FATF Crashes Stock Market again!

This happened during FATF week in Paris: an orgy of international asset-forfeiture plunder planning! (Source: S&P 500)

The market began wobbling February 16, then crashed violently on February 20, the day the Communist News Network began screeching and wailing about a not-really communist virus outbreak near a germ lab. So what else was happening on those days in places like… Paris? Here’s a taste: 

“FATF Week, 16-21 February 2020. On Sunday 16 February, more than 800 representatives from 205 countries and jurisdictions around the world, the IMF, UN, World Bank and other organisations, will arrive for FATF Week in Paris, France…”(link)

So what is FATF? It is the Harry Anslinger-Herbert Hoover-Richard Nixon-Bush-Bush asset-forfeiture Crash and Great Depression machine. Remember Milton Friedman in Free to Choose? In a fractional-reserve banking system, the money you deposit exists in several places as the clearing-houses compensate the instruments of money transfer. Finally it is loaned out at interest, so a lot of it is no longer at the bank.

So when federal agents with guns and blanket John Doe or Unnamed Asset warrants shove their way inside to grab cash and securities, other depositors can see the liquidity crunch coming and withdraw their assets. This reverses the leveraging of assets which–absent tax and prohibition raids–increases the money supply. The reversing result is mass bankruptcies and devaluation of assets.

Here’s what went on in Paris just before the crash: (link) Sound farfetched? Read their glossary: 

The term confiscation, which includes forfeiture where applicable, means the permanent deprivation of funds or other assets by order of a competent authority or a court. Confiscation or forfeiture takes place through a judicial or administrative procedure that transfers the ownership of specified funds or other assets to be transferred to the State. In this case, the person(s) or entity(ies) that held an interest in the specified funds or other assets at the time of the confiscation or forfeiture loses all rights, in principle, to the confiscated or forfeited funds or other assets. 

FATF was formed as soon as the Reagan-Bush-Biden prohibitionist asset-forfeiture crash deepened into a really bad recession with stock losses and unemployment. They admit this: 

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 by the Ministers of its Member jurisdictions. The mandate of the FATF is to set standards and to promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation, and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. In collaboration with other international stakeholders, the FATF also works to identify national-level vulnerabilities with the aim of protecting the international financial system from misuse.

Pretty shadowy and swampy, huh? And if this thing does wreck economies, who can be held accountable? Who would admit the obvious facts? How would you claim damages?

This sort of thing also happened in 1907, mainly due to new federal regulation of food & drugs and State bans on Beelzebubba’s Beer and The Demon Rum. It happened again in 1921, but was covered up by nullification, then returned with a vengeance in 1929, after Mabel Willebrandt explained, that August, what was going on on “The Inside of Prohibition,” in 20 national papers. Accelerating stock depreciation set in and investors dumped assets…

The banking panics of the Great Depression kept pace with federal indictments of yeast and glucose companies and confiscation of assets plus heavy fines measured in pounds of gold bullion–while the Coast Guard and Customs seized huge shipments of heroin that was steadily replacing beer. The federal government feigns bovine incomprehension of all this causality. 

Government spin-doctors also disavow any knowledge that the Reagan-Bush-Biden asset-forfeiture craze of 1987 had anything to do with that recession, and play dumb in sworn testimony and thick reports on the Flash Crashes. Here’s the latest one, with “market crash”, “financial collapse”, and “economic recession” nowhere to be seen.(link) Here’s a foretaste of Knife-Your-Customer snitching: 

A. CUSTOMER DUE DILIGENCE AND TIPPING-OFF.
1. If, during the establishment or course of the customer relationship, or when conducting occasional transactions, a financial institution suspects that transactions relate to money laundering or terrorist financing, then the institution should:
  (a) normally seek to identify and verify the identity of the customer and the beneficial owner, whether permanent or occasional, and irrespective of any exemption or any designated threshold that might otherwise apply; and
  (b) make a suspicious transaction report (STR) to the financial intelligence unit (FIU), in accordance with Recommendation 20.
2. Recommendation 21 prohibits financial institutions, their directors, officers and employees from disclosing the fact that an STR or related information is being reported to the FIU. A risk exists that customers could be unintentionally tipped off when the financial institution is seeking to perform its customer due diligence (CDD) obligations in these circumstances. The customer’s awareness of a possible STR or investigation could compromise future efforts to investigate the suspected money laundering or terrorist financing operation.
3. Therefore, if financial institutions form a suspicion that transactions relate to money laundering or terrorist financing, they should take into account the risk of tipping-off when performing the CDD process. If the institution reasonably believes that performing the CDD process will tip-off the customer or potential customer, it may choose not to pursue that process, and should file an STR. Institutions should ensure that their employees are aware of, and sensitive to, these issues when conducting CDD. 

