IMF Proposing New World Currency to Replace U.S. Dollar and Other National Currencies!

November 6, 2010 by Editor 

Over the past few years, there have been many rumors about a coming global currency, but at times it has been difficult to pin down evidence that plans for such a currency are actually in the works but not anymore.  A shocking new report by the IMF is proposing just that – a global currency beyond national control! Words: 820

Goodby dollar/euro/yen/pound – hello world currency!

So says an article* on theeconomiccollapseblog.com which Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.munKNEE.com, has reformatted into edited [...] excerpts below for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. (Please note that this paragraph must be included in any article reposting to avoid copyright infringement.) The article goes on to say:

More on the Proposed New Global Currency

The IMF recommended on April 13, 2010 that the world adopt a global currency called the “Bancor” and that a global central bank be established to administer that currency. This is not hype and it is not a rumor. This is a very serious proposal in an official document from one of the mega-powerful institutions that is actually running the world economy. Anyone who follows the IMF knows that what the IMF wants, the IMF usually gets. So could a global currency known as the “Bancor” be on the horizon? That is now a legitimate question.

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So where in the world did the name “Bancor” for a global currency come from? Well, it turns out that “Bancor” is the name of a hypothetical world currency unit once suggested by John Maynard Keynes. Keynes was a world famous British economist who headed the World Banking Commission that created the IMF during the Breton Woods negotiations and the IMF report referenced above proposed naming the coming world currency unit the “Bancor” in honor of Keynes.

So what about Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)? Over the past couple of years, SDRs have been touted as the coming global currency. Well, the report does envision making SDRs “the principal reserve asset” as we move towards a global currency unit….However, the report also acknowledges that SDRs do have some serious limitations. Since the value of SDRs are made up of a basket of currencies – U.S. dollar (44%); Euro (34%);  Yen (11%); Pound (11%) – so anything affecting those currencies will affect SDRs as well.

The IMF report recognizes that moving to SDRs is only a partial move away from the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency and urges the adoption of a currency unit that would be truly international. The truth is that SDRs are clumsy and cumbersome. For now, SDRs must still be reconverted back into a national currency before they can be used, and that really limits their usefulness according to the report….so the IMF report believes that the adoption of a true global currency administered by a global central bank is the answer [to the shortcomings of the SDRs].

The authors of the report believe that it would be ideal if the “Bancor” would immediately be used as currency by many nations throughout the world, but they also acknowledge that a more “realistic” approach would be for the “Bancor” to circulate alongside national currencies at first.

A global central bank would print and administer the “Bancor”. It would be something like the Federal Reserve, only completely outside the control of any particular national government.

Is that what we really need – a world currency administered by an international central bank modeled after the Federal Reserve? Not at all! The Federal Reserve has devalued the U.S. dollar by over 95 percent since it was created and the U.S. government has accumulated the largest debt in the history of the world under this system – so now we want to impose such a system on the entire globe? [I think not!] Considering how disastrous the Federal Reserve system and other central banking systems around the world have been, why would anyone suggest that we go to a global central banking system modeled after the Federal Reserve?

Conclusion

A global currency (whether it be called the “Bancor” or given a different name entirely) would be a major blow to national sovereignty and would represent a major move towards global government. The truth is, however, that there are some very powerful interests that are absolutely determined to create a global currency and a global central bank for the global economy that we now live in.

It would be a major mistake to think a global currency can’t happen

*http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/bancor-the-name-of-the-global-currency-a-shocking-imf-report-urges-the-world-to-adopt

http://www.munknee.com/2010/11/imf-proposing-new-world-currency-to-replace-u-s-dollar-and-other-national-currencies/

Judicial Watch Uncovers New Documents Detailing Pelosi's Use of Air Force Aircraft

Records Indicate Pelosi Used Air Force Aircraft for 85 Trips Covering 206,264 Miles from March 2009 through June 2010; Pelosi’s Family Members Included on at least Two Flights

Contact Information:
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Washington, DC - October 14, 2010

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained new documents from the United States Air Force detailing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s repeated use of United States Air Force aircraft. According to the documents, obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Pelosi used Air Force aircraft on 85 flights from March 2009 through June 2010. Members of Pelosi’s family were guests on at least two flights.

