Iceland: Too Big To Fail

(Conspiracy Nation, 03/27/08) – The Iceland Krona (their currency) has been on a “high wire act” these past five years, warns Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the British Telegraph newspaper. That “high wire act” may have “reached its limits.” And “[a]s Iceland goes, so go the Baltics, the Balkans, Hungary, Turkey, and perhaps South Africa.” (“Iceland contagion may spread far and wide,” March 27, 2008)

Clearly Iceland, like Bear Stearns, is too big to fail. So representatives of the Nordic land may soon be arriving in the United States, looking for Ben Bernanke, known for his free cash generosity. (“Bernanke's 'Cash In A Flash'”, http://www.shout.net/~bigred/CashFlash.html)

Bernanke is chief of the “Federal” Reserve, in fact a privately-owned entity. (“Money Fraud Through The Ages,” http://www.shout.net/~bigred/MoneyFraud.html). Who actually owns the “Federal” Reserve is information hard to come by. In 1976, one of the major owners was J.P. Morgan, a key player in the Bear Stearns deal. This may be a conflict of interest, since the “Fed” would hardly have been a neutral party in the arrangement. Yesterday, Sen. Chris Dodd was interviewed on National Public Radio (NPR). Dodd mentioned the startling information that Jamie Dimon, J.P. Morgan honcho involved in the Bear Stearns deal, is on the board of the FRB of New York! Dodd also raised the question of conflict of interest: Dimon a board member of the “Fed” again points to it hardly being a neutral party. The Dimon/Fed information checks out: The “Federal” Reserve web site lists James Dimon as a “Class A Director” of District 2, FRB. (http://www.federalreserve.gov/generalinfo/listdirectors/)

It was on the Ides of March (March 15, 44 B.C.) that Julius Caesar was assassinated. The assassins were all “honorable men” (gentlemen) in Mark Antony's famous speech. And so too have we “honorable men” involved in the Bear Stearns deal, the crux of which went down on Saturday, March 15, 2008: Again, the Ides of March. Bear Stearns thought it had 28 days to repay the “Fed” for money lent. But on the Ides of March, 2008, Brutus twisted the knife: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was besieged by calls from bank CEOs. Suddenly there was no 28-day time frame. There was high pressure. Something had to be done now, before Asian markets opened the next day. "It was just clear that this franchise was going to unravel if the deal wasn't done by the end of the weekend," stated Paulson. (“The Week That Shook Wall Street,” by Robin Sidel, Greg Ip, et al. Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2008)

On March 21, 2008, Jeff Randall reported how, in Britain, a “Rumour Mill mafia” has been operating. Persons “go short” on a company, betting its stock will decline. Then “trash and cash” kicks in. Talk of doom-and-gloom relating to, in this case, Halifax and Bank of Scotland (HBOS), was fomented. Agreeable to the “shorts”, HBOS stock began to plunge. According to Randall, something not dissimilar happened at Bear Stearns: a “Rumour Mill mafia” spread negative stories about Bear Stearns resulting in lost confidence. Share prices plummeted in value. (“How the Rumour Mill mafia is destroying everybody's savings,” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/21/do2101.xml)

This alleged “Rumour Mill mafia” is not to be confused with the Rumor Mill News Service, a public-spirited web site operating in the interests of average persons.

Offered for your consideration: that the Bear Stearns deal was the ultimate “hostile takeover”; that an American “rumour mafia” was employed by “honorable men” to help sink the price of Bear Stearns stock; that J.P. Morgan and the “Federal” Reserve had a conflict of interest in the arrangement.

But who was Brutus? Was he Henry Paulson, Treasury Secretary? Was he the Bear Stearns CEO, conveniently playing bridge during the developing “crisis”? Was he Ben Bernanke, imaged as a “hipster” for nostalgiac baby-boomers?

And what role will Chris Dodd play in next week's investigation? Will he be toothless, thus making him also one of the “honorable men”?

One final note: Do not confuse ordinary banks with investment “banks” involved in the Bear Stearns mess. Ordinary banks might be slick, but this latest Bear Stearns investment “banks” puzzle enters the realm of the shady.

Conspiracy Nation

http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html