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Our purpose is to expose the failure of America's fiat money system. As advocates of honest money, we relentlessly shine the light on the Credit Monster devouring our prosperity.
 
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We recommend an approach to money and investing that many find 'radical.' This path requires commitment, conviction based on knowledge. This site is dedicated to that end.
 

VIEWS & COMMENTARIES...
 
What Will Mac ’n’ Mae Cost You and Me?
Morgenson, 08/24/08

The inevitability of a taxpayer-funded bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the hobbled mortgage behemoths, shook investors last week, and shares in both companies plummeted on fears that existing stockholders would be wiped out..
.Read More >>

It's More Than Fannie and Freddie
John Mauldin, 08/22/08
Yet another crisis confronts us, as we will have to deal with the aftermath of a rather large number of bank failures over the next year, which is likely to overwhelm the ability of the FDIC to insure your bank deposits. Today we look at the..
.Read More >>

Two-Cent Pennies: a Window on Inflation
Tyler A. Watts,  08/21/08

[A good primer on the evils of fiat money - for the beginning 'students' among our friends.] Johnny Carson might have quipped about the economy, "Inflation is so bad these days… that pennies are now selling on the street for two cents.".
.Read More >>

The Real Cost of a Full Bailout
Don A Rich, 08/22/08

A recent study from the Congressional Budget Office
(CBO) has zero credibility. It pegged likely taxpayer losses in the Freddie Mac bailouts at $25 billion. For those with a sense of history, it is worth remembering that the S&L bailout had a...Read More >>

Washington Is Quietly Repudiating Its Debts
Gerald P. O'Driscoll, Jr. 08/22/08
Will the U.S. Treasury repudiate its obligations to its creditors, be they citizens or investors around the world? Most observers would answer "no" without hesitation. But Congress, with the complicity of the White House and the Fed, has..
.Read More >>

An economic Cassandra whose predictions are coming true
Stephen Mihm, 08/20/08

..."[T]he true cost of the housing crisis will not be a mere $300 billion.. but something between a trillion and a trillion and a half dollars.. We have a subprime financial system," he said, "not a subprime mortgage market." This might be..
.Read More >>

The Endgame Nears For Fannie and Freddie
Barrons, 08/18/08

After accounting for deferred tax assets and generous asset marks, Fannie and Freddie each may have a negative $50 billion in asset value, and little prospect of digging themselves out of the hole. IT MAY BE CURTAINS SOON FOR THE MANAGEMENTS.
.Read More >>

Dysfunctional Pricing Backdrop:
Doug Noland, 08/15/08

The divergence between underlying fundamental developments and market trading dynamics became only more striking this week. July Consumer Prices were reported up 5.6% from a year earlier, the largest y-o-y increase since January 1991..
.Read More >>

The Great Gold Robbery of 1933
Thomas E. Woods,  08/13/08

It's been 75 years since the federal government, on the spurious grounds of fighting the Great Depression, ordered the confiscation of all monetary gold from Americans, permitting trivial amounts for ornamental or industrial use. This happens to...Read More >>

Going for the Heart
Rockwell,  08/12/08

The heart of the modern state is the central bank. By heart I mean the very thing that makes it work, and without which the modern state would quickly wither and die. It is the thing that makes the money. As such, it purports to be our..
.Read More >>

The Anatomy of Foreign Exchange Intervention
Jim Sinclair, 08/13/08

We have just witnessed the first massive act of intervention coming off the .7199 USDX and $1.5974 Euro. We have covered why this happened and its meaning in terms of the instatement of currency parities, albeit this time on a floating basis.
.Read More >>

The Case For and Against the Dollar
Axel Merk,  08/13/08
Given a sharp drop in euro holdings in the U.S. Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund, it seems that the U.S. Treasury may have intervened in the currency markets, possibly out of fear that a more significant run on the dollar could have..
.Read More >>

Stage Two of the Gold Bull Market is just Beginning
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 08/12/08
A war breaks out in the Caucasus, pitting Russia against a close ally of the United States. Inflation reaches a new peak in the euro-zone. The CPI reaches the highest in Britain since Bank of England independence. Rampant inflation sweeps the..
.Read More >>

Lost Innocence
Sean Corrigan, 08/11/08

While the headlines of the day are filled with the story of Congress' rescue of Fannie and Freddie (in a bill which seems to have been stuffed with more of what the Americans call "pork" than a sausage factory), for this observer the most exquisite..
.Read More >>

