Yellen Seeks to Avert ‘Capture’ by Banks

Jakarta Globe, Bloomberg, Ian Katz, Mar 04, 2015

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen holds a news conference
at the Federal Reserve in Washington. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, countering criticism from members of Congress, said the central bank was trying to avoid being too cozy with the Wall Street firms it supervises and wants to ensure that regulators aren’t afraid to confront the financial industry.

“The risk of regulatory capture is something the Federal Reserve takes very seriously and works very hard to prevent,” Yellen said in remarks prepared for a speech in New York on Tuesday night.

“It is important that anyone serving the Fed feel safe speaking up when they have concerns about bias toward industry, and that those concerns be addressed.”

The Fed has been criticized by Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who say it’s deferential to large banks.

The issue was the subject of a Senate hearing in November following allegations by Carmen Segarra, a former examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who said her colleagues had been too soft on Goldman Sachs.

At the hearing, Warren told New York Fed President William C. Dudley that he needs to fix a “cultural problem” or “we need to get someone who will.”

The Fed has also come under fire from Republicans, including Richard Shelby of Alabama, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, who called for more Fed transparency and greater congressional oversight at a hearing Tuesday.

Yellen, in her speech to the Citizens Budget Commission, also took aim at ethical lapses at large banks supervised by the Fed.

Follow the law

“We expect the firms we oversee to follow the law and to operate in an ethical manner,” she said.

“Too often in recent years, bankers at large institutions have not done so, sometimes brazenly.”

Such incidents “raise legitimate questions of whether there may be pervasive shortcomings in the values of large financial firms that might undermine their safety and soundness,” she said.

Global regulators, including the Fed, are trying to tighten oversight of financial benchmarks that are used to price everything from student loans to mortgages, oil and currencies.

The world’s largest banks have paid billions of dollars to settle allegations of rigging Libor and other interest rates. Six firms, including Citigroup and UBS, paid $4.3 billion in November to settle probes into the manipulation of foreign-exchange rates.

Forest versus trees

Yellen spoke broadly about efforts to ensure financial stability, saying the Fed is focusing more on the “forest” of the financial system rather than the “trees” of individual banks.

“We cannot eliminate the possibility of another crisis, but we can make a crisis less likely and less damaging by limiting excessive risk-taking by firms we oversee and by helping ensure that the most systemically important firms are better prepared to weather a crisis,” she said.

The Fed this week will announce the first results of this year’s so-called stress tests of the biggest banks, which are intended to see if they can maintain adequate capital cushions and keep lending in a hypothetical crisis scenario.

“In the decades of relative financial stability leading up to the crisis, it is fair to say that the Fed focused too much on individual firms and not enough on their role in the financial system and the implications of those firms’ operations for financial stability,” Yellen said.

Yellen said the financial system has become safer since the crisis.

The “high-quality liquid assets” of the largest US banks have increased by about one-third since 2012, and their reliance on short-term wholesale funding has “dropped considerably.” The amount and quality of capital, and the strength of liquidity at large banks, are “greatly improved.”

Risk management

She said the Fed sees “some evidence of improved risk management, internal controls, and governance at large firms. But large firms still have room for improvement in this area, and supervisors will be watching closely.”

Banks’ so-called living wills, annual hypothetical plans for a fast and orderly bankruptcy, “still have a number of shortcomings,” she said.

The Fed “expects these institutions to make substantial progress in the coming months, which will leave firms and the government better-positioned to manage the failure of a large institution.”

Bloomberg

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Fed ends bond buying, keeps rates low

The US Federal Reserve has ended its bond-buying program known as quantitative easing. The purchases were meant to stimulate a flagging economy that has since picked up.

Deutsche Welle, 29 Oct 2014

The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday ended its monthly campaign of purchasing asset-backed debt, a show of confidence that the American economy would continue to recover despite bleak forecasts for much of the rest of the world.

But the central bank said it would keep its benchmark short-term interest rates at record lows "for a considerable time" while the job market picks up. Experts do not expect it to raise that rate until mid-2015.

"The Committee continues to see sufficient underlying strength in the broader economy," the Fed's policy committee said in a statement after a regular two-day meeting.

