Former Treasury Secretary confirms TheBlaze’s Sept. 2013 report that Russia played a role in the 2008 financial crisis

Back in September of 2013, For The Record looked at the possibility that countries hostile to the U.S., like China and Russia, may have artificially driven up the price of oil and intentionally crashed the stocks of some financial institutions, escalating chaos prior to the 2008 economic crisis. Yesterday, a BBC report seemingly confirmed this investigation.

In a September article for TheBlaze.com, TheBlaze’s senior Washington correspondent Sara Carter explained the threat of economic terrorism to the United States.

Carter writes:

China, Russia and even Al Qaeda, among others, all have one thing in common: They believe that unconventional warfare against America’s economy is the best way to destroy our nation without actually ever having to fire a shot.

And our enemies almost made it happen in 2008.

[…]

[F]ormer senior U.S. officials disclose what the Pentagon and Washington establishment had been hoping to bury — that the near economic collapse of the United States in 2008 was not due to widespread failures in government regulations, but a planned attack to destroy our nation perpetrated by both China and Russia.

Read Carter’s entire report HERE.

Watch the initial coverage from September’s For The Record: Unrestricted Warfare below:

Six months after For The Record’s report, it appears others in the media are starting to pick up the story. In a BBC article published yesterday entitled “Russia ‘planned Wall Street bear raid’”, business editor Robert Peston describes the cynical relationship between the United States and Russia as “deep, rooted in history.” Furthermore, the relationship shows that the “triumph of capitalism over communism wasn’t the end of the power game between these two nations.”

The BBC article relies on excerpts from interviews with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson that were conducted for the BBC Two documentary “How China Fooled the World.” These comments didn’t make the film.

In relation to the 2008 financial crisis, particularly Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Paulson explained that the Chinese were the “biggest external investor holding Fannie and Freddie Securities.” As a result, China was “very, very concerned” when Fannie and Freddie began to melt down. At that moment, the Russians allegedly tried to draw up a pact with the Chinese.

“Here I’m not going to name the senior person, but I was meeting with someone… This person told me that the Chinese had received a message from the Russians which was, ‘Hey let’s join together and sell Fannie and Freddie securities on the market,’” Paulson explained. “The Chinese weren’t going to do that but again, it just, it just drove home to me how vulnerable I felt until we had put Fannie and Freddie into conservatorship [the rescue plan for them, that was eventually put in place].”

While Paulson clarified that “this guerrilla skirmish in markets by the Russians and Chinese didn't happen,” Peston believes Paulson’s comments are “pretty jaw-dropping stuff.”

“The Chinese told Hank Paulson that the Russians were suggesting a joint pact with China to drive down the price of the debt of Fannie and Freddie, and maximize the turmoil on Wall Street - presumably with a view to maximizing the cost of the rescue for Washington and further damaging its financial health,” Peston writes.

Read the entire BBC report HERE.

As we watch the Obama Administration flounder on the world stage – especially in relation to crisis in Ukraine – Glenn warned of the consequences on radio this morning.

“Hank Paulson came out and… verified… Russia tried to collapse the United States in 2008… We had [the story], and it was one of those things we were mocked for. For the Record had it in absolute iron-clad spades,” Glenn said. “So we know that Putin has designs on collapsing the United States of America. That's not Glenn Beck. That's Hank Paulson, our [former] treasury secretary.”

As Glenn explained, this report should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with history. The tactics used by the United States collapse the Soviet Union are the same tactics now being by Russia to collapse the U.S.

“We know [Putin] wants to actively engage in collapsing the United States of America, so what do you do? Well, you spend us into oblivion. Stretch us really thin. This is not a new theory. We know this works because we did it to them. We are so stupid. We don't even recognize our own pattern. This is how we collapsed [the Soviet Union],” Glenn explained. “We worked with anyone who would take them apart anywhere in the world. That's how we did it. And then Ronald Reagan went and just schooled their premiers and just made them look like bumbling idiots on the world stage. And that thing closed down.”

Unfortunately, our current President is more concerned about fighting back against the personal attacks he is facing than looking at how dire the situation actually is.

“So what are they doing to us? What's happening to us right now,” Glenn asked exasperatedly. “And our President is making this into a personal attack. Our President, instead of being a statesman, decided to make it about seven people who don't even have any assets. John Kerry comes on the world stage, ‘You had better do this. Otherwise, there will be real consequences!’ Real consequences against seven people who don't even have assets outside of their general country?”

