Earned Knowledge – Closing Out The Ancient Era

Earned Knowledge, L5, P1Paul Rosenberg – What we’re calling the ancient era is the period before the great collapse of 1,200 BC. Following that was an intermediate period of breakup and change that ran from 1,200 BC to 800 BC, sometimes called “the dark age of the Greeks.” The time after about 800 BC is what people call Classical Civilization; it was the era of the famous civilizations of Greece and Rome.

All of these dates are approximate, of course. And there were always variations and exceptions.

But before we move into the Classical era, and from there into Western civilization, we need to look at some areas we haven’t examined very closely up till now. It’s important to get a as full an understanding of these people as we can before we move on. Continue reading

Who Is Behind the EU Migrant Crisis? [Video]

James Corbett joins the Newsbud roundtable to discuss what is being called the ‘worst humanitarian crisis’ of our time. We take a peek behind the curtain to find the root causes for why and how millions of people are migrating from war torn countries, and who benefits.

We also examine the history and context of synthetically-created refugee crises since 1951. Join this highly stimulating discussion, and bring in your thoughts and responses with your comments.

Brexit and the Derivatives Time Bomb

debtEllen BrownSovereign debt – the debt of national governments – has ballooned from $80 trillion to $100 trillion just since 2008. Squeezed governments have been driven to radical austerity measures, privatizing public assets, slashing public services, and downsizing work forces in a futile attempt to balance national budgets. But the debt overhang just continues to grow.

Austerity has been pushed to the limit and hasn’t worked. But default or renegotiating the debt seems to be off the table. Why? According to a June 25th article by Graham Summers on ZeroHedge:

. . . EVERY move the Central Banks have made post-2009 has been aimed at avoiding debt restructuring or defaults in the bond markets. Why does Greece, a country that represents less than 2% of EU GDP, continue to receive bailouts instead of just defaulting?

Summers’ answer – derivatives:

[G]lobal leverage has exploded to record highs, with the sovereign bond bubble now a staggering $100 trillion in size. To top it off, over $10 trillion of this is sporting negative yields in nominal terms. . . .

Globally, over $500 trillion in derivatives trade [is] based on bond yields.

But Brexit changes everything, says Summers. Until now, the EU has been able to reject debt forgiveness as an alternative, using the threat of financial Armageddon if the debtor country left the EU. But Britain has left, and Armageddon hasn’t hit. Other Eurozone nations can now threaten to do the same if they don’t get debt forgiveness or a restructuring.

The First Domino – Italy

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WikiLeaks Exposes IMF Plan of Financial Terror to Force Government Compliance

imf Jay Syrmopoulos – WikiLeaks has once again exposed how supranational organizations create artificial crises in an effort to advance the Western corporate-political elites geostrategic goals, as revealed in the transcript of a teleconference, which took place on March 19, 2016, between top International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials.

The striking conversation reveals IMF officials implying that the threat of an imminent financial disaster was necessary to force other stakeholders into accepting the IMF’s “measures” such as cutting Greek pensions and working conditions. However, a June 23 referendum will essentially freeze European decision-making at an extremely critical moment – potentially risking greater political destabilization, but also giving the organization greater leverage.

The transcript of the teleconference between Poul Thomsen, the head of the IMF’s European Department, and Delia Velkouleskou, the IMF Mission Chief for Greece, exposed the fact that the IMF is anticipating a potential Greek bailout default that would occur in concert with UK’s ‘Brexit’ referendum on EU membership.

The discussion shows the IMF strategizing about telling Germany that they will abandon the Troika (composed of the IMF, European Commission and the European Central Bank) if the European Commission and the IMF fail to reach a Greek debt relief agreement in an effort to force compliance.

The leak clearly establishes the IMF linking the Greek issue with UK referendum, creating a dynamic of increased risk of more widespread political destabilization in the EU, as noted by Bloomberg.

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Greeks Told To Declare Cash “Under The Mattress”, Jewelry And Precious Stones

Zerohedge – When earlier today we read a report in the Greek Enikonomia (http://www.enikonomia.gr/economy/41959,Metrhta-kosmhmata-kai-polytimoi-li8oi-sto-neo-po8en-esxes.html), according to which Greek taxpayers would be forced to declare all cash “under the mattress” (including inside) or boxes that contain more than 15,000 euros as well as jewelry and precious stones (including gold) worth over 30,000 euros, starting in 2016, we assumed this has to be some early April fools joke or a mistake.

After all, this would be merely the first step toward full-blown asset confiscation, conducted so many times by insolvent governments throughout history, once the government cracks down on those who made a “mistake” in their asset declaration form or simply refuse to fill such a declaration, thereby making all their assets eligible for government confiscation.

It was not a joke.

Here is the take of Keep Talking Greece, (http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2015/12/01/greeces-taxpayers-must-declare-all-assets-like-cash-under-mattresses-jewelry/) whose stunned response mirrors ours.

Cash “under the mattress” totaling more than 15,000 euro, jewelry and other valuable items such as diamonds and gemstones, should be declared to electronic system of tax authorities, Taxisnet, as of 1 January 2016. Next to properties and vehicles and shares, now the taxpayers will also have to declare their deposits. And not only that. They will have to fill if they rent bank lockers and if yes, also the name of the bank and the branch, even if abroad. Continue reading