No discussion of Upper Class Billionaires would be complete without the Rothschilds.
A family dynasty synonymous with wealth.
But what is the true extent of this wealth?
Just how powerful is this relatively secretive family?
With various theories circulating on the Internet, can we reach a rational consensus?
Part 1/6 - The Architect?
Mayer Amschel is often cited as the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
In 1770, he married Guttle Schnapper. This boosted Mayer's wealth, as he received a generous dowry of 2,400 gulden from her father (who worked as a court agent).
Mayer wouldn't forget this and, in his will, outlined strict, controversial provisions regarding Rothschild marriages.
Mayer was concerned that the family's fortune would be diluted as it grew through marriages. As such, his will "barred female descendants from any direct inheritance" and, in effect, provided incentives for intermarriages. Four of his granddaughters married grandsons (first cousins), while one married her uncle.
Now, is this really a tale of Started from the Bottom?
Or, much like Drake, is there a rich Uncle involved?
To answer that, we need to ask: who came before Mayer Amschel?
Well, his father, Amschel Moses had a business in goods-trading and currency exchange.
He was a personal supplier of collectable coins to the Prince of Hesse.
We'll come back to that shortly...
We know little about Mayer Amschel's grandparents and more remote ancestors.
The family did previously use the name "Bauer" - in fact the name Rothschild didn't really stick until Mayer Amschel's generation came along.
Benjamin Franklin once observed that in life only death and taxes are inevitable; they are also virtually the only things about which records survive for the earliest Rothschilds.
The most we can say about the early Rothschilds is that they were relatively successful small businessmen dealing in, among other things, cloth.
Five years before his death in 1585, Isak zum roten Schild had a taxable income of 2,700 gulden.
A century later his great-grandson Kalman, a moneychanger who also dealt in wool and silk, had a taxable income more than twice as large.
It seems that his son (Mayer Amschel's grandfather Moses) successfully developed his father's business, continuing the process of steady social ascent by marrying, successively, the daughters of a tax collector and of a doctor.
With the help of relatives, Mayer Amschel secured an apprenticeship under Jacob Wolf Oppenheimer, at the banking firm of Simon Wolf Oppenheimer in Hanover, in 1757, where he acquired useful knowledge in foreign trade and currency exchange, before returning to his brothers' business in Frankfurt in 1763.
He became a dealer in rare coins and, just as his father had done previously, won the patronage of the Prince of Hesse.
His coin business grew to include a number of princely patrons, and then expanded through the provision of financial services to the Prince of Hesse.
In 1769, Mayer Amschel gained the title of "Court Agent", managing the finances of the immensely wealthy Prince of Hesse who in 1785 became William IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and inherited one of the largest fortunes in Europe at the time.
​
Part 2/6 - The Five Arrows
The Rothschild coat-of-arms includes a fist clutching five arrows, a reference to Mayer's five sons.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Mayer sent his sons to establish banks in Frankfurt, Naples, Vienna, France, and London.
The release of the "Five Arrows" symbolises strength through unity, and marks the beginning of the Rothschild's global banking dynasty.
​
Part 3/6 - Nathan Mayer
Napoleon was on the march through Europe, and William gave his fortune to Mayer Amschel to protect it from being seized by Napoleon.
Mayer was able to hide the money by sending it to his son Nathan in London.
The London Rothschild office had to spend it somewhere, and loaned it to the British Crown, in order to finance the British armies fighting Napoleon in Spain and Portugal in the Peninsular War.
These savvy investments of William's money paid off handsomely, netting sufficient interest that their own wealth eventually exceeded that of their original nest-egg client (the nest-egg client who had inherited the largest fortune in Europe remember).
This marked the birth of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
Historian Niall Ferguson outlines the sheer scale of the Rothschild family's operations:
"For most of the nineteenth century, N M Rothschild was part of the biggest bank in the world which dominated the international bond market. For a contemporary equivalent, one has to imagine a merger between Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, J P Morgan and probably Goldman Sachs too — as well, perhaps, as the International Monetary Fund, given the nineteen-century Rothschild's role in stabilizing the finances of numerous governments."
Nathan pioneered the ingenious strategy of lending to governments during wartime.
This tactic, used when Nathan funded Wellington's army in 1814, is the primary cause of the explosion in the family's wealth during what proved to be 150 years of nearly chronic warfare.
Of course, the Rothschilds played no role in instigating said conflicts...
Continual war in Europe created excellent opportunities to profit from smuggling scarce consumer goods past military blockades. Since the Rothschilds often financed both sides in a conflict and were known to have great political influence, the mere sight of the red shield on a leather pouch, a carriage, or a ship's flag was sufficient to insure that the messenger or his cargo could pass through check points in either direction. This immunity allowed them to deal in a thriving black market for cotton goods, yarn, tobacco, coffee, sugar, and indigo; and they moved freely through the borders of Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Spain, England, and France.
This government protection was one of those indirect benefits that generated commercial profits - of course they were also getting interest on the underlying government loans.
Even the friendliest of biographers admit that, for more than two centuries, the House of Rothschild profited handsomely from wars and economic collapses, the very occasions on which others sustained the greatest losses.
​
Part 4/6 - Nat
The Rothschilds tend to keep tend to keep out of the limelight.
One of the family’s grande dames said you should only appear in the newspapers on three occasions: hatch (aka birth), match (aka marriage) and dispatch (aka death).
Therefore, this makes the odd flamboyant Rothschild stand out even more.
One that springs to mind is Nat Rothschild (Jacob Rothschild's son) and ex Bullingdon Club member who in 2016 married former Page 3 model Loretta Basey.
According to Forbes, Nat's net worth was $1 billion in 2012, but he lost his official billionaire status the next year.
However, according to an article in the Observer in 2000, Nat's actual inheritance is hidden in a series of trusts in Switzerland and rumoured to be worth £40BN (i.e. $60 billion.)
​
Part 5/6 - Ghislaine Maxwell?
Alan Dershoiwtz, who once defended Jeffrey Epstein in court, writes:
"My wife and I were introduced to Ghislaine Maxwell by Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynne de Rothschild..."
Evelyn de Rothschild and his wife Lynn were introduced by none other than Henry Kissinger at the 1998 Bilderberg Group conference in Scotland. They married two years later, and were invited to spend their honeymoon at the White House by the Clintons.
I have an idea!
Let's type Rothschild into the WikiLeaks Hilary Clinton Email Archive.
Nice. 69 results. Let's check out the intercourse between Hilary and Lynn.
How about this one - Info For You on the 25th of September 2010?
In that email chain, we have the following message from Hilary to Lynne.
"Lynn,
I was trying to reach you to tell you and Teddy that I asked Tony Blair to go to Israel as part of our full court press on keeping the Middle East negotiations going. He told me that he had a commitment in Aspen with you two and the conference, but after we talked, he decided to go and asked me to tell you. He is very sorry, obviously, but I'm grateful that he accepted my request. I hope you all understand and give him a raincheck...Let me know what penance I owe you. And please explain to Teddy. As ever, H"
​
Part 6/6 - True Extent
We come to the kicker: what is true extent of the Rothschild's wealth?
Of course, it is impossible to pin down an exact number because of the level of diversification of their wealth and the secrecy with which the offshore infrastructure operates.
After all, we know what happens to those that try to expose this shady world.
Worryingly, Panama is only one of more than 90 financial secrecy jurisdictions around the world today, compared with just a dozen or so in the early 1970s.
Together, as of 2015, they hold at least $24 trillion to $36 trillion in anonymous private financial wealth, most of which belong to the top 0.1 percent of the planet’s wealthiest.
Of course, none of this offshore wealth belongs to the Rothschilds...
In 2003, the Sunday Times identified Jacob Rothschild as the secret holder of the large stake in Yukos that was previously controlled by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil company's chairman.
The size of this stake? £8 billion.
In 2003, the pound dollar exchange rate was 1.63 - therefore the dollar value of the stake was around $13 billion.
In 2017, Jacob's net worth was pegged at under one billion dollars.
No comment...
According to the Forbes List, the richest individual Rothschild is Benjamin de Rothschild, from the French branch of the family, with a net worth of $1.5BN.
This is despite the fact that Benjamin presides over the Edmond de Rothschild Group, which manages over $175 billion in assets. In August 2019, de Rothschild's family bought out the group's public shareholders.
But yes, of course Benjamin, supposedly the richest Rothschild, is worth 2/3 of Donald Trump.
Speaking of Donald Trump...
Trump at one time owned a quarter of Atlantic City’s casino market.
However, Trump was heavily in debt, and he started missing bond payments on his — and Atlantic City’s — largest casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1990.
Wilbur Ross, then an investment banker working for...you guessed it, Rothschild Inc., helped bondholders negotiate with Trump, whose finances were unraveling. The final deal reduced Trump’s ownership stake in the Taj but left him in charge, and bondholders were unhappy when Ross presented the plan.
“Why did we make a deal with him?” one bondholder asked.
Ross insisted that Trump was worth saving.
“The Trump name is still very much an asset,” he said.
In 2017, Ross became Secretary of Commerce.
Remember folks: Presidents are selected... not elected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wbIGFgxJd0

No discussion of Upper Class Billionaires would be complete without the Rothschilds.
A family dynasty synonymous with wealth.
But what is the true extent of this wealth?
Just how powerful is this relatively secretive family?
With various theories circulating on the Internet, can we reach a rational consensus?
Part 1/6 - The Architect?
Mayer Amschel is often cited as the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
In 1770, he married Guttle Schnapper. This boosted Mayer's wealth, as he received a generous dowry of 2,400 gulden from her father (who worked as a court agent).
Mayer wouldn't forget this and, in his will, outlined strict, controversial provisions regarding Rothschild marriages.
Mayer was concerned that the family's fortune would be diluted as it grew through marriages. As such, his will "barred female descendants from any direct inheritance" and, in effect, provided incentives for intermarriages. Four of his granddaughters married grandsons (first cousins), while one married her uncle.
Now, is this really a tale of Started from the Bottom?
Or, much like Drake, is there a rich Uncle involved?
To answer that, we need to ask: who came before Mayer Amschel?
Well, his father, Amschel Moses had a business in goods-trading and currency exchange.
He was a personal supplier of collectable coins to the Prince of Hesse.
We'll come back to that shortly...
We know little about Mayer Amschel's grandparents and more remote ancestors.
The family did previously use the name "Bauer" - in fact the name Rothschild didn't really stick until Mayer Amschel's generation came along.
Benjamin Franklin once observed that in life only death and taxes are inevitable; they are also virtually the only things about which records survive for the earliest Rothschilds.
The most we can say about the early Rothschilds is that they were relatively successful small businessmen dealing in, among other things, cloth.
Five years before his death in 1585, Isak zum roten Schild had a taxable income of 2,700 gulden.
A century later his great-grandson Kalman, a moneychanger who also dealt in wool and silk, had a taxable income more than twice as large.
It seems that his son (Mayer Amschel's grandfather Moses) successfully developed his father's business, continuing the process of steady social ascent by marrying, successively, the daughters of a tax collector and of a doctor.
With the help of relatives, Mayer Amschel secured an apprenticeship under Jacob Wolf Oppenheimer, at the banking firm of Simon Wolf Oppenheimer in Hanover, in 1757, where he acquired useful knowledge in foreign trade and currency exchange, before returning to his brothers' business in Frankfurt in 1763.
He became a dealer in rare coins and, just as his father had done previously, won the patronage of the Prince of Hesse.
His coin business grew to include a number of princely patrons, and then expanded through the provision of financial services to the Prince of Hesse.
In 1769, Mayer Amschel gained the title of "Court Agent", managing the finances of the immensely wealthy Prince of Hesse who in 1785 became William IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and inherited one of the largest fortunes in Europe at the time.
​
Part 2/6 - The Five Arrows
The Rothschild coat-of-arms includes a fist clutching five arrows, a reference to Mayer's five sons.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Mayer sent his sons to establish banks in Frankfurt, Naples, Vienna, France, and London.
The release of the "Five Arrows" symbolises strength through unity, and marks the beginning of the Rothschild's global banking dynasty.
​
Part 3/6 - Nathan Mayer
Napoleon was on the march through Europe, and William gave his fortune to Mayer Amschel to protect it from being seized by Napoleon.
Mayer was able to hide the money by sending it to his son Nathan in London.
The London Rothschild office had to spend it somewhere, and loaned it to the British Crown, in order to finance the British armies fighting Napoleon in Spain and Portugal in the Peninsular War.
These savvy investments of William's money paid off handsomely, netting sufficient interest that their own wealth eventually exceeded that of their original nest-egg client (the nest-egg client who had inherited the largest fortune in Europe remember).
This marked the birth of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
Historian Niall Ferguson outlines the sheer scale of the Rothschild family's operations:
"For most of the nineteenth century, N M Rothschild was part of the biggest bank in the world which dominated the international bond market. For a contemporary equivalent, one has to imagine a merger between Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, J P Morgan and probably Goldman Sachs too — as well, perhaps, as the International Monetary Fund, given the nineteen-century Rothschild's role in stabilizing the finances of numerous governments."
Nathan pioneered the ingenious strategy of lending to governments during wartime.
This tactic, used when Nathan funded Wellington's army in 1814, is the primary cause of the explosion in the family's wealth during what proved to be 150 years of nearly chronic warfare.
Of course, the Rothschilds played no role in instigating said conflicts...
Continual war in Europe created excellent opportunities to profit from smuggling scarce consumer goods past military blockades. Since the Rothschilds often financed both sides in a conflict and were known to have great political influence, the mere sight of the red shield on a leather pouch, a carriage, or a ship's flag was sufficient to insure that the messenger or his cargo could pass through check points in either direction. This immunity allowed them to deal in a thriving black market for cotton goods, yarn, tobacco, coffee, sugar, and indigo; and they moved freely through the borders of Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Spain, England, and France.
This government protection was one of those indirect benefits that generated commercial profits - of course they were also getting interest on the underlying government loans.
Even the friendliest of biographers admit that, for more than two centuries, the House of Rothschild profited handsomely from wars and economic collapses, the very occasions on which others sustained the greatest losses.
​
Part 4/6 - Nat
The Rothschilds tend to keep tend to keep out of the limelight.
One of the family’s grande dames said you should only appear in the newspapers on three occasions: hatch (aka birth), match (aka marriage) and dispatch (aka death).
Therefore, this makes the odd flamboyant Rothschild stand out even more.
One that springs to mind is Nat Rothschild (Jacob Rothschild's son) and ex Bullingdon Club member who in 2016 married former Page 3 model Loretta Basey.
According to Forbes, Nat's net worth was $1 billion in 2012, but he lost his official billionaire status the next year.
However, according to an article in the Observer in 2000, Nat's actual inheritance is hidden in a series of trusts in Switzerland and rumoured to be worth £40BN (i.e. $60 billion.)
​
Part 5/6 - Ghislaine Maxwell?
Alan Dershoiwtz, who once defended Jeffrey Epstein in court, writes:
"My wife and I were introduced to Ghislaine Maxwell by Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynne de Rothschild..."
Evelyn de Rothschild and his wife Lynn were introduced by none other than Henry Kissinger at the 1998 Bilderberg Group conference in Scotland. They married two years later, and were invited to spend their honeymoon at the White House by the Clintons.
I have an idea!
Let's type Rothschild into the WikiLeaks Hilary Clinton Email Archive.
Nice. 69 results. Let's check out the intercourse between Hilary and Lynn.
How about this one - Info For You on the 25th of September 2010?
In that email chain, we have the following message from Hilary to Lynne.
"Lynn,
I was trying to reach you to tell you and Teddy that I asked Tony Blair to go to Israel as part of our full court press on keeping the Middle East negotiations going. He told me that he had a commitment in Aspen with you two and the conference, but after we talked, he decided to go and asked me to tell you. He is very sorry, obviously, but I'm grateful that he accepted my request. I hope you all understand and give him a raincheck...Let me know what penance I owe you. And please explain to Teddy. As ever, H"
​
Part 6/6 - True Extent
We come to the kicker: what is true extent of the Rothschild's wealth?
Of course, it is impossible to pin down an exact number because of the level of diversification of their wealth and the secrecy with which the offshore infrastructure operates.
After all, we know what happens to those that try to expose this shady world.
Worryingly, Panama is only one of more than 90 financial secrecy jurisdictions around the world today, compared with just a dozen or so in the early 1970s.
Together, as of 2015, they hold at least $24 trillion to $36 trillion in anonymous private financial wealth, most of which belong to the top 0.1 percent of the planet’s wealthiest.
Of course, none of this offshore wealth belongs to the Rothschilds...
In 2003, the Sunday Times identified Jacob Rothschild as the secret holder of the large stake in Yukos that was previously controlled by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil company's chairman.
The size of this stake? £8 billion.
In 2003, the pound dollar exchange rate was 1.63 - therefore the dollar value of the stake was around $13 billion.
In 2017, Jacob's net worth was pegged at under one billion dollars.
No comment...
According to the Forbes List, the richest individual Rothschild is Benjamin de Rothschild, from the French branch of the family, with a net worth of $1.5BN.
This is despite the fact that Benjamin presides over the Edmond de Rothschild Group, which manages over $175 billion in assets. In August 2019, de Rothschild's family bought out the group's public shareholders.
But yes, of course Benjamin, supposedly the richest Rothschild, is worth 2/3 of Donald Trump.
Speaking of Donald Trump...
Trump at one time owned a quarter of Atlantic City’s casino market.
However, Trump was heavily in debt, and he started missing bond payments on his — and Atlantic City’s — largest casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1990.
Wilbur Ross, then an investment banker working for...you guessed it, Rothschild Inc., helped bondholders negotiate with Trump, whose finances were unraveling. The final deal reduced Trump’s ownership stake in the Taj but left him in charge, and bondholders were unhappy when Ross presented the plan.
“Why did we make a deal with him?” one bondholder asked.
Ross insisted that Trump was worth saving.
“The Trump name is still very much an asset,” he said.
In 2017, Ross became Secretary of Commerce.
Remember folks: Presidents are selected... not elected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wbIGFgxJd0

