The Bank Guarantee That Bankrupted Ireland by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
November 2, 2013

Image by infomatique via Flickr

The Irish have a long history of being tyrannized, exploited, and oppressed—from the forced conversion to Christianity in the Dark Ages, to slave trading of the natives in the 15th and 16th centuries, to the mid-nineteenth century “potato famine” that was really a holocaust. The British got Ireland’s food exports, while at least one million Irish died from starvation and related diseases, and another million or more emigrated.

Is Homeland Security Preparing for the Next Wall Street Collapse? by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
October 7, 2013

Image by how will i ever via Flickr

Reports are that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is engaged in a massive, covert military buildup. An article in the Associated Press in February confirmed an open purchase order by DHS for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. According to an op-ed in Forbes, that’s enough to sustain an Iraq-sized war for over twenty years. DHS has also acquired heavily armored tanks, which have been seen roaming the streets. Evidently somebody in government is expecting some serious civil unrest. The question is, why?

Wall Street Is No Longer a Safe Place to Keep Our Money by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
September 23, 2013

Image by duncan via Flickr

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is the nation’s second largest civilian employer after WalMart. Although successfully self-funded throughout its long history, it is currently struggling to stay afloat. This is not, as sometimes asserted, because it has been made obsolete by the Internet. In fact the post office has gotten more business from Internet orders than it has lost to electronic email. What has pushed the USPS into insolvency is an oppressive 2006 congressional mandate that it prefund healthcare for its workers 75 years into the future. No other entity, public or private, has the burden of funding multiple generations of employees who have not yet even been born.

The Hidden Government Guarantee that Props Up the Shadow Banking System by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
September 17, 2013

Increased regulation and low interest rates are driving lending from the regulated commercial banking system into the unregulated shadow banking system. The shadow banks, although free of government regulation, are propped up by a hidden government guarantee in the form of safe harbor status under the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Act pushed through by Wall Street. The result is to create perverse incentives for the financial system to self-destruct.

Making the World Safe for Banksters: Syria in the Cross-hairs by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
September 4, 2013

“The powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.”  —Prof. Caroll Quigley, Georgetown University, Tragedy and Hope (1966)

Why Eliot Spitzer Is Wall Street’s Worst Nightmare by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
August 19, 2013

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

Before Eliot Spitzer’s infamous resignation as governor of New York in March 2008, he was one of our fiercest champions against Wall Street corruption, in a state that had some of the toughest legislation for controlling the banks. It may not be a coincidence that the revelation of his indiscretions with a high-priced call girl came less than a month after he published a bold editorial in the Washington Post titled “Predatory Lenders’ Partner in Crime: How the Bush Administration Stopped the States from Stepping in to Help Consumers.”  The editorial exposed the collusion between the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and Wall Street in deregulating the banks in the guise of regulating them, by taking regulatory power away from the states. It was an issue of the federal government versus the states, with the Feds representing the banks and the states representing consumers.

Ellen Brown: A Derivatives Time-Bomb + Thom Hartmann: What to do with the Slaves When They are no Longer Needed?

with Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
August 18, 2013

Image by celesteh via Flickr

CapitalWatch on Aug 17, 2013

The Detroit Bail-In Template: Fleecing Pensioners to Save the Banks by Ellen Brown

Image by Prehensile Eye via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
August 5, 2013

The Detroit bankruptcy is looking suspiciously like the bail-in template originated by the G20’s Financial Stability Board in 2011, which exploded on the scene in Cyprus in 2013 and is now becoming the model globally. In Cyprus, the depositors were “bailed in” (stripped of a major portion of their deposits) to re-capitalize the banks. In Detroit, it is the municipal workers who are being bailed in, stripped of a major portion of their pensions to save the banks.

Green Light for City-owned San Francisco Bank by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
July 30, 2013

Image by clobby via Flickr

When the Occupiers took an interest in moving San Francisco’s money into a city-owned bank in 2011, it was chiefly on principle, in sympathy with the nationwide Move Your Money campaign.  But recent scandals have transformed the move from a political statement into a matter of protecting the city’s deposits and reducing its debt burden.  The chief roadblock to forming a municipal bank has been the concern that it was not allowed under state law, but a legal opinion  issued by Deputy City Attorney Thomas J. Owen has now overcome that obstacle.

Collateral Damage: QE3 and the Shadow Banking System by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
July 23, 2013

Image by 禁书网中国禁闻 via Flickr

Rather than expanding the money supply, quantitative easing (QE) has actually caused it to shrink by sucking up the collateral needed by the shadow banking system to create credit. The “failure” of QE has prompted the Bank for International Settlements to urge the Fed to shirk its mandate to pursue full employment, but the sort of QE that could fulfill that mandate has not yet been tried.

Think Your Money is Safe in an Insured Bank Account? Think Again. by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
July 6, 2013

Image by The Workers’ Party of Ireland via Flickr

A trend to shift responsibility for bank losses onto blameless depositors lets banks gamble away your money.

When Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem told reporters on March 13, 2013, that the Cyprus deposit confiscation scheme would be the template for future European bank bailouts, the statement caused so much furor that he had to retract it. But the “bail in” of depositor funds is now being made official EU policy. On June 26, 2013, The New York Times reported that EU finance ministers have agreed on a plan that shifts the responsibility for bank losses from governments to bank investors, creditors and uninsured depositors.

The Crime of Alleviating Poverty by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
June 28, 2013

Image by richard winchell via Flickr

Former Peace Corps volunteer Will Ruddick and several residents of Bangladesh, Kenya, face a potential seven years in prison after developing a cost-effective way to alleviate poverty in Africa’s poorest slums. Their solution: a complementary currency issued and backed by the local community. The Central Bank of Kenya has now initiated charges of forgery.

Elizabeth Warren’s QE for Students: Populist Demagoguery or Economic Breakthrough? by Ellen Brown

Image by Saint Huck via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
June 14, 2013

On July 1, interest rates will double for millions of students – from 3.4% to 6.8% – unless Congress acts; and the legislative fixes on the table are largely just compromises. Only one proposal promises real relief – Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act.” This bill has been dismissed out of hand as “shameless populist demagoguery” and “a cheap political gimmick,” but is it? Or could Warren’s outside-the-box bill represent the sort of game-changing thinking sorely needed to turn the economy around?

Why Derivatives Threaten Your Bank Account–All Depositors May Be at Risk by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
April 9, 2013

Image by The Workers’ Party of Ireland via Flickr

Shock waves went around the world when the IMF, the EU, and the ECB not only approved but mandated the confiscation of depositor funds to “bail in” two bankrupt banks in Cyprus. A “bail in” is a quantum leap beyond a “bail out.” When governments are no longer willing to use taxpayer money to bail out banks that have gambled away their capital, the banks are now being instructed to “recapitalize” themselves by confiscating the funds of their creditors, turning debt into equity, or stock; and the “creditors” include the depositors who put their money in the bank thinking it was a secure place to store their savings.

A Safe and a Shotgun or Public Sector Banks? The Battle of Cyprus by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
March 21, 2013

Image by @Popicinio via Flickr

If these worries become really serious, . . . [s]mall savers will take their money out of banks and resort to household safes and a shotgun.

– Martin Hutchinson on the attempted EU raid on deposits in Cyprus banks

The deposit confiscation scheme has long been in the making.  US depositors could be next . . . .