Messages
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/images/quotes_special.gif)
L'Autre Monde 9 avril: Les contribuables sont les grands perdants de la crise économique
.
L'Autre Monde 9 avril: Les contribuables sont les grands perdants de la crise économique
Pour écouter, ou pour télécharger, simplement cliquer sur le lien ici:
L'Autre Monde 9 avril 2009
60 min / Radio de l'UQAM, CHOQ FM
 | Diffusion en direct : Jeudi à 11:00h
| |||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
Émission du 9 avril 2009:
-Dossier de l'économie: l'entreprise criminel de la division spéculative d'AIG, les membres du gouvernement d'Obama qui sont des anciens du secteur financier ou qui ont touché de l'argent d'AIG, et quelques faits importants à connaitre pour voir clair dans cette "crise";
-Tour du monde de l'actualité avec la chronique des nouvelles internationales.
***Hyperliens vers les sources des informations discutées sur l'émission d'aujourd'hui:
Preuve de thermite (démolition contrôlée) dans les débris des WTC 9/11:
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
Webmaster's Commentary:
Folks, this is a major story and will be totally ignored by ABCNNBBCBS.
This is a peer-reviewed report in a science journal which confirms the presence of a manufactured material consisting of tiny flakes of aluminum metal coated with iron oxide discovered at four different locations in the wreckage of the
Aluminum and iron oxide, mixed equally by weight, is the classic recipe for thermite. This material is very fine, increasing its burn speed, and apparently has some additional components (besides the very fine granular size) which lower the ignition temperature.
This report directly contradicts the official government claim that there was no trace of internal explosives in the ruins of the
See Thermite and the WTC Collapses
http://www.bentham-open.org/pages/content.php?TOCPJ/2009/00000002/00000001/7TOCPJ.SGM
Scientists find active 'super-thermite' in WTC dust
Jones has told Visibility911.com, "In short, the paper explodes the official story that 'no evidence' exists for explosive/pyrotechnic materials in the WTC buildings."
Webmaster's Commentary:
Remember that NIST report? NIST officials involved with nano-thermites
“Was the steel tested for explosives or thermite residues? … NIST did not test for the residue of these compounds in the steel.” NIST Responses to FAQs, August 2006
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
Kudos to
Économie:
U.S. Debtor Meets G20 Creditors at the Dollar's Funeral
In my view, the
The G20 Moves the World a Step Closer to a Global Currency
The Financial New World Order: Towards a Global Currency and World Government
Following the
G20 leaders get OECD warning that global trade is in freefall
World leaders gathering for Thursday's G20 summit in
The OECD expects global trade volumes to slump by 13% this year. "International trade is in freefall," it said.
It expects its member economies to shrink by an average 4.3% this year, with the
Separately, the World Bank forecast that growth in the developing world would slow to just 2.1% this year from 5.8% in 2008.
Protesters storm RBS office as thousands of anti-capitalists ransack the City in G20 riot
Webmaster's Commentary:
Check out the photo with the caption "Storming the banks". It looks like the "crowd" consists mostly of news photographers, which suggests they were told ahead of time to expect that window to be broken.
Storming the banks: Demonstrators smashed windows at the Royal Bank of
Who Controls The Black Bloc Anarchists?
Government Decides Who Protests At G20: Violent anarchists allowed to smash up buildings despite announcing target in advance, yet anti-poverty group barred from protesting.
Five activists arrested in G20 'bomb plot' as London goes into lockdown for world leaders
Five people suspected of terrorist offences are being questioned by police today in connection with an alleged plot to target the G20 summit.
Three men and two women have been arrested under the Terrorism Act in
They are being questioned over claims they planned to target the meeting of the world's most powerful political leaders in
Webmaster's Commentary:
I have to wonder if this "plot" was staged in order to justify keeping the protesters at a greater distance from the troublemakers, I mean, the financial leaders.
G20 warned unrest will sweep globe
A wave of social and political unrest could sweep through the world's poorest countries if G20 leaders fail to come to their aid, the World Bank warns today, as new research says the credit crunch will cost developing countries $750bn (£520bn) in lost output and drive millions more into poverty.
Ahead of G20 summit, council told to switch off illegal £15m CCTV network
The security operation at this week's G20 summit was thrown into chaos last night when it emerged that the entire network of central
The Department for Transport (DfT) has ruled that
Webmaster's Commentary:
I guess we know where the next false-flag attack is scheduled to occur!
G20 "Terrorist Plot" Exposed As Teenagers With Plastic Guns And Fireworks
Yesterday's reports of a foiled "terrorist plot" in relation to the G20 protests in
G20 summit – leaders' statement
Gordon Brown has unveiled a $1.1 trillion rescue fund for the global economy at the end of the G20 summit in
Harper hails G20 agreement as 'unprecedented' global response
Thieving, Lying Obama hails 'historic' G20 summit and Pledges to Give another 750bn Away
BBC - Barack Obama: 'By any measure the
U.S. signals new era for global economy
On the eve of a global economic summit here, President Obama delivered an unusual warning Wednesday for an American leader: The "voracious"
The statement signaled a recognition of a new economic era with a less dominant
Webmaster's Commentary:
In other words, the G20 has sidelined the
Protesters battle police ahead of NATO summit
Riot police clashed with hundreds of protesters on Thursday ahead of a NATO summit of world leaders, firing repeated rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse the crowds.
The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the
The crash of '09, the collapse of '10
I told you that it's a funny world getting funnier. Many American analysts are saying that
Webmaster's Commentary:
"The last official act of any government is to loot the nation." -- Michael Rivero
Another Huge Job-Loss Month as Jobless Rate Hits 8.5% After 663,000 Jobs Lost in March
The New York Times Jack Healy -The American economy shed another 663,000 jobs in March, the government reported Friday, bringing the toll of job losses during the recession to more than 5 million.
The agency also drastically revised the job losses in January to 741,000 from the earlier report of 655,000, but left February’s job loss estimate of 651,000 unchanged.
