Counterfeit currency in the news

Counterfeit $20 bills passed to Main Street nightclub (Utah)

Pueblo Police have released surveillance video of a woman passing a counterfeit $100 at a Family Dollar Store on Saturday. (Colorado)

Recently, the Pomeroy Exxon contacted the department after receiving a counterfeit $10 bill.
(Ohio)

A fake $100 bill showed up at a Lynchburg McDonald's last month in what might have been part of a larger counterfeiting scheme, police said. (Virginia)

Woman passes counterfeit $100 bill at Forsyth County restaurant (Georgia)

Fake money spent at local store (Tennessee)

Counterfeit Cash Making Rounds In Metro Detroit
Scam Artists Printing, Passing Fake $100 Bills Around (Michigan)

Gerald Celente - I’m Now 100% In Gold, Roubini is Wrong

King World News

When asked what he was doing with his own money Celente replied, “What did (Nouriel) Roubini say? Gold would be lucky to go to $1,100 an ounce. Where is it now? Flirting between the high $1,780s and $1,900s. There are a number of people like myself and others that believe it’s going much higher.

You know I used to be in Swiss Francs (along with gold), I am not in Swiss Francs anymore. I got in (Swiss Francs) about a year and a half ago and did very well, but I’ve transferred everything I own into gold, I’m now totally invested in gold.”

Warmonger John McCain wants to arm countries because he wants war so much

John McCain Worked to Arm Qaddafi in 2009
8/26/11 at 09:12 AM

A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable shows that Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain promised to help Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi obtain U.S. military hardware in 2009.

Algiers continues to observe "strict neutrality" on Libya

ALGIERS - Algeria will continue to observe "strict neutrality by refusing to interfere in any manner whatsoever in the internal affairs of Libya, said Friday the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Amar Belani .

This is the first official reaction since the Libyan rebels control nearly Tripoli. Alger did not recognize the National Transitional Council (CNT), political arm of the rebellion, and has never formally requested the departure of Muammar Gaddafi.

Media try to downplay Ron Paul

Watch Jon Stewart's funny take on the ignore-Ron-Paul media stance:

Muammar Qadhafi wanted Dennis Kucinich to stop NATO bombing

The Qadhafi regime tried to get Rep. Dennis Kucinich to travel to Libya in a last-ditchattempt to stop the U.S.-backed NATO attack, a new report says.

Muammar Qadhafi reached out to Kucinich (D-Ohio) in an attempt to persuade him to visit Libya as part of a “peace mission,” according to The Guardian.

US lawmaker: NATO must account for Libyan deaths

A US lawmaker fiercely opposed to NATO's role in the Libya conflict called Tuesday for the alliance's military chiefs to be held to account under international law for the deaths of Libyan civilians.
"Otherwise we will have witnessed the triumph of a new international gangsterism," Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich, a leading opponent in the US Congress to Washington's role in the fighting, said in a statement.
Kucinich said that NATO forces had flouted UN Security Council resolutions in acting as "the air force for the rebels, who could not have succeeded but for NATO's attacks" and had "illegally pursued regime change."

Great Manmade River-Libya

The water project as it is depicted on the Libya 20 Dinar note.





















The Great Manmade River infrastructure is being bombed by NATO, also known as France-United Kingdom-United States [also known as F.U.K.U.S.]






Great Manmade River Authority:
official website

Debt vs GDP

[click on the chart to make it larger]

Investors Can’t Resell

Anemic demand from owner-occupant homebuyers has forced investors to rent out about half of the homes they purchase — as opposed to renovating and flipping the properties.
Investor purchases of homes continued to decline for the third month in a row in July as investors were forced to adapt to new business models, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.

Drudge Report:

STILL STANDING

SILVER

GOLD

Are You Ready? The Government Doesn't Give A Damn

Drill that into your head folks: The government doesn't get it, exactly as they didn't get it in early 2008.

There is no way to avoid what's coming. We have added roughly $4.5 trillion in debt to the Federal balance sheet trying to paper it over and have failed. Even the "good" banks like JP Morgan and Goldman are failing to make progress. The poorer ones such as Citibank, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America are seeing their market prices collapse. The XLF, the composite of the large banks, is back to where it was in the summer of 2009. Should it break below these levels it is likely going for the spring 2009 lows.

All the fraudulent accounting games, shifting Granny's earnings on her CDs to the banks through zero-interest rates and money printing have been used up as policy tools. There are few if any weapons left in the arsenal to combat what is coming.

This is where we are, and where we're going.

Grocery union vote backs strike at Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons

Los Angeles Times blog:

Members of a union that represents 62,000 grocery workers at Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons supermarkets in Southern California voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if an agreement on a new contract can't be reached.

