JustThinking.us

A couple of weeks ago Zero Hedge posted it's list of the top 15 "Economic Truth" documentaries.

We've been methodically grinding through them.

I think we'll probably post them all as so far I've liked every one of the eight I've sat through.

If you don't want to wait for me, hit the little gear above and watch them all back to back to back.

The following video, Money as Debt 1 a short animated documentery by Paul Grignon explains just what exactly money is and where it comes from.

Hint, mostly it ain't the mint.

I know you think you know what money is, and maybe you do, but you may not know where it comes from.

At 47 minutes it's about all I can handle in one sitting.

Way double highly recommended.

Since we were already on the subject.

From Zero Hedge, yet again.

John Koutoulas offers up a primer to prosecuters everywhere for the prosecution of John Corzine on charges of fraud and possibly perjury in the matter of MF global and One Billion Six Hundred Million Dollars of supposedly segregated customer funds.

We've cut and pasted the conclusion which probably get's you home.  This isn't the easiest read we've ever posted but we found it to be worth the effort.

There are links all through this thing which disappeared when I first formatted this post.

If you drag your mouse around a bit you'll find some other good stuff.

To sum up, while Vice President Joe Biden’s “Smartest Guy I Know” was smart enough to not explicitly say “Steal the Customer Money” in an email, there is enough circumstantial evidence, to conclusively prove fraud (and probably perjury) beyond a reasonable doubt.

• Corzine was well aware of the risk involved with his European Sovereign Debt trades, and fired the risk manager who brought the risk to the board’s attention.
• Corzine encouraged his yes man CFO Henri Steenkamp to risk deficits in customer segregated funds against the advice of his more experienced CFO, Christine Serwinski.
• MF Global falsified a segregated funds report to show $200M in firm excess while internal calculations, external JP Morgan calculations, and common sense showed massive shortfalls.
• That 200M coincidentally is the exact amount (less 170k and change) transferred from customer accounts to MF Global’s house account, with exactly 87.5% of it being transferred to JPM almost immediately following the initial transfer.
• None of the transfers of customer money to JPM or BONY were approved by CME Group which, as MF Global’s DSRO, required MF Global to have all equity withdrawals pre-approved by them in writing.
• JP Morgan risk officers notified Corzine personally of their concern that customer money may have been used as part of the initial transfer.
• MF Global intentionally changed its business practices to favor its own liquidity needs over its customers by redirecting wire redemption requests to checks. This incidentally, would have zero effect on its liquidity position if it was not knowingly misusing customer funds, as unlike banks which may fractionally reserve lend, brokers must have a ratio of customer funds or permitted collateral greater than 1:1, as per CFTC Commissioner Jill Sommers, “EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY.”

While no single bullet point proves fraud, taken together, any reasonable person will conclude that Corzine is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Last December, when Rick Santelli asked me if customers would get their money back, I told him, “Damn right they will.” The distressed debt markets agree, as buyers have now paid more than 98% of the face value of customer claims for US designated accounts, and over 93% for claims for 30.7, UK designated accounts. However, the futures industry remains severely damaged as shown by CME’s Q3 profit down 31% as futures customers would rather take counterparty risk with a TBTF bank than trust uninsured clearing houses with ‘segregation’ protection that has proven to be nothing more than a paper tiger by Corzine’s theft. 

If Corzine is allowed to walk, it sends the message to not just the futures industry, but the entire US financial complex, “You can steal customer money from not just commodities accounts, but savings accounts, checking accounts, 401ks, and IRAs so long as you pay Obama 500k in bundled protection money, err, campaign contributions.”  And, while the current administration clearly doesn’t care about the integrity of markets, I do.

So today, for the 1 year anniversary of the day 38,000 farmers, ranchers, commercial hedgers, retirees, traders, and hedge funds were robbed, and 2,800 MF Global employees lost their jobs so an incredibly insecure multi-,multi-millionaire, Jon Corzine, could desperately try and show the world he is a great trader, after all, I renew my pledge to do all that I can to help put him behind bars. I am working with multiple state Attorneys General to help them bring charges once the DoJ officially closes their ‘investigation.’ And, I have another little trick up my sleeve that I assure you that Corzine’s high-priced lawyers haven’t thought of, so stay tuned.

