Sunday, February 24, 2013

Silver Link: Opium Wars to Today

This article was from a market analysis site called Safehaven and shows how much its author (an investment analyst) knows about the history behind the use of silver from days of the Opium Wars to today.

How many Chinamen today know more about the opium trade then than this man?

He must find that that historical perspective enhances his investment analyses (otherwise why bother to find out about the Opium Wars that have no personal relationship to him) just like my belief that knowledge of history is life enriching.

Men that do not know history will forever be boys - Tacitus, Roman historian



http://www.safehaven.com/article/28911/correcting-antal-feketes-historical-silver-errors

Correcting Antal Fekete's Historical Silver Errors
By: David Morgan | Fri, Feb 22, 2013

Presented February 2013 by Charles Savoie
 
In "The Double Whammy of Geopolitical Gold Games reposted in February 2013 (from January 31, 2008) by Antal Fekete he stated some errors of fact! Marco Polo, guide us on this excursion to China! Bruce Lee, help our reflexes to be as fast as yours! May we not be slap happy like Jackie Chan! Wo Fat, do not mislead us! Antal mentioned China's silver money system going back to the 16th century, then stated"
"CHINA'S EXTERNAL TRADE WAS INSIGNIFICANT, but the volume of silver currency for domestic use must have been enormous. There was an avalanche of silver from abroad raining on China."
China's external trade was insignificant? Where did they get the silver from for their silver system? Primarily from mines in Mexico and Peru; probably 85% of it or more. Some also came from the Iwami Ginzan silver mine in Japan which operated for 397 years. He says there was an avalanche of silver from abroad raining on China. Why should other nations send enormous volumes of silver to China? What would their motive be, something for nothing? Resolving this we find Mister Fekete in serious error claiming that "China's external trade was insignificant."

Here (visit the page, read the article) we find mention (16th to 19th centuries) of China's "STAGGERINGLY LARGE EXPORT SECTOR"

Export of silks, spices, artistic porcelain, jade carvings, tea, rice and other trade goods was paid for by Europe and Britain in silver. Insignificant and staggeringly large don't reconcile; one of them is wrong; Fekete is wide of the mark. Why don't people check for certification before making claims? Before the silver mines of Mexico and Peru opened and large amounts of silver flowed to Spain, England and Europe, China had copper and bronze coins, and its own paper currency debacle

Fekete rolled his off balance dice again:
"As far as it is known, SILVER NEVER FIGURED IN CHINA'S EXPORTS (except re-exporting foreign-owned refined silver). China is the only country in the world that has consistently run trade surpluses since 1950. WHY SHOULD THE CHINESE EXPORT SILVER, WHEN THEY COULD EXPORT ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE?"
Gee! We already saw that Chinese trade goods were paid for in silver; we'll see more of this as we progress. Silver was most of what China used to pay for imported goods over a multi-century span, after they had accumulated meaningful stores of silver; their silver system ran from sometime in the year 1571 when it started out on a smaller scale to an official end on November 3, 1935. The New York Times, November 4, 1935, speaking of China going off the silver standard, said:
"Banknotes issued by the government owned Central Bank of China become legal tender---debts payable in silver may be settled in the new legal tender and all holders of silver must surrender it to the Central Bank and accept notes in exchange at face value."
First China had to accumulate silver in exchange for goods they had to offer, which they did; secondly, they were able to use silver acquired for exports to pay for imported goods.

Here's some historical data on the silver for opium business the British were leaders of (some Americans like the very dirty fur trader, central banker and real estate magnate John Jacob Astor, and French were involved):
"In 1729, its import was 200 chests, and by 1790 it amounted to over 4,000 chests (256 tons) annually. In 1858, about twenty years after the first opium war, the annual import rose to 70,000 chests (4,480 tons)." ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars
Next we see:
British Opium Sales to China
It seems incredible that Fekete didn't mention the British opium "trade" run out of British India, which was a scheme the British hatched to "recover" British silver, and silver paid to China by other nations. Speaking of the early 18th century:
"Western nations are experiencing an outflow of silver bullion to China as a result of the imbalance of trade in China's favor, and they bring opium into China as a commodity to trade to reverse the flow of silver." ~ http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/main
China banned opium in 1726, but that was some 35 years before the British East India Company, with a charter from the Crown, undertook to initiate mass exportation of opium into China. Opium addiction soon spread to other areas of China as more ports opened to trade with Westerners. Imports of opium rose from 15 tons in 1730 to over 75 tons in 1773. The article also mentions:
"By 1830-31, the number of chests of opium brought into China increased fourfold to 18,956 chests. In 1836, the figure exceeded 30,000 chests. In financial terms, trade figures made available by both the British and Chinese governments showed that between 1829-1840, a total of 7 million silver dollars entered China, WHILE 56 MILLION SILVER DOLLARS WERE SUCKED OUT BY THE SOARING OPIUM TRADE. Opium once supported the economies of several nations and that Britain in particular was responsible for the enslavement of millions of Chinese through their addiction to opium. It's hard to imagine that not one, but two wars were fought to force a sovereign nation to open its ports to accept opium. In one of the more shameful episodes of the British Empire, opium was used to balance their trade deficit with China - regardless of the human toll caused by their imports. The Emperor did not want European goods in exchange for tea, porcelain, silks and spices that the English imported from China. The only form of trade that China would accept was silver; but because Britain operated on the gold standard, they had to buy silver on the open market at great expense. This created a trade imbalance that was heavily weighted toward the Chinese. One of the largest opium traders of the day was Jardine-Matheson, a company still in existence today."

This huge conglomerate is today a $60 billion + annual enterprise in luxury hotels, supermarkets, real estate, auto parts, financial services and other sectors. The company has an impressive skyscraper in Hong Kong. It's controlled by various Pilgrims Society dynasties---the Keswicks, Sassoons, Rothschilds and Warburgs of Federal Reserve fame. The Sassoons were originally opium dealers from medieval Persia who linked by marriage to the Rothschilds. It has banking relationships with the old Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation---now known as HSBC, a top tier global banking powerhouse whose U.S. subsidiary has been listed on the roster of the Silver Users Association! The Jardine emblem, by God, is that of an opium poppy!

According to John Francis Davis in "The Chinese--A General Description of the Empire of China and its Inhabitants" (London, 1857), page 24:
"The rapid growth of the trade in opium, and the CONTINUED DRAIN OF SILVER, have greatly alarmed the government."
The New York Daily News, October 15, 1858 made reference to the "Parliamentary Blue Book" which claimed that British export-import trade with just the two cities of Canton and Shanghai, for the years 1844 through 1856, amounted to more than 437,700,000 pounds sterling, a truly fantastic sum on the part of certain antecedents of founders of The Pilgrims Society of Great Britain, who are the paper money cartel! British opium exports into China peaked in 1880 with 105,580 chests! An opium chest weighed 150 pounds according to the aggressively bigoted.

None of these figures are as verifiable as the silver Mr. XYZ investor has in his personal vault; but then, only he can verify it and that's as it should be. The point is, however, there was AN ENORMOUS DELETION OF SILVER FROM CHINA due to the opium trade. Chinese called opium the "heavenly demon."

With typical tea and crumpets British arrogance, the terms of the Treaty of Tientsin after the second opium war included China allowing foreign missionaries in the country for purposes of "converting the heathen Chinese;" more likely, peddling more dope!

The Chinese eventually took large scale action against the "traders;" this led to the "gunboat diplomacy" of the Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860) under which the British, who remain as of 2013 of the persuasion that their destiny is to rule the world through the United Nations organization, got control of Hong Kong.

