The Cobb Mint

Denial

2012-01-13T05:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the recovery !

U.S. debt is now equal to economy

The amount of money the federal government owes to its creditors, combined with IOUs to government retirement and other programs, now tops $15.23 trillion.

WASHINGTON – The soaring national debt has reached a symbolic tipping point: It's now as big as the entire U.S. economy.

"The 100% mark means that your entire debt is as big as everything you're producing in your country," says Steve Bell of the Bipartisan Policy Center, which has proposed cutting nearly $6 trillion in red ink over 10 years. "Clearly, that can't continue."

That's roughly equal to the value of all goods and services the U.S. economy produces in one year: $15.17 trillion as of September, the latest estimate. Private projections show the economy likely grew to about $15.3 trillion by December — a level the debt is likely to surpass this month.

Long-term projections suggest the debt will continue to grow faster than the economy, which would have to expand by at least 6% a year to keep pace.

President Obama's 2012 budget shows the debt soaring past $26 trillion a decade from now. Last summer's deficit reduction deal could reduce that to $24 trillion.

Many economists, such as the Brookings Institution's William Gale, say a better measure of the nation's debt is how much the government owes creditors, not counting $4.7 trillion owed to future Social Security recipients and other government beneficiaries. By that measure, the debt is roughly a third less: $10.5 trillion, or nearly 70% the size of the economy.

That is still high by historic standards. The total national debt topped the size of the economy for three years during and after World War II. It dropped to 32.5% of the economy by 1981, then began a steady climb underPresident Reagan, doubling over the next 12 years. The combination of recession and stimulus spending caused it to soar again under Obama.

nlarge

4th Amendment Bye-Bye

2012-01-03T04:53:00.000-08:00

Get to work debt slaves ! Where are the paid off corporate Presstitutes?
If you have a problem with someone, just call Homeland Security and tell them they are a terrorist.

The NDAA's historic

assault on American liberty

By signing into law the NDAA, the president has awarded the military extraordinary powers to detain US citizens without trial

President Barack Obama rang in the New Year by signing the NDAA law with its provision allowing him to indefinitely detain citizens. It was a symbolic moment, to say the least. With Americans distracted with drinking and celebrating, Obama signed one of the greatest rollbacks of civil liberties in the history of our country … and citizens partied in unwitting bliss into the New Year.

Ironically, in addition to breaking his promise not to sign the law, Obama broke his promise on signing statements and attached a statement that he really does not want to detain citizens indefinitely (see the text of the statement here).

Obama insisted that he signed the bill simply to keep funding for the troops. It was a continuation of the dishonest treatment of the issue by the White House since the law first came to light. As discussed earlier, the White House told citizens that the president would not sign the NDAA because of the provision. That spin ended after sponsor Senator Carl Levin (Democrat, Michigan) went to the floor and disclosed that it was the White House and insisted that there be no exception for citizens in the indefinite detention provision.

The latest claim is even more insulting. You do not "support our troops" by denying the principles for which they are fighting. They are not fighting to consolidate authoritarian powers in the president. The "American way of life" is defined by our constitution and specifically the bill of rights. Moreover, the insistence that you do not intend to use authoritarian powers does not alter the fact that you just signed an authoritarian measure. It is not the use but the right to use such powers that defines authoritarian systems.

The almost complete failure of the mainstream media to cover this issue is shocking. Many reporters have bought into the spin of the Obama administration as they did the spin over torture by the Bush administration. Even today, reporters refuse to call waterboarding torture despite the long line of cases and experts defining waterboarding as torture for decades.

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The Fuhrer Returns to Campaign

2012-01-03T04:18:00.000-08:00

The three year vacation is over, now it's time to campaign.

Obama readying for re-election bid after vacation

HONOLULU (AP) -- President Barack Obama will waste little time getting back in front of voters following a 10-day Hawaiian vacation spent largely out of the spotlight.

Air Force One landed just before daybreak in Washington on Tuesday morning after an overnight flight from the island of Oahu. The president is returning from vacation the same day Republican presidential candidates square off in the Iowa caucuses, the first nominating contest of the 2012 campaign.

Obama plans to make his presence in the campaign known quickly.

The president will host a live web chat with supporters in Iowa on Tuesday night as the caucuses are unfolding. The following day, Obama will travel to Cleveland for an event focused on the economy.

Obama aides said the president will seek to draw a contrast with his GOP challengers during Wednesday's trip to Ohio, a state sure to figure prominently in the presidential campaign.

Obama returns to Washington facing further debate on extending payroll tax cuts, the same issue that consumed Washington during the final days of December.

Congress broke through a stalemate just days before Christmas, agreeing to extend the cuts for two months. Lawmakers will get back to work later this month to negotiate a full-year extension of the cuts, which Obama supports.

White House officials say the tax cut extension is the last "must-do" legislative item on Obama's agenda this year. His strategy for his fourth year in office will focus largely on taking executive actions that do not need approval from lawmakers as he seeks to break away from a deeply unpopular Congress.

The payroll tax cut debate almost prevented Obama from taking his annual Christmas trip to Hawaii. He delayed the trip nearly a week, finally departing on Dec. 23, just hours after Congress finalized the two-month extension

Solutions

2011-11-05T18:44:00.001-07:00

Bill Black is gaining momentum.

Black Friday Special

2011-11-03T04:46:00.000-07:00

Oh, the horror.

Solargate

2011-10-10T05:13:00.000-07:00

Obstruction of justice buried Nixon.

Obama fundraiser 'pressured government officials to approve loan guarantee' for bankrupt solar company Solyndra

Steven Spinner helped raise at least $500,000 for the President's campaign

By KERRY MCQUEENEY

Last updated at 8:19 AM on 10th October 2011

Government officials were pressured into approving a $533 million loan guarantee for now-bankrupt Solyndra by an elite Barack Obama fundraiser whose lawyer wife worked for a firm representing the California solar company, leaked emails have shown.

Steven Spinner, hired to help oversee the Obama administration's energy loan program, told officials from the Department of Energy to move faster to rubber stamp a loan guarantee for the company.

Solar start-up company Solyndra LLC announced in August it was filing for bankruptcy, just 15 months after receiving a $535 million in federal loan money.

The loan for Solyndra was approved in 2009 and it was the first company to receive a loan guarantee under an advanced clean energy program, created in 2005.

The business's factory in Fremont, California, even received a visit from President Obama in 2010 who, embarrassingly, hailed the company as a model of his efforts to create new jobs in the emerging clean energy market.

FBI officials remove files from the company... the loan is the subject of multiple investigations

However in late August, the company abruptly shut its doors and days later declared it was filing for bankruptcy. Now the loan is the subject of multiple investigations, by Congress and by the Department of Justice.

The company's dramatic fall from grace has been monitored closely because it received a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2009.

At the end of August Solyndra LLC announced it had succumbed to pressure from lower-cost Chinese rivals and suspended its operations. Days later it revealed it would be filing for bankruptcy.

It has been revealed that within the lengthy email discussions occurring in the days before the Solyndra loan closed in September 2009, Spinner has emerged as a key figure sealing the deal, apparently in a bid to claim securing the loan as a political victory for President Obama.

In one such email, according to ABC News, he writes to Department of Energy officials who were due to make the final decisions on the loan: 'Hopefully, this might spur [the Office of Management and Budget] a little faster to help the closing.'

Records from the Recovery Act have shown that the law firm employing Spinner's wife Allison has received $2.4million in federal funds for legal fees related to Solyndra's $535 million loan guarantee from the Energy Department.

Courtney Dorman, spokeswoman for Mrs Spinner's firm Wilson Sonsini, said the company took action to avoid conflicts in matters involving the Energy Department while Spinner was in office.

Congressional investigators were given the emails yesterday as part of the inquiry into the loan.

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Hope & Change

2011-10-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

Get Back To Work Debt Slave !

2011-10-06T03:33:00.000-07:00

That cop gets his check from the Fed.

Learn From Greece

2011-10-06T03:30:00.000-07:00

I hope this group grows a pair and takes on the stasi in the same way the Greeks do.

Occupy Wall Street protests grow in size and credibility (photos, video, live updates)

By Elizabeth Flock

These are not the few bedraggled Occupy Wall Street protesters weknew in September.

Representatives from some of the most powerful labor unions in the country have arrived to march alongside the protesters, and students from New York universities joined the demonstrations this afternoon.

GALLERY: Click to view images of Occupy Wall Street.

(To see live updates click here.)

The protests today — which were expected to be the largest yet — began at 3 p.m. Eastern, when protesters in Zuccotti Square marched a mile north to Foley Square, met community and labor leaders, and then marched back at 4:30 p.m. The march was largely peaceful, and metal barriers and police kept the demonstrations from blocking traffic.

