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| Monti pictured at the unveiling of his campaign logo
Monti one month ago: "ROME—Premier Mario Monti on Tuesday defended his government's austerity measures as necessary to restore confidence in Italy's financial future, and warned voters to beware "magic solutions" promised by candidates in coming elections."
"[M]ario Monti, the outgoing prime minister now heading a centrist coalition against the main parties that supported his technocrat government last year, says he doesn’t want to be remembered as just a tax man, and now says it’s possible to reduce the IMU property tax, even though late last month he warned catastrophe would befall.
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Fatboy sez: What. Me Worry?
2013-01-11
Three Card Monti
2013-01-10
Criminogenic-Producing or Intended to Produce Crime and Criminality
[T]he official said Holder, who leads the Justice Department, and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki will remain with the administration amid changes to the Cabinet as President Barack Obama moves into his second term.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is aware prosecutors and elected officials
were bribed and otherwise compromised, but has not held anyone accountable.
http://fatboysez.blogspot.com/2012/02/criminogenic-producing-or-intended-to.html
http://fatboysez.blogspot.com/2012/02/criminogenic-producing-or-intended-to.html
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice
Department's criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm
that represented a Who's Who of big banks and other companies at the center of
alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows.
"Gun Runner and another operation called Fast and Furious were designed to
dismantle the gun-smuggling routes that drug cartels use to ferry high-powered
assault rifles from the U.S. into Mexico. By allowing people to illegally
purchase large quantities of the weapons from gun dealers, officials hoped to
trace the firearms to the drug cartel members and prosecute them. But ATF
whistleblowers allege that officials lost track of the guns."
Decapitations in Kashmir
RAJOURI/NEW DELHI: The Indian Army on Wednesday said both the soldiers killed during an attack by Pakistani troops across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir were decapitated and that one severed head was yet to be recovered.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-01-09/india/36236792_1_pakistani-troops-area-in-poonch-sector-indian-army
2013-01-08
Message to all World Leaders:
If you are involved in tense negotiations with Sec. Clinton, ask her what her husband's position on the matter at hand is, she will snap, blow a gasket and be defeated:
...[A]pparently the translator made a mistake and the student had wanted to know what President Obama thought of the deal.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/hillary_clintons_congo_blow-up/
Heck of a Job Brownie
Japan’s Cleanup After a Nuclear Accident Is Denounced - NY Times
January 7, 2013
"More than a year and a half since the nuclear crisis, much of Japan’s post-Fukushima cleanup remains primitive, slapdash and bereft of the cleanup methods lauded by government scientists as effective in removing harmful radioactive cesium from the environment.
Recent reports in the local media of cleanup crews dumping contaminated soil and leaves into rivers has focused attention on the sloppiness of the cleanup.
... both the central and local governments have handed over much of the 1 trillion yen decontamination effort to Japan’s largest construction companies. The politically connected companies have little radiological cleanup expertise and critics say they have cut corners to employ primitive — even potentially hazardous — techniques".
2013-01-07
CITI Never Sleeps
Obama to nominate Jacob Lew as Treasury Secretary
http://www.businessinsider.com/jack-lew-treasury-secretary-nomination-obama-tim-geithner-debt-ceiling-2013-1
In June 2006, Lew was named chief operating officer of Citigroup's Alternative Investments unit, a proprietary trading group. The unit he oversaw invested in a hedge fund "that bet on the housing market to collapse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Lew
2013-01-05
The Bernanke Put
[c]onsumers should brace themselves for "massive" hikes in some commodities this year...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9779693/Waitrose-boss-Britons-should-brace-themselves-for-massive-food-price-hikes.html
2013-01-01
Obama Saves U.S. From Fiscal Cliff
Fiscal Cliff Save Adds $4 Trillion to U.S. Debt
"In other words, the tax deal that Congress just agreed to will raise $125 billion from increased payroll taxes from all working Americans (poor and middle class alike), while saving the richest Americans at least $20 billion in dividend taxes."
The Wealthiest 400 American Tax Payers Receive $20 Billion Tax Break From Obama's Fiscal Cliff Deal
But, the downtrodden and suffering folks at NASCAR, Goldman Sachs, railroads, mining companies, GE and Hollywood were spared:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/01/eight-corporate-subsidies-in-the-fiscal-cliff-bill-from-goldman-sachs-to-disney-to-nascar.html
2012-12-31
Energy Drinks in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, there is little government regulation and no national standards for imported drinks, food, or medicines. That has meant the Afghan market has been flooded by outdated, low-quality energy drinks deemed unfit for sale in other countries.
Abdullah, an assistant shopkeeper, says Afghan distributors for foreign beverage companies sell expired products for discounted prices and that some shopkeepers readily buy the inferior products and sell them for a quick profit.
"Some of the drinks are past their expiry dates or have gone bad. They pose a health risk to people and shouldn't be sold. Only those that are legal, with expiry dates, and in good condition should be sold," he says. "The Public Health Ministry must regulate the market and take the necessary steps to stop this."
http://www.rferl.org/content/afghanistan-energy-drinks/24812249.html
2012-12-30
The Bernanke Put
French food aid NGO reports ‘explosion’ in demand
http://www.france24.com/en/20121229-france-poverty-restos-du-coeur
[a]fter an increase in duty has seen the price of heating oil double in two years.
