“GLITCH” Responsible For Massive Payments Outage

glitchJoseph P Farrell – If you’ve been watching the meltdowns on the internet lately, and specifically with respect to financial clearing, you’ll have noted an increase in the outages of payments systems. Recall that during the “power outage” that was caused by those pesky “metallic balloons” in San Francisco, Los Angeles-San Diego, and New York, was accompanied by payments outages in Ontario, specifically in Canada’s largest grocery chain, Loblaws. Well, on May 1st, during a banking holiday weekend, Lloyds’ and National Westminster (NatWest) banks in the United Kingdom were hit with similar problems, according to this story shared by Ms.B.Z.:

Payday banking meltdown as Lloyds, Halifax, RBS and NatWest customers are hit by online glitch that stops them accessing their accounts – and even makes payments ‘vanish’

Note the problem according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail: Continue reading

Russia Launched Anti-Hacking Center One Day Prior To Us Elections

cyberJoseph P Farrell – Over the past couple of days I’ve been blogging about some very strange goings-on that were taking place during the run-up to the American elections, and immediately thereafter. This has included strange trips of US Secretary of State John “Ketchup” Kerry, cyber attacks on Russian banks that occurred just as polls were opening in the USA, and an all-too-convenient explosion of a Russian power plant at the Arctic city of Murmansk, with a population of over 300,000, and in a key region of Russia’s defensive system for its naval forces, including the all-important naval and submarine base at nearby Polyarny.

In my high octane speculations about these events, I suggested that they were not coincidental, but perhaps either cyber attacks being staged either to aid Mrs. Clinton, to warn off the Russians, or to prepare a softening up of Russia in conjunction with current NATO deployments against that country in anticipation of a Clinton victory. Howsoever one parsed the motivations and players behind these events, however, I argued that they pointed to coordination and deliberate attack.

There was another story that appeared during the election hoopla and broohaha that tends to confirm these views, and it appeared on Russia’s RT news site, and was shared by Ms. S.: Continue reading

Banks Fined $81 Billion for Biggest Fraud in History

banksDamon Geller – The days of banks being trusted institutions to help protect your savings & retirement are over.  First, it was the banks gambling on derivatives that blew up the global economy in 2008 and cost citizens trillions in savings & retirement.  Then, it was the banks turning over customer accounts to the IRS & police for total seizure without due process of law.  Next came reports that banks are abolishing our ability to use & store cash.  And now comes a frightening report that banks have agreed to pay $81 BILLION in restitution & penalties for criminal & civil abuses against the public and their own customers.  So more than ever, if you want real protection of your savings & retirement, you better move it out of the bank.  Fast.

Banks Commit Historic Fraud against the Public & Customers

In a recent report by McClatchy detailing the millions in speaking fees the Clintons have received from banks, McClatchy drops a bombshell:  the same banks that have been supporting the former (and possibly next) president of the United States have agreed to pay $81 BILLION in restitution & penalties to resolve federal investigations into alleged corruption and to avert criminal and civil trials.  In other words, the banks paid their way out of jail after defrauding you and me for years.  Some of the crimes & penalties are as follows:

Bank of America

Restitution & Penalties:  $27.8 Billion. Defrauded homebuyers with risky mortgage loans, committed mortgage servicing abuses, and engaged in unsound foreign exchange practices.

JP Morgan Chase

Restitution & Penalties $17.6 Billion.  Rigged currency exchange rates, facilitated Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, sold risky mortgage securities, and engaged in mortgage servicing abuses and unsound banking practices.

Wells Fargo

Restitution & Penalties$5.3 Billion.  Engaged in mortgage servicing abuses, and is now at the center of a scandal involving the opening of bogus customer accounts without customer knowledge.

Continue reading

The first lesson from history: Human beings always rise

financialSimon Black – About a week and a half ago when I landed in Australia, I walked past the currency exchange booths in the arrivals hall and took a quick look at their rates.

Their quoted price to change US dollars into Australian dollars was 77 cents that day.

I quickly glanced at my phone and found that the actual market rate was just 72 cents.

So these guys were charging an unbelievable 7% markup! And that was on a major currency.

For people who happen to come from more exotic countries, the price is even higher.

If you hail from Costa Rica, for example, these airport guys won’t exchange Costa Rican colons into Australian dollars.

So you first have to exchange colons for US dollars in Costa Rica (and pay some overpriced exchange rate), and then once again change US dollars for Aussie dollars at a 7% markup once you land in Australia.

This is such an incredible scam, one of many that exists in the global financial system.

One of my favorite financial scams is in sending wire transfers.

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Astonishing report from the Fed says US banks are not “sound”

cashSimon Black – Late last week, a consortium of financial regulators in the United States, including the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, issued an astonishing condemnation of the US banking system.

Most notably, they highlighted “continuing gaps between industry practices and the expectations for safe and sound banking.”

This is part of an annual report they publish called the Shared National Credit (SNC) Review. And in this year’s report, they identified a huge jump in risky loans due to overexposure to weakening oil and gas industries.

Make no mistake; this is not chump change.

The total exceeds $3.9 trillion worth of risky loans that US banks made with your money. Given that even the Fed is concerned about this, alarm bells should be ringing.

Bear in mind that, in banking, there are three primary types of risk, at least from the consumer’s perspective.

The first is fraud risk.

This ultimately comes down to whether you can trust your bank. Are they stealing from you? Continue reading