The strike authorization won the backing of more than 90% of the United Food and Commercial Workers members who voted, easily more than the two-thirds majority required, the union said.

Vietnam stops anti-China protesters, arrests are made

It was the 11th anti-China rally in an unprecedented series of public protests that have taken place nearly every Sunday since early June against what Vietnamese see as China's violations of their country's sovereignty in the South China Sea.

Libyans retake industrial part of Brega, rebels retreat

Sunday, August 21, 2011 - 04:36 - Libya
Amid intensive shelling Libya's rebels said on Saturday they had retreated from the industrial section of the strategic oil port of Brega, a day after capturing it from Gadaffi's military.

In an indication of the challenge still facing the rebels, military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Bani told reporters in Benghazi that his troops fell back after claiming control in the eastern oil port, losing the industrial section to Gadhafi's forces.

liveblog

Confident investors line up to join the rush in India to buy gold

Indian gold traders are reporting surprising demand for the precious metal, despite its recent jump in price to a record-breaking high exceeding 26,000 rupees per 10 grams.

Healthy sale volumes are being driven not so much by shoppers preparing for the October-to-December wedding and Hindu festival season, but by a keen class of investors who view the metal as a hedge against currency fluctuations, political instability and the economic uncertainty engulfing global financial markets.

The magic allure of gold

Tunisia military battles unknown forces

Overnight fighting of unknown forces and Tunisian military in central village of Douz.

Story developing.

GOLD

Venezuela squeezes gold, could create bullish sentiment

Bank of America Cutting 3,500 Jobs

The Atlantic Wire

Bank of America will eliminate 3,500 jobs in the months leading up to Christmas as the company is looking to cut costs and restructure, The Wall Street Journal reports. Some employees have already been notified, but the bulk of the layoffs are pending. The layoffs are spread across different departments, "including investment banking and trading, and the cuts are expected to be completed by the end of September.

GOLD

Venezuela want to move reserves from "imperialist" vaults

Financial Times blog

has billions of dollars of foreign reserves stashed away in banks under the control of “imperialist” regimes.

Worrying that its foreign assets are in danger of being frozen one day, as has happened to Libya, the government is allegedly planning to shift its international reserves to banks in “friendly” countries – namely China, Russia and Brazil.

Wall Street Journal

Zerohedge commentary on above WSJ article:

As the WSJ reported earlier, "The Bank of England recently received a request from the Venezuelan government about transferring the 99 tons of gold Venezuela holds in the bank back to Venezuela, said a person familiar with the matter. A spokesman from the Bank of England declined to comment whether Venezuela had any gold on deposit at the bank." That's great, but not really a gamechanger. After all the BOE should have said gold. What could well be a gamechanger is that according to an update from Bloomberg, Venezuela has gold with, you guessed it, JP Morgan, Barclays, and Bank Of Nova Scotia.

As most know, JPM is one of the 5 vault banks. The fun begins if Chavez demands physical delivery of more than 10.6 tons of physical because as today's CME update of metal depository statistics, JPM only has 338,303 ounces of registered gold in storage. Or roughly 10.6 tons. A modest deposit of this size would cause some serious white hair at JPM as the bank scrambles to find the replacement gold, which has already been pledged about 100 times across the various paper markets.

Keep an eye on gold in the illiquid after hour market. The overdue scramble for delivery may be about to begin.

Another blog

Tunis hosts Libya talks

Agence France-Presse Tunis, August 15, 2011

UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon's envoy to Libya flew into Tunis on Monday, saying he would be joining talks between rebels and the government of embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi. Former Jordanian foreign minister Abdul Ilah al-Khatib said negotiations on Libya's future would be taking place in a hotel in the Tunis suburbs.
Earlier, sources close to Tunisian security services said representatives of the two warring sides had met in Djerba, near the Tunisian-Libyan border. Libyan health minister Ahmed Hijazi and social affairs minister Ibrahim Cherif stayed in Djerba on Sunday, where they were joined by foreign minister Abdelati Obeidi, the national TAP news agency said.

Negotiations were under way with "several other foreign parties", the agency added, without giving details of the content of the talks.

A reliable source said an envoy of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a Gaddafi ally, was also present.

Ban on Thursday reaffirmed "his strongly held belief that there can be no military solution to the Libyan crisis. "A ceasefire that is linked to a political process which would meet the aspirations of the Libyan people is the only viable means to achieving peace and security in Libya."

He urged Gaddafi and the rebels "to immediately engage" with Khatib, and "respond concretely and positively to the ideas presented to them, in order to end the bloodshed in the country."

