Bloomberg reports that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s closest aides earned millions of dollars a year working for Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and other Wall Street firms. Bloomberg reports that none of these aides faced Senate confirmation. Yet, they are overseeing the handout of hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer funds to their former employers.
A record number of Americans, more than one in nine, are on food stamps. | |
JPMorgan Chase announced that it has earned $3.6 billion in the third quarter of this year.
Goldman Sachs has made so much money during this year of economic crisis that enormous bonuses are in the works. The London Evening Standard reports that Goldman Sachs’ “5,500 London staff can look forward to record average payouts of around 500,000 pounds ($800,000) each. Senior executives will get bonuses of several million pounds each, with the highest paid as much as 10 million pounds ($16 million).”
Twenty-Two Reasons Why this Recession is Different and Why it Will Endure
I find it surprising that I’m now getting inquiries from readers, asking if “we’ve reached bottom” in the current economic recession, and asking if the time has come to start buying stocks or residential real estate. It seems that the talking heads of mainstream media are using some sort of voodoo. How can anyone think that we’ve hit bottom, and an economic recovery is in progress? To dispel the myths from the CNBC Cheering Section, please consider the following. (And note that I’ve provided references for each assertion, just so you know that I’m not talking out of my camouflage hat.):- A broken global credit market that has not fully recovered. See: After Lehman, U.S. firms adjust to new face of credit
- Lack of transparency in Mortgage-Backed Securities and other re-packaged debt instruments. See: Geithner Blames Lack of Transparency for OTC Derivatives Hit on Market.
- The increasing Federal debt, which is growing at an unprecedented rate. See: The National Debt Clock.
- Mountains of consumer and corporate debt. See: Observations on the US Debt.
- The Federal budget deficit. See: Federal Deficit Hits All-Time High of $1.42 Trillion.
- Ever-expanding bailouts. (I call this The MOAB.) See: As More Companies Seek Aid, ‘Where Do You Stop?’
- Monetization of the National Debt. See: Fed Could Expand MBS Purchases. (Can you spell Oroborus?):
- The destruction of the American consumer economy. (It had been artificially credit-driven). See: A Year After The Crisis, The Consumer Economy Is Dead.
- Chronic unemployment, possibly much higher than officially reported. See: Alternate Data at ShadowStats.
- More than $500 Billion USD in hedge funds that have borrowed short and lent long. See: Assets invested in hedge funds increase by $100bn
- A double wave of residential mortgage rate resets. See: this chart of scheduled mortgage interest rate resets.
- Continued down-ratcheting of house prices. See: Housing Prices Will Continue to Fall, Especially in California
- The under-reported “shadow inventory” of foreclosed houses. See: The “Shadow” Foreclosure Inventory
- The very likely collapse of commercial real estate (”the other shoe to drop”.) See: Is a commercial real estate bust inevitable?
- A huge crisis lurking in over-the-counter derivatives. See my analysis published in 2006 and the dozens of articles on the Derivative Dribble Blog.
- Under-funded pensions. See: Almost half of top unions have under funded pension plans.
- A coming wave of municipal bond and municipal bond hedge fund failures. See: The Failure of Leveraged Municipal Bond Hedge Funds.
- Increasing numbers of bank failures. See: FDIC: Bank Failures to Cost Around $100 Billion.
- Insurance company collapses–some, like AIG, were foolish enough to insure more than a trillion dollars in derivative contracts. See: AIG: Is the Risk Systemic?
- Worsening state, county, and city budget crises. See: State prepares for shutdown as budget deadline looms, and this article from a liberal site: Predicting Worse Ahead from America’s Economic Crisis.
- Loss of faith in the US Dollar, on the FOREX. See: Dollar’s reserve currency status in focus as G-7 finance ministers meet.
- The coming mass currency inflation, follwing some asset deflation. See: Which is more likely in 2010: Deflation or inflation?
BREAK : Video link and more on original page
Brokedown Palace : The Undermining of Property Rights in America
Property rights have allowed the U.S. to flourish. They are bedrock of our economy. They allow facilitate the spread of credit and economic growth that some other countries cannot match.
In Chrysler we saw legal precedent created where a *secured creditor* received less on its contracted collateral than unsecured creditors. In one fell swoop, we saw fiduciaries abscond, “disinterested” advisors incented to rubber-stamp, and the Courts join in on the rubber stamping party (more on this later). Most importantly, we witnessed a government that not only sanctioned this egregious behavior but astonishingly pushed for it. The Government actually labeled those who filed objections to the deal as “terrorists” (you can’t make this up). The Government actually vetoed Chrysler’s offer to give secured creditors additional consideration. Our lawmakers were so involved that Chrysler’s own attorneys tried to block discovery of their communications with Washington (the attorney’s clients were Chrysler, not Washington). We must never forget Obama’s alleged threat of using the “White House Press Core” to weaken what little opposition remained (who exactly were the terrorists?).