Burst Bubble: Energy or Speculator?
Doug Noland, 08/08/08

Recent extreme global market volatility is part and parcel ...[of]...Heightened Monetary Disorder...The Massive Global Pool of Speculative Finance has Run Amuck. The bulls will celebrate the rally, yet markets this unstable are prone to...Read More >>

Dollar Rally? Mystery Solved
James Turk, 08/07/08
On July 15th the US Dollar Index closed at 71.87, the lowest close since reaching its record low in April. This index was in the process of breaking down, and in fact it had actually fallen out of its uptrend channel on the following char..
.Read More >>

Keynes (and Lenin!) Not Always Wrong
Posted 08/08/08

In his Economic Consequences of the Peace, John Maynard Keynes wrote: "Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency.  By a continuing process of inflation governments..
.Read More >>

Getting Closer to Debasing the Currency
Polleit, 08/07/08
Preventing the Free Market from Doing Its Job. Economically speaking, the so-called credit market crisis is, first and foremost, a reallocation of property rights. Overstretched borrowers default on their obligations. Lenders, who have made unwise.
.Read More >>

Is the U.S. Banking System Safe?
Quinn, 08/05/08
The U.S. banking system is essentially insolvent. The Treasury, Federal Reserve, FASB, and Congress are colluding to keep the American public in the dark for as long as possible. [Notable Quotes from Top Financial Solons]: Treasury Secretary ..
.Read More >>

General Motors and the Intellectual and Moral Bankruptcy
of Wall Street 
Coster-Englund, 08/05/08
As punctuated by General Motors’ second quarter (6/30/08) loss of $15.5 billion, General Motors is a company in financial distress. In its attempt to survive the current economic milieu, management has been looking to throw excess weight..
.Read More >>

Whitney: Credit crunch far from over
Jon Birger, 08/04/08

The star analyst tells Fortune magazine that housing woes will force banks to keep taking writedowns. The credit crisis is far from over, star analyst Meredith Whitney tells Fortune magazine in its upcoming issue. Whitney, who audaciously...Read More >>

Speaking in public
"Bill H." (An astute retired market veteran), 08/04/08
To all; it struck me this morning while listening to 2 bearish guests on CNBC that someone soon will make the public leap regarding the Dollar and the broken financial system. This morning Merideth Whitney [the analyst who has been pelted..
.Read More >>

Cartoon Capitalsim
Bill Bonner, 08/01/08
Last week, purely in the spirit of mischief, we brought up a sore subject: America's largest mortgage finance companies, Fannie and Freddie. The two have so..
.Read More >>

Lawrence Lindsay's WSJ Op-Ed Blasts Paulson
Posted on 08/04/08

In his Friday, August 1, opinion piece, Hank Paulson's Fannie Gamble, former Fed official and Bush economic advisor Lawrence Lindsay offers a strong critique of Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson's and the administration's supported 'housing bailout.' Recall that Mr. Lindsay was effectively fired from the Bush..
.Read More >>

The Uppers
Doug Noland, 08/01/08
...[I]t is my view that the greatest – as well as least appreciated – Bubble Economy Excesses were at The “Upper-middle” to “Upper-end.” It is in The Upper-ends where years of Credit excess had the most pronounced effects on incomes..
.Read More >>

Silver and Monetary Considerations
David Morgan, 07/31/08

Hyperinflation in Germany. Many of you are probably too young to appreciate the full impact of the hyperinflation in Germany after WW1. It was devastating. The the amount of paper that was equal to one silver dollar, or ¾ of one troy ounce..
.Read More >>

More Than a Helping Hand
James Turk,  07/29/08
One of the basic functions of a central bank is to act as the 'lender of last resort'. This facility is used to keep banks liquid during a period of distress. For example, if a bank is experiencing a run on deposits, it will borrow from the central bank.
.Read More >>

The Pin in the Monetary Hand Grenade
Bill Bonner, 07/31/08

Yesterday, George W. Bush signed the housing bill – in which up to $300 billion is to be spent bailing out naïve homeowners, caddish mortgage lenders and Wall Street geniuses. It is packaged as a reserve against catastrophe. If everything is..
.Read More >>

Curing US Inflation, Zimbabwe Style
Adrian Ash, 07/31/08
You'd be forgiven for thinking they planned it together last night. Four out of the top nine headlines on Yahoo's financial homepage today came straight from the press departments of the US authorities. Fed Extends Emergency Loan..
.Read More >>

Has Deleveraging Even Begun? (Not for the Fainthearted)
Yves Smith, 07/28/08
It no doubt seems absurd to question the idea that deleveraging in underway. We've had three heroic central bank interventions, starting in August 2007, to reverse seize-ups in the money markets. The asset backed commercial paper..
.Read More >>

