Ponzi schemes

“The Government Is Literally Paying Itself” – Citi Calls For Money Paradrops

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time-man-of-the-year-helicopter-ben-bernanke

“And just like that Weimar 2.0 is born.“

 

– “The Government Is Literally Paying Itself” – Citi Calls For Money Paradrops:

Last Friday, we posted what we thought was a watershed report by Australia’s largest investment bank Macquarie, one which openly called for central bank funding of fiscal spending, aka “helicopter money”, by directly monetizing treasuries. Ironically, the bank made the call despite admitting that it would not work in the long run, leading to even more stagflation and deflation. This was the gist:

As velocity of money globally continues to fall, conventional QEs have to become exponentially larger, as marginal benefit declines. If public sector is not prepared to step aside, what other measures can be introduced to support nominal GDP and avoid deflation?

Read more“The Government Is Literally Paying Itself” – Citi Calls For Money Paradrops

Keiser Report: Rule 48 – Gerald Celente: ‘There Is A Global Meltdown’ – (Video)

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Sep 5, 2015

Description:

In this special episode of the Keiser Report from New York, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the never seen before triple category four hurricanes heading for global financial markets caused by injection of too much hot air from central bankers. In the second half, Max interviews Gerald Celente about Rule 48, volatility and invasions.

“We Are All In A Ponzi-World Right Now, Hoping To Get Bailed-Out By The Next Person”

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– “We Are All In A Ponzi-World Right Now, Hoping To Get Bailed-Out By The Next Person” (ZeroHedge, Dec 4, 2014):

One of the most important Zero Hedge posts of the last few years was “The “Muddle Through” Has Failed: BCG Says “There May Be Only Painful Ways Out Of The Crisis”” where The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) helped explain how the economic establishment is trying everything to move the system further with ever more cheap money and debt, why this will fail, and the inevitable wealth taxes that will be imposed to refloat the system from the ashes.

One of the authors of the infamous “Back to Mesopotamia” report(if 1984 is the instruction manual for political leaders, then this is the instruction manual for monetary leaders) was BCG senior partner Daniel Stetler, now blogger, and author “Debt In The 21st Century” who sees debt and leverage as the main factors driving wealth and inequality – a fact clearly overloked by Piketty.

Stetler was recently interviewed by Portugal’s Janela na web magazine, his insights are significant and worrisome…

Some key excerpts:

Read more“We Are All In A Ponzi-World Right Now, Hoping To Get Bailed-Out By The Next Person”

The BoJ Jumps The Monetary Shark – Now The Machines, Madmen And Morons Are Raging

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– The BoJ Jumps The Monetary Shark – Now The Machines, Madmen And Morons Are Raging (David Stockman’s Contra Corner, Oct 31, 2014):

This is just plain sick. Hardly a day after the greatest central bank fraudster of all time, Maestro Greenspan, confessed that QE has not helped the main street economy and jobs, the lunatics at the BOJ flat-out jumped the monetary shark. Even then, the madman Kuroda pulled off his incendiary maneuver by a bare 5-4 vote. Apparently the dissenters – Messrs. Morimoto, Ishida, Sato and Kiuchi – are only semi-mad.

Never mind that the BOJ will now escalate its bond purchase rate to $750 billion per year – a figure so astonishingly large that it would amount to nearly $3 trillion per year if applied to a US scale GDP. And that comes on top of a central bank balance sheet which had previously exploded to nearly 50% of Japan’s national income or more than double the already mind-boggling US ratio of 25%.

Read moreThe BoJ Jumps The Monetary Shark – Now The Machines, Madmen And Morons Are Raging

The Rot Within, Part I: Our Ponzi Economy

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– The Rot Within, Part I: Our Ponzi Economy (OfTwoMinds, July 21, 2014):

…

Depending on blowing the next bubble to temporarily prop up the economy is the height of foolhardy shortsightedness. Yet that’s our Status Quo, increasingly dependent on inflating bubbles to evince “economic strength” when the Ponzi paint will soon peel off the rotten wood of the real economy.

