Return to the Pentagon

(Shutterstock)

 

In my 2011 book, Currency Wars, I gave a detailed description of the first-ever financial war game sponsored by the Department of Defense.

This financial war game took place in 2009 at the top-secret Applied Physics Laboratory located about twenty miles north of Washington, D.C. in the Maryland countryside.

Unlike typical war games, the “rules of engagement” for this financial exercise did not permit the use of any kinetic weapons such as bombs, missiles or drones.

The only weapons allowed were financial instrument including stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities and derivatives.

How Wall Street’s ‘fear gauge’ is being rigged, according to one whistleblower

Cboe’s VIX products is the target of a whistleblower (Getty Images)

 

One of the most popular measures of volatility is being manipulated, charges one individual who submitted a letter anonymously to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The letter makes the claim to regulators that fake quotes for the S&P 500 index are skewing levels of the Cboe Volatility Index which reflects bearish and bullish options bets 30-days in the future on the S&P 500 to gauge implied stock-market volatility (see excerpt from the letter below).

The flaw allows trading firms with sophisticated algorithms to move the VIX up or down by simply posting quotes on S&P options and without needing to physically engage in any trading or deploying any capital. This market manipulation has led to multiple billions in profits effectively taken away from institutional and retail investors and cashed in by unethical electronic option market makers.

The Coming Great Wealth Transfer

WakingTimes.com

 

Spoiler alert! It’s already here.

In the past, I’ve warned about the coming Great Wealth Transfer.  But now we need to talk about it in the present tense, because it’s here.

And it will only accelerate from here on out. The Rich will get richer at the expense of everybody else.

This isn’t personal. It’s simply a feature of what happens near the end of a debt-based monetary system run by corruptible humans.

Deutsche Bank – The Meltdown Crisis

Most people don’t see a crisis. Out of the minority that does see it, a majority of that doesn’t see it for what it is: Economic warfare between the United States and the EU, mainly Germany.

Germany hit the NSA with a manufactured scandal. America then retaliated with sanctions on Volkswagen. Germany then retaliated through EU channels and began launching hits on Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, etc… and all the other big companies doing business out there — which now leads us to the hit on Deutsche Bank.

To hear the words “Germany” and “instability” today in the same sentence is unheard of and absurd but that’s the world we now live in. Switzerland used to be one of the, if not the most, sound financially nations in the world. Now it’s gutted just as badly as Germany is being gutted. Note that the estimated fines on both Volkswagen and Deutsche Bank eerily mirror what can be found on their balance sheets.

 

Ten of the large hedge funds are withdrawing from Deutsche Bank. What must be understood here is that Deutsche Bank is the main clearing house for trades in Europe. The problem the hedge funds have is where do they move for clearing? Short-term, they can move to New York or London. With over $60 trillion derivative book at the Deutsche Bank, the government is totally incapable of even understanding how to deal with this crisis. We are looking at a major crisis in confidence.

Merkel is simply out of her mind to adhere to this insane policy of a bail-in. How can hedge funds stay with clearing at Deutsche Bank when she takes this position that would set off a catastrophic global meltdown. It still appears that Merkel will have to blink. Once people realize this is the real crisis, then the German debt market should turn down rather hard.

Why ‘radioactive’ Deutsche Bank could go nuclear at any time, experts warn

TROUBLED Deutsche Bank’s huge exposure means the firm could have a devastating impact on Europe’s financial system if it were allowed to fail, experts have warned.

Germany’s biggest bank reportedly has a $45 TRILLION (£34trn) portfolio of underlying assets that its clients are taking a position in – which equates to more than 10 times Germany’s entire GDP.

And the problem is that no one really knows what’s makes up Deutsche’s book of exposure and so-called derivatives book because it’s so opaque and complicated, according to Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

The Fed Sends A Frightening Letter To JPMorgan, Corporate Media Yawns

 

Yesterday the Federal Reserve released a 19-page letter that it and the FDIC had issued to Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, on April 12 as a result of its failure to present a credible plan for winding itself down if the bank failed. The letter carried frightening passages and large blocks of redacted material in critical areas, instilling in any careful reader a sense of panic about the U.S. financial system.