No discussion of Upper Class Billionaires would be complete without the Rothschilds.
A family dynasty synonymous with wealth.
But what is the true extent of this wealth?
Just how powerful is this relatively secretive family?
With various theories circulating on the Internet, can we reach a rational consensus?
Part 1/6 - The Architect?
Mayer Amschel is often cited as the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
In 1770, he married Guttle Schnapper. This boosted Mayer's wealth, as he received a generous dowry of 2,400 gulden from her father (who worked as a court agent).
Mayer wouldn't forget this and, in his will, outlined strict, controversial provisions regarding Rothschild marriages.
Mayer was concerned that the family's fortune would be diluted as it grew through marriages. As such, his will "barred female descendants from any direct inheritance" and, in effect, provided incentives for intermarriages. Four of his granddaughters married grandsons (first cousins), while one married her uncle.
Now, is this really a tale of Started from the Bottom?
Or, much like Drake, is there a rich Uncle involved?
To answer that, we need to ask: who came before Mayer Amschel?
Well, his father, Amschel Moses had a business in goods-trading and currency exchange.
He was a personal supplier of collectable coins to the Prince of Hesse.
We'll come back to that shortly...
We know little about Mayer Amschel's grandparents and more remote ancestors.
The family did previously use the name "Bauer" - in fact the name Rothschild didn't really stick until Mayer Amschel's generation came along.
Benjamin Franklin once observed that in life only death and taxes are inevitable; they are also virtually the only things about which records survive for the earliest Rothschilds.
The most we can say about the early Rothschilds is that they were relatively successful small businessmen dealing in, among other things, cloth.
Five years before his death in 1585, Isak zum roten Schild had a taxable income of 2,700 gulden.
A century later his great-grandson Kalman, a moneychanger who also dealt in wool and silk, had a taxable income more than twice as large.
It seems that his son (Mayer Amschel's grandfather Moses) successfully developed his father's business, continuing the process of steady social ascent by marrying, successively, the daughters of a tax collector and of a doctor.
With the help of relatives, Mayer Amschel secured an apprenticeship under Jacob Wolf Oppenheimer, at the banking firm of Simon Wolf Oppenheimer in Hanover, in 1757, where he acquired useful knowledge in foreign trade and currency exchange, before returning to his brothers' business in Frankfurt in 1763.
He became a dealer in rare coins and, just as his father had done previously, won the patronage of the Prince of Hesse.
His coin business grew to include a number of princely patrons, and then expanded through the provision of financial services to the Prince of Hesse.
In 1769, Mayer Amschel gained the title of "Court Agent", managing the finances of the immensely wealthy Prince of Hesse who in 1785 became William IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and inherited one of the largest fortunes in Europe at the time.
​
Part 2/6 - The Five Arrows
The Rothschild coat-of-arms includes a fist clutching five arrows, a reference to Mayer's five sons.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Mayer sent his sons to establish banks in Frankfurt, Naples, Vienna, France, and London.
The release of the "Five Arrows" symbolises strength through unity, and marks the beginning of the Rothschild's global banking dynasty.
​
Part 3/6 - Nathan Mayer
Napoleon was on the march through Europe, and William gave his fortune to Mayer Amschel to protect it from being seized by Napoleon.
Mayer was able to hide the money by sending it to his son Nathan in London.
The London Rothschild office had to spend it somewhere, and loaned it to the British Crown, in order to finance the British armies fighting Napoleon in Spain and Portugal in the Peninsular War.
These savvy investments of William's money paid off handsomely, netting sufficient interest that their own wealth eventually exceeded that of their original nest-egg client (the nest-egg client who had inherited the largest fortune in Europe remember).
This marked the birth of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
Historian Niall Ferguson outlines the sheer scale of the Rothschild family's operations:
"For most of the nineteenth century, N M Rothschild was part of the biggest bank in the world which dominated the international bond market. For a contemporary equivalent, one has to imagine a merger between Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, J P Morgan and probably Goldman Sachs too — as well, perhaps, as the International Monetary Fund, given the nineteen-century Rothschild's role in stabilizing the finances of numerous governments."
Nathan pioneered the ingenious strategy of lending to governments during wartime.
This tactic, used when Nathan funded Wellington's army in 1814, is the primary cause of the explosion in the family's wealth during what proved to be 150 years of nearly chronic warfare.
Of course, the Rothschilds played no role in instigating said conflicts...
Continual war in Europe created excellent opportunities to profit from smuggling scarce consumer goods past military blockades. Since the Rothschilds often financed both sides in a conflict and were known to have great political influence, the mere sight of the red shield on a leather pouch, a carriage, or a ship's flag was sufficient to insure that the messenger or his cargo could pass through check points in either direction. This immunity allowed them to deal in a thriving black market for cotton goods, yarn, tobacco, coffee, sugar, and indigo; and they moved freely through the borders of Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Spain, England, and France.
This government protection was one of those indirect benefits that generated commercial profits - of course they were also getting interest on the underlying government loans.
Even the friendliest of biographers admit that, for more than two centuries, the House of Rothschild profited handsomely from wars and economic collapses, the very occasions on which others sustained the greatest losses.
​
Part 4/6 - Nat
The Rothschilds tend to keep tend to keep out of the limelight.
One of the family’s grande dames said you should only appear in the newspapers on three occasions: hatch (aka birth), match (aka marriage) and dispatch (aka death).
Therefore, this makes the odd flamboyant Rothschild stand out even more.
One that springs to mind is Nat Rothschild (Jacob Rothschild's son) and ex Bullingdon Club member who in 2016 married former Page 3 model Loretta Basey.
According to Forbes, Nat's net worth was $1 billion in 2012, but he lost his official billionaire status the next year.
However, according to an article in the Observer in 2000, Nat's actual inheritance is hidden in a series of trusts in Switzerland and rumoured to be worth £40BN (i.e. $60 billion.)
​
Part 5/6 - Ghislaine Maxwell?
Alan Dershoiwtz, who once defended Jeffrey Epstein in court, writes:
"My wife and I were introduced to Ghislaine Maxwell by Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynne de Rothschild..."
Evelyn de Rothschild and his wife Lynn were introduced by none other than Henry Kissinger at the 1998 Bilderberg Group conference in Scotland. They married two years later, and were invited to spend their honeymoon at the White House by the Clintons.
I have an idea!
Let's type Rothschild into the WikiLeaks Hilary Clinton Email Archive.
Nice. 69 results. Let's check out the intercourse between Hilary and Lynn.
How about this one - Info For You on the 25th of September 2010?
In that email chain, we have the following message from Hilary to Lynne.
"Lynn,
I was trying to reach you to tell you and Teddy that I asked Tony Blair to go to Israel as part of our full court press on keeping the Middle East negotiations going. He told me that he had a commitment in Aspen with you two and the conference, but after we talked, he decided to go and asked me to tell you. He is very sorry, obviously, but I'm grateful that he accepted my request. I hope you all understand and give him a raincheck...Let me know what penance I owe you. And please explain to Teddy. As ever, H"
​
Part 6/6 - True Extent
We come to the kicker: what is true extent of the Rothschild's wealth?
Of course, it is impossible to pin down an exact number because of the level of diversification of their wealth and the secrecy with which the offshore infrastructure operates.
After all, we know what happens to those that try to expose this shady world.
Worryingly, Panama is only one of more than 90 financial secrecy jurisdictions around the world today, compared with just a dozen or so in the early 1970s.
Together, as of 2015, they hold at least $24 trillion to $36 trillion in anonymous private financial wealth, most of which belong to the top 0.1 percent of the planet’s wealthiest.
Of course, none of this offshore wealth belongs to the Rothschilds...
In 2003, the Sunday Times identified Jacob Rothschild as the secret holder of the large stake in Yukos that was previously controlled by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil company's chairman.
The size of this stake? £8 billion.
In 2003, the pound dollar exchange rate was 1.63 - therefore the dollar value of the stake was around $13 billion.
In 2017, Jacob's net worth was pegged at under one billion dollars.
No comment...
According to the Forbes List, the richest individual Rothschild is Benjamin de Rothschild, from the French branch of the family, with a net worth of $1.5BN.
This is despite the fact that Benjamin presides over the Edmond de Rothschild Group, which manages over $175 billion in assets. In August 2019, de Rothschild's family bought out the group's public shareholders.
But yes, of course Benjamin, supposedly the richest Rothschild, is worth 2/3 of Donald Trump.
Speaking of Donald Trump...
Trump at one time owned a quarter of Atlantic City’s casino market.
However, Trump was heavily in debt, and he started missing bond payments on his — and Atlantic City’s — largest casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1990.
Wilbur Ross, then an investment banker working for...you guessed it, Rothschild Inc., helped bondholders negotiate with Trump, whose finances were unraveling. The final deal reduced Trump’s ownership stake in the Taj but left him in charge, and bondholders were unhappy when Ross presented the plan.
“Why did we make a deal with him?” one bondholder asked.
Ross insisted that Trump was worth saving.
“The Trump name is still very much an asset,” he said.
In 2017, Ross became Secretary of Commerce.
Remember folks: Presidents are selected... not elected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wbIGFgxJd0

