---
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Ron Paul Statement On The Fed's Bailout Of Europe via @zerohedge #RonPaul
---
IF you want to know WTF is going on I suggest you read zerohedge early and often!
---
From Ron Paul
Statement on the Fed's Continued Euro Bailout
The Fed's latest actions in cooperating with foreign central banks to undertake liquidity swaps of dollars for foreign currencies is another reason why Congress needs enhanced power to oversee and audit the Fed. Under current law Congress cannot examine these types of agreements. Those who would argue that auditing the Fed or these agreements with central banks harms the Fed's independence should reevaluate the Fed's supposed independence when the Fed bails out Europe so soon after President Obama promised US assistance in resolving the Euro crisis.
Rather than calming markets, these arrangements should indicate just how frightened governments around the world are about the European financial crisis. Central banks are grasping at straws, hoping that flooding the world with money created out of thin air will somehow resolve a crisis caused by uncontrolled government spending and irresponsible debt issuance. Congress should not permit this type of open-ended commitment on the part of the Fed, a commitment which could easily run into the trillions of dollars. These dollar swaps are purely inflationary and will harm American consumers as much as any form of quantitative easing.
The Fed is behaving much as it did during the 2008 financial crisis, only this time instead of bailing out politically well-connected too-big-to-fail firms it is bailing out profligate government spending. Citizens the world over deserve better than this. They deserve sound money that cannot be manipulated and created out of thin air by central planners who promise printed prosperity. Fiat money caused this European crisis and the financial crisis before it. More fiat money is not the cure. The global fiat currency system has proven itself a failure, we need real monetary reform. We need sound money.
IF you want to know WTF is going on I suggest you read zerohedge early and often!
---
From Ron Paul
Statement on the Fed's Continued Euro Bailout
The Fed's latest actions in cooperating with foreign central banks to undertake liquidity swaps of dollars for foreign currencies is another reason why Congress needs enhanced power to oversee and audit the Fed. Under current law Congress cannot examine these types of agreements. Those who would argue that auditing the Fed or these agreements with central banks harms the Fed's independence should reevaluate the Fed's supposed independence when the Fed bails out Europe so soon after President Obama promised US assistance in resolving the Euro crisis.
Rather than calming markets, these arrangements should indicate just how frightened governments around the world are about the European financial crisis. Central banks are grasping at straws, hoping that flooding the world with money created out of thin air will somehow resolve a crisis caused by uncontrolled government spending and irresponsible debt issuance. Congress should not permit this type of open-ended commitment on the part of the Fed, a commitment which could easily run into the trillions of dollars. These dollar swaps are purely inflationary and will harm American consumers as much as any form of quantitative easing.
The Fed is behaving much as it did during the 2008 financial crisis, only this time instead of bailing out politically well-connected too-big-to-fail firms it is bailing out profligate government spending. Citizens the world over deserve better than this. They deserve sound money that cannot be manipulated and created out of thin air by central planners who promise printed prosperity. Fiat money caused this European crisis and the financial crisis before it. More fiat money is not the cure. The global fiat currency system has proven itself a failure, we need real monetary reform. We need sound money.
474% electric company fee increase! - Empire District Electric Company
---
Did I do that math right?! I just divided the NEW (and apparently IMPROVED!) "fuel adjustment charge" (whatever TF that is..) by the old one.. 4.17 (per month!) / 0.88 per month.
That's where / how I got a 474% fee increase.. Is that right?!
---
PR-12-64 -- Change In Fuel Adjustment Charge Approved For The Empire District Electric Company
Contact: Kevin Kelly (573) 751-9300
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- NOVEMBER 22, 2011
JEFFERSON CITY---To reflect changes in fuel and purchased power costs, the Missouri Public Service Commission has approved a request filed by The Empire District Electric Company (Empire) to adjust the fuel adjustment charge (FAC) on the bills of its electric customers.
The FAC change reflects fuel and purchased power costs during the six month period of March 1, 2011 through August 31, 2011. The company stated in its filing that the major factors responsible for the increases in Empire’s fuel and purchased power costs were abnormally warm weather during June, July and August 2011, limitations on the coal-fired Iatan generating units due to flooding and Iatan 2 construction accounting through June 14, 2011.
A residential customer using 1,000 kWh (kilowatt-hours) of electricity a month, currently pays an FAC of approximately $0.88 a month. The FAC will increase to approximately $4.17 a month. This change will take effect on December 1, 2011.
The PSC staff reviewed Empire’s filing and on November 1, 2011, filed a memorandum recommending the tariff be approved.
The Empire District Electric Company serves approximately 149,500 electric customers in the Missouri counties of Barry, Barton, Cedar, Christian, Dade, Dallas, Greene, Hickory, Jasper, Lawrence, McDonald, Newton, Polk, St. Clair, Stone and Taney.
-30-
Case No. ER-2012-0098
Did I do that math right?! I just divided the NEW (and apparently IMPROVED!) "fuel adjustment charge" (whatever TF that is..) by the old one.. 4.17 (per month!) / 0.88 per month.
That's where / how I got a 474% fee increase.. Is that right?!
---
PR-12-64 -- Change In Fuel Adjustment Charge Approved For The Empire District Electric Company
Contact: Kevin Kelly (573) 751-9300
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- NOVEMBER 22, 2011
JEFFERSON CITY---To reflect changes in fuel and purchased power costs, the Missouri Public Service Commission has approved a request filed by The Empire District Electric Company (Empire) to adjust the fuel adjustment charge (FAC) on the bills of its electric customers.
The FAC change reflects fuel and purchased power costs during the six month period of March 1, 2011 through August 31, 2011. The company stated in its filing that the major factors responsible for the increases in Empire’s fuel and purchased power costs were abnormally warm weather during June, July and August 2011, limitations on the coal-fired Iatan generating units due to flooding and Iatan 2 construction accounting through June 14, 2011.
A residential customer using 1,000 kWh (kilowatt-hours) of electricity a month, currently pays an FAC of approximately $0.88 a month. The FAC will increase to approximately $4.17 a month. This change will take effect on December 1, 2011.
The PSC staff reviewed Empire’s filing and on November 1, 2011, filed a memorandum recommending the tariff be approved.
The Empire District Electric Company serves approximately 149,500 electric customers in the Missouri counties of Barry, Barton, Cedar, Christian, Dade, Dallas, Greene, Hickory, Jasper, Lawrence, McDonald, Newton, Polk, St. Clair, Stone and Taney.
-30-
Case No. ER-2012-0098
You Are My Happy Slaves (A Letter Written By a Billionaire)
---
The Activists
creating revolutionary information flows
Posted on November 30, 2011 0
Coercion is the name of the game, I coerce hundreds of thousands of workers to work for me each day. The more sophisticated the method of coercion, the more likely that the coerced will think they are free. The more clever my marketing team is at selling you your slavery, the more likely you are to be a happy slave.
I want happy slaves, I do not want slaves who protest or question, I want slaves drugged up with manufactured happiness. I hate wage-slaves who hate their jobs, the best worker is the worker that learns to love his enslavement. The best worker is the worker who thinks of my corporation as ‘his’ family. The best worker is the worker who treats my interests as ‘his’ interests even though he can be fired at any moment.
Coercion is certainly the name of the game, no one will drag you to work, but the fears implanted in your heart will. I will not come to your house and pull you out of bed, but the bills will, the debt will, the fantasies of wealth surely will.
My father was rich and my father’s father was rich and these stories you hear of self-made men are all fabricated. We the rich are an organized crime syndicate, we control, capital, we control the flow of wealth and ideas. I control your life more than you control your own self. Every step you take, every choice your make, I am there with you holding your hand pulling you into the abyss of debt and enslavement.
Coercion happens on many levels, dear slaves, the psychological kind is much more effective than the physical kind. Happy slaves believe that they are free even though they’re subjugated to millions of advertisements each year. Happy slaves are the best kind of slaves, they do not rebel, they do not protest, they sit at home vegetating and warming their souls in front of the TV.
Happy slaves, you should all long to become my happy slaves, working in my factories and offices, obediently, confidently and blindly.
A Billionaire
the one who swims in affluence while you drown in debt!
The Activists
creating revolutionary information flows
Posted on November 30, 2011 0
Coercion is the name of the game, I coerce hundreds of thousands of workers to work for me each day. The more sophisticated the method of coercion, the more likely that the coerced will think they are free. The more clever my marketing team is at selling you your slavery, the more likely you are to be a happy slave.
I want happy slaves, I do not want slaves who protest or question, I want slaves drugged up with manufactured happiness. I hate wage-slaves who hate their jobs, the best worker is the worker that learns to love his enslavement. The best worker is the worker who thinks of my corporation as ‘his’ family. The best worker is the worker who treats my interests as ‘his’ interests even though he can be fired at any moment.
Coercion is certainly the name of the game, no one will drag you to work, but the fears implanted in your heart will. I will not come to your house and pull you out of bed, but the bills will, the debt will, the fantasies of wealth surely will.
My father was rich and my father’s father was rich and these stories you hear of self-made men are all fabricated. We the rich are an organized crime syndicate, we control, capital, we control the flow of wealth and ideas. I control your life more than you control your own self. Every step you take, every choice your make, I am there with you holding your hand pulling you into the abyss of debt and enslavement.
Coercion happens on many levels, dear slaves, the psychological kind is much more effective than the physical kind. Happy slaves believe that they are free even though they’re subjugated to millions of advertisements each year. Happy slaves are the best kind of slaves, they do not rebel, they do not protest, they sit at home vegetating and warming their souls in front of the TV.
Happy slaves, you should all long to become my happy slaves, working in my factories and offices, obediently, confidently and blindly.
A Billionaire
the one who swims in affluence while you drown in debt!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Guess Who’s Next on the #Bailout List? / #FHA
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Source on Profit Confidential
---
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
By Michael Lombardi, MBA for Profit Confidential
According to an independent annual audit of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), its cash reserves have fallen so low that there is a 50% change the FHA will need a government (or should I say taxpayer) bailout in 2012.
Mortgage payments on about 600,000 home loans insured by the FHA are three or more months past due. Rising home-loan defaults amid falling home prices are responsible for bigger losses on the sale of FHA mortgage-insured foreclosures. About one-third of the home mortgages issued in the U.S. in 2010 to buy homes were insured by the FHA. (I hear the ringing—U.S. government debt going up again!)
Our government decided to take the Keynesian approach to economics (increase the U.S. government debt) and intervened in the marketplace with taxpayer money in a big way following the 2008 credit crisis. The government censured (took over) Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae…indirectly getting into the U.S. home mortgage business.
Now the next casualty could be the FHA, an agency that may have to ask for a bailout for the first time in its three-quarter-century history. And because of how the FHA is set up, it wouldn’t need to go to Congress to get approval for a government bailout; it could simply just ask the U.S. Treasury, piling more onto the U.S. government debt.
When President Obama’s first four-year term is over, the U.S. government debt will have risen 50%, or about $5.0 trillion dollars, since he first took office. There is a huge problem with this statistic.
The U.S. government debt continues to rise at an alarming rate, as the special debt-reduction committee in Congress failed to agree on government spending cuts or raising tax revenue. The U.S. government debt will continue to rise, the U.S. economy is failing to turn around, and the Federal Reserve will need to do more to bolster the economy, resulting in a continued decline in the value of the greenback and rising gold prices (see Central Banks Back Buying Gold with a Vengeance).
Michael’s Personal Notes:
I’d like to start off by wishing all my American readers a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Our editorial offices will be closed until Monday, when our next editorial issue of PROFIT CONFIDENTIAL will be published. Safe travels and enjoy the time with family and friends! (Did you know this year’s typical turkey dinner will cost 13% more than last year’s, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation? That’s the biggest percentage jump in 20 years! But have no fear, our government tells us that inflation is not a problem in America.)
Back in October of 2009, I wrote a scathing editorial in the pages of PROFIT CONFIDENTIAL on my dislike for Bank of America Corporation (NYSE/BAC) stock (Why I Don’t Like the Bank Stocks). Back then, Bank of America stock was trading at $17.00; today it trades at $5.37. I still don’t like the stock.
The housing bubble has cost Bank of America about $40.0 billion so far. But its problems are far from over.
Firstly, Fannie Mae wants it to buy back some loans it sold to Fannie Mae, because Fannie says the loans have defects. If Bank of America doesn’t buy back the troubled mortgages, it could face penalties.
Secondly, regulators have taken a tough stance on the bank. Regulators want more action on the part of the bank to strengthen itself. If the bank doesn’t appease the regulators, it could face enforcement action or more penalties.
Thirdly, the executive offices at the bank have become a revolving door: two CFOs, two chief risk officers, and eight new directors in two years.
Bank of America is the second largest U.S. bank in terms of lending. If the government keeps tightening the strings at Bank of America, it could ultimately end up needing to bail out the bank. The bank is putting out fires, as opposed to focusing on operations. Bank of America’s balance sheet has been shored up by selling assets as opposed to expanding profits.
The failure of Bank of America—to me, “failure” is the government bailing them out—is a possibility. It would be a catastrophe to already damaged American consumer confidence, but it could happen. At a stock price of $5.37 and falling, the market is telling us that this bank is in trouble.
Where the Market Stands; Where it’s Headed:
We are in a bear market rally in stocks that started in March of 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 78.5% since March 9, 2009. For the bear market rally to be over, the Dow Jones Industrial Average would have to fall decisively below the midpoint between its March 9, 2009 low of 6,440 and its May 2, 2011 high of 12,876. That midpoint would be 9,658 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average—a number we are far from.
The number of bullish stock advisors has been increasing steadily since the recent October stock market lows, while the number of bearish stock advisors has been retreating. I would feel more comfortable about stocks if this new trend in stock advisor sentiment would start to reverse.
What He Said:
“Bonds could now be a buy: Bonds rise in price when interest rates fall, as their return makes them more valuable. After a bear market in bonds that has lasted for months, the action in the bond market, as I read it, indicates that the bear market in bonds could be over. I’ve always preferred quality when buying bonds, going with government bonds over corporate bonds. If you have some cash lying around, bonds could be a great deal.” Michael Lombardi in PROFIT CONFIDENTIAL, July 24, 2006. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell from five in the summer of 2006 to 2.4% in October 2011—doubling the price of the bonds Michael recommended.
Source on Profit Confidential
---
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
By Michael Lombardi, MBA for Profit Confidential
According to an independent annual audit of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), its cash reserves have fallen so low that there is a 50% change the FHA will need a government (or should I say taxpayer) bailout in 2012.
Mortgage payments on about 600,000 home loans insured by the FHA are three or more months past due. Rising home-loan defaults amid falling home prices are responsible for bigger losses on the sale of FHA mortgage-insured foreclosures. About one-third of the home mortgages issued in the U.S. in 2010 to buy homes were insured by the FHA. (I hear the ringing—U.S. government debt going up again!)
Our government decided to take the Keynesian approach to economics (increase the U.S. government debt) and intervened in the marketplace with taxpayer money in a big way following the 2008 credit crisis. The government censured (took over) Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae…indirectly getting into the U.S. home mortgage business.
Now the next casualty could be the FHA, an agency that may have to ask for a bailout for the first time in its three-quarter-century history. And because of how the FHA is set up, it wouldn’t need to go to Congress to get approval for a government bailout; it could simply just ask the U.S. Treasury, piling more onto the U.S. government debt.
When President Obama’s first four-year term is over, the U.S. government debt will have risen 50%, or about $5.0 trillion dollars, since he first took office. There is a huge problem with this statistic.
The U.S. government debt continues to rise at an alarming rate, as the special debt-reduction committee in Congress failed to agree on government spending cuts or raising tax revenue. The U.S. government debt will continue to rise, the U.S. economy is failing to turn around, and the Federal Reserve will need to do more to bolster the economy, resulting in a continued decline in the value of the greenback and rising gold prices (see Central Banks Back Buying Gold with a Vengeance).
Michael’s Personal Notes:
I’d like to start off by wishing all my American readers a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Our editorial offices will be closed until Monday, when our next editorial issue of PROFIT CONFIDENTIAL will be published. Safe travels and enjoy the time with family and friends! (Did you know this year’s typical turkey dinner will cost 13% more than last year’s, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation? That’s the biggest percentage jump in 20 years! But have no fear, our government tells us that inflation is not a problem in America.)
Back in October of 2009, I wrote a scathing editorial in the pages of PROFIT CONFIDENTIAL on my dislike for Bank of America Corporation (NYSE/BAC) stock (Why I Don’t Like the Bank Stocks). Back then, Bank of America stock was trading at $17.00; today it trades at $5.37. I still don’t like the stock.
The housing bubble has cost Bank of America about $40.0 billion so far. But its problems are far from over.
