CORRALITO (BANK RUN, BANK HOLIDAY)

CAUTION:
The following story might become real in the near future

After another frenetic week in the stock markets all around the world, people were preparing for a well deserved weekend.  It seemed like a normal weekend. Getting home for the weekend, many started their weekend routines, spending time with kids, planning a night out with friends, go to the movies with their future wife/husband or just simply watch television.

The population had been looking forward for this particular weekend. It had been a week of abundant bad economic data with a midweek’s reassuring president’s speech, promising to have total control, the people must consider itself lucky to have such visionary, strong and caring leaders.

The one’s that decided to go out on some kind of social happening were the first ones to start experiencing strange circumstances. There were a lot more policemen on the streets than normal and somehow, they had problems finding a working ATM. The system was probably down in the neighborhood.

The one’s that stayed at home, watching television, on the other side were surprised when the sports game they were watching was interrupted for a special announcement from president himself. What is going on? Are we under attack?

PRESIDENT: Quote:

“Ladies and gentlemen”, as I am sure you are aware of, the past years have been difficult on many fronts and lots of people have been suffering from the economic situation. This past week we have been under attack by heartless speculators that targeted our country to rip the people off their wealth but we will not allow this to happen. I will personally make sure that these financial predators will face all the legal consequences of their acts.

This is why, after careful consideration with the best economic experts, long talks with different world leaders, my administration has decided that it was in the best interest of the country and of the citizens to call for a bank holiday.

All bank accounts in our country will be frozen till further notice so that we can stop the plundering of these heartless financial speculators.

The president went on for a few more minutes explaining the latest executive order trying to stop the financial meltdown happening not only in his country but all around the world.

Of course this move had an immediate effect on the population and televisions commentators were trying to calm people and others blaming the president. The Internet crashed under searches for an explanation. A word became "trending topic" on the net: “Corralito”. 

Corralito was the informal name for the economic measures taken in Argentina at the end of 2001 by Minister of Economy Domingo Cavallo in order to stop a bank run, and which were fully in force for one year. The corralito almost completely froze bank accounts and forbade withdrawals from U.S. dollar-denominated accounts. (Source Wikipedia)

Are we at the level of Argentina? Could this be true? Is it possible? We thought we were superior and our leaders were much smarter than the one’s in the south.

Shit, let’s see what else the “Corralito” caused in Argentina:

• The corralito caused an immediate backfire on the government. Even more people started trying to withdraw their money from the banks, and many ended up in court fighting for their right to have their funds (and being granted that right on occasion).
• The main reason for ending up in court was that, after the corralito, and after Economy Minister Cavallo resigned, the new government led by Eduardo Duhalde and his Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna converted those funds nominated in US Dollars, into Argentine Pesos at a 1 Peso = 1 US Dollar exchange rate, while the exchange rate was liberalized (immediately going to 4 Pesos = 1 US Dollar).
• The same was done with debtors, so many private enterprises and also the Province of Buenos Aires were favoured by this measure as they managed to decrease their debts. Nine years later, several people have not yet been able to recover their savings because of the pace of Justice in Argentina. However, debtors were able to purchase properties and other items by paying their debts at the 1 to 1 exchange rate.
• At the time, the average Argentine did not employ the banking system for daily uses; many did not have a personal bank account, and dealt only with cash. Debit cards were not popular and many businesses did not have the equipment to accept them. Thus the cash restrictions only exacerbated the recession and angered the public. President Fernando de la Rúa was forced to resign on 20 December 2001 after violent riots, but the restrictions of the corralito were not lifted at the time. (Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corralito)

Our currency is US Dollars, I guess this is not going to affect us and we have a good functioning justice system too. Government will never be allowed to do this…… oh shit, they just did!

Could it be that the government is using this to devalue the USD and lower its debts artificially? That is smart but my savings will loose value too…, what is going on, what else could happen?