Lies and Truth
Contributed by Friend R J Ralls, 07/29/08

There are people who are more comfortable with lies because the lies help protect them from the truth they fear. Then there are people who are more comfortable with the truth because if they know the truth they can use it to help protect..
.Read More >>

Freddie, Fannie `Fair Values' Hardly Look Fair
Weil, Bloomberg, 07/28/08
Forget everything you've read about how woefully undercapitalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are. The situation is much worse. Unlike other companies, the two government-chartered mortgage financiers publish quarterly fair-value balance..
.Read More >>

Too Big to Fail, or to Survive
Poole,  07/27/08

Critics of the Congressional housing package complain that we are now committing taxpayers to huge new outlays to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That view is wrong: Congressional inaction over the past 15 years had already..
.Read More >>

NAB Will Shock Wall Street
Gottliebsen, 07/25/08
The National Australia Bank's decision to write off 90 per cent of its US conduit loans will have dramatic repercussions around the world. Wall Street will be deeply shocked when they understand the repercussions of what NAB has done. It is..
.Read More >>

A GSE Perspective
Doug Noland, 07/25/08

...[W]ithout the GSEs as buyers eager to pay top dollar for mortgages and MBS – especially in the event of marketplace disruption – the hedge funds, Wall Street proprietary trading desks, and others would never have had the gumption..
.Read More >>

Fannie and Freddie: Playing with a Stacked Deck
Bonner,  07/21/08

As recently as February of this year, Russian officials cleared the way for two of its sovereign wealth funds, the Reserve Fund and National Wellbeing Fund, to invest in various foreign bonds, including those issued by the twin towers..
.Read More >>

Why No Outrage?
Grant, 07/19/08
Through history, outrageous financial behavior has been met with outrage. But today Wall Street's damaging recklessness has been met with near-silence, from a too-tolerant populace, argues James Grant "Raise less corn and more hell,"..
.Read More >>

Defining Inflation (One More Time)
Saville, (Brief Excerpt)  07/14/08

Owning gold is the most logical way for an investor to protect and grow his/her wealth at a time when inflation is ravaging the financial landscape. The global bear markets in equities and credit are perceived to be deflationary, but this..
.Read More >>

The Fannie and Freddie doomsday scenario
Katie Benner, 07/10/08

It's time to wonder what would happen if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failed. Here's a scary, and relevant, question to ponder as the housing market continues to slide: What would it take for the government to step in and help Fannie..
.Read More >>

We're All Homeowners: Nationalization of Fannie,
Freddie Unavoidable  
Task, 07/08/08

Fears about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac retreated somewhat Tuesday after their federal regulator, OFHEO Director James Lockhart, said new accounting rule changes should make "no difference in the risks of the two firms..
.Read More >>


To Read More Of The UnDollar Digest - See Archives >>
 

 
(A Central Bank) is "a curse to a republic; inasmuch as it is calculated to raise around the administration a moneyed aristocracy dangerous to the liberties of the country."
 
 

Andrew Jackson
 
 

NEWS & ITEMS.....
 
Treasury's Vigil on Fannie, Freddie
Cho - Birnbaum, 08/23/08
Paulson Watches Preferred Stock, Debt Sales for Signs of Trouble. A top concern of Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. as he ponders whether to pull...Read More >>

Bundesbank: Gold reserves more
important than before 
Reuters, 08/22/08
Germany's Bundesbank on Friday rejected calls that it should sell some of its gold reserves to help boost the..
.Read More >>

Freddie, Fannie Failure Could Be World `Catastrophe,' Yu Says
Bloomberg, 8/22/08
A failure of U.S. mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be a catastrophe for the global financial system, said Yu Yongding, a former..
.Read More >>

Uncertainty Over Fannie and Freddie
Duhigg-Bajajm, 08/23/08

Anxiously awaiting a move by the Treasury Department and spurned by large investment firms, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae find themselves unable to raise..
.Read More >>

Bank borrowing from ECB is out of control 
Pritchard, 08/21/08
The European Central Bank has issued the clearest warning to date that it cannot serve as a perpetual crutch for lenders caught off-guard by the severity of the..
.Read More >>

M-3 Growth Still Stoking Inflation
Posted 08/21/08

According to Economist John Williams SHADOW GOVERNMENT STATISTICS Flash Update for August 21, 2008 July M3 gained $81 Billion, quoting from his..
.Read More >>