Firstly, Fannie Mae wants it to buy back some loans it sold to Fannie Mae, because Fannie says the loans have defects. If Bank of America doesn’t buy back the troubled mortgages, it could face penalties.
Secondly, regulators have taken a tough stance on the bank. Regulators want more action on the part of the bank to strengthen itself. If the bank doesn’t appease the regulators, it could face enforcement action or more penalties.
Thirdly, the executive offices at the bank have become a revolving door: two CFOs, two chief risk officers, and eight new directors in two years.
Bank of America is the second largest U.S. bank in terms of lending. If the government keeps tightening the strings at Bank of America, it could ultimately end up needing to bail out the bank. The bank is putting out fires, as opposed to focusing on operations. Bank of America’s balance sheet has been shored up by selling assets as opposed to expanding profits.
The failure of Bank of America—to me, “failure” is the government bailing them out—is a possibility. It would be a catastrophe to already damaged American consumer confidence, but it could happen. At a stock price of $5.37 and falling, the market is telling us that this bank is in trouble.
Where the Market Stands; Where it’s Headed:
We are in a bear market rally in stocks that started in March of 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 78.5% since March 9, 2009. For the bear market rally to be over, the Dow Jones Industrial Average would have to fall decisively below the midpoint between its March 9, 2009 low of 6,440 and its May 2, 2011 high of 12,876. That midpoint would be 9,658 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average—a number we are far from.
The number of bullish stock advisors has been increasing steadily since the recent October stock market lows, while the number of bearish stock advisors has been retreating. I would feel more comfortable about stocks if this new trend in stock advisor sentiment would start to reverse.
What He Said:
“Bonds could now be a buy: Bonds rise in price when interest rates fall, as their return makes them more valuable. After a bear market in bonds that has lasted for months, the action in the bond market, as I read it, indicates that the bear market in bonds could be over. I’ve always preferred quality when buying bonds, going with government bonds over corporate bonds. If you have some cash lying around, bonds could be a great deal.” Michael Lombardi in PROFIT CONFIDENTIAL, July 24, 2006. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell from five in the summer of 2006 to 2.4% in October 2011—doubling the price of the bonds Michael recommended.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
I want to FEEL the #change consume me!
---
I am different now.. Are you?
Unity, peace, love.. I new way of being is within our grasp
Greg
I am different now.. Are you?
Unity, peace, love.. I new way of being is within our grasp
Greg
#Messages.. Are you listening?
---
Many are telling you what you need to kow.. It's up to you to hear them..
Unity, peace, love A new world is within our grasp..
Greg
Many are telling you what you need to kow.. It's up to you to hear them..
Unity, peace, love A new world is within our grasp..
Greg
What #God wants - #Messages delivered
---
The powers that be
They like a tough game
No rules
Some you win, some you lose
Competition's good for you
They're dying to be free
They're the powers that be
They like a bomb proof cadillac
Air conditioned, gold taps,
Back seat gun rack, platinum hub caps
They pick horses for courses
They're the market forces
Nice car Jack
They like order, make-up, lime light power
Game shows, rodeos, star wars, TV
They're the powers that be
If you see them come,
You better run - run
You better run on home
Sisters of mercy better join your brothers
Put a stop to the soap opera right now
They say the toothless get ruthless
You better run on home
You better run - run
You better run on home
The powers that be
They like treats, tricks, carrots and sticks
They like fear and loathing, they like sheep's
clothing
And blacked-out vans
Blacked-out vans, contingency plans
They like death or glory, they love a good story
They love a good story
Sisters of mercy better join with your brothers
Put a stop to the soap opera state
They say the toothless get ruthless
Run home before its too late
You better run - run
You better run on home
Billy: Goodnight, Jim.
Jim: Goodnight, Billy.
Uncle David's Great Dane: Woof, woof, woof!
The canyon - daytime. Billy plays with Great Uncle David's Great Dane.
Paraquat Kelly: Bull heads, three red snapper, one pink snapper and your Pacific coastal trench hosemonster fish.
Cynthia Fox: Ohhh! At Sky David's juke joint of joy reports, forty under the console giggle stick ling cod, twenty-three purple perches four sledgehammerhead sharks, and what a surprise, eightyfour crabs, and no red snappers.
Paraquat Kelly: Hey, and that'll do for the triumphant return of the fish report with a beat.
Jim: We think of it as mainstreet, but to the rest of the country it's Sunset Strip. You're listening to KAOS in Los Angeles.
What God wants Part I
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
The kid in the corner looked at the priest
And fingered his pale blue Japanese guitar
The priest said
God wants goodness
God wants light
God wants mayhem
God wants a clean fight
What God wants God gets
Don't look so surprised
It's only dogma
The alien prophet cried
The beetle and the springbok
Took the Bible from its hook
The monkey in the corner
Wrote the lesson in his book
What God wants God gets God help us all
God wants peace
God wants war
God wants famine
God wants chain stores
What God wants God gets
God wants sedition
God wants sex
God wants freedom
God wants semtex
What God wants God gets
Don't look so surprised
I'm only joking
The alien comic cried
The jackass and hyena
Took the feather from its hook
The monkey in the corner
Wrote the joke down in his book
What God wants God gets
God wants boarders
God wants crack
God wants rainfall
God wants wetbacks
What God wants God gets
God wants voodoo
God wants shrines
God wants law
God wants organized crime
God wants crusade
God wants jihad
God wants good
God wants bad
What God wants God gets
What God wants Part II
[TV Evangelist:]"Do you believe in a better day?
Do you have faith in a golden way?
If you do, then we must come together this day
Come together as one, united television audience
Brought together by the sound of my voice
United, united financially, united socially,
United spiritually, and all possible ways
Through the power of money
And the power of prayers...."
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
God wants dollars
God wants cents
God wants pounds, shillings, and pence
God wants guilders
God wants Kroner
God wants Swiss francs
And God wants French francs
(Oui il veut des francs francais)
God wants escudos
God wants pesetas
Don't send lira
God don't want small potatoes
God wants small towns
God wants pain
God wants clean up rock campaigns
God wants windows
God wants solutions
God wants TV
God wants contributions
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
God wants silver
God wants gold
God wants his secret never to be told
God wants gigolos
God wants giraffes
God wants politics
God wants a good laugh
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
God wants friendship
God wants fame
God wants credit
God wants blame
God wants poverty
God wants wealth
God wants insurance
God wants to cover himself
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
(repeating)
What God wants Part III
Don't be afraid, it's only business
The alien prophet sighed
The vulture and the magpie took
The cash box from its hook
The monkey in the corner
Wrote the figures in his book
Crazed the checkout lady's fingers
Flash across the till
And the captain posts the menu of the day
And in banks across the world
Christians, Moslems, Hindus, Jews
And every other race, creed, colour, tint or hue
Get down on their knees and pray
The raccoon and the groundhog neatly
Make up bags of change
But the monkey in the corner
Well he's slowly drifting out of range
Christ, it's freezing inside
The veteran cries
The hyenas break cover
And stream through the meadow
And the vet rolls in
To his bottle of gin
So he picks up a stone
That looks like a bone
And the bullets fly
And the rivers run dry
And the fat girls sigh
And the network anchor persons lie
And the soldier's alone
In the video zone
But the monkey's not watching
He's slipped out to the kitchen
To pile the dishes
And answer the phone
---
Are you the monkey???
Greg
The powers that be
They like a tough game
No rules
Some you win, some you lose
Competition's good for you
They're dying to be free
They're the powers that be
They like a bomb proof cadillac
Air conditioned, gold taps,
Back seat gun rack, platinum hub caps
They pick horses for courses
They're the market forces
Nice car Jack
They like order, make-up, lime light power
Game shows, rodeos, star wars, TV
They're the powers that be
If you see them come,
You better run - run
You better run on home
Sisters of mercy better join your brothers
Put a stop to the soap opera right now
They say the toothless get ruthless
You better run on home
You better run - run
You better run on home
The powers that be
They like treats, tricks, carrots and sticks
They like fear and loathing, they like sheep's
clothing
And blacked-out vans
Blacked-out vans, contingency plans
They like death or glory, they love a good story
They love a good story
Sisters of mercy better join with your brothers
Put a stop to the soap opera state
They say the toothless get ruthless
Run home before its too late
You better run - run
You better run on home
Billy: Goodnight, Jim.
Jim: Goodnight, Billy.
Uncle David's Great Dane: Woof, woof, woof!
The canyon - daytime. Billy plays with Great Uncle David's Great Dane.
Paraquat Kelly: Bull heads, three red snapper, one pink snapper and your Pacific coastal trench hosemonster fish.
Cynthia Fox: Ohhh! At Sky David's juke joint of joy reports, forty under the console giggle stick ling cod, twenty-three purple perches four sledgehammerhead sharks, and what a surprise, eightyfour crabs, and no red snappers.
Paraquat Kelly: Hey, and that'll do for the triumphant return of the fish report with a beat.
Jim: We think of it as mainstreet, but to the rest of the country it's Sunset Strip. You're listening to KAOS in Los Angeles.
What God wants Part I
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
The kid in the corner looked at the priest
And fingered his pale blue Japanese guitar
The priest said
God wants goodness
God wants light
God wants mayhem
God wants a clean fight
What God wants God gets
Don't look so surprised
It's only dogma
The alien prophet cried
The beetle and the springbok
Took the Bible from its hook
The monkey in the corner
Wrote the lesson in his book
What God wants God gets God help us all
God wants peace
God wants war
God wants famine
God wants chain stores
What God wants God gets
God wants sedition
God wants sex
God wants freedom
God wants semtex
What God wants God gets
Don't look so surprised
I'm only joking
The alien comic cried
The jackass and hyena
Took the feather from its hook
The monkey in the corner
Wrote the joke down in his book
What God wants God gets
God wants boarders
God wants crack
God wants rainfall
God wants wetbacks
What God wants God gets
God wants voodoo
God wants shrines
God wants law
God wants organized crime
God wants crusade
God wants jihad
God wants good
God wants bad
What God wants God gets
What God wants Part II
[TV Evangelist:]"Do you believe in a better day?
Do you have faith in a golden way?
If you do, then we must come together this day
Come together as one, united television audience
Brought together by the sound of my voice
United, united financially, united socially,
United spiritually, and all possible ways
Through the power of money
And the power of prayers...."
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
God wants dollars
God wants cents
God wants pounds, shillings, and pence
God wants guilders
God wants Kroner
God wants Swiss francs
And God wants French francs
(Oui il veut des francs francais)
God wants escudos
God wants pesetas
Don't send lira
God don't want small potatoes
God wants small towns
God wants pain
God wants clean up rock campaigns
God wants windows
God wants solutions
God wants TV
God wants contributions
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
God wants silver
God wants gold
God wants his secret never to be told
God wants gigolos
God wants giraffes
God wants politics
God wants a good laugh
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
God wants friendship
God wants fame
God wants credit
God wants blame
God wants poverty
God wants wealth
God wants insurance
God wants to cover himself
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
What God wants God gets God help us all
What God wants God gets
(repeating)
What God wants Part III
Don't be afraid, it's only business
The alien prophet sighed
The vulture and the magpie took
The cash box from its hook
The monkey in the corner
Wrote the figures in his book
Crazed the checkout lady's fingers
Flash across the till
And the captain posts the menu of the day
And in banks across the world
Christians, Moslems, Hindus, Jews
And every other race, creed, colour, tint or hue
Get down on their knees and pray
The raccoon and the groundhog neatly
Make up bags of change
But the monkey in the corner
Well he's slowly drifting out of range
Christ, it's freezing inside
The veteran cries
The hyenas break cover
And stream through the meadow
And the vet rolls in
To his bottle of gin
So he picks up a stone
That looks like a bone
And the bullets fly
And the rivers run dry
And the fat girls sigh
And the network anchor persons lie
And the soldier's alone
In the video zone
But the monkey's not watching
He's slipped out to the kitchen
To pile the dishes
And answer the phone
---
Are you the monkey???
Greg
THE GOVERNMENT IS GETTING PREPARED. WHAT ABOUT YOU?
---
Source sovereign man
by SIMON BLACK
November 21, 2011
Dallas, Texas, USA
Did you hear about the latest civil unrest in Syria? Police in full riot gear swarmed peaceful students who were staging a completely non-violent, human-chain sit-in at a university campus.
The Syrian police came up at point-blank range and hosed these kids down with pepper spray. If you’ve never been assaulted with pepper spray before, let me assure you that it is easily one of the most uncomfortable experiences you could ever go through in your entire life.
It was a truly disgusting display– meeting peace with violence and brutality. Just the sort of thing you would expect from an oppressive regime like Syria.
Except… it wasn’t in Syria. It was in California… right here in the land of the free.
This sort of thing has become totally commonplace. A few days ago, a Tampa, FL newspaper published a photograph of their local police force’s latest and greatest piece of equipment– a 12-ton armored personnel carrier (APC). In laymen’s terms, it’s basically a tank.
Needless to say, the cops rolled it out, proudly displaying it in an upscale Tampa neighborhood. Never mind that the APC tracks destroy city streets at taxpayer expense…
Why are they doing this? Why are so many police forces arming to the teeth, receiving federal aid, and meeting nonviolence with violence? Recent events this weekend may give us a clue.
At a NASCAR race on Sunday, both Michelle Obama and Jill Biden were booed by the crowd. This is on the heels of both ladies getting booed at Game 1 of the inappropriately-named World Series just a few weeks ago.
Halfway across the world in Moscow, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was also booed when he stepped into the ring to congratulate a fighter at a mixed martial arts match.
These minor instances are emblematic of the massive rift that has emerged between the ‘people’ and their leaders. Politicians may be completely out of touch, but they’re not stupid… and they’re taking steps to prepare.
In so many places around the world right now, anger, animosity, hostility, and anxiety rule the day. For the time being, though, the vast majority of this negativity has an outlet in the political process.
You see, between now and the end of 2012, several hundred national and provincial elections are scheduled around the world– from this past weekend’s parliamentary elections in Spain to presidential elections in Russia, France, the United States, Mexico, Finland, Iceland, India, Switzerland, South Korea, Yemen, Egypt, and more.
Consequently, people have an outlet to invest their anger and hostility. Emotions are running high, but people at least have a shred of hope that if ‘their guy’ gets elected, everything will get better.
It won’t. And, next year once the election-cycle has disappeared, there will be no more peaceful outlet for all of the anger that has been building up.
That’s when emotions will spill into the streets. And it won’t be peaceful protests being met with violence… it will be violent riots being met with even worse violence.
Politicians are cunning. They can see the writing on the wall, they know that social unrest is a foregone conclusion, and they’re preparing to defend the status quo at all costs.
As such, it’s no wonder why we’ve been seeing a militarization of police forces and more violent tactics to quell any measure of dissent. And we’re only going to see more.
This is the real ‘new normal.’ The state is taking steps to protect its interests. What about you?
Source link sovereign man
Source sovereign man
by SIMON BLACK
November 21, 2011
Dallas, Texas, USA
Did you hear about the latest civil unrest in Syria? Police in full riot gear swarmed peaceful students who were staging a completely non-violent, human-chain sit-in at a university campus.
The Syrian police came up at point-blank range and hosed these kids down with pepper spray. If you’ve never been assaulted with pepper spray before, let me assure you that it is easily one of the most uncomfortable experiences you could ever go through in your entire life.
It was a truly disgusting display– meeting peace with violence and brutality. Just the sort of thing you would expect from an oppressive regime like Syria.
Except… it wasn’t in Syria. It was in California… right here in the land of the free.
This sort of thing has become totally commonplace. A few days ago, a Tampa, FL newspaper published a photograph of their local police force’s latest and greatest piece of equipment– a 12-ton armored personnel carrier (APC). In laymen’s terms, it’s basically a tank.
Needless to say, the cops rolled it out, proudly displaying it in an upscale Tampa neighborhood. Never mind that the APC tracks destroy city streets at taxpayer expense…
Why are they doing this? Why are so many police forces arming to the teeth, receiving federal aid, and meeting nonviolence with violence? Recent events this weekend may give us a clue.
At a NASCAR race on Sunday, both Michelle Obama and Jill Biden were booed by the crowd. This is on the heels of both ladies getting booed at Game 1 of the inappropriately-named World Series just a few weeks ago.
Halfway across the world in Moscow, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was also booed when he stepped into the ring to congratulate a fighter at a mixed martial arts match.
These minor instances are emblematic of the massive rift that has emerged between the ‘people’ and their leaders. Politicians may be completely out of touch, but they’re not stupid… and they’re taking steps to prepare.
In so many places around the world right now, anger, animosity, hostility, and anxiety rule the day. For the time being, though, the vast majority of this negativity has an outlet in the political process.