“There is no letup,” said James O’Sullivan, senior
Let's Play Pretend! by Peter Schiff
When elementary school kids want to escape the confines of their circumstances they pretend to be pirates, princesses, and Jedi knights. Now, with the relaxation of "mark to market" valuation rules announced yesterday by the accounting trade's self-regulatory body, our bankrupt financial institutions can escape their own reality by pretending to be solvent. The unraveling of our fairytale economy over the last few months has not yet convinced us that the time has come to put away childish things. The applause that greeted the news yesterday on Wall Street is a clear sign that we still have some growing up to do.
Bankrupting the world
The so-called Public Private Partnership Investment Program (PPPIP) introduced last Monday, by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner not only stands to bankrupt
Webmaster's Commentary:
The PPPIP plan, coupled with the switch back to mark-to-market accounting, is an engraved invitation for Wall Street to become hideously wealthy without having to actually provide any products or services for the cash. They just take (or buy) toxic assets, revise their value upwards (as is allowed under mark-to-market), dump them for pennies, and go to the PPPIP for an 85% reimbursement of their "losses" and all on the backs of the US taxpayers.
I call it the "Mother of all Fuckings!"
Proof that Geithner's Bank Plan Is a Massive Giveaway to the Bastards Who Started This Mess
Recall the Geithner Bank Plan in a nutshell: private investors will partner with the government to buy those "toxic" assets off of struggling "zombie banks." The buyers would put about 7 percent of the purchase price down, and the Treasury Department would match that with another 7 or so percent. Then the FDIC would offer government-backed loans for the remainder.
If the assets were to recover their value and turn a profit down the road, the investors would split the profits with the government. But if they don't -- if their values continue to tank, and it's entirely likely many will -- then you and I and everyone else we know who pays taxes will be on the hook for the lion's share of the losses.
Webmaster's Commentary:
And because of the loosening of the mark-to-market restrictions, the banks can revalue the assets upward, GUARANTEEING that they will never sell at a profit.
Toxic Asset Plan Will Leave The Same Amount Of Toxic Assets In The System, But With the Taxpayers Now Liable For Most Of The Losses
The government is guaranteeing 85% of the value of the toxic assets.
So the taxpayers (who anteed up for the bailout funds which the banks are now using to purchase the assets) will again pick up the tab when the assets turn out to not be worth as much as the banks are paying for them.
Webmaster's Commentary:
At the end of the day, in the way this deal has been structured, it is We the People, We the Taxpayers who are winding up getting screwed twice.
Angry yet?!?!?
The Fed Did Indeed Cause the Housing Bubble
In 1995, a senior Clinton Administration official shared with me the Administration’s targets for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage volumes in low- and moderate-income communities. We had recently reviewed the Administration’s plans to increase government mortgage guarantees — most of these mortgages would also be pooled and sold as securities to investors. Even in 1995, I could see that these plans would create unserviceable debt loads in communities struggling with the falling incomes expected from globalization. Homeowners would default on mortgages while losses on mortgage-backed securities would drain retirement savings from 401(k)s and pension plans. Taxpayers would ultimately be hit with a large bill . . .
Webmaster's Commentary:
And look at the implied admission that the people pushing for globalism KNOW that it means a reduced lifestyle for the world's working people.
Economist: US collapse driven by 'fraud,' Geithner covering up bank insolvency
In an explosive interview on PBS' Bill Moyers Journal, William K. Black, a professor of economics and law with the University of Missouri, alleged that American banks and credit agencies conspired to create a system in which so-called "liars loans" could receive AAA ratings and zero oversight, amounting to a massive "fraud" at the epicenter of US finance.
Bill Moyers' interview with William K. Black
The financial industry brought the economy to its knees, but how did they get away with it? With the nation wondering how to hold the bankers accountable, Bill Moyers sits down with William K. Black, the former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. Black offers his analysis of what went wrong and his critique of the bailout
Senior S&L Regulator Says Government Engaging in Massive Cover-Up of Economic Crisis: “The Entire Strategy Is to Keep People from Getting the Facts”
[They] don't want to change the bankers, because if we do, if we put honest people in, who didn't cause the problem, their first job would be to find the scope of the problem. And that would destroy the cover up....
Geithner is ... covering up. Just like Paulson did before him....
These are all people who have failed. Paulson failed, Geithner failed. They were all promoted because they failed....
Until you get the facts, it's harder to blow all this up. And, of course, the entire strategy is to keep people from getting the facts....
Stiglitz: Bank Plan Makes Taxpayers Suckers
“The Obama administration’s $500 billion or more proposal to deal with
“Actually, it is a win-win-lose proposal: the banks win, investors win — and taxpayers lose.”
Geithner urges overhaul of financial regulations
Geithner told a
Webmaster's Commentary:
We HAD a "stable system with a modernized government regulatory structure!" But Congress repealed it all in 1999!
The Insolvency of the Fed
Since August 15, 1971 the US dollar has been an irredeemable paper currency. Every irredeemable paper currency in history has failed. Yet, the experiment of the US dollar and the rest of the fiat paper world continues.
During the current crisis, however, financial systems all over the world are increasingly struggling, and the end of the experiment seems closer. In fact, the Federal Reserve System has used up much of its "ammunition" for monetary interventions in an attempt to keep the experiment going, lowering its target interest rate almost to zero.
What the Pros Say: US Is Now 'Bankrupt'
Global stocks traded higher, as did the dollar against the euro, Thursday after the Federal Reserve's surprise announcement it would buy $300 billion in US Treasurys in order to help the ailing economy.
But experts tell CNBC they have concerns over the Fed's latest move and that the current national balance sheet is a disaster.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Where does the Federal Reserve get the money to buy the treasuries?
They just print it up!
Where does the US Government get those treasuries to sell?
They just print them up!
The U.S. Financial System Is Effectively Insolvent
For those who argue that the rate of growth of economic activity is turning positive--that economies are contracting but at a slower rate than in the fourth quarter of 2008--the latest data don't confirm this relative optimism. In 2008's fourth quarter, gross domestic product fell by about 6% in the U.S., 6% in the euro zone, 8% in Germany, 12% in Japan, 16% in Singapore and 20% in South Korea. So things are even more awful in Europe and Asia than in the
There is, in fact, a rising risk of a global L-shaped depression that would be even worse than the current, painful U-shaped global recession.