Fannie, Freddie Bailouts May Hinge on
Debt Rollover
 Kopecki, 08/20/08
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's success in repaying $223 billion of bonds due by the end of the quarter may determine whether they can avoid a federal bailout..
.Read More >>

Ex-IMF economist sees Large U.S. bank
collapsing 
Goldstein, 08/19/08

Kenneth Rogoff, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, reportedly said Tuesday that a large U.S. bank will collapse in the next few..
.Read More >>

Fannie and Freddie on Death Watch
5 Min Forecast,  08/19/08
...[S]hares in the giant government-backed mortgage enablers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are getting hammered again. According to Barron’s columnist...
Read More >>

The Real Estate Quickening is Upon Us
Mr. Mortgage, 08/16/08
Duck and cover.
They have been told to ‘de-lever and raise capital’ but it fell on deaf ears for over a year. Now, here come the ‘asset’ sales all at once...Read More >>

Doug Noland's Credit Bubble Bulletin
[Selected Notes]  08/15/08

Fed Foreign Holdings of Treasury, Agency Debt..“Custody holdings” were up $338bn y-t-d, or 25.9% annualized, and $390bn y-o-y (19.5%)..International reserve.
.Read More >>

Credit Crisis Still `Far From Over,'
Merrill Says 
Kearns, Keoun, 08/13/08

The credit crisis is "broad, deep, and global'' and "far from over'' for financial companies even after they reported $500 billion in writedowns and credit losses..
.Read More >>

Banks remain exposed to risk after
debt sales 
Sender, 08/12/08
Citigroup and Deutsche Bank are still retaining some of the risk from billions of dollars in loans backing leveraged buy-out deals that they have sold in recent..
.Read More >>

Countrywide Option ARM Loans
Deteriorate More
 Stempel, Reuters, 8/12/08
Countrywide Financial Corp said thousands of borrowers with $25.4 billion in option adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) owe almost as much as their..
.Read More >>

One Third of New Owners Owe More Than
House Is Worth
 Ivry, Bloomberg, 08/12/08
Almost one-third of U.S. homeowners who bought in the last five years now owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth, according to Zillow..
.Read More >>

Fed holds first auction for 84-day loans
Crutsinger, 08/12/08
Fed auctions another $25 billion in loans in an effort to combat a serious credit squeeze. The Federal Reserve has auctioned another $25 billion in loans to the..
.Read More >>

Doug Noland's Credit Bubble Bulletin
08/08/08

Global Credit Market Dislocation Watch:
August 8 – Dow Jones: “Fannie Mae swung to a second-quarter loss as the largest buyer of home loans booked $5.35..
.Read More >>

Mortgages Made in 2007 Go Bad at
Rapid Clip  
Simon, 08/07/08
Delinquencies Worse Than 2006 Vintage; New Stress on Banks. Mortgages issued in the first part of 2007 are going bad at a pace that far outstrips the 2006 vintage...Read More >>

Freddie Mac Chief Disregarded Warning
Signs 
Reuters, 08/05/08

U.S. mortgage market giant Freddie Mac's chief executive dismissed internal warnings that could have protected the company from some of the financial problems.
.Read More >>

Housing Lenders Fear Bigger Wave of
Loan Defaults 
Vikas Bajaj, 08/04/08
The first wave of Americans to default on their home mortgages appears to be cresting, but a second, far larger one is quickly building. Homeowners with..
.Read More >>

Lies, Damned Lies and Inflation Statistics
John Sparks, 08/04/08
Developing countries like China are infamous for fudging economic stats, but in reality, lying about inflation is as American as baseball. Academic..
.Read More >>

Doug Noland's Credit Bubble Bulletin
Noland, 08/01/08

Global Credit Market Dislocation Watch:
July 29 – Wall Street Journal (Jonathan House):“The International Monetary Fund said it sees increased danger..
.Read More >>

S&P cuts Big Three carmaker ratings
lower into junk 
Reuters, 07/31/08

Standard & Poor's Thursday cut ratings on all three major U.S. automakers deeper into junk status, citing expected losses due to higher gas prices and a weakening..
.Read More >>

Stressed banks borrow record amount
from Fed  
Parry, Reuters, 07/31/08
Banks borrowed a record amount of funds from the Federal Reserve in the latest week as the year old credit crisis took a persistent toll, while the commercial..
.Read More >>

6% US Inflation Is Coming
The Economic Times,  07/30/08

Inflation in the US could hit 6 per cent by the fall, CIBC World Markets' chief economist said on Wednesday. Consumer prices for June were up 5 percent from..
.Read More >>