No discussion of Upper Class Billionaires would be complete without the Rothschilds.
A family dynasty synonymous with wealth.
But what is the true extent of this wealth?
Just how powerful is this relatively secretive family?
With various theories circulating on the Internet, can we reach a rational consensus?
​
Part 1/6 - The Architect?
Mayer Amschel is often cited as the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
In 1770, he married Guttle Schnapper. This boosted Mayer's wealth, as he received a generous dowry of 2,400 gulden from her father (who worked as a court agent).
Mayer wouldn't forget this and, in his will, outlined strict, controversial provisions regarding Rothschild marriages.
Mayer was concerned that the family's fortune would be diluted as it grew through marriages. As such, his will "barred female descendants from any direct inheritance" and, in effect, provided incentives for intermarriages. Four of his granddaughters married grandsons (first cousins), while one married her uncle.
Now, is this really a tale of Started from the Bottom?
Or, much like Drake, is there a rich Uncle involved?
To answer that, we need to ask: who came before Mayer Amschel?
Well, his father, Amschel Moses had a business in goods-trading and currency exchange.
He was a personal supplier of collectable coins to the Prince of Hesse.
We'll come back to that shortly...
We know little about Mayer Amschel's grandparents and more remote ancestors.
The family did previously use the name "Bauer" - in fact the name Rothschild didn't really stick until Mayer Amschel's generation came along.
Benjamin Franklin once observed that in life only death and taxes are inevitable; they are also virtually the only things about which records survive for the earliest Rothschilds.
The most we can say about the early Rothschilds is that they were relatively successful small businessmen dealing in, among other things, cloth.
Five years before his death in 1585, Isak zum roten Schild had a taxable income of 2,700 gulden.
A century later his great-grandson Kalman, a moneychanger who also dealt in wool and silk, had a taxable income more than twice as large.
It seems that his son (Mayer Amschel's grandfather Moses) successfully developed his father's business, continuing the process of steady social ascent by marrying, successively, the daughters of a tax collector and of a doctor.
With the help of relatives, Mayer Amschel secured an apprenticeship under Jacob Wolf Oppenheimer, at the banking firm of Simon Wolf Oppenheimer in Hanover, in 1757, where he acquired useful knowledge in foreign trade and currency exchange, before returning to his brothers' business in Frankfurt in 1763.
He became a dealer in rare coins and, just as his father had done previously, won the patronage of the Prince of Hesse.
His coin business grew to include a number of princely patrons, and then expanded through the provision of financial services to the Prince of Hesse.
In 1769, Mayer Amschel gained the title of "Court Agent", managing the finances of the immensely wealthy Prince of Hesse who in 1785 became William IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and inherited one of the largest fortunes in Europe at the time.
​
Part 2/6 - The Five Arrows
The Rothschild coat-of-arms includes a fist clutching five arrows, a reference to Mayer's five sons.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Mayer sent his sons to establish banks in Frankfurt, Naples, Vienna, France, and London.
The release of the "Five Arrows" symbolises strength through unity, and marks the beginning of the Rothschild's global banking dynasty.
​
Part 3/6 - Nathan Mayer
Napoleon was on the march through Europe, and William gave his fortune to Mayer Amschel to protect it from being seized by Napoleon.
Mayer was able to hide the money by sending it to his son Nathan in London.
The London Rothschild office had to spend it somewhere, and loaned it to the British Crown, in order to finance the British armies fighting Napoleon in Spain and Portugal in the Peninsular War.
These savvy investments of William's money paid off handsomely, netting sufficient interest that their own wealth eventually exceeded that of their original nest-egg client (the nest-egg client who had inherited the largest fortune in Europe remember).
This marked the birth of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
Historian Niall Ferguson outlines the sheer scale of the Rothschild family's operations:
"For most of the nineteenth century, N M Rothschild was part of the biggest bank in the world which dominated the international bond market. For a contemporary equivalent, one has to imagine a merger between Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, J P Morgan and probably Goldman Sachs too — as well, perhaps, as the International Monetary Fund, given the nineteen-century Rothschild's role in stabilizing the finances of numerous governments."
Nathan pioneered the ingenious strategy of lending to governments during wartime.
This tactic, used when Nathan funded Wellington's army in 1814, is the primary cause of the explosion in the family's wealth during what proved to be 150 years of nearly chronic warfare.
Of course, the Rothschilds played no role in instigating said conflicts...
Continual war in Europe created excellent opportunities to profit from smuggling scarce consumer goods past military blockades. Since the Rothschilds often financed both sides in a conflict and were known to have great political influence, the mere sight of the red shield on a leather pouch, a carriage, or a ship's flag was sufficient to insure that the messenger or his cargo could pass through check points in either direction. This immunity allowed them to deal in a thriving black market for cotton goods, yarn, tobacco, coffee, sugar, and indigo; and they moved freely through the borders of Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Spain, England, and France.
This government protection was one of those indirect benefits that generated commercial profits - of course they were also getting interest on the underlying government loans.
Even the friendliest of biographers admit that, for more than two centuries, the House of Rothschild profited handsomely from wars and economic collapses, the very occasions on which others sustained the greatest losses.
​
Part 4/6 - Nat
The Rothschilds tend to keep tend to keep out of the limelight.
One of the family’s grande dames said you should only appear in the newspapers on three occasions: hatch (aka birth), match (aka marriage) and dispatch (aka death).
Therefore, this makes the odd flamboyant Rothschild stand out even more.
One that springs to mind is Nat Rothschild (Jacob Rothschild's son) and ex Bullingdon Club member who in 2016 married former Page 3 model Loretta Basey.
According to Forbes, Nat's net worth was $1 billion in 2012, but he lost his official billionaire status the next year.
However, according to an article in the Observer in 2000, Nat's actual inheritance is hidden in a series of trusts in Switzerland and rumoured to be worth £40BN (i.e. $60 billion.)
​
Part 5/6 - Ghislaine Maxwell?
Alan Dershoiwtz, who once defended Jeffrey Epstein in court, writes:
"My wife and I were introduced to Ghislaine Maxwell by Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynne de Rothschild..."
Evelyn de Rothschild and his wife Lynn were introduced by none other than Henry Kissinger at the 1998 Bilderberg Group conference in Scotland. They married two years later, and were invited to spend their honeymoon at the White House by the Clintons.
I have an idea!
Let's type Rothschild into the WikiLeaks Hilary Clinton Email Archive.
Nice. 69 results. Let's check out the intercourse between Hilary and Lynn.
How about this one - Info For You on the 25th of September 2010?
In that email chain, we have the following message from Hilary to Lynne.
"Lynn,
I was trying to reach you to tell you and Teddy that I asked Tony Blair to go to Israel as part of our full court press on keeping the Middle East negotiations going. He told me that he had a commitment in Aspen with you two and the conference, but after we talked, he decided to go and asked me to tell you. He is very sorry, obviously, but I'm grateful that he accepted my request. I hope you all understand and give him a raincheck...Let me know what penance I owe you. And please explain to Teddy. As ever, H"
​
Part 6/6 - True Extent
We come to the kicker: what is true extent of the Rothschild's wealth?
Of course, it is impossible to pin down an exact number because of the level of diversification of their wealth and the secrecy with which the offshore infrastructure operates.
After all, we know what happens to those that try to expose this shady world.
Worryingly, Panama is only one of more than 90 financial secrecy jurisdictions around the world today, compared with just a dozen or so in the early 1970s.
Together, as of 2015, they hold at least $24 trillion to $36 trillion in anonymous private financial wealth, most of which belong to the top 0.1 percent of the planet’s wealthiest.
Of course, none of this offshore wealth belongs to the Rothschilds...
In 2003, the Sunday Times identified Jacob Rothschild as the secret holder of the large stake in Yukos that was previously controlled by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil company's chairman.
The size of this stake? £8 billion.
In 2003, the pound dollar exchange rate was 1.63 - therefore the dollar value of the stake was around $13 billion.
In 2017, Jacob's net worth was pegged at under one billion dollars.
No comment...
According to the Forbes List, the richest individual Rothschild is Benjamin de Rothschild, from the French branch of the family, with a net worth of $1.5BN.
This is despite the fact that Benjamin presides over the Edmond de Rothschild Group, which manages over $175 billion in assets. In August 2019, de Rothschild's family bought out the group's public shareholders.
But yes, of course Benjamin, supposedly the richest Rothschild, is worth 2/3 of Donald Trump.
Speaking of Donald Trump...
Trump at one time owned a quarter of Atlantic City’s casino market.
However, Trump was heavily in debt, and he started missing bond payments on his — and Atlantic City’s — largest casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1990.
Wilbur Ross, then an investment banker working for...you guessed it, Rothschild Inc., helped bondholders negotiate with Trump, whose finances were unraveling. The final deal reduced Trump’s ownership stake in the Taj but left him in charge, and bondholders were unhappy when Ross presented the plan.
“Why did we make a deal with him?” one bondholder asked.
Ross insisted that Trump was worth saving.
“The Trump name is still very much an asset,” he said.
In 2017, Ross became Secretary of Commerce.
Remember folks: Presidents are selected... not elected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wbIGFgxJd0

Previous post is here.

Grab the Pitchforks.

July/August 2014. The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats

READ THE ABOVE ARTICLE!

I still remember reading this article back when, and I thought, exactly right. You can’t pull a reverse Robin Hood and grab from the poor to give to the rich. Eventually the guillotine comes out and heads roll. The cycle has happened before and it will happen again. Unless they somehow have a long range plan to stay rich and keep us poor. The controllers and the controlled. The best of us and the rest of us. The ones who call the war and the ones who fight in the war.
Now I'm not so sure about the essay, let me show you why.

Andrew Yang.

Do you remember when we started talking about Basic Guaranteed Income as a reality? It was roughly in 2016 when the conversations began to get serious. Countries ran experiments. Ostensibly this was presented as a solution to the coming wave of automation that will start performing the manual and mental labor that historically was provided by humans, leaving a whole lot of people to be fed. A whole lot of people whose labor won't be needed. But if this pandemic doesn't get too bad, at least we can look forward to getting a monthly cheque for just being alive, right?
September 18th 2019.

His candidacy is built on the theory that the millions of jobs lost to automation (think kiosks in drugstores and airports) led to the sense of frustration and instability among Americans that was linked to President Donald Trump’s election. He paints a gloomy picture of what automation will do to the future job market and offers a solution: a freedom dividend for every American over the age of 18. The idea of a dividend, Yang argues, is one Thomas Paine and Martin Luther King Jr. and hundreds of economists have supported. Alaska gives its citizens $1,000 to $2,000 a year. He says he’d pay for his policy with a tax on tech companies like Amazon. When he discussed the need to replace GDP as the measurement of economic success, he said U.S. life expectancy had dropped three years in a row for the first time ... "since when?” “1918!” many shouted (correctly). “That’s right, 1918, the year that the Spanish flu, a global pandemic, killed millions,” he said.

Wait. What. That's strange. Guaranteed Basic Income and the 1918 pandemic, all in one breath. You may have also taken note of his declining birth rate comment, almost like the planet is starting to have toxic effects on us. That's just a coincidence though. It has to be. This free money can't be real, can it? The pandemic stimulus money is only temporary, isn't it?
Might as well follow the white rabbit once again, see how far the rabbit hole goes.

What's the Beef on the Farm?

May 29, 2020. Every single worker at this U.S. farm has tested positive for coronavirus The outbreaks underscore the latest pandemic threat to food supply: Farm workers are getting sick and spreading the illness just as the U.S. heads into the peak of the summer produce season.
June 29, 2020. Advocates demand Ontario shut down farms as COVID-19 cases soar among workers.
May 7th, 2020. Why Meatpacking Plants Have Become Covid-19 Hot Spots.
How many outbreaks have shut down factories other than farms and meat plants? I'm not talking about a couple of cases, I mean shut down. I can't recall one. I've read of preemptive shutdowns because of a few cases, or due to supply chain hardships, but all or the entirety seem to be food companies or farms. That's a strange pattern, isn’t it? Could it have something to do with Sulfur Fertilizers and hydrogen sulfide from organic compounds mixing with the environments sudden increase from microbes? Nah.
But where are we going to get our food from to feed all of us Basic Income dependents? We have to eat, but we can't eat if we can't work the farms and meat plants, can we? That's quite the conundrum, isn’t it?

Robot Tractors and Bill Gates.

December 12, 2018. How self-driving tractors, AI, and precision agriculture will save us from the impending food crisis. Go inside the race to feed the 9 billion people who will inhabit planet earth in 2050. See how John Deere and others are working to change the equation before it's too late.
September 11, 2019. Bill Gates, the largest holder of Deere stock, recently bought even more after holding steady for a couple of years. Gates bought 87,000 more shares of Deere (ticker: DE) in late August. The purchase brought his holdings to 31,510,573 shares, a stake of just above 10%. Passing that threshold triggered the need for a regulatory disclosure. Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft (MSFT), filed a form with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday detailing his increased investment in the maker of tractors, trucks, and other heavy equipment.
That Bill Gates is a genius! I swear it's like he can see the future! It's too bad that he couldn't make an anti-virus program to save his life. Oh well, even if he couldn't make our computers safe from viruses, I'm sure he'll do better with us humans.
May 16, 2020. From Pope Francis to the Bond King, universal basic income is gaining support around the world.
JULY 10, 2020. Daily briefing: Spain begins an epic economics experiment in universal basic income.
July 13, 2020. Super-rich call for higher taxes on wealthy to pay for Covid-19 recovery.
July 13, 2020. 'Please Tax Us': Dozens Of Millionaires Urge Governments To Tax The Rich To Pay.
I never thought that I would see the day that the rich are pleading to be taxed. It's almost like they learned a thing or two and decided to not tell us to eat cake. Maybe they learned better and found some compassion?

