Economic Totalitarianism

[trollercoaster]

King nigger spends $85 million on holidays: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article123335079.html

[1714961714]

1714961714

[1714961714]

1714961714

[OROBTC]

...

I had an idea re using "steganography" (an encryption technique that uses pictures (changed pixels) to hide information there in an image) along with Bitcoin to make the whole BTC process more private.

One example might be to put a Public Key and a Private Key encoded there in the image (say a picture of the Grand Canyon), then send it on to the lucky recipient who could then retrieve the BTC within.

I throw this idea out to the community gratis as it is not even "half-baked", and I am completely unable to advance this idea on my own.  I get some of my most interesting ideas in the shower, where this one was born.

I'd be interested in the general topic of using steganography to hide information as well.

[minor-transgression]

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
This is the opening line of "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, published 1813.

Some years earlier, in 1779 the Smethwick steam engine was designed and brought into
service by James Watt. This event brought a new phase of the Industrial Revolution,
and arguably leading to the progressive reduction in slavery within the British
Empire, and its eventual abolition in 1833.

Thus, unlike the civilisations of the Roman Empire and the Democracy of Athens,
slavery would not have figured prominently in the life of Jane Austen, the slaves
providing the "good fortunes" were a safe distance away in the West Indies and other
colonies, well away from British polite society and the creative cauldron of
its technological advances. 
 
This veneer of civilisation had gradually been applied beginning three centuries earlier
when tribal clan wars had met with ruthless Tudor efficiency. Prior to that period,
cattle-raiding of one clan by another, or spring campaigns and autumn campaigns by
Norsemen on settled peaceful communities wove a thread of violence through everyday
life. By the early 1800's murder for profit was the business of governments, and if they
went about their business with a cheerful efficiency, it was still constrained by the
recognised rules of warfare. It would be a mistake though, to think that below the
veneer very much has changed.

Today, well, there's nothing quite like computers for improving efficiency. Governments
love them, along with files, hightec weapons and lists. Especially lists. Governments
have lists for everything, and some include people to be murdered. Democracies and
Dictatorships just go about it a little differently. For some background material on
how the USA goes about this see this: "Where is Eric Braverman Day 71"
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7T7o5BhARTY

The problems today are of the real world leaking into everyday western consciousness.
The carefully constructed theme of the bad guys are over there, not over here then begins
to break down. That tends to cause further problems with kill lists, because the killing
comes closer to home, and because the people start thinking for themselves.

Think of a kill list as a pyramid. At the very top are a very few people with the knowledge,
skills, resources and opportunities to directly damage the top politicians and civil
servants. Further down are many more people with lesser skills, resources and motivation. 
Broadening and deepening the base transfers exponentially more people onto the kill list.

Most people, consciously or unconsciously have trained themselves to avoid actions that
might get their identity moved closer to a kill list, but sometimes the moral imperatives
are just too great. The real challenge then arises of what do you tell your family and friends
about how the world is run.

Fortunately the world of Jane Austen still persists. Provided that slavery, inequality and
oppression are kept out of sight of everyday western life, our governments are freed
to murder with little consequence. If somebody dies, they probably deserved it and it's a
price worth paying to keep "us" safe. They see no contradiction with "If you have nothing
to hide, you have nothing to fear" and are content to advantage themselves of a single
man with a good fortune without considering how the fortune came into being.

I suspect that world is about to change, and soon. If or when that happens any form
of anonymity will be greatly sought after.

[minor-transgression]

"Never give a sucker an even break" Film title 1941

I made a couple of remarks on another thread about economics and game theory.
Thinking about it, those remarks tossed pretty much every piece of economic
theory post Adam Smith into the shredder. The result? ..... Crickets.

Nobody said "You're Wrong!" and nobody seemed to suffer a panic attack. Ho hum.

At the risk of repeating myself, today's global economy finds itself in a kind of 
Prisoner's Dilemma. Deals between agents are completed because each benefits from
the transaction. Of four possible outcomes, the win-win result satisfies both
parties. Almost all of history records growth in economies, a series of win-win
outcomes. Win-lose outcomes imply duress on the losing party.

It's possible to model less benign economics, and as a general comment, they are
unstable. Note that even benign economies are unstable, hence it's difficult to
clarify the difference. But game theory explains it succinctly.

It's called the zero-sum game. For someone to win, someone else has to lose.
And that's a whole new way of thinking about the world. It also explains much
of the dysfunctional behavior visible today, including the drop in international
world trade. At a personal level, if you want to win on a trade, make sure that
there's a sucker on the other side.

That means playing with a marked deck, it means insider trading, it means CEO's
buying stock with cheap credit instead of investing in the future of the business.
It means passing legislation and signing treaties to disadvantage competitors. If
they can be jailed and assets forfeited so much the better. Capiche?

This is depression economics, where it's better to hold onto your resources than to
buy or sell. Instead of a competitive advantage, you're looking for a sucker.