The First Opium War

From the University of Wisconsin Press we note:
"The main catalyst for this downfall of the economy was THE LOSS OF SILVER TO BRITAIN. In 1839, Lin sent a memorial to the Emperor that explained the amount of taels spent on opium, an estimated 100 million annually. The Qing government functioned on annual revenue of approximately 40 million taels; this demonstrates the extreme amounts of silver leaving China. The Qing treasury took an enormous hit from the opium trade. In 1793, it contained roughly 70 million taels of silver. By the year 1820, the treasury was reduced to a mere 10 million taels of silver. This large export of Chinese silver and depletion of the Qing reserves ballooned the exchange rate. GREAT AMOUNTS OF SILVER FLOODED OUT OF THE EMPIRE TO PAY FOR THE FOREIGN DRUG."
Apart from wanting the world to be poor so as to be in control of the globe, the power crazed British wanted the silver back so as to have hard currency to pay troops in wartime, and Britain---not Germany--- is easily history's leading warmonger. In "The Opium Trade," which appeared in Merchants Magazine & Commercial Review, New York, August 1850 (pages 147-159) in particular we see in reference to China:
"...a heavy drain of silver---the VAST QUANTITY OF SILVER THAT LEFT THE TERRITORY to pay for opium."
According to John Francis Davis in "The Chinese--A General Description of the Empire of China and its Inhabitants" (London, 1857), page 24:
"The rapid growth of the trade in opium, and the continued drain of silver, have greatly alarmed the government."
British "merchants" forced Chinese into opium addiction at gunpoint
It's well established that British "merchants" forced Chinese into opium addiction at gunpoint:
The opium addict, eyes bulging out of his head!
We take tea and crumpets before we go to bed!
Sooner or later he drops stone cold dead!
For him, not one British tear is shed!
The Bombay Telegraph & Courier for May 17, 1852 remarked:
"We sell them opium, whereby sooner or later they destroy themselves. As an article of commerce opium stands out without a parallel. From the skilful management and cultivation of about 100,000 acres of land, the East India Company produces an article which, sold at a profit of several hundred per cent, yields to them net revenue annually, of nearly three millions sterling. We do not here include the Malwa opium, seventh of the whole revenue of the country, raised from an extent of more than a million of square miles. From the transport of this drug by a few vessels named opium clippers, a few mercantile houses are also realizing magnificent profits, while the Chinese themselves, the grand consumers of the drug, part with five or six millions pounds sterling per annum. The most astounding fact of the opium trade needs yet to be specified, that Christian sensibilities have not yet been adequately roused in relation to its iniquities and horrors. That a professedly Christian government should, by its sole authority and on its sole responsibility, produce a drug which is not only contraband, but essentially detrimental to the best interests of humanity; that it should annually receive into its treasury crores of rupees, which, if they cannot, save by a too licentious figure, be termed the price of blood, yet are demonstrably the price of the physical waste, the social wretchedness and moral destruction of the Chinese; and yet that no sustained remonstrances from the press, secular or spiritual, nor from society, should issue forth against, the unrighteous system, is surely an astonishing fact in the history of our Christian ethics. This fact can, however, be easily explained. There is a prestige about this great trade which serves to hide its intrinsic repulsiveness. On the principle whereby the slayer of an individual is execrated as a murderer, and the slayer of ten thousand is treated as a hero and half deified, we can understand how a trade, which, if carried on by one or two of the baser sort, would be denounced as smuggling and piracy, is divested of its illegal and immoral characteristics by the patronage which emblazons it, the numbers connected with it, the immense capital embarked in its prosecution, the glittering private fortunes realized by it, and more than all, the immense addition to government finances. We find it very difficult to entertain the idea that a traffic whose mainspring is in government regulations, whose affairs are conducted by government officials, whose sales are in the flush of day, at public auctions in a city of palaces, whose dealers are princely merchants; which employs as its transports splendid clippers, whose commanders are educated men, and, still more, WHOSE RETURN FREIGHTS ARE SOLID, WEIGHTY SILVER; and, to crown the whole, whose operations from beginning to end are sanctioned by the explicit enactments of the Imperial Parliament, can best we dare venture to say it may be demonstrated to be commercially suicidal, politically inexpedient, nationally dangerous, judicially contrary to the law of nations, ethically unjust, and, in relation to that God who desires mercy and not sacrifice, wholly iniquitous and abominable."
Let's evaluate some possible statistics based on the figures referenced in the Bombay Telegraph:
5 or 6 million pounds Sterling = 60 to 72 million ounces x Sterling conversion factor of .925 = 55.5 to 66.6 million ounces per year x how many years? Over a period of just under 16 and one half years (until the opium trade allegedly eased off), at an average silver outflow of 61 million ounces per annum, gives the figure of over 1 billion ounces! Certainly the rate of silver lost from China because of opium would not have been constant, but then the opium trade was ongoing for over two generations as of 1852, and it positively extended on a large scale past 1870. The year 1881 is referenced here http://www.sycee-on-line.com/Opium_tax.htm in regard to opium taxes payable in silver and 20 years later we still find:
The Opium Traffic with China

The Boxer Protocol of September 1901 resulted from China again being invaded by Westerners who imposed reparations on them:
"450 million taels of silver were to be paid as indemnity over a course of 39 years to the eight nations involved. Under the exchange rates at the time, 450 million taels was equal to US$ 335 million gold dollars or £67 million, approximately equal to US$6.653 billion today. The Chinese paid the indemnity in gold on a rising scale with a 4% interest charge until the debt was amortized on December 31, 1940."
Part of the reparations from the second opium war that ended in 1860 was forfeiture of 16 million silver bars ("taels.") A measure of weight, the tael varied. The Canton tael was 37.5 grams (1.20565oz troy) whereas the Shanghai tael was 33.9 grams (1.08991oz). The thrifty British would not have missed the trick of holding China to heavier silver taels. By way of flashback in this chronology, the site mentioned the 1830s:
"The export of tea, silk and chinaware was not able to cover the costs for opium imports: the Chinese trade balance tended negative, silver money left the country. The economical impact of the Opium Wars and the penetration of the Western powers in the Chinese trade system was mainly seen in currency problems. The huge amount of opium import could not be balanced by an equal amount of exports of Chinese goods. According to the treaties, China had to pay tens of millions of silver Dollars as war damage reparations to the Western powers. China's trade balance was critically endangered by these facts, and moreover by an inflation of the silver currency against the gold standard that was adopted by the Western countries."
I sincerely hope we've answered Fekete's question, "Why should the Chinese export silver, when they could export almost anything else?" Drug addicts will do anything to get a fix; and silver was the only payment the British accepted! However, there's another reason totally apart from opium as to why China should export silver since the Maoist takeover; we'll cover this also, with documentation.
Sucking silver out of China, pushing opium over there!
Demonetize silver in America, Rothschild's a billionaire!
Let all the world's little people sink into despair!
We're the world's bankers, you're in our crosshair!
House of Rothschild
This film from 1934 is of interest, as is the fact of a Rothschild being on the governing board of the silver trading New York Commodity Exchange (New York Times, July 5, 1933, page 27). No question vast amounts of Chinese and Indian silver must have been in the COMEX whirlpool before silver trading migrated to Canada after the Silver Purchase Act of 1934 and FDR's EO 6814 on August 9, 1934 due to a 50% profits tax. Today the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange has the usual names found at its site---Bache, Warburg, Morgan, HSBC; and Rothschild in the background.

