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MF Global Customer Funds Were Not "Vaporized" - Stanley Haar Takes WSJ to Task
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27918445
Submitted by EB on 01/31/2012 14:42 -0500
by Stanley Haar
As a individual trader and CTA whose accounts are owed several million dollars by MFGI, I would like to express my shock and disappointment with [yesterday's] front page article; I expected better from the WSJ. Your article gives the appearance of having been ghost written by Andrew Levander and/or the JP Morgan legal department. Among the key errors/omissions:
• Client money in segregated bank accounts was not "vaporized"; it was stolen via illegal transfers to support MF's proprietary trading positions and to repay creditors such as JP Morgan. Those transfers are and always were illegal…….even "under rules at the time". Your use of that irrelevant and misleading phrase twice only serves to deflect attention from the criminal acts committed by Corzine, Abelow, Steenkamp and Ferber. Your own article goes on to state that "rules require customer funds to be set aside and kept safe". Even Gary Gensler and Jill Sommers have testified that customer funds needed to be segregated at all times. The failure to do so is a clear violation of the Commodity Exchange Act; "intent" is not an element of this criminal act.
• Although you correctly cite the difficulty in recovering the stolen funds, you fail to explain the main reason for this difficulty: the highly suspicious and irregular way in which the bankruptcies of MFGI and MFGH were implemented. Under a properly executed FCM bankruptcy process, customer segregated funds always have absolute priority over all other creditors. Instead, MFGI was placed under a SIPA liquidation, even though 98% of the accounts were commodity accounts not covered by SIPC protection. Compounding this bizarre step (apparently orchestrated by key general creditors such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs without resistance from the CFTC), the assets under the control of MFGH were not frozen and that entity was allowed to continue operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy rules. This allowed unknown billions in assets to be dumped into the hands of George Soros, JP Morgan and various hedge funds at bargain prices (as reported by your newspaper), thereby locking in realized losses on those positions and moving assets out of the reach of the MFGI trustee.
• The bottom line is that customer funds were stolen twice: first by the illegal looting of segregated accounts by MF management, followed by the fraudulent way in which the bankruptcy was structured so as to circumvent the priority status of customers in the distribution of MF assets. This is the real story and scandal of MF Global, and perhaps one day your paper will decide to cover it.
FORECLOSURES DRAW PRIVATE EQUITY AS U.S. SELLS HOMES
January 31, 2012
http://www.fa-mag.com/fa-news/9855-foreclosures-draw-private-equity-as-us-sells-homes.html
(Bloomberg News) Private equity firms are jumping into distressed housing as the U.S. government plans to market 200,000 foreclosed homes as rentals to speed up the economic recovery.
GTIS Partners will spend $1 billion by 2016 acquiring single-family homes to manage as rentals, Thomas Shapiro, the fund’s founder said. That followed announcements this month that GI Partners, a Menlo Park private equity fund, expects to invest $1 billion, and Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management LP will spend $450 million on similar housing.
“It’s a massive market,” Shapiro said in a telephone interview from New York. “We’re starting to see this as a billion dollar opportunity to buy rental housing.”(Learn more about how advisory clients can participate in real estate investments at FA's upcoming real estate conference.)
Creating more single-family rental properties is one of a series of programs introduced by President Barack Obama’s administration aimed at reviving the housing market. An S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities has dropped 33 percent from its peak in July 2006 and 12 percent of homeowners with a mortgage are either delinquent or in foreclosure. Last week, the administration revised its Home Affordable Modification Program, offering government incentives for mortgage investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when they forgive debt on homes that lost value as a way of preventing delinquent borrowers from losing their houses.
Increasing Rentals
Increasing rentals may reduce lenders’ losses on foreclosed and surrendered properties and curb declines in home prices, according to a Federal Reserve study Chairman Ben S. Bernanke sent to Congress on Jan. 4. Private equity funds began focusing on these investments in September, after the administration asked for proposals to sell the government’s inventory of foreclosed homes -- about half of all houses seized from delinquent borrowers.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities declined 3.7 percent from November 2010 after falling 3.4 percent in the year ended in October, according to data released today. Economists projected a 3.3 percent drop, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.
Even as prices dropped, the “seeds to a recovery are being planted,” Karl Case, co-creator of the measure, said today in an interview on Bloomberg Radio’s “Bloomberg Surveillance,” with Ken Prewitt and Tom Keene. “Efforts are underway to deal with a backlog of foreclosed properties,” he said.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, plans to complete initial transactions in the first quarter of this year, offering some of the 180,000 foreclosed homes in their inventory to private operators as rental properties, Corinne Russell, a spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview.
Public-Private Partnerships
The Federal Housing Administration, which also will participate in the rental program, had 32,170 real-estate owned homes seized from borrowers, also known as REOs, as of Dec. 31, according to spokesman Lemar Wooley.
Possible aspects of the program include public-private partnerships to share the risk and profits, “seller financing” guaranteed by the government and rent-to-own opportunities for tenants, according to a November memo.
“It marks the first time that institutional investors are really getting involved, and in the process providing a higher quality product to a tightening rental market,” Oliver Chang, a Morgan Stanley analyst based in San Francisco, said in an e-mail last week.
$1 Trillion Liquidations
About 7.5 million homes with a current market value of $1 trillion will be liquidated through foreclosures or other distressed sales by 2016, according to an Oct. 27 report by Chang. That will add to the estimated 20 million single-family homes already operated as rentals, which have yielded annual returns averaging 8.1 percent since 1990, Chang’s report said.
Rentals can produce cash flows, known as a capitalization rate or cap rate, that reduce losses more than reselling foreclosed homes at a time of weak demand, the Federal Reserve report said.
“Preliminary estimates suggest that about two-fifths of Fannie Mae’s REO inventory would have a cap rate above 8 percent -- sufficiently high to indicate renting the property might deliver a better loss recovery than selling the property,” the Fed paper said.
While there may be opportunities, investors should be cautious about borrowing to invest in markets such as Las Vegas, where a transient population and economy dependent on a single industry like gaming, make it hard to see an exit strategy, Kenneth Hackel, managing director heading securitized products strategy for CRT Capital LLC, said in a telephone interview from Stamford, Connecticut yesterday.
Track Record
“For the kind of properties I looked at, and in most cases, capital markets aren’t excited to finance the REO-to- Rental marketplace at this stage,” said Hackel, who toured Las Vegas homes on the market this month. “Once you establish a track record and have some positive cash flow in place, then perhaps you can get some interest in having leverage. But I think as a first step, investors are best served by looking at this on an unlevered basis.”
The U.S. homeownership rate fell to 66 percent for the quarter ending Dec. 31, as low as 1998 levels and down from a peak of 69.2 percent in December 2004, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report comes out today.
“New households have a much higher propensity to be renters,” Thomas Lawler, a former economist with Fannie Mae who’s now an independent housing consultant in Leesburg, Virginia. “And a lot of folks who are losing their homes to foreclosure are now renters.”
Rental Demand
Demand for rental housing helped boost shares of the 12- member Bloomberg Apartment Real Estate Investment Trust index 13 percent over the past 12 months compared with a 2.1 percent gain for the S&P 500 Index. It’s also attracting private equity funds to single-family homes, which historically have been an investment for small investors.
Cerberus Capital Management LP, Deutsche Bank AG, Fortress Investment Group LLC, Starwood Capital Group LLC, TCW Group Inc. and UBS AG are among the financial firms that submitted responses to the federal request for information in September, according to a list obtained by Bloomberg through a Freedom of Information Act filing.
“We believe we’ll easily be able to raise $1 billion this year in total,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of Carrington Mortgage Holdings LLC in Santa Ana, California, which will manage the homes bought with Oaktree Capital’s money. “The ultimate fund could be several times that.”
Carrington Manages
Carrington currently manages more than 3,000 rental homes for Fannie Mae, mostly in California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida, Sharga said.
Single-family home rentals can yield cash flows that are 300 basis points, or 3 percentage points, higher than apartments, said Gregor Watson, principal of McKinley Capital Partners LLC of Oakland, California, which has invested $100 million in the past two years, buying more than 400 foreclosed homes in the San Francisco Bay Area and other western U.S. cities. McKinley’s largest financial backer is Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, a New York-based investment fund with $28.9 billion under management as of Nov. 1, Watson said. Jonathan Gasthalter, an outside spokesman for Och-Ziff declined to comment.
“This will be a new institutional asset class in the next 24 months,” Watson said.
Forming A REIT
GTIS, which has $2 billion of assets, expects to hold its homes about five years, waiting for housing prices to recover before selling, Shapiro said. If housing prices don’t rebound, GTIS can exit by forming a real estate investment trust with shares sold to investors attracted by the rental income, similar to REITS for multifamily, industrial or office properties, he said.
“Single family dwarfs any of those asset classes,” Shapiro said. “When you think about the number of homes that are going to be rented and institutionally owned, they’re going to become its own asset class.”
GTIS, which has invested $225 million in partnerships with homebuilders such as Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. since 2010, will hire in-house staff to manage the rental properties in each area, Shapiro said. He declined to disclose his expectations for returns on investment.
“We think the important thing is on the operations and management side as opposed to playing a numbers game, like I’m buying for 30 cents on the dollar to a 12 percent yield,” he said.
Buying In Bulk
GTIS expects to buy homes in bulk from banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Shapiro said. Properties will also be bought individually at courthouse auctions and through short sales, when lenders agree to sell for less than the balance of the mortgage, he said.
