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The US dollar is undoubtedly the prime mover of the world’s financial systems. It still remains to be the main currency reserve despite claims of an emerging euro domination. Because of its pivotal role in the global economy, the dollar’s value is a matter of concern the world over. Most countries rein in the value of their currencies through their dollar reserves; foreign central banks hold US Treasury bonds; and a majority of the oil cartel’s holdings are still in dollars.

In forex markets, the dollar is the most traded currency, figuring in more than 80 percent of all transactions. The euro trails behind and is continually expanding in terms of international reach but forex trading is still primarily centered on the dollar.

The United States emerged as a formidable financial player in the aftermath of World War II, when most of Europe was in shambles. In the 1940s, the Bretton Woods system was established, which obliged each member country to maintain the exchange rate of its currency within a fixed range in terms of gold. This worked well for the US since it had the largest gold reserves at the time. The US poured money into the reconstruction of Europe and also opened liberal trade relations with a lot of countries, thus effectively increasing the stock of dollars in foreign central banks.

Things started going downhill for the US during the 1970s as its gold reserves depleted largely because of the Vietnam War. Central banks, fearing that the American currency was facing an imminent devaluation, started clamoring for gold in exchange for the dollars they were holding. Since the country had insufficient gold reserves, then President Nixon responded by abandoning the Bretton Woods system altogether. This led the currencies to shift to a floating status.

From a legal tender with a measurable equivalent in gold, the dollar became what some economists call a political currency. Its continued use in international trade stemmed from the continued economic, political, and military domination of the United States. Since most financial transactions and commodities, particularly oil, were traded in dollars, the US currency enjoyed a strong demand despite the country’s burgeoning trade deficit.

In 2006, the trade deficit reached a record of more than $800 billion. This is more than enough to put any other currency on a disastrous collapse and yet the dollar stays afloat, thanks to the US Treasury bonds and other government assets held by most foreign central banks. In essence, the dollar is supported by foreign borrowing.

However, some economists contend that the deficit is actually helpful in maintaining liquidity in world trade. An $800 billion US deficit means that there is an extra $800 billion circulating in the global economy. If the US were to take drastic steps in balancing its current account, then it would effectively derail the financial movement of international commerce.

The dollar currently suffers from depreciation as other major currencies such as the euro and the yen are getting stronger. Apart from the obvious effects of the trade deficit, this was also brought about by the interest rates cuts of the Federal Reserve, a strategic move to jump-start an economy that threatens to plunge into recession. While this makes foreign importers and tourists happy, the European Union and other export players are bitterly complaining since the depreciating dollar makes their goods more expensive and edges them out of the trade competition.

For how long the United States can keep up with the dollar’s weakening value and still convince its creditors to hold on to their T-bonds and cheques is a matter that remains to be seen. In reality though, it will take a long while and an awful lot of economic upheavals before the dollar is dislodged from its current position as the world’s most important currency.

Kristien Wilkinson is an online writer and contributor to http://www.forexmarkets.com

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The current financial crisis

The public have a common understanding that the subprime mortgage crisis has leaded to a far more serious consequence, so called ‘the financial crisis’ recently. To be exact, It has been going on for seven months. But how will that be happened? This is the question. The subprime load crisis is relatively simple to understand. People bought homes they couldn’t afford, and now they are falling behind on their home loans. This has caused the loss of related financial institutions.

However, the amount of loss is not the major cause of the financial crisis. US government has already announced to take over Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG, and have injected the capital over that amount into the market. Besides, the majority of homeowners are still doing just fine. The conventional mortgage market is still healthy. So, how is it that a mess concentrated in one part of the mortgage business: the subprime loans, has frozen up the whole credit markets in United States? How would that crisis caused such a big impact to the stock market, causing the collapse of Bear Sterns, Lehman brothers, etc, and left the economy on the brink of the worst recession in a generation and forced the Federal Reserve to take its boldest action since the Depression in 1923?
 
In order to have a big picture of this incident, I think this could be explained in this way. First of all, behind the whole financial crisis, there are actually 3 major components: the subprime mortgage, Leverage (or gearing), and the Credit Default Swap(CDS). We have mentioned about subprime mortgage before. So, what is leverage? In the finance industry, leverage is a common way to use in such a way to magnify the outcome of the investments. This can be done by various financial instruments such as options, futures, margin or borrowed capital, to increase the potential return of an investment. 
 