Tthe Rothschilds established a presence in China in 1838, and again in 1953 less than 4 years after the Red takeover. See the image of the silver bar cast with Chinese lettering, at this page! Franco Bernabe, chairman of Telecom Italia, is a director of Petro China (552,810 employees) and is vice chairman of Rothschild Europe.

We won't cover details of the Latin Monetary Union except to note that as of 1870, only Britain wasn't on a silver standard. But, with British subversion ever attacking silver, in 1871-1872 a series of European nations demonetized silver. One excuse was that the Papal States debased silver coins and exchanged them elsewhere in the continent for standard silver coins. To amend Fekete's statement about silver being rained down on China; more correctly, China was a silver sponge that Britain and Europe first exported silver to; then recaptured much of it by turning tens of millions of Chinese into opium addicts at gunpoint; then China was hit by recurring waves of silver demonetization, 1871-1878; it's highly likely that after the Spanish American War of 1896 when we took over administration of the Philippine Islands, that Philippine silver started being dumped on world markets, especially since Charles Conant, a highly placed man, advised the Philippines to "go cold" on its circulating silver money; and before that silver already took another hit from New York banks who boycotted Morgan dollars in 1878; then in 1920, the British debased their own silver coins from .925 to .500, and dumped a flood of silver onto the Shanghai market, seriously shrinking prices. In "Silver At The Crossroads," Mining Congress Journal, February 1947, pages 85-86 we see:
"The effect of this unfortunate move was to REDUCE THE WORLD PRICE OF SILVER BY AT LEAST 50 PERCENT within a period of about a year. THE SHANGHAI SILVER MARKET WAS SWAMPED WITH BRITISH SILVER. Auction sales of silver followed which had a far-reaching effect upon the economy of China, then on a silver standard. THE MOMENTUM OF THE PRICE DECLINE THAT ENSUED CARRIED THE WORLD PRICE TO AN ALL TIME LOW OF 24.5 CENTS PER OUNCE."
The all time low wasn't 25 cents as Fekete says in 1932; it was 24.5 cents and occurred in February 1931. Silver may have even pushed lower than this! See Commercial & Financial Chronicle, New York, February 14, 1931, page 1136; the British Valentine's Day gift to silver was a nightmare from hell. Nevada Senator Pittman also referenced the all time low silver price as 24.5 cents at a speech in Denver at the Metals Mining Convention (Mining Congress Journal, February 1937, start page 38). The next huge hit to silver, and larger still, was when Britain demonetized Indian silver in 1926 and commenced dumping melted silver rupees on world markets, especially China, by 1928. The New York Evening Sun, August 6, 1926 reported that world silver markets plunged into panic on news on England's intent to dump 400 million ounces onto world markets! By early 1930 China was suffering terribly due to the British attack against silver. The China Weekly Review (Shanghai) January 11, 1930, page 200 reported:
"The entire business machinery of China is in chaos."
Chinese export trade was devastated by the drop in the silver price; then, pretending to come to silver's rescue, in summer 1934 Congress passed the Silver Purchase Act of June 19, 1934 (it did help Western states mining interests) which had the larger outcome of sucking so much silver out of China in alarming quantities, that the Commercial & Financial Chronicle, April 13, 1935, page 2453, said the loss "disrupted China's entire monetary system." The C & FC, May 18, 1935, page 3307 stated:
"The Chinese Ministry of Finance said on May 12 from Shanghai, that the silver purchasing policy of the United States is causing a severe drain on China's silver reserves and a sharp contraction of the nation's currency and credit."
Map of China
In the Commercial & Financial Chronicle, March 23, 1940, we note on page 1859, in testimony of Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. before the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency on March 19, 1940:
"As you know, the Treasury has made special arrangements with various foreign countries relating to the purchase of silver. The first and most important of such arrangements was made with China. In June 1936 and from time to time thereafter the Treasury entered into arrangements with China pursuant to which it acquired approximately 565,855,000 ounces of Chinese silver."
Over a 46 month period---all of it AFTER China hemorrhaged so much silver that it was shoved off its silver standard---the United States Treasury continued TO VORTEX ANOTHER HALF BILLION PLUS OUNCES of the element with 61 neutrons out of China. This was also referenced in China Weekly Review, January 15, 1938, page 183, "Huge Sales of Silver Under Kung-Morgenthau Agreement." Before this period, the Treasury during 1935 absorbed 494MOZ from foreign sources, and we are fair to assume this was predominantly Chinese silver (Mining Congress Journal, December 1943, page 22). In the first 36 months after the Silver Purchase Act of 1934, the Treasury took in from all sources a per annum average of 426,892,333 fine ounces (Mining Congress Journal, November 1937, page 45). That's an average of 179,316,333 ounces more than world production of 247.576MOZ in 1936. Another point--- according to Frank Fetter in "China And the Flow of Silver" (Geographical Review, New York, January 1936) page 40:
"Shanghai stocks of silver reached an all time high of 449,840,000 ounces in June 1934."
The Shanghai was China's largest silver market; the peak figure for its hoards of silver was LESS THAN 80% of the 19,409 tons of silver (565.855MOZ) referenced by Morgenthau that he sucked from China in just ONE particular episode he became specific about! Frank Fetter of the anti-silver money American Economic Association (secretary-treasurer 1901-1906, president 1912) and held professorships at such Pilgrims Society universities as Cornell, Stanford and Princeton, received a Guggenheim fellowship (grant) in 1937-1938 and was an "economic advisor" to the Central Bank of Ecuador in 1940; with the Lend-Lease Administration in 1943-1944 then with the State Department till 1946. Fetter was also a member of the American Commission of Financial Advisors, a banker front through which he had direct dealings with China in 1929, possibly touring its silver vaults. If we could know roughly how much silver--- (in Indian crores, Chinese taels and sycee---bullion bars shaped like a boat--- or any other measurement) was drained out of China by Hong Kong & Shanghai bank from the close of the second Opium War to the end of 1935, it would be very revealing. Fetter was a member of the elite Cosmos Club in D.C., facilitating discreet meetings of politicians with Wall Streeters. See Fetter in Who's Who, 1947, page 751.
H.H. Kung
H.H. Kung was an agent of the Anglo-American bankers who became Finance Minister of China, 1933-1944. In 1935 he declared private ownership of silver officially illegal (so as to be able to export more to the U.S. Treasury) and he started issuing the "pinyin" paper note; the word means "legal tender." The British-American financiers, who formally organized themselves into "The Pilgrims Society" in 1902-1903 for world monetary cartelization, literally played silver ping-pong ball with China for generations! There was nothing wrong with Britain and Europe originally paying for Chinese exports with silver. Certainly however the opium addiction stratagem for recovering silver from China, with probably over 100 million Chinese over the years suffering the torments of the damned and passing away early because of it, was as immoral as "business" gets. For long periods, the Anglo-American financiers sucked immense volumes of silver out of China; then suddenly dumped titanic amounts, whipsawing their silver system; then finally, sucking silver out of China again with the Silver Purchase Act of 1934 and still later, by other means, which we shall touch on with documentation, unlike professor (?) Fekete. I don't get the validity of scholarship without documentation! Neither should you! They destabilized silver in China by wicked intent!

