‘Epithets’ and interest rate apartheid

We live in an age of epithets, apartheid, racism, ethnic cleansing, discrimination, bigotry and hatred. Unlike previous times of hate, the boundaries are instituted via interest rate policies (not actual apartheid walls like Israel built recently).

If you live on one side of the interest rate apartheid wall, your cost of capital is zero, and in some cases (like when Wall St. banks lend to the Fed), less than zero. Wall St. and City bonuses are paid based on aggregate debts created; financed with interest-free money.

There is no practical reason the US should carry $15 trillion in debt on the books with an additional $50 trillion off the books. There is no practical reason JP Morgan should carry $90 trillion in debt off the books. There is no practical reason Japan is carrying over 200 per cent of their GDP in debt on the books.

The real reason these debts exist is because the bankers who created them are paid as a percentage of gross debts forced through the system. A 1 per cent fee on a $500 billion tranche of debt is bigger than a 1 per cent fee on a $5 billion tranche and this simple calculation of ‘more = more’ is why bankers create so much debt in the first place.

But there’s a hook. Debt has interest costs attached. Therefore, for these bonuses to be paid the base rate, set by the central bank (the Fed), needs to be as close to zero as possible. ‘Deflation’ or fear of deflation has nothing to do with it. And as long as ‘price signals’ from exchanges are manipulated by these same bankers then inflation’s not a problem either. The Fed complains about deflation as justification for lowering rates while never mentioning the cost of 'shopping cart' goods is up more than 8 per cent this year.

Need money for a new house in the Hamptons? Well, if you’re a friend of the Fed you borrow at 1 per cent or less. Shopping for a new chateau in Provence? If you’re a friend of the Fed, you borrow at 1 per cent. The fees to bankers from creating trillions in non-essential debt - aided by 0 per cent interest rates - and regulators who, as Eric Holder’s office said (America’s attorney general) - ‘We have no power to prosecute crimes on Wall St. due to potential systemic risk’ - are enormous.

What about those living on the other side of the interest rate apartheid wall, ‘the epithets’ I'll call them. This is you, me and everyone else (who is not a partner on Wall St. or the City). What do we pay?

The rate charged to epithets (that's you, buddy) starts at 3 per cent for mortgages and 15 per cent for credit cards, but rise quickly to imputed rates of 20-30 per cent as soon as you get entrapped by a bank’s ‘missed payment’ scam they hard-wire into the system. The interest rate rises again for payday loans where annualized rates of interest can come in at 2,000 per cent and higher.

Consumer interest rates used to be tied to the creditworthiness, but no more. Simply paying off interest and principle on time is no longer a guarantee of lower interest costs. You have to be politically compliant in ways that help banksters if you want to get the good rates. This means looking the other way when Wall St. banks repeal Glass-Steagall and other regulatory impediments to larceny. You must look the other way when banks are caught laundering money for drug cartels; rigging LIBOR, energy markets, Credit Default Swaps, and gold and silver markets.

You only get the ‘white man’s’ (non-epithets) rate if you don’t complain about Apple’s avoiding $9 billion in taxes by allowing Wall St. to float $50 billion in new debt - allowing the company to play accounting games as well as enriching the same debt-spinning bankers who increase debt needlessly for a living.

You must learn to be a good epithet, brother and don’t get too uppity and challenge what the ‘masser’ is doing on the global debt plantation. You can shop at Walmart, the company store (and buy stuff made by slaves living on the same side of the interest rate apartheid wall) and if you’re lucky you’ll end up spending the rest of your days in a privately owned American prison financed of course with 0 per cent money pledged against a deal with municipalities across America to keep these privately-owned prisons 98 per cent full of epithets who had the gall to not look the other way while Wall St. raped and pillaged a nation for no money down.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.