Some definitions: an “account holder” is you, your IRA, your pension plan, your stock and bond investments held at an “account provider” or “intermediary” or “depository institution” such as Merrill Lynch, Schwab, Wells Fargo.
An “entitlement holder” is the definition of you whose ownership claim to your financial assets has been subordinated to the claims of “secured creditors” of the institution where you have your accounts. Please do understand that the dispossession of which I write is your dispossession.
Klaus Schwab tells us that in the Great Reset that the World Economic Forum is preparing for us “you will own nothing and you will be happy.” Well, we already own nothing. Our bank deposits and stocks and bonds, in the event the depository institution gets into trouble, belong to the depository institution’s creditors, not to us. All assets are pooled and serve as collateral whether or not labeled “segregated.”
You might remember that during the last financial crisis we were told that there would be no more bail-outs, that in the future there would be bail-ins. A bail-out is when central bank money creation rescues the favored troubled financial institutions. A bail-in is when the depositors’ assets are used for the rescues.
David Rogers Webb, an experienced financial market participant, explains it in The Great Taking in 72 readable pages plus a 25 page prologue explaining who he is and a 20 page reply of the New York Fed to the European Commission Legal Certainty Group’s questions. The Great Taking is available from Lulu for $10 and is free online: https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/1ee786fb-3c78-4903-9701-d614892d09d6/taking-feb24-screen2.pdf
The loss of property rights in financial assets is the case throughout the Western world. The rewrite of financial property rights appears to be the work of regulatory bodies, not legislatures which seem to be unaware of it. No, it is not a conspiracy theory. Regulatory authorities have made legal changes of which financial market participants are unaware. Webb’s purpose is to bring awareness, which is why he has made his book freely available.
As a result of these changes, which appear to have been made by financial regulatory authorities rather than by elected legislatures, individuals no longer have property rights in “their” securities. “Owners” now have “entitlement rights,” which means that they have pro-rata rights to whatever securities remain in the depository institution after secured creditors’ claims are met. In actual fact, “your” securities and your bank deposits are no longer recognized in law as your personal property if the depository institution–the bank or, for example, Merrill Lynch–becomes financially troubled. Your “ownership” is encumbered as collateral for secured creditors who are the owners in fact. Apparently, this was done by regulatory authorities as underpinning for the derivatives complex, which is many magnitudes greater than world GNP, or perhaps derivative exposure served as an excuse for setting up the Great Reset in which “you will own nothing.” Indeed, individual banks among the world’s largest have derivative exposure the size of world GDP.
You might wonder why regulatory authorities permitted something so dangerous and irresponsible to occur.
To state the bottom line in another way, “your” securities serve as collateral for the creditors of depository institutions. Your right to “your” property terminates the minute the depository institution gets in financial trouble.
Communications between the New York Federal Reserve Bank and the European Commission Legal Certainty Group and the court case resulting from the failure of Lehman Brothers have established legal certainty that secured creditors are empowered to immediately take client assets in the event of a failure in the custodian.
National central depositories of securities (all are now pooled, none held under the “owner’s” name or segregated) are now established and are linked to the international depository so that securities can instantly be delivered world wide to meet secured creditors’ claims. Essentially, the mega-banks are “privileged creditors.”
You might think that your money and your stocks and bonds would be safe if you use as your depository one of the “banks too big to fail.” You would be mistaken. The Federal Reserve permits the large banks to create subsidiaries that hold deposits, and the Federal Reserve permits the large banks to transfer their derivatives to these same subsidiaries. In this way, the bank itself remains afloat. Only its subsidiaries holding your money and securities are wiped out in the event of a crash.
At the risk of over-promising, as even for a person of my education and experience getting one’s mind around the enormity of what has been put in place is a challenge, I hope for this article, which you have just read, to be part 1 in a 3-part series, with the second part being an outline of the regulatory changes that stole our financial property rights, and the third part being the implications of the Federal Reserve’s raising of interest rates after 15 years of near zero rates, thus shredding the value of financial assets held in portfolios. We face the prospect of the worst financial crisis in history “solved” with the introduction of digital money that places total control into the hands of political power and its masters.