Read entire article
75% of Finns don't want the Swine Flu Vaccine
Infowars' Swine Flu Pandemic / H1N1 Vaccine links
Homeland Security Issues Alert On Mandatory Quarantine Procedures
“The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines.”The memo states, “U.S. Customs and Coast Guard Officers assist in the enforcement of quarantine orders. Other DOJ law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Marshals, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives may also enforce quarantines. Military personnel are not authorized to engage in enforcement.”
However, a separate Defense Department planning document on dealing with pandemics states that the Pentagon will use the forces at its disposal to assist in “quarantining groups of people in order to minimize the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic” and aid in “efforts to restore and maintain order.”
As we reported yesterday, so-called “involuntary isolation” is already being enforced in certain areas of the United States. The state’s health director in North Carolina, Dr. Jeffrey Engel, said that authorities were already involuntarily isolating patients who may have the swine flu virus. He refused to divulge the location of where the victims were being quarantined."Flow" Trailer : Who Owns the World's Water Supply ?
Deformed Babies in Fallujah
( Opit's LinkFest! at 'My Opera' links forwarded to Blogger : Uranium - Mining and 'Depleted' : 'Agent Orange' for the Ages
http://my.opera.com/oldephartte/links )
U.S. Military spreading Death
Game Plan: If Israel Strikes Iran First
Retired General Says Israeli Attack to Take Out Iran's Nuclear Facilities Not Only Possible, the U.S. Should Join In
In an industry with ever-dwindling sales and unmet consumer needs, major record labels still don’t get it.
Internet Eyes to pay Australians for spying on UK shoplifters AUSTRALIANS could soon be paid for spotting crimes happening on the other side of the world.
British company Internet Eyes will offer a reward of up to $1740 to people who detect shoplifting and other crimes on a network of UK security cameras.
Subscribers will watch live footage over the internet on their home computers.
The company believes the different time zones made Australia the ideal location for detecting night-time crime in the UK.
"I would love people in Australia to be looking at this," managing director Tony Morgan says.
The scheme could also be switched so that UK residents monitored cameras in Australian cities, Mr Morgan says.
Since the fledgling system first gained publicity in Britain last week more than 7000 people have signed up to be "viewers".
( George Orwell's '1984' is 25 years late! )
Stephen Hawking bets Large Hadron Collider won't work Sept 10, 2008
Large Hadron Collider is 'being sabotaged from the future'
news.com.au
October 19, 2009 12:20pm
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- 'Time-travel from future to kill atom-smasher'
- Hadron Collider to test for 'God particle'
- Scientists suggest God could be jinxing it
- In pictures: Tour the Large Hadron Collider
- In pictures: Tech conspiracy theories
In a bizarre sci-fi theory, Danish physicist Dr Holger Bech Nielsen and Dr Masao Ninomiya from Japan claim the LHC startup has been delayed due to nature trying to prevent it from finding the elusive Higgs boson, or "God particle".
They say their maths proves that nature will "ripple backward through time" to stop the LHC before it can create the God particle, like a time traveller who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.
“One could even almost say that we have a model for God,” Dr Nielsen says in an unpublished essay.
“He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.”
"While it is a paradox to go back in time and kill your grandfather, physicists agree there is no paradox if you go back in time and save him from being hit by a bus," Dannis Overbye wrote in the New York Times.
Monday, October 19, 2009
History Channel Airs Acclaimed UFO Documentary ‘I Know What I Saw’ On Oct. 19
Film Exposes Covert U.S. Investigation of Worldwide UFO Cases
UFO hacker Gary McKinnon gets a last-minute stay on his extraditio...
REPORTER DUPED BY UFO DEBUNKERS Aug 29,2008
Scientists announce planet bounty
Astronomers have announced a haul of planets found beyond our Solar System.
The 32 "exoplanets" ranged in size from five times the mass of Earth to 5-10 times the mass of Jupiter, the researchers said.They were found using a very sensitive instrument on a 3.6m telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla facility in Chile.
The discovery is exciting because it suggests that low-mass planets could be numerous in our galaxy.
"From [our] results, we know now that at least 40% of solar-type stars have low-mass planets. This is really important because it means that low-mass planets are everywhere, basically," explained Stephane Udry from Geneva University, Switzerland.
"What's very interesting is that models are predicting them, and we are finding them; and furthermore the models are predicting even more lower-mass planets like the Earth."
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