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06/04/2015 - Deutsche Bank: The Federal Reserve is Embracing Financial Repression

Deutsche Bank now says that the Federal Reserve has been, through their monetary policies, destroying the capital markets & the economy .. “We think the Fed is obliged to talk up the economy because if they were brutally honest, the economy .. could quickly evaporate .. At issue is whether or not the Fed in particular but the market in general has properly understood the nature of the economic problem. The more we dig into this, the more we are afraid that they do not. So aside from a data revision tsunami, we would suggest that the Fed has outlooked not just horribly wrong, but completely misunderstood .. the idea that the economy is ‘ready’ for a removal of accommodation.” .. Deutsche Bank thinks the Federal Reserve is embracing financial repression rather than the “uncertainty of asset price deflation and a debt default cycle.”

LINK HERE to the Article

Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/30/2015 - Macroprudential Policy Driving the Financial Markets

Citigroup note confirms macroprudential policy (financial repression) is driving the the financial markets: “If there were any lingering doubt, this week’s gyrations demonstrate neatly that it is central bank liquidity, not fundamentals, driving markets. It is the flow, not the anticipated stock, of QE which counts .. Central bank policy pronouncements are almost the exclusive driver of market movements at the moment, not fundamentals .. with central bank liquidity the ultimate source of all market movements, investors are forced to shun fundamentals and instead hang on the central banks’ every word. At some point, of course, the risk is that the taps are turned off: recent speeches from Yellen, Draghi and others do demonstrate an increasing unease with market behaviour, and an increased emphasis on financial stability and the need for structural reforms. But with the underlying economy still weak, and vulnerable to a sharp sell-off in markets, we fear they will find that mangling, once started, is hard to stop. Particularly when they remain at least partly in denial as to the extent of it.”

LINK HERE to the Article

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Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/29/2015 - Jim Rickards* on War on Cash, Repressive Interest Rates, Capital Controls, Potential Bailins

Latest Jim Rickards* interview with the Physical Gold Fund .. Rickards covers several aspects of financial repression happening – from the war on cash, to repressive interest rates by central banks, to capital controls & potential bail-ins, bank account freezes, how the zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) is taking money out of the pocket of savers & giving it to big banks .. very interesting: Rickards sees a time coming when the magnitude of the next financial crisis will be bigger than central banks can create liquidity for – he says in 1998, Wall Street bailed out a hedge fund, then in the financial crisis, central banks bailed out Wall Street, but in the next financial crisis, the IMF will be needed to bailout the central banks .. 1 hour

LINK HERE to the Podcast

Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/29/2015 - Financial Repression: The War on Cash

Mises Institute’s Dr. Joseph Salerno recently spoke .. Today cash is under attack like never before. Ultra low interest rates are the norm for commercial bank accounts. In Europe, as the ECB ventures into negative nominal interest rates, certain banks threaten to charge customers for depositing cash. Meanwhile, certain European bonds now pay negative yields, effectively turning them into insurance products rather than financial assets. And some economists now call for the outright abolition of cash, which shows just how far some will go in their crazed belief that economic prosperity can be commanded by forcing us to spend rather than save .. The War on Cash is real, it’s about financial repression & it will intensify .. 28 minutes

Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/29/2015 - Gordon T Long Discusses The War on Cash

Financial Repression: The War on Cash

Wall Street for Main Street’s Jason Burack & Gordon T Long discuss the escalating war on cash .. why it is happening, when cash could be abolished .. what the real drivers of this movement are .. discussion on financial repression developments.. about 1 hour

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Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/25/2015 - The War on Cash: Ken Rogoff & Willem Buiter Meet in London

Martin Armstrong is one of the few who have picked up on the “secret meeting” in London between Ken Rogoff of Harvard & Willem Buiter of Citi – they will both be addressing the central banks & advocate the elimination of cash .. “What is concerning me is the silence on this meeting where there are more and more reports about a cashless society would be better. What we better keep one eye open for here at night is this birth of a cashless society coming in much faster than expected. Why the secret meeting? Something does not smell right here.” .. financial repression.

LINK HERE to the Article

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Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/24/2015 - Sprott’s John Embry Talks Financial Repression, War on Cash, Gold

Webinar with Sprott’s John Embry (the Special Guest), Conquer Change’s Robert Ian, Financial Survival Network’s Kerry Lutz, and Financial Repression Authority’s Gordon T Long.

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Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/24/2015 - Sprott’s Rick Rule Talks Financial Repression, War on Cash, Gold

Webinar with Sprott’s Rick Rule (the Special Guest), Conquer Change’s Robert Ian, Financial Survival Network’s Kerry Lutz, and Financial Repression Authority’s Gordon T Long.