Did The Other Shoe Just Drop? Big Banks Hit With Monster $250 Billion Lawsuit In Housing Crisis

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– Did the Other Shoe Just Drop? Big Banks Hit with Monster $250 Billion Lawsuit in Housing Crisis (Washington’s Blog, July 16, 2014):

By Ellen Brown

For years, homeowners have been battling Wall Street in an attempt to recover some portion of their massive losses from the housing Ponzi scheme. But progress has been slow, as they have been outgunned and out-spent by the banking titans.

In June, however, the banks may have met their match, as some equally powerful titans strode onto the stage.  Investors led by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and PIMCO, the world’s largest bond-fund manager, have sued some of the world’s largest banks for breach of fiduciary duty as trustees of their investment funds. The investors are seeking damages for losses surpassing $250 billion. That is the equivalent of one million homeowners with $250,000 in damages suing at one time.

Read moreDid The Other Shoe Just Drop? Big Banks Hit With Monster $250 Billion Lawsuit In Housing Crisis

Another Conspiracy ‘Theory’ Becomes Conspiracy ‘Fact’: ‘Cluster Of Central Banks’ Have Secretly Invested $29 TRILLION In The Market

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–  “Cluster Of Central Banks” Have Secretly Invested $29 Trillion In The Market (ZeroHedge, June 16, 2014):

Another conspiracy “theory” becomes conspiracy “fact” as The FT reports “a cluster of central banking investors has become major players on world equity markets.” The report, to be published this week by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), confirms $29.1tn in market investments, held by 400 public sector institutions in 162 countries, which “could potentially contribute to overheated asset prices.” China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange has become “the world’s largest public sector holder of equities”, according to officials, and we suspect the Fed is close behind (courtesy of more levered positions at Citadel), as the world’s banks try to diversify themselves and “counters the monopoly power of the dollar.” Which leaves us wondering where are the central bank 13Fs?

While most have assumed that this is likely, the recent exuberance in stocks has largely been laid at the foot of another irrational un-economic actor – the corporate buyback machine. However, as The FT reports, what we have speculated as fact for many years now (given the death cross of irrationality, plunging volumes, lack of engagement, and of course dwindling credibility of central planners)… is now fact…

Read moreAnother Conspiracy ‘Theory’ Becomes Conspiracy ‘Fact’: ‘Cluster Of Central Banks’ Have Secretly Invested $29 TRILLION In The Market

Gerald Celente: New World Disorder Smackdown – How We Take Back America (Video)

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Added: Apr 25, 2014

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Trends Guru and forecaster extraordinaire Gerald Celente joins Sheila Zilinsky the Weekend Vigilante on his plan for a one-two punch to the globalist agenda and we take back the greatest country in the world

Every Ponzi Scheme Always Comes To An End: China’s Housing Problem In One Chart

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– China’s Housing Problem In One Chart (ZeroHedge, March 19, 2014):

The one problem with every Ponzi scheme is that it must constantly grow, in both demand and supply terms, for the mass delusion to continue. The other problem, of course, is that every Ponzi scheme always comes to an end…. which may have just happened in China where as the chart below shows, as of this moment at least, the supply side to the Chinese housing ponzi (and recall that in China the bubble is not in the stock market like in the US, but in housing) has slammed shut.

China housing starts

Source: BofA

The MyRA Propaganda Begins: ‘A Start To A Secure Retirement’ Promises Treasury Secretary

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“By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.”
– Adolf Hitler

Related info:

– IRA Confiscation: It’s Happening

– Obama Introduces MyRA: The ‘No Risk, Guaranteed Return’ Retirement Savings Bond

MyRA_0

– The MyRA Propaganda Begins: “A Start To A Secure Retirement” Promises Treasury Secretary (ZeroeHedge, Jan 30, 2014):

You didn’t think the US could at first slowly, and then all of a sudden, expropriate retirement accounts and invest them in the “no risk, guaranteed return” MyRA Ponzi scheme introduced by Obama during the State of the Union address without lots of behavior-modifying indoctrination in the “friendly press” first now did you? Sure enough, here is the first major propaganda salvo, coming from none other than the US Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, which will be published tomorrow across the McClatchy media empire.