• Because of this allowance limit and the serious problems it caused in certain cases, many Argentines became enraged and took to the streets of important cities, especially Buenos Aires. They engaged in a form of popular protest that became known as cacerolazo (banging pots and pans). These protests occurred especially in 2001 and 2002. At first the cacerolazos were simply noisy demonstrations, but soon they included property destruction, often directed at banks, foreign privatized companies, and especially big American and European companies. Many businesses installed metal barriers because windows and glass facades were being broken, and even fires being ignited at their doors. Billboards of such companies as Coca Cola and others were brought down by the masses of demonstrators.
• Amid rioting, President Fernando de la Rua resigned on 21 December 2001.
• Confrontations between the police and citizens became a common sight, and fires were also set on Buenos Aires avenues. Fernando de la Rúa declared a state of emergency,  only to get the situation worsened, precipitating the violent protests of 20 and 21 December 2001 in Plaza de Mayo, where clashes between demonstrators and the police ended up with several people dead, and precipitated the fall of the government (Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_economic_crisis_(1999%E2%80%932002))

This is not possible. This is not happening to us. What can we do? What should we do? When will our money be unfrozen again? How am I going to eat tomorrow? How can I pay the gas to make it home tonight? What do they mean with state of emergency? Martial law?

A lot of questions and no reassuring answer.

It is interesting that after all what happened in the past years, basically since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, which turned into a sovereign and economic crisis, so many people continue to trust the people that put us into this situation. Not only do they vote for them with new elections but they still think that they have the solution. They also continue to trust their banks. 

How can this be? How can you put the arsonists in charge of the fire fighters. 

The financial industry took over the world and little by little, populations are becoming slaves to the orders of the financial masters that use politicians as foremen. 

Understand who the real enemy is. Let me reassure you, it is not the one they say or try you to focus on. It is not the immigrants, it is not the Muslims, it is not a specific country, it is not a particular political party, it is not the poor. 

It’s the centralized money printing mafia, FED, Central Banks and their puppet foremen, politicians.

The population is on the road to serfdom if they don’t understand what is going on and stop accepting the rules imposed on to them by the system. Reject their Fiat Money and perpetual debt system. Reject the dictatorship of the loan sharks.

Declare yourself independent of the financial system or you will be slaves to the financial masters. Stop using their system, start using alternatives.

By the way, the one’s that were keeping gold, silver or any other precious metal, somehow came out winning from the Corralito.

James Tector
Critical Citizen

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité


(Note for my spanish friends, although I don't like to put dates on certain predictions I make, but I think 2012 Spain will experience his very own Corralito, Bank run)

AND THEN THEY TOOK US TO WAR

In my next article I will be talking about what I think will eventually be the result of the change we are experiencing. But today let’s talk about the next-to-last step.

We are experiencing how the western world is getting totally out of control. Politicians have lost all credibility, trying to burn their last ammunitions killing supposed terrorists around the world, increasing their control of the population preparing themselves for the people’s revolution. In February 2011, I wrote an article about the Arab spring, “Tunis, Thank you for showing us the way”, and was predicting that this horror scenario for the power structures would be emulated by more countries. Later came Egypt, Libya, Yemen, 15M in Madrid, demonstrations all around Europe, especially in Greece and now we are seeing the United States finally joining the revolution with the “Occupy Wall Street” movement.

The mass media, like in every country, first ignored them, later ridiculed them and finally did not have any other choice than covering the movement. The most common critic all over the world used by mass media was that the movement does not have one voice, one message or clear claims.

I understand the mass media’s complaints. They have been used to repeat simplistic propaganda feed to them by their usual sponsors: multinationals, banks, governments, public entities, and the like, that all of a sudden a complete change in their modus operandi is just too much for the media too handle.

Well, let me give you a little hint, what about Frustration or Anger as a common denominator for the protests?

The continuing meltdown of the global financial system will definitely have its consequences on the global economy, whipping out middle class. Millions of citizens will awake to a new reality. They will find out that they thought they were wealthy, some of them even thought they were rich.

Many people are already in this situation and these are the people protesting, joined by some of the “early discoverers”, folks who are still enjoying security the system offers but know it is a matter of time before they too will make part of the jobless, futureless losers.

Yes, some people call the jobless, losers, because they are not good enough to get a job, or not qualified enough for some company to hire them. A lot of folks still do not understand that the game is rigged, that the system is causing this situation, not necessarily the lack of skills of the unemployed.

