Monday, December 24, 2012

금리 조작, 돈 세탁 .... Too Big To Indict


The recent settlements for the cases of UBS (LIBOR rigging) and HSBC (Drug money laundering) explicitly expose the facts that the banks are above the laws and have a powerful shiled, which is called Geithner Doctrine ("Nothing must be done that will destabilize the banking system.").
By manipulating the rate upward, the banks robbed countless millions of people of billions of dollars in inflated loan costs. By manipulating the rate downward, they deprived states, cities, pension funds and retirees with fixed investments of untold billions in revenues from bond holdings.
By serving as financial conduits for the Mexican drug cartels, these banks have played a critical role in the drug war that has taken tens of thousands of lives in that country, not to mention the social devastation wrought in the US and around the world by the narcotics trade.
My verdict : The banking system itself is criminality!



LIBOR 금리 조작 사건과 관련하여 지난 6월에 영국계 Barclay 은행에 US$ 450 mil.의 벌금이 부여된 것에 이어 지난 주에 스위스계 UBS 은행도 US$ 1.5 bil.의 벌금 부여로 정리가 되었습니다.

미국 사법부 (the US Department of Justice)는 두 명의 UBS 직원을 형사 고발하고, UBS가 아닌 UBS의 일본 자회사에 대해 유죄를 인정하는 것으로 사건을 마무리 지었습니다.

LIBOR 금리 조작은 일개 은행원들의 도덕적 해이에 따른 단순한 '생계형 범죄'가 아닙다.
LIBOR 금리는 무려 US$ 800 trillions에 달하는 전 세계 금융상품의 거래와 연동되어 있는 참조 금리 (reference rate) 입니다. 여기에는 물론 우리에게 친숙한 기업 대출, 주택담보대출, 학자금 대출, 신용카드 등의 금융 상품도 포함됩니다.

2005년부터 2007년까지 Barclay, UBS 등의 글로벌 초대형 은행들은 LIBOR 금리를 올리는 수법으로 파생상품 도박에서 천문학적인 이윤을 갈취하였으며, 금융 위기 이후에는 자신들의 부실한 장부를 건전한 상태로 눈속임하고 조달 금리를 낮추기 위하여 LIBOR 금리를 떨어뜨렸습니다.

금리를 인위적으로 올려 셀 수 없는 많은 사람들로부터 천문학적인 수치의 부당 이익을 갈취했음은 물론이거니와, 금리를 인위적으로 떨어뜨려 연기금 등의 공적 성격을 띠고 있는 고정투자자산들을 갈취해갔습니다.  Wall Street Journal과 Huffingtonpost에 따르면, LIBOR 금리 조작으로 인한 Fannie Mae와 Freddie Mac의 손실이 US$ 3 bil. 에 달한다는 분석이 있다고 합니다.

그들이 구제금융까지 챙겨 보너스 잔치를 벌일때 99%인 우리는 어떠했습니까? 파산, 해고, 자살, 빚독촉, 가정 파괴, 물거품된 내집 마련의 꿈...

그런데도 이 엄청난 범죄 행위에 대한 심판의 결과과 고작 벌금형?
천문학적인 벌금 규모가 재발을 방지할 수 있는 본보기가 될 수 있다고 믿기때문일까요?
Barclay 은행에 부여된 벌금 US$ 450 mil.은 Barclay가 보고한 2011년 매출액 US$ 50 bil.의 1%도 안되는 액수입니다.

흥미로운 사실은  벌금형이 알려지자 UBS의 주가가 장 초반에 1.6% 상승하여 17개월 만에 최고치를 기록했다는 사실입니다. 그 이유는 벌금형으로 '불확실성'이 제거되었기 때문이랍니다.  ("Shares in the Swiss bank rose 1.6% to hit a 17-month high of 15.5 francs (US$ 16.97) in early trade as dealers said the settlement, which was expected, removed a major uncertainty."- Reuters)

그럼 도대체 불확실성을 제거해준 '확실성'의 실체는 무엇일까요?