Read moreThe MyRA Propaganda Begins: ‘A Start To A Secure Retirement’ Promises Treasury Secretary

Killing The ‘We Paid Our Taxes; We Earned Our Benefits’ Social Security Ponzi Meme

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– Killing The “We Paid Our Taxes; We Earned Our Benefits” Social Security Ponzi Meme ( Ludwig von Mises Institute,, Nov 22, 2013):

“We paid our Social Security and Medicare taxes; we earned our benefits.” It is that belief among senior citizens that President Obama was pandering to when, in his second inaugural address, he claimed that those programs “strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers.”

If Social Security and Medicare both involved people voluntarily financing their own benefits, an argument could be made for seniors’ “earned benefits” view. But they have not. They have redistributed tens of trillions of dollars of wealth to themselves from those younger.

Social Security and Medicare have transferred those trillions because they have been partial Ponzi schemes.

Read moreKilling The ‘We Paid Our Taxes; We Earned Our Benefits’ Social Security Ponzi Meme

The Biggest Scam In The History of Mankind (Infographic)

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– Picturing The Biggest Scam In The History of Mankind (ZeroHedge, Oct 22, 2013):

Last week Mike Maloney exposed the “biggest scam in the history of mankind” in 7 easy steps in his latest presentation. As Mike explains, most people can feel deep down that something isn’t quite right with the world economy, but few know what it is. Gone are the days where a family can survive on just one paycheck…every day it seems that things are more and more out of control, yet only one in a million understand why. Here is the simple infographic to explain the grift…

(click image for massive legible version)

You Are In The Ponzi Scheme Whether You Realize It Or Not (Video)

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– You Are In The Ponzi Scheme Whether You Realize It Or Not (Monty Pelerin’s World, July 2, 2013):

The reasons for continuing to participate in stock markets are discussed in this video from Gordon T. Long and John Rubino. It all comes down to liquidity (and little else).The liquidity fraud is well advanced and likely will continue. This worldwide Ponzi scheme, engineered by governments, provides massive risks and opportunities. For those who don’t understand what is occurring, there is much to be gained from this presentation.

Mr. Rubino describes the problem the Fed’s liquidity has created. Bubbles are re-inflating just as they did prior to the 2008 collapse. Why shouldn’t they? The exact same scam is being perpetrated by government.  Another collapse will eventually occur, but its timing and form can only be speculated on.

Rubino does a good job of explaining Ludwig von Mises’  ”crack-up boom” which will ultimately destroy fiat currencies. That end leads to extremely high, probably hyper, inflation. The pieces are already in place for this outcome. All that has to happen is for banks to begin normal lending or for people to understand what is happening (or going to happen) to the value of currency. Something will ignite the timber.

Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff had to lure marks into their scams. People joined them by choice. The Ponzi scheme operated by governments is mandatory. You are in it whether you want to be or not. You are in it whether you realize it or not. The only issue is to decide is what the best way is to play this Ponzi scheme. Long and Rubino discuss your options.


YouTube

The 441 TRILLION Dollar Interest Rate Derivatives Time Bomb

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– The 441 TRILLION Dollar Interest Rate Derivatives Time Bomb (Economic Collapse, June 24, 2013):

Do you want to know the primary reason why rapidly rising interest rates could take down the entire global financial system?  Most people might think that it would be because the U.S. government would have to pay much more interest on the national debt.  And yes, if the average rate of interest on U.S. government debt rose to just 6 percent (and it has actually been much higher in the past), the federal government would be paying out about a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt.  But that isn’t it.  Nor does the primary reason have to do with the fact that rapidly rising interest rates would impose massive losses on bond investors.  At this point, it is being projected that if U.S. bond yields rise by an average of 3 percentage points, it will cause investors to lose a trillion dollars.  Yes, that is a 1 with 12 zeroes after it ($1,000,000,000,000).  But that is not the number one danger posed by rapidly rising interest rates either.  Rather, the number one reason why rapidly rising interest rates could cause the entire global financial system to crash is because there are more than 441 TRILLION dollars worth of interest rate derivatives sitting out there.  This number comes directly from the Bank for International Settlements – the central bank of central banks.  In other words, more than $441,000,000,000,000 has been bet on the movement of interest rates.  Normally these bets do not cause a major problem because rates tend to move very slowly and the system stays balanced.  But now rates are starting to skyrocket, and the sophisticated financial models used by derivatives traders do not account for this kind of movement.So what does all of this mean?