The Great Dispossession Part 2
In Part 1 ( https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2024/04/11/the-great-dispossession/ ), I reported that we already do not own anything. The immediate response from readers is: what can we do to avoid dispossession? Offhand, the answer might appear to be debt-free property and gold and silver in personal possession. However, if the goal is that we own nothing and are controlled under a digital currency regime, these assets will be taken as well.
Webb says if the billionaires and large financial institutions can be made aware of the situation, they could make Congress aware of the regulatory changes and force Congress to use its law-making power to undo the regulatory changes. After all, if there is no private financial property, there is no one to contribute to Congressional elections. Billionaires’ campaign donations elect the politicians, and what the regulatory changes do to billionaires is to reduce them to the same poverty as a homeless person. What the changes mean for large financial institutions such as Merrill Lynch, Schwab, etc., is their existence ceases. Webb’s hope is the combined influence can undo the regulatory changes. The question is whether awareness can be generated. The fate of Congress is also at stake. In the Great Reset there is no input from the people and no function for Congress.
As in all of my writings, I am trying to bring awareness. Little doubt the messenger will be shot.
The purpose of Part 2 is to outline the regulatory changes that have been made that have turned our property in financial assets into the property of “secured creditors.” Webb terms them legal changes, which they are, but as I read it from regulatory, not legislative, action. Webb says the changes are global, but he only describes how the US and EU effected the changes for themselves. I am unable to imagine that Russia, China, Iran and any parts of the world not captured in the Western financial system are parties to the dispossession, especially under the regime of sanctions. As I read it, the dispossession that awaits is limited to the Western world and its captive countries. By global, perhaps Webb means the global operations of Western world financial organizations.
First some definitions: an “account holder” is you, your IRA, your pension plan, your stock and bond investments held at an “account provider” or “intermediary” or “depository institution” such as Merrill Lynch, Schwab, Wells Fargo. An “entitlement holder” is the definition of you whose ownership claim to your financial assets has been subordinated to the claims of “secured creditors” of the institution where you have your accounts. Please do understand that the dispossession of which I write is your dispossession.
As reported in Part 1, a country’s securities are pooled in a Central Security Depository (CSD). Each national CSD is linked to the International Security Depository (ICSD), which in the words of a 2013 report by the Bank for International Settlements Committee on the Global Financial System, makes available to “secured creditors” all available collateral (all of our stocks and bonds) and provides cross-border mobility of collateral from the “collateral giver” to the “collateral taker.” Yes, these terms are explicitly used, indicating recognition that theft is taking place.
Webb writes that these arrangements were “designed and deliberately executed to move control of collateral to the largest secured creditors behind the derivatives complex. This is the subterfuge, the endgame of it all.”
To achieve these arrangements took many years and many regulatory changes that did not involve financial market participants (you) in the decisions. The differences between financial property rights in the US and in some European countries were a special obstacle which required “harmonization” of Europe with the US. The first effort was signed only by the US, Switzerland, and Mauritius. The EU did not sign, because in some EU member countries (Sweden, Finland, for example) the purchasers of securities had inviolable property rights based on the ancient legal principle of lex rei sitae.
Webb describes, citing the documents, the 10-year work-around of this blockage.
The creation of cross-border collateral mobility began with the Depository Trust Corporation moving from physical stock certificates held in the owners name to book-entries. A “paperwork crisis” was claimed from having to process transactions of individually owned shares of securities.
Then the US Uniform Commercial Code was quietly amended over many years without requiring an act of Congress. Here are the changes:
Ownership of securities as property has been replaced with a new legal concept of a “security entitlement”, which is a contractual claim assuring a very weak position if the account provider becomes insolvent.