Millionares Against Pitchforks.

January 23, 2020.

A group of wealthy celebrities and business people have signed an open letter calling on fellow billionaires and millionaires around the globe to support tax increases in an effort to alleviate growing economic disparity. Released on Thursday to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the letter states: “There are two kinds of wealthy people in the world: those who prefer taxes and those who prefer pitchforks. We, the undersigned, prefer taxes. And we believe that, upon reflection, you will as well.” The 121 ultra high-net-worth signatories, who call themselves “Millionaires Against Pitchforks,” include Disney heiress Abigail Disney, British actor and screenwriter Simon Pegg, writer-director Richard Curtis (“Love Actually”) and Sudanese-British telco tycoon Mo Ibrahim. Stressing that an estimated $8 trillion – nearly 10% of the world’s GDP – is hidden in tax havens, the letter urges the world’s wealthy “to step forward now — before it’s too late — to demand higher and fairer taxes on millionaires and billionaires within your own countries and to help prevent individual and corporate tax avoidance and evasion through international tax reform efforts.”

Almost six years later they act. SIX YEARS! And just as the COVID-19 pandemic has its first American case on January 20th. That was some fortuitous timing, wasn't it. It's just a coincidence that they found their compassion just as the writing was going up on the wall and the SHTF.
At least they're trying, right? Or they're playing a really long game, and holding back cards before they have to play them.
Me? I don’t believe the act for one second. If they really meant it, why didn't they speak out when the Panama Papers came out?
Or when this happened?

Malta car bomb kills Panama Papers journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, a blogger whose investigations focused on corruption, was described as a ‘one-woman WikiLeaks’.

It's all smoke and mirrors. Basic Guaranteed Income has been slowly manipulated into awareness. The Pandemic has been as well. It's a perfect storm front to increase automation, which will increase productivity for the upcoming war, and free up the workforce to fight.
And I'm positive that the Panama Papers didn't go anywhere because it got slapped with a National Security classification, but that will have to wait for another post.
Keep your head up and eyes open.
Take care. Be safe. Stay aware and be prepared. Talk soon.

No discussion of Upper Class Billionaires would be complete without the Rothschilds.
A family dynasty synonymous with wealth.
But what is the true extent of this wealth?
Just how powerful is this relatively secretive family?
With various theories circulating on the Internet, can we reach a rational consensus?
Part 1/6 - The Architect?
Mayer Amschel is often cited as the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
In 1770, he married Guttle Schnapper. This boosted Mayer's wealth, as he received a generous dowry of 2,400 gulden from her father (who worked as a court agent).
Mayer wouldn't forget this and, in his will, outlined strict, controversial provisions regarding Rothschild marriages.
Mayer was concerned that the family's fortune would be diluted as it grew through marriages. As such, his will "barred female descendants from any direct inheritance" and, in effect, provided incentives for intermarriages. Four of his granddaughters married grandsons (first cousins), while one married her uncle.
Now, is this really a tale of Started from the Bottom?
Or, much like Drake, is there a rich Uncle involved?
To answer that, we need to ask: who came before Mayer Amschel?
Well, his father, Amschel Moses had a business in goods-trading and currency exchange.
He was a personal supplier of collectable coins to the Prince of Hesse.
We'll come back to that shortly...
We know little about Mayer Amschel's grandparents and more remote ancestors.
The family did previously use the name "Bauer" - in fact the name Rothschild didn't really stick until Mayer Amschel's generation came along.
Benjamin Franklin once observed that in life only death and taxes are inevitable; they are also virtually the only things about which records survive for the earliest Rothschilds.
The most we can say about the early Rothschilds is that they were relatively successful small businessmen dealing in, among other things, cloth.
Five years before his death in 1585, Isak zum roten Schild had a taxable income of 2,700 gulden.
A century later his great-grandson Kalman, a moneychanger who also dealt in wool and silk, had a taxable income more than twice as large.
It seems that his son (Mayer Amschel's grandfather Moses) successfully developed his father's business, continuing the process of steady social ascent by marrying, successively, the daughters of a tax collector and of a doctor.
With the help of relatives, Mayer Amschel secured an apprenticeship under Jacob Wolf Oppenheimer, at the banking firm of Simon Wolf Oppenheimer in Hanover, in 1757, where he acquired useful knowledge in foreign trade and currency exchange, before returning to his brothers' business in Frankfurt in 1763.
He became a dealer in rare coins and, just as his father had done previously, won the patronage of the Prince of Hesse.
His coin business grew to include a number of princely patrons, and then expanded through the provision of financial services to the Prince of Hesse.
In 1769, Mayer Amschel gained the title of "Court Agent", managing the finances of the immensely wealthy Prince of Hesse who in 1785 became William IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and inherited one of the largest fortunes in Europe at the time.
Part 2/6 - The Five Arrows
The Rothschild coat-of-arms includes a fist clutching five arrows, a reference to Mayer's five sons.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Mayer sent his sons to establish banks in Frankfurt, Naples, Vienna, France, and London.
The release of the "Five Arrows" symbolises strength through unity, and marks the beginning of the Rothschild's global banking dynasty.
Part 3/6 - Nathan Mayer
Napoleon was on the march through Europe, and William gave his fortune to Mayer Amschel to protect it from being seized by Napoleon.
Mayer was able to hide the money by sending it to his son Nathan in London.
The London Rothschild office had to spend it somewhere, and loaned it to the British Crown, in order to finance the British armies fighting Napoleon in Spain and Portugal in the Peninsular War.
These savvy investments of William's money paid off handsomely, netting sufficient interest that their own wealth eventually exceeded that of their original nest-egg client (the nest-egg client who had inherited the largest fortune in Europe remember).
This marked the birth of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
Historian Niall Ferguson outlines the sheer scale of the Rothschild family's operations:
"For most of the nineteenth century, N M Rothschild was part of the biggest bank in the world which dominated the international bond market. For a contemporary equivalent, one has to imagine a merger between Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, J P Morgan and probably Goldman Sachs too — as well, perhaps, as the International Monetary Fund, given the nineteen-century Rothschild's role in stabilizing the finances of numerous governments."
Nathan pioneered the ingenious strategy of lending to governments during wartime.
This tactic, used when Nathan funded Wellington's army in 1814, is the primary cause of the explosion in the family's wealth during what proved to be 150 years of nearly chronic warfare.
Of course, the Rothschilds played no role in instigating said conflicts...
Continual war in Europe created excellent opportunities to profit from smuggling scarce consumer goods past military blockades. Since the Rothschilds often financed both sides in a conflict and were known to have great political influence, the mere sight of the red shield on a leather pouch, a carriage, or a ship's flag was sufficient to insure that the messenger or his cargo could pass through check points in either direction. This immunity allowed them to deal in a thriving black market for cotton goods, yarn, tobacco, coffee, sugar, and indigo; and they moved freely through the borders of Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Spain, England, and France.
This government protection was one of those indirect benefits that generated commercial profits - of course they were also getting interest on the underlying government loans.
Even the friendliest of biographers admit that, for more than two centuries, the House of Rothschild profited handsomely from wars and economic collapses, the very occasions on which others sustained the greatest losses.
Part 4/6 - Nat
The Rothschilds tend to keep tend to keep out of the limelight.
One of the family’s grande dames said you should only appear in the newspapers on three occasions: hatch (aka birth), match (aka marriage) and dispatch (aka death).
Therefore, this makes the odd flamboyant Rothschild stand out even more.
One that springs to mind is Nat Rothschild (Jacob Rothschild's son) and ex Bullingdon Club member who in 2016 married former Page 3 model Loretta Basey.
According to Forbes, Nat's net worth was $1 billion in 2012, but he lost his official billionaire status the next year.
However, according to an article in the Observer in 2000, Nat's actual inheritance is hidden in a series of trusts in Switzerland and rumoured to be worth £40BN (i.e. $60 billion.)
Part 5/6 - Ghislaine Maxwell?
Alan Dershoiwtz, who once defended Jeffrey Epstein in court, writes:
"My wife and I were introduced to Ghislaine Maxwell by Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynne de Rothschild..."
Evelyn de Rothschild and his wife Lynn were introduced by none other than Henry Kissinger at the 1998 Bilderberg Group conference in Scotland. They married two years later, and were invited to spend their honeymoon at the White House by the Clintons.
I have an idea!
Let's type Rothschild into the WikiLeaks Hilary Clinton Email Archive.
Nice. 69 results. Let's check out the intercourse between Hilary and Lynn.
How about this one - Info For You on the 25th of September 2010?
In that email chain, we have the following message from Hilary to Lynne.
"Lynn,
I was trying to reach you to tell you and Teddy that I asked Tony Blair to go to Israel as part of our full court press on keeping the Middle East negotiations going. He told me that he had a commitment in Aspen with you two and the conference, but after we talked, he decided to go and asked me to tell you. He is very sorry, obviously, but I'm grateful that he accepted my request. I hope you all understand and give him a raincheck...Let me know what penance I owe you. And please explain to Teddy. As ever, H"
Part 6/6 - True Extent
We come to the kicker: what is true extent of the Rothschild's wealth?
Of course, it is impossible to pin down an exact number because of the level of diversification of their wealth and the secrecy with which the offshore infrastructure operates.
After all, we know what happens to those that try to expose this shady world.
Worryingly, Panama is only one of more than 90 financial secrecy jurisdictions around the world today, compared with just a dozen or so in the early 1970s.
Together, as of 2015, they hold at least $24 trillion to $36 trillion in anonymous private financial wealth, most of which belong to the top 0.1 percent of the planet’s wealthiest.
Of course, none of this offshore wealth belongs to the Rothschilds...
In 2003, the Sunday Times identified Jacob Rothschild as the secret holder of the large stake in Yukos that was previously controlled by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil company's chairman.
The size of this stake? £8 billion.
In 2003, the pound dollar exchange rate was 1.63 - therefore the dollar value of the stake was around $13 billion.
In 2017, Jacob's net worth was pegged at under one billion dollars.
No comment...
According to the Forbes List, the richest individual Rothschild is Benjamin de Rothschild, from the French branch of the family, with a net worth of $1.5BN.
This is despite the fact that Benjamin presides over the Edmond de Rothschild Group, which manages over $175 billion in assets. In August 2019, de Rothschild's family bought out the group's public shareholders.
But yes, of course Benjamin, supposedly the richest Rothschild, is worth 2/3 of Donald Trump.
Speaking of Donald Trump...
Trump at one time owned a quarter of Atlantic City’s casino market.
However, Trump was heavily in debt, and he started missing bond payments on his — and Atlantic City’s — largest casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1990.
Wilbur Ross, then an investment banker working for...you guessed it, Rothschild Inc., helped bondholders negotiate with Trump, whose finances were unraveling. The final deal reduced Trump’s ownership stake in the Taj but left him in charge, and bondholders were unhappy when Ross presented the plan.
“Why did we make a deal with him?” one bondholder asked.
Ross insisted that Trump was worth saving.
“The Trump name is still very much an asset,” he said.
In 2017, Ross became Secretary of Commerce.
Remember folks: Presidents are selected... not elected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wbIGFgxJd0

High effort post for a LOW effort horseshit meme spread by morons who either know better or should know better. You know who you are, and from the bottom of my heart, fuck you.
Political Compass bullshit examples of politicians' leanings.
Pete's On The Issues page
I'm just using Pete because he's obviously loved by liberals and hated by leftists, so TPC's bullshit lying about his position on their dumbass chart is both easy to disprove and everybody should "get" what I'm talking about. None of the candidates are properly represented, because TPC is a sad excuse for an impartial website.
I'll go through the quiz and answer these as best as I can based on Pete's issues page. This is obviously somewhat subjective, but not that much. You're welcome to correct me on any of these. Below is my format and methodology:
[Question] [My take of Pete's stance on the question] [source to back said take]
When I can't find a decent source, I default to what I view as a standard democratic answer and make it clear this is my own subjective take on his stance. As this is subjective to an extent when in doubt between Agree/Strongly Agree and Disagree/Strongly Disagree I generally opt for the less strong opinion. Because I'm not a fucking hack like the TPC assholes.
Seriously, feel free to correct me on any of these. Maybe he's changed his tune, maybe I'm just dumb. I'm doing this quiz as I write this, so I don't know what we'll get. But I sure as fuck know it won't be what the assholes at The Political Compass think it is.

Worldview

1) If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations. [Agree] source
2) I’d always support my country, whether it was right or wrong. [Disagree] source
3) No one chooses his or her country of birth, so it’s foolish to be proud of it. [Disagree] source (same as prior question)
4) Our race has many superior qualities, compared with other races. [Strongly Disagree] source (every dem candidate strongly disagrees with this though, obviously)
5) The enemy of my enemy is my friend. [Strongly Agree] source
6) Military action that defies international law is sometimes justified. [Disagree] source (same as prior question)
7) There is now a worrying fusion of information and entertainment. [Agree] source Fun fact from this source - Pete was the 287th person to create a Facebook account as he was at Harvard when the website was being rolled out.