“That's right, Glenn,” Pat responded with his best John Kerry impersonation. “Who's laughing now?”

“The world,” Glenn concluded.

Learn more about the economic warfare threats the United States faces by watching For The Record: Unrestricted Warfare. TheBlaze TV subscribers can watch the episode on-demand HERE. Not a subscriber? Start your 14-day free trial HERE.

Is Trump's prosecution NORMAL?  This COMPLETE list of ALL Western leaders who served jail time proves otherwise.

PhotoQuest / Contributor, The Washington Post / Contributor, Win McNamee / Staff | Getty Images

Mainstream media is on a crusade to normalize Donald Trump's indictments as if it's on par with the electoral course. Glenn asked his team to research every instance of a Western leader who was jailed during their political career over the past 200 years—except extreme political turmoil like the French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, Irish Revolution, etc.—and what we discovered was quite the opposite.

Imprisoning a leader or major political opponent is not normal, neither in the U.S. nor in the Western world. Within the last 200 years, there are only a handful of examples of leaders in the West serving jail time, and these men were not imprisoned under normal conditions. All of these men were jailed under extreme circumstances during times of great peril such as the Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War.

What does this mean for America? Are Trump's indictments evidence that we are re-entering times of great peril? Below is a list of Western leaders who were imprisoned within the last 200 years. Take a look and decide for yourself:

Late 1800s

The Washington Post / Contributor | Getty Images

Jefferson Davis: The nearest occurrence to a U.S. President to serve jail time was in the case of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson was captured in Georgia by Northern Soldiers in 1865 and locked up in Fort Monroe, Virginia for two years. He was offered a presidential pardon but refused out of his loyalty to the confederacy.

Early 1900s

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Eugene V. Debs: Debbs, a Midwestern socialist leader, became the first person to run for president in prison. He was locked up at a federal penitentiary in Atlanta having been convicted under the federal Sedition Act for giving an antiwar speech a few months before Armistice Day, the end of World War I. Many of his supporters believed his imprisonment to be unjust. Debs received 897,704 votes and was a distant third-part candidate behind Warren G. Harding, the Republican winner, and James M. Cox, the second-place Democrat. Harding ordered Debs’s release from prison toward the end of 1921.

Nazi sympathizers and collaborators: After the end of World War II in 1945, several European leaders who had "led" their countries during the Nazi occupation faced trial and imprisonment for treason. This list included Chief of the French State Philippe Pétain, French Prime Minister Pierre Laval, and Minister-President of Norway Vidkun Quisling. The latter two were also executed after their imprisonment. President of Finland Risto Ryti and Prime Minister of Finland Johan Wilhelm Rangell were also tried and jailed for collaborating with the Nazis against the Allied Powers.

Late 1900s

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The end of the Cold War: The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was one of the pivotal moments that brought the Cold War to a close and marked the end of Communist East Germany. With the fall of the wall and the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), the former leaders were brought to trial to answer for the crimes committed by the GDR. General Secretary Erich Honecker and General Secretary Egon Krenz were both put on trial for abuse of power and the deaths of those who were shot trying to flee into West Germany. Honecker was charged with jail time but was released from custody due to severe illness and lived out the rest of his life as an exile in Chile. Krenz served 4 years in jail before his release in 2001. He is one of the last surviving leaders of the Eastern Bloc.

Lyndon LaRouche: Larouche was a Trotsky evangelist, public antisemite, and founder of a nationwide Marxist political movement, became the second person in U.S. history to run for President in a prison cell. Granted, he ran in every election from 1976 to 2004 as a long-shot third-party candidate. When he tried to gain the Democratic presidential nomination, he received 5 percent of the total nationwide vote. Even though in 2000 he received enough primary votes to qualify for delegates in a few states, the Democratic National Committee refused to seat his delegates and barred LaRouche from attending the Democratic National Convention.

TOP 5 issues that have gotten WORSE since the last State of the Union

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If you saw Biden's State of the Union last week, or Glenn's firey reaction to it, you know that Biden hardly spoke a word that wasn't a flat-out lie.

If you spent the last 12 months in a fallout shelter and Biden's speech was the only media interaction you had since the last State of the Union, you might be tempted to believe that the country has improved in some way over the past year. But the rest of us, who have been living above ground, going to the grocery store, and paying some attention to current events, had only to look around to see that Biden's speech was nothing but hot air.

