General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi Seeks Civil War?

"Egypt’s military chief is calling for supporters of the new regime in the country to take to the streets."
http://www.euronews.com/2013/07/24/egypt-army-general-s-call-for-mass-demonstrations-condemned/

Wonder What the Crime Rate is In Chief Kessler's Jurisdiction?

Herr Schäuble Sprechen

 

“Anything else is not in the best interest of Greece. If you take guarantees and then you are discussing a haircut, you are a liar.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/10189235/Germany-refuses-fresh-relief-for-Greeks-as-debt-ratio-spirals-out-of-control.html

 

October 13, 2012:
" We refused to throw in the towel and do nothing. We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt. We bet on American workers and American ingenuity, and three years later, that bet is paying off in a big way."
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57531867/obama-i-refused-to-let-detroit-go-bankrupt/

July 18, 2013:
"The city of Detroit filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in federal court."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/18/detroit-prepares-bankruptcy-filing-friday/2552819/

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Bonnaroo 2012

The Non-PM of the Uncoup

"[E]lBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, had been due to be sworn in as interim prime minister on Saturday night, but the presidential office later appeared to row back, saying consultations were continuing. On Sunday, ElBaradei was reported to have cancelled an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press citing laryngitis and a fever."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/07/egypt-clashes-protests-new-government

The History of Military Dictatorship in Egypt

I'm Shocked, Shocked to Find Out Spying is Going On Here

"The monitoring of friends -- this is unacceptable. It can't be tolerated," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday through her spokesman Steffen Seibert. "We are no longer in the Cold War."
"Germany´s Chancellor, Angela Merkel has blasted the United States for spying on European citizens as well as on E.U. diplomats in Washington, New York and at the European Council in Belgium.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/merkel-furious-at-us-spying-and-eu-to-check-offices-for-bugs-a-908859.html

"[B]ut others say that the chancellor will probably be friendly to Obama during their next talk, and not because this is what diplomatic conventions call for, even amid tensions. No, it's because there is some question as to whether Berlin's dismay about the espionage by the National Security Agency (NSA) is really as great as it claims. Could some of the indignation be feigned? Did the revelations really shock the chancellor? And if it did come as a surprise, has German counterintelligence failed miserably?
The opposition doesn't believe that Merkel was unaware of the situation. In an editorial for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung this week, Sigmar Gabriel, chairman of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), openly aired the suspicion that Merkel was familiar with at least some of the spying activity. The government has vehemently rejected this accusation as crude campaign bluster.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/how-much-did-merkel-know-about-nsa-spying-in-germany-a-909174.html

"America's National Security Agency works closely with Germany and other Western states on a 'no questions asked'-basis, former NSA employee Edward Snowden said in comments that undermine Chancellor Angela Merkel's indignant talk of "Cold War" tactics.
"They are in bed with the Germans, just like with most other Western states," German magazine Der Spiegel quotes him as saying in an interview published on Sunday that was carried out before he fled to Hong Kong in May and divulged details of extensive secret U.S. surveillance/"
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/07/us-usa-security-germany-idUSBRE9660C020130707

U.S. National Security Agency - The Global Peeping Toms- Fuck You National Security Agency

"[A]s the headline suggests, the crux of the main article details how the NSA has, for years, systematically tapped into the Brazilian telecommunication network and indiscriminately intercepted, collected and stored the email and telephone records of millions of Brazilians. The story follows an article in Der Spiegel last week, written by Laura Poitras and reporters from that paper, detailing the NSA's mass and indiscriminate collection of the electronic communications of millions of Germans."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/07/nsa-brazilians-globo-spying

منافق

It appears that interim Prime minister ElBaradei is anti-Egyptian military only when they do not place him at the seat of power.

January 14, 2012
"[M]y conscience does not allow me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless there is real democracy,” Mr ElBaradei said.

Referring to last year’s protests that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, he added that “the captains of the vessel ... are still treading old waters, as if the revolution did not take place.”