Economy

1) People are ultimately divided more by class than by nationality. [Agree] source
2) Controlling inflation is more important than controlling unemployment. [No idea. I guessed he would agree, further suggestions are welcome.]
3) Because corporations cannot be trusted to voluntarily protect the environment, they require regulation. [Strongly Agree] source Bonus: big carbon rebate energy here
4) “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” is a fundamentally good idea. [Agree] source This one I'm assuming his endorsement of progressive taxes and harsh criticism of SSE is somewhat an endorsement of this statement.
5) It’s a sad reflection on our society that something as basic as drinking water is now a bottled, branded consumer product. [No idea. I guessed he would disagree, further suggestions are welcome.]
6) Land shouldn’t be a commodity to be bought and sold. [Strongly Disagree] source
7) It is regrettable that many personal fortunes are made by people who simply manipulate money and contribute nothing to their society. [Disagree] source
8) Protectionism is sometimes necessary in trade. [Disagree] source I recall him being more lefty on this a while back, but his position now seems to be the right one, in that tariffs are stupid.
9) The only social responsibility of a company should be to deliver a profit to its shareholders. [Disagree] source Again, could have an additional source here, but I think overall he would disagree regardless.
10) The rich are too highly taxed. [Strongly Disagree] source Again, this is pretty standard dem policy at this point.
11) Those with the ability to pay should have access to higher standards of medical care. [Disagree] source This is between Strongly Disagree and Disagree; all standard dem policy at this point.
12) Governments should penalise businesses that mislead the public. [No idea. I guessed he would agree, further suggestions are welcome.]
13) A genuine free market requires restrictions on the ability of predator multinationals to create monopolies. [Agree] source
14) The freer the market, the freer the people. [Disagree] source Same as prior question.

Social Values

1) Abortion, when the woman’s life is not threatened, should always be illegal. [Strongly Disagree] source An article from The Federalist, but hey, it works.
2) All authority should be questioned. [Agree] source
3) An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. [Strongly Disagree] source
4) Taxpayers should not be expected to prop up any theatres or museums that cannot survive on a commercial basis. [Disagree] [No idea. I guessed he would disagree, further suggestions are welcome.]
5) Schools should not make classroom attendance compulsory. [Agree] [No idea. I guessed he would agree, further suggestions are welcome.]
6) All people have their rights, but it is better for all of us that different sorts of people should keep to their own kind. [Strongly Disagree] source
7) Good parents sometimes have to spank their children. Disagree Same as question 2.
8) It’s natural for children to keep some secrets from their parents. Agree Same as questions 2 and 7.
9) Possessing marijuana for personal use should not be a criminal offence. [Strongly Agree] source Standard dem policy again, folks.
10) The prime function of schooling should be to equip the future generation to find jobs. [Disagree] source This one's a bit more subjective from my end, full disclosure.
11) People with serious inheritable disabilities should not be allowed to reproduce. [Disagree] [No idea. I guessed he would disagree, further suggestions are welcome.]
12) The most important thing for children to learn is to accept discipline. [Strongly Disagree] source Same as questions 2,7, and 8
13) There are no savage and civilised peoples; there are only different cultures. [Strongly Disagree] source Something something just don't be a racist douche something something.
14) Those who are able to work, and refuse the opportunity, should not expect society’s support. [Disagree] [No idea. I guessed he would disagree, further suggestions are welcome.]
15) When you are troubled, it’s better not to think about it, but to keep busy with more cheerful things. [Agree] [This one is harder, and very subjective. From the ABC source I've heavily used in this section, and other personal stories from Pete, it was clear even in college none of his roommates knew he was gay - something you might expect them to have known or at least guessed. My assumption is that Pete struggled personally with this and didn't talk about it. So while in general he may find talking it out better, he may also have found it easier at that time to stay quiet. So I'm going with [Agree] here, but further suggestions are welcome.]
16) First-generation immigrants can never be fully integrated within their new country. [Strongly Disagree] source Same source as 2, 7, 8, and 12. His dad was a first generation immigrant from Malta and I don't think Pete would say his dad didn't embody American Values. Also seriously - great article.
17) What’s good for the most successful corporations is always, ultimately, good for all of us. [Disagree] source
18) No broadcasting institution, however independent its content, should receive public funding. [Disagree] [No idea. I guessed he would disagree, further suggestions are welcome.]

WeLiveInASociety

1) Our civil liberties are being excessively curbed in the name of counter-terrorism. [Strongly Agree] source
2) A significant advantage of a one-party state is that it avoids all the arguments that delay progress in a democratic political system. [Agree] [Okay so like, this one is technically objective I think, and I haven't a clue what Pete would say but I'm going with Agree - sue me]
3) Although the electronic age makes official surveillance easier, only wrongdoers need to be worried. [Strongly Disagree] source Same source as question 1.
4) The death penalty should be an option for the most serious crimes. [Strongly Disagree] source
5) In a civilised society, one must always have people above to be obeyed and people below to be commanded. [Agree] source
6) Abstract art that doesn’t represent anything shouldn’t be considered art at all. [Disagree] source Facebook post from when he was mayor of SB, strangely enough.
7) In criminal justice, punishment should be more important than rehabilitation. [Strongly Disagree] source Same as question 4.
8) It is a waste of time to try to rehabilitate some criminals. [Strongly Disagree] source Same as questions 4 and 7.
9) The businessperson and the manufacturer are more important than the writer and the artist. [Disagree] source Same source as question 6.
10) Mothers may have careers, but their first duty is to be homemakers. [Strongly Disagree] source Standard dem policy here, as per usual.
11) Multinational companies are unethically exploiting the plant genetic resources of developing countries. [Agree] source Agree or Strongly Agree, could be either.
12) Making peace with the establishment is an important aspect of maturity. [Disagree] source

Religion

1) Astrology accurately explains many things. [Disagree] [No source, this is just a stupid fucking question and I'd assume everyone disagrees unless they've publicly said otherwise (in which case they're also fucking stupid)]
2) You cannot be moral without being religious. [Strongly Disagree] source
3) Charity is better than social security as a means of helping the genuinely disadvantaged. [Strongly Disagreeeeeee] kinda unrelated source I think we can just say he thinks charity is good, but that that isn't the point. Also purity testers make me sick af.
4) Some people are naturally unlucky. [Disagree] [Stupid question, I'm not sourcing this. Shouldn't even be on a quiz like this next to actual questions]
5) It is important that my child’s school instills religious values. [Strongly Disagree] source Same source as question 2.

Sex Stuff

Full disclosure: Pete's answer on most of these should be pretty obvious, but I'm going to cite as best as possible anyway out of pure spite towards purity testers. Again, you know who you are.
1) Sex outside marriage is usually immoral. [Disagree] [I can't find a straight answer to a question like this obviously, but I'm 99.9% sure he's strongly disagree so I'll at least say disagree]
2) A same sex couple in a stable, loving relationship should not be excluded from the possibility of child adoption. [Strongly Agree] source 1 [source 2: fuck you]
3) Pornography, depicting consenting adults, should be legal for the adult population. [Agree] [Unsure on what he'd say here, but this would be a standard dem response and I believe he would agree.]
4) What goes on in a private bedroom between consenting adults is no business of the state. [Strongly Agree] source
5) No one can feel naturally homosexual. [Strongly Disagree] source 1 [source 2: fuck you]
6) These days openness about sex has gone too far. [Disagree] [Unsure on what he'd say here, but this would be a standard dem response and I believe he would disagree.]
Cool, let's see where that puts us. Again, this has Pete at +8 economically and +4.5 on authoritarianism.
Wow, look at that. He's solidly in the bottom left at -1.88 on Economics and -5.69 on authoritarianism. Here's his results. Amazing. Absolutely astonishing, never could have guessed. At least they were only off by almost half their chart on either dimension.
If you think I edited the url to get this, feel free to plug in the same answers I just provided and give it a shot. You'll get the same thing.
And this unfair bias goes for all the candidates on the chart given by the admins over at TPC. Because those folks running this quiz are biased, and anyone giving them any credit otherwise is fooling themselves. At least for the democrats, I would say shifting them 10 points down and 10 points to the left (again, only half the chart - they were so close!) is pretty fair.
Any further questions or edits or whatever, hit me up. Open source over here. Just really hate liars and goddamn are the progressive douchebags running that site liars.

Previous post is here.

Grab the Pitchforks.

July/August 2014. The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats

READ THE ABOVE ARTICLE!

I still remember reading this article back when, and I thought, exactly right. You can’t pull a reverse Robin Hood and grab from the poor to give to the rich. Eventually the guillotine comes out and heads roll. The cycle has happened before and it will happen again. Unless they somehow have a long range plan to stay rich and keep us poor. The controllers and the controlled. The best of us and the rest of us. The ones who call the war and the ones who fight in the war.
Now I'm not so sure about the essay, let me show you why.

Andrew Yang.

Do you remember when we started talking about Basic Guaranteed Income as a reality? It was roughly in 2016 when the conversations began to get serious. Countries ran experiments. Ostensibly this was presented as a solution to the coming wave of automation that will start performing the manual and mental labor that historically was provided by humans, leaving a whole lot of people to be fed. A whole lot of people whose labor won't be needed. But if this pandemic doesn't get too bad, at least we can look forward to getting a monthly cheque for just being alive, right?
September 18th 2019.

His candidacy is built on the theory that the millions of jobs lost to automation (think kiosks in drugstores and airports) led to the sense of frustration and instability among Americans that was linked to President Donald Trump’s election. He paints a gloomy picture of what automation will do to the future job market and offers a solution: a freedom dividend for every American over the age of 18. The idea of a dividend, Yang argues, is one Thomas Paine and Martin Luther King Jr. and hundreds of economists have supported. Alaska gives its citizens $1,000 to $2,000 a year. He says he’d pay for his policy with a tax on tech companies like Amazon. When he discussed the need to replace GDP as the measurement of economic success, he said U.S. life expectancy had dropped three years in a row for the first time ... "since when?” “1918!” many shouted (correctly). “That’s right, 1918, the year that the Spanish flu, a global pandemic, killed millions,” he said.

Wait. What. That's strange. Guaranteed Basic Income and the 1918 pandemic, all in one breath. You may have also taken note of his declining birth rate comment, almost like the planet is starting to have toxic effects on us. That's just a coincidence though. It has to be. This free money can't be real, can it? The pandemic stimulus money is only temporary, isn't it?
Might as well follow the white rabbit once again, see how far the rabbit hole goes.

What's the Beef on the Farm?

May 29, 2020. Every single worker at this U.S. farm has tested positive for coronavirus The outbreaks underscore the latest pandemic threat to food supply: Farm workers are getting sick and spreading the illness just as the U.S. heads into the peak of the summer produce season.
June 29, 2020. Advocates demand Ontario shut down farms as COVID-19 cases soar among workers.
May 7th, 2020. Why Meatpacking Plants Have Become Covid-19 Hot Spots.
How many outbreaks have shut down factories other than farms and meat plants? I'm not talking about a couple of cases, I mean shut down. I can't recall one. I've read of preemptive shutdowns because of a few cases, or due to supply chain hardships, but all or the entirety seem to be food companies or farms. That's a strange pattern, isn’t it? Could it have something to do with Sulfur Fertilizers and hydrogen sulfide from organic compounds mixing with the environments sudden increase from microbes? Nah.
But where are we going to get our food from to feed all of us Basic Income dependents? We have to eat, but we can't eat if we can't work the farms and meat plants, can we? That's quite the conundrum, isn’t it?

Robot Tractors and Bill Gates.

December 12, 2018. How self-driving tractors, AI, and precision agriculture will save us from the impending food crisis. Go inside the race to feed the 9 billion people who will inhabit planet earth in 2050. See how John Deere and others are working to change the equation before it's too late.
September 11, 2019. Bill Gates, the largest holder of Deere stock, recently bought even more after holding steady for a couple of years. Gates bought 87,000 more shares of Deere (ticker: DE) in late August. The purchase brought his holdings to 31,510,573 shares, a stake of just above 10%. Passing that threshold triggered the need for a regulatory disclosure. Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft (MSFT), filed a form with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday detailing his increased investment in the maker of tractors, trucks, and other heavy equipment.
That Bill Gates is a genius! I swear it's like he can see the future! It's too bad that he couldn't make an anti-virus program to save his life. Oh well, even if he couldn't make our computers safe from viruses, I'm sure he'll do better with us humans.
May 16, 2020. From Pope Francis to the Bond King, universal basic income is gaining support around the world.
JULY 10, 2020. Daily briefing: Spain begins an epic economics experiment in universal basic income.
July 13, 2020. Super-rich call for higher taxes on wealthy to pay for Covid-19 recovery.
July 13, 2020. 'Please Tax Us': Dozens Of Millionaires Urge Governments To Tax The Rich To Pay.
I never thought that I would see the day that the rich are pleading to be taxed. It's almost like they learned a thing or two and decided to not tell us to eat cake. Maybe they learned better and found some compassion?

Millionares Against Pitchforks.

January 23, 2020.

A group of wealthy celebrities and business people have signed an open letter calling on fellow billionaires and millionaires around the globe to support tax increases in an effort to alleviate growing economic disparity. Released on Thursday to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the letter states: “There are two kinds of wealthy people in the world: those who prefer taxes and those who prefer pitchforks. We, the undersigned, prefer taxes. And we believe that, upon reflection, you will as well.” The 121 ultra high-net-worth signatories, who call themselves “Millionaires Against Pitchforks,” include Disney heiress Abigail Disney, British actor and screenwriter Simon Pegg, writer-director Richard Curtis (“Love Actually”) and Sudanese-British telco tycoon Mo Ibrahim. Stressing that an estimated $8 trillion – nearly 10% of the world’s GDP – is hidden in tax havens, the letter urges the world’s wealthy “to step forward now — before it’s too late — to demand higher and fairer taxes on millionaires and billionaires within your own countries and to help prevent individual and corporate tax avoidance and evasion through international tax reform efforts.”

Almost six years later they act. SIX YEARS! And just as the COVID-19 pandemic has its first American case on January 20th. That was some fortuitous timing, wasn't it. It's just a coincidence that they found their compassion just as the writing was going up on the wall and the SHTF.
At least they're trying, right? Or they're playing a really long game, and holding back cards before they have to play them.
Me? I don’t believe the act for one second. If they really meant it, why didn't they speak out when the Panama Papers came out?
Or when this happened?