Here are the TOP 5 issues that have gotten worse since the last State of the Union.

Economy

Biden spent a significant amount of time during the State of the Union boasting about the strength of his economy, but anyone who has checked their bank account lately was left wondering if he was holding his speech upside down. It's not just the cobwebs in your wallet; the numbers show the devastation wrought by "Bidenomics" too. In 2022, American grocery bills increased by 11.4 percent and restaurant bills by 7.7 percent. In 2023 prices only continued to rise, with an additional 1.2 percent increase in food-at-home prices and a 5.1 percent increase in away-from-home prices.

Debt crisis and inflation

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The national debt continues to grow, and Biden managed to add almost 3 trillion dollars in just one year. As of December 2022, the national debt was $31.42 trillion. As of January 2024, the national debt has risen to $34.19 trillion.

Inflation didn't fare much better. While the 2023 annual inflation rate did drop from the horror of 2022, from 6.5 to 3.4 percent, that is still significantly higher than anything we saw before 2021. You also have to remember that it CARRIES year to year, as Glenn explained in his response to Biden's State of the Union: "Yes, it's not as bad as it was, but it's still what it was PLUS what it is now."

Border

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Biden's mismanagement of the southern border has inflamed the border crisis to all-time highs. In 2022 there were a staggering 2.2 million illegal border crossings, but that wasn't enough for Biden apparently, as an additional 2.5 million illegally crossed in 2023. An estimated 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border since Biden took office, and the effects are being felt. There has been a surge in crime across the country that is impacting millions of Americans, including the tragic murder of Laken Riley.

Fentanyl

The fentanyl crisis has only continued to worsen as more and more synthetic opioids flood our streets. Between the fiscal year 2021 and 2022, there was a shocking 54 percent increase in fentanyl trafficking offenses as more and more of the narcotic is smuggled across the southern border. We also saw an increase in fentanyl overdose deaths. In 2022 there were approximately 73,654 deaths, which is a significant increase from 70,601 in 2021.

Education and mental health

While the pandemic is long over, the lingering effects of the lockdowns are still being felt. Unsurprisingly, missing years of school has a major impact on the educational development of children. Kids across America are STILL struggling from pandemic-related setbacks, reading scores are still falling, and parents are reporting that their kids are struggling in their studies. The mental health crisis, another symptom of the COVID lockdowns, has also continued to worsen. Tragically, suicides increased by 2.6 percent between 2021 and 2022, marking the continued decline of mental health in America.

TOP FIVE takeaways from Super Tuesday

Anna Moneymaker / Staff, Win McNamee / Staff | Getty Images

The 2024 Presidential Election is taking shape.

Yesterday was Super Tuesday, the single biggest day in the presidential primary season. More than one-third of all delegates needed for a candidate to become the Presidential nominee of their party was up for grabs along with a plethora of state and local elections. In short, yesterday's results will shape the rest of the election season. It was a big deal.

Here are the top 5 takeaways from yesterday's elections:

Haley drops out

Nikki Haley drops out of the 2024 Presidential election.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

After the mass exodus of Republican candidates in January, most commentators agreed that it was only a matter of time before Haley stepped out as well. Haley put up a valiant effort and held out almost two months longer than the other Republican candidates, but after a disappointing turnout on Super Tuesday, she made the call to step back from the race. There was a small victory for Haley fans, however, in that she won Vermont, her first state primary victory following her win in Washington, D.C.

Trump sweeps the board

Trump wins over 1,000 delegates during Super Tuesday.

Win McNamee / Staff | Getty Images

While Haley had a disappointing day yesterday, Trump and his team celebrated a huge win. Aside from Vermont, Trump won every state that had a primary. At the time this was written, Trump had picked up a whopping 731 delegates, bringing his total to 1,004, out of the required 1,215 to win the presidential nomination.

Democrats are not committed to Biden

Biden wins big on Super Tuesday, but he is struggling to maintain his Democrat base.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

On paper, Biden had an excellent Super Tuesday, winning every state primary except American Samoa. However, a closer look reveals cracks in his supporter base. Yesterday, a shocking 19 percent of Minnesota Democrats voted for "uncommitted" instead of Biden. While that wasn't enough to change the outcome of the primary, it shows that Biden is walking on shaky ground, even among Democrats.

