--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.p... icleId=13761
For all the horror the global economic crisis has caused for so many people, one progressive consequence has emerged: many of these people are becoming politically conscious — searching for information to better understand their political and economic system. They want to know how things got the way they did and what can be done about it. Unfortunately, much of the resulting analysis has focused too little on actual causes, and too much on abstract financial details and other consequences of deeper economic problems.
Therefore, the typical explanation of the economic crisis goes as follows: depression-era financial regulations were tossed aside, and banks were allowed to merge into new institutions that then invented ways to transform debts into assets, which were gambled away on the stock exchange to the tunes of trillions of dollars.
All of which is true.
What’s missing, however, is why. Why did successive governments allow the regulations to be destroyed? And more importantly, why did the entire political establishment agree that these regulations needed to go?
One important statistic can help provide some insight: Whereas manufacturing was twice as large as the financial sector of the U.S. GDP in 1970, these numbers have since been reversed — the financial sector is now 21 percent of U.S. GDP, while manufacturing is just 12 percent, and shrinking.
Why did the financial sector grow as manufacturing sank? And how are the two related?
Investors (capitalists) have become increasingly frustrated with actually producing things; the profits just aren’t what they used to be. This is because manufacturers — under capitalism — must compete with others on
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The Second Crash -On the Way and Unstoppable
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/casey/casey052909.html
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 started as a nice day in New York City. A lovely early fall day, with the temperature still a balmy 80° at 2:00 in the morning. By evening, though, the temperature had dropped twenty degrees, the clouds had rolled in, there was thunder and rain.
As with the weather, there were some hints of trouble here and there on Wall Street. But all in all, things could not have seemed better. Little did we know, the stormy end of 10/9/07 signaled a very large bubble that had just popped.
That was the day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its historic peak. From there, it was all downhill - slowly but steadily at first, and then violently after last August - until the Dow bottomed (for now) on March 9 of this year. Over that span, the index lost 54% of its value.
It's been a crushing blow to just about everyone. But it's already being referred to as the crash. As if the unpleasantness were now all behind us. More likely, in the future it will be seen as, simply, the first crash.
Don't believe it? In a moment you will, when you see the scariest graph of the year.
But let's quickly recall
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 started as a nice day in New York City. A lovely early fall day, with the temperature still a balmy 80° at 2:00 in the morning. By evening, though, the temperature had dropped twenty degrees, the clouds had rolled in, there was thunder and rain.
As with the weather, there were some hints of trouble here and there on Wall Street. But all in all, things could not have seemed better. Little did we know, the stormy end of 10/9/07 signaled a very large bubble that had just popped.
That was the day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its historic peak. From there, it was all downhill - slowly but steadily at first, and then violently after last August - until the Dow bottomed (for now) on March 9 of this year. Over that span, the index lost 54% of its value.
It's been a crushing blow to just about everyone. But it's already being referred to as the crash. As if the unpleasantness were now all behind us. More likely, in the future it will be seen as, simply, the first crash.
Don't believe it? In a moment you will, when you see the scariest graph of the year.
But let's quickly recall
Friday, May 29, 2009
Leap in U.S. debt hits taxpayers with 12% more red ink
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-05-28-debt_N.htm
Taxpayers are on the hook for an extra $55,000 a household to cover rising federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement benefits, the national debt and other government promises, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
The 12% rise in red ink in 2008 stems from an explosion of federal borrowing during the recession, plus an aging population driving up the costs of Medicare and Social Security.
That's the biggest leap in the long-term burden on taxpayers since a Medicare prescription drug benefit was added in 2003.
The latest increase raises federal obligations to a record $546,668 per household in 2008, according to the USA TODAY analysis. That's quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined.
"We have a huge implicit mortgage on every household in America — except, unlike a real mortgage, it's not backed up by a house," says David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general, the government's top auditor.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States House of Representatives | Baby Boomer | Tax
USA TODAY used federal data to compute all government liabilities, from Treasury bonds to Medicare to military pensions.
Bottom line: The government took on $6.8 trillion in new obligations in 2008, pushing the total owed to a record $63.8 trillion.
The numbers measure what's needed today — set aside in a lump sum, earning interest — to pay benefits that won't be covered by future taxes.
Congress can reduce or increase the burden by changing laws that
Taxpayers are on the hook for an extra $55,000 a household to cover rising federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement benefits, the national debt and other government promises, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
The 12% rise in red ink in 2008 stems from an explosion of federal borrowing during the recession, plus an aging population driving up the costs of Medicare and Social Security.
That's the biggest leap in the long-term burden on taxpayers since a Medicare prescription drug benefit was added in 2003.
The latest increase raises federal obligations to a record $546,668 per household in 2008, according to the USA TODAY analysis. That's quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined.
"We have a huge implicit mortgage on every household in America — except, unlike a real mortgage, it's not backed up by a house," says David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general, the government's top auditor.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States House of Representatives | Baby Boomer | Tax
USA TODAY used federal data to compute all government liabilities, from Treasury bonds to Medicare to military pensions.
Bottom line: The government took on $6.8 trillion in new obligations in 2008, pushing the total owed to a record $63.8 trillion.
The numbers measure what's needed today — set aside in a lump sum, earning interest — to pay benefits that won't be covered by future taxes.
Congress can reduce or increase the burden by changing laws that
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Once Considered Unthinkable, U.S. Sales Tax Gets Fresh Look
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...602909_pf.html
With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.
Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax -- called a value-added tax, or VAT -- has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.
At a White House conference earlier this year on the government's budget problems, a roomful of tax experts pleaded with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to consider a VAT. A recent flurry of books and papers on the subject is attracting genuine, if furtive, interest in Congress. And last month, after wrestling with the White House over the massive deficits projected under Obama's policies, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee declared that a VAT should be part of the debate.
"There is a growing awareness of the need for fundamental tax reform," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said in an interview. "I think a VAT and a high-end income tax have got to be on the table."
A VAT is a tax on the transfer of goods and services that ultimately is borne by the consumer. Highly visible, it would increase the cost of just about everything, from a carton of eggs to a visit with a lawyer. It is also hugely regressive, falling heavily on the poor. But VAT advocates say those negatives could be offset by using the proceeds to pay for health care for every American -- a tangible benefit that would be highly valuable to low-income families.
Liberals dispute that notion. "You could pay for it regressively and have people at the bottom come out better off -- maybe. Or you could
With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.
Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax -- called a value-added tax, or VAT -- has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.
At a White House conference earlier this year on the government's budget problems, a roomful of tax experts pleaded with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to consider a VAT. A recent flurry of books and papers on the subject is attracting genuine, if furtive, interest in Congress. And last month, after wrestling with the White House over the massive deficits projected under Obama's policies, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee declared that a VAT should be part of the debate.
"There is a growing awareness of the need for fundamental tax reform," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said in an interview. "I think a VAT and a high-end income tax have got to be on the table."
A VAT is a tax on the transfer of goods and services that ultimately is borne by the consumer. Highly visible, it would increase the cost of just about everything, from a carton of eggs to a visit with a lawyer. It is also hugely regressive, falling heavily on the poor. But VAT advocates say those negatives could be offset by using the proceeds to pay for health care for every American -- a tangible benefit that would be highly valuable to low-income families.
Liberals dispute that notion. "You could pay for it regressively and have people at the bottom come out better off -- maybe. Or you could
IRS tax revenue falls along with taxpayers' income
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/...nue-down_N.htm
Federal tax revenue plunged $138 billion, or 34%, in April vs. a year ago — the biggest April drop since 1981, a study released Tuesday by the American Institute for Economic Research says.
When the economy slumps, so does tax revenue, and this recession has been no different, says Kerry Lynch, senior fellow at the AIER and author of the study. "It illustrates how severe the recession has been."
For example, 6 million people lost jobs in the 12 months ended in April — and that means far fewer dollars from income taxes. Income tax revenue dropped 44% from a year ago.
"These are staggering numbers," Lynch says.
Big revenue losses mean that the U.S. budget deficit may be larger than predicted this year and in future years.
"It's one of the drivers of the ongoing expansion of the federal budget deficit," says John Lonski, chief economist for Moody's Investors Service. The Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.7 trillion budget deficit for fiscal year 2009.
The other deficit driver is government spending, which, the AIER's report says, is the main culprit for the federal budget deficit.
The White House thinks that tax revenue will increase in 2011, thanks in part to the stimulus package, says the report from AIER, an independent economic research institute. But it warns, "Even if that does happen, the administration also projects that government spending will be so much higher each year that large deficits will continue, and the national debt held by the public will double over the next 10 years."
The government may have a hard time trimming spending to reduce the deficit when the recession ends. The 77 million Baby Boomers— those born in 1946 through 1964 — will start tapping their federal retirement benefits soon, which means increased government outlays for Social Security and Medicare.
"It will be doubly difficult for federal government to reduce expenditures and narrow the deficit as rapidly as they did following previous recessions," Lonski says. At the end of the last major recession, in 1981, Boomers were in their 30s. Their incomes were expanding, as was their appetite for goods and services.
The Boomers now are in their 50s and 60s and unlikely to keep increasing incomes for long, which means that revenue from income taxes could flatten in the next few years. Also, Lonski says, they are more likely to save for retirement than spend — and consumer spending is a big driver of the economy.
"The American consumer led us out of previous recessions with some semblance of gusto," Lonski says. "They're too old to do it now."
Federal tax revenue plunged $138 billion, or 34%, in April vs. a year ago — the biggest April drop since 1981, a study released Tuesday by the American Institute for Economic Research says.
When the economy slumps, so does tax revenue, and this recession has been no different, says Kerry Lynch, senior fellow at the AIER and author of the study. "It illustrates how severe the recession has been."
For example, 6 million people lost jobs in the 12 months ended in April — and that means far fewer dollars from income taxes. Income tax revenue dropped 44% from a year ago.
"These are staggering numbers," Lynch says.
Big revenue losses mean that the U.S. budget deficit may be larger than predicted this year and in future years.
"It's one of the drivers of the ongoing expansion of the federal budget deficit," says John Lonski, chief economist for Moody's Investors Service. The Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.7 trillion budget deficit for fiscal year 2009.
The other deficit driver is government spending, which, the AIER's report says, is the main culprit for the federal budget deficit.
The White House thinks that tax revenue will increase in 2011, thanks in part to the stimulus package, says the report from AIER, an independent economic research institute. But it warns, "Even if that does happen, the administration also projects that government spending will be so much higher each year that large deficits will continue, and the national debt held by the public will double over the next 10 years."
The government may have a hard time trimming spending to reduce the deficit when the recession ends. The 77 million Baby Boomers— those born in 1946 through 1964 — will start tapping their federal retirement benefits soon, which means increased government outlays for Social Security and Medicare.
"It will be doubly difficult for federal government to reduce expenditures and narrow the deficit as rapidly as they did following previous recessions," Lonski says. At the end of the last major recession, in 1981, Boomers were in their 30s. Their incomes were expanding, as was their appetite for goods and services.
The Boomers now are in their 50s and 60s and unlikely to keep increasing incomes for long, which means that revenue from income taxes could flatten in the next few years. Also, Lonski says, they are more likely to save for retirement than spend — and consumer spending is a big driver of the economy.
"The American consumer led us out of previous recessions with some semblance of gusto," Lonski says. "They're too old to do it now."
But Governor, You Can Create Money!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/but_governor.php
In a May 22 article in Time titled “Billions in the Red: Fiscal Reckoning in CA,” Juliet Williams reports that since California voters have now vetoed higher taxes and further state government borrowing, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has indicated that he intends to close the budget gap almost entirely through drastic spending cuts. The cutbacks could include laying off thousands of state workers and teachers, ending the state’s main welfare program for the poor, eliminating health coverage for about 1.5 million poor children, halting cash grants for about 77,000 college students, slashing money for state parks, and releasing thousands of prisoners before their sentences are finished. Schwarzenegger bemoaned the fact that the state could not print its own money but said it could only spend what it had.
But the state can create its own money. After all, banks do this every day. Certified, card-carrying bankers are allowed to do something nobody else can do: they can create “credit” with accounting entries on their books. As the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas explains on its website:
“Banks actually create money when they lend it. Here’s how it works: Most of a bank’s loans are made to its own customers and are deposited in their checking accounts. Because the loan becomes a new deposit, just like a paycheck does, the bank . . . holds a small percentage of that new amount in reserve and again lends the remainder to someone else, repeating the money-creation process many times.”
President Obama has also acknowledged that banks create money, through what he calls the “multiplier effect.” In a speech at Georgetown University on April 14, he said:
“[A]lthough there are a lot of Americans who understandably think that government money would be better spent going directly to families and businesses instead of banks – ‘where’s our bailout?,’ they ask – the truth is that a dollar of capital in a bank can actually result in eight or ten dollars of loans to families and businesses, a multiplier effect that can ultimately lead to a faster pace of economic growth.”
Money in a government-owned bank could give us the best of both worlds. We could have all the credit-generating advantages of private banks, without the baggage cluttering up the books of the Wall Street giants, including bad derivatives bets, unmarketable collateralized debt obligations, mark to market accounting issues, oversized CEO salaries and bonuses, and shareholders expecting a sizeable cut of the profits. A state could deposit its vast revenues in its own state-owned bank and proceed to fan them into 8 to 10 times their face value in loans. Not only would it have its own credit machine, but it would control the loan terms. The state could lend at ½% interest to itself and to municipal governments, rolling the loans over as needed until the revenues had been generated to pay them off. According to Professor Margrit Kennedy in her 1995 book Interest and Inflation-free Money, interest composes, on average, fully half the cost of every public project. Cutting costs by 50% could make currently-unsustainable projects such as low-cost housing, alternative energy development, and infrastructure construction not only sustainable but actually profitable for the government.
If all this seems too radical and unprecedented to venture into, consider that one state has had its own bank for 90 years; and it has not only escaped the credit crunch but is doing remarkably well . . . .
THE INNOVATIVE BANK OF NORTH DAKOTA
Only three of fifty states are now solvent, meaning they have the revenues to meet their state budgets; and one of them is North Dakota. It is an unlikely candidate for the distinction. It is a sparsely populated state of less than 700,000 people, largely located in isolated farming communities afflicted with cold weather. Yet since 2000, the state’s GNP has grown 56%, personal income has grown 43%, and wages have grown 34%. The state not only has no funding issues, but this year it actually has a budget surplus of $1.2 billion, the largest it has ever had.
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/but_governor.php
In a May 22 article in Time titled “Billions in the Red: Fiscal Reckoning in CA,” Juliet Williams reports that since California voters have now vetoed higher taxes and further state government borrowing, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has indicated that he intends to close the budget gap almost entirely through drastic spending cuts. The cutbacks could include laying off thousands of state workers and teachers, ending the state’s main welfare program for the poor, eliminating health coverage for about 1.5 million poor children, halting cash grants for about 77,000 college students, slashing money for state parks, and releasing thousands of prisoners before their sentences are finished. Schwarzenegger bemoaned the fact that the state could not print its own money but said it could only spend what it had.
But the state can create its own money. After all, banks do this every day. Certified, card-carrying bankers are allowed to do something nobody else can do: they can create “credit” with accounting entries on their books. As the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas explains on its website:
“Banks actually create money when they lend it. Here’s how it works: Most of a bank’s loans are made to its own customers and are deposited in their checking accounts. Because the loan becomes a new deposit, just like a paycheck does, the bank . . . holds a small percentage of that new amount in reserve and again lends the remainder to someone else, repeating the money-creation process many times.”
President Obama has also acknowledged that banks create money, through what he calls the “multiplier effect.” In a speech at Georgetown University on April 14, he said:
“[A]lthough there are a lot of Americans who understandably think that government money would be better spent going directly to families and businesses instead of banks – ‘where’s our bailout?,’ they ask – the truth is that a dollar of capital in a bank can actually result in eight or ten dollars of loans to families and businesses, a multiplier effect that can ultimately lead to a faster pace of economic growth.”
Money in a government-owned bank could give us the best of both worlds. We could have all the credit-generating advantages of private banks, without the baggage cluttering up the books of the Wall Street giants, including bad derivatives bets, unmarketable collateralized debt obligations, mark to market accounting issues, oversized CEO salaries and bonuses, and shareholders expecting a sizeable cut of the profits. A state could deposit its vast revenues in its own state-owned bank and proceed to fan them into 8 to 10 times their face value in loans. Not only would it have its own credit machine, but it would control the loan terms. The state could lend at ½% interest to itself and to municipal governments, rolling the loans over as needed until the revenues had been generated to pay them off. According to Professor Margrit Kennedy in her 1995 book Interest and Inflation-free Money, interest composes, on average, fully half the cost of every public project. Cutting costs by 50% could make currently-unsustainable projects such as low-cost housing, alternative energy development, and infrastructure construction not only sustainable but actually profitable for the government.
If all this seems too radical and unprecedented to venture into, consider that one state has had its own bank for 90 years; and it has not only escaped the credit crunch but is doing remarkably well . . . .
