Saturday, June 30, 2012

Germany Cries: "Europe Is Coming For Our Money", Greece Promptly Obliges


 

 

 

 

Federal Reserve Mulling New Gold Regulation; ‘May be biggest event in gold market since US dropped gold standard’

from Strat Risks:

US authorities have recently called for comment on a rule change that may impact the gold market.
The US Treasury, Federal Reserve and the FDIC have jointly sought comment on changing some capital adequacy rules for when an institution holds gold in its own vaults or in another’s vaults.
According to the draft documents released, when gold is currently held as an asset, it is risk weighted at 15% – that is, a 15% haircut is taken on its current value for capital adequacy calculations. (See page 86 of the attached Federal Reserve document.)
However, in this same document, they are proposing that there be no (zero) discount.
That would then put gold on the same basis as cash.
217.131 Mechanics for Calculating Total Wholesale and Retail Risk-Weighted Assets.
(i) A bank holding company or savings and loan holding company may assign a riskweighted asset amount of zero to cash owned and held in all offices of subsidiary depository institutions or in transit; and for gold bullion held in a subsidiary depository institution’s own vaults, or held in another depository institution’s vaults on an allocated basis, to the extent the gold bullion assets are offset by gold bullion liabilities.
This seems an adventurous move. Over the past five years, the US$ value of gold has moved more than +/-50% from its average over that time, and is currently sitting -20% below its high in that same period. In cash terms, there certainly has been market price risk.
Read More @ StratRisks.com



Swiss & Austrian Banking Clients Expect Collapse of Euro Zone, Move into Cash

from Silver Vigilante:
Waiting on the sidelines still, despite agreements forged at the EU summit , are Austrian and Swiss banking clients, who have moved away from stocks and bonds, etc. in favor of cash-heavy positions, most likely in anticipation of either stock selloffs or, even, a collapse of the Euro altogether. According to the LGT group, Swiss banking clients have moved almost a third of their portfolio into cash, and one in five believe the euro will collapse. The Austrian banking company found that wealthy Swiss and Austrian private-banking clients remain averse to risk in the face of infation, sovereign debt defaults and a failing financial system.
In Switzerland, 58 percent of private banking clients do not believe the financial system is unsustainable. Forty-four percent are worried about inflation. 22 percent believe the euro zone will collapse – the same as in Austria. Just 15 percent of Swiss and 16 percent of Austrians say the lessons have been learned from the euro crisis. The report also found that clients are reassessing diversification strategies in favor of gold, cash and home markets. The number of clients out to make more gains than the broader market has diminished.
“Private banking clients are still being influenced in their behavior by the turmoil in the financial markets and it appears increasingly likely that this will remain the case for this generation of clients for a long time yet,” according to the report.
Read More @ Silver Vigilante




The Dark (Pool) Truth About What Really Goes On In The Stock Market

In early December 2009, Haim Bodek finally solved the riddle of the stock-trading problem that was killing Trading Machines, the high-frequency firm he’d help launch in 2007. The former Goldman Sachs and UBS trader was attending a party in New York City sponsored by a computer-driven trading venue. He’d been complaining for months to the venue about all the bad trades—the runaway prices, the fees—that were bleeding his firm dry. But he’d gotten little help.




Whitewashing The Economic Establishment

Brad DeLong makes an odd claim:
So the big lesson is simple: trust those who work in the tradition of Walter Bagehot, Hyman Minsky, and Charles Kindleberger. That means trusting economists like Paul Krugman, Paul Romer, Gary Gorton, Carmen Reinhart, Ken Rogoff, Raghuram Rajan, Larry Summers, Barry Eichengreen, Olivier Blanchard, and their peers. Just as they got the recent past right, so they are the ones most likely to get the distribution of possible futures right.
Larry Summers? If we’re going to base our economic policy on trusting in Larry Summers, should we not reappoint Greenspan as Fed Chairman? Or — better yet — appoint Charles Ponzi as head of the SEC? Or a fox to guard the henhouse? Or a tax cheat as Treasury Secretary? Or a war criminal as a peace ambassador? (Yes — reality is more surreal than anything I could imagine).
 




New Zealand’s Savings & Loans Companies: Not Like Any Banking Industry You’ve Ever Seen Before

by Richard Smith, Naked Capitalism:
After the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s little flail at companies using “restricted words”, there are not so many New Zealand companies with Bancorp in their name any more, but one does detect in the Company Register a lingering fondness for other bank-like appelations, such as “Savings and Loan”, or “Savings & Loan”.
Names like that, on a New Zealand company, have no official meaning, but they might appeal to any Americans out there whose due diligence on an overseas bank stops at checking whether the bank has a vaguely familiar-looking name. That level of nonchalance identifies ideal scam victims. The company name functions as a filter: only dopes sign up.
Should the Reserve Bank be warning judiciously about these foreign-accented phrases, and others, too, no doubt; whether or not the words are in their Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989?
Let’s see whether I can form any strong but purely personal opinions about that, which I will express in capital letters, bold.
Read More and LISTEN Now @ NakedCapitalism.com



Big Banks Have Become Mafia-Style Criminal Enterprises

Two stories this week prove once again that the big banks are literally criminal enterprises.
Initially, all of the big banks have engaged in Mafia-style “bid-rigging” of municipal bonds, to bilk money from every city in the nation … to the collective tune of tens billions of dollars.
And Barclays and other large banks – including Citigroup, HSBC, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lloyds, Bank of America, UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland – manipulated the world’s primary interest rate (Libor) which virtually every adjustable-rate investment globally is pegged to.
And see this. That means they manipulated a good chunk of the world economy.

