers to hide the trillions of wealth they are stealing from all of us world wide is not exposed & address for what they have done & continue to do, we will be left with nothing but a hollowed out shell of a nation ruled by tyrants posing as members of the community who we send to do our business, but their own personal business to retain the power & wealth of being in the club comes first and we are left with high over priced ever thing we once found cheap from our local farmers markets & mom & pop grocery stores. All of these will be replace by the corporate owned stores controlled by banker families & the politicians.

    Breaking up the two party system is already under way and moving faster than most expected. They have good intentions, but lack of knowledge of what the real problems stems from will hamper any real changes until they see through the smoke screens put up by the past leaders. Competing departments in government, corporations and the family of bankers who have made it impossible to be prosecuted for the crimes & thief of the worlds wealth by hiding it away at the BIS out of the reach of all the worlds police has to be fixed The return to real reporting of the truth by all media is a key issue also.

    Now as I have listened to 5 hours of crap from the media, members of both sides, even Obama’s rantings, things look no different than yesterday. Gold is making new highs, silver is still the most manipulated PM ever, but I think it will be a big winner in time as protection against our school kids will be needed more than ever and sooner than we may think, as Jim Sinclair said hold your ground, many may want to take profits but the world may wake up & physical will be harder to get at any price. As I said yesterday, keep ahead of the rare coin market news & you just might find a few coins you are holding that now are a hot item & the windfall gives you a way to add PM’s while you can without use of credit cards, cash & carry works great as dealers are swamped with trades & those seeking rare coins have grown big time as money flows from the west to the east.

    Thank you Greg for a great week of reporting, you have helped me & I want to thank you. May you have a well deserved restful weekend with family & friends.
    M.L.Smith

    • Greg

      Thank you M. Smith for the comment and content!
      Greg

  10. Jan

    Greg,
    Keep up the good work here, this is a great site for the real news. I did not catch the $25 B the AG’s are seeking to settle with the banking cartel until you mentioned it tonight. That is the exact amount they settled with the big tobacco companies. The tobacco companies were seeking a pass from all future lawsuits. They did not get that, only the states could give away their right to sue in the future. Private citizens can still sue the tobacco companies for damanges. I do not see how the AG’s can give away your right or my right to sue for damages and let the bankers off the hook.

    The Administration has offered no plan, the Senate has offered no plan. I don’t think is matters what the House offers, it is DOA, this crisis is wanted and needed by the Administration and the Democrats. They want to blame the Republicans.

    Create a crisis, fix the crisis, get re-elected and take back the House. I still think Ron Paul is the only candidate capable of turning the ship of state around.

    • Greg

      Thank you Jan and Davis,
      Thank you for your comments and analysis!!
      Greg

  11. Davis

    The Charade of the Debt Debate.

    The average American can’t be blamed for thinking that the debt ceiling debate that is monopolizing the news cycle is a crisis in the making. One can hardly turn on the TV or the computer and see anything else at the top of the news columns. It doesn’t matter what source you look at, left, right whatever, they are all playing to the hilt. After all hysteria and fear mongering makes for ratings and advertising dollars.

    Growing right along with the media hype is a sense by the American people that government has just grown too big, too incompetent and just plain corrupt, a sense that politicians aren’t just lying to them but they are hiding the truth for their own political ends and desires to get re-elected. This opinion is beginning to cross all political lines and it has the politicians worried. How can they convince voters to re-elect them if ever increasing numbers of voters see them all, Republicans, and Democrats, as self-serving and disinterested it the problems of the average citizen? Politicians, being creatures of habit, of course resort to the partisan gamesmanship that has served them so well for all these years.

    Problem is that every time they convince themselves and/or enough public opinion that the latest proposal is the “solution to the problem,” it fails before it even gets started. Hence the source of the paradigm shift in the public’s attitude, and as is to be expected the politicians are the last to recognize it.

    Underlying all this are questions that the politicians don’t want to answer, hell they don’t even want them asked! If these questions are acknowledged to exist, the answers and the questions those answers would then generate will expose them for the frauds and wholly owned subsidiaries of Wall Street that they are.

    While politicians and pundits on both sides of the aisle bemoan the $14.3 Trillion debt they all ignore the fact that the onetime audit of the FED revealed that it had loaned $16.1 Trillion in funds at near 0% interest to the Too Big To Fail banks and then turned around and hired these same banks to manage the loan portfolios and PAID them another $600 Million for the service! Yet no questions are asked about conflict of interest or hiring foxes to guard the hen house!

    So just where did the FED get this $16.1 Trillion? They simply created it up out of thin air; they made a few magical entries on the computer and the assets of the banks in question (the very banks that own the FED) suddenly grew to the point of no longer being insolvent. Why are no questions being asked? Why were the members of the FED board given waiver on conflict of interest because they were personally invested in the very banks they were loaning money to?

