I have my doubts about the closure of Liberty Reserve. It is widely reported to have had 1 million users. I am not yet convinced that a higher percentage of these were criminals, than is true in much of the mainstream banking system. I have been told by an email – which I cannot currently verify – that of the US $6 billion processed through Liberty Reserve, only US$20 million has to date been seized as the proceeds of crime.
It seems to me that a public sickened by the massive charges of bankers for simple intermediary services, will increasingly look for means to exchange value outwith the formal banking sector using modern technology. Services like Western Union are dreadfully overpriced, and make massive profits on home transfers by poor immigrant workers worldwide. It is getting increasingly hard to despatch money as physical cash by a friend. Carrying large quantities of money, even if it is your own, is seen as suspicious.
I was astonished when, during the Norwich by-election, my request to take several thousand pounds worth of cash out of my own bank account to pay various expenses was met with an insistence by the bank that I complete a form saying what it was for. Furious at being denied my own money, I wrote on the form that I needed the money for “Drink and bad women”. That sufficed to meet the stupid regulation.
The US government through aggressive – and in my view illegal – pressure on banks and financial services providers managed to cut off Wikileaks from almost all avenues of sources of international donation funding by individuals. You cannot trust governments to have the power to control all funds transfers. Governments will abuse that power.
Of course proceeds of crime should be seized. I have no problem with that. Stopping the crime in the first place would be better, but failing that you should track the money and seize it. But the way to do that is not to control everybody’s exchanges of value at all times. It is like asking me for proof I am not going to rob a bank every time I walk out of the house. It would make as much sense to ban mattresses, as stolen cash can be hidden under them, or cars, as stolen cash can be transported in them, as to close down internet transfer options because they might be used to transfer crooked cash.
Am I alone in worrying that the mainstream media’s reporting of this closure has involved simply repeating US government press releases, with no attempt at all to analyse what percentage of Liberty Reserve’s funds were actually criminal proceeds, and compare that to a mainstream bank?
Similarly with extreme political Islam like Al Qaida. There is no doubt that in matters of delicate diplomacy between the interests of the former Soviet East and the West, that USUK have engaged the proxy services succesfully of Al Qaida in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Syria, Libya etc. It saves us from direct confrontation with the Great Bear, as was.
But if this alliance gives my political Muslim brothers the false sense of security that it clearly gives jack Straw, that they can declare other Muslims as non-believers and take their freedom, property or lives, then it is obvious that this is corruption and sinfulness. The unintended consequence of power and I have a right to point out this, as holding up a mirror to my brothers and sisters and myself.
I don’t know why, when I agree with 90% of what you say, that we have to fall out about my criticism of Muslim attitudes which I have found offensive. Are we not here to discuss and maybe thrash out some ways to forward progress. I see all Muslims who do not ascribe partners with God as Muslims. So am I not entitled to point out the tendency of political Islam’s Al Qaida to mix political realpolitic power with their trust in God, much as others mix faith in graves and prophets and saints.
it’s a theological discussion, pointing out that when they point the finger of takfir/non-belief at others, there are three fingers pointing back at themselves which they don’t like to think about. If they can team up with USUKIS and remove the tyrant polytheist Assad whose family are butchers, all well and good. What’s wrong with asking them not to let power go to their head and bring their own righteous cause into grave error and shame?
ToiVos, 31 May 4.41am
Interesting, concise and insightful comment. The pressure slowly building on ordinary folk from inflation and limited currency face value, moves them towards using plastic and requires absolutely no legal impositions on the part of the government to bring this about. The value to the government and banking industry is, as you write, surveillance and fees.
You also write that the maximimum face value of US bills is currently $100. I recall that the face value reached $10,000, which must have been during the boom of cocaine trafficking in the 70s. There was a display in a casino of one million dollars worth of these notes – a mere 10×10 display. But according to Wikipedia – “The $1 million casino floor display, once a free tourist photo attraction, returned in August 2008. With $10,000 bills no longer widely available, the new display contains 2,700 $100 bills, 34,400 $20 bills and 42,000 $1 bills.”