Read moreThe 441 TRILLION Dollar Interest Rate Derivatives Time Bomb

The Global Financial Pyramid Scheme By The Numbers

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– Why Is The World Economy Doomed? The Global Financial Pyramid Scheme By The Numbers (Economic Collapse, March 20, 2013):

Why is the global economy in so much trouble?  How can so many people be so absolutely certain that the world financial system is going to crash?  Well, the truth is that when you take a look at the cold, hard numbers it is not difficult to see why the global financial pyramid scheme is destined to fail.  In the United States today, there is approximately 56 trillion dollars of total debt in our financial system, but there is only about 9 trillion dollars in our bank accounts.  So you could take every single penny out of the banks, multiply it by six, and you still would not have enough money to pay off all of our debts.  Overall, there is about 190 trillion dollars of total debt on the planet.  But global GDP is only about 70 trillion dollars.  And the total notional value of all derivatives around the globe is somewhere between 600 trillion and 1500 trillion dollars.  So we have a gigantic problem on our hands.  The global financial system is a very shaky house of cards that has been constructed on a foundation of debt, leverage and incredibly risky derivatives.  We are living in the greatest financial bubble in world history, and it isn’t going to take much to topple the entire thing.  And when it falls, it is going to be the largest financial disaster in the history of the planet.

The global financial system is more interconnected today than ever before, and a crisis at one major bank or in one area of the world can spread at lightning speed.  As I wrote about yesterday, the entire European banking system is leveraged 26 to 1 at this point.  A decline in asset values of just 4 percent would totally wipe out the equity of many of those banks, and once a financial panic begins we could potentially see major financial institutions start to go down like dominoes.

Read moreThe Global Financial Pyramid Scheme By The Numbers

Matt Taibbi: Secrets And Lies Of The Bailout (Rolling Stone)

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– Secrets and Lies of the Bailout (Rolling Stone, Jan 4, 2013):

It has been four long winters since the federal government, in the hulking, shaven-skulled, Alien Nation-esque form of then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, committed $700 billion in taxpayer money to rescue Wall Street from its own chicanery and greed. To listen to the bankers and their allies in Washington tell it, you’d think the bailout was the best thing to hit the American economy since the invention of the assembly line. Not only did it prevent another Great Depression, we’ve been told, but the money has all been paid back, and the government even made a profit. No harm, no foul – right?

Wrong.

It was all a lie – one of the biggest and most elaborate falsehoods ever sold to the American people. We were told that the taxpayer was stepping in – only temporarily, mind you – to prop up the economy and save the world from financial catastrophe. What we actually ended up doing was the exact opposite: committing American taxpayers to permanent, blind support of an ungovernable, unregulatable, hyperconcentrated new financial system that exacerbates the greed and inequality that caused the crash, and forces Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to increase risk rather than reduce it. The result is one of those deals where one wrong decision early on blossoms into a lush nightmare of unintended consequences. We thought we were just letting a friend crash at the house for a few days; we ended up with a family of hillbillies who moved in forever, sleeping nine to a bed and building a meth lab on the front lawn.

Read moreMatt Taibbi: Secrets And Lies Of The Bailout (Rolling Stone)

Timothy Geithner: Raise U.S. Debt Limit To Infinity

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– Geithner: Raise U.S. debt limit to infinity (Natural News, Dec 1, 2012):

The elaborate Ponzi scheme officially known as the U.S. financial system is set to completely transform into a Monopoly-style fantasy economy where money and debt are both meaningless and limitless. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has actually come out with a proposal that the American debt ceiling be completely eliminated, allowing the crooks that run the federal government to print as much phony debt currency as their hearts desire, and spend away into oblivion.

