Greed
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[6] NYMEX is short for New York Mercantile Exchange. This agency manages the records for all of the serial numbers of gold bars exported out of the U.S.
[7] FOMC – the Federal Open Market Committee (a committee of Federal Reserve executives) meets on a recurring basis to set monetary policy – interest rates (which is the price of money) and policy implementation.
[8] OTC Derivatives – means Over The Counter Derivatives – derivatives are a class of financial securities that are designed to mitigate (manage and overcome) risk – in other words, a derivative is an insurance policy. Because they are unregulated, the seller may charge much less than the underlying risk exposure; which means that buyers of these contracts may not be fully covered for their risky behavior. Also, the derivatives markets tend to lack transparency – which means fraud can easily be perpetrated, and multiple claims can be made on the same asset without prior knowledge of the counterparties.
[9] At this time, Lawrence Summers was serving as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under Robert Rubin.
[10] Introducing regulation (and presumably, transparency) into a market where none existed would change the perceived risk to the contract holders; and could cause them to sell their contracts at a loss – resulting in an unwinding of the derivatives markets. This 'unwinding' would result in a cascade of selling off other financial instruments – stocks, bonds, etc. – causing an economic collapse of epic proportions.
[11] CFTC is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. This is an independent agency of the U.S. government that regulates futures and options markets.
[12] The Federal Reserve uses various means, such as the Discount Rate and the Fed Funds Rate to set interest rates. In other words, the Fed imposes price fixing on our money. So long as one side of every transaction involves the Fed's money, no transaction takes place in a 'free market'.
[13] SEC is the Securities and Exchange Commission. This agency holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other electronic securities markets in the United States.
[14] LTCM – Long Term Capital Management. LTCM was a private speculative fund that made extensive use of Derivatives.
[15] GSA – Government Services Administration.
[16] A margin requirement is the amount of cash an investor must put down to control the asset. The investor borrows the difference between the asset price and his cash payment. If the asset price falls, the investor must put up additional cash or sell the asset. Raising margin requirements usually causes an increase in asset sales, which results in a further decline in asset prices.
[17] PNTR – Permanent Normal Trade Relations.
[18] NTR – Normal Trade Relations.
[19] On September 10, 2001, Secretary Rumsfeld announced that the Department of Defense could not account for $2.3 trillion.
[20] COMEX - Commodities Exchange.
[21] On September 10, 2001 Defense Secretary Rumsfeld announced the loss of $2.3 Trillion by DoD. On September 11, a section of the Pentagon was destroyed. The destroyed section was the exact place where the financial records and audits were taking place. Thus, the attack on the Pentagon had the effect of covering up this crime.
[22] IT is short for Information Technology.
[23] GLD – the three-letter symbol representing the gold exchange traded fund (ETF).
[24] Salted – in the context of 'salted gold bars', means that the gold bar is a fake.
[25] ETF – Exchange Traded Fund is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. An ETF holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds, and trades close to its net asset value over the course of the trading day. SLV (silver) and GLD (gold) are two such funds.
[26] SPDR – A short form of Standard & Poor's depository receipt, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) managed by State Street Global
[27] HSBC is a British multinational banking and financial company headquartered in London, United Kingdom.
[28] SLV – the three-letter symbol representing the silver exchange traded fund (ETF).
[29] In finance, subprime lending (also referred to as near-prime, non-prime, and second-chance lending) means making loans to people who may have difficulty maintaining the repayment schedule. These loans are characterized by higher interest rates and less favorable terms in order to compensate for higher credit risk.
[30] A mortgage-backed security (MBS) is an asset-backed security that represents a claim on the cash flow from mortgage loans.
Table of Contents
GREED – Book 1 of The Death of Money
Prologue
Episode 1 – The Chespik Incident
Chapter 1 – Circa 1650 A.D.
Chapter 2
Episode 2 – An Incident of England
First Interlude . . .
Chapter 1 – Circa 1690 A.D.
Second Interlude . . .
Chapter 2
Third Interlude . . .
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Fourth Interlude . . .
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Fifth Interlude . . .
Episode 3 – Quest for Empire
Part 1 – Ascension
Chapter 1 – Circa 1950s
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5 – Circa 1963
Chapter 6 – Circa 1971
Part 2 – Tipping Point
Interlude
Chapter 1 – Circa 1992
Chapter 2 – Circa 1994
Chapter 3 – Circa 1992
Interlude
Chapter 4 – Circa 1994
Chapter 5
Chapter 6 – Circa 1996
Chapter 7
Interlude
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11 – Circa 1997/1998
Chapter 12 – Circa 1998
Chapter 13 – Circa 1999
Chapter 14
Interlude
Chapter 15 – Circa June, 2001
Chapter 16 – September 7, 2001
September 10, 2001 . . .
Chapter 17 – September 11, 2001
Part 3 – War
Chapter 1 – September 11, 2001 (Continued)
Chapter 2 – September 13, 2001
Interlude
Chapter 3 – Circa 2002
Chapter 4
Chapter 5 – Circa 2003
Chapter 6 – July, 2003
Interlude
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Interlude
Chapter 12 – Circa 2007
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Cast of Characters