THE INNOVATIVE BANK OF NORTH DAKOTA
Only three of fifty states are now solvent, meaning they have the revenues to meet their state budgets; and one of them is North Dakota. It is an unlikely candidate for the distinction. It is a sparsely populated state of less than 700,000 people, largely located in isolated farming communities afflicted with cold weather. Yet since 2000, the state’s GNP has grown 56%, personal income has grown 43%, and wages have grown 34%. The state not only has no funding issues, but this year it actually has a budget surplus of $1.2 billion, the largest it has ever had.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Jack Bauer fragrance
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/05/what-does-torture-smell-like-dubai-company-to-market-jack-bauer-fragrance/
Oh look the perfect gift lol
It's just so you
Miss you Cap
Hope your having fun
Oh look the perfect gift lol
It's just so you
Miss you Cap
Hope your having fun
Common sense by Dr. Murray Sabin
Why Gold Will Rise to at Least $6,000 per Ounce
By Dr. Murray Sabrin
May 26 2009 3:58PM
www.politickernj.com
This article was printed in a forum that I frequent along with the question if Dr. Sabin was crazy.
My answer to their question is no, and that it is the only way to stabilize our economy as well as the global economy.
In November 2003, a month before the 90th anniversary of the creation of the Federal Reserve, I spoke to a group of money managers and bond traders in south Florida about the Federal Reserve’s nine decade legacy. At that time the price of gold was approximately $380 per ounce. I informed the attendees that gold was the most undervalued asset on the planet. Nearly six years later, gold has nearly tripled in price and may have been the best performing asset class in the world since then, and one of the best investments in this decade.
Hopefully, the money managers who heard my remarks about the evolution of our monetary system took my advice for their clients’ sake and added gold to their personal portfolios as well. But then again, gold was so out of favor as an asset class by Wall Street a few years ago, it would not be surprising that the attendees ignored my advice and did not add the yellow metal to their portfolios.
With gold currently trading at $950 per ounce, where will the price of gold be six years from now? Conceivably, much higher than any current forecast. How high? Later in this essay, I will explain how returning to a “hard money” dollar and a sound banking system will require a gold price of at least $6,000 per ounce and possibly much higher
Before we hypothesize a future price of gold, it is imperative we understand the current financial crisis and the need to abolish fractional reserve banking, paper money and central banking. In other words, for the American economy—and the global economy-- to enjoy sustainable prosperity we need to inject a heavy dose of free enterprise in our money and banking systems.
This is easier said than done. The political and financial elites of America want to maintain the status quo, namely, the creation of money out-of-thin air, artificially low interest rates, and massive bailouts engineered by the FED and the U.S. Treasury.
Nevertheless, the financial meltdown of the 21st century has been well documented in two outstanding books of the past year, William Fleckenstein’s Greenspan Bubbles and Thomas Woods’ Meltdown. If you have not read them both, they should be on the top on your summer reading list. Both authors place the blame for the back-to-back bubbles, the dotcom bust and the housing collapse, squarely on the Federal Reserve’s easy money polices under Fed chairman Alan Greenspan.
In a nutshell, easy money drives down interest rates, which in turn set into motion feverish activity and speculation in sector or sectors of the economy that benefit from the flow of new money from the FED. The excess credit propels prices higher for common stocks, real estate, commodities, etc. When the FED “tightens” credit to rein in the overheated economy, the inevitable correction sets in. Bankruptcies soar, unemployment rises, stock prices drop precipitously, and state and local governments face huge revenue shortfalls as income and sales tax revenues drop. In other words, the unsustainable boom appears to create a perpetual “party” in the economy, only to be exposed as a period of “false” prosperity.
The booms and busts of the past two decades are textbook examples of the financial and economic crises caused by central banking. Of all the schools of thought, only the Austrian School of Economics explains how waves of boom and bust are inevitable if central bankers try to substitute credit created out-of-thin air for genuine savings. Working in the same tradition, economist Jesus Huerta de Soto in his monumental survey of world economic history (Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles), explains how economic fluctuations are the result of bank credit expansion prior to the establishment of central banking and how business cycles have unfolded since the creation of the first central bank in England (1692).
To prevent further boom-bust cycles, the following changes in the U.S. monetary/banking system should be implemented ASAP. These would require banks to restructure along the following guidelines.
All demand deposits would be backed by 100% reserves. In other words, fractional reserve banking would be prohibited as a violation of property rights. This would eliminate the bank run, because banks would have all the money in reserves to meet depositors’ requests for cash. This reform would be potentially deflationary since the banking system would have to contract the amount of money and credit in the current inflationary system to restore 100% reserve banking.
Banks would offer time deposits from one day to 30 years or more. This would provide a pool of real savings for banks so they could perform their role as financial intermediaries without government protection and intervention.
FDIC insurance would be eliminated. Banks and depositors would operate in a free market. Savers would determine how much risk they want to incur and lend their funds to banks based on their time horizons.
Permanent bank capital—preferred and common stockholders—would be the foundation of a free enterprise banking system. Risk of default would be allocated among shareholders and savers.
The Federal Reserve would be abolished and would no longer manipulate short-term interest rates and be the lender of last resort. The FED’s track record of the past century should convince any objective observer and analyst that it has been a failure. The dollar’s purchasing power has fallen by more than 95% since the FED was created and the business cycle is still with us.
The dollar will once again be defined as a weight of gold. What should the ratio be between the supply of dollars and the 260,000,000 ounces of gold held by the Federal Reserve?
There are several ways to revalue the dollar in terms of gold and make the U.S. dollar a hard money once again. This would create a 100% gold dollar. Americans as well as foreigners are used to conducting their exchanges dollars so the goal is to regain the confidence of dollar holders by ending the devaluation of the dollar.
All currency and demand deposits and other forms of money would be convertible into gold. That would mean all forms of money that people are familiar with would “backed” by gold. Inasmuch as there about $1.6 trillion of this form of money outstanding that would be backed by about 260,000,000 million ounces of gold held by the Federal Reserve, the price of gold or more accurately the value of the dollar would be 1/6,153 of an ounce of gold. In other words, the price of gold would be $6,153 per ounce.
According the Rothbard/Salerno definition of the “True Money Supply,” the current amount of dollars in the economy that functions as the general medium of exchange is about $5.5 trillion. Based on this approach, the FED’s 260,000,000 ounces of gold would have a dollar/ratio of 1/21,153, or the price of gold would be $21,153 per ounce. Before you mortgage the house and sell the kids to make more than twenty times your money, another economist challenges the Rothbard/Salerno definition of the true money supply.
Economist Frank Shostak in his essay on the money supply, argues that savings deposits should be removed from the definition of money because they are a credit deposit rather than a demand deposit. Based on the Shostak approach, investment manager Mike Shedlock calculates M’, (M Prime), as approximately $2.2 trillion. The gold/dollar ratio would be 1/8.461 or a gold price of $8,461 per ounce under this definition of the money supply.
Clearly, no matter what definition of money is used to restore a gold backed dollar, the price of gold will have to be adjusted upward by a factor of at least six or more from today to reflect the enormous deprecation of the dollar since the FED was created nearly a hundred years ago.
The revaluation of the dollar will not happen because Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve and Timothy Geithner, U.S. Treasury Secretary embrace hard money principles and realize 100% reserves are necessary for the banking system to function as a reliable financial intermediary. The restoration of a gold backed dollar will occur when dollar holders lose confidence in the purchasing power of the greenback. The sooner the next great money and banking reforms are implemented, the less chance there will be for a global monetary debacle, given the trillions of dollars the FED and other central banks have created in the past six months. In the meantime, load up on the yellow metal. It is your best insurance policy against Obama, Congress, Bernanke, and Geithner.
Dr. Murray Sabrin
By Dr. Murray Sabrin
May 26 2009 3:58PM
www.politickernj.com
This article was printed in a forum that I frequent along with the question if Dr. Sabin was crazy.
My answer to their question is no, and that it is the only way to stabilize our economy as well as the global economy.
In November 2003, a month before the 90th anniversary of the creation of the Federal Reserve, I spoke to a group of money managers and bond traders in south Florida about the Federal Reserve’s nine decade legacy. At that time the price of gold was approximately $380 per ounce. I informed the attendees that gold was the most undervalued asset on the planet. Nearly six years later, gold has nearly tripled in price and may have been the best performing asset class in the world since then, and one of the best investments in this decade.
Hopefully, the money managers who heard my remarks about the evolution of our monetary system took my advice for their clients’ sake and added gold to their personal portfolios as well. But then again, gold was so out of favor as an asset class by Wall Street a few years ago, it would not be surprising that the attendees ignored my advice and did not add the yellow metal to their portfolios.
With gold currently trading at $950 per ounce, where will the price of gold be six years from now? Conceivably, much higher than any current forecast. How high? Later in this essay, I will explain how returning to a “hard money” dollar and a sound banking system will require a gold price of at least $6,000 per ounce and possibly much higher
Before we hypothesize a future price of gold, it is imperative we understand the current financial crisis and the need to abolish fractional reserve banking, paper money and central banking. In other words, for the American economy—and the global economy-- to enjoy sustainable prosperity we need to inject a heavy dose of free enterprise in our money and banking systems.
This is easier said than done. The political and financial elites of America want to maintain the status quo, namely, the creation of money out-of-thin air, artificially low interest rates, and massive bailouts engineered by the FED and the U.S. Treasury.
Nevertheless, the financial meltdown of the 21st century has been well documented in two outstanding books of the past year, William Fleckenstein’s Greenspan Bubbles and Thomas Woods’ Meltdown. If you have not read them both, they should be on the top on your summer reading list. Both authors place the blame for the back-to-back bubbles, the dotcom bust and the housing collapse, squarely on the Federal Reserve’s easy money polices under Fed chairman Alan Greenspan.
In a nutshell, easy money drives down interest rates, which in turn set into motion feverish activity and speculation in sector or sectors of the economy that benefit from the flow of new money from the FED. The excess credit propels prices higher for common stocks, real estate, commodities, etc. When the FED “tightens” credit to rein in the overheated economy, the inevitable correction sets in. Bankruptcies soar, unemployment rises, stock prices drop precipitously, and state and local governments face huge revenue shortfalls as income and sales tax revenues drop. In other words, the unsustainable boom appears to create a perpetual “party” in the economy, only to be exposed as a period of “false” prosperity.
The booms and busts of the past two decades are textbook examples of the financial and economic crises caused by central banking. Of all the schools of thought, only the Austrian School of Economics explains how waves of boom and bust are inevitable if central bankers try to substitute credit created out-of-thin air for genuine savings. Working in the same tradition, economist Jesus Huerta de Soto in his monumental survey of world economic history (Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles), explains how economic fluctuations are the result of bank credit expansion prior to the establishment of central banking and how business cycles have unfolded since the creation of the first central bank in England (1692).
To prevent further boom-bust cycles, the following changes in the U.S. monetary/banking system should be implemented ASAP. These would require banks to restructure along the following guidelines.
All demand deposits would be backed by 100% reserves. In other words, fractional reserve banking would be prohibited as a violation of property rights. This would eliminate the bank run, because banks would have all the money in reserves to meet depositors’ requests for cash. This reform would be potentially deflationary since the banking system would have to contract the amount of money and credit in the current inflationary system to restore 100% reserve banking.
Banks would offer time deposits from one day to 30 years or more. This would provide a pool of real savings for banks so they could perform their role as financial intermediaries without government protection and intervention.
FDIC insurance would be eliminated. Banks and depositors would operate in a free market. Savers would determine how much risk they want to incur and lend their funds to banks based on their time horizons.
Permanent bank capital—preferred and common stockholders—would be the foundation of a free enterprise banking system. Risk of default would be allocated among shareholders and savers.
The Federal Reserve would be abolished and would no longer manipulate short-term interest rates and be the lender of last resort. The FED’s track record of the past century should convince any objective observer and analyst that it has been a failure. The dollar’s purchasing power has fallen by more than 95% since the FED was created and the business cycle is still with us.
The dollar will once again be defined as a weight of gold. What should the ratio be between the supply of dollars and the 260,000,000 ounces of gold held by the Federal Reserve?
There are several ways to revalue the dollar in terms of gold and make the U.S. dollar a hard money once again. This would create a 100% gold dollar. Americans as well as foreigners are used to conducting their exchanges dollars so the goal is to regain the confidence of dollar holders by ending the devaluation of the dollar.
All currency and demand deposits and other forms of money would be convertible into gold. That would mean all forms of money that people are familiar with would “backed” by gold. Inasmuch as there about $1.6 trillion of this form of money outstanding that would be backed by about 260,000,000 million ounces of gold held by the Federal Reserve, the price of gold or more accurately the value of the dollar would be 1/6,153 of an ounce of gold. In other words, the price of gold would be $6,153 per ounce.
According the Rothbard/Salerno definition of the “True Money Supply,” the current amount of dollars in the economy that functions as the general medium of exchange is about $5.5 trillion. Based on this approach, the FED’s 260,000,000 ounces of gold would have a dollar/ratio of 1/21,153, or the price of gold would be $21,153 per ounce. Before you mortgage the house and sell the kids to make more than twenty times your money, another economist challenges the Rothbard/Salerno definition of the true money supply.
Economist Frank Shostak in his essay on the money supply, argues that savings deposits should be removed from the definition of money because they are a credit deposit rather than a demand deposit. Based on the Shostak approach, investment manager Mike Shedlock calculates M’, (M Prime), as approximately $2.2 trillion. The gold/dollar ratio would be 1/8.461 or a gold price of $8,461 per ounce under this definition of the money supply.
Clearly, no matter what definition of money is used to restore a gold backed dollar, the price of gold will have to be adjusted upward by a factor of at least six or more from today to reflect the enormous deprecation of the dollar since the FED was created nearly a hundred years ago.
The revaluation of the dollar will not happen because Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve and Timothy Geithner, U.S. Treasury Secretary embrace hard money principles and realize 100% reserves are necessary for the banking system to function as a reliable financial intermediary. The restoration of a gold backed dollar will occur when dollar holders lose confidence in the purchasing power of the greenback. The sooner the next great money and banking reforms are implemented, the less chance there will be for a global monetary debacle, given the trillions of dollars the FED and other central banks have created in the past six months. In the meantime, load up on the yellow metal. It is your best insurance policy against Obama, Congress, Bernanke, and Geithner.
Dr. Murray Sabrin
Breaking the Back of the Greenback?
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/USO-consumer-FOMC-uup-SP500-tlt/index/a/22795/from/yahoo
A little dose of reality
As the implications of surging government debt levels move to center stage, the US Debt Clock makes for sobering reading. Click here for the live version
A little dose of reality
As the implications of surging government debt levels move to center stage, the US Debt Clock makes for sobering reading. Click here for the live version
Monday, May 25, 2009
China warns Federal Reserve over 'printing money'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/f...ing-money.html
Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, said: "Senior officials of the Chinese government grilled me about whether or not we are going to monetise the actions of our legislature."
"I must have been asked about that a hundred times in China. I was asked at every single meeting about our purchases of Treasuries. That seemed to be the principal preoccupation of those that were invested with their surpluses mostly in the United States," he told the Wall Street Journal.
China calls for the reign of the dollar to endHis recent trip to the Far East appears to have been a stark reminder that Asia's "Confucian" culture of right action does not look kindly on the insouciant policy of printing money by Anglo-Saxons.
Mr Fisher, the Fed's leading hawk, was a fierce opponent of the original decision to buy Treasury debt, fearing that it would lead to a blurring of the line between fiscal and monetary policy – and could all too easily degenerate into Argentine-style financing of uncontrolled spending.
Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, said: "Senior officials of the Chinese government grilled me about whether or not we are going to monetise the actions of our legislature."
"I must have been asked about that a hundred times in China. I was asked at every single meeting about our purchases of Treasuries. That seemed to be the principal preoccupation of those that were invested with their surpluses mostly in the United States," he told the Wall Street Journal.
China calls for the reign of the dollar to endHis recent trip to the Far East appears to have been a stark reminder that Asia's "Confucian" culture of right action does not look kindly on the insouciant policy of printing money by Anglo-Saxons.
Mr Fisher, the Fed's leading hawk, was a fierce opponent of the original decision to buy Treasury debt, fearing that it would lead to a blurring of the line between fiscal and monetary policy – and could all too easily degenerate into Argentine-style financing of uncontrolled spending.
Bill to audit the FED
http://www.infowars.com/bill-to-audit-fed-gains-serious-momentum/
It looks like the Federal Reserve may finally have something to worry about now that HR 1207 is finally gaining serious steam. If enacted, HR 1207 will amend title 31 of the United States Code and reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States. In other words, for the first time since 1950, the criminals at the Federal Reserve will be forced by law to open their books.
Rep. Ron Paul introduced H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, on February 26, 2009.
HR 1207 was sponsored and introduced by Rep. Ron Paul. On February 26, 2009, it was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services. It now has 179 co-sponsors (see the list of sponsors below).
It looks like the Federal Reserve may finally have something to worry about now that HR 1207 is finally gaining serious steam. If enacted, HR 1207 will amend title 31 of the United States Code and reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States. In other words, for the first time since 1950, the criminals at the Federal Reserve will be forced by law to open their books.
Rep. Ron Paul introduced H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, on February 26, 2009.