Among the highlights from the documents, obtained pursuant to a FOIA request filed on January 25, 2009:

• Pelosi used the Air Force aircraft for a total of 85 trips, covering 206,264 miles, from March 2, 2009 through June 7, 2010. Pelosi, her guests and Air Force personnel logged a total of 428.6 hours on these flights.
• Members of Pelosi’s family were guests on at least two flights. On June 20, 2009, Speaker Pelosi’s daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons joined a flight from Andrews Air Force Base to San Francisco International Air Port. That flight included $143 in on-flight expenses for food and other items. On July 2, 2010, Pelosi took her grandson on a flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, which is northeast of San Francisco.

According to previous documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, the Speaker’s military travel cost the United States Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a two-year period — $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol. For example, purchases for one Pelosi-led congressional delegation traveling from Washington, DC, through Tel Aviv, Israel to Baghdad, Iraq May 15-20, 2008 included: Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewar’s scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of wine.

Judicial Watch also previously uncovered internal Department of Defense documents (DOD) email correspondence detailing attempts by DOD staff to accommodate Pelosi’s numerous requests for military escorts and military aircraft as well as the speaker’s last minute cancellations and changes. For example, in response to a series of requests for military aircraft, one Defense Department official wrote, “Any chance of politely querying [Pelosi's team] if they really intend to do all of these or are they just picking every weekend?...[T]here's no need to block every weekend ‘just in case’... “The email also notes that Pelosi's office had, "a history of canceling many of their past requests.”

“Pelosi’s abusive use of military aircraft demonstrates a shocking lack of regard for the American taxpayer and the men and women who serve in the U.S. Air Force. Speaker Pelosi may have a frequent flyer record for taxpayer-financed luxury jet travel,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2010/oct/judicial-watch-uncovers-new-documents-detailing-pelosis-use-air-force-aircraft

MSNBC Anchor O'Donnell: "I Am A Socialist. I Live To The Extreme Left Of...

“Unlike you, I am not a progressive. I am not a liberal who’s so afraid of the word that I had to change my name to progressive. Liberals amuse me. I am a Socialist. I live to the extreme left – the extreme left – of you mere liberals.”

The problem is when people want to impose their views on everyone else.  This goes for social conservatives, progressives, socialists, etc.

That's fine if you want to be a socialist. The problem starts when you use the government as a tool of violence to impose your views on others. And that is the inherent problem with socialism, it requires the use of violence against peaceful people.

Fannie Mae Seeks $2.5 Billion in U.S. Treasury Aid Amid Narrowing Losses

By Lorraine Woellert - Nov 5, 2010 5:33 PM ET

Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company operating under federal conservatorship, sought $2.5 billion in U.S. Treasury Department aid after reporting a 13th straight quarterly loss.

Fannie Mae, which reported a third-quarter loss of $3.5 billion, will return $2.1 billion of the requested aid to Treasury as a dividend payment on the federal government’s stake of almost 80 percent, the Washington-based company said today in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The loss for the three-month period that ended Sept. 30 was down from $19.8 billion a year earlier, the company said.

With today’s request, Fannie Mae has sought almost $89 billion in aid since September 2008, when it was seized by regulators along with McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac, its smaller rival. The two firms will have received more than $151 billion in Treasury aid and returned some $17 billion in dividends since the U.S. takeover.

Freddie Mac requested $100 million in Treasury aid Nov. 3 after reporting a $4.1 billion loss third-quarter loss.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lorraine Woellert in Washington atlwoellert@bloomberg.net.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-05/fannie-mae-seeks-2-5-billion-in-u-s-treasury-aid-amid-narrowing-losses.html

9/11: The Unidentified Murder Weapons

The four aircraft which crashed on September 11th, 2001 have never been forensically matched to the four passenger planes which were allegedly hijacked that morning. Requests under the Freedom of Information Act have met with denials and refusals, and documents which have been produced, allegedly using data from the only three "Black Box" flight recorders said to have been found, have no serial numbers of the devices listed on them.

