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Expropriation of savers: EU forces states to adopt "bail-in" laws / INFO DIRECT 2015-06-15

The European Commission recently gave several member states a two-month grace period to implement the EU’s new set of rules regarding failed banks into national law, or else there will be punitive action by the European Court of Justice, it said. Countries that have not yet enacted bail-in laws include Poland, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Sweden, according to a Reuters report. [1]

The set of rules, adopted in May 2014, is known as the "EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive" (or "Resolution Directive" for short), which seeks to avoid taxpayers alone having to come up with the cash needed to bail out banks by forcing the bank’s shareholders and creditors – meaning investors and savers, too! – to contribute to a process called "bail-in". In plain language, investors and savers are summarily expropriated in order to save the bank. (In a "bail-out," on the other hand, ailing banks are rescued with "rescue packages" from the tax coffers).

Austria, by the way, was not admonished, because it has already dutifully done its homework. After all, the HETA bank has to be wound up in this country, which is considered by Bloomberg to be the first case of application of the EU resolution directive. [2]- See also the article image and the associated YouTube video. [3]

Is EU already planning for crisis?
Michael Snyder, who edits the Economy Collapse blog [3], suspects that the EU wants to be prepared for a major crisis and is anticipating an "event in September or after." After all, he says, it is most strange that in the EU, where the bureaucratic mills usually grind very slowly, something suddenly has to happen very quickly. So does the EU expect a crisis after the beginning of August? Who knows. What is certain in any case is that as recently as April, a man who may be considered a top insider warned of a new financial crisis: Jamie Diman, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, America’s largest bank, wrote in a letter to his investors that "there will be a new crisis and the financial market will clearly feel its effects. "[4]

Strikingly: In the last 24 months, non-European countries such as the U.S., Canada and New Zealand have also passed legislation that would allow those countries to freeze and then seize their citizens’ bank deposits during the next crisis." [5]

These measures are sold to the public everywhere – including the EU – as if they serve the "common good." In reality, their main purpose is to prevent people from converting their capital into cash and moving it to safety. The "bail-in" procedure was already tested in 2013 in the context of the Cyprus crisis. So if a financial crisis causes banks in the EU to falter, it will follow a similar pattern.

Cyprus savers expropriated without warning
During the bail-in in Cyprus in March 2013, all savers with a balance of more than 100,000 euros at the Bank of Cyprus lost 40 percent of their money, and at Bank Laiki they lost as much as 60 percent. The whole thing happened without warning and virtually overnight: in a single weekend, the banks closed, citizens’ accounts were frozen and the money was gone. People were no longer able to withdraw their money from their accounts. The process did not take place gradually, no, the "bail-in" was sudden and complete. Before the collapse, politicians and the media had lulled people into a sense of security – in other words, they lied until the bitter end.

According to the US financial portal Zerohedge, a bail-in could also occur in Greece in the event of a sovereign default, depriving savers of a good part of their deposits. [6]

"Bail-in is the rule from now on" – as Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan had already announced in June 2013. [7]

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[1] ca.reuters.com/
[2]"Austria’s decision to cut funding for HETA Asset Resolution AG, which was supposed to handle the liquidation of the assets of failed Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International AG, is the first test of the EU’s directive on the recovery and resolution of credit institutions, which is to be applied across the EU region from next year. The framework, which was introduced in Austria earlier than in most EU member states, allows regulators to charge losses to both the bank’s shareholders and its creditors in the event of a bank failure." www.bloomberg.com/
[3] theeconomiccollapseblog.com/
[4] www.thestreet.com/
[5] www.focus.de/, www.sparkonto.org/, www.sparkonto.org/
[6] www.zerohedge.com/
[7] www.goldcore.com/

Contributed image: The Janssen Report on the liquidation of the Austrian HETA Asset Resolution AG, YouTube screenshot, www.youtube.com/

INFO DIRECT-The Magazine for a Free World

Persecution of Christians in Germany: "You Fucking Christian" / Christine Rütlisberger, KOPP-exklusiv 02/14

Political decision-makers often like to talk about Islam as a religion of peace. Then they usually reach into their tax coffers only a short time later in order to help the integration, social and education industries obtain new lucrative contracts.

Above all, education is needed to finally make the Christian population aware of the alleged peacefulness of the Muslim religion. After that, conflicts would solve themselves. After all, the very term "Islam" allegedly means nothing other than "peace. Unfortunately, however, this is not the only thing that is simply wrong.

More than a hundred church desecrations
Neither linguistically nor in life practice can Islam be attested to be peaceful. Religious violence is on the rise worldwide. It is directed more and more against Christians and their places of worship. According to the Vatican, about 100,000 Christians are killed every year in Asia and Africa for religious reasons. But also in Germany the attacks against Christians are increasing. Especially during the Christmas season. For example, the vocational school pastor Eberhard Kleina clearly pointed out the arson attacks against churches in Hanover, Hameln and Braunschweig to the President of the EKD, Dr. Nikolaus Schneider, in his open letter of December 14, 2013.

More than one hundred church desecrations have been recorded by the Christian community in Germany since 2012, but the president has so far remained stubbornly silent. While he would hardly have kept an iron silence in the case of similar offenses against synagogues or mosques, he completely follows the Islam-friendly zeitgeist when it comes to Christianity in Germany. But what else can be expected from a secularized Protestant church that cares more about big politics than about faith? Whoever calls such representatives his own obviously does not have to wait long for the enemies of Christians. And thus the list of church desecrations seems almost endless in 2013 as well. A brief excerpt:

- On August 18, 2013, the Koblenz police headquarters reported that the parish church in nearby Niederelbert had been desecrated by, among other things, urinating in the sanctuary, leaving human feces, and damaging sacred objects.

- On September 8, the church of St. Chrysanthus and Daria in Haan, North Rhine-Westphalia, was desecrated. A crucifix was decapitated, a statue of a saint was damaged, and the sacred space was desecrated.

- On November 6, perpetrators broke into the Waltrop church of St. Peter. They destroyed the door of the sacristy, searched and vandalized the premises. They broke open the offertory in the Lady Chapel by force, but found as little there as elsewhere.

- On the night of November 8, there was vandalism and attempted arson at the church of the Buchenhöhe Asthma Center in Berchtesgaden. In the parish hall of the church, tablecloths and decorative materials were set on fire in various places, and the perpetrators violently damaged a large crucifix on the wall.

- Wooden crosses simply burned
At the beginning of December, there was a long series of desecrations in Münsterland. In total, the police counted 26 crimes. Among others, a wooden cross was found burned under a highway bridge in Ibbenbüren.

- In the same town, a stone statue of St. Joseph was beheaded and a statue of St. Barbara was smashed. In the neighboring town of Saerbeck, the perpetrators stole a statue of the Sacred Heart. The police report states, as so often in such cases: "The police do not rule out a religious background to the series."

- On the night of Dec. 8, a 23-year-old man broke into St. Vincent’s Church in Meppen/Groß Fullen, smashing a leaded window, destroying a sacred object and stealing the tabernacle.

