"These policies are not “beggar-thy-neighbor” but rather are positive-sum, “enrich-thy-neighbor” actions. No really, they are. You got any pot?"

"Wall Street investors hungry for advance information on upcoming federal health-care decisions repeatedly held private discussions with Obama administration officials, including a top White House adviser helping to implement the Affordable Care Act.
/
White House records show that Elizabeth Fowler, then a top ­health-policy adviser to President Obama, met with executives from half a dozen investment firms in 2011 and 2012."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/political-intelligence-firms-set-up-investor-meetings-at-white-house/2013/05/26/73b06528-bccb-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html?hpid=z1

Surely Ms. Fowler knew not much and had even less to share with the investment firms. Right?

"When the legislation that became known as "Obamacare" was first drafted, the key legislator was the Democratic Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, whose committee took the lead in drafting the legislation. As Baucus himself repeatedly boasted, the architect of that legislation was Elizabeth Folwer, his chief health policy counsel; indeed, as Marcy Wheeler discovered, it was Fowler who actually drafted it. As Politico put it at the time: "If you drew an organizational chart of major players in the Senate health care negotiations, Fowler would be the chief operating officer."
/

"Elizabeth Fowler is leaving the White House for a senior-level position leading 'global health policy' at Johnson & Johnson's government affairs and policy group."

The pharmaceutical giant that just hired Fowler actively supported the passage of Obamacare through its membership in the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) lobby. Indeed, PhRMA was one of the most aggressive supporters - and most lavish beneficiaries - of the health care bill drafted by Fowler."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/05/obamacare-fowler-lobbyist-industry1
 

William Z. Ripley

"Prosperity, not real but specious, may indeed be unduly protracted by artificial means, but in the end truth is bound to prevail." William Ripley circa 1927
http://www.unz.org/Pub/RipleyWilliam-1927?View=ReadIt

“Nevertheless, balance sheet policy can still lower longer-term borrowing costs for many households and businesses, and it adds to household wealth by keeping asset prices higher than they otherwise would be.”

Brian P. Sack Executive vice president of the Federal Reserve bank of New York October 4 2010

http://www.ny.frb.org/newsevents/speeches/2010/sac101004.html

 

 

 

 

 

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office declined CSB access to witnesses and the explosion scene, wrote Rafael Moure-Eraso, chairperson of the safety board.
/
When the CSB finally did set up an interview with a plant employee, four armed ATF and State Fire Marshal's Office agents intercepted the employee and took him away before he could speak with CSB investigators, Moure-Eraso said.
/
The CSB is an independent federal agency responsible for investigating industrial-chemical accidents. The April 17 ammonium-nitrate explosion killed 14 people and destroyed a part of the town.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/21/us-texas-explosion-investigation-idUSBRE94K1BO20130521

 

 

 

"While there may be other explanations for this phenomena, Occam's law would lead one in the direction of selective disclosure and trading upon material non-public information. Not that one should be surprised at this. The sheer number of people with privileged information is vast as is the trade in such information via "expert networks", even before considering friends, family, old boys' networks or similar networks of obligation and opportunity.exchange.
/
"Some think, and argue persuasively that Porsche is well-guilty of outright fraud."
http://nihoncassandra.blogspot.com/2013/05/league-of-extraordinary-gentlemen.html

Dazed and Confused Performed by the Original Songwriter

And the classic version:
 

Penetration Tester?

Penetration Tester

Post Date: Feb 14, 2013

Location: Dallas, TX

http://frs.referrals.selectminds.com/jobs/5342?et=7JYWDVN

Systemic Malfunctioning of the Labor and Financial Markets

The sudden barometric change in Washington has arrived so rapidly that it is hard to comprehend. “The town is turning on President Obama,” announced Politico honchos and custodians of the conventional wisdom Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, and they’re right. Republicans are gleefully unleashing a vast investigative apparatus; erstwhile supporters like Jon Stewart are mortified. The black clouds may dissipate within a few days or weeks, or they may hover over the White House for the rest of Obama’s term. In the meantime, it is dizzying enough that, even in such a short period of time, we ought to step back and ask, what the hell just happened here?
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/strange-creation-of-the-obama-scandals.html

"But we must be careful! Injustices are not the monopoly of the underdeveloped countries. They exist in the developed countries too, just as much on the capitalist side as on the socialist.

In the capitalist world, even in the richest countries, there are underdeveloped strata, which in Canada, are beginning to be called 'gray belts'.

As we all know, President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in the USA. According to him, thirty million North Americans were living under sub - human conditions. Although it is true that what are considered sub - human conditions in the developed countries are not quite the same as those in the underdeveloped countries, it is no less true that the gap between poverty and wealth in the rich countries provides some shocking contrasts."
http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/general/spiral-of-violence.htm

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency - Too Complicated and Helping Almost No One

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

“In the 40 years I’ve been working as an economist and investor, I have never seen such a disconnect between the asset market and the economic reality ... Asset markets are in the sky and the economy of the ordinary people is in the dumps, where their real incomes adjusted for inflation are going down and asset markets are going up. Something will break very bad.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/inside-the-market/master-of-doom-marc-faber-is-feeling-gloomy-about-canada/article11788240/

 

 

https://twitter.com/Not_Jim_Cramer

https://twitter.com/Not_Jim_Cramer

You Want Fries With That?