You see, between now and the end of 2012, several hundred national and provincial elections are scheduled around the world– from this past weekend’s parliamentary elections in Spain to presidential elections in Russia, France, the United States, Mexico, Finland, Iceland, India, Switzerland, South Korea, Yemen, Egypt, and more.
Consequently, people have an outlet to invest their anger and hostility. Emotions are running high, but people at least have a shred of hope that if ‘their guy’ gets elected, everything will get better.
It won’t. And, next year once the election-cycle has disappeared, there will be no more peaceful outlet for all of the anger that has been building up.
That’s when emotions will spill into the streets. And it won’t be peaceful protests being met with violence… it will be violent riots being met with even worse violence.
Politicians are cunning. They can see the writing on the wall, they know that social unrest is a foregone conclusion, and they’re preparing to defend the status quo at all costs.
As such, it’s no wonder why we’ve been seeing a militarization of police forces and more violent tactics to quell any measure of dissent. And we’re only going to see more.
This is the real ‘new normal.’ The state is taking steps to protect its interests. What about you?
Source link sovereign man
Monday, November 21, 2011
Lamentations 5
Lamentations 5
New International Version (NIV)
1 Remember, LORD, what has happened to us;
look, and see our disgrace.
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become fatherless,
our mothers are widows.
4 We must buy the water we drink;
our wood can be had only at a price.
5 Those who pursue us are at our heels;
we are weary and find no rest.
6 We submitted to Egypt and Assyria
to get enough bread.
7 Our ancestors sinned and are no more,
and we bear their punishment.
8 Slaves rule over us,
and there is no one to free us from their hands.
9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives
because of the sword in the desert.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven,
feverish from hunger.
11 Women have been violated in Zion,
and virgins in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes have been hung up by their hands;
elders are shown no respect.
13 Young men toil at the millstones;
boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The elders are gone from the city gate;
the young men have stopped their music.
15 Joy is gone from our hearts;
our dancing has turned to mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 Because of this our hearts are faint,
because of these things our eyes grow dim
18 for Mount Zion, which lies desolate,
with jackals prowling over it.
19 You, LORD, reign forever;
your throne endures from generation to generation.
20 Why do you always forget us?
Why do you forsake us so long?
21 Restore us to yourself, LORD, that we may return;
renew our days as of old
22 unless you have utterly rejected us
and are angry with us beyond measure.
New International Version (NIV)
1 Remember, LORD, what has happened to us;
look, and see our disgrace.
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become fatherless,
our mothers are widows.
4 We must buy the water we drink;
our wood can be had only at a price.
5 Those who pursue us are at our heels;
we are weary and find no rest.
6 We submitted to Egypt and Assyria
to get enough bread.
7 Our ancestors sinned and are no more,
and we bear their punishment.
8 Slaves rule over us,
and there is no one to free us from their hands.
9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives
because of the sword in the desert.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven,
feverish from hunger.
11 Women have been violated in Zion,
and virgins in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes have been hung up by their hands;
elders are shown no respect.
13 Young men toil at the millstones;
boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The elders are gone from the city gate;
the young men have stopped their music.
15 Joy is gone from our hearts;
our dancing has turned to mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 Because of this our hearts are faint,
because of these things our eyes grow dim
18 for Mount Zion, which lies desolate,
with jackals prowling over it.
19 You, LORD, reign forever;
your throne endures from generation to generation.
20 Why do you always forget us?
Why do you forsake us so long?
21 Restore us to yourself, LORD, that we may return;
renew our days as of old
22 unless you have utterly rejected us
and are angry with us beyond measure.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Tried this tonight & it was pretty good "stuff"
Roasted Cornish Hens with Lemon and Rosemary
4 Gold Kist Farms Cornish Hens (22 ounces each)
Salt and pepper
1 large lemon
4 large cloves of garlic, peeled and halved
4 springs parsley
2 teaspoons dried rosemary leaves
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 - 3/4 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons butter
Chopped parsley or fresh rosemary (optional)
Preheat oven to 375F. Season cavities of hens with salt and pepper. Remove rind from lemon
with a zester or vegetable peeler; cut into thin julienne strips. Squeeze juice from lemon;
reserve. Cut remains of lemon into quarters and place in hen cavities, along with garlic,
parsley, and rosemary, dividing equally.
Gently lift breast skin away from meat by slipping fingers between the skin and meat of hens.
Divide lemon strips among hens and place under skin. Fold wing tips under hens and tie legs
together. Lightly grease bottom of heavy roasting pan. Place hens in pan breast side up; brush
generously with olive oil on all sides. Salt and pepper, if desired. Roast, basting every 15
minutes with chicken broth, for about 50 minutes to 1 hour or until juices run clear when
thighs are pierced with a fork and temperature on meat thermometer is 180F. Remove hens from
pan; set aside on warm platter.
Skim fat from pan juices. Put roasting pan over medium heat; stir in any remaining broth and
wine. Simmer, stirring up any browned bits from pan, 15 minutes or until liquid reduces to
about 1/2 cup. Stir in reserved lemon juice and whisk in butter a little at a time. Salt and
pepper if needed. Serve sauce over hens or separately. Garnish with parsley or fresh rosemary.
4 servings
Source
4 Gold Kist Farms Cornish Hens (22 ounces each)
Salt and pepper
1 large lemon
4 large cloves of garlic, peeled and halved
4 springs parsley
2 teaspoons dried rosemary leaves
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 - 3/4 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons butter
Chopped parsley or fresh rosemary (optional)
Preheat oven to 375F. Season cavities of hens with salt and pepper. Remove rind from lemon
with a zester or vegetable peeler; cut into thin julienne strips. Squeeze juice from lemon;
reserve. Cut remains of lemon into quarters and place in hen cavities, along with garlic,
parsley, and rosemary, dividing equally.
Gently lift breast skin away from meat by slipping fingers between the skin and meat of hens.
Divide lemon strips among hens and place under skin. Fold wing tips under hens and tie legs
together. Lightly grease bottom of heavy roasting pan. Place hens in pan breast side up; brush
generously with olive oil on all sides. Salt and pepper, if desired. Roast, basting every 15
minutes with chicken broth, for about 50 minutes to 1 hour or until juices run clear when
thighs are pierced with a fork and temperature on meat thermometer is 180F. Remove hens from
pan; set aside on warm platter.
Skim fat from pan juices. Put roasting pan over medium heat; stir in any remaining broth and
wine. Simmer, stirring up any browned bits from pan, 15 minutes or until liquid reduces to
about 1/2 cup. Stir in reserved lemon juice and whisk in butter a little at a time. Salt and
pepper if needed. Serve sauce over hens or separately. Garnish with parsley or fresh rosemary.
4 servings
Source
Debt supercommittee looks unlikely to reach deficit deal as deadline approaches - Reading between the lines
---
I always make a serious attempt to "read between the lines". In this article that's not even really required as the dirty little secrets are, nearly, laid out in plain sight.
[Here we clearly see the sheer panic of the governmental / political and financial elites.. As the short paragraph below demonstrates their urgent need not to "help the people" but rather to, in the words of this article, "help prop up the economy"].
"If lawmakers rebel against the cost, as is possible, they would bear responsibility for allowing policies such as the payroll tax cut, enacted a year ago to help prop up the economy, to lapse."
---
[In the excerpt below we begin to see the consequences of government not propping up the economy via deficit spending. 6 million people losing average extended unemployment benefits of $300.00 per week = a staggering 1,800,000,000.00 [that's a 1.8 TRILLION dollar hit to the economy in 2012! The 1.8 million who would lose benefits within a month represents $540 BILLION dollars.]
Letting extended jobless assistance expire would mean that more than 6 million people would lose benefits averaging $296 a week next year, with 1.8 million cut off within a month.
---
[Below we see that it seems the ONLY way to prevent total economic collapse in the United States is for the government to hand out, no strings attached, FREE, taxpayer dollars that have not yet been EARNED, ie; at least 42 cents of every taxpayer dollar spent represents new borrowing. It states below that this is the best way to "stimulate the economy because unemployed people generally spend the money right away."
Economist say those jobless benefits — up to 99 weeks of them in high unemployment states — are among the most effective way to stimulate the economy because unemployed people generally spend the money right away.
"We will have to address those issues," Durbin said.
Extending benefits to the long-term unemployed would cost almost $50 billion under Obama's plan.
*I* say that's total bullshit! It is NOT about "stimulating the economy" at all. Further it is NOT about "helping Americans get by in tough economic times" either..
What it obviously IS about is the government / congress USING BORROWED taxpayer money to place fiat in the hands of the unemployed just long enough for that fiat to be passed on to banks and other lenders to cover mortgage payments, to cover car payments, to cover credit card payments all the way down to covering grocery and utility costs for the unemployed.
Now some of you may think this is the compassionate thing to do. I disagree. It is only a way for the government and the Federal Reserve Bank to attempt to HIDE the unstable economic mess created by excessive greed and risk taking by financial elites. It is pure and simply socialism in which those Americans fortunate enough to still have a job are being required by government to PAY THE BILLS of those who lost their jobs due to the rampant greed and corruption at every level of government, banks and corporations. These entities colluded to base an entire economy on nothing but debt and to this very day they REFUSE to pay the price for that huge, intentional, blunder!
It is often said that the truth hurts and that is true in this case. I do have compassion for the people who have had their lives turned upside down by the greed and stupidity of government and corporate America.
However I strongly disagree with the tactics of our government and financial elites. They seek only to HIDE the truth from the American people. To move fiat around on the books to prop things up. To legalize accounting fraud at the banks and other corporations. To continue to pile on debt to fix the problem of too much debt!
As painful as it might be for millions of Americans and American businesses this MUST STOP. These actions by government and major corporations are UN-American. They have completely privatized profits and socialized risk and loses.
All government and corporations continue to do is force the sh*t to continue to roll downhill, away from them, and their crony capitalists friends, into the lap of working Americans by cutting what small pieces of the American pie we have managed to achieve for ourselves until there is none left at all.
As long as things in the economy run smoothly via exponentially increasing credit expansion government and financial elites want to claim we have a capitalistic system. However, at the same time, when things crash due to their own greed and corruption the elites want to disallow the parts of capitalism that they do not ike! Which are recessions, depressions and deflation!
You cannot have it both ways! We either HAVE capitalism, with all it's benefits and downsides, or we have something entirely different.
At the moment we have something entirely different.
This system can never stand again. It is done!
Greg
---
Little progress made after months of negotiation
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, November 20 2011, 1:21 AM
---
WASHINGTON — If the deficit-cutting supercommittee fails, Congress will face a crummy choice. Lawmakers can allow payroll tax cuts and jobless aid for millions to expire or they extend them and increase the nation's $15 trillion debt by at least $160 billion.
President Barack Obama and Democrats on the deficit panel want to use the committee's product to carry their jobs agenda. That includes cutting in half the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax and extending jobless benefits for people who have been unemployed for more than six months.
Also caught up in what promises to be a chaotic legislative dash for the exits next month is the need to pass legislation to prevent an almost 30 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. Several popular business tax breaks and relief from the alternative minimum tax also expire at year's end.
A debt plan from the supercommittee, it was hoped, would have served as a sturdy, filibuster-proof vehicle to tow all of these expiring provisions into law. But after months of negotiations, Republicans and Democrats were far apart on any possible compromise, and there was no indication of progress Saturday.
Failure by the committee would leave lawmakers little time to pick up the pieces. And there's no guarantee it all can get done, especially given the impact of those measures on the spiraling debt.
Instead of cutting the deficit with a tough, bipartisan budget deal, Congress could pivot to spending enormous sums on expiring big-ticket policies.
If lawmakers rebel against the cost, as is possible, they would bear responsibility for allowing policies such as the payroll tax cut, enacted a year ago to help prop up the economy, to lapse.
Last year's extensions of jobless benefits and first-ever cut in the payroll tax were accomplished with borrowed money.
The 2 percent payroll tax cut expiring in December gave 121 million families a tax cut averaging $934 last year at a total cost of about $120 billion, according to the Tax Policy Center.
Obama wants to cut the payroll tax by another percentage point for workers at a total cost of $179 billion and reduce the employer share of the tax in half as well for most companies, which carries a $69 billion price tag.
"The notion of imposing a new payroll tax on people after Jan. 1 in the midst of this recession on working families is totally counterproductive," said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.
Letting extended jobless assistance expire would mean that more than 6 million people would lose benefits averaging $296 a week next year, with 1.8 million cut off within a month.
Economist say those jobless benefits — up to 99 weeks of them in high unemployment states — are among the most effective way to stimulate the economy because unemployed people generally spend the money right away.
"We will have to address those issues," Durbin said.
Extending benefits to the long-term unemployed would cost almost $50 billion under Obama's plan. Preventing the Medicare payment cuts to doctors for an additional 18 months to two years would in all likelihood cost $26 billion to $32 billion more.
Lawmakers also had hoped to renew some tax breaks for business and prevent the alternative minimum tax from sticking more than 30 million taxpayers with higher tax bills. Those items could be addressed retroactively next year, but only increase the uncertainty among already nervous consumers and investors.
This time, Obama wants them to be paid for. But a move by Democrats to try to finance jobs measures with hundreds of billions of dollars in savings from drawing down troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has gotten a cold shoulder from top Republicans.
"I've made it pretty clear that those savings that are coming to us as a result of the wind-down of the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan should be banked, should not be used to offset other spending," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. He did not address whether war savings could be used to extend expiring tax cuts.
Those savings are the natural result of national security strategies unrelated to the federal budget. Deficit hawks say tapping into them is simply an accounting gimmick.
"It's just the worst of all worlds if that were to happen," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
But without the war money at their disposal, lawmakers simply can't pay for the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits. Liberals such as Durbin are fine with employing deficit financing, especially if the alternative is playing Scrooge just before the holidays.
"Many people will hate to go home for Christmas saying to the American people, 'Merry Christmas, your payroll taxes go up 2 percent Jan. 1 and unemployment benefits are cut off.'"
Source
I always make a serious attempt to "read between the lines". In this article that's not even really required as the dirty little secrets are, nearly, laid out in plain sight.
[Here we clearly see the sheer panic of the governmental / political and financial elites.. As the short paragraph below demonstrates their urgent need not to "help the people" but rather to, in the words of this article, "help prop up the economy"].
"If lawmakers rebel against the cost, as is possible, they would bear responsibility for allowing policies such as the payroll tax cut, enacted a year ago to help prop up the economy, to lapse."
---
[In the excerpt below we begin to see the consequences of government not propping up the economy via deficit spending. 6 million people losing average extended unemployment benefits of $300.00 per week = a staggering 1,800,000,000.00 [that's a 1.8 TRILLION dollar hit to the economy in 2012! The 1.8 million who would lose benefits within a month represents $540 BILLION dollars.]
Letting extended jobless assistance expire would mean that more than 6 million people would lose benefits averaging $296 a week next year, with 1.8 million cut off within a month.
---
[Below we see that it seems the ONLY way to prevent total economic collapse in the United States is for the government to hand out, no strings attached, FREE, taxpayer dollars that have not yet been EARNED, ie; at least 42 cents of every taxpayer dollar spent represents new borrowing. It states below that this is the best way to "stimulate the economy because unemployed people generally spend the money right away."
Economist say those jobless benefits — up to 99 weeks of them in high unemployment states — are among the most effective way to stimulate the economy because unemployed people generally spend the money right away.
"We will have to address those issues," Durbin said.
Extending benefits to the long-term unemployed would cost almost $50 billion under Obama's plan.
*I* say that's total bullshit! It is NOT about "stimulating the economy" at all. Further it is NOT about "helping Americans get by in tough economic times" either..
What it obviously IS about is the government / congress USING BORROWED taxpayer money to place fiat in the hands of the unemployed just long enough for that fiat to be passed on to banks and other lenders to cover mortgage payments, to cover car payments, to cover credit card payments all the way down to covering grocery and utility costs for the unemployed.
Now some of you may think this is the compassionate thing to do. I disagree. It is only a way for the government and the Federal Reserve Bank to attempt to HIDE the unstable economic mess created by excessive greed and risk taking by financial elites. It is pure and simply socialism in which those Americans fortunate enough to still have a job are being required by government to PAY THE BILLS of those who lost their jobs due to the rampant greed and corruption at every level of government, banks and corporations. These entities colluded to base an entire economy on nothing but debt and to this very day they REFUSE to pay the price for that huge, intentional, blunder!
It is often said that the truth hurts and that is true in this case. I do have compassion for the people who have had their lives turned upside down by the greed and stupidity of government and corporate America.
However I strongly disagree with the tactics of our government and financial elites. They seek only to HIDE the truth from the American people. To move fiat around on the books to prop things up. To legalize accounting fraud at the banks and other corporations. To continue to pile on debt to fix the problem of too much debt!