Mr ElBaradei’s decision to withdraw from the contest is yet another blow to the credibility of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has been accused of numerous human rights violations since Mr Mubarak stepped down.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/9014988/Mohamed-ElBaradei-drops-Egyptian-presidential-bid.html

July 6, 2013
"[E]lBaradei is our first choice," a source close to the army said earlier this week.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/06/mohamed-elbaradei-interim-pm-opposition

"[A] military source told the AFP news agency that Mr ElBaradei, the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, would be sworn in as prime minister later on Saturday, three days after Mohammed Morsi was ousted by the army.
/
Mr ElBaradei has defended the army's intervention, saying although it was a "painful measure", Mr Morsi had "undermined his own legitimacy".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/10164552/Egypt-Mohamed-ElBaradei-to-be-interim-prime-minister.html



 

U.S Ambassador to Egypt Anne W. Patterson and the Uncoup

Ambassador Patterson on the Uncoup:
"Of course it is challenging to be dealing with any new government. However, at the state institutional level, we are for instance still liaising with the same military and civil service personnel, and thus have retained the same long-established relations."
The Uncoup

"Instead, the U.S. president gave a wink and a nod to a military takeover in Egypt, which the State Department is now indicating may not be a coup, because the generals have not imposed a military leader. Instead, they have put in place as president Egypt’s highest judge, after he was in office but two days. Even if a figurehead, that makes the military removal of a duly-elected Egypt president not a coup, therefore legitimate?
That question has the legal minds at the State Department working overtime.

The upshot, in Egypt Obama’s principal representative, Ambassador Anne Paterson, is vilified by all sides, and the Muslim Brotherhood is likely permanently disabused of the notion that participating in democratic processes can lead to its views taking hold anywhere from Syria to Yemen."

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/america-mess-egypt-164639195.html?l=1



 

Referee Beheaded in Brazil

An amateur football match in Brazil led to two murders as a referee was beheaded by spectators after he had stabbed a player.
http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1492969/referee-beheaded-killing-player-brazil?cc=5901

Newsweek Reporter in Cairo asks, "Shouldn't the Tear Gas Have Come Before the Bullets?"

Mr. Giglio's eyewitness account states the Egyptian army fired on unarmed Morsi supporters and then used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

"standing next to me saying he saw a protester shot in the head for throwing stones, thinks he's dead."
"AFP reporting three killed in the clashes just now"
"Guy miffed as he listens to state radio (88.7fm Egyptian Radio) on his phone: "they say that there are no people dead!"


https://twitter.com/mike_giglio

Human Breast Milk has Become a New Luxury for China's Rich

"[A]dult (clients) can drink it directly through breastfeeding, or they can always drink it from a breast pump if they feel embarrassed," the report quoted company owner Lin Jun as saying.
Wet nurses serving adults are paid around 16,000 yuan ($2,600) a month -- more than four times the Chinese average -- and those who were "healthy and good looking" could earn even more, the report said"
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hi3ZdZpeoZCU8sAExgaroV2YaiMg?docId=CNG.0148ab4e6c0dcbbd7ac0ac88f1762439.4d1
 

June 24 2012

"[M]orsy defeated former general Ahmed Shafik in a run-off last weekend by a convincing 3.5 percentage points, or nearly 900,000 votes, taking 51.7 percent of the total, officials said.
The announcement ended a week of angry disputes over the count in the poll to replace Mubarak, pushed aside by his fellow officers 16 months ago to appease the Arab Spring revolution."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/24/us-egypt-election-idUSBRE85G01U20120624

Bloomberg

NEW YORK — In his nationwide effort for tighter gun control, Mayor Michael Bloomberg attributes historic crime lows in New York to strict gun laws that are strictly enforced. "If we are serious about protecting lives," he wrote in a recent newspaper editorial, "we have to get serious about enforcing our laws."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/bloomberg-gun-control-lower-new-york-crime-rates_n_2535522.html


Front page NY Times story, July 2, 2013:
Audit of Crime Statistics Reveals Mistakes by Police - The New York ...

www.nytimes.com/.../audit-of-crime-statistics-finds-mistakes-by-police.ht...‎

 

View shared post

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN. Published: July 2, 2013. A long-awaited report ordered by the police commissioner in New York has found deficiencies in the Police Department's efforts to detect whether its crime statistics are being manipulated.

 

 

 

Evo Morales

...whose plane was forced to land after Portugal and France refused him access to their airspace.

 

 

"[I] know that the empires have an espionage network and are against the so-called developing countries. And in particular, against those which are rich in natural resources."

Oliver Wyman, 7 Billion Euro's Pulled From A Banker's Ass and the German National Anthem

"Ireland’s central bank will investigate whether tapes of senior bankers laughing at regulators contain evidence rules were broken during the 2008 rescue of failed lenders that eventually led to the country’s EU bailout.
/
Public outrage is growing in Ireland after a newspaper published transcripts of taped telephone conversations between executives of the now-defunct Anglo Irish Bank, wrecked when a property bubble burst in 2008 after years of reckless lending.
/
In the tapes published by the Irish Independent, Anglo’s then-head of capital markets John Bowe was asked how it had come up with a figure of €7-billion for a rescue. He responded that he had “picked it out of my arse.”
In another tape recorded as the crisis unfolded, executives sang the German national anthem and laughed as they discussed money flowing in from other countries after a guarantee of deposits held in Irish banks."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/european-business/irish-central-bank-probes-whether-tapes-show-rule-breaking/article12834559/

What does the Anglo Irish Bank and the entire banking sector of Spain have in common?