Another scenario is that Aso is giving India and other South Asian countries reason to partner with Japan economically and perhaps militarily, too.
http://qz.com/50615/welcome-to-ireland-where-house-payments-are-optional-apparently/#81814/japanese-official-reaches-back-through-1500-years-of-china-japan-tension/

Grease

Greek banks needed to be recapitalized. Evangelos Venizelos, the fatman pictured, saddled "investors" with a loss of 74% on Greek debt held by these banks. Members of the two political parties that have ruled Greece for the last forty years owe these same banks over $300 million dollars and are not paying.

A probe into these loans was launched by financial investigators for the country of Greece and they are preparing to share their findings with the Greek parliment controlled by these same two political parties. The Greek parliment also recently passed a law granting immunity to the bankers that provided uncollaterized loans to these political parties meaning no one will be prosecuted.
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/04/21/greek-banks-immune-for-political-loans/

 

The existing (and ongoing) massive expansion of base money into the banking systems of the US, England, and Japan is without precedent. As Nomura's Richard Koo notes, at 16x statutory reserves, the liquidity 'should' have led to unprecedented inflation rates of 1,600% in the US, 970% in the UK, and 480% in Japan. However, it has not, yet. In short, Koo explains, businesses and households in these economies have stopped borrowing money even though interest rates have fallen to zero.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-20/japans-inflation-propaganda-and-why-boj-better-hope-its-not-successful

 

 

 

Wage, Wealth Gains, GDP Per Capita and Debt Per Capita

 

 

Note the parabolic rise occuring near when the US went Fiat.

Note how over the same period all the income growth went to the top 10% as the income for the bottom 90% declined. Debt is good for the pigmen who captured all the income gains as public and private debt did a moonshot.

 

The People's Republic of Amerika. Brought to You by the Fine Folks at ExxonMobil and Your Elected Officials

Within a week of the ExxonMobil tar sands oil pipeline burst in Mayflower, Arkansas, ExxonMobil was in charge of the clean-up, the U.S. government had established a no-fly zone over the area, some 40 residents were starting their second week of evacuation, ExxonMobil was threatening to arrest reporters trying to cover the spill, and several homeowners had filed a class action lawsuit seeking damages from the world's second-most-profitable corporation, which had helped keep the pipeline secret from terrorists.
http://www.alternet.org/14-things-you-need-know-about-horrifying-arkansas-oil-spill

Two Thumbs Up From Putin

"That's Not Oil and We Aren't Paying to Clean it Up." Exxon Spokesperson

Images and video of the "Heavy Crude," which is not oil, spill in Arkansas.

 

The central Arkansas spill caused by Exxon's aging Pegasus pipeline has reportedly unleashed 10,000 barrels of Canadian heavy crude - but a technicality says it's not oil, letting the energy giant off the hook from paying into a national cleanup fund. Legally speaking, diluted bitumen like the heavy crude that's overrun Mayflower, Arkansas, is not classified as 'oil'. And it's that very distinction that exempts Exxon from contributing to the government's oil spillage cleanup fund.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/exxon-oil-spill-not-oil-040313

Boycott - The word boycott entered the English language during the Irish "Land War" and is derived from the name of Captain Charles Boycott, the land agent of an absentee landlord

Ireland's Miracle Recovery? That is how many have classified the post-crisis, bailed out Irish economy. The tabloid site, "Business Insider," owned by Henry Blodgett who in 2003 was charged with civil securities fraud for lying to his customers regarding valuation of dot com stocks, fined $2 million and banned for life from working in the securities industry, published this on the miracle recovery of Ireland.Evidently you can't teach an old dog new tricks as Mr. Blodgett continues to excel in deception.

"Regardless of reservations raised about the sustainability of this growth — particularly if the global economy continues to go down the tube — Ireland's recovery so far has been little short of extraordinary."
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-ireland-is-the-miracle-of-europe-2011-9?op=1

Now for the facts:
Unemployment rate does not appear to be in recovery:

Ireland Unemployment Rate at 15% and Holding at Post-Crisis Levels

And this:
"[B]ut this overlooks a few uncomfortable details. Ireland's homeowners are the European and perhaps the world champions in not repaying mortgages. The country's national debt has increased fourfold in about as many years. Its banking system is being kept afloat by borrowing from Europe. And while a change in the law may soon force the banks to start cleaning up their balance sheets, nobody is quite sure how bad a mess they will find there when they do.
Welcome to Ireland, where the hangover is in fact just beginning.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/welcome-to-ireland-where-mortgage-payments-are-optional-and-the-banks-are-a-mess/274566/

Moral of the story: Don't believe a word spewed by the MSM and tabloid sites owned by those charged with securities fraud by ripping off their customers by selling them at high valuation worthless dot com stocks.