As painful as it might be for millions of Americans and American businesses this MUST STOP. These actions by government and major corporations are UN-American. They have completely privatized profits and socialized risk and loses.
All government and corporations continue to do is force the sh*t to continue to roll downhill, away from them, and their crony capitalists friends, into the lap of working Americans by cutting what small pieces of the American pie we have managed to achieve for ourselves until there is none left at all.
As long as things in the economy run smoothly via exponentially increasing credit expansion government and financial elites want to claim we have a capitalistic system. However, at the same time, when things crash due to their own greed and corruption the elites want to disallow the parts of capitalism that they do not ike! Which are recessions, depressions and deflation!
You cannot have it both ways! We either HAVE capitalism, with all it's benefits and downsides, or we have something entirely different.
At the moment we have something entirely different.
This system can never stand again. It is done!
Greg
---
Little progress made after months of negotiation
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, November 20 2011, 1:21 AM
---
WASHINGTON — If the deficit-cutting supercommittee fails, Congress will face a crummy choice. Lawmakers can allow payroll tax cuts and jobless aid for millions to expire or they extend them and increase the nation's $15 trillion debt by at least $160 billion.
President Barack Obama and Democrats on the deficit panel want to use the committee's product to carry their jobs agenda. That includes cutting in half the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax and extending jobless benefits for people who have been unemployed for more than six months.
Also caught up in what promises to be a chaotic legislative dash for the exits next month is the need to pass legislation to prevent an almost 30 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. Several popular business tax breaks and relief from the alternative minimum tax also expire at year's end.
A debt plan from the supercommittee, it was hoped, would have served as a sturdy, filibuster-proof vehicle to tow all of these expiring provisions into law. But after months of negotiations, Republicans and Democrats were far apart on any possible compromise, and there was no indication of progress Saturday.
Failure by the committee would leave lawmakers little time to pick up the pieces. And there's no guarantee it all can get done, especially given the impact of those measures on the spiraling debt.
Instead of cutting the deficit with a tough, bipartisan budget deal, Congress could pivot to spending enormous sums on expiring big-ticket policies.
If lawmakers rebel against the cost, as is possible, they would bear responsibility for allowing policies such as the payroll tax cut, enacted a year ago to help prop up the economy, to lapse.
Last year's extensions of jobless benefits and first-ever cut in the payroll tax were accomplished with borrowed money.
The 2 percent payroll tax cut expiring in December gave 121 million families a tax cut averaging $934 last year at a total cost of about $120 billion, according to the Tax Policy Center.
Obama wants to cut the payroll tax by another percentage point for workers at a total cost of $179 billion and reduce the employer share of the tax in half as well for most companies, which carries a $69 billion price tag.
"The notion of imposing a new payroll tax on people after Jan. 1 in the midst of this recession on working families is totally counterproductive," said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.
Letting extended jobless assistance expire would mean that more than 6 million people would lose benefits averaging $296 a week next year, with 1.8 million cut off within a month.
Economist say those jobless benefits — up to 99 weeks of them in high unemployment states — are among the most effective way to stimulate the economy because unemployed people generally spend the money right away.
"We will have to address those issues," Durbin said.
Extending benefits to the long-term unemployed would cost almost $50 billion under Obama's plan. Preventing the Medicare payment cuts to doctors for an additional 18 months to two years would in all likelihood cost $26 billion to $32 billion more.
Lawmakers also had hoped to renew some tax breaks for business and prevent the alternative minimum tax from sticking more than 30 million taxpayers with higher tax bills. Those items could be addressed retroactively next year, but only increase the uncertainty among already nervous consumers and investors.
This time, Obama wants them to be paid for. But a move by Democrats to try to finance jobs measures with hundreds of billions of dollars in savings from drawing down troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has gotten a cold shoulder from top Republicans.
"I've made it pretty clear that those savings that are coming to us as a result of the wind-down of the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan should be banked, should not be used to offset other spending," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. He did not address whether war savings could be used to extend expiring tax cuts.
Those savings are the natural result of national security strategies unrelated to the federal budget. Deficit hawks say tapping into them is simply an accounting gimmick.
"It's just the worst of all worlds if that were to happen," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
But without the war money at their disposal, lawmakers simply can't pay for the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits. Liberals such as Durbin are fine with employing deficit financing, especially if the alternative is playing Scrooge just before the holidays.
"Many people will hate to go home for Christmas saying to the American people, 'Merry Christmas, your payroll taxes go up 2 percent Jan. 1 and unemployment benefits are cut off.'"
Source
Friday, November 18, 2011
In response to #ows post comments Many people need to catch up! #OccupyWallStreet #99Percent
Thanks one and all for ows post comments..
You know as I recall this all started with Anonymous, not ows. Remember WikiLeaks, A99 & OpESR?
Anonymous Demands on the Federal Reserve
There is much that can be agreed upon by ows & the Tea Party.. Many of the concerns are the same. 99% MUST truly BE 99% everyone must end their political hatred of each other and unite as one force to end the hegemony imposed upon us all by the political and economic elites.
MOST of the concerns begin with the Federal Reserve Bank & the Fractional Reserve Banking system. Capitalism has morphed into a nasty machine whose only purpose is to separate Americans from their money.
Consumerism is to blame also & that reflects right back on the citizens of this country who willingly took on WAY to much debt just as our government has done.
Personally I see no way of fixing the entire mess short of tearing down every bit of it and starting over from scratch.
It's not a political republican vs democratic thing it's a societal thing..
It seems that many people may be "changing" but at this point it's difficult to understand what they really want.
I hear talk that students want all their student debt forgiven.. Why? If they did not wish to be in debt then they should not have borrowed (otherwise worthless paper) money. Ditto for foreclosures. Car loans. Debt in general.
Debt was / is the TRAP! It was / is the "master plan" of the politicians and bankers. And it worked perfectly. At least until they blew up the entire freaking world economy.
My hope is that people will learn from this just as they learned from the Great Depression of the 1930's. Debt is bad. Avoid it at all costs.
If everyone would simply do that ONE thing then all the politicians, banks and corrupt greedy corporations would simply disappear.
Without forever exponentially expanding credit it all collapses. Everyone goes bankrupt and it's over.. That's why the elites hate the idea so much. That's why the Federal Reserve Bank has been printing money like madmen for 3 years now. They have to debase our currency. They have to make our money worth less just as they have been doing since 1913.
The Federal Reserve Bank and their desire to create as many debt slaves as possible is ground zero.
The answer, IMHO, is to turn our back on the existing system. Don't use it, don't participate in it. Just ignore it.
Check out this post to see what Ron Paul says about a lot of this "crap".
Greg
You know as I recall this all started with Anonymous, not ows. Remember WikiLeaks, A99 & OpESR?
Anonymous Demands on the Federal Reserve
There is much that can be agreed upon by ows & the Tea Party.. Many of the concerns are the same. 99% MUST truly BE 99% everyone must end their political hatred of each other and unite as one force to end the hegemony imposed upon us all by the political and economic elites.
MOST of the concerns begin with the Federal Reserve Bank & the Fractional Reserve Banking system. Capitalism has morphed into a nasty machine whose only purpose is to separate Americans from their money.
Consumerism is to blame also & that reflects right back on the citizens of this country who willingly took on WAY to much debt just as our government has done.
Personally I see no way of fixing the entire mess short of tearing down every bit of it and starting over from scratch.
It's not a political republican vs democratic thing it's a societal thing..
It seems that many people may be "changing" but at this point it's difficult to understand what they really want.
I hear talk that students want all their student debt forgiven.. Why? If they did not wish to be in debt then they should not have borrowed (otherwise worthless paper) money. Ditto for foreclosures. Car loans. Debt in general.
Debt was / is the TRAP! It was / is the "master plan" of the politicians and bankers. And it worked perfectly. At least until they blew up the entire freaking world economy.
My hope is that people will learn from this just as they learned from the Great Depression of the 1930's. Debt is bad. Avoid it at all costs.
If everyone would simply do that ONE thing then all the politicians, banks and corrupt greedy corporations would simply disappear.
Without forever exponentially expanding credit it all collapses. Everyone goes bankrupt and it's over.. That's why the elites hate the idea so much. That's why the Federal Reserve Bank has been printing money like madmen for 3 years now. They have to debase our currency. They have to make our money worth less just as they have been doing since 1913.
The Federal Reserve Bank and their desire to create as many debt slaves as possible is ground zero.
The answer, IMHO, is to turn our back on the existing system. Don't use it, don't participate in it. Just ignore it.
Check out this post to see what Ron Paul says about a lot of this "crap".
Greg
Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Aftermath of a Massive Day of Action
---
By: Kevin Gosztola Friday November 18, 2011 7:29 am
Occupy Wall Street marked its two-month anniversary with what organizers called a historic day of action. More than thirty thousand people turned out to rally in New York City and march across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Earlier in the day, Occupy Wall Street pushed the NYPD to fortify the area in and around the New York Stock Exchange as hundreds participated in nonviolent civil disobedience. The morning protests led many police in riot gear to commit acts of violence and forcefully arrest a number of people. And, by the time the day of action was over, around 300 people had been arrested.
Demonstrations also took place in cities like Los Angeles, Portland, and Dallas. In Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Washington, DC, actions were held on bridges to call attention to economic issues, such as the need for jobs and investment in infrastructure repair.
The protests were a top news item of the day and received a mention at the top of just about every news show broadcast on television. However, the focus of coverage centered on protesters “disrupting traffic” to get their message out. News anchors or pundits asked commentators to explain what the movement expected to accomplish with this tactic and whether it would turn off people, who might otherwise support the message.
This idea that Occupy was about “disrupting traffic” or, in the case of New York, shutting down Wall Street likely originated from a spokesperson with the New York Police Department. Most of the movement wants to march. It does not want to stop in one location and hold up traffic. It is the police who are unable or unwilling to keep moving the crowd, who create situations where protesters disrupt traffic.
In some instances, protesters do wish to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience and block traffic. Police can tell when that is the intention. The protesters will march into an area and sit down. If they do not do this, chances are they wish to keep moving or they are gathered around to watch a police force buildup unfold, which tends to happen once police no longer allow a group of demonstrators to keep moving.
The media fixated on supposed plans Occupy Wall Street had to shut down subways and shut down the Brooklyn Bridge. For example, CNN repeated this NYPD talking point multiple times. Anchors or commentators would say this and then go to an occupier, who would inform CNN this was not the plan at all. The plan was to educate and talk to New Yorkers on subway trains on the way to a demonstration in Foley Square. The plan was to use the pedestrian walkway on the Brooklyn Bridge to march and not to disrupt traffic.
Bloomberg and NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly also told press seven cops had been injured by protesters. Bloomberg and Kelly’s press conference was pure propaganda aimed at defiling and defaming Occupy Wall Street. It wholly ignored the injuries to protesters during the day and the incidents of police violence, such as police dragging people by their hair or giving demonstrators concussions while hitting them with batons.
Tens of thousands of people turned out to exercise their right to peaceably assemble and voice their grievances with government. It clearly showed this movement is not going away any time soon. Whether occupations have encampments or not, regular demonstrations will be taking place from now until next year (at least).
Firedoglake’s live blog continues now. Here is a Twitter list to follow for updates on all things related to the Occupy movement. I will be on the road today from Occupy Boston to Occupy Portland (in Maine). I will be at the Portland occupation at 5:30 pm tonight.
2:51 PM New York churches offering evicted Occupy Wall Street protesters shelter so they can continue to demonstrate regularly are now being spied on by the NYPD.
2:49 PM The uselessness of telling NYPD you’re with the press. (They really don’t give a shit. You’ll be put in zipties and dragged to a police van.)
Continue reading (multiple videos)
By: Kevin Gosztola Friday November 18, 2011 7:29 am
Occupy Wall Street marked its two-month anniversary with what organizers called a historic day of action. More than thirty thousand people turned out to rally in New York City and march across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Earlier in the day, Occupy Wall Street pushed the NYPD to fortify the area in and around the New York Stock Exchange as hundreds participated in nonviolent civil disobedience. The morning protests led many police in riot gear to commit acts of violence and forcefully arrest a number of people. And, by the time the day of action was over, around 300 people had been arrested.
Demonstrations also took place in cities like Los Angeles, Portland, and Dallas. In Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Washington, DC, actions were held on bridges to call attention to economic issues, such as the need for jobs and investment in infrastructure repair.
The protests were a top news item of the day and received a mention at the top of just about every news show broadcast on television. However, the focus of coverage centered on protesters “disrupting traffic” to get their message out. News anchors or pundits asked commentators to explain what the movement expected to accomplish with this tactic and whether it would turn off people, who might otherwise support the message.
This idea that Occupy was about “disrupting traffic” or, in the case of New York, shutting down Wall Street likely originated from a spokesperson with the New York Police Department. Most of the movement wants to march. It does not want to stop in one location and hold up traffic. It is the police who are unable or unwilling to keep moving the crowd, who create situations where protesters disrupt traffic.
In some instances, protesters do wish to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience and block traffic. Police can tell when that is the intention. The protesters will march into an area and sit down. If they do not do this, chances are they wish to keep moving or they are gathered around to watch a police force buildup unfold, which tends to happen once police no longer allow a group of demonstrators to keep moving.
The media fixated on supposed plans Occupy Wall Street had to shut down subways and shut down the Brooklyn Bridge. For example, CNN repeated this NYPD talking point multiple times. Anchors or commentators would say this and then go to an occupier, who would inform CNN this was not the plan at all. The plan was to educate and talk to New Yorkers on subway trains on the way to a demonstration in Foley Square. The plan was to use the pedestrian walkway on the Brooklyn Bridge to march and not to disrupt traffic.
Bloomberg and NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly also told press seven cops had been injured by protesters. Bloomberg and Kelly’s press conference was pure propaganda aimed at defiling and defaming Occupy Wall Street. It wholly ignored the injuries to protesters during the day and the incidents of police violence, such as police dragging people by their hair or giving demonstrators concussions while hitting them with batons.
Tens of thousands of people turned out to exercise their right to peaceably assemble and voice their grievances with government. It clearly showed this movement is not going away any time soon. Whether occupations have encampments or not, regular demonstrations will be taking place from now until next year (at least).
Firedoglake’s live blog continues now. Here is a Twitter list to follow for updates on all things related to the Occupy movement. I will be on the road today from Occupy Boston to Occupy Portland (in Maine). I will be at the Portland occupation at 5:30 pm tonight.
2:51 PM New York churches offering evicted Occupy Wall Street protesters shelter so they can continue to demonstrate regularly are now being spied on by the NYPD.
2:49 PM The uselessness of telling NYPD you’re with the press. (They really don’t give a shit. You’ll be put in zipties and dragged to a police van.)
Continue reading (multiple videos)
Featured follower @KittyAntonik
Kitty Antonik Wakfer has left a new comment on your post "Bea Edwards: Corruption and fraud at IMF, the Worl...":
"In the past year, the federal government has given away hundreds of billions of dollars"
The real problem comes with the fact that governments are giving away money that they have expropriated from the citizens of whatever country is being discussed - in this case the US. Governments via their enforcers' threats of (or actual initiation of) physical force obtain funds from individuals and then spend it in a variety of ways that many (?most?) individuals would never were they permitted to keep their own money.
Currently we do not live in a society of liberty. While we have an enormous number of available actions (freedom) we are socially constrained by government in regards to a great number of these - not at liberty to take many actions. (Note that I am differentiating between freedom and liberty per definitions here: http://selfsip.org/solutions/NSC.html#freedom) Keeping all the money one earns in voluntary transactions with others - and even making many transactions at all - is not something governments legally permit those in their jurisdiction to do on their own.
In a true society of liberty, there would be no enforcement agents with authorized power to initiate physical force to obtain money or anything else. A financial institution would only operate with money voluntarily entrusted to them by individuals, most of whom would not do so with companies that didn't make their practices fully clear to all investors. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are two such examples that I expect most individuals would have nothing to do with voluntarily; they only exist by virtue of governments and their current power to expropriate their citizens' money.
---
As always Kitty, thanks for your valuable input ;)
Greg
"In the past year, the federal government has given away hundreds of billions of dollars"
The real problem comes with the fact that governments are giving away money that they have expropriated from the citizens of whatever country is being discussed - in this case the US. Governments via their enforcers' threats of (or actual initiation of) physical force obtain funds from individuals and then spend it in a variety of ways that many (?most?) individuals would never were they permitted to keep their own money.
Currently we do not live in a society of liberty. While we have an enormous number of available actions (freedom) we are socially constrained by government in regards to a great number of these - not at liberty to take many actions. (Note that I am differentiating between freedom and liberty per definitions here: http://selfsip.org/solutions/NSC.html#freedom) Keeping all the money one earns in voluntary transactions with others - and even making many transactions at all - is not something governments legally permit those in their jurisdiction to do on their own.