There was a "popularity champ" I knew in high school who insisted that Greenland was a Canadian province; that it was larger than Brazil; and that George Wallace was governor of Georgia. I countered that Denmark owned Greenland; that it equals less than a third Brazil's territory and that Wallace was governor of Alabama. The onlookers sided with the popular fellow and dismissed my counter claims due to mere personality issues. He was a football player and I was not! And did I ever get looks of condemnation! One of his pals even showed me a world map depicting Greenland as larger than Brazil (many maps show this distortion!) I sincerely hope, friends, that documentation matters more to you than the cult of metals personalities. Greenland became quasi-independent in 1979 but when I had the dispute in 1971 I was 100% correct. I hope being correct in this presentation doesn't get me exiled like the Dalai Lama due to irrational popularity issues.

The World Monetary Conference in London in 1933 allowed the British to continue dumping silver out of India over a four year span into 1937 at an average rate 35 million ounces per annum (New York Times, Sunday, July 23, 1933, page 16, "Text of Silver Treaty Concluded at London.") The vast majority of that undoubtedly arrived in United States Treasury vaults due to the Silver Purchase Act and would not necessarily have been trans-shipped from China. The back and forth actions in silver against China used by Britain and later greatly assisted by their "Pilgrim Partners," the soulless American financiers and their subalterns in government, had the desired effect of forcing China and the entire Far East, including India, off silver money systems. The Anglo-Americans dragged the world to full fiat! The Mining Congress Journal, February 1957, page 114 attributed the second World War and the fall of China to Communism to the British/American refusal to restore silver as a monetary medium in world trade. The object of the Silver Purchase Act of 1934, from these conspirators viewpoint, was to concentrate into Treasury vaults the single largest stockpile of silver in history, which they intended to use for global price management objectives; this worked magnificently until just after the start of the new millennium.

Fekete tells us "the Chinese central bank had to take all the silver offered to it...this situation lasted right up to 1949 when the Communists took over. Several Western historians blame the Communist victory on the unprecedented silver inflation that Western governments inflicted on the Chinese economy by their insane silver dumping policy before World War II."

How does this claim on Fekete's part square with the facts? Could an alligator snapping turtle wake him up? His presentation contained not one documented reference (zero); the reader is just expected to take his word for everything he says, because he wraps himself in the aura of an alleged authority with titles like doctor and professor and is cited by sites and suit and tie groups who organize metals conferences; yet, certain of his key points are demonstrably incorrect as documented in the public record. Please REFER TO HIS DISCLAIMER at the end of his opinion piece! It's damn unlikely the Chinese "had to take all the silver offered" when the United States Treasury was sucking in at least hundreds of millions of ounces of silver annually, and I do mean stoutly beyond then current mining output.

This reminds me of another "expert" who on January 27, 2010, at http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/ told readers, apparently with no research background, that "silver was never made illegal to own." On January 27, 2010, I contacted SilverSeek with a correction to this well intending fellow who is by now widely read on the silver subject. His incorrect statement was made against a background of expertise in an entirely unrelated field (fallacy of erroneous appeal to authority). The error was promptly corrected, but could I get mention as supplying the correction? Of course not, because many arbitrarily excluded me from the metals community's panel of experts, notwithstanding the fact that I've presented far more silver historical research---all documented and cross-referenced--- than anyone else see http://www.silver-investor.com/archives/index.html and http://silverstealers.net/tss.html and www.nosilvernationalization.org The fact that prominent metals longs haven't mentioned The Pilgrims Society as being the central threat to precious metals investments is simply because of absence of awareness. Please don't fall for the "ad populum" fallacy; that is since someone isn't mentioned by this or that commentator, site or organization, that therefore, findings presented are unimportant. The error of fact at Silver Seek was at any rate promptly corrected after the site operators notified the gentleman of his mistake. Now to return to Fekete's errors; he butted heads several years ago with Jason Hommel and came out poorly as Jason said:
"Antal is living in a fantasy land."
To which I may ask by way of addenda:
"In an Antal Fekete deal, do you get to ha ha ha?"
To be certain, we have no way of knowing exactly how much silver flowed into China for export purchases by Colonial powers from circa 1560-1571 to the start of the opium trade; and we cannot be certain how much silver that vile business removed from China; but we do know the amount removed was colossal and may have reduced China's silver holdings by over half; we also know that substantially more silver was raked into the United States Treasury via the 1934 Silver Purchase Act, than the amount of silver the British conspirators dumped out of India. One of today's titans of world banking, HSBC, was built on the opium business. We also can't be certain how much silver dumped by European nations beginning at the start of the 1870's ended up in old Cathay, the archaic Western term for China. In the 1920 event, Britain dumped 70MOZ silver that came from debasing its coins from .925 to .500 under Sir Austen Chamberlain, Pilgrims Society (The Times, London, January 15, 1931, page 18). It was in any case far overreached by Treasury absorption of silver off the world market less than a generation later. Fekete is correct that significant amounts of silver have been smelted in China and returned as bullion to Western sources; this transpired well past the year he mentioned (1950.) But before any Chinese refineries engaged in this, he ask"
"Why should the Chinese export silver, when they could export almost anything else?"
Was this question asked to achieve misdirection, or just out of lack of perception of the big picture? Why would China export silver after the Red takeover in 1949? One of the most likely reasons would be to acquire military technology. Western bankers panting obsession to suppress silver was and remains so great that they'd export weapons technology to have silver to feed to industrial users to hold prices low so as to suggest innate value to the paper banknotes they inject, like viruses, into the economy. Fekete admits that:
"China's primitive economy under Mao was in no position to put that silver to industrial use."
Didn't he answer his own question as to why China would export silver? This was 1950 to roughly at least the late 1960's, that the best export the West would accept from China was silver itself; for purposes of Western assistance to industrialize and acquire military tech! Another wave of silver exports from China, as in leasing, seems to have commenced in 1999. As silver leasing has never been a publicly accountable activity, other episodes are likely to have transpired. Silver exports from China to the West since 1950 aren't the easiest thing to document, but they took place and varied from the Red takeover to just after Y2K.

For documentation, in The Economist (London), September 16, 1961, page 1097, we find:
"China is expected to sell about 40 million ounces of silver in western markets this year. These sales have delayed considerably the expected exhaustion of "free" silver held by the United States Treasury. Under an Act of 1946, the United States Treasury can sell non-monetized silver at a price of not less than 90.5 cents a troy ounce, but only to American users. For many years, production of silver has fallen far short of demand, but the gap has been filled by demonetizing coinage and, to a certain extent, by sales of Russian silver. It is one of the impenetrable mysteries of the East how much more silver China has to sell, in what form it is held and where it originated. China produces little or no silver, but as in most Eastern countries large quantities of silver would formerly have been distributed among its population in one form or another. The cause of the urgent sales at a time when many are forecasting a significant rise in the price of silver is obviously China's pressing need for currency with which to pay for its increased imports, particularly of grain, from the West."
For cross-referencing, in the Wall Street Journal, November 29, 1961, page 3, under a subtitle paragraph, "Red China Could Affect Market," we read--- "One mining executive noted that a big factor in the market could be Red China, which is estimated to have sold at least 40 million ounces of silver in world markets in the first 10 months of this year. A spokesman for Handy & Harman, silver fabricators, asserted: "There will be no shortage of silver."
President Johnson
In 1965 President Johnson formed the President's Special Committee to Study East-West Trade, naming among others to this panel, Charles Englehard of Englehard Industries and the Silver Users Association (Who's Who, 1971, page 667). No surprise; in 1960 Englehard was national co-chairman of Businessmen for Kennedy/Johnson. He was chairman of Englehard Industries as of 1953 and as of 1971 a director of Rand Mines (Johannesburg, South Africa); International Silver Company (sterling tableware sets); Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting; American South African Investment Company (gold); National Newark & Essex Banking; Prudential Insurance (listed a few years ago in the Silver Users Association); and others. He was a commissioner of the Port of New York Authority and was a trustee or director of Committee for Economic Development; U.S. Committee for Refugees; American Museum of Immigration; John F. Kennedy Memorial Library; American Heritage Foundation; Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation; Atlantic Council; Foreign Policy Association. His office was at 113 Astor Street in Newark, New Jersey. Englehard was literally bristling with connections overseas, especially with China, and showed extraordinary interest in foreign policy. Even his office location suggested interest in China, silver and paper money! John Jacob Astor was part of the opium trade; he was the main domestic power in the second United States Bank (1816-1836) and he was a silver manipulator. The Delanos, Roosevelts and others were up to their necks in opium! Englehard, who was the inspiration for the "Goldfinger" character in the James Bond film, died in 1971. His wife Jane was born in Qingdao, China; their daughter Sally has been a major Democrat campaign funder (more silver users influence!) Englehard perennially issued bearish statements about silver to damage longs (which is why I squeezed the image of the SOB).

