The euro is the first currency that has not only SEVERED ITS LINK to gold, but also its link to the nation-state, said the late European Central Bank president Wim Duisenberg on 9 May 2002. (1)

Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, a board member of the same ECB, said yesterday, 06 October 2009, that China for one needs to bite bullet. “I think the best way is that China starts adopting its own monetary policy and DETACH itself from the Fed’s policy.”  (2)

Ivo Cerckel
honestmoney@maktoob.com
http://twitter.com/ivocerckel/

NOTES

(1)
International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen for 2002
Acceptance speech by Dr. Willem F. Duisenberg, President of the European Central Bank, Aachen, 9 May 2002
http://www.ecb.eu/press/key/date/2002/html/sp020509.en.html

(2)
China calls time on dollar hegemony
You can date the end of dollar hegemony from China’s decision last month to sell its first batch of sovereign bonds in Chinese yuan to foreigners.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Published: 7:33PM BST 06 Oct 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/6266790/China-calls-time-on-dollar-hegemony.html

Exclusive report by Robert Fisk

The demise of the dollar

In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading

By Robert Fisk
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-demise-of-the-dollar-1798175.html
SNIP
The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold
UNSNIP

Ivo Cerckel
honestmoney@maktoob.com
http://twitter.com/ivocerckel/

And the joke continues …

Whereas the Gulf Co-operation Council wants a strong and high value single currency,
the Group of Seven industrialised guv’mints wants China to continue to be committed to move to a more flexible exchange rate

GCC nations to hold poll for naming new currency
October 04, 2009
http://www.business24-7.ae/Articles/2009/10/Pages/03102009/10042009_1aea296348564336bda538cae2180ec4.aspx
SNIP
“As a result, there is a general tendency now to name the currency either dinar or riyal, which are two common names of currency in the region… but according to observers, the dinar is a stronger candidate because the founders want a name of a currency which is psychologically associated with the minds of the citizens as a strong and high value currency,” a Saudi Arabian newspaper reported yesterday.

G7 welcomes China’s backing for a flexible currency
By Krishna Guha in Istanbul
Published: October 3 2009 18:15 | Last updated: October 3 2009 18:15
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/82dcb54c-b031-11de-b78c-00144feabdc0.html
 
G7 warns of excess volatility on currency markets
Arab News newspaper, Sunday 4 October 2009 (15 Shawwal 1430) 
Agencies
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=6§ion=0&article=127042&d=4&m=10&y=2009 
SNIPS
ISTANBUL: G7 finance chiefs on Saturday warned “excess volatility” on currency markets was hurting economic stability and said a more flexible exchange rate in China would promote world economic growth.
+
European finance ministers put pressure on the United States this week ahead of the talks to defend the dollar, which has weakened considerably as a tentative global economic recovery has taken shape. The G7 finance chiefs also stressed the importance of China’s policy.
“We welcome China’s continued commitment to move to a more flexible exchange rate, which should lead to continued appreciation of the renminbi in effective terms and help promote more balanced growth in China and in the world economy.”
UNSNIP

In his latest move, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, on Friday in Istanbul, at  the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, reiterated his criticism of China’s “undervalued” currency and he wanted currencies to “rebalance”
(IMF chief renews call for currency reform
By Chris Giles and Krishna Guha in Istanbul
Published: October 2 2009 13:21 | Last updated: October 2 2009 13:21
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ae08da42-af47-11de-ba1c-00144feabdc0.html

Now on Saturday.
G7 finance chiefs warned “EXCESS VOLATILITY” on currency markets was hurting economic stability and said a MORE FLEXIBLE exchange rate in China would promote world economic growth,
says the Arab News newspaper article I quoted above  this Sunday morning

Does enhanced flexibility not lead to more volatility?

What is the point I am missing?

There is no point?

The issuer of a currency needs reserves in order to determine the value of that currency. A distinction should be made between the gold (hiding in oil – since oil is the only commodity that is large enough for gold to hide in, gold is hiding in there) reserves and the forex (foreign exchange) reserves of the issuer of the currency. Forex reserves consisting of worthless paper money can only possibly be used for intervention on forex markets. Such reserves are worthless, no, useless, to determine the value of a currency. Only gold (hiding in oil) reserves can determine the value of a currency.

A Lex-column “The myth of rebalancing” in this week-end’s Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3/8fbb4db4-af2d-11de-ba1c-00144feabdc0.html
says however that we have only free-floating currencies and manipulated currencies.
In either case, the reserves of the central bank are irrelevant to determine the value of the currency.

Against what should the currencies rebalance?

Against each other?

None of the banks on this planet matches maturities, none applies the lesson its managers should have been taught in college finance classes, the lesson of matching one year loans to one year deposits and so on.