A decision to raise rates again would depend on incoming economic data, the Fed said.

The stopping of the long-running monetary stimulus program, known as quantitative easing, was largely expected. The central bank had already tapered its monthly bond purchases from $85 billion (66.5 billion euros) to $15 billion as the economy gradually recovered from the 2007-2009 recession.

The committee's statement also no longer referred to slack in the labor market as "significant," but instead said that it was "gradually diminishing," underscoring faith that the unemployment rate would continue to fall. In September, that rate fell to a six-year low of 5.9 percent.

But the Fed did acknowledge that some factors, such as lower energy prices, were weighing down inflation and keeping it below the central bank's 2 percent target.

"The Committee judges that the likelihood of inflation running persistently below 2 percent has diminished somewhat since early this year," the statement said.

cjc/uhe (Reuters, AP)

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Obama picks 'exceptionally qualified' Yellen for Fed

US inequality near highest levels in 100 years: Fed chief

Yahoo – AFP, Virginie Montet, 17 Oct 2014

Businessmen walk by a homeless man on the street on September 28, 2010

in New York (AFP Photo/Spencer Platt)

Washington (AFP) - Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen warned Friday that the gap between the rich and poor in the United States is widening and is near the highest levels seen in 100 years.

In a speech at a conference on inequality in Boston, Yellen did not mention monetary policy nor the current turmoil in financial markets.

Instead, she focused on the widening wealth disparity and how that impacts economic opportunity.

Federal Reserve Chair JanetYellen

 speaks at the Federal Reserve Bank

 of Boston on October 17, 2014 in Boston,

 Massachusetts (AFP Photo/Darren

Mccollester)

"By some estimates, income and wealth inequality are near their highest levels in the past hundred years," Yellen said, noting the gap has grown steadily over recent decades, despite a brief pause during the 2008 crisis.

During the recession, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the richest Americans lost money, and increased government spending helped offset losses for the less wealthy.

"But widening inequality resumed in the recovery, as the stock market rebounded," Yellen said, noting that "wage growth and the healing of the labor market have been slow, and the increase in home prices has not fully restored the housing wealth lost by the large majority of households for which it is their primary asset."

The Fed chief said that wide wealth disparities can make it harder for the poor to move up the income ladder, and also warned of the burden of student loan debt, which quadrupled between 2004 and 2014.

"I think it is appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation's history, among them the high value Americans have traditionally placed on equality of opportunity," she said.

'Falling living standards'

The 68-year-old Yellen, who has headed the Federal Reserve since early this year, is known as a "dove," referring to her policies that prioritize fighting unemployment in contrast to "hawks" who prioritize keeping inflation low.

In one of her first major speeches as chair, Yellen spoke on what the Fed was doing "to promote a stronger job market," where she said that, "although we work through financial markets, our goal is to help Main Street, not Wall Street."

On Friday, Yellen said "some degree of inequality" is natural and indeed "arguably contributes to economic growth, because it creates incentives to work hard, get an education, save, invest, and undertake risk."

However, that same inequality can limit access to economic resources for those lower on the ladder, "thereby perpetuating a trend of increasing inequality."

Yellen offered no remedies for decreasing the rich-poor gap, but said she welcomed discussion on ways to better promote "equality of economic opportunity."

She said two "cornerstones of opportunity" are resources available to children and access to higher education, but added that ownership of a family business and inherited wealth can also be important sources of economic opportunity.

Los Angeles' Skid Row contains one of the largest populations of homeless

people in the United States (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

"For families below the top, public funding plays an important role in providing resources to children that influence future levels of income and wealth," Yellen said, citing programs like unemployment, welfare, and early childhood education.

She said college degrees also offer a net benefit, despite escalating tuition costs that have contributed to a dramatic increase in student loan debt -- the outstanding balance quadrupled from $260 billion in 2004 to $1.1 trillion this year.

This debt is disproportionately, and increasingly, affecting poorer families and may put college and graduate degrees out of reach for some, she said.

Economist Harm Bandolz said Yellen's speech "addresses something more important than monetary policy," covering a topic that "might be even more relevant for the future of the US and many developed economies."