GTIS will start buying in cities in Nevada, Arizona and California -- the states with the three highest foreclosure rates, according to RealtyTrac Inc. -- and Florida, which RealtyTrac ranked seventh in December, Shapiro said.
“The key is being able to efficiently manage these homes,” he said. “That’s why we’re targeting select markets. Our intention is to rent them, to hold them for long term.”
Transcendental Market Truths:
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27917287
The Market:
Yesterday, the US stock market sold off on overnight news from Europe - bad news as usual. The Greeks were apparently unwilling to kow-tow to a German takeover of their government and said so. And, Portugal was the latest target for the bond vigilantes as rates soared. Over time, every Europe country will provide headlines to send stocks lower. As usual, as soon as European markets closed at 11:30, US stocks started rising back, almost making it back to the unchanged level for the day on steady buying pressure coming from the Federal Reserve.
The Fed is holding up the entire financial system of the planet. The Fed recently expanded its balance sheet by swapping dollars for euros with the ECB, which is using that cash to make loans to banks in Europe, who are expected to buy sovereign debt of Eurozone countries to maintain liquidity and to keep interest rates low. It shouldn't be a big surprise to expect the Fed to maintain high equity prices to bolster their illusion of solidity in the economy of the US.
At some point Fed buying of shares is going to be overwhelmed by profit-taking and the market will enjoy a deep correction, probably on the order of last summer's correction. One factor to consider is the flawed seasonal adjustment process government statisticians are using to convert raw data into "seasonally-adjusted" data. Those adjustments make the economic reports look more optimistic during the period from October through April, and correspondingly more pessimistic during May through October. This thought is not original; analysts at Goldman Sachs and Nomura Securities announced this some time back. So, it's possible that no major selling will take place until April's reports start to turn negative. Until then, I should expect to see the market buffetted by bad news from Asia, Australia and Europe, but levitated by Fed buying. There will be days when the market drops sharply and stays down - those are likely to be high volume days. But, when the selloff is on lower volume, you can just bet that the Fed will be turning the market back up at some point in the day.
On a side note, I constructed a T that expires on February 6th, which is confluent with many of my other indicators as a potential top in risk-on markets (equities, commodities and currencies which move opposite the dollar).
Regarding Billions$$$ "Vaporized" in customer accounts at MF Global...
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27917768
To: patron_anejo_por_favor who wrote (58183) 1/31/2012 12:12:30 PM
From: John Koligman 2 Recommendations Read Replies (2) of 58217
Here is what one trader on another thread is doing with his accounts to try and be a bit more proactive about this... He has more posts on the topic if anyone is interested at Dale Baker's thread....
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/subject.aspx?subjectid=17225
Regards,
John
To: rllee who wrote ( 106441)1/27/2012 3:53:06 PMFrom: E_K_S of 106475 Hi rllee -
One thing you might want to consider if you are looking to protect your assets held on account at a brokerage firm is to utilize a non revocable "Trust" account agreement rather than an individual and/or joint account agreement. With a revocable trust agreement where you are the trustee for the trust, I was told by Schwab that the SIPC provides up to $250K per Trust "beneficiary". If you list five beneficiaries in your trust, any deficiency in the account would be covered by the SIPC up to 5x$250K or $1.25M. Then of course the extra Schwab insurance kicks in.
An individual account is covered up to $250K, a joint account (husband & wife) would be 2x$250K or $500K and any IRA is considered as a separate Trust agreement and would pay $250K per stated beneficiary.
The problem I see is that the SIPC has less than 1% of the Funds available in their reserve to make good on their stated payment terms. Perhaps the Gov would bail out the Fund but do not put your faith in getting made whole from the SIPC, I don't.
The biggest issue will be that upon some type of failure event, all customer accounts would be frozen. You would not be able to move or transfer any funds. Any direct payments you might have on your account would be sent back to the requester firm/company w/ insufficient funds notification. Eventually, the brokerage firm would release part or all of their customer funds/securities based on how they are registered and in the type of the account they are held (Cash vs Margin). It could be days, weeks and perhaps months before things get resolved and your account(s) get unfrozen.
I have no doubt that my account(s) would be made whole over time but it could take a year or more if things got really ugly. I have other institutions (specifically a local Credit Union) where I keep sufficient cash that I can use to pay my daily bills.
I would suggest looking at a revocable trust as the way you hold title to your brokerage account(s). I have a total of three separate brokerage accounts and one Credit Union all linked by pre authorized ACH transfer links. I use one Trust agreement (that includes 5 beneficiaries) as the title holder for all of my accounts. The Trust uses the same SSN as my individual No. so my taxes are simple w/o having to prepare a special Trust return (if an EEN is used).
Stay simple, but understand where the potential risks are. On balance it is safer (& much eaiser) to keep securities in "street name" at your brokerage firm. Do check your brokerage firm(s) annual reports to see what their capital base is when measured against their customer account(s) liabilities. You can also check the ratings from S&P, Moody's and Fitch for your broker(s) and/or banking institution and/or Credit Union.
I have done all of this and feel quite comfortable w/ what I have discovered especially after you compare the same figures from 2009 vs 2012.
Hope that helps.
EKS
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From: E_K_S1/24/2012 9:40:27 PM
Read Replies (1) of 106475 The Denials Begin: Interactive Brokers Is First To Claim It Has Not Engaged In Commingling Rehypothecation
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/denials-begin-interactive-brokers-first-claim-it-has-not-engaged-commi...
From the article:"... Of note is that IB was simply one of many brokers mentioned in the Reuters piece, where we read that "Engaging in hyper-hypothecation have been Goldman Sachs ($28.17 billion re-hypothecated in 2011), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (re-pledged $72 billion in client assets), Royal Bank of Canada (re-pledged $53.8 billion of $126.7 billion available for re-pledging), Oppenheimer Holdings ($15.3 million), Credit Suisse (CHF 332 billion), Knight Capital Group ($1.17 billion),Interactive Brokers ($14.5 billion), Wells Fargo ($19.6 billion), JP Morgan($546.2 billion) and Morgan Stanley ($410 billion)." ..."
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I suspect more Brokers will be impacted once we see the first default (ie Greece) as hypothecated securities are called in to securitize bad debts and/or derrivitive products betting on this default. This should happen by March 2012 as this is the date being discussed where Greece will default on one or more of their outstanding debts.
Someone mentioned how Canada avoided the first wave of the CDO defaults but from this article it looks like many of these banks are Canadian, perhaps as much exposure as $200B. This is only what is/was reported and I expect it is a lot more especially if you add in other derrivitive and/or "off book" agreements.
Most investors are seeing this as a non event and have stated that it is already "priced" in the market. For me, it's just the edge of the iceberg and I hope to stay clear of any "house-of-cards" that might fall.
Therefore, as a precaution, I converted my equity account from a "Margin" account to a "Cash" account today. I set up a separate "Margin" account that I funded only with those stocks that I want hypothecated back to the Broker and/or their third parties covered in the general broker margin application. (NOTE: For Schwab, their default broker application makes your account a Margin account unless specified differently at the time you complete their application. This means that all of the securities you hold on account are hypothecated to Schwab and their 3rd party clearing firms). I suspect this is the standard for all the other broker firms but I can only comment on Schwab.
Now, with my separate Margin account, I can specify those securities I want to hypothecate to Schwab. I will use this account to write covered calls and trading options (ie. buying calls and/or selling Puts). All of my other securities will be held in the cash account which is not subject to any hypothecation or any of the risks that might be associated with this type of asset collateralization.
I never have or need to use margin which is sometimes referred to as "buying power". Every security I own is paid for in cash. For me, this was a simple solution to avoid this third party hypothecation risk. It may be an over reaction but it also was a simple change to my personal brokerage account structure that provides me piece of mind.
The worst case secerno I see w/ most U.S. Brokerage firms that IF such an event hit them, all or parts of an account (that has stocks hypothecated to their Broker) would be frozen. Clients would not have access to their funds and/or securities. Eventually as things work their way through courts, clients would eventually be made whole. This could take several weeks or months to play through. Just witness MF Global. Will SIPC come to the rescue? Not sure especially if you consented to have your securities hypothecated. That's for the courts to decide.
Do your own due diligence and act accordingly. We live in in interesting times. The European defaults may be worked out and everything is/will be fine and the can will be kicked down the road. I like to error on the side of caution and hope to never experience anything like Ameritrade clients (I am one w/ a very small account) (Note: The Parent Company is Canadian) where their Money Fund "broke-the-buck" and/or the MF Global clients (some farmers) who had their accounts frozen due to third party broker clearing house agreements that hypothecated their securities and future contracts held on account.
EKS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: rllee who wrote ( 106384)1/23/2012 2:30:24 PMFrom: E_K_S Read Replies (1) of 106475 Hi rllee -
Under the broadest terms any brokerage account that allows margin (or is set up as a margin account) can hypothicate your securities (even when margin cash is not used). I checked the option and margin agreements I signed w/ Schwab and in very fine print I provided them my authorization to hypothicate my shares under this agreement.
In actuality, Schwab does not hypothicate any shares unless (1) you have borrowed money and (2) you have a margin call and are not able to pay back the funds borrowed; your shares will be sold to settle the balance due in your account.
Under the broadest terms of the margin agreement, shares held on account "could" be frozen and/or obligated to some third party if the broker entered into some type of hyper-hypothication derrivitive contract(s) that blew up.