But enough with the drama, what about the facts? Is it enough to know this has been
brought about by a combination of Central Bank incompetence and by resource
depletion? Because when it comes down to supposed hard facts like growth, things
get kinda slippery. Even basic nominal GDP is suspect, see Ireland's figures for
the glaring example. After that, factor in CPI to calculate real GDP. So, expect to
wait a while, say five of ten years for the revisions and internal contradictions
to be resolved. For a critique on the calculation on US CPI see this:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-14/mad-hell
"Even worse, while the rate of health care inflation is being understated at the individual premium level shown above, it's also wildly understated in the larger inflation statistic used to level-set everything from cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) to pay raises across the country."

Comments? I mean, I haven't seen a rush to contradict any of the mainstream
economists, or to inform them they're the equivalent of the buggy whip, so
I assume everybody's happy with the Emperor's New Clothes, to mix metaphors.

And, yes, hang onto your Bitcoin. An Even Break is already a Collector's Item.

PS: Once you get the idea of a zero sum game into your head, it emerges everywhere,
with the Brexit negotiations as only one example. I'd suggest taking some time to
let this line of thought percolate into your way of thinking. That way you will pick up
on the constant references to unfair advantage in our current way of living

[OROBTC]

...

minor-transgression wrote (snip of just above):

"This is depression economics, where it's better to hold onto your resources than to
buy or sell."

Your whole post was eye-opening.  If we are indeed in a new era where our economy (most of our economies) are now Zero Sum Games, than that is indeed fundamentally bad news.

And we may be in such an era of Zero Sum.  I am working my way through a new book by Marc Levinson (An Extraordinary Time) which presents his case for a return to the very slow growth throughout most of history.  Overly briefly (and I have not finished the book), he writes that the conditions of the 1946 - 1973 boom have changed, in large part (but not completely, there are other bad omens too) due to energy.

* * *

Buying and HODLing of gold and BTC looks like an even better idea.

[minor-transgression]

@OROBTC - thanks - hopefully you get fewer sleepless nights than I re this.

[minor-transgression]

"All my possessions for a moment of time" attributed to Queen Elizabeth I
near the time of her death in 1603.

Almost 300 years later, in 1901, Queen Victoria died. Much had changed.
Through the Royal Navy and its control of the Sea-Lanes, the British
Empire controlled "seventeen-twentieths of the world's surface." [1][2]

Such dominance does not come about by accident, and by 1912, forecasts
of world conflict were published, gigantic in scale, "one war if the
Empire is destroyed, a series if it is victorious." [1][2]

By this certain knowledge a series of events were put in train, as each
Faction, Nation, and Sector sought to place itself to be if not advantaged
in the outcomes, at worst to suffer no loss. Chief among these concerns were
the design and manufacture of armaments and the flow of funds necessary to
finance the coming wars.

Near-total control of the world is a rare enough occurrence to suggest a
brief look at the management structure:
A Royal Family, as the public face
The City of London,  providing financial management
The Imperial Civil Service, Parliament, and the Armed Services
Corporate industries
the People.

Of these, the balance of power between the City, The Government, and
the Corporations drove the growth of Empire. While the UK growth rates fell
in the late 19th century they were still well above any historical
precedent prior to the industrial revolution.

Globally, the balance of power was beginning to move toward Germany and
toward the United States of America as these countries sought new markets
for their produce, and to defend their ability to export and to import.

Thus in 1901, when Queen Victoria died, the network of alliances and
Treaties became stressed. First the USA, and by then Germany, exceeded
the GDP of the United Kingdom. The result was a race to build the biggest
and most technologically advanced fleet of warships that could be afforded.

No sane person starts a war without the expectation of victory. That said,
war was a constant news item in the British Press in a steady escalation
from 1870. Much of the turmoil of this time was micromanaged by the financiers
of the City, though not always with the intent of throwing petrol on the fire.
No sane person starts a war without the expectation of financial support.

In much the same way that the beatings will continue for as long as the
Elite knows best, whatever the trigger, the Elite then has to get the
rest of the 99% to actually fight the war. The trigger for World War I
was an assassination, and some lurid propaganda "Germans bayonetted
Belgian Babies" moved things on early in 1914.

The Battle of Jutland in 1916 was, at that moment, indecisive, revealing
the prospect of a prolonged destructive conflict. How the USA came into
the war on the Allied side in 1917 is worthy of a separate story. It's
worth noting that financing the war promoted innovation and prepared the
way for breaking the link between paper money and gold. This was in part
driven by the needs of the UK and the needs of Germany for raw materials,
commodities, and finished goods of all types, and by the excess production
capacity in the USA over and above the internal needs of that Nation.

When WWI ended, France demanded and got, crushing reparations placed upon
Germany, against the advice of the other parties. The UK and France
had significant debts outstanding to the USA, some of which were
eventually written off.

The British Empire was still largely intact, but it would not hold
together much longer. The illusion of World Domination has passed to
other hands.