Englehard was a director of Eurofund, set up by Pilgrims Society member James Russell Forgan of 45 Wall Street, who had strong ties to the silver using Du Ponts (Pilgrims Society). Fay, author of an attack on the Hunt silver play (see below) also said that Charles Englehard imparted a "buccaneering" spirit to Englehard Corporation! With his involvement in the East-West concept, Englehard must have been thinking about raids on Fu Manchu's last silver! I'm glad I have some Englehard silver, rather than his sorry hide, in storage!

Again as to Chinese silver exports the Wall Street Journal, May 22, 1967, page 4 had this to say--- "Typical of the relative unconcern shown by most large scale users in the U.S. was International Silver Company, Meriden, Connecticut, which said it doesn't expect to ever see a time when there's insufficient silver to meet our needs. An official noted that there are "staggering amounts of silver above ground in the hands of hoarders and others and this will become available when the price moves up." The halting of sales of government owned silver overseas is expected to work a serious hardship on purchasers in Britain and Japan, and may possibly draw Red China into the world silver market as a major supplier. Some observers claim soaring prices may draw Red China---until a few years ago, a leading contributor to the world market---back into the picture. CHINA IN RECENT YEARS HAS APPEARED TO IGNORE CONSIDERATIONS OF PRICE, offering metal for sale in the West as a means of securing foreign exchange or as a political tool to influence neutral countries."

The Wall Street Journal can be trusted to not mention crucial facts, such as China trading silver for U.S. technology; that's why China would "ignore considerations of price" and why they'd export silver versus other things, Western bankers wanted it for price suppression! At http://isbndb.com/d/book/selling_technology_to_china.html prepared for members of the National Council for U.S./China Trade, we see technological transfer to China. No, I can't show you direct references to China trading silver for technology. Sensitive info is tough to come by! But it seems inevitable to have happened often and on a large scale. Chairing the NCUSCT as of 1975 was a Pilgrims Society member with many globalist connections--- William A. Hewitt, who married into the John Deere agricultural machinery fortune, who was also a member of the visiting committee of Harvard University's East Asian Studies department. He was a director of Continental Illinois Bank, which had connections to the Chicago Board of Trade; the bank was mentioned by Stephen Fay (1982) in "Beyond Greed---The Hunt Family's Bold Attempt to Corner the Silver Market." Hewitt was also a director of the U.S./U.S.S.R. Trade & Economic Council (Who's Who, 1979, page 1483)
Cyrus Eaton Sr.
In 1957 the Pugwash Conferences were established by Cyrus Eaton Sr., a Rockefeller family associate, named after his home at Pugwash, Nova Scotia. At pugwash they say they're interested in disarmament issues; but the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is known as a warmongering entity. I believe Pugwash has been used as a vehicle for transferring military technology to China in exchange for hard silver. A look at the 2002 participants at the Pugwash Conference is an eyebrow raiser; including mainland Chinese, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Carnegie Corporation are key sponsors of the Pugwash Conferences. In other words---silver price suppressors! Also supporting Pugwash events is the Cyrus Eaton Foundation, in the Rockefeller Building at Cleveland, Ohio.

There is currently a Pakistani retired General in Pugwash management; Pakistan is allied with China.

The Trilateral Commission, a Pilgrims Society subsidiary/front organization, has been heavily interested in U.S./China trade see this report dated 1982 with anti-monetary silver activist Robert V. Roosa (Harriman/Rockefeller interests) of 59 Wall Street (Pilgrims Society). It's likely the deindustrialization of America, with the huge manufacturing shift to China, was handled by the Trilaterals, under David Rockefeller's supervision.
Xiaochuan
The East-West Center (founded in 1960) at the University of Hawaii recently saw appointments to its board by former Secretary of State Clinton who is a close flunky of major gold suppressor David Rockefeller. Silver is a major reason why our elites are so active in maintaining organizations linking us to China; and the Governor of the People's Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, is a "former" member of Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission (noted member as of 2003). I admit disappointment reading Ted Butler, in a letter to Xiaochuan, telling him (IF he read the letter) ---
"It has been reported that your bank has sold or leased more than 300 million ounces of silver, since 1999. I know that your Bank's silver sales were not done with your full knowledge or approval."
Disappointment, because the realists among us grasped very early on that there is a monumental "fix" in against silver, with governments around the world and all their regulatory agencies, legislatures and courts! The head of the bank was unaware of its silver leasing? No chance, Ted. And no way at any nanosecond of its existence since 1975 was the CFTC or anyone in it ever going to allow silver longs an even set of rules! Gensler is as bizarre as the Irish demon in "Rawhead Rex" (1986).

In his May 24, 2004 article on China and the commercial Comex silver shorts http://www.investmentrarities.com/ted_butler Butler said most of silver to satisfy deficit since 1999 comes from China; in other posts he mentioned the AIG involvement.

Other major globalist groups linking China with the West include the United States/China Business Council showing Maurice Greenberg, long associated with American International Group (AIG) which Ted Butler used to allege to be involved with removing silver from China and the National Committee on U.S./China Relations http://www.ncuscr.org/ which also shows Greenberg as a director. These groups cited are highly influential in international business, totally connected to the huge silver suppressing banks, and form a powerful community of interest. The NCUSCR has as officials Henry Kissinger (Pilgrims Society); Madeleine Albright (Pilgrims Society); Tom Kean (Pilgrims Society) of the 911 Commission; and retired Admiral Joseph Prueher (very likely a Pilgrims member). According to this, Admiral Prueher "has been helping the Chinese climb all over U.S. defence secrets for years."
It may widen your eyes to discover that Albert Helmig, who was president of the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange 2009-2012 was on the NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) board, 1991-2000 and chaired no less than seven committees; COMEX merged with it in 1994; Helmig was a director (1994-1997) of International Precious Metals Institute, which is heavily interlocked with the infamous Silver Users Association; and Helmig was a member of the National Committee for U.S. China Relations, 1993-2000. Now we see definite linkage of silver suppressors with Chinese trade with the U.S.

Is it wise to help China industrialize and arm? For cheap silver, have U.S. elitists made concessions? If Chinese missiles can strike the U.S., sound the alarm! Will these scandals be aired in Congressional sessions? Will we learn the full extent of transgressions?

