The War on Savings: the Panama Papers, Bail-Ins, and the Push to Go Cashless

Written on April 15th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on Counterpunch, by ELLEN BROWN, April 12, 2016.

The bombshell publication of the “Panama Papers,” leaked from a Panama law firm specializing in shell companies, has triggered both outrage and skepticism. In an April 3 article titled “Corporate Media Gatekeepers Protect Western 1% From Panama Leak,” UK blogger Craig Murray writes that the whistleblower no doubt had good intentions; but he made the mistake of leaking his 11.5 million documents to the corporate-controlled Western media, which released only those few documents incriminating opponents of Western financial interests. Murray writes: … //

… War on Corruption or War on Savers?

  • What we may be witnessing here is the 1% going after the 10% of people who, according to German researcher Margrit Kennedy, do not need to borrow but are “net savers.” Today the remaining 90% are “all borrowed up.” Either they are unwilling to borrow more or the banks are unwilling to lend to them, since they are poor credit risks. Who, then, is left to feed the debt machine that feeds the 1%, and more specifically the 0.001%? The power brokers at the top seem to want it all, and today that means going after those just below them on the financial food chain. The challenge is in squeezing money from people who don’t need to borrow. How to legally confiscate their savings?
  • Enter bail-ins, negative interest, all-digital currencies, and the elimination of “tax havens.”
  • Bail-ins allow the largest banks to gamble with impunity with their depositors’ money. If the banks make bad bets and become insolvent, they can legally confiscate the deposits to balance their books, through an “orderly resolution” scheme of the sort mandated in the Dodd-Frank Act.
  • Negative interest is a fee or private tax on holding funds in the bank.
  • Eliminating cash prevents the bank runs that these assaults on people’s savings would otherwise trigger. Money that exists only as digital entries cannot be withdrawn and stored under a mattress.
  • Exposing tax havens shows the predators where the money is and who has title to it, facilitating its confiscation and preventing the funding of massive rebellions against confiscation.

Orchestrated at Davos: … //

… (full text).

Panama Papers related Links:

Other Links:

Europe must cultivate own Islam, German politician wants to cut mosques off from foreign influence, on RT, April 14, 2016; a senior German politician has put forward a proposal to “cultivate” a European kind of Islam in Germany by barring foreign investment from Muslim countries, introducing local training for imams and making German obligatory in mosques;

UNESCO unanimously approves Russian resolution on Palmyra restoration, on RT, April 13, 2016;

Swiss expand 1 MDB probe to two former Emirati fund officials, on Fortune, by Reuters, April 13, 2016;

Switzerland widens probe into murky Malaysia fund, on The Local.ch, April 12, 2016;

Insulting Erdogan, Merkel Falls Flat over a Satirical Poem, on Spiegel Online International, a commentary by Stefan Kuzmany, April 12, 2016: a satirical poem targeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become an affair of state. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s handling of the crisis has been abysmal and shows that she is losing her grip on power;

UK: House of Lords votes to stop the detention of pregnant women in immigration centres, on Left Foot Forward, by Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin, April 12, 2016;

Morning Joe goes off on Rigged Democratic primary following Wyoming, 8.20 min, uploaded by TYT Nation, April 11, 2016:

Suisse: Alain Berset veut mettre fin au tourisme de la procréation, dans 24heures, par Arthur Grosjean, le 11 avril 2016;

UK: George Osborne’s tax return shows he almost doubled his income from shares and rent, on The Telegraph.co.uk, by Kate McCann, April 11, 2016;

Du Bataclan à Nuit Debout, dans Mediapart.fr/blogs, pat NOËL MAMÈRE, le 11 avril 2016: Le vent se lève place de la République. La génération Bataclan est passée des terrasses aux Places. Les mêmes commentateurs qui, en novembre, s’émerveillaient de la résilience des trentenaires, revenus aux terrasses des cafés aussitôt après la tragédie, sont comme tétanisés, en avril, par l’émergence d’un phénomène politique et social qu’ils ne maitrisent pas;

Erdogan, zeig mich an – Dieter Hallervorden HD, 1.44 min, uploaded by SUNLOCK, April 11, 2016;

Labour is now the party of pragmatists – a comment, on Left Foot Forward, by Mark Standford, April 7, 2016;

Photo Gallery: refugees stage protest at Greece-Macedonia border, on RT, April 2016;

Bernie Sanders shuts down corporate media stooge, 11.10 min, uploaded by TYT Nation, March 28, 2016;

Ukraine brings the (Nazi)-Swastika to the European Parliament, 1.41 min, uploaded by GWTZ News, March 1, 2016;
on en.wikipedia: Nazism; on de.wikipedia: Nationalsozialismus;

Banned German satire Die Anstalt/(the madhouse) – Media double standards on Russia and Ukraine, 10.19 min, uploaded by GWTZ News, Jan 3, 2015 … spoken in german, subtitled in english;

… and this:

… und noch dies:

Volker Pispers, von Marguerite Una am 23. Oct 2015 hochgeladen:

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