On the Edge with Max Keiser; "Goldman Sachs' crash of markets last year was a false flag operation"

[maxkeiser]

Run time: 03:45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnmsmLsJg14   Posted on YouTube: June 26, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 26, 2009 By DU Member: maxkeiser Views on DU: 10541

 
Hi Du'ers... Keep in mind that my show ON THE EDGE is broadcast out of Tehran on Press TV. I tape the show in Paris and satellite it over to Tehran and than they broadcast it. If you appreciate the information I am covering than send an email to [e-mail] and let them know you appreciate my show.
thanks,
Max

for more info.
maxkeiser.com

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. kick

to watch when I get off work.

[truedelphi]

2. So Max, Ol Boy, here's a quesstion -

What in the names of our sons and daughters and the futures of our grandkids can we do about it?

We have a President who was so inside this extortion deal that he appointed people from the same inner circle of miscreants to head up Treasury and The Fed. The results now being that huge piles of money are greasing the inner workings of every Agency that handles dough - with little of it ending up inside the pockets of state agencies, or people on Main Street.

And as early as Nov '08 Obama tipped off the Powers that Be that it would be so -- when on 'Sixty Minutes,' he said "Hank is working hard." (Obama's very first "Good job there, Brownie" moment.)

As a nation we are so screwn.

Obama is in for eight years - at best we will see a faux election between him and Palin in 2012.

Meanwhile massive amounts of money, offered supposedly for things like transit projects and highway assisatance, cannot be touched by individual states, as state constitutions decree that projects cannot be undertaken unless/until the state has some real assurance that the projects will be completed.

Notice yesterday's hearings re: the Highway and Transit funds - DeFazio of Oregon questions Rogoff while trying to figure out how he can get Oregon some very needed money for projects that will require three to five years of funding - yet the monies available will only last eighteen months. (Oregon's state constitiution is one of those that will not allow for projects to be undertaken unless they can be completed.)

Obama's supposed economic recovery is a big sack of lies and Catch 22 promises.

[maxkeiser]

3. what to do about it

The root of the problem is the Fed. They raise the cost of financing America's ongoing financing needs beyond what America can afford - by charging too much interest. The Fed is simply someone we entrusted our finances to who, as it turns out, has been stealing.

The mortal enemy of central bankers is gold bullion. Unlike fiat currencies, it is unnatural to leverage up bullion in pyramid schemes and ponzi schemes. If every disgusted American and every disgusted person around the world started buying gold bullion - driving the price up enough to break the strangle hold that Goldman and other bankers have on the Comex in NYC - where they routinely suppress prices to keep the 'derivatives' balls in the air... the rug would be pulled out from beneath the Wall St. establishment.

This would be a good first step toward taking back our money, our country, and our freedom from usury and Wall St. traitors.

[liberation]

4. Then bankers would move to speculate with gold bullion...

like they used to do. Commodities markets are as silly (and even sillier in some aspects) as credit markets.

IMHO Capitalism has two structural issues: credit and wealth representation, not just wealth representation as some of the proponents of the gold standard über alles tend to assume.

That being said, thanks for your frank response. I am always very impressed with some of your insights.

[maxkeiser]

6. follow up

...the first step in breaking apart the Fed is to break open COMEX/GS monopoly and price manipulation of gold prices. A coordinated 'buy freedom' campaign to get the price of gold to a normalized inflation-adjusted price of $2,000 would shift the balance of power away from the financial engineers toward a system that has more possibilities for economic justice and just price discovery. This is something that millions of people CAN DO! For this reason I believe it's an important campaign for people to consider. It is not a perfect idea, but it is WITHIN REACH of a critical mass of people - enough to tip the weight of corrupt banking practices out of our faces.

[truedelphi]

11. My husband is sitting here telling me to get cracking on this

Need a name for the org that will hold the REAL hopes of eight million people.

I like "The People's Union"

Been doing electronic brokering for some six months - and talking to people across the nation, from McCain supporters (before they forced Palin on him) to Ron Paul supporters, to progressive Dems - people are so Fed up.

And a lot of it is they are Fed Up with the Fed.

[maxkeiser]

49. accountability

...but unlike the hundreds of trillions in derivatives contracts out there with no cash basis and only dubious algorithms to give them 'value' gold, we know, is a set quantity of 150,000 tons in the world today growing at about 2 - 3% a year. All the gold ever mined if put in one place would fill an Olympic swimming pool.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

13. too much interest?

the interest is practically zero

[dotymed]

22. HONESTLY

The vast majority of Americans can not afford to affect the
price of gold. We are un(der)employed and homeless, or we soon
will be. We are watching the collapse of America due to the
unregulated greed of the current capitalistic system. Millions
of us must march against the screwing of America. We must
non-violently protest until all elections are publicly
financed so there will be no corporate (hundreds of millions
spent to get a job that "pays" thousands a
year)candidates. We all know that the main benefit is becoming
wealthy from allowing the corporations to screw the poor.
We must protest by the millions to REINSTATE THE FAIRNESS
DOCTRINE so that the uninformed can learn what is going on.
I am an unemployed,disabled carpenter with a B.S. in English.
I will be happy to lead to you. Keep me on the road, because I
can no longer afford a roof. By God, they'll have to kill me
to make me stop the fight. I am sick of being screwed along
with all of the other poor Americans. Lets really redistribute
the wealth, not upward, but downward where it needs to be.
President Obama promised this also. He lied. I don't. Fuck the
"lets roll" propaganda. Lets bring them to their
knees and raise our people high.