Technology is why the Chinese "would export silver, when they could export almost anything else."

Remember also that Butler named the Central Bank of the Philippines as being a significant source of silver leasing some years ago (January 10, 2002).

The Asia Society was founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd and certainly includes mainland China in its focus. Today it features two Rockefellers, a Speyer and Harold McGraw III as trustees. The Rockefellers have been at the heart of precious metals suppression since at least the 1870's. In "How To Trade With Communists---Interview With David Rockefeller," U.S. News & World Report, August 13, 1973, showing him posing with an interested Chou-En-Lai, Red Chinese Premier, with Rockefeller commenting we note--- "China is developing a broadly diversified industrial structure. It's quite impressive."

Rockefeller

(New York Times, August 10, 1973). Rockefellers and Rothschilds, working together, but who is more powerful? Take your pick! The Independent, London, April 16, 2004, said industry insiders count Rothschild wealth "not in billions but trillions;" the 1973 expose by William Hoffman, "David---Report on a Rockefeller" said "The power he wields crosses all borders, can make or destroy governments, start and stop wars, profoundly influence everyone's life." What these sources haven't said is that the R & R clans aren't alone in the world power structure. The other dynastic families are represented with them in The Pilgrims Society of London and New York; and combined they may be worth more than both of these.

We see Western globalization organizers deeply involved with the industrialization of China (and the former Soviet Union) and believe they're the reason China has indeed dumped lots of silver onto world markets after Mao Tse-tung seized power in 1949. Antal Fekete's idea that China hasn't had silver exports since 1950 is out of touch with facts. Where he stated---

"Nobody knows how much silver the Chinese Communists found in bank vaults and in the safe deposit boxes of Chinese merchants who fled the country, when they took over the mainland. Nobody knows how much silver is still hidden in the mattresses of Chinese peasants. The amounts must be enormous. The best estimate is that most of that silver has never been consumed and still exists in monetary form."

He was sort of correct; we'd have to be psychic to be aware how much silver fled China ahead of Mao's troops nor how much they captured probably for bargaining purposes with the West for technology transfer. Silver hidden in mattresses? No; that's where you'd hide paper currency. Past small amounts, silver becomes too uncomfortable to sleep on. Whose best estimate is Fekete talking about? That also would demand someone, even Chinese authorities, to be clairvoyant. Antal said gold was demonetized "100 years after silver, in 1873." Whoops! The rest of us thought that Nixon closed the gold window at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest in August 1971! Two years off may not sound like much, but see how far you get with Civil War historians if you say Fort Sumter was attacked on April 12, 1863! If we allow cult status figures in our community, they must still be accountable to facts! That applies no matter who references them. Finally Fekete commented:
"This crisis has been in the making for over a century, involving the so-called demonetization of both monetary metals. The move was inspired and led by the United States."
No, the crisis dates way back before the last century, and the United States neither inspired nor led the moves against monetary metals---the British get that credit, and the Americans, though militarily stronger, are junior partners financially. Will this correction to Fekete be posted by all the sites that linked his article? Absolutely not; ask them why! Fekete says after the dollar and paper currencies fail, China will run the world. Not a bad thesis; however, I believe the Anglo-Americans are conspiring to draw China and Russia into head on conflict over Middle East petro and other resources including the entire Caspian Sea region, after which the New World Order of the Anglo-Americans could again leap forward. Maneuvring nations to fight each other has been a hallmark of international finance since the Rothschilds perfected it centuries past; but don't kid yourself, they aren't the only major private financial power and are in league with the others via The Pilgrims Society!

I present you here with 50+ references to back up my case, not including links to any of my original work nor to those of one brief similar issue to this; Fekete supplied no references. What kind of learned professor is he? Here's one I won't include on the scoreboard but it's of interest

In 2011 China was the world's third largest silver producer at 103.9 million ounces. Are they exporting most silver mined on their territory anymore? Not a chance! Any miners sending concentrate or dore to China for smelting into three niner could abruptly find their metal has been seized if wartime returns. Meantime some business is as usual, from June 21, 2012, we find "Rothschilds and Rockefellers team up, target rich Chinese."

Is China actually the "big silver short?" I dearly doubt it; more likely, it's The Pilgrims Society and the banking entities it operates. How nice for our megabankers if blame could be shifted elsewhere! And as with the flow of silver to China over a multi-century span, the camarilla of Anglo American power plans to recoup gold and silver that has shifted to China and Russia in recent years. I worry much less about Brazil, Russia, India and China ("BRIC" countries) than our own leadership who, with the British, remain the main threat to our metals ownership, to our sovereign individual liberties as expressed in the Bill of Rights, and are the world's leading warmongers. They have to warmonger; for you see, this is intimately connected to synthetic money creation. But with the Internet's many uncensored sites, risk to the Anglo American bankers is revving up! They marched all over silver for centuries like General Sherman marching through Georgia; now the General is ready to march all over them!
Banxter metal manipulator, what the hell are you?
Always prowling for someone to lay waste to,
More of a nasty demon, with each turn of the screw,
Beware! This time you ain't gonna breeze through!
"While it is recognized that silver has had its day, there is a certain reluctance to celebrate the last rites."---The Economist, London, October 13, 1962, page 145

To close, here's a tragically comical quotation from Newsweek, June 25, 2007, page 35:
"Foreigners prize dollars---especially $100 bills---as a store of value."


Recommended reading on China and Silver---
And the five part 324,000 word series at same archived site "Britain Against Silver"
Watch for "The President And Precious Metals" to be released soon!

Friday, February 22, 2013

Another Bull from Issuer of Bulls

They used to sit in that position until they die or get kicked out by opponents (see 2nd report) but this one voluntarily 'resigns' supposedly because of ill health.

Heck, if he can still write books (as reportedly he will continue to do) he can sure continue writing those 'bulls' that included one he issued more than a decade ago where he reportedly instructed all churches in the US not to report cases of paedophile to the police. When reporting this 10 years ago, the LA Times also reported that more than 90% of US churches had alleged cases of paedophile!

Health is not the reason. Something else is happening inside that oldest con-house in history. Recently, the Vatican Bank was accused of money laundering.

Yesterday, a KL friend Hong said it is a ponzi scheme and had told his children to be aware of the sleaze in the organisation and 'decide if they want to help change it from inside' (then I know he is a 'member'). I corrected him with the points below.

Those people are not running a ponzi scheme. In a ponzi scheme, sharper members who realise that it is just a scam can at least withdraw what they put in plus some interest and leave before the proverbial shit hits the fan. But in this oldest con scheme in history, suckers pay 10% of their income and will never get anything back even if they want to leave!

And don't even think of 'changing it from the inside'. Those who know history knows they have no qualms killing off competitors. The head of the Vatican Bank was murdered about 20 years ago amid some money laundering allegations (again).

I did not tell that friend that there is another thing - a Chinaman has no place at the top end of that organisation, not to say change it. Only a half-child chinaman would harbour that thought.

Look behind the door and one will find the master bedroom of the supposedly 'house of god' occupied by some devil - CCK



Pope Benedict XVI to become first pope in 600 years to resign

In a surprise announcement revealed at a meeting of cardinals, Pope Benedict XVI has said he will resign at the end of the month.


VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he will step down on Feb. 28 due to failing health, stunning the world's 1 billion Catholics by becoming the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign from the office.

The German pontiff, 85, made his surprise statement to cardinals during a Vatican concistory on Monday, saying “my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” a reference to his duties as leader of the church.