So, Jonny Boy, keep pretending how you did nothing wrong and you’re just bummed out that you haven’t gotten back to work being an awesome hedge fund manager. I hope your 500k bought a Presidential Pardon along with the DoJ’s silence, because the law is coming for you and you’re going to need it.

xoxo,

James L. Koutoulas, Esq.
President, Commodity Customer Coalition
CEO, Typhon Capital Management

Sixty Minutes has done this story twice now.

This particular video however is from the BBC series Modern Spies which we, being for the most part guys, really like.

From Wikipedia.

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi (Arabic: رافد أحمد علوان‎, Rāfid Aḥmad Alwān; born 1968), known by the Central Intelligence Agency cryptonym "Curveball", is an Iraqi citizen who defected from Iraq in 1999, claiming that he had worked as a chemical engineer at a plant that manufactured mobile biological weapon laboratories as part of an Iraqi weapons of mass destruction program.[1] Alwan's allegations were subsequently shown to be false by the Iraq Survey Group's final report published in 2004.[2][3]

Despite warnings from the German Federal Intelligence Service questioning the authenticity of the claims, the US Government utilized them to build arationale for military action in the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, including in the 2003 State of the Union address, where President Bush said "we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs", and Colin Powell's presentation to the UN Security Council, which contained a computer generated image of a mobile biological weapons laboratory.[1][4] On November 4, 2007, 60 Minutes revealed Curveball's real identity.[5] Former CIA official Tyler Drumheller summed up Curveball as "a guy trying to get his green card essentially, in Germany, and playing the system for what it was worth."

A couple of weeks ago Zero Hedge posted it's list of the top 15 "Economic Truth" documentaries.

We've been methodically grinding through them.

I think we'll probably post them all as so far I've liked every one of the eight I've sat through.

If you don't want to wait for me, hit the little gear above and watch them all back to back to back.

What the hell, if you live in New York City you'll probably be home all week anyway. 

The first selection offered for your consideration is "Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis."  It features; Peter Schiff, Gerald Celente, and Dennis Hannon, among others.

At 46 minutes it's about all I can handle in one sitting.

Highly recommended.

I think we've been plain enough in our opposition to the candidates for President being offered up by America's two great political parties.

We cheerfully acknowledge the liklihood that in addition to being deeply opposed to many/most/if not all of the policies put forward by President Obama, Mr. Romney and their respective party platforms, this may reflect a personal problem on our part as we have internalized ... and then some ... the following credo first presented by the beloved Groucho Marx.

So anyway, the libertarian/anti-war types have sniffed us out and have been bombing us with the stuff.

So to speak.

The following are some of our favorites.

We begin with Terry D's hands down favorite, which mostly just creeps me out.

Our strongly held opinion is that the next couple whatevertheyares accurately depict the overwhelming tone of the 2012 election.

This year, America will be voting against.

Conan get's it.

 America's contempt for the political class continues to grow. 

Which in the case of Vice President Biden, that contempt is well earned.

Speaking of War, some people are beginning to notice that the supposed anti-war left has been AWOL for the past four years and have drawn some conclusions.

Bastiat Institute and Philosoarapter have some not unreasonable doubts ... if you ask us ... about all of it.

Finally, a warning.

Be afraid ..... Be very afraid.

  President Obama gave an interview to the Des Moines Register last Wednesday and upon being asked whether he regrets pursuing "ObamaCare" rather than focusing more on the economy, President Obama answered as follows,

"Absolutely not.  Remember the context.  First of all, Mitch McConnell has imposed an ironclad filibuster from the first day I was in office. And that's not speculation."

Keep in mind here that Mr. McConnell was then and still is the Senate Minority Leader, and that in 2009 upon Minnesota's Al Franken being seated, Democrats held 60 seats in the Senate and as a result a GOP filibuster was not possible.

The argument that cancer stricken Ted Kennedy and terminally ill Robert Byrd were unable to take their seats to vote to end this "ironclad" Republican filibuster fails as well as Republicans, in small numbers to be sure, crossed the aisle on at least three separate occasions as three Republican Senators voted for the February 2009 stimulus bill, five for the Lilly Ledbetter bill and nine for an expansion of the state children's health program.

As President Obama's then Chief of Staff and now Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emmanuel so elegantly put it.

Always with the excuses, this President.