Malta car bomb kills Panama Papers journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, a blogger whose investigations focused on corruption, was described as a ‘one-woman WikiLeaks’.

It's all smoke and mirrors. Basic Guaranteed Income has been slowly manipulated into awareness. The Pandemic has been as well. It's a perfect storm front to increase automation, which will increase productivity for the upcoming war, and free up the workforce to fight.
And I'm positive that the Panama Papers didn't go anywhere because it got slapped with a National Security classification, but that will have to wait for another post.
Keep your head up and eyes open.
Take care. Be safe. Stay aware and be prepared. Talk soon.

Hi guys,
I have contacted a tax advisory in my country regarding crypto taxation laws in order to confirm certain things, however, I left there with more questions than answers, it seems crypto is highly green area in Malta and I am getting confused daily.
​
I have a substantial amount of crypto invested and I also participated in some day trading in the past year and I am confused, the advisory stated that,
a. Crypto to crypto transactions do NOT create a taxable event.
b. Only when cashing out to FIAT will you have to pay taxes on the profit.
c. Also taxation is based on income tax.
​
Now my confusion is that none of what the advisory said was written on paper, so he could have just been throwing me off or maybe he wasn't even sure what he was talking about, so I'm still somewhat paranoid on this tax thing.
​
Based on the below article on Malta taxation laws can you confirm that what the advisory said is inline?
​
I have pasted the source of the article as well on the bottom of the post for your perusal.
​
Please note: that I have been a resident in Malta for all my life, if that makes any difference, which I assume it does.
​
Thanks a lot in advance.
​

How and when are coins and tokens taxed in Malta?

Coins
The tax treatment of transactions involving coins would be identical to the tax treatment of transactions involving fiat or conventional currency. As such, coins fall outside the scope of income tax and duty, and gains on isolated transfers will not be taxed in Malta. Conversely, where the Coins are transferred as part of a coin exchange business or trade, profits realised from such business would be taxed at the standard Maltese corporate income tax rate of 35%. By the application of structuring options which are available under the Maltese full imputation system, the effective tax rate on such trading income could be reduced to between 5% and nil. The exchange of coins for other cryptocurrencies or for fiat money where such exchange constitutes a supply of services for consideration will not be liable to VAT. Mining would also fall outside of scope of VAT, unless it is carried out against payment of transaction fees.
Financial Tokens
A return on financial tokens such as payments equivalent to dividends, interest, premiums is treated as income and taxed in the hands of the holder at the applicable rates (progressive capped at 35% where the holder is an individual and standard 35% where the holder is a company) subject to available exemptions. Where the financial token meets the definition of security, essentially, having profit-participating rights, gains derived upon a transfer of such tokens fall within taxable capital gains, to which a number of exemptions apply. Where gains are derived in the nature of trade, such as where the transfer is part of a profit-making undertaking or scheme, they will be treated as trading income and subject to tax at 35% which may be mitigated as aforementioned when dividends are distributed through the application of the Maltese full imputation system. The transfer of a financial token will generally be liable to stamp duty only where it meets the definition of a security at law, and then also subject to available exemptions. The VAT treatment of transactions in financial tokens depends on the return to which they are entitled. If they qualify as securities, relevant exemptions apply.
Utility tokens
While non-business transfers will not be subject to income tax or duty, profits arising from a trade or business in utility tokens will be treated as trading income and subject to tax at 35%, with the possibility of benefitting from the full imputation system as indicated above. Furthermore, transfers of convertible utility tokens not being financial tokens at the time of issue will be treated as non-taxable until such time as they are converted into financial tokens.From a VAT perspective, transactions in utility tokens would be treated as transactions in vouchers and the issuer will be required to account for VAT on the utility tokens based on its context.
Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) or Token Generation Events
The issue or generation of financial tokens will not attract tax and VAT implications in Malta. However, payment for the issue of utility tokens is likely to constitute income derived by the issuer, which ought to be taxed when realised. Generally where the good or service for which the utility token is issued and the corresponding price cannot be clearly identified, no VAT implications arise.
Exchanges
Income derived by crypto exchanges is considered to be trading income and treated as such. Where the provision of exchange facilities is against a fee, the supply would be VATable unless the DLT asset traded is classified as a currency or security under VAT law.
​
Source: https://home.kpmg/mt/en/home/insights/2019/01/blockchain-tax-guidelines-in-malta.html#:~:text=As%20such%2C%20coins%20fall%20outside,income%20tax%20rate%20of%2035%25.

No discussion of Upper Class Billionaires would be complete without the Rothschilds.
A family dynasty synonymous with wealth.
But what is the true extent of this wealth?
Just how powerful is this relatively secretive family?
With various theories circulating on the Internet, can we reach a rational consensus?
Part 1/6 - The Architect?
Mayer Amschel is often cited as the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
In 1770, he married Guttle Schnapper. This boosted Mayer's wealth, as he received a generous dowry of 2,400 gulden from her father (who worked as a court agent).
Mayer wouldn't forget this and, in his will, outlined strict, controversial provisions regarding Rothschild marriages.
Mayer was concerned that the family's fortune would be diluted as it grew through marriages. As such, his will "barred female descendants from any direct inheritance" and, in effect, provided incentives for intermarriages. Four of his granddaughters married grandsons (first cousins), while one married her uncle.
Now, is this really a tale of Started from the Bottom?
Or, much like Drake, is there a rich Uncle involved?
To answer that, we need to ask: who came before Mayer Amschel?
Well, his father, Amschel Moses had a business in goods-trading and currency exchange.
He was a personal supplier of collectable coins to the Prince of Hesse.
We'll come back to that shortly...
We know little about Mayer Amschel's grandparents and more remote ancestors.
The family did previously use the name "Bauer" - in fact the name Rothschild didn't really stick until Mayer Amschel's generation came along.
Benjamin Franklin once observed that in life only death and taxes are inevitable; they are also virtually the only things about which records survive for the earliest Rothschilds.
The most we can say about the early Rothschilds is that they were relatively successful small businessmen dealing in, among other things, cloth.
Five years before his death in 1585, Isak zum roten Schild had a taxable income of 2,700 gulden.
A century later his great-grandson Kalman, a moneychanger who also dealt in wool and silk, had a taxable income more than twice as large.
It seems that his son (Mayer Amschel's grandfather Moses) successfully developed his father's business, continuing the process of steady social ascent by marrying, successively, the daughters of a tax collector and of a doctor.
With the help of relatives, Mayer Amschel secured an apprenticeship under Jacob Wolf Oppenheimer, at the banking firm of Simon Wolf Oppenheimer in Hanover, in 1757, where he acquired useful knowledge in foreign trade and currency exchange, before returning to his brothers' business in Frankfurt in 1763.
He became a dealer in rare coins and, just as his father had done previously, won the patronage of the Prince of Hesse.
His coin business grew to include a number of princely patrons, and then expanded through the provision of financial services to the Prince of Hesse.
In 1769, Mayer Amschel gained the title of "Court Agent", managing the finances of the immensely wealthy Prince of Hesse who in 1785 became William IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and inherited one of the largest fortunes in Europe at the time.
Part 2/6 - The Five Arrows
The Rothschild coat-of-arms includes a fist clutching five arrows, a reference to Mayer's five sons.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Mayer sent his sons to establish banks in Frankfurt, Naples, Vienna, France, and London.
The release of the "Five Arrows" symbolises strength through unity, and marks the beginning of the Rothschild's global banking dynasty.
Part 3/6 - Nathan Mayer
Napoleon was on the march through Europe, and William gave his fortune to Mayer Amschel to protect it from being seized by Napoleon.
Mayer was able to hide the money by sending it to his son Nathan in London.
The London Rothschild office had to spend it somewhere, and loaned it to the British Crown, in order to finance the British armies fighting Napoleon in Spain and Portugal in the Peninsular War.
These savvy investments of William's money paid off handsomely, netting sufficient interest that their own wealth eventually exceeded that of their original nest-egg client (the nest-egg client who had inherited the largest fortune in Europe remember).
This marked the birth of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
Historian Niall Ferguson outlines the sheer scale of the Rothschild family's operations:
"For most of the nineteenth century, N M Rothschild was part of the biggest bank in the world which dominated the international bond market. For a contemporary equivalent, one has to imagine a merger between Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, J P Morgan and probably Goldman Sachs too — as well, perhaps, as the International Monetary Fund, given the nineteen-century Rothschild's role in stabilizing the finances of numerous governments."
Nathan pioneered the ingenious strategy of lending to governments during wartime.
This tactic, used when Nathan funded Wellington's army in 1814, is the primary cause of the explosion in the family's wealth during what proved to be 150 years of nearly chronic warfare.
Of course, the Rothschilds played no role in instigating said conflicts...
Continual war in Europe created excellent opportunities to profit from smuggling scarce consumer goods past military blockades. Since the Rothschilds often financed both sides in a conflict and were known to have great political influence, the mere sight of the red shield on a leather pouch, a carriage, or a ship's flag was sufficient to insure that the messenger or his cargo could pass through check points in either direction. This immunity allowed them to deal in a thriving black market for cotton goods, yarn, tobacco, coffee, sugar, and indigo; and they moved freely through the borders of Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Spain, England, and France.
This government protection was one of those indirect benefits that generated commercial profits - of course they were also getting interest on the underlying government loans.
Even the friendliest of biographers admit that, for more than two centuries, the House of Rothschild profited handsomely from wars and economic collapses, the very occasions on which others sustained the greatest losses.
Part 4/6 - Nat
The Rothschilds tend to keep tend to keep out of the limelight.
One of the family’s grande dames said you should only appear in the newspapers on three occasions: hatch (aka birth), match (aka marriage) and dispatch (aka death).
Therefore, this makes the odd flamboyant Rothschild stand out even more.
One that springs to mind is Nat Rothschild (Jacob Rothschild's son) and ex Bullingdon Club member who in 2016 married former Page 3 model Loretta Basey.
According to Forbes, Nat's net worth was $1 billion in 2012, but he lost his official billionaire status the next year.
However, according to an article in the Observer in 2000, Nat's actual inheritance is hidden in a series of trusts in Switzerland and rumoured to be worth £40BN (i.e. $60 billion.)
Part 5/6 - Ghislaine Maxwell?
Alan Dershoiwtz, who once defended Jeffrey Epstein in court, writes:
"My wife and I were introduced to Ghislaine Maxwell by Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynne de Rothschild..."
Evelyn de Rothschild and his wife Lynn were introduced by none other than Henry Kissinger at the 1998 Bilderberg Group conference in Scotland. They married two years later, and were invited to spend their honeymoon at the White House by the Clintons.
I have an idea!
Let's type Rothschild into the WikiLeaks Hilary Clinton Email Archive.
Nice. 69 results. Let's check out the intercourse between Hilary and Lynn.
How about this one - Info For You on the 25th of September 2010?
In that email chain, we have the following message from Hilary to Lynne.
"Lynn,
I was trying to reach you to tell you and Teddy that I asked Tony Blair to go to Israel as part of our full court press on keeping the Middle East negotiations going. He told me that he had a commitment in Aspen with you two and the conference, but after we talked, he decided to go and asked me to tell you. He is very sorry, obviously, but I'm grateful that he accepted my request. I hope you all understand and give him a raincheck...Let me know what penance I owe you. And please explain to Teddy. As ever, H"
Part 6/6 - True Extent
We come to the kicker: what is true extent of the Rothschild's wealth?
Of course, it is impossible to pin down an exact number because of the level of diversification of their wealth and the secrecy with which the offshore infrastructure operates.
After all, we know what happens to those that try to expose this shady world.
Worryingly, Panama is only one of more than 90 financial secrecy jurisdictions around the world today, compared with just a dozen or so in the early 1970s.
Together, as of 2015, they hold at least $24 trillion to $36 trillion in anonymous private financial wealth, most of which belong to the top 0.1 percent of the planet’s wealthiest.
Of course, none of this offshore wealth belongs to the Rothschilds...
In 2003, the Sunday Times identified Jacob Rothschild as the secret holder of the large stake in Yukos that was previously controlled by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil company's chairman.
The size of this stake? £8 billion.
In 2003, the pound dollar exchange rate was 1.63 - therefore the dollar value of the stake was around $13 billion.
In 2017, Jacob's net worth was pegged at under one billion dollars.
No comment...
According to the Forbes List, the richest individual Rothschild is Benjamin de Rothschild, from the French branch of the family, with a net worth of $1.5BN.
This is despite the fact that Benjamin presides over the Edmond de Rothschild Group, which manages over $175 billion in assets. In August 2019, de Rothschild's family bought out the group's public shareholders.
But yes, of course Benjamin, supposedly the richest Rothschild, is worth 2/3 of Donald Trump.
Speaking of Donald Trump...
Trump at one time owned a quarter of Atlantic City’s casino market.
However, Trump was heavily in debt, and he started missing bond payments on his — and Atlantic City’s — largest casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1990.
Wilbur Ross, then an investment banker working for...you guessed it, Rothschild Inc., helped bondholders negotiate with Trump, whose finances were unraveling. The final deal reduced Trump’s ownership stake in the Taj but left him in charge, and bondholders were unhappy when Ross presented the plan.
“Why did we make a deal with him?” one bondholder asked.
Ross insisted that Trump was worth saving.
“The Trump name is still very much an asset,” he said.
In 2017, Ross became Secretary of Commerce.
Remember folks: Presidents are selected... not elected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wbIGFgxJd0