Obama Speaks to Poverty in Africa

“I’m calling for America to up our game when it comes to Africa,” Obama said. “There’s no question Africa’s on the move, but it’s not moving fast enough for the child still languishing in poverty in forgotten townships.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-30/obama-announces-plan-to-boost-power-in-sub-saharan-africa.html

Meanwhile in the United States during Obama's presidency:

2009-2011: Uneven recovery from the Great Recession. Hence the top 1%captured 121% of the income gains in the first two years of the recovery.

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

Must Spread Demokracy

I am Barack W. Obushma

"Despite Bahrain’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the U.S. has continued to provide weapons and maintenance to the small Mideast nation.
/
The Obama administration has stood by Bahrain’s ruling family, who are Sunni, during nearly two years of protests by the country’s majority Shia population. Bahrain is a longtime ally and the home to a large American naval base, which is considered particularly important amid the current tensions with nearby Iran."
http://www.propublica.org/article/americas-arms-sales-bahrain-crackdown

and today in Bahrain:
"A lower criminal court in Bahrain, headed by a member of the ruling family, has sentenced a 17-year-old boy to a year in jail for insulting the Gulf island's king on Twitter."
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/06/2013629164825184368.html

Mind the Gap

"Since his first day in office, President Barack Obama's foreign policy has rested on outreach: resetting ties with Russia, building a partnership with China and offering a fresh start with antagonistic leaders from Iran to Venezuela.
But the global travels on Sunday of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden highlight the limits of that approach. Leaders Obama has wooed - and met recently - were willing to snub the American president."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/24/us-usa-security-obama-analysis-idUSBRE95M0HL20130624

"[A] State Department official said Washington has told countries in the Western Hemisphere that he should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the United States."
/
"In a major embarrassment for U.S. President Barack Obama, an aircraft thought to have carried Snowden landed in Moscow on Sunday, and Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino tweeted that Ecuador had received an asylum request from Snowden."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/24/us-usa-security-flight-idUSBRE95M02H20130624

Beijing made the final decision in allowing fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden to leave Hong Kong on Sunday, as the United States was disappointed by Hong Kong’s “troubling” failure to arrest Snowden before he fled the territory.
http://www.scmp.com/

Marc Faber

"Believing In Bernanke Is Like Believing In Santa Claus"

other notable quotes from the good doctor:
“I keep in my toilet a picture of Mr. Bernanke. And every time I think about selling my gold, I look at it and I know better!”

"If you look at what happened in Cyprus, basically people with money will lose part of their wealth, either through expropriation or higher taxation. The problem is that 92 percent of financial wealth is owned by 5 percent of the population. The majority of people don't own meaningful stock positions and they don't benefit from a rise in the stock market. They are being hurt by a rising cost of living and we all know that the real incomes of median households has been going down for the last few years. What happened in Cyprus will happen everywhere in the world, in Western democracies."

"If I had to vote for either Obama or Romney I would shoot myself."

"In order to protect their assets, investors should buy themselves a machine gun…I need to buy a tank. Joking aside, look, we have manipulated markets. Whenever you manipulate markets, you will get unintended consequences."

“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.”

 

"Ireland is a Nation of Pimps and Obama is the Hypocrite of the Century."

Irish Politician Clare Daley

"the Taoiseach has showcased the Republic as a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head."

"there was speculation whether the Taoiseach was going to deck the Cabinet out in leprechaun hats decorated with a bit of stars and stripes to really mark abject humiliation."

"there had been almost unprecedented slobbering over the visit of US First Lady Michelle Obama"

" We’ve had separate and special news bulletins by the State broadcaster to tell us what Michelle Obama and her daughters had for lunch in Dublin but very little questioning of the fact that she was having lunch with Bono, Mr Tax Exile himself."

" Mr Kenny is pimping Ireland as a tax haven."

Ms. Daley on Obama:
"Is this person going for the hypocrite of the century award? Because we have to call things by their right names, and the reality is that by any serious examination, this man is a war criminal."

"This is the man who has facilitated a 200 percent increase in the use of drones, which have killed thousands of people including hundreds of children,"
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/g8-summit/ireland-pimped-out-like-prostitute-to-war-criminal-obama-says-politician-clare-daly-29357659.html

 

Bernanke's Tapir Moment

1 Million Protest in Brazil

If you know a Brazilian, you know that a Big Mac combo meal costs over $20 US, that in Brazil you don't call the police you call a relative or a friend, the politicians and therefore the police are hopelessly corrupt and that Brazil is a violent nation.

