DID THE OLD LADY OF THREADNEEDLE JUST ADMIT THAT MARKETS ARE ...
When William Staatholder came over from the Netherlands to England to become William III, the first thing he did (well, one of the first things), was to charter a central bank in 1694. It's actually much more complicated than that, but that will have to do for now. That bank was, of course, the Bank of England which, like the American Federal Reserve, was a private company with a monopoly on the nation's credit. Unlike the Federal Reserve, the Old Lady of Theadneedle was nationalized in 1946.
So what's the purpose of this all-too-brief history lesson on central Banksters? Well, it's this intriguing article shared by Mr. G.B., who spotted it on the Old Lady of Threadneedle's website. Yes, the Bank of England has a website, and the mind boggles: what would Montagu Norman think of that? Well, most likely, Norman, who just loved the secrecy of central banking (along with his bosom buddy, Hjalmar Schacht), would be spinning in his grave. Anyway, here's the article:
Building Real Markets for the Good of the People
What intrigues me here is that we may be looking at yet more of those signals from the British oligarchy - this time coming from its very pinnacle - that it is extraordinarily unhappy with the direction Washington has been leading things, particularly with respect to its finance capital laissez faire attitude. After all, the derivatives and housing bubble were largely products of that type of regulatory culture and a culture of a near total collapse of ethics and any genuine concern for a genuine product and creativity: it's all been paper-driven profits. The headline alone suggests that the Old Lady realizes that markets for derivatives and other paper profits are not, in the final analysis "real markets" for "real people."
In short, we have yet another possible signal of the growing disatisfaction within the echelons of British power with the direction things are taking across the pond in the former colonies.
But wait, there's more, as the opening sentences describing the Old Lady's Forum indicate:
In order for markets to regain their social license, it is vital that public authorities and private market participants work together to reverse the tide of ethical drift. This cannot be a one-off exercise and needs continuous engagement so that market infrastructure keeps pace with market innovation.
Therefore the Bank will hold an Open Forum this autumn that will bring together all stakeholders in Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities (FICC) markets – policymakers, financial market participants and users, academics, media representatives and wider society. (Enphases added)
Obviously, the City has been at the forefront of "the tide of ethical drift" in finance capital, but not nearly to the extent that it has across the pond. And the opening statement is a frank admission that finance capital has lost the trust of the very middle class investors it once relied upon, and that finance capital has so gutted.
So what do we really have here?
It is either a movement of pretense, designed to look like the world of British finance capital is concerned with the current direction, when it really isn't, and plans to go on reaping profits from the current situation, or it isn't. And if it isn't, then I suggest in my high octane speculation of the day, that it's another strong signal from Great Britain that the "special relationship's" days with Washington and Wall Street are numbered; it's a strong signal that Britain needs real markets dealing in real goods and manufacture and infrastructure, and not the shuffling of paper derivatives and paper profits. Britain's decision to join China's Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank is an indicator, a strong one, that the latter view of the forum is the proper one.
And notably, the date of the formum, November 11, 11/11, has its own obvious resonance, for it was on that day, in that month, at the eleventh hour, that the guns of World War One fell silent in 1918.
See you on the flip side...
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“Quantitative Easing For The People. The UK Labour Frontrunners Controversial Proposal”.
http://ellenbrown.com/
With all the talk about “quantitative easing” it’s a pity nobody is proposing “qualitative easing”….
Dana, Great analogy!
[Ellen Brown, Max Keiser, & Michael Hudson would agree.]
Today’s Max Keiser agrees and calls it quantitative easing insanity[about 9:00 clicks in. He also proposes a bomb-drone-migrant-index of global population movements[that would include real explosive bombs, as well as those financial derivative bombs of mass destruction/about 25:00 clicks in].
http://rt.com/shows/keiser-report/314493-hurricanes-global-financial-markets/
The Keiser Report addresses the Bank of England
in the second half of today’s episode #805.
http://rt.com/shows/keiser-report/314179-episode-max-keiser-805/
After the derivatives bonds and securities con game now the western financial ship begins to list from the missing social funds from banks of the E.U. nations that were swindled by Deutsche bank and Goldmans sack(the balls these guys got) . As the scandal begins to show its damage (many countries still counting the mortgage based bonds and securities they’ve bought on the debit side of their books (state secrets). As all rats desert the sinking ship so it goes with England and other insiders to the scam,scrambling to get as much distance from the americans as possible when the blame game really gets going. There’s always a bad taste in your mouth when you’ve just swallowed your own blood.