Other recent stories also show criminal fraud as well. For example, the big banks have been cheating homeownersespecially veterans.
And as Max Keiser explains here, banking giants Mellon and State Street shaved money off of virtually every pension transaction they handled over the course of decades, stealing collectively billions of dollars from pensions worldwide.
Read More @ WashingtonsBlog.com


May Justice Be Done: House could ARREST Holder with inherent contempt power

by Stephen Dinan, Washington Times:
Despite voting to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress, there’s little House Republicans can do in the short term to compel him to turn over documents — unless it wanted to revisit a long-dormant power and arrest him.
The thought is shocking, and conjures up a Hollywood-ready standoff scene between House police and the FBI agents who protect the attorney general. It’s a dramatic and unlikely possibility not least because Congress doesn’t even have a jail any longer. But in theory it could happen.
Republicans say it’s not even under consideration, with House Speaker John A. Boehner’s spokesman flatly ruling it out.
But the process, known as inherent contempt, is well-established by precedent, has been confirmed by multiple Supreme Court rulings, and is available to any Congress willing to force such a confrontation.
“The House is scared to death to use the inherent contempt power,” said Mort Rosenberg, a fellow at the Constitution Project and author of “When Congress Comes Calling.” “They’re scared to death because the courts have said … the way the contempt power is used is unseemly. It’s not that it’s unconstitutional, because it’s been upheld by four Supreme Court decisions, but unseemly to have somebody go arrest the attorney general.”
Read More @ WashingtonTimes.com



Does Announced EU Deal Leave Out Critical Elements?

by The Daily Bell:
‘Armageddon’ to Happen Despite EU DealJim Rogers, Chairman of Rogers Holdings says the latest euro zone deal does nothing to help solve the region’s biggest problem, which is its high debt levels. Even as markets cheered the agreement by European leaders to allow the direct use of the bloc’s bailout funds to recapitalize struggling banks, well-known investor Jim Rogers told CNBC the move does nothing to help solve the region’s biggest problem, which is its high debt levels. – YahooFinance
Dominant Social Theme: Everything will be okay with this deal in place.
Free-Market Analysis: Jim Rogers’s analysis of the “deal” that has been reached by top EU “policymakers” (excerpted above) is probably accurate. Apparently, EU leaders will now be able to lend to banks without further degrading their various countries’ credit status.
But why filling up bank coffers with paper money is seen as a triumph of some sort is difficult to ascertain, as Rogers astutely notes. The real problem faced by the EU is that member states spend too much money and that they cannot devalue their currencies to pay off debts and “spread the pain.” Here’s more from the article:
Read More @ TheDailyBell.com

We The Sheeplez... is intended to reflect excellence in effort and content. Donations will help maintain this goal and defray the operational costs. Paypal, a leading provider of secure online money transfers, will handle the donations. Thank you for your contribution.

I'm PayPal Verified     
 
 Debt crisis: Ireland hails euro ‘game changer’
by Angela Monaghan, The Telegraph:
The deal, sealed by leaders in the early hours of Friday morning in Brussels, will allow stricken banks to directly access the region’s rescue fund. The hope is it will enable Ireland to return to international bond markets.
Eamon Gilmore, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, said: “This is a massive breakthrough for Ireland and it changes the game in terms of our bank debt. This deal will allow the country to recover much faster.”
Under previous rules, rescue funds first had to be handed to governments before being passed on to troubled banks. That way countries like Spain ,which has been forced to intervene to help its banks, had to take on additional debt, pushing up borrowing costs.
Dublin has lobbied hard for the changes, along with Spain and Italy. Germany had previously been resistant to the idea.
Read More @ Telegraph.co.uk



$4 trillion conflict of interest: Investment bankers on Fed boards

by Jerry Mazza, Intrepid Report:

Who else but Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders would have the courage to blow the whistle on the $4 trillion Fed scam involving near zero-interest Federal Reserve loans and other financial assistance that went to banks and businesses of at least 18 current and former Federal Reserve regional bank directors in the aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse, all documented in the Government Accountability Office records?
It was on the eve of Senate testimony by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, on June 13, that Sanders released the detailed findings on Dimon and other Fed board members whose banks and businesses benefited from Fed actions. The GAO data also appeared at ReadersSupporedNews.org (RSN).
RSN reports, “A Sanders’ provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act required the Government Accountability Office to investigate potential conflicts of interest. The Oct. 19, 2011 report by the non-partisan investigative arm of Congress laid out the findings, but did not name names. Sanders today released the names.
Read More @ IntrepidReport.com



Mohamed Morsi sworn in as Egyptian president [All Going According to the Elite's Plan]

Muslim Brotherhood candidate promises to build ‘new Eygpt’ as he succeeds deposed Hosni Mubarak
by Conal Urquhart, The Guardian:
Egypt‘s first democratically elected president promised to build a “new Egypt” as he was formally sworn in on Saturday.
Mohamed Morsi, the candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood, made his vows in front of the constitutional court rather than parliament, which has been partially dissolved by the army. He succeeds Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed more than a year ago as part of the Arab spring revolution.
Morsi is Egypt’s fifth head of state since the overthrow of the monarchy some 60 years ago.
“We aspire to a better tomorrow, a new Egypt and a second republic,” Morsi told the judges of the court during a solemn ceremony shown live on state television.
“Today, the Egyptian people laid the foundation of a new life of absolute freedom, a genuine democracy and stability,” said Morsi, a 60-year-old US-trained engineer.
Read More @ Guardian.co.uk