- On December 9, cash was stolen during a break-in in the basement of the Versöhnungskirche church in the Black Forest town of Lossburg.

- On the same day, perpetrators stole money as well as a 17th-century chalice during a break-in at the parish church in Nettesheim near Cologne. Other sacred objects – two monstrances, three chalices and a reliquary cross – are also missing to date.

- The Westfälische Nachrichten reported on desecrations on St. Nicholas Day 2013. Thus, chapels in Rheine-Rodde and Mettingen were desecrated.

- And seven crimes were committed in just one night. Wayside shrines, statues and wayside crosses were destroyed.

- On December 15, so far unknown perpetrators broke into a church in Bocholt. At the altar they destroyed a pane and stole the relic of St. Norbert, which, according to police, has a value of several thousand euros.

"The desire to shed blood".
In the run-up to Christmas, Christians held vigils outside Cologne Cathedral and the EKD Church Office in Hanover against the increasing attacks on Christians and their places of worship. They sense that large-scale persecution of Christians has long since begun. Also in Germany. And the Islamic religion and its followers are taking an important role in this. Saudi Imam Muhammad Al Arifi stated unequivocally in his speech on Egypt’s Al Rahma television station on July 19, 2010:

"The desire to shed blood, smash skulls and cut off limbs in the cause of Allah and in defense of his religion is, without a doubt, an honor for the believer."

Islam is just not peaceful even at its core. The word "Islam" derives from the Arabic "aslama," which means "to subdue." Unfortunately, violence, desecration and destruction also appear to be legitimate means to bring about this subjugation of the "infidels. The ARD magazine Panorama reported on the situation as early as 2010. According to the report, German students are chased and beaten up by Muslim youths in schools-when they come out as Christians. They then hear: "You fucking Christian".

Persecution of Christians in Germany exists. And they are by no means only isolated cases. But all this seems to be politically correct and deliberate, or at least it is tolerated by politics and the media. Because they don’t talk about it. And they show solidarity with the perpetrators. The victims voted with the furniture truck. They move away from where they are persecuted and humiliated. Germany is thus moving closer to a new division day by day. It is a development that no one can stop anymore.

KOPP-exclusive 02/14 / www.kopp-exklusiv.de

EU: Germany is now the world social welfare office / Udo Ulfkotte, KOPP-exklusiv 47/13

There are many new rulings in the European Union that leave an average citizen stunned. According to the latest ruling, students who have never been to Germany and do not want to study here are entitled to German cash benefits.

In recent months, there have been court rulings that make people sit up and take notice in times of empty coffers. For example, the North Rhine-Westphalian Social Court ruled that foreigners are entitled to German social benefits even if they have no chance of ever working in Germany. The background: A Romanian family had come to Germany only to receive social benefits. And the judges gave their blessing. As a result of the ruling, German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich (CSU) now fears mass immigration into the German welfare system, and local authorities are also warning of additional burdens worth billions.

The big rush from January 2014
And there is great concern that after the introduction of the free movement of workers on January 1, 2014, when the last job hurdles for Romanians and Bulgarians fall, many will come to Germany only to receive social benefits. This is because the prerequisite for entitlement is that the migrants stay in the federal territory after an "objectively hopeless search for work". In plain language: foreigners who do not have the slightest professional qualification and thus no chance of finding work in Germany are allowed to enter and immediately receive social benefits. So far in 2013, about 70000 Bulgarians and Romanians have applied for social assistance in Germany.

A ruling by the Nuremberg Social Court is even more staggering. In the course of the "Liechtenstein affair," the Nuremberg main customs office came into possession of data carriers that revealed money flows between foreigners living here and banks in their home countries. A data comparison led the investigators to 73 "Stütze recipients" in Middle Franconia, against whom the public prosecutor’s office is also investigating for fraud. Most of them were Turks. One example: For six years, a Turkish woman living in Nuremberg, who lived on unemployment benefits and assistance from 1998 to 2004, paid 49,000 euros to her relatives in Turkey. When the Federal Employment Agency found out, it demanded part of the money – 3,000 euros – back from the former Grundig employee.

But the mother of two children did not want to accept this claim, so she took the matter to the Social Court, where she got her day in court. Other Turks postponed up to 160000 euros, as welfare recipients. The court ruled that this was to be "respected" as a "cultural peculiarity" of the Turks and was completely in order. Social welfare fraud approved by a court-that only exists in Germany. Germany is now becoming a kind of world social welfare office. Because now the highest EU judges have found that Germany must finance students, who were never in Germany, a study with German Bafög(federal education promotion law) benefits. Accordingly, Germany must pay Bafög to students who never lived in Germany before starting their education and who do not want to study in Germany. At least, this is the ruling of the European Court of Justice with the file number C-220/12 of October 24, 2013.

A place of residence cannot be the yardstick for the attachment to German society necessary for Bafög, the EU judges ruled. the case in question involved a young man born in Brazil who lived with his parents in Istanbul and applied for German Bafög to study in the Netherlands. The application was rejected by the authorities in Hanover because, according to the laws, support is not possible even for Germans who do not reside in Germany. But now the German state must finance the man’s studies. This ruling should also encourage many to apply for German social benefits .

KOPP-exklusiv 47/13 / www.kopp-exklusiv.de

German Bundesbankers recommend gold to employees / KOPP-exklusiv 45/13

At first glance, the past few months have not been particularly good for gold investors. But those who have held out or even bought in can probably rejoice. There is interesting news.

Exactly two years ago now, a previously secret document from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was published via WikiLeaks. It confirmed for the first time that and how the major central banks manipulate the price of gold. Reading through it, it quickly became clear why the document was not for public use. After all, it was about the secret gold lending operations of the central banks and how these banks act in the background on the gold price when it seems opportune to them. In this context, we also recall that former German chancellors always had to assure the Americans in secret agreements not to sell Bundesbank gold above or below a certain price on the market.

For example, a letter from Arthur F. Burns, the then Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve (FED), addressed to the then U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1975 has become known. And in this it says that the FED had a secret agreement with the then German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (SPD) that the German Bundesbank would not sell the ounce of gold at a price of more than $42.22 (the equivalent of about 52.90 euros) in that year. So both the IMF and the Deutsche Bundesbank and the FED are manipulating the price of gold. And this is demonstrably most certainly not a conspiracy theory. In recent months, the central banks have once again exercised this influence and significantly depressed the price of gold. Against this background, many speculators then also got out of the precious metal. Now, however, there is interesting news.

One seller for every 100 buyers
As has only now become known, leading Bundesbank officials recommended to their employees at the end of July 2013 that they should also invest savings in precious metals in the future. One employee, who does not wish to be named, confirmed this when asked and stated: "A gold bar or coin doesn’t just disappear in a financial crash and say, ’I’m not paying.’" It is quite different, he said, with all paper promises to pay. In any case, leading Bundesbank employees believe the financial crisis will come back more devastating than before. And that’s why employees are now stocking up privately with precious metals, among other things.