OFT ‘ineffective and timid’ in tackling payday lenders
The Office of Fair Trading has been accused of being “ineffective and timid in the extreme” in its failure to crack down on loan sharks and payday lenders by an influential Parliamentary committee. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10089401/OFT-ineffective-and-timid-in-tackling-payday-lenders.html
The OFT Board
http://www.oft.gov.uk/about-the-oft/oft-structure/board/#.UahNZq9wb4Y
Shadowy and remote. You see the words ‘temporary’, ‘secondment’, ‘sabbatical’ etc. Not much continuity it would appear.
http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2013/22-13#.UahOVq9wb4Y
Isn’t printing more bonds the same as borrowing money? Government prints some paper with fancy writing on, calls them bonds and sells them to mainly banks for a term of 1, 5, 30 years and when they mature, buys them back at cost of bond plus interest.
Exactly. Hence when the government is paying the banks compensation for the consequences of the banks’ greed and stupidity, it borrows money from banks to do so. Sorry if I did not make this explicit. You might argue that it is also borrowing from the other corporate investors who can be induced to buy bonds. You might also concede that a hedge fund (for instance), which deals exclusively in funny money, is pretty much the same thing as a bank, except that rather than printing money, it sucks its margins out of productive enterprises.
I should perhaps add for the sake of completeness that the security for the money borrowed on government bonds is our future taxability, and the interest, like the repayment of the principal, is paid from national taxation. They fuck up. We pay, all the way down the line.
The WW2 debt was paid off in 2006, Fedup…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-American_loan
So, forty years, then.
@Komodo
“…the security for the money borrowed on government bonds is our future taxability…”
Absofeckinlutely spot on!
“Not a secret. So now of course the banks see a threat: a rather neat way to use the internet to transfer money that coul,d, in the long term, cut into the profits of the major players. So, what happens? They get their ‘muscle’ – taxpayer paid financial authorities – to bust the competition for money laundering. By which we mean ‘doing the same thing as the major players’. Of course, the main players laundered far larger amounts. ”
That is about the size of it.
People have a false impression of how the system works, they see a system with good guys and bad guys, the authorities and the crooks. Fact is they are all bad guys, all crooks, a lot of different Mafia families, sometimes ignoring each other, sometimes working together and sometimes having turf wars.
Think of the world as being Chicago in the 1930s and it makes a lot more sense.
Economically literate note:
For forty read sixty above. Duh.
Ugonad
I don’t think I ever take offence at anything connected with faith; normally I only delete hatred directed at others – usually against Jewish people, in practice. I might occasionally delete a simple statement of faith based on relevance, but don’t imagine I would do so unless it were becoming repetitive.
Clearly you’re not alone Craig, the banks are running the whole show (not just the media) and my worry is that all the conspiracy theories about a New World Order are playing out right in front of our eyes.
@Mike, surely BitCoin’s next?
“It is like asking me for proof I am not going to rob a bank every time I walk out of the house.”
For more on the same lines see this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/may/27/antisocial-behaviour-bill-threat-naturists
It’s not just about naturists, of course. It’s about all of us.
I thought the government were going to roll back the Blair assaults on civil liberties. Instead they’re adding to them.
(also, the Liberty Reserve case is quite similar to Megaupload – a service used by millions closed because a few people abused it, as a few people abuse everything)
“Clearly you’re not alone Craig, the banks are running the whole show (not just the media) and my worry is that all the conspiracy theories about a New World Order are playing out right in front of our eyes.”
No, some control the drugs, some control the loan sharking, some control the gambling, some control the protection rackets, some control the unions, there are a lot of interconnected entities all vying for power. The world is a constant battle ground as the psychopaths fight for control of different sectors and nobody ever wins the war. Don Murdoch may launch an attack on the Westminster Mob and take a few out but they will get their revenge later.
Craig
The Qur’an is a reminder. people who believe in it like to be reminded as much as possible. people who don’t, find it’s message repetitive.
“Give me control of a nation’s money
and I care not who makes the laws.”
Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Fred:
Fact is they are all bad guys, all crooks, a lot of different Mafia families, sometimes ignoring each other, sometimes working together and sometimes having turf wars.
