from JudgeNapolitanoFTW :
We look to history to understand what can happen to American freedoms if the federal government continues to centralize more and more power. Viewer discretion is advised.
from FederalJacktube6:
President Obama: "If You've Got A Business - You Didn't Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen"
"There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)... If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."
by Alex Jones, Info Wars:
The United Nations’ agenda for disarmament goes beyond the rhetoric the UN Arms Trade Treaty being debated in New York this month. The globalists want a total weapons ban– so they can kill innocents without opposition from the local populations. Crime rates soar wherever guns have been taken away– it is simple victim disarmament arithmetic. Look at all the uncovered martial law revelations: Troops have been trained to confiscate guns inside America (and it actually happened after Hurricane Katrina), while the politicians have been priming the nation to grudgingly accept new firearms restrictions.
Read More @ InfoWars.com
The United Nations’ agenda for disarmament goes beyond the rhetoric the UN Arms Trade Treaty being debated in New York this month. The globalists want a total weapons ban– so they can kill innocents without opposition from the local populations. Crime rates soar wherever guns have been taken away– it is simple victim disarmament arithmetic. Look at all the uncovered martial law revelations: Troops have been trained to confiscate guns inside America (and it actually happened after Hurricane Katrina), while the politicians have been priming the nation to grudgingly accept new firearms restrictions.
Read More @ InfoWars.com
Weekend Viewing: Terror, Robespierre, and the French Revolution
from Azizonomics:
Healthy markets require solid data based on reality.
It is hard enough to determine what, when and how to invest even with solid data. We live in an unpredictable and chaotic world, and the last thing that investors need is misinformation and distortions. That is why the LIBOR manipulation scandal is so infuriating; as banks skewed the figures, they skewed entire marketplaces. The level of economic distortion is incalculable — as LIBOR is used to price hundreds of trillions of assets, the effects cascaded across the entire financial system and the wider world. An unquantifiable number of good trades were made bad, and vice verse. Yet in truth we should not expect anything else from a self-reported system like LIBOR. Without real checks and balances to make sure that the data is sturdy, data should be treated as completely unreliable.
Unsurprisingly, it is emerging that many more self-reported figures may have been skewed by self-reporting bullshittery.
The Telegraph noted:
Healthy markets require solid data based on reality.It is hard enough to determine what, when and how to invest even with solid data. We live in an unpredictable and chaotic world, and the last thing that investors need is misinformation and distortions. That is why the LIBOR manipulation scandal is so infuriating; as banks skewed the figures, they skewed entire marketplaces. The level of economic distortion is incalculable — as LIBOR is used to price hundreds of trillions of assets, the effects cascaded across the entire financial system and the wider world. An unquantifiable number of good trades were made bad, and vice verse. Yet in truth we should not expect anything else from a self-reported system like LIBOR. Without real checks and balances to make sure that the data is sturdy, data should be treated as completely unreliable.
Unsurprisingly, it is emerging that many more self-reported figures may have been skewed by self-reporting bullshittery.
The Telegraph noted:
The Libor scandal could be repeated in a number of other “self-certifying” markets where prices are determined, he said.Read More @ Azizonomics.com
We The Sheeplez... is intended to reflect
excellence in effort and content. Donations will help maintain this goal
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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.
by Chris Powell, Journal Inquirer:
Any American who lived through the Vietnam War might have to wonder
what it was all about after wandering for a few days around Ho Chi Minh
City, better known as Saigon. For while Saigon has been, since 1975,
part of what calls itself the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the only
evidence of a socialist republic is the blocking of certain “social
networking” Internet sites, like Facebook, which could be used for
political agitation. The overwhelming characteristic of Saigon is
private-sector commerce — shops everywhere, some primitive, some modern,
including, of course, international fast-food franchises, banks, and
insurance companies.
Socialist or communist regimes seem to have become like the right-wing authoritarian regimes of old, in which people were free to make money, just not trouble.
But even with Facebook blocked, how much are people really going to be controlled when nearly everyone has a mobile telephone and a motorbike, consumer product advertising is pervasive, and the government’s authority does not extend even to traffic enforcement on the wild and anarchic streets?
