Ach ja, je kunt natuurlijk wel doen voorkomen of alles Ok is als het Amerika betreft, maar hier wat feiten van de hand van Peter Grandich deze week.
vr.gr. duro
Since that time, there have been a growing number of people who believe the U.S. government created what has been dubbed, “The Plunge Protection Team” (PPT). Many of the same critics of gold manipulation were also pooh-poohing stock market manipulation. Thankfully, one of the best financial journalists ever, Mr. John Crudele of the New York Post, has faithfully stayed on the PPT story. This past June 13th, he wrote an article entitled, “A Plan For A Plunge”. In it, Crudele discussed how a 1997 Washington Post article basically “explained the government’s secret role in the stock market.” He went on to note how the President “confers with members of his Working group on Financial Markets – the secretary of the Treasury and the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.” He noted that the article pointed out that “an outline of the government’s plan emerges in interviews with more than a dozen current and former officials who have participated in meetings of the Working Group”, which it says was established after the market crash in 1987.
I find it most intriguing that Mr. Crudele goes on in his column to report that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was a member of the PPT.
Two weeks later, Mr. Crudele published another article entitled, “George Let Plunge Slip.” In it, he notes that former President Clinton senior advisor George Stephanopoulos made a bombshell statement on September 17, 2001, the day the stock market reopened after the 9/11 attacks. He quotes it verbatim:
“And perhaps the most important, there’s been – the Fed in 1989 created what is called the Plunge protection team, which is the Federal Reserve, big major banks, representatives of the New York Stock Exchange and the other exchanges, and there- they have been meeting informally so far, and they have kind of an informal agreement among major banks to come in and start to buy stock if there appears to be a problem. They have, in the past, acted more formally. I don’t know if you remember, but in 1998, there was a crisis called the Long term Capital crisis. It was a major currency trader and there was a global currency crisis. And they, at the guidance of the Fed, all of the banks got together when that started to collapse and propped up the currency markets. And they have plans in place to consider that if the stock markets start to fall.”
Mr. Crudele goes on to note how Robert Heller, a Federal Reserve governor, proposed in 1989 that the central bank prop up the stock market in times of crisis by purchasing stock index futures contracts. He then states that the PPT, “seems to have been born on March 18, 1988, when President Reagan signed Executive Order 12631 establishing a Working Group on Financial Markets that included the chairman of the various stock exchanges, the chairman and governors of the Federal Reserve, and the secretary of the U.S. Treasury, who was also the chairman.”
STOP - If you’re like the non-believers who ceremonially dismiss manipulation claims and even still do after reading what I just said, sit down, take a deep breath and be prepared to be honest with yourself if you truly seek truth.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke admits there’s a PPT in Congressional testimony!!!!!!!!
John Crudele, who I’m certain had a big grin from ear to ear when he wrote the column, published a column in the July 27, 2006, in the NY Post entitled, “COME CLEAN, BEN!”
Here’s the entire article:
FEDERAL Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke revealed that the secretive Plunge Protection Team meets several times a year, but he dodged a congressman's inquiries about what the group does and whether minutes are kept of those meetings.
So The Post has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for those minutes - specifically for the meetings that likely occurred immediately after the terrorist attacks in 2001.
I wrote about the Plunge Protection Team in a series of articles earlier this month. Formally called the Working Group on Financial Markets, it was formed in 1988 by President Reagan to advise Wall Street.
Headed by the Secretary of the Treasury, it also has top regulators and the chairman of the Fed as members.
But in addition to giving Wall Street advice, I suspect - and former White House adviser George Stephanopoulos seems to have confirmed - that the Plunge Protection team has morphed into something more active.
And Wall Street firms may have been invited to join.
What's clear from answers to questions posed by Rep. Ron Paul, (R.-Texas) is that new Fed chief Bernanke either doesn't know much about the role of the working group or preferred not to discuss the matter.
And, I think, it's time we found out a little more about an organization that could afford some Wall Street firms an opportunity to reap massive profits at the expense of ordinary investors.
Here's some of the exchange that occurred between Bernanke and Rep. Paul last Thursday at the House Financial Committee hearings.
Rep. Paul: Good afternoon, Chairman Bernanke. I have a question dealing with the Working Group on Financial Markets. I want to learn more about that group and exactly what authority they have and what they do.
Could you tell me, as a member of the group, how often they meet and how often they have actions? And have they done something recently? And are there reports sent out by this particular group?
Bernanke: Yes, congressman. The president's working group was convened by the president, I believe, after the 1987 stock market crash. It meets irregularly. I would guess about four or five times a year. But I'm not exactly sure.
And its primary function is advisory, to prepare reports. I mentioned earlier that we've been asked to prepare a report on the terrorism risk insurance. So that's what we generally do.
Rep. Paul: In the media you'll find articles that will claim, at least, that it's a lot more than advisory.
You know, if there is a stock market crash, that you literally have a lot of authority, you know, to impose restrictions. And we're talking about many trillions of dollars slushing around in all the financial markets. And this involves the Treasury and, of course, the Fed as well as the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) and the CFTC (Commodities Futures Trading Commission.)
And the reason this came to my attention was just recently there was an article that actually made a charge that out of this group came a position that interfered with the price of General Motors stock.
Have you read that? Or do you know anything about that?
Bernanke: No sir. I don't.
Rep. Paul: But back to the issue of meeting. You tell me it meets irregularly. But are there minutes kept, or are there reports made on this group?
Bernanke: I believe there are records kept by the staff. There are staff, mostly from Treasury, but also from other agencies.
Rep. Paul: And they would be available to us in the committee?
Bernanke: I don't know. I'm sorry. I don't know.
Rep. Paul obviously doesn't have a reporter's knack for the follow-up question, so here's what I would have asked next.
Crudele: Well, Mr. Bernanke, how about you find out! Someone in your position should know if, as former White House adv