In the case of bullion coins, this is likely to become increasingly difficult. Because there is currently only one seller for every 100 buyers of gold coins. The South African gold bullion coin Kruger Rand (one ounce) is sold out almost everywhere and can no longer be obtained without high surcharges. There are also supply bottlenecks at the Australian Perth Mint for the Nugget. And those who want to buy the American Gold Eagle in the USA currently have to wait about four weeks. The Royal Canadian Mintis limiting deliveries of the Maple Leaf per week and customer to regulate the high demand. The falling gold price on paper and the concrete demand among investors for real physical gold are therefore two completely different things at the moment.

Loss of confidence in paper money
Meanwhile, new rumors that a considerable part of Germany’s gold reserves in the U.S. is no longer physically available have raised eyebrows. Most recently, in July 2013, William Kaye, a well-known U.S. hedge fund manager, claimed that gold reserves were regularly "lent" via the U.S. Federal Reserve in order to depress the price of gold. But not American, but mainly German. Via leasing contracts, physical German gold from the Bundesbank had been lent to US banks such as Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan. And these would have sold the gold among other things at the stock exchange of Hong Kong. Buyers of the "German gold" are supposed to be also the Chinese, Indian and Russian central bank, which are supposed to have considerably increased their own gold reserves in the last years with it.

Even from the Bundesbank there are now voices claiming that the physical German gold stored in New York is no longer completely available. For the classic gold investor, who has not been deterred despite the falling prices and has either not sold any of his precious metals or even bought more at favorable prices, all this means the certainty that the gold price will certainly not continue to fall endlessly, but in contrast to paper money will retain its intrinsic value in the medium to long term. At the same time, in an internal paper dated October 15, 2013, the German Bundesbank emphasizes that the prolonged gold price manipulation in connection with the unrestrained printing of paper money has "led to undesirable developments" because excessively low interest rates have led to an excessive expansion of the willingness to take on debt.

In addition, the large amount of gold lent out by central banks, which is currently often no longer physically available, could lead to a further loss of confidence on the part of those investors who, thanks to the artificially depressed gold price, had invested in fixed-interest and supposedly safe investments if the crisis situation persists. Unlike the ECB, the Bundesbank currently sees the main objective of European central bank policy at risk: fighting inflation. The prolonged decline in the gold price had given investors the mistaken impression that there would be no price increases in the foreseeable future. Investors had acted from the perspective that they did not need to keep their savings safe from inflation, i.e., to spend. That would drive prices. A depressed gold price means low inflation, but it also means a willingness to go further and further into debt.

When will forced expropriation come?
The German Bundesbank obviously does not want to continue down this path. In the long term, it obviously fears expropriations like those in Cyprus. After all, according to politicians, Germans are now also liable with their private assets for the rescue efforts for the euro. For after the furor over the expropriation of savers in Cyprus, Kurt Lauk, the president of the CDU’s Economic Council, has now also made it clear in Germany that "in Germany, too, every citizen from baby to old man is liable for the ESM bailout fund." He said that citizens in this country must also be prepared to be asked to pay at some point. Just recently, the amount of forced expropriation of savings in Cyprus was further increased. From the previous 37.5 percent, the expropriation amount has now been raised to 47.5 percent, and a further 22.5 percent of savings have been blocked per account, meaning that savers can now only freely dispose of 30 percent of their assets.

Meanwhile, the Russian government has now officially warned its citizens not to leave money in Western banks. Prime Minister Medvedev has also urged all Russian embassies and companies to withdraw their assets from Western banks. The British government is also advising citizens not to leave any more savings in the euro zone because of fears of a bank run in the foreseeable collapse of the euro. The Russian government is going even further: Since July 1, 2013, Russian officials and employees of the Moscow government are no longer allowed to hold foreign accounts, otherwise they will be dismissed.

In this way, President Putin wants to prevent Russian state employees who have invested their money in euros in the EU from being expropriated against the backdrop of the euro crisis. These fears do not seem unfounded. Jürgen Stark, the ECB’s chief economist, who resigned two years ago in protest against the European Central Bank’s monetary policy, now sees hard times ahead for German taxpayers. He says there is now "no red line" in ECB monetary policy. Soon, he says, the euro crisis will return with full force.

Finally, a safety tip for all those who currently want to keep money safe from the crisis by transferring it: Anyone who transfers money or buys goods on the Internet (i.e. online) is increasingly paying attention as an account holder to a "secure" connection so that third parties cannot misuse their own data. Now, in connection with the NSA revelations, it has become known that intelligence agencies do not need to attack such "secure" connections (such as the SSL connection) in order to tap the data. They have master keys at their disposal.

KOPP-exclusive 45/13 / www.kopp-exklusiv.de

Gold vote: The nervousness of the financial elite / Michael Brückner, KOPP-exklusiv 45/14

At the end of November 2014, the Swiss will vote on the so-called gold initiative. Currently, the supporters are just ahead. A victory could drive up the price of gold. Influential forces are now trying to prevent this by all means.

In the past few days, a few sober figures have caused a stir among the financial elite inside and outside Switzerland. The demoscopic research institute GfS in Bern found a majority in favor of the so-called gold initiative. On Nov. 30, the Swiss will vote on whether their National Bank (SNB) must hold 20 percent of its balance sheet in gold in the future. Currently, it is around 7.5 percent. The initiative also calls for a ban on the sale of gold reserves in the event of a balance sheet contraction and for all gold holdings to be stored in Switzerland.


Great sympathy for the gold plan.
According to recently published figures, 25 percent of the Swiss said they were "definitely" in favor of the gold initiative, while 26 percent were "definitely against" it. However, there is a large group of voters who tend to be more in favor of the initiative (19 percent) and around 17 percent who are undecided. If one adds up the proportions of those who are either "definitely" or "rather" in favor of or against the initiative and divides the undecideds equally between the two camps, the result is a majority of around 52 percent to 47 percent in favor of the gold initiative. And the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), which is highly skeptical of the initiative, recently noted "a surprisingly broad basic sympathy" among citizens for this initiative.

Vote of no confidence against paper money.
No wonder that even the Bank of America recently looked into the question of what an acceptance of the gold initiative would mean for the markets. It came to remarkable conclusions: Already in the short to medium term, the gold price could rise by 150 U.S. dollars (119 euros) per fine ounce. In the longer term, an even more significant increase can be expected, because a positive vote from the point of view of gold supporters would also have a signal effect for other central banks. It would be a clear vote of no confidence by the citizens against the paper money system. The financial elite is therefore likely to do everything in its power in the remaining three weeks to ensure that the gold initiative fails in the end. Behind closed doors, reference is being made to the Scottish independence referendum. Shortly before the vote, poll results had pointed to a narrow majority of supporters. Through massive propaganda campaigns, which of course also involved the mainstream media, Scotland’s withdrawal from the United Kingdom was (allegedly) rejected by a majority. But there are also numerous examples in which the population ultimately decided differently than the opinion cartel of business, politics and the media dictated.