In a true society of liberty, there would be no enforcement agents with authorized power to initiate physical force to obtain money or anything else. A financial institution would only operate with money voluntarily entrusted to them by individuals, most of whom would not do so with companies that didn't make their practices fully clear to all investors. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are two such examples that I expect most individuals would have nothing to do with voluntarily; they only exist by virtue of governments and their current power to expropriate their citizens' money.
---
As always Kitty, thanks for your valuable input ;)
Greg
2012 Apocalypse - Is it really coming?
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The 2012 Apocalypse is predicted by an intersection of Religions, Science, and Prophesies. Many Great Prophets, Religious Scriptures, and Scientific evidence point to a possible apocalyptic event happening in the year 2012.
We will explore the 2012 Apocalypse theories and predictions of who or what group may behind the inner workings of The war to end all wars? What acts of nature may cause the apocalypse 2012? What are the warning signs?
And...our interpretation of Great Seers' writings and words. We will use information from; Nostradamus, The Bible, The Mayan Civilization, The Many Books written on the topic of 2012.
Who or what will cause the 2012 Apocalypse? Super Volcanos? Pestilence and Disease? Asteroids? Comets? Antichrist? Global Warming? Nuclear War?
---
Great stuff in this well thought out article IMHO
Greg
---
Continue reading
The 2012 Apocalypse is predicted by an intersection of Religions, Science, and Prophesies. Many Great Prophets, Religious Scriptures, and Scientific evidence point to a possible apocalyptic event happening in the year 2012.
We will explore the 2012 Apocalypse theories and predictions of who or what group may behind the inner workings of The war to end all wars? What acts of nature may cause the apocalypse 2012? What are the warning signs?
And...our interpretation of Great Seers' writings and words. We will use information from; Nostradamus, The Bible, The Mayan Civilization, The Many Books written on the topic of 2012.
Who or what will cause the 2012 Apocalypse? Super Volcanos? Pestilence and Disease? Asteroids? Comets? Antichrist? Global Warming? Nuclear War?
---
Great stuff in this well thought out article IMHO
Greg
---
Continue reading
#Politicians on #OccupyWallStreet / the #FED is the head of the snake #ows
---
As you can see the SOURCE of our problems are the Federal Reserve Bank, their Primary Dealer cohorts and corrupt politicians.
NOTHING that is WRONG has changed at all as these independent groups seek desperately to maintain an obsolete, generally hated, status quo.
A status quo in which the answer to all economic problems is always print more easy money, continue the PONZI scheme of exponential credit expansion, increase the debt and tax load on consumers / students which ALREADY can never be paid back.
Dependence on predatory lending and usury as an economic foundation..
It must end!
OccupyTheFED! The FED is the head of the snake.
---
Newt Gingrich spoke at an education forum in midtown Manhattan this evening hosted by the College Board, and naturally the conversation-turned to Occupy Wall Street, the now weeks long demonstrations in Lower Manhattan.
The former House Speaker had a suggestion for where the protests should go next:
“If the Occupy Wall Street people really wanted to help children, they would have an Occupy Teacher’s Union Headquarters Movement, because that is a major cause of income inequality in America,” he told moderators Joel Klein, the former chancellor of the New York City school system and Paul Gigot of The Wall Street Journal.
The event was sponsored by the College Board and News Corporation.
Mr. Gingrich also suggested that if the protesters really want to see how “The 1 Percent” live, they should head to Harvard and Yale, which still charge students despite possessing enormous endowments.
“Somebody who has $36 billion in their endowment has to have an amazing level of chutzpah to then charge people to come as undergraduates. They just have to take a tiny share of the interest on their endowment to give away the undergraduate education for free. If the Occupy Wall Street people want to see what the upper 1% looks like, go look at a place that has $36 billion and still charges thousands of dollars to undergraduates,” he said.
Mr. Gingrich added that he understood the demonstrators.
“I am very sympathetic at their anger,” he said. “I share their frustration at a system in which the government has colluded with the big boys to take care of each other. I focus more on Ben Bernake at the Federal Reserve and with Geithner at Treasury and with Dodd and Frank in Congress, but I sympathize with their anger.”
In a press conference after his talk with Mr. Klein and Mr. Gigot, the former House Speaker made it clear however that he believed the protesters were ultimately misguided.
“I think their solutions are mostly absurd. There is no place on the planet where a government-dominated Socialist model has worked. And it takes an enormous avoidance of reality to suggest that that could possibly work,” he said.
---
Forbes: Occupy Wall Street should target the Fed / Perry
Occupy Wall Streets sets itself up in opposition to the "one percent" of Americans who have enjoyed a massive share of the nation's gains lately. And few embody that one percent as well as Steve Forbes. So we asked the scion of the Forbes magazine dynasty and former Republican presidential candidate what he thought about the movement.
His response: Wall Street is the wrong target.
"They should be demonstrating against the federal reserve and the halls of power in Washington," Forbes said. "We wouldn't have had the financial crisis if not for the Fed printing too much money. And we wouldn't have had the housing bubble as bad as it was if not for Fannie and Freddie."
In fact, some of the protesters have indeed criticized the Federal Reserve, though their complaint has been that the Fed helped bail out Wall Street banks, not that it printed too much money.
Forbes has backed the presidential campaign of Texas governor Rick Perry, and helped him devise his recently released tax plan, which would allow Americans to choose between a flat 20 percent rate and their current rate.
Perry said over the summer that it would be "almost treasonous" for the Fed to print more money between now and the election.
---
Ron Paul on the problems that ail us..
As you can see the SOURCE of our problems are the Federal Reserve Bank, their Primary Dealer cohorts and corrupt politicians.
NOTHING that is WRONG has changed at all as these independent groups seek desperately to maintain an obsolete, generally hated, status quo.
A status quo in which the answer to all economic problems is always print more easy money, continue the PONZI scheme of exponential credit expansion, increase the debt and tax load on consumers / students which ALREADY can never be paid back.
Dependence on predatory lending and usury as an economic foundation..
It must end!
OccupyTheFED! The FED is the head of the snake.
---
Newt Gingrich spoke at an education forum in midtown Manhattan this evening hosted by the College Board, and naturally the conversation-turned to Occupy Wall Street, the now weeks long demonstrations in Lower Manhattan.
The former House Speaker had a suggestion for where the protests should go next:
“If the Occupy Wall Street people really wanted to help children, they would have an Occupy Teacher’s Union Headquarters Movement, because that is a major cause of income inequality in America,” he told moderators Joel Klein, the former chancellor of the New York City school system and Paul Gigot of The Wall Street Journal.
The event was sponsored by the College Board and News Corporation.
Mr. Gingrich also suggested that if the protesters really want to see how “The 1 Percent” live, they should head to Harvard and Yale, which still charge students despite possessing enormous endowments.
“Somebody who has $36 billion in their endowment has to have an amazing level of chutzpah to then charge people to come as undergraduates. They just have to take a tiny share of the interest on their endowment to give away the undergraduate education for free. If the Occupy Wall Street people want to see what the upper 1% looks like, go look at a place that has $36 billion and still charges thousands of dollars to undergraduates,” he said.
Mr. Gingrich added that he understood the demonstrators.
“I am very sympathetic at their anger,” he said. “I share their frustration at a system in which the government has colluded with the big boys to take care of each other. I focus more on Ben Bernake at the Federal Reserve and with Geithner at Treasury and with Dodd and Frank in Congress, but I sympathize with their anger.”
In a press conference after his talk with Mr. Klein and Mr. Gigot, the former House Speaker made it clear however that he believed the protesters were ultimately misguided.
“I think their solutions are mostly absurd. There is no place on the planet where a government-dominated Socialist model has worked. And it takes an enormous avoidance of reality to suggest that that could possibly work,” he said.
---
Forbes: Occupy Wall Street should target the Fed / Perry
Occupy Wall Streets sets itself up in opposition to the "one percent" of Americans who have enjoyed a massive share of the nation's gains lately. And few embody that one percent as well as Steve Forbes. So we asked the scion of the Forbes magazine dynasty and former Republican presidential candidate what he thought about the movement.
His response: Wall Street is the wrong target.
"They should be demonstrating against the federal reserve and the halls of power in Washington," Forbes said. "We wouldn't have had the financial crisis if not for the Fed printing too much money. And we wouldn't have had the housing bubble as bad as it was if not for Fannie and Freddie."
In fact, some of the protesters have indeed criticized the Federal Reserve, though their complaint has been that the Fed helped bail out Wall Street banks, not that it printed too much money.
Forbes has backed the presidential campaign of Texas governor Rick Perry, and helped him devise his recently released tax plan, which would allow Americans to choose between a flat 20 percent rate and their current rate.
Perry said over the summer that it would be "almost treasonous" for the Fed to print more money between now and the election.
---
Ron Paul on the problems that ail us..
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Bea Edwards: Corruption and fraud at IMF, the World Bank
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By BEA EDWARDS
June 08, 2009
With the world waiting for economic relief, the G-20 struck an agreement in April identifying actors who will ride to the rescue: Nearly $1 trillion will be given to the International Monetary Fund and the Multilateral Development Banks so that they can help "the vulnerable in the poorest countries." But these very institutions are culpable of accelerating the spread of poverty as the developing world confronts the crisis. In a frenzy of deregulation and poorly planned privatization, the IMF and the World Bank (the largest MDB) cut away both oversight of the private sector and social safety nets for the poor beginning in the 1980s.
As a consequence, by 1998, these institutions were presiding over a spectacular financial collapse in East Asia, Russia, the former Soviet republics and Brazil, which was in hindsight, a harbinger of things to come. Three years later, Argentina (the IMF's best student) went bust and half of its people were suddenly poor. After years of hewing to IMF financial dictates, citizens lost their jobs, bank accounts, savings and pensions overnight.
But let's forget the "poverty-fighting" track record of these organizations for a moment. Where does each stand in relation to the systemic problem that caused the panic in the first place — lack of oversight? The IMF and World Bank are themselves without any real external oversight. They are virtually impenetrable by the legislatures of their member governments. Labyrinthine bureaucracies, coupled with immunities from national and international laws, have become, for them, impunity.
Neither institution has answered for its track record because no one is entitled to ask. Neither Bank nor Fund officials can be subpoenaed by national legislatures, nor can they be obliged to testify in court. No government can demand internal documents from them. While each has some disclosure policies, these often remain unimplemented because the organizations cannot be sued. This is the stunning contradiction of the G-20 action: the signatories declared, "the era of bank secrecy is over," but then dumped a trillion dollars of public money into the most secretive financial institutions in the world.
To make matters worse, IMF and Bank staff members who witness corruption or fraud (and there are plenty) are not allowed to inform affected governments or the press, except under the most stringent constraints. If they do, they risk deportation back to their home countries. This assures perpetual corruption instead of beneficial reform.
One would think that steps to ensure whistle-blower protections would have followed in the wake of the Bank's biggest black mark in history — the resignation of president Paul Wolfowitz, forced by anonymous staffers who exposed his cronyism, favoritism, incompetence and improper political dealings. Lost in his girlfriend-salary scandal were the revelations of coordinated support he received from the Bank's general counsel, the Department of Institutional Integrity, human resources, and the Ethics Committee of the Board of Directors. The whistle-blowers in the Wolfowitz affair have since been relentlessly pursued.
But protections from retaliation weren't strengthened. The bank adopted a "whistle-blower protection policy" last year that staff members already recognize as a trap: confidentiality may be breached; investigative reports remain hidden; grievance hearings to address retaliation are neither impartial nor external; and guaranteed reinstatement rights (if a whistle-blower is vindicated) don't exist.
In the past year, the federal government has given away hundreds of billions of dollars without first ensuring an honest accounting for it. The results are not surprising — improper bonuses and wasteful spending has outraged the public. We cannot forget this episode so soon — if an institution is going to collect public money, then it must be accountable to the public. It must have the governance measures that ensure that corruption and fraud can be safely exposed by those who witness it. And neither the World Bank nor the IMF passes that test.
Bea Edwards is the International Reform Director of the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistle-blower protection organization, www.whistleblower.org. MinutemanMedia.org
Source
By BEA EDWARDS
June 08, 2009
With the world waiting for economic relief, the G-20 struck an agreement in April identifying actors who will ride to the rescue: Nearly $1 trillion will be given to the International Monetary Fund and the Multilateral Development Banks so that they can help "the vulnerable in the poorest countries." But these very institutions are culpable of accelerating the spread of poverty as the developing world confronts the crisis. In a frenzy of deregulation and poorly planned privatization, the IMF and the World Bank (the largest MDB) cut away both oversight of the private sector and social safety nets for the poor beginning in the 1980s.
As a consequence, by 1998, these institutions were presiding over a spectacular financial collapse in East Asia, Russia, the former Soviet republics and Brazil, which was in hindsight, a harbinger of things to come. Three years later, Argentina (the IMF's best student) went bust and half of its people were suddenly poor. After years of hewing to IMF financial dictates, citizens lost their jobs, bank accounts, savings and pensions overnight.
But let's forget the "poverty-fighting" track record of these organizations for a moment. Where does each stand in relation to the systemic problem that caused the panic in the first place — lack of oversight? The IMF and World Bank are themselves without any real external oversight. They are virtually impenetrable by the legislatures of their member governments. Labyrinthine bureaucracies, coupled with immunities from national and international laws, have become, for them, impunity.
Neither institution has answered for its track record because no one is entitled to ask. Neither Bank nor Fund officials can be subpoenaed by national legislatures, nor can they be obliged to testify in court. No government can demand internal documents from them. While each has some disclosure policies, these often remain unimplemented because the organizations cannot be sued. This is the stunning contradiction of the G-20 action: the signatories declared, "the era of bank secrecy is over," but then dumped a trillion dollars of public money into the most secretive financial institutions in the world.
To make matters worse, IMF and Bank staff members who witness corruption or fraud (and there are plenty) are not allowed to inform affected governments or the press, except under the most stringent constraints. If they do, they risk deportation back to their home countries. This assures perpetual corruption instead of beneficial reform.
One would think that steps to ensure whistle-blower protections would have followed in the wake of the Bank's biggest black mark in history — the resignation of president Paul Wolfowitz, forced by anonymous staffers who exposed his cronyism, favoritism, incompetence and improper political dealings. Lost in his girlfriend-salary scandal were the revelations of coordinated support he received from the Bank's general counsel, the Department of Institutional Integrity, human resources, and the Ethics Committee of the Board of Directors. The whistle-blowers in the Wolfowitz affair have since been relentlessly pursued.
But protections from retaliation weren't strengthened. The bank adopted a "whistle-blower protection policy" last year that staff members already recognize as a trap: confidentiality may be breached; investigative reports remain hidden; grievance hearings to address retaliation are neither impartial nor external; and guaranteed reinstatement rights (if a whistle-blower is vindicated) don't exist.
In the past year, the federal government has given away hundreds of billions of dollars without first ensuring an honest accounting for it. The results are not surprising — improper bonuses and wasteful spending has outraged the public. We cannot forget this episode so soon — if an institution is going to collect public money, then it must be accountable to the public. It must have the governance measures that ensure that corruption and fraud can be safely exposed by those who witness it. And neither the World Bank nor the IMF passes that test.
Bea Edwards is the International Reform Director of the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistle-blower protection organization, www.whistleblower.org. MinutemanMedia.org
Source
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Federal Reserve audit forfeits franchise for securities fraud and embezzlement of $16 trillion
---
Fed until dissolved by Act of Congress or until forfeiture of franchise for violation of law.
An audit of the Federal Reserve has revealed that the privately owned Federal Reserve secretly doled out more than $16 trillion in zero interest loans to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world. The non-partisan, investigative arm of Congress also determined that the Federal Reserve acted illegally. In fact, according to the report, the Federal Reserve knew their financial transactions were illegal and provided conflict of interest waivers to its employees and private contractors so they could keep investments in the same financial institutions and corporations that were given emergency loans. The report is evidence that reveals major securities fraud in the embezzlement of $16 trillion by the Federal Reserve. Securities fraud and embezzlement are both felony criminal offenses. Any criminal offense committed by the Federal Reserve forfeits the Federal Reserve franchise – U.S. Code TITLE 12 CHAPTER 3 SUBCHAPTER IX § 341.
Second Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted. Embezzlement is performed in a manner that is premeditated, systematic and/or methodical, with the explicit intent to conceal the activities from other individuals, usually because it is being done without their knowledge or consent. U.S. Code TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 31 – EMBEZZLEMENT AND THEFT § 644. Banker receiving unauthorized deposit of public money.