Globally, the gap between the haves and have-nots has reached levels not seen since the 1820s, the OECD said earlier this month, in a report that looked at trends in health, education, inequality, the environment and personal security.

The report said, however, that overall well-being has improved over the past 200 years, despite the enormous increase in income inequality, in part because factors like life expectancy and literacy, which have risen dramatically over the last 200 years.

Yellen said that the trend in recent years in the United States has seen "stagnant or falling living standards for many families."

Janet Yellen sworn in as US Federal Reserve chair

BBC News, 3 February 2014

Janet Yellen faces the challenge of winding down the Fed's
economic stimulus measures

Related Stories

• Profile: Janet Yellen
• The Yellen era
• So long, Ben Bernanke

Janet Yellen has been sworn in as chair of the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, replacing Ben Bernanke in the role.

She is the first woman to hold the post at the Washington-based bank.

A respected economist, her main task will be managing the winding down of the bank's bond-buying stimulus programme without damaging her country's recovering economy.

Ms Yellen, 67, had been Mr Bernanke's deputy for three years.

She swore the oath to Governor Daniel K Tarullo in the Fed's Board Room earlier, beginning a four-year term as chair of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System.

The new governor takes control of the world's most influential central bank.

Its phased reduction, or tapering, of its $85bn-a-month Quantitative Easing (QE) programme has already sparked unrest in emerging financial markets.

QE helped keep US interest rates low and has resulted in a large outflow of cash from the US into other currencies, as investors looked for better returns abroad.

The tapering has reversed this trend, with a number of foreign currencies falling in value as a consequence.

Ms Yellen is professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, where she has been a faculty member since 1980, specialising in business and economics.

President Obama announced his intention to nominate her for the role of Fed chair on 9 October 2013, then the Senate confirmed her in the position on 6 January.

Her predecessor Mr Bernanke is returning to academia after eight years as Fed chairman, and is joining the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, as a resident fellow.

Related Article:

Obama picks 'exceptionally qualified' Yellen for Fed

US President Barack Obama announces his nomination of economist Janet Yellen (L)

 as Federal Reserve chairman as current chairman Ben Bernanke listens in the State

Dining Room of the White House in Washington, on October 9, 2013 (AFP,

Jewel Samad)

Senate confirms Janet Yellen as chair of US Federal Reserve

Google – AFP, 7 January 2014

US Federal Reserve vice-chair Janet Yellen attends a ceremony marking

 the centennial of the founding of the Federal Reserve in Washington on

December 16, 2013 (AFP/File, Nicholas Kamm)

Washington — The US Senate confirmed Janet Yellen as the new leader of the Federal Reserve, marking the first time a woman has headed the world's most powerful central bank.

President Barack Obama's nominee earned bipartisan support in the bitterly divided chamber, but the 56-26 vote was still among the closest in the 100-year history of the institution.

Several senators who supported Yellen, currently Fed vice-chair, arrived too late for the vote.

Yellen, 67, will replace current Chairman Ben Bernanke, who steps down on January 31 after eight years in the job, during which the pair dealt with the country's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Bernanke's successor's main task will be ensuring the US economy does not slip backwards at a time when other countries are beset by weakness.

Especially crucial will be further pushing down the American jobless rate, which fell to 7.0 percent in November, still significantly higher than Bernanke, Yellen and other Fed policymakers have deemed satisfactory.

Obama cheered the Senate approval, saying Yellen would serve the central bank and the country well.

"The American people will have a fierce champion who understands that the ultimate goal of economic and financial policymaking is to improve the lives, jobs and standard of living of American workers and their families," he said in a statement.

"As one of our nation?s most respected economists and a leading voice at the Fed for more than a decade -- and vice chair for the past three years -- Janet helped pull our economy out of recession and put us on the path of steady growth."

Yellen has built a strong reputation as an academic economist, and as a veteran policymaker at the Fed she is not expected to veer far from the policies set by Bernanke.

Married to economics Nobel Prize winner George Akerlof, she has a long-term interest in the impact of joblessness on the economy, and has helped keep Fed policy focused on bringing down unemployment.