During a recent interview on Bloomberg TV, Geithner told Political Capital‘s Al Hunt that the Congressionally-established debt ceiling, which was specifically designed to establish reasonable limits on the amount of money the federal government can borrow, should be completely abolished. Even though Congress is the only entity that can make such a decision, Geithner expressed his belief that the limit be scrapped to avoid its being used as “a tool for political advantage.”

“It would have been time a long time ago to eliminate it,” said a nervous Geithner to Hunt, after being asked when he believed the debt ceiling should be eliminated. “The sooner the better.”

Read moreTimothy Geithner: Raise U.S. Debt Limit To Infinity

Judge Napolitano On Social Security: ‘If It’s Not a Ponzi Scheme, I Don’t Know What Is’ (FOX News Video)

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– Judge Napolitano on Social Security: ‘If It’s Not a Ponzi Scheme, I Don’t Know What Is’ (FOX News, Oct 17, 2012):

The cost of living increase for Social Security recipients will go up by 1.7% next year, one of the smallest jumps since the automatic adjustment for inflation was adopted in 1975.Never hesitant to express a strong opinion on the role of the federal government, Judge Andrew Napolitano weighed in on the current state of the Social Security system this morning on Fox Business Network.

First going back through the history of the Social Security law, Napolitano said, “The money that is deducted from our pay here every week is spent immediately by the federal government. But the money that is paid to our parents and grandparents is borrowed. So, if that’s not a Ponzi scheme, I don’t know what is.”

The judge credited Rep. Paul Ryan for at least addressing the unsustainability of the current system in his budget proposal.

He summed up the state of the entitlement system and the tough decisions that will eventually have to be made by saying, “There are too many people dependent on the federal government and now the federal government is about to run out of cash. What do we do?”

Total Economic Collapse: In Thessaloniki (The Second Largest Greek City) An Unprecedented 1250 Companies Have Shut Down In 2012

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– The Truth Behind Juncker’s Lies: In The Second Largest Greek City, 1250 Companies Have Shuttered In 2012 (ZeroHedge, Aug 22, 2012):

European viceroy of various neo-colonial territories Jean-Claude Juncker, best known for being a self-professed pathological liar, just concluded a press conference in which he did what he does best: lie. Here is a sampling of the soundbites along with our commentary:

  • EU’S JUNCKER SAYS TRUTH IS GREECE SUFFERS CREDIBILITY CRISIS – coming from a pathological liar, this one is our favorite
  • EU’S JUNCKER SAYS CONVINCED GOVERNMENT WILL TAKE ALL MEASURES. “all measures” = “all gold”
  • EU’S JUNCKER: FULLY CONFIDENT GOVERNMENT TO TAKE ALL EFFORTS “all efforts” = “all gold”
  • EU’S JUNCKER SAYS GREECE MUST OPEN UP CLOSED PROFESSIONS.  Chimneysweep? Bootblack? Telegraph Operator? Tax Collector? Prosecutor? Uncorrupted muppet?
  • EU’S JUNCKER SAYS BALL IS IN GREEK COURT; IS LAST CHANCE. The ball will be repoed to the ECB shortly
  • EU’S JUNCKER SAYS NOT SAYING THERE WON’T EVER BE A 3RD PROGRAM or 33rd program
  • EU’S JUNCKER SAYS GREEK EURO EXIT WOULD BE RISK TO EURO AREA and Obama’s reelection
  • EU’S JUNCKER SAYS BALL IS IN GREEK COURT; not for long: ball will soon be repoed to the ECB

And much more propaganda. Here is the truth. According to Greek Thema, in Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, so far in 2012, an unprecedented 1,250 companies have shut down. This means no jobs, no tax revenues, no money in circulation. A complete and total economic collapse.

So let us explain: while Greece and Europe may engage in endless check kiting Ponzi schemes: such as the most recent one, whereby Greece promises to pay Germany by issuing bills, bought by its banks, which in turn are repoed to the ECB via the ELA, with the cash used by the country to pay Germany and the ECB, even as Germany’s contingent liabilities get more massive by funding the ECB’s capital, the reality is that unless someone does some work, and creates real wealth, real money, instead of merely shuffling electronic cash from Point A to Point B, while the only thing increasing are German contingent liabilities, aka systemic debt, absolutely nothing will change.