HR 1207 was sponsored and introduced by Rep. Ron Paul. On February 26, 2009, it was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services. It now has 179 co-sponsors (see the list of sponsors below).
BILDERBERG to meet again
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.americanfreepress.net/htm..._2009_179.html
One could make serious argument that these peoples agenda have created the world's problems with their lust for greed and control.
Bilderberg boys are a bunch of grumpy old men but remain fiercely dedicated to usurping sovereignty in the United States and throughout the world. Patriots can celebrate their setbacks but never let up: Bilderberg still threatens the sovereignty of all nations while fighting for world government.
Major goals remain exploiting the global recession and an imaginary “swine flu pandemic” to establish global departments of treasury and health under the United Nations. But at the May 14-17 meeting in Vouliagmeni, Greece, near Athens, Bilderberg took a keen interest in persuading the United States to surrender sovereignty to the International Criminal Court, or ICC.
Bilderberg is also setting up a “summit” in Israel June 8-11 so “the world’s leading regulatory experts” can “address the current economic situation in one forum,” said Zohar Goshen, chairman of a subgroup of the International Association of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). Mary Shapiro, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, will represent this country
http://www.americanfreepress.net/htm..._2009_179.html
One could make serious argument that these peoples agenda have created the world's problems with their lust for greed and control.
Bilderberg boys are a bunch of grumpy old men but remain fiercely dedicated to usurping sovereignty in the United States and throughout the world. Patriots can celebrate their setbacks but never let up: Bilderberg still threatens the sovereignty of all nations while fighting for world government.
Major goals remain exploiting the global recession and an imaginary “swine flu pandemic” to establish global departments of treasury and health under the United Nations. But at the May 14-17 meeting in Vouliagmeni, Greece, near Athens, Bilderberg took a keen interest in persuading the United States to surrender sovereignty to the International Criminal Court, or ICC.
Bilderberg is also setting up a “summit” in Israel June 8-11 so “the world’s leading regulatory experts” can “address the current economic situation in one forum,” said Zohar Goshen, chairman of a subgroup of the International Association of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). Mary Shapiro, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, will represent this country
Sunday, May 24, 2009
NYC case a reminder of homegrown threats
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30856404/
Home grown has taken on a whole new meaning hasn't it.
The four were arrested late Wednesday outside a synagogue in the Bronx, following a long line of homegrown, headline-making terror plots since Sept. 11 that never came close to reality because the FBI inserted itself in the earliest stages.
The bombs they planted outside two synagogues Wednesday were useless, packed with inert explosives supplied by the FBI instead of the Pakistani terrorist group they had pledged to support, according to a criminal complaint.
Still, officials see the case as a vivid reminder of risks the U.S. faces from homegrown terrorists.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30856404/
Home grown has taken on a whole new meaning hasn't it.
The four were arrested late Wednesday outside a synagogue in the Bronx, following a long line of homegrown, headline-making terror plots since Sept. 11 that never came close to reality because the FBI inserted itself in the earliest stages.
The bombs they planted outside two synagogues Wednesday were useless, packed with inert explosives supplied by the FBI instead of the Pakistani terrorist group they had pledged to support, according to a criminal complaint.
Still, officials see the case as a vivid reminder of risks the U.S. faces from homegrown terrorists.
As Israel rages, US plans for Iran war re-emerge
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=95621§ionid=351020104
Let us all hope common sense prevails and Obama understand that the US cannot afford another war. The two that we're engaged in now are being paid on the future sweat of our children.
As Washington gets updates on Israeli plans to strike Iran, US President Barack Obama orders the Pentagon to rejuvenate contingency plans for the use of military in Iran.
Despite the prospects of diplomatic engagement with Tehran over its nuclear program, Defense Secretary and Pentagon chief Robert Gates said Friday that the White House has not ruled out the possibility of a military strike if diplomacy was to fail.
"Presidents always ask their military to have a range of contingency plans available to them," Gates told NBC television. "And all I would say is that, as a result of our dialogue with the president, we've refreshed our plans and all options are on the table."
In a turnabout from the policies of the Bush administration, President Obama says he seeks to diplomatically engage Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
Iran, which favors diplomacy to resolve the nuclear differences with the West, says the program is directed at the civilian applications of the technology.
The US and Israel, however, accuse the country of seeking military objectives in its pursuit.
The defense secretary's remarks come shortly after a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.
Netanyahu's visit exposed deep differences between the two administrations over issues such as the stalled peace talks with the Palestinians and the US approach to deal with Iran.
According to the Israeli Radio, Netanyahu told Obama that Israel reserves the right to take unilateral military action against Iran, refusing to make a promise to follow the US lead.
The nuclear issue aside, President Obama's decision to engage Tehran in direct talks has raised concern in Israel that rapprochement between the two rivals -- which have not had diplomatic ties for nearly three decades
Let us all hope common sense prevails and Obama understand that the US cannot afford another war. The two that we're engaged in now are being paid on the future sweat of our children.
As Washington gets updates on Israeli plans to strike Iran, US President Barack Obama orders the Pentagon to rejuvenate contingency plans for the use of military in Iran.
Despite the prospects of diplomatic engagement with Tehran over its nuclear program, Defense Secretary and Pentagon chief Robert Gates said Friday that the White House has not ruled out the possibility of a military strike if diplomacy was to fail.
"Presidents always ask their military to have a range of contingency plans available to them," Gates told NBC television. "And all I would say is that, as a result of our dialogue with the president, we've refreshed our plans and all options are on the table."
In a turnabout from the policies of the Bush administration, President Obama says he seeks to diplomatically engage Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
Iran, which favors diplomacy to resolve the nuclear differences with the West, says the program is directed at the civilian applications of the technology.
The US and Israel, however, accuse the country of seeking military objectives in its pursuit.
The defense secretary's remarks come shortly after a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.
Netanyahu's visit exposed deep differences between the two administrations over issues such as the stalled peace talks with the Palestinians and the US approach to deal with Iran.
According to the Israeli Radio, Netanyahu told Obama that Israel reserves the right to take unilateral military action against Iran, refusing to make a promise to follow the US lead.
The nuclear issue aside, President Obama's decision to engage Tehran in direct talks has raised concern in Israel that rapprochement between the two rivals -- which have not had diplomatic ties for nearly three decades
Friday, May 22, 2009
California welfare elimination
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/05/schwarzenegger-make-massive-cuts-to-welfare-health-care-student-aid-.html
This is just not a California phenomina, soon it will happen in every state.
Then what will people do? FEMA camps is the answer.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to completely eliminate the state’s welfare program for families, medical insurance for low-income children and Cal Grants cash assistance to college and university students.
The proposals to sharply scale back the assistance that California provides to its neediest residents came in testimony by the administration this afternoon at a joint legislative budget committee hearing. It followed comments by the governor earlier today that he would be withdrawing a proposal to help balance the budget with billions of dollars of borrowing and replacing it with program reductions.
The proposals would completely reshape the state’s social service network, transforming California from one of the country’s most generous states to one of the most tightfisted. The proposals are intended to help close a budget deficit estimated at $21.3 billion.
This is just not a California phenomina, soon it will happen in every state.
Then what will people do? FEMA camps is the answer.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to completely eliminate the state’s welfare program for families, medical insurance for low-income children and Cal Grants cash assistance to college and university students.
The proposals to sharply scale back the assistance that California provides to its neediest residents came in testimony by the administration this afternoon at a joint legislative budget committee hearing. It followed comments by the governor earlier today that he would be withdrawing a proposal to help balance the budget with billions of dollars of borrowing and replacing it with program reductions.
The proposals would completely reshape the state’s social service network, transforming California from one of the country’s most generous states to one of the most tightfisted. The proposals are intended to help close a budget deficit estimated at $21.3 billion.
Florida's BankUnited fails, will cost FDIC $4.9B
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Floridas-BankUnited-fails-apf-15325280.html?sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=
The little things that MSM doesn't tell you. Now you can understand why the FDIC needed the 500 billion dollar loan.
The 34 bank failures this year in the U.S. compare with 25 in 2008 and just three in 2007. As the economy nationwide has soured, amid rising unemployment, tumbling home prices and soaring loan defaults, bank failures have cascaded and sapped billions out of the deposit insurance fund. According to the most recent data available, the fund now stands at its lowest level in nearly a quarter-century -- $18.9 billion as of Dec. 31, compared with $52.4 billion at the end of 2007.
The FDIC expects that bank failures will cost the insurance fund around $65 billion through 2013.
The little things that MSM doesn't tell you. Now you can understand why the FDIC needed the 500 billion dollar loan.
The 34 bank failures this year in the U.S. compare with 25 in 2008 and just three in 2007. As the economy nationwide has soured, amid rising unemployment, tumbling home prices and soaring loan defaults, bank failures have cascaded and sapped billions out of the deposit insurance fund. According to the most recent data available, the fund now stands at its lowest level in nearly a quarter-century -- $18.9 billion as of Dec. 31, compared with $52.4 billion at the end of 2007.
The FDIC expects that bank failures will cost the insurance fund around $65 billion through 2013.
44 states lost jobs in April, led by California
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/44-sta...-15328854.html
Forty-four states lost jobs in April, led by California where employers slashed 63,700 positions, as the recession took a further toll on U.S. workers.
Trailing California in over-the-month job losses were: Texas, which saw 39,500 jobs vanish; Michigan, which lost 38,400 jobs; and Ohio, where payrolls fell 25,200, according to a U.S. Labor Department report issued Friday.
California's unemployment rate dipped to 11 percent last month, fifth-highest in the country. Michigan's jobless rate was the highest at 12.9 percent, followed by Oregon at 12 percent, South Carolina at 11.5 percent and Rhode Island at 11.1 percent.
As the recession eats into sales and profits, companies have laid off workers and turned to other cost-cutting measures, such as holding down hours and freezing or trimming pay.
Since the recession began in December 2007, the U.S. has lost a net total of 5.7 million jobs. The nationwide unemployment rate now stands at 8.9 percent, a quarter-century high.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and some economists hope the pace of layoffs will moderate as the recession eases its grip and likely ends later this year.
But even if employers reduce firings, the nationwide unemployment
Forty-four states lost jobs in April, led by California where employers slashed 63,700 positions, as the recession took a further toll on U.S. workers.
Trailing California in over-the-month job losses were: Texas, which saw 39,500 jobs vanish; Michigan, which lost 38,400 jobs; and Ohio, where payrolls fell 25,200, according to a U.S. Labor Department report issued Friday.
California's unemployment rate dipped to 11 percent last month, fifth-highest in the country. Michigan's jobless rate was the highest at 12.9 percent, followed by Oregon at 12 percent, South Carolina at 11.5 percent and Rhode Island at 11.1 percent.
As the recession eats into sales and profits, companies have laid off workers and turned to other cost-cutting measures, such as holding down hours and freezing or trimming pay.
Since the recession began in December 2007, the U.S. has lost a net total of 5.7 million jobs. The nationwide unemployment rate now stands at 8.9 percent, a quarter-century high.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and some economists hope the pace of layoffs will moderate as the recession eases its grip and likely ends later this year.
But even if employers reduce firings, the nationwide unemployment
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Letter From A Dodge Dealer
http://www.rense.com/general85/dealer.htm
How can this happen in America?
That question hits the nail right on the head.
The point is, is that it can't or at least it couldn't in the America I grew up in.
So the real question is, if we're not American anymore
Then who the hell have we become?
My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida.
My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.
We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.
I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.
On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009.
Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work.
Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service.
There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.
Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler's insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.
HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN? THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY.
This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong
How can this happen in America?
That question hits the nail right on the head.
The point is, is that it can't or at least it couldn't in the America I grew up in.
So the real question is, if we're not American anymore
Then who the hell have we become?
My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida.
My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.
We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.
I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.
On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009.
Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work.
Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service.
There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.
Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler's insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.
HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN? THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY.
This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong
Birmingham police beating video: Five officers fired
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/05/five_birmingham_police_officer.html
This is how the war on drugs works or not.
Five Birmingham police officers have been fired for a January 2008 beating of an already-unconscious suspect with fists, feet and a billy club, a battering caught on videotape until a police officer turned off the patrol car camera, city and police officials said today. Authorities believe the video, [see the full 20-minute chase here] taken after a high-speed chase by several area law enforcement agencies ended when the fleeing suspect's van flipped, has been seen by numerous Birmingham officers and up to a half dozen supervisors over the past year. But top city and police officials weren't made aware of the taped beating until they were contacted by the district attorney's office two months ago.
In fact, investigators say, the suspect, Anthony Warren, didn't even know he'd been beaten until the tape surfaced at his trial in March. Warren was ejected from the vehicle and knocked unconscious, and thought all of his injuries were sustained in the wreck.
Police Chief A.C. Roper called the video "shameful." Mayor Larry Langford said it was "disgusting."
Roper said the video shamed the police department and the citizens served by the department, saying it was especially troubling because these were seasoned, veteran officers.
This is how the war on drugs works or not.
Five Birmingham police officers have been fired for a January 2008 beating of an already-unconscious suspect with fists, feet and a billy club, a battering caught on videotape until a police officer turned off the patrol car camera, city and police officials said today. Authorities believe the video, [see the full 20-minute chase here] taken after a high-speed chase by several area law enforcement agencies ended when the fleeing suspect's van flipped, has been seen by numerous Birmingham officers and up to a half dozen supervisors over the past year. But top city and police officials weren't made aware of the taped beating until they were contacted by the district attorney's office two months ago.
In fact, investigators say, the suspect, Anthony Warren, didn't even know he'd been beaten until the tape surfaced at his trial in March. Warren was ejected from the vehicle and knocked unconscious, and thought all of his injuries were sustained in the wreck.
Police Chief A.C. Roper called the video "shameful." Mayor Larry Langford said it was "disgusting."
Roper said the video shamed the police department and the citizens served by the department, saying it was especially troubling because these were seasoned, veteran officers.
German firm plans 'Gold-to-Go' ATMs to sell tiny, pricey gold bars
http://www.financialpost.com/personal-finance/story.html?id=1610606
Opportunities come in all sizes I'd say
A German asset management company plans to set up 500 "Gold-to-Go" ATMs in Germany, Switzerland and Austria this year. A gold-dispensing automatic teller machine (ATM) was on display at Frankfurt's main railway station for a one-day marketing test yesterday. A one-gram piece of gold, the size of a child's little fingernail and about as thin, cost US$42.25--a 30% premium to the spot market price. The flat rectangular piece came out of the cash-only ATM in a tin box, including a certificate of authenticity. "This is more than a marketing gimmick," said Thomas Geissler, chief executive of TG-Gold-Super-Markt.de, the company planning to set up the 500 gold ATMs at a cost of ¤20,000 ($31,500) apiece. "It is an appetizer for a strategic investment in precious metals. Gold is an asset everyone should have, between 5% and 15% of your liquid assets in physical gold," he said.
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Opportunities come in all sizes I'd say
A German asset management company plans to set up 500 "Gold-to-Go" ATMs in Germany, Switzerland and Austria this year. A gold-dispensing automatic teller machine (ATM) was on display at Frankfurt's main railway station for a one-day marketing test yesterday. A one-gram piece of gold, the size of a child's little fingernail and about as thin, cost US$42.25--a 30% premium to the spot market price. The flat rectangular piece came out of the cash-only ATM in a tin box, including a certificate of authenticity. "This is more than a marketing gimmick," said Thomas Geissler, chief executive of TG-Gold-Super-Markt.de, the company planning to set up the 500 gold ATMs at a cost of ¤20,000 ($31,500) apiece. "It is an appetizer for a strategic investment in precious metals. Gold is an asset everyone should have, between 5% and 15% of your liquid assets in physical gold," he said.
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sensitive data missing from National Archives
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090519/D989JCKO1.html
Oh this could lead to all kinds of interesting things
The National Archives lost a computer hard drive containing massive amounts of sensitive data from the Clinton administration, including Social Security numbers, addresses, and Secret Service and White House operating procedures, congressional officials said Tuesday.
One of former Vice President Al Gore's three daughters is among those whose Social Security numbers were on the drive. Other information includes logs of events, social gatherings and political records
political records
Oh this could lead to all kinds of interesting things
The National Archives lost a computer hard drive containing massive amounts of sensitive data from the Clinton administration, including Social Security numbers, addresses, and Secret Service and White House operating procedures, congressional officials said Tuesday.
One of former Vice President Al Gore's three daughters is among those whose Social Security numbers were on the drive. Other information includes logs of events, social gatherings and political records
Rockwall's 'foreclosure angel' spawns national movement
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa090519_lj_mock.1b0d2c92.html
It would behoove us all to act a little more like Marilyn.
If the shoes fit try them on for size and wear them.
Random Acts of Kindness - it's a little known holiday that encourages people to spontaneously help anyone they can for 24 hours.
That day is usually in February, but for Marilyn Mocks it was last October, the day she saved a stranger from foreclosure and sure homelessness.
But what started as a momentary gift, is now a mission.
Marilyn Mock spends her days running a stone yard with her family in Rockwall.
"I've just always loved rocks, just love them," she said of her work.
But this hard woman is a real softie for those in need.