Many protesters carried signs or joined in chants about economic injustice, including: “Wall St. can't you see we want a fair economy!”

The reinforcements have added both size and credibility to the movement, which began Sept. 17 with a few dozen camped-out college students, and has voiced opposition against everything from corporate greed and bank foreclosures to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and unemployment. A full list of the protesters demands can be found here.

Among the labor unions that marched today are representatives of the Chinatown Tenants Union, the Transit Workers Union, MoveOn.org, Working Families Party, United NY. See a full list here.

The first union to throw support behind the protesters was Transport Workers Union Local 100. Alexander Hotz and Alice Brennan from The New York World asked members of the TWU what inspired them to join:

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Sick of The Fraud

2011-09-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

Even the europeans are getting sick of the endless BS spewing from the mouth of probably the biggest hypocritical fraud president of all time. I am sure he was put up to this by JPM alumni and White House Chief of Staff William Daily and his advisor JPM CEO Jaime Dimon. Obama really did change the White House, it used to be run by Goldman Sachs.

Obama's Euro-Crisis Lecture Is 'Pitiful and Sad'

REUTERS

Obama slammed the Europeans at an event in Mountain View, California on Monday.

US President Obama has given the Europeans a harsh lecture on the dangers of their ongoing debt crisis. Offended by the unsolicited advice, Europeans have suggested the US get its own house in order first. Obama's remarks were "arrogant" and "absurd," German commentators say on Wednesday.

Europeans are well aware of the seriousness of their ongoing debt crisis. But they don't, it seems, like to receive lectures from other countries -- especially the United States, which is struggling to deal with its own mountain of debt.

On Tuesday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble curtly rejected recent American criticism of Europe's approach to solving its debt crisis. "I don't think Europe's problems are America's only problems," said Schäuble, who has become increasingly sharp-tongued as the euro crisis deepens. "It's always easier to give other people advice."

Schäuble was referring to strongly worded comments made by US President Barack Obama and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in recent days. At an event in California on Monday, Obama warned Europeans that their inaction was "scaring the world." The Europeans, he said, "have not fully healed from the crisis back in 2007 and never fully dealt with all the challenges that their banking system faced. It's now being compounded by what's happening in Greece." He continued: "They're going through a financial crisis that is scaring the world, and they're trying to take responsible actions, but those actions haven't been quite as quick as they need to be."

Distracting From Problems at Home

Those comments came hot on the heels of Geithner's remarks over the weekend. Speaking in Washington Saturday at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Geithner warned that the European debt crisis represents "the most serious risk now confronting the world economy." He said Europeans needed to do more to create a "firewall" against further contagion and talked of the threat of "cascading default" and runs on banks. "Decisions as to how to conclusively address the region's problems cannot wait until the crisis gets more severe," he said.

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No CNBS Coverage ?

2011-09-28T06:20:00.000-07:00

GEE, I wonder why ? The police state has a firm grip on the mainstream media propaganda.

SEC Cover Up

2011-09-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Shapiro must be making some bank on the side.

The SEC's Policy Of Destroying Records -- And Letting Wall Street Get Away With Crimes

Fri, 08/19/2011 - 1:51pm —

Jacquelyn Simone

Ever wonder why exactly Wall Street seems to constantly avoid punishment for egregious violations and misdeeds? A new, explosive article in Rolling Stone tells how the Securities and Exchange Commission has been destroying records that could have led to further investigations of companies. The federal agency has been grossly neglecting its responsibility to monitor the financial sector by not maintaining older records of violations. As author Matt Taibbi puts it:

For the past two decades, according to a whistle-blower at the SEC who recently came forward to Congress, the agency has been systematically destroying records of its preliminary investigations once they are closed. By whitewashing the files of some of the nation's worst financial criminals, the SEC has kept an entire generation of federal investigators in the dark about past inquiries into insider trading, fraud and market manipulation against companies like Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and AIG. With a few strokes of the keyboard, the evidence gathered during thousands of investigations -- "18,000 ... including Madoff," as one high-ranking SEC official put it during a panicked meeting about the destruction -- has apparently disappeared forever into the wormhole of history.

All files are supposed to be maintained for at least 25 years, under a deal between the SEC and the National Archives and Records Administration. But that didn’t stop the SEC from directing staffers to destroy documents from preliminary inquiries, or "Matters Under Inquiry," that did not receive approval from senior staff to become a formal investigation. The ramifications of this policy, as Taibbi notes, are serious: "Destroy the MUIs, and Wall Street banks can commit the exact same crime over and over, without anyone ever knowing." He speculates that had the SEC been maintaining their records, they could have regulated Wall Street more effectively and consistently, possibly avoiding the 2008 economic collapse.

Last month, an SEC attorney named Darcy Flynn brought the issue to Congress’ attention, saying the SEC had been destroying records of preliminary investigations since at least 1993 and that more than 9,000 case files were destroyed in that time.

The enforcement division of the SEC even spelled out the procedure in writing, on the commission's internal website. "After you have closed a MUI that has not become an investigation," the site advised staffers, "you should dispose of any documents obtained in connection with the MUI."
Many of the destroyed files involved companies and individuals who would later play prominent roles in the economic meltdown of 2008. Two MUIs involving con artist Bernie Madoff vanished. So did a 2002 inquiry into financial fraud at Lehman Brothers, as well as a 2005 case of insider trading at the same soon-to-be-bankrupt bank. A 2009 preliminary investigation of insider trading by Goldman Sachs was deleted, along with records for at least three cases involving the infamous hedge fund SAC Capital.

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This One's For You FED

2011-09-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

Now that you are funding a spying operation in the blogosphere to find subversive anti-fed sites........................YOU SUCK. I hope you read this.

China To Sell Treasuries

2011-09-16T17:29:00.000-07:00

Can't blame them. They should just go ahead and buy the Grand Canyon while they can.

China to 'liquidate' US Treasuries, not dollars

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Economics Last updated: September 15th, 2011

245 Comments Comment on this article

China intends to start reducing its portfolio of US debt

The debt markets have been warned.

A key rate setter-for China's central bank let slip – or was it a slip? – that Beijing aims to run down its portfolio of US debt as soon as safely possible.

"The incremental parts of our of our foreign reserve holdings should be invested in physical assets," said Li Daokui at the World Economic Forum in the very rainy city of Dalian – former Port Arthur from Russian colonial days.

"We would like to buy stakes in Boeing, Intel, and Apple, and maybe we should invest in these types of companies in a proactive way."

"Once the US Treasury market stabilizes we can liquidate more of our holdings of Treasuries," he said.

To my knowledge, this is the first time that a top adviser to China's central bank has uttered the word "liquidate". Until now the policy has been to diversify slowly by investing the fresh $200bn accumulated each quarter into other currencies and assets – chiefly AAA euro debt from Germany, France and the hard core.

We don't know how much US debt is held by SAFE (State Administration of Foreign Exchange), the bank's FX arm. The figure is thought to be over $2.2 trillion.

The Chinese are clearly vexed with Washington, viewing the Fed's QE as a stealth default on US debt. Mr Li came close to calling America a basket case, saying the picture is far worse than when Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher took over in the early 1980s.

Mr Li, one of three outside academics on China's MPC, described the debt deals on Capitol Hill as "just trying to by time", saying it will not be enough to stop America's "debt dynamic" turning dangerous.

Fair enough, but let us be clear: the reason China has accumulated the equivalent of 6pc of global GDP in reserves (like the US in the 1920s) is because it has held down its currency to gain market share. As Michael Pettis from Beijing University points out tirelessly, the mercantilist policy hollows out US industries and forces America to choose between debt bubbles or unemployment – or, of course, protectionism, though we are not there yet.

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The Death Of Debt

2011-09-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

The world wide plague of debt is being realized.

Why ?

2011-09-14T04:38:00.000-07:00

Nader explains blowback.

World Trade Center Attack

2011-09-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

SEC Runs Cover For The Banksters

2011-09-05T06:32:00.000-07:00

Matt Taibbi Exposes How SEC Shredded Thousands of Investigations

An explosive new report in Rolling Stone magazine exposes how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission destroyed records of thousands of investigations, whitewashing the files of some of the nation’s largest banks and hedge funds, including AIG, Wells Fargo, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and top Wall Street broker Bernard Madoff. Last week, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said an agency whistleblower had sent him a letter detailing the unlawful destruction of records detailing more than 9,000 information investigations. We speak with Matt Taibbi, the political reporter for Rolling Stone magazine who broke this story in his latest article….

The ETF GLD Scam

2011-09-05T05:34:00.001-07:00

The SLV ETF is probably the same money changer gibberish.

Crimex and LME History ?

2011-08-31T17:25:00.000-07:00

The money continues to move to China.

The First Freeloaders

2011-08-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Nothing like being on the dole.