Edited to fix grammar.

[maxkeiser]

50. carrying a knife to a gun fight

even if you only have $100 you can buy 1/10th of an OZ. of gold to be a part of this campaign.
If every American bought what they could afford in gold - power would begin to shift away from the Wall St.
monopolists and toward the disenfranchised masses.

The rest of the world is probably going to force the US to adopt a gold standard anyway... and that means prices will probably climb north of $2,000 an OZ.

[dotymed]

72. YOU MAY BE RIGHT

 Unfortunately $100.00 means the difference between life and
death for me. I used to earn $30.00 an hour, plus benefits and
a lot of overtime...oh well, time marches on.

[Dr.Phool]

74. Nine months ago you could hardly find physical gold.

And premiums were low on coins. For a while, you couldn't even order a lot of bullion.

Now, it's available, but premiums are high.

[tabatha]

5. I don't believe Max is right.

Otherwise we would not be having all the foreclosures.

[maxkeiser]

7. foreclosures...

...are mostly due to GS (and friends) turning off the credit spigot in their attack on US economy starting in summer of 2007 - to than force congress - threatening congress - to fork over 700 bn. (now 13 trillion) to bail out losing bets and pay themselves record bonuses.

[yodermon]

8. kick for "controlled demolition" reference heh heh heh

[JohnyCanuck]

21. Yeah I heard that too, and had myself a little chuckle. n/t

[go west young man]

9. I think your on the money Max!

It was GS that benefited the most. It was the Bush Admins final gift to the big banks before they left office. A nice big daylight robbery right under the noses of the dumbed down American public. Like 9/11 if we follow the money and who benefited it all seems to come back to the big business old money bastards that really run this country.

[bbgrunt]

10. thanks for speaking the truth. It is too bad that so

many believe that there are "free markets" at work.....

[LiberalLovinLug]

12. This guy is good!

He should be on CNBC instead of that screaming monkey Cramer.

But then we wouldn't want the public to actually know what's going on would we?

[burning rain]

19. Get rid of Melissa Francis, too.

~

[timtom]

14. I've been against the Fed since

I've come to understand who they are and what they do.

Inasmuch as I am a total economic and financial nitwit: what is this breaking open COMEX/GS monopoly and price manipulation of gold prices of which you speak? How is this "buy freedom" campaign implemented? Someone must spearhead this and I will follow.

[maxkeiser]

52. it's easy

...start buying gold bullion. google for more info. there are a couple of sites that allow you to buy gold bullion on the web - in any amounts - and the gold is held for you outside of the US.

[timtom]

75. Thank you, sir!

I shall do my best. And I hope this turns into a movement.

[ooglymoogly]

15. This of course is all true...but here in the choir we have been

barking about this since it's inception and Max you forgot about destroying the competition. Have you noticed that all or most of the cards are now or soon will be under one holding co. Morgan Stanly Chase; It is as usual win, win, win, for the big bankers; Lose, lose, lose for the folks like you and me. This country is now bankrupt due to these thugs and our grandchildren will be paying for it for generations to come. The bankers will go on as they always have; Living in obscene excess, only now lackeys will be much cheaper and more starved for even the meagerest work for bare subsistence.

[ooglymoogly]

16. KR nt

[TheUnspeakable]

17. we. are. so. screwed.

i feel like it's one of those horror movies where the pretty girl (us) is screaming for help from the aliens (or vampires, or whatever) and then the handsome guy shows up(you know who) and you think you're saved, then he takes off his mask and he's one of THEM- now you're really screwed!!
Great Job Max!!!!! I'll check out your other vids. Please double check the email addy link-I think it's broken.

[FiveGoodMen]

18. kick

[troubledamerican]

20. Vanity Fair, Atlantic Monthly both agree: Coup d'etat controlled collapse

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/08/bea...

[truedelphi]

63. Thank you for posting these links. n/t

[Mark D.]

23. Real Anger

What's continually great about Max Keiser is not only his real concern about what is going on, but his ever improving focus on the real cause and offering solutions. I am not joking when I say if this man were Treasury Secretary, and allowed to do so safely without banker influence he'd reject anyway, the plan he'd formulate would pretty much fix the economy. Add him to the ranks of Nader, Kucinich, Robert Kennedy Jr., the narrator / author / economist behind The Money Masters video, and others who should be but never will be President of the United States (notice I left out REPUBLICAN Ron Paul, because despite his proper judgment on ending wars for profit and the Fed, he's still too deregulation and 'survival of the fittest' (IE. self-centered, borderline sociopaths) minded).

