PID News

We rarely use ‘cash’ these days, so we’ve not seen the new $100 bills. Bix Weir, the writer of the linked article, may have hit on intriguing clues to our country’s future, etched beside Ben Franklin’s mug.

We’d like to think Weir is right–that plans are in effect to return us to a gold standard. However, what this bill may actually represent is the dichotomy between patriots who protest fiat currency and bankers who love to manipulate the forex markets using our ‘dollar’ as a linchpin–and the civil war to come.

Take a few minutes to read Bix Weir’s observations and conclusions and decide for yourself.

• Read all about it at The Hidden Meanings in the New $100 Bill!.

Elite bankers from China have decided to give the latest series of IMF meetings a miss, citing scheduling conflicts as the cause, although it’s more likely that the row over the Senkaku Islands is the real reason. Despite the feud, it seems unlikely that the Chinese would choose to miss any opportunity to flex their financial muscles within the bully banking cartel.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was born in 1944 at the famed Breton Woods conference–the very same conference where the US dollar was chosen to be the anchor currency for world markets, particularly oil (hence the term ‘petro-dollar’). 29 countries signed onto the agreement in December, 1945, and today all 188 UN member nations belong. The infamous economist John Maynard Keynes helped shape the organization as a means for opening trade barriers, but American delegate Harry Dexter White steered the foundation committee toward a banking structure that sought to assist countries to regain their footing following the protracted WWII era. Today, three of the largest debtors to the IMF cabal are Portugal, Ireland, and Greece–three nations now in bankruptcy status due to the excessive weight of debt versus GDP.

Perhaps, the IMF isn’t as much help as the signatory nations hoped it would be.

Read all about China’s plans to skip the IMF here: Chinese banks to skip IMF, World Bank meetings in Tokyo ‹ Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion.

(MarketWatch) — The International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed.

For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the “Age of America” will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China.

According to the latest IMF official forecasts, China’s economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016 — just five years from now.

via IMF bombshell: Age of America nears end Brett Arends’ ROI – MarketWatch.

(THE TELEGRAPH) — [British] households face the most dramatic squeeze in living standards since the 1920s, the Governor of the Bank of England warned, as he reacted to the shock disclosure that the economy was shrinking again.

Families will see their disposable income eaten up as they “pay the inevitable price” for the financial crisis, Mervyn King warned.

With wages failing to keep pace with rising inflation, workers’ take- home pay will end the year worth the same as in 2005 — the most prolonged fall in living standards for more than 80 years, he claimed.

via Bank of England chief Mervyn King: standard of living to plunge at fastest rate since 1920s – Telegraph.

(BLOOMBERG) — As Wall Street chief executive officers flock to the World Economic Forum, they’ll be breathing a sigh of relief along with the Swiss mountain air: There are no panels on compensation or redesigning financial regulation.

The bankers will be coming to Davos, Switzerland, with a renewed sense of confidence. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s profits last year were the highest in the bank’s history, and Citigroup Inc. returned money to the U.S. Treasury and reported its first full- year profit since 2007.

Governments have so far opted against breaking up or levying extra taxes on banks deemed too big to fail, and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which sets global financial-regulatory guidelines, isn’t requiring lenders to meet new capital standards until 2015.

via Wall Street Partying in Davos as Crisis Angst Fades – Bloomberg.

(REUTERS) — Home prices fell for the 53rd consecutive month in November, taking the decline past that of the Great Depression for the first time in the prolonged housing slump, according to Zillow.

Home prices have fallen 26 percent since their peak in 2006, exceeding the 25.9 percent drop registered in the five years between 1928 and 1933, the housing data company said in a report on Monday. Prices fell 0.8 percent over the month.

via Home price drops exceed Great Depression: Zillow | Reuters.

(BLOOMBERG) — Allstate Corp. sued Bank of America Corp. and its Countrywide mortgage unit over $700 million in residential mortgage-backed securities the insurer purchased, claiming Countrywide misrepresented the investments.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges fraud, negligent misrepresentation and violation of U.S. securities laws.

Countrywide misled investors about its underwriting guidelines, the rate at which mortgaged properties were owner- occupied, the value of the mortgaged homes and the widespread use of exceptions to the underwriting process to circumvent guidelines, Allstate said in the complaint.

via Allstate Sues Countrywide Over $700 Million Investment in Mortgage Bonds – Bloomberg.