Whoever, not being an authorized depositary of public moneys, knowingly receives from any disbursing officer, or collector of internal revenue, or other agent of the United States, any public money on deposit, or by way of loan or accommodation, with or without interest, or otherwise than in payment of a debt against the United States, or uses, transfers, converts, appropriates, or applies any portion of the public money for any purpose not prescribed by law is guilty of embezzlement and shall be fined under this title or not more than the amount so embezzled, whichever is greater, or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; but if the amount embezzled does not exceed $1,000, he shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
$16 trillion is 10 times more than what the U.S. Congress authorized and Bush ($700 billion) and Obama ( $787 billion) signed off on. The Federal Reserve was only authorized by Congress to disburse $1.487 trillion in federal tax dollars in bailouts. The Federal Reserve embezzled another $14.5 trillion.
The Congressional report determined that the Fed secretly hide most of the embezzled money into their own banks. The rest the Fed unilaterally transfered trillions of dollars to foreign banks and corporations from South Korea to Scotland. Foreign banks and corporations which the Federal Reserve bankers had a personal financial interest or stake in.
The report reveals that the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served on the New York Fed’s board of directors at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in federal money from the Fed – conflict of interest. Moreover, JP Morgan Chase served as one of the clearing banks (money laundering banks) for the Fed’s emergency loans programs (aka – embezzlement schemes).
In another disturbing finding, the Government Accountability Office said that on Sept. 19, 2008, William Dudley, who is now the New York Fed president, was granted a waiver to let him keep investments in AIG and General Electric at the same time AIG and GE were given federal funds. One reason the Fed did not make Dudley sell his holdings, according to the audit, was that it would have exposed the Fed’s conflict of interest and major securities fraud in the embezzlement of $16 trillion.
The investigation also revealed that the Fed outsourced most of its embezzling to private contractors, many of which were rewarded with extremely low-interest and then-secret loans.
The Fed outsourced virtually all of the operations of their $16 trillion embezzlement scheme to private contractors like JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. For their part the same firms also received trillions of dollars in Fed loans at near-zero interest rates. Morgan Stanley helped the Federal Reserve banker launder embezzled $trillions into AIG.
A more detailed Government Accountability Office investigation into corruption charges, securities fraud, embezzlement, money-laundering and conflicts of interest at the Fed was due on Oct. 18. The Sanders Report on the GAO Audit on Major Conflicts of Interest at the Federal Reserve
Did you know that the $14.5 trillion the Federal Reserve embezzled (US Congress only authorized $1.487 trillion) could pay the entire U.S. national debt – $14.346 trillion. To avert default the U.S. government need only to seize the assets of the Federal Reserve banks (the big six U.S. banks collectively hold about $9.399 trillion in assets) and get back the $trillions that the Federal Reserve illegally embezzled and money laundered to their foreign banks and corporations.
The U.S. government can recover $trillions from the Federal Reserve and their banks through asset forfeiture. Asset forfeiture is confiscation, by the State, of assets which are either (a) the alleged proceeds of crime or (b) the alleged instrumentalities of crime, and more recently, alleged terrorism. Proceeds of crime means any economic advantage derived from or obtained directly or indirectly from a criminal offense or criminal offenses. Crimes committed by the Federal Reserve banks against the United States and its people include; conflict of interest, securities fraud, embezzlement, fraud, money laundering, hoarding, profiteering, larceny, racketeering . . .
In 1982, a criminal forfeiture provision was enacted as part of the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. § 1961, which provided for the forfeiture of all property over which the RICO organization exercised an influence.
The Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 added new felony provisions at 18 U.S.C. § 1956 for the laundering of the proceeds of certain defined “specified unlawful activity,” as well as prohibiting structuring transactions under 31 U.S.C. § 5324 (with the intent to evade certain reporting requirements). The law also added civil and criminal forfeiture provisions at 18 U.S.C. §§ 981 and 982 for confiscating the property involved in money laundering.
According to the Legislative Guide to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols Thereto, “Criminalizing the conduct from which substantial illicit profits are made does not adequately punish or deter organized criminal groups. Even if arrested and convicted, some of these offenders will be able to enjoy their illegal gains for their personal use and for maintaining the operations of their criminal enterprises. Despite some sanctions, the perception would still remain that crime pays. . . . Practical measures to keep offenders from profiting from their crimes are necessary. One of the most important ways to do this is to ensure that States have strong confiscation regimes”
Top 10 Banks in the United States
Institution Headquarters Assets
1. Bank of America Corp. Charlotte, N.C. $2,340,667,014,000
2. J. P. Morgan Chase & Company New York, N.Y. 2,135,796,000,000
3. Citigroup New York, N.Y 2,002,213,000,000
4. Wells Fargo & Company San Francisco, C.A. 1,223,630,000,000
5. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. New York, N.Y. 880,677,000,000
6. Morgan Stanley New York, N.Y. 819,719,000,000
7. Metlife, Inc. New York, N.Y. 565,566,452,000
8. Barclays Group US, Inc. Wilmington, Del. 427,837,000,000
9. Taunus Corporation New York, N.Y. 364,079,000,000
10. HSBC North America Inc. New York, N.Y 345,382,871,000
As of Mar. 31, 2010.
Source: Federal Reserve System, National Information Center.
According to United States Code, TITLE 12 CHAPTER 3 SUBCHAPTER IX § 341. Second. states that the U.S. Federal Reserve Banks are to be dissolved today by “forfeiture of franchise for violation of law.” Securities fraud and embezzlement by the Federal Reserve Bank is cause for immediate forfeiture and imprisonment of the Federal Reserve and its bankers.
List of banks involved in the $16 trillion + securities fraud and embezzlement
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York provides an up to date list of “Primary Dealers” obligated to implement the Federal Reserve fraud and embezzlement scheme. http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/pridealers_current.html
“Primary dealers serve as trading counterparties of the New York Fed in its implementation of (Fed) monetary policy. This role includes the obligations to: (i) participate consistently in open market operations to carry out U.S. monetary policy pursuant to the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC); and (ii) provide the New York Fed‘s trading desk with market information and analysis (non-public stock market information – aka insider trading) helpful in the formulation and implementation of monetary policy (so that the Fed can profit from this insider information). Primary dealers are also required to participate in all auctions of U.S. government debt (acquiring wealth generated from the transactions of the illicit funds – aka money laundering for the Fed) and to make reasonable markets for the New York Fed when it transacts on behalf of its foreign official account-holders. (the New York Fed is stating who they are working for – on behalf of its foreign official account- holders)”
List of Primary Dealers (Fed’s money laundering banks. Listed in alphabetical order only.)
Bank of Nova Scotia, New York Agency (the third largest bank in Canada. Opened New York Agency in 1907)
BMO Capital Markets Corp. (the fourth largest Canadian bank)
BNP Paribas Securities Corp. (Paris, France)
Barclays Capital Inc. (London, United Kingdom)
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. (United States)
Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (CIA drug money laundering bank, United States)
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Zurich, Switzerland)
Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc. (Tokyo, Japan)
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (Frankfurt, Germany.)
Goldman, Sachs & Co. (United States)
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. (founded in Hong Kong, headquarters London, United Kingdom)
Jefferies & Company, Inc. (United States)
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (United States)
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (United States)
Mizuho Securities USA Inc. (Tokyo, Japan)
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC (United States)
Nomura Securities International, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan)
RBC Capital Markets, LLC (a Canadian investment bank, part of Royal Bank of Canada)
RBS Securities Inc. (Royal Bank of Scotland Group)
SG Americas Securities, LLC (United States)
UBS Securities LLC. (Zürich & Basel, Switzerland. Rothschild controlled. The Rothschild family hold the popes purse strings from this bank – the keys of the Vatican is a predominate part of their logo.)
All of the above named banks (includes both U.S. and foreign banks) money launder the over $16 trillion (U.S) that the Federal Reserve embezzled. These banks money launder the Fed embezzled U.S. Tax Dollars in three steps:
1) the illicit funds are introduced into the financial system by “placement”,
2) the “Primary Dealers” carrying out complex financial transactions in order to camouflage the illicit funds (“layering”), and
3) they acquire wealth generated from the transactions (loans, mortgages, stock market trading) of the illicit funds (“integration”).
All listed banks are controlled by the European Central Bank (Rothschild family) which controls it all for the Vatican, which is headed by the Nazi German Pope. All are working to enslave the World under a New World Order, aka Fourth Reich, aka Fourth unHoly Roman Empire.
Source
Fed until dissolved by Act of Congress or until forfeiture of franchise for violation of law.
An audit of the Federal Reserve has revealed that the privately owned Federal Reserve secretly doled out more than $16 trillion in zero interest loans to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world. The non-partisan, investigative arm of Congress also determined that the Federal Reserve acted illegally. In fact, according to the report, the Federal Reserve knew their financial transactions were illegal and provided conflict of interest waivers to its employees and private contractors so they could keep investments in the same financial institutions and corporations that were given emergency loans. The report is evidence that reveals major securities fraud in the embezzlement of $16 trillion by the Federal Reserve. Securities fraud and embezzlement are both felony criminal offenses. Any criminal offense committed by the Federal Reserve forfeits the Federal Reserve franchise – U.S. Code TITLE 12 CHAPTER 3 SUBCHAPTER IX § 341.
Second Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted. Embezzlement is performed in a manner that is premeditated, systematic and/or methodical, with the explicit intent to conceal the activities from other individuals, usually because it is being done without their knowledge or consent. U.S. Code TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 31 – EMBEZZLEMENT AND THEFT § 644. Banker receiving unauthorized deposit of public money.
Whoever, not being an authorized depositary of public moneys, knowingly receives from any disbursing officer, or collector of internal revenue, or other agent of the United States, any public money on deposit, or by way of loan or accommodation, with or without interest, or otherwise than in payment of a debt against the United States, or uses, transfers, converts, appropriates, or applies any portion of the public money for any purpose not prescribed by law is guilty of embezzlement and shall be fined under this title or not more than the amount so embezzled, whichever is greater, or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; but if the amount embezzled does not exceed $1,000, he shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
$16 trillion is 10 times more than what the U.S. Congress authorized and Bush ($700 billion) and Obama ( $787 billion) signed off on. The Federal Reserve was only authorized by Congress to disburse $1.487 trillion in federal tax dollars in bailouts. The Federal Reserve embezzled another $14.5 trillion.
The Congressional report determined that the Fed secretly hide most of the embezzled money into their own banks. The rest the Fed unilaterally transfered trillions of dollars to foreign banks and corporations from South Korea to Scotland. Foreign banks and corporations which the Federal Reserve bankers had a personal financial interest or stake in.
The report reveals that the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served on the New York Fed’s board of directors at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in federal money from the Fed – conflict of interest. Moreover, JP Morgan Chase served as one of the clearing banks (money laundering banks) for the Fed’s emergency loans programs (aka – embezzlement schemes).
In another disturbing finding, the Government Accountability Office said that on Sept. 19, 2008, William Dudley, who is now the New York Fed president, was granted a waiver to let him keep investments in AIG and General Electric at the same time AIG and GE were given federal funds. One reason the Fed did not make Dudley sell his holdings, according to the audit, was that it would have exposed the Fed’s conflict of interest and major securities fraud in the embezzlement of $16 trillion.
The investigation also revealed that the Fed outsourced most of its embezzling to private contractors, many of which were rewarded with extremely low-interest and then-secret loans.
The Fed outsourced virtually all of the operations of their $16 trillion embezzlement scheme to private contractors like JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. For their part the same firms also received trillions of dollars in Fed loans at near-zero interest rates. Morgan Stanley helped the Federal Reserve banker launder embezzled $trillions into AIG.
A more detailed Government Accountability Office investigation into corruption charges, securities fraud, embezzlement, money-laundering and conflicts of interest at the Fed was due on Oct. 18. The Sanders Report on the GAO Audit on Major Conflicts of Interest at the Federal Reserve
Did you know that the $14.5 trillion the Federal Reserve embezzled (US Congress only authorized $1.487 trillion) could pay the entire U.S. national debt – $14.346 trillion. To avert default the U.S. government need only to seize the assets of the Federal Reserve banks (the big six U.S. banks collectively hold about $9.399 trillion in assets) and get back the $trillions that the Federal Reserve illegally embezzled and money laundered to their foreign banks and corporations.
The U.S. government can recover $trillions from the Federal Reserve and their banks through asset forfeiture. Asset forfeiture is confiscation, by the State, of assets which are either (a) the alleged proceeds of crime or (b) the alleged instrumentalities of crime, and more recently, alleged terrorism. Proceeds of crime means any economic advantage derived from or obtained directly or indirectly from a criminal offense or criminal offenses. Crimes committed by the Federal Reserve banks against the United States and its people include; conflict of interest, securities fraud, embezzlement, fraud, money laundering, hoarding, profiteering, larceny, racketeering . . .
In 1982, a criminal forfeiture provision was enacted as part of the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. § 1961, which provided for the forfeiture of all property over which the RICO organization exercised an influence.
The Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 added new felony provisions at 18 U.S.C. § 1956 for the laundering of the proceeds of certain defined “specified unlawful activity,” as well as prohibiting structuring transactions under 31 U.S.C. § 5324 (with the intent to evade certain reporting requirements). The law also added civil and criminal forfeiture provisions at 18 U.S.C. §§ 981 and 982 for confiscating the property involved in money laundering.
According to the Legislative Guide to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols Thereto, “Criminalizing the conduct from which substantial illicit profits are made does not adequately punish or deter organized criminal groups. Even if arrested and convicted, some of these offenders will be able to enjoy their illegal gains for their personal use and for maintaining the operations of their criminal enterprises. Despite some sanctions, the perception would still remain that crime pays. . . . Practical measures to keep offenders from profiting from their crimes are necessary. One of the most important ways to do this is to ensure that States have strong confiscation regimes”
Top 10 Banks in the United States
Institution Headquarters Assets
1. Bank of America Corp. Charlotte, N.C. $2,340,667,014,000
2. J. P. Morgan Chase & Company New York, N.Y. 2,135,796,000,000
3. Citigroup New York, N.Y 2,002,213,000,000
4. Wells Fargo & Company San Francisco, C.A. 1,223,630,000,000
5. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. New York, N.Y. 880,677,000,000
6. Morgan Stanley New York, N.Y. 819,719,000,000
7. Metlife, Inc. New York, N.Y. 565,566,452,000
8. Barclays Group US, Inc. Wilmington, Del. 427,837,000,000
9. Taunus Corporation New York, N.Y. 364,079,000,000
10. HSBC North America Inc. New York, N.Y 345,382,871,000
As of Mar. 31, 2010.
Source: Federal Reserve System, National Information Center.
According to United States Code, TITLE 12 CHAPTER 3 SUBCHAPTER IX § 341. Second. states that the U.S. Federal Reserve Banks are to be dissolved today by “forfeiture of franchise for violation of law.” Securities fraud and embezzlement by the Federal Reserve Bank is cause for immediate forfeiture and imprisonment of the Federal Reserve and its bankers.
List of banks involved in the $16 trillion + securities fraud and embezzlement
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York provides an up to date list of “Primary Dealers” obligated to implement the Federal Reserve fraud and embezzlement scheme. http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/pridealers_current.html
“Primary dealers serve as trading counterparties of the New York Fed in its implementation of (Fed) monetary policy. This role includes the obligations to: (i) participate consistently in open market operations to carry out U.S. monetary policy pursuant to the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC); and (ii) provide the New York Fed‘s trading desk with market information and analysis (non-public stock market information – aka insider trading) helpful in the formulation and implementation of monetary policy (so that the Fed can profit from this insider information). Primary dealers are also required to participate in all auctions of U.S. government debt (acquiring wealth generated from the transactions of the illicit funds – aka money laundering for the Fed) and to make reasonable markets for the New York Fed when it transacts on behalf of its foreign official account-holders. (the New York Fed is stating who they are working for – on behalf of its foreign official account- holders)”
List of Primary Dealers (Fed’s money laundering banks. Listed in alphabetical order only.)
Bank of Nova Scotia, New York Agency (the third largest bank in Canada. Opened New York Agency in 1907)
BMO Capital Markets Corp. (the fourth largest Canadian bank)
BNP Paribas Securities Corp. (Paris, France)
Barclays Capital Inc. (London, United Kingdom)
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. (United States)
Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (CIA drug money laundering bank, United States)
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Zurich, Switzerland)
Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc. (Tokyo, Japan)
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (Frankfurt, Germany.)