A rational observer of Wall Street’s serial hubris might have expected some key segments of this letter to make it into the business press. A mere eight years ago the United States experienced a complete meltdown of its financial system, leading to the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. President Obama and regulators have been assuring us over these intervening eight years that things are under control as a result of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. But according to the letter the Fed and FDIC issued on April 12 to JPMorgan Chase, the country’s largest bank with over $2 trillion in assets and $51 trillion in notional amounts of derivatives, things are decidedly not under control.

New financial MELTDOWN set to sink EU as German banks lose £14,292,610,000.00 in 90 DAYS

As yet another reminder, and you may well already know after being a reader here for a while, Deutsche Bank has over $70 trillion in derivatives exposure. We could be seeing the effects of that right now. What’s more, Commerzbank is a “Tochterunternehmen” of Deutsche Bank. In English, that’s to say it’s a subsidiary. Therefore, the true scale of DB’s exposure is not 100% known. In this century’s total economic collapse race, Germany is making a strong push to be the first in the world. America’s in the same boat, but it has a better method in kicking the can down the road.

 

EUROPE’S biggest economy was plunged into fresh chaos tonight amid warnings a new financial crisis in Germany could destroy the EU.

Shares in Germany’s two biggest lenders – Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank – fell sharply again as panic gripped global markets. They have now seen their combined market value plummet by more than £14BILLION in the past three months.

Deutsche Bank shares fell by nearly four per cent to close at an all-time low amid turmoil not seen since the depths of the financial crisis in 2009.

Meanwhile shares in Commerzbank, Germany’s second biggest lender, fell even further, by 4.65 per cent, to close at their lowest level in nearly two-and-a-half years.

Glencore Collapse Could Be Even Worse Than Feared

Editor’s Note: We’re sharing this update on Glencore’s collapse with you because it’s shaping up to be even worse than Michael originally thought. Glencore still poses a “Lehman Brothers”-level risk to the global economy – but it’s now clear the world’s biggest commodities trader is on the hook for hundreds of billions in “shadow debt” that it simply refuses to address. This crisis is one small step away from upending our financial system, so here’s what you need to know…

A lot of powerful voices have joined me in warning about the potential threat that Glencore Plc. (LON: GLEN) poses to global financial markets. Bank of America, for instance, has published a report on the true size of the fallout. As you’ll see in a moment, it’s staggering.

But since we talked about Glencore late last month, something insane has happened: The stock has gone up.

But not for any good reason. The company has not righted the ship. The surge is only due to short-sellers covering their positions.

Global markets will only get more volatile and put UK lending at risk, Bank of England warns

The stock market turmoil that followed Black Monday could become a common occurence, with serious implications for bank lending in the UK

…

Modern technology and mathematical formulas mean dealers can execute split-second trades at higher volumes than ever before. But the downside to this is that when everyone uses similar algorithms, it results in a market with only buyers or only sellers, causing prices to swing violently, according to the Bank of England.

Deutsche Bank – the New Lehman Brothers?

As Mr. Armstrong points out, DB is part of the Euro crisis. It’s exposed to a time bomb of over $70 trillion in derivatives and it’s not surprising that it’s been said to be the next Lehman Brothers. It should be interesting to see how much more it’s exposed to in regards to the Volkswagen ‘scandal’, which is more of a political hit for quick cash. If the global economy is going to collapse, it is going to start in Germany.

 

The rumor mill has been nonstop. The crushing blow to Europe will be the failure of Germany’s biggest bank: Deutsche Bank. Just about every circle is quietly discussing how the bank is facing bankruptcy. The rumors have flown since March when Deutsche Bank failed the U.S. regulatory stress test, which was followed by the resignation of its head in June. A collapse of the Deutsche Bank is profound and very likely to impact Europe to the point that everyone behind the curtain is now calling for a new Lehman moment. Sources tied with the Fed’s decision not to raise rates fear that they will be seen as the cause of its failure. Germany clearly faces a major shock; if this combines with Volkswagen for the turning point next week, well, here we go again.

Fed, Central Banks Trapped – Gold Foundation of Exter’s Pyramid

Essentially, the price of gold has been kept artificially low and should be well over $2000 per ounce by now. The manipulation game with gold, currencies and the economy in general cannot continue indefinitely and we’ll see that soon. The Fed is running out of tricks.