"If you see somebody upset, you always try to help him," she said.
In October, she spotted a woman crying, about to lose her home at a foreclosure auction.
Mock didn't know her but bought her house for her.
That random gesture captured,
It would behoove us all to act a little more like Marilyn.
If the shoes fit try them on for size and wear them.
Random Acts of Kindness - it's a little known holiday that encourages people to spontaneously help anyone they can for 24 hours.
That day is usually in February, but for Marilyn Mocks it was last October, the day she saved a stranger from foreclosure and sure homelessness.
But what started as a momentary gift, is now a mission.
Marilyn Mock spends her days running a stone yard with her family in Rockwall.
"I've just always loved rocks, just love them," she said of her work.
But this hard woman is a real softie for those in need.
"If you see somebody upset, you always try to help him," she said.
In October, she spotted a woman crying, about to lose her home at a foreclosure auction.
Mock didn't know her but bought her house for her.
That random gesture captured,
If everybody and their brother
Is doing like you do
Then what's the point
Of leaving the joint
If all your going to do
Is take it with you
Can't stand it can you Cap
A little quiet on the shore
A little rest and relaxation
To benefit the core
They have a word to describe you
And you wear it that's for sure
It's called workaholic
And it allows you nothing more
But to work your ass off everyday
And to forget what life's worth living for
Is doing like you do
Then what's the point
Of leaving the joint
If all your going to do
Is take it with you
Can't stand it can you Cap
A little quiet on the shore
A little rest and relaxation
To benefit the core
They have a word to describe you
And you wear it that's for sure
It's called workaholic
And it allows you nothing more
But to work your ass off everyday
And to forget what life's worth living for
Monday, May 18, 2009
Economy limiting services of local police
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...-closure_N.htm
How long before this becomes a nation wide phenomena and how will it effect where you live?
The recession is altering local law enforcement in the U.S. by forcing some agencies to close precincts, merge with other departments or even shut down.
Once largely spared from the deepest budget cuts, some police departments are struggling to provide basic services, police officials say.
"For the first time, because of the economy, police departments ... may have to change how they do business," says Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement think tank. "People will see a change in the basic delivery of services," from longer police response times to a dramatically reduced police presence in some communities.
Harlan Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, said political leaders are "choosing whether they keep the streetsopenor the police on patrol," though it's too early to tell whether the changes will increase crime.
The Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus plan gives about $4 billion to local law enforcement, including $1 billion to hire and retain officers. But the hiring money has not been distributed, and applicants have requested more than is available
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...-closure_N.htm
How long before this becomes a nation wide phenomena and how will it effect where you live?
The recession is altering local law enforcement in the U.S. by forcing some agencies to close precincts, merge with other departments or even shut down.
Once largely spared from the deepest budget cuts, some police departments are struggling to provide basic services, police officials say.
"For the first time, because of the economy, police departments ... may have to change how they do business," says Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement think tank. "People will see a change in the basic delivery of services," from longer police response times to a dramatically reduced police presence in some communities.
Harlan Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, said political leaders are "choosing whether they keep the streetsopenor the police on patrol," though it's too early to tell whether the changes will increase crime.
The Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus plan gives about $4 billion to local law enforcement, including $1 billion to hire and retain officers. But the hiring money has not been distributed, and applicants have requested more than is available
Friday, May 15, 2009
New 'super rats' evolve resistance to poison
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...to-poison.html
Rats and politicians now seem to have something more in common besides both being vermin
Rats across Britain are evolving a resistance to poison that makes them almost impossible to kill, scientists have warned
Rats and politicians now seem to have something more in common besides both being vermin
Rats across Britain are evolving a resistance to poison that makes them almost impossible to kill, scientists have warned
No worries Cap
It's just the beat of the daily grind
Finding a positive edge right now
Is just a little hard to find
At least you can take a break
When you can find the time
It's a choice most would like to make
From the lengths of the unemployment line
Don't worry be happy
Now seems like such a shallow thing to say
And now is a much harder choice
To do so everyday
It's just the beat of the daily grind
Finding a positive edge right now
Is just a little hard to find
At least you can take a break
When you can find the time
It's a choice most would like to make
From the lengths of the unemployment line
Don't worry be happy
Now seems like such a shallow thing to say
And now is a much harder choice
To do so everyday
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
U.S. banking crisis may last until 2013: S&P
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...54C6XL20090513
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A day after saying big U.S. banks probably needed to raise only one-fourth the capital demanded by the government, Standard & Poor's said the nation's banking crisis has "merely entered a new phase" and might not end before 2013.
The credit rating agency said the industry is being propped up by hundreds of billions of dollars of government support, especially for lenders considered too important to the financial system to fail.
While efforts to spur lending, take bad assets off banks' balance sheets, and restart the market for packaging and selling securities may help the sector, S&P said banks will have a tough time surviving absent a bigger capital cushion than regulators require.
"There's nothing to say that this banking crisis can't go on for another three or four years," S&P Managing Director Tanya Azarchs said.
S&P did not immediately return a request for comment
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...54C6XL20090513
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A day after saying big U.S. banks probably needed to raise only one-fourth the capital demanded by the government, Standard & Poor's said the nation's banking crisis has "merely entered a new phase" and might not end before 2013.
The credit rating agency said the industry is being propped up by hundreds of billions of dollars of government support, especially for lenders considered too important to the financial system to fail.
While efforts to spur lending, take bad assets off banks' balance sheets, and restart the market for packaging and selling securities may help the sector, S&P said banks will have a tough time surviving absent a bigger capital cushion than regulators require.
"There's nothing to say that this banking crisis can't go on for another three or four years," S&P Managing Director Tanya Azarchs said.
S&P did not immediately return a request for comment
Obama opposes detainee abuse photo release
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE54C54Y20090513
The only "change" I can see is his mind.
In a reversal, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he would fight the release of dozens of photographs showing the abuse of terrorism suspects, over concern the images could ignite a backlash against U.S. troops.
The decision was a blow to some liberals in Obama's Democratic Party who see the photos as part of a broader effort to investigate Bush-era officials and cleanse America's image abroad.
Just last month the Obama administration had said it would comply with a court order to release the pictures by May 28, saying legal options for appealing the case had been limited.
But Obama shifted gears after senior military commanders and some members of Congress expressed misgivings about the potential for the photos to generate violence against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama defended his decision, saying publication of the photographs "would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals."
"In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger," Obama told reporters. "Moreover, I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations
The only "change" I can see is his mind.
In a reversal, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he would fight the release of dozens of photographs showing the abuse of terrorism suspects, over concern the images could ignite a backlash against U.S. troops.
The decision was a blow to some liberals in Obama's Democratic Party who see the photos as part of a broader effort to investigate Bush-era officials and cleanse America's image abroad.
Just last month the Obama administration had said it would comply with a court order to release the pictures by May 28, saying legal options for appealing the case had been limited.
But Obama shifted gears after senior military commanders and some members of Congress expressed misgivings about the potential for the photos to generate violence against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama defended his decision, saying publication of the photographs "would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals."
"In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger," Obama told reporters. "Moreover, I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations
Obama rejects federal wind insurance for hurricanes
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/68042.html
Homeland security has a say in this WHY?
A shell-shocked Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., said he learned just a few days ago that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Craig Fugate, the nominee to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency, had written lawmakers in opposition to Taylor's legislation.
"I'm obviously extremely disappointed," Taylor told McClatchy," that an administration that ran on 'change you can believe in' did this without taking the time to talk to us."
"I'm particularly angry that they're bailing out AIG, but when it comes to the excessive cost of wind coverage, they're not helping the people of coastal areas," he said. American International Group is one of the nation's largest insurers.
Homeland security has a say in this WHY?
A shell-shocked Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., said he learned just a few days ago that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Craig Fugate, the nominee to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency, had written lawmakers in opposition to Taylor's legislation.
"I'm obviously extremely disappointed," Taylor told McClatchy," that an administration that ran on 'change you can believe in' did this without taking the time to talk to us."
"I'm particularly angry that they're bailing out AIG, but when it comes to the excessive cost of wind coverage, they're not helping the people of coastal areas," he said. American International Group is one of the nation's largest insurers.
US prescription drug use fell in 2008, study says
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-prescription-drug-use-fell-apf-15229250.html
Use fell but cost rose, and look what age bracket grew the fastest.
The kids, Pharma's new crop of hooked hopefuls.
Total US prescription use slips 1.1 pct last year, but spending grew 3.3 pct, Medco says
Revenue from specialty drugs rose almost 16 percent for the year. Medco said growing use of low-cost generic drugs reduced the growth in total spending: 64 percent of all prescriptions were filled with generic drugs. Medco and other pharmacy benefits managers make a larger profit when generic drugs are substituted for brand-name ones. They encourage health plans to develop ways to increase use of generics and 90-day mail-order prescriptions.
Some drugs that were previously available only with a prescription changed to over-the-counter status in 2008, reducing total prescriptions. The biggest names were Zyrtec, an allergy medication, and the laxative Miralax. Drug use was essentially flat with 2008 if Zyrtec and Miralax are excluded, Medco said.
Prescriptions for people 19 and under grew faster than for any other age group. Medco said that was due to rising rates of diabetes among the young, and more prescriptions for attention deficit disorder and similar problems.
Use fell but cost rose, and look what age bracket grew the fastest.
The kids, Pharma's new crop of hooked hopefuls.
Total US prescription use slips 1.1 pct last year, but spending grew 3.3 pct, Medco says
Revenue from specialty drugs rose almost 16 percent for the year. Medco said growing use of low-cost generic drugs reduced the growth in total spending: 64 percent of all prescriptions were filled with generic drugs. Medco and other pharmacy benefits managers make a larger profit when generic drugs are substituted for brand-name ones. They encourage health plans to develop ways to increase use of generics and 90-day mail-order prescriptions.
Some drugs that were previously available only with a prescription changed to over-the-counter status in 2008, reducing total prescriptions. The biggest names were Zyrtec, an allergy medication, and the laxative Miralax. Drug use was essentially flat with 2008 if Zyrtec and Miralax are excluded, Medco said.
Prescriptions for people 19 and under grew faster than for any other age group. Medco said that was due to rising rates of diabetes among the young, and more prescriptions for attention deficit disorder and similar problems.
RealtyTrac: April foreclosures rise 32 percent
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/RealtyTrac-April-foreclosures-apf-15227840.html?sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=
The number of U.S. households faced with losing their homes to foreclosure jumped 32 percent in April compared with the same month last year, with Nevada, Florida and California showing the highest rates, according to data released Wednesday. Ohio was in the top 10.
More than 342,000 households received at least one foreclosure-related notice in April, RealtyTrac Inc. said. That means one in every 374 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing last month, the highest monthly rate since the Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listing firm began its report in January 2005.
April was the second straight month with more than 300,000 households receiving a foreclosure filing, as the number of borrowers with mortgage troubles failed to abate.
The
The number of U.S. households faced with losing their homes to foreclosure jumped 32 percent in April compared with the same month last year, with Nevada, Florida and California showing the highest rates, according to data released Wednesday. Ohio was in the top 10.
More than 342,000 households received at least one foreclosure-related notice in April, RealtyTrac Inc. said. That means one in every 374 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing last month, the highest monthly rate since the Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listing firm began its report in January 2005.
April was the second straight month with more than 300,000 households receiving a foreclosure filing, as the number of borrowers with mortgage troubles failed to abate.
The
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
It's A Good Time To Work For Uncle Sam
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/05...y5007862.shtml
President Obama's call last year for "shared sacrifice" doesn't extend to federal employees, at least based on the details of his administration's 2010 budget released this week.
At a time when the official unemployment rate is nearing double digits, and 6.35 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, the U.S. government is on a hiring binge.
Executive branch employment — 1.98 million in 2009, excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department — is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.
There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.
Meanwhile, according to Forbes' layoff tracker, there have been 558,087 layoffs since November 2008 at large public companies; even local school districts aren't immune. That's just a sliver of the total unemployed, which government data estimate to be 8.6 percent of the workforce, or an alternate method of reckoning that counts discouraged workers puts at 20 percent.
Some of the Feds' hiring increases have been stunning. If you look at the four-year period from 2006 to 2010, the number of Homeland Security employees has grown by 22 percent, the Justice Department has increased by 15 percent, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can claim 25 percent more employees. (These figures assume that Congress adopts Mr. Obama's 2010 budget without significant changes.)
President Obama's call last year for "shared sacrifice" doesn't extend to federal employees, at least based on the details of his administration's 2010 budget released this week.
At a time when the official unemployment rate is nearing double digits, and 6.35 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, the U.S. government is on a hiring binge.
Executive branch employment — 1.98 million in 2009, excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department — is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.
There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.
Meanwhile, according to Forbes' layoff tracker, there have been 558,087 layoffs since November 2008 at large public companies; even local school districts aren't immune. That's just a sliver of the total unemployed, which government data estimate to be 8.6 percent of the workforce, or an alternate method of reckoning that counts discouraged workers puts at 20 percent.
Some of the Feds' hiring increases have been stunning. If you look at the four-year period from 2006 to 2010, the number of Homeland Security employees has grown by 22 percent, the Justice Department has increased by 15 percent, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can claim 25 percent more employees. (These figures assume that Congress adopts Mr. Obama's 2010 budget without significant changes.)
Swine Flu May Be Human Error; WHO Probes Scientist’s Claim
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...r=worldwide #
Interesting that the CDC doesn't agree
The World Health Organization is investigating a claim by an Australian researcher that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.
Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu drug, said in an interview that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its genetic blueprint.
The World Health Organization received the study last weekend and is reviewing it, Keiji Fukuda, the agency’s assistant director-general of health security and environment, said in an interview May 11. Gibbs, who has studied germ evolution for four decades, is one of the first scientists to analyze the genetic makeup of the virus that was identified three weeks ago in Mexico and threatens to touch off the first flu pandemic since 1968.
A virus that resulted from lab experimentation or vaccine production may indicate a greater need for security, Fukuda said. By pinpointing the source of the virus, scientists also may better understand the microbe’s potential for spreading and causing illness, Gibbs said.
Possible Mistake
“The sooner we get to grips with where it’s come from, the safer things might become,” Gibbs said by phone from Canberra yesterday. “It could be a mistake” that occurred at a vaccine production facility or the virus could have jumped from a pig to another mammal or a bird before reaching humans, he said.
Interesting that the CDC doesn't agree
The World Health Organization is investigating a claim by an Australian researcher that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.
Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu drug, said in an interview that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its genetic blueprint.
The World Health Organization received the study last weekend and is reviewing it, Keiji Fukuda, the agency’s assistant director-general of health security and environment, said in an interview May 11. Gibbs, who has studied germ evolution for four decades, is one of the first scientists to analyze the genetic makeup of the virus that was identified three weeks ago in Mexico and threatens to touch off the first flu pandemic since 1968.
A virus that resulted from lab experimentation or vaccine production may indicate a greater need for security, Fukuda said. By pinpointing the source of the virus, scientists also may better understand the microbe’s potential for spreading and causing illness, Gibbs said.
Possible Mistake
“The sooner we get to grips with where it’s come from, the safer things might become,” Gibbs said by phone from Canberra yesterday. “It could be a mistake” that occurred at a vaccine production facility or the virus could have jumped from a pig to another mammal or a bird before reaching humans, he said.
Bill creates detention camps in U.S. for 'emergencies'
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.p...w&pageId=87757
Heads up!
Sweeping, undefined purpose raises worries about military police state
Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced to the House of Representatives a new bill, H.R. 645, calling for the secretary of homeland security to establish no fewer than six national emergency centers for corralling civilians on military installations.
The proposed bill, which has received little mainstream media attention, appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany.
Heed the warning of a former Hitler Youth who sees America on the same path as pre-Nazi Germany in "Defeating the Totalitarian Lie" from WND Books!
The bill also appears to expand the president's emergency power, much as the executive order signed by President Bush on May 9, 2007, that, as WND reported, gave the president the authority to declare an emergency and take over the direction of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments without even consulting Congress.
As WND also reported, DHS has awarded a $385 million contract to Houston-based KBR, Halliburton's former engineering and construction subsidiary, to build temporary detention centers on an "as-needed" basis in national emergency situations.
(Story continues below)
Heads up!
Sweeping, undefined purpose raises worries about military police state
Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced to the House of Representatives a new bill, H.R. 645, calling for the secretary of homeland security to establish no fewer than six national emergency centers for corralling civilians on military installations.
The proposed bill, which has received little mainstream media attention, appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany.
Heed the warning of a former Hitler Youth who sees America on the same path as pre-Nazi Germany in "Defeating the Totalitarian Lie" from WND Books!
The bill also appears to expand the president's emergency power, much as the executive order signed by President Bush on May 9, 2007, that, as WND reported, gave the president the authority to declare an emergency and take over the direction of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments without even consulting Congress.
As WND also reported, DHS has awarded a $385 million contract to Houston-based KBR, Halliburton's former engineering and construction subsidiary, to build temporary detention centers on an "as-needed" basis in national emergency situations.