All securities are held in un-segregated pooled form. Securities used as collateral, and those restricted from such use, are held in the same pool.
All account holders, including those who have prohibited use of their securities as collateral, must, by law, receive only a pro-rata share of residual assets.
“Re-vindication,” which is the taking back of one’s own securities in the event of insolvency, is absolutely prohibited.
Account providers may legally borrow pooled securities to collateralize proprietary trading and financing.
“Safe Harbor” assures secured creditors priority claim to pooled securities ahead of account holders.
Webb reports that “the absolute priority claim of secured creditors to pooled client securities has been upheld by the courts.”
Webb reproduces the New York Federal Reserve Bank’s reply to questions from the European Community’s Legal Certainty Group about the new system Washington was developing. The Fed was asked if investors have rights attaching to particular securities in pooled securities. The NY Fed responded “No.”
The Fed was asked if investors are protected against the insolvency of an intermediary or depository or account provider. The NY Fed answered “creditors have priority over the claims of entitlement holders.”
The Fed was asked if creditors still had priority if failure involved fault, negligence or similar breach of duty of the intermediary. The NY Fed answered: “In terms of the interest that the entitlement holder has in the financial assets credited to his securities account: regardless of fault, fraud, or negligence of the securities intermediary, under Article 8, the entitlement holder has only a pro rata share in the securities intermediary’s interest in the financial asset in question.”
In short, omnibus accounts pool assets so that individual securities cannot be identified with specific investors. When bankruptcy occurs causing default of the account provider, clients are left with a mere contractual claim and have to line up with all other unsecured creditors.
The objective of using all securities as collateral has been obtained. “Comprehensive ‘collateral management’ systems have been implemented which assure the transport of all securities cross-border through the mandated linkage of CSDs to ICSDs to the CCPs (where the risk of the derivatives complex is concentrated), and on to the anointed secured creditors which will take the collateral when the CCPs fail, having assured for themselves that their taking of assets cannot be legally challenged.”
Nevertheless, two problems remain. What happens if the pools of collateral are insufficient to cover the claims of secured creditors and what is the risk that a CCP (Central Clearing Party) could fail?
The 2013 Bank for International Settlements Global Financial Committee report says that if there is insufficient pooled collateral (our stocks and bonds) to prevent the collapse of the financial system (by which is meant apparently the mega-banks), then non-collateral has to be transformed into collateral. What non-collateral is and how it is transformed is not clear. The BIS Global Capital Committee’s report says: “some market participants may need to exchange available, but ineligible [as collateral], securities for other securities that meet eligibility criteria [as collateral] in order to fulfill their collateral obligations. Undertaking transactions to achieve this outcome has been defined as ‘collateral transformation.’”
Webb writes: “Collateral transformation is simply the encumbrance of any and all types of client assets under swap contracts, which end up in the derivatives complex. This is done without the knowledge of the clients, who were led to believe that they safely owned these securities, and serves no beneficial purpose whatsoever for these clients.”
As Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, my bailiwick was the management of the domestic economy, and my task was to replace the Keynesian demand-management policy that had resulted in “stagflation” with a supply-side policy. Moreover it was 40 years ago prior to the era of derivatives that exceed many times the size of world GDP and, as I understand, the combined value of all stocks and bonds in the Western world. Therefore, I cannot provide the answer. Webb does not explain, nor does the BIS committee, how more collateral is created when the pooled accumulations of all stocks and bonds are insufficient to meet secured creditors’ claims. But it is not from money creation by the central bank.
Under the new Dispossession, a Central Clearing Party (CCP) has the counterparty risk between parties in a transaction and provides clearing and settlement. The CCP has “the obligations of the failed clearing participant.” So what happens if a CCP itself fails? The answer seems to be financial Armageddon. “If a large CCP is in trouble because of its members’ default, then we will be having a banking crisis” says Benoît Gourisse, Senior Director, European Public Policy at ISDA.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation states that it has no solution to the undercapitalization of CCPs.
