2012-10-05

Ben & Barry's Funky Chunky Monkey Recovery





...[f]oodstamp usage for both persons and households, has jumped to a new all time record.
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More disturbing is that in the same month, the number of US households reliant on foodstamps rose by a whopping 99,493 to 22,541,744.
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Finally, and putting it all into perspective, since December 2007, or the start of the Great Depression ver 2.0, the number of jobs lost is 4.5 million, while those added to foodstamps and disability rolls, has increased by a unprecedented 21 million.

Ben and Barry's Chunky Monkey Recovery
















2012-10-04

Greek Government "Loses" List of Tax Evaders



"[T]he parliament has ordered a full inquiry into how the list slipped through their fingers. It was supplied two years ago by the-then French finance minister Christine Lagarde who, as IMF boss today, is one of Greece’s lead creditors."
Can't Fool the Fatman


 

World Food Prices at 2008 Crisis Levels


FAO's index is below a peak of 238 points hit in February 2011, when high food prices helped drive the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, but current levels are very close to those seen in 2008 which sparked riots in poor countries.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/world-food-prices-edge-sept-082921488.html?l=1


Thanks Bernanke.
 

2012-10-03

Q&A With Neil Barofsky

[A]nd, as we started discussing it, he gave me a warning. He said that I was doing myself real harm for my ”future prospects,” in his words. And by that, he explained that I had a very harsh tone. I was very critical of Wall Street and very critical of the Obama Administration as I was carrying out my job as SIGTARP and providing oversight. And he warned me that if I didn’t change my tone, it was going to hurt my ability to get a job after SIGTARP when I left the government, presumably to go get a job on Wall Street, that I was doing myself real harm. When I explained to him I wasn’t really interested in that, he then said, ”Well, even within the administration.” But then if I changed my tone, became a little bit more upbeat and positive, good things could happen to me. He mentioned even perhaps an Obama appointment as a -- as a federal judge, if only I would change my tone.
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I was once told by an IG pointblank that he wished he could do what I was doing, but he was afraid for his job, that he had kids in college and he had -- he couldn’t afford to lose his job. And that’s one of the problems. They live in fear of being fired if they’re too aggressive in carrying out their duties.
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Geithner was much more dismissive. I didn’t really meet with him all that often. Maybe a couple of meetings at times is very combative, at times very aggressive, at times profane.
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They kept their jobs. They kept their bonuses. They kept their rich compensation they received prior to their bailouts. They kept -- those bonuses were soon restored for those executives.
  http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/307720-1