Max is unafraid to go after the two biggest players in this collapse, the twisted sisters of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. The last especially. The House of Morgan founded AETNA (the largest health insurer and leader in the fight against REAL health-care reform, they administer Medicare. Morgan writes Medicare's checks. Chase writes the checks for the 2nd largest, United Health. JP Morgan Chase helped enable Bernie Maddoff and likely profited more off his trickery than he did, while claiming not to know about it. Morgan, the largest hedge fund. Brokered WW1. Bailed out the US govt. twice. Owned the Titanic. Helped create GE, largest power company, powered by Coal, far more destructive than Oil, and even JD Rockefeller's Standard Oil (now Exxon Mobil) was financed by JP Morgan.

I digress. Every video Max puts out is brilliant and better than the one before. He should put together a complete strategy, much like the summary of suggestions proposed by the author / narrator of The Money Master and Money as Debt. From A (our status now) to B (the optimal economy, here and worldwide). Get Ralph Nader to join the cause, Kucinich likely would too. Don't bother with Ron Paul or Lyndon LaRouche, they'll support the ending the fed part, but say stupid shit like: "We need fewer regulations, not more. Let the market self-regulate. Government is the problem (ignorant, the problem is it's been corrupted by corporations they want to give more freedom to pillage to). And so on. Be the one to put it down on paper, get the support. Make the message very clear and simple overall.

This is how to fix the economic problems and prevent their return. Every effort against it is to allow this madness to continue. They will lie to you and try to scare you to sign on to keeping it the way it is. They will continue to have the void created by declining salaries vs. inflation (IE. the middle class have 1/2 what they did 20 years ago in actual earnings / capital to pay bills with and spend). They'll continue to use wedge issues like reproductive rights and sexuality to recruit Christians who otherwise would not support them. They'll never say how Greenspan / Reagan (Bush) raised payroll taxes to allow future GOP to use 'tax cuts' to win over the working class. Even though their cuts are hardly ever, and never substantially for the middle class. They'll never stop. So we can't.

[tomp]

40. how about max teams up with michael moore for a film on the economy? nt

[Oilwellian]

24. This was recently posted on Firedoglake

A quote by Matt Taibbi in an article soon to be published by Rolling Stone:

"Imagine a meat company that bred ten billion rats, fattened them on trash and sewage, ground their bodies into chuck, and then sold it all as grade-A ground beef to McDonald's and Burger King, right under the noses of the USDA: this is exactly the same thing, only with debt instead of food. We're eating it, they're counting the money."

[Mark D.]

26. Just Imagine This

Dennis Kucinich for president. Ralph Nader for VP. Treasury secretary Max Keiser.
Howard Dean for Health & Human Services (to author the single payer legislation).
Robert Kennedy Jr. for Attorney General. Folks. Just imagine. There probably will
never a better team to fix everything that is wrong with America than that one...

[pjt7]

27. Mark D

Max Keiser is a fan of Ron Paul, so you're rants on him seem well off the mark.

[Mark D.]

70. I'm A Fan Too

For his opposition to wars for profit and opposition to the Federal Reserve. I can't speak for Max but what I DO NOT see Max doing is blaming the victim for everything. I strongly believe in hard work, personal responsibility, and I've lived that and worked hard my whole life to be in the middle class and see my buying and bill paying power shrink. Unlike the Libertarians, or Republicans who act like them, like Ron Paul, I don't think getting a few hundred more in taxes back, at the cost of abolishing all social safety nets, which -contrary to Libertarians views - go most often to the truly needy who work hard and had a bad break or got screwed by the system. The system puts us in a glass jar and pokes holes in the top. The giant hand, with fingers made up of the military, the bankers, globalist corporations (WalMart, Monsanto, etc.), the mystery school enablers (Jesuits, etc.), and the faux media shake the jar and enjoy when we attack each other inside the jar for what the hand had actually done.

More power to true revolutionary thinkers who will see the glass jar, and see the hand, and not stop trying to fight that system, vs. just blaming fellow victims. I saw an interview where Ron Paul was asked what they'd do for the truly needy (ie. totally disabled, impoverished for no fault of their own, etc.) and his response was, his exact words: "Oh I dunno, charity..." and he went on to change the subject. What is our primary motivation? As a liberal, it is the golden rule. It's Matthew 25:40. As you do to the least among you, you do unto me. I am against the system of reverse-Robin Hood-ism that keeps pushing money and resource control to the top of the pyramid scheme. Many such corporate-Liberals, who call themselves Libertarians, who oppose the system don't hate it, they envy it. Their entire motivation is what's in it for them. Some tax savings. So they get a few hundred back, it's okay if billionaires would get back millions in tax savings under their schemes, as long as they get theirs.