PBS: Re-Educating America’s Schoolchildren, Thanks to Your Contributions

by Mary Grabar and Tina Trent, Noisy Room
When most people think of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s education programs, they remember the gentle Mr. Rogers welcoming children to his home, or documentaries offering exciting encounters with whales and other exotic creatures.
These shows still exist. But CPB today produces lessons that glorify the Black Panthers and riots and protests of the 1960s, present rocker Patti Smith as a “patriot” for singing songs that condemn President George W. Bush, vilify Wal-Mart, and sanctify environmentalist Rachel Carson. Although their educational materials claim to be objective, the truth is that their unrelenting ideological slant that promotes the politics of protest and civil disobedience is aimed at re-educating children into becoming far-left activists.
But whenever there are attempts to cut federal funding to CPB, the corporation points to its “educational programming” as proof that the approximately $450 million it receives annually from federal taxpayers is being put to good use. Big Bird and other members of the cast of Sesame Street show up in Congress to tell members of the educational value of CPB-funded programs.
Read More @ NoisyRoom.net



Ignoring the Obvious

by Jeff Thomas, Lew Rockwell.com:
Homo sapiens is a creature of habit. Most people have a strong desire to do what they can to create a life (and lifestyle) that is comfortable for them. Once this is done, we curl up and settle in. We then may add the occasional improvement to this situation, but, otherwise, we prefer then to be left alone to maintain what we have created.
It should not, therefore, be surprising if, when that comfy situation is threatened, we wish the threat would simply go away. Similarly, it is understandable if, when that threat begins to grow, we may simply pull the covers over our heads and pretend the threat either does not exist, or is far more benign than it appears.
Hence, it is a perennial condition of human nature to behave as described by Lamar Keene, when we discover that the government that we have been brought up to believe exists for our protection, has become no less than the greatest threat to our well-being.
Consider the following events, with regard to the USA:
- The Patriot Act (Passed in 2001 and extended in in 2011 with additional controls) expands law enforcement powers and removes civil liberties and constitutionally guaranteed rights. www.renewamerica.com/columns/webster/090419
- The National Defense Authorization Act, passed on 31st December, 2011, allows the indefinite imprisonment by the military of any “suspects” (including American citizens on American soil) without allowing due process of law. www.en.wikipedia.org/nationaldefenseauthorisationact
- The MAP-21 Bill, which allows the Internal Revenue Service to suspend the passport rights of Americans, based on the premise that their tax obligations may be unfulfilled. www.losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/IRSbill
- The National Defense Resources Preparedness order, created in March, 2012, allows the President to take over control of all food, water, labour and industry in the US, “to promote national defense.” www.naturalnews.com/035301/Obamaexecutiveorders
Read More @ LewRockwell.com



Silver COT Report 6/29/12 One for the History Books: Commercials Cover 25 Million Ounces of Naked Shorts!

[Ed. Note: See also "Gold COT Report 6/29/12: Commercials Cover 2 Million Ounces - Shorts at Historic Lows"]
by Marshall Swing, Silver Doctors:
Commercials picked up 1,144 longs but covered a massive -3,799 shorts to end the week with 43.27% of all open interest, a mammoth change since last week, and now stand as a group at -60,055,000 ounces net short, almost 25,000,000 less net short ounces from the previous week.

Technically, this is one for the history books.

Very few weeks have ever seen these huge percentage point changes
!
Last week, these same commercials had 45.65% of all open interest. That is almost a 2.5% change in just one week.
Large speculators picked up 595 longs but stocked up for Armageddon by purchasing 4,475 shorts for a net long position of 31,110,000 ounces, a 40% decrease in their net long position of almost 20,000,000 ounces from the prior week. Are these large specs intending to become the next silver short tandem of Jamie Dimon and Blythe Masters? Just do the comparison from last week’s COT report
Read More @ SilverDoctors.com


We The Sheeplez... is intended to reflect excellence in effort and content. Donations will help maintain this goal and defray the operational costs. Paypal, a leading provider of secure online money transfers, will handle the donations. Thank you for your contribution.

I'm PayPal Verified   

Federal Reserve Mulling New Gold Regulation; ‘May be biggest event in gold market since US dropped gold standard’

from Strat Risks:

US authorities have recently called for comment on a rule change that may impact the gold market.
The US Treasury, Federal Reserve and the FDIC have jointly sought comment on changing some capital adequacy rules for when an institution holds gold in its own vaults or in another’s vaults.
According to the draft documents released, when gold is currently held as an asset, it is risk weighted at 15% – that is, a 15% haircut is taken on its current value for capital adequacy calculations. (See page 86 of the attached Federal Reserve document.)
However, in this same document, they are proposing that there be no (zero) discount.
That would then put gold on the same basis as cash.
217.131 Mechanics for Calculating Total Wholesale and Retail Risk-Weighted Assets.
(i) A bank holding company or savings and loan holding company may assign a riskweighted asset amount of zero to cash owned and held in all offices of subsidiary depository institutions or in transit; and for gold bullion held in a subsidiary depository institution’s own vaults, or held in another depository institution’s vaults on an allocated basis, to the extent the gold bullion assets are offset by gold bullion liabilities.
This seems an adventurous move. Over the past five years, the US$ value of gold has moved more than +/-50% from its average over that time, and is currently sitting -20% below its high in that same period. In cash terms, there certainly has been market price risk.
Read More @ StratRisks.com