[1] "The Day of the Saxon" Homer Lea 1912.
[2] "The Empire of the City" E C Knuth 1945 

[minor-transgression]

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone,
'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master that's all.'
Lewis Carroll - "Through the Looking Glass"

From 1900 - 1945 the Question "Who is to be Master" brought about a series of wars,
the most memorable of these were WWI and WWII. One might suppose that domination of
seventeen-twentieths of the world's surface would ensure the rapid assimilation of
the remainder, and failure to succeed in that goal was not for want of trying. The
twenty years preceding the first World War [1] are remarkably similar to moves in a
game of Monopoly, with the City and Foreign Office moving together to gain an
advantage.

Reading the detail of these manoeuvrings one cannot help but wonder at the gulf in
understanding between the general public in the UK, the USA, and much of Europe,
and the "one man in a thousand" [1] in possession of the facts. In this respect,
control of the flow of information acts much like the control of the flow of credit,
though today's digital world makes the comparison between the two much clearer.
The two actors, the City and the UK Government, both have separate access to credit
and to data, and both compete for the sinews of control via the legal constraints
on their power. In this respect, the international routes available to finance give
banking an advantage over the UK Government when the British Empire began to dissolve.

The Constitution of the USA had a similar blind spot, being focused on a balance
between the Judiciary, the Executive and the Legislative branches of Government,
despite evidence of the dangers that Banks might pose to the Nation. These dangers
need not be pre-planned malice, but may be systemic in nature.

I will add my own thoughts to the matter - the interest accumulated on debt and the
costs of the first World War resulted in an excess of debt over the ability to pay.
The settlement at the end of that war provided a flow of gold from Germany to France,
and from France and the UK to the USA. The reparations were delayed, and France
occupied the Ruhr in 1923. " With the collapse of the German economy in 1931,
reparations were suspended for a year and in 1932 during the Lausanne Conference
they were cancelled altogether. Between 1919 and 1932, Germany paid less than 21
billion marks in reparations." After coming to power in 1933 Adolf Hitler halted
all outstanding payments. At the peak of German Hyperinflation it was said that
an ounce of gold would purchase a city block (1923).

"The fact that British capital played an important role in the great crash of the
American market in 1929 seems beyond question." [1p72]

February 13 1933 President Hoover farewell address "If Europe wants us to cut down
war debts [about twenty billion] she will have to go back on gold standard and
stabilise her currency. Otherwise we will have to go off the gold standard and
depreciate our currency in this destructive trade war." [3]

"The governments of Britain, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania
were unable to make full war debt payments to the United States and offered symbolic
 token payments instead. The global depression undermined these countries' ability
to meet their debt obligation. Congress planned action to punish governments which
reneged on their war debts to the U.S." [2] June 1933

Nov 1933 US recognises USSR - Soviets will "consider" repayment of war and earlier debts.   

America devalues its currency - the $ now buys 40 percent less gold. 
8 Feb 1934 The US formally ends the gold standard. Americans are restricted in the
amount of gold they may own. On April 30 America's gold, some $2Bn, was moved into a
special Treasury fund to stabilise the US$ - the ESF. [4]0.48 (abstract NYT)
From that point on the US Treasury, through the ESF, controlled international finance.[4]2.50
The effect ... was "to nullify, if not to scrap, the Federal Reserve System" [4]5.30

In early 1939 the rapid expansion of Germany's economy was beginning to generate difficulties.
Hitler sacks Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, who had been appointed President of the Reichsbank
in March 1933.

On 1 March 1941 the US Treasury had $22,200,000,000 in gold - Lewiston Daily Sun [4]
some three-quarters of the world's monetary gold. The Secretary of the Treasury was
in effective control of the world's currencies, without any oversight or legal constraint,
since 1934.[6]

Mr Decarbonnel argues that the Fed did a better job of stabilising the currency than
the Treasury, based on the CPI calculations available. The merits of that argument are
what they are, but it is clear that since 1934, the decline is inexorable. see 1944
"The Fund, as created, is unsound and will increase the already grave danger of inflation." [5]5.49

[1] "The Empire of the City" E C Knuth 1945
[2]http://indiana.edu/~league/1933.htm
[3] "The Great Depression - A Diary" Benjamin Roth   
[4] "What I have been afraid to blog about the ESF and its history - part1" Eric Decarbonnel
[5] "What I have been afraid to blog about the ESF and its history - part2" Eric Decarbonnel
Note : The graph in [4] of $ purchasing power vs time 1800-present illustrates a clear trend from
1934 when the US Treasury took control. A graph showing only  1913 - present might suggest some
responsibility lies with the Federal Reserve Banks for the continuing decline of the US$, but
on the balance of probabilities, the Treasury secretariat bears responsibility for the decline.
[6] Some 17,230 Tons, though whether this includes gold held for "safekeeping" is unknown.
Rumours suggest that gold was transferred by US battleships from China to the USA in 1938. 
I am unable to confirm how much, if any. was transported.

