Re: SC79

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10544

The October Surprise: Global Panic

Since 9/11, the notion of an October surprise has been around. The idea going something like this. Another real or manufactured terror attack. The dominant media stokes fear. The public is again traumatized. The Bush administration pledges all effective measures to protect national security. Formerly seizes total power. Suspends the Constitution and declares martial law. Mass detentions follow. Beginning with dissenters and elements of the public considered "dangerous."

This may be coming with the 3rd Infantry's 1st Brigade Combat Team back in the US as of October 1. According to the Army Times, as "an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks." Augmented by USNORTHCOM.

According to Wayne Madsen's recent article titled "FEMA sources confirm coming martial law," it gets worse. He cites "knowledgeable" FEMA sources saying that "the Bush administration is putting the final touches on a plan (to declare) martial law in the US with various scenarios anticipated as triggers." Economic collapse. Massive social unrest. Bank closures. Street protests. Violence in response, and another stolen election.

Early in the month, a different October surprise arrived. Not the expected one. Not yet at least. The Wall Street Journal put it this way: "The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) capped the worst week in its 112-year history with its most volatile day ever, as hopes for a major international bank rescue plan were overwhelmed at day's end by another wave of selling."

The DJIA dropped 22% over the past eight trading sessions. Investors were "shell-shocked." Many spent Friday "trying to protect themselves from further declines. The past week's (October 6 - 10) 18% decline "and Friday's 1018.77 point swing from low to high were the biggest since the Dow was created in 1896." The VIX measure of market fear hit 69.95. By far its highest level ever, and some investors think it may touch 100 in the current climate. Until now, the Dow's worst week was in 1933. Trading volume also set a record at 11.16 billion shares.

"Market crash shakes world" headlined the Financial Times (FT). Mass trauma, fear and uncertainty sent tremors everywhere, and no one knows if Friday ended it. Maybe just began it. First markets crater. Then world economies, and finally the inevitable human fallout. Affecting many tens of millions everywhere. Innocent people paying dearly.

Morning headlines say it all. And they're getting grimmer. On October 10, the Wall Street Journal said the "Market's 7-Day Rout Leaves US Reeling. Stocks in a Slow-Motion Crash....After Year of Declines, Investors Lose $8.4 Trillion of Wealth." Most scary is what's ahead and how much more people can or will tolerate.

The Financial Times was just as grim headlining "Global equities plunge....Japan leads Asian market rout...Wall Street in biggest fall since 1987 crash." Once the nation's largest company, General Motors may now face bankruptcy. Its October 10 stock fell to its 1950 valuation and now has a market capitalization of just $2.6 billion. Shockingly expressed in one headline saying "Wheels falling off for General Motors." Add the engine and chassis, too.

Ford Motor's outlook is little better. Its stock price is the lowest in decades, and one analyst warned that "the accelerating deterioration in industry fundamentals will be a serious challenge to liquidity (for both companies and Chrysler) during 2009." JD Power and Associates was even grimmer saying that the global auto market may experience an "outright collapse" in 2009. And we're only talking about autos.

Look at banks and world finance. The source of today's crisis and reason global economies are reeling. Economists like Nouriel Roubini were once scoffed at. No longer. He warned for months that "the risk of a total systemic meltdown is now as high as ever since the credit crunch is gripping European banks as well" and spreading globally. Affecting good ones as well as bad. Trashing the baby with the bath water. Erasing savings for tens of millions everywhere. And for seniors who may not have time to recoup.

The crisis didn't emerge like Topsy. It's been simmering for years, and in July 2006 historian Gabriel Kolko warned about it in an article titled "Bankers Fear World Economic Meltdown." He noted how:

the "whole nature of the global finance system has changed radically in ways that have nothing whatsoever to do with 'virtuous' national economic policies....The investment managers of private equity funds and major banks have displaced national banks....moving well beyond regulatory structures....Traders have taken over from traditional bankers because buying and selling shares, bonds, derivatives and the like now generate the greater profits, and taking more and higher risks is now the rule....They often bet with house money (and) low interest rates....let them do things....that were once deemed foolhardy."

Compounded by the irrational development of global finance, liberalization and loose regulations. Playing fast and loose and betting on the come. The potential gains are enormous and so are the risks of a major financial crisis. A meltdown. Now we've got one that global institutions are "utterly inadequate" to deal with.

Kolko warned then that "the entire global financial structure (was) becoming uncontrollable....financial liberalization produced a monster....contradictions wrack the world's financial system (that's) both crisis-prone (and) immoral. (We) may very well be on the verge of serious crises." Now we've got one and in dire straits.

Because "a kleptocratic class (took) over the economy," according to economist Michael Hudson. A criminal element betting on high returns through computerized gambling "and when bad bets are made, bailouts are the (payoff) for campaign contributions." For having friends in high places as well.

Today's crisis isn't an accident or from happenstance. It was planned, according to economist and critic F. William Engdahl in his recent article titled "Behind the Panic." To "shape the future of global banking" through creative destruction. Panic incited by a well-designed "long-term strategy." To change the "face of European banking." Weaken it with toxic junk. Asset Backed Securities. Force enough of it into liquidation or cheap enough to buy at fire sale valuations. The idea being to "create three colossal global financial giants - Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs." Add Bank of America and make it a foursome. Then use their "muscle to ravage European banks." Even if they wreck the US and world economies. Resuscitate them so they can "advance their global agenda over the coming years." To dominate world finance and increase US hegemony in the new century................