(Story continues below)
Robot teacher conducts first class in Tokyo school
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sciencean...yo-school.html
The ultimate outsource
While Saya's creator Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi said the robot's main purpose was to highlight the joys of technology to children, he also said it would benefit schools suffering from a shortage of human teachers.
"In the countryside and in some small schools, there are children who do not have the opportunity to come into contact with new technology and also there are few teachers out there that can teach these lessons," said Professor Kobayashi.
"So we hope to be able to develop this robot so it can be remotely controlled to teach these classes."
The ultimate outsource
While Saya's creator Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi said the robot's main purpose was to highlight the joys of technology to children, he also said it would benefit schools suffering from a shortage of human teachers.
"In the countryside and in some small schools, there are children who do not have the opportunity to come into contact with new technology and also there are few teachers out there that can teach these lessons," said Professor Kobayashi.
"So we hope to be able to develop this robot so it can be remotely controlled to teach these classes."
40-fold drug surge in Afghanistan: report
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id...onid=351020403
Sometimes you just have to have a good reason to laugh, and this is one of them
While Afghanistan produced only 185 tons of opium under the Taliban, following the US invasion drug production, according to UN statistics, surged to 3,400 tons and by 2007, opium trade reached all-time high of 8,200 tons.
Afghan and Western officials blame Washington and its NATO allies for the sudden surge, saying they overlooked the drug problem for more than seven years after invasion of the country.
“[The US and its allies] didn't want anything to do with either interdiction or eradication," said Thomas Schweich, a former Bush administration ambassador for counternarcotics. "We warned them over and over again: Look at Colombia."
The Bush administration waged "Operation Enduring Freedom" on Afghanistan in 2001, to allegedly capture Osama bin Laden, destroy al-Qaeda and Taliban and bring stability to the volatile region.
The invasion of Afghanistan was also justified as part of the West's "war on drugs."
"The al-Qaeda network and the Taliban regime are funded in large part [by] the drugs trade," ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in 2001 when confirming London's participation in the US attack on Afghanistan.
Iran lies on a transit corridor between opium producers in Afghanistan and drug dealers in Europe.
As a lead donor nation to Afghanistan, Iran has annually contributed more than $50 million to Afghan counternarcotics efforts in the past five years.
The United Nations credited Iran for the seizure of 80 per cent of the opium netted around the world in 2007.
Sometimes you just have to have a good reason to laugh, and this is one of them
While Afghanistan produced only 185 tons of opium under the Taliban, following the US invasion drug production, according to UN statistics, surged to 3,400 tons and by 2007, opium trade reached all-time high of 8,200 tons.
Afghan and Western officials blame Washington and its NATO allies for the sudden surge, saying they overlooked the drug problem for more than seven years after invasion of the country.
“[The US and its allies] didn't want anything to do with either interdiction or eradication," said Thomas Schweich, a former Bush administration ambassador for counternarcotics. "We warned them over and over again: Look at Colombia."
The Bush administration waged "Operation Enduring Freedom" on Afghanistan in 2001, to allegedly capture Osama bin Laden, destroy al-Qaeda and Taliban and bring stability to the volatile region.
The invasion of Afghanistan was also justified as part of the West's "war on drugs."
"The al-Qaeda network and the Taliban regime are funded in large part [by] the drugs trade," ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in 2001 when confirming London's participation in the US attack on Afghanistan.
Iran lies on a transit corridor between opium producers in Afghanistan and drug dealers in Europe.
As a lead donor nation to Afghanistan, Iran has annually contributed more than $50 million to Afghan counternarcotics efforts in the past five years.
The United Nations credited Iran for the seizure of 80 per cent of the opium netted around the world in 2007.
Money launderers wash billions through international trade
http://www.miamiherald.com/154/story/1041027.html
Imported plain cotton pillow cases from France that cost more than $900 apiece and new bulldozers exported to Venezuela that cost $387 each. Such prices seem highly suspect -- and could be examples of someone using international trade to launder money.
Despite strict enforcement of federal anti-money-laundering laws, criminals are constantly finding ways to transform dirty money -- the proceeds of illegal activities -- into clean cash, and one of their most important routes is laundering money via international trade.
Money launderers are moving enormous sums through ports in Florida and other parts of the country by overvaluing or undervaluing exports and imports, said John Zdanowicz, a professor of finance at Florida International University.
Using a statistical program he developed to track money laundering, Zdanowicz analyzes U.S. government trade figures, calculates average prices for commodities and merchandise and searches the data for abnormally priced products.
The pillow cases and bulldozers are among the products he has turned up that seem to indicate trade may have been used to disguise the movement of money. But since the names of importers and exporters don't appear with government trade figures, Zdanowicz doesn't know who is moving the merchandise -- or the money.
Imported plain cotton pillow cases from France that cost more than $900 apiece and new bulldozers exported to Venezuela that cost $387 each. Such prices seem highly suspect -- and could be examples of someone using international trade to launder money.
Despite strict enforcement of federal anti-money-laundering laws, criminals are constantly finding ways to transform dirty money -- the proceeds of illegal activities -- into clean cash, and one of their most important routes is laundering money via international trade.
Money launderers are moving enormous sums through ports in Florida and other parts of the country by overvaluing or undervaluing exports and imports, said John Zdanowicz, a professor of finance at Florida International University.
Using a statistical program he developed to track money laundering, Zdanowicz analyzes U.S. government trade figures, calculates average prices for commodities and merchandise and searches the data for abnormally priced products.
The pillow cases and bulldozers are among the products he has turned up that seem to indicate trade may have been used to disguise the movement of money. But since the names of importers and exporters don't appear with government trade figures, Zdanowicz doesn't know who is moving the merchandise -- or the money.
Some US soldiers forced to steal water in Iraq
http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dw....16ebba1d.html
Take Houston’s heat on a miserable summer day and add 40 degrees, making temperatures 130 or more.
Next, add an extra 100 pounds of life-protecting gear to your body: bulletproof vests, guns and ammunition.
And then imagine not having enough water around to drink.
Stories of short supplies have haunted the U.S. military throughout the war in Iraq—things like inadequate body armor or unshielded Hummers. But while many soldiers say they had good access to water and even Gatorade, the 11 News Defenders discovered that others, stationed all over the country and during all phases of this desert war, say something else was often missing.
“We were rationed two bottles of water a day,” said Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Robey, referring to 1 to 1.5 liter bottles.
And he said that wasn’t nearly enough.
“You’ll see guys throw up, you’ll see them pass out,” he said.
Take Houston’s heat on a miserable summer day and add 40 degrees, making temperatures 130 or more.
Next, add an extra 100 pounds of life-protecting gear to your body: bulletproof vests, guns and ammunition.
And then imagine not having enough water around to drink.
Stories of short supplies have haunted the U.S. military throughout the war in Iraq—things like inadequate body armor or unshielded Hummers. But while many soldiers say they had good access to water and even Gatorade, the 11 News Defenders discovered that others, stationed all over the country and during all phases of this desert war, say something else was often missing.
“We were rationed two bottles of water a day,” said Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Robey, referring to 1 to 1.5 liter bottles.
And he said that wasn’t nearly enough.
“You’ll see guys throw up, you’ll see them pass out,” he said.
Fannie and Freddie Will Need Almost $100 Billion in 2010
http://finance.yahoo.com/techticker/article/245303/Fannie-and-Freddie-Will-Need-Almost-$100-Billion-in-2010
How long will it be before the American taxpayer tells the government to kiss their ASS?
The Office of Management and Budget released a report yesterday on the budgets and proposed overhauls of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that included the possibility of liquidating their assets. But don't get your hopes up.
The two government run mortgage finance companies have been scandalously costly for tax-payers, costing Americans far more in bailout money than they ever saved in cheaper mortgages. The OMB says that the two companies will need at least $92.2 billion more in fiscal 2010. This is on top of the $78.2 billion in aid they've received since they were taken over by the government in September.
The entire point of having Fannie and Freddie operate as government sponsored entities was that they could borrow at lower rates than purely private companies. This savings enabled them to make mortgage loans at lower rates, and allowed them to buy up or guarantee mortgages from private lenders at rates that would otherwise have been uneconomical. Over the years, Fannie and Freddie may have saved Americans as much as $100 billion in mortgage payments. Now the OMB says they'll need that much just to get through next year.
How long will it be before the American taxpayer tells the government to kiss their ASS?
The Office of Management and Budget released a report yesterday on the budgets and proposed overhauls of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that included the possibility of liquidating their assets. But don't get your hopes up.
The two government run mortgage finance companies have been scandalously costly for tax-payers, costing Americans far more in bailout money than they ever saved in cheaper mortgages. The OMB says that the two companies will need at least $92.2 billion more in fiscal 2010. This is on top of the $78.2 billion in aid they've received since they were taken over by the government in September.
The entire point of having Fannie and Freddie operate as government sponsored entities was that they could borrow at lower rates than purely private companies. This savings enabled them to make mortgage loans at lower rates, and allowed them to buy up or guarantee mortgages from private lenders at rates that would otherwise have been uneconomical. Over the years, Fannie and Freddie may have saved Americans as much as $100 billion in mortgage payments. Now the OMB says they'll need that much just to get through next year.
Media Censoring Lethal Side Effects Of Flu Remedies
http://www.americanfreepress.net/htm...edies_177.html
It's always only about the money, human lives are never thought of in the fix for Pharma!
Rumsfeld’s Tamiflu is worse than worthless. It kills people. Japan has banned it. Even the FDA—after review of nearly 600 cases of neuropsychiatric events reported by patients on Tamiflu and 115 cases of neuropsychiatric events by patients taking Relenza—has warned that Tamiflu’s label be strengthened to note: “In some cases, these behaviors resulted in serious injuries, including death, in adult and pediatric patients.”
The FDA staff said Relenza, a drug in the same class as Tamiflu, should have a warning label of “reports of hallucinations, delirium and abnormal behavior” observed in some patients taking the drug.
Informed Americans would have to be suffering from “hallucinations, delirium” to trust Big Pharma and corrupt, greedy politicians.
It's always only about the money, human lives are never thought of in the fix for Pharma!
Rumsfeld’s Tamiflu is worse than worthless. It kills people. Japan has banned it. Even the FDA—after review of nearly 600 cases of neuropsychiatric events reported by patients on Tamiflu and 115 cases of neuropsychiatric events by patients taking Relenza—has warned that Tamiflu’s label be strengthened to note: “In some cases, these behaviors resulted in serious injuries, including death, in adult and pediatric patients.”
The FDA staff said Relenza, a drug in the same class as Tamiflu, should have a warning label of “reports of hallucinations, delirium and abnormal behavior” observed in some patients taking the drug.
Informed Americans would have to be suffering from “hallucinations, delirium” to trust Big Pharma and corrupt, greedy politicians.
Democrats race to hearings on interrogation memos
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090512/D984JF200.html
What is the point in this hearing other than being a waste of time and money?
No one will be prosecuted. It's just another version of the blame game to be used as future ammunition in campaign crochet as a well deserved ball buster
Wednesday's hearing will be chaired by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who also is a member of the Intelligence Committee and attended secret briefings on the interrogation methods by intelligence officials in the George W. Bush administration.
Whitehouse said in an interview that he offered legislation in the Intelligence Committee to ban the harsh methods. His measure became part of legislation that passed under the sponsorship of the committee chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
But Whitehouse said he never protested to the Bush administration because "it never crossed my mind that it would make the least bit of difference."
What is the point in this hearing other than being a waste of time and money?
No one will be prosecuted. It's just another version of the blame game to be used as future ammunition in campaign crochet as a well deserved ball buster
Wednesday's hearing will be chaired by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who also is a member of the Intelligence Committee and attended secret briefings on the interrogation methods by intelligence officials in the George W. Bush administration.
Whitehouse said in an interview that he offered legislation in the Intelligence Committee to ban the harsh methods. His measure became part of legislation that passed under the sponsorship of the committee chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
But Whitehouse said he never protested to the Bush administration because "it never crossed my mind that it would make the least bit of difference."
Monday, May 11, 2009
Secret Bush, Clinton, Federal reserve Pakistani account revealed
http://www.infowars.com/secret-bush-clinton-federal-reserve-pakistani-accounts-revealed/
My what an interesting can of worms
UNITED STATES of America - It can now be reported that the recent resignation of former New York Federal Reserve Bank of New York Chairman, Stephen Frieidman, signals an expanding investigation of New York Attorny General Andrew Cuomo, who is not only focused on the massive New York state financial derivative Ponzi Scheme, but is now centered on money laundry, and possible funding of alleged terrorists in Pakistan.
Note: Cuomo was recently in a state of shock when he looked at new evidence linking Citibank, J. P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and AIG, to not only a terrorist money laundry in Pakistan, but to evidence tying all of these aforementioned brokerage firms and the Federal Reserve itself to PRE 9/11 knowledge, which allowed them to profit with put options and short positions placed before 9/11.
This allowed these criminal brokerage firms to benefit from the death of near 3,000 in New York City.
Reference: Friedman, who still sits on the Board of Goldman Sachs, has been recently cooperating with the New York Attorney General, but as you will find out in the rest of this briefing, Friedman has been playing both sides against the middle and is now involved in espionage double-cross.
Sources close to Defense Intelligence and the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as European INTERPOL, have actually fingered Friedman as the bagman for the Bush-Clinton Crime Family Syndicate involving illegal wire transfers of TRILLIONS of dollars of STOLEN U.S. Treasury funds that were laundred through Goldman Sachs brokerage firm in New York City, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Israel Discount Bank and the Federal Reserve itself to the Israeli Bank Leumi in Tel Aviv onto secret U.S. national security accounts in Pakistan.
Note: Assisting Friedman in looting the U.S. Treasury (the back end of the toxic derivatives) is a Pakistani national who is a joint U.S.-Pakistan CIA Intelligence officer with the initials " K.H. "
KH, who was presumed dead by many in the intelligence community, including Stephen Friedman, is now cooperating with European INTERPOL.
Note: Early Saturday morning on May 9, 2009, foreign born alleged President Barack Obama ordered a missile attack near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, which was was an alleged attack against so-called Al Qaeda terrorists.
We can now report that it was daddy Bush and his little bitch, Bill Clinton, that ordered Obama to launch the attack given reports that the whistleblower KH was in the vicinity.
Clearly, folks, this was not an attack on terrorists but an assassination attempt on KH that failed.
KH has fingered Stephen Friedman, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, along with former President George Herbert Walker Bush, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in setting up these secret CIA proprietary accounts in Pakistan tied to none other than the late alleged 9/11 terrorist aka patsy CIA employee Tim Osman aka Osama bin Laden.
Note: Bin Laden, who died of kidney failure in December of 2001 and was a cosignator on these accounts, is claimed to still be alive based on the U.S. media’s big lie that he is still wandering the hills of Afghanistan.
Believe this, folks, he is dead as a door nail!
Should bin Laden’s death be reported, the IRS would have immediate access to these secret accounts that now have rotating access codes aka electronic serial combinations based on biblical chapters and verses.
The Pakistan money laundry has been a piggy bank for the Bush-Clinton Crime Family Syndicate since the 9/11 attack on America.
These accounts have now been frozen by the World Court and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) given the cooperation of the now whistleblower KH in handing over the account numbers and access codes aka the biblical chapters and verses that have now prevented daddy Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, along with former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan from getting into these accounts.
Reference: It has been reported that the Pakistani government refused Barbara Bush, wife of former President George Herbert Walker Bush, and Andrea Mitchell, wife of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, and Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President and daddy Bush’s little bitch, Bill Clinton, entry into Pakistan.
Reference: It was Chelsea Clinton that used funds from a Goldman Sachs hedge fund to arrange the BRIBING of New York Governor David Paterson in order to keep Caroline Kennedy from being appointed the next New York Democratic U.S. Senator.
It is clear now that former Federal Reserve Bank of New York Chairman, Stephen Friedman, is caught in a double cross.
Friedman had been cooperating with the New York state investigation while at the same time keeping secret the existence of these secret Bush-Clinton Crime Family Syndicate’s accounts in Pakistan, which now not only have a possibly link to the Bernard Madoff Ponzi Scheme but to the funding of alleged worldwide Al Qaeda terrorists as well as the 9/11 attack itself.
He clearly thought that KH had died - well he is clearly alive and kicking, folks.
P.S. At this hour the Obama Administration is ignoring a French Intelligence warning of a possible FALSE FLAG terrorist attack that would be staged in New York City around the Broad Street area aka the location of the Goldman Sachs brokerage firm.
We can now divulge that there are tape recorded conversations involving current White House Chief of Staff and former head of the North American Israeli Mossad, Rahm Emanuel, and current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, concerning the existence of certain files, documents and computer downloads currently held at Goldman Sachs that involve former Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Chairman Stephen Friedman, the Bernard Madoff Ponzi Scheme and the secret money laundry from the U.S. to Israeli to Pakistan.
French Intelligence sources have, once again, identified certain alleged Al Qaeda types that are linked to the noted 9/11 Israeli Mossad’s Urban Moving Systems espionage group, that is still operating in New Jersey, and have been recently photographed outside the New York financial district.
P.P.S. At this hour there is NO Justice Department as the Obama Administration continues to allow Bush Clinton Crime Family Syndicate rule over the United States.