Why the End of America is Closer than You Think
The oft-repeated creation of $1 trillion in new money out of thin air by the Federal Reserve has made the U.S. dollar the laughing stock of the world. The leaders of the G20 nations have already decided to ditch the dollar and shift to other world reserve currencies, and China is now blatantly and publicly asking the U.S. put up some kind of collateral to back up future debt purchases, to which the U.S. says "Don't worry about the debt. We're good for it!"
It has all taken on the caricature of a political circus. The perception around the world now is that
The Federal Reserve says the recession has cut many Americans' net worth by about 20 percent as the value of homes, stock portfolios and businesses plummet.
The Federal Reserve says the recession has cut many Americans' net worth by about 20 percent as the value of homes, stock portfolios and businesses plummet.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Anyone seen their property tax bills go down by 20%?
Georgia furloughs 25,000 workers
Pensions Scandal: Huge tax payers' loss funding huge pension
This huge pension (£650,000 per year funded from a £16 million pension pot), paid for by tax payers (thanks to RBS's huge loses), is a scandal. A clear cut case of socialising the loses (from the "bad years") and privatizing the profits (from the "good years"). How about that pension pot being used instead to repay the bank's creditors, instead of the government forcing the tax payer to be stuck with holding toxic assets and making huge repayments to the bank's creditors.
Little-known agency that insures pensions of 44 million workers braces for recession fallout
The deepening recession spells trouble for a little-known government corporation that insures the pensions of 44 million workers and retirees.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. already has an $11 billion deficit that seems sure to grow larger as Corporate America suffers through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Existing Home Sales Fall 4.6%
Home prices dropped 15% from the same period one year ago; Despite the price drop, sales fell 4.6%. How anyone can try to spin this as a positive is beyond my mathematical comprehension.
Real estate investors: ‘Tsunami’ still ahead
“The job market will be the last piece of this to recover,” said economist Sam Chandan, a panelist at the quarterly meeting of the Real Estate Investment Advisory Council. REIAC members were polled on questions including where unemployment will top out; 64 percent said it could go as high as 12 percent.
Pictured: The credit crunch tent city which has returned to haunt America
A century and a half ago it was at the centre of the Californian gold rush, with hopeful prospectors pitching their tents along the banks of the
Today, tents are once again springing up in the city of
With
California "tent city" for homeless to be closed
The mayor of
Webmaster's Commentary:
Translation: "We can't fix the economy, but we can at least make ourselves look like the problem has gone away!"
Sarkozy under pressure as 'millions' take to streets
As many as three million people took to the streets across
The protests, which polls show are backed by three quarters of the French public, reflect growing disillusion with Sarkozy's pledges of reform as the crisis has thrown tens of thousands out of work and left millions more worried about their jobs.
Million French workers march against Sarkozy
More than a million angry French workers took to the streets Thursday in a nationwide strike to force President Nicolas Sarkozy to boost wages and protect jobs as the economic crisis deepens.
It's a bird...It's a plane...No, it's Spitzer to the Rescue
Consider what Spitzer is saying; that the lumbering Goliath, AIG, is at the very center of the gigantic derivatives fraud which took trillion of dollars of undercapitalized credit default swaps (CDS) and sold them (as insurance) to myriad other financial institutions to help them maintain artificially high ratings on complex securities whose real value was always in doubt since the underlying collateral was connected to uncreditworthy borrowers who were more likely to default or go into foreclosure. Whew! These CDS are the paper claims to fictive wealth which greatly inflated the world's biggest speculative bubble. These unregulated swaps are the tissue that holds together the failing shadow banking system which both Geithner and Bernanke are committed to preserve.
AIG suffers $62B loss, bailout revamped
AIG's loss for the full year was even more dramatic -- $99 billion. In 2007, the company reported a profit of $9.3 billion.
To keep both the company from cratering and causing broader fallout across the financial system, the government said it would overhaul its bailout, which is aimed at helping the besieged firm unwind in an orderly way.
Webmaster's Commentary:
"Unwind" means we are dealing with derivatives losses here.
The plan is to dump those losses on YOU, the taxpayer, and enslave you to quadrillions in debt in perpetuity.
A.I.G. to Pay $100 Million in Bonuses After $180 billion Bailout
The New York Times EDMUND L. ANDREWS and PETER BAKER
450 MILLION in AIG Bonuses to be paid, not the reported 150 million
"I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that . . . I've always thought that under-populated countries in
Lawrence Summers, Oboma's Director of the WH National Economic Council in a 1991 memo while at the World Bank. Summers is leading the chorus demanding that Wall Street gangsters be allowed to keep their bonuses.
AIG to hand out $450M in bonuses despite bailout
Obama "Outraged" at AIG?
I guess the president doesn't follow Goldman Sachs, which paid out a company record $11B in pay and bonuses after grabbing $10B from taxpayers.
Gee, let's see...
$11B (GS) vs. $
110% of taxpayer funds (GS) vs. 0.1% of taxpayer funds (AIG)
Obama Received a $101,332 Bonus from AIG
Senator Barack Obama received a $101,332 bonus from American International Group in the form of political contributions according to Opensecrets.org. The two biggest Congressional recipients of bonuses from the A.I.G. are - Senators Chris Dodd and Senator Barack Obama.
Webmaster's Commentary:
That explains why Obama says he can do nothing about taxpayer money going to bonuses.
Obama connections with international banking elite
Dodd facing fresh political firestorm
Dodd just admitted on CNN that he inserted a loophole in the stimulus legislation that allowed million-dollar bonuses to insurance giant AIG to go forward – after previously denying any involvement in writing the controversial provision.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Chris Dodd is the second largest recipient of campaign contributions from AIG ... after Obama.
