Richard Clark: Is an economic collapse being prepared? If so, for whose benefit?

Is an economic collapse being prepared? If so, for whose benefit?

By Richard Clark article link

December 28, 2010 | OpEdNews

"From now on, depressions will be scientifically created."

-- Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., 1913

What follows is an essay that is largely based on information from an article which recently appeared at Zerohedge.com (source article: Neithercorp Press).

Because we subconsciously associate the continuance of our life with the variable health of the particular economic structure in which we live, we tend to become unwitting devotees to its continued existence -- even if an abundance of evidence shows that it is hopelessly corrupt and condemned to failure. We foolishly deny that this corrupt system (and the currency that supports it) is doomed because, even though it has beaten us bloody, we have never known anything else.

Because of this entrenched way of perceiving things, it is difficult to convince most people that the economic system in which they live is actually being used, in ways they cannot easily understand, to destroy their futures completely. And so, to try and explain to them that this very economy, which they naively regard as theirs, is being prepared, by persons unknown, to self-destruct, and take them down with it-- well, that is a very difficult task indeed.

Many people hit a proverbial wall on this issue because they simply cannot fathom that certain groups of men (globalists and central bankers) view money and economy in completely different terms than they do.

The average American lives within a tiny conceptual box when it comes to the mechanics and motivations of finance. They think that their monetary desires and drives are exactly the same as a globalist's. But, what they don't realize is that the very "box' they think in . . was BUILT by globalists. This is why the actions of big banks, and the decisions of our mostly corporate-establishment-run government, seem so insane in the face of common sense. We try to toss off their behavior as "idiocy," but the reality is that their goals are highly deliberate, and are so far outside what we have been taught to expect, that many of us can't begin to understand what they are doing and why.

In the past we have covered numerous instances in which global bankers have admitted to fraud on a massive scale -- fraud the consequences of which are now in the process of crushing our already fragile economy. Most of us have read about how the privately held Federal Reserve knowingly facilitated the creation of the housing bubble, as well as how it is now inflating a Treasury bubble which is soon to implode. We have all read about Goldman Sachs and its efforts to promote and sell toxic derivatives all over the world while at the same time betting against those derivatives on the open market. We have read about the manipulation of gold and silver markets by companies like JP Morgan, which have recently been exposed by whistleblowers and GATA investigations. And, most importantly, we've heard about the growing weakness of the U.S. dollar and the possibility of severe currency devaluation.

These revelations raise questions, which is natural, but they also elicit misconceptions and reckless knee-jerk reactions, especially when broaching the fact that the illegal strategies of international banksters are part of a larger agenda, namely to engineer an economic collapse.

* * *

Examined below are some of the most common narrow-minded responses to the proposition that banksters are about to attempt, or are in the process of attempting, an engineered economic collapse. After each listing, an explanation is provided as to why the response is narrow minded.

Narrow minded response #1: The economy is too complex to be controlled by just a handful of people"

This response often comes from people who are inclined to make quick presumptions about our economic system, rather than actually taking the time to educate themselves on how the system really works. From the outside looking in, the world of finance appears chaotic -- a mixture of mathematical and legal standards swirling in a maelstrom of mass psychology. Many Americans are either frightened off by this seemingly complicated field of study, or they too quickly find it "boring" and "not worth" their time. This, however, does not stop them from making knee-jerk presumptions about how the system works.

The problem is that just because a person participates in his economy daily, it does not mean he has any useful or real understanding of how the larger system actually operates. An analogy: Many watch television on a daily basis, but few have any real idea how the picture actually gets onto the screen, or how to fix a television once it stops working. Sadly, our egocentric culture has led a substantial portion of the public to imagine that they are experts on EVERYTHING, and thus, true researchers in the fields of economics and globalism get reactions like the one above, constantly.

At bottom, once all the quasi-technical biz-babble used by mainstream talking heads is removed from the equation, economics is really rather simple. Supply and Demand will always be at the center of any and every economy, regardless of the political atmosphere it exists in. These two fundamental factors can be manipulated to a point -- by the creation of artificial supply, or the conjuring of false demand. This manipulation, by way of artificial supply and the conjuring of false demand, is achieved in many ways by global bankers, but primarily through the domination that comes by way of their ability to do three things:

* issue currency,

* change interest rates at will,

* inject, or remove, incredible sums of money, into and from, any market.

A perfect example is the suppression of silver prices by JP Morgan.

