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Thursday, October 18, 2007

shout.net: Bankers' Band-Aid For Complex System

(Conspiracy Nation, 10/15/07) - A "super-conduit" is in the works,
meant to rescue the market from shaky bonds. Citigroup, Bank of
America and JPMorgan Chase are the big players in the plan for a fund
designed to prevent a sharp sell-off in securities owned by bank-
affiliated investment vehicles. Meetings, which began three weeks ago,
were initiated by the Treasury Department. ("Banks meet on fund to
avert crisis," Sydney Morning Herald, October 15, 2007)

The Treasury Department here is playing the same role J.P. Morgan
played exactly 100 years ago, during the Panic of 1907. In Robert F.
Bruner and Sean D. Carr's fascinating book, "The Panic Of 1907" (Wiley
& Sons, 2007), attention is paid to "complex systems." Markets for
stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities are interrelated. Trouble
in one area can lead to contagion in other areas. J.P. Morgan had
assembled key bankers in the library of his mansion, and locked the
door. There was a financial storm. Bruner & Carr even call it a
"perfect storm." The bankers wanted to hoard cash in the crisis. J.P.
Morgan was looking "very grave." An agreement for a Bankers' Pool had
been drawn up, but no one was eager to sign on. Morgan walked up to
Edward King, a key banker. He put his hand on King's shoulder and
said, "There's the place, King, and here's the pen." King took a gold
pen and signed. The other bankers fell into line.

J.P. Morgan's valiant effort ameliorated the crisis, but did not
completely solve it. Previous over-speculation meant the market
inevitably would impose its own discipline. Into mid-1908,
unemployment rose from 2.8 percent to 8 percent. Wholesale prices fell
5 percent. By 1909, immigration, on its own, had dropped by about
half. (Bruner & Carr, op. cit.)

But this was market discipline, the great free market, so-called.
After the shake-out, things soon enough returned to normal. By 1929,
consequent to the Panic of 1907, another Bankers' Pool, the so-called
"Federal" Reserve, had been formed. By then, J.P. Morgan was long-
dead. The "Fed" was a Morgan Frankenstein. Between 1929 and 1932 the
monster actually prolonged the financial crisis by drying up
liquidity.

Leading member of the latest, imminent Bankers' Pool is Citigroup.
SIVs (Structured Investment Vehicles) containing $320 billion in
assets must not collapse into fire-sale prices. Of that $320 billion,
Citigroup reportedly owns almost $100 billion in SIVs. (http://
www.execdigital.co.uk/NewsArticle.aspx?articleid=3043)

After serving as Treasury Secretary during the Bill Clinton
presidency, Robert Rubin joined Citigroup, where he now works as
Director and Chairman of the Executive Committee. Rubin "sparked
controversy in 2001 when he contacted an acquaintance at the Treasury
Department and asked if the department could convince bond-rating
agencies not to downgrade the corporate debt of Enron, a debtor of
Citigroup." In June of this year, Robert Rubin was named Co-Chairman
of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). ("Robert Rubin," Wikipedia,
October 14, 2007). Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) documents
unearthed earlier this month reveal Rubin made a secret phone call to
Ben Bernanke, chief of the "Fed," on August 8th. What they talked
about two days before "crunch day," August 10, 2007, is still top-
secret. ("Real Economic News," http://www.shout.net/~bigred/RealEcon.html)

So Robert Rubin and Citigroup are a part of the "complex system."

The "complex system," in a wider view, is not limited to financial
matters. On August 1st, in Minnesota, a highway bridge spanning the
Mississippi River collapsed. At the time, there was talk of a
"Hindenburg Omen," which occurs when individual stocks are registering
both new highs and new lows, respectively. The omen recalls the 1937
disaster of LZ 129 Hindenburg catching fire and crashing at Lakehurst
Naval Air Station, New Jersey. A few days ago, one of the most
essential interstates on the West Coast, Interstate 5, witnessed what
is reported to be a 31-vehicle crash. "It looked like a bomb went
off," said fireman Scott Clark. (AP, October 14, 2007). Rayelan, host
of Rumor Mill News, speculates some sort of "sleeper agent" scenario
involving Mexican truck drivers. (http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/
forum.cgi?read=111295). In Tacoma, Washington, a series of explosions
at a Tacoma foundry is being investigated. In Ohio, an explosive 112-
car train derailment was pushed aside in the news by a school
shooting. (http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=111233)

Terrorist events, subsumed into a Bankers' Pool so as not to crash
markets? Omens for a larger panic than that of August 10th? Or are
they all pieces of a huger "complex system"?

A huger "complex system" would bring in the Knights Templar. The
Templars went into decline after Muslims re-conquered the Holy Land at
the end of the 13th century and were accused of heresy by King Philip
IV of France, their foremost persecutor. The Vatican, as some sort of
signal, has released documents from their secret archives, 700 years
after the arrest of the Templars. It was October 13, 1307, a Friday,
that Grandmaster Jacques de Molay was seized by the Inquisition. On
October 13, 2007, Lt. General (ret.) Ricardo Sanchez blamed the Bush
administration, the State Department and Congress for the Iraq War,
which he called "a nightmare with no end in sight." ("Sanchez: Iraq
war 'a nightmare with no end in sight'", CNN, October 13, 2007). The
Templars went into decline after the Muslims defeated their efforts.
General (ret.) Sanchez represents another October 13th denouncement.

John W. Schoen, senior producer at MSNBC, notices it has been exactly
20 years since the Crash of 1987. It has been 100 years since the
Panic of 1907. It has been 700 years since the arrest of the Knights
Templar. Can "complex systems" be understood by numeric coincidences?
And why will the "Federal" Reserve next meet on Halloween? All of this
occurs in October, for some reason.

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