Six global banks – and the manipulation of world currencies

Six major banks were recently fined $4.3 billion by regulatory agencies for rigging foreign exchange (FOREX) benchmarks at “crucial moments” on given trading days during 2008 though 2013.

The investigation by four regulatory agencies determined that traders from the big banks manipulated “two key exchange rates, or ‘fixes,’ set each day. One of them, the WM/Reuters fix, is based on trading in a one-minute window around 4pm every day in London. The other, the ECB fix, is a snapshot of the market at 2:15pm in Frankfurt.” (Source: Bloomberg, Nov 12, 2014)

According to the Wall Street Journal (Nov 12, 2014), “Improprieties in the $5.3-trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market have the potential to touch broad swaths of the public. Every time companies or individuals do business in a foreign currency, they are subject to the whims of a market that regulators said has been rife with misconduct by a group of bank traders.”

Here are the banks and the fines levied against each by the four regulating agencies:

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During the very time that these six banks had been rigging FOREX benchmarks (2008-2013), they had also been receiving essentially free liquidity via the Fed Discount Window, as well as billions of dollars in bailouts and emergency loans through the various credit facilities created by Federal Reserve.

Ultimately, these free-money rescue operations are extracted from the hides of U.S. taxpayers, and foreign countries whose currencies are pegged to the Dollar, through an insidious Dollar debasement effect.

The six major banks received billions through the various lending facilities created by the Federal Reserve (dollar figures identify Peak Amount of Debt extended by the Fed for a given date):
Citigroup    $99.5B on 1/20/2009
JP Morgan $68.6B on 10/1/2008
UBS            $77.2B on 11/28/2008
RBS            $84.5B on 10/10/2008
HSBC             $3.7B on 3/12/2009
Bank of America $91.4B on 2/26/2009

Six major banks that rigged FOREX ‘fixes,’  received billions of dollars in Fed (read: U.S. taxpayer) bailouts – to help them regain solvency and financial “health.”.

U.S. citizens deserve nothing less than the same access to their own money – in the form of Fed-based liquidity extensions – to help American families regain their own financial “health.”.

The conduit: a Citizens Credit Facility.

The Leviticus 25 Plan 2015 – $70,000 per U.S. Citizen                                                  The Leviticus 25 Plan 2015 (688)

‘Scalping’ Social Security for a cool $1.2 billion

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefit payments have been rocketing higher over the past 5 years.  And lawyers are racking up some handsome fees in the process.

“Lawyers Scalp $1.2 Billion From Social Security In 2013”

 Via David Stockman’s Contra Corner blog / accessed from ZeroHedge 12/08/2014
Excerpts:
“Social Security’s financial woes due to an aging American population are hardly news.   Since 1956, disability has been included as a part of Social Security, providing ncome to those who are physically unable to work.  Along with the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), these two programs have provided a booming industry for attorneys, according to a report from the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal Policy.”

 

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is no small program, costing taxpayers more than the combined cost of federal welfare payments, housing subsidies, food stamps and school lunches. Attorneys receive taxpayer-funded fees each time they successfully place a client in the program, which incentivizes them to encourage clients to file disability claims. The fees are capped at 25 percent of the successful client’s SSDI award, or $6,000, whichever is less.

Attorneys took in $1.2 billion in such fees in 2013, up from just $425 billion in 2011.

In 2010, the report notes that nine of the top 10 highest-earning SSDI lawyers made more than $2 million just in fees that year.  Claimants’ representatives need not be attorneys to receive the fees, a rule that changed in 2004 when Congress voted to allow non-lawyers to represent disability claimants. What resulted, however, was an explosion in profits to SSDI-focused law firms such as Binder and Binder, which hired large teams of people to work on disability claims and sent their profits soaring, reaching $88 million in 2010.”

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The CBO projects that “in 2022, the [Social Security] DI program will provide benefits totaling $204 billion to over 12.3 million disabled workers and their dependents.”

That works out to a 45.7% increase in cost over the next 7 years, although it is set to ‘run dry’ by 2016 – resulting in a 20% decrease in benefits if Congress doesn’t add funding (of course, they will).

America needs a strategic plan to help people get off government programs, rather than the trying to get more people dependent upon government for their livelihood.

The Leviticus 25 Plan helps people escape their dependence on government – by directly providing them with the resources to manage their daily lives in the way that best meets their individual needs, and frees them from government control and domination.

The Leviticus 25 Plan ‘recapture’ provisions generate annual government budget surpluses of $1.094 trillion over the first 5 years of the plan.

It is time for a change.