Supporting evidence:
Think of the world as being Chicago in the 1930s and it makes a lot more sense.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/30/peter-mandelson-russia
I’d nominate Lord Mandelson of Trough for Rogues’ Wiki. But as ‘rogue’ has a relatively complimentary sound, give me five minutes’ legal immunity and a loaded rifle instead.
My deleted comment questioned why Craig separated his posts into different categories when the subject is basically one. That Bankers have become the means for Zionists to control nation states’ foreign policies. And that the definition of Zionism is the absence of a moral compass from divine sources such as the Torah, Gospels or Qur’an, a doctrine of political/financial/judicial expediency which was not attached to the state of Israel or the Jewish people.
The origin of Zionism put simply is how the Jews could regain the honoured position that they lost by not following their prophet Jesus pbuh of being the keepers of the timeless religion of Islam, the worship of God alone. Like Macciavellianism, Zionism has come to encompass all forms of connivery to establish what is wrong in opposition to natural and divine justice. What started as a Jewish nationalism, is now a complete system of deviance embraced by all comers, even Muslims. The state of Israel and its establishment and protection may have been the origin, but this has been overtaken by events.
When Matthew Gould says that he is a Zionist, he is saying both: 1/ that he supports the state of Israel and 2/ that he supports all forms of deviance that will form the new World Order. in the English language I believe both meanings are now current.
Therefore, when I use the word Zionist, I am always using the word in the broader sense which evolved from the struggle for Sion, itself a metaphorical entity, to mean how to achieve what God has forbidden. The word evolved from the curse that God put on the Jews who did not listen to their prophet Jesus, that the religion of Islam, of david of solomon of Zakariah and John the Baptist would be transferred from them to the next prophet SAW who would be Arab from the descendants of Abraham. How could the followers of Judaism reverse that curse? By deviance, and that deviance becomes a model for all political minds who do not want to follow justice and obey and worship God.
The only way that a Jew can regain that holy trust which God placed on the Jewish people is to embrace the teachings of that Arab prophet SAW Muhammad. You have now paid off your overdraft and your account is in credit.
I never use the word in its literal sense of support for Israel. I only ever use it in the metaphorical, theological sense. I ahve been to Israel. I have seen the Golan Heights. I have seen the Dead Sea from both sides. i have flown over Israel coming out of Amman airport and seen the long curve of the coastline I first learned about in Christian Sunday school in Bedford. It is a Holy Land chosen for Muslims, who when they left Islam by their own choice ended up un-chosen. Zionism in the literal sense is their struggle to regain it and reverse the curse.
when I use the word Zionism, I never, ever use it in the literal, nationalistic sense. Not racist, Fedup. Not racist, Craig. Even Habbachew knows I am not using it in the literal, nationalistic sense.
Mercer is resigning the party whip.
Conservative MP Patrick Mercer to resign whip role
By ANGUS HOWARTH
Published on 31/05/2013 12:08
Newark MP Patrick Mercer has announced he is resigning the Conservative party whip
Mr Mercer said he had resigned the Tory whip and would not be standing at the next general election to “save my party embarrassment” over a BBC Panorama programme alleging he had broken lobbying rules.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/conservative-mp-patrick-mercer-to-resign-whip-role-1-2950754
What has he been up to?
Boulton on Sky News is saying it involves cash for questions and Fiji and its place in the Commonwealth.????
Is someone gunning for him?
“Is someone gunning for him?”
The Barclay brothers, famous West End mobsters.
There’s a day,rapidly approaching,when it will be a crime,for the average citizen,to possess cash and a crime not to be debt.
The punishment for not being in debt will be a hefty fine.
Mercer once said being called a “black bastard” was just part of everyday Army life…
What a nice chap eh?