Another good example of economic manipulation is the Federal Reserve's strategy, during the "90s, under Alan Greenspan, of artificially lowering interest rates, thus allowing banks to issue credit at historical low levels for over a decade. Linked here is an article from Ron Paul's "Texas Straight Talk' dated March, 2007 (before the housing market even began its full swan-dive). In it, Paul discusses the Federal Reserve's direct role in the creation of the housing bubble.

Men like Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, Gerald Celente, Jim Rogers, and many others were able to predict, long beforehand, that the Federal Reserve's actions were creating an explosive mortgage and credit bubble, yet we are supposed to believe that the Federal Reserve had "no idea" that their actions would result in a debt implosion? This is not plausible.

Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of Housing and Commissioner of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the first Bush Administration stated that the mortgage bubble was absolutely not an accident, and that she had witnessed outright and deliberate fraud on the part of the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve Bank in creating the bubble. The fact that disturbed her most, however, was her discovery that only a small handful of international banks were responsible for the perpetuation of toxic mortgage debt, not just in America, but around the world:

Goldman Sachs (one of the primary globalist banks involved in the igniting of the debt crisis) was caught red-handed selling toxic derivatives to investors and governments all over the planet while at the same time betting against those derivatives on the market. Goldman even bet against mortgage securities the bank itself created!

This is like a car manufacturer selling vehicles with brake lines known to be faulty, and then placing bets in some casino that a significant percentage of their customers will crash and burn. Essentially it is blatant and sociopathic fraud! Goldman's actions directly contributed to credit collapses in numerous countries, including Greece, and here in the U.S.

The idea that global banks can turn the economy on and off like a light switch may be a stretch, but the vast majority of evidence shows that they do have the ability to shift the direction of markets to a point, as well as the ability to spur the growth of bubbles that eventually lead to recessions, depressions, and beyond. In fact, if one examines the U.S. economy from the inception of the Federal Reserve in 1913, one finds that the past century has been nothing but a series of engineered equity bubbles designed to slowly hobble, but not completely cripple, our financial system and our currency. But why?

Now that we have established that market collapses can be created by a small handful of bankers and that it is done knowingly and strategically, lets move on to the next most common sheeple-like talking point.

Narrow minded response #2: Yes, international banks triggered the meltdown, but the "greed of Capitalism" is truly to blame, or, as a variant, "it's all the Republican Party's fault.""

Barack Obama received far more in corporate campaign donations (including donations from BP and Exxon) than McCain did. Obama has consistently surrounded himself with banksters and corporate lobbyists, including various hobgoblins from the bowels of Goldman Sachs. BOTH major parties are owned and operated by global banks. This is the cold hard and undeniable truth of our current political-economic system. There is no way around it. Learn it, accept it as reality, and stop trying to blame one party or the other for problems that both sides helped create! (If you cannot do this, your view of our current state of affairs will always be badly skewed and your insights on our socioeconomic problems will be worthless.)

Since the inception of the Federal Reserve in 1913, all markets and even our own currency have become more and more vulnerable to manipulation by our bankster elite. We have lived our entire lives in a rigged market, not the "free market" we've been brainwashed into believing in. To blame capitalism for our current dire circumstances is not only naïve, it is dangerous.

Narrow minded response #3: Global banks would never engineer the collapse of the U.S. economy or the dollar -- it makes them too much money"

This often-heard song and dance ties in with the #2 comment above. Again, here, the assumption is that the globalists only do what they do out of an "uncontrollable greed for money." The problem with this is twofold:

1) the end concern for the Elite is NOT the accumulation of riches. Central bankers have the ability to PRINT all the money they want from thin air! Remember, the Federal Reserve has never been subjected to a full audit, meaning they could easily create billions if not trillions without any oversight whatsoever. Greed for money, to them, is surely an absurd notion. What they do want, more than anything else, however, is power over people, institutions and society as a whole. Essentially they want control over every living human being. All other concerns are secondary.

2) the U.S. economy is NOT indispensable to global banks. While we see the economy as an extension of our culture and ourselves, the Elites see financial systems as mere tools in the pursuit of a greater goal: World Government. To better understand this, imagine you are building a house. Once your saw has fulfilled its intended role of cutting up all the boards, do you cling to the saw, or do you throw it aside and pick up a hammer to begin assembling the carefully prepared parts? This is how globalists look at financial systems. They are perfectly willing to cast off the U.S. economy like a snake shedding skin -- if it brings them closer to attaining their ultimate aim.