"[m]any have been united by a common concern for Brazil’s economy: even though incomes have gone up, Brazil’s new middle class has been demanding more from public services, and the rising cost of living, particularly food and services, has hit Brazilians hard.
American expatriate and Rio’s Gringo Café owner Sam Flowers says that food and labor costs have skyrocketed in just the last six months: “One product jumped forty percent in a week, many others are up 12 to 20 percent. Rent, food, transportation are all rising. Everyone is changing their spending habits and using credit cards more, some are even moving,” he tells The Rio Times.
http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/front-page/economic-worries-stoke-brazil-protests/#

 

Via Zero Hedge

 

“We’ve slipped away from a true republic. Now we’re slipping into a fascist system where it’s a combination of government, big business and authoritarian rule, and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen. When it comes to any significant differences on foreign policy, economic intervention, the Federal Reserve, a strong executive branch, a welfarism mixed with corporatism, both parties are very much alike. The major arguments in hotly contested presidential races are mostly for public consumption to convince the people they actually have a choice.”

Mini Amba

Solo Cissokho
 

We Had Certain Necessities to Consider

“When it becomes serious, you have to lie.”

From 2 years ago:
Is lying considered an appropriate mode of communication for euro-zone leaders?
We have to wonder after a strange episode on Friday evening. Here’s what happened:
Just before 6 p.m., German news magazine Spiegel Online distributed a report saying that euro-zone finance ministers were convening a secret, emergency meeting in Luxembourg that evening to discuss a Greek demand to quit the euro zone.

http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2011/05/09/luxembourg-lies-on-secret-meeting/

 

and today:

"Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung on Sunday cited central bank sources as saying the ECB had set a limit of 524 billion euros on the Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) scheme.

The bank had also had informed Germany's constitutional court - which will weigh the OMT's legality on Tuesday and Wednesday - of that limit, it said."

But wait. This is a very "serious matter" and there are "certain necessities to consider:"
"The report is incorrect," an ECB spokesman told Reuters.
There is no limit to the European Central Bank's (ECB) bond-buying program, a spokesman for the bank said on Sunday, denying a German newspaper report published in the run-up to a court hearing on the scheme.
When it Becomes Serious, You Have to Lie

Barack W. Obushma

From Bill Gross:
Surveillance policy of Bush 42 “puts forward a false choice btw the liberties we cherish & the security we provide.” B. Obama 2007
 

Turkey

ISTANBUL (AFP) - Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rallied supporters on Sunday after anti-government protesters burned tyres and hurled fireworks at riot police firing back tear gas in unrelenting civil unrest.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/17536701/teach-protesters-a-lesson-in-polls-urges-turkey-pm/

 

Erdogan from a few months ago:
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calls Francis Joseph Ricciardone, the US’s new ambassador to Turkey, a ‘rookie’ regarding his remarks on press freedom in Turkey. ‘He does not know Turkey, he does not have any idea which laws there are, and then he walks into a trap and makes a statement,’ Erdoğan says
U.S. Ambassador is a rookie that walked into a trap

Democracy in Action

"After a decade of breakneck economic growth, Indians are consuming fewer calories on average today than they were in the 1970s. Economic development scientists call it India’s calorie consumption puzzle, and it has been around for a while.
Even as incomes have increased over the past four decades, per capita caloric intake has been falling:"
India’s Calorie Consumption Puzzle

Food Stamp Needs in the United States:

 

The Economic Recovery Continues

 Not_Jim_Cramer

The Obama administration on Thursday defended its collection of the telephone records of millions of Americans...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/07/us-usa-wiretaps-verizon-idUSBRE95502920130607
 

 



The former head of the IRS visited the White House more times than any Cabinet member, according to an analysis by The Daily Caller, raising questions about the nature of those visits -- particularly around the time the agency was targeting conservative groups.
The Caller analysis of White House visitor logs showed former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House at least 157 times under the Obama administration.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/30/former-irs-chief-shulman-reportedly-visited-white-house-at-least-157-times/

Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS official currently in charge of overseeing the agency’s implementation of Obamacare, has logged 165 recorded visits to the  White House 165 times since 2011, according to an analysis of White House visitor records compiled by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.
Ingram headed the IRS’ tax-exempt division in 2010 when the scandal-ridden agency began improperly targeting the tax-exempt nonprofit status of conservative groups.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/05/irs-official-sarah-hall-ingram-recorded-165-white-house-visits-never-overlapped-with-shulman/

According to the Wall Street Journal, two Cincinnati IRS employees have suggested to congressional investigators that the policy of targeting tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status was sparked at least in part from agency officials in Washington.
/
One IRS worker, Elizabeth Hofacre, told the committee interviewers that Carter Hull, an IRS lawyer in Washington, “closely oversaw her work and suggested some of the questions asked applicants,” the Journal reported
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie7&q=WSJ%3A+Cincy+IRS+workers+say+targeting+was+sparked+by+requests+from+DC&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-ContextMenu&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7LENN


 

"The BIS said in its quarterly report that the markets are “under the spell of monetary easing”, convinced that central banks will keep the asset boom going despite signs of “broad deceleration” in the US economy and fatigue in China.