Illustrating Mandelbum’s choice of associates-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/24/peter-mandelson-associate-corruption-charge
Trial delayed until November 2013 – why? You need a subscription to find out, unfortunately. Noticed by the useful blog here, though:
http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2013/05/17/corruption-currents-from-cigarettes-financing-terrorism-to-argentina-overture-to-launderers/
And supporting Chinese candle manufacturers (deniably, through someone else)
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=57479.0;wap2
Guido Fawkes ( ) has a Times subscription, and I don’t, so from his site:
http://order-order.com/2009/09/04/straw-lobbied-by-allen-for-bp-deal-over-megrahi/
And this is what neatly links Straw and Mandelson without requiring them to sleep together*:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/aug/17/mandelson-gaddafi-lockerbie-corfu
*though if Straw were a billionaire and if Mandy disguised himself as Condo Rice, this could doubtless be arranged.
Comedy interlude, on the theme of Scottish nationalism.
“Jesus may have walked on Scottish soil in the prime of his life says Church of Scotland minister Dr Gordon Strachan.”
“Dr Gordon Strachan claims that Jesus may have visited Scotland before turning 30. Speaking on The Hour, Strachan said Jesus “wouldn’t have missed the chance” to visit Scotland if he had travelled all the way to England with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, as he believes he did.”
I love that bit! I mean if he’d taken time off carpentry to travel all the way to England, he wouldn’t have missed the chance to go to Scotland. Right? Right?
Never mind that neither England nor Scotland actually existed at the time!
“The former professor believes that if Jesus did make the long journey to the UK then he would have done so for a deep reason, most likely to further his education. “His uncle was Joseph of Arimathea and he came with his uncle for the tin mines.” He added: “Eventually he came to Glastonbury and he built a church.”
Yes, ‘course he did, mate. Never mind that Jesus wasn’t a Christian and the first church wasn’t built until at least 100 years, possibly more, after he died.
And as for Jesus coming to “the UK”!
Sure he didn’t stop off at a supermarket on his way up the A1?
“He probably was going to say hello to the druids.”
Yeah, sure.
“While researching for his book, Jesus the Master Builder, the retired Edinburgh University lecturer of History and Architecture used these legends as a starting point to try and prove a network of connections between the Celtic world and Mediterranean culture and philosophy. “My first question is ‘why shouldn’t he have come?’”.”
Indeed. I mean why shouldn’t Scotland win the World Cup?
Talk about having a chip on his shoulder!
And this loony used to be a history lecturer at Edinburgh University!
And he’s so stupid, he thinks England, Scotland and the UK existed 2000 years ago.
Imagine using “why shouldn’t Jesus have visited Scotland?” as an argument for his having done so!
“Nobody knows what happened to him till he was aged 30. That’s a long time. “There were legends he went to Egypt and to India but then there are also legends that he came to Glastonbury, to Cornwall.””
Oh well, that proves it, then. The master builder came.
Sure he didn’t set up a masonic lodge at Kilwinning?
I mean why shouldn’t he have done?
Crikey they are all at it Komodo.
Your link.
http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2013/05/17/corruption-currents-from-cigarettes-financing-terrorism-to-argentina-overture-to-launderers/
Ironic that the WSJ is a Murdoch organ.
As for the mental picture you conjured up of John ‘Jack’ Whitaker Straw and Peter Benjamin Mandelson, well, as Dick Emery’s character (also called Mandy!) said, Ooh you are awful! But I Like You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJmg-879j5o
Sorry for O/T — Not cheep on the Beeb about al Nusra being caught with sarin in Turkey.
http://rt.com/news/sarin-gas-turkey-al-nusra-021/
I guess it doesn’t quite fit the narrative they’re being fed by the Foreign Office. The BBC truly is an arm of the state.
“Even Habbachew knows I am not using it in the literal, nationalistic sense.”
———–
Hey, Guano, if that is a reference to me then please don’t drag me into your ongoing argument with other posters here.
Happy to be out of it and would like to stay that way if yo’ don’t mind.
Thank you.
***************
La vita è bella, life is good! (shekel steady)
Komodo and Moneyweek in perfect harmony:
http://pro.moneyweek.com/myk-eob/LMYKP529/
@ Colin (14h48) :
Hilarious post, for which many thanks! Real humour – Kibo Nor please note! 🙂
I insist you should post again!
—–
btw, what is it about these guys called Gordon?