그것은 다름 아닌 Geithner Doctrine이라는 '정책'입니다. 현 미국 재무장관의 이름을 딴 이 정책의 골자는 금융시스템의 안정을 해치는 그 어떤 조치도 취해져서는 안된다 (nothing must be done that will destablize the banking system)." 입니다.  여기서, 안정을 해친다는 의미는 은행의 평판이나 이윤에 해를 입히는 것이며, 금융 시스템이란 아주 긴밀하게 연결된 대형 은행들을 말합니다. (“...destabilize” means “hurts the profits or reputation of” and “banking system” means “any bank that is pretty big and/or well connected”.)

이 정책의 실체를 확인해주는 또 하나의 사건은, 마약 카르텔의 검은 돈(Drug money) 세탁에 연루된 HSBC에게 미국 사법부, 재무부 그리고 통화관리당국 등은 형사 고발 대신 5년간의 기소유예 (a five-year deferred prosecution agreement) 벌금형 (US$ 1.9 bil. -- HSBC의 2011년 수익 US$ 22 bil.의 8.6%)으로 최종 "합의"를 보았다는 사실입니다!!!  소위 Garthner Doctrine이라고 알려진 "정책"의 실체가 이제 공공연하게 금융관리당국 및 사법부의 입과 행동을 통해 입증되고 있습니다. 이 조치가 취해지자 월가는 기다렸다는 듯이 HSBC의 주가를 0.5% 포인트 받쳐주는 것으로 화답을 했습니다.

글로벌 대형은행들이 금융위기시에 입은 막대한 손실을 검은 돈 세탁으로 땜빵하고 있는 사이에 마약으로 인한 사회적 문제는 두말할 나위도 없고, 멕시코와 콜롬비아에서는 마약 조직들간의 패권 다툼과 마약 전쟁으로 수천의 무고한 시민들이 목숨을 잃었습니다.

2010년 Wachovia (지금은 Wells Fargo로 합병)의 마약자금 돈세탁을 고발했던 Martin Woods는 다음과 같은 말을 남겼습니다.
"은행들의 마약자금 세탁과 멕시코에서 목숨을 잃은 3만명과의 연관관계를 보지 못한다면, 당신은 요점을 놓치고 있는 겁니다.  "... if you don’t see the correlation between the money laundering by banks and the 30,000 people killed in Mexico, you’re missing the point.
현 금융시스템은 우리의 상식과 심지어는 법 위에 군림하고 있으며, 그 핵심은 시스템 자체가 '범죄행위'라는 사실입니다.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

아름다운 사람

I.

1984년 봄, 서울.

전두환 군사정권 시절, 고등학교 1학년 교실에서 여선생님 한 분이 칠판에 무언가를 적습니다.
어두운 비 내려오면 처마 밑의 한 아이 울고 서있네
그 맑은 두 눈에 빗물 고이면 아름다운 그이는 사람이어라
세찬 바람 불어오면 들판의 한 아이 달려오네
그 더운 가슴에 바람 안으면 아름다운 그이는 사람이어라
새하얀 눈 내려오면 산 위에 한 아이 우뚝 서있네
그 고운 마음에 노래 울리면 아름다운 그이는 사람이어라
그리고는 음을 붙여 혼자 노래를 부르십니다. 수업시간에....


II.

1987년 겨울, 서울의 신촌 거리.

학력고사를 마친 한 소녀가 두터운 외투로도 수줍음을 가리지 못한듯 고마웠다는 인사와 함께 죠지 윈스턴의 December라는 CD를 내게 건네 주고는 총총히 사라집니다.


III.

2012년, 베트남

지금은 고인이 되신 양민희 선생님께서 가르쳐 주신 노래를
짧은 사제관계를 맺었던 그 때 그 소녀, 나윤선이 부르는 영상을 보며...

보고 싶은, 아름다운 사람들!








Tuesday, December 11, 2012

이상한 나라 이야기.... Iceland


The Icelandic Success Story by John Aziz of Azizonomics


Emotionally, I love Iceland’s financial policies since the crash of 2008:
Iceland went after the people who caused the crisis — the bankers who created and sold the junk products — and tried to shield the general population.
But what Iceland did is not just emotionally satisfying. Iceland is recovering, while the rest of the Western world — which bailed out the bankers and left the general population to pay for the bankers’ excess — is not.
Few countries blew up more spectacularly than Iceland in the 2008 financial crisis. The local stock market plunged 90 percent; unemployment rose ninefold; inflation shot to more than 18 percent; the country’s biggest banks all failed.
This was no post-Lehman Brothers recession: It was a depression. 