On St. Nicholas Day in 1992, for example, the Swiss voted against their country joining the European Economic Area (EEA), which would ultimately have been a precursor to full EU membership. It is hardly known that Bern had already officially requested the opening of accession negotiations with Brussels at that time. Thus, in the coming days, all the stops are likely to be pulled out to make the vote on the gold initiative fail. Until now, the interested circles trusted that the votes on Ecopol (upper limit for immigration) and the lump-sum taxation, which will also take place on November 30, could overshadow the gold issue. But this calculation does not seem to work out. That is why strange things are now happening. A few days ago it was said that the Paypal donation account of the gold initiative had been blocked. And the NZZ announced for the next few days "an open attitude of the National Bank towards interview requests and other media wishes". What is meant by "other media requests" is left to the readers’ imagination. But what would an acceptance or rejection of the gold initiative ultimately mean for the further price of the yellow precious metal?

Swiss would have to buy tons of gold.
If the initiative is accepted, the Swiss National Bank, whose balance sheet currently stands at 522 billion Swiss francs (432 billion euros), would have to buy at least 1500 tons of gold. This is equivalent to more than half of the annual mine production (2800 to 2900 tons). At today’s price level, the SNB would have to invest about 65 billion francs (53.8 billion euros) to acquire these gold reserves. In the case of a balance sheet reduction, the increase in gold reserves to be made in a time frame of five years would be correspondingly lower. But this is hardly to be expected. After all, the minimum exchange rate of 1.20 Swiss francs to one euro set by the SNB first inflated the central bank’s balance sheet substantially. But since the SNB has five years to procure the gold, the price increase will be limited, it is said. But even if the gold price rises only moderately, the SNB is buying in a market with rising prices. An acceptance of the initiative would also hit hard all speculators who have gone "short" on the futures market, i.e. who are betting on a falling gold price. This explains why influential and financially strong forces have no interest in a success of the Swiss gold initiative. But what happens if these circles are successful and the gold initiative fails by a narrow margin? In the short term, the gold price could then come under pressure once again. However, this should not worry gold investors. Because such a sell-off to below the support line of 1180 U.S. dollars (935 euros) per ounce could then perhaps drive the last uncertain sellers out of the market and offer favorable entry prices, which China, not least, should gratefully use to increase its gold reserves. Moreover, even a narrow failure of the gold initiative would make it clear to central bankers, politicians and central bankers that it is no longer supposedly only scurrilous conspiracy theorists who have lost confidence in paper money in its current form – in any case, it would be almost half the population.

KOPP-exclusive 45/14 / www.kopp-exklusiv.de

When the state becomes a predator: Expropriation and civil unrest / Michael Brückner, KOPP-exklusiv 43/13

Politicians and economists are openly planning the partial expropriation of German citizens. And the Bundeswehr is already practicing with live ammunition the suppression of severe population unrest. The media have not reported on this so far.

Walter Krämer, an economics professor from Dortmund, claims that the media are taking the citizens for fools. In any case, he warns Germans about the media with regard to the alleged euro bailout, saying, "People are systematically being sold for fools. By politicians, but also by your fellow journalists. What nonsense Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung to the public broadcaster spread in terms of euro rescue, is frightening. They report one-sidedly about the alleged advantages of the single currency. I think the problems are too complex for the aforementioned media."

3500 soldiers in action
The truth is now more than unattractive. It is brutal and is still being concealed from the people out there. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just called for a levy of ten percent on our private assets. And the Bundeswehr is already preparing prospective general staff officers for the suppression of population unrest in Germany. So far, there has been no news about this in the German media. Yet it was only a few days ago that a corresponding "information training course" for junior military commanders on the "fight against insurgents in urban agglomerations" ended with 3,500 soldiers and more than 700 land and air vehicles.

Training took place until October 10, 2013, at the Bergen and Munster military training areas in the Lüneburg Heath. After all, it is expected that the citizens out there will not allow parts of their savings to be taken away so easily. The aforementioned course for general staff officers was disguised as an invasion of the fictitious state of "Obsidia," where the focus is on warfare "in an urban environment." What became clear was that the German military police already have special units for combating internal unrest ("Crowd and Riot Control"), equipped with shields, batons and protective suits, and including grab squads and dog handlers with service dogs. These so-called CRC forces also have heavy armored YAK-type water cannons, which are equipped with a weapons station in addition to the water cannon.

All this does not bode well. For what was recently tested in Cyprus on the subject of compulsory expropriation is now apparently to be carried out throughout Europe. The new IMF report mentioned above reads in parts like a manual for plundering citizens in order to save ailing banks and indebted states. The expropriation of Germans and Austrians has long since begun. Because interest rates on credit balances are significantly lower than official inflation rates, savers in Germany alone will lose around 14 billion euros this year.

The bill for the euro rescue
Until now, many believed that this was the price to be paid for the supposedly "no-alternative" euro rescue. Some feared that things could get much worse, but many did not believe it was possible because they believed the political propaganda. The expropriation of Cypriot savers in the spring of 2013 was still presented as a one-off special case, even though Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem was already ranting about a "blueprint" at the time.

Moreover, some felt something like a clammy joy that the alleged profiteers of the tax haven for Russian billionaires were asked to pay properly. The fact that economists and government advisors have also been discussing a special levy on savers and investors to bail out bankrupt states and ailing banks in recent months was dismissed more as academic musings. Most people did not want to believe in a "euro soli," even though it should have been clear to everyone that someone would have to pay the billions of euros for the supposed euro rescue. Now the cat is out of the bag.

A few days ago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published its Fiscal Monitor in Washington. What may sound rather boring has a lot going for it. On page 49, the IMF economists make a clear case for a compulsory levy on wealth ("capital levy"). And wealthy is anyone who has at least one euro. Mind you, this is not about millionaires. To save the ailing paper money system and thus the financial elite, the Washington rip-off artists are proposing a tax "of about ten percent for households with a positive wealth level. Who owns, for example, a discharged small house in the market value of 300,000 euros, savings deposits and shares at a value of 80,000 euros and claims from life insurances of 120,000 euros, would be asked then with 50,000 euros to the cash. In addition, the top tax rate in Germany could soon be raised to as much as 70 percent, according to the IMF rip-offs.

Compulsory levies on real estate
No one should be able to escape criminal exploitation. And that is why the IMF economists are thinking about taxing assets according to their mobility. Relatively mobile assets (savings deposits, shares, etc.) could thus be taxed somewhat more moderately to prevent the incentive for capital flight. Immovable assets (land) would be taxed correspondingly higher. IMF strategists are even considering capital controls to cut off all escape routes for euro citizens.

Moreover, it is to be feared that the "debt tax" will be set on a cut-off date. And this cut-off date would then presumably be in the past, for example January 1, 2013, thus depriving savers of any possibility of quickly shifting assets now. What’s more, transparent savers and investors have long been so thoroughly snooped on that they would immediately be noticed if they wanted to keep their savings safe.

Sight unseen, everything fits together: The abolition of the last remnants of the already never reliable banking secrecy in Germany through the introduction of automated account searches, for example. Or the meticulous recording of German real estate holdings, most recently through the so-called census of 2011. Also the suddenly extremely brutal action against tax havens, which were tolerated for years and where even Christian Democratic functionaries stashed their millions. First, every loophole had to be plugged before the big rip-off could begin.