The excellent work done by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth and other such organizations, in their quest to determine what caused the Twin Towers and WTC 7 to collapse, should never be underestimated. But, being the primary murder weapons, for my money the real smoking guns were, and still are, the four aircraft that were used as weapons on that terrible day, and for them not to have been identified breaks every rule in any book which seeks to teach the art of solving crimes. It is either an oversight beyond belief, on the part of the 9/11 Commission, or part of a criminal conspiracy of immense proportions set in motion to cover up what really happened on September 11th, 2001.

Boehner under fire: First cut should be lawmakers' salaries

By Jordy Yager - 11/05/10 12:38 PM ET

Soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) is being pressed by taxpayer groups to slash the salaries of House lawmakers.

Cutting member pay would show voters the new GOP majority in the House is going to lead by example in their efforts to rein in spending and start with their own wallets, say officials with three prominent taxpayer advocacy groups in Washington, D.C. 

“There has to be a visible gesture that people can immediately relate to,” said Pete Sepp, the executive vice president of the conservative National Taxpayers Union. 

“And cutting pay would be one of the best symbols, because unlike virtually anything else the federal government does, when Congress spends money on its own salaries and benefits, people can make a direct comparison to their own situation,” Sepp said.

The last three House Speakers swept into the leadership role with the issuance of symbolic gestures, which typically correlates to the campaign platform that delivered them to power, said Sarah Binder, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. 

“[The symbolic moves] create images that build the party’s reputation and say, ‘This is what Republican rule means and these are things we stand for,’” Binder said. “These are symbolic things that a Speaker would want to do to set a tone or a message.

Boehner is slated to receive a $30,100 pay increase next year when he becomes Speaker of the House. His annual salary will be $223,500. The base pay for House and Senate lawmakers is $174,000, while majority and minority leaders each make $193,400 per year.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, said that no decision has been made to slash members' salaries, but pointed to the promises the GOP made in its "Pledge to America" in September.

"The Pledge to America calls for cutting Congress' budget, but no specific decisions have been made about how that will be done at this time," said Steel. 

Republicans gained about five dozen House seats Tuesday largely by running campaigns based on promises to scale back government spending, reform how the House operates and increase jobs for Americans. 

“It’s pretty clear that the American people want a smaller, less costly, more accountable government here in Washington,” Boehner said to reporters the day after Election Day. 

Tom Schatz, the president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said that by cutting the paychecks of members, Boehner would send the right message to voters.

Schatz explained that Republican lawmakers coming into Congress for their first term would likely support the move.

“[A salary cut] would at least indicate some greater level of understanding of the suffering that people have been subject to during this recession,” said Schatz. 

“A lot of the new members, in particular, are coming in with a mindset of cutting spending wherever they think it’s reasonable, and I think starting with their own pay makes sense. They haven’t had that salary in the first place, so members on both sides would just consider it the starting point.”

Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, said he supports members taking a pay cut, but when he spoke with Republican leadership aides recently, they were not quick to jump on the idea. However, Norquist said, Republicans might want to unveil the pay cut in a ceremonial fashion and not have their limelight stolen.

“I heard the rumor — and this may be true, but they just aren’t ‘fessing up to it,” he said.

Norquist added, “I talked to people around Boehner and they didn’t say, ‘No we’d never do that.’ They just weren’t saying ‘Yes.’ And if I were them, I would not tell me if they had some plan to do it because they want to announce it themselves.”

Members of Congress froze their salary in 2011 and did so this year as well, as they have on six other occasions since the law requiring lawmakers to vote against a cost-of-living increase was created in 1990, according to the Congressional Research Service. But the last time members of Congress took an actual pay cut was in the midst of the Great Depression on April 1, 1933. 
  