Geithner Received $434,668 Severance Package From NY Federal Reserve Bank
AP- Geithner's financial disclosure filing released Tuesday showed he has assets valued at between $740,000 and $1.7 million. His biggest asset is partial ownership of vacation property on Cape Cod in
Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a 32-year veteran of investment firm Goldman Sachs, had an estimated net worth of more than $700 million when he joined the Bush administration in 2006.
To obey conflict of interest rules, Paulson agreed to sell over 3.2 million shares of stock in Goldman Sachs that were valued at more than $480 million in the summer of 2006.
Geithner was confirmed by the Senate on Monday by a 60-34 vote with those opposing the nomination expressing unhappiness with Geithner's explanation of why he had failed initially to pay $
The new disclosure filing showed that Geithner earned $
Geithner’s Dirty Little Secret
What Geithner does not want the public to understand, his ‘dirty little secret’ is that the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000 allowed the creation of a tiny handful of banks that would virtually monopolize key parts of the global ‘off-balance sheet’ or Over-The-Counter derivatives issuance.
Today five
Geithner Aides Worked With AIG for Months on Bonuses
Since the fall, senior aides to Timothy Geithner have closely dealt with American International Group Inc. on compensation issues including bonuses, both from his time as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of
Follow the Bailout Cash
By Michael Isikoff and Dina Fine Maron | NEWSWEEK
Published Mar 21, 2009
There was plenty of outrage on Capitol Hill last week over the executive bonuses paid out by AIG after getting federal bailout money. But another money trail could make voters just as angry: the campaign dollars to members of Congress from banks and firms that have received billions via the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
While a few big firms, such as Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase, have curtailed their campaign giving, others are quietly doling out cash to select members of Congress, particularly those who serve on committees that oversee TARP. In recent filings with the Federal Election Commission, the political action committee for Bank of America (which got $15 billion in bailout money) sent out $
The cash flow is already causing angst inside the Beltway. "The last thing I want to do is wake up one morning and see our PAC check being burned on C-Span," said one bank lobbyist, who asked not to be identified because of the issue's sensitivity. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Financial Services chair Rep. Barney Frank both said recently they won't take donations from TARP recipients. But House Democratic fundraisers have quietly passed the word that the party's campaign committee will resume accepting them—but down the road, not right now. Said one fundraiser, who also requested anonymity, "These are treacherous waters."
AIG Bonuses Add to Potential for Public Revolt against Wall Street, Federal Reserve
Webmaster's Commentary:
The revolt is inevitable; we're just waiting for a starting time!
AIG Paying Millions in Bonuses Despite Receiving Federal Bailout
Despite receiving $170 billion in federal aid and recording a staggering loss for the last quarter, insurance giant American International Group is doling out tens of million of dollars in bonuses this week to senior employees.
Rage at AIG Swells As Bonuses Go Out
A tidal wave of public outrage over bonus payments swamped American International Group yesterday. Hired guards stood watch outside the suburban
"It's a mob effect," one senior executive said. "It's putting people's lives in danger."
Webmaster's Commentary:
Bottom line: If the US Government cannot control what bailed out companies do with our money, then the Us Government should cease handing out our money.
NO MORE BAILOUTS! PERIOD!!!
AIG Defends Bonuses As “The Cold Realities of Competition”
AIG Defends Bonuses As “The Cold Realities of Competition”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of AIG said on Wednesday the “cold realities of competition” compelled the insurer to pay $165 million in bonuses, and acknowledged that bailout-weary Americans’ patience was running thin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbgvVuHhmbs&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Enew...
Terrorism By Another Name: AIG Is Blackmailing America
When will people start demanding that the government rescind AIG's credit default swaps? The government has that power. Indeed, the same arguments which have been made for the government's authority to cancel AIG's bonus contracts can be used to cancel AIG's CDS contracts. In order to receive any more bailout money (and to have to give back money they already received), AIG's counterparties need to cancel their CDS contracts. And for foreign CDS counterparties, the government could simply say "we will not loan your central banks any more money unless you cancel the CDS contracts".
Top U.S., European Banks Got $50 Billion in AIG Aid
The beneficiaries of the government's bailout of American International Group Inc. include at least two dozen
Among those institutions are Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and
----
So taxpayers had to pay $180 Billion to "save" AIG... and they turned and gave the money to banks that were not going under? This highway robbery right out in the open!
German and French banks got $36 billion from AIG Bailout
The majority of the funds—$58 billion—went to banks headquartered outside the
To put these numbers in perspective, remember that the
How much of AIG’s bailout/handout is financing Israeli mortgages in Jerusalem & the West Bank?
Senator Sanders: “Will you tell the American people to whom you lent $2.2 trillion of their dollars?”
Ben Bernanke: “No.”
One can only surmise Bernanke’s reasoning. He claims he doesn’t want to spook the banks and the markets or some such claptrap. I have another possible reason: Bernanke, being an Orthodox Jew, doesn’t want the American public to get any inkling of
AIG owns a company in
Hedge fund paid Obama adviser Summers $5.2 million
Lawrence Summers, a top economic adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama, was paid about $5.2 million by hedge fund D.E. Shaw in the past year, financial disclosure forms released by the White House showed on Friday.
Summers, a former U.S. Treasury secretary and Harvard University president, also was paid $2.7 million in speaking fees by a range of organizations and companies, including several troubled Wall Street financial firms, they showed.
Bank of America May Increase Salaries for Investment Bankers
Bank of America Corp. plans to increase some investment bankers’ salaries by as much as 70 percent following the takeover earlier this year of Merrill Lynch & Co., people familiar with the proposal said.
Misdirected “Bailout Rage” Sets Pretext For New Financial World Order
The backlash or “bailout rage” as others have dubbed it, has been further heightened by revelations regarding AIG’s squandering of almost $100 billion in taxpayer rescue funding - which it siphoned off to Goldman Sachs and a number of European banks - in addition to the company’s plan to continue issuing massive bonuses to the people in the very division that were responsible for it’s spiraling derivative-driven downturn.
The intention to use such practices to push for increased authoritative regulation is clear.
The Real AIG Conspiracy
"The
Citigroup CEO awarded $10.8 million
Citigroup Inc awarded Chief Executive Vikram Pandit $10.82 million of compensation in 2008, a year when the government propped up the bank with $45 billion of capital.