    So what we have is an unaccountable private monopoly that creates our money, sets interest rates, regulates the banking system in general and makes secret loans with the nation’s currency to whoever they want.
    It has more power over the direction of the economy than any other institution. It has no oversight, is responsible to no one but itself and no one, no government body, no court can overrule or overturn its decisions.

    How can any citizen, any elected official regard this as just or in any context “American”? Who could be surprised that while by any measure, anemic GDP growth, persistent unemployment numbers, growing debt and deficit, creeping inflation, the banks continue to not just prosper but report increasing profits and pay monumental bonuses to their top executives?

    Unless and until structural changes are made to not just the government budget process but more importantly the FED there will be no viable solution to the fiscal and monetary crisis. Until the FED’s power to inflate the currency and steal the wealth of the public to pad the balance sheets of its constitute banks the fleecing will continue.

    Any “shared sacrifice” must include the bottom line of the banks. Unless Glass-Stegal is re-instituted their power cannot and will not be broken. The largest holder of US debt paper is not China or any other sovereign power, it is the FED. Its balance sheet has swollen by nearly 200% solely on the accumulation of Treasury Bonds. Through the POMO process the banks have made billions on the growing indebtedness of the Federal Government and no politician or pundit utter a peep of protest. None will even dare question that this has been the very reason for the FED’s existence for all these years. Looking at this chart how could there be any other conclusion?

    (chart can be seen on my blog)

    You want a solution? Audit the FED, declare the US Treasuries on its books as null and void. Declare the Treasuries held by its constituent banks as of a reduced value. Use a re-enacted Glass-Stegal to break up the “Too Big To Fail” banks just as Teddy Roosevelt broke up the oil and steel trusts. Reconstitute the FED along the lines of Alexander Hamilton’s “Bank of the United States” where under it would remain a private bank but with a board containing members appointed by both the Congress and the President and independent of any previous association with the banks. Any such new FED must be subject to periodic public audits and any failure to comply with law subject to not just civil prosecution of the bank but criminal prosecution of it board members.

    Well don’t hold your breath waiting for that kind of accountability, it won’t happen, not as long as the bankers dump their pocket change into the campaign funds of the politicians that would have to enact any such change in law.

  12. Curt

    Hi, Greg

    I really appreciate your work and the unbiased journalism you provide.

    You indicated, though, that the U.S. has never defaulted; yet, in the 20th century the government confiscated gold and devalued the dollar (1933); took the silver out of our coins and substituted cheaper metal (1965); stopped allowing silver to be obtained for silver certificates (1968); and took the dollar off the gold standard (1971). All of those were unilateral actions taken by the government to screw the citizens in the first three cases and other countries in 1917, breaking the Bretton Woods agreement. Actually, this ground has been plowed many times before.

    With regard to 1971, I was 20 then, and I was amazed to see the sun had come up when I woke up the next morning. I thought it was over then and there, and I was incredulous that things had not changed. Only things really had changed, of course. Back then you could have a good job at a factory that made something with only a high-school education or less; earn about 10K a year (50K was for CEOs) and live in a nice house costing about 25K; mom stayed home with the kids, and families could still take a nice vacation; kids could put themselves through college if they chose to go with a summer job and working after class.

    Through all the shenanigans that followed, the same house went to $250,000; both parents need to make 50K to make ends meet; kids fend for themselves after school; and college takes a lifetime to pay off. Death by a thousand cuts, little by little. It took us 40 years to get here, and the toilet paper roll is nearly out after unrolling slowly at the beginning.

    I fully agree with you about gold and silver; money can never be in a bubble.

    Thanks again for your great work and your necessary contribution.

    • Greg

      Curt,
      I did not indicate the U.S. has “never defaulted,” but I agree with you on your analysis. Thank you for your comment.
      Greg

  13. wesley

    consider the huge money in derviative transactions. i realize derviatives are complex, come in many forms and are worldwide. however, if the u.s. could find a way to get even a tiny tax on the transactions(to be used to pay down our deficit only)it might make all the difference. also at the same time transparence is need from these large institutions making the trades.

  14. Mark

    Greg,

    I just returned from a three week visit in Hong Kong and China. The newspapers are filled with stories and commentary on the US debt ceiling crisis. The Chinese are horrified and disgusted by the USA’s inability to control spending. Debt is a 4 letter word in China. Outside of international hotel chains in the major cities, credit cards simply are not accepted. China remains a cash only society.

    Since my last visit four years ago, everything in China has jumped markedly in price because their currency is locked in value to the US dollar and people are grumbling. The poor in China are getting poorer because of the USA’s reckless fiscal policies. Clearly, this worries government officials because they don’t want protesting in the streets. I predict that China will soon cut ties between the RMB and the dollar.

    • Greg

      Mark,
      Great reporting from the real world. Thank you for sharing it here.
      Greg

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