She has also been closely identified with the Fed's opening up of its once-mysterious policy thinking, with the central bank communicating what it sees in the economy and the expected direction of monetary policy far more openly than 10 years ago.

"Americans should feel reassured that we will have her at the helm of the Fed as our nation continues to recover from the Great Recession," said Senate Banking Committee chairman Tim Johnson.

"Dr. Yellen's leadership will also be critical as the Fed completes Wall Street reform rulemaking and continues to enhance the stability of our financial sector."

The American Bankers Association, which has fought the Fed's push for tough regulations in the wake of the 2008 crisis, cautiously welcomed Yellen's approval.

"As the Federal Reserve heightens its focus on bank regulation, her experience supervising banks in the Federal Reserve system provides her with a valuable perspective. We look forward to working with the Federal Reserve under her leadership."

Her nomination encountered resistance from several Republicans concerned with the Fed's huge efforts to pump money into the economy over the past four years, including its $85 billion a month bond buying stimulus program of the past year, soon to be scaled back.

"The stock market has become addicted to the Fed's easy money policies," said veteran Senate Republican Chuck Grassley.

"It appears that Ms. Yellen will continue to pursue these misguided policies."

However, with the economy now moving at a pace the Fed has tentatively ruled sustainable, the policy making Federal Open Market Committee, led by Bernanke and Yellen, decided at its December meeting to taper the program, starting with a $10 billion cutback this month.

The move came after months of delay and the step convinced Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who had been concerned about the size of the stimulus, to back Yellen.

"I now feel comfortable supporting Vice-Chair Yellen's nomination," he said in a statement.

Fact file on Janet Yellen, confirmed the new leader of the US

Federal Reserve (AFP)

Related Article:

Obama picks 'exceptionally qualified' Yellen for Fed

Fed to start tapering massive US stimulus in January

Google - AFP, Veronica SMITH (AFP), 18 December 2013

The US Federal Reserve is seen December 10, 2013 in Washington,

DC (AFP/File, Karen Bleier)

Washington (United States) — The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it would begin to taper its massive stimulus program next month as it sees improvement in the US economy and the ailing job market.

The Fed will spend $75 billion on bonds a month starting in January, down from the $85 billion a month it has spent for a year, in an effort to tamp down long-term interest rates to stimulate growth and jobs, the Federal Open Market Committee said after a two-day monetary policy meeting.

Stocks rallied sharply after the Fed action, which marked the beginning of the end of five years of its easy-money policy, aimed at helping the world's largest economy recover from the devastating recession.

"In light of the cumulative progress toward maximum employment and the improvement in the outlook for labor market conditions, the Committee decided to modestly reduce the pace of its asset purchases," the FOMC said in a statement.

Noting the negative impact of the federal government's tax hikes and spending cuts on growth since the start of the current asset-purchase program, the FOMC said it "sees the improvement in economic activity and labor market conditions over that period as consistent with growing underlying strength in the broader economy."

The FOMC said it now saw the outlook for the economy and the labor market as having become "more nearly balanced" but voiced concern about weak inflation, which is well below the Fed's 2.0 percent target.

Fifteen minutes before the markets closed, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.75 percent at 16,153.85 and the S&P 500 added 1.63 percent.

The taper decision took many analysts by surprise. A slight majority had expected the Fed to wait until the January or March meetings to allow time for more data to assess whether the economy would be strong enough to withstand a reduction in bond purchases.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged in a news conference that the economy had a way to go to get back on track, but insisted the taper did not mean a reduction in the Fed's support because of the growing size of the bond holdings and the near-zero interest rate.

"We're not doing less," Bernanke said. "We have been aggressive to keep the economy growing."

The Fed, as widely expected, held its key interest rate at 0-0.25 percent where it has been for five years to support the recovery.

Bernanke highlighted a change in the FOMC's forward guidance on when the federal funds rate could be increased.

The committee said it would likely keep the current near-zero rate "well past the time" that the unemployment rate declines below 6.5 percent, especially if projected inflation continued to run below the Fed's 2.0 percent target.

The FOMC noted that inflation persistently below the target could pose risks to economic performance, and it is monitoring developments carefully for evidence that inflation will move back toward its objective over the medium term.