U.S. sued over Michelle's secretive 'family outing'

'How much did the American people spend to send the first lady' on safari?

Michelle Obama talking about her African trip

Judicial Watchhas filed a lawsuit over thefederalgovernment'srefusal to disclose how much taxpayers spent to send Michelle Obama on a "family outing" that included a safari in Africa.

The organization, which investigates and fights government corruption, earlierdocumented what appears to many to be the extravagant spendingby then-House Speaker NancyPelosi. Records showed Pelosi cost taxpayers $101,000 for in-flight food and alcohol over a period in 2008 and 2009. At one point she instructed the Air Force to provide chocolate-covered strawberries for a snack, since it was her birthday.

"Dark chocolate preferred" was the order.

Do the tone-deaf lawmakers in D.C. make your blood boil? Read all about Washington and its politics of corruption in "Breach of Trust."

Now Judicial Watch wants to know what taxpayers are spending for Michelle Obama's vacations.

"How much did the American people spend to send the First Lady on a family outing in Africa? That's what we want to know," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "On the surface, the trip seems to have been totally unnecessary and was as much an excuse for theObamafamilyto go on a safari as it was a mission intended to advance the nation's business in Africa."

The organization requested information in June regarding the expenses for the trip. The request included records for the mission taskings for the June 21-27 trip to South Africa and Botswana, the transportation costs and all passenger manifests for the trip.

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Black Swan

2011-08-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

I want to go to the Fed Discount window too.

Inside Job And Ratigan

2011-08-28T06:01:00.000-07:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Corrupt Mainstream Media Propaganda

2011-08-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

The corporate mainstream US media playing cover for their masters.

A story missing from our media: Iceland's on-going revolution

General

SATURDAY, 27 AUGUST 2011 08:19

30 COMMENTS

by Deena Stryker
An Italian radio program's story about Iceland’s on-going revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world. We may remember that at the start of the 2008 financial crisis, Iceland literally went bankrupt. The reasons were mentioned only in passing, and since then, this little-known member of the European Union fell back into oblivion.

As one European country after another fails or risks failing, imperiling the Euro, with repercussions for the entire world, the last thing the powers that be want is for Iceland to become an example. Here's why:

Five years of a pure neo-liberal regime had made Iceland, (population 320 thousand, no army), one of the richest countries in the world. In 2003 all the country’s banks were privatised, and in an effort to attract foreign investors, they offered on-line banking whose minimal costs allowed them to offer relatively high rates of return. The accounts, called IceSave, attracted many UK and Dutch small investors. But as investments grew, so did the banks’ foreign debt. In 2003 Iceland’s debt was equal to 200 times its GNP, but in 2007, it was 900 percent. The 2008 world financial crisis was the coup de grace. The three main Icelandic banks, Landbanki, Kapthing and Glitnir, went belly up and were nationalised, while the Kroner lost 85% of its value with respect to the Euro. At the end of the year Iceland declared bankruptcy.

Contrary to what could be expected, the crisis resulted in Icelanders recovering their sovereign rights, through a process of direct participatory democracy that eventually led to a new Constitution. But only after much pain.

Geir Haarde, the Prime Minister of a Social Democratic coalition government, negotiated a two million one hundred thousand dollar loan, to which the Nordic countries added another two and a half million. But the foreign financial community pressured Iceland to impose drastic measures. The FMI and the European Union wanted to take over its debt, claiming this was the only way for the country to pay back Holland and Great Britain, who had promised to reimburse their citizens.

Protests and riots continued, eventually forcing the government to resign. Elections were brought forward to April 2009, resulting in a left-wing coalition which condemned the neoliberal economic system, but immediately gave in to its demands that Iceland pay off a total of three and a half million Euros. This required each Icelandic citizen to pay 100 Euros a month (or about $130) for fifteen years, at 5.5% interest, to pay off a debt incurred by private parties vis a vis other private parties. It was the straw that broke the reindeer’s back.

What happened next was extraordinary. The belief that citizens had to pay for the mistakes of a financial monopoly, that an entire nation must be taxed to pay off private debts was shattered, transforming the relationship between citizens and their political institutions and eventually driving Iceland’s leaders to the side of their constituents. The Head of State, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, refused to ratify the law that would have made Iceland’s citizens responsible for its bankers’ debts, and accepted calls for a referendum.

Of course the international community only increased the pressure on Iceland. Great Britain and Holland threatened dire reprisals that would isolate the country. As Icelanders went to vote, foreign bankers threatened to block any aid from the IMF. The British government threatened to freeze Icelander savings and checking accounts. As Grimsson said: “We were told that if we refused the international community’s conditions, we would become the Cuba of the North. But if we had accepted, we would have become the Haiti of the North.” (How many times have I written that when Cubans see the dire state of their neighbor, Haiti, they count themselves lucky.)

In the March 2010 referendum, 93% voted against repayment of the debt. The IMF immediately froze its loan. But the revolution (though not televised in the United States), would not be intimidated. With the support of a furious citizenry, the government launched civil and penal investigations into those responsible for the financial crisis. Interpol put out an international arrest warrant for the ex-president of Kaupthing, Sigurdur Einarsson, as the other bankers implicated in the crash fled the country.

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NATO,The Pentagon Gain Assets

2011-08-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

Obama, the war time president, has spent close to a billion dollars in this military shakedown. What will his cut be ?

Comrades to competitors: France and Italy vie for a slice of Libyan pie

The race for Libya's vast oil wealth is gathering momentum. States who worked together during the NATO airstrikes are now working against each other in the battle to secure lucrative energy contracts.

Meanwhile, fears are rising that a new regime in Libya could easily slide into corruption.

Half a billion dollars from Italy, and now a whopping $1.5 billion from the UN in unfrozen Libyan assets – on top of $300 million dollars from Turkey.

As discussions abound about the future of a post-Gaddafi Libya, it is the money that has been talking the loudest.

“Governments have a strong interest in opening up new channels for opening up business again and everybody is racing for this,” says Lucca Galassi, a journalist from PeaceReporter.net. “The French have Total and have other companies like Alcatel, Ariva and even train companies that are operating there.”

Italy’s foreign minister has denied that there is a race on with France to be the first on the ground to restart business in Libya, but the Italians have made clear their eagerness to maintain the extremely close trade ties they enjoyed under the Gaddafi regime.

But as the money begins to flow to help fund the National Transitional Council as it takes power, a big question mark remains over who exactly owns the vast funds.

“Now in Gaddafi's state, which is coming to an end, the borderline between the private wealth of the Gaddafi family and the private wealth of the state were not very clear, so its hard to say how much of this money was a direct emanation of Gaddafi's private wealth and how much of it could be categorized as Libyan assets in general,” says journalist Fabricio Moronta.

The Gaddafi family was often accused of using Libya's riches as their own personal pocket money. Now there are concerns that the unfreezing of Libyan assets without effective monitoring could open the floodgates to new corruption.

“Libya is now a land of opportunities and everybody is trying to, I would say, loot. It is a sort of looting. They are trying to exploit this war as best as they can,” Lucca Galassi.

But with lucrative oil, gas and infrastructure projects to follow as the war-torn country rebuilds, everyone, it seems, wants a slice of the action.

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Timber !!!!!!!

2011-08-27T04:46:00.001-07:00

The Elite

2011-08-27T04:44:00.000-07:00

And don't forget about her mom, Mrs. Robinson. She lives rent free at The White House and drags her around everywhere she goes.

Time for the White House to rein in Michelle Obama's out-of-control spending

By Nile Gardiner World Last updated: August 26th, 2011

Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia greet Michelle Obama and her daughter Sasha last year (Photo: AFP/Getty)
With the United States facing a national debt of more than $14 trillion, the largest since World War Two, wouldn’t it make sense for the White House itself to start trimming its own spending? A good place to begin cutting would be Michelle Obama’s rather generous vacation programme. Keith Coffler, who edits the influential White House Dossier, notes that Michelle Obama spent no less than 42 days on vacation over the past year – that’s one in every nine days:
Her vacations, the cost of which are mostly borne by taxpayers, include trips to Panama City, Fla., Martha’s Vineyard, Hawaii, South Africa, Latin America, Vail, Colo., and her visit this week to her brother in Corvallis, Ore.
The total does not include a nine day sojourn in Martha’s Vineyard that the Obamas will enjoy this month. Nor does it include a trip she made to Ireland and Great Britain in May, which I’m counting as official travel.
As Coffler points out, there is a significant cost to the public purse:
Taxpayers pick up most of the cost of transporting the first lady and her extensive entourage – including Secret Service and her staff – to her various destinations. While she may in some cases pay some of the tab for her personal expenses and travel, the amount is dwarfed by the overall cost to the public.
It is unclear what the total cost to the taxpayer actually amounts to. According to one estimate provided by the Daily Mail, the First Lady stands accused by sources inside the White House of spending “$10 million of US taxpayers’ money on vacations alone in the past year.” Judging by the amount of vacation time Michelle Obama has taken and the level of security and staffing that she has, this sounds like a plausible figure. It would be in the public interest to have the exact numbers provided by the White House so that Americans know precisely how much of their money is being spent on vacations.
There does appear to be an unhealthy sense of entitlement on the part of the First Lady, which seems in poor taste at a time when 14 million Americans are out of work, the housing market is collapsing, and the United States is facing the strong possibility of a double-dip recession. Perhaps Mrs Obama could take a few tips on austerity as well as humility from her British counterpart Samantha Cameron, who has just one assistant, in contrast to at least 17 personal staff for the First Lady, and doesn’t feel the need to travel en masse with an entourage at taxpayers’ expense. The vast majority of Americans are making significant sacrifices at this time of economic turmoil, and tens of millions are struggling even to make ends meet. It’s time for both the President and the First Lady to exercise a bit of fiscal responsibility, not least when they are spending other people’s hard-earned money.