 

 

The future direction of the planet is between the central bank’s counter-party paper Ponzi currency or the independence of real money.

Foresighted central banker John Exter is famous for his classification of risk assets. Using Exter’s Golden Pyramid the riskiest assets are those at the bottom of the pyramid and situated at the top of the apex is gold bullion – independent from the counter-party risk of central banks’ paper and electronic currency.

At the bottom of the wealth asset pyramid are overleveraged paper derivatives estimated to be a magnitude of up to six times the world’s wealth. An example of this is in Germany today where it was recently estimated that Deutsche Bank has a massive 70 trillion dollars worth of exposure to derivatives. Meanwhile, annual GDP in Germany is just 4 trillion dollars.

Warren Buffett warned of these “financial weapons of mass destruction.”

Warren Buffett: Derivatives Are Still Weapons Of Mass Destruction And ‘Are Likely To Cause Big Trouble’

After all these years, the most famous investor in the world still believes that derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.  And you know what?  He is exactly right.  The next great global financial collapse that so many are warning about is nearly upon us, and when it arrives derivatives are going to play a starring role.  When many people hear the word “derivatives”, they tend to tune out because it is a word that sounds very complicated.  And without a doubt, derivatives can be enormously complex.  But what I try to do is to take complex subjects and break them down into simple terms.  At their core, derivatives represent nothing more than a legalized form of gambling.  A derivative is essentially a bet that something either will or will not happen in the future.  Ultimately, someone will win money and someone will lose money.  There are hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of these bets floating around out there, and one of these days this gigantic time bomb is going to go off and absolutely cripple the entire global financial system.

‘Foreign shocks’ could harm US financial stability: Lew

If “all hell breaks loose” you could expect the EU to face serious turmoil and possibly crumble. If Greece can’t make a payment, then Germany can’t get paid. Germany’s Deutsche Bank has $72.8 trillion in derivatives exposure while its GDP is roughly $2.7 trillion.  The contagion would then spread to South America (think Venezuela/Argentina defaults) because of the interconnectedness of investments and would head north all the way up to Mexico for another default. When the wave hits Mexico, America has two weeks before its collapse.

 

Washington (AFP) – US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned Congress on Wednesday that foreign turmoil, such as Greece’s debt crisis, could destabilize the US financial system.

“In today’s globally integrated financial markets, foreign shocks have the potential to disrupt financial stability in the United States,” Lew said in testimony to the House of Representatives financial services committee.

Is Deutsche Bank the next Lehman?

 

Looking back at the Lehman Brothers collapse of 2008, it’s amazing how quickly it all happened.  In hindsight there were a few early-warning signs,  but the true scale of the disaster publicly unfolded only in the final moments before it became apparent that Lehman was doomed.

…

And the rest is history.

Could this happen to Deutsche Bank?

…

By the time we are aware of a crisis – if one is in the offing — it will already be a roaring blaze by the time it is known publicly.   It is by now well-established that truth is the first casualty of all banking crises.  There will be little in the way of early warnings.   To that end, we begin connecting the dots:

Greece Faces Cash Crunch This Friday Without “Plan A Or Plan B”: What Happens Next

Greece’s day of reckoning may be fast approaching. Athens will have to pony up more than €2 billion in debt payments this Friday to the ECB, the IMF, and (get this) Goldman Sachs, for an interest payment on a derivative and it’s not entirely clear where the money will come from. On Wednesday, the government will vote on a “plan” to boost liquidity which includes tapping public funds and diverting bank bailout money. Here’s Bloomberg:

Greece will begin debating measures to boost liquidity as the cash-starved country braces for more than 2 billion euros ($2.12 billion) in debt payments Friday…

The government’s revenue-boosting plan includes eliminating fines on those who submit overdue taxes by March 27 to encourage payment, helping cover salaries and pensions due at the end of the month. The bill also requires pension funds and public entities to invest reserves held at the Bank of Greece in government securities and repurchase agreements, and transfers 556 million euros from the country’s bank recapitalization fund to the state. A vote on the measures is scheduled for Wednesday…