And with more than 450,000 Americans experiencing joblessness, according to the Department of Labor’s latest numbers released Thursday, voters are going to be looking to Republicans for signals and symbols of actual change on Capitol Hill, Sepp said. 

“The Republicans have set the bar very high for their re-ascendency to power, and that means they need to come up with a direct symbol to the public that’s just as strong,” said Sepp.

“When you think back to the last time when Congressional salaries were reduced in the early 1930s, the parallel becomes even stronger,” said Sepp. “If you wanted to make a big splash and say, ‘We’re doing something that Congress hasn’t contemplated since the days of the Great Depression.’ Well, this is the exact thing to do.”

Sepp said it would be “political suicide” to oppose a pay cut if proposed by Boehner, who as Speaker could easily bring a measure outlining the salary slash to the floor. And Democrats would be compelled to support such a bill, he said, especially because Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) sponsored a measure in this Congress that would have cut member salary by 5 percent. The legislation received 34, mostly Democratic, co-sponsors. 

After taking back the House for Democrats, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — a staunch environmental advocate from San Francisco — banned smoking from the Capitol halls and established the chamber’s environmentally friendly “Green the Capitol” program, which included compostable cutlery and a carbon offset program. 

And former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), following the wave election of 1994 in which the GOP took the House using the campaign platform of smaller government, pushed to privatize the chamber’s internal services, like the barbershop, and do away with its ice delivery service in an effort to show voters that Republicans wanted to shrink the role of government and its egregiousness.  

Similarly, former Speaker Dennis Hastert (D-Ill.) was known in the House as a behind-the-scenes dealmaker and a former wrestling coach who was a high school teacher. As his first move as the leader of the chamber in 1999, Hastert responded to the increasingly vocal concerns of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle and eased a ban on gifts they were allowed to receive. Since Republicans took over in 1995, members had not been allowed to accept even minor gifts such as t-shirts. Under Hastert’s change, lawmakers could receive gifts of up to $100 from one person or company in a year.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/127879-boehner-pressed-to-cut-pay-of-lawmakers

Pelosi Will Seek Office of House Minority Leader

Pelosi will seek to stay as House Dem leader

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press – 1 hr 24 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Nancy Pelosi, the nation's first female House speaker, said Friday she will try to keep her spot as leader of theHouse Democrats despite huge election losses that cost her party the majority.

Pelosi, a California liberal, rejected pressure from moderate House Democrats — and even some liberal allies — who said the widespread defeats cried out for new party leadership.

Pelosi, 70, will seek her colleagues' support to become House minority leader when the new Congress convenes in January. That would keep her atop the Democratic House caucus, which will number about 190 people next year. But it would mark a big drop from being speaker, which carries tremendous power to influence legislation and is second only to the vice president in the line of presidential succession.

House members elect their respective party leaders, although the entire House elects the speaker. That post is almost certain to go Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the current minority leader.

"Our work is far from finished," Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues. "As a result of Tuesday's election, the role of Democrats in the 112th Congress will change, but our commitment to serving the American people will not. We have no intention of allowing our great achievements to be rolled back."

Pelosi said many colleagues "have called with their recommendations on how to continue our fight for the middle class, and have encouraged me to run for House Democratic Leader."

Dozens of Republican House candidates attacked their Democratic opponents by tying them to Pelosi and suggesting they would do whatever the San Francisco liberal asked.

Several Democratic lawmakers in conservative districts vowed to oppose Pelosi as speaker, but some of them lost all the same.

One who did survive, Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina, had said he might challenge Pelosi because the party needs a more moderate leader. Shuler noted that he lost his job as Washington Redskins quarterback in 1997 after the team performed poorly.

As the magnitude of Tuesday's election losses sunk in, even some longtime supporters of Pelosi said she needed to step aside as the party leader.