That or they want taxes low at the top, for when they hit that scratch ticket. It's an illusionary hope created by the system. Whether they want to or not, they enable that elite. They see regulations = more bureaucrats = more spending = they pay more taxes maybe. That's their motivation. It's got nothing to do with their fellow victims, who they'd prefer to blame. Their concerns end at the end of their property line. It's not a problem until it's a problem for them. I know a friend who had nothing but support for Bush until he passed a corporate-liberal law the screwed many working class out of overtime, to benefit only their employers. That affected him personally. SUDDENLY he had a problem with Bush. The only thing some understand is a wall against their backs. It's just how some are. Some lean empathetic, some lean self-centered, to different degrees. The way to win the latter over is to show them that when the rising tide lifts all boats, we all do better. Scandanavia is an example of this.

They're the first to bitch how they used to be able to leave their door unlocked. Well, they could again if people weren't left so desperate they break in their house to survive. They're the first to oppose single-payer, yet they bitch about having to wait so long in the ER. They hate it based on how they have been sold that it will likely raise their taxes, when conservative CBO numbers shows it would cost less to enact than what we pay right now, meaning not only no new taxes, but maybe even less. Of course the reality that the 14 thousand a year the average family pays for health care would be gone, you want to talk about a stimulus, and it would directly benefit them. So rife with zeal at cutting small amounts of taxes, they miss the big stuff. Keep chasing that mouse right around the elephant (pun intended) in their living room. These people lack the truth because of what is sold to them by FAUX News, which they're quick to bash, though they often agree with its blame-the-victim enabling.

[bertman]

73. Good response, Mark D. I'm with you on it.

[troubledamerican]

84. K & R to Max & Stacy & Mark D.

[sasquatch]

25. Goldman Sachs execs need to die

[santamargarita]

28. I always saw it as Bush's last chance to screw the American taxpayers

That War Criminal hates this country!

[TomClash]

29. This is ridiculous

There are so many points that make this ludicrous I don't know where to begin. Let's forget about the collapse of Goldman's stock price, Warren Buffet's $5b rescue at distressed sale prices and amazingly favorable terms, the CMBS and CDS and other derivatives losses in 2008, which sparked a huge 4Q loss. Goldman's stock price went from $240 in November 2007 to $61 in December 2008. That's a great strategy for global domination.

Let's just look at the money supply component known as M3 - it didn't "decline" - its growth rate declined from 16% to 6% over the course of late 2007 to the present. The money supply by any measure has consistently gone up for the past several years.

Iranian TV sponsors this because it not so subtly supports the notion that "the Jews" control Wall Street. What nonsense.

[On the Road]

44. If Goldman Was Trying to Profit by Manipulating the Market

they did a pretty piss-poor job of it -- all those layoffs and most of the value of the stock gone.

[TomClash]

45. I agree

The stock price has bounced back, but nowhere near the high.

[maxkeiser]

55. they don't take risks

The bonuses are not paid in stock.. they skim the cash off the top.

additionally, the insiders are typically fully hedged against the stock price move. they don't rake risks, period. They only take profits. hence the RECORD bonuses in 2009.

[Mark D.]

71. Exactly

It amazes me that 'layoffs' is even mentioned as a deterrent or failure on Goldman Sachs part, in the above post you'd responded to. The Gold-Man didn't Sack the economy with an iota of care for what it did to the lessers who may have lost jobs. Yes, even well-paid middle and upper management. They don't care. Layoffs are always good to these people. If one goes far enough down the rabbit hole they realize it's all done by and for the benefit of a few ultra-elite, in their pursuit of re-establishing feudalism. You don't need to have a military take-over. You don't need to even change the government systems in place giving a false idea of 'freedom' to many, and calling a market that vastly profits only them a 'free' market is an additional rub. They just need to get enough money and control of resources to the top, the rest will follow, and they have no choice but to follow. Like Jefferson intimated, these financial schemes hold greater threats to true personal freedoms and national sovereignty than any foreign military ever could.

[fascisthunter]

86. ding!

[TomClash]

78. How many Goldman employees in NY are getting record bonuses in 2009?

The record bonuses are for the trading desk in London. They went long and are doing well, but 2009 isn't over yet.

How are they fully hedged against a stock price decline? You can't short your own stock forever and make money, otherwise everyone would do it.

[On the Road]

85. All Top Executives Have Large Personal Holdings of Company Stock

A large part of their personal net worth was wiped out.

To say that financial executves do not take risks is ridiculous -- all speculators do and sometimes they get burned. It is the nature of the beast.

Executive stock holdings are public information. Shorting your own company's stock is likely to result in trouble with the shareholders and with the SEC. Do you have any information about Wall Street executives having short positions, or is this simply something you would like to believe?

[maxkeiser]

53. Huh?

GS partners are not paid in GS stock. They skim the creme right off the top.