This of course is the worst case scenario but still a possibility. There is no way to check to see if the broker entered into some type of hybrid hyper-hypothication derrivative product that could potentially blow up.
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For peace of mind, I plan to set up an entirely separate sub account at my brokerage that specifically is classified as a margin account that I use from time to time to transact options (write covered Calls and/or write naked Puts). I can then journal over mu shares to the margin account for writing covered calls or cash to nuy stock that may have been Put to me.
You are basically setting up a "fire-wall" between your margin account and your cash account.
Better safe & secure than waking up one morning and seeing your account frozen, your brokerage company filing BK as a result of some Black Swan hyper-hypothication derrivitive blowing up.
Is that the way you see it?
EKS
What is the difference between printing money and counterfeiting? There is none.
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27917758
If this is illegal, then would somebody please arrest the Board of the Federal Reserve for counterfeiting? The Fed has blatantly printed money without creating any real value to back up their added claims on productive value. Hence they are counterfeiting, pure and simple. A government based on rule of law would arrest these fraudsters and cons at the earliest possible convenience.
...................
When corporations and the State are one, we call it fascism. In the U.S., it has taken the form of financial fascism, and the Federal Reserve and Federal agencies (Treasury, Freddie Mac, FHA, etc.) are the handlers and enablers of this kleptocratic financial fascism. They add no value, they only steal value from those who create it.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-counterfeit-money-counterfeit-policy
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss banking zombies and clowns and their magical thinking on zero rates while starving the economy of interest income. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Ned Naylor-Leyland about the silver, gold, backwardation, manipulation and more
http://rt.com/programs/keiser-report/episode-243-max-keiser/
1/31/2012 -- VENTING of a different kind -- personal take on Chiago Nuclear/Earthquake event
MF Global:
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27916969
You have two cows
Both cows vaporize.
1/31/2012 -- Earthquake Northwest of Chicago -- in ADDITION to the nuclear power plant issue
EXC/ Exelon already trading near it's yearly low...
http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=EXC&p=D&yr=3&mn=0&dy=0&id=p49141113417
Not much action in stock price last few days although there is a huge volume spike yesterday on news (what very little if any was reported) of problems at it's Byron Nuclear facility near Chicago.
1/30/2012 -- Nuclear plant vents RADIOACTIVE steam onto DOWNTOWN CHICAGO
Illinois nuclear reactor loses power, venting steam
By TAMMY WEBBER | Associated Press – 2 hrs 45 mins ago
http://news.yahoo.com/ill-nuclear-reactor-loses-power-venting-steam-203743828.html
Enlarge PhotoFILE - In this March 16, 2011 photo, steam escapes from Exelon Corp.'s nuclear plant …
Enlarge PhotoFILE - In this March 16, 2011 photo, steam escapes from Exelon Corp.'s nuclear plant …
CHICAGO (AP) — A nuclear reactor at a northern Illinois plant shut down Monday after losing power, and steam was being vented to reduce pressure, according to officials from Exelon Nuclear and federal regulators.
Unit 2 at Byron Generating Station, about 95 miles northwest of Chicago, shut down at 10:18 a.m., after losing power, Exelon officials said. Diesel generators began supplying power to the plant, and operators began releasing steam to cool the reactor from the part of the plant where turbines are producing electricity, not from within the nuclear reactor itself, officials said.
The steam contains low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, but federal and plant officials insisted the levels were safe for workers and the public.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission declared the incident an "unusual event," the lowest of four levels of emergency. Commission officials also said the release of tritium was expected.
Exelon Nuclear officials believe a failed piece of equipment at a switchyard caused the shutdown but were still investigating an exact cause. The switchyard is similar to a large substation that delivers power to the plant from the electrical grid and from the plant to the electrical grid. Smoke was seen from an onsite station transformer, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswomanViktoria Mitlyng said, but no evidence of a fire was found when the plant's fire brigade responded.
Mitlyng said officials can't yet calculate how much tritium is being released. They know the amounts are small because monitors around the plant aren't showing increased levels of radiation, she said.
Tritium molecules are so microscopic that small amounts are able to pass from radioactive steam that originates in the reactor through tubing and into the water used to cool turbines and other equipment outside the reactor, Mitlyng said. The steam that was being released was coming from the turbine side.
Tritium is relatively short-lived and penetrates the body weakly through the air compared to other radioactive contaminants.
Releasing steam helps "take away some of that energy still being produced by nuclear reaction but that doesn't have anywhere to go now." Even though the turbine is not turning to produce electricity, she said, "you still need to cool the equipment."
Candace Humphrey, Ogle County's emergency management coordinator, said county officials were notified of the incident as soon as it happened and that public safety was never in danger.
"It was standard procedure that they would notify county officials," she said. "There is always concern. But, it never crossed my mind that there was any danger to the people of Ogle County."
Unit 1 was operating normally while engineers investigate why Unit 2 lost power, which comes into the plant from the outside power grid, Mitlyng said. She said Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors were in the control room at Byron and in constant contact with the agency's incident response center in Lisle, Ill.
In March 2008, federal officials said they were investigating a problem with electrical transformers at the plant after outside power to a unit was interrupted.
In an unrelated issue last April, the commission said it was conducting special inspections of backup water pumps at the Byron and Braidwood generating stations after the agency's inspectors raised concerns about whether the pumps would be able to cool the reactors if the normal system wasn't working. The plants' operator, Exelon Corp., initially said the pumps would work but later concluded they wouldn't.
Greenspan Ponzi Capitalism
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27915246
You have two cows.
Greenspan lowers interest rates and prints money. The value of all cows in America increases.
Millions of people get jobs buying/selling/speculating/refinancing cows. Everybody is talking about a shortage of cows. You take a loan against your cows and buy 2 more cows from some guy for the price 100% higher than this guy paid for them.
All 4 cows keep increasing in price. You refinance the cows and buy a pair of new SUVs and install a flat screen TV in a bathroom. You regret that you didn't buy 10 cows while your neighbor is jealous because he bought only 1.
Then population of cows increases. Suddenly all cows lose 50% of their value, you default on the debt and lose all 4 cows. But before they repossess the cows, 4 years pass and you get 4 years of free milk.
Now you have 0 cows and no money to buy another.
You watch Bernanke on TV trying to explain his attempts to create another cow buying mania and again raise value of all cows in America.
Chicken Nuggets: How Bad Are They?
By Lisa Collier Cool
Jan 26, 2012
http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/chicken-nuggets-how-bad-are-they
When the kids are wailing, the boss wasn’t happy with your presentation, and the kitchen is anything but pristine, what mom hasn’t thrown up her hands and given in to demands for chicken nuggets? Like, three times a week?
Maybe Mom should tell the kids: Be careful what you wish for.
Read about celebrities who dealt with eating disorders.
This week 17-year-old British factory worker Stacey Irvine was rushed to the hospital when she collapsed, struggling to breathe. During the exam, doctors were stunned to learn that Ms. Irvine had never in her life eaten fruit or vegetables; instead she had eaten almost nothing but fast-food chicken nuggets since she was two years old.
Her mother, Evonne Irvine, told reporters she had gone to great lengths to try to feed her daughter more nutritious food, at one point even trying to starve the girl, but it hadn’t worked. Stacey responded that, once she started eating nuggets, she “loved them so much they were all I would eat.”
Learn to grow your own fruits and vegetables.
What’s so bad about nuggets?
They would be bad enough if they were merely chunks of chicken that had been breaded and deep-fried in oil. One documentary describes McDonald's nuggets as chickens “stripped down to the bone, and then 'ground up’ into a chicken mash, then combined with a variety of stabilizers and preservatives, pressed into familiar shapes, breaded and deep fried, freeze dried, and then shipped to a McDonald’s near you.”
Aside from chicken and oil, those “stabilizers and preservatives” are said to include dimethylpolysiloxane, a form of silicone also used in cosmetics. Another additive is tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), a form of butane. According to one report, chicken is only about 50 percent of a McNugget; the remainder is a mixture of corn-derived ingredients, sugars and synthetic substances.
If a four-piece serving of Chicken McNuggets carried a nutrition label, at first glance it wouldn’t seem too scary: 190 calories, 12 grams of carbs and 12 grams of fat. But consider that more than half of those calories (56 percent) are from fat—and protein accounts for a mere four percent. Add a whopping 360 mg sodium, and its image as “the more nutritious fast-food snack” fades.
Read about 15 surprisingly healthy fast food picks.
What’s the worst that can happen?
Aside from collapsing and gasping for air, as Stacey Irvine did? Doctors also discovered that the veins in Ms. Irvine’s tongue were swollen and she was diagnosed with anemia. Further, such a high salt intake can increase a person’s blood pressure (which ultimately can put them at risk for a stroke or heart attack).
McNuggets are low in nutrients everyone needs, such as calcium, fiber, vitamins, antioxidants and healthy fats, so a steady diet of nuggets means missing out on the health benefits of those ingredients.
Find out which vitamins you really need.
So what’s a parent to do?
If your kids are hooked on nuggets, experts offer these suggestions for steering them towards healthier eating:
Serve a variety of healthy foods at home to prevent “picky eater” habits from forming. Taking them grocery shopping, teaching them to find and choose foods, and involving them in meal planning tells them you want to prepare meals they will enjoy.
Set realistic goals. If the child bristles at eating a side portion of veggies, make a game to get him to take one bite of the new-tasting food.
