The EU/IMF raiding bank accounts in Cyprus to bail out the country's financial system sets a dangerous precedent and investors should "run for the hills" said investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, on "Squawk on the Street" Thursday.

Rogers said that with Cyprus, politicians are saying that this is a special case and urging people not to worry, but that is exactly why investors should be concerned.

"What more do you need to know? Please, you better hurry, you better run for the hills. I'm doing it anyway," Rogers said. "I want to make sure that I don't get trapped. Think of all the poor souls that just thought they had a simple bank account. Now they find out that they are making a 'contribution' to the stability of Cyprus. The gall of these politicians."

"If you're going to listen to government, you're going to go bankrupt very quickly," he added.

"I, for one, am making sure I don't have too much money in any one specific bank account anywhere in the world, because now there is a precedent," he said. "The IMF has said 'sure, loot the bank accounts' the EU has said 'loot the bank accounts' so you can be sure that other countries when problems come, are going to say, 'well, it's condoned by the EU, it's condoned by the IMF, so let's do it too.'"

Jim Rogers, a voice closely followed by market participants, began shorting financials, home builders and Fannie Mae in 2006, and is famous for co-founding the Quantum Group of Funds with billionaire George Soros. Quantum is famously regarded for "breaking" the Bank of England and forcing a devaluation of the pound.

*

The rest of the article and video of the interview.

Greece on Friday unleashed a fierce attack on its European Union partners, accusing them of creating a “psychology of looming collapse” a day after they pledged support for the country’s crisis-hit government.

George Papandreou, Greek prime minister, said that, in the eurozone’s first big test, Greece had become “a laboratory animal in the battle between Europe and the markets”.

In a televised address to his cabinet, he criticised EU members for sending “mixed messages about our country . . . that have created a psychology of looming collapse which could be self-fulfilling”.

Mr Papandreou blamed the European Commission for failing to crack down on the previous conservative government’s “criminal record” in falsifying statistics. “This has undermined the responsibility of the European institutions with international markets,” he said.

Read more: Financial Times.

The Federal Reserve has made a $14bn profit on loan programmes that have provided hundreds of billions of dollars in liquidity to the financial system since the start of the crisis two years ago, according to Fed officials.

The internal estimate is based on the difference between the fees and interest on the lending facilities and the interest the Fed would have earned had it invested the funds in three-month Treasury bills.

The central bank earned about $19bn in income from charging interest and fees to financial institutions and investors that tapped the new facilities to obtain much-needed funds during the turmoil. The interest the Fed would have earned by investing the same amount in T-bills was an estimated $5bn, leaving a $14bn gain since August 2007.

The Fed assessment underlines the possibility that other central banks could make a profit on their crisis-fighting measures – at least before adjusting for the risk they assumed.

The calculation by Fed staff, which has neither been audited, published or risk-adjusted, only deals with its liquidity facilities.

Those include discount window and Term Auction Facility loans to banks, currency swaps with other central banks, purchases of commercial paper and financing for investors in asset-backed securities.

The most profitable liquidity programmes were the commercial paper one, which is one of the riskier facilities for the Fed because participants do not post collateral, and the foreign exchange swap agreements, followed by the TAF, according to the New York Fed staff.

Read the entire article at Financial Times
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Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers announce their plan for a regulatory overhaul in Monday’s Washington Post, but for the details of what exactly they are planning you’re better off reading the summary in The Wall Street Journal. “At the center of the plan … is a move to remake powers of the Federal Reserve to oversee the biggest financial players, give the government the power to unwind and break up systemically important companies—much like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. does with failed banks—and create a new regulator for consumer-oriented financial products.” The plan will require congressional approval. Geithner will appear before both the House and Senate on Thursday.

Read it at The Wall Street Journal

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Our economy is in crisis, and our government says that bold action is required. So we're diving in head first to get things back on track. But... what are we diving into exactly?

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Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. government guarantees on securities totaling $419 billion for bank bailouts provide an early test of President Barack Obama’s pledge to be open with taxpayers about what they have at risk in the credit crisis.