At present, many investment banks use leverage to operate more then 20 times of their capital. For example, if bank A have an asset of 5 billion, then 30 times of leverage means that bank A can operate 150 billions of money, in which most are borrowed. It is obvious, if there is 5% of profit in the investment, then bank A has a profit of 7.5 billion. However, on the other hand, if there is 5% loss in the investment, then bank A loss all it’s 5 billion of asset, and still owe the lender 2.5 billion.
 
The third component is CDS. What is CDS? As explained above, the operation of leverage is very risky. So some bankers think of a way to take insurance on these leverage. This insurance is called CDS. It is a specific kind of agreement which allows the transfer of third party credit risk from one party to the other. One party in the swap is a lender and faces credit risk from a third party, and the counterparty in the credit default swap agrees to insure this risk in exchange of regular periodic payments. For example, Peter borrows $100 from John. John wants to get insurance on this $100 debt in case Peter was unable to return the money. The John goes to Jane and asked for Jane to insurance that debt. Jane agrees to do so if John is willing to pay her an insurance fee of $5 per year. That is exactly the most simplified scenario of CDS.
 
Now, apply that in the world of banks. Recall the example of ‘bank A’. Bank A operates a leverage of 30 times. To reduce the risk, it goes to bank B and asked for bank B to do CDS insurance. After analysis the market data, bank B knows that the breach of contract case is less than 1%. Therefore, bank B is willing to take that insurance to earn the insurance fee. However, this is not the end of the story. Although bank B agree to accept the insurance, it can not have the insurance fee immediately. At the same time, some other banks such as bank C, bank D, etc. are interested to these CDS contracts. So bank B is willing to re-sell them to other banks to have the cash immediately. This is the scenario. The CDS contracts being sell and re-sell continuously among different financial sectors. In the mean time,
the market value of the CDS has reached 62 trillion.
 
However, you may see that, all the banks A, B, C, etc are making money. So, where is the money comes from?  The money comes from the revenue generated by the subprime mortgage business. So why the honey moon period can continue in the previous few years? It is because the real estate prices keep rising in the previous few years. In that period, home owners and buy and re-sell the real estates easily, who can earn good money at the same time. It just likes snowball or bubble. The market keeps rocking until 2006. When the downturns came, the prices of the real estates dropped. People who are lack of financial ability was unable to pay the high interests of those subprime loans. In that case, the subprime mortgage market started collapsing, which in turn affecting the CDS market. Banks and financial institutions who are involved in those products is unavoidably being affected. In fact, nearly all I-banks and most of the commercial banks are involved in this storm, or more appropriates, the tsunami. 

George C. (http://www.finance-database.com)

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Forex: To trade or not to trade? Many are reluctant to associate with Forex trading because of its risks. Generally speaking, there are risks everywhere in our lives: May factories fails, not a customer May appointment if you open a store, stock market May crush, and if you are an employee, you get fired May undertaken during reduction. There are risks everywhere! The important question here is how you learn and maintain your own risk. So if you plan to participate in the Forex market, you have to learn risk management, instead of being terrified.

Picking Up the forex dealer right

One of the best ways to avoid unnecessary risks is to avoid fraud dealer.

Forex is a special market operations without centralized. Thus, unlike regulated futures, there is no central Forex market for buyers or sellers, therefore the price offered by different dealers Forex May vary widely. When you’re negotiating Forex market, you are totally relying on the integrity of the concessionaire for fair treatment.

Besides, you must select a right Forex dealer to avoid scams. It May be Forex dealers who are not legally regulated and perhaps investment scams, especially on the Internet. Be very careful about who you’re dealing with Forex and always check carefully on investment offers.

Stop order

The Forex market can move against you. No one can predict with certainty how the exchange rate will, and the Forex market is volatile. The fluctuations in the exchange rate between the time you place the trade and when you try to liquidate it will affect the price of your contract Forex and the potential profits and losses thereof. To avoid losing all your investment capital, you must have a pre-arrangement on your risk profile. A solid risk profile is limited forex dealer not to exceed the risk that you can not handle. For example, if you have 100000 to invest, you can say you’re willing to risk 10000 of this capital with the possibility of winning another 100000. This can be easily implemented by a fund manager so that your losses can be limited to 10% or 5% of capital invested.