Smog hits Athens as cash-strapped residents choose fire over fuel
Some 300,000 Brits had to choose between heat or food this Christmas season, while 9 million more are at risk of falling into 'fuel poverty' by 2016, a government advisory group has warned, calling on the PM for swift action.
http://rt.com/news/fuel-poverty-uk-rise-179/
Austerity Britain is experiencing a nutritional recession, with rising food prices and shrinking incomes driving up consumption of fatty foods, reducing the amount of fruit and vegetables we buy, and condeming people on the lowest incomes to an increasingly unhealthy diet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/18/breadline-britain-nutritional-recession-austerity
http://www.france24.com/en/20121229-france-poverty-restos-du-coeur
[a]fter an increase in duty has seen the price of heating oil double in two years.
Smog hits Athens as cash-strapped residents choose fire over fuel
Some 300,000 Brits had to choose between heat or food this Christmas season, while 9 million more are at risk of falling into 'fuel poverty' by 2016, a government advisory group has warned, calling on the PM for swift action.
http://rt.com/news/fuel-poverty-uk-rise-179/
Austerity Britain is experiencing a nutritional recession, with rising food prices and shrinking incomes driving up consumption of fatty foods, reducing the amount of fruit and vegetables we buy, and condeming people on the lowest incomes to an increasingly unhealthy diet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/18/breadline-britain-nutritional-recession-austerity
2012-12-27
2012-12-25
What About Food Inflation, Bernanke?
[B]ut while the Fed moves on with its bond bonanza assuming rapidly rising prices won't be a problem, or at least not any time soon, it will be hard to convince shoppers at the grocery aisle.
/
Producer food prices are up 2.6% from a year earlier, compared with an annual gain of just 1.5% for all goods. In particular, chicken prices have surged 14.3% during the last year and wholesale beef and veal prices rose 8.2% in November, the biggest monthly gain since 2008.
/
For months, the US Department of Agriculture has warned about higher food prices. Next year, U.S. consumers may pay 3% to 4% more for food, the agency forecasts. The price of beef may rise as much as 5% amid tighter supplies of corn, which is used to feed cattle. Since June, the price of grain, the country's biggest crop, rose by more than 50%.
What About Food Inflation Bernanke?
[T]he study showed British families are buying up to 20 percent less fruit and vegetables in order to cut costs since 2007, saying that households are buying less food but paying far more for it.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/12/14/278015/households/
2012-12-24
Re-Post from 11/02/10
Twas the night before QE2, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a Wall St banker louse
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care
In hopes that Ben Shalom soon would be there
Blankfein and Dimon were nestled all snug in their beds
While visions of free money danced in their heads
Twitter#AGhettoSantaWould
first have to talk to his Probation officer about traveling out of state
not come down the chimney cuz' he aint trying to scuff his new J's.
have pitbulls pulling the sleigh instead of reindeer
Show up December 28th
wrap your presents up in aluminum foil
check to see if the police was in the neighborhood before he stopped at you house
fly with a suspended license
pick the lock instead of going down the chimney
give you food stamps instead of toys
give you the gift of life. His condom broke and he ain't paying no child support. Merry Christmas.
turn down the radio when he parallel park his sleigh"
http://twitter.com/search?q=%23AGhettoSantaWould&src=tren
Hashtag belongs to a black man. No racist intent.
not come down the chimney cuz' he aint trying to scuff his new J's.
have pitbulls pulling the sleigh instead of reindeer
Show up December 28th
wrap your presents up in aluminum foil
check to see if the police was in the neighborhood before he stopped at you house
fly with a suspended license
pick the lock instead of going down the chimney
give you food stamps instead of toys
give you the gift of life. His condom broke and he ain't paying no child support. Merry Christmas.
turn down the radio when he parallel park his sleigh"
http://twitter.com/search?q=%23AGhettoSantaWould&src=tren
Hashtag belongs to a black man. No racist intent.
2012-12-14
168 Pakistan Children Killed by U.S. Drone Strikes over the Last Seven Years
This count as of August 2011
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/8695679/168-children-killed-in-drone-strikes-in-Pakistan-since-start-of-campaign.html
"Just one in 50 victims of America’s deadly drone strikes in Pakistan are terrorists – while the rest are innocent civilians, a new report claimed today.
/
/
And the authors lay much of the blame on the use of the ‘double-tap’ strike where a drone fires one missile – and then a second as rescuers try to drag victims from the rubble
/
/
Investigators also discovered that communities living in fear of the drones were suffering severe stress and related illnesses. Many parents had taken their children out of school because they were so afraid of a missile-strike.
Every reported U.S. drone strike from 2002-2012
"I've been tweeting for 12 hours and we're only at March 2010."
https://twitter.com/dronestream
https://twitter.com/dronestream
Barrosso Channels Clemenceau
 |
| "The next elections must not serve as a pretext for putting in doubt how
indispensable these measures are," http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9732586/Barroso-Italy-elections-must-not-stop-reform-drive.html |
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2012-12-13
Retail Sales Rebound and Initial Claims Decrease?
“We’re off to a fairly strong holiday-spending season,” said Millan Mulraine, senior U.S. strategist for TD Securities in New York.
Bloomberg Pumps a Whole Lot of Nothing
Covered employment, those employed that are eligible to file for unemployment benefits:
7/7/2001: 128,116,562
11/17/2012: 128,066,082
http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/claims.asp
Eleven years later and there are less employed that are eligible to file for unemployment insurance. Widely stated estimates for new entrants into the US workforce put that number at 1.8 million per year. 1.8 million times 11 = 19.8 million workers unaccounted for and missing.
Bloomberg Pumps a Whole Lot of Nothing
Covered employment, those employed that are eligible to file for unemployment benefits:
7/7/2001: 128,116,562
11/17/2012: 128,066,082
http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/claims.asp
Eleven years later and there are less employed that are eligible to file for unemployment insurance. Widely stated estimates for new entrants into the US workforce put that number at 1.8 million per year. 1.8 million times 11 = 19.8 million workers unaccounted for and missing.