At the moment we are experiencing the perfect storm:

MONETARY INFLATION

+ PRODUCTIVE DEFLATION

(Strong increase of money supply in the financial industry and an even stronger decrease of capital in the real economy)

This has a direct consequence on companies. No matter how good a company or professional is, there is just not enough money to sustain everybody in the system. It is not necessarily the wrong or bad management of companies that will cause them to shut down; the system does not have the money to support them.

So my conclusion is simple: no matter what the politicians try to do and they have done everything they could to speed up the end of the system: “FIAT” is collapsing.

The question that presents itself: Will the actual powerful accept the end of an era and help create a new an more equal world?

Well, I don’t think so. They are not going to abandon their power just like that.

FIAT is not a love story, it’s much stronger than that

FIAT is blind faith.

So, what is the next step?

They will take us to war!!

Yes, it is my strong believe that when they will understand that people will continue to protest and revolt until they bring down the system, they will come up with some kind of scheme to take us to war.

We can already see how countries are getting more and more xenophobic. Just look at the increase of the anti alien rhetoric of politicians or political parties or at more stringent immigration laws voted in the past couple of years.

Some “opportunist” or “wannabe” politicians play the immigration card bluntly, blaming the problems on outsiders, forgetting the hundreds of years the so called “civilized countries” have been exploiting natural resources and lower wage labor of poor countries.

I don’t know yet who is going to be the scapegoat this time. The Jews were the last victims, this time it could very well be the Arabs with a preference for Iran, Southern Europeans, Latin Americans or the Chinese.

They might actually go for religion and our Muslim brothers would seem the easiest target to sell to a bunch of lamming’s in the western world.

This of course would be the easiest type of war but who knows this time they might even go further and simply declare war on the “anti-social” movements, targeting their own people and repressing the protesters that disobey the system. This war is tougher because this would bring guerilla like confrontations and I guess they would prefer to play the patriotic card and I think they would prefer to go for a whole region rather than wars at home.

Well, it is difficult to predict which one they will come up with but they will definitely try.

Be prepared. It is up to us the people to say NO. Don’t let them fool you. Don’t buy into their propaganda. We are all human beings. We all live on this earth and we should embrace change and work on a better system. A war is only going to bring back the Status Quo, with less a few million people but the problem would remain.

FIAT is dying and not only because of the SPECULATION ON STEROIDS but simply because there is a natural limit to artificial growth. FIAT does not take the economic logic into account (management of scarcity) since there is no physical limit to worthless printed money.

Don’t forget, we are all human beings and we have more things that unite us than that separate us. Be aware for fear mongering, false accusation, finger pointing or false flag attacks.

Stand up and join the movement.

James Tector

Critical Citizen

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

2011, the year Youth began the new (r)evolution.

After a few months deeper into economic recession after the late 2008 burst, finally in 2011 new civil movements start to show up. These movements can be found all over the world but are stronger in North Africa (Tunis, Egypt) but also Europe showing stronger commitment in Spain which has been one of the countries hit the strongest by the economic recession or should I say depression with more than 20% unemployment rate.

A common denominator for the civil movements could be the age range of the demonstrators together with the form they decided to gather and communicate. Although Internet and especially some applications like Facebook and Twitter have been an enabling force behind the demonstrations, what is more important is the age of the organizers and followers. A vast majority of young people took the streets to voice their frustration to a system that misled and deceived them.

The system, still controlled by the old powers, does not seem to understand the vindications of the protesters and underestimate the strength of the movement. Although the majority of the demonstrators are young people, they will very soon find strong supporters in other adults that are also suffering the consequences of a system built upon deception.

Although many people have not yet been hit by the devastating deflation in the real economy, it is a matter of time before they too will be confronted to what soon will be their new reality. They will find out they are not as wealthy as they thought they were. The beloved capitalistic system thought to be the final of all systems is only profiting to a few, not necessarily the ones supposed to thrive on the system. Not the hard working, competitive, stronger, more intelligent, fittest are the ones profiting but basically the ones that own the capital: big banks, multinationals and big corporations.

Too often do I hear commentators blaming the youth for their situation because they don’t make enough efforts, don’t want to work, study, are simply labeled as lazy. The people who say such things should ask themselves who contributed more to this situation: the new generation or the generations before? The older generations (the ones controlling and managing the system) cannot act as if it is not their problem because their future depends fully on the younger generations. Pensions and medicare can only survive if the young accept to pay a majority of their income to maintain the welfare of older generations.