Make your own chicken snacks at home, using healthy dipping sauces like marinara sauce, yogurt or mustard. If you must bread the nuggets, dip them in an egg, roll them in cornflake crumbs and bake, don’t fry.
If you’re eating out, cut out half of the trans and saturated fat by ordering a grilled chicken sandwich instead of nuggets. Order for your child from the adult menu, or share your sandwich with her, so the nuggets issue doesn’t come up.
Be consistent and firm, but encourage and praise the child every time she tries a new, healthier food. And be a good role model—don’t expect children to eat healthy when one or both parents snack on salty chips or fatty, processed foods.
Keep healthy foods in the meal, even when you give in and allow your child to order nuggets. Serve it with a side salad, fruit, or a slice of whole-grain bread.
In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad
By CHARLES DUHIGG and DAVID BARBOZA
Published: January 25, 2012http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?_r=2
Transcendental Market Truths:
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27907166
The Market:
The Fed promised to keep pumping the joy juice for the next three years and the market reacted to the prospect of constant infusions of printed money directly into stocks with a relief rally. In other words, the disconnect from economic reality will continue until the real economy is totally exhausted - which it will be once the Fed runs out of bullets. As Dr. John Hussmann said, the market has dodged a bullet - from a machine gun. Each foray into uncharted monetary territory brings us one day closer to the ultimate crack-up of the financial system. Only fools can fail to see that the current methodology of the Fed is fated to end very, very badly. But, the dope fiends really love it when the pusher arrives with the latest delivery.
Right now, the market's seem to be continuing to blowoff.
If this plays out like it appears likely to play out, I should see the market rally stall in the 1330-2 range. If the market can exceed that range and make it support like the last target range, I'll look at higher targets, but I suspect this next target is going to be much, much harder for the market to break through.
Copper:
Copper still looks like it will put in a higher high before this run is over. This is a positive for equity prices in the very short term.
Bottom Line:
I don't doubt that the uncertainties here are a result of the massive money-printing operations of the Fed and the ECB. Because of these influences, this is not a level playing field. One thing I am convinced of is that the economy will not weather this abuse forever and a much more devastating collapse than I saw in 2008 is inevitable.
The Market Economy Under Siege
Ever since the 2008 financial crisis we have frequently remarked in these pages how ludicrous the assertions are – which keep being repeated ad nauseam in the mainstream media – that the financial and economic crisis was a result of 'laissez faire' allegedly gone too far. Not a week has passed since then without someone coming out and blaming the non-existent free market for the calamity.
First of all, it should be perfectly clear that the Western regulatory democracies do not represent free unhampered market economies. They have a socialistic, centrally planned monetary system and free enterprise and production are restricted by a mountain of licensing laws and administrative legislation that is unsurpassed in the history of mankind. At the center of the financial crisis we found in fact one of the most regulated sectors of the economy.
There is no free banking - the banking system is a cartel at the center of which there is a central economic planning agency no different in principle from the former Soviet GOSPLAN agency.
More: http://www.acting-man.com/?p=13524
from dutchsinse...hmmmm.
1/26/2012 -- USDA says NEW WARM LATITUDES shift north = Russia/Sibera North pole
<<"OK... It's here... Now what?">>
Nope not yet...
...still no Fukishima type nuclear meltdown event here...
...YET.
And I'm happy about that...
...but for how long can I remain happy????
DHS abandons all pretense of fighting foreign terror threat, announces new focus on you...
A new white paper presented to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence carves out an
evolving mission for Homeland Security that moves away from fighting terrorism and towards growing
a vast domestic intelligence apparatus that would expand integration with local/state agencies and private-
public partnerships already underway via regional fusion centers...
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27905429
<<"Strange that a man who came of age under the brutal oppression of Nazism and then Communism, and was lucky enough to escape to America and freedom would be so socialist in his views. I tend to think he finds it easier to make money by his methods under a socialist system of central banking and fiat currencies.">>
Have you ever heard the wily old financial markets veteran Bob Chapman talk about George Soros?? It is quite disturbing to say the least.
Soros apparently sold his fellow man to the slaughterhouse to save his own hide as he "worked" for the Nazi's as a young boy according to Chapman. I cannot discount that as fact or fiction.
There is an old saying "every fortune is built on a crime"...
...I don't trust Soros at all. Who is he working for this time??
A Doomsday View of 2012
12.24.2011 :: United States
Introduction: The economic, political and social outlook for 2012 is profoundly negative. The almost universal consensus, even among mainstream orthodox economists is pessimistic regarding the world economy. Though even here their predictions understate the scope and depth of the crises.
http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=1885
There are powerful reasons to believe that beginning in 2012, we are heading toward a steeper decline than what was experienced during the Great Recession of 2008 – 2009. With fewer resources, greater debt and increasing popular resistance to shouldering the burden of saving the capitalist system, the governments cannot bail out the system.
Many of the major institutions and economic relations which were cause and consequence of world and regional capitalist expansion over the past three decades are in the process of disintegration and disarray. The previous economic engines of global expansion, the US and the European Union, have exhausted their potentialities and are in open decline. The new centers of growth, China, India, Brazil, Russia, which for a ‘short decade’ provided a new impetus for world growth have run their course and are de-accelerating rapidly and will continue to do so throughout the new year.
The Collapse of the European Union
Specifically, the crises wracked European Union will break up and the de facto multi-tiered structure will turn into a series of bilateral/multi-lateral trade and investment agreements. Germany,France , the Low and Nordic countries will attempt to weather the downturn. England, namely the City of London, in splendid isolation, will sink into negative growth, its financiers scrambling to find new speculative opportunities among the Gulf petrol-states and other ‘niches’. Eastern and Central Europe, particularly Poland and the Czech Republic, will deepen their ties to Germany but will suffer the consequences of the general decline of world markets. Southern Europe (Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy) will enter into a deep depression as the massive debt payments fueled by savage assaults on wages and social benefits will severely reduce consumer demand.
Depression level unemployment and under-employment running to one-third of the labor force will detonate year-long social conflicts, intensifying into popular uprisings. Eventually a break-up of the European Union is almost inevitable. The euro as a currency of choice will be replaced by or return to national issues accompanied by devaluations and protectionism. Nationalism will be the order of the day. Banks in Germany, France and Switzerland will suffer huge losses on their loans to the South. Major bailouts will become necessary, polarizing German and French societies,between taxpaying majorities and the bankers. Trade union militancy and rightwing pseudo ‘populism’ (neo-fascism) will intensify the class and national struggles
A depressed, fragmented and polarized Europe will be less likely to join in any Zionist inspired US-Israeli military adventure against Iran (or even Syria). Crises ridden Europe will oppose Washington’s confrontationalist approach to Russia and China.
The US: The Recession Returns with a Vengeance
The US economy will suffer the consequences of its ballooning fiscal deficit and will not be able to spend its way out of the world recession of 2012. Nor can it count on ‘exporting’ its way out of negative growth by turning to previously dynamic Asia, as China, India and the rest of Asia are losing economic steam. China will grow far below its 9% moving average. India will decline from 8% to 5% or lower. Moreover, the Obama regime’s military policy of ‘encirclement’, its economic policy of exclusion and protectionism will preclude any new stimulus from China.
Militarism Exacerbates the Economic Downturn
The US and England will be the biggest losers from the Iraqi post war economic reconstruction. Of $186 billion dollars in infrastructure projects, US and UK corporations will gain less than 5% (Financial Times, 12/16/11, p 1 and 3). A similar outcome is likely in Libya and elsewhere. US imperial militarism destroys an adversary, plunging into debt to do so, and non-belligerents reap the lucrative post-war economic reconstruction contracts.
The US economy will fall into recession in 2012 and the “jobless recovery of 2011” will be replaced by a steep increase of unemployment in 2012. In fact, the entire labor force will shrink as people losing their unemployment benefits will fail to register.
Labor exploitation (“productivity”) will intensify as capitalists force workers to produce more, for less pay, thus widening the income gap between wages and profits.
The economic downturn and growth of unemployment will be accompanied by savage cuts in social programs to subsidize financially troubled banks and industries. The debates among the parties will be over how large the cuts to workers and retirees will be to secure the ‘confidence’ of the bondholders. Faced with equally limited political choices, the electorate will react by voting out incumbents, abstaining and via spontaneous and organized mass movements, such as the “occupy Wall Street” protest. Disatisfaction, hostility and frustration will pervade the culture. Democratic demagogues will scapegoat China ,the Republican demagogues will blame the immigrants.Both will fulminate against “the islamo-fascists” and especially Iran..
New Wars in the Midst of Crises: Zionists Pull the Trigger
The 52 Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations and their “Israel First” followers in Congress, State, Treasury and the Pentagon will push for war with Iran. If they are successful it will result in a regional conflagration and world depression. Given the extremist Israeli regimes’ success in securing blind obedience to its war policies from the US Congress and White House, any doubts about the real possibility of a major catastrophic outcome can be excluded.
China: Compensatory Mechanisms in 2012
China will face the global recession of 2012 with several possibilities of ameliorating its impact. Beijing can shift toward producing goods and services for the 700 million domestic consumers currently out of the economic loop. By increasing wages, social services and environmental safety, China can compensate for the loss of overseas markets. China’s economic growth which is largely dependent on real estate speculation will be adversely affected when the bubble is burst .A sharp downturn will result.. This will lead to job losses, municipal bankruptcies and increased social and class conflicts. This can result in either greater repression or gradual democratization. The outcome will profoundly affect China’s market - state relations. The economic crises will likely strengthen state control over the market.