Since then, Iceland has turned in a pretty impressive performance. It has repaid International Monetary Fund rescue loans ahead of schedule. Growth this year will be about 2.5 percent, better than most developed economies. Unemployment has fallen by half. In February, Fitch Ratings restored the country’s investment-grade status, approvingly citing its “unorthodox crisis policy response.”
So what exactly did Iceland do?
First, they create an aid package for homeowners:
To homeowners with negative equity, the country offered write-offs that would wipe out debt above 110 percent of the property value. The government also provided means-tested subsidies to reduce mortgage-interest expenses: Those with lower earnings, less home equity and children were granted the most generous support.
Then, they redenominated foreign currency debt into devalued krone, effectively giving creditors a big haircut:
In June 2010, the nation’s Supreme Court gave debtors another break: Bank loans that were indexed to foreign currencies were declared illegal. Because the Icelandic krona plunged 80 percent during the crisis, the cost of repaying foreign debt more than doubled. The ruling let consumers repay the banks as if the loans were in krona.

These policies helped consumers erase debt equal to 13 percent of Iceland’s $14 billion economy. Now, consumers have money to spend on other things. It is no accident that the IMF, which granted Iceland loans without imposing its usual austerity strictures, says the recovery is driven by domestic demand.
What this meant is that unsustainable junk was liquidated. While I am no fan of nationalised banks and believe that eventually they should be sold off, there were no quick and easy bailouts that allowed the financial sector to continue with the same unsustainable bubble-based folly they practiced before the crisis (as has happened throughout the rest of the Western world).  
And best of all, Iceland prosecuted the people who caused the crisis, providing a real disincentive (as opposed to more bailouts and bonuses):
Iceland’s special prosecutor has said it may indict as many as 90 people, while more than 200, including the former chief executives at the three biggest banks, face criminal charges.

Larus Welding, the former CEO of Glitnir Bank hf, once Iceland’s second biggest, was indicted in December for granting illegal loans and is now waiting to stand trial. The former CEO of Landsbanki Islands hf, Sigurjon Arnason, has endured stints of solitary confinement as his criminal investigation continues.

That compares with the U.S., where no top bank executives have faced criminal prosecution for their roles in the subprime mortgage meltdown. The Securities and Exchange Commission said last year it had sanctioned 39 senior officers for conduct related to the housing market meltdown.
Iceland’s approach is very much akin to what I have been advocating — write down the unsustainable debt, liquidate the junk corporations and banks that failed, disincentivise the behaviour that caused the crisis, and provide help to the ordinary individuals in the real economy (as opposed to phoney “stimulus” cash to campaign donors and big finance).
And Iceland has snapped out of its depression. The rest of the West, where banks continue to behave exactly as they did prior to the crisis, not so much.

Monday, December 10, 2012

It's SHIFT!

When Mayan meets each other, they greet each other saying "In Lak'ech. Ala K'in," which means "I am another yourself. You are another myself."
I believe that this Mayan traditional greeting is reflected by the essence of their calendar system - Great Shift of Consciousness, NOT the end of the world.

Shift from where to where?

Madame Ghis, the author of The Medical Mafia, tells us with simplicity and depth about what the shift would be.



Transfer of Power -1 by Personocratia



Transfer of Power-2 by Personocratia





Wednesday, December 5, 2012

December 21, 2012

Kiara Windrider, the author of YEAR ZERO: Time of the Great Shift, visited Guatemala in November 2008 and met Don Alejandro Cirilio Perez Oxlaj who is widely respected as head of the Mayan Council of Elders.
Kiara asked Don Alejandro what the Maya think about 2012. The answer is:
"There are so many people out there who have their own interpretation of our calendar system. They are free to say what they want, and they may even be right in their own way, but they should not say they are representing the Mayan people."
"We don't speak about 2012. This is how you interpret our calendar in your Gregorian system. We ourselves only speak about Year Zero. And although we cannot say that it will happen exactly in 2012, we understand the signs that precede this event and we know that the time is very close."
So, let people just talk about 'December 21, 2012,' and don't be deluded into any doomsday theories or stories.