The bought and paid for U.S. Congress, along with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), continue to run rampant in attempts to attack the American People.
For example, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, who has lunch on occasion with former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, still has a terrorist watch list that includes enemies of Karl Rove aka former Democratic Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.
Napolitano and Chertoff have also put together a list called the "Domestic Extremist Lexicon", which classifies individuals as terrorists if they do not agree with corporate, fascist media versions of events.
Not to be left out, radical feminista and tribalist Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA), is sponsoring legislation (H.R. 1966), which would allow the government to censor the internet if it was determined that internet bloggers brought "emotional distress" to alleged individuals that were being criticized.
My what an interesting can of worms
UNITED STATES of America - It can now be reported that the recent resignation of former New York Federal Reserve Bank of New York Chairman, Stephen Frieidman, signals an expanding investigation of New York Attorny General Andrew Cuomo, who is not only focused on the massive New York state financial derivative Ponzi Scheme, but is now centered on money laundry, and possible funding of alleged terrorists in Pakistan.
Note: Cuomo was recently in a state of shock when he looked at new evidence linking Citibank, J. P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and AIG, to not only a terrorist money laundry in Pakistan, but to evidence tying all of these aforementioned brokerage firms and the Federal Reserve itself to PRE 9/11 knowledge, which allowed them to profit with put options and short positions placed before 9/11.
This allowed these criminal brokerage firms to benefit from the death of near 3,000 in New York City.
Reference: Friedman, who still sits on the Board of Goldman Sachs, has been recently cooperating with the New York Attorney General, but as you will find out in the rest of this briefing, Friedman has been playing both sides against the middle and is now involved in espionage double-cross.
Sources close to Defense Intelligence and the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as European INTERPOL, have actually fingered Friedman as the bagman for the Bush-Clinton Crime Family Syndicate involving illegal wire transfers of TRILLIONS of dollars of STOLEN U.S. Treasury funds that were laundred through Goldman Sachs brokerage firm in New York City, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Israel Discount Bank and the Federal Reserve itself to the Israeli Bank Leumi in Tel Aviv onto secret U.S. national security accounts in Pakistan.
Note: Assisting Friedman in looting the U.S. Treasury (the back end of the toxic derivatives) is a Pakistani national who is a joint U.S.-Pakistan CIA Intelligence officer with the initials " K.H. "
KH, who was presumed dead by many in the intelligence community, including Stephen Friedman, is now cooperating with European INTERPOL.
Note: Early Saturday morning on May 9, 2009, foreign born alleged President Barack Obama ordered a missile attack near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, which was was an alleged attack against so-called Al Qaeda terrorists.
We can now report that it was daddy Bush and his little bitch, Bill Clinton, that ordered Obama to launch the attack given reports that the whistleblower KH was in the vicinity.
Clearly, folks, this was not an attack on terrorists but an assassination attempt on KH that failed.
KH has fingered Stephen Friedman, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, along with former President George Herbert Walker Bush, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in setting up these secret CIA proprietary accounts in Pakistan tied to none other than the late alleged 9/11 terrorist aka patsy CIA employee Tim Osman aka Osama bin Laden.
Note: Bin Laden, who died of kidney failure in December of 2001 and was a cosignator on these accounts, is claimed to still be alive based on the U.S. media’s big lie that he is still wandering the hills of Afghanistan.
Believe this, folks, he is dead as a door nail!
Should bin Laden’s death be reported, the IRS would have immediate access to these secret accounts that now have rotating access codes aka electronic serial combinations based on biblical chapters and verses.
The Pakistan money laundry has been a piggy bank for the Bush-Clinton Crime Family Syndicate since the 9/11 attack on America.
These accounts have now been frozen by the World Court and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) given the cooperation of the now whistleblower KH in handing over the account numbers and access codes aka the biblical chapters and verses that have now prevented daddy Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, along with former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan from getting into these accounts.
Reference: It has been reported that the Pakistani government refused Barbara Bush, wife of former President George Herbert Walker Bush, and Andrea Mitchell, wife of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, and Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President and daddy Bush’s little bitch, Bill Clinton, entry into Pakistan.
Reference: It was Chelsea Clinton that used funds from a Goldman Sachs hedge fund to arrange the BRIBING of New York Governor David Paterson in order to keep Caroline Kennedy from being appointed the next New York Democratic U.S. Senator.
It is clear now that former Federal Reserve Bank of New York Chairman, Stephen Friedman, is caught in a double cross.
Friedman had been cooperating with the New York state investigation while at the same time keeping secret the existence of these secret Bush-Clinton Crime Family Syndicate’s accounts in Pakistan, which now not only have a possibly link to the Bernard Madoff Ponzi Scheme but to the funding of alleged worldwide Al Qaeda terrorists as well as the 9/11 attack itself.
He clearly thought that KH had died - well he is clearly alive and kicking, folks.
P.S. At this hour the Obama Administration is ignoring a French Intelligence warning of a possible FALSE FLAG terrorist attack that would be staged in New York City around the Broad Street area aka the location of the Goldman Sachs brokerage firm.
We can now divulge that there are tape recorded conversations involving current White House Chief of Staff and former head of the North American Israeli Mossad, Rahm Emanuel, and current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, concerning the existence of certain files, documents and computer downloads currently held at Goldman Sachs that involve former Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Chairman Stephen Friedman, the Bernard Madoff Ponzi Scheme and the secret money laundry from the U.S. to Israeli to Pakistan.
French Intelligence sources have, once again, identified certain alleged Al Qaeda types that are linked to the noted 9/11 Israeli Mossad’s Urban Moving Systems espionage group, that is still operating in New Jersey, and have been recently photographed outside the New York financial district.
P.P.S. At this hour there is NO Justice Department as the Obama Administration continues to allow Bush Clinton Crime Family Syndicate rule over the United States.
The bought and paid for U.S. Congress, along with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), continue to run rampant in attempts to attack the American People.
For example, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, who has lunch on occasion with former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, still has a terrorist watch list that includes enemies of Karl Rove aka former Democratic Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.
Napolitano and Chertoff have also put together a list called the "Domestic Extremist Lexicon", which classifies individuals as terrorists if they do not agree with corporate, fascist media versions of events.
Not to be left out, radical feminista and tribalist Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA), is sponsoring legislation (H.R. 1966), which would allow the government to censor the internet if it was determined that internet bloggers brought "emotional distress" to alleged individuals that were being criticized.
Massachusetts AG in $60 million deal with Goldman
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Massachusetts-AG-in-60-apf-15200553.html
This is just Massachusetts, now ask yourself how many other states does Goldman Sachs owe money to.
They were busted dead to rights and now rather than prosecution they are allowed to make a deal for restitution.
Goldman has pledged to provide $50 million in relief to homeowners and make a $10 million payment to the state as part of the settlement. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Martha Coakley says the deal is the first of its kind in the country.
Coakley has mounted a series of legal actions, as she has traced the state's subprime problem from street-level brokers to mortgage providers and, now, to investment houses that turned the risky home mortgage loans into stock market commodities.
This is just Massachusetts, now ask yourself how many other states does Goldman Sachs owe money to.
They were busted dead to rights and now rather than prosecution they are allowed to make a deal for restitution.
Goldman has pledged to provide $50 million in relief to homeowners and make a $10 million payment to the state as part of the settlement. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Martha Coakley says the deal is the first of its kind in the country.
Coakley has mounted a series of legal actions, as she has traced the state's subprime problem from street-level brokers to mortgage providers and, now, to investment houses that turned the risky home mortgage loans into stock market commodities.
US plans new antitrust effort
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-pla...-15199796.html
A step in the right direction is a good thing
The Justice Department warned corporate America on Monday that the government will aggressively investigate big firms that improperly dominate markets.
Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney said the department is abandoning legal guidelines put in place by the Bush administration in September 2008. Critics complained the earlier set of instructions made it difficult to pursue antitrust cases against big firms.
Varney laid out the new policy in a speech to the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.
She said some of the problems in the current economy were due to the lack of enforcement in the previous 10 years -- a clear jab at the Bush administration, which, she said, raised too many hurdles to antitrust investigations.
"There was a high cost to standing aside. We must change course
A step in the right direction is a good thing
The Justice Department warned corporate America on Monday that the government will aggressively investigate big firms that improperly dominate markets.
Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney said the department is abandoning legal guidelines put in place by the Bush administration in September 2008. Critics complained the earlier set of instructions made it difficult to pursue antitrust cases against big firms.
Varney laid out the new policy in a speech to the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.
She said some of the problems in the current economy were due to the lack of enforcement in the previous 10 years -- a clear jab at the Bush administration, which, she said, raised too many hurdles to antitrust investigations.
"There was a high cost to standing aside. We must change course
White House forecasts higher U.S. budget deficit
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/White-House-forecasts-higher-rb-15199206.html?.v=3
How long can this keep going on?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Monday pushed up its forecast for the U.S. budget deficit for this year by $89 billion, reflecting the recession, a raft of new unemployment claims and corporate bailouts.
A fresh estimate of the deficit showed it coming in at $1.84 trillion -- representing a massive 12.9 percent of gross domestic product -- in the current 2009 fiscal year that ends on September 30. A prior White House forecast released in February projected a deficit of $1.75 trillion, or 12.3 percent of GDP.
The report may add to the political challenges facing President Barack Obama as he seeks to push through a new healthcare plan and other big domestic initiatives.
A White House official said the gloomier deficit picture reflected weaker tax receipts as the economy declined and higher costs for social safety-net programs such as unemployment insurance. Spending on the government rescues for the financial and automobile industries was also a factor in the higher deficit, said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.
How long can this keep going on?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Monday pushed up its forecast for the U.S. budget deficit for this year by $89 billion, reflecting the recession, a raft of new unemployment claims and corporate bailouts.
A fresh estimate of the deficit showed it coming in at $1.84 trillion -- representing a massive 12.9 percent of gross domestic product -- in the current 2009 fiscal year that ends on September 30. A prior White House forecast released in February projected a deficit of $1.75 trillion, or 12.3 percent of GDP.
The report may add to the political challenges facing President Barack Obama as he seeks to push through a new healthcare plan and other big domestic initiatives.
A White House official said the gloomier deficit picture reflected weaker tax receipts as the economy declined and higher costs for social safety-net programs such as unemployment insurance. Spending on the government rescues for the financial and automobile industries was also a factor in the higher deficit, said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Short sales and why the banks block them
Congress has had as much success untangling this mess as real estate agents.
"We've been trying to figure out probably for close to two years now why so few mortgages are being modified when it seems to make absolute business sense for the person holding the mortgage to modify rather than foreclose or to take a smaller loss selling it rather than a bigger loss foreclosing on it," said Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.).
Miller points his finger at securitization. Once the mortgages are bundled and sliced up into different pieces, known as tranches, the owners of the pieces get paid back according to a certain pecking order. Senior investors get paid back first and if there's a loss, the most junior investors won't get anything. It's those investors who are blocking short sales.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/08/short-sales-banks-blockin_n_199099.html
"The people with the least senior tranches have no reason to agree to the modification because they take a complete loss and the people in the most senior tranches don't lose anything. So they've managed to structure their mortgages in a way that makes it almost impossible to modify or sell short," said Miller.
Miller sponsored legislation to reform the bankruptcy code to allow judges to rewrite those contracts, taking away the ability of junior investors to sue and encouraging them to negotiate. But the House-approved measure died in the Senate, 51-45, killed last week by Republicans and 12 Democrats, leaving it 15 votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.
Dave Liniger of Re/Max said the provision would have changed the bargaining landscape. Lenders would have had much more of an incentive to take a loss on a short sale rather than see a judge unilaterally change the terms of a mortgage
"We've been trying to figure out probably for close to two years now why so few mortgages are being modified when it seems to make absolute business sense for the person holding the mortgage to modify rather than foreclose or to take a smaller loss selling it rather than a bigger loss foreclosing on it," said Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.).
Miller points his finger at securitization. Once the mortgages are bundled and sliced up into different pieces, known as tranches, the owners of the pieces get paid back according to a certain pecking order. Senior investors get paid back first and if there's a loss, the most junior investors won't get anything. It's those investors who are blocking short sales.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/08/short-sales-banks-blockin_n_199099.html
"The people with the least senior tranches have no reason to agree to the modification because they take a complete loss and the people in the most senior tranches don't lose anything. So they've managed to structure their mortgages in a way that makes it almost impossible to modify or sell short," said Miller.
Miller sponsored legislation to reform the bankruptcy code to allow judges to rewrite those contracts, taking away the ability of junior investors to sue and encouraging them to negotiate. But the House-approved measure died in the Senate, 51-45, killed last week by Republicans and 12 Democrats, leaving it 15 votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.
Dave Liniger of Re/Max said the provision would have changed the bargaining landscape. Lenders would have had much more of an incentive to take a loss on a short sale rather than see a judge unilaterally change the terms of a mortgage
Friday, May 8, 2009
"Naked Conflicts": NY Fed Chairman Resigns Over Goldman Controversy
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker...ia,jpm,fas,SKF
Outstanding interview
From Friedman's resignation letter: "…although I have been in compliance with the rules, my public service motivated continuation on the Reserve Bank Board is being mischaracterized as improper." It was improper says our guest, William Black, associate professor of Economics and Law University of Missouri, Kansas City. Bottom line: It's a clear conflict of interest for private banks to own an arm of the Fed, much less individual regulators to own stakes in entities they're overseeing.
Friedman’s case has highlighted the unusual role of Fed’s 12 regional banks that serve both private and public interests. The solution?
•For starters
Outstanding interview
From Friedman's resignation letter: "…although I have been in compliance with the rules, my public service motivated continuation on the Reserve Bank Board is being mischaracterized as improper." It was improper says our guest, William Black, associate professor of Economics and Law University of Missouri, Kansas City. Bottom line: It's a clear conflict of interest for private banks to own an arm of the Fed, much less individual regulators to own stakes in entities they're overseeing.
Friedman’s case has highlighted the unusual role of Fed’s 12 regional banks that serve both private and public interests. The solution?
•For starters
Former S&L Regulator: Absolutely A Banking Bailout Coverup
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-4160-0-13-13--.html
This Bill Moyers interview is going viral so fast, I can’t even keep up with it. And for a very good reason - former S&L regulator Bill Black explains exactly why the current banking bailout is a mistake.
Hat-tip to Crooks & Liars for content!
Complete transcript
Full interview video is here
There’s so much information, you simply have to read or watch the entire thing. Some snippets:
BILL MOYERS: Yeah. Are you saying that Timothy Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, and others in the administration, with the banks, are engaged in a cover-up to keep us from knowing what went wrong?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely.
BILL MOYERS: You are.
WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely, because they are scared to death. All right? They’re scared to death of a collapse. They’re afraid that if they admit the truth, that many of the large banks are insolvent. They think Americans are a bunch of cowards, and that we’ll run screaming to the exits. And we won’t rely on deposit insurance. And, by the way, you can rely on deposit insurance. And it’s foolishness. All right? Now, it may be worse than that. You can impute more cynical motives. But I think they are sincerely just panicked about, “We just can’t let the big banks fail.” That’s wrong.
BILL MOYERS: But what might happen, at this point, if in fact they keep from us the true health of the banks?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, then the banks will, as they did in Japan, either stay enormously weak, or Treasury will be forced to increasingly absurd giveaways of taxpayer money. We’ve seen how horrific AIG — and remember, they kept secrets from everyone.
BILL MOYERS: A.I.G. did?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: What we’re doing with — no, Treasury and both administrations. The Bush administration and now the Obama administration kept secret from us what was being done with AIG. AIG was being used secretly to bail out favored banks like UBS and like Goldman Sachs. Secretary Paulson’s firm, that he had come from being CEO. It got the largest amount of money. $12.9 billion. And they didn’t want us to know that. And it was only Congressional pressure, and not Congressional pressure, by the way, on Geithner, but Congressional pressure on AIG.
Where Congress said, “We will not give you a single penny more unless we know who received the money.” And, you know, when he was Treasury Secretary, Paulson created a recommendation group to tell Treasury what they ought to do with AIG. And he put Goldman Sachs on it.
This Bill Moyers interview is going viral so fast, I can’t even keep up with it. And for a very good reason - former S&L regulator Bill Black explains exactly why the current banking bailout is a mistake.
Hat-tip to Crooks & Liars for content!
Complete transcript
Full interview video is here
There’s so much information, you simply have to read or watch the entire thing. Some snippets:
BILL MOYERS: Yeah. Are you saying that Timothy Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, and others in the administration, with the banks, are engaged in a cover-up to keep us from knowing what went wrong?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely.
BILL MOYERS: You are.
WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely, because they are scared to death. All right? They’re scared to death of a collapse. They’re afraid that if they admit the truth, that many of the large banks are insolvent. They think Americans are a bunch of cowards, and that we’ll run screaming to the exits. And we won’t rely on deposit insurance. And, by the way, you can rely on deposit insurance. And it’s foolishness. All right? Now, it may be worse than that. You can impute more cynical motives. But I think they are sincerely just panicked about, “We just can’t let the big banks fail.” That’s wrong.