Read More @ JournalInquirer.com
Any American who lived through the Vietnam War might have to wonder
what it was all about after wandering for a few days around Ho Chi Minh
City, better known as Saigon. For while Saigon has been, since 1975,
part of what calls itself the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the only
evidence of a socialist republic is the blocking of certain “social
networking” Internet sites, like Facebook, which could be used for
political agitation. The overwhelming characteristic of Saigon is
private-sector commerce — shops everywhere, some primitive, some modern,
including, of course, international fast-food franchises, banks, and
insurance companies.Socialist or communist regimes seem to have become like the right-wing authoritarian regimes of old, in which people were free to make money, just not trouble.
But even with Facebook blocked, how much are people really going to be controlled when nearly everyone has a mobile telephone and a motorbike, consumer product advertising is pervasive, and the government’s authority does not extend even to traffic enforcement on the wild and anarchic streets?
Read More @ JournalInquirer.com
by David Brooks, NY Times:
Through most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Protestant
Establishment sat atop the American power structure. A relatively small
network of white Protestant men dominated the universities, the world of
finance, the local country clubs and even high government service.
Over the past half–century, a more diverse and meritocratic elite has replaced the Protestant Establishment. People are more likely to rise on the basis of grades, test scores, effort and performance.
Yet, as this meritocratic elite has taken over institutions, trust in them has plummeted. It’s not even clear that the brainy elite is doing a better job of running them than the old boys’ network. Would we say that Wall Street is working better now than it did 60 years ago? Or government? The system is more just, but the outcomes are mixed. The meritocracy has not fulfilled its promise.
Read More @ NewYorkTimes.com
Through most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Protestant
Establishment sat atop the American power structure. A relatively small
network of white Protestant men dominated the universities, the world of
finance, the local country clubs and even high government service. Over the past half–century, a more diverse and meritocratic elite has replaced the Protestant Establishment. People are more likely to rise on the basis of grades, test scores, effort and performance.
Yet, as this meritocratic elite has taken over institutions, trust in them has plummeted. It’s not even clear that the brainy elite is doing a better job of running them than the old boys’ network. Would we say that Wall Street is working better now than it did 60 years ago? Or government? The system is more just, but the outcomes are mixed. The meritocracy has not fulfilled its promise.
Read More @ NewYorkTimes.com
By Tom Engelhardt , Asia Times.com:
Americans may feel more distant from war than at any time since World
War II began. Certainly, a smaller percentage of us – less than 1% –
serves in the military in this all-volunteer era of ours and, on the
face of it, Washington’s constant warring in distant lands seems barely
to touch the lives of most Americans.
And yet the militarization of the United States and the strengthening of the National Security Complex continues to accelerate. The Pentagon is, by now, a world unto itself, with a staggering budget at a moment when no other power or combination of powers comes near to challenging this country’s might.
In the era following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the military-industrial complex has been thoroughly mobilized under the rubric of “privatization” and now goes to war with the Pentagon. With its US$80 billion-plus budget, the intelligence bureaucracy has simply exploded. There are so many competing agencies and outfits, surrounded by a universe of private intelligence contractors, all swathed in a penumbra of secrecy, and they have grown so large, mainly under the Pentagon’s aegis, that you could say intelligence is now a ruling way of life in Washington – and it, too, is being thoroughly militarized.
Read More @ ATimes.com
Americans may feel more distant from war than at any time since World
War II began. Certainly, a smaller percentage of us – less than 1% –
serves in the military in this all-volunteer era of ours and, on the
face of it, Washington’s constant warring in distant lands seems barely
to touch the lives of most Americans.And yet the militarization of the United States and the strengthening of the National Security Complex continues to accelerate. The Pentagon is, by now, a world unto itself, with a staggering budget at a moment when no other power or combination of powers comes near to challenging this country’s might.
In the era following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the military-industrial complex has been thoroughly mobilized under the rubric of “privatization” and now goes to war with the Pentagon. With its US$80 billion-plus budget, the intelligence bureaucracy has simply exploded. There are so many competing agencies and outfits, surrounded by a universe of private intelligence contractors, all swathed in a penumbra of secrecy, and they have grown so large, mainly under the Pentagon’s aegis, that you could say intelligence is now a ruling way of life in Washington – and it, too, is being thoroughly militarized.
Read More @ ATimes.com
by Marshall Auerback, Naked Capitalism:
Just when you think that things can get no worse in Spain, they do. Take a look at this chart, courtesy of Credit Suisse via FT’s Alphaville.
iagos Alexopoulos at Credit Suisse estimates that Spanish capital outflows are currently running at an annualised rate of 50 per cent of GDP. No question, the bank run is clearly accelerating, and one can easily understand why. The country is turning into a Little House of Economic Horrors. The alleged “rescue” of Madrid’s banks is a non-starter. 100 billion euros won’t begin to cover the scale of the problem on any honest accounting or “stress test” (and that’s before we get to the next phase of announced austerity measures).