How the financial elite earns
Even the capriciousness of the gold price makes sense from the point of view of the financial elite: The physical (and uncontrollable) ownership of precious metals is to be made mad to investors by constant manipulated price drops. The message: Get out of the supposedly highly volatile gold market and into the booming stock market. This gives the financial elite a twofold advantage: First, securities portfolios are absolutely transparent, so the state knows very precisely how much money citizens have put into stocks. Second, sustained demand for stocks ensures that prices will continue to rise. Institutional investors need only wait to cash in on a large scale at an opportune moment. It can come as no surprise that the IMF is calling for a "debt tax" right now. Obviously, this organization, whose largest shareholder is the U.S., is worried about the high triple-digit billion sums used to keep the European bankrupt states afloat.

Who knows, maybe the IMF now needs money to prevent the just once again postponed national bankruptcy of the USA in the near future? The IMF report that has just been published proves that the global sovereign debt crisis is far from being defused. In fact, average public debt in the euro zone is likely to rise again in 2014 from a high level and account for more than 96 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). But what is that compared to 107.3 percent debt in the U.S. and more than 242 (!) percent government debt that Japan is carrying? Europe’s debt king will remain Greece next year, according to the IMF forecast. So Europe’s savers and investors could soon be facing even tougher times.

KOPP-exclusive 43/13 / www.kopp-exklusiv.de

Gold between savers and speculators / Nikolaus Jilch, daily newspaper "Die Presse" 01

Vienna. There is a difference between speculation and saving. Speculation is when we put our money into an investment with the hope of a (possibly large) price gain. Saving is when we put our money in a safe place – from the weather, from thieves, but also from inflation and currency devaluation. Speculation is the hope of expanding one’s purchasing power – saving is the attempt to preserve it.

In the case of gold, the boundaries between speculation and saving have become increasingly blurred – especially in the last few years of the impressive rise in the price of gold between 2001 and 2011. After the sharp drop from around 1900 dollars per ounce to around 1300 most recently, the euphoria that prevailed in the meantime has faded again. And anyone who observes the situation soberly will see that speculators have fled, while savers are calmly making up for lost ground.

Asian small savers
And one can also see: The small investor coin market apparently has no effect on the gold price. But the reverse is true: during the months of the sharpest decline in the gold price from April onwards, the major mints and dealers all reported record figures – worldwide. This market has long been driven by the growing middle class in China and other Asian countries. In Europe and America, the number of gold fans is definitely lower in percentage terms-but their (still) higher purchasing power (still) compensates for this.

Now, there is no reason to believe that the demand of these small investors, seen globally, will decrease rapidly. And thanks to uncertainties about the future of central bank policy, some speculators have also returned recently. When the U.S. Federal Reserve recently announced that it would not be scaling back its Quantitative Easing money printing program after all, the gold price took a leap upward-inside minutes. That was the speculators.

Gold price stagnates
All the major banks and analysts still see gold stagnating or falling. Now is the time to determine for yourself whether you are more of a speculator or a saver. Because the strategy should be based on this. If you are looking for an investment whose value will continue to grow and which will yield interest and/or profits, you will probably be disappointed by gold in the next few years.

Provided that the crisis does not return. Because one thing is clear: If there is a repeat of 2008, there is only one answer for the central banks. They will print even more money. They have no other choice. But as in 2008, many speculators will flee the metal and push the price down in the short term before it rises. Even then, only the saver who bought gold because of its unique currency-like properties can remain calm.

Gold is the only "money" in the world that cannot be arbitrarily increased by a central bank. This is where people’s basic trust in the metal comes from: currencies come and go-gold stays. That’s why central banks themselves hold the metal.

In the event, it is not the laws but the reserves that give a currency confidence and stability. Not only the Asian population, but also the central banks there have been buying more and more gold for years. For protection-for the same reasons as savers.

These central banks and the growing Asian middle class are not looking for short-term profits, but for long-term stability. Those who can understand this will be happy about the current "favorable" metal prices. But those who are looking for quick money will keep their hands off gold for the time being.


Austrian daily newspaper "Die Presse" from 21. 10. 2013 (Nikolaus Jilch) https://www.diepresse.com/

The biggest gold conspiracy of all time: When will the bomb burst? / Markus Gärtner KOPP-exklusiv 20/14

For many months, the price of gold has been colluded and artificially depressed. This is no longer a conspiracy theory, but reality. Investors who have held out can rejoice.


Even the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung apparently no longer has any doubts that the gold price is being manipulated. Recently it made with the headline: "There are apparently signs that the reference price for gold has been manipulated". That makes you sit up and take notice. Since the price of gold peaked in the fall of 2011 at 1900 dollars (1366 euros) per troy ounce, central banks have been pushing prices down with all their might. A gold price that is too high signals inflation and uncertainty. This is exactly the impression that the central banks’ printing columns want to avoid. Now this attack against the gold quotations is no longer alone exhausting and expensive.


The international gold fixing cartel.
Since the beginning of May 2014, it has even become really uncomfortable and threatens to be dragged into the light of day. Several hedge funds filed a lawsuit in Manhattan on May 5, 2014, in a U.S. District Court against those five banks that fix the gold price twice a day in a secret conference. In addition to Barelays, HSBC, Societe Generale and the Bank of Nova Scotia in Canada, this also includes Deutsche Bank. Although the German bank announced at the beginning of the year that it would leave the gold fixing cartel, the lawsuit is also addressed to it. The plaintiff funds claim "substantial financial losses" as a result of the manipulated gold price. The banks are accused of "conspiratorially manipulating" gold quotations. When the complaint was read out, the courtroom was so full that half of the first session passed with the lawyers introducing themselves. Back in March 2014, former gold trader Kevin Maher filed a lawsuit against the same banks. "A lot of conspiracy theories later turned out to be fact," Maher says. "We know that the reference rate between banks (Libor) was manipulated and that it stinks to high heaven in the foreign exchange market, too."

Are criminals sitting in our banks?
In Germany, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) is already investigating whether the gold price was influenced by banks. Deutsche Bank had to submit documents to market watchdogs. Regulators in the United Kingdom are also searching for evidence of manipulation on the gold and silver markets. Regular illegal price manipulation in gold has long been suspected. This is because prices simply do not behave as the economists’ textbooks suggest. Despite massive monetary expansion by central banks, despite inflated asset and credit bubbles-and despite the crisis in Ukraine-the price of gold has been under pressure for months. Most factors in the market seem to have conspired in favor of the yellow precious metal and favor higher prices. But the mark of 1300 dollars (945 euros) per troy ounce does not seem to be surmountable at the moment. So who is hanging the lead weights on gold quotations? And how is this being done? Indications of interventions in the market abound. The background to what is happening, hidden from public view, is the massive monetary expansion of the central banks. .