Hi,
I live in Sweden and run a one-person company here where the taxes are pretty high (21% corporate and 70% maximum income tax rate). As a programmer, I work remotely already and my income comes from the US. I have therefore considered moving to another European country, gain tax-resident and register my company there instead.
I've done some research online for European countries with low taxes and the ones that popped up are the following:

• Andorra
• Bulgaria
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Estonia
• Ireland
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Monaco
• Montenegro
• Georgia
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Switzerland

Out of these countries, the ones that I can think of moving to are:

• Andorra
• Czech Republic
• Estonia
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Portugal
• Poland
• Bulgaria

I'd prefer Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Monaco or Ireland. But the cost of living there are too high for me at the moment and you seem to need around €250.000 - 500.000 investment for residency.*
Anyway, I looked into each of the other countries and here's what I got:

• Andorra has a 10% tax rate for both income and corporate income. To form a company, you can apply for a Category B passive residency which requires a deposit of 50,000 EUR bond (refundable) and spending a minimum of 90 days in the country. There’s also a Category D active residency option which requires 15,000 EUR and a minimum of 183 days instead. This category seems to be aimed for people who plan to develop the business within Andorra so I’m not sure I’d qualify. I’m also more of a city person and the 3 hours to the closest airport isn’t ideal. But 90 days a year isn’t too bad and it’s right next to France and Spain. Source: https://www.expatfocus.com/destinations/andorra/guide/visas-residency, https://all-andorra.com/company-formation/, https://andorraguides.com/residency/active/
• Bulgaria seems to be the favorite of many lists. Like Andorra, both the corporate and income tax rate is 10%. There’s an additional 12.9% social security tax for the employee and 17.9% for the employer, but there seems to be a low upper limit of 2600 BGN for both. Which means a maximum income tax rate of 10% + 5200 BGN in total? It’s a bit far from Sweden but the cost of living there is very low. Source: https://nomadcapitalist.com/2017/07/26/low-tax-countries-living-europe/, https://medium.com/@coworkingbansko/getting-bulgarian-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads-6e6a71b51ff0, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_in_Europe
• Czech Republic has Prague which I would love to move to. The corporate tax rate is at 19% while the maximum income tax rate is 53.5%. What I don’t understand is why this country is considered a tax haven in Europe. Sure, the income tax is at 15%, but if you include social, employee and healthcare taxes it’s “just” 20% lower than Sweden. Have I missed something? I did read something about reducing the income tax rate from 15% to 9% by applying a lump sum deduction if you’re self-employed. Still high compared to many countries. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_in_Europe, https://nomadcapitalist.com/2017/07/26/low-tax-countries-living-europe/
• Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are all close to Sweden which is a big plus. Lithuania is also a known start-up hub. Both Latvia and Estonia have 0% tax rate for profits that are reinvested and Estonia’s E-residence program seems to be a popular topic among digital nomads. Despite this, I can’t understand why the Baltics are so frequently mentioned when their effective tax rates are so high (>50%). Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_in_Europe
• Portugal is a popular tax haven for Swedish retirees. This is due to treaties and the Non-Habitual Resident program where pensions are taxed at 0%. I don't think corporations have the same benefits though since NHR is only applicable for foreign income where the source country has the power to tax you. The US cannot tax me, and neither should Sweden when I move. That leaves Portugal and I couldn't find much info on that. This leads me to believe that Portugal isn’t an ideal or common pick unless you’re a retiree. Source: https://www.globalcitizensolutions.com/nhr-portugal-tax-regime/
• Poland has a corporate tax rate of 9% for smaller companies and an income tax rate fixed at 32%. Not the best rate in Europe but less than half of Sweden’s. Residency and moving there as a EU citizen seems straight forward. Source: https://www.eurocompanyformations.com/blog/poland-lowers-corporate-tax-rate-to-9-from-2019/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_in_Europe

I’m hoping someone here can look through my list and see if I have reasoned correctly. Maybe insight from someone who has actually moved to one of the countries? I do plan to contact a tax consultant or something eventually, but I feel like I need to narrow down my list first.
* To clarify this is only true for Monaco. For the other countries, I got that number with buying an apartment in mind. Moving to another country is a big commitment and I thought renting would be a bad option if I'm going to live there for several years. But that's what I'm doing in Sweden right now so with some afterthought I shouldn't have ruled out the other countries

State of the European Union 2018

Reddit Live Thread HERE (NOW OVER)

Location: Strasbourg, France.
TL;DR: The State of the European Union speech will be on Wednesday, 12 September, from 09:00 CEST to 10:00 CEST. It will be presented by Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission. The parliamentary debate will be held after the speech.
Official live video feeds

• EBS+ schedule
• EBS+ live streaming
• European Parliament
• Facebook Live (Original Language)
• EUTUBE Live
• European Parliament (Youtube)
• Twitter Periscope
• Focus page on SOTEU on the Commission’s AV Portal

Other live coverage

• European Parliament News Hub - live ticker for social media posts by Members of the European Parliament

Live Blogs

• Euractiv Live Blog
• Politico Live Blog
• BBC Live Blog

Hashtags on social media
#SOTEU, #FutureOfEurope
Articles

• EU President Demands Higher Emissions Reduction Target In Final State Of The Union, Forbes
• Juncker paints ‘big picture’ of EU’s global role, Euractiv
• Juncker scorns Chequers proposals in state of union speech, The Guardian
• Juncker's state of the union speech to European Parliament, Reuters
• Juncker Warns of ‘Knee-Jerk’ Nationalism in Last Big EU Speech, Bloomberg
• Juncker to propose breaking dollar’s dominance in global markets , Euractiv
• Rated: Did Juncker deliver on his State of the Union promises?, Euronews
• "He lost touch with the citizens of Europe", Euronews
• Judging Juncker: From first speech to last, Euractiv
• The unstately state of Europe’s union, Politico
• The core of Juncker’s State of the Union speech: A federal border police, Euractiv
• Commission prepares fightback against populists on migration, Politico
• EU’s autumn obstacle course, Politico
• Oettinger: EU in ‘mortal danger’ from inside and out, Politico

Programme

The State of the European Union is an annual speech delivered each September by the President of the European Commission before the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
At 9:00 Brussels time, President Jean-Claude Juncker, will deliver his speech before a plenary session of the European Parliament. The speech reviews the successes and failures of the Union, declares its general political direction, and sets out the legislative agenda of the European Commission for the year.
Once the hour-long speech has concluded, the European Parliament then holds an open debate, going over the State of the European Union speech, and the political situation throughout the European Union.

Summary of Upcoming Commission Proposals:

• Improving the detection and removal of terrorist content online within one hour by companies like Google, or they will face fines
• New rules on stopping data misuse by EU political groupings (EPP, ALDE etc.)
• Scrapping the biannual clock change in the European Union
• Upgrading the mandate and resources of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency to a “genuine border police” with 10,000 officials by 2020
• Upgrading the European Asylum Support Office (future EU Asylum Agency)
• A new policy on returning migrants, including common conditions and timelines for returns
• Africa package (creating more paths for legal migration, tackling root causes of migration, trade agreement with Africa etc.)
• Strengthening the European Banking Authority to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing through more resources and greater enforcement powers
• Creating a European Cybersecurity Research and Competence Centre
• Commission initiative to strengthen the enforcement of the rule of law in the European Union
• Commission communication on the possible extension of the tasks of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to include the fight against cross-border terrorism
• Commission communications on enhancing the use of qualified majority voting in common foreign and security policy and the internal market
• Single Market implementation and enforcement report
• Commission communication on the future of EU Energy and Climate policy, including the future of the Euratom Treaty
• Long-term EU strategy for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
• "Towards a Sustainable Europe by 2030, on the follow-up to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including on the Paris Agreement on Climate Change" reflection paper

The President of the European Commission

Jean-Claude Juncker
Term: 1 November 2014 - 31 October 2019
Jean-Claude Juncker started as a deputy in Luxembourg in 1984. Soon after, he started taking on various governmental roles. He because Luxembourg’s minister of finances in 1989, and subsequently became Prime Minister of Luxembourg, holding the office between 1995 and 2013.
Juncker held the Eurogroup presidency from 2005 to 2013, serving 3 terms. He was then chosen as the European People’s Party lead candidate for the 2014 European Parliament elections. He was proposed by the European Council afterwards, and the European Parliament voted in favour of him being President. He has previously announced he will not stand for a second term as President, meaning his tenure will end on the 31st October 2019.

Current European political topics

European Parliament Elections

Between May 23rd to the 26th 2019, elections to the European Parliament will be held. Following Brexit, the amount of MEPs will be reduced to 705, with some of the UK’s MEPs being redistributed to other member states and some being held in reserve for any potential enlargements of the EU.
The European Parliament has confirmed that it will follow the “Spitzenkandidaten” process once more. The European political parties will endorse ‘lead candidates’ ahead of the vote which will compete to be President of the European Commission. The European Council officially proposes a candidate for Commission President, ‘taking into account’ the results of the Parliament elections. However, the European Parliament has already stated it will reject any candidate who was not designated as a ‘lead candidate’ ahead of time.
Candidates:

Candidate	Date Announced	European Political Party
Maroš Šefčovič	4th June 2018	Party of European Socialists
Ska Keller	9th July 2018	European Greens
Manfred Weber	5th September 2018	European People's Party
Petra de Sutter	12th September 2018	European Greens

The European Commission is set to propose rules that could result in the political parties at the EU level (European People’s Party, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe etc.) being fined up to 5% of their annual budget if they misuse personal data in a similar way to how Cambridge Analytica operated, trying to influence elections with this data.
As part of a broader package to counter online voter manipulation and personal data misuse for political purposes, the European Commission will recommend that governments should crack down on “micro-targeting”, the practice of sending personalised political messages to users without their consent. It will also be recommended that member states introduce stricter transparency requirements on online political advertising.
Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vera Jourova has said that voters should be able to “always understand when something is an online campaign, who runs the campaign, who pays for it and what they want to achieve.” However, she said that the EU wouldn’t go as far as regulating the online activity of any political grouping, stating that the internet is a “zone for free expression.”
Overview of the European Parliament elections, 2019

Eurozone

In the 2017 SOTEU speech, Juncker proposed an EU minister of finance, who would be a Vice-President of the Commission and also President of the Eurogroup, the informal meeting of Eurozone finance ministers. By extension, they would also be Chair of the board of the European Monetary Fund. This minister could oversee the use of EU budgetary instruments and represent the euro area at a global level.
In December 2017, the Commission proposed to integrate the European Stability Mechanism (to become the European Monetary Fund) and the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance into EU law. The possibility of introducing an EU finance minister who would be a Vice President of the Commission as well as chair of the Eurogroup was also floated. They could oversee the budgetary instruments of the EU and represent the Euro area at a global level.
The Meseberg Declaration agreed between France and Germany calls for establishing a eurozone budget for competitiveness, convergence and stablisation within the framework of the EU. Resources would come from national contributions, allocation of tax revenue and European resources. However, 12 EU member states including Austria, Finland and the Netherlands questioned the need for any “fiscal capacity”, saying that there is “wide divergence” on the need for any budget, or at least what form it may take.
More recently, Germany’s deputy finance minister Jörg Kukies has stated that talks on a Eurozone budget should not distract from talks on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the EU’s multi-annual budget. The “most pressing issue” was to figure out how the EU budget can contribute to stabilization, competitiveness and convergence. “This is a more relevant question than carving out a separate budget for the Eurozone”.
Under the Commission’s MFF Proposals, the European Commission proposed a €30 billion European Investment Stabilisation Function, which would provide back-to-back loans to a member state experiencing financial difficulties, provided they adhered to relevant EU budgetary rules beforehand.
A Convergence Facility for Member States actively trying to join the euro will be introduced, assisting member states with the reforms needed to do so. Bulgaria is actively attempting to join the euro, and will have to join the system of EU banking supervision (banking union) as well as the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) for 2 years before it can join the euro area.
A Reform Support Programme of €25 billion has also been proposed, which would provide financial incentives and also provide technical assistance for EU member states to carry out structural reforms. This programme is voluntary, and the money could be claimed back if the reforms are reversed.
In June 2018, EU leaders agreed in principle on making the European Stability Mechanism the backstop to the Single Resolution Fund. The Fund is used to wind down/resolve banks that have been declared failing or likely to fail by the European Central Bank, and shall reach the target level of at least 1% of the amount of covered deposits of all credit institutions within the Banking Union by 2024. The backstop should effectively double its capacity, providing around €55 billion of support.
Eurozone countries will work towards an agreement in December 2018 to change how the ESM functions, including creating the backstop to the Single Resolution Fund and how the ESM is governed. In future it could be integrated into EU law following the Commission’s proposal.
Eurozone finance ministers also agreed to work towards adopting a roadmap on starting political discussions on a European Deposit Insurance Scheme in December 2018. This Scheme would guarantee deposits of up to €100,000. When a bank is placed into insolvency or in resolution and it is necessary to pay out deposits, the national schemes and the European Deposit Insurance Scheme could intervene.
Factsheets on Deepening Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union