Less Than 1000 Days

2011-08-24T06:12:00.000-07:00

Personally, I think it would be difficult to spend 4 Trillion Federal Reserve Notes this fast, don't you think ?

National debt has increased $4 trillion under Obama

(Credit: CBS/iStockphoto)

The latest posting by the Treasury Department shows the national debt has now increased $4 trillion on President Obama's watch.
The debt was $10.626 trillion on the day Mr. Obama took office. The latest calculation from Treasury shows the debt has now hit $14.639 trillion.
It's the most rapid increase in the debt under any U.S. president.
The national debt increased $4.9 trillion during the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush. The debt now is rising at a pace to surpass that amount during Mr. Obama's four-year term.
Mr. Obama blames policies inherited from his predecessor's administration for the soaring debt. He singles out:
"two wars we didn't pay for"

"a prescription drug program for seniors...we didn't pay for."

"tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 that were not paid for."

CBSNews.com special report: America's debt battle
He goes on to blame the recession, and its resulting decrease in tax revenue on businesses, for making fewer sales, and more employees being laid off. He says the recession also resulted in more government spending due to increased unemployment insurance payments, subsidies to farms and funding of infrastructure programs that were part of his stimulus program.
At the first town hall meeting of his Midwestern bus trip last week, Mr. Obama told an audience in Minnesota that "the debt problem is real and the deficit problem is real."
But he also called in "a manageable problem."
The Gross National Debt now stands at 97.6 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product - the total value of goods and services produced by labor and property in the U.S.

Freedom Of Information Lawsuit

2011-08-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg finally got the Fed to fork over the information.

Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Loans from Fed

Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) were the reigning champions of finance in 2006 as home prices peaked, leading the 10 biggest U.S. banks and brokerage firms to their best year ever with $104 billion of profits.
By 2008, the housing market’s collapse forced those companies to take more than six times as much, $669 billion, in emergency loans from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The loans dwarfed the $160 billion in public bailouts the top 10 got from the U.S. Treasury, yet until now the full amounts have remained secret.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s unprecedented effort to keep the economy from plunging into depression included lending banks and other companies as much as $1.2 trillion of public money, about the same amount U.S. homeowners currently owe on 6.5 million delinquent and foreclosed mortgages. The largest borrower, Morgan Stanley (MS), got as much as $107.3 billion, while Citigroup took $99.5 billion and Bank of America $91.4 billion, according to a Bloomberg News compilation of data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, months of litigation and an act of Congress.
“These are all whopping numbers,” said Robert Litan, a former Justice Department official who in the 1990s served on a commission probing the causes of the savings and loan crisis. “You’re talking about the aristocracy of American finance going down the tubes without the federal money.”
(View the Bloomberg interactive graphic to chart the Fed’s financial bailout.)
Foreign Borrowers
It wasn’t just American finance. Almost half of the Fed’s top 30 borrowers, measured by peak balances, were European firms. They included Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, which took $84.5 billion, the most of any non-U.S. lender, and Zurich-based UBS AG (UBSN), which got $77.2 billion. Germany’s Hypo Real Estate Holding AG borrowed $28.7 billion, an average of $21 million for each of its 1,366 employees.
The largest borrowers also included Dexia SA (DEXB), Belgium’s biggest bank by assets, and Societe Generale SA, based in Paris, whose bond-insurance prices have surged in the past month as investors speculated that the spreading sovereign debt crisis in Europe might increase their chances of default.
The $1.2 trillion peak on Dec. 5, 2008 -- the combined outstanding balance under the seven programs tallied by Bloomberg -- was almost three times the size of the U.S. federal budget deficit that year and more than the total earnings of all federally insured banks in the U.S. for the decade through 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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Benron Is Worried

2011-08-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

This week may be when the Euro is "kaput". Benron is already swapping with the Swiss.

Diversify, Diversify.....Diversify

2011-08-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

What an incredibly corrupt market in the US. The Fed has Washingtons back, and they have Wall Streets back.

Wall Street’s new lie to Main Street – Asset Allocation

Jan 24th 2011 4:18PM

The greatest lie ever told used to be Wall Street telling main street to “buy and hold”. Of course thats what they told you every chance they got. It’s not what they did. The holding period for stocks dropped from 8 years in 1960s to 2 years in the 1990s and 8 months in the 2000s. Today, stocks are bought and sold in milliseconds. Which is one of the big reasons you don’t hear much about buy and hold any more. That and the fact it didn’t work. I think individual owners of stocks finally came to understand that old saying “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me for 50 years, shame on me. “

But Wall Street needs a marketing slogan doesn’t it ? How else are they going to get all the suckers back into the market ? (Great article on the Stock market is for Suckers from Macleans.ca). So what’s the new mantra that all those brokers, mutual funds and ETFs want you to buy in to ?

Asset Allocation (Aka diversification) is the best approach to investing. Everyone is talking about asset allocation. It’s not a surprise given all the new funds, REITs and ETFs that have popped up in the last couple years. The more diversification sold to individuals, the more money to buy them all. Wall Street has to sell what it has doesn’t it ? It’s just good business for them. But not for you.

No longer does Wall Street even want you to consider buying what you know. Remember Peter Lynch describing how buyers of stocks should pay attention to what they see in the mall and elsewhere and use that as a source of ideas and information ? Or Warren Buffet suggesting that we should actually invest in things we know and look for the value there ? Well you can forget about that kind of investing.

Today, your investment advisors want you invest in things you have absolutely no fricking clue about and have pretty much absolutely no fricking ability to learn about.

They want you to diversify into Emerging Markets, Commodities, International Bonds, Munis, Real Estate Investment Trusts, ….and.. well, a lot of different “stuff”. Here is an excerpt from an article from a Sarasota paper today:

“For context, I will provide the performance of my “moderate investor’s asset allocation” for both 2010 and with its predecessors for the period since 2000. For the previous 10 years, its predecessors were up about a cumulative 104 percent.

Last year’s version of the allocation was:

Fifteen percent in an S&P 500 index fund (IVV).

Five percent in a small-capitalization value fund (VBR).

Twenty percent in a diversified international stock fund (VEU).

Five percent in an emerging markets international fund (VWO).

Five percent in Real Estate Investment Trusts (VNQ).

Ten percent in large and mid-capitalization stocks with a history of paying competitive and increasing dividends (VIG).

Ten percent in a diversified portfolio of convertible securities (ACHIX).

Five percent in a U.S. Treasury inflation-indexed bonds and notes (VIPSX).

Fifteen percent in an international bond fund with traditional fixed coupon bonds (GIM).

Five percent in an international bond fund for inflation-indexed bonds (WIP).

Five percent in cash equivalents.”

That is a suggestion for a “moderate investor” . Let me translate this all for you. “I want you to invest 5pct in cash and the rest in 10 different funds about which you know absolutely nothing. I want you to make this investment knowing that even if there were 128 hours in a day and you had a year long vacation, you could not possibly begin to understand all of these products. In fact, I don’t understand them either, but because I know it sounds good and everyone is making the same kind of recommendations, we all can pretend we are smart and going to make a lot of money. Until we don’t“

Asset allocation is about making you a sucker. Do you seriously want to put a significant percentage of the money you will need for your future in funds that put your money into things you have absolutely no idea about? Will you have any clue about when to change your asset allocation ? Will you change it based on changes in the dollar ? Changes in domestic inflation ? Changes in European inflation ? Inflation in China ? Changes in tax laws in Italy and Greece ? Changes in interest rates ? Trade balances ?

It comes down to this. Do you want to invest in something you know, or in something Wall Street wants you to believe ?

