Nexus - 0303 - New Times Magazine-pages

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London Times to research the press reaction to this unfolding drama. This, I hasten to add, does not reflect my reading interest. It is because British libraries, in their wisdom, provide microfiche records of only this stout and historic daily. Therefore, it will come as no surprise at all that the London Times is amply repre- sented on the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group. The very humorous and usually highly investigative Private Eye recently covered the Barings debacle (Eye #881, 22 Sept. 1995), and, to give them credit, they are about the only members of the media who are. "Slicker", the columnist infamous for uncovering almost every piece of wrongdoing that takes place in the City of London, roundly berated Leeson as “Liesome" and regaled us with endless tales about Nicky-boy, especially in regard to his plans to write a book and make a film which they reckon will rake in mil- lions. The Eye did not, however, tarry over the obvious facts and insurmountable inconsistencies that underlie the Barings collapse. Slicker went on to reveal that the now eminent Stephen Pollard, of the even more eminent solicitors, Kingsley Napley," stated that “We are not worried about the legal fees at the moment", in answer to the question of who is paying Leeson's legal bill. According to Slicker, they stand to benefit from Leeson's book and film sales. Whoever Slicker is, it is interesting to observe that Richard Ingrams, the former Editor (and shareholder) of the Eye, is a descendent of the Baring family. However, I am not remotely suggesting that these family connections of the Eye's former Editor (and shareholder) are at all related (if you'll forgive the pun) to their treatment of the Barings story. On the contrary, I have the highest regard for the journalistic integrity of the humble Eye. But it is interesting, isn't it? Richard Ingrams has never been a member of the Trilats. Barings owned a 40 per cent stockholding in the small but pres- tigious Wall Street investment firm of Dillon Read & Co. In fact, this was Barings’ only external cross-holding of any significance, but an exceptionally snug fit for all that. Douglas Dillon, a one- time Under-Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in the Eisenhower Administration, later became Secretary of the Treasury in the Kennedy years and is a close friend of David Rockefeller. He was also a long-term member of the CFR. It was the Dillon family investment banking interest, Dillon Read & Co, which was heavily engaged in financing the Nazi Party prior to World War II. The same firm pursued its former interests fol- lowing the cessation of hostilities, and was involved to some extent in defeating the decarteli- sation programme that was designed to break the great German cartels that underwrote Hitler.” | It only remains to mention that the banks who a4 were originally interested in rescuing Barings, but iy who then backed off, included Midland, Barclays, 7A NatWest, ABN Amro and Swiss Banking Corp. Vi All of them are represented on either the 4 Trilateral Commission or the Bilderberg group, or ‘sl both. In the meantime, it's "So long!" to Nick & Leeson, lone trader and loss-maker. Bon voyage, GE Nick, and to your "big swinging dick". Singapore VY, beckons for the next six-and-half-odd years. Enjoy it. After all, almost every other ‘connected’ body thinks your incarceration is a swell idea. Watch this space for more updates as the unravelling continues. Footnotes: 4. The factors that led to the 1987 global crash were, in fact, nei- ther snow nor the great British windstorms. The extent of this story is still not clear, however. Certainly, the German Bundesbank played a significant role, as did the US Federal Reserve. Did these two institutions engineer the collapse? Some believe they did. Both the Federal Reserve and the German prede- cessor to the Bundesbank are Iong-time friends, as witnessed by their close collaboration during the Second World War. Moreover, both are ‘independent’, which some commentators have viewed with enormous distrust, suggesting that the two work for the interests of the banking community before operating in their role as national central banks. But there is more. The Bundesbank was significantly involved in the British "Black Thursday" debacle of more recent years that led to the resignation of the then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, following the discovery that the British Exchequer had pumped in excess of £10 billion of reserves into supporting the British currency. This led one Cabinet minister to make very xenophobic comments about the Germans for which he, later, also had to resign. Oddly, an American financial ‘entrepreneur’ announced soon afterwards that he had earned over £1 billion from the British crisis. At that same time, City-based banks were also creaming it in. One dealer in the Chemical Bank, London (partly owned by Rockefeller inter- ests), smugly told a TV reporter on camera that he had just made £10 million on the back of these events. The next day he was fired by a furious management. 5. This is one of the reasons why I am nowadays a freelance writer and not still a director and treasurer of a bank—for which I remain eternally grateful. However, I can sympathise with Leeson up to a point. It is clear to me that, yes, he is guilty, but he has nonetheless been hung out to dry. If he weren't smart enough to make some profits (they were all losses), he sure as hell wasn't clever enough to figure out convoluted bookkeeping entries that hid losses of hundreds of millions of pounds. He had help. Moreover, until his appointment to head up SIMEX trading in NEXUS ¢ 33 APRIL-MAY 1996 eee