BIS - Bank of International Settlement: the Mother of all Central Banks

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By thecounterpunch

The BIS was originally established in May 1930 by bankers and diplomats of Europe and the United States to collect and disburse Germany's World War I reparation payments (hence its name). It was truly an extraordinary arrangement. Although the BIS was organized as a commercial bank with publicly held shares, its immunity from government interference, and even taxation, in both peace and war was guaranteed by an international treaty signed in The Hague in 1930. Although all its depositors are central banks, the BIS has made a profit on every transaction. And because it has been highly profitable, it has required no subsidy or aid from any government.

Since it also provided, in Basel, a safe and convenient repository for the gold holdings of the European central banks, it quickly evolved into the bank for central banks. As the world depression deepened in the Thirties and- financial panics flared up in Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Germany, the governors in charge of the key central banks feared that the entire global financial system would collapse unless they could closely coordinate their rescue efforts. The obvious meeting spot for this desperately needed coordination was the BIS, where they regularly went anyway to arrange gold swaps and war-damage settlements.

Even though an isolationist Congress officially refused to allow the U.S. Federal Reserve to participate in the BIS, or to accept shares in it (which were instead held in trust by the First National City Bank [owned by William Rockefeller]), the chairman of the Fed quietly slipped over to Basel for important meetings. World monetary policy was evidently too important to leave to national politicians. During World War 11, when the nations, if not their central banks, were belligerents, the BIS continued operating in Basel, though the monthly meetings were temporarily suspended. In 1944, following Czech accusations that the BIS was laundering gold that the Nazis had stolen from occupied Europe, the American government backed a resolution at the Bretton Woods Conference calling for the liquidation of the BIS. The naive idea was that the settlement and monetary-clearing functions it provided could be taken over by the new International Monetary Fund.

What could not be replaced, however, was what existed behind the mask of an international clearing house: a supranational organization for setting and implementing global monetary strategy, which could not be accomplished by a democratic, United Nations-like international agency. The central bankers, not about to let their club be taken from them, quietly snuffed out the American resolution.

After World War 11, the BIS reemerged as the main clearing house for European currencies and, behind the scenes, the favored meeting place of central bankers. When the dollar came under attack in the 1960s, massive swaps of money and gold were arranged at the BIS for the defense of the American currency. It was undeniably ironic that, as the president of the BIS observed, "the United States, which had wanted to kill the BIS, suddenly finds it indispensable." In any case, the Fed has become a leading member of the club, with either Chairman Paul Volcker or Governor Henry Wallich attending every "Basel weekend."

Originally, the central bankers sought complete anonymity for their activities. Their headquarters were in an abandoned six story hotel, the Grand et Savoy Hotel Universe, with an annex above the adjacent Frey's Chocolate Shop. There purposely was no sign over the door identifying the BIS, so visiting central bankers and gold dealers used Frey's, which is across the street from the railroad station, as a convenient landmark. It was in the wood-paneled rooms above the shop and the hotel that decisions were reached to devalue or defend currencies, to fix the price of gold, to regulate offshore banking, and to raise or lower short-term interest rates. And though they shaped "a new world economic order" through these deliberations, according to Guido Carli, the governor of the Italian central bank,, the public, even in Basel, remained almost totally unaware of the club and its activities.

In May 1977, however, the BIS gave up its anonymity, against the better judgment of some of its members, in exchange for more efficient headquarters. The new building, an eighteen story-high circular skyscraper that rises over the medieval city like some misplaced nuclear reactor, quickly became known as the "Tower of Basel" and began attracting attention from tourists. "That was the last thing we wanted," Dr. Fritz Leutwiler, its president told me, when I interviewed him in 1983. "If it had been up to me, it never would have been built." While we talked, he kept his eyes glued to the Reuters screen in his office, which signaled currency fluctuations around the globe.

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UN-ALEXANDRE BYKOVSKI-MR-05 JAN 2011. 13 months ago

UTS-00.00.01-USA-10281723-001-UN-00128172-NATO-1-201821-0012-LONDON-GMT+0-100221-00227125-PARIS-THE PRESIDENT USA -0030388372920392-091422-01012-BARACK OBAMA-02021-00222380-01021-HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN-0023823-203-000384373-PARIS-102328-INTERPOL-202988100001-2-3023882-UN-1203288BAN KI-MOON-10201201-01- December 31, 2010 - December 31, 2011.-23004284822-0401232-20342834788123000212-LONDON0012012-L027.