Nice friendly stuff, eh? But hey, what’s another global economic crash compared with a convenient flu outbreak generating fewer fatalities than U.S. auto accidents for the same timeframe? This coming recession could easily eliminate the memory loss that sets in after each new crash and depression is explained away. Libertarian candidates could explain to voters what happens time after time, and I’ll lay odds someone will listen. 

FATF Bush Crash, Obama Dems win 8 years. FATF Trump-Biden Crash?? (link)

Find out the juicy details behind the mother of all economic collapses. Prohibition and The Crash–Cause and Effect in 1929 is available in two languages on Amazon Kindle, each at the cost of a pint of craft beer.

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1988 Great Depression, 1929 Remake

Denial that prohibition caused ANOTHER Crash!

Republicans and their Democratic abettors pretended the 1920-22 Crash and Depression were happenstance—nothing whatsoever to do with a Constitutional Amendment ending the freedom of trade and production. Those closest to the public–smugglers and bootleggers–simply ignored the dry laws, and paid cops, agents, prosecutors, inspectors and judges to help them ignore them. Freedom from coercion was bought and sold like any other commodity in a mixed-economy market.

Realists understood perfectly that coercive meddling had precipitated the Crash and plunged the nation into a Depression at the onset of Constitutional Prohibition. And sure enough, nullification of the dry looters’ laws enabled the economy to recover in fairly short order. But God’s Own Prohibitionists were far from pleased. The Great Unwashed was treating them with the sort of irreverence Andrew Jackson had displayed toward the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice: “Now let’s see him enforce it.”

Goodbye Weimar, hello Third Reich!

Battalions of brutes with service pistols and political will could, they imagined, secure “real” prohibition enforcement. Sheer murderous mobilization had, after all, served to Hooverize and throttle the Accursed Hun in 1918, had it not? So the Jones Five and Ten Law was handed to Herbert Hoover to wield as bludgeon, bayonet and blackjack. Former prosecutor Willebrandt published the complete arsenal of government weaponization in a book-length column in August and September in some 2 dozen papers, and the economy went from recovering to ruined in 12 weeks.

Suddenly, amid the wreckage of the Crash, Senator Jones Law Jones–the very incarnation of the Methodist White Terror–was running the G.O.P.  Senator Robinson, remanded to the Sahara of the Bozarts, was replaced at the Dem helm by impecunious-immigrant-turned-gold-magnate Walsh. Walsh was father of Evalyn “Hope Diamond” Walsh McLean, a hard-drinking morphine addict once best friends with the Late President Warren Harding, and married to Edward McLean, newspaper magnate nearly arrested for lying to protect a former cabinet officer in the Teapot Dome.

Events in 1987 followed the same pattern. Mystical prohibitionism ramped up until the economy crashed in 1987, then retrenched with increasing fanaticism until voters had no choice but to throw the bastards out.

Prohibition kills economy; government adds MORE prohibition! (link)

The article says:

WASHINGTON (AP) – faced with a revolt by conservatives, congressional leaders attached anti-obscenity provisions to a compromise drug bill so the measure can pass and the 100th Congress can go home.
A weary House Speaker Jim Wright predicted Thursday night that both houses would approve the leaders’ “final agreement” on the drug bill today, but cautioned that the obscenity language could not be “nailed down” until lawmakers reviewed it. The bill is the major legislation keeping Congress in session.
After marathon meetings by rank-and-file negotiators, Wright along with the majority and minority leaders of both houses – gathered to tackle the unresolved issues Thursday night.
The thorniest among them proved to be Senate-passed language to give the federal government broad new powers to combat obscenity.
Earlier in the day, rank-and-file lawmakers stripped the language from the drug bill after liberals insisted the government’s powers would be too broad.
“We were threatened with a revolt” by conservatives, said right, who admitted he began envisioning an embarrassing floor fight that would destroy his effort to unite liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, behind the bill that could help all incumbents.
A coalition of conservative groups began an intense last-ditch telephone campaign to win inclusion of the anti-obscenity provisions, said Diane quarter main, legislative affairs director of the Liberty Federation, formerly the Moral Majority.
The bill – which would authorize some $2.5 billion in new anti-drug money, is an ambitious attempt to deal with all aspects of the drug problem, including law enforcement, treatment, rehabilitation, education and help for authorities in drug-producing countries.
New initiatives would include up to $10,000 in civil fines for those caught with personal use amounts of drugs; a federal death penalty for killers in drug -related crimes; and denial of some federal benefits to convicted drug offenders, including users.
A number of lawmakers cautioned the drug bill would be meaningless without new financing, and the House Appropriations Committee took quick action Thursday.
The panel approved $500 million in new spending for the drug bill, an amount that would pay for barely a third of the estimated $1.4 billion first-year costs of the legislation. The final cost is expected to be about $2.5 billion if the multi-year measure is fully financed. The $500 million includes: $242 million for treatment, prevention and education; $179 million for new agents and equipment for federal law enforcement agencies; $42 million for the federal courts; $25 million for the Coast Guard; and the rest for programs of the departments of State and agriculture, and the FDA.
A combined bill to combat adult obscenity and child pornography had passed the Senate 97-0 previously, and was added to the drug bill when the House refused to take action. The child pornography language was approved by the drug bill negotiators.
The obscenity language passed by the Senate would allow the federal government to seize property used to commit or promote and obscenity offense; and authorize the government to seek civil fines against those producing, transporting or receiving obscene materials. Wright said the leadership agreed to target only major dealers or producers of obscene materials who were “knowingly engaged over a long period of time.” He said the language was not aimed at the bookstore owner who may have a single volume judged to be obscene.
He called the language “constitutionally respectable and acceptable.”
Lawmakers opted to accept portions of House and Senate language on a program to deny federal benefits to convicted drug offenders, including those convicted of possession.
Benefits such as federal public housing, grants, contracts, loans, mortgage guarantees, and some forms of veterans’ aid could be lost to drug offenders. Judges would have discretion, however, on whether to impose the penalty after conviction.
the president would submit a report on the program to Congress next May, allowing lawmakers to reconsider the proposal. No one could be denied benefits before next September. Social Security, Medicare, welfare benefits and some other veterans’ aid programs would be exempted even after September.
Negotiators agreed that if someone is killed during a federal drug felony, the federal death penalty could apply if: the killer was engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise; was trafficking in major amounts of cocaine, heroin or other drugs; intentionally gave an order that resulted in a killing; or killed a police officer.
In other key decisions, negotiators:
– agreed to create a “drug czar” in the president’s Cabinet, to coordinate national drug policy. The official would develop plans for every phase of the drug war, share with relevant Cabinet heads the authority to transfer personnel, and have the right to object when he believes drug funding is inadequate or misdirected.
Dropped a house provision that would’ve permitted introduction in federal court of evidence seized illegally, but in “good faith,” even in warrantless searches.
Accepted Senate language on child pornography, including a 20-year-to-life prison term for anyone convicted of facilitating use of a child for producing sexually explicit materials.
Gave the Justice Department nine months to develop a system for gun dealers to check whether purchasers are convicted felons.
Agreed that records of those punished by civil fines would be expunged automatically after a period of time.
– resolved that states initially would have to contribute 25% of the cost of federal grants for anti-drug crime programs. After the first year of the four-your program, the state portion would go to 50%. [Enter Bush Junior faith-based asset forfeiture Executive Order, which by 2008 would again wreck the economy]
– agreed to restore to US attorneys the ability to prosecute corrupt public officials under the theory that they deprived Americans of honest government services. A Supreme Court ruling in June 1987 had prevented such prosecutions.
– Agreed to finance drug education programs for private employees, low income pregnant women, gang members, students, and dropouts.
– Decided to drop proposals for random drug testing of transportation workers.

Get the complete story in Prohibition and The Crash on Amazon Kindle in two languages. After this you’ll be able to explain to economists exactly how fanaticism and loss of freedom wrecked the U.S. economy.

I also produce books and articles in Portuguese, using Brazilian historical sources at http://www.expatriotas.blogspot.com or amigra.us

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