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Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/23/2015 - Federal Reserve Paper Suggesting a Carry-Tax on Cash

Graham Summers on the war on cash – part of financial repression .. identifies a Federal Reserve paper written back about 15 years ago calling to do away with cash entirely .. the idea proposed was to implement a “carry tax” on physical cash using an expiration date if depositors are not willing to spend the money .. “The idea here is that since it costs relatively little to store physical cash (the cost of buying a safe), the Fed should be permitted to ‘tax’ physical cash to force cash holders to spend it (put it back into the banking system) or invest it .. The way this would work is that the cash would have some kind of magnetic strip that would record the date that it was withdrawn. Whenever the bill was finally deposited in a bank again, the receiving bank would use this data to deduct a certain percentage of the bill’s value as a ‘tax’ for holding it .. The Fed has declared a War on Cash, and a ‘carry tax’ is coming.”

LINK HERE to the Article & Paper

Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/23/2015 - European Bank Bail-ins Coming?

– Euro banks no more stable now than in run-up to financial crisis crash
– Banks in France, Spain, Italy are “highly vulnerable to failure”
– Low quality bank equity not sufficient to withstand shock
– Risk to system “enormously underestimated”
– Investor deposits at risk of “bail-ins” – financial repression

LINK HERE to the Article

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Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/20/2015 - REGISTER NOW for our Free Webinar with RICK RULE and JOHN EMBRY on The War on Cash, Financial Repression, Solutions to these Risks

FinancialSurvivalNetwork.com and FinancialRepressionAuthority.com present: LIBERTY MASTERMIND LIVE WEBINAR. Join Kerry Lutz, 05-20-15-Webinar-35300Gordon Long and Robert Ian (ConquerChange.com) as they interview renowned financial and precious metals experts JOHN EMBRY and RICK RULE. Mr. Embry is Chief Portfolio Strategist at Sprott Asset Management and
Mr. Rule is Chairman of Sprott U.S. Holdings. This LIVE event will feature up-to-the-minute analysis of the markets with a discussion of current events/trends including the War on Cash, Financial Repression, Gold and Silver, and YOUR QUESTIONS.

This Webinar is presented by the Liberty Mastermind Symposium and is sponsored by:

FinancialRepressionAuthority.com – Macroprudential Policy Advisors – educating investors globally in understanding the challenges of investment and protection in the unfolding Era of Financial Repression.

FinancialSurvivalNetwork.com – Helping you survive and thrive in the new economy.

LINK HERE TO REGISTER NOW

Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/20/2015 - The War on Cash – What You Can Do Now

Mark Nestmann essay focuses on the war on cash, offers helpful suggestions to investors & savers .. Here is Nestmann’s advice:
1. draw down bank reserves & accumulate cash – document the withdrawals to prove the legal origin of the cash in the future
2. make sure you get newly issued bills because more than 95% of circulating bills are tainted with drug residues which under U.S. law allows the cash to be confiscated
3. convert a portion of assets in banks or in cash to gold – store it outside of the banking system
4. keep the assets you maintain in banks which are strong to avoid the coming bail-ins
5. consider putting some assets into electronic-based currencies [like Bitcoin, BitGold etc.]

LINK HERE to the Article

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Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/19/2015 - Russell Napier: The War on Cash will cause gold to be used as money again

The war on cash is an unintended consequence of the financial repression macroprudential policy of the zero or negative interest rates .. if your bank is charging you interest on your bank deposit, why not just get your money & leave it under your mattress at 0% (higher) yields? – so governments & central banks are likely to attempt to abolish cash to eliminate this action .. what will be the effect on gold? – Russell Napier: “In such a world, zero-yielding gold would be a high-yielding instrument. If the authorities ever sought to restrict access to banknotes, then gold would suddenly find itself enfranchised as money for the first time in many decades. So, given the scale of these competing forces, it is just too early to say what might happen to the gold price, but the allure of gold will grow the more it becomes clear that central bank fiat has failed and the age of government fiat is dawning .. The time is ever nearer when the price of gold will rise in an era of deflation. In due course, though no time soon, the full force of government fiat will engineer a reflation, albeit one replete with the misallocations of savings and capital so beloved by the bureaucrat. Then the PhD standard, in which the value of money is linked only to the words of the over-educated, will have ended. The gold price will rise even further, ‘And the words that are used for to get the ship confused will not be understood as they’re spoken, for the chains of the sea will have busted in the night’. And that’s ‘The hour when the ship comes in.’”