What To Do When Every Market Is Manipulated

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– What To Do When Every Market Is Manipulated (ZeroHedge, Aug 16, 2012):

Hint: cut the strings

If you don’t know who the sucker at the card table is, it’s you.

~ old gambler’s saying

What do the following have in common?

LIBOR, Bernie Madoff, MF Global, Peregrine Financial, zero-percent interest rates, the Social Security and Medicare entitlement funds, many state and municipal pension funds, mark-to-model asset values, quote stuffing and high frequency trading (HFT), and debt-based money?

The answer is that every single thing in that list is an example of market rigging, fraud, or both.

Read moreWhat To Do When Every Market Is Manipulated

Amber Gold Derivatives Ponzi Scheme Collapses … Aaaand It’s Gone: This Is Why You Always Demand Physical

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– Aaaand It’s Gone: This Is Why You Always Demand Physical (ZeroHedge, Aug 14, 2012):

We have said it over and over, we’ll say it again. For all those who for one reason or another would like to boycott the broken markets, yet trade gold in paper form, please understand that all the invested capital is at risk of total loss and can and will be lost, commingled and rehypothecated, not necessarily in that order, with little to zero recourse and the residual claim on liquidating assets pushed to the very end of the queue. Because if Lehman, MF Global, Peregrine, and countless other examples were not enough, here comes Amber Gold: a gold-based investment ponzi scheme out of Poland, in which it is likely needless to say that the gullible investors never had actual possession of the gold. And when they tried, it was gone. All gone.

From the WSJ:

This week’s collapse of a gold-derivatives business that Polish regulators say was a Ponzi scheme has hit tens of thousands of customers, shaken confidence in the effectiveness of the nation’s financial regulation, and is roiling national politics in the European Union’s largest emerging economy.

On Monday, the company, Amber Gold, Sp. z o.o., which sold a gold-indexed investment of its own design and offered higher interest rates than banks, said it was halting operations. It pledged eventually to repay about $24 million it said it owed to roughly 50,000 clients in Poland.

Read moreAmber Gold Derivatives Ponzi Scheme Collapses … Aaaand It’s Gone: This Is Why You Always Demand Physical

On Europe: ‘It’s A Ponzi Scheme To Be Honest With You’ (CNBC Video)

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– Mark Grant And Rick Santelli On Europe: “It’s A Ponzi Scheme To Be Honest With You” (ZeroHedge, Aug 14, 2012):

As Simon Hobbs noted this morning, Olli Rehn confirmed ahh that err “both the European Union and the ECB are ready to take action” but only conditional upon requests for aid. What is perhaps missed by most observers is what Rick Santelli and Mark Grant discuss in more detail in the short clip below. Greece managed to sell EUR4 billion short-dated bills this morning at remarkably low yields – not exactly the kind of thing that incentivizes political leaders to request aid – but how did they do it? Who bought it? Well, we suspect you know the answer but Mark Grant’s clarifying response to Santelli’s question concluded simply that the ECB-to-Greek-Banks-to-The-Bank-Of Greece-to-ECB circle-jerk is “in a sense, a kind of Ponzi scheme.” Santelli’s response that “it really is a rigged game” and that our reflexive response to the signaling of bond yields is remarkable given the manipulation; Grant agrees adding that “the real money guys are either out of Europe, getting out of Europe, or have cut back as much as they can” since simple math shows you that at some point Europe will have it’s ‘moment’.