Goldman, Sachs & Co. (United States)
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. (founded in Hong Kong, headquarters London, United Kingdom)
Jefferies & Company, Inc. (United States)
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (United States)
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (United States)
Mizuho Securities USA Inc. (Tokyo, Japan)
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC (United States)
Nomura Securities International, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan)
RBC Capital Markets, LLC (a Canadian investment bank, part of Royal Bank of Canada)
RBS Securities Inc. (Royal Bank of Scotland Group)
SG Americas Securities, LLC (United States)
UBS Securities LLC. (Zürich & Basel, Switzerland. Rothschild controlled. The Rothschild family hold the popes purse strings from this bank – the keys of the Vatican is a predominate part of their logo.)
All of the above named banks (includes both U.S. and foreign banks) money launder the over $16 trillion (U.S) that the Federal Reserve embezzled. These banks money launder the Fed embezzled U.S. Tax Dollars in three steps:
1) the illicit funds are introduced into the financial system by “placement”,
2) the “Primary Dealers” carrying out complex financial transactions in order to camouflage the illicit funds (“layering”), and
3) they acquire wealth generated from the transactions (loans, mortgages, stock market trading) of the illicit funds (“integration”).
All listed banks are controlled by the European Central Bank (Rothschild family) which controls it all for the Vatican, which is headed by the Nazi German Pope. All are working to enslave the World under a New World Order, aka Fourth Reich, aka Fourth unHoly Roman Empire.
Source
#FED endgame is near.. Bye bye dollar
---
President Obama just finished a meeting with China’s President Hu in Hawaii. One of the main subjects: Revaluing the Chinese currency higher, and the value of the dollar lower.
It’s all part of Washington’s plan to try and inflate away our country’s debts by devaluing the dollar.
The numbskulls in Washington also think that a dollar that’s worth less than it already is will somehow bring back jobs to the United States.
They also believe it will miraculously lift the U.S. economy out of the doldrums. But in fact, it’s not the value of any currency for that matter that is behind the financial crisis; it’s Washington’s refusal to admit that it’s their spending and addiction to debt that is the problem.
Meanwhile China continues to prepare to make its currency a world-class medium of exchange. In addition to building its gold reserves, Beijing is expanding trade with the yuan throughout Asia and just last week concluded a major yuan-based trading agreement with the Russians.
Plus, yuan denominated bonds are now being issued in Hong Kong and Singapore. And I have no doubt in my mind that Beijing is also going to take a large position in Europe to help it with its currency and debt crisis, giving China a large stake and say in European affairs.
I repeat my warnings of late: While almost everyone’s eyes are on Europe’s crisis (and the Super Committee budget debates in Washington) — the biggest threat of all is being ignored: The rise of the yuan and inevitable fall of the dollar!
To understand how important it is ... how IMMINENT it is ... and what you can do to PROTECT and GROW your wealth in spite of it all, you’ll want to see my new urgent video on the looming dollar disaster.
It includes a discussion of the strategies I’ve designed to go after gains of 832% and it fills you in on the SIX FREE EMERGENCY PROFIT GUIDES I’ve prepared for you.
To view the video NOW, just turn on your computer speakers and click this link.
President Obama just finished a meeting with China’s President Hu in Hawaii. One of the main subjects: Revaluing the Chinese currency higher, and the value of the dollar lower.
It’s all part of Washington’s plan to try and inflate away our country’s debts by devaluing the dollar.
The numbskulls in Washington also think that a dollar that’s worth less than it already is will somehow bring back jobs to the United States.
They also believe it will miraculously lift the U.S. economy out of the doldrums. But in fact, it’s not the value of any currency for that matter that is behind the financial crisis; it’s Washington’s refusal to admit that it’s their spending and addiction to debt that is the problem.
Meanwhile China continues to prepare to make its currency a world-class medium of exchange. In addition to building its gold reserves, Beijing is expanding trade with the yuan throughout Asia and just last week concluded a major yuan-based trading agreement with the Russians.
Plus, yuan denominated bonds are now being issued in Hong Kong and Singapore. And I have no doubt in my mind that Beijing is also going to take a large position in Europe to help it with its currency and debt crisis, giving China a large stake and say in European affairs.
I repeat my warnings of late: While almost everyone’s eyes are on Europe’s crisis (and the Super Committee budget debates in Washington) — the biggest threat of all is being ignored: The rise of the yuan and inevitable fall of the dollar!
To understand how important it is ... how IMMINENT it is ... and what you can do to PROTECT and GROW your wealth in spite of it all, you’ll want to see my new urgent video on the looming dollar disaster.
It includes a discussion of the strategies I’ve designed to go after gains of 832% and it fills you in on the SIX FREE EMERGENCY PROFIT GUIDES I’ve prepared for you.
To view the video NOW, just turn on your computer speakers and click this link.
HowTo: (Legally) Attack the Banks - An actionable #plan for #ows #OccupyWallStreet #99Percent
---
I sent this post to a few of my good activist friends with the hope that something can be done to salvage the Occupy movement before it is trivialized by politicians, police and the main stream media.
Why do I feel like it needs to be salvaged?
I'll tell ya..
I've begun to wonder if the Occupy movement is even real.. Maybe it's a CIA special ops operation?
"Oh look! How cute! We have our own "Tahrir square" Isn't that special!"
Who TF are you occupiers?
A bunch of 1960's hippie wannabes?
You want to put some f'ing tents in a public park, smoke pot and eat beanie wienies?
Like that's going to bring down Wall Street?
This ain't Egypt folks.. it's the United States of America.
Your little camp outs are drawing the homeless in for free food. And a certain percentage of the homeless, coincidentally, happen to be mentally ill drug addicts, rapists and murderers..
The "focus" of the "movement" is becoming the riffraff you draw to yourselves!
So here's an actionable plan for you..
Get OUT of the f'ing parks and INTO the banks, insurance companies, auto dealers and payday loan companies!
This is America, we have FREEDOM here!
Rather than park 800 idiots in a public park to be harassed by police take it to the f'ing streets!
As Americans we have every legal right to enter a bank lobby in a peaceful, orderly manner. We have every legal right to ask questions of a public corporation.
So do that!
Take hundreds of your asses into a bank lobby, each of you armed with a legitimate question for the employees of the bank.
I like "Why / how do you expect people to pay a 17% interest rate for one of your crappy credit cards while you are able to borrow money yourselves practically for free?!"
But ANY legitimate question will work..
What time do you open?
What are your hours?
What products do you offer?
What's your phone number?
How many branches do you have?
What are those branch locations?
Hopefully you get the idea..
You can SHUT DOWN businesses with your numbers alone IF you put those numbers in the right SPOTS!
When / if you jam pack a bank lobby with people who desire to ask a legitimate question of the bankers it will be nearly impossible for non-participating bank customers to do their business.. If they can't do their business with a too big to fail maybe they'll move their account..
All you / we need is bodies.. Enough bodies to fill as many TBTF bank lobbies as possible. As many insurance offices as possible. As many car dealerships as possible. As many payday loan companies as possible.
Be at the door waiting to get in when they open. When it's closing time leave peacefully, return to your family or whatever you normally do. But the the next morning be there again, bright and early, ready to spend the entire day in these greedy corrupt to the core businesses. Every day, day in and day out.
SHUT them DOWN! But be polite about it ;)
If you can't go personally CALL them with your questions!
Set up phone banks to call them with questions! Thousands and thousands of questions! Denial of service attacks on computer networks are illegal.. Calling public corporations on the phone, by the thousands, is not! Though the result can be exactly the same.
The ONLY way "they" can stop this sort of civil disobedience would be to pass a law to make it illegal for American citizens to enter or call a public corporation with legitimate questions!
*I* don't see that happening! Do you?
Please.. use your freedom wisely and we can accomplish great things..
Here is the definition of Civil Disobedience
Greg
I sent this post to a few of my good activist friends with the hope that something can be done to salvage the Occupy movement before it is trivialized by politicians, police and the main stream media.
Why do I feel like it needs to be salvaged?
I'll tell ya..
I've begun to wonder if the Occupy movement is even real.. Maybe it's a CIA special ops operation?
"Oh look! How cute! We have our own "Tahrir square" Isn't that special!"
Who TF are you occupiers?
A bunch of 1960's hippie wannabes?
You want to put some f'ing tents in a public park, smoke pot and eat beanie wienies?
Like that's going to bring down Wall Street?
This ain't Egypt folks.. it's the United States of America.
Your little camp outs are drawing the homeless in for free food. And a certain percentage of the homeless, coincidentally, happen to be mentally ill drug addicts, rapists and murderers..
The "focus" of the "movement" is becoming the riffraff you draw to yourselves!
So here's an actionable plan for you..
Get OUT of the f'ing parks and INTO the banks, insurance companies, auto dealers and payday loan companies!
This is America, we have FREEDOM here!
Rather than park 800 idiots in a public park to be harassed by police take it to the f'ing streets!
As Americans we have every legal right to enter a bank lobby in a peaceful, orderly manner. We have every legal right to ask questions of a public corporation.
So do that!
Take hundreds of your asses into a bank lobby, each of you armed with a legitimate question for the employees of the bank.
I like "Why / how do you expect people to pay a 17% interest rate for one of your crappy credit cards while you are able to borrow money yourselves practically for free?!"
But ANY legitimate question will work..
What time do you open?
What are your hours?
What products do you offer?
What's your phone number?
How many branches do you have?
What are those branch locations?
Hopefully you get the idea..
You can SHUT DOWN businesses with your numbers alone IF you put those numbers in the right SPOTS!
When / if you jam pack a bank lobby with people who desire to ask a legitimate question of the bankers it will be nearly impossible for non-participating bank customers to do their business.. If they can't do their business with a too big to fail maybe they'll move their account..
All you / we need is bodies.. Enough bodies to fill as many TBTF bank lobbies as possible. As many insurance offices as possible. As many car dealerships as possible. As many payday loan companies as possible.
Be at the door waiting to get in when they open. When it's closing time leave peacefully, return to your family or whatever you normally do. But the the next morning be there again, bright and early, ready to spend the entire day in these greedy corrupt to the core businesses. Every day, day in and day out.
SHUT them DOWN! But be polite about it ;)
If you can't go personally CALL them with your questions!
Set up phone banks to call them with questions! Thousands and thousands of questions! Denial of service attacks on computer networks are illegal.. Calling public corporations on the phone, by the thousands, is not! Though the result can be exactly the same.
The ONLY way "they" can stop this sort of civil disobedience would be to pass a law to make it illegal for American citizens to enter or call a public corporation with legitimate questions!
*I* don't see that happening! Do you?
Please.. use your freedom wisely and we can accomplish great things..
Here is the definition of Civil Disobedience
Greg
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The Revolution has begun! Don't be left behind wondering what happened! #ows #OccupyWallStreet #99Percent
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Check this video people!
It is about US! We ARE the people!
In the United States there are 535 politicians that decide what is best, or what is and isn't allowed for ALL of us.. That's bullshit! And it's time it stopped!
Click to watch video
Check this video people!
It is about US! We ARE the people!
In the United States there are 535 politicians that decide what is best, or what is and isn't allowed for ALL of us.. That's bullshit! And it's time it stopped!
Click to watch video
The Biggest Bubble in History?
---
Confidence? In what?! They have all been exposed now so they need to get TF over it & disappear! Government, central bank, banks & corporations
---
By Global Macro Monitor
We are baffled by the analysis of the analyst community, some, of which, are not so analytical. They say that Europe’s fundamental problem is that it has a central bank which is unwilling to monetize sizeable debt maturities which bondholders are unwilling to refinance . They look to the Federal Reserve as a model and as proof that the U.S. does not and will not have a sovereign funding crisis.
Maybe that’s why the U.S. Congressional “Super Committee” is having trouble reaching an agreement on a fiscal program. Talk about the Fed creating moral hazard!
If a sovereign crisis is the result of an intransigent central bank that refuses to print money to refinance maturing bonds that the government can’t afford or is unwilling to pay, why in the world did the Russian government default on its local treasury securities in 1998?
Remember that crisis? It eventually led to the collapse of Long Term Capital Management and what President Clinton called the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. He was only about ten years early.
Why didn’t the Russian government simply monetize the existing treasury securities, known as GKOs? Couldn’t they hold rates down to say 10 percent instead of letting them soar to 200 percent?
We don’t know for sure and are too lazy to research it (impossible to prove a counterfactual!) but maybe it was because they didn’t want to inflict hyperinflation upon the Russian people. What would Russia be like today if they had monetized? Ironically, Russia chose to default on its local currency debt, much of it held by foreigners, including David Tepper, and decided to pay their hard currency Euro bonds. Go figure.
We’ll also never forget being in the Bulgarian central bank in 1996 just before some very large maturities of treasury bills were coming due. The market had lost confidence in the government and a high ranking central bank official looked us straight in the eye and said “we will not let the government default.”
We knew instantly a massive amount of liquidity was about to hit the local markets, the demand for the currency was going to collapse, and the country was headed for hyperinflation. Rioting broke out, the government fell, and the country eventually implemented a currency board, not too dissimilar from that of the Euro, in order to enforce fiscal discipline upon the government.
Here at the Global Macro Monitor we believe it is one thing to monetize the small debt maturities of Greece and, say, Portugal, but Italy, the third largest debtor in the world, is in a totally different league. Surprisingly, the markets don’t seem to make the distinction, but, no doubt, German policymakers do.
It doesn’t help that many of Italy’s bondholders are some of Europe’s largest banks who have been recently rewarded by the markets for reducing their sovereign bond holdings. Some of the French banks, for example, saw their stock prices soar after they announced sizeable reductions in their European sovereign exposure in the latest earnings releases. There is no question, at least in our mind, they’ll continue to be under pressure to sell down their sovereign exposure.
But to whom we ask? The ECB? More importantly will the ECB’s “bid of last resort” at a subsidized bond price for the seller result in Italy’s return to full market access at sustainable interest rates? This is the question Mario Draghi must be asking himself every minute of every day. The answer will largely depend on Mario Monti’s political ability to motivate Italians to swallow the necessary austerity measures to win back market confidence, which could take some time.
We’re not sure of the economic and political consequences of the monetization of Italy’s debt, but unlike many, we are sure there will be unintended consequences, both economic and political.
We just may be in the midst of the biggest bubble in history. The complacency that the accumulation of all the ills of the many and massive bubbles that have ripped through the global economy in the past twenty years can simply be resolved by quantitative easing, monetization, printing money or whatever you wish to call it is simply stunning to us.
The loss of confidence, to paraphrase Rudiger Dornbusch, takes longer to happen than you think it should and happens faster than you thought it could. Governments can finance themselves until they can’t. Risk free is risk free until it isn’t
Click here for source
Confidence? In what?! They have all been exposed now so they need to get TF over it & disappear! Government, central bank, banks & corporations
---
By Global Macro Monitor
We are baffled by the analysis of the analyst community, some, of which, are not so analytical. They say that Europe’s fundamental problem is that it has a central bank which is unwilling to monetize sizeable debt maturities which bondholders are unwilling to refinance . They look to the Federal Reserve as a model and as proof that the U.S. does not and will not have a sovereign funding crisis.
Maybe that’s why the U.S. Congressional “Super Committee” is having trouble reaching an agreement on a fiscal program. Talk about the Fed creating moral hazard!
If a sovereign crisis is the result of an intransigent central bank that refuses to print money to refinance maturing bonds that the government can’t afford or is unwilling to pay, why in the world did the Russian government default on its local treasury securities in 1998?
Remember that crisis? It eventually led to the collapse of Long Term Capital Management and what President Clinton called the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. He was only about ten years early.
Why didn’t the Russian government simply monetize the existing treasury securities, known as GKOs? Couldn’t they hold rates down to say 10 percent instead of letting them soar to 200 percent?
We don’t know for sure and are too lazy to research it (impossible to prove a counterfactual!) but maybe it was because they didn’t want to inflict hyperinflation upon the Russian people. What would Russia be like today if they had monetized? Ironically, Russia chose to default on its local currency debt, much of it held by foreigners, including David Tepper, and decided to pay their hard currency Euro bonds. Go figure.
We’ll also never forget being in the Bulgarian central bank in 1996 just before some very large maturities of treasury bills were coming due. The market had lost confidence in the government and a high ranking central bank official looked us straight in the eye and said “we will not let the government default.”
We knew instantly a massive amount of liquidity was about to hit the local markets, the demand for the currency was going to collapse, and the country was headed for hyperinflation. Rioting broke out, the government fell, and the country eventually implemented a currency board, not too dissimilar from that of the Euro, in order to enforce fiscal discipline upon the government.
Here at the Global Macro Monitor we believe it is one thing to monetize the small debt maturities of Greece and, say, Portugal, but Italy, the third largest debtor in the world, is in a totally different league. Surprisingly, the markets don’t seem to make the distinction, but, no doubt, German policymakers do.