Do you really think your broker, his boss and the analysts at their firm really are being completely honest with you about how much they know about these investments they want you to make ? Ask them if they are making the exact same investment with their money. Ask them if they would make the same investment if they were not allowed to look at a quote screen all day long like you aren’t able to – which tells you if they trust the investment or want to watch it second by second knowing they may have to pull the trigger and get out on a moments notice.

Ask your broker for the names of people they have had to call or get a call from and let them know that their investment has been wiped out. Talk to those people to understand what the ramifications of making in an investment in something you know nothing about might be.

Don’t be a sucker. Remember this. It’s better to make less, or next to nothing than to lose everything. Don’t get greedy. Don;t get desperate. The stock market can’t save your financial future, but it can end it .

http://blogmaverick.com/2010/08/20/the-stock-market-is-still-for-suckers-and-why-you-should-put-your-money-in-the-bank/

Homeland Security List

2011-08-12T17:49:00.000-07:00

Ein fuhrer Obama, ein reich Nazi !

DHS Proposes Secret Watchlist Database, Privacy Groups Protest
Tiffany Kaiser - August 10, 2011 4:26 PM

The Department of Homeland Security is planning to duplicate the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database to expand an extensive database called Watchlist Service -- and no one can know if they're on the list

Privacy is a major concern in today's day and age, whether regulators are calling Facebook out on its invasive features like facial recognition or consumers are worrying about new camera technology like license plate recognition and red light camera.

Now, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is giving the American people a whole new list of worries in the realm of privacy. According to recent reports, DHS is planning to duplicate the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database to expand an extensive database called Watchlist Service, which will include names, birthdays, photos and biometrics of the accused. The new watchlist will combine four different DHS systems of records including IDENT, which is managed by the US-VISIT Program; Treasury Enforcement Communication System (TECS), which is managed by Custom and Border Protection (CBP) Passenger Systems Program Office; Transportation Security Threat Assessment System managed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the TSA's Secure Flight Records.

The problem is that the DHS has proposed to exempt the Watchlist Service from Privacy Act provisions, which means that a person will never know if they are listed.

The FBI's Terrorist Screening Database has been inaccurate in the past, listing people in the database wrongfully. In fact, the FBI improperly spied on peace groups such as Greenpeace, and categorized their nonviolent acts of civil disobedience as "Acts of Terrorism."

With DHS creating a consolidated watchlist database for increased government access, more names are likely to be placed on the list. But people will not be allowed to see the list or know if they have been wrongfully placed on this list.

DHS has proposed the exemption from Privacy Act provisions because of "criminal, civil and administrative enforcement requirements." Now, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has led several privacy groups and civil rights organizations to protest the new DHS plan.

EPIC and its coalition of privacy groups have filed a statement that says that DHS' Watchlist Service tries to "circumvent" privacy protections covered by the Privacy Act. Also, the statement mentions that DHS has admitted that it does not control the accuracy of information in these records, and individuals do not have the opportunity to decline information. The 1974 Privacy Act requires DHS to let subjects know when they are under government surveillance, and to provide "a meaningful opportunity to correct information that could negatively affect them."

The privacy groups are also concerned about mission creep, which is the expansion of a project or mission beyond its original goals.

"Under this proposal, the agency would have the right to maintain and rely upon information it does not know to be accurate, relevant, timely, or complete without recourse -- the right to subject citizens to arbitrary decisions."

This proposal could harm the reputations of innocent citizens. For instance, SHTF Plan calculated that the number of people added to the no-fly list and terrorist watchlists doubles each year. According to these calculations, there will be 550,000,000 people on the watchlist by 2019 and by 2023, the watchlist will exceed the world's population -- basically saying that the U.S. government may restrict air travel altogether.

"DHS' approach twists the purpose of the Privacy Act exemptions almost beyond recognition," said Gavin Baker from OMB Watch. "Exemptions should be limited to the time when they're needed, and not under active investigation. This isn't necessary to protect the integrity of investigations, and it invites abuses."

Sense From Paul

2011-08-11T04:00:00.000-07:00

Iran Next ?

2011-08-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

Don't you know those sleezy politicians are itching to start a new war just to take the heat off.

Libya says NATO strike kills dozens of civilians

By Hamid Ould in Algiers and David Brunnstrom in Brussels | Reuters – Tue, Aug 9, 2011

ALGIERS, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Libyan state media said on Tuesday dozens of civilians had been killed in a NATO strike on a village about 150 km (90 miles) east of Tripoli, and the alliance said it was looking into the reports.
Libyan state television showed the charred bodies of at least three young children who, it said, were killed by a NATO strike on Monday night on the village of Majar. It also showed wounded women and children being treated in a hospital.
The television station reported that a total of 85 people had been killed in Majar, but it did not say how many of these were civilians. The official Jana news agency said "20 families" had been killed, without giving a more precise figure.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the reports of casualties. The government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi announced three days of mourning for the victims, according to state television.
The village of Najar is near Zlitan, on Libya's Mediterranean coast, where NATO forces have been mounting attacks on government troops.
A NATO official said the alliance hit a target in Zlitan on Monday night but he could not say if it was in the same location where Libyan state media reported casualties.
"We have been chasing this (report) up. We cannot confirm reports of civilian casualties but we would regret any loss of civilian life. NATO goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties, unlike the Gaddafi regime, which is deliberately targeting civilians," said the official.
(Reporting by Hamid Ould in Algiers and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Sinclair

2011-08-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

Looks like Jimmy was right.

The War Machine

2011-08-07T07:21:00.000-07:00

From the Banana Wars to Iraq, protecting profits.

Obama Gathers Troops For 2012 Election

2011-08-05T05:02:00.000-07:00

Obama's constituents are getting organized for and a second term.

Food stamp use rises to record 45.8 million

Blake Ellis, On Thursday August 4, 2011, 5:03 pm EDT

Nearly 15% of the U.S. population relied on food stamps in May, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

The number of Americans using the government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) -- more commonly referred to as food stamps -- shot to an all-time high of 45.8 million in May, the USDA reported. That's up 12% from a year ago, and 34% higher than two years ago.

The program provides monthly benefits to low-income individuals and families, which they can use at stores that accept SNAP benefits.

To qualify for food stamps, an individual's income can't exceed $1,174 a month or $14,088 a year -- an amount that is 130% of the national poverty level.

Extreme debtors

The average food stamp benefit was $133.80 per person and $283.65 per household in May.

The highest concentration of food stamp users were in California, Florida, New York and Texas -- where more than 3 million residents in each state received food stamps in May.

The rise in food stamp use comes as the U.S. job market continues to sputter, and food prices across the country climb.

But a spike in food stamp users in Alabama may have been responsible for pushing total usage unusually higher in May. Following a series of devastating storms, many residents received disaster assistance under the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the USDA said. Food stamp use in the state surged from 868,813 in April to 1,762,481 in May.

Unemployment benefits at risk

"USDA does not anticipate that trend of increase to continue, given that it appears to represent a response to a single disaster," the USDA said.

Are you a new food stamp user? If you're interested in sharing your story about how you get by on food stamps and budget your costs, e-mail blake.ellis@turner.com for the chance to be included in an upcoming story on CNNMoney.com.

Is Benron a True Money Printer ?

2011-08-05T04:06:00.000-07:00

Or just an amateur ? The next round of stimulus is coming soon.

Max Says It All

2011-07-28T04:39:00.000-07:00

Banned By US Networks

2011-07-23T06:38:00.000-07:00

If you want a bailout, you shouldn't broadcast this. The FCC.

Banksters Next Move

2011-07-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

Not that this should be of any surprise.