LINK HERE to the Article

Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/18/2015 - Financial Repression: The War on Cash

International Man’s Nick Giambruno & Mises’ Joe Salerno .. the financial repression of ring-fencing regulations is intensifying in the war on physical cash .. the goal to eliminate the use of hand-to-hand currency, so that governments can document & control every transaction .. one way this war is being fought is by making it illegal to pay in cash above a certain threshold:

* Italy made cash transactions over €1,000 illegal;
* Switzerland has proposed banning cash payments in excess of 100,000 francs;
* Russia banned cash transactions over $10,000;
* Spain banned cash transactions over €2,500;
* Mexico made cash payments of more than 200,000 pesos illegal;
* Uruguay banned cash transactions over $5,000; and
* France made cash transactions over €1,000 illegal, down from the previous limit of €3,000.

Joe Salerno: The War on Cash is the attempt by governments to phase cash out of their economies. Governments hate cash because they hate the financial privacy cash makes possible. And they prefer that you keep your money in a bank to help prop up an unsound fractional reserve banking system .. The War on Cash reflects the desperation of governments .. it really says that they are bankrupt, both literally, in the sense that they can’t pay what they’ve promised, and intellectually.

LINK HERE to the Article

Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/17/2015 - “WAR ON CASH” is a Strategic Requirement to IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINED NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES

We Can’t Rein In the Banks If We Can’t Pull Our Money Out of Them

1- Physical paper money provides the check against negative interest rates, for if they become too great, people will simply withdraw their funds and hoard cash.

2- Furthermore, paper currency allows for bank runs. Eliminate paper currency and what you end up with is the elimination of the ability to demand to withdraw funds from a bank.

Complete abolition of cash threatens our very freedom and rights of citizens in so many areas.

THE BARRIER TO SUSTAINED NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES

Paper currency is indeed the check against negative interest rates. We need only look to Switzerland to prove that theory. Any attempt to impose say a 5% negative interest rates (tax) would lead to an unimaginably massive flight into cash. This was already demonstrated recently by the example of Swiss pension funds, which withdrew their money from the bank in a big way and now store it in vaults in cash in order to escape the financial repression. People will act in their own self-interest and negative interest rates are likely to reduce the sales of government bonds and set off a bank run as long as paper money exists.

For depositors, this means they really need to grasp what is going on here for unless they are vigilant, there is a serious risk of losing everything. We must understand that these measures will be implemented overnight in the middle of a banking crisis after 2015.75. The balloons have taken off and the discussions are underway. The trend in taxation and reduction of cash seems to be unstoppable. Government is not prepared to reform for that would require a new way of thinking and a loss of power. That is not a consideration. They only see one direction and that is to take us into the new promised-land of economic totalitarianism.

The movement toward electronic money is moving at high speed and this says a lot about the state of the financial system. The track record of the major financial institutions is nearly perfect – they are always caught on the wrong side when a crisis breaks, which requires their bailouts. The fact that we have already seen test runs with theory-balloons flying, the major financial institutions are in no shape to withstand another economic decline.

The Government Can Manipulate Digital Accounts More Easily than Cash

An official White House panel on spying has implied that the government is manipulating the amount in people’s financial accounts.

If all money becomes digital, it would be much easier for the government to manipulate our accounts.

Indeed, numerous high-level NSA whistleblowers say that NSA spying is about crushing dissent and blackmailing opponents … not stopping terrorism.

This may sound over-the-top … but remember, the government sometimes labels its critics as “terrorists“.  If the government claims the power to indefinitely detain – or even assassinate – American citizens at the whim of the executive, don’t you think that government people would be willing to shut down, or withdraw a stiff “penalty” from a dissenter’s bank account?

If society becomes cashless, dissenters can’t hide cash.  All of their financial holdings would be vulnerable to an attack by the government.

This would be the ultimate form of control. Because – without access to money – people couldn’t resist, couldn’t hide and couldn’t escape.

LINK HERE to Source Article

Its Happening Everywhere there are Financial Problems – Nowhere Else?

The central banks are … planning drastic restrictions on cash itself. They see moving to electronic money will:

  1. Eliminate the underground economy,
  2. Prevent a banking crisis.

FRANCE

France passed another Draconian new law that from the police parissummer of 2015 it will now impose cash requirements dramatically trying to eliminate cash by force.

French citizens and tourists will then only be allowed a limited amount of physical money. They have financial police searching people on trains just passing through France to see if they are transporting cash, which they will now seize.

Meanwhile, the new French Elite are moving in this very same direction. Piketty wants to just take everyone’s money who has more than he does. Nobody stands on the side of freedom or on restraining the corruption within government. The problem always turns against the people for we are the cause of the fiscal mismanagement of government that never has enough for themselves.