In updates of its economic forecasts, the Fed projected gross domestic product growth between 2.8 percent and 3.2 percent, a tenth point wider than the 2.9-3.1 percent range it projected in September.

It projected the unemployment rate, currently at 7.0 percent, would fall to a range of 6.3-6.6 percent by the end of next year, an improvement from the prior estimate of 6.4-6.8 percent.

Related Article:

Obama picks 'exceptionally qualified' Yellen for Fed

Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, Nov 22, 2013)

Matthew Books, Nov 23, 2013 (Includes a message Suzanne Ward received from John F Kennedy some years ago.)

Matthew Ward

With loving greetings from all souls at this station, this is Matthew.

First we shall speak about a matter that has touched hearts everywhere. Typhoon Haiyan is profoundly tragic for everyone who lost dear family and friends, homes and businesses—they don’t know that at soul level they agreed to be part of this major act of planetary cleansing. Because releasing accruing negativity was essential to keep Earth progressing toward balance, all the people whose physical lives ended and the millions who are struggling in the storm’s aftermath embraced the opportunity to evolve by participating as they did.

This kind of enthusiastic mass agreement doesn’t seem even possible in your concept of time, but in the eternal life of the soul and the timelessness of the continuum, opportunities to leap forward in soul growth are eagerly sought, and universe-wide they happen with some frequency. Please do not think that our explanation of a devastating situation is dispassionate or that we are unaffected by the grieving souls and their massive reconstruction ahead. We are among the myriad souls who showered light on the Philippines during and after the storm to assist all who made transition and to fortify the inner strength of survivors.  We feel their heartbreak and fright and confusion about how to start rebuilding their lives, their villages and farms and cities.

How we wish they could know that their loved ones were greeted by name and “Thank you!” as they entered Nirvana. Just as fervently we wish they could know that all who died and they themselves collectively agreed to give Earth that vital lift she needed to stay her course toward balance. If Gaia’s gratitude could be seen, your world would be ablaze with the radiance of its light.

Widespread compassion is adding light to the lives that in this moment are bleak and sorrowing, and the generosity of spirit in which assistance is being given is adding light, too. We see the overview of medical teams, suppliers of food and water, and clearing crews as they persevere in efforts to maneuver through areas where roads were washed out or are filled with destroyed buildings. We see the panic of hungry people looking for food, and we see those who take items that have nothing to do with survival but will be needed when a semblance of normalcy is restored. Light beings throughout this universe are streaming love-light energy to all of those souls.

Fifty years ago the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy shocked the world, but even today very few individuals know that his death had far more than a deeply emotional impact. Eventually the truth will emerge that one of the reasons he was killed was to prevent his abolishing the privately-owned Federal Reserve System and returning the national currency to its dollar status, a move that would have ended the Illuminati’s control of that country’s economy and severely weakened their ability to manipulate the global economy. Half a century later than Kennedy intended, the dismantling of that nefarious system is underway.

I have asked my mother to copy here the thought-provoking message she received from President Kennedy some years ago. [The following message, which was for a British author’s book about Princess Diana that includes messages from her and several others, was transmitted December 30, 2004. I don’t know if the book was published or if so, by what title.]

To the world that I left over forty years past, I say that my spirit of love for my country and Earth never departed.  My leaving was not by an accident any more than was Princess Diana’s death.  Our souls had agreed to serve in this way.  We knew at some level that our lives would be short on Earth by good intention, and we see that much has been accomplished in our names—more than if we had remained there.

Our lives were not lived in perfection, nor were they intended to be.  Our human frailties are like many others who also did much to assist in raising the human spirit and promoting the value of each life. 

I use again my words that still are publicly remembered: Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country.  But now I amend those: Ask not what your world can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your world. LOVE is the answer, the ONLY answer to rising above the misery still befalling so much of humanity.

The spirit in which Diana and I both endeavored to serve in our respective positions is stronger than ever within us.  More than ever before in the history of Earth there is opportunity to spread love throughout the world with feelings and actions.  More than ever before there is imperative need for this!  The moment of great transition is at hand.  Contribute to this for the sake of all life on Earth and your soul’s divine nurturing.