Here is a video clip on Don Alejandro's interview.




Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Revisit 9/11... 여전히 풀리지 않은 의혹들

1. 누구의 소행인가?

테러리스트들의 입장에서, 자타가 인정하는 세계 최강대국을 상대로, 그 강대국의 영토 내에서 한 대도 아닌 네 대의 민간 여객기를 한 날 동시에 공중납치하여, 주요 상징적 시설물을 '가미가제 전법'으로 타격하는데 성공한 사건은 '테러역사'에 길이 남을 '위대한 업적'이 아닐 수 없습니다. 그렇다면, 그 테러를 성공적으로 수행한 테러집단은 이 "빛나는 전공"에 대해 '침묵과 겸손'이 아니라 자화자찬을 통해 자신을 거듭 부각시켜야 하는 것 아닐까요?

11년 전 오늘, 수천 명의 무고한 생명을 죽임으로 몰아가며 온 세상을 경악시켰던 테러사건에는 스스로 인정하는 테러 주체가 없습니다. 다만. "아프칸 탈레반 정부의 지원을 받은 오사마 빈 라덴의 알카에다 조직"이라는 일방적 단정이 있을 뿐입니다. 물론 용의자인 빈 라덴은 이를 부인했습니다.  

2. 다시써야하는 물리학 혹은 건축구조공학?

납치 여객기가 직접 충돌을 했던 쌍둥이 타워는 그렇다치고, 직접적인 타격을 입지 않았던 무역센터 7번 건물의 붕괴는 '폭파 공법에 의한 파괴'로 밖에 설명할 길이 없으나 '음모론'으로 일축되고 있습니다.

아래는 얼마전 미국 Colorado Public Television이 방영한 9/11 관련 다큐멘터리 입니다.
2001년 9월 11일 그날, 사랑하는 가족과 친구들을 허망하게 떠나 보내야했던 희생자 가족과 친지 그리고 살아남은 사람들에게는 여전히 밝혀지지 않은 '사건의 진상'을 알아야할 권리가 있습니다.








Wednesday, September 5, 2012

A trim tab.... 존재의 이유?

배의 뒷부분에 달려있는 커다란 방향타를 항해 중에 직접 움직이게 하는 기계적 장치는 아직까지 고안되지 않았다고 합니다. 물리적으로 불가능하다고 하네요. 대신 방향타 끝부분에 붙어 있는 trim tab이라 불리는 작은 보조 장치를 움직여 그때 발생하는 압력(low pressure)으로 방향타를 움직이게 한다고 합니다.

미국의 시스템 이론가이자 팔방미인 천재였던 Buckminster Fuller는 자신을 포함하여 우리들 개개인을 이 trim tab에 비유합니다.

어찌해볼 길 없는 이 절망스러운 '현실' 속에서도 희망을 잃지 않고 '꿈'을 꾸는 우리들의 보잘것 없는 작은 몸부림이 거대한 흐름의 진로를 바꾸게하는 힘(low pressure)이라는 거죠.

A great American systems theorist, Buckminster Fuller, said:
"Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary—the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab. It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go. So I said, call me Trim Tab."
(Bucky의 유언에 따라 만들어진 묘석)
"When I thought about steering the course of the 'Spaceship Earth' and all of humanity, I saw most people trying to turn the boat by pushing the bow around. I saw that by being all the way at the tail of the ship, by just kicking my foot to one side or the other, I could create the 'low pressure' which would turn the whole ship."
As a little trim tab in this Spaceship of Earth, we need to kick our foot to "make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offence or disadvantage of anyone." 