It is an unsustainable situation. Pressure is/will coming/come from everywhere, demography, energy, overpopulation, scarcity of natural resources and why not a lack of solidarity from the young with the oldest. A situation that the actual capitalistic system has no solution for, although the believers want to convince you about the contrary.

A logic system cannot leave aside variables of nature. We need to take into account the psychology of the human being, the reality of how much nature can give us, changes in population and other variables that nature imposes on us.

• We need to understand that we cannot take away freedoms and dignity of the human being.
• We need to understand that the world is round and not expandable.
• We need to understand that the Earth “economy” means saving, it is a science that administers scarcity.
• We need to understand that money is a great instrument as long as it is a means to distribute scarcity and not the objective of the economy.
• We need to understand that money needs to have a physical collateral, otherwise it is fake and unfair.
• We need to understand that administrators of nations need to run them for the wellbeing of the people and not for the wellbeing of a few. Politicians, do you get the message?

The population also needs to wake up from their sleep and understand that they are submitted to constant propaganda of the powerful. This is no fight between left or right, democrats or republicans, white or black, young or old, indigenous vs. foreigners, this is a fight for the survival of human race. 

Again the world population needs to understand the consequences of the actual system, reshape and rethink their own value system, because it is impossible to continue the pilferage of natural resources.

So, let there be no doubt, this revolution has nothing to do with anarchism or a bunch of hippies. It’s a genuine revolution for a better world, the start of a new system based on a symbiosis of natural laws instead of striving for a fake dream.

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

With the Earth’s consent

So far, 2011 has been a busy year. We have experienced:

• The awakening of the Arab world.
• An earthquake, followed by a Tsunami and finally a nuclear catastrophe in Japan.
• The beginning of a new war with Libya
• In Europe the Euro seems unstoppable in its downfall

Any of these happenings could have been the most important event  of the year just some time ago. These happenings however bring fundamental changes to the status quo and modern society has to be keen in analyzing these events and question why they are happening.

Although an Earthquake is a natural disaster and the human influence cannot be proven, these signs have to be interpreted in the right way. We have seen how insignificant the human being is against mother nature. We need to be living in better harmony with the source of our life and stop destroying it for an illusion of wellbeing. 

Can we go on exploiting natural resources in such a way that we do not take into account the damages we are inflicting the Earth? Is the Earth going to be watching us impassibly without fighting back? Can we measure the human being’s wealth without putting nature into the equation?
Is money the right measurement unit? Especially if we know that money is fake and artificially controlled by a few players. Players that are losing the grip on the events and don’t understand why? Even the rich and powerful are children of nature and that although they can think they are preferred children, they are still insignificant if put into perspective with the power of nature.

We will see in the future a steady increase in food prices which will lead to more riots. We will also see more natural disasters, this due to an increase the sun’s activity. This will generate a shift in human values and I hope finally understanding that we have to take nature into our equation when evaluating our wellbeing. I foresee the end of fiat money and the beginning of an era where economy follows natural rules and is not manipulated by a cartel of central banks or powerhouses. The capital holders try to make us think that we can only live within the parameters they give us but they will soon see that even if they control the minds of the population they do not control nature and nature will trigger the changes. And when I talk about nature I am also talking about the natural logic of economy that is based on natural resources, scarcity and sustainability and not on the fake capital system they try to impose on us.

Soon we will be confronted to nature and I hope the population will finally wake up, turn off the propaganda machines and understand that there is no way we can survive as a species if we think we can control and manipulate nature.

The human being can only survive with the Earth’s consent.

JAMES TECTOR
Critical citizen

TUNIS

TUNIS
Thank you for showing the way

Tunis has definitely been this month’s center of attention. Years of oppression, robbery, corruption, power abuse ended abruptly after a few days of popular manifestations caused by the immolation of a desperate citizen, the reaction to the abuse of a system favoring the super rich and especially the family of the (now former) president Ben Ali.