The same goes for the dollar. The Greenback may be the premier world reserve currency right now, but that can, and likely will, change very quickly over the next couple years. The dollar is a device that has outlived its usefulness as far as global bankers are concerned. The IMF has on several occasions made it clear that they eventually intend for the SDR (Special Drawing Rights) to replace the dollar as the world reserve currency, and they have openly admitted that it (the SDR) will one day be established as a global currency. IMF press releases make this development sound far off and away, but SDR accumulations by countries around the world have risen dramatically in the past year. This along with other factors we will cover (namely China's preparations to dump their U.S. T-bond holdings) show that IMF actions indicate they are preparing for a collapse of the dollar now!

Narrow minded response #4: China would never dump U.S. Treasuries because it would hurt them as much as it hurts us"

The theory that China is somehow fused to the U.S. in a kind of symbiotic seesaw relationship that can never be broken is so ingrained among mainstream American financial analysts it simply will not die, regardless of how much contradictory evidence you show them. It really is like a mental disease which causes mainstream media pundits to go into involuntary Tourettic convulsions every time you mention the words "Treasury bond dump."

America and China are not conjoined twins, and one can survive without the other. Simply stated, China has re-engineered its economy towards consumption and importation rather than relying on exports. The IMF has talked about this on many occasions with apparent excitement.

China has also finalized the ASEAN trading bloc which has combined export markets that are at least equal to that of the US -- meaning, China already has another place to send its exports besides America.

Most importantly, China must increase their currency's value if their new consumer-based system is to survive. Allowing the Yuan to rise sharply in value will revitalize the buying power of the Chinese populace, making greater consumption possible. Indeed, China MUST dump their Treasury holdings and pump up the Yuan if they are to hold their economy together. And, the Federal Reserve has given China every reason to turn its back on Treasuries through its (the Fed's) never ending liquidity injections. This is not to say that a U.S. collapse will not affect them; it would negatively affect the entire world. However, China has positioned itself to survive, and perhaps even thrive with their economic expansions into Africa and even Afghanistan, and their new financial agreements with Germany.

Finally, the Chinese have been very forthcoming over the past week about plans to drop Treasuries. China has dumped nearly 8% of their U.S. T-Bond holdings just since January, with recent record-breaking monthly T-bond dumps. They have openly admitted to a plan to diversify away from the dollar.

Narrow minded response #5: Sure, bankers took advantage, but it's really the American people's fault for getting suckered"

Yes, a sizable portion of the American public can be gut wrenchingly stupid. The problem with this argument, however, is that when it is taken too far it becomes an attempt to divert blame away from the criminals and place it on the victims. If you knowingly leave your front door unlocked in a bad neighborhood and you find your home ransacked the next day, then you are partly responsible. But, we cannot forget that the neighborhood is "bad" in the first place because of the criminals, not because of the people who don't lock their doors.

Just because global banks can sucker the public doesn't mean they should, or that they cannot be judged for it. The crime ultimately rests on those men who made the conscious effort to destroy this country, and the blame rests with them as well. One sees this attempt to parlay the economic collapse into the lap of the American people very often lately, especially from bankers who now claim that it's the American public's fault entirely. Why the people's fault? Because they will not spend more, they will not take on more debt, they will not take on more risk, and they will not believe hard enough in the recovery that never was. (Imagine a serial rapist behind a podium admonishing women for carrying pepper spray! The American people were only protecting themselves, just as women do with a canister of pepper spray. Going ever further into debt -- to satisfy the banksters?! -- would have been foolhardy.)

Narrow minded response #6: Ok, maybe the banks are causing a collapse, but to say the government is helping them is just crazy conspiracy theory"

Then why is it that the Federal Reserve has never been fully audited? Why is it that when Ron Paul tried to pass the HR 1207 Federal Reserve Transparency Bill, it was muddled in committees and then eventually derailed? Why is it that banks like Goldman Sachs have been caught, yes caught, setting the stage for an economic implosion in this country, yet no government indictments have been formed to criminally prosecute them? Why are these men still roaming free, like locusts, to continue pillaging at will? Are we supposed to feel lucky that we get table scraps like seeing Bernie Madoff get put behind bars, while the Federal Reserve commits Ponzi fraud on a scale that dwarfs his?

Our government (both major parties) is owned lock stock and barrel. This is why there are no satisfactory answers for the questions posed above. Elements of the U.S. Government, including almost every president since 1912, have not only turned a blind eye to Globalist activities, they have offered their full support to the bankers.

