© Reuters/Neil HallA trader reacts on the IG Group trading floor in London March 18, 2013
All pretense is now gone that central or global bankers can 'securitize' growth by packaging and repackaging debt; by hypothicating and rehypothicating debt; by regulating and rergulating debt. Since the bond market rally began in the early 1980s (yes, it's that old) each crisis has been met by central and global bankers - the IMF, EU and ECB, to name a few - and their Wall St. and City of London brethren with an increase in debt, and an extension of the debt's maturity.
The result has been - as of 2007 - the biggest mountain of on-balance sheet and off-balance sheet debt in history: A staggering $220 trillion in debt in America's $14-trillion economy alone (when you include all public, private and contingent liabilities of unfunded entitlement programs). Deals in the global debt derivatives market now stand in excess of $1 quadrillion, riding above a global GDP of approximately $60 trillion.
But starting in 2007, and then becoming spectacularly apparent in 2008 with the Lehman collapse, the ability of the world's taxpayers to pay either the interest or principal on this debt has hit a brick wall. And for several years now, governments around the world have tried the same old tricks of 'extend and pretend.' Repackage and extend the maturity, and pray that tax receipts start picking up enough to pay some of the debt off. It didn't work. The debt bomb just got bigger. Now in Cyprus we see the inevitable next phase: Confiscation.
To pay off the debts that were incurred to finance the biggest wealth grab in history, we see in Cyprus, as well as central and global banking institutions around the world, a trend to just reach in and grab people's money from their 'insured' bank accounts. We should have figured out this was coming when JP Morgan (read: Jamie Dimon) reached in and illegally stepped ahead of customers at MF Global and grabbed over $1 billion, with the help of his crony pal Jon Corzine.
Have we learned our lesson yet? They have more debts to pay than there is money in all the bank accounts in the world. This means that chances are, you - whoever you are, and whatever country you live in - will have a sizable percent of your savings stolen by banksters.
Since the crisis hit (and for several years leading up to it) we've been recommending on 'Keiser Report' to put as much money as you can in gold and silver. Our advice then and now is: The only money you should keep in a bank is money you're willing to lose.
What can I say except of that it’s just awful. I’ve never thought that something like this can happen today. Yes, economy of Cyprus had some problems before but it was hard to imagine that one day they gonna have a crisis like this. And unfortunately, in this case only radical methods will work. The debt is so big that all the banks accounts in the world can’t cover it. I work in a lending company [Link] and I know what the debt can do. It can ruin life and it can ruin the economy. The most important is to not to give up and continue making efforts to save the situation.