What happened in Tunis, although many observers might see it as an isolated popular revolution, is in my opinion the start of a new era, an era where the people demand justice and finally voice their right to choose their own existence.  Rights made impossible for too long by corrupt leaders assisted by the active interference of a complacent international community.

Where was the “civilized” western society in all this? Well, as usual, trying to keep friends with the dictator that allowed “civilized countries” to exploit the Tunisian people up to the last second. This time however, their strategy failed and popular revolution and the people’s determination were stronger than an imposed corrupt system.

And now after the change in Tunisian leadership we can hear voices calling for the West to support the new formation of a new democracy in Tunis. Let’s hope for the Tunisian people that the west stays far away from this development. The only thing that the so called “civilized world” has been good in, in the past decades, is keeping dictators in place so that they could exploit the country’s natural resources and benefit from cheap labor.

Tunis, don’t look at the West for help but show the West the way

Let’s hope that the neighbor countries will learn and find hope in the Tunisian revolution and rise to the occasion by starting their own revolution. Some uprisings are happening in the neighboring countries and let’s hope that the people there will follow through and regain or finally gain power. This century, or at least the first half of the century will be the one of the fight among classes. The population will fight against the powers that dominate them. This power has been capable of maintaining its position because a majority of people have not yet been able to really identify the source of their increasing decrease of wealth. Too many citizens are still trying to blame the situation on a political party, politician, neighbor, foreigner or whatever seems plausible to justify their worsening situation.

The solution however is not in solving the problem the power is trying to sell us, the solution lies in changing the power and reshape the way we live. Fellow citizens there is no sacred cow in this fight, we need to really assess what brought us here and change it.

Tunis has shown us the way, not only has it opened a window of hope for the North African countries but it has shown that no government can maintain its credibility If its final goal is not the well being of its people.

Thank you Tunisia again and let’s hope that for humanity’s sake, “civilized nations” will follow your example.

For your own good, Tunisia, just another advice: keep the Western countries far away, do not allow the West to deteriorate your natural democratic development no matter how many nice promises or threats they make.

JAMES TECTOR
Critical citizen

 

WIKILEAKS

Wikileaks

Freedom of Speech or Too much to handle?

Wikileaks has definitely been the most important event of 2010. The importance of the revelations made public by Wikileaks can easily be measured by the thousands of passionate comments and opinions all around the world, only matched by the efforts of the leaders (powerful) to minimize the facts.

I would even suggest this has been the greatest “wake up call” in a modern global world led by a super power that seems to know no boundaries in achieving its goals, whatever they might be. The arrogance of the “Empire of Good” does not seem to raise any critical questions or resistance in the leaders of western “supposed” sovereign countries. The famous “Axis of Evil” prophecy seems to have brainwashed all the western world leaders and give them a wild card to justify illegal, immoral and unethical acts in the name of this “cleanup crusade”.

And while our fear mongering leaders seem to gain more and more power and control over our lives, many citizens do not really know what to do with this leaked information.
The “good citizens” continue listening to orporate news and hear Wikileaks is a criminal organization or even worse a terrorist organization that is putting the Free World at risk and what is now public was already known, just not officially, but everybody knew it or should have known it.

Well, to the commentators and journalists that try to sell us this crap: Where were you when citizens needed you to question the official version? In Germany they have a name for these people: “Klugscheisser” (“wiseass”). My problem however is that these opinion makers are again trying to deceive the public, worried that the hand that feeds them might pull the flow of money. The truth is that while there was no hard evidence, these opinion makers now minimizing the information leaked, rushed to discredit the ones that were calling for justice before the information was made public by Wikileaks.

The problem of Wikileaks is not only freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is at risk anyway, with a justice system increasingly depending on political ideologies. The real problem is that a vast majority of the population is not able or willing to think by themselves, looking for the usual suspects in the corporate media to help them create their opinion. I am not so much worried about freedom of speech as long as we have free thinking people. I am much more worried about the capacity of society to give the adequate response to all the deception that is opening up in front of our eyes.

I am glad that the 5 newspapers chosen by Wikileaks had the guts to publish the information made available to them. In a way this has also been a great opportunity for the “true journalists” to go back to basics and do real journalism without corporate intromission. Evidence was too big to hide and under the pressure that competition would publish it if they would not, the chosen newspapers had no other choice than embrace this opportunity. Would they have done it if they would have had more control over the information?  Probably not. The Wikileaks people played their hand right.