Webmaster's Commentary:
... which YOU will be forced to repay down the road.
Merrill Lynch Bonus Payments Dwarf A.I.G..
Anger over the bonuses at A.I.G. blew back onto members of the Obama administration as it was revealed that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and others had been aware of the bonus payments but failed to halt them and did not express "outrage," until the bonus checks were already cashed. Further revelations of backroom dealings and million-dollar bonuses threaten to make any kind of assistance to financial institutions politically impossible for Congress.
A larger and potentially far more explosive powder keg of bonus payments - this time to top executives at now defunct Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. - may be about to blow.
In its last days as an independent company, Merrill gave performance-based bonuses exclusively to employees earning $
Former AIG chief: Bailout not working
Former AIG Chief Executive Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, blaming his successors for the mistakes that led to the company's failure, told Congress Thursday that the government's plan to unwind the giant insurer is not working and threatens its ability to pay back the billions it has received in taxpayer funds.
Webmaster's Commentary:
So guess who gets stuck with the tab!
THEY KNEW! - AIG was a Ponzi scheme plain and simple
AIG was a Ponzi scheme plain and simple, yet the Obama Administration still thinks of AIG as a real company that simply took excessive risks. No, to us what the fraud Bernard Madoff is to individual investors, AIG is to the global financial community.
Why It Could Be Curtains for the Euro
The biggest victim of the global housing and credit bubble may be the euro — the single currency of 16 European nations. Having just celebrated its 10th birthday in a free-fall, the euro is being exposed for all of its structural weaknesses.
Sean O'Grady: Next stop in the crisis could be the collapse of the euro
Yet, in its own small way, Ireland and the other economic sick men of Europe could presage the most violent international currency crisis in decades; the break-up of the euro. Alarmist? Certainly. Impossible? Certainly not.
US, UK, Eurozone Banks Face Collapse: Global Banking System Insolvent
Work on 124 Skyscrapers Stopped by Financial Crisis
Considering that the
Less affected are European countries, where 7 of 119 skyscraper projects (5.9%) have stopped in 2008, including
Get Ready for Mass Retail Closings
About 220,000 stores may close this year in
Marc Faber "U S will default on debt or enter hyperinflation" 02-05-09
Bad economy forcing immigrants to reconsider U.S.
Pablo is an illegal immigrant from
Pentagon issues performance pay and bonuses averaging 8.35 percent
Nearly all of the employees in the Defense Department's new personnel system were rewarded for their job performance in their first paychecks of 2009, with the average pay raise and bonus totaling 8.35 percent.
Webmaster's Commentary:
This the same Pentagon that lost $3 trillion of the taxpayers money a few years back?
Growing List of Officials and Experts Warn of Depression-Induced Violence
The number of high-level officials and experts warning that the economic crisis could lead to revolt and revolution world-wide - even in the
The U.S. Army War College in November warned in a monograph [click on Policypointers’ pdf link to see the report] titled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development” of crash-induced unrest:
The Credit Card Debt Crisis: The Next Economic Domino
Hot on the heels of the banking crisis, the employment crisis, and the mortgage/foreclosure crisis, the country is on the verge of experiencing a credit card crisis.
Webmaster's Commentary:
None of this would be happening if the US Government had not handed tax credits to corporations to encourage them to offshore high-paying manufacturing jobs.
For thirty years manufacturing has been driven from these shores by a government and a corporate culture that felt making products was beneath their dignity. Wise and prudent observers warned that this would mean the ultimate ruin for the
Buffett Predicts an “Onslaught of Inflation”
He goes on to explain the foreseeable inflationary threat:
“These once-unthinkable dosages will almost certainly bring on unwelcome aftereffects. Their precise nature is anyone’s guess, though one likely consequence is an onslaught of inflation.”
Late Credit Card Payments Hitting Records
In January, late payments on credit cards hit a record high, according to Fitch Ratings. By year end, Fitch estimates that credit-card defaults, or balances that credit-card companies write off as uncollectible, will surpass the previous record of 7.7% recorded by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in the first quarter of 2002, and approach 9%. Defaults hit a record low of 1.37% in the first quarter of 1984 and hovered well under 5% during the recent boom years, according to the FDIC.
GM says it will go bust in days without new US bail-out
General Motors today warned it would go bust within 30 days unless the
Webmaster's Commentary:
It is going to go bust ANYWAY. Nobody wants to buy their cars. STOP THROWING GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD!!!!!!
Gold & The Panic Phase
Worst collapse in UK manufacturing in four decades
The “horrendous” scale of
Toxic Asset Plan Foresees Big Subsidies for Investors
The plan is likely to offer generous subsidies, in the form of low-interest loans, to coax investors to form partnerships with the government to buy toxic assets from banks.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Back in September, TARP was sold to us all for $800 billion as a plan to buy up the toxic assets. Here we are an estimated $11 trillion later and it still has not happened!
And now that they are finally "getting around to it", they are planning to buy the toxic assets with low interest loans to get private investors to do what the government claimed it was doing with taxpayer money!
And this idea that auctioning the assets to the highest bidder will protect the taxpayers' forced "investment" is nonsense, because if the assets had any real worth, they would not be a toxic problem to start with.
So, in the end, the government will get the gold from the gold mine and the people will get the shaft!
... in the end.
Again.
Russia backs return to Gold Standard to solve financial crisis
Webmaster's Commentary:
"Oh my gawd, attack! Attack! Attack NOW! NOW, NOW, NOW!!!!!!" -- Official White Horse Souse
Head of China's Central Bank Proposes New World Currency
There have been rumors and announcements from
And the IMF has said that it is considering printing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of its own currency.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Isn't that what got us INTO this mess?
China Backs Russian Call To Discuss Replacing US Dollar
MOSCOW, March 19 (Reuters) - China and other emerging nations back Russia's call for a discussion on how to replace the dollar as the world's primary reserve currency, a senior Russian government source said on Thursday.
