I'm back from vacation and the news is even more depressing than when I left. But I "called" all of this.

Just came back from a week's vacation in Florida and I had a great time, but now I am back in this shit weather of New York City. I am really starting to hate it here, but I digress.

During my vacation I barely kept up with the markets and the news; especially the news because it's pretty much almost all bad and I didn't want any buzz kill to wreck my good time.

But, alas, I am back and scanning the media again and of course there is the Greece situation right out there in the forefront and it's really sad and depressing as all hell.

Syntagma Square, until today a queues-free area of Athens, has fallen. Long lines in front of ATMs getting longer. Depressing

— Nikos Chrysoloras (@nchrysoloras) June 28, 2015

I'll start by taking some credit for predicting all this, to a "t."

Right from the election of Syriza and even before with the comments of then candidate, Alexis Tsipras, followed by the appointment of Varoufakis as Finance Minister, I said that Greece would cave to the Troika; that the last remaining wealth of the public would be stripped away and looted to pay the ransom that the banksters demanded.

Today we see that really accelerating to its final conclusion with the Greek government looking to shut banks and impose capital controls Monday morning.  (i.e. steal all the remaining cash.)

Now this is really sad and depressing on so many levels. It's depressing due to the weakness of Tsipras and the Greek government, which like so many others that have delivered false promises (Obama) and sold the people out on day one.

It's sad and depressing because of the callous and gluttonous voracity of the financial mafia who will stop at nothing and want everything despite their ineptitude and their orgies of destruction, which seemingly cannot be stopped.

It's sad and depressing on the loss of Greek sovereignty and the crushing down of the world's oldest democracy; of the crushing of democracy in general, universally, no matter how old and the sheer criminality of it.

Worst of all, however, it's sad and depressing due to the fact that we are witnessing THE MODEL that will be applied by the neoliberal criminals on the rest of us all over the world.

Make no mistake: the actions being forced upon Greece are meant to be a lesson to us all: that's what's coming our way unless we submit to the demands of this mafia and the corrupt governments they control (yes, the U.S. included, which may be most corrupt) and the lackeys who do their bidding and the law enforcement goons that fill their prisons with those who protest or refuse to submit and the armies they unleash--overt and covert--to plunder the wealth of nations.

This is the path via which, the general citizenry will be conquered, taken, enslaved, subjugated and consumed in every which way possible and it is under way as we speak and there is really nothing we can do about it.

Say good bye to Greece. Say good bye to Democracy. Say good by to us all and the way of life we have known.

On a bittersweet note there is one final irony to all this even though it's just a sort of mini, micro, "unintended consequences" thing, but at least it's something we can take a little solace in (or, better yet, make money in). That is, the vaunted euro, the thing that caused much of this misery--indeed, the thing that was CREATED EXPRESSLY as a vehicle so that the elites could steal--will go down in flames, perhaps collapsing to near-valueless in some months or at most a couple of years.

I feel sorry for the Greek people, who have been pleading for an end to austerity for so long and who have put false hope in disingenuous or timid leaders. The truth is, they have been so deluded they have not seen the poisonous nature of this currency and have not understood that it was really their mortal enemy, a Trojan Horse, all along.

For whatever reason, maybe past history of corruption under the drachma or, the inflation that the corruption seemingly always brought, the Greeks did not want to go back to the drachma. In the end I predict they will be begging for the drachma; it'll be their savior from the euro.

Make no mistake: the euro is going down. To zero, perhaps. To say the euro is getting harder to get is folly. Under the current arrangement, which necessitates that an elite few must figuratively and literally kill off everyone else for their corrupt gang to survive, and to have a currency based on this, basically means that the currency--the euro--is intrinsically worthless.

Bankster Looters Leveraging "Stoned Fiat" [currency] Confidence Trick

(Commentary posted by Roger Erickson)

Have you heard the story of "Stone Soup" ? Banksters are misusing that theme today, as "Stoned Fiat" [currency].

"In varying traditions, the stone has been replaced with other common inedible objects, and therefore the fable is also known as button soup, wood soup, nail soup, and axe soup."

And now known as NeoLiberal MacroEconomics (though alternately called Control Fraud, or Wreckonomics).

They waltz into town, contribute nothing, and encourage everyone to contribute real assets.

Unfortunately, instead of provisioning the participants with optimal distribution of all the aggregate return-on-coordination they admittedly helped trigger ... they turn Control Fraud and skip town with the "claimed" ownership of real assets - now conveniently called "income" ... and then hide behind their claim of "doing god's work."

A parasitic schtick, if you're sociopathic enough to pull it off without remorse. At least until the looted host dies.

Distributed Credit Without Distributed Income IS - By Default - The Definition Of Distributed Control Fraud.

   (Commentary posted by Roger Erickson)

"My New Loan Shark Is Great. She Lumped 10x More MiddleClass Debt Into One Permanent Beating - Spread Out Over 30 Generations!"