Russia Faces the Crises
Russia’s election of President Putin will lead to less collaboration in backing US promoted uprisings and sanctions against Russian allies and trading partners. Putin will turn toward greater ties with China and will benefit from the break-up of the EU and the weakening of NATO.
The western media backed opposition will use its financial clout to erode Putin’s image and encourage investment boycotts though they will lose the Presidential elections by a big margin. The world recession will weaken the Russian economy and will force it to choose between greater public ownership or greater dependency on state funds to bail out prominent oligarchs.
The Transition 2011 – 2012: From Regional Stagnation and Recession to World Crises
The year 2011 laid the groundwork for the breakdown of the European Union. The crises began with the demise of the euro, stagnation in the US and the outbreak of mass protests against the obscene inequalities on a world scale. The events of 2011 were a dress rehearsal for a new year of full scale trade wars between major powers, sharpening inter-imperialist struggles and the likelihood of popular rebellions turning into revolutions. Moreover, the escalation of Zionist orchestrated war fever against Iran in 2011 promises the biggest regional war since the US-Indo-Chinese conflict. The electoral campaigns and outcomes of Presidential elections in the US, Russia and France will deepen the global conflicts and economic crises.
During 2011 the Obama regime announced a policy of military confrontation with Russia and China and policies designed to undermine and degrade China’s rise as a world economic power. In the face of a deepening economic recession and with the decline of overseas markets, especially in Europe, a major trade war will unfold. Washington will aggressively pursue policies limiting Chinese exports and investments. The White House will escalate its efforts to disrupt China’s trade and investments in Asia, Africa and elsewhere. We can expect greater US efforts to exploit China’s internal ethnic and popular conflicts and to increase its military presence off China’s coastline. A major provocation or fabricated incident in this context is not to be excluded. The result in 2012 could lead to rabid chauvinist calls for a new costly ‘Cold War’. Obama has provided the framework and justification for a large scale long-term confrontation with China. This will be seen as a desperate effort to prop up US influence and strategic positions in Asia. The US military “quadrangle of power” – US-Japan-Australia-South Korea – with satellite support from the Philippines, will pit China’s market ties against Washington’s military build-up.
Europe: Deeper Austerity and Intensified Class Struggle
The austerity programs imposed in Europe, from England to Latvia to southern Europe will really take hold in 2012. Massive public sector firings and reduced private sector salaries and hiring’s will lead to a year of permanent class warfare and regime challenges. The ‘austerity policies’ in the South, will be accompanied by debt defaults which will result in bank failures in France and Germany.. England’s financial ruling class, isolated in Europe but dominant in England, will insist that the Conservatives ‘repress’ labor and popular unrest. A new tough neo-Thatcherite style of autocratic rule will emerge ; the Labor-trade union opposition will issue empty protests and tighten the leash on the rebellious populace. In a word, the regressive socio-economic policies put in place in 2011 set the stage for new police-state regimes and more acute and possibly bloody confrontations with workers and unemployed youth with no future.
The Coming Wars that Ends America “As We Know It”
Within the US, Obama has laid the groundwork for a new and bigger war in the Middle East by relocating troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and concentrating them facing Iran. To undermine Iran, Washington is expanding clandestine military and civilian operations against Iranian allies in Syria, Pakistan, Venezuela and China. The key to the US and Israeli bellicose strategy toward Iran is a series of wars in neighboring states, world- wide economic sanctions , cyber-attacks aimed at disabling vital industries and clandestine terrorist assassinations of scientists and military officials. The entire push, planning and execution of the US policies leading up to war with Iran can be empirically attributed to the Zionist power configuration occupying strategic positions in government, mass media and ‘civil society’. A systematic analysis of policymakers designing and implementing economic sanctions policy in Congress finds prominent roles for mega-Zionists like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Howard Berman; in the White House, Dennis Ross and Jeffrey Feltman in State; Stuart Levy and his replacement David Cohen in Treasury. The White House is totally beholden to Zionist fund raisers and takes its cue from the ‘52’ Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations. The Israeli-Zionist strategy is to encircle Iran, weaken it economically and attack its military. The Iraq invasion was the US’s first war for Israel; the Libyan war the second; the current proxy war against Syria is the third. These wars have destroyed Israel’s adversaries or are in the process of doing so. During 2011, economic sanctions, which were designed to create domestic discontent in Iran were the principle weapon of choice. The global sanctions campaign engaged the entire energies of the major Jewish-Zionist lobbies. They also faced no opposition in the mass media, Congress or the White Office. The Zionist power configuration(ZPC) faced virtually no criticism from any of the progressive, leftist and socialist journals, movements or grouplets – with a few notable exceptions. The past year’s relocation of troops from Iraq to the borders of Iran, the sanctions and the rising Big Push from Israel’s fifth column in the US means War in the Middle East. This likely means a “surprise” aerial and maritime missile attack by US forces. This will be based on a concocted pretext of an “imminent nuclear attack” cooked up by Mossad and transmitted by the ZPC to the Congress and White House for consumption and transmission to the world. It will be a destructive, bloody, prolonged war for Israel. The US will bear the direct military cost by itself but the rest of the world will pay a dear economic price. The Zionist promoted US war will convert the recession of early 2012 into a major depression by the end of the year and probably provoke mass upheavals.
Conclusion
All indications point to 2012 being a turning point year of unrelenting economic crises spreading outward from Europe and the US to Asia and its dependencies in Africa and Latin America. The crises will be truly global. Inter-imperial confrontations and colonial wars will undermine any efforts to ameliorate this crisis. In response mass movements will emerge which will move over time from protests and rebellions , hopefully to social revolutions and political power.
George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War
Jan 23, 2012 12:00 AM ESThttp://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/22/george-soros-on-the-coming-u-s-class-war.html
Boston Bruins Goaltender Releases Statement Explaining Absence From Obama Meeting
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/23/2012 19:40 -0500
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/boston-bruins-goaltender-releases-statement-explaining-absence-obama-meeting
While his colleagues from the Boston Bruins were visitng the White House earlier today, goaltender Tim Thomas was absent. Here is his personal explanation for why he did what he did. We can only hope more role-models follow in his footsteps.
Thomas statement on White House absence (via the NHL)
"I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People.
This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government.
Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.
This is the only public statement I will be making on this topic. TT"
Given everything that is rapidly unfolding in the world today,
perhaps the single most difficult issue for the average man on
the street to get his head around, is the question of…
Why would fat cat, capitalist Wall Street bankers, politicians
in democratic nation states, and the CEO’s of multi-billion
dollar corporations ever join together to support socialism
over democracy and capitalism?
Gary Allen in his masterpiece book “None Dare Call It Conspiracy”
provided the answer to that:
“Communism, or more accurately, socialism, is not a movement
of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite, because
communism, is about monopoly capitalism....”
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27900725
Given everything that is rapidly unfolding in the world today,
perhaps the single most difficult issue for the average man on
the street to get his head around, is the question of…
Why would fat cat, capitalist Wall Street bankers, politicians
in democratic nation states, and the CEO’s of multi-billion
dollar corporations ever join together to support socialism
over democracy and capitalism?
Gary Allen in his masterpiece book “None Dare Call It Conspiracy”
provided the answer to that:
“Communism, or more accurately, socialism, is not a movement
of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite, because
communism, is about monopoly capitalism....”
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27900725
The Agenda: "Obama to use pension funds to pay for bank mortgage settlement"
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27900556
Message # 25478 from Nihontochicken at 1/23/2012 2:24:45 PM
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/01/obama-to-give-banks-mortgage-get-out-of-jail-almost-free-card...
=================================================================
Let's not forget that Geithner already diverted government worker pension fund payments to fund
the gap between the now serial Congressional debt ceiling raises...
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/161357-geithner-debt-limit-reached
About $200 billion dollars worth (I know, small potatoes when compared to the Fed's bankster handouts)...
"... the Treasury can free up $12 billion over two months by halting new investments in the Civil Service
Retirement and Disability Fund and redeeming existing investments in that fund to free up cash. He also
has the one-time option of not reinvesting securities that mature in that federal employee retirement
fund, as the Treasury usually would do. In that situation, the Treasury could free up $67 billion more in
headroom on June 30, when some of those securities mature.
Along similar lines, Geithner announced Monday that he was slowing investment in the Government Securities
Investment Fund for federal employees’ retirement. By halting reinvestment in the money market fund, the
Treasury can create about $130 billion more in headroom."
And let's not forget that shortly after Obama's election, two key Democratic Senators, set up a
discussion period on a proposed governmental confiscation/conversion of private retirement funds...
"Democratic leaders in the U.S. House discuss confiscating 401(k)s, IRAs"
"The majority of witness testimony during recent hearings before the House Committee on Education
and Labor showed that congressional Democrats intend to address income and wealth inequality through
redistribution." (I guess we should have taken Obama's comments to Joe the Plumber seriously...).
http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/dems-target-private-retirement-accounts.html
"Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal
retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social
Security Administration.
Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses
incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly.
GRAs would guarantee a fixed 3 percent annual rate of return, although later in her article Ghilarducci explained
that participants would not “earn a 3% real return in perpetuity.” In place of tax breaks workers now receive for
contributions and thus a lower tax rate, workers would receive $600 annually from the government, inflation
-adjusted. For low-income workers whose annual contributions are less than $600, the government would
deposit whatever amount it would take to equal the minimum $600 for all participants."