Khatib has spent months shuttling between Tripoli and the rebel base at Benghazi trying to start ceasefire talks between the Gaddafi regime and the rebels' governing council.

Note from blog editor: I applaud the former Jordan foreign minister Abdul Ilah al-Khatib for his service and bravery. It is men like him that help humanity.

Libya: What is really happening?

In the western press:
Ex-Gaddafi colonel says regime crumbling

Rebels encircle Tripoli

"Panetta says Qaddafis days are numbered"

But press from other parts of the world:

TRIPOLI, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have declared victory in the stronghold of Misrata

Gadaffi supporters 'retake Misrata'
Tuesday 16 August 2011

Libya: NATO is getting desperate, Misratah liberated from NATO/terrorists
16.08.2011

Libyan loyalists say Misrata is liberated

By Lizzie Phelan (16-8-2011)

While the journalists suffering from cabin fever in Tripoli’s Rixos hotel, publish their dreams that imperialism’s lackies (the rebels/rats "tebels") have taken Zawiya, Ghuriyan and Sorman, they are ignoring a decisive moment in the crisis.

That is the liberation of the hitherto rebel-held area of Misratah. Last night the Libyan army moved into the centre of the city and now the rebels are trapped between Misratah and Tawergha. 75 per cent of the city has been secured including the port, which was a lifeline for the rebels to receive shipments of arms and other supplies, as well as being a key transport route for them.

This was confirmed today by government spokesman Dr Moussa Ibrahim and at a press conference by tribal leaders of up to 200 Libyan tribes. This includes the leaders of four of the largest Libyan tribes which make up half the Libyan population: Wafalla, Tarhouna, Zlitan, Washafana. They have all given the allegiance of their tribes to the leader Muammar Gaddafi.

This is pretty cheeky stuff from NATO:
NATO Strongly Condemns Use Of Scud Missile By Qadhafi Forces

Who has been bombing Tripoli and killed civilians?

U.S., U.K., NATO Bombing Libya Every Half Hour

8 June 2011 A spokesman for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime said missiles struck a cluster of farm buildings in the village of Majar.

BART protests: Popular uprising starts to show up in US

Cnet news

Today Is The 40th Anniversary Of Nixon Ending Gold Standard And Creating Modern Fiat Monetary System

Zerohedge

This was one of the most important decisions in modern financial, economic and monetary history and is a seminal moment in the creation of the global debt crisis confronting the U.S., Europe and the world today.

Riots in southwest China

Reuters

The protest in Qianxi County, Guizhou province, was the latest of thousands of brief, local riots and demonstrations that happen in China every year, and like many recent outbreaks this one pitted residents against "urban administration" officials charged with enforcing law and order.

A "clash broke out between urban administration officials and the owner of an illegally parked vehicle, drawing in thousands of onlookers and sparking incidents of crowds smashing law enforcement vehicles and blocking roads," the website of China National Radio (cds.cnr.cn) reported on Friday.

Chile: Student protests turn into riot

Guardian

Israel protests continue

Globe and Mail

Not even reported in the US mainstream press.

UK riots: Birmingham, Liverpool

Daily Mail




Boy runs with looted wine from Sainsbury's in Manchester

Swiss Franc update:

OK Folks:
Anybody that takes a look at my posts knows that I follow the strengthening of the Swiss Franc, but I will tell you right now, I was stunned when I checked CHFUSD today
WOW:

1 CHF = 1.3959 USD +0.08146 (6.197%)
Aug 9, 3:00PM GMT+00:00

There is a major flight to safety going on!

California tax revenue plunges in July

California’s tax revenues plummeted in July, falling more than 10% below expectations.

Londoners clean up

#riotcleanup on Twitter






Clapham Junction residents join together to clean up their community

Swiss Franc update:

1 CHF = 1.3259 USD +0.01150 (0.875%)
Aug 9, 3:00PM GMT+00:00

London riot update: Third night; Hackney, Croydon, Camden, Woolrich, Bethnal Green

London burns at hands of the mob as the PM finally flies home: Gangs armed with petrol bombs and poles on THIRD night of riots and cynical looting
Prime Minister David Cameron arrives back from holiday for emergency meeting at 9am
West Ham and Charlton postpone matches as police urge football clubs to cancel London fixtures
Ballistics report on shooting of Mark Duggan expected today from Independent Police Complaints Commission
Serious violence overnight in Hackney, Croydon, Peckham and Ealing
Unrest reported in Deptford, Camden, Kensington, Lewisham, Bethnal Green and Woolwich
Three arrested of suspicion of attempted murder of police officer in early hours
Copy-cat riots reported in Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool
Some residents forced to evacuate their homes in Clapham Junction and Hackney
Metropolitan Police use armoured vehicles to push back 150 rioters in Lavender Hill, Clapham
1,700 officers drafted in from 12 other forces
334 people arrested and 69 charged

Daily Mail

GOLD update

Korea exchange temporarily halts Kosdaq trading

SEOUL -(MarketWatch)- Trading on South Korea's Kosdaq market has been temporarily halted for 20 minutes following steep falls on the local stock market, the Korea Exchange, or KRX, said Tuesday.

