That’s how much in dirty transactions Wall Street mega banks moved for suspected money launderers and criminals between 1999 and 2017.
That’s according to an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The ICIJ report hit headlines over the weekend.
It showed how JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Deutsche Bank (DB), and HSBC (HSBC) – along with several other global banks – “kept profiting from powerful and dangerous players.”
It also revealed that these banks kept at it… even after U.S. authorities fined them for failing to tackle dirty transactions.
Two trillion dollars is equal to about one-tenth of U.S. annual GDP.
Yet this almost inconceivably large number only scratches the surface of the tainted-money transactions these banks have been enabling.
The secret government documents the ICIJ obtained cover less than 0.02% of the more than 12 million suspicious-activity reports filed with the Treasury Department between 2011 and 2017.
Following the news, investors in stocks of the banks the report singled out rushed for the exits.
JPMorgan dropped 4% since the report was released. HSBC sank 5%… and Deutsche Bank plunged 9%.
But the real takeaway, as you’ll see today, is how bullish this news is for bitcoin… and the rest of the crypto economy.
The Daily Cut is a premium e-letter we created for all paid-up Legacy Research readers.
That’s the independent publishing alliance behind Teeka Tiwari, Jeff Brown, Dave Forest, Nick Giambruno, Tom Dyson, Dan Denning, Jason Bodner, Bill Bonner, and Doug Casey.
We focus on big-picture ideas about the world and where it’s headed… to help you really move the needle on your wealth.
And it’s hard to think of a bigger, more powerful wealth-creation idea than the buildout of the crypto economy that’s underway.
Big T first recommended bitcoin to his paid-up readers in April 2016 at $428 a coin. (Bitcoin now trades for $10,490 – or 2,351% higher.)
Since then, his core message is that crypto – and the blockchain technology it’s built on – is about a lot more than just digital currencies. Teeka…
Imagine an exceptionally secure Excel spreadsheet the entire world can view…
Anyone can enter data into the spreadsheet. But before the spreadsheet can store the data, a majority of other people have to agree it’s true.
When it’s confirmed, the data is locked. No one can change, manipulate, copy, or erase it. And it leaves a perfect audit trail.
All of this is done digitally and automatically using computer code. And it’s secured using state-of-the-art cryptography. You don’t need a trustworthy middleman to confirm any transactions. The code handles everything.
This enables blockchain to radically transform the economy. This also makes blockchain one of the most explosive technologies in history. Teeka again…
The opportunity will touch so many industries, it’s hard for people to understand how much the blockchain will grow in the coming months and years.
Blockchains can be used to issue money, stock certificates, even legally binding contracts. So the blockchain combines the power of money, banks, lawyers, and Wall Street…
And make no mistake, disrupting the banking industry was at the top of the creator of bitcoin’s mind…
That’s when an anonymous developer, or group of developers, called Satoshi Nakamoto released what’s known as the Genesis Block.
It’s the original “block” – or group of transactions – containing the first 50 bitcoins.
And Nakamoto left a message in the code of the Genesis Block. It reads…
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
This references a Times of London newspaper headline from January 2009. The story that followed it was about Britain bailing out its banks in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. (“Chancellor” is a reference to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Britain’s equivalent of the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.)
Why would anyone want to hold government-issued money, Nakamoto seems to have been asking, when the banks that facilitate its payments acted so recklessly in the run-up to the 2008 crash?
So he/they created an alternative.
And they know it… That’s why the ICIJ’s revelations about banks are so important for bitcoin…
They knock out, once and for all, bitcoin naysayers’ claim that the cryptocurrency is all about illicit deals.
That’s been a big fear since bitcoin launched 11 years ago.
And one concern Legacy readers often voice in the mailbag (write us, as always, at [email protected]) is that the feds will crack down on bitcoin on the pretense that it’s enabling criminals.
Now it’s clear criminals and money launderers don’t need bitcoin. They can move their illicit gains around the world, unhindered, through the mainstream financial system.
And they can do it to the tune of trillions of dollars.
As the banks’ dirty-money scandal makes clear, bitcoin doesn’t launder money. Money launderers do.
And, again, they don’t need to use bitcoin for their illicit activities. They can carry out their schemes through JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, and other Wall Street mega banks.
Regards,
 |
Chris Lowe
September 23, 2020
Bray, Ireland