Fatboy Sez

2013-04-09

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

2013-04-08

Two Thumbs Up From Putin

2013-04-07

"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

2013-04-03

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/

2013-04-01

Democracy vs. Dollarocracy

2013-03-26

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.
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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

2013-03-25

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

2013-03-24

2013-03-23

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...
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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/

2013-03-17

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/

2013-03-16

Cyprus Hill Gang

Commodity Fetishism

"In the 19th century, Karl Marx contradicted the artifice of Adam Smith's "naturalisation of the market's behaviour" as a politico-ideologic apology — by and for the capitalists — which allowed human economic choices and decisions to be misrepresented as fixed "facts of life", rather than as the human actions that resulted from the will of the producers, the buyers, and the sellers of the commodities traded at market."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_fetishism

The AAA notes that the average price for a gallon of regular gas nationwide has rise from $3.30 a month ago, to $3.52 today. That’s four cents more than it was last year, a record high price for the start of February, CNBC notes.
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That means that U.S. households are paying the highest percentage of income for gas in almost 30 years. This comes even as gasoline consumption has fallen.
http://investorplace.com/2013/02/consumers-paying-record-gas-prices-for-february/