Category Archives: Corruption & Finance

Corruption concentrates wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the 99% below, and this trend has accelerated the past decades. Corrupt leaders and industries are less likely to ration food and oil as it declines, accelerating collapse. I predict that the higher the level of corruption (see corruption perceptions index at transparency.org) will make collapse faster and harsher than in less corrupt nations.  I hope future historians look at this as a factor in how nations fell during the energy crisis. Though I expect that smaller towns everywhere will do better than large cities, and where local governments are uncorrupted

Wall Street’s version of capitalism is a fraud wrapped inside a delusion

Demerit-Based Pay Feb 5, 2009. Eric J. Fry. Rude Awakening Russia, according to Winston Churchill, was a “riddle wrapped inside an enigma.” Wall Street’s version of capitalism, according to us, is a fraud wrapped inside a delusion. The fraud is … Continue reading

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Your Bank is NOT Safe

PublicBankingTV : Your Money Is Not Safe in the Big Banks August 25, 2013 by Ellen Brown This 13 minute video explains the situation well, a couple of points made: In 2014 the FDIC can only cover .25% of deposits and … Continue reading

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Ellen Brown’s Web of Debt blog

Brown’s Web of Debt blog and books are well researched and worthwhile reading, but she isn’t aware of the energy and resource crises, so her work isn’t fully informed.  But still, you can see that even without those larger issues, … Continue reading

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The Armageddon Looting Machine: The Looming Mass Destruction from Derivatives

The Armageddon Looting Machine: The Looming Mass Destruction from Derivatives Posted on September 17, 2013 by Ellen Brown Increased regulation and low interest rates are driving lending from the regulated commercial banking system into the unregulated shadow banking system. The shadow … Continue reading

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Credit Cards

Usurious Returns on Phantom Money: The Credit Card Gravy Train  February 14, 2014 by Ellen Brown The credit card business is now the banking industry’s biggest cash cow, and it’s largely due to lucrative hidden fees.  You pay off your credit … Continue reading

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Bill Moyers & Bill Black on Ponzi schemes, Fraud, & Liar’s loans

Bill Moyers talks to Bill Black about the fraud that pervades the financial industry and the Obama government April 3, 2009  pbs.org William Kurt Blackis an American lawyer, academic, author, and a former bank regulator. His expertise is white-collar crime, … Continue reading

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Joe Bageant : We’ve Let Corporations and Media Rob Our Souls–It’s Time to do something Meaningful

[One of the best books that explains why poor people go against their own interests by voting for Trump and Republicans in general is Joe’s highly entertaining “Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War“. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author … Continue reading

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Stock Market Bubbles and Rallies

I have a theory that the rich milk the middle class like cows by deliberately driving up the prices of stocks and skimming the cream off by selling before the market goes down, as described in Matt Taibbi’s The Great … Continue reading

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Goldman Sachs has manipulated markets since the Great Depression and still is

The Great American Bubble Machine From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression — and they’re about to do it again   9 July 2009  Matt Taibbi The first … Continue reading

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Pensions of millions of Americans Threatened

Thought Secure, Pooled Pensions Teeter and Fall 12 April 2014  Mary Williams Walsh  New York Times The pensions of millions of Americans are being threatened because of trouble in a part of the retirement world long considered so safe that … Continue reading

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