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Iceland... 그 섬에 가고 싶다

It has been rarely reported in the mainstream media outlets what has been going on in Iceland especially since so-called 'Kitchenware Revolution' occurred in the wake of the Icelandic financial crisis.
An interesting posting titled "ICELAND. No news from Iceland? ... Why?" gives us the answer.
How come we hear everything that happens in Egypt but no news about what’s happening in Iceland:
In Iceland, the people has made the government resign, the primary banks have been nationalized, it was decided to not pay the debt that these created with Great Britain and Holland due to their bad financial politics and a public assembly has been created to rewrite the constitution.And all of this in a peaceful way. A whole revolution against the powers that have created the current global crisis. This is why there hasn’t been any publicity during the last two years: What would happen if the rest of the EU citizens took this as an example? What would happen if the US citizens took this as an example.This is a summary of the facts:
2008. The main bank of the country is nationalized.

The Krona, the currency of Iceland devaluates and the stock market stops. The country is in bankruptcy

2008. The citizens protest in front of parliament and manage to get new elections that make the resignation of the prime minister and his whole government.

The country is in bad economic situation.
A law proposes paying back the debt to Great Britain and Holland through the payment of 3,500 million euros, which will be paid by the people of Iceland monthly during the next 15 years, with a 5.5% interest.
2010. The people go out in the streets and demand a referendum. In January 2010 the president denies the approval and announces a popular meeting.

In March the referendum and the denial of payment is voted in by 93%. Meanwhile the government has initiated an investigation to bring to justice those responsible for the crisis, and many high level executives and bankers are arrested. The Interpol dictates an order that make all the implicated parties leave the country.
In this crisis an assembly is elected to rewrite a new Constitution which can include the lessons learned from this, and which will substitute the current one (a copy of the Danish Constitution).

25 citizens are chosen, with no political affiliation, out of the 522 candidates. For candidacy all that was needed was to be an adult and have the support of 30 people. The constitutional assembly starts in February of 2011 to present the ‘carta magna’ from the recommendations given by the different assemblies happening throughout the country. It must be approved by the current Parliament and by the one constituted through the next legislative elections. 
 So in summary of the Icelandic revolution:
  • resignation of the whole government
  • nationalization of the bank.
  • referendum so that the people can decide over the economic decisions.
  • incarcerating the responsible parties
  • rewriting of the constitution by its people
Have we been informed of this through the media?Has any political program in radio or TV commented on this?
No! The Icelandic people have been able to show that there is a way to beat the system and has given a democracy lesson to the world
Recently, IMF's mission chief to the country, Daria V. Zakharova, said in an interview that:
“Iceland has made significant achievements since the crisis, .... We have a very positive outlook on growth, especially for this year and next year because it appears to us that the growth is broad based.”
It is translated that IMF admits that Iceland's approach was right. What was Iceland's approach, then? Jeff Neilson gives us the clear answer in his recent post in street.com:
To do the exact opposite of everything the bankers running our own economies told us to do.
  • The bankers (naturally) told us that we needed to bail out the criminal Big Banks, at taxpayer expense (they were Too Big To Fail).  Iceland gave the banksters nothing.


  • The bankers told us that no amount of suffering (for the Little People) was too great in order to make sure that the Bond Parasites got paid at 100 cents on the dollar. Iceland told the Bond Parasites they would get what was left over, after the people had been taken care of (by their own government).
  • The bankers told us that our governments could no longer afford the same education, health care and pension systems which our parents had taken for granted. Iceland told the bankers that what the country could no longer afford was to continue to be blood-sucked by the worst financial criminals in the history of our species. 
And he also casts doubt on the sincerity in the media's surprise and applaud:
One can only assume that neither the Corporate Media nor their Banker Masters would have allowed this clear acknowledgment that Iceland was right and we were wrong to appear within its own pages, unless it felt secure in the knowledge that all the remaining Debt Slaves had been crippled beyond their capacity to ever escape this economic oppression.
Here, the purpose of this Bloomberg propaganda was not to praise Iceland's government (when both the bankers and Corporate Media despise Iceland with all of their considerable malice). Rather, the goal of this disinformation was to manufacture a new Big Lie.


The real message here for readers is that when an economic strategy of People before Parasites succeeds that there is nothing the least-bit "surprising" about this. As with all the remainder of the world around us, promoting the health of Parasites is only good for the Parasites themselves.