BILL MOYERS: But what might happen, at this point, if in fact they keep from us the true health of the banks?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, then the banks will, as they did in Japan, either stay enormously weak, or Treasury will be forced to increasingly absurd giveaways of taxpayer money. We’ve seen how horrific AIG — and remember, they kept secrets from everyone.
BILL MOYERS: A.I.G. did?
WILLIAM K. BLACK: What we’re doing with — no, Treasury and both administrations. The Bush administration and now the Obama administration kept secret from us what was being done with AIG. AIG was being used secretly to bail out favored banks like UBS and like Goldman Sachs. Secretary Paulson’s firm, that he had come from being CEO. It got the largest amount of money. $12.9 billion. And they didn’t want us to know that. And it was only Congressional pressure, and not Congressional pressure, by the way, on Geithner, but Congressional pressure on AIG.
Where Congress said, “We will not give you a single penny more unless we know who received the money.” And, you know, when he was Treasury Secretary, Paulson created a recommendation group to tell Treasury what they ought to do with AIG. And he put Goldman Sachs on it.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-4136-0-3-3--.html
That's a pretty heavy precaution taken for supposed simulated drownings
Additionally, Sifton notes the CIA may have had some close calls with detainees nearly dying during interrogations: the May 10, 2005, Bush Administration torture memo by Stephen Bradbury notes that doctors were nearby to perform a tracheotomy if during waterboarding the suspect is approaching death.
That's a pretty heavy precaution taken for supposed simulated drownings
Additionally, Sifton notes the CIA may have had some close calls with detainees nearly dying during interrogations: the May 10, 2005, Bush Administration torture memo by Stephen Bradbury notes that doctors were nearby to perform a tracheotomy if during waterboarding the suspect is approaching death.
50 HARMFUL EFFECTS OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM) FOODS
http://www.raw-wisdom.com/genetically-modified-food
We are confronted with what is undoubtedly the single most potent technology the world has ever known - more powerful even than atomic energy. Yet it is being released throughout our environment and deployed with superficial or no risk assessments - as if no one needs to worry an iota about its unparalleled powers to harm life as we know it - and for all future generations.
We are confronted with what is undoubtedly the single most potent technology the world has ever known - more powerful even than atomic energy. Yet it is being released throughout our environment and deployed with superficial or no risk assessments - as if no one needs to worry an iota about its unparalleled powers to harm life as we know it - and for all future generations.
The responsibilities of torture and the countries that commit it
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,621450-2,00.html
New Evidence of Torture Prison in Poland
By John Goetz and Britta Sandberg
The current debate in the US on the "special interrogation methods" sanctioned by the Bush administration could soon reach Europe. It has long been clear that the CIA used the Szymany military airbase in Poland for extraordinary renditions. Now there is evidence of a secret prison nearby.
Only a smattering of clouds dotted the sky over Szymany on March 7, 2003, and visibility was good. A light breeze blew from the southeast as a plane approached the small military airfield in northeastern Poland, and the temperature outside was 2 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit). At around 4:00 p.m., the Gulfstream N379P -- known among investigators as the "torture taxi" -- touched down on the landing strip.
PHOTO GALLERY: POLAND'S SECRET CIA PRISON
Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (5 Photos)
On board was the most important prisoner the US had been able to produce in the war on terror: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, also known as "the brains" behind al-Qaida. This was the man who had presented Osama bin Laden with plans to attack the US with commercial jets. He personally selected the pilots and supervised preparations for the attacks. Eighteen months later, on March 1, 2003, Sheikh Mohammed was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan by US Special Forces and brought to Afghanistan two days later. Now the CIA was flying him to a remote area in Poland's Masuria region. The prisoner slept during the flight from Kabul to Szymany, for the first time in days, as he later recounted:
FROM THE MAGAZINE
.Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL article in your publication. ."My eyes were covered with a cloth tied around my head. A cloth bag was then pulled over my head. … I fell asleep. ... I therefore don't know how long the journey lasted."
Jerry M., age 56 at the time, probably sat at the controls of the plane chartered by the CIA. The trained airplane and helicopter pilot had been hired by Aero Contractors, a company that transferred prisoners around the world for US intelligence agencies. According to documents from Eurocontrol, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, Jerry M. had taken off from Kabul at 8:51 a.m. that morning. Only hours after landing in Poland, at 7:16 p.m., he took off again, headed for Washington.
A large number of Polish and American intelligence operatives have since gone on record that the CIA maintained a prison in northeastern Poland. Independent of these sources, Polish government officials from the Justice and Defense Ministry have also reported that the Americans had a secret base near Szymany airport. And so began on March 7, 2003 one of the darkest chapters of recent American -- and European -- history.
Obama Under Pressure
It was apparently here, just under an hour's drive from Szymany airport, that Sheikh Mohammed was tortured, exactly 183 times with waterboarding -- an interrogation technique that simulates the sensation of drowning -- in March, 2003 alone. That averages out to eight times a day. And all of this happened right here in Europe.
Over six years later, these acts of torture are putting the new US president, Barack Obama, under intense pressure. On the one hand, he released four memos in which his predecessor George W. Bush had legalized such interrogation methods. On the other hand, he decided not to prosecute the torturers. And he initially neglected to launch investigations into these "special interrogation methods."
It is the decision that has earned Obama the harshest criticism during the first 100 days of his presidency. Democrats from the Senate and the House of Representatives announced last week that they would form a truth commission, essentially putting them at odds with their own president. Obama quickly realized that he had apparently underestimated the volatile nature of the issue. So he had US Attorney General Eric Holder announce that no one stood above the law. Holder promised that an investigation would be conducted to find out who in the White House and the Justice Department had declared these methods legal.
What the CIA did back then to prisoners in the Polish military airbase of Stare Kiejkuty, north of Szymany, had been authorized by the president. According to witnesses, Stare Kiejkuty housed a secret CIA prison for "high value detainees" -- for the most prominent prisoners of the war on terror.
There is now no doubt that the Gulfstream N379P landed at least five times at Szymany between February and July, 2003. Flight routes were manipulated and falsified for this purpose and, with the knowledge of the Polish government, the European aviation safety agency Eurocontrol was deliberately deceived.
DER SPIEGEL
Poland's alleged secret prison.
The public prosecutor's office in Warsaw has the statement of a witness who described how people wearing handcuffs and blindfolds were led from the aircraft at Szymany. He said that this happened far away from the control tower. According to the witness, it was always the same individuals and the same civilian vehicles that stood waiting on the landing field.
If we are to believe the statements of Sheikh Mohammed, a large number of those present at the small airfield wore ski masks. This is what he told a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross that questioned him in the US military prison at Guantanamo, Cuba in late 2006:
"On arrival the transfer from the airport to the next place of detention took about one hour. I was transported sitting on the floor of a vehicle. I could see at one point that there was snow on the ground. Everybody was wearing black, with masks and army boots, like Planet-X people."
Just under an hour's drive corresponds roughly to the distance from Szymany to the Stare Kiejkuty military base, known as a training camp for Polish intelligence agents. The route there passes for two kilometers through a fenced-off military zone, past dense pine forests, then heads northeast for 20 minutes, and finally leads over an unpaved road alongside a lake. The entrance to the base is at the end of this road.
'I Was Never Threatened with Death'
Sheikh Mohammed said that they cut the clothes from his body, photographed him naked and threw him in a three-by-four-meter (10 x 13 ft) cell with wooden walls. That was when the hardest phase of the interrogating began, he claims. According to Sheikh Mohammed, one of his interrogators told him that they had received the green light from Washington to give him a "hard time":
"They never used the word 'torture' and never referred to 'physical pressure,' only to 'a hard time.' I was never threatened with death, in fact I was told that they would not allow me to die, but that I would be brought to the 'verge of death and back again.'"
He says he was questioned roughly eight hours a day. He spent the first month naked and standing, with his hands chained to the ceiling of the cell, even at night. They led them into another room for questioning, he says. That's where the bed stood that he says he was strapped to for waterboarding. The mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks told members of the Red Cross that he eventually realized where he was being held:
RELATED SPIEGEL ONLINE LINKS
Photo Gallery: Poland's Secret CIA Prison
Human Rights Watch Analyst Marc Garlasco: The Pentagon Official Who Came in From the Cold (04/03/2009)
From Mania to Mistrust: Europe's Obama Euphoria Wanes (03/30/2009)
A Test Case for Obama: After Guantanamo, What Next for Bagram? (01/28/2009)
From the Archive: CIA Scandal: Renditions Victim to Sue German Government (06/09/2008)
From the Archive: New Report Cites Proof of CIA Black Sites: 'Massive and Systematic Violations' of Human Rights' (06/08/2007)."I think the country was Poland. I think this because on one occasion a water bottle was brought to me without the label removed. It had e-mail address ending in '.pl'. The central-heating system was an old-style one that I would expect only to see in countries of the former communist system."
Thereafter, the al-Qaida operative described how he was strapped to a special bed and submitted to waterboarding:
"Cold water from a bottle that had been kept in a fridge was then poured onto the cloth by one of the guards so that I could not breathe. This obviously could only be done for one or two minutes at a time. The cloth was then removed and the bed was put into a vertical position. The whole process was then repeated during about one hour. Injuries to my ankles and wrists also occurred during the waterboarding as I struggled in the panic of not being able to breathe."
1
| 2NextPart 1: New Evidence of Torture Prison in Poland
Part 2: Investigations across Europe
New Evidence of Torture Prison in Poland
By John Goetz and Britta Sandberg
The current debate in the US on the "special interrogation methods" sanctioned by the Bush administration could soon reach Europe. It has long been clear that the CIA used the Szymany military airbase in Poland for extraordinary renditions. Now there is evidence of a secret prison nearby.
Only a smattering of clouds dotted the sky over Szymany on March 7, 2003, and visibility was good. A light breeze blew from the southeast as a plane approached the small military airfield in northeastern Poland, and the temperature outside was 2 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit). At around 4:00 p.m., the Gulfstream N379P -- known among investigators as the "torture taxi" -- touched down on the landing strip.
PHOTO GALLERY: POLAND'S SECRET CIA PRISON
Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (5 Photos)
On board was the most important prisoner the US had been able to produce in the war on terror: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, also known as "the brains" behind al-Qaida. This was the man who had presented Osama bin Laden with plans to attack the US with commercial jets. He personally selected the pilots and supervised preparations for the attacks. Eighteen months later, on March 1, 2003, Sheikh Mohammed was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan by US Special Forces and brought to Afghanistan two days later. Now the CIA was flying him to a remote area in Poland's Masuria region. The prisoner slept during the flight from Kabul to Szymany, for the first time in days, as he later recounted:
FROM THE MAGAZINE
.Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL article in your publication. ."My eyes were covered with a cloth tied around my head. A cloth bag was then pulled over my head. … I fell asleep. ... I therefore don't know how long the journey lasted."
Jerry M., age 56 at the time, probably sat at the controls of the plane chartered by the CIA. The trained airplane and helicopter pilot had been hired by Aero Contractors, a company that transferred prisoners around the world for US intelligence agencies. According to documents from Eurocontrol, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, Jerry M. had taken off from Kabul at 8:51 a.m. that morning. Only hours after landing in Poland, at 7:16 p.m., he took off again, headed for Washington.
A large number of Polish and American intelligence operatives have since gone on record that the CIA maintained a prison in northeastern Poland. Independent of these sources, Polish government officials from the Justice and Defense Ministry have also reported that the Americans had a secret base near Szymany airport. And so began on March 7, 2003 one of the darkest chapters of recent American -- and European -- history.
Obama Under Pressure
It was apparently here, just under an hour's drive from Szymany airport, that Sheikh Mohammed was tortured, exactly 183 times with waterboarding -- an interrogation technique that simulates the sensation of drowning -- in March, 2003 alone. That averages out to eight times a day. And all of this happened right here in Europe.
Over six years later, these acts of torture are putting the new US president, Barack Obama, under intense pressure. On the one hand, he released four memos in which his predecessor George W. Bush had legalized such interrogation methods. On the other hand, he decided not to prosecute the torturers. And he initially neglected to launch investigations into these "special interrogation methods."
It is the decision that has earned Obama the harshest criticism during the first 100 days of his presidency. Democrats from the Senate and the House of Representatives announced last week that they would form a truth commission, essentially putting them at odds with their own president. Obama quickly realized that he had apparently underestimated the volatile nature of the issue. So he had US Attorney General Eric Holder announce that no one stood above the law. Holder promised that an investigation would be conducted to find out who in the White House and the Justice Department had declared these methods legal.
What the CIA did back then to prisoners in the Polish military airbase of Stare Kiejkuty, north of Szymany, had been authorized by the president. According to witnesses, Stare Kiejkuty housed a secret CIA prison for "high value detainees" -- for the most prominent prisoners of the war on terror.
There is now no doubt that the Gulfstream N379P landed at least five times at Szymany between February and July, 2003. Flight routes were manipulated and falsified for this purpose and, with the knowledge of the Polish government, the European aviation safety agency Eurocontrol was deliberately deceived.
DER SPIEGEL
Poland's alleged secret prison.
The public prosecutor's office in Warsaw has the statement of a witness who described how people wearing handcuffs and blindfolds were led from the aircraft at Szymany. He said that this happened far away from the control tower. According to the witness, it was always the same individuals and the same civilian vehicles that stood waiting on the landing field.
If we are to believe the statements of Sheikh Mohammed, a large number of those present at the small airfield wore ski masks. This is what he told a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross that questioned him in the US military prison at Guantanamo, Cuba in late 2006:
"On arrival the transfer from the airport to the next place of detention took about one hour. I was transported sitting on the floor of a vehicle. I could see at one point that there was snow on the ground. Everybody was wearing black, with masks and army boots, like Planet-X people."
Just under an hour's drive corresponds roughly to the distance from Szymany to the Stare Kiejkuty military base, known as a training camp for Polish intelligence agents. The route there passes for two kilometers through a fenced-off military zone, past dense pine forests, then heads northeast for 20 minutes, and finally leads over an unpaved road alongside a lake. The entrance to the base is at the end of this road.
'I Was Never Threatened with Death'
Sheikh Mohammed said that they cut the clothes from his body, photographed him naked and threw him in a three-by-four-meter (10 x 13 ft) cell with wooden walls. That was when the hardest phase of the interrogating began, he claims. According to Sheikh Mohammed, one of his interrogators told him that they had received the green light from Washington to give him a "hard time":
"They never used the word 'torture' and never referred to 'physical pressure,' only to 'a hard time.' I was never threatened with death, in fact I was told that they would not allow me to die, but that I would be brought to the 'verge of death and back again.'"
He says he was questioned roughly eight hours a day. He spent the first month naked and standing, with his hands chained to the ceiling of the cell, even at night. They led them into another room for questioning, he says. That's where the bed stood that he says he was strapped to for waterboarding. The mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks told members of the Red Cross that he eventually realized where he was being held:
RELATED SPIEGEL ONLINE LINKS
Photo Gallery: Poland's Secret CIA Prison
Human Rights Watch Analyst Marc Garlasco: The Pentagon Official Who Came in From the Cold (04/03/2009)
From Mania to Mistrust: Europe's Obama Euphoria Wanes (03/30/2009)
A Test Case for Obama: After Guantanamo, What Next for Bagram? (01/28/2009)
From the Archive: CIA Scandal: Renditions Victim to Sue German Government (06/09/2008)
From the Archive: New Report Cites Proof of CIA Black Sites: 'Massive and Systematic Violations' of Human Rights' (06/08/2007)."I think the country was Poland. I think this because on one occasion a water bottle was brought to me without the label removed. It had e-mail address ending in '.pl'. The central-heating system was an old-style one that I would expect only to see in countries of the former communist system."
Thereafter, the al-Qaida operative described how he was strapped to a special bed and submitted to waterboarding:
"Cold water from a bottle that had been kept in a fridge was then poured onto the cloth by one of the guards so that I could not breathe. This obviously could only be done for one or two minutes at a time. The cloth was then removed and the bed was put into a vertical position. The whole process was then repeated during about one hour. Injuries to my ankles and wrists also occurred during the waterboarding as I struggled in the panic of not being able to breathe."
1
| 2NextPart 1: New Evidence of Torture Prison in Poland
Part 2: Investigations across Europe
The Roots of the Financial Crisis: Who Is to Blame?
Banks that Financed Subprime Industry Collecting Billions in Bailouts
By John Dunbar, David Donald | May 06, 2009 | ShareThis| Print This
The top subprime lenders whose loans are largely blamed for triggering the global economic meltdown were owned or bankrolled by banks now collecting billions of dollars in bailout money — including several that have paid huge fines to settle predatory lending charges.
These big institutions were not only unwitting victims of an unforeseen financial collapse, as they have sometimes portrayed themselves, but enablers that bankrolled the type of lending that has threatened the financial system.
These are among the findings of a Center for Public Integrity analysis of government data on nearly 7.2 million “high-interest” or subprime loans made from 2005 through 2007, a period that marks the peak and collapse of the subprime boom. The computer-assisted analysis also reveals the top 25 originators of high-interest loans, accounting for nearly $1 trillion, or about 72 percent of such loans made during that period.