Migration

In June 2018, the European Council adopted conclusions on migration, calling on, among other things, for vessels operating in the Mediterranean to respect international law and not impede the work of the Libyan Coast Guard. Disembarkation platforms in third countries from which some asylum seekers could be relocated and voluntary controlled centres in EU member states were an option agreed to, though no country has currently agreed to host either. There was also agreement on the need to have dedicated funds to manage external migration in the next MFF.
The aim of ‘controlled centres’ inside the EU would be to improve the process of distinguishing between those individuals who qualify for refugee status, and those who don’t. The centres would be managed by a Member State with support from EU agencies. The Commission has offered to assist any member state granting access to their ports for disembarkation through a disembarkation team, which could include around 500 people from Frontex, Europol and the European Asylum Support Office. The EU budget could also cover all infrastructure and operational costs. The initial registration and asylum screening process could be as short as 72 hours.
For those Member States which agree to process a share of those disembarked from sea, the Commision is offering to allocate €6,000 per person relocated and will cover the transfer costs of €500 per person given to the country of disembarkation.
The European Commission intends to propose an upgrade to the European Border and Coastguard Agency (Frontex) to have 10,000 officiers by 2020, though most of them could be from a pool of national border guards to start with, with 50% of staff being permanent by 2027. It will have the power to bear arms, and would aim to intercept new arrivals, stop unauthorised travel between EU states and accelerate the return of rejected asylum seekers to their countries of origin, even without the consent of the member state. The agency would also gain more powers to exchange information with third countries. A senior EU official has been quoted as saying “we want to federalise external border protection as much as possible and help out countries on the front line.” However, certain EU member states such as Malta are reluctant about further competence shifts to Frontex.
The Italian government has recently been rejecting NGO vessels rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean from docking in Italy, though other member states such as Malta and France have done this as well. Italy has also rejected permission for Italian navy ships to dock in Italy to disembark rescued migrants, and threatened to torpedo Operation Sophia (the EU’s naval mission in the Mediterranean to combat people smuggling) if the rules weren’t changed to stop the automatic disembarkation of rescued migrants in Italy. The possibility of simply rejecting Sophia vessels from docking in Italian ports was also floated.
On 24th August, the Italian government threatened to withhold its EU budget contribution if other EU countries didn’t agree to taking migrants from the Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti, currently stranded in an Italian port. The European Commission called a meeting of 12 EU member states, but no agreement was found at that meeting.
Only Ireland and Albania agreed to take in some of the migrants, and Italy also threatened to veto the EU’s next multi-year budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework if the EU didn’t start to share in the intake of migrants. The MFF is adopted by unanimous approval among member states following the approval of the European Parliament.
Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources Günther Oettinger pointed out that Italy refusing to pay its budgetary contribution would be the first time that event happened in the history of the European Union, and Italy would potentially face both late interest payments and sanctions.
The reform of the Common European Asylum System, comprising 7 proposals, may be touched upon:

Proposal	Description	Stage of legislative process
Dublin Regulation	Determines which member state is responsible for processing an application for international protection	EP adopted position, Council yet to adopt a position
Eurodac Regulation	Strengthen the Eurodac fingerprint database by collecting more data such as facial images to facilitate returns and help tackle irregular migration	Political agreement
EU Asylum Agency	Upgrading the European Asylum Support Office to a full EU Asylum Agency, providing guidance and assistance for assessments of asylum applications	Agreement, but won’t be adopted until other proposals finalised
Asylum Procedure Regulation	Aims to achieve a fully harmonised EU procedure for granting and withdrawing international protection	EP adopted position, Council yet to adopt a position
Qualification Regulation	Harmonised protection standards and rights for asylum seekers, ensuring asylum seekers are treated in the same way in all member states	Negotiations between EP and Council
Reception Conditions Directive	Harmonised EU reception standards for asylum seekers	Negotiations between EP and Council
EU Resettlement Framework	Common framework for EU member states resettling recognised refugees from outside EU territory	Negotiations between EP and Council

There will be a report on progress during the October 2018 European Council.
The latest proposals from the Austrian presidency are to have a form of “mandatory” solidarity whereby member states are free to help with migration either by taking in migrants, giving experts and equipment or contributing in some other way. However, Italy reportedly rejects this plan and wants more relocation of migrants. Background information: Finding solutions to migratory pressures
Background information: Reform of EU asylum rules
Commission factsheets on migration

Trade

In July 2018, President Trump and President Juncker came to an agreement on trade which provided for negotiations which would explore the possibility of negotiating a deal facilitating zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods. Tariffs on automobiles are stopped for as long as there is suitable progress on negotiations, with the tariffs on steel and aluminium being reviewed.
Trump later dismissed the EU’s offer on tariffs as “not good enough” and said the EU’s trade policies were almost as bad as China’s after Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström said the EU was “willing to bring down...our car tariffs to zero”, provided the USA did the same. The USA is holding out on the prospect of a partial trade deal within the next two months.
If tariffs on cars were to be introduced, the European Commission has been working on a list of US products that would face retaliatory tariffs.
Italy has threatened to veto the ratification of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiated with Canada. Currently, the trade deal is provisionally applied, meaning most of its provisions are in force pending the ratification of all member states. If a member state fails to ratify, provisional application has to be terminated.
In last year’s SOTEU speech, Juncker announced that all proposed negotiating mandates for future trade and investment details would be published, starting for the negotiations with Australia and New Zealand.
The status of the EU’s trade deal negotiations is as follows:

Country	Status
Australia	Negotiation, 2nd round in November
Canada	Provisionally applied since 21st September 2017, but CJEU case pending on the compatibility of its court system with EU law. Austria’s and Belgium’s ratification depend on the outcome of this case.
Chile	Negotiation, 3rd round concluded in June 2018, no new date set.
Indonesia	Negotiation, 6th round in October 2018
Japan	Signed, but yet to be ratified by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. Aim to be applied by April 2019, before Brexit. No national ratification is needed.
Singapore	Commission has proposed decision to sign and ratify the EU-Singapore agreements. The FTA will only need European Parliament and Council of Ministers approval, while the Investment Protection Agreement will need that in addition to national ratification.
Mercosur	Negotiation, next round September 10th - 14th, will require national ratification.
New Zealand	Negotiation, 1st round concluded in July 2018
Mexico	Agreement in principle, aim to finish the legal text by the end of 2018.
Vietnam	Currently undergoing translation into all EU languages, Commission will then propose to sign and ratify the deal. Also split into a Free Trade Agreement (EP/Council approval) and an Investment Protection Agreement (requiring national ratification).

Rule of Law

In December 2017, the European Commission activated Article 7(1) for the first time in the history of the EU, citing threats to the rule of law and judicial independence in Poland. Infringement proceedings have also been launched against the Law on Ordinary Courts, and most recently against the Law on the Supreme Court, which may have forced around 40% of Supreme Court judges to retire. The Supreme Court has suspended the law as it awaits the results of a CJEU case on the law.
The European Parliament will vote on whether or not to Article 7(1) against Hungary later today, determining a clear risk of a serious breach of the EU’s values, after the Civil Liberties committee adopted a report recommending its activation. The European Parliament will have to vote by a ⅔ majority to trigger the article, though abstentions will not count towards this threshold. The European People’s Party, of which the governing party of Hungary Fidesz is a member, will be given a free vote on the matter.
Following this, a hearing will be conducted of Hungary where the Council can address recommendations to it. The Council needs to vote by a ⅘ majority to actually determine a clear risk of a serious breach of the EU’s values. This is separate from Article 7(2), which is the process leading to sanctions.
As part of the 2021-2027 MFF proposals, the Commission has proposed a mechanism whereby EU funding could be suspended to member states that don’t have independent judiciaries or flout the rule of law. The Commission would propose to suspend funding, and the decision is presumed to be adopted unless a qualified majority of EU countries votes against it. Individual beneficiaries of EU funding through schemes such as Erasmus+ should not be affected.
In October 2018, the Commission intends to produce a mechanism to promote the rule of law in the European Union, though it is not yet clear what form this may take.
The Commission will also produce a document which discusses the possibility of expanding the competences of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to fight cross-border terrorism, which currently has a mandate to fight fraud against the EU budget. 22 member states (all bar Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Sweden & the United Kingdom) are currently part of the project.

Brexit

The United Kingdom and the European Union have reached agreement on at least 80% of the draft withdrawal agreement text, including issues such as the rights of EU citizens post Brexit and the budgetary settlement that the UK will pay. Agreement was also reached on a transition period, where the UK would follow EU law and pay into the budget as if it was a member until December 31st, 2020. The UK can negotiate and sign deals during this period but not implement them unless authorised by the European Commission.
Negotiations are still needed on certain issues, such as the Protocol on Northern Ireland and the way a hard border can be avoided between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus, Gibraltar, data protection, ongoing police and judicial cooperation, the role of the EU Court of Justice and geographical indicators are other areas that are yet to be resolved.
The UK Government published a White Paper (also referred to as the ‘Chequers’ agreement) on July 12th, 2018, leading to the resignation of Cabinet ministers Boris Johnson and David Davis from the government. The EU has also opposed this agreement, with Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier stating that accepting it could be “the end of the single market and the European project.” It is still controversial in the UK as well, with a former Brexit minister Steve Baker predicting up to 80 Conservative MPs could vote against the agreement. The UK government may even scrap the agreement if the EU gives way on its hard position on the Irish border.
Some EU member states are considering giving Barnier a new mandate to help close a Brexit deal, which will be discussed at the Salzburg summit in a week's time. The planned timing of a deal and the remaining sticking points such as the Irish border will be discussed. Formal guidelines would be adopted by the October European Council, and talks would aimed to be concluded at a hypothetical special Brexit summit in November. However, other sources have said that the current guidelines are sufficient and that the UK may not like the content of hypothetical new guidelines.
The Brexit withdrawal agreement will need the consent of the European Parliament and a reinforced qualified majority vote (72% of the states representing 65% of the population) in the Council of Ministers. It will be accompanied by a political declaration on the future relationship between the UK and the EU, though negotiations can’t properly start until the UK becomes a third country.
Background information: Brexit
Background information: Brexit negotiations

Internal Market

Following a public consultation in which 4.6 million European citizens replied, the European Commission will propose to scrap the biannual change in the clocks. 84% of those who responded were in favour of scrapping the change. Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc has stated the change was unlikely to happen before 2021 at the earliest. EU countries are free to decide on their own time zones.
A “digital tax” was proposed by the European Commission whereby EU member states would charge a 3% levy on large companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google. This idea has proved controversial, with countries such as Ireland preferring a solution adopted at a global level to avoid stifling investment and innovation.
To facilitate agreement on the file, France has said it could consider ways to compensate Ireland for possible lost revenues from the proposal, and a "sunset clause" has been suggested where by the EU tax would no longer have effect once the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) comes up with a global solution. The aim is to agree on the EU tax by the end of 2018.

Foreign Relations

High Representative Federica Mogherini wants to see a binding agreement on relations between Serbia and Kosovo by the end of her mandate in November 2019. Recently, there have been suggestions of ‘border swaps’ between Kosovo and Serbia to agree on a deal. Some have been receptive to the idea, but countries such as Germany have rejected any border changes.
Germany has begun construction of Nord Stream II in German coastal waters, a controversial gas pipeline with Russia, despite the threat of US sanctions on the companies involved in financing the pipeline and the objection of some Eastern European states. President Trump has started that the project would make Germany a “captive” of Russia.
Germany, Finland, Sweden and Russia have given approval for the pipeline to pass through their territorial waters, but Denmark’s approval is still pending. Nord Stream 2 filed an application to Denmark for a new route that would avoid Denmark’s territorial waters altogether.
The European Commission also published a plan to provide €18 million in aid to Iran following some US sanctions being re-introduced on August 6th. In November, the US will introduce sanctions on oil. The EU has introduced a ‘blocking statute’ which forbids companies from complying with US sanctions. If firms are wanting to pull out of Iran to comply with US sanctions, they should get EU authorisation, but not if it is a business decision.
A communication on extending the use of qualified majority voting (QMV) in foreign policy will be produced, exploring the possibility of introducing QMV rules on human rights, sanctions, and joint civilian mission decisions. Certain sanctions regimes may keep unanimity rules, but it could be used especially when the EU has to implement UN sanctions. It will require unanimous agreement among all member states to move from unanimity to qualified majority voting rules.

Environment

On Monday, the European Parliament’s Environment committee voted for cutting emissions for cars and vans by 20% by 2025 and 45% by 2030, above the targets of 15% and 30% proposed by the Commission. The plenary of the European Parliament will vote on the issue next month.
Carbon prices under the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) hit a decade high in August 2018 at €20 a tonne, following reforms to introduce a Market Stability Reserve that removes excess credits from the market.
The ETS provides ‘licences’ to pollute a certain amount each year. Those businesses that don’t have enough licences for the amount of pollution they give off are required to purchase more else they are fined, while those who have more licences than needed can sell the excess. The cap is progressively reduced over time so as to reduce carbon emissions within the EU.
The European Commission will potentially produce a long-term EU strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in November 2018.

Previous State of the European Union Speeches

2017

President Juncker presented a much more upbeat picture of the state of the EU, saying "the wind is back in Europe's sails." He rejected calls for a multi-speed Europe, stating that “Europe must breathe with both lungs. Otherwise our continent will struggle for air.” He also stated that now was the time for completing the “European House” as the “sun is shining”.
He announced various proposals, such as creating an EU Cybersecurity Agency, trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand, reforms of the Eurozone, opening up Schengen to Bulgaria and Romania, and moving to more qualified majority voting for certain decisions.

2016

For Juncker’s second SOTEU speech, he again put forward a somewhat gloomy picture of the state of the EU, stating that “our European Union is, at least in part, in an existential crisis”. This speech followed the UK’s vote to leave the European Union in June 2016.
He mentioned how the EU was currently facing many “unresolved problems”, and revealed proposals the Commission would be putting forward over the next year to try to resolve them, attempting to create a Europe that “protects, empowers and defends”.

2015

Juncker’s first SOTEU speech as Commission President mentioned how there was “not enough Union in this Union”, painting a somewhat dark picture of the state of the European Union at the time.
The main topics of his speech were migration, the Eurozone crisis, the UK’s (then) future referendum on EU membership, EU-Ukraine relations and addressing climate change.

2014

There was no State of the Union speech, as it was the year of the European Parliament elections.