[minor-transgression]

"Yes, but the whole point of the doomsday machine is lost if you keep it a secret!
Why didn't you tell the world?"
"It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday.
As you know, the Premier loves surprises."
        - Dr Strangelove & Russian Ambassador

Hang on to your sense of humour. You may need it.

"After the U.S. entered the war in December 1941, Secretary Morgenthau appointed
White to act as liaison between the Treasury and the State Department on all
matters bearing on foreign relations. He was also made responsible for the
Exchange Stabilization Fund." [1] The budget for the embryonic form of the CIA, the 
OSS, was also under White's control within the ESF.

Mr White was effectively in control of the world's financial system through the
Treasury's ownership of three-quarters of the world's monetary gold. He, with others
within the ESF, began planning what would later become the World Bank and the IMF. [2]

Both France and the UK exported their gold to Canada and to the USA for safekeeping
and to pay for war materials.

The Bretton Woods Conference was held in 1944. Among other things, White proposed a
system based on a gold-backed US$ as the world's reserve currency. The proposal was
attacked domestically as "a camouflaged method of lending billions of American
money abroad," and most US bankers opposed the plan. [2]5:44 Keynes also opposed the
plans, suggesting instead a self-regulating system based on an international "Bancor"
reserve system. White prevailed. With control of international finance resting in the
US$, and control of the $ resting with the Federal Reserve Banks, acting as agent for
the US Treasury, not much had changed.

The Wars ended, and treasure, including gold that Nazi Germany looted from Europe,
some $533M (1945 dollars) of gold and silver was recovered, mostly from the Merkers
Mine in Germany. [3]

Japan had a similar program called "Operation Golden Lily". Capt., later General Ed
Lansdale, briefed President Truman on the billions (1945 dollars) discovered, 1947.
Truman, on learning of the hoard, "after discussing this vast plunder with his cabinet,   
'decided to proceed with the recovery, but to keep it a State Secret'" [4]53.40

Note the difference in approach between the treasure plundered in Europe which was
eventually returned, and that plundered in Asia by Japan, from 1895 onwards, which
was not merely concealed, but given the protection of the US State.   

So, leave aside, for the moment, a multitude of probabilites on why this was done.

Logically, the place to put Secret Billions was the Treasury's ESF funds. These were
designed to operate without oversight or accountability since their inception in 1934.

"The heart and soul of covert operations" ... "provision of unvouchered funds, and the
inviolability of such funds to outside inspection" [2]6.24

Before moving on to other consequences of President Truman's decision, I will simply
point out that published US accounts since 1945 cannot be trusted. Any attempt to
model the US economy without accounting for secret activity will end in frustration.

Deceit on this scale corrodes the fabric of society. The Government, or at least an
important part of it, is no longer answerable to the democratic will of the people. 
It is also a negation of Capitalism - that each agent is equally, as far as reasonably
practicable, informed of the events taking place in the Markets. Note also, that failure
to disclose material facts may be a criminal offence. In other words, Fraud.

What may be excused as a short-term expedient is likely to result in disaster in the
longer term. Usually, the value of information declines rapidly with time, hence secrecy
can be quickly discarded. Where Secrecy conceals an ongoing and growing process of
public interest, it makes honest men into liars and criminalises honest answers. It
eventually destroys trust in the government, in this case, the US government.
This is not good if you have control the world's finances via only faith and credit.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Dexter_White
[2] "What I have been afraid to blog about the ESF and its history - part 2" Eric Decarbonnel
[3] https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1999/spring/nazi-gold-merkers-mine-treasure.html
[4] Joseph P Farrell at the Secret Space Program Conference 2014 San Mateo presentation 1
referencing "Covert Wars and Breakaway Civlisations" p137 and "Gold Warriors" p3

Keep smiling - there's more. Much, much, more :-)

[minor-transgression]

"Again, the devil taketh him up to an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all
the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things
will I give thee, if thou will fall down and worship me." Matthew Ch4

This post provides the context needed to understand "The Creature" in 1945-1949.

As soon the war in Europe finished, the "Allies" quickly became enemies.
President Truman resisted calls from his Generals for pre-emptive nuclear strikes,
in effect World War III, to prevent the Soviet Union from invading Europe.
It was a relatively easy decision for Truman, the USA had material for one bomb,
and several dozen would be needed for the attack. The content of the the
US Nuclear Arsenal was a secret the Generals did not know. [1]

Around March 1945 Allen Dulles was Swiss Director of the OSS and was negotiating
the surrender of German forces in Northern Italy. He was also negotiating with
GeneralMajor Reinhard Gehlen, head of Reich Foreign Armies East, for control of a
military spy network within the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. [2]

The budget for the entire OSS in 1945 was of the order of $50 million. [3]

With the end of the war in Europe the OSS was disbanded in October 1945. The
code-breaking resources were assigned to the War Department, and would become
the NSA. The instruction to disband was broadly interpreted to allow the construction
of a peacetime US secret service, the " Strategic Services Unit" (SSU)with the State Dept.
Responsibility for the administration of Europe was divided between the USA and the UK,
and arrangements were made to share intelligence.

