HELICOPTER BEN UNLEASHES DOLLAR HYPERINFLATION

By Webster G. Tarpley

-In so doing, he has given new momentum to the backers and controllers of Dick Cheney, who favor an insane flight forward into general war with Iran, deluding themselves that they can thus escape from both military defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and from the death agony of the dollar.

On August 9-10, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, the Federal Reserve, plus the central banks of Australia, Norway, Switzerland, and other countries “injected” the equivalent about a third of a trillion dollars ($325 billion) into the money systems of the world. The Bank of Japan handed out a dramatic ¥ 1 trillion, about $8.5 billion. The European Central Bank showed signs of panic, or of realism, by spewing out about € 160 billion over two days. Their goal was to stave off a spreading panic at bond trading desks and in the capital markets of the world about junk bonds, collateralized debt obligations (CDOS), mortgage backed securities, and other paper debt instruments. At about 9 AM on Friday August 10, the Chicago futures markets suggested that the Dow Jones Industrial average would open down about 190 points. That meant the potential for spreading stock market panic, with the DJIA closing down 1,000 to 2,000 points or more by the end of the day, quite possibly pitching more banks and hedge funds into bankruptcy. Such an event would also tend to awaken the US middle class to the fact that their 401 (K) and IRA pension plans were being liquidated. This would make the financial crisis a political crisis as well, and perhaps stoke the fires of impeachment. Helicopter Ben therefore followed his predecessor, Bubbles Greenspan, on the path of bailout, although on a larger scale than what Greenspan had ever attempted in public. Bernanke and the New York Fed bought up $38 billion of toxic mortgage-backed securities from the principal hyenas of Wall Street -- led, we can be sure, by Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, J.P. Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, and Citibank. For bailout purposes, the banks were given a sweetheart interest rate, just 4%, less than the 5.25% target Fed funds rate used for interbank lending, and much less than the 6.25% the Fed requires from banks coming to its own discount window under normal circumstances. The $38 billion, injected in three doses during the course of the day, in addition to other Fed measures, was almost enough to prop the market up for eight hours – the Dow closed with a loss of 31 points. So the central banks will need to provide more fixes, sooner rather than later.

As Alan Greenspan instructed Bill Clinton when the latter took office, the bond market, also referred to as the capital or credit market, is much more important than the stock market in the current US-UK financial system. Right now not just dubious junk bonds and mortgage-backed securities, but even the classic triple A investment grade corporate bonds, are in great distress. Indeed, the bond market has partially shut down in response to the crisis. This is far more serious than a mere stock market crash, such as the one of October 1987.

The Bank of England has said nothing about injections, and is poised to raise its interest rates once again, putting additional pressure on the dollar by tempting hot money to flee out of Wall Street to London. The British may well figure that when the battered US greenback goes under, the British pound sterling will remain afloat, and benefit from the US shipwreck. London has in any case already replaced New York as the real financial capital of the world; this has been a strategic priority for Gordon Brown for some years.

WALL STREET DERIVATIVES MONSTERS – TOO BIG TO BAIL OUT

continued at:

http://www.911blogger.com/node/10634

down into this article.

"-CHENEY’S THERMONUCLEAR BAILOUT

The disintegration of the dollar system is ultimately one of the strongest factors impelling Cheney’s controllers – meaning the George Shultz-Rupert Murdoch faction of the US-UK ruling elite. From Cheney’s point of view, an economic depression requires drastic austerity measures to drive the standard of living down even further below its present reduced level, with the proceeds going to the finance oligarchs. Can these cuts in the standard of living be accomplished under the present system? If not, what kind of dictatorship can be used to impose them? This is, after all, the reason the German financiers like Schacht turned to Hitler. The Cheney doctrine calls for a staged terror attack in the US using WMD, followed by an attack on Iran and the declaration of martial law under Bush’s many executive orders. As I pointed out on July 21 in my “Cheney Determined to Strike in US with WMD this Summer,” there are many signs that the neocon group is driving hard to implement the Cheney doctrine this summer.

Thom Hartmann has reported on Air America that lawmakers with whom he has spoken report that the US intelligence community continues to issue warnings to the Congress that a new terrorist attack is coming. According to one unconfirmed report, a US Senator is reported to have told an impeachment activist that the Democrats could not impeach Bush-Cheney, because the senators were being threatened with “them blowing up seven US cities” – a possible reference to statements by Juval Aviv, a veteran Israeli intelligence fixture. Aviv warned on August 2 that there would be a new terrorist attack on the US within no more than 90 days, with multiple targets: “What they're going to do is hit six, seven or eight cities simultaneously to show sophistication and really hit the public. This time, which is the message of the day, it will not only be big cities. They're going to try to hit rural America.”-

[ Is this the only way these psychopaths can maintain power? In a future hell of terror, death and repression? -sd]