Bloomberg News asked the Treasury Department Jan. 26 to disclose what securities it backed over the past two months in a second round of actions to prop up Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. Department spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said Jan. 27 she would seek an answer. None had been provided by the close of business yesterday. [...]

Obama promised a new era of government openness as he took office last week, issuing a statement telling agencies “to adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure” in responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Act. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, head of the National Economic Council, said they would emphasize accountability and transparency in using the second half of a $700 billion bank bailout fund.

Late yesterday, Geithner’s office put hundreds of pages about the fund on the department’s Web site. They did not include documents describing the guaranteed assets.
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Barack Obama's inauguration is set to cost more than £100m making it the most expensive swearing-in ceremony in U.S. history. The President-elect will take less than a minute to recite the oath of office in front of an estimated two million people in the US capital next week.
...read
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http://www.youtube.com/wa...

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It looks like the White House and Congressional Democrat leadership have reached a deal on the auto bailout, although there aren't very many details at this point. Plans for a "car czar" seem to still be included as part of the deal. So, not only will your money be spent for the bailout, it will be used to pay a new government appointee, staff his office, and take care of the other requirements that come along with that job. (It also gives them one more person to shift the blame to when the problems continue.)

All of this is being done again, of course, out of "necessity," we are told. Just like buying up all the toxic assets was a "necessity" until the Treasury got the money and decided to spend it on everything but. This is what happens when the majority of Congress is not guided by any philosophy other than the one that says that government can cure all of our ills with just a little more money (or billions more).

A vote could come at any time, with signs pointing toward later today.

UPDATE

The House was on track to vote on the bailout Wednesday night, and Democrats held out hope that it could be enacted by week's end. But a growing number of GOP senators declared they would not go along.

The White House, though not formally endorsing an agreement with congressional Democrats, dispatched administration officials to Capitol Hill to make a case for the rescue package. During a contentious, closed-door luncheon with Senate Republicans, White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten got an earful of criticism from the rank-and-file, some of whom have already announced plans to block the measure.

"They got a good dose," said opponent Tom Coburn, R-Okla., as he emerged from the session.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal government registered a record budget deficit for the month of November, reflecting the impact of a recession on tax receipts and the mounting costs of the $700 billion financial rescue program.

The Treasury Department says the gap between the government's revenue collections and what it paid out last month totaled $164.4 billion, the largest deficit ever recorded for the month of November.

In just the first two months of this budget year, the deficit now totals more than $401 billion, putting the country on track to hit a record $1 trillion deficit for the entire year, more than double the previous all-time high.

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posted by Austin Wilkes

Anti-government and bank rage reached a boiling point Monday in the small island nation of Iceland, where residents have seen unemployment and inflation skyrocket following the fall collapse of the Icelandic banking system. Iceland, a nation recently prided as a great example of the “Scandanavian Model” of a prosperous welfare system, has in a matter of months been transformed into the least politically and ecnomically stable nation in Europe. The International Herald Tribune reports below:

Tiny Iceland has seen its banks and currency collapse in just a few weeks while prices and unemployment soar — leaving a country regarded as a model of Scandinavian prosperity in a state of shock.

Luckily, Icelanders seem to be able to identify the perpetrators as the ruling government and the central banking establishment that has grown up around it-

Thousands of Icelanders marked the 90th anniversary of their nation’s sovereignty with angry protest Monday, and several hundred stormed the central bank to demand the ouster of bankers they blame for the country’s spectacular economic meltdown….

“The government played roulette and the whole nation has lost,” writer Einar Mar Gudmundsson told a noisy but peaceful anti-government rally of several thousand people in downtown Reykjavik.

The Icelandic system, one built upon even greater leverage than that of America, has come to its current state of despair in the blink of an eye. Hopefully citizens of other nations will realize they could be next and pressure their officials to take the necessary precautions to provide for the most swift and orderly decline and ultimate recovery.

