Blu-ray
Mar 1st, 2011, 10:00 AM
While I know that the easy credit, bad loans, and fraudulent activities came into play for the economic collapse. There are some who have studied it and see that there is a possibility that it may have been worsened by individuals trying to bring down the US.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/28/financial-terrorism-suspected-in-08-economic-crash/?page=1
The first phase of the economic attack, the report said, was the escalation of oil prices by speculators from 2007 to mid-2008 that coincided with the housing finance crisis.
In the second phase, the stock market collapsed by what the report called a “bear raid” from unidentified sources on Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/lehman-brothers/) and other Wall Street firms.
The third phase is what Mr. Freeman (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/kevin-d-freeman/) states in the report was the main source of the economic system’s vulnerability. “We have taken on massive public debt as the government (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/us-government/) was the only party who could access capital markets in late 2008 and early 2009,” he said, placing the U.S. dollar’s global reserve currency status at grave risk.
“This is the ‘end game’ if the goal is to destroy America,” Mr. Freeman (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/kevin-d-freeman/) said, noting that in his view China’s military “has been advocating the potential for an economic attack on the U.S. for 12 years or longer as evidenced by the publication of the book Unrestricted Warfare in 1999.”
Additional evidence provided by Mr. Freeman (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/kevin-d-freeman/) includes the statement in 2008 by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. that the Russians had approached the Chinese with a plan to dump its holdings of bonds by the federally backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Among the financial instruments that may have been used in the economic warfare scenario are credit default swaps, unregulated and untraceable contracts by which a buyer pays the seller a fee and in exchange is paid off in a bond or a loan. The report said credit default swaps are “ideal bear-raid tools” and “have the power to determine the financial viability of companies.”
Another economic warfare tool that was linked in the report to the 2008 crash is what is called “naked short-selling” of stock, defined as short-selling financial shares without borrowing them.
The report said that 30 percent to 70 percent of the decline in stock share values for two companies that were attacked, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/lehman-brothers/), were results of failed trades from naked short-selling.
The collapse in September 2008 of Lehman Brothers (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/lehman-brothers/), the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, was the most significant event in the crash, causing an immediate credit freeze and stock market crash, the report says.
In a section of who was behind the collapse, the report says determining the actors is difficult because of banking and financial trading secrecy.
“The reality of the situation today is that foreign-based hedge funds perpetrating bear raid strategies could do so virtually unmonitored and unregulated on behalf of enemies of the United States,” the report says.
I suggest reading the entire article. I merely quoted some interesting points. It disturbs me some that we are in phase 3 of this. It's also interesting to note how there is another Phase 1 possibly happening with the Mid East instability. Could the revolutions in the Middle East be influenced by some group to help cause the price of Oil to increase AND add in speculation to the mix?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/28/financial-terrorism-suspected-in-08-economic-crash/?page=1
The first phase of the economic attack, the report said, was the escalation of oil prices by speculators from 2007 to mid-2008 that coincided with the housing finance crisis.
In the second phase, the stock market collapsed by what the report called a “bear raid” from unidentified sources on Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/lehman-brothers/) and other Wall Street firms.
The third phase is what Mr. Freeman (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/kevin-d-freeman/) states in the report was the main source of the economic system’s vulnerability. “We have taken on massive public debt as the government (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/us-government/) was the only party who could access capital markets in late 2008 and early 2009,” he said, placing the U.S. dollar’s global reserve currency status at grave risk.
“This is the ‘end game’ if the goal is to destroy America,” Mr. Freeman (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/kevin-d-freeman/) said, noting that in his view China’s military “has been advocating the potential for an economic attack on the U.S. for 12 years or longer as evidenced by the publication of the book Unrestricted Warfare in 1999.”
Additional evidence provided by Mr. Freeman (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/kevin-d-freeman/) includes the statement in 2008 by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. that the Russians had approached the Chinese with a plan to dump its holdings of bonds by the federally backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Among the financial instruments that may have been used in the economic warfare scenario are credit default swaps, unregulated and untraceable contracts by which a buyer pays the seller a fee and in exchange is paid off in a bond or a loan. The report said credit default swaps are “ideal bear-raid tools” and “have the power to determine the financial viability of companies.”
Another economic warfare tool that was linked in the report to the 2008 crash is what is called “naked short-selling” of stock, defined as short-selling financial shares without borrowing them.
The report said that 30 percent to 70 percent of the decline in stock share values for two companies that were attacked, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/lehman-brothers/), were results of failed trades from naked short-selling.
The collapse in September 2008 of Lehman Brothers (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/lehman-brothers/), the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, was the most significant event in the crash, causing an immediate credit freeze and stock market crash, the report says.
In a section of who was behind the collapse, the report says determining the actors is difficult because of banking and financial trading secrecy.
“The reality of the situation today is that foreign-based hedge funds perpetrating bear raid strategies could do so virtually unmonitored and unregulated on behalf of enemies of the United States,” the report says.
I suggest reading the entire article. I merely quoted some interesting points. It disturbs me some that we are in phase 3 of this. It's also interesting to note how there is another Phase 1 possibly happening with the Mid East instability. Could the revolutions in the Middle East be influenced by some group to help cause the price of Oil to increase AND add in speculation to the mix?