Diamond Bob, Not Diamond Jim

So London gets religion all of a sudden, does it? Bob Diamond goes and half of the USA says 'we should learn from the Brits...'

The only thing you can learn from the Brits in these circumstances is how to push stuff under the carpet.

The media is covering the story at the moment as though it is about the collusion of several bankers from different brand name banks 'manipulating' the interest rate call between themselves (bank-to-bank rate, aka LIBOR, or the London Interbank Offering Rate), supposedly for a financial benefit to themselves.

Bar at the Savoy, London... Old men and...!

Uh-huh. Sorry. Let me remind you that the problem was that when the Lehman thing happened the LIBOR trade COMPLETELY DRIED UP ALTOGETHER. You know that was the position back then and I know it, and we both remember this coverage by the Bank of England's Governor put out into the media at the time. And with the subsequent effect of a global series of actions by Western Central Banks to provide liquidity TO BANKS to ameliorate the feared run on them and any prospect that they would not be able to meet withdrawals. We ALL remember this.

I cannot reconcile that story back then, with the current idea being floated that somehow, bankers or their designated LIBOR traders 'artificially' suppressed the cost of interbank money and 'artificially' dropped the interest rates with any kind of financial advantage to themselves. EVERYBODY knows that the plain and simple fact is that every single bank was asked at the time by the Bank of England to continue to lend to their fellow banks – and in order to catch a bid, as they say, I'm sure that it was a legitimate action to offer lower and lower interest rates until someone started borrowing.

And yet, even this characterisation begs the question of why, apparently, banks also at the same time were said to have feared the creditworthiness of other banks. So now we have this convoluted story that 1. banks conspired and colluded to create artificially low interest rates, wheras 2. no one was willing to lend in any case, and 3. no one apparently was seeking to borrow at the LIBOR rate (which is generally the lowest rate) in the first place.

And the only resolution to that cockamamee mix-up, is one to do with collateral and security, rather than lack of actual need to borrow money. Therefore, one must ask, is there already in existence, an independently scrutinized process whereby LIBOR borrowings HAVE TO comply with set collateral and risk ratings? And if so, isn't the problem rather more that the banks have no collateral left to hock? Or that all their collateral is purest rubbish?

So I guess then that when the ECB and others speak of 're-capitalising' banks, they must mean supplying them with adequate collateral... And where, one might ask, are they going to get this 'decent' collateral from, since the property valuations all over the place are now known to be wildly overstated.

Argh maybe just write properties down to what they should be and get on with things... You know deflation. Wait a minute, then governments would not be able to collect stamp duties, and rates and taxes at the usual exorbitant levels! We can't have that! So, what we must have then, is collusion between GOVERNMENTS and bankers to manipulate 'market' values and prices – but not between bankers and other bankers to do the same thing. Oh I get it: good old hypocrisy.

Not Nekulturny

Supposedly, Bob Diamond is worth around $650 million. He wears atrocious clothes for a fellow of that kind of wealth; they're cheap-looking in the sense of common and banal. And I would never have stuck my money anywhere near an organisation headed by someone common and/or banal. Vulgar, yes, common, no.

Best, Calvin J. Bear (nod nod, wink wink to the wise.)

Tricked-up Gangsta Rap

How It's Done - the real MI6

All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Rupert Murdoch's empire is falling apart. Oh, sorry, I mean 'he's splitting the company into the lucrative entertainment assets, and the useless newspaper parts...'

Useless newspaper parts. Worthless, tainted, non-performing, loss-making newspapers.

God who needs newspapers. Not Rupert, that's for sure. Is he actually literate?

In my day, 'literate' did not mean 'able to read and write;' it meant well-read, a person of letters. What a bastard. He's paid every politician this side of the old Iron Curtain, dumbed the public down through rotten newspapers and the influence he's had through publishing companies and government policy – and now he's finished off newspapers for keeps.

I was absolutely appalled to see the then Chief of the London Metropolitan Police actually fly the kite of 'terrorist cells still active in the city,' on the Parliamentary public media inquiry, even while he himself had been tied to the disgusting mindless activities of the phone hackers and the political mates of Rupert and their cosy club of twisted self-involved, self-interested, self-righteous, indignant Right Wing Modern Roundheads.

The inquiry was the thin end of the wedge of what these fellas have gotten up to. I mean we are talking about a massively wealthy cadre that decimated British industry in the Thatcher era, sold Rolls Royce and Bentley, utterly destroyed Leyland, and spent the years thereafter roaming around the world doing backhanded arms deals and over-invoicing on huge public works projects that drew attention from Malaysia, to Zimbabwe, to the Sudan and Saudi Arabia. You would be utterly nuts to think that the British Intelligence Establishment were not up to their necks in the whole entire messiness of this clique.