Calls for a rethink of the dollar's status as world's sole benchmark currency come amid concerns about its long-term value as the U.S. Federal Reserve moved to pump more than a trillion dollars of new cash into the ailing economy late Wednesday.
Obama Denounces Global Currency While Creating The Very Means For Its Introduction
Obama, Geithner and Bernanke yesterday publicly defended the dollar and denounced proposals by
US backing for world currency stuns markets
US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner shocked global markets by revealing that Washington is "quite open" to Chinese proposals for the gradual development of a global reserve currency run by the International Monetary Fund.
The dollar plunged instantly against the euro, yen, and sterling as the comments flashed across trading screens. David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC, said the apparent policy shift amounts to an earthquake in geo-finance.
"The mere fact that the US Treasury Secretary is even entertaining thoughts that the dollar may cease being the anchor of the global monetary system has caused consternation," he said.
IBM to Slash 5,000 Services Jobs in United States
IBM will cut about 5,000 jobs in the
Webmaster's Commentary:
Those 5000 will now have trouble keeping up with mortgage and credit card payments, and the media will bash them as "irresponsible" when their homes are foreclosed.
How the banks can arbitrage the Toxic asset plan.
How the banks can arbitrage the Toxic asset plan.
I am still not 100% sure of its structure but it would appear to be like this….
1) Private entity bids for toxic asset held by bank.
2) Private entity takes risk on 7.5%
3) FDIC takes 85% and Treasury takes 7.5%
So to arbitrage the scheme;
1) Bank sets up Private entity
2) Private entity bids $100 for an asset that is only worth $50
3) Bank therefore has a windfall of $50
4) Asset returns to its real value of $50 after being transferred, a 50% fall.
5) Private entity looses 50% of its $7.50. Namely $3.75
6) Net the combined Private entity and Bank make $46.25 ($50-$3.75). And obviously the tax payer looses the same
Moody's cuts Bank of America debt ratings
"Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday cut the debt ratings of Bank of America Corp., and sent its rating of the bank's preferred stock into junk territory, citing an increasing risk that government intervention may be needed to bolster the bank's capital position."
New Rule Would Allow Banks To Choose Values Of Their Assets
The Financial Accounting Standards Board quietly buckled to banking-industry pressure last week and proposed new accounting practices that would allow banks to value assets at a higher price than they could currently be sold for.
Banks have long demanded the "mark-to-market" accounting rule change, arguing that it's unfair to require them to mark toxic assets down to current market prices because the very market for those assets is frozen.
Webmaster's Commentary:
This is why the stock market is soaring right now.
But "Mark to Market" only works for a short while, then will crash the system. That is what happened to Enron, who (together with Arthur Anderson) used "Mark to Market" to proclaim huge earnings and wealth even as they sank into the quicksand with their employees and investors.
U.S. Injecting Billions Into Foreign Central Banks
For more than a year, the U.S. Federal Reserve System has been increasingly acting as the world's central bank, injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into foreign government treasuries in an effort to increase liquidity in those countries.
The foreign central banks have used the
Webmaster's Commentary:
With OUR money???????
Resist or Become Serfs
Actualité et nouvelles du monde:
Cartel de l'essence : le complot serait plus vaste qu'on le croyait
Une demande de recours collectif sera déposée lundi
ARGENT, avec TVA et PC
Le cartel de l'essence découvert l'été dernier au Québec pourrait être beaucoup plus vaste que ce que l’on pensait.
Un avocat s’apprêterait à élargir le recours collectif présentement devant les tribuaux. La poursuite pourrait maintenant viser pas moins de 42 pétrolières, distributeurs et détaillants.
Le recours fait suite à l’enquête du Bureau de la concurrence qui, en juin 2008, avait conduit au dépôt d’accusations contre 13 individus et 11 sociétés actifs à Victoriaville, Thetford Mines, Magog et Sherbrooke.
« Nous avons obtenu des résumés de conversations téléphoniques enregistrées par le Bureau auprès de membres du cartel représentant des compagnies pétrolières », a indiqué Me Pierre Lebel.
L’avocat entend notamment s’appuyer sur ces échanges pour mettre en preuve que la fixation des prix de l’essence s’est étendue à la grandeur de la province.
À la mi-mars, deux autres individus et une autre société ont plaidé coupable d'avoir comploté pour fixer le prix de l'essence à la pompe à Victoriaville et à Thetford Mines.
Le total des amendes infligées dans cette affaire atteint maintenant plus de 2,6 millions $. Des cinq individus qui ont plaidé coupable, trois ont été condamnés à des peines d'emprisonnement totalisant 32 mois.
Quatre sociétés ont jusqu’à maintenant reconnu leur culpabilité. Il s’agit de Philippe Gosselin & Associés, Les Pétroles Therrien, dont le commerce est exploité sous la bannière Pétro-T, Distributions Pétrolières Therrien et Ultramar.
Le Bureau de la concurrence poursuit son enquête sur la présumée fixation des prix de vente au détail de l'essence dans d'autres marchés au Canada.
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Unveils Global Governance Agenda
The Council on Foreign Relations, often described as the "real state department", has launched an initiative to promote and implement a system of effective world governance.
Henry Kissinger, a CFR member, anticipates that President Obama will, "…give new impetus to American foreign policy partly because the reception of him is so extraordinary around the world. I think his task will be to develop an overall strategy for
The program, titled " The International Institutions and Global Governance Program," utilizes the resources of the "…David Rockefeller Studies Program to assess existing regional and global governance mechanisms…"
Analysis: Crisis may lead to new world order
Story Highlights
- First challenge for G-20 is to not make things worse
Asian, Latin American nations' involvement at G-20 may reduce G-8 influence
By Robin Oakley
For CNN
New World Order: Still A Conspiracy Theory?
Despite the fact that the term “new world order” was mentioned in connection with the G20 this week hundreds of times by both global leaders and in news reports, it is still regarded as a “conspiracy theory” by that bastion of truthiness, Wikipedia.