It wasn't only Allen Dulles and Reinhard Gehlen that had an interest in the survival
of the SSU, others, including the Mafia and the Vatican, had invested in the network.
One might suppose that it was entirely in Gehlen's interest to promote the threat
from the USSR, including news on the development of technologically advanced weaponry.

As a guess, the initial 1946 budget for the SSU was one tenth of its wartime equivalent,
say, $5 million.

The SSU's response was to prepare stay-behind units (Gladios) as a countermeasure to
any Soviet invasion. The muscle that these politically motivated units provided would
later be directed against the growing Communist Party's ambitions in Italy.

"In 1947, the Communist Party of Italy, much admired for leading the fight against
Mussolini, was expected to win major gains in Italy's first post-war election." [4]7:41

The role that the Mafia and the Vatican played in these events is summarised here:
http://churchandstate.org.uk/2016/03/the-alliance-between-the-cia-and-the-vatican/

"Initially, Mr Dulles and Secretary of Defense James V.Forrestal solicited funds from
wealthy friends" [4] 6.52 It wasn't enough, even when reimbursed through the black budget. 
The problem of financing the SSU and its network was tackled under the Helliwell Plan.
The name implies a formal agreement between the embryonic CIA and other parties
for a share in the profits from the heroin trade between Italy and the east coast of
the USA, to be remitted into the Vatican Bank. The most likely event contributing to
this Plan was the Mob Conference in Havana, at the Hotel Nacional, December 1946.

In 1947, and coincidentally with the discovery of the Japanese War Loot, and the
decision to keep the recovery of the wealth a US State Secret, the CIA emerged under the
directive of the US National Security Act. It soon had competition in the form of the
OPC (Office of Policy Coordination) - the two were merged in 1951.

In 1950 Allen Dulles was recruited to oversee the Agency's covert operations as Deputy
Director for Plans. Perhaps his earlier experience as a lawyer in Sullivan and Cromwell,
a firm specialising in international finance legal matters, was found useful.

It's hard to be sure what was really going on, though, see this:

"Typically, in the early 1950's, the Agency dropped millions of dollars worth of gold bars,
arms, two-way radios, and Agents into Poland to support what its top officials believed
was a powerful Polish underground movement against the Soviets. In fact, Soviet agents
had wiped out the movement years before, turned key people in it into double agents, and
played the CIA for suckers. As Wiener comments, not only had five years of planning,
various agents, and millions of dollars "gone down the drain," but the "unkindest cut might
have been [the Agency's] discovery that the Poles had sent a chunk of the CIA's money to
the Communist Party of Italy." [5] 0.30

[1] See "Command and Control" by Eric Schlosser, published 2013.
[2] Joseph P Farrell at the Secret Space Program Conference 2014 San Mateo presentation 1
referencing GeneralMajor Gehlen's memoirs.
[3] CIA History Reference
[4]"What I have been afraid to blog about the ESF and its history - part 2" Eric Decarbonnel
[5]"What I have been afraid to blog about the ESF and its history - part 3" Eric Decarbonnel
referencing War behind the Iron curtain - Peter Grose [pp67-68]

[minor-transgression]

lest this appear to be an invitation for the reader to pass judgement,
I'll say that is unintended.  If, however you do not know whether to
laugh or to cry, I suggest that laughter is always the best choice.

You should also know that if someone creates a cryptocurrency which
is a real fiat-killer, it will bring with it tremendous power and
great responsibility. The owner(s) of this bitcoin v02 will face
the same moral dilemmas outlined in my earlier post.

You, as new owner(s) will immediately come into conflict with what
I will later refer to as "The Creature" - and all its vested
interests. So, be careful with your dreams. 

"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."
Karl Marx

[Hydrogen]

Lewis Mumford makes good points about economic totalitarianism.

Peasants who lived during the dark ages having 189 holidays/days off per year is a point historians and experts too often omit in comparing the past to the present.

Even in backward mining communities, as late as the sixteenth century more than half the recorded days were holidays; while for Europe as a whole, the total number of holidays, including Sunday, came to 189, a number even greater than those enjoyed by Imperial Rome. The idea that there should be no limits upon any human function is absurd: all life exists within very narrow limits of temperature, air, water or food; and the notion that money alone, or power to command the services of other men, should be free of such definite limits is an aberration of mind.

TECHNICS AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, Lewis Mumford, 1967

[tabnloz]

In 1947, and coincidentally with the discovery of the Japanese War Loot, and the
decision to keep the recovery of the wealth a US State Secret, the CIA emerged under the
directive of the US National Security Act. It soon had competition in the form of the
OPC (Office of Policy Coordination) - the two were merged in 1951.

Great posts MT.