Chuck Davidson of Wexford Capital has completed a report where he looked at the Spanish banks, extrapolating to all of them from a close look at the big five.. He haircutted their assets by 25%, which hardly seems excessive. Moving from the big 5 to the entire banking system, he came up with 990 billion euros as the capital needed to get Spain’s banks to Basel 3 risk weighted capital standards. Madrid, we have a problem!
Read More and LISTEN Now @ NakedCapitalism.com
Just when you think that things can get no worse in Spain, they do. Take a look at this chart, courtesy of Credit Suisse via FT’s Alphaville.iagos Alexopoulos at Credit Suisse estimates that Spanish capital outflows are currently running at an annualised rate of 50 per cent of GDP. No question, the bank run is clearly accelerating, and one can easily understand why. The country is turning into a Little House of Economic Horrors. The alleged “rescue” of Madrid’s banks is a non-starter. 100 billion euros won’t begin to cover the scale of the problem on any honest accounting or “stress test” (and that’s before we get to the next phase of announced austerity measures).
Chuck Davidson of Wexford Capital has completed a report where he looked at the Spanish banks, extrapolating to all of them from a close look at the big five.. He haircutted their assets by 25%, which hardly seems excessive. Moving from the big 5 to the entire banking system, he came up with 990 billion euros as the capital needed to get Spain’s banks to Basel 3 risk weighted capital standards. Madrid, we have a problem!
Read More and LISTEN Now @ NakedCapitalism.com
by Jonathan Sibun, The Telegraph:
It just gets worse. If Sir Mervyn King was up to his waist in Libor before, now he’s drowning in it.
And the Bank of England Governor’s not the only one – top brass at the
Financial Services Authority and the British Bankers’ Association are
hardly doing much better.
The decision to release emails detailing how Tim Geithner warned the Bank in June 2008 about fears that Libor could be manipulated have opened a new can of worms.
Then head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Geithner’s email recommended steps to “improve the integrity and transparency of the rate-setting process… including procedures designed to prevent accidental or deliberate misreporting”.
Those views were based upon conversations between US regulators and banks, including Barclays. The banks, it turns out, admitted as long ago as mid-2007 that they were low-balling Libor rates.
The message from Geithner’s email was crystal clear – integrity and transparency were not words easily associated with Libor setting.
Read More @ Telegraph.co.uk
It just gets worse. If Sir Mervyn King was up to his waist in Libor before, now he’s drowning in it.
And the Bank of England Governor’s not the only one – top brass at the
Financial Services Authority and the British Bankers’ Association are
hardly doing much better.The decision to release emails detailing how Tim Geithner warned the Bank in June 2008 about fears that Libor could be manipulated have opened a new can of worms.
Then head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Geithner’s email recommended steps to “improve the integrity and transparency of the rate-setting process… including procedures designed to prevent accidental or deliberate misreporting”.
Those views were based upon conversations between US regulators and banks, including Barclays. The banks, it turns out, admitted as long ago as mid-2007 that they were low-balling Libor rates.
The message from Geithner’s email was crystal clear – integrity and transparency were not words easily associated with Libor setting.
Read More @ Telegraph.co.uk
by Robert Reich, SF Gate:
ust when you thought Wall Street couldn’t sink any lower – when its
excesses are still causing hardship to millions of Americans and its
myriad abuses of public trust have already spread a miasma of cynicism
over the entire economic system – an even deeper level of
public-be-damned greed and corruption is revealed.
Sit down, and hold on to your chair.
Consider the most basic services banks provide you: You put your savings in a bank to hold in trust, and the bank agrees to pay you interest on it. Or, you borrow money from the bank and agree to pay the bank interest on the loan.
We trust that the banking system is setting interest rates based on its best guess about the future worth of the money. And we assume that guess is based, in turn, on the cumulative market predictions of lenders and borrowers all over the world (including central banks) about the future supply and demand for the dough.
But suppose our assumption is wrong. Suppose the bankers are manipulating the interest rate so they can place bets with the money you lend or repay them – bets that will pay off big for them because they have inside information on what the market is really predicting, which they’re not sharing with you.