We are never separate one from another.  We are One with the Universe.

Thank you, Mother, and now we shall address some issues that readers have questioned.

If comet Ison explodes, will any large fragments be pulled by Earth’s gravity into a position that can endanger us?  No. Spacecraft roaming the skies are on the lookout for comets like Ison and other large celestial bodies that could pose danger to Earth, and when one might, they use their technology to detour its route. In the case of smaller objects, they maneuver them to an area where no heavy damage can result or they smash them to smithereens, whichever is safer for you and the planet.

No, a time has not been set for official acknowledgement of other civilizations’ presence, the landing of ships and introduction of family members living among you. God is in charge of timing because only at that height of awareness can it be known when Earth humankind is ready to welcome “aliens.” Your film industry has done a good job of portraying people from other civilizations as monstrosities that want to annihilate you or handsome, sly beings who want to enslave you—images of grotesque creatures and stories of ruthless intent are seared in many, many minds.

Some readers feel that nothing of noteworthy substance can happen until your space family is working alongside you, and that is not so. Because it is your world, it is up to you to decide what societal, political and economic reforms you want and endeavor to accomplish them; and in numerous messages we have delineated the many ways that you have been making strides toward those significant goals. What your family from other civilizations will do is tackle environmental issues that are beyond your capabilities—their technologies can dematerialize nuclear waste and depleted uranium, purify polluted rivers and seas, and restore deserts to arable condition. Also, their free energy systems are far advanced of your own, which by and large still are under Illuminati suppression.

Others are asking if channeled reports are true that benevolent ETs became discouraged and abandoned you and the only ones near Earth now will come as conquerors. That is a blatant lie set forth by base entities who know that only benevolent members of our universal family are in your solar system and they have been assisting you all along.

We cited one situation above; however, other civilizations have been helping Earth and her successive generations of residents throughout her history. Mother, please copy part of the book that describes their many kinds of assistance.

[The following is portions of the chapter “Help from Other Civilizations” in Earth’s Golden Age–Life beyond 2012.]

 Assistance from extraterrestrials started long before their infusion of the light that saved Earth’s life more than seven decades ago.

Throughout Earth’s history our universal family has served her in one supportive role or another. Members of some highly advanced civilizations had a hand in designing and establishing the flora and fauna, and human life on the planet derived from several civilizations’ seeding programs.  Among today’s populace are descendants of those ancient residents, some of whom were gods and goddesses.  …

The Akashic records, which contain every soul’s lifeprint of each physical lifetime wherever in this universe each was experienced, are maintained and safeguarded by some of Ashtar’s forces.

For long ages some of Hatonn’s Pleiadian crews have been on rotation maintenance tours to insure the safety of the light grid around Nirvana that prohibits entry by rogue entities.  …

After your air travel started, the crews deflected the trajectory of debris or dematerialized it if it posed potential danger to planes in flight.  They also have rescued persons thought lost in ships at sea or planes that disappeared; the rescued parties physically entered a different energy plane, which is why they weren’t seen or heard from again.

Extraterrestrial assistance with unprecedented swiftness and intensity started over 70 years ago, when Earth cried out for help to keep her weakened planetary body alive. By God’s authorization, civilizations responded with a massive infusion of light to prevent the planet spinning out of orbit and certain death. Of course the in-pouring of light was available to all of Earth’s residents too, and those who responded started generating their own light with greater forcefulness.  …

In addition to beaming light to the planet, which will continue until it is well within fourth density, various civilizations are using their technologies in a number of ways in accordance with Earth’s desires. For instance, when the Illuminati cause a geophysical event, the crews lay down an electromagnetic grid that distributes earthquake or volcanic activity and lessens destruction and death toll without reducing the amount of negativity released by those events. In the case of Illuminati-created weather, the crews decrease the wind velocity of violent storms and steer them away from heavily populated areas along coastlines. [Note: That information was transmitted prior to the removal of weather-manipulating scientists by space family members living among you. Mother Nature is back in control of storms, earthquakes and wildfires, her means of releasing negativity.]