Swiss & Austrian Banking Clients Expect Collapse of Euro Zone, Move into Cash

from Silver Vigilante:
Waiting on the sidelines still, despite agreements forged at the EU summit , are Austrian and Swiss banking clients, who have moved away from stocks and bonds, etc. in favor of cash-heavy positions, most likely in anticipation of either stock selloffs or, even, a collapse of the Euro altogether. According to the LGT group, Swiss banking clients have moved almost a third of their portfolio into cash, and one in five believe the euro will collapse. The Austrian banking company found that wealthy Swiss and Austrian private-banking clients remain averse to risk in the face of infation, sovereign debt defaults and a failing financial system.
In Switzerland, 58 percent of private banking clients do not believe the financial system is unsustainable. Forty-four percent are worried about inflation. 22 percent believe the euro zone will collapse – the same as in Austria. Just 15 percent of Swiss and 16 percent of Austrians say the lessons have been learned from the euro crisis. The report also found that clients are reassessing diversification strategies in favor of gold, cash and home markets. The number of clients out to make more gains than the broader market has diminished.
“Private banking clients are still being influenced in their behavior by the turmoil in the financial markets and it appears increasingly likely that this will remain the case for this generation of clients for a long time yet,” according to the report.
Read More @ Silver Vigilante




The Dark (Pool) Truth About What Really Goes On In The Stock Market

In early December 2009, Haim Bodek finally solved the riddle of the stock-trading problem that was killing Trading Machines, the high-frequency firm he’d help launch in 2007. The former Goldman Sachs and UBS trader was attending a party in New York City sponsored by a computer-driven trading venue. He’d been complaining for months to the venue about all the bad trades—the runaway prices, the fees—that were bleeding his firm dry. But he’d gotten little help.




Whitewashing The Economic Establishment

Brad DeLong makes an odd claim:
So the big lesson is simple: trust those who work in the tradition of Walter Bagehot, Hyman Minsky, and Charles Kindleberger. That means trusting economists like Paul Krugman, Paul Romer, Gary Gorton, Carmen Reinhart, Ken Rogoff, Raghuram Rajan, Larry Summers, Barry Eichengreen, Olivier Blanchard, and their peers. Just as they got the recent past right, so they are the ones most likely to get the distribution of possible futures right.
Larry Summers? If we’re going to base our economic policy on trusting in Larry Summers, should we not reappoint Greenspan as Fed Chairman? Or — better yet — appoint Charles Ponzi as head of the SEC? Or a fox to guard the henhouse? Or a tax cheat as Treasury Secretary? Or a war criminal as a peace ambassador? (Yes — reality is more surreal than anything I could imagine).
 




New Zealand’s Savings & Loans Companies: Not Like Any Banking Industry You’ve Ever Seen Before

by Richard Smith, Naked Capitalism:
After the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s little flail at companies using “restricted words”, there are not so many New Zealand companies with Bancorp in their name any more, but one does detect in the Company Register a lingering fondness for other bank-like appelations, such as “Savings and Loan”, or “Savings & Loan”.
Names like that, on a New Zealand company, have no official meaning, but they might appeal to any Americans out there whose due diligence on an overseas bank stops at checking whether the bank has a vaguely familiar-looking name. That level of nonchalance identifies ideal scam victims. The company name functions as a filter: only dopes sign up.
Should the Reserve Bank be warning judiciously about these foreign-accented phrases, and others, too, no doubt; whether or not the words are in their Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989?
Let’s see whether I can form any strong but purely personal opinions about that, which I will express in capital letters, bold.
Read More and LISTEN Now @ NakedCapitalism.com



Big Banks Have Become Mafia-Style Criminal Enterprises

Two stories this week prove once again that the big banks are literally criminal enterprises.
Initially, all of the big banks have engaged in Mafia-style “bid-rigging” of municipal bonds, to bilk money from every city in the nation … to the collective tune of tens billions of dollars.
And Barclays and other large banks – including Citigroup, HSBC, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lloyds, Bank of America, UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland – manipulated the world’s primary interest rate (Libor) which virtually every adjustable-rate investment globally is pegged to.
And see this. That means they manipulated a good chunk of the world economy.

Other recent stories also show criminal fraud as well. For example, the big banks have been cheating homeownersespecially veterans.
And as Max Keiser explains here, banking giants Mellon and State Street shaved money off of virtually every pension transaction they handled over the course of decades, stealing collectively billions of dollars from pensions worldwide.
Read More @ WashingtonsBlog.com


May Justice Be Done: House could ARREST Holder with inherent contempt power

by Stephen Dinan, Washington Times:
Despite voting to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress, there’s little House Republicans can do in the short term to compel him to turn over documents — unless it wanted to revisit a long-dormant power and arrest him.
The thought is shocking, and conjures up a Hollywood-ready standoff scene between House police and the FBI agents who protect the attorney general. It’s a dramatic and unlikely possibility not least because Congress doesn’t even have a jail any longer. But in theory it could happen.
Republicans say it’s not even under consideration, with House Speaker John A. Boehner’s spokesman flatly ruling it out.
But the process, known as inherent contempt, is well-established by precedent, has been confirmed by multiple Supreme Court rulings, and is available to any Congress willing to force such a confrontation.
“The House is scared to death to use the inherent contempt power,” said Mort Rosenberg, a fellow at the Constitution Project and author of “When Congress Comes Calling.” “They’re scared to death because the courts have said … the way the contempt power is used is unseemly. It’s not that it’s unconstitutional, because it’s been upheld by four Supreme Court decisions, but unseemly to have somebody go arrest the attorney general.”
Read More @ WashingtonTimes.com



Does Announced EU Deal Leave Out Critical Elements?