Read More @ SFGate.com
from Zero Hedge:
And now some bedtime reading for everyone who consistently has a
nagging feeling that at any second the world is one short flap of a
butterfly’s wings away from complete systemic disintegration: according
to David Korowicz of FEASTA, and his most recent paper: ‘Trade-Off Financial System Supply-Chain Cross-Contagion: a study in global systemic collapse.” that just may be the case.
Think of the attached 78-page paper as Nassim Taleb meets Edward
Lorenz meets Malcom Gladwell meets Arthur Tansley meets Herman Muller
meets Werner Heisenberg meets Hyman Minsky meets William Butler Yeats,
and the resultant group spends all night drinking absinthe and smoking
opium, while engaging in illegal debauchery in the 5th sub-basement of
the Moulin Rouge circa 1890. To wit: “Something sets off an
interrelated Eurozone crisis and banking crisis, a Spanish default say,
which spreads panic and fear across other vulnerable Eurozone countries.
This sets off a Minsky moment when overleveraged speculators in the
banking and shadow banking system are forced to unwind positions into a
one-sided (sellers only) market. The financial system contagion passes a
tipping point where governments and central banks start to lose control
and panic drives a (positive feedback) deepening and widening of the
impact globally. In our tropic model of the globalised economy, the
banking and monetary system keystone hub comes out of its equilibrium
range, crosses a tipping point, and is driven away by positive feedbacks
to some new state…. it is very clear that we have learned
almost nothing general about risk management as a societal practice
arising from the financial crisis. We have merely adopted a
new consensus, with a questionable acknowledgement that we will not let
this type of crisis happen again. However,
the argument in this following report is that we are facing growing
real-time, severe, civilisation transforming risks without any risk
management.”
ust when you thought Wall Street couldn’t sink any lower – when its
excesses are still causing hardship to millions of Americans and its
myriad abuses of public trust have already spread a miasma of cynicism
over the entire economic system – an even deeper level of
public-be-damned greed and corruption is revealed.Sit down, and hold on to your chair.
Consider the most basic services banks provide you: You put your savings in a bank to hold in trust, and the bank agrees to pay you interest on it. Or, you borrow money from the bank and agree to pay the bank interest on the loan.
We trust that the banking system is setting interest rates based on its best guess about the future worth of the money. And we assume that guess is based, in turn, on the cumulative market predictions of lenders and borrowers all over the world (including central banks) about the future supply and demand for the dough.
But suppose our assumption is wrong. Suppose the bankers are manipulating the interest rate so they can place bets with the money you lend or repay them – bets that will pay off big for them because they have inside information on what the market is really predicting, which they’re not sharing with you.
Read More @ SFGate.com
from Zero Hedge:
And now some bedtime reading for everyone who consistently has a
nagging feeling that at any second the world is one short flap of a
butterfly’s wings away from complete systemic disintegration: according
to David Korowicz of FEASTA, and his most recent paper: ‘Trade-Off Financial System Supply-Chain Cross-Contagion: a study in global systemic collapse.” that just may be the case.
Think of the attached 78-page paper as Nassim Taleb meets Edward
Lorenz meets Malcom Gladwell meets Arthur Tansley meets Herman Muller
meets Werner Heisenberg meets Hyman Minsky meets William Butler Yeats,
and the resultant group spends all night drinking absinthe and smoking
opium, while engaging in illegal debauchery in the 5th sub-basement of
the Moulin Rouge circa 1890. To wit: “Something sets off an
interrelated Eurozone crisis and banking crisis, a Spanish default say,
which spreads panic and fear across other vulnerable Eurozone countries.
This sets off a Minsky moment when overleveraged speculators in the
banking and shadow banking system are forced to unwind positions into a
one-sided (sellers only) market. The financial system contagion passes a
tipping point where governments and central banks start to lose control
and panic drives a (positive feedback) deepening and widening of the
impact globally. In our tropic model of the globalised economy, the
banking and monetary system keystone hub comes out of its equilibrium
range, crosses a tipping point, and is driven away by positive feedbacks
to some new state…. it is very clear that we have learned
almost nothing general about risk management as a societal practice
arising from the financial crisis. We have merely adopted a
new consensus, with a questionable acknowledgement that we will not let
this type of crisis happen again. However,
the argument in this following report is that we are facing growing
real-time, severe, civilisation transforming risks without any risk
management.”
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
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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