And it's not just 2 Democratic Senators, it's the Labor and Treasury departments who proposed
this scam to backstop U.S. Treasuries -- knowing they would not be able to get away with endless
quantitative easing without both a political and economic backlash...
From Bloomberg News:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aHFCE999fWR0
"Bloomberg reported Friday that Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi and Deputy Assistant Treasury
Mark Iwry are planning to stage a public comment period before implementing regulations that would require
private investors to structure IRA and 401(k) accounts into what could amount to a U.S. Treasury debt-backed
government annuity."
And this...
"Americans have $4 trillion saved in 401K plans and another $8 trillion in IRAs and pension plans, 95%
of which are invested in the equity markets, mainly stocks and mutual funds. If the U.S. government forces
investors to invest 50% of their IRAs in government bonds, that would raise $6 trillion to help the federal
government dig itself out of the 15 trillion-dollar-debt. It is a fact that Congress once passed, and later
rescinded, a 15% "excess retirement accumulations excise tax" on large retirement plans.
- Federal Government May Seize Part of Your IRA, passportira.com, 2011
And for those card carrying members of sheeple nation who still say it will never happen here, I humbly remind
you, that is exactly what these sheeple said...
"Eight countries have raided retirement plans since 2008, including France, Poland, Ireland,
Argentina, and Hungary."
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Adam-Smith-Institute-Blog/2011/0102/European-nations-begin-seizing-private-pensions
And for the 179th time, I'll repost this early 2008 commentary from the CBO (before the bankster bailouts)
on the "when, not if" eventuality of massive income tax increases that must, and will come...
Quoting the Congressional Budget Office:
http://www.heritage.org/research/budget/bg2153.cfm
"TAX RATES would need to be raised by "substantial" amounts to
finance projected spending. Specifically, "the TAX rate for
the lowest bracket would have to be increased from 10 percent
to 25 percent; the TAX rate on incomes in the current 25 percent
bracket would have to be increased to 63 percent; and the TAX
rate of the highest bracket would have to be raised from 35
percent to 88 percent.
The top corporate income TAX rate would also increase from
35 percent to 88 percent."[4]
"Such TAX RATES would significantly reduce economic activity
and would create serious problems with TAX avoidance and tax
evasion. Revenues would probably fall significantly short of
the amount needed to finance the growth of spending;
therefore, TAX RATES at such levels would probably not be
economically feasible."[5]
And let's not forget the rest of reality in America...
-- 43 million Americans are on food stamps (a.k.a. "the invisible, electronic soup line.").
-- 8 million Americans have lost their homes and tens of millions are underwater on their mortgages.
-- The real unemployment rate (U6) is still over 15% and John Williams of Shadow Stats puts the
"real" unemployment rate at over 22%...
-- The Pension Benefit Guaranty Trust is bankrupt.
-- The FDIC is bankrupt.
-- Social Security has been looted and Medicare is bankrupt.
-- And everyone from the New York Times, to the Wall Street Journal, to Parade Magazine has
carried headline articles showing that anywhere from 40 to 46 of the 50 U.S. States were technically
bankrupt by 2010...
http://www.dailymarkets.com/economy/2009/02/28/us-financial-crisis-46-states-could-face-bankruptcy-in-2010/
And it's not just states, it's counties, cities, and small municipalities...
Take Cook County (Chicago), Illinois for example:
http://www.cookcountytreasurer.com/newsdetail.aspx?ntopicid=434
For those Americans who have worked for decades with the hopes that their pensions, health care and other
benefits would be there when they retire, we offer a glimpse into what the future may hold:
Cook County taxpayers are on the hook for a staggering amount of local debt, according to figures presented
by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas today. Cook County’s numerous local governments face mounting
debts totaling more than $108 billion. And, for the first time, specific figures have been collected for municipal
unfunded pensions obligations totaling in excess of $25 billion, almost a quarter of debt countywide.
The total figures translate into an average debt-per-household in the city of Chicago of $63,525,
and $32,901 in the suburbs.
“We knew that debt and unfunded pension obligations were serious problems at the state and federal level and
assumed that a similar pattern would follow at the local level. But, quite frankly, I was stunned by the depth of the
crisis for local governments,” said Pappas.
“This goes well beyond big cities, where you expect financial challenges. These fiscal problems permeate
townships, villages, school districts, park districts, fire protection districts and more, and the taxpayers are
on the hook.”
As many of you know, Americans would never allow a new economic, or political system to be brought in,
unless the present system (capitalism and democracy within the framework of a Constitutional Republic
operating under both a Constitution and a Bill of Rights) were first destroyed.
The debt from endless war that only benefits the bankers and the military-industrial complex, the debt from
the social welfare state that only benefits the bankers and government bureaucrats, and the unfunded liabilities
for gold-plated pension and healthcare benefits of government workers that no longer exist for the taxpayers
that must fund them, are all evidence of an economic system that is being collapsed by design... not to mention
the non-stop attack on the family, on organized religion, and on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, along
with our open borders - all represent an attack on our society through Cultural Marxism.
Call it Cultural Marxism, call it creative destruction, call it what you want.
The war is not on poverty, on drugs, or on terror - it's on you.
Why do you think there are open borders and sanctuary cities for illegals,
but, constitution free zones and random checkpoints for you?
Why do you think the U.S. Military has been doing "martial law" drills (NLE 09 etc) on U.S. soil
with foreign troops from scores of nations?
Who do you think the new Homeland Security VIPR Teams are for?
You know, the ones who stormed the Social Security office in the small Florida town of Leesburg,
unannounced, in full battle gear, with assault rifles, armor, and snarling K-9 dogs...
http://www.dailycommercial.com/News/LakeCounty/010412shield
And when the nellified freedom Nazi, Lindsey Graham said "no lawyer for you," while explaining
how the McCain-Levin NDAA bill would work - who did you think he was talking about...
the terrorists in Gitmo and Guantanamo, or you?
And with the U.S. government's shut down of the offshore file sharing site Megaupload,
including the arrest of foreign nationals and asset seizures on 3 continents... why do they
need SOPA?
What do you think SOPA was really designed to stop... illegal music and movie downloads,
or free speech and political dissent from the alternative media?
And who do you think the new SOPA bill is really for...
Chinese knock off artists, or you?
End of Darwin Test.
SOTB
PS: The DHS/TSA's detention of Rand Paul for refusing a full body pat down kept the Senator
from "making the speech of his life" before a crowd of 200,000 pro-lifers in Washington.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/01/todays-tsa-news-rand-paul-edition/251862/
How convenient.
And as it turns out, the "beep" from the electronic scanner that set up Sen. Paul for a secondary
pat down can be "random."
That's right... it's not only triggered by metal, or an object setting off the sensor, as the sensors
are quote, unquote - "programed" to also go off randomly... but, then again, that depends on
what the government's definition of random is...
How about someone seeing him, and knowing he's an outspoken opponent of the DHS/TSA
and deliberately pushing a button.
Ron Paul's son, and on the day he is to make "the speech of his life."
Random?
I think not.
The Agenda: "Obama to use pension funds to pay for bank mortgage settlement"
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27900556
Message # 25478 from Nihontochicken at 1/23/2012 2:24:45 PM
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/01/obama-to-give-banks-mortgage-get-out-of-jail-almost-free-card...
=================================================================
Let's not forget that Geithner already diverted government worker pension fund payments to fund
the gap between the now serial Congressional debt ceiling raises...
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/161357-geithner-debt-limit-reached
About $200 billion dollars worth (I know, small potatoes when compared to the Fed's bankster handouts)...
"... the Treasury can free up $12 billion over two months by halting new investments in the Civil Service
Retirement and Disability Fund and redeeming existing investments in that fund to free up cash. He also
has the one-time option of not reinvesting securities that mature in that federal employee retirement
fund, as the Treasury usually would do. In that situation, the Treasury could free up $67 billion more in
headroom on June 30, when some of those securities mature.
Along similar lines, Geithner announced Monday that he was slowing investment in the Government Securities
Investment Fund for federal employees’ retirement. By halting reinvestment in the money market fund, the
Treasury can create about $130 billion more in headroom."
And let's not forget that shortly after Obama's election, two key Democratic Senators, set up a
discussion period on a proposed governmental confiscation/conversion of private retirement funds...
"Democratic leaders in the U.S. House discuss confiscating 401(k)s, IRAs"
"The majority of witness testimony during recent hearings before the House Committee on Education
and Labor showed that congressional Democrats intend to address income and wealth inequality through
redistribution." (I guess we should have taken Obama's comments to Joe the Plumber seriously...).
http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/dems-target-private-retirement-accounts.html
"Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal
retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social
Security Administration.
Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses
incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly.
GRAs would guarantee a fixed 3 percent annual rate of return, although later in her article Ghilarducci explained
that participants would not “earn a 3% real return in perpetuity.” In place of tax breaks workers now receive for
contributions and thus a lower tax rate, workers would receive $600 annually from the government, inflation
-adjusted. For low-income workers whose annual contributions are less than $600, the government would
deposit whatever amount it would take to equal the minimum $600 for all participants."
And it's not just 2 Democratic Senators, it's the Labor and Treasury departments who proposed
this scam to backstop U.S. Treasuries -- knowing they would not be able to get away with endless
quantitative easing without both a political and economic backlash...