[TomClash]

77. Actually they are paid in GS stock in part

And their shareholders get paid in dividends and shares. Think they were thrilled when the stock went to 60? They weren't.

[Lucky Luciano]

79. false - they do get paid substantially in stock.

Blankfein did take a huge cash (about 2/3 if IIRC) payout in his 2007 bonus, but most are paid in stock with some cash of course...then the stock has to vest usually - I will say that I am not 100% sure if GS forces their partners to vest their stock, but most likely they do unless youcan cite otherwise.

[TomClash]

82. They are paid in stock

2008 was a great yeat for Goldman - market cap and stock price collapsed and they lost money.

What a strategy.

[Turborama]

30. You're boasting about having a deal with Press TV?

[maxkeiser]

56. why not?

who do you prefer, FoxNews?

forget about the so-called 'green revolt' in Iran.. focus on the 'pinstripe revolt' in the US

check out my pinstripe revolt on twitter
www.twitter.com/maxkeiser

[Turborama]

60. Because I question the agenda of Press TV that makes me a possible Faux news viewer?

You really are full of yourself, aren't you. Maybe you missed the links in my signature line?

Press TV is Kohmenei's mouth piece, but I guess you must know that already. I congratulated you for going the route of Al Jazeera English but Press TV is definitely a step in the wrong direction, and your telling me to "forget the so-called 'green revolt'" just serves to clarify your agenda.

[maxkeiser]

67. before leaping on the 'A' word

...let's focus on the issue at hand. The wealth of America is being systematically stolen by a few guys on Wall St. We see this escalating - as the unemployment number ratchets higher and wages drift lower. Social unrest is in the air and when push comes to shove all talk of 'agendas' hopefully will disappear and the business of getting our country back will take precedence.

[barbtries]

31. glad you came to DU

i listened to one of your shows months ago during the panic days and could not remember your name. what do you suggest for those of us who cannot afford to invest in gold? and when you buy gold, do you get gold, or paper that represents gold? thank you

[maxkeiser]

57. gold is affordable

...you can open an online account and buy gold in increments less than $200 dollars. Google it.

[Bluenorthwest]

32. Hate to get semantic

but there is a difference between an inside job, or an intentional plundering, and a 'false flag attack'. To understand what the OP is talking about, I'd like to know what 'flag' was blamed, and what he thinks the 'real flag' was.
A false flag implies that a nation is responsible and that another nation is being blamed instead. A crime can be intentional, inside, and covered up without being a false flag operation. False flag means the attacks used cover of one nation while being agents of another.
The phrase itself, being not correct in this context, smacks of agenda.

[MindMatter]

34. Paulson was actually working for Goldman

That's the false flag. He was representing himself as the S of Treasury, a man looking out for the interests of the people. That's the flag he was flying. But it should be obvious to everybody -- and was perfectly obvious at the time he was doing it -- that he was actually a pirate still effectively operating as G-S's CEO.

[Bluenorthwest]

36. I really hoped the OP would speak for himself

but if what you draw from it is what he meant, I still think that it is not the best or most accurate terminology, and that it carries implications that are not helpful. To be even more kind, one could say instead that it allows the reader to make inferences that are perhaps not intended.

[soryang]

38. This is an inside job

But it goes much further than GS. MK oversimplifies it but such is the nature of media. Mortgage backed securities are fraudulent by their very nature. So are CDOs. But they were sold to compensate for the huge amount of balance of payments deficit capital making its way overseas per the globalist free trade dogma to arbitrage labor and get rid of American labor standards. US industry/capital was exported to the cheapest labor markets. Something had to be done to repatriate that capital or face economic collapse much earlier at home. Such events expose the true nature of so called "free trade" as so much bs. Since we had no capital industry left at home, and unemployment was raising its ugly head, building real estate assets was sought as the remedy and then selling the debt instruments overseas. The average mortgage instrument which is a secured instrument is too small and cumbersome to sell on the scale needed. MBSs and CDOs lost their secured status when aggregated in massive tranches as financial instruments. Since they were no longer backed by mortgages when aggreg ated nor UCC instruments for other CDos, the credit default swap contract was invented to circumvent insurance regulations to "back" the instruments fraudulently labelled as securities. The credit default contracts were meant to instill confidence in the fraudulent CDOs and MBSs for foreign investors.

This scheme was dreamed up by the top financial families in America. Those families that have been ruling America since the industrial revolution. We all know the names. The institutions involved include AIC, AIG and CITI, and Merril, and GS and MS and whatever other investment banks and insurance institutions were induced to participate in this scheme. Foreign investment banks are also involved. The scheme began to collapse when the real estate market started to fail. Foreign institutions demanded payment on their MBSs. Those holding the credit default swaps were immediately revealed to be bankrupt and without reserves, an insurance law violation. Credit froze almost instantly on world markets. The ruling US elites immediately had Paulson arrange for FIDC protection for investment banks and had Treasury guarantee payment of fraudulent credit default swap derivatives and the underlying fraudulent mortgage backed securities and collaterallized debt obligations.

