A court of appeal in Brussels, Belgium, says that banks should consult shareholders before agreeing to being carved up. (1)

The court dares not challenge fractional-reserve banking.

The court thereby recognises that under no circumstances, it will protect depositors.

The court will only protect banksters and their shareholders.
The court will only promote usury, to the benefit of the banksters’ shareholders.

The court allows banksters to continue creating money out of thin air through fractional-reserve banking, just like the court’s Masters, the government of Belgium, can create money out of thin air through the use of the printing press.

Yes, Belgium, the court’s Masters, is a member of the European Monetary Union. So only the European Central Bank (ECB) can print money in Belgium.

But ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet says this morning in the Financial Times that the ECB will continue its Ponzi scheme. (2)

The Brussels court of appeal agrees.

To repeat:
Fractional-reserve banking
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking
SNIP
Fractional-reserve banking is the banking practice in which banks are required to keep only a fraction of their deposits in reserve with the choice of lending out the remainder while maintaining the obligation to redeem all deposits upon demand. This practice is UNIVERSAL in modern banking.

Criticism of fractional-reserve banking
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Debt-based monetary system)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt-based_monetary_system
SNIPS
Some critics of fractional reserve banking and the related monetary system may refer to it by the political term debt-based monetary system
+
Critics of fractional reserve usually note that the banking system “creates money out of nothing”. The insight that banks “create money by extending loans” is not new, and the subject is covered in most introductory economics textbooks and many popular reference works

Ivo Cerckel
Siquijor, 15 December 2008

NOTES

(1)
Belgium vows to press on with Fortis sale
By Michael Steen in Amsterdam
Published: December 14 2008 18:10 | Last updated: December 14 2008 18:10
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b5046408-ca08-11dd-93e5-000077b07658.html
SNIP
The Belgian government said on Sunday it was “determined” to press ahead with the €14.5bn ($19.4bn) sale of Fortis to BNP Paribas, in spite of a surprise court ruling that freezes the transfer of a majority stake to the French bank.
In a decision late on Friday, that shocked political and business circles, the Brussels Court of Appeal found in favour of a group of shareholders seeking to block the carve-up of Fortis.
It said shareholders should be consulted on management decisions in October that led to the nationalisation of Fortis in the Netherlands and the sale of its Belgian operations to BNP Paribas.

(2)
Trichet’s Ponzi scheme
December 15th, 2008 by Ivo Cerckel
http://bphouse.com/honest_money/2008/12/15/trichet%E2%80%99s-ponzi-scheme/
If the link does not work, try copy and paste it in your browser.

Bernard Madoff , the former Nasdaq chairman who was arrested last week for allegedly running the biggest USA dollar Ponzi scheme of all time, immediately admitted to prosecutors that his was a Ponzi scheme. (1)

Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central bank, does not.

Trichet only mumbles about the need for reflection on the fragility, not only of global finance but of the global economy itself.  (2)

Granted, if Trichet is prepared to question unbacked paper money, then he is not intellectually dishonest.

The Ponzi scheme began with a vengeance on 15 August 1971, when USA president Richard Nixon ended the remnants of the gold standard, and unleashed entirely discretionary monetary policy on the world. (3)

Ivo Cerckel
Siquijor, 15 December 2008

NOTES

(1)
HSBC joins victims of Madoff’s alleged fraud
By Francesco Guerrera and Henny Sender in New York and Victor Mallet in Madrid
Published: December 14 2008 23:24 | Last updated: December 14 2008 23:24
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5446156e-ca1f-11dd-93e5-000077b07658.html
SNIP
Prosecutors alleged that he said his operations were “just one big lie” and “basically a giant Ponzi scheme” – a structure where investment managers pay old investors with money raised from new investors to cover their losses.

(2)
Trichet warns on fiscal indiscipline
By Ralph Atkins and Lionel Barber in Frankfurt
Published: December 14 2008 23:31 | Last updated: December 14 2008 23:31
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/83c0905c-ca16-11dd-93e5-000077b07658.html
SNIP
Mr  Trichet argues that the global financial market crisis has posed a serious threat to industrialised economies. “We cannot afford in future to put the concept of the market economy at risk as we did . . . The fragility, not only of global finance but of the global economy itself, is something that we should reflect on.”

(3)
December 13, 2008
The Age of Madoff
Posted by Lew Rockwell at December 13, 2008 01:36 PM
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/024400.html