This loot, known as The M Fund, Black Eagle Trust or Showa Trust was the combined looted wealth of SE Asia that couldn't be shipped back to Japan - as by 1944 (iirc) supply routes were blocked and the Japanese knew the war was lost. They did think, however, that they would retain the Philippines in a resulting treaty and so decided to bury the wealth in those islands, and smartly, buried underneath churches, hospitals, in deliberately torpedoed ships, and other places they believed the Allies wouldn't bomb. Usually dug out with POW labour, who were then entombed in the booby trapped structures.

Long story short, the massive amounts of gold, jewels, art and valuables recovered were used to finance the fight against communism & other political movements deemed undesirable. Billions of dollars worth back then. But the US didn't get it all. Ferdinand Marcos, redundant CIA assets, retired Japanese soldiers, treasure hunters & other shadowy military organisations also found some of the 60 odd Golden Lily sites.

One amateur treasure hunter (Rogelio Roxas) discovered loot underneath a hospital and was tortured, jailed and nearly killed by Marcos. After they were overthrown, his family sued in Hawaiian Supreme court and were initially awarded a $41 billion dollar payout. Yes, billion.

This loot, and control of it, ties together the geopolitics of the last century. Nixon's landmark visit to China. Marcos' massive wealth. The lack of repercussions for the Japanese Royalty, military and corporations. Carter disbanding CIA assets & the emergence of shadowy military groups.

edit: black eagle trust may have been Nazi war loot. unsure, will have to look it up.

[lilit]

In 1947, and coincidentally with the discovery of the Japanese War Loot, and the
decision to keep the recovery of the wealth a US State Secret, the CIA emerged under the
directive of the US National Security Act. It soon had competition in the form of the
OPC (Office of Policy Coordination) - the two were merged in 1951.

Great posts MT.

This loot, known as The M Fund, Black Eagle Trust or Showa Trust was the combined looted wealth of SE Asia that couldn't be shipped back to Japan - as by 1944 (iirc) supply routes were blocked and the Japanese knew the war was lost. They did think, however, that they would retain the Philippines in a resulting treaty and so decided to bury the wealth in those islands, and smartly, buried underneath churches, hospitals, in deliberately torpedoed ships, and other places they believed the Allies wouldn't bomb. Usually dug out with POW labour, who were then entombed in the booby trapped structures.

Long story short, the massive amounts of gold, jewels, art and valuables recovered were used to finance the fight against communism & other political movements deemed undesirable. Billions of dollars worth back then. But the US didn't get it all. Ferdinand Marcos, redundant CIA assets, retired Japanese soldiers, treasure hunters & other shadowy military organisations also found some of the 60 odd Golden Lily sites.

One amateur treasure hunter (Rogelio Roxas) discovered loot underneath a hospital and was tortured, jailed and nearly killed by Marcos. After they were overthrown, his family sued in Hawaiian Supreme court and were initially awarded a $41 billion dollar payout. Yes, billion.

This loot, and control of it, ties together the geopolitics of the last century. Nixon's landmark visit to China. Marcos' massive wealth. The lack of repercussions for the Japanese Royalty, military and corporations. Carter disbanding CIA assets & the emergence of shadowy military groups.

edit: black eagle trust may have been Nazi war loot. unsure, will have to look it up.

We do not know much about how and who financed all the political movements and the impact on international processes. You say that it became known that in the past, but how much more is happening in the world arena and it is difficult to imagine who it's finances.

[minor-transgression]

"lies, dammed lies, and government statistics"

Suppose you are US Treasury Secretary in 1947. You are in possession of more
than three-quarters of the world's monetary gold, and answerable to no-one
for the actions you take. To this responsibility is added the plundered treasure
of Asia, but this is a State Secret. If this treasure were kept hidden away, no
additional problems would be created, but circumstances dictate that some of the
money must be used to finance covert operations. What to do? (see also [2] 7.43)

The immediate requirement is for two sets of books. This is a situation where
"hidden in plain sight will not work." Within limits, the practice of keeping
two sets of books is perfectly legal. Problems occur when State Secrets must
be kept secret. For example, lying under oath is immediately a criminal offence.

To forestall such problems, immunity from prosecution gets written into job descriptions.
Thus, in some circumstances, the exercise of Economic Totalitarianism can be
deduced from the text of treaties, though the wording would apply to both "black"
budgets and to the "dark" budgets, dark in the sense of "dark matter".

The result is somewhat like finding footprints in the snow, and then trying to
deduce the size of "The Creature," its source and its destination, and hence its
purpose.

Taking the Treasury's ESF as the Source, the next downstream nexus after the Fed
was the primary dealers, the West's major banks, who then have to run dark accounts,
and have to finance dark projects operated by US Government Departments. This
introduces a further level of complexity. The managers of this money have a
strategic advantage in the money markets. Through the information asymmetry inherent
in the dark network, the projects pursued can deliver higher profits, also any
loss-making activities can be moved from dark into black budgets. [1]

The result is a large and growing mechanism of finance, unaccountable to the
public institutions of government, and largely immunised against prosecution,
but ultimately struggling to find a reason for its existence.   
 