Mind you, they have a few 'successes.' I mean, speaking of bugging telephones and things, let me explain to you how they got Saif Gaddafi to trip himself up and 'run into the waiting arms of the Libyan Revolutionary Army.'

Project Kahn Design Evoque

Okay, let me not though, I could get into serious trouble.

What I will tell you about is this thing called 'masked programming.' It's about manufacturing high-end micro-chips in the countless of zillions, which can also be used in washing machines, fridges, airconditioners, audio entertainment systems, telephones - as much as they can be used in spacecraft, airforce fighter jets, and so on. Inside the chip architecture, are a series of programmed layers with pre-set programmes for all kinds of things, including for example, turning your stereo speaker into a microphone and sending the picked-up conversations and sounds to somewhere very shadowy. Everybody knows about it; it's stock standard the-way-it-is, folks.

Personally, I would not buy a new Range Rover Evoque Victoria Beckham, if I were going to have sex in it with Max Mosley, if you see what I mean. Not that I am intending to have sex with Max any time soon. And even though it does have a very good computer-controlled sound system.

Anyway. Cut a long story short. Ain't no Rupert Murdoch doing bugging of people's phones boys n girls. That's just the same old claptrap they always sell you in the fishwrap that Rupert is about to cancel shortly. Wouldn't do to let the common folk know how it's really done and who done did it all, now y'all though. Would it? Still... It's very hard to leave off something completely addictive like getting private shows of the celebrity world's kinky bitches on the government Secret Service's bill. Like Princess Di.

It's so-o-o easy-peasy too, you know. They just get some guy to change his name to something Middle Eastern-sounding, and give him a WHOLE LOT OF MONEY to start a specialist after-market bespoke car boutique. Say like 'Afzal Kahn.' What 'Kahn' do you know from the Mid-East. Khan, I know. Kahn, nope. ...And the kids come in and get their sportscars tricked-up.

Anyway here's a great gangsta rappa, at least, to get off this dismal subject. This guy is genuinely talented. Great group. Great production. Great song. Wild One, by Flo Rida ft. Sia.

You gotta remember, my uncle was M.D. Of Shell Far East some years ago. And I'm pretty sure it was Lady Daphne Guinness in the chrome and diamond mask at the kinky private show in Sydney in a twenty thousand dollar designer get-up... ...that I was also at. Too much money. Too much time. You know how it is. Secrets and whispers. Lady Daphne's great though – I admire her heaps. And she doesn't give away secrets. I don't mean to imply that by talking about her here. I'm just saying these are the sorts of places where you hear stuff which generally tends to be pretty reliable, and from people who generally tend to be very well-placed! Me, I've just got a lot of money and a very big er...

Who Don't Learn From History

Yeah well I didn't say this! Current, Harvard Professor of History Niall Ferguson (originally from Oxford) - who is supposed to be some Bilderberger/Right Wing/Colonial Apologist Historian lunatic - last week accused the German Chancellor A. Hitler (er, I mean A. Merkel/Sauer/Kasner) of being the sole bloody-minded impediment to genuine monetary union. He said something about people not learning the lessons from the 1930's.

Personally, I don't like Niall Ferguson's face - it reminds me of a current MI6 spy and provocateur Neil Loftus who was part of the scandal running from out of Investec South Africa and London to forge land title deeds and land transfers and rip off clients to the tune of billions and billions. Apparently, Loftus died in the fairly recent earthquake in New Zealand and has therefore 'disappeared...'

Again, personally, I think the whole euro 'crisis' is another scam deliberately organised to syphon productive output from taxpayers and line the pockets of whoever is going to get 'the bailout.'

I don't know who any of these nameless/faceless 'elite' individuals are. But I do know the subprime and CDO thing was crackpot lunacy from the get-go and yet it too, managed to have been put up by people - strangely enough - originating from Oxford again (Blythe Masters et cetera).

Lord - Allah - Jehovah - Giant Pumpkin, whatever you want to call yourself - please save us from a solution - if it comes - from being another one devised at Oxford.

Calvin J. Bear

All That Glitters.

I want to tell you about the character of gold; what it is, where it comes from, and what living spirit it contains.

Some say it is cursed...

It is not cursed.

In this day, Chinese people have money that can be used in the West, and so they can exercise their desires and aspirations through the spending power of money.

I personally quite literally come from a Venetian family – that is, partly from genuine Venetian blood, and in all respects from a long long history of seafarers, adventurers, merchants, soldiers, and kings.