Avoid excessive margin trading

Another way to manage your risks well Forex market is trade without overleveraged. Forex dealers offer high leverage* which in turn allows clients to trade more volume. Also, trade highly leveraged in May to increase your profit or your loss. It is high possibilities that are losing money more than he or she can afford a room for negotiation.

Forex can be extremely beneficial to a variety of people. It gives enormous leverage* rate, it gives incompatible liquidity of your money it gives to facilitate commerce on the Internet, and it can certainly give you a lot of money if you trade intelligently. Like any other business trade, if you’re new, the best advice you can get is to learn and practise more before you test your “wings”. Seminars, e-books, Internet, documents, video courses – all these are good for your loan. You can also test your skills on the free demonstration. After all, Forex trades 24 hours a day and it is always to make money on the market, so why not be patient until you’re quite ready for it?

The diversification in Forex trading

Diversification is another way to manage risks in Forex market. Trading a currency pair will generate little input signals. If you want to reduce your risk of Forex market, it would be better to diversify your transactions between different currencies.

Try trade at the same time on different pair of currency. Say you have a capital of $ 1000, instead of putting all your money in the long EUR / USD, you can split the money half long EUR / USD and GBD / USD ($ 500 each) that these two currencies are strongly correlated and tends to move in the same direction.

Conclusion

It goes without saying that knowledge is another key to managing your risk. Before arriving in Forex market, the best thing you should do is educate yourself. What drives the currency price trends? How to read data analysis? How to read indicators table? To find out details on how the currency price and how to trade foreign exchange in order to avoid unnecessary risks.

You come to this article probably because you are new to FOREX and the search for lectures on the Internet. To be frank, Forex can be very profitable but the risk is below is equally great. But what else in life does not present a risk? You can be fired from your job, a plant malfunction of May, stock market collapse of May, your boss May fugue with your salary, and hey! These are all risks. Learning in risk management is the key to managing your life.

Commerce intelligently, and get the maximum Forex – good luck!

* Without proper risk management, this high degree of leverage can lead to large losses as well as gains.

http://www.autotradingfx.com

http://www.autotradingfx.com/articles/understanding-risks-forex-trading

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Apart from the financial and accounting services that accountants provide, many people are oblivious to the fact that accountants are just serving a host of government departments with the work that they render. Tax, statistics and labor related issues are areas where accountants are compelled to comply.

It is believed that governments would collapse if accountants in practice were to stop submitting all the taxes on behalf of their business and individual clients. Hence, tax and legal subjects are compulsory for any accounting student.

Like all sectors of the economy, accountants play a vital role in developing society, and their services to their respective countries should be acknowledged. Their skills enable states and countries to prosper.

The statistics generated in tax forms, labor etc. is an important barometer of economic and employment growth. Accountants contribute to the formalization of businesses that would otherwise have been outside of the tax Their assistance, ensures that more businesses are established, bringing in more tax revenues for governments.

Where do we draw the line? Are accountants obliged to co-operate in every arena?
The accountant carries a huge responsibility in complying with the law at all times.
The laws of democratic dispensations, however, entitle the accountant to privacy.
Accountants are NOT at liberty to divulge certain information that is regarded as confidential. In their haste to appease authorities, they loose sight of the importance of accountant-client privilege.

Authorities, in western countries, as well as other democracies, are passing numerous laws that effectively “coerce” accountants and financial tax to report irregularities and “suspect” transactions in tax, share dealing and financial instrument trading. After Enron and World Com, authorities are keeping a close eye on financial advisors. These regulations are welcomed, but places advisors in a precarious position.

Honest mistakes can me misconstrued, as serious transgressions. Accountants lack the capacity to scrutinize every transaction in their client’s books. The hosts of laws being passed in many countries are turning advisors into bloodhounds, when they should be “watch dogs”.

A fine balance should be struck between the requirements of the law and the needs of business owners. Clients pay for the services, after all, and their opinion matters most. Of course, unethical or illegal behavior can never be countenanced.

It is advisable that recourse should be sought in those laws that demand court orders or search warrants before information is obtained illegally by tax Many “demands” circumvent basic, common law principles.

Accountants should act like attorneys, and defend their client’s interests, first and foremost.

Accounting and finance related queries can be addressed, on our website. Feel free to visit our site by clicking on the url below. Sean Goss website: http://www.sgafc.co.za

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Gold rose to $778.85 an ounce as Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy and fears over the instability of U.S. financial markets brought on mass rush for safety. Reuters reported that since Lehman Brothers Holdings had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the dollar dropped as much as 1 percent against the euro.