Obama warns NATO allies of 'serious terrorist attack'
Obama in terror warning to NATO allies
STRASBOURG, France (AFP) - US President Barack Obama warned his European NATO allies Friday that they face a greater risk of terror attacks than America and that he needs their help to defeat Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Earth-lover Gore doesn't love 'Earth Hour'
Do as I say, not as I do? Seems like former Vice-President Al Gore may be embracing that motto as evidenced Saturday night by his failure to turn off the lights of his
Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research —the same organization that also found Gore's home consumes 20 times more electricity than the average household — told Yeas & Nays that Gore’s Belle Meade-section mansion did not go dark during the global campaign’s designated hour between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Earth Hour in California - Success or Bust? The CAISO Power graph tells the story.
The real question is did it Earth Hour make a difference one way or the other?
Roger Sowell had a good idea, he download the the graph below from www.caiso.com, the California Independent System Operator. CAISO is in charge of receiving power from power generating plants, and distributing the power throughout the state grid to the various end users.
Now compare the graph from Saturday
Roger notes:
The light gray line is the forecasted power usage, shown in Megawatts. The red line is the actual power consumed. Around 1900 hours, 7 p.m., the load was approximately 24,000 MW. By 8:00, the load increased smoothly to just over 26,000 MW. Then the load began a steady decrease right on through the night, ending at around 22,000 MW at almost midnight.
There was no apparent decrease in the power load throughout the state, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. No step changes, nothing, nada, zip, zilch.
There you have it, scientific data showing that the Earth Hour was a total bust in
'Global War On Terror' Is Given New Name
March 25, 2009,
The Obama administration appears to be backing away from the phrase "global war on terror," a signature rhetorical legacy of its predecessor. In a memo e-mailed this week to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department's office of security review noted that "this administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' [GWOT.] Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.' " Senior administration officials had been publicly using the phrase "overseas contingency operations" in a war context for roughly a month before the e-mail was sent. The Bush administration adopted the phrase ["Global War on Terror"] soon after the Sept. 11, 2001. But critics abroad and at home, including some within the
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh created a stir earlier this month when he said the Bush administration ran an “executive assassination ring” that reported directly to Vice President Dick Cheney. “Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or to the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving,” Hersh said.
Should Obama Control the Internet?
A new bill would give the President emergency authority to halt web traffic and access private data.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Change we can believe in? Hardly! Obama is continuing the same trend towards a police state that Bush did, and this latest attempt to create an "Off" switch on the internet only shows that Obama is the bigg$^&57x...[NO CARRIER]
Texans delay 'Agent Orange' spraying on border
Did you know that American authorities want to spray a toxic herbicide over 1.1 million acres of land on the US-Mexico border?
The residents here dodged a bullet when the U.S. Border Patrol delayed the spraying of a toxic herbicide along the
The herbicide, the
However, U.S. citizens living near the 1.1 mile spray area took a legal stand to halt the $2.1 million pilot program before it began last week because they haven’t been educated on the effects of the poison, they said.
Webmaster's Commentary:
CBP Spokesperson
The documentation is there and the incontrovertible scientific evidence is in: this product causes birth defects, miscarriages, and cancers. Is this how expendable the people in
Please don't tell me there isn't another way to handle this invasive cane. This may be the cheapest in terms of dollars per pound of chemical, plus the spraying; but it is also the most deadliest in terms of the effects on humans. Someone in the CBP's
As reported in http://www.gsmp.org/agentorange/history.html
" Dioxin is the most toxic and most durable chemical mankind has developed so far. Its half-life is very long. The scientific community has agreed that dioxin causes cancers, terrible deformities, birth defects and many other ailments.
In 1966, 29 American scientists protested the use of the AO/dioxin herbicide by the
At the beginning of the 1970s, the Herbicide Assessment Commission (HAC) - a scientific body - sent a group of experts to
State tourism in 'crisis mode'
Webmaster's Commentary:
The fastest way to stop the loss of tourism is to stop Homeland (In)security and the TSA from treating our tourists like they are prisoners of war as they arrive at and leave our islands.
Survey after survey after survey shows that
Enough already!
In the last 6 months, the US Government has dumped $
Canuck teen's Facebook folly
By The Canadian Press
Insp. Paul Richards of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team's
The ISYF is among several banned groups under
"The ISYF has been linked with a number of violent acts, as well as other extremist groups related to Sikh extremism in
He said the ISYF was investigated following the 1985 Air
On June 22, 1985, explosions on board two separate Air
According to Public Safety Canada, which maintains the list of banned groups, the Babbar Khalsa is a militant Sikh organization dedicated to an independent Sikh state in
Police were first notified about the Facebook page in February and Richards said one of the pictures on the site showed a youth brandishing a prohibited, assault-style weapon.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Local news there reported this weekend that parents at the East Shore Middle School received a letter from Principal Catherine Williams, which said that any touching at all on school grounds — including “hugging” and “horseplay” — could result in “parent conferences, detention, suspension and/or a request for expulsion from school.”
Students have said that they have even been prohibited from “high fiving” classmates in the halls.
The catalyst for the policy — which the school insists has been on the books all along, but which parents and students say is certainly a stricter interpretation than ever before — was an incident earlier this month when a student required treatment in the emergency room after a kick to the groin.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Let's repress the little buggers until they are so crazed that they will gladly take a US Government issued M-16 and kill someone, just to have some kind of human contact!
Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists
The UK Minority Report: Has 'Precrime' Finally Arrived?
A recent article in the UK Independent entitled, Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists, heralds what looks to be the unofficial beginning of British law enforcement's own "Pre-crime" program. For the first time, we can begin to see intelligence gathering and emerging technologies converging in a culture of pre-emptive law enforcement. Officials interviewed in this article are keen to play down any concerns about racial or religious profiling, insisting the program is an innocuous one. Civil liberties group may argue otherwise.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The government cannot even run an ecomomy and keep the numbers straight. No way do I want them "guessing" about what our children are going to grow up to be.
What if they get it wrong?
Minor example: When I was in High School, I and my fellow seniors were given aptitude tests and a "suggestion" what career path I should follow. I was told I "should" be an architect. And maybe I might have been a good one had I gone that direction. There was no suggestion that I should go into computer animation (it was hardly a socially accepted career at that time) and no suggestion of being a blogger (also not in fashion at the time) and CERTAINLY no suggestion of being a talk radio host.