It doesn’t help that many of Italy’s bondholders are some of Europe’s largest banks who have been recently rewarded by the markets for reducing their sovereign bond holdings. Some of the French banks, for example, saw their stock prices soar after they announced sizeable reductions in their European sovereign exposure in the latest earnings releases. There is no question, at least in our mind, they’ll continue to be under pressure to sell down their sovereign exposure.
But to whom we ask? The ECB? More importantly will the ECB’s “bid of last resort” at a subsidized bond price for the seller result in Italy’s return to full market access at sustainable interest rates? This is the question Mario Draghi must be asking himself every minute of every day. The answer will largely depend on Mario Monti’s political ability to motivate Italians to swallow the necessary austerity measures to win back market confidence, which could take some time.
We’re not sure of the economic and political consequences of the monetization of Italy’s debt, but unlike many, we are sure there will be unintended consequences, both economic and political.
We just may be in the midst of the biggest bubble in history. The complacency that the accumulation of all the ills of the many and massive bubbles that have ripped through the global economy in the past twenty years can simply be resolved by quantitative easing, monetization, printing money or whatever you wish to call it is simply stunning to us.
The loss of confidence, to paraphrase Rudiger Dornbusch, takes longer to happen than you think it should and happens faster than you thought it could. Governments can finance themselves until they can’t. Risk free is risk free until it isn’t
Click here for source
Government Rubber Stamps Bank Accounting Fraud
---
By now everyone is aware that following tremendous pressure by the banker lobby, which knows too well the Ponzi jig will be immediately up if Quantitative Easing’s TBTF Madoffs are forced to disclose the true value of their worthless assets (yes, true value comes from asset cash flow generation, not from diluting money), the FASB decided to stop its push for a return to MTM. From the WSJ: “Accounting rule makers, bowing to an intense lobbying campaign, took a key step Tuesday to reverse a controversial proposal that would have required banks to use market prices rather than cost in order to value the loans they hold on their balance sheets.”
Transparency? What moron would propose that in an economy that is so obviously healthy and surging. After all, the only way to validate a surging stock market, er, economic recovery, is through bullshit numbers pulled out of the ass. That way they can pretend to tell us the truth, we can pretend to believe them, and everyone will frontrun the Fed who pretends not to be buying stocks. And it would have been great if it ended there. Alas no. Following the announcement, none other than Bill Isaac, current Chairman of LECG, but far more importantly, former Chairman of the FDIC under Ronald Reagan decided to send out a gloating email to his entire address book explaining what a moral victory it is to kill the MTM monster that is the sole reason for the near collapse of capitalism in 2008, and how truly wonderful it is for everyone to live in perpetual lack of knowledge of what the true value of any company’s assets really is. Unfortunately, this just goes to show what the existing, extremely bribed, leaders of the nation’s most vital organizations really think.
And before we present Isaac’s note, here is some more on how the banker lobby scored one more over the US peasantry, from the WSJ:
The Financial Accounting Standards Board preliminary vote would allow banks to continue valuing many of their loans at amortized cost, an adjusted version of their original cost, as they do now. That backtracks on an FASB proposal last May to expand fair value to bank loans. The reversal is a victory for the banking industry, which says it would have hurt lending and unfairly reduce banks’ book value. Supporters of the FASB fair-value proposal say it would have improved transparency and unmasked potential weakness at banks.
The FASB indicated the overwhelmingly negative reaction to its proposal from companies and investors played a large role in prompting the board to change its mind. The board received more than 2,800 comment letters on its fair-value proposal, most of them opposed to the move.
FASB changed direction on how to value loans because of “strong signals from the board’s constituents,” FASB Chairman Leslie Seidman said during a webcast Tuesday. She also noted that some loans—including those that banks trade actively instead of retaining in order to collect the payments on them—will have to be valued at market prices.
And the reason for why opacity rules:
At some large banks, their loans’ fair value is billions of dollars less than their carrying amount.
That would dramatically reduce their shareholder equity—or assets minus liabilities—if the loans had to be carried at fair value.
Investors have said fair-value information is important to them even if they don’t think it should be the criteria for valuing loans on the balance sheet, FASB members said.
Simply said, if everyone knew the truth, everyone would be insolvent.
And here is William Isaac’s letter, which blames Mark To Market for the near end of capitalism. Conveniently his email is also provided.
Mark-to-market accounting — a failed policy that was terminated by the Roosevelt Administration in 1938 because it was inhibiting bank lending — was revived by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board in the 1990s over strong objections from the Fed, FDIC and Treasury.
The MTM policy senselessly destroyed some $500 billion of capital in our financial system when the markets collapsed in 2008. This destroyed some $4 trillion of bank lending capacity and was a major contributor to the financial panic and ensuing economic collapse.
The FASB, almost inexplicably, proposed last year to EXPAND mark-to-market accounting to cover all bank loans. This would have essentially shut down lending except for short-term lending to businesses with impeccable credit ratings.
See the press release below. The FASB is apparently abandoning its plan to expand mark-to-market accounting. This is an important first step improving US accounting as it relates to financial institutions.
Best regards, Bill
As Bankers Kill Off Mark-To-Market For Good, Former FDIC Chairman Gloats | zero hedge.
By now everyone is aware that following tremendous pressure by the banker lobby, which knows too well the Ponzi jig will be immediately up if Quantitative Easing’s TBTF Madoffs are forced to disclose the true value of their worthless assets (yes, true value comes from asset cash flow generation, not from diluting money), the FASB decided to stop its push for a return to MTM. From the WSJ: “Accounting rule makers, bowing to an intense lobbying campaign, took a key step Tuesday to reverse a controversial proposal that would have required banks to use market prices rather than cost in order to value the loans they hold on their balance sheets.”
Transparency? What moron would propose that in an economy that is so obviously healthy and surging. After all, the only way to validate a surging stock market, er, economic recovery, is through bullshit numbers pulled out of the ass. That way they can pretend to tell us the truth, we can pretend to believe them, and everyone will frontrun the Fed who pretends not to be buying stocks. And it would have been great if it ended there. Alas no. Following the announcement, none other than Bill Isaac, current Chairman of LECG, but far more importantly, former Chairman of the FDIC under Ronald Reagan decided to send out a gloating email to his entire address book explaining what a moral victory it is to kill the MTM monster that is the sole reason for the near collapse of capitalism in 2008, and how truly wonderful it is for everyone to live in perpetual lack of knowledge of what the true value of any company’s assets really is. Unfortunately, this just goes to show what the existing, extremely bribed, leaders of the nation’s most vital organizations really think.
And before we present Isaac’s note, here is some more on how the banker lobby scored one more over the US peasantry, from the WSJ:
The Financial Accounting Standards Board preliminary vote would allow banks to continue valuing many of their loans at amortized cost, an adjusted version of their original cost, as they do now. That backtracks on an FASB proposal last May to expand fair value to bank loans. The reversal is a victory for the banking industry, which says it would have hurt lending and unfairly reduce banks’ book value. Supporters of the FASB fair-value proposal say it would have improved transparency and unmasked potential weakness at banks.
The FASB indicated the overwhelmingly negative reaction to its proposal from companies and investors played a large role in prompting the board to change its mind. The board received more than 2,800 comment letters on its fair-value proposal, most of them opposed to the move.
FASB changed direction on how to value loans because of “strong signals from the board’s constituents,” FASB Chairman Leslie Seidman said during a webcast Tuesday. She also noted that some loans—including those that banks trade actively instead of retaining in order to collect the payments on them—will have to be valued at market prices.
And the reason for why opacity rules:
At some large banks, their loans’ fair value is billions of dollars less than their carrying amount.
That would dramatically reduce their shareholder equity—or assets minus liabilities—if the loans had to be carried at fair value.
Investors have said fair-value information is important to them even if they don’t think it should be the criteria for valuing loans on the balance sheet, FASB members said.
Simply said, if everyone knew the truth, everyone would be insolvent.
And here is William Isaac’s letter, which blames Mark To Market for the near end of capitalism. Conveniently his email is also provided.
Mark-to-market accounting — a failed policy that was terminated by the Roosevelt Administration in 1938 because it was inhibiting bank lending — was revived by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board in the 1990s over strong objections from the Fed, FDIC and Treasury.
The MTM policy senselessly destroyed some $500 billion of capital in our financial system when the markets collapsed in 2008. This destroyed some $4 trillion of bank lending capacity and was a major contributor to the financial panic and ensuing economic collapse.
The FASB, almost inexplicably, proposed last year to EXPAND mark-to-market accounting to cover all bank loans. This would have essentially shut down lending except for short-term lending to businesses with impeccable credit ratings.
See the press release below. The FASB is apparently abandoning its plan to expand mark-to-market accounting. This is an important first step improving US accounting as it relates to financial institutions.
Best regards, Bill
As Bankers Kill Off Mark-To-Market For Good, Former FDIC Chairman Gloats | zero hedge.
Insider #Trading apparently #Legal for #congress ONLY! #ows
---
The 1% get richer while we get shafted.. So what else is new?!
---
(CBS News) Washington, D.C. is a town that runs on inside information - but should our elected officials be able to use that information to pad their own pockets? As Steve Kroft reports, members of Congress and their aides have regular access to powerful political intelligence, and many have made well-timed stock market trades in the very industries they regulate. For now, the practice is perfectly legal, but some say it's time for the law to change.
The following is a script of "Insiders" which aired on Nov. 13, 2011. Steve Kroft is correspondent, Ira Rosen and Gabrielle Schonder, producers.
The next national election is now less than a year away and congressmen and senators are expending much of their time and their energy raising the millions of dollars in campaign funds they'll need just to hold onto a job that pays $174,000 a year.
Few of them are doing it for the salary and all of them will say they are doing it to serve the public. But there are other benefits: Power, prestige, and the opportunity to become a Washington insider with access to information and connections that no one else has, in an environment of privilege where rules that govern the rest of the country, don't always apply to them.
Questioning Pelosi: Steve Kroft heads to D.C.
When Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, and other lawmakers wouldn't answer Steve Kroft's questions, he headed to Washington to get some answers about their stock trades.
Most former congressmen and senators manage to leave Washington - if they ever leave Washington - with more money in their pockets than they had when they arrived, and as you are about to see, the biggest challenge is often avoiding temptation.
Peter Schweizer: This is a venture opportunity. This is an opportunity to leverage your position in public service and use that position to enrich yourself, your friends, and your family.
Peter Schweizer is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University. A year ago he began working on a book about soft corruption in Washington with a team of eight student researchers, who reviewed financial disclosure records. It became a jumping off point for our own story, and we have independently verified the material we've used.
Schweizer says he wanted to know why some congressmen and senators managed to accumulate significant wealth beyond their salaries, and proved particularly adept at buying and selling stocks.
Schweizer: There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very wealthy. So it's not illegal, but I think it's highly unethical, I think it's highly offensive, and wrong.
Steve Kroft: What do you mean honest graft?
Schweizer: For example insider trading on the stock market. If you are a member of Congress, those laws are deemed not to apply.
Kroft: So congressman get a pass on insider trading?
Schweizer: They do. The fact is, if you sit on a healthcare committee and you know that Medicare, for example, is-- is considering not reimbursing for a certain drug that's market moving information. And if you can trade stock on-- off of that information and do so legally, that's a great profit making opportunity. And that sort of behavior goes on.
Kroft: Why does Congress get a pass on this?
Schweizer: It's really the way the rules have been defined. And the people who make the rules are the political class in Washington. And they've conveniently written them in such a way that they don't apply to themselves.
The buying and selling of stock by corporate insiders who have access to non-public information that could affect the stock price can be a criminal offense, just ask hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam who recently got 11 years in prison for doing it. But, congressional lawmakers have no corporate responsibilities and have long been considered exempt from insider trading laws, even though they have daily access to non-public information and plenty of opportunities to trade on it.
Schweizer: We know that during the health care debate people were trading health care stocks. We know that during the financial crisis of 2008 they were getting out of the market before the rest of America really knew what was going on.
In mid September 2008 with the Dow Jones Industrial average still above ten thousand, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were holding closed door briefings with congressional leaders, and privately warning them that a global financial meltdown could occur within a few days. One of those attending was Alabama Representative Spencer Bachus, then the ranking Republican member on the House Financial Services Committee and now its chairman.
Schweizer: These meetings were so sensitive-- that they would actually confiscate cell phones and Blackberries going into those meetings. What we know is that those meetings were held one day and literally the next day Congressman Bachus would engage in buying stock options based on apocalyptic briefings he had the day before from the Fed chairman and treasury secretary. I mean, talk about a stock tip.
While Congressman Bachus was publicly trying to keep the economy from cratering, he was privately betting that it would, buying option funds that would go up in value if the market went down. He would make a variety of trades and profited at a time when most Americans were losing their shirts.
Congressman Bachus declined to talk to us, so we went to his office and ran into his Press Secretary Tim Johnson.
There are 4 more pages to this article
Click here to continue reading
The 1% get richer while we get shafted.. So what else is new?!
---
(CBS News) Washington, D.C. is a town that runs on inside information - but should our elected officials be able to use that information to pad their own pockets? As Steve Kroft reports, members of Congress and their aides have regular access to powerful political intelligence, and many have made well-timed stock market trades in the very industries they regulate. For now, the practice is perfectly legal, but some say it's time for the law to change.
The following is a script of "Insiders" which aired on Nov. 13, 2011. Steve Kroft is correspondent, Ira Rosen and Gabrielle Schonder, producers.
The next national election is now less than a year away and congressmen and senators are expending much of their time and their energy raising the millions of dollars in campaign funds they'll need just to hold onto a job that pays $174,000 a year.
Few of them are doing it for the salary and all of them will say they are doing it to serve the public. But there are other benefits: Power, prestige, and the opportunity to become a Washington insider with access to information and connections that no one else has, in an environment of privilege where rules that govern the rest of the country, don't always apply to them.
Questioning Pelosi: Steve Kroft heads to D.C.
When Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, and other lawmakers wouldn't answer Steve Kroft's questions, he headed to Washington to get some answers about their stock trades.
Most former congressmen and senators manage to leave Washington - if they ever leave Washington - with more money in their pockets than they had when they arrived, and as you are about to see, the biggest challenge is often avoiding temptation.
Peter Schweizer: This is a venture opportunity. This is an opportunity to leverage your position in public service and use that position to enrich yourself, your friends, and your family.
Peter Schweizer is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University. A year ago he began working on a book about soft corruption in Washington with a team of eight student researchers, who reviewed financial disclosure records. It became a jumping off point for our own story, and we have independently verified the material we've used.
Schweizer says he wanted to know why some congressmen and senators managed to accumulate significant wealth beyond their salaries, and proved particularly adept at buying and selling stocks.
Schweizer: There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very wealthy. So it's not illegal, but I think it's highly unethical, I think it's highly offensive, and wrong.
Steve Kroft: What do you mean honest graft?
Schweizer: For example insider trading on the stock market. If you are a member of Congress, those laws are deemed not to apply.
Kroft: So congressman get a pass on insider trading?
Schweizer: They do. The fact is, if you sit on a healthcare committee and you know that Medicare, for example, is-- is considering not reimbursing for a certain drug that's market moving information. And if you can trade stock on-- off of that information and do so legally, that's a great profit making opportunity. And that sort of behavior goes on.
Kroft: Why does Congress get a pass on this?
Schweizer: It's really the way the rules have been defined. And the people who make the rules are the political class in Washington. And they've conveniently written them in such a way that they don't apply to themselves.
The buying and selling of stock by corporate insiders who have access to non-public information that could affect the stock price can be a criminal offense, just ask hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam who recently got 11 years in prison for doing it. But, congressional lawmakers have no corporate responsibilities and have long been considered exempt from insider trading laws, even though they have daily access to non-public information and plenty of opportunities to trade on it.
Schweizer: We know that during the health care debate people were trading health care stocks. We know that during the financial crisis of 2008 they were getting out of the market before the rest of America really knew what was going on.
In mid September 2008 with the Dow Jones Industrial average still above ten thousand, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were holding closed door briefings with congressional leaders, and privately warning them that a global financial meltdown could occur within a few days. One of those attending was Alabama Representative Spencer Bachus, then the ranking Republican member on the House Financial Services Committee and now its chairman.
Schweizer: These meetings were so sensitive-- that they would actually confiscate cell phones and Blackberries going into those meetings. What we know is that those meetings were held one day and literally the next day Congressman Bachus would engage in buying stock options based on apocalyptic briefings he had the day before from the Fed chairman and treasury secretary. I mean, talk about a stock tip.
While Congressman Bachus was publicly trying to keep the economy from cratering, he was privately betting that it would, buying option funds that would go up in value if the market went down. He would make a variety of trades and profited at a time when most Americans were losing their shirts.
Congressman Bachus declined to talk to us, so we went to his office and ran into his Press Secretary Tim Johnson.
There are 4 more pages to this article
Click here to continue reading
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