GREECE

In Greece a drastic reduction in cash is also being discussed in light of the economic crisis. Now any bill over €70 should be payable only by check or credit card – it will be illegal to pay in cash. The German Baader Bank founded in Munich expects formally to abolish the cash to enforce negative interest rates on accounts that is really taxation on whatever money you still have left after taxes.

EUROPE

There is a growing assumption that the negative interest rate world (tax on cash) is likely to increase dramatically in Europe in particular since it is socialism that is collapsing. Government in Brussels is unlikely to yield power and their line of thinking cannot lead to any solution. The negative interest rate concept is making its way into the United States at J.P. Morgan where they will charge a fee on excess cash on deposit starting May 1st, 2015. Asset holdings of cash with a tax or a fee in the amount of the negative interest rate seems to be underway even in Switzerland.

People can’t pull cash out of their bank accounts – for political reasons, because they’ve lost confidence in the bank, or because “bail-ins” are enacted – if cash is banned.

The Financial Times argued last year that central banks would be the real winners from a cashless society:

Central bankers, after all, have had an explicit interest in introducing e-money from the moment the global financial crisis began…

The introduction of a cashless society empowers central banks greatly. A cashless society, after all, not only makes things like negative interest rates possible, it transfers absolute control of the money supply to the central bank, mostly by turning it into a universal banker that competes directly with private banks for public deposits. All digital deposits become base money.

Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/17/2015 - One of the 4 Pillars of Financial Repression: Data Obfuscation

Dr Pippa Malmgren, a former U.S. Plunge Protection Team member, explains how governments fudge price inflation numbers .. It’s one of the pillars of financial repression – obfuscation.

https://youtu.be/6gG8H1NIfG0

Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/16/2015 - ALLIANZ PRESENTATION SLIDES: Redefining Risk in the Next Phase of Financial Repression

Allianz website to help navigate the risks in the unfolding era of financial repression ..  how to find new opportunities & combat new risks in a rising-rate, slow-growth environment.

LINK HERE to the Article

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Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/09/2015 - Allianz Global Chief Investment Officer Andreas Utermann on Financial Repression

Allianz Global Investors (Allianz GI) using the following strategies to address investing in the era of financial repression: equity long/short, merger arbitrage, options trading, commodities, volatility, global macro, absolute return bonds, private debt, infrastructure debt & infrastructure equity .. Global Chief Investment Officer & Co-Head at Allianz GI Andreas Utermann: “In an environment of financial repression, characterised by much lower future expected returns from the beta element of all asset classes, these strategies can help investors capture alpha.”

LINK HERE to the Article

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Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/08/2015 - IMF Paper on “Capital Flow Management”: Financial Repression – Capital Controls

Jim Rickards* refers to the IMF’s plan on “capital flow management” as really about capital controls – both mean “We Keep Your Money” he says .. this is an IMF paper: “The global financial crisis underscored the costs of systemic instability at both the national and global levels and highlighted the importance of dedicated macroprudential and capital flow management policies. The IMF has been assisting its members with policy advice as well as developing and making operational their policy frameworks. Multilateral aspects of both policies need to be fully considered, including the interaction with other domestic and international legal frameworks. To the extent that capital flows are the source of systemic financial sector risks, the tools used to address those risks can be seen as both capital flow management measures (CFMs) and macroprudential measures (MPMs).”

LINK HERE to the Article

Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.


05/07/2015 - CUSTODIAL RISK QUESTION TO ANSWER: What do you really own when you buy an investment?

In our complex financial world of securities, derivatives, counterparty agreement and rehypothecation of the collateral of assets under management virtually no one has the actual physical share certificates of stocks or other assets held by their custodial financial investment firm.

“Custody Risk is one of the biggest, most important issues to consider if you want to maintain your wealth when the next round of systemic risk hits!” Graham Summers – Phoenix Capital

TWO PROBLEMS

1- CUSTODIANS OFTEN DON’T KNOW WHERE YOUR ASSETS ARE HELD

The SEC recently performed a study of some 400 investment advisor firms. As the SEC itself stated in its report – approximately one-third (140) failed to meet custody rule requirements. What this says is custodians don’t know where their clients funds are! Many didn’t even know they themselves were legal custodians of their clients funds!

2- YOUR ASSETS WILL LIEKLY BE FROZEN WHEN YOU NEED THEM MOST

Even if an appropriate legal framework is in place to eliminate the risk of loss of value of the securities held by the custodian in the event of its failure, it can take weeks or even months to transfer the securities to new custodians. During that time, you cannot close out open positions .. they are effectively frozen.

LINK HERE to Reference

In the case of MF Global, some investors were locked out of their accounts and couldn’t trade their positions for weeks. As a result many of them incurred massive losses.

Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.