Speaking at a ceremony held to canonize three new saints, Benedict said he would step down at 8 p.m. on Feb. 28. Father Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said a conclave of cardinals would be held in March to elect a new pope in time for Easter.

Italian cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals, said Benedict's announcement was a "bolt out of the blue."

Describing his decision as being “of great importance for the life of the church,” Benedict told cardinals that “in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary.”

His strength, he added, “has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.”

Vatican insiders have noted that Benedict has become more frail in recent months; he requires a moving platform to transport him down the aisle at St Peter’s Basilica during services and has slowed during his walks in the Vatican gardens. His private life was recently exposed to public scrutiny after his butler was convicted by a Vatican court for leaking papal correspondence.

Lombardi said Benedict had not been persuaded to step down by a particular illness, but said "he had become more tired and fatigued than in the past."

Benedict’s decision, which he described as being "of great importance for the life of the church," marks the first papal resignation since Pope Gregory XII reluctantly stepped down in 1415 to end a dispute with a rival claimant to the papacy. The last pope to resign willingly was Celestine V in 1294 after reigning for only five months.

FULL TEXT: Pope Benedict XVI's announcement

Benedict told cardinals he wished to “devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.” Lombardi said the pope would transfer from his papal apartment to live in a building in the Vatican’s gardens formerly occupied by nuns. The pope, who has recently finished a series of three books about the life of Jesus, could continue to write books, Lombardi said.

Beyond giving details of the coming conclave, Lombardi said the Vatican was entering unchartered waters with a pope set to replace a living, former pope. “We are heading into an unknown situation,” he said at a hastily called Vatican news conference.

Describing the moment the pope made his announcement, Lombardi said “the pope sat down, took the microphone and read his statement shortly after 11:30,” adding “he said it in Latin so not everyone understood immediately.”

Lombardi said he had no fear that Vatican officials -- unaccustomed to sharing the Holy See with a former pope -- might continue to defer to Benedict. “This is recognized by canon law, there is no risk of confusion,” he said.

Lombardi said the German pontiff, who was elected in 2005 at age 78, had shown “courage, a humble spirit, responsibility and a desire that the church be governed in the best way,” adding that he had met the pope recently and found him “serene.” The pontiff’s decision, he said, “did not completely surprise me.”

Benedict has previously suggested that a pope could break with tradition and step down if he no longer felt able to carry out his duties.

In a book-length interview, "Light of the World," with the German journalist Peter Seewald, Benedict responded to a question about whether a pope could resign: “Yes. If a Pope clearly realizes that he is no longer physically, psychologically, and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office, then he has a right and, under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign.”

The pope’s decision will trigger weeks of speculation about who will take his place as the Vatican recovers from the scandal of pedophile priests and seeks to retain believers as the church challenges rights to abortion and gay marriage.

Asked if Benedict had set an example for future popes to resign instead of dying in office, often after debilitating illness, Lombardi said: “This is not intended to influence successors,” but he added, “Next time [it happens], it won’t be the first time in centuries, it could be an approach to the problem.”

One Vatican expert said Benedict had probably been mulling his decision to resign since his election eight years ago. “When he took over the church had been through the suffering from illness of his predecessor John Paul II,” said John Thavis.

“It will have put in his mind questions about the governance of the church if the pope becomes incapable,” he said.


Scandal, speculation surround past popes who resigned


February 11, 2013, 1:02 p.m.
This post has been updated, as indicated below.

The decision by Pope Benedict XVI to resign is a reminder of some colorful and controversial moments in Roman Catholic Church history.

The last pope to resign was Gregory XII, who gave up the papacy reluctantly in 1415 to help end a dispute between rival popes known as the Great Western Schism. The competing claims to the papacy had riven the church for nearly four decades before Gregory stepped down, a second pope was excommunicated and the church elected a new pope.

More than 100 years earlier, Celestine V resigned in 1294 after only five months, saying his decision stemmed from “the desire for humility, for a purer life, for a stainless conscience, the deficiencies of his own physical strength, his ignorance, the perverseness of the people, his longing for the tranquillity of his former life.”

PHOTOS: Pope Benedict XVI to step down

The former pope became a hermit before being captured and imprisoned by his successor in the castle of Fumone, where he died within a year. Some speculate that he is the nameless “shade” described by Dante Alighieri in his epic poem "Inferno," described as the one “who by his cowardice made the great refusal."

[Updated, 3:28 p.m., Jan. 11: Later accounts have challenged that unflattering image of Celestine. “I actually think he was pretty courageous and followed his conscience,” said Jon M. Sweeney, author of “The Pope Who Quit.” “He didn’t know how to function in a world that was dominated by canon lawyers, bureaucratic systems and issues of power. He must have thought, ‘In order to save my soul, I need to not be pope.’”]

Earlier popes stepped down amid scandal. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls Benedict IX, who resigned in 1045 after selling the papacy to his godfather, “a disgrace to the Chair of Peter.” Some accounts say he gave up the papacy so he could marry, only to change his mind after failing to marry the bride he wanted. The new pope, Gregory VI, was accused of paying for a holy office and ended up resigning a year later.

FULL TEXT: Pope Benedict XVI's announcement

Other popes were believed to have been exiled or forced out, though historical records are murky. Any such decision is controversial. Paul VI, who was pope from 1963 to 1978, compared it to paternity. He said it could not be resigned.

Yet since at least 1917, church law has allowed for a pope to resign, according to Woodstock Theological Center fellow the Rev. Thomas J. Reese. Experts say a pope must not be induced to step down through fear or fraud, and must be of sound mind when he makes the decision, Reese wrote.

[Updated, 3:28 p.m., Jan. 11: Nearly four years ago, Pope Benedict XVI visited the basilica in L'Aquila where the remains of Celestine V are kept, and left a garment at the tomb.
“He never explained to the media or anyone else observing why he did this,” Sweeney said. “It was an unusual gesture of some kind of affinity for Celestine, a hint that he had respect for this figure from the past.”]


It's cash only at the Vatican
Police in Rome exhume gangster's body in 29-year-old cold case
 

The Satisfaction of Just Following What Great Minds Do

This 95 year old man is still drawing satisfaction from reporting on the devalopments and achievements of science. Amazing.

Remember Pareto Principle: Only a few people truly makes a difference to this world - in this case, it is increasing our understanding of the natural world. Follow what they do. The rest (which is the majority) are close to irrelevant.

For those of us who cannot do what those scientists do, just following their findings and theories is a source of satisfaction.

p.s. This old man used to write his reports on an Olivetti typewriter. I remember my elder sister bought one of that when I was about 15 when she started some secretarial course after high school. It was the first time I saw a QWERTY keyboard and spent some time practicing typing from there - "asdf ;lkj" was the first lesson from my sister's typing book. Also, remember how precious even paper was then - made sure every inch of space was used up! I typed my own song book on that typewriter - no money to buy song books so copied selected songs from song books borrowed from friends. Mankind has gone a long way in that 35 years but QWERTY remains...





February 21, 2013, 6:10 p.m.

SAN FRANCISCO — David Perlman had two deadlines on his mind as he elbowed his way through the Exploratorium, cane in one hand, notebook in the other.

As the San Francisco Chronicle's veteran science writer, Perlman has been covering the granddaddy of hands-on science museums since it was just a glimmer of an idea in the fertile mind of physicist Frank Oppenheimer, the "uncle of the atom bomb."

Now, after 43 years in the elegant but drafty Palace of Fine Arts, the museum was getting ready to close before moving to new digs on the Embarcadero, and it was Perlman's job to chronicle the last day in its original home.