So where might this Creature's "footprints" be found?

* Computer software : Managing this vast fortune, and providing a Management Information
System (MIS) is a bespoke requirement that cannot be made public. A far simpler route is
to copy or steal the requisite software, and to then conceal the facts than to purchase the
software and its support on the open market. Provided the source code can be secured,
the system can then be covertly modified to match, perhaps illicit, requirements.

* Company accounts : Legal provisions in Corporate accounts provide loopholes that allow
covert projects to be concealed, both financially and physically. [3]01:04:00

* Fraud : This is not the usual form of fraud. This is financial fraud planned, created
and executed by government actors, both for profit and to ruin competitors.

* Cover-ups : That giant sucking sound is the sound of Trillions being vaporized. Covering
that up is a non-trivial task.

* Paramilitary action : Untraceable wealth is vulnerable to theft. Recovery via legal
argument is thus problematic and counterproductive, hence the need for private military
forces.

I'm offering these thoughts on a What If? basis. My next tasks are to try to pull
some facts together, and to put flesh onto the skeleton. After that, who knows what
direction this will take. My immediate interest is to assess the impact of secret funds
on the US and other economies, to get a better view of how economies work, but this
already brings some big questions.
 
[1] Note also that money may have been moved from Nazi Germany to Western Banks 1941-1945
adding to the secrets that these banks already have.

[2] "What I have been afraid to blog about the ESF and its history - part 2" Eric Decarbonnel

[3] Catherine Austin Fitts at the Secret Space Program Conference 2014 San Mateo.

[OROBTC]

...

lilit, m-t, tabnloz

Most of the analysts of gold in whom I have confidence say that Yamashita's [possible sic] Gold is just a fairy tale.  I have no way of knowing, but SRSrocco wrote up a piece not long ago showing ENTIRE global production was not enough to account for the massive amounts of gold supposedly there (or now elsewhere).  Sensible, logical FOFOA says that Bix Weir (etc.) are FOS on huge, hidden piles of gold.

One thing I learned long ago: if there is a big sexy secret, it doesn't stay secret long.  The only exception to this was The Manhattan Project (atomic bomb) in the 1940s.


"Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead."

-- Mark Twain (?)

[tabnloz]

...

lilit, m-t, tabnloz

Most of the analysts of gold in whom I have confidence say that Yamashita's [possible sic] Gold is just a fairy tale.  I have no way of knowing, but SRSrocco wrote up a piece not long ago showing ENTIRE global production was not enough to account for the massive amounts of gold supposedly there (or now elsewhere).  Sensible, logical FOFOA says that Bix Weir (etc.) are FOS on huge, hidden piles of gold.

One thing I learned long ago: if there is a big sexy secret, it doesn't stay secret long.  The only exception to this was The Manhattan Project (atomic bomb) in the 1940s.


"Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead."

-- Mark Twain (?)

I would counter and say there is very little doubt that it existed, in fact the only argument would be as to how much.

In this regard first take into account that the countries Japan pillaged in SE Asia traditionally kept gold, art & jewellery to hand down over generations. China was closed off from the world for hundreds of years. They did not have banking systems or fiat currency. The loot also included territorial artifacts kept by rulers / ruling class. The large majority of the wealth was shipped back to the Imperial Palace in Japan, but the rest was stored in 64 odd locations by the Japanese heirachy. They were known as Golden Lily sites, but this does not include individual sites by groups or people with access to the loot. Many Japanese returned to the Philippines post war, or in later years their offspring, to recover hidden loot. It was said that it would take over 100 years to find it all. Funnily enough though, the loot had little to do with Yamashita as he was merely the scapegoat for the rest of the Japanese royal family to escape punishment (although it was his driver that the OSS tortured to reveal the locations of some sites). Most of the burial was co0ordinated by Princes Takeda and Chichibu, with Takeda entrusting his remaining copies of Golden Lily wax maps to his young valet (incase his sub was sunk enroute back to Japan). The GL sites were all booby trapped and a genuine map was needed to decipher the traps.

I'll try and dig up the CD with all the documents on it and post some of them if anyone is interested.

I say there is little doubt because of documentary evidence (waybills, photos, "57's" certificates, copies of maps etc) that were included in the publication of one book on the topic, and the facts surrounding the case of Roxas v Marcos in the Hawaiian Supreme Court (where Roxas was initially awarded $41 billion - the Golden Buddha in dispute was located in Malacanang Palace after the overthrow of Marcos).

[OROBTC]

...

tabnloz

Sure, please do post whatever you find.  And to be clear, I am not an expert on this matter, but I go with people whose work I trust, at least for now.

Here is a link showing total world gold holdings of about 170,000 tonnes, and about how Bix Weir and Karen Hudes are wrong about the 2,000,000 tonnes they claim re Yamashita's Gold:

https://srsroccoreport.com/setting-the-record-straight-on-the-massive-gold-supply-conspiracy/

Ahh..., 170,000 tonnes (world total holdings) is the accepted figure of all apparently reputable gold analysts who are in a better position than I am to know.