Webb concludes that the CCPs are deliberately under-capitalized and designed to fail.
In Part 3 we will consider the likely result of the pending financial crisis.
The Great Dispossession Part 3
In Part 1, I explained that the next financial crisis will be bailed out not with central bank money creation but with our stocks, bonds and bank balances.
In Part 2, I explained the multi-year quiet regulatory changes that dispossessed us of our property.
In Part 3, I explain David Rogers Webb’s conclusion that a massive financial crisis is pending in which our financial assets are the collateral underwriting the derivative and financial bubble and will result in the loss of our assets but leave us with our debts as happened to those whose banks failed in the 1930s.
Webb begins with the economic formula that the velocity of circulation of money times the money supply equals nominal Gross Domestic Product. V x MS = GDP.
The velocity of circulation is a measure of how many times a dollar is spent during a given period of time, e.g., quarterly, annually. A high velocity means people quickly spend the money that comes into their hands. A low velocity means people tend to hold on to money.
Velocity impacts the Federal Reserve’s ability to manage economic growth with money supply changes. If the velocity of money is falling, an expansionist monetary policy will not result in rising GDP. In such a situation, the Federal Reserve is said to be “pushing on a string.” Instead of pushing up GDP, money supply increases push up the values of financial assets and real estate resulting in financial and real estate bubbles.
Webb notes that falls in velocity are precursors of financial crises. A multi-year sharp fall in velocity preceded the stock market crash in 1929 and the Great Depression that gave birth to regulatory agencies. The 21st century is characterized by a long-term fall in velocity that has reached the lowest level on record, while stocks and real estate have been driven to unprecedented levels by years of zero interest rates. When this bubble pops, we will be dispossessed. Will the bubble pop?
Yes. The Fed suddenly and rapidly moved from zero to 5% interest rates, a reversal of the policy that drove up prices of stocks and bonds. The Fed raises rates by reducing money supply growth, thus removing the factor supporting high stock prices and collapsing the value of bonds. This results in a lowering of the value of stocks and bonds serving as collateral for loans, which, of course, means the loans and the financial institution behind them are in trouble. Bonds have already taken a hit. The stock market is holding because participants believe the Fed is about to reverse its interest rate policy and lower rates.
Webb notes that the official data show that the velocity of money collapsed in the 21st century while the Fed introduced “quantitative easing.” He makes the correct point that when the velocity of money collapses, the Fed is pushing on a string. Instead of money creation fueling economic growth, it produces asset bubbles in real estate and financial instruments, which is what we have at the present time.
When after more than a decade of near zero interest rates, the Fed raises interest rates it collapses the values of financial portfolios and real estate and produces a financial crisis.
As the authorities have set in place a system that bails out secured creditors with our bank deposits, stocks, and bonds, we will have no money and no financial assets to sell for money. People with mortgaged homes and businesses will lose them, as they did in the 1930s, when they lost their money due to bank failures. People with car payments will lose their transportation. The way the system works is you lose your money but not your debts. The secured creditors are the creditors of the troubled institutions. Ultimately, the secured creditors are the mega-banks defined as “privileged creditors.”
The collapse of financial asset values in 1929 resulted in the failure of 9,000 banks (https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/banking-panics-1930-1933). Bank failure meant that you lost the money you had in the bank. It means the same thing today regardless of deposit insurance, because your deposits have been turned into collateral for creditors. Moreover, FDIC deposit insurance is a joke. The FDIC’s assets are in the billions. Bank deposits are in the trillions. The Dodd-Frank Act prioritized derivatives over bank depositors, so a bank account holder is in line behind derivative claims. Apparently, FDIC insurance claims will be issued in the form of issuance of stock in a failed bank. It has all happened before, but not on the scale of what is pending.