Merrill Lynch bids to raise $8.5bn as it
faces further writedowns
  Quinn, 7/29/08

"Some people try to mitigate the danger in derivatives by asserting that the $1.2 Quadrillion market is 'notional value', and only a tiny, insignificant percen..
.Read More >>

IMF Says End of U.S. Housing Slump
`Not Visible'  
Swann, 07/28/08

The International Monetary Fund said there's no end in sight to the U.S. housing recession and warned that deteriorating credit conditions for consumers..
.Read More >>

SEC, FASB Urged to Delay Accounting
Change  
Reuters, 07/25/08
Per Bill King: "Once again the solons believe that the US economy is so fragile that it "can't handle the truth!" A senior U.S. lawmaker urged securities..
.Read More >>

Doug Noland's Credit Bubble Bulletin,
[Selected Notes]   07/25/08

Hyper-volatility was the order of the week, although the major averages ended with only small changes...One-month Treasury bill rates jumped 44 bps this..
.Read More >>

Fannie's Unsold Foreclosures Soar
Ivry & Lynch, Bloomberg, 07/23/08
Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. mortgage finance company, couldn’t find a buyer who would pay $6,900 for the three-bedroom house at 1916 Prospect St..
.Read More >>

Fannie Mae Unsold $5 Billion Homes Bring Peril to Shareholders
    Ivry, 07/23/08
Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. mortgage finance company, couldn't find a buyer who would pay $6,900 for the three-bedroom house at 1916 Prospect St..
.Read More >>

Fed's Plosser Says Housing Slump No Bar to Rate Rise  
 Massucci, 07/23/08
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Charles Plosser said higher mortgage costs and continued declines in house prices pose no bar to raising interest rates..
.Read More >>

Foreign governments now own one out of every 10 U.S. mortgages
  Agora's  7/21/08
We credit The New York Times for wrangling up the global tally of foreign-owned “agency debt”--the bonds issued by government-sponsored enterprises Fannie.
.Read More >>

From "The Mess That Greenspan Made"
blogspot, 07/15/08
Senator Jim Bunning (R-Kentucky) joins Ron Paul (R-Texas) as one of the few elected officials who understand one of the major reasons that financial markets
..Read More >>

Fannie, Freddie insolvent, Poole
tells Bloomberg 
Reuters, 07/10/08

Mortgage lenders Fannie Mae (FNM.N) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N) are "insolvent" and may need a U.S. government bailout, former St. Louis Federal Reserve.
..Read More >>

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Default
Risk Rises Sharply 
Kennedy, 07/09/08
The prices of credit swaps on Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) have doubled over the past two months. The current spreads on the companies.
..Read More >>

TIPS Flunk Inflation Test as Fuel,
Food Overtake CPI
 Hernandez, 07/07/08

Treasury Inflation Protected Securities aren't living up to their name for bond investors who say they can't trust the way the U.S. government calculates the rising cost of consumer goods.
..Read More >>

The Buck Doesn't Stop Here; It Just Keeps Falling Tom
  Raum, 07/06/08
Things in the United States sure are tough. Brother, can you spare a euro? Signs saying "We accept euros" are cropping up in the windows of some..
.Read More >>

Accounting Plan Would Allow Use of
Foreign Rules
   Labaton, 07/05/08
They enable companies, for example, to provide fewer details about mortgage-backed securities, derivatives and other financial instruments...
.Read More >>

Doug Noland's Credit Bubble Bulletin,
07/04/08  [Selected Notes]

Global Credit Market Dislocation Watch:
July 3 – Bloomberg (Shannon D. Harrington): “The amount U.S. commercial banks have at risk in derivatives markets..
.Read More >>


 

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The Dollar Crisis, fiat money and honest money by The UnDollar Digest, exposes dollar devaluation, credit bubble, decline and failure of America's fiat currency system and shines light on the Credit Monster devouring our wealth. We are advocates for alerting the coming dollar crisis ....fiat money, honest money, dollar devaluation, credit bubble, asset bubble, fiat currency, credit monster, deficit, money, dollar decline, current account deficit, undollar, derivatives crisis, dollar bear market, excess liquidity, hard currency, hard money, hedge fund crisis, inflation, trade deficit, plunge protection team, purchasing power, real inflation, stagflation, trade deficit, undollar digest, financial decline, wealth preservation, wealth protection, working group on financial markets.  www.undollars.com  www.undollars.com/digest.html  www.undollars.com/radio.html  www.undollars.com/services.html www.undollars.com/team.html
 
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