UN-NATO-0013812737272-W33002-088810-0207565640056-1002-0001-31/12/2010.

PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION - D. A. Medvedev

President of Belarus -A.G.LUKASHENKO

PRIME MINISTER OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION - V.V.PUTIN

Minister of Defence - A.SERDYUKOV

Belarusian Defense Minister - Y. ZHADOBINU

Prosecutor General - Y.CHAYKE

Prosecutor General of Belarus - G. Vasilevich

CENTRAL BANK OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION

NATIONAL BANK OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

Ministry of Finance OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION

No. S-00871/C-027A-002387-017-10281-A.R.M-00185-0033-UN-00234725-0001-020380-01/UTS-7.00-L0172102880938-31/12/2010-31/12/2011.

A-00001-S-00017-T-000000001. December 31, 2010 - GMT +3 sent to The Special Fund of L42 of legal documents in your name - Receipt 0022/Receipt 6324 barcode RR550870175BY-GMT +4-002372-00102-033420- -0012771 - 002010-L001827-0012-UN-31/12/2010.

A-00002-S-00017-T-000000001. You are fined from 1 January 2011 for failure to 7 seven claims and breach of budgetary discipline in international payments.

A-00003-S-00017-T-000000001. This Telex enrolled to the UN - UN - December 31, 2010 - January 1 - December 31, 2011.

A-00004-S-00017-T-000000001. Penalty begins with seizures of funds from 1 January 2011 from The accounts of two states - Russia and Belarus.

A-00005-S-00017-T-000000001. These two states penalized by The International Financial terms of the amount - 42,000,000.25 USD-(Forty-two million U.S. dollars-25 cents).

A-00006-S-00017-T-000000001. From 1 January 2011 - UTS-00.00.17-0027712-0WASHINGTON-1032828-0021-MOSCOW-203882781-01-MINSK-2038200021 - GMT+4-01028108712-GMT+0-00202-0201-UN-01/01/2011. - Money be withdrawn from The settlement accounts of the two States and credited to the International Tax Department under the control of the Rules of the UN Security Council and the International Clearing Bank.

Once enrolled Penalty - Part cash belongs to The UN Security Council, The International Clearing Bank, The International Tax Department, Government of The United States of America, in equal shares.

A-00007-S-00017-T-000000001. In case of further non-performance of obligations to the Plaintiff (Guardian Key 1968 - 05 October 2009) by calculation and action proceedings - February 1, 2011 this amount 42,000,000.25 USD - (Forty-two million U.S. dollars-25 cents) is subject to transfer in The International Plan of The International Clearing Bank.

Maximum fine of 12 twelve months of 2011 can be credited at the same time or in equal installments every month.

A-00008-S-00017-T-000000001. Russian Federation and The Republic of Belarus shall pay a penalty to complete fulfillment of obligations to ALEXANDRE N. BYKOVSKI. In The penalty enlisted The theft and The theft of military and diplomatic documents. The theft installed - 6 December 2007 and April 28, 2009 at the Embassy of the Russian Federation - The city of Minsk - Belarus.

A-00009-S-00017-T-000000001. Date of notification No. S-00871/C-027A-002387-017-10281-A.R.M-00185-0033-UN-00234725-0001-020380-01/UTS-7.00-L0172102880938-31/12/2010-31/12/2011. - Part of The Rules of the UN Security Council - UN - December 31, 2010. Execution begins with January 1, 2011.

A-000010-S-00017-T-000000001. Guardian of The Key 1968 - October 5, 2009 - ALEXANDRE N. BYKOVSKI - Once enrolled Penalty - Part cash belongs to The UN Security Council, The International Clearing Bank, The International Tax Department, Government of The United States of America, in equal shares.

A-000011-S-00017-T-000000001. PLAINTIFF - ALEXANDRE N. BYKOVSKI. - December 27, 1968 birthday.

A-000012-S-00017-T-000000001. Guardian of The Great Seal - ALEXANDRE N. BYKOVSKY. - December 27, 1968 birthday.

December 31, 2010 - December 31, 2011.

©Guardian of The Great Seal - ALEXANDRE N. BYKOVSKY. - December 27, 1968 birthday. - 2010 - 2011.

©PLAINTIFF - ALEXANDRE N. BYKOVSKI. - December 27, 1968 birthday. - 2010 - 2011.

© WASHINGTON - ALEXANDRE N. BYKOVSKI - LONDON-PARIS-MINSK-BERNE-BERLIN-001708L84-00201. - 2010 - 2011.

info@bankhawk.com

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