“Gold is on fire right now. There is a huge amount of nervousness about Merrill and Lehman. The financials are being hit really hard and things could get very interesting once U.S. markets open,” Peter McGuire, managing director of Commodity Warrants Australia said. “These are not normal events and people are running to safety, running to quality,” he said, speculating that that gold could raise up to $820 to $830 in the next couple of days.

Gerard Burg, an analyst at National Australia Bank was reported saying that “Gold’s price response today looks like safe-haven behavior. The Lehman story is dominating markets, while
bullion is probably getting a bit of a lift from the dollar, but the longer-term is still bearish. In relative terms gold has been pretty soft as the dollar strengthened. Also Indian demand looks comparatively weak and the gold market can’t live without India.”

Should American dollar remain relatively weak, the price of gold will most likely continue to increase. Under present economic and political conditions, one should not, however, expect another high of 1,000 an ounce in the near future. A great number of important financial analysts predicted higher gold prices in the year 2008, however, these educated hypotheses were made prior to the latest financial market fiascos in the United States of America. To unavoidably worsen the situation, economic crisis is unavoidably spreading world-wide, the impact of the U.S. financial troubles sinking financial markets far outside its geographic realm. For example, Bloomberg reports that Canadian stocks fell, entering a bear market, as Manulife Financial Corp. led financial firms on their steepest decline since 2001 after saying it will write down investments with U.S. banks and insurers. Furthermore, stock of Sun Life Financial Inc giant experience the most sever drop in the past eight years, after stating that it will take a charge on investments with American International Group Inc, the U.S. insurer that’s seeking to avert collapse with an emergency loan from the Federal Reserve.

Amidst the crisis, gold sure does look like a safe investment. Interestingly enough however, although the troubled U.S. financial markets do not appear to be on a speedy path to recovery, analysts predict future recovery of the dollar, as oppose to its further decline. That would spell a decline in gold demand. Which means gold price will drop, and not increase in the near future.

http://www.gold4cash.ca

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Why invest in gold bullion? Learn the reasons why you need to invest in gold in order to secure your savings, fight the consequences of inflation and reckless monetary policy, protect yourself against coming bank collapses and ride the current gold bull market all the way to the top.

One of the most popular reasons to invest in gold, especially gold bullion is to “hedge” against inflation. Because the main factor behind increasing inflation rates is the creation of additional currency (sometimes called the printing of money) gold bullion is a way to shield yourself from the effects of this. Every time more money is added to the supply of money, the purchasing power of all the money in the supply decreases because there is more currency chasing the same amount of goods. When you go to the supermarket for some groceries, this inflation is what makes everything get more and more expensive each year. According to official sources inflation is around the 4.2% mark. However, it is really much higher than this as that figure is an average of most goods available for purchase, including ones that tend to decrease in price such as electronics. Because the average person spends more of their money on things that are inflating in price at a greater rate, such as food, fuel, accommodation and education, the true rate of inflation is around the 10-20% mark.

To invest in gold bullion means that the money you have put into that gold is protected from inflation. Because gold is in such limited supply, it’s value cannot be inflated by increasing its supply. However, when the supply of currency such as the US dollar or British pound increases, the value of that gold goes up as well. Therefore, that same gold bullion, adjusted for inflation, is worth a the very minimum, the same amount virtually all the time. Having gold investments, especially in bullion protects you from inflation and stops the purchasing power of your money from being destroyed. That is reason enough for why you should invest in gold bullion.

However, with the demand for gold set to increase from countries such as China, India and Russia, as well as the worsening sub-prime mortgage crisis and a loss of confidence in “paper” money, the price of gold looks set to skyrocket. With gold sitting at just under $1000 an ounce, it is still very good buying. The current gold bull market is very young, and a large number of trusted analysts are predicting that $2000+ per ounce is not unlikely.

Why invest in gold bullion?

To protect you and your family’s money from inflation and ensure that your current level of purchasing power is maintained. Also, with the price of gold set to skyrocket, it looks like a very promising investment that is currently undervalued. What tends to happen with gold is when its price starts to increase rapidly, more and more people pile in and the price shoots further upwards. This phase hasn’t been reached yet, so I would highly recommend that you invest in gold now, before the increases in price make investment more difficult and less rewarding.