I wonder about our capacity to handle the information, not only the supposed free press but also the citizens. The press needs to grab this opportunity to gain some of its lost credibility back but citizens need to grab this opportunity to take back control of their lives and future by exposing their leaders and if needed bringing them to justice.
Freedom of speech is a right, but rights come with obligations. We need to take the responsibility as a people freedom of speech brings with it. We need to take the consequent actions this new and genuine information gives us.

Rise to the occasion, do not let anyone tell you that you have no opinion, you do and it’s time you use it.

James Tector
Critical Citizen

CURRENCY WARS

It is November of 2010 and the central bank leaders of the whole world are getting ready for a tough fight. Many of these central bank presidents never imagined they would be caught in a worldwide currency war, actually, they never imagined it to be possible. How could it be? Countries willingly depreciating the value of their currency to such an extend it could jeopardize the very existence of currencies. Well, guess what, the war is looming and the consequences can be tremendous for the Capitalist Religion and especially the Capitalist God, ”MONEY”.

But how did this happen? Who started this and what should we do?

Well, to find a reason for this war we have to go to the “Mecca” of “Money”, the United States.  The US has happily been printing money since Nixon abolished the GOLD STANDARD in 1971. The US, however, is not the only one to blame, since it has been doing this with the knowledge and blessing of the rest of the world.  It did not really matter how much money was created, the rest of the world was willing to absorb it, mainly to secure their savings. Actually, some countries even got rid of their currencies and adopted the US Dollar as their local currency like Panama and Ecuador for example. The US Dollar seemed to be the safest placement and the most robust currency.

So, what happened, why is the US all of a sudden "secretly" engaging a currency war?

Well, I guess it could be explained with what has been known as the “Dutch disease”. When The Netherlands became a natural gas and oil producer, the income generated by these natural resources made the country lazy. Oil and Gas were sufficient to generate wealth for the population, why bother invest in other industries?

I guess the same thing happened with the US. The “financial engineering industry” was an even smarter idea since it is much easier to print money than to extract oil and gas. However, reality eventually caught up and the US Debt owners started to understand the magnitude of the problem. Actually, the more they owned the bigger the problem because there is no way the US can pay them back. The magnitude of the US Debt is unbearable unless …….., exactly INFLATION.

The smartest heads of the US “financial engineering industry” came together and decided that it was time for the US Dollar to depreciate. How? Well by flooding the market with Dollars.

INFLATION is SALVATION seems to be the new slogan at the FED.

The Chinese foresaw this and started buying gold, silver and dumping their Dollars in Africa, where they are buying all the natural resources they can. Africa once again might be the biggest loser, together with the American citizens.

So, what is the war and what should we do?

The problem the Central Banks are confronted with is not easy. On one hand they maintain positions and savings in US Dollars and see the value of their savings evaporate and on the other hand there will be an increased pressure to lower the value of their currency to be competitive on the global market, thus they will be under pressure to generate inflation too.

The problem is that if the FED wants the destruction of the US Dollar there is nothing the Central Banks can do to stop the FED and if they engage in a devaluation race with the US Dollar it can cause the disappearance of currencies.

My advice, don’t engage in this rat race or currency war.  It might be tough to stand the pressure but the FED is on a US Dollar destruction path and seems to be unstoppable in its quest.  I think the US is working on a new world currency under the control of the IMF and of course "controlled by the FED" and if Central Banks all around the world enter into the currency wars they will end up losing.

THERE ARE NO WINNERS IN A WAR

There are no winners in a war, only losers, so why should this war be different. The global financial system is rotten like global governance and the supposedly democratic systems. The capital owners, FED, big banks and corporations just went too far this time and they seem to be unstoppable in their downfall. If you ask me, I say, BRING IT. Let it happen because it will bring an end to this corrupt system that is shooting its last amunitions. It is going to be tough wake up call for civilized humanity but let's hope the people will learn from this and start to respect the laws of nature.

There is of course another solution, get rid of “MONEY” but I guess this is too much asked for this phase of human evolution.

James Tector
Critical Citizen