by The Daily Bell:
‘Armageddon’ to Happen Despite EU DealJim Rogers, Chairman of Rogers Holdings says the latest euro zone deal does nothing to help solve the region’s biggest problem, which is its high debt levels. Even as markets cheered the agreement by European leaders to allow the direct use of the bloc’s bailout funds to recapitalize struggling banks, well-known investor Jim Rogers told CNBC the move does nothing to help solve the region’s biggest problem, which is its high debt levels. – YahooFinance
Dominant Social Theme: Everything will be okay with this deal in place.
Free-Market Analysis: Jim Rogers’s analysis of the “deal” that has been reached by top EU “policymakers” (excerpted above) is probably accurate. Apparently, EU leaders will now be able to lend to banks without further degrading their various countries’ credit status.
But why filling up bank coffers with paper money is seen as a triumph of some sort is difficult to ascertain, as Rogers astutely notes. The real problem faced by the EU is that member states spend too much money and that they cannot devalue their currencies to pay off debts and “spread the pain.” Here’s more from the article:
Read More @ TheDailyBell.com

We The Sheeplez... is intended to reflect excellence in effort and content. Donations will help maintain this goal and defray the operational costs. Paypal, a leading provider of secure online money transfers, will handle the donations. Thank you for your contribution.

I'm PayPal Verified     
 
 Debt crisis: Ireland hails euro ‘game changer’
by Angela Monaghan, The Telegraph:
The deal, sealed by leaders in the early hours of Friday morning in Brussels, will allow stricken banks to directly access the region’s rescue fund. The hope is it will enable Ireland to return to international bond markets.
Eamon Gilmore, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, said: “This is a massive breakthrough for Ireland and it changes the game in terms of our bank debt. This deal will allow the country to recover much faster.”
Under previous rules, rescue funds first had to be handed to governments before being passed on to troubled banks. That way countries like Spain ,which has been forced to intervene to help its banks, had to take on additional debt, pushing up borrowing costs.
Dublin has lobbied hard for the changes, along with Spain and Italy. Germany had previously been resistant to the idea.
Read More @ Telegraph.co.uk



$4 trillion conflict of interest: Investment bankers on Fed boards

by Jerry Mazza, Intrepid Report:

Who else but Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders would have the courage to blow the whistle on the $4 trillion Fed scam involving near zero-interest Federal Reserve loans and other financial assistance that went to banks and businesses of at least 18 current and former Federal Reserve regional bank directors in the aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse, all documented in the Government Accountability Office records?
It was on the eve of Senate testimony by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, on June 13, that Sanders released the detailed findings on Dimon and other Fed board members whose banks and businesses benefited from Fed actions. The GAO data also appeared at ReadersSupporedNews.org (RSN).
RSN reports, “A Sanders’ provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act required the Government Accountability Office to investigate potential conflicts of interest. The Oct. 19, 2011 report by the non-partisan investigative arm of Congress laid out the findings, but did not name names. Sanders today released the names.
Read More @ IntrepidReport.com



Mohamed Morsi sworn in as Egyptian president [All Going According to the Elite's Plan]

Muslim Brotherhood candidate promises to build ‘new Eygpt’ as he succeeds deposed Hosni Mubarak
by Conal Urquhart, The Guardian:
Egypt‘s first democratically elected president promised to build a “new Egypt” as he was formally sworn in on Saturday.
Mohamed Morsi, the candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood, made his vows in front of the constitutional court rather than parliament, which has been partially dissolved by the army. He succeeds Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed more than a year ago as part of the Arab spring revolution.
Morsi is Egypt’s fifth head of state since the overthrow of the monarchy some 60 years ago.
“We aspire to a better tomorrow, a new Egypt and a second republic,” Morsi told the judges of the court during a solemn ceremony shown live on state television.
“Today, the Egyptian people laid the foundation of a new life of absolute freedom, a genuine democracy and stability,” said Morsi, a 60-year-old US-trained engineer.
Read More @ Guardian.co.uk



PBS: Re-Educating America’s Schoolchildren, Thanks to Your Contributions

by Mary Grabar and Tina Trent, Noisy Room
When most people think of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s education programs, they remember the gentle Mr. Rogers welcoming children to his home, or documentaries offering exciting encounters with whales and other exotic creatures.
These shows still exist. But CPB today produces lessons that glorify the Black Panthers and riots and protests of the 1960s, present rocker Patti Smith as a “patriot” for singing songs that condemn President George W. Bush, vilify Wal-Mart, and sanctify environmentalist Rachel Carson. Although their educational materials claim to be objective, the truth is that their unrelenting ideological slant that promotes the politics of protest and civil disobedience is aimed at re-educating children into becoming far-left activists.
But whenever there are attempts to cut federal funding to CPB, the corporation points to its “educational programming” as proof that the approximately $450 million it receives annually from federal taxpayers is being put to good use. Big Bird and other members of the cast of Sesame Street show up in Congress to tell members of the educational value of CPB-funded programs.
Read More @ NoisyRoom.net



Ignoring the Obvious

by Jeff Thomas, Lew Rockwell.com:
Homo sapiens is a creature of habit. Most people have a strong desire to do what they can to create a life (and lifestyle) that is comfortable for them. Once this is done, we curl up and settle in. We then may add the occasional improvement to this situation, but, otherwise, we prefer then to be left alone to maintain what we have created.
It should not, therefore, be surprising if, when that comfy situation is threatened, we wish the threat would simply go away. Similarly, it is understandable if, when that threat begins to grow, we may simply pull the covers over our heads and pretend the threat either does not exist, or is far more benign than it appears.
Hence, it is a perennial condition of human nature to behave as described by Lamar Keene, when we discover that the government that we have been brought up to believe exists for our protection, has become no less than the greatest threat to our well-being.
Consider the following events, with regard to the USA:
- The Patriot Act (Passed in 2001 and extended in in 2011 with additional controls) expands law enforcement powers and removes civil liberties and constitutionally guaranteed rights. www.renewamerica.com/columns/webster/090419
- The National Defense Authorization Act, passed on 31st December, 2011, allows the indefinite imprisonment by the military of any “suspects” (including American citizens on American soil) without allowing due process of law. www.en.wikipedia.org/nationaldefenseauthorisationact
- The MAP-21 Bill, which allows the Internal Revenue Service to suspend the passport rights of Americans, based on the premise that their tax obligations may be unfulfilled. www.losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/IRSbill
- The National Defense Resources Preparedness order, created in March, 2012, allows the President to take over control of all food, water, labour and industry in the US, “to promote national defense.” www.naturalnews.com/035301/Obamaexecutiveorders
Read More @ LewRockwell.com



Silver COT Report 6/29/12 One for the History Books: Commercials Cover 25 Million Ounces of Naked Shorts!