States negotiating immunity for banks over foreclosures

(Reuters) - State attorneys general are negotiating to give major banks wide immunity over irregularities in handling foreclosures, even as evidence has emerged that banks are continuing to file questionable documents.
A coalition of all 50 states' attorneys general has been negotiating settlements with five of the biggest U.S. banks that would include payment of up to $25 billion in penalties and commitments to follow new rules. In exchange, the banks would get immunity from civil lawsuits by the states, as well as similar guarantees by the Justice Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development, which have participated in the talks.
State and federal officials declined to say if any form of immunity from criminal prosecution also is under discussion. The banks involved in the talks are Bank of America, Wells Fargo, CitiGroup, JPMorgan Chase and Ally Financial.
REUTERS REPORT PROMPTS LETTER
Reuters reported Monday that major banks and other loan servicers have continued to file questionable documents in foreclosure cases. These include false mortgage assignments, and promissory notes with suspect or missing "endorsements," which prove ownership. The Reuters report also showed continued "robo-signing," in which lenders' employees or outside contractors churn out reams of documents without fully understanding their content. The report turned up several cases involving individuals who were publicly identified as robo-signers months ago.
Reuters found that such activity has continued even after 14 major mortgage lenders signed settlements with federal bank regulators promising to halt such practices and give remediation to some homeowners who were harmed.
In response to these disclosures, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development, and nine other senators sent a letter to federal bank regulators, asking them to disclose information gathered about banks' foreclosure practices.
"This is especially important given this week's allegations that mortgage servicers continue to engage in widespread 'robo-signing' despite your assurances that the illegal actions would not continue," said the letter, which also cited a report by the Associated Press.
Several senators on the Senate Banking Committee, including Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican, have faulted bank regulators for not conducting a thorough investigation of the banks' handling of foreclosures. Six months ago, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other federal regulators conducted brief "examinations" of banks, during which they looked at a sample of only 2,800 loan files.
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has publicly objected to any wide-ranging grant of immunity by the other states. Schneiderman has launched his own investigations of the banks, including probes of suspected misdeeds in "securitizing" mortgages. Securitization involves packaging large numbers of mortgages into pools and selling securities that give investors income from the mortgages.
"Attorney General Schneiderman remains concerned by any settlement agreement that would preclude state attorneys general from conducting comprehensive investigations of the mortgage crisis," a spokesman said.
Three states' attorneys general -- in Iowa, Illinois and Connecticut -- have been designated to handle the states' negotiations with the banks over protection from civil suits and other issues. Spokesmen for all three declined to comment on the progress of negotiations, or on the evidence of continuing wrongdoing by the banks. But people close to the talks said there is still widespread disagreement over the extent of immunity and the dollar amount of penalties.
The banks involved have declined to comment on the talks.
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New Stasi Video

2011-07-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

Remember, if you see something, say something. Big Sis and her internal police continue to spread fear and remove personal rights.

The video is part of Homeland Security’s $10 million dollar “See Something, Say Something” program that encourages Americans to report “suspicious activity,” which in every case throughout history has been a trait of oppressive, dictatorial regimes.
In the course of the 10 minute clip, a myriad of different behaviors are characterized as terrorism, including opposing surveillance, using a video camera, talking to police officers, wearing hoodies, driving vans, writing on a piece of paper, and using a cell phone recording application.
Despite encouraging viewers not to pay attention to a person’s race in determining whether or not they may be a terrorist, almost all of the scenarios in the clip proceed to portray white people as the most likely terrorists. Bizarrely, nearly every single one of the “patriotic” Americans who reports on their fellow citizen is either black, Asian or Arab. Imagine if the video had portrayed every terrorist as an Arab and every patriotic snoop as white, there’d be an outcry and rightly so, but this strange reversal must have been deliberate on the part of the DHS, but why? Is this merely political correctness taken to the extreme or is something deeper at work?
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the DHS’ own internal documents list predominantly white conservative groups as the most likely terrorists, such as Ron Paul supporters, gun owners, gold bullion enthusiasts, and a myriad of other comparatively banal political interests that are largely the domain of white middle class Americans.
This has little to do with the color of a person’s skin, and everything to do with the fact that white, middle class Americans are the biggest roadblock when it comes to Big Sis expanding its control over every facet of American society.

Steve Wynn Conference Call

2011-07-18T17:36:00.000-07:00

At some point business leaders will have to pick up the pieces.

Wynn Slams Obama On Business: "Responsible For This Fear In America"

Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, slams President Obama on a company conference call today. Below are the most damning portions of the call:

I believe in Las Vegas. I think its best days are ahead of it. But I'm afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States. You watch television and see what's going on on this debt ceiling issue. And what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President and nothing's going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress. But everybody is so political, so focused on holding their job for the next year that the discussion in Washington is nauseating.

And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right. A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution. Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration.And it makes you slow down and not invest your money. Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America.

You bet and until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it's not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, God, don't be attacking Obama. Well, this is Obama's deal and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America.

The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest, their holding too much money. We haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody's afraid of the government and there's no need soft peddling it, it's the truth. It is the truth. And that's true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I'm telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he's gone, everybody's going to be sitting on their thumbs.

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Fiat Finale ?

2011-07-18T04:01:00.000-07:00

Gold has decoupled from the US dollar and Euro. It is about time.
Gold Rallies to Record in Best Run Since 1980

By Nicholas Larkin and Glenys Sim - Jul 18, 2011 4:10 PM GMT+0700
Gold rose to a record above $1,600 an ounce as debt concerns in Europe and the U.S. boosted demand for the metal as a protection of wealth. Bullion climbed to all- time highs in euros and pounds and silver topped $40 an ounce.
President Barack Obama is pressing congressional leaders for a multitrillion-dollar agreement in deficit-cutting talks as negotiators near an Aug. 2 deadline for raising the debt limit. A default would cause more panic than the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers told CNN in an interview broadcast yesterday. Treasuries rose and the euro fell amid concern European leaders will fail to stop the region’s spreading debt woes at a summit this week.
“The market is showing concerns that the debt problem is not going away,” said Bernard Sin, the head of currency and metal trading at MKS Finance SA, a bullion refiner in Geneva. “Investors are happy to accumulate and $1,700 is not difficult to achieve” by the end of the year, he said.
Immediate-delivery gold gained as much as $7.25, or 0.5 percent, to $1,600.80 an ounce and traded at $1,599.40 by 9:50 a.m. in London. Prices are up for an 11th day, the longest streak of gains since July 1980. Gold for August delivery was 0.6 percent higher at $1,599.90 an ounce on the Comex in New York after reaching a record $1,601.20.
Gold is up 13 percent this year, heading for an 11th straight annual gain, the longest winning streak since at least 1920 in London. The MSCI All-Country World Index of equities gained 1.7 percent in 2011, the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of 24 commodities is up 9.5 percent and Treasuries returned 3.5 percent, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch index.
Greek Debt
Bullion jumped to a record 1,139.395 euros and 994.91 British pounds today after European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet reiterated his opposition to any restructuring of Greek debt.
Euro-area leaders will meet in Brussels on July 21 to discuss the “financial stability” of the region, European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said July 15. The second summit in a month follows a worsening of the crisis that drove bond yields to euro-area records across Europe’s most debt-laden nations.
“The situation in the euro area, as well as the proliferation of the debt-ceiling problem in the U.S., continues to be a very strong focus,” Ben Westmore, a minerals and energy economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB), said by phone from Melbourne. “It’s difficult to see the problems and downside risk to global growth being less of a focus.”

Public Service & CONgress

2011-07-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

Legal Tender

2011-07-14T04:03:00.000-07:00

He is just jealous.

Vladimir Putin Calls Bernanke A Hooligan, Angry At American Money Printing

Who would have thought that Ron Paul’s ideological ally in his quest to take down the Chairsatan would be none other than the Russian dictator-in-waiting (or rather, in actuality), Vladimir Putin.
In a speech before the of economic experts at the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian prime minister had the following to say: “Thank God, or unfortunately, we do not print a reserve currency but what are they doing? They are behaving like hooligans, switching on the printing press and tossing them around the whole world, forgetting their main obligations.”
What appears to have angered the former KGB spy is the end of QE2. According to RIAN: “Putin’s comments came in the wake of the completion of the US’ quantitative easing (QE) 2 program on June 30, in which the Federal Reserve bought $600 billion worth of its Treasury bonds. The Fed’s first round of QE, which ended in March last year, amounted to less than half the size of QE2.” We can’t wait to hear what expletive Putin will usher once Bernanke launches QE3.
What are the next steps: “The Russian authorities have said they would like to see a basket of currencies including the ruble replacing the dollar as the main reserve currency, although most analysts have said a more realistic target for Russia would be if the ruble became a regional reserve currency for the CIS.”
Too bad most analysts are right 9 out of -7 times. And last time we checked Russia was the largest oil producer in the world, which means it can do pretty much whatever it wants. Which, assuming Russia forms a 21st century axis with China and Germany, as many have suggested, means that while analysts can downplay the impact of what Russian ambitions in the monetary arena mean, pretty soon the only reserve currency in the world will be the one backed not with Tomahawk missiles or printing presses, but actual, hard assets

More Cyber Dollars

2011-07-14T03:55:00.000-07:00

The next round of money printing is just around the corner.

Bernanke: Fed May Launch New Round of Stimulus

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Wednesday that a new stimulus program is in the works that will entail additional asset purchases, the clearest indication yet that the central bank is contemplating another round of monetary easing.

Getty Images

Bernanke said in prepared remarks that the economy is growing more slowly than expected, and should that continue the central bank stands at the ready with more accommodative measures.

"Once the temporary shocks that have been holding down economic activity pass, we expect to again see the effects of policy accommodation reflected in stronger economic activity and job creation," he said

"However, given the range of uncertainties about the strength of the recovery and prospects for inflation over the medium term, the Federal Reserve remains prepared to respond should economic developments indicate that an adjustment in the stance of monetary policy would be appropriate."