Insiders like GS and MS realized additiional huge profits by speculating in CDS derivative markets when they didn't even hold the insurable interest in the underlying securities. Geithner's function is a huge cover up of the underlying RICO conspiracy (say concerning AIG, and GS and MS). No audits by Congress, no grand juries, no justice investigations, etc.

The circle is complete by transfering all regulatory functions to a private body with no transparency the FED. This is a coup d'etat. The Treasury of the United States is now operated for the benefit of small number of finance capitalists. No reinstatement of Glass Steagal; no elimination or restrictions on the fraudulent derivative/credit default swap markets and above all no prosecutions of the principals.

[brindis_desala]

39. Spot on analysis!

[tomp]

41. nice summary! i got more out of that than anything i've read so far. thanks. nt

[maxkeiser]

48. false flag

...the false flag in this case is "The market." Having worked on Wall. St. myself for many years I can tell you from first hand experience that brokers/bankers routinely move prices in ways that hurt clients and then blame 'the market.' After the crash of Lehman, BearStearns, etc. back in 2007 the MSM picked up the idea that 'The market' is to blame and that 'no one saw it coming.' The second half of that statement is patently false. Many saw it coming - - - including Alan Greenspan, but failed to take appropriate steps to protect the interests of those who are not partners at GS and JPM.

The first part of the statement is also false. The 'market' in America is not an amorphous, random, chaotic mess that goes along unpredictably. For one thing, the very price of money itself, interest rates, are not set by the market, but the FOMC in Washington - who works for - Wall. St. GS, JPM. When LTCM crashed in '98 the Fed lowerd rates on every savings account in the country to bail out a few rich guys in Connecticut. Anyone living on a fixed income had to live on less for years thanks to Greenspan's meddling so that his friends would not miss any yacht payments. Shameful.

With the underlying foundation of the financial economy built on what is essentially a rigged market, the FOMC - it is unwise to assume that the additional layers of stocks, bonds, currencies, options, futures, and derivatives are trading outside of the tight controls of a small number of insiders.

Additionally, the 'specialist' system used on the floor of the NYSE; the so-called 'broker-dealer' model is rife with conflicts of interest that encourage, among other abuses, 'front running' (insider trading) and other methods of pilfering from the many to benefit a few.

Unlike others on this board commenting on this topic, I believe I have rare insights into this area of finance and markets. Read my 1996 patent; http://www.google.com/patents?id=n2sXAAAAEBAJ&dq=timoth...

This technology is used today by a major Wall St. firm to help rig the bond market in ways that I consider to be an aggravated assault on 'price discovery' but that's another story...

[MindMatter]

33. I don't think he connected the dots completely

It wasn't that Goldman took the TARP money directly. But when we gave hundreds of billions to AIG, most of this money passed through to companies like Goldman. The surviving companies that got TARP money directly want to pay that back so that they are free to keep giving their execs multi-million dollar bonuses. But the TARP money that is funneled laundered through AIG and others is free to keep.

As engineers of this "crisis" the Goldman guys knew exactly what they were doing.

IN addition, Paulson was able to use this occasion to simply wipe most of Goldman's competitors off the map.

[maxkeiser]

46. detour

for the sake of driving home what I think is the bigger point - spending any time on the detour of the TARP funds through AIG, etc. just clouds the waters - as GS likes those waters to be as cloudy as possible. Focusing on the primary path of funds; gov't to GS bonus pool - via a GS caused "crisis" gets me to the meat of the issue quicker. That is, what to do about it? First, let's call this what it is, extortion, larceny and tyranny. Next, what options do we have? Killing off the virus of the bankers means returning to some form of gold backed currency so it makes sense to me for people to force this issue by driving the price of gold high enough to trigger some kind of default on the COMEX. As many have commented on; the COMEX is 'short' many tons of gold and therefore, a sustained rally of Gold above $1,300 would probably kill off many of the industry players who are manipulating that market. This is not a painless way to rid us of some of the Wall St. virus. It will mean greater economic contraction. A run on the dollar and a sell off in the US t-bond market but it's medicine the economy needs to help rid of the Wall St. parasites. Russia, China, Iran are getting ready to pull the plug on the dollar. They see it as a means to fund US military exploits and they are willing (from what we know of recent reports) to endure large losses on their US dollar positions if it means removing the main source of US military funding; China, Russia, Iran (now aligned in a mutual defense pact the SCO). Americans might want to consider protecting themselves from this global rearrangement of the currency grid by buying some gold.

[MindMatter]

59. That's the point. There is no DIRECT link

between TARP money and the G-S profits and bonuses. The story is how the money that was pissed away on other companies THAT ARE NOT RETURNING TE TARP MONEY ended up in the hands of G-S Execs, free and clear. And how Paulson systematically used the artifical "crisis" to eliminate most of G-S's competition.