Under the regulatory regime in place, financial collapse today means that money will be drained from the economy and be concentrated along with all wealth in a few hands. A modern-day economy cannot function without money and without companies that serve as distributors of food, goods, and services. Webb notes that it is a perfect opportunity for central banks to introduce Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) with which they have been experimenting.
The provision of CBDC to the population would provide a money supply and income to a population in total chaos and restore order to a grateful population. But it would also give total control to rulers. Webb quotes Augustin Carstens, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements who says that the key difference between present day currency and Central Bank Digital Currency is that with CBDC the central bank will know how each person uses their allotment of digital currency which gives the central bank absolute control over you via the capability to regulate your purchases, to turn off disapproved purchases, to discipline dissenters. You will be supplied with the means of life as long as you have a good social credit score, which means that you are a non-dissenter of official narratives.
Webb believes that this result is the intent of the regulatory changes and corresponds to the World Economic Forum’s agenda: “you will own nothing.” There is much in the regulatory documents that support Webb’s belief. For example, the Single Resolution Board’s 2022 Guidance for Banks to prepare for “solvent wind-down,” is an indication that an event is in the works. The Single Resolution Board’s Work Program 2023 states: “The year 2023 will be the last of a transitional period for the establishment of the main elements of the resolution framework in the Banking Union.” In other words, everything is in place.
Whether Webb is correct that the regulatory regime that has been put in place amounts to a deliberate restoration of feudalism under high tech management or whether the new rules are the unintended consequence of the rulers’ drive for security is not important. The relevant point is that the next financial crisis will dispossess us not only of our pensions and financial assets but also of our freedom and independence. If the past is a guide, the next financial crisis is close at hand.
If the mega-rich and the large financial intermediaries can be made aware of the situation, it is in their own self-interest to convince Congress to use its law-making power to unwind the regulatory system of dispossession that has been created. But the hour grows late.
Ordinary people are dismissive of the World Economic Forum and its agenda of “you will own nothing and be happy,” but this is a mistake. The WEF was founded 53 years ago and has over the half century recruited many of the important people in business, finance, and politics. If you are not a WEF member and attendee at Davos, you are lower down on the totem pole. Social, political, and intellectual standing depends on membership. It is important to understand that The Great Reset means the re-institutionalization of feudalism.
Note that we are also being dispossessed of our food and farmers of the use of their land: “No Farmers No Food: Will You Eat The Bugs?” is an Epoch Original documentary exposing the hidden agenda behind global “Green Policies,” the untold stories of farmers forced out of business, the disruption this will have on our food supply, and why edible bugs are suddenly being pushed to the fore as a “Global Green Solution.”
EpochTV program “Facts Matter” host Roman Balmakov investigates the rapidly changing landscape of our global food source—the farming industry—through interviews with farmers in The Netherlands, Sri Lanka, and the United States. This is the next global crisis that is being ignored by the world’s media.
The Great Dispossession Part 4
Under the 5th and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution the transformation of our financial property into collateral for secured creditors constitutes a taking. I don’t know whether the taking that exists in the regulations can be taken to court and ruled against prior to a taking actually occurring. Probably not.
The question therefore is how effective will a court ruling be in a situation of financial chaos. Clearly, those who devised the taking regulations either were ignorant of the taking clause or do not expect a Constitutional ruling to prevail. If the legal profession were to take up this matter, perhaps the discrediting of the regulations would render them useless and force financial regulators and Congress to find other solutions to the problem. Clearly, the ability to create endless amounts of derivatives must be abolished.
Author
Paul Craig Roberts is the John M. Olin fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and former senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Dr. Roberts has held academic appointments at Virginia Tech University, Tulane University, University of New Mexico, George Mason University where he had a joint appointment as professor of economics and professor of business administration, and Georgetown University where he held the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy in the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In addition, Dr. Roberts was President of the Inlet Beach Water Company, President of Economic & Communication Services; advisor to J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Tiedemann-Goodnow, and Lazard Freres Asset Management; and a member of numerous corporate and financial boards. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia.