How do you invest in gold bullion? Click here to learn how to invest in gold the proper way and prevent the risk of losing money, increase your returns and find the best deals on gold, as well as learn how you can get free tradable gold. Also, learn more about why investing in gold bullion is a good idea, especially as the current global economic situation worsens.

Arthur Williamson has been investing in and writing about precious metals such as gold and silver, as well as other commodities for over 20 years.

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Pick Up Forex Trading Now!

The name Forex, come from Foreign Exchange Market, which also referred as “Forex” or “FX” in short. Basically it involves a pair of currency. Meaning you buy a currency in exchange to another country currency.

For example if you visit Hong Kong from US. What would you do? Go to the money changer, use your US dollar to exchange for Hong Kong dollar right? By doing so you are actually selling your US dollar and buying Hong Kong dollar so that you can spend in Hong Kong. So if you return to US, you too will exchange your Hong Kong dollar to US dollar. Now you are buying back US dollar and selling your Hong Kong dollar. By now I hope you get the idea of basic currency trading.

So why trade Forex, you may ask? Well Forex is a 24 hours market and it is one of the largest markets in the world in term of daily volume. It trade volume range from 1 to 3 trillion USD every day. This is 6 to 8 times higher than the volume of the stock market in the world. It provides a lot of liquidity in the market. The large volume of participants also reduces opportunities for insider trading. To put thing to simple, there has NEVER been a case of complete currency collapse in a developed country.

For Forex trading is there is no restriction of short selling. Meaning you can buy (Long) or sell (Short). This mean you can easily trade in a rising or falling market.

Another great advantage of Forex Trading is leverage. Typically leverage increases your buying power. With this you are able to increase your total return on investment with less cash outlay. Of course increasing leverage increase risk too. However if you know how to manage your risk, this should not be a problem. Example if you have only $1000 dollar cash in a forex margin account, and a 200: 1 leverage, you can trade up to $200,000 in notional value.

Here is only some of the basic information on Forex Trading. To pick up forex trading, you may search more information in the internet or buy some books on Forex to read. Understand the basic foundation of Forex is a must!

Yeo Kian Poh

Pick up forex trading at http://pickupforextrading.com Eric Yeo is the creator of Pick Up Forex Trading

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“It is a cruel thought, that, when we feel ourselves standing on the firmest ground in every respect, the cursed arts of our secret enemies, combining with other causes, should effect, by depreciating our money, what the open arms of a powerful enemy could not.” –Thomas Jefferson to Richard Henry Lee, 1779. ME 4:298, Papers 2:298

“Historically, the United States has been a hard money country. Only [since 1913] has the United States operated on a fiat money system. During this period, paper money has depreciated over 87%. During the preceding 140 year period, the hard currency of the United States had actually maintained its value. Wholesale prices in 1913 … were the same as in 1787.” — Kenneth Gerbino, former chairman of the American Economic Council
“We make money the old fashioned way. We print it.” — Art Rolnick, former Chief Economist, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank

“Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.” — George Washington, in a letter to J. Bowen, Rhode Island, Jan. 9, 1787
“Of all contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effective than that which deludes them with paper money.” — Daniel Webster”
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching. It unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country … the Money Power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” — Abraham Lincoln, just after the passage of the National Banking Act of 1863

“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America rise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.” — John Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson in 1787
“Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value – zero.” — Voltaire (1694-1778)
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” — Thomas Jefferson in 1802 in a letter to then Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin

The value of paper money is precisely the value of a politician’s promise, as high or low as you put that; the value of gold is protected by the inability of politicians to manufacture it. — Sir William Rees-Mogg

The monetary managers are fond of telling us that they have substituted ‘responsible money management’ for the gold standard. But there is no historic record of responsible paper money management … The record taken as a whole is one of hyperinflation, devaluation and monetary chaos. — Henry Hazlitt

“The creation of money exclusively as debt is the critical, destabilizing flaw in the American Economy”. — author Theodore R. Thoren explains The Truth In Money Book.
“The decrease in purchasing power incurred by holders of money due to inflation imparts gains to the issuers of money … .” — St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank in “Review”, Nov. 1975
“You have to choose [as a voter] between trusting to the natural stability of gold and the natural stability of the honesty and intelligence of the members of the Government. And, with due respect for these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the Capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Without the confidence factor, many believe a paper money system is liable to collapse eventually.” — Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia in “Gold”
“Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce.” — President James A. Garfield
“Those who create and issue money and credit direct the policies of government and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people.” — Rt. Hon. Reginald McKenna, former Chancellor of Exchequer, England