I think we have to go back in time to understand all of this, and it’s quite simple really.
Venice to Amsterdam to London, these fellas in London town come from a long line of elites, and today there is no difference from the totally corrupt Veniceans to the London elites, so when the Bank of England screams about “ethics”, they really don’t mean it, WHY, cause they invented it.
Several thoughts, on different levels:
On the most mundane side, one post-2008 financial-writer made an interesting point/analogy. He noted that Capitalism had to appear at least somewhat ‘ethical’, in order to fight the influence of Communism (before the fall of the USSR). This limited the degree of raw ferocity/duplicity/greed that Capitalism could show to the world (at least publicly).
This writer offered the analogy of a horsecart (capitalism) with an attached wagon (public good). As long as the USSR was waiting in the wings, the horsecart/wagon combo existed in relative safety. But only for ‘operative’ reasons. With the fall of the USSR, oligarchs soon realized that there was no continuing need to pull the wagon. So, it was soon detached, with the clarion call of ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’. (We all know how well that turned-out for the lower 90%.) This ‘model’ seems to have real ‘explanatory power’ for today’s world…
Second, in terms of “…the Old Lady of Theadneedle was nationalized in 1946,” this would only make a difference if the relevant politicians & bureaucrats were not thoroughly in-bed with the old system. From the Venetian/Amsterdam ‘nobility’ on up through the Rothschild influences, I cannot see a possibility of this not being so. Just hidden ‘nationalized’ corruption rather than overt private corruption.
On the ‘problem-reaction-solution’ front, I could see both England and the US (perhaps on separate but linked paths) being long-term ‘managed’ into a ‘controlled’ economy. First, wipe out manufacturing (Reagan, Thatcher). Then, wipe out the service industries (Bushes, Blair). When the masses are finally bleating for a ‘master’ to revivify the country, a ‘strong man’ will be chosen, with exceptional delegated-power. By WHOM he is chosen, I leave to the reader’s imagination. (This situation, in turn, will cause such tensions in the world that a one-world-government may be in reach…)
Can not help wondering if statement from Threadneedle street is at all sincere given the level of institutional corruption.
If I remember correctly, it is timed just before Quantitive Easing kicked in. Given the slow burn nature of this Coup. Do you think the timing is similar to Rumsfeld announcing the loss 2.3 Trillion Dollars the day before 9/11 .
And does 9/11 date anything to do with the Battle of Vienna in 1683 ?
Well speculation or to put it bluntly pathological gambling has gone through the stratosphere. It is getting out of hand and the and those with the heads screw on know these idiots have to be reign in or this whole house of cards will come crashing on everyone head. And their are prepared to save themselves even if it means throwing the fools in the USA in front of a oncoming train to save themselves the British oligarchs are not suicidal.
Those speculators are brought to bear in Keiser Report #804, in regards to Puerto Rico 2nd half[21:00 clicks-in]
http://rt.com/shows/keiser-report/313976-episode-max-keiser-804/
The real news is that someone in high finance of the “stature” (try saying that with a straight face) of the BoE actually thinks (better pretends) that there are still ethics in financial markets left to drift.
Also, the follow-on sentence is a non-sequitor; how is changing “market infrastructure” going to instill ethics? Some old-fashion prison sentences for the most obvious criminals would seem to me to be much cheaper and more efficient.