And, of course, liars auto loans and liars student loans also can't hurt.

What's next? Liar's Private Social Security Loans? Just imagine the marketing options.

"Borrow for retirement NOW! Get taxed until you're 70, and then enjoy free lodging in a debtors prison."

Sounds like a helluva deal! TINA says the only way to retire is to rob some other class?

A "study" says a return to Liars Loans (extending distributed credit, but NOT distributed income) would be "no big deal." Bullshit.

Why offering 3 percent downpayment mortgages is not a return to lax lending

"... researchers at the Urban Institute – and, more recently, the chief executive of Fannie Mae – said [a bad] outcome is unlikely. 

The researchers -- Taz George, Laurie Goodman and Jun Zhu – analyzed the performance of low down payment loans backed by Fannie Mae in the recent past. (Fannie accepted 3 percent down until late 2013.) They found that the default rate for loans with 3 percent to 5 percent down were very similar to the default rates on loans with 5 percent to 10 percent down. They also found that very few borrowers got the lower down payment loans (peaking at 3.4 percent in 1999). And nearly all of those who did had top-notch credit. 

Their analysis concluded that the proposed change would be “no big deal.”

This article misses the point completely, and therefore does more harm than good. The REASONS they give for arguing for low mortgage down payments and rates actually enable Control Fraud while not helping the aggregate at all.

All distributed citizens need is enough distributed income to purchase what they are capable of producing.

Distributing credit but not income IS - by default - one definition of Control Fraud.

"Let*s look at the substance and not the shadow"

Define "recent?" How about "similar?" At least "very few?" Nah! Don't bother. The ex Middle Class seems convinced already. They're still as gullible as ever. And, of course, no mention of distributed net income (gross income minus net taxes) whatsoever.

Decide for yourself. There are additional self-serving statements by bankers in the article.

Let's publish our own 'study.'

Why NOT listening to banksters about Fiscal Policy is a return to aggregate sanity.

After all, we're now all experts on that topic. Without enough feedback, posters here easily forget that 99% of the electorate are not on board with what we already consider obvious.

Wounded Veterans: The One time We Can't Afford An Ounce Of Prevention? It Is Criminally Stupid To Allow This Neglect.

   (Commentary posted by Roger Erickson)

And it's worse than even that statistic implies. Much worse.

Yet that's how we repay those who serve their country .... anywhere EXCEPT Wall St.

Criminal or victim?

"Communities weigh how to deal with battle-scarred soldiers who do wrong after coming home."

??

What about those battle-oiled banksters who do continuous wrong BEFORE going home from the war on our own Middle Class? (And then argue for austerity, so that "their" embezzled currency doesn't "depreciate" in buying power.)

I better quit. I'm gonna unleash a string of un-deleted expletives.

International Coordination To Do ..... WHAT? Loot the MiddleClass ... everywhere?

   (Commentary posted by Roger Erickson)

South Africa pleads for global coordination amid Fed [QE?]

The 1% of every OTHER country, not just ours, wants to feed off of the US MiddleClass too? Just WHO is coordinating WHAT here? The 1% coordinating international Control Fraud?

??  I thought it was our $US, and their problem. No?

Instead of the 1% everywhere "coordinating," what if the MiddleClass of all countries coordinated? Or heck, even the MiddleClass of the USA alone!

What would "we" tell the Free-Trade = Free-Labor looters, and their little banksters too?

That we're not ALL in Kansas anymore?

And, maybe also tell 'em to stick their 1%-size heads where the sun don't shine? 

"1, 2, 3 ... all together now .... co-ordinate!"

Can They Possibly Put Europe Back Together Again? And Do WE Have To Finish Breaking The USA Too?

Commentary by Roger Erickson

With apologies to both Andrea Terzi and Humpty Dumpty.

How Austerity Broke European Stability

Question to Andrea Terzi: From your local view, do you think all the continent's horses & all the continent's men can put Humpty Dumpty's dynamic nest egg together again?

Brussels Sprouts sat upon all,
  Brussels Snouts made everyone else fall,
Now all the continent's rentiers & all the continent's banksters ...
  Will they possibly allow Europe to put itself back together again?

Do they even want to? Or has the own-goal become a More Perfect Gangsterism, rather than a More Perfect Union?

If so, then Russia's revenge against Napoleon will finally be complete, and scorched economy, though not scorched earth, will reverse momentum and finally reach all the way to Paris, under Pootie the Great. Who says the Russian's aren't most adaptive of all? For every culture, there may well be a killer Propaganda Prion Party. How ironic that Brussels Sprouts would be the vector. "No one could have predicted that!"

What do YOU need to be saved from?

What happened to "Venimus, Vidimus, Perfecimus Eventus Accommodatos?"

Research May Teach Rodents to Detect Explosives

Hmmm. What kind of research do you suppose would teach people to go, see & make a more perfect union?