This phenomenon wasn't limited to Minnesota either. Eight percent of Colorado and Tennessee Democrats voted "uncommitted," and 10 percent of Massachusetts Democrats and 10 percent of North Carolina Democrats voted "no preference." Is this more evidence of a third-quarter bait-and-switch that Glenn has hypothesized?

The search to replace Feinstein continues

Adam Schiff and Steve Harvey compete for Diane Feinstein's Senate seat.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff, Barry King / Contributor | Getty Images

California is having two Senate elections to replace the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. There is a special election to fill out the remainder of her term and a regular election to fill her seat for the next six years. The results of the Tuesday primaries put Republican and former Los Angeles Dodgers player Steve Garvey and Democrat Adam Schiff as the front runners, and the two of them will be going head-to-head in November. Surprisingly, even in deep blue California, Garvey won more votes than Schiff in the special primary. Does Garvey have a chance?

Ted Cruz is back up for election in Texas

Ted Cruz is up for re-election in 2024

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

The Texas senate primaries were also on Tuesday, and Ted Cruz is back up for election in November. Cruz comfortably won the Republican Primaries with 88 percent of Texas Republicans backing him. Rep. Colin Allred, a Dallas-area congressman won the Democratic primary with a narrower margin of 58 percent. While it's easy for Texans to take their state's red status for granted, it is vital Texans stay vigilant and cast their vote this November.

This is YOUR CHANCE to make a difference!

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday, arguably the most consequential election day leading up to the 2024 election. However, every election leading up to November is critical for determining the trajectory of our country. This may be the most important election season in recent memory, so it is imperative that we do our part and head to the polls, even for smaller elections.

Listeners of Glenn's show are already aware of the multitudes of serious problems that face our nation. From the crisis on the southern border that's letting criminals flood our streets to the never-ending flow of American tax dollars funding a proxy war in Ukraine, it's clear that the people currently in charge are not cutout for the job.

We need to put responsible people back in office and we cannot let any more left-wing activists take power. YOU need to go out and vote and make your voice heard. Check out our COMPLETE list of all the upcoming elections in the 2024 election season. Mark your calendars, plan ahead, and STAND UP!

Alabama

State Primary- March 5th

State Primary Runoff- April 2nd

Presidential Primary- March 5th

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Alaska

State Primary- August 20th

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Arizona

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Arkansas

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California

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Colorado

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Connecticut

State Primary- August 13th

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Delaware

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Florida

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Georgia

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Hawaii

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Idaho

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Illinois

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Kansas

State Primary- August 6th

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Kentucky

State Primary- May 21st

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Louisiana

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State Primary Runoff- April 12th - April 17th

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Maine

State Primary- June 11th

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Maryland

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Massachusetts

State Primary- September 17th

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Michigan

State Primary- August 6th

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Minnesota

State Primary- August 13th

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Mississippi

State Primary- March 12th

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Missouri

State Primary- August 6th

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Montana

State Primary- June 4th

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Nebraska

State Primary- May 14th

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Nevada

State Primary-​ June 11th

Presidential Primary-​ February 6th

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New Hampshire

State Primary- September 10th

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New Jersey

State Primary- June 4th

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New Mexico

State Primary- June 4th

Presidential Primary- June 4th

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New York

State Primary- June 25th

Presidential Primary- April 2nd

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North Carolina

State Primary- March 5th

State Primary Runoff- TBD

Presidential Primary- March 5th

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North Dakota

State Primary-June 11th

Republican Presidential Caucus- March 4th

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Ohio

State Primary- March 19th

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Oklahoma

State Primary- June 18th

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Oregon

State Primary- March 19th

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Pennsylvania

State Primary- April 23rd

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Rhode Island

State Primary- September 10th

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South Carolina

State Primary- June 11th

State Primary Runoff- June 25th

Republican Presidential Caucus- February 24th

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South Dakota

State Primary- June 4th

State Primary Runoff- August 13th

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Tennessee

State Primary- August 1st

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Texas

State Primary- March 5th

State Primary Runoff- May 28th

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Utah

State Primary- June 25th

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Vermont

State Primary-August 13th

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Virginia

State Primary- June 18th

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Washington

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Presidential Primary- March 12th

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West Virginia

State Primary-May 14th

Presidential Primary- March 5th

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Wisconsin

State Primary- August 13th

Presidential Primary- April 2nd

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Wyoming

State Primary- August 20th

Republican Presidential Caucus- TBD

Democratic Presidential Caucus- April 13th

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