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Amazing, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, talking about the Fed's funny money. Maybe she still remembers Weimar Republic and its hyperinflation.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, turned the tables on her international critics on Wednesday by accusing the US and other governments of making “cheap money” a central tool of their economic management, thus planting the seeds of a similar crisis in five years.

“Excessively cheap money in the US was a driver of today’s crisis,” she told the German parliament. “I am deeply concerned about whether we are now reinforcing this trend through measures being adopted in the US and elsewhere and whether we could find ourselves in five years facing the exact same crisis.”

Ms Merkel’s comments came as the European Union proposed a €200bn economic stimulus plan aimed at avoiding a deeper recession through tax and infrastructure plans. There were immediate doubts as to whether member states would back the measures.

The proposals envisage the EU’s 27 states contributing about €170bn with the European Commission and the European Investment Bank providing the remaining €30bn, partly through accelerated spending programmes.

“Angela Merkel and other conservative leaders such as [Italian premier Silvio] Berlusconi may well water down the plan and refuse to make the necessary national investments,” said Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the former Danish prime minister who heads the Socialist party in the European parliament.

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in REYKJAVIK

THOUSANDS of Icelanders have demonstrated in Reykjavik to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde and Central Bank governor David Oddsson, for failing to stop the country's financial meltdown.
It was the latest in a series of protests in the capital since October's banking collapse crippled the island's economy. At least five people were injured and Hordur Torfason, a well-known singer in Iceland and the main organiser of the protests, said the protests would continue until the government stepped down.

As crowds gathered in the drizzle before the Althing, the Icelandic parliament, on Saturday, Mr Torfason said: "They don't have our trust and they are no longer legitimate."

The value of the Icelandic krona has been cut in half since January.

Four Nordic countries, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have pledged to lend the country a combined $4.6 billion to help revive its deflated economy. The loan would be the first by the IMF to a Western nation since 1976.

One young man climbed on to the balcony of the Althing building, where the president appears upon inauguration and on Iceland's national day, and hung a banner reading: "Iceland for Sale: $2,100,000,000" – the amount of the loan the country is getting from the IMF.

A separate group of 200-300 people gathered in front of the city's main police station, throwing eggs and demanding the release of a young protester being held there.

Police in riot gear used pepper spray to drive back an attempt to free the protester during which several windows at the police station were shattered. The pro-tester was later released after his fine was paid.

As daylight began to wane, demonstrators drifted away into the nearby coffee shops. Here, as currency tumbles, the price of a cup of coffee has shot up by about one-third since before the crisis struck.

The demonstrators accuse the government – elected last year – of not doing enough to regulate the banking industry and have called for early elections.

Iceland's next election is not required until 2011.

Opposition parties tabled a no-confidence motion in the government on Friday over its handling of the crisis, but the motion carries little chance of toppling the ruling coalition which has a solid parliamentary majority.

Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old office worker, said: "I've just had enough of this whole thing. I don't trust the government, I don't trust the banks, I don't trust the political parties, and I don't trust the IMF.

"We had a good country and they ruined it."

BACKGROUND____

ICELAND'S three biggest banks – Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir – collapsed under the weight of billions of dollars of debts accumulated in an aggressive overseas expansion, shattering the country's currency. Iceland's government seized control of all three institutions in early October.

This week, the North Atlantic island nation, which has a population of only 320,000, secured a package of more than US$10 billion (about £6.7 billion) in loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and several European countries to help it rebuild its shattered financial system.

Despite the intervention, however, Iceland still faces a sharp economic slowdown and surging job losses while at least one-third of Icelanders are also at risk of losing their homes and life savings.

Geir Haarde, the Icelandic prime minister, has promised that the government will use the IMF money to bring back a flexible interest rate scheme and rewrite financial laws, particularly legislation relating to insolvency.

Iceland was the first country to ask the IMF for help as the turmoil in the credit markets in October hit home.

The UK government used anti-terrorism legislation to freeze money deposited by UK savers in Icelandic banks in order to ensure that their money was protected.