Murano glass everywhere...

Venice in the West, sent envoys and ambassadors and magistrates-of-trade (for that is what they were called) into China, and returned with a tie of some inner and spiritual kind, to the Great Dragon of the East.

Vast balloons floating in the still air and light breezes, were covered in lightest silk from China. Rich brocades and ornate carpets, strange food and preserved fruit, medicines, paper, scent, and skyrockets... All entered into the consciousness and experience of the Venetian people because of the influence of China; its culture, ideas, and science. And because the heart and mind of the Venetian is open to subtle influences.

We, today, in the West, look at the purchasing and ownership of gold, as quite definitely a means to make money, as its price rises, in a huge bull market. We know that never was there a time when it was absolutely without worth at all, but we see it recently having risen so quickly, and, those of us who are also bulls in this golden market, hope that it will continue to do so sufficient to make us a good profit quickly.

Those who doubt the point of it all, might adopt the position of sellers, and hope that its price will fall like everything else in the deflationary conditions of the global economy today.

Two things are necessary and vital to understanding where the price of gold might go from here and when it will do so: an understanding of the spirit of Chinese higher culture, and a conception about whether or not and at what intervals the Chinese Central Government will allow its currency to appreciate now and then against the rubbish of the rest of the world that is passed off for money.

There is a traditional Chinese classical piece of music called 'Jasmine Flower.' You can easily see and hear it being played on YouTube. Listen to this, and think about whether the classical Chinese mind would buy gold for a profit – or, only for a profit. And then when you next go down to your gold mint, or gold seller, buy some like a Chinese person might think about doing, if he or she has just come into some money - after they have bought and eaten a bowl of noodles, bought a new shirt, a piece of fruit, a bolt of silk, the horse racing tips for next week's races... A billion people are buying alongside you. Mayhaps too they will also have more spending power than they did the week before. Of course gold is very beautiful. And it's also very smart a thing to have. The Venetians powdered it and burned it in glass to make a special type of red-coloured glass. They, by hiding their wealth thus convinced thieves by such means that they were only wine drinkers afterall and fibbers, and not anywhere near as rich as people said. The future price of something walks around today wearing a mask. It is Venice once again. Every lie hides a truth. And frankly I'd rather have the pockets of my cloak lined with real gold coins than with real receipts from the vendors and brokers of Buffett's 'Mr. Market-never-lies' price action on everything. I just can't trust 'Mr. Market' anymore!

Gold will never die; it is the symbol of, and possesses the spirit of, truth, and eternal and universal dominion.

Calvin J. Bear

Guilt

Okay I'm feeling slightly guilty.

One of my business partners has a real thing for fast cars; I'm not all that fussed about them.

The whole world is apparently on the edge of some kind of financial precipice. Jim Rogers says let the bankrupt guys just fold – stop bailing them out. And I totally agree. But what I mean is that people are really saying things are really bad...

So... Yesterday my other business partner took me to Western Australia's best restaurant (Galileo's) and we went there at a hundred miles an hour in his 458 Italia (Ferrari, obviously).

Three bottles later of some Sicilian wine called I think Santa Cecilia, um, we took off back to his place and opened the very last bottle in existence of some kind of 'nuther red from Mount Barker.

Er, these wines were all absolutely spectacular.

I don't know much about the car ride home because the way the driving/passenger position is in the Ferrari (you sort of lie on your back with your head being the only upright thing... well kind of upright, anyway) the blood going to the back of my head and the swirl and swoosh of stuff flying by in my peripheral vision on either side meant I can't really tell you what the hell was going on – I never saw it, and don't remember much of it anyway either, really.

I'm doing a $260,000,000 Stage One project financing for a UCG and ammonium nitrate plant on a huge deep seam (non-fracing) coal resource in Queensland and I basically have a whole bunch of money from some Chinese guys whom I've never personally even met and including, I think so anyway, actually the Chinese government.

Okay things are bad apparently. Everywhere. I swear to god I have brand name banks tell me this every day these days and I don't know what to say back to them. I've never before personally been in charge of $260,000,000. Well not as far as I know or can ever remember. So I don't know what 'bad' actually might mean... Not by comparative experience or compared to the way banks must know why they are saying things are bad everywhere.

Well but they're not bad here, though.

I don't have political friends and my parents would be over 105 if they were still alive so I don't have family connections either, other than my wife's. Nobody knows me. Meaning, I am not a public figure. And maybe I never will be too. But things are certainly not bad here for me right now.

Calvin J. Bear