Remember the viruses called SARS, avian flu, swine flu and H1N1 that abruptly appeared on the scene simultaneously with media hoopla that each disease, in turn, was “feared to become a pandemic”? No pandemic happened because members of our universal family neutralized those laboratory-designed viruses, thus dooming the dark ones’ double intent for developing them—genuine pandemics with great loss of life and global chaos and fear.

Crews in your skies, who are there by the thousands and thousands, are using their technologies to reduce as much as possible the radiation from Japan’s damaged nuclear reactors, and they rendered less harmful to marine life the oil that kept gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. They are ameliorating the toxic effects of weaponry and other pollutants, and a civilization appearing as cloud formations is leading the way in cleansing Earth’s atmosphere.

As important as all those kinds of assistance are, perhaps the most significant help since “9/11” has been preventing the Illuminati from using nuclear warheads to mount similarly devastating terrorist attacks.  A dozen or so attempts have been thwarted by rendering the warheads impotent, sometimes in combination with missile malfunctions.  This is not a violation of Creator’s law of free will—it is honoring Earth’s free will choice that there will be no more terrorism like “9/11.”

Some of the strongest, most experienced light beings in this universe are right there among you, working behind the scenes to guide the essential changes so that as many of Earth’s residents who choose to accompany her into the higher planes can do so. This is how universally beloved and significant Earth is and how beloved and important YOU are!  …

These volunteers from spiritually evolved civilizations took on human bodies so they could live and work among you undetected.  Although they recognize each other from the distinctive auras that reflect their souls’ evolutionary station, only a few of you are sufficiently energy-sensitive to see them as different from anyone else.

The purpose of their presence derives from their superior intelligence that gives them entry into fields where they can beneficially influence actions and activities during this crucial time of Earth’s transition process.

What these benevolent visitors are doing is not a rarity in the universe—souls continue evolving through service to lesser developed civilizations.   As you continue to grow spiritually and intellectually, eventually you will be willing and able to help enlighten and uplift lesser evolved souls.

Thank you, Mother.  Now let us speak again about negativity for a moment. Some time ago we told you that the negativity that had become deeply entrenched due to millennia of humankind’s brutality to each other and the animals had been released. So, where is negativity coming from now?  As ever before, from the citizens of Earth.

In previous messages we have said that everything in existence is energy.  We have spoken about the power of thoughts, feelings, and written and spoken words, and we have stressed how crucial it is to focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. Also we have explained why forgiveness and gratitude are so important. Evidence of these universal truths is in the ancient practice of ho’oponopono, which ties them all together into an “elixir of divine grace,” you might say.

The accomplishment of Dr. Hew Len, formerly a psychologist at a hospital for the criminally insane in Hawaii, is a stunning example of ho’oponopono’s efficacy. Instead of seeing patients during the couple of years he was there, he stayed in his office, sometimes looking at their files, and repeating over and over and over “I’m sorry.  Please forgive me.  I love you. Thank you.” By his accepting responsibility for the patients’ status—in essence, acknowledging the inseparable connection of all souls and that whatever one does affects all others—they started improving and continued until they were healed and released.

This remarkable proof of the power of thoughts and feelings can be enlightening and inspiring to everyone. Sharing that story along with feeling grateful for our universal family’s diligence, assistance and unconditional love will speed the day when life in your world is peaceful and harmonious.

Our beloved family, we are with you every moment of your journey toward your rightful place as citizens of this universe.

LOVE and PEACE…

Suzanne Ward

www.matthewbooks.com

Email: suzy@matthewbooks.com

Related Articles:

Archangel Michael: John Kennedy Will Return as an Intergalactic Peacekeeper - Golden Age of Gaia, Steve Beckow (An Hour with an Angel with Archangel Michael, November 21, 2013)

The Light Collective and Mother Gaia: In the Wake of Typhoon Haiyan

The Star Beings Destroy a Meteor on Collision Course with Earth - Steve Beckow, Golden Age of Gaia?

AIDS Was a Man-Made Pandemic

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)

Obama picks 'exceptionally qualified' Yellen for Fed

Google – AFP, Paul Handley (AFP), 10 October 2013

US President Barack Obama announces his nomination of economist Janet Yellen (L)

 as Federal Reserve chairman as current chairman Ben Bernanke listens in the State

Dining Room of the White House in Washington, on October 9, 2013 (AFP,

Jewel Samad)

Washington — US President Barack Obama has nominated economist Janet Yellen to lead the Federal Reserve in a move expected to sustain the central bank's easy money policies and efforts to curb joblessness.