And from Steve's article, there is this graph, which is presumably true:





Where did the reputed "Yamashita's Gold" (2,000,000 tonnes) then come from?  That would be over 10 times as much as the world has mined since 1493!


Let's do some more quick & dirty arithmetic.  Let's say a pallet of gold bars (call it 1 cu mt) would weigh some 10 tonnes (metric tonnes, accounting for air and packaging).  That would then make Yamashita's stash some 200,000 pallets.  200,000 pallets is a LOT of gold, and a LOT of weight & bulk.

Do you actually believe that there would be 200,000 pallets of gold tucked away in cave complexes in the Philippines and/or in a "secret vault" at The Bank of Hawaii?

Really?

200,000 pallets would be a little more than 300 * 300 * 2 pallets if all together (in one place, in a square, 2 pallets high).  300 pallets of 1 cu mt each is 300 METERS (if in a line).  

300 meters * 300 meters square.

Really?  Please tell me where it all is, and how it all got there.

[tabnloz]

...

tabnloz

Sure, please do post whatever you find.  And to be clear, I am not an expert on this matter, but I go with people whose work I trust, at least for now.

Here is a link showing total world gold holdings of about 170,000 tonnes, and about how Bix Weir and Karen Hudes are wrong about the 2,000,000 tonnes they claim re Yamashita's Gold:


Do you actually believe that there would be 200,000 pallets of gold tucked away in cave complexes in the Philippines and/or in a "secret vault" at The Bank of Hawaii?

I'm not sure where the 2mil tonnes comes from, I never put a figure on anything. I am just arguing that the myth of the gold is based in fact.

Never heard of Bix Weir but have heard of Karen Hudes. She is way out there, but iirc she was at the World bank?

Anyway before these goalposts get moved too wide, I never said there were 200,000 pallets buried in caves in the Philippines. I said that he majority was shipped back to the Home Islands from the Mid 30's until 1943 (iirc). It was only when supply routes were blocked / and or hazardous that it was determined that hiding the loot in the Philippines was the smartest idea (as Japan expected to retain the islands through any peace treaty).

Loot was buried in large properly designed tunnels, with tram tracks, vehicles etc. All were booby trapped with things like cyanide in the backfill. It wasn't ramshackle and rough until the very end.

It was not put all in one places but all over the Philippine islands, from Luzon, to Baguio, Manilla.

These were located under churches, hospitals, army bases, theatres, hillsides. Even some vessels were stocked with loot and scuttled in Manilla Harbour to be recovered later (I think the Maru (?) recovery caused an international incident between the Philippines, Japan and the US.)

The court case in Hawaii is on the public record.

There is no gold in a secret vault in Hawaii. Instead the court initially awarded Rogelio Roxas $41 billion dollars in damages (largest civil suit in history - reversed/lowered on appeal); he was tortured, lost sight in an eye, beaten, jailed and had the Golden Buddha confiscated (it also had a removable head, filled with diamonds etc). I have forgotten how much the Buddha had been valued at. This is not some airy fairy myth, Roxas also testified before Philippine parliament and it was splashed through papers of the time. I believe he found the Buddha while legally digging at Manilla Hospital.

This is only a small piece of the puzzle, however it at least shows an element of truth to the story.

So do I really believe it as opposed to different gold commentators? Yes, as I have seen photographs of the people involved doing recoveries, court testimonies, waybills etc that circumstantially show that there was recovery of looted gold.

It is clearly accepted that the Nazi's looted gold and were helped by companies, banks and others in hiding and storing it, yet we are supposed to believe nothing of the sort happened in SE Asia?

Then we are supposed to believe Ferdinand Marcos amassed billions of dollars in wealth from his law business - (even though Imelda admitted in court it came from recovered loot)?

edit: the Japanese looting of SE Asia actually began in 1895 with the assassination of the Queen of Korea and the takeover of parts of Manchuria, so that is almost a half century of murder and looting.

also in reference to the chart, since China had been blocked off from the rest of the world for so many centuries, how are their gold holdings calculated - we can't even get an accurate figure in 2017?

[OROBTC]

...

tabnloz

Well, just go ahead and put up whatever links you have, and we'll take it from there.  Again, I follow gold very closely but can claim no special expertise, especially in historical information on areas of the world and topics that I just don't know much about.

But, if there were all of this gold out there, lying around, especially in different places, wouldn't at least some of it have been stolen or photographed?

Re Chinese production, if you examine SRSrocco's production figures and read the article you will note that most world historical gold production was over the past 100 years or so.  Ancient Greece & Rome did not produce all that much (precise quantities, of course, are impossible to get) as their technology was not good enough to get at any gold other than very rich seams.  Same for China.  And if, say, pre-1900 China had produced a HUGE amount of gold, more people would know about it.  Just sayin'.


For reasons like this I am suspicious of most conspiracy theories, as they never seem to pan out.