“If Congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given to be used by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations.” — Andrew Jackson

QUOTES ON FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICY:

“The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled and the pubic debt should be reduced. The arrogance of public officialdom should be tempered and controlled. And the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest we become bankrupt.” — Cicero, 63 B.C.
“Inflation has now been institutionalized at a fairly constant 5% per year. This has been scientifically determined to be the optimum level for generating the most revenue without causing public alarm. A 5% devaluation applies, not only to the money earned this year, but to all that is left over from previous years. At the end of the first year, a dollar is worth 95 cents. At the end of the second year, the 95 cents is reduced again by 5%, leaving its worth at 90 cents, and so on. By the time a person has worked 20 years, the government will have confiscated 64% of every dollar he saved over those years. By the time he has worked 45 years, the hidden tax will be 90%. The government will take virtually everything a person saves over a lifetime.” — G. Edward Griffin, historian and author of “The Creature From Jekyll Island”

“By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose … If, however, a government refrains from regulations and allows matters to take their course, essential commodities soon attain a level of price out of the reach of all but the rich, the worthlessness of the money becomes apparent, and the fraud upon the public can be concealed no longer.” — John Maynard Keynes, economist and author of “The Economic
Consequences Of The Peace” (1920)

“About all a Federal Reserve note can legally do is wipe out one debt and replace it with itself, another debt, a note that promises nothing. If anything’s been paid, the payment occurs only in the minds of the parties ….” — Tupper Saucy, author of “The Miracle On Main Street”
“… the gold standard is incompatible with chronic deficit spending (the hallmark of the welfare state).” — Greenspan, Alan; “Gold and Economic Freedom”, Rand, Ayn; Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal; Signet Books, 1967; pp96-101. See full text in FAME’s FedWatch section http://www.fame.org/.

QUOTES ON BANKING:

“I sincerely believe … that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” — Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816.
“Banks lend by creating credit. They create the means of payment out of nothing.” — Ralph M. Hawtrey, former Secretary of Treasury, England
“Money is the most important subject intellectual persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it is widely understood and its defects remedied very soon.” — Robert H. Hemphill, former credit manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

“Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money and control credit, and with a flick of a pen they will create enough to buy it back.” — Sir Josiah Stamp, former President, Bank of England
“The Founding Fathers of this great land had no difficulty whatsoever understanding the agenda of bankers, and they frequently referred to them and their kind as, quote, “friends of paper money. They hated the Bank of England, in particular, and felt that even were we successful in winning our independence from England and King George, we could never truly be a nation of freemen, unless we had an honest money system. Through ignorance, but moreover, because of apathy, a small, but wealthy, clique of power brokers have robbed us of our Rights and Liberties, and we are being raped of our wealth. We are paying the price for the near-comatose levels of complacency by our parents, and only God knows what might become of our children, should we not work diligently to shake this country from its slumber! Many a nation has lost its freedom at the end of a gun barrel, but here in America, we just decided to hand it over voluntarily. Worse yet, we paid for the tyranny and usurpation out of our own pockets with “voluntary” tax contributions and the use of a debt-laden fiat currency!.” — Peter Kershaw, author of the 1994 booklet “Economic Solutions”

“The real truth of the matter is, and you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson. History depicts Andrew Jackson as the last truly honorable and incorruptible American president.” — President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, November 23, 1933 in a letter to Colonel Edward Mandell House
“The truly unique power of a central bank, after all, is the power to create money, and ultimately the power to create is the power to destroy.” — Pringle, Robert; and Deane, Marjorie: The Central Banks; Viking, 1994, page viii.