If approved, Yellen would replace outgoing Ben Bernanke as chair of the Fed next February, under heavy pressure to make sure that global growth is not derailed when its longstanding stimulus policy is eventually reined in.

Obama called the first woman ever named to take the helm at the world's most powerful central bank as "exceptionally qualified" for the job.

"America's workers and families will have a champion in Janet," Obama said at a White House ceremony, flanked by Yellen and Bernanke, stating that his pick "sounded the alarm early" about housing and financial bubbles that led to the 2008-2009 recession.

Economist Janet Yellen smiles as US President 

Barack Obama announces her nomination as

 Federal Reserve chairman at the White House

 in Washington, DC, on October 9, 2013 (AFP, 

Jewel Samad)

"She is a proven leader, and she's tough. Not just because she is from Brooklyn," he quipped, calling for Yellen to be quickly confirmed by the Senate.

"She doesn't have a crystal ball, but what she does have is a keen understanding of how the markets and the economy work, not just in theory but also in the real world," he added.

Yellen said she would not break with the US central bank's current easy-money policies aimed at pushing down unemployment, still high at 7.3 percent in August.

"More needs to be done to strengthen the recovery, particularly for those hardest hit by the Great Recession," she added as she accepted Obama's nomination.

"The mandate of the Federal Reserve is to serve all the American people. And too many Americans still can't find a job, and worry how they'll pay their bills and provide for their families."

Yellen, 67, with years of experience in academia and the central bank, has served as Fed vice chairman since 2010.

In that time she has been closely tied to key policy changes, including setting targets for inflation and unemployment, and making the thinking of Fed policymakers more open.

Yellen studied economics at Brown University and then Yale, where she earned a doctorate. 

She is married to economics Nobel prize winner George Akerlof, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. Both are known for taking economic texts to the beach on vacation.

"The truth is," Yellen once told an interviewer, "if you spent an evening at our house you would probably hear economics discussed over the dinner table."

"You would eat a diet that is richer in discussions of economics and policy issues than many people would find appetizing."

Her nomination was not a surprise after the presumed favorite, former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, pulled out of the running after several top Democratic senators voiced vehement opposition.

Though criticized by conservatives as a Fed "dove" -- one of a camp allegedly too determined to stimulate growth and not adequately worried about the threat of inflation -- Yellen is certain to get a better reception in the Senate than Summers would have received.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was part of the Democratic revolt on the Senate Banking Committee against a Summers nomination, gave Yellen a thumbs-up on Wednesday.

"Janet has extraordinary experience and a proven track record of strong judgment and management savvy," Warren said in a statement.

The committee's senior Republican, Mike Crapo, was more measured, saying her nomination would be "carefully reviewed," noting his own opposition to the Fed's $85 billion a month bond-buying stimulus, known as quantitative easing.

Markets were little moved by the nomination, with the S&P 500 stock index ending the day flat, and the US dollar edging higher along with long-term bond yields.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde called the nomination "great".

"She's very competent, she's my friend, I'm delighted she's there," said Lagarde, who in recent months has sternly warned the Fed not to cut back its stimulus too fast to avoid injecting more turbulence into global markets.

However, one of Yellen's first tasks will be to judge how quickly to taper the huge stimulus.

Economists and markets had expected the cuts to begin last month.

But the Bernanke-led Federal Open Market Committee held off, pointing to some signs of weakness in the economy and the threat to stability posed by Washington's political paralysis over the budget and debt ceiling.

Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said the FOMC is likely to hold off on the stimulus taper until next year.

"It's difficult to imagine sufficient improvement in the hard employment data could emerge in time for Dr. Yellen to push for tapering at her very first meeting as chairman, on March 18/19. 

The June meeting, in our view, is a better bet."

A file photo dated 10 October 2012 showing Janet Yellen, Vice
Chair of the US Federal Reserve System, attending a sem

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