[Ed. Note: See also "Gold COT Report 6/29/12: Commercials Cover 2 Million Ounces - Shorts at Historic Lows"]
by Marshall Swing, Silver Doctors:
Commercials picked up 1,144 longs but covered a massive -3,799 shorts to end the week with 43.27% of all open interest, a mammoth change since last week, and now stand as a group at -60,055,000 ounces net short, almost 25,000,000 less net short ounces from the previous week.

Technically, this is one for the history books.

Very few weeks have ever seen these huge percentage point changes
!
Last week, these same commercials had 45.65% of all open interest. That is almost a 2.5% change in just one week.
Large speculators picked up 595 longs but stocked up for Armageddon by purchasing 4,475 shorts for a net long position of 31,110,000 ounces, a 40% decrease in their net long position of almost 20,000,000 ounces from the prior week. Are these large specs intending to become the next silver short tandem of Jamie Dimon and Blythe Masters? Just do the comparison from last week’s COT report
Read More @ SilverDoctors.com


We The Sheeplez... is intended to reflect excellence in effort and content. Donations will help maintain this goal and defray the operational costs. Paypal, a leading provider of secure online money transfers, will handle the donations. Thank you for your contribution.

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Why Germany's TARGET2 Eurozone Preservation Mechanism Is Merely A Ticking Inflationary Timebomb

We have covered the topic of the German TARGET2 imbalances previously, both from the perspective of what catalysts can lead the Bundesbank to suffering massive losses (the one most widely agreed upon being a collapse of the Eurozone, which explains why even discussions of that contingency are prohibited in Europe), from the perspective of its being an indirect current account deficit funding mechanism, and from the perspective of what is the maximum size TARGET2 imbalances, funded primarily by the Bundesbank, can grow to before eventually causing irreperable damage to the Bundesbank. Still, there appears to be ongoing mass confusion about the topic, with numerous economists proposing contradictory theories, all of which supposedly rely on traditional economic models. Today, to provide some additional and much needed color, we once again revisit the topic of TARGET2, and this time we look at arguably the most critical question: what happens when the TARGET2 imbalance bubble ultimately pops. And here is where the true cost to Germans becomes apparent, because there is no such thing as a "borrowing from the future" free lunch. Which is precisely what TARGET2 does, only instead of a direct cost, the post-TARGET2 world will result in the now traditional indirect cost of all monetary experiments gone awry: runaway inflation.
 

 

The contagion of the European Union and banking debt – 20 European Banks have liabilities above 50 percent of their home country GDP

from MyBudget360.com
The crisis in Europe is boiling over yet again. The central connecting factor of all of this is too much debt relative to production. Debt in itself is not a bad thing. If you borrow modestly for a home and have sufficient income to cover your mortgage payment then this might actually be beneficial. When things go haywire is when you leverage up. You had people buying homes that were 10 to 12 times their annual income. This however is a modest example compared to investment banks that were levered 30-to-1 and in some cases even higher. The issue with the European Union is the lack of cohesion but also the amount of debt relative to their production. True colors do not shine in boom times but do come out in crisis. The issue at hand for the moment is that stronger more productive economies with moderate levels of debt will need to step in if they are to bailout the periphery where debt levels are extreme relative to the local country GDP. Politically you can see how this is not going well. In the US, even though the bailouts were geared heavily in favor of the banks, few doubt the power of the Fed in stepping in and bailing out a big bank in California all the way to New York. This is not exactly the scenario playing out in Europe.
Read More @ MyBudget360.com




The History Of US Unemployment By State, And A Surprising Observation

The following fascinating chart from Tableausoftware shows the history of US unemployment by state since 1976, and specifically the difference from historical averages. What the chart shows is that as more and more people have migrated to populated coastal areas, or those areas hit hardest from the recent deleveraging mean reversion depression, it is the flyover states, typically considered the least interesting, that are actually performing by far the best, with some places like North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Vermont paradoxically having better relative employment right now than during any time in the past 40 years! As the economy continues to revert to trendline along every possible axis, despite the Fed's persistent efforts to overrule nature, how long until reverse migration kicks in, and all those hopefuls who had trekked to the big coastal cities dreaming of better prospects, leave in disenchantment and head back to where they came from, and just how would that impact the future of US economic and demographic trends?




Why won’t the Obama administration reveal how many Americans’ emails the NSA has collected and reviewed without a warrant?