The kind NOT supported by our mil/industrial complex?  Nor by our banksters lobby?

Do we have to save THEM from themselves too?

If so, do we need a rescue plan for every one of the ~19,000 NAICS industry codes? :(

What, exactly, do YOU need to be saved from? Do we need a real time database to track it all and schedule interventions?  WikiInterventia?

Or have we run out of money for that too?

OCC admits they're incompetent? Can't afford competence?

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency failed to spot widespread problems in the foreclosure practices of major banks between 2008 and 2010 because the agency’s examiners underestimated the mounting risks and were given outdated guidance that did not address how the industry had changed, according to a report issued Friday by the Treasury Department’s inspector general.

What else? Oh yeah. The sun was in their eyes.   And, a cloud of banksters blotted out the sun.   Really!

I've heard better excuses from a 5 year old.

Heck, why not just OpenSource reality? Everyone else knew!

Or were OCC staff instructed not to talk to strangers, aka US citizens?

Is this making Geithner look dumber than dumb, or just downright evil?  Or does he have an airtight alibi?  He don't talk to nobody but his tailor!

As usual, "nobody could have predicted this."

They were too busy not talking to strangers, and using the DHS to make sure that didn't happen.  Why, if Geithner knew what America knows, he'd have to go straight! Don't hold your breath, 'cuz Timmy da Mole ain't givin' up his suit for no one.  And certainly not for no stinkin', lower class electorate!

British Bankers Will Again Own Spain?

“A flock of vulture funds is gathering in Madrid in the hope that a banking sector shakeout will finally deliver a bonanza of real estate and distressed company assets at rock bottom prices.”

Reminds me of Jim Rogers advice for vulture investors.

“Investors, get thee to a country just after conclusion of a war or other disaster.” Jim Rogers, paraphrased.

And he just paraphrased the British (who had no qualms about fomenting local wars in order to buy out both sides afterwards). The early bankers caught on to that strategy back in the 1500s.

‘Royalty’ [formerly temp war chiefs] originally caught on when it was suggested by a Pope ~300AD. You can look upon "royalty" as "affinity-bankers" who concentrated & leveraged distributed affinity ties, until formal currencies become available.

Currency bankers later found that they could readily "buy out" bankrupt royalty after disastrous wars - which they therefore began to encourage. It's the simple, narrow logic of saprovores. Buy at bankruptcy sales, even if you have to help cause the bankruptcy.  The currently worst parasite is a royalty clan aligned with a banking clan.  They're just two forms of banksters, one perverting affinity operations for private gain & the other perverting currency operations.

That "Austrian Economics" approach, however, is self limiting when applied to your own aggregate - which is exactly why all stable tribal systems relegated clan & class prerogative to temporary roles, to serve transient context. The rational way to mitigate excessive investment-bank momentum is efficient democracy – i.e., full-group policy discourse. That’s exactly what we’re having trouble ramping up quickly enough. Our political institutions that barely saved us in 1933 just aren’t up to producing adequately agile policy now that we have ~3x the population throughout the G7.

Message to the Edrigus & Inigas of Spain: "We NEED ways for people to invest in better, more agile Democracy. NOW!"

Cost of coordination is always the highest cost.
Return on coordination is the ONLY return that exceeds the cost of coordination.

We either invest in making our growing populations even more agile, or we regress. I don't know how to make that more plain.

Do we want to be to a dying mass majority owned, on the way down, by the Jim Rogers' of the world?

The war of 1776, our Civil War, FDR - in fact every war, whether inter-class or inter-national - shows that an aggregate ALWAYS has more than enough firepower to overwhelm any given sub-class, regardless of whether that subclass is royalty, landowners, military or banking. For net progress, our ultimate weapons are the social catalysts that scale coordination to new levels.

Social tools are NOT social catalysts, until they're tuned to optimal use.

Just in time, just as needed communication of minimally-required information is what every "tuned" aggregate needs in order to scale up coordination - based on trust in the return on coordination.

Once they bypass all the low-margin distractions, any aggregate can focus on their insanely great return-on-coordination.

Spain needs to cross that chasm and organize - not starve, sell out & give in to British banker-fungi (yet again).

Please Spain, wake up. For the sake of everyone. The whole world is watching.

Randy Wray — Banksters, meet Rico

Read it at Economonitor | Great Leap Forward
Louisiana Sues Banksters Under Rico Laws: Will the Biggest Banks Finally Go the Way of the Gambinos?
by L. Randall Wray

Factoid: "Law in the state of Louisiana is based in part on civil law. Louisiana is unique among the 50 U.S. states in having a legal system partially based on French and Spanish codes and ultimately Roman law, as opposed to English common law.[1] Louisiana thus follows the system of most non-Anglophone countries in the world."

This is powerful! Great video with some strong words from Elizabeth Warren!

Time to re-read the Declaration of Independence and recall its noble ideals

Time to revisit the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

These ideals have been forgotten.