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Growing Movement Strikes at Fed in Washington, DC
National “END THE FED” day of protest calls for sound monetary policy and an end to bailouts

On November 22nd, commemorating the secretive conception of the Federal Reserve System, a growing movement of citizens concerned with this country's fiscal policies will gather in 39 cities nationwide at each Federal Reserve location to demand an end to the Fed, return to sound monetary policy, and an end to corporate bailouts. In Washington, DC, they will gather across the street from the Board of Governors of the Fed at 20th and Constitution at 1pm. Denied a permit to protest on Federal Reserve grounds by the Fed's Public Affairs Office on the basis that it is private property, the rally with a stage and amplification system will be held across the street with a permit granted by the Parks Department. National coordination is being provided by Aaron Russo's Restore the Republic (restoretherepublic.net) and more information can be found at endthefed.us.
Speakers will include Gary Franchi of Restore the Republic to discuss his organizational plans for furthering this issue and the duty of all patriotic Americans to get involved. Kevin Zeese, former US Senate candidate, current Executive Director of Break the Bailout, (breakthebailout.com) will talk about building a broad coalition to stop further “theft from the taxpayers.” Tony Teolis, veteran of the First Gulf War, member of Veterans For Peace (veteransforpeace.org) will show how the Fed is the primary enabler of our destructive interventionist foreign policy. Rick Williams is a founder of BreakTheMatrix, (breakthematrix.com) and serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Basic Media, Inc. From the Center for Economic and Social Justice, (cesj.org) Norman G. Kurland, President of the Board of Directors, and former Congressman, the Hon. Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy will outline an alternative just economic system. Paul-Martin Foss, Legislative Assistant to Congressman Ron Paul, will explain pending legislation H.R. 2755 and what the movement can do to support it.
Organizer Debbie Krueger is a former Marine, and a mother of 5, living in Delaware. She was a real estate agent, when she witnessed the bottom dropping out of the housing markets across the country, and decided something needed to be done. Her research led her to the conclusion that the Federal Reserve System is at the heart of the crisis. “I am devoting my time to help shed light on the Federal Reserve, and to find solutions that will bring us back to financial policies that will benefit Americans the most."
Co-organizer and performer for the rally Jordan Page is a young poet, singer/songwriter, guitarist, political activist, and social commentator who has become an outspoken voice promoting freedom and liberty. The hyper-inflation of American currency, the funding of worldwide interventionist military policies, the unconstitutional income tax, the recent bailout, and the engineered economic depressions the Fed causes have all motivated Jordan's involvement in this most historic citizens' movement. “Please stand up for the Constitution on November 22nd and help us to support HR 2755 calling for the abolition of the Federal Reserve.”
Adam Kokesh will serve as master of ceremonies at the rally. He is from Santa Fe, NM and served in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004 and has been a vocal critic of the war since leaving the US Marines. He has continued to honor his oath to support and defend the Constitution by taking on those he sees as its domestic enemies, especially the Federal Reserve System. He has also advocated various forms of nonviolent resistance including not paying taxes. “As long as the Federal Reserver System has the power to create money from nothing, the individual income tax is nothing more than a means to oppress and enslave the American people. As with all forms of tyranny, Americans have a duty to resist this injustice.”
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Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) summarizes the bailout.


Just brilliant!
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After crashing Iceland, interesting activity of the bankers in Eastern Europe:

Romania's currency was under hard fire and the RON plunged, luckily the Central Romanian Bank had the means, presence of spirit to discover the speculators and stop them:
"It is for the first time that the governor of the National Bank of Romania speaks openly about a speculative attack on the currency market. He did not reveal who was behind the attacks but suspicion hovers around thee big international banks that do not have branches in Romania."
"The Financial Institutions that started the attack are amongst the ones that have received financial aid from the Occidental governments to be able to face the crisis."
http://www.standard.ro/articol_64320/...

Rumors have surfaced about the foreign speculators: US investment funds JP Morgan-Chase, UK bank RBS, Unicredit.