For years, the U.S. Federal Reserve(Fed) has bought a trillion dollars worth of bonds annually and put liquidity into circulation. But when the price of gold reached $1900 (1366 euros) in September 2011, central bankers got too queasy. They gave their bullion banks-those institutions licensed as gold dealers-orders to place "naked sell orders" on the world’s largest futures exchange, the Comex in New York. These are bets against the gold price without physically existing gold being offered in return. These short orders usually hit the Comex like a bomb at the beginning of a trading day and spoil the mood for the entire trading day at the expense of gold. Gold futures start trading on the Comex at 8:20 a.m. New York time. As a result, unsettled investors are selling their gold ETFs. And many traders are having to sell because banks that lent to them for their deals are pulling the ripcord and demanding at least some of the money they lent back. These "margin calls" drive prices down even further as selling increases. One such price bomb� hit the Comexin New York on January 6, 2014.

The big bets against gold.
Overnight, the price of gold had initially risen by $15 (10.7 euros) in Asian trading. Suddenly, however, at 10 a.m., it plummeted by a whopping 35 dollars (25.17 euros) in just 60 seconds. Completely coincidentally in the morning at 10.30 o’clock always the first of the two daily course conferences of the banks stands to the gold price. In just one minute, 12000 contracts – over a tenth of the daily volume – had been bet against gold. This was equivalent to 1.2 million ounces of gold and was three times more than physical gold stored in the Comex cellars. After such maneuvers, the bullion banks intervene in the market, buy the now cheaper ETFs-those previously jettisoned by unnerved investors-and demand for them the deposited physical gold in the form of bars. They then sell these on the London gold market, adding to the downward pressure on gold prices and confirming the lower prices previously artificially induced by the "naked" downward bets on the Comex.

This physical gold has recently been going to Asian addresses, primarily central banks and traders or investors in India and China. Both countries are the largest importers of gold on the planet, and the suspicious Asians have long since smelled a rat in the manipulated gold market and want to stock up on as much gold as possible before a crash occurs. China also wants to build up huge gold reserves to cover the rise of its currency, the renminbi, and make it more solid. The renminbi had already overtaken the euro and the yen as the settlement currency for foreign trade by the end of 2013. But the Fedis falling into a trap with this conspiracy against gold. The physical gold being sold is from gold stocks owned by bank customers such as funds or private investors. They are only on loan, by lease. The fight against high gold prices is depleting the stocks of physical gold. We saw that something was wrong some time ago, when in 2011 Venezuela became the first country to transfer back its gold stocks from warehouses distributed around the world. It took a full four months for the country’s 160 tons to be delivered.

The U.S. and the worthless paper money.
A little later, the Germans also demanded their gold to be stored safely in Germany. But the Fed is only prepared to deliver 300 of 1500 tons within seven years. Since then, doubts have been growing as to whether the gold is still stored at all where it is presumed to be. The problem that has arisen here is enormous: If the Fed, or one of the banks involved in the trade, were quite obviously unable to deliver the physical gold demanded by investors because it is not there, then gold quotations would take off like a Patriot missile. The world would have realized that the demand for gold has long since significantly exceeded the supply and not all investors and traders would be able to claim their physical gold. A run on physical gold would begin. Investors would see that they had fallen for worthless paper promises. In this scenario, the Fed would only have the chance to immediately stop all money creation. Otherwise, the dollar would collapse. The U.S. would have lost its privilege of paying the rest of the world’s debts with printed money. The hegemony of the greenback would end. Meanwhile, even the Comex is losing its patience. Uncertainty about manipulation of the gold price is now beginning to affect the business of the stock exchange.

KOPP-exclusive 20/14 / www.kopp-exklusiv.de

How strong is the euro?-A world made of paper / Nikolaus Jilch, daily newspaper "Die Presse", 00

Hardly anyone looks to the monetary system as the cause of financial crises. Yet the burden of proof is overwhelming. After all, central banks create euros, dollars, yen and pounds as much as they want.

The financial crisis was a lesson to people. In retrospect, many know about the reasons for the fiasco. That banks gave loans to people who could never repay them because they had no assets and hardly any income. And that they packaged these loans and resold them as "safe" investments. The bursting of this credit bubble, the general opinion goes, triggered the crisis. But hardly anyone asks what made this credit bubble possible in the first place. Hardly anyone asks about the monetary system

Imagine that one day a civil servant knocks on the door of the fictitious Schmidt family from Graz. He has an incredible offer for the Schmidts: From now on, they may print euro notes themselves. As many as they want. Even better: they get the monopoly on euro production. The family can hardly believe their luck and gratefully accepts their new banknote press. How will the people of Graz handle their privilege? Very cautiously at first. They’ll pay off their debts and buy a few things they couldn’t have afforded before. But soon the privilege will go to the heads of the family members, and they will use the printing press more and more often to supply their relatives and friends with freshly printed euro notes as well. At some point, there will be no stopping them: then every expenditure – no matter how unnecessary – will be met with new money that the Schmidt family has created practically out of thin air. Soon there would be no more buyers for the Schmidt euros, because everyone knows that the Schmidts can print as much paper money as they want. The money is worthless.

"Let there be money." Now it is far-fetched that the government should grant this enormous privilege to any family. The state granted the money monopoly a long time ago: to itself. The Republic of Austria has since ceded it again: to the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, the "guardian of the euro." The ECB provides the banks with central bank money, or "base money." The banking system relies on this base money to meet public cash and credit needs.

The ECB has a monopoly on the creation of euro base money. How much of this money is created is decided unilaterally by the ECB’s Executive Board. There are no limits to this expansion of the money supply; the central bank can create as much as it wants. Welcome to the world of unbacked money, also called fiat money. "Fiat" is Latin for "let there be"-as in "fiat lux." Let there be light.

In German, this is compulsory money. Citizens have no choice: "What the state orders is money. That’s the way it is today," says Guido Hülsmann, a professor at the University of Anger in France. Until 40 years ago, this global monetary system was still tied, at least in a roundabout way, to gold, the real money of the people for centuries. Why gold? Because it cannot simply be multiplied. And because it is still accepted as a means of payment all over the world. But in 1971, the United States ended the exchangeability of the dollar for gold because too much money was flowing out of the country. Since then, there has been only paper money. A unique condition in history. Euro, dollar, franc, yen, pound: a world of paper.

"But this money does not work. It is not a stable system that we have. This unbacked paper money is truly the root of all evil, but everyone has overlooked that so far," says Guido Hülsmann. He is the biographer of Ludwig von Mises, the most important monetary theorist of the Austrian School of National Economics, whose professors and students have been pointing out the disadvantages of unbacked money for more than a hundred years.

Mises-a lone fighter. Mises personally fought inflation in Austria as a government official after World War I-in the end to no avail. In the early 1920s, the war debt debacle ended in hyperinflation-people had lost confidence in the currency as the central bank printed more and more of it. "Even then, people couldn’t imagine how quickly money could end up losing its value," Hülsmann says.

The big financial bubbles of the past 40 years-and their inevitable bad end-are basically due to the unbacked and infinitely multipliable paper money. After a crash, central banks lower interest rates, fresh money becomes cheaper-and fuels the next bubble. But fiat money has other consequences than just instability. It is one of the most powerful redistribution machines the world has ever seen. That’s because this money is put into the world by central banks in concert with large commercial banks and governments. This inflation of the money supply is inflation, rising prices a symptom of it. "This money benefits a few people who get the money first," Hülsmann says. "That is, the banks and politicians." Because these people first go shopping(investments note) with the freshly printed money and still pay the "old" prices. Only when they spend the money do prices rise, because more money is chasing the same goods. This mechanism robs the masses of their purchasing power, because wages only rise after prices. "Fiat money is a major factor in why the wealth gap has widened so much over the last 40 years, and inflation is nothing more than a hidden tax," says Hülsmann.