Since last year, a few members of Congress—led by Senator Ron Wyden—have been trying to get the Obama administration to answer a simple question: how many Americans’ phone calls or emails have been and are being collected and read without a warrant under the authority of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA)? Unfortunately, no one else in the government seems to want that question answered.
The question arose soon after Congress passed the FAA, which among other things sought to create immunity for telecoms that helped the NSA conduct warrantless wiretapping and gutted privacy protections for Americans communicating overseas. A New York Times investigation described how, under the FAA, a “significant and systemic” practice of “overcollection” of communications resulted in the NSA’s intercepting millions of purely domestic emails and phone calls between Americans. In addition, documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by the ACLU, although heavily redacted, revealed “that violations [of the FAA and the Constitution] continued to occur on a regular basis through at least March 2010”— the last month anyone has public data for.
Read More @ EFF.org



Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World

 

Gold As Tier 1 Asset = More Elitist Loans Aimed at the Meddlesome Middle Class

from Silver Vigilante:
Much has been reported regarding the US Treasury, Federal Reserve and FDIC seeking comment on the altering of capital adequacy rules pertaining to gold held as reserves at a bank. Currently, when gold is held as an asset, it is “risk weight” is 15%, which means a 15% discount on its current value for capital adequacy. So, when a bank holds gold, one must take 15% taken off of the spot price so as to arrive at the amount off of which a bank can make loans. What’s being proposed is that gold not be discounted in the slightest, thus placing gold on the same plain as cash. As the document states:
217.131 Mechanics for Calculating Total Wholesale and Retail Risk-Weighted Assets.
(i) A bank holding company or savings and loan holding company may assign a riskweighted asset amount of zero to cash owned and held in all offices of subsidiary depository institutions or in transit; and for gold bullion held in a subsidiary depository institution’s own vaults, or held in another depository institution’s vaults on an allocated basis, to the extent the gold bullion assets are offset by gold bullion liabilities.
Read More @ Silver Vigilante

 

SHORT SQUEEZE, MAJOR MARKETS, SPECTACULAR RALLY in GOLD, OIL & MUCH MORE – Art Cashin

from KingWorldNews:
“Quite frankly, you look at Bernanke and he’s done 80% of all the things he said he wanted to do. He’s achieved banks sitting on massive amounts of free, excess reserves, almost to the tune of $2 trillion. But that money is not going places where it can do good.
Bernanke, right now, is in the classic problem that beset the central banks in the 1930s, he’s pushing on a string. He’s got to find a way not to loosen money further or create more reserves, he’s got to find a way to motivate that (existing) money. And there are very few choices that allow for that.”
Cashin then cautioned about Germany’s problems with monetary policy: “Germany has had a very painful past. The initial problem was they were saddled with huge war reparations after the World War I. The economy ground to a halt. They tried to address it by printing money, and they got one of the great Zimbabwe-like inflations in all of history, where people were actually shoveling the currency into the furnace because it was cheaper than buying coal.
LISEN NOW @ KingWorldNews.com

 

The Grass Is Always Greener on the Other Side

by David Galland, Casey Research:
A former partner of mine got married over the weekend to a former lover from his youth. Separated by tides of life that kept them apart for a couple of decades, against all odds their paths once again crossed, resulting in a beautiful ceremony that took place, most dramatically, in a tent in the middle of a raging storm.
The less sentimental among you will be pleased to know that I’m not planning on waxing lyrically about love and marriage and all that. Instead, I’ll share a couple of stories from the wedding, as they seemed particularly revealing to me, and maybe to you too.
The first was a conversation with a mutual friend of the groom whom I hadn’t seen in a number of years. I had heard he’d moved on from a previous sales job in the ski business to a position as a broker at a major brokerage house, but we hadn’t had more than a passing conversation until we washed up next to each other at the wedding.
Since he knows I am involved in the research business, he steered the conversation toward investment markets, giving me an opening to do a little on-the-ground research. Specifically, I asked him if he or his clients were invested in gold or gold stocks. “Nope,” he said with a cheerful broker’s smile, adding, “You can’t eat gold.”
Read More @ CaseyResearch.com




CNBC Releases Hit Piece On Gold: States Gold on Brink of Collapse to $700

from, Silver Doctors:
CNBC released a hit piece on gold this morning, with gold ‘expert‘ Yoni Jacobs (the only time we have ever heard Yoni Jacobs name mentioned previously was when he was quoted on the last CNBC hit piece on gold) predicting that ‘gold is on the brink of a violent downturn‘ and ‘will fall to as low as $700 an ounce‘.
Rather ironic that CNBC releases a massive hit piece on gold, implying gold will fall another 60% in addition to the 21% it has declined over the last 10 months- on the very day that gold spikes $50 to regain $1600.
Perhaps CNBC’s massively bearish gold call is an indication that the long-awaited bottom is indeed in?
Gold is on the brink of a “violent downturn” and could even fall as low as $700 an ounce as the risk of deflation in developed economies grows and technical pointers turn bearish, one expert tells CNBC.
Read More @ SilverDoctors.com
 

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ObamaCare Tax Will Ignite Biggest Tax Revolt In U.S. History

from PeterSantilliTV:




Big Win for Predatory Healthcare Giants

by Stephen Lendman, SJLendman.Blogspot.com:
At issue was National Federation of Independent Business, et al, Petitioners v. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al (NFIB v. Sebelius).
Voting 5 – 4 on Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld what should have been rejected. Pro-business High Court rulings aren’t new.
Since the 19th century, what business wants matters most. Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railway stands out. It granted corporations legal personhood.
Ever since, they’ve had people rights without responsibilities. Their limited liability status exempts them. As a result, they’ve profited hugely and continue winning favorable high and lower court rulings.
Another big one came on June 28. Health giants won. People lost. At issue was challenging Obama’s Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) – aka Obamacare.
Read More @ SJLendman.Blogspot.com



KWN Weekly Metals Wrap

from KingWorldNews:
The KWN Weekly Metals Wrap – We have added new segments to the KWN Weekly Metals Wrap covering gold, silver, trading and a plethora of other factors affecting the precious metals markets. I am giving King World News listeners globally access to what has long been my secret weapons in researching where gold and silver are headed directionally along with the COT Report. We Cover the Commitment of Traders Report in detail as well as a number of other factors which can influence the gold and silver market price action.
LISTEN NOW @ KingWorldNews.com