Hungary, Ukraine currencies crashed and now are in debt (slaves) to the IMF:
http://fistfulofeuros.net/afoe/econom... IMF said Turkey was likely to join the queue for bail-outs very soon.
Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said over the weekend that his country would not "darken its future by bowing to the wishes of the IMF"

Romanian prime minister had a first reaction to the foreign financial terrorist attack:
I don't think is normal that foreign banks, saved (bailed-out) with public funds, engage in speculative operations to profit on the back of the Romanian tax payer."
"It is not moral what's happening. Of course Capitalism in essence is not moral ..."
"Romania should bring this to the attention of the European Union ..."

And in the Meantime IMF is starting more rumors about countries economies with the clear goal of destabilizing them. Using the crashed currencies and economies as excuse it has plans to "PRINT IT's OWN MONEY"

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Articles were mentioned about his Global Financial Summit. World leaders from the so-called Group of 20, which includes the United States, members of the European Union, China, Saudi Arabia and Brazil, are descending on Washington Friday to talk about what's needed to get the global economy back on track.

A lot of speculation it is made about this summit.Is this a first step towards a Bretton Woods II agreement? Maybe a decision about the next world reserve currency to replace the falling dollar? In any case this is not just a normal meeting of the G20.

• What is the Bretton Woods system?
• How did Bretton Woods reshaped the world
• G20 summit marks largest such gathering in a decade, first ever at head of states level
• Bretton Woods gold/dollar peg unlikely at G20
• CNN about G-20: Shaping a new world order
• Scenarios
• "It does make an impression sitting around the room and listening to how scared the other leaders of the other countries are and how grim their prospects are," said Kenneth Rogoff, a professor at Harvard University.
• G20 leaders agree six-point plan
• Brown has to wear his brave face

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If anybody doubts the greatness of CSPAN in giving you the news you need, democracy in action how some would call it, time well spent in front of the TV as I consider it, just enjoy this hearing at the Oversight Subcommittee on Domestic Policy:



The rest of the hearing:
Taxpayer's $$ not go into failing banks
Paulson helping with foreclosures. Kucinich: He is? What country?
Taxpayer's pound of flesh
Hello? Are we in a different universe here?
Congress questions who YOU are working for! "Mr. Kash Man"

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U.S. Clients at Risk of Exposure

By David S. Hilzenrath
Washington Post Staff Writer

Swiss banking giant UBS, under investigation by the U.S. government for allegedly helping Americans hide money from the Internal Revenue Service, is closing thousands of accounts, putting clients at greater risk of being exposed, tax lawyers say.

UBS clients have been receiving calls and letters telling them that their Swiss accounts will soon be liquidated. Those who have concealed funds from the IRS have two basic choices: They can take new and potentially difficult steps to hide the money, heightening their risk of being caught and punished severely, or they can come clean, lawyers say.

The backdrop for UBS's action is that the U.S. government has been pressing UBS and the Swiss government to disclose the names of thousands of Americans with undeclared accounts, while the Swiss have vowed to uphold Swiss legal protections for bank clients.

However, as a practical matter, whether or not the Swiss formally give up the names, UBS's decision to close the accounts undermines Switzerland's legendary code of bank secrecy, lawyers said.

"I think the bank's actions here are likely to compel clients to come out into the open," said Scott D. Michel, an attorney with the law firm Caplin & Drysdale. "It is a step in the direction of the erosion of bank secrecy," he said.

UBS's action forces affected clients "to play some hand," and "therein lies the great trap," said lawyer William M. Sharp Sr. of Sharp & Associates.

UBS, which is Switzerland's largest bank, hinted at the possible consequences in a recent letter to an American depositor.

"[W]e are unfortunately not longer able to provide you with our banking services and are herewith providing you notice to terminate your current banking relationship . . . 45 days from the date of this letter," read one piece of correspondence from UBS in Zurich to an overseas representative of the client.

"Depending on your individual circumstances, UBS further recommends that you consult with your U.S. tax advisor or tax preparer to file, if necessary, amended U.S. tax returns pursuant to the IRS's Voluntary Disclosure Program," UBS wrote.

rest of article here

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