Have you ever wondered about the so-called “conspiracy theories” that instantly labels their believers as a wing-nut; either a left-wing-nut or a right-wing-nut? But what if you are a no-wing nut?

What if the media’s propensity to label you as a wing-nut is simply part of the conspiracy, serving only to marginalize your beliefs and turn you into a laughingstock? Oh crap: Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals – #5 – Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.

Why would the media denigrate those who hold different beliefs? Isn’t the media supposed to investigate potential wrongdoing and “speak truth to power?”

Perhaps the real goal is distraction?

• Red versus Blue
• Republican versus Democrat
• Right versus Left

Forcing a person to pick a side and concentrate their attention like they were following a sports team. Where a win makes you feel good and a loss makes you feel mad. How else can you explain the media’s fascination with celebrities – court jesters whose narcissism and train-wreck behavior can concentrate the attention of the masses?

Why?

Simply put, the distraction is for the sole purpose of, well,  distracting you so the people in power, the corrupt politicians who serve the powerful special interests can obtain more power and money with minimal outcry and outrage of a more aware public.

And, just because someone points out a conspiracy, doesn’t mean it’s not true. Or that you are paranoid.

Consider the financial mess we are in …

No, not the artificial fiscal cliff manufactured by the disingenuous politicians to scare the public into accepting a greater debt burden. Or the fact that our national debt is approximately $16 TRILLION dollars.

Yes, $16 TRILLION DOLLARS is scary – but not all that scary when I tell you about the real conspiracy.

My conspiracy theory is mind-numbing, wet your pants scary! And it is not being hidden from the public – it’s right out there for all to see.

Source:  Comptroller of the Currency - Administrator of National Banks -- OCC’s Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities -- Third Quarter 2012

Look at what a 5% downward change in the derivatives portfolio would do to a bank’s assets.

The BIG Picture …

Remember people – those numbers above are in millions, so $71,076,126 is $71,076,126,000,000 or $71 TRILLION AND CHANGE! Sort of makes our national debt look less scary!

$1,000 is one thousand US dollars.
$1,000,000 is one million US dollars.
$1,000,000,000 is one billion US dollars.
$1,000,000,000,000 is one trillion US dollars.

Should you wish to visualize what $1 Trillion might look like, you can find a great picture here (pallets of shrink-wrapped $100 bills) … Note the man standing in the lower left-hand corner.

The BIG Conspiracy …

While the politicians and media are diverting your attention to socialism, gun control, taxes, and healthcare – the federal regulatory agencies charged with the oversight of American financial institutions are doing nothing to reduce the systemic risk that “too big” to fail financial institutions pose to the United States and world economy. With the derivative exposures of the majority of the top banks, a 5% downward change in derivative values would totally wipe out all of the institutions assets as surely as a nuclear bomb landing on their vaults. Only two banks are  able to withstand a 5% downward change in assets, Wells Fargo and the Bank of New York Mellon.

Even though the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve are artificially inflating the housing markets so mortgage-backed securities (derivatives) don’t collapse and providing federal funds to banks by loaning good funds against dodgy derivative paper. Money being lent at next to zero percent to recapitalize the banks with the Federal Reserve’s  ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Program). And all of this is not enough to remove the risk from our economy. These financial institutions must be broken up into manageable pieces. The derivatives must be unwound and losses taken instead of being deferred.

There should be no wonder why the Obama Administration is asking you to accept a lower standard of living, with higher prices and taxes – as they juggle this massive global financial problem. Even using the hoax of global warming to reduce your standard of living will not be enough.

How do they explain all of this?

If you ask the OCC, the Federal Reserve’s Ben Bernanke or the Treasury’s  Tim Geithner to explain these massive numbers, they are most likely to tell you it really doesn’t matter. That the bi-lateral netting – where the counterparties settle all of their debts – will reduce these numbers to manageable proportions. Which is bullshit! Because, as we have seen in the past mortgage meltdown and its expansion into the broader financial community, counterparties do not settle with each other and simply hold on to whatever assets they may have at the moment.

Think about the time, effort, expense and trouble to deal with the recent $1.2 billion in missing funds at Jon Corzine’s MF Global. Much of the money was sent abroad to other counterparties or to foreign subsidiaries who refused to return it. They are just getting around to executing a negotiated settlement – and not all of the money is being returned. So to expect an orderly market settlement process is to believe in the tooth fairy.

And this is all happening when the federal agencies in charge of administering Dodd-Frank’s anti- “too big to fail” legislation are still drafting rules and regulations. Nothing short of a nuclear attack (electromagnetic pulse) on our financial centers would do the amount of damage that will be caused by a collapse of the banking system’

Bottom line …

This is what a real conspiracy theory looks like – and that it may be true should be all that more scary. Whether or not you want to prepare for an uncertain future is up to you. But we need to elect honest brokers to serve “we the people” and throw those in the government and the media under the bus if our Constitutional Republic is to survive.

How’s that for a conspiracy theory?

-- steve