Fukushima radiation sizzling at 10 sieverts in flooded basement of unit 1

from Japan Times:
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday that radiation levels exceeding 10 sieverts have been detected in the flooded basement of reactor 1 at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, a development that will hamper its decommissioning.
Radiation from the basement water was found to be as high as 10,300 millisieverts an hour, a deadly intensity that will deliver the maximum annual dose in only 20 seconds and sicken anyone who is exposed within minutes.
“Workers cannot enter the site and we must use robots for the demolition,” Tepco said.
Tepco took samples from the basement by inserting a camera and surveying instruments through a drain hole in its ceiling.
Read More @ Japan Times.co



The World Today · The Removal of Obama

from laroucheyouth:

In order for the United States to regain the sovereignty necessary to lead civilization out of the oncoming global crisis, our number one priority must be the removal of British puppet President Barack Obama. Developments both nationally and internationally only prove to make this point more clear.



Ellis Martin Report with David Morgan and Paul Mladjenovic–Obamacare and The New Amerika

from opportunityshow:

Ellis Martin Interviews Economists and Precious Metals Experts David Morgan and Paul Mladjenovic. Mr. Mladenovic and Mr. Morgan discuss Obamacare and a socialistic centralized government dictating American economic policy as compared to the failed policy dictates in the former Communisty Bloc of Eastern Europe. Mr. Mladjenovic and his family are from what was once Yugoslavia.



Cooking the Books, Not the Big Macs, in Argentina & Greece

by Adrian Ash and Robin Molinas, Gold Seek:
So does Argentina a decade ago set a template for today’s crisis in Greece…?
BACK IN 2001, Argentina was hit by a crisis similar to Greece’s today.
Imposing a strict currency peg of 1 Peso to 1 US Dollar meant the currency was over-valued. Or the state should have reined in its spending. Or the economy needed to be more productive. Or all three, depending on your view. But either way, the trade deficit widened as imports became cheaper than exports – especially after neighboring Brazil devalued its Real in 1998-99, adding more pressure to the currency peg, and leading the government to borrow huge amounts of money overseas, including $40 billion arranged by the International Monetary Fund in December 2000.
High tax rates already meant tax evasion was widespread, so raising taxes to try and cover debt interest didn’t bring extra revenue. Well aware how such crises had ended before, the middle-class quickly moved to withdraw money from bank deposits, even though interest rates jumped to 16%, because that wasn’t enough to beat inflation. Squeezed by falling wages and rising prices, many Argentinians took to the streets of big cities, especially Buenos Aires, banging pots and pans in protest at soaring food costs, corruption and economic mismanagement – protests that became known as cacerolazo.
Read More @ GoldSeek.com




Today’s Items:

First…
Duplicitous Human Rights Council Report on Syria
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/
The UN Human Rights Council has come to its pre-scripted conclusion that Syria is guilty. Guilty of what?  Well, to utilize those words by Pelosi in relation to Syria…  We will have to invade and bring down the government of Syria to find out what crimes were committed.

Next…
Europeans Storing Gold in Switzerland On Concerns About Inflation and Systemic Risk
http://www.goldcore.com
Europeans trying to protect their wealth from global economic uncertainty have been stashing bank cash and gold bullion coins and bars in safety deposit boxes and depositories in Switzerland.  With central banks around the world flooding markets with liquidity, some people fear spiraling inflation.  Gold is an increasingly attractive option.  Unfortunately, not having the gold in one’s own possession exposes the gold to the potential of it being manipulated with tungsten.

Next…
The Economic Plan is Vaporware!
http://kingworldnews.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Eric Sprott, after carefully analyzing the situation, has come to the conclusion that there is no plan to save the system.  Yes, Merkel has caved on euro-zone aid, but it changes nothing in the long run.  In fact, with retail sales plunging and other indicators, the fundamentals of paper instruments are deteriorating.  The fact is, if you are not preparing and getting physical, you will most likely lose it all.

Next…
15 Reasons Why The Obama-care Decision Is A Mind Blowing Disaster For America
http://endoftheamericandream.com
Here are a few…
1. The IRS will hunt down and penalize millions of Americans that do not have health insurance.
2. Obama-care imposes more than 20 new taxes on the American people. Which means those waivers will have to be invalidated because that would be discrimination.
3. Will make the doctor shortage in the U.S. worse.

Next…
Chief Justice Roberts Is A Genius
http://freedombunker.com

http://abcnews.go.com

http://www.youtube.com

http://www.youtube.com  
This is the oral transcript before the SCOTUS!
The majority opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts was really brilliant.  Believe it or not, it was payback for Obama’s numerous insults to the Supreme Court and it actually supports the U.S. Constitution.  When read closely, the decision actually ruled that the individual mandate, relative to the commerce clause, was unconstitutional; however, as the biggest tax increase in human history while millions are suffering in a horrible economy, Obama, and those who supported Obama-care, that is supported with taxes, will be having a bad day in the end.  No wonder the White House is now desperately trying to put out that this is not a tax even though they claimed it was a tax as they were going to the Supreme Court for Oral arguments!

Next…
17 Reasons To Be EXTREMELY Concerned About The Second Half Of 2012
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
Here are a few…
1. The ongoing paralysis in the EU.
2. Increasing bank runs and sophisticated cyber attacks on banks.
3. Obamacare decision that essentially threw a wet blanket on a U.S. economy already in a total mess.

Finally, Please prepare now for the escalating economic and social unrest. Good Day

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