Jaime Caruana, the BIS’s managing director, said last month that the authorities should refrain from further stimulus to keep growth alive, warning that excessive liquidity is distorting the financial system without achieving much. “If a medicine does not work as expected, it’s not necessarily because the dosage was too low,” he said.
/
Morgan Stanley said emerging markets face a “mini sudden-stop” as bond flows dry up. The retreat is driven by fears that the Fed will soon taper its bond purchases, draining dollar-based liquidity.

The BIS figures show that British banks are heavily exposed to the developing world, with $919bn of loans, more than the Americans ($794bn), French ($473bn) or Germans ($307bn).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/10094747/BIS-records-startling-collapse-of-eurozone-interbank-loans.html

The former lead singer of indigenous band Yothu Yindi has died at his home in the Northern Territory. Mr Yunupingu* died at home in Yirrkala, Eastern Arnhem Land.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/yothu-yindi-singer-dies-after-disease-battle-20130603-2nkl8.html#ixzz2V7RkKwtN

>

"The Internal Revenue Service spent an estimated $49 million on at least 220 conferences for employees over a three-year span beginning in fiscal 2010, according to a forthcoming report that will prompt fresh scrutiny of the already embattled agency.
/
During the conference, employees watched two training videos that cost at least $60,000 to produce, according to the audit’s estimates. The first video is a “Star Trek” parody and stars division employees discussing how they might identify and address allegations of tax fraud.
One employee, mocking the Russian character Pavel Chekov, is seen telling another colleague, “Back in Russia, I dreamed someday I’d be rich and famous.”
“Me, too,” the colleague responds. “That’s why I became a public servant.”
/
The second video stars some of the same employees learning how to dance the “Cupid Shuffle” from a 2007 song by the performer Cupid. As other employees learn the dance moves, one female employee comments, “They don’t pay me enough to do this.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/irs-faces-new-scrutiny-for-excessive-spending-on-conferences/2013/06/01/e1469324-cab2-11e2-9245-773c0123c027_story.html?hpid=z2

 

Ironic

A Fed Reserve bank president gives a speech in Istanbul on the positive effects on unemployment increasing inflation would have as the Turkish government beats and gasses peaceful protesters.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/01/us-usa-fed-kocherlakota-idUSBRE95008Q20130601?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

Thousands of Turkish protesters poured onto the streets and reoccupied a central Istanbul park as the police withdrew after three days of clashes that sparked a massive anti-regime demonstration.
The police retreat from Gezi Park and nearby Taksim Square today came as supporters of the opposition Republican People’s Party marched on the square. After reoccupying the park, they danced and called for the resignation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who appealed for an end to protests while ordering an investigation into police use of pepper spray.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-01/turkish-protests-swell-as-police-violence-incites-crowds.html


ISTANBUL—Turkey’s annual inflation jumped in January due to tax increases on tobacco products and rising food prices, the state statistics agency said Monday, despite the central bank’s desire to slow inflation to 5% this year.
But analysts say the central bank will tolerate some surprises and isn’t likely to take action unless forecasts change.
The consumer-price index rose 7.31% annually and 1.65% on a month-to-month basis in January, the statistics agency said. The pace accelerated from a 6.16% annual increase in December. The rise in CPI was above the 6.8% annual rate and a 1.15% monthly increase forecast by six economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2013/02/04/turkeys-inflation-jumps-in-january/

"State and local governments face unmet pension fund obligations of as much as $4 trillion according to some studies, possibly jeopardizing their ability to provide essential services and meet their debt service payments. Moves by Coventry and a few other towns around the country have sparked fears in the municipal bond market that the situation could unravel.
/
By the end of that painful case, retirees' pension payments were slashed in half, but bondholders escaped unscathed after state legislators passed a law."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/31/us-usa-pension-rhodeisland-coventry-idUSBRE94U01220130531

Lumber prices vs. ISM, S&P and S&P forwrd EPS estimates 

 

https://twitter.com/Not_Jim_Cramer

"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.
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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.
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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