"As good a leader as she has been, I don't think she's the right leader to take us forward," Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., told WHAS-TV in Louisville on Thursday. He said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who has ranked second to Pelosi for years, would be "a perfect spokesman for the Democratic Party in the House."

Hoyer is more centrist than Pelosi, and the two have long had a cordial but somewhat wary relationship.

Hoyer might retain his second-ranking status, which would make him the new minority whip. But it's possible that liberals will try to oust him from the shrunken leadership ladder to prevent fellow liberals from being demoted.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101105/ap_on_go_co/us_pelosi_house_leadership_3

Minn. Mom Hit With $1.5 Million Fine for Downloading 24 Songs

Minnesota Mom Hit With $1.5 Million Fine for Downloading 24 Songs

Posted Thu Nov 4, 2010 10:38am PDT by Daniel Kreps in Amplifier

What's the value of a song? Jammie Thomas-Rasset has spent the last few years in court debating that question. The Minnesota mother of four is being penalized for illegally downloading and sharing 24 songs on the peer-to-peer file-sharing network Kazaa in 2006, but how much she owes the record labels has been in question. The jury in her third trial has just ruled that Thomas-Rasset should pay Capitol Records $1.5 million,CNET reports, which breaks down to $62,500 per song. It's a heavy penalty considering the 24 tunes would only cost approximately $24 on iTunes, which was Thomas-Rasset' argument, too.

Thanks to Thomas-Rasset's colorful case, she has become the public face of the record industry's battle with illegal downloaders. In her first trial, in 2007, the jury demanded she pay $222,000 for violating the copyright on more than 1,700 songs by Green Day, Aerosmith and Richard Marx, to name a few. (Marx said he was "ashamed" to be associated with the "farcical" prosecution of an illegal downloader.) Thomas-Rasset maintained she wasn't the computer user who did the file sharing, and her legal team cited an error in jury instruction to secure a second trial in 2009 that ended with a much harsher result: an astronomical fine of $1.92 million. However, earlier this year a U.S. District Court judge found the $1.92 million penalty against Thomas-Rasset to be "monstrous and shocking" and "gross injustice" before lowering it to $54,000, or $2,250 a song. Thomas-Rasset and her legal team decided to appeal that decision, too.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the organization that represents the four major record labels, was pleased by the most recent decision, even if it has no intention to collect the $1.5 million from Thomas-Rasset. "Now with three jury decisions behind us along with a clear affirmation of Ms. Thomas-Rasset's willful liability, it is our hope that she finally accepts responsibility for her actions," the RIAA said in a statement. Earlier this year, the RIAA offered Thomas-Rasset the opportunity to end the legal battle for $25,000 and an admission of guilt; Thomas-Rasset declined.

Burying a Midwestern mom in insurmountable debt isn't the best publicity move, so rather than argue the labels are entitled to the cash, the RIAA has sought to make this trial into a cautionary tale for anyone considering illegally downloading music -- a reminder that there are penalties. But as the constantly declining weekly Nielsen SoundScan sales figures demonstrate, nothing seems to have deterred music fans from stealing rather than purchasing songs and albums. And in a digital world now dominated by Bit Torrent and Rapidshare, a trial over a music-sharing dinosaur like Kazaa seems nothing but antiquated. (Last month, after a decade of illegal file sharing, peer-to-peer service LimeWire was shut down by the government, much to the surprise of the millions who thought LimeWire had faded years ago into the Internet ether.)

Still, Thomas-Rasset and her legal team are already making plans to appeal, setting the stage for a fourth trial. "The fight continues," promised Thomas-Rasset's lawyer Kiwi Camara. Even if Thomas-Rasset were to win the next trial, the RIAA would likely appeal that decision to ensure that copyright infringement without penalization won't happen. This story has the potential to drag on well into the next decade -- when for $1.5 million, all of Thomas-Rasset's four kids could finish law school and take up the fight on her behalf.

[Photo: AP]

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier/148/minnesota-mom-hit-with-15-million-fine-for-downloading-24-songs/