So the first deadline was his own — 6 p.m. to make the next day's paper with a front-page story. The second belonged to the woman tagging along behind him.

She's "doing a story about the oldest living reporter — me," Perlman told the amused museum staff. "She has to be done before I die."

Science and journalism have come a long way since Perlman picked up a fountain pen and began to write.

He was born in 1918, a decade before the discovery of penicillin. Pluto had yet to be discovered, let alone demoted. The ballpoint pen was invented the year he got his first real newspaper gig, a 1938 summer job covering cops in upstate New York.

Perlman can't remember the name of the now-defunct publication, but he sure can recall his first story, a jailhouse interview with a prostitute that began something like this: Pretty Kitty Kelly sobbed in her cell at Schenectady County Jail last night.

"It was atrocious, but it was the kind of thing you did," said Perlman, who learned his craft in the glory days of the New York tabloids. "That kind of journalism no longer exists."

Some might quibble with Perlman's premise (think coverage of Lindsay Lohan, Casey Anthony, Kim Kardashian), but one thing cannot be denied: It is the rare journalist who has cranked out stories as long and as skillfully as the dapper dean of science writers.

Perlman turned 94 in December, closing out a year in which he wrote 111 stories. Although only 0.2% of America's full-time workers are 80 or older, he has no plans to slow down.

He has shrunk a bit in recent years, but the cane is more for his three children's peace of mind than his own safety or mobility. He's about to turn in his outdated flip phone for a newer, smarter model. A Twitter lesson is in the offing. His driver's license is up to date.

After all, he said over a burger at a South of Market dive near Chronicle headquarters, "I'm doing exactly what I wanted to do all my life, be a reporter."

Perlman credits his mother for a journalism career that has spanned nearly eight decades and included stints at the Bismarck Capital and the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune and 63 years at the Chronicle.

Sara Perlman took her son to see "The Front Page" — probably the Broadway version, which premiered in 1928, but possibly the 1931 movie. Perlman the nonagenarian can't remember which; Perlman the boy was smitten either way.

The motley crew of Chicago reporters portrayed in the comedy were waiting to view a public hanging. Perlman remembers them as "seedy, catatonic Paul Reveres, full of strange oaths and a touch of childhood. I thought, 'What a romantic characterization.' I wanted to be that."
Shortly thereafter, he started his first newspaper. At summer camp.

He now bears the title of "Chronicle science editor." Prizes for science and medical writing named in his honor are awarded each year. But writing about the physical world did not come naturally to the Columbia University graduate.

After six years covering everything from a shoe store opening to the obscenity trial over Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," Perlman broke his leg skiing at Squaw Valley in 1957, an injury that laid him up for months. A good friend gave him a copy of "The Nature of the Universe" by British cosmologist Fred Hoyle.

A detective story would have been more welcome, Perlman recalled thinking, but by the time he had finished the pioneering science tome and was back on his feet, he was itching to find out what astronomers did all night. So he headed up to Mt. Hamilton just east of San Jose, home to the University of California's Lick Observatory and workplace of astronomer George Herbig.

"I said, 'What do you do for a living?'" Perlman recounted. "And he said, 'I'm interested in stars that are being born in the Orion nebula.' I've never forgotten that.... Stars getting born? It was kind of an epiphany."

In the 56 years that have followed, Perlman has written about the changing fields of astronomy, anthropology, archaeology and alternative energy. He's done stories on microbes, meteors, mammoths, mad cow disease, the Milky Way, the missing link.

He has covered disasters natural and man-made (earthquakes, tsunamis, oil spills) and spacecraft of all shapes and sizes (Voyager I and 2, Mariner 9, Galileo, Viking 1 and 2, Pathfinder, Sojourner, Messenger, Phoenix, rovers, Kepler, Hubble).

There was no such thing as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome when Perlman began covering science and medicine; he would go on to write more than 300 stories about the disease that broke his adopted city's heart.

Somewhere in his messy cubicle at Fifth Street and Mission he keeps a copy of his first AIDS story — among the earliest published, penned before the disease even had a name.

On June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control ran an item about an outbreak of a mysterious lung ailment.

"In the period October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California," the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report began. "Two of the patients died."

Perlman was a regular reader of the report. When he saw the piece, he immediately called Dr. Selma Dritz, assistant director of the communicable disease bureau at the San Francisco health department.

"Hey, is this happening here?" he asked. "Oh, yeah," Dritz said. "We've had maybe five cases too, which have not yet been reported to the MMWR."

The short article Perlman wrote was buried deep inside the June 6 paper: "A mysterious outbreak of a sometimes fatal pneumonia among gay men has occurred in San Francisco and several other major cities, it was revealed yesterday."

He didn't bother to put his byline on it. At the time, he said, the cases were "just a curiosity."

Twenty years later, his anniversary story about the "worst pandemic in modern history" cataloged the damage — "nearly 22 million people are now dead worldwide, and the count grows higher every day; more than 36 million humans are infected with the deadly virus but still alive."

In 2008, Perlman wrote Dritz's obituary.

Perlman has outlived colleagues he has written with, scientists he has written about, Anne, his wife of 61 years, who died in 2002. He is dating again. (In fact, at a recent wedding, he caught the bouquet.)

"I'm so lucky still to be able to do something, to do what I do.... I'm still pretty OK," he said. "Anyway, as long as they'll have me [at the Chronicle], I'll stick around."

Dr. J. Michael Bishop, chancellor emeritus at UC San Francisco and a winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, describes Perlman as "an iconic figure in American science writing." His curiosity is "insatiable," his energy "even at 94 is remarkable." Perlman, he said, "knows how to get to the essence of the science problem and explain that in terms that are clear to the general public."

Perlman's favorite kind of story is equal parts physical adventure, scientific discovery and opportunity to watch brilliant researchers at work.

He embarked on one such journalistic jaunt in 1977, the only reporter on board when the Galapagos Hydrothermal Expedition discovered deep-sea geysers 8,250 feet below the ocean's surface, 400 miles west of Ecuador.

Scientists on the research vessels Knorr and Lulu were pretty sure the vents would be surrounded by a barren, underwater desert. Instead, they found a wild habitat teeming with crabs, mussels and tall, white-stalked tube worms with bright red tops.

Perlman wrote his stories on a portable Olivetti typewriter. Using a Xerox telecopier scanner, the Knorr's radio operator sent the exclusive dispatches using a single-sideband radio to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Staffers there forwarded them to the Chronicle via Western Union.

"They have pinpointed geysers of hot water venting from fissures in fresh lava and sending warm plumes of brine shimmering upward into the near-freezing lower levels of the sea," Perlman wrote in a March 9, 1977, story whose headline boasted "Astounding Undersea Discoveries."

Woods Hole would later call it a "scientific discovery that changed the world."

On a much more recent adventure, Perlman camped in the Ethiopian desert with a team of fossil-hunting paleoanthropologists who would go on to discover and assemble the partial skeleton of a pre-human creature known as Ardipithecus ramidus — a.k.a. "Ardi" — who lived 4.4 million years ago.
The researchers were working in the Afar desert, the birthplace of humankind, a two-day drive from Addis Ababa. Daytime temperatures soared to triple digits. At night, tents were zipped against scorpions and venomous snakes.

The team was protected by guards toting AK-47s, Perlman wrote, "against whom or what was never clear — but huge lion paw prints spotted at one lunch site were clear hints of danger."

He was 88.