Nixon removed the dollar from the gold standard in 1971 giving the Fed free reign to print as much fiat currency as they wished, without limitations. In 1980 the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act was passed essentially placing all banks under the rules of the Federal Reserve. The Glass-Steagall Act, which had since the Great Depression kept investment banks and depository banks separate, was recklessly repealed under a Republican majority in the Senate, its approval finalized by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1999.

Thirty years ago, banks that held your home mortgage were for the most part required to keep that mortgage until it was finally paid off. However, a series of government decisions spanning that period, and influenced by global banks, allowed for the "securitization" (bunching, slicing and dicing and then peddling the pieces) of mortgages, leading to the creation of "derivatives," which were then used by corporate mobster/banksters like Goldman Sachs in a way that began to destroy our financial system.

Last, but certainly not least, both the Bush and Obama Administrations pressured Congress into passing highly unpopular bailout legislation which basically rewarded the same banks that created the credit crisis with trillions in taxpayer dollars (yes, the bailouts are now actually in the trillions, not billions). This led to the coining of the term "too big to fail" (or "too big to jail"). Our Government has been nothing but complicit in the banker takeover of this country. To debate this is to invite embarrassment.

I haven't even scratched the surface of government involvement in the collapse of our economy. Cases like the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980's led to serious prosecutions and jail time for more than 1100 criminal bankers, but this only caused the government to respond by changing investigation rules so as to make it even more difficult to catch the high-level fraudsters in the act! Linked here is a videotaped discussion between Max Keiser and bank regulator Prof. William K. Black who outlines our government's complicity in the breakdown of the country it is mandated to protect.

Conclusion

Elites destroy cultures to make way for new philosophies -- their philosophies. Its not so much "conspiracy theory" as it is a widely admitted methodology. Corporate globalists believe in global government on their terms and they barely try to hide it. If someone thinks this sounds "fantastical," then they haven't been paying the slightest attention. When one understands how Elites view the economy, and realizes their primary motivations, the fact that they purposely triggered a collapse is perfectly logical.

Nothing, besides all out war, inspires more fear and desperation in a society than a financial upheaval. Such upheavals allow changes in our collective psychology that were not possible previously. Most people tend to falter under such an overwhelming threat, and turn towards any authority (or fake authority) they think will save them from harm. Some people scoff at this idea, but it is likely they have never actually been in the wake of a real national catastrophe before. Men, especially those who know little of themselves, can change quickly in the face of calamity. The Elites recognize this, engineer tragedy, then waltz into the aftermath to merrily lord over the rubble, emerging stronger and more powerful than ever before. At the profound expense of everyone else.

Will their plan work this time? I think not, but I'm an optimist (no, really). The pursuit of total control and total power is, after all, rather infantile, albeit on an impressively psychotic level. However, if those who want to make us forget who the real enemy is, are successful in that quest, then I think our corrupt elites do have a chance at success. In fact, that is how they have remained successful to this point.

Only now does the average man have such immense knowledge at his fingertips that there's a chance that the most intelligent amongst them will be successful in ending the line of behind-the-scenes despots and tyrants that have reigned for centuries. If only the average man was not so easily deterred by WMD's (Weapons of Mass Distraction), our chances of victory would be much better, but we must work with what we have, and hope for the best.

The Elites will likely ignite some wars, tempt us into in-fighting, and fabricate enemies like alQaeda out of the ether. Whatever happens, our eyes must remain fixed on the root of the problem: the banksters, and nothing else.

Globalists are not invincible, they are not untouchable, they are not even all that brilliant. They are human, and they have made many mistakes. In some ways, the engineering of an economic meltdown really changes nothing. Hired thugs, useful idiots, corrupt officials, even hyperinflation -- all are tiny obstacles when considering the world we could have if the Elites were finally made to face the reckoning they deserve.

Americans once took on the greatest empire on Earth. We once took a feared king to task. Are a bunch of frothing corporate banksters really so daunting? All that is needed is a principled movement with the will to see justice done, and I believe we have that already.

Richard Clark: Several years after receiving my M.A. in social science (interdisciplinary studies) I was an instructor at S.F. State University for a year, but then went back to designing automated machinery, and then tech writing, in Silicon Valley. I've always been more interested in political economics and what's going on behind the scenes in politics, than in mechanical engineering, and because of that I've rarely worked more than 6 months a year, devoting much of the rest of the year to reading and writing about that which interests me most.

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Richard Clark: Is an economic collapse being prepared? If so, for whose benefit?