Systems like the current one have been tried again and again-and they have failed again and again. Most often, this failure has been accompanied by a great loss of wealth for the people. Among the most famous examples are the assignats. A paper money issued by Englishman John Law in Revolutionary France-because he could convince the rulers that it could solve all of France’s problems. The experiment ended in hyperinflation after less than five years. Law was hounded out of the country. The Germans and Austrians experienced something similar after the First World War. The lasting impression of hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic is the reason why the Deutsche Mark has always been a relatively hard currency. The Bundesbank was hardly tempted to finance government deficits through the printing press.

Unmistakable cracks. "Detaching the monetary system from gold was certainly the most consequential decision," says Philipp Bagus, assistant professor at King Juan Carlos University in Madrid and author of "The Tragedy of the Euro," which will be published in German in September. "There is simply no limit to the growth of the money supply – we are completely dependent on the will of those in power." Bagus, Hülsmann and many other economists of the Austrian School have been warning repeatedly since 2008 that the "rescue packages" and "bailouts" currently being put together in the Western world could eventually end in hyperinflation-because they, too, consist of freshly printed money.

"Much of the national debt is financed by printing money-with a detour through the banking system," Bagus says. Above all, a new crisis would be dangerous because it could cause central banks to drop all inhibitions about printing money. Ludwig von Mises, who died in 1973, wrote in his major work, Human Action: "There is no way to avoid the final collapse of a boom by credit expansion. The question is only whether the crisis should come by voluntary abandonment of credit expansion or later together with a final and total catastrophe of the monetary system." There is no sign of a voluntary abandonment of credit expansion in mid-2011. On the contrary.

The cracks in the global currency game cannot be overlooked. The dollar’s dominance is coming to an end and U.S. money is in danger of losing its role as the world’s currency. China, Russia, India and Brazil hardly miss an opportunity to voice their displeasure with the Americans’ money-printing policy and are buying gold for their reserves.

The Europeans have their own problems thanks to the euro crisis; as a dollar alternative, the euro is currently out of the picture. In the Western world, there is only one well-known politician who wants to abolish central banks and reintroduce the classical gold standard: Republican U.S. Congressman Ron Paul. He recently announced his intention to run against President Barack Obama in 2012. Paul’s backing comes from Zimbabwe, of all places, where the last hyperinflation took place from 2004 to 2009. At that time, the central bank even printed banknotes with a "value" of one billion Zimbabwe dollars.

It didn’t help; these bills were also quickly worthless. Now the central bank seems to have learned. Its president, Gideon Gono, said in mid-May, "We must now seriously consider reintroducing the gold standard." Reasoning: the days of the U.S. dollar and the current monetary system were numbered.


Austrian daily newspaper "Die Presse" of 29. 5. 2011 (Nikolaus Jilch) https://www.diepresse.com/

Inflation is the only solution / "Presse" interview with capital market expert Stefan Riße, 00

Die Presse: Six months ago, you predicted that Axel Weber, the German hard currency fan, would not become head of the European Central Bank (ECB). Instead, it will be the more moderate Italian Mario Draghi. Does this mean that the ECB is abandoning its dogma of price stability?

Stefan Riße: The ECB has already abandoned this dogma, namely when it started buying up government bonds(thus pumping money into the markets, note). In addition, it is currently tolerating inflation for the euro zone that is significantly above the target of two percent.

The ECB has raised its key interest rate surprisingly early, which is a commitment to fight inflation.

The key interest rate is currently at 1.25 percent, but inflation in the eurozone is at 2.7 percent. That means we are seeing negative real interest rates. You can’t counter inflation with that. The ECB is just trying to keep up appearances. In reality, it is allowing inflation.

Why is it doing this?

The central bankers have no other choice. We are seeing a massive debt crisis in some euro countries. If the eurozone is to be preserved with all countries, there is only one solution: Inflation. If, on the other hand, the ECB raises interest rates to levels that would effectively fight inflation, it would lead to an economic crisis. Let’s take the example of Spain: household debt is 170 percent of gross domestic product. If interest rates were to rise sharply, there would be a severe recession.

So will monetary policy be even looser under Mario Draghi than under Jean-Claude Trichet?

It won’t. But with Axel Weber as ECB chief, there would be a monetary policy that really aims for price stability. We would then see lower inflation rates. But that would come at a high price.

And what would that be?

States and private households would go bankrupt. This would endanger social harmony.

So the only way out would be inflation. When will the big wave of inflation hit the euro zone?

When the unions demand significantly higher wages. That could happen in one to four years. We will then have inflation rates of five to ten percent in Austria, for example.

That doesn’t sound good.

It’s not a big drama. But savers should think about how they can protect their money. Classic investment products like savings books and life insurance won’t get you very far.

They recommend gold as a hedge against inflation. But gold has one disadvantage: it doesn’t yield any interest. At present, interest rates are rising. Gold is therefore a less interesting investment.

What is important is not the nominal, but the real interest rates. And these are negative(as mentioned earlier note) Gold is therefore not less attractive than other investments. On the contrary, the amount of gold is manageable(all available gold on earth fits into a cube with 20 m edge length Note). The amount of money on the other hand is astronomically high(and is constantly increased worldwide by the central banks – first and foremost the FED of the USA – through the reprinting of paper money Note). This money is looking for investment opportunities and will continue to flow partly into gold and thus drive the gold price.

The indebted countries8⁾have to borrow more and more on the bond market. Are we seeing a bubble there?

There will be no crash. Central banks prevent that by buying up government bonds to support bond prices and keep interest rates low.

Austrian daily newspaper "Die Presse", 13. 5. 2011 (A. Kerschbaumer) https://www.diepresse.com/

The next financial crisis is bound to come. / Andreas Treichl, Head of "ERSTE BANK", Vienna 00

Vienna-The next crisis is coming and it will be even worse than the current one, Erste CEO Andreas Treichl said at an ÖVP/Austrian People’s Party event in Salzburg on Friday, according to ORF/Austrian Radio. "I now see a huge danger from the fact that my industry has learned relatively little from the crisis. Because the chances of making an incredible amount of money incredibly quickly with non-traditional business are incredibly high. I believe that the next crisis will not come via real estate, but via commodities," Treichl is quoted as saying on Salzburg.orf.at.

At the same time, Treichl defends the relatively conservative business practices of banks in Central Eastern Europe. Here, savings deposits are still taken in and loans are granted for the most part in accordance with the traditional banking business. "We have total assets of well over 200 billion euros and speculate with seven. A Deutsche Bank has a balance sheet total of 2,000 billion and speculates with 1,500. These are completely different dimensions," argues Treichl.