Those ARE the stories.

[MindMatter]

35. We will learn there was a meeting in May, 2008

I predict that if the full story is ever known, we will learn that the Bush Cabal, which is dominated by people with G-S backgrounds, got together sometime around May 2008. At that point they realized, "Holy shit, this Obama thing could become a real phenomenon. We might not be able to take this election this time. And even if we do, McCain just isn't a player we can trust. He's not dependable. So Gentlemen, we need to do 'the operation' now."

It all depended on creating a public panic, and that depends on the news system. They know perfectly well that you can't do anything big with the news media until after Labor Day. That created a very difficult challenge. They had to create a full-on "crisis", and they would only have about 10 weeks between the time that they ramped up the news cycle and the the last good opportunity to grab trillions of dollars before the election.

(In retrospect, they actually did better than that. A compliant Congress and a completely uncontrollable Fed made it easy for Paulson to keep extracting trillions even after Election Day.)

So to "soften up the battlefield", so to speak, they started picking off smaller banks and investment houses so that the media would be prepared for the big onslaught the day after labor Day.

The scale, scope, and audacity of this crime anr mind-boggling. And as usual, they follow Hitler's plan and do it all in plain sight.

[tomp]

42. makes sense. nt

[maxkeiser]

47. why quibble?

sure...

that is one of the few story lines to 'walk the cat backwards' and come up with the through-line of the thinking and actions taken by Bush and his cronies.

All the other scenarios arrive at the same place. Tyranny, larceny, fraud and deceit. So why quibble?

Unfortunately, most Americans will not notice what is going on until the official unemployment rate creeps over 13 or 14% (with the real number, including people who have stopped looking for work, pushing past 21 - 22%) Furthermore, the high unemployment rate will begin to strike panic in most so the idea of coordinating some kind of counter move that would disenfranchise the Wall St. plutocrats and pirates will fail to coalesce in an effective, low key kind of way... And of course this is what they are counting on.

[truedelphi]

65. Interesting thoughts, there.

Time will tell if your speculating turns out to be a reflection of what really went down.

[pleah]

37. K&R

[WestSeattle2]

43. This is what the Bush family excels at...

transferring wealth from the pockets of American's, to their pockets, and also into the coffers of wealthy supporters. Follow the money.

A brazen example is when Bush slashed income taxes, then miraculously and inexplicably, gasoline shot up to $3/gallon, then to $4/gallon. That tax break didn't end up in our pockets, it was just a huge wealth transfer to the Exxon/Mobil's. Of course we were told it was due to the Chinese and Indian economies taking off like rockets. Really? Quarterly profit records(tens of billions) in the petroleum industry were set during the Bush years, and I would bet those records won't be broken until another Bush is in the White House.

On their way out the door they transferred billions of taxpayer dollars into the coffers of GS, and eliminated GS' primary competitor. You can be sure that the Bush family will reap the harvest of that investment for generations to come. The Bush/Cheney administration was nothing more than a criminal enterprise.

We do lead the world in graft and corruption, the only difference is that our system operates very openly out of the Oval Office and the halls of Congress.

This is what the world thinks of when they hear us spout off about "American-style democracy". Is it any wonder most of the world doesn't want anything to do with our system of government? That we have to force it down their throats using our military? If you have to use force to "encourage" others to buy into your beliefs, something is horribly wrong with your belief system.

[Lucky Luciano]

51. As someone alluded to below, this strategy was poorly executed

with GS stock still way off its high. Also, such a scheme did not have to be cooked up by GS - had they not turned off the credit spigots as you suggested, then it would have been smooth sailing and record bonuses would get paid anyway - and the stock would probably have a 3 handle on it. Moreover, GS thought they had maneuvered really well by getting heavily short subprime mortgage securities - they made monster profits by doing this when Citi, UBS, and other such losers took it up the ass with a hot poker...GS only turned to the government after their short term funding dried up - that will shut down GS real quick - no short term funding means they would be out of business immediately. The lack of short term funding was caused by Lehman's bankruptcy because nobody wanted the CP of any investment bank - not even GS.

Moreover, this strategy from the conspiracy theory perspective has far too much execution risk - it would have to be done perfectly for it to work - and there would be no need to do that in GS's case because they had the right bets on credit - they had some writedowns in the CMBS space and in some leveraged loans, but not of the size that can end their existence. I think the conspiracy theory would work better if it was Robert Rubin in there trying to prop up Citi because Citi did have the wrong wrong wrong bets on their books.

[pjt7]

54. Lucky

Paulson was Goldman's ex-CEO. You don't make that shit up. & Geithner's Chief of Staff was Goldman's top lobbyists.

They have raided us. Period.