The failure is that no matter how much data you collect on an individual child, they do not grow up inside a vacuum bottle (despite the best intentions) and you cannot know what changes to the ENVIRONMENT that will alter how that child sees and reacts to the world.
So, this new "pre-crime" or to be more accurate "pre-terror" is the same botched predictive process coupled with coercive "corrections" to the child's upbringing, changes which could easily place the child hopelessly out of sync with the real world as it unfolds before us all.
Phoenix police raid home of blogger whose writing is highly critical of them
Jeff Pataky, who runs Bad Phoenix Cops, said the officers confiscated three computers, routers, modems, hard drives, memory cards and everything necessary to continue blogging.
The 41-year-old software engineer said they also confiscated numerous personal files and documents relating to a pending lawsuit he has against the department alleging harassment - which he says makes it obvious the raid was an act of retaliation.
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Fell by a Record 19%
Home prices in 20
Chicago Sun-Times owner files for bankruptcy
Newspaper publisher is fifth to file for Chapter
One in 10 Americans gets help to buy food
A record 32.2 million people -- one in every 10 Americans -- received food stamps at the latest count, the government said on Thursday, a reflection of the recession now in its 16th month.
Webmaster's Commentary:
16th month? Funny how nobody thought to tell the American people we were in a recession until October of last year!
Democrats Duck Bush Torture Probe
Despite now overwhelming evidence that ex-President George W. Bush and many top aides engaged in a systematic policy of illegal torture, national Democrats appear to be shying away from their recommendation last year for a special prosecutor to investigate these apparent war crimes.
Last June, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and 55 other congressional Democrats signed a letter to then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey demanding a special prosecutor to investigate the growing body of evidence that Bush administration officials had sanctioned torture, which had been documented by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
It looks like Europeans are serious about trying members of the Bush administration for war crimes. It has already been reported that both former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former VP Dick Cheney have changed European travel plans at least once after being warned by legal aides there was a chance they’d be arrested if they set foot on European soil. Now, it’s Douglas Feith’s turn.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Click for torture scandal links
Webmaster's Commentary:
An email exchange with the BBC confirms that "Al Qaeda" gets the blame for everything bad, even when there is no actual who the perp really is.
Louisiana: Public Slams Traffic Cameras in Referendum
In a special election yesterday, a
Webmaster's Commentary:
Across America
North Korea space launch 'fails'
Webmaster's Commentary:
All
And if the launch did fail, then
Obama Asks Security Council to Punish N. Korea
Webmaster's Commentary:
The United States lies to start a war in Iraq, tortures prisoners to death, has actually USED nuclear weapons against another country, and Korea's communications satellite is the problem?
Israel defies the United Nations 65 times, breaks the cease fire with
Mr. Obama, kindly shut the #$%^ up. I didn't think it would be possible, but you are a greater embarrassment to the nation than your predecessor.
The Security Council will not go along with your wishes to pound on
is simply thrashing about the floor in its death throes, striking out at anything that happens to be in reach.
Chavez to seek Arab backing for `petro-currency'
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought Arab support Tuesday for his idea of a new oil-backed currency to challenge the U.S. dollar.
That didn't last long: DEA raids San Francisco Medical Marijuana Clinic
This guy seems hell bent on breaking every single campaign promise as fast as he can. Oh well!
Mexican president: US authorities 'complicit' in drug trafficking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy1LJHvKf-8&feature=player_embedded
The President of Mexico has an unfortunate message for Americans still ignorant of the Drug War's cold realities: Some of your politicians are involved.
Yes folks, it is long-past time to start thinking about alternative strategies for combating both the harmful effects of drug addiction and the deadly effects of forcing an economy outside of the law.
"It is impossible to pass tons of drugs and cocaine to
Webmaster's Commentary:
Monsanto GM-corn harvest fails massively in South Africa
The damage-estimates are being undertaken right now by the local farmers' cooperative, Grain-SA. Monsanto claims that 'less than 25%' of three different corn varieties were 'insufficiently fertilised in the laboratory'.
However Mayet says Monsanto was grossly understating the problem.According to her own information, some farms have suffered up to 80% crop failures.
Webmaster's Commentary:
And, if the botched genes that led to the failure of these corn crops spreads to other farms, (as it is already proven does happen) then those crops will fail in succeeding years.
NYPD moves to cloak midtown with camera license plate readers, and radiation and bio scanners
The NYPD wants to cloak midtown with the same security blanket it rolled out for lower
Webmaster's Commentary:
Relax, the DC boys will stage the next false-flag on the west coast!
The black box that tracks every mile you drive and will make speed cameras obsolete
Webmaster's Commentary:
... and tell the government where you are and where you have been down to the inch!
And that is the real goal, of course, because if taxing you for driving were the agenda, then the current taxes on gasoline and tires, or an odometer tax applied when you re-register your car, suffice for that.
No, the only reason to spend this huge amount of money for these tracking boxes is to TRACK you.
Ohio man asks US to halt deportation in Nazi case
Demjanjuk was sentenced to death in 1988 after being tried and convicted in
Webmaster's Commentary:
So
And his crime? Did he actually kill Jews in the camps? No. Did he kill ANYONE in the camps? No.
He fed the dogs.
That's it.
Demjanjuk is accused of being an accessory to whatever supposedly happened at Sobibor because he fed the guard dogs!
And this is why
Record fine for Soros 'illegal manipulation of financial markets'
The principle financier of the Democrats, the man whose early support catapulted Obama into the lead for the nomination, the man who made billions from the stock market crash that changed everything in the fall campaign (McCain was in the lead when the crisis hit), has been given a record fine by Hungarian financial authorities.
Argentine media hails Argentina-China currency swap deal
Local media on Monday hailed the recently signed China-Argentina currency swap agreement, insisting that
Webmaster's Commentary:
"What? They don't use dollars any more?!? INVADE! INVADE!!" -- Official White Horse Souse
Aucun commentaire:
Publier un commentaire