From Bloomberg News:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aHFCE999fWR0
"Bloomberg reported Friday that Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi and Deputy Assistant Treasury
Mark Iwry are planning to stage a public comment period before implementing regulations that would require
private investors to structure IRA and 401(k) accounts into what could amount to a U.S. Treasury debt-backed
government annuity."
And this...
"Americans have $4 trillion saved in 401K plans and another $8 trillion in IRAs and pension plans, 95%
of which are invested in the equity markets, mainly stocks and mutual funds. If the U.S. government forces
investors to invest 50% of their IRAs in government bonds, that would raise $6 trillion to help the federal
government dig itself out of the 15 trillion-dollar-debt. It is a fact that Congress once passed, and later
rescinded, a 15% "excess retirement accumulations excise tax" on large retirement plans.
- Federal Government May Seize Part of Your IRA, passportira.com, 2011
And for those card carrying members of sheeple nation who still say it will never happen here, I humbly remind
you, that is exactly what these sheeple said...
"Eight countries have raided retirement plans since 2008, including France, Poland, Ireland,
Argentina, and Hungary."
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Adam-Smith-Institute-Blog/2011/0102/European-nations-begin-seizing-private-pensions
And for the 179th time, I'll repost this early 2008 commentary from the CBO (before the bankster bailouts)
on the "when, not if" eventuality of massive income tax increases that must, and will come...
Quoting the Congressional Budget Office:
http://www.heritage.org/research/budget/bg2153.cfm
"TAX RATES would need to be raised by "substantial" amounts to
finance projected spending. Specifically, "the TAX rate for
the lowest bracket would have to be increased from 10 percent
to 25 percent; the TAX rate on incomes in the current 25 percent
bracket would have to be increased to 63 percent; and the TAX
rate of the highest bracket would have to be raised from 35
percent to 88 percent.
The top corporate income TAX rate would also increase from
35 percent to 88 percent."[4]
"Such TAX RATES would significantly reduce economic activity
and would create serious problems with TAX avoidance and tax
evasion. Revenues would probably fall significantly short of
the amount needed to finance the growth of spending;
therefore, TAX RATES at such levels would probably not be
economically feasible."[5]
And let's not forget the rest of reality in America...
-- 43 million Americans are on food stamps (a.k.a. "the invisible, electronic soup line.").
-- 8 million Americans have lost their homes and tens of millions are underwater on their mortgages.
-- The real unemployment rate (U6) is still over 15% and John Williams of Shadow Stats puts the
"real" unemployment rate at over 22%...
-- The Pension Benefit Guaranty Trust is bankrupt.
-- The FDIC is bankrupt.
-- Social Security has been looted and Medicare is bankrupt.
-- And everyone from the New York Times, to the Wall Street Journal, to Parade Magazine has
carried headline articles showing that anywhere from 40 to 46 of the 50 U.S. States were technically
bankrupt by 2010...
http://www.dailymarkets.com/economy/2009/02/28/us-financial-crisis-46-states-could-face-bankruptcy-in-2010/
And it's not just states, it's counties, cities, and small municipalities...
Take Cook County (Chicago), Illinois for example:
http://www.cookcountytreasurer.com/newsdetail.aspx?ntopicid=434
For those Americans who have worked for decades with the hopes that their pensions, health care and other
benefits would be there when they retire, we offer a glimpse into what the future may hold:
Cook County taxpayers are on the hook for a staggering amount of local debt, according to figures presented
by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas today. Cook County’s numerous local governments face mounting
debts totaling more than $108 billion. And, for the first time, specific figures have been collected for municipal
unfunded pensions obligations totaling in excess of $25 billion, almost a quarter of debt countywide.
The total figures translate into an average debt-per-household in the city of Chicago of $63,525,
and $32,901 in the suburbs.
“We knew that debt and unfunded pension obligations were serious problems at the state and federal level and
assumed that a similar pattern would follow at the local level. But, quite frankly, I was stunned by the depth of the
crisis for local governments,” said Pappas.
“This goes well beyond big cities, where you expect financial challenges. These fiscal problems permeate
townships, villages, school districts, park districts, fire protection districts and more, and the taxpayers are
on the hook.”
As many of you know, Americans would never allow a new economic, or political system to be brought in,
unless the present system (capitalism and democracy within the framework of a Constitutional Republic
operating under both a Constitution and a Bill of Rights) were first destroyed.
The debt from endless war that only benefits the bankers and the military-industrial complex, the debt from
the social welfare state that only benefits the bankers and government bureaucrats, and the unfunded liabilities
for gold-plated pension and healthcare benefits of government workers that no longer exist for the taxpayers
that must fund them, are all evidence of an economic system that is being collapsed by design... not to mention
the non-stop attack on the family, on organized religion, and on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, along
with our open borders - all represent an attack on our society through Cultural Marxism.
Call it Cultural Marxism, call it creative destruction, call it what you want.
The war is not on poverty, on drugs, or on terror - it's on you.
Why do you think there are open borders and sanctuary cities for illegals,
but, constitution free zones and random checkpoints for you?
Why do you think the U.S. Military has been doing "martial law" drills (NLE 09 etc) on U.S. soil
with foreign troops from scores of nations?
Who do you think the new Homeland Security VIPR Teams are for?
You know, the ones who stormed the Social Security office in the small Florida town of Leesburg,
unannounced, in full battle gear, with assault rifles, armor, and snarling K-9 dogs...
http://www.dailycommercial.com/News/LakeCounty/010412shield
And when the nellified freedom Nazi, Lindsey Graham said "no lawyer for you," while explaining
how the McCain-Levin NDAA bill would work - who did you think he was talking about...
the terrorists in Gitmo and Guantanamo, or you?
And with the U.S. government's shut down of the offshore file sharing site Megaupload,
including the arrest of foreign nationals and asset seizures on 3 continents... why do they
need SOPA?
What do you think SOPA was really designed to stop... illegal music and movie downloads,
or free speech and political dissent from the alternative media?
And who do you think the new SOPA bill is really for...
Chinese knock off artists, or you?
End of Darwin Test.
SOTB
PS: The DHS/TSA's detention of Rand Paul for refusing a full body pat down kept the Senator
from "making the speech of his life" before a crowd of 200,000 pro-lifers in Washington.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/01/todays-tsa-news-rand-paul-edition/251862/
How convenient.
And as it turns out, the "beep" from the electronic scanner that set up Sen. Paul for a secondary
pat down can be "random."
That's right... it's not only triggered by metal, or an object setting off the sensor, as the sensors
are quote, unquote - "programed" to also go off randomly... but, then again, that depends on
what the government's definition of random is...
How about someone seeing him, and knowing he's an outspoken opponent of the DHS/TSA
and deliberately pushing a button.
Ron Paul's son, and on the day he is to make "the speech of his life."
Random?
I think not.
Japanese Struggle to Protect Their Food Supply
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/world/asia/wary-japanese-take-food-safety-into-their-own-hands.html?_r=4
Broke, sick and lonely, Allen Stanford heads to court
Reuters – 3 hours ago
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/broke-sick-lonely-stanford-heads-122429951.html
By Anna Driver and Eileen O'Grady
HOUSTON (Reuters) - No one calls him Sir Allen Stanford anymore. He is inmate number 35017-183.
On Monday, the Texas financier heads to court in Houston to battle charges that he operated a $7 billion Ponzi scheme from Stanford International Bank Ltd, his offshore bank on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By all accounts, his was a life of luxury, filled with private jets, yachts, mansions and the sport of cricket.
Deemed a flight risk in June 2009 by a federal judge, the 6-foot billionaire has been in jail, sporting prison-issue green and orange jumpsuits and shackles instead of the dark, tailor-made suits he once ordered in bulk.
Stanford, a native Texan who was knighted by the government of Antigua in 2006, is accused of misleading investors about certificates of deposit (CDs) issued by his offshore bank, in one of the biggest white collar fraud cases since Bernard Madoff.
The CDs were touted as safe, with funds "generally invested in investment grade bonds, securities and foreign currency deposit," according to literature distributed by Stanford's brokerage firm.
Instead, prosecutors allege, Stanford invested CD proceeds in illiquid pet-project investments that included Caribbean real estate, a Cowboys and Indians magazine and a pawn shop operator. He also loaned more than $2 billion to himself.
The alleged Ponzi scheme started to unravel in late 2008 as the financial crisis deepened and more and more investors asked for redemptions, a situation that left Stanford scrambling for cash.
Prosecutors will likely rely heavily on the testimony of the firm's former Chief Financial Officer James Davis, who pleaded guilty in August 2009 and has been cooperating with the government. The two men were college roommates at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
In past interviews, Stanford has blamed Davis, a theme that is likely to be repeated by the defense at trial.
"I didn't oversee anything in the investment portfolio, that was the CFO's responsibility," Stanford told Reuters in a 2009 interview. "The CFO had investment committees, the chief investment officer reports to him."
Stanford, 61, has pleaded not guilty to 14 criminal counts of fraud, obstruction of a federal investigation and conspiracy to launder money.
Among the alleged crimes prosecutors expect to prove to the Houston jury is that Stanford was involved in falsifying financial statements and made false statements about Stanford International Bank's financial condition.
PAUPER IN LOVE
Stanford's health has declined since his arrest. He was injured in a jailhouse brawl in 2009 and suffered from an addiction to a powerful anti-anxiety medication. He has hepatitis B and cirrhosis of the liver, and, if convicted, will likely spend he rest of his life in prison.