“When you or I write a check there must be sufficient funds in our account to cover that check, but when the Federal Reserve writes a check, it is creating money.” — Boston Federal Reserve Bank in a publication titled “Putting It Simply”

“Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are U.S. government institutions. They are not … they are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the U.S. for the benefit of themselves and their foreign and domestic swindlers, and rich and predatory money lenders. The sack of the United States by the Fed is the greatest crime in history. Every effort has been made by the Fed to conceal its powers, but the truth is the Fed has usurped the government. It controls everything here and it controls all our foreign relations. It makes and breaks governments at will.” — Congressman Charles McFadden, Chairman, House Banking and Currency Committee,

June 10, 1932
“.. we conclude that the [Federal] Reserve Banks are not federal … but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations … without day to day direction from the federal government..” — 9th Circuit Court in Lewis vs. United States, June 24, 1982
“… You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the grace of the Eternal God, I will rout you out.” — President Andrew Jackson, upon evicting a delegation of international bankers from the Oval Office
“Give me control over a nation’s currency and I care not who makes its laws.” — Baron M.A. Rothschild (1744 – 1812)

Submitted by: Regis Sauger (Submitter does not make any claims as to having any input or credits for above quotes which are considered available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act.)

Regis Sauger is a licensed Mortgage Broker in Florida, an author, lecturer on credit awareness. He has conducted seminars for underwriters, attorneys, mortgage lenders, realtors and the general public. http://www.yurcredit.com

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Back in 1997 major financial slump rocked number of countries in Asia, an event that became known as “Asian currency crisis”. Effected countries included Taiwan, Thailand South Korea and others. One of the memorable comments of the time came from one of leading Thai politicians. He blamed this whole mess on speculators, with George Soros being the main culprit. The remarks went so far as to public statement of “not being able to guarantee his safety if he visited Thailand”. Quite ominous.

The fallout in South Korea was brutal. The US Dollar has about doubled in value against the Won, with USD-KRW moving from just above 800 in early 1997, to 1600 by the year’s end. Local stock market suffered similar fate, as did all areas of economy. Perhaps most telling was an enormous spike in unemployment, as the jobless rate soared to almost double digits, with about 9 million people out of work.

This author observed the aftermath first hand, during one of his business trips to South Korea at that time. Collapse of once high flying conglomerate Daewoo under burden of debt. The sight of many construction projects suspended or stopped all over Seoul and Pusan. Daily failure of scores of small business. It was good time to visit South Korea, due to low prices, but very difficult period for residents.

The country has rebounded nicely since then and became one of Asia’s most dynamic economies. KRW strengthen considerably reaching level 900 against USD in 2007. The stock market has recorded double digit gains in four of the last five years, gaining 32% in last year alone. Korean companies like Samsung Electronics Co, and Hyundai Motors Co, have established themselves as some of the world’s leading corporations.

Things have changed in 2008. Challenges like high oil prices, inflation, external debt and account deficit have shaken investors confidence. While many countries have seen outflow of funds into the dollar, this process became especially painful in South Korea. The Won has become the Asia’s worst performing currency, loosing 20% to date. Stock market was no better, falling 25%, with farther sell off of equities expected.

These developments created widely spread comparisons to situation from 1997 and were quick to be picked by the press. International Monetary Fund disagrees with this assessment and expressed confidence by saying that South Korea is a mature and resilient economy with country’s fundamentals much stronger than a decade ago. Korean financial authorities, however, felt obligated to act by intervention on Wons behalf in the open market. This seemed to stop the bleeding for now.

What can be expected next? In all reality, 1997 type sell off is extremely unlikely. As South Korean economy is cooling down together with the rest of the world, Seoul might not be able to stop bleeding of the stock market but there is one thing they can do- keep intervening on behalf of its currency. Unlike before, there are huge foreign reserves, about 250 billion dollars worth of, and they can be used to support Won.

Very likely scenario, as of this writing, is continued fall of Korean equities, in tune with broader stock declines. The Won should also keep dropping, but in much more measured and steady pace. Central Bank has not mentioned what the comfortable level for USD-KRW is, but as we noticed over last few years, major trends are very powerful and can go through any “line in the sand’ drawn by anybody.

Current rate is around 1150. Even with expected interventions, Won can easily weaken to 1300 and maybe 1400, but far short of the previous low of 1600. Also, one shouldn’t look for a fast move, but rather steady depreciation, lasting a year or two. This is not a situation for active traders, but for those who prefer longer term positions current development might present good opportunity for farther selling of KRW.

Mike P. Kulej is a Chief Forex Strategist for Spectrum Forex LLC. He specializes in mechanical trading systems as explained on http://www.spectrumforex.com . Spectrum Forex LLC offers numerous services to individual traders. He also publishes trading blog http://www.fxmadness.com. With questions and comments e-mail him at kulej@spectrumforex.com

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