Politicians have made it more difficult to grant loans in recent years, and rightly so in some cases. But no one has bothered about the security of bonds. Lending to trustworthy firms, he says, is too strictly regulated compared to lending to governments. "An example: a company I have known for 100 years, which has never made a loss and has 50 percent equity capital, now wants a loan from me. Then I as a bank need ten times as much equity capital today as if I were to issue a bond to Greece, where I already know that if then it can only be repaid via the taxpayers," Treichl said.

Treichl continued: "This is a cheek, this is a very gross mistake. Our politicians are too stupid and too cowardly for it and too incomprehensible for it, because they have no idea of the economy to work against it and that will harm Austria and we will fall behind other countries."A democracy that cannot counter such excesses loses its legitimacy and opens the door to political charlatans, Treichl said, according to ORF.

(APA-Austria Press Agency 2011-05-12)

BERLIN DECLARATION

The undersigned brothers raise their voice in warning against the so-called Pentecostal movement.

1. we have come to the following conclusion after serious joint examination of extensive and reliable material before the Lord:

(a) The movement is inseparably connected with the Los Angeles, Christiana, Hamburg, Kassel, Grossalmerode movements. Attempts to deny this connection fail on the facts at hand.

b) The so-called Pentecostal movement is not from above but from below; it has many phenomena in common with spiritualism. Demons are working in it, which, guided by Satan with cunning, mix lies and truth in order to seduce the children of God. In many cases, the so-called "spirit gifted" have subsequently proven to be possessed.

c) The personal faithfulness and devotion of individual leading brothers and sisters cannot mislead us in the conviction that this movement is from below, nor can the healings, tongues, prophecies, etc., which accompany the movement. Such signs have often been associated with similar movements, e.g. with Irvingianism, even with Christian Science and Spiritism.

d) The spirit in this movement produces spiritual and physical power effects, nevertheless it is a false spirit. It has exposed itself as such. The ugly phenomena such as falling down, facial twitching, trembling, screaming, disgusting, loud laughter, etc., also appear this time in meetings. We leave it undecided how much of it is demonic, how much hysterical or spiritual, such phenomena are not God-caused.

e) The spirit of this movement introduces itself through the word of God, but pushes it into the background through so-called "prophecies". "prophecies". Cf. 2 Chron. 18:18-22. In general, there is a great danger in these prophecies, not only have they revealed palpable contradictions, but here and there they bring brethren and their whole work into slavish dependence on these "messages". In the manner of their transmission, the latter resemble the messages of spiritist mediums. The transmitters are mostly women. This has led, at various points in the movement, to a situation where, against the clear prophecies of Scripture, women, even young girls, are leading.

It is impossible for us to recognize such a movement as given by God. Of course, it is not impossible that in the assemblies the proclamation of the Word of God bears fruit by the inherent power of the same. Inexperienced brothers and sisters can be deceived by such blessings of the Word of God. But these do not change the lying character of the whole movement, cf. 2 Cor. 11, 3.4.14.

The church of God in Germany has reason to bow deeply over the fact that this movement could find acceptance. We all share in this guilt because of our shortcomings and failures, especially in intercession. The lack of biblical knowledge and foundation, of holy earnestness and watchfulness, a superficial view of sin and grace, of conversion and rebirth, an arbitrary interpretation of the Bible, the lust for new exciting phenomena, the tendency to exaggeration, but above all also self-conceit,-all this has paved the way for this movement.

In particular, the unbiblical doctrine of the so-called "pure heart" has become disastrous for many circles and conducive to the so-called Pentecostal movement. This is the error as if the "indwelling sin" is eradicated in a pardoned and sanctified Christian. We hold fast to the truth that the Lord will and can keep His own from every stumbling and falling (1 Thess. 5:23; Jude 24:25; Heb. 13:21) and that the same have power to rule over sin through the Holy Spirit. But a "pure heart" that goes beyond having to speak humbly with Paul even with God-given, permanent preservation: "I am conscious of nothing myself, but by this I am not justified", man does not receive at all on earth. Even the most promoted Christian has to bow before God, who alone is the judge of the true state of hearts, cf. 1Co 4:4. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us", 1Jn 1:8.

In truth, the believer in Christ receives a spotlessly cleansed heart, but the false doctrine that the heart can attain a state of sinlessness in itself has already brought many of God’s children under the curse of insincerity toward sin, and has deceived them.It has deceived them about sins that are still in their minds, in their failures, or in their falling short of the high commandments of God in their lives. It cannot be admonished enough to keep an eye for sin that is not clouded by a man-made sanctification or by an imaginary doctrine of the removal of the sin nature.

Lack of bowing to one’s own sin closes the way to new blessings and brings one under the influence of the enemy. Sad experiences in the present time show that where one claims to have reached a state of sinlessness, the believer may come to the point where he is no longer able to admit, let alone confess, error. Another sad consequence of false sanctification teaching is the associated degradation of the biblical, God-ordained conjugal life, in that in some places conjugal intercourse between a man and a woman is seen as incompatible with true sanctification, cf. Gen. 1:28 and Eph. 5:31.

In the so-called "Pentecostal movement" in Germany, Father Paul stands before the public as the leader. He is at the same time the main representative of the above rejected unbiblical teachings. We love him as a brother and wish to serve him and the multitude of his followers in truth. It is a pain for us to have to take a stand against him. There has been no lack of discussions with him and of exhortations in the narrower and wider circle of brothers. After everything was in vain, we now have to declare for his sake and for the sake of God’s cause: We, the undersigned brethren, can no longer acknowledge him as leader and teacher in the church of Jesus. We entrust him in love, faith and hope to the redemptive grace of the Lord.

We believe that there has only been one Pentecost, Apggs. We believe in the Holy Spirit, who will remain in the church of Jesus for eternity, cf. Jn 14:16. We are aware that the church of God has received and needs renewed visitations of the Holy Spirit. The apostle’s admonition: "Be full of the Spirit!" Eph. 5,18 applies to each individual. The way to this is and remains complete fellowship with the crucified, risen and exalted Lord. In Him dwells the fullness of the Spirit bodily, from which we take grace for grace. We are not waiting for a new Pentecost; we are waiting for the Lord to come again.

We hereby ask all our brothers and sisters for the sake of the Lord and His cause, which Satan wants to corrupt: Keep away from this movement; but whoever of you has come under the power of this spirit, let him break away and ask God for forgiveness and deliverance. Do not despair in the struggles through which some may then pass. Satan will not give up his rule easily. But be sure: The Lord carries through! He has already set many free and wants to give you the true spiritual equipment.

Our firm confidence in this difficult time is this: God’s people will come out of these struggles blessed! You too, dear brothers and sisters, may say this to yourselves, who are shocked by the facts before which our words confront you. The Lord will give light to the simple and humble and will strengthen and preserve them.

We rely on Jesus, the arch-shepherd. If everyone gives the Lord and his words the place they deserve, he will carry out the work of his Spirit, which he has so graciously begun in Germany, to its glorious, God-ordained goal. We rely on him who says: "Let my children and the work of my hands be committed to me" Is. 45,11.



Berlin, September 15, 1909