 

Kaesong

Throughout the rise in tensions on the Korean peninsula, observers have been heartened by the fact that North Korea’s Kaesong factory complex, staffed by South Korean managers and the source of $2 billion a year in annual trade, has remained open.
Until today.
http://qz.com/50615/welcome-to-ireland-where-house-payments-are-optional-apparently/#70254/now-it-gets-scary-north-korea-halts-south-korean-access-to-crucial-factory-near-dmz/

Democracy vs. Dollarocracy

War by Any Other Name

Though not one bullet has been fired...yet.

LONDON (AP) — The harsh spending cuts introduced by European governments to tackle their crippling debt problems have not only pitched the region into recession — they are also being partly blamed for outbreaks of diseases not normally seen in Europe and a spike in suicides, according to new research.
/

McKee said Greece in particular was struggling. Based on government data, he and colleagues found suicides rose by 40 percent in 2011 compared to the previous year. Last year, the country also reported an exponential rise in the number of HIV cases among drug users, due in part to addicts sharing contaminated syringes after needle exchange programs were dropped.

In recent years, Greece has also battled outbreaks of malaria, West Nile virus and dengue fever.

‘‘These are not diseases we would normally expect to see in Europe,’’ said Willem de Jonge, general director of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Greece.

In 2011, MSF helped Greece tackle a malaria outbreak that broke out after authorities scrapped spraying programs to kill mosquitoes.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/2013/03/26/europe-financial-crisis-leads-suicide-surge/ZWYluZP4VWItxXiaxQcziO/story.html

Mr. Bernanke's Neighborhood

Bernanke speaking on his Quantitative easing experiment: “Moreover, because stronger growth in each economy confers beneficial spillovers to trading partners, these policies are not “beggar-thy-neighbor” but rather are positive-sum, “enrich-thy-neighbor”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bernanke-qe-is-an-enhance-thy-neighbor-policy-2013-03-25

During the first two years of Bernanke's Quantitative easing, the top 1% captured 121% of all income gains. 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/125269359/Getting-Richer-Edmund-Saez

 

Low Demand Equals Higher Prices

U.S. oil demand in February fell to the lowest level for the month in 20 years as gasoline rose to the highest price for the time of year, the American Petroleum Institute reported.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-21/u-s-oil-demand-declined-in-february-api-says.html

 

Herr Schäuble Sprechen

"Ich werde nicht erpresst werden."

 

"The danger of a European bank runs is latent because the banking world of Southern Europe is tarnished," said Hans-Werner Sinn, president of the Munich-based Ifo Institute, this newspaper. "Einige Länder und viele Banken sind eigentlich schon pleite und werden nur durch die Sonderkredite der EZB am Leben gehalten. Die Katastrophe ist schon längst eingetreten, aber die Öffentlichkeit verschließt die Augen davor." "Some countries and many banks are actually already broke and held only by the special loans to the ECB on life. The disaster has occurred long ago, but the public closes their eyes."

A Not So Good Google Translation of Die Welt

Chop Off Their Hands

[A]nd, without any deception or evil disposition towards those whose silver they accept for purifying, they should cleanse the silver, and without practicing any deception in weighing it, they should change the purified silver into denarii. If it be reported that any one has acted contrary to his oath, he will be tried by the judgment of God; and if it be proved that he acted contrary to his oath he will lose his hand...
/
Modern states gave control of monetary policy and markets to the barons of global finance. The experiment has resulted in the same disasterous outcomes as before. The barons have debased the coinage and corrupted the markets. The state lost control of the currency as central banks allowed the barons in banks and shadow banks to "create" money from securitisation and quantitative easing. The state lost control of markets as the SEC, FSA and others allowed those same barons to set up alternative trading platforms beyond any public scrutiny and to bastardise public exchanges with algorithmic trading and synthetic instruments priced against fraudulent reference rates.

Now that the whole system is falling apart, banks and bondholders - the robber barons and false coiners of our times - want to take more money from depositors and taxpayers to prop it up. The state, the taxpayers and the depositors should not be compelled to protect bank bondholders. Central bankers and market regulators should stop being complicit in debasement of the currency and corruption of the markets - taking the silver of the state and of the poor.

Enough already. Chop off their hands.
http://londonbanker.blogspot.com/2013/03/chop-off-their-hands.html

Cyprus Should Let the Banks Go Bankrupt

Taverne Frau Merkel Sprechen

The Moscow Times depicted the crisis in Cyprus and the Eurozone with the image of a faux Renaissance painting with all the major protagonists, with the focus on German Chancellor Angela Merkel dressed as a tavern woman. The picture has gone viral with thousands of reposts on social media and blogs
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/03/22/madame-merkels-rule-goes-viral/

Letter to the Fed

A letter to the Federal Reserve asking about the wisdom of imposing a tax on bank deposits. And the Fed’s reply. From 1941

http://www.edmundconway.com/2013/03/the-tragedy-of-cyprus/