Jumping on the anti-US bandwagon just to profit off it. Seems to me like they are just distancing themselves in words from the US to get in good graces with the growing anti-American crowd so they can offer their financial services. One would have to be a fool to get involved with these duplicitous blood suckers. You want to talk about the pot calling the kettle black. The fact is there are two sharks, the US and Britain, in one shrinking pool with very few fish left. Great Britain will probably get frozen out of the space bonanza so they need to drum up business back here on this dirt pile. I envision a day when Britain will have to market their financial services hut door to hut door in places like Africa and Southeast Asia. There will be a bigger market for them as butlers, and that is probably the only way they will get into space.
oh yeah, and the reason they are not going to have any space galleons returning to Earth with any plunder: their snooty English pride wouldn’t allow them to take in nazi scientists after the war like the Russians and Americans. They probably didn’t think they would be able to take orders from Germans in their aero-technology laboratories. I guess they though Rudolf Hess was the big nazi prize and his tales of Antarctica. Maybe their immigration policy is the nazis’ revenge. Oh how envious the British will be and how they will rue their inhospitable decision towards the stranded post war nazis when they see Americans swimming in all that space loot… to go with those other nazi contributions to modern America like pharmaceutical medicine, GMO food and homeland security.
Or was it William Shakespeare…?
“The Lady doth protest too much, me thinks.”
Oh, I know what Hamlet replies,
“O, but shell keep her word”.
Ah, what a wonderful expression, ethical drift… almost poetic, much more refined than its translation into real world events where entire nations have been victims on the altar of what M. Keiser has dubbed the “financial holocaust”.
While, as Lost said, I wouldn’t actually expect them to “clean up their act”, the above piece could be another indication of some sort of realignment of the UK’s policy (already “outed” with adhesion to the AIIB).
All of the oligarch institutions, even the BIS, have websites, but unfortunately the day is just too short for one or even several persons with a minimum amount of necessary background formation to check on them and not get lost in the details and the doublespeak.
As for the “Commonwealth pivot” how will this be played out and on what basis? Undoubtedly (and to me, incredibly) there is still a lot of nostalgia for the Milner-Rhodes/White Man’s Burden/British Israel ideology, and some oligarchs are probably pointing out (rightly) that this current of thought is the “grand-daddy” of those inept young whippersnappers at the Council for Foreign Relations. So take that approach and update it with zero point, ion drives, 3D manufacturing. And some off-planet “British Territory”?
What you’ve written Dana remind me of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s
“What lies behind and what lies before are tiny matters compared to what lies within”.[In a quote mode today]
I stand corrected by Frankie: the English will probably never get their own space galleons! Like the Templars, they will have to rely on the new Venice/Venices of tomorrow to build them.
But I would vouch that they already have postage stamps ready (this has been a geopolitical classic since the mid-19th century) for some “B.O.T.” – not British Overseas Territory but British Outer-Space Territory.
The date also adds up to 33.
Vaguely interesting, but ethical drift has been around for centuries–much longer.
And about 120 years ago, humanity could have had much better energy generation, followed by things like better communications and even alchemy and antigravity for transport–all before the year 1920.
Guess we could have figured out how to throw the planet out of alignment with some of that gear, but with a bit of consideration deserts would bloom, many diseases would vanish, oceans, rivers, forests, and lakes would be clean and healthy–large scale wars though would have to have vanished.
It’s pretty rich seeing the central bank from the land of Thatcher comment on ethical drift.
And since Wall Street and the City of London are quite clearly still trading derivatives–mostly based on speculations on things like markets in Brazil, I’d not hold my breath for change.
There is a wealthy western country that didn’t allow the deregulation of banks, has a strong welfare state, and barely suffered from the 2008 crash: Canada.
And where does the current governor of the Old Lady come from?
Goldman Sachs (via canada)
My understanding (via commentary from Paul Sandhu) is the Canadian economy was saved by a housing (debt) bubble and massive Chinese investment.
Is this part of the Canadian recovery story also ?
Plus stories of the emptying of the Gold Reserves of Scociamocatta ?
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/latest-gold-fraud-bombshell-canadas-only-bullion-bank-gold-vault-practically-empty