Bernanke is a Liar, a Money Printer and a Sociopath

Tax revenues can then be spent in the community redeveloping vacant properties, training people for new jobs, or on other economic development programs. That leads to more hiring and paychecks that can help poor homeowners avoid foreclosure, he said.
Bernanke noted lower-income households fell behind on their debt payments at a much higher rate than those with higher incomes. They were also more likely to lose jobs during the recession.
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"Until vulnerable families and troubled communities have regained lost progress, the economic recovery will remain incomplete," Bernanke said.
I Care About Poor People. No, Really I Do.

“The Fed is still your friend if you are invested in cyclical stocks , commodities, and foreign currencies. If you eat food and run your car on gasoline, the Fed will continue to hurt you. If you are looking for a job, you may be wondering why it is still so hard to find ond despite all the money the Fed has spent so far on QE2.0. If you are retired and living on interest from your CDs, then you are getting really squeezed between rising food and fuel prices and the Fed’s zero interest rate policy. In other words, the Fed seems to be doing everything to widen the gap between the Haves and Have Nots than to lower unemployment and boost economic growth, which remains “moderate” according to yesterday’s FOMC statement.”

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/04/yardeni-is-the-fed-your-friend-it-depends/

US and UK Turning Japanese. I really Think So

Ultimately, QE2 screwed savers by robbing them of income through the Fed’s treasury purchases, undermined banks’ earnings by in effect swapping a higher yielding treasury with bank reserves that today yield a mere .25%, and eviscerated the living standards of the middle class by helping to spike the speculative punch bowl in the commodities space. Not a bad trifecta for a Fed Chairman who claims to be doing everything in his power to prevent us from becoming the next Japan but who in fact is hastening our arrival at that very destination
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/04/marshall-auerback-qe2-%e2%80%93-the-slogan-masquarading-as-a-serious-policy.html

Even so, things are beginning to look unnervingly similar to what happened in Japan. Economic developments seem set on much the same glide path. Two and a half years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, there is still painfully little growth to speak of in the UK economy.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/8478502/UK-economy-slides-towards-Japanese-style-funk.html

Brits Have No Confidence

The group said its overall index fell deeper into negative territory, sliding by three points to -31, well down on the -16 it stood at in April last year.
It added that it was only the third time the index had dropped below -30 in the survey's 37-year history, with the previous two occasions being in early 1990 and mid-2008.
Nick Moon, managing director of GfK NOP Social Research, said: "Coming after six months of stagnant economic growth, this is a significant drop – one that is bad news for the government and bad news for the economy.
"It suggests that the attempts to spur growth in last month's budget have failed to convince the public, and this may well be sorely felt on the already-beleaguered high street.
"It is particularly striking that all five areas of the index fell this month, pointing towards growing gloom as we head into summer.
"These figures must make the possibility of a double dip recession increasingly real."
Brother Can You Spare a Quid?

More Heads Roll in Mexico

Graphic Photos

Bernanke. The Ugly American

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's government is removing the tax on maize and wheat imports in a bid to cushion citizens from the effects of rising global food prices.
Wednesday's announcement came three days after the Kenya Red Cross reported that four people died of hunger in the country's Kenya's drought-stricken north
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/04/27/world/africa/AP-AF-Kenya-Rising-Prices.html?hp

KAMPALA, Uganda — Riots broke out in downtown Kampala on Thursday as another round of street demonstrations over commodity prices spread after a leading opposition politician was arrested for the third time in two weeks, significantly heightening tensions here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/world/africa/22uganda.html

No Country For Old Men

“There’s class warfare, all right,” Mr. Buffett said, “but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html

Munger, buddy of billionaire Warren Buffett, made his remarks at a discussion at the University of Michigan. He was defending the bank bailouts that angered so many Americans. Munger said everyone should "thank God" for the bank bailouts.
"Now, if you talk about bailouts for everybody else, there comes a place where if you just start bailing out all the individuals instead of telling them to adapt, the culture dies," he continued.
Munger said the bailouts were required to save America. But he said bailing out everyday Americans would have been a mistake.
"There's danger in just shoveling out money to people who say, 'My life is a little harder than it used to be,'" Munger said. "At a certain place you've got to say to the people, 'Suck it in and cope, buddy. Suck it in and cope.'"
http://news.change.org/stories/billionaire-says-poor-people-should-suck-it-in-and-cope

No Country For Young Men

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Like weathermen announcing the daily rainfall, authorities released another tally of corpses unearthed from pits in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas: 32 bodies discovered in the past week, bringing the monthly total to 177.
Mass Burial Body Count Now at 177

al-Jam'a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah

AFGHAN BOY (holding a gun and making gun noises): Ka-choo! Daga daga daga daga! Pum pum pum! (etc.)
VO: In 1982, Ronald Reagan dedicated the Space Shuttle Columbia to the resistance fighters in Afghanistan.
President RONALD REAGAN : Just as the Columbia, we think, represents man’s finest aspirations in the field of science and technology, so too does the struggle of the Afghan people represent man’s highest aspirations for freedom. I am dedicating, on behalf of the American people, the March 22nd launch of the Columbia to the people of Afghanistan.
VO: Since 1979, the mujaheddin resistance had been fighting a vicious war in Afghanistan against the Soviet invasion. But now, a small group in the Reagan White House saw in these fighters a way of achieving their vision of transforming the world. To them, they were not just nationalists; they were freedom fighters, who could bring down the Soviet Union and help spread democracy around the world. It was called the Reagan Doctrine.


RICHARD PERLE , Assistant Secretary of Defense 1981-1987: We’re closer to being revolutionaries than conservatives, in the sense that we want to change some deeply entrenched notions about the proper role of American power in the world. We want to see that power used constructively, and to enlarge the opportunity for decent governance around the world. We’re not happy about the old, cozy relationships with dictators.
VO: And the man who was going to help the neoconservatives do this was the new head of the CIA, William Casey. He was convinced that Afghanistan was one of the keys to this aggressive new policy. America was already sending limited amounts of aid to the mujaheddin. But now, Casey ordered one of his agents to go and form an alliance with the freedom fighters, and give them as much money as they wanted and the most sophisticated weapons to defeat the Soviet military forces.
MILTON BEARDEN , CIA Field Officer, Afghanistan, 1985-89: For Casey, Afghanistan seemed to be possibly one of the keys. So he tapped me one day to go. He says, “I want you to go out to Afghanistan, I want you to go next month, and I will give you whatever you need to win.” Yeah. He said, “I want you go to there and win.” As opposed to, “let’s go there and bleed these guys,” make a [unintelligible] Vietnam, “I want you to go there and win. Whatever you need, you can have.” He gave me the Stinger missiles and a billion dollars.

VO : American money and weapons now began to pour across the Pakistan border into Afghanistan. CIA agents trained the mujaheddin in the techniques of assassination and terror, including car bombing. And they gave them satellite images of Russian troops to help in their attacks

VO: At the very same time, another group began to arrive in Afghanistan to fight alongside the mujaheddin. They were Arabs from across the Middle East, who had been told by their religious leaders that their duty was to go and free Muslim lands from the Soviet invader.
http://lewrockwell.com/rep/power-of-nightmares2.html