Hobbs introduces, discusses Greece at around 3:00 and then Santelli and Grant take over at 3:40…

It only took 20 years, a trail of counterfeit documents, superficial and failed audits, dubious tax returns and one unsuccessful suicide attempt, but in the end they got him: Peregrine Financial CEO Indicted On 31 Charges

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– Peregrine Financial CEO Indicted On 31 Charges (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2012):

It only took 20 years, a trail of counterfeit documents, superficial and failed audits, dubious tax returns and one unsuccessful suicide attempt, but in the end they got him: the CEO of failed commodity brokerage Peregrine aka PFG, Russell Wasendorf has been indicted on 31 charges of lying to government regulators regarding the failed brokerage’s operations. He faces a maximum sentence of 155 years’ imprisonment on the charges and fines of about $7.75 million, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa. There is also that whole $215 million in commingled and subsequently stolen client money but that’s another matter. In other words, just like Bernie Madoff, Wasendorf is going away for a long, long time for doing precisely what everyone else does: the first one for engaging in a ponzi even as now everyone acknowledges the entire system is one big ponzi – does that make it better and legitimate: apparently so; the second one for commingling client cash for personal benefit. As a reminder, this is what JPM did with $350 billion in excess deposit cash as part of its London whale trading fiasco, and broadly what every bank in the post Glass-Steagall world does with the roughly $8 trillion in total US bank deposits.More from the WSJ:

Mr. Wasendorf was arrested July 13 on charges of lying to regulators following a suicide attempt on July 9 that included a confession that authorities say detailed a nearly 20-year fraud against Peregrine’s customers. Regulators have estimated that about $215 million in customer money is missing.

Read moreIt only took 20 years, a trail of counterfeit documents, superficial and failed audits, dubious tax returns and one unsuccessful suicide attempt, but in the end they got him: Peregrine Financial CEO Indicted On 31 Charges

Bayou’s Ponzi, Vodka And Cocaine, Murder, And Frontrunning The Fed’s ‘Secret’ Bond Market

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– Bayou’s Ponzi, Vodka And Cocaine, Murder, And Frontrunning The Fed’s “Secret” Bond Market (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2012):

Think the attempted fake suicide by Bayou Capital’s Sam Israel which dominated the headlines for a few days in 2008 was strange? You ain’t seen nothing yet: as the following excerpt of Octopus, The Secret Market And The World’s Wildest Con by Guy Lawson via the Daily Mail explains, that was merely the anticlimatic culmination of an amazing tale of bogus London traders, ‘secret’ Bond markets, frontrunning the Fed, fake CIA and MI6 spies, ponzi schemes and staged murders.

Read moreBayou’s Ponzi, Vodka And Cocaine, Murder, And Frontrunning The Fed’s ‘Secret’ Bond Market

The Perfect Storm: Rick Santelli Meets Nigel Farage (Video)

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– The Perfect Storm – Santelli Meets Farage (ZeroHedge, July 9, 2012):

The undisputed champion of European political ranting (UKIP’s Nigel Farage) discussed the sad reality of Europe’s inevitable demise with the reigning US chief of non-hype Rick Santelli in a no-holds-barred cage-match of like-minded skeptics. From Rajoy’s incompetence to the ‘genius of mutual indebtedness’, Farage explains the problem is ‘bedeviled with complexity’ as, for example, the last summit left “the Finnish and Dutch finance ministers leaving with a very different perspective on what happened than the rest” and now even Merkel is arguing domestically what she has and has not agreed to. From the simple self-referential idiocy of Spain’s EUR100 billion bailout – that creates vicious circles on all the peripheral ‘bailing’ nations; to “the same bundle of money going round and round in circles” leaving Nigel tempted to describe it as “a giant ponzi scheme”; Santelli, not to be outdone, explains how the US is just such a money-circulating ponzi scheme as “one part of the government issues debt as another part is buying”. The ECB, of course, is becoming plagued with more and more of the ponzi-like peripheral paper and as Farage notes “the day Greece leaves the Euro – and it will – the ECB is left with a massive paper loss” leaving the ECB under-capitalized – which in all its wonderful craziness means “it has to go and get fresh capital from the other countries that themselves have been bailed out and are in fact in trouble”. A farcical perfect storm as the “medicine is killing the patient”, and he fears if the nettle is not grasped (Euro break-up) now then the markets will overwhelm the whole thing this summer.

If the clip is not working (since it seems CNBC has been a little flaky with this embed – perhaps due to its rough content) – here is the link to the clip.