The Center found that U.S. and European investment banks invested enormous sums in subprime lending due to unceasing demand for high-yield, high-risk bonds backed by home mortgages. The banks made huge profits while their executives collected handsome bonuses until the bottom fell out of the real estate market.
Investment banks Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan & Co., and Citigroup Inc. both owned and financed subprime lenders. Others, like RBS Greenwich Capital Investments Corp. (part of the Royal Bank of Scotland), Swiss bank Credit Suisse First Boston, and Goldman Sachs & Co., were major financial backers of subprime lenders.
According to the Center’s analysis:
* At least 21 of the top 25 subprime lenders were financed by banks that received bailout money — through direct ownership, credit agreements, or huge purchases of loans for securitization.
* Twenty of the top 25 subprime lenders have closed, stopped lending, or been sold to avoid bankruptcy. Most were not banks and were not permitted to collect deposits.
* Eleven of the lenders on the list have made payments to settle claims of widespread lending abuses. Four of those have received bank bailout funds, including American International Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc.
The Center also conducted a computer analysis of more than 350 million mortgage applications reported to the federal government between 1994 and 2007, and found that the amount of money spent by homeowners on their mortgages as a percentage of their income spiked sharply during the peak of the subprime boom.
READ MORE:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/inves...es/entry/1286/
__________________
Banks that Financed Subprime Industry Collecting Billions in Bailouts
By John Dunbar, David Donald | May 06, 2009 | ShareThis| Print This
The top subprime lenders whose loans are largely blamed for triggering the global economic meltdown were owned or bankrolled by banks now collecting billions of dollars in bailout money — including several that have paid huge fines to settle predatory lending charges.
These big institutions were not only unwitting victims of an unforeseen financial collapse, as they have sometimes portrayed themselves, but enablers that bankrolled the type of lending that has threatened the financial system.
These are among the findings of a Center for Public Integrity analysis of government data on nearly 7.2 million “high-interest” or subprime loans made from 2005 through 2007, a period that marks the peak and collapse of the subprime boom. The computer-assisted analysis also reveals the top 25 originators of high-interest loans, accounting for nearly $1 trillion, or about 72 percent of such loans made during that period.
The Center found that U.S. and European investment banks invested enormous sums in subprime lending due to unceasing demand for high-yield, high-risk bonds backed by home mortgages. The banks made huge profits while their executives collected handsome bonuses until the bottom fell out of the real estate market.
Investment banks Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan & Co., and Citigroup Inc. both owned and financed subprime lenders. Others, like RBS Greenwich Capital Investments Corp. (part of the Royal Bank of Scotland), Swiss bank Credit Suisse First Boston, and Goldman Sachs & Co., were major financial backers of subprime lenders.
According to the Center’s analysis:
* At least 21 of the top 25 subprime lenders were financed by banks that received bailout money — through direct ownership, credit agreements, or huge purchases of loans for securitization.
* Twenty of the top 25 subprime lenders have closed, stopped lending, or been sold to avoid bankruptcy. Most were not banks and were not permitted to collect deposits.
* Eleven of the lenders on the list have made payments to settle claims of widespread lending abuses. Four of those have received bank bailout funds, including American International Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc.
The Center also conducted a computer analysis of more than 350 million mortgage applications reported to the federal government between 1994 and 2007, and found that the amount of money spent by homeowners on their mortgages as a percentage of their income spiked sharply during the peak of the subprime boom.
READ MORE:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/inves...es/entry/1286/
__________________
Predatory Lending: A Decade of Warnings
Congress, Fed Fiddled as Subprime Crisis Spread
By Kat Aaron | May 06, 2009 | ShareThis| Print This
A little more than a decade ago, William Brennan foresaw the financial collapse of 2008.
As director of the Home Defense Program at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, he watched as subprime lenders earned enormous profits making mortgages to people who clearly couldn’t afford them.
The loans were bad for borrowers — Brennan knew that. He also knew the loans were bad for the Wall Street investors buying up these shaky mortgages by the thousands. And he spoke up about his fears.
“I think this house of cards may tumble some day, and it will mean great losses for the investors who own stock in those companies,” he told members of the Senate Special Committee on Aging in 1998.
It turns out that Brennan didn’t know how right he was. Not only did those loans bankrupt investors, they nearly took down the entire global banking system.
Washington was warned as long as a decade ago by bank regulators, consumer advocates, and a handful of lawmakers that these high-cost loans represented a systemic risk to the economy, yet Congress, the White House, and the Federal Reserve all dithered while the subprime disaster spread. Long forgotten Congressional hearings and oversight reports, as well as interviews with former officials, reveal a troubling history of missed opportunities, thwarted regulations, and lack of oversight.
What’s more, most of the lending practices that led to the disaster are still entirely legal.
Growth of an Industry
Congress paved the way for the creation of the subprime lending industry in the 1980s with two obscure but significant banking laws, both sponsored by Fernand St. Germain, a fourteen-term Democratic representative from Rhode Island.
imageSome 2.26 million people may lose their homes to foreclosure in the next two years due to subprime lending, says a recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. (© iStockphoto.com/fstop123)The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 was enthusiastically endorsed by then-President Jimmy Carter. The act, passed in a time of high inflation and declining savings, made significant changes to the financial system and included a clause effectively barring states from limiting mortgage interest rates. As the subprime lending industry took off 20 years later, the act allowed lenders to charge 20, 40, even 60 percent interest on mortgages.
The other key piece of legislation was the Alternative Mortgage Transaction Parity Act, passed in 1982. The act made it possible for lenders to offer exotic mortgages, rather than the plain-vanilla 30-year, fixed-rate loan that had been offered for decades.
With the passage of the Parity Act, a slew of new mortgage products was born: adjustable-rate mortgages, mortgages with balloon payments, interest-only mortgages, and so-called option-ARM loans. In the midst of a severe recession, these new financial products were seen as innovative ways to get loans to borrowers who might not qualify for a traditional mortgage. Two decades later, in a time of free-flowing credit, the alternative mortgages became all too common.
The Parity Act also allowed federal regulators at the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to set guidelines for the lenders they regulate, preempting state banking laws. In the late 1990s, lenders began using the law to circumvent state bans on mortgage prepayment penalties and other consumer protections.
imageClick to Enlarge
imageClick to Enlarge
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, subprime loans were a relatively small portion of the overall lending market. Subprime loans carry higher interest rates and fees, and were supposed to be for people whose bad credit scores prevented them from getting a standard — or prime — loan. Consumer advocates at the time were mostly concerned about reports of predatory practices, with borrowers getting gouged by high rates and onerous fees. Congress responded in 1994 with passage of the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act, or HOEPA.
The act, written by former Representative Joseph P. Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts, created restrictions on “high-cost” loans, which were defined as having an interest rate that was more than 10 percentage points above rates for comparable Treasury securities. If points and fees totaled more than 8 percent of the loan amount, or $400, whichever was higher, the loan was also considered high cost.
High-cost loans were still legal, but contained some restrictions. Prepayment penalties and balloon payments before five years were banned or restricted. Also prohibited was negative amortization, a loan structure in which the principal actually grows over the course of the mortgage, because the monthly payments are less than the interest owed. But the bill did not include a ban on credit insurance — an expensive and often unnecessary insurance product packed into loans, creating substantial up-front costs. Nor did it ban loan flipping, in which a borrower’s loan is refinanced over and over again, stripping equity through closing costs and fees.
At the time of HOEPA’s passage, the subprime lending industry had two main elements: small, regional lenders and finance companies. The regional lenders specialized in refinancing loans, charging interest rates between 18 and 24 percent, said Kathleen Keest, a former assistant attorney general in Iowa who is now an attorney with the Center for Responsible Lending, a fair lending advocacy organization. HOEPA sought to eliminate the abusive practices of the regional lenders without limiting the lending of the finance companies — companies like Household, Beneficial, and the Associates — viewed then as the legitimate face of subprime, Keest said.
HOEPA did largely succeed in eliminating the regional lenders. But the law didn’t stop subprime lending’s rapid growth. From 1994 to 2005, the market ballooned from $35 billion to $665 billion, according to a 2006 report from the Center for Responsible Lending, using industry data. In 1998, the CRL report said, subprime mortgages were 10 percent of all mortgages. By 2006, they made up 23 percent of the market.
The loans themselves also changed during the 2000s. Adjustable-rate mortgages, which generally begin at a low fixed introductory rate and then climb to a much higher variable rate, gained market share. And over time, the underwriting criteria changed, with lenders at times making loans based solely on the borrower’s “stated income” — what the borrower said he earned. A 2007 report from Credit Suisse found that roughly 50 percent of all subprime borrowers in 2005 and 2006 — the peak of the market — provided little or no documentation of their income.
As the subprime lending industry grew, and accounts of abusive practices mounted, advocates, borrowers, lawyers, and even some lenders clamored for a legislative or regulatory response to what was emerging as a crisis. Local legal services workers saw early on that high-cost loans were creating problems for their clients, leading to waves of foreclosures in cities like Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Atlanta.
READ MORE...
http://www.publicintegrity.org/inves...es/entry/1309/
__________________
Congress, Fed Fiddled as Subprime Crisis Spread
By Kat Aaron | May 06, 2009 | ShareThis| Print This
A little more than a decade ago, William Brennan foresaw the financial collapse of 2008.
As director of the Home Defense Program at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, he watched as subprime lenders earned enormous profits making mortgages to people who clearly couldn’t afford them.
The loans were bad for borrowers — Brennan knew that. He also knew the loans were bad for the Wall Street investors buying up these shaky mortgages by the thousands. And he spoke up about his fears.
“I think this house of cards may tumble some day, and it will mean great losses for the investors who own stock in those companies,” he told members of the Senate Special Committee on Aging in 1998.
It turns out that Brennan didn’t know how right he was. Not only did those loans bankrupt investors, they nearly took down the entire global banking system.
Washington was warned as long as a decade ago by bank regulators, consumer advocates, and a handful of lawmakers that these high-cost loans represented a systemic risk to the economy, yet Congress, the White House, and the Federal Reserve all dithered while the subprime disaster spread. Long forgotten Congressional hearings and oversight reports, as well as interviews with former officials, reveal a troubling history of missed opportunities, thwarted regulations, and lack of oversight.
What’s more, most of the lending practices that led to the disaster are still entirely legal.
Growth of an Industry
Congress paved the way for the creation of the subprime lending industry in the 1980s with two obscure but significant banking laws, both sponsored by Fernand St. Germain, a fourteen-term Democratic representative from Rhode Island.
imageSome 2.26 million people may lose their homes to foreclosure in the next two years due to subprime lending, says a recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. (© iStockphoto.com/fstop123)The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 was enthusiastically endorsed by then-President Jimmy Carter. The act, passed in a time of high inflation and declining savings, made significant changes to the financial system and included a clause effectively barring states from limiting mortgage interest rates. As the subprime lending industry took off 20 years later, the act allowed lenders to charge 20, 40, even 60 percent interest on mortgages.
The other key piece of legislation was the Alternative Mortgage Transaction Parity Act, passed in 1982. The act made it possible for lenders to offer exotic mortgages, rather than the plain-vanilla 30-year, fixed-rate loan that had been offered for decades.
With the passage of the Parity Act, a slew of new mortgage products was born: adjustable-rate mortgages, mortgages with balloon payments, interest-only mortgages, and so-called option-ARM loans. In the midst of a severe recession, these new financial products were seen as innovative ways to get loans to borrowers who might not qualify for a traditional mortgage. Two decades later, in a time of free-flowing credit, the alternative mortgages became all too common.
The Parity Act also allowed federal regulators at the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to set guidelines for the lenders they regulate, preempting state banking laws. In the late 1990s, lenders began using the law to circumvent state bans on mortgage prepayment penalties and other consumer protections.
imageClick to Enlarge
imageClick to Enlarge
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, subprime loans were a relatively small portion of the overall lending market. Subprime loans carry higher interest rates and fees, and were supposed to be for people whose bad credit scores prevented them from getting a standard — or prime — loan. Consumer advocates at the time were mostly concerned about reports of predatory practices, with borrowers getting gouged by high rates and onerous fees. Congress responded in 1994 with passage of the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act, or HOEPA.
The act, written by former Representative Joseph P. Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts, created restrictions on “high-cost” loans, which were defined as having an interest rate that was more than 10 percentage points above rates for comparable Treasury securities. If points and fees totaled more than 8 percent of the loan amount, or $400, whichever was higher, the loan was also considered high cost.
High-cost loans were still legal, but contained some restrictions. Prepayment penalties and balloon payments before five years were banned or restricted. Also prohibited was negative amortization, a loan structure in which the principal actually grows over the course of the mortgage, because the monthly payments are less than the interest owed. But the bill did not include a ban on credit insurance — an expensive and often unnecessary insurance product packed into loans, creating substantial up-front costs. Nor did it ban loan flipping, in which a borrower’s loan is refinanced over and over again, stripping equity through closing costs and fees.
At the time of HOEPA’s passage, the subprime lending industry had two main elements: small, regional lenders and finance companies. The regional lenders specialized in refinancing loans, charging interest rates between 18 and 24 percent, said Kathleen Keest, a former assistant attorney general in Iowa who is now an attorney with the Center for Responsible Lending, a fair lending advocacy organization. HOEPA sought to eliminate the abusive practices of the regional lenders without limiting the lending of the finance companies — companies like Household, Beneficial, and the Associates — viewed then as the legitimate face of subprime, Keest said.
HOEPA did largely succeed in eliminating the regional lenders. But the law didn’t stop subprime lending’s rapid growth. From 1994 to 2005, the market ballooned from $35 billion to $665 billion, according to a 2006 report from the Center for Responsible Lending, using industry data. In 1998, the CRL report said, subprime mortgages were 10 percent of all mortgages. By 2006, they made up 23 percent of the market.
The loans themselves also changed during the 2000s. Adjustable-rate mortgages, which generally begin at a low fixed introductory rate and then climb to a much higher variable rate, gained market share. And over time, the underwriting criteria changed, with lenders at times making loans based solely on the borrower’s “stated income” — what the borrower said he earned. A 2007 report from Credit Suisse found that roughly 50 percent of all subprime borrowers in 2005 and 2006 — the peak of the market — provided little or no documentation of their income.
As the subprime lending industry grew, and accounts of abusive practices mounted, advocates, borrowers, lawyers, and even some lenders clamored for a legislative or regulatory response to what was emerging as a crisis. Local legal services workers saw early on that high-cost loans were creating problems for their clients, leading to waves of foreclosures in cities like Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Atlanta.
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http://www.publicintegrity.org/inves...es/entry/1309/
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Budget Proposes Cuts in 121 Programs
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124162900144792405.html
A little more perspective for the over all perception.
"There's a different perspective that exists and a different sense of commitment," Mr. Emanuel said. "We bring a certain credibility."
White House officials acknowledged the similarity between Mr. Obama's 121 program cuts and consolidations and $17 billion savings and Mr. Bush's 151 programs and $18 billion savings proposed for 2009. About 40% of the programs Mr. Obama has targeted for elimination or consolidation come directly off a similar list proposed by Mr. Bush over the past two budget seasons on Capitol Hill. Congress largely ignored those proposed cuts.
A little more perspective for the over all perception.
"There's a different perspective that exists and a different sense of commitment," Mr. Emanuel said. "We bring a certain credibility."
White House officials acknowledged the similarity between Mr. Obama's 121 program cuts and consolidations and $17 billion savings and Mr. Bush's 151 programs and $18 billion savings proposed for 2009. About 40% of the programs Mr. Obama has targeted for elimination or consolidation come directly off a similar list proposed by Mr. Bush over the past two budget seasons on Capitol Hill. Congress largely ignored those proposed cuts.
New US jobless claims unexpectedly plunge to 601K
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-jobless-claims-apf-15164532.html?.v=6
Sometimes it takes a little perspective to override the perception of the so called bogus betterment
New applications for U.S. jobless benefits plunged to the lowest level in 14 weeks, a possible sign that the massive wave of layoffs has peaked. Still, the number of unemployed Americans getting benefits climbed to a new record.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number newly laid off workers applying for benefits dropped to 601,000 last week. That was far better than the rise to 635,000 claims that economists expected.
But the total number of people receiving jobless benefits climbed to 6.35 million, a 14th straight record.
The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims, which smooths out volatility, totaled 623,500 last week, a decrease of more than 30,000 from the high in early April. Goldman Sachs economists have said a decline of 30,000 to 40,000 in the four-week average is needed to signal a peak.
Sometimes it takes a little perspective to override the perception of the so called bogus betterment
New applications for U.S. jobless benefits plunged to the lowest level in 14 weeks, a possible sign that the massive wave of layoffs has peaked. Still, the number of unemployed Americans getting benefits climbed to a new record.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number newly laid off workers applying for benefits dropped to 601,000 last week. That was far better than the rise to 635,000 claims that economists expected.
But the total number of people receiving jobless benefits climbed to 6.35 million, a 14th straight record.
The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims, which smooths out volatility, totaled 623,500 last week, a decrease of more than 30,000 from the high in early April. Goldman Sachs economists have said a decline of 30,000 to 40,000 in the four-week average is needed to signal a peak.
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