Trading will resume around 0201 GMT, a KRX spokesman said by phone.

Earlier in the day, program trading on the Kospi market was halted for five minutes from 0019 GMT to 0024 GMT.

As of 0147 GMT, the Kospi was down 7.2% at 1734.33.

GOLD

Swiss Franc update:

1 CHF = 1.3226 USD +0.01196 (0.912%)
Aug 8, 3:00PM GMT+00:00

Internet public market newcomers getting crushed in sell-off

Internet stocks hit hard.

Rice surges on revived Japan rice trading on Tokyo Grain Exchange

Japan revived its historic rice futures trade on Monday after 72 years

Bloomberg via Zerohedge"
Japan Rice Futures Surge 40%, Trigger Circuit Breaker

GOLD

Swiss Franc update:

1 CHF = 1.3142 USD +0.00361 (0.276%)
Aug 8, 11:00AM GMT+00:00

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange plunges on U.S. credit downgrade

TA-25 benchmark index -7 percent on Sunday to 1,074.27

JPost

Israel protests in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, other cities

Tel Aviv
Guardian

An estimated 300,000 people took to the streets on Saturday to press their demands for social justice and lower living costs in the largest demonstrations over social issues ever seen in the country. Despite scepticism that turnout could surpass previous events, almost twice as many people joined marches in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other towns and cities.

Up to 250,000 people marched through Tel Aviv to Israel's military headquarters on Saturday, causing major traffic diversions until the early hours.

One sign, in Hebrew and Arabic, read "Egypt is here".

London: Tottenham neighborhood sees blowback reaction to police

Did rock-throwing teenage girl's 'beating' by police spark London riots? Pictures that show how Tottenham turned into a war zone

Burning building (Carpetright store at corner of High Road and Lansdowne Road, Tottenham.



Daily Mail

Saudi market plunges on Saturday 5.4%

Telegraph

The Tadawul All-Shares Index closed down 350.43 points 6,073.44 as all shares tumbled following a tumultous week for global markets which was capped by Standard & Poor's cutting the US credit rating over its $14.3 trillion deficit and debt.
"The S&P rating and problems in Europe... have scared investors," said financial analyst Abdulwahab Abu Dahesh.

Saudi market crash raises fears over domino effect in the GCC

The Tadawul bourse is the largest GCC market, other equity exchanges in the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman are feared not to be able to buck the Saudi downtrend when they re-open trading after the weekend on Sunday.

G20 crisis conference call Sunday

reuters

Fears of a global recession have increased in the wake of this week's sell-off in financial markets and Standard & Poor's decision to cut the U.S. long-term credit rating for the first time.

US sovereign credit rating lowered to AA+

from S&P statement:

We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to 'AA+' from 'AAA' and affirmed the 'A-1+' short-term rating.

Outlook

The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. As our downside alternate fiscal scenario illustrates, a higher public debt trajectory than we currently
assume could lead us to lower the long-term rating again.

Swiss Franc update:

1 CHF = 1.3074 USD +0.00798 (0.614%)
Aug 5, 3:00PM GMT+00:00

Flight to safety continues.

Lira Tumbles as Market ‘Baffled’ by Turkey’s Shock Rate Cut

Turkey’s lira tumbled toward the weakest close against the dollar in more than two years after the central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate by a half point to a record. Stocks fell the most in five months.
The lira lost as much as 2.7 percent and was down 2.4 percent at 1.7357 as of 5:37 p.m. in Istanbul. A close at that level would be the lowest since March 2009. The ISE National 100 Index (XU100) of shares retreated for a fifth day, losing 3.2 percent lower to 59,325.99.

Policy makers reduced the one-week repo rate to 5.75 percent to help shield the economy from the effect of Europe’s debt crisis and slowing growth in the U.S.

Gold down on raising cash, meeting margin calls

Forbes blog

My opinion is that this is a time to take advantage of this lower gold and silver prices before monetization drives price up. This may be a rare opportunity.

GOLD

Aug. 4, 2011, 10:22 a.m. EDT
Gold futures tack on as much as $16 an ounce