The SEC seized all of Stanford's assets in February 2009 after filing a civil lawsuit. His lawyer at the time, Dick DeGuerin, said the government's action did not even leave enough money for his client to buy underwear.
Once No. 205 on Forbes' list of richest Americans, Stanford's defense is paid for with U.S. tax dollars and his 81-year-old mother is struggling to help.
"I've maxed out my credit cards and I'm on my last few thousand dollars of savings," said Sammie Stanford.
She even had to do a reverse mortgage on her home "to get some extra cash," she said in December after a court hearing.
After his arrest, Stanford had a bevy of women, four of whom are mothers of his six children, attend his court hearings. He had a "fiancee" half his age even though he remains legally married.
Stanford lavished the women in his life with trips on private jets, luxury homes and, in one instance, spousal support payments of $100,000 per month, according to court documents.
His oldest daughter, Randi, lived in a luxury Houston high-rise paid for by her father, for whom she worked.
Court records from a 2007 paternity case, that was settled, showed Stanford also paid about $150,000 a year in child support for two other children who lived with their mother in a $10 million house in Florida.
But now, in addition to losing his fortune, Stanford has only the support of his parents and family and not the harem of loyalists seen earlier.
Only his mother lasted through the entire three days of testimony last month at a hearing in which Stanford was judged competent to stand trial.
The man who once ran a business with operations in 140 countries has different priorities now. In a recent court hearing he could be heard complaining about being served a peanut butter sandwich on stale bread.
The case is USA v. Robert Allen Stanford, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, No. 09-cr-00342. (Reporting by Anna Driver in Houston; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
More Soviet Style nonsense...
...bread lines with Babushka's in our future????
Welcome to the Soviet Style Economy.
Anyone miss the old Soviet style economy???
The Rise of the New 21st Century Super-Soviet...
http://www.thedailybell.com/3480/Adrian-Krieg-Emerging-Totalitarianism
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
– by Dr. Adrian Krieg
Dr. Adrian Krieg
Being over 70 years old and having lived through WWII in Europe and lived in Mexico, I have an excellent understanding of what dictatorships are and how they function. The fact that America is rapidly heading into a despotic state is obvious to anyone of my age. Furthermore, every branch of our government is involved. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the charge of 'assistance to terrorism' does not necessitate an overt act; all that is required is providing assistance and/or encouragement to the act. That in effect means anything, for instance, calling the executive a fool, writing a pro-Palestinian article, objecting to Israeli Middle East policies, holocaust denial – anything the bureaucracy disapproves of becomes a violation of this law.
Under the newly enacted – sponsored by McCain (R-AZ) with approval of 93 (STUPID) Senators – National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the president was granted the right to arrest and detain any American citizens any place in the world without a charge, indefinitely, without right to council, without a warrant, and to torture any such American, merely on his say-so or by indictment of a secret court whose members are anonymous. This totally obliterates the habeas corpus provisions of the Constitution. Furthermore, this law eradicates the Posse Comitatus Act [18 U.S.C. 1385] of June 18, 1887 that prevented the government from employing American military against American civilians.
The president already took upon himself the right to assassinate any American citizen any place in the world without charge, trial, judge, jury and evidence of a crime, simply on his say-so, and has already used that authority to murder.
The enacted in 2001 and re-approved in 2011 USA Patriot Act is the most sinister of all, in that it violates the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth amendments of the Bill of Rights. In expansion, it grants the government the right to rifle your mail, tap your telephone and inquire into what you are reading. In a stunning overturn of well-accepted fourth amendment rights a federal court has granted government the right to track your movement with GPS technology, including via cell phones and GPS equipment.
aMeRiKA: The 2nd Bolshevik Takeover
Meanwhile, your local police force is buying everything from spy drones to night vision equipment and are being militarized hand over fist. These weapons and systems that local police are purchasing are not for law enforcement; they are decidedly for issues like crowd control, nighttime secret incursions, combined actions with the National Guard and regular Army, which is now possible due to NDAA. Worse is the fact that numerous airports and facilities around America have had their security services subcontracted to Israeli security firms. While the government contracts training to SPLC for federal agencies and smaller local state agencies follow their lead, SPLC is the most bias-twisted, anti-Christian organization in the land. The federal government has established links with the JDL, Mossad assets, the American Jewish Congress, the ADL and other Israeli operatives; while we cannot prove this we know it to be the case. The story put forth by the Mossad that everyone in government now accepts as gospel is that Israeli and American security issues are one and the same. This, upon examination of issues, is utterly ridiculous.
Lest we forget, police are supposed to serve and protect while military kill and destroy. The two functions are wholly incompatible in a republic. I saw this firsthand in Germany from 1938 onward and in Italy, and in Bulgaria and then in the entire Soviet bloc empire.
In view of the Pollard, Franklin, Rosenberg and scores of Israeli spying operations against us and considering the USS Liberty affair, we would be wise to rely on our own security apparatus and not become entangled with the agencies of a nation which has for decades been most actively spying against us.
We are already underwater with Israeli telephone monitoring and billing operations that have been off-shored by domestic suppliers to Magal Security Systems, an Israeli contractor. Let's be cognizant of the fact that, according to information released last December, there is now operative monitoring of all electronic communications as well as GPS systems. We do not think it rational to allow such information to be subcontracted offshore.
What we are pointing out here is that all the required means for the operation of a top-down police state are either already in place or are being put in place as you read. Even the agencies to administer all this from the federal level, Homeland Security – with over 220,000 employees – is a functioning agency run by one of Obama's dubious associates.
Beginning with 9/11 – a false-flag operation if ever there was one – the nation has lost one liberty after another, and now we have even lost our most basic right to face our accuser, habeas corpus, that has been part of English speaking law since the 12th century. The president, meanwhile, has taken to himself the right to use our own military against its citizens by voiding Posse Comitatus – enacted in 1887 after the war of northern aggression to alleviate the excesses of the Yankees as they had looted, raped and burned their way from Richmond to Atlanta – and the elimination of almost the entire Bill of Rights through the enactment of the USA Patriot Act, which had essentially been written and ready for enactment for over 15 years before 9/11.
What would it take to instill in a mentally challenged population the willingness to have stripped away what little of our freedoms still exist? A little pre-arranged action to be blamed on Iran would make the neocons very happy, the president could be re-elected, the population induced to war against yet another Middle East nation, then the expansion of more freedom crushing laws, the enactment of national hate laws with the government providing the definition of hate, and there you have it – Soviet America Empire of the 21st century.
Second MF Global Unveiled As Canadian Regulator Accuses Barret Capital Of Commingling Client Funds
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/second-mf-global-unveiled-canadian-regulator-accuses-barret-capital-co...
That radioactive tissue dispenser from Bed Bath and Beyond is a "death bomb". 1 hour near it equivalent to a chest X-ray!!
I wonder what happened to all the radioctive scrap steel from those destroyed ships/cars/and everything made of metal from around the radiated Fukishima meltdown zone???
Of course it was probably sent to China or India as scrap to be sent around the world as "death bombs"!
1/13/2012 -- RADIOACTIVE tissue Holders @ Bed Bath and Beyond — but from where?
Radiation Crises & Antidotes
http://doctorapsley.com/RadiationTherapy.aspx
Eric Sprott: "The Financial System Is A Farce"Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/12/2012 - 17:02
2011 was a merry-go-round of more bailouts, more deferrals and more denial. Everyone is tired of the Eurozone. It’s not fixable. There’s too much debt. The politicians don’t know what’s going on. Nothing has structurally changed. We’re still on the wrong path. There’s more global debt than there was a year ago, and it’s the same old song: extend and pretend, extend and pretend,… around and around we go,… and it isn’t fun anymore. Just as we wrote back in October 2007, and again in September 2008, we feel compelled to state the obvious: that the financial system is a farce. It’s a complete, cyclical farce that defies all efforts to right itself. This past year continued the farcical tradition with some notable scandals, deferrals and interventions that underscored the system’s continuing addiction to government interference. With the glaring exception of US Treasuries and the US dollar (which are admittedly two of our least favourite asset classes), it was not a year that rewarded stock picking or safe-haven assets. Many developments during the year bordered on the ridiculous, and despite some positive news out of the US, we saw little to test our bearish view. If anything, our view was continually re-affirmed.
We are on a wrong path, there's no turning back and terrible consequences will follow.
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27876135
IMO you can't just take away a little freedom to get more security, print just a little bit of money to get the economy going, buy a little bit of bonds to lower long term interest rates and suddenly one day be done because everything is hunky dory again.
Once you start going down that path - away from freedom, away from capitalism and free market - you see that interventionist policies do not work as expected, in fact they accomplish exactly the opposite. As situation gets worse and the explanation is "we haven't done enough", so they intervene even more and eventually it has to go all the way to the end - totalitarian fascist system with socialist economy and total destruction of currency and possibly war.
Once the Fed starts buying bonds, it removes natural free market demand for bonds and eventually the Fed will have to buy all bonds.
Once you start taking away freedoms, people get upset and to keep them under wraps you need to take away even more freedoms and eventually all freedom.
Once you start printing money, the economy eventually gets worse for this exact reason and then the knuckleheads print more money - they are applying even more poison - all the way to a total destruction of currency.
We are on a wrong path, there's no turning back and terrible consequences will follow.