[Lucky Luciano]

58. Sure Paulson was their CEO, but all the banks got money

stuffed onto their balance sheets. Why is Goldman the more guilty among the banks? They paid back their TARP money and are using huge profits to pay the upcoming bonuses. I do acknowledge that the government (FDIC) has guaranteed some of their credit (part of that other $13T people talking about are these sorts of credit guarantees - not actual handing over of money like TARP) which gave them more strength when they were down, but it is probably not necessary anymore - however, Goldman will not ask to take the guarantee off unless having the guarantees forces bonuses to be highly restricted. One could argue that the government should prevent bonuses while there are exceptional guarantees - but I would make that exclusive of those overnight rescues - like JPM should not have to suffer from compensation restrictions due to the guarantees they got from taking over Bear or WaMu - similarly for BAC taking over MER and WFC taking over WB.

[pjt7]

62. "Why is Goldman the more guilty among the banks?"

Because they have kept the inside Gov. robbery going with the "NEW" administration.

Geithner's Chief of Staff, Mark Patterson was Goldman's Chief Lobbyist.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-01-27-lobb...

This is unacceptable at any time & especially when Barak told us lobbyists would not play a part of his administration.

I think if you look a little deeper on you're own, you will realize they have EARNED the nickname Goverment Sachs & deserve to be called out.

[maxkeiser]

66. audit?

GS, like the Fed, does not disclose what they have on their balance sheet. Additionally, the amount of back-and-forth between GS's balance sheet and the Fed's balance sheet to avoid disclosure and debt-equity ratio accountability (see peek-a-boo accounting) is substantial. GS, like the Fed, is engaged in massive accounting fraud. GS and the Fed have routinely engaged in extortionary, criminal activities aimed at defrauding the US public out of hundreds of billions of dollars.

peek-a-boo accounting;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-keiser/peek-a-boo-acc...

[AntiFascist]

61. I won't deny that there has been massive corruption....

even within the current government.

But, you may want to consider which governments benefit from the increased demand for gold:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/11/news/international/saud...

http://www.mbendi.com/indy/ming/gold/af/p0005.htm

[maxkeiser]

68. the 'buy freedom' campaing

...is not perfect. The reasons I like are; it's possible whereas trying to legislate anti-corruption laws seems impossible at this point since the we have a captured-regulator scenario, it empowers people to have real money in their pockets as the Constitution defines money, it is trading at an inflation-adjusted discount that most probably will resolve at around the $2,000 an oz. level, the campaign has the power to kill the Wall St. virus by triggering a move out of derivatives and into bullion.

[fascisthunter]

64. Question for Mr. Keiser... glad to see you here

we need you here. Keep posting please.

PS - I have been purchasing small sums of silver bullion on a regular basis. Since gold is so expensive, is silver bullion ok?

[maxkeiser]

69. Yes

[Lucky Luciano]

80. probably best to refrain from giving financial advice

without at least giving a huge disclaimer - you don't know what this guy's financial situation is to tell him to buy silver. Not trying to be a dick - I am sure you know what I mean..


For example, this guy sounds like he does not have a lot of money because he would prefer to buy silver to gold because it is cheaper per ounce (I presume? He could be more sophisticated and be thinking of silver being cheap on a relative basis to gold). That says he does not have too much money to invest because he does not want to put all his money into buying just a few ounces of gold (that does not make sense to me because the money invested would be the same for 60 times more silver). I would say that the probability of this guy having an ordinary cash squeeze first is therefore higher than the probability of the armageddon situation occurring first - and for someone who does not have a lot of cash to invest and who could encounter a liquidity crisis very easily, they should not be over invested in a highly volatile commodity and possibly be forced to sell it at a substantial loss to meet their liquidity needs.

Of course, the guy could be more sophisticated and may have been talking about silver being cheap relative to gold (though I doubt he would have asked for your advice in such a way if he were more sophisticated) and that he has a substantial amount of wealth that can be put into silver.

The bottom line is we do not know what kind of guy this is and we should not influence anyone to make investments without knowing a lot more about them. However, you can say that you would do it for yourself while making it clear that his situation could be different and that they should consult others.

[bertman]

76. Excellent post. I have learned a lot, but I do not understand how buying gold is going to

make me more financially secure if it's held in another country and all I have is a receipt to show for it. What's to keep some military (ours perhaps) from invading that country and taking the gold.

I know this may sound naive, but I had to ask the question because I am woefully ignorant of this financial stuff.

Recommend this post highly.

[Lucky Luciano]

81. Probably do not need to worry about what you are worried about...

however, if you are buying gold to hedge armageddon economics, then conditional on armageddon occurring, your concern may be substantially more valid. Therefore, if someone is concerned about the scenario you describe, they can just take physical delivery of the gold. For example, one could buy 100 oz in a futures contract and take delivery instead of actually selling the contract before expiration. I have never done that, so I do not know the logistics of doing that, but surely it can be done.

[bertman]

83. thanks, Lucky. But is the gold one buys similar to a stock or bond where you can sell

it on the open market if you need the money?