All banks on this planet are thus illiquid banks and they should be liquidated because they are fraudulent.

And the joke continues …

Ivo Cerckel
honestmoney@maktoob.com
http://twitter.com/ivocerckel/

This guy seems to have been to school with thalidomide babies born (in the USA) before 1957.

FinallyFred’s Journal – MedHelp
Journal Entry 12/11/08
http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/126275
SNIP
In the 1940s and 50s, “thalidomide was a drug used regulaarly  in the treatment of leprosy. Thalidomide was also prescribed to expectant mothers to treat morning sickness, anxiety, and insomnia. A DECADE later, the Food and Drug Administration took the drug off the market after more than 10,000 babies exposed to thalidomide in the womb were born with severe adverse thalidomide birth defects including serious malformations and limb deformities.   I am old enough to have had some of those people in my school and it was SAD SAD SAD.  That stuff was horrible, yet after seeing babies born without arms, legs, etc. -   it took the FDA over a decade to pull it from the market!   UNSNIP

Ivo Cerckel
honestmoney@maktoob.com
http://twitter.com/ivocerckel/

… jusqu’au jour où le premier monstre thalidomide réapparaitra.

Ici au tiers monde, ils réapparaissent déjà

PARIS (©AFP / 02 octobre 2009 14h59)
Le thalidomide, associé dans les années 50 à de graves malformations congénitales, sera de nouveau commercialisé en France à partir du 19 octobre sous le nom Thalidomide Celgene, pour le traitement d’une forme rare de cancer, le myélome multiple, a annoncé l’agence du médicament (Afssap).
(Retour très encadré du thalidomide sur le marché du médicament 
http://www.romandie.com/infos/news2/091002125911.4l6sw89t.asp

“Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for …”
(John Lennon)
+
Every mother knows that her child should not play with a toy the child does not understand. The mechanism of the biological action of thalidomide is still being debated.
Human nature is constituted as such that some individuals who have inside knowledge about the effects of thalidomide will ‘always’ deliberately and unnoticeably cause the serious harm thalidomide can ‘so easily’ cause. They do that precisely because the damage is so serious to the mother and to the child and because they can do that so easily and without being noticed. It may be that ‘in clinical trials’, thalidomide is shown to be effective against many things. But ‘in real life’, it is given to unsuspecting girls. This can be reconciled with John Lennon if one remembers that thalidomide was created by the Nazis.
Ivo Cerckel, 30 June  2009
http://bphouse.com/honest_money/human-testing/

Wir haben es nicht gewußt …

Ivo Cerckel
honestmoney@maktoob.com
http://twitter.com/ivocerckel/

Banque Cantonale de Genève mismanagement in 1990s: ready for trial but lawyers angry at leak
http://genevalunch.com/2009/10/01/banque
SNIPS
Update 14:00  Geneva, Switzerland (GenevLunch) – Geneva’s public prosecutor, Daniel Zapelli, has now prepared his case against the key people responsible for the collapse of Geneva’s cantonal bank (BCGE), reported the Tribune de Genève 1 October. The article gives a detailed account of the bank’s scandal 10 years ago, based on Zapelli’s 600-page indictment, which the Tribune obtained.
+
Three top bank officials and two outside auditors from Ernst & Young systematically massaged the accounts from 1996 to 1998, and lied to the board of directors, all the while cashing in big bonuses, according to today’s report in the Tribune.
UNSNIP

Yes, it’s easy for Geneva’s public prosecutor, Daniel Zapelli, to indict three top bank officials and two outside auditors from Ernst & Young.

Et ils touchaient des bonus…,
And they cashed in on bonuses …,
subtitles the La Tribune de Genève article. quoted by Geneva Lunch
http://www.tdg.ch/geneve/actu/bcge-600-pages-accablent-dirigeants-2009-09-30

Sounds familiar these days!

How come banking is the only industry where executives can overpay themselves and their shareholders?

Can you spell “irredeemable, at least unbacked, paper money” and “fractional-reserve banking”?

From The Times
September 30, 2009
Gordon Brown spells out hardline plan to disqualify irresponsible bankers
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6854561.ece

What if the Swiss Commission fédérale des banques (CFB) started by responsibilising central banksters ?

irredeemable digital liquidity & fractional-reserve banking are fraudulent – Let the system collapse now!
ECB attacks oil producers
Posted by Ivo Cerckel on December 6th, 2008
http://bphouse.com/honest_money/worthless-digital-liquidity-and-fractional-reserve-banking-are-fraudulent-%e2%80%93-let-the-system-collapse-now/

Ivo Cerckel
honestmoney@maktoob.com
http://twitter.com/ivocerckel/