Markets reacted immediately to the remarks, sending stocks up sharply in a matter of minutes. Gold prices continued to surge past record levels, while Treasury yields moved higher as well.

But some analysts pointed out that, while Bernanke was suggesting the Fed might add stimulus, he also was saying that the current "soft patch" may prove temporary.

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Paul v. Benron

2011-07-14T03:49:00.000-07:00

This is a classic ! Benron is getting testy these days.

Debt Cieling BS

2011-07-14T03:21:00.007-07:00

Rage & Outrage

2011-07-13T03:57:00.003-07:00

I just hope they get Dick Fuld.

Oceana Oligarchs

2011-07-04T05:12:00.000-07:00

The corporate elite are doing well .

We Knew They Got Raises. But This?

Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News

Philippe Dauman of Viacom led the executive pay list in 2010. The median was $10.8 million.

By PRADNYA JOSHI

IT turns out that the good times are even better than we thought for American chief executives.

A preliminary examination of executive pay in 2010, based on data available as of April 1, found that the paychecks for top American executives were growing again, after shrinking during the 2008-9 recession.
But that study, conducted for The New York Times by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm based in Redwood City, Calif., was just an early snapshot, and there were even more riches to come. Some big companies had not yet disclosed their executive compensation.
So Sunday Business asked Equilar to run the numbers again.
Brace yourself.
The final figures show that the median pay for top executives at 200 big companies last year was $10.8 million. That works out to a 23 percent gain from 2009. The earlier study had put the median pay at a none-too-shabby $9.6 million, up 12 percent.
Total C.E.O. pay hasn’t quite returned to its heady, prerecession levels — but it certainly seems headed there. Despite the soft economy, weak home prices and persistently high unemployment, some top executives are already making more than they were before the economy soured.
Pay skyrocketed last year because many companies brought back cash bonuses, says Aaron Boyd, head of research at Equilar. Cash bonuses, as opposed to those awarded in stock options, jumped by an astounding 38 percent, the final numbers show.
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So Much For Capitalism

2011-07-04T04:46:00.000-07:00

The economy backstopped by the US Federal Reserve.

The U.S. Monetary System and Descent into Fascism

An Interview with Dr. Edwin Vieira: The following interview with Dr. Vieira was conducted in early June of 2011 for the subscribers of The Casey Report – but after careful consideration, we decided that the content is so important; it needs to be shared with a wider audience. Feel free to pass it along.

Dees Illustration

David Galland
Casey Research

Edwin Vieira, Jr., holds four degrees from Harvard: A.B. (Harvard College), A.M. and Ph.D. (Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences), and J.D. (Harvard Law School).

For more than thirty years, he has practiced law, with emphasis on constitutional issues. In the Supreme Court of the United States, he successfully argued or briefed the cases leading to the landmark decisions Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson, and Communications Workers of America v. Beck, which established constitutional and statutory limitations on the uses to which labor unions, in both the private and the public sectors, may apply fees extracted from nonunion workers as a condition of their employment.

He has written numerous monographs and articles in scholarly journals, and lectured throughout the county. His most recent work on money and banking is the two-volume Pieces of Eight: The Monetary Powers and Disabilities of the United States Constitution (2002), the most comprehensive study in existence of American monetary law and history viewed from a constitutional perspective.

He is also the co-author (under a nom de plume) of the political novel CRA$HMAKER: A Federal Affaire (2000), a not-so-fictional story of an engineered crash of the Federal Reserve System, and the political upheaval it causes.

His latest book is: How to Dethrone the Imperial Judiciary... and Constitutional "Homeland Security," Volume One, The Nation in Arms.

We first met Dr. Vieira at our Casey Research Boca Raton Summit and were sufficiently impressed to want to hear more, and to share more, of his work with readers of The Casey Report.

DAVID: Before kicking things off, I’d refer readers to Dr. Vieira’s in-depth and excellent paper, "A Cross of Gold," as that provides a more detailed analysis on how the corrupt U.S. monetary system might transition into something more honest and effective.

Getting started, from a big-picture perspective, technically speaking, is the current U.S. monetary system actually constitutional?

EDWIN: Well, technically speaking, factually speaking, legally speaking, no. In a word, no.

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New Low for TSA

2011-06-27T06:15:00.000-07:00

Incredible. I'm sure Big Sis supports her troops.

TSA Pats Down Cancer-Stricken 95-Year-Old Woman, Removes Adult Diaper

TSA security officers at Florida's Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport patted down a cancer-stricken, 95-year-old woman and forcibly removed her adult diaper during the search, CNN reports. Could this end up being yet another TSA PR nightmare?

Jean Weber was traveling with her ill mother on June 18 from Florida to Michigan to see relatives "in the final stages of her battle with leukemia" when the incident occurred.

Weber told CNN that while she thinks the officers may have been "procedurally correct...the procedure needs to be changed." Weber noted that her mother had had a blood transfusion the week before.

A Suspiciously "Wet and Firm" Diaper

While passing through security, TSA officials "felt something suspicious and they couldn't determine what it was," so they took Weber's mother to a private room.

A TSA agent told Weber that her mother's Depends underwear was "wet and firm and they couldn't check it thoroughly," so the mother-daughter duo left in search of a bathroom to remove the underwear. Weber did not have an extra pair of Depends with her.

Weber "burst into tears" but her mother was "very calm" even though she was forced to go through the airport without underwear. Her elderly mother was taken to the boarding gate without her as Weber was still going through security.

TSA Defends Search

In response to the incident, the TSA said on Sunday that "While every person and item must be screened before entering the secure boarding area, TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner. We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure."

This isn't the first time the TSA has gotten into hot water over pat down procedures. In April, a video of a 6-year-old getting a pat down at the New Orleans airport went viral, while in May, a video of a baby getting a pat down caused quite a stir.

The ECB / Goldman Central Bank

2011-06-26T03:44:00.000-07:00

Goldman Sachs former executive is now Chairman of the Euro.

Mario Draghi appointed European Central Bank president
EU leaders appointed Italy's Mario Draghi as the next president of the European Central Bank on Friday and another Italian on the ECB's executive board agreed to step down to smooth the process, EU sources said.

In draft conclusions agreed at a summit in Brussels, EU leaders "appointed Mr Mario Draghi president of the European Central Bank from November 1, 2011, to October 31, 2019."
The 63-year-old economist and banker will replace France's Jean-Claude Trichet, who steps down at the end of October after eight years in the eurozone's top monetary policy post.
French officials had expressed concern in recent weeks about Draghi's appointment as it would have meant two Italians being on the ECB's six-member executive board with no French representation. The other Italian, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, is not due to leave his eight-year post until May 2013.
In April, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Italy would yield Bini Smaghi's place on the board to a French candidate in return for France's backing of Draghi for president.
But that proved problematic, with Bini Smaghi saying he had absolutely no intention of stepping down early
EU sources said that Bini Smaghi had assured EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Sarkozy in discussions on Friday that he would relinquish his post in the coming weeks.

"We expect an announcement shortly," one senior EU source said. Another said: "This morning, in the Council, Van Rompuy and the Italians will explain that Bini Smaghi will leave in due time."
It is not clear what job Bini Smaghi will move to, but it had been expected that he would become head of the Italian central bank or a similar high-level financial post.
Bini Smaghi was not immediately reachable for comment.
Sources in Frankfurt said the ECB was expected to issue a statement later on Friday.
While Draghi, a highly respected economist and banker, has won widespread backing for his candidacy in recent months, there were concerns earlier in the process that his nationality and past employment with Goldman Sachs could hinder his pathway to Europe's top central banking job.
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The Duopoly

2011-06-26T03:35:00.000-07:00

Fed Board Of Criminals

2011-06-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

I am sure Ron Paul will look into this.

NY Fed Won't Say How Much Money Went to Iraq

The New York Fed is refusing to tell investigators how many billions of dollars it shipped to Iraq during the early days of the US invasion there, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction told CNBC Tuesday.

The Fed's lack of disclosure is making it difficult for the inspector general to follow the paper trail of billions of dollars that went missing in the chaotic rush to finance the Iraq occupation, and to determine how much of that money was stolen.
The New York Fed will not reveal details, the inspector general said, because the money initially came from an account at the Fed that was held on behalf of the people of Iraq and financed by cash from the Oil-for-Food program. Without authorization from the account holder, the Iraqi government itself, the inspector general's office was told it can't receive information about the account.
The problem is that critics of the Iraqi government believe highly placed officials there are among the people who may have made off with the money in the first place.
And some think that will make it highly unlikely the Iraqis will sign off on revealing the total dollar amount.
“My frustration is not with the New York Fed, it is with the Iraqis,” said Stuart Bowen Jr., the Special Inspector General for Iraq reconstruction (SIGIR). “They haven’t been sufficiently responsive.”
As for the New York Fed’s position of secrecy about the total amount transferred to Iraq, Bowen said, “We understand it in the sense that it's a foreign account and the account holder, according to their own rules, must provide permission.”
A spokesman for the New York Fed issued a statement to CNBC Tuesday evening. “The New York Fed has cooperated closely with SIGIR during its investigations and will continue to do so, in accordance with our policies related to disclosing customer account information, which generally includes receiving the consent of the account holder,” the spokesman said

The impasse comes as the inspector general continues a massive and years-long investigation into what happened to billions of dollars in cash that left the New York Fed and vanished during the US occupation.

It was one of the largest shipments of cash in history. And the inspector general says that if the money was stolen, that would represent the largest heist in history.
According to a 2007 investigative report by Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele in Vanity Fair magazine, the cash originated from a little-known Fed vault located at 100 Orchard Street in East Rutherford, NJ, the largest depository of American currency in the world.
On Tuesday, June 22, 2004, the duo reported, unmanned vehicles loaded a tractor-trailer truck with pallets of $100 bills — weighing 30 tons and worth $2.4 billion — and that truck headed out onto New Jersey Route 17 bound for Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington, DC.
There, the money was transferred to a C-130 transport plane and flown to Baghdad.
The cash transfer on that one day was just one of several such shipments of currency to Iraq, and the inspector general is trying to determine just how much was sent, and how much was stolen once it arrived in Iraq.
“We don’t have access to the Federal Reserve account to know how much money actually came out of the Fed,” said Jason Venner, the inspector general’s chief auditor. “They won’t tell us.”
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Inflation Not A Problem

2011-06-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

The strategy of the US government is clear, they will lie and manipulate statistics to hide the debasement of the Dollar.

Change To Inflation Measurement On Table As Part Of Budget Talks -Aides

By Corey Boles and Janet Hook
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Lawmakers are considering changing how the Consumer Price Index is calculated, a move that could save perhaps $220 billion and represent significant progress in the ongoing federal debt ceiling and deficit reduction talks.
According to congressional aides familiar with the discussions, the proposal would shift how the Consumer Price Index is calculated to reflect how people tend to change spending patterns when prices increase. For example, consumers tend to drive less when gas prices increase dramatically.
Such a move is widely seen by economists as resulting in a slower rise in inflation. That would impact an array of federal programs that are linked to CPI including the Social Security program and income tax brackets set by the federal government.
The proposal could lower federal spending by around $220 billion over the next decade, based on calculations by last year's White House deficit commission, which recommended the change as part of its final report.
According to two congressional aides familiar with the budget negotiations, the shift is being "seriously discussed" as part of the ongoing talks to strike a budget deal, that would be used to ease the passage of a required increase in the country's debt limit.
Those talks involve Democratic and Republican lawmakers from both chambers and are led by Vice President Joe Biden. The group held its latest meeting Tuesday as they strive to reach the broad outlines of a compromise on federal spending by the end of the month.
In a press conference that took place before the meeting, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) declined to comment on the specific proposal, other than to say that "a lot of things are on the table." But asked whether the proposal would be interpreted as a tax increase and therefore a non-starter for Republicans, Cantor said it could be seen as both impacting tax rates and benefits paid out by the federal government.
When asked about the idea after the meeting, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D., S.C.) said everything is being discussed.
It is a rare proposal in that it would likely lead to both lower benefits paid to seniors and higher taxes paid by most people who pay federal income tax. As such, it could allow Republicans to argue they are tackling federal entitlement programs such as Social Security, and permit Democrats to say they are increasing taxes as part of any budget deal that is reached.
It could be easier for both parties to agree on than a significant overhaul to the Medicare proposal or an increase of taxes on wealthier Americans.
"It's certainly something that is going to be considered," said James Horney, director of federal fiscal policy at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank. "There are questions whether it would be politically easy."
Several senators that are not party to the Biden-led talks voiced support for the proposal including Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D., N.D.), while Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.), a member of the Republican leadership team, said it should be looked at as part of the negotiations.
-By Corey Boles and Janet Hook; 202-862-6601; corey.boles@dowjones.com

Nuclear Meltdown Update

2011-06-22T04:34:00.000-07:00

This is for US residents, due to the continuing news blackout in the corporate fascist mainstream media .

Tokyo area parents' radiation worries grow with discovery of local 'hotspots'

Pylons and a blue tarp mark the parts of a nursery school playground pronounced off-limits after the discovery of a radioactive "hotspot" there, in Noda, Chiba Prefecture. (Mainichi)

More than three months after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, Tokyo region residents are becoming increasingly worried over radiation exposure as a number of radioactive "hotspots" have been discovered in and around the capital.

Local governments are calling for calm, as annual doses of radiation at the hotspots -- sites where radiation levels are significantly higher than their surroundings -- would not exceed 20 millisieverts as they do in parts of Fukushima Prefecture. Residents are nevertheless calling on their local governments to take some kind of action.

"Safety and peace of mind are not the same thing," said an expert speaker at a lecture on radiation held on June 18 in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, as more than 350 residents in attendance feverishly took notes. "Even if the numerical radiation values are scientifically safe, that doesn't mean people will feel all right about them."

The chairman of the local association of private kindergartens, and the lecture's organizer, said, "I hope kindergarten operators and parents use this information to make informed judgments."

Meanwhile, 33-year-old housewife and mother of two Yuki Osaku started a petition to have the earth in parks, kindergarten playgrounds and school fields replaced. With the power of the "kindergarten moms" grapevine behind her, she soon had over 10,000 signatures to submit to the city government.

The city, however, has failed to give her a concrete response, while the kindergarten her three-year-old eldest son attends has also taken a very negative view of any anti-radiation measures, Osaku says. She is now wondering if she should pull her son from the kindergarten in July.

Similar signature drives have been mounted by parents in Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures, as well as Tokyo proper.

"Everyone is worried about their children," Osaku says. Meanwhile, there are some kindergartens in Kashiwa and neighboring Abiko that have replaced the topsoil on their playgrounds themselves.

However, even as radiation hotspot worries mount, there continues to be only one site in all of Chiba Prefecture where radiation levels are being formally monitored, drawing criticism. Local radiation tests performed at primary schools and other public spaces at the end of May revealed a 0.54 microsievert per hour radioactive hotspot at a Kashiwa park. The prefectural monitoring post some 50 kilometers south southeast of the park, meanwhile, has recorded radiation doses of only 0.08 microsieverts per hour -- a discrepancy which has stoked the fears of parents.

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The US Duopoly

2011-06-22T04:07:00.000-07:00

Please vote for a third party, any third party.

Surprise! TSA Is Searching Your Car, Subway, Ferry, Bus, AND Plane

Think you could avoid the TSA's body scanners and pat-downs by taking Amtrak? Think again. Even your daily commute isn't safe from TSA screenings. And because the TSA is working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, you may have your immigration status examined along with your "junk".
As part of the TSA's request for FY 2012 funding, TSA Administrator John Pistole told Congress last week that the TSA conducts 8,000 unannounced security screenings every year. These screenings, conducted with local law enforcement agencies as well as immigration, can be as simple as checking out cargo at a busy seaport. But more and more, they seem to involve giving airport-style pat-downs and screenings of unsuspecting passengers at bus terminals, ferries, and evensubways.
These surprise visits are part of the TSA's VIPR program: Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response. The VIPR program first started doing searches in 2007, and has grown since then. Currently, the TSA only has 25 VIPR teams doing these impromptu searches: in 2012, it wants to get 12 more.
The searches are in the name of passenger security, and the TSA says it wants to prevent incidents like the 2004 Madrid train bombings. But if the airports' TSA searches miss security risks like large knives, loaded guns, and explosives, there's certainly the chance that screenings at train stations would be similarly flawed.
Not to worry: security isn't the only goal of VIPR. A recent VIPR operation/screening at a Tampa Greyhound bus station was conducted with US Border Patrol and ICE. "What we're looking for is threats to national security as well as immigration law violators," said Steve McDonald from US Border Patrol. An ICE representative said that they were also looking for smuggling, and Gary Milano from Homeland Security said that although that was the first time the Tampa bus depot had been screened, VIPR would be back again sometime in the future and was using the element of surprise as a deterrent to "the bad guys."
Although one man at the Tampa screening said he felt "safer," VIPR operations are not without their naysayers. A VIPR screening at a Des Moines Greyhound station last week is alleged to have targeted Latinos. Another TSA/Border Patrol VIPR screening on a trolley in San